Is Darrin Bell just trolling us? 400 years would be January 1625. I got nothin’.
Not much help from ChatGPT, either:
January 1625 was a month marked by several notable events:
January 7: Ruggiero Giovannelli, an Italian composer, passed away.
January 13: Pieter Bruegel the Younger, a Flemish painter, died.
January 17: The Duke of Soubise led the Huguenots in launching a second rebellion against King Louis XIII with a surprise naval assault on a French fleet being prepared in Blavet.
January 19: Erhard Buttner, a German organist and composer, committed suicide.
January 27: Adriaen Valerius, a Dutch composer and poet, died.
Kilby comments: This Macanudo isn’t really “laugh out loud” funny (it’s closer to an “Awww”), but I found the diagonal framing (and the “lensing” effect in the title panel) so impressive that wanted to share it with everyone:
… The strip is even better if you open the image in a new tab (or window), and let it fill the screen.
P.S. As long as we are reminiscing about summer, here’s how Calvin & Hobbes spent a similar day (three decades ago):
… P.S. The fact that Bil Keane drew a few of his own “grown up children” strips doesn’t make that Ink Pen any less funny.
Danny Boy was kind enough to send in these LOLs.
Nancy Classics this week gave us this comic from 1955. Half dollars almost call for a geezer alert. Relatively few of them are still made in the U.S.
Dollar coins are no longer minted after multiple failures to gain acceptance (Susan B. Anthony, Sakagawea, U.S. Presidents). The U.S. Mint does produce some American Innovation Dollars, but these are not intended for circulation and are sold at a premium.
From 2001-2020, the U.S. Mint produced half dollars only for collectors because the Federal Reserve already had plenty, but limited production has now resumed.
In 2023, the United States Mint produced a total of 11.38 billion coins for circulation. Here’s the breakdown by denomination:
TBH, I don’t entirely understand this. I mean, I understand the heartwarming message about group loyalty and generosity — but not whether there was actually supposed to be anything funny.
Wait, could this be heading for an idiom-origins story about “bought the farm”? No? Nah!
Scammers certainly are getting more creative. I got a “reimbursement” from my Jane Doe, the condo property manager, with the email Jane.Doe@propfirm.com, which was suspiciously close to her actual email of Jane.Doe@propfirm.net, and this is a person I occasionally get reimbursements from (luckily as old-school physical checks)
From Dan Piraro’s subscription newsletter, “The Naked Cartoonist“. I’ll conclude with an early collaboration with Wayno; a Bizarro cartoon about red flags in relationships. If only they were this obvious in real life!
Americans by now should have received W-2s, 1099s and other notices of all the funds that have passed in or near our hands so we can prepare our 1040s with schedule A, B, C, D and so on. So here’s a few tax related LOLs.
And it does match! But … but … just when did she think that?
This is a semi-cidu: you just have to know the title this is a sequel to.
And nobody had to spell “sommelier”!
We thank Andréa for sending this in. She says “I think it was the surprise ending that got to me.”
Aaron shared this Tom Falco (via the Suggest-a-CIDU form) , noting that it belongs with the coordinated event of over 100 cartoonists making some sort of Peanuts allusion as a tribute for Charles Schulz’s 100th birthday.
The CIDU editorial team noticed one or two of these on the day, and thought of posting a few in a bonus collection-type post; but frankly, didn’t get around to it. Aaron sending this one in reminded us, and it looked like a good idea to post this and one or two others that seemed appealing.
And we invite further of these from readers, in comments to this thread.
[For those who might prefer their Schulz-tributes wholesale, Kevin A in a comment last Thursday reminds us of the tribute event and notes “[…] the Charles M. Schulz Museum page, where all of them appear. ..or DO they? :~) . NOTE: the strips are linked; once you click into one, you can navigate forward and backward through all the strips. (6 x 17 = 102 tribute strips) https://schulzmuseum.org/tribute/ I REPEAT, the strips are linked; once you click into one, you can navigate forward and backward through all the strips. (6 x 17 = 102 tribute strips)”. ]
This excellent Bizarro by Wayno received special mention in several quarters. His comics partner, and founder of Bizarro, Dan Piraro, discussed it and added his own note on Schulz, at his weekly Bizarro blog. Retired linguistics professor and noted comics-explainer Arnold Zwicky made this panel the center of a blog post, where he calls it “A monumental puzzle in cartoon understanding” — but initially makes it a puzzle by omitting the tribute line along the bottom of the panel.
This Bliss appeared on 03 December, a week late for the Schulz anniversary, if that was the intention. So we are looking for a Gorey-related news prompt for this. Not that Gorey isn’t always worth thinking of!
Any others you found particularly interesting or funny or touching? Please drop into the comments thread!
From Andréa, who points out for the synchronicity inspectors that although the Knight Life is a rerun or classic, its appearance on GoComics was 2022/11/08, same as the Candorville. The Candorville is a pretty good LOL at the end, too, despite edging up kinda near to partisan politics.
(Post-posting edit: As noted in comments, the following was the intended Knight Life, which actually uses the phrase “I can’t believe”.)
And for some additional fun on the “Can’t believe it” topic, Andréa also sends a link for this scene from The Vicar of Dibley. Impressive memory and facility from Emma Chambers, playing Alice.
I did figure this one out, but it took me a while. The problem for me is that the faces of the two at the table sent me in a different direction. The dialogue balloon being placed next to the person who isn’t speaking didn’t help.
Why indeed? A friend and sometime-lurker sent me this, suggesting it for CIDU, and I have to agree. Maybe there’s something about philately?
Mitch suggests that there may be a joke in the way the therapist is probing for something the guy is leaving out–perhaps his hairpiece is also something he thinks the wife criticizes too much. He also asked: Why does the diploma alternate between an MA and a PhD? What is the significance of the therapist doodling instead of making notes?
Comics I Don't Understand 