Tag / Johnny Hart

by Kilby

Astronomical Golfing Errors

Jack Applin submitted this B.C. strip as a CIDU, noting that “Grog hit the ball to … Saturn? Let’s ignore the [80 minute] light speed delay [one way!]. What is that film around the planet and rings? Atmosphere? But Saturn is a GAS GIANT — all that we see is atmosphere inside the rings!“

The obvious astronomical destination would have been a black hole, but that would have been impossible to convey to readers, and the closest known black hole is 1500 light years away.

My guess is that Mason chose Saturn because it is the only planet that could possibly be recognized in comic strip resolution. Most papers that still print daily comics do so in monochrome, which could seriously deteriorate the carefully shaded images in the first three panels.

P.S. Just a week later, a very similar gag appeared in The Wizard of Id:

Both strips have a long history of using golf gags, but a little more temporal separation between these two might have been advisable.

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – July 27th, 2024

This first one is more of an Ewww than an OY:

P.S. The weather this summer has been exceptional for snails and slugs; every few days I can go into the back yard and collect a dozen (or even a score) of the gross things.

…
This is only the third time that the Keane’s “Family Circus” has appeared at CIDU (not counting a few mashups and tangential references).

A Comic I didn’t understand the first three times I saw it. I wasn’t puzzled, just mistaken.

I thought the point was just in the dog choosing to ignore the request (command) and pursue different interests.

This atrocious B.C. pun appeared just in time for the opening ceremonies:

Tolkien wrote that the Elves made three rings, the Dwarves were given seven rings, and Sauron made nine rings to entrap the Nazgul, but where do the five rings fit into the story?

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – June 01st, 2024

My friends on road trips used to enjoy “What’s that up in the road? A head?”. (Oops, accidental repeat from 25 May.)

Also fun on road trips: Look out, there’s a fork in the road!

TBH, I’m not entirely sure if “branch” in the last panel is actually intended as a pun.

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – March 30th, 2024

I mistook those candles in the background for cat-hair rollers!

And the pun factor is: how about some gin or vodka?

I’m a little dubious how “went on the wagon” works out here. But let it be noted, there are probably several cities with drinking establishments called Crow-Bar or Cro-Bar.

by EditorM

Fresh

GoComics is running some vintage “B.C” under the title “Back to B.C.”. This strip is from 1966 and seems to be in sequence with others from that time.

But a previous strip already used up the pun on “fresh” to mean mildly impolite, sassy. So, what is this one getting at? Is “floating upside down” still a sign of “fresh” behavior? Or just avoiding being purchased?

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Please share your specific suggestions of panels or strips, in CIDU, LOL, and OY categories, either by direct email to

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by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – February 3rd, 2024

Love that Monty Crisco! (But I don’t know what typo on Nesselrode Pie would be likely, or funny.)

Always go for consistency!

And a P.S. from B.C.

He tries just about every day, so why not give in and post one now and then.

Growing up, I knew only two pasta shapes: spaghetti, for spaghetti and meatballs, and macaroni, for macaroni and cheese. Imagine my surprise to find such an endless variety of shapes coming out of the extruder. And tortellini! And soba! And rice noodles! Now there’s chickpea pasta, etc. It’s a wide, wild world out there.

Just pasta these comics is a place to comment on your own favorite shape/type.

A synchronicity here, with two Dante-themed comics on the same day. What a Paradiso!

by EditorM

What can we say, besides “Golden Oldies”?

Thanks to Usual John for sending this in.

John points out “Some commenters on GoComics suggested that this strip refers to Charles de Gaulle’s practice, at this time, of exchanging U.S. dollar reserves for gold. While the timing works for this 1966 strip, I don’t see how it leads to a joke.”

My question back then was, always if you can buy bouillon cubes at the supermarket in chicken or beef, why not gold?

by EditorM

Okay, so 1966 predates modern science!

Thanks to Usual John for suggesting this and providing useful discussion.

How does the mention of the dino’s penguin diet prompt that change of mind about imminent danger? Of extinction? I don’t understand.

Usual John adds “Incidentally, but presumably not germane to the joke, armored dinosaurs like this one were usually herbivorous. I’m not sure what kind it is supposed to be (Johnny Hart probably did not know either, but he likely was basing it on a picture or museum specimen he had seen). Maybe a stegoceras? Not the better-known stegosaurus, since there is no thagomizer.”

“Note that this would have been before the current understanding that birds are modern dinosaurs was widely accepted and also before it occurred to anyone that (non-avian) dinosaurs were killed off by an asteroid.”