The second and third frames in the second row are what IDU. If the Wizard is cheating, shouldn’t the beam and hangers be visible there as well as in the last frame? Otherwise, maybe he is cheating and conjures the beam and hangers to “prove” he wasn’t using magic in the previous frames even though he was? All told, IDU what’s going on here.
For that matter, if there’s some magic making the beam and hangers invisible that he somehow forgets? turns off? for the last frame, how did he appear to lift it off the ground??
Coffee is consumed compulsively by many people all over the world, but cartoonists (who are notorious for keeping odd hours) seem to be especially susceptible to the allure of the drink’s stimulating properties. Given the excessive amount of publicity that many syndicated cartoonists produce for free, it’s remarkable that none of them has managed to land an advertising contract.
Similarly, Horace (or perhaps Samson?) has a serious addiction:
… P.S. Stahler’s “Moderately Confused” panel was the original inspiration for this entire post; Shannon Wheeler’s Too Much Coffee Man is not just the title, but also the main character of his entire feature.
Here’s a B.C. strip that Brian in StL submitted and was posted two years ago. Brian commented back then that: “It’s not entirely clear to me what’s going on. In a way, the first panels look like the preliminary sketches a cartoonist does. So is the coffee affecting him? Or is Jane now able to ‘focus’ since she‘s had coffee?“
Opinions differ on optimum methods of preparation:
Scientists have been researching the heath effects of coffee for decades; this editorial cartoon by Pat Oliphant was published in 1981:
… P.S. I was amused by the similarity in viscosity.
Here’s another Dark Side of the Horse (it won’t be the last):
GiP submitted this B.C. strip, which doesn’t really fit into any category. It’s not funny enough for an LOL, and not puzzling enough for a CIDU: all the gag says is that Thor is hard-headed: he’s willing to endure any adversity to catch his fish, including unnecessarily repetitive waves in the first two panels, and ridiculously improbable starfish slapstick in the third panel. Even the destruction of his boat did not deter him.
… I wonder what Clumsy Carp would have thought about this.
P.S. Despite all its weaknesses, here’s a B.C. re-run from exactly two years ago:
… Why the re-run? Discovering this strip in the submissions archive reminded me of a comment that Bill Bickel wrote in May, 2020, and attached to “Dynamo” (01-Jan-2023): “So greetings from Month Three of the Coronavirus Lockdown. I hope everybody made it through okay to the other side.“
Tim Harrod submitted this Wizard of Id as a CIDU promptly on the day that it was published, exactly eight months ago today. As Tim put it: “Just a straight-up, no-analysis-possible I Do Not Get It“:
… I can’t give a definite answer to Rodney’s question, either, but it probably depends on which cultural tradition the Dragon came from.
P.S. One reason that I did not like the Disney movie “Raya and the Last Dragon” is that the dragons were furry (rather than scaly).
Boise Ed submitted this B.C. strip as a CIDU, but I think it qualifies as an LOL:
… Ed had questioned the illogical elements of the setup: “I had forgotten that there is a restaurant chain called ‘The Cheesecake Factory‘, but why would anyone only eat roadkill, and why would anyone drive his car through that restaurant?“, but I think that it’s not supposed to make sense, it’s just supposed to be funny. The latter is something that the current author(s) don’t always achieve, so it’s always nice to see an exception.
MarkTa submitted this Wizard of Id strip as a CIDU quite a while ago, asking “Please help – is it about flatulence? Completely baffled.“
… While “burrito” might indeed imply “flatulence“, the real explanation is simpler: the Wizard is tired of Blanche stealing the blankets, and is anchoring them on his side of the bed (with an ultra-modern medieval nail gun). Both Calvin and his dad would have appreciated the Wizard’s solution:
When a cat employs this blanketing strategy, the result is called a “purrito“:
Brian in StL submitted this pair of “classic crescent-moon outhouses” last year, which seemed eminently appropriate for World Toilet Day.
… P.S. Both of these strips were published last year on October 5th, but the Non Sequitur is actually a rerun from 2019, and was embedded into a comment in that year in Bill’s Halloween post about “Outhouses“.
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.
Tim Harrod submitted this “Wizard of ID” strip, noting that “…the writer seems to think that Moses was a wizard“. I sure hope that the theology in B.C. isn’t starting to leak over into the Kingdom of Id.
I think the joke in the final panel is clear, but I don’t understand the gag in the second “throwaway” panel, unless it’s a topical reference to some scene in a movie. The part I liked best was the snide adjective in the fifth panel: “adult” appears to be referring to the juvenile wizards in Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books, who all use dinky little wands instead of “manly” staves. On the other hand, the Wizard’s traditional implement has always been one of those wands, as we saw in the “I’m stumped” post just last month:
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?
Kilby writes: This “Wizard of Id” strip was taken from an unnamed draft post that CIDU Bill created in 2019. I initially thought that it was supposed to be a reference to the song “Circle of Life” (from Disney’s “The Lion King”), but comparing the guard’s dialog with the song’s lyrics did not produce a satisfactory match.
Am I missing something, or does anyone have a better suggestion?
Comics I Don't Understand 