Sender Dana Kand I were in minor disagreement over whether the word-play element here is pun-like enough to count as an OY. “Neg/Q Scope Ambiguity” is certainly there potentially in the 3rd panel; but it’s not clearly intentional, and even less the point of the gag.
Here’s a nice LOL-Eww from Boise Ed:
This Moderately Confused sent in by Rob is in what we might dub the “foibles funnies” genre:
Out of season
Two funny bits that seem like they might belong more to winter publication. The Kliban of course is a reprint from ages ago, so that makes sense. And the Liz Climo is funny any time. Also noticed by Andréa and used in a comment!
Thanks to Dana K for this Today’s Szep. The main joke is easy enough: the mere unlikely existence of this rack and these categories of card message. But what is all that ancillary action supposed to be about? Do these two know each other? Or is the woman just a judgemental bystander? Is she saying something, or just standing there with her jaw dropping?
On the first hand, this seems to me an excellent job of working out a technical experiment in the art of cartooning. Color-coding the speech bubbles could represent an improvement on trying to aim the pointers with precision, or stretching them around, or finding a basis for making the comic multi-panel so the dialogue can be rearranged.
But OTOH, the content of the dialogue is miles away from being at all funny. And is not even folk-wise, in that pseudo-deep way Frazz is so fond of trying.
Here’s a FoxTrot sent in by Kilby for the Oopses list. He says there is a real-world chronology error in showing Alpha-bits cereal in a current cartoon scene. “Alphabits was taken off the market in 2006, and made only brief periodic re-appearances, before disappearing again a year ago (May 2021). [Wikipedia link] The reason I checked is that I was not able to find them the last time I visited Washington. It’s possibe that Bill Amend is writing his strips a whole year in advance, but I seriously doubt it.”
Kilby also presents a judgement dilemma. “When a cartoonist recycles an ancient joke (albeit with ‘improvements’), is it better (A) To admit the crime, or (B) Just pretend that nobody will notice how ancient the gag really is?”
(A)
(B)
A classic case of “Oops!” from Le Vieux Lapin. Oops, I forgot to draw a cloud that looks like a comma.
Thanks to Carl Fink for sending this in. He says “I do understand the joke, but …” and then details ways he can’t understand how such bad drawing can pass itself off as professional cartooning.
Meanwhile, the usual gang of idiot at CIDU HQ Central has to confess that I don’t completely understand the joke. Is it a tradition in this family that “our mealtimes will be like going out to a nice restaurant”? Does the dad’s remark to what Carl calls “the monstrosity” daughter presuppose something like that?
A nice little twist on a familiar cat-behavior-pattern trope! Suggested by Andréa.
(From Scott Metzger’s paywalled Patreon gallery, used by kind permission. There is also loads of free material at his home page, https://www.metzgercartoons.com/ .)
Wrong Hands from Andréa. … Not trying to force it into being a CIDU, but do you feel some question about what are the eligible sequel titles?
Thanksgiving is coming up, any day now! How can we be aghast at seeing decorations and cartoons on a holiday theme? Is it too late to be asking “Too soon?” ?
That’s what Reply All Lite wants to know:
If you’re Moderately Confused twice … is that Fully Confused? From Anon and Andréa:
Santa already being featured, notes Andréa:
So why hesitate over Thanksgiving, which is well nigh upon us!
And Cathy can have the last word, asking the question for us:
There are lots of comics about pandemic accommodations and inconveniences, some quite good and some not so much. This one struck our funny bone as charming and gentle. (Despite the swordplay!)
Good turnaround joke contributed by Anon.
Wait, are they confederates? Or is the pin guy just horning in?
For those of you who haven’t been following the (long, long) discussion in the Random Comments thread, Bill’s son, Aaron Bickel, has very generously given some of us CIDU commenters the ability to administer this blog. We hope to get a regular posting schedule going soon, but for now new posts may be a little erratic.
The queue is empty right now (I lifted this one from a comment by Andréa), so if you have new submissions, please send them to the new editors’ e-mail in the FAQ.
Comics I Don't Understand 