In honor of CIDU Bill (Bill Bickel — and definitely not Idiot Bill Bickel) here’s a bit of a tribute:
Usual John sends this in: “I can’t help thinking of Idiot Bill Bickel, and the name Bilden Bickworm makes me think that may not be just coincidence. FYI for those who have not been following CIDU for years: Idiot Bill Bickel was (and presumably still is) a real estate agent who had the same name as CIDU Bill (the original moderator of this website) and inexplicably sometimes gave people CIDU Bill’s email address instead of his own.”
(This was posted as a LOL some months ago; it seems appropriate to repeat it here)
Boise Ed sends this in: “Absurd … Perhaps the category should be “Heaping scorn.” I can see no way they would both be on the hammock in the first place without serious cooperation.”
Remy’s vocabulary needs a little explanation: Strava is a free/paid app that is used by runners/cyclists/walkers to record time and distance. This is usually posted to Strava friends for kudos.
BQ in that last panel is Boston Qualifier, a time which would qualify you for the Boston Marathon. Women aged 18-34 need a time of 3 hours, 25 minutes or less.
Usual John sends this in: “I can’t help thinking of Idiot Bill Bickel, and the name Bilden Bickworm makes me think that may not be just coincidence. FYI for those who have not been following CIDU for years: Idiot Bill Bickel was (and presumably still is) a real estate agent who had the same name as CIDU Bill (the original moderator of this website) and inexplicably sometimes gave people CIDU Bill’s email address instead of his own.”
Think of this as a followup to our thread from last December about Searle’s Chinese Room problem. However, the cartoon there came from the Daily Nous site, where everything is supposed to be philosophy (or usually institutional news); this one graced the pages of GoComics.
How lucky that the randomly-generated sounds coming from Man2 actually constituted correct directions to the Post Office!
But how unlucky, as Man1 actually wanted to go to the metro!
We’re all still chuckling over the Sturm und Drang inboxes; but Darren also raises a question whether there is some sort of art trickery going on — like a different face showing up if you invert the picture. Well, it doesn’t seem to be exactly that; but maybe something similar?
This remains a semi-CIDU, as most of the allusions are obscure to an outsider; yet the jokes are clear enough once the basic point is caught that this depends on something about the ninja turtles.
Some months ago CIDU was asked to remove all the Far Side comics from our site, and we did so.
It’s their intellectual property, and they are within their rights. Certainly there are many social media sites trying to attract attention with Far Side cartoons, and it must be like Whack-A-Mole to reign those in. Still, they are missed, and Dave Whamond’s comic here is a reminder to check out the legit site for old and new work from Larson: https://www.thefarside.com/new-stuff
CIDU QUEUE REMINDER
As always — but it needs saying again now and then — we like to think of this as a reader-participation site, and not just for your invaluable (or anyhow amusing) comments, but for suggestions of comics to run and discuss.
Please share your specific suggestions of panels or strips, in CIDU, LOL, and OY categories, either by direct email to
A pretty nice Meta comic! I’ll look forward to seeing the color version, and checking what elements are red. Meanwhile, here is a red tee fitting for reference :
Well, here it is! Nope, nothing exciting to be learned …
(No language issues here, so we are not including the Spanish version.)
Last week — 4th wall needed for a watching-the-news story. (It’s just the date formatting that makes this look like a panel from the future.)
The joke is somewhat spoiled (or at least delayed) by the way the sightlines are drawn. But it emerges that what sound like rules for a tweenage girl being left home alone are being directed to Baby Bear (the dog); who isn’t agreeing to them. (And yes, still downloads from WaPo as .AVIF and needs pre-converting.)
And this Wondermark is not really much of a LOL, but it does provide a chuckle, and prompts me to remember encountering another sense of “Bridge club” in some novels of British India (probably Paul Scott) — it was a party with several ethnic groups invited, and intended to bridge the cultural gaps.
Comics I Don't Understand 