Comments on: Nightly News

By: bAT L.

bAT L. — Thu, 08 May 2008 02:54:44 +0000

But nobody took into account the remote behind the grassy knoll!

Seriously, though, (well, not serious, but you know) at first I thought #2 was right, but I now see that #1 is correct, although I have my suspicions that she may have inadvertently turned the TV off and then really quickly back on in the last panel.

By: Bah humbug

Bah humbug — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:35:04 +0000

In this strip, the remote definitely is NOT the gizmo with the stumpy antenna, so it IS the one she picks up, dials on, puts to her ear (with her left hand), and puts back on the table (with her left hand). In the first frame, the gizmo with the antenna - which she’s picking up with her right hand in the last frame - is directly to the right of the gizmo she’s picking up.

BTW… My mother accidentally changes the remote with her butt all the time - and it’s funny, not embarassing. No matter where she puts it down, it always seems to work its way either under her butt/leg or between the sofa cushions. Then it waits until we’re all relaxed and settled in to start doing random and wacky things to the channels and/or volume. I’m convinced her remote does this just so we pay attention and don’t fall asleep or read the paper.

By: solarrhino

solarrhino — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:25 +0000

So Katie Couric got at least one viewer that night.

By: Pinny

Pinny — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:31:49 +0000

OK, I concede. She is NOT picking up the one with the blue screen in frame 1, yet she is holding it in frame 4. Additionally, she IS picking up one with a red circle in the middle in frame 1 and if you look closely she is actually putting that same one down in frame 4. I now agree with Patrick (#1) that the chronology is:

Frame 1: She lifts the remote (red dot) that looks very much like the phone (blue screen) which is on its right.

Frame 2: She tries to dial the remote like a phone. At the same time her foot is approaching the table top. (There is NO significance to this last fact.)

Frame 3: Somehow her dialing causes the TV to turn on. Also, her foot has come to rest on the table. (There is NO significance to this last fact.)

Frame 4: She embarrassingly places the remote (red dot) down on the table with her left hand after lifting the real phone (blue screen) with her right hand.

By: brien

brien — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:48:10 +0000

She’d be embarrassed by being caught putting her feet on the coffee table.

She clearly turned on the TV by putting her foot on the remote control on the coffee table - the same one she’s reaching to use to turn the TV back off.

One could even presume that the person she’s calling is someone who used to live in the house, who she had often scolded for putting feet on the coffee table. Being caught by THAT person would be especially embarrassing.

By: jambo

jambo — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:07:09 +0000

Patrick is correct. The fuzzy slipper idea is not really embarrassing.

By: Judge Mental

Judge Mental — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:16:37 +0000

I also discount the fuzzy slipper theory. If you look in the very first frame, there are *4* “remote/phone-looking things”. From bottom-to-top, she choose number 2; with number 3 being the phone that she ultimately picks up in the last frame. Note the antenna (and blue screen) in both frames 1 and 4.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:34:50 +0000

Why would she be embarrassed that she managed to turn a TV on using a soft, fuzzy slipper? On the contrary, if someone saw you do that, they’d say, “Hey cool! I bet you couldn’t do that again if you tried!”

She is embarrased because she thought the remote was a phone. (There is no antenna on the device she is dialing). In the final frame she puts it down with her left hand while picking up the real phone with her right.

By: Pinny

Pinny — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:05:39 +0000

brien (#2) has it.

She has a phone in her hand the entire time (phone=white with blue screen and antenna, remote=black with just buttons), but watch her foot move in frame 2, then in 3, clicking on the remote, and finally she leans over to turn off the TV (using the remote) in frame 4.

By: Lihtox

Lihtox — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:28:52 +0000

She mistook the “On” button of the remote for the “Send” or “Connect” button (or whatever the heck it’s called): on my cordless, at least, I can dial the number first, and then press the “conect button”, at which point it dials the number.

I needed the explanation to get it, but it is pretty funny.