If you have to edit the point out of a strip…
Cidu Bill on Jul 8th 2009
… just toss it out and draw a new one.
I mean clearly, this was supposed to be “How do middle-aged people have sex?” “Reproduce” doesn’t make any sense, isn’t funny, and really doesn’t warrant Val’s coffee-spilling reaction.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Jan Eliot, Stone Soup, comic strips, comics, humor | 21 responses so far
Nicole Jul 8th 2009 at 02:40 pm 1
Maybe she was afraid to get an Arlo Award
Patrick Jul 8th 2009 at 02:42 pm 2
Odd choice of euphemism. You’d think she could have gone with “date,” which is a safe word that still makes sense in the context of being “attracted to one another.”
Kevin Andresen Jul 8th 2009 at 03:12 pm 3
I believe Holly’s Mom, being a middle-aged person, is reacting to being categorized as unattractive.
I’d guess “… enough to have sex” is the unspoken text in the 3rd panel. That only leaves the word “reproduce” or some very special procreation ritual.
Is wine something Holly’s Mom can tell her about, or does Holly have to discover its effect herself?
Kate C Jul 8th 2009 at 03:44 pm 4
Because middle aged people are so obviously unattractive, they would never have sex. So that isn’t whatsherface’s issue. But she probably knows women in their 40s who have had children, and is wondering how the heck that happened (of course, she’s also old enough to be familiar with reproductive technologies, so she knows the answers regardless).
Keera Jul 8th 2009 at 03:55 pm 5
Wait… Middle-aged people reproduce? Is that with or without the hormone therapy?
padraig Jul 8th 2009 at 04:00 pm 6
At least the daughter didn’t say “make whoopee.” Or “get busy.” Or “do the nasty.” Or…….
furrykef Jul 8th 2009 at 05:43 pm 7
I also find the stereotype that kids think middle-aged people are officially “old” and unattractive to be pretty much BS in the first place. Then again, maybe I’ve just never thought the way that other young people do…
Also, I’m not familiar with the strip, so maybe that character is always like that. (But if so, I doubt I’d be able to stand her very much.)
Mark in Boston Jul 8th 2009 at 11:06 pm 8
Kate C. has it. The daughter could have said “How do middle-aged people reproduce? I mean, obviously they don’t have sex, because they can’t actually be attracted to one another.”
furrykef Jul 9th 2009 at 08:37 am 9
This wasn’t a CIDU. Bill knew what the joke was. He was just pointing out that the euphemism destroys the joke, which I think it does.
Mark in Boston Jul 9th 2009 at 10:19 am 10
It’s not a euphemism. She’s not asking how middle-aged people have sex. She’s asking how they reproduce, since they can’t possibly be having sex.
DPWally Jul 9th 2009 at 11:07 am 11
Yeah, what furrykef and Mark in Beanburg said.
It wouldn’t occur to her to ask how middle-aged people have sex, she would just assume that they don’t, because, like, iick!
But now she knows of some middle-aged person having a baby and either wants to know how they can stand it or what alternate method they used. This is middle-aged from a teen point of view, which could mean over 25.
Dan Jul 9th 2009 at 01:16 pm 12
Of course, the idea of “middle age” is relative anyway. When you’re a teen, anyone over 30 is middle aged. Well, anyone who’s your parents’ age. Then in your twenties, maybe it’s people in their fifties (again, parents). But once you hit the thirties, maybe you think of middle-aged folks as being sixty or something. Which would reaaaaally be stretching the idea of middleagedness, eh?
David A. Rooney Jul 9th 2009 at 07:11 pm 13
To quote George Burns in the movie “Oh, God!” - “I made Adam 17. Eve was 15, 16 tops. I thought that would be like middleage. Who knew people would live so long?” And if middleage is defined as the mid-point in you life expectancy, then in biblical times 17 really WAS middleage.
Even given the longevity of members of my own family, I’m still over the hill. But only just.
Fandango Jul 10th 2009 at 12:27 pm 14
I think the question “How do middle-aged people reproduce” is a lot funnier than “how do they have sex”. You see so many of them around, they have to reproduce, right? Young people have young children, obviously middle-aged people have middle-aged children.
ty Jul 10th 2009 at 01:02 pm 15
I’m no biblical scholar, but didn’t Adam and other people of the early Old Testament - say, pre-flood - live well into their hundreds?
Mark in Boston Jul 10th 2009 at 03:02 pm 16
“Who knew people would live so long?”
Uh … someone who’s omniscient? Like, knows everything, past present and future? Like, for instance, the character that said the line?
Rainey Jul 11th 2009 at 03:36 am 17
Mark in Boston, I think the whole point of the “Oh God” movies is to paint God in a way people are not used to thinking of him. In these movies, he does learn things as the eons pass and even questions things he has done ( such as giving giraffes long necks ).
Mitch4 Jul 11th 2009 at 07:36 am 18
Oh, Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
Yes Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
But who calls that livin’
Mitch4 Jul 11th 2009 at 07:41 am 19
darn it! bad keying on my part!
but you know the rest anyway,no?
Oh, Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
Yes Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
But who calls that livin’
when no gal won’t give in
To no man what is nine hundred years?
Testing Testing One Two Three Jul 11th 2009 at 07:46 am 20
pardon me, just testing
will this accept some  s for an indent?
one
two
three
four
Oh, Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
Yes Methusaleh lived nine hundred years
But who calls that livin’
when no gal won’t give in
To no man what is nine hundred years?
MJB Jul 12th 2009 at 09:03 pm 21
It’s really time to take off the gloves and let people talk the way that people talk: “Mom, why would middle-aged people ever f0ck?”