Sunday Funnies: LOL-June 13

Cidu Bill on Jun 13th 2010

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Mitch:
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Filed in Alison Barrows, Argyle Sweater, Bill Bickel, Bizarro, Dan Piraro, Garfield, Jim Davis, Joe Martin, Mister Boffo, Preteena, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Scott Hilburn, William Shakespeare, Zach Weiner, comic strips, comics, comics that made us laugh out loud, humor, lol | 35 responses so far

35 Responses to “Sunday Funnies: LOL-June 13”

  1. Keera Jun 13th 2010 at 04:44 am 1

    We have some good finds this weekend! #1 for me is sticking a fork in Mr. Potato Head, which doubles as a great ewww, too.

  2. David A. Rooney Jun 13th 2010 at 06:59 am 2

    Hustler has stories? Does that mean Hooter’s really is about ‘owls’?

  3. George P Jun 13th 2010 at 07:09 am 3

    “They’ve got great wings” is the Hooters equivalent of “I buy it for the articles”.

  4. Powers Jun 13th 2010 at 08:53 am 4

    Hustler is infamous for the wild stories submitted to them by readers. They solicit tales of sexual escapades but by and large most of them are obvious fabrications — fantasies.

  5. Tim Jun 13th 2010 at 09:04 am 5

    It took just a second, but I love the Elizabethan version of “Get out of here!”

  6. Kamino Neko Jun 13th 2010 at 09:31 am 6

    You’re thinking of Penthouse/Penthouse Forum, I think, Powers. They’re the ones that are always named in the ‘I never thought it could happen to me…’ jokes.

  7. Morris Keesan Jun 13th 2010 at 10:20 am 7

    I once knew someone who had made a significant part of his income writing “readers’ letters” for Penthouse, while waiting for his other writing to start selling well enough for him to live on.

    I don’t understand why the Garfield strip is an LOL. It seems on the same level as any other Garfield strip, i.e. not particularly funny. For me, the best thing about Garfield is the “Garfield without Garfield” website.

  8. mkilby Jun 13th 2010 at 12:05 pm 8

    Ditto on Garfield, I can’t see it being anywhere near LOL. Preteena was pretty close to LOL, but I think it was even closer to EWWW.

  9. Lihtox Jun 13th 2010 at 12:43 pm 9

    Garfield has been popping up on the LOL page a surprising amount recently, given its current reputation. I’d be interested to hear from the people sending them in: is the strip improving, or has CIDU just gotten an influx of Garfield fans? (And Bill, do the LOLs reflect your own taste?)

  10. CIDU Bill Jun 13th 2010 at 01:26 pm 10

    Lihtox, if nobody’s name precedes a LOL, then it’s mine.

    I happen to think Garfield made an abrupt turnaround a few years ago — right around the time Jon got a girlfriend — and transformed from an unreadable strip into one I really enjoy (similar to what happened to Sally Forth, though of course that’s clearly due to Ces taking over the writing).

    While we’re on the subject, I do not understand “Garfield Without Garfield”: I mean, it’s a clever concept once; but by Day Two, I thought it was all played out.

  11. Chuck Jun 13th 2010 at 01:38 pm 11

    Hasn’t that Garfield strip shown up here before?

  12. John Small Berries Jun 13th 2010 at 02:14 pm 12

    Jon got a girlfriend and the strip changed? Maybe I’ll give it another chance. When I quit reading it, somewhere around 2004, all the human characters besides Jon had vanished from the strip - replaced by easier-to-draw mice, spiders, and talking bathroom scales - and the strip merely cycled through the same handful of stale jokes over and over again.

  13. John Small Berries Jun 13th 2010 at 02:17 pm 13

    Also, “Aroint thee!”

  14. furrykef Jun 13th 2010 at 03:56 pm 14

    I’ve always felt Garfield Minus Garfield was inferior to the variation where Garfield was retained, but his dialogue was removed. It makes a lot more sense because it is apparently what’s “really” happening from the perspective of somebody who can’t read Garfield’s thoughts.

  15. CIDU Bill Jun 13th 2010 at 04:06 pm 15

    That does sound more interesting, furrykef — though I still think it would get old pretty quickly.

    Has there ever been any consistency about whether Jon can understand Garfield? Sometimes it seems that he can, sometimes not.

  16. Mark in Boston Jun 13th 2010 at 05:25 pm 16

    I always read all the comments at CIDU but I never thought I’d be writing one myself until one day …

  17. paperboy Jun 13th 2010 at 05:37 pm 17

    I’ve never got the “stick a fork in me; I’m done” joke. Don’t you stick a fork in something to if it’s done? And Mark in Boston#16; Ho Ho!, but I’m sorry I get the reference.

  18. paperboy Jun 13th 2010 at 05:38 pm 18

    errata: that’s “… stick a fork in something to CHECK if it’s done?”

  19. bAT L. Jun 13th 2010 at 11:08 pm 19

    The phrase is actually pretty popular in action movies. The scene is usually when the cops arrive too late to a grisly murder scene. It started as a joke in some movie long ago; something along the lines of “Somebody better stick a fork in him.” “… Why?” “Because he is done!” Now, it’s become a cliche line reduced to just “Stick a fork in him, ’cause he’s done!”

    P.S. I know this is LOL and not CIDU, but somebody asked.

  20. Tullia Jun 14th 2010 at 05:31 am 20

    Paperboy: I always read it as meaning “make the last gesture that makes it official.” After all, you don’t keep sticking a fork in something until you’re pretty sure it’s in the last stages of cooking, and even if you’re 99.5% sure it’s done you still check one last time by sticking the fork in. The fork is therefore half-symbolic verification that something is not just almost completely ready but DONE. See: fat lady singing, “He’s dead, Jim,” “the Eagle has landed,” etc.

    And I got Mark in Boston (#16)’s reference, too, and I’m female and have seen _Hustler_ and _Penthouse_ each about once. By the way, is the “I never thought I would be writing … ” thing more _Penthouse_ than _Hustler_? They’re both infamous for their letters columns.

  21. Powers Jun 14th 2010 at 08:37 am 21

    I knew something didn’t seem right in my claim about Hustler. Maybe the cartoonist had a similar confusion?

    I also completely agree with furrykef @14.

  22. J-L Jun 14th 2010 at 11:42 am 22

    furrykef @14: I completely agree with you that “Garfield without thought bubbles” is generally funnier than just “Garfield without Garfield.”

    Though it suffers a bit from “panel 2 is exactly the same as panel 3″ syndrome (which is funny the first time, but after that it gets old fast), overall the absence of Garfield’s thoughts is funnier than the absence of Garfield himself. At least in my opinion.

    For those of you who want to see what the fuss of “Garfield without thought bubbles” (or “Garfield speechless”) is, here are a few samples:

    http://www.websnark.com/archives/2006/02/would_the_nerma.html

  23. paperboy Jun 14th 2010 at 01:19 pm 23

    Thanks for the link J-L#22; I’m sold: “Garfield without thought bubbles” IS funnier than “Garfield Without Garfield”.

    Tulia#20- Yes, it is more idiomatic than logical. I mean, it should be “No need to stick a fork in me; I’m done!!” (Also, to check cakes you use a tooth-pick; for meats you use a thermometer.)

  24. Mark in Boston Jun 14th 2010 at 02:22 pm 24

    Tullia: I think it’s Penthouse that has the imaginative “I never thought it would happen to me” stories. The Hustler thing is more “This happens to me all the time.”

  25. Molly J Jun 15th 2010 at 11:47 am 25

    Mark - best LOL I’ve had today. Though I did love the Shakespeare one, too.

  26. Todd Jun 15th 2010 at 04:21 pm 26

    I don’t see why the Bizarro is funny. Particularly since the same can be said of the Amazon Kindle, the B&N Nook, and all the other e-readers out there. And the Nook (I don’t know about the rest) can have additional memory added; you want more memory in your iPad, you have to buy another iPad.

  27. Todd Jun 15th 2010 at 04:24 pm 27

    I forgot about the Garfield discussion. Jon thinking his cat is talking back to him makes more sense to me than Jon imagining that he has a cat that can talk to him.

  28. paperboy Jun 15th 2010 at 04:33 pm 28

    Todd#26- Tim#5 explains the joke in Bizarro.

  29. mkilby Jun 16th 2010 at 04:22 am 29

    @ furrykef & CIDU Bill (14 & 15) - On the subject of “Garfield minus Garfield”, I just happened to run into a slightly macabre (and since abandoned) experiment: “Calvin minus Hobbes” (see: http://www.jeffsocean.com/post/668583668/calvin-minus-hobbes). It nicely illustrates that (as opposed to Garfield), the C&H strips are simply lifeless without Hobbes.

  30. Todd Jun 16th 2010 at 04:32 am 30

    Another thing I forgot. Is that guy in Boffo supposed to a particular person? He looks like a lounge singer whose name I don’t currently recall.

  31. Tullia Jun 16th 2010 at 12:43 pm 31

    @mkilby (#29) — oh, god, that’s awful. Calvin looks much more convincingly deranged in those than does Jon Arbuckle in “Garfield minus Garfield.”

  32. mitch4 Jun 16th 2010 at 12:47 pm 32

    I thought he might even semble John Cleese.

  33. paperboy Jun 16th 2010 at 03:46 pm 33

    mkilby#29, thanks for that link. It’s what it would look like if you spied on Calvin, just a particularly imaginative kid .( I always imagined a maudlin ending to the strip, with a teen-age Calvin, who has found real companions and other interests, being alone with Hobbes, who now remains a silent stuffed toy tiger. “A [tiger] lives forever, but not so little boys…” )

    Todd#30- Robert Goulet?

  34. mitch4 Jun 19th 2010 at 02:04 pm 34

    Follow-on to the Garfield-without-Garfield and related ideas: In Medium Large last week ( http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/friday-june-18-2010/ ) he’s playing with that idea by making up a Marvin-without-parents. I don’t follow the actual Marvin so may be missing something crucial. But the joke/antijoke here seems to be just how dangerous life is for unparented child.

  35. Marion Delgado Dec 2nd 2010 at 08:06 pm 35

    The SMBC guy blew his joke, it should have been Penthouse.

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