Friday Funnies

by Hal Bent

Finally the end of the week is here, and Friday--which is only matched by Sunday--is the showcase day of the week for the newspaper comics.  So what comics step up today and deliver a laugh and who falls flat and earns the snark in the Friday Funnies?

Andy Capp by Reg Smythe:

This is the advice I wish I could have given back when I was a career counselor: "yeah, Mr. Capp, find someone you know and ask for a loan. You are goddamn unhireable and need to face the fact that you are such a horrible human being that no one will ever pay you to perform even the most menial task. Borrow, steal, whatever. Just stop coming here and looking for a job because it just won't happen."


The Argyle Sweater by Scott Hilburn:

Did I misread this?  Wouldn't you say "Wasn't funny"? Telling Carl it was funny just seems to be encouraging him to keep referencing the tag line from a movie that came out in 1999. 


Lio by Mark Tatulli:

Aliens dropping trou to moon an amateur astronomer. Classic.

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I went looking for funny...

Been away from the site a few days (sorry), and decided that today I wanted to laugh. To go to the daily comics and find something humorous.  Shelve the snark for a day and find funny: 

Eek! by Scott Nickel:

I like this one (not just because it references a Batman villain--I mean, that's part of it for sure) but I just loved the expression on the hiking kid next to the Milhouse kid. Look at that facial expression: Milhouse is going to be walking by himself in two seconds, and, really, what 12 year old boy is going to watch out for Poison Ivy? 

Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley:

Get Fuzzy can go back to Curious George and Muppets every day and twice on Sunday and I am all in.  I love the seriousness of poor Satchel.  This was laugh out loud funny.

Lio by Mark Tatulli:

Lio is consistently funny.  The anticipation of the first panel, the surprise of the second panel, and the pleading of the last panel, and Harold's smug pointing to the sign.  A great, funny, creative punch line.  Bravo Tatulli. Bravo.

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Insert Caption Here

Bewley by Anthony Blades:

Thank you, Bewley. A little non-consensual kinky vegetable play is the perfect way to start off the week. (Great job catching the sheep's expression in the third panel, by the way).



Andertoons by Mark Anderson:

You have to feel for the cartoonist who has his work go out with errors like this.  I mean, the caption is pretty obvious, but it still stinks to have your work go out to the public like that.  I feel for you, Anderson. I'm showing solidarity by co-opting the error for the title of today's blog.  

Oh, the caption? Pretty easy to figure out: "Let me finish hanging these signs and we can go to the hotel room and get a bag of carrots and put on a sheep costume."



Herb and Jamaal by Stephen Bentley:

Jamaal (?) here is shocked that the musical interlude is from a band that broke up over 40 years ago.  I assume that is the punchline. I mean, that's oldies in my book.  Classic rock has to be under 40 years old.  Iron Butterfly released In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida in 1968, which is 45 years ago.  Of course, I remember Doonesbury doing this same joke in the 80s with the Rolling Stones as elevator music and Mike Doonesbury being conflicted with the fact he was no longer in his prime and aging as the rebellious music of his youth was considered what the old fogies listen to on oldies radio stations.  He did more than make a stupid face in the final panel, too. 


Lio by Mark Tatulli:

I'm almost 40 and I feel the same way putting on pajamas and a robe.  


Pluggers by Gary Brookins:

It's funny because his blood sugar is 450 and he's slipping into unconsciousness. Whoo, those Pluggers know how to bring the aging/medical humor.  A heart attack is following for this overweight dog who married outside his species and is shacking up with an old hen.  Creepy cross-species unions going on all over the comics. Ick.

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Hump Day Comics

Wednesday is hump day.  That means my vacation (and the kids school vacation) is half-over.  Let's see what cartoonists had trouble getting over the hump, and who flew over the hump like a teenager in a Trans Am going 35 miles over the speed limit:

Zack Hill by John Deering:

Wait, I'm confused. Is this guy a Kansas City sports fan or a Cleveland sports fan?  The red shirt on the male adult seems a little Arrowhead red, but the child's orange hair seems a little Cleveland Browns burnt orange.  Being from Boston and a sports fan (BostonSportPage.com is how I post--that's my sports blog page, and I never went and set up a new account log in...ok, I'm rambling) kids these days have no idea what it was like having a run terrible football teams, historically collapsing baseball teams, horrid hockey squads, and basketball teams from best of all-time reduced to rubble, but all at once.  Boston was a laughingstock in sports, and now has turned it around in all four major sports and the fan base is spoiled rotten by their success.  In fact, it'd be better if there was not so much....oh, God, I almost got through it without collapsing in humor.  Fans spoiled by success is great! Why do you think Boston sports fans hated New York and all their success.  Losing sports teams suck. Sorry, Cleveland and Kansas City, I feel your sports-pain and truly hope your fortune improves.


One Big Happy by Rick Detorie:

Besides, I tried giving you two twerps away, but the kidnappers kept giving you back no matter how much we begged them to keep you both.


Lio by Mark Tatulli:

Today's Lio by Mark Tatulli is the greatest comic strip ever!  Do it, Lio! Launch those insufferable Keane  Kompound brats into the stratosphere. Oh crap, where's that insufferable Jeffy one?  Wait, wait, for the love of God, we need all four at once! Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

Herb and Jamaal by Stephen Bentley:

In college, I was all T.S. Eliot all the time. Thesis, articles, reports, anything I had to write, it was dragging old Thomas Stearns Eliot (of the Boston Eliot's) into it. None of this William Carlos Williams or Ezra Pound bologna (like other Liberal Arts major friends of mine who will go unmentioned...<<cough, cough-Gallagher-cough, cough>>...but why is Herb and Jamaal quoting Eliot in reference to his attempted pick-up.  So how far is Jamaal (I think the long, bald head guy is Jamaal) going here.  Just what is his proposition that crossed the line?  Look at him in panel two. It's anal.  Yup, Jamaal went there.  Pretty racy for the funny pages. 

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What's New, Pussycat?

It's late, I know.  One of those days.  New phones and stuck on tech support purgatory to get them up and running right.  Total first world problem, I know.  We'll be a little quick today (not that there is anything wrong with being concise!), and, yes, I was listening to Tom Jones: Greatest Hits in the car today:

Lio by Mark Tatulli:

Lio has long been a favorite because it is one of the few fresh and original comics.  As a "cat person", I especially enjoyed today's strip and its homage to the cats of the comics.  Almost as important as the who's who of cats was who was most noticeably absent: Heathcliff. His relevance has waned, apparently.  Kudos for Bill the Cat from Bloom County getting an "Ack" in.

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Adam@Home by Brian Basset:

Adam here is not fooling anyone in panel three: He has an extremely unhealthy relationship with cheese.  It is unhealthy, unsafe, and unusual.  What was the word I used yesterday?  Freaky-deaky.  Adam has a little freaky-deaky relationship going on with cheese. In fact, I'm not even going to tell you what flavor cheese is in his pocket right now...he is a food freak.

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Get a Life! by Tim Lachowski:

Yup, been there, done that. Folks, don't grow up to work in marketing or sales.  You just end up like this poor slob on the right, begging for the return of your mortal soul.  I guess he could be a  Lawyer, but that is too cliche.  Maybe he works in recruiting...that's some soul-crushing work right there...crushing dreams, stealing clients, cold calling.  Ugh, I am getting some post-traumatic stress disorder just thinking of this...

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Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson:

Arlo and Janis is another classic comic that I just consistently enjoy.  This one strikes close to home, as this is what a typical night of watching Chopped or some other cooking show on Food Network looks like in the Bent household.  When its sports, sure that's me riled up and shouting at the television.  But food shows are not much different.  I just wish that it was a grilling challenge that was referenced as the show, as Arlo is a character who makes a point to fire up the grill at every opportunity. ("What kind of BBQ sauce is he using?  Does she know the grill isn't hot enough?"

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Rage and a Machine

There almost wasn't a post by me this week, either. Last week... well, I explained myself already.

For more stuff, visit the Meekrat Entertainment Group!

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The Good......and the Sad

Good day! Matt here with another installment of a Sunday comics review. The Browns won, barely, so I may be more generous than normal. Probably not...

The Good AND the Sad

Adam@Home

I don't particularly like this comic at all and think the joke takes too long to get to and isn't that funny, but I definitely LOVE the fact it could work the word hirsute into the Sunday funnies. Kudos.

The Good

Lio

Love it. Just love it. Nice Bela reference and enjoy him running away in the second panel. Sweet.

Scary Gary

I'm with you. Trivia night has ruined many an otherwise fun evening at a neighborhood bar.

The Sad

Brewster Rockit

I hate to put Brewster Rockit here, but this comic is WAY too busy and not that funny as well. Brewster is normally good for a laugh, but this one escapes me.

Heathcliff

Ha, ha. 'Cause girls don't like football. What? What does this have to do with the idiotic talking football and how is this supposed to be funny? What a lame attempt at sexist humor.

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Over the falls we go

Wednesday seems like a good day for comics, doesn't it? Yes, I thought so.

Cow and Boy

I like Cow and Boy. It's funny and creative; I dig the artwork. But what the fudge is supposed to be on that sign?! I've been staring at if for 2o minutes now and still can't conclude anything definitive. The best I can come up with is a microphone. It's certainly plausible that a mayor could be beaned by a hanging mic at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. But if an image isn't immediately recognizable in silhouette, why bother? It kind of looks like Snuffles, the evil cat from Pearls Before Swine. Now that would be amusing. Instead of throwing pies and shoes at disliked politicians, people should throw cats.

Family Tree

I don't normally pay much attention to Family Tree—has it always featured Dick Cheney in drag?

Gett Fuzzy

I could see this coming from the first panel, but the image of Bucky defecating in something of Satchel's is just hilarious.

Moderately Confused

And from the looks of that incline, this will also be the last ride she's ever been on.

Rip Haywire

Another rafting trip ends tragically.

Eek!

Is there a joke here somewhere? This woman is gleefully gloating that she just poisoned her husband. I guess that's supposed to be funny.

Lio

I really like Lio's super serious expression in the last panel. Seat belts always take the reckless joy out of driving.

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Fashionably Late

It's Meekrat, and I actually remembered today was Monday! I remembered much earlier, but only had time to finish half the post before I had to go to work. Well, here's some review:

Rubes

I know the rhyme they're trying to evoke, but the joke doesn't work because all three children are different. Yes, one is a piece of silverware as opposed to a dish, but they're all different things when the parents are two spoons. If one parent had been a fork, it may have been different, but it's not. Also, wouldn't a fork/spoon pairing bring forth a spork, anyway?

Garfield

It's always nice to see Garfield not take place in one of its usual locations. It reminds me of the old cartoon, and when the strip was much better so many years ago.

F-Minus

You'd have to be tough, as every other animal would torment you endlessly. I also have no idea if that's a cat or dog.

Cow and Boy

Today, we have technology so advanced that we can use it for the most useless of tasks, like Twitter. Really, if you went back to even the seventies and told people there'd one day be the Internet and we'd use it for such foolishness, they'd be amazed and frightened. You'd likely end up in jail, or an asylum, as well.

B. C.

If you told them this strip was still running, though, they'd wonder why they should care. This is the first strip I can remember that didn't utilize one of its regular characters or tropes, featuring the raptors that have become so prevalent since the new guy took over.

For Heaven's Sake

For one, Jesus advocated that they shouldn't do eye for an eye and all that anymore. I looked it up! Second, the upside down dialog in the second panel is just dumb. No one is going to take that much effort to read such a lame punchline. I hate this strip.

Lio

On the flip side of God-ness, we have Lio staying true to character and not caring about any old thing. Good for you, Lio!

Well, that's it for today. Tune in tomorrow when there'll be more stuff!

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