Ah, yes… wandering down the aisle you expected to find toothpaste on, and suddenly discover that you’re looking at… fill in the blank with whatever makes you worry about what random strangers will think about you.
12 Comments
Comic
2374 comics.
I recently was pulled across a room to meet someone who would be in charge of a street party. We were introduced by the publisher of the ninja comic I worked on recently, and thought it might have something to do with that. On the other hand- street party at a famous intersection in town. Probably a caricature gig, as those always go over well at public events.
No. I was asked if I juggled, since I am known to ride a unicycle. I explained that I don’t juggle, and I ride a unicycle on trails- riding them in crowds is very different. Falling down on tree roots is one thing. Falling down on baby strollers quite another.
On the other hand- if I COULD do that stuff, I’d be all over street fairs, jack. Mmmmm, yeah. Juggling chainsaws and passing the hat.
“Not a complete list”… that pretty much describes most of the lists I’ve ever run across. You always think of something else later, or you know there’s no way to list everything, or you expect new information later that’ll change the list.
Grocery store lists. Good example. I mean, how often do you get home and when you’re unpacking everything you bought at the grocery store… you realize you need to start a new list ’cause SOMETHING wasn’t on the list you just bought.
Or, in this case… someone gets carted off to the nuthouse and can’t start the Outdoorfest, loses points at the outset and can’t catch up… all because he was, say, running naked through the neighborhood to the north of the swamp singing the Wukilar song and waving a paddle festooned with flashing bicycle lights. That probably wasn’t on the list.
Some of you may remember the Sid & Marty Kroft stuff- Saturday morning shows and puppet theatre-style fun. It appeared to be drug-induced, pretty often, but if you read interviews where that’s brought up, they gleefully admit to being sober and straight when coming up with all that stuff.
But here’s the thing. We’re coming up on the fiftieth anniversary of The Bugaloos. Fifty.
I always think of fiftieth anniversaries as being achieved by something worth commemorating. I don’t want to take anything from Sid and Marty, y’understand… with a little better luck, they’d have been right up there with Jim Henson and Company.
But “Hey, everyone, The Bugaloos are fifty!” -in a couple of years, we can say that. “Forty Eight” doesn’t have the same impact, but you get the point, right?
The insane crap of the 70s is going to start being venerable. Oh, my.
Some of you might recall that I did some unicycle comment cartoons here on the site a while back. I think there were a series of three, maybe four of them. They were an image of Hubris riding a unicycle with an offscreen voice saying something that unicyclists typically hear, such as “What happened to the rest of your bike?” and “Are you a clown?”
The problem, you see, is that when people see something worthy of comment, they tend to comment. If they haven’t heard what the previous thirty people have commented, they tend to say the first thing that pops into their heads, which is the same darn thing most of the previous thirty people said. You see the problem. After a while, you entertain yourself by having thirty different answers to the one thing everyone accidentally repeats at you.
“The bike shop had a half-off sale.” “I stripped all the useless stuff off the bike and this is what’s left.” “My grandma is riding it about a half-mile back.” “Oh, I can control one wheel, but have you seen those guys who ride two wheels at once? They’re amazing.” and so on.
Today’s cartoon is one of our readers who’s apparently heard the same thing so often that she listed it as her nickname. Works for me. Welcome to the comic strip, Nice Hat.
This cartoon would have been up earlier, but I was having a holiday or something yesterday and things got away from me…
I don’t know if I ever explicitly said that everyone on Rick Mittleif’s team at the last Outdoorfest had an ick-y name.
Or the fact that Nikki, as a character, grew out of that.
You guys always seem to know every step I make with the strip better than I do… Did you know all that?
Bic, if you picked out your nickname ’cause you figured that out, I’m impressed. If, however, you’re nicknamed for your favorite type of ink pen, well, I appreciate the opportunity to put you in Rick’s team.
Let’s say “thanks” to all the worriers of the world. They’re the reason we have helmets, inspections, accountants, public address systems, insurance, and people minding the store. And ulcers. They also gave us all ulcers. They had them first, of course, and wanted to make sure the rest of us had them, too.
Also, Thanks to you guys for the birthday wishes, and thanks, Bic, for resubmitting your application!
- Help me out a little bit, here. I had an application come in from a reader whose nickname is ‘Bic’. I printed it out and set it aside because I had a gag it fit into really well. And I lost it. And now, I can’t find the email it came in. I have no idea how that’s happened. But hey- Bic, if you’re reading this… be a pal and re-send me your application? I’ve torn up the studio looking for it, and I’m exhausted.
- Tell me “Happy Birthday.” I’m old.
“Ha!” he scoffingly scoffed at the harsh rebuff of his previous scoffing.
It’s a word we need to bring back. Good word. Lots of use left in it.
