From the beginning, I wanted Hubriscomics to be kid-friendly… y’know, no nudity (I’d probably have more readership if I was one of those webcomics that put the girlies in bikinis every so often, but I just ain’t feelin’ it.) and no swearing, no drug humor… not as strictly as a newspaper would enforce things- I just had something different in mind. And then there’s the temptation to make a point with swearing, and I’ve avoided that, too. Too easy, really. But it does lead to some fairly juvenile vocabulary now and again. Today’s strip is a good example- “Midnight Urines” is funny to me. Partly because I grew up in a place where stilted euphemisms were occasionally pretty artful, and so I find them entertaining, and partly because I have fun picking through words I can use to see what sounds funny. Paste using the term ‘Wee’ for dog puddles (or unicorn puddles, if you’ve been reading for THAT long) tickles me. In my head, Durnell’s rural speaking voice is really funny when he’s trying to be a Southern Gentleman and avoid the use of the word ‘piss’. He doesn’t want to be that vulgar, so what he comes up with, while not exactly vulgar, is stilted enough to have it’s own goofy charm. I hope you agree… and that you hear something like Jeff Foxworthy’s accent while reading Durnell’s speech balloons.
