Say My Name

Bizarro 04-04-21 hdrWB.jpg

ANSWERS TO THE PUZZLE CARTOON BELOW ARE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

Wayno and I have just celebrated the 12th anniversary of our first cartoon collaboration. We’ve had a lot of fun working with each other at various levels over the years, and full-time these last three. Big thanks to you, amigo, for taking such good care of my homemade monster! Here’s what Wayno’s got to say about it.

Bizarro 04-04-21 Rweb.jpg

Buen dia, Jazz Pickles and whatever else you, dear readers, may call yourselves. I’ll be discussing the strange Sunday cartoon above in a moment, but first I’d like to mention a bit of business from last week.

In my comments on one of Wayno’s cartoons about the generic bathroom sign for males, I mentioned I thought putting a dress on the female version of this international symbol could be seen as sexist, and then linked to my own suggestion for updating the design

Many, probably most of you, understood that my version was a joke; there is almost no discernible difference between the two images I drew and nobody would know which bathroom to go into, thus rendering the current system unusable. And that was my point, really—there needn’t be different places for people to use restrooms. People can safely and comfortably share the same facilities whether they identify as male, female, both, neither, or a grilled cheese sandwich. Ever been to a department store where they use one big dressing room with different stalls for both men and women? Did it burst out into some kind of perverted freak-fest of lust and molestation? Exactly. 

But the other deal about that same bathroom signage cartoon is that a few people decided to scold me for “not knowing the difference between gender and genital,” or some such nonsense. To them, I say that I’m sensitive to the whole sexual identity/discrimination issue and I am on your side. I was on your side before most current activists were even born. And as such, I want you to succeed in ridding society of this kind of discrimination so I offer you this advice: If you want to be an effective champion for your cause, learn to express your opinion politely and respectfully, and be sure you have a valid point of some kind before you insult a stranger. There are far more important battles to fight on this topic than a cartoon you obviously didn’t even understand.

And you know what? If I’m wrong here and there’s something I’m missing about that bathroom door cartoon, please educate me. I’m honestly interested.

NEXT TOPIC: THE WEIRD CARTOON AT THE TOP OF THIS PAGE!

This is a strange word game that can be difficult to get a grasp of at first but once you do, is tons of fun IMHO. If you don’t immediately understand it, don’t give up. Read the explanation at the top of the cartoon, then I’ll walk you through the first balloon.

The name of S is pronounced “ess”, so say that out loud. The next symbol is the @ sign, so add “at”. Now you have, “ess at”.  Very good. 

The next word starts with F so say, “eff”. (The hyphens mean these are syllables that make up a word, as opposed to individual short words.) Next add “eye,” “ell,” “EN” to that. What you should be getting is “eff eye el EN” which also sounds like “a violin”. (The bold letter is where the accent goes.) So the first balloon says, “Is that a violin?” Figuring out the rest on your own is the fun part. Unless it drives you crazy.

A few years back, my good buddy, Cliff Harris The King of Wordplay wrote an entire story using this puzzle form and I did some illustrations for it. It was super fun. We submitted it to New York agents and publishers and they kind of went crazy for it! We made faces like this— :^D  

At first. 

Then after a week or two, they all came back and said it was too complicated to appeal to a large enough audience to make a profit. Then we made faces like this— :^{  It was pretty disappointing but that’s how the karma cookie crumbles sometimes.

Since our book project didn’t fly, Cliff wrote some fun ones for this cartoon. I hope you enjoy them. Now let’s see what puzzlers Wayno has in his bag of Bizarro cookies this week…

Bz C 210329 P.jpg

II think there may have been disturbances in the cartoon ether last week because we also got a few complaints about this cartoon. We were abrasively reminded that an O-ring was what caused the space shuttle Challenger to explode in 1986, and we were commanded to apologize to everyone who may have ever heard of that tragedy.

We never intend to upset readers, of course, and I assure you that neither of us thought of that connection when we submitted this gag. If you were among the offended, I ask you to remember that it happened over 30 years ago, and I encourage you to discern the difference between using a tragedy for laughs and accidentally reminding someone of a tragedy.

Bz C 210330 P.jpg

Have you tried not doing laundry while you’re tripping?

Bz C 210331 P.jpg

“We know you have a choice when dying and we thank you for choosing ‘unrepentant’. “

Bz C 210401 P.jpg

This particular officer is a fellow devotee of the Divine Loafer. Has your sole been saved?

Bz C 210402 P.jpg

He might be barking up the wrong tree. The coconut may have dove onto his noggin of its own volition.

Bz C 210403 P.jpg

Alas, we’ve come to the end of another humor garage sale. Thanks for sticking around till the last box of tchotchkes was given to Goodwill. If you’ve enjoyed our work and appreciate the lack of ads, maybe toss us a buck via one of the links below. We’ll be all cute and giggly about it if you do.

Till next time, keep your pickles jazzy and your mind wide open.

BIZARRO SHOP We have new stuff in the shop that’s fun and cheap!

… Bizarro TIP JAR

Signed, numbered, limited edition prints and original Bizarro panels  

PEYOTE COWBOY WEBSITE

SUPPORT Peyote Cowboy

PeyoteCowboy on Facebook

Peyote Cowboy Instagram

DIEGO PIRARO FINE ART

Bizarro Cartoons on Instagram 

King Features Subscription + archive access

PUZZLE ANSWERS: 1) “Is that a violin?” “For you, it’s a cello.” 2) “An escapee!” “Why you!” 3) “To Auntie Em!” “To Wendy!” “To Elvis!”

Previous
Previous

Sod It All

Next
Next

Comedy, Tragedy, and Water