I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic, and this is my weekly blog post. The large Sunday comic above is mine, as are all of the comments below.
Since January 2018, the Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics have been written and drawn by my comics partner, Wayno. They follow this commentary. For more fun, check out Wayno’s weekly blog post.
And here’s this week’s ANSWER KEY to the Secret Symbols in my Sunday comic.
Hola, Jazz Pickles. Happy Renewed Hope Week.
A few happy thoughts on current events, then on to more humorous topics.
If you think of countries as having individual personalities, what happened on Tuesday is an example of what the US truly is. We proved we are not a country of racist fascists, white nationalists, or religious fanatics obsessed with persecuting heretics as the Taliban does.
We are a country that values diversity, inclusion, equity, and the rule of law, and last week’s resounding rejection of Trumpism by historic margins is mathematical proof.
Here’s why: When DJT won the 2016 election via the Electoral College, he’d lost the popular vote by around 3 million votes. In 2024, he won the popular vote by around two million votes out of the 152,320,193 cast—a tiny percentage.
Now consider that in both elections, only about 60% of those eligible voted.
Simplifying the math, in both cases, at his peak, DJT was popular with no more than about one-third of the country, and he has far less support than that now.
The midterm election math is much harder to simplify since it includes hundreds of candidates, but the turnout was historic, and the repudiation of MAGA policies was definitive. Even historically deep red areas voted blue. Voters cited inflation (caused by tariffs and war), government corruption, and ICE abuses as their top three issues.
That’s a much more accurate picture of who we Americans are.
It’s also important to keep in mind that while many of MAGA’s supporters are openly racist white nationalists, the vast majority are simply victims of decades of propaganda.
Two common examples of disinformation spread by the right-wing media (and Russian bots) are that Democrats left America’s middle class behind, and that immigrants are a major cause of crime and a drag on the economy. In both cases, the opposite is true. Republicans are the ones who historically have cut taxes on the rich and moved money upward, as well as cut social safety nets and opportunity for the rest of us. The abuses of the Trump administration seem to have awakened a lot of Republicans to those facts.
So the US is not as far into the shitter as it has seemed for the last two years.
Yes, damage has been done and will take time to repair, but the good news is that we have proven ourselves not to be a nation that believes in abandoning our allies, bullying other countries into compliance, or cruelly abusing our citizens and immigrants, legal or not.
Most Americans are also aware that our current president is an adjudicated rapist and was integrally involved in the Epstein pedophile parties. His administration would not be hiding the evidence if it were not damning, and history will bear that out.
The darkness isn’t gone, but the world is notably lighter. That’s reason for hope and celebration.
Now for something FUN!
A young Bizarro Jazz Pickle from New Zealand who signs her name “ECH,” nicknamed “Ponk,” sent me some of her artwork this week, and I love it! I hope you will, too.
She’s included the number of Secret Symbols in the upper-left corner of each. It looks as though she miscounted the ones in the image on the right, then adjusted the number, joining Wayno and me in learning how hard it can be to keep track of those little goobers. (Click the image for a Secret Symbols answer key.)
Thanks, Ponk! The Jazz Pickle community is grateful for your contributions!
Time to check Wayno’s contributions in the form of his Bizarro comics for the week…
The times they are a-changin’. Let’s hope soon it will be for the better.
There’s no thirst like a selective thirst.
Sounds like a nightmare to me.
SUDDEN IMPORTANT SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
The 2027 Bizarro Calendar is now available! It’s the perfect stocking stuffer, or any other item of clothing you’d like to stuff it into. Get a few dozen for yourself and one for a friend. Or vice versa.
From the frontlines of Wayno’s clown kingdom.
You anagram buffs may enjoy the name of that cartoonist.
This guy knows that authenticity is key.
That completes this week’s comedy cataclysm, Jazz Pickles. We appreciate your attention to this blather and hope you’ll consider helping us keep this going via the links below.
The Naked Cartoonist…My every-other-week essays and stories.
Limited edition, signed & numbered prints of BIZARRO CARTOONS, and some ORIGINALS!
Bizarro TIP JAR …One-time or repeating. Your choice!
WAYNO’S TIP JAR …One-time or repeating. Your choice!
My (free) graphic novel in progress, PEYOTE COWBOY.
Watch my PITCH VIDEO and become a supporter of Peyote Cowboy here.
Super fun BIZARRO SWAG from ComicsKingdom, including the new 2027 Bizarro Calendar! (IF ORDERING FROM CANADA or anywhere outside the US, CHECK SHIPPING COSTS CAREFULLY!)