Hygiene Therapy
There’s no denying that everything these days is experienced through the filter of the Thing That Broke the World. I’ve spent time and words here discussing the bizarre catastrophe that the Republicans are calling leadership, but today we’ll keep politics out of it and try to stay positive.
If you’re looking for something to pass a little time, today’s cartoon offers TEN Secret Symbols to look for! If you’re not familiar with Bizarro’s little side-game, read about it here.
Bigfoot is a character who's been dealing with self-isolation for who-knows-how-many centuries or millennia so he knows the challenges of staying clean, neat, and stylish when you know damn well there’s no one around to appreciate it. Still, he manages to spiff himself up a bit now and then and it helps him feel better about himself. If it’s been a week or two since you’ve bathed or changed your pajamas, give it a try.
Another way to pass a few seconds or hours is to contemplate the age-old philosophical question: If a squirrel and Bigfoot have a conversation in the woods and there are no inebriated mountain folk there to hear them, did they make a sound? Let me know if you come to any conclusions.
As I write this, it is Olive Oyl’s and my first anniversary of our marriage. One year ago today, on Quatro de Mayo, we gathered at my daughter’s house in Austin with a few friends and family for a lovely backyard wedding.
The happy couple, holding gifts from Wayno: a hand-drawn piece of original art and a bottle of champagne.
I am awash in competing emotions about it now. I miss our friends and family and wish we could spend today the way we spent that day, but I am also impressed by how quickly the year went, which reassures me that this strange time will pass just as quickly. Or, actually, since time seems to speed up as we get older, ever so slightly more quickly. And, of course, I am grateful for the love of such a good woman. She’s the real deal and she regularly guides me to deeper, more interesting places in my mind. I’m a lucky guy.
Lastly, speaking of deeper places in my mind, the website for my graphic novel is being built and we estimate it will be up and running in a month or two. Below is a sneak preview of the first page. I hope you like it and I hope that as this Thing That Broke the World continues, it will be something you can look forward to reading a new installment of each week.
I am ever-so-thankful in this strange time that I’m a person who has always spent a lot of time alone crafting art and the like, so this isn’t as different for me as it is for many others. In fact, it has afforded me even more time to get this story born. I realize that many people are not that lucky and are suffering a good deal more than I. My heart goes out to each of you and I wish all of you the best as we cope with this bad made-for-TV movie from the 90s that has become our reality. We can do this; even bad movies end and slide down the timeline. Who knows? The next thing might be a hilarious new sitcom!
By the way, the Bizarro Shop and Diego Piraro Shop sent another check this month to Help Feed the Frontline (in partnership with World Central Kitchen), as promised. Thanks for your continued support! We’ll keep this deal going until things level out.
Let’s keep the humor ball rolling with Wayno’s Bizarro offerings for the week. Whatchagotforus Wayno?
What I think is funniest about this is the notion that cats have any sense of conscience.
Coincidentally, this cartoon happens to play on my lifelong fear of tiny gangsters with little machine guns in miniature violin cases.
If you want to see a very cool early illustration of Wayno’s, pop over to his weekly cartoon blog post and see what he has to say about the above cartoon. Wayno’s a serious music aficionado and he divulges who the character at left was based on.
Spoiler alert: In the final scene, the albino catfish returns and Ahab cuts off the tip of his pinky while trying to fillet it.
Longtime Jazz Pickles know how much I love stupid hate mail and we got a good one this week.
Comics are supposed to be cute, funny, entertaining, not gross and disgusting as yours are. Why you are allowed on the comics page or even in the paper at all is a total mystery to me. I've kept my silence for a long, long, time but today's "comic" strip was the last straw. It and you are disgusting and revolting and should be banned from the papers. It's obvious that your strip mirrors your dark, sick mind. I think it's time to get a petition started to take you out and bring back entertaining comics.
This person knows what comics are supposed to be and if he had his way, we’d have nothing edgier than Dennis the Menace and Family Circus to read during the pandemic. In fact, the classic and critically-acclaimed humor magazine National Lampoon would have never even existed. As the entire world burns to the ground, this person is concerned with the appropriateness of the word “poop”.
We responded by suggesting he build a wall around himself and make us pay for it.
Of course it’s way too small. You began building that before humans had invented politics.
A truly smart sofa would turn into a boat as the sea levels rise. Wayno and I are working on a patent now, in fact.
That’s the end of this week’s slide into semi-consciousness, Jazz Pickles. Thanks for drooping your eyelids along with us. If you like what we do and that we do it for free, without ads or a paywall, please consider supporting us via one of the links below.
Our stores are still donating 50% of profits to a charity that supports local small restaurants and frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic. This is a good time to grab some Bizarro swag while being of use to folks who need it.
Until next time, be smart, be happy, be nice, and resist the Dunning-Kruger Party.
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