Today’s Bizarro, with yet another King Kong cartoon (it’s a cartoon meme):
The movie King Kong has a firm place in American popular culture: the giant gorilla has appeared as a character in a long series of movies and tv shows after the 1933 original film.
(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Don Piraro says there are 6 in this strip — see this Page.)
xx
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv, Pop culture | Leave a Comment »
Today’s One Big Happy:
In trying to recover a memory, we are all inclined to wander from one idea to an associated idea, sometimes losing track of the point of the original mental search — but some people are especially given to this kind of associative thinking, as here.
Ingrid Bergman, by the way.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Memory, Thought | 1 Comment »
Another cartoonist new to this blog (like Ken Krimstein, recently posted on). The Loose Parts cartoon by Blazek below (from 2010) came to me from the Grammarly Facebook page via a friend:
(#1)
Pin the Apostrophe on the Word.
There’s a rich vein of cartoons mocking English teachers for their purported inclination to focus on minutiae.
Posted in Ambiguity, Art, Errors, Linguistics in the comics, Nouning, Spelling, Truncation | Leave a Comment »
A Roz Chast cartoon from the July 27th New Yorker:
Each panel has its subject failing to reach the level required for some piece of formulaic language to apply:
She’s a force of nature.
After he was made, people threw away the mold.
She’s completely irrepressible.
Posted in Formulaic language, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
… the cartoonist, with this cartoon in the July 27th New Yorker:
(#1)
The P is silent.
I’m charmed by the idea of pterodactyl commuters on the Hudson
Posted in Language and religion, Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Signs and symbols, Spelling | Leave a Comment »
In today’s One Big Happy, Ruthie again copes with vocabulary she’s unfamiliar with but nevertheless struggles to accommodate — in this case, allayed ‘diminished or put to rest’ (said of fear, suspicion, or worry):
Well, it sounds like it had laid in it.
Posted in Errors, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
A recent Cyanide & Happiness:
The fuck is offensive, but then they get down to the white supremacist tats and it’s all cool, bro.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Race and ethnicity, Taboo language and slurs | Leave a Comment »
Today’s Bizarro:
Hun / hon.
The informal clipped form hon (for honey) as a term of address is stereotypically used, along with other pet names like the full honey, sweetie, dear(ie), and doll, by waitresses to their customers, in addition to the use of these as terms of endearment to genuine intimates. Many customers find the usage disrespectful and insulting, expressing intimacy in a situation where they see that deference to authority is called for.
(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Don Piraro says there are 4 in this strip — see this Page.)
Posted in Address terms, Clipping, Linguistics in the comics, Politeness, Puns | Leave a Comment »
In today’s Zits, Sara and Jeremy undo what they had done before:
(On their couple word, see this posting.)
Disentanglement!
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Names | Leave a Comment »
Today’s Bizarro, with a play on two senses of complimentary:
The short version of the story, on the adjective complimentary in NOAD2:
1 expressing a compliment; praising or approving: Jennie was very complimentary about Kathy’s riding | complimentary remarks.
2 given or supplied free of charge: a complimentary bottle of wine.
But there’s a considerably longer story, starting with the question of how these two senses are related.
Posted in Ambiguity, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
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