From Xopher Walker recently, this cartoon (of 1/11/90) from Matt Groening’s Life in Hell strip:
(#1)
Akbar and Jeff’s sexuality was the subject of a number of strips, including five posted here on 2/5/13 (“Jeff and Akbar explore their sexuality”), but this one wasn’t in that set. A notable feature of their interaction here is the role of the fez in indicating arousal: the tassel becomes erect.
Posted in Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics | 2 Comments »
Two recent One Big Happy cartoons with Ruthie’s misinterpretations of what she’s heard: a simple one today, and a very complex one a little while back:
(#1)
(#2)
Posted in Eggcorns, Linguistics in the comics, Mishearings, Parodies | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday’s Zits, with Jeremy on geezer talk:
(In talking this way, Jeremy is transformed into the old man in Grant Wood’s American Gothic.)
The strip raises a well-known issue in the analysis of language change: When older speakers have different variants from younger ones, are we looking at a change in progress or what’s often called age-grading? (Both things happen.)
Posted in Language change, Language differences, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
Today’s Zippy, on musical mashups:
The third panel veers into a Zippy favorite, Allen Ginsberg’s HOWL, in a parody version.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Music, Parodies, Poetry | Leave a Comment »
(Mostly for the silliness. Not much language-related here.)
Today’s Zippy:
First, the transformation into Rembrandt (admittedly, in a muumuu), then the appearance of the writer and art collector Gertrude Stein (also in a muumuu).
Posted in Art/lit/music/film, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Address terms, Art/lit/music/film, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
On Facebook recently, this Bizarro cartoon (from 1/29/07) passsed on by Grammarly:
Michael Siemon then asked if I was aware of this cartoon. As it turns out, I posted about it on Language Log on 1/30/07, under the heading “Pronouns: The early days” — but, unfortunately, because of changes in the LLog platforms, the cartoon itself has became unavailable in the LLog archives. So here’s a replay.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Syntactic categories | Leave a Comment »
From Jeanne Dusseault, a link to the eccentric webcomic Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn. The latest installment (headline: “The man is taking a shower”), of August 6th:
The conceit: The strip shows bulletins from Cat News, a program by and for cats — in particular, the three cats of Dunn’s household (Lupin, Puck, and Elvis). The cats view everything from their point of view, and the views of the humans in the household (known to the cats only as The Woman and The Man) are either irrelevant or inscrutable. Many cross-species failures of communication result, as in the fourth panel above, where Puck (the black cat) can’t understand why The Man stands in a closet to get clean when he has a perefectly good tongue.
Posted in Animal communication, Linguistics in the comics, Sociocultural conventions | 1 Comment »
Today’s Zits, about naming kids:
Now about the song, which the creators thought about as a “silly song” with some nonsensical words …
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Names | Leave a Comment »
Today’s Zippy, with Griffy and Claude at odds on sources of information:
(#1)
The setting for all three panels is Neon Las Vegas in its heyday.
Posted in Compounds, Linguistics in the comics, Pop culture, Slang | Leave a Comment »
You are currently browsing the archives for the Linguistics in the comics category.
