Saturday, October 3, 2009

Sunday Puzzler Key











(To view this cartoon oh-so-much-bigger, just click it with your mousy)

Today's Bizarro is brought to you by Important Fashion Advice.

Because I am a person who has always enjoyed a good puzzle or game, today's Bizarro cartoon is a puzzler. The three different frames are each individual jokes, written in puzzle form. To find out the answers to the puzzles, click the links below.

Left Frame
Middle Frame
Right Frame

Let me know if you enjoyed this cartoon motif, as my friend Cliff and I (see previous blog to learn about Cliff and his unique difficulties) are thinking about doing this again sometime in the future. We might even publish a whole book of these. Would that appeal to you? Choose one of the following:
A. Yes.
B. Yes, I would buy 100 copies and convince 100 of my closest friends to do the same.
C. No, things don't appeal to me.
D. None of the above. I thought this was a blog about hair care.

Thanks for stopping by. Drop be each day for another post about the grisly behind-the-scenes goings-on in the world of high-stakes professional cartooning! Don't miss a single day!

68 comments:

manz said...

I normally really like your stuff, but these three puzzlers seemed like a lot of work, with the end result being not that funny. It could certainly be just me.

ldisme said...

E. you rox

weirdo said...

I would buy 100 and recommend it to 100 friends.

weirdo said...

Reminds me of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC%3F

Tappet said...

A. d-F-n-8-l-e A

spyra said...

Very clever. I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more without the (slightly loquacious) introduction, but I guess most people out there need the hint. Personally, when I see puzzles like these I jump right in without even reading the intro, which can also sometimes be a bad thing.

I don't know if this qualifies as a mondegreen, but here are a couple of other fun mondegreens I've enjoyed:
"Eye mull of mush sheen"
"Isle of view"
"how to wreck a nice beach you sing calm incense"

I'm sure you can google them for the answers. :)

Tiago said...

C

once was fine, but if again would lost its charm

Unknown said...

B.

Mister Furious said...

This is kinda stupid and not at all funny. At the most, I groaned a little. You're trying too hard. Relax, sit back, and let the art flow.

Ann said...

We enjoyed the puzzles...but sadly, got stuck on Wendy. We were muttering "peter pan, peter pan..." for a while, then gave in and checked out your blogspot. Good entertainment for my family this Sunday morning! Thank you.

FUZZARELLY said...

I LOVE YOUR BLOG!

I particularly enjoy the links. You are in my feed and in my heart.

Unknown said...

Always knew you were nuts! Guess I must be 2 'cause it is my favorite comic strip. Loved the gags in puzzle form.

Anonymous said...

I liked it! I guessed them all, but I still don't get l2-S???

Shaun Krisher said...

i once got a book from a scholastic book fair at my elementary school, called 'C D B'. It was a lot like this strip, where you would say the names of the letters to reform the dialogue. it was lots of fun!

found it: http://www.amazon.com/Cdb-William-Steig/dp/0689831609

Unknown said...

Loved it! Figured out 1 and 3 but had trouble with 2. Nice change of pace on a Sunday morning.

Unknown said...

Dig it. Totes. More plz.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, I think the third panel is supposed to be "2 L-S"

Anonymous said...

For the most these were fun but I'm curious - on the last panel did you maybe make a mistake on Elvis' balloon? Doesn't seem to work for "To Elvis" as it's written.

Unknown said...

though not terribly hilarious, i thought this was creative, interesting, and in the end made me feel smart when i got the right answers. i don't know if i would buy a whole book of these, but i wouldn't mind seeing them in the comics on a regular basis.

Nashe^ said...

I got them all. The first one was great! But don't do 3 in a row...

Anonymous said...

stick to the weekly type comic. Sunday ones seem to reveal a whole new Bizarro.

Debbie said...

I only got the 2nd one, but didn't understand it. Weird.

Unknown said...

That last frame is just frikkin' inspired: "12-s" indeed.
The first two bits are kind of cute, though not on the same level, but I guess you really needed to have those two to draw us in for #3.

Also, if you like that bit, you'll love this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkWMcRlE1mQ

Russell Pirkle said...

A. I enjoyed this immensely and would be happy to see more in the future

Anonymous said...

Say it "twelve-ess." It works.

Loved all 3, but especially the Scrabble one.

Anonymous said...

Awesome! I think it would be cool if you did this again, just don't over do them. Its clever but could get old fast... Also, try to make them funnier. I think the only funny thing about it was me saying gibberish out loud over and over again trying to figure these out. :P Anyways, great work!

Anonymous said...

C.
Got it. Didn't like it. Must be the reason Cliff is strange.

Carol said...

Loved it! I would buy a book, and buy for all my friends.

BigJB said...

They did make me chuckle or chortle, I forget the difference.

Unknown said...

I would like to see more of these. Good brain exercise!

Duane said...

That was great, Dan!

If you could make a book of these at that quality my answer would be "B" (infinite recursion of book purchasing with a factor of 100 throw in there somewheres). If this post's featured strip was the best one in the book, my response is still "A" (Yes!).

Again, great stuff, Dan!

doug nicodemus said...

i almost did not comment...i mean after 27 how many more do you need...i got them all but i do not really like them...which is fine..i do not even like everything that beethoven did...so there

but the thing is it ran today ...don't you delay the your postings for 2 weeks..and did it really take the sj-r 2 weeks to run your deal?

Varzil said...

F U N E X?
S, V F X.
F U N E M?
S, V F M.
OK, L F M N X

A B C D goldfish?
L M N O goldfish!
O S M R!

Everything old is new again.

Anonymous said...

a!

alan said...

I really liked this. Please do more.

One Of The Bunch said...

Dan --
Bless you for your willingness to try all kinds of things. Today's panels were too hard for me. But then I have used a cell phone only once in the past four months -- to report a traffic accident.
Crash!
Bob

Unknown said...

They were awesome and I took about 30 seconds to look before I tried to solve the puzzle and they fell right into place. what's that say about my brain? Would love to see more of them, maybe a feature type thing like the crypto-quip but weekly instead of daily. Grade...A!

SacTomato said...

Love your blog, love your puzzles!

Ellie said...

yes

Anonymous said...

Just don't get it - even after looking at the answers, it was too far from "saying" the letters to your interpretation. In other words, I didn't like it!

Earthy said...

This comic sounded very woody, don't you think? BiZARRRRooo. Like goooouuuurrd.

Twinkle said...

I loved the Sunday puzzler and hope that you do more of them. For the strip though; it's not likely that I'd buy a book of them. Having no money kind of prevents me from doing so.

Tim said...

Weird - the comic printed in the San Jose Mercury News is different than the one you have online. They removed the superscript '6' after your name (the number of hidden objects to find) and the Scrabble 'K' tile says K-5, not K-2 (which is one of the hidden objects).

Stella said...

Y U ! I am still laughing at the pun. So definitely A. It's refreshing to challenge yourself when reading the comics. You have to work to get the laugh. Thanks!

Dave Stratton said...

Twelve-es works if you imagine him drunk, which I think you did. More like a slurred "t'Elvis" than "to Elvis."

I liked.

wpmsd said...

Clever and a nice change of pace. Even Randy Johnson throws a change up now and then to enhance his fastball. The accompanying cartoons made it funny.

ojeano said...

I pick C. BUT: I think they're a bit ahead of their time and are actually a very clever outcropping of text message lexicon. There might be a bunch of people (hundreds who'll tell hundreds...) who will LOVE these things and make a book of these a favorite xmastime gift. But to me, they are on the level of puns and not really very satisfying. Still, there's a nice brain satisfaction to using the alphabet this way. So: the short of my answer is the same as what you get when you cross and elephant with a rhinoceros.

elizabethAndIsabelle said...

I adored it, and would love to see it again. Very clever. I'm not sure I get the "Why You" joke in the middle panel, but I loved figuring it out what they were saying.

Esa said...

Hi Dan!How are you?
This comment has nothing to do with today's strip, but I hope you read it...I think you willbe amused by my story.
Let me tell you: my name is Elena and I'm from Argentina. I started working not long ago in a call center which handles customer service for Time Warner Cable in LA. It is actually not such a crapy job as one would expect. It's not my dream job either.
A couple of days ago I received a call from a man who didn't have channel 64, that is: Fox News. I told him that it was not a cable problem, but that the network could be having issues. The man understood it and made a joke about it being taken down by the government. He wasn't angry or upset at all, or not more than anyone would be when you don't get something you want to see.
Later I get a call about the same issue, but this time from a woman. When I explained to her that it was a network issue she started accusing me that it was the company the one that took down the channel, that people had the right to think and watch whatever they wanted and demanded to be credited for a day of not having the service. This went on for about 10 minutes of me explaining that it wasn't our fault and that there was nothing I could do about it, and I was thinking all along, OMG I'm almost all the way across the globe and you are blaming me for not having one of the 500 channels you get!!!!
In the end I agreed to credit her for way more than just one day of not having the service and told her, yet one more time, that I was sorry but there was nothing in my power, and just before we end the call, she says that I have an accent and asks me where am I from. When I tell her that I'm in Buenos Aires, Argentina her reaction was to start singing "Don't cry for me Argentina". At that point as you might guess my brain was all over the wall behind me. She also asked me if the story about Evita was true and remarked that her husband (who was president of my country) was a Hitler sympathizer. She finally finished the call saying she would go to bed very sad because she couldn't see her program.
The first thing in my mind after I could get up from the floor where I was rolling laughing were your comments about the channel, so here I am telling you my little story.
I hope you get a kick out of it (maybe even get a cartoon idea!)
and by the way, this cartoon was really cool!

Jordan said...

very much enjoyed these. reminded me of karl pilkington's "craptic" clues.

(http://www.pilkipedia.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Rockbusters)

Unknown said...

I would buy a hundred of this book. The above-mentioned "CDB" and "CDC" were two of my favorite books. And "4 U, S H-L-O" is funnier than anything in there.

Anonymous said...

These were easy puzzles and the jokes were right in line with your usual sense of humour - ie. poignantly punny. xl-ant stuff.

LeeAnn said...

A. YES!

Linda said...

I thought it was delightful change of pace. Thanks!

BTW, I saw someone who looks just like you working on a road crew this morning in Federal Heights, CO. Undercover comics?

Anonymous said...

A. & B.
I was very excited to see a puzzle and it was interesting.
I don't know if they would be as excited to see them every day.
A book would be very intersting too.

Dean said...

I loved this one!! I cut it out and hung it in the fridge! I laugh every time I read it! Do more!!!!!

Unknown said...

A.

Didn't get the second and 1/3 of the third ("To Auntie Em"), but loved the idea! :)

gruff said...

I collect such "ABC language". See here for a large glossary.

http://docs.google.com/View?id=d58nd88_17dvwqc8

EKnechel said...

10/4/09 puzzle - sorry, hated it. It wasn't funny or especially intelligible.

Anonymous said...

FUNEM? SVFM. FUNEX? SVFX. OKMNX.

laura said...

We don't take the paper, but my mom mailed us this coming because she enjoyed it. My husband and I had fun figuring out the different puzzles together! We missed Elvis's comment and had trouble with the Scrabble letters, but it was really fun trying! I, personally, would love to see more of these. A book would be fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Like it. Love it. Want some more of it.

Anonymous said...

I loved this and would love to see more puzzles like it.

DANIELBLOOM said...

more more more of this. you have created a new comic format, and my students in taiwan loved learning English this way this week. I got Wendy wrong, I told them it was ANDY. oops.

Anonymous said...

C. Not into it.

Anonymous said...

This was cute. The Scrabble joke was my favorite.

Too often and I'm sure the joke'd get old, but the book idea would be fun.

MeZZaiRe said...

Dude, you rock! I loved these puzzles! Its about time some good "make-you-think" cartoon's showed up on Sunday. The dry mundane cliche jokes of other strips suck.

I saved this strip for over a week and thought I lost it. I finally looked up the answers on your site and I came pretty close. You're very creative!

Answer to your Questions: B ~I'll tell all my friends!

spyra said...

Thought you might enjoy this... :)

http://www.futilitycloset.com/2009/10/27/a-man-of-letters/