The Games Would Be Shorter

February 14, 1966

How did that ladder get over this light pole? I don't know, but I'm enjoying the ride.

It's like with football. Those damn last five minutes.

How many TVs do the Thornapples have? Wilberforce looks like he's being held hostage watching basketball. If they have 2 TVs then maybe Gladys is watching something Wilberforce wants to watch even less. Like K-dramas.

A Day Without Coffee Is Like...

October 14, 1965

As someone who was tall, it was expected that I liked playing basketball and was good at it. I absolutely do not and am not. I made several kids upset at me during gym in school, but I'm not a sports guy. I enjoy dorkier pursuits.

What is this cabbage stuffed with? Dog poo and knives? I see that the cabbage is normally stuffed with beef and rice. I don't know. I'm not a fan of cabbage. Can we shove the beef and rice inside of iceberg lettuce?

Never heard anyone say this before. Is Chip phoning it in this week? That would explain why yesterday's strip was a repeat from 2019.

Left and Right

March 26, 1989

I guess Brutus can take comfort in knowing that his umbrella didn't really work. It's not showing, but it seems like a lot rain is hitting Veeblefester.

Today's Veeblefester lives in a mansion just outside of town (or maybe in a gated community on the edge of town), but I do like the thought of Veeblefester living in a giant penthouse suite at the top of a very tall building.

That basketball is bigger than Wilberforce's head. Heck, that basketball is almost bigger than Brutus' head. No wonder Brutus is anti-dextrous with a basketball.

Stan Freberg, 1926-2015

Stan Freberg, noted comedian, voice actor, writer, radio personality and recording artist, has passed away at the age of 88. Freberg got his start at Warner Bros. in 1944 where he became a prolific voice actor both there and at Walt Disney. In 1951, he recorded "St. George and the Dragonet" with Daws Butler and June Foray, which became a hit in 1953. From there, Freberg started parodying hit songs from the time. Freberg became a huge inspiration to "Weird Al" Yankovic. Stan Freberg replaced Jack Benny on CBS Radio in 1957 but his own Stan Freberg Show was canceled after only 15 episodes due to Freberg refusing any advertisements from alcohol and tobacco companies.

On television, Freberg did voices on Bob Clampitt's Time for Beany, performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, appeared in a recurring role on Roseanne and did voice work on The Garfield Show.

We looked this up at work because some student was saying that he'd just fill out a bracket for every possible outcome and we were saying it would be impossible because it would be in the millions. He claimed it would only be in the hundred thousands. So we looked it up and discovered you would need to fill out over 9 quintillion (9,000,000,000,000,000,000+) brackets in order to get every single outcome. I can barely fill out two, let alone a hundred thousand, a million or 9 quintillion.

1158

1157: At Least Kentucky's Out

The phrasing of "March Madness Championship Game" is weird. Considering March Madness only refers to the tournament narrowing down the teams to four. The Final Four and Championship are not considered part of March Madness, right? Because they are in April. The correct phrasing, avoiding any possible copyright claims, should be "Men's College Basketball Championship."

1153: Gladys Is Stupid...

And there are ten teams in the Big 12, none of it makes sense!!

How is it stupid? I'm generally opposed to just about any and all sports endeavors but college basketball is fun. Teams competing, the best one left standing while their opposition lay broken and bloody at their feet. Suddenly, Dick Vitale stands, extends his arm and signals either a thumbs up or thumbs down...

1147: That's a Weird TV Setup

Gladys would probably be even angrier by Brutus' mental response of "Well, as a born loser, you were the best I thought I could do."

Did you guys hear that Kentucky is going to go undefeated this season?! I, frankly, don't care. I'm not a Kentucky fan and believe they are not a college basketball team but a pre-NBA team. I think what makes me even madder about Coach Calipari's statement that Kentucky will go undefeated is that everyone then jumped on the Kentucky bandwagon whereas if any other major team (Duke, Kansas, North Carolina) said that, everyone would say "What a bunch of arrogant S.O.B.s" and actively root against them and I'm living proof because I am actively rooting against Kentucky.

I'm More of a Cribbage Guy...Cribbage Is a Sport, Right?

I read the entire Wikipedia article on hockey and I still don't have any idea what Wilberforce is talking about in this strip.

I'm Here All Week

"I don't have any trouble using one hand after you say 'no' to me, Gladys! And that is one area where I am ambidextrous, so there!"

No, It Was an Accident Caused By the Principal Startling the Janitor...

That's some hardcore biting if she was able to break her tooth on a human bone. I guess if she bit at the wrist, there's not much skin it would be possible. Or the knee. I could definitely see Hattie attacking someone at the knee or ankle--like a rabid dog.

Professional basketball is so boring. It's not about the team, it's about the players and who can score more points and make more money.

When I was in school, I was always picked early on to be on a basketball team during gym because I was tall. I could barely make a basket so my teammates got mad at me and I was all "just because I'm tall doesn't mean I'm good at basketball" which usually shut them up. They then learned to start picking me last.

Because We See Gladys In Dresses So Often

I am assuming Brutus (and by extension, Chip) were rooting for Ohio State or possibly Cincinnati. Which I can see Brutus rooting for Cincinnati because while they got into the playoff and beat Missouri, they lost to Connecticut in the second round and that's what being a loser entails...picking a decent team and watching them fail after getting your hopes up.

Right Next to Jack Nicholson

Really? It's a good thing you have a wide-screen TV so you can see the rolls of fat, wrinkles, premature liver spots and reflective shiny dome that constitutes Brutus' body?  You and I obviously have a different meaning for the term "good thing".

March Madness Madness

I don't do the whole bracket thing for basketball. I'm not very good at guessing who will win because I don't really pay attention to all the games (or any of the games, really). I do, however, think that Obama is wrong that North Carolina will win it all. Like at KU, Roy Williams will never win a championship with his own team.

Oh, Lord. I just talked about sports on my blog. I feel so unclean now......

Showing the Love

Man, miss a couple of days and the strip goes basketball crazy. Gladys should know about March Madness. Especially if Brutus pays that much attention to it. It just baffles me the way comic strip/movie/television are always portrayed as women who are shocked to learn their boyfriends/husbands love sports. I don't like sports so I am a rare breed.

I received an email from this guy. I haven't looked at everything on his site but this stuck out: Products Only Douchebags Buy and I have to say that I agree.

Yay, Basketball Metaphor

I'm from Lawrence, Kansas so the Kansas Jayhawks are my team but I'm not a sports player so I did not get the joke in today's strip (and I do know it's now Tuesday. I'm a little late.) so I had to look it up because I had no idea what the NIT was.


Apparently, The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The association plays two tournaments each season. The first is played in November and is known with its sponsorship as the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off (formerly the Preseason NIT), and was founded in 1985. The second is a post-season tournament played in March and April. In both cases, its final rounds are played at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and the post-season event (called the MasterCard NIT as per sponsorship) was founded in 1938. In both common and official usage, "NIT" or "National Invitation Tournament" refers to the post-season tournament unless otherwise qualified. Both the pre- and post-season tournaments were operated by the Metropolitan Intercollegiate Basketball Association (MIBA) up until 2005, when they were purchased by the NCAA.

Thanks, Wikipedia. Anyway, would businessmen really talk like this? How many people actually walk up to their boss and ask how important they are to the company? That seems very daring/stupid to me.