Family Dynamics Edition (Apr. 23)

Worst:
A beautiful woman marries a clown, this could be fertile ground for a therapist in a few years. This play on words hurts my brain.

Runners-up: Baldo, Blondie, Curtis, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:
Gotta love the detailed knowledge of Star Wars minutiae. It's interesting that you can watch a movie dozens of times without thinking about questions like this.

Runners-up: Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frazz, Get Fuzzy

Lazy Edition (Apr. 21)

Worst:
Jim Davis' writers obviously ran out of ideas. It's not cool when you reference your own strip in a joke.

Runners-up: Argyle Sweater, Baby Blues, Blondie, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Frank and Ernest, Mother Goose and Grimm, Non Sequiter, Pickles, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange, Sally Forth, Speed Bump

Best:
Not a really strong day. Imagining the sound effects was kind of fun.

Runners-up: Pearls Before Swine, Single and Looking

Depressingly Bad Edition (Mar. 28)

Worst:
The awfulness of this strip speaks for itself.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Brevity, Dennis the Menace, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, On the Fastrack, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:

Runners-up: Agnes, Get Fuzzy, Mutts, Watch Your Head

What the Heck is That Edition (Mar. 29)

Worst:
I am really starting to loathe Hagar the Horrible. It presents a completely bleak picture of marriage, it bends the setting and characters for bad jokes. The first problem with this strip is Helga's unhealthy approach to marital problems. Josh Fruhlinger, of the Comics Curmudgeon, had a great take on this strip. He points out the second problem, which is the poor art. Hagar is absolutely weird looking.

Runners-up: Baldo, Close to Home, Frank and Ernest, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump

Best:
I loved this strip.

Runners-up: Agnes, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Lio, Pearls Before Swine, Sherman's Lagoon, Zits

Not Sure What to Make of this One Edition (Apr. 4)

Worst:
As is all too common with Brevity, this makes no sense. Guy and Rodd take a random situation and assume it's funny.

Runners-up: Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Speed Bump

Best:
Poncho is a great character, and that is what drives this strip.

Runners-up: Frazz, Lio, Mother Goose and Grimm, Piranha Club, Sally Forth (cynical and charming, I enjoyed it)

Comics Note:
I enjoyed Mother Goose and Grimm today, despite the outdated boom-box reference. Pop culture references by adults usually fall flat, but the image of Castro dancing with his boxers hanging out was so absurd I enjoyed it.

Metanote: I have a lot of catching up to do, so I decided to just keep going with the current strips rather than getting bogged down in the backlog. I will do catch up posts for all the days I missed, but it's not going to get done until my weekend (Sunday-Tuesday).

Stereotypical Edition (Mar. 27)

Worst:
It's not good if your joke depends on cheap stereotypes of another culture.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Family Circus, Frank and Ernest, Garfield, Mother Goose and Grimm, Non Sequiter, Rhmyes with Orange, Speed Bump

Best:
Weak field today. This is clever on some levels.

Runners-up: Agnes, Get Fuzzy, Lio, Watch Your Head

Headache Edition (Mar. 25)

Worst:
If Attila is holding the book, how does Grimm throw it at him? This doesn't make sense on a lot of levels.

Runners-up: Daddy's Home (the men can't cook joke has been done a million times, if that's what you're putting out it's time to hang it up), Hagar the Horrible, Non Sequiter

Best:
I love the interplay of the relationships in Pooch Cafe.

Runners-up: Agnes, Dilbert, Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Lio, Pearls Before Swine, Red and Rover, Watch Your Head

I Hear Voices Edition (Mar. 5)

Worst: Another really bizarre strip, with an awkward set-up. Who thinks this stuff is funny?

Runners-up: Baldo, Family Circus, Garfield, Hagar the Horrible, Rhymes with Orange, Speed Bump

Best:

I just enjoy Pooch Cafe.

Runners-up: Candorville, Frazz, Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine

What the Hell Edition (Mar. 4)

Worst: What the hell?

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Curtis, Hagar the Horrible, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best:

Weirdest. Pathos. Ever.

Runners-up: Big Nate, Watch Your Head

Unspeakable Evil Edition (Feb. 28)

Worst: It's a Nazi snowman. Honestly, that was my first thought when I saw this. Why didn't some editor see this and think they might need to pull it? Am I overly conscious of historical overtones?

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey(Why does the gourmet food on the cover look like a hamburger with a sprig of parsley on it?), Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Close to Home (welcome to 1984, suburbia edition), For Better or For Worse, Frank and Ernest, Mother Goose and Grimm, Red and Rover

Best:

This is a fun strip.

Runners-up: Candorville, Get Fuzzy, Non Sequiter, Prickly City (confronting the waterboarding issue head on is very ballsy), Single and Looking

Comics of the Day

Worst: This is an absolutely horrible pun. First, schouter isn't really a word, or if it is, it's not one I have ever heard used. Second, shouter and chowder don't even sound that alike. Even if you were four, you would have to be an incredible idiot to make this mistake.

Runners-up: Beetle Bailey, Brevity, Curtis, Hagar the Horrible, Rhymes with Orange, Single and Looking, Speed Bump

Best:

This was just sweet, and it had a solid joke at the end. Poncho's excitement was very enjoyable.

Runners-up: Agnes, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Garfield, Get Fuzzy, Lio, Pearls Before Swine, Piranha Club, Zits

Bonus Visual Runners-up:
I had a very hard time choosing between these two strips and Family Circus for worst. Speed Bump falls into the trap of thinking random equals funny. Rhymes with Orange uses a horrible pun that makes no sense. I made the mistake of clicking on the Rhymes with Orange strip when I was saving the image, and I got sent to a description of the strip. It starts "Rhymes with Orange is a smart person's strip...it's about the little details we all live with." I am a smart person, and I hate this strip. This is also not a little detail that I, or anyone I know, live with. I have never been pulled over for having too many cattle in a cattle drive. It's like the people who promote this strip want to convince us it's actually worth reading or something.

Comics of the Day

Worst: Unappealing visual and bizarre joke that makes little sense. Classic Brevity.

Runners-up: Mother Goose and Grimm, Blondie, Curtis, Baldo (Baldo says it's a cheese pizza, but it clearly has pepperoni on it, sloppiness like that all but guarantees a worst runner-up), Beetle Bailey

Best: What sold me on this strip is Chazz's assumption of Poncho's scheming in the last panel.

Runners-up: Pearls Before Swine, Watch Your Head, Baby Blues, Zits, Lio, Red and Rover

Comics of the Day

Worst: I looked at this for several minutes, and I just don't get it. Is there some proverb or something about the hair of the dog who bit you? Absolutely don't get it.

Runners-up: Candorville, Close to Home, Curtis, Family Circus, For Better or For Worse, Frank and Ernest, Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm, Non Sequiter, Red and Rover, Speed Bump

Best: I'm rooting for Get Fuzzy or Lio to move into the top spot, because I think they are the most artistic and best comics out there. Pooch Cafe keeps winning though.

Runners-up: Blondie, Frazz, Lio, Pearls Before Swine, Prickly City, Sally Forth, Single and Looking, Watch Your Head

Comics of the Day

Worst: Barely from outer space? Pretty weak punchline in my opinion. Garfield's random change of expression seems out of place too. Shouldn't he be cynical in the last panel instead of shocked? I feel like it would make more sense that way.

Runners-up: Brevity (What does the Energizer Bunny have to do with the Rolling Stones?), Dilbert (Dilbert used to be clever, now it always follows the same set-up: statement, counter-statement, insult), Hagar the Horrible, Mother Goose and Grimm (how many times can you punish a strip for using the same dumb joke? As many times as they use it.), Mutts, Red and Rover, Rhymes with Orange

Best: Lots to love in this one. Poncho's end around attack in panel one. Chazz's misguided decision to take his dog's side instead of his wife's. Carmen's irrational response. His appeal to Poncho for help, and Poncho's completely backwards way of going about it. I enjoyed pretty much everything about this strip. Definitely one of the best to come along in a while.

Runners-up: Agnes, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace, Doonesbury, For Better or For Worse (FBOFW is usually very platitudinous, but sometimes it reaches the level of profound), Get Fuzzy (would of won many days, but Paul Gilligan hit a home run), Pearls Before Swine

Comics of the Day

Worst: Mother Goose and Grimm wins again. Is this the worst comic in the Post? I would have guessed Hagar the Horrible or Blondie; while they're certainly bad, they don't seem to be this bad. This strip in particular is built around a poop joke (humor at its lowest form) and an absurd situation (humor at its third lowest form). All we're missing is a pun and we'd hit the bad humor trifecta.

Runners-up: Frank and Ernest, Garfield, Family Circus, Rhymes with Orange, The Piranha Club, Zits

Best:

This, by contrast, is an example of good comedy. The humor is driven by the characters. Poncho's attitude and willingness to cause trouble create the joke.

Runners-up: Watch Your Head, Candorville, Sherman's Lagoon, Beetle Bailey, Lio, Mutts, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!, Blondie

Comics of the Day

Worst:Some movies have the names of foods in the title. It's not funny though.

Runners-up: Frank and Ernest, Blondie, Dennis the Menace, Red and Rover, Mother Goose and Grimm

Best:

No great comics today. Pooch Cafe had a pretty good pun, so I went with them. Someone's got to win after all.

Runners-up: Dilbert (this is what Dilbert is capable of, a joke that does not revolve around the stupidity of Dilbert's co-workers), Beetle Bailey (actually uses the military setting to be topical!), Baldo, Garfield (I liked the visual of Odie demonstrating the clean and jerk motion, the silent penultimate panel loses points though)