Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for October 24, 2024

Me makes three.

Call me when someone figures out the joke.

I assume it started when the doctor called him.

My fave wordsbook (Amer. Herit. 5th Ed.) shows two pronunciations for tinnitus:

ti-NI-tus rhymes with arthritis; TIN-i-tus does not.

Which one the poet said I’m not sure.

I’d rather have a demitasse then tinnitus.

They don’t rhyme. That’s the joke. “TIN-ətəs” is the correct pronunciation. Whee.

Huh. Learn something new every day. I’ve been pronouncing it wrong forever.

Ok, maybe this is the last time Horace makes an appearance.

It was free verse, darn it!

Better yet? The doctor had to have already stated an action before he can suggest a better one. Apaprently Horace’s jokes are obscure because he’s not very bright.

Since when do Poets always rhyme? ☺

Horace is by far the most annoying character in this strip. He’s like a stand up comic people boo

I actually figgered that one out, coz I have tinnitus, and have had my pronunciation corrected.

Is Horace like an intellectual Fozzie Bear, or does he like leaving people in the dust?

They keep saying Horace tells sophisticated jokes but the one day is anything but sophisticated. Maybe a better word would be obtuse.

But isn’t that an issue of rhythm rather than rhyme? “tinnitus” and “arthritis” don’t rhyme no matter where the stress is, but maybe the (feeble) joke is that people mis-pronounce them so they do? I dunno.