Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for June 16, 2013

The king of narcissism strikes again. Stephan, how many times does your ego compel you to inform we your readers that you’re syndicated? We know already. There are hundreds of syndicated cartoonists. Unlike you, many can write an actual funny punchline. Any why the underhanded swipe at your colleagues, all the while cloaked in a failed attempt at trying to appear self-deprecating? Sorry to pee on the forthcoming love-fest from your readers, but all this “gag” is, is you taking another opportunity to toot your own horn (out to eat with your syndicate – wow!, stroke your ego, and slam other cartoonists. Really??

Whew, way to paste someone right off of the bat…

So… Stephan wants to be remembered as having married a prince with big ears?

I’ve been through that tunnel. Steph and friends should have waited until the cabbie stopped and demanded the fare, plus tip, then dragged him from the car and beaten him for, say, fifteen or twenty minutes. If the cops show up, tell them what he did and let them take over the beating. Cops have tasers and sticks and pepper spray and enjoy administering a good, well-deserved beating.

OH! the queen’s “calls. . ..”

@rowleystout

Berke Breathed appeared in his own material as well, no? Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a character in his own books. Was he equally derided in this fashion? I’m no Pastis apologist, and I don’t see any problem with Pastis having a character in his funny animal comic called Pastis. He’s admitted from the beginning that each of the characters represents a piece of his ego. The Pastis character does the same thing, amplified. It’s perfectly valid for the creator of a strip to populate the strip as s/he chooses.

Just a little inside info, the hater known as “rowleystout” is a failed cartoonist that is obsessed with Pastis and has posted nasty stuff for months. Hey rowley, get a life and move on.

Just flag the troll.…Rat seems to be doing his best to deride his creator. And cartoon-Pastis has reacted to Rat’s mockery by retreating. Can Pig possibly save the day? Will Rat be furloughed for several unpaid days in retaliation?

This strip is not what it used to be, but still readable to me. If someone does not like it, why read it and then make three long posts ripping it? Just go to “Nancy” or “Alley Oop” for some rich humor.

High self praise for a guy whose themes for several weeks were a desert island and a jail…..

It’s for sure here that “someone” is stroking their ego…but in a rather literally unhealthy way.

Happy Father’s Day to those who qualify!

I can answer that I read this strip now and then in hopes that it gets better. Usually it doesn’t. It doesn’t even get funny. :(

You people take this cartoon strip thing way too seriously, Walt Kelly must be laughing his ass off…….

much ado about nut-ing

OMG PEOPLE!! Has no one ever heard of the word sarcasm? He was making fun of himself, whether using his characters or not.

Wow, I organized gocomics by popularity, and decided to try Pearls before Swine today. I was looking for a good cartoon, and instead found a bunch of narcissistic lunatics. You people need to get a grip. Removing immediately.

I thought this one was a hoot, (meaning: very funny, in case you don’t dig the vernacular). I’m just glad I read it before I read the comments.

“Those who can’t do, comment….”

wow,what a way to start a Sunday, my eyes are barely open and I have to read these rants-well I don’t have to but I love this comic and its creator!

Lighten up people!

@rowleystout Dude … you need a life. Go away and get one. Thank you.

Oh geez, he’s just having fun.

I like Pearls, I like Pastis. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t read it. Like all creative works, Pearls is not perfect, and it has it’s ups and downs. End of Story.

Side note: A couple of years ago my hometown newspaper needed a replacement comic. They ran each of four strips for a week, then let readers vote on their favorite. Pearls won in a landslide.

Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed today. Wow.

@rowleystout Maybe you need to quit reading since you are so filled with dislike for the cartoonist.

Hey, rowleystout, I DONT CARE! I like the cartoon I took the whole thing tongue in cheek but your NOOO you have to be serious. Don’t know who ruined your Post Toasties but lighten up. Its a gag, a joke and as far as you know he may have talked to the other cartoonists before he did it. YOU assume to much and you know what assuming does?

Even if @rowleystout is correct and Stephan Pastis is stroking his own ego, so what? I think all performers have this need, to some extent. Even we commenters, and I suspect @rowleystout himself have that need.My father liked Pearls, but didn’t like how the cartoonist put himself into the strip, yet he loved how Oliver Hardy broke the “fourth wall” in his skits with Stan Laurel. I personally think some of Stephan’s funniest strips are when Rat shows up at his desk to berate him(and sometimes beat him) for one of his puns/wordplays.

I thought it was funny – as it should be – it’s a comic. Read what you like, don’t read what you don’t – there’s room for everyone, folks.

@ RowletstoutOr maybe he appears self-deprecating and inserts him self into the strip because it is funny. That is the point of a comic strip yes?

Thank you, Rat… I’m sure that made him feel a hundred times better.

LOL xxx

So Steph went to dinner with Sgt. Carl T?

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=8918384

Calls himself sad little man…likely true.

I definitely need glasses: I read this as “their cable car” was doing 85 mph though the Broadway Tunnel. (Doesn’t happen on the cc system, but 85 mph anywhere on the cc system would have been a white-knuckled tourist ride!)

Steph, is a horse of another color as far as a comic strip cartoonist goes. I believe he will always try to break mold. Which means he definitely will want to break the fourth wall. That is just another comedic element to his strips, even though some do not like that.So, it’s hard for me to believe rowleystout is truly a comedian when he doesn’t even know what breaking the fourth wall is all about.

oops, I forgot a word. It should be “break the mold.”

Should have started with “Goodbye Stevie P” instead of “Goodbye Stephan P.” Has better flow to it. Not as good as “Goodbye Norma Jean” or “Goodbye England’s rose” but it’s at least twenty times better than the flow the line he has in the strip has. Guess he was trying for Elton John’s own cover for Di’s death instead of how he originally did it for Marilyn, but it doesn’t have the flow of either version as is. Stevie P comes closer to the flow of both, doesn’t quite catch it but it does so much better.

You guys take yourselves much too seriously. These are comics! Lighten up!!

No, he’s not just a glutton for self-punishment, he likes to share it with the rest of us through he self-aggrandizing commentary. Anyone who’s taken Psychology 101 would recognize he’s projecting his own issues and feelings of inadequacy.

I thought the comic was funny, but after reading the comments I think Mr. Pastis might want to cut back on his publicity tours – not sure it is safe to be around these “fans.”

I’ll agree the Pastis appearances and digs at other strips getstiresome. But this is still a better strip than most out there.

Some “comedy writer”

Hellcat…. His name isn’t Stephen, it’s StePHAN…. with a short e, and an “eff” sound.

If you must shorten it, he’s Steph, which rhymes with Jeff…. So “Stevie” would be somebody else…. and Steffi is a girl’s name.

Meanwhile…. RawleyStout is a comedy writer….uh huh…and Voldemort is the Easter Bunny.

PPS. Rowley has harbored this grudge for quite a long time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiDag3n0PdYI pity the guy now. He needs help.

Hey, it’s Tuesday now. Just noticed late last night that I hadn’t read the comments on the Sunday “Pearls.” WOWSIE! I don’t remember having seen that particular gentleman before, but he sure told Stephan, didn’t he? I happen to think that “Pearls before Swine” is one of the best strips – up there with “Doonesbury” and “Non Sequitur.” Love everything S. does – the puns, the Stephan character, those lines often tossed off at the end, etc. I was wondering whether anyone thought that Stephan was capitalizing on Princess Diana’s death, but thankfully not. Skillful weaving of actual incident into that theme.

I always imagined rat as Freddie Mercury, not Elton John

I love this comic strip! Thank you so much for all the strips you write Stephan!