Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 30, 2013

I don’t think you’ve quite got a hold of it, Pig.

The breast puns I heard all day. Somethings missing though…

Pig, Pig, Pig…

Pig, you asked about Nancy’s health. Also, it’s rude to inter-… (Pig) c’mon, let’s go sailing!

A woman was seen at a cancer treatment center wearing a T-shirt that said: “These are fake. The real ones tried to kill me.” Some people cope by using dark humor.

She might want to go sailing.

Contrary to popular inference, I have it on good authority that Pig has not had a brainectomy. He’s just…(well, he himself said it recently)…dumb. And gauche.

At best, Pig’s brain is at half mast.

Oh I can see you getting hate mail for this one, still funny as hell.

After having two feet of my colon removed due to cancer, my oldest daughter gave me a t-shirt with a large semi-colon on it.

beyond the pale, been reading this strip for years and I just don’t find this funny

Sure, you can go sailing with a woman after she’s had a mastectomy. You just can’t go motorboating with her.

Stephan, Brad Pitt called and he wants to take you sailing.

I used to participate in the Komen Foundations “Race For The Cure” every year. They always have prizes for things like best t-shirts, largest team, and most creative team names. My favorite was a local church team named “Bethesda Baptist Babes for Better Boobs.”

“What not keel you make you stronger!”

Larry

When it comes to sailing, Pig does not have both oars in the water!

Pig stepped on the poop deck.

Pig reminds me of a lady at work, who was really very nice, but quite often would completely miss the point in conversations. Once, after I had said something really silly, she said “You’re crazy!” I said “I am not! All my doctors say I’m completely cured!” She then says, in all seriousness “Oh, I’m so glad!”

Ohhhhh pig…Your daughter is neat-o doublepaw!

Sorry to be the grumpy literalist, but she did have a “mast” removed since the mast in mastectomy comes from mastos, the Greek word for breast.

Beezel, Doublepaw, Briatolla,

Reminds me of when my Father was ‘terminal’ and the nurse rationed his morphine IV. My Mother asked ‘Why ration it, are you afraid he’ll get hooked on it’

I remember the book “Peter and the Starcatchers” where Captain Hook had a special sail sewn that he called “The Ladies”. When hoisted, it looked like the corset of a giant, well endowed woman was attached to the mast. This “children’s” book came complete with an illustration.

I forget why, but Hook was forced to cut his special sail loose from the mast.I guess that was a mastectomy of a different kind.

Another example Pig’s dumbness.

I feel sorry for any woman who has to go through that. They should turn up to every appointment.

xxx

If your breast offends you, cut it off.

Tread lightly Pastis. You’re dealing with a sensitive subject and just because you have some silly characters to deliver your lines it’s still not cool when so many suffer from cancer or have lost loved ones. My dad and sister in 1 year was bitch.

Cute. A good laugh for those who need one and a subtle way to start the conversation for those who may not know.

SAD HUMOR, EVEN FOR PASTIS

Contrary to the rest, I have to go with Pig here. Until I was old enough to know what the word,, meant, which was around ten, I thought it was the removal of a ship’s mast.

love this strip but this is in poor taste……

Oh that Pig, what a boob!

Edgy, smart humor. Does not demean, but it is dark humor.

Humor is subjective. I’ve had a double mastectomy and I think it’s funny.

Many of your fans liked this and enjoyed it. That’s great. I found it distasteful, and decidedly “unfunny”, and I thought about why it seemed to clunk. I am sure it is difficult to produce this strip everyday, and I am amazed at how consistently funny and professional it is. However, “mast” is not overly funny, and the connection to sailboats does not seem natural. A funnier “pig pun” would be “masking tape” or “masking tape me”, as in Goat explaining to Pig about a friend, pig misunderstanding as usual, and then ending with a funny but shocked expression on Pig’s face in the last panel as Goat has whispered what “mastectomy” is. This would arguably be funnier, and give parents a chance to explain this to children. Just one opinion.

Pastis! You made a sizable donation to a breast cancer charity to redeem yourself, right!?