The Dinette Set by Julie Larson for November 29, 2015

If they don’t know the right answer then how do they know who got closest?

This group is satisfied, nay, joyous in their ignorance. They’ve even developed a workaround for it. And it doesn’t bother them one bit.

Well, of course they have to guess. All the slogan questions have to do with major brands. And the only products they buy have slogans like “Product of Bangladesh”, “Packaging Printed in USA”, “Some Settling May Occur”, “2% Real Fruit”, or “Open Other End.”.The closest they come to not guessing is with some imported products they have bought at Dollar Do Ya:.The box their Panasunnic electric blanket came in does indeed say “Ideas for Life.” And Joy wishes she could remember if her Oil of Okay has a slogan. But she does remember that her favorite dollar store purchase, S&M Candy “Melts in You Mouth.” .Oops. I see Ma feels bad again about not knowing any answers, and she’s set off her Life Alert to break up the game. Might have worked if Burl hadn’t switched it out for their old garage door opener. .Chess for 7 people does help occupy the evenings when they find nothing is on TV but those ethnic shows where the don’t get the jokes. It’s fun. Burl always insists on being the horseys. They pick tokens alphabetically, and Verla has to draw last, so she always gets stuck being those Catholic guys. Jerry, of course, picks the queens. They generally quickly get bored with it, so it doesn’t last long. Doesn’t matter much, because they use Dollar Store Gubby Bears for chips, and after 15 minutes, no one has any left. They did finish one game, though. Burl won with a full house. The chess board gets pride of place in the Penny’s foyer where it can be seen by anyone who comes to the door. They like to encourage others to the more intellectual pursuits.

I do like the key rack being out of reach so Ma can’t get her car keys.

MeGoNow—you sure do have a severe case of "diarrhea of the mouth!!

No problem. I’m getting bored with it, anyway. .And I think The Dinette Set folks are best taken in the snapshot bites of a one and sometimes two-frame strip. They’re really not made for much else. They’re neither so ignorant and selfish as to be dangerous, and they never do anything nice enough or brave enough to mitigate. .They are not The Simpsons. Burl is never kind or in any way really wise. Joy isn’t trying to be better. Timmy is neither bad nor a budding genius. There’s no tension to sustain interest for more than a few moments, and I was trying to make them interesting, but there’s nothing there to get traction. .But they have their place. If nothing else, they remind us that, no matter how bad your life is, it’s someone else’s fairy tale.

I did not know that they had a “Grandpa” I am guessing he’s Burls dad? (Who would claim any of them anyway)Where is Patty? She is the smart one so I guess they didn’t want to show her up… Or loose all their hoho’s

The final Dinette Set comic strip ever.

Great run here, Julie.This was always one of my favorites…so sad to see you retire.Thanks for the laughs…In the final episode, Jer should have had his neighbors shave his back…………..

Funny thing, living as I do in Illinois, I comment late in the day, so no one even reads my comments…Go figure… ! ! !

thanks for the laughs and groans, Julie. enjoy your retirement!

No one mentioned where the slogans originally came from, my guess was Maxwell House coffee for good to the last drop and Verizon for Can you hear me now. I looked them up and confirmed my guess.

I guess it’s true…..I never saw a word on GoComics.Looked on Creators.com …. nothing there.Can’t check the Dinette Set website cos it disappeared several years ago, and the promised new one never fully materialized before disappearing too.

The Facebook page linked to at right hasn’t had a new comment on it in years…. but I finally found a couple of Illinois newspaper articles on the web.Here’s one:

Dinette Set to Close

Meanwhile… In Training…. I’m still here, just not as often…and I guess not any more, unless they start re-running the old strips.As for those who remarked on another poster’s comments…Hey, please don’t be rude, whether or not you feel anonymous on the internet.

Thanks Susan. I hadn’t heard anything about the strip ending until Sunday.

I always play Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ In The Years” when this sort of thing happens………..

Dale & Marlene are Timmy’s grandparents. Wonder where Verl is?

I’ll miss it. !!

So. This is the last one? Not a bang, not a whimper, but a resigned shrug that this will go on forever whether we’re here to see it or not. Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks, Julie. This took a while to click with me, but this turned out to be one of my favorites by the end.

Fare thee well ye olde Crustwood. You will still live on as long as there are WalMarts, Dizzyworlds, Old Country Buffets, Truck Stops, ill fitting toupees and sloth and rudeness in the world..I shall raise a glass to you Ms. Larson.

Damn! Now what do I bitch about?

Please please please Julie ..let the reruns begin soon.. start with the oldest and go on from there…. ! ! !

Aww, that was a surprise, I miss it too, those happy retired people. it was nice joining you guys in discount stores, buffet tables, living room inane conversations like Lassie said, so long gang.

I went to the start of this comic and it’s much bigger and has more detail. I wonder if it will start from the beginning or do we have to go into the archives every time we want to read it?

Sorry to see it go, I noticed the readership falling off as of late.Thanks MeGoNow for my morning laughs!Bye everyone, see you in the funnies!

To bad will be mist.

Julie, we are waiting……..tap tap tap….. ! ! !

I checked here to see what happened to the Dinette Set. So sad!!! One of my favorites for years…. Would LOVE to see a rerun of the old strips (Peanuts is still going strong….). Please…..please……please!!

I am sad to see this strip go. It was my most favorite!

Where are the new ones? I can’t find any information as to why there haven’t been more strips since last Sunday.

I always looked forward to this strip! Please do reruns from the beginning as I got started late in reading it.

I believe that I have been reading “The Dinette Set” for at least fifteen years — i.e., at least 5,400 panels. (I may have had the opportunity to see everything — going all the way back to the beginning of syndication in 1997.) Obviously, the quality of the art and humor had to be outstanding to keep me loyal for such a long time. I have read hundreds of different comic strips — probably hundreds of thousands of individual strips, at this point — since about 1957. Through all these years, Mrs. Larson has probably been the only writer/artist who has tried to give readers multi-multiple laughs every day (via the physical appearance of the characters, their dialog, the TV screen, the coffee cups, the bulletin board, etc.). Thus, she has done more work in eighteen years than most writer/artists could do in fifty years. That is why, in my opinion, she is so deserving of her early retirement (at age 55). Within the 5,000 to 6,000 “Dinette Set” strips that I have read, I can recall seeing only ONE that I found gravely objectionable. It was a totally undeserved putdown of a certain political candidate (by name) — some years ago. [I had never before seen Mrs. Larson venture into party politics or criticisms of specific, real-life people.] I wrote to her about it and explained why she had been unjust. Although she did not reply “directly” to me, she replied “indirectly” by never again venturing into personal or party politics. I have been so grateful for that. In case anyone has never seen a photo of her, here is one: www.creators.com/cms/images/bio%20pics/Julie.jpg [PS: My favorite characters have been Timmy and Patty, because they are “normal” people — serving as “foils” that emphasize what buffoons the older folks are (uh, were)!]

Julie your fans are many… and they long for the reruns to start…. ! ! ! Please advise….? ? ?

Although it is possible that “The Dinette Set” will be revived in the form of “classics,” I will be surprised if it happens soon … because I believe that I read of Mrs. Larson’s plan to publish a series of books containing her old strips. I think that she deserves a chance to make some money in that way before she returns to this “almost-freebie” venue.

Wow – I can’t believe how much I miss this strip!

Please, please, PLEASE do the rerun thing.

Oh no! I love this strip. Thank you for years of laughs and getting to say “I have family just like that.”

Hate to see them go. Always got a good laugh.