Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for May 26, 2018

Would someone please explain “You do you and stay in your own lane.” to me and how it pertains to a judge during a plea hearing?

Judges are rather judgemental lot…

The jury’s still out on that one.

Linear thinking. Not allowed.

He may have a problem thinking outside the box… or in his case the cell.

“You do you” seems a spawn of the “I love you for being you” twaddle of some years back stretched into commencement speech hip ; “Stay in your own lane” in this context could mean, “Law is your ride, outside of law is mine.”

Apparently, this comic is quoting some convoluted statement from some obscure person on a cultural fringe somewhere, that has nothing to do with most of us. That’s fine if the cartoonist wants to do that.

What confuses me is how this comic becomes one of today’s top five “showcase” comics. Really?

One of the flayrods has gone askew on the treadle?

I Googled it. According to what I read, he’s basically telling the judge to stay out of his business and leave him alone.

Okay, from the above I conclude that “you do you” and “stay in your own lane” can both be interpreted as anything from “don’t bother me” to “mind your own business”, so the two together could be interpreted as “shut up, and leave me alone!”

Unfortunately for the cartoon, this is the first I’ve encountered either of those expressions, and the other comments show that I’m far from alone. Sigh!

I’ll betcha most of these WTF comments come from the older set. My granddaughter clued me in.

I’d have gone with the ole, tried and true defense lines to the judge: " This is a witch hunt and there was no collusion ! "

Now go do that voodoo that you do so well.

Do what you will and do not involve me.

To all Posters: I read it more literally. The defendant was actually driving in the wrong lane and caused an accident. Him saying “you do you and stay in your own lane” means “go ahead and obey the law and drive correctly. I’ll do my own thing and drive wherever I want.”

I am surprised how many people are not familiar with these expressions. I am not exactly a pop culture person (I don’t even have a TV and don’t read entertainment magazines), but even I have heard them. “You do you” means you do what suits you and worry about yourself and I’ll do what suits me and worry about myself and don’t judge me for my choices. (In the context of the strip, it is saying I’ll be a criminal and if the judge wants to be a law abiding citizen, that’s his business and he shouldn’t judge me.) “Stay in your lane” means mind your own business. I hope that helps all the people asking the questions.

The prisoner replied to the judge’s judgment using the quoted phrase. So the judge gave him a topper to the sentence, so the lawyer is warning the prisoner not to talk back to the judge in the future. Looking at the picture, it tells me that the judge might have given a lighter sentence, but because of the outburst, the prisoner was given the max…

The phrase means: “I’ll manage how I like and you mind your own business”. It certainly does not show contrition: something that court would like to see at the time of sentencing.

. . . my daughter, once stood before a judge in court and did NOT like what the judge said. So, she spoke up and told the judge off. While, I was proud of her for speaking up, I held my breath for the judge’s response. The judge paused for a moment, then informed my daughter that she was in charge of her own courtroom and continued. Later on the way home, my daughter said that “it wasn’t a good idea to speak to the judge, in the way that I did. Was it?”. I saw her action and reaction as a sign of pending maturity and a learning experience. She was going to be fine. That was almost thirty years ago and she proved me right! God Bless her!

I can not ‘like’ more than once… darn!

Great artwork. 10512 still adamant (numbers mean something?);guy to right, still clueless; far right guy still desolated by his predicament.

Love the flat-headed guards.