That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for July 16, 2020

The first time the Russians went into Afghanistan.

(I know, not funny but it is pertinent.)

They went and cloned the one person who is easily distracted by a squirrel.

(Variation on an old joke) – “Go back, it’s a trap! There are TWO Greek soldiers!”

Band camp in Arizona. George swore that the next person who said “but it’s a dry heat” was going to be extracting his flute from between their lower cheeks.

They thought they had a clever ruse to get out of the house, but they see the wives waiting outside of the bowling alley.

The boys suddenly realize that the bordello on the outskirts of town is a one bed side tunnel in that cave… and the drinks are non-alcoholic..

You hear that Lieutenant?

What Major?

The rumblings of mutiny…

Mutiny, mutiny, mutiny…

(Apologies to Stan Freberg!)

“Knock, knock” “Who’s there?” “Formaldehyde.” “Formaldehyde who?” “Formaldehyde hiding places came the Indians!”

the open carry crowd waiting to get into costco for toilet paper early in the pandemic…

“Hey, can someone else lead this is the third dead end Vlad has led us to.”

“Next !”

The shoppers at Wal-Market queue for “Maskless Madness” day … individually wrapped squares of toilet tissue for only a dollar!

“Everybody Hush!!….Now remember, as soon as Niko gets off his camel we all jump out and yell Happy Birthday!!!!! This is going to be the best surprise party ever!”

The one dumbass sits down, and the entire column proceeds to trip over him.

They heard COSTCO had a sale on Kiwi brown shoe polish.

I am certain the Alamo is somewhere around here.

“Be vewwy quiet ! I’m hunting wabbits !”

Into the valley of Raccoons

Strode the six hundred

The New and Improved Security Squad for the next Presidential Rally – including bayonets.

And they are all named Stan. (Turki Stan, Tajiki, Afghani, Uzbeki,….)

At last, the men in the white coats come for the “President”..

Locals trying out for a part in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

Now we know where the Keystone Cops got their start!

Colonel Putin saw no impediment/ ( least of all the American “President”)/ That Syrian town/ was about to go down/ so he happily sent in his Regiment.

Knock, knock..”Who’s there?”

With Hollywood still on virtual shutdown, even casting calls for walk-on roles like “Man in white tunic with sword #3” drew hundreds of applicants.

“I understand the Czar’s need to save money for those bejeweled Easter eggs he likes but these duel purpose Snow/Desert uniforms he designed don’t work so good in either environment.”

An explosion at the cloning lab

The painting depicts the siege of Samarkand in 1861. Here’s more: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Samarkand_(1868)

Waiting to pounce the first masked protestor at the Trump Rally…

Finally, a really funny one.

By the Fortress Wall. “Let Them Enter”:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%A3_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8B.jpg

(best viewed by Google Chrome, with Google Translate added to chrome://extensions, which can automatically translate most pages as necessary) has info, and links that point to more info, about this painting, along with a Description.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/vereshchagin_vasily.html

https://www.wikiart.org/en/vasily-vereshchagin

https://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/exhibitions/vasiliy-vereshchagin/(12?CODE=vasiliy-vereshchagin&special_version=N

https://www.wga.hu/bio_m/v/vereshcx/biograph.html

https://www.pictorem.com/profile/Vasily.Vasilyevich.Vereshchagin

https://vsdn.ru/museum/catalogue/category70146.htm

http://artpoisk.info/artist/vereschagin_vasiliy_vasil_evich_1842/

https://prabook.com/web/vasily.vereshchagin/3727746

https://www.freeart.com/gallery/v/vereshchagin/vereshchaginbio.html

http://artroots.com/ra/bio/vershchagin/vasilyvershchaginbio.html

https://www.pravdareport.com/history/122536-vasily_vereshchagin/

https://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/art/vasily-vereshchagin/

all have info, or links that point to more info, about this artist (again, Chrome can automatically translate as necessary), perhaps in addition to what’s pointed to by the title URL. So far, 3 works by him have been used here.

https://www.gocomics.com/that-is-priceless/2014/03/31?comments=visible

has the prior, which while my comment and reply is still there, with the line breaks removed, its 16 hyperlinks remain inactive, ?&@#!#%&!, but the text may be informative.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (⌘- or Ctrl-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2493 (July 15, 2020) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment.

They had the element of surprise going for them, until that goofus started to play his drum.

Aeroflot flight #269 Kabul – Moscow will begin boarding in 5 minutes…

“Comrade, please hurry. The rest of us have to go too.”

They are waiting their turn, because there is something about Mary … and they heard it was getting brutal.