Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for October 15, 2011

Major SNERK!!!

Mr. Pastis? Richard Thompson’s lawyers on line 1 …

The only thing we have to fear is Fearless Fosdick itself…

OMG! Alice has trapped the Family Circus Gang, and suddenly Rat and Pig show up! And “Alice” reveals a mean streak that she keeps well hidden when she’s playing the rôle of Alice over at Cul de Sac!

‘Pearls’ hasn’t insulted ‘Family Circus’ in a while, good to see it again. I seem to recall that last time the Cul-de-Sac kids were in ‘Pearls’, they burned Rat’s house down.

Great one!

Maybe Alice could be Rat or Pig for Halloween!

Should have gone to Dreamhaven instead.

Am I the only one who likes Family Circle?! I’ve been defending it for years

Somehow, I get the feeling that Alice would actually like Family Circus if she could actually read.

Why do people hate on Family Circus? I think it’s cute!

YOU ARE AWESOME, MR PASTIS.

That is all.

Keep ’em down there, Alice

Say hi to Ed Norton, kids.

Oh so snarky!! =^..^=

Something tells me that the cul de sac artist and Pastis are good friends.

Brilliant! Kudos Pastis & Thompson!

Timmy Fretwork (the banjo-playing man) needs to meet Rat.

If I didn’t know better, I would think Richard drew this Alice. Oh, maybe he did!

And I like Family Circus also!

wow!… I’ve never seen Alice’s dark side before… I also love Family Circus – I cut them out and post them on the fridge!

Love the riff on Family Circus. I think the comic people are just like other career communities, they just have more fun and are more public when they pal around.

Anyone who can’t spell Bil deserves to be pilloried.

You mean ‘piloried’.

I wrote off “Family Circus” years ago as tired, insipid, needlessly protracted.But check out this sample from the 60’s . . . daddy’s smoking and boozing!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1960s-era_Family_Circus_cartoon.png

Wow Corzak. It looks like a different Dad, that’s for sure. Did mom divorce and remarry? Mom is certainly better, er, endowed than she is these days, too.

omg.. 2 of my favorite comics! culdesac and pearls.. love it.. way to go Pastis… … love it! hahahaah I always kinda thought air was a bit evil… don’t let her meet zebra though she may try to ride him like a pony, lol

Several years ago for April Fool’s, some of the comic artists switched and riffed off one another; that was the funniest FC ever – Mommy had the Pointy-Haired Boss’ pointy hair.

SHUT YER PIEHOLE, JEFFIE!

love it

Is Alice channeling Rat?

i was fine with f.c. until they started the “not me” stuff , which was funny the first week, but not after 2 million times! also all the other stuff they repeat. Peanuts could get away with it because it was really good!

Aggressive much?

LOL xxx

Anyone who insults those sweet little kids from Family Circus get a 0 in my scale.

The Keanes know what sort of response “Family Circus” evokes from some people, and they’re (for the most part) fine with it. It’s just about the most whitebread, innocuous, “wholesome” strip out there (the polar opposite of “Pearls Before Swine”), designed to elicit an “Awwwww” from its readership rather than a “HAHAHAHA!” and that sort of nostalgic sentimentality makes it an easy target for satire. (You know why “Family Circus” is in a round panel? Because once Bil Keane started knocking all the edginess off the strip, he didn’t know when to stop.)

In a way, I find “Dennis the Menace” more annoying than “FC”, because when that strip started Dennis really WAS a hell-child, but now he’s as safe for Grandma’s refrigerator as Bil’s melonheaded brood.

(By the way, putting the “Cul de Sac” kids into other strips isn’t just a coincidence; today’s “Pearls” may wind up in the “Team Cul de Sac” collection, to raise money for Parkinson’s research.)

xD

PBS is arguably the best strip in the 21st century. So far.

“Pearls” always makes me laugh, and I think “Cul de Sac” is wonderfully creative as well, but this was a laugh-out-loud moment for me! I still like the innocence of Family Circus, but putting Alice in a “Pearls” strip – and her showing a Rat-like dark side towards the Family Circus – this just made my comics day!

best laugh of the day

Best. Pearls. Ever.

You’re right, flagfly.

If you look at the early Family Circus strips, they were actually funny. For decades, though, cute has definitely been a bigger priority for Family Circus than funny. I read the funny pages to laugh, not to see drawings of kids doing cute but unfunny things. Cul de Sac beautifully captures the funny side of li’l kids; Family Circus has not done that for a generation.

The job is only half done, Rat; throw Alice into the hole too.

The Hat Trick of Cartooning. I’m bummed that I missed this over the weekend.

This strip was donated for Team Cul de Sac, a fundraiser for Parkinson’s research and will be auctioned of in 2012. Stephan was the first person I asked to join the team. Stephan is just the best. Richard admires him greatly and we are honored to have him contribute this strip…and make fun of The family Circus! Please Like us on facebook :TEAM CUL DE SAC

They ees where they belong… een sewers! They ees such s***

Me glad me no in der

Richard Thompson wouldn’t be pleased…