Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 17, 2013

Rat’s had too much green beer…

I don’t get it

Who would that be Pig, the Fighting Irish?

Today’s background music: “She’s Not There” by The Zombies.

Must be Sue Storm Richards.

Didn’t he have a girlfriend for like, 8 comics?

So, I’m thinking Rat (Californian, be it noted, as he is Cartoon-Boy’s brainchild) is not a Notre Dame fan?(But, then, despite Chicagolander stereotypes, neither am I.)

I am betting his girlfriend is a tiny atom.

Thanks Mark and Radish. It’s an existential thing.

This story is SO last month.

Rat is channeling Manti Te’o.

Rat must have just come from a screening of Nights in Rodentha.

Nice to see Rat take Te’Oing to the next level.

Yes goat, go sit far far away. Rat is using his invisible “love of his life dieing” as yet another exuse to beat you over the head.

Better yet, stay and pick Rat up then hold him by the feet and slam him repeatedly into the empty barstool for ten minutes before sitting down beside Pig.

Nice one, Patis. Kudos.

Too little too late.

“Imaginary Lover” is being played by a South Bend radio station.

Rat needs an excuse to really drown his sorrows….on St. Pat’s day? Nah..Slainte.

first one i didn’t get…..ever

perhaps you have not heard of Notre Dame football player Manti Teo ?

I get it perfectly, as in, story of my life.

We should’ve known Rat’s girlfriend was imaginary.

I think it was a nice way to say, just don’t sit next to me!

So Pastis “celebrates” St. Pat’s day by referencing Notre Dame’s recent publicity fiasco? Geez,and I just thought his puns were bad.

His bio on Wiki says he was a pol. sci. major at UC Berkeley, a law grad from UCLA, and he worked for an insurance company in litigation. That explains a lot.

Did Rat become Elwood P. Dowd? Maybe referring to his friend Harvey?

Another new character bites the dust. I wonder if Pastis had ambitions of being a mortician growing up.

“was rat’s love a bug or imaginary?”

Imaginary. As suggested above, Google “Manti Te’o.”

And yes, I think Stephan was just a victim of bad timing. He couldn’t possibly have known that Manti Te’o would have been forgotten so soon after that whole mess.

was she imaginary and invisible or was she an ant? and why she died… oh, so many questions comes to me.

Watch the hip-hop version of “Why why Manti” to get this joke.

I see a lot of people busting on Manti but I haven’t seen anything about the Alabama players who were arrested for multiple counts of assault and robbery. They put students in the hospital, took backpacks with laptop, ipads and phone, also used credit cards and student ids to buy food.

A mysterious installment. I googled and take it you have to be interested in college football players to be aware of the incident, and still don’t get the relevance to catfishing or pig’s football reference or what is amusing here. It seems sort of OT for Pearls. Like who cares and what’s funny?

The Invisible Rat.

To the dude who didn’t get it: It’s a rip on Manti Teo, the Notre Dame linebacker who made up a dead finance and dedicated his season to her.

Pastis must be one more USC fan trying to draw attention away from the train wreck that is Trojan football. And who better to target than Notre Dame? sigh How disappointing.

a lot of small talk at the funeral

Her grandfather was Claude Rains.

How was Farina forgotten! ;(