According to Vocabulary.com, aside from being a compound made with Bromine, it also means "A bromide is a common saying or proverb that is obvious and not that helpful, like “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”" Maybe Dr. Bulgonie was given Bromine by life and made bromide out of it?
In Quebec we have the Improv National League, (LNI in French), which is designed like a hokey game, including referees with black and white striped shirts, penalties (roughing, not respecting the theme, too many players, etc.) and a rink-shaped stage. So it does look a bit like the cartoon above except the decor.
Mine tells me the day of the week, the month and the day of the month. However, it does not tell me the year. How can I know whether 2020 is finally over, or whether we are stuck in its fourth iteration?
According to my Google search, it would be the other way around. It looks like Hagar’s strip was published in July 2009:https://www.hagardunor.net/comicstrips_us.php?serietype=9&colortype=1&serieno=421
Herman was published from 1975 until 1992 (we are seeing “re-runs”), thus while I am not sure when this one was published, it has to be one or two decades before Hagar’s (unless the official Hagar website also shows re-runs).
Have you tried clicking on that cookie?