Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 16, 2019

Too bad you can’t do that with a flatscreen.

Change the batteries in the remote; that should work.

oh, don’t you miss the days of TVs with channel-changing dials on the main unit?

That’s a tube TV. The proper step is to replace it with a model from this century.

Comprehensible technical advice.

In my circles, that’s known as percussive maintenance.

What manual? They’re all online now. Works great for your new computer: “To read the manual, just go on line.”

I remember when some stores had tube testers. Maybe we need motherboard and graphics card testers.

And if that doesn’t give you the desired result, open up the back, identify the biggest capacitor, and wiggle it about … ;-)

Plug it in!

Manual written by one Larry Croc …………. Croc Power !

When our robot overlords take over, the’ll remember this spot of human history and treat us the same way…

Whacking a misbehaving old TV which used valves (or tubes) was a potentially useful strategy because the valves / tubes could either get loose in their sockets or their pins could get dirty. A fairly decent whack had the potential to reseat loose or dirty valves / tubes. Not a nice way to treat a TV, though.

Sounds like a friend of mine’s advice: “Do the thing to the thing with the thing and the other thing! You know?”

“Spit in the back and whomp it once!”

(5 bonus points for anyone who remembers the reference)

“Tinkers and tinkerers and a few wizards who happened by tried to start the clocks with tools or magic words, or by shaking them and cursing, but nothing whirred or ticked.”

It’s a venerable technique.

Oddly, a little “percussive maintenance” usually works!

The proper spelling is $#!+

It doesn’t work unless you name your TV “Mole”.

The Arthur Fonzarelli school of repair, now in session.

A manual for real people!

And after you try those 2 obviously ineffectual techniques, you take it to the shop who will tell you it will cost more to fix than to replace.

I yell “$#@#” all the time. Just not sure if I’m pronouncing it right.

“SHGH”?

That tv looks beyond dated. No wonder it’s not working

When something is out of whack, give it one.

Bad point to point wiring and tubes in poorly fitting sockets make whacking a legit problem solver.

Say, “Oooooh, babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”

So, true.

Back in the early days, when I worked as a Computer Specialist, the standard hard drive format was “MFM”. One of the many things that could go wrong with them was the mechanism that started the platters spinning would “lock up”. A jolt (with the PC turned off), would allow it to start up when it then got turned back on. When I told one user to do this, his boss got upset with me “telling his employee to hit his computer”. I responded by telling him it was that or buy him a new hard drive, which shut him up…

The right tool for the right job!

Rat! You’re mistakenly reading Nancy Pelosi’s “Guide to Bully Government”

I have a new TV that’s very difficult to turn on or off without the remote. I don’t consider that user-friendly.

what’s with the periods in the “T.V.”? television is one word. This comic is ruined. Ruined!

You’re lucky it’s in English

Actually, that’s what you do with a computer. TV’s don’t work the same way. And believe me, I’ve tried. :-)

Sounds like a Practical Man’s Manual to me!

Stop pointing the remote at your face, Rat.

Oh My God!!!!! Did Pig Just swear?!?!?!

ITS PIG’S SECOND SWEAR WORD! EVERYONE CELEBRATE!