Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 17, 2021

As spring approaches, I would like to see some better batters on my favorite baseball team.

Is Pig’s new girlfriend Betty Botter, by any chance?

Did he stir it with a spoon or a beater?

Or am I being a baiter?

oh, these tongue twisters

The tongue twister, as I recall it:

Bitsy Boater bought some butter

But said she, the butter’s bitter

If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.

So she bought some better butter

And it made her batter better.

- I practiced this one until I could say it while drunk. I STILL didn’t get any dates! - :(

Well, for once I saw it coming from panel one.

Betty bought some butter but the butter was bitter. So, Betty bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better. But the bitter butter made the better butter bitter.

It’s a good thing he didn’t bite her.

“Betty Botter bought a bit of butter. “But,” she said, “the butter’s bitter. If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter. But, a bit of better butter will make my batter better.” So, she bought a bit of butter, better than her bitter butter.

I certainly hope not!

Betty Botter bought some Butter.

But, said she, My butter’s bitter.

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter.

But if I buy better butter,

Better than the bitter butter,

It will make my batter better.

So she bought the better butter,

Better than the bitter butter

And it made her batter better.

But her biscuits didn’t sell.

She went back to bitter butter

And her biscuits sold like hotcakes.

You can Buy them at the bakery.

Ask for them by name.

Buy Betty Botter’s Better Bitter Butter Batter Biscuits.

(We’re Beatrice)

This comic was wrote by a bot.

Even Betty Botter groaned when she read this one.

Yes, it is…and don’t call ’im Shirley. :-D

Can you say that last line three times fast Pig? ;D

“Retirement age”…Stephan has to mature before he can retire. The time scale for that to happen is “geological”.

For the origin of the rhyme, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Botter

Pretty soon, I expect Pastis will make a strip about a guy who’s homosexual and non-Jewish. (I’ll let y’all figure that one out for yourselves.)

Could have been a Dr. Seuss sequel: “The Bitter Butter Battle”

Could such a book be published today?*

* Bitter – Is it biased against other tastes?

* Battle – Does it promote or show violence?

* Butter – What about those who are lactose intolerant?

From the Bozo the Clown show, circa 1970’s: “Oh Belinda bought some butter but the butter it was bitter, and she put it in her batter and it made her batter bitter, so Belinda bought some better butter, put it in her bitter batter, and it made her bitter batter better.”

Big Black Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers.

So there.

Next time, just use lard!

Is her name Betty?

Not just a baiter but a master baiter

PAR-KAY!

When Pearls was relatively new, and I bought some of the “treasury” books, Pastis would comment how up and coming cartoonists appreciated it when the old established ones would retire after ten or twenty years. It freed up space in the papers for something new.

Since this strip brings it up, I wonder if he feels the same way about retirement now that he’s one of the old established ones. I also wonder how many people still have a newspaper as there primary source for the daily comics.

Rat didn’t botter (bother) to avoid this setup.

Don’t call me Shirley

Say that five times fast.

It’s a tongue-twister commonly used by actors and voiceover artists to warm up, written by Carolyn Wells and first published in 1899:

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter;

“But,” she said, “this butter’s bitter!

If I put it in my batter

It will make my batter bitter.

But a bit o’ better butter

Will make my batter better.”

Then she bought a bit o’ butter

Better than the bitter butter,

Made her bitter batter better.

So ’twas better Betty Botter

Bought a bit o’ better butter.

..“Beatrice” is a shmuck and that Bozo business is BS.

Did he gamble on the result? The bettor!

Rat should have had a bat in the last frame, he is a good batter when it comes to such puns!!

Pastis is already on antisocial security already isn’t he?

Better beware the bugger.

These are the days I miss guard duck and the crocs

Hey Rat! Maybe it’s Stephan’s Warranty or Expiration date you’re thinking of.

Please don’t retire, Stephan!

As Pooh would say: “Oh, Bother”!

Jim Davis is in his late 70s and still works on the Garfield strip. Dean Young is in his 80s and still works on Blondie

Pigita is bringing the beater to beat the better bitter butter batter!

Retirement is still far off. And stop calling him “Shirley”.

Is his girlfriend’s name Betty Botter?

i am so confused what this strip even means….

Does he offer a rebate?

That made me smile.

And don’t call me ‘Shirley’!

Bet you can’t say that three times fast.

I bet her name is Betty.

Betty had some bitter butter.Betty had some better butter.Betty mixed the better butter with the bitter butter to make the bitter butter better but the bitter butter made the better butter bitter.

He can’t retire until he can afford to move out of the basket on Stacie’s porch

No, No hints at retirement. We will not speak of this again !!

Growing up in Chicago in the 60’s there was the Burny Brothers Bakery. One of their signature products was butter bread. We used to say “Burny Brothers bakes better butter bread because Burny Brothers uses better butter bread batter.”

Oh Bother!

The baker puts the butter in the batter when he bakes it.

Word golf is not an adult pastime.

Time to rename this strip “Pickles and Swine”

A literate alliteration … Bravo!

Betty bought a bit of butter…

Bitter butter? Isn’t that also known as margarine?

But a bit of better butter will make the bitter batter better

‘and the bit of better butter made her bitter batter better’. a little plagerism today.

as pooh say, “oh, bother.”

Not soon enough Rat

Try saying that 5 times fast

It’s not nice to pick on the old and feeble, Rat. Leave Cartoon-OldMan alone….

Hell Yeah!!!! I love the Puns!!

These jokes are badder than ever