I don’t actually like using it from the doohickey on the wall. Just leave the roll on the counter by the sink next to the throne and unwrap it from there. No need to worry about which way you hang it.
Earl should just have his own roll of T.P. in the bathroom and use it any way he wants without hanging it. That way the issue is solved, and Opal can hang the T.P. the way she wants. Muffin is always a scene stealer whenever he appears!
My family actually had this discussion a few months ago. As the head of the household, I have decreed that the free end of the paper should hang closest to the wall because if it’s stuck to the roll, a quick puff of air will dislodge it. Everyone disagrees, but them’s the rules.
And if someone has replaced the roll incorrectly, I turn it around.
One of my cats will play with the toilet paper, but if I hang it (the tp, not the cat) from the back, it doesn’t unroll. Squeezing the roll so it doesn’t spin very well also helps.
She’s right. TP needs to be on the top. When on the bottom, it’s more difficult to get to, plus a quick tear can start it unravelling. Over the top is the correct way. Also, we all know that Earl is a looney so whatever he favors has to be wrong.
Did people argue about which way the leaves should hang on the tree for those visits to the woods? Which way did you face your corn cobs in the outhouse?
I had a cat that it didn’t matter which way you hug the roll as well, she just bit huge chunks out of the roll. Nothing like trying to wipe you a$$ with holy TP!
“The 1891 patent for the toilet paper roll (yes, that exists) literally states that the end of the roll should be hanging off the exterior. It was granted on September 15, 1891 as patent number US456516A,” yep suppose to hang over, not under
Actually, cats have a harder time unrolling TP if it’s rolled from the back (they tend to pull down on the front of the roll), rather than from the front, but they shred it more that way. Unrolled TP can be rerolled, shredded TP is less “useful”, but generally softer.
It is easier to find the end and unroll it yourself if it unrolls from the front.
In the end, but not the end of the TP roll, roll it the way you want, without forcing your druthers on others.
Hanging from the top is allegedly the ‘correct’ way to install a roll of toilet paper, although that makes it easy for cats to unspool the roll. Which is why— in my house with five cats— the toilet paper hangs beneath the roll.
Cats can’t effectively unroll paper hung like depicted in the comic. They don’t unroll it by pulling on the paper, and if they do, it tends to tear. They unroll the paper by spinning the roll. When hung to the back, as depicted, spinning the roll keeps the paper on. That’s one reason to hang it that way.
Factually, paper is easier to use if its hung the other way. People hang it “from the front” if they want it to be easy to use and from the back if they want to keep people (and animals) from using too much. That’s why many businesses and hotels hang it from the back as well as people with pets.
There was a great reference to this in the Simpsons. If memory serves, one or both parents were called into the kids school because the toilet paper hung from the bottom was equivalent to abuse or something LOL.
Second panel LOL, good one Earl. Fourth panel though is correct, hang from top, for once the bottom way gets rolling, it won’t stop. All’s it takes is a breeze or cat or kid or……………
In the house we now live in, we have to keep our toilet paper either on the counter by the sink, or on top of the toilet tank. The paper holder is too tight next to toilet.
Oh dear! Here we go! It’s the great toilet paper debate again! Ann Landers said the letter she received the most responses on was about which way to hang the toilet paper roll. This was on Oprah and Oprah pointed out that the audience members were having animated discussions on the topic.
Per the patent, TOILET PAPER ROLLS OUT OVER THE FRONT! OTOH, if you have a cat, I suppose you can be (grudgingly) forgiven for setting it up the wrong way…I wouldn’t know; none of my bosses ever bothered the toilet paper.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Years ago, I had a roommate who insisted it went the other way. Every time one of us went to the bathroom, we’d turn the roll around. Finally we compromised & set it on the tank lid.
There is a newspaper columnist, Cory Farley, who used to write great, humorous comment columns for the Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno is adjacent to Sparks NV, where the Pickles family (and their creator) lives, BTW) (and I wrote astronomy columns for the RGJ for a few years, too) (and lived in both Reno and Sparks). Farley insisted, with some evidence, that the proper way to hang toilet paper was hanging down the front (I think that was his choice, anyway). He got a lot of disagreement from his readers, and the argument was almost an annual humor-fest. Anyone else remember him?
I always had to hang it from the bottom because my cats only unrolled it when hanging from the top. I guess they never figured that out. They weren’t the brightest but they were my buddies.
in Grandma’s outhouse there was no luxury like toilet paper, you used pages from the old Sears catalog so the argument was did you tear pages from the front or back. yes I’m serious about the catalog, that’s why everybody tried to go before leaving home when going to her house.
So, after reading (nearly) all the comments above, how about instead of saying the “right” or “wrong” way, we say the “cat household” way or the “cat-free” way?
While I prefer the roll out over the top, experience with cats in the house is that that position results in a total unraveling onto the floor while the reverse just gets a clawed up half a roll. lLess waste.
Interesting: I’ve had probably 10 cats in my lifetime, and I don’t recall any of them clawing the toilet paper. Furniture and wood molding, yes, but not TP.
My mother came out of the restroom at Morrison’s Cafeteria with toilet paper trailing behind her. My sister stepped on it as our mother was walking. I wasn’t there (wish I had been), but I’ve been told that my mother’s reaction was a sight to see!
If you roll it from the top; the end will always be visible and easy to reach. If you pull it from the bottom the end will be out of sight, and you will have to roll it around to find the end. If you have toddlers in the house; you will want it to roll from the bottom. They will always roll it down from the outside. If it is pulling from the top, they will roll it all onto the floor.
allen@home 11 months ago
Time to start keeping the door shut guys.
sirbadger 11 months ago
It seems like it hangs from the bottom either way. It can hang from the front or back.
The dude from FL Premium Member 11 months ago
Turn around and let’s see what we’re dealing with is killing me!
finzleftright 11 months ago
TP manufacturers agree with Opal. Which side do they print? The side facing the wall or the side facing the person?
oldthang 11 months ago
I hate to say this, but I agree with Opal.
billfl Premium Member 11 months ago
I can’t remember date or the year; but I could have sworn there was a strip similar to this many years ago. It was good though.
mischugenah 11 months ago
I agree with Earl, because thankfully my cats still just bat at the roll and haven’t figured out they can pull on the hanging end.
cracker65 11 months ago
I agree with Opal on this one
Macushlalondra 11 months ago
I don’t actually like using it from the doohickey on the wall. Just leave the roll on the counter by the sink next to the throne and unwrap it from there. No need to worry about which way you hang it.
Ubintold 11 months ago
He’s starting to sound like Roseanne Rosannadana.
iggyman 11 months ago
You show them Muffin!
Robert Nowall Premium Member 11 months ago
Their relationship is doomed.
Shirl Summ Premium Member 11 months ago
I don’t care as long as there is some there. Just replace the roll.
phritzg Premium Member 11 months ago
I’m on Team Opal. For today, anyway.
pathfinder 11 months ago
I’ve got a free-standing TP holder so whoever needs the TP can turn it to be how they want it.
jagedlo 11 months ago
It looks like Muffin is going to decide this argument!
JudithStocker Premium Member 11 months ago
Earl should just have his own roll of T.P. in the bathroom and use it any way he wants without hanging it. That way the issue is solved, and Opal can hang the T.P. the way she wants. Muffin is always a scene stealer whenever he appears!
potfarmer 11 months ago
I never know which way my wife will put it. I just put it over the top when it’s “wrong “. 50 years and she’s never noticed.
joegeethree 11 months ago
I’m with Opal, in case anyone is taking a poll.
Ol' me 11 months ago
My family actually had this discussion a few months ago. As the head of the household, I have decreed that the free end of the paper should hang closest to the wall because if it’s stuck to the roll, a quick puff of air will dislodge it. Everyone disagrees, but them’s the rules.
And if someone has replaced the roll incorrectly, I turn it around.
RKY84 11 months ago
70% of the population prefers the “over” position (the right way).
bittenbyknittin 11 months ago
One of my cats will play with the toilet paper, but if I hang it (the tp, not the cat) from the back, it doesn’t unroll. Squeezing the roll so it doesn’t spin very well also helps.
rodney 11 months ago
She’s right. TP needs to be on the top. When on the bottom, it’s more difficult to get to, plus a quick tear can start it unravelling. Over the top is the correct way. Also, we all know that Earl is a looney so whatever he favors has to be wrong.
scote1379 Premium Member 11 months ago
Married Bliss =Two Bathrooms
outgolfing 11 months ago
Next time you go to a hotel check how they have placed the rolls. In my experience, it has been over the top 100% of the time.
Steverino Premium Member 11 months ago
It’s easier for the cat if the tp is over.
wongo 11 months ago
What is this “Toilet paper” of which you speak?
BadCreaturesBecomeDems 11 months ago
Did people argue about which way the leaves should hang on the tree for those visits to the woods? Which way did you face your corn cobs in the outhouse?
ROY PICKETT 11 months ago
I had a cat that it didn’t matter which way you hug the roll as well, she just bit huge chunks out of the roll. Nothing like trying to wipe you a$$ with holy TP!
Wlly Blly 11 months ago
Hanging the roll like that prevents the cat from doing that.
Somebody doesn’t know how cats roll. :-)
oakie817 11 months ago
“The 1891 patent for the toilet paper roll (yes, that exists) literally states that the end of the roll should be hanging off the exterior. It was granted on September 15, 1891 as patent number US456516A,” yep suppose to hang over, not under
Comics are the first thing to read 11 months ago
Two gags in strip. Well done, Mr. Crane!
wtepps 11 months ago
I gotta level with you. I’ve never been a fan of Opal. She seems to be a nag more times than not and over petty stuff.
poppacapsmokeblower 11 months ago
Actually, cats have a harder time unrolling TP if it’s rolled from the back (they tend to pull down on the front of the roll), rather than from the front, but they shred it more that way. Unrolled TP can be rerolled, shredded TP is less “useful”, but generally softer.
It is easier to find the end and unroll it yourself if it unrolls from the front.
In the end, but not the end of the TP roll, roll it the way you want, without forcing your druthers on others.
tremaine53 11 months ago
Hanging from the top is allegedly the ‘correct’ way to install a roll of toilet paper, although that makes it easy for cats to unspool the roll. Which is why— in my house with five cats— the toilet paper hangs beneath the roll.
Old Time Tales 11 months ago
Try not to think about all the other hands that have dug around from the bottom of that roll. From the top, please.
KEA 11 months ago
it’s beyond me why this is a hill to die on
MeGoNow Premium Member 11 months ago
I prefer slightly squashed, so it can be sat on top of the empty roll.
William Robbins Premium Member 11 months ago
How did their marriage last a week?
ladykat 11 months ago
Muffin strikes again.
waes-hael 11 months ago
Today is the day that I finally relent and can label Earl a “monster.”
Spacetech 11 months ago
You’re barking up the wrong tree.
whelan_jj 11 months ago
Cats can’t effectively unroll paper hung like depicted in the comic. They don’t unroll it by pulling on the paper, and if they do, it tends to tear. They unroll the paper by spinning the roll. When hung to the back, as depicted, spinning the roll keeps the paper on. That’s one reason to hang it that way.
Factually, paper is easier to use if its hung the other way. People hang it “from the front” if they want it to be easy to use and from the back if they want to keep people (and animals) from using too much. That’s why many businesses and hotels hang it from the back as well as people with pets.
ST Joe River Premium Member 11 months ago
Never expected that one LOL. LOve it
ilovecomics*infinity 11 months ago
There was a great reference to this in the Simpsons. If memory serves, one or both parents were called into the kids school because the toilet paper hung from the bottom was equivalent to abuse or something LOL.
IndyW 11 months ago
Second panel LOL, good one Earl. Fourth panel though is correct, hang from top, for once the bottom way gets rolling, it won’t stop. All’s it takes is a breeze or cat or kid or……………
Mike Baldwin creator 11 months ago
Hilarious, Earl’s on a roll!
Plumb.Bob Premium Member 11 months ago
Yea nothing says sanitary like tp hanging up against a wall.
Otis Rufus Driftwood 11 months ago
In the house we now live in, we have to keep our toilet paper either on the counter by the sink, or on top of the toilet tank. The paper holder is too tight next to toilet.
stepzla 11 months ago
Oh dear! Here we go! It’s the great toilet paper debate again! Ann Landers said the letter she received the most responses on was about which way to hang the toilet paper roll. This was on Oprah and Oprah pointed out that the audience members were having animated discussions on the topic.
zeexenon 11 months ago
Great first reply, Earl. It’s over the top.
anomalous4 11 months ago
Per the patent, TOILET PAPER ROLLS OUT OVER THE FRONT! OTOH, if you have a cat, I suppose you can be (grudgingly) forgiven for setting it up the wrong way…I wouldn’t know; none of my bosses ever bothered the toilet paper.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Years ago, I had a roommate who insisted it went the other way. Every time one of us went to the bathroom, we’d turn the roll around. Finally we compromised & set it on the tank lid.
daleandkristen 11 months ago
Muffin! Heh heh.
PDXCubbie 11 months ago
I’m with Earl, that’s the way it HAS to be……from the bottom……and you can’t convince me otherwise! NYAH!
rob 11 months ago
Earl is wrong.
khjalmarj 11 months ago
There is a newspaper columnist, Cory Farley, who used to write great, humorous comment columns for the Reno Gazette-Journal (Reno is adjacent to Sparks NV, where the Pickles family (and their creator) lives, BTW) (and I wrote astronomy columns for the RGJ for a few years, too) (and lived in both Reno and Sparks). Farley insisted, with some evidence, that the proper way to hang toilet paper was hanging down the front (I think that was his choice, anyway). He got a lot of disagreement from his readers, and the argument was almost an annual humor-fest. Anyone else remember him?
alkabelis Premium Member 11 months ago
I always had to hang it from the bottom because my cats only unrolled it when hanging from the top. I guess they never figured that out. They weren’t the brightest but they were my buddies.
jader3rd 11 months ago
Not true, cats very much prefer it being hung over.
MRBLUESKY529 11 months ago
At least he didn’t leave it empty. Stop complaining!.
Zebrastripes 11 months ago
Oy…Opal will have another fit….soon….
_lounger_ 11 months ago
problem fixed!
dbrucepm 11 months ago
in Grandma’s outhouse there was no luxury like toilet paper, you used pages from the old Sears catalog so the argument was did you tear pages from the front or back. yes I’m serious about the catalog, that’s why everybody tried to go before leaving home when going to her house.
Corpse Horn Light Premium Member 11 months ago
The actual picture drawn by the INVENTOR for his patent application shows it being OVER THE TOP!Here endeth the lesson!
Just_Karl 11 months ago
So, after reading (nearly) all the comments above, how about instead of saying the “right” or “wrong” way, we say the “cat household” way or the “cat-free” way?
w16521 11 months ago
Got a terrible visual of toilet paper hanging from Opal’s bottom.
James -Baird 11 months ago
While I prefer the roll out over the top, experience with cats in the house is that that position results in a total unraveling onto the floor while the reverse just gets a clawed up half a roll. lLess waste.
bigplayray 11 months ago
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with”? HA! Classic! By the way… From the top. Absolutely!
RKY84 11 months ago
Interesting: I’ve had probably 10 cats in my lifetime, and I don’t recall any of them clawing the toilet paper. Furniture and wood molding, yes, but not TP.
FireAnt_Hater 11 months ago
My mother came out of the restroom at Morrison’s Cafeteria with toilet paper trailing behind her. My sister stepped on it as our mother was walking. I wasn’t there (wish I had been), but I’ve been told that my mother’s reaction was a sight to see!
wildlandwaters 11 months ago
actually, it’s coming from the top either way…just sayin’…
David Huie Green LoveJoyAndPeace 11 months ago
Front of back. Never top or bottom.
Palani56 11 months ago
The first two panels had me roaring…too funny
char819 11 months ago
If you look up the patent for toilet paper roll holder she is right!
Moonkey Premium Member 11 months ago
The toilet paper hanging issue is one of the main reasons I think everyone should have their own bathroom and be responsible for keeping it clean.
markkahler52 11 months ago
Wow! 147 comments on this subject? Don’t break it, people!
Andrew Bosch Premium Member 11 months ago
I here that toilet paper position was (or is, maybe) a common argument topic for couples. Toothpaste tube squeezing is another.
jensensteve165 11 months ago
ALWAYS over the top, hanging from the front!
Taracinablue 11 months ago
If turned around, the cat can’t unroll it so easily =P
Dave427 11 months ago
Looks like Earl is married to 3 old horses…………………..naG nAG NAG.
Jack Bell Premium Member 11 months ago
If you roll it from the top; the end will always be visible and easy to reach. If you pull it from the bottom the end will be out of sight, and you will have to roll it around to find the end. If you have toddlers in the house; you will want it to roll from the bottom. They will always roll it down from the outside. If it is pulling from the top, they will roll it all onto the floor.
Komix Lover 11 months ago
The first two panels may be the best-of-all-time comic I ever read. Made my day. :-)
Lisa Marie Chamberlain 10 months ago
My cutie Sophie did that when I went down to the basement to do my clothes LOL