Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 21, 2025

He wanted to be a lawyer, but he just couldn’t pass the bar. [rimshot]

“Pig, you make Amelia Bedelia seem comprehensible.”

-Oh, she’s my aunt!

“That explains so much.”

It seems that bartender is the favorite job on PBS.

He’s on work furlough…

GOAT is EXACTLY like my mother; always “jumping the gun,” and NOT letting people or stories finish their points BEFORE reacting to those points!!!!!! Dan aka…ps don’t ya JUST hate that?!

Not LITERAL bars, Goat!

Most bartenders make enough with one job (and tips) that they’re only behind ONE bar … at a time anyway.

Must be a temp agency gig, as most are behind A bar.

A guy ran into a bar, and it hurt! (sorry)!

Oh wow! He got a job as a bartender? How did that happen to him?!

Is he working behind more than one bar at a time? I have to say that I’m impressed at Pastis’ fantastic ability to recycle :D

does he stir or shake martini?

If he’s behind bars, then he got several jobs. An old episode of in Living Color, this Jamaican family was always out to out-do each other, and the mom was like," I got 17 jobs, mon." Then she names them off. Basically, they NEVER slept.

Pig needs to word that in practically any other way.

Tomorrow his dad will kick the bucket.

He’ll also kick other trip hazzards lying around behind the bar.

Timmy the Termite walked in and asked “Is the Bar Tender here?”

badda-BING badda-BOOM .. tsssshhhhhhhhh

That’s a relief. I thought he fell through the grill.

Goat isn’t overreacting, Pig. You just need to phrase your words more carefully.

Hey, c’mon Pastis! I saw that one coming from the first panel!

Also called a Barkeeper or Barkeep. The jail or prison in a castle was called the keep, as in castle keep. So there may yet be a connection between being behind bars and being behind a bar.

Below average pun for Pearl.

I took a class that brought volunteers, public servants, and business people together to discuss various issues around our area and think about solutions. The class would meet once a month in various locations (a sheriff’s office, museum, etc) to learn about that location and discuss it.

I was hired as a consultant in the month when the class was going to visit a local prison. I didn’t mention the class during the interview process, but a couple weeks later, I went to my manager and told him that I needed a day off because I had to go to prison. The look he gave me was priceless. I explained it and he laughed.

For lawyers, the bar is set high, many reach for the bar but not all pass it. They’re the ones sitting in the bar drowning their sorrows.

Unless he got more than one bartender job, wouldn’t he just be behind bar?

And yes, that one is pretty obvious, and I’m sure that several commenters already made the same observation, when I get around to reading the other comments.

LOL!

I got through college selling drugs. I worked in a pharmacy…

Pig should be a headline writer.

He works at Mr. Cacciatore’s down on Sullivan Street, across from the medical center…

a job as an “itinerant bartender” would make the joke more accurate

My brother was the last of four widely spaced children in our family and, by the time he was born, my mother had all but given up on discipline. My brother has spent the last couple of decades in and out of prison.

He’s a guard.

Well Pastis didn’t get hit in the head

Goat really should know better than to take anything Pig says at face value

My Dear Old Mom quit bartending the day a ghost floated into the tavern & demanded a drink with a lot of body in it!!

Or you need to be more descriptive, Pig.

It’s a good start, he might get discovered and be forced to run for public office

Sadly, he hit the male glass ceiling and doesn’t make half the salary and tips as his 36 double D partner.

Dad and his twin Brother work parallel bars.

Pastis must be lazy same exact drawings in all the panels. Just different word balloons!

There is such a thing as artichoke-flavored liquor

Goat “overreacted” to Pig’s initial statement, which is a common expression for being in jail, and consequently very misleading…

I suppose so.