Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 05, 2011

Wow! Stephen Furst has changed over the years, hasn’t he?

Won’t be getting any fan mail from that flounder…

That was in no way a flounder…..both of their eyes are on the same side of the head. And green? Give me a break…they’re brown.

@ Jim: Pastis doesn’t read these comments. He said so in one of his books.

Kreole — yeah, yeah — and just for the halibut, he has more mussels than a flounder and he isn’t drawn to scale. Stephan didn’t take an ocean to be realistic, he was just fishing for a pun.

I wonder if that flounder has met Pig’s sea anemone enemy (try saying that five times).

Flounder, heh? Guess that kills my “Green Dolphin Street” joke [1947 movie, for those who don’t recognize the title].

Folks, sorry for a bit off topic, but could you please say – is anywhere there a Pears archive or something? I’ve looked on Facebook Stephan page and did not find. I guess it should be somewhere! Please help!

LOL!

lol wuz funny but lame

cursing fish = always funny

There’s something fishy about this strip.

Don’t pick on the flounder. He’s a rounder, sounder flounder. No bounder he, he’s the co-founder of the local school.

Stephen Pastis! The hallmark of a flounder is that both of its eyes are on the same side of its face, because it spends its life lying its side on the bottom of the sea, looking up. It is a goofy looking fish and that would be perfect for any comic strip. You missed a great opportunity here!

Pig is floundering while Rat thinks he’s cod.

what jim said

Pig is sooo popular, he has groupers……☻

If rat was there he would have kicked pastis’ bass.

Poor Pig..

He’s had no luck with Girls and now a Flounder out of nowhere swears at him.

xx

You walrus hurt the one you love.

Hey, guys, quit carping about the poor flounder. He feels like he’s at the bottom of the sea.

I’m loving all these crappie puns, but Kip Addotta is still the king.

Unfortunately, the entire strip is based on an error. The word for what Pig describes isn’t “flounder,” it’s “founder,” the same word for what happens to a ship that’s lost its rudder. It’s an extremely common mistake (apparently I’m the first one to notice), but I’m surprised that Patsis’ editor didn’t catch it.

Coloring of daily strips is outsourced to incompetents (See today’s “Ferd’nand” for the raking of green leaves). Leave color for Sundays when they are done by the strip’s artists. Black and white for Mon-Sat.

My mother’s maiden name was Crum. As children, we were not allowed to refer to anything as being “crummy” unless it was meant as a compliment.

susan, you’re the catfish’s meow…And you other guys? Man if puns powered cars, this comment section would make us energy independent in no time…anyway, that’s the view from my perch….

Isn’t the expression “foundering”, and not “fLoundering”? I know that when a sinking or disabled ship is full of water and isn’t making any progress it’s called “foundering”, which would seem to be an apt metaphor for Pig’s predicament in life…/grammar nazi

Oops, typed up my previous note before all the comments loaded (stupid slow internet connection). Didn’t notice somebody else had also pointed out the error. bmonk: Where did you get that definition? If it’s legit it appears that while two wrongs don’t make a right, eleventy-billion wrongs do, at least as far as far as improper word usage goes. If enough people get it wrong, simply change the definition. Next we’ll be changing the proper spelling of words as well (though I definitely won’t change my way of spelling, even if they do start spelling "definAtely with an “A”). I guess I shouldn’t let it “phase” me (another common improper word usage – the correct word would be “faze”).As for the looks of the flounder in the comic, I read in a Pearls treasury that somebody once wrote Pastis, complaining that a killer whale was ordering 6 tons of krill at a drive through. The complainant’s point was that killer whales don’t eat Krill. Pastis said that this was true. He then pointed out that they don’t drive cars through McDonalds drive-throughs, either. Nobody pointed out that factual error though…It’s a cartoon. It’s not supposed to be realistic. It’d be pretty boring watching a realistic pig, goat and rat interact in realistic ways (though the crocs would make things interesting)

Those who say Pig is wrong are wrong. The verbs “to flounder” and “to founder” are both correct, and mean different things. To flounder is to move with difficulty, as when walking through deep mud. (An apt description of Pig’s life!) To founder means to sink (a ship), or to become stuck, as when your attempts to walk through deep mud fail, and you can no longer move..Now, about those who get “inter” and “intern” mixed up…

BTW, my definitions come from The Collins English Dictionary, copyright 1986. (Yes, I still keep a dictionary beside my computer desk…)

I’ll remember that.

Right — a ship may flounder for a long time without ever foundering.Stephan may have been floundering for a joke but he found ‘er. And we should respect him cos of this strip he is the founder.PS. Flounder, with Pig’s meaning of thrashing about helplessly, is not some new attempt to legitimatize a modern misuse of language, it’s been around since the 16th century at least. No need to avoid it. The word, that is.I prefer to avoid the action as well, but sometimes I find myself floundering anyway. Please, no offense meant to any actual flounders.

Varnes — you mean, puns DON’T provide locomotive power? I always thought they did, cos when I make them, poof! Everybody runs off.

I was literally, ROTFL at this one!Don’t let the Ichthyology or word geeks ruin the joke!Repeat to yourself, “It’s just a comic strip. I should really just relax.”

XD