I honestly did not see “I pledge a leech, aunts, to the flake of the United States of America” coming before I got to the second to the last panel. Happy Independence Day, fellow American readers of “Pearls Before Swine.”
We can see the truck stopping across the tracks; we can hear the train horn blowing; everyone knows what’s coming, but all we can do is sit there and watch it happen.
Miss Buttinsky wants you to live a long, rewarding life with your crazy column. Give Pig, Gators, Goat, and everyone else who struggles with you my everlasting thanks. M.P.
Reading this strip often reminds me of two individuals that I like to refer to as “The Brain Trust”. These two would often discuss American History. Listening to these two would make your head explode. These two think that George Jefferson was either the first or second president. They also seem to forget that Independence Day (4th Of July) and Thanksgiving are American Holidays. They would often wonder if other nations celebrated Independence Day and Thanksgiving like “us Americans” or if “they exploded something else” or “ate something other than Turkey.”
Ignore the naysayers, Stephan. Nothing like a good shaggy dog story to start the day. And I pledge to substitute this new and improved opening line the next time I find myself reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
I know that a lot of people don’t like the “punny” strips Pastis does, but really, they’re some of my favorites. As a dad, the puns are usually the groan-inducing kind told by fathers everywhere, and I love them!
“If there’s anythin’ I hate in this world it’s leeches—filthy devils,” – Bogart in “The African Queen” (One of several amazing things produced in 1951)
What say we all show up at Pastis’s studio to show our appreciation of his latest pun? I’ll bring the water balloons if someone else will bring the cream pies…
I took a Hispanic friend to his first baseball game. Afterwards, when his wife asked how he liked it, he said, “It was Great! Before the game started, everyone stood up and sang, ‘Oh, Jose, can you see?’”
The current pledge is rather different from the original, and that itself is quite recent.
Original from the very tail end of the 19th century:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The words “under God” varied by location for when they were added. The earliest did so as early as 1954, but I can not recall that being said in our school till almost ten years afterward.
You’d be surprised how many kids think the pledge includes the phrases, “I led the pigeons,” “to the wee puppet for Richard Stands” and “one nation and a vegetable.” I’m not kidding! There’s even a book.
Oh good, Stefan! You received the “Songs of the Season” collection Hatchet Jack’s hapless final victim managed to send out 8 sets of from BMG before Redford filed his most recent block buster claim.
I guess it would be wrong to want to see Cartoon-Boy not only drawn but also drawn-and-quartered? That a pun was coming was totally obvious from panel 1; the only suspense was, how BAD would it be? And this one really was pretty bad….
Templo S.U.D. over 6 years ago
I honestly did not see “I pledge a leech, aunts, to the flake of the United States of America” coming before I got to the second to the last panel. Happy Independence Day, fellow American readers of “Pearls Before Swine.”
oldpine52 over 6 years ago
I think that Stephan has set a new low with this one.
ShawnJovian over 6 years ago
Thanks for ruining Independence Day, Stephan
Liverlips McCracken Premium Member over 6 years ago
That didn’t just come out of left field. It came from at least halfway up the grandstands.
GeifuKe over 6 years ago
Someone is leeching the comedy here. And that is no flaky fluke. So says my ant from who is in an independent state this day.
SomeOtherGocomicsGuy over 6 years ago
“AHH! LEECHES!” “Oh, that’s only comedy leeches, they feed on the comics section of the newpaper.”
peggykb9 over 6 years ago
And Happy Canada Day to our Canadian neighbors.
BE THIS GUY over 6 years ago
This comic is being bled to death.
blunebottle over 6 years ago
Boy, Pastis, you must have worked hard on that one. Did you pull a muscle with that stretch?
Display over 6 years ago
Thank you for making a sucker out of all of us.
Trilobyte Premium Member over 6 years ago
I was sure we were headed for “its the leach I could do.”
ND Cool Z over 6 years ago
Happy 4th of July!!!! (3 days early)
HeckleMeElmo over 6 years ago
We can see the truck stopping across the tracks; we can hear the train horn blowing; everyone knows what’s coming, but all we can do is sit there and watch it happen.
Miss Buttinsky Premium Member over 6 years ago
Miss Buttinsky wants you to live a long, rewarding life with your crazy column. Give Pig, Gators, Goat, and everyone else who struggles with you my everlasting thanks. M.P.
Bilan over 6 years ago
You have to admit, this is the first time anyone has used a leech in a punchline.
NeedaChuckle Premium Member over 6 years ago
To preserve it they should use a non-nutritive cereal varnish.
Spence12 Premium Member over 6 years ago
For all the work it took to contrive this punchline, wouldn’t it be easier to think up something that’s actually funny?
Masterskrain over 6 years ago
Toon’ boy, that’s SO BAD that it’s actually good!!
John Smith over 6 years ago
worst ever and that’s saying a lot
Willywise52 Premium Member over 6 years ago
omg.
Ontman over 6 years ago
I hope you won’t be accused of being un-American because of this.
F-Flash over 6 years ago
Pig’s aunts may be very patriotic, but I would want some very good documentation on that flake before I make a donation. It sounds flakey to me.
ArtyD2 Premium Member over 6 years ago
My Corn Tree ’tis of thee
tripwire45 over 6 years ago
Stephan actually worked hard on that one and it came way out of left field. Oy.
Little Caesar over 6 years ago
“Get a job, sir. Do what your parents did” – Mr Lebowski
mail2jbl over 6 years ago
P.B.S. has hit a new low in bad puns…
vics_machine Premium Member over 6 years ago
I await Pastis to have someone reminiscing about early history of Ling Ling and Ping Ping. You know…“In the panda’s day”.
Masterskrain over 6 years ago
Wouldn’t the “Flake of the United States” be the current occupant?? I’ve never seen anyone flakier…
TedTheCustodianOfSpaceAndTime over 6 years ago
Reading this strip often reminds me of two individuals that I like to refer to as “The Brain Trust”. These two would often discuss American History. Listening to these two would make your head explode. These two think that George Jefferson was either the first or second president. They also seem to forget that Independence Day (4th Of July) and Thanksgiving are American Holidays. They would often wonder if other nations celebrated Independence Day and Thanksgiving like “us Americans” or if “they exploded something else” or “ate something other than Turkey.”
winston5610 over 6 years ago
It is said that on 4 July, 1776, George III recorded in his diary that nothing important had happened that day.
paullp Premium Member over 6 years ago
Ignore the naysayers, Stephan. Nothing like a good shaggy dog story to start the day. And I pledge to substitute this new and improved opening line the next time I find myself reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
JPuzzleWhiz over 6 years ago
As Obi-Wan Kenobi might have said, “May the Fourth be with you!”
Flatlander, purveyor of fine covfefe over 6 years ago
I though the flake of the United States had orange hair?
BiathlonNut over 6 years ago
I thought that was how native speakers of Castilian Spanish said it.
backyardcowboy over 6 years ago
Crunch, crunch, crunch.Tastes more like a Nacho to me.
Obi-Haiv over 6 years ago
I know that a lot of people don’t like the “punny” strips Pastis does, but really, they’re some of my favorites. As a dad, the puns are usually the groan-inducing kind told by fathers everywhere, and I love them!
jdbligh over 6 years ago
So much effort for so little reward.
A_NY_Outlaw over 6 years ago
almost had me as confused as to whether THIS was the holiday weekend or if next weekend is.
Packratjohn Premium Member over 6 years ago
“If there’s anythin’ I hate in this world it’s leeches—filthy devils,” – Bogart in “The African Queen” (One of several amazing things produced in 1951)
TracyKlujian over 6 years ago
I can leach some of the fun out of this:1776 Declaration of Independence signed1894 Corn flakes invented
kd1sq Premium Member over 6 years ago
I still say that “Ferret’s Elf” was his best ever worst!
Carl Rennhack Premium Member over 6 years ago
I think THE Flake of the United States of America wears a blue cap!
WCraft Premium Member over 6 years ago
What say we all show up at Pastis’s studio to show our appreciation of his latest pun? I’ll bring the water balloons if someone else will bring the cream pies…
Packratjohn Premium Member over 6 years ago
I took a Hispanic friend to his first baseball game. Afterwards, when his wife asked how he liked it, he said, “It was Great! Before the game started, everyone stood up and sang, ‘Oh, Jose, can you see?’”
MeanBob Premium Member over 6 years ago
I’m certain now, Pastis will die alone and unloved.
Jesy Bertz Premium Member over 6 years ago
I took a knee for this pun.
Gent over 6 years ago
But Rat, that doesn’t look like Batiuk.
SukieCrandall Premium Member over 6 years ago
Only a leech will attach to the flake…
Darque Hellmutt over 6 years ago
They say a pun is the lowest form of humor. It may have hit a new low.
SukieCrandall Premium Member over 6 years ago
The current pledge is rather different from the original, and that itself is quite recent.
Original from the very tail end of the 19th century:
“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
The words “under God” varied by location for when they were added. The earliest did so as early as 1954, but I can not recall that being said in our school till almost ten years afterward.
History:
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/11/03/the-ugly-history-of-the-pledge-of-allegiance-and-why-it-matters/?utm_term=.56aaceda87e7
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wrote-the-pledge-of-allegiance-93907224/
Bookworm over 6 years ago
I thought it was actually pretty funny. But I’m old and senile.
B UTTONS over 6 years ago
What lucky individual of the 535 members of Congress (or 192 Democrat members) is Pig pledging to Trump?
Sue Ellen over 6 years ago
You’d be surprised how many kids think the pledge includes the phrases, “I led the pigeons,” “to the wee puppet for Richard Stands” and “one nation and a vegetable.” I’m not kidding! There’s even a book.
nickelwooden737 over 6 years ago
Oh good, Stefan! You received the “Songs of the Season” collection Hatchet Jack’s hapless final victim managed to send out 8 sets of from BMG before Redford filed his most recent block buster claim.
Sisyphos over 6 years ago
I guess it would be wrong to want to see Cartoon-Boy not only drawn but also drawn-and-quartered? That a pun was coming was totally obvious from panel 1; the only suspense was, how BAD would it be? And this one really was pretty bad….
rgcviper almost 5 years ago
Ahh, Pastis … you continue to outdo yourself with these puns. Please do not stop! [smile]
PBS1! over 4 years ago
What if the strip used a seemingly meaningless situation to make us expect a pun, and then did something completely different?
Dragongirl55 about 4 years ago
First Pearls I ever saw. Been a fan ever since.