Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 17, 2025

At least he’s not talking on a phone.

At least he is at home!

I tend to talk to the screen if the movie annoys me. The Revenge of the Sith was when my spouse told me “You’re a rotten companion.” Well, I found it to be a rotten movie. I figure I can express myself in my own home.

Looks like a Sunday strip, with all the extra panels.

Don’t you like it when people keep saying what’s about to happen?

I can’t believe that I’m just now noticing that either Goat is a dwarf or Rat is frighteningly enormous.

That’s so cool how Stephen divided each panel in two! Seems like I’ve never seen that before! He broke another wall! Kudos!

My wife is the same way. Drives me insane

Ever try watching a movie at home with someone who is ADHD?

I have a friend who is exactly like that. Worse yet, he wants to watch movies all the time.

Yeah I keep skipping back to listen to dialogue again when I watch tv and movies, to the point where I basically watch each episode twice, it’s a problem

Movies today are terrible with acoustics and have confusing plots to show off all the tech wizardry of explosions and gun fights. I’m as bad as Rat, but turning on the closed captions DOES help to some degree!

“Where do we know that guy from? A sit-com, I think? Maybe not. He was younger. His mom was on The Love Boat all the time. You know who I mean? Can we pause? I want to check IMDB. Where’s my phone?”

Might be why you won’t share your popcorn. And where is your beer?

Try watching a movie with someone with Bipolar Disorder once….once….

He’s worse than MST 2000, that show drives me nuts!

Stephan’s cheating! He’s putting Sunday strips in the weekday slots!

I was watching in the base theater with a friend while in the Air Force, the movie was Bonnie and Clyde (Beatty and Dunaway), and the scene when they get blown away, he gave up the loudest horse laugh, the whole theater turned to look at him!

“I don’t understand – how can he not realize that the 1st Baseman’s name is “Who”?

Ugh! He’s like that one kid at the theater!

Many so called horror films today seem to spend the duration of the movie executing cheap jump scares. Best friends or family members will suddenly jump out on the protagonist. I reckon the last time l genuinely ‘jumped’ was in 1975 when the head in ‘Jaws’ popped out of the hull.

Another tiring cliche is reality turning out to be a dream. This was a tactic usually only used in movies. It’s now become commonplace in tv shows and has become so frequent, we all know the protagonist is dreaming before the wake up.

As for cinemas, l’ve given up on them. Like many people here have said already, modern day audiences have ruined the experience. A couple who clearly couldn’t get a babysitter decided to sit next to me 5 seconds before ‘The Martian’ started. Typical. They had 3 kids under the age of 10 playing with torches and a toddler in a pushchair crying. I asked them if they were in the right screening as there was a Disney movie elsewhere. Their reply was curt. I’m baffled as to how they got in.

The management refused to give me a refund. Their reason? “Nobody else complained.”

Beepable nose today. Beep his nose, Goat. Go on….

I realize now – Rat is my mother-in-law!

I think you just answered your own question, Rat.

Maybe it’s because you won’t stop talking throughout them.

I can be that way with the action type movies my husband tends to pick.

Folks like Rat also have to deal with unimaginative casting directors (especially in American shows): “Is the slender blonde fashion model the prime suspect?” “No, that’s the slender blonde cop.” “Who’s that, then?” “The slender blonde cop’s slender blonde sister.” Yeah, some of these casting directors really have a Type.

Must be a Scottish show, where the characters cannot even understand each other…

My wife’s movies are very predictable. She hates it when I say what is going to happen next.

If I’m watching something, please don’t talk to me. If you do anyway I will pause and wonder why you don’t notice that I’m clearly just waiting for you to leave me alone.

Oh, aw, I thought he was going to be commenting on the commercials.

The butler did it

Hey wasn’t that guy with the curly hair in that one movie we saw a few months back? What was it called? The one with that curly haired guy and the blonde guy…what was his name?

Can you pause it? This is driving me crazy. I’m googling it.

Just like my sister.

smh

He’s practicing for the movie theater. Sigh.

Really Short Attention Span Theater.

Rat is too confused.

Also, can we appreciate how Pastis managed to put this out on a Friday?

Agreed and why can’t my TV step one frame at a time … “Smart?” baloney.

Second comic I’ve read today about watching a movie at home. The first one being Zits.

OMG I am rat…

Don’t know how I ever lived without a DVR, with the ability to pause, reverse, have captions, etc. Or my cellphone next to me to look up things I don’t get or can’t remember about this, that or the other thing.

Mystery movies might make you ask those questions

I have poor vision. It’s very hard for me to distinguish one character from another. And when movies went through that dark phase I gave up. No longer watch movies or TV because I even annoyed me.

“Put on your gloves.” “Don’t go in there by yourself. Call for backup,”

I’m not even watching movies on TV as much any more because my time is being taken up with much shorter-length programming.

My Mother and her Mother were the worst! — LOLOL — And I’d give my right arm to watch/talk thru another movie with them.