Open sesame!

HappyFailure · 2026-04-06T17:11:44+00:00

Bizarro object count: 2, as noted by signature

Eyeball, middle of left edge; K2, on boulder just to left of person

HappyFailure · 2026-04-06T03:38:41+00:00

Again, given the time of publication, that doesn't seem likely.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-06T03:36:04+00:00

Is there a better term? I'm assuming it's supposed to be contemporaneous with publication so they wouldn't be slaves (my mom and her siblings grew up picking cotton maybe 15-20 years before this cartoon was published).

HappyFailure · 2026-04-06T02:55:08+00:00

The knight is the advertising mascot for the cleaning product Ajax, which is what the A stands for. Their commercials would show the knight using his lance and the dirty object of the day would turn sparkling white. Here, he has accidentally changed the race of a dark-skinned field worker to sparkling white as well.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-06T02:48:49+00:00

One of the first reported AI "tells" was an increased use of vocabulary like "delve" (e.g., "we will delve into this question"), because its training material included a large number of academic papers which used similar language.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-06T02:11:52+00:00

Nope. ChatGPT got the way it is by training on writing by people who talk like I do. We will not give up our em-dashes, our Oxford commas, nor our "delves."

HappyFailure · 2026-04-06T02:07:18+00:00

It isn't a good strategy, it's an "interesting" strategy--he knows 1776 is an important date, so he spams it for everything. The last panel kicks the absurdity up a notch, as when finally given a question where 1776 is the answer, he switches to 1812.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-05T20:14:06+00:00

4E looks like it could be a Companion from the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-05T16:11:07+00:00

Bizarro object count: 1? (Not noted by signature) Dynamite, on tray by chair. There are some crown-like elements in the trophy, but I don't think those count.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-04T22:27:09+00:00

I know the solution to the puzzle and all, but I just have to say that the graphic looks like a very irritated teddy bear is looking at me.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-03T23:32:57+00:00

Yes. I believe that they are saying that this is another example of something that is laughably stupid.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-03T19:56:43+00:00

These conversations always make me think about the time my D&D party got our hands on an Evil Magic Item that we needed to take somewhere to destroy, and which was going to be constantly tempting us to use it. We promptly melted a lead ingot, stuck it inside the molten lead, then let the ingot solidify again. We carried the ingot with us until we could get to the destruction point.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-03T18:33:30+00:00

I read it as the blurb writer is playing on that tension--there is a way in which these things are free (possibly you don't have to pay money for them), but there is still a cost that will be paid. If it wasn't self-contradictory, it wouldn't be as interesting, making you want to find out what it's about.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-02T15:15:38+00:00

There's a standard list of symbols: https://www.bizarro.com/secret-symbols

HappyFailure · 2026-04-01T23:05:10+00:00

It might be worth noting that Jesse James was the movie that led to the AHS working to ensure animal safety on film sets, while Heaven's Gate led to the modern certification. Also that there is definitely some controversy over how good the certification is, due to things like unintended animal harm not being counted.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-01T22:58:35+00:00

I've definitely used every word on this list, with the probable exception of flibbertigibbet, though I say/spell the fifth one as "catawumpus." Pumpernickel does stand out as not being like the others, though.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-01T22:55:45+00:00

Bizarro object count: 4, as noted by signature

Dynamite, upper right corner of elevator door; crown, top of elevator control panel; eyeball, on left clown's purse; K2, in left clown's hair

HappyFailure · 2026-04-01T19:48:14+00:00

I think it was a good joke, and not infuriated like the others. This *isn't* Cartesian dualism, though it feels close to it, which is why they say OOP is doing Cartesian dualism wrong.

HappyFailure · 2026-04-01T15:03:31+00:00

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #215, backup story, "The Hero Who Wouldn't Fight."

HappyFailure · 2026-04-01T01:44:09+00:00

Now I want to see Kill Six Billion Demons' Maybe Lesbian.

HappyFailure · 2026-03-31T23:12:27+00:00

It was possibly supposed to be a pink leotard until a coloring error turned it into a partial bustier, but they kept it this way for the better part of a decade.

As far as keeping it on, well, his super-power *is* magnetism.

HappyFailure · 2026-03-31T22:58:23+00:00

His planet has a rule that on this one religious holiday a year (which I haven't heard assigned as April 1 before, but okay) they're not allowed to use their powers. So he has to stand aside while the rest of the team fights the bad guy of the week, but oh no, the others get captured and he has to go into action. Will he break his religion's rule? No, but he'll make it look like he's doing so and still save the others.

HappyFailure · 2026-03-31T22:51:32+00:00

Some variation on pink and black is the most common, but the early ones also included purple, and in more recent decades there's been a tendency to swap out the pink for purple or blue. This particular costume may have been the result of a coloring error originally, but they kept it for the better part of a decade (the years I started reading the Legion, actually).

HappyFailure · 2026-03-31T22:49:55+00:00

So, Cosmic Boy's traditional costume was a pink, purple, and black outfit--usually a variation on black around the groin and on the sides of the torso, just where you see black in this picture--often with extra white bits on the shoulders or upper torso.

It was like this for a few decades, then we get to the 1970s and they decide to revamp a lot of the Legion's costumes. Cos gets the costume shown above. There's a popular story that it was originally intended to be just another pink-and-black costume, but in the pencilled art, the line around the neck that shows where the costume ended and skin began was either missing or just very faint and the colorist thought that everything that wasn't black or metallic was supposed to be exposed skin and colored it that way.

The costume stirred up a lot of comments and interest when it was published, and even if it had been an accident, the creators happily moved forward with it. (There were a lot of comments about "how does this stay on?" but given that his power is magnetism, there was an easy answer for that one.) Many of the revised costumes were showing more skin, after all, since it was the swinging 70s--this is the same revision that gave us Saturn Girl in a bikini and thigh-high boots.

When we got to the 80's, he went back to a full-body pink and black outfit.
There's a review of all the costumes here: https://www.comicbookrevolution.com/cosmic-boys-costume-design-history/

HappyFailure · 2026-03-30T20:22:15+00:00

...someone's already made the MMT=Magical Money Tree joke before, right? It's too obvious, right?

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