The comic arrived 14 months after the last one. I predicted â1+ yearâ. That was a lower bound. The median delay is 3 years.
(Disclaimer: this data is biased by reruns and right-censoring.)
I predicted Iggy would show up. He did not. On careful consideration I donât think he could have. He doesnât fit the caption. Iggy is whimsy-neutral: he describes wacky events impartially. Grandpa and Grandma Heathcliff are whimsy-mitigators: they comment on ordinary elements to downplay the overall wackiness. Compare:
âThe ball works his coreâ is whimsy-mitigating. Itâs funny that the speaker only explains which muscles the ball exercises and ignores Heathcliffâs species and the ballâs size.
To break out of the 2Ă2 matrix above you need to either come up with a third joke (tricky) or apply one of the existing jokes to a different character.
You canât do the ball-on-head version with another character. Grandpa and Grandma Nutmeg are used up, Iggy isnât suitable (I called this), and neither is anyone outside the Nutmeg household. Cats are known to rest on heads, the ball-on-head is exaggerated cat behavior, but they do this with people they trust. So it has to be the big ball version.
The joke has to take place in a location where people exercise. The speaker has to be familiar with Heathcliffâs routine. The obvious setting other than the Nutmeg household is a gym and the obvious speaker other than the Nutmegs is a gym employee.
The âMid City Gymâ location was used in a few comics in 2003, then resurrected starting in 2023. Same interior, same uniform.
A careful reader could have predicted todayâs comic. (Iâm not there yet.)
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