Line #49 Blog/TheComicsCurmudgeon


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joshreads_922.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Josh, depicted here reading the comics so we don't have to.]]
3
4	Josh Fruhlinger started this blog in July 2004 — thus his riches. Its original title was ''I Read The Comics So You Don't Have To'' (a Boston-area newspaper that featured a similarly-titled column forced the name change). In the blog, Josh selects several [[NewspaperComics newspaper comic strips]] every day and offers (usually sarcastic) commentary on them.
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6	Over time, the blog has developed a great deal of media attention as the authors of many comics have discovered it. Some comic artists or writers are even fans of the blog, including Chris Browne (''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible''), Mark Tatulli (''ComicStrip/{{Lio}}'', ''ComicStrip/HeartOfTheCity''), Francesco Marciuliano (''[[ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward Sally Forth]]'' and also the web comic ''Medium Large''), Ed Power (''ComicStrip/MyCage''), "Jumble Jeff" Knurek (the ''Jumble'' puzzle/comic), James Allen (Jack Elrod's assistant/successor on ''ComicStrip/MarkTrail''), and Bob Weber, Jr. (''ComicStrip/SlylockFox''). Marciuliano, who is also registered on the boards, even created a logo for the site (and the image for this page) during a major site redesign in early 2010. Also, Bob Weber has actually used the blog to sell official ''Slylock Fox'' merchandise directed at the adult fans of his strip.
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8	Josh has also developed a great deal of {{Running Gag}}s within the blog, including Aldo Kelrast, a character in ''ComicStrip/MaryWorth'', whose storyline became one of the strip's most popular after Josh began joking about it. ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComics Archie]]'' has even made reference to one of the blog's running gags. He also coined the trope name ''{{Nephewism}}''.
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10	Read it [[http://www.joshreads.com/ here]].
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12	----
13	!!Tropes:
14
15	* AfraidOfNeedles: Josh himself, as he admits [[https://joshreads.com/2018/08/hope-you-like-salmon-scented-dog-farts-buddy/ here]]
16	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:[[invoked]] Much of the blog is based on this.
17	** His application of plothole logic to ''ComicStrip/SlylockFox'' can easily make you unable to see it as anything other than a hell dimension populated by poor souls cursed to be animals for all eternity, constantly under surveillance and presumed to be guilty of all accused crimes.
18	*** A little more mundanely, Slylock Fox is very into [[DirtyCop abuse of police/investigative powers]], and among other things uses them to stalk Cassandra Cat.
19	** ComicStrip/{{Marmaduke}} is a ravenous, uncontrollable {{Hellhound}} who regularly consumes his "owner"'s neighbors and buries their stripped bones in the back yard.
20	*** Also, his owner is apparently Adolf Hitler due to similar hair and mustache styles.
21	** Instead of being a caring, helpful soul, ComicStrip/MaryWorth is a Machiavellian, manipulative harpy who cannot stand people living in ways she doesn't approve and compulsively meddles in the affairs of those she encounters.
22	** ComicStrip/MarkTrail is UsefulNotes/{{asexual}} and secretly hates Rusty.
23	** Stanley and Harriet from ''The Better Half'' are addicted to prescription drugs.
24	** [[ComicStrip/RexMorganMD Rex Morgan]] was thought to be gay, though this tapered off after one unusually homoerotic storyline, and Rex's characterization as the long-suffering OnlySaneMan has now prompted Josh to reevaluate him as a snide, arrogant, dismissive, and deeply anti-social man who detests his job just for bringing him into the orbit of other people, especially his hapless patients.
25	** The Keanes of ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'' are a bunch of ultra-fundamentalist religious cultists.
26	** [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS Dennis Mitchell's]] many, many examples of MenaceDecay might seem like dull, gentle family humor, but Josh's extrapolation of simple hidden meanings within those jokes (particularly any involving Mr. Wilson) make him seem like a cruel, sociopathic StrawNihilist who enjoys making others question their life choices, morality, free will, and inevitable decay into nothingness.
27	** The ''Daddy Daze'' daddy can't actually understand his infant's pre-verbal babbling; instead, he's going slowly insane due to loneliness and projecting his deranged thoughts onto his child.
28	** Throughout the bizarre July 2007 ''ComicStrip/GasolineAlley'' plot where Slim plotted to airdrop a meteorite on a local basketball court that was annoying him, Josh played up the connotation of an old man getting insanely angry at black teenagers for all it was worth, always describing the attempt with some variation on Slim "keeping his neighborhood white".
29	--->''Driven to madness by the incessant basketball-dribbling of a bunch of young African-American fellows, Slim has decided to destroy the public court on which their noisy pastime is played by simulating a meteor strike. Dear God, I wish I had made up a single word in that previous sentence.''
30	* {{Angrish}}: Josh occasionally lapses into a typed version, for instance in response to [[https://joshreads.com/2008/02/saturday-quickies-seedy-underbelly-edition-2/#ssbg a Snuffy Smith with a blatant coloring error]] or [[https://joshreads.com/2007/12/obvious-joke-tuesday/ an extra-glurgy For Better Or For Worse.]]
31	* AnimalIsTheNewMan: According to Josh, ''ComicStrip/SlylockFox'' is set in the wake of the "animapocalypse". All animals mysteriously gained sentience on a single fateful day, then killed off most of humanity and hijacked human civilization.
32	* AntiHumor: On occasion. For instance, in a ''ComicStrip/{{Marmaduke}}'' comic featured in [[http://joshreads.com/?p=14061 this post]], Marmaduke is eating out of a bag of chips while Dottie sits next to him, asking, "Did someone give Marmaduke a bag of corn chips?" What kind of "[[RunningGag Marmaduke is a people-eating hellbeast]]" joke will come up?
33	-->'''Uncle Lumpy:''' [[spoiler:Someone gave Marmaduke a bag of corn chips.]]
34	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: (In a commentary on ''ComicStrip/MaryWorth'') "Place your bets on what this 'troubling' medical condition may be: pregnancy, venereal disease, dementia, Electra Complex, droopy-ponytail-itis"
35	* TheArtefact: Josh will sometimes point out when long-running strips keep an element that no longer makes sense due to either [[ValuesDissonance society]] or [[CharacterizationMarchesOn characterization]] marching on.
36	--> '''[[https://joshreads.com/2011/05/cocaine-blues/ Josh:]]''' One of the more jarring and hilarious things about [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS Dennis]]’s ongoing [[MenaceDecay de-Menacification]] is that Mr. Wilson’s contempt and loathing for him has been ratcheted back not at all, making him less a put-upon elderly gent and more a hateful sociopath.
37	* AscendedMeme: After constantly joking about the ''Archie'' comic strip being written by the "Archie Joke Generating Laugh Unit 3000," the strip began referencing that line.
38	** The author of ''ComicStrip/MaryWorth'' opened a [=CafePress=] store and created merchandise prominently featuring some of Aldo's greatest moments.
39	* AudienceParticipation: Every Friday, Josh picks a funny reader comment as the "Comment of the Week", and puts it in a special box on the homepage. He also recognizes a wide slate of runners-up.
40	* AuthorVocabularyCalendar: Frequently uses the word "ratiocination" (definition: "logical and methodical reasoning" or "the process of exact thinking") to describe the mystery/puzzle-solving abilities of ComicStrip/SlylockFox.
41	* BanOnPolitics: It's an official blog rule that even just mentioning ''ComicStrip/MallardFillmore'' will get you banned from the comments section.
42	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Josh once complained about how most comic strip parents were coded as Baby Boomers even when they were clearly too young for that (generally due to the ongoing march of ComicBookTime). Then a certain ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' strip [[https://joshreads.com/2019/10/crankshaft-got-radicalized-in-a-gardening-subreddit-probably/#zits came across his desk]], depicting Walt's dad as a literal dinosaur because he used to rent movies from the video store as a teenager—which would make him a Gen-X'er or even an older Millenial. Since Josh is himself a Gen-X'er with fond memories of the video-rental age, this made him feel very old indeed.
43	-->Noooooo … not like this. ''Not like this.''
44	* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The tooth fairy, according to [[http://joshreads.com/?p=26312#dennis this]].
45	* BoldInflation: The man likes using italics and capital letters in spots for emphasis. His fondness is lampshaded in the title of [[http://joshreads.com/?p=23587 this entry]]: "Lotta italics today and I'm not ashamed of that"
46	* BreadEggsBreadedEggs:
47	** [[http://joshreads.com/?p=3113 Josh speculating]] on what sort of offscreen rowdiness ''ComicStrip/GilThorp'' characters had gotten up to:
48	-->"Drugs? Orgy? Drug fueled orgy?"
49	** [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1167 Josh speculating about the consequences of Darrin and Jessica having sex in Funky Winkerbean:]]
50	-->* Pregnancy (despite the fact that this has been the longest-drawn-out lead-up in teen sex history, probably still nobody will think to use any form of birth control because, you know, ''nobody gets to have any fun'')\
51	* Cancer (sexually transmitted, somehow)\
52	* Pregnant cancer\
53	* Cancerous pregnancy
54	* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "Marmaduke's owner can't get the dog to stay off the furniture, stop digging up the yard, or refrain from eating the neighbors"
55	* BrickJoke: [[http://joshreads.com/?p=107 October 21st, 2004]]: Josh posts an email from "Doc Martian" consisting of "[[ComicStrip/AndyCapp ANDY CAPP!]]" 10 times in the subject line and 44 in the body. [[http://joshreads.com/?p=27042 April 22nd, 2016]]: In a post titled "This one’s for you, Doc Martian, wherever you are", Josh decides "why ''not'' Andy Capp?" and does his first commentary on the comic.
56	* CarnivoreConfusion: Discussed [[https://joshreads.com/2009/02/gil-thorp-mind-coach/ here]], in reference to a ''ComicStrip/{{Pluggers}}'' strip where a bear-man thinks that salad is "something that 'food' eats."
57	-->Number 1 Thing That Is Awkward To Bring Up When Your Comic’s Characters Are All Anthropomorphic Animals, And Sometimes There Are Mixed Carnivore-Herbivore Marriages: the food chain.
58	* CausticCritic: Josh can be this at times, especially to strips that he dislikes, though he's generally more sarcastic and jovial than outright hostile. Except for the one and only time [[http://joshreads.com/?p=932 he discussed political cartoons]].
59	** Josh can get pretty hostile about strips he wants to see end, with ''ComicStrip/{{Marvin}}'', ''ComicStrip/{{Luann}}'', and (when it was still running) ''Crock'' being among the hardest hit. Generally, though, he just mocks the on-going nature of long-running strips, often citing them as horribly out of touch with modern times (such as ''Crock'''s belief that kids these days "swap iTunes" as a sign of commitment).
60	** He has come to genuinely and openly hate ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean''. Considering he was a fan of the strip when the blog started and had been ''impressed'' by the writer's willingness to go through with depicting Lisa's death from cancer, this should say something about the direction the strip has taken since then. He's not too wild about its spinoff strip ''ComicStrip/{{Crankshaft}}'', either.
61	** Averted by ''ComicStrip/MallardFillmore''. He hates it, but has only talked about it once. Plus, mentioning it on his blog is a bannable offense.
62	** Averted by ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy''; it's one of the few comics he genuinely likes. Since its entertaining on its own merits, he rarely brings it up, and when he does, it's just as often an attempt to explain why it's amusing to those outside the fold, which he undertakes with a surprising amount of maturity, considering this is the internet.
63	** The ''ComicStrip/{{Pluggers}}'' and ''ComicStrip/SnuffySmith'' comics generally get reviewed with a mildly sneery checklist of pretty much every stereotype regarding rural people.
64	** His opinion of ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' seems to have softened since the passing of creator Johnny Hart and the strip's subsequent transformation into a Legacy Comic. Hart had made the comic preachy, unfunny and overtly religious in a way that didn't suit the tone of the comic after his finding religion. The legacy writer's decision to go in a more bizarre direction with it leads to a more incomprehensible but ''more enjoyable'' comic.
65	** Similarly, ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' has fallen off the rotation since the creative team changed - Josh has stated he just doesn't find it as perversely entertaining anymore, now that the plots are shorter and saner and the artwork is better.
66	* ChildEater: ''ComicStrip/{{Marmaduke}}''
67	* {{Deconstruction}}: A huge amount of the blog's comedy is found in describing the real world ramifications of a given strip, especially if given dark, gory or sexual undertones.
68	* ADegreeInUseless: When pro basketball player Jaquan Case decides to put his career on hold and [[https://joshreads.com/2017/09/no-war-but-class-war-happy-labor-day/#gt pursue a master's degree in history]] in ''Gil Thorp'', Josh -- himself a history MA -- immediately pegs this as a terrible idea, even assuming that when Jaquan [[https://joshreads.com/2019/06/summer-tedium/ returns two summers later]], it's to take bloody revenge on the people who ruined his life with that suggestion.
69	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The title "[[http://joshreads.com/?p=1656 This week's COTW of the week!]]" Note that [=COTW=] stands for Comments Of The Week.
70	** From [[https://joshreads.com/2007/04/josh-does-too-read-the-comics-so-you-dont-have-to/ 2007-02-04]]:
71	--> '''Josh:''' In part one of Soap Opera Strips I Haven’t Been Discussing Because They Have Been Boring To Me, ''ComicStrip/Apartment3G''’s interminable Lu Ann vs. Ghost Albert Pinkham Ryder storyline has been boring to me. [...] In part two of Soap Opera Strips I Haven’t Been Discussing Because They Have Been Boring To Me, ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom''’s interminable Old Man Mozz Is A Hostage To Bank Robbers storyline has been boring to me.
72	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In the commentary for ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' on [[https://joshreads.com/2008/03/all-i-wanna-do-is-a-zoom-zoom-zumba/ 2008-03-11]]:
73	--> '''Josh:''' What if by “I beat the sun up again” Dennis means not “I woke up before sunrise” but “I bested the sun in hand-to-hand combat”? You have to admit [...] that would be pretty menacing — both because it would be a bad-ass achievement in and of itself and because it would send our planet’s temperature plunging close to absolute zero, [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu killing all life on its surface]].
74	* {{Dissimile}}: His quip about ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'' [[http://joshreads.com/?p=10713 here]]:
75	-->I'm overjoyed to see Billy's comically overwrought expression of crushing despair as his mother drapes that suit jacket over his shoulders. It's as if he’s won the Masters, only instead of a green jacket he's getting a blue jacket, and instead of winning the Masters he's going to be executed wearing a blue jacket.
76	** Josh once referred to a ''ComicStrip/GilThorp'' plot as [[http://joshreads.com/?p=3113 "A roller-coaster ride, if roller-coasters had no hills and didn't move at all."]]
77	* DontExplainTheJoke:
78	** Parodied. Josh often explains the punchline of a comic in the most outlandish and unfiltered manner possible.
79	** Occasionally played straight, to draw attention to how unfunny the intended joke actually is. [[MadLibsCatchPhrase Ha ha, it’s funny because]] [[http://joshreads.com/?p=12123 he’s in excruciating pain.]]
80	* EnhanceButton: From the [[https://joshreads.com/2017/08/erotic-soapy-developments/ August 10th, 2017 Mary Worth]]:
81	-->'''Josh:''' COMPUTER, ENHANCE.
82	-->''(Extreme close up of Jared)''
83	-->'''Josh:''' COMPUTER, DE-ENHANCE, NOBODY NEEDS TO SEE JARED'S SEX-RAGE IN SUCH DETAIL.
84	** Also happened in the [[https://joshreads.com/2018/03/eight-arms-to-hold-you/ March 15th, 2018 Mary Worth]] to point out a coloring error on Wilbur's arm. Josh comes to the [[BlatantLies completely logical]] conclusion that Wilbur is secretly [[EldritchAbomination an Old One.]]
85	* EnsembleDarkhorse (In-Universe): Aldo Kelrast, naturally, but Josh appreciates pretty much any more colorful single-arc character that diverts focus from a boring main cast, especially if said characters have the audacity to insult them; past fascinations include fraudulent Negro Leagues star Clambake from ''ComicStrip/GilThorp'', the "drunken, vomitous" Celeste Black from ''Judge Parker'', or the recurring Frank Nelson salesclerk guy from ''Gasoline Alley''.
86	* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Guest commentator Uncle Lumpy has one at the end of [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1466 this post.]]
87	* EyeTake: Josh noticed how often these come up in ''ComicStrip/{{Shoe}}'', and dubbed them "the Patented ''Shoe'' Goggle Eyes of Horror".
88	* FamilyThemeNaming: Josh [[http://joshreads.com/?p=8936 speculates]] that Lois from ''Hi and Lois'' was originally named Ladybug before she got married and left the Bailey family, considering that her brothers' names are Beetle and Chigger.
89	* {{Fanfiction}}: There was a post about a joke in ''Hi and Lois'' when one of the kids misunderstands a metaphor, and assumes that Beethoven was buried alive. [[http://docs.google.com/View?id=dggnx8gx_201fwkfzqdh This ensued]].
90	* FetishRetardant: In-universe, Josh has noted that he's never turned on by highly sexualized female characters such as June Morgan or Blondie, yet is head-over-heels in love with Margo [=McGee=]. Part of it is his well documented love of strong, take-charge women.
91	* FirstGuyWins: Parodied in [[https://joshreads.com/2008/09/this-is-the-end-my-foobish-friends/ his commentary]] on the last ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'', where Josh makes fun of the much-despised Elizabeth/Anthony pairing by saying that April will ditch her cowboy boyfriend as soon as her first boyfriend Gerald gets divorced.
92	* FridgeBrilliance:[[invoked]] There were comics that Josh had initially disliked when the blog started, but as he reviewed them more he began to genuinely appreciate them. Two examples are ''Curtis'' and ''They'll Do It Every Time''. This is somewhat true with ''The Better Half'' in which he never even acknowledged it until Uncle Lumpy started blogging it while he was on vacation. But realizing that their marriage is more fucked up than on ''ComicStrip/TheLockhorns'', he started taking a interest in it. Though it seems if anything more of a "fascination" than actual appreciation.
93	* FurryConfusion: Josh notes that a dog plugger owning a pet dog is confusing. He [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1260 says]] "Pluggers don't have health insurance, so they take their kids to the vet"
94	* FurryReminder: Josh's [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1551 initial reaction]] to a ''ComicStrip/{{Shoe}}'' strip is, "HOLY CRAP THEY'RE FLYING!"
95	* AGoodNameForARockBand: [[http://joshreads.com/?p=3637 He says that]] “Hillary’s Soliloquy” is a good name for a band.
96	* {{Hellhound}}: Marmaduke.
97	* HoYay:[[invoked]] Used frequently in the earlier years of the blog, but less often later.
98	** Josh used to have a RunningGag about ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' and Sarge's secret gay relationship, but he eventually abandoned it. As he pointed out [[https://joshreads.com/2017/06/somewhat-sexually-uncomfortable-tuesday/ in 2017]]:
99	--->What with the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the idea that two men in the military might be involved in a secret S&M relationship no longer holds a transgressive thrill.
100	** Similarly, he used to make jokes about Rex Morgan and... [[ReallyGetsAround all other males]]. As of 2021 (and for several years prior), the running gag is that Rex is emotionally distant and finds ''all'' human contact inconvenient at best.
101	** And then there's ''Herb and Jamaal''. In this case, the joke was mostly about one specific strip from 2007 where, "[a]s noted by several faithful readers," the two leads appeared to be having sex. See [[https://joshreads.com/2007/10/seven-sentences-about-five-cartoons/ here]].
102	* HumanMail: Josh [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1555 interprets]] a silly ''ComicStrip/HiAndLois'' strip this way.
103	* HypocrisyNod: Often, Josh complains heartily about some aspect of a comic, only to turn around and demand that the very next strip include more of what he disliked about the first comic. He always lampshades this. [[http://joshreads.com/?p=8438 Example!]]
104	* IKnewIt:[[invoked]] In ''Apartment 3G'', he correctly guessed that Ruby was Luann's biological mother over four years before TheReveal proved it.
105	* InsaneTrollLogic: Josh writes some of his own for a ''[[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS Dennis the Menace]]'' riff. He says that Dennis hates baseball, America's favorite pastime. Therefore, he hates America, and is a terrorist/fascist/commie.
106	* InsistentTerminology: When discussing the creators of ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' and ''ComicStrip/HiAndLois'', Josh always refers to them as "Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Industries LLC."
107	* MemeticBadass: In-universe, Mark Trail, Margo Magee, and Mary Worth when a '''peon''' interferes with her meddling.
108	* MemeticMolester:
109	** In-universe, Rex Morgan.
110	** [[ComicStrip/MarkTrail Kelly Welly]] as well.
111	* MisappliedPhlebotinum: {{Discussed}} in the commentary to [[https://joshreads.com/2021/08/sorry-to-get-even-grosser-but-i-must-speak-my-truth/#dt this]] Dick Tracy storyline.
112	--> I was going to complain about this, but you know what? It’s fine, actually. The list of terrible things an amoral scientist who works hand in glove with America’s least restrained police force could be using chrono-viewing technology for is frankly terrifying, so I think the fact that his very first thought seems to be that his time drone can serve as a glorified metal detector is a good sign, all things considered.
113	* MoodWhiplash: Josh [[http://joshreads.com/?p=3188 delves]] into the metatextual layers of a Dennis the Menace strip, culminating in his decision that "perhaps Dennis is menacing us, by showing us the real human consequences of our hidden desires." The next strip was Shoe:
114	--> Josh: "[[MadLibsCatchPhrase Haha, it's funny because]] shitting something something the economy!"
115	* {{Nephewism}}: The TropeNamer, though the entry lumps the ChasteToons trope in with this as well.
116	* NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead:
117	** When [[http://joshreads.com/?p=11816 Bil Keane]], creator of ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'', died in 2011, Josh was very somber, recalling the era when the strip was a lot edgier, and how the man himself [[SelfDeprecation had a great sense of humor about all the parodies of his work]]. Even the comments section has nothing but respect for the man, everybody agreeing that their mocking was in good jest, and that despite how unfunny many may have found the comic, every single commentor still respected him as a cartoonist and human being.
118	** Also on the death of ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' creator [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1023 Johnny Hart]]: "Instead, I’ll just note that the dude died at his drawing board. That’s hardcore."
119	** And when [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1361 Al Scaduto]] of ''They Do It Every Time'' passed away at the age of 79, no one, not Josh nor the commenters, expressed anything but respect for the man. Josh even mentioned that, despite not quite getting the strip and its bizarre idiosyncrasies of language (later dubbing them "Scaduto-isms"), it grew on him to the point where he was delighted to feature new installments submitted by commenters' mail.
120	** [[http://joshreads.com/?p=13590 Josh's response]] to the creator death-driven end of ''Crock'', even though Josh disliked the strip, and it had made a TakeThat at his expense [[http://joshreads.com/?p=13534 just five days before]].
121	** [[http://joshreads.com/?p=26599 Jack Elrod's passing]] left Josh particularly saddened, as the weirdness of ''Mark Trail'' under Elrod's tenure was partially what had inspired him to create the blog in the first place.
122	* NewMediaAreEvil: Comics that convey this message are frequently called out and mocked for it.
123	* TheNoseless: What Josh realises to his horror in regards to [[ComicStrip/{{Garfield}} Jon Arbuckle]], when he and [[ComicStrip/Blondie1930 Dagwood Bumstead]] [[http://joshreads.com/?p=395 appeared together in the same panel]].
124	* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: [[http://joshreads.com/?p=28104 August 18, 2016]] featured "the best ever instance of [[ComicStrip/MarkTrail Mark]] keeping a straight face while a government bureaucrat spells out an entire URL over the phone for some reason."
125	* PrecisionFStrike
126	-->'''[[ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus Billy:]]''' Now that we're in bed, they won't have to watch their language on TV.\
127	'''Josh:''' You sure got that right, you little fucker.
128	* PutOnABus: An interesting non-character example. Either Josh loses interest in many comics, or runs out of ways he can play on the same running gag, or he finds replacements to mock when the older riffing material gets stale. [[note]]we hardly ever see ''ComicStrip/TheLockHorns'' since he started poking fun at ''ComicStrip/TheBetterHalf'', nor Garfield or Marmaduke since he started on Heathcliff[[/note]] Regardless, many many comics have come and gone from his circulation over the years.
129	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Josh [[https://joshreads.com/2006/04/filth-foreigners-doom/ dropped a big one on Pluggers]].
130	* RuleThirtyFour: He found one of Cassandra Cat on someone else's blog and posted it to his own. It later got taken down from both blogs, at Bob Weber, Jr.'s request[[note]]though the pic is easy to find, if you know where to look[[/note]].
131	* RunningGag: Beyond all the MemeticMutation, other recurring gags include:
132	** ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'' and Sarge being [[HoYay sexual partners]].
133	** ''[[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS Dennis the Menace]]'''s ever-growing MenaceDecay.
134	*** Though quite a few times Josh finds him very passively-aggressively menacing.
135	** ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus'' being the story of an ultra-Fundamentalist cult living sequestered away in the "Keane Kompound."
136	*** Also, jokes about the kids being incredibly dumb.
137	** ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean'''s obsession with [[CerebusSyndrome cancer and death]], to the point that never-ending depression seems to be the only constant force in the Funkyverse. Also extends to ''ComicStrip/{{Crankshaft}}'' at times.
138	** ''Herb and Jamaal'' being "ludicrously non-specific."
139	*** And those two being "on the down-low." You know what I'm talking about.
140	** ''ComicStrip/{{Marmaduke}}'' being a demonspawned hellhound who can't stop killing and eating people, and his owner being Adolf Hitler.
141	** ''ComicStrip/{{Marvin}}'''s obsession with ToiletHumor.
142	** ''ComicStrip/MaryWorth'''s obsession with sanctimonious meddling (although that one is more or less canon).
143	** ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComics Archie]]'' being written by a sterile computer, the ''Archie Joke-Generating Laugh Unit 3000'', that "almost, but doesn't quite, understand humor."
144	** ''ComicStrip/MarkTrail'' solving most of his problems by [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer punching bearded hillbillies]].
145	*** The abominations that are the author's attempts to draw Rusty as something more resembling a human boy than some sort of hellspawn.
146	*** And all the giant animals running around, and even occasionally speaking.
147	** ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' is an authoritarian tyrant who believes violence is the solution to everything.
148	** The romance between Brad and Toni in ''ComicStrip/{{Luann}}'' seems to make Josh physically ill. Also, TJ is probably gay.
149	** ''ComicStrip/{{Crankshaft}}'' being a {{Jerkass}}.
150	** ''ComicStrip/SlylockFox''- He jokes about the world being a dystopian society where animals evolved and overthrew the human race. Josh managed to pinpoint [[http://joshreads.com/?p=18625 where it all started]]
151	** Newspaper ''ComicStrip/SpiderMan'' wants [[BoringFailureHero nothing more than to watch TV]].
152	*** Along with jokes about everyone else in the strip being absolute morons.
153	** In ''ComicStrip/Apartment3G'', Luann is [[DumbBlonde vapid]], Tommie has the personality of cardboard, and Margo Magee is a memetic psychopath who would just as soon snap someone's neck as acknowledge they exist.
154	*** Finger-Quotin' Margo.
155	*** A running-gag is about how incredibly boring the then-current storyline is (Tommie and Carol talking about nothing for months) and how it seems to never end, while wondering where the heck Margo and Luann are.
156	** Calling ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' "FOOB" (all caps, as if it were a botched attempt at an acronym), after a strip where April explains slang that [[TotallyRadical actually only exists]] [[UnusualEuphemism in-universe]].
157	** The crazy pervert inbound visitors. See, when someone goes to the site from a search engine result, Josh can see what they searched, and he took to posting some of the most [[TheInternetIsForPorn creepy]] and [[{{Rule 34}} outlandish]] ones for the amusement of readers.
158	** The characters of ''ComicStrip/JudgeParker'' being smug dicks, who see no problem with using their money to get whatever they want.
159	** The running gag in ''ComicStrip/{{Heathcliff}}'' is Josh making fun of the fact that the comic is pure insanity, to the point where Josh doesn't even have to say anything. It's almost as if the writer expects Josh to riff it so he makes it as bizarre as possible to make it easier for him.
160	*** Also the fact that Heathcliff has instituted a cult of personality among the mice and [[http://joshreads.com/?p=17313 forces them to worship him]].
161	** Referring to ''ComicStrip/ThePhantom'' as "The Ghost Who [something related to that day's comic]", after his official epithet of "The Ghost Who Walks"
162	** "[[MadLibsCatchPhrase Ha! It's funny because]] [some creepy reason]." The best part is that, for once, he's not extrapolating anything; these are always the intended joke.
163	** It's gotten to the point that he has a RunningGag where he wonders if he's overplaying a particular gag, only for a strip to take it to new and disturbing heights.
164	** He constantly compares ''ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible'' to the (not at all family friendly) real life vikings. Implying that Hagar is still no different, and rapes and murders off-panel.
165	** When a character says something that someone would never use in a normal everyday conversation, he assumes the characters are aliens trying to fit in with human society.
166	** Sarah Morgan [[SpoiledBrat being better than everyone else]], to the point of being a powerful entity who is not bound to the rules of pathetic mortals.
167	** Leroy and Loretta from the ''ComicStrip/TheLockhorns'' are actually Millennials. This is a joke that's mostly poking fun of how the average reader of his blog is [[ParanoiaFuel aging closer]] to the titular characters due to ComicBookTime, not helped by it being one of the few comics Josh covers that can make references to modern phenomena ''without'' being cringeworthy and out of touch.
168	* SarcasmFailure: Occasionally, Josh will find a strip's message so annoying that he can't even joke about it and just runs a comment along the lines of "Seriously, what ''is'' this?" There was also the occasion when, after repeatedly joking about the homoerotic undertones of Rex Morgan's fishing trip with Niki, his reaction to the strip where Rex tells Niki "And always ''wet'' your hands before you handle a trout!" was "Honestly, I … I don’t even know what anybody expects me to say about this stuff anymore."
169	* ScunthorpeProblem: At one point the comment system's spam filter kept catching posts containing "MILF"...and ''ComicStrip/GilThorp'' takes place in ''Milford''.
170	* SelfDeprecation: Josh will occasionally comment on how horrible or immature a person he thinks he is based on how he reacts to a scene.
171	* ShoutOut: ''ComicStrip/MyCage'', ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' and ''[[ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward Sally Forth]]'' have all made positive references to the blog. ''Retail'' made a less positive reference to it in a strip about a blog called "hateoncomics.com." Ironic, considering Josh has never covered ''Retail''.
172	** ''The Jumble'' (whose artist is a regular commenter) has included Josh in a few puzzles, including one where [[http://joshreads.com/?p=4753 he is put on trial and found guilty by the entire newspaper comics page]].
173	** ''Archie'' occasionally drops references to the AJGLU 3000 into background detail.
174	** The authors of ''ComicStrip/MaryWorth'' have released "Aldomania" merchandise.
175	** One ''Crock'' Sunday strip featured a soldier named [[LawyerFriendlyCameo "Freerloiter"]] getting injured in battle and receiving a lobotomy, which has caused him to lose "his artistic talent". When Crock asks him what he's going to do next, he responds [[TakeThat "I think I'll move to Baltimore and start a comics blog."]] (Crock responds by pulling the plug on his life support.)
176	--->'''Josh:''' While the idea that I began my blog as the result of some kind of massive traumatic brain injury would [[ThisExplainsSoMuch explain a lot of things]], the jokes on them: I never had any artistic talent in the first place, suckers!
177	* SnootySports: Golf-related comic strips are a frequent source of snark material.
178	* SoBadItWasBetter:[[invoked]] His thoughts on ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' are that it was at its best in the years when it was completely terrible, and when the new team signed on and cleaned it up significantly, it was no longer enjoyable to mock. What happened to the days when Dick Tracy was a complete psychopath?
179	* StrictlyFormula: Discussed with regards to ''Marvin'', which Josh notes [[FleetingDemographicRule has a built-in, transitory audience of new parents raising babies and toddlers]]; as a direct result, most of the jokes involve some lazy variation of Marvin befouling his diaper and it being smelly, a relatable enough situation only for those who have immediate personal experience with changing a baby. For Josh, though, who doesn't have children and has spent years reading the strip rather than eventually abandoning it, the constant emphasis on Marvin stewing in his own crap -- and malevolently enjoying it -- has become downright horrifying.
180	* TakeThatAudience: When ''[[ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward Sally Forth]]'' had a strip of Ted reading the blog, Josh was unsurprised as [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1688 he says]] his target audience is the "pop-culture-obsessed emotionally arrested [[ManChild man-child]]".
181	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: [[invoked]] Josh loves pointing out a) potentially awesome ways the plot could develop and b) how boring the plot actually develops. When it ''does'' turn out awesome, however...
182	* ThinkOfTheChildren: What he says of a ''ComicStrip/HiAndLois'' [[http://joshreads.com/?p=229 strip depicting a heart-shaped candy box as black even in color]], implying that the title characters are in an S&M relationship.
183	-->I'd cry "But what about the children?" except that I'm reasonably sure that no children actually read ''Hi and Lois.''
184	** He used this same statement to imply that the writers seem to be well aware of this, suggesting that's why they un-bowdlerized Thirsty back into a drunk.
185	* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: Used in the ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'' entry on [[https://joshreads.com/2014/08/maybe-gil-is-just-trying-to-sprain-trues-elbow-as-well/ this page]], where Josh decides to interpret "Mrs. Wilson says you're living in the past" as if it referred to TimeTravel:
186	--> Mrs. Wilson reported that you’d already chronovoyaged to 1935 and were living undercover backwhen to prevent General Murchinson’s grandparents from ever meeting one another! [...] Have-will President-for-Life Murchinson’s own time-scientists perfect(ed) the technology to set up a Time Travel Exclusion Zone around certain dates?
187	* TropeName: [[http://joshreads.com/?p=12345 This]] entry.
188	* {{Understatement}}: Josh describes [[ComicStrip/HagarTheHorrible Hagar]] [[http://joshreads.com/?p=9856 killing his dog]] as "not cool".
189	* VerySpecialEpisode: [[http://joshreads.com/?p=9753 Parodied.]] "Two weeks ago, General Halftrack slipped off into the woods to quietly kill himself. Today, in a very special ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey'', Beetle finds the body."
190	* ViewersAreGeniuses: One of the blog's charms is that it doesn't shy away from erudite historical, philosophical and literary references.
191	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Josh admits he's got a phobia of bees.

Context Blog / TheComicsCurmudgeon