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No. 516: It's more of a lawn ornament at this point

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It's more of a lawn ornament at this point

First | Previous | 2021-07-20 | Next | Latest

Permanent URL: https://mezzacotta.net/itoons/?comic=516

Strip by: Conor

{Hi stands in the front room near a window, imagining himself as a child, mowing the lawn with a push mower, and smoking a pipe for some reason.}
Hi: I remember mowing all the time when I was a kid.
{Hi looks out the window to the front yard. The exact same mower stands in the lawn with the grass around it longer than the rest, apparently having been abandoned by young Hi many years ago.}
Hi: That kid never finished anything.
{Cut to Chip and his girlfriend, as Chip reads a message on his phone.}
Chip: My dad just texted me. I have to go home.
Chip's girlfriend: I'll go with you
{Cut back to the Flagstons' front yard, where Hi is standing with a dour expression as Chip and his girlfriend walk up.}
Chip's girlfriend: It's my fault, Mr. Flagston, I distracted him.
Hi {gesturing at the lawnmower}: That lawnmower has been there since Eisenhower!
{Chip and his girlfriend both look perplexed that Hi is ranting about the lawnmower that he has left in the front yard for Chip's entire life.}

The author writes:

The first two panels are easy to misread in the original: the art is similar enough panel-to-panel to miss the lawnmower switch at a quick glance, and the logical transition is kind of awkward as well. And if you miss them... you get this instead. Apparently Hi now follows the Jon Arbuckle approach to household chores...

Original Hi and Lois: 2021-07-11 via the Comics Curmudgeon.