I love the strip, and especially love the elaborate puns that he runs occasionally on Sunday’s. But today’s went right over my head.
Skipping the buildup…the punch line was:
A bolder, Boulder builder
Bowled her ball, dear.
Billed her bar, dear.
If it’s a pun on some well-known phrase, I’ve been whooshed.
Every word or two word phrase sounds similar. Not all homophones, but close.
So it’s not a pun, per se. Just word play.
Aye; just word play, leading up to the punch line delivered to the cartoonist: “You’re not right in the head.”
every week or so Pastis does a strip where the punch line is a bad pun. the last panel will be one of the characters (usually Rat) insulting the author or threatening him with retaliation.
The gang over at Josh Fruhlinger’s Comics Curmudgeon blog* seems to be getting sick of the wordplay strips, but I love 'em. I’m an inveterate punner, and I’m impressed Pastis gets away with being beaten only by Rat, or occasionally Ringo Starr.