Yeah, I cried at the story of The Dog, the Cat, and the Giant Squid.
Quick, someone, get the movie rights!
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I spewed ink out of my lacrimal glands!
.
we let ours sleep in bed with us.
Holy cute, batman!
Best comic ever... nuff said
Toooooooooo good !
This is the family that I like !
The only bad part is the rain seemed a bit "deux ex machina" and anything god related gets my hackles up :-)
Aw!
I have a beagle myself, and a big fluffy teddy-squid named Mohammed that she's very fond of. Great story - now I too suffer from temporary hyperlacrimosity!
Thanks PZ, that made my day. Best thing you've ever posted, ever - in the history of ever :)
:-}
Wonderful.
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SPOILER ALERT!
I knew it! I knew it! I knew the squid would turn itself into a parachute! Hahaaah! Bow in awe of my l33t deduction sgillz. =8-)
Yay! What a great story!
Although I have to wonder what was wrong with the family that they never though to go look for their missing trailer of pets.
See? It was all DESIGNED!!!
I love the fact the cat is a complete bastard. Reminds me of my recently departed Kramer, the black cat from hell. That cat was a DUDE.
This cartoon was inspired, no doubt, by Gary Larson's 'Far Side' comic. I remember he had a one panel drawing of some animals (including a giant squid) on an Incredible Journey.
Noes, noes #9, you has it rong: The pets are the HUMANS. Look at the first panel! Obviously, you've never had a cat: a cat is always Monarch (if a bit aloof and a something of a bastard).
Praxiteles: Yes, but were the other two animals a dog and a cat? I've been racking my brains trying to remember. I think there was a dog and a giant squid, but the third animal was something else.
A dog, a cat, and a giant squid
Got left behind, so what they did
Was crawl, and squirm, and run and jog
This giant squid, and cat, and dog,
To get to where their owners sat,
The dog, and giant squid, and cat.
Awwwwww. I read it to my kids as a bedtime story tonight.
Oh, great. Now the younger one is in bed crying because "it was scary when the squid dried out", and I can't find the stuffed octopus for him to sleep with. *Sigh*
It made me think how We3 could have been even cooler if one of the neurologically enhanced, superweapon toting animals had been a giant squid.
Is gud skwid?
I should have expected it, thought I was the only one that'd ever bought We3 (from random internet polling) :) Poor bunny.
This is the greatest thing that I have ever read. Thank you, PZ.
And the moral of the story is: always make sure your trailer brakes (including the breakaway switch) are in good working order.
[This safety announcemt brought to you as a public service by the fact that I should have gone to bed an hour ago. Good night.]
I knew cats could read. Once the one I used to have figured out the deadbolt, I knew we were in for trouble.
Heartwarming! I just forwarded the link to friends -- especially the ones with storybook-aged children.
MAJeff @ #23 (uh-oh) I knew cats could read.
Of course. They read through their assholes. Why do you think they sit down on whatever you're trying to read, yourself?
My cat has worked out how to open the fridge and the jar of mayonnaise he finds inside. He can also distinguish an unopened tin of tuna from any other tin. It's harder to cat-proof the kitchen than it is to toddler-proof it!
Made me cry. I think I empathised with the squid too much. I've sent it to my cat-like 'friends'.
Thanks for posting it, PZ.
There was almost a goddammed tear in my eye after reading that! And I don't cry for anything. I must be hormonal... poor squid...
Mildly OT, how was it they started at the beach, had 8 miles to get home and managed not only to encounter a desert but also temperate woodland?
Oh my, I thought this was crap! If the tale was honestly anthropomorphic then the three pets would have stayed put, the family would have noted toute suite that their car was no longer attached to the pet van, and they would have turned back to retrieve the pets. Can we say contrived here? Could not a better story 'vehicle' be constructed to carry the 'moral' of this story? That altruism pays?'
In addition, the ending had a very unsafe car setup with a overflowing giant squid thrust through a very harmfully drying sun roof. Spare me, please. And yes, I have lived with cats all my life, so what would you expect? (Also hated dolls, children stories, cartoons, and Mickey Mouse when I was a kid).
So what floats my boat, this does: http://drawn.ca/2008/03/06/abcdefg/
Artistic, invigorating, funny, interesting, etc. And it involves children!
I am perfectly serious when I say that my 4-year-old loved this cartoon. I liked it too, but not quite to the reread-fifteen-times level.
If that family had just put the pets on the roof of the car like Mitt Romney, none of that would have ever happened.
Logicel,
A BORING video with incredibly insipid music.
I would hazard a guess that "what floats (your) boat" is "crap!"
How spooky. I happened to dream about squid the other night.
Worse - they were some sort of unholy bunny-squid hybrids. A whole big tub of them at a genetic engineering zoo of sorts (the only other creature I recall are the unicorns). Think furry squid with the bunny ears. Or just rabbits with tentacles, perhaps.
They were fed herring.
Ummm, wouldn't the freshwater rain have resulted in rather dramatic osmotic shock, and that squid would have swollen up and burst quite dramatically?
(And yes I noted that I've already suspended disbelief regarding a talking cat, dog and squid, making their way home against all odds, and the parachute thing at the end to complain about an implausibility in the final scene)
Ummm, wouldn't the freshwater rain have resulted in rather dramatic osmotic shock,
yes.
and that squid would have swollen up and burst quite dramatically?
no.
:-}
Wonderful.
********************************
SPOILER ALERT!
I knew it! I knew it! I knew the squid would turn itself into a parachute! Hahaaah! Bow in awe of my l33t deduction sgillz. =8-)