The Perry Bible Fellowship has a new home in G2.

man that's terrible

That one elf's dad is santa hence the red face. Yeah its a bit rubbish.

I didn't realize the elves in the first panel were supposed to be child and not adult labourers.

too much time on ilx

lol

loooool

Why is the elf giving the reindeer a wink?
Is the second panel trying to convey the reindeer turning around?
Why is there a reindeer in this at all?

The wink resembles Santa - further evidence.
Yes, in a moment of realization.
Santa needs someone to do the "keep this on the down low" to.

I love Mr Gurewich but its amazing how many of his strips need explaining/cause confusion/make no sense.

I dunno, this is pretty untypical for him. Normally he nails the gag perfectly.

I blame the reindeer.

It's as if he just wanted to paint a pretty picture of a reindeer

what's in the picture framed by candy canes? is it a clue?

It's a stale joke, but makes perfect sense. The pregnant elves in the last panel are an unnecessary "nudge, nudge, geddit?," imo.

this one, a few back, is an all-timer imo

http://www.pbfcomics.com/261/

My favourite: http://www.pbfcomics.com/162

Now that I look back, he can get confusing at times, like the Edward Gorey and R. Crumb tributes.

I think there's more to this joke, like maybe Santa replaced a regular elf with his child and the elf is in the bag, hence the conspiratorial wink.

Or that Santa is running a Fritzl operation up there in the secluded North Pole.

I think there's more to it too, first thought was it's like in the cartoons where say huey due and luey stand on each other's shoulders and wear a big coat to look like a bigger duck. Hence the redness around the elf's jawline from where he wears a false beard. But I've got nothing from there.

I still think it's just Santa porking Elf moms

wow wow wow at 261

Yeah. I know it's nothing but the chalkboard in that panel is so fucking amazingly done.

I'm looking at this from the reindeer's perspective:

1st panel: Reindeer sees a 'familiar' face amidst the three children, the child winks at him
2nd panel: Thinking baout things. He ponders if what he thinks is true, that Santa is the father of that elf
3rd panel: Santa gives the same sort of wink, but..

Argh fuck, I've got nothing. Reindeer in 3rd panel is all O_O. No idea on the rest. Yes, Santa maybe knocked up those women, but eh.. so?

I think maybe part of the funny is that the reindeer doesn't give a fuck/his blank expression?

In Finnish folklore at least, Santa has a wife. Presumably the lady elves have husbands too; the other elf kids don't look like Santa, so they must've been sired by male elves. The joke is to contrast the image of Santa as a kid-friendly do-gooder with the idea that he is secretly (hence the wink) an adulterer. This contrast is emphasized by making the one who discovers the truth be one of Santa's reindeer, i.e. someone who's generally (and in this comic strip too) depicted as an innocent animal.

Really, guys, this isn't rocket science!

Point is, I refuse to believe it isn't rocket science.

But anyway, speaking of the latest PBF strips, I thought this one was really good, and most reminiscent of the strip's "classic" era:

http://www.pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF262-Dreamcatcher.png

Such a simple idea, yet it's funny, poignant, and perfectly executed.

i like how it can take a few secs/mins until some of the jokes sink in properly. that one took me a short while to understand what it was about.

is the joke here just that the whistle is low-class and unsophisticated, or is there another layer that i'm missing?

http://www.pbfcomics.com/263/

lol yeah, that was my take, though i'm not sure what the # sign on whistle's lapel signifies.

sharp...

Santa is a viking at impregnating elves; also a Viking; the case continues

the most obvious signifier with the whistle vs clarinet(?) is class or status for sure, i.e. a cheaper maybe more low brow less refined version of the same kind of thing. however the comic is titled Harmony so race would maybe fit the pun better, but the whistle doesn't seem as strong a choice for that.

maybe it's a dog whistle

Dad is despairing that she's marrying beneath her

...............LOL

Goldwhistle?

clarinet(?)

bassoon.

Well the whistle has only the one note, really, compared to the elegant range of the basson.

that's a bassoon, not a clarinet, which is one of the instruments that is often the butt of orchestra jokes (basically it's like the tuba/viola of woodwinds)

basically it's a multilayer class/racial social standing joke

this one, a few back, is an all-timer imo

http://www.pbfcomics.com/261/

I'd forgotten how great some of these are: http://www.pbfcomics.com/222/

lol that's a good one

that's a joke I can see a lot of artists coming up with but not being able to pull off. that look of anguish on the final panel is so good

omg http://www.pbfcomics.com/252/

hahahahahahahaha http://www.pbfcomics.com/185/

this really is the best contemporary comic strip

http://www.pbfcomics.com/214/

Someone's gonna have to explain this one to poor innocent me. I suspect the yellow and black pamphlet has something to do with it...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CliffsNotes

love that one btw

that's one of my (50 or so) favorites

Ha, I was scratching my head over that one just today. Didn't even notice the pamphlet!