Bedeviled Appliances

"And now, if you'll turn this way, I'll tell you the story of the Revengful Dishwasher, which will conclude the tour. Y'see, three years ago I had a habit of cooking up bootleg hooch in my Whirlpool. One morning, after finishing a particularly potent rinse cycle, the still within up and exploded, sending fortified spirits flying everywhere! Ever since it's felt a continual need to melt every plastic object within. This concludes the tour of my Hell House."

It's a happy kind of passed out. . .

Aww. . .

Wait - has Ziggy given his pets alcohol?

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

Looks like Fuzz the Dog decided to make at least one René Magritte painting make sense. Give a brief laugh and move on.

I'll bet he spells the word "woof" wrong

Congrats to this Ziggy for running the cutest, strangest punchline/art juxtaposition this side of webcomickry. Needless to say, for this hapless passerby, whose sizable wealth was lost in an online scam, this little pooch looks anything but benign. The destructive powers of him and his ilk have left this man naught but an impeccable suit and hat, which will soon be worn and ragged like the getup of the rest of the homeless.

A TV remote as fat as a Symphony Bar

Ten months ago when I forged Ziggy Liberated in the fires of Mount Most Unpleasant, I gave a solemn oath to give each multi-panel Ziggy strip my undivided attention. So far I've held myself to my solemn oath (despite the rarity of these occurences), all with an insatiable sense of internal wonder at Ziggy's breach of standard protocol.

Today we see "Josh" the Parrot and "Fuzz" the Dog engaged in a game of friendly interspecial domination. "Josh," . . . ah, forget it. The Parrot's dominance over the day's games can be inferred by the inclusion of his signature colors in the first panel. Though avian dominance over large blue-eyed dogs is uncommon (by all account the Parrot should have been playfully - and repeatedly - mauled by this point), there's little reason to doubt the value of instructing a dog to fetch what appears to be large bars of chocolate from a nearby Sam's Club.

He also controls the stove of hellfire

Really? I'd love to read that Bible. Judging by the looks on both the cat's and parrot's faces (the dog being incapable of holding malice), Ziggy is the kind of God that you carve up and throw into a volcano.

Still, this gets into the question of worship through utility. Culture throughout history have worshiped some non-omniscient, non-omnipotent beings merely because they believed them to have control over some singular aspect of their existence. For hunter-gatherers it was fertility and protection from death and disease, while primitive agriculturists followed beings with control over the rain and invading pests. Modern Christians train their children to pray for random favors such as bicycles and generic "blessings" for others. After all, if you can't do it for yourself, then isn't there something remarkable about the one with that particular talent or ability? All of this is just a roundabout way to say that, within a limit subsection of Animalia, a God of can openers may not be that farfetched a concept.

EDIT: Somehow I printed this one on the wrong day. I doubt it will destroy the Ziggy chronology.

A twilight mailbox trip

The dog's teeth are completely straight and normal, so why do they look so sharp and menacing at first glance? This is possibly the most vicious I've ever seen this li'l pup, barring the possibility that the blue-nosed one is some sort of kindly alter-ego:


And what kind of pooping and barking inspires hate mail? For surely this dog is capable of nothing particularly deviant or predatory.

Their mouths are cleaner than ours, you know. . .

Way to upset the established order, Ziggy; California oughta get a Proposition or three out of this.

And doesn't the couple on the left look like the same sort of smarmy happy couple you always see in places like this, particularly when you're single?

Foaming at the Brain

This would be funnier and more surreal with no explanation, in the vein of Garfield Minus Garfield:

Maybe he got into Ziggy's toothpaste, but this silent tableau leaves us a little more ambiguity.

Weird Art Attack

I felt inclined to point out that I really did know what I was talking about a couple of days ago with the parrot, then I noticed the bizarre art in this strip. Either Ziggy's some sort of Stretch Armstrong or his legs have been extended by two feet or more. Either way this strip brings up two unpleasant observations:

1) Ziggy may have knees. The people of the world have seen Ziggy's ankles for so long, and, having negotiated with the creator of this feature that the area under Ziggy's many one-color long-sleeved shirts is Off Limits, we're not used to thinking about it. By the looks of this strip, Ziggy's knees bend about one foot off of the ground and the rest is all thigh.

2) His Ziggy Jr. may be hanging out. The less said about this, the better. Drawing attention to what appears to be his dog's talking butt would have shown more propriety.

Pet Ciao

Ziggy's snuffed out his dog's little candle with off-brand Kibbles.

AARIP

Remember when Big Bird learned what happened to old Mr. Hooper? I think that it's about time for this scowling menagerie to learn what it means for a pet to "retire". The dog doesn't seem particularly upbeat - perhaps he already knows.

Ziggy has a duck?

Blobby Blog Dog

Ziggy (the strip, as well as the individual) always places an odd emphasis on certain words within every sentence, but today's affront to the English language is particularly baffling. The emphasis on the word "tripping" in "PEOPLE KEEP TRiPPiNG OVER HiM!" seems to suggest that Ziggy expects people to do some other thing over the flabby little mutt, and I can't for the life of me figure out what he's referring to.

Realistically, the new sign may not even help. If a passerby wasn't already completely distracted by Ziggy's resemblance to a behammered, bedraggled lawn gnome, or how much his home looks like a cubist turtle, they may be observant enough not to miss the dog entirely. Still, Ziggy's flabby, big-schnozzed mutt could pick a more convenient place for a noontime siesta. As it stands he's a portly speed bump for neighborhood bike messengers.

A Three-Legged Dog Walks Into a Bar

Ten Reasons Why We Do Not Have
Dog-Focused Reality Television:

10. The canine kingdom, as a whole, do not represent a particularly-influential consumer group.

9. Dogs are generally incapable of changing channels, or, indeed, of comprehending anything at all.

8. Dogs are generally subject to the whims of their masters, most of whom do not share the same interests.

7. An early ratings dropoff is inevitable as various moving and fragrant objects distract the target viewing audience.

6. Dogs' genitals wag all over the place when they walk. It would never get past the censors. I'm just sayin'.

5. Actually, 6 more than deserves two spots.

4. The closed-captioning work would be repetitive.

3. Dogs have higher priorities than TV-watching, such as sniffing their own excrement.

2. Even dogs aren't stupid enough to watch reality television.

1. Nobody wants to see an hour of this:

(Is it just me, or is Ziggy's dog taking a huge poop on the floor in disapproval?)