IT’S THE JANUARY VOTING INCENTIVE! NAKED NAUGHTY NEW YEAR!!!
Time to start the new year off in style! (‘Naughty’ is a style, right? I’m going to say it’s a style.) Vote for Puck on TWC in order to see what’s naughty and naked this new year!
CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR PUCK!!! VOTE IT UP, YOU LOVELY PEOPLE YOU !
And as for this comic…
This is based on (another) true story. My friend was doing his ‘drive the kid around to make her go to sleep’ shift, and after finally getting the kid off to dreamland and parking the car, some cop comes knocking on the window. Oh, the perils of parenthood.
As you can see from panel one, Colin drives a green 1999 Chevy Malibu. I drove that $#!#box around for thirteen years, and after it cost me untold headaches and tens of thousands of dollars in repairs, I sold it for scrap about two years ago. List price on the vehicle at time of sale: under $100. I figured that since Colin is even poorer than I, he’d probably still be driving his Malibu.
Also…
Also also…
Bad mountie, bad bad mountie. Now go and buy the man so T. Hortons, A Team DVDs and a cd of Culture Club.
He’s actually not a mountie! Canadian policing is confusing, but there are (like in the U.S.) three levels of law enforcement: federal, provincial (equivalent of state), and municipal. The municipal ones are just like American municipal police forces, and they call themselves ‘police’. In Ontario and Quebec, the O.P.P. and Q.P.P. look after highways and bigger province-wide issues. Outside of Ontario and Quebec, there aren’t any provincial police forces, so the federal wing (the mounties) takes over everything outside of cities. So if you’re in Ontario or Quebec, the chances of seeing a mountie in active service are very low. I’ve never actually seen a mountie in active service ever outside of Ottawa, and that was just for show because tourists expect to see mounties in Canada.
Except, we’ve got, let’s see… Constable, Police, Sheriff, State and the feds are supposed to be the FBI and other alphabet soups. However, the Sheriff is the highest level of local enforcement with the state as support, I believe and the feds at the grace of the County Sheriff.
Just think of Sheriff J. W. Pepper from “The Man with the Golden Gun” and “Live and Let Die.”
Yeah, your system is possibly even more complicated. It’s roughly similar to ours, though. The RCMP (the mounties) are kind of similar to the FBI – in Ontario, at least. If the RCMP are after you, you know you’ve been a very, VERY bad boy.
This happened to me! I yelled at the officer “Be quiet, the baby’s finally sleeping!”
I’m glad that this one actually seems to be resonating! Silly cops, always bothering babies!
And I forgot, get married and have a kid so you know what it’s like, brah.
Or forget to get married and have a kid, like Puck and Colin.
ON NOES,
They’s living in sins?
Have been for years!
The problem is he is parked beside a no-parking sign. As the driver has not left the driver’s seat, it can be argued he was not fully stopped.
Besides, with the weather we have been having in the area, you definitely want to leave the engine running! Not sure the cop would be on foot patrol either.
@Pat: The RCMP do not do much in Ontario. Large centers, like Hamilton, have their own police forces and the small centers and rural areas tend to have the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) do the policing for them. I would expect that this version of Hamilton also has a similar Hamilton Police Service.
Yeah, he’s not technically ‘parked’ because he’s still in the vehicle, but I think the cop’s checking on him because it’s an occupied car out in the middle of nowhere. That’s why the cop checked on my friend. They tend to look into weird stuff like that. And with good reason.
I’ve heard stories of drug addicts going out into the middle of nowhere, shooting up, smoking up or whatever their poison is, tossing their crap out, and then going home.
And then there are situations of human trafficking and burying bodies out in the middle of nowhere too. So yeah, cops have justifiable reasons for checking on those who come to a stop in the middle of nowhere.
So what terrible timing your friend and Colin have for a completely innocent reason to stop out in the middle of nowhere.
Isn’t it just suspision? I mean, it’s not like the regular joe blow will get up and sit in front of someplace in the middle of the night. Me, I’d do that to get a picture of a train in the full moonlight. DHS might not like it, but hell, art is art.
I don’t know what you mean. There are documented cases of what I said. Granted, I’d have to hunt them down, but cops have legit reasons to do this.
Yeah, there are certainly legit reasons. It makes sense. In fact, I’d say that if there’s a guy parked out in the middle of nowhere at night, it’s more than likely that he’s up to no good. It’s just … inconvenient for the minority of us who are parked out in the middle of nowhere at night for a good reason.
Perhaps suspicion of mischeif, malfeasance or other attempts at thwarting society through self serving instant gratification. Unfortunately, suspicion of wrong doing has been equated to “Profiling” of late, and cops have to learn now to ignore their gut feelings. Soooo, well, so much for Puck staring with Bruce Willis in the next “Die Hard” movie in the franchise.
Better make the mistake of checking on an innocent person than the mistake of letting a guilty person go. Yes, it’s annoying for innocent folks like Colin to get the stink eye from a cop, but they catch more druggies and other criminals by following their instincts.
Oh, and the comic’s time is out of sync with ours right now, so it’s actually sort of late spring-ish (I think) in their world. It confuses even me sometimes.
If it’s the middle of nowhere, why is there even a no parking sign? Or is this just a Canadian thing, like Tim Hortons?
Canadians like signage.
Canadians are crazy man. And Gecko’s right. They’ve got signs all over the place. And the people leave them be. Not like those damn redneck kids here in the states, shooting at signs, peeing on signs, shooting up signs, painting signs, crop circles, stealing signs, neon signs, throwing rocks at signs.
Hell, the difference between Detroit and Windsor is like black and white, night and day, left and right, miles and kilometers.
The funny thing about the Detroit/Windsor divide is that you go over the border and Windsor is nine million times cleaner, cheerier and upbeat, even though Windsor is quite possibly the least clean, cheery and upbeat city in all of Canada. Says something. (Mind you, we’re talking Detroit here, so we can’t judge the U.S. on the basis of their worst city. If our worst city is slightly better than your worst city, is it saying much? I guess not.)
For the record, the Quebecois are the most sign-happy people in the world. You honestly can’t go 25 feet without seeing a sign, even on a freeway. And the signs are weird. They have signs saying things like “The stretch of road you’re driving costs us 20 million dollars to maintain. Just so you know.” Uhhhhhhmmmm… thanks? I guess?
Does it mean that we shouldn’t park on it to take a picture of the sign in order to remember that it costs 20 Million $(Canadian). What’s the shorthand for Canadian by the way? I know that Red Maple Leaf in between two red stripes is a hell of a lot longer, ya know. And well, even though I have Canadian heritage, I don’t think that going all Canuck on Chuck would work.
Short form for Canadian is Cdn. Seriously.
Would you believe, too much of the Frantics?
I’m honestly curious how the hell Colin will get out of this mess… Without having a raging Puck on him, that is.
Which reminds me, I’m curious; are they just dating or did they actually tie the knot? (Knowing Puck, the latter is… Improbable at best, but hey, it’s worth asking!)
They’re not technically married. Which means a ‘marriage’ subplot could occur in the next few years.
Don’t you people up there have common law marriage?
Yep. And surely Puck and Colin would qualify, but really, common law ain’t REAL law.
Dude, it depends on the area. Down here in the lower 48, states have the right to ignore basic statements of common law from other states. However, if the couple were to definitely prove that they acted like a married couple at least half the time on paperwork, then it sticks, and they get to have an Iowa Common Law Marriage shoved down Kentucky’s throat. Because they did the paperwork to show shared communal interests between the two people, and tax returns as well as joint bank accounts, etc, etc, etc.
It’s really pro se on Kentucky’s part to. No evidence, no marriage. Okay, maybe not that short, I paraphrased.
This comic seems like something that would have happened to you in real life, Gecko.
Happened in real life to my friend.
I remember the unbridled anger at anyone who wakened my baby.
Wait for the next comic. Unbridled anger is coming!
I remember getting pulled over, once, while driving to put my kid to sleep, and I actually shushed the cop, and said, “You’ll wake the baby!” Funny thing is, he must have been a parent, because he shushed.
I think the response you get from the cop would entirely depend on whether that cop is a father or not.
In some weird way, I can totally see this happen…TO MEN. If this were a woman out in this manner, the cop would have approached her in a totally different way.
I used to do this with my kid. It works for the most part but so does placing the car seat on your washing machine and running a cycle or two. Gas is too expensive to get used to this…
Always love your use of colors in these strips. I love that fuscia glow around the kid..
My washing machine is old and a bit too violent for that. It’d buck the baby off for sure.
There’s never a cop around when you need one; just when you’re committing a traffic violation of some sort. Then again, stopping crime doesn’t bring in revenue, it just interferes with coffee and doughnut breaks.
I’m not going to badmouth cops, because I think they have one of the hardest, worstest jobs available. But they do have an uncanny knack for showing up when you don’t want them to.
What I like about canadian cops is that neither their department, nor their municipality gets a dime from non-parking infractions, so they only give you a ticket if they think you will ignore a warning. I was pulled over for not displaying my front license plate (in the trunk after being hooked n a snowbank and pulled off) and when he noticed noticed my insurance, registration and license all had diffferent addresses (I was moving every four months), but, because I was polite and embarrassed, he told my what the fines could have been (over $600) and sent me on my way with a warning.
Yeah, my dealings with the police in my little area have been nothing but positive. They tend to give you the benefit of the doubt if they have no reason not to. It’s the Canadian way.
“Out of the car, long-hair!” —“Your Mama Don’t Dance,” Loggins & Messina.
Part of me wonders whether that’s REALLY the motivation for knocking on occupied car windows in the middle of the night.
Well, he was found parked in a car with a girl who’s underage…
That’s in bad taste. And funny.
I just thought of something. The sign says no parking, not no praying. And since prayer needs both hands off of the wheel, a person should be able to stop when needed.
And since most Canadians respect the grass, and don’t litter, stay on the road to make sure you don’t leave tire marks on the lawn, right? So, pray in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, with the kid strapped in the back like a good little man. At least the kid isn’t driving the car with the adult drunk in the back seat, right?
Why must you tease us with suggestions of nakedness? LOL, I like the lamp by the way.
It’s a nice lamp.
IT’S COLINS SOUL BROTHA FROM ANOTHA MOTHA.
If there is no tie, then he ain’t a real cop. He’s not even a rent a cop. He’s a fake, he’s a fake, he’s out to steal Colin and sell the baby into the Dorton’s Donut’s slave making trade.
Uh, I have NEVER seen a cop with a tie.
GOOD POUTINE GRAVY MAN
Have you never seen Police Academy?
I’ve tried to erase all memories of movies starring Steve Guttenberg.
I’ve seen both. City cops don’t wear ties, but State Troopers do. Easiest way to tell them apart, to be honest.
And yes, there is a difference. City cops jurisdiction is only in the city limits, while State Troopers are employed by the state, and mainly focus on the highways.
And I have NO idea what the Canadian equivalent of the Staties would be.
In Ontario, State Troopers = O.P.P. (the Ontario Provincial Police) who focus on highways, just like their American counterparts.
If people wanna talk about cops let’s get it right. American police forces go like so from bottom up : Town/Township, not exactly common but they do exist in the more rural areas.
County, larger cities are generally comprised of multiple counties and these guys police a specific county within a larger city.( Burroughs in New York)
City, exactly what they sound like. They have jurisdiction anywhere within city limits.
State, these guys come in two flavors; Highway Patrol, or State Troopers/Police.
Federal law enforcement is a nightmarish cluster%$@# of acronyms and jurisdictional pissing contests. The FBI(federal bureau of investigation), ATF(alcohol tobacco and firearms, not even God can save you if you piss these dudes off; sometimes just getting their attention is enough for them to burn down the house with the women and children inside. Waco, and Ruby Ridge anyone?)
Any possible threats to the President are investigated and dealt with by U.S. Treasury Agents, aka The Secret Service.
And don’t forget the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, as well as some other incredibly specific bureaus and departments. I.N.S., D.F.S and probably some I have either never heard of or forgotten about. Some of these folks have access to military grade hardware. I almost forgot the DEA.
This happened to me many years ago. I was driving around trying to get my daughter to sleep and apparently drove past the same cop a couple times. He pulled me over just as the baby was finally falling asleep to see my ID and let me know that there’d been some break-ins in the neighborhood. “So you thought I’d grab my teething baby and go rob a few houses?” and many other responses likely to get me jailed ran through my mind. In the years since, I settled on, “Look, your job is to serve and protect and my job is to get this baby to sleep so I can get up and go to work in three hours. Right now neither of us is doing his job very well.”
Well, from the sounds of it, you handled this situation with far more grace than Colin does. See the next strip for more.
Are PUCK’s parent’s alive ?
I’m curious what horrors they may have exposed her to, so as to mold her into such an ornery individual.
(look, look ! I successfully avoided calling her a B–ch. oh damn…)
See, I don’t consider Puck to be eligible for that title. That title requires, to my mind, whether applied to men or women, a certain passive-aggressive cattiness. Puck’s more like a human atom bomb. She’s more the equivalent of a drunk Irishman shouting “I’ll kill the next f#$%er who looks at me wrong!” You don’t see that guy being restrained by five bouncers in the bar, and think “What a b—-.”