Nov 21st: Family Circus – Dawdling

Hello everyone!

Today’s comic is a Family Circus. 

COMIC BREAKDOWN

“Hurry up, Jeffy! You’re being a dawdler!” – Thelma to her son Jeffy

“No, I’m being a son.” – Jeffy responding to his mother. 

What is a dawdler?

A dawdler (noun) is someone that is moving or acting slowly.  A dawdler may or may not be acting slow on purpose but people think they can be faster.

The word “dawdler” comes from the word “dawdle” (verb).  The word dawdle means more than just being simply slow.  It means acting or taking more time than needed to complete something. 

Synonyms for Dawdle/Dawdler – words with the same or similar meaning

Dawdle (verb) – linger, lag, loiter, idly, and delay

Dawdler (noun) – snail, lagger, lingerer, idler, procrastinator, straggler

Slangs for dawdler include “slow poke” and “time waster”.

Why is this funny?

Thelma is trying to tell her son, Jeffy, to hurry up because he is being too slow. 

Calling someone a “dawdler” is a polite and annoyed way to speak to someone that is being slow without literally telling them to “hurry up!”  Parent’s commonly call their young children “dawdlers”.

Jeffy misunderstood the noun “dawdler” by taking it literally and wastes even more time by telling his mother he is not a dawdler but he is a son (someone’s child). 

His response could be a way for a smart child to be literal or to be rude in a smart way by answering back to his parent.  The expression would be that Jeffy was “being smart” to his mother. 

Regardless, calling someone a “dawdler” either leads to confusion or more annoyance so the result is usually more time gets wasted. 

Today’s images are from here, here, here, here, and here.