If you appreciate Achewood, please support Chris Onstad (shop; gallery art.)
The puberty machine has soft rubber heads Monday, October 20, 2003 • read strip Viewing 59 comments:

if i'm ever mayor or some shit, i'm totally going to name a street "Thermometer Lane"

Thermometer Lane defitely made this comic a five for me.

me too!

I think Ray thought it was pretty clever too, so he couldn't resist using it twice. I can totally see him taking pride in something like that.

Those who grow up on Thermometer Lane will have the best porn names ever!

Only if their first pet was a Sulcata Tortoise named "Rectal."

or just "Rex."

Man what the hell kind of porn star name is 'Rectal Thermometer'

I dunno, a gay porn star name?

Not as good as Rex L. Thermometer.

Wrecks Thermometer.

A gay muppet porn star?

"Buster Thermometer Lane" or just "Buster Thermometer"?

Good if you had a hairless cat called "Fleshy".

mayors name streets

Thermometer Lane crosses Enema Terrace near Proctology Plaza.

Just look at his little eyes. His eyes make it.

The device to discover Puberty is called "I hate you dad"

Or uncle... in this case?

The look on his face in panel 6 can only be accompanied by a frightened scrambling grab for his junk. Just to make sure its all ok.

Ray thinks it is awesome to know if his nephew is in puberty.

Little Nephew, on the other hand, is terrified of the idea.

I like how he says "If he is In Puberty". Like, "If he is In Heat" or, "If he is In Labour".

The capital P is crucial.

oh necessarily

Oh yes, it is KEY to this one for certain.

The look that those eyes convey is 'eep'

The weird thing is, the only difference between those eyes and his regular eyes is the position of the pupils.

Achewood's art is very economical, isn't it?

This one's probably already been linked to, but I remember a discussion in some other comic where it was claimed that little nephew never looks straight ahead, and people were trying to find counterexamples.

Well this is one.

Man, that was super necessary...

It is voodoo economics. It is not trickle down economics. I wish I knew more kinds of economics so I could say it was or wasn't them here.

this is a false idea. voodoo implies a trickling action, a downward movement. i will not use BBCode to point your way to the Tubes where this knowledge is dispensed. I am not that sort.

I'm the guy who doesn't know anything about economics. You're chubbied for not being that sort.

I thought it was actually a wild eep. Puberty is not something to be taken lightly. Not by your uncle and not by Dr. Andretti. We need to be certain on this.

a classic ray vs little nephew struggle, and as usual ray finds his way to the top, but in a classy, tough love sort of way. ray's a good uncle.

Little Nephew deserves that ish, he's been getting far to cocky lately

The Puberty machine has soft rubber heads to stop the cold steel implements from coming into contact with the patient's tender, young loins. Dr Andretti added this feature after the prototype proved unpopular.

Last panel wins it.

A comment left by cpnglxynchos was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by beansdooma, Vondicus, GMM, Ravigotte)

Are you, perhaps, in Puberty?

I know that Little Nephew has the exact same expression in every panel here, but for some reason he looks so fittingly horrified in panel 6.

I was thinking that too!

He is too shocked to roll his eyes at Ray.

He is shuddering inside. And it's hilarious!

Puberty is sometimes a bitch

No, it is a very special time in a young person's life when they become an adult and it is all very natural and beautiful.

Oily hair, pimples, patchy pubic hair, I-can't-believe-it's-not-a-mostach mostach, and a voice that cracks. "Excuse me Miss can I be excused I think I'm coming down with the plague" (thanks Mr. Izzard).

[IMGS OFF]

[IMGS OFF]

I seem to remember that ending well.

I think I should be allowed to chubby myself if I agree with myself.

The strips with Ray & Little Nephew make me happy like sunshine

Nephew is NOT entertained by this joke.

the alt text makes this one. a machine to tell puberty from non-puberty is sorely lacking from the modern doctor's arsenal.

The moral here is don't lie about chicken.

Chris Onstad is the least qualified person to teach us a lesson regarding lying about chicken (or recipes thereof).

But... tomorrow's recipe is still chicken. Isn't it?

I'll cross that road when I come to it.

I love how this was originally a ploy to get Charley to eat the chicken, but then Ray runs with it anyway.