Adam at Home, Big Nate, Betty, and Candorville: Have you given any thought to a New Year's resolution?

I don't really blame cartoonists for using any particular trope (unless it's an especially egregious circumstance). The sheer number of stories (short though they may be) that cartoonists have to come up with over the course of a year is pretty daunting, after all.

The problem is that it's hard to really say anything particularly new or interesting or funny when you're simply rehashing a set-up that's been used a thousand times over. And that's what's happening here. These are all solid comic strips, but they're basically just going through the motions today.

Adam @ Home: World cup, huh?

This is maybe my least favorite kind of joke, the kind that rests on a character not knowing something virtually everybody in world knows. And then there's the fact that even if some person out there doesn't know what the world cup is, I'm quite sure they wouldn't think it's what Adam apparently thinks it is.

So, in short, this comic's hilarious because Adam's all of a sudden a barely functioning idiot. Ha ha!

Adam @ Home and Close to Home: I framed my kid's drawing and hung it up over there.

I for one am thrilled to see that the cartoonists populating the comics section have such an appreciation for the artists who came before them.

*Adam @ Home from 3-24-10.

Adam@Home: Proof you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

When you've spent half a week singing the praises of Twilight, you really don't have the right to mock any book, even Paris Hilton's.

Adam@Home: Hmm ... I remember the first time I read this. Good times.

So you author a newspaper comic strip that's read by hundreds of thousands of people every day. You have just drawn a strip, and you realize that you have an opportunity to namedrop a book. What book do you choose?

If you said anything other than Twilight, you are not actually the author of a newspaper comic strip.

Adam@Home: But no pony.

This comic is hilarious because little girls like ponies.

Adam@Home: So if you'll be nice to me, I'll scrape you extra in that spot you like.

Rodney may be fucking two horses, but at least he's not fucking an inanimate object, which is what Adam appears to be on the verge of doing.

Adam at Home: $10 in tax??? That's an outrage!

In the next exciting installment of Adam at Home: Adam reads his children The Fountainhead, teaching them that going Galt is patriotic and that rape is kind of hot.

Adam @ Home and Betty: How did you marry someone as nice as Mom?

The actual answer is that this is a comic strip, and in the world of most comic strips all men are schlubby and all women are MILFs.*

*This is also true of many television worlds.

I actually kind of admire the way Betty defies this trend. Gerry Rasmussen seems pretty resolute about making all of his characters, male and female alike, as ugly as possible.

Adam @ Home and Arlo and Janis: I need to get you some new trunks.

Here we see the immortal trope of the hot wife with the schlumpy husband in about as clear a contrast as the comics section will ever provide.

While I'm not a huge fan of Arlo and Janis, I've got to at least give it credit for not falling into this particular trap. Speaking of Arlo and Janis, in today's installment we again see a silent (though not penultimate) panel used effectively. So suck on that, silent panel haters.

Adam @ Home: Don't tell me we're out of coffee.

Adam @ Home is far from the best comic in the comics section. But it probably does these goofy, old-fashioned gags better than any other domestic family sitcom strip around.

Adam @ Home: What does "Joanie Loves Chachi" mean?

It means that Adam has disguised his vintage porn collection poorly.

Adam@Home: (Do the puppy-dog-eye thing.)

When Katy does that, she's almost as terrifying as Rusty. But I'm amused that Adam and Clayton (and Rob Harrell, apparently) think it makes her cute.

Adam@Home: I coulda been a ringmaster. I look great in a top hat.

I think we all know why Adam bought that authentic replica ringmaster costume, and Laura will soon enough. If they're really creative, maybe they'll find a way to incorporate the glow stick and the pony, too.

I think I'm beginning to regret writing this post, actually.

Adam@Home: I wanna see that motorcycle guy who drives in the sphere of death.

The "motorcycle guys in the sphere of death" is easily the best circus act ever. I am being completely serious. It is awesome.

At least it was when I was nine.

Blondie, Cathy and Adam@Home: It was either write this post or work on my taxes.

Apparently, a lot of cartoonists wait until the last minute to do their taxes, worry about them very much, and find them very difficult.

Either that or a lot of cartoonists are lazy and can't come up with any original ideas.