Today’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro, which can be understood only if you know about two (hugely distant) bits of popular culture:
(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 4 in this strip — see this Page.)
That’s The Cure + Care Bear = Cure Bear: linguistically, a portmanteau; visually, a composite of Robert Smith of the band The Cure and one of the Care Bear toys.
The Cure. From Wikipedia:
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex, in 1978. The band members have changed several times, and guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith is the only constant member. The band’s debut album was Three Imaginary Boys (1979) and this, along with several early singles, placed the band in the post-punk and new wave movements that had sprung up in the United Kingdom. Beginning with their second album, Seventeen Seconds (1980), the band adopted a new, increasingly dark and tormented style, which, together with Smith’s stage look, had a strong influence on the emerging genre of gothic rock as well as the subculture that eventually formed around the genre.
(#2) The Cure’s Robert Smith in concert (photo: Zak Hussein/PA)
Care Bears. From Wikipedia:
Care Bears are a fictional group of multi-colored bear characters, originally painted in 1981 by artist Elena Kucharik to be used on greeting cards from American Greetings but in 1983, the characters were turned into plush teddy bears.
The characters headlined their own television series called Care Bears from 1985 to 1988. They also made three feature films: The Care Bears Movie (1985), Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986), and The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987).
Each Care Bear is a different color and has a special “belly badge” that represents its personality. Adding to the Care Bear family are the “Care Bear Cousins”, which feature a lion, rabbit, penguin, raccoon, monkey, elephant, pig, lamb, dog, cat, and horse created in the same style as the Care Bears.
In 2002, new versions of the bears were manufactured by Play-Along Toys; these new Care Bears appeared in three computer animated films: Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-lot (2004), The Care Bears’ Big Wish Movie (2005), and Care Bears: Oopsy Does It! (2007).
… The franchise consists mainly of the Care Bears themselves, as well as the later additions the Care Bear Cousins. Both of them live in the Kingdom of Caring, which is made up of Care-a-lot (the home of the Care Bears proper) and the Forest of Feelings (the home of the Care Bear Cousins). In 1989, Carole Ashkinaze of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution referred to them as “the whimsical, late 20th-century descendents [sic] of what we used to know as guardian angels: furry, friendly, adorable creatures whose mission is to guide small children and protect them from bogeymen”.
… The 10 original Care Bears consisted of Bedtime Bear, Birthday Bear, Cheer Bear, Friend Bear, Funshine Bear, Good Luck Bear, Grumpy Bear, Love-a-lot Bear, Tenderheart Bear, and Wish Bear. Later on, additional bears joined them, as well as the Cousins.
(#3) From the Swiss Colony site: a set of 6 24″ Care Bear characters
