Something I’ve wanted to do since the start of the comic is use pretend time to make silly short versions of various plays, namely Shakespeare. Not necessarily because I think they’re the be-all-end-all of literature, but whenever I had a Shakespeare class I could not stop coming up with ridiculous stuff to do for a parody.
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A question,
Are you Rick Griffin?
No.
Nice I like this! ^^
I agree with you, Nya!
☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆
I just noticed something… Peanuts head in the first panel makes him look like a mouse… or maybe a teddy bear with teeth.
Sabrina is becoming part of the gang!
*giggles* On the Heath!
This should be silly and interesting indeed.
I would totally watch that play =D
Ever see the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s production of the Entire Works of William Shakespeare Abridged? ‘Cause I would pay hundreds to see the housepets cast perform that x3
I want to see the version of the Complete Works that Kenneth “Sparky” Valentine does in Varley’s “Steel Beach”.
My school did a production of the Complete Works. Our school sucked at everything but chemistry and drama, at which they were awesome. I really wish I could have seen it. I saw a small part of a rehearsal and it’s was awesome x3
I never read Macbeth. but I’m sure I’ll still enjoy this.
same here!
Same here. I only know that the play was supposed to be cursed or something?
only if you say the name of the play as Peanut just did twice in his intro.
Nono.. It’s PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE to say ‘Macbeth’ when you are involved in a production OF Macbeth.
It’s mentioning The Scottish Play while working on a different play that’s bad luck, and even then, only in a theater.
You have to be in an empty theater (or mostly-empty theater), say the name, and not be rehearsing the play
Same for me too, Nya!
I watched a few T.V. Show that made a few MacBeth jokes, Nya,
Like The Simpsons, Nya.
Don’t say that name! It’s ‘The Scottish Play’.
MACBETH,MACBETH,MACBETH, NYA!
Matthias: Look, I don’t think it should be a sin, just for saying “Jehovah”.
[Everyone gasps]
Jewish Official: You’re only making it worse for yourself!
Matthias: Making it worse? How can it be worse? Jehovah! Jehovah! Jehovah!
Jewish Official: I’m warning you! If you say “Jehovah” one more time (gets hit with rock) RIGHT! Who did that? Come on, who did it?
Stoners: She did! She did! (suddenly speaking as men) He! He did! He!
Jewish Official: Was it you?
Stoner: Yes.
Jewish Official: Right…
Stoner: Well you did say “Jehovah. ”
[Crowd throws rocks at the stoner]
Jewish Official: STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW! STOP IT! All right, no one is to stone _anyone_ until I blow this whistle. Even… and I want to make this absolutely clear… even if they do say, “Jehovah. ”
[Crowd stones the Jewish Official to death]
That sounds quite similar to something that would be said in Monty Python.
Isn’t it from Monthy Python’s “Life of Brian”?
As I am all to fond of quoting, “Brian’s NOT the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”
Haven’t read it either, but now I don’t even have to thanks to Housepets!.
I probably know the play all too well (thank you Theatre Arts major and Script Analysis class, haha). I figure I’m going to enjoy this immensely!
Lol I got to comment early for once. Macbeth was kinda a fun play. I definitely enjoy the Housepets version more though
I’m glad Sabrina gets to join in and Peanut is a dork rofl.
uh i have no idea where this is going
Sooo, all is foul play then huh?
*nervously looks for the what chicken*
i like the sketch
I like how you do all this serious fate of the universe stuff with Sabrina and Tarot, then have them go back to doing stuff like this with Peanut, Grape, and Max…
Clarification: first “this” does not refer to situation in the above comic.
I don’t think that’s the line o.o Also <3 Sabrina "so like, 8:30ish" yup, that's about the time x3
This kinda makes me wanna read Macbeth now.
*grin* Do it! It’s a creeeeeepy play.
Noticed that no eyes were shown in the strip…
… I don’t know what that might imply
Huh, Nya?
Oh I didn’t even notice, Nya.
(＞人＜;)
What do you mean? I see plenty of i’s.
Nya!
This reminds me of something, but i forgot what.
( *｀ω´) it’ll come back to me later Nya!
（^人^）Mew, nice Rick!
you remind me of someone that used to come on here… but doesn’t now >.>….. *huggles you*
and ai dun really get this comic ^_^;
Wait are you talking about Lelouch? If so that’s me, Nya.
No, she’s talking about someone else.
Oh ok, Nya!
Wait… SHES A GIRL, Nya?
yeah, you got a problem with that? >_>
No, Nya!
I just didn’t know, Nya!
Remember Macbeth is supposed to take place a thousand years ago. What lines are obviously not from the play?
Yay I like Sabrina, she’s cute and kinda crazy like Tarot.
It is implied they live together, maybe they rub off on each other.
I believe Sabrina is Tarots apprentice or something, as suggested in http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/10/11/psychotic-psychic/
Once I was on Spanish class (the equivalent of English class in America… durp), the teacher was going to start to uh. well… teach about Shakespeare’s literature, but Summer vacations came in and we didn’t get the class
Dang, I hope learn something here >.>
Yes, the teacher was talking about English literature and others, like Faust. I am pretty sure someone will ask “Hey Y ur teacher was talcking about non-spinash literatur?”, well the answer is weird: Because he didn’t like the Educational system because it lacks of education (the irony!). He knows more than the SEP (Secretary of Public Education) so he always have done an excellent job.
PIE ALMIGHTY, I’M WRITING A LOT! NOOOO!
Your Spanish…Nya?
I believe he’s Mexican.
BAZING!
<—- Not a stereotype.
Just say “Language arts class” or “literature class”. It’s country-independent
It happens usually. I would recomend your teacher “The Slaughterhouse” and “The book of sand” XD
I from Argentina and I have the same problem… but my teacher wanted us to read popwuk and taki onkoy
Oh wow it’s an arc. Was expecting more one-offs after like a 2 month water balloon war.
So what’s gonna be in this arc? Just McB as the arc name implies, or a whole bunch of Shakespeare like the author’s note thing implies?
I’m pretty sure its just Macbeth because if it was all of Shakespeare the title most likely would have been Let’s Imaginate Shakespeare! instead. Plus that would be one really long arc depending on how much is actually shown of the plays. But I could see Rick doing the rest of Shakespeare one arc at a time. I would actually look forward to that if he does.
the only problem is that Grape and Peanut have already imaginated Romeo and Juliet (http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/08/06/i-planned-this-joke-for-an-awful-long-time/). though I guess they may want to do it with more people.
He could have them just re-do it like you said or he could do a flashback arc I guess; that would be cool. Plus that doesn’t mean they couldn’t do the rest of Shakespeare’s plays there are a lot of them.
I know, but if he did do it, the question would inevitably be asked “why not do R&J?”
Because of kissing scenes? Though I haven’t read too many of Shakespeare’s plays so I wouldn’t really know the case for the others.
ony shakespeare ive read is romeo and juliet, so, glad im learning something outside of school
The Bard totally had this coming
Juliet:
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo:
[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
Juliet:
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot,
Nor arm nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
and for thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
Hark! What light through yonder window breaks! It is a rock.. and Juliet is out cold! oh dear.
“BOOM HEADSHOT!”
Despite my disinterest in Shakespeare, this could end up being amusing.
Hamlet:
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of dispriz’d love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
Hark the fair Ophelia
nymph in thy orisons
be all my sins remembered?
nope, it was
“soft you now
the fair ophelia, nymph! in thy Orisons
be all my sins remembered.”
I got close enough from memory.
Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?
Now let it work. Mischief, thou art afoot,
Take thou what course thou wilt!
It’s really awesome and heartwarming to see Sabrina and Tarot hanging out with Grape as it is. It’s just cute to see that Grape is getting to know more girls from when the series originally started.
can’t wait to see what becomes this arc. i just wanna see a good show between these five <3
I litteraly laughed so hard it hurt…at work…people were running away from me…darn you Rick!
OK, so, I guess Tarot is Granny Weatherwax, but you’ve got two Magrats and no Nanny Ogg.
Also, Peanut looks kind of mouse-like in the first frame.
We’ve gotten too used to seeing his ears bent over
this comment is win (also, I hereby deny any claim that you, Argent Stonecutter, aren’t funny)
Rick didn’t say I wasn’t funny. He said I was no fun. Completely different.
I check housepets for updates every ten minutes because I’m obsessed with this comic.
it update Monday Wednesday and Friday at 12:00AM(US Central time)
so you can spend the rest of your time doing other things.
You must get disapointed due to no update quite lot then!
Your too impatient, Nya!
Wait a bit, Nya!
Quit calling the cruise director from American Dad!
What, Nya?
it’s a reference to a TV show. a character was in some Asian country and kept making a noise similar to “Nya” to annoy another character, then a guy came in and said that was his name.
lol, they’re all so cute!
Yeah, i specifically think Tarot looks cute in the robes/cloak/(whatever it technically is).
Ikr?
I know Peanut is annoucing and all but it doesn’t really look like him :c
Great comic, can’t wait for the next pieces of the Macbeth story in the Housepets cast style
BTW I just love Macbeth, so much that I read it three or four times in a row o.O Yeah I know, I’m strange xD
Hot potato up the shores but we make amends! *nosetweak*
I buy amends in the frozen fool aisle. Microwaved amends taste just as good and take no time at all to make.
Yes, I’m cool enough for the frozen fool aisle!
Peanut looks so tiny!
Yeah! =/
And thin too. XD
Why do I suddenly feel like yelling (TGIF) from Last Friday Night?
I think i was watching a show about the curse of the scottish play early one morning when i was first going though the comic =D and also… x3 i think im gonna really enjoy this arc
Why does Peanut in Panel one remind me of Charlie Brown? XD
Anyone else think Peanut looks rather odd in that first panel? He looks more like a gerbil or ferret.
His head is bent so far back for him to yell that, his ears have flopped open
Wait a minute… if he is bent back that much then we should see the back of his ears not the front…
…right? =/
Uhh… Mabey his ears were rotated back already… And now that they’re like that we see the inside… Just a guess.
The puns, already they start! Plus does this mean Peanut is Macduff?
Yay new arc!
Cue the weird sisters.
You have a hard row to hoe for this to be funnier than Wayne & Schuster’s “Rinse The Blood Off My Toga, with apologies to Sir William Shakespeare, and Sir Francis Bacon (just in case)”, but I think I will enjoy this anyway.:D
The [/i] should have been inserted after “Toga”.
This is why I like comment previews.
I’m sorry if this question has already been answered, but I have to leave for school soon. What is the joke in the last panel?
Well, for starters, the play’s supposed to take place a thousand years ago, so anything involving “candy wrapper” can’t be an actual line in the play. Then there’s the rule against food or drinks in the theater. And, of course, the sheer shock of having Macbeth be played by Maxwell, and be abbreviated like a hamburger
McB- a burger for real kings! To commit regicide for!
Voiceover guy: Get yours from princess peach!
Mario: Oh, I musta go seea the princess!
*goes to the castle*
Toad: Sorry Mario, but the princess is in another castle!
Mario: NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Does this mean we get to call him MaxBeth? Or Mac-well?
There’s also the likelihood that Max has stepped on a Heath bar wrapper.
I have to endorse this.
of course you do. Rick has said it to be so.
Heh I just love hos Peanut looks like a mouse. X3
I should really read these old classic… we did have to read them back in school as homework, buuut… as most lazy kids these days I watched the movie of it or I was an expert in understandin the WHOLE plot by just a few of my classmates summing it up for me. XD
BTW what is be-all-end-all again?
The greatest pf the great. The tip-of-the-top. The cream-of-the-crop. There I’ll stop.
Cool, thx Frank.
I bow before your greatness Mr. Griffan
So does the Sandwich family just have a closet somehere for all those paper bags and stuff they use to imaginate or something? o.o
They probably always ask for paper bags at the supermarket
It’s easier than buying real hats, I applaud the creativity.
And safer than plastic bags
That and crayon doesn’t stick to plastic bags.
We have to be careful with paper bags. One of our cats gets her head stuck in the handles.
the bard was never the be all end all…he was just delightfully pulpy. like an elizabethian spielberg!
Well, I just hope it really is short. Brooke Mc Eldowney did A midsummer night’s dream for over a year; but after four months, I grew tired of it.
Of course, he didn’t do “‘ere the set of sun… so around 8:30ish”. I don’t think I could tire of stuff like that!
Which makes me wonder, isn’t the play supposed to take place in spring?
Thou has no knowlege of Hamlet…
Unfortunately, thou has knowlege of Romeo and Juliet…
Upon seeing it, there was a plague among our houses…
Ha! This reminds me, oddly, of The Lion King.
Also amiably referred by some people as “Hamlet, with talking lions”.
The Lion King wasn’t anything like Hamlet.
For starters, if it was based off Hamlet, the first half of the movie consists of scenes that took place before the play starts (as the king is already dead in Hamlet), then they skip the rest of it and go right to the part where Hamlet is exiled, which happens in one scene, then comes back to kill his uncle.
NO big deal is made of his uncle marrying his mother. Simba blames himself for his father’s death, Hamlet, he is told to suspect his uncle from the beginning. Simba doesn’t attempt to wring confession out of his uncle, which takes up like 60% of Hamlet. Simba doesn’t alienate everyone around him in his quest for revenge, he does so in his quest for self-pity. (Oddly enough, this brings with it the message that revenge brings people together instead of drives them apart) There’s no Laertes equivalent, no Polonius, no Horatio.
The only thing that makes it remotely like Hamlet is his uncle kills his father for the throne, then he kills his uncle when it turns out he’s evil. And a handful of other parallels. That byline alone doesn’t make it Hamlet.
Sorry if it sounds like I snapped at you, but this sort of thing bugs me.
uff, you spoilsport. I said it was amiably referred as to that by some people, I never said it was right.
Guess somebody takes their Shakespeare a little too seriously…
However, I really cannot refute what you say, as Hamlet never really did interest me enough to know more than the plot outline and various bits of trivia (for example, the “To be or not to be” monologue is different from the skull scene). I know what happens (mainly thanks to The Simpson’s parody, of course) but I never really cared about it. Of course The Lion King isn’t Hamlet- there’s no crazy “Ophelia” slighted by “Hamlet”, and no kill-’em-all ending, the ghost appears in the middle of the movie and isn’t droning about revenge- the plot ISN’T about revenge but about overthrowing an incompetent paranoid king, and I could continue on and on about the differences, but as I said, I don’t really care.
And I wrote a comment about… nothing, more or less. Ugh. Why do I get wordy when I feel slighted?
(anyway, I’ll hold back the follow-up comment about The Lion King II being Romeo&Juliet, since CLEARLY there’s no bad ending, not many sidecharacter parallels like Paris and Mercutio, no death and stuff. Maybe It’d be more accurate as “Romeo&Juliet as talking lions if Romeo was groomed to seduce Juliet for REVENGE but they ended up eloping”, but it doesn’t have the same ring to it. And it still wouldn’t be close to accurate.
Oh well
Well then I apologize. It’s just some people say that “TLK = Hamlet” as a substitute for having an actual observation, and it’s happened so much I’m currently at that point where it rubs me the wrong way, but not quite at the point where I’ve stopped caring about it.
That’s… easily undestandable. I easily go on tirades for the very same reasons myself, and were I to take my Shakespeare library more seriously I’d probably feel the same as you do (as of now, the only works of the Bard I own are, The Tempest, King Lear, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It, three I needed for classes and the other two seemed fun).
And before I go too much off topic and have to be put down, RANDOM SHAKESPEARE QUOTE FTW because everybody is doing it.
“If it prove so, then loving goes by haps:
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
I’m actually fairly sure that TLK was meant to be Disney’s version of Hamlet, but only ended up very loosely following it because following Hamlet too directly would not match the Disney feel.
so the one’s who say “TLK = Hamlet” should really say “TLK is a family friendly movie that is similar to Hamlet in a few ways”
TLK is Kimba with all the disturbing stuff taken out.
But them keeping in the murder was enough of a quantum leap for them.
Really? Disney’s not Disney unless at least one parent gets murdered.
Like in Disneys book of The Three Little Pigs, the picture labeled ‘Dad’ was a string of sausages.
Yeh, but wearing your murdered father’s pelt, that’s kind of outside their comfort zone.
@ Rick: So the “happily ever after” only lasts until anybody has children?
Heh. Could work for me.
@Rick: Oh? I thought the whole “stepmother” thing was just a lazy way to allow the villain to watch the hero closely
“Yeah but what’ll the weather be like?”
Thundersnow.
Not the thundersnow!
D:
Tarot has finally learned how to play pretend!
And Sabrina is playing…….this will be interesting, specially with Max.
Also, never read McBeth, so this means I´ll have to read it to understand this arc….or just download the summary ( also sorry for bad english grammar…if there is any)
ROFL sorry but everytime you draw a big mouth it gets me laughing
And not a single eye was seen in that days comic.
I was gonna say this about today’s comic, but it dawned on me:
They wear paper bags over their eyes when doing this. the only exception this time is the girls have blankets covering their eyes.
Of course there’s no ice! It’s summer in a temperate climate zone. You won’t find ice unless they’re in a fridge.
Though they did mention that the weather was gonna hail, so…
I loved Peanut in the first panel. I hope King appears XD
Oh wait, the character in the first panel is Peanut. At first glance I thought it was a mouse or ferret or something, lol.
To-morrow and to-morrow and to-morrow.
I think its a pretty awesome idea for housepets plays. Also It’s cool to see more Tarot.
The actual Macbeth, King of Scotland, died this day (August 15th) in 1057.
Coincidence?
yeah, probably.
someone tell me it was a tootsie roll
It was a tootsie roll. =D
(I don’t belive it was but I can say it for you)
I say Smarties, Nya!
obviously a lollipop
It was a Heath bar.
I take it back, clearly a Crunch Bar. A comic this great has to include the best candy bar in the world.
Heath Bar!!!
*lol,lol,lol*
I totaly get it now! =D
Too bad they don’t sell those in here. =(
Oh, a heath bar! I feel stupid now
too bad I haven’t read The Scootish Play. =(
I hope we can understand the jokes without having to know the play. =)
At least todays is easy to understand: “candy wrapper.” />(O)</ <—- candy
I bet it was Peanut who left it there. =)
You havent seen MacBeth, Nya?!?
no. why? =/
Is that bad?
I like messing with the words more often than not, and I’m going to try and make sure the plot of the play is apparent even to people who don’t know it.
Out out, darned spot!
[cameo of a dalmatian]
Thanks, Rick!!!
Augh! wrong avatar…
…AGAIN!!! >(
And Rick drops the hammer, oh snap.
In school when we read MacBeth we had a graphic novel version. It was bloody. I remember trying to memorize a bit for oral about an imaginary sword and messing up brilliantly. “I have thee, but I see thee not!” Good times.
I’d love to see what you can do with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Definitely one of my favorite Shakespearean comedies.
that’s not by Shakespeare. it’s just named after two characters from Hamlet.
and about them apparently, but still not by Shakespeare.
Yeah, it’s not by shakespeare, but from a guy who wrote it in 1966 (by which, Shakespeare would’ve been long dead. I should hope so)
It’s about those two being minor characters in Hamlet, so therefore they don’t know anything other than what they’re supposed to say to the other characters and so freak out.
Or so they tell me.
Don’t discount reincarnation!
but discount reincarnation is so affordable.
Yeh, but you come back as a giant cockroach.
Ah, my bad. We’ve got Shakespeare in the Park here, a little organization that puts on Shakespeare plays and they did that one a few times. It’s never failed to make me chuckle. I figured it was one of his side comedies he wrote for fun, ah well.
Is there anything they can’t render cute? I submit that there is noot. Under realistic circumstances, anyway.
i absolutely love this pic of peanut
i like tarot in the third panel she is a very cute little witch^^
Wait a minute… if Tarot can see into the future, why is she unsure about the weather? Unless *gasp* she still hasn’t downloaded the program that lets her predict the weather?! Or maybe she’s an impostor!? There’s only one way to be sure… *grabs a frying pan and sneaks up behind Tarot*
Violence is the solution to ALL of my problems!
I’d say she finally caught the grasp of “pretend”
Darn you and your logical arguments!
This makes me wonder if Fido might join in.
I just noticed that you can’t see anyone’s eyes in this strip
Taroh is /Short/!
Yeah, Poms are tiny.