Why is the Man-Crush logo crushing the sign for "female"?

umm, it's spelled Cajun. Did you heard me?

Why is Man-Crush crushing a Venus symbol? Shouldn't it be Mars? Or is the joke that Man-Crush is dumb?

Note from Scott: No, I was suffering from a case of temporary stupidity. I know the difference between the male and female symbols, and have used the male symbol in the comic before, but in this case I just settled on the wrong symbol, for whatever reason.

What happened to Cajon-Ape?! I must know! I DEMAND SATISFACTION!

I misidentified Man-Crush's logos as a pelvis rather than arms until I saw the larger version.

Wouldn't that be the symbol for... Lady Crush?

(Lady Crush has very well developed arm muscles. Yep.)

Maybe I'm just trying to take it too literally, but why does Man-Crush's logo include the symbol for Venus rather than Mars?

I believe that Phineas and Ferb made nearly exactly this joke years ago.

"Cajon-Ape" is probably misspelled, but I don't think it's supposed to be "Cajun". I expect it's meant to derive from "cojones". Which should help explain why an encounter with knives caused him to need a new name.

Also, am I seeing a different comic than Justin, because that's definitely a male/Mars symbol. The female/Venus symbol is a circle with a cross on the bottom.

I think that should be Cojon-ape, if the "accident" was what I think it was.

@James: Actually, I think it's spelled "cojon"

Why must it be up to me that "Cajon-Ape" is a pun on "cajones," and that once you know what cajones are, it's obvious what Knife-keteer did to him?

Poor Cajon-Ape.
Panel two made me giggle for ten minutes :)

If my understanding is correct, it's "cajon-ape" as in "cajones," The joke being that knifeketeer did something horrible to his "cajones."

That's how I read it, and I've never commited so many squiggly red lines in one post in my life.

Re: Venus symbol on Man-Crush.
Maybe Man-Crush is really a woman.
Maybe Man-Crush only squeezes women and thinks Rick is a woman.
Maybe we don't want to see what he does to the Mars symbol on the back of his shirt.

I'm glad you post that enlarged inset image of Man-crush, 'cause I was concerned his logo resembled a strange, homoerotic illustration of distended testicles cradling the male symbol. Now I understand it's strange, disembodied rippling muscly arms. That's only marginally better. (sigh)

James-
No, it's spelled "Cojones!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cojones

Man-Crush kills me! Brilliant name/concept! I'm crossing my legs in sympathy with Cajon-Ape and I love how you framed everything as playing the field too. Easily my favourite recent comic. Good work, sir!

I liked this strip, but I didn't get 'Cajon-Ape'.

i) Is 'Cajon' the same as 'Cajun'?

ii) Is it a pun on 'Cage an', as in 'Cage an ape'?

iii) Is there a thing that sounds like 'Cajun ape' that I'm not thinking of?

Kevin- Cajon-Ape seems to be some play on Cajones (and if you don't know the translation from Spanish, please, Google it at work!) and now he *needs a new name*. Presumably you can guess from there?

If I got the joke correctly, I think it should be Cojon-ape.

Man-Crush is dreamy. I hope he doesn't hurt me.

Great way to start a Friday! Got a great laugh from panel 2!

Maybe Cajon-Ape is now Capon-Ape.

James, think cajonas.

@James - perhaps the root of "cajon-ape" is not Cajun but "cojones", given the gender theme

Guys, guys! Cajon-ape isn't "cajun-ape" misspelled. It's cajones + ape. I figure this needed to be said, because it took me a minute to figure out, and half the comments present seem to be confusion about the nature of cajon-ape.

I gather the poor little guy is now neutered.

Note from Scott: Yeah, something like that. I ended up changing the spelling to "Cojon-ape".

If Cajon-ape is a joke about 'cajones', I think it'd be clearer if it was 'o-wang-utan'.

> What happened to Cajon-Ape?! I must know!

What about Cajon-Snake-Ape?!

"I'm right everywhere." - perfect line.

@benzrf - with all the people/sites/shows making people laugh, it's likely some of them overlap without the artist/writer knowing, and entirely impossible to verify nobody's made people laugh with a similar technique. That said, I do occasionally see Phineas and Ferb referenced where I find my laughs...maybe I'm missing out!

Note from Scott: Thanks for the support, and you are missing out. Phineas and Ferb is a VERY funny show.

But... That is the Mars symbol. Am I missing something? The circle with the arrow pointing to two o'clock is the the Mars symbol, right? Venus is the legless stickman. These are the assumptions I've been operating under for years.

Note from Scott: It was a Venus symbol. I fixed it,

Okay, this strip has easily broken the record for most corrections and most embarrassing corrections. Two misspellings, a ridiculous mistake on the Man-Crush logo, and my spelling of cojones. I'm mentioning it for three reasons.
1. I believe in owning up to mistakes. Attempting to hide them just makes them more obvious.
2. I don't want you to get the impression that quality isn't important to me. It is. I have a near super-human capacity to feel shame, and these kinds of mistakes really bug me, which leads to the third reason.
3. If, at times, I seem less than gracious about a correction, I want to be sure you know that I'm not angry at you, I'm angry at myself. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I spend a large amount of time mad at me.
Also, it's been pointed out that Phineas and Ferb (A show I love, btw) did a similar plot to this True. So Venture Bros., and I think Darkwing Duck may have. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that this basic idea (Arch enemy relationship paralleling romantic relationship, leading to hurt feelings and sense of betrayal) has shown up hundreds of times. The fact that Phineas and Ferb had used a similar story didn’t even occur to me until a commenter mentioned it. It the creators of Phineas and Ferb ever ask for an apology, they will get one.

... oh, and the copyright says 2012, since we're pointing out errors.

Too soon?

This is a really good one. Thanks Scott.

This comic is showing up wrong in the Android App... I'm seeing the detailed zoom image only, instead of the actual comic above it.

Note from Scott: I'm aware of the issue, and my app developer is working on it.

"Also, am I seeing a different comic than Justin, because that's definitely a male/Mars symbol. The female/Venus symbol is a circle with a cross on the bottom." - Tim

I'm with Tim here - I was about to point out that this is the Mars/male symbol when I saw his comment. Venus is a circle with a plus sign at the bottom.

However, I do like "Man-Crush" The name is horrifying on so many levels.

I would one day like to see "Girl-illa" in an instruction, too. My imagination is running riot here!

I wouldn't worry about the parallels too much. There was a similar joke on the Australian comedy 'Skithouse', so it's probably occured to lots of people independently.

> I have a near super-human capacity to feel shame

The Shame could be another super-hero or villain!

Incidentally Scott, in the first two days of comments, no one has pointed out that "relationship" is spelled wrong in panel 4.

I held off as long as I could

As a subscriber, I'm now in possession of a high resolution copy of the original unadulterated un-"corrected" version of this comic. It's like a stamp with an upside-down airplane!

For a fraction of the cost of an overpriced cup of coffee you too can be privy to these gems!

Keep up the great work Scott. I can't drink fluids and read your comic at the same time.

Great, Scott, you've got lots of your commenters misspelling cojones. How's it feel having so many people on your side, language-wise? :-D

Though, I think we should consider that Cajon-Ape might have misspelt his name himself, perhaps as a means of discovering the spelling-nitpickers and luring them to their demise.

Thanks to Knifeketeer, any remaining spelling-nitpickers will have to be sussed out some other way, unless the super-vilian-formerly-known-as-Cajon-Ape-prior-to-meeting-the-Knifeketeer-thereafter-known-as-Cojon-Ape-needing-a-new-name can create a new name. Perhaps just the male symbol, like Prince's former name, without the female symbol merged, and maybe without the circle because…he met the Knifeketeer.

And never mind feeling shame. Like Ray Randall said, anybody who has a subscription has the original. This means your mistakes make your comics more valuable! Since you're rather infamous for occasionally spelling words in a way that not everybody agrees with, people can be certain that subscribing to your comic will net them valuable original comics not to be had otherwise. :-D