Shoehorn, stet!

Yeah, about that dog. I've always loved drawing dogs--my first attempts at cartooning were of Snoopy. Why I thought this was the place and time to introduce a thinking, anthropomorphic dog, I cannot tell you. I know the fraternity I was pledging had a house dog, as did most. And of course, I had (for the time being) free reign over the strip's content and characters, so I probably thought, why not? What did it matter if he had a legitimate place in the strip? Or that I'd drop him like Richie's brother Chuck in "Happy Days" within another week or two? So I named him "Goebel," with the ersatz-French pronunciation (jzho-BELL). I don't think we invented this; I was pretty sure it was a joke that had been passed down from one incoming freshman class to another, like calling Target "tar-JAY" to make it sound upscale. In any event, the dog is offended that his name received the gutter pronunciation, emphasizing his lower-class status. His revenge? Pants the guy. Now that I've explained it, isn't it so much funnier?