The warning light is going on over "Dennis the Menace" again, where a sly Henry Mitchell is making a play for a nubile young guest - right in front of his wife.
Take a gander at today's episode of this increasingly distubring comic strip, where both Dennis's mother and father think it means nothing to break the holy bonds of matrimony and engage in quiet sexual affairs with any number of oddballs and strangers. Worse still, Henry has asked Dennis to serve as his pimp, attempting to tempt a long-legged visitor to take a tour of Henry's boudoir.
"Would you like a fan?" asks Dennis, somewhat innocently. And then comes the pick-up line: "My dad said you're really hot!" Why, this may as well be a scene from "The Hangover" or something. Worse still, Henry's wife is just sitting there, almost waiting to see what the guest's reaction is. Is she expecting to join in the menage?
Such unseemly behavior might raise the eyebrows of readers, but to the residents of "Dennis the Menace," it's all old hat. Alice Mitchell, this panel's horribly depressed mother, has been caught attempting to skank, dressing up seductively for what we can only imagine was an alluring paramour. And we don't even want to think about Henry's availability to talk to Dennis and his gang of impressionable young pals while he was taking a shower.
Why don't these two just get a divorce so they can play the field without any repurcussions? Are they just staying together for Dennis's sake (and don't they realize that Dennis has been around since 1951; we're pretty sure that by this point he can take care of himself).
If Henry Mitchell of all people is starting to swing, how long can it be before Hi and Lois turn their suburban manse into a modern-day Plato's Retreat? And if this is indeed a new wave of sexual freedom run amok on the comics page, can someone please make sure no one approaches Mark Trail?
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