9 Chickweed Rage

Jeff Drake, Brooke Dillman
  • 5.0 (12)
  • Improv

In 1993, Brooke McEldowney began writing and drawing the newspaper comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane. Nearly 30 years later, it's still going strong. For some dumb reason, Brooke Dillman and Jeff Drake read the comic strip, even though it only makes them angry. This is their podcast, certainly one of the worst ideas for a podcast ever: a podcast about a newspaper comic strip that (as far as they know) no one reads. This is 9 CHICKWEED RAGE.

  1. Jun 3

    048: A Hushed Crowd of Theorbo Mavens

    All of the sudden, out of literally nowhere, Brooke Mac-El-Dee decides to do a whole series based on things you can do (or cannot do) on unicycles. Where we discover that Amos rides a unicycle. I mean, why not? We've never seen him do it before. No one in the comic has ever even mentioned a unicycle even once. But, sure, let's put Amos on a unicycle because it makes sense that he would ride one. I guess? I don't know. This sequence of strips is truly baffling, and certainly annoying. We don't want to spoil the surprise, but one of the things (apparently) you can do on a unicycle is play a theorbo while on a high wire. What is a theorbo, you may be asking? That's a very good question! And there's a reason you do not know what one is, because almost no one knows what one is. It's like a giant medieval guitar. And that -- we suppose -- is why it's funny! Which is to say, it is not funny at all, but at this point in the game, are we really expecting humor? No, we are not. The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of this episode's strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find this episode's strips on Bluesky by clicking here. This derring-don't filled episode includes: Limited Edition sparkling water A reminder of how we do things around here Ironwood Pig Sanctuary Tattoos Swords of bygone eras Doonesbury Mad Max Theorbos Comedy Central Roasts Jiminy Glick Derring-do vs. Derring-don't Tuc Watkins Salads Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage.

    1h 48m

  2. Mar 25

    047: I Specifically Made Plans For Hamburgers

    After NOT making good on our promise to cover the courtship of Polly and Lolly last episode, we get around to it this time and boy do we ever regret it! Since we began this podcast, we have never made a clear distinction between Polly and Lolly. We did this because primarily Brooke Mac-El-Dee seems to believe they are perfectly interchangeable. Why draw two women as independent characters? But that's maybe being unfair to him. I mean, it's not like any of the characters are that much different from any other characters anyway. We try our best to keep it straight to help ourselves and our listeners along, but guys we have to tell you: It was f*****g impossible to do so. Alistair is engaged to one of them but then is "in love" with the other. The one he's engaged to maybe doesn't even kiss him, or maybe by "kiss" Mac-El-Dee means f*****g. Who knows! Alistair plays a concert with the one he's NOT engaged to and makes out with her on stage, while the one he's engaged to is in the audience with her parents, who (in their brief appearance in this run) don't seem concerned about what a f*****g gross a*****e Alistair is being. Now, which one is which in the above passage? Like we said, it was f*****g impossible to keep straight and it ultimately doesn't matter because Alistair just ends up marrying the one he was engaged to after she suggests maybe they should kiss. Or some b******t like that. It's f*****g awful. The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of this episode's strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find this episode's strips on Bluesky by clicking here. This self-palpating episode includes: Kristi Noem Daylight Savings Beetlejuice Dooneese from SNL Turtleneck Town Mertz pants Pearl Jam The Ben Franklin Ruth Buzzi Bart vs. Australia joke Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage.

    2h 3m

  3. 12/15/2025

    046: Etaoin Shrdlu, Baby!

    When given the simple task of doing a listener request, Brooke decides instead to go rogue. So instead of us talking about Alistair and his indifference about which twin he f***s or marries (but which would he kill?), we end up in the world of the Peels, Arthur and Nan-Lin. It's been ten episodes since we last saw them, and it took us a while to figure out exactly who we were dealing with this episode. Once we caught up, we discovered that -- of course! -- Arthur was drawn very differently from when we saw him last. Not a surprise! Anyway, these two people who (hilariously?) share the same last name, fall in love after accidentally (?) touching their tongues together. Brooke and Jeff absolutely lose their f*****g minds over the creative choice to put the thoughts in a thought bubble backwards. But things only get worse from there when we finally remember that we've seen these two characters before. And after the briefest amount of research, we discover that -- of course -- Arthur looks NOTHING like the Arthur we met before. Nothing. Barely resembles the same character. Nan-Lin jumps his bones, because that's the only way courtship works in this f*****g comic strip. And then we go down the same path we've been down before with the romantic couple talking ENDLESSLY about whether or not what was happening was actually real or somehow just a fantasy. It's insufferable, naturally. Arthur plays his "Reverie," the magical piece of music he wrote that sends listeners into fits of uncontrollable f*****g. Nan-Lin recognizes it. And then she doesn't recognize it at all. Because that makes perfect sense. And then, upon hearing it, she drops to the floor and begins masturbating. No, seriously. For like four straight strips. As Arthur puts it, she "palpates herself." Even after he stops playing. Amazing that this run did not kill us. The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of this episode's strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find this episode's strips on Bluesky by clicking here. This self-palpating episode includes: Listener requests Happy Holidays Tongues Bugs Bunny Turtlenecks More Tongues Etaoin Shrdlu Hot Type Sweat towel Mongo like Sheriff Bart Thrown glasses Dutch angles Calisthenics Masturbation McEldowney Ellipses Thorax Date rape drugs Semi-colon The 9th Chickweed Lane Circle of Hell The Pants of Palpation Breakfast of Champions Asterisk = a*****e Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage.

    2h 5m

  4. 09/29/2025

    045: I'll Supply The Other Finger

    So our journey this episode takes us to a recital, where Amos and Edda get a less than glowing review from a critic. They are SO BAD at taking any amount of criticism that they go onstage the next night to flip the critic off. Oh wait! Yeah. In this world, Amos and Edda have a multi-night engagement AND the critic comes to EVERY performance AND writes about every performance. Just like in real life! So Amos flips off the audience (as a way of showing the audience that he disapproves of the critic's take) and Edda joins him. Then there's a reaction to THAT reaction, which also rubs Amos and Edda the wrong way. Because why wouldn't they be anything but, as they admit, childish, vindictive and ridiculous? There's a brief Sunday strip sidebar about how a bunch of scientists ask Amos to ask Edda how she keeps her boobs in her dress. I wish we were kidding about this, but no, this is REALLY what the Sunday strip is about. Then we return to the critic storyline where the critic shows up for a THIRD STRAIGHT performance to explain himself to Edda. She takes it well, and by that I mean she threatens to make him strip naked and dance in front of the audience. But only for the first 100 attendees. Yeah. It made zero sense to us either. Good times! The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of this episode's strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find this episode's strips on Bluesky by clicking here. This childish, vindictive and ridiculous episode includes: Breakfast at a hotel Freaky Friday Going to the doctor Half-marathons & marathons The dangers of the omelette bar GU packets Couches The kids in Weapons Orangutans Leif Garrett Tiger Beat Magazine Shooting rude gestures Fred Mertz pants "Puttin' on the Ritz" Kash Patel sitting on a chair Seinfeld Juggs magazine Janet Jackson The Thing from Fantastic Four Rush Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage.

    1h 36m

  5. 08/19/2025

    044: All Mandibles Glaring!

    For this episode, we spend basically all of our time in the water, a Mac-El-Dee classic! But we begin with Edda staring at her reflection in a mirror, because of COURSE that's what she's doing. Edda provides multiple opportunities for the Brooke-ster to draw crazy teeth, for reasons that are completely unclear. Turns out, she's trying out various monster faces to look sexier for Amos -- like that would make any f*****g difference with him. Amos points out that she has spinach in her teeth (which she somehow missed while staring at her mouth in the mirror) and Edda is despondent from shame. He makes up for it by calling her "the sweetest girl in all the world." Edda and Amos kiss in front of Polly and Lolly who hope that Amos "doesn't pick up her cold sore." Yep. That's a normal phrase: "pick up a cold sore." Edda then grabs Amos's legs underwater causing him to scream "like a little girl," which she then shames him for over the course of several strips. Proving, naturally, that she is indeed "the sweetest girl in all the world." Later, when Polly and Lolly are older, they again have a conversation with Edda about being sexy, which is a totally normal conversation moms have with their daughters literally all the time. Lolly makes out with Alistair at the beach, climbing up him and sliding her feet into his swimsuit to remove it. Yes, you read that right. And then she locks toes with him. Because: ROMANCE! The world is on fire but romance is still alive on Chickweed Lane! Hooray! The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of this episode's strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find this episode's strips on Bluesky by clicking here. This strangely vegan episode includes: Peeps vs. Peeps Defending Your Life YouTube Rosetta Stone Jeff's Crazy Mom Oberammergau Garmisch-Partenkirchen The Passion Play Munich Marienplatz Hofbräuhaus I said "Angry Orange" but I meant "Annoying Orange" High School Swimsuits Vegans Cold sores Seth Meyers Crimepot The Wilhelm Scream Christopher Lloyd as Judge Doom Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage.

    1h 56m

  6. 07/28/2025

    043: I Hear You'll Do Anything for a Box of Mild Duds

    So sorry we've been away for so long. If it's any consolation, these strips punish us quite handily for our laziness. Boy do they ever! The white hot romance of Juliette and Elliott is explored a little this time around. Seems that Juliette loses her shit for Milk Duds. She makes it sound like it's a sexual thing, because isn't everything sexual in this godforsaken strip? But by the time we actually witness it, it's just Elliott with a cereal box-sized container of Milk Duds on his lap and Juliette sitting next to him with what appears to be 100 duds in each cheek. Certainly all of this came about so ol' Mac-El-Dee could have Elliott talk about how Juliette likes to have a "mouthful of caramel balls." Otis weaponizes the information by tempting Juliette with Milk Duds and getting her to sing a dirty version of an old TV theme -- one she makes up for him. Don't think too hard about what appears to be a teenager prostituting his girlfriend's mom. It's actually just silly and fun and definitely NOT WEIRD AT ALL. We also see one of the most poorly drawn examples of the Edda-in-a-leotard-in-front-of-a-mirror trope that the old pervert loves so much. And to finish it off, Otis reveals to Edda that he literally has no idea what a sunset is. None. Seriously. The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of this episode's strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find this episode's strips on Bluesky by clicking here. This sensual phantasmagoria of an episode includes: Nuts vs. Seeds GoComics is not free Diet Coke Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park Brooke's imaginary horse Brooke's non-imaginary mom Charlie Brown's shirt Milk Duds Junior Mints How to Train Your Dragon Chuck E. Cheese Gilligan’s Island The Forbidden Dance Peanut Butter M&M’s Milk Duds Whoppers Mickey Rourke in Diner Dutch angle Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage.

    1h 33m

  7. 05/30/2025

    042: You Didn't Pass the Panty Round

    After two and a half years of doing this podcast, Jeff has obviously lost his mind. He brings thirty -- THIRTY -- strips to discuss, all about the lead-up to Seth and Fernanda's wedding. And boy oh boy is it a doozy! We talk about how Brooke is obviously the world's favorite co-host of this podcast, and that's it's not even close. We begin with Fernanda talking about panties at length, which we had just barely scratched the surface of in our previous episode. We discover that Fernanda (and ultimately Brooke Mac-El-Dee himself) does not truly understand the concept of rounding off numbers. Apparently, a skill being taught to (and being understood by) elementary school children eludes our dear author. Nor does he seem to be aware of the total number of people currently on the planet or how many of that number would be men. Why would that be important? It's not really. But he mis-uses both of those pieces of information to get to what he believes is a joke. So he's both inaccurate and not funny. But, shit, we knew all that already, didn't we? In the lead-up to Fernanda and Seth getting married, Edda kisses Seth, for no real good reason, TWICE. Both times, Amos is like, "Well, that seems normal and fine." But to us, of course, it seems like proof the two of them totally did it. Like, for sure. Fernanda and Seth are in a pool, a shower, and a couple of different tubs. And after basically six straight weeks of this dumb storyline it ends with them in a tub throwing a phone away. Yep. Classic stuff. The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of this episode's strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find this episode's strips on Bluesky by clicking here. This episode is a trifle cyanotic yet still includes: Louise Brooks Rounding numbers Crab claws Shiplap Vinyl Siding Gilligan's Island Fonzie Cunnilingus/Streetilingus Moby Dick Dorf on Golf Phones in tubs Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage.

    2h 5m

  8. 03/16/2025

    041: Welcome to the Sex Toilet, Matt Fraction!

    Matt Fraction really should be writing the new Batman comic, but instead he made the mistake of wondering, "What exactly is this comic strip Jeff and Brooke are talking about?" It's a dangerous question to pose to yourself. Even more so, as Matt discovered, if one makes the mistake of Googling this comic strip. It kind of opens a Pandora's box. Which is what happened, and the next thing Matt knew, he was reading years' worth of Chickweed Lanes. Seriously guys, he took pages of notes! After the deep immersion, he agreed to join us on the podcast to talk about the things he witnessed. That includes: couples going to TGI Fingerbang's, something known as "ffawnky mozm fimps," curious children who lift mommy's skirt, hetero-curious ballet dancers, buttholes that look like clown's mouths, falling in love with Nazis, vaginas (with and without crawfish), "knockout gams," how much Brooke Mc-El-Dee knows about menstruation (not much!), elderly men who produce ink when startled, the hypnotic sexiness of cat's buttholes, and a final strip so surprising, it floors Brooke Dillman, almost literally. And this after two of the earlier strips nearly killed her already! Along the way, we talk about Dilbert, Alan Moore, Gene Simmons, and Kansas City's most famous serial killer. Also Matt makes a really good point about Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's our largest episode ever and for a good reason! Drake! Dillman! Fraction! Let's go! The Chickweed strips we discuss this episode: You can find all of the strips on Instagram by clicking here. We've abandoned Twitter, because it's terrible, but you can now find us on Bluesky by clicking here. This ffawnky mozm fimps episode includes: Malcolm in the Middle Good Brooke vs. Bad Brooke the Death Star trash chute Game of Thrones Dilbert Dutch angles Terminator 2 sexual chicken fight The Shining twins The Brady Bunch Converse All-Stars Hoosiers Alan Moore Swamp Thing The Mona Lisa & the Scream Eva Braun Danny Thomas Bill Oakley tight butts drive Matt nuts KISS and the Kiss Kasket Gene Simmons Cindy Lou Who Raiders of the Lost Ark The Lockhorns Stephen Sondheim Stan Lee Kansas City serial killer Bob Berdella Jorge Jimenez Talk to Us! Having trouble understanding what's going on in a 9 Chickweed Lane strip you just read? Send it our way! We'll take a shot at interpreting it for you! Or maybe you just want someone to talk to? We're on Bluesky: @9ChickweedRAGE.bsky.social. And we're on Instagram: @9ChickweedRage. Special Guest: Matt Fraction.

    2h 14m
See All (48)

5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

In 1993, Brooke McEldowney began writing and drawing the newspaper comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane. Nearly 30 years later, it's still going strong. For some dumb reason, Brooke Dillman and Jeff Drake read the comic strip, even though it only makes them angry. This is their podcast, certainly one of the worst ideas for a podcast ever: a podcast about a newspaper comic strip that (as far as they know) no one reads. This is 9 CHICKWEED RAGE.

Information

  • Creator
    Jeff Drake, Brooke Dillman
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    48
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Jeff Drake and Brooke Dillman
  • Show Website
    9 Chickweed Rage

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