That has to be one weird looking image in panel 1. Sorry, but it looks to me more like some kind of high school banner left behind after a pep rally.

Rivera proves to be thrifty with her tropes, as she has gotten a lot of mileage out of crickets as land shrimp. It was that remark that Rusty (back in March 2021) caught on a video with Mark and posted online that led to Mark’s California trip and everything that’s followed. So it has come full circle, so to speak.

And Rivera repeats her oft-used image balloon comparing a shrimp and a cricket. Rivera uses this visualization frequently, as regular readers know, though I’m not sure what the real purpose is.

Is Rivera just riffing off her meme here for the humor aspect, or is she trying to draw out some larger issue or symbolism? How did Rusty make the link between crickets and shrimp? Is it simply because SurfSquatch is now some kind of nautical creature who apparently gets his meal from the ocean?