The Creative Process

See it here.

Here's the creative process behind today's panel as I imagine it (which is to say, I am at a loss to otherwise explain this panel):

1. A decision to make fun of people who dote on their dogs as if they were a child or a spouse gets the ball rolling.
   
2. To make the joke, a scenario is invented in which hair is found in brownies and the reveal is that the hair comes not from a human, but from a pampered pet who "helped" with the baking.
   
3. The first two pieces of dialog write themselves.
4. After sitting back and examining the panel, someone realizes that the reader will logically assume that "Manny" is an undepicted spouse, rather than the barely-rendered fur ball yapping in Connie's lap.
   
5. Several abortive attempts are made to draw Manny such that his name is obvious to the reader, including a Flavor Flav-sized dog tag. Several hours later, the attempt is abandoned, after being deemed impossible. Whether it occurs to someone during this period that changing the dog's name to "Spot" or "Rex" would solve the problem is not known.
   
6. At this point, several quarts of cheap gin are consumed, in despair.
7. Inspiration strikes. Someone at the party could be ignorant of who Manny is, and ask the question for the reader.
8. The next two pieces of dialog, up to Burl's "Connie's Pomeranian," write themselves.
9. Self-satisfied, the effort is prematurely deemed complete.
10. Unfortunately, a naysayer points out that the punchline (such as it is) falls mid-way through the panel and is followed by two lines of rather boring exposition. Hardly a successful formula.
11. Eleventh-hour attempts to add a punchline to Burl's dialog end tragically when no one notices that the text sent to the publisher makes the rather unsurprising claim that a dog is extremely loyal to its owner.

Honestly, I am at a total loss to explain this.

Marginally better marginalia:

• Not one, but two "on ice" gags today with a groan-inducing pun for good measure. I use the word "gag" here deliberately.
• Not being a fashionable person, I have to assume Patty's shirt is some sort of Coco Chanel reference. Could it be a play on cocoa, as in cocoa brownies?
  
• I wonder why the act of eating in The Dinette Set is typically indicated by a collection of food detritus around the mouth.
• Any ideas about what Connie's cup says?