A dangerous game

You're playing a dangerous game, Mary Worth.

First, Dr. Jeff Cory asks you to hang out with him, and this is what you have to say:

Check out how well Dr. Jeff Cory takes the news. Then, instead of explaining your joke, you say this:

Dr. Jeff Cory's reactions seemed to be startled silence. (? followed by ! which I think is comic strip-speak for WTF?) Now would be a good time to say "Hey, guess what, boyfriend - after taking an extremely long bike ride and apparently not speaking to you for a week, I got a dog!" Then maybe he would chuckle at your sense of humor. But Mary, you are a woman of questionable choices, and Dr. Jeff Cory is a man of action, so this is what happens:

You can totally tell that the authors erased his rage-filled grimace and drew in that smile at the last second. And now for the twist:

See, up until now, the joke was that Dr. Drew Cory knew what was going on and came over to see the dog. But apparently Mr. Allergies didn't know she had a pet. So what on earth did he think was happening? Did he really want to meet some guy Mary was blowing him off for? Was Moy drawing up until then and Giella took over and came up with the brilliant plot twist of Allergies?

Since none of this makes any sense, we are going to have another look at that second strip and take note of the fact that Mary lives in one of those MC Escher-ish vortexes where perspective is all warped. In the first panel, she's standing in front of a door. In the second, she is standing in the same place but the door is about 10 feet away and she's actually in a different room. Then, that hall table: did she saw a few inches off the legs on one side? Or maybe there's a hole right there? And though at first those bowls on top of the TV stand appear to be way out of reach, the second panel reveals that Mary's height is variable and she is now just about eye level with them. Poor Chester, he must feel like he's still sick. Dr. Jeff Cory probably diagnoses himself with inner ear trouble every time he walks in, which is probably why the lovers only speak every few weeks.