Funnies is an old-fashioned but still-used word for comic strips, those panels of illustrated stories and jokes you find in newspapers. When someone says they're reading the funnies, they mean they're looking at comics like Garfield, Peanuts, or Calvin and Hobbes.

Newspapers used to print the funnies in a special color section on Sundays, and families would pass around the paper at breakfast to catch up on their favorite characters.

You might hear an older relative say “Let me check the funnies” while flipping through the newspaper. The word has a warm, nostalgic feeling to it, like it belongs to lazy Sunday mornings and kitchen tables covered with newspaper sections. While many people now read comics online, the funnies still refers to that particular form of entertainment: short, serialized comic strips that appear regularly, whether in print or digital form.