Some cartoons from the 1926 sesquicentennial.
Well, that was a bust. From the point of view of New Yorker cartoons, the sesquicentennial was a non-event. That “Third of July” cartoon could have been done any year.
But as long as I’m here in the archive, let’s take a look at Central Park, 100 years ago. No gags here, just Helen E. Hopkinson’s observations.
JMcAndrew sends this in: “I have no idea what the joke here is. It’s a snowman with a top hat and black cape and the crows like him because they are also black? Why is there fire?”
Most people who remember playing “Kick the Can” have, in fact, kicked the bucket.
Job skills for the coming economy — or at least coming years of education.
Is hell organized as a sole proprietorship?
Mitch4 sends this in. The patient has had a checkered career.
Mitch4 sends this in:
Probably missing some weak pun here.
Kedamono sends this in: “Nothing Horace the Horse did in the first two panels would have resulted in the third…”
Boise Ed sends this in: “Here’s nother imaginative use of the Fourth Wall idea.”
I seem to remember Dagwood used to talk to the dog for this type of monologue, not directly to the reader.
Boise Ed notes, “You don’t get much more fourth-wall than this one.”
JMcAndrew sends this in: “Why can’t the cat go to the office? Did Ziggy somehow cause the cat to become pregnant and he’s worried about the legal consequences?”
Mitch4 sends this in: “The two rowers were seated as though to propel the boat astern, left-to-right. The magically-appearing outboard then correctly sends the boat right-to-left.”
Jack Applin adds: “Margot, the millennial with the afro puffs, has near-supernatural abilities at times, so we can assume that she unconsciously created the outboard motor. However, why are the characters rowing backward? When you row, you pull on the oars, which sends the boat in the opposite direction that you’re facing. The bow (front) of this boat is on the left, as indicated by its shape (also, the motor appears at the right). The rowers should be facing right, not left. Perhaps this explains why they’re doing so poorly—they’re either pushing the oars, or trying to make the boat go backwards, flat end first.”
Actually, in panel 2 it’s not clear what’s going on, given the angle of the rower’s back and the oars. Is it possible the cartoonist just doesn’t understand how rowing a boat works?
Mitch4 sends this in: “Setup is quite unlikely, but yields a good chuckle.”
But maybe this boat is the Tooth Ferry?
Pretty sure the last panel tech support is Hindu deities.
Comics I Don't Understand 