Well, I can find some difference, though it’s a stretch. 1) Having the “first” claim in that corner box makes it an assertion of the authorial voice, and something we are meant to accept as fact, which would not be so sure if the guy himself were merely asserting it; 2) but making it 3rd person and general like that suggests it should be “a wok” not “the wok”.
I think it’s “the” wok because there’s only one. the wall, the bus, the sidewalk. It can’t be any old bus; it’s the bus. Sure you might have “a” wok in the house; but if I lived there, I’d ask someone for the wok. I’m visiting my friend’s house; they say “Last night Lenny got up on the stove and played Dance, Dance, Revolution on the burners.” It was “the stove” of the house; It’s understood that they only have one stove. When two separate people refer to “the stove” as a place where they do things, they are rarely talking about the same stove unless they live in the same house. And even then, neither may be talking about their stove specifically. Now if neither had ever had a stove, then I think they might then talk only talk about “a” stove. And finally, “Jack saw that the Giant was using a stove as a paperweight” because the stove was probably not the stove the Giant used as a stove. But if Jack recognized it as his Mother’s stove, well then …
Now, me, I’m thinking the preposition “on” might be the problem. Is it usually “from” or “off the side of”?
What WW said. It’s just a dumb wore swap. BTW, Bill, I thought you’d want to know: I just saw notice of appearance by this group: “The Squirrel Nut Zippers are a swing band formed in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the early 1990s.”
Comics I Don't Understand 
I don’t understand why this is a CIDU, and I don’t understand why Bill’s revision changes the CIDU-level of the comic.
Neither formulation strikes me as funnier than the other, and with both of them the joke is just “here’s a bit of wordplay.”
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“Hold my beer.”
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Agree with WW. A distinction without a difference, IMO.
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Is it relevant that the degree of difficulty is ramped up? Surely, it would be easier to do if the wok were on the floor…
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His smile is saying “Look at me, I’m the first man to moon on the wok.”
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“One small butt for man, one giant arse for mankind” ? I dunno, there has to be something that can be done with it.
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Well, I can find some difference, though it’s a stretch. 1) Having the “first” claim in that corner box makes it an assertion of the authorial voice, and something we are meant to accept as fact, which would not be so sure if the guy himself were merely asserting it; 2) but making it 3rd person and general like that suggests it should be “a wok” not “the wok”.
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I think it’s “the” wok because there’s only one. the wall, the bus, the sidewalk. It can’t be any old bus; it’s the bus. Sure you might have “a” wok in the house; but if I lived there, I’d ask someone for the wok. I’m visiting my friend’s house; they say “Last night Lenny got up on the stove and played Dance, Dance, Revolution on the burners.” It was “the stove” of the house; It’s understood that they only have one stove. When two separate people refer to “the stove” as a place where they do things, they are rarely talking about the same stove unless they live in the same house. And even then, neither may be talking about their stove specifically. Now if neither had ever had a stove, then I think they might then talk only talk about “a” stove. And finally, “Jack saw that the Giant was using a stove as a paperweight” because the stove was probably not the stove the Giant used as a stove. But if Jack recognized it as his Mother’s stove, well then …
Now, me, I’m thinking the preposition “on” might be the problem. Is it usually “from” or “off the side of”?
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What WW said. It’s just a dumb wore swap. BTW, Bill, I thought you’d want to know: I just saw notice of appearance by this group: “The Squirrel Nut Zippers are a swing band formed in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the early 1990s.”
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Um, “word swap.”
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One small wok for man. One giant wok for mankind.
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I think it was the Bier talking…..
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On the other hand, if he had mooned on the walk, he’d have been more (in)famous.
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“On the other hand, if he had mooned on the walk”
But probably not FIRST.
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Thanks, Boise Ed, but I do in fact own some of their music.
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