Okay, this is a double CIDU for me, because Irv (not that Irv) sent it to me with the comment “The 60s called…”
Right now that confuses me just as much as the comic itself does, though I suspect it should help me understand it.
(Yes, I do understand the nature of the trick itself, because I am after all smarter than the average bear)
Comics I Don't Understand 
It made me think of Hotel New Hampshire, but that would have
been the eighties calling, not the sixties.
I thought the book was a little older, but Wikipedia says “1981”. Well done, sir.
Maybe it’s a reference to paranoia. I mean, in the 50’s, you would have been worried about a Commie behind every tree, not a bear, but in the 60’s, there was a “get back to nature” movement, so maybe…
Nope, I gots nothing. Hopefully, my rambling-out-loud will suggest something to someone else, who can put the pieces together.
Maybe Irv was thinking Disney’s Bongo the Bear? That seems to be more 50s / 60s though.
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Bongo_the_Bear
Sorry, meant 40s/50s.
It’s a bear… doing a trick? So it sounds like the trick, not the bear? I mean, all I’ve got is the double meaning of “trick”, but that’s pretty thin pickings.
Just in case it’s significant: this panel is (at least) 16 years old, Toles quit drawing “Randolph Itch” in 2002.
I thought that it was just an over-active imagination. He’s reading a camping guide, and presumably he’s at the chapter about how to identify whether or not a bear is approaching and what to do if that happens.
He’s imagining himself in the woods, and thinking ‘Well,what if a bear approaches on a uni-cycle. I’ve seen that before. I could happen. Am I really prepared?’
The first thing I thought of was Bongo the bear, I didn’t know it was ever animated, I grew up with the book. Then I thought of Hotel New Hampshire, the movie. In any event beware of bears in the woods.
Irv is John Irving? I think every John Irving book has either a bear or someone dressed up as a bear.
Yogi Bear got his own show in January 1961. That’s who I think of when I think of bears trying to trick campers. But maybe that just shows the average bear is smarter than me.
And there’s this fun fact from Wikipedia:
“Yogi was one of several Hanna-Barbera characters to have a collar. This allowed animators to keep his body static, redrawing only his head in each frame when he spoke — a method that reduced the number of drawings needed for a seven-minute cartoon from around 14,000 to around 2,000.”
On the other hand, when Yogi Berra wore the collar, it wasn’t a good thing. (baseball term for not getting a hit in a game)
“On the other hand, when Yogi Berra wore the collar, it wasn’t a good thing.”
It was for somebody. For nine somebodies, really.
Nine?
ten, if they the DH back then. I don’t know, or care quite enough to look it up. But there are only nine on the field.
If you want the 60s, I’d say “The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming.” 1966 and Alan Arkin is in it.
Russia equals Bear, right?
Oh, and loved The Hotel New Hampshire: “Sorrow floats,” and “Keep passing the open windows.”
1: I hear a sound! Maybe it’s a bear!
2: What kind of sound?
1: A kind of a squeaking sound.
2: A “squeaking sound”? It doesn’t sound like a bear.
A squeaking sound is probably not coming from a bear. Unless… it’s on a unicycle!
I thought it was Dancing Bear from Captain Kangaroo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Kangaroo#/media/File:Captain_Kangaroo_promotional_postcard_1961.JPG).
This Irv
Bears riding various cycles used to be a circus thing, and outlived reality as a cliche along with;
— Booths where you threw stuff at a man’s head (the standard comedy / cartoon gag had a character seeing a head-sized hole in a wall and ill-advisedly sticking his head through it)
— Mobs of clowns in an impossibly tiny car
— Sideshows with half-man-half-woman, bearded lady, India rubber man, etc.
Think there are still some human cannonballs out there.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a bear on a unicycle, but have seen clips of bears perched on motorcycles (not standard models) riding around a ring.
Charles Addams did a New Yorker cover of a wistful-looking bear on a unicycle in a Manhattan bike lane. The bear had a briefcase; presumably an office worker with a past.
Far Side had two bears in clown costumes on motorcycle in a show. One was haranguing the other (“It couldn’t be a trap, you said. Who’d put a trap way out here, you said …”).
Dilbert even got in on it. Instead of a taxi from the airport, the company booked him to ride in a barrel rolled by a bear on top. The bear was going on about how he needed a career change while Dilbert muttered about getting a “talker”.
“Dilbert even got in on it.”
Here you go:
http://dilbert.com/strip/2002-09-14
But if the squeak *is* coming from the unicycle and not its rider, the guy IS correct that “it doesn’t sound like a bear.”
But he should still be worried, since almost ANYthing could be riding that unicycle up to get him! A rabid wolverine! A werewolf! A Jehovah’s Witness! A Girl Scout cookie salesperson!
(If he’s lucky, it might *only* be a bear.)
Okay, now it makes me realize that in my entire village of bears celebrating their Winter Festival none are on unicycles or even bicycles. Now I will have to go out looking for one for next year’s Festival.