So yeah, Mr. Shanahan is combining the Wyeth painting
with the World Cup. But is there an actual joke behind this unholy alliance?
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Comics I Don't Understand 
The joke is simply adding a word to the title and reimagining her as a goalie. Not exactly hilarious.
Keeper after a save. Who knew Wyeth followed football…
That’s all there is: word association football.
Puns like this rely mostly on the obiquity of phrases yet the infrequency of considering the two together. On that grounds this is an acceptable but weak effort. Being a New Yorker cartoon it gets a slight boost in the pleasure the reader has in reminding his or her self-image as someone who would get an art reference.
The rest that make a good pun, incongruity of the phrases, exposition (either natural, or distinctly unnatural but explicitly so for the soul purpose of setting it up), and execution are secondary. Which is good for this cartoon because it has almost none. (Well, perhaps in light of Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease and pro athletics it has …. negative value.)
It’s …. passable. But nothing more.
“Word Association Football” is a better one of these puns.
Oddly google’s auto-complete put “Christina’s World Cup” in third after after “Christina’s W….”
I’m glad it wasn’t Wayne’s World Cup….
“I’m glad it wasn’t Wayne’s World Cup….”
Extreme closeup!
I found it amusing, especially the red keeper’s gloves — and I think she’s down because she missed the save and the ball is in the back of the net behind her.
” I think she’s down because she missed the save and the ball is in the back of the net behind her.”
I’m literally at the other end. I think she’s down because her side’s attack has kept the ball at the far end of the pitch.
I think he was watching TV instead of drawing comics. Deadline looming. After the soccer match, Wheel of Fortune came on. He was inspired by the “Before and After” category.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a keeper lying on the ground after making a save, James Pollock, but prostrate after screwing up … yes. Whatever. I think it’s a reasonably amusing comic regardless.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a keeper lying on the ground after making a save, James Pollock”
I know I have, but that wasn’t my theory. I’m seeing a player so bored by the fact that the game is being played at the other end of the pitch that they’ve lost focus. If you’re familiar with little league baseball, think of a six-year-old right fielder. If your team’s much, much better than the other team is, the ball never even comes into your end, and the keeper has literally nothing to do.
” I think it’s a reasonably amusing comic regardless.”
I wasn’t familiar with the Wyeth original, so…
If you had asked me an hour ago, “Who is Andrew Wyeth?” I would have said something like, “Hey, what you doing in my bedroom!?”
But if you asked when I wasn’t asleep in my bed, I would have said something like, “A Jane Austen character? British MP? Sorry, I have no idea.” Maybe I shouldn’t read the New Yorker
Next: Christina’s of World cup.
RE: goalies lying down after making saves. Happens all the time. In fact, I wish FIFA would outlaw it. It’s especially obvious when the goalie’s team is ahead and time is running out. The goalie will make a routine save, and all of a sudden he’s face down on the ground wrapped around the ball for half a minute. This delay of the game is one of the things World Cup referees seem to be ignoring.
It was at the Olson farm in Cushing, Maine, that he painted Christina’s World (1948). Perhaps his most famous image, it depicts his neighbor, Christina Olson, sprawled on a dry field facing her house in the distance. Wyeth was inspired by Christina, who, crippled from (undiagnosed) Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, a genetic polyneuropathy and unable to walk, spent most of her time at home.
How about when a player scores a goal and then flees in terror as his own team chases him down to pummel him?
Good point, James Pollock. Many centuries ago, when I was stupid enough to coach my daughter’s soccer team, I had a player get entranced by a butterfly and ignore a beautiful pass across the mouth of the goal. I think my high blood pressure dates to that moment, since there’s no way you can blow a fuse at a 6 year old and my own cardiovascular system had to bear the brunt of it.
I like the fact the cartoonist thought to add the background buildings to push the reference to the original painting.
FWIW, Andrew Wyeth is the son of noted illustrator N.C. Wyeth. Many members of the Wyeth family were artists or followed other creative pursuits.
@ BBBB – I don’t think legislation would work. Goalies are normally allowed to wait a while for their team to move back upfield, and nobody cares when this happens in the middle of a game. It doesn’t seem fair to change the requirements just because the other team is in a hurry at the end of a game.
Referees can (and do) penalize blatant infractions: Two nights ago I saw a player get a yellow card for taking a liesurely stroll on the way to a throw-in (his team was trying to defend a tie game in the closing minutes).
I must say, when I saw the headline “Cup I Don’t Understand” I was relieved to see that the comic involved only one girl.
” I don’t think legislation would work. Goalies are normally allowed to wait a while for their team to move back upfield”
How about this rule, then?
After a save (or otherwise coming into possession of the ball) the keeper can hold it for X amount of time (I have no idea what value of X might be appropriate, and it probably could and would vary depending on the league setting). They can either pass the ball to a teammate or put the ball on the turf. If they choose option B, the keeper can leave it there for as long as they like, but the other team can attempt to play it.
Mid-game, the other team would most likely retreat to set the defense, and the keeper would pass to another player as the attack sees the defense, or try to feed a transition attack quickly if they see an advantage to do so, which is what I assume happens now. A team might choose the press the keeper, if they thought they had an advantage in doing so, but it would be their option
Late-game, a team that needs to score would pretty much have to press the keeper, to force the ball back into play as soon as possible.
The teams would decide how much of a rush to be in. and officials no longer have to make a judgment call about delay-of-game.
Would that work, or has my profound lack of knowledge about soccer caused me to miss a bunch of real or potential conflicts with other rules?
Mona, that “two cup” thing has come up at least twice here, and I’ve somehow managed to totally forget what it means both times.
I do remember it was something best forgotten, though.
I was a soccer coach one summer. Totally by accident, since I’d never WATCHED a soccer game beforehand, let alone played in one. But my younger son was in a league, and on the first day of the season the coach didn’t show up and the referee said if nobody took over within 5 minutes, the team would forfeit.
We were living in a Portuguese neighborhood. Let’s just say the Portuguese take their soccer seriously. Midway through the first game, the coach for the other team started screaming at me — standing inches from me — because one of my kids who was standing at the sidelines had his foot touching the line. “Screaming” is not hyperbole: there was literally spittle on my arm by the time he was done. Swear to God, I thought he was going to have a stroke.
The kids, by the way, were 5 years old. This was a 5-year-old whose foot was touching a line as he was standing still watching.
I later found out that there were other coaches and parents who were even more insane, but fortunately they never vented their wrath at me.
Oh, and the mother of one of the girls on my team was my older son’s soccer coach, and she told me straight out that if her girl didn’t get to play goalie, she wouldn’t let my son have much playing time. Which could have been a dilemma, except my son said Fine, I really don’t like soccer anyway.
Needless to say, this was only a one-summer nightmare.
Bill, I had never heard of it before I saw it here. Unfortunately, I do remember what it is. I suggest you suppress your curiosity and do NOT Google it. I also learned about centipede here. 🐛
Olivier and Mona (@12:11) – LOL.
Kilby, JP – isn’t the rule currently based on the amount of time that the keeper can hold the ball? Or was that the old one, and the number of steps is the new one? (I’m fairly sure that it changed to time, not from time.)
Of course not, it’s a New Yorker cartoon