Chitin is the substance that forms the exoskeleton of insects (among other things). Now that you all know that, let’s see if some brilliant person can figure out why this strip is supposed to be funny.
My guess is that he ran over the bug (note the black blob in panels 1-2) because he was texting with a nonexistent phone while doing impossible driving, and because of its chitin it was able to survive and make his wheel go wobbly.
My, this is a terrible strip.
Yeah, I came up with more or less the same idea as Treesong. The bug comes out okay in the encounter but Thor’s badly hurt and the bug is admonishing him that without chitin he can’t afford to risk grave harm that will come to his chitinless body through that carelessness.
It’d work better if we actually *saw* the non-existent phone.
You can’t see the non-existent phone because they don’t have them in BC’s world. It would work better if the joke didn’t require the bug to not be squashed as it really would have been, despite the qualities of chitin.
“You can’t see the non-existent phone because they don’t have them in BC’s world.”
Chitin forms the insect exoskeleton, which is like armor. Soft, squishy humans don’t have any, which makes texting and driving extra stupid for us to indulge in.
Maybe the “texting and driving” refers to the “WORBLE WORBLE WOBBA WOBBA WOOP” sound effects text.
Also, “WORBLE WORBLE WOBBA WOBBA WOOP”?
Carlfink: sounds like something the Globgogabgalab would say.
I read it to mean that in case Thor was considering texting and driving he would do well to remember that he does not have a shell made out of chitin. Not especially funny (ok, not actually funny at all.)
Thor drove over the beetle because he wasn’t watching where he was going. This particular beetle is a lot harder to squish than most, apparently having thicker chitin than the typical beetle. So the beetle sticking to the wheel gave it a wobble until it crashed.
He should have had one of those message slabs, like the ones that BC sends out on the ocean over the horizon, in his hand. That might have made it a bit more understandable.
Apparently, the only thing I remember learning in HS biology is wrong. The teacher told us that sharks have skin made of chitin, and it acted like tiny teeth, an abrasion-type action. So when I saw ‘chitin’, I was actually looking for the shark. i thought it might have something to do with jumping the shark, but I couldn’t make that work, either.
“Apparently, the only thing I remember learning in HS biology is wrong. The teacher told us that sharks have skin made of chitin, and it acted like tiny teeth, an abrasion-type action.”
Are you sure it wasn’t collagen?
Shark skins *contains* collagen and the skin consists of dermal denticles or plaquoid scales which… act like tiny teeth, an abrasion-type action.
He definitely said ‘chitin’, because we made jokes about the ‘chi’ which means ‘christ’, and the shark thinking it was a tin god. But it’s good to know the real deal, and I can correct my incorrectness. :-)
Sometimes people who are dead wrong in a few details end up teaching.
re “Sometimes people who are dead wrong in a few details end up teaching.”
One of my high school teachers told us how to distinguish between stalactites and stalagmites: “Stalactites come up from the floor, and have to hold on TITE, but stalagmites come down from the ceiling, so they have to hold on with all of their MITE.”
So, every since when I need to recall which is which, I recall that teacher’s mnemonic and then reverse it, since he got it wrong. But . . . MEMORABLY wrong!
A stalagmite might fall. Or so I was erroneously told .
“Hold on tite? How does that apply more to one than another?
I remember “Stalactites have a ‘c’ in the name. It stands for ‘ceiling.'”
Actually I read that in a comic book story featuring The Atom.
Stalactites stick tightly to the ceiling. Stalagmites come out of the ground. So… the one with a C hangs down from the ceiling, and the one with a G sticks up from the ground.
The letter “T” (in “stalacTite”) looks like a bar hanging from the ceiling, the M (in “stalagMite”) looks like mounds on the floor.
JP: similar to what my mother taught me: “Les stalagMites Montent, les stalacTites Tombent”.
I just remember it’s like ants in the pants: “the mites come up and the tites (tights) come down” (from Reader’s Digest some time in the last century, attributed to a park ranger or guide at Carlsbad or some such place),
C’est génial, mais comme je ne comprends pas le français, l’aide de ta mère ne m’aurait probablement pas aidé du tout.
French is easy. It’s just Latin with the endings left off.
e pluribus unum? veni, vidi, vici. MMXVIII
O Re Stabit Fortis Aqui et Placet Osit.
Civile si ego, fortibus es in ero. O nobile deus trux. Votis inem. Causan dux
Now if someone can just explain to me which muscle is the abductor and which is the adductor.
Res ipsa loquitur.
The ABductor is the one with the black hat and the twirly mustache. The CONductor is the one who takes the tickets on the train.
No? OK.
The ABductor is the muscle that pulls something AWAY from the BODY.
“Ab” meas away (as in “abscess” and “absent”) and “ad” means toward (as in “addition”, and “adhesion”).
Comics I Don't Understand 
Huh?
Chitin is the substance that forms the exoskeleton of insects (among other things). Now that you all know that, let’s see if some brilliant person can figure out why this strip is supposed to be funny.
My guess is that he ran over the bug (note the black blob in panels 1-2) because he was texting with a nonexistent phone while doing impossible driving, and because of its chitin it was able to survive and make his wheel go wobbly.
My, this is a terrible strip.
Yeah, I came up with more or less the same idea as Treesong. The bug comes out okay in the encounter but Thor’s badly hurt and the bug is admonishing him that without chitin he can’t afford to risk grave harm that will come to his chitinless body through that carelessness.
It’d work better if we actually *saw* the non-existent phone.
You can’t see the non-existent phone because they don’t have them in BC’s world. It would work better if the joke didn’t require the bug to not be squashed as it really would have been, despite the qualities of chitin.
“You can’t see the non-existent phone because they don’t have them in BC’s world.”
Forty years ago, the Midnight Skulker was changing into costume in a phone booth, which happened to be a tree.
https://www.google.com/search?q=midnight+skulker
Chitin forms the insect exoskeleton, which is like armor. Soft, squishy humans don’t have any, which makes texting and driving extra stupid for us to indulge in.
Maybe the “texting and driving” refers to the “WORBLE WORBLE WOBBA WOBBA WOOP” sound effects text.
Also, “WORBLE WORBLE WOBBA WOBBA WOOP”?
Carlfink: sounds like something the Globgogabgalab would say.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4QeypcBMyQ
I read it to mean that in case Thor was considering texting and driving he would do well to remember that he does not have a shell made out of chitin. Not especially funny (ok, not actually funny at all.)
Thor drove over the beetle because he wasn’t watching where he was going. This particular beetle is a lot harder to squish than most, apparently having thicker chitin than the typical beetle. So the beetle sticking to the wheel gave it a wobble until it crashed.
He should have had one of those message slabs, like the ones that BC sends out on the ocean over the horizon, in his hand. That might have made it a bit more understandable.
Apparently, the only thing I remember learning in HS biology is wrong. The teacher told us that sharks have skin made of chitin, and it acted like tiny teeth, an abrasion-type action. So when I saw ‘chitin’, I was actually looking for the shark. i thought it might have something to do with jumping the shark, but I couldn’t make that work, either.
“Apparently, the only thing I remember learning in HS biology is wrong. The teacher told us that sharks have skin made of chitin, and it acted like tiny teeth, an abrasion-type action.”
Are you sure it wasn’t collagen?
Shark skins *contains* collagen and the skin consists of dermal denticles or plaquoid scales which… act like tiny teeth, an abrasion-type action.
He definitely said ‘chitin’, because we made jokes about the ‘chi’ which means ‘christ’, and the shark thinking it was a tin god. But it’s good to know the real deal, and I can correct my incorrectness. :-)
Sometimes people who are dead wrong in a few details end up teaching.
re “Sometimes people who are dead wrong in a few details end up teaching.”
One of my high school teachers told us how to distinguish between stalactites and stalagmites: “Stalactites come up from the floor, and have to hold on TITE, but stalagmites come down from the ceiling, so they have to hold on with all of their MITE.”
So, every since when I need to recall which is which, I recall that teacher’s mnemonic and then reverse it, since he got it wrong. But . . . MEMORABLY wrong!
A stalagmite might fall. Or so I was erroneously told .
“Hold on tite? How does that apply more to one than another?
I remember “Stalactites have a ‘c’ in the name. It stands for ‘ceiling.'”
Actually I read that in a comic book story featuring The Atom.
Stalactites stick tightly to the ceiling. Stalagmites come out of the ground. So… the one with a C hangs down from the ceiling, and the one with a G sticks up from the ground.
The letter “T” (in “stalacTite”) looks like a bar hanging from the ceiling, the M (in “stalagMite”) looks like mounds on the floor.
JP: similar to what my mother taught me: “Les stalagMites Montent, les stalacTites Tombent”.
I just remember it’s like ants in the pants: “the mites come up and the tites (tights) come down” (from Reader’s Digest some time in the last century, attributed to a park ranger or guide at Carlsbad or some such place),
C’est génial, mais comme je ne comprends pas le français, l’aide de ta mère ne m’aurait probablement pas aidé du tout.
French is easy. It’s just Latin with the endings left off.
e pluribus unum? veni, vidi, vici. MMXVIII
O Re Stabit Fortis Aqui et Placet Osit.
Civile si ego, fortibus es in ero. O nobile deus trux. Votis inem. Causan dux
Now if someone can just explain to me which muscle is the abductor and which is the adductor.
Res ipsa loquitur.
The ABductor is the one with the black hat and the twirly mustache. The CONductor is the one who takes the tickets on the train.
No? OK.
The ABductor is the muscle that pulls something AWAY from the BODY.
“Ab” meas away (as in “abscess” and “absent”) and “ad” means toward (as in “addition”, and “adhesion”).
So…. what James said.