The first one is easy: Caulfield overlooked a few minor drawbacks as he was extolling the virtues of his favorite summer pastime.
What I don’t understand is why we are supposed to decipher two separate CIDUs in a single thread.
One of them with a missing caption, looks like.
Me neither. I have no clue how that got there.
Now I’m going to remove it, so people will wonder whether Kilby and James had been hallucinating.
And for the record, “winter” was the CIDU aspect.
“Now I’m going to remove it, so people will wonder whether Kilby and James had been hallucinating.”
Clearly, I was no more than partially hallucinating.
Winter is not awesome for the rope swing, because Mallett and all his characters live in Michigan, which is very cold in winter and thus you would not want to ride a rope swing into the water in the winter.
This is one of those instances where the punchline makes the reader realize that the punchline is a continuation of a conversation, and that the reader must figure out what the conversation was about in order to “get” the joke.
In other words, when you figure out the first part of the conversation, the joke will be funny!
So what was the first part of the conversation that was left out for us? How about:
Mrs. Olsen: What’s your favorite part of summer, Caulfield?
Caulfield: The rope swing is the best! What could ruin swinging off the rope swing?
(Now re-read the last panel, and maybe the joke will start to make sense.)
Mrs. Olsen: What’s your favorite part of summer, Caulfield?
Caulfield: The rope swing is the best! What could ruin swinging off the rope swing?
Mrs. Olsen: … winter.
Nope, makes even less sense with the prologue.
Caulfield: Rope swings are the best! What could make someone NOT like a rope swing?
…
Caulfield, being Caulfield, likely led off with a discussion about how great summer vacation is because it relieves him of the obligation of school. There’s nothing actually IN this cartoon that says that, you just have to be familiar with Mallett’s characters to just KNOW he would be like that. So he was off extolling the virtues of this rope swing (and the summertime no-school mentality that goes with it.) What could possibly ruin such an awesome thing as a day at the rope swing?
Winter is coming. Man is the only animal aware of his own mortality, or at least, the only one who writes about it. She’s just planted seeds… now, when he’s out there on the swing, thinking about how great it is to be out swimming at the rope swing place… he’ll remember that summer will end, winter will be waiting to take its place, and winter means more than just snow and ice and no fun swimming. It means school will be there, waiting for Calvin I mean Caulfield. There’s reprieve but no escape, Calvin. Be happy now, Calvin, because you and your time will be mine, again, soon enough…
What can ruin a rope swing where you dive off into the water?
Winter when the water is freezing.
Winter can definitely ruin a good rope swing.
True, “winter” is not in the same camp as the other listed rope swing downers — it is a bit of a stretch to list it here — but then, Mrs. Olsen is nothing if not prone to being overly negative.
Now imagine the panel without “winter”: everything works.
“winter” as a problem with rope swing is not really a fault any more than “summer” is a fault with skiing. It’s basically saying “Your activity is temporal and that’s a fault”. Which as a fault is a very minor one.
But it is a weakness.
So it’s really hard for me to place as an IDU classification. If we ask “What could possibly go wrong with a rope swing?” then “winter” is not a very *good* answer, but it’s a perfectly understandable one.
“Now imagine the panel without “winter”: everything works.”
It works with “winter” too. Just not as well. In fact, very poorly. But it does work.
Okay, let me elaborate: “everything works well, rather than very poorly.”
The rope swing has got to be about the greatest invention of all time. What’s not to like?
Agae, leaches, summer’s itch, and winter
Yes, it’s terse, but hardly nonsensical. Mrs. Olsen’s point is that a rope swing can’t be the greatest thing ever because it’s appeal is limited to a single season, and even that use is plagued with potential drawbacks. Summer’s itch may be uncomfortable enough, but a rope swing in (a western Michigan) winter is uncomfortable in about every possible way…
““everything works well” .. (rather than very poorly).
I wouldn’t go that far either.
I’d say it all kind of sort of works tepidly
Am I the only one wondering what the hell “swimmer’s itch” is?
I suppose “swimmer’s itch” is an inflammation or allergic reaction caused by something in the water.
Until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of “surfer’s knots” either.
I have heard of “swimmer’s ear”, which is an inflammation in the ear canal caused by something in the water.
Swimmers get swimmer’s ear, athletes get athlete’s foot, and astronauts get missile toe.
As Frazz strips go, this one seemed pretty clear. Your standard playground swing or porch swing works just fine year round. A rope swing, which typically is used for jumping into a lake has obvious disadvantages in the winter.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The first one is easy: Caulfield overlooked a few minor drawbacks as he was extolling the virtues of his favorite summer pastime.
What I don’t understand is why we are supposed to decipher two separate CIDUs in a single thread.
One of them with a missing caption, looks like.
Me neither. I have no clue how that got there.
Now I’m going to remove it, so people will wonder whether Kilby and James had been hallucinating.
And for the record, “winter” was the CIDU aspect.
“Now I’m going to remove it, so people will wonder whether Kilby and James had been hallucinating.”
Clearly, I was no more than partially hallucinating.
Winter is not awesome for the rope swing, because Mallett and all his characters live in Michigan, which is very cold in winter and thus you would not want to ride a rope swing into the water in the winter.
This is one of those instances where the punchline makes the reader realize that the punchline is a continuation of a conversation, and that the reader must figure out what the conversation was about in order to “get” the joke.
In other words, when you figure out the first part of the conversation, the joke will be funny!
So what was the first part of the conversation that was left out for us? How about:
Mrs. Olsen: What’s your favorite part of summer, Caulfield?
Caulfield: The rope swing is the best! What could ruin swinging off the rope swing?
(Now re-read the last panel, and maybe the joke will start to make sense.)
Mrs. Olsen: What’s your favorite part of summer, Caulfield?
Caulfield: The rope swing is the best! What could ruin swinging off the rope swing?
Mrs. Olsen: … winter.
Nope, makes even less sense with the prologue.
Caulfield: Rope swings are the best! What could make someone NOT like a rope swing?
…
Caulfield, being Caulfield, likely led off with a discussion about how great summer vacation is because it relieves him of the obligation of school. There’s nothing actually IN this cartoon that says that, you just have to be familiar with Mallett’s characters to just KNOW he would be like that. So he was off extolling the virtues of this rope swing (and the summertime no-school mentality that goes with it.) What could possibly ruin such an awesome thing as a day at the rope swing?
Winter is coming. Man is the only animal aware of his own mortality, or at least, the only one who writes about it. She’s just planted seeds… now, when he’s out there on the swing, thinking about how great it is to be out swimming at the rope swing place… he’ll remember that summer will end, winter will be waiting to take its place, and winter means more than just snow and ice and no fun swimming. It means school will be there, waiting for Calvin I mean Caulfield. There’s reprieve but no escape, Calvin. Be happy now, Calvin, because you and your time will be mine, again, soon enough…
What can ruin a rope swing where you dive off into the water?
Winter when the water is freezing.
Winter can definitely ruin a good rope swing.
True, “winter” is not in the same camp as the other listed rope swing downers — it is a bit of a stretch to list it here — but then, Mrs. Olsen is nothing if not prone to being overly negative.
Now imagine the panel without “winter”: everything works.
“winter” as a problem with rope swing is not really a fault any more than “summer” is a fault with skiing. It’s basically saying “Your activity is temporal and that’s a fault”. Which as a fault is a very minor one.
But it is a weakness.
So it’s really hard for me to place as an IDU classification. If we ask “What could possibly go wrong with a rope swing?” then “winter” is not a very *good* answer, but it’s a perfectly understandable one.
“Now imagine the panel without “winter”: everything works.”
It works with “winter” too. Just not as well. In fact, very poorly. But it does work.
Okay, let me elaborate: “everything works well, rather than very poorly.”
The rope swing has got to be about the greatest invention of all time. What’s not to like?
Agae, leaches, summer’s itch, and winter
Yes, it’s terse, but hardly nonsensical. Mrs. Olsen’s point is that a rope swing can’t be the greatest thing ever because it’s appeal is limited to a single season, and even that use is plagued with potential drawbacks. Summer’s itch may be uncomfortable enough, but a rope swing in (a western Michigan) winter is uncomfortable in about every possible way…
““everything works well” .. (rather than very poorly).
I wouldn’t go that far either.
I’d say it all kind of sort of works tepidly
Am I the only one wondering what the hell “swimmer’s itch” is?
I suppose “swimmer’s itch” is an inflammation or allergic reaction caused by something in the water.
Until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of “surfer’s knots” either.
I have heard of “swimmer’s ear”, which is an inflammation in the ear canal caused by something in the water.
Swimmer’s itch is a skin irritation caused by certain flatworm larvae.
https://www.watershedcouncil.org/swimmers-itch.html
Swimmers get swimmer’s ear, athletes get athlete’s foot, and astronauts get missile toe.
As Frazz strips go, this one seemed pretty clear. Your standard playground swing or porch swing works just fine year round. A rope swing, which typically is used for jumping into a lake has obvious disadvantages in the winter.