Odd personal synchronicity, sort of: today’s the 70th birthday of the cousin who introduced me to Mad magazine.
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I think it’s hard to understand because it wouldn’t work and there’s nothing like that device in the last panel (at least that I’ve ever seen).
Black rabbit had replaced white rabbit’s water with gasoline (somehow). White rabbit didn’t notice the smell or taste of it, but used it to try to extinguish the bomb’s fuse, with explosive results.
And for the Morseless, the code under the title says ‘by Lemon’ instead of ‘by Prohias’.
Based on the post title, I don’t think Bill was confused about what was happening in the last panel, but was asking “is that all there is?”
Yes, I think that’s all there is.
Yes, WW: I see what’s going on, just not what the joke is.
The joke is the same as for all Spy Vs. Spy comics: One spy thinks he’s defeated the ploy of the other, but he’s wrong.
Arthur, the fourth panel shows how the water was replaced with gasoline. Apparently the plumbing for white rabbits house has a large open cistern into which the incoming water enters. It is then distributed throughout the house. You can see the pipes entering and leaving the tub. I don’t think that’s up to code.
That’s a rare device: an attic furnace including an on-demand water heater.
Not sure if this is part of the joke or not, but every Spy vs Spy that I remember would have some kind of plot twist. So we are expecting white rabbit to turn the tables and somehow blow up black rabbit. But nope.
Thanks, Arthur. I really didn’t get any of it without your explanation.
I’m guessing a lot of the point is the detail in the replication. It’s a decent Spy vs. Spy joke. But as far as satire or the humor of making a reference[*] goes its kind of weak. But I think the execution makes up for it.
[*] A lot of humor and sit-com humor goes like this: “okay, so you’ve heard of Spy vs. Spy and I’ve heard of Spy vs. Spy and somehow we’re not supposed to admit we’ve heard of it, so when you mention that you actually have heard of I’m supposed to laugh at how naughty you are for mentioning it.”
One detail that more than makes up for the weak fourth panel was executing the comic in ink on yellowed paper. It makes it look like an elderly page out of one of the MAD Magazine summary collections.
I’m rather impressed with the perfect font of the “Joke and Dagger Dept.”
But I don’t understand the skatebord, gun, and magnet panel.
“But I don’t understand the skatebord, gun, and magnet panel.”
The black rabbit is using a magnet to (heh heh heh) steal the white rabbit’s gun. What the black rabbit doesn’t notice is (heh heh heh) the barrel of the gun is bent, so when he tries to use it, it will backfire.
Mythbusters tested bent gun barrels to see how far you could curve them and still fire. Turns out, quite a bit. Now, they were using rifles and not handguns, so it’s easier to introduce a significant bent without collapsing the barrel. Here’s the 90 degree test.
@ MiB – In one of the Grimm’s fairy tales, a master hunter has to prove his skill by shooting through five eggs (one at each corner of a table, and the fifth in the center), all with a single shot. The narrator comments that he must have had “some of that gunpowder that goes around corners”.
The tank looks like an old-style loft tank, which used to be pretty common in the UK, IIRC.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think it’s hard to understand because it wouldn’t work and there’s nothing like that device in the last panel (at least that I’ve ever seen).
Black rabbit had replaced white rabbit’s water with gasoline (somehow). White rabbit didn’t notice the smell or taste of it, but used it to try to extinguish the bomb’s fuse, with explosive results.
And for the Morseless, the code under the title says ‘by Lemon’ instead of ‘by Prohias’.
Based on the post title, I don’t think Bill was confused about what was happening in the last panel, but was asking “is that all there is?”
Yes, I think that’s all there is.
Yes, WW: I see what’s going on, just not what the joke is.
The joke is the same as for all Spy Vs. Spy comics: One spy thinks he’s defeated the ploy of the other, but he’s wrong.
Arthur, the fourth panel shows how the water was replaced with gasoline. Apparently the plumbing for white rabbits house has a large open cistern into which the incoming water enters. It is then distributed throughout the house. You can see the pipes entering and leaving the tub. I don’t think that’s up to code.
That’s a rare device: an attic furnace including an on-demand water heater.
Not sure if this is part of the joke or not, but every Spy vs Spy that I remember would have some kind of plot twist. So we are expecting white rabbit to turn the tables and somehow blow up black rabbit. But nope.
Thanks, Arthur. I really didn’t get any of it without your explanation.
I’m guessing a lot of the point is the detail in the replication. It’s a decent Spy vs. Spy joke. But as far as satire or the humor of making a reference[*] goes its kind of weak. But I think the execution makes up for it.
[*] A lot of humor and sit-com humor goes like this: “okay, so you’ve heard of Spy vs. Spy and I’ve heard of Spy vs. Spy and somehow we’re not supposed to admit we’ve heard of it, so when you mention that you actually have heard of I’m supposed to laugh at how naughty you are for mentioning it.”
One detail that more than makes up for the weak fourth panel was executing the comic in ink on yellowed paper. It makes it look like an elderly page out of one of the MAD Magazine summary collections.
I’m rather impressed with the perfect font of the “Joke and Dagger Dept.”
But I don’t understand the skatebord, gun, and magnet panel.
“But I don’t understand the skatebord, gun, and magnet panel.”
The black rabbit is using a magnet to (heh heh heh) steal the white rabbit’s gun. What the black rabbit doesn’t notice is (heh heh heh) the barrel of the gun is bent, so when he tries to use it, it will backfire.
Mythbusters tested bent gun barrels to see how far you could curve them and still fire. Turns out, quite a bit. Now, they were using rifles and not handguns, so it’s easier to introduce a significant bent without collapsing the barrel. Here’s the 90 degree test.
https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/90-degree-barrel
With the curve on that barrel, it wouldn’t shoot the shooter. It would shoot the ground
Maybe in the foot. Ow!
There really are guns with curved barrels, for shooting around corners.
The German version is called the “Krummlauf”.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a21800/forgotten-weapons-wwii-curve-a-bullet/
@ MiB – In one of the Grimm’s fairy tales, a master hunter has to prove his skill by shooting through five eggs (one at each corner of a table, and the fifth in the center), all with a single shot. The narrator comments that he must have had “some of that gunpowder that goes around corners”.
The tank looks like an old-style loft tank, which used to be pretty common in the UK, IIRC.