Explaining why cartoon balloons always float, even when blown up by people…at least within this comic.
I saw “FUUUUUU” and was… not expecting it to end with “P.”
The strange phrasing sounds to me like it should be an acronym (or initialism), but it’s nothing I recognize, and a search doesn’t show anything sufficiently well-known.
Normally people absorb oxygen from the air and exhale carbon dioxide. If cavemen exhaled hydrogen, does that mean their lungs broke down water molecules, absorbed the oxygen and expelled the hydrogen? If so, we should go back in time and bring a bunch of cavemen to the present, because they could solve the climate change problem. Every car could be equipped with its own caveman to supply hydrogen for fuel cells.
Contemporary human is just full of hot air.
Contemporary cartoonist went a little bit too far with his political correctness. The phrase “Early Human” sounds stilted, it would have been better to stick with the traditional “Early Man“.
Kilby, if we apply logic we have to ask how he knows he is “early” man as opposed to “present-day” man. His remark only makes sense coming from a time traveler.
And why “expelled” instead of “exhaled”? Fart joke, alluding to hydrogen sulfide?
@ Olivier – For that matter, the placement of the word “only” is questionable at best.
That my first thought was “Wouldn’t any reaction producing hydrogen be endothermic? What powers them?” says, I hope, more about the weakness of the cartoon than my lack of humor.
I have to admit I always liked how classic BC used sound effects, and “tie tie” in panel three is terrific.
Arthur, I was looking for some kind of acrostic, mnemonic, or secret code too, based on the strange phrasing. But it may be a lettering error; if it said “early humans”, it would be almost normal. Except for “expelled” instead of “exhaled”. The only explanation I have for that would be outsourcing the dialog writing to either a computer or a non-English speaker.
“Contemporary cartoonist went a little bit too far with his political correctness.”
I believe this is the first time I’ve ever heard that complaint about B.C. :o
“Early Human” sounds OK to me, although “Early humans” would have sounded better.
“That my first thought was “Wouldn’t any reaction producing hydrogen be endothermic? What powers them?” says, I hope, more about the weakness of the cartoon than my lack of humor.”
The joke here is very meta. The idea that early humans only expel hydrogen is completely absurd and makes no sense. Chemically it wouldn’t work and it makes no sense that anything would have changed to the current condition. And Peter knows it makes no sense.
Instead the joke is that Peter and us the readers are like two people bored watching something on the television (or in this case in the comics) together. The thing we are watching has a glaring narrative error. Peter just knows we the reader are about to smugly point out the error. But Peter is so bored he simply gives a really lame explanation knowing full well it is lame but indicating our smugness is pointless; it’s just a stupid comic so we “should really just relax”.
… or alternatively Peter is the person pointing out the error and is responding sarcastically …. “well, apparently…”
Either way it’s not a satisfactory explanation and Peter knows it but … it’s a comic. The balloon floats because the writers and readers of comics associate all balloons with helium balloons. And anyone with just a bit of thought should realize a balloon inflated by breath would not float. Oh, well…..
….. actually, I guess it’s more that Peter being a member of the comic is in a position that he is obligated to justify and explain any discrepancies to us, the readers. In this case it’s futile; there is no reasonable explanation. So he very laconically gives us a totally lame explanation.
@ woozy – As it happens, methane (with an atomic weight of 16) is also lighter than air (approx. 29), so if B.C. had been “expelling” methane, he might have been able to get the ballon to float, but that would have been a different orifice.
@kilby… is this something people might try to do? Maybe at parties? Inquiring minds want to know.
The herbivore part of the explanation seems to flow well for me; it’s actually the carnivore explanation that I have more difficulty with. It makes more sense to tell your partner that they don’t have to worry about you cheating on them, as you have control over that, than to tell your partner not to worry that someone in the room has expressed interest in murdering you. In the latter case, I guess it can mean “Don’t worry, I can take care of myself,” but it still seems harder to process.
But I don’t read this strip, and am not familiar with the dynamics of a world where half the population regularly contemplates murdering and eating members of the other half.
Whoops, wrong thread.
How did he know it wasn’t helium?
Helium?!?!?!? That would be crazy!
Of course it would be crazy! It’s a gas, man!
Lighten up!
You know, the fact that we do not call ourselves “Early Humans” or “Middle-Period Humans” or “Primitive Man” or anything like that, indicates that we do not expect humans to be around much longer.
Not necessarily, MiB; just that we have no idea where we stand, since that can only be determined after the fact.
@ woozy – Probably not “people”, but I’m not sure about drunk teenagers.
Yes, CIDU Bill, but if we were at all optimistic we would think we were somewhere in the middle, not at the completely evolved endpoint.
Seems to me we could go either way and still call it optimistic: “early,” since we’re just going to keep getting better and better, or “late” since we’ve evolved to the pinnacle of wonderfulness.
Did early man invent fire-breathing?
When you look at our current sorry state, is it optimistic to think that we will not an cannot become better than this?
The optimist thinks we live in the best of all possible worlds. So does the pessimist.
The realist thinks we live in the only possible world.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Explaining why cartoon balloons always float, even when blown up by people…at least within this comic.
I saw “FUUUUUU” and was… not expecting it to end with “P.”
The strange phrasing sounds to me like it should be an acronym (or initialism), but it’s nothing I recognize, and a search doesn’t show anything sufficiently well-known.
Normally people absorb oxygen from the air and exhale carbon dioxide. If cavemen exhaled hydrogen, does that mean their lungs broke down water molecules, absorbed the oxygen and expelled the hydrogen? If so, we should go back in time and bring a bunch of cavemen to the present, because they could solve the climate change problem. Every car could be equipped with its own caveman to supply hydrogen for fuel cells.
Contemporary human is just full of hot air.
Contemporary cartoonist went a little bit too far with his political correctness. The phrase “Early Human” sounds stilted, it would have been better to stick with the traditional “Early Man“.
Kilby, if we apply logic we have to ask how he knows he is “early” man as opposed to “present-day” man. His remark only makes sense coming from a time traveler.
And why “expelled” instead of “exhaled”? Fart joke, alluding to hydrogen sulfide?
@ Olivier – For that matter, the placement of the word “only” is questionable at best.
That my first thought was “Wouldn’t any reaction producing hydrogen be endothermic? What powers them?” says, I hope, more about the weakness of the cartoon than my lack of humor.
I have to admit I always liked how classic BC used sound effects, and “tie tie” in panel three is terrific.
Arthur, I was looking for some kind of acrostic, mnemonic, or secret code too, based on the strange phrasing. But it may be a lettering error; if it said “early humans”, it would be almost normal. Except for “expelled” instead of “exhaled”. The only explanation I have for that would be outsourcing the dialog writing to either a computer or a non-English speaker.
“Contemporary cartoonist went a little bit too far with his political correctness.”
I believe this is the first time I’ve ever heard that complaint about B.C. :o
“Early Human” sounds OK to me, although “Early humans” would have sounded better.
“That my first thought was “Wouldn’t any reaction producing hydrogen be endothermic? What powers them?” says, I hope, more about the weakness of the cartoon than my lack of humor.”
The joke here is very meta. The idea that early humans only expel hydrogen is completely absurd and makes no sense. Chemically it wouldn’t work and it makes no sense that anything would have changed to the current condition. And Peter knows it makes no sense.
Instead the joke is that Peter and us the readers are like two people bored watching something on the television (or in this case in the comics) together. The thing we are watching has a glaring narrative error. Peter just knows we the reader are about to smugly point out the error. But Peter is so bored he simply gives a really lame explanation knowing full well it is lame but indicating our smugness is pointless; it’s just a stupid comic so we “should really just relax”.
… or alternatively Peter is the person pointing out the error and is responding sarcastically …. “well, apparently…”
Either way it’s not a satisfactory explanation and Peter knows it but … it’s a comic. The balloon floats because the writers and readers of comics associate all balloons with helium balloons. And anyone with just a bit of thought should realize a balloon inflated by breath would not float. Oh, well…..
….. actually, I guess it’s more that Peter being a member of the comic is in a position that he is obligated to justify and explain any discrepancies to us, the readers. In this case it’s futile; there is no reasonable explanation. So he very laconically gives us a totally lame explanation.
@ woozy – As it happens, methane (with an atomic weight of 16) is also lighter than air (approx. 29), so if B.C. had been “expelling” methane, he might have been able to get the ballon to float, but that would have been a different orifice.
@kilby… is this something people might try to do? Maybe at parties? Inquiring minds want to know.
The herbivore part of the explanation seems to flow well for me; it’s actually the carnivore explanation that I have more difficulty with. It makes more sense to tell your partner that they don’t have to worry about you cheating on them, as you have control over that, than to tell your partner not to worry that someone in the room has expressed interest in murdering you. In the latter case, I guess it can mean “Don’t worry, I can take care of myself,” but it still seems harder to process.
But I don’t read this strip, and am not familiar with the dynamics of a world where half the population regularly contemplates murdering and eating members of the other half.
Whoops, wrong thread.
How did he know it wasn’t helium?
Helium?!?!?!? That would be crazy!
Of course it would be crazy! It’s a gas, man!
Lighten up!
You know, the fact that we do not call ourselves “Early Humans” or “Middle-Period Humans” or “Primitive Man” or anything like that, indicates that we do not expect humans to be around much longer.
Not necessarily, MiB; just that we have no idea where we stand, since that can only be determined after the fact.
@ woozy – Probably not “people”, but I’m not sure about drunk teenagers.
Yes, CIDU Bill, but if we were at all optimistic we would think we were somewhere in the middle, not at the completely evolved endpoint.
Seems to me we could go either way and still call it optimistic: “early,” since we’re just going to keep getting better and better, or “late” since we’ve evolved to the pinnacle of wonderfulness.
Did early man invent fire-breathing?
When you look at our current sorry state, is it optimistic to think that we will not an cannot become better than this?
The optimist thinks we live in the best of all possible worlds. So does the pessimist.
The realist thinks we live in the only possible world.
Unless the realist is a fan of string theory.