There are several triples of day-night-next day. Regardless of what the kid does, the jack-o-lantern is destroyed the next day. The only think that keeps it from happening is when it looks like Mrs. Olsen and there’s a bottle of her cologne next to it.
Anyway, that’s what’s happening. I’ll leave it to someone else to explain the humor aspect.
There’s a (concrete) statue inside the pumpkin…which is all that’s left after the vandals get done with it. How (and why) they made an Easter Island statue and got it into the pumpkin…is another question.
impressively, pumpkin 3 has been carved on the inside as an Easter Island head, and filled using the lost wax technique. Pumpkin 6 both looks and smells like Mrs. Olsen.
If Frazz is going to do a lead up/coast/build up line of “I’m surprised you managed to get a sample of Ms. Olson’s cologne then the punch line should be funnier than just “I paid her twice as much”.
Okay, (but !mean!) joke but… hard to figure out. When you do figure out the joke about the pumpkin inside is a mold of an easter island head is, although kind of amusing, incredible distracting. And the doggy doo is just gross and off-putting that i don’t even want to *think* about the joke at this point. And the jibe that Ms. Olson cologne is really cheap that the girl can afford to pay double is distracting as well as anticlamatic.
I don’t think the statue was inside the pumpkin… I think the pumpkin was covered with a layer of concrete (note the odd color, although I would have made it less green and more gray). The pumpkin gets smashed anyway, and the the creative vandal uses the leftover concrete mix (note the now missing bag of Quickrete) to fashion a Easter Island-like head.
I think the cartoonist would have been better off eliminating a couple of these scenarios, just so the drawing could be made larger and the point (somewhat) clearer.
I mean, if the joke is that the teacher wears cheap perfume, how much set up do you really need?
“I don’t think the statue was inside the pumpkin… I think the pumpkin was covered with a layer of concrete (note the odd color, although I would have made it less green and more gray). The pumpkin gets smashed anyway, and the the creative vandal uses the leftover concrete mix (note the now missing bag of Quickrete) to fashion a Easter Island-like head.”
That is preposterously over complicated and distracts the joke to the point of incomprehensible pointlessness… but actually I think you are right.
“I mean, if the joke is that the teacher wears cheap perfume, how much set up do you really need?”
Actually, I thought the joke was the teacher’s perfume is a vandal deterent and that the perfume is cheap was an after coda (and actually one I didn’t parse at first). If the teacher perfume being cheap was the joke then this is way too busy.
Comics I Don't Understand 
There are several triples of day-night-next day. Regardless of what the kid does, the jack-o-lantern is destroyed the next day. The only think that keeps it from happening is when it looks like Mrs. Olsen and there’s a bottle of her cologne next to it.
Anyway, that’s what’s happening. I’ll leave it to someone else to explain the humor aspect.
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In panels 1 through 3, no protection is given to the jack o’lantern, and it is destroyed.
In panels 4 through 6, barbed wire is ineffective at protecting the jack o’lantern.
In panels 13 through 15, poison ivy is ineffective at protecting the jack o’lantern.
What is going on in panels 7 through 9 and 10 through 12?
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@ Joahua – In panels 10-12, the defense is little bags of doggy doo. I don’t see any defense in panels 7-9, other than the indestructible statue.
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There’s a (concrete) statue inside the pumpkin…which is all that’s left after the vandals get done with it. How (and why) they made an Easter Island statue and got it into the pumpkin…is another question.
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The pumpkin was filled with concrete; with the pumpkin skin removed, it is discovered the concrete core is shaped like an Easter island statue?
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impressively, pumpkin 3 has been carved on the inside as an Easter Island head, and filled using the lost wax technique. Pumpkin 6 both looks and smells like Mrs. Olsen.
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If Frazz is going to do a lead up/coast/build up line of “I’m surprised you managed to get a sample of Ms. Olson’s cologne then the punch line should be funnier than just “I paid her twice as much”.
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The one after the concrete one is guarded by bags of doggy doo (dah).
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Too… busy.
Okay, (but !mean!) joke but… hard to figure out. When you do figure out the joke about the pumpkin inside is a mold of an easter island head is, although kind of amusing, incredible distracting. And the doggy doo is just gross and off-putting that i don’t even want to *think* about the joke at this point. And the jibe that Ms. Olson cologne is really cheap that the girl can afford to pay double is distracting as well as anticlamatic.
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Sometimes the key to understanding Frazz is not to overthink it.
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Part of the joke is that her cologne is super cheap — that’s why it’s easy for a kid to offer twice what she paid for it.
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@Powers – Ah! That makes sense.
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regarding panels 7-9…
I don’t think the statue was inside the pumpkin… I think the pumpkin was covered with a layer of concrete (note the odd color, although I would have made it less green and more gray). The pumpkin gets smashed anyway, and the the creative vandal uses the leftover concrete mix (note the now missing bag of Quickrete) to fashion a Easter Island-like head.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think the cartoonist would have been better off eliminating a couple of these scenarios, just so the drawing could be made larger and the point (somewhat) clearer.
I mean, if the joke is that the teacher wears cheap perfume, how much set up do you really need?
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It’s not exactly synchronous, but Monday’s “Bug Martini” is still worth comparing:
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And if you can’t CARVE a pumpkin, you can always CRAVE one . . .
https://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater/2018/10/23
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“I don’t think the statue was inside the pumpkin… I think the pumpkin was covered with a layer of concrete (note the odd color, although I would have made it less green and more gray). The pumpkin gets smashed anyway, and the the creative vandal uses the leftover concrete mix (note the now missing bag of Quickrete) to fashion a Easter Island-like head.”
That is preposterously over complicated and distracts the joke to the point of incomprehensible pointlessness… but actually I think you are right.
“I mean, if the joke is that the teacher wears cheap perfume, how much set up do you really need?”
Actually, I thought the joke was the teacher’s perfume is a vandal deterent and that the perfume is cheap was an after coda (and actually one I didn’t parse at first). If the teacher perfume being cheap was the joke then this is way too busy.
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