I was totally thinking the same thing when I saw this!!
The eyechart is pretty boring.
It looks like the doctor is inspecting the kid’s eye. Upon closer inspection, what I took to be the tip of his tool is actually the kid’s left iris.
I’d give the cartoonist the benefit of the doubt here.
Without the caption, many people would wonder if that was Aquaman, Aquaman as a child, or Aquaman’s son.
Or they could be confused as to why the patient looks nothing like the Aquaman in the movies these days.
Why *is* aquaman a kid?
“Without the caption, many people would wonder if that was Aquaman, Aquaman as a child, or Aquaman’s son.”
Would that make any difference to the joke?
Woozy, your comment about the eyechart being boring gives me the impression that you’ve seen some rather interesting ones.
(I’m trying to imagine what they would look like.)
:-)
If we can’t get a “Superfluous Caption” tag, maybe we could try for a “Super-friend-ulous Caption” tag!
I haven’t seen Aquaman since those cheesy cartoons in the early 70’s, and might not have recognized the kid here without the caption.
P.S. @ J-L – Eyecharts in comics are often used to include a hidden (humorous) message. The one shown here is not just gibberish, it only uses five different letters.
Eye charts for small children have (or at least, used to have) just the letter E, oriented up, down, left and right. Then even small children could show you with their hands which way it was pointing.
This one is just garbage, methinks.
” The one shown here is not just gibberish, it only uses five different letters.”
You don’t need a lot of letters on an eye chart to make a joke.
I remember a TV skit (but not which show it’s from). A pirate is shown, close-up. “Arr!” he says. then “Aye!” “Arr! Arr! Aye! Arr!”. Then he puts the eyepatch over the other eye, and the shot cuts to a wide shot. He’s at the eye doctor, and the chart is all R’s and I’s.
@ Chak – I’ve seen the “all E’s” eye chart, but our pediatrician had two charts, one of which had little pictures (house, flower, dog, etc.) When one of our kids said “horse” instead, the nurse administering the test reassured me that all she wanted to hear was “any animal with four legs”.
I also thought he was looking at the child’s eye.
Kilby- I have noticed that when Robert is reading the eye chart (well, actually eye slide) at the doctor, he will get several of the letters wrong, but say something similar which does not upset the doctor – such as O, C, G being confused – and the ever a problem “it’s a number” 2 being read as S. But then again, he has Diabetic retinaopathy and we are glad he sees well enough to still be able to drive.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I was totally thinking the same thing when I saw this!!
The eyechart is pretty boring.
It looks like the doctor is inspecting the kid’s eye. Upon closer inspection, what I took to be the tip of his tool is actually the kid’s left iris.
I’d give the cartoonist the benefit of the doubt here.
Without the caption, many people would wonder if that was Aquaman, Aquaman as a child, or Aquaman’s son.
Or they could be confused as to why the patient looks nothing like the Aquaman in the movies these days.
Why *is* aquaman a kid?
“Without the caption, many people would wonder if that was Aquaman, Aquaman as a child, or Aquaman’s son.”
Would that make any difference to the joke?
Woozy, your comment about the eyechart being boring gives me the impression that you’ve seen some rather interesting ones.
(I’m trying to imagine what they would look like.)
:-)
If we can’t get a “Superfluous Caption” tag, maybe we could try for a “Super-friend-ulous Caption” tag!
I haven’t seen Aquaman since those cheesy cartoons in the early 70’s, and might not have recognized the kid here without the caption.
P.S. @ J-L – Eyecharts in comics are often used to include a hidden (humorous) message. The one shown here is not just gibberish, it only uses five different letters.
Eye charts for small children have (or at least, used to have) just the letter E, oriented up, down, left and right. Then even small children could show you with their hands which way it was pointing.
This one is just garbage, methinks.
” The one shown here is not just gibberish, it only uses five different letters.”
You don’t need a lot of letters on an eye chart to make a joke.
I remember a TV skit (but not which show it’s from). A pirate is shown, close-up. “Arr!” he says. then “Aye!” “Arr! Arr! Aye! Arr!”. Then he puts the eyepatch over the other eye, and the shot cuts to a wide shot. He’s at the eye doctor, and the chart is all R’s and I’s.
@ Chak – I’ve seen the “all E’s” eye chart, but our pediatrician had two charts, one of which had little pictures (house, flower, dog, etc.) When one of our kids said “horse” instead, the nurse administering the test reassured me that all she wanted to hear was “any animal with four legs”.
I also thought he was looking at the child’s eye.
Kilby- I have noticed that when Robert is reading the eye chart (well, actually eye slide) at the doctor, he will get several of the letters wrong, but say something similar which does not upset the doctor – such as O, C, G being confused – and the ever a problem “it’s a number” 2 being read as S. But then again, he has Diabetic retinaopathy and we are glad he sees well enough to still be able to drive.