Is this the same guy who was ‘dropping by’ previously?
My father flu for Kuwait Airways from 1956-74 and one of their early luggage tags had the legend “FLY THE BEST FLY EVER FLU”.
The cartoon – making a metaphorical expression somewhat literal – is a bit like MAD’s Horrifying Cliches cartoons, where you take some phrase and make it flesh. Though if MAD had done “fighting off the flu” the business type would be fighting an actual MONSTER.
Oops, obviously “flew” not “flu” on the luggage tag.
I remember these . . . quite funny . . .
@Andrea – not the same guy, but the guy with the yellow blotch on his head seems to be the same in that other cartoon.
I was wond’rin’ if that office complex was have gravity issues.
There’s obviously a fireplace somewhere in that office that he made the mistake of using once — he never could get that damn flue closed again; he might as well have just stayed home for all the work he’s getting done…
“I’m sometimes drawn to my old profession.”
I had the same thought that Lark had — he’s fighting the effects of the flue. Not sure which — flue or flew — is funnier. Maybe neither.
“Because flu” is the plu-future imperfect form of “fly,” or something?”
Yeah… why not?
I don’t know if flu is the plu-future imperfect form of “fly” or not, but the only reason I came to Boston in the first place was to get scrod.
I think it’s visually similar to “fighting off” something large, like a gorilla or a T-rex, but what he’s actually fighting off is tiny… a virus. He’s not flying, he’s being pulled away, and holding onto the desk to try to avoid being pulled away.
(Exactly what was going through my mind, Mark)
I’m surprised that nobody has quoted this classic Ogden Nash poem: A flea and a fly in a flue
were imprisoned,
so what could they do?
Said the fly, “let us flee!”
“Let us fly!”, said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
It never struck me before that while flies can flee, fleas can’t fly.
@ Arthur – The difference between “flying” and “being able to jump two orders of magnitude farther than your own body size” isn’t all that much. A human with the same ability would be able to jump a quarter mile or more.
Fun fact: Superman originally could not fly. He could jump a quarter mile or more, though, and eventually he just started jumping far enough that he may as well have been flying.
@Kilby: While some online sources credit the “Flea and the Fly” poem to Ogden Nash, I believe it is in fact by that famed author Anonymous.
For one thing, it appears in full on page 201 of the Oct/Nov 1922 issue of PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, where it is quoted by W. R. Walton, author of the article therein “The Entomology of English Poetry,” as having been published anonymously “some years” before that. Nash was twenty years old in 1922, so “some years” would have pushed his age back into the teens. Possible but unlikely he could have been the author.
@ Shrug – Thanks for the correction. I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the attribution, but the absence of an alternative option made it seem rather probable.
@Powers – actually a bunch of Superman’s characteristics were invented by the radio show, and later adopted into the comics. Kryptonite, for example.
His flight isn’t from the radio show, though – it’s from the Fleischer cartoons – which is where he first started changing direction in midair.
@Kamino Neko – yes, I remember reading that the Fleischers tried the jumping bit, but they couldn’t make it look non-ridiculous.
Another fun fact: the Fleischers thought animating Superman would be impossible to do properly, so they asked for an astronomical sum of money thinking the publishers would drop the project. They were surprised when the publishers agreed.
The joke would make a lot more sense if Lark’s fireplace were visible, and flu was spelled “flue”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Is this the same guy who was ‘dropping by’ previously?
My father flu for Kuwait Airways from 1956-74 and one of their early luggage tags had the legend “FLY THE BEST FLY EVER FLU”.
The cartoon – making a metaphorical expression somewhat literal – is a bit like MAD’s Horrifying Cliches cartoons, where you take some phrase and make it flesh. Though if MAD had done “fighting off the flu” the business type would be fighting an actual MONSTER.
Oops, obviously “flew” not “flu” on the luggage tag.
I remember these . . . quite funny . . .
@Andrea – not the same guy, but the guy with the yellow blotch on his head seems to be the same in that other cartoon.
I was wond’rin’ if that office complex was have gravity issues.
There’s obviously a fireplace somewhere in that office that he made the mistake of using once — he never could get that damn flue closed again; he might as well have just stayed home for all the work he’s getting done…
“I’m sometimes drawn to my old profession.”
I had the same thought that Lark had — he’s fighting the effects of the flue. Not sure which — flue or flew — is funnier. Maybe neither.
“Because flu” is the plu-future imperfect form of “fly,” or something?”
Yeah… why not?
I don’t know if flu is the plu-future imperfect form of “fly” or not, but the only reason I came to Boston in the first place was to get scrod.
I think it’s visually similar to “fighting off” something large, like a gorilla or a T-rex, but what he’s actually fighting off is tiny… a virus. He’s not flying, he’s being pulled away, and holding onto the desk to try to avoid being pulled away.
(Exactly what was going through my mind, Mark)
I’m surprised that nobody has quoted this classic Ogden Nash poem:
A flea and a fly in a flue
were imprisoned,
so what could they do?
Said the fly, “let us flee!”
“Let us fly!”, said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
It never struck me before that while flies can flee, fleas can’t fly.
@ Arthur – The difference between “flying” and “being able to jump two orders of magnitude farther than your own body size” isn’t all that much. A human with the same ability would be able to jump a quarter mile or more.
Fun fact: Superman originally could not fly. He could jump a quarter mile or more, though, and eventually he just started jumping far enough that he may as well have been flying.
@Kilby: While some online sources credit the “Flea and the Fly” poem to Ogden Nash, I believe it is in fact by that famed author Anonymous.
For one thing, it appears in full on page 201 of the Oct/Nov 1922 issue of PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, where it is quoted by W. R. Walton, author of the article therein “The Entomology of English Poetry,” as having been published anonymously “some years” before that. Nash was twenty years old in 1922, so “some years” would have pushed his age back into the teens. Possible but unlikely he could have been the author.
@ Shrug – Thanks for the correction. I have to admit that I was a little surprised by the attribution, but the absence of an alternative option made it seem rather probable.
Fun fact: Superman originally could not fly.
Like my favorite super hero-ish.
http://nonadventures.com/2006/09/09/the-torment-of-a-thousand-yesterdays/
@Powers – actually a bunch of Superman’s characteristics were invented by the radio show, and later adopted into the comics. Kryptonite, for example.
His flight isn’t from the radio show, though – it’s from the Fleischer cartoons – which is where he first started changing direction in midair.
@Kamino Neko – yes, I remember reading that the Fleischers tried the jumping bit, but they couldn’t make it look non-ridiculous.
Another fun fact: the Fleischers thought animating Superman would be impossible to do properly, so they asked for an astronomical sum of money thinking the publishers would drop the project. They were surprised when the publishers agreed.
The joke would make a lot more sense if Lark’s fireplace were visible, and flu was spelled “flue”.