Perhaps all the holidaymakers are making too much happy noise on the beaches etc, and Zeus is annoyed.
Since you can’t carry lightning on the plane, retribution had to wait until he got back home.
Perhaps it’s a global warming commentary?
Zeus/Thor (not sure if there are clear indications saying he’s one of them) is having to provide a lot of nasty weather during the summer these days, whereas in years past summers tended to be be reliable and he could schedule his vacations.
That’s a guess. Also, it rains a lot where I am (Texas) during the summer. So the joke wouldn’t make a lot of sense here.
Don’t get it. But are you sure it’s supposed to be Zeus and not God? God is frequently depicted as tossing lightning bolts as well.
He got called back during his summer vacation to run a thunderstorm, so he’s being extra-zappy to work out his frustration.
@ Bill – Was that the original caption from the author, or was this just one of the user submissions in the New Yorker’s caption contest?
P.S. Thanks for resurrecting the headline.
P.P.S. @ woozy – I don’t think it matters whether it is “a” god or “the” God. I almost called him “Thor” in my first comment, but then I decided that since I wasn’t sure of the identification, it would be better not to specify a name.
Kilby this was the actual caption. As sometimes happens with New Yorker cartoons, when I saved the comic, the caption didn’t come along for the ride.
It might not make that big of a difference but cartoons of “the bearded man in the Sky” often have a humorous conotations with it being THE god who is … everything… (yet, still being depicted as a fathomable guy with a beard… that’s usually the humor; the conflict of touching of the omnipotent in a concrete depiction)…, which might not be implied if this was just a god.
I don’t know if that matters in this case because I don’t get this, but … well throwing it out there.
I think this is a “That’s all there is to it” cartoon. But admittedly even for a “that’s all there is to it” it’s pretty small and hard to pinpoint “it”. The God of vengeance is angry about a working during a summer vacation…. that’s the “it”… kind of…. paltry… isn’t it?
That explains it. Robert likes to go to Lancaster, PA on Fridays to go to the Green Dragon farmer’s market. We were not able to go for months and months this past fall/winter/spring as it rained every Friday for months. (And if one is driving 3.5 hours+ and paying around $30 in tolls plus the gas, one wants the maximum numbers of vendors to be there and not staying away due to the rain.)
Comics I Don't Understand 
It looks like he already zapped the headline.
Perhaps all the holidaymakers are making too much happy noise on the beaches etc, and Zeus is annoyed.
Since you can’t carry lightning on the plane, retribution had to wait until he got back home.
Perhaps it’s a global warming commentary?
Zeus/Thor (not sure if there are clear indications saying he’s one of them) is having to provide a lot of nasty weather during the summer these days, whereas in years past summers tended to be be reliable and he could schedule his vacations.
That’s a guess. Also, it rains a lot where I am (Texas) during the summer. So the joke wouldn’t make a lot of sense here.
Don’t get it. But are you sure it’s supposed to be Zeus and not God? God is frequently depicted as tossing lightning bolts as well.
He got called back during his summer vacation to run a thunderstorm, so he’s being extra-zappy to work out his frustration.
@ Bill – Was that the original caption from the author, or was this just one of the user submissions in the New Yorker’s caption contest?
P.S. Thanks for resurrecting the headline.
P.P.S. @ woozy – I don’t think it matters whether it is “a” god or “the” God. I almost called him “Thor” in my first comment, but then I decided that since I wasn’t sure of the identification, it would be better not to specify a name.
Kilby this was the actual caption. As sometimes happens with New Yorker cartoons, when I saved the comic, the caption didn’t come along for the ride.
It might not make that big of a difference but cartoons of “the bearded man in the Sky” often have a humorous conotations with it being THE god who is … everything… (yet, still being depicted as a fathomable guy with a beard… that’s usually the humor; the conflict of touching of the omnipotent in a concrete depiction)…, which might not be implied if this was just a god.
I don’t know if that matters in this case because I don’t get this, but … well throwing it out there.
I think this is a “That’s all there is to it” cartoon. But admittedly even for a “that’s all there is to it” it’s pretty small and hard to pinpoint “it”. The God of vengeance is angry about a working during a summer vacation…. that’s the “it”… kind of…. paltry… isn’t it?
That explains it. Robert likes to go to Lancaster, PA on Fridays to go to the Green Dragon farmer’s market. We were not able to go for months and months this past fall/winter/spring as it rained every Friday for months. (And if one is driving 3.5 hours+ and paying around $30 in tolls plus the gas, one wants the maximum numbers of vendors to be there and not staying away due to the rain.)