And because someone studied laughter (as many must) dies, people laugh? If he had studied swimming would be reading about it fall into lakes? I don’t really get it and what little I get just seems mean.
Love the giant potato peeler!
I was a little confused by the grim reaper, too. Not only the apology, but also the fact that he has a peeler. A peeler wouldn’t be so much a tool of harvesting but rather of torture, which isn’t really his calling. Death would maybe need a trowel or a garden claw to truly ‘reap’ Mr. Potato Head.
Still, I laughed.
Death is apologising because his appearance had a defecating effect on Mr Potatohead. Love the peeler – not exactly an instrument for reaping potatoes but still pretty scary for a spud.
The way the lines cross on that peeler makes it look like Hilburn wasn’t quite sure which model he meant to draw. The outline does look fairly close to a classic design, but I can’t escape the feeling that he just forgot to draw a blade on the thing.
I liked the way Mr. PH’s back drawer was spilling out its contents. I think if I came face to skull with Death, I might … evacuate, too.
@ Chak – Mr. Potato dumps his contents exactly like that in each of the “Toy Story” movies.
I think Death is apologizing because he couldn’t help pulling the pun with the potato peeler — I mean, he doesn’t actually kill you with the instrument he bears, it is just metaphorical, and so this time he substituted the noble scythe for a cheap potato peeler, ha ha! …sorry.
I guess as Robert Provine was a real person and as he studied the psychology of laughter (and a layperson is likely to simply assume and take for granted that he was “pro-laughter” and believed laughter had curative properties) and so the cartoonist is thinking that laughing at news of his death would be a fitting eulogy….. but…. it just doesn’t make sense or logically span out for me. …. I mean it may be healthy to laugh at his death but it isn’t *fitting* or even something you could do if you wanted to.
After all, he had studied the urbanization of bears you can’t *make* yourself turn into a bear and even if you could it wouldn’t be an homage.
Wasn’t there someone who promoted running as exercise, and then died whilst running? This ‘joke’ reminded me of that.
The laughing joke is more than just Alanis-level “irony”: before he even knows what is supposed to be funny, Barney is already laughing — laughter is contagious, and that might well be one of the things this guy studied; they can’t help themselves, just talking about laughter makes them laugh, and they reenforce each other the more they laugh, even though it is an obituary, and no laughing matter. This might well be a tribute to some of the findings this man made in his career.
James Fixx. Heart attack at 52.
But Robert Provine is completely different. One he was 76 which, while not old is not young. And secondly he never claimed any laughing would ward off death or any ill health. He *wasn’t* interested in any health benefits but was actually interested in it neurologically and scientifically. My comment of “a layperson is likely to simply assume and take for granted that he was “pro-laughter” and believed laughter had curative properties” is that the layperson would be wrong.
He also studied hiccups and tickling.
@Kilby, Really? I’m going to have to watch those some day, I keep missing injokes.
Did he drop his , er, contents for the same reason?
This joke would have worked better with an original-style Mr. Potato Head that actually used a real potato for the body. A peeler for a plastic potato head just doesn’t seem right.
….and shouldn’t the last one be titled “The Brahs Grim” ?
And, finally, regarding the “laughter is contagious” theme in the other comic, I recall reading an article in the Smithsonian a couple of decades back explaining the “yawning is contagious” thing. Reading it, I started yawning.
Also, people are often said to have a contagious smile. Shouldn’t they be quarantined? Is there a vaccine?
“Barney is already laughing — laughter is contagious, and that might well be one of the things this guy studied; …. This might well be a tribute to some of the findings this man made in his career.”
Good point, larK. That *is* one of the things he studied; that the predominant reason we laugh is not humor but as social bonding and ostracizing. So you are right. Barney *is* laughing even before he knows what they are laughing about. So this is a very demonstration of the guy’s work. I didn’t think of that.
Now that I think about it, this probably just a reference to the nervous inappropriate laughter one does at stressful occasions such as funerals or weddings (which I think is more talked about then actually occurs).
In the last one, is a shoe one of the things Wayno puts in his cartoons, like the eye and the dynamite? Otherwise I’m puzzled why someone has a poster of a shoe on the wall.
@ Chak – I may be conflating different gags. Mr. Potato Head gets knocked about on a number of occasions, losing all his parts each time. The “dumping” joke is probably in the second movie, I know there are a couple of shots in which Mrs. Potato Head helps him pack a bunch of accessories.
@ B.C. – Yes, the shoe (or “loafer”) is one of Piraro’s ubiquitous Easter eggs.
“Death is apologising because his appearance had a defecating effect on Mr Potatohead.”
I initially thought of that being the case as well, but I imagine that would happen a lot to Death. If he showed up at my door, I’d probably s**t myself too. Does he apologise to everyone?
I didn’t think the “died laughing” idea was disrespectful, or the mean sort of irony it could have been if just picking a random person and their notable habit or interest. Yes,it’s an irony, but in a positive light.
“I am here only to take you to the afterlife. I didn’t mean to cause you any dismay or alarm.”
@Stan: He knows what effect he has on people, and tries things to mitigate the response. In the Twilight Zone he went out of his way to disguise himself as Robert Redford.
Why does Grimm Bro’s T-shirt say “RPhS” in Greek letters? Did he mean to write “ΠΙΗ”?
‘Did he mean to write “ΠΙΗ”?’
Whatever you’re implying is going over my head. My thought about the shirt as depicted is that it looks like the English word “Pie”.
But yes, it bothers me whenever I see faux Greek with a capital sigma instead of E (rather than instead of S).
Someone asked that on the Bizarro blog, and Piraro mostly put it off to Wayne, saying he might explain on his own daily blog. But also that he figures it was aimed for the majority of readers who would see as pie.
One the gets me is the Cyrillic letter (basically ‘ya’ I think) that looks like a vertically flipped Latin capital R, used in place of that R to suggest Russian associations.
What particularly bugs me is capital \Delta used as an A.
What I was complaining about above was —
“The Яussians are coming!”
Comics I Don't Understand 
Why is Death apologizing?
And because someone studied laughter (as many must) dies, people laugh? If he had studied swimming would be reading about it fall into lakes? I don’t really get it and what little I get just seems mean.
Love the giant potato peeler!
I was a little confused by the grim reaper, too. Not only the apology, but also the fact that he has a peeler. A peeler wouldn’t be so much a tool of harvesting but rather of torture, which isn’t really his calling. Death would maybe need a trowel or a garden claw to truly ‘reap’ Mr. Potato Head.
Still, I laughed.
Death is apologising because his appearance had a defecating effect on Mr Potatohead. Love the peeler – not exactly an instrument for reaping potatoes but still pretty scary for a spud.
The way the lines cross on that peeler makes it look like Hilburn wasn’t quite sure which model he meant to draw. The outline does look fairly close to a classic design, but I can’t escape the feeling that he just forgot to draw a blade on the thing.
I liked the way Mr. PH’s back drawer was spilling out its contents. I think if I came face to skull with Death, I might … evacuate, too.
@ Chak – Mr. Potato dumps his contents exactly like that in each of the “Toy Story” movies.
I think Death is apologizing because he couldn’t help pulling the pun with the potato peeler — I mean, he doesn’t actually kill you with the instrument he bears, it is just metaphorical, and so this time he substituted the noble scythe for a cheap potato peeler, ha ha! …sorry.
I guess as Robert Provine was a real person and as he studied the psychology of laughter (and a layperson is likely to simply assume and take for granted that he was “pro-laughter” and believed laughter had curative properties) and so the cartoonist is thinking that laughing at news of his death would be a fitting eulogy….. but…. it just doesn’t make sense or logically span out for me. …. I mean it may be healthy to laugh at his death but it isn’t *fitting* or even something you could do if you wanted to.
After all, he had studied the urbanization of bears you can’t *make* yourself turn into a bear and even if you could it wouldn’t be an homage.
Wasn’t there someone who promoted running as exercise, and then died whilst running? This ‘joke’ reminded me of that.
The laughing joke is more than just Alanis-level “irony”: before he even knows what is supposed to be funny, Barney is already laughing — laughter is contagious, and that might well be one of the things this guy studied; they can’t help themselves, just talking about laughter makes them laugh, and they reenforce each other the more they laugh, even though it is an obituary, and no laughing matter. This might well be a tribute to some of the findings this man made in his career.
James Fixx. Heart attack at 52.
But Robert Provine is completely different. One he was 76 which, while not old is not young. And secondly he never claimed any laughing would ward off death or any ill health. He *wasn’t* interested in any health benefits but was actually interested in it neurologically and scientifically. My comment of “a layperson is likely to simply assume and take for granted that he was “pro-laughter” and believed laughter had curative properties” is that the layperson would be wrong.
He also studied hiccups and tickling.
@Kilby, Really? I’m going to have to watch those some day, I keep missing injokes.
Did he drop his , er, contents for the same reason?
This joke would have worked better with an original-style Mr. Potato Head that actually used a real potato for the body. A peeler for a plastic potato head just doesn’t seem right.
https://burlingamepezmuseum.com/classictoy/potato.html
….and shouldn’t the last one be titled “The Brahs Grim” ?
And, finally, regarding the “laughter is contagious” theme in the other comic, I recall reading an article in the Smithsonian a couple of decades back explaining the “yawning is contagious” thing. Reading it, I started yawning.
Also, people are often said to have a contagious smile. Shouldn’t they be quarantined? Is there a vaccine?
“Barney is already laughing — laughter is contagious, and that might well be one of the things this guy studied; …. This might well be a tribute to some of the findings this man made in his career.”
Good point, larK. That *is* one of the things he studied; that the predominant reason we laugh is not humor but as social bonding and ostracizing. So you are right. Barney *is* laughing even before he knows what they are laughing about. So this is a very demonstration of the guy’s work. I didn’t think of that.
Now that I think about it, this probably just a reference to the nervous inappropriate laughter one does at stressful occasions such as funerals or weddings (which I think is more talked about then actually occurs).
In the last one, is a shoe one of the things Wayno puts in his cartoons, like the eye and the dynamite? Otherwise I’m puzzled why someone has a poster of a shoe on the wall.
@ Chak – I may be conflating different gags. Mr. Potato Head gets knocked about on a number of occasions, losing all his parts each time. The “dumping” joke is probably in the second movie, I know there are a couple of shots in which Mrs. Potato Head helps him pack a bunch of accessories.
@ B.C. – Yes, the shoe (or “loafer”) is one of Piraro’s ubiquitous Easter eggs.
“Death is apologising because his appearance had a defecating effect on Mr Potatohead.”
I initially thought of that being the case as well, but I imagine that would happen a lot to Death. If he showed up at my door, I’d probably s**t myself too. Does he apologise to everyone?
I didn’t think the “died laughing” idea was disrespectful, or the mean sort of irony it could have been if just picking a random person and their notable habit or interest. Yes,it’s an irony, but in a positive light.
“I am here only to take you to the afterlife. I didn’t mean to cause you any dismay or alarm.”
@Stan: He knows what effect he has on people, and tries things to mitigate the response. In the Twilight Zone he went out of his way to disguise himself as Robert Redford.
Why does Grimm Bro’s T-shirt say “RPhS” in Greek letters? Did he mean to write “ΠΙΗ”?
‘Did he mean to write “ΠΙΗ”?’
Whatever you’re implying is going over my head. My thought about the shirt as depicted is that it looks like the English word “Pie”.
But yes, it bothers me whenever I see faux Greek with a capital sigma instead of E (rather than instead of S).
Someone asked that on the Bizarro blog, and Piraro mostly put it off to Wayne, saying he might explain on his own daily blog. But also that he figures it was aimed for the majority of readers who would see as pie.
One the gets me is the Cyrillic letter (basically ‘ya’ I think) that looks like a vertically flipped Latin capital R, used in place of that R to suggest Russian associations.
What particularly bugs me is capital \Delta used as an A.
What I was complaining about above was —
“The Яussians are coming!”
Today’s Bizarro features one of those frat bros, in a different scene. I think it’s the seated guy from the above panel. https://www.comicskingdom.com/bizarro/2019-11-20