13 Comments

1. 

   He’s free of fleas, anyway.

   LikeLike

2. 

   Nobody is confused. Peters is simply indulging in a gratuitously silly pun, and Grimm is enjoying the chance to overplay it.

   LikeLike

3. 

   It leaves me a bit cringey

   LikeLike

4. 

   But he’s not a flea, and dogs notoriously hate baths.

   It’s a good pun. In fact it’s a great pun (seriously, it’s everything a silly pun should be… in particular…. silly). But it needs some work in staging. I’m not buying *this* staging. But another situation may be out there.

   LikeLike

5. 

   I think woozy has it. Good idea but bad execution.

   LikeLike

6. 

   I guess comic dogs hate baths, but I had a dog that (seemed to) enjoy his bath. Never protested and sat patiently for it. I read the action as Grimm enjoying being rid of the fleas, and it didn’t seem jarring to me.

   LikeLike

7. 

   But he isn’t saying “I’m flea-free.”

   LikeLike

8. 

   “But he isn’t saying “I’m flea-free.””

   No, but Peterson is writing this and he’s beginning to lose it. It’s a pun on flea=free. That’s the intent, and that’s what the cartoonist thought was enough. That you see enough to get that it simply doesn’t work doesn’t mean *you* don’t get it; it means the cartoonist failed to *put* it.

   LikeLike

9. 

   Yep..what Kilby said.

   LikeLike

10. 

    Another traditional flea pun:

    

    LikeLike

11. 

    Then there’s three one where “Pearls Before Swine” did a take on it:

    Pig receives an offer for a free atlas, which he mispronounces as “at-LASS.”

    Needless to say, the cartoon ends with the cartoonist (Stephan Pastis) about to be beaten with a baseball bat.

    I couldn’t find the link to the original strip, but I did find an animated version:

    m.youtube.com/watch?v=FbKdUK1PHo8

    LikeLike

12. 

    @ J-L – That PBS first appeared on 15-Jun-2008:

    

    LikeLike

13. 

    Thanks, Kilby! How’d you find the date?

    LikeLike