I see that Nantucket has lots of festivals, but I don’t get the joke. They’re only attended by people nostalgic for the remembered past?
@ Treesong – Limericks that open with “Nantucket” generally contain a four-letter word rhyming with “*UCK” in the final line.
P.S. The first panel with the snitching elf is a CIDU for me.
Elf on the Shelf
Thank you, Kilby – I was drawing a complete blank on the Nantucket Poetry Festival. Do they really have a limerick festival? Sounds painful – they’re amusing in small amounts…
So why did I (and still do) find The Producers hilarious, but cringe and think, ‘too soon’, at any ‘comic’ featuring Hitler? Is this a personal thing, or do others feel that way? Does it matter if one’s family lived in US (at one remove, one might say) or in Europe during WWII? is it because of the state of politics worldwide today?
Cleo and Company had an arc of ‘Snitch in the Ditch’ and ‘Fink in the Sink’, leading to ‘RATfink’ . . . last week, I think it was.
Isn’t the Elf on the Shelf joke …. just a statement of what the Elf on the shelf is. It is a security camera so why is making a joke about it being a snitch supposed to be or perceived as funny.
Okay, I’m being rhetorical. I know why it should be funny. Maybe I find the idea of nanny cameras so disturbing that I don’t see why thinking of it as a snitch is a stretch.
I think the idea is they “snitch” for Santa, not the parents.
Regarding the elf snitch toon, lady on the right is experiencing incredible hair growth from eating lots of chia seeds. Guy on the left doesn’t have hair, its a toupee made from real oak wood…interesting.
There’s a camera in this one? In ALL of ’em?
I was wondering about the Bizarro too. There’s no good indication of who this couple is. A snitch would be most valuable to police interrogators, but these people don’t fit the stereotypical description.
And I have never associated Elf on a Shelf with cameras.
And I’m not sure I understand what’s going on in the Strange Brew.
I think this is the first funny Hitler cartoon I’ve seen in … maybe ever.
@ Andréa – The qualitative difference between “The Producers” and simplistic jokes cast within the context of WWII is that in the Brooks’ production, the Nazi script and theme was picked precisely because it was in excruciatingly bad taste, and was therefore “guaranteed” to fail. The opening sequence of the play staged within the movie is so unbelievably “bad” that it comes off as brilliant.
Compare that to “Hogan’s Heroes”, in which the “humor” is based on a small group of incompetent idiots, incongruously set within an otherwise functional (and obviously dangerous) Wehrmacht. I have to admit that I enjoyed watching the show as a young (and oblivious) kid, but it doesn’t work at all for me now.
I think Strange Brew is and Xmas joke about Christmas coming round again so fast Santa Claus meets himself still not having completed last year’s delivery schedule. Unless it’s a Faster Than Light reference, where you go so fast you go backwards in time and so meet yourself, this cartoon seems to assert that there is more than one Santa.
I kept expecting him to suffer a coronary in Panel 4.
I didn’t see the final one as “Hitler humor” as much as a riff on the “Invent a time machine and the first thing you do is go is go back in time and kill Hitler” trope.
I could never stomach Hogan’s Heroes, the few snippets I’ve seen for I-don’t-know-what-reason.
The bits I’ve seen of the Broadway musical of ‘The Producers’ was even more ludicrous, if that is possible. However, playing Hitler as gay just didn’t work for me (yes, I know Dick Shawn played it ‘campy’, but not as overtly gay as in the musical; he actually was funny).
The musical is available on youtube, in bits ‘n’ pieces.
The Idiot Time Traveler is one of the recurring features in Super-Fun-Pak, and though he demonstrates many other kinds of idiocy as well, the “going to kill Hitler” is indeed a standby. (As well as a pretty popular trope in other pop media, as I think CIDU Bill is indicating.)
Thanks for that link, dvandom. Those limericks are indeed in an older style, where the final word of line 5 repeats the one from line 1, not just rhymes with it. These are not quite as abrupt feeling as some of the very earliest from Edw. Lear, where you might get the whole line 1 repeated as line 5.
Another in the “Time travelers vs. Hitler” theme:
“Is the Elf On A Shelf really a camera?
I think the idea is they “snitch” for Santa, not the parents.”
That’s even worse! If were an actual camera it’d have logistics but do people actually think cute stories of snitches is *ever* appropriate and is actually…. charming?! Gad, I should stop being surprised at human behavior but that is utterly revolting.
“He sees you when you’re sleeping
And he knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake”
How does Santa know? Those Shelf-Elves. :-)
Now,regarding Hitler (a segue I’d never thought I’d make), I think I’ve mentioned here before that Hogan’s Heroes was/is popular in Germany, as a friend of the family who was from there was fond of mentioning.
Any comments on where ‘ELLO ‘ELLO fits in the “funny Nazi situations” humor continiuum?
Thank you, Arthur, that S.M.B.C. comic is one of my favorites, and you saved me the trouble of figuring out the linky thing to show it here.
As for Hogan’s Heroes, I was never really a big follower of the show, and thought it kind of out there, so to speak, UNTIL… I worked in a factory (this was a long time ago) and one of the guys on the maintenance crew was a big, big fan of the show. Turns out he was a WWII vet trained in specials ops (or whatever they called it) specifically to be captured and put in the POW camps as part of a liaison with the underground. He said a lot of the show was not that far from the truth. Huh? Anyway, take it or leave it, I looked at the show differently, from then on.
@ Grawlix – It certainly is true that Hogan’s Heroes was broadcast on German TV (in fact, they did it at least twice), but to say that it was “popular” is overstating it somewhat. The first translation wasn’t successful, so the series was recast and rerecorded to be even sillier, in part by saddling the German soldiers with a more comical dialect (as well as turning Richard Dawson into a stutterer). Yes, enough Germans did watch it that the network was able to sell enough advertising to finance the complete rerun of “A Cage Full of Heroes”, but the series has never enjoyed the same kind of widespread consciousness among the general public here, such as other American series have done.
Two important things about the Elf on the Shelf: 1. Nobody — NOBODY — is allowed to touch or move the elf on pain of the most dire consequences. Even parents are never allowed to move it or touch it. 2. Every day, the elf will be in a different location or position than the day before. That’s because at night the elf goes off to give Santa a report for the day and comes back. So no, he is not a security camera but he has the functionality of one.
As for the man from Nantucket, the first version I ever heard had him going down to Hell in a bucket. When the devils down there asked him for his fare, he told them what they could do.
Huh. I always thought people went to hell in handbasket. I guess being an Agnostic makes me unaware of protocols.
I assumed everyone knew the E on the S started out as a book written in 2005 and has had a resurgence of popularity (for whatever reason) in the past several year, including a movie, its/his own website with, of course, products to purchase.
You could use “Nantasket”, but then the second line with “handbasket” doesn’t scan.
There once was a man from Nantasket,
who went on his way in a basket;
He thought he’d reached hell, just from the smell,
but first had to change to a casket.
There was an old man of Pawtucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
Then up got that man to Nantucket
When he lost all his cash in a bucket.
His daughter, named Nan,
He left with the man,
But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.
Sorry previous message was posted while I was still writing my name.
Yes, this Christmas came too fast. Never did get a chance to decorate in the house. Last Saturday night I gave into knowing that there was not enough time to “shovel out”, err, tidy up, the dining room and the living room to be able to decorate and also decorate. Setting up the 3 trees downstairs as a combined activity takes 3 evenings. Saturday and Sunday we had evening reenactment events (event is 5 pm to 9:30 pm, we have to start getting dressed at 3 pm and get home at almost 11 pm after allowing to dress in period clothing, drive there, sign in, set up the house, close down the house (and make sure all candles out and no one left anything in the house before locking up), sign out, drive home, change to 21st century clothing, and heat up dinner. Monday and Tuesday nights I had to finish exams to do taxes in 2020.
Small studio tree set up in living room with small assortment of special ornaments was all that was done – sigh.
I have not even taken out or lit my Chanukah menorah yet this year – and it is the 4th night – Christmas Day. Maybe tomorrow night.
The last thing I would want is for my child to think that he/she is being spied on by something sitting on a shelf in the house.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I see that Nantucket has lots of festivals, but I don’t get the joke. They’re only attended by people nostalgic for the remembered past?
@ Treesong – Limericks that open with “Nantucket” generally contain a four-letter word rhyming with “*UCK” in the final line.
P.S. The first panel with the snitching elf is a CIDU for me.
Elf on the Shelf
Thank you, Kilby – I was drawing a complete blank on the Nantucket Poetry Festival. Do they really have a limerick festival? Sounds painful – they’re amusing in small amounts…
So why did I (and still do) find The Producers hilarious, but cringe and think, ‘too soon’, at any ‘comic’ featuring Hitler? Is this a personal thing, or do others feel that way? Does it matter if one’s family lived in US (at one remove, one might say) or in Europe during WWII? is it because of the state of politics worldwide today?
Cleo and Company had an arc of ‘Snitch in the Ditch’ and ‘Fink in the Sink’, leading to ‘RATfink’ . . . last week, I think it was.
Isn’t the Elf on the Shelf joke …. just a statement of what the Elf on the shelf is. It is a security camera so why is making a joke about it being a snitch supposed to be or perceived as funny.
Okay, I’m being rhetorical. I know why it should be funny. Maybe I find the idea of nanny cameras so disturbing that I don’t see why thinking of it as a snitch is a stretch.
https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/456/how-does-the-limerick-there-was-an-old-man-of-nantucket-conclude/ for those interested in the original Man From Nantucket limerick and the saga it inspired in local newspapers of the time.
Is the Elf On A Shelf really a camera?
I think the idea is they “snitch” for Santa, not the parents.
Regarding the elf snitch toon, lady on the right is experiencing incredible hair growth from eating lots of chia seeds. Guy on the left doesn’t have hair, its a toupee made from real oak wood…interesting.
There’s a camera in this one? In ALL of ’em?
I was wondering about the Bizarro too. There’s no good indication of who this couple is. A snitch would be most valuable to police interrogators, but these people don’t fit the stereotypical description.
And I have never associated Elf on a Shelf with cameras.
And I’m not sure I understand what’s going on in the Strange Brew.
I think this is the first funny Hitler cartoon I’ve seen in … maybe ever.
@ Andréa – The qualitative difference between “The Producers” and simplistic jokes cast within the context of WWII is that in the Brooks’ production, the Nazi script and theme was picked precisely because it was in excruciatingly bad taste, and was therefore “guaranteed” to fail. The opening sequence of the play staged within the movie is so unbelievably “bad” that it comes off as brilliant.
Compare that to “Hogan’s Heroes”, in which the “humor” is based on a small group of incompetent idiots, incongruously set within an otherwise functional (and obviously dangerous) Wehrmacht. I have to admit that I enjoyed watching the show as a young (and oblivious) kid, but it doesn’t work at all for me now.
I think Strange Brew is and Xmas joke about Christmas coming round again so fast Santa Claus meets himself still not having completed last year’s delivery schedule. Unless it’s a Faster Than Light reference, where you go so fast you go backwards in time and so meet yourself, this cartoon seems to assert that there is more than one Santa.
You know what’s more astounding than a funny Hitler joke? A Funky Winkerbean with an actual punchline.
https://safr.kingfeatures.com/api/img.php?e=png&s=c&file=RnVua3lXaW5rZXJiZWFuLzIwMTkvMTIvRnVua3lfV2lua2VyYmVhbl9odC4yMDE5MTIyMl8xNTM2LnBuZw==
I kept expecting him to suffer a coronary in Panel 4.
I didn’t see the final one as “Hitler humor” as much as a riff on the “Invent a time machine and the first thing you do is go is go back in time and kill Hitler” trope.
I could never stomach Hogan’s Heroes, the few snippets I’ve seen for I-don’t-know-what-reason.
The bits I’ve seen of the Broadway musical of ‘The Producers’ was even more ludicrous, if that is possible. However, playing Hitler as gay just didn’t work for me (yes, I know Dick Shawn played it ‘campy’, but not as overtly gay as in the musical; he actually was funny).
The musical is available on youtube, in bits ‘n’ pieces.
The Idiot Time Traveler is one of the recurring features in Super-Fun-Pak, and though he demonstrates many other kinds of idiocy as well, the “going to kill Hitler” is indeed a standby. (As well as a pretty popular trope in other pop media, as I think CIDU Bill is indicating.)
Thanks for that link, dvandom. Those limericks are indeed in an older style, where the final word of line 5 repeats the one from line 1, not just rhymes with it. These are not quite as abrupt feeling as some of the very earliest from Edw. Lear, where you might get the whole line 1 repeated as line 5.
Another in the “Time travelers vs. Hitler” theme:
“Is the Elf On A Shelf really a camera?
I think the idea is they “snitch” for Santa, not the parents.”
That’s even worse! If were an actual camera it’d have logistics but do people actually think cute stories of snitches is *ever* appropriate and is actually…. charming?! Gad, I should stop being surprised at human behavior but that is utterly revolting.
“He sees you when you’re sleeping
And he knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake”
How does Santa know? Those Shelf-Elves. :-)
Now,regarding Hitler (a segue I’d never thought I’d make), I think I’ve mentioned here before that Hogan’s Heroes was/is popular in Germany, as a friend of the family who was from there was fond of mentioning.
Any comments on where ‘ELLO ‘ELLO fits in the “funny Nazi situations” humor continiuum?
Thank you, Arthur, that S.M.B.C. comic is one of my favorites, and you saved me the trouble of figuring out the linky thing to show it here.
As for Hogan’s Heroes, I was never really a big follower of the show, and thought it kind of out there, so to speak, UNTIL… I worked in a factory (this was a long time ago) and one of the guys on the maintenance crew was a big, big fan of the show. Turns out he was a WWII vet trained in specials ops (or whatever they called it) specifically to be captured and put in the POW camps as part of a liaison with the underground. He said a lot of the show was not that far from the truth. Huh? Anyway, take it or leave it, I looked at the show differently, from then on.
@ Grawlix – It certainly is true that Hogan’s Heroes was broadcast on German TV (in fact, they did it at least twice), but to say that it was “popular” is overstating it somewhat. The first translation wasn’t successful, so the series was recast and rerecorded to be even sillier, in part by saddling the German soldiers with a more comical dialect (as well as turning Richard Dawson into a stutterer). Yes, enough Germans did watch it that the network was able to sell enough advertising to finance the complete rerun of “A Cage Full of Heroes”, but the series has never enjoyed the same kind of widespread consciousness among the general public here, such as other American series have done.
Two important things about the Elf on the Shelf: 1. Nobody — NOBODY — is allowed to touch or move the elf on pain of the most dire consequences. Even parents are never allowed to move it or touch it. 2. Every day, the elf will be in a different location or position than the day before. That’s because at night the elf goes off to give Santa a report for the day and comes back. So no, he is not a security camera but he has the functionality of one.
As for the man from Nantucket, the first version I ever heard had him going down to Hell in a bucket. When the devils down there asked him for his fare, he told them what they could do.
Huh. I always thought people went to hell in handbasket. I guess being an Agnostic makes me unaware of protocols.
I assumed everyone knew the E on the S started out as a book written in 2005 and has had a resurgence of popularity (for whatever reason) in the past several year, including a movie, its/his own website with, of course, products to purchase.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elf_on_the_Shelf
https://www.elfontheshelf.com/
You could use “Nantasket”, but then the second line with “handbasket” doesn’t scan.
There once was a man from Nantasket,
who went on his way in a basket;
He thought he’d reached hell, just from the smell,
but first had to change to a casket.
There was an old man of Pawtucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
Then up got that man to Nantucket
When he lost all his cash in a bucket.
His daughter, named Nan,
He left with the man,
But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.
Sorry previous message was posted while I was still writing my name.
Yes, this Christmas came too fast. Never did get a chance to decorate in the house. Last Saturday night I gave into knowing that there was not enough time to “shovel out”, err, tidy up, the dining room and the living room to be able to decorate and also decorate. Setting up the 3 trees downstairs as a combined activity takes 3 evenings. Saturday and Sunday we had evening reenactment events (event is 5 pm to 9:30 pm, we have to start getting dressed at 3 pm and get home at almost 11 pm after allowing to dress in period clothing, drive there, sign in, set up the house, close down the house (and make sure all candles out and no one left anything in the house before locking up), sign out, drive home, change to 21st century clothing, and heat up dinner. Monday and Tuesday nights I had to finish exams to do taxes in 2020.
Small studio tree set up in living room with small assortment of special ornaments was all that was done – sigh.
I have not even taken out or lit my Chanukah menorah yet this year – and it is the 4th night – Christmas Day. Maybe tomorrow night.
The last thing I would want is for my child to think that he/she is being spied on by something sitting on a shelf in the house.