The speaker wants to get a job, but also intends to keep claiming benefits.
The guy has been standing in the unemployment line so long and often he has taken it as a necessity of life. So he doesn’t realize if he has a job he won’t *need* to stand in the line. So he thinks if he gets a job he’ll have to figure out how to work around the time he needs to stand in the line.
Oh, that makes sense.
I couldn’t figure it out when I first saw it, because I didn’t understand they could be queueing to actually receive payments – I thought of it as more where they might be getting leads to apply to jobs. As though it were the Employment office.
Except no one stands in line these days. It’s all done on line.
Yeah, this one is a CIDU for me, too. LF is right, of course, but the line is still a cartoon meme. I’m with Mitch4’s apparently discarded thoughts, not with the “makes sense” bit. I suppose Pete is right and the guy is just an overt cheat.
But even with the meme, you stand on line to apply for benefits, not collect them, so at most you’d need one (very) long lunch hour to do it.
LordF: Was that a pun (“on line”)? If so, nicely done–subtle!
“In line” versus “on line” is a regional difference. I know they say the latter in New York, I don’t know about other areas. Definitely “in line” around here.
He likes to take his time for lunch, and this gets him fired every week.
Brian, are you talking about queuing up or surfing the Web?
Queuing. That just occurred to me in the discussion above about “in line” and “on line”, where in some places that wouldn’t be as well understood..
Comics I Don't Understand 
The speaker wants to get a job, but also intends to keep claiming benefits.
The guy has been standing in the unemployment line so long and often he has taken it as a necessity of life. So he doesn’t realize if he has a job he won’t *need* to stand in the line. So he thinks if he gets a job he’ll have to figure out how to work around the time he needs to stand in the line.
Oh, that makes sense.
I couldn’t figure it out when I first saw it, because I didn’t understand they could be queueing to actually receive payments – I thought of it as more where they might be getting leads to apply to jobs. As though it were the Employment office.
Except no one stands in line these days. It’s all done on line.
Yeah, this one is a CIDU for me, too. LF is right, of course, but the line is still a cartoon meme. I’m with Mitch4’s apparently discarded thoughts, not with the “makes sense” bit. I suppose Pete is right and the guy is just an overt cheat.
But even with the meme, you stand on line to apply for benefits, not collect them, so at most you’d need one (very) long lunch hour to do it.
LordF: Was that a pun (“on line”)? If so, nicely done–subtle!
“In line” versus “on line” is a regional difference. I know they say the latter in New York, I don’t know about other areas. Definitely “in line” around here.
He likes to take his time for lunch, and this gets him fired every week.
Brian, are you talking about queuing up or surfing the Web?
Queuing. That just occurred to me in the discussion above about “in line” and “on line”, where in some places that wouldn’t be as well understood..