The Bizarro could plausibly have been used yesterday, in the Oy list, as there is perhaps a pun on depression. However, the Oys post already had another Bizarro so this one got held over.
For an extended linguistic examination of this cartoon, see Arnold Zwicky’s blog. Wait a minute, “Windy City Novelties”? Are they right around the corner? Hmm, no, it’s a suburb thing.
Well. When I submitted this, I commented that MAYBE it could be read that he is depressed BECAUSE of living in the tropics. Having gone thru both depression and moving to the tropics (or the sub-tropics, atho I have visited the real tropics several times), I interpreted it this very personal way. Living in the topics does NOT alleviate SAD; I can attest to that, and maybe he is depressed because he moved to the topics for that very reason and is VERY disappointed to find out that, ‘Wherever you go, there you are.’
In Wayno’s blog, he states: “One waggish commenter suggested that this comic’s protagonist suffered from overexposure to Jimmy Buffett’s music. For this listener, there’s no safe level of Jimmy Buffet. But that’s me. Whatever brings you enjoyment without harming others is fine by me.”
For THIS listener, there is no level of JB that would be considered overexposure, even before I moved to JB Land.
Things have changed, and most automotive engine air intake filters don’t look like that any more. But that used to be the standard design for them. It’s still common for various other sorts of intake air filters, such as this for a compressor:
I happened to have watched this a week or so ago, learning 1) how Elizabethan women dressed; and 2) there are several styles of ruffs, depending on time of day, and formal/informal usage.
The “Changing of the Queen’s filter” cartoon is so stupid that I can’t stop laughing.
I used to work for a weather company, so I can appreciate the “Tropical Depression” cartoon. I even wrote and maintained the Tropical Cyclone software, so it’s nice to see someone making a long-overdue pun (at least for me, anyway) on the term “Tropical depression.”
In fact, sometimes I would even bring my ukulele to work.
Um… so the joke of the queens filter is that ruffs look like filters? And that filters and the queen’s guards are things that change? And that ruffs and Queen Victoria are two things we associate with costume dramas so it’s not weird to see them together?
Woozy, have you talked yourself into enjoying it yet?
Andrea, do you use a light box? Did your SAD diminish with age?
No, and no. Suicide ideation convinced my doctor to try a different (and very $$$) anti-depressant, which has helped enormously.
Glad to hear you are taking care for yourself Andréa! 👏💪🏼
Since we seem to talk a lot about what is and is not a pun, I’ll open this up a little. Is the queen’s filter cartoon a visual pun? (Is there such a thing as a visual pun?)
Sent from my iPad in the tropics. 😎
I vote YES.
It’s not really the shape of the filter; it’s the pattern of the paper, or silk or whatever those ruffs were made from. It maximizes the surface area of the material for best filtering. I don’t know how or why the Elizabethans happened on that pattern, unless it’s to turn a very small volume of material into a very large volume. It’s a lot like those flat paper turkey decorations you can buy, which you open up like a book and bring it all the way around so it’s a big spherical thing.
For a verbal pun on “filter” I refer you to “The Sorcerer” by Gilbert and Sullivan. A character wants a philtre, i.e. a love potion, and is told that a philtre would be a very good idea considering the state of Thames water.
Andrea, I don’t know how to ‘like’ your reply, so consider it liked.
I don’t see how it’s a pun in any fashion.
“Woozy, have you talked yourself into enjoying it yet?”
No. Seeing Queen Victoria wearing a Jacobian ruff is just too irritating. Changing of guard and changing of muffler just aren’t similar enough.
Brian, a verbal pun plays on a similarity between two unrelated words. This comic plays on a similarity between two unrelated images. That could be called a visual pun.
Yes, and under Powers’s definition we can ask whether depressed affect and depressed barometric pressure are really different meanings. I think it was a good joke, and based in some variety of word play, but perhaps not narrowly a pun.
You may not get depressed in the tropics, but you COULD get lonely . . .
I agree with woozy as I find a 16th or at closest -17th ruff on a 19th century queen just wrong.
Ohhhh, Andrea! So close to a synchronicity! If only the dog on the phone had said, “Ruff, ruff, ruff!!”
Comics I Don't Understand 
The Bizarro could plausibly have been used yesterday, in the Oy list, as there is perhaps a pun on depression. However, the Oys post already had another Bizarro so this one got held over.
For an extended linguistic examination of this cartoon, see Arnold Zwicky’s blog. Wait a minute, “Windy City Novelties”? Are they right around the corner? Hmm, no, it’s a suburb thing.
Well. When I submitted this, I commented that MAYBE it could be read that he is depressed BECAUSE of living in the tropics. Having gone thru both depression and moving to the tropics (or the sub-tropics, atho I have visited the real tropics several times), I interpreted it this very personal way. Living in the topics does NOT alleviate SAD; I can attest to that, and maybe he is depressed because he moved to the topics for that very reason and is VERY disappointed to find out that, ‘Wherever you go, there you are.’
In Wayno’s blog, he states: “One waggish commenter suggested that this comic’s protagonist suffered from overexposure to Jimmy Buffett’s music. For this listener, there’s no safe level of Jimmy Buffet. But that’s me. Whatever brings you enjoyment without harming others is fine by me.”
For THIS listener, there is no level of JB that would be considered overexposure, even before I moved to JB Land.
Things have changed, and most automotive engine air intake filters don’t look like that any more. But that used to be the standard design for them. It’s still common for various other sorts of intake air filters, such as this for a compressor:
I happened to have watched this a week or so ago, learning 1) how Elizabethan women dressed; and 2) there are several styles of ruffs, depending on time of day, and formal/informal usage.
The “Changing of the Queen’s filter” cartoon is so stupid that I can’t stop laughing.
I used to work for a weather company, so I can appreciate the “Tropical Depression” cartoon. I even wrote and maintained the Tropical Cyclone software, so it’s nice to see someone making a long-overdue pun (at least for me, anyway) on the term “Tropical depression.”
In fact, sometimes I would even bring my ukulele to work.
Um… so the joke of the queens filter is that ruffs look like filters? And that filters and the queen’s guards are things that change? And that ruffs and Queen Victoria are two things we associate with costume dramas so it’s not weird to see them together?
Woozy, have you talked yourself into enjoying it yet?
Andrea, do you use a light box? Did your SAD diminish with age?
No, and no. Suicide ideation convinced my doctor to try a different (and very $$$) anti-depressant, which has helped enormously.
Glad to hear you are taking care for yourself Andréa! 👏💪🏼
Since we seem to talk a lot about what is and is not a pun, I’ll open this up a little. Is the queen’s filter cartoon a visual pun? (Is there such a thing as a visual pun?)
Sent from my iPad in the tropics. 😎
I vote YES.
It’s not really the shape of the filter; it’s the pattern of the paper, or silk or whatever those ruffs were made from. It maximizes the surface area of the material for best filtering. I don’t know how or why the Elizabethans happened on that pattern, unless it’s to turn a very small volume of material into a very large volume. It’s a lot like those flat paper turkey decorations you can buy, which you open up like a book and bring it all the way around so it’s a big spherical thing.
For a verbal pun on “filter” I refer you to “The Sorcerer” by Gilbert and Sullivan. A character wants a philtre, i.e. a love potion, and is told that a philtre would be a very good idea considering the state of Thames water.
Andrea, I don’t know how to ‘like’ your reply, so consider it liked.
I don’t see how it’s a pun in any fashion.
“Woozy, have you talked yourself into enjoying it yet?”
No. Seeing Queen Victoria wearing a Jacobian ruff is just too irritating. Changing of guard and changing of muffler just aren’t similar enough.
Brian, a verbal pun plays on a similarity between two unrelated words. This comic plays on a similarity between two unrelated images. That could be called a visual pun.
Yes, and under Powers’s definition we can ask whether depressed affect and depressed barometric pressure are really different meanings. I think it was a good joke, and based in some variety of word play, but perhaps not narrowly a pun.
You may not get depressed in the tropics, but you COULD get lonely . . .
I agree with woozy as I find a 16th or at closest -17th ruff on a 19th century queen just wrong.
Ohhhh, Andrea! So close to a synchronicity! If only the dog on the phone had said, “Ruff, ruff, ruff!!”
Of further interest –
More on ruffs: