Because it’s funny to imagine a snowman being blind? I sure hope there’s more than that.
From Targuman.
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Well when you forget to give Frosty two eyes made out of coal… but remember to give him a service snowdog? I dunno.
Actually, I think there’s less to it than that. I don’t think the snowman is meant to be blind at all. It’s just a snowman taking his snowdog for a walk. The missing eyes are probably an art or colourist error.
– Wrong type of stick for a blind person. It’s a walking stick, not a white cane.
– Wrong type of dog to be a guide dog
– Wrong type of leash. Guide dogs use a short rigid harness.
I’ve no idea why it’s supposed to be funny.
If you don’t add the coal eyes, you get a blind snowman. I think that’s it. The cane is just badly drawn.
Pete, are you saying it’s more likely the artist forgot to draw eyes than it is she didn’t think about what a proper blind person’s cane, dog, and leash look like?
I was for a brief while an adherent of the theory the cane was meant as a scooper, raising the question what kind of leavings does a snow dog deposit? But it doesn’t look like that. Nor like a blind person’s tapping cane, which often is marked to be noticeable. It’s really most like an ordinary walking cane. And not even with those stability extensions .
Frosty made himself a dog, and the dog needs eyes, so Frosty gave the dog his eyes. He knew he’d be blind, so before he gave the dog the eyes he also made a cane for himself.
Since he is not a classic “three-ball snowman” and seems to have legs to walk, maybe he is as much of an autonomous agent as TedD’s explanation requires.
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed snowman is king.”
I thought it was a pooper-scooper at first too and thought it be funnier if it were a snow scoop.
At second I didn’t think it was supposed to be the snowman was blind and just the very anemic joke was that even a snowman might have a pet.
But at third, I think the joke is that the snowman is blind and the joke is that he is blind because his eyes are removable (being pieces of coal).
I think Andréa’s Hilburn comic is a coal-becomes-diamond joke, but if so it’s pretty disturbing. In a… van Gogh sort of way.
CaroZ, I took an unduly long time getting Andréa’s Hilburn comic, as I didn’t even come up with the coal-into-diamond aspect. I thought it was just about fitting a ring onto the twig hands; and why would that be hard or take much wait time?
Gives new meaning to the phrase, ‘diamond in the rough’.
I still don’t really get Andréa’s comic. I assumed (and still assume) that it’s related to coal turning to diamonds over a long period of time, but I still don’t get it. I mean, yes, coal can become a diamond, but (obviously) that’s not something Zales does, and even assuming that it was, why would it be something particularly associated with a snowman removing his eye? (Rather than any other person trying to get rich by bringing in a bag of coal.)
I think this is one o’ those comics where you look, maybe chuckle to yourself, and then move on, rather than overthinking it. That’s what I did; I only posted it ’cause it had to do with snowmen and charcoal/eyes. And as a coincidence, this is Sheldon’s agreement with you . . .
winter wallaby. What’s not to get?
The snow man wants to have his eyeball fitted into a diamond ring. The jeweller says he can do it but it will take a very long time as they will need to pressurize the coal into a diamond and that will take millions of years.
“why would it be something particularly associated with a snowman removing his eye? (Rather than any other person trying to get rich by bringing in a bag of coal.)”
Because snowmen are associated with coal.
“What’s not to get?”
Why would a snowman want to have his eyeball fitted in a diamond ring?
I got everything in your explanation, but I still don’t get it.
The blind (?) snowman in the original cartoon seems to have coal “in excess of requirements” to form his (?) mouth, so perhaps he just dressed in the dark this morning and didn’t notice that he was misplacing his eye-coals as mouth-coals. (I assume that if snowmen sleep, they have to take their eyes out first since they can’t just ‘shut’ them.)
He can’t afford an already-diamond. But he can afford the setting, and will provide them the raw materials for the diamond.
Why would he want to give up his eye? Why not use any 5 cent piece of coal from a cheap bag of coal? Or one of his buttons?
I get that you can overthink a joke, and that this isn’t supposed to be part of some finely crafted, detailed world-building program where everything will make perfect sense. But this doesn’t make much sense to me even on a very quick first impression.
Either way, Frosty looks happy enough.
I think this is one of those situations where the cartoonist is sitting around brainstorming for ideas and comes up with, “Hey, a snowman without coal eyes would be … wait for it … blind. Yuk, yuk. It’s funny, you see, because a snowman can’t see anyways, whether it has coal eyes or not. Now, how do I go about drawing something that will get that idea across in one panel?” And of course, it’s all downhill from there. Interestingly, I also think if he had left the coal eyes in ( i.e. snowman walking his dog) it would have been about the same on the chuckle scale as absurdist humor, but of course, with less pathos.
Soon after the original post went out this a.m., a friend sent me this (don’t tell ME my email account isn’t being watched!!) . . .
People often want to incorporate old jewelry or loose stones that into new pieces for either sentimental reasons or for security and permanence.. This is very common and standard. So I figure the snowman has fond and sentimental memories of his eyeball (don’t you?) and whats to incorporate it into a ring for save keeping and/or permanence.
Makes perfect sense to me. My SO is considering reincorporate the amethyst of the ring of her first marriage into our rings.
I’m pretty sure… the Snowman (out in the snow and bright sunshine)… has gone snowblind.
There’s your joke.
A man goes by himself to a jewelry shop for a diamond ring (at least in the comics) for a very specific reason. And as Mitch4 says, it’s fairly affordable to make a setting if you already have the stone. But what will the recipient’s reaction be when she finds out he gave her his eyeball?
We’ve raised a bunch of guide dogs, so I pay attention, and I’ve never seen a blind person with both a dog and a cane. Definitely the wrong type of harness, but I’ll give them the dog type, since we raised Labs and Goldens, and I’ve heard that they’ve tried poodles. Maybe blind snowmen get little dogs.
Not funny at all, though.
“Not funny at all, though.”
No. Not in the least.
But if my interpretation is correct, then he gave up his eyeballs to make the dog, and now the dog is acting as a seeing eye-dog, then at least it is interpretable as a joke (that snowmen, like Mr. Potato-Heads, can remove body parts) albeit not a good one.
It’s not a cane, it’s a weed burner. He won’t need to scoop, he’ll just melt the deposit away. The shape looks similar to this: tinyurl.com/yqxs49xy
Here is Pabena6’s image.
Andréa – but that snowman and dog with the lantern behind them is so pleasant to look at.
We had to go out today to pickup prescription refills (no, Walmarts do not deliver here so we cannot get them delivered) as we were between storms today. As we were driving there was a tall, chubby snowman along the road. Either his eyes, mouth, etc had fallen out or someone had painted them on with red orangey paint as that was all that was there for same and I was not sure if residue from what had been there or not.
(We had been shoveling and snow blowing snow from the storm a week ago – Sunday night through Tuesday – from Wednesday through Friday. We then had to do the same with the (luckily smaller) snowstorm we had on Saturday on Saturday evening as there were warnings that it would freeze more overnight. We went out again on Sunday to clear up what was left and today (Monday) we had to clear out the driveway cuts again.
And another storm is coming in tomorrow and again on Thursday… more to go out and clear
Yes, that snowman and dog are nice to look at – I especially like the black socks for the dog’s ears (which I just realized they were . . . socks, that is).
For whatever reason, the snowman’s face is rearranged blinding the snowman who now needs a cane and a seeing eye dog.
The snowman would ‘give one eye to marry’ his love, and asks the jeweler to set it because he wants to sacrifice something personal for her.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Well when you forget to give Frosty two eyes made out of coal… but remember to give him a service snowdog? I dunno.
Actually, I think there’s less to it than that. I don’t think the snowman is meant to be blind at all. It’s just a snowman taking his snowdog for a walk. The missing eyes are probably an art or colourist error.
– Wrong type of stick for a blind person. It’s a walking stick, not a white cane.
– Wrong type of dog to be a guide dog
– Wrong type of leash. Guide dogs use a short rigid harness.
I’ve no idea why it’s supposed to be funny.
If you don’t add the coal eyes, you get a blind snowman. I think that’s it. The cane is just badly drawn.
Pete, are you saying it’s more likely the artist forgot to draw eyes than it is she didn’t think about what a proper blind person’s cane, dog, and leash look like?
I was for a brief while an adherent of the theory the cane was meant as a scooper, raising the question what kind of leavings does a snow dog deposit? But it doesn’t look like that. Nor like a blind person’s tapping cane, which often is marked to be noticeable. It’s really most like an ordinary walking cane. And not even with those stability extensions .
Frosty made himself a dog, and the dog needs eyes, so Frosty gave the dog his eyes. He knew he’d be blind, so before he gave the dog the eyes he also made a cane for himself.
Since he is not a classic “three-ball snowman” and seems to have legs to walk, maybe he is as much of an autonomous agent as TedD’s explanation requires.
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed snowman is king.”
I thought it was a pooper-scooper at first too and thought it be funnier if it were a snow scoop.
At second I didn’t think it was supposed to be the snowman was blind and just the very anemic joke was that even a snowman might have a pet.
But at third, I think the joke is that the snowman is blind and the joke is that he is blind because his eyes are removable (being pieces of coal).
I think Andréa’s Hilburn comic is a coal-becomes-diamond joke, but if so it’s pretty disturbing. In a… van Gogh sort of way.
CaroZ, I took an unduly long time getting Andréa’s Hilburn comic, as I didn’t even come up with the coal-into-diamond aspect. I thought it was just about fitting a ring onto the twig hands; and why would that be hard or take much wait time?
Gives new meaning to the phrase, ‘diamond in the rough’.
I still don’t really get Andréa’s comic. I assumed (and still assume) that it’s related to coal turning to diamonds over a long period of time, but I still don’t get it. I mean, yes, coal can become a diamond, but (obviously) that’s not something Zales does, and even assuming that it was, why would it be something particularly associated with a snowman removing his eye? (Rather than any other person trying to get rich by bringing in a bag of coal.)
I think this is one o’ those comics where you look, maybe chuckle to yourself, and then move on, rather than overthinking it. That’s what I did; I only posted it ’cause it had to do with snowmen and charcoal/eyes. And as a coincidence, this is Sheldon’s agreement with you . . .
winter wallaby. What’s not to get?
The snow man wants to have his eyeball fitted into a diamond ring. The jeweller says he can do it but it will take a very long time as they will need to pressurize the coal into a diamond and that will take millions of years.
“why would it be something particularly associated with a snowman removing his eye? (Rather than any other person trying to get rich by bringing in a bag of coal.)”
Because snowmen are associated with coal.
“What’s not to get?”
Why would a snowman want to have his eyeball fitted in a diamond ring?
I got everything in your explanation, but I still don’t get it.
The blind (?) snowman in the original cartoon seems to have coal “in excess of requirements” to form his (?) mouth, so perhaps he just dressed in the dark this morning and didn’t notice that he was misplacing his eye-coals as mouth-coals. (I assume that if snowmen sleep, they have to take their eyes out first since they can’t just ‘shut’ them.)
He can’t afford an already-diamond. But he can afford the setting, and will provide them the raw materials for the diamond.
Why would he want to give up his eye? Why not use any 5 cent piece of coal from a cheap bag of coal? Or one of his buttons?
I get that you can overthink a joke, and that this isn’t supposed to be part of some finely crafted, detailed world-building program where everything will make perfect sense. But this doesn’t make much sense to me even on a very quick first impression.
Either way, Frosty looks happy enough.
I think this is one of those situations where the cartoonist is sitting around brainstorming for ideas and comes up with, “Hey, a snowman without coal eyes would be … wait for it … blind. Yuk, yuk. It’s funny, you see, because a snowman can’t see anyways, whether it has coal eyes or not. Now, how do I go about drawing something that will get that idea across in one panel?” And of course, it’s all downhill from there. Interestingly, I also think if he had left the coal eyes in ( i.e. snowman walking his dog) it would have been about the same on the chuckle scale as absurdist humor, but of course, with less pathos.
Soon after the original post went out this a.m., a friend sent me this (don’t tell ME my email account isn’t being watched!!) . . .
People often want to incorporate old jewelry or loose stones that into new pieces for either sentimental reasons or for security and permanence.. This is very common and standard. So I figure the snowman has fond and sentimental memories of his eyeball (don’t you?) and whats to incorporate it into a ring for save keeping and/or permanence.
Makes perfect sense to me. My SO is considering reincorporate the amethyst of the ring of her first marriage into our rings.
I’m pretty sure… the Snowman (out in the snow and bright sunshine)… has gone snowblind.
There’s your joke.
A man goes by himself to a jewelry shop for a diamond ring (at least in the comics) for a very specific reason. And as Mitch4 says, it’s fairly affordable to make a setting if you already have the stone. But what will the recipient’s reaction be when she finds out he gave her his eyeball?
We’ve raised a bunch of guide dogs, so I pay attention, and I’ve never seen a blind person with both a dog and a cane. Definitely the wrong type of harness, but I’ll give them the dog type, since we raised Labs and Goldens, and I’ve heard that they’ve tried poodles. Maybe blind snowmen get little dogs.
Not funny at all, though.
“Not funny at all, though.”
No. Not in the least.
But if my interpretation is correct, then he gave up his eyeballs to make the dog, and now the dog is acting as a seeing eye-dog, then at least it is interpretable as a joke (that snowmen, like Mr. Potato-Heads, can remove body parts) albeit not a good one.
It’s not a cane, it’s a weed burner. He won’t need to scoop, he’ll just melt the deposit away. The shape looks similar to this: tinyurl.com/yqxs49xy
Here is Pabena6’s image.
Andréa – but that snowman and dog with the lantern behind them is so pleasant to look at.
We had to go out today to pickup prescription refills (no, Walmarts do not deliver here so we cannot get them delivered) as we were between storms today. As we were driving there was a tall, chubby snowman along the road. Either his eyes, mouth, etc had fallen out or someone had painted them on with red orangey paint as that was all that was there for same and I was not sure if residue from what had been there or not.
(We had been shoveling and snow blowing snow from the storm a week ago – Sunday night through Tuesday – from Wednesday through Friday. We then had to do the same with the (luckily smaller) snowstorm we had on Saturday on Saturday evening as there were warnings that it would freeze more overnight. We went out again on Sunday to clear up what was left and today (Monday) we had to clear out the driveway cuts again.
And another storm is coming in tomorrow and again on Thursday… more to go out and clear
Yes, that snowman and dog are nice to look at – I especially like the black socks for the dog’s ears (which I just realized they were . . . socks, that is).
For whatever reason, the snowman’s face is rearranged blinding the snowman who now needs a cane and a seeing eye dog.
The snowman would ‘give one eye to marry’ his love, and asks the jeweler to set it because he wants to sacrifice something personal for her.