It’s a pun-joke we’ve heard before, but nicely executed, don’t you agree? Though not perfect — there’s no plotted reason for the appearance of the van.
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“. . . there’s no plotted reason for the appearance of the van.”
They’re on a busy street – what more ‘reason’ do we need? I seen Mayflower, United Van Lines, Two Men and a Truck vans go by frequently.
Woohps!, Andréa snuck in! That’s okay, it’s all yours, girl.
But indeed the Mayflower one was what I was going to comment on. I see the editors’ point about “reason”. Even though it’s true that , as Andréa points out, these moving vans are out there and go by regularly without special plot-connection, still there is a feeling that it’s not quite satisfactory to say the April showers bring the Mayflower van, which does seem to want a causal nexus.
I feel like I saw another instance of the Mayflower moving van joke just within the last couple weeks. (And why aren’t they waiting for it to actually be May?).
And I would side with the editors and Deety in looking for some tighter connection. In the standard saying, the April showers bring the May flowers in the simple sense that the rain water is what lets the plants grow, and eventually bloom.
I thought the “reap what you sew” one was more strained than the moving van.
She sewed the title of her book and is perhaps reaping more sales of it, but that’s not really what she actually sewed. (But it probably seemed particularly disconnected to me because I couldn’t initially read the needlepoint and did not see what it had to do with the books until I increased the size of the image.)
They wouldn’t notice the truck without being splattered by it, so without the April showers they might not have noticed it. It would work better if April were a common moving month, though.
Do they still have Mayflower vans? Haven’t seen one in decades. But as this is a nostalgia strip it seems appropriate as they were common in my childhood. To the extent that as a child I thought “Furniture” was a funnier answer to Mark of Boston’s father’s joke.
I agree with Andrea that there need not be a plotted reason. But in hindsight although I was initially amused, it occurs to me later there is no reason for the truck to appear as completion of the comment. It’s actually just a coinkydink that a Mayflower van goes by. And coinkydinks are not enough to justify a joke. …. But, heck with it, I didn’t think about that until later so, I can’t retroactively declare the joke void if I was initially amused.
1) Note, “age restricted video” on that clip
2) A more elaborate version, S L Jackson speaks an intro about the story, and the video shows the pages of the book, with the text as read; and the illustrations for subsequent pages
I occasionally see weathered disused old Mayflower van trailers.
Mayflower does still exist but the graphics have been updated several times over the years. I immediately recognized the graphics as depicted in the comic, and I have seen toy and model trucks from the ’50s and ’60s wearing that style.
Here are the poll results as of Sunday morning, for those who don’t want to enter the poll again and change the votes:
As we have noted before, the “Just show me the results” is not a special built-in category in the poll design, and it distorts the percentages of votes cast for the remaining options; though not their raw counts nor the rank ordering.
That said, the leading choice was #2, “Yes, formally, but not very funny” with 28 votes or 32 diminished percentage. Second place among counted options was #4, “no, she would think of ‘tea’ before ‘tee’.” with 15 votes or 18 diminished percentage.
On reflection, that is perhaps not the most telling of the logical flaws here. Even supposing Mrs Sanders entirely accepted the belief that it was National Tee Day, how would that compel her to send Mr Sanders golfing and excuse him from mowing the lawn?
Mayflower the moving company is still around and in business. They seem to have a new logo which is still a sailing ship.
Do you remember the old logo, also a sailing ship with three masts? I always saw the face of a 15th century explorer in it. The topmost sail is his pageboy haircut, to the left of it are his nose and pointy beard, and for some reason he has a flag growing out of his head.
1 – How about – (in normal times) people start moving when the weather gets warmer in May – so Mayflower vans follow April showers as people are moving in May? (hiss, boo – terrible answer Meryl)
2 – Technically while needlepoint is stitching and a type of embroidery, it is NOT sewing.
A few days ago, still in April, we drove past a Mayflower moving truck and I got to tell that joke to my daughter. I can’t remember seeing a Mayflower truck for so many years, but there it was. So maybe you do only notice them when April showers are brought to mind.
Comics I Don't Understand 
“. . . there’s no plotted reason for the appearance of the van.”
They’re on a busy street – what more ‘reason’ do we need? I seen Mayflower, United Van Lines, Two Men and a Truck vans go by frequently.
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That would be ‘have seen’ . . . yikes!
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Really? This is the first comment but there are 15 votes in the poll already?
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Woohps!, Andréa snuck in! That’s okay, it’s all yours, girl.
But indeed the Mayflower one was what I was going to comment on. I see the editors’ point about “reason”. Even though it’s true that , as Andréa points out, these moving vans are out there and go by regularly without special plot-connection, still there is a feeling that it’s not quite satisfactory to say the April showers bring the Mayflower van, which does seem to want a causal nexus.
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The ice cream truck ice cream is actually cake.
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I feel like I saw another instance of the Mayflower moving van joke just within the last couple weeks. (And why aren’t they waiting for it to actually be May?).
And I would side with the editors and Deety in looking for some tighter connection. In the standard saying, the April showers bring the May flowers in the simple sense that the rain water is what lets the plants grow, and eventually bloom.
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Well, he actually did get watered . . .
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Sign spotted at a local business this week: “Spring is finally here — I got so excited I wet my plants !”
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Shrug, that is hilarious!
On the Bizarro, Wayno at http://waynocartoons.blogspot.com/ says of this one “At this point, she’s just flapping it in.” (doesn’t do much for me.)
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My Dad’s favorite joke: If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims.
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I thought the “reap what you sew” one was more strained than the moving van.
She sewed the title of her book and is perhaps reaping more sales of it, but that’s not really what she actually sewed. (But it probably seemed particularly disconnected to me because I couldn’t initially read the needlepoint and did not see what it had to do with the books until I increased the size of the image.)
They wouldn’t notice the truck without being splattered by it, so without the April showers they might not have noticed it. It would work better if April were a common moving month, though.
LikeLike
Do they still have Mayflower vans? Haven’t seen one in decades. But as this is a nostalgia strip it seems appropriate as they were common in my childhood. To the extent that as a child I thought “Furniture” was a funnier answer to Mark of Boston’s father’s joke.
I agree with Andrea that there need not be a plotted reason. But in hindsight although I was initially amused, it occurs to me later there is no reason for the truck to appear as completion of the comment. It’s actually just a coinkydink that a Mayflower van goes by. And coinkydinks are not enough to justify a joke. …. But, heck with it, I didn’t think about that until later so, I can’t retroactively declare the joke void if I was initially amused.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cursory Rhymes? Is that Samuel L Jackson reading “Go The F**k To Sleep” for the first time? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udj-o2m39NA)
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1) Note, “age restricted video” on that clip
2) A more elaborate version, S L Jackson speaks an intro about the story, and the video shows the pages of the book, with the text as read; and the illustrations for subsequent pages
LikeLike
I occasionally see weathered disused old Mayflower van trailers.
Mayflower does still exist but the graphics have been updated several times over the years. I immediately recognized the graphics as depicted in the comic, and I have seen toy and model trucks from the ’50s and ’60s wearing that style.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Here are the poll results as of Sunday morning, for those who don’t want to enter the poll again and change the votes:
As we have noted before, the “Just show me the results” is not a special built-in category in the poll design, and it distorts the percentages of votes cast for the remaining options; though not their raw counts nor the rank ordering.
That said, the leading choice was #2, “Yes, formally, but not very funny” with 28 votes or 32 diminished percentage. Second place among counted options was #4, “no, she would think of ‘tea’ before ‘tee’.” with 15 votes or 18 diminished percentage.
On reflection, that is perhaps not the most telling of the logical flaws here. Even supposing Mrs Sanders entirely accepted the belief that it was National Tee Day, how would that compel her to send Mr Sanders golfing and excuse him from mowing the lawn?
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It would entitle her to get teed off with him!
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For a more traditional take . . .
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Mayflower the moving company is still around and in business. They seem to have a new logo which is still a sailing ship.
Do you remember the old logo, also a sailing ship with three masts? I always saw the face of a 15th century explorer in it. The topmost sail is his pageboy haircut, to the left of it are his nose and pointy beard, and for some reason he has a flag growing out of his head.
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1 – How about – (in normal times) people start moving when the weather gets warmer in May – so Mayflower vans follow April showers as people are moving in May? (hiss, boo – terrible answer Meryl)
2 – Technically while needlepoint is stitching and a type of embroidery, it is NOT sewing.
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A few days ago, still in April, we drove past a Mayflower moving truck and I got to tell that joke to my daughter. I can’t remember seeing a Mayflower truck for so many years, but there it was. So maybe you do only notice them when April showers are brought to mind.
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Another take:
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AND . . .
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