Bear though it was a rubber ducky floating drink holder and put his red Solo cup on his back. That’s the humor.
It’s a joke, but just bearly.
Climo is WAY cutesier than I usually like, but I love her cartoons and this is one of my favorites. The running theme is that all the different animals get along and never fight or try to eat each other. She did a full book about the bear not eating a rabbit. https://thelittleworldofliz.com/Please-Don-t-Eat-Me
Forgot to mention, she’s a bit self-deprecating about her cartooning skills, so mistaking her “real” duck for a rubber duck plays on that.
Yes, the joke is that everyone is fine with something that would normally cause offense, recrimination, or (since these are animals) violence.
I think floating drink holders int the form of floating rubber ducks need to be common items familiar to the reader for this to work.
I’m sure such things exist. I might even have seen one. But like the toilet seat with pennies in lucite they are not a common enough item for me to be a good frame of reference for a joke.
But if they were it’d be a cute joke.
“Yes, the joke is that everyone is fine with something that would normally cause offense, recrimination, or (since these are animals) violence.”
I don’t think so. I think the joke is that it’s a situation what the bear mistook something for something else. But rather than mistaking something elaborate for something simple he mistook something simple for something specifically elaborate (making it a “utility room” joke). That’s discontent enough but as this is a world where animals are sentient this means he placed his drink on a person and that’s a little weird too.
I think it all adds up.
Ceci n’est pas un canard. Or is it? Oui!
Woozy, perhaps you’re not that familiar with swimming-pool culture. 🙂 There can be floating-anything-at-alls. I’m more familiar with cup holders built into a floating chaise, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see separate ones. There are certainly floating (battery-powered) lanterns, floating ashtray-holders, even floating elevated boards to serve as desks for your laptop computer.
The “they have” in Bear’s first line seems to refer to the hosts at this swim party, probably owners of a house where there is a pool. But interesting that they have a live duck swimming in it. No, wait — as Powers and padraig are getting at, if a sentient bear and other animal are the guests, a live duck in the pool seems all right.
OT. yesterday in conversation with a Korean-American friend about a shared interest in classical music performance, I had to convince her that it was inevitable, and not actually disrespectful, that Gustavo Dudamel for a time got the nickname “The Dude”.
Part of the joke is meta. The idea that the cartoonish depiction is actually 100% photorealistic to their world, to the point that you could mistake a real duck for a rubber duck cupholder until it moves or talks.
@Mitch4: “for a time:?
You mean he couldn’t abide it?
No, just that I haven’t heard it in a while. Maybe people got tired of saying it, or also he’s a little less in the spotlight nowadays.
In fact I think he is regarded as rather good-humoured. When he guested with Berlin, their hornist Sarah Willis did the publicity interviews and they were quite jolly. And he was pretty gracious in doing a weird cameo as the backstage doorkeeper in S.2 ep.1 of “Mozart in the Jungle” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4461048/reference
Mitch: woosh? I’m not sure from your reply whether you deliberately or unknowingly disregarded lazarusjohn’s clever allusion to The Big Lebowski…
larK: Ha, no, I mostly missed it! I did see “abide” and wondered why that unusual word was chosen, but forgot to shift gears and pick up the (indeed clever) allusion.
The joke is that the duck is so accommodating that it didn’t say anything. Or didn’t say anything at first and then reached the point where it felt awkward to correct him. Like the maintenance guy at our building who thinks my name is Mike. Now that it’s been four years, how do I tell him it’s not?
“But interesting that they have a live duck swimming in it. No, wait — as Powers and padraig are getting at, if a sentient bear and other animal are the guests, a live duck in the pool seems all right.”
“The joke is that the duck is so accommodating that it didn’t say anything”
Those are points that make it work for me but they seem a bit overthinking.
I think the joke is the idea that a bear mistaking a real duck for a floating cup holder would mean the bear is mistaking an actual guest as a cup holder, and the concept of that is pretty silly.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Bear though it was a rubber ducky floating drink holder and put his red Solo cup on his back. That’s the humor.
It’s a joke, but just bearly.
Climo is WAY cutesier than I usually like, but I love her cartoons and this is one of my favorites. The running theme is that all the different animals get along and never fight or try to eat each other. She did a full book about the bear not eating a rabbit. https://thelittleworldofliz.com/Please-Don-t-Eat-Me
Forgot to mention, she’s a bit self-deprecating about her cartooning skills, so mistaking her “real” duck for a rubber duck plays on that.
Yes, the joke is that everyone is fine with something that would normally cause offense, recrimination, or (since these are animals) violence.
I think floating drink holders int the form of floating rubber ducks need to be common items familiar to the reader for this to work.
I’m sure such things exist. I might even have seen one. But like the toilet seat with pennies in lucite they are not a common enough item for me to be a good frame of reference for a joke.
But if they were it’d be a cute joke.
“Yes, the joke is that everyone is fine with something that would normally cause offense, recrimination, or (since these are animals) violence.”
I don’t think so. I think the joke is that it’s a situation what the bear mistook something for something else. But rather than mistaking something elaborate for something simple he mistook something simple for something specifically elaborate (making it a “utility room” joke). That’s discontent enough but as this is a world where animals are sentient this means he placed his drink on a person and that’s a little weird too.
I think it all adds up.
Ceci n’est pas un canard. Or is it? Oui!
Woozy, perhaps you’re not that familiar with swimming-pool culture. 🙂 There can be floating-anything-at-alls. I’m more familiar with cup holders built into a floating chaise, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see separate ones. There are certainly floating (battery-powered) lanterns, floating ashtray-holders, even floating elevated boards to serve as desks for your laptop computer.
The “they have” in Bear’s first line seems to refer to the hosts at this swim party, probably owners of a house where there is a pool. But interesting that they have a live duck swimming in it. No, wait — as Powers and padraig are getting at, if a sentient bear and other animal are the guests, a live duck in the pool seems all right.
OT. yesterday in conversation with a Korean-American friend about a shared interest in classical music performance, I had to convince her that it was inevitable, and not actually disrespectful, that Gustavo Dudamel for a time got the nickname “The Dude”.
Part of the joke is meta. The idea that the cartoonish depiction is actually 100% photorealistic to their world, to the point that you could mistake a real duck for a rubber duck cupholder until it moves or talks.
@Mitch4: “for a time:?
You mean he couldn’t abide it?
No, just that I haven’t heard it in a while. Maybe people got tired of saying it, or also he’s a little less in the spotlight nowadays.
In fact I think he is regarded as rather good-humoured. When he guested with Berlin, their hornist Sarah Willis did the publicity interviews and they were quite jolly. And he was pretty gracious in doing a weird cameo as the backstage doorkeeper in S.2 ep.1 of “Mozart in the Jungle” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4461048/reference
Mitch: woosh? I’m not sure from your reply whether you deliberately or unknowingly disregarded lazarusjohn’s clever allusion to The Big Lebowski…
larK: Ha, no, I mostly missed it! I did see “abide” and wondered why that unusual word was chosen, but forgot to shift gears and pick up the (indeed clever) allusion.
The joke is that the duck is so accommodating that it didn’t say anything. Or didn’t say anything at first and then reached the point where it felt awkward to correct him. Like the maintenance guy at our building who thinks my name is Mike. Now that it’s been four years, how do I tell him it’s not?
“But interesting that they have a live duck swimming in it. No, wait — as Powers and padraig are getting at, if a sentient bear and other animal are the guests, a live duck in the pool seems all right.”
“The joke is that the duck is so accommodating that it didn’t say anything”
Those are points that make it work for me but they seem a bit overthinking.
I think the joke is the idea that a bear mistaking a real duck for a floating cup holder would mean the bear is mistaking an actual guest as a cup holder, and the concept of that is pretty silly.
Something something off a duck’s back
Reminds me of a Far Side comic: