Some of these you can see just why ; others it’s unclear but still a chuckle ; and others just opaque.
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No offense to John Atkinson, but i don’t get it. You can do this with naming dogs after rock legends or cats or cities or whatever. How is this a gag or joke?
“Mercury” makes sense but other than that I’m with Rob.
Me, too . . . or three.
Frankly, I’d be insulted if I were David Bowie.
Here’s as far as I’ve gotten, which I assume is about where everybody else got: the whole gag is based on “Mercury” being both a planet and a rock god. “Jagger” and “Jupiter” start with “J”; “Mars” and “Morrison” both start with “M”, “Elvis” and “Earth” both start with “E”.
That’s basically it, right? Nobody’s gotten further? Janis is the only female rock god listed and Venus is the only female god with a planet named after her, which I guess could be part of it. And then… he ran out of time and just chose random stuff for Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? Maybe?
All of ianosmond’s explications seem correct to me.
Stan’s comment also could be giving a plausible explanation (indirectly), if we take the positions of the planets to mean the Bowie one is Uranus, and then give it the naughty punnable pronunciation.
Poor Pluto!
The asteroids are the Lennon-McCartney Belt because the Beatles broke up?
I agree with ianosmond, but I like the implausible over-analyzation zbicyclist has started: so the sun is called “Berry” because all of rock n’ roll is just playing Chuck Berry riffs, as I read some character declare just recently, probably in Light from Uncommon Stars [no].
I agree with Ian, but less so: the ENTIRE joke is “Mercury” The rest is just filling in space… (pun acknowledged)
@Stan: You’d also be dead.
The joke started OK with planets being named after Roman gods, but got lost in the transition to Rock gods.
Bowie absolutely should be Mars.
There are tons more jokes that could have been made if Atkinson knew anything about planets or Rock Gods.
To me, it’s also about time. The closer the planet is to the sun, the earlier they played music, and the Lennon-McCartney belt separates the time into pre- & post- Beatles invasion. I think it’s also trying to show influence by relative size on each side of the belt. And Berry is the sun, for the reasons larK said.
Could they possibly mean Van Morrison rather than Jim Morrison?
I like Wendy’s temporal division, which tends to indicate “Jim”, rather than “Van”, but nevertheless, Downpuppy’s observation should have taken precedence: Bowie and his Spiders came from Mars.
@Stan: You’d also be dead.
Forgive me. The estate of David Bowie then. Better?
@ Andréa & Stan – As Tom Lehrer said in 1965, “It is a sobering thought, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.“
The closer the planet is to the sun, the earlier they played music theory is true of Elvis and Berry but otherwise undercut by the fact that Ozzy and Black Sabbath (furthest away) got together in 1968, with their first album in 1970, and Freddie Mercury and Queen (closest) formed in 1970, with their first album in 1973; in fact they are the last of all those starry planets to get going.
I thought it was how far they were from Chuck Berry. And Ozzy is definitely WAY out there.
I would have added Pluto back and labeled it Ozzy, just because as WhatDoIKnow said, Ozzy is WAY out there.
I think most of you are putting more thought into it than the cartoonist did.
I agree with MiB that ret-conning Pluto back into the lineup has potential, but I would have named it “Dylan“, who was a rock star for a while, until he wasn’t.
P.S. @ Brian – That’s what CIDU is famous for: we put thought into the comics, so that the cartoonist doesn’t have to.
Did Chuck Berry record with Sun Records?
What synchronicity with me, as I just looked outside at the conjunction of planets out tonight.
Looks like most of Chuck’s work was with Chess and associated labels.
Looks like most of Chuck’s work was with Chess and associated labels.
Well, I see a whole new comic! Rock n’ Roll Chess Board! So, Chuck Berry is the King; Queen is the Queen, Joey Bishop is the Bishop, Elvis is the… King — the other king! Yeah, that’s the ticket! Can make a whole appropriation commentary, Elvis will be the White King, Chuck will be the Black King….
Joey Bishop (The Outlier) – now, there’s a name from the past. Did he sing? I never did figure out why he was a [small] part of the Rat Pack.
@ larK – I really like that! Freddie can be the White Queen, and the Black Queen can be either Arethra Franklin, or Michael Jackson, depending on how serious the comic is supposed to be.
P.S. Does anyone know when newspaper style guides started Capitalizing the Names of Races? Every time I see “Black” and “White” in a Newspaper, I wonder whether they are quoting A.A. Milne.
I’ve been seeing Black capitalized for some time; I have YET to ever see white capitalized. I, too, wondered who, if anyone, sets the style, or if it’s now an individual choice.
Andrea: I thought it was a recent development (a year or so ago) but apparently the push/changeover is close to three years old. (And I have seen White capitalized a few times, though not commonly.) Makes me no difference. . . . (anyway, I’m pink.)
Comics I Don't Understand 
No offense to John Atkinson, but i don’t get it. You can do this with naming dogs after rock legends or cats or cities or whatever. How is this a gag or joke?
“Mercury” makes sense but other than that I’m with Rob.
Me, too . . . or three.
Frankly, I’d be insulted if I were David Bowie.
Here’s as far as I’ve gotten, which I assume is about where everybody else got: the whole gag is based on “Mercury” being both a planet and a rock god. “Jagger” and “Jupiter” start with “J”; “Mars” and “Morrison” both start with “M”, “Elvis” and “Earth” both start with “E”.
That’s basically it, right? Nobody’s gotten further? Janis is the only female rock god listed and Venus is the only female god with a planet named after her, which I guess could be part of it. And then… he ran out of time and just chose random stuff for Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? Maybe?
All of ianosmond’s explications seem correct to me.
Stan’s comment also could be giving a plausible explanation (indirectly), if we take the positions of the planets to mean the Bowie one is Uranus, and then give it the naughty punnable pronunciation.
Poor Pluto!
The asteroids are the Lennon-McCartney Belt because the Beatles broke up?
I agree with ianosmond, but I like the implausible over-analyzation zbicyclist has started: so the sun is called “Berry” because all of rock n’ roll is just playing Chuck Berry riffs, as I read some character declare just recently, probably in Light from Uncommon Stars [no].
I agree with Ian, but less so: the ENTIRE joke is “Mercury” The rest is just filling in space… (pun acknowledged)
@Stan: You’d also be dead.
The joke started OK with planets being named after Roman gods, but got lost in the transition to Rock gods.
Bowie absolutely should be Mars.
There are tons more jokes that could have been made if Atkinson knew anything about planets or Rock Gods.
To me, it’s also about time. The closer the planet is to the sun, the earlier they played music, and the Lennon-McCartney belt separates the time into pre- & post- Beatles invasion. I think it’s also trying to show influence by relative size on each side of the belt. And Berry is the sun, for the reasons larK said.
Could they possibly mean Van Morrison rather than Jim Morrison?
I like Wendy’s temporal division, which tends to indicate “Jim”, rather than “Van”, but nevertheless, Downpuppy’s observation should have taken precedence: Bowie and his Spiders came from Mars.
@Stan: You’d also be dead.
Forgive me. The estate of David Bowie then. Better?
@ Andréa & Stan – As Tom Lehrer said in 1965, “It is a sobering thought, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.“
The closer the planet is to the sun, the earlier they played music theory is true of Elvis and Berry but otherwise undercut by the fact that Ozzy and Black Sabbath (furthest away) got together in 1968, with their first album in 1970, and Freddie Mercury and Queen (closest) formed in 1970, with their first album in 1973; in fact they are the last of all those starry planets to get going.
I thought it was how far they were from Chuck Berry. And Ozzy is definitely WAY out there.
I would have added Pluto back and labeled it Ozzy, just because as WhatDoIKnow said, Ozzy is WAY out there.
I think most of you are putting more thought into it than the cartoonist did.
I agree with MiB that ret-conning Pluto back into the lineup has potential, but I would have named it “Dylan“, who was a rock star for a while, until he wasn’t.
P.S. @ Brian – That’s what CIDU is famous for: we put thought into the comics, so that the cartoonist doesn’t have to.
Did Chuck Berry record with Sun Records?
What synchronicity with me, as I just looked outside at the conjunction of planets out tonight.
Looks like most of Chuck’s work was with Chess and associated labels.
Looks like most of Chuck’s work was with Chess and associated labels.
Well, I see a whole new comic! Rock n’ Roll Chess Board! So, Chuck Berry is the King; Queen is the Queen, Joey Bishop is the Bishop, Elvis is the… King — the other king! Yeah, that’s the ticket! Can make a whole appropriation commentary, Elvis will be the White King, Chuck will be the Black King….
Joey Bishop (The Outlier) – now, there’s a name from the past. Did he sing? I never did figure out why he was a [small] part of the Rat Pack.
@ larK – I really like that! Freddie can be the White Queen, and the Black Queen can be either Arethra Franklin, or Michael Jackson, depending on how serious the comic is supposed to be.
P.S. Does anyone know when newspaper style guides started Capitalizing the Names of Races? Every time I see “Black” and “White” in a Newspaper, I wonder whether they are quoting A.A. Milne.
I’ve been seeing Black capitalized for some time; I have YET to ever see white capitalized. I, too, wondered who, if anyone, sets the style, or if it’s now an individual choice.
Andrea: I thought it was a recent development (a year or so ago) but apparently the push/changeover is close to three years old. (And I have seen White capitalized a few times, though not commonly.) Makes me no difference. . . . (anyway, I’m pink.)
https://www.ap.org/ap-in-the-news/2020/ap-says-it-will-capitalize-black-but-not-white
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php
etc.