Lisah has it @1, so yes, they were trying to set up an “OY” (in 2014).
P.S. I considered suggesting that “in which” would have read better than “where”, but given that this is a location-based gag, they probably wrote “where” on purpose.
Hey, it’s only flat on the bottom…
Lisah, I’m glad you see it that way. If the “flattery” didn’t reflect “having a flat”, we would have to make a complicated explanation of why the 75 mile distance of the next service meant that there was little chance of charming them into sending a tow truck down the road.
Kilby, that’s a good emendation. As you see in my reply to Lisah, I think being so location-based is why it largely fails as a comic.
Just ’cause it’s funny . . .
Car has all the hallmarks of late 1970s ‘personal luxury car’; a padded vinyl landau half roof with opera window. Driver has a middle aged girth and receding hairline.
This places comic back in era when cars all came factory equipped with full-size spare tires, and real bumper jacks with lug wrenches. Middle aged driver would’ve been a young man in 1950s when American cars all used unreliable fabric-belted bias-ply tires.
Changing flat tires was a routine side-of-the-road activity back then. Cellphones didn’t exist. When you got a flat tire you changed it yourself. Some women would wait for first man to drive by and have him do it.
I’m not sure why, but comic went to some effort to show situation where driver would have the tools and skills to change the flat himself but hasn’t yet started the process.
But being under pressure will get you wherever you want to go!
“… comic went to some effort to show situation where driver would have the tools and skills to change the flat himself …”
— I don’t see any lug wrench or jack. Why are you sure he has them?
@ Boise Ed – He may not know where to find them (somewhere in that cavernous trunk), nor how to use them, but they are standard equipment on virtually every vehicle ever sold. Over here, a car would not pass inspection without them.
Maybe it’s supposed to be “flat terrain?” Either way doesn’t seem to entertain much
My Miata came with a little jack but no spare wheel. There’s not room in the trunk for it.
I guess you can use that Miata jack to remove the existing wheel and take it be repaired, assuming a lug wrench is part of it.
@Brian in STL: I guess I’ll use the jack to take off the bad wheel …
put it in the back seat because the trunk is too small …
and now just drive to the repair shop …
well, dang.
Depending on where you are, and/or what assistance you have.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The flat tire (“flattery”) will get you nowhere.
Lisah has it @1, so yes, they were trying to set up an “OY” (in 2014).
P.S. I considered suggesting that “in which” would have read better than “where”, but given that this is a location-based gag, they probably wrote “where” on purpose.
Hey, it’s only flat on the bottom…
Lisah, I’m glad you see it that way. If the “flattery” didn’t reflect “having a flat”, we would have to make a complicated explanation of why the 75 mile distance of the next service meant that there was little chance of charming them into sending a tow truck down the road.
Kilby, that’s a good emendation. As you see in my reply to Lisah, I think being so location-based is why it largely fails as a comic.
Just ’cause it’s funny . . .
Car has all the hallmarks of late 1970s ‘personal luxury car’; a padded vinyl landau half roof with opera window. Driver has a middle aged girth and receding hairline.
This places comic back in era when cars all came factory equipped with full-size spare tires, and real bumper jacks with lug wrenches. Middle aged driver would’ve been a young man in 1950s when American cars all used unreliable fabric-belted bias-ply tires.
Changing flat tires was a routine side-of-the-road activity back then. Cellphones didn’t exist. When you got a flat tire you changed it yourself. Some women would wait for first man to drive by and have him do it.
I’m not sure why, but comic went to some effort to show situation where driver would have the tools and skills to change the flat himself but hasn’t yet started the process.
But being under pressure will get you wherever you want to go!
“… comic went to some effort to show situation where driver would have the tools and skills to change the flat himself …”
— I don’t see any lug wrench or jack. Why are you sure he has them?
@ Boise Ed – He may not know where to find them (somewhere in that cavernous trunk), nor how to use them, but they are standard equipment on virtually every vehicle ever sold. Over here, a car would not pass inspection without them.
Maybe it’s supposed to be “flat terrain?” Either way doesn’t seem to entertain much
My Miata came with a little jack but no spare wheel. There’s not room in the trunk for it.
I guess you can use that Miata jack to remove the existing wheel and take it be repaired, assuming a lug wrench is part of it.
@Brian in STL: I guess I’ll use the jack to take off the bad wheel …
put it in the back seat because the trunk is too small …
and now just drive to the repair shop …
well, dang.
Depending on where you are, and/or what assistance you have.