The office assistant who handles the room reservations system has evidently done it again! These hapless office workers just want to hold their meeting, but don’t even have regulation footwear.
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My first thought was that he might have been disparaging an overly small venue in which one of those two teams play, but neither one is an “unknown” or new expansion team.
P.S. I know The New Yorker’s lead time (and their fishbowl view of the world) would never allow it, but I would have enjoyed this comic a lot more if the caption had used “Nuggets – Heat” instead.
P.P.S. Those three office workers have truly enormous heads.
I was looking around some more, and it turns out the current theme in “Bob Mankoff Presents Show me the Funny” has been office work stories, and especially often something about “rescheduling”. That includes the one with “And go out and smell some roses for me” that we recently ran.
I had some difficulty at first with this one, not understanding that “Knicks-Sixers” was standing for “a game between the Knicks and the Sixers”. Even a definite article would have helped.
But then even with that out of the way, I was unsure of what the double booking had been. I thought maybe some Knicks had wanted the room, and some Sixers had too, so when they found them selves both there they worked out their conflict by playing ball. But more soberly, it had to mean a double booking of both the game and a meeting for these hapless office workers.
I would guess they rented the conference room out to a small basketball team to make a little money.
@Kilby-What is going on with their heads? These are huge even for a cartoon!
IDUWTIACIDU. Double booking a conference room with an NBA basketball game and an office meeting is absurd. That’s the joke. Might not be funny, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t understood.
@ TedD – As is all so often the case, one person’s LOL (or forced chuckle) is another’s CIDU. That’s why this website exists: so that those who do get the joke can explain it to those who don’t.
The general rule of thumb is the group that has pastries gets the room. Bring doughnuts next time.
Might have been funnier if they were looking for a courtroom instead of conference room
FWIW, some basketball tournaments have their early round played in conference rooms. No stands, just a few folding chirs, portable baskets and a hardwood dance floor on top of the carpet.
I thought it was funny. It’s just that the same facilities are used for meetings in the office and NBA basketball games. And I am boggled at Blinky’s story … it’s not EXACTLY the same thing, in that it was in a ballroom, not a conference room… but it’s closer than it’s not.
Glad for Blinky’s comment. Granted I don’t know much about pro sports (okay almost nothing), but I wondered how the teams ended up playing in a conference room of a private business instead as a professional team. Must be hard show the game on TV in that room.
@ Voodoo Chicken – I really like your “courtroom” suggestion, but I think it would be harder to render in the artwork. It would probably depend on a convincing set of judges’ robes, and corresponding dialog (“We’ll have to apply for a change of venue, the Knick/Sixers have taken this one.“)
Meryl A – presumably, somebody else had already booked Madison Square Garden in NYC and the Wells Fargo Center in Philly, and that was the room that was open at the time.
And the annoying thing is that the event which was at the Garden, it really could have been an email.
Well, I’ve heard a sports commentator complain that a particular player was “just phoning it in.” So the game could have been a conference call.
Comics I Don't Understand 
My first thought was that he might have been disparaging an overly small venue in which one of those two teams play, but neither one is an “unknown” or new expansion team.
P.S. I know The New Yorker’s lead time (and their fishbowl view of the world) would never allow it, but I would have enjoyed this comic a lot more if the caption had used “Nuggets – Heat” instead.
P.P.S. Those three office workers have truly enormous heads.
I was looking around some more, and it turns out the current theme in “Bob Mankoff Presents Show me the Funny” has been office work stories, and especially often something about “rescheduling”. That includes the one with “And go out and smell some roses for me” that we recently ran.
I had some difficulty at first with this one, not understanding that “Knicks-Sixers” was standing for “a game between the Knicks and the Sixers”. Even a definite article would have helped.
But then even with that out of the way, I was unsure of what the double booking had been. I thought maybe some Knicks had wanted the room, and some Sixers had too, so when they found them selves both there they worked out their conflict by playing ball. But more soberly, it had to mean a double booking of both the game and a meeting for these hapless office workers.
I would guess they rented the conference room out to a small basketball team to make a little money.
@Kilby-What is going on with their heads? These are huge even for a cartoon!
@ Maggie – As B. Kliban once drew it:
🤣
IDUWTIACIDU. Double booking a conference room with an NBA basketball game and an office meeting is absurd. That’s the joke. Might not be funny, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t understood.
@ TedD – As is all so often the case, one person’s LOL (or forced chuckle) is another’s CIDU. That’s why this website exists: so that those who do get the joke can explain it to those who don’t.
The general rule of thumb is the group that has pastries gets the room. Bring doughnuts next time.
Might have been funnier if they were looking for a courtroom instead of conference room
FWIW, some basketball tournaments have their early round played in conference rooms. No stands, just a few folding chirs, portable baskets and a hardwood dance floor on top of the carpet.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/28/indiana-womens-coach-rips-las-vegas-tournament-setup/
I thought it was funny. It’s just that the same facilities are used for meetings in the office and NBA basketball games. And I am boggled at Blinky’s story … it’s not EXACTLY the same thing, in that it was in a ballroom, not a conference room… but it’s closer than it’s not.
Glad for Blinky’s comment. Granted I don’t know much about pro sports (okay almost nothing), but I wondered how the teams ended up playing in a conference room of a private business instead as a professional team. Must be hard show the game on TV in that room.
@ Voodoo Chicken – I really like your “courtroom” suggestion, but I think it would be harder to render in the artwork. It would probably depend on a convincing set of judges’ robes, and corresponding dialog (“We’ll have to apply for a change of venue, the Knick/Sixers have taken this one.“)
Meryl A – presumably, somebody else had already booked Madison Square Garden in NYC and the Wells Fargo Center in Philly, and that was the room that was open at the time.
And the annoying thing is that the event which was at the Garden, it really could have been an email.
Well, I’ve heard a sports commentator complain that a particular player was “just phoning it in.” So the game could have been a conference call.
it really could have been an email
So trenchant Ian..