Why is this a CIDU, since you obviously understand it?
For the record, the two references are:
1) The Metamorphosis, by Kafka, which tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect (German: ungeheueres Ungeziefer, lit. “monstrous vermin”) and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition.
2) Mr. Met, the official mascot for Major League Baseball’s New York Mets.
Pete, you have an incorrect premise. Some of us had no acquaintance whatsoever with Mister Met.
Pete nailed† it @1, but I (incorrectly) thought that the cap that he is wearing had a New York Yankees logo, and thought the reference was to “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Jackson“>Mr. October“.
P.S. † – As Pete quoted, Kafka never explicitly identified the type of “bug” in the story, even instructing his publisher that any cover illustration should not depict it. English translations have not always held to this indeterminancy.
P.P.S. This Karasik panel is not (yet?) available in the Conde Nast store, but any Kafka fans‡ out there might be interested to see just how many “metamorphosis” references have already appeared in New Yorker cartoons.
P.P.P.S. ‡ – I am decidedly not one of them. I had to read the story in high school, and I can only describe the experience as “icky!”
Try “The Country Doctor”.
My apologies for two broken links in as many comments. Here’s where the “metamorphosis” link (to the Conde Nast store) was supposed to go.
What a blockhead.
@ Mitch – I read the Wikipedia summary of that story, but it was so nasty that I am not going to provide at link to it here. The silliest part of the whole article was at the end: “Psychologists … using “A Country Doctor” … testing what impact reading absurdist tales has on cognitive skills. The study showed that reading the story improved test subjects’ ability to find patterns…” I think a couple of those psychologists should have their heads examined.
@ Dave Van Domelen – Speaking of “blockheads“: the first thing that I thought of when I saw Karasik’s drawing was a 50-year-old story in Peanuts, in which Charlie Brown starts seeing baseballs everywhere:
… even including on his own head:
P.S. After spending a couple of weeks at camp (with a bag over his head to hide the rash), Charlie Brown awaits the sunrise to see whether he has been cured:
Kilby, they made that sequence into one of the animated specials
I think you have to live in New York City or in range of their television stations to know about the New York Mets.
If you did, a long time ago, you will remember this:
Meet the Mets, meet the Mets. Get out there and greet the Mets.
Bring your kiddies, bring your wife. Guarantee you’ll have the time of your life.
Because the Mets are really socking the ball! Socking those home runs over the wall.
East Side, West Side. Everybody’s coming down
To meet the M-E-T-S Mets of New York town,
Of New York Town.
This was for what was at the time the worst baseball team ever. They were not socking the ball and certainly not socking those home runs over the wall.
I’ve heard they got better.
Oh, I know of the “Pond Scum” Mets. They used to be in the same division as the Cardinals.
I have actually been to a Mets home game in the mid 1970s. It is the only professional sports event I have been to. It did not go well.
Robert and some of his friends from grad school were going to the game. I did not have to work that day or else I was able to leave early, so I went with him. We drove to Shea stadium and met his friends there. Then we went out from under the seats and started walking UP. I had not taken into consideration my fear of heights or the $3 US price of the tickets – of course the seats were in the nose bleed section.
I sat with my eyes closed most of the time. If not for a friend of Robert’s who was tall and wide and walked slowly in front of me to the block the view of the field as we walked back down – I might still be there.
When he was young Robert went to some late 1950s/1960s Yankees World Series games. His dad would get invited by business acquaintances who would say “I’ll bring my son – you bring yours.”
And oddly – He HATES sports – to play or watch.
@ Voodoo Chicken – I had a hard time believing that the last frame would appear in a children’s TV special, so I looked up It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown (1983), and discovered that both of us were right: they did use the “Mr. Sack” story arc, but Bill Melendez replaced Schulz’s reference to Alfred E. Newman with Disney’s Mickey Mouse.
@ MiB & Brian – I have no idea what “pond scum” is supposed to mean, but the Mets could not hold a candle to Washington’s reliability: “… First in War, First in Peace, and Last in the American League“.
And, of course, neither the Mets nor the Senators could match the sad situation in Philadelphia prior to the Mets’ existence, where the Phillies lost 100 games 14 times and the Athletics lost 100 games 11 times before moving to Kansas City.
The comic presents a real dilemma: is it better to be a transformed into vermin or into a baseball? The life of a baseball isn’t a lot of fun. Its role in life is to be constantly hit with a bat, and that isn’t going to be a very good life.
Some history of the 1980s rivalry between the Cardinals and Mets.
Comics I Don't Understand 
Why is this a CIDU, since you obviously understand it?
For the record, the two references are:
1) The Metamorphosis, by Kafka, which tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect (German: ungeheueres Ungeziefer, lit. “monstrous vermin”) and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition.
2) Mr. Met, the official mascot for Major League Baseball’s New York Mets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Met
Pete, you have an incorrect premise. Some of us had no acquaintance whatsoever with Mister Met.
Pete nailed† it @1, but I (incorrectly) thought that the cap that he is wearing had a New York Yankees logo, and thought the reference was to “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Jackson“>Mr. October“.
P.S. † – As Pete quoted, Kafka never explicitly identified the type of “bug” in the story, even instructing his publisher that any cover illustration should not depict it. English translations have not always held to this indeterminancy.
P.P.S. This Karasik panel is not (yet?) available in the Conde Nast store, but any Kafka fans‡ out there might be interested to see just how many “metamorphosis” references have already appeared in New Yorker cartoons.
P.P.P.S. ‡ – I am decidedly not one of them. I had to read the story in high school, and I can only describe the experience as “icky!”
Try “The Country Doctor”.
My apologies for two broken links in as many comments. Here’s where the “metamorphosis” link (to the Conde Nast store) was supposed to go.
What a blockhead.
@ Mitch – I read the Wikipedia summary of that story, but it was so nasty that I am not going to provide at link to it here. The silliest part of the whole article was at the end: “Psychologists … using “A Country Doctor” … testing what impact reading absurdist tales has on cognitive skills. The study showed that reading the story improved test subjects’ ability to find patterns…” I think a couple of those psychologists should have their heads examined.
@ Dave Van Domelen – Speaking of “blockheads“: the first thing that I thought of when I saw Karasik’s drawing was a 50-year-old story in Peanuts, in which Charlie Brown starts seeing baseballs everywhere:
… even including on his own head:
P.S. After spending a couple of weeks at camp (with a bag over his head to hide the rash), Charlie Brown awaits the sunrise to see whether he has been cured:
Kilby, they made that sequence into one of the animated specials
Don’t know “The Country Doctor” but I have seen (and admire) the classic Bresson movie “Diary of a Country Priest”. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042619/reference/
I think you have to live in New York City or in range of their television stations to know about the New York Mets.
If you did, a long time ago, you will remember this:
Meet the Mets, meet the Mets. Get out there and greet the Mets.
Bring your kiddies, bring your wife. Guarantee you’ll have the time of your life.
Because the Mets are really socking the ball! Socking those home runs over the wall.
East Side, West Side. Everybody’s coming down
To meet the M-E-T-S Mets of New York town,
Of New York Town.
This was for what was at the time the worst baseball team ever. They were not socking the ball and certainly not socking those home runs over the wall.
I’ve heard they got better.
Oh, I know of the “Pond Scum” Mets. They used to be in the same division as the Cardinals.
I have actually been to a Mets home game in the mid 1970s. It is the only professional sports event I have been to. It did not go well.
Robert and some of his friends from grad school were going to the game. I did not have to work that day or else I was able to leave early, so I went with him. We drove to Shea stadium and met his friends there. Then we went out from under the seats and started walking UP. I had not taken into consideration my fear of heights or the $3 US price of the tickets – of course the seats were in the nose bleed section.
I sat with my eyes closed most of the time. If not for a friend of Robert’s who was tall and wide and walked slowly in front of me to the block the view of the field as we walked back down – I might still be there.
When he was young Robert went to some late 1950s/1960s Yankees World Series games. His dad would get invited by business acquaintances who would say “I’ll bring my son – you bring yours.”
And oddly – He HATES sports – to play or watch.
@ Voodoo Chicken – I had a hard time believing that the last frame would appear in a children’s TV special, so I looked up It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown (1983), and discovered that both of us were right: they did use the “Mr. Sack” story arc, but Bill Melendez replaced Schulz’s reference to Alfred E. Newman with Disney’s Mickey Mouse.
@ MiB & Brian – I have no idea what “pond scum” is supposed to mean, but the Mets could not hold a candle to Washington’s reliability: “… First in War, First in Peace, and Last in the American League“.
And, of course, neither the Mets nor the Senators could match the sad situation in Philadelphia prior to the Mets’ existence, where the Phillies lost 100 games 14 times and the Athletics lost 100 games 11 times before moving to Kansas City.
The comic presents a real dilemma: is it better to be a transformed into vermin or into a baseball? The life of a baseball isn’t a lot of fun. Its role in life is to be constantly hit with a bat, and that isn’t going to be a very good life.
Some history of the 1980s rivalry between the Cardinals and Mets.
https://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2016/8/25/12637064/the-cardinals-mets-rivalry-keith-hernandez-jack-clark-1985-1987