Jack Applin sends in this one. “I understand the initial gag about ‘coloring’ books. The rest stumps me. We thought he was on an isolated island, but, really, the island was quite close to shore. AND … ?”
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He’s just having a day at the beach, sitting on a small offshore sandbank. He’s not climbing the tree to get the coconut for sustenance, he spots it and realises that he can catapult it playfully into the offing, and does so – much the way kids (and adults like me) pointlessly skip stones into the grey yonder. He’s faffing about, mooching around, killing time. Then he goes home.
Yes, there is a series of misreadings, which each turn out to have been something else going on. But it’s not merely that our first readings are mistakes, in each case we are cleverly led astray.
I think Mitch4 pretty much has it and it is mostly about misdirection. I don’t think it makes any difference whether he was trying to playfully fling the coconut or not, but my interpretation is that he was trying to gather the coconut and not just fling it. He certainly doesn’t look excited the coconut went flying, but could be peeved or exasperated.
Unstated by anyone yet, but highly relevant, is that it is playing with the cartoon trope of a guy stranded on a desert isle — oh no, Horance is stranded on a desert island, and he just flung his only cocoanut into the sea! Only he’s not, he’s taking a day at the beach, and he can drive off in luxury back to civilization whenever he chooses.
I interpreted the first panel as a separate gag, not part of the second panel. I saw the “coloring book” part as saying you can use your crayons on any book, even if it doesn’t have pictures.
But the first panel I took as someone (Horace?) having rearranged the books by spine color to re-create a Piet Mondrian painting. See “Composition A”:
Maybe there should have been a sign identifying this section as “Art Books”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
He’s just having a day at the beach, sitting on a small offshore sandbank. He’s not climbing the tree to get the coconut for sustenance, he spots it and realises that he can catapult it playfully into the offing, and does so – much the way kids (and adults like me) pointlessly skip stones into the grey yonder. He’s faffing about, mooching around, killing time. Then he goes home.
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Except that when it looks like he’s catapulting himself he’s really only catapulting the coconut. For fun.
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Yes, there is a series of misreadings, which each turn out to have been something else going on. But it’s not merely that our first readings are mistakes, in each case we are cleverly led astray.
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I think Mitch4 pretty much has it and it is mostly about misdirection. I don’t think it makes any difference whether he was trying to playfully fling the coconut or not, but my interpretation is that he was trying to gather the coconut and not just fling it. He certainly doesn’t look excited the coconut went flying, but could be peeved or exasperated.
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Unstated by anyone yet, but highly relevant, is that it is playing with the cartoon trope of a guy stranded on a desert isle — oh no, Horance is stranded on a desert island, and he just flung his only cocoanut into the sea! Only he’s not, he’s taking a day at the beach, and he can drive off in luxury back to civilization whenever he chooses.
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I interpreted the first panel as a separate gag, not part of the second panel. I saw the “coloring book” part as saying you can use your crayons on any book, even if it doesn’t have pictures.
But the first panel I took as someone (Horace?) having rearranged the books by spine color to re-create a Piet Mondrian painting. See “Composition A”:
Maybe there should have been a sign identifying this section as “Art Books”.
LikeLike