As seems to be the standard practice at Comic Kingdom‘s presentation of the “Bob Mankoff Presents: Show me the Funny” archive sampler, this was part of a run on a related theme — here perfumes, air fresheners, aromatherapy, and other fragrances and scents. Most had an easily discernible joke, or anyway intended joke — though since they have the New Yorker in their pedigree somewhere, it can be muted or indirect. This was the first in the thematic series without a discernible punch intention.
P.S. Has anyone seen where in the office I might have left my Calle Ocho flip box?
Comics I Don't Understand 
The gag seems to be the contradiction that “Men’s Fragrances” (normally an overpriced department store item) are being offered by a (normally dirt cheap) street vendor.
P.S. Does anyone have an idea what “Calle Ocho” (Eighth Street) might have to do with this comic? (I didn’t understand the headline’s reference to “Bay Rum“, either, but looking it up solved that riddle very quickly.)
Bay rum is a very old fashion men’s scent. At an old-school barber shop, after a shave or close haircut, they might well splash on some stinging bay rum aftershave.
Calle Ocho is the name of a fragrance from Fulton and Roark, available in several kinds of product.
@ Danny Boy (2) – I thought the most amusing detail in the bay rum article was that the stuff “…was labeled ‘for external use only’, but with 58% grain alcohol it was often used [during Prohibition] as a legal, if somewhat toxic, source of beverage alcohol.”
P.S. Coincidentally, just today I picked up a copy of “The Andromeda Strain” from our local library, in which one character survives the extraterrestrial pathogen because of his habit of drinking Sterno (as a cheap substitute for ethanol).
I haven’t thought about after shave (or any men’s fragrances) in over fifty years, so while I recognized Bay Rum, Calle Ocho was a new one for me. I went out to their site, mainly to find out what a flip box was (alas, to no avail). Kilby, you are right about over-priced, Holy Shamoley!!!!
Hot dog water is a men’s fragrance.
In a local mall there’s an upscale-looking store called Fragrance Outlet. I find the name hilariously gross, but as they seem to be prospering maybe it’s just me.
bensondonald –
ANYTHING which is called an “outlet” is presumed to be very low price – so it attracts people. People don’t understand that an “outlet” in this sense just means it is a place where the items in question are sold and is not necessarily a “discount outlet” so they think they are getting much prices than they are.
Having said that – I have all sorts of accessories to my dishes – (do I really need a honey pot to match the dishes when we rarely use any honey?) as we bought them as seconds in one or another of the outlets of the manufacturer. (Butter dish when we used a plastic one which seals? Soup tureen when there is only 2 of us? Plastic glasses with matching design to the dishes? And so on.
Last week I dropped a dinner plate – Oh, my, now I “only” have 7 dinner plates in that pattern (and have two other “good” sets of dishes also) for the TWO of us to use. I shrugged and did not worry about it. He has been trying to find an outlet for the company (the ones we went to have apparently closed since Covid) so we can replace it! (Apparently only can buy from the company now online, first quality and expensive.)
Well, we’re wayyyyy OT here, but: replacements.com to replace your broken plate.
@ Phil (9) – As long as we’re already OT, here’s a late P.S. @4: I finished reading The Andromeda Strain in just a few days. Although some of the technology seems dated (and hopelessly silly) now, it was still an exciting read within the context of the 1960s, but the non-resolution at the end was just as lame and unsatisfactory as the first time I read it in the late 1970s.
A long time ago there were real “factory outlets” where items that didn’t pass full inspection but were still usable and safe were sold at a discount. For instance, a radio with a big scratch across the front. But now I can’t even remember the last time I saw a real “factory second” for sale.
A little less than 10 years ago now, I was on a river cruise with my mother, and in one of the towns in Germany there was a Wolle (Woolworths) that had factory seconds of Kahla china tea cups for like 50 cents a piece; I managed to gather together a set of four matching cups with saucers before the other customers caught on (toward the end I almost had to fight to complete my last set). So for €4 I got a four piece bone china tea set, with a nice blue stamp on the bottom that says “Made in Germany” with a Kahla logo, and nothing to indicate they are seconds. One of my happiest acquisitions.
(A few years later I inherited the family china, that which had survived the war, and various replacement pieces bought after the war, and apparently taste is genetic, because they are exactly the same kind of white bone china I would have bought for myself, the same as the seconds I got from Wolle (well, Thomas, not Kahla, but the same classic style); but whereas I’m almost afraid to use the inherited pieces, the seconds I got on the cheap I have no fear of breaking — though actually, I think now I would be very sorry if I did break one of them, whereas the family china, as long as it wasn’t one of the surviving prewar pieces,I’d probably be less sad…)
Mark in Boston –
Our everyday dishes are pottery from a manufacturer who dates back to 1811. When we were engaged and in the early decade or so of our marriage we would buy items from it which were seconds or irregulars at their factory outlets.
In addition to a complete set for 8 we own an assortment of serving pieces and decorative pieces which match just about cooking/serving function. As a result Robert has had to adjust to having lunch on a “lunch plate”, stews from a bowl with an edge around it, and so on. The baking pieces work well also we have one oval baker that we use almost every week at least once (since Covid started) and if anything happens we have a spare one – plus 2 smaller ones for individual servings. Own 8 cups and 8 saucers – other than a mug of tea after dinner for me we don’t drink hot drinks. Platters like crazy, several serving bowls – all for 2 people. Though to be fair, when we got married we thought there would be (not too far in the future then) more than just the two of us.
I recently was putting away 2 dinner plates after they had been washed and dried and they slipped – I broke a chunk out of one of them and Robert was going crazy trying to figure out how to glue the piece back. I told him to take it to the basement to use for crafts (such as soldering when one needs something which will not melt or burn to work on) as we 7 more of them and only 2 of us to use the plates. I climbed up on a chair and took a good dinner plate off the stack on the shelf above where the ones I use are located and added it to the “use these” stack.
(I have “good china” service for 14 – the pattern was discontinued a couple of years after we started buying it a few pieces at a time and we bought extras “just in case” as we would not be able to replace any breakage. In over 40 years have been lucky enough not to break any.)
@ Meryl – My (extended) family has never had any sort of expensive “heirloom” china, and I would not be interested in starting the custom now. We use “normal” (relatively cheap) porcelain; the “heirlooms” I do have are stainless steel flatware (Paul Revere):
These have the decided advantage of being nearly unbreakable.
These have the decided advantage of being nearly unbreakable.
“Nearly”
I managed to destroy a knife from the flatware set we were given as a wedding present (which we use every day) because my wife put it in a plastic bag of cream cheese and/or bagels she was taking to work, and hung it on the door. Now, plastic bag hung on the door normally signals “trash”, so I helpfully took the bag and threw it down the shoot to the building trash compactor — oops. (This is how “men never take out the garbage without being asked first” starts…)
LarK –
I wash the dishes, pots etc here. I also take out the garbage – well I did until recently. After well over 40 years of marriage Covid caused husband to suddenly start taking out the garbage for us. Why? For some time at the start of Covid it was his only chance to go out of the house.
Finding a need for him from his point of view seems to be good at teaching him or getting him to do things. I used to try to show him how I do the laundry – no interest. When he started weaving he needed to wash and dry (not completely either – just a bit of each) the pieces he wove to change them from woven threads to fabric. He now knows how to use both machines.
Before he quit his job over a decade ago he did not even know where we bank. I would point out our bank every time we drove past it. Finally I had said in response to his not needing know as I did everything – “What if I was kidnapped – you would need to know where we bank so you get money to get me back.” His answer “I would tell them that they have to put you on the phone to tell me where the bank is.” The one advantage of him going everywhere with me these days is he now is learning all these things – at least I no longer have to worry about him getting my ransom if I was kidnapped. :-)