@zbicyclist – I think they’re just meant to be looking down at the ground, as one often does when climbing downward. I’m pretty sure Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist has it. They’re using the snake as a rope; that’s the entire joke, nothing deeper. There’s no significance to which ones reached the ground first, except maybe it’s harder to draw a turtle climbing down a snake.
Looks to me like the rest of the group is struggling to hang on because the turtle and whatever that other thing is are taking a long time to get down and clear the landing area.
People seem to still be speculating about what that first critter is. Downpuppy said several days ago that it is a horned toad. My thought was, “Nonsense. Toads don’t have tails.”
But then I looked up horned toad. Turns out a horned toad is a lizard that looks exactly like the critter in question. Wikipedia says that they “tend to move sluggishly, often remain motionless”.
As a child, I lived for a time in Oklahoma. We’d see them around on occasion. The were called locally, “horny toads”. Sounds funny now, but at the time we didn’t think anything of it.
Comics I Don't Understand 
The turtle and the ?? are so slow the others are having a hard time hanging on.
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They’re all escaping, using the snake as a rope. The tortoise and the ?? are just the first ones down. That’s all.
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Horned toad. Common when I was a kid, but alas…
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Confusing to me is that they are all looking askance at the turtle and the ??, as if something they are doing is the joke.
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@zbicyclist – I think they’re just meant to be looking down at the ground, as one often does when climbing downward. I’m pretty sure Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist has it. They’re using the snake as a rope; that’s the entire joke, nothing deeper. There’s no significance to which ones reached the ground first, except maybe it’s harder to draw a turtle climbing down a snake.
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Looks to me like the rest of the group is struggling to hang on because the turtle and whatever that other thing is are taking a long time to get down and clear the landing area.
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That was my take, too: they let the slow ones go first and are having to wait. Still a CIDU for not being obvious.
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Understandable? Yes. Funny? No.
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Some turtles are pretty speedy when they want to be.
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Yup, don’t let their reputation fool you. Turtles can move very quickly when they want to, particularly whenever I bring out my camera.
My initial reaction was that the lead creature was supposed to be a hedgehog, but I’m not sure.
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Come on. That monkey could leap to the ground as easily as I climb down one step on a staircase.
BTW: if you float the mouse over any gravatar, this page is giving a useless error message.
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People seem to still be speculating about what that first critter is. Downpuppy said several days ago that it is a horned toad. My thought was, “Nonsense. Toads don’t have tails.”
But then I looked up horned toad. Turns out a horned toad is a lizard that looks exactly like the critter in question. Wikipedia says that they “tend to move sluggishly, often remain motionless”.
That, presumably, is what is happening here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_lizard
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As a child, I lived for a time in Oklahoma. We’d see them around on occasion. The were called locally, “horny toads”. Sounds funny now, but at the time we didn’t think anything of it.
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@Brian in STL: Is it also in Oklahoma where they call woodpeckers just “peckers”?
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Yosemite Sam was fond of exclaming “Great horny toads!”
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.. and just what, then, is a “peckerwood”?
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The snake may appear to those above that he’s ready to follow the turtle, which would leave them falling.
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