Thanks to jmcandrew, who wonders, “Why canoes? Is it unusual that someone who did this sort of activity would own 4 canoes? Is this a reference to something else?“
Indeed. It appears Hat Guy has a canoe detector, and…what?
(For extra credit, explain what canoes have to do with oceans)
Comics I Don't Understand 
“Canoe” and “ocean” are anagrams.
Note that his canoemeter only goes up to 3. So anything more than 3 canoes is literally “off the charts”.
Seems a bit low, personally. A canoe store, for instance, would have way more than 3.
I’m sure this joke has can be applied to many hobbies:
Q: “You have N bicycles. How many darned bicycles do you need?”
A: “N+1”
All these are drawn as canoes here, to make the joke clearer. But one can imagine owning a classic Grumman aluminum canoe, a 1-person kayak, a 2-person kayak, and then buying a motorized one.
Perhaps a take on Ghost Hunters? It appears to be taking place in a basement, a supposedly hot spot for ghosts on the various ghost hunting shows that use pseudo-scientific meters to “detect” the presence of ghosts.
Nevertheless, I still don’t get the joke.
Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me either, but I do feel bad for the 2 canoes that are standing on end.
Who ya gonna call? Canoe Busters!!!
Would it be naive of me to think that he used canoes because a canoe is easy to draw?
Powers (1): Canoe rental places near here have way more than 3. I don’t see how the anagram makes it funny, but neither does anything else.
wkharrisjr (3): You’re right that it could be a basement, but I took it to be a boathouse.
Chak (6): Not naive at aii, if this Steed doesn’t know watercraft.
And I can’t imagine what the canoe detector/counter is supposed to be parodying. Do grocery stores now have inventory gadgets that count the packages?
This is how collectors get started. You buy (or perhaps inherit) one, then you buy ones that are different in some way. Then, later on people find out you collect them and then they dump some more on you. :-)
In a similar vein:
How many guitars does one need?
Hobbyists are always discussing their “stash” of model kits, and how many would be enough or too much.
Is the comic a take of how an outdoors person might be perceived from a city-dweller’s perspective?
I found it humorous. Just the surrealism of it.
you can easily look around and count the canoes, certainly up to 3.
but this guy needs a gadget to count them.
having him call someone makes it into a cartoon with (almost) a story,
instead of just an “idea cartoon” of a canoe investigator, holding the gadget.
“And I can’t imagine what the canoe detector/counter is supposed to be parodying”
Probably something like this:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Onemayship-5-LED-EMF-Meter-Magnetic-Field-Ghost-Hunting-Paranormal-Equipment-Tester-Portable-Counter/564166689?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101624718&adid=22222222222000000000&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=o&wl2=c&wl3=10352200394&wl4=pla-1103028060075&wl5=&wl6=&wl7=&wl10=Walmart&wl11=Online&wl12=564166689_10001644068&wl14=meter%20to%20measure%20ghost%20activity&veh=sem&gclid=abd8ebca9f6d1e6c0b918c7c333af3a8&gclsrc=3p.ds&msclkid=abd8ebca9f6d1e6c0b918c7c333af3a8
That’s “Onemayship 5 LED EMF Meter Magnetic Field Ghost Hunting Paranormal Equipment Tester Portable Counter”. Measures ghost activity, and only $11.86 (2 for $19.50) at Walmart.
Grawlix –
Yes, that is how one of my hobbies got started. There was a teddy bear sitting mixed with the dolls my sisters and I had. I was going to a local college and living at home and commuting by car. My parents did not like me out alone late at night. On the other hand, I had a friend who lived in the dorm and she did not have a car – so when something was going on off campus – or even late night on campus – I would take her to the event if off campus and either way sleep on her floor overnight afterwards. She had a stuffed bear from she was young named Pierre. So when I would be staying overnight on her floor I would the bear from home who I named – Theodore.
This got people started buying bears when it was a gift occasion for me as they thought I loved stuffed bears. This continued on.
I currently have – literally – hundreds of bears – from 1/4 inch tall to 3 feet tall. They are stuffed bears, bears of just fabric no stuffing, plastic, bears, metal bears, ceramic bears, glass bears – toy bears, collectible bears, bear designed things (such as baking pan), decorations on the wall, etc.
Our third bedroom is referred to as “the teddies’ room” and is filled with bears as listed above.
Christmas here is packed away except for the bears put out for same from a collection of bear figurines (Lucy and me) – I change them monthly to be able to display all of the ones I have. I have to put out (late this year – the February ones. I do put up a small Christmas tree in the Teddy Village with most of my bear ornaments (some are on the main tree downstairs).
And also I have a bear village. This started as Christmas village populated by bear figurines, and grew into a year round village of them – again changed out by the month. There are shops in the village, a tree in the center of the village (decorated for Christmas with more small (to tiny) bear ornaments – even has a gazebo. When the village too crowded I added a section on low,small plastic table in front of corner of village which has a pond in it and a walkway around the edge. This leads one to a longer small plastic table – the grandma bears run a booth which sells cold drinks in summer and cocoa in winter and there is a hill (aka cardboard box) next to same with either sledding/skiing or playground for little bears. Then in the next room there is a second long table with bears’ houses and a small playground – this leads to the rest of the collection in that room.
I have a VERY UNDERSTANDING husband who also finds this fun.
Long tables are about 2 ft long and are each shelf from a plastic bookcase that assembled shelf by shelf.
I was always interested in photography. In the 1980s I inherited my grandfather’s antique cameras. Many of these still worked and I used them during my art school years. Along the way, I acquired more, and family friends caught wind and bestowed me with still more. Sadly I haven’t shot film in years once I was given a digital camera.
Your teddy bear situation reminds me how quirky roadside museums often get started. Unfortunately they often can’t stay afloat in this day and age.
Grawlix –
Problem is that since they are alive to Robert and me, I have started worrying as we age what will happen to them when the time comes that they need a new home.
At this point in time his younger niece (still in high school) looks to become our designated care-keeper of us and of our family of toys” and heir. Thought it would be my niece (the eldest of our niblings and in her mid-thirties), but since she moved to GB last year for the year (got a job as a teacher and was able to see a good chunk of Europe on weekends and her vacations – she even spent St Patrick’s Day in Dublin) I am not sure about her being around here to take care of us. Her brother is a musician in addition to his day job and is away a lot of weekends. My other sister’s stepson needs a caretaker on his own. Husband’s older niece cares for no one but her self. So that leaves the youngest. (No next generation after them seems to be coming along so far.)
Hopefully youngest niece will be the one to care for us and understand about our “children”. I would like the bears to all to end up in a children’s museum so they can “live” on.
(And I have again not gotten around to changing “the Teddy village” of bear figurines, from Xmas to February and March is coming soon – they were still in December 2023 when December 2024 came along and still are so. The bears of the village are NOT happy, especially the several Santa bears and their elves as they really need a vacation from all the cubs they have had to see over the two years. )
The premise of the “Toy Story” movies is that toys come to life when nobody is looking at them, and this has been explored to its logical conclusion by various commentators. Eventually each toy finds itself in a landfill, fully conscious because of being unseen, immortal, trapped … it’s just too horrible to think about.