And what would the act of being incompatible look like?
The blonde isn’t a frequent character in this strip.
I find myself thinking of that Nat King Cole hit, “Unforgettable”, but with “Incompatible” substituted.
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The puzzlement is part of the joke, I think.
Basically, she’s calling herself and her boyfriend “incompatible”, which is usually a neutral term implying no fault on either side, then proceeding to complain that she hasn’t been able to identify any specific behavior on his part that would justify her opinion of their incompatibility.
Either she’s looking to break up but wants to be able to portray herself as the wronged party, or she just can’t justify breaking up without some sort of pretext she can point to.
“Incompatible!”
“You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
I believe the joke hinges on the fact that “incompatible” is a word that only applies to two or more people and cannot apply to a single person. It’s a relational word. She can’t catch him being incompatible, as if he could be incompatible on his own without her being incompatible with him.
I agree, she wants it to be his fault; he’s incompatible but she is not!
You know, it’s hard to explain nonsense, but think about it.
It’s like a joke on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In, which I believe possibly originated with Mae West. As I recall it went like this:
Rowan: “People say you and ___ are alike. Do you think that’s true?”
Goldie: “Well… I don’t know about her, but I’m alike!”
I can’t find the exact quote, but is the same principle: one thing can’t be alike, it takes at least two.
The joke goes back at least to Gilbert and Sullivan.
Lord Tolloller to Lord Mountararat: “You are very dear to me, George. We were boys together – at least I was.”
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The puzzlement is part of the joke, I think.
Basically, she’s calling herself and her boyfriend “incompatible”, which is usually a neutral term implying no fault on either side, then proceeding to complain that she hasn’t been able to identify any specific behavior on his part that would justify her opinion of their incompatibility.
Either she’s looking to break up but wants to be able to portray herself as the wronged party, or she just can’t justify breaking up without some sort of pretext she can point to.
“Incompatible!”
“You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
I believe the joke hinges on the fact that “incompatible” is a word that only applies to two or more people and cannot apply to a single person. It’s a relational word. She can’t catch him being incompatible, as if he could be incompatible on his own without her being incompatible with him.
I agree, she wants it to be his fault; he’s incompatible but she is not!
You know, it’s hard to explain nonsense, but think about it.
It’s like a joke on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In, which I believe possibly originated with Mae West. As I recall it went like this:
Rowan: “People say you and ___ are alike. Do you think that’s true?”
Goldie: “Well… I don’t know about her, but I’m alike!”
I can’t find the exact quote, but is the same principle: one thing can’t be alike, it takes at least two.
The joke goes back at least to Gilbert and Sullivan.
Lord Tolloller to Lord Mountararat: “You are very dear to me, George. We were boys together – at least I was.”