Seattle sends this in: “Not too familiar with Plato & Socrates, but I believe it was hemlock that did one of them in. Five beers? I’ve got nothing…”
Five Beers
Comics I Don't Understand
I don't know the meaning of the word quit. Which, when you think about it, is kind of alarming.
Comics I Don't Understand 
It’s Roman numerals.
It is not Socrates, but a generic Roman making his fingers in the shape of a V to represent the Roman numeral.
Thanks, UJ. That’s one where the explanation legitimately got a chuckle out of me. It’s a good comic. I was wracking my mind for a reference to the Iliad or an Aesop story or something.
It would have been clearer if the artist had put a significant angle between the two fingers. As it is, I’d say that he’s asking for Roman-numeral-two beers.
Also, why bother with the hand gesture when the bartender is facing away from you?
I’ve seen better versions of this cartoon that make the customer more ‘obviously Roman-looking’, either by making him a helmeted ‘Centurion’, or Julius Caesar, with a crown of laurel leaves.
Recalling an old Britcom involving ancient Greece. A troop of soldiers sound off: “I!” “II!” “III!” “IV!” “V!” “VI!” The fourth soldier is a bit put off because the officer keeps calling him “Ivy”.
Somewhere in the world there HAS to be a family that has done this:
1st kid = Monica or Monroe
2nd kid = Bianca or Dixon
3rd kid = Trinity or Trey
4th kid = Ivy or Quade
5th kid = Vivian or Quinton
bensondonald (7): That sounds like a good skit. I assume the soldiers said “aye” “aye aye” and so on.
I, too, saw this cartoon and took it to be a Greek philosopher.
Steve Martin doesn’t get a tag?
So how would a Roman ask for 2 beers? Inquiring minds, etc…
I thought it was five beers in honor of the Olympics.
Old routine from Canadian comic duo Wayne and Shuster, set in ancient Rome:
Detective: I’ll have a martinus.
Bartender: You mean a martini.
Detective: If I wanted two, I’d ask for them.
@El Cucui, it was just in the last couple of years that I realized the nickname “Trey” was often for someone with a III (“the third”) after their name.
The joke would be better if the bartender just said, “You mean ‘martini”.”
prempahlaj (11): how would a Roman ask for 2 beers? Maybe hold up both index fingers. Three beers? Don’t ask.
Mitch4 (14): You’re not alone.
Waiter: One scotch and soda, and one mar-tiny in a teacup.
Bartender: Oh Christ, is that nun here again?
Oh, goodness, MiB, I remember hearing a shaggy-dog version of that when I was a kid, but the nun’s pronunciation was MAR-ten-eye.