@Markwes, yes, the OY category is meant to signal a play on words. If I’m looking at the one you meant, in this case the play is on “fence”, which besides meaning a literal separator between properties (as in the poem being alluded to), also means receiver of stolen property, as depicted in the panel.
When I was a software developer, we often used “dog and pony show” metaphorically to describe a demo we had set up or were attending. Historically, though, it’s the cheapest, lamest, excuse for a circus a kid could ever attend. A few trained dogs, one or two trained ponies, and that’s it. Usually stays in town for only one day before going on to the next town.
Marches (5): I had thought that “fence,” a buyer and seller of stolen goods, was an Americanism, but It apparently started as 17th-century thieves’ slang shortened from the word defense. It was common in crime movies in the 1940s and later, or maybe earlier.
If at the end of a real-life dog and pony show they said, “We’ll be back in town again next year but with lions and elephants and acrobats!” then calling a software proof-of-concept demo a “dog and pony show” would be even more apt.
I laughed out loud at the dog-and-pony show. Good collection today.
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It took me way too long to get the first one! But worth it.
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I’m probably missing something obvious, but I don’t get the 3rd one. A play on words?
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@Markwes, yes, the OY category is meant to signal a play on words. If I’m looking at the one you meant, in this case the play is on “fence”, which besides meaning a literal separator between properties (as in the poem being alluded to), also means receiver of stolen property, as depicted in the panel.
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Thanks Mitch4. I had never heard ‘fence’ used in regards to receiving stolen property.
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When I was a software developer, we often used “dog and pony show” metaphorically to describe a demo we had set up or were attending. Historically, though, it’s the cheapest, lamest, excuse for a circus a kid could ever attend. A few trained dogs, one or two trained ponies, and that’s it. Usually stays in town for only one day before going on to the next town.
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Marches (5): I had thought that “fence,” a buyer and seller of stolen goods, was an Americanism, but It apparently started as 17th-century thieves’ slang shortened from the word defense. It was common in crime movies in the 1940s and later, or maybe earlier.
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Markwes (5): Sorry about the autocorrection error on your name.
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Which is why it was the perfect description for the software demos we’d do for people who had no idea what they were looking at.
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If at the end of a real-life dog and pony show they said, “We’ll be back in town again next year but with lions and elephants and acrobats!” then calling a software proof-of-concept demo a “dog and pony show” would be even more apt.
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