From JMcAndrew:
Are we supposed to know who this person is that has a giant memorial outhouse topped with a giant statue? It appears to be more like a mausoleum made out of stone.
Indeed…and no, Tha Goog doesn’t know who Earl J. Suggins was, either.
This editor’s guess is that this falls into the “This is vaguely silly and therefore funny because I have to turn in a cartoon for tomorrow and I got nuttin’ else” category.
Not this Grumpy Cat:
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumpy_Cat if you don’t know about Grumpy Cat. Instead, today we have this from JMcAndrew:
The question is, did the cat prepare the meal? In any case, why does the cat look so mad about it? And what are “Cat Yummies” anyway? If they’re cat treats, then the cat’s expression seems particularly inappropriate. If it’s just cat food, then who served it to the man and why? Mysteries abound!
Dirk The Daring says,
I dunno, I don’t really get it. The comments imply it’s showing a bad example. But I don’t know any kid that would choose books over riding a bike like Harley does.
Indeed. Even 50+ years on, I’d still choose not to be trapped in a classroom!
…or thereabouts, asks JMcAndrew: “Trying to figure this one out. Why is it a choice between dessert and an oil painting?”
Indeed: is this just typical The New Yorker cartoon absurdism? (Is “absurdism” even a word? Is “The New Yorker cartoon absurdism” redundant?)
Not really CIDUs, the prolific JMcAndrew grosses us out with these two:
’nuff said…!
Another Ziegler from jmcandrew, who has been finding a bunch of great CIDUs of late. This one apparently dates from 1979, and OP notes:
Is the joke here just that some people don’t enjoy Barry Manilow? He’s been a consistently popular entertainer for 6 decades. Seems like a swanky gathering with a grand piano setup would appreciate his type of music.
I always confuse Barry Manilow with Neil Diamond for some reason. Which definitely doesn’t help.
JMcAndrew asks, “Why would anyone staying at a hotel pay to hear adulterous noises?”
All I can think is that this is leaning into that particular trope of cheap motels. Anyone who has ever experienced such might appreciate a line that I wish I’d written:
“For the first 20 minutes it was funny; then it was irritating; then it was actually pretty impressive…”
OK, that might warrant an Arlo tag…
Another from jmcandrew: “This is a Jack Ziegler cartoon and other than the fact that there is likely not a lot of demand for poet laureates in most corporations I have no idea what the joke here is supposed to be.”
Agreed. Though it does sound like a pretty sweet gig.
from jmcandrew, who asks, “Does this qualify as a geezer comic now for people who remember when long distance communication was prohibitively expensive?”
See, kids, back in the day…ok, yeah, definitely geezer alert time.
I collect what I call “obsolete jokes”: jokes that are no longer funny because technology—not the Zeitgeist—has passed them by. (The latter are common–consider most political humor, whose half-life is often quite short.)
One of these jokes involves a family eating dinner; the phone rings and the maid answers. She listens, says “Sure is!” and hangs up. A minute later it rings again, same story. After the third time, the master of the house asks her, “What’s with the phone calls?” and she explains, “Some joker keeps calling, saying ‘Long distance from New York’!”
One thing I particularly enjoy about these is the often multiple layers of obsolescence. For example with this one we have: family eating together; landline; maid (!); and of course the actual punchline.
From jmcandrew:
Is there a joke here other than this restaurant has chosen to display a single piece of pie in their window instead of an entire pie? Is it controversial for senior women to enjoy banana cream pie?
Comics I Don't Understand 