These appeared in July, 1973. How many cultural references from that particular time can you recognize?
50 Years Ago in the New Yorker: A Cultural Reference Test
Category / CIDU
Tactile
From Chemgal, a puzzling Arlo and Janis:
Chemgal comments: “I suspect this is a jab at places with QR code menus, but I’ve never been to a place that ONLY has QR code menus. Is that common somewhere? Also, what does Janis see as the silver lining in the last panel?”
Meow honk beep-beep-beep foghorn …
At least *she* likes it! And doesn’t have to come up with a punch line.
OK Macanudo
From a reader who appreciates Macanudo. Usually.
Is it just about “This is how he came up with that title” or is there still a joke remaining to be found?
P.S. There doesn’t seem to be anything language-dependent to check, so this time we are not including the Spanish edition.
Time for Comic Therapy
I went wee, wee, wee when I saw this
I see Three Little Pigs and a Big Bad Wolf, and perhaps Mother Goose playing third, and Jack Sprat is up to bat (hey, a rhyme!)–but what does that have to do with baseball? Why are the cat, fiddle, dish, spoon, and cow in the dugout?? Who’s that at shortstop???
Mutht Be A Thimble Exthplanathion
(This editor feels entitled to use that hed, having dealt with a slight lisp for six or so decades)
From Chipster:
He notes that the discussion at GoComics suggests it’s the thimble from Monopoly in jail, and that while that sorta works, it’s not clear what the joke is or if that’s necessarily what Anderson had in mind.
Film school of fish
Of course not a CIDU as a whole. But are any of the specific references or rationales in need of explanation?
Excuse ME. I don’t get it.
targuman sends (and provides the title above):
On the gocomics site, various folks suggest there’s a fart joke in there, but my inner five-year-old can’t make that work either.
Meanwhile, https://inflatableblast.com/inflatable-men-car-dealerships/ suggests that those waving inflatable things have a host of names:
- air dancers
- tube guys
- inflatable guys
- tall boys
- fly guys
- sky dancer
- tube men
- air rangers
Creepy by any name. Though I did see a desktop-sized one once that was kinda cute.
This Lyft is Uber-confusing
Dirk the Daring sent this:
Note the quotes around ‘Mom’.
All we’ve come up with is some sort of Uber/Lyft reference, but?? Of course it IS The New Yorker [Magazine] (there’s a whole thing about whether it gets that last word or not).
Comics I Don't Understand 