Thanks to CloonBounty for sending this in and engaging the co-editors in discussion, starting by remarking “Can you help me out with this? I get the punny gag. But why did the one who merely listened to the ‘bad pun’ get the punishment?”
Thanks to Rob S. for this one by Tom Falco. That “Summer at Home” title is the cartoonist’s title for it, and goes with his inflation-leads-to-staycation topical message.
But the real interest the panel holds for us is the way the picture is based on an ad campaign from a ways back. Can you remember the brand that used that picture, and a slogan (in the form of a question) associated with that brand and this ad campaign … or a competitor’s?
Rob shares that he indeed thought of the competitor first, as did the cartoonist according to his blog entry. See the Tomversation blog for Falco’s discussion of this, including the original windswept photo from the ads.
Thanks to Dan Sachs for this CIDU-Geezer.
Because the CIDU will be quickly solved by anyone who can fill in the geezer reference, we thought to provide a little more entertainment …. The editors weren’t really familiar with Diamond Lil, so we looked around in some recent strips, and found an interesting mix of OYs, Ewwws, “dad jokes” (a.k.a. bad jokes), and of course a baseline of geezer alerts!
(I like that the Siri or Alexa is named “Surli”.)
Thanks to Rob for this CIDU + Geezer panel from The Daily Drawing:
This Mother Goose and Grimm is analyzed at Arnold Zwicky’s blog.
I also posted this F-Minus, with remarks, in a comment on that same Zwicky blog entry.
Several selections contributed by Andréa coming up:
“I KNEW IMMEDIATELY WHO THIS WAS, EVEN BEFORE READING THE CAPTION . . . DOES THAT MAKE ME A GEEZER??”
Synchronicity–
This Bizarro from Andréa is also taken up under the Arnold Zwicky analytical microscope. I like his term “a Desert Crawl cartoon” for the main trope here.
“SYNCHRONICITY – ABOUT *NOT* LEARNING A LESSON . . .”
And one final OY contribution:
The caption does a good job of picking up on some terminology that is deep deep geezerdom, beyond even the floppies themselves.
And I recently noticed some folks referring to the 💾emoji as “save file” rather than anything about “disk”.
From the “Ain’t it the truth!” brand of complaint humor:
The dog is up to something, hmm?
Bonus Bliss, with a somewhat less communicative canine:
Okay, there are clearly a lot of geezer-worthy references, and interlocking backstories. But no, I can’t make sense of most of the remarks.
This is just a blah. But can we improve it?
Sure, there’s a fix just calling out to us! Change the thought balloon to “Can I come up with the atomic symbol for Sodium?” and the bottom caption to “Na, he can’t.”
Other improvements from y’all?
And on this train of thought, for those with trigonometric inclinations, “Can he remember the sixth of the basic circular functions?” and the answer “No, of ____ __ ___ “.
This Breaking Cat News comes from Andréa as a problem of the physics. “Won’t the eggs fall out if they’re in the holder like this? I’ve not dyed eggs for YEARS, but I distinctly remember putting the egg in the holder small end DOWN . . .”
Here’s a new sub-category. It’s not LOL material, there is no joke to be understood, and it’s not a comic flop either. It’s just something you gotta see!
A “quickie CIDU” because it is entirely opaque while misinterpreting the artwork; then becomes a clear and simple joke the instant you re-interpret the artwork.
I think we’ve argued this point before: If a question is posed which is not answered within the comic itself, and is not clearly discernible after thinking about it, can we say “Well there isn’t meant to be an answer, but that’s part of why it’s meant to be funny”? On this one I just don’t get it.
Oh but wait! This was the 4-19 panel so of course it was a 4-20 joke. Ermmm.
Well this one might be called a second-take CIDU. I thought I had gotten it, or enough for a chuckle, when originally reading it – the guy hanging on the wall is a (baseball) catcher, and is the ideal one for the husband/fan-guy, so is his “dream” catcher. But the offstage wife takes that phrasing to mean a “dreamcatcher” wall hanging, whose proper placement she issues a reminder about. I didn’t give any significance to the nickname “Pudge” which the husband bestows on the catcher.
But then now Mark M sends it in and notes some complicating factors: I’m thinking if you’re not a MLB fan AND a geezer, this comic will be confusing. I’m both and it’s still confusing. Pudge was a nickname for Carlton Fisk, who played as a catcher some 50 years ago. A very good player, so “dream catcher” is a great pun. Maybe this belongs as an Oy or LOL. But the CIDU part is the response in Spanish. Fisk was born in the U.S. and had no Latino connections that I’m aware of. And then there’s maybe even more to this if we start to worry about him saying “This is how it works” which may go on only some readings.
(P.S. A few days later, he got down from that wall, and the husband caught him rifling in their liquor cabinet, and strewn about him were several bottles of this family’s favorite kind of American distilled grain whiskey. Which made him the catcher in the rye.)
B&C have been going in for geezer / boomer / retro references a bit lately.
The sender of the Spy v Spy one remarks Prohias stopped drawing “Spy vs. Spy” in 1987, and died in 1998. § Wikipedia claims that the series is still “ongoing”, but I still wonder whether the character in the fourth panel would be recognized by anyone under the age of 50.
Meanwhile, back at the Zippy, more geezer callout action:
William Bendix was among the actors I came to know of from 1950s or early 60s television sitcoms or sometimes drama series ; and found out later had been minor or major movie stars in the 1940s or early 50s. Fred MacMurray, Donna Reed, Raymond Burr…
And from Brian in STL we have a synchronicity of Bill the Cat references:
… and always thought it was “da doo run run run” . This comes from Philip, who says “Why this song? And why men’s apparel? Is there something obvious I’m not seeing?”
If you have a fave performance of this song, please feel free to share! Here’s a good one, h/t to a commenter rugeirn on the GoComics site:
Comics I Don't Understand 