A preposterous pun — with a long history behind it — for today’s Wayno / Piraro Bizarro:
(#1) Model mummy’s curse / pun mummy’s cursor (cursor ‘a movable indicator on a computer screen identifying the point that will be affected by input from the user, for example showing where typed text will be inserted’ (NOAD)) (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 12 in this strip! — see this Page)
Now the backstory:
The mummy’s curse. From the National Geographic site, “Curse of the Mummy: 100-year-old folklore and pop culture have perpetuated the myth that opening a mummy’s tomb leads to certain death” by Brian Handwerk:
Movie mummies are known for two things: fabulous riches and a nasty curse that brings treasure hunters to a bad end. But Hollywood didn’t invent the curse concept.
The “mummy’s curse” first enjoyed worldwide acclaim after the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt.
When Howard Carter opened a small hole to peer inside the tomb at treasures hidden for 3,000 years, he also unleashed a global passion for ancient Egypt.
Tut’s glittering treasures made great headlines — especially following the opening of the burial chamber on February 16, 1923 — and so did sensationalistic accounts of the subsequent death of expedition sponsor Lord Carnarvon.
In reality, Carnarvon died of blood poisoning, and only six of the 26 people present when the tomb was opened died within a decade. Carter, surely any curse’s prime target, lived until 1939, almost 20 years after the tomb’s opening.
But while the pharaoh’s curse may lack bite, it hasn’t lost the ability to fascinate audiences — which may be how it originated in the first place.
(further details on the site)
And then in popular culture. From Wikipedia:
The Mummy’s Curse is a 1944 American horror film directed by Leslie Goodwins. Produced by Universal Pictures, it is the fifth entry in Universal’s original Mummy franchise, serving as a sequel to The Mummy’s Ghost (1944). It marks Lon Chaney Jr.’s final appearance as Kharis, an Egyptian mummy.
And from my 8/7/22 posting “No-name cats, cats of dubious art, monstrous cats”:
Monsters, whether creatures or humanoids (vampires, zombies, mummies raised from the dead, werewolves), are inclined to be indiscriminately ferocious; sharks and zombies are inclined to attack anyone who comes in their path. But this indiscriminate ferocity is often presented visually as sexual, as in as in [this poster for] The Mummy’s Curse (1944):
(#2) Ad poster for the movie
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