Three more Bizarro cartoons from the past, from another crop on Pinterest, with: an allusion you need to catch to understand the cartoon; a complex pun; and laugh-inducing names.
Archive for the ‘Ambiguity’ Category
The bull validates Peter’s family
February 7, 2021Two cartoons on the 30th
January 30, 2021… in today’s comics feed, both connecting to earlier postings on this blog: a Rhymes With Orange on an ambiguity in the verbing to dust; and a Zippy on Magritte’s painting The Son of Man.
(#1)
(#2)
Flat on his back at the solstice
January 15, 2021Today’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro, framed as an instance of the Psychiatrist cartoon meme:
(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 6 in this strip — see this Page.)
The patient is lying on the therapeutic couch, but he’s also flat on hs back suffering the affective disorder that comes to many with the winter solstice (Wayno’s title for the cartoon: “Bummer Solstice” — playing on summer solstice).
Then the title “Tropical Depression”, ordinarily referring to a meterological phenomenon, involving lowered atmospheric pressure (depression) arising in the tropics (the geographical band surrounding the equator)[*see note after this paragraph]; but here referring to a mental condition (depression, characterized by lowered energy and affect), in this case, specifically, seasonal affective disorder (aka seasonal melancholy) triggered by the short, dark, cold days around the winter solstice — which the patient seems to be counteracting with cultural symbols associated with the bright, hot, and humid tropics (Hawaii, to be specific): beachcomber hat, lei, coconut drink, ukulele, and Hawaiian beach shorts.
[*Note added 1/17: this account of the tropical in tropical depression is grossly oversimplified. For a more accurate statement — from an actual meteorologist — see Sim Aberson’s comment on this posting.]
Western medicine
January 6, 2021The Wayno/Piraro Bizarro for Epiphany (1/6) — Wayno’s title: “Lone Prairie Pre-Op” — plays on the ambiguity of Western, and taps into a bit of lore about the American Old West:
(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there are 5 in this strip — see this Page.)
Western medicine ‘the medicine in Westerns’ (illustrated above) vs. Western medicine ‘medicine characteristic of the Western region of the world, in particular of Europe and the U.S.’ (contrasted with Eastern medicine, earlier Oriental medicine).
How do you find our menu?
December 29, 2020Ambiguity days: Ruthie (playing a restaurant server) to the neighbor kid James (playing a customer) in the 12/6 One Big Happy strip:
Ruthie has one understanding of (EX) How do you find our menu?, James another, and this difference is reflected in (at least) three (tightly linked) places in the question: in the meaning of the verb find; in the meaning of the present tense; and in the meaning of the interrogative adverb how.
straight men’s jeans
September 28, 2020From Steven Levine on Facebook yesterday, some astonishment at getting a targeted ad for
Levi’s® Premium 501® ’93 STRAIGHT MEN’S JEANS
Well, yes, it’s just a familiar sort of structural ambiguity: X Y Z as
[X + Y] + Z ( [straight men’s] [jeans] ‘jeans for straight men’) (A)
or X + [Y + Z] ( [straight] [men’s jeans] ‘men’s jeans that are straight’ (B)
(where the Adj straight in (B) is a truncation of straight-fit / straight-leg ‘straight-legged’, while the Adj straight in (A) is a rough synonym of heterosexual)
The Levis people had (B) in mind, But Steven and I, as gay men, immediately perceived (A), straight vs.gay being especialy salient for us, so we found the ad hilarious, wondering just what sort of purity test would be applied before guys were allowed ro buy the jeans.
The library hookers and booze joke
September 25, 2020
wingman, winger
September 3, 2020In a NYT Magazine piece on Grabpussy Jr., an arresting mid-page teaser quote:
I searched my mental banks for relevant senses of winger, working my way through wingman first, eventually discovering that the intended sense was the one I came to last. You really have to have the context: in particular, who is speaking, for what purposes.
The three Ds: debased, degraded, and decadent
August 16, 2020(Well, it’s about lexical semantics and the conventions of social life, but there will be, right at the outset, dips into references to mansex in very plain language, so not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)
It started with my 12/29/19 posting “The time of mildly debasing oneself”, about one of Nathan W. Pyle’s weirdly quirky Strange Planet cartoons looking forward to New Year’s Day:
(#1) “Until then I will mildly debase myself” — “To maximize contrast”
