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July 16, 2007

Bank Comic

Filed under: ants, B.C., banks, Bill Bickel, CIDU, comic strips, comics, humor — Cidu Bill @ 12:01 am

bc-bank.gif

And yes, this was the complete gag (it was the first two panels of yesterday’s BC, and the rest of the comic was  an unrelated sequence)

9 Comments »

  1. I guess that Dad is saying that if Mom had seen a bank, she would have borrowed a ton of money from it… a really weak gag, if that’s the intent.

    Comment by furrykef — July 16, 2007 @ 12:55 am

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  2. This one’s a great example of a comic that’s just now worth understanding.

    It’s a little hard to understand the second panel – I believe Dad’s saying that Mom never saved a cent in her life…

    But how does that relate to the question in the 1st panel? Is there something good about things Mom’s never seen?

    Maybe I’m just not misogynic enough to get this. I’m certainly not big enough a Johnny Hart fan. And why are there still new Johnny Hart comics to try and understand? He is deceased, isn’t he?

    Comment by Ron Obvious — July 16, 2007 @ 6:48 am

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  3. Correction in last post: This is a comic that’s just NOT worth understanding…

    Comment by Ron Obvious — July 16, 2007 @ 6:49 am

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  4. I think this hearkens back to a time (I’m thinking the 1930’s – 1940’s) when things had an intrinsic value to you if you’ve never seen it. Upon seeing the most improbable of events, the viewer was expected to exclaim “Now I’ve seen everything!” And, having experienced all possible things, no further joy can be wrung out of living, so the viewer is expected to commit suicide.

    No, I’m serious! That was a “gag” in many cartoons of the era – the character would say that line with a sullen face and shoot himself in the head. Hilarious, no? If you’re a fan of older cartoons and haven’t seen this, it’s because the cartoons you’ve seen have been “cleaned up”.

    Comment by brien — July 16, 2007 @ 7:29 am

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  5. I think this is one of those misogynistic gags where we’re supposed to understand implicitly that the speaker hates his wife, like all good comedians (“Take my wife. Please.”) So if Mom has never seen one, that makes it a good place to go to avoid her.

    Comment by Morris — July 16, 2007 @ 9:27 am

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  6. No, I’m serious! That was a “gag” in many cartoons of the era

    I remember one cartoon which ended with a cat saying “Now I’ve seen everything!” and shooting himself nine times for his nine lives.

    I don’t think Disney ever used the gag, but Warner Bros. certainly did, and I think MGM.

    Comment by James — July 16, 2007 @ 9:43 am

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  7. In the Warner Brothers cartoon of “Horton Hatches the Egg,” when Horton is being transported by ship, a fish who looks like Peter Lorre says “Now I’ve seen everything,” and shoots himself. This is edited out when you see the cartoon on TV.

    Comment by Hunt — July 16, 2007 @ 10:05 am

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  8. Wouldn’t a clearer wording of the punchline be: “It’s a good place to avoid your mother. She’s never been to one… the free-spending whore!”

    Comment by Joe Blevins — July 16, 2007 @ 12:12 pm

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  9. I think the joke is that the mom spends all their money. But she’s so dumb, she doesn’t know where the bank is. So if the dad can put the money in the bank before the mom sees it, it’s safe.

    I’ve been reading CIDU for many years, and while Johnny Hart is a regular contributor, I don’t think I can recall a single Hart cartoon where the explanations made the cartoon even marginally humorous. The explanations seem to range from (at best) “this is just the obvious bad pun,” to (at worst) “non-Christians are everywhere.”

    Comment by Autumn Harvest — July 16, 2007 @ 12:49 pm

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