Why Did There Have To Be Cats?

Cidu Bill on Jan 26th 2008

herman-cat.jpg

birdbrains-cats.jpg
The second comic is from Thom Bluemel’s Birdbrains

Filed in Bill Bickel, Birdbrains, CIDU, Herman, cats, comic strips, comics, humor | 22 responses so far

22 Responses to “Why Did There Have To Be Cats?”

  1. Elliott Jan 26th 2008 at 09:49 am 1

    The first one might be a ewwww. The animal looking at Herman’s food doesn’t look like any cat I ever met. I’m thinking he’s asking about his dinner.

  2. Winter Wallaby Jan 26th 2008 at 09:54 am 2

    I think in the second one, it’s just supposed to be funny (although it’s not), because the guy presumably doesn’t have a house, so the idea of putting the cats out is nonsensical.

    I’m not sure why the first one might be an ewwww? Incidentally, do the characters in Herman always look like they have Elephantiasis?

  3. Powers Jan 26th 2008 at 10:14 am 3

    WW: Yes, they do.

    As for the second one, I why all the (human) footprints running around?

  4. Richard Jan 26th 2008 at 11:26 am 4

    Another queston - in second one, why are all the footprints in front of the guy, without a single footprints in back of the guy? Most cartoons about cats and the desert involve the fact that the desert seems like a giant litter box - but this cartoon doesn’t use that theme, unless those things that look like human footprints are something else…

  5. alley cat Jan 26th 2008 at 02:25 pm 5

    Are those the guy’s own footprints in the second one? I am truly stumped.

  6. Keera Jan 26th 2008 at 03:43 pm 6

    To the first one: Cats are not as prone to begging at the table as dogs are, since cats are prone to being very picky eaters. So that cat must be VERY hungry.

    To the second one: Oh, please, PLEASE, somebody explain it, because I can’t. I thought the guy was just going nuts without water, but that’s not funny at all.

  7. brien Jan 26th 2008 at 04:01 pm 7

    Hmm, here’s a stretch, if you can believe those are cat footprints. Why are they black? Because the cats were on fire, and the guy forgot to put them out.

  8. Jim Jan 26th 2008 at 04:23 pm 8

    I don’t get either one.
    Unless, in “Herman”, the guy is eating the cat’s food, but that’s not really implied by the caption.
    On the other one…totally lost.

  9. harley quinn Jan 26th 2008 at 05:51 pm 9

    Would someone please tell my cat that cat’s don’t beg at the table and that she’s supposed to be finicky. She seems to have missed that memo!! Please?

  10. someone else Jan 26th 2008 at 06:37 pm 10

    I agree with Keera on the interpretation of the first one. Alternatively, the entire universe is collapsing on the characters (as evidenced by the fact that the colored area is small compared to the size of the panel) but all he’s worried about is having fed the cat.

    For the second one, my WAG is that the guy is none-too-bright and has been lost in the desert for a while now (as evidenced by his footprints cross-crossing all over the place and circling on nonsense regions). However, every day he suddenly realizes he forgot to put the cats out, because he originally forgot to put them out before he left. I dunno, I’m open to other explanations.

  11. dd Jan 26th 2008 at 07:23 pm 11

    Maybe in the second one, it’s supposed to be funny because, of all his current problems, forgetting to let the cats out would seem to be the least important?

    The footprints… yeah, I dunno.

  12. Lola Jan 26th 2008 at 11:10 pm 12

    On the second one my thought was that it’s like when you get two states away on vacation and you begin to think you forgot to shut the upstairs windows and you KNOW that not only will it rain but it will rain sideways directly into the windows you think you might have left open and, as if that weren’t enough, the wind will be so strong that the screens will be blown out and a family of squirrels will make nests in the mattresses and quilts.

  13. Keera Jan 27th 2008 at 04:15 am 13

    I think Lola is on to something. The footprints are from the man’s worried pacing because back at home, he forgot to put the cats out. Except for that “again” at the end, that would work.

    Nope, I still don’t get it.

  14. alley cat Jan 27th 2008 at 11:41 am 14

    I clicked on the Birdbrains link Bill provided, and in the description, it says, “It’s a feature to laugh at: if it makes you think, you’re working too hard.” Apparently we are all working too hard. This is one where I would love to be able to write to the comic’s creator and ask him what on earth this one means.

    If the guy were just standing there, obviously lost in the middle of the desert, then I would buy the explanation that it is absurd of him to be suddenly upset about the cat back home. It’s the carefully drawn two million little footprints that make this such a head-scratcher.

  15. Cidu Bill Jan 27th 2008 at 02:27 pm 15

    “If it makes you think you’re working too hard” sounds a lot like the “no soap radio” school of humor to me…

  16. [jec] Jan 27th 2008 at 06:28 pm 16

    I dunno, but I took it as a bad answer to “how do I draw that the guy a) lives here and b) does not have a cave or tent to actually let the cat out of”.

  17. alley cat Jan 27th 2008 at 06:52 pm 17

    That must be it!

    BTW, I’m bemused by the ring of individual footprints right in front of him. He hopped in a circle on one foot? I am clearly thinking too much.

  18. Morris Keesan Jan 27th 2008 at 09:12 pm 18

    My interpretation of the second one: The guy’s lost in the desert — those are “wandering around totally lost” footprints, all belonging to him — and he suddenly remembered that he forgot to put the cat out (before coming to the desert to get lost). The humor, what little there is of it, is, as others have said, because that’s the least of his problems right now.

  19. bAT L. Jan 28th 2008 at 03:56 am 19

    I understand the first one fairly well, I think. The man is complaining because the cat is begging for food. The man catches on that the cat wasn’t fed and is thus hungry, but doesn’t realize that the reason the cat is going hungry is that he is in the process of eating the rest of the food - the cat food. I didn’t get this at all at first because I thought that creature there was a dog.

    The second one I believe is referring to a memory jog. He is trapped in a seemingly endless desert and this happens to remind him of the litterbox back home with his cats. At this point he has already walked all around attempting to find his way home, but it is only now that he realizes what an absolute mess his home will be should he ever return to it. It’s a heavy dose of pain humor here. Poor guy, either way things turn out.

  20. Its justme Jan 28th 2008 at 11:07 am 20

    I think bAT L is exactly right on the first one.

    For the second one, notice the meandering steps that this desert wanderer is making. He glances down and this reminds him of his cat. Why? Because that’s exactly what a cat does who wants to go outside, he meanders around yowling until the owner (companion for the PC) notices that he needs out.

  21. Sloan Feb 2nd 2008 at 12:05 pm 21

    In the second one, the limited area of the footprints indicate that the man believes he is living in an enclosed space. So he’s been walking around his “house” all day and now realizes that he’s forgotten to put the cats “out,” which is bad because they’ve been using the “house” as a litter box and he’s been walking around it all day in his bare feet. But for this to make sense, there should be a cat or two around to indicate the joke. A rather lame theory, but that’s the best I can come up with.

  22. Jack Hare Apr 13th 2009 at 09:40 am 22

    It’s true that cats don’t typically “beg” at the table, but this is because those cats who have the inclination to take interest in human food will not sit at your feet waiting for scraps like a dog; rather, they will walk right the hell up to your plate and start eating.

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