Twin Toilets
Cidu Bill on Aug 28th 2008
Okay, is this like how doctors won’t treat patients who are members of their own families (or barbers not cutting their own hair)? Because seriously, if I were a plumber, I wouldn’t be paying somebody else hundreds of dollars to do something in my own home that I could quickly do myself.
Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Jump Start, Robb Armstrong, comic strips, comics, humor, plumbers, toilets | 16 responses so far
Birdseed Aug 28th 2008 at 09:16 am 1
It’s a joke. Fictional characters are allowed not to tell the (fictional) truth sometimes.
LD Aug 28th 2008 at 10:27 am 2
yeah, I think this is a good one. Just a silly quip.
src Aug 28th 2008 at 10:29 am 3
“The cobbler’s children have no shoes”
It’s a truism that professionals and craftsmen do better work for others than they do for themselves. Or to go Arlo with it, there’s the gynecologist’s complaint - “If I have to look at one more …”
Randy Aug 28th 2008 at 11:00 am 4
Does anyone find it odd that after being in the toilet for who knows how long, she just holds it in her hand? Its all dark at the bottom…
Cidu Bill Aug 28th 2008 at 11:09 am 5
I thought of the “cobbler’s children” thing — I actually learned that phrase when I was about 4, when my father owned a stationery story and I asked why we only ever seemed to have slightly-defective scissors in our home — but it doesn’t really apply in this case: The plumber’s family isn’t going without toilet repairs, they’re paying somebody hundreds of dollars to do them. That just doesn’t make sense to me on any level, realistically or as a joke.
Pinny Aug 28th 2008 at 11:29 am 6
He didn’t hire a plumber for his own house; he is having one of his employees do it.
Size Aug 28th 2008 at 11:34 am 7
The joke is just that 2 children = 1 broken toilet. For n children, you will have n/2 broken toilets.
He could just as easily have said “I have to fix two toilets when I get home.” Obviously he wouldn’t be working on home stuff during work hours.
Norm Aug 28th 2008 at 12:23 pm 8
I figured he was an employee, and he can’t take time off work to fix his own toilets — which definitely need to be fixed if he has four kids + wife — so he has to hire a plumber to do it for him. I hope he gets “cost only” rates as a courtesy.
Cidu Bill Aug 28th 2008 at 12:28 pm 9
Pinny’s explanation makes perfect sense. It might be what Armstrong had in mind, but it should have been.
LD Aug 28th 2008 at 03:02 pm 10
You’re all overthinking it. The plumber was just making a joke. Of course he didn’t hire someone to fix his toilets at home.
See Birdseed’s comment.
The Ploughman Aug 28th 2008 at 06:47 pm 11
I like Size’s rendition.
…Or perhaps this plumber overcharges and has a reasonably-priced plumber doing his work at home. Or maybe his “quads” are stopping up toilets all day and causing constant damage.
Susan T-O Aug 28th 2008 at 10:15 pm 12
Randy–I hadn’t really noticed that, but now that you mention it, EWWWWWWWWW!!
My husband works with spinal cord injury patients at the local VA hospital, and my first thought when the plumber said he had “quads” was “quadriplegics.” Duuuuuuh. . . .
solarrhino Aug 28th 2008 at 10:21 pm 13
Randy@4: She’s a nurse, dude! She’s held worse than that!
eeyore19 Aug 29th 2008 at 08:39 pm 14
If you had a house full of quadruplets, would you want to wait until Daddy got home to fix the broken toilets? Not sure if it’s a co-worker or employee doing it, but you’d definitely want *somebody* to take care of it immediately.
Melindotty Sep 7th 2008 at 03:08 am 15
Not to mention that would be a disgusting and decaying hamster…
etemntymn Dec 20th 2008 at 12:57 am 16
Thak you for the news