Maybe I Should Ask Dan Rather About This One

Cidu Bill on Jun 17th 2009

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Filed in Argyle Sweater, Bill Bickel, CIDU, Scott Hilburn, Wizard of Oz, comic strips, comics, humor | 27 responses so far

27 Responses to “Maybe I Should Ask Dan Rather About This One”

  1. Usual John Jun 17th 2009 at 12:12 am 1

    Well, if he were to drink the liquid courage, it would be all gone. Can’t have that.

    Note that the solutions here (surgeries on the Tin Man and Scarecrow, drinkable courage for the Cowardly Lion) are from the book, but Glinda in a bubble is from the movie. In the book, Dorothy and her friends had to walk to the South to seek help from Glinda the Good.

  2. PeterW Jun 17th 2009 at 12:20 am 2

    Surgery is not from the movie. They get Magic Feather trinkets. My question is, what kind of surgery did the Lion get that causes him to need a cone? Did he get unfixed?

    Meanwhile, the title is what I don’t understand.

  3. Lola Jun 17th 2009 at 12:20 am 3

    I get two of the three. The lion has liquid courage & blinders. So he’s so drunk he doesn’t have enough sense to be afraid and even if there was a bit of residual fear left the blinders will leave him in ignorant bliss. The scarecrow looks like he’s had a lobotomy so he no longer knows he needs a brain. The tin man is a total blank.

  4. Kate C Jun 17th 2009 at 01:16 am 4

    I think this one would be funnier without the inclusion of the cone thing on the Lion’s head.

  5. Kate C Jun 17th 2009 at 01:20 am 5

    Oh wait–when you neuter a dog, they have to wear a cone afterwards (at least, mine did). That’s the only surgery I can ever recall my dog having. Is it s neutering joke? This is the guy who loves poop jokes afterall.

  6. Singapore Bill Jun 17th 2009 at 01:29 am 6

    The lion has a jug full of Caesars. Because Caesars are sooooo tasty, the Wiz has put the cone on him to temporarily stop his from polishing off the bottle as he needs him upright for the photo-op.

  7. Patrick Jun 17th 2009 at 02:05 am 7

    I think what the lion got from the wizard was two things that are often euphemisms for courage. First he got booze (or “DUtch courage”), secondly he got . . . if I may be blunt . . . “balls.” Since those required surgery, and he’s an animal, he’s wearing a cone to keep him from chewing on the stitches.

  8. Reema Jun 17th 2009 at 02:27 am 8

    Why would you ask Dan Rather about this one?

  9. bAT L. Jun 17th 2009 at 02:50 am 9

    PeterW and Reema: The Dan Rather reference is something that would get you the “Hey! Geriatrics!” tag if you did understand it. I didn’t earn that on this one; I had to look it up, which you can surely do yourselves.

    I believe the comic is referring to “liquid courage”, which I seem to remember from some war movie somewhere.

  10. Markus Jun 17th 2009 at 05:57 am 10

    Well, the way I see it, the Patrick got it halfway: The Lion got de-neutered (and now has a cone, so he doesn’t lick the operation stitches on his new balls). This turned him into a “real man”, meaning he turns to drinking heavily. He should probably be sitting in front of a TV too, watching football, to make the joke clearer (or more muddled, I’m not sure).

  11. yellojkt Jun 17th 2009 at 06:54 am 11

    I’ll let the cat out of the bag. Dan Rather used to end his news broadcasts with the catch phrase “Courage.” It did not catch on. He’s far more famous for having someone beat him up and scream at him, “What’s the frequency Kenneth?”

  12. Blork Jun 17th 2009 at 08:01 am 12

    Lola: “The tin man is a total blank”

    The Tin Man has a patch on his chest where the Wizard opened him up to put the heart in.

  13. Snookums Jun 17th 2009 at 08:41 am 13

    I think the scarecrow’s head looks extra poofy, as if extra stuffing was added.

  14. Cindi Jun 17th 2009 at 08:44 am 14

    This was a LOL for me. I choose to ignore the bottle of booze. The Wizard gave the lion Balls and the cone to keep him from disturbing the surgical site while it heals. When forced to include the booze - I say it is to ease the pain while he heals.

  15. Cindi Jun 17th 2009 at 10:56 am 15

    Why are they shaking hands with the left hand?

  16. Fnord Jun 17th 2009 at 11:12 am 16

    The Lion is the joke here, but it’s confusing because he has two separate punchlines. He’s holding a bottle of booze, “liquid courage;” plus the wizard gave him some balls– literally, with surgery, the same way he gave the other two their organs.

    It would be easier to understand with just one punchline. My guess is that the cartoonist liked the booze joke, but couldn’t figure out how to draw the lion’s face, and used the Elizabethan collar as a shortcut.

  17. SB Jun 17th 2009 at 01:53 pm 17

    Or (re: Fnord’s comment) he included the booze (i.e., liquid courage) to get the “balls” past the censors (an alternate feasible source of courage).

  18. MoWatt Jun 17th 2009 at 03:36 pm 18

    Darn right more muddled, Markus. That’s why that’s not the joke.

    “Real man” has nothing to do with what the lion asked the wizard for. He asked for courage and he got two kinds of it: Liquid (or “dutch”) and cajones, gonads, balls — all used as vulgar euphemisms for courage.

  19. Mark in Boston Jun 17th 2009 at 05:08 pm 19

    Did the lion get neuticles?

  20. Sal Jun 17th 2009 at 05:58 pm 20

    Singapore Bill, A caesar has to be the nastiset drink ever concocted . For the rest of you its Vodka and Clamato juice. Yuck.

  21. eeyore19 Jun 17th 2009 at 06:34 pm 21

    In addition to “what’s the frequency, Kenneth?”, I love all of Dan Rather’s election night ramblings. http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blratherisms.htm

  22. Judge Mental Jun 17th 2009 at 06:56 pm 22

    Regarding the Dan Rather “courage” reference: I have to admit that it might be possible for me to be oversensitive to people applying the “hey geriatrics” to things in my lifetime, but I don’t think something that was still happening less than 6 years ago should qualify.

  23. Anon Jun 17th 2009 at 08:44 pm 23

    Hey, I’ve been reading through your archives, and two things:
    1)That problem with the ends of comics being cut off? I get that in Opera. Is the problem really just that Wordpress doesn’t know how to deal with images in any sensible way?
    2)You’re giving yourself link rot with your crimeweek links, because with each one you’re just linking to the front page, basically. So when a post inevitably scrolls off of the front page, you’re no longer linking to that specific article.

  24. Cidu Bill Jun 17th 2009 at 08:50 pm 24

    Judge Mental, just five minutes ago my son asked me how I feel about the fact that next year in History class, he’ll be learning about events that happened in my adult lifetime.

  25. Annie Benson Jun 18th 2009 at 06:10 am 25

    Tell him that you’re not that old, it’s just that you accidentally got mixed up with a rift in the space/time continuum thingey. If he’s good with computers and gadgets, ask him to help you fix it.

  26. Cidu Bill Jun 18th 2009 at 07:09 am 26

    Anon, I’m aware of the problem with the Crimeweek links. I chose that method of linking, after a bit of trial and error, because it was easiest for most readers — and by the time the link became problematic, the article was often old news anyway.

    Likewise I know some people are still having problems with the graphics, but this template seems to be a problem for the least number of readers. Given all the combinations of browsers, operating systems and monitors, and the fairly limited number of available templates, this is the best I can hope for.

  27. bAT L. Jun 20th 2009 at 01:58 am 27

    Judge Mental - True that the Dan Rather thing was pretty recent, but how many kids were watching at that time?

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