Hand Puppet
Cidu Bill on Jul 17th 2009
All I’ve got is presumably more complex than Mike Peters intended: Original Sin is a metaphor for sex, and this is Adam’s attempt to get Eve to put out.
Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Garden of Eden, Mike Peters, Mother Goose, comic strips, comics, humor | 26 responses so far
Donna F. Jul 17th 2009 at 12:24 am 1
Maybe it’s an Internet joke? As in, Satan was just using the snake as a sock puppet?
(Word Spy explains the Internet sense:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/sockpuppet.asp )
Not actually likely, but I kinda prefer it.
Rainey Jul 17th 2009 at 12:36 am 2
I was taught that it was Satan’s idea for Adam and Eve to eat the apple. He supposedly used a snake to persuade them. This comic takes the premise to a new level in that the snake Satan was using was not an animal at all but a puppet. Therefore, using the snake would have a completely different meaning. In this case the snake is a tool instead of an accomplice
Kate C Jul 17th 2009 at 01:08 am 3
Didn’t the snake have legs originally, and his punishment was to crawl on his belly?
furrykef Jul 17th 2009 at 02:05 am 4
Rainey - I think the implication is that Adam is the one with the puppet, with no Satan involved. He wants Eve to eat the apple but not take the blame for persuading her himself. Then he can say, “Uh, Satan did it.”
Annie Benson Jul 17th 2009 at 03:48 am 5
So puppets are responsible for the orignal sin. I knew it!
GP Jul 17th 2009 at 08:04 am 6
Since when is original sin a metaphor for sex? Not many religions regard marital sex as sin.
Carl Jul 17th 2009 at 08:34 am 7
The actual Bible doesn’t refer to “the satan” (it just means “opponent”) until thousands of years after the Eden story. The serpent in the story is just a serpent.
buzz Jul 17th 2009 at 10:11 am 8
Since God creates Eve to be Adam’s mate and have children with him, the apple is clearly not intended to be a metaphor for sexual sin, despite the popular perception that it is. The original sin was in wanting to be God-like by tasting of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Keera Jul 17th 2009 at 10:13 am 9
GP has a point. IIRC, the original sin was eating the apple (which very likely wasn’t an apple but some other fruit), i.e. not obeying God. “I give you one simple rule to follow, just ONE, and you can’t even do that!” And people think herding cats is the hard job.
Chakolate Jul 17th 2009 at 10:34 am 10
You have to admit that a puppet telling Eve to eat the fruit makes more sense than a friggin *talking snake*.
Richard Jul 17th 2009 at 10:46 am 11
The story of Adam and Eve makes no sense at all, unless the point of the story is that God is a brutal tyrant. The forbiden fruit gives the the knowledge of good and evil - so before they eat the fruit, Adam and Eve can’t have had any understanding that it is evil to disobey God. They had no knowledge of good or evil. So God punishes them and all their progeny for doing something they couldn’t have understood was evil. It’s like kicking a puppy in the face for not being born house-broken. But that’s pretty typical behavior for God in the Old Testament.
Usual John Jul 17th 2009 at 11:13 am 12
One thing I’ve never understood: If Adam and Eve didn’t have knowledge of good and evil, how were they supposed to know that it was wrong to disobey God and eat the fruit?
Usual John Jul 17th 2009 at 11:18 am 13
And you can tell that I hadn’t refreshed and didn’t see Richard’s comment yet.
Mark in Boston Jul 17th 2009 at 11:30 am 14
I don’t think there has ever been a movie made from Milton’s Paradise Lost. I’d love to see it. Perhaps the only opportunity was in the 1970’s when movies like Caligula were in general release.
Before the apple, Adam and Eve discreetly retire to their little cottage to “increase” as the Lord bids them do.
Right after they both eat the fruit, they are possessed with lust and creative ideas and immediately do all kinds of things right there under the tree. Milton doesn’t give details but wow, what you could do in the film.
Frank the curmudgeon Jul 17th 2009 at 12:06 pm 15
CALIGULA - you cant get decent porn anymore. It made Hellen Mirren’s career.
mike Jul 17th 2009 at 12:22 pm 16
though the apple also taught them shame, iirc. before that they didn’t care about being naked, after came the fig leaf.
Irene Jul 17th 2009 at 01:31 pm 17
GP is right- original sin and sex areunrelated.
THE original sin was Adam and Eve deciding they knew better than God. There is right and wrone, which is different than good and evil.
Adam and Eve KNEW it was right to do as God said, they chose to disobey Him anyway. That was the original sin. We still bear the stain of original sin in that we have concupiscience- the tendency to sin- to choose what is wrong, even when we know it is wrong.
Having said that, I think the humor is that Adam is trying to frame Eve.
PeterW Jul 17th 2009 at 02:30 pm 18
Original Sin being sex is a fairly common misconception, though. I wanted to scream at the TV when I saw the theologian character testify as such in Inherit The Wind.
buzz Jul 17th 2009 at 04:19 pm 19
Wot Irene sed.
Also, they didn’t “learn” shame; they created the concept of shame for themselves.
Todd Jul 18th 2009 at 03:36 pm 20
It’s easy to read sex into the story of original sin, since there is Adam’s snake and Eve’s apples.
Drdan Jul 18th 2009 at 03:47 pm 21
I always believed that the story didn’t intend to be an apple, eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge, and that knowledge was her own sexuality which she shared with adam, and they had sex. When God came upon them they covered their bodies. Then they were cast out had to get a job, had kids, etc…
I never understood the bit about the apple
Todd Jul 18th 2009 at 05:59 pm 22
My view: Adam was tempted by Eve’s apples. They had sex. God found them, and, as has been happening ever since, Adam claimed that Eve tempted him deliberately, having been tempted by his snake. And it was Adam’s side that ended up in the Bible, slightly altered, to be presentable to children.
Mind, I’ve only read the King James version of this once, and never the NIV translation, so don’t know how my interpretation fits.
buzz Jul 19th 2009 at 04:11 am 23
Drdan: God created Eve to be Adam’s mate and to bear children with him, so sex was the intention.
Usual John: There was nothing supernatural/magical/mystical in the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good & evil. They had been created by a loving God who gave them everything they needed and allowed them any action they desired. The only prohibition was eating of the fruit or a single specific tree. That Adam & Eve were incapable of following such a simple request was a lesson they needed to learn; they put their selves above God.
The self is the root of all evil. Once we master the self and lead genuinely selfless lives, we will once again be in tune with what God wants of us.
Drdan Jul 19th 2009 at 04:29 am 24
buzz
I don’t doubt that adam were going to have sex eventually, just not at the proding of the serpent, But like all Bible stories, if Adam and Eve ignore the tree of the fruit of knowledge, the Book of Genesis wouldn’t be very interesting, and I suppose in theory the population of the earth would have waited, the first murder might not have happened, and we wouldn’t have rainbows
Mitch4 Jul 19th 2009 at 08:53 am 25
Mother Goose is continuing with the Garden of Eden / Temptation theme. The 7/19 Sunday panel has the same oddly blonde Eve holding out a modern red apple to Adam while the serpent leers from the side tree (and not as a puppet this time). Adam: “Do you realize how Freudian all this is?”
Jeff S. Jul 22nd 2009 at 11:21 am 26
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” — Maxwell Scott, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”