Wish I Was a Kellogg’s Cornflake
Cidu Bill on Oct 22nd 2009
Two related observations: I hope this comic is a rerun, otherwise that milk is way outdated.
And speaking of reruns, I’m not sure many people outside of the New York area would get it, but the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was “First you address the ball…”
Filed in Bill Bickel, Brevity, CIDU, Guy & Rodd, comic strips, comics, humor | 28 responses so far
Dave Van Domelen Oct 22nd 2009 at 12:04 am 1
It’s cougar milk?
Frank the curmudgeon Oct 22nd 2009 at 12:15 am 2
God bless the cougars. They were (are) a source of comfort and education to many a lad.
Arthur Oct 22nd 2009 at 12:29 am 3
“I hope this comic is a rerun, otherwise that milk is way outdated.”
It shows a copyright of 2009. Most reruns are showing their original copyright dates.
“the first thing that came to my mind when I saw this was ‘First you address the ball…’”
I’m not from NY. The only thing that comes to my mind from your quote is an old
Honeymooners routine.
None of which keeps it from being a CIDU.
Cidu Bill Oct 22nd 2009 at 12:37 am 4
Arthur, rerun comics often do have new copyright dates. I’m not clear how legal that is, but that’s my department.
You’re of course right about the Honeymooners. The reason I said a New Yorker is more likely to have recognized it is because, at least up until recently, the Honeymooners weer on local television here every night for decades — and with so few episodes in existence, even a casual viewer can’t help but know every scene.
Of course the show airs in other markets as well — but here, it’s like a religion.
Like you said, unless the gag somehow involves Ed Norton drinking 5-year-old milk, none of this really helps.
Kit Oct 22nd 2009 at 12:51 am 5
Got nuthin’, but Bill, once again your caption is inspirational! *goes to load up all that old S&G*
Mitch4 Oct 22nd 2009 at 01:10 am 6
“Hello, ball!”
I haven’t seen that in, oh, 30 years or more … but who could ever forget it?
mister obvious Oct 22nd 2009 at 02:33 am 7
If you look at the brevity website you see that (presumably) one of the authors (Guy) mentioned that the date is the date their cartoon launched, so it’s just a matter of nostalgia.
Can’t help with the humor though, since most of the comments are on unrelated jokes/puns and I don’t “get it” myself. But the author (Guy again) said that Rodd’s favorite comment was someone saying that this particular comic was funny but not knowing why. It may just be that the milk and cereal are acting like they are coworkers meeting for the first time in the morning. Maybe someone can make something of the fact that “coworkers” has a “cow” in it.
furrykef Oct 22nd 2009 at 05:42 am 8
Could be that the scene simply takes place in the past for no reason at all, but if that’s the case, it seems to be needlessly distracting. Perhaps they thought nobody would notice the date. They’d probably have been right if the joke were more obvious.
Speaking of dated comics, though… I read the Spanish version of Foxtrot online. (I mention the Spanish version mostly ’cause the daily English version doesn’t seem to be online anymore.) At the time I wasn’t aware that Foxtrot had stopped doing dailies and is doing reruns, or if I was already aware, I wasn’t aware of how far back they were. So they had a comic that centered around whether the swing fad was already passé, and the punch line was that Roger said, “When did it end? The 40’s?”
It made no sense at all until I noticed the copyright date. Sure enough, Zoot Suit Riot had come out the previous year.
Yesterday’s comic was Jason Fox going for Halloween as an iMac. What’s so scary about an iMac? “I have no floppy drive!” (I actually remembered that one from ten years ago. Back then, that actually was freakish. Then when I got this PC built in 2006, I had to specifically request a floppy drive…)
- Kef
South Park 2009 Oct 22nd 2009 at 06:19 am 9
Apologies for the off-topic comment: this actually belongs to the previous “calendars” entry: I happen to own a mint-condition 2009 South Park calendar, which is probably the most worthless object ever printed, since it does not include any quoted dialog, and thus contains cel images with ZERO humor (I did not purchase it, it was inflicted upon me as a Christmas gift). I can’t imagine that it will ever have any value for even the most fanatical of collectors. Does anyone have entertaining suggestions for an appropriate use for this noisome object? (sorry, “firewood tinder”, and “emergency toilet paper” have already been suggested).
Powers Oct 22nd 2009 at 07:01 am 10
Kef: Sunday FoxTrots are at http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot
Daily FoxTrot Classics are on the same site under “FoxTrot Classics” (or “foxtrotclassics” in the URL). (Second link avoided to avoid spam filter.) In English!
Powers &8^]
Nicole Oct 22nd 2009 at 07:37 am 11
“Floatin’ in my bowl taking movies”
Hunt Oct 22nd 2009 at 08:07 am 12
The other thing it reminds me of is the Warner Brothers cartoons in which the wolf and the sheepdog greet each other cordially before punching a time clock, and then trying to kill each other.
furrykef Oct 22nd 2009 at 08:18 am 13
Powers - ah, thanks. Doesn’t matter too much to me since I only read it in Spanish in the first place, but it could come in handy when the Spanish version is pure nonsense (sadly, this has proved to be the case at least once already).
Heather D Oct 22nd 2009 at 08:56 am 14
“It may just be that the milk and cereal are acting like they are coworkers meeting for the first time in the morning.”
Ahhhh… that makes sense to my brain. Like Hunt says, it’s the sheepdog and the wolf too.
Lihtox Oct 22nd 2009 at 09:17 am 15
Copyright lasts for the life of the author + a fixed (obscene) number of years (I think it’s 90 right now), so it doesn’t really matter what the copyright date is so long as the author is still alive. (There may be legal implications, I suppose.) If the copyright were owned by a corporation/organization, however, then the date would matter.
I occasionally see websites of universities and other organizations that say “Copyright 2002-2007″, and that puzzles me: in that case, it seems that the date really does matter. On the other hand, how do you assign a copyright date to a website which changes regularly? (My conclusion: there are way too many copyrighted things out there anymore. If you want to copyright your website (or anything else), you should have to register it with the copyright office; otherwise, don’t worry about it. That’s not the law, but it should be.)
chuckers Oct 22nd 2009 at 09:34 am 16
Re: Addressing the ball
You tube is truly amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNauilZRzHk
Longer versions of the scene are available.
Cow-orker greetings work for me.
Rainey Oct 22nd 2009 at 09:59 am 17
This comic would make a lot more sense if the flakes were replaced by Kellog’s rice crispies. Though since I haven’t watched TV in years, I don’t know if they still do the talking cereal commercials.
Brent Oct 22nd 2009 at 10:58 am 18
mister obvious, #7:
Well, it does sound like the cereal and the milk are cow orkers.
I just don’t see that as being the joke. Brevity strips are often just what they appear to be on the surface, and this one appears to just be a bit of silliness about milk and cereal saying good morning.
Elyrest Oct 22nd 2009 at 11:25 am 19
South Park 2009 - this may not be entertaining, but it is practical. Turn the calendar over and use it as a notepad - good for grocery lists, random thoughts, love notes etc.
Cidu Bill - thanks for the Honeymooners reminder. I had forgotten that Ed Norton routine even though I must have seen it countless times.
Judge Mental Oct 22nd 2009 at 12:56 pm 20
Believe it or not, (despite being born in the early 60’s) not only have I never seen an episode of the Honeymooners, but very rarely have I ever had an opportunity. I have never lived anywhere that a local affiliate carried it, and though WGN (which is included with my current cable package) has carried it in the past, I don’t think they have done it for a while now.
ty Oct 22nd 2009 at 01:20 pm 21
WPIX casts a wide net. Thanks to cable, we get it here in Alberta.
“Helloooo, ball!”
And who can forget “It’s not NI-cul-nuf, it’s ni-CAL-nuf!”
Morris Keesan Oct 22nd 2009 at 05:22 pm 22
I saw it as just a weak almost-pun on “Morning Cereal”.
I was having trouble with the CIDU site earlier, and just want to say that after reading the front page, I had “Punky’s Dilemma” as an earworm all morning.
Cidu Bill Oct 22nd 2009 at 05:25 pm 23
Could be worse — you could have a persistent mental image of Punky’s Dilemma being sung by Art Carney.
Mitch4 Oct 22nd 2009 at 06:35 pm 24
Chuckers — thanks very much for that YouTube link. We say ‘LOL’ about all sorts of stuff but it takes something really great to make me literally laugh out loud.
Elyrest Oct 22nd 2009 at 07:50 pm 25
Mitch4 - I want to see you laugh out loud figuratively now.
Mitch4 Oct 23rd 2009 at 02:28 am 26
That’s the sort of remark up with which I will not put!
Elyrest Oct 23rd 2009 at 12:04 pm 27
Oh, thank you!
Lisa J Oct 25th 2009 at 05:19 am 28
i saw this right after reading this post– http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/6407277/Bent-Objects-by-Terry-Border-The-Secret-Life-of-Everyday-Things.html?image=3