The Man and His Dream

Cidu Bill on Nov 24th 2009

tucker.png
Okay it’s obvious what Joe’s saying; but what did Gramps’s question mean?

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, One Big Happy, comic strips, comics, humor | 29 responses so far

29 Responses to “The Man and His Dream”

  1. Harold Nov 24th 2009 at 12:06 am 1

    So, is he (a tucker)? Does he tuck his shirt in?

  2. Bill A Nov 24th 2009 at 12:07 am 2

    Perhaps “Does he tuck his shirt in his underwear?” Just guessing.

  3. Fnord Nov 24th 2009 at 01:07 am 3

    In Australia, “tucker” is slang for food, but I don’t see how that applies at all.

    If Grandpa were talking about a drag queen there could be another meaning, but that’s even less applicable here.

  4. Tim Nov 24th 2009 at 01:27 am 4

    Grandpa thought that Joe’s best friend looked tasty, and wondered if he was allowed to eat him. Was he just a boy from the neighborhood, or was he tucker after all?

  5. Kit Nov 24th 2009 at 01:58 am 5

    Is Grampa thinking of the auto designer?

  6. Kyle Orland Nov 24th 2009 at 02:04 am 6

    When I first read this, I thought Gramps was slyly asking “Is he [gay]?” I knew that this reading 1) was horribly offensive, 2) didn’t explain Joe’s response at all, 3) made no sense in the context of the (lack of) information we had about Tucker (is that an exceptionally gay name or something?) and 4) REALLY made no sense to ask of a boy that young about his friend. Still, I couldn’t come up with any other explanation.

    Then I read Harold’s comment and realized he was right and I was an idiot.

  7. furrykef Nov 24th 2009 at 02:41 am 7

    The problem with Harold’s explanation is that it doesn’t leave much scope for a joke. The fourth panel becomes completely superfluous and serves only to pad out the word “no” to a total of 15 syllables. Unless of course it was intended to explain the joke to those of us who didn’t know what Grandpa meant, in which case the joke was already dead and no amount of explanation would save it.

    So it’s natural to assume that Joe must have misunderstood Grandpa’s question in some way, since that’d be about the only way there is actually a joke here. But in that case, what did he mean?

    - Kef

  8. jjmcgaffey Nov 24th 2009 at 04:52 am 8

    I read it as some variation on the ‘tucks right or left’ question - but again, a seriously weird question to ask about a kid that young. I agree with furrykef - either there’s no joke at all or we’re all missing something.

  9. Jeff S. Nov 24th 2009 at 05:09 am 9

    Tuckered out? Other than that, and the adult reasons listed previously, which would be unusual for this strip, I’m going with furrykef’s thinking as well.

  10. This guy I know Nov 24th 2009 at 07:48 am 10

    Best I can come up with is that Tucker happens to be an occupational surname roughly meaning “cleaner of cloth goods”.

    Thus Grandpa’s question is “So is he [a member of the profession which his name implies]? By my interpretation, the remark was more a facetious observation mainly intended to be amusing to Grandpa himself.

    If this is the intended joke, it may have worked better with something a bit more recognizable, such as Carter, Fletcher, or Hooper.

    Example:
    “That’s my friend Taylor.”
    “Tailor, huh? So, can he make me a new suit?”

  11. yellojkt Nov 24th 2009 at 08:17 am 11

    Explaining the joke in the fourth panel didn’t help me anyways. I totally read it as:

    “So IS he…gay?”
    “Nah, we’re just f**k-buddies.”

    But my mind works like that.

  12. Aaron Nov 24th 2009 at 08:21 am 12

    But the point is that Gramps finds *himself* amusing. He sees an opening for a pun and takes it (it would have worked if the kids’ name had been Walker). That, I believe, is intended to be the main joke. The rest is denouement.

  13. Daniel Nov 24th 2009 at 10:33 am 13

    “Tucker? I don’t even know her!”

    Okay, I got nothin’.

  14. Judge Mental Nov 24th 2009 at 11:35 am 14

    I thought this one was straight forward and that Harold explaining it would be the end of it. I never would have guessed in a million years that this comic would illicit the responses that it did. Just goes to show me that not everyone’s brain works the same (Not better or worse, just different)

    As far as kef’s contention Harold’s explanation renders the the fourth panel superfluous, I would respectfully, though emphatically, disagree. While understanding Grandpa’s pun is crucial to getting the joke, the crux of the humor is that *the boy* got it. Joe knows Grandpa well enough that he not only immediately recognizes a bad pun, he probably expected it.

  15. Judge Mental Nov 24th 2009 at 12:57 pm 15

    elicit …. not “illicit” (I don’t mind typos, but when I do something stupid like that, it bugs me)

  16. Elyrest Nov 24th 2009 at 01:12 pm 16

    I remember my grandmother referring to children as little tuckers. If memory serves me I think she meant they were little trouble-makers. I can’t ask Grammy as she’s been dead nigh on 30 years now.

  17. Kevin Andresen Nov 24th 2009 at 02:27 pm 17

    Finally! Now I understand how people MAY have come to calling kids “little f**kers”. Thanks Elyrest!!!
    In my old age, I’ve come across the origin of nearly every four-letter word containing phrase that I have thought was even slightly strange. (There ought to be a web site.) I’ve made a project of restoring old idioms, although I think “little Tuckers”, if related to this rhyme, may be beyond resurrection.

    Bow-wow-wow, whose dog art thou?
    Little Tom Tucker’s dog, bow-wow-wow.

    “Little Tucker’s Dog”
    Traditional Folk Rhyme

    I agree with the simple tuck-in-his-shirt explanation for the strip, as painful as it might be.

  18. GP Nov 24th 2009 at 04:27 pm 18

    Elyrest’s explanation fits best with the “One Big Happy” M.O. I was lost until now.

    Judge Mental, it certainly would work in the straightforward manner you assumed, but it wouldn’t fit the theme of past “One Big Happy” strips. The typical format for this strip is that the kid infers a (typically) literal meaning that the adult didn’t intend.

  19. Lola Nov 24th 2009 at 05:24 pm 19

    Maybe he’s asking if he’s “a Tucker” as in “a Jones” or “a Washington.” Is there a Tucker family in the strip?

  20. Mitch4 Nov 24th 2009 at 06:54 pm 20

    Get outta the way for Ol’ Dan Tucker
    Too late to catch his supper
    Supper’s done and dinner’s cookin
    And Ol’ Dan Tucker jist stands there lookin

    That’s the version permanently lodged in my head (installed there, i think, by Burl Ives). It makes little sense when you think about it. I’ve seen or heard other versions that change up the meal names, but that’s not the only problem.

  21. James Schend Nov 24th 2009 at 08:18 pm 21

    The problem is that if gramps is literally asking “does he tuck his shirt in?” then the strip has no punchline. He’s asking a question, and the kid is answering it…

    That’s why people are assuming there must be some hidden meaning to the word “tucker” here.

  22. JamesK Nov 24th 2009 at 08:33 pm 22

    I think the problem is that the grandfather asks “Is He” rather then “Does He”. The first implies that Tucker is a noun, whereas the grandson is answering Tucker as a verb.

    So people’s brains go “Oh, the grandson’s answering as a verb, the grandfather is asking as a noun, so obvious there’s an adorable misunderstanding here, so what -did- the grandfather mean?” and the brain spins out from there.

  23. Reema Nov 24th 2009 at 11:07 pm 23

    The grandfather is probably asking if the boy is tired. Informally, doesn’t tucker mean ‘tired’?

    I think if gramps were asking about the boy tucking his shirt in, he would have said, “Is he a tucker?”

  24. Mitch4 Nov 25th 2009 at 09:11 am 24

    @Reema — That’s a useful thought, but I think it runs afoul of a significant detail. It’s “tuckered” (and “tuckered out”) that can mean “tired”, never uninflected “tucker”.

  25. Molly J Nov 25th 2009 at 11:08 am 25

    There once was a young boy named Tucker…

  26. Dan Nov 25th 2009 at 01:40 pm 26

    This is not a child who’s been in the strip before, I believe, so Granpa is just affirming that’s the kid’s name. They leave, he turns to Joe, and says, “Tucker, huh?” to elict more information from the kid. “Tucker, huh? Who is he? How come we’ve never seen him? Where’s he from” and so on.

    That question, innocuous enough, leads Joe to unintentionally see it as a play on the question “is he a tucker [of shirt tails],” which wouldn’t make much sense anyway.

  27. The Governor Nov 26th 2009 at 02:25 am 27

    The Urban Dictionary has a number of “alternate” definitions, which are hysterical when applied to this comic; however, in the name of good taste, I will refrain from referencing them.

  28. DanV Nov 26th 2009 at 04:18 am 28

    Tucker, tucker, bo-bucker
    Banana, fanna, fo…
    (We don’t sing this song using this name around children)

  29. J.D.Everett Nov 29th 2009 at 06:21 am 29

    OBH thrives on puns and wordplay, I think Grandpa meant just what Joe thought it did. It’s just not up to OBH’s usual brilliant standards, so we keep searching for that AHA moment. They can’t all be gems.

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