Comments on: The Man and His Dream

By: J.D.Everett

J.D.Everett — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:21:28 +0000

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.

By: DanV

DanV — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:18:46 +0000

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

By: The Governor

The Governor — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:25:30 +0000

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.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:40:56 +0000

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.

By: Molly J

Molly J — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:08:22 +0000

There once was a young boy named Tucker…

By: Mitch4

Mitch4 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:11:45 +0000

@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”.

By: Reema

Reema — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:07:12 +0000

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?”

By: JamesK

JamesK — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:33:35 +0000

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.

By: James Schend

James Schend — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:18:02 +0000

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.

By: Mitch4

Mitch4 — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:54:50 +0000

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.