Maize
Cidu Bill on Dec 14th 2009
Marshall Dabney: This is archaic, which you call “hey geezers”
Certainly, readers of any age will get the play on words; but you had to have been around in the 70’s to recognize the quote from the Mazola commercial.
Filed in Bill Bickel, Hey Geezers! Comics!, comic strips, comics, humor | 11 responses so far
Kat Dec 15th 2009 at 01:16 am 1
I think that this is a play on words. We have lots of corn mazes around here in the fall. If you look at panel 2 it is indeed a maze made out of corn.
Frank the curmudgeon Dec 15th 2009 at 01:28 am 2
Unfortunately I’ve heard the commercial more than once.
Fnord Dec 15th 2009 at 05:36 am 3
The grain that is called “corn” in North American is called “maize” almost everywhere else. In those places the word “corn” may refer to wheat, barley, oats, or whatever other grain is popular there.
So this makes perfect sense if the pale guy is from the US and the dark-skinned guy is from another part of the world. He’s punning on the terminology difference: “This is maize, you call it corn (you weirdo).”
GP Dec 15th 2009 at 08:35 am 4
You don’t have to be old enough to remember the commercial. Beavis and Butt-head used a very similar line in reference to the commercial: “Maize. You call it corn.”
Judge Mental Dec 15th 2009 at 09:42 am 5
@Kat and @Fnord
This is not a CIDU, its a “Hey Geezers!”. Note the comments beneath the strip: “Certainly, readers of any age will get the play on words; but you had to have been around in the 70’s to recognize the quote from the Mazola commercial.”
paperboy Dec 15th 2009 at 01:39 pm 6
Man, it’s like foreign people have a different word for everything!
Tim Dec 15th 2009 at 02:39 pm 7
@paperboy, love the Steve Martin reference!
FWIW, I understood the joke, but forgot all about the Mazola commercial until I read the comment. I think it’s funny without it, but funnier if you recognize it.
Keera Dec 15th 2009 at 03:38 pm 8
I’ll never forget the Mazola commercial, because someone describing it introduced me to the word “patronizing”.
Fnord Dec 15th 2009 at 05:52 pm 9
@Judge Mental: I know that. I’m saying it doesn’t matter if I ever saw the commercial, it’s still a mildly amusing cartoon.
Nicole Dec 15th 2009 at 06:14 pm 10
Wait a minute — the water says that is A maze … not that is maze (maize). The joke the cartoonist is trying to make falls very flat because of the article (The joke is flat anyway). For this to make sense, and therefore no sense he would have had to say ‘This is A maze, which you call A corn’
Kat Dec 15th 2009 at 11:03 pm 11
I know the commericial, but this really is based on word play.
Around here people grow lots of corn, some farmers grow their corn in such a way that it becomes a maze (think of hedge mazes in England) People then pay money to try and find their way through the maze. If the farmer is really mean, he might have actors hiding in the dead ends waiting to scare the bajaysus out of you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_maze