Parking Lot
Cidu Bill on Jan 21st 2010
Jack Applin (one of several people to send this to me): I get the implication of “You’re in the marines? The army must have rejected you,” but the significance of the parking lot escapes me. Are Dr. Shipley’s marine skills doubled in parking lots, so he can easily kill Leo for this offense?
Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Doonesbury, G.B. Trudeau, comic strips, comics, humor | 22 responses so far
furrykef Jan 22nd 2010 at 12:20 am 1
I think he just means it’s a suitable location for beating somebody up. You know how a common threat is “You wanna take it outside?” — they’re already “outside”.
bAT L. Jan 22nd 2010 at 02:01 am 2
I was thinking that the Salvation Army may be right outside, ringing their bell for charity, but that would only serve as back up for the blonde guy, right? I think furrykef got this one, but it is an awfully confusing way to phrase it.
chuckers Jan 22nd 2010 at 05:00 am 3
“Let’s take it out to the parking lot” is also an acceptable variation of “taking it outside.”
Mitch4 Jan 22nd 2010 at 07:32 am 4
I was puzzled too, but finally took it much the way Kef and Chuckers explain.
Nicole Jan 22nd 2010 at 07:44 am 5
Many fights stereotypically happen in parking lots. Shippley is jokingly saying “Them’s fightin’ words’
Tim Jan 22nd 2010 at 08:32 am 6
Inside, we need to behave. We’re in the parking lot, let’s get it on.
I already passed this on to all my Marine friends yesterday.
Karen Jan 22nd 2010 at 09:22 am 7
I have never heard this phrase–”take it to the parking lot”–as an alternate to “you want to take it outside”. Weird. I’m glad somebody else sent this in, because it had me scratching my head yesterday.
Lihtox Jan 22nd 2010 at 10:09 am 8
@Karen: I haven’t neither, but then I don’t hang out in places where such requests would be made.
Morris Keesan Jan 22nd 2010 at 10:11 am 9
But outside in the parking lot, there are witnesses; notice the passerby in the background in the third panel.
padraig Jan 22nd 2010 at 10:23 am 10
Yeah, could have been more explicit, like “You realize I know 8 ways to kill you without even turning around to face you, right?”
Rasheed Jan 22nd 2010 at 11:14 am 11
Padraig, I don’t think all that would fit in the word bubble. And I don’t know about EVERYWHERE, but here in Dallas, there always seems to be some sort of rumble on the news every other week in a parking lot.
Mark M Jan 22nd 2010 at 11:22 am 12
Morris, he’s not worried about witnesses. I don’t follow the strip but it appears they leaving a workplace office - far less potential for getting into trouble in a public parking lot.
Astronomical Jan 22nd 2010 at 12:19 pm 13
I’m more confused by this:
“Sorry for what?”
“Being…marine. Army reject you.”
It makes no sense. I could understand if it said:
“Sorry for what?”
“Being a marine. Army reject you?”
or
“Sorry for what?”
“Being a marine, you Army reject.”
As it stands, it’s very confusing. Is the character supposed to have a strong accent or something?
Jesse Cline Jan 22nd 2010 at 01:49 pm 14
Doones-
bury is real-
ly hard to read
with all the hyph-
ens. Gary Tru-
deau has got-
ten so la-
zy. Photo-
shop has kern-
ning for a reas-
on. Use it.
Molly J Jan 22nd 2010 at 02:59 pm 15
I’ve heard phrases along the lines of “I’d better be careful leaving. I’ll probably get jumped in the parking lot for saying that.” Maybe that’s the intended reference?
paperboy Jan 22nd 2010 at 03:37 pm 16
Jesse Cline#13- Are you saying Trudeau doesn’t even do his own lettering??
Jeff S. Jan 22nd 2010 at 04:30 pm 17
paper-
boy @15
I think he’s say-
ing that all the hy-
phens are an-
noy-
ing
buzz Jan 22nd 2010 at 11:15 pm 18
The Army has traditionally razzed on the Marines as being an inferior service. There’s a classic story of an Army artillery instructor at Ft. Sill starting off his class by cracking a few Marine jokes, and one of the Army students, realizing there was a Marine office in the class, stood up and said, “Sir, there’s an M-a-r-i-n-e in the r-o-o-m.”
Since the younger character can’t drive because of his brain injury, I think the parking lot reference is along the lines of “do you want to walk home”?
zbicyclist Jan 22nd 2010 at 11:45 pm 19
@buzz, doesn’t every service feel every other service is inferior?
Robert Jan 23rd 2010 at 07:33 pm 20
Somehow, I don’t imagine the Coast Guard looking down on any of the other four, but that’s just me.
My dad was Army in WWII, and told his four sons there were only two things he would not be willing for forgive us for, and one of them was joining the Army. One of my brothers joined the Air Force; my dad said it was the only branch a modern human being would willing be in. My brother was peacetime AF medic in West Germany, back when there _was_ a West Germany. Went to uni on the GI Bill, wound up as a contract negotiator for the DoD. Socialism been berry berry good to him.
(By the way, the other thing my dad would not forgive - working in the Post Office. Yup, he was career USPS. When I came out to him, I joked, ‘hey, at least it’ll keep me out of the Army,’ and he had to agree that yes, there was an upside).
mitch4 Jan 24th 2010 at 07:02 pm 21
@Astronomical — He’s still recovering from a head injury and doesn’t always use full syntax.
Snardo Feb 9th 2010 at 10:32 am 22
I think the joke is lost on me. From what I understand, the Marines are far more selective/restricitive in their recruiting than the Army is. Look at either tattoo restrictions - the Marines have more restricitive rules, or criminal history restrictiions - again, the Marines are more selective.