Thing Becomes a Human Torch

Cidu Bill on Jan 21st 2010

thing1.gif
These are, for those who don’t recognize them, the Cat in the Hat’s little buddies

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss, comic strips, comics, humor, spontaneous combustion | 22 responses so far

22 Responses to “Thing Becomes a Human Torch”

  1. Taigan Jan 20th 2010 at 11:12 pm 1

    I find your title funnier than the comic itself.

  2. Marshal Jan 21st 2010 at 12:24 am 2

    I like this one better.
    http://www.popculturecomics.com/graphics/archive/strips/2010-01%20January/2010-01-20.gif

  3. Rainey Jan 21st 2010 at 12:46 am 3

    Thing 1 will be able to drop the number from his name. I’m guessing this has something to do with the joke. Otherwise, I’m stumped.

  4. Kit Jan 21st 2010 at 01:35 am 4

    As Taigan has already noted, you . . . uh . . . have a way with words, I guess . . .

  5. Kamino Neko Jan 21st 2010 at 01:58 am 5

    It might be a joke about the ‘in pop culture’ sections that get added to almost any wikipedia entry (see this xkcd comic)….

    Only instead of going the route xkcd did and showing a potential ridiculous ‘In Popular Culture’ section…they show a pop culture character spontaneously combusting.

    A long way around for a joke, granted, but…it fits.

    Or, it could just be going for random weirdness.

  6. Arthur Jan 21st 2010 at 02:02 am 6

    Or, it could be the slang meaning
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spontaneous+combustion
    turning into the real thing.

  7. Molly J Jan 21st 2010 at 02:58 am 7

    So, if Thing 1 now goes on to find a new partner in crime, would it be Thing 3? Thing 2 II, Thing 2b?

  8. Dave Jan 21st 2010 at 03:06 am 8

    Call me dumb but I still don’t get it.. unless it just isn’t funny in any way.

  9. Lord-z Jan 21st 2010 at 06:49 am 9

    Popculture Comics has this thing it does, it mentions something from pop culture, then harms it, and it assumes that that automatically makes it hilarious. “Oh, I recognise this from something I saw once. And it has been violently killed. Hilarious”.

  10. Ian Osmond Jan 21st 2010 at 07:19 am 10

    I think Lord-z has it. I don’t think there’s any deeper meaning here than, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Thing 2 from the Cat in the Hat spontaneously combusted?”

    The answer, of course, is “no, no it wouldn’t,” but I don’t think there’s a point beyond that.

  11. GP Jan 21st 2010 at 09:15 am 11

    Like Kamino Neko, I think it’s a reference to the ubiquitous wikipedia article section. The “in popular culture” section of an article on spontaneous human combustion would likely list shows/movies/songs that reference the phenomenon. I guess the idea is that this type of pop-culture reference would be unexpected and therefore funny:

    - An episode of CSI: Miami involved a case of possible spontaneous human combustion
    - The radio show Coast to Coast AM discusses reports of SHC
    - Dr. Seuss’s children’s book The Cat in the Hat involved a character dying of SHC
    - An episode of Mythbusters investigated the possibility of this phenomenon

  12. Molly J Jan 21st 2010 at 10:23 am 12

    GP - Don’t forget Spinal Tap. They got through more drummers that way…

  13. Elyrest Jan 21st 2010 at 12:21 pm 13

    It’s not very funny and even worse it doesn’t inspire many comments.

  14. John Small Berries Jan 21st 2010 at 12:23 pm 14

    As an alternative to the caption being a reference to Wikipedia’s “in popular culture” sections, it might be a self-reference. The comic is named “Pop Culture Shock Therapy”, which would make the caption merely descriptive of the image: “Spontaneous Combustion in Pop Culture”.

    That’s not really all that funny either, though.

  15. Kate C Jan 21st 2010 at 12:39 pm 15

    Lord-z: I feel any number of web comics (including Medium Large, which I like) can be described as “mentioning a pop culture figure, bringing harm upon it (or implying it is involved in sexual/violent activities), and then assuming that automatically makes it hilarious.”

  16. Dyfsunctional Jan 21st 2010 at 01:53 pm 16

    Terrible violence inflicted upon pop culture icons is pretty much the whole premise of Robot Chicken. They do it with a bit more style than this, though.

  17. Molly J Jan 22nd 2010 at 04:01 am 17

    Ah, now. Don’t diss the Chicken. It’s way more clever (most of the time) than this little comic strip.

  18. John Small Berries Jan 22nd 2010 at 11:37 am 18

    Robot Chicken doesn’t always use violence as a substitute for actual comedy, though they do tend to fall back on it a lot.

    The supervillain carpool, for example, has to be one of the funniest sketches of the entire series.

  19. Zandermann Jan 22nd 2010 at 12:59 pm 19

    or maybe… now that we have the Thing and the Torch, we then need two more to make up the Fantastic Four

  20. CIDU Bill Jan 22nd 2010 at 01:09 pm 20

    Zandermann, there’s always this Medium Large classic.

  21. Jeff S. Jan 22nd 2010 at 04:45 pm 21

    Today was good.
    Today was real fun.
    Thing One is now
    Hotter than the sun.

    Thing Two is sad
    He lost a close friend.
    A pile of ashes
    Mark his fiery end.

  22. Robert Jan 23rd 2010 at 07:37 pm 22

    Sometimes the CIDUs remind me of a late ‘Far Side’ - I only remember the caption:
    “Title: It Was Late and I Was Tired.”

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