Comments on: Maybe It Would Have Made More Sense If He’d Said ”Catsup”

By: Todd

Todd — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:49:07 +0000

I wonder if maybe the artist had originally intended it to be “birth”, then realized that he couldn’t do that without getting in a lot of trouble, so settled for catsup as giving blood.

(Firefox does not like that spelling of catsup. It will take ketchup, and even catchup, though.)

By: Morris Keesan

Morris Keesan — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:53:31 +0000

turquoise cow #14: If that were a doctor, I guess it would be wearing a stethoscope and a lab coat. But when was the last time you saw a doctor at a blood[/ketchup] donation site? I’ve always had my arm punctured by nurses. And since the tomato who’s speaking isn’t wearing a necktie[*], that probably means it’s a shemato, which would match the stereotype of nurses (and my experience of blood-drive nurses).

[* Am I the only one who read the discussion above of necktie vs. no pants, and thought of Alice and Humpty Dumpty, and the confusion over whether Humpty was wearing a cravat or a belt?]

By: Pinny

Pinny — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:59:36 +0000

“The Source of Tomato Sauce”

(For NYers like me “source” and “sauce” are homophones.)

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:38:37 +0000

mkilby (15) - So sorry to put that image in your head. Of course now it’s stuck in mine. You’re right EEWWW!

By: mkilby

mkilby — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:20:57 +0000

@ Elyrest (10) - If the cartoonist had really meant the “purse” to go in the direction of “childbirth”, then the caption would have been “The Birth of Ketchup”, the collection method wouldn’t have been intravenous, but rather something else entirely unpublishable, and this would have been the biggest EEWWW of all time.

By: turquoise cow

turquoise cow — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:39:45 +0000

I’m okay with tomatoes not wearing pants - tomatoes don’t wear pants. I’m opposed to tomatoes wearing ties, as they do not wear those. If tomatoes do wear ties, then they should wear shirts. This tomato has a collar, but not a shirt, or pants, or shoes. And why is the male generic tomato wearing a tie while the supposedly male doctor tomato is wearing nothing and the female tomato is also wearing nothing? If anything, I would think that the doctor tomato would be wearing a lab coat, a tie, or perhaps a stethoscope to indicate his profession. (I don’t know how a tomato would wear a stethoscope). I guess glasses were supposed to indicate that the doctor is “smart” because only smart people (or tomatoes?) wear glasses.

I’m probably thinking too much about it. I’ll stop now.

By: J-L

J-L — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:14:57 +0000

“The Origin of Ketchup” is indeed the wrong caption.

The correct caption should read: “Frog Ophthalmology”.

By: Kevin A

Kevin A — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:08:19 +0000

I was a big fan of superhero origin comics in the 70s and also similar real-life stories. I think “origin” works better here. It’s implying the early way that tomato “blood” was extracted for the uses of the Heinz company. It may not even be ketchup yet. That use may have been discovered later. Like when that guy tasted aspartame for the first time. It certainly is far different from the way we harvest the primary ingredient of ketchup today, and so I feel “source” doesn’t fit at all.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:29:39 +0000

This is a case of not knowing when to stop. If you remove the bottom “The Origin of Ketchup” it starts to work. There needs to be a bed/table that the fainting tomato just got off of to make sense of him. Throw in a few more Heinz bottles and there you go.

And pants. I blame Ziggy for the pantless trend.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:58:58 +0000

I understood the comic when I read it, but I thought the fainting male tomato just made it confusing. You have a female (note purse) on a medical table. Male is fainting - often happens during childbirth. The “Origin of Ketchup” is the only thing that helped make sense of the comic. I admit that source most likely makes more sense, but the fainting guy is what screwed it up for me.