Evidence That Vic Lee’s Wife Hasn’t Been in a Car in Thirty-Five Years

Cidu Bill on Mar 8th 2010

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Filed in Bill Bickel, Hey Geezers! Comics!, Pardon My Planet, Vic Lee, comic strips, comics, gasoline, humor | 34 responses so far

34 Responses to “Evidence That Vic Lee’s Wife Hasn’t Been in a Car in Thirty-Five Years”

  1. J-L Mar 8th 2010 at 12:01 pm 1

    I like this one. Clever, despite the anachronism.

  2. Scott Mar 8th 2010 at 12:38 pm 2

    Look at the sun - maybe this takes place in Mexico, where there was still leaded gas at least not very long ago.

  3. Pirk Mar 8th 2010 at 12:56 pm 3

    if this was written by the cartoonist’s wife while he had the day off, how is it drawn in the same stylel? is the author’s note fictional? if so, why? to make the crappiness of the joke seem somehow intentional or forgivable?

  4. Kate C Mar 8th 2010 at 01:53 pm 4

    I’m almost confident this issue has come up before, but: Oregon and New Jersey still have non-self-service gas stations.

  5. Cidu Bill Mar 8th 2010 at 01:56 pm 5

    Kate C, the issue here isn’t the non-self-service (living in New Jersey, that hadn’t even occurred to me), but the fact that they offer both leaded and unleaded.

  6. Elyrest Mar 8th 2010 at 02:12 pm 6

    Cidu Bill - I think the 35 years is a little off. They did start phasing out leaded gasoline in 1975. I didn’t buy my first car till the next year and it was a used 1971 Toyota Celica (I loved that car, no jokes). I’m pretty sure it used unleaded, but what I remember was that I had to check at the fuel pumps for about 10 years after that to make sure that I was getting unleaded gas. The phase-out of leaded was gradual. New cars used unleaded, but older models still used leaded.

  7. Cidu Bill Mar 8th 2010 at 02:19 pm 7

    Okay, a little research reveals that leaded gasoline disappeared from U.S. service stations in 1986 (after a decade-long phase-out). The principle still stands, of course.

  8. paperboy Mar 8th 2010 at 03:18 pm 8

    But, even if there was still leaded gasoline, what’s the joke? (Please tell me, J-L #1!) Is it pointing out that advanced civilizations don’t use lead in fuel?

  9. Keera Mar 8th 2010 at 03:18 pm 9

    …and maybe that ain’t Earth.

  10. Kevin A Mar 8th 2010 at 03:23 pm 10

    I see no anachronism or inexperience here; the pumps, the nozzle, the uniform, and the presence of (dual-exhaust?) UFOs are all from many decades ago. Would you ask if cartoons depicting Washington by a cherry tree are done by people who haven’t voted in 230 years? Perhaps the UFOs do predate unleaded gasoline but I’m pretty sure I heard about new ones on Coast to Coast since then.

    But categorizing this as “Hey Geezers! Comics!”?, yes. Most kids don’t know about the leaded/unleaded choice.

  11. Dyfsunctional Mar 8th 2010 at 03:23 pm 11

    paperboy: The joke is that the spaceship has “UFO” written on it, which the attendant reads as “unidentified flying object” but instead means “unleaded fuel only.” (Not part of the joke: The attendant isn’t sharp enough to see the irony of “unidentified” as an identifier.)

  12. Dyfsunctional Mar 8th 2010 at 03:26 pm 12

    I’d like to officially ask “joke” “writers” everywhere to quit doing what’s described on the tvtropes site as “lampshading:” deliberately drawing attention to the crappiness of something in the hopes that it makes it less crappy. It doesn’t.

  13. Keera Mar 8th 2010 at 03:27 pm 13

    Dys, I actually read it the other way around: The attendant sees a spaceship with UFO on it and figures UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object, only to be corrected by the two aliens whose ship runs on unleaded.

  14. Kevin A Mar 8th 2010 at 03:41 pm 14

    Keera - how is that the other way around?

  15. George P Mar 8th 2010 at 05:13 pm 15

    Elyrest, ST or GT? My brother had a ‘72 ST and I had a ‘74 GT. It was my first car and definitely one of my favorites. It’s the only car I’ve ever owned that had a full set of gauges.

  16. paperboy Mar 8th 2010 at 05:28 pm 16

    Thanks, Dyfsunctional #11-( I feel as thick as a brick.)

  17. Mark M Mar 8th 2010 at 06:38 pm 17

    Seems like replacing regular with diesel would have made the same joke, without being 25 years behind the times.

  18. Its Justme Mar 8th 2010 at 06:58 pm 18

    Ok, lighten up on Lisa. She’s an amateur after all. She was just doing a nice thing for hubby.

  19. Kamino Neko Mar 8th 2010 at 07:34 pm 19

    Mark M - since the joke is based on ‘UFO’, no, it wouldn’t have worked.

  20. Elyrest Mar 8th 2010 at 08:00 pm 20

    George P (15) I had a ‘71 GT and you’re right about all those gauges. Wow, I loved to just look at them. I know people always love their first cars, but that one was special.

  21. furrykef Mar 8th 2010 at 09:29 pm 21

    I’d like to officially ask “joke” “writers” everywhere to quit doing what’s described on the tvtropes site as “lampshading:” deliberately drawing attention to the crappiness of something in the hopes that it makes it less crappy. It doesn’t.

    Disagree. Lampshading can be funny or otherwise appropriate in the right circumstances. The problem is when you try to make lampshading a central element. This is why Seltzer & Friedberg movies suck, because they think that lampshading = parody and therefore it consists entirely of lampshading.

    (Though I suppose it’s partly how you define “lampshade”. You defined it as pointing out that you’re aware that something is crappy; the TV Tropes definition merely means pointing out awareness that a trope is in use. Tropes Are Not Bad, so the two aren’t equivalent.)

    This cartoon is definitely one where lampshading adds nothing, though. But then, maybe it’s a genuine apology rather than an attempt to make the joke look better…

    - Kef

  22. Cidu Bill Mar 8th 2010 at 09:39 pm 22

    If you prohibit lampshading, you’ll lose the best Sunday Pearls Before Swine strips.

  23. Mark in Boston Mar 8th 2010 at 10:10 pm 23

    The lead in gasoline was tetra-ethyl lead, often indicated as “ethyl” on the gas pumps.

    That and the price of gasoline around 1950 explains a very old joke: a guy thinks a gas station is something other than what it is when he see the sign:

    4 Gals For $1

    TRY ETHYL

  24. Keera Mar 9th 2010 at 01:41 am 24

    Kevin #14, I was reading Dys’ comment rather late in the evening, I see.

  25. The Bad Seed Mar 9th 2010 at 06:02 am 25

    She shoulda scrapped the crappy UFO joke and had them ask for “un-carbonated” gas or “un-magnesiumed” gas or something else equally absurd.

  26. Morris Keesan Mar 9th 2010 at 09:39 am 26

    My wife still tells gas-pump jockeys to put “regular unleaded” in her car.

  27. KateinPA Mar 9th 2010 at 01:28 pm 27

    Doesn’t the attendant know that UFO means Unleaded Flying Object?

  28. David Mar 9th 2010 at 05:58 pm 28

    In 1989 I picked up a Volvo in at the factory in Gothenburg and drove as far south as Rome and then back up again. At that time leaded and unleaded were sold in Europe, so Volvo kept the catalytic converter and installed it when the car was returned to be shipped to the U.S. Of course next to the fuel filler was a sign in several languages “unleaded fuel only”. Since unleaded was one heck of a lot more expensive than leaded, I used the latter exclusively, which led to some rather interesting exchanges with the station attendants, and tested my ability in a number of languages.

  29. Mark M Mar 9th 2010 at 06:55 pm 29

    Kamino Neko - Why? The attendant would be pumping diesel when the vehicle is “UFO”. How is that different than pumping regular when the vehicle is “UFO”?

  30. Hunt Mar 10th 2010 at 09:44 am 30

    The PMP panel for today has the woman saying that she knows she’s supposed to put her hands at “10 and 2.” That’s obsolete, too, apparently–now new drivers are taught to put their hands at the bottom of the wheel because of the air bag in the middle.

  31. Pirk Mar 10th 2010 at 10:15 am 31

    Hunt -
    I was taught “10 and 2″ just four years ago

  32. Andrea Mar 13th 2010 at 03:23 pm 32

    Morris Keesan - “Regular unleaded” was an oxymoron before leaded gasoline disappeared from the market, but now is often used to distinguish standard unleaded gasoline from things like “premium” or “super premium.”

  33. Morris Keesan Mar 13th 2010 at 04:17 pm 33

    My point is that asking for “regular unleaded” is redundant when you can’t get leaded gasoline. Asking for “regular” is enough.

  34. Lyn Mar 15th 2010 at 07:18 am 34

    In Australia we have Diesel, two or three kinds of unleaded and often gas at the same pump, so this makes sense.

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