Balloon

Cidu Bill on Sep 9th 2010

balloon.png

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Dave Coverly, Speed Bump, comic strips, comics, humor | 26 responses so far

26 Responses to “Balloon”

  1. Molly J Sep 9th 2010 at 12:04 am 1

    Is that an actual bird in that balloon? He does look a little blue and oxygen deprived.

  2. Jeff S. Sep 9th 2010 at 12:06 am 2

    Based on the length of the tail, I think they are cats… but I don’t get why he’s holding a bird balloon. That’s like us humans holding balloons with cows or fish or veggies on them.

  3. Pirk Sep 9th 2010 at 12:18 am 3

    is it on it or in it?

  4. Molly J Sep 9th 2010 at 12:27 am 4

    Maybe it’s like some kind of toy with “candy” inside.

  5. captainswift Sep 9th 2010 at 12:48 am 5

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure the bird is inside the balloon. I’m not sure of the motive, though.

  6. mitch4 Sep 9th 2010 at 01:20 am 6

    At first I took it as The Bluebird of Happiness. But it looks distressed, not happy.

  7. mitch4 Sep 9th 2010 at 01:24 am 7

    And anyway it’s not a bluebird (though a bird and at least blue-ish). It’s a hummingbird.

    So that’s the next hypothesis: They have floating balloons powered not by helium but by the hovering abilities of hummingbirds.

  8. James Pollock Sep 9th 2010 at 01:46 am 8

    Cats like to play with their prey before they kill it.

  9. "farmerjoe" Sep 9th 2010 at 02:31 am 9

    I don’t think it’s an actual bird, there are no “motion lines” - it wouldn’t be just floating in mid-air like that, even in a comic.

  10. Kilby Sep 9th 2010 at 02:47 am 10

    Little kids used to win (or buy) goldfish in plastic bags at carnivals: instead of that, this little kitten won a bird in a balloon. True, there’s no active indication of motion, but the dazzled eyes and the carefully rendered 3-D coloration effect on the balloon make it unlikely that the bird was simply intended to be a printed design.

  11. Igelino Sep 9th 2010 at 04:40 am 11

    I think Molly J #4 is right. At the fair you can buy balloons with things inside. Some are too big to fit through the balloon’s opening - I suppose they have a machine that stretches it open. Toys or candy are inside. For the kitten, the thing inside is a birdie.

  12. Farmer Sep 9th 2010 at 07:40 am 12

    The bird is the dove of peace trapped and slowly asphyxiating inside a blood-red ever-shrinking bubble, symbolizing how all parties in the Middle East Peace Process are unable to break free for a solution…..carried by a cartoon cat or possibly Scottie dog on a sidewalk. Yeah, I got nothing either.

    Wierd thing is how poignant the image is…the cats(?) with their backs turned, the wide-eyed look of the bird, the colored sky… it really does come across as a serious cartoon, not a funny one.

  13. PB Sep 9th 2010 at 09:41 am 13

    I think the joke is that its “explained” why a balloon flies. Because there’s a bird inside …

  14. Karen Sep 9th 2010 at 09:49 am 14

    I think James Pollock got it. I have cats and one, in particular, is a cruel little thing. He will catch a chipmunk, and bring it to the yard, still alive, and play with it. And play with it. Until the poor thing dies and then he eats it.

    So this cartoon is an extension of the “cats play with their food”, only with anthropomorphized cats wearing clothes. Huh.

  15. Keera Sep 9th 2010 at 10:54 am 15

    I thought it was the Twitter bird until I read the comments.

  16. James Pollock Sep 9th 2010 at 10:54 am 16

    I could buy into PB’s explanation @ 13, if it were people and not cats. A small child with a balloon imagining a bird in it keeping it up in the air makes comedic sense… but then the fact that they’re cats is a distraction (cats don’t understand lighter-than-air buoyancy?)

  17. BoT Sep 9th 2010 at 11:12 am 17

    The way the balloon is ‘windowed’ to allow us to see the bird inside is evidence that it’s an opaque balloon. So the cat, as far as he knows, is walking around with a normal party balloon. The bird that’s inside (for god knows what reason) must remain flying inside an opaque balloon without resting to prevent the cats from discovering it, which they surely would if he stopped and weighed the balloon down.

    Or that’s my guess. Whatever guess is correct has to take in to account that the bird is un-seeable from the outside.

  18. Skaloop Sep 9th 2010 at 11:26 am 18

    They are taking their bird for a “walk”. Just like we put leashes on dogs, they put one on the bird. But since it flies, a leash is not as practical. So they stick it in a ballon, to keep it from flying away. Not that a balloon is more practical, but it is a comic, so I shall suspend some disbelief.

  19. asap Sep 9th 2010 at 11:32 am 19

    “A bird in the hand is worth worth more than two in the …”

  20. paperboy Sep 9th 2010 at 01:22 pm 20

    James Pollack#8 seems right, but the balloon is still a distraction. I seem to recall an old cartoon about a cat “playing with it’s food” by having a card game with a mouse, which emphasized the concept, but just holding a balloon doesn’t qualify as “playing”.

  21. Rainey Sep 9th 2010 at 01:31 pm 21

    PB’S explanation reminds me of a “theory” of little people existing inside television sets.

  22. Dr. Shrinker Sep 9th 2010 at 03:33 pm 22

    I thought it was a reference to these iconic Disneyland balloons that my parents NEVER bought me when I was a child

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/major_clanger/61053292/

  23. AMC Sep 10th 2010 at 08:50 am 23

    My thoughts were, initially, in line with Dr. Shrinker.

    But, my second thought was: why not a mouse for a cat?

  24. Lola Sep 10th 2010 at 05:55 pm 24

    That’s assuming they’re cats and not foxes or something else.

  25. paperboy Sep 10th 2010 at 06:05 pm 25

    Bought myself a red balloon, got a blue bird surprise…

  26. Jake Chambers Sep 10th 2010 at 08:36 pm 26

    I still don’t get it. Get Bickel on the line.

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