Comics I Don’t Understand

Red Light Special

Cidu Bill on Jan 12th 2012

Okay, but then what was Jeff supposed to be doing?

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Mutt and Jeff, comic strips, comics, humor | 10 responses so far

10 Responses to “Red Light Special”

James Pollock Jan 11th 2012 at 11:13 pm 1

He was supposed to be keeping watch on a building… from the spot where they’re standing in panel two (probably the loading dock for a warehouse, although I also get the idea of mine, or possibly a construction site based on the background art.) down to what is probably the end of the block.

But when he walked down to the red light that marked the far end of his domain, it moved away from him, and he kept following it, because it was a taillight.
furrykef Jan 12th 2012 at 01:24 am 2

It’s also implausible for him to follow a truck all that way without realizing it was a truck the whole time. I don’t think this particular strip was written with critical thinking in mind.
jjmcgaffey Jan 12th 2012 at 01:31 am 3

It’s Mutt & Jeff…critical thinking definitely doesn’t enter into it. The funniest thing about M&J for me is the way the two of them switch roles - the “dumb one” can be either of them, in any particular strip. Though Jeff (short one) gets it most often - and frequently wins thereby.
George P. Jan 12th 2012 at 01:46 am 4

It’s a construction site early in the process, since they are digging the foundation.
Jim Moore Jan 12th 2012 at 06:15 am 5

This is an old vaudeville gag. You can also see it in the Three Stooges short, “Three Little Pigskins”.
Ooten Aboot Jan 12th 2012 at 06:24 am 6

In panel one, the boss pointed out a fixed red light. Later, Jeff mistook a truck’s tail light (there was often only one tail light in the old days) for the one that marked his boundary.

Perhaps it was foggy. I recall a story, from about the same era, of the driver who was crawling along a road in thick fog, following the white line, when suddenly he found himself in the ditch and realized the white line was on the back of a skunk. That may have been another M & J strip.
Scott Jan 12th 2012 at 12:21 pm 7

Justin Wilson also told a joke (an old one, no doubt) about a drunk who followed railroad tracks thinking it was a ladder.
Anyhow, Jeff should go into long distance running, being able to keep up with a truck all the way to Chicago.
Mark in Boston Jan 12th 2012 at 07:09 pm 8

And once Mutt bought a motorcycle and crashed it into a car that very night. He thought the two headlights coming at him were two motorcycles and tried to drive between them.
Lola Jan 12th 2012 at 10:49 pm 9

But where is the starting point? Cicero? Let’s face it, if it’s even a block he’s an idiot but by comic logic, that’s better than NYC or Detroit.
Ooten Aboot Jan 13th 2012 at 05:50 am 10

I thought Cicero was Mutt’s son.