Comics I Don’t Understand

Escher

Cidu Bill on Feb 17th 2012

I see what’s going on here, but what’s the joke?

Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Hilary B. Price, M.C. Escher, Rhymes With Orange, comic strips, comics, humor | 27 responses so far

27 Responses to “Escher”

Lola Feb 16th 2012 at 11:11 pm 1

That you don’t know which direction they were undressing? That’s all I got.
David A. Rooney Feb 16th 2012 at 11:18 pm 2

That they’re never going to get to the bedroom?
Kit Feb 17th 2012 at 12:01 am 3

It’s a Kilgore Trout story, better as an idea than fleshed out . . .
Proginoskes Feb 17th 2012 at 02:39 am 4

Escher’s “Ascending and Descending”. Google an image.
mitch4 Feb 17th 2012 at 04:24 am 5

The passion is always rising, without having to reach a limit.
felixthecat Feb 17th 2012 at 07:43 am 6

This comic, though rightly a CIDU, is not really meant to be understood. It is the result of “brain dribble”; that is, the artist is under pressure to submit something, anything, so sometimes whatever slop dribbles from their brain is inked out and submitted. (”Brevity”, it should be noted, is an especially egregious example of this.)
Bob in Nashville Feb 17th 2012 at 07:49 am 7

What’s going on is the joke. As Kit said, better as an idea than fleshed out.

Just an absurdist joke that fell short.
The Bad Seed Feb 17th 2012 at 08:59 am 8

Thanks, Kit, for putting a smile on my face with the Kilgore Trout mention. Hi ho!
The Bad Seed Feb 17th 2012 at 08:59 am 9

Thanks, Kit, for putting a smile on my face with the Kilgore Trout mention. Hi ho!
The Bad Seed Feb 17th 2012 at 08:59 am 10

Thanks, Kit, for putting a smile on my face with the Kilgore Trout mention. Hi ho!
The Bad Seed Feb 17th 2012 at 08:59 am 11

Thanks, Kit, for putting a smile on my face with the Kilgore Trout mention. Hi ho!
The Bad Seed Feb 17th 2012 at 09:00 am 12

Oops, sorry, Bill, inexplicable iPad malfunction.
Powers Feb 17th 2012 at 09:20 am 13

Maybe the gentleman is supposed to be M.C. Escher?
Judge Mental Feb 17th 2012 at 10:01 am 14

@Proginoskes #4

Not to be spiteful, but “Thanks, Captain Obvious”.

We get the reference, what is the joke?

Sorry for being crotchety about it, but not only did Bill say “I see what is going on here”, he filed the cartoon under “M.C. Escher”, meaning he understood who “Escher” is. Even if you one hasn’t seen that particular piece, if you know Escher, you understand the non-orientable nature of his artwork.
zbicyclist Feb 17th 2012 at 11:18 am 15

All I got: As they climb the staircase repeatedly, they alternatively put clothes on during one trip (maybe eating breakfast?) and take them off the next (kissing again), in an endless cycle.

Perhaps this is Hillary Price’s vision of marriage.
J-L Feb 17th 2012 at 11:32 am 16

Considering the title, “Escher’s Seduction,” I think it’s a play on how people are turned on (or seduced) when their partner takes off their clothes, one at a time, on the stairs.

So if normal people are seduced when this happens on normal stairs, Escher gets turned on when it’s done on… well, you know… “infinistairs.”
Matthew Feb 17th 2012 at 11:40 am 17

As with some of Escher’s best stuff, the explanation will ruin it.

It’s funny. End of story (unlike the staircase itself, which has no end).
Pete Feb 17th 2012 at 12:32 pm 18

As Worf on Deep Space 9 said: I get it. It’s not funny, but I get it.

It’s the combination of 2 clichéd images.
1) the loving couple who climb the stairs to the bedroom, dropping clothes as they go
2) the impossible staircase that wraps round onto itself.

So the couple climb the stairs, dropping their clothes, and end up back where they started. That’s the whole joke. It isn’t a funny joke, but that’s all there is to it.

Maybe you should have a separate category for jokes like this. Maybe call them Worfies, or something similar.
Detcord Feb 17th 2012 at 01:45 pm 19

I’d say the “message” here is that the cycle of lust is never-ending… Except, what happens when they run out of clothes? Or do they start to put them back on again only to take them off - again and again?
The Bad Seed Feb 17th 2012 at 02:44 pm 20

In retrospect, I guess my iPad quadruple-posting misadventure this morning might have been construed as a clever commentary on the Escher endless stairs… Yeah, I’ll stick with that story!
ja Feb 17th 2012 at 03:21 pm 21

It takes a special woman to appreciate a recursive set of stairs. Escher’s found his match.
George P Feb 17th 2012 at 08:37 pm 22

Kilgore Trout existed for ideas that wouldn’t work fleshed out, even though Phillip Jose Farmer fleshed out Venus on the Half-Shell. I read it in the ’70s during the stretch where I was reading every Vonnegut I could find, but I remember nothing about it, so it probably shouldn’t have been fleshed out.

So I guess the fact that Farmer wrote a Kilgore Trout book is the funny idea, but the execution of it (the book) wasn’t.
arvy Feb 17th 2012 at 11:42 pm 23

Probably not what the cartoonist was alluding to, but… “The French say that the best part of an affair is going up the stairs. Desire is almost always more thrilling than fulfillment” (from “Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates”)
Dr. Shrinker Feb 18th 2012 at 01:45 pm 24

Wouldn’t the joke have made more sense if they wound up fully dressed again? (Still not very funny, but at least something)…
Jack Feb 19th 2012 at 09:13 pm 25

Sort of a mobius strip.
mitch4 Feb 20th 2012 at 07:23 am 26

Jack #24 — Fair enough, it’s sort of a Mobius strip. But actual Mobius strips (for instance, as a climbing frame with ants going around it) are well represented among Escher’s many interesting, intricate, sometimes ouzzling, often mathematically-based art works.
mitch4 Feb 20th 2012 at 07:25 am 27

(If you find “ouzzling” at all puzzling … that would be the right correction!)