Totally not the New Yorker
This week’s cartoon is submitted by Ben, that bike-ridin’ fool from Harrisburg, PA. Ben “explains” that this is a surrealistic cartoon. Well, being literary tends to make one literal, so I assumed that that object in the foreground is a foot, belonging to someone who I’ll also assume is a guy and the dog’s owner. I wanted to know from Ben whether the guy/owner or the dog is supposed to be talking, since it’s a fairly well-established rule in cartooning that the reader should be able to recognize the character who’s speaking.* Ben’s answer, that in a surrealistic cartoon identities are not necessarily well-defined, didn’t work for me. In the following captions, the dog is the default speaker, but occasionally the owner speaks up. When he does so, he’s identified.
“For God’s sake, stand up and put some shoes on! You’re creeping me out!”
“I’m sorry I ate your coq au vin en croute. I thought it was my coq au vin en croute. I thought you had done something nice for me for once in your life.”
“I am a hunting dog. I’m hunting for a way out of this cul-de-sac of co-dependency that you call a ‘lifestyle.’”
(Guy/owner): “No, I’m not drunk. I’m just lying down, that’s all. Are you drunk?”
(Guy/owner): “I’m not in a hurry. I measure time in human years.
“Let me get this straight: You want me to eat your homework?”
“I know it’s organic. That’s why I’m not eating it.”
“I am a babe magnet. But I’m not a miracle worker.”
“She doesn’t like me? Well, I don’t like her.”
“If this is going to be another lecture on opposable thumbs, I’m totally not listening.”
Previous cartoons here.
*This rule springs, naturally enough, from New Yorker founder Harold Ross, who once demanded “Which elephant is talking?” Like all great editors, Ross realized that if you ask enough questions, you’ll eventually ask the right one.
