Pun alert!
Gasoline Alley, 11/6/04
I would just like to point out that the soul who, up until mere moments before the action in this strip, was resting under the stone angel in the first panel was named Moira Less. Get it? It’s like “more or less.” Get it? Get it?
The guy in the mausoleum next door is named Uriah Pert; I’ve been staring at that for ten minutes, and I have to admit that I don’t get it. Please explain it to me, somebody. I do appreciate that ol’ Uriah had a big dollar sign put on his gravestone. Me, I’m going to put all kinds of freaky Masonic symbols and stuff on mine, so that someday some pot-addled teenaged conspiracy buffs will stumble upon it and it’ll blow their little minds.
Mike Donovan
November 8th, 2004 at 11:21 am
According to this website ( http://kinnexions.com/reunion/wallet/fh_toc.htm ) “Uriah Pert” is an old character from the strip. I’ve actually never heard of Gasoline Alley, so I had my friend Google look it up.
I suppose this is how they decided to let us all know that this character is dead. It saves us lots of drama.
from the site:
“Other Gasoline Alley regulars have included: Avery (married once), Doc, Joel, and Rufus (father died in 1962; pets are Becky and Kitty), Melba (had an Uncle Ben), Cousin Caleb (has an Uncle Menlo), and Uriah Pert (his sister married Mr. Bobble, and had son Wilmer Bobble who married Jessica).“
JM
November 8th, 2004 at 1:00 pm
Do you think Scanarelli is allowed to let Walt pass on to the Great Inkwell in the Sky? Poor oldster is something like 105 years old now. His adopted “nephew” Skeezix at least is just 83, so he might have a few more years in him (or many more, if he somehow magically picked up the long-life genes from his “uncle”).
JM
November 8th, 2004 at 1:02 pm
Oh wait, from that site I see that Walt died earlier this year and I missed it somehow. Well, there you go.
Mark Jackson
November 8th, 2004 at 4:51 pm
“Walt died earlier this year. . .”
No, check again. That part refers to his wife, Phyllis – although Scancarelli milked the event for all it was worth, making it obvious that someone in the Wallet family had died, but concealing the person’s identity for much longer than seemed at all appropriate.
Dunno if regular readers would know if old man Pert was dead or not.
Robin
November 9th, 2004 at 10:14 am
If readers hadn’t already known Pert was dead, wouldn’t they have figured it out from the story in the last few weeks, in which Bobble and Jessica have been hunting through underground tunnels looking for the fortune that disappeared when Pert died?
Mark Jackson
November 9th, 2004 at 10:57 am
Dunno if regular readers could apply logic that reliably.
(I’m kidding – GA is no longer in a paper I read daily, and doesn’t make the cut for my regular web browsing, so I have no idea what went on in recent arcs.)
Josh
November 9th, 2004 at 11:07 am
What has poor old Uriah done to deserve having his grave desecrated? Hasn’t he been through enough? The HUMANITY.
Brent McKee
November 9th, 2004 at 6:53 pm
What old Uriah did to have his grave desecrated was try to take it with him. Remember what happened to the assorted Pharoahs who tried that little trick? Same thing.
rgarhe
September 28th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
i dont really get “more or less” either. it sounds like moira less, but is that actually a pun?
The Porridge Bird
February 9th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
“is that actually a pun?”
More or less.
Alkibiades
March 9th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
I assume it has something to do with the Greek Moirea–a.k.a. the Fates. This fits in well with Josh’s excellent theory about Cartoonists as failed classicists.
Zach
February 24th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Puns are the lowest form of humor.