The Comics Curmudgeon

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It’s a barrel of laughs!

Six Chix, 11/20/08

As there seems to be some confusion over the meaning of this cartoon among this blog’s commentors, allow me to explain: our current economic crisis, the author posits, has the same roots as previous crises, and had we only remembered the lessons of history, we would have been able to avoid it. The two young ladies symbolize us, their falling asleep in their history class (presumably collegiate and taking place in a large lecture hall, the doors to which are at the right of the panel) represents our inability to learn from the past, and their barrel-wearing state represents poverty, the end result of the current crisis. The last bit is true because people who are clothed only by large, wooden barrels are a Universal Comics Symbol For Poverty of long standing.

I’m completely uninterested in discussing the didactic content of this cartoon, but it does bring up a question I’ve always found completely fascinating, which is: why are large, wooden barrels the Universal Comics Symbol For Poverty? I mean, I know I’m a decadent 21st century denizen who has grown accustomed to wearing garments that in relative terms cost very little, thanks to helpful Southeast Asian children with tiny, nimble fingers — certainly less than a finely crafted barrel. But is it possible that there was a time when a sturdy, wooden barrel with metal … circular dealies … that hold it together (boy, I hadn’t realized how weak a grasp I had of basic barrel vocabulary until just now) was actually cheaper than, you know, clothes? Did people really go into some kind of old-timey second-hand clothes store, sell all of their clothes (including the ones they were wearing), then walk, stark naked, up the street to the cooper (see, there’s a word that I know) to buy a barrel to wear, and have enough cash left over to afford life’s necessities? Did that happen? Because if not then, you know, barrels, what the hell?

Apartment 3-G, 11/20/08

A lot of people excuse the things they say or do when drunk by claiming that the demon booze made you say or do them; but when you’re intoxicated, you really just yourself, with less of a filter. This should make however many “Margo expounds drunkenly” strips we’re going to be treated to utterly delicious. Today, we learn that Margo really resents having to identify corpses, especially the corpses of people that she didn’t get a chance to kill, and that she believes that the intensity of your feelings about a tragedy are directly proportional to your proximity to the location where it occurred.

Ziggy, 11/20/08

Oh, Ziggy! It does seem unjust that the author of a beloved and hugely successful series of novel should get so much more money than the creator of a ~~beloved~~ somewhat tolerable bald pantsless cartoon character, doesn’t it?

Some of you have mocked this panel for being so far behind the times, to which I say: it’s Ziggy. The last Harry Potter book came out only fifteen months ago. This is in fact shockingly current.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 08:17 pm and is filed under Apartment 3-G, Six Chix, Ziggy.

153 responses to “It’s a barrel of laughs!”

Zaq
November 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pm [Reply]

Didn’t Ziggy have a joke about the 1980s Savings and Loan scandal a year or two ago? With THAT kind of track record, I’d be amazed if he made a Monica Lewinsky joke.

(Note to the writer/s of Ziggy: Please don’t make a Monica Lewinsky joke.)
odinthor
November 20th, 2008 at 8:22 pm [Reply]

Yesterthread #236. Comrade Denny. —

226 Chennux: It’s “penises” or the more Latinate “penes” … not “penae,” which is what it would be if were spelled “penus” which it is not.

It’s possible that, in his magnificence, our Galactic Emperor has not only plural penises but also plural penuses, perhaps a fresh one for each night of the week. I can just hear him chatting up some galactic beauty, saying “Hey, Babe, you put the ‘u’ in my penus! So let me put my penus in…” Well, and so on.
Dingo
November 20th, 2008 at 8:28 pm [Reply]

Hmmph. Not one comment from Josh about traitorous penises? Hell, if you google that term, this site now comes up first!
Big Sims
November 20th, 2008 at 8:30 pm [Reply]

They’re called hoops.

Wow, that was my Haley’s Comet moment. Don’t expect anymore flashes of brilliance from me for another 75 years.
Aesop
November 20th, 2008 at 8:31 pm [Reply]

I’m glad you were here to explain this Six Chix to me. At first, I was led to believe that it involved lecherous young men removing these poor young ladies’ clothes while they slept in history class.
AdamBa
November 20th, 2008 at 8:31 pm [Reply]

Staves! They are called barrel staves. Wasn’t there a Peanuts cartoon where somebody was describing how kids used to ski on barrel staves, and then at the end, the punch line is somebody asking “What are barrel staves?” I suspect Linus was involved on one end or the other.

- adam
odinthor
November 20th, 2008 at 8:33 pm [Reply]

Josh.

a sturdy, wooden barrel with metal … circular dealies … that hold it together

One of those circular dealies is an ‘oop. What? Oh, I don’t suppose we know what an ‘oop is. I suppose pater thought they were a bit common, except on the bleedin’ croquet lawn. Oh, a hoop.
AdamBa
November 20th, 2008 at 8:33 pm [Reply]

Or…maybe the staves are the wooden vertical things that make up the walls of the barrel! Ahhh, whatever, the key is to bring in the Peanuts reference.

- adam
rug thief
November 20th, 2008 at 8:33 pm [Reply]

#4, #6–the wooden bits are the staves, the metal (traditionally iron) bits are the hoops.
the crock
November 20th, 2008 at 8:36 pm [Reply]

Girls Gone Wild 907: College Chicks in Barrels
PeteMoss
November 20th, 2008 at 8:36 pm [Reply]

6chicks

These appear to be strapless barrels, therefore our sleepy co-eds are forced to hold them up with both hands. Still, it’s a stylish statement, like wooden tube-tops.

That’ll make it easier to chain them to a log!
Erik A
November 20th, 2008 at 8:37 pm [Reply]

MW: That Lynn storyline has really taken a turn for the Worth. I’m sorry, I had to work that in somewhere.
Maxim Gorky
November 20th, 2008 at 8:37 pm [Reply]

Clothes are more liquid than barrels. So, you sell your clothes for food, but can’t sell your barrel (which is a capital good, and not too desirable in hard times). Hence, you’re stuck with a barrel. It’s either that or the washing board.
Tilaney
November 20th, 2008 at 8:38 pm [Reply]

Maybe they did sell all their clothes in exchange for a barrels. Unfortunately, modern people wear less clothing and that’s why they couldn’t even afford the traditional suspenders and are stuck holding them in place.
PeteMoss
November 20th, 2008 at 8:41 pm [Reply]

A3G-

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute, here! Tommie’s collar is open, now! Ahhh, sweet booze, keep working your magic on her.

**whoops! there goes my treacherous penis!**
Dingo
November 20th, 2008 at 8:41 pm [Reply]

There’s one thing about today’s Six Chix upon which no one has commented. These women, yes, are wearing barrels. However, they are not wearing suspenders. If they had paid attention in history class they would know that people who had reached a certain level of poverty wore barrels with suspenders to hold them up. The way these two are holding the barrels, they wouldn’t last more than a New York minute or one-third of a Kessel Run.
Dingo
November 20th, 2008 at 8:43 pm [Reply]

Damn. In the time it took me to look up barrels and poverty, people did comment on it.
Dingo
November 20th, 2008 at 8:44 pm [Reply]

Traitorous, PeteMoss. A traitorous penis.
Viscount
November 20th, 2008 at 8:45 pm [Reply]

Other explanations for the stylish barrel outfits:

-They’re wearing them as a history assignment, – kind of a participant observation thing. If they had been paying attention during the barrel orientation class, they would have realized that when worn, barrels are traditionally supported with suspenders rather than with one’s hands.
-These two insecure young ladies, dismayed at their natural musky odor, are carefully aging themselves to produce a fine oak aroma with hints of citrus and a lingering floral aftertaste.
ChattyGenes
November 20th, 2008 at 8:47 pm [Reply]

To Josh:
I laughed harder at your commentary for Six Chix than I’ve laughed at anything in quite a while. And that’s saying a lot, considering all the Traitorous Penis stuff around here these days!

Thanks for the BWAHAHA!
PeteMoss
November 20th, 2008 at 8:47 pm [Reply]

Dingo @ 18

Damn! Of Course!

Also, you correction really killed the moment. Mine is a traitorous penis!
PeteMoss
November 20th, 2008 at 8:49 pm [Reply]

I do have a treacherous spleen, though.
Islamorada Girl
November 20th, 2008 at 8:50 pm [Reply]

I think the barrel wearing joke dates back to Thomas Nast, and had something to do with gambling everything away, including one’s clothes. Nast also created Santa Claus and did one hell of a caricature of Boss Tweed, who looked kind of like a really sinister Big Bird.

I think it’s greatly to Nast’s credit that he never did anything with little islands with one palm tree or people crawling across the desert sands. Okay, I’ll shut up now.
odinthor
November 20th, 2008 at 8:52 pm [Reply]

Barrels as clothing. — I suspect that barrels became haute couture for les pauvres because they were the sort of usable thing that, in earlier days, one would conceivably find, emptied of nails or pickles or whatever, in the alley behind the general store—the earlier version of the cardboard box (not that anyone these days wears a cardboard box), and so coming to hand in those moments of need. Yet older technology would make use of broken-off leafy branches at such times.
Vince M
November 20th, 2008 at 8:54 pm [Reply]

13: And I’m sure your barrel is that much harder to sell if it has no bottom!
I’ve always associated barrel couture not so much with poverty as with Little Lulu comics, specifically where Tubby loses his clothes and has to get home wearing a barrel walking through the bad part of town. Yow!
PeteMoss
November 20th, 2008 at 8:54 pm [Reply]

I think the Ziggy gag would have worked better had Wilson drawn him holding a seashell to his ear while standing in front of a book vending machine with a big coin slote and title of the book printed on the machine. Oh, also if there was a parrot talking to him, or something.
temporarilyjaded
November 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm [Reply]

# PeteMoss says:
November 20th, 2008 at 8:49 pm

I do have a treacherous spleen, though.
__________________________
I am chuckling inside.

Nor, whilst in his own Heaven he dwelt,
Whilst Man his Paradice possest,
His fertile Garden in the fragrant East, {5}
And all united Odours smelt,
No armed Sweets, until thy Reign,
Cou’d shock the Sense, or in the Face
A flusht, unhandsom Colour place.
Now the Jonquille o’ercomes the feeble Brain;
We faint beneath the Aromatick Pain, {6}
Till some offensive Scent thy Pow’rs appease,
And Pleasure we resign for short, and nauseous Ease.

Anne Kingsmill Finch
Les of the Jungle Patrol
November 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm [Reply]

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Once a year, there’s a candle-light vigil for every transgender person around the world in the previous year who was killed in a hate crime. Alas, there is never a shortage of names on the list. Often, their killers, if they’re even brought to trial, try a “trans panic” defense, where they claim that discovering the other person was transgender was just so traumatic that murder is acceptable. Sometimes, this works, which makes me feel both angry and sad.

Which brings us today’s very timely Agnes: http://comics.com/agnes/2008-11-20/

Fuck you, too, Agnes.
Soccerhead
November 20th, 2008 at 9:02 pm [Reply]

What’s with Leroy Lockhorn and his Plugger television
bats :[
November 20th, 2008 at 9:02 pm [Reply]

I think wearing the ever-fashionable potato sack would be a lot more comfortable than a barrel.
OTOH, a barrel could be viewed as kind of a poor-man’s RV, someplace that’s nice and sturdy and in which you could curl up for the night.
C
November 20th, 2008 at 9:03 pm [Reply]

Doesn’t the barrel cliche come from the philosopher Diogenes, who was said to have lived in a tub/barrel/jar?
Black Drazon
November 20th, 2008 at 9:04 pm [Reply]

Now as we can see here in Figure 1, Tommie’s collar is, indeed, open slightly, but if you look here in figure 2, it has corrected itself, thus showing that even Tommie’s clothes don’t want her to relax. That’s all for today, class dismissed, and no gawking at the history students. Apparently they’re all naked today.
Andrew Leal
November 20th, 2008 at 9:04 pm [Reply]

Islamadora Girl, good catch. I’m not sure if Nast created that particular image (though he did with so many), but the barrel thing dates back to the early 1900s and before. You know those old movies, where general stores have barrels in front of them? And rain barrels? And barrels as trash bins? And so on.

That’s the point of the joke. One’s cleaned out (usually in a poker game), loses one’s shirt, and so borrows a barrel, which conveniently do always have suspenders. I’m not sure how much basis there was in reality, mind, but it became a stock image, continuing in everything from Abbott and Costello movies to Looney Tunes and even Sesame Street. It might also tie into the “they had me over a barrel” phrase. I’m too tired to research it further and confirm if there were any known instances happening in *real life* (I doubt it, and it is the kind of image Nast or a likeminded editorialist would come up with; Nast gave us the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant too, plus the Tammany Tiger, and routinely haed Tweed clad as a Roman emperor), but basically, while it is an odd cliche, it’s been made odder by the passage of time.
One-eyed Wolfdog
November 20th, 2008 at 9:05 pm [Reply]

H&J: If I drank coffee out of a carafe larger than my torso then my head wouldn’t hurt either except for that one brief sharp instant when it actually exploded.
Sciencegiant
November 20th, 2008 at 9:07 pm [Reply]

OHMYGOD! It all makes sense now. Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist, but consider the following: Dagwood first appeared in Blondie in 1933. Snuffy Smith in 1934. And of course, Little Orphan Annie in 1924. And now we know why newspapers been running these strips in the “funny” pages long past any humor. To reuse their strips from the Great Depression!
Rainbird
November 20th, 2008 at 9:08 pm [Reply]

#24 odinthor

Yes, I think your explanation of the availability of the barrel is the best. Like those chicken cardboard boxes that all the kids kept their comics in, you could find them behind the store in the alley.

I think Heart has a better idea, a flour bag (or grain bag) for a dress, which was much more common in the Depression, because people had flour sacks, and they could use the clothe for clothes.
yelir
November 20th, 2008 at 9:08 pm [Reply]

#7 odinthor says:

“One of those circular dealies is an ‘oop. What? Oh, I don’t suppose we know what an ‘oop is. I suppose pater thought they were a bit common, except on the bleedin’ croquet lawn. Oh, a hoop.”

Good call on the Monty Python quote.
bats :[
November 20th, 2008 at 9:09 pm [Reply]

3. Dingo: OTOH, if you search for traitorous penis via Yahoo!, you get about a dozen hits for crappy fanfic, and NO reference to this site.
No wonder Yahoo! is in trouble.
One-eyed Wolfdog
November 20th, 2008 at 9:10 pm [Reply]

I think we can all agree we’re glad it wasn’t Piro who decided on drawing a “naked girls in barrels” strip. Well, to say nothing of Mel Lazarus.
Grandstanding Oddball
November 20th, 2008 at 9:10 pm [Reply]

I click on the comments today because I KNEW that someone would know what the circular metal dealies were called. Not that I don’t normally like to read the comments, but things are busy lately. But I had to find out.
Andrew Leal
November 20th, 2008 at 9:12 pm [Reply]

Aha!! Seems it wasn’t Nast, but Will B. Johnstone, some years later (but fairly close all in all) who developed the image as a visual metaphor for taxpayers, so drained of resources that they lack even clothes and must grab the nearest empty, unused barrel to avoid full nudity and thus appear reasonably decent in public.

Here’s one 1937 example:
http://www.marx-brothers.org/marxology/taxpayer.htm
One-eyed Wolfdog
November 20th, 2008 at 9:14 pm [Reply]

…and possibly disappointed it wasn’t Melissa DeJesus.
doug
November 20th, 2008 at 9:14 pm [Reply]

31-Interesting idea, but Diogenes lived in a barrel because his philosophical system demanded absoulte simplicity, not because he was poor.
Les of the Jungle Patrol
November 20th, 2008 at 9:16 pm [Reply]

I would imagine that anybody who, in real life, tried to cover themselves with a barrel, would find it to be rather drafty. Perhaps during the summer . . .
Anonymously
November 20th, 2008 at 9:25 pm [Reply]

#28 – Just this week a transgender person was murdered in our city. Not doing anything or bothering anyone. The murderer was just “offended”.

Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs did a show on barrel making. I believe the barrels were hand made by Scotsmen, a long and laborious process, from which I can only conclude that barrels ain’t cheap. An oak barrel costs $800 and up now, according to an article on wine I googled! It’s cheaper to put the wine or booze in a plastic thing and add oak chips. No one could afford to wear a barrel now, with or without suspenders. For $800 and up, you could get yourself quite a wardrobe of, well, clothes!
ka-pwingg
November 20th, 2008 at 9:25 pm [Reply]

Lynn’s father killed a guy. I just know it.
bmrr
November 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pm [Reply]

With all these wonderful comments on barrels I got a chuckle over the ads that Google put up for me here. The largest one, just above the comments, is for Rainbarrelsource.com, advertising “Rain Barrels Sale! Huge rain barrels selection for sale! Fast shipping!” So now we know where those co-eds found the barrels they’re wearing. They obviously paid for them with the proceeds they got from selling their clothes as #14 – Tilaney stated.
Harold
November 20th, 2008 at 9:33 pm [Reply]

All this Diogenes talk put me in mind of Aeschylus. Now, maybe Ziggy’s parrot can mistake his head for a rock and drop a turtle on it…

Here’s all sorts of fun stuff about barrels, including a breakdown of the parts of a barrel:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flbbm/heritage/cooper/barrelmaking.htm

There are three different types of hoops on a barrel!

…and there are a ton of barrel-related links! I don’t see anything about the origins of the convention of wearing them to indicate poverty, though.

Georges Santayana rocks! Play some “Black Magic Woman”, dude!
Rocetboy
November 20th, 2008 at 9:39 pm [Reply]

By ’sip’ the narrator means ‘chug’, and by ‘flying’, Ruby means ‘diddling’.
GlobalH
November 20th, 2008 at 9:40 pm [Reply]

I’ve read Harry Potter and the Enormous Cash Advance, and I gotta say, it’s nowhere near as good as Harry Potter and the Cross-Promotional Marketing Opportunity.
Seismic-2
November 20th, 2008 at 9:42 pm [Reply]

In the early days of the republic, barrels were a lot more commonplace in everyday life than they are now – after all, homes had barrels at the end of drainpipes to catch run-off rainwater from the roof, since in the absence of a well that was the best source of fresh water. If you somehow lost all your clothes (whether by being robbed, wagering your wardrobe at poker, or by sleeping through history class), a barrel would be the most readily available means to hide your nakedness. Nowadays it would be a garbage can, but comics conventions change even more glacially than do gag topics in Ziggy.

Now, what I wonder is: how did it become a comedic convention to describe a hilarious situation as “more fun than a barrel of monkeys”? How much fun is a barrel of monkeys, anyway? Since monkeys don’t normally wear clothes or attend history class, why are they in a barrel in the first place? Are they being aged and distilled to be turned into liquor? Is Benedictine Liqueur distilled by monks, or is it monks? Can you purchase jugs of J. Fred Muggs? Is that the ending of “Planet of the Apes, the Director’s Cut”, where Charlton Heston shouts, “Soylent Scotch is monkeys!!!”? Personally, I don’t think a barrel full of monkeys would be fun at all – they are vicious, aggressive varmints that will bite and scratch you, and a whole barrel full of them would not be entertaining. Now, a log full of raccoons, on the other hand…

Anyway, the best reason to wear a barrel is that it will hide the actions of a traitorous penis, unless an ill-placed knothole allows the wearer really to spout wood. Well, so much for all that. Now back to the boozer in 3-G. Cheers!
Anonymous
November 20th, 2008 at 9:43 pm [Reply]

In today’s Mark Trail, the protagonist holds a conversation entirely with himself. Discuss the motivations of the character in the context of Nietzche’s Uebermensch. 1-2 paragraphs, single-spaced.
Joe Blevins
November 20th, 2008 at 9:46 pm [Reply]

ZIGGY: I think you’re all missing the point here. Ziggy can’t actually see the book title from where he’s standing. Examine the cartoon again, and you’ll see he’s actually staring at the book’s spine — which is completely blank! Get it? The cover isn’t the joke. The joke is that Ziggy will just stand on a sidewalk (possibly for hours on end) staring at a blank book spine because… well, because he’s Ziggy and totally fucking insane but in a super-duper subtle way which is actually much more interesting than if he were a raving lunatic. Tom Wilson is a mad genius, and Ziggy is the darkest thing on the comics page.
Brent
November 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm [Reply]

24, odinthor:

I think it’s a little more than just finding empty ones behind a store. One of the most ubiquitous items of the past (and in some areas of the world, the present)… is the ever common and present rain barrel. Everyone had them because when you don’t have indoor plumbing and have to pump water from a well by hand, every drop you can milk out of a cloudburst is golden. Finding and stealing a barrel would be easy once you’ve lost everything else.
Lithros
November 20th, 2008 at 9:53 pm [Reply]

It’s a neat microcosm of Tommie’s life — nobody gives her a chance to speak, but she doesn’t really have anything worth saying. Keep your mouth open, Tommie; someday, you’ll catch a fly, and then you’ll finally have something that notices you exist.
Phred22
November 20th, 2008 at 9:56 pm [Reply]

I remember wearing barrels also being used in comic strips when someone would take a swim on a hot day, whereupon someone else would steal their clothes, leaving the victim with a convenient barrel. But why would barrels be around a swimming hole?
Cami
November 20th, 2008 at 10:03 pm [Reply]

Ruby is either wearing two large green bows in her hair or the same large green bow has crept to the top of her bangs. I don’t know what the accessory is planning, but I hope it involves choking the blank stare off of Tommie’s face.
The Insomniambulist
November 20th, 2008 at 10:07 pm [Reply]

The concept of poor people wearing barrels actually goes back thousands of years–the Greek philosopher Diogenes believed in an absolutely ascetic life, with no possessions, and turned a barrel into his only item of clothing. He gave philosophical lectures to passersby in the market where he lived.
Yanni
November 20th, 2008 at 10:07 pm [Reply]

There used to be a punishment in Germany and England where public drunks had to wear a barrel around town
Farley's Revenge
November 20th, 2008 at 10:09 pm [Reply]

See, this is why I love coming here.

One night the running topic of discussion is in regards to the poetry of traitorous/treacherous penises and the next night it’s a running discussion on barrels as a symbol of poverty.

I’d like to see TV match that for variety.
Trilobite
November 20th, 2008 at 10:10 pm [Reply]

For as much as Margo complains about being left behind “dealing with the aftershocks,” it’s not like she’d be happier in South Dakota. Just two minutes of standing around that crappy tiny airport would have had her ready to rip off Cody Stiles’ head with his own sassy neckerchief before he even managed to offer her a ride in his old pickup truck. “Hang on,” you say, “that sounds like Margo’s dream vacation.” And that’s a fair point, but there’s no bar at an airport that small, so trust me, it really would be hell for her.
yeff (Jeff Soesbe)
November 20th, 2008 at 10:14 pm [Reply]

I’m curious about the self-explanatory header text at the start of A3G: “As Ruby, Margo and Tommie sip their drinks”. Given they have glasses in their hands, I could have figured *that* out.

The only explanation I have is that it’s for the benefit of the blind fans who are using automated readers to follow Apartment 3-G. Of course, if you’re spending your valuable automated reader time on Apartment 3-G, well maybe you and the Curmudgeon should have a talk…

- yeff
fishmorgjp
November 20th, 2008 at 10:15 pm [Reply]

Re Six Chix: Those aren’t girls in barrels; they are actually barrels with human female legs and upper torsos. They’re mascots for the barrel industry! Meet Bibi and Buffi barrel, here to help you find out all about barrels!
Kevin Moore
November 20th, 2008 at 10:22 pm [Reply]

Ascetic or not, I think the Diogenes link between “barrel” and “poverty” is perhaps the more correct: http://www.markvernon.com/friendshiponline/dotclear/index.php?2007/02/10/519-life-in-a-barrel
Harold
November 20th, 2008 at 10:23 pm [Reply]

Rainbarrels are making a comeback, as the context-based ads that are popping up here attest. I have several.

I expect that in the very near future rainwater runoff from rooftops, properly filtered, will be used as a secondary water source for household uses that don’t require treated water – car washing, watering gardens, flushing toilets. I would not be surprised if centuries (or decades) from now, the past 100 years or so are remembered for one thing. Not the automobile, the space age, the internet, the atom bomb, or antibiotics, but the fact that we flushed our toilets with drinking water.

Well, that, and the awesomeness that is Margo.
commodorejohn
November 20th, 2008 at 10:33 pm [Reply]

Josh: Did that happen? Because if not then, you know, barrels, what the hell? – I don’t know about full-sized wooden barrels as per cliche, but evidence suggests that just about any container will do in a pinch. (Probably technically SFW, but…it will haunt your dreams for many a week.)

#28 Les of the Jungle Patrol – Oh, wow. That is some awkward timing.

#42 One-Eyed Wolfdog – Or Eduardo Baretto.
cheech wizard
November 20th, 2008 at 10:51 pm [Reply]

As far as I know, barrels were traditionally used in comics to depict someone who had lost everything – including clothes – in a poker game. So it makes sense that back in the old days, a barrel was the most convenient thing to preserve one’s modesty on the way home. My dad had a collection of Ding Darling editorial cartoons (Des Moines Register) from the first half of the 20th Century and this was a common motif.
Justice for Reeky!
November 20th, 2008 at 11:04 pm [Reply]

The ‘oops make it easier to chain a barrel to a log.
Jumper
November 20th, 2008 at 11:07 pm [Reply]

Before jars and cans, you had a choice of jugs and barrels. And in Prohibition days, clandestinely stashed barrels were all over the place, no doubt. Demon Rum came in barrels and also drove many a poor sot to the Poorhouse. I know all this old-timey crap. Seabiscuits and pickled eggs and such used to be shipped around in ‘em, too. And gunpowder. Salt beef. Squeaky-leeky and Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company tea.

I’m reasonably sure Snuffy Smith and Loweezy show up in barrels every so often. Or Silas. Theirs have suspenders on ‘em. I wonder if Ziggy ever has had one? Speaking of Ziggy, he’s not living in the past: Rowling is wrestling with that $40 million guarantee to do another one.
Toronto
November 20th, 2008 at 11:20 pm [Reply]

Apple barrels, which didn’t need to be watertight, had wooden hoops.

– Kingsport Barrel Museum.
Lettuce
November 20th, 2008 at 11:26 pm [Reply]

To Ziggy’s credit: He is at the Dyslexic KOOB store, and they traffic entirely in rock-bottom remainders.
Galactic Emperor Chennux®™©
November 20th, 2008 at 11:27 pm [Reply]

ATTENTION EARTHERS! TWIST THAT TY-WRAP EXTRA TIGHT AROUND THE LOWER BOWEL! CHENNUX SPEAKS!

SO, COMRADE DENNY! YOU CHOOSE TO CORRECT THE IMPERIAL GRAMMAR? YOU, THE COMMUNIST SPAWN OF A SLIGHTLY-LESS-THAN-FINE-DINING CHAIN OF RESTAURANTS NOTED FOR SERVING FRATERNITY DRUNKS AFTER THE BARS HAVE CLOSED?? CHENNUX HAS MAGMACANNONED THE CHRON SERVER FOR LESS!!

TRAITOROUS PENAE, PENUM, PENISES, PENUS, PENUM… NO MATTER HOW YOU SAY IT, A HUMAN PENIS IS ALWAYS SMALL ENOUGH TO BE DECLINED! HAHA!

TAKE COUNSEL FROM THE ONES CALLED ILSAMORADA GIRL, POTEET AND RED GREENBACK! UNDERGROUND IS THE BEST PLACE TO BE! FOR YOU NOW! HAHA!

END TRANSMISSION!

PS – ARE THE TRAITOROUS PENIS SONG PARODIES AT AN END? MELKARDAMMIT! CHENNUX HAD KAROKE NIGHT TONIGHT AND NEEDED MATERIAL!
Lettuce
November 20th, 2008 at 11:29 pm [Reply]

Oh, and as for 6 Chix, I attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, and frankly, waking up in history class and finding myself to be a naked woman in a barrel happened ALL THE FREAKING TIME. And I’m a GUY.
Dingo
November 20th, 2008 at 11:30 pm [Reply]

Dr Pepper to deliver on its free-soda promise

LOS ANGELES – Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N’ Roses’ “Chinese Democracy” is a reality.

The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. “Chinese Democracy,” infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.

“We never thought this day would come,” Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement. “But now that it’s here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper’s on us.”

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper’s Web site. They’ll be honored until Feb. 28.

Hmm… what if comic strips worked the same way?

If the Bears win the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown will kick the ball.
If Obama is elected, Rex Morgan will kiss a wrestler at state university on a full boat scholarship.
If a Nicole Kidman film earns more than $20M, Moy & Giella will show Mary and Jeff doin’ the nasty.
blueberrygrrrl
November 20th, 2008 at 11:41 pm [Reply]

I certainly am enjoying all the erudite discourse on barrels, poverty and clothing loss, but I haven’t seen my question addressed.

When the hell did college students start having stock portfolios?
Dingo
November 20th, 2008 at 11:43 pm [Reply]

Galactic Emperor Chennux®™©,

No galactic emperor should be sent to karaoke night without a new song!

Traitorous Penis
to the melody of ‘Pennies from Heaven’

A long time ago
Back millions BCE
The best things in life
Grew smegma and were free.
But no one appreciated
That ripe and musky smell.
And no one congratulated
A foreskin that could swell.
So it was planned
To trim it at the end
In hopes that someone
Would want to call it “friend.”
They call it circumcision
When done with precision.
But still my one dement is
Traitorous penis!
Sometimes you look adorable
Traitorous penis!
Cold water and you’re horrible
Traitorous penis!
Brisk nights you’re like a turtle
Peaking from its shell
Cancun and sunny beaches
Tourists watch you swell.
If you want the things you love
You must have showers.
Scrub yourself in every nook
Bloom like a flower.
There’ll be traitorous penises for you and me.
Toronto
November 20th, 2008 at 11:45 pm [Reply]

If I could save strips in a barrel
The first ones that I’d squirrel away
Are the ones where Mark Trail
Lets his mighty fists hammer and whale
On some bearded cliche.

But there never seems to be enough strips
To punch the things you want to bash
In ‘Chanted Forest.
I’ve read comics enough to know
That Mark’s the one who comes to blows
With evil mindness.
Artist formerly known as Ben
November 20th, 2008 at 11:48 pm [Reply]

#1 zaq,
I imagine said Lewinsky joke would involve Ziggy in a brunette wig at the foot of Bill Clinton’s desk. No newspaper would be able–or willing–to print it, of course. It might survive to traumatize the readers of that month’s Hustler, however.
Anonymous
November 20th, 2008 at 11:49 pm [Reply]

It’s because barrels used to be free. Right? I don’t mean brand new, well constructed barrels – those would cost money. I mean, When stores bought merchandise, it came in barrels – like say a barrel of pickles – and then after all the pickles were sold, the empty barrel would be…. well, worthless. The way cardboard boxes are the modern symbol of poverty.
Lou Shumaker
November 20th, 2008 at 11:50 pm [Reply]

As long as they’re in a barrel, I hope they’ll do it hurricane-style ….
cubiclemonkey
November 20th, 2008 at 11:52 pm [Reply]

As other have pointed out, the wooden bits on the barrel are called hoops, which, as it happens, reminds me of a dirty nineteenth-century joke, purported to be a favorite of President Lincoln’s…

Lincoln: How is a women like a barrel?
Interlocutor: I don’t know, Mr Lincoln. How is a women like a barrel?
Lincoln: You have to pull the hoops* up before you can put the nail in!

*This joke also assumes knowledge of nineteenth-century dress wear.
Traitorous Squirrel
November 20th, 2008 at 11:55 pm [Reply]

Well of course they would choose a barrel as a symbol of abject impecunity. Because when you get naked, you “BARE ALL”.

“Every time it rains, it rains
Penes from heaven…”
Toronto
November 20th, 2008 at 11:59 pm [Reply]

81: Unless it’s an apple barrel, the wooden parts are the vertical staves, and the hoops are iron or other metal.

Hmm. Why do I have a memory of railway spikes packed in small kegs, about 20″ high, bound with tinplate hoops? (They could be rolled along the ground.)

Are barrels my madeleines?
Talking Penis
November 21st, 2008 at 12:06 am [Reply]

SF: What is UP with this woman! First she rags on Ted for talking “outside the marriage” with Aria about his frustrations. So, she goes and drags Sis over to her house a week before Thanksgiving — because she’s just gotta talk to someone about this!

Ted! Since you have to endure a nut-cutting anyway, might as well use ‘em a last time or two before you lose ‘em.
aloria
November 21st, 2008 at 12:15 am [Reply]

re: “traitorous penises”– can someone explain this to me? I swear to Christ, you people and your in-jokes made the last thread completely impossible to understand.
Sheila Sternwell
November 21st, 2008 at 12:19 am [Reply]

#28 Les – Holy shit. I read “Agnes” early in the mornings before bed, so that strip seemed like yesterday’s strip to me. I didn’t realize that it was today’s strip. That’s… that’s not a coincidence, is it? Fuck me.

Allegedly you can contact the author here:

http://www.creators.com/write/comics/agnes.html

So I’ll write an angry email, but honestly, I don’t think that will help. “Agnes” doesn’t seem to get a lot of publicity, and it’s doubtful anyone gives a flying fuck about it. I know I don’t anymore.
commodorejohn
November 21st, 2008 at 12:25 am [Reply]

#85 aloria – I accidentally coined the phrase when trying to figure out Tuesday’s Funky Winkerbean. Everybody else just took the ball and ran with it.
Dingo
November 21st, 2008 at 12:26 am [Reply]

#85 Aloria:

Aloria, Aloria, Aloria, you omelet-making piker. One thread? You had to go back two threads to discover what started it all.

Oh, and that’s one good-lookin’ omelet.
Sheila Sternwell
November 21st, 2008 at 12:27 am [Reply]

Oh yeah, about the barrels – I seem to recall an old silent comedy short where a guy was liberated of his clothes and he jumped into a barrel for cover. Yes, barrels were all over the place in the early 1900s, and are found as cheap props in pretty much every silent comedy made. Our depantsed movie star just added suspenders and was able to walk away without showing visible peen, which would frighten locals and woodland creatures. I always assumed this was the beginning of the fabulous barrel couture, but who knows.
Lisa
November 21st, 2008 at 12:31 am [Reply]

There are several old songs of the Maggie May type where the sailor is rolled by a whore and ends up running to his ship in a woman’s apron, that being the only article of clothing he could find…. Tommy Makem did a great version back in the 70s.
cheech wizard
November 21st, 2008 at 12:31 am [Reply]

80/ Lou Shumaker: Nothin’s too disgusting for ol’ Dick Wrench!
Toronto
November 21st, 2008 at 12:36 am [Reply]

Anton Chekhov wrote a good comic about wearing the case of a double bass.
Deena in OR
November 21st, 2008 at 12:44 am [Reply]

Anybody know what’s going on with WordCrack…..I mean Guessword?
fishmorgjp
November 21st, 2008 at 12:48 am [Reply]

85 aloria: “Traitorous penises” means “don’t tell aloria what this means.”
Carly
November 21st, 2008 at 1:10 am [Reply]

To be fair, J.K. Rowling’s loosely connected Tales of Beedle the Bard either just came out or is about to come out. One of those. *also shockingly current*

And this week, we learned that Margo is a bitch and even alcohol cannot make her happy.
batgirl
November 21st, 2008 at 1:33 am [Reply]

There’s a picture of a drunkard in a barrel here:
http://mcncirce.com/history11.html
with a quote from 1650.
Also a description of thieves in Civil War America being paraded in ‘barrel shirts’.

Hi everyone! *waves*
-Barbara
Farley's Revenge
November 21st, 2008 at 1:38 am [Reply]

And this week, we learned that Margo is a bitch and even alcohol cannot make her happy.

AKA: Another day in Margo’s life.

It just occurred to me that, given how long it takes a story line to run its course in these soap opera strips, it’s like reverse dog years. All that’s needed is a name for this phenomenon.

For example: A “Margo”=one day in A3G time and three months in our time.
Red Greenback
November 21st, 2008 at 1:51 am [Reply]

More fodder for Traitorous Penis Chunes:
(sorry if any of these have already been mentioned)

“Bésame Mucho” -Consuelo Velázquez
“Beer Barrel Polka” < Hey, that title’s got a “barrel” in it! How topical.
“Can’t Smile Without You” -Barry Manilow
“Little Red Corvette” -The Purple One
“Sinister Purpose” -Creedence
“Groove is in the Heart” -Deee Lite
“More Than a Woman” -BeeGees
“North to Alaska” -Johnny Horton
“Break Up to Make Up” -Stylistics
“Calypso Bebop” -Louis Jordan
“A Taste of Honey” -Rick Marlow
“Polaroid Spreadshot” -Fugs < Actually, this chune is perfection… nevermind)
“Waltzing Matilda” -Banjo Patterson
“Wolverton Mountain” -Merle Kilgore
“Indian Summer” -Doors
“Clap For The Wolfman” -The Guess Who
“If You Leave Me Now” -Chicago
“Iron Man” -Sabbath
“Isn’t She Lovely” -Stevie Wonder
Bassweasel
November 21st, 2008 at 1:51 am [Reply]

The wooden pieces are called staves, and the metal rings are called hoops.

I believe a cartoonist called Will Johnstone (fl. early 20th century) supposedly developed the famous character of an impoverished taxpayer wearing a barrel.
Moonbeam McSwine
November 21st, 2008 at 2:00 am [Reply]

I told my husband about the current trend here in the Comics Curmudgeon, since he doesn’t read it himself. And he asked, “What the hell do traitorous penises have to do with comic strips?”

I didn’t read all of the previous thread (it did get to be a bit much after awhile), so I don’t know if this has already been said, but there was something very much resembling a traitorous penis in a classic Li’l Abner strip. It was Sadie Hawkins Day, and Abner was hiding in a hollow tree from Daisy Mae (obviously, they weren’t married yet). A male Shmoo was hiding there with him, as there was a female shmoo participating in the race.

Along comes Daisy Mae and the female shmoo. Just as Abner is chuckling to hisself that they is safely hidden away, the male shmoo sticks his head out of the tree and calls enticingly to the female shmoo. And the darling little creature just happens to be standing so that his long, phallic-looking neck and head appears to be protruding from Abner’s crotch.

Abner, for his part, clutches his own head in horror, and exclaims something to the effect of “OH! Yo’ li’l squealer! Yo’ has betrayed us!” as he stares down at his traitorous p–er, pet shmoo.

I only wish I could find a copy of the panel online that I could link to; it must be seen to be appreciated.
Red Greenback
November 21st, 2008 at 2:04 am [Reply]

Deena in OR: Here ya go > http://hodgeproj.ltc.arizona.edu/guessword/
fuzzmaster
November 21st, 2008 at 2:05 am [Reply]

@#67 cheech: Hey! I’ve got a copy of that Ding Darling book! Loaded with paeans to Iowan Herbert Hoover.

Separately, re barrels, the wearing of: Interesting collection of cartoon cliches in this 2007 post.

I can find all the suggestions made here about the provenance of this cliche in previous online discussions uncovered by Google, but what about this passage from Finnegan’s Wake?

dumm, sneak and curry, and all the fun I had in that fanagan’s week. A strange man wearing abarrel. And here’s a gift of meggs and teggs.
Stephanie
November 21st, 2008 at 2:15 am [Reply]

i still can’t believe harry potter is really over. it makes me want to cry all over again :( still high as hell btw
ChrisV82
November 21st, 2008 at 2:17 am [Reply]

Apparently there is a new book coming out from Rowling that is based in the “world of Harry Potter,” but we all know Tom Wilson isn’t that far up to date. He’s about five months away from skewering that scurrilous Hannah Montana.
Frank Parsnip
November 21st, 2008 at 2:25 am [Reply]

I’ve always been impressed by the number of Americans who find comic value in buying those naked-man-wearing-barrel statues while vacationing in the Caribbean. Sure, if you pull down the barrel a huge spring-loaded penis pops out, but what has that to do with poverty?
Deena in OR
November 21st, 2008 at 2:38 am [Reply]

Red,
I have the site…I just can’t get it to work. The game area isn’t showing up. All that’s there are the boxes to enter your handle and guess.
True Fable
November 21st, 2008 at 2:39 am [Reply]

A3G Bitch bitch bitch.
Canadian Zombie Elly just squeezed the life out of Farley in the last panel. Better than going through years of Elly and then nearly drowning in the creek and dying of a heart attack, I suppose.
FW Of COURSE it’s going to be his daughter. This meme is eternal.
WTF GT OOOH you know what I want for Christmas? A copy of Kill Gil. I want Marty Moon to lose his job and he’ll blame Gil for it and then he’ll go on a murderous rampage, trying to Kill Gil at every turn. First he’ll go to his house and get into a fight with the wife and she’ll try to shoot him but he’ll stab her with a knife through the heart. Then he’ll fly to Tokyo and kill 88 guys in black suits just to get to the climax fight with Kaz Oh-Ri, then he’ll go to the desert and get buried in a coffin but Marty’ll break out, get Michael Parks to tell him where Gil is, and then he’ll go to Gil’s and snatch the pebble from his hand and Gil’s heart will explode. I’m ready! Let’s go!
Luann Pimp My House!
JP Fax My Pimp!
Phantom Pimp My Crypt! (by the way, if the Phantom is a Ghost-Who-Walks and cannot die, why does he have a crypt?)
RMMW Oh just great. For the next three weeks we’ll be treated to the plotline of Collecting Abbey’s Toys.
Poteet
November 21st, 2008 at 2:40 am [Reply]

Luann — How old is TJ? Eight?
ben
November 21st, 2008 at 2:48 am [Reply]

To be fair, Charlie Brown had it wrong — he was saying how some ancestral relative had made skis from barrel staves. Meaning hoops, obviously.

Linus spends the rest of the strip saying “my word, that sure was clever, that relative of yours making skis from barrel staves? I’m impressed and no mistake. From barrel staves, you say? Etc., etc.”

Punchline: “What in the world are barrel staves?”
True Fable
November 21st, 2008 at 2:51 am [Reply]

MT Hey, she’s fingering the buttons on Mark’s shirt! Is it time to grab the guitar and play some bow-chicka-bow-wow? According to the Fable version of Mark Trail, Mark will be hitting that before you can say “develop her wetlands”.
MW Good GOD man, have you no fear?! You must NEVER interrupt Mary during a platitude session! If you put her off stride for even a moment, it’s Aldo’s Cliff for you, my friend.
OBH One Big Happy, I reckon, especially in that final panel.
Pluggers Gross me to the bone.
Red Greenback
November 21st, 2008 at 2:58 am [Reply]

Deena:

“…Move!” Ha! See what I did there? I just did the Jimmy Fallon IT guy schtick from SNL. Seriously though, try this: ditch your WordCrack bookmark and c and p the link provided above.
bitter law student
November 21st, 2008 at 3:13 am [Reply]

Margo is so ready to launch into an angry, selfish tirade that she actually took one last swig of scotch and set her drink down so she could get her arm and back into it. I mean, did anyone else notice her head cocked just so and think, for just a second, “I actually saw her roll her eyes”?
Deena in OR
November 21st, 2008 at 3:17 am [Reply]

Red-
Thanks, I figured it out. Evidently, it’s not compatible with the newest version of Firefox. IE works fine.
ChattyGenes
November 21st, 2008 at 3:17 am [Reply]

#105 Frank Parsnip. Oh, dear. We have one of those. No, we never went to the Caribbean. My DAUGHTERS bought it at a local shop which sells ethnic sorts of things from Third-World countries, as a joke Father’s Day present for Mr. CG. He was greatly amused.

It lives in the vicinity of our living room. I keep meaning to find a permanent resting place for it in a drawer somewhere. In the meantime, I try to remember to at least hide it when company is coming.

It is interesting, now that I think of it, how effectively it combines the recent CC themes of Traitorous P’s and barrels:-)
Donkey Hotey
November 21st, 2008 at 3:43 am [Reply]

#109 Ben – Either I’m missing your joke, or Charlie Brown actually had it RIGHT. Barrel staves were often used (in comics and classic literature) as skis, as they are made of wood and already curved to the appropriate shape. Barrel hoops could not possibly be used as skis..
Sheila Sternwell
November 21st, 2008 at 3:46 am [Reply]

#100 Moonbeam – The shmoo was the most amazing comic strip character to ever be created. An absolute phenomenon, and the things the shmoon got away with were incredible.
Alfred E. Neuman
November 21st, 2008 at 4:23 am [Reply]

JP— Look out Sam, Brute Force is after you. He is disguised as a mild-mannered desk clerk.
Frank Parsnip
November 21st, 2008 at 5:20 am [Reply]

ChattyGenes (114): We find enormous wooden penises sold in the antique shops here in Taihoku — of sizes that make it clear that they were intended for display and not use. I gave one to my cousin — the funny thing was that it was packed in the check-in luggage that arbitrarily had my wife’s name on it. The airport security selected it for an in-person checking. When they unpacked it, the look on my wife’s face was, well, um… I don’t put large wooden penises in our luggage anymore.
Mr. O'Malley
November 21st, 2008 at 5:33 am [Reply]

102. fuzzmaster. Given the amount of stuff named after Herbert Hoover around here, I figured him for a Californian. He may have lived in Russia for a few years, but even so…

Not that being the home of Herbert Hoover is really that much to boast about.

Good Joyce catch. The barrel meme can be found in British comics from the early 20th century as well as in th US.

I suggest, in agreement with several people above, the following background for the rain barrel concept.

Going back 100 years or more, most cities did not provide a municipal water supply. It was common for people to put rain barrels to collect water from their raingutters. Since a lot of things were sold in barrels, it was not that hard to get hold of barrels. That meant that pretty much any house had one or more rain barrels. (See film comedies from the 1920s, Laurel & Hardie and others, for illustrations.)

Funny reasons for public nudity:
1. Prostitute stole your clothes
2. Lover’s husband came home unexpectedly, causing you to have to jump out the window naked.

Public nudity, big joke, how to keep modest? Grab convenient rain barrel, knock out bottom and cover embarrassing parts.

I think the poverty concept came later. Cleaned out in a poker game, have to wear a barrel home, etc.

22 November 1968: The Beatles White Album released. My local radio station played the whole thing through tonight, just as many stations did in November 1968. I don’t think the younger generations will ever have an experience quite like that.
ChattyGenes
November 21st, 2008 at 5:43 am [Reply]

#118 Frank Parsnip. I wish you could hear me laughing! I read my comment #114 to Mr. CG earlier. Now I can’t wait to go home and read your answer to him:-)
Mordock999
November 21st, 2008 at 6:43 am [Reply]

Today’s Luann – 11/21/08

First of all I’m NOT even going to WONDER why Frank is even bothering to LISTEN to the little Prick.

Second, Frank, I must point out that zoning laws in MOST towns prohibit businesses in residental areas like YOURS, so don’t waste your time or your MONEY.

Third, I’m HAPPY to point out that TJ is WELL within RANGE. QUICKLY grab a screw-driver from his tool-belt and PLUNGE it deep into his right eye.

Don’t Worry, I’ll personally post bail, and SWEAR to the Judge it was SELF-DEFENSE.

That’s ALL for today.

ENJOY your breakfast Folks!!

________________________

DEATH to TJ!
Powers
November 21st, 2008 at 7:21 am [Reply]

It is unsporting to criticize Ziggy for being “behind the times”; in this case, that book could very well be the mythical eighth book in the series — which would, if it existed, be coming out right about now.
The Magic Mel
November 21st, 2008 at 8:24 am [Reply]

ChrisV82 is right, on Dec 4 “Tales of Beedle the Bard” comes out, so maybe Ziggy was accidently current? It could happen? Question Mark?
Little Guy
November 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am [Reply]

Barrels are used by impovished to keep people from seeing their tratorious penises.

There.
Frank Parsnip
November 21st, 2008 at 9:10 am [Reply]

Given that Voldemort “chose” Harry from a pool of eligible foes that included Neville as well, I am also expecting Rowling to publish an entire alternate series in which Neville shows up at Hogwarts and finds a rather nebbish Harry Potter. Oh, how the crowds at Griffindor will cheer on Neville, the youngest-ever quiddich seeker…
Anonymously
November 21st, 2008 at 9:21 am [Reply]

The hot dog palace in our city buys pickles in big plastic barrels – well, actually buckets. They will sell you an empty one for a few bucks. One could, in a pinch, wear the empty pickle barrel at a cost of about $5 – this would be the Walmart version. If you want to upgrade to an $800 wooden number, that would be the Armani version.
mookworth
November 21st, 2008 at 10:53 am [Reply]

This site gives a couple of suggestions for the ol barrel gag: http://ask.metafilter.com/74065/Barrel-Poor
juggernaut
November 21st, 2008 at 11:48 am [Reply]

Chine hoops or bilge hoops, depending on their location on the barrel. Don’t make me tell you again.
Tim
November 21st, 2008 at 11:54 am [Reply]

I noticed Tommie is cutting loose; the collar button undone! Scandalous!
sebastian
November 21st, 2008 at 12:16 pm [Reply]

I always kind of assumed they stole the barrels. You know, like college kids steal milk crates to make book cases. You sell all your close, or they get locked up in the apartment that you just got locked out of, and then you go behind the bar or speakeasy (depending on the year), and steal the left over barrels some hard working joe needs to return to save enough money to keep his establishment going. Desperate times and all that.
Dan
November 21st, 2008 at 1:59 pm [Reply]

The barrel was a punishment for public drunkenness in Europe. Apparently comic strip writers subscribe to the hurtful stereotype that all drunks are broke (or all poor people are drunk).

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BankruptcyBarrel
A New Day
November 21st, 2008 at 3:14 pm [Reply]

If Margo “sips” her drinks, then I’m a Velociraptor.
Saluki
November 21st, 2008 at 3:21 pm [Reply]

H&J: Worst. NBA player. EVER.
Some Guy Here
November 21st, 2008 at 3:51 pm [Reply]

Six Chix: Doesn’t make the strip any less bizarre and plain-old weird.

Ziggy: As somewhat tolerable as it is, given all the papers it’s syndicated in, I would imagine Mr. Ziggy creator is pretty well-off on his own, or at least better off than newer but legitimately creative cartoonists like Mark Tatulli, and certainly more well-off than me.

So Mr. Ziggy Creator, I say this unto you: quit yer bitchin’!
schlimmerkerl
November 21st, 2008 at 5:52 pm [Reply]

“Even a Stopped Clock Is Right Twice a Day” Department– the featured Ziggy: funny.
carobiner
November 21st, 2008 at 8:01 pm [Reply]

I totally misread the barrel comic. I thought the girls went to sleep in history class and the lecherous prof stole their clothes while they slumbered. (I suppose the barrels with their hoops, staves, bungs, and whatever they call the tops) and bottoms were there as a history demonstration, in which the professor explained the nomenclature of the barrel, in a clever ploy to send the young unsuspecting coeds off to slumberland
Canaduck
November 21st, 2008 at 11:15 pm [Reply]

#28 Les…that’s gotta be a coincidence.

Please.

Just really lousy timing on the part of Agnes, right…? Ugh.
Adam Villani
November 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 am [Reply]

Just yesterday I was reading Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac, and in it I think he credits Johnstone with making the barrel-poverty connection in cartooning, although I can’t find the reference in the index-less book.
P
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am [Reply]

Any Canucks up there know what FC is saying at the dinner table on Sunday?
regisgoat
November 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 am [Reply]

Now that the banks have us “over a barrel” because of the “barrel roll” the economy is doing, I guess we’ll all be wearing “barrel shirts”. With our treacherous penii sticking out of the bungholes.
Visaman
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am [Reply]

At least Abbot and Costello wore long johns with their barrel, which these fine lassies are not.
Visaman
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am [Reply]

139. Not yet it’s not Sunday yet
Erich
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:18 am [Reply]

The folk song “New York Girls” is about a sailor on shore leave who gets robbed of his money and clothes by a prostitute, and winds up having to wear a barrel:

As I walked out on South Street, a woman I did meet
She asked me just to see her home, she lived on Bleecker Street

CHORUS:
And away Santy, my dear Annie
Ah, you New York girls, can’t you dance the polka

And when we got to Bleecker Street we stopped at 44,
Her mother and her sister came to meet us at the door

And when we got inside the house the drinks were handed ’round
The liquor was so awful strong my head went round and around

And then had another drink before we sat to eat.
The liquor was so awful strong, I quickly fell asleep

When I awoke next morning, I had an aching head.
There was I, Jack all alone, stark naked in that bed!

My gold watch and my money and my lady friend were gone
And there was I, Jack all alone, stark naked in that room

Now looking ’round this little room, there’s nothing I could see
But a woman’s shift and apron, and they were no use to me

With a flour barrel for a suit of clothes, down Cherry Street forlorn
There Martin Churchill took me in, and sent me round Cape Horn

So sailor lads, take warning, when you land on that New York shore,
You’ll have to get up early to be smarter than a whore

http://www.broadside.org/music/lyrics/girls.html
John Small Berries
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm [Reply]

The barrel as a symbol of poverty was first used in an editorial cartoon by Will Johnstone of the New York World Telegram in 1933, as a symbol of the Taxpayer left destitute by government. (The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons, by Donald Dewey)

The book does not explain why Johnstone chose a barrel as his symbol of poverty, however.
P
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:39 pm [Reply]

142: Some Canadien papers have their funnies on Saturday, you know.
Muffaroo
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 pm [Reply]

Vince M@25 – Unless it happened more than once, Tubby and the other boys had to sneak home wearing diapers, hiding under a blanket while being towed on a wagon, as part of a Poe-worthy revenge scheme on the part of Lulu and Annie, who abandoned the wagon and its living cargo in a strange neighborhood. Dennis, take note! This– this is true menace!
ms. docweasel
November 23rd, 2008 at 5:09 am [Reply]

Does any of this relate to “having someone over a barrel”, and did someone have those girls over a barrel because they fell asleep in History class, then after being “had”, bereft of garments, they had to wear the barrels?
Visaman
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 am [Reply]

145. Yes, but I read your message on Friday.WHOOOO!
agony
November 23rd, 2008 at 2:43 pm [Reply]

Used that link to write to the Agnes creator. Here’s his reply:

Dear Linda,

I assure you, until just now, I had absolutely no idea there was such a thing as Transgender Remembrance Day. My wall calendar only lists days like Easter, Christmas, Flag Day, etc. All my strips are written 6 months in advance. I apologize for the coincidence, and only for that.Agnes is just upset that a young boy was trying to sneak into her girl group. That’s all. No inuendo. No mean spirited transgender hate.

Tony Cochran-cartoonist of Agnes
ms. docweasel
November 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm [Reply]

oh for flippin’ pete’s sake
don’t we have enough “victim groups?”

I refuse to acknowledge that the murder or injury of a transgendered person is any more tragic or worthy of note than the murder or injury of _any_ person. There are certainly less transgendered people murdered or injured than say, black youths or white straight women. Why do they need a day of remembrance or special attention?

Jesus, get over your special interest victimology. This kind of crap is usually a prelude to asking for dedicated government funds to study the particular problem of transgendered people being murdered and set-aside funds to help transgendered people avoid being murdered, which is just hooey for more government money down a rathole.

I have nothing against transgendered people, but get in the victim line if you want any especial sympathy from me. They are neither more nor less worthy of note than anyone else, and acting like they deserve some additional consideration because of their transgendered state is as bad as being prejudiced against them. It’s a zero sum game and if you are giving extra credit to them, you’re ripping off some other group.

Why can’t we just say all murdered people are victims and worthy of note, instead of separating them into victim categories for special treatment, as if the murder of a gay or transgendered or Inuit or left-handed person means more or less than, say, a white man in Idaho.

God, harassing some cartoonist for an innocuous cartoon because it fell on some random, meaningless “day of remembrance” is worse than stupid, it’s asinine.
Mary Dell
November 24th, 2008 at 1:11 pm [Reply]

If I remember my Laura Ingalls Wilder books correctly, relatives back east would send things out west by train, and pack the things in a barrel. The Ingalls family received a Christmas barrel in May after the blizzard finally ended in The Long Winter, and at one point Ma explains to Laura that although Nelly Olson has fancy dresses, they “came out of a barrel,” meaning they were premade and therefore low-quality, as opposed to being handsewn in a frontier shack like Laura’s.

So I suppose once you’ve sold all of your goods and clothes, what you have left is the barrel they shipped in. The modern equivalent would be wearing an amazon.com cardboard box.
Kiesha
November 24th, 2008 at 6:00 pm [Reply]

I’m mostly concerned with how saggy the breasts on the women in the barrels must be.
William
November 24th, 2008 at 6:56 pm [Reply]

There’s a new book from Rowling coming out set in the HP universe so actually Ziggy is spot on AND topical so… not really an issue to gripe about.

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