Author Topic: Continuing the recent surreal themes...  (Read 5295 times)

Offline Roger Kettle

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Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« on: June 02, 2007, 07:37:10 PM »
I recently wrote an Andy Capp strip which consisted of two frames. In the second frame, there is one speech balloon----it comes from Andy and reads " And if I had one, you'd be trying to pluck kindling."
What's going on in the first frame? (This hasn't been published yet and might never be!)

Offline Diane CBPFC

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2007, 10:38:51 PM »
"If I bought a decoy duck I bet you?d try to shoot it, you shortshighted git." ?
People will come from strange lands to hear me speak my words of wisdom. They will ask me the secret of life and I will tell them. Then maybe I'll finish off with a song. The Nomad

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2007, 12:13:48 AM »
Does it involve illegal substances?
I apologise, in advance.

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2007, 10:06:12 AM »
No.

Malc

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #4 on: June 03, 2007, 12:37:56 PM »
Gawd, it's got to be something like: "I'm so hungry, if I had a woodcock I'd pluck it".

Though I'm surprised at you.

Delighted, but surprised.

Malc

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #5 on: June 03, 2007, 12:40:01 PM »
Hang on, I get it.

Now it's my turn to be the patsy. You're trying to get me to say a rude word, aren't you?

Willy.

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #6 on: June 03, 2007, 01:27:52 PM »
Chalky is playing an acoustic guitar and singing "If I had a hammer..."   ;D ;D ;D

Roger, you're brilliant!
I apologise, in advance.

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2007, 01:44:32 PM »
I thought that was impossible! Andy is actually walking past a guitar-playing busker who's singing "If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning".
Astonishing, Tarks, astonishing!

Malc

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2007, 02:17:10 PM »
I'm impressed.

As a guitar player, I was thinking of all the things one could pluck. All I could come up with was, chicken, cock, goose, duck, hen.

I suppose it's because I would use the word "strum" or "pick".

Doesn't take away from a great performance by TT.

Offline The Peepmaster

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2007, 04:00:34 PM »
I'm impressed.

As a guitar player, I was thinking of all the things one could pluck. All I could come up with was, chicken, cock, goose, duck, hen.

I suppose it's because I would use the word "strum" or "pick".

Doesn't take away from a great performance by TT.

I'm a bit unsure about the word "kindling". It's not a widely used noun where I've ever lived, although I know what it means. Could it therefore puzzle many readers?
Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 😟

Offline Mince

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #10 on: June 03, 2007, 04:03:51 PM »
Perhaps you could change it to "broken pieces of guitar".

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #11 on: June 03, 2007, 04:17:28 PM »
Shucks - coming from two such luminations of the cartoon world, I'm blushing down to my open-toed sandals.

I used a similar method to Malc, I think - a kind of reverse process of elimination. The clues were all there. The first question had to be "if I had a what?", and your stressing of the word "I" implies an expressed ownership of said item by someone other than Andy in the first picture. The second question had to be what item produces kindling, since the phraseology implies that the item would be used for that purpose. The obvious answer would have been an axe and a log, but thinking along comedy lines, the supplier of the wood was (from the tone of Andy's sentence) more likely to be the source of some annoyance to him, so much so that he would wish to see it destroyed. Not being a guitarist, I wasn't thrown by the pluck word as Malcolm appears to have been, and indeed any time I have ever picked up such an instrument, the word 'pluck' more than covers the sound that I managed to create. Putting all the elements together left me with a guitarist singing about having a chopper, which didn't really make any sense. But once I sang the first four words, "If I had a...", the penny instantly dropped and it all became clear, being unfortunately old enough to be all too familiar with the classic hit song. I laughed like the proverbial drain. I chose Chalky because I thought the image of Flo with a guitar to be most unlikely, but of course it works much better with a busker.

So there you have it - a lucky guess really.
I apologise, in advance.

Offline Roger Kettle

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #12 on: June 03, 2007, 06:35:04 PM »
I am absolutely gobsmacked that you worked that out, Tarks. I was sending it to The Mirror and thought that the punchline looked so bizarre on its own that nobody would ever guess how I'd got there. Amazing!
Nige, I'm pretty sure that the word "kindling" is used widely. I even heard it used in an episode of "Friends" recently. If it's good enough for Jennifer, it's good enough for me.

Offline Tarquin Thunderthighs lll

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #13 on: June 08, 2007, 06:40:57 PM »
Just so long as it was Jennifer - if it was Joey, I'm sure it had nothing to do with chopped wood.

Then again....
I apologise, in advance.

Offline Mince

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Re: Continuing the recent surreal themes...
« Reply #14 on: June 08, 2007, 07:56:43 PM »
I wouldn't bother reading this post.