# A Blotter is Like a Lazy Dog **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** olympic-sports\ **Created:** [August 27, 2025, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523 "2025-08-27T11:06:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/1 "2025-08-27T11:06:01Z")
The thread title derives from a joke that I used to see all the time in printed lists of jokes. I’m sure I never heard anybody ever tell it verbally. I don’t think anyone would want to sit through the time it took to tell Q: Why is a Blotter like a Lazy Dog? A: A Blotter is an Ink-Lined Plane. ``` An Inclined Plane is a Lope-Up. ``` A Slow Pup is a Lazy Dog That “joke” was never worth the time and trouble of telling it. Maybe they used it because they had trouble finding enough clean jokes to fill the page. It’s mildly humorous in the way it takes things on a punning logical progression from the beginning to an end that that’s not obvious. I can’t think of any other “jokes” that take this form, but I can think of two examples that have similarities. I found one in Paul Dickson’s interesting book _Family Words_, which contains odd slang and word constructions used within a family and familiar to all members, but which have often appeared in other families, as well. In this case, it was the mother yelling “Nadia!” to mean “Dinner’s ready”. The logic went “Nadia is the first name of Olympic gymnast Nadia **Comăneci** , **Comăneci** sounds like “Come and Eat”. Ta-daa! I’d think this was stretch, but the same “joke” was used in my family in the late 1970s. The only other example I can think of is in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Pellucidar” novels, set in a hollow Earth with a sun suspended in the center. One country in this imaginary world is called “Indiana”. The reasoning: “Indiana” = “land of the Hoosiers” – “Hoosiers” sounds like “Hoojers” – “Hoojers” are followers of “Hooja the Sly”, one of the sneaky bad guys in the Pellucidar series. Anybody else hear of any similar multi-stage punning logic “jokes”? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/2 "2025-08-27T16:35:44Z")
There is always weird rhyming slang. plaster = plaster of Paris = Aris = Aristotle = bottle = bottle and glass = arse ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/3 "2025-08-27T16:46:50Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > There is always weird rhyming slang. ALL of Cockney rhyming slang is “lazy dog”. Too convoluted and not back-trackable. If you wanna use cute code words for things, just make them up. Don’t pretend “bottle means arse” makes any sense at all! The explanation takes longer than the usage. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/4 "2025-08-27T17:00:06Z")
I’d forgotten Cockney rhyming slang – there are too many examples, and you can easily find webpages full of them. I’ll just note that it was years before I learned that “raspberry” meaning “fart” was a case of Cockney rhyming slang (“raspberry” =\> “raspberry tart” =\> “fart”) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/5 "2025-08-27T17:48:44Z")
Another convoluted rhyming slang term that made it stateside: “fork” (non-rhyming slang for “fist”) =\> “Duke of York” =\> “duke” =\> “put up your dukes” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/6 "2025-08-27T20:36:19Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Q: Why is a Blotter like a Lazy Dog? > > A: A Blotter is an Ink-Lined Plane. > > ```auto > An Inclined Plane is a Lope-Up. > > ``` > > A Slow Pup is a Lazy Dog In what way does that qualify as a joke? It’s not even a pun or a riddle. At best, it is code. The only time something like that would be funny, would be if Batman and Robin were able to crack it through a series of preposterous guesses. **[https://youtu.be/1kKP1Atc-Ss](https://youtu.be/1kKP1Atc-Ss "Share link")** ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/7 "2025-08-27T20:43:34Z")
Another multi-step joke along the same lines: Knowledge is power. Time is money. Power equals work over time. =\> Knowledge equals work over money. =\> Money equals work over knowledge. =\> The less you know, the more you make. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2025, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/8 "2025-08-27T20:56:33Z")
Like the story about Russell supposedly talking about material implication, or whatever, at a dinner party, and how a false premise implies the truth of any statement, when someone asked him to prove that if 2 + 2 = 5, then he is the Pope. He replied, “If 2 and 2 are 5, by subtraction 1 = 2. The Pope and I are two, therefore we are one. Therefore I am the Pope.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2025, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-blotter-is-like-a-lazy-dog/1022523/9 "2025-08-28T11:21:46Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > In what way does that qualify as a joke? I’ve always wondered exactly that. But it showed up on pages of jokes when I was a kid. Ask those now long-dead editors.