# A little explanation, please **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 24, 2001, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621 "2001-01-24T21:59:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Venkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ec9cab/32.png) [@Venkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venkman)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/1 "2001-01-24T21:59:19Z")
Of today’s 9 Chickweed Lane comic. I saw it in an actual newspaper (printed on actual newsprint!), but here’s an online copy: > **[Welcome to Dilbert](https://dilbert.com/)** > > The Official Dilbert Website featuring Scott Adams Dilbert strips, animation, mashups and more starring Dilbert, Dogbert, Wally, The Pointy Haired Boss, Alice, Asok, Dogberts New Ruling Class and more. I do not get this at all. Is it somehow based on the character, meaning only people that routinely read the strip (which I don’t) will get it? Is it even supposed to be a joke? Is it a humorous comment on contemporary office mores? I haven’t been this confused since the Far Side “Cow Tools” fiasco. (And for the record, I thought they were either tools made from parts of a cow, or with which you could build a cow). ---
**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/2 "2001-01-24T22:06:19Z")
I don’t get it either, but I looked at the other days listed, and I can see that they are -meant- to be funny, but aren’t. Perhaps it is something we will understand when we achieve total enlightenment. I doubt it though. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/3 "2001-01-24T22:19:35Z")
Are we talking about the ballerina on her cell phone? Maybe the joke is that here she is practicing the beautiful, classical art of ballet, while doing something so technologically mundane as yakking on a cell phone. (Why would you have a cell phone in your hand during ballet practice?) Hey, I’m with you. It’s dumb, whatever the explanation. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/4 "2001-01-24T22:23:05Z")
I don’t get it either, but that’s the daughter, who’s high school age (and attends a Catholic school) so it’s not about office mores. If it’s about anything at all. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/5 "2001-01-24T22:24:42Z")
Complete WAG - The cat is sitting upright, whereas the woman is stretched out oddly, reverse of how a cat and person normally sit. [I, for one, am constantly amazed at the weird positions HyperKitty can contort herself into, fully expecting her to ask me to call a chiropractor.] I think the kicker is, she is on the cell phone. How many people sit/stretch/whatever like that while talking on the cell phone. Or the fact that she is _talking on the cell phone while warming up for ballet_ (shoes, leotard and mirror image are the key here). Not how I’d prepare for class. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/6 "2001-01-24T22:33:42Z")
I _think_ I get it. I’m vaguely familiar with the strip, the character is known for her legs. The strip breaks the normal convention of one panel per scene. Her legs are so long and fantabulous, they take up _two_ panels. Hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2001, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/7 "2001-01-24T23:28:19Z")
I think the key here is ignore the divider. It’s one shot. The cat is a vampire. You cannot see it in the mirror. Why a vampire cat is funny is not explainable. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/8 "2001-01-25T00:11:40Z")
That just made it onto my funny phrase list Vampire Cat Potato Masturbator (from the Lipton Sidekick commercial) Midget Mule ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/9 "2001-01-25T00:29:38Z")
Kind of what xtal said - but it isn’t that the cat isn’t reflecting, its that the cat is only in the reflection. which makes even less sense. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cab0a1/32.png) [@The\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Thief)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/10 "2001-01-25T00:40:13Z")
for fucks sake. YOu got me staring at that damn comic strip for the last 10 minutes trying to figure it out. Is this some kinda i.q question? ---
**Author:** ![Erika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@Erika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erika)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/11 "2001-01-25T00:50:20Z")
Clearly, she is stuck, and can’t get up, and is saved by whomever is on the phone with her, even after she has been abandoned by her cat. ---
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/12 "2001-01-25T01:01:37Z")
My twisted mind didn’t make any kind of connection with a cell phone at all. It was trying to make a connection between a certain name that we often call cats, and a certain name that we often call that area between the woman’s legs. What’s surprising me more is that I’m the first one to bring it up here… ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/13 "2001-01-25T01:01:47Z")
'kay, i’m a bit baffled. i checked a few of the other days. in a strip a few days back it showed her, the mirror, the cat and a friend. she stated that she was trying to “weird out” the cat. perhaps she is still attempting this. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/14 "2001-01-25T01:03:17Z")
Uhhhh…uh…hhhh…huh? I don’t get it. And I agree, the other days aren’t funny either. ok, 01-20 was sort of cute. ---
**Author:** ![Venkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ec9cab/32.png) [@Venkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venkman)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/15 "2001-01-25T01:18:07Z")
Huh. I’ve gone back and looked a couple of times and still just don’t get it. I noticed the cat being in the mirror and not in the foreground, but could never decide it that was intentional or if the cat was just out of the frame of the picture in the foreground. Plus the inclusion of the cell phone just confuses me - if the joke is about the cat, then what’s the deal with the phone? Wait - if the cat was a vampire, it wouldn’t have a reflection, right? So the fact that the cat exists _only_ as a reflection means it’s a REVERSE vampire! If the strip featured the adventures of a really evil reverse vampire cat, I think I’d read it more often anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/16 "2001-01-25T01:33:39Z")
The cat is actually sitting about where you the reader are, maybe a little bit to your right. Hold a pencil up to the cartoon so as to block out the distracting white strip between the two panels. That’s actually the reflection of the cat that you’re seeing. He’s sitting on the floor in front of the dancer. The dancer is in front of the mirror; you’re seeing her real front and her mirrored back. And the joke is about “compulsive talking on cell phones”. The cat is just there for visual interest, as a sort of punctuation, to give what Hollywood calls a “reaction shot”. And visually, it balances the left-hand panel. Without something there, the cartoon would look even stranger. You’d have two panels of incomprehensible ballerina legs. The normal-looking cat gives you a focal point, a base of operations from which to let your eye roam back and forth to the dancer while you figure out the cartoon. Also it adds an element of incongruity, which always boosts the humor quotient. I get it. It’s isn’t terribly funny or original, but I get it. [shrug] ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/17 "2001-01-25T01:38:42Z")
And **Persephone,** you are a SICK, SICK person. You should be ashamed of yourself. I want you to leave this thread immediately–go straight upstairs to your room, young lady, and THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID. I don’t know where you picked up language like that, why, I never even HEARD that word until after I’d been married five years and had given birth to your big sister… Your father will be up later to SPEAK TO YOU… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cab0a1/32.png) [@The\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Thief)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/18 "2001-01-25T01:48:11Z")
We figured out all that Duck Duck Goose. What we can’t figure out is the humour part. ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/19 "2001-01-25T16:24:50Z")
I don’t get it either. So, I e-mailed the guy, and asked him to explain. Maybe we will get an anser. ---
**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2001, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621/20 "2001-01-25T16:27:35Z")
[q]Maybe we will get an anser[/q] Of course, I meant “answer”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-little-explanation-please/51621.md?page=2)