# I Don't Get This "Tumbleweeds" Cartoon **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751 "2016-02-21T23:34:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/61 "2016-02-25T18:29:55Z")
Again, the punchline isn’t where it is, but what’s being done there. Think about what Embalmathon means… a whole convention hall of morticians draining blood out of corpses, massaging the limbs, and using bellows to suck embalming fluid into their circulatory systems. Think of the mess they’re making, the gory stuff everywhere, the mistakes they have to repair, how bad it must smell… _that’s_ what the sheriff is reacting to. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/62 "2016-02-25T19:13:54Z")
Then he should say something like “I’ve heard enough!” not “I can guess [the location]!” ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/63 "2016-02-25T21:57:20Z")
I’m thinking that there must be some pun along the lines of coroners/corners (if coroners can be called toe-taggers). Is there some well known spot in Dodge City with “corner” in its name, that can somehow be tied to insomnia? Like is there a “red eye corner” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/64 "2016-02-26T00:30:18Z")
**Manduck** : That’s what I was hoping for, but it doesn’t seem to be so. **RivkahChaya** : Exactly: if the Sheriff had been grossed out by visualizing the description, he would have said, “Enough, already!” But “I can guess” really implies that there’s something to be guessed. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/65 "2016-02-26T01:46:56Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > I’m thinking that there must be some pun along the lines of coroners/corners (if coroners can be called toe-taggers). Is there some well known spot in Dodge City with “corner” in its name, that can somehow be tied to insomnia? Like is there a “red eye corner” or something like that. The word coroner doesn’t appear in the strip. A pun like that wouldn’t be sufficient to make a strip funny since no one is reading his mind. For that to work it would need to be a lot more “accessible” to a normal reader with very little special knowledge. Most newspapers, at least when I heard the statistic, were written for 6th grade level readers. Comics are directed even lower I would imagine. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/66 "2016-02-26T02:02:35Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > The word coroner doesn’t appear in the strip. A pun like that wouldn’t be sufficient to make a strip funny since no one is reading his mind. For that to work it would need to be a lot more “accessible” to a normal reader with very little special knowledge. Most newspapers, at least when I heard the statistic, were written for 6th grade level readers. Comics are directed even lower I would imagine. I can’t even find a good map of Dodge City online. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/67 "2016-02-26T14:41:17Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Then he should say something like “I’ve heard enough!” not “I can guess [the location]!” It’s not what he said. It’s the reason why he said it. He wanted Claude to stop giving him TMI. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/68 "2016-02-26T17:18:37Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#): > > It’s not what he said. It’s the reason why he said it. He wanted Claude to stop giving him TMI. > [@Trinopus](#): > > if the Sheriff had been grossed out by visualizing the description, he would have said, “Enough, already!” But “I can guess” really implies that there’s something to be guessed. This. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/69 "2016-02-26T17:19:09Z")
> [@Arizona\_Mike](#): > > I remember Tumbleweeds in its day was wildly popular with a lot of the Native American tribes in the area, who published it in their tribal newspapers. I would often see clipped out cartoons stuck on refrigerators in homes, on bulletin boards in tribal offices, etc. > > It was a pretty non-P.C. cartoon, but Ryan made fun of everyone equally and from what tribal members told me when I asked why it was so popular, they just enjoyed the broad humor, liked seeing Indian characters in the strip, and liked the continuing cast of the Poohawk tribe (plus, the Indians often won…) I only remember a few individual Tumbleweeds cartoons, but one of them ranks among my all-time favorite cartoons period, and I’d hazard a guess Native Americans got a smile out of it as well. The Pony Express rider is galloping furiously. He sees a historical marker in the middle of nowhere, and reins in to read it. “THIS MARKER ERECTED BY THE POOHAWK INDIANS, IN HONOR OF THOSE PALEFACES WHO STOPPED TO READ IT, AND, WHILE DOING SO, WERE AMBUSHED.” Next frame you see him galloping furiously away, arrows sticking through his hat, screaming “No fair! No fair!” ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/70 "2016-02-26T17:38:55Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I only remember a few individual Tumbleweeds cartoons, but one of them ranks among my all-time favorite cartoons period, and I’d hazard a guess Native Americans got a smile out of it as well. > > The Pony Express rider is galloping furiously. He sees a historical marker in the middle of nowhere, and reins in to read it. > > “THIS MARKER ERECTED BY THE POOHAWK INDIANS, IN HONOR OF THOSE PALEFACES WHO STOPPED TO READ IT, AND, WHILE DOING SO, WERE AMBUSHED.” > > Next frame you see him galloping furiously away, arrows sticking through his hat, screaming “No fair! No fair!” This might be the explanation. It should have ended with him looking at the 4th wall pleadingly just as he was about to be scalped, like Wile E coyote. No offense but maybe this strip had a tendency towards spoiling the gag in the last panel? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751/71 "2016-02-27T00:06:24Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > . . . “THIS MARKER ERECTED BY THE POOHAWK INDIANS, IN HONOR OF THOSE PALEFACES WHO STOPPED TO READ IT, AND, WHILE DOING SO, WERE AMBUSHED.” . . . One of his finest! > [@drad\_dog](#): > > . . . No offense but maybe this strip had a tendency towards spoiling the gag in the last panel? No, not really. It tends to have a fairly strongly pronounced last-panel gag. It ain’t always very funny; it’s often vaguely wry. It’s quite often visual in nature. Tumbleweeds and Ace, the Gambler, are talking about whether it’s the heat or the humidity. In the last panel, their hats have completely wilted, sagging down around their shoulders. “I would be inclined to say it is the latter.” It ain’t the Round Table at the Algonquin, but it’s cute, and good enough for a smile. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-this-tumbleweeds-cartoon/746751.md?page=3)