# Pearls Before Swine (11-21-10) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 21, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481 "2010-11-21T22:42:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/1 "2010-11-21T22:42:25Z")
[Pearls Before Swine](http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/) (11-21 strip). Is this the setup to an actual joke, or is it supposed to just look like one? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/2 "2010-11-21T23:25:06Z")
I _think_ just meant to look like one. The real ones are usually painfully obvious. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/3 "2010-11-22T00:18:50Z")
He sometimes spends the entire strip setting up a bad pun. This time Rat got to him first. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/4 "2010-11-22T00:30:42Z")
I kind of suspect a play on ‘don’t shoot (choo) until you see the whites (whyte) of their eyes (ayes)’. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/5 "2010-11-22T00:45:13Z")
It’s part of a long-running joke about how much the characters hate doing those pun strips. They have happened often enough that Rat would be able to see them coming, so he stopped it first. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/6 "2010-11-22T01:09:55Z")
> [@Renifer](#): > > It’s part of a long-running joke about how much the characters hate doing those pun strips. They have happened often enough that Rat would be able to see them coming, so he stopped it first. Yeah, that much is clear, but what the OP (and I) wondered was whether the one Rat stopped in today’s strip would/could have been developed into an actual pun, and if so, what. It’s like asking if Lewis Carroll had an answer to the [“Why is a raven like a writing desk?”](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1173/why-is-a-raven-like-a-writing-desk) riddle. **Tengu** , you may be onto something, but I can’t figure out how it would work. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/7 "2010-11-22T01:54:10Z")
I think [this blog comment](http://joshreads.com/?p=8557#comment-903011) at Comics Curmudgeon has it: > [@](#): > > (something something Whyte & Choo’s after Labor’s ‘nay’) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/8 "2010-11-22T03:57:40Z")
On another comic strip issue, I wish _Get Fuzzy_ would get off the goddamned British references. You’re in American newspapers: we don’t get it! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/9 "2010-11-22T04:01:26Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > On another comic strip issue, I wish _Get Fuzzy_ would get off the goddamned British references. You’re in American newspapers: we don’t get it! There is no actual joke to those. Nothing to “get”. They’re just existing movie titles with British placenames substituted for an original word. They may be as much football club references as placename references…but it’s just a word substitution either way. ETA: And they’re supposed to be lame and not funny in themselves…Bucky is almost as stupid as Satchel, just in a different direction. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/10 "2010-11-22T04:28:28Z")
Is it sleep? /Satchel ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/11 "2010-11-22T04:34:37Z")
> [@Renifer](#): > > They have happened often enough that Rat would be able to see them coming, so he stopped it first. I want to be Rat when I grow up. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2010, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/12 "2010-11-22T06:08:59Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > There is no actual joke to those. Nothing to “get”. They’re just existing movie titles with British placenames substituted for an original word. They may be as much football club references as placename references…but it’s just a word substitution either way. Sorted! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/13 "2010-11-23T17:30:02Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > There is no actual joke to those. Nothing to “get”. They’re just existing movie titles with British placenames substituted for an original word. They may be as much football club references as placename references…but it’s just a word substitution either way. > > ETA: And they’re supposed to be lame and not funny in themselves…Bucky is almost as stupid as Satchel, just in a different direction. It was funny for about two strips. After two weeks, it’s just tiresome. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/14 "2012-10-18T19:40:37Z")
So, I’m bumping this thread because the [treasury](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449423027) that contains Stephan Pastis’s commentary on [the strip in question](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2010/11/21) came out on Tuesday, and his comment for this strip says: > [@](#): > > From **_Pearls Freaks the #_%# Out** \*, page 205: > > This triggered a flood of questions as to what the pun was going to be. It was going to be some play on the quote, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.” **Tengu** (now **Kamino Neko** ) has been vindicated at long last. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/15 "2012-10-18T19:44:11Z")
Zombie vindication is the worst kind. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/16 "2012-10-18T23:23:36Z")
:eek: Holy scrap. 2 years later, and I win! \<\_\< (I still have no idea how they’d have got there…I suspect neither did Pastis, and that’s why he decided to have Rat knock him senseless instead…) ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/17 "2012-10-18T23:30:22Z")
> [@chorpler](#): > > So, I’m bumping this thread because the [treasury](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449423027) that contains Stephan Pastis’s commentary on [the strip in question](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2010/11/21) came out on Tuesday, and his comment for this strip says: > > **Tengu** (now **Kamino Neko** ) has been vindicated at long last. I have no idea how the setup was supposed to be worked into that phrasing. I suspect Pastis didn’t either, hence Rat kicking his ass in the strip instead of carrying through with it. ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pearls-before-swine-11-21-10/561481/18 "2012-10-21T18:53:27Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I have no idea how the setup was supposed to be worked into that phrasing. I suspect Pastis didn’t either, hence Rat kicking his ass in the strip instead of carrying through with it. On another board, someone had a reasonable speculation. I think it was something like pig saying “I told Mr. Choo not to vote until he saw how Mr. Whyte was going to vote. I said 'Don’t, Choo, ‘till you see Whyte and his ayes.’.” The details of making it work perfectly seem pretty hairy, though…