And one of them says to the other, “I just can’t get it thru my head today’s Tuesday.”
I’ve never actually seen this cartoon, but was told it appeared in a Playboy magazine some time in the 1970s, apparently not in one that my older brother had for me to sneak away with.
It sounded like a Gahan Wilson cartoon, but who did have some very “indirect” cartoons, so I guess my question is (this is a little too mundane for GQ), "Is that all there was to the cartoon: One hippo saying to the other, “I just can’t get it thru my head today’s Tuesday,” (or something to that effect.
This is an old joke that’s been around a while. It may have originated as a cartoon. I heard Johnny Carson tell it many years ago on the Tonight Show.
I don’t remember the joke clearly, but it was either “I hate Monday” or “How long til Friday” humor. There are two hippos in a horrible swamp, and one says, “I can’t believe it’s Tuesday.” Meaning, it’s so awful, you’d think it was Monday. Or it may have been, “I can’t believe it’s only Tuesday.” Meaning, it’s awful, and the week has just started.
At the time it seemed really funny, but it seems dated now. I don’t hear that many “I hate Monday” jokes anymore.
The joke originates with Paul Crum’s cartoon, published in the British magazine Punch in 1937.
My own take on the cartoon is that it is patently absurd, since hippos likely have no inkling of the concept of days of the week.
It is my all-time favorite cartoon.
The cartoonist (nom de plume: Paul Crum; real name: Captain Roger Pettiward) was killed in action in 1942.
The spiral at upper right was his signature.
The cartoon can be seen here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bq6A010IQAAZzmo.png
Awesome update. rj74210, I have to ask, what googling led you to this question? Were you just randomly looking for other people who appreciate hippo jokes?
So now that the original cartoon has been identified, here’s another question: Why Tuesday? Would it be just as funny with a different day, say, Wednesday or Thursday?
Wimpy always offered (falsely) to pay for hamburgers on Tuesday. Again, would a different day be just as funny?
It has to be a middle-of-the-week day to avoid the suggestion that the humor is “I hate Mondays” or TGIF. Wednesday doesn’t flow as well - too much effort to transition from the ess sound to W. And Thursday is too alliterative. So Tuesday it is.
It’s because of the “T” sound. All words with T or K sounds are funnier than others. So SaTurday would work, but not Thursday, since Thursday doesn’t have a true T sound. Sunday has religious overtones, and Wednesday is simply not funny at all, except as Hump Day.
Believe me, cartoonists and comedians don’t take subjects like this lightly.
Agreed. There’s no specific meaning past that part. You can take your own reasons for stating what’s in the caption yourself and apply it to the hippos any way that you like. I would think the hippos are so laid back they’ve lost track of the days in the absurd situation where hippos care what day it is.
A couple of other absurd points, the observer has no idea of what the actual day is supposed to be, it could be anything except Tuesday.
Why would a hippo be thinking about either the actual day in the cartoon or the Tuesday? Why would the other hippo care?
The picture is very sparse, there is nothing to indicate that any sort of time bound activity takes place, its just a nothing place in the middle of nowhere, so it really would not matter what day of the week it was.
Uhh, it IS because of the “T” sound, but not for all of those reasons you said.
It’s funny because hippos can’t MAKE the “T” sound. Well-known anthropological fact. About humor, not about hippos. That’s a well-known zoological fact.
It is your ALL-TIME FAVORITE cartoon? really? I mean, it’s good, I guess. It made me chuckle a bit. But ALL-TIME FAVORITE? That seems…a bit…Hyperbolic?
I admire your exact factual knowledge and response to the OP, with link and all. But even Crum himself had better. Oh well. To each their own and all…
