# What's the funniest single panel cartoon you've ever seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531 "2016-10-14T17:48:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/101 "2016-10-16T02:04:24Z")
> [@SaharaTea](#): > > [The Far Side’s “Cat Fud.”](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8b/c5/56/8bc556e43bc9a7edf541f9042fc4bb26.jpg) Which is still how I write it on my shopping lists. This, word for word. Second place would go to a cartoon I have on my office wall, depicting an executive bound and gagged in his chair behind his desk. The window shows it is night-time. The nameplate on the desk reads “Godot.” ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/102 "2016-10-16T02:07:34Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Larson was just amazing. Here’s my favorite: > > [We’ll eat like kings](http://imgur.com/gallery/4DqHp). Jesus Christ! I was about to go googling for that one. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/103 "2016-10-16T02:13:48Z")
The first was in National Lampoon. A guy is leading a giant rooster around on a leash. People all around them are laughing. The rooster says, “my you have a big cock; my you have a big cock. Fucking assholes, I’d like to kill them all.” A guy runs up to his wife with a newspaper or magazine in his hand, looking all excited. His wife says, " No, Harold, I don’t care to see the turd of the century." ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/104 "2016-10-16T02:56:17Z")
Most of the top drawer ones have already been posted but here are some Thurber favorites. [He caught the same disease that was killing the chestnut trees .](http://ayearinthepark.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54fcf22f08834014e6014c1c8970c-400wi) [Dr Millmoss](http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/120102_cn-what-have-you-done_p465.jpg) [Say no](http://arnoldzwicky.s3.amazonaws.com/ThurberSayNo.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/105 "2016-10-16T03:16:27Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Once again Larson: > > As I had this [coffee mug](http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjQ2WDc0Mw==/z/rkMAAOSwZG9WjXaY/$_1.JPG), the one penguin among thousands is what comes to mind first to me: [http://middleagedmormonman.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/i-gotta-be-me.jpg](http://middleagedmormonman.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/i-gotta-be-me.jpg) You lucked out; some of the early licensed products of that strip had the penguin _colored in_, killing the point of the comic. > [@cmkeller](#): > > I can’t find this on line, but this cartoon reprinted in “The Prehistory if the Far Side” always cracked me up: You’re looking out from the inside of a castle, and Doctor Frankenstein is answering the door with the monster next to him (not visible from the doorway), the callers are Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion, and the caption reads, “Sorry, I just used my last heart and brain - maybe try the wizard down the road.” Similarly (I couldn’t find this one, either): Dr. Frankenstein is stepping off the airplane and realizes he left his brain in San Francisco. [My brother’s favorite:](http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp161/sirlurkalot/FarSide.jpg) [The Methodist-pastor-my-wife-used-to-work-for’s favorite:](https://thebarkingfox.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/bfb150117-larson-god-at-his-computer.jpg) (The button says, “SMITE.”) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/106 "2016-10-16T03:32:18Z")
Gahan Wilson: Two astronauts are in a rocket which has landed somewhere. They’re looking out their viewport and see short people in funny clothes dancing around the rocket and two legs in striped socks projecting from under the rocket. Caption: “Ding dong, the witch is dead!” Far Side: [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqkWbKtCYAAf9VG.png](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqkWbKtCYAAf9VG.png) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/107 "2016-10-16T04:39:14Z")
> **[Rubes® Cartoon Gallery #3 - by Leigh Rubin Cartoonist](https://www.rubescartoons.com/cartoon-gallery3.html)** > > Page three of a cartoon gallery full of funny cartoons by syndicated cartoonist Leigh Rubin. Click on this link and go to the second row of cartoons, on the far right of five. It shows a guy facing St. Peter, who calls him Mr. Phelps, and says his name isn’t on the guest list. Then he’s offered a bag of marshmallows as a “destination-appropriate” consolation prize. I had the chance to ask the artist, Leigh Rubin, (the comic is Rubes) if he meant Fred of the Westboro Baptist Church. He didn’t say yes, or no, just said a lot of people asked him the same question. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/108 "2016-10-16T05:43:46Z")
My favorite ever? I’ll have to think about it. Meanwhile, I first heard of [this](http://www.rickyross.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TJqOHxCg.jpg) cartoon in the form of a joke–the joke, as I heard it, went approximately "two hippos are wading in a pool. One says to the other, “I keep thinking it’s Tuesday”. I thought, “pretty funny, but it’d be more natural as a cartoon. I wonder if it was, originally?” Decades pass, the internet appears, develops, and eventually is so ubiquitous that I find myself connected to it, and it occurs to me I could possibly use this tool to see if the hippo thing were in fact a cartoon. I search, I find it, and I show it to someone, who seems to express mild amusement, but goes on to explain it in a surprising way. It revolves around a pun–“‘Twos’ day”. We see **two** hippos, who each make **two** ripples, while back on terra firma (expressed by **two** lines), we see **two** palm trees. I say, no, that’s not it, it might just as well have been Wednesday or Thursday, the humor lies in the unlikelihood that what day of week it is would matter a tittle or a jot to a couple of hippos in the middle of the jungle a million miles from anything. But then I was unsure, and I thought I’d ask around, but now as I near posting time, I’m pretty sure I was right after all. Even so, I don’t want all my typing to go for naught, so here goes… ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/109 "2016-10-16T06:06:57Z")
**ApallingGael** : Nah, I think your friend is over-thinking it. The cartoon is nothing more than absurdism. How would a hippo know what day of the week it is? (Or care?) Still, points to him for perception and problem-solving skills. Some jokes are complex in that kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/110 "2016-10-16T07:35:35Z")
A Kliban panel: two robbers are in a bank surrounded by about fifty cops, all with their guns drawn and pointing at the robbers. One robber says to the other, “Switch to Plan B.” ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/111 "2016-10-16T07:46:53Z")
A great one for those of us skeptical of advertising [![](http://lmiller.org/s/cc_images/cache_4217842127.jpg?t=1462122501) ](http://lmiller.org/s/cc_images/cache_4217842127.jpg?t=1462122501) And a New Yorker from 25+ years ago, I used to have the original on my kitchen corkboard [http://imgc-cn.artprintimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/60/6064/YLCD100Z/posters/mort-gerberg-fish-in-aquarium-thinks-fish-got-to-swim-bird-in-cage-thinks-birds-g-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg](http://imgc-cn.artprintimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/60/6064/YLCD100Z/posters/mort-gerberg-fish-in-aquarium-thinks-fish-got-to-swim-bird-in-cage-thinks-birds-g-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Sputnikkk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Sputnikkk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnikkk)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/112 "2016-10-16T09:49:56Z")
This is an old favorite [http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/65/6595/45T2100Z/posters/benita-epstein-two-dogs-in-different-apartment-windows-barking-at-each-other-you-shut-u-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg](http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/65/6595/45T2100Z/posters/benita-epstein-two-dogs-in-different-apartment-windows-barking-at-each-other-you-shut-u-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Sputnikkk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Sputnikkk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sputnikkk)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/113 "2016-10-16T09:53:21Z")
This is another favorite that comes to mind > **[a18417](https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a18417)** > > See more Cartoons on The New Yorker ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/114 "2016-10-16T11:22:34Z")
Any love for Roz Chast? [Link 1](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/b0/81/3c/b0813cfa19a610453f3217fa9dfdc499.jpg) [Link 2](http://imagecache5d.allposters.com/watermarker/93-9372-LLJ8500Z.jpg?ch=775&cw=775&type=cns) [Link 3](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/4a/2c/5a/4a2c5af5a406fbd0443a4e4515c35761.jpg) [Link 4](http://imagecache5d.allposters.com/watermarker/65-6546-QFL4100Z.jpg?ch=774&cw=774&type=cns) [Link 5](http://imagecache5d.allposters.com/watermarker/60-6069-XTYD100Z.jpg?ch=775&cw=775&type=cns) [Link 6](http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtJlxkmWgAA1p8A.jpg:small) mmm ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/115 "2016-10-16T13:20:32Z")
Anyone who loves _The Far Side_ will also love [_Doctor Fun_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Fun), an early webcomic. Both comics have a heavy focus on science-themed humour, though _Doctor Fun_’s was often a bit more obscure. My favourite is [“Don Knuth finally sells out.”](https://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200002/df20000210.jpg) [S. Harris](http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/) is also known for some great science cartoons. My favourite of his is [“Boole orders lunch.”](http://www.sciencecartoonsplus.com/gallery/computers/comp03.gif). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/116 "2016-10-16T14:28:24Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > **ApallingGael** : Nah, I think your friend is over-thinking it. The cartoon is nothing more than absurdism. How would a hippo know what day of the week it is? (Or care?) It’s nothing more than saying there’s nothing in a hippo’s life to distinguish one day from another: wading, eating, crapping, sleeping. And after around 1 billion heartbeats, they die. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/117 "2016-10-16T14:42:01Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Any love for Roz Chast? > mmm For sure, from my NatLamp reading days. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/118 "2016-10-16T15:08:52Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > For sure, from my NatLamp reading days. 😃 She is all over the New Yorker these days. mmm ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/119 "2016-10-16T15:20:55Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Going old school, [this one](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/eb/7a/87/eb7a879b638458a6785c6a8ab00e52dd.jpg) by Charles Addams. There were so many good ones by Charles Addams. The Addams Family standing on top of their house preparing to tip a pot of boiling oil down onto a bunch of Christmas carollers is dear to my heart…There’s one with some zoo employees all lined up, holding an enormous python (posing for a picture of The World’s Longest Snake?), and one of them is standing to the side alone, depressed. The caption: (something like) ‘Cheer up, Higgins, you’ll be in the picture next year!’ (after the snake has grown even longer). ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531/120 "2016-10-16T18:04:43Z")
There haven’t been a lot of xkcd so far. [Estimation](http://xkcd.com/612/) [Wrong Superhero](https://xkcd.com/1012/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-funniest-single-panel-cartoon-youve-ever-seen/768531.md?page=7)