Cartoons, cartoons, cartoons.... John Crowther's Cartoon Odyssey

I think of it as The Fool's Journey. I've been asked who the "fool" is. It's me, but in the classical sense of the court jester. Only the fool was allowed to tell the king of his follies. All cartoons are available as prints or originals, framed or unframed, through my website or e-mail. For mugs, t-shirts, and other products visit my gift shop at www.zazzle.com/jcrowtherart* (be sure to include the *).

Thursday, March 22, 2007

The History of Something, Part I

We interrupt our regularly scheduled cartoon to bring you this important public service presentation. Accuracy in all things is important to us, and our resident scholar il Professore has kindly pointed out an anomaly in a previous cartoon, to wit, furniture style. This prompted us to turn to our vast research department for clarification. Hours of dedicated searching through history books, dusty files, Internet sites, and stacks of old phone bills have turned up absolutely nothing regarding the origin of Ikea's table design, nor about anything else, for that matter. The best they could do was confirm that man was indeed descended from apes. Once homo sapiens had made that glorious leap from swinging through trees to walking with bad posture, it was only a short step to using a fork, which is what led to the invention of the table. Sitting on the ground eating with silverware just doesn't cut it, and balancing a plate on one's knees came much later, with the advent of the buffet (which was brought about by the Great Chair Shortages of the late 16th century). On the other hand, given the daily regurgitations of the news media, we don't need much evidence that we are still, at heart, gorillas.

11 Comments:

Blogger Vernita Hoyt said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

12:45 PM  
Blogger Vernita Hoyt said...

I haven't been over in a while, John, and I enjoyed scrolling back through your previous cartoons. Loved the horny toad one. This one, too. Wow! You just keep coming out with the humor and philosophical ideas! It's a great blog you have. My one wish is for a subscription button so I could get them in my mailbox every day. Keep bringing on the laughs! After all, they're the best medicine. Nita

12:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I may be wrong but isn’t this the exact same table that appeared not so long ago in the frog cartoon? By the way, that table is still available in a slightly smoother and less rock form at Ikeas for 19.95$ … I’ve heard of an idée fixe, but isn’t this a case of table fixee?

8:10 PM  
Blogger John M Crowther said...

The Ikea must be a cheap knock-off. The rock original is.... well, priceless. Just to let you in on a secret of the cartoon biz, I recycle the furniture, props, costumes, and even the actors... and if it results in an occasional anachronism, well, I make do with the budget the backers give me.

9:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't know which I am enjoying more, il professore's and your comments, the cartoon or the commentary tonight. All in fine form. Can hardly wait for Part 2, says she, grinning.

10:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hahahahahahaha... soo funny John! I can't wait to see what they do with the stone thing! LOL

12:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

>>The rock original is.... well, priceless.<<

Henry's neighbor is right. There was a better usage for that stone work other than a coffee table. With a little wear and tear, it became the first wheel.

5:18 AM  
Blogger John M Crowther said...

Precisely, il Prof, except my research people tell me that according to anthropologists what would eventually become the wheel continued to be used mainly as a table for another 68,000 years, until they worked out the kinks, primarily its tendency to turn only in tight circles. Eventually someone figured out that by making the top and bottom the same size it would roll in a straight line (long before it occurred to anyone to separate the two. Interestingly, it was first put to practical use as a wheelchair, but even then there were problems. The infirm had to balance on the axle, and so kept getting dumped on their face or falling over backward. Even so it would be another 27,000 years before the principle was applied elsewhere. Another little known fact is that the automobile actually predated the horse and cart by hundreds of thousands of years, through the use of the external combustion engine, which turned out to be impractical because the driver kept catching on fire.

12:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The two of you have me rolling on the floor with laughter.

9:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

>>The two of you have me rolling on the floor with laughter<<

Lee,
I am delighted to learn that you are now rolling on the floor rather than falling off chairs, which, as you have learned, can be injurious to your health.

As much as I respect John I must question his statement that “the wheel continued to be used mainly as a table for another 68,000 years.” This is a decidedly deconstructionist view of anthropology. Most scholars of my generation place the time as 67,950 years. We must never forget that in the cave era, Neanderthal man used the Gregorian calendar. Gregory lived next cave down from Henry and was celebrated in his day for trying to turn a square coffee table into a wheel. It was a bumpy ride for his family for about the first 67,000 years until things rounded themselves out, but at least his family didn’t keep turning themselves around in tight circles.

6:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hahahahaha.... too funny il prof... John... those guys must have had "rocks" in their heads back then! LOL

11:42 PM  

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