I don't understand this comic strip.

August 21, 2016 5:21 PM

Can someone explain this comic strip to me?

I don't read the strip on a regular basis, just happened to pick up the comics section while in a cafe, and I am puzzled by this one-panel comic.

posted by Pastor of Muppets to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

The kids are in the pool pretending to be deep-sea diving, and the phenomenon they report seeing while doing so is something naughty.
posted by Sublimity at 5:27 PM on August 21, 2016

...and the older sister doesn't want to deal with the subject of 'mating' and is calling for Mom to take over.
posted by cecic at 5:30 PM on August 21, 2016

What Sublimity said. Plus, it's part of a long tradition (perhaps best exemplified by Calvin & Hobbes) of using the Sunday comic strip (color, larger size) to show kids imagining themselves in fantastical situations in the most mundane settings.
posted by Etrigan at 5:31 PM on August 21, 2016

I agree but the thing that throws me is why is the boy spitting out the water like he is shocked?
posted by ReluctantViking at 5:33 PM on August 21, 2016

he was shocked by the squids mating (i guess - cartoon doesn't make a whole lot of sense imho).
posted by andrewcooke at 5:35 PM on August 21, 2016

I had got that they were pretending to see all the sea life, but I was puzzled by the freak-out of the sister-- especially the "!?" part of it-- if she was just "MOM, THEY'RE BEING GROSS" it seems like it would just be !!, but the ? implies that she's questioning something of mom, like... I don't know? It just really puzzled me.
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 5:45 PM on August 21, 2016

especially the "!?" part of it

I think that's to indicate "They're being weird!" as opposed to "They're being gross!"
posted by Etrigan at 5:49 PM on August 21, 2016

My take is that it's Mom and the little brother "snorkeling" in the backyard pool i.e. participating in making up an imaginary world in everyday play...a thing that is supposed to be childish behavior: innocent, sweet, wondrous. But then Mom imagines the squids mating and turns the innocence of the imaginary world on its head by being, for lack of a better word, practical...realistic re: the happenings of the natural world. The daughter, sitting out to sunbathe, is in that tender place where the idea of sex is particularly embarrassing. So while the little brother can put his hands over his eyes and even giggle about it, the sister is appalled in her teenage way at Mom's observation. It seems to me a commentary on the sister's "in between" stage of not a child anymore with an unquestioned imagination, but not an adult, comfortable enough with sex and mating to be blase about it, as Mom is.
posted by weeyin at 5:56 PM on August 21, 2016

Oh!! So the dark-haired person in the pool is Mom? I thought it was another little kid.
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 6:00 PM on August 21, 2016

Not Mom. It's Alix, 10 (front, sitting down). The blonde is Holly, 13 (front in that pic). Alix and Holly are sisters. The boy is Max, 3, a neighbor kid (right in that pic).
posted by Etrigan at 6:04 PM on August 21, 2016

It doesn't really work for me, because kids (adults too, really) bring their own knowledge into their fantasy universe, including whatever reading they've done on the subject (I remember C&H being good about this).

This seems to depict kids encountering new information - that squids mate, and what squid mating looks like - in their fantasy world. If it's the kind of family that watches a bunch of youtube videos of wild life, that might make sense (if it's not really new information) but then the older sisters' sense of scandal is confusing - not to mention that the younger kids also seem surprised and confused.

You don't encounter brand new information in your imagination. You might make an intuitive leap, but that's not what seems to be happening here.

The older sister is yelling off-panel to mom. The ppl in the pool are kids.
posted by bunderful at 6:49 PM on August 21, 2016

Ah, hm. Thanks, Etrigan. Not Mom, but Alix. Well, this line from the wiki about Stone Soup says Alix is "...a blissfully naive (and pugnacious) tomboy mystified by her sister's histrionics." So perhaps the comic is about Alix's naivete about mating--since she is a tomboy and likely more interested in science/the natural world without the trappings of social and cultural ideas about sex and so sees nothing unusual about commenting about squids mating--vs. her older sister who *is* much more aware of those things and, coincidentally, has a dramatic personality (histrionics), hence her calling out to Mom.
posted by weeyin at 7:10 PM on August 21, 2016

At least it's not just me finding this a bit puzzling or at least, just not all that funny.. Weeyin's seems pretty likely though. Thanks!
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 10:13 PM on August 21, 2016

> since she is a tomboy and likely more interested in science/the natural world without the trappings of social and cultural ideas about sex and so sees nothing unusual about commenting about squids mating--vs. her older sister who *is* much more aware of those things and, coincidentally, has a dramatic personality (histrionics)

As someone who reads Stone Soup every day, I can confirm this analysis.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:27 AM on August 22, 2016