Please help me understand the joke in this Peter Arno drawing
June 16, 2016 10:19 AM Subscribe
A man and woman approach a motorcycle cop. The man is holding a car's back seat. The man says: "We'd like to report a stolen car." I don't get the joke. I feel dumb.
Here's a link that currently has a copy of the illustration and some commentary regarding the editor's publishing of it in the New Yorker: http://www.tcj.com/skittish/
I know that back seats are where folks have sex, but every other part of the joke eludes me. Were they supposedly having sex when the car was stolen? Did the word "stolen" have a different connotation in the flapper era? Does the fact that the cop rides a motorcycle have anything to do with anything?
I've put the image through tineye and google image search hoping to find a page that clues me in, but no luck.
This is bedeviling me all out of proportion to how funny I presume the joke actually is.
Here's a link that currently has a copy of the illustration and some commentary regarding the editor's publishing of it in the New Yorker: http://www.tcj.com/skittish/
I know that back seats are where folks have sex, but every other part of the joke eludes me. Were they supposedly having sex when the car was stolen? Did the word "stolen" have a different connotation in the flapper era? Does the fact that the cop rides a motorcycle have anything to do with anything?
I've put the image through tineye and google image search hoping to find a page that clues me in, but no luck.
This is bedeviling me all out of proportion to how funny I presume the joke actually is.
Best answer: RustyBrooks is correct. The car seat was removable.. Those crazy kids.
posted by the webmistress at 10:23 AM on June 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by the webmistress at 10:23 AM on June 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
The joke is that they were so busy, the thief stole the car without them noticing (which is logistically improbable and therefore funny).
It made more sense in that era when car seats were basically detachable cushions.
posted by miyabo at 10:23 AM on June 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
It made more sense in that era when car seats were basically detachable cushions.
posted by miyabo at 10:23 AM on June 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
Response by poster: Ah! Removable was the word I either did not notice (or was not used) when I came upon this in Thomas Vinciguerra's excellent Cast of Characters.
I'm please that there wasn't something crazy-obvious that I missed, I was set to be hecking disappointed in my brain.
posted by wires at 10:29 AM on June 16, 2016
I'm please that there wasn't something crazy-obvious that I missed, I was set to be hecking disappointed in my brain.
posted by wires at 10:29 AM on June 16, 2016
Townes van Zandt tells a similar (but better) joke in the first 20 seconds of this live track.
posted by caek at 11:20 AM on June 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by caek at 11:20 AM on June 16, 2016 [4 favorites]
I love this cartoon and Peter Arno in general. I used to have it hanging in my office for exactly the reason you asked this question.
Yes RustyBrooks is correct.
Imagine you were this couple, how far would you carry the seat after you removed it from the car? I can't imagine it would be more than 10 feet, so yes they were very 'busy'.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:34 AM on June 16, 2016
Yes RustyBrooks is correct.
Imagine you were this couple, how far would you carry the seat after you removed it from the car? I can't imagine it would be more than 10 feet, so yes they were very 'busy'.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:34 AM on June 16, 2016
Best answer: Don't worry about not getting it. James Thurber tells in The Years With Ross how the magazine's famous editor Harold Ross didn't get it either:
He was depressed for weeks after the appearance of a full-page Arno depicting a man and a girl on a road in the moonlight, the man carrying the back seat of an automobile. “Why didn’t somebody tell me what it meant?” he asked. […] “I thought it had a kind of Alice in Wonderland quality. It would’ve had the same effect on me if the guy had been holding a steering wheel.”
posted by zadcat at 11:38 AM on June 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
He was depressed for weeks after the appearance of a full-page Arno depicting a man and a girl on a road in the moonlight, the man carrying the back seat of an automobile. “Why didn’t somebody tell me what it meant?” he asked. […] “I thought it had a kind of Alice in Wonderland quality. It would’ve had the same effect on me if the guy had been holding a steering wheel.”
posted by zadcat at 11:38 AM on June 16, 2016 [9 favorites]
It's hard to argue with the webmistress' link, but I think it's funnier (in a nonsensical sort of way) if you assume they were having sex in the car while it was stolen from around them.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:04 PM on June 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Rock Steady at 12:04 PM on June 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
I liked it more when i thought the car itself had been stolen and the seat simply left behind.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:34 PM on June 16, 2016
posted by Bella Donna at 1:34 PM on June 16, 2016
miyabo: "It made more sense in that era when car seats were basically detachable cushions."
Pretty well all American cars (maybe imports too but I don't own one at the time) with rear bench seats had bottom benches that could be removed in about 10 seconds by unhooking them with the right sort of motion. Some had a couple of backup bolts that needed to be removed but the seat usually stayed in place without the bolts.
This was a pretty innocuous place for teenagers to smuggle booze. Your girlfriends could sit in the back over two 2-4s in cans and the cops wouldn't see it even if they opened your trunk.
posted by Mitheral at 3:25 PM on June 16, 2016
Pretty well all American cars (maybe imports too but I don't own one at the time) with rear bench seats had bottom benches that could be removed in about 10 seconds by unhooking them with the right sort of motion. Some had a couple of backup bolts that needed to be removed but the seat usually stayed in place without the bolts.
This was a pretty innocuous place for teenagers to smuggle booze. Your girlfriends could sit in the back over two 2-4s in cans and the cops wouldn't see it even if they opened your trunk.
posted by Mitheral at 3:25 PM on June 16, 2016
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posted by RustyBrooks at 10:22 AM on June 16, 2016 [5 favorites]