Johnny Hart had a delightful sense of the absurd. This cartoon is an example. Like his detachable shadows that would climb a mountain and rejoin a character who went through a tunnel when coming out the other side, this is using the fact that an object subtends a smaller angle at the viewer’s eye as it flies farther away. It looks smaller as it goes farther.
The joke is that the ball still looks smaller when the character catches up with it, as if flying away had made it really shrink rather than just being an effect of distance vs. angle subtended.
Farside99 over 2 years ago
Must have burned up a bit on reentry.
wjones over 2 years ago
What counts is, you caught it for the out.
danketaz Premium Member over 2 years ago
The dookey bird wasn’t doing a fly-by was he?
Zebrastripes over 2 years ago
Does this mean an OUT?
StephenRice over 2 years ago
I didn’t see the point in this until the last panel.
Lana M. over 2 years ago
Johnny Hart had a delightful sense of the absurd. This cartoon is an example. Like his detachable shadows that would climb a mountain and rejoin a character who went through a tunnel when coming out the other side, this is using the fact that an object subtends a smaller angle at the viewer’s eye as it flies farther away. It looks smaller as it goes farther.
The joke is that the ball still looks smaller when the character catches up with it, as if flying away had made it really shrink rather than just being an effect of distance vs. angle subtended.
I have always liked Hart’s absurdities. :)