No probably not, but hey, let’s all go live in the 1920s. I’m sure whatever they found funny then is still as fresh and poignant and making you laugh out loud while slapping yer thigh.
It’s actually the 21st Century now, comixavier. Get with the program. It’s playing on a radio near you.
It’s just a recognised image that places subtle context into the cartoon. All (good) cartoonists are telling you far more than what you think you see in the language of cartoons. Just as you would recognise a small black cloud over his head, or perspiration drops flying off his face. It’s all the visual language of cartoons. here’s what’s happening here:
The eye chart is common to all doctor’s offices (or most anyway), therefore he’s at the doctor - probably a GP.
He’s in the gown because he’s about to be examined in a physical way, not just his throat or something he could remain dressed for.
The fact that the two go together to make for his discomfort allow you, the viewer, to put your own horror spin on it (according to your own worst fear at the doctor) and project THAT, thereby bridging the gulf between yourself and the cartoonist and making the cartoon specifically funny to YOU.
It’s genius and it’s what good cartoonists do.
He’s got some good ideas, does Scott Hilburn, but he’s too heavily influenced by Gary Larson and that’s hard to get past for a casual reader. He’s kinda like a PG Larson - he draws like him and even shapes the strip that way, but some of his strips are something Larson wouldn’t go near and this makes the strip look too much like a wannabe I believe.
That guy’s name sounds familiar!