Huh. I wonder if this is related (derived from) Kipling’s poem (from 1895) about Policeman Day sending you back from the City of Sleep… Ah, it’s called The City of Sleep. Or maybe they just both drew on the same image.
Heh. My uncle did this for real – well, the shuffle and deal part at least. He was bedridden for close to a year, and had nothing to do but schoolwork and fiddle with a deck of cards, so he taught himself a bunch of fancy shuffles (didn’t have anyone to play with, so he didn’t really learn to play). Then he went off to college, and some sharpers picked up this freshman to skin him at poker – they let him deal first, and afterwards were too intimidated to cheat.
Yeah – the problem with this “joke” is that it actually exists…