B.C. by Mastroianni and Hart for February 23, 2021

What?! The cat isn’t staying?

The self-closing mechanism costs extra.

Needs more work on it.

“Harm can come to a young lad.” (The Goon Show)

What goes up must come down.

I laughed, actually

Fump … back to the drawing board.

Close but, no CEEgar!!

Now try running away from a hungry predator while holding that heavy thing.

The creation of the dumbell, both the weight lift tool and the user.

Wasn’t this gag done before in one of the early B.C. strips?

Needs work, I would put a peg through the shaft for starters….

Maybe the “fump” in the head will give him another (better) idea – knock some sense into him).

… or … he could become the “Carrot Top” of his time.

Agree… umbrella is a pretty funny word.

It was a good idea in theory, the execution just needed some work!

The “fump” strikes again.

I once read in Scientific American that some college students had tried to calculate whether you actually got less wet by running in the rain to make it inside quicker, or whether you got equally wet no matter how fast you went. To make calculations simpler, the assumed a constant rate of rain and no wind. Under those conditions, at any given time, a given volume of air always contains the same number of raindrops (which are assumed to be of equal size). Instead of an irregularly shaped human being, they based their calculations on a cuboid of about the same size, say, to make calculations easier. (I don’t remember the dimensions they used, but, since I’m more used to the metric system, I’ll assume 2×0.5×0.5 meters, which gives an area of 1 square meter for each vertical face). Lets assume that each liter (0.001 cubic meter) of air contains 1 raindrop, and that each raindrop is 1 ml, which comes out to 1 liter of rain per cubic meter of air. If we say that our cuboid person has to go 100 meters in the rain, he will go through 100 cubic meters of air and get 100 liters of water on him, regardless of how fast he goes. So, their conclusion was that it doesn’t matter how fast you go. You always get equally wet.

Now, we know instinctively and by experience that that’s not right. There’s a reason people start running to get inside when it rains. So what’s wrong with the calculation?

“The wet head is dead!”

Lesson learned. Umbrellas are dangerous. Stick to slickers. (Do people have “slickers” any more?)

Meanwhile, that high pitched sound you hear is Wiley, who was caught outside.

That’s using his head!

[BUMB!] “Er… Shoot!”

inventing slapstick

And after all these years that closing mechanism still is not perfect

I call it a dumbbell.

“Honey, the forecast calls for rain. You’d better bring your hilarious with you.” I don’t see it catching on.

He Just needed one extra bolt

Needs work…..

It’s a one wheel if he got one more wheel

Needs to have a little more development, that’s all.

The good news is it will fair much better in high winds.

Looks like something I would do.

Works for me, Axle.

They underestimate his invention abilities, don’t they!

Back to the drawing board.

So do I

Must be tough for a really long rain storm; holding that thing up…

A the old bumbershoot gag, now if I ever see a bumber I know enough to shoot it.

Something new — a comic that comes with its own comment.