When I was growing up you didn’t have too many words that meant something dirty along with the original meaning. Sure we had the words we snickered at such as the name “Dick”, but it seems that today you can twist just about any term into a dirty word. I’m not criticizing, I’m just observing. That being said, comics that were written many moons ago used terms that, today, seem a little dirtier than they were meant. In other words, serious comic strips back then may be termed as humorous now.
So, this is The Comic Whisperer’s list of some of The Most Awkward Moments in Comic History. These are actual panels from actual comic strips, nothing is doctored or photoshopped.
1.) Expose Myself These were two words that, I think, always had that filthy twist to them. I was just as likely to laugh at James Bond saying he didn’t want to “expose himself” to his enemies as I am to laugh at it today. That being said, I am not sure of any day or age where Robin exposing himself wouldn’t be funny.
2.) Vibrator I’m not sure what the weapon was exactly in this comic but I know what I pictured in my head. I don’t think I need to add anything to this comic other than asking if this weapon took batteries or if it plugged into the wall.
3.) Making Love To a Goat This one is purely visual and it’s implications are what make it funny. It clearly wasn’t meant to have any dirty second meaning, but it’s very easy to assign one.
4.) Mounting The Ant Jimmy Olsen is arguably the king of the characters when it comes to being morphed into something else. If you look back through comic history you will see the many forms that Jimmy has taken. Some are quite funny. In this particular case he has been made very tiny and is asked to do something that seems quite normal, but our own twisted thoughts assign other meanings.
5.) Donald and Daisy Duck It’s hard to surf the net without finding a site that talks about little dirty, if not subliminal, messages and pictures embedded in Disney’s films. Whether it’s the word “Sex” spelled out in the leaves in The Lion King or the supposed erection sported by the priest in the Little Mermaid, Disney has come under fire. Personally I’m not sure if it’s just us seeing something dirty where it’s actually innocent, or if it is done intentionally by artists hoping to add a “signature” to their films. Either way this one is clear, even to Daisy, that there is more than one meaning to what Donald is saying.
6.) Cable TV There are child and teen superheroes more so today than in the past. There was also a time when Cable TV was the only place where you would see racy story lines. The two facts collide here with one of the most time tested child/teen heroes of all time, Robin. As in life these teens need to grow up and there is no better comic than Teen Titans to show the transition from teen to adulthood. It can be an agonizing process...
7.) Selling More Comics They say in movies and books that the best way to sell more is to include nudity, sex, violence and adult language. Movies and books adopted this philosophy very quickly and the theory was right. The more sex, violence, nudity and adult language the better. Stories that were once exclusive to cable tv, or stashed behind the counter in a book store, became mainstream. In time comics took up the trend. She-Hulk was drafted to take help sell more comics...
8.) Then and Now This is a clear case of what the term meant then versus what the term implies now. I really can’t add anything else to this one, it speaks for itself.
9.) Spankings As a kid spankings were no joke. I know that today there is a great deal of controversy around whether spankings are an acceptable form of punishment. I can tell you, though, that when I was a kid they were acceptable. Today spankings aren’t just associated with punishment anymore. They’ve taken on a double meaning which I don’t really need to explain. Here the meaning is pretty straightforward....
10) Undergarments Most DC fans find Batman to be a dark, brooding, serious character that has few humerous idiosyncrasies. If he did have them one would not predict undergarments to be one of them. Robin, though, appears to have discovered something...
This list has been a chance to poke fun at an industry that has been around through many wars, trends, presidents, fads, etc. One of the things that has changed most over the years is our language , and the meaning of words, making it impossible for us not to be able to look back and have a laugh. The display of these panels was not meant to offend anyone and I apologize sincerely if it has. As a human race we have changed dramatically over the years and change can be good. I suspect in 20 years we’ll be able to look back at the captions of today and marvel at how much we have changed.
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