Contemporary baby name cartoon

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modern baby's names cartoon

A cartoon about modern baby names and old-fashioned baby names.

A cartoon about the trend for unusual and non-traditional names for babies.

The fashion for non-traditional names for babies may be a symptom of the current trend towards hyper individualism, which may mean that ‘ordinary’ names are viewed as being too conformist.
The trend may also be linked to the rise of celebrity culture where such names are more commonplace
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Vinyl records – a fashionable music format for the 21st century.

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music formats - vinyl - hipsters

A hipster explaining to his father that modern young people listen to music on vinyl – as though it’s a new format that older people wouldn’t understand.

This cartoon is about the way that young people often feel superior to older people because older people aren’t necessarily up to date with technology.

The cartoon is about the psychology of youth – about the way that young people often fail to appreciate the fact that their modern world was created by people who went before them.
The fact that the music format being used is an old fashioned or retro format, while the young person in the cartoon still feels superior to the man who grew up with the technology, is part of the joke about youth setting itself up as superior to age.
The young person in the cartoon is a hipster – a youth sub-culture of the 2010s.
It’s a cartoon about the generation gap.

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Cartoon about celebrities (and audiences) getting old.

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cartoon - celebrity looking old

Cartoon of an elderly man commenting that a celebrity is looking old.

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The man is remembering what the celebrity looked like when the man himself was younger, and is forgetting that he is the same age as the celebrity.

The celebrity in the cartoon is Harrison Ford.
A cartoon about aging, denial, youth.
Cartoon reference number: h695
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Garden cartoons – noisy neighbours cartoon

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Gardening cartoon - noisy neighbours cartoon

Noisy neighbours cartoon

Cartoon showing problem neighbours hanging a loudspeaker outdoors in a tree.
A gardener is hanging a bird nesting box in a tree. The loudspeaker looks very similar to the nesting box, which is part of the joke

A humorous observation about neihbors from hell, encouraging birds in the garden, inconsiderate neighbours
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Cookery cartoon

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Cookery cartoon - recipe book for beginners

Cookery cartoon – a recipe book for beginners

A cartoon showing a person reading a recipe book to find out how to prepare baked beans

A cartoon about how to cook convenience food and about how people don’t know how to cook
Cartoon reference number: a569

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Recycling cartoon. Woman putting man in recycling bin

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man in recycling bin cartoon

Recycling waste cartoon
Woman putting man in recycling bin

A cartoon showing a woman thinking of putting her partner or husband into the recycling waste. He is standing idly thinking of sport while she is busy doing the household chores (in this case doing the recycling by visiting the local recycling centre).

As well as being about recycling and sustainability the cartoon is about gender differences, couple incompatibility, partner resentment

Cartoon reference number: a456

Going viral – a cartoon about popular culture and YouTube videos

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youtube viewing cartoon

A cartoon about the most popular YouTube videos and the inanity of popular culture.
“Gangnam Style” tops YouTube viewing figures

A comic comment on popular culture in the internet age

This cartoon was inspired by the fact that the song and video “Gangnam Style” was the most popular YouTube video today.

I’ve got nothing against “Gangnam Style” (in fact I quite like it), but it’s a shame that the most popular areas of popular culture are usually the most inane/mildly amusing/superficial.
The man in this image is implying that he’d like to see something a bit more intelligent topping the internet viewing figures.
The cartoon is about internet trending, going viral, cultural inanity, popular culture.

Cartoon reference number: a428

How to stop a baby crying – give it the phone

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baby comforter phone cartoon

Cartoon showing how to stop a baby crying – give it the phone

A comment on the hypnotic fascination with phones of young people.
The cartoon is also about the way that children are socialised into dependence on technology and gadgets.
The baby is ignoring the soft toys that are dangling in the baby buggy and is focussing completely on a cell phone (mobile phone).

Cartoon reference number: a357

Garden vegetable glut – gardening and cookery cartoon

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Courgette glut - gardening and cookery cartoon

Vegetable gardening cartoon
Cookery cartoon

Cartoon of a gardener harvesting courgettes from his garden and bringing them into the kitchen

In the kitchen the gardener’s wife is looking at recipes for courgettes and is saying “It’s amazing how many recipes you can find with courgettes in them when you have to”

This is a joke about the problem of gluts of seasonal vegetables and fruit.
Home grown courgettes are a particularly good example of glut-prone vegetables.

Cartoon reference number: a259
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Garden design cartoon – down to earth vegetable garden or ostentatious designer garden?

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garden design and seed catalogue - cartoon

Gardening and garden design cartoon. Ordering garden seeds from a seed catalogue

Cartoon about garden design and planning

Cartoon showing a man trying to decide what type of garden to create – a vegetable garden or a garden in the form of a sub-tropical paradise retreat

Part of the humour in the cartoon is that the man who is contemplating designing or planning a new garden is a stereotypical old age pensioner – a type of person who probably wouldn’t be interested in creating an aspirational garden design such as a designer garden. He’d normally prefer a traditional vegetable garden or allotment garden in which he could potter round rather than a high status garden that would (hopefully) impress his friends.
The cartoon is meant to imply that an ostentatious high status garden design is more vulgar than an ‘honest’ vegetable plot.
This is a cartoon about cultural types, social class, cultural stereotypes.

Cartoon reference number: a236
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Children won’t go outside to play in the garden

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children watching tv in garden - cartoon

Gardening and gardens cartoon. The only way to get children to go outside into the garden is to put a television there

A joke about the problem of getting children away from the television and their computers.
The horror of the idea of ‘outdoor television’ – especially for kids

A comic illustration about child development, children’s games and activities, children won’t play outside anymore, physical exercise for children.
Cartoon reference number: a229

Using power tools in the garden – you may need ear protectors

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ear protectors in the garden - joke

Gardening and gardens cartoon. Using power tools in the garden – use ear protectors

Showing a gardener about to use some power tools in his garden.
He’s asking his partner (who’s relaxing on the lawn) is she’s seen his ear protectors.

The joke is that gardening is meant to be a relaxing hobby or pass-time, but the man is going to make a lot of noise, thus ruining the tranquility for others

A cartoon about insensitivity, lack of consideration for others, noise levels, noisy neighbours, noise abatement society, intrusive noise.
The joke is also about male status and prestige (the need to be seen using powerful tools rather than lower status implements such as sweeping brushes and brooms).

Cartoon reference number: a203

Winter is the dormant season for plants – and people

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gardening cartoon - winter is dormant period

A cartoon about gardening and male behaviour.
Winter is the dormant period for plants – and for people

This could also be a joke about a stereotypical lazy man

A cartoon about laziness, seasonal activity, the seasons in the garden, the rhythms of nature, lethargy, stereotypical gender roles, cliches of masculine behaviour, seasonal behaviour.

Cartoon reference number: a193

Water play isn’t only for children – cartoon

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Water play cartoon

Water play joke

A man in his garden watering plants with a hose pipe (or with a watering can).

His wife is commenting to a friend that it’s important for him to have at least 20 minutes of water play per day. The joke in the cartoon is that water play is normally associated with children and child development, and not with adults, although adults benefit from such activity too.
A cartoon about play, child development, leisure activities, watering gardens, irrigation, hobbies, male shed culture.

Drawn: July 2003

Cartoon reference number: a189

Sundial cartoon

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cartoon - sundial with children too young to tell the time

A sundial with young children who are too young to tell the time

The reason why the children can’t tell the time is because they are too short to see the top of the sundial

A sundial in a garden as a decorative feature.
A cartoon about child development, learning to tell the time, clocks.

Drawn: Aug 2009

Cartoon reference number: a187

Gardening or DIY cartoon – about the fascination of old newspapers

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joke about the fascination of old newspapers

DIY or gardening humour – about the way that old newspapers become interesting

A joke about the way that when you lay out pages of old newspaper as part of a diy project (such as to save the floor from paint splashes when decorating) or gardening project, the stories in the newspaper can become a distraction and become compulsively readable, distracting you from the job at hand

A humorous illustration about procrastination, displacement activity, displacement activities, yesterday’s news.

Drawn: Feb 2004

Cartoon reference number: a178

A gardener who is more interested in the tools than the garden – cartoon

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Gardener who is more interested in the tools than the garden - humour

Garden humour. A gardener who is more interested in the garden tools than in the garden

A cartoon about the way that it’s possible for the technology or tools relating to a hobby to become more important than the results of the hobby itself (Photography is another good example, where men become obsessed with their cameras rather than their photographs).

A joke about the psychology of hobbies, leisure activities, passtimes, pass-times, men’s interests.
It’s also about the way that some men will only use equipment that has a certain muscular masculinity – as here, a noisy power tool rather than a brush or rake.

Drawn: Nov 2011

Cartoon reference number: a177

Garden design cartoon. Using jigsaw shaped paving stones on the driveway to the garage

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jigsaw shaped paving stones on drive cartoon

Garden cartoon. Using jigsaw shaped paving stones on the drive to the garage

Cartoon showing a man constructing a drive in his garden, with flagstones shaped like interlocking pieces from a jigsaw.

The man has just finished constructing the driveway – to find that one of the pieces of the jigsaw is missing.
This is a joke about the cliche that there’s always one piece of a jigsaw that’s missing.

Drawn: Nov 2006

Cartoon reference number: a173
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Child development cartoon – why children no longer ask “Can we have our ball back please?”

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can we have our ball back - cartoon

Cartoon – why children no longer ask “Can we have our ball back please?”

Children no longer play physical outdoor games, preferring to play computer games and to use mobile phones and other electronic devices.

A cartoon about child development, play, outdoor activities, exercise, passive entertainment.

Drawn: Nov 2003

Cartoon reference number: a164

Life coach guru cartoon. Only watch the news once a day

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Wise sayings cartoon. Only watch the news once a day

Cartoon about advice on how to live your life.
Life coach advice – only watch the news once a day.
The news as noise and the illusion of engagement

The cartoon shows a ‘lifestyle guru’ telling someone to only watch the news once a day.
Some people (myself included) watch the news far too often. One of the problems with the broadcast news on tv is that it is extremely superficial, especially when broadcast on a 24 hour rolling news channel. Watching the news sometimes gives the illusion that you are actively engaged in the news, however, we should really be doing other things instead, such as reading books and magazines that analyse and explain in greater depth the implications of the news events of the day. The news is ‘noise’.
This analysis of the news is similar to that put forward in the book by Alain de Botton, The News. The cartoon predates the book.

This cartoon is from a series about the phenomenon of gurus, personal counsellors, lifestyle coaches (a recent and rather ludicrous twist on the phenomenon of personal fulfilment), motivational speakers and suchlike. In the series the guru, counsellor or what-have-you is a very ordinary middle aged woman rather than someone who is removed from the humdrum of everyday life, and is meant to represent a parody of lifestyle advisers and self improvement gurus.

Cartoon about truth, knowledge, opinions, prejudice, bias, philosophy, lifestyle, lifestyle coaching, gurus, motivational speakers, therapy, counselling, current affairs, engagement in society.
Cartoon reference number: a127
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Birdwatching cartoon – and misuse of English cartoon (should it be less or fewer?)

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birdwatching cartoon and language cartoon

Birdwatching cartoon – and English usage cartoon

Birdwatching cartoon. Misuse of English cartoon.

A cartoon showing a father and son birdwatching. The father is correcting his son’s use of English – on seeing a lesser spotted woodpecker the son has mistakenly called it a fewer spotted woodpecker.
This isn’t just a cartoon about birdwatchers. It’s also a cartoon about linguistics and specifically English usage or misuse.
The mixing up of the words fewer and less is a common error.
Getting annoyed or irritated by the misuse of English, especially at the less/fewer level, is commonly seen as a sign of grumpy middle age.
The cartoon’s idea came to mind because of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual event in which people are encouraged to count the different garden birds that visit their gardens.
Cartoon reference number: a104
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Therapy cartoon. If you’re too happy perhaps you need therapy

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Cartoon - you're too contented - you need therapy

Psychotherapy (or just plain therapy) Cartoon. Happiness cartoon.

Therapy cartoon – showing a woman saying to her partner “I’m worried about how contented you seem – I think you need therapy”
She is over analysing people’s moods and even diagnosing happiness or being happy as a mental condition that requires treatment.

Happiness cartoon. A cartoon about the potential over use of therapy, analysis, counselling, psychology, psychiatry, psychotic states.
Cartoon reference number: a086

Child development cartoon. How to bring up the perfect child

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Cartoon - book on how to raise the perfect child

Cartoon showing an ambitious mother reading a book about how to raise the perfect child

Child development cartoon. An ambitious mother reading a book on child rearing called ‘How to Bring up the Perfect Child‘. The mother is saying to her child ‘Not now dear, I’m busy.’

A cartoon about child rearing, parenting skills, hothousing, developmental psychology, education, educational psychology, yummy mummy, yummy mummies, misdirected ambition, bad parenting.
Cartoon reference number: a085
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Child development cartoon – small boys are interested in dinosaurs, older boys are interested in girls

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child puberty development cartoon - dinosaurs are for kids

Child development cartoon – a small child looking at a picture of a dinosaur, and an older child looking at a photo of a naked young woman.

Child development cartoon. Cartoon showing how children’s interests change as they get older, especially as they enter puberty and adolescence.
The younger boy in the cartoon is looking at a picture of a dinosaur (as almost all young boys are interested in dinosaurs). The older (adolescent) boy is looking at a photograph of a naked young woman, and is dismissively looking down on the ‘childish’ interest in dinosaurs exhibited by the younger child. The older child is acting ‘grown up’.

A cartoon about child development, adolescence, puberty, emerging sexuality, childhood innocence, testosterone, hormones kicking in.
Cartoon reference number: a081
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Cartoon. Brain function in the elderly slower than in the young

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old people slow thinkers cartoon

A cartoon about the fact that older people are slower thinkers than young people. However, they are also deeper thinkers.

Cartoon. Old people are often dismissed as slower thinkers than the young (especially by the young). However, due to their maturity they are also deeper thinkers than the young. This depth of thought is often overlooked and ignored by the young (because younger people have more superficial thoughts).
In this cartoon the thoughts of older people are likened to the flowing of a great river as it nears the sea – slow and deep – with the thought processes of younger people being compared (by implication) to the rapid, shallow, tumultuous flow of streams nearer the river’s source.

Slower brian function is often equated with loss of brain function, however this doesn’t necessarily imply a simple correlation with inferior brain function.
Of course degenerative brian diseases are another matter.
A cartoon about diminishing brain function in the elderly, brain degeneration, mental skills, IQ tests, intelligence, brian function, wisdom, cognition, cognitive impairment.
Cartoon reference number: a060
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Cartoon – the difficulty for older people to understand modern technology

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Difficulty for older people using modern technology

Cartoon – the difficulty for older people to understand modern technology.

A woman having trouble programming a modern digital television tuner (or similar electronic device).
TYounger people adapt to using modern technology naturally (as they know nothing else).
The joke here is that the child who understands the new technology is a baby (who understands very little indeed in general).

A cartoon about child development, generational differences, generation gap, early learning, knowledge acquisition, technological illiteracy.
Cartoon reference number: a058

Parenting skills cartoon. Naughty step cartoon

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Naughty step cartoon

Naughty step cartoon. A cartoon about parenting and parenting skills.

Child psychology cartoon.
The naughty step is a child discipline technique of the ‘Supernanny’ school of child development.
The joke in this cartoon is that the technique has been applied by the mother to her husband as well as to her child.

A cartoon about child development, discipline, hen-pecked husbands, domineering wife.
Cartoon reference number: a057

Dieting cartoon – woman weighing herself on bathroom scales

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diet cartoon Heavy Towel

Dieting cartoon – a weight-conscious woman weighing herself and thinking that the towel she’s wearing must be very heavy.

Diet cartoon. A dieting person weighing herself on bathroom scales and being unhappy about her weight – and thinking that her weight on the scales must be higher than it really is because of the weight of a towel that she’s wearing.

A cartoon about obsession with weight, self-deception, obesity, anorexia, nutrition.
Cartoon reference number: a056

Cookery cartoon. Cook losing her temper while cooking a Gordon Ramsay recipe

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Cookery cartoon. Gordon Ramsay recipe

Cookery cartoon. Cook losing her temper while cooking a Gordon Ramsay recipe.

A cartoon about Gordon Ramsey and his bad language and temper.

The cartoon is funny because Gordon Ramsey is famous for swearing a lot, for using bad language and for having a bad temper. The humour lies in the fact that the cook seems to be taking on Gordon Ramsey’s personality traits as part of the cooking process. The cook is channelling Gordon Ramsey.
Cartoon reference number: a055

Football cartoon – football themed bedroom cartoon

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Football themed bedroom cartoon

Cartoon showing a person who has a football themed bedroom.

A cartoon based on the saying ‘Eat football, breathe football’ and its variations (such as ‘Eat football, breathe football, life football’)
The joke is that because the person in the cartoon has had a football themed make over in his bedroom, with all of the decor and decorations being football related, be can now ‘Eat football, breathe football and sleep football!’ .

A cartoon about sports fans, football fans, obsession with football, following football.
Cartoon reference number: a054