Kelly Pool At Home
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
Features
Hot Posts
A Message From Devcat
Devcat is watching over, but if you notice any problems contact the editors and Devcat will be notified and deployed immediately.
Recent Comments
on Weekend Plans Post: Thanksgiving in IcelandStill haven't seen any Northern Lights. I *HAVE* seen lava. I will console myself with the thought t…
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.What search engine are they using in SD I wonder?
Comics
-
November 27, 2024
-
Movie of a Man Awakened at Night
November 26, 2024
-
It’s Going to be a Hard Winter
November 25, 2024
-
Hunting the Wild Goose – It’s a Funny Game
November 24, 2024
More Comments
on Movie of a Man Awakened at Night
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
- on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
- on Huffpo reports that Harris internals *NEVER* had her ahead.
“Is it any crime to drink beer?” – this line is going to land differently in four years.Report
The fellers are all in evening dress! For a party with beer!Report
I’ve been mulling over this comic and now I’m in an overthinking mood.
So, my impression is that, at the time, billiard games were not that respectable. (reference: Ya Got Trouble from The Music Man, set in 1912). Now, for Briggs (and a lot of his contemporaries, and for that matter other eras), that’s one of the sources of humor – putting people in situations at the edge of respectability, and then seeing them trying to rationalize their way out of it. (usually to the ‘missus’)
But this…isn’t quite that. But it’s not..*not* that either. All these woman are seemingly, unfamiliar with kelly pool, and the joke definitely isn’t the ‘mansplaining.’ But also, no one in the comic is drawn as super young (except the actual kid), everyone seems to be in that ‘settled down’ stage of life.
So my conclusion is this is one of the most ‘feminist’ cartoons that Briggs has done. Woman are being introduced, as peers, into a social setting that is (and really would continue to be) virtually all male spaces.
(The other ‘feminist for the era’ tell is the comment about grapejuice and that middle class women of the era were *very* into temperance, as a rule.)Report
Next thing you know, they’ll be putting in a hotel!
I get the feeling that The Music Man was more making fun of the people at the edges who said such things… which is not to say that there weren’t people at the edges who said such things.
But the issue of respectability is also one of cost. Who could afford a billiard table? Well, Certain Establishments and households where they had evening wear in the closets.
Now, to compare this one to the half-dozen Kelly Pool strips we’ve seen before, it’s pretty established that these guys are on their absolute best behavior. The beer is a definite misstep. He’s thinking “we’re inviting the dames to see what we do down here!” and everybody else, even the dame herself, knows that… NO. They’re seeing the family-friendly version and selling it as the real thing.
She’s being a good wingman, she is. He doesn’t appreciate her enough.Report
That’s a very good point.Report