Today, we present an International Separated at Mirth, extending our hands (and rug-beaters) across the water to the now de-facto home of Disney comics, sunny Italy!
...And, if the "Don't call me Sonny!" gag worked anywhere near as well in writing, as it would verbally, I would have done it here... but I didn't... or did I?
Anyway, our... er, "dual deflowering" comes to you from DONALD DUCK #74 (Dell Comics, Cover Date: November-December, 1960 - cover by Pete Alvarado, or possibly Jack Bradbury)...
...And ALMANACCO TOPOLINO #275 (Mondadori, Cover Date: November, 1979 - (cover by the great Marco Rota).
Donald Duck AND Daisy Duck being the subjects of the gag.
The fallen-flowers are both from the lower left portion of the rug.
SIX flowers have fled from each rug.
And, though 19 years apart, Donald and Daisy use the exact same style or model of rug beater!
I'll leave it to each of you to decide which expression is better...
I like 'em both - Donald quizzically pondering the state of the rug, and Daisy looking perplexed at the reader - but I'll give the slight edge to Daisy.
Special Bear Beating Rug Extra!
In response to Elaine's comment, I cited some "rug-beating" examples seen in young childhood. Here's one I just saw for the first time last week...
From PAUL TERRY'S COMICS # 100 (St. John Comics, Cover Date: April, 1953), we have The Terry Bears in "Papa Beats It"!
Not only does it tie-in with Donald trying to... er, "duck" this type of chore...
(Seen here in black-and-white from that Whitman hardcover book!)
...But its indirect anti-smoking message also ties-in with the Flintstones ad linked-to in the comments!
...Smoking may also result in "seeing-comic-book-colors-slightly-out-of-register"!
6 comments:
What's surprising to me about this is that anyone thought in 1979 that child-readers would recognize what Daisy is doing in this picture. Even in the 1960's, I never saw anyone use a rug-beater, or even saw an old one lying around in the attic. My mother just shook out the small rugs. 1960 was already pushing it for this visual joke.
I like em both but looking at the two covers side by side it almost looks like the Donald Duck cover is the gag’s setup and the Daisy Duck cover is the punchline. Part 1: A Duck, having just hit the rug, notices the rug’s flower design has comedically fallen off. Part 2: A Duck looks at the camera in reaction, as if to tell the audience “can u believe this!? This is some wacky shenanigans going on here”
Waitaminute,I hear y’all saying, the head canon I came up with doesn’t work because Donald and Daisy are not the same duck! In the short span of time in which this gag occurred how did they swap places? Well, I have a theory... you see I believe that these covers are secretly the start of an epic story involving Magica De Spell. Magica has cursed a rug beater and given it the ability to bend the FABRIC of reality. In theory, anything the rug beater touches is transported to her lair. Her plan is that if she leaves it around Donald’s house he will eventually pick it up and bring it to Uncle Scrooge’s money bin where he will accidentally drop it on Scrooge’s precious #1 dime... but there’s a hitch! The spell dosen’t work! Instead of transporting objects it transports the user to switch places with the last person they saw. In Donald’s case that’s Daisy. Thus Daisy’s surprised look has NOTHING to do with the cover’s gag; she just has no idea how she got to Donald’s house. What happens next? You don’t have to ask me. I think the story’s exciting conclusion is revealed in ANOTHER foreign cover published ANOTHER 19 years after the second cover :p
Elaine:
I have never seen anyone in real life use a rug beater. Whatever acceptance I may have for the gag, and its unusual implement, would have come from comics or TV.
Donald, for instance, is no stranger to beating rugs as he does so in the final panel of the “Daisy’s Spring Cleaning / General Snozzie” story from WDC&S #213.
I had that story in an odd Donald Duck “Whitman hardcover reprint book” of about 1961, which reprinted several consecutive issues of WDC&S circa 1958 – Mickey Mouse serials, Scamp, Chip ‘n’ Dale and all. So, the image was instilled in me at an early age.
And watch Betty Rubble beat a mean rug in the “Let’s Everyone Pretend It Never Happened Flintstones Winston Cigarette Commercial”, which I also remember seeing around the same time. You can see that HERE!
And, while you’re Winston-watching, check out the second advertisement with Fred accompanied by Herb Vigran voicing a store-guy, several bumpers that you’ll never see again – and even a specimen of the ACTUAL ORIGINAL end credits for the show! ...A version that has a "laugh track" at its middle, and simulated applause at its end.
Oh, one more subtle thing about that “End Credits Sequence” …
When Baby Puss (the cat) slams the door on Fred locking him out (…Why it never occurs to him to just climb back in through the glass-less, screen-less WINDOW, remains a mystery for the ages), notice the “written credits graphics” SHAKE from the impact of the door-slamming!
That’s the kind of funny detail that would soon be absent from later Hanna-Barbera cartoons – and what made the earlier ones so special.
Ryan:
“FABRIC of reality.” HA!
Your theory has all the “divine complexity” and great slapstick potential of a Don Rosa epic! And, YES, that’s a compliment!
So, if the “transfer” takes 19 years to complete, someone, somewhere might even know who took Daisy’s place in 1998… and who took “1998 Person Unknown’s” place in 2017!
I’m taking bets on 2036! And, per Elaine’s observation above, “whoever that is” be may be more puzzled by the strange object he or she is holding, than by the abrupt transference!
…Ah, it’s good to be back!.
Funny thing… Just this very day, I had to “beat a rug”!
It was a small rug, more mat-sized, upon which rested an air conditioner that was removed from its window for the winter, but is now back in place. As over ¾ of the unit hangs outside the window, it accumulated some debris that (as intended) fell upon the supporting rug during its cold-season hibernation, rather than on the carpet.
But, the debris-coated rug had to be beaten-clean. Not having an ancient rug-beater, as did Donald and Daisy, I carried the rug out to the street, and banged it against the pavement until it was suitable to return inside.
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