Easily Arranged

I'd like to make a bit of a confession.

The other day, I whited out some text bubbles above the head of a certain beloved American cartoon icon and used my computer to insert text concerning wild banshees and sandwiches. It was an inappropriate thing to do and I apologize.

However. That doesn't mean I've stopped doing it. I'm just more considerate about it. I use artwork for which the copyright has expired. I replace dialogue that wasn't very good to begin with.

Today, we consider cartoonist F.M. Howarth's "Easily Arranged", a sort of cartoon-story which appeared in the July 28, 1897 issue of the once-popular Puck humor magazine. Puck was America's first successful humor magazine, published weekly in St. Louis starting in 1871, running stupendously until eventually being bought out by Hearst in 1918. "Easily Arranged" is a simple sort of thing, with an established tripartite action resulting in a humorous resolution. You can see the whole thing here.

Anyway, as funny as it was in 1897, it no longer tickles the funny bone here in 2011. While the boys of '97 got a giggle from a girl on a bike with no skirt, the men of '11 stopped laughing as soon as the dress came off—naked chicks on bikes are hot, not funny, and this lovely lady doesn't show enough skin for us to make a judgement. Therefore, updating must be done.