"Arlo & Janis" readers--I need your interpretative help!

[raisindot]

Yes, I have wayyyyyyy too much time on my hands. Now that that's out of the way...

Okay, my SWIMBO and I are having a huge debate over the "meaning" of the last panel from the 12-17 A&J strip.

SWIMBO thinks that Janis gave him a gift bag, which he used to wrap her gift. Janis says, "Wrong again" because he was a doofus to use it that way.

I say that she initially thinks Arlo would benefit from putting her gift inside the bag because, like me, he's a lousy wrapper, but when she thinks about all the hard work and love he does to wrap her gift in regular wrapping paper and the pride he takes in presenting it to her, warts and all, she realizes that a gift bag would take away his sense of accomplishment.

This debate is reaching almost theological proportions. Who better to glean the true meaning than a bunch of people who love to apply different kinds of animal fat and sharp blades and are sharply honed to peel away obstructions to reveal the bare truth?

Thoughts? Alternate theories? Time to get something useful done?

Jeff in Boston

 

[airplanedoc]

having never seen the cartoon before my interpretation is this

She sees bag, thinks he could use it to put gift in as he can't wrap presents (Like Me) Then realizes that he would not simply place gift in the bag, he would try and "wrap" gift in bag.

thus making the act of using the gift bag way more complicated that it really is.

In the last frame she states or thinks "wrong again" to express her realization of this.


That is my interpretation having never seen this cartoon strip before

 

[raisindot]

having never seen the cartoon before my interpretation is this

She sees bag, thinks he could use it to put gift in as he can't wrap presents (Like Me) Then realizes that he would not simply place gift in the bag, he would try and "wrap" gift in bag.

thus making the act of using the gift bag way more complicated that it really is.

In the last frame she states or thinks "wrong again" to express her realization of this.

Okay, that's what SWMBO thought. My argument is that you don't see anything on the "wrapping" of the gift that indicates it's made of gift bag material (or at least I don't). If the cartoonist had showed a handle or something it would be clearer.

Jeff

 

[bythbook]

your interpretation is correct.

the artist messed up in drawing an ambiguous-grumpy face in the last panel. Character should be wistful, affectionate, happy....

Obviously the doofus exudes love & devotion in his ham-handed gift wrapping - which itself perhaps is the greatest gift of all. Or so he would prefer to think, the dork, rather than learn to wrap a gift.

 

[raisindot]

your interpretation is correct.

the artist messed up in drawing an ambiguous-grumpy face in the last panel. Character should be wistful, affectionate, happy....

Obviously the doofus exudes love & devotion in his ham-handed gift wrapping - which itself perhaps is the greatest gift of all. Or so he would prefer to think, the dork, rather than learn to wrap a gift.

Okay one vote for my interpretation. At some point, I'm gonna email the cartoonist and ask him what he meant.

Jeff

 

[Amer]

Haha, I really couldn't tell you either way. Sometimes cartoonists just don't put it all together to get the punchline right or the point across. I don't think he tried to wrap the present with the bag since it's a different shade of blue, but maybe the coloring was done by someone other than the writer and the blues were inconsistent.

 

[cricky101]

your interpretation is correct.

the artist messed up in drawing an ambiguous-grumpy face in the last panel. Character should be wistful, affectionate, happy....

Obviously the doofus exudes love & devotion in his ham-handed gift wrapping - which itself perhaps is the greatest gift of all. Or so he would prefer to think, the dork, rather than learn to wrap a gift.

This is what I thought too. The grumpy face in the last panel seemed completely incorrect and should be an affectionate gaze as she thinks about her guy as he tries his best to make her gift look presentable.

 

[gollum83]

having never seen the cartoon before my interpretation is this

She sees bag, thinks he could use it to put gift in as he can't wrap presents (Like Me) Then realizes that he would not simply place gift in the bag, he would try and "wrap" gift in bag.

thus making the act of using the gift bag way more complicated that it really is.

In the last frame she states or thinks "wrong again" to express her realization of this.


That is my interpretation having never seen this cartoon strip before

This would make sense if see was looking at the blue bag rather than the off-white one at the end since he wrapped or "wrapped", depending one's interpretation, the gift in a blue bag.

 

[Dennis]

I go with your wife's interpretation on this one.

 

[mgarbell]

There appear to be 3 bags on the table at the beginning and end, so I go with your interpretation.

It's also possible that it was created this way to let each reader decide for themselves, in which case, you are both right.

 

[Trench]

I don't see any evidence to support the theory that he "wrapped" the gift in a bag.

The first and fourth panels are taking place at the same time. The two middle panels are a scenario that she's imagining while she thinks about what a good idea it would be to let him use gift a gift bag. First she imagines him doing a poor job wrapping the gift. Then she imagines how proud he is to present the gift, and how happy she is to receive it, despite how terrible it looks. The fourth panel is her snapping out of her thought bubble and realizing the gift bag idea would spoil that. She has an angry look on her face simply because she was wrong and doesn't like that fact.

 

[RexHavoc]

I don't see any evidence to support the theory that he "wrapped" the gift in a bag.

The first and fourth panels are taking place at the same time. The two middle panels are a scenario that she's imagining while she thinks about what a good idea it would be to let him use gift a gift bag. First she imagines him doing a poor job wrapping the gift. Then she imagines how proud he is to present the gift, and how happy she is to receive it, despite how terrible it looks. The fourth panel is her snapping out of her thought bubble and realizing the gift bag idea would spoil that. She has an angry look on her face simply because she was wrong and doesn't like that fact.

this

 

[hypo_style]

I don't see any evidence to support the theory that he "wrapped" the gift in a bag.

The first and fourth panels are taking place at the same time. The two middle panels are a scenario that she's imagining while she thinks about what a good idea it would be to let him use gift a gift bag. First she imagines him doing a poor job wrapping the gift. Then she imagines how proud he is to present the gift, and how happy she is to receive it, despite how terrible it looks. The fourth panel is her snapping out of her thought bubble and realizing the gift bag idea would spoil that. She has an angry look on her face simply because she was wrong and doesn't like that fact.

This seems the most plausible to me.
But the original strip is confusing.