This Is Not A Pigeon

Nonsense is nonsense only when we have not found the point of view from which it makes sense.

• Gary Zukav

I hope by now all of our fair warren members have seen the new “This is not a pigeon” collection. A couple of things about the collection. First, I understand not everyone, or even most people, are going to find this particular set of shirts, mugs and whatever else we can find to put these illustrations on, amusing at first glance. Cin certainly didn’t when I first proposed the idea to her. For whatever reason, until she could see how it would look on an actual shirt, she just didn’t find the idea funny. She didn’t have the proper perspective to see how the obvious (and absurd) observation could be funny. And then I sent her the Prawn drawing with the handwritten scribble “this is not a pigeon” underneath. The obvious seems to be a hard sell sometimes.

After she saw the Prawn she started to get it. To see and understand why it was funny. Her choice of what made it funnier a trout! And the addition of Fig 1. And then it became funny. It makes me smile every time I see it. Because its ridiculous and obvious.

The idea itself comes from a conversation had on a routine car ride to Safeway. Where we live there are seagulls , all the time, everywhere. And on this particular afternoon, a particularly large one was standing on the street corner like it might cross the rode like a proper observer of the rules. That was a little absurd by itself, but Jon’s random comment of that is not a pigeon, struck me as both terribly true and terribly funny at the same time. He suggested it would be great shirt, any animal but a pigeon labeled categorically as not a pigeon. That was even funnier and we laughed all the way to the store about it.

It seems to me that a lack of perspective and understanding of the obvious is a problem affecting all of us. Perhaps as far back as humans have been categorizing the world around us. At any rate, the Gary Zukav quote I started with is true. Some things won’t ever makes sense or be funny to us and that is just fine. But sometimes, it just seeing the absurdity of the view and recognizing its absurd that helps you find the funny. And humor in particular is product of our common experiences. The things I find funny mean nothing to others and the same is true for me. 

In the end even if you don’t find it funny our hope is that it makes you think about your on truth and perspectives.

Crackrabbit’s This Is Not a Pigeon Collection of t-shirts, sweatshirts, and mugs will make you laugh, even if you don’t know why.