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Tags: Fantasy, Nudity, Work
This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 11:58 pm and is filed under SCP Comics.
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(145 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:01 am
I am proud to be the first to say:
I don’t get it.
:S
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:08 am
seconded
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:16 am
Well, the “leaves of three” has to do with poison oak? Maybe just the fact he was wearing it everywhere, and that’s what the dots are supposed to be?
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:36 am
I also am fairly confused…= (
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:38 am
well, leaves of three is definitely …poisonous plants ( poison ivy etc. ) and that does explain the allergic reactions. I don’t understand the ‘Weekend Seminars’ happening in a wooden hut, surely far away from the city.
waiting……for a better explanation……
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
Hm…The word “three” seems to be emphasized, so maybe there’s a clue there. It could be that the guy with the leaves and rashes thought it was another number or something sounding like “three” (tree, free, poisonivee etc.
Maybe it would have helped to know what “fecundity” means?
“Leaves of three” seems to refer to something that a lot of people know (though I am not among them), at least the two man seems to have had a disagreement on how this (apparently) well known expression goes.
I do like clever humor and jokes that require a bit of thought, but this one’s way over my head. Would anyone care to explain it if they get it?
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:35 pm
No one’s ever gone to a weekend retreat in a wooden hut? We have them all the time over here. It’s like survivor only you can’t win anything, and the loser gets fired. real life is awesome!
October 2nd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Ouch. This one’s not being all that well received
I’ll let you guys try to puzzle it out a bit longer, and then come back with some answers in a day or two.
October 2nd, 2007 at 5:31 pm
I think the joke is that he chose the wrong kind of plant to wreathe himself in when he turned the weekend retreat into an insane, paganistic orgy and now he’s got poison ivy all over his body.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Old plant identification rhyme. “leaves of three, let them be.”
I assume he thought it was something else.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 am
Revel in my egg production ability?
Well, given the context I would guess its refereing to seeds or propagule. And I would guess its propagule or wood/leafe segments for asexual reproduction.
Allright, so from the “everyone put your cloths on” line I’d hazzard a guess that there was an orgy going on, and the shipping clerk was left out so tried to reproduce asexualy like some plants or trees do?
Still dont get it. But I can senese the joke there even if I cant understand it.
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:29 am
If I have it correctly, the Green Man refers to the Celtic deity Cernunnos. Modern wiccans believe the Green Man to be one of the forms the Male deity of their religion can take. I guess during certain wiccan rites (or at least what the comic author imagines them to be) somebody dresses up as the Green Man. Why this would require “leaves of three” (and the subsequent use of poison ivy / oak for the costume) I haven’t the foggiest idea.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:10 am
ah the poison oak explains a bit, I’d never heard that before. I think Tom has got it there. I just wonder what he thought it was instead of three. for Ponyboy, fecundity means fertility.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:50 am
These weekend retreats are usually held in order to build and foster teamwork which, in turn, increases productivity. Another word for productivity is fruitfulness, which could also be called fecundity or fertility. I believe Tom has hit the nail on the head with his explanation of the joke. Hal, your average shipping and receiving clerk, has been to several of these productivity-increasing retreats and has decided to use them as an outlet for his own repressed sexual tension. He has used the change in scenery as a catalyst to transform himself into “the Green Man”, some sort of pagan fertility god. Obviously, he has convinced others to follow along by dancing naked around him. Apparently this is not the first time Hal has done something of this nature; however, it would seem that it is the first time he has encountered poison ivy. I believe this is a wry satire on office communication and interaction. Well done, Kevin!
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:01 am
Thank you for explaining that and keeping me from having to, John H. It’s pretty funny for obvious reasons to the sort of people that I’ve always imagined read these sorts of comics. I, for one, giggled and got it upon first read.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:49 am
One of my favorites
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
For the record, I got the joke(s) on my second read thru and still had a good laugh from it. I think a lot of the weakness comes from the vague set-up in the first panel. But once you get it, the second panel sells the whole thing on its own.
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:47 pm
I think it would work more if Hal looked more shameful or shy afterwards… but I’m still not sure I get it…
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Interesting. Weird.
I did giggle… But it’s still weird.
It’s nice to see how some people who don’t listen still suffer the concequences! Bwahahaha! (Such as itchy plants that give you rashes.)
October 4th, 2007 at 11:51 am
Man, you people are all ridiculous. It’s a weekend retreat for their company. They went out into the woods. Obviously, the people that work at the company are so strange or easily confused that they can’t handle being out in the woods that long, and they start acting ridiculous.
Kinda like, you know, cabin fever. Please tell me you at least know what that means.
Anyway, while freaking out, one guy dressed himself up in foliage. Another of his co-workers apparently warned him it was poison ivy (utilizing the leaves of three rhyme) but the guy doing it obviously didn’t believe him.
It’s really simple, you just need to know some cultural context. Get outside sometime, people.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
I love how he still has his tie on, nestled in the leaves.
October 7th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Its poison IVY.
October 7th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Hah! All of your comics are fantastic. I went against your advice and started to read from the first comic, and it was interesting to see how you just kept on improving! Keep up the awesome work
October 8th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I’m with Chris – this isn’t at all hard to get. I can’t believe it could have required so much explanation. Maybe people just didn’t find the joke funny, and tried to look for some deeper joke. I found it fairly amusing, myself.
What’s with the woman’s legs in the third panel? They look… unable to support the weight of a small child, much less a grown woman.
Oh, and more nitpick time: fecundity doesn’t mean the same thing as fertility. Fertility refers to the capacity to produce offspring; fecundity refers to the actual rate at which one has successfully reproduced.
I like SCP. Keep makin’ comics.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Hey Tim – Her legs are mostly in the shadows. You can see a faint outline in the back.
It seems like you guys have it figured out, so I won’t prattle on about my intentions. While this one didn’t get the world’s best rating, it did get over 20 comments!
The next strip will be up in about an hour.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:08 am
I feel good that I got it on the first try. But I have been to corporate seminars, & I am fairly versed in pagan rituals…
Great job Kevin! Brilliant as always!
October 26th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I love the unfocused look in his eyes
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:25 pm
The comic is good but the commentary is the real star on this one.
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
To tell the truth, I got the joke my first time through. I just thought it was so stupid and lackluster that it couldn’t be right and I was an idiot for thinking of it so I looked for something deeper. Looking back it’s not that bad, it just didn’t take well for some reason.
Alternate post:
lolwut?
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Also, it would helped A LOT to have known about those office retreat thingies. I’ve never worked in an office before, or spent much time around anyone who has.
February 27th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I don’t see whats so hard to get. I got it immediately, and had a good laugh.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Indeed, this is actually hilarious.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Hmm… sorry Kevin, I have to stick with my original take on the legs – they are WEIRD-looking.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:32 am
Reading this from the UK (and never having heard of this ‘leaves of three’ rhyme before) I didn’t get the 3rd panel until reading the discussion.
Yeah cultural context is necessary – I guess the ‘leaves of 3′ rhyme is some american child safety mantra?
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
I think her legs look fine, Tim.
Matt, there’s a poisonous plant called poison ivy. It has three leaves clustered together, but if you don’t know it on sight, it can look like another plant that is perfectly harmless, so yes, children are taught the rhyme “leaves of three, let them be” by camp counselors, scout leaders, teachers, etc. so that they don’t come home and start itching and swelling and their parents sue the adults that let their children roll around in poison ivy.
May 4th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Poison Ivy: Three leaves growing from the same point on the reddish stem. Grows as single plants and vines. Oils on the plants are the cause of a lot of itching if you are allergic, and most people are. I work at a summer camp that has five different varieties of this plant as well as Poison Sumac. As of yet I have avoided touching it. (knock on wood)
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 am
This is what happens when you box people into little cubicles then offer a false sense of freedom in the term of “retreats”. They start a cult.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Here’s the meaning of the strip as far as I can tell:
The company organized a weekend retreat for everybody, in a cabin in the woods. Hal the crazy shipping-and-receiving guy covers himself in poison oak and orders everyone to dance, under the mistaken impression that he is some kind of all powerful entity. By the woman’s exasperation, I can guess this has happened before. And the last panel suggests that perhaps he made a bet with this other guy, or something.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
August 8th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
haha. i dont care what it really means, but he got poison ivy and he was wrong about the little rhyme. its comically ironic! haha
August 9th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Leaves of three, let it be.
Leaves of four, eat some more.
August 10th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Just found your site and so far this is one of my favorite strips. People just looked too hard for a deeper meaning.
Also, lol at simpsons reference, Bizarre
August 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I’ve heard it said outside of Simpsons, it’s a fairly common phrase. Undoubtedly if you didn’t know that leaves of 3 meant it was poison oak, or some poisonous plant, the easy half of the joke would be lost upon you.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Holy crap… Genius.
You know, if you left that last panel off it still would have been great. I laughed my ass off on this one.
WTF, people didntget this one.?
November 9th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I am completely baffled as to why noone got this… It was a good one, and seemed straightforwards to me (as in corporate retreat goes wrong, turns into some kinda nutty wicker man / green man fertility festival, then in discussion around the cooler the following week, turns out he covered himself with poison ivy like an idiot) Iunno… I laughed my ass off.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
It's a complex bald joke.
I really dig how you get 2-5 jokes in per strip. Too bad lots of people had trouble getting the obvious ones.
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:02 pm
This is awesome.