Editing 1160: Drop Those Pounds

{{comic
| number    = 1160
| date      = January 14, 2013
| title     = Drop Those Pounds
| image     = drop those pounds.png
| titletext = If the flyers don't work, we'll switch to the LEAST subtle method of informing a town of the existence of a trebuchet club.
}}

==Explanation==
The comic presents a flyer with text typical of a ubiquitous advertisement for a "Weight Loss Program". However, the image at the bottom of the flyer and the text below the flyer make it clear that the flyer is actually an advertisement for a trebuchet club. This unexpected meaning is meant to highlight the ambiguity of the flyer's content. A {{w|counterweight trebuchet}} is typically a gravity powered siege engine, which was originally used to attack fortifications. It works by dropping a raised counter weight to rotate a throwing arm, launching a projectile on a ballistic path. The phrase "We'll help you hit your target by dropping 30 pounds FAST" is where the ambiguity is produced. In the context of a weight loss ad, the "target" would be a rhetorical device referring to the weight which one wishes to achieve. In the context of a trebuchet club, the target is a literal location which one is trying to hit with a projectile. Likewise, a weight loss ad may indicate that a client could quickly lose 30 pounds (~13.6&nbsp;kg). However, in this context, the 30 pounds being dropped is either the counter-weight - which is dropped to provide a trebuchet with its power, implying a rather small trebuchet - or the projectile itself being dropped at the target - it will be slower than the counter-weight but definitely still much faster than any weight loss program.{{citation needed}}

The only hint that the flyer advertises a trebuchet club is in the drawing at the bottom of the flyer, which appears to show two individuals pondering a ballistic path towards a castle tower, though no trebuchet is shown; ironically, such a flyer would have a reasonable chance of being quite effective by virtue of the uniqueness (and relative outlandishness of a trebuchet club) of pulling the rug on what appears to be a weight loss advertisement, likely sticking in the minds of more than a few people who do realize that it is about trebuchets from the pictogram or the website in the small print.

The text below indicates that this flyer "may have been too subtle". The title text suggests that, if the flyer is indeed too subtle a form of advertisement, they will use the LEAST subtle options of announcing their club's existence — likely by using their trebuchet to attack the town.That would certainly get the club some attention!

See also [[382: Trebuchet]].

==Transcript==
:[We see a poster taped to a wall. It has Megan and Cueball in the bottom left, a silhouetted crenelated tower in the bottom right, and a thin arc between them. It reads:]
:Struggling with those 2013 resolutions?
:We'll help you hit your target
:By dropping thirty pounds '''fast'''
:[Small print.]
:WEB: http://[illegible].com
:CALL: [illegible]

:[Caption, below:] The flyer for our trebuchet–building club may have been too subtle.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Trebuchet]]