The Comics Placebo Effect.

This is a Frazz-like gag today. It requires a lot of work by the reader, and then there is the Oh-I-Get-It-Moment after a millisecond of processing. (Used to be a nanonsecond a few years ago.) The Frazz strip has the nagging defect that Mrs. Olsen is the only character in the strip who is old enough to know the Peter Gunn theme music as coming from the classic Craig Stevens series. Mallett follows on in subsequent strips to explain the gag, but, if you didn't tumble to it the first day, it doesn't get any funnier. Today's B&C has something of that effect. There's the Okay-Okay-Okay-Okay series of semi-funny visual jokes, followed by the Big Reveal, when the reader says, "Ah, okay." After all that, there is an obligation to laugh, dammit!