Yesterday’s Get Frazzy:
Hat tip from Alon Lischinsky, who found that the main pun, in the final panel, really worked only in writing: for him, “Ishmael can only be /ˈɪʃ.meɪ.əl/ or /ˈɪʃ.meɪl/, while fishmeal has /iː/ and secondary stress on the last syllable”. For me, too, but I am also a fan of distant imperfect puns, which can be set up through context.
In this case, the main pun is set up by the secondary pun right before it: Moby Duck, establishing a reference to Melville’s Moby-Dick. Otherwise, even “Call me Ishmael” would be baffling, and “Call me Fishmeal” totally incomprehensible.
The initial preposterous business, with cookbooks having their ingredients packaged inside the book, is there to set us up for both duck and fishmeal.
I admire its presumption.
