[mercer]

I'd say, with the utmost respect for Larson, that this isn't so much one you're too dumb to get as it is a rare flub in his impressive oeuvre!

For me this comic combined with the general limitations of what he does are what make him second to Bill Watterson. Somehow Watterson managed to be much broader and yet as far as I know there's not a single flub in any of his Calvin & Hobbes comics.