Talk:3166: Big and Little Spoons

2025-11-12T09:42:16Z

2A02:2455:1960:4000:1590:875:94A1:8B73:

A spoon the size of a couch [[User:King Pando|King Pando]] ([[User talk:King Pando|talk]]) 03:16, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Panel four evoked a genuine out-loud laugh when most of the time I usually only get chuckles. Still my favorite comic that's not about hornyness. [[Special:Contributions/2603:800C:1200:596A:642C:F071:BB63:22A9|2603:800C:1200:596A:642C:F071:BB63:22A9]] 03:53, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Should there be a sentence about how sets of measuring spoons are designed to nest? [[Special:Contributions/138.229.156.169|138.229.156.169]] 04:51, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
:Your wish is my command. Though I didn't know it was your wish, as it was also already mine on first viewing, and included thoughts about one-person easy-pack cutlery sets, etc, too, which... well, can also involve compatibly-nesting knorks, and the like, for a theoretical minimum of packing-space [[Special:Contributions/2.98.65.8|2.98.65.8]] 11:51, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
::Can we assume that Cueball doesn't do much of the cooking in this household? If he did, he wouldn't have forgotten about measuring spoon sets. Then again, his roommate (presumed to be Megan) doesn't seem to have mentioned them to him, either. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 15:10, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

What's with the Royal We in the last panel?--[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 08:31, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
: I believe it refers to the 'some brave truth-tellers', a set of which Cueball believes he is a member. --[[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 11:23, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

Randall isn't the first webcomic creator to use this idea: [https://www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/who-stacks-irregular-spoons-anyway] [[Special:Contributions/88.85.135.155|88.85.135.155]] 08:53, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
: A similar take on it was addressed in another medium in ''Mallrats''. That was more about the arm problem than the relative sizes, though. --[[User:KarMann|KarMann]] ([[User talk:KarMann|talk]]) 11:27, 11 November 2025 (UTC)

"Big spoon" and "little spoon" are not necessarily supposed to be literal descriptions of the spoons referenced by the metaphor – almost like the transferred-epithet form of the hypallage trope in classical rhetoric, in which a descriptor that really applies to the speaker is instead applied to that which is described. "I lit a nervous cigarette." Cigarettes are not nervous – people are. While nesting spoons are of equal size, the enveloping action of the big-spoon role is larger – that which wraps something is larger than that which it wraps. A person taking a big-thing or little-thing role describes their metaphorical spoon as big or little, to imply their own bigness or littleness. [[User:Yorkshire Pudding|Yorkshire Pudding]] ([[User talk:Yorkshire Pudding|talk]]) 13:25, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
:Aside from certain more trivial topological interpretations (and some more [https://funtimemagic.com/gozinta-boxes/ 'tricksy' ones]), can I [[2403: Wrapping Paper|remind you of this]]? ;) [[Special:Contributions/82.132.236.75|82.132.236.75]] 14:14, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
:Spoons don't wrap or envelop, though. They spoon.
:Besides, if you consider the shape of a person lying down and relate it to a spoon, it makes most sense to relate the torso to the handle, and the backs of the legs would become the bowl of the spoon. By that reckoning, the forward person would be the one encircling the rearward one. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 14:50, 11 November 2025 (UTC)
::If your legs are forming more of a bowl-shape than the combination of your torso, arms, and head ''while you hug someone from behind'', I think you might want to see a doctor. (Also, if you're not wrapping or enveloping someone while you're hugging, you're doing it wrong.) [[Special:Contributions/207.195.86.97|207.195.86.97]] 01:55, 12 November 2025 (UTC)
:::I don't know what kind of weird physiology you have, but when I hug someone, my arms make a circle, and are nothing like the bowl of a spoon. They would be more like a ring that someone has, for some reason, attached to the handle of the spoon. Besides, if it's meant to be analogous to nested spoons, such a 'bowl' would be orthogonal to the orientation of the spoon - it would be more of a ladle than a spoon. And the forward person wouldn't be a spoon at all, since they're not doing an empty hug out in front of them - they'd be more of a chopstick or something. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 09:17, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

Point taken, Randall, but did you have to spoon-feed this to us? [[Special:Contributions/2A02:2455:1960:4000:1590:875:94A1:8B73|2A02:2455:1960:4000:1590:875:94A1:8B73]] 09:42, 12 November 2025 (UTC)

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Talk:3166: Big and Little Spoons