'Last call at Bar K'-cartoon

[thedaffodils]

Hi! I saw a cartoon from Read DIgest. There are four dogs at a bar with a subtitle - 'Last call at Bar K.'

Is 'Bar K.' a pun for bark? Why is it funny? Could you please decode it for me?

Here's the URL link. Many thanks!

Last Call Cartoon | Animal Cartoons | Reader's Digest

[konungursvia]

Many English-language jurisdictions combat alcoholism and promote the puritan work ethic by limiting bars to open only a certian number of hours per day, or to close at 1 or 2 A.M. So, right before closing, the bar tender habitually shouts "last call" meaning last reminder you can still order alcohol for about 15 more minutes.

And yes, Bar K. is a pun for bark, which is our generic onomatopoeia for a dog's yap. So, in anthropomorphising the dog, we are attributing to the animal a series of cultural characteristics that cannot exist in animals, so the creator appears to be fantasizing in a culturally recognizably erroneous fashion. Thus the humour of it.

For more information on this sort of explanation of humour, see The Origins of Laughter.

[thedaffodils]

Hi konungursvia,

Thank you very much for taking time to respond to this post of mine. I have some idea of it now. I am basically not a drinker, so I didn't know what 'last call' refers to. Even if I drink, the rule of bars in China might be different from that in the US.