Obscurity of the Day: It Can't Be Done

 

Strips in which the title is also the punchline were popular, or perhaps I should just say often seen, in the 1900s to 20s. They fell out of favor as cartoonists began to come into the mindset that they could be stuck doing the same strip for years and years. Once they realized what a corner they could paint themselves into this genre pretty much died out. 

Starting in 1911 Vic Forsythe began pumping out a lot of material for the New York Evening World, eventually settling on the long-running Joe's Car/Joe Jinks strip that would keep him busy through the late 1930s, and other cartoonists gainfully employed for decades longer. Before that Forsythe peppered the Evening World with a number of other strips, including It Can't Be Done, one of those Title = Punchline things. It ran from November 25 1912 to December 30 1913.