Beans hat? Jeans shat.

I think you’re reading too much into intent here. The only reasoning that goes into these decisions is target audience. Who will buy what you are producing? When most of the comics that you mentioned were written, the perception was very much that their readers would be boys.

If there’s anything to be mad about, it’s that focus testing and demographic targeting makes for shit entertainment. It means companies are trying to make something that sells instead of trying to tell a story.

This checks out. I saw the picture and the phrase “This kills the crab” ran through my mind. I can maybe explain the chain of memes and references that got me there, but not well enough to explain why it made me laugh. Digital archeology is going to be a wild experience a century from now.

“One nation, indivisible; except by itself and one.”