The second-biggest frog

[Fluks, H.W.]

> At the page 27 of the Kalevala story when the
> monster is on the Helsinki 
> dome, a guy said to Donald : "It is the second
> biggest frog that I have ever seen".

This is what Don wrote about it on December 16, 1999:

That joke about the "second biggest frog" has
nothing whatsoever to do with my old "Captain Kentucky" strips.

and on Dec. 19:

(re: the "second biggest frog I have ever seen" comment in the Kalevala
story)... this referred to nothing, it was just supposed to be a silly
remark made by a burned-out hippie or such. What frog could be bigger?
Haha. Big gag. But so many people have asked me what that meant that I wish
I had skipped it. It actually was a in-joke to myself (which I often do)
referring to a TV show tag-line of the 60s. I *never* expected anyone to
know that.
But when I was doing the Internet chat in Finland, some "caller" again
asked what the gag meant, and I just said "nothing, it meant nothing". Then
I whispered to someone at the computer-lab that it actually was a injoke
for myself referring to a line frequently heard in the mid-60s on a TV
series called "Get Smart", had they ever heard of it, and they had no idea
what I was talking about. But while I was saying that, the words were
appearing on the monitor, a response from the chat-caller, saying "I
thought maybe it was a Maxwell Smart joke." And that was the single
happiest instant of my whole trip to Finland -- I exploded! To think
someone waaaay over in Finland in 1999 would spot a personal in-joke I made
to my own TV viewing of 35 years earlier!!! THIS is why I'll never stop
putting in obscure in-gags that practically no one will catch. The gags are
not for everyone, just the 1 or 2 people on earth who spot it. That makes
it worthwhile. Even more worthwhile than if everyone caught it.

--Harry.