N. B. The original noun in this cartoon was not "imbecile" but "asshole."
However, such words cause syndicate editors to clench their buttocks so suddenly that they actually achieve liftoff from their cubicle chairs. So I wrote "imbecile." But all that doesn't matter. As if experiencing the intense need to prove the theory, a reader wrote it to object to the above cartoon. I didn't read the note (I never do), but my wife let me know that we had our winner. And a hissing and spitting winner he or she was too, I am told, evidently feeling that all my readers are dolts and idiots who should take up pitchforks and torches against the gag.
But this is the thing. IT WAS A GAG. It was also a universal truth about cartooning - not just my cartooning, everybody's. Immerse yourself among cartoonists, and the equal-and-opposite theory will surface, usually accompanied by the word "asshole" (a trademark expression belonging to the cartooning profession).
All that aside, our winner lets the rest of us off the hook. THE EQUAL-AND-OPPOSITE ASS-...um...IMBECILE HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED. Only, I don't know who he or she is. I only know that my wife is laughing.
That's enough for me.
