I grew up in rural New Jersey (not an oxymoron, honest) near a farm with an electric fence. Though never tempted to lick the fence, I did like to jump up and touch it to see if I would get shocked when my feet weren't touching the ground. (I can't remember the results: I guess I'll have to find an electric fence again.)
I thought it would be funny to have a sign saying not to lick, in the spirit of those inane signs that are posted on products so as not to make the manufacturers legally liable for random acts of stupidity: "Caution! Coffee is hot!," "Do not step on the top of this step ladder," or "Keep forks out of toaster and toaster out of bathtub."
I drew this just after the 1992 presidential campaign. I liked the idea of alluding to Clinton's "It’s the Economy, Stupid" signs he put up to remind himself to keep focused on his message.
My former office mate and current friend Andy Latto told me of an acquaintance who had gone to see a talk by Douglas Adams (author of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). Someone at the lecture asked him why he had selected the number 42 to be the answer to the secret of the Universe. He answered that he didn't want to pick a funny number. This is because that small joke (a funny number) would get in the way of the big joke (that the answer to the Universe is simply a number). Fractions, odd numbers, and prime numbers are all funny numbers. But 42 is not a funny number (well, it wasn't before he wrote "Hitchhiker's").
This cartoon is an example of where I put in a small joke and it ended up being funnier than what I originally had intended. Initially, the caption read, "Even the neighbors tried to dissuade me of my disturbing habit." Here, the main focus of the cartoon was the weirdness of licking electric fences. I wasn't happy with the word "disturbing" so I tried a whole bunch of other adjectives, none of which seemed right. Finally my wife suggested that I use "shocking habit," playing a pun into the electric theme. I couldn't think of a reason not to use it -- especially since all of my other cartoons have some pun in them -- so I did. Good thing I did, otherwise, it would have just been weird.