No doubt about it! Barks enjoyed himself when drawing the numerous vignettes - aquariums, figurines, and paintings - which were found in the background of Donald's house and of course, it was quite deliberate that he made these details as grotesque as possible to ensure that the reader noticed them. The vignettes, after all, had nothing to do with the ongoing stories; they were just there as extra amusement.
Later on, different cartoonists and film producers took up the idea. Just think about the Naked Gun comedies starring Leslie Nielsen in which the background details are so aggressive that you simply must view the movies several times just to get hold of the plot of the films!

But Barks' background jokes ended abruptly one day when his third wife Garé happened to notice him drawing an aquarium overflowing with fish. That won't do, Carl, she immediately declared, what if your young readers do the same thing at home? Barks realized that this might be a possibility and he ended the practice.

Later on he brought back the background entertainment when he invented Gyro's Little Helper. The metal man often had no particular influence on the plots of the stories, but he would lurk in the background doing all sorts of things. Barks could not resist after all. Luckily...

AQUARIUMS

WDCS085	WDCS185	WDCS211	WDCS201	WDCS281	U$63

FIGURINES

WDCS084	WDCS136	WDCS089	WDCS213	WDCS252
WDCS271 - a comic strip within the comic			U$47	FC0263

PAINTINGS

WDCS078	WDCS085	WDCS085	WDCS082	WDCS080	WDCS252
WDCS278	WDCS054	U$47	WDCS254	WDCS254	FG1947