5 ms·
Thank Zeus he's back. But "Bears Eating Cub Scouts"? Is there a joke in there that I'm missing?
by hirundo 6y ago
Thank Zeus he's back. But "Bears Eating Cub Scouts"? Is there a joke in there that I'm missing?
- conk45 6y agoI've always been a big fan of Gary Larson's. While I didn't always "get" his humour, which was often about as warped as mine and sometimes beyond my ken, I almost always enjoyed it and never found it blatantly offensive. And NEVER, EVER did I find anything he did cross a line into poor taste bordering on obscenity. I found the "Bears Eating Cub Scouts" cartoon violates every rule of decency I can think of. It's so out of character from anything else he's ever done (that I'm aware of, anyway) that I have to believe there must be some sort of misprint or other clerical error involved. Please tell me that's the case, and clue me in on what I'm missing. Bill Conkey Durham, NC
- binarymax 6y agoI suspect, now that Gary is self publishing and doesn’t need to cater to syndication and mass media, he can explore some edgy stuff. Age makes people salty as well. I liked the comic - the normality of the family eating a typical meal and using their condiments of choice, while manifesting our fears and expectations of savage nature - dark for sure, but “funny”.
- throwaway20148 6y agoAlso worth noting that male bears will eat cubs which is how I interpreted it.
- phlakaton 6y agoI rather saw this as hailing back to some of the tasteless savagery of his earliest work. I guess there's a problem with me that it's my favorite of the new batch!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- parsimo2010 6y agoI think it’s just a variation on one of his common tropes- take a recognizable situation (Cub Scouts having a picnic outdoors) and then flip the situation around so that the things that usually do the action (eating) are now the subjects receiving the action (being eaten). I think he chose bears to be the ones eating the Cub Scouts because bears live in the woods and also the “cub” in Cub Scouts comes from bear cubs.
- Freak_NL 6y agoThe cub in Cub Scouts comes from wolf cubs.
- drumttocs8 6y agoBear cub is part of the progression, about 4th grade if I remember right- that's when I quit.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gagege 6y agoYep, the main animal grades are Tiger, Wolf, then Bear.
- milquetoastaf 6y agoCow Tools
- DDR0 6y agoI don't think there is. It's just… dumb and amusing. Not all artists' work bear close examination for hidden meaning.
- coldtea 6y agoBears eat cubs (their cubs). So "bears eating cub scouts" is just a pun.
- coldtea 6y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5KNtC60lOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5KNtC60lOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8jXSXs-tv0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8jXSXs-tv0
- boringg 6y agoDon't think that's relevant just slightly disturbing video of a bear eating a cub. :(
- boringg 6y agoLet me rephrase - relevant but unnecessary.
- coldtea 6y agoLike most of the goings on in the world?
- mercer 6y agoWow. that's the weirdest 'flag' I've encountered on HN yet. While perhaps a content warning would've been nice, learning that apparently bears eat cubs was a very surprising thing for me to learn, and videos of it exactly the type of thing I wanted to see!
- Reedx 6y agoAlso thankful the "I don't get it" aspect has survived. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfkynJ4hbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfkynJ4hbI
- slg 6y agoI loved reading Far Side as a kid. But my reaction to probably 10% of them was "I don't know if I am too dumb to get the joke or the joke is too dumb for me to recognize it as a joke."
- santraginean 6y agoSpeaking for myself, I definitely had some instances of the former. But I was relieved to learn years later than "Cow Tools" was an instance of the latter.
- throwaway_pdp09 6y agoHum, never seen that one until I just searched for it. Agreed, it's too dumb for me to get. Anyway, here's the pic alone https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Cow_Tools_cartoon.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Cow_Tools_car... And here's the wiki article it's in, with explanation, such as it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Tools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Tools Unrelated, look up the wiki article for Thagomizer. It's funny and show life following art (Q: are Larson's comics art? A: yes.) Edit: save you the effort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer
- mercer 6y agoI'd say, with the utmost respect for Larson, that this isn't so much one you're too dumb to get as it is a rare flub in his impressive oeuvre! For me this comic combined with the general limitations of what he does are what make him second to Bill Watterson. Somehow Watterson managed to be much broader and yet as far as I know there's not a single flub in any of his Calvin & Hobbes comics.
- tillinghast 6y agoAnother childhood fan here. After poring over all of the Galleries and the Anthology, my overall take was that if you don't get it, you're overthinking it (and thus, have become a part of the joke).
- bootcampwhere 6y agoYou must because that is hilarious.
- lulubelleman 6y agoIf you or anyone felt somehow disturbed, so did I. But it's not as if Larson did this for the first time. The image about the farmer bringing eggs home, and meets a chicken carrying an infant comes to mind.