4 ms·

I think it’s about time for me to confess: I really don’t get Gary Larson cartoons. I understand what each is about, but my amusement level doesn’t correlate w

I think it’s about time for me to confess: I really don’t get Gary Larson cartoons. I understand what each is about, but my amusement level doesn’t correlate with their popularity. It’s a slightly odd, somewhat lonely feeling to see something so universally beloved and popular and feel nothing.

dfedbeef 1y ago
I don't think they are universally beloved or popular if that makes you any feel better.
- dfedbeef 1y ago
  They're popular in the way that the Dinosaurs show on ABC was popular.
  - mk_stjames 1y ago
    'Dinosaurs' was a masterpiece and I won't hear otherwise. The series finale is one of the greatest T.V. finales of all time.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - dfedbeef 1y ago
      I was like 5 when it was on, so all I remember is ads of these nightmare-fuel puppets running throughout the day. I do wish there were more puppet based prime time shows now.
  - fknorangesite 1y ago
    No, the Far Side was popular the way The Simpsons was popular. I think you're dramatically underestimating how big it was during its run.
mk_stjames 1y ago
What, not a fan of 'Cow tools'? [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_tools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_tools
- WalterBright 1y ago
  I didn't get that one, either.
  - sitharus 1y ago
    Nobody did
    - eszed 1y ago
      I was maybe 8, and I thought it was hilarious. <shrug>
  - busyant 1y ago
    I'm curious if you understand this joke (https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png). I think it's similar to the Cow Tools panel. Specifically, the Far Side panel plays on the idea of the fact that cows would have a cow-centric view of the world and would likely develop tools that were alien to us. The other part of the 'joke' is that cows don't build tools (afaik). edit: I think the "3rd" part of the joke is that the tools look like shit, which is what you'd expect from even the most talented cows. The humor of the space alien joke is similar in that it's pointing out the difficulty that everyone has in understanding how others (other people, other species, etc.) view and describe the world.
    - oneeyedpigeon 1y ago
      > I'm curious if you understand this joke (https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png). I don't, because I'm from the UK...
      - busyant 1y ago
voidfunc 1y ago
I get them sometimes but I feel like its like a lot of stuff, were hostage to the meta and everyone seems to "get" the meta so you have to go along with it or you're an outsider. Yay humans.
bongodongobob 1y ago
I think about it as pushing the boundaries of the minimum amount of funny to be a joke. It's not anti humor, it's not absurdism, it's not ironic. It's trying to approach the absolute least amount of whatever a joke is. Some kind of minimum joke Komolgorov complexity.
- Ylpertnodi 1y ago
  Some people just get the 'cartoon repair man' joke, others don't either.
- larrry 1y ago
  [dead]
aorloff 1y ago
Often if you don't get it, its because you didn't get it. There is a famous one of 2 explorers in the jungle and the man is saying "Holy moly Loretta, not only is it still there, but look what it did to the end of my stick !" So not really funny unless you can recall (or imagine) a moment when you had a bug on you and you ask someone to brush it off and you have that minute of like, did you get it or is it still there ? If that has actually happened to you, its a hilarious cartoon.
- cwillu 1y ago
  And sometimes not getting it is the joke, for which I need only mention “Cow Tools”
  - firesteelrain 1y ago
    Cow Tools was supposed to be “got” but it went over most people’s heads. Gary admitted this
PlunderBunny 1y ago
I think that all humor belongs more or less to a particular time (a decade if you will). Garfield for example is very much a product of the 1980s. When humour is viewed outside of its time, it’s different. Did you read FarSide in the 1990s, or come to it later?
- chrisweekly 1y ago
  IMHO Garfield is to comics / humor what Monopoly is to games / fun.
  - rkomorn 1y ago
    You or one of your siblings flipped the Garfield comics over after your father bled you dry with his savvy real estate plays?
vunderba 1y ago
I don't think I've ever laughed at loud at something from Far Side, rather I've always thought of his comics as "smirk-worthy". School for the Gifted https://imgur.com/a/6wERHNk https://imgur.com/a/6wERHNk Dog Translator https://imgur.com/a/UwDJxXm https://imgur.com/a/UwDJxXm
- larrry 1y ago
  Have you ever laughed out loud at a cartoon? I don’t think I have, and I would say I enjoy cartoons quite a bit. A grin is about the best reaction I can give to one myself
  - technothrasher 1y ago
    I'm not sure I've ever laughed out loud at a cartoon, but as a kid, the compilation books of Charles Addams cartoons used to fill me with so much warm pleasure I would read them over and over, and his cartoons still just plain make me happy to this day. I can clearly see that Larson does that same thing for many people.
    - larrry 1y ago
      I too am a Charles Addams fan! The best ink painter in cartoons (IMO), and definitely plenty of grin worthy gags. Peter Arno is also another good ink painting cartoonist, although his subject matter has generally aged much more poorly…
  - baobun 1y ago
    But what if there is no Garfield? https://garfieldminusgarfield.net https://garfieldminusgarfield.net https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/tagged/garfield%20minus%20garfield https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/tagged/garfield%20minus%20...
    - aidenn0 1y ago
      Those are painful for me rather than funny. Kind of like The Office.
somat 1y ago
It is probably down to whether you find humor in absurdity as the far side leans rather hard into this. The humor "is" very weird, the normal flow is a strange image that is not funny and a simple caption that is also not funny. but coupled together there is something funny about the absurd connection that is made. sort of like a caption meme with better drawing. And honestly I think there are a lot of them that we just don't "get", too strange for comprehension, and we find this funny as well.
- baobun 1y ago
  I can imagine Farside might be hard to "get" for someone meeting it in 2025 - absurdity to the extreme is everywhere now. You can think of it as Skibidi Toilet for a slower, more innocent time.
ghtbircshotbe 1y ago
A lot of his comics aren't great, having to create 7 per week, a fact he referenced in his comics themselves. But just the way he represented people - pudgy, cat's eye glasses, doing some esoteric thing like collecting butterflies or building a robot in the basement, is amusing to me.
linsomniac 1y ago
>time for me to confess Don't feel that way. I can totally understand why some people wouldn't "get" (or I'd put it "appreciate") The Far Side. It's a very particular kind of humor, and it's fine that it's "not everyone's cup of tea". I, for example, absolutely loathe poetry. It's like the cilantro of literature of me, and I don't have the gene that makes it not taste like soap. ... Who cares!?! I have this "joke" that I dearly love, that I've never met anyone who gets it. It is a bad joke, largely because nobody gets it. It doesn't imply something in me or something lacking in ... everyone else. Humor is just what you find in it. It is: "Well, I defended my thesis in comparative literature, but it seems like he's got a pretty healthy pulse to me..."
- rkomorn 1y ago
  > "Well, I defended my thesis in comparative literature, but it seems like he's got a pretty healthy pulse to me..." Definitely sounds like the kind of joke I'd like if I understood it.
  - omegaham 1y ago
    A more obvious setup to the joke is "Is there a doctor on this plane???" "Well yes, but I defended my thesis in comparative literature..."
    - rkomorn 1y ago
      Ugh. Of course. That makes a lot of sense. Didn't come anywhere close to getting it on my own though!
    - linsomniac 1y ago
      Right, but what makes it work for me is that you have to bring the setup to the table. I think The Far Side is similar in a lot of its humor.
- wussboy 1y ago
  I'm totally stealing that. Fantastic. And, if you want and if the Fates allow, you may have my favourite, completely unappreciated joke: "A time traveller!" [wait a few seconds] "Knock knock."
tim333 1y ago
I guess as he puts it here >like the proverbial tiger and its stripes, I’m pretty much stuck with my sense of humor. Aren’t we all?
dfxm12 1y ago
Life is less lonely when you focus more on social groups you do have something in common with than trying to latch onto everything that's popular. That said, you might not be as alone as you think. The far side has been the butt of many bits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfkynJ4hbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfkynJ4hbI
mech4bg 1y ago
Neither did Homer if it makes you feel better. https://youtu.be/LjfkynJ4hbI?si=rMrpX7VChQMX23_I https://youtu.be/LjfkynJ4hbI?si=rMrpX7VChQMX23_I (Obviously not the only one if not getting Far Side comics made the Simpsons!)
IAmBroom 1y ago
Me too, but for Rebo and Zooty.

dfedbeef 1y ago

I don't think they are universally beloved or popular if that makes you any feel better.

dfedbeef 1y ago
They're popular in the way that the Dinosaurs show on ABC was popular.
- mk_stjames 1y ago
  'Dinosaurs' was a masterpiece and I won't hear otherwise. The series finale is one of the greatest T.V. finales of all time.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - dfedbeef 1y ago
    I was like 5 when it was on, so all I remember is ads of these nightmare-fuel puppets running throughout the day. I do wish there were more puppet based prime time shows now.
- fknorangesite 1y ago
  No, the Far Side was popular the way The Simpsons was popular. I think you're dramatically underestimating how big it was during its run.

mk_stjames 1y ago

What, not a fan of 'Cow tools'? [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_tools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_tools

WalterBright 1y ago
I didn't get that one, either.
- sitharus 1y ago
  Nobody did
  - eszed 1y ago
    I was maybe 8, and I thought it was hilarious. <shrug>
- busyant 1y ago
  I'm curious if you understand this joke (https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png). I think it's similar to the Cow Tools panel. Specifically, the Far Side panel plays on the idea of the fact that cows would have a cow-centric view of the world and would likely develop tools that were alien to us. The other part of the 'joke' is that cows don't build tools (afaik). edit: I think the "3rd" part of the joke is that the tools look like shit, which is what you'd expect from even the most talented cows. The humor of the space alien joke is similar in that it's pointing out the difficulty that everyone has in understanding how others (other people, other species, etc.) view and describe the world.
  - oneeyedpigeon 1y ago
    > I'm curious if you understand this joke (https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png https://i.imgur.com/II5W6Pl.png). I don't, because I'm from the UK...
    - busyant 1y ago

voidfunc 1y ago

I get them sometimes but I feel like its like a lot of stuff, were hostage to the meta and everyone seems to "get" the meta so you have to go along with it or you're an outsider. Yay humans.

bongodongobob 1y ago

I think about it as pushing the boundaries of the minimum amount of funny to be a joke. It's not anti humor, it's not absurdism, it's not ironic. It's trying to approach the absolute least amount of whatever a joke is. Some kind of minimum joke Komolgorov complexity.

Ylpertnodi 1y ago
Some people just get the 'cartoon repair man' joke, others don't either.
larrry 1y ago
[dead]

aorloff 1y ago

Often if you don't get it, its because you didn't get it. There is a famous one of 2 explorers in the jungle and the man is saying "Holy moly Loretta, not only is it still there, but look what it did to the end of my stick !" So not really funny unless you can recall (or imagine) a moment when you had a bug on you and you ask someone to brush it off and you have that minute of like, did you get it or is it still there ? If that has actually happened to you, its a hilarious cartoon.

cwillu 1y ago
And sometimes not getting it is the joke, for which I need only mention “Cow Tools”
- firesteelrain 1y ago
  Cow Tools was supposed to be “got” but it went over most people’s heads. Gary admitted this

PlunderBunny 1y ago

I think that all humor belongs more or less to a particular time (a decade if you will). Garfield for example is very much a product of the 1980s. When humour is viewed outside of its time, it’s different. Did you read FarSide in the 1990s, or come to it later?

chrisweekly 1y ago
IMHO Garfield is to comics / humor what Monopoly is to games / fun.
- rkomorn 1y ago
  You or one of your siblings flipped the Garfield comics over after your father bled you dry with his savvy real estate plays?

vunderba 1y ago

I don't think I've ever laughed at loud at something from Far Side, rather I've always thought of his comics as "smirk-worthy". School for the Gifted https://imgur.com/a/6wERHNk https://imgur.com/a/6wERHNk Dog Translator https://imgur.com/a/UwDJxXm https://imgur.com/a/UwDJxXm

larrry 1y ago
Have you ever laughed out loud at a cartoon? I don’t think I have, and I would say I enjoy cartoons quite a bit. A grin is about the best reaction I can give to one myself
- technothrasher 1y ago
  I'm not sure I've ever laughed out loud at a cartoon, but as a kid, the compilation books of Charles Addams cartoons used to fill me with so much warm pleasure I would read them over and over, and his cartoons still just plain make me happy to this day. I can clearly see that Larson does that same thing for many people.
  - larrry 1y ago
    I too am a Charles Addams fan! The best ink painter in cartoons (IMO), and definitely plenty of grin worthy gags. Peter Arno is also another good ink painting cartoonist, although his subject matter has generally aged much more poorly…
- baobun 1y ago
  But what if there is no Garfield? https://garfieldminusgarfield.net https://garfieldminusgarfield.net https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/tagged/garfield%20minus%20garfield https://garfieldminusgarfield.net/tagged/garfield%20minus%20...
  - aidenn0 1y ago
    Those are painful for me rather than funny. Kind of like The Office.

somat 1y ago

It is probably down to whether you find humor in absurdity as the far side leans rather hard into this. The humor "is" very weird, the normal flow is a strange image that is not funny and a simple caption that is also not funny. but coupled together there is something funny about the absurd connection that is made. sort of like a caption meme with better drawing. And honestly I think there are a lot of them that we just don't "get", too strange for comprehension, and we find this funny as well.

baobun 1y ago
I can imagine Farside might be hard to "get" for someone meeting it in 2025 - absurdity to the extreme is everywhere now. You can think of it as Skibidi Toilet for a slower, more innocent time.

ghtbircshotbe 1y ago

A lot of his comics aren't great, having to create 7 per week, a fact he referenced in his comics themselves. But just the way he represented people - pudgy, cat's eye glasses, doing some esoteric thing like collecting butterflies or building a robot in the basement, is amusing to me.

linsomniac 1y ago

>time for me to confess Don't feel that way. I can totally understand why some people wouldn't "get" (or I'd put it "appreciate") The Far Side. It's a very particular kind of humor, and it's fine that it's "not everyone's cup of tea". I, for example, absolutely loathe poetry. It's like the cilantro of literature of me, and I don't have the gene that makes it not taste like soap. ... Who cares!?! I have this "joke" that I dearly love, that I've never met anyone who gets it. It is a bad joke, largely because nobody gets it. It doesn't imply something in me or something lacking in ... everyone else. Humor is just what you find in it. It is: "Well, I defended my thesis in comparative literature, but it seems like he's got a pretty healthy pulse to me..."

rkomorn 1y ago
> "Well, I defended my thesis in comparative literature, but it seems like he's got a pretty healthy pulse to me..." Definitely sounds like the kind of joke I'd like if I understood it.
- omegaham 1y ago
  A more obvious setup to the joke is "Is there a doctor on this plane???" "Well yes, but I defended my thesis in comparative literature..."
  - rkomorn 1y ago
    Ugh. Of course. That makes a lot of sense. Didn't come anywhere close to getting it on my own though!
  - linsomniac 1y ago
    Right, but what makes it work for me is that you have to bring the setup to the table. I think The Far Side is similar in a lot of its humor.
wussboy 1y ago
I'm totally stealing that. Fantastic. And, if you want and if the Fates allow, you may have my favourite, completely unappreciated joke: "A time traveller!" [wait a few seconds] "Knock knock."

tim333 1y ago

I guess as he puts it here >like the proverbial tiger and its stripes, I’m pretty much stuck with my sense of humor. Aren’t we all?

dfxm12 1y ago

Life is less lonely when you focus more on social groups you do have something in common with than trying to latch onto everything that's popular. That said, you might not be as alone as you think. The far side has been the butt of many bits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfkynJ4hbI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjfkynJ4hbI

mech4bg 1y ago

Neither did Homer if it makes you feel better. https://youtu.be/LjfkynJ4hbI?si=rMrpX7VChQMX23_I https://youtu.be/LjfkynJ4hbI?si=rMrpX7VChQMX23_I (Obviously not the only one if not getting Far Side comics made the Simpsons!)

IAmBroom 1y ago

Me too, but for Rebo and Zooty.