The Far Side - Two questions

[D Man]

"Ah, Professor Jenkins, my old nemesis, we meet again! Only this time, I have the advantage! Ha!"

Said by a duck to a man on a deserted island with a sinking cruise ship in the background. WHAT!?!?!?

 

[Unicron]

Gary said that was sort of his intent, in keeping with the general weirdness of the comic. What sort of bizarro history these two characters have is best left to the imagination. That has occasionally backfired on him, as happened with "Cow Tools."

On a related note, he mentions in The Prehistory of The Far Side how he coined the term "Anitidaephobia". Anitidae is the family name for ducks, and Gary figured that only ornithologists would really get that one.

Mr. Larson is a strange man.

There was a caveman one I always liked entitled "Primitive Checkers." It consists of only two squares and two pieces, and the caveman is trying to decide how to move in this impossible version ("I don't want to do that." )

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

Cat fud.

"Oh please oh please oh please..."

Oh, gawd, that one kills me everytime. It's the dog's very subtle but hopeful expression that makes it funny.

My other fave: Anatidaephobia -- the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you. You see the poor guy in his office and, through the window, across the street to the other building, there is the duck and the guy knows it's there.

interesting you mention the expression. Larson was brilliant at getting expressions just perfect. Like the one where the dog wins in drawing straws over one of the passengers in the lifeboat.

Larson and Shultz were brilliant at emotions

 

[Rincewiend]

How about...

Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?

 

[TGTheodore]

Another one called "Einstein's cleaning lady".

Einstein is at his desk, frustrated and at wit's end. On the blackboard behind him are all WRONG versions of his equation.

e-mc3, e=mc7, e-mc4, etc.

The cleaning lady behind him looks at her clean room and says," Well, that just about squares it away."

--Ted

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Seymour Frishberg: Accountant of the Wild Frontier

 

[Yassim]

Deer hiding behind a tree -

"That guy's trying to *kill* me!!! Do I know him?!? I've got to think!!!"

 

[Kira's Mom]

Two Sabre tooth tigers after eating- "You know, I've heard a lot of strange sounds coming from those things, but 'Yabba Dabba Doo' is a new one for me."

 

[Unicron]

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

The one where momma bear is using the skulls of dead hunters as puppets to tell her cubs a story. "Hey, you think are there are any bears in this cave?"

I've wondered, why doesn't Larson just release a book of new ones every now and then? I guess retired is retired.

Lots of knock-offs still out there, too.

 

[Vanyel]

Some of the best cartoons were more dark than funny- like anything to do with nuclear war- like the television playing "This is a test" after the bombs have already dropped, or the fishermen watching a bomb from the lake (SCREW THE LIMIT!).

The husband and wife in a bomb shelter with a LOT of canned food. The wife is berating her husband saying "I told you to buy a can opener."

 

[Colonel Midnight]

I just remembered (yet) another good one -- where the two dragons are laying in bed, and the lady dragon says to the male:

'I can't! Your breath... It's... fresh and minty!"



Cheers,
-CM-