I thought The Far Side The classic “Discontented Cow” comic strip was funny before I even realized there was a deep cultural reference behind creator Gary Larson’s joke – but As soon as I discovered that Larson was riffing on a 1907 condensed milk advertisement, my appreciation for the joke skyrocketed..
The thing I love most The Far Side It’s the feeling when a comic “clicks,” when it goes from obtuse to shockingly obvious. For me, reading Larson’s explanation of his graphic novel “High Tide/Low Tide” was an “aha” moment in itself, where I realized how many Far Side comics that I didn’t “get.”
The Far Side has a reputation for being confusing, but as I’ve learned, this often results from Larson being overly subtle; his drawings rarely lacked some kind of internal logic. In other words, The Far Side It may not always make sense, but it is not nonsense.
Explanation of the cows on the other side and their discontent (why the comic is funny before you even get the reference)
First published: November 28, 1984
The Far Side The comic strip “Discontented Cow” is one of Gary Larson’s standout panels for a few reasons. On the one hand, it’s a classic example of Larson’s use of animals as a filter through which to force humor on a deeply human subject. In this case, the cartoon depicts one of the The Far Side many weddings on the rocks, while a cow stands by her living room window, martini on her hoof, and turns to her husband, saying something that was clearly on her mind, admitting it to the bull sitting in the nearby armchair, “Wendell…I’m not happy.”
This panel feels to me like a fully realized moment, portraying a relatable human experience, and that’s part of what makes it an effective event. Far Side cartoon.
I’ve written a lot about how the details of Larson’s illustrations were crucial to conveying the mood of a Far Side cartoon, and this is also a great example of that. Take a closer look and you’ll recognize the conflicting personalities of these two characters, if only in a single frame. The cow is adorned with necklaces and bracelets, drinks a martini and gives the impression of trying to elevate herself to a higher level of class – while her husband, Wendell, drinks canned beer and sits watching TV.
The dialogue in the cartoon’s caption, specifically its choice of language, always struck me as an extension of the cow character – but it turns out that Gary Larson is actually making a reference here, which I’ll get to in a moment. Overall, this panel feels to me like a fully realized moment, portraying a relatable human experience, and that’s part of what makes it an effective event. Far Side cartoon, without even understanding the subtle return Larson is making here.
Carnation’s Classic “Confident Cows” Catchphrase (And How It Makes a Good Gary Larson Joke Really Perfect)
A “condensed” story of the joke
When I came across the old Cravo condensed milk slogan, “Milk of happy cows,” I immediately perked up, because I realized that this is where Larson got the genesis of his “I’m not happy“drilling. The Carnation slogan, it turns out, goes back almost to the beginning of the 20th century, originating in 1907, although it was evidently still at least somewhat in use at mid-century, for Gary Larson, a child of the 1950s, for be familiar with it.
Admittedly, I need to do more research to find out exactly how long the slogan was used – which would provide context for whether this would have been an obvious or obscure reference in the 1980s when Gary Larson’s “Discontented Cow” Far Side comic book was published. For me, as a millennial reader – and to be honest, someone who has never loved milk that much – the reference totally went over my head for a long time.
Fans on the other side can debate which bovine hunk was Gary Larson’s best until the cows come home
My argument for “disgruntled cow”
Of course, you can’t study The Far Side in any extensive capacity without becoming deeply familiar with Gary Larson’s cow cartoons. I certainly want to encourage a lively and ongoing debate between The Far Side fandom when it comes to which is the “funniest” or “best” of the artist’s cow comics – but I’d like to defend “Disgruntled Cow,” given the way it takes a small footnote from American culture, subverts it, and fully embodies the subversion in a scene that manages to stand on its own.whether the reference impresses the reader or not.
This is an impressive artistic and literary feat, one that exemplifies the legitimate genius of The Far Side. With his humor, Gary Larson didn’t just make dark observations about the world – it was the first step in his creative process, but it’s far from the last. “Discontented Cow” illustrates this perfectly; more than just changing the cow’s emotional state, he went a step further by combining this joke premise with the pitfalls of a failed human marriage. This way the panel hits multiple levels, which I think signals an all-time great success. Far Side.
‘Discontented Cow’ made it clear that there are tons of distant references that I’m still missing
I look forward to continuing to discover more.
When it comes to art and culture, I love discovering the connections between things – from the most blatant to the most tenuous – and so on. discovering that Larson’s “Discontented Cows” was actually a reference, and not just a joke that came out of nowhere, certainly raised his profile in my opinion. It also reiterated to me that there are many Far Side jokes that I don’t understand because I’m missing something, not because Gary Larson couldn’t communicate his joke properly.
To mean, The Far Side it was as much a product of its time as it was the incredibly idiosyncratic mind of its creator. As someone decades younger than Gary Larson, who was just a few years old when the cartoonist retired in the mid-1990s, there are certain things I’m bound to not connect with or understand. Although I consider myself quite culturally literate, The Far Side offers me an opportunity to learn even more about 20th century popular culture – even if its lessons are not always immediately clear.