Lost Puppy
April 20, 2007 1:00 PM Subscribe
This photo just showed up in a coworker's email. A little searching shows this cartoon. You can also buy the costume. Which came first & how can you tell?
I first saw the cartoon at least six, and I think more like ten, years ago. I first saw the costume only a year or two ago, and the photo just now when I clicked on your link. I'm nearly 100% sure the cartoon came first.
If you think about it, it makes the most sense that way, too. Obviously, of the three, the cartoon takes the least effort to produce, right? So, even if I hadn't seen it so long ago, I would think it would have to have come first just because that's the only way I can see it naturally progressing. If the photo or the costume had come first, why would anyone have drawn the cartoon?
posted by cerebus19 at 1:10 PM on April 20, 2007
If you think about it, it makes the most sense that way, too. Obviously, of the three, the cartoon takes the least effort to produce, right? So, even if I hadn't seen it so long ago, I would think it would have to have come first just because that's the only way I can see it naturally progressing. If the photo or the costume had come first, why would anyone have drawn the cartoon?
posted by cerebus19 at 1:10 PM on April 20, 2007
Response by poster: Cartoon first makes sense. It doesn't really look Far Sidey. The content, yes, but not the drawing.
What I was really wondering was if you can put a date on these kind of things.
posted by MtDewd at 1:16 PM on April 20, 2007
What I was really wondering was if you can put a date on these kind of things.
posted by MtDewd at 1:16 PM on April 20, 2007
Another data point: My traveling companion bought a T-shirt with a cartoon of this scenario (but not the cartoon that you linked) in Aruba in February of 1992.
posted by sueinnyc at 1:21 PM on April 20, 2007
posted by sueinnyc at 1:21 PM on April 20, 2007
The scary thing is that stuff like this actually happens (although I doubt with pets). I had a tremendously obese patient (several years ago) who had an entire roll of paper towels lodged in the rolls of fat in her back - almost completely concealed. Weirdest thing ever.
posted by blaneyphoto at 1:21 PM on April 20, 2007 [2 favorites]
posted by blaneyphoto at 1:21 PM on April 20, 2007 [2 favorites]
The linked cartoon isn't Far Side, but I'm 99% sure that the original was Far Side. (The remaining 1% is divided between Bizarro and (shudder) The Parking Lot Is Full.)
posted by mendel at 1:39 PM on April 20, 2007
posted by mendel at 1:39 PM on April 20, 2007
It's not far side. I say that as someone who is going to be completely useless in determining who it IS, but I was just in the bookstore last night and saw a collection of cartoons (by someone who was not Larson) with this toon on the cover. Here's a non-cropped version - can anyone decode that signature?
posted by phearlez at 1:45 PM on April 20, 2007
posted by phearlez at 1:45 PM on April 20, 2007
probably the cartoon. this doesn't look like an ad an agency worth their salt would be doing and I don't recognize the brand as being one that tends to do the kind of ads that would put them on the map creatively. I suspect this is some ad-school kids spec ad.
it's kind of sad. I get a lot of portfolios full of condom, tabasco and fat-people ads on my desk. all the same.
posted by krautland at 1:55 PM on April 20, 2007
it's kind of sad. I get a lot of portfolios full of condom, tabasco and fat-people ads on my desk. all the same.
posted by krautland at 1:55 PM on April 20, 2007
oh yeah, you could check cmyk magazine, CA or luerzers archive for the client and/or the ad. but I tell ya, you're wasting your time.
posted by krautland at 1:56 PM on April 20, 2007
posted by krautland at 1:56 PM on April 20, 2007
I remember a Worth1000 contest that involved making Far Side strips real, and I think that was one of the entries.
posted by divabat at 1:58 PM on April 20, 2007
posted by divabat at 1:58 PM on April 20, 2007
Argh, I went through the archives at Worth1000 and couldn't find the pic. But I do recall seeing it there!
posted by divabat at 2:17 PM on April 20, 2007
posted by divabat at 2:17 PM on April 20, 2007
...I think I saw that on a greeting card.
At first I was sure it was (originally) a Far Side, but a quick flip through Prehistory of the Far Side and a google search convinced me it wasn't.
posted by Many bubbles at 3:18 PM on April 20, 2007
At first I was sure it was (originally) a Far Side, but a quick flip through Prehistory of the Far Side and a google search convinced me it wasn't.
posted by Many bubbles at 3:18 PM on April 20, 2007
Oh, I'll bet there was a very similar Far Side cartoon at some point, and furthermore I'll bet there was a very similar Gahan Wilson cartoon before that. The characters may have varied. But it's a pretty common cartoon gag, for certain types of cartoons.
Not to say that the cartoonist of the one pictured was consciously biting the older cartoon. Or that the photo was copying the cartoon. Comedy just gets repeated, is all.
posted by furiousthought at 3:48 PM on April 20, 2007
Not to say that the cartoonist of the one pictured was consciously biting the older cartoon. Or that the photo was copying the cartoon. Comedy just gets repeated, is all.
posted by furiousthought at 3:48 PM on April 20, 2007
It's Eric Decetis. (His work is rather raunchier than Larson's.) He's done other variations of the joke, too.
posted by Guy Smiley at 4:10 PM on April 20, 2007
posted by Guy Smiley at 4:10 PM on April 20, 2007
The cartoon almost certainly came first, and is from a cartoonist that did a lot of work for Hustler magazine.
Or so I hear.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:10 PM on April 20, 2007
Or so I hear.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 4:10 PM on April 20, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Johnny Assay at 1:08 PM on April 20, 2007