It's a pretty simple comic. They're cow tools. Tools designed by cows for cows to use. A cow looks at those tools and understands them. We are not cows, which is why we look at those tools and don't understand them. Just as a cow would not understand a table full of human tools.
Unrelated- but you reminded me so much about one deliberation I had in my mind about how a trans anthro bovine or a cervid would look, as in: how to adress the horns as a detail.
@diamondmemer9754 cows can't build tools. Its just an absurd idea to think a cow built a bunch of crappy tools. That's all, that's why it's funny. The beauty is in the simplicity.
@@SugerFreeJazz this is the type of joke an AI would make, it literally lacks the spark that makes it human If you laugh at this, you would laugh at a robot generating random words Just think about that
@@diamondmemer9754 your still not getting it. It's in the vain of jokes like the aristocrats. Its "anti-humour" and like all good forms of humour It subverts expectations, it does it here by being nothing more then it is.
yeah i can't tell if jelly really just doesn't appreciate the cleverness of it, or is just trying to do the same thing with this pointless video. well it did come up with looking up cow tools, so... success?
@@breakbreakbreakbreakbreakhow exactly is it clever? It's like one of those shitposts you see hundreds of on any site who are only occasionally funny just because they make fun of how ridicolous shitposts are
Jesus, you don't stop at not getting _the_ joke, you don't even understand *jokes.* As a whole. It's not a false sense of superiority if everyone else actually _is_ better than you, bud. @@diamondmemer9754
Cows have hooves. Have you ever tried to make a tool with hooves?! If I was a personified cow with hooves my tools would probably also look like they were made out of mashed play-dough lol!
Larson was way before your time and pretty sick. beyond sick at times. Two polar bears are looking through the top of an igloo. One says to the other "I love these things crunchy on the outside with a chewy center". Buncha cowboys are sitting around a campfire but one of them has his legs crossed... "Don't do that, Larry". Boneless chicken ranch.. the pane has a buncha chickens drawn around a barn flopped all over the place.. on the road, on the gate, on the roof... no bones. He drew many panes that drew quizzical looks and comments. The guy just thought completely outside-the-box.
@@ohno3736 yeah people without an ounce on creativity being surprised by the most basic jokes in existence, I don't think they'd be able to handle a cartoon
1:27 Horns don't mean it's not a cow. Cows too have the ability to grow horns. It's just that the horns are often removed because they're an unnecessary hazard.
There's a book called "The pre history of the far side: A 10th aniversary exhibit" by Larson that's a sort-of behind the scenes look at his early life, his work on the comic and so on. It includes a section on the comics he most regrets making and there is an entire page on Cow Tools. There's also a section showing comics that got the most complaints. And it ends with a message that goes something like "And now, my honest response to those who took the time to mail in their complaints" and underneath is a drawing he did of a man pulling a stupid face at the reader. Well worth a read.
So was the thumbnail intentionally to try to invoke the same sort of effect? I was reading Larson's explanation for his new comics (basically, he tried out digital drawing and got inspired) and googled "Cow Tools" based on him mentioning it because I had forgotten this comic. One of the top Google images was your thumbnail that strangely repeated it like a conveyor belt of more tools and that's what got my attention to read Google's description of it - which is where I saw your video's title and decided to watch. Basically, by being weird with the thumbnail in a way I couldn't understand, you got my attention enough that I looked in and watched the video in much the same way you describe Larson's rise the year following Cow Tools. Obviously, being a search result for a 39 year old comic is probably not as effective as being in 70 newspapers already making it into people's homes, but whether intentional or not I thought it was neat this followed a similar pattern. I wasn't able to read yet when this comic came out, but I am old enough that it was in my lifetime, and it still seems strange to me that so many people wrote to the newspaper for an explanation of an absurd comic. I guess it's like how today his publisher would be inundated with emails and tweets, but more expensive.
No opposable thumbs or critical thought. Damnable shame. But how did they make the tools, let alone use them? Cows are cute & delicious & curious...that's it. Check out videos of their response to music. It's adorable. Eat a steak. Pet one. The end.
@Voldycssm19 but you see, a normal scientist would not turn themselves into a pickle, which is why the thought of the smartest man alive deciding that becoming a pickle is a good thing is quite peculiar
Oh I love it! Is this the one where public servants wrote in and said their mental health depended on a Daily fix of the cartoon and could he please explain it. When I was broke I cut them out if the paper and put them in a scrap book. That was 1992 and I've still got it. Best one is the Neanderthals and a Phillips rock!
Well I think you are being had I am saying it as someone not familiar with other works of this artist, but looking at this picture I see it as a semi-elaborate joke from someone who would attempt to give this a bigger meaning. If you are trying to make sense of Cow Tools you are being had by the author - some pieces of art are made to allude meaning to make fun out of people who would try to force meaning on them.
It's a pretty simple comic. They're cow tools. Tools designed by cows for cows to use. A cow looks at those tools and understands them. We are not cows, which is why we look at those tools and don't understand them. Just as a cow would not understand a table full of human tools.
You solved it.
Genius
What makes it a masterpiece is the saw on the table. Just when it’s about to make sense, it doesn’t.
but where is the cow? a cow doesn't have horns
@@schmietwechdeschiet4340 yes they do
Don't talk shit about cow tools - it's a work of art
The more misunderstood it is, the more of a work of art it is. There are lots of people that literally believe that.
@@dustriathat's not how that works at all
The only feelings it transmits is a sense of superiority to people who think they get it
If he never said what it was supposed to mean people would discuss it in college art classes.
"This isn't even a cow, it has horns!" As if cows don't have horns...
Bulls
@@danebradbury5940 female cows too, they are just removed most the time in the US
Unrelated- but you reminded me so much about one deliberation I had in my mind about how a trans anthro bovine or a cervid would look, as in: how to adress the horns as a detail.
"Awful comic" My friend you are starting at a work of art above all else, curve your tounge!
The idiom is "Curb your tongue", btw, as in 'keep it within it's boundaries.'
Also, I agree, calling this art "awful" is a rough start.
@@Lem_On_LimeI genuinely cannot tell, why would it be funny?
@diamondmemer9754 cows can't build tools. Its just an absurd idea to think a cow built a bunch of crappy tools. That's all, that's why it's funny. The beauty is in the simplicity.
@@SugerFreeJazz this is the type of joke an AI would make, it literally lacks the spark that makes it human
If you laugh at this, you would laugh at a robot generating random words
Just think about that
@@diamondmemer9754 your still not getting it. It's in the vain of jokes like the aristocrats. Its "anti-humour" and like all good forms of humour It subverts expectations, it does it here by being nothing more then it is.
simple answer to this video: the cow made tools
Cow tools was ahead of it's time in humor.
yeah i can't tell if jelly really just doesn't appreciate the cleverness of it, or is just trying to do the same thing with this pointless video. well it did come up with looking up cow tools, so... success?
It was the precursor to shit posts
@@breakbreakbreakbreakbreakhow exactly is it clever?
It's like one of those shitposts you see hundreds of on any site who are only occasionally funny just because they make fun of how ridicolous shitposts are
@@breakbreakbreakbreakbreakit’s clever?
Yeah, Cow Tools was Millennial Humor, before there were millennials who were old enough to tell jokes.
The fact that you don't get the joke makes it even funnier
Norm MacDonald is smiling
Exactly. If there had ever been anyone on this planet who understood this panel, it would have been Norm.
That is the opposite of how jokes work, that's called a false sense of superiority
Jesus, you don't stop at not getting _the_ joke, you don't even understand *jokes.* As a whole.
It's not a false sense of superiority if everyone else actually _is_ better than you, bud. @@diamondmemer9754
@@diamondmemer9754the joke is that humans don’t understand the cows tools, so him not understanding the joke is like another meta layer of that
cows have horns. many US farmers clip them, but cows do in fact grow horns.
Cows have hooves. Have you ever tried to make a tool with hooves?! If I was a personified cow with hooves my tools would probably also look like they were made out of mashed play-dough lol!
One of his funniest cartoons and its reassuring you don't have a clue!
Do you?
@@diamondmemer9754 I just think you're being super pretentious and insufferable, we get it, you don't like the comic
The joke is that cows aren’t very good at making tools
I don't get it, why aren't cows good at making tools? 😒🥺
@@chargedcapacitorwdasddsaf6833because they are cows
Larson was way before your time and pretty sick. beyond sick at times. Two polar bears are looking through the top of an igloo. One says to the other "I love these things crunchy on the outside with a chewy center". Buncha cowboys are sitting around a campfire but one of them has his legs crossed... "Don't do that, Larry". Boneless chicken ranch.. the pane has a buncha chickens drawn around a barn flopped all over the place.. on the road, on the gate, on the roof... no bones. He drew many panes that drew quizzical looks and comments. The guy just thought completely outside-the-box.
Or the ducks(?) commenting that blah blahs house is on fire cos the crocs' mouth is burning.
I can probably make a funnier joke without even trying
The first one isn't even hard to get though? Seems to me like you guys are hyping him up for no real reason
@@ohno3736 yeah people without an ounce on creativity being surprised by the most basic jokes in existence, I don't think they'd be able to handle a cartoon
1:27 Horns don't mean it's not a cow. Cows too have the ability to grow horns. It's just that the horns are often removed because they're an unnecessary hazard.
"Cow Tools" was pure bovine genius
There's a book called "The pre history of the far side: A 10th aniversary exhibit" by Larson that's a sort-of behind the scenes look at his early life, his work on the comic and so on.
It includes a section on the comics he most regrets making and there is an entire page on Cow Tools.
There's also a section showing comics that got the most complaints. And it ends with a message that goes something like "And now, my honest response to those who took the time to mail in their complaints" and underneath is a drawing he did of a man pulling a stupid face at the reader.
Well worth a read.
It’s not a bad cartoon 💀
You may not understand cow tools but the cow does, how do you think she built that barn?
not sure what's worst, people pretending to understand this or darksouls people pretending to know the lore
Cows do have horns as well as bulls.
1:29 cows can have horns
Cows have horns.
Part of the joy of "Cow Tools" is the people who just don't get it. It's the original shitpost
No one gets it, there is no joke
@@diamondmemer9754 enough comments from you
@@diamondmemer9754 pearls before swine
this comic panel belongs in a museum for how inhumanely perplexing it is
So was the thumbnail intentionally to try to invoke the same sort of effect?
I was reading Larson's explanation for his new comics (basically, he tried out digital drawing and got inspired) and googled "Cow Tools" based on him mentioning it because I had forgotten this comic. One of the top Google images was your thumbnail that strangely repeated it like a conveyor belt of more tools and that's what got my attention to read Google's description of it - which is where I saw your video's title and decided to watch.
Basically, by being weird with the thumbnail in a way I couldn't understand, you got my attention enough that I looked in and watched the video in much the same way you describe Larson's rise the year following Cow Tools. Obviously, being a search result for a 39 year old comic is probably not as effective as being in 70 newspapers already making it into people's homes, but whether intentional or not I thought it was neat this followed a similar pattern.
I wasn't able to read yet when this comic came out, but I am old enough that it was in my lifetime, and it still seems strange to me that so many people wrote to the newspaper for an explanation of an absurd comic. I guess it's like how today his publisher would be inundated with emails and tweets, but more expensive.
dont diss the mutton hammer
The "mutton hammer"? Yes, well done....almost as good as the "Thagamizer"...
@@headsupdisplay2189 named after the late Thag Simmons
"I've never known a cow that could make tools and if they did I'm sure that they would lack something in sophistication"
"Selling over fourty-five -_- 0_0 MEWLION"
FUN FACT: cows have developed ability to use crescent wrenches.
Aww the kid didn’t get it what a surprise.
You also don't get it, there's nothing to get
^guy who didn't get it
@@sneggron explain it then
one cannot simply explain art that is transcendental in nature. It must be felt to be understood.
@@sneggron what does this even make you feel? It's not even interesting enough to enjoy it ironically
I got the comic first try as a little kid, does that make me smart or dumb?
Can you explain it please?
He was just ahead of his time. None of us could've understood at the time
Cow Tools was ahead of its time. Comedy has only finally caught up with Cow Tools
Explain this one...."On a clear day, Eugene rose and looked around him and, regrettably, saw who he was?" Anyone? Totally Stumped!
Minor point. Cows do, in fact, grow horns.
Cows can and often do have horns. Not just bulls.
It’s confusing? I would wear a “cow tools” shirt for that reason.
No opposable thumbs or critical thought. Damnable shame. But how did they make the tools, let alone use them? Cows are cute & delicious & curious...that's it. Check out videos of their response to music. It's adorable. Eat a steak. Pet one. The end.
Its the look of study on the cows face? Almost as if he's actually trying to work out which tool to use
It's simple, but God I hate its reputation - the cow can't use the tools.
You don't like Dali either do you?
Saw, rake, hammer and sander...me thinks.
This is the boomer version of Pickle Rick
I think this is much better than pickle rick
@Voldycssm19 but you see, a normal scientist would not turn themselves into a pickle, which is why the thought of the smartest man alive deciding that becoming a pickle is a good thing is quite peculiar
"even the hollowest nut wants to be cracked"
Oh I love it! Is this the one where public servants wrote in and said their mental health depended on a Daily fix of the cartoon and could he please explain it. When I was broke I cut them out if the paper and put them in a scrap book. That was 1992 and I've still got it. Best one is the Neanderthals and a Phillips rock!
Cattle has horns lmfao?
yep they do, if they're not sawn off
Euro cows 🐄
Well
I think you are being had
I am saying it as someone not familiar with other works of this artist, but looking at this picture I see it as a semi-elaborate joke from someone who would attempt to give this a bigger meaning.
If you are trying to make sense of Cow Tools you are being had by the author - some pieces of art are made to allude meaning to make fun out of people who would try to force meaning on them.
Great video man , very well put together
But it looks funny
Awful? Bullshit its fantastic
i have many thoughts i might share later about this “debacle” shame on you
And they never did
Professor? Of what?
It’s a great comic! If you don’t think it’s funny you’ve just never studied anthropology.
Eh🐰🤔🤣They're for cows, we can't understand 😂
Good video.
Thank you
?????
How’s this a meme
Great video bro
Cows have horns.