After a recent trip to Mom and Pops, I returned home with a much-read (and read, and re-read) copy of The Far Side Gallery 5. Now, most of these comics I can understand, and I soon guffawed my way through most of the book. However, a few of them just seem to blow by me. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m approaching the joke from the wrong angle or something, or whether there’s some significant piece of pop culture that I should know in order to understand the funny bits. With some, I can hazard a guess, but it would still be great to get an explanation for these (even though explaining the joke ruins it, I know…).
So:
Two men stand in front of a display case filled with flowers. One of the men, who’s wearing a Hugh Hefner-type dressing gown and smoking a pipe, is pointing at three small petals in the center of the display case. The caption is: “And here’s the jewel of my collection, purchased for a king’s ransom from a one-eyed man in Istanbul. … I give you Zuzu’s petals.”
A calf, then a cow, constantly tripping over things and getting stuck in fences. The last one is the cow running out of a burning barn. The caption: The life and times of Lulu, Mrs. O’Leary’s ill-fated cow. I’m guessing this has to do with the “cow kicked over a bucket” legend about the Chicago fire…?
A team of writers sit in Studio 2 with pens and writing pads in front of them. One of them is enthusiastically waving his hands and saying “Hey! How’s this?–Endora puts some kind of curse on Darren, and no one can figure out what the heck is happening until Samantha catches on!” Another writer thinks “I like it.” The caption: The writers for “Bewitched” sit down to their weekly brainstorming session. Was this story line used extensively in that show?
Three frogs sitting under some reeds or whatever you call that stuff that grows on the edge of ponds. These are obviously the bums, the lowlifes of frogdom. Paper bags with bottles, etc. The caption: “Yeah. I remember Jerry. Good friend of mine. … You know, I never understood a single word he said, but he always had some mighty fine wine.”
Okay, that’s it for now. Any help greatly appreciated.
Well, you’ve essentially explained #2 and #3 yourself. (It was a lantern that Mrs. O’Leary’s cow was supposed to have knocked over, thus starting the Chicago fire.) #4 is a reference to the Three Dog Night song “Joy to the World,” which begins:
I’m not sure about the first one, but the other three are pretty easy.
The cow one is, as you surmised, from the old legend about Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lantern and starting the Chicago fire.
That was a fairly frequent story line for Bewitched, although it wasn’t always Endora placing the curse (I think pretty much all her relatives had multiple goes at that one), and from time to time the victim was someon other than Darrin.
The last one is from the Creedence Clearwater Revival song. “Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine. Never understood a single word he said, but I helped him drink his wine. He always had some mighty fine wine.”
I think this is just a joke on collecttor who spend a lot of money on things with oninherhent value.
yes, “Mrs. O’Leary’s cow” is the creature who started the Chicago fire by knocking over a candle with her tail, according to legend.
“Was this story line used extensively in that show?” Oh my goodness. Yes.
“You know, I never understood a single word he said, but he always had some mighty fine wine” is a line from the song Joy to the World, also known as “Jeremiah was a bullfrog”.
#1:It’s a Wonderful Life the ultimate feel-good Christmas movie. (Spoiler, but who really cares?) Jimmy Stewart had a daughter named Zuzu, and had “fixed” the rose her teacher gave her by removing the broken petals and putting them in his pocket. Later in the movie he was shown what life would be if he had never been born, and the petals were gone. He realizes his life was worth living because of the love he had for his kids.
#2: You were correct. Back in the day when big buildings were made out of wood, a cow in the Chicago area kicked over a kerosene lamp. The resulting fire destroyed most of Chicago.
#3: Well, I think that plotline was used in about 1/2 of the episodes. The others centered around a spell gone wrong.
#4: Great song! Covered by a couple good artists, CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival) being the greatist. Here’s a lyrics clip:
Jeremiah was a bullfrog
Was a good friend of mine
I never understood a single word he said
But I helped him a-drink his wine
And he always had some mighty fine wine
The same gag as # 3 was also used on Friends, where Joey, Phoebe and Chandler are Three’s Company, and Pheobe asks which episode it is. Chandler says “It’s the one where there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding.” and Phoebe says; “Oh, change it, I’ve seen that one.”
I’m surprised to see a couple of people (and, on Googling, some online lyric sites) attributing “Joy to the World” to Creedence Clearwater Revival. No, they never recorded the song.
Actually they should have said “It’s the one where this really hot babe is throwing herself at Jack, and he’d love to go for it but if they get caught Mr. Roper will realize he’s not gay and evict him.”
No, I wasn’t thinking of Three Dog Night. I can almost never remember who did what song, so I was taking seeklyrics.com’s word for it. They’ve got it listed as a CCR song.
The cow has recently been exonerated of any blame. Current thinking is that it was a drunken reporter who started the fire, and then passed the blame onto the cow to clear himself.
If you ever watch the beginning of The Big Chill, Kevin Kline is giving his kids a bath and they are singing the lyrics to Joy to the World. Good song! Ah, yes! Easter break…the spring of 1971…Daytona Beach…zzzzz
