# RIP Pussy Cow **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 9, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431 "2013-09-09T19:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/21 "2013-09-10T19:10:57Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > He said he’d eat a bug if he couldn’t sell you a car. I looked for a ‘If I can’t sell you a car, I’ll eat a bug’ commercial yesterday, but couldn’t find one. ---
**Author:** ![want2befree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3e96dc/32.png) [@want2befree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2befree)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/22 "2013-09-10T19:24:50Z")
I don’t remember the pussy cow thing. The commercials must have aired before I learned that word. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucky_13/32/13209_2.png) [@Lucky\_13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_13)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/23 "2013-09-11T01:34:26Z")
Those commercials have been around for years. My brother was a toddler when we first saw them, in the early 80s, and he says he heard it as “Pussy Cow” and imagined a cow with cat ears. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/24 "2013-09-11T03:19:36Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Well, you don’t have to have a California accent to hear it as “Pussy cow”. I am British and first heard his ads soon after I first came to California in 1983. I quite spontaneously heard the “pussy” part without having been prompted by any locals, though I think, having gathered that his name was Cal I originally thought they were singing “Pussy Cal”, and that perhaps it was some sort of reference to the tiger he had on a leash in those ads. When “pussy cow” was later suggested to me by a local, it fitted what I heard at least as well. It was really quite difficult to hear it as “Go see Cal,” however, even after I knew. It just did not sound like that. I meant that Cal was from Oklahoma/Texas and I’m from Texas, and I understood it all along as “Go See Cal”. I think our ears get attuned to certain accents and things are more easily and clearly understood once we’re attuned. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/25 "2013-09-11T17:34:34Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I meant that Cal was from Oklahoma/Texas and I’m from Texas, and I understood it all along as “Go See Cal”. I think our ears get attuned to certain accents and things are more easily and clearly understood once we’re attuned. Yes, I get that, but it appears that _unless_ you are a Texan, very attuned to Texan accents, you hear “pussy” and maybe also “cow”. Native Californians hear it that way, and so do Brits (and this despite the fact that “pussy cow” makes absolutely no sense in the context of the ad, whereas “Go see Cal,” makes perfect sense). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/26 "2013-09-11T17:37:01Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Native Californians hear it that way… I’m a native Californian, and I never heard it as ‘pussy cow’. It never occurred to me that anyone did, until I was 15 and moved to a neighbourhood with a Philippine neighbour who heard it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/27 "2013-09-11T17:58:01Z")
Weird. I’ve seen these commercials for as long as I can remember (grew up in southern/central CA, born in 1964) and it never occurred to me that they were saying anything but “Go See Cal.” This thread is the first time I’d ever even heard the “Pussy Cow” thing. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/28 "2013-09-11T18:24:51Z")
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who grew up thinking it was Pussy Cow! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/29 "2013-09-11T18:40:27Z")
I can’t tell you how much I detested this guy. When I was a young Navy guy going to school just north of LA, and had to stand messenger watch in the barracks for eight hours, all there was to do was to watch TV movies. Every five minutes Ralph Williams would come on with another stupid commercial. Eventually, I think he was run out of the state and Cal Worthington took over his dealerships. While slightly less annoying, the ads drove me nuts. It was a happy day when I left CA behind for good. Many years later, after roaming the world, I moved back to Anchorage, AK. Imagine my horror when I turned on the TV and saw. . .a fucking Cal Worthington ad! In my absence, he had set up shop there and his son is still running the operation. Still, for all the aggravation, I have to admire the rags to riches story of somebody who never actually owned his own car. The guy had good business sense and an affable manner. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431/30 "2013-09-11T21:53:21Z")
I missed this thread somehow, but made the obligatory “pussy cow” reference on FB the day he passed away. As a kid, I didn’t think of anything dirty, but just assumed it was a pussy _cow_ instead of a pussy _cat_ because “Spot” was always so much larger than a cat. Like, “Awww, what a cute widdle pussy cow you’ve got there!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-pussy-cow/668431.md?page=1)