The parakeet appears to be headless.
That’s just a Larson bird - many of his figures have squished little heads.
Edit: here’s a scanned picture of it from the paper.
Many times a “Far Side” was just funny (or supposed to be funny) on its face - no underlying meaning meant. I think this is just one of those “aren’t people who go to have a seance for their pet ridiculous and stupid?” ones.
He’s just resting.
Nope…Bootsie GAVE the requested sign by biting off the parakeet’s head!
~VOW
Heh…my favorite is still the captionless one with the bowl of piranhas and the petshop cat with two wooden legs.
It should have said, “The ancient Patagonian’s spelled it W-H-O-A.”
Is it just my eyes, or does there appear to be a cat’s tail sticking out of the customer’s dress’s armhole? As if the cat was sleeping in the woman’s laundry and she didn’t notice when she got dressed. So maybe Bootsy isn’t “dead” but simply “missing”, and the woman is trying to use the medium to help find him.
Or maybe the cat crawled into the dryer and is dead, and the woman doesn’t notice she’s got a dead cat in her dress.
I’d say (assuming Bootsy is a cat), cats don’t listen to people is the joke, ie the medium isn’t getting anything.
It was lured there by signs saying “CAT FUD”.
I think the “cat tail” is just shading.
As for the “Bootsy” cartoon I think the humor is supposed to be the fortune teller is calling out to the spirit of the woman’s dead pet in much the same way you’d call out to your pet dog to, say, fetch a ball. Or it could just been the absurdity of a woman holding a séance for her dead pet.
Yeah, when I zoom in the bird is headless (with a neck). The fuzz on the arm is shading and there’s a shadow on the dress.
Seems to me the funny part is the psychic’s expresson, eyes rolling, like “Good grief, the crap I have to put up with… Seance for cats…!”
Someone needs to track down Larson’s email address dammit. We need answers!
But what lovely plumage!
That’s your typical Norwegian Blue.
This has always been one of my Far Side favorites.
http://www.ourscreendoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/farside-12.jpg
Some of Larson’s panels were really well composed. One of my faves (can’t find it yet) was of a guy getting his mail at a bank of mailboxes in the lobby of his apartment building. Lurking in the shadows is an elephant in a trenchcoat, who was there because of something the guy did in the far past and, as the elephant reminds him: elephants never forget.
When the moon hits your eye
Like a big pizza pie
That’s remoraaaaa!
Wow! I know that a lot can be read into Far Side cartoons, but this…?
The Bootsy joke is simply about the way we call our pets.
Ya’ know, a cold reader might get the name “John” and say "There’s a lot of people who want to talk to you, but I get the feeling that someone named John has something very important to say to you. Are you there, John? Come forward please. aside he seems reluctant. He could be upset about something, or he could be feeling shy… [let mark volunteer reason for hesitance]. Continue.
Far Side: “Madam Psychic, as a tired spinster I’d like to speak to the other side to know how everyone’s doing. Specifically, how’s my cat ‘Bootsy’?” “Well, there are a couple of people around, but not too many. Wait! I just saw a streak of something head behind the bookcase! Bootsy! Booooooootsy! He’s not coming out.” “Here, shake his food container–that always brings him out…”
Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here to explain the jokes all week.
So can you “explain” why the parrot is missing its head?