Dizzy Fingers, what’s to explain? The gypsy woman warned him that a giant bird was going to step on him. Instead of keeping an eye out for giant birds, he thought she was giving him some kind of metaphorical warning about work problems or something.
Oh. Gotcha. And here I was, thinking the joke involved some kind of pun on “giant bird” or “bird foot” or what have you. :smack:
It seems to me that there should be some exact phrase that fits here. Something a gypsy could plausibly say that could be illustrated by a giant bird’s foot.
Well, I could be wrong, but to me the idea of a gypsy saying “Beware the giant bird” is pretty funny in itself.
Another reading for the “flesh wound” – perhaps it’s meant to mock the doctor, who’s only treating a minor cut while ignoring the unhealthy obesity of the man. A little too political perhaps, but it’s possible.
I vote for the original interpretation of the flesh wound one… the man is enormous, he has tons of FLESH, huge rolling flabs of FLESH. And it’s a FLESH wound.
I think you’re all assuming that Larson’s comics were funny every time.
It seems like some of them just aren’t that funny…
Maybe the giant chicken foot is a Baba Yaga reference.
I think the joke for the “flesh wound” is that the doctor had to run tests on that tiny scratch (on the arm) to confirm that it is, in fact, not damaging any vital organs.
Now this one you can see through Amazon.com. Search for “Gary Larson gypsy” and choose “Bride of the Far Side.” I think Rube E. Tewesday got it. The large bird looks a little like Big Bird. Perhaps that’s another part of the joke?
I have Far Side Gallery 2, Far Side Gallery 3, and Prehistory of the Far Side… but sadly, none of the comics are dated.
With the bird foot comic, I always thought the gypsy said, “You will be crushed underfoot” or some such.
Can someone confirm this here. I am looking at my Complete Far Side Collection now and have a different cartoon for this date. I have a frog that tried to snag an airliner with its tongue and is being lifted off the graound because the plane is taking off. Just curious to see if it is different or if the OP got the dates mixed up.
The flesh wound thing predates the Holy Grail by a number of years. “It’s just a flesh wound” was a stock line in the old time cheesy westerns. It was spoken by one of the guys in a white hat when he was shot by a bad guy. It made the good guy look tough and brave.
This was a sarcastic line used by commedians making fun of westerns as a standard joke before Holy Grail. I think that Holy Grail and Larson were making fun of the same thing.
Haj
d’oh! It’s the 4th of Aug. I put an extra 1 in there.
And what’s the deal with “cow tools?”
Here’s a cow. Here are the tools he made. Their not very good are they? Well what did you expect. Cows aren’t very smart.
Not much too it.
Also, of course, what would a cow need tools for in the first place? All they do is eat and produce milk and/or hamburger.
Has Chik-fil-A ever paid Larsen anything for ripping off his cows?
The deal with Cow Tools:
The PreHistory of The Far Side, page 157