It turns out that when cows have thumbs they can do everything for themselves, and humans will become what’s for dinner.
billybob definitely has it. I actually thought this one was pretty good.
I feel like it’s somehow an homage to “Cow Tools,” even if it’s not an exact match.
Besides “Cow Tools” (and Larson’s general fixation with bovine humor), there was another Far Side showing two cows on a living room couch, looking at a ringing telephone: “Well, there it goes again, and here we sit, without opposable thumbs.”
The panel above would have worked better for me if Deering had chosen a different species (perhaps “pigs”).
And now I’m earwormed with “Cows with Guns”.
It’d be funny except it is a complete, to the very wording, plagiarism of the classic and very well-known Far Side cartoon, and has absolutely zero original content.
(Then again the Far Side plagiarized word for word a, lesser known, Kliban cartoon about growing cats on trees…. )
@ woozy – What does the “it” in that first sentence refer to? I can’t see where the plagiarism is supposed to be.
Just wait until dolphins and clams get thumbs
Cooler band name: “Strap-On Opposable Cow Thumbs” or “Modesty Armidillo”? Discuss. (Extra credit if you can prove there already is a band out there with one of those names.)
Shrug, I recently saw a band named Strap-on Armadillos. Not sure if that counts.
I have a cat with thumbs. But she’s fixed, so the human race is safe.
Mark M: I think that one deserves at least half-credit. Would also consider accepting “Modesty Cow Thumbs.”
“What does the “it” in that first sentence refer to? I can’t see where the plagiarism is supposed to be.”
It’s a complete and total plagiarism so far as I’m concerned.
It was, after all, the single cartoon the made “opposable thumbs” a household phrase.
Woozy, how similar it is is in the eye of the beholder, I guess, but I don’t see how you get “complete, to the very wording, plagiarism,” or “absolutely zero original content.” The wordings don’t overlap at all. And one is about how the cow’s home is useless without opposable thumbs, and the other is about how Rodney’s idea of selling opposable thumbs leads to disaster. That doesn’t strike me as having zero original content. I mean, Kilby already mentioned this comic is comment #3, and neither he nor I had any idea that you were referring to this comic as being the same.
BTW, I think you give the Far Side too much credit if you think it popularized interest in “opposable thumbs.”
So, recently I mentioned that I had no idea that two different strips were indeed two different strips (the one with the %$#! squirrel, and the one that seems like uncompleted sketchbook ideas); Kilby referring all the authors as “Deering” doesn’t help matters ;-)
This strip is by Dave Blazek.
@DemetriosX: I didn’t know anyone else in the universe knew “Cows with Guns”!
“We will fight for bovine freedom
And hold our large heads high
We will run free with the buffalo,or die”
Thanks to larK for the correction of my brain spazz on the author’s name . I have no idea how that happened.
I saw this one much earlier and meant to post it, then forgot. Now I have unforgotten. Would it have been better without the sign? Perhaps. Then again, I might not have noticed.
Comics I Don't Understand 
It turns out that when cows have thumbs they can do everything for themselves, and humans will become what’s for dinner.
billybob definitely has it. I actually thought this one was pretty good.
I feel like it’s somehow an homage to “Cow Tools,” even if it’s not an exact match.
Besides “Cow Tools” (and Larson’s general fixation with bovine humor), there was another Far Side showing two cows on a living room couch, looking at a ringing telephone: “Well, there it goes again, and here we sit, without opposable thumbs.”
The panel above would have worked better for me if Deering had chosen a different species (perhaps “pigs”).
And now I’m earwormed with “Cows with Guns”.
It’d be funny except it is a complete, to the very wording, plagiarism of the classic and very well-known Far Side cartoon, and has absolutely zero original content.
For a better attempt of old idea there is the old Onion Article: https://www.theonion.com/dolphins-evolve-opposable-thumbs-1819565718
(Then again the Far Side plagiarized word for word a, lesser known, Kliban cartoon about growing cats on trees…. )
@ woozy – What does the “it” in that first sentence refer to? I can’t see where the plagiarism is supposed to be.
Just wait until dolphins and clams get thumbs
Cooler band name: “Strap-On Opposable Cow Thumbs” or “Modesty Armidillo”? Discuss. (Extra credit if you can prove there already is a band out there with one of those names.)
Shrug, I recently saw a band named Strap-on Armadillos. Not sure if that counts.
I have a cat with thumbs. But she’s fixed, so the human race is safe.
Mark M: I think that one deserves at least half-credit. Would also consider accepting “Modesty Cow Thumbs.”
“What does the “it” in that first sentence refer to? I can’t see where the plagiarism is supposed to be.”
It’s a complete and total plagiarism so far as I’m concerned.
It was, after all, the single cartoon the made “opposable thumbs” a household phrase.
Woozy, how similar it is is in the eye of the beholder, I guess, but I don’t see how you get “complete, to the very wording, plagiarism,” or “absolutely zero original content.” The wordings don’t overlap at all. And one is about how the cow’s home is useless without opposable thumbs, and the other is about how Rodney’s idea of selling opposable thumbs leads to disaster. That doesn’t strike me as having zero original content. I mean, Kilby already mentioned this comic is comment #3, and neither he nor I had any idea that you were referring to this comic as being the same.
BTW, I think you give the Far Side too much credit if you think it popularized interest in “opposable thumbs.”
So, recently I mentioned that I had no idea that two different strips were indeed two different strips (the one with the %$#! squirrel, and the one that seems like uncompleted sketchbook ideas); Kilby referring all the authors as “Deering” doesn’t help matters ;-)
This strip is by Dave Blazek.
@DemetriosX: I didn’t know anyone else in the universe knew “Cows with Guns”!
“We will fight for bovine freedom
And hold our large heads high
We will run free with the buffalo,or die”
Thanks to larK for the correction of my brain spazz on the author’s name . I have no idea how that happened.
I saw this one much earlier and meant to post it, then forgot. Now I have unforgotten. Would it have been better without the sign? Perhaps. Then again, I might not have noticed.
https://www.gocomics.com/heartofthecity/2023/04/20
@ Brian – I totally agree with your hypothesis, that strip would have been much better without the spoiler tag in the last panel.
By good timing, this Heart of the City strip also has its own thread now, at https://cidu.info/2023/04/21/ah-yes-cow-tools/