"RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht" (ramblininexile) 02/09/2018 at 12:57 • Filed to: far side friday

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I forgot the 11:00. Sorry ‘bout that.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/09/2018 at 13:08

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Maybe I’m just too young but I don’t get like 80-90% of these

random001 > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 02/09/2018 at 13:11

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Damned millennials....

MonkeePuzzle > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/09/2018 at 13:11

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I think the bigger story is how some caveman carved them a stone wheel in this crisis

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 02/09/2018 at 13:24

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You’re not alone

Chariotoflove > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/09/2018 at 13:37

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You are forgiven.

Alfalfa > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 02/09/2018 at 14:14

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Most of them are just bizarre for the sake of bizarre. Kind of like a lot of memes lately.

OPPOsaurus WRX > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 02/09/2018 at 15:23

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you just need to grow up i guess

Die-Trying > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/09/2018 at 15:30

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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 02/09/2018 at 15:32

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Okay (puts on nerd glasses), I can explain this one as I can most Far Side cartoons. At least, in the sense of the kind of humor, the structure, etc. etc. The how that it is funny. That may not make the why for you, but obviously humor is subjective.

Primarily, it is a juxtaposition of three tropes or cliches. I’ll cover each in detail: The unlikely hero, the brave animal, and the ridiculous pet.

The unlikely hero: By the time this cartoon was made, an individual stepping in to save the day because of a skill he or she possesses had become a dead horse. Particularly the sense of “is there anyone on board who can fly?”. Zero Hour (and thereby Airplane!), Airport, Airport 77, etc. etc. all the way up into the 90s with Speed, Executive Decision, and so on. Therefore, somebody “seizing the controls to save the day” is a thing. So much of a thing and so beaten to death in Hollywood that it’s corny.

The brave animal: This one was a little on the outs by the time of the cartoon, but as with Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, etc., it is very much a trope for an unusually intelligent animal to go to someone’s rescue, fight off attackers, and generally be a very Hollywood kind of hero. Particularly dogs. Sometimes this strains credulity - the dog understands how to disassemble something, understands things in English they shouldn’t be able to, and so on.

The ridiculous pet: This one isn’t quite as beaten to death as the other too, but... frankly, poodles are ridiculous, and this is a theme that is seen by most people all the time in real life. The fawned-over “little darling” that is an overly fluffy, yappy, shitheaded, useless little dolt. The kind of dog that is extremely irritating but also completely ridiculous. “Fifi” is just the kind of name that sums this kind of monster up.

So, what do we have in the cartoon? A “ridiculous pet”, thereby known for being useless, being brave and resourceful in a way that isn’t just hard to believe, but takes a baseball bat to making any kind of sense. “Fifi knows how to fly a plane!” Smash, crunch, go the brain cells. So, so very stupid. This is made worse by it being the familiar cliche of everybody panicking and someone bravely taking control of the plane. All the elements make sense separately, but all together, make something that is so completely ridiculous it’s hilarious.

Or at least is to some.

Die-Trying > Chariotoflove 02/09/2018 at 15:33

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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Die-Trying 02/09/2018 at 15:37

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Die-Trying > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/09/2018 at 15:43

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found this one just now.....

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/09/2018 at 16:37

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Ah, I see.

You should include a description like this for all the FSF cartoons.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > sm70- why not Duesenberg? 02/09/2018 at 16:40

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These descriptions are actually fun to write - which may say some uncomplimentary things about how boring I am.