Cow Tools

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About

Cow Tools refers to a cartoon from Gary Larson's The Far Side, originally published in 1982 in multiple newspapers. The specific comic depicts a cow standing in front of four "tools" captioned, "Cow Tools." When published, the cartoon caused confusion and controversy as to what the punchline of it was. It continued to gain notoriety over the years, being used as a prime example of poor execution in comic-making, as well as being appreciated ironically in the form of memes. These memes started most notably on platforms like Twitter and Reddit as early as 2012. Overall, the comic resonates with modern meme culture in its absurdist nature.

Origin

On October 27th, 1982, Gary Larson published a The Far Side cartoon across multiple newspaper outlets titled, "Cow Tools." The comic (shown below) depicted a cow standing behind a table with four "tools" on it, each obtuse and oddly shaped, barely recognizable as objects.

According to an October 1982 internet-archived newspaper blurb from the publication The Spokesman Review,^[1] Larson was asked within 24 hours of the cartoon's publication to release a statement on its meaning and absurdity. Larson's statement was, "The cartoon was intended to be an exercise in silliness. While I have never met a cow who can create tools, I felt sure that if they did (the tools) would lack something in sophistication and resemble the sorry specimens shown in this cartoon." Additionally, he added, "I regret that my fondness for cows combined with an overactive imagination, may have carried me beyond what is comprehensible to the average 'Far Side' reader."

Spread

In 2012, the online discourse surrounding the "Cow Tools" comic percolated on platforms like Twitter. For example, Twitter^[2] user me_irl was one of the first online to talk about the comic, posting a tweet (shown below) on October 2nd, 2012, which received seven likes in roughly nine years.

On March 20th, 2016, the /r/cowtools^[3] subreddit was created. The first post^[4] to the subreddit was made by Redditor sega_95, which was just an Imgur^[5] link to the "Cow Tools" comic. On November 26th, 2017, Twitter^[6] user saralautman tweeted a picture of a "Cow Tools" tattoo that she'd gotten on her forearm. The tweet (shown below) received 197 likes in roughly four years after being posted.

On February 1st, 2018, The New Yorker^[7] cartoonist Sara Lautman published a long-form comic titled, "A New Tattoo," that dove deep into the "Cow Tools" lore. The cartoon alluded to the growing consciousness and lasting significance of the infamous Far Side cartoon in a modern, internet context. Two significant panels from the cartoon are shown below.

On August 20th, 2020, Instagram^[8] account crunchy.liam posted a screenshot of the "Cow Tools" Wikipedia^[9] page, receiving roughly 1,700 likes for the post in just over one year. Their post is the first known reference to the cartoon on the platform.

The first, genuine image macro meme that referenced "Cow Tools," however, was posted to the /r/cowtools^[10] subreddit on September 22nd, 2020, by Redditor zf13. The meme (shown below) used the Donnie Darko 'I Made New Friend' meme template. It received 41 upvotes in six months.

In 2021, "Cow Tools" memes became abundant on Instagram. For instance, Instagram^[11] account donotresearch_ascended posted a Whisper style meme on July 12th, 2021 (shown below). The post received 587 likes over five months. Also, on September 12th, 2021, Instagram^[12] account owen_kung reposted the Donnie Darko meme above, where it received roughly 12,000 likes over the course of three months.

Inspired by the attention on sites like Instagram, "Cow Tools" memes amassed a resurgence in prominence in the latter half of 2021. More memes referring to the Far Side comic appeared on Twitter,^[13] among other platforms, in 2021 and going into early 2022.