so, what was our obsession with the la brea tar pits back then? was it just that it was featured on the flinstones and then dinosaurs or was there something deeper to it? (my brother was the one who was into dinosaurs, i was just a dilettante)
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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The Far Side
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Hello fellow Far Side fans!
About this community and how I post the comic strip… Many moons ago, I would ask my Dad to save the newspaper for me everyday so I could read my favorite comic strips and one of those was The Far Side. These days of course you find just about anything online including www.thefarside.com where they post several comics a day and I repost them here. Just to note, the date you see in my posts is not the initial release date, but the date they were posted on the website.
The Far Side is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world, logical fallacies, impending bizarre disasters, (often twisted) references to proverbs, or the search for meaning in life… Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side
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I mean, a fossil record of a bunch of creatures is pretty interesting.
But I think it ranks up there with quicksand in the "dangerous things we thought we'd encounter much more regularly in adulthood" category.
TBF, far more dinosaurs perished in tar pits than humans have or ever will be consumed in quicksand. For dinosaurs, tar pits were an actual menace.
tar pits are surprisingly dangerous don't turn your face on one
Tbf, no one will miss Francine. She was unpleasant.
However, in a few million years, they'll be thrilled to have her on display as a perfect specimen of the now-extinct Homo Sapiens.
Ngl, I had to google La Brea Carpets to fully get the joke. I knew of the Los Angeles La Brea tar pits, but the fact there's a famous carpet store called Lawrence of La Brea Carpets makes the pun even better.
Edit: nevermind, the La Brea carpet store(s) seemingly came slightly later, unless there were some around that area in LA in 1990 that no longer exist haha
The copyright date on the comic is 1990, and the web page for that store says it is 30 years old, so the comic is older than the store.
To me, the odds are that both the store owner and Larson independently came up with the same joke, especially because Lawrence of La Brea is also a different pun. But it could also be that the store partially got its name from this comic. Either way, the person who thought up the store name obviously has a good sense of humor.
Huh, I almost wish I hadn't known this, better to be informed than not though haha, thanks
What is it about carpet stores in particular?! We had a "Shag-Rug-La" by us for a while and I wanted to give myself a lobotomy every time I drove past it. Lawrence of La Brea Carpets is egregious. Weapons-grade.
I'm guessing it's like hair salons always seem to have the obligatory pun (at least here in France).
there's a hairdresser near me called "här", which means "here" but is pronounced basically the same as "hair".
every time i see it a part of me withers and dies
my aunt has a t-hair-apy in her city. jesus take the wheel because i'm rolling my eyes and screaming.
if you ever black out and wake up to a headline in the news about a local hairdresser's being spray painted solid lime green, know that you are among friends.
This might be the best Far Side I’ve ever seen.
...bastards didn't even set pillow "islands"...those people are total assholes...
And they are laughing at their victims
Fresh take on a classic childhood game
And as a child quicksand is far more terrifying than lava.
Time to nitpick a 30 year old comic, why do the other people have their feet on the ground? They should be getting pulled in as well..