Night of the Crash-Test Dummies : A Far Side Collection (1988)

The Far Side comics aren't my absolute favourites, but they're still a good way to spend a tea break.
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What would a "cat shower" look like? Do over-eating bears develop "deer gut"? And what really happened to Elvis? Larson records the discovery of a second "Lucy" which rocked the anthropological world. A cowboy with a "trample me" sign taped to his back--"Cattle Humor".

Larson has a gift for revisiting the language, our homes, the planet and the relationships between its creatures, in small drawings which tell stories. ( )

I have loved The Far Side since the first time I saw an inky panel in my hometown newspaper’s comic section. Quirky and often irreverent, Larson drawings almost always make me laugh, and often accompanied by the “swallow my tongue” effect. The strip’s sense of humor is dead-on me.

One of my favorite Far Side funnies was of a cat hurdling to the earth, a look of terror on her face, and the caption read “After falling 2000 feet, Fluffy suddenly realized it didn’t matter if she landed on her feet.”

Occasionally Larson makes a political joke in his strip, but usually they are play-on-words, or he connects two totally unrelated concepts (i. e. “Python escapes local zoo!” headline on the newspaper S. White is carrying as she walks up to her house. Unseen by Miss White is a snake slithering out the back window, seven separate dinner-lumps along its body). Sometimes the joke jumps right out at you, other times the incongruity dawns on you, and almost always, sooner or later, you laugh.

click for full review: http://thekoolaidmom.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/night-of-the-crash-test-dummies-by... ( )

As always, Gary Larson delivers. Night of the Crash-Test Dummies is funny, provocative, and insightful, like all of Larson's books. Unfortunately, as with most comics strips, it's either all or nothing, love it or hate it. If you like Larson, then you are guaranteed to love this book. If you don't care for Larson...why are you here? ( )

Be prepared. Larson's done it again ( )