• @[email protected]
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    51 day ago

    Maybe this is because I’m swiss and I spent my childhood looking at and taking care of cows.

    But is the joke that “cowatching” sounds absurd.

    • Mossy Feathers (She/They)
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      111 day ago

      It’s a common thing in the US, not unlike birdwatching. My grandfather loved going out and watching for cows. Then he would come home and tell us all about the cows he saw. Did you know there are like, 150 native species of cow in the US? Back in the early days you could just go out and get milk from wild cows. Now, however, they’re overexploited and so you rarely see wild cows.

    • Higgs boson
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      23 hours ago

      The “absurd” is usually the whole joke with Far Side. I grew up around cows, too. They’re so dumb and mundane, he plays on that a lot.

      When I was a kid, we had a state park near our house. We would go there and there would be these Japanese tourists abandoning their cars to go try to hand feed deer. To me, they’re just a pest that eats our garden. But to the tourists, they were amazed.

      I didnt get it until I visited Yellowstone and we abandoned our car to chase a bull moose (which is dangerously dumb, don’t do it.)

    • @[email protected]
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      423 hours ago

      It’s also a play on birdwatching and a bonus pun referencing the Bird of Paradise flower, and also “yes.”

      • @ylph
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        212 hours ago

        Isn’t it referencing the birds rather than the flower? They are known for their impressive plumage.

        • @[email protected]
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          15 hours ago

          Oh shit yeah probably, didn’t know it was a bird and a flower, and I only know the flower because of Viva Piñata 1 lol.