• spinnetrouble
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    1 year ago

    It’s a feature! A lot of Far Side comics don’t really land, tons don’t make any sense to anyone, and the rest are what made it a classic. It’s not necessarily you missing a joke, it’s just a very weird comic.

    In this panel, the two guys are surprised at how absolutely weird one of their voices sounds on a recording. Meanwhile, one of them is wearing pants with like an extra mile of fabric in the legs, and the other is wearing pants so short, they make him look like a cannonball with feet.

    • jrs100000
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      111 year ago

      Its kind of topical as well. In the 80s tape recorders were just becoming a common technology and ordinary people were recording and playing back their own voices at home for the first time. The fact that our voices sound different to ourselves was something that many people were just becoming aware of.

      • @dragonfly
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        21 year ago

        Tape recorders were common way before the 80s.

        • jrs100000
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          1 year ago

          Tape recorders were common in studios and high end home audio systems by the 70s. They were not common in the average household until the 80s. In particular, equipment that could both record and play back audio tape was expensive and uncommon in a home setting until the mid 80s.

          • @dragonfly
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            21 year ago

            I was a teenager in the 80s, lived in a very small town, not wealthy at all. Tape recorders were common.

              • @dragonfly
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                11 year ago

                Yes? When this comic was made, they were common. Panasonic came out with their first compact recorder in 1967, and there was a booming business for them throughout the 70s. Lots of people had them. These compact types were probably thought of as somewhat novel in the early 70s, but were widely available by 1980. The reel to reel shown in the comic has been around a lot longer.

                • jrs100000
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                  1 year ago

                  Take a look at the copyright date on the comic. This was right at the time when tape recording, not just playback, devices were becoming common.

                  • @dragonfly
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                    11 year ago

                    I’m speaking from personal experience. In 1982, when the comic was published, tape recorders were not considered a novelty, and had been in common usage for many years. The humor in the panel derives from the stereotype of a nerd and how the stereotypical nerd is supposed to sound.

    • @[email protected]
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      51 year ago

      I may be dense, but to me it looks like the joke is that he’s still speaking into the recorder, not hearing the output, so he’s saying his non recorded voice is funny

      • spinnetrouble
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        51 year ago

        I didn’t even notice that. It’s definitely one of Larson’s strips that doesn’t really land 😆