A ‘Far Side’ Controversy Led to Gary Larson Being Attacked by a Chimp
Unless you’re a highly sensitive member of the talking cow community, there really aren’t too many offensive Far Side cartoons. But back in 1987, Gary Larson published a comic that almost got him sued. The Far Side in question depicted a female chimpanzee accusing her partner of cavorting with that “tramp” Jane Goodall.
As Larson later recounted, a few days after the cartoon hit the papers, his syndicate received a “very indigent letter” from someone working at the Jane Goodall Institute. The letter called the cartoon “inexcusable” and “absolutely stupid.” A similar letter, likely from the same employee, was sent to the editor of the Arizona Daily Star, complaining that the cartoon was “incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgement of running such an atrocity.”
According to Larson, the letter had a “vague implication that litigation over this cartoon might be around the corner” (it was later revealed to have been drafted by a lawyer). All of which was very upsetting to Larson, not because he was afraid of a lawsuit, but because of his “deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to primatology.”
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“The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr. Goodall in any way,” Larson wrote in The Prehistory of The Far Side. As he was preparing his apology letter, the Far Side’s syndicate received a request from The National Geographic Society to reprint the cartoon in their magazine. Larson’s people declined, citing the controversy, but the folks at National Geographic told Larson’s editor: “That doesn’t sound like the Jane Goodall we know.”
Per Goodall, she knew nothing of the cartoon when it was first published, as she was in Tanzania at the time. When she came to the U.S. for a lecture tour, her irate executive director showed her the cartoon which they had denounced on her behalf. But Goodall’s reaction was to exclaim: “Wow! Fantastic! Real fame at last! Fancy being in a Gary Larson cartoon!”
As Goodall described in her foreword to The Far Side Gallery 5, she and Larson became quite friendly after this incident. He allowed his cartoon to be printed on a Jane Goodall Institute T-shirt, which turned out to be one of their “hottest numbers.” And, in 1988, Larson journeyed to Goodall’s Gombe Stream Research Centre in Tanzania, along with his wife, and Jack Lemmon for some reason.
The trip wasn’t without its near-fatal hiccups, however. One evening, as Goodall and Larson were going for a walk, a chimp named “Frodo” charged at them. Goodall remained calm, but was secretly “terrified” as the “bully” chimp “pulled and pushed and hit “ her “illustrious visitor.” Frodo eventually gave up, leaving Larson with only a few “bruises and scratches.”
And things easily could have gone way worse. Just a year after Larson’s visit, Frodo reportedly nearly broke Goodall’s neck. After this incident, she “refused to enter Frodo's territory without a pair of bodyguards along for protection.”
All of which is pretty exciting for the life of a cartoonist. Like, I doubt that a chimp ever came close to ripping the face off of Jim Davis.
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