They’ve fixed a lot of stuff like that in the comics they post each day to the site and which get posted here. See here for where they changed the text since he wrote about it:

https://discuss.online/comment/13908640

Oxymoron? Like “jumbo shrimp”

When life imitates art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lulu_(Lou_Reed_and_Metallica_album)

yeehaa is an alternate spelling of yeehaw, a general shout of excitement, which would clearly be coming from the aliens. “yeeeee” isn’t really a word and it’s ambiguous what it might mean. It might be the people yelling in fear, it might be the aliens (but it’s not clear why they’d be saying that), it might be the sound of the ship flying in the air.

Ambiguity like that kills the joke because you don’t want to make people think too hard about it. It’s aliens going for a joyride and shouting yeehaw like cowboys, and “yeee” doesn’t really convey that. Hopefully that long-winded explanation helps

Some background on this comic:

Transcript:

The Far Side starts off being drawn in a 6" x 7.5" size. In pencil, I rough in and then refine the image until it fairly closely approximates what’s in my head. (That’s a scary thought.) Inking and shading are my last steps. The caption is handwritten in pencil in the area where it would normally appear. When the syndicate receives this original, the caption is set into its usual typeface, the copyright and publication date are added, and the whole thing is reduced down to the size normally seen in newspapers. Six of these “ready-to-go” cartoons are compiled into a mailer representing one week’s worth of material, and then shipped to newspaper clients a few weeks in advance of their usage.

I receive the mailers as well, and the day this cartoon showed up I was horrified to see that the last two letters in the caption had been deleted. Instead of “Yeeeeeeeeha,” it read “Yeeeeeeeeeee.” Someone at the syndicate had screwed up.

Obviously, this small error had a significant impact on the feel of the cartoon. But I hadn’t been drawing The Far Side for very long, and I was nervous about calling up my editor and complaining. Correcting the caption required sending out a special mailing to the client newspapers (all twelve of them) and I knew it would involve time and added expense. Plus, I didn’t want to give the impression that I equated cartooning with a cure for cancer.

On the phone, I explained to my editor what had happened, and he got out his copy of the cartoon and looked at it. After a few seconds, he told me he really didn’t think the cartoon had been affected that much by the change. Inside, I died—but I apologized for bothering him and said goodbye. I sat there for a while, looking at the cartoon, and suddenly I realized that, with the caption mistake, it might be interpreted that it’s the people doing the yelling, not the aliens. It was getting worse in my mind. A few minutes later, curing cancer meant nothing compared to getting this caption right.

I called my editor back and tried once again to convince him that the cartoon had been mortally wounded by the caption error. This time he agreed, and cheerfully offered to send out corrected versions to the various newspapers. My relief was overwhelming.

Now, I have to admit that I don’t know how interesting this little anecdote is to anyone, but it was definitely a significant event in my cartooning life, because, over the years, lots of mistakes and last-minute changes on both sides of the fence were to take place. And this experience with the “alien” cartoon inspired me to always “negotiate” on various complications whenever they happened.

Some background on this comic:

Transcript of relevant bits:

In my first year or so of drawing The Far Side, I was scared to death of making mistakes in the artwork. Incredibly, I had never heard of a product called “White Out” (for covering up mistakes) and the smallest screw-up meant starting over. So, as I’ve indicated under each of these cartoons, I sometimes left things out

This is interesting. I have no idea where this guy’s legs are

We just updated the rate limit for images on discuss.online to a high number. Maybe that will fix things 🤞 If it doesn’t, let me know and I’ll try posting from a sh.itjust.works account.

Hope those microbes like winter, because my impression of Winnipeg is that it’s winter 75% of the year

Thanks for letting me know. I’ve got an alt on sh.itjust.works, I might just have to post with that account instead.

It’s comparing being full of milk to having a full bladder

He really nailed the smug look on that quadraceratops. It’s hot shit and it knows it.

Some background on this comic:

Transcript:

It all started innocently enough. I hadn’t thought much about cows in my entire life. They were nice animals, both on and off the dinner table. And that about sums up my attitude toward them. And then it happened.

In May of 1980, I drew the cartoon at left. When I finished, I sat back and stared at my little creation. Something moved me. This was more that just a cow—this was an entire career I was looking at. As the following pages indicate, I should have just called this thing The Cow Side and forgot about it.

Some background on this comic:

Transcript:

In a Danish book version of The Far Side, the caption on this cartoon was changed from “Louie, Louie” to “Singing in the Rain.”

My only guess as to why they did this was that “Louie, Louie” was more a national hit than international and the song just didn’t register with the Danes.

And, for all intents and purposes, “Singing in the Rain” is pretty funny.

Anyone from Denmark around to comment?

Some background on this comic:

Some background on this comic:

Transcript:

THE EXHIBIT

I drew a cartoon quite a few years ago entitled, “The Real Reason Dinosaurs Became Extinct.” The drawing involved a small clique of dinosaurs hanging out together and smoking cigarettes.

That cartoon stayed in my sketchbook for almost a year until, pressed for ideas one week, I dug it out and submitted it for publication. And, lo and behold, it became one of the most popular cartoons I’ve ever drawn. Obviously, if I’d had any idea of its potential impact, I never would have sat on it for as long as I did.

The following and final section of this book, however, does not include the cartoon just described—nor any cartoon from The Far Side based simply on its known popularity, which would turn this into a sort of “Hit Parade” of weird humor.

Simply put, the following cartoons are among my own personal favorites. They’re the ones that I feel best reflect something about my own attitude toward history, music, literature, art, religion, and science. (Yeah, sure they do.) I’ve rarely laughed out loud at the things I’ve drawn (I’m a little too close to the “joke” to ever be surprised), but these are the cartoons that at least made me smile inwardly. (I might mention that some favorites are in the main body of the book and are not repeated here.)

A final note: I contemplated making this last section a collection of what I consider the lousiest cartoons I’ve ever drawn, but space was limited.