Cartoons are full of funny cows that give us all a chuckle; they are such absurd creatures in and of themselves!  We get lost in their silliness and enjoy a creature that most of the world finds humorous in some form or another.  Cows are a quality candidate for this attention because they have large soft eyes, small soft snouts, and large round ears.  They come in a variety of appealing shapes and colors and lend themselves easily to the art we subject them too.  And they wear it well, anywhere cows go, they do so in style.

How can anyone resist playing with a cow’s biology in Photoshop?  This is a favorite pastime at our house, I love putting their udders in all kinds of impossible places, or giving a cow more of them than God should allow on one beast.  Funny cows in pictures are great because they could almost be real at first glance…

Seriously, cows do some hilariously funny things without the help of Photoshop.  This is simply one example of the cow conundrums possible when too much spare time, a camera, and some bored dairy cattle collide.  If you don’t think this situation is possible, spend a day watching a herd of dairy heifers.  They have nothing better to do than screw with a farmer’s things and waste time between cud chewing.  They can open mail boxes, gates, barn doors, car doors, and I have seen them attempt to work hand tools like rakes.

I think one of the first examples starred with Mickey Mouse.  Although not as popular as the famous mouse, Clarabelle Cow first appeared in Plane Crazy in 1928.  She appeared regularly in supporting roles until about 1942, mostly as Horace Horsecollar’s girlfriend.  She was occasionally paired with Goofy in an attempt to give him a girlfriend, but that did not seem to stick.  She appeared in Disney Theme Parks from 2006 to 2008 in the US, and can still be found in Disneyland Tokyo.  She and Horace are most popular in Italy, where she is known there as ”Clarabella”.  She also makes an appearance in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, and is a town person in “Kingdom Hearts”, a citizen of the timeless river.  Her appearances and dogged stardom is incredible in light of her decades of non use in film, and is a testament to how cows are used in media the world over to make us all smile.