Jane Goodall 'tramp' controversy: Far Side's Gary Larson was raked over coals for a cartoon but she saved him
Jane Goodall or the 'chimp lady', as many of us know her, is renowned for her remarkable contributions towards research on primates, chimpanzees in particular, and her activism in protecting and conserving the environment. The primatologist and naturalist is the subject of National Geographic's new documentary 'Jane Goodall: The Hope', which chronicles her 60-year journey, montaging footage of her adventures in the African wild, researching and caring for chimpanzees, advocating for the conservation of nature, her impressive legacy, and hope for the future.
Goodall is a wonderfully peculiar personality. She is a breath of fresh air unlike any other activist one may have come across. She is passionate about her mission and is known for her distinguished approach towards bringing about change — words integrated with action and responsibility. Another odd but refreshing outlook that Goodall is known for is her unique ability to get through her antithesis with mere words that convey respect and admiration to an extent — something she commanded when the famed American cartoonist, Gary Larson, made a less than flattering cartoon about her.
Larson started his career as a cartoonist in the late '70s and drew daily strips over a span of 15 years for about 1,900 newspapers in the country.
His work fell off the conventional boat and introduced an entirely different genre that comprised surreal art with a dash of dark humor and this ultimately gathered a large fan following. The cartoons featured a variety of animals and were published in 1980 under one collective title — 'The Far Side'. It was a spin-off of his previous work 'Nature's Way'. He was best known for featuring cartoons of cows that speak a vital truth, yet convey a sense of humor in an utterly bizarre way.
While the cows became the spotlight of the cartoons, the inclusion of various other animals also attracted keen interest. But what catapulted it to notoriety was a 'minor' controversy in 1987 involving Goodall that garnered it a national response. The cartoon depicted a chimpanzee couple, and while they were grooming each other, the female found a single blonde strand of hair on the male and probed, "Conducting a little more ‘research’ with that Jane Goodall tramp?" Larson, however, had never meant for it to express any malice towards Goodall.
In his 'The Prehistory of The Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Collection', Larson wrote: "I was horrified. Not so much from a fear of being sued… but because of my deep respect for Jane Goodall and her well-known contributions to primatology. The last thing in the world I would have intentionally done was offend Dr Goodall in any way."
The response to his cartoon was immediate. Many ardent supporters of Goodall took offense to the cartoon and it didn't sit well with The Jane Goodall Institute either. Under the institute director's order and unbeknownst to Goodall, they had their lawyers draft a letter to Larson and his syndicate in which they described the cartoon to be an "atrocity". The plot twist here, however, is that Goodall actually enjoyed the cartoons and intervened when she learned that the institute had contacted Larson.
The primatologist was away in Africa at the time, but when she returned and got her hands on the copy of the cartoon, she found it amusing and personally met Larson, establishing a friendship with him.
"I thought it was very funny. And I think if you make a Gary Larson cartoon, boy you’ve made it," she said. When Larson published the fifth volume of his anthology 'The Far Side Gallery 5', Goodall wrote the preface to the book describing her take on the 'Jane Goodall Tramp' controversy. She went on to appreciate Larson and praised his creativity that often draws comparisons between human and animal behavior.
Goodall and Larson came to an agreement that also enabled all profits from the sale of shirts featuring the 'Jane Goodall Tramp' cartoon to go to her institute. But in a twisted version of events, it seems that Larson did get reprimanded for his cartoon when he went to visit the Gombe National Park in 1988 with Goodall. There, he met a chimp by the name Frodo, who Goodall described as a 'bully' and the primate made it clear that he wasn't a fan of 'Far Side'. Without warning, he pounced on Larson, who was taken off guard and the cartoonist was left with several scratches and bruises on his body.