Reply #3: Here ya go: [View All]

[Arugula Latte]

"...Gary Larson would later say that it was the strip he'd gotten the most inquiries about, as people tried in vain to figure out what the hell they were for, when in fact Larson hadn't meant them to be anything but strange. Larson later said that he regretted having made one of the tools look vaguely like a saw, thus implying the rest had real-world counterparts. He got the idea from the (now discredited) anthropology theory that what separated humans from animals was using tools, and then wondered what it would be like if cows did have tools. He thinks his biggest mistake was thinking this was funny—which it was, but for different reasons than what he intended."
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CowTools


"Larson has said that the inspiration behind the cartoon was hearing the statement in college that man could be defined as "the only animal that made and shaped tools". Having a weird fascination with cows, he later wondered what kind of tools a cow would make, and came up with the published cartoon. Larson has also said that his first mistake with Cow Tools was thinking that it was funny. The second was that he made one of the tools look like a hand saw.

People lost their minds ... well as much as you can lose your mind over a cartoon. Larson's publisher was inundated with requests about the cartoon. What did it "mean"? Why would a cow make a saw? What's the saw for? What are the other tools for? What kind of political statement was Larson trying to make with Cow Tools? etc. People formed organizations to discuss Cow Tools. Ultimately, the press surrounding Cow Tools turned Larson from a semi-struggling cartoonist into a massively syndicated brand. Good for him.
http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/3911/Cow-Tools.html