Skip Navigation

The Far Side @sh.itjust.works

m_f @discuss.online

1mo ago

2025-05-07

Caption:

“How many times did I say it, Harold? How many times? ‘Make sure that bomb shelter’s got a can opener—ain’t much good without a can opener,’ I said.”

No alt text

Disqus comments

34 comments

Fun fact, the can opener was invented more than 80 years after people started putting food in tin cans.
- Must have been wild when they could finally open all those 80 year old cans!
- I’m going to have to go there…how did they open cans before that?
  
  Knives and other sharp tools
  
  Mostly by ring tabs, you can still see them with corned beef tins
  
  Hammer and chisel
  
  Teeth mostly. Sometimes small shaped explosive charges.
- Are we talking the crank-style can opener, or even the hook-type knife that some multi-tools have? Because the hook-type knife seems like a no-brainer that should have been figured out months after tin cans, not decades.
  
  Probably wouldn't even have worked on those early cans. They were pretty thick, and heavier than the food they contained. The instructions usually stated to open them with a hammer and chisel.
  But also, a lot of things seem obvious in hindsight.

Obviously it's a joke for the comic, but if you're ever in a situation like this, you can sand down the lip of the can lid on a rough surface (like a concrete floor) and it will open up.
- You can also smack the rolled edges of two cans together until one of them yields like an epic gladiator fight of beans vs. beans.
  
  beans
  Now you've done it....
- Be wary of metal dust, but yes.
  
  I'll take a bit of iron/aluminum over starving to death.

A future scavenger will be happy about your noble sacrifice
- Yeah this would be some great environmental lore in fallout. You find the shelter and inside are two skeletons and a ton of unopened can food. No can opener though. Evidence of a fight. Maybe a note about how stupid Harold is/was.
  
  Not super believable tbh. Cans aren't some mysterious indestructible material.

"Back in my day, we didn't need fancy technology! You don't need an electric can opener to feed yourself, you just need a trusty Swiss Army knife!"
Tries and fails to open a can with his Swiss Army knife
"...I'm hungry... 😩"

34 comments