For the second time this year, a fictional student society duped University students into showing up at Stiteler Hall in hopes of hearing a speech from a popular cartoon caricaturist. In pamphlets posted to the Locust Walk footbridge, the "Penn Cartoon Society" advertised that cartoonist Gary Larson, the creator of The Far Side, would appear at Stiteler B-6 yesterday night at 9 p.m. "Come early for best seating -- free w/ Penn ID," the poster stated. Unfortunately for the 15 to 20 Larson fans who managed to hear about the speech, neither Larson nor any member of the cartoon society presented themselves in the auditorium. In a similar incident last November, the "Penn Media Society" announced that Mike Judge, the creator of the MTV cartoon Beavis and Butthead, would appear at Stiteler to speak about TV censorship. More than 200 students showed up for the farsical event, and many stayed for 45 minutes waiting for the cult figure to arrive. This time, after 10 minutes of grumbling and mumbling incoherently about the "cartoon club," the students headed off. "I'm deeply shocked and hurt," said College freshman Joe Port, adding that Larson is one of his favorite cartoonists, along with Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. College freshman Sascha Opotowsky added that the meeting was fun regardless of the fact that Larson did not show up. "Tell [the cartoon society] that they were foiled and we had a great time and that there were three kegs there," Opotowsky said.
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