The shape of the cows is exaggerated, but not by much - many breeds of cow are just incredibly rectangular in profile.

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5475e650e4b0df...

As with a magic trick, the delight resides more in the mystery than the solution, and this article spends its time appropriately. Were the answer given too quickly - were the reader not given the opportunity to marinate for a time in the oddness of the phenomenon, while being drip-fed increasingly outlandish examples - the impact of the reveal at the end would be lost. The punchline is the recontextualization of what we think of as "art" as functional objects, and it is only through being invited to ponder for ourselves for a time that we are prevented from pretending that we understood this all along.

American art by the late 20th century depicted cows more realistically: https://shorturl.at/aqvDa

At least these artists had actually seen a cow. There are some hilarious medieval artworks of lions where the artist had clearly never seen a lion. https://www.sadanduseless.com/medieval-lion-art/

I'm taking a short break from grinding Factorio: Space Age, to mention that the timeless cult classic masterpiece Wagnerian Blade Runner of cargo hauling space operas "Space Truckers" (1996, Dennis Hopper), featured prescient square pigs, which packed tightly and efficiently into space trucks.

Space Truckers - Title Scene (Square Pigs):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJtHMe3MltU

"Square pig" prop from Space Truckers:

https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/movie-tv-memorabilia/-squar...

Square Hogs are pigs bred and farmed on Mars:

https://aliens.fandom.com/wiki/Square_Hog

>Square Hogs are merely pigs that have been genetically jacked up and overfed, confined in square cages making them extremely obese and fat.

>The Earth company Inter Pork ship these animals across human space.