Alligators and crocodiles popped up interchangeably in a number of classic comics published throughoutThe Far Side’shistory, earning them a place in the cartoon’s pantheon of greatest animal characters;this list aggregates some of the funniest gator/croc comics, ranking them in terms of how outrageous they are, from least to most over-the-top and darkly absurd.
Gary Larson’s use of animal characters was a success because he had a shrewd sense of how to best comedically deploy different types of creatures.
Over the years, gators/crocs showed up unexpected places, and could be surprisingly docile, while in other cases, they were every bit the legendary predators they are in real life, though usually with a predictably surreal twist.
10"Todd’s Stomach Vs. Todd’s Imagination": Sometimes Imaginary Alligators Can Be The Scariest Kind
First Published: Jul 23, 2025
In thisclassicFar Sidecartoon, the only thing standing between a young boy and a late-night snack is a trip down the stairs, in the dark. Except in his mind, the floor below is crawling with crocodiles waiting to devour him. In this way, Gary Larson hilariously evokes the feeling of childhood fears of the unknown.
ThisFar Sidepanel expertly captures the way in which a kid’s mind can fill the dark with the worst terrors imaginable. In this case, it is carnivorous reptiles, which ultimately are the perfect imaginary obstacle, immediately conjuring in readers’ minds a hint of the fear that the character is feeling, or at least empathy for it.
9"Chicken Up": Gary Larson Takes Readers On A Fine Dining Tour, Alligator Style
First Published: August 06, 2025
“CHICKEN UP,” the short order cook at this all-alligator restaurant shouts, putting a concerned-looking live fowl on the counter. Hilariously, this joke plays on the dissonance between the absurd imagery of a ‘gator restaurant, and the species’ natural inclination toward eating their prey alive. In other words, the kitchen staff at this place have it relatively easy.
This represents the kind ofFar Sidejoke where the premise and punchline are one and the same.What Gary Larson counted on readers to find funnyis the very concept of an alligator eating establishment in its own right. His comic, therefore, drops the reader into the midst of this surreal setting, while treating it as totally natural.
8"Poachers Figure Big In Your Future": These Far Side Alligators Get A Grim Glimpse Of What’s In Store For Them
First Published: June 27, 2025
“You will eat well this summer, but hard times are ahead,” a crocodile tells its friend “Chuck,” reading his horoscope. This starts off well-enough, but the reptile soon gets more ominous hints about its future, such as “you will not mate at all this year, possibly the next,“and even worse, “poachers figure big in your future.”
In this way,Gary Larson hilariously pokes fun at human behaviorby extrapolating the animal equivalent. Yet in the grand scheme of the thoroughly outrageous places Larson took some of hisFar Sidecroc jokes, as later entries will demonstrated, this is certainly on the more tame side of the spectrum, in addition to being surprisingly relatable.
7"You Wanna Say Okay?": The Far Side’s Most Successfully Domesticated Croc Shows Off Its Skills
First Published: August 14, 2025
“You wanna say okay, Ernie?“thisFar Sidecharacter askshis house guest, as he shows him a neat trick his pet alligator can do: balancing a live chicken on its snout until it is given permission to devour the helpless bird. “He’ll keep that chicken right there until I say okay,” the proud ‘gator owner boasts.
It is certainly not what most people would expect when visiting a friend, but byFar Sidelogic, it is par for the course. At the same time, in terms of the multiple pet alligators Gary Larson depicted over the years, this one is by far the best behaved, making this joke outrageous in its own way, but not downright shocking.
6"Get The Book”: The Far Side Lampoons Its Own Ambiguity On The “Crocodile” Vs. “Alligator” Question
First Published: June 30, 2025
In most of theirFar Sideappearances, it doesn’t precisely matter if Gary Larson was depicting alligators or crocodiles; the effect is the same either way. However, in this panel, Larson hilariously pokes fun at his own lack of distinction between the two, by having two of his characters take up the debate when a gator/croc shows up at their window.
“Get the book,” the wife tells her husband, “we’re gonna settle whether it’s an alligator or crocodile once and for all.“Apparently, according to thisFar Sidepanel’s implied backstory, this is not the first visit, but rather than concern about the dangerous reptile, this has prompted an ongoing argument between the spouses about which species it is, a question Larson shrewdly leaves open-ended.
5"Eatin’ Those Little Guys Like Popcorn”: A Remorseful Crocodile Opens Up In This Absurd Far Side Therapy Cartoon
First Published: July 09, 2025
ThisFar Sidetherapy cartoonstrikes an outrageous tone from its premise, given the fact that it depicts a crocodile (definitively identified as such, in this case) in a session with its psychologist, in which it offers a dark admission. “You know those teeny tiny little birds that walk around so trustingly inside a crocodile’s mouth?” it asks rhetorically.
“Well, I just been eatin' those little guys like popcorn,” it admits, and while an apex predator and consummate carnivore such as itself can’t be truly maligned for this behavior, the humor of thisFar Sidepunchline stems from the note of remorse implied by the anthropomorphic crocodile bringing this up in counseling.
4"Crutchfield’s Crocodile Far”: Poor Commercial Zoning Leads To An Inevitable Far Side Disaster
First Published: August 15, 2025
In thishilariously darkFar Sidecomic, Gary Larson offers a glimpse of “more trouble brewing” in the form of a student at “Anderson’s Sky Diving School” who is all tangled up in the strings of his parachute, with “Crutchfield’s Crocodile Farm” looming in the background, suggesting he’s in for a dire landing.
This is the kind ofFar Sidejoke which is all set-up, suggesting an impending disaster but leaving the reader in suspense, like the ultimate unanswered cliffhanger. Larson excelled at these kinds of jokes, in which the humor was mixed with horror at knowing a character’s fate before they did.
3"Bobbing For Poodles”: One Of The Far Side’s Most Controversial Crocodile Comics
First Published: June 23, 2025
Now we’ve reachedtruly outrageous territory with theseFar Sidealligator cartoons. Captioned “bobbing for poodles,” this panel depicts a group of gators gathered around a wooden barrel, playing this grotesque party game. The punchline is jarringly hilarious, representing the more “edgy” strain of Gary Larson’s humor, but it actually could have been much worse.
According to Larson, thisFar Sidecartoon could have been “bobbing for babies"instead. Whether this was true, or the author was simply poking fun at his own “controversial” tendency to imperil infants, it is still shocking to consider the magnitude more unsettling this comic could have been, making it almost a relief that it is “only” poodles in danger.
2"Not Real Exciting Pets”: Gary Larson Highlights The Gory Perils Of Housetraining A Crocodile
First Published: July 29, 2025
“They’re not real exciting pets,” a woman tells her friend, regarding the crocodile lounging on the floor at their feet. “Mostly they just lie around and wait to be fed,” although she does cite one notable exception. That is, the time the croc mauled her husband, eating half his face, after the man foolishly “tried teachin' him to take a cookie from his mouth.”
Part of whatmakes thisFar Sidejoke stand outis that may seem innocuous enough at first glance, but once readers take a closer look at “Charles” they will realize the punchline here is actually downright disturbing, with the emphasis placed on the character’s disfigurement in contrast with the casual tone in which his wife talks about it.
1"Get, You Rascal”: The Far Side Mixes Up The Maternity Ward And The Swamp In This Outrageous Classic
First Published: August 18, 2025
Over a year beforeGary Larson opted to gowith “bobbing for poodles” over “bobbing for babies,” he had already published a panel in which an alligator may have eaten an infant. “Get, you rascal,” a nurse shouts as she shoos an alligator out of the hospital’s nursery with a broom, before suggesting to her colleague that “you better count ‘em.”
Again, the hilarity here arises from how absurdly out of place the alligator is in this setting, in contrast to how casually the nurses treat the possibility that it ate one of the newborns in their care. “Heaven knows how he keeps getting in here,” the nurse says, inthisFar Sidecartoon that is thoroughly outrageous from start to finish.
