If 1984 was the yearThe Far Side“broke,” going from a regional novelty to a nationwide sensation,1983 was the year that made it possible.It was in ‘83 that creator Gary Larson truly locked into a groove and elevated his work, which was already borderline-iconic, to GOAT status.
Larson’s oddball sense of humor and distinct visual style were already well-established by this point in his career, and so his rise to success wasn’t about doing anything differently, but rather doing what he was already known for even better.
The result was many of his early career highlights, with jokes ranging from surreal to silly, in classicFar Sidefashion.
10Readers Never Knew What The Far Side Was Going To Bring To The Table On Any Given Day
First Published: Jul 21, 2025
There’s no other way to put it: thisFar Sidecartoon is very strange. In the panel, two women sit in recliners, looking out a window,through which they see a hulking man, large to the point where he fills the entire frame of the window, with a small boy clutched between his teeth.
July 14, 2025 was a Thursday.According toThe Far Side’seditor, Thursday was usually when the “oddest” cartoons of the week were published.
The women react relatively nonchalantly to this. “Here comes Stanley now,” one says, before adding, “good heavens, what’s he caught this time?” The premise is understandable enough, as the scenario, and the women’s reaction, are modeled after how a pet owner might react to their dog catching and bringing home a squirrel, or a bird.
The humor, meanwhile, comes from Gary Larson’s absurd substitution of a giant and a boy for a canine and its latest catch. It is definitely a classicFar Side"What the?“moment, with imagery that is jarring enough to get a laugh, even if it is one of confusion, or disbelief.
9Being A Scientist’s Spouse In The Far Side Was Always A Frustrating Experience
First Published: June 17, 2025
ThisFar Sidefly cartoonis widely regarded as a classic; published three years before David Cronenberg’s remake ofThe Fly, this panel finds Gary Larson lampooning the idea ofa scientist transforming himself into an insect, by having his wife appear at the top of the basement stairs, hands-on-hips, shouting, “what? You’re still a fly?”
What makes this such a funnyFar Sidebit is that it transmutes the horror of this scenario into an everyday affair. Larson was a master of making the ordinary seem outrageous, but here, he strategically employs the opposite tactic, taking the outrageous and giving it an ordinary feel, to great comedic effect.
8One Letter Makes All The Difference In This Classic Far Side Cartoon
First Published: July 09, 2025
It takes a sharp eye for detail to notice how easily the familiar can be nudged over the line into the realm of absurdity, andThe Far Sideproved time and again that Gary Larson was a master of this.Larson was not just detail-oriented, he was detail-obsessed, and the result was cartoons like this one.
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Here, a “beware of dog” sign is tweaked to become “beware of Doug.” Simple? Yes. Silly? Totally. Yet combined with the illustration, featuring theDoug in question ineffectively hiding behind a tree in his yard, as a traveling salesman approaches the gated front yard, his eyes drawn to the unusual signage, it amounts to a patently brilliantFar Sidecartoon.
7Gary Larson Lampoons His Own Best Comic Technique In This Far Side Cowboy Comic
First Published: June 15, 2025
Gary Larson was a master at taking things too literally, for the sake of the bit.The Far Side’shumor often stemmed from overly-literal interpretations of metaphorical language, and in this cartoon, Larson does exactly that, while also going a step further and poking fun at this comedic tendency, in a slightly meta way.
“String him up is a figure of speech,” an exasperated cowboy shouts, after his posse encases their captive in a massive ball of string, having misunderstood the order which was meant to mean “hang him.” ThisFar Sidecartoon coyly acknowledges the way deliberate misinterpretations play a crucial role in Gary Larson’s humor.
6This Far Side Joke Pushed The Limits Of What Gary Larson Could Make Funny
First Published: Aug 03, 2025
Gary Larson so effectively mixed comedy and with dark concepts, it is hard to pin down which of his cartoons represents the pinnacle of thedark side ofThe Far Side’shumor. However, this is without question one of Larson’s darkest punchlines, featuring a man painting a forest fire that he started.
Without a caption, readers need to put two-and-two together here, identifying the gas can at the painter’s feet as he captures the scene of destruction on his canvas.It is a hard joke to laugh at, given the severity of the scenario it is making fun of; ultimately, the punchline relies on its “shock factor.”
5This Far Side Comic Takes The Cartoon’s Ducks Vs. Humans Divide To The Next Level
First Published: June 27, 2025
The Far Sidebrilliantly gave form to the timeless “man vs. nature” conflict, doing so in its own quirky, novel fashion. Humans, particularly human hunters, beefed with all manner of wild beasts throughoutThe Far Side’srun, but their greatest adversaries over the years were bears, deer, and, yes, ducks.
Ducks were one of Gary Larson’s many comedic obsessions, and in many cases, he found humor in making the waterfowl unusually antagonist toward their human counterparts. Here, though, the tables are turned, as a hunter finds a pay phone out in the wild and makes an “obscene duck call” to a duck at home in its living room.
In what might be the height ofThe Far Side’sabsurdity,several cartoons seemingly add up to imply ducks are illegalin Gary Larson’s warped fictional reality.
What makes thisFar Sidecomic so funny is its delirious warping of elements; a man is out in the wild hunting, yet inexplicably comes across a phone booth, which he uses to prank call a duck, sitting in a human-style home. It also conflates “duck calls” with stalker-like human behavior in an over-the-top funny way.
4The Far Side’s Blend Of Obtuse And Obvious Humor Captured Readers' Imaginations
First Published: June 05, 2025
ThisFar Sidecartoon expertly blendsGary Larson’s beloved Wild West imagerywith his love for thetrope of dogs acting like humans. It also features anotherFar Sidestaple: a hilariously obtuse character. All of this adds up to an uproariously funny punchline, in which the visual and written elements are perfectly in cohesion.
In the foreground of the panel, a man’s hand hovers over his gun in its holster, as he has a trio of saloon patrons up against the wall, their backs to him. “Which of you is the one they call Old-One-Eyed-Dog-Face,” he asks, and it should be obvious to him, but it isn’t, adding to the comedy of the scene.
Why should it be obvious? Becauseit is obvious to the reader that the “man” he’s looking for is the actual dog wearing an eyepatch. Perhaps the questioner wasn’t expecting the answer to be so literal, but in that case, he must not realize he’s enteredThe Far Side, a laThe Twilight Zone.
3A Far Side Workplace Dispute Gets Wildly Out Of Hand In This Hilarious Panel
First Published: June 13, 2025
Once more, Gary Larson goes dark with thisFar Sidejoke, but there isa slapstick quality to this gagthat serves as a form of relief from the macabre humor at play here. Larson frames this cartoon from an outside-looking-in perspective, through a door labeled “KEEP OUT, RADIOACTIVE AREA,” which makes the dire implications of the punchline clear.
Inside the irratiated room,a disagreement between two characters escalates quickly, with each tearing open the other’s containment suit.The pettiness of their behavior clashes with the gravity of the joke’s setting, and the laugh-out-loud impact of that dissonance is palpable.
2Gary Larson Drew On His Own Backstory For This Far Side Snake Punchline
First Published: July 13, 2025
“Hey! You’ll get a kick out of this,” a man says to a pair of house guests, ashe prepares to throw a toy, in the form of a child, into the terrarium containing his giant pet snake.“Watch what Lola here does with her new squeeze doll,” the man says, excited to show off the snake’s crushing ability.
His guests are framed from the backs of their heads, with their expressions mostly obscured, but it seems likely they’re not into it. Hilariously, thisFar Sidecartoon actually evokesGary Larson’s own personal experience; as a snake lover, and snake owner, it was a formative moment for him to realize most people didn’t share his appreciation for serpents.
1Everything Is Hysterically Askew In This Classic Far Side Mix-Up Joke
First Published: August 11, 2025
Again, with thisunderratedFar Sidegem, Gary Larson demonstrates the way humor can sprout from mixing up key details. Most hikers and outdoor-types know to be weary of eating things they find out in the wild, notably berries, without knowing for sure whether it is poisonous or not. Likewise, there is the safari trope about indigenous tribes employing poison arrows.
Larson expertly conflates the two here, in which a man trekking through the junglecatches his companion stuffing arrows in his mouth, crying out “don’t eat those…those are poison arrows!”The confluence of the two ideas is ridiculous, but the result is a ridiculously funnyFar Sidecartoon, one which deserves more attention from fans of Gary Larson’s work.
