It’s hard to say for sure what the weirdest year ofThe Far Sidewas, but the comics collected here certainly make a strong case for the answer to be 1992. These delightful and delirious cartoons pushed the boundaries ofGary Larson’s absurdist humorin unforgettable ways, yet many of these panels have lapsed into “deep cut” status.
There is, perhaps, a kind of “Goldilocks zone” of ridiculousness that the most memorableFar Sidecartoons exist in. Not ridiculous enough, and it will be forgotten. But comics that are “too ridiculous” can befall the same fate.
And often, that fate is undeserved,as many of the less widely recognized cartoons here will prove.
10"Meatchucks:" An Iconic Example Of The Far Side’s Tendency To Go Out On A Limb
First Published: June 18, 2025
“Ooo! Look! Leon!” an employee at “Leon’s Meats” excitedly says to his boss,pointing to a hanging side of beef with a bunch of holes gnawed through it, with the employee identifying the culprits as “an entire family of meatchucks.“Setting aside the logistical questions thisFar Sidejoke raises, this is certainlyGary Larson’s humor at its most “out there.”
As for the logistics, there is an added layer of amusement when readers set aside the blatant absurdity of “meatchucks” and consider the equally ridiculous, but more relatable, question of why this character, or anyone, would expect their boss, “Leon,” to be excited that his stock is being eaten through by animals.
9The Far Side Takes Quality Assurance To An Absurd Place In This Classic Cartoon
First Published: Aug 13, 2025
The Far Sidewas full of outrageous fake businesses, includingregular riffs on over-the-top ACME products, with this standing out as an all-timer. Here,Gary Larson takes readers on an “inside tour of Acme Fake Vomit, Inc.,” depicting the “simulated kitchen floor test” that all false puke must go through before it is released to the public.
The great thing here is that the absurdity of thisFar Sidegag is rooted in something real: quality assurance testing for all kinds of products, ranging from cars to kitchen appliances, and beyond. In this case, Larson applies this to a frivolous product, to find the humor in an otherwise serious enterprise.
8The Far Side Hilariously Depicts A Tenuous Truce Between Mammoths And Early Humans
First Published: August 16, 2025
Prehistoric characters were among the most ubiquitous parts ofThe Far Side, which means they were part of more than their fair share of thoroughly ridiculous jokes. In this panel, Gary Larson imagines"the traditional Mammoth Dance,” in which mammoths and prehistoric hunters gather “on the eve of the great hunt” for a night of peace.
This joke is absurd from the roots up, meaning starting from its premise, but what elevates it to laugh-out-loud funny are the shifty eyes Larson paints on the elephant characters, hinting thatif thisFar Sidecomic had gotten a sequel, the “Dance” might have been revealed to be a trap.
7The Far Side Pays Tribute To Picasso With This Outragously Funny Panel
First Published: August 11, 2025
“Pablo got an ‘F’ in art,” the matriarch of the Picasso family says in this uproariously funnyFar Sidehomage to one of the 20th century’s greatest artists. “I’m just going to have to go down to that school myself,” she adds, ranting while her husband reads the paper and her baby crawls across the floor, “and meet this teacher face to face.”
The Far Side Complete Collection
The punchline being, of course,that her face, along with Pablo’s father and sibling’s faces, have features askew in the manner of Picasso’s surrealist portraits. It is one ofThe Far Side’ssmartest jokes. Often, Gary Larson’s absurd humor stemmed from willful dumbness, but this one is an unequivocal product of intelligence.
6The Far Side’s One Happy Clown Puts His Foot In His Mouth
First Published: June 21, 2025
Clowns were a frequent target ofThe Far Side’shumor, and this has all the makings of a classic Gary Larson clown gag. Captioned “clown therapy sessions,” it featuresa group of the painted performers sitting in a circle, with looks on their faces ranging from distressed, to angry, to full-on sad clown.
Except for one, who innocently asks, “gee, am I the only one here who’s laughing on the outside and the inside?“The Far Sideoften hilariously revealed a deep reservoir of inner darkness to its clowns, and so the comedy here comes from finding the one truly happy clown in contrast to this.
5The Far Side Takes A Dramatic Scenario And Turns It Into High Absurdity With This Comic
First Published: August 08, 2025
In this highly underratedFar Side spider cartoon,a pregnant arachnid is about to go into labor at the worst possible time, stuck in an elevator in a high-rise building, identified in the caption as “the Anthropod Trade Center,“to give a sense of how many floors up they are.
Here, Gary Larson demonstrates his skill for taking a potentially dramatic scenario, like a pregnant women potentially giving birth in a stuck elevator, and finding the most outrageous possible comedic interpretation of that. In this case, that was making the character a spider, and populating her “egg sac” with a bunch of expectant eyes.
4The Far Side Reveals The Fame And The Fate Of “Andre Lafleur: Cactus Tamer”
First Published: June 06, 2025
This patently absurdFar Sidecartoon features a man,identified in the caption as “Andre Lafleur: cactus tamer,” using a chair and a whip to keep a group of cacti surrounding him at bay. It is a ridiculous premise, untethered from all good sense, and that is exactly what makes it outrageously funny.
Of course, Gary Larson supplements the punchline with a parenthetical in the caption, giving thisFar Sidea rare quality, in which it extends beyond the moment captured in the illustration to reveal that “Lafleur” was “later killed in central Arizona.” This in itself is jarring enough to get a laugh out of readers.
3A Classic Far Side Court Scene Turns Into A Heated Debate On The Value Of Wolves Vs. Pigs' Lives
First Published: June 28, 2025
The courtroom was one of Gary Larson’s favoriteFar Sidesettings; it was a place where he could literally litigate familiar aspects of pop culture, interrogating them until their hidden absurdity was revealed. That is the case here, in whichone of the Three Little Pigs is grilled by the attorney for the Big Bad Wolf, who proceeds to treat the witness as hostile.
“Did you know my client is an endangered species, Mr. Pig?” the lawyer asks, “while you yourself are nothing more than a walking side of ham?” It’s a line of reasoning that might lead to a mistrial, but it makes a classicFar Sidepoint by undermining such a classic story.
2Gary Larson Finds Humor In Two Very Different Perspectives On This Uncomfortable Far Side Reunion
First Published: July 01, 2025
In this atypically verboseFar Sidecartoon,a musician busking on the street for change is accosted by his “old music teacher,” who harangues him that he “never learned [his] scales and modes,” and calling him a “tone-deaf little weasel.“It is a harsh exchange, one thatfor Gary Larson, a musician himself,must have been a potential nightmare scenario.
Another unique aspect of thisFar Sidegag is that it lacks an overt punchline; instead, the humor is contained in the contrast between the characters’ reactions. The street musician idly recognizes “Mr. Blanchard,” while the former teacher has a laser-focused memory of who he clearly found to be a terrible student.
1A Far Side Sheriff Tries To Stand For Law And Order…But Quickly Caves
First Published: June 22, 2025
In thisunderratedFar SideWild West cartoon, Gary Larson takes the idea of frontier justice to a darkly comedic place. Across a sequence of four panels, Larson depictsa sheriff admonishing a posse that has gathered to hang a man being held in the local jail…until the lawman sees how disappointed the posse are, at which point he relents
“Well, okay,” the sheriff says, “but this is the last time.” This highlights a core strength ofThe Far Side, which was Larson’s ability to take a familiar scenario and interpret in an outrageous context, with the disparity between the action and the consequences here being dark, but ultimately, exactly inThe Far Side’scomedic wheelhouse.
