10 Funniest Far Side Comics About Sports

Gary Larson’s The Far Side is known for its love of nature and surreal sense of humor, however the iconic comic also has plenty to offer sports fans. Larson’s unique brand of single-panel weirdness is at its best when there’s a clear premise to work with, and the rules of football, baseball, basketball and more provide exactly that.

Here are the 10 funniest sports-themed Far Side comics of all time, including some of the comic’s favorite obsessions, from cowboys to suspicious ducks. Don’t forget to vote in our end of article poll, and shout out which of Larton’s comic strips you think is the funniest of the bunch.

10
Great Moments in Evolution

Far Side Brings Baseball to the Paleozoic Era

Larson loves to play around with nature and especially the concept of natural selection – in fact, he originally wanted Far Side to be titled Nature’s Way – and here he merges that obsession with America’s pastime. Larson imagines a group of sea-dwelling creatures losing their ball, with the implication that this is the motivation for animal life to take its first steps onto land. The strip combines some of The Far Side‘s weirdest obsessions, including the cartoon physics of playing sport underwater (something that will appear again on this list.)

However, the comic also showcases Larson’s love of creating jokes by implying moments before or after those seen in the actual strip – the joke only works once the reader fills in the blank of what comes next, and fails completely if they don’t make the connection. Lesser comic strips would never take the risk of expecting the reader to make a connection that isn’t explicitly spelled out, but The Far Side‘s characteristic use of single-panel gags means there’s no room to play it safe.

9
The Duck Relay

Far Side’s Take on This Olympic Sport Is Pure Surrealism

While The Far Side is often smart and contains lots of references that rely on scientific or pop-cultural knowledge, sometimes it’s just plain weird. Larson loves including ducks in The Far Side, often depicting them with a sense of menace, or otherwise as the weirdest possible ‘object’ to drop into an otherwise serious situation (several Far Side strips depict drug dealers handing over illicit ducks.) The weirdly purposeless nature of a baton – an item to be passed from runner to runner, but which isn’t actually ‘used’ for anything – makes it the perfect candidate for an anatarium substitution.

The Far Side‘s sketchy style means there are precious few opportunities for extra details, but while Larson is minimalist, he’s never stingy. The cheering crowd and extra ducks in the foreground and background really sell the idea of intense competition, especially given how strangely at-peace they seem with the situation.

8
Karate School

Far Side Loves a Surreal Alien Invasion

Several more Far Side tropes meet in this strip, including the charming use of backwards window writing (another way of getting the reader to work for a punchline.) While The Far Side has a ton of alien comics, Larson is always chopping and changing what his extraterrestrials look like, allowing for unique gags based on their appearances, and especially their similarities to everyday objects. Here, alien invaders made of brick-piles and wooden boards have the bad luck to land right in front of a karate class who have been unknowingly training for this exact day.

Typical of Larson’s less than flattering view of humans, the karate students are all drawn as nerdy stereotypes, suggesting that their upcoming victory isn’t down to immense martial arts prowess but simply their experience with these exact targets.

7
Sky Diving School

Far Side Never Misses an Opportunity to Tell Its Gags Through Signs

Another joke that depends on the reader imagining an upcoming moment, the poor students of Anderson’s skydiving school have a date with disaster, as they unavoidably touch back down in reach of those nearby crocodiles. A classic Far Side gag where no words are spoken, the fate of the doomed skydivers is made even funnier by the razor-wire-topped fence that keeps them safe and sound from Crutchfield’s crocs – a defense that’s about to be absolutely useless as they plummet in from directly above.

6
Stick Figure Volleyball

Not Strictly Far Side, But Classic Gary Larson

While this comic wasn’t technically published as a Far Side strip, it did appear in Larson’s Hound of the Far Side collection, and was drawn when he was only 7 years old. Some of Larson’s funniest comics use deliberately bad art, breaking the usual rules of his style to set up unique gags. Apparently, that started way before The Far Side, as Larson’s early comic uses the broken logic of stick figures to replace a volleyball with one player’s head. In classic Far Side style, the gag is structured so that the reader ‘discovers’ the punchline, showing just how early Larson’s distinctive voice was taking shape.

5
Goldfish Baseball

What Baseball Giveth, Baseball Taketh Away

Larson’s Far Side is obsessed with goldfish, and for good reason. The fish bowl traps its occupants in a very specific environment, marooned in the middle of an outside world that is at once potentially lethal and a purely domestic setting – in many ways, Far Side‘s goldish are the inverse of its obsession with desert islands. Larson loves playing with the specific inside/outside problem that the logic of a fish bowl creates, and this strip of two goldfish breaking their own bowl while playing baseball is the purest example.

Yet again, underwater beings play sports with questionable physics, but where the first comic on this list resulted in the evolution of life, this strip likely results in its end – at least for the two goldfish involved. As with the duck relay comic, Larson finds ways to accentuate the joke while remaining minimalistic – the fish’s low-key reactions are perfect, while the presence of a can of fish food and the negative space above the bowl perfectly offset the drama of what’s essentially a life-and-death situation.

4
Cowboy Table Tennis

Before The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, There Was The Far Side

As mentioned earlier, The Far Side thrives on having clear rules to subvert and play around with, and the Old West provides those in abundance. Everyone knows how cowboys are meant to act and what they’re meant to care about, which makes it incredibly easy to tweak a single detail of the classic set-up for laughs. Here, a young gunslinger bests a legend of the West, only to become the one to beat, putting a ticking clock on his ‘survival’ as the best around. It’s the same gag as the opening short of the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, but where the movie opts to make its cowboy an incongruously cheerful killer, The Far Side swaps out gunplay for ping pong.

3
The Dog Paddle

The Far Side’s Dogs Take Life Seriously

The Far Side takes few of its characters seriously, but it tends to make an exception for dogs, who are generally depicted as surprisingly (and comically) earnest. Here, a group of hounds line up for freestyle swimming, with the commentator observing that the doggy paddle is likely to be favored. It’s a silly, punny joke, but again enlivened by the fact that the funny moment hasn’t actually happened yet, and the comical visual is conjured in the reader’s mind. Larson goes to the trouble of including starting blocks and lane dividers to give the sense of sincere competition, and includes the background gag of two dogs shaking themselves dry, contrasted with the upright and prepared athletes who are about to dive in.

2
Einstein’s Basketball Career

The Far Side Only Chooses the Most Timeless ‘Celebrities’ to Parody

While The Far Side has taken on celebrities like Elvis and Madonna, it’s as likely to mock celebrated scientists as performance artists (indeed, one of Larson’s most controversial comics makes fun of researcher Jane Goodall.) Here, Larson imagines Einstein’s accomplishments in physics beginning only after a career-ending basketball injury, and shows the genius scientist fending off the rival team on the court. Amusingly, Larson imagines Einstein as already being an older man during his sporting heyday, making his jump to physics all the more impressive.

1
Centaur Rodeo

Far Side Takes on Match Fixing

Larson’s centaur rodeo would be a great concept even without the gag that the ‘rider’ is faking their skills. Rodeo encompasses various events, but all of them hinge on expert control of the horse – a talent which a centaur is obviously perfectly suited to. The gag of a centaur hurling himself around for the enjoyment of others is great, but somehow reaches the next level since all the people watching are also centaurs. Larson’s choice removes any chance at all that the watchers shouldn’t immediately know there’s no way the performance in front of them is genuine, making the speaking cowboy’s ‘suspicions’ hilariously understated.

Bonus: Far Side Predicts Esports

One of the fastest growing sectors in sports entertainment, Esports – competitive video gaming – is bigger than ever in 2024. However, Larson predicted this trend in 1990, long before the scene ever existed. Larson shows two parents watching their child play Mario and proudly daydreaming about his future as a professional gamer. While the idea was meant to seem ludicrous at the time, it came true, even to the extent of Nintendo games having a major place in Esports and professional streaming.

This is the rare Far Side comics where – albeit by accident – a human actually comes out as the incontrovertible winner. Indeed, even the date on the ‘Help Wanted’ section is around when Esports were really paying off, suggesting this kid and their supportive parents may have gotten everything they dreamed of.

When The Far Side characters are forced to compete, it’s usually a matter of predator vs prey, and yet Gary Larson managed to make their sporting mishaps some of their best – often by involving the exact same life-or-death stakes.