The Far Side is highly regarded as one of the most popular comic strips of all time, a reputation well-earned. It is even more impressive that the comic gained that prestige, given that it only takes one panel to get across the often ironic and zany jokes. To boot, sometimes it takes less than a sentence to make a hilarious strip.
Part of Larson’s immense talent and sense of humor is the ability to create iconic punchlines in short bursts of brevity. Featuring famous hallmarks of the Far Side like aliens, cavemen, and animals, the wacky characters Larson has established all play a part in laying down the humor in these ten fantastic one-paneled, two worded strips.
10 “Beaver Trap”
With the Far Side, Gary Larson was no stranger to painting the interesting relationships, and foibles, between humans and animals. In the case of this strip, it is evident that animals reign supreme shown by the beaver beating the hunter – who set a trap for the dam-building furry creatures – to the punch. With Larson’s trademark macabre humor on display, the “Beaver Trap” comic stays true to the Far Side ironic tone.
In this strip, the beaver, or the suggestion of the past presence of a beaver, represents just one of many animals in featured in Far Side strips. Funnily enough, as frequently as he drew animals into his strips, there was one animal that Gary Larson never used in his comics: the dung beetle.
9 “Pogo Stick”
People get hurt in Far Side comics. A lot. Whether from shark attacks, or stagecoaches flying over cliffs, many of Larson’s human creations don’t escape their strips without at least a couple bruises. The “Pogo Stick” strip, for example, needs only two words, emblazoned on an open box, to communicate what went wrong for the unlucky character of the strip.
The owner of a new pogo stick got a little too carried away, bouncing themselves right out of the window. Only two words were needed to communicate for the reader all they needed to know about the scene, showing Larson’s talent for getting a story across with minimal words.
8 “Student Driver”
For readers who remember learning to drive alongside their terrified Driver’s Ed teacher, the “Student Driver” strip will hit close to home. In the strip, an older gentlemen, likely a driving teacher or DMV examiner, is sitting with his youngster pupil, stuck on a desert island, with only their car and a palm tree. The two words, “student driver,” are all the audience need to know of how the unlikely pair ended up stranded.
Larson was always adept at using hyperbole to poke fun at the mundane, and sometimes frustrating, life events – with this panel demonstrating how perfectly he balanced hyperbolic content with his minimalist approach.
7 “Inconvenience Stores”
Struggling to reach something on the highest shelf in a store is something that is endlessly relatable. Gary Larson highlights this common occurrence for the “Inconvenience Stores” Far Side strip. A lover of irony, something made very clear by this strip, Larson’s comics were often infused with the ironic. Where the convenience store is a name, the inconvenience store is a concept – a place where everything is far more difficult than it rightfully should be. Larson’s joke is loaded, at at the same time pure in its simplicity, requiring only the two word label and the sparse image to garner a laugh.
6 Alien Fishing
As frequent guest stars in Far Side strips, aliens are a beloved part of Larson’s comics. Aliens have been shown to do all sorts of things, from being on the receiving end of a knuckle sandwich to rescuing a marooned man. In this strip, aliens are seen fishing. Apparently over using tractor beams to capture people, the aliens have switched to fishing poles.
However, much like with regular fishing, the catch is not always desired. In the strip, a poor, unfortunate nerd is not only the victim of an alien abduction, but he’s a disappointment to the outer space creatures too. The poor guy can’t win.
5 Ice Cream
In this Far Side strip, a group of lab coat clad men abandon their microscopes and equations on the chalk board, all for the ice cream truck that awaits outside. It’s pretty common to see kids get excited for the ice cream truck, but seeing grown men excited over ice cream in a childlike way propels this strip’s joke forward. Not even a possible scientific or mathematical breakthrough can stop them for running after the delicious cold treats. Larson loved to use science and discovery as fodder for his comics, making this strip a hilarious show of how seriously scientists truly take their job when ice cream is at stake.
4 Send Help
Deserted islands were a favorite of Larson’s, noticeable in the many times the setting appeared in the history of the Far Side. In the strip, the marooned individual is preparing to write a message in a bottle to get help, only to turn around and see a coconut has broken the bottle.
This strip is a showcase of Larson’s characteristic dark humor, the suggesting that the poor stranded individual’s chance at help is basically ruined, all thanks to a troublesome coconut. It probably would have been a good idea for the man to have got to work on that message in a bottle sooner.
3 Inner Torture
Dark humor is no stranger to Far Side’s audience. As evidenced by the “Inner Torture” strip that features a dungeon full of tortured prisoners, with their dungeon master quietly reading a book on, appropriately, “inner torture”. One would think that hanging people upside down or shackled by their arms would be torture enough. In this strip, Larson lampoons books on inner peace, and flipping it to be “inner torture” instead. At the same time, presenting it in a setting that adds context and humor to the book and its title. He makes the most out of one panel and only two words in an impressive illustration of Larson’s ability to succinctly tell a story.
2 Primitive UFO
Cavemen and aliens are two reliable, consistent components of Far Side strips. The “Primitive UFO” strip combines them in one humorous panel. Instead of showing aliens in their high-tech, super advanced illustration like they are frequently shown, this strip instead puts the extraterrestrials on par with the caveman. Much like how the cavemen use stones, sticks, and pelts for everything, the aliens have a similarly archaic level of tech for their flying saucer. This is seen in the spaceship’s fur roof and stone body. It is funny postioning the supposedly advanced aliens as equal to their Stone Age counterparts, rather than far advanced.
1 Help! Quack!
“Help” and “Quack” are the only words needed for this intriguing Far Side strip. Surrealism and absurdist humor were a big part of Larson’s work, noticeable in the controversial “Cow Tools”, but also present in this strip. It is a silly and odd strip, much like a number of Far Side works, creating humor from the absurd.
The Far Side is responsible for some weird comics, the “Help! Quack” strip being no different. It is through the unconventionality present in this strip and countless others that the Far Side gained such wide readership, with audiences continuing to clamor over Larson’s work.
