The Far Side is best known for, at various times, capturing the strange, the unusual, and even the gross. Creator Gary Larson did not shy away from the gruesome, and at times, the grotesque – his panels, syndicated in newspapers, often pushed the boundaries of taste for the era of their release.
Throughout Far Side’s enduring run, Larson turned the focus of his surrealist, absurdist sense of humor on all kinds of subjects – though his background in biology can be noted in his recurring use of things like insects, body parts, and even excrement. As with all Far Side comics, one lone panel is all Larson ever needed to communicate the series’ humor to audience, and certainly in some cases, to gross readers out at the same time that they can’t help but chuckle. Below is a curated collection of fifteen of the funniest Far Side panels that are also incredibly gross, in one way or another.
15 “Squash Him”
Losing A Pet Is Always Difficult
This Far Side installment is gross on several levels, though it is not without its nuance, which in turn makes it equally amusing and unsettling. The setting is a veterinarian’s office, where a man has brought a hilarious large cockroach in to be examined – evidently his pet, and evidently nearing the end of its life, the vet gives Mr. Caldwell advice that will be tragically familiar to any pet owners: it is time to put the bug down. “Take him home, find a quiet spot in the yard, and squash him,” the vet says, echoing the experience many people of older generations went through with beloved dogs.
14 “Not Talking”
Just Tell Him What He Wants To Know
Goldfish are relatively common house pets. Sometimes, goldfish are used as a child’s first pet, as a way to teach responsibility and care for another living creature. Unfortunately, as this Far Side strip shows, perhaps some kids should never have a pet. In the panel, an overzealous youngster tries to suck up a goldfish, drinking all the dirty fish water in the bowl as a means of torture to get it to talk. Drinking fishbowl water is gross, while the dangling question of what the kid wants to hear from his pet is patented Far Side comedy at its finest.
13 “Smoker’s Lung”
A Rare Far Side PSA
The data has been out for decades that smoking is bad for health, most notably, for the lungs – this Far Side takes readers inside the lung of a smoker. Larson shines a spotlight on the dangers of smoking with this strip by anthropomorphizing the body, showing the last cilium of a smoker’s lung. The little cilium is painfully alone, stuck playing solitaire, thanks to the smoker burning all the others out. An invasive look of a smoker’s lung, this strip could be offputting to those who find the inner workings of the body gross. At the same time, this strip functions as a rare kind of Public Service Announcement from Gary Larson to his readers: quit smoking.
Related
“It Was Cruel, Stupid and Ridiculous”: 10 Most Controversial Far Side Comics Ever
While Gary Larson’s The Far Side is considered family friendly today, it has angered many readers in its time, receiving piles of hate mail.
12 “See The World”
Too Relevant
In a panel that is absolutely guaranteed to make contemporary readers flinch, this Far Side panel deals with the subject of viral spread across international lines, boundaries that a virus does not recognize or respect. As the coronavirus pandemic, starting in 2020, reminded the world, viruses are an ever-present aspect of the human condition, always looking to propagate themselves in new exciting ways. “Be a virus, see the world,” this panel advertises, as a man at a bar – presumably in America, though it could be anywhere – flirts with a woman from France, promising further opportunity to spread around the globe.
11 “How Birds See The World”
Everyone Is A Target
This Far Side panel doesn’t contain excrement, but both its humor and its grossness are contained in the charged anticipation that excrement could ruin someone’s day at any moment. Captioned, “how birds see the world,” the panel is drawn from an aeriel POV, with two human beings and a dog depicted as having huge bullseye targets on top of them. In other words, birds see everything beneath them as targets for them to aim at when they…Most readers have had some experience with bird droppings, and know how unpleasant it is – though according to some folk traditions, it brings good luck.
Related
13 Funniest Far Side Comics That Prove It’s Obsessed with Ducks
The Far Side is known for its surreal sensibilities and morbid sense of humor, and few of its recurring characters are darker than its criminal ducks.
10 “Brain”
This Is Why Surgery Takes So Long
In addition to a joke about motor functions that is sure to make sensitive readers cringe, the truly gross thing about this Far Side strip is its depiction of surgeons’ cavalier attitude toward their subjects during major medical procedures. Certainly, this scene – where one doctor proclaims to another, “try it Hobbes! Poke his brain right where my finger is!” prompting the patient’s leg to kick wildly – is a hyperbolic representation of medical malpractice, but nevertheless, it speaks to the prevailing cultural attitude about surgeons, and the inherent mystery of a group of unsupervised experts crowding around an unconscious patient.
9 “Grilling Burgers”
Jessy Couldn’t Resist
It goes without saying that cannibalism is one of human society’s most taboo subjects – Larson dares to tread on that territory, filtering his humor about this dark topic through one of his favored anthropomorphized animals: cows. Hamburgers, of course, have long been a staple of the American diet – this Far Side panel shows a cow, identified as Jessy, shamelessly grilling something, which his fellow cows’ reaction makes clear is, in fact, yet another fellow cow. “Sick, sick, sick,” one of the disgusted cows admonishes Jessy, in a panel that manages to straddle the line between the lighthearted and the macabre as effectively as any in the comic’s history.
8 “Professor Dickle”
Breakthrough or Meltdown?
“Melted flesh” is a pair of words that no one wants to see put together as a description. Yet, Larson necessitates it with this strip, which features a scientist melted into a puddle on a laboratory table, with a bunch of other scientists huddled around the horrifying scene. No one knows how the scientist got that way, and his peers are obviously determined not to meet the same fate – though at the same time, they are inherently curious, given their nature and their profession, with the head of the lab barking, “Weinberg, see if you can make out what he devil he was working on,” while telling everyone else to return to work.
7 “Wrath Of The Mummy”
An Innocent Mistake
Bathroom humor can be polarizing. For some, potty humor is the height of comedy while others consider it crass and unfunny. Whatever the case, Larson knew how to elicit laughs out of the audience while simultaneously grossing them out. In this strip, a person innocently starts using a mummy’s bandages as toilet paper, eliciting the mummy’s wrath. While the poor guy didn’t know that he was using the mummy’s bandages to wipe, it’s hard to blame the mummy for his response. It’d be like someone using another’s shirt as their T.P. In other words, not cool. Not cool at all.
Related
This Brilliant Peanuts Reference Proves Far Side Is the Smartest Comic Strip Ever
Gary Larson’s Far Side comic made several references to its long-running predecessor Peanuts, with one proving just how smart Larson’s comic was.
6 “Down The Hole”
Their Eyes Were Bigger Than Their Ant Hill
It’s common to see a colony of ants holding their found food above their head, moving it to their anthill home. Usually, it’s crumbs or leaves, but in this disturbing Far Side, the unique colony of ants in the comic are hoisting up a human child to their anthill. Of course, the clear implication is that the ants intend to eat the child – with the only hold-up being that there is no way the child is going to fit inside the narrow opening to the colony’s ant hill. One of Gary Larson’s most exceptionally dark ideas, this strip somehow still manages to be amusing, though darkly so.
5 “Submarine Sandwich And A Hairy Thorax”
Workplace Humor
While bugs are eaten in some cultures, they are not the typical source of protein in many regions around the world, including the United States where the Far Side was created. As a result, thinking of eating a 12-legged, hairy bug sandwich sounds like a disgusting meal, something that might churn the stomach of all but the most adventurous foodie. In the strip, a bug who was found dead in its enclosure found its way into a submarine sandwich. The truly gross part of the comic though, for those who find the idea of bug-eating unpleasant, comes in the casual attitude with which the zoo staff accept the bug as a sandwich topper.
4 “You’ve Hit An Artery”
He Went Too Far
Blood freaks many people out For that reason mosquitos – in addition to being annoying pests, with the potential to spread various diseases – are looked at with disgust by many. Larson uses the widespread dislike of mosquitos and their penchant for blood in this strip. When two mosquitos are eating their meal, one of the mosquitos balloons up, beyond full, leading the the other realizes that his companion has hit an artery. Seeing a mosquito filled to the gills with blood is super unappealing and an absolute no-no to those who cannot handle the sight or mere mention of blood.
3 “A Bigger Brain”
Is This Technically Not Cheating?
It’s not unfair to say almost everyone has cheated on a test at least once in their lives. Typically, it can be as simple as peering over at someone’s answers. In The Far Side, however, cheating is a little stranger than the norm. As this strip illustrates, a man takes out a bigger brain secretively in the middle of an exam, presumably to do better on his test than he would otherwise. Seeing body parts, particularly the brain, can be yucky. Seeing someone holding a brain in their hands is not exactly inviting, making this strip one to avoid for those who are easily queasy.
2 “Animal Waste Management”
Turnabout Is Fair Play
Everyone poops. There’s even a book espousing it. However, that doesn’t mean everyone wants to hear about it and especially not see it. Yet, Larson throws caution to the wind on this bathroom centered strip. In the work, with its only words being “Animal Waste Management”, Larson made sure that the reader is painfully aware of what’s going in the strip, with brown sludge flowing from the two bears’ pipe into some unfortunate guy’s house. The old real estate adage of “location, location, location” could not be more true than this blue humor strip that is bound to make one laugh and grimace at the same time.
Related
Far Side’s Baby-Eating Snake Is Based on a Dark Real-Life Experience
Snakes are the punchline of dozens of Far Side panels, but creator Gary Larson’s influence came from a terrifying incident with one of the reptiles.
1 “In Her Hair”
A Party And Everyone’s Invited
This Far Side comic has a gross premise with grotesque visuals to go with it. Anything with insects tends to be skin crawling on its own. Then, bug eggs take the ick factor to a whole other level. In the strip, a bug that looks like lice is on the phone with a friend to tell her she must visit her new eggs and that her address is in a woman’s hair. Playing on the common occurrence of having people over when they have a new baby, the strip makes it surreal with the inclusion of the lice instead of humans, creating an odd comic perfectly in line with Far Side’s tone.
