Published in the ’80s, Gary Larson’s The Far Side released at a time when pop culture was strangely obsessed with stereotypical nerds, with movies like Weird Science and Revenge of the Nerds and TV shows like Family Matters and Saved by the Bell putting poindexters front and center. While nerd culture inarguably won out in the decades after, making ‘nerd’ pop culture properties the most popular in the world, that wasn’t always the case, and Larson plays with the archetype of the ‘nerd’ as it existed in the era of mirrored sunglasses, the rise of Nintendo, and shameless commercials thinly disguised as children’s television.

Screen Rant has collected the 10 funniest examples of Larson’s love affair with the nerd, and especially his habit of projecting the categorization onto sharks, wolves and even cowboys. Be sure to vote for your favorite entry in our end-of-article poll, and find out which strips other readers think deserve the #1 slot.

10

Shark Nerds

Far Side Takes Aim at the AV Club

Larson’s favorite ‘nerd’ gag is to project the idea onto an unlikely subject – in this case giving a geeky shark the responsibility of handling a presentation of swimming humans who might make a good snack. For younger readers, it’s worth mentioning that in the ’80s, students would often be asked to help run the projectors in classrooms – a responsibility often falling to the school audiovisual club, stereotyped as a nerdy pastime. A similar reference can be found in the Netflix hit Stranger Things, with Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will all members of the Hawkins Middle AV Club.

‘Shark nerds’ are a perfect subject for The Far Side, since Larson already had a library of gags about the deadly fish. Gags tend to revolve around sharks’ desire to eat humans, treating this predator/prey dynamic with the same logic as any number of ‘cat and mouse’ cartoon duos.

As a single-panel comic, The Far Side thrives when it can hijack existing narratives or archetypes for its humor. The idea of sharks doing anything they can to eat humans is a set-up all readers are instantly familiar with (even if it’s not particularly true), which allows Larson to subvert that concept in as many ways as he can think of, from twinning it with a dark idiom like “dressed to kill” to imagining entire shark societies where even when it comes to devouring humans, someone has to run the projector.

9

Nerds of the Old West

Not Every Cowboy Can Be Cool

As part of his quest to insert nerd logic into every possible context, Larson depicts a cowboy trailing toilet paper out of an outhouse attached to his spurs. Published in 1990 (late in the comic’s run), this strip actually broke a firm rule for The Far Side‘s early comics, where Larson was banned from any kind of scatological humor, with the presence of an outhouse essentially guaranteeing a rejection by his editors.

While this restriction slackened as time passed and The Far Side became a household name, the subject was still considered taboo enough that Larson didn’t dare include dung beetles in his comics, despite coming up with gags involving them. Thankfully, The Far Side‘s anthology collections could include these (since there were no newspaper readers to offend), and Larson fully broke the restrictive rule in 2023, publishing a comic on The Far Side‘s website about dung beetles doing their Christmas gift-buying.

8

Animal Nerds

How Did a Wolf End up as One of Far Side’s Most Likable Characters?

The Far Side is all about moments, establishing mini-stories then finding the single best image within them to capture in comic form. In this gag, an uncool wolf stumbles out of the woods, blowing his friends’ cover just as they were about to attack the stag in the distance. Larson chooses to depict the moment right as the ‘nerd wolf’ arrives, with the other wolves turning around in dismay and the stag aware but not yet fleeing. As with sharks and cowboys, Larson chooses a subject that pop culture often treats as inherently cool to emphasize an unexpected but relatable moment.

7

Kangaroo Nerds

Far Side Loves a Visual Gag

In yet another ‘animal nerd’ strip, Larson moves away from the gag of uncool predators, this time going for the visual gag of kangaroos with oversized pocket protectors in their pouches. In The Complete Far Side, Larson draws a distinction between “sense of humor” and “wit,” arguing that he always tried to have The Far Side embody the former – jokes that are immediately funny on a gut level, not just because of how they’re told. While The Far Side is actually plenty witty in the majority of its comics, Larson’s ideal type of humor is captured in this silly one-panel joke, which simply presents the reader with a ludicrous visual for their enjoyment.

6

The Nerd!

Larson Flips Kids Collecting Dinosaur Toys

In this wholesome comic, Larson imagines a young dinosaur collecting small, plastic humans, in much the same way as kids might collect different types of dinosaur. The stegosaurus in question has collected an array of figurines, including a knight, a cowboy, a Noir detective, and Far Side‘s own recurring ‘beehive-haired woman.’ However, it turns out the dino has been waiting to unbox ‘the nerd’ to complete its collection.

The idea of unusual creatures seeing humans as playthings is a running gag in The Far Side, and at least in this case, the stegosaurus is just collecting figurines – the same can’t be said for the multiple Far Side comics where giant aliens keep humans in jars.

5

Nerds in Hell

Far Side’s Devil Continues to Be Terrible at His Job

Like the ‘nerd wolf,’ this strip sees the titular character not quite catching the vibe of damnation, joking about the high temperature. Larson set many strips in the afterlife, with the Devil generally doing a poor job of visiting suffering on his charges. While the nerd seems to be having a pleasant time in Hell, that’s more or less the norm in a Larson strips, where the damned are free to turn down the thermostat, order in pizza and graffiti the walls with feel-good slogans.

Larson did regret one comic set in Hell – one that was captioned “Hell’s video store.” The strip shows customers browsing a video store with a smiling demon at the cash register – the only hitch being that every single video is a copy of the movie Ishtar. In The Complete Far Side Volume 3, Larson admits he never actually saw the movie and was going by its bad reputation. He later saw it on an airplane, where he admits he was “stunned at what was happening to me; I was being entertained. Sure, maybe it’s not the greatest film ever made, but my cartoon was way off the mark.” Even when Larson was trying to make Far Side‘s Hell look bad, its denizens are still getting away with watching a perfectly decent film.

4

“Nerd! … Dang!”

Far Side Imagines Alien Abduction as a Low-Tech Affair

Despite their intergalactic origins, The Far Side‘s aliens tend to be more or less human in their attitudes, taking a low-tech approach to first contact. Here, Larson reimagines first contact not as being beamed aboard a mysterious craft in a shaft of light, but lifted off the street by a fishing hook through the nose. Larson evolves this concept further, showing the aliens irritated to have wasted their effort on a nerd, much the same way as if a normal fisher had caught a tiddler. Arguably, this is a rare case where Larson chose to focus on the wrong character, as telling the same ‘story’ from the baffled nerd’s perspective would be even more surreal, while also emphasizing the embarrassment of being rejected by aliens.

As with nerds, fishing is a recurring theme in The Far Side. The glut of familiar equipment and practices make it perfect for Larson to mine for comedy, and The Far Side‘s morbid sense of humor works perfectly in comics that show fishing from the fish’s perspective.

3

The Nerdy Kid

Larson’s Stock Character Appeared in Many of His Best Comics

Larson’s most beloved engagement with the ‘nerd’ archetype is the recurring character he calls ‘the Nerdy Little Kid.’ The kid isn’t exactly a ‘character’ (he appears under various names), but rather a stock figure Larson wheels out when his jokes involve nerdy childhood experiences. The Far Side actually explains why the Nerdy Little Kid keeps recurring in one strip that introduces The Far Side‘s cast (above) – the fictional ‘actors’ who play Larson’s stock characters.

2

A Primate Bimbo

Far Side Has a Secret Obsession with Studying Apes

In this strip, a group of gorillas end up finding out what the primatologist who’s been watching them actually thinks of their behavior, including some choice insults such as Bozo being “the nerd of the social group” and “a primate bimbo.” A major fan of the natural world, Larson revisited the idea of scientists studying apes multiple times, partly inspired by the work of Jane Goodall – a primatologist who famously lived among the apes to further her studies. Indeed, one of The Far Side‘s most controversial comics identifies Goodall by name.

The insulting strip was not well received by the Jane Goodall Institute, and Larson withdrew it from publication after receiving a letter of complaint from the group. Thankfully, the self-imposed ban was short-lived, as it quickly turned out Goodall herself hadn’t actually seen the comic. When she did, she not only saw the funny side but reached out to Larson, striking up a friendship. The two have collaborated many times, with Larson fundraising for Goodall’s charity work and even visiting her research station.

1

Nerd-Sniffing Dogs

A Whole New Reason to Skip Parties

The idea of nerds not being invited to parties is generally taken as an indication of social ostracization – that the cool kids throwing the parties run in totally different social circles. However, Larson flips this idea on its head, imagining a world where it’s literally illegal for nerds to party. Not only that, but the constabulary have nerd-sniffing dogs to enforce this rule. The ridiculous switch from unofficial social stereotype to ironclad rule of the land is a perfect example of how Far Side messes with the logic of everyday life, creating a fever-dream style scenario where nerds party at their own risk.

Those were The Far Side‘s 10 funniest comics about nerds, showcasing the fact that while The Far Side‘s humor might be timeless for the most part, it also had its finger on the pulse of the immediately recognizable themes of the ’80s and ’90s. Don’t forget to vote below for your favorite of Gary Larson’s Far Side comics starring nerds.