The #1 Funniest Far Side Comic That Makes Fun of a Celebrity (As Voted by Screen Rant Readers)

Gary Larson’s The Far Side is known for its surreal, often morbid perspective on nature, often dropping its animal stars into very human situations. However, every now and then the single-panel comic took aim at famous faces, targeting celebrities and public figures for some of its weirdest jokes. Screen Rant shared the best of these comic strips, and readers voted for the best of the best.

First published in November 2023 – and since updated with more entries – Screen Rant’s ’10 Funniest Far Side Comics That Make Fun of Real People’ invited readers to vote on their favorite Gary Larson comic about a celebrity or public figure. The article offered up comics about everyone from Madonna and Charles Darwin to Donald Trump and Stephen King – even Larson himself was included, via the one comic he’s admitted is based on his own experiences (injuring himself while using a pull-up bar.) With over 2700 votes, Screen Rant readers chose a clear winner as the #1 entry.

Despite close competition from Picasso and Madonna, Screen Rant readers’ favorite Far Side comic about a real person was Larson’s strip mocking scientist and activist Jane Goodall. It’s a great choice, since not only is Larson’s comic funny (it appears below), but it comes with a great story that had significant real-world consequences. The full reader vote results as of April 2024 are as follows:

Gary Larson’s Jane Goodall Comic Began a Beautiful Friendship

The Far Side’s Jane Goodall Comic Outraged the Scientist… Or So It Seemed

Gary Larson is famously obsessed with the natural world, and even originally wanted to call his comic Nature’s Way. It therefore makes sense that he’d be keenly aware of the exploits of Jane Goodall, who spent 60 years studying chimpanzees, eventually founding the conservationist charity the Jane Goodall Institute. Larson’s comic takes a risqué swipe at Goodall’s time among the apes.

While Larson hadn’t intended any offense with the strip, the Jane Goodall Institute certainly wasn’t happy. Per The Complete Far Side, the organization’s executive director wrote in to the Arizona Daily Star, criticizing the choice to run the comic and tearing it apart as an “obscenity,” stating:

To refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp is inexcusable … The cartoon was incredibly offensive and in such poor taste that readers might well question the editorial judgment of running such an atrocity in a newspaper that reputes to be supplying the news to persons with a better than average intelligence. The cartoon and its message were absolutely stupid.

Shocked by the vehement response, Larson refused to include the comic in later collections, and even turned down the National Geographic Society when they sought permission to republish it. After letting the Society know that Goodall had reacted so strongly to the comic, Larson was contacted by a representative who – knowing Goodall personally – believed that something wasn’t right, replying that “That doesn’t sound like the Jane Goodall we know.” Sure enough, when the strip was actually brought to Jane Goodall’s attention, it turned out that she had been away when it was published and actually found it hilarious. Indeed, Goodall even provided the foreword for The Far Side Gallery 5.

However, Larson and Goodall’s friendship didn’t stop there. Larson later visited Goodall’s research center in Tanzania and even helped fundraise for her charities, donating proceeds from T-shirts bearing the notorious comic. In The Complete Far Side, Larson reports Goodall’s response as “Wow! Fantastic! Real fame at last! Fancy being in a Gary Larson cartoon!”

Jane Goodall Wasn’t the Only Far Side Target Who Loved Larson’s Comic

Stephen King Wrote a Far Side Foreword, Despite Being Depicted as a Ghoulish Child

Goodall’s positive response was the rule rather than the exception for celebrities targeted by The Far Side, and she wasn’t even the only person depicted in a strip to write a foreword for Larson. Despite being depicted as a creepy kid with a horror-themed ant farm, Stephen King wrote the foreword for The Far SIde Gallery 2, praising the cumulative effect of Larson’s work and its ability to turn the natural world into a “funhouse mirror.” King even chose his favorite comic for the collection – a dog showing off its hunting trophies, including “the hand that fed me” (an unsurprising pick from the author of Cujo.)

Other celebrity fans of The Far Side included Robin Williams and Steve Martin, who wrote the forewords for The Far Side Gallery 4​​​​​​​ and The Complete Far Side respectively. Williams noted that “whenever I read The Far Side I feel like I’m watching a National Geographic special on Prozac,” while Martin presented his thoughts as a series of ‘false starts’ for his “Gary Larson Essay,” stating:

I am very sorry to report, given the occasion of this very important publication, that many of the scenes depicted in this book are actually false. Several years ago I began to suspect the veracity of a few of the events portrayed by Larson. “Wait a minute,” I thought. “A chicken couldn’t confess to murdering Old MacDonald; Old MacDonald was a fictitious character.

Being Mocked by The Far Side Is a Bizarre Honor

Larson Chose Cultural Icons Who Would Stand the Test of Time

It’s no surprise that modern celebrities are such fans of The Far Side, even to the point that being made fun of by Gary Larson becomes an honor. In his comics referencing pop culture, historical events, and public figures, Larson chooses subjects who will stand the test of time. To appear in a Far Side comic is to appear alongside luminaries like Isaac Newton, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein. No matter how insulting the actual comic (and Larson is very rarely truly mean), the sheer fact of being placed among such a pantheon of famous faces is an honor that’s hard to ignore.

While every fan will have their own favorite of The Far Side‘s public figure comics, it’s perfect that Screen Rant readers picked the Jane Goodall strip. Once upon a time, this Far Side gag was in danger of never appearing again because Larson believed it had offended Goodall so badly, but today it’s worth celebrating as a comic that did real-world good and is still funny 37 years after it was first published, “obscenity” or not.