The Far Side was a series of cartoons and comic strips created by the talented artist Gary Larson. Launched in 1979, the cartoons ran until 1995, at which point Larson retired. During that period, he crafted hundreds of hilarious images that spoke to several complex themes relevant to the era.
While looking through the archives is a fun challenge, choosing the absolute best cartoons from The Far Side is almost impossible. Comedy is so subjective after all, but these drawings certainly speak to a few unspoken truths, while also making a mockery of oddities that everyone has grown accustomed to.
A Cat Shower
Gary Larson has always been fantastic at taking regular events and turning them on their head. Cats of course hate water and clean themselves with their tongue. Larson thus asks the question, what would an ideal shower be for a feline?
The answer is going to be a giant tongue, with this cat in question loving life as it properly cleans. This kind of surrealist imagery plays too many of Larson’s strengths, who often uses the strange habits of nature to paint a humorous image to dissect.
Dino Cereal
Larson continues to use animals in a lot of his work and fans of The Far Side will be familiar with his penchant for drawing dinosaurs. This particular cartoon includes a family of T-Rexes tucking into their morning breakfast; cereal strangely in this case.
Funnily though, rather than a toy kept inside the box which supposedly contains ‘meaties’, the front of the packaging reveals that there is also a free child inside. It’s another spin on what consumers have come to expect, with Larson imagining the world through the lens of a predator.
The Elevator Ride
The animal jokes continue this time with a combination of fears that are sure to have anyone quaking. The image depicts a man taking his pet lion into an elevator. The reassurance that the beast isn’t dangerous unless it is startled is all the more ironic.
Of course, all the other passengers are sure to be alarmed by the sudden appearance and many people find standing in an elevator scary in itself; perhaps the lion does too. The imaginative scene is one of Larson’s weirdest cartoons and perhaps doesn’t carry a conventional message, instead being played purely for laughs.
The Class Clown
Some of the best Far Side cartoons also contain an important theme that forces the audience to reflect upon assumptions, stereotypes, and perhaps even what might be wrong with society. In the comic strip, a young man looks to get attention from his class with a distracting device.
Everyone knows a class clown just like this, but the image is capped off with a note that the child is distracting himself from the troubles he’s having at home. It might be a great piece of art, but it also reminds many that actions can often be influenced by events that not everyone is privy to.
Dealing With The Devil
Hell and humor often go hand-in-hand and there are plenty of comedians who have run through devil-based routines in their sets. Gary Larson’s stage is the paper he draws on, and he has a gag of his own about what hell could look like for so many; maybe even him.
Making decisions is a scary part of life. Whichever direction someone might choose, they are damned if they go one way and damned if they don’t. The choices are limited as well, with this form of torture speaking to the lack of options people might face. It’s a play on words with a deeper meaning about getting caught between a rock and a hard place.
An Inconvenience Store
Gary Larson has been known for creating some darker comic strips, but The Far Side does also stray into wordplay. The cartoonist enjoys imagining what may be the opposite of everyday setups. For instance, readers will be very familiar with the concept of a convenience store.
If there is one on every block, then what would an inconvenience store consist of? That question is answered with this simple premise, as a customer attempts to embark on their shopping expedition in a store that is so inconvenient to use, they can’t even reach the shelves.
A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
Everyone has heard the common phrase a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It’s an odd saying that speaks to the betrayal that someone can be subjected to, from those closest to them. Sheep and wolves are natural enemies, but if every wolf had the same idea it would be a disaster.
This might be a funny cartoon about the fact that all the sheep are wolves in disguise, which thus defeats the object of the costume in the first place, but it also picks up upon someone surrounding themselves with people who can’t be trusted. The more likely someone is to betray their inner circle, the more likely that inner circle is full of betrayers.
A Jaws Parody
Now and then Gary Larson and The Far Side plays into popular culture. Jaws was one of the biggest movies at the time of its release, a horror and action blockbuster that audiences hadn’t quite seen before. It’s only natural that the cartoon would play on the iconic character.
The image sees two fishermen plagued by the oncoming doom that is the great white shark from Jaws. The film was famous for its score and this hilariously pokes fun at the fact that the shark theme surely would have warned the innocent sailors of the impending attack.
The King’s Horses And Men
Gary Larson often creates relatable cartoon characters, but The Far Side also gives fans absurd scenes based on familiar stories. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men supposedly attempted to put a broken Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Nobody fully questions the strange kid’s nursery rhyme because it’s just that; designed for children. When put into an image as The Far Side does, it’s quite odd that the horses had a go at putting together an egg in the first place. Astonishingly, their hooves didn’t make the problem far worse.
A Spider Trap
Nature and The Far Side are common bedfellows as Larson observes the environment and crafts cute visuals based on the beauty of animals at work. Everyone has walked through an unfortunately placed cobweb at some point in their life. The spiders must have a plan for that location of choice.
This cartoon strip imagines the spiders hoping to score a massive meal, with their web covering a slide, ready to pounce on anyone who plays on the park equipment. However, there is also a futility to the design, with the audience knowing that someone will breeze right through the very breakable webbing.
