The Far Side: 15 Most Unforgettable Comics About Elephants

Among Gary Larson’s most unforgettable uses of animal characters in The Far Side were his many depictions of elephants. Year after year throughout the strip’s run, elephants starred in some of Larson’s funniest strips, and at times some of its most socially relevant, as he displayed a particular affinity for the giant herbivores.

As the writer/artist behind Far Side, Gary Larson proved time and again to be a lover of animals, and a champion of their right to exist in the natural world. His strip frequently pointed out the inherent cruelty, and absurdity, of humanity’s encroachment on animal territory – often, by having animals, including elephants, get the last laugh on humanity, though in the end, it was always The Far Side’s readers that truly had the final laugh. Over the course of the strip’s tenure, Larson often used elephants in similar ways, making a comparative study of Far Side’s elephant panels a worthwhile endeavor for any fan.

15
It Takes A Lot To Get An Elephant Drunk – But It’s Never Enough

First Published: June 16, 1980

Gary Larson’s knack for taking the most obvious joke and brilliantly illustrating it – to the point where the joke didn’t feel dumb or uninspired, but exactly the opposite – is on full display here, as a hulking elephant in a disheveled overcoat droops its trunk over a bar and moans to the bartender: “It’s no use. I drink and I drink, and I still can’t forget.” Drinking to forget is, of course, one of the most dangerous uses of alcohol – and it proves especially ruinous for this elephant, as the gifted memory of his species becomes a curse, refusing to let him run from his regrets.

14
Gary Larson Didn’t Shy Away From Sensitive Topics

First Published: September 18, 1980

Gary Larson was never afraid to take on serious subject matter in The Far Side, but he was rarely delicate with it when he did. In this panel, Larson filters the difficult topic of parents who want their children to marry within their culture, or race, through the prism of a woman married to an elephant. As the elephant sits in front of the TV watching beer, scowling at her, his put-upon wife cries out that, “I should never have married outside my own species.” Whether the joke holds up or not, it is certainly one of the most hard to forget Far Side elephant strips.

13
The Far Side Usually Depicted Humans As Interlopers In The Wild

First Published: February 10, 1981

“Lester! Wake up! Lester!” a woman, on safari with her husband, yells at him in the middle of the night. “I think I heard footsteps,” she says – the joke being that she’s not wrong, but in fact vastly under-reporting the noise she heard. As the panel depicts, their tent is, in fact, surrounded by a herd of massive elephants. Up to this point, the huge animals have managed to avoid their flimsy tent, an intrusion on the elephants’ natural territory – though it appears the one entering from the right of the frame might be barreling right toward them.

12
Gary Larson’s Low-Key Nature Mockumentary

First Published: March 20, 1981

This Far Side panel feels like the sitcom version of a National Geographic documentary, as elephants gathering at the river for a drink becomes a fight for survival when one is attacked by a crocodile. In Gary Larson’s warped version of the animal kingdom, the crocodiles talk, with two of them popping their heads out of the water and shouting encouragement to their buddy Bernard, whose jaws are clamped around an alarmed elephant’s snout. Though the outcome is left unknown, Bernard certainly seems out of his element – literally, as the elephant swings him wildly into the air.

11
It’s No Fun Getting Old, Even If It Takes Centuries

First Published: September 22, 1981

Gary Larson hilariously inverts the worries of aging humans here, as an elephant sits in front of a mirror and cries out to her husband, “Egad, Alex! I’m losing some wrinkles!” Gaining wrinkles is the bane of many older humans’ existence, as they reject any visible sign of time’s unrelenting progression. For notoriously long-lived, and thick-skinned elephants, the opposite aesthetic is in effect. The more wrinkled they are, the more vibrant they feel – and as this Far Side strip documents, the smoothing out of skin is their terrible indicator that too many birthdays are piling up.

10
It’s Always Good To Be On Alert In The Far Side

First Published: January 4, 1982

Animals engaging in humor activities, and enacting familiar human behaviors, was one of Gary Larson’s go-to moves in The Far Side. In this case, Larson combines the fact that elephants are surprisingly light sleepers with the domestic annoyance that arises when one person in a couple is more easily awoken than the other. “You always hear something moving downstairs” an annoyed elephant tells their spouse here. This panel is notable for its composition – the open bedroom door and the total darkness beyond add to the effect of a familiar dead-of-night scene.

9
Yes, Somebody Else Wants A Peanut

First Published: April 1, 1982

Some of the funniest Far Side panels featuring elephants play on the idea of an elephant in disguise. This is one great example. Here, Gary Larson depicts a man on a park bench feeding peanuts to squirrels while a very large “man” – in a trench coat, fedora, and holding a cane in a suspiciously claw-like hand – shoots longing glaces at the bag of peanuts. Larson playful uses circus elephants’ familiar love for peanuts to great effect here, but the true joy of this Far Side elephant is the attempt to obscure its true identity. Which, by all account, appears to be going successfully.

8
Gary Larson’s Far Side Subtly Advocated For Animal Rights

First Published: February 17, 1983

Whether depicting bears, or elephants, Gary Larson often used The Far Side to critique the practice of hunting – particularly trophy hunting, which has driven down the population of species like the African elephant. In this panel, Larson manages to be undeniably anti-elephant hunting, while still delivering one of the funniest entries on this list. Here he features an elephant, on crutches, missing a leg, crammed into a phone booth – inexplicably in the midst of the plain – finding out what the people who took his leg did with it. This remains one of the most memorable installments in the strip’s long run.

7
The Wrong Place, The Wrong Time, The Wrong Turn

First Published: February 23, 1983

As serious as the subtext to the previous entry was, this Far Side elephant scene is all silliness. Here, the caption tells readers: “Brian has a rendezvous with destiny.” Unfortunately for Brian – happily rollerskating down the sidewalk, listening to music – “destiny” is a herd of stampeding elephants, being led by Gary Larson’s absurdly goofy rendition of Tarzan. The composition of this panel is perfect; center of the frame is presented as the corner of a building, with the elephants coming in hot from the left, and Brian rolling in from the right, just moments from their unfortunate intersection.

6
This Far Side Elephant Just Wants To Be Left Alone

First Published: March 1, 1983

This Far Side panel mediates between the vibes of the two previous entries. Two men on safari watch as an elephant emerges from the bush. Without the caption, this might be one of the more obscure Far Side jokes. “Not too close, Higgins…This one’s got a knife,” one of the men says. A closer inspection reveals he’s right – the elephant is holding a blade. Amusingly, despite its size difference, the elephant still feels the need to defend itself with a human weapon – though it might not have heard the saying about “bringing a knife to a gun fight.”

5
An Absurd Highlight Of The Far Side’s “Elephants In Disguise” Running Gag

First Published: April 12, 1983

Absolutely one of the funniest Far Side strips about elephants, the joke here hinges on ambiguity of the dialogue. An elephant drinking in a human bar has become upset by an elephant joke, told by one of the men at his table. His friend, another elephant, assures him the man “didn’t know you were an elephant when he told that last joke.” Either the elephant is wildly wrong, and the men did know, or their obvious elephant nature really did go entirely unnoticed. Both options are equally hilarious, making this one of Gary Larson’s most deft Far Side punchlines.

4
Another Genius “Elephant In Disguise” Joke From Gary Larson

First Published: May 16, 1983

Once again, the crux of the joke here is the idea of the elephant in disguise. As always seemed to be the case in The Far Side, the disguise is apparently effective. The elephant in this Far Side panel is able to avoid a murder accusation, even though all the evidence presented makes it clear the animal is guilty. Instead, the police inspector fingers the butler for the crime, “who,” the detective reasons, “first gored the Colonel to death before trampling him to smithereens.” Larson draws the butler’s eyes wide in horror at his accusation, while the elephant on the couch next to him tries to look inconspicuous.

3
This Joke Was Just Lying There Waiting For Gary Larson To Step On It

First Appeared: September 12, 1983

This is a classic Far Side installment in the sense that the panel utilizes no caption, or dialogue. The joke is evident without it. An elephant is shown on its back, eyes narrowed, annoyed and embarrassed at the folly of having slipped on a banana peel, while surrounded by its herd. As a syndicated cartoonist, Gary Larson reigned supreme in his ability to take the most obvious joke, and get the greatest reaction out of it. Elephants are known in the popular consciousness for their love of bananas – so here, he turns that against one of them, to great comedic effect.

2
This Elephant Is Going To Wake Up And Clutch His Wind Instrument

First Published: December 8, 1983

This is one of Gary Larson’s best elephant panels, by virtue of the fact that it is one of his funniest Far Side installments, period. Captioned: “the elephant’s nightmare,” an elephant is depicted on stage, seated at a piano, in front of an unexpected crowd, but unable to play. The elephant’s thought bubble explains why. “I can’t play this thing,” he thinks, “I’m a flutist for crying out loud!” The arch-hilarity of this moment is everything that makes The Far Side great. Naturally, the elephant can’t play the piano – but for the most ridiculous reason possible, rather than the expected explanation.

1
Human Stains Are Hard To Get Out

First Published: January 16, 1984

“Whoa Frank! Guess what youuuuuuuuu sat in” one elephant says to his buddy in this entry, pointing at his behind. The answer is, of course, a human being, making this one of The Far Side’s most surprisingly gross panel. With the human reduced to no more than a splotch on Frank the elephant’s backside, the humor here comes from the nonchalance of their reaction. As with The Far Side’s darkest animals, they find no gravity in having accidentally killed a human, instead considering this a minor inconvenience, a stain that will have to be washed off.