When readers aren't revisiting The Far Side, many find themselves watching basketball. Particularly during the NBA Playoffs season, basketball is among the most exciting sports to get into. It would appear as though Gary Larson is one such basketball fan. The Far Side covered several sports, but his comics focused on basketball often.

In fact, Far Side fans can argue that many of Gary Larson's best comics showed readers why basketball might be the best sport on the planet. If not, then basketball made for the best material that Larson ever worked with, sports-wise. Many of his basketball comics are most beloved and understood by basketball fans, but even the most gut-busting funny strips still prove hilarious to outsiders who know nothing about the sport. For those curious about basketball but are hesitant about watching a game, these Far Side comics make for a great start.

8 Playing Basketball on a Deserted Island

First Published: March 16, 1985

The idea of getting stranded on a desert island often crossed Gary Larson's mind, hence why so many Far Side comics center around desert islands. Maybe it was a fear of his, or maybe he frequently ruminated on the boredom that comes with being marooned in the middle of nowhere. For these victims of the island, they surely thought their boredom was cured when they were able to make use of a basketball, basketball rim, and a palm tree. That is, until the ball deflated. It might be a beach ball repurposed into a basketball, given how easily it deflates.

For a motionless comic, it looks as if all of their collective hope leaves their eyes at the same time. Readers can tell from the way the would-be players are staring down at the ball that they are gutted to lose their only source of entertainment. Those poor unfortunate souls.

7 "Einstein Started Down the Road of Professional Basketball..."

First Published: January 21, 1987

For the record, it should go without saying that Albert Einstein did not play basketball, or much of any sport, for that matter. The acclaimed genius was born in 1879, so sports of any kind weren't much of a thing yet. When he died in 1955, the NBA had only just been founded nine years beforehand. Yet, somehow, The Far Side concludes that Einstein was a wizard on the court in his heyday, and only turned to science when a bad ankle ended his flourishing career. Keep in mind that basketball wasn't invented until 1891, when Albert Einstein was 12.

Gary Larson had quite an active imagination, and it shows in absurd comic strips like this. It certainly paid off for him considering that this idea ended up widely considered to be among the funniest Far Side comics based on real people. That's a fact historians won't need to investigate.

6 "And You, Johnson! You Stick With Your Man and Keep That Hand in His Face!"

First Published: June 30, 1987

There's an art to guarding someone in basketball. It demands enough physical without risking foul trouble whilst staying as close as possible to one's opposition as possible. The easiest way to guard someone is to block their vision with a legal hand to the face as they are trying to take a shot at the basket. The hand doesn't always work, especially when most players have normal-sized hands, so it can't block their rival's vision completely. Not with Johnson, though.

Just imagine what kind of ball handler Johnson would be.

That's why his coach orders Johnson to stay on his man and keep that hand in his face at all times. Any team who has a player with practically pancakes for hands is bound to always win. Just imagine what kind of ball handler Johnson would be. It certainly captures Far Side's weird sense of humor.

5 "Offensive Foul? Offensive Foul? Are You Crazy? ... He was Moving!"

First Published: July 8, 1988

Anyone who has seen a basketball game in-person or at home knows that basketball players tend to scream at the referees about any and everything possible. It's not even an attempt to politic their way out of receiving a costly foul, it's just to complain about the foul every time, no matter if they were clearly in the wrong or not. The Far Side paints one such scenario, as a player complains to the referee after disposing of a player still squished on his abdomen. Judging from just how flattened his opponent is, the player earned his foul.

The comic is even funnier when basketball fans how flopping works. To flop is to overexaggerate physical or pratfall when there was no at all in order to force a foul on their opponent. Some floppers are bad actors, and instead of acting unconscious on the floor, they're moving.

4 "When Referees Go Home at Night"

First Published: January 24, 1990

Some people can't help but take their jobs with them after clocking out. There are people who check their brain out of work-mode as soon as it's time to go home, and there are some who stay in that mode 24/7 and even keep working from home. It makes an office job anything but boring when it never ends, but the same logic can apply to any job, even something as specific as a referee. Refs tend to work every night or every other night as long as a game is on.

In theory, it should be easy for a ref to shut their work brain off, but that's harder to do when they go home ing the crowd's disparaging remarks to them. The Far Side shows how, when they go home, one ref gets payback at the crowd by screaming at a miniature toy set of an audience.

3 "Medieval Pickup Battles"

First Published: July 25, 1990

This is the kind of comic that only basketball fans are going to understand, and one that is going to fly over anyone's head if they've never seen a game of street ball. When playing basketball on a local neighborhood court or even at a community center, a pickup game becomes hard to keep track of who's on whose team when everyone is in street clothes. To rectify this, that's where the concept of Shirts vs. Skins come into play. In this scenario, one team of players keeps playing the game with their tops on, while the other goes shirtless.

Those familiar with the concept will feel nostalgic for it and know it can be applied to most amateur sports, but it's probably not the most practical to apply it to a joust, as these knights are. Bare skin without armor while using sharp objects probably isn't a smart combo.

2 Red Hen Poultry Co. Play Basketball with Gizzards

First Published: February 4, 1993

It's a surprisingly hot topic when it comes to removing gizzards (or giblets) from poultry before cooking and serving them. Some say it's a necessity to remove them, while others think it's fine or even beneficial if they stay in. If one thing is for certain, removing gizzards can be a rather tedious and time-consuming task. It's not necessarily hard, but it can get boring. The Red Hen Poultry Company might have the right idea here. If one is going to partake in a mind-numbingly dull task, they might as well make some fun out of it.

Nothing screams fun like turning a simple tossing of gizzards to the trash into a good ole game of basketball. At first glance, this is one of those comics that make readers go "what the?" and take a double take, but once readers realize what's happening, it is absolutely hysterical.

1 An Elephant Literally Crushes the Competition

First Published: Unknown

There are some dominant players in the sport of basketball. The NBA's history is filled with mastodons like Shaquille O'Neal and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who would bulldoze through their competition. Similarly, Gary Larson thinks that if basketball plans went even further back in the history books, they'd see similar domination from actual mastodons and elephants playing basketball. One elephant finds himself stomping out multiple cavemen guarding it in the paint. They probably tried the Hack-a-Shaq method or all tried to guard it simultaneously and the results did not turn out as favorably as they would have hoped.

Hack-a-Shaq is a defensive strategy, originally coined when Shaq still played at LSU to describe an extremely physical defense. Players would intentionally foul Shaq by outright striking or pushing him in an effort to deny him an easy dunk or layup. The foul would force Shaq to the free throw line, but since he was notoriously bad at free throws and often missed them, Hack-a-Shaq succeeded in limiting how many points Shaq could get for his team in a given game. The strategy was then adopted by numerous teams in the league, especially when Shaq signed his first NBA contract.

Some will argue that an elephant playing against humans isn't fair, but neither was it fair when Shaq dwarfed over all his opponents. If anyone knows how resourceful an elephant can be, it's Gary Larson, as his comics frequently star elephants. He writes this elephant to be The Far Side's most dominant basketball player.