When it comes to seeing who has a sense of humor, there’s no better test than Gary Larson’s iconic strip is one of the world’s best-known absurdist comics, and it's been tickling funny bones for decades, not to mention bringing people together with its unconventional, but crowd-pleasing humor.
But while laughter can bring people together, not everyone shares the same comedic sensibilities. What may seem funny to one person could go over like a lead weight with another. Even something as undeniably funny as 10 Far Side strips.
10 God Trivia Contest
Publication Date: July 22, 1994
God shows up quite a bit in The Far Side, but his role as the creator of heaven and Earth doesn’t preclude him from tackling the mundane, in this case a trivia contest. Unfortunately, poor Norman, the contest’s reigning champion, is suffering a substantial loss going up against the almighty. It’s that wonderful blending of the average, daily life with the fantastic that creates such a unique and, frankly, hilarious scenario. Sure, God’s probably got better things to do with his time than play trivia, but the idea that he’d show up a trivia champ is just hilarious.
9 Can't Make Horse Drink
Publication Date: January 22, 1981
If there’s one thing Gary Larson got a kick out of, it was approaching classic idioms and finding the humor in them. In this case, The Far Side tackles the classic “you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” life advice. Only instead of a creek or a river, the horse’s owner has decided to take his horse to get an actual drink at a bar (and no, the horse doesn’t exactly look like he’s ready for a drink). It’s an amusing twist that perfectly encapsulates The Far Side’s iconic wordplay and unique humor.
8 Cartoonist Fired
Publication Date: April 2, 1990
While Larson doesn’t always go for meta humor in The Far Side, he was most certainly capable of it. This particular gag not only acknowledges that it’s a comic strip, but a man meets his undoing thanks to his boss’s meta-awareness. A lowly pencil-pusher named Lewis is internally grumbling about his boss, calling him names. Unfortunately, the boss, like the viewer, can see his underling’s thoughts expressed by the word bubble above his head, leading to the man getting fired. How can anyone not appreciate a smart, meta comic strip like that and find this scenario anything but rib-tickling?
7 Scientist Prank
Publication Date: June 4, 1983
Scientists are common figures in The Far Side and if Larson wanted to prove anything with these stock characters, it’s that advanced degrees don’t prevent people from acting like total morons. In this case, The Far Side has two scientists, one of whom is working on an extremely dangerous warhead. Little does he know that, right behind him, his colleague is getting ready to surprise him by popping a paper bag behind him. One doesn’t have to be a scientist to figure out how this is going to go, and it’s that implication that makes The Far Side so good.
6 Never Knew What Hit Him
Publication Date: August 26, 1991
Much like the horse drinking gag, this Far Side strip goes for another literal approach to an extremely common phrase. At some point, everyone’s heard the idiom “didn’t know what hit them” when one is blindsided. But in this instance, a poor man named Henry is blindsided by something out of this world. He’s just standing around when a UFO drops by and its alien pilot steps out just to sock him in the face and leave without saying a word. It’s that charm that really gives The Far Side its enduring popularity, even decades after the strip’s first publication.
5 Hunting Season
Publication Date: December 8, 1986
This Far Side strip combines so many different elements of what made Larson’s strip so iconic. Anthropomorphized animals, absurd scenarios, and unexpected twists. This strip takes place at a crime scene where a hunter has just shot a deer dead in his home (yes, it’s the deer’s home), but the hunter is in the clear because he has a hunting permit, the deer was in season, and the deer let the hunter in. There’s so much going on and every detail only raises further questions, but it works on every level in a way only The Far Side can.
4 Why Dinosaurs Went Extinct
Publication Date: December 15, 1982
Gary Larson obviously loves natural history, and he’s got a lot of prehistoric gags. The one that really stands out is a simple one which features a trio of miscreant dinosaurs, who have all sneaked off to have a smoke while the caption informs the reader that this was the real reason that dinosaurs went extinct. The idea of dinosaurs even possessing cigarettes, much less the entire population of them smoking enough to kill off entire species, is so damn ridiculous, but it’s that kind of absurdity that makes The Far Side such a special comic.
3 Chicken Baby Swap
Publication Date: January 2, 1982
Chickens have a special place in The Far Side canon and Larson was always finding ways to use them in comical ways. But this strip goes for a simpler approach, and it makes the humor hit that much harder. Here, a farmer has collected several eggs and is walking back home, only to by a chicken who has collected a baby and is heading back to the coop. Is the chicken playing to hold the baby hostage for a swap or does it actually plan on eating it? One can never be too certain in The Far Side.
2 Farmer Brown
Publication Date: February 12, 1986
Chickens aren’t the only farm animals that know how to get even with humankind in The Far Side. Here, farmer Brown has stumbled upon his cows in the barn. They’ve got a diagram of a human body, and they’re marking down all the prime cuts as one would a cow. The caption notes how eerily silent the world becomes at this moment. The cows' plotting would be funny enough, but the farmer stumbling upon their plot to carve him up pushes the strip to an even more absurd extreme, making the strip ping-pong between disturbing and outrageously hilarious.
1 Wings Fall Off Switch
Publication Date: September 7, 1992
No one likes a disaster, but in The Far Side, Larson can find comedy in the strangest places. Here, a enger named Ted is simply trying to relax and recline his seat, only to hit a switch that causes the plane’s wings to come off. Why would a plan have such a switch? Why put it where any enger could hit it? One can’t think too hard when it comes to The Far Side. Instead, one just has to embrace the absurd, even when the strip is hinting at something completely horrifying.
