While The Far Side is more frequently known for its quick, zippy jokes, Gary Larson imbued many of his greatest comics with greater commentary about nature and humanity’s relationship with it. Larson, who has frequently noted his love for biology, frequently interjects his funniest comics with warnings against abusing nature and to remind us of our limited power within nature’s domain. Gary Larson loves cartoons, but he loves nature more.
Besides his love for all things satirical, Gary Larson’s original ion was life sciences. Long before becoming the iconic cartoonist he is today, Larson was originally set to pursue a degree in biology from Washington State University. While he inevitably changed directions in life, his love for the natural world is prevalent across The Far Side, as Larson frequently champions environmentalist ideals by mocking humanity’s consistent blunders that threaten the Earth. Gary Larson has always loved nature and these ten Far Side comics prove he never stopped, even after becoming a cartoonist.
10 A Hunter With A Grudge
What Does An Animal Think When It's Being Hunted?
In this comic , a lone buck hides nervously in a desolate pine forest. Nearby, a hunter stalks the deer with his rifle in hand as the panicked animal wonders if he knows his assailant, worried that he may have wronged the hunter. In classic Gary Larson fashion, the anthropomorphized deer completely overlooks the obvious nature of his situation. The hunter doesn't hold a grudge, he’s simply looking for dinner.
Yet, the buck ponders its predicament as if the clear divide between him and the hunter did not exist. In fact, little-to-no animals understand a hunter’s intent, only that their life is in danger. While humans often treat hunting as a sport, it’s instead a life-or-death battle for the outmatched animals who don’t understand why they’re being attacked. Maybe, if the reverse were true, we too would wonder if the deer held a grudge against us.
9 I Hate This Desk Job
The Far Side's Most Relatable Comic
In this Far Side comic, we see a pack of wolves playfully chasing a deer in the distance while a single wolf has been left alone, near the edge of the woods, sitting at a receptionist’s desk. As his fellow wolves enjoy the hunt, he is left alone thinking “Lucky skunks… I hate this desk job.” Here, Gary Larson isn’t making pointed commentary about wolves, he’s making it .
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Just like the wolf at the desk, humanity has artificially placed artificial and arbitrary walls around ourselves in the form of jobs, rules, and regulations. Nothing is stopping the lone wolf from ing his friends besides his own will. Likewise, nothing is stopping any of us from leaving our boring desk jobs to fully enjoy the splendors of the world except the same arbitrary rules and societal norms that we have let society build.
8 Bad Faith Bragging Rights
It's Not That Big Of An Accomplishment
Here, we see a hunter sneak up behind a bear, peacefully drinking from a nearby pond, before shooting the creature from hiding. Soon, the hunter has the animal taxidermized in a monstrously ferocious pose, as he sits proudly basking in his “accomplishment.” While the hunter intends to show off his victory as if it were a hard-fought battle, in reality, the bear was nothing in life like how it is represented in death.
Hidden behind the impressive story that a taxidermized bear might bring, is the sad truth that the hunter cheated and did not fight a vicious beast. Gary Larson isn’t necessarily taking a stab at all hunters, but rather a prevalent culture among hunters that aggrandizes itself based on “fairness of the hunt,” when in reality there’s nothing fair ing guns against unsuspecting animals. While there’s nothing wrong with hunting or boasting one’s accomplishments, this Far Side comic chastizes those who cheaply kill simply for the sake of an easier-won trophy.
7 Al’s Glass-Bottom Tours
Nature Always Wins In The End
The Far Side loves to play with subverted expectations and this comic leans on that joke entirely. Here, we see a boat with a glass-bottom capsize, while the frenzied people inside attempt to escape. However, it wasn’t the glass that was to blame, but instead a massive hole burst from the hull of the ship. Meanwhile, a school of fish looks downward, reactionless as the humans below helplessly drown to death.
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For too long, humans have believed that we rule over the Earth with absolute authority. Yet, in situations like this comic, the Earth proves to us that we are completely at its mercy. While the humans trapped in the boat plead for their lives, the rest of the surrounding ocean remains at peace and unchanged. Despite how often humanity attempts to commodify nature, Mother Nature only needs a single moment to remind us that, once we’re gone, it will still remain.
6 Cockroaches Rule The World
The New Rulers Of The Apocalypse
Have you ever heard the saying that cockroaches could survive a nuclear winter? Whether that fable has any merit of truth or not, Gary Larson seems to believe that it may. Once again, Ttakes a jab at humanity and our repeatedly false belief that we are an immortal force. However, in this comic, as human society is lost to nuclear fallout, the plants and small insects remain.
Nothing is truly immortal, especially not humans or human society. As The Far Side frequently points out, society is nothing but a few frail walls of made-up rules that can be broken as easily as they are created. Even after the cataclysm of a nuclear apocalypse, nature will continue to persist without us, this time in the form of the small and insignificant lives we overlooked during our reign as the dominant species.
5 “Drive, George, Drive!”
They've Figured Out How To Unlock The Doors
Drive-through safaris can be incredibly entertaining, that is, until the animals figure out how to open the car. In this comic, a pair of tourists are caught driving through a safari as a pack of lionesses tries to unlock the car using an unraveled coat hanger. As the couple’s lives remain under threat, they can’t help but watch in paralyzed awe as their assailants move in. However, even more terrifying is the brazen confidence that nothing would go wrong.
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While the surface-level joke of the lioness performing human behaviors is funny, this comic ultimately seeks to remind us yet again of our futile relationship with nature. Humanity has found a way to capitalize on and commodify every aspect of nature, believing that we can supplant nature with things like cities and cars. However, as Gary Larson shows here, our modern world has no place in nature, which will easily punish us for stepping foot in places we don’t belong.
4 The Rings Of Life
It Survived Forest Fires But Not Humanity
In this comic, a pair of loggers look at the center of an astronomically gargantuan tree they have just cut down, marveling at the many rings hidden underneath the tree’s bark. While looking on, one of the lumberjacks points at one of the rings, mentioning how the plant survived multiple major forest fires. Meanwhile, as they are struck in awe by the tree’s amazing durability, the amazing, elderly plant is already dead and wasting away.
The Far Side often employs subtle irony and this comic is no exception. It shouldn’t be lost on the reader that, while the tree’s life was impressive, its true beauty wasn’t appreciated until after it was killed. Despite surviving multiple forest fires, each of which could have consumed the tree, it was ultimately humanity that brought about the ancient giant’s end. As much as we have the potential to appreciate nature, like in this comic, we fail to appreciate these things before causing irreversible damage that strips our world of these impressive monoliths.
3 Roar As You Leap
These Things Have The Greatest Expressions
Here, two leopards wait in the trees as a lone, wandering human walks along the nearby trail. As the human closes in, one leopard reminds the other to loudly roar when it pounces on the unsuspecting person. However, these leopards aren’t roaring to scare their opponent off, but instead because they find the shock of a human scream to be hilarious. Once more, Gary Larson makes humans the butt-end of a joke as he pokes fun at the futility of our existence in the face of nature’s greater threats.
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While our ability to cooperate may have landed us at the top of the food chain, alone we aren’t nearly as impressive as we like to pretend we are. Humanity’s brazen sense of confidence has been used to quite literally carve out nature to later be replaced by the comforts of human existence. But, outside the walls of society, we are utterly defenseless against the unpredictable chaos that nature presents. Hopefully, Mother Nature doesn’t find our suffering quite as funny as these leopards do.
2 Elephants Never Forget
Do You Kenya, 1947?
Never leave unfinished business, especially when that business is a multi-hundred-pound elephant looking for revenge. In this Far Side comic, an elephant dressed in an obscure outfit emerges from the shadows to confront a big-game hunter who failed to kill him decades ago. Playing with the old idiom that “elephants never forget,” this gargantuan beast clearly re when this human tried to hunt him down. Here, we see Larson take another stab at big-game hunting and the ultimate futility of the “sport.”
Gary Larson seems to truly despise exotic hunters who travel the world to shoot at animals that would otherwise have never seen the barrel of a gun. The cartoonist frequently criticizes big-game hunting while portraying hunters as blundering fools who trample where they don’t belong. Here, Larson warns his readers away from the practice, reminding us that humans leave behind scars in the ecosystems of their prey, while being able to safely return to their homes without any scars of their own.
1 Earth Day 1990
Gary Larson's Saddest Cartoon
Frankly, there’s nothing funny about this cartoon. While Gary Larson’s work is often satirical punchlines, twisted by his absurdist representation of society and morality, they are ultimately jokes. However, in 1990, Gary Larson and a collection of other artists were brought together to create a series of conservationist-themed comics in celebration of Earth Day. In this saddening comic, a group of animals, insects, and plants look down at a sick and dying Mother Nature.
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This cartoon isn’t supposed to be a joke, it’s a stern warning. Just as with most of this list’s other entries, Larson is leveraging his fame and iconic style to tell a significantly more heartbreaking story about humanity’s mistreatment of the Earth. While many of his comics highlight the futility of our existence in the face of nature, our societal actions have left viciously deep scars upon our shared planet, leaving it and the rest of its inhabitants at threat. Over 30 years later, this Far Side comic still feels like a deeply relatable plight of the modern era.
