Summary
The Far Sidefeatured so many different recurring elements during its fifteen-years in publication that it can be easy to overlook even themost frequent of Gary Larson’s fascinations. This is often the case with the multitude of strips starring amoebas, bacteria, and other single-celled organisms, who get lost in the shuffle amongThe Far Side’scountless cats and dogs, its ducks and chickens, its bears and rhinos, and more.
Yet amoebas and related creatures were themselves regular players inThe Far Side, offering an even more inhuman perspective from which writer and artist Gary Larson could interpret human behavioras he saw fit.
Notably, using the most simple creatures on the planet as characters afforded Larson the opportunity to make some of his most obvious jokes; whileFar Sidepunchlines could often be obscure, at times intentionally so, its amoeba cartoons rarely need to be put under a microscope in order for readers to get the humor.
10 Funniest Far Side Comics Featuring Gary Larson’s Goofy Version Of Tarzan
Tarzan appeared repeatedly in Gary Larson’s “The Far Side,” but for the most part, the man of the jungle’s portrayal was anything but flattering.
10A Break-Up Can Feel Like Losing Part Of Yourself
First Published: August 14, 2025
Thisfar Sideamoeba panel,captioned “life in the petri dish,” reimagines the process known “binary fission” – in which a single-celled organism reproduces by dividing itself – as a traumatic break-up. “No, Elizabeth! No! Don’t go!” a literally love-torn amoeba cries out, as only the thinnest strand now connects it to this new separate entity, which was just a part of itself.
The joke here is certainly amusing, but what takes it to the next level is the way that the DNA of the punchline – so to speak – is encoded with a deeply recognizable strain of heartache. Anyone who has had a long-term relationship end will know that the image of one life splitting into two is an all-too-potent, all-too-resonant metaphor.
9Life On The Far Side Looked Familiar, Wherever It Sprang Up
First Published: June 30, 2025
ThisFar Sidecartoon is especially interesting because of the way that it is literal to the point of being quixotic; that is to say, it is suspiciously straight-forward, which might lead readers to consider it an example ofthe strip’s tendency toward high strangeness.Captioned “things that live in a drop of water, and some of their furniture,” this panel depicts precisely that – an amoeba couple sitting on a couch, with a lamp, television set, and coffee table around them,as a squiggly amoeba-dog floats over their heads.
As extraordinary and weird as Gary Larson’s perspective could be,The Far Sidewas always fundamentally a project devoted to finding humor in the human experience. As such, even Larson’s nonhuman characters had some kind of recognizable tether to contemporary life, as is the case here.
8Gary Larson Wasn’t Above Making The Most Obvious Joke
First Published: June 11, 2025
Captioned “the lowest form of humor,” hereGary Larson depicts an amoeba variation on a classic school-yard prank, as one single-celled creature untucks another’s shirt, shouting: “Shirt’s on fire! Now it’s out!“Of course, the humor here comes from Larson’s conflation of “lowest,” as meaning both the most derided, childish way to get a laugh, and also the amoebas' status at the bottom of the evolutionary ladder.
This is a particularly effective example ofa classicFar Sidetrick; this doubling of meaning allowed Larson to take an obvious joke and make it in a novel way. Essentially, it is a form of creative “having your cake and eating it too,” as making a joke about a bad joke allows Gary Larson to go for a cheap laugh, while also acknowledging and commenting on it.
7The Far Side Revisits The Romantic Lives Of Single-Celled Organisms
First Published: June 14, 2025
Gary Larson was endlessly amazed and perplexed – and at times, dismayed – by human behavior, leading toconstant observations about the absurdity of social normsand social interactions, which he routinely used nonhuman characters to articulate. That is the case here, as once moreThe Far Sideapproaches the topic of amoeba love; this time,an organism sipping a martini warns another to “stay away from Roger over there by the hor d’ouerves,” explaining that “he’s a real nucleus breaker.”
Again, this amoeba cartoon offers insight into the humor ofThe Far Side, as Larson performs a literal version of a maneuver he executed in countless cartoons: here, the nucleus of the amoeba stands in for the human heart, allowing Larson to score another immediate reaction with an easy pun, while also leaving the reader to question the great divide, as well as the unexpected similarities, between simple and complex living creatures and their behaviors.
The Far Side Complete Collection
Fans of the far side can’t pass up this master collection of Gary Larson’s finest work. Originally published in hardcover in 2003, this paperback set comes complete with a newly designed slipcase that will look great on any shelf. The Complete Far Side contains every Far Side cartoon ever published, which amounts to over 4,000, plus more than 1,100 that have never before appeared in a book and even some made after Larson retired.
6Gary Larson’s Amoeba Puns Were Never A Puzzle
First Published: June 19, 2025
Captioned “single-celled sitcoms,' thisFar Sidecartoon is another example of Gary Larson going for the layup; that is, the joke here is obvious,as the theme song to “The Bacteria Bunch” blares from a television set, with a weary-looking amoeba slumped in a reclining chair watching the show.
While plenty ofFar Sidecartoons were outrightdesigned to leave readers scratching their heads, its strain of bacterial humor often didn’t mess around with ambiguity, or try to slyly misdirect the reader’s attention so that the humor of the panel, when it hit, caught them off guard. Instead, like their subjects, these panels were simple, and that was vital to their success.
5The Far Side’s Amoeba Jokes Married Satire And Science
First Published: June 26, 2025
ThroughoutThe Far Side,Gary Larson lampooned marital strifein a variety of different ways, including several of his most memorable amoeba panels. In this case, an amoeba wife berates her husband,irately proclaiming that he is “so…so…so thick-membraned sometimes.”
ThoughFar Sidecartoons were meant to be appreciated in isolation, for readers familiar with Larson’s recurring use of single-celled characters, the floating furniture here serves as an effective call-back, while the use of “membrane” in place of “skull” is another example of substituting amoeba biology for human biology to make the reader reflect on the innate silliness of how English speakers, at least, talk about the body.
4Another Far Side Amoeba Husband Is Chastised For Being Brainless
First Published: June 24, 2025
Once more, thisFar Sidepanel findsa single-celled wife haranguing her husband, as he sits in a recliner watching TV. “Stimulus, response! Stimulus, response,” she yells, before demanding to know: “Don’t you ever think?”
For an amoeba, this is naturally a hilarious demand, as he is doing everything he is biologically designed for. As commentary on the human condition, Gary Larson strikes an effective chord with this comic. Many readers will feel an uncomfortable kinship with this beleaguered amoeba, as they find that their daily lives often feel reduced to a form of “stimulus, response” behavior, while they yearn for greater intellectual stimulation. Interestingly, though Larson himself claimed to be only interested instimulating an immediate response from readers, a byproduct of his work was often intellectual curiosity.
Far Side Creator Gary Larson On the 1 Question He WISHED Readers Would Have Asked
In “The Complete Far Side,” Gary Larson discussed the questions readers asked him all too often – and the one he never got asked, but wished he did.
3This Far Side Comic Astutely Depicts The “Observer Effect”
First Published: July 12, 2025
Again, at its core, this is a simpleFar Sideamoeba joke; captioned “life on a microscopic slide,“a single-celled organism shouts to its companions, “look out everyone, it’s a cover slip!” just as they are smushed by the glass frame,comedically distorting their images from one frame to the next.
What is especially interesting about this cartoon, though, is the way that it illustrates the scientific phenomenon known as the “observer effect.” That is, the idea that – whether it is atoms being smashed in a particle accelerator, or a human sitting behind one-way glass – the very act of being observed changes a subject’s behavior. Here, the specimens are physically altered by the unseen scientist’s preparation of the slide, and consequently, the observer is going to get a distorted image of the nature of these creatures, rather than what they truly appear as.
2For The Far Side’s Amoebas, It Could Be Tough Standing Out In A Crowd
First Published: July 22, 2025
Despite theunique nature of Gary Larson’s amoeba illustrations, they are generally among his less lauded cartoons; perhaps because of the simplicity of their punchlines, or because readers found it harder to relate to bacteriathan to chickens. In any case, this panel almost seems to offer an acknowledgment of that,as attendees of an “Amoeba convention"are depicted wearing “Hello, My Name Is"stickers, each bearing human names.
That is it – that is the joke here. Yet it is funnier than it might get credit for, as Larson uses the most uniform type of life on Earth to offer a subtle commentary on the difficulty of standing out in a crowd of peers. Anyone who has attended a conference for work, or for fun, will know what it is like to be at least briefly overwhelmed by the sense of being a single unit in an interconnected mass.
1This “Single-Celled Cowboy” Is The Far Side’s Most Famous Amoeba Character
First Published: June 13, 2025
For all the difficulty the “Amoeba convention” attendees might have had standing out amongst a crowd, this single-celled cowboy is immediately recognizable. He is alsoThe Far Side’smost distinct amoeba character; that is, while it can be argued that other amoeba cartoons are funnier, it is hard to disagree that this is the most memorable individual amoeba Gary Larson ever illustrated.
The image is accentuated by another one of Larson’s puns, one that is too obvious not to get a reaction; casually twirling a rope, the microscopic cattle rustler says “So, until next week – adios, amoebas.“Any givenFar Sidecomic could alternatively evoke laughter, or eye-rolls from its audience; this is an example of aFar Sidecartoon that has just as likely a chance of producing either reaction.
The Far Side
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
