The Far Sideended its fifteen-year run in syndication in 1995, when creator Gary Larson retired from cartooning – butas only the most hardcore fans of his work will know, Larson did, in fact, produce a handful moreFar Sidepanels after that.These comics were later collected inThe Complete Far Side, and contain some underrated laugh-out-loud moments that deserve attention from a wider audience.
The majority of the comics that appear on this list were first produced for Gary Larson’s bookLast Chapter and Worse, which was released the year following his retirement, in 1996; the final three entries were published in newspapers before appearing inThe Complete Far Side, as part of 1998’s “Far Side of Science” special, which ran in the New York Times.
There is an unfinished quality to some of the comics, while others feel like windows into alternate version ofThe Far Side– but in all cases, they are a treasure for die-hard fans craving newFar Sidematerial.
10This Psychiatrist Unwittingly Spells His Own Doom, In Classic Far Side Fashion
FromLast Chapter and Worse
“It’s just a simple Rorschach inkblot test, Mr. Bromwell,” a therapist says, seemingly impatiently, in this rareFar Sidecartoon, adding,“so calm down and tell me what each one suggests to you” – without realizing that the reason his patient is perturbed is because the inkblots' “suggestion” is to physically attack the doctor.
Readers familiar withThe Far Sidewill know thatGary Larson routinely omitted the captionfrom his comics; while this was often because the joke didn’t need one, at times it was to leave more room for interpretation on the reader’s part, like with a Rorschach test itself. While the caption here adds some amusing context to the image, this feels like a panel that might actually benefit from the ambiguity afforded by excising the caption.
9Gary Larson Loves Animals – But Not All Of His Far Side Characters Can Say The Same
“You know, Ned, you’re my best friend, and I just gotta tell someone,” one zoo employee says to another,as they gaze at the majestic grizzly bear, sitting on a rock in its exhibit, with the speaker choosing this precise moment to unburden himself, admitting: “I hate animals.”
10 Gary Larson Comics That Actually Pre-Date The Far Side – Including a Few Familiar Ones
Before The Far Side, Gary Larson drew a short-lived predecessor called “Nature’s Way,” which helped establish his signature style.
This is aFar Sidecartoon that absolutely needs its captionand illustration to work together, as the humor is located entirely in the latter. What makes this funny – especially to fans who followedThe Far Sideclosely, and know about Gary Larson’s pro-animal, naturalist position – is how blunt the punchline is. Larson might be an animal-lover, but he’s able to envision the exact opposite, and manifest that character in the funniest possible scenario, which is languishing in a career as a zookeeper.
8This Far Side Comic’s Sly Humor Flies Under The Radar Without A Caption
This is an example ofa captionlessFar Sidecomicthat some readers might argue would actually benefit from one. It is not that the joke – whichfeatures an ACME tanker full of dangerous chemicals crashing into the “ALLSTAR EXTERMINATORS” building– isn’t clear, but that there is probably one level of funny higher that Gary Larson could have reached with this panel.
Here, Larson seems to be making a subtle linguistic joke, but it takes a bit of scrutiny to pick up on, as it doesn’t jump right out at the reader; the “acme” is the pinnacle of something, while an “all-star” is someone at the top of their profession, whether they are professional athletes, or expert bug killers. While astute readers might infer this, a caption elaborating on this punchline could have elevated this panel to one of higher acclaim.
7Gary Larson Knows That When Musicians Think Someone Is Rowdy, That’s Really Saying Something
In thisdeep-cutFar Sidecartoon about musicians,a group of rock ‘n’ rollers crowd around the counter at a music shop, as one of the employees tells them about the chimpanzee shredding a flying-V guitar in the corner, explaining that, “he comes in here a lot– never buys anything, climbs all over the store, has to try out every guitar…and if you try taking it away from him, he starts screaming his head off.”
The Far Side Complete Collection
In one swoop, Gary Larson hilariously lampoons difficult retail customers, while also taking a familiar situation to an unexpected extreme in his patented way; the humor of the comic comes from the clash of the store clerk’s casual explanation with the intrusion of the chimp into a normal human situation.
6The Best Far Side Comics Are Precise – But This One Is Kind Of Clumsy
Like the murderouscat in thisFar Sidecartoon, Gary Larson seems to have been going for something here, but, for one reason or another, didn’t quite pull it off. Captioned “when dumb animals attempt murder,” the comicfeatures a cat serving a dog a glass of wine, and having no chill at all about the fact that the wine is clearly poisoned.
The joke here is very on-the-nose, which isn’t a bad thing for aFar Sidecomic per se, but the terse nature of the caption gives the impression of incompleteness. Larson’s creative process included a strong element of revision, and he often drew and re-drew comics, or wrote and re-wrote captions, repeatedly in order to get more out of them, and this one feels as though it was perhaps “pulled out of the draw” half-finished in order to be included as bonus material inLast Chapter and Worse.
5According To This Far Side Comic, Uncertainty Is Truly Hell
ThisFar Sidecartoon ranks up there amongGary Larson’s many depictions of hellbecause of the truly unique form of torture Larson managed to embody with it. “On some days the sandwiches contain a dead scorpion,“one experienced denizen of the underworld tells a newbie, as they eat lunch in the cafeteria, “not every day, but some days – that’s why it’s hell, kid.”
10 Times Gary Larson Made the Mundane Absolutely Hilarious with One Panel
While some mundane activities are given an exciting, high octane upgrade, other Far Side comic strips turn the mundane into nightmare fuel.
For starters, the cafeteria setting of the cartoon is a perfect clash of the mundane and the metaphysical, and then the punchline that Larson builds on top of that is fantastic in the way that it makes hell seem both banal and diabolical. Plus, for anyone who deals with anxiety surrounding uncertainty, this punchline will strike a particular chord, as these people know that not knowing exactly what is for lunch truly can be hell.
4The Far Side Exceled When It Asked Obvious Questions Everyone Else Overlooked
This highly amusing bonusFar Sidecartoon features the chaotic aftermath of a Big Monster’s attackon a metropolitan area, as a TV news crew films an interview with the man who stopped the rampage,a rustic-looking farmer gripping a hunting rifle, who explains, “I seen all the commotion, what with that there destroyin' half the city and whatnot, and I says to myself, ‘Hell! Why don’t someone just shoot the varmint?”
The punchline here relies on the dissonance between these urban and rural tones, which are unified by the overarching absurdity of the joke, in which the key to saving the city was as simple as just shooting the creature, as if the authorities hadn’t tried that yet.
3Gary Larson Dabbles In Science Fiction In This Far Side Bonus Cartoon
From “Far Side Of Science”
Science was one of Gary Larson’s chief fascinations, and manyFar Sidejokes, from the classics to the most obscure, actually have some kind of basis in scientific fact. With this post-retirement cartoon, created for the New York Times, Larson dabbles more in the fiction side of the spectrum, with predictably goofy results.
10 Hilarious Far Side Comics That Make the Ordinary Outrageous
Gary Larson’s comedic style hinged on his unparalleled ability to take things that were familiar to readers and turn them upside down & inside out.
In the comic,the lab-coat-wearing proprietor of “Friendly Frank’s Cloning” – whose sign reads “Good genes? Bad genes? No genes? See us first!” – ushers in a customer off the street, while in the background, readers can also get a glimpse of “DNA Dan’s,“whose slogan is “give yourself the gift of yourself!” All told, this insight into a world of cloning run amuck is a niche but hilariousFar Sidegag, one that showcases Gary Larson’s wide range of interests within the scientific realm.
2A Suburban Dispute Threatens To Escalate In Hilarious Far Side Fashion
“Don’t threaten me, Thagerson!” an irate homeowner shouts at his neighbor, a caveman, over the white picket fence separating their property; “my cousin is an anthropologist,” the man adds, threatening that, “she can make your life hell,” in a punchline that brilliantly reminds readers that while humans might have physically evolved in the millennia since the dawn of the species, but their basic impulse toward aggression and territoriality haven’t necessarily.
Of course, massiveFar Sidefans will notice the callback toGary Larson’s most famous character, the prehistoric Thag, who famously lent his name tothe “Thagomizer,” the term Larson coinedfor a stegosaurus’ tail, which was informally adopted by the scientific community.
1Gary Larson Combines Jerry Springer And PBS In This Low-Key LOL-Worthy Far Side Cartoon
In thisFar Sidecomic, Gary Larson finds the meeting point between high-brow academic discourse and low-brow populist entertainment – and what that amounts to is a daytime talk showwhere “science meets tabloid TV,” which features an audience full of lab-coat-wearing researchers, one of whom asks an accusatory confrontation of the episode’s guest.
In predictably unpredictable fashion, this premise takes a dramatic turn. “If it’s true you felt Professor Ditmar’s theory and subsequent paper was totally unsubstantiated,” the audience-member asks, “why did you not simply ask to review his data, as opposed to putting his cat into the super collider?” Ultimately, this is a classicFar Sidecomic that not enough readers have been exposed to before, given that it appeared after Gary Larson’s retirement.
