10 Surreal Far Side Comics That Will Scratch Your Itch for Weird Humor

The greatest virtue of The Far Side was that it could be many things to many different readers – yet creator Gary Larson's strip is perhaps well-known for its bizarre, often out-of-left-field style of humor, and the comics collected here prove that reputation was more than well-earned. Larson's surrealist panels are rightly among his most highly-regarded, and it can be argued that they helped redefine American culture's overall sense of humor.

As long-time fans of Gary Larson's work can attest, in the era of its publication, from 1980 to 1994, The Far Side was unlike any other syndicated comic in newspapers – reading The Far Side was an experience, and that was exactly how Larson wanted it.

Often, part of that experience involved leaving Far Side readers with more questions than answers. These questions are, in fact, Larson's greatest legacy – in turn, it can be said that this makes his strangest comics his greatest achievements.

10 "When Piranha Dine Out": At Its Best, The Far Side Was An Excursion Into The Unprecedented

First Published: July 19, 1987

In this laugh-out-loud absurdist Far Side cartoon, captioned "when piranha eat out," the silhouette of an adventurer is shown sleeping in a tent on the bank of a jungle river – unaware that a tiny bus full of flesh-eating fish is emerging from the river and headed straight for him, ready to sample the "turf" side of the surf-and-turf equation for a change.

When applied to most artists, whether high or low-brow – and Gary Larson can be said to perfectly straddle the line between the two – the question "how does this person come up with this stuff?" is considered trite, but for Larson, it was the defining feature of his work. To put it in more lofty terms, The Far Side's creator had a visionary eye for the unprecedented, and the unexpected, which his cartoons embodied in an unmistakable style.

9 "The Cook Is Goosed": Gary Larson Had A Way With Words – And Words Were Never The Same

First Published: January 14, 1988

Gary Larson is often lauded for his mastery of wordplay, and this is one of the more out-there examples, highlighting both how strange his sense of humor was, and also the dexterity with which he was able to twist language to suit his punchlines. In this panel, a chef in the midst of a flock of geese jumps up in the air, a shocked look on his face, as the caption explains that "suddenly, in the middle of the flock, the cook is goosed."

Related 10 Far Side Comics Only Gary Larson Superfans Know About The Far Side ended in 1995, but there are actually a handful of deep-cut panels Gary Larson produced after that, which only die-hard fans know about.

With this Far Side cartoon, Larson is actually playing with two different colloquial terms at once. First, he is reformulating the idiom "the goose is cooked," which means, to use another idiom, "the jig is up," or in plainer terms, that one has run out of options in a situation. By flipping the phrase, the author creates a new meaning, which plays on the term "goosing," which is, for lack of a better term, to poke, smack, or grab someone's butt, in this case, "the cook's" – which Larson then ludicrously illustrates in this Far Side panel.

8 "The Final Signer Of The Declaration": The History Of The Far Side Is Full Of Jokes About Real Events

First Published: June 26, 1988

Gary Larson was – and presumably still is – an intellectual; The Far Side contains countless odes to his obsession with science, and his interest in history, two subjects which he willfully, and gleefully, subverted the seriousness of in order to mine them for comedic opportunities, which turned out to be numerous. This cartoon is a particularly weird example of the latter, as it features a "historical note" in which Larson superfluously informs us that "the final signer of the Declaration of Independence would've been Iggy Felton if the pen hadn't suddenly gone dry."

The crux of the humor is the divide between the matter-of-fact tone of the caption, and the mad-cap anachronism of the illustration, as Iggy Felton's modern appearance and irate demeanor clash with this solemn milestone in the history of civilization – amounting to one of The Far Side's most perplexing, but certainly amusing, historical references.

7 "The Hominideatodon, An Evolutionary Wonder": Gary Larson's Literal Nightmare Scenario For Prehistoric Humans

First Published:​​​​​​​ September 25, 1988​​​​​​​

This is one of Gary Larson's most visually striking – and for some, visually disturbing – Far Side cartoons from his career. In the panel, Larson's ubiquitous cave-people characters point and watch as one of their number is seemingly attacked by the tendril of a prehistoric predator, yet as the caption informs us, this is really the "unique appendage" of the creature known as the "Hominideatodon," who has apparently evolved for the sole purpose of devouring early humans.

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From premise to punchline, this Far Side joke is strange and unsettling; the idea of an animal evolving a human-like "appendage" in order to prey on them is downright nightmarish, and the visual – including the small detail of previously eaten humans' bones lying next to the creature's mouth – lives up to the idea.

6 "Do You Have To Mess With The Organisms?": Gary Larson Loved To Play With Perspective

First Published: January 10, 1990

The premise of this Far Side comic is straight out of The Twilight Zone, as two giant alien creatures land in Alaska and start attacking its indigenous inhabitants, including melting their igloos with a death ray – except it is, in fact, a magnifying glass, wielded by a child named "Jimzfxxy," who is admonished by his mother, the larger creature looming over his shoulder.

This is a classic Larsonian twist on perspective; for the tiny humans fleeing the destruction of their homes, this moment is undoubtedly a terrifying calamity, but from the aliens' POV, it is just a small domestic trifle, as a mother calls-out her son. This Far Side panel also exemplifies Gary Larson's ability to make the familiar feel strange, and the out-of-this-world feel familiar.

5 "I Was Taking You Quite Literally": The Far Side Reverses Its Usual Tactic In This Comic

First Published: August 1, 1990

In another classic Far Side play on words, one witch visiting another belatedly registers her friend's good news, crying out, "oh Helen! You're pregnant? That's wonderful!" before explaining that, "at first, I was taking you quite literally when you said you had one in the oven!"

Related Hardcore Far Side Fans Know These 10 Comics Deserve Way More Attention There are many famous, and infamous, Far Side cartoons, but some Gary Larson's best work remains critically underappreciated to this day.

The punchline's macabre overtones, mixed with its use of the most stereotypical illustration of witches possible, make it a highly amusing Far Side joke on its own; what makes this panel notable, in terms of Gary Larson's humor, is the way it seemingly reverses his usual tactic of taking this too literally for the sake of the bit – here, is witch character does exactly that, and in the process, misunderstands her friend's use of figurative language.

4 "Ease Up On Those Acid-Filled Beakers": Many Iconic Far Side Jokes Were All About Disproportionate Escalation

First Published: November 27, 1991

"Whoa! Whoa! C'mon you guys, this is just a friendly game of cards," one scientist seated at a poker table admonishes his fellow players – two of whom stand ready to permanently disfigure one another with "acid-filled beakers," in this out-of-control Far Side joke, which exhibits Gary Larson's talent for comedic escalation.

That is, The Far Side was full of moments where characters took things to an unwarranted, and usually unexpected extreme – or, even more frequently, moments where characters were on the brink of doing something unhinged, as is the case here. This cartoon also serves as Larson's amalgamation of two of his favorite subjects – in addition to scientists, The Far Side was replete with cowboys – as the laboratory suddenly becomes more akin to an old-timey saloon.

3 "During A Desert Spam Storm": Hands Down One Of Gary Larson's Greatest Non-Sequiturs

First Published: November 26, 1993

Despite their strangeness, most Far Side panels often had some manner of internal logic to them – but this is a stand-out exception, featuring a punchline that seems deliberately illogical, not to mention outrageously absurd. The caption explains that "fortunately, both Ali and his camel knew to take refuge during a desert spam storm," and the illustration delivers this precise, surreal incident, with a downpour of hunks of processed meat falling from the sky on their heads.

Related 10 Funny Far Side That Prove Vikings Really Aren't All That Scary The Far Side featured many Vikings over the years, playfully flipping the script on their reputation as fearsome warriors by depicting them as silly.

The Far Side frequently made readers ask "What the?" in response to its brazenly weird comedy, and the experience of being mystified by Gary Larson's humor is encapsulated by this "spam storm" comic perhaps as well as any other single entry in the artist's extensive body of work.

2 "Mowaka Is Overpowered By Army Ants": Gary Larson Tackles The Bystander Effect, Far Side Style

First Published: March 24, 1993

In this outrageous Far Side cartoon, a villager is "overpowered by army ants" right in the center of the village, but rather than help him, his neighbors merely watch as he suffers – with the caption noting that, "later, bystanders were all quoted as saying they were horrified, but 'didn't want to get involved," in a potent reflection on the psychological theory known as the "bystander effect."

Most commonly cited in the infamous Kitty Genovese murder case, this is the idea that the more people are witness to a traumatic event, the less likely they are to help. Here, Larson finds the humor in the inherent absurdity of this tragic theory, by transposing it on to a situation which is less sad, and more ridiculous, though with a lingering touch of the gruesome quality of violence.

1 "When Things Get Slow In The Midday Heat": The Far Side Was Many Things, But It Was Never Boring

First Published: June 22, 1994​​​​​​​

"When things get slow in the midday heat," the caption of this Far Side comic explains, "Arnie would often break out his trunk puppet" – with the illustration depicting the elephant in question playing with exactly what it sounds like: a human-head puppet on the end of its trunk. "And so the doctor says to me, 'do you know you've got an elephant growing out of your neck?'" Arnie makes his human character say, in a highly surreal Far Side elephant panel.

Though these Far Side elephants needed to find a way to combat boredom, that was never a problem with The Far Side itself; even Gary Larson's least evocative panels can rarely be accused of being "boring," as there is always at least some spark of something interesting recognizable in them for Far Side fans, new and old alike, to grab hold of and get some measure of entertainment from.