Far Sidecreator Gary Larson’s career reached unexpected heights in the mid-1980s, as his work went from a regional novelty to a nationwide sensation; the cartoons collected here represent a wide range of the type of panels that define the peak of Larson’s career,each showcasing in one way or another what makes him a strong candidate for the title of “greatest of all time.”
The Far Sidewas unlike anything that had come before, and it stands out as uniquely irreplicable to this day, decades afterGary Larson hung up his cartooning shoes. He was undeniably a singular talent, nothing short of visionary, one who is rightly lauded for effecting a shift in American culture’s overall sense of humor over the course ofThe Far Side’srun in publication.
While there are countless classicFar Sidecomics that came from Larson’s early and later years, this list focuses on his mid-’80s ascendency as an all-time great humorist.
10Nothing Beats The Far Side When Its Smart And Silly Sides Are In Sync
First Published: June 30, 2025
Captioned “how nature says do not touch,” thisFar Sidecartoon exhibits one of the surefire keys to agreat Gary Larson joke: an intelligent observation that ends in an absurd punchline. Here, that equates to Larson meditating on real-life animal defense mechanisms, including a rattlesnake’s rattler, a blowfish’s sharp tines, and a cat with its back up, before extrapolating the most ridiculous version of a human equivalent possible.
That is,a man wearing a yellow inflatable inner tube around his waist, and a shoe on his head, all while wielding a bazooka, and looking around with shifty eyes, anticipating danger from every corner. It is a delightfully amusing escalation, aFar Sidecartoon that certainly qualifies as “smart humor,“while certifiably confirming that Gary Larson doesn’t take himself too seriously.
First Published: Aug 06, 2025
This is a classic example ofGary Larson’s way with words; linguistic humor was an essential facet ofThe Far Side, and here, Larson demonstrates his knack for riffing on familiar phrases, offering a twist on the maxim “when the cat is away the mice will play,” with a cartoon thatfeatures a group of mice using their feline-free time to study important scientific and political issues, with only one of them questioning why “everyone’s so dead serious.”
By this point inThe Far Side’shistory, jokes like this were second nature to Larson;The Far Sidealways experimental, in some ways, but by the mid-80s, Larson had developed certain consistent tropes and recurring interests of his own, and arguably, this was the era in which these resulted in many of his best, most memorable panels.
8Many Far Side Cartoons Speak For Themselves, But How Much They Have To Say Is An Open Question
First Published: Jun 14, 2025
This comic is emblematic of Gary Larson’s fascination withreversing the roles of humans and animals inFar Sidecartoons. Certainly, there’s an inscrutable quality to this joke, which has no immediately obvious punchline beyond the image ofa cow leaning out the window of a car, shouting “yak yak yak” at humans grazing in a field; yet, in itself, this speaks to Larson’s ability to leave certain jokes more open to interpretation than others.
The Far Side’sreputation for “confusing humor” might be somewhat overstated, but it is an outgrowth of a real experience shared by many of the comic’s readers over the years. EveryFar Sidefan has been left puzzled, trying to figure out the greater meaning of at least one of Larson’s comics, and it can’t be understated how this reaction played a pivotal role in the cartoon’s rise to fame during the 1980s.
7By The Mid-80s, The Far Side’s Absurdist Humor Was Business As Usual
First Published: June 14, 2025
Captioned simply “business lunch,” this is one of thoseFar Sidecartoons that exhibitsGary Larson’s full capacity for highly strange humor, as he transmutes this idea into an image ofbusinessmen in suits packed into a sardine can, being extracted with a butter knife and smeared across a piece of bread by a set of giant hands, attached to an off-panel character.
The humor of thisFar Sidepunchline is almost entirely located in its illustration, but the caption, terse as it may be, does serve an important role here. It provides context for the weirdness of the panel, with the juxtaposition between the recognizable concept of a “business lunch” and the out-there interpretation Gary Larson draws is an essential dimension of the joke.
6As The Far Side Progressed, Gary Larson Became A Master At Using Limited Space To Get Big Laughs
First Published: July 10, 2025
Multi-panelFar Sidecartoonsare an entire subgenre of the strip unto themselves; thoughGary Larson experimented with breaking his own single-panel “rule"from the get-go withThe Far Side, from its debut in 1980, many of the stand-out examples of this technique come from the 1980s. This is just one iconic example, featuring a pet bird in a cage that is positioned directly adjacent to a cuckoo clock.
The Far Side Complete Collection
The first four of six panels are entirely devoted to building anticipation, as the caged bird stares at the clock, untilfinally it strikes the top of the hour, and the clock’s little mechanical bird pops out, prompting the real thing to shout “SEND HELP,“before settling back in to wait for another hour. Without even featuring a human character, Larson manages to perfectly illustrate the clash between civilization and nature.
5Gary Larson Did More Than Just Tip Toe Over The Line Into Absurdity With The Far Side
First Published: August 11, 2025
One underrated quality ofThe Far Sidewas Gary Larson’s sheer audacity as a creator. That is, most cartoonists in his position, seeking to appeal to a mass audience, would never think to drawa cartoon about a bunch of disembodied human toes having a cocktail party, only for it to be interrupted by one with an in-grown nail.
That is precisely what Larson delivers here, in ahilariousFar Sidepanelthat will unsettle readers in the best way possible. By the latter part of the 1980s, Larson’s willingness to think outside the box with his humor had begun to make him a household name, and the frequently ridiculous nature of his humor, as illustrated by this comic, was a pivotal part of his growing notoriety.
4The Nature Of The Far Side Allowed Gary Larson To Take Subtle Jabs When He Wanted To
First Published: June 08, 2025
In the perennial “man vs. nature” conflict,Gary Larson was firmly on the side of nature, something thatThe Far Sidemade clear time and again over the years. However, it is fair to say that, by the peak of his career, Larson had grown more comfortable with the idea of making a point with his jokes.
Take this cartoon, for example, which featuresa deer tossing away its antlers, while a hunter throws aside his gun, as the pair “decide they would settle this in the old-fashioned way.“It is a hilarious punchline, but one that also packs with it a pretty clear critique of hunting; that is, Larson’s joke is predicated on subverting the truth about hunting, which is that defenseless animals like deer are at a natural disadvantage against advanced predators, and adding guns to the mix makes it the most unfair contest possible.
First Published: August 10, 2025
Again, Gary Larson’s high-level wordplay is on full display here, but in a unique way; rather than subverting a phrase, in this case “the goose is cooked,” he inverts it,resulting in “the cook is goosed,” a scenario which thisFar Sidecartoon hilariously depicts by having a chef leap from amidst a flock of geese, a shocked and dismayed expression on his face.
This is also another comic that strongly representsThe Far Side’ssmart/silly dichotomy. Its premise is smart, given that it derives from Larson recognizing that switching the syntax of this particular phrase produced another coherent sentence with an entirely different meaning. The end result, though, is unequivocally ludicrous, and this combination amounts to anunforgettableFar Sidecartoon.
2This Far Side “Sequel” Comic Shows Off Gary Larson’s Tendency To Revisit Jokes
First Published: July 17, 2025
Gary Larson often revisited jokes over the years, leading to many cartoons that were thematically similar, and even some that constitute outright"sequels” to earlierFar Sidepanels. This is just one prominent example, as Larson takes a subject he’d explored before, dogs violently confronting their owners with human weapons, and escalates it to its most ridiculous instance yet,by having a dog with a dynamite vest threaten its abusive owner.
By the mid-to-late 1980s, Gary Larsonhad already produced thousands ofFar Sidecartoons, and in this way, his own body of work became one more pop culture artifact that he could react and respond to, and riff off of, leading to an increasingly meta-feel of his humor in the later stage of his career.
1The Far Side Was Gary Larson’s Pride And Joy, And He Did Whatever He Wanted With it
First Published: July 01, 2025
ThisFar Sidecartoon drew quite a bit of ire at the time of its publication. It is perhaps the most controversial example ofGary Larson’s willingness to use babies as fodder for humor, because it featuresa baby precariously stuffed into a bottle and preserved on a man’s mantlepiece the same way a toy ship would ordinarily be.
“Beats me how they did it,” he says to a friend, before boasting, “I got the whole thing at a garage sale for five bucks.” It is an example of aFar Sidejoke where its absurd and macabre qualities are deliberately clashing, and it is fair to say that it ranks up there withThe Far Side’smost evocative imagery, though to be dismayed by the illustration is to ignore the hyperbolic “edginess” that was a vital quality of Gary Larson’s work.
