Is there anybody out there who is just “meh” on The Far Side? There’s a “love it or hate it” quality to Gary Larson’s humor, and no punchlines highlight that more than his penchant for outrageous puns and plays on words.
Legions of people grew to love The Far Side in the 1980s, vaulting Larson to household name status as Far Side collections became reliable bestsellers and new daily cartoons spread across the U.S., appearing in thousands of daily newspapers. All that time, though, there were plenty of people who downright detested The Far Side.
One person’s laugh-out-loud funny cartoon is another’s rage bait. That is what The Far Side proves time and again, even more than 30 years after its original run ended. Not sure if you like The Far Side? These comics will help you figure out which side you come down on in the great debate over Gary Larson’s comedic sensibilities.
8
“Some Day My Pants Will Come…”
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This sounds like the lament of someone waiting on an Amazon package. “Someday, my pants will come…” Except here it is a dress singing. Yes, a dress. There’s nobody wearing it, but from its surroundings, readers can figure out that this dress is a princess. Locked in a tower, crooning out the window at the full moon, waiting to be rescued.
By “pants,” rather than a prince. This is one of those Far Side jokes that act as a litmus test. Are you in or out on Gary Larson’s humor? Calling this pun “a stretch” is, well, a stretch. Larson unrepentantly bludgeons the English language into submission in this cartoon, offering up the ultimate “love it or hate it” Far Side experience.
7
“A Following Sea”
“Following sea” is a nautical term, but with this Far Side, Gary Larson turns it into the stuff of a taut thriller. A dark cobblestone street, in a rough part of town where the sailors hang out. A ship’s captain, out for a stroll. Unaware he’s being stalked. In fact, he’s about to be murdered. By who? No, by what.
“Captain MacIntyre was killed by a following sea,” the caption states. MacIntyre is in the foreground of the frame, and in the background is a shadow on the wall as a rogue wave comes crashing around the corner, gunning for the captain. Well, no, not a rogue wave, that’s different. A following sea, which is usually an auspicious maritime condition, but which in this case proves absurdly fatal. It is a subtly funny Far Side visual, but the real punchline is how Larson plays with the word “following,” turning the sea into a predator stalking its prey.
6
“Two Small Dogs Just Waltzed Into The Place”
The waltz. A dance so deeply engrained in popular culture, going back hundreds of years, that it came to have a figurative meaning on top of what it literally means. When someone is described as “waltzing,” it means they’re moving casually, confidently, and aristocratically. Like they belong. Maybe even like they own the place. In this Far Side cartoon, Gary Larson mashes the figurative and literal meanings together. And then makes the waltzing characters dogs.
Dogs on a mission. The caption here is framed as reporting on the aftermath of this curious case of the dogs who learned to dance to infiltrate a dance studio and kidnap a cat in plain sight during a class in progress. “As witnesses later recalled, two small dogs just waltzed into the place, grabbed the cat, and waltzed out.”
5
“This Looks Like A Little Slice Of Heaven”
Location was often essential to The Far Side’s humor, especially when Gary Larson was messing around with language. This is another cartoon where Larson makes a figure of speech literal. “What the…,” a patron at a restaurant calls out to the server after getting his dessert, “this looks like a little slice of heaven!” Only he doesn’t mean it as a compliment. He’s legitimately shocked. Because he’s a devil, and this restaurant is in the pit of hell.
Context is king, and “serving heaven” means something very different in hell than it does anywhere else. And the cherry on top? Larson draws the piece of pie with a halo hovering over it, in order to signify its heavenly status. A small bit of detail work that adds the perfect dash of visual flavor to this play on words.
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“Masher Films”
This one is a lay-up, by Gary Larson’s standards. It is illustrative as a type of Far Side comic where the pun is the set-up, with the visual execution of the pun being the real punchline. “Masher films,” made by potatoes, about potatoes, for an audience of potatoes. That sets up the scene, in which a packed theater, full of spuds, watches as a Mr. Potatohead-esque figure corners a Mrs. Potatohead in an alley and raises a masher over his head, about to strike.
The absurdity of the imagery is the selling point with this Far Side, but it is absurdity that derives from silliness. Which all grows out of an innocuous habit of mixed up words and messing with their meanings.
3
“Home On The Mange”
This is double whammy Far Side wordplay. The caption is simple. One word: “fleaboys.” That is, like cowboys, except they are fleas. Simple, yet strange in that patented Larsonian way. However, that’s not the real punchline here. No, for that, Larson delivers another pun, turning the classic Western tune “Home on the Range” into “Home on the Mange.”
What a difference a letter makes. That was the thesis of many classic Far Side comics. Change a word to another nearly-identical word, and not only does the meaning of the sentence change, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Like one in which fleas gather around microscopic campfires on a mangy dog’s back and sing songs to pass the time.
2
“A John Deer Letter”
Here’s another testament to the difference one letter makes. “Dear” and “deer.” Two English-language words that sound identical, but are spelled slightly differently, and have significantly different meanings. Gary Larson played with this as a source of confusion and hilarity in several memorable Far Sides, with this arguably being the best of them. (Go on, argue about it in the comments below!)
Larson also lampoons the “Dear John” break-up letter trope here. What would the deer equivalent be? “A ‘John deer’ letter,” which one young buck is shocked to find that his lover, “Connie,” has left in his mailbox before running off. Visually, the sight of the jilted deer’s friend putting a hoof on his shoulder is a perfect touch that makes this an unforgettable Far Side masterpiece. Or, an eye-roll inducing piece of ephemera. You decide!
1
“Eat Out Wake, Pintaheads”
The Nina. The Pinta. The Santa Maria. Columbus’ ships from his 1492 expedition across the Atlantic. There must have been a bit of a playful rivalry between the crews of the three, right? Or, maybe not so playful. Maybe a little hurtful. That’s how Gary Larson envisions it, anyway, in this extra-sized Far Side cartoon in which the Nina’s crew bullies the Pinta’s via a banner hung off their starboard side.
“Eat our wake, Pintaheads!” That’s what the banner reads. Caricatures of the Nina’s crew show them waving as they break out ahead of the other ship, while the Pinta crew point as if to be like, “hey, that’s not cool.” It’s a great bit of historical revisionism mixed with insult comedy, a blend only The Far Side could pull off so effortlessly.
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