Since 1979, Gary Larson has been taking readers to The Far Side with his oddball sense of humor, so it’s hard to pick a list of the funniest Far Side comics.
From his invention of new words to his hilarious lampooning of day-to-day events, Larson’s magnum opus has never failed to make readers laugh or scratch their heads in confusion.
Though all of Larson’s strips are funny in their own way, the following strips stand out as some of The Far Side’s most humorous.
20
Midvale School For The Gifted
While TV shows, movies, and even video games have been set in schools, whenever Larson touched on the subject, readers knew it was going to be hilarious. So simple and yet so hilarious, the image of a boy attempting to push open a pull door will never not be sidesplitting.
Below the simple surface gag, the strip is also making clever commentary about how book smart people sometimes lack common sense. Many of the best Far Side comics grew to have lives of their own, but some have become hilarious staples of popular culture.
19
“You’re Sick, Jessy!…Sick, Sick, Sick!”
Aside from dogs, Larson’s main muse when crafting a Far Side comic was the trusty bovine. Larson was never afraid to put his cow subjects in absurd situations, and seeing a cow getting chewed out for grilling something is so much funnier than if it was a human.
The comic shows off more of Larson’s dark sense of humor, as the reader can only assume that the cow is grilling meat from his own kind.
18
Agent 6373
Over the years, Gary Larson based many Far Side cartoons on real history, including this one, in which the cause of the Great Chicago Fire is revealed to have not been an accident, but rather sabotage, as “Agent 6373” – the infamous apocryphal Mrs. O’Leary’s cow – is said to have “accomplished her mission” by two bovines watching the conflagration from a distant pasture.
This hilarious panel is also notable for being the very first Far Side cow comic, in the process setting a high bar for the most prolific, and easily the most recognizable recurring element in the strip’s run.
17
Hog Heaven
Gary Larson loved wordplay and puns in The Far Side. One strip takes the common phrase ‘hog heaven’ and takes it to its natural conclusion. Rather than joining the rest of humanity in heaven, a man named Ernie is sent to an afterlife meant for pigs.
The wordplay is simple, but highly effective. Usually, ‘hog heaven’ implies someone is exactly where they want to be. But in poor Ernie’s case, he’s going to be spending the rest of eternity sitting on a cloud with a bunch of pigs. It’s sad for Ernie, but it’s hilarious for everyone else.
16
God Cooks Up Jerks
The Far Side always found interesting, if not simple, ways to comment on the human condition. Here, this strip envisions God as a chef working up on his finest creation, Earth. His decision to ‘make things interesting’ by adding jerks is both hilarious and poignant.
Jerks are just a part of life, and there’s no real rhyme or reason to why some people are just jerks. But this strip posits the idea that it’s all just part of his plan, both a thought-provoking and chuckle-worthy think piece.
15
Now!
In the Far Side comic that defines the “canine vs. mail carrier” rivalry, a group of unsuspecting postal workers just trying to get through their day are subject to a sneak attack from a squad of dogs in disguise, who lunge at their human foes in a coordinated, predetermined campaign of terror.
The way this Far Side comic captures action is peak Gary Larson, with the dogs flying in from various angles, human clothes fluttering off of them as they attack, while the actual human characters are caught totally off guard.
14
Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t
Gary Larson could even make the concept of hell a funny scenario in The Far Side. In this strip’s case, a man finds himself condemned to Hades and forced to choose between two doors: One marked “Damned if you do” and the other marked “Damned if you don’t“.
Obviously, Larson is getting humor out of the usual saying, but what makes the strip hilarious is the devil’s annoyance at a man who can’t grasp the most literal interpretation of the saying. It’s a fantastic setup that really finds the humor in eternal damnation.
13
The Elephant’s Nightmare
Elephants made many memorable appearances in The Far Side, with this panel ranking as perhaps the greatest. In fact, it is without a doubt one of the funniest Far Side punchlines, period. In this panel, an elephant sits at a piano, on stage in front of a crowded theater – and thinks “I can’t play this thing…I’m a flutist for crying out loud!“
Here, Larson slyly subverts the reader’s expectations in the funniest possible way; of course, the issue should be that the elephant doesn’t have the digits required to “tickle the ivories,” so to speak, making it that much funnier when the problem is, in fact, simply a matter of being expected to play the wrong instrument.
12
The Real Reason Dinosaurs Became Extinct
There have been plenty of dinosaur-related strips in The Far Side’s long history, butnone are funnier than this, an alternate theory to what killed the dinosaurs; rather than a meteor, it was in fact: smoking cigarettes. Larson wasn’t afraid of implied carnage or mass destruction.
However, Larson subverts expectations here by presenting several dinosaurs dying a slower death due to tobacco use instead of a violent collision with a meteor. Not only is it funny, it’s also a wise reminder to quit smoking for those who might still indulge in the habit.
11
Professor Schwartzman Breaks The Language Barrier
While other comic strips like Garfield were based exclusively around the inner thoughts of a pet, Larson often tackled the subject with a bit more strangeness.
One of the all-time funniest Far Side comics has the following caption: “Donning his new canine decoder, Professor Schwartzman becomes the first human being on Earth to hear what barking dogs are actually saying.“
Speaking to the loving and friendly nature of man’s best friend, the panel shows that all the dogs want to do is say hello. Funny in its simplicity, the panel is also quite heartwarming as it shows that the artist truly loves his canine friends, even if he often pokes fun at them.