12 Far Side Comics Comics From 1986 Designed To Make Readers Go WHAT-THE?

According to Gary Larson, making readers of The Far Side ask “What-the?” could be as satisfying as making them laugh, as these cartoons from 1986 illustrate. Larson stated that his goal was to get a reaction out of the reader with The Far Side, and he was willing to do so by just about any means necessary.

That said, just as The Far Side featured different strains of Larson’s signature humor, it also achieved the end result of perplexing its readers in several distinct ways. Some Far Side punchlines were intentionally designed to be confusing, but there are also many cases in which the artist’s tendency toward obscurantism inadvertently led to a “What-the?“ reaction.

In whatever way it got there, The Far Side’s most confusing comics are often among its most unforgettable, and as a result, can be considered some of its most successful entries.

12 Gary Larson Trusted The Far Side’s Readers – Sometimes Too Much

First Published: January 7, 1986

This Far Side panel is a perfect example of one particular subtype of “What-the?” cartoon: the obscure reference. Gary Larson’s humor is often described as idiosyncratic, but another word for it is “niche” – that is, some of his jokes required very specific knowledge in order to be considered funny. In this sense, Larson often put faith in his readers to “get” the joke, and this didn’t always work out. That is the case here, as a bird is depicted smashing into an invisible barrier in the sky, with the caption explaining: “when migration routes encounter the window of vulnerability.”

While most readers will likely recognize the phenomenon of birds flying into glass windows, for this joke to really land, one must be familiar with the term “window of vulnerability,” which has varied applications in several fields, from psychology to computer science. For readers unfamiliar with the term, the effect is a “What-the?” response, rather than laughter.

11 On The Far Side, Even A Boy & His Dog Isn’t A Simple Matter

First Published: February 21, 1986

If there is a reference here for the reader to “get,” it isn’t one that jumps out as immediately obviously. Instead, this seems to be one of Gary Larson’s more willfully esoteric Far Side comics. The panel depicts a nerdy boy clutching a specimen jar as his “invaluable lizard setter” sniffs out a tiny reptile for him to add to his collection.

This is an example of a Far Side cartoon where the “What-the?” radiates outward in all directions from its very premise. Readers are likely to be stymied by trying to grasp the meaning of the joke, while at the same time, it almost begs the question of “how did Larson come up with this?” Though the artist professed that this was his least favorite question to be faced with, so many Far Side panels invite it by their very nature.

10 Gary Larson’s Sense Of Humor Was Sometimes At Odds With The Far Side’s Jokes

First Published: March 21, 1986

This panel features several strips of tall grass, spread across winding hills at the edge of a forest, accompanied by the caption: “the secret python burial grounds.” Certainly, this is another example of Gary Larson’s humor perhaps being too subtle, but that makes it an ideal comic for illustrating a useful distinction between the “humor” of The Far Side in general, and some of its punchlines in particular.

That is to say, the joke here is evident enough: dead snakes buried in this spot provide compost for bursts of wild growth. Yet many readers will be left on uneven ground when it comes to figuring out what makes this joke funny. In this way, some Far Side panels inadvertantly undercut themselves as comedy, though often in these cases a “What-the?” reaction proved to be a suitable alternative.

9 Gary Larson Loved To Slip Scientific Jargon Into The Far Side

First Published: April 21, 1986

Gary Larson’s penchant for referential humor manifested in many ways throughout The Far Side. This included regular jokes about famous films, as well as references to real historical events and epochs, but it also resulted in his frequent use of scientific terminology and jargon, which could have the effect of confusing non-scientist readers rather than making them chuckle.

Case in point, this panel, in which a female bug huffily looks at a male bug’s underground crevice and huffs, “you call this a niche?” While the panel’s riff on the idea of a messy “bachelor pad” is clear enough, the use of the term “niche” – referring to the ecological niche in which specific insect species live – runs the risk of flummoxing readers who don’t recognize it.

8 Reading The Far Side Was An Intellectually Stimulating Activity

First Published: May 27, 1986

Most readers will likely be familiar with the term “mental gymnastics,” but this Far Side cartoon offers a look at a less well-known alternative, “brain aerobics,” as a scientist leads his colleagues in an unusual form of mental exercise, inciting them to “keep those cerebellums up!”

The imagery of the panel – a group of scientists standing awkwardly in front of a white board with a half-scribbled formula, all of them standing rigidly still, as they work out their brain muscles in attempt to loosen up their thought processes – stands a strong chance of getting a laugh from readers. That said, conceptually, this Far Side panel is in full-on “What-the?” territory, given that most readers will get an intellectual work-out just from meditating on how Gary Larson could have arrived at this joke.

7 Sometimes It Was Hard To Know What Gary Larson Was Driving At

First Published: June 27, 1986

For Gary Larson, it was the small details that could make or break a Far Side comic – which is why some of his more perplexing creative decisions continue to gnaw at readers to this day. Again, there seems to be a disconnect between the “humor” and the “joke” of this cartoon. The premise of a role reversal between humans and cows comes across clearly, but the cow shouting “yakity yak yak yak” at a pasture full of people from the back seat of a passing car feels like a reference that flies over most readers’ heads.

Alternatively, it may come across as a placeholder, perhaps the result of Gary Larson being unable to find a satisfying line for the bovine to bellow – leading this cow comic to lapse into inscrutable strangeness, rather than delivering a laugh-out-loud punchline.

6 Some Far Side Cartoons Were Intentionally Designed To Bug Readers

First Published: July 4, 1986

This Far Side panel, featuring a philosophical aside between two insects mingling at a party, is almost certainly one of the kind that Gary Larson knew was going to leave readers scratching their heads and going, “Huh? What-the?” The Far Side was often philosophical, and here Larson ruminates on the scope of existence through the perspective of Earth’s smallest – but by far most populus – creatures, its insects.

What stands out about this panel is the way Larson overloads the reader with detail, only for it all to add up to a joke that is so obvious that it is almost stunning. As often as The Far Side swerved its readers, sometimes it could end up exactly where one might expect, and somehow, that could have the effect of being even weirder than an outright absurd punchline.

5 Some Far Side Comics Had A Disproportionate Impact On The Reader

First Published: August 11, 1986

In this Far Side panel, a couple returns home from an evening out to find their house totally trashed – and quickly surmise that the culprit is their parakeet, who has “been loose this whole evening.” It’s a simple joke, but it is likely to get an outsized reaction from readers, whether that is a solid laugh, or a solid “What-the?”

Gary Larson’s humor wasn’t always subtle; in fact, sometimes it could be downright obvious. That said, Larson’s close attention to detail often meant that the tiniest aspect of a panel could be what provoked a reaction from his reader. In a way, this Far Side panel, with its huge mess wrought by a little bird, is like a visual representation of that.

4 Readers Won’t Just Ask “What-the?” At This Far Side Comic, They’ll Scream It

First Published: September 9, 1986

More than just a stand-out “What-the?” cartoon, this ranks up there with The Far Side’s most nightmarish panels. Captioned “skin orchard,” it depicts exactly that – rumpled, human-shaped skins hanging loosely from otherwise normal-looking apple trees. Upon encountering this illustration, readers are much less likely to howl with laughter than they are to howl “Why, Gary Larson, why?”

The Far Side’s humor was infamously macabre at times, but its imagery rarely tread into full-on disturbing territory, which this panel comes close to. While it is certainly capable of generating unsettled laughter in the reader, the most understandable response to Larson’s “skin orchard” punchline will be for audience members to shudder at the very idea that anyone could come up with such a thing.

3 The Far Side’s Penchant For Puns Left Many Readers Shaking Their Heads

First Published: October 6, 1986

Gary Larson unabashedly loved puns, and he was exceptionally good at not only coming up with them, but illustrating them in an unforgettable way. Nevertheless, pun-based Far Side cartoons are a great example of how readers could supply the “What-the?” side of the equation as much as Larson himself.

Here, one cowboy asks another“ain’t you a stranger in this part?” as they are nestled in the part of a man’s hair. For readers who are leery of puns, this is an eye-rolling Far Side, while even people who appreciate wordplay of this kind are likely to be left asking “What-the?” at how outright inane this joke is. That said, for a certain subset of readers, that is precisely what makes it hilarious.

2 The Far Side Was The Product Of “Outside The Sardine Can” Thinking

First Published: November 6, 1986​​​

This out-there Far Side cartoon, captioned simply “business lunch,” features someone fixing themselves a sandwich – using a butter knife to scrape men in suits out of a can and onto a piece of white bread, à la sardines. As absurd as it is, this comic also serves as Gary Larson’s commentary on conformity, something that he steered about as far afield of as possible.

It’s no understatement to call Gary Larson a singular creative mind, and as a result of parlaying that into a successful career, he was about as much of an antithesis to people laboring in corporate America as there can be. Though the imagery of this Far Side is undoubtedly absurd, it contains a subtle strain of social commentary, though readers must first ask “What-the?” before arriving at this insight.

1 With The Far Side, Gary Larson Sought To Provoke A Natural Response

First Published: December 27, 1986

There is a biology to humor, in a way; laughter is an immediate physical reaction to stimulus, and according to Gary Larson, so is confusion. In whatever way a reader responded to any given Far Side comic, this was Larson’s end in itself: the response.

That said, what response he expected from a panel like this – featuring illustrations of “some of the non-vital organs,” which amount to an absurdist mix of household items and vestigial-looking appendages – is as mysterious as the panel itself. One of the most unusual Far Side panels by a mile, this is another example of a cartoon that seems to have been designed with the express purpose in mind of having the reader fold up their newspaper and walk away wondering “What-the?”