12 Far Side Comics From 1994 That Make Readers Go "What the?" (Was the Final Year Of Gary Larson's Career Weirder Than Ever Before?)

1994 was the last year of The Far Side, concluding a fourteen-year run in publication that astounded and confounded readers, providing countless laughs and provoking endless iterations of the question, “What the?” As was the cause throughout the cartoon’s run, the final year of Far Side cartoons was as full of wonderfully strange moments as ever.

Creator Gary Larson retired at the start of 1995, after one final Wizard of Oz reference on New Year’s Day. Though the artist had been saying for over a decade that he would one day “pull the plug” on The Far Side, the end was still a disappointing surprise to legions of fans, one that left readers with many unanswered questions.

It is fair to say that Larson went out at the top of his game; The Far Side was evolving in 1994, but what it might have become is a matter that Gary Larson devotees can only speculate about.

12 The Far Side Chewed Up & Spit Out Countless Characters During Its Run

First Published: January 18, 1994

The Far Side was a rough place to exist – the cartoon’s cast of characters were as likely to fall victim to tragedy as hilarious fits of irony, simple wordplay could lead to death or disfigurement, and perhaps worst of all, its characters could at times be incredibly judgmental.

Case in point, this cartoon, in which two anthropomorphized pens at a barlook askance at “a chewed-up No. 2 pencil” as he walks in the door, a goofy smile and googly eyes on his face. Larson leaves it to the reader to ponder the class distinctions between fountain pens and used pencils, but the cartoon reflects just enough of a familiar human scenario that readers can situate themselves in the humor of the panel, though many instead will find themselves asking “What the?“

11 Sometimes Even Obvious Far Side Jokes Might Confuse Readers At First

First Published: February 4, 1994​​​​​​​

“Strawbrothers” has gained a reputation as one of Gary Larson’s strangest late-era Far Side cartoons, largely because its punchline is slyly left for the reader to infer. Once more, Larson brings inanimate objects to life, as three scarecrows are depicted in a field, as two of them seemingly pressure the third into swapping straw, at which point, they will “all be strawbrothers.”

A play on the “blood brothers” ritual, even readers familiar with the concept often find themselves flummoxed, at first, by this punchline. Far Side comics often reveal themselves to readers upon closer examination, but Larson’s goal was to evoke an immediate reaction, and so it is important to catalog when confusion precedes clarity in engaging with individual Far Side panels.

10 When A Far Side’s Joke Is Too Obvious, Readers Might Find Themselves Asking “What The?”

First Published: March 11, 1994

Some Far Side comics cause a “What the?” reaction because they’re unexpectedly complex, or unrepentantly confusing, but even the simplest Far Side joke could throw readers for a loop. That is the case with this cartoon, caption “basic field trips,” in which a bus full of cows, Far Side’s most reliable characters, take a tour through various fallow meadows, with their guide explaining that “next spring, this will all be green and lush.”

From the first Far Side cartoon to the last, one reliable type of “What the?” response was: “What the? Why is this funny?” There isn’t much more to “get” about this comic than its surface level premise, making it similar to the infamous “Cow Tools” panel, with the humor of the cartoon not necessarily leaping off the page at readers.

9 Classic Far Side Wordplay Is Rendered In Strange, Hilarious Form

First Published:​​​​​​​ April 28, 1994​​​​​​​

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” the foreman at a factory tells a new employee about his coworker, Mueller, who has a second head growing out of his right shoulder, “but best not to mention it.” This panel is an example of The Far Side’s penchant for absurdist literalizations, as here, Gary Larson takes a familiar idiom and depicts it at face value, to great comedic effect.

For Far Side readers, an immediate “What the?” reaction didn’t preclude laughter, as the details of this panel – particularly the eyes of Mueller, and his second head, in contrast to the ocular opacity of the other characters, a classic Gary Larson trick – will certainly strike readers as funny, while the very idea of it will be met with incredulity.​​​​​​​

8 A Unique Far Side Family Is Faced With A Difficult Conversation

First Published: May 5, 1994​​​​​​​

Far Side cartoons were frequently remixes and mash-ups of different elements; Gary Larson might, for example, take a contemporary pop culture reference and mix it with a historical anecdote, or combine a high-brow scientific concept with a low-brow comedic gag. Sometimes, this amounted to a deliberate clash of tones – in this case, the real and the surreal.

In this panel, a young man listens as his parents explain that “to understand what happened, you have to first understand that back in the ’60s, we were all taking a lot of drugs,” a very real conversation that a teenager in the early 1990s might have with their parents – except in this Far Side panel, the parents are centaurs, conflating actual fantasy with very true-to-life family dynamics.

7 One Thing Far Side Readers Can Say For Sure About Gary Larson: He Watched A Lot Of Movies

First Published: June 1, 1994

The Far Side was full of movie references over the years; some are still immediately obvious to this day, while some have become more obscure over time. That is the case with this panel, in which two astronauts tear at the lunar surface, discovering that it is “only a paper moon,” in what is seemingly a reference to the 1973 film by Peter Bogdonovich.

Once more, this is an example of Gary Larson’s ability to find humor in literalization, as well as his tendency to derive punchlines from “What if?” questions – in this case, “what if the moon turned out to actually be paper?” Still, even for readers who get the reference, the fact that this prompted Larson’s illustration will surprise some readers, especially those who are expecting more from it.

6 Check Out “The Big Brain” On This Far Side Cheetah Victim

First Published: July 19, 1994​​​​​​​

In this grisly Far Side cartoon, a pair of large predatory cats have killed a human on safari, with one now posing with the body as the other snaps a photograph. “That’s just not impressive, Doris…” the photograph complains, as the killer cat in question pries open the dead human’s mouth, in the same way big game hunters do to their kind – instead, the speaker insists Doris go one step further, and “hold up the big brain!”

The details of this Far Side comic make it one of Gary Larson’s darkest, at least from 1994, and that in itself will hit readers before it necessarily strikes them as funny, resulting in a “What the?” or even a “My god!” reaction before the macabre comedy of the panel impresses itself upon the reader.

5 Gary Larson Had A Knack For Combining The Serious And The Very Unserious

First Published: August 11, 1994​​​​​

This Far Side cartoon uses deliberately terrible art to strong comedic effect, but the way it contrasts that with the seriousness of the punchline’s premise – workers from the “Plutonium Trucker’s Union” being exposed to the harmful effects of radiation, resulting in all manner of mutations – will give many readers pause before they let a whisper of amusement escape their lips.

In this way, however, this Far Side panel perfectly exemplifies the way Gary Larson routinely mixed gravity and levity to achieve a dynamic that rarely failed to have an impact on readers, whether that was making them smile, frown, or gasp in surprise. This comic skillfully aims for a blend of all three, grabbing readers with both its image and its caption and refusing to let go.

4 The Far Side Was Always The Story Of The Odd Bear Out

First Published: September 15, 1994

A Far Side theme was the idea of standing out in a crowd, or being set apart from one’s peers – as is aptly illustrated by Gary Larson using bears in this cartoon, with a pair of black bears on vacation in the Arctic trying not to stand out as “tourists” among the local polar bears by eating regional cuisine the wrong way.

“Don’t eat the flippers, Zeke,” the bear wife admonishes her husband, and while it might perplex some readers at first, considering it in the context of Larson’s perennial status as an artist and cultural outsider makes this a metaphorically potent Far Side cartoon, once the initial confusion is pushed past.

3 Gary Larson Depicts Survival Of The Fittest, Far Side Style

First Published: October 11, 1994

In this Far Side comic, a father and son peer over their fence as wild animals overrun their neighbor’s house, with the dad telling his kid, “I know you miss the Wainwrights, they were weak and stupid people…and that’s why we have wolves and other large predators.”

The Far Side was frequently dark, but it’s humor was rarely this harsh; while the unexpected bluntness of the father’s words might elicit a jolt of nervous laughter from readers, many will have an initial reaction of dismay at how mercilessly Gary Larson dispatches his human characters here, and the unexpectedly Darwinian philosophy that the dad imparts as if it is matter-of-fact wisdom.

2 This Far Side Topical Reference Is Savage – If You Catch It

First Published: November 11, 1994​​​​​​​

For many readers, this Far Side panel, which features a sequence of panels depicting “the life and times of Captain Hazelwood,” in which he spills a variety of liquids, from infancy into adulthood, might be amusing in isolation. However, for those who get the deep-cut reference Gary Larson is making, it is perhaps The Far Side’s most brutal critique directed at a single individual.

That is because the panel’s character is a reference to the captain of the Exxon Valdez when it crashed, during one of the worst man-made ecological disasters in history. Here, Larson depicts him as having a lifelong tendency to spill things, of which the Exxon Valdez oil spill was just the latest, most tragic occurance.

1 When All Was Said And Done, The Far Side Went Out On Its Own Terms

First Published: December 20, 1994

“CHICKEN UP,” an alligator fry cook cries, putting a live chicken on the counter in front of him – as tables full of satisfied patrons gnaw clean the bones of their own birds; it is yet another one of The Far Side’s warped “slice of life” cartoons, yet because of its proximity to the end of the strip’s run, it feels like there should be more to it than there is.

From beginning to end, Gary Larson sought to satisfy himself first and foremost with every comic he produced. At times, this led to humor that went over readers heads, or failed to connect with them, or even asked to much of them – but whatever the case was, The Far Side was always irrevocably a product of Larson’s idiosyncratic humor and his uncompromsingly novel worldview.