Over the course of the 1980s, The Far Side became notorious for its twisted takes on popular culture, as creator Gary Larson frequently flexed his knowledge of film, television, literature, and more, crafting jokes that encompassed the obscure and the iconic alike. In the process, Larson’s comic carved its own indelible place in the popular consciousness.
Fans of The Far Side know that Gary Larson was a film buff, and a passionate fan of music – as well as a musician himself, which provides context for The Far Side’s frequent hilarious portrayals of musicians – in addition to being a writer and literate-minded individual.
When most readers think of Larson, they are quick to acknowledge the naturalist tendencies of The Far Side, but his jokes skewering, subverting, and occasionally paying homage to pop culture shouldn’t be overlooked, as they made up a significant portion of the artist’s overall output during his career.
10 Adding One Word Totally Changes The Context Of This Zombie Movie Parody (But Isn’t It Still Kind Of Scary?)
First Published: January 28, 1987
Captioned “Night of the Living Dead Chipmunks,” this Far Side cartoon straightforwardly lampoons George Romero’s legendary 1968 horror film, which effectively kickstarted the zombie genre as fans know it today, by turning the undead into chipmunks, who burst through the front door of a woman’s home, sending her fleeing in terror.
With just a single word, Gary Larson completely changes the context of the terror here – with the humor of the cartoon coming from the incongruity between the illustration, which emphasizes horror in its color tone, and with the crack of lighting outside the ajar door, and the normally nonthreatening diminutive stature of chipmunks. Still, if one dwells on the possibility of zombie chipmunks, they will come to recognize an undercurrent of potential for actual horror, adding another layer to this joke.
9 This Far Side Reference Has Only Gotten More Obscure With Time (What Is Puddin’ Tame?)
First Published: February 7, 1987
Contemporary readers might come across this Far Side cartoon and think it is just some weird non sequitur that Gary Larson came up with, but it is actually a deep-cut pop culture reference that would still have resonated with many fans in 1987. While its exact origin is difficult to trace, “Puddin’ Tame” is essentially an early analog meme, which Larson offers a twist on here. In its most common formulation, it is a call-and-response, like this:
Q: What’s your name?
A: Puddin’ Tame!
Larson reframes this by setting his joke in an interrogation room, after the suspect has surreptitiously given “Puddin’ Tame” to the authorities as a false identity – which only The Far Side’s astute lead detective catches, telling his fellow officer, “you idiot, don’t write that down!” While the joke is skillfully crafted in isolation, the fading of “Puddin’ Tame” from pop culture prominence has made it increasingly obscure over the years.
8 Gary Larson Depicts The Invertebrate Version Of Jaws (How Fresh Was This Reference At The Time?)
First Published: March 9, 1987
In this Far Side movie theater cartoon, a group of worms gather to watch “Beak II,” a direct homage to the 1978 sequel to Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. This is made clear by the caption, “just when you thought it was safe to go back into the topsoil…,” a parody of Jaws 2’s legendary tagline “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.”
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Even film fans who love the Jaws sequels for what they are will be hard-pressed to deny that the second film is a drastic step down in quality from the first – yet the film’s tagline has become as synonymous with the franchise as anything from the original movie. Though Gary Larson’s “Beak II” Far Side cartoon was published nearly ten years after Jaws 2‘s release, his reference would have been immediately recognizable; and largely, to this day, it remains that way.
7 Gary Larson Imagines The Childhood Of A Jazz Icon (Who Was Dizzy Gillespie?)
First Published: March 14, 1987
Gary Larson was a jazz musician himself, so the greats of the genre, like Dizzy Gillespie, would often have been on his mind, and that manifested on the page in this Far Side cartoon, which depicts “Gillespie’s seventh birthday party.” Amusingly, the kid identified as the future trumpeter is shown vigorously blowing on a party horn, cheeks exaggeratedly puffed out as he gives it his all, showing he was destined for his career from an early age.
In 1987, the majority of Larson’s readers could still have been counted on to know Dizzy Gillespie’s name; decades later, of course, jazz enthusiasts will still immediately get this joke, and though some younger Far Side fans might have to look up the jazz pioneer, once they know who he was, the joke is clear enough that it can be appreciated by anyone.
6 Gary Larson Explains What Happened To The Sphinx’s Nose (Is This The Far Side’s Greatest Film Homage?)
First Published: August 28, 1987
In this panel, “an unpopular pharaoh” wakes to find the nose of the Great Sphinx has been cut off and placed in his bed “by Egyptian mobsters,“ in a brilliant Far Side cartoon that both answers a longstanding historical question and pays tribute to Francis Ford Coppala’s 1972 masterpiece The Godfather, and its infamous “horse head” scene.
In the past several hundred years, it has been claimed that Napoleon shot the nose off the Sphinx during his invasion of Egypt in 1798, but this is apocryphal. Here, Larson delivers an even more ridiculous theory, while also delivering one of his most elaborate, and perhaps funniest, Far Side movie references. The joke is particularly impressive for the way it melds real history with contemporary cinema to arrive at a strange but effective punchline.
5 The Devil Leaves Home For A Business Trip To Georgia (Does This Change How Far Side Fans Hear The Song?)
First Published: October 28, 1987
In this hellish Far Side cartoon, Gary Larson hilariously depicts what happened before Charlie Daniels’ beloved fiddle jam “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” as the Devil waves goodbye to his wife as he grabs his pitchfork-shaped fiddle case and heads out the door, saying, “well…here I go.”
The Far Side Complete Collection
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Fans of the far side can’t pass up this master collection of Gary Larson’s finest work. Originally published in hardcover in 2003, this paperback set comes complete with a newly designed slipcase that will look great on any shelf. The Complete Far Side contains every Far Side cartoon ever published, which amounts to over 4,000, plus more than 1,100 that have never before appeared in a book and even some made after Larson retired.
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” is, of course, one of the all-time great songs of triumph, as the protagonist Johnny prevails over Satan himself, thwarting the ruler of hell at his own game, and extracting himself from a classic Faustian bargain in a way few characters in pop culture ever have. By making the Devil so personable in this cartoon – with a wife and a dog waiting for him at home – expertly changes the context of the entire story, to great comedic effect.
4 Popeye Gives Up His Right To Self-Incrimination (What Did He Do?)
First Published: November 10, 1987
This Far Side comic is an example of Gary Larson reverse engineering his punchline, starting from the pop culture reference he wants to make and working backward. The character of Popeye is famous for saying “I yam what I yam,” and Larson begins there, then finds a premise to situate the quote within that will yield a hilarious result.
That comes in the form of a classic Far Side courtroom scene, in which a heated prosecutor backs Popeye into a corner as he testifies in his own defense, leading up to the lawyer asking: “Have you no remorse? What kind of monster are you?” By responding with his familiar declaration, Popeye all but confirms he is guilty, not just of the crime in question, but of lacking remorse, and actually being a monster – leaving fans to wonder just exactly what gruesome crime scene his pipe was discovered at.
3 Gary Larson Roasts Overbearing Fathers (How Did Michelangelo Get Anything Done?)
First Published: November 16, 1987
Here, Gary Larson combines the trope of the overly-critical father with the painting of the Sistine Chapel, to great effect. In this Far Side panel, “Michelangelo’s father” stands at the base of his son’s latter, as the artist works dilligently to finish the Chapel’s ceiling.
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The Far Side’s Humor Can Be Traced Back To Gary Larson’s Childhood Love Of Snakes (& Other Reptiles)
In an interview with NPR, Gary Larson explained his childhood love of snakes, which led him to a greater understanding of the nature of perspective.
Of course, while his work might stand the test of time, and still be considered one of humanity’s greatest works of art over 500 years later, it still isn’t enough to impress his father, who admonishes Michelangelo to “watch those flesh tones,” and inquires how much he’s making for the job, and generally is anything but helpful. This is a strong Far Side cartoon because of how it takes a widely recognizable cultural touchstone, and uses it to deliver a highly relatable punchline.
2 The Far Side’s Smartest Houdini Joke (What Makes It So Universally Aclaimed?)
First Published: November 21, 1987
Captioned “Houdini escapes from a black hole,” this is another example of Gary Larson combining his scientific knowledge with his pop culture accumen in order to deliver a high-level Far Side joke. The panel itself is deceptively simple, depicting a spaceship shooting forward against a backdrop of stars – but that simplicity belies one of Larson’s cleverest jokes.
Harry Houdini is largely recognized as arguably the greatest – or at least, most famous – escape artist in history; black holes, meanwhile, are generally believed by scientists to be inescapable, once an object has passed its event horizon. Therefore, for Houdini to pull off an escape from a black hole would be a galactic-scale equivalent of his greatest Earth-bound feats. While this joke requires the reader to “get” it on two different levels, for those who make the connection, it is a solid punchline.
1 The Far Side’s Smartest Peanuts Reference (What Makes It So Great?)
First Published: December 11, 1987
The Far Side made multiple Peanuts references over the years, but this one is by far Gary Larson’s smartest reference to Charles Schulz’ comic, in the sense that it is a niche archeological punchline, which uses Lucy from Peanuts to connect to a wider audience.
The cartoon depicts the unearthing of “a second Lucy,” which has the result of “rocking the anthropological world.” With Peanuts nearing 40 years in publication in 1987, Gary Larson playfully equated one of the strip’s iconic with a fossil, or an artifact from an ancient civilization, the discovery of which would completely upend the study of Peanuts and its relationship to modern human society. In this way, Gary Larson delivered The Far Side’s best reference of 1987, a year that illustrated the peak of his abilities to poke fun at pop culture.
The Far Side
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
