It may sound hard to believe, but someFar Sidestrips only get better the longer one looks at them.Gary Larson knew hewas making something special with his magnum opus and to this day, people still look back onThe Far Sideas one of the funniestcomic strips ever made.
But some strips have a certain unidentifiable quality that just makes them funnier the longer one engages with them. Just look at how much mileage Larson gets out of a bowling ball stalking pins or a felled tree heading into the afterlife. Read on to see10 Far Side strips thatonly get funnier the more one looks at them.
10Alien Discovery
Publication Date: Unknown
The Far Sidewas practically an endless cascade of absurdist, almost dream-like imagery and many of Larson’s strips let the art speak for itself. Case in point, this strip features an astronaut arriving on an alien planet, only to be greeted by a monument that strangely resembles Mt. Rushmore (but with alien heads).
It’s an interesting tableau at first glance. Then, once one really considers the outrageous nature of the idea, it gets even more comical. Is this simply a mere coincidence? A tribute? A mockery? Whatever the reason, aliens with extra-long noses recreating an iconic American locationis something that’s pretty damn funny.
9Smiling Wrecking Ball
Publication Date: April 14th, 1990
Larson absolutely loved cruel juxtaposition inThe Far Side. Absurdism was fine, but contrasting between two wildly different things could really push strips to a new level. Just take this one, which features a construction worker working a wrecking ball, which, for whatever reason,has been adorned with a smiley face.
Why exactly does a wrecking ball need a smiley face? Painting that kind of thing on a destructive piece of machinery seems more like a mockery than anything else. And yet, the novelty of the idea is so entertaining, one can only crack a smile of their own thinking about seeing such a thing in real life.
8Tree Afterlife
Publication Date: September 12th, 1981
The Far Sideskewered a lot of things, including the concept of life after death. While there is no short supply of strips involving humanity’s possibilities in the afterlife, Larson decided to poke a bit more fun at the idea with this trip, which sees a tree’s soul being ferried to heaven after being felled.
Yes, it raises questions and that works to keep the reader engaged. One begins to wonder why a tree would go to heaven and think about the possibility of a tree hell. The more readers (and the lumberjack featured in the strip) think about things,the funnier this strip becomes.
7Fly Portrait
Publication Date: December 19th, 1994
The bestFar Sidegags are the ones that run with a simple premise that is taken to an unbelievably exaggerated extreme. In this strip’s case, a fly is interrupting an artist’s portrait of a woman. Unfortunately, it’s been there long enough that he’s begun incorporating the fly’s features into the woman in the painting.
Seriously, just think about that for a second. At no point did this man shoo it away or ask her a question. He just went along with the painting forlong enough until it resembled a Cronenberg masterpiece. It’s ludicrous, but it makes for a funny idea for readers to chew on a bit.
6Penguin Slipping on Banana
Publication Date: June 8th, 1994
Gary Larson had a penchant for using animals almost as much as he used absurdist jokes. Here,The Far Sidecombines the two with a silent gag starring a penguin. The little fella has just slipped on a banana peel of all things and is looking around with a curious look on his face.
This isone of thoseFar Sidestrips that’s a bit of a thinkerat first. But at its core, the obvious solution is the right one. It’s just a penguin who has the misfortune of tripping on something that had absolutely no reason for being in his domain, and that’s just funny.
5Bowling Ball Stalker
Publication Date: November 12th, 1990
Animals are one thing, but Larson wasn’t above anthropomorphizing inanimate objects either. ThisFar Sidestrip shows a group of bowling pins at a party. Unfortunately for them, they’ve got bad company asa bowling ball is right outside in a parked car, and just waiting to crash their fun.
Is it an uncomfortable scenario? Kind of. But there’s a good bit of dark humor that makes itself more and more apparent the longer one looks at it. Honestly, just the idea of a bowling ball ominously staring out at a group of bowling pins is so over-the-top, it’s hard not to laugh at it.
4Absurdly Long Branding
Publication Date: February 26th, 1986
Some strips are just so demented, they double back around to being funny. In this strip’s case, a rancher is preparing to brand his cattle. But rather than something short and sensible, the rancher has opted for a lengthy sentence declaring his ownership (imprinted on a gigantic branding iron that takes both hands to lift).
The worried look on the cows’ faces says it all and one can only cringe at the idea of the rancher actually using it. But the idea that someone would spend days, if not weeks, coming up with sucha ridiculously long branding iron is too out-there not to find funny.
3Quicksand Warning
Publication Date: August 5th, 1980
The Far Sidedidn’t hold back from showing off deadly situations or their grave consequences. Here a hapless soul tried to warn off people about the dangers of quicksand with a sign, only to fall into a pit of quicksand himself. Worse,they didn’t even get to finish their sign.
It’s a grim strip, admittedly. But the longer one stares at it, the more one realizes all the preventable mistakes the victim made (seriously, they were painting the sign while standing in quicksand). It’s hilariously awful details, like the unfinished sign or the hat, that really shine in a strip like this.
2Crisis Clinic
Publication Date: January 7th, 1982
Again, juxtaposition was the bedrock of some of Gary Larson’s best strips. In this one, a building is both on fire and traveling down a river where it’s about to head straight over a waterfall. The kicker? The building is labeled ‘Crisis Clinic’ (incredibly fitting fora twisted world likeThe Far Side).
This kind of strip is one that will make readers do double or even triple takes. Anyone who so much as glances is going to want to know how a building ended up in danger from both water and fire, and that’s what makes a strip like this so amazingly humorous.
1Parachute Fail
Publication Date: July 23rd, 1980
Who knows what was going through Larson’s mind when he was working on some of these strips? He must have had some serious reservations about skydiving as this strip shows off a man attempting to use a parachute only for his pack to open up and reveal moths have consumed his safety net.
The Far Sideis always at its best when it allows readers to fill in the blanks. One doesn’t need to know much here other than those moths have completely screwed the man whose parachute they just made lunch of. It’s grim, but it does captureThe Far Side’sunique sense of humor.
