6 Classic Far Side Comics Set In the Kitchen

Published Aug 20, 2026, 2:34 PM EDT Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor. The Far Side only exists because the editors of The San Francisco Chronicle looked at Gary Larson's early cartoons and decided to let him cook. On that note, it's worth celebrating the best Far Side cartoons set in the kitchen. As far as rooms of the house go, the kitchen wasn't as prolific a Far Side setting as, say, the living room. Or the bedroom. But it is right up there with the basement as a reliable recurring location for Larson to set jokes in. And then there are the times The Far Side went into the kitchens of restaurants and found commercial cooks up to no good, which turned out to be some of the funniest kitchen jokes Larson ever made. "Recipes For Disaster" First Published: June 20, 1994 Here's a little secret to The Far Side: if a panel leaves you asking "Why?", then Gary Larson did something right. (Yes, even if it's, "Why did Larson think this was funny?") In this case, it is "Why would anyone even touch a book called "Recipes for Disaster," let alone try to follow one of its recipes. Of course, there's no answer. All readers can do is survey the aftermath of an inexplicable decision. A woman in a floral apron lies on the floor of her kitchen, unconscious, or worse. Only her torso and legs are in frame, making it darkly possible the rest of her is missing, and Larson is just leaving out the carnage. The destruction surrounding her certainly suggests whatever happened was abrupt and explosive. The pot on the stove is tipped over, spilling yellow disaster juice, or whatever it is, on the floor. The refrigerator is tipped over, the ceiling has caved in, and the floor is covered in debris. "Nervous Little Dogs Prepare For Their Day" First Published: August 5, 1991 The sun is just coming up. Everything is still, everyone else in the house is still asleep. You're the first one up, and the first thing you do is go to the kitchen and fire up the espresso machine. You're also an eight-pound dog. A Chihauhau or a Dachshund. A yippy dog, who has a lot of barking to do today. That's the POV of the canine character in this Far Side classic, which depicts how "nervous little dogs prepare for their day." Which is, just like many nervous people, to get over-caffeinated and stress out over every little thing. Which is why the peacefulness of this Far Side scene is such a perfect contrast to the character's job description as a "nervous little dog." And, of course, if nothing else, the image of the tiny dog using a stool to reach the counter and pour itself a double shot is a laugh-out-loud Far Side visual. "Luposlipaphobia" First Published: October 16, 1985 There's a lot going on in this Far Side cartoon. Most people's attention will go to the image first: a kid being chased around his kitchen table by a couple of wolves. Poor kid, that's not good. And from the looks of it, he's grabbing onto the table for dear life, body turning at an awkward angle, almost like he's losing his balance. Upon closer inspection, is he not wearing shoes? Are those his bare feet? Not quite. Socks, as this Far Side's caption explains. Hysterically, Gary Larson coins a new term here, "luposlipaphobia," from "lupo" for "wolf" and "slip" for...well, you get it. Then he proceeds to give the definition of this hyperspecific terror: "fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor." That specificity is what makes this such a killer joke. Not just any wolves, timber wolves. Not just any table, a kitchen table. And the floor has to be "newly waxed." It's the utmost of niche things to be worried about, but readers have to admit, it does sound scary. "Soup Of The Day" First Published: June 11, 1984 The trope of a cook putting something in the soup goes back as far as there have been cooks and soups. It's a timeless classic. Gary Larson delivered a flawless interpretation of the joke with this cartoon. It's also one of Larson's more subtle Far Side jokes. That is, depending on where the reader's focus goes first. The caption simply reads: "Soup of the day is ready!" No punchline there. But just above that, notice how the cook is only wearing one shoe? Readers have to infer where the other one is. So, the punchline is off-panel, coming when the audience puts 2-and-2 together. Astute observers will notice the cook's bare foot immediately, but even then the joke might take a beat to land. Which is what Larson was going for with this cartoon, set in the kitchen of a restaurant most people probably don't eat at more than once. "Flapcats" First Published: April 17, 1984 Simple, but also strange. That's the best way to describe this Far Side cartoon, and also the best explanation for why it stands out as an oft-cited fan favorite 42 years and counting after it first appeared in newspapers. In the panel, a dog in a heart-patterned apron stands at the stove, frying pan in paw, flipping a "flapcat" in the air, with the box of "Aunt Hilda's Flapcats" mix on the counter nearby. A "flapcat" is exactly what it sounds like. Which is to say it is either a pancake in the image of a cat, or a cat smushed into the shape of a pancake. Either way, it's the kind of ridiculous humor The Far Side is most associated with. The Far Side featured many different styles of humor over the years, but generally speaking, its most perplexing cartoons have always been its most memorable. "Lobster Bullseye" First Published: March 22, 1982 Another restaurant kitchen. This time, a couple of chefs blow off steam by turning work into a twisted parody of a carnival game. They've rigged up a version of a dunk tank, except the dunkee is a lobster suspended in a small chair over a pot of boiling water. Attached to it is a bullseye, and the ground is littered with baseballs, indicating the cooks have terrible aim. Meaning the poor lobster is having to wait even longer to suffer its inevitable fate. This was the kind of Far Side joke that many people misunderstood back in the 1980s. It is a joke about animal cruelty, yes, but the point Gary Larson is making here is that the lobster is going to be boiled anyway, yet the humans have somehow managed to make boiling it even more cruel. And Larson does this all wordlessly, with the image telling the entire story clearly enough. It is an early Far Side masterpiece, a perfect comic that made the kitchen of a high-end dining establishment into a dark carnival of suffering and a commentary on eating shellfish as a delicacy. ​​​​​​​Honorable Mentions: The Far Side's kitchen cartoons have a close relative in the various breakfast and dinner scenes Gary Larson illustrated over the years. Panels like "Breakfast on Other Planets" and "Grasshopper Breakfast" are ostensibly set at kitchen tables, but are "zoomed in" to a degree that the wider kitchen setting is only implicit. Shout out to and "Monster Jobs," which is clearly set in a kitchen, and "Ghost Riders in the Kitchen," as other examples of Far Side cartoons of this variety, which are classics in their own way, but perhaps not for their setting. Writer Gary Larson Colorist Gary Larson