6 Unforgettable Far Side Comics Set in Space

Published Sep 1, 2026, 2:31 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 was more than just out of this world. It was a world of its own. A hysterically chaotic universe governed by the rules of Gary Larson's warped sense of humor. Which is to say there were few laws of science that couldn't be broken, even the laws of gravity and the fundamental principles of the cosmos. These Far Side space jokes showcase Gary Larson's abiding obsession with science, which led him to find humor in everything from the deepest recesses of Earth's oceans to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. This curated collection of Far Side cartoons isn't every joke Gary Larson made about space, but it is the ones that stick out the most, and will leave readers wanting more. "I Could Go For Something..." First Published: February 22, 1982 You know these types of Far Side comics, and you love them. Gary Larson's version of "slice of life" jokes, except in this case the life is extraterrestrial, and the slice is implied to be of human meat. (Which other, similar Far Side jokes about carnivorous aliens equated with greasy fast food.) "I could go for something," an alien says in the cartoon's caption, as a pair of ETs at the helm of a flying saucer head toward Earth, which has a big "EAT" sign sticking out of the globe, akin to a truckstop diner. It's a subtle joke, but the way the speaker's mouth is drawn with jagged teeth like a crocodile's speaks volumes. These aliens eat flesh, and some unfortunate Earthlings are about to become their next meal. "Mr. Sun" First Published: June 25, 1983 This is low-key one of the weirdest Far Side comics ever, and it all comes down to one word, two letters: "Mr." Aside from that, it's about as "typical" as Gary Larson's humor got. The cartoon depicts a typical Far Side scene of calamity: a space capsule with two astronauts inside is hurtling toward the sun, and "the controls are jammed." Except inexplicably, one of them refers to it as "Mr. Sun." That seems to be the crux of the joke, the whole punchline. But why? A little digging, and it turns out there is a likely explanation. That this is one of Larson's most deep-cut pop culture references. The kind virtually no one will get today, and which probably flew over most people's heads even in 1983. Gary Larson was born in 1950. Which would have made him six years old when he saw the educational TV film Our Mr. Sun (oddly enough, directed by Hollywood legend Frank Capra) which aired on CBS in 1956. Or perhaps he saw it in school in subsequent years. In any case, it stuck with him, and he eventually turned it into this underrated Far Side joke. "Alien Student Drivers" First Published: July 13, 1986 Captioned "Alien student drivers," this super-sized Sunday Far Side cartoon is an absolute classic. A flying saucer driving instructor bellows at its student, who has a terrified look on its face, as they leave Earth's orbit. This is after a midair collision with a human aircraft, an unfortunate single-engine plane towing a banner for a restaurant, which is hopelessly tangled around the saucer's front end. The widened scope of the panel helps with the joke, allowing for details like the loose letters from the banner floating in the UFO's wake, or the smallness of the Earth, which suggests the student driver is high-tailing it out of the solar system. The Real Tragedy Of Chimps In Space First Published: December 7, 1987 This is a classic wordless Far Side cartoon. It' is an obvious joke even without any caption for context, or a thought balloon, or anything other than its laugh-out-loud visual gag. Inside a space capsule, a chimpanzee tries to eat a banana, only to smash it against the helmet of its space suit. And from the fact that there's already one peel stuck to the helmet, the chimp isn't quite sure what is going on. Which adds a tragic tinge to this Far Side cartoon. Animals like the Soviet dog Laika and the monkeys that were sent to space didn't have a choice in the matter, or understand what was happening to them, something that probably hit Gary Larson in the feels. But Larson's job was to convert the terror and absurdity of life (and death) into cartoon humor. This panel is a product of that. It is okay to laugh at the joke, but it' also worth feeling bad for the animals that pioneered the way into space for human astronauts, even the ones that survived and returned to Earth. (Which some of them did!) An All-Time Far Side Alien Classic First Published: December 22, 1992 You know who isn't returning to Earth? These human hunters, who became the hunted, as was often the case in Far Side cartoons. The hunters were driving their SUV back from a hunting trip, with a big buck proudly tied to the hood of the truck, only to be abducted by aliens, strapped to the hood of their flying saucer, and taken into space. Where they all promptly died. Some readers have pointed out that the vacuum of space would've flash-frozen the hunters' corpses, and that their flesh wouldn't have rotted off and left skeletons behind. Maybe there's a backstory to this Far Side cartoon that would satisfy that "plot hole," but the true is, Gary Larson needed to visually signify the humans were long dead. He could've drawn them covered in ice crystals, sure, but he gambled that there's something funnier (and possibly less macabre, somehow) about skeletons. Besides that, what makes this a memorable Far Side cartoon is its dark comedic irony, not its scientific accuracy. "Feldman Must Be Freaking Out" First Published: April 26, 1993 In this unforgettable late-era Far Side comic, a human astronaut makes first contact with extraterrestrial life, and it is totally traumatizing. "Feldman must be freaking out," one of his fellow astronauts says from inside their space shuttle, as he is wrapped up in the arms (tentacles?) of an arachnid-looking alien. "He even hates spiders," the speaker notes. Feldman's eyes are drawn wide with terror, staring directly into the many eyes of the alien with a tight grip on him. It is not one of The Far Side's best lines of dialogue, if we're being honest; it's a bit clunky, but it gets across the point of the punchline. Notably, Gary Larson's alien spider joke predated several classic works of science fiction, including Verner Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky and Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time, that find interstellar humans dealing with sentient alien spiders. Just one of many ways Larson was light years ahead of his time with The Far Side. Honorable Mentions: This focuses on Far Side cartoons that are set in the midst of space, rather than just using space as a backdrop. In this approach, it treats Far Side comics set on the moon as their own distinct category; same goes for panels set in the cockpits of alien spacecraft, of which there are a few pretty funny ones. Still, these types of Far Side comics are closely related, and it's worth shouting out cartoons like the one where a lunar lander crushes an alien picnic, or the one where the aliens gather together to watch the Earth blow up. Or the one where the Earth couple winds up driving around lost on the lunar surface. Gary Larson's version of the universe was hilariously twisted in a way that evokes Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the best books of all time, and like Adams, Larson left an indelible mark on 20th-century humor with The Far Side. Writer Gary Larson Colorist Gary Larson