9 Best Far Side Comics From The 1980s

The Far Side was a product of the 1980s, as much as it was ahead of its time. Gary Larson's humor was edgy for its era, and The Far Side stirred up real complains and controversies as it spread (like an invasive species of weed, its critics might have said) to more and more newspapers in the U.S. throughout the decade. Which is what helped make it a staple of the funny pages in its heyday, at a time when American culture was opening up to darker humor. The cartoons curated below are the standout Far Side cartoons for each year of the 1980s. Which means they reflect the rise of Larson's comic strip from niche to mainstream. The Far Side is a pop culture institution today. These cartoons helped make it that way. Each one represents Gary Larson at the height of his creative powers for that particular year, and because there are a multitude of GOAT-level Far Sides, there was stiff competition for each of the nine spots on this list. (Why nine? Check the afterward of this article to find out more about The Far Side's "lost year.") 1980, "Dog Drives, Man Vibes" It has been said before. It will be said again. This cartoon is the essence of The Far Side. A whimsical caricature, an absurd inversion of everyday life. A dog drives a car, going pretty fast from the lines Gary Larson accents the illustration with, trailing behind the vehicle to indicate the "whoosh" of motion. The dog's owner sticks his head out the passenger side window, enjoying the pleasure of the rushing air in his face. His tie flapping in one direction, tongue in the other. "Dog Drives, Man Vibes," as we'll call it, beats out classics like "Danger Quicksand," and "Yute's Fountain & Snacks," and "Duck Bust" as the best Far Side cartoon of 1980 thanks to its sheer simple brilliance. But The Far Side came out of the gate hot in its first year, making it a close call. 1981, "Struck By Lightning Twice" Gary Larson was a master of improbability. That was on display in most Far Side cartoons, in one way or another, but few managed to cram so much statistical unlikelihood into a single frame, and a single line of dialogue, and make it hysterically funny, as this one. "You're kidding," one guy bandaged head-to-toe says to another, as they sit in their wheelchairs on the front lawn of the care facility. "I was struck twice by lightning too!" What are the odds? Well, realistically, almost less than zero. And then add the astronomical implausibility of the giant meteor which is soaring down from the cosmos to finish them off once and for all. For best of 1981, this panel had to compete with a mailman-eating-mailbox, a giant penguin, and falling pianos, but "Struck By Lightning Twice" was one of those jokes where Larson reached a perfect level of cartoon humor. 1982, "The Egg/Baby Exchange" 1982 was a pivotal year for The Far Side. It was the year "Cow Tools" became a proto-meme, and helped make Gary Larson a household name across the United States. It was the start of The Far Side's rise to pop culture phenomenon status over the next few years. But "Cow Tools" wasn't Larson's best joke of '82. No, that goes to this wordless Far Side masterpiece, one of those Larsonian bursts of brilliance that go, "look, I'm not making the world absurd, the world is absurd, and I'm just making it more absurd." He does this with a panel depicting a woman walking back to her house with fresh eggs from her chicken coop, while a chicken walks back the other way carrying a baby. Besides "Cow Tools," this cartoon we'll call "The Egg/Baby Exchange" beat out "Samurai Dog," "Pet Giraffi," "Uncle Irwin the Alligator," and more memorable Far Side jokes for the top spot in The Far Side's third year. 1983, "First Pants, Then Your Shoes" Look at this Far Side comic from one angle, and it might register as pointless. Look at it from a different perspective, and it becomes profound. "First pants. Then your shoes," the giant note on the wall next to a man's bed reads. "Then" is in all caps and underlined twice. The punchline is how big the note-to-self is compared to how simple the reminder seemingly is. For some readers, that can come across as dumb. For anyone who struggles with simple tasks in their daily lives, though, it hits close to home. Hyperbole was one of the go-to tricks in The Far Side's bag, and this is a flawless example. The Far Side's most incompetent, yet sadly relatable man gets a rare win, triumphing over the joyriding cow who crashed the tractor into the barn, the pyromaniac landscape painter, and the guy who drives the Liver & Onions truck for best of 1983. 1984, "FIRE!" A perfect Far Side comic, remarkable for how much action Gary Larson captures in a static frame. If this were a photograph, it would win a Pulitzer Prize. But it is a Far Side cartoon, so it has to settle for being named the best of 1984. In the panel, a woman in a burning building yells "FIRE!" at the worst possible moment for the commander of a firing squad, because he's standing in front of their rifles giving their condemned prisoner a light for his final smoke. It is expertly calibrated between dark and absurd, the kind of joke only Larson could seemingly pull off in '84. "FIRE!" tops "Viking Calisthentics," "Cow Rocket," "Monster Jam Band," "Ketchup Bees," "How Flowers See Themselves," and about a dozen more all-time great Far Sides as the pinnacle of the cartoon's fifth year. 1985, "It's Either One Or The Other" "C'mon, C'mon," an impatient devil says, prodding a condemned soul with his pitchfork, as the man dawdles, hesitating to choose between two equally unpleasant options: a door marked "Damned if you do," and the next door over, marked "Damned if you don't." "It's either one or the other," the devil says. This is the essential Far Side hell joke. Maybe not the funniest, but the most representative of Gary Larson's wit. That's because it is also a classic Far Side appropriation of a familiar phrase. The combination of the setting and the phrase is as genius as it is obvious, a balancing act Larson had a supreme knack for. "Either One Or the Other" edges out some truly innovative Far Sides from 1985, including deliriously funny inventions like the "Plastic Cow Ball" and "Dobie-o-Matic Gun." 1986, "They Found Wayne" In many ways, the 1980s was a time when the American counterculture of preceding decades was starting to be synthesized with American culture. The Far Side is highly emblematic of that. If Gary Larson's career had started ten years earlier, he possibly would have been an underground comix writer instead of publishing in newspapers all over the U.S. The Far Side was a dose of outsider perspective amidst the more conventional comics in the funny pages. That's brilliantly highlighted by this peak-'80s panel, in which a reactionary mob seeks "a scapegoat,' and wind up channeling all their disaffected rage at one guy named Wayne. In this way, the panel is very much a product of its time, but also a disturbingly prophetic Far Side. Wayne is singled out again, but for praise this time, overcoming adversity to beat "Appliance Healer," "Beaver Late Night Snack," "The Bacteria Bunch," and more increasingly surreal and sensational Far Sides for the #1 spot in 1986. 1987, "Only Mack Went On To Fame And Fortune" This is one of The Far Side's greatest scenes. It is one of Gary Larson's funniest jokes about anthropomorphized objects, and also Larson's most iconic music reference. Of which there are a lot more than people realize, because Larson was a musician himself, and a huge jazz fan, but many of his lyrical shout-outs fly under the radar. Not this one. It is a clear ode to "Mack the Knife," a legendary jazz standard. This Far Side "slice of life" joke imagines Mack's old roommates, "Ernie the Fork" and "Bob the Spoon," who didn't achieve "fame and fortune" like Mack. It is a portrait of struggling artists, two out of three of whom are destined for failure, and at the same time an absurdist fantasy. Which makes it The Far Side's top comic of 1987. Its competition for the distinct includes Einstein on the b-ball court, Bobo the circus bear's great escape, and the clear runner-up for the year, "When Potato Salad Goes Bad." 1988, "The Revolution Always Gets This Far" 1988 was the last year of the '80s for new Far Side comics. It was a period where Gary Larson was overworking himself, but also operating at the top of his game. Case in point, this unforgettable Far Side chicken comic, in which "the revolution" gets to the doorstep of the first human house they're going to invade before what else happens? "Everyone just chickens out," except their bat-wielding leader, who is mystified that it was all just empty clucking once more, even for the ones like him who are clutching clubs and pitchforks, ready for it all to go down. "Failed Chicken Uprising" is The Far Side's top comic of '88, but shout out to the one where a meat delivery truck careens out of control toward a vegetarian restaurant, and the one where rescue comes too late for a guy on a deserted island, and the one Gary Larson claimed was the first ever bare butt in a newspaper comic. Final Thoughts: If we were to make a graph of The Far Side's rise to success in the 1980s, it would start off slow, then spike in 1982, then rise exponentially through the rest of the decade. And if we tracked Gary Larson's work rate over that same period, we'd see him get off-the-charts busy in the mid-to-late '80s, pumping out cartoons seven days a week and burning himself out so much he needed to take 1989 off. Each of the funniest Far Side cartoons of the 1980s represents something about The Far Side's overall success. They are Larson's most effortless and unforgettable cartoons. But because there are hundreds of Far Sides from each year, and thousands from the '80s overall, picking out individual "best" cartoons can come dangerously close to picking nits. The selections above are indisputable laugh-out-loud masterpieces, but the case can be made for plenty of other Far Side jokes that could have made this list. And that includes many jokes that hit similar beats, or take place in the same locations, or cover identical themes. The Far Side had its formula, and it had its go-to motifs and gags, which is part of the beauty of it. The more familiar readers get with The Far Side, the funnier it gets. That might not be exact science, but there is a kind of physics to the humor of Gary Larson, a gravity to it that draws people in. What do you think, readers? What are the best Far Side comics of the 1980s? Writer Gary Larson Colorist Gary Larson