12 Far Side Comics From 1981 That Make Readers Go “What The?”

Summary

• The Far Side
  was known for its bizarre and often inexplicable humor, which often left readers scratching their heads and asking “What-the?”
• This list compiles some of the most puzzling and hilarious
  Far Side
  panels from 1981; in the second year of the strip’s publication, creator Gary Larson became even more confident in his ability to get a reaction out of the reader, even if laughter wasn’t always the end result he sought to get.
• The Far Side
  frequently left readers with more questions than answers, by design; Gary Larson’s humor was intended to get the reader’s first, most genuine reaction, before they had time to scrutinize his work for any deeper meaning (which he professed was not there.)

During its fifteen-year run in newspapers, as often as The Far Side elicited laughter from its readers, it also had the tendency to leave them asking “What-the?” This was by design, as writer and artist Gary Larson sought to test his audiences’ “reflexes”; that is, The Far Side was always intended to evoke an immediate reaction from the reader, even if that reaction wasn’t always a deep, hearty, “ha.”

Often, Larson’s work targeted what he called the “What-the?” and the “My God!” reflexes. In any case, his goal as a creator was to evoke – or to those who were at odds with his style of humor, provoke – an immediate response.

The initial shock, or confusion, or burst of laughter that results from a Far Side cartoons remains the most potent thing about studying it, nearly three decades after Gary Larson retired. The comics collected on this list – from The Far Side’s second year in publication – offer a great cross-section of some of the strip’s most incredulous “What-the?” moments.

If there is one word that best encapsulates Gary Larson’s
The Far Side
, it is “inscrutable.” That isn’t to say any given panel can’t be scrutinized – many, in fact, warrant deeper interpretation than their creator recommends – but rather that,
according to Larson, it shouldn’t be
. That is because
The Far Side
was intended to be ephemera. Though its popularity quickly led to numerous collected editions, Larson’s
Far Side
comics were meant to be encountered “in the wild,” so to speak, to be found on the comic page of the daily newspaper, reacted to, and moved on from. Their enduring popularity, and often unforgettable nature, in spite of this intent, is a testament to how forward-thinking Larson truly was as a creator.

12 Gary Larson’s Humor Often Had Readers Asking: “Where Is This Going?”

First Published: January 24, 1981

The entry from January 1981 offers a fantastic example of Gary Larson’s artistic engagement with reactions other than laughter. It is not that this Far Side panel can’t be deciphered; what is interesting about it is the way that it almost leads the reader to an obscure punchline and then leaves them hanging there.

The panel features a set of bear tracks leading up to a trap dug in the ground, and covered in foliage; the footprints leading away from the hole, meanwhile, are seemingly human. Again, while some coherent joke can certainky be extrapolated from the image following a degree of deeper analysis, the first impression this cartoon will have upon most readers is a distinct “What-the?” The footsteps receding into the jungle in this panel, in effect, perfectly encapsulate the feeling The Far Side frequently left readers with, of stepping into wild uncertainty.

11 A Rare Four-Panel Far Side That Begs The Question: “Why?”

First Published: February 5, 1981

Gary Larson’s The Far Side was one of several syndicated newspaper comics that became notable for eschewing the four-panel style pioneered by Charles Schulz’ Peanuts. Every installment of The Far Side was, for the most part, comprised of a single panel, with the occasional exception being notable, as is the case here.

In this four-panel sequence, a person sitting on a bench feeds an increasingly large swarm of pigeons – until the flock of birds eventually overrun and consume the individual. Evocative of the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds, there is nothing outright funny about the cartoon; instead, its humor derives from the fact that it will startle readers. Interestingly, though Gary Larson was adamant that his comics had no deeper meaning to them, it was satisfying to him if he could prompt readers to suspect there was.

10 Many Classic Far Side Panels Left Readers Wondering: “What Happens Next?”

First Published: March 6, 1981

This panel is straightforward enough: it is a “predator becomes the prey” joke. The image features two duck hunters cowering in the reeds by a pond, as the shadows of massive pterodactyls appear overhead. This aptly illustrates the idea that even when the punchline of a Far Side comic was evident, laughter wasn’t always the reaction Gary Larson was hoping to get.

Like many great Far Side cartoons, this one captures a single moment in time – the “why,” “how,” and “what” of the comic are unknowable to the reader, even though they are the natural questions immediately brought to the reader’s mind as they look at the comic. As often as the content of The Far Side is described as “absurd,” this is perhaps the strip’s greatest absurdity: that it intentionally raised questions that lacked answers.

9 Never Ask Gary Larson: “How Did You Come Up With That?”

First Published: April 6, 1981

The most truly bizarre Far Side panels, of course, elicit the most questions – and paradoxically, are the ones least likely to afford readers any answers. Throughout his career, Gary Larson was open about the fact that he didn’t know where his ideas came from, and he didn’t like to be asked. Here, it is apparent Larson thought of something highly strange, and latched onto it as something that would weird out his readers as well.

The panel depicts a bird about to land in the water-filled mouth of an amphibian-looking monster, which has contorted itself into the shape of a bird bath. Once more, the image begs questions like “how did anyone come with this?” and “why is this funny?,” though the only one that really matters is, “how did you react?”

8 “Why Is This Happening To Me?” Was A Common Query For Far Side Characters

First Published: May 16, 1981

The Far Side’s humor was, of course, frequently ridiculous, with panels often just as likely to be products of inane flights of fancy as they were to embody ideas best suited for a B-movie horror flick. The latter is exemplified by this panel, which depicts a mail carrier being devoured by a mail box.

In this case, the “What-the?” of the cartoon is embedded in the illustration itself. Once again, this entry represents Gary Larson experimenting with multi-panel storytelling; in the fourth panel, the mail carrier has a look of pure confusion and dismay, one that might reflect the average reader’s reaction to The Far Side’s more quixotic installments.

7 “What’s Going On Here?” Often Summed Up The Far Side’s Most Inexplicable Scenes

First Published: June 15, 1981

In this panel, a cleaning person at the Primate Research Lab sets her broom aside and jumps in the air, reaching for a banana tied to a string, hanging from the ceiling. The humor here is evident enough; it comes from the idea that the line between human and primate is thinner than we would like to believe.

That said, the panel is far from the most hilarious Far Side installment, making it likely that Gary Larson had a different reaction in mind when he crafted this comic. While Larson readily admitted that not all of his jokes were always successful, readers who become closely familiar with his work will find themselves able to discern the distinction between a Far Side punchline that falls flat, and a scene that dares the reader to ask “what is going on here?”

6 It’s Better Not To Ask: “What’s He’s Really Doing Down There?”

First Published: July 23, 1981

In some cases, it can be said that the humor of The Far Side, and the reader’s reaction to a panel, exist in parallel. This panel – in which a woman threatens to flood a tunnel that her husband has dug if he doesn’t crawl out of it and come meet their dinner guests – elucidates this idea. The panel might strike one reader as a satirical take on husband-and-wife behavior, while another might find it to be a deeply sad depiction of a man hiding from his life above ground.

Both of these readings can result in laughing at the comic; in a way, humor is the mechanism through which The Far Side achieves a reaction, even if the result is that the audience is repulsed by the content of the strip, rather than finding it funny.

5 These Bears Might Even Be Asking Themselves: “What Are We Looking For?”

First Published: August 10, 1981

Throughout the years, some of the funniest Far Side cartoons featured bears; this instance evokes the reader to say “What-the?” at the sight of the animals standing on their hind legs, rifling through the wallet of a hiker they have just killed, because it implies there is more to the story than the surface-level “nature vs. man” humor.

Gary Larson’s humor frequently played in this realm of uncertainty; it is a common occurrence when first encountering a Far Side panel to feel as though one has missed something. Just as often as this is the case – as the sly details of Larson’s drawings can, at times, elude the reader’s initial attention – the strip, by design, operated with some key compentent left unstated, for the reader to puzzle over but never fully identify.

4 This Far Side Contains The Philosophical Musing: “Do All Trees Go To Heaven?”

First Published: September 12, 1981

In one of the funniest “What-the?”-inducing Far Side panels from 1981, two angels descend from the sky, as the spirit of a freshly cut-down tree begins to rise toward heaven, all while the lumberjack who chopped it looks up in surprise.

Gary Larson never shied away from depicting the afterlife, from his wickedly amusing depictions of hell to the number of cartoons he drew starring God, but this one stands-out. For readers who insist on searching for deeper, more esoteric meaning contained within The Far Side – against the suggestion of its creator – this is one of the most potent strips for studying, as it evokes the mysteries of the metaphysical in a truly remarkable way.

3 Far Side Readers Shouldn’t Lose Their Heads Asking: “What Does This Mean?”

First Published: October 1, 1981

In this panel, a headless individual looks through a box of disembodied heads at a “Lost & Found” booth. Unlike some of the other entries on this list, this one has a strong punchline, as the woman working the booth grows impatient, telling the person: “C’mon, c’mon! Either it’s here, or it ain’t!“

What evokes a more “What-the?” response – whether in addition to, or in place of laughter – is, understandably, the box of heads, and the larger context it connotes. In the world of The Far Side, at least as far as this strip is concerned, the loss of a head is as casual as the loss of a wristwatch; while it will strike some readers as funny, others might be dismayed by the joke at the conceptual level, but few, if any, would call this cartoon “boring” or “forgettable.”

2 Gary Larson Theorizes: “How Do Snakes Respond To The Call Of The Wild?”

First Published: November 23 1981

Here, a snake sits atop a desert rock formation and hisses at the moon, the way a wolf would howl. The punchline here is clear, though not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny. It often made sense why Gary Larson substituted animals in human situations, or vice versa; in this case, swapping one type of desert creature for another is likely to elicit narrowed eyes from readers before it brings forth guffaws.

The Far Side was relentlessly idiosyncratic, and involuted; that is to say, while contemporary comics such as Doonesbury might comment on the real world, or Garfield might reflect readers’ experiences back at them in some way, The Far Side was always an expression of creator Gary Larson’s interiority, even if he expressed it in a way that was often indecipherable.

1 This Far Side Takes The Question “What Is She Wearing?” To An Entirely Different Level

First Published: December 15, 1981

Coming at the end of The Far Side’s second year in publication, this panel perfectly synthesizes the “What-the?” factor of the strip and its humor, resulting in one of Gary Larson’s funniest punchlines.

“Let me go slip into something more comfortable,” a woman says to her date – as she is depicted adorned with a variety of household appliances and tools, including a chainsaw. Hilariously, this sets the bar very low for what “comfortable” might entail; this is an example of The Far Side at its most outrageous, and at the same time at its most effective. Readers will inarguably laugh at this panel, perhaps while blurting out “What-the?” at the exact same time, ranking this Gary Larson’s most successful Far Side cartoons.