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July is here, and do you know what that means? Shark Week! While it kicks off at the end of the month, it is the perfect time to turn your mind to the majestic animals, revel in their grace, and learn a bit about conservation and the challenges they face. It is what Gary Larson would want. However, regardless of the month, sharks have long been a fascination for many growing up, myself included, and they've become fodder for many The Far Side comics.
These strips balance Larson's absurd humor with a healthy helping of nostalgia for youthful obsession, much like Larson's dinosaur comics. To curate this list, I went through my collection of The Complete Far Side and went shark hunting to pick the best comics about the aquatic beasts. Here are the 10 best.
Why You Should Trust Me: Gary Larson was a cornerstone of my early years and shaped a love of comedy I still carry decades later. I have amassed a large collection of his work that I revisit and reflect on often, and it's become one of my roles at MovieWeb to curate his work for these lists.
Divers, It's What for Dinner
Gary Larson loves playing with food in his strips, and this one turns the tables on people, with a diver arriving as the delivery for some hungry sharks. The frightened face of the diver comes through perfectly despite most of it being blocked off, just the eyes and the air bubbles. The "That Was Fast" comment also paints the portrait of a very unfortunate guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is anthropomorphism from Larson at its most outrageous.
A Trip Down Maim-ory Lane
Nostalgia can be built through highly personal experiences or those we share with others. Here, Larson having the shark father pass down his favorite hunting spot to his son is, oddly, kind of heartwarming. This is even considering that potential victims continue to make use of the spot (it must be a pretty picturesque location). Tradition matters, so the idea of generations of sharks coming to the same spot to grab a bite is almost sweet, if you overlook the horror of it for the people floating above.
Should Have Kept It Cool
No one likes under-delivering or feeling they are not being taken seriously. Like the first time I was at a fancy restaurant, I ordered sweetbread, and the waiter gave me a hesitant, demeaning look and asked if I knew what I was ordering. I said "yes" with confidence, and ate that lamb pancreas with a mix of disgust and a victorious smile aimed right at him. It may not be the same, but I can relate to the shark here, called out as a threat and suddenly forced to deliver to save face. If the person on the boat had kept their cool, everything would have been golden.
The Shark That Cried Bear
A little bit of an ingenious play on an old trope, born of films like Jaws, where the mere suggestion of a shark's presence is understandably enough to send anyone out of the water and to safety. This shark seems to have flipped the scenario, using a shout of "Bear" to clear the shore and land itself a whole buffet of baffled beachgoers. This is The Far Side at its simplest and sharpest. It also raises the question: would you rather face off against a bear or a shark?
Making a Killing on Savings
Visually, this is Larson's best shark strip in all of The Far Side, going for menace and size rather than the somewhat nerdy-looking sharks he usually draws (said with love). The coloring is phenomenal, and the punchline lands clean. The menacing look on the big shark's face as he collects a series of bounties turns the impending terror for the poor diver into a grim joke. He really should have paid extra and skipped the discounted cage. A horrific scenario straight out of a movie, made uproarious by Larson's visuals.
Playing With Your Food
While the discount shark-cage gag is Larson at his most detailed, this wide-panel comic delivers the opposite, leaning into an abundance of joyful silliness. The idea of having a food fight with divers' remains paints sharks not just as deadly predators but as a group that knows how to have a good time. A horrible death is implied, sure, but the giddy sharks and playful visuals leave nothing but smiles.
A Fin-possible Deal
This strip paints quite the dilemma for our lone fisherman, or a man possibly stranded on a boat. Being surrounded by sharks is frightening enough, but having to barter a deal with them feels like a macabre version of Shark Tank. A unique kind of hell with the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't mentality. The idea here is that he either gives up his life willingly or faces a potential upturned boat and a feeding frenzy. A darker comic from Larson, but the humor beats still land perfectly, in line with The Far Side's knack for absurdity.
Mannequin Titanic
Think of all the lives that could have been saved if the Titanic had been filled with mannequins instead of people. A dumb hypothetical, I know, but here a very Titanic-looking ship is hauling just that, turning what should have been a gift from the shark gods into a cruel hoax. The sharks are also nerdy-looking in line with Larson's style, which only sharpens the disappointment the two find themselves in.
Sharks Playing Ketchup
Ketchup is certainly a mythical condiment, with most kids like me living for the sugary sauce on anything and everything. Oddly, Larson works the condiment into a few of his strips, and here it sends some sharks on a long, fruitless hunt. Maybe I am just seeing through tomato-tinted glasses, but the sweet sauce fooling a pack of predators had me in stitches when I stumbled back onto this earlier strip that had slipped my mind.
A Modern Family of Sharks
This strip needs a laugh track. Not because it is not funny, but because it wonderfully sets up a joke straight out of a classic sitcom. Here, the hammerhead plays into the clueless-father trope, presenting the image of a hardworking yet inept patriarch. The more important question, though, is what would you call the show? My top choices are Living with the Sharks, At Home with the Hammerheads, or Family Current, but I would love to hear your pick.
Larson loved highlighting both the real-life ferocity and the fictional, silly awkwardness of sharks. These strips are a small sample from a vast sea of content. So, make sure you let us know in the comments what your favorite shark strip from The Far Side is in the comments, along with those shark puns for a sitcom.
