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These Far Sidecartoons deserve greater attention, as they emphasize just how good at dialogue Gary Larson was. Larson is known for his wit, but the comics collected here that he was also a master of getting into his characters’ voices and making them come alive through how they spoke, and what they said.
The Far Side became more verbose in the latter stages of Larson’s career, and as such, this list focuses on comics from 1986 onward. By this point in the cartoon’s fourteen-year run, Larson was fully confident in his creative voice, and that was reflected in his characters’ absurd and memorable dialogue.
The Far Side's Cannibal Ventriloquist's Struggle With Himself Is An All-Time Great Exchange
First Published: June 3, 1986
This panel deserves to be listed among The Far Side's greatest desert island cartoons, as well as earning a place among Gary Larson's best dialogue scenes. Technically speaking, it might be a monologue, but it features a ventriloquist and his dummy with very different agendas and personalities, one of which may have some gruesome intentions for a newcomer to the island.
In the hilariously dark exchange, "Gus," the doll, tries to warn the new arrival about "Ernie's" cannibalistic nature, which the sun-burnt, frazzled-looking human vigorously denies. It is a surreal scene that wouldn't be out of place in a horror movie, but Larson makes it hyperbolically funny in the manner of his most successful jokes.
The Far Side Delves Into The Home Life Of Beetles, And It's A Total Blast
First Published: October 24, 1988
Captioned "bombardier beetles at home," this cartoon is one of Gary Larson's many warped "slice of life" Far Side comics. That is, it depicts two spouses sitting in adjacent armchairs, catching up with one another about their respective days. Except the couple are stinkbugs, and their days both involved "blasting" people who bothered them.
It is a typical Far Side set-up, but this is an example of a Far Side comic where the dialogue was the make-or-break factor. In this case, it makes the panel, as the bugs’ exchange does more than just deliver a punchline, it conveys personality, making the beetles come across as laugh-out-loud unlikable.
This Hilarious Far Side "Bull Sesh" Shows Off Gary Larson's Creative Knack For Dialogue
First Published: February 5, 1990
In this Far Side cartoon, a group of old bulls sit around in a knitting circle, swapping stories about back in the day. "I must have thrown that one matador twenty feet in the air," one claims, while another boasts about the time it "stomped a matador and then gored two picadors."
Finally, the third member of the group starts to reminisce about all the people it trampled in the running of the bulls before trailing off. All of this is very funny, while the caption serves as the cherry on top, offering up one of Gary Larson's most risque plays on words.
This Far Side Tarzan Comics Is Gary Larson's Humor At Its Most Relatable
First Published: April 30, 1990
In this classic Far Side Tarzan cartoon, Gary Larson brilliantly captures the experience of practicing a conversation in your head, only to totally fumble the words when it's time to actually say them. In a sequence of panels, Tarzan is shown figuring out how to introduce himself to Jane as he swings over to meet her.
Except when he gets there, it comes out as the iconic mess of syntax "me Tarzen, you Jane." In this way, Larson provides an “origin story” for an iconic bit of pop culture, but the real noteworthy thing here is the way this Far Side joke highlights Larson’s love of language beyond just silly puns and riffs on familiar phrases.
The Far Side Pokes Fun At Talk Radio In This Underrecognized Gem
First Published: September 6, 1991
In this underappreciated split-panel Far Side, Gary Larson melds his love of snakes with his satirical take on talk radio. Captioned "on the air with Snake Talk," it features a man calling into a radio show about serpents hosted by two brothers, in hopes of getting some advice on feeding his pet snake.
Talk radio reached its apex in the 1990s, and this Far Side cartoon from early in the decade has Larson seemingly suggesting that while it had gotten to the point where there was a radio program for almost everyone, snake aficionados like himself still didn’t have representation on the airwaves. And if they did, it might sound like “Snake Talk.”
The Far Side Pokes Fun At People Who Excel At Small Talk
First Published: September 16, 1991
Captioned "the art of conversation," this is low-key one of Gary Larson's funniest Far Side comics set in a museum. "This is depressing..." a woman thinks, contemplating a man hanging on the wall rambling about the weather. Farther down the hall, meanwhile, a woman prattles on about "what the Vice President did today," a topic exactly no one is interested in.
In this way, Larson lampoons the banality of small talk. Still, that is an easy target, and this Far Side comic also acknowledges, in a backhanded way, that people who love small talk actually share something in common with successful artists: a lack of inhibition about what comes out of them, or what their audience thinks of them.
The Far Side Confirms A Classic Date Avoidance Technique Could Be Even More Harsh
First Published: April 3, 1992
Gary Larson had some strong opinions about the perils of dating, as exhibited by the many Far Side jokes about romance gone awry. Here, Larson points out the polar opposite of bad pick-up lines: painful put-downs, or "date rejection lines." In two contrasting images, Larson envisions the divide between "bad" and "worse" expressions of disinterest.
First, Larson showcases a woman using the standard "I have to wash my hair tonight" excuse for turning down a date. In the second half of the panel, another woman goes a hilarious step further, explaining that she's "[writing] my favorite detergent company and tell[ing] them how much I love their product," making her priorities absolutely crystal clear.
The Far Side Confirms Everyone Is Thinking The Same Thing About City Life
First Published: July 24, 1992
This Far Side cartoon once again employs the split-panel format to maximize the effect of its dialogue. In the top half of the frame, a man with a megaphone leans out the window of his apartment building unleashes his frustrations on the crowded city street below, informing them he's "moving to an island in the South Pacific" to get away from this "human cesspool."
In a certified iconic Far Side punchline, the bottom half of the frame reveals that the man’s idea was far from novel, as he’s shown sitting on a jam-packed beach, slightly sunburnt and reading a book among the mass of people who all decided to get away from civilization at the exact same time.
The Far Side's "Conversation Stoppers" Show The Hysterical Range Of Gary Larson's Dialogue
First Published: October 6, 1993
Here, Gary Larson conjures what the caption calls "classic conversation stoppers," a sequence of increasingly unhinged proclamations in which a man casually reveals he has a "very contagious illness," and another admits he stopped taking his meds for his "homicidal tendencies," while the next delivers another strange Far Side ventriloquist joke.
Finally, the strip climaxes with the deadpan "you're sitting in it right now," leaving what "it" is deliberately, and hysterically, ambiguous, while also obscuring the uneasy reaction of the characters who are "sitting in it." This panel proves the dexterity of Larson's ability to conjure characters and scenarios with The Far Side at its height.
The Far Side Offers A Biting Satire Of Infomercials In This Classic Panel
First Published: August 24, 1994
Once more, Gary Larson takes something ordinary, a family watching TV together, and makes it outrageous through The Far Side's use of animal characters. In this case, it is a family of piranhas, who all sport toothy-grins as they watch an advertisement for a device that can "skeletonize an entire cow" in only "one minute."
Larson brilliantly sets his sites on infomercials and novelty appliances alike with this classic punchline. While the premise is equally smart and silly in the best possible way, it is the dialogue of the salesman on TV is what makes this an absolutely criminally underrated Far Side cartoon from its final year in publication.
