10 Far Side Comics That Turned Museums and Zoos on Their Heads

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10 Far Side Comics That Turned Museums and Zoos on Their Heads

Far side showed some funny sabotaging zoos and museums by taking the idea of ​​these locations and distorting them into outrageous parodies of their recognizable forms. Museums and zoos, both as settings and climaxes themselves, have become fertile ground for Gary Larson’s idiosyncratic comedy.

Larson’s zoo humor and his museum jokes are stylistically similar; in each of them he often changed the purpose of these places, often filling them with strange, unexpected objects.

Far side Zoo cartoons offer a unique perspective on Gary Larson’s love of animals, and his museum panels reflect his interests in anthropology, history and sociology. In other words, Larson satirized zoos and museums in a way that showed his intelligence and intellectual passions, even though the end result on the page ended up being very stupid.

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This far side snake tamer has reached his limit

First published: May 28, 1982


Far Side, May 28, 1982. A man cleaning snake enclosures at a zoo is horrified.

This panel depicts the unfortunate “Ernie Schwartz”, a snake handler who suffers from the onset of “cumulative attack of jeeps– packing twenty-three years of worrying about snakes into one moment as he cowers in a corner and shakes in absolute terror.

Snakes were Gary Larson’s favorite and they appeared often Far side appearance, and this one is especially funny both at the level of design and at the level of execution. Visually, the illustration of Ernie being overwhelmed by an avalanche of fear is strikingly funny, while conceptually the idea of ​​sudden defeat takes decadescumulative“Feelings—especially fear—trigger memories. Larson effectively extracts humor from them, thanks in large part to “snake house“a setup for how many readers will feel about Ernie”Willys

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Gary Larson gives new meaning to the idea of ​​”Children’s Zoo”

First published: May 25, 1987


Far Side, May 25, 1987, a

With some of the best Far side panel, it seemed like the punchline was just waiting for the right comedian to come along to do it, and Gary Larson was often just such an artist. Of course, the idea of ​​a “petting zoo” is aimed at children, but the joke about a zoo with children in it is obvious, and Larson illustrates it flawlessly.

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It’s a simple but delightfully effective panel, like a caped observer. stands lazily near the wall of the enclosure, watching three children play on the artificial landscape. Surely this panel has the potential to make puzzled readers scream, ““What?”like many Far side cartoons have been made, but the joke is so straightforward that it will be a reaction of disbelief by the very premise.

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This panel hints at the idea of ​​museums on the far side of the universe

First published: November 15, 1987


Far Side, November 15, 1987. A boy and his dog encounter a landing flying saucer and alien creatures.

This is not a place but Far side The cartoon uses the idea of ​​a zoo as a highlight. In the cartoon, a boy and his dog are hiding behind a tree and watch as the aliens with large nets capture the specimens and return them to their flying saucer – only for Jake, the dog, to blow their cover with his bark, forcing him and his owner to “[share] a small but interesting diorama in the Venice Natural History Museum.

This Far side What makes the Alien cartoon particularly interesting is that Gary Larson frames the image as a single moment in time, using a caption to explain the end result of that moment. This deliberate creative decision gives this comic a dynamic feel as the humor also includes a hint of tension as readers realize that the Earthling protagonists are about to be captured.

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The Far Side Offers a Strange Look at the Future

First published: February 13, 1988


Far Side, February 13, 1988. A man stands in a museum of fossilized household appliances.

In one of the strangest Far side panel from 1988, Gary Larson portrays “Hall of Fossil Instruments“, once again featuring one of Far side many men in raincoats like him observes the skeleton of a television, the skeletons of a refrigerator and a vacuum cleaner on the opposite wall behind him..

Gary Larson has often humanized animals, as well as inanimate objects – but bringing them to life is one thing, imagining them possessing the internal structures of living vertebrate creatures is a whole other level of weirdness. Still, there’s something about it that tickles the funny bone, so to speak, and the cartoon’s absurdity adds to its humor rather than clouding it.

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During The Far Side’s run, no one could beat Gary Larson at his own game

First published: October 16, 1988


Far Side, October 16, 1988, class tour of Beet Hall.

Signature: “In the beet room“, it’s completely surreal Far side The cartoon depicts a museum in which replaces dinosaur skeletons with huge beets, while the teacher walks her students through the massive vegetables, explaining that “Fifty million years ago, these giant creatures ruled the land, sea and sky… it was the “Era of the Beats”.

How Gary Larson came up with the idea to replace beets with dinosaurs – and does it himself often Far side The food is one of the many mysterious properties of his strange and wonderful mind, but the effect on the reader can essentially be described as a form of amazement. Just as a real history museum can evoke a sense of wonder in a visitor, this Far side The museum joke will amaze them with its absurdity.

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That elephant on the far side will never return to the zoo

First published: September 3, 1993


Far Side, September 3, 1993. An elephant explains his escape from the Cincinnati Zoo.

Elephants were common in Far sideand here, as Gary Larson suggests pachyderm reveals his elaborate plot to escape the Cleveland Zoo and return to “his native India“, which he miraculously managed to accomplish. Once again, Larson made a very effective joke about the zoo without actually using it as the main location of the joke.

Of all Far side jokes about zoos, this one perhaps best reflects Gary Larson’s naturalistic sentiments; Larson extrapolates the basic idea here from the idea that most animals, especially large wild animals like elephants, would be much better off living in natural habitats rather than in man-made enclosures. In other words, rather than directly parodying the zoo, the artist created a joke that would potentially encourage readers to think more about the ethical implications of such institutions.

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This wax museum features opposing celebrity sculptures

First published: September 7, 1993


Far Side, September 7, 1993,

This Far side cartoon set in “Insurance Agent Wax Museum” seems to derive from the idea of ​​a museum dedicated to the ordinary rather than the exceptional. Various people are shown gawking at the figures of men holding forms and briefcases.The true humor of this panel, like many of Gary Larson’s illustrations, lies in the expressions on the faces of museum visitors.

The people wandering around the museum, especially the man with his son in the foreground, are depicted with their mouths agape, looking at the figures of wax insurance salesmen with the same amazement that would befit real historical artifacts – or even giant beets – but not necessarily associated with an ordinary profession. which is described here.

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Gary Larson reveals the terrifying cost of being a zoo veterinarian

First published: January 19, 1994


Far Side, January 19, 1994. A former zoo doctor with multiple injuries gives a lecture on his book I Quit.

Once again, Gary Larson uses the zoo as part of a joke here – although in this case as part of the joke’s intent rather than as the punchline. There is a professor on the panel welcoming the class”guest lecturer“for a day”Dr. Clarence Tibbs“, explaining that he was there to discuss his autobiography.”Veterinarian – I’m leaving!

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When Dr. Tibbs takes the stage, readers will notice his eye patch, hook hand, and leg, giving him more of a Far side there are more pirates than the writers Larson has portrayed over the years. The joke is again tainted by the idea that zoos are unnatural, although the emphasis is on the fact that Dr. Tibbs finally called it a career after two decades of egregious injuries associated with his professional activities.

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Safety is no joke “In the Dog Museum”

First published: April 19, 1994


Far Side, April 19, 1994. Security guards guard a bone at the Dog Museum.

Of course this is one of Far side funniest museum jokes. In the cartoon two canine guards walk around a bone encased in glass, which lies under a sign that reads: “perfect stick” – one of the guards has to scare away an approaching spectatortelling the dog: “that’s close enough, man

While many of Gary Larson’s museum punchlines poke fun at museums in general, this one highlights a specific part of the museum experience—that is, intentionally or unintentionally getting too close to an exhibit. By making the characters here dogs, standing in awe and looking at them.”perfect stickLarson offers a perfect interpretation of this experience, distorted by his characteristic filter.

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Don’t rush to the Cowboy Wax Museum all at once

First published: August 23, 1994


Far Side, August 23, 1994, Cowboy Museum Stampede.

In this panel, Gary Larson revisits the Wax Museum premises and offers an even funnier take on the joke – this time in the Wax Museum.Cowboy Wax Museum“like two Wild West characters stand in front of”crush with spikesAn exhibit depicting a herd of cows wearing spiked shoes, racing forward through a lightning-filled sky.

The detailed work makes this cartoon especially funny; in addition to signs for other exhibits, in particular “sheep farmers from hell“The expressions on the cows’ faces and the face of one of the cowboys standing in front of the exhibit help draw readers into the cartoon, taking it from its funny beginning to its downright hilarious final form. In this sense, it is perhaps Gary Larson’s greatest museum joke of all time. Far side story.

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