1993 was the penultimate year of The Far Sideand throughout the year, Gary Larson produced as many hilariously memorable cartoons as ever – and so many obtuse, hard-to-understand jokes, which left readers asking “What?“ These drawings represent some of the strangest that Larson illustrated in the final stretch of his career as a cartoonist.
It’s not that Larson’s humor got weirder as he got older. The Far Side progressed, but rather, he got better at crafting weird jokes that still managed to get a reaction from his readers. Still, it’s fair to say that the author took greater creative risks in the last phase of the comic.
In other words, Gary Larson was more willing to play with the formula to The Far Side that he created over the years, and often his most experimental designs ended up being some of his most disconcerting.
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The “Blink-And-Miss-It” category of distant jokes (where’s the punchline?)
First published: January 11, 1993
Far Side jokes can be grouped into a few different categories, including “subtle” and “obvious” – this panel being an example of the former, perhaps too much so. In this Far Side Viking cartoon, the invaders are in the middle of a pitched battle, as they attempt to scale the walls of a castle using suspiciously modern-looking ladders, including one with the warning “this is not a step“printed on the first step.
With so much action going on – relatively speaking, for a Far Side comics – readers’ attention will not necessarily be immediately drawn to this small detail, which is equivalent to the joke in the comics. While certainly amusing, it could be argued that the joke here is too subtle and too far to catch the reader’s attention, making them much more likely to ask “What?” than laugh here.
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Those factory workers on the other side make slaughtering chickens fun (who gets three more right?)
First published: February 4, 1993
In another without caption Far Side cartoon, workers in “Red Hen Poultry Co.“are shown going about their days, most of them huddled around a conveyor belt, cutting various pieces of chicken as they go by. Again, the joke isn’t immediately obvious here, until readers realize that In the background of the panel, against the opposite wall of the factory, is a basketball hoop, splattered with bloodstains, hanging over the barrel with the inscription “gizzards.“
This is precisely the kind of thing people do to liven up their workplace, but given the nature of their work, it’s particularly dark – although it does add to the mood, but only after readers have had a moment to acclimatize. to comics and identify themselves. his mischievous humor.
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An elaborate psychological experiment comes to a conclusion (is this the other side’s most well-regarded joke?)
First published: March 26, 1993
That Far Side comical is the opposite of too subtle, as its humor is rooted in the excessive exposition of an experimental psychologist, who explains to a man in a military uniform, sitting behind a table, in front of a large portrait of himself, that he is not “the dictator of Ituânia, a small European republic“but yes”Eduardo Belcher“a man”from Long Island.”
The Far Side the humor was often clever – when it was dumb, it was deliberately – and often layered, but this is among its “high concept” jokes, as Gary Larson manages to cram an entire complicated plot into a single character’s soliloquy. Still, the end result is the same; although funny, this cartoon’s deviation The Far Side The usual style of joke will make many readers squint, not knowing whether to laugh or not.
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Not even Gary Larson can explain this cartoon (is that the point?)
First published: April 30, 1993
By far, this is one of Gary Larson’s most unusual experimental works. Far Side comics. Far Side jokes tended to succeed or fail depending on how well the image and caption worked together. Here, however, Larson offers a sequence of deliberately meaningless panels, which are paired with a meta-caption, which reads:
“So,” the interviewer asked, “do you ever have trouble coming up with ideas?” “Well, sometimes,” the cartoonist replied.
Larson famously disliked giving interviews and hated being asked where his ideas came from. This cartoon is a direct confrontation with that, offering what may be the least disguised appearance of the artist’s own perspective on the page. Although the disconnection between caption and image may be a bug in some Far Side cartoons, here Larson turns it into a feature filmand the result is unusual, with readers likely to be bemused by the comic and laugh.
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Sometimes the other side was more about vibrations than making sense (how did that worm play the drums?)
First published: May 10, 1993
In another Far Side cartoon that avoids subtitles, a bird is depicted with a worm hanging from its beak, freshly plucked from beneath the surface of the earth – where, moments before, the worm was minding its own business, playing the drums. The drumming worm is a strong absurdist element, of course, but where readers might wonder “What?” with this cartoon is the connection he asks readers to make.
That is, it requires the knowledge that birds hunt using vibrations – which means that a drumming worm would become a target in no time. Still, the worm playing the drums is probably the concept that will appeal to readers, as of course the creatures’ lack of appendages makes any instrument difficult, but the drums are especially difficult.
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The Other Side Takes a Closer Look at Hummingbird’s Accessories (Is This Gary Larson’s Most Inscrutable Cartoon?)
First published: June 24, 1993
In this Far Side panel, Gary Larson mixes ornithological facts with a strange flight of fancy, resulting in one of his most quixotic and difficult to parse cartoons. According to the caption, The collection of items here depicts the “structures, organs and accessories (shown in full size) belonging to Mellisuga helenae, the smallest hummingbird in the world.”
At first Larson illustrates an egg, a nest, a heart, and so on, but by the end of the panel he has moved on to “keys” and “lunch box,” in a ridiculous lateral move from reality to make-believe. Still, the grouping of all these items will probably make readers ask “What?“even after they understand the premise of the joke, as his humor seems a little too niche, as if it were a case of the artist catering to an audience of one: himself.
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Gary Larson makes a weird pun before leaving town (did the Far Side artist call this one?)
First published: July 2, 1993
Gary Larson produced only two new Far Side cartoons in July 1993, before taking the rest of the month off – but both are arguably “What?“comics, as is the case here, with a panel representing a train making a curve like “Engineer Matheus” picks up the intercom to notify passengers that they are about to “reached a very bad trackulence,” as they approach a rough part of the tracks.
The humor here is rooted in the “turbulence” riff, which is the kind of joke that often leaves people wondering how Larson came up with it. It is true that this cartoon gives the feeling of having been released in a hurry while the author was preparing for another of the increasingly common hiatuses he has had in recent years. The Far Sidewhich probably contributed to it not fully connecting with readers.
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The squirrels on the other side get excited (isn’t that kind of endearing?)
First published: August 10, 1993
“Nuts! Nuts! Get them! Nuts! Nuts! Get them!“a group of squirrels huddled on a tree branch screamas the caption informs readers that, “before starting the day, squirrels must first cheer up.” This appears to be one of Gary Larson’s perennial attempts to map human behavior in animals with The Far Sideand vice versa, although perhaps not as successful as it used to be.
However, there is a certain charm to this cartoon, as the squirrels and their sunrise song may not be the most identifiable. Far Side animals, but they and their behavior are certainly entertaining. There’s something slightly hypnotic about it”Nuts! Nuts! Get them!” which gives this panel the chance to be a Far Side joke that sticks in readers’ minds, even if they’re not sure why.
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Ruining a nice work shirt is the worst feeling (what exactly is a pocket squid for?)
First published: September 16, 1993
Anyone who has ever gotten into the habit of carrying a pen in their pocket – protected or not – will know the scourge of ink stains, and in this case Far Side cartoon, Gary Larson extrapolates a ridiculous joke from that family experience. “Once again, Vernon has a good shirt ruined“, explains the caption,”for a cheap pocket octopus.”
The “pocket octopus“The premise will make many readers not just ask”What?“But by shouting, Gary Larson still manages to make this cartoon’s joke land making all the characters in the illustration wear “pocket octopus,” suggesting that it is a common accessory in this Far Side workplace; However, what it is, and why, will forever remain elusive to even the most astute Far Side fan.
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Gary Larson Documents Slander Among Snake Researchers (Is This the Most Confusing Comic of the Year?)
First published: October 15, 1993
In this Far Side cartoon, a researcher in a laboratory studying snakes and other reptilesreacts with dismay when two of his colleagues appear. “They’re skinheads, you know” he says to another co-worker next to him. Visually, this is one of Gary Larson’s most detailed panels, which helps immerse the reader in the setting at this moment – which is great, because the caption begs for additional context that can’t be found anywhere.
In other words, Larson’s fictional world in this panel feels very real and detailed, but the end result is a joke that will leave many readers perplexed, with more questions than answers. The confusion is a result of this being between The Far Side more obtuse jokes; that is, while it is not impossible to understand by any means, it is far from easy to decipher.
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Gary Larson was always the man with a fork in a room full of people with spoons (does that make sense?)
First published: November 9, 1993
This is silly Far Side panel has the caption “Douglas is expelled from the spoon band,” like a man with a fork in his hand steps toward the bottom right corner of the frame, while behind him, the spoon band driver rests his fist on one hip and points toward the exit with the other.
The characters’ eyes are the window into this Far Side the cartoon’s true humor, but it’s also notable for being thematically representative of Gary Larson’s approach to – well, seemingly everything, at least when it comes to art, humor, and culture. Larson always went against the grain, marched to the beat of his own drum, and brought a fork to a spoon band, so to speak. In other words, this is a classic “odd man” comic, even if the ridiculous quality of the joke, on its surface, may confuse its share of readers.
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On the other side, happiness can be hard to find (how much did it cost?)
First published: December 29, 1993
Subverting the idea that “money can’t buy happiness,” that Far Side comics feature a man, Mr. Crawley, leaving the Happiness store, upon realizing that his friends who told him it didn’t exist”I just didn’t know where the store was.” Interestingly, in contrast to many “What?” Far Side cartoons, this one’s caption actually overexplains its premise – which ties into its “What?“quality, which comes from how literal the joke is.
In a way, this could be called meta-“What?“comedic, in the sense that what drives this response is the fact that this cartoon seems stylistically different from Gary Larson’s usual sense of humor. It is still unmistakably a Far Side comics, but it’s so easy to read that it might accidentally trick some fans into thinking they’re doing something. This is the great paradox The Far Sideand part of what makes comics so special.