Chicken jokes are one of the most beloved recurring elements of The Far Sidemeaning that By developing a better sense of how artist Gary Larson has used chickens in his cartoons over time and how that usage has changed over time, it can provide readers with a greater understanding of his work as a whole.
Given its ubiquity during the halcyon days of The Far Side After fifteen years of publication, chickens have taken a surprisingly long time to become a staple of Gary Larson’s work. By the time of Larson’s retirement, however, his chicken jokes were as ambitious and outrageous as anything he produced late in his career.
In fact, Larson continued to produce high-quality products Far Side chicken jokes until the end, with some of its funniest coming in the final stretch of the comic.
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The Other Side’s First Chicken Comic Hinted at Its Potential for Comedy
First published: February 28, 1980
Readers may be surprised to discover that chickens were almost an afterthought in their Far Side debut. In other words, in this panel they are not the focus of the joke, although they play a fundamental role in making it funny. “The next track I sign, I’m reading the fine print!” says a disgruntled cattle thiefhaving taken this job expecting cows and herding chickens instead.
The role of chickens here comes from Gary Larson considering what would be the funniest replacement for cows and choosing an animal with which he could easily fill an entire frame. Overall, this first Far Side cartoon is just a taste of chickens’ capacity for comedy, as Larson would make clear in subsequent comics.
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Gary Larson’s Second Chicken Comic Helped Establish More Than One Classic Far Side Trope
First published: July 15, 1980
The Far Side chickens take center stage for the first of many times in this panel, which also provides an early example of a recurring two-parter that all fans of Gary Larson’s work will recognize. The first is the idea of animals, especially farm animals, acting clandestinely like humans; the second is the “scientific presentation” trope, which has been the formula for many hilarious stories Far Side comics.
This includes this one, in which A chicken points to the image of an adult man, next to that of a baby, and lectures his companions: “Now here is one of the mysteries of the universe…which came first?“ in perfect tone Far Side inversion of the eternal “chicken or the egg” question.
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Far Side Chicken’s First Color Comic Uses This to Joke’s Advantage
First published: June 16, 1981
“Don’t encourage him, Sylvia” one chicken tells another, while they have a drink in a bar – while on an adjacent table, a peacock tries to catch their attention with its brightly rendered blue and green plumage. It’s a joke as simple as The Far Side already delivered, which is why it appeals to fans of Gary Larson’s work, who have embraced the mayhem out of necessity if not choice.
Here, what draws attention is the way the color makes it stronger; although the joke still works in black and white – as it would have originally appeared in many newspapers – the visual joke lands more effectively in color, as the peacock’s feathers catch the reader’s attention, just as they tempt Sylvia.
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The first time a chicken from the other side threatened a farmer’s life – but not the last
First published: December 30, 1981
“Well that’s all“, one chicken says to another after a farmer takes an extra egg from her”,tomorrow he dies.” It’s a shockingly terse and insensitive statement of intent to murder a man, with the brevity and directness of the line making it even more of a sharp and entertaining joke.
The relationship between chickens and humans would only become more complicated and controversial as The Far Side progressed, with this panel essentially functioning as a prelude to everything that was to come. In that sense, Gary Larson’s chicken humor takes another step forward here, setting a precedent for a joke the author would return to often, which notably stands out as one of the best examples of this.
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Opposite Side’s Fifth Chicken Comic Is the Best Ever
First published: January 2, 1982
That Far Side panel is the height of absurdity, featuring a woman walking down the path back from the chicken coop to her home with a fresh basket of eggs – while a hen heads in the opposite direction carrying a baby. Without needing subtitles, this Far Side comic executes its joke at a high level and in the process offers one of the best examples of an evergreen story Far Side theme.
Gary Larson has often highlighted the innate strangeness of human behavior when switching animals, but here he takes it a step further by having the human character, mid-behavior, confronted by his warped mirror, in the form of a chicken running away with a childish one. It’s strange and surreal, and shows another level rise for Larson Far Side chicken jokes.
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The Final Stretch of Chicken Jokes on the Other Side Begins With a Vision of a Dark Future
First published: April 26, 1994
Regarding a comic book that had less than a year left to finish, this Far Side chicken comic is about imminent destruction, aA barnyard fortune teller looks into her crystal ball and finds nothing good for any of her clients. As the caption says:
Wow! Another bad one!…I see his severed head lying silently in the red-stained earth, an expression of surprise still frozen in his lifeless eyes…Next!
There’s a lot going on in this Far Side joke, from the basic absurdity of the chicken soothsayer giving all the other chickens exactly the same bad reading, to the evocative, detail-filled dialogue and the matter-of-fact tone in which it is delivered. a solid Far Side comic strip, which shows how much more sophisticated Gary Larson’s style of humor has become over the course of his career.
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Far Side’s “Stackable Livestock” comic is one of the strangest “What If?” Questions
First published: May 9, 1994
That Far Side cartoon stands out as particularly strange, even among Gary Larson’s notoriously strange work. “My life changed, since I discovered Stackable Livestock“, says a farmer to his friend, showing off his sheep, cows and, of course, chickens neatly stacked.
Apparently the result of Gary Larson asking himself, “How much space would farmers save if they could stack their livestock?” that Far Side cartoon is a “What if?” deliberately ridiculous, which reminds readers that Larson had to have fun with an idea before it could be realized and published, so that it could amuse anyone else. Admittedly, the images are undeniably funny and the concept is so bizarre that it will remain etched in readers’ minds.
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One of the last Far Side “bedtime” cartoons starring chickens
First published: August 10, 1994
Children being put to bed at night was another semi-regular activity Far Side trope, and this is one of the last produced by Gary Larson. Here, a mother hen stands at the foot of her children’s bed, while one chick blames the other for making noise after bedtime, saying “no way was it me, mom – you must have heard a peep from Eddie!”
Larson’s playful overliteralization of a popular saying will bring a smile to most readers’ faces, even if it doesn’t strike them as funny. Although it is undervalued as one of the many emotions The Far Side could extract from any panel, it is possible that the intention of this cartoon was more to awaken the reader’s feelings, rather than to provoke a big laugh.
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Gary Larson uses chickens to investigate labor exploitation
First published: October 10, 1994
“Oh yes! They work hard, all day, seven days a week“, says the owner of a human factory to a visitor, as he looks at his workforce, which consists entirely of chickens. “And here’s the best part“, he adds, “for chicken feed!“Although the pun here is quite obvious, this Far Side panel also clearly has something to say about very real labor exploitation.
Although Gary Larson denies Far Side the comics had a deeper meaning, his opinions and feelings saturated the cartoon, and as a result a form of social criticism can easily be extracted from at least some of his works. That’s certainly the case here, as Larson comments on inhumane labor practices, rendering his characters literally non-human.
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The chickens on the other side mourn the end of the comic
First published: October 28, 1994
The Far Side The chicken’s final panel features a funeral, which is fitting considering it’s the last of the birds’ iconic appearances in Gary Larson’s masterpiece. The funeral in question is for a chicken named Norman, Who “was decapitated, cleaned and plucked” – with a cooked chicken hilariously emerging from an open coffin.
Just as readers should not mourn the end of The Far Sidethe speaker at the podium here suggests that those gathered “feel comfortable knowing he would have had fun with it,” as apparently the deceased had “a crazy sense of humor.” It’s a deliriously funny response to death, making it a fitting note for The Far Side chickens to come out.