10 of the funniest The Far Side comics by Gary Larson

Since it first hit the funny pages back in 1980, Gary Larson’s The Far Side flipped the whole comic strip game. Forget those tired old multi-panel routines — Gary Larson was doing single panels, throwing the weirdest, most off-the-wall jokes at readers who probably didn’t know what hit them.

You had cows acting like people, scientists looking like they just rolled out of bed, and so many bug jokes you’d think he had a grudge against entomology. And people ate it up. The Far Side was in almost 2,000 newspapers and popping up everywhere from Paris to Peoria, with translations in almost seventeen languages.

Even after Larson retired in ’95, you’d still spot his work on calendars, T-shirts, and all over the internet.

Why did it work? Well, for one, Gary Larson didn’t care about playing nice. He went straight for the bizarre and the dark stuff — the kind of jokes that make you gasp and giggle at the same time. No recurring characters or safe, familiar settings. Every panel was like spinning a wheel of what the hell is this, and people loved it.

He was so into animals and science that some bug expert literally named a louse after him. If that’s not legacy, we don’t know what is. Sure, critics sometimes called his work “sick” or “tasteless,” but that just made it cooler for the rest of us.

The Far Side didn’t just make people laugh — it wormed its way into actual science papers, college lectures, and even caused a few small scandals when Gary Larson crossed the invisible line of “good taste.”

You can see his fingerprints all over the comics and comedy that came later. People are still arguing about their favorite panels on social media, decades after the last newspaper strip ran.

We’re breaking down ten of the all-time funniest The Far Side comics. Each pick comes with some context and hot takes about why that panel’s so good and how it nails that classic The Far Side flavor.

So, if you’re a The Far Side fan, or just like laughing at stuff that’s a little twisted, you’re in the right place.

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Funniest The Far Side comics

“You can lead a horse to water, but…”: The barroom horse

So here’s Gary Larson just completely flipping that old horse adage:

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

Two guys at a bar, totally sloshed, with an actual horse sitting at the bar with them. One of them, in true drunk-guy fashion, goes:

“Sure—but can you make him drink?”

Meanwhile, the horse just sits there, looking all nonchalant with a drink right in front of him. Is he gonna drink it? Who knows! That’s the whole joke.

Why’s it hilarious? Because it’s so stupidly literal and yet somehow makes total sense. Horses just don’t belong in bars, but in The Far Side world, it feels almost normal.

Plus, there’s something about the deadpan way it’s delivered — like, of course, the horse is just chilling at the bar. Classic Larson: take something we’ve all heard and make it absolutely bonkers.

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“Cow tools”: The Most Inexplicable Comic

Cow Tools is the ultimate what in The Far Side. There’s a cow, and some weird, useless objects that are supposed to be tools? Maybe?

Gary Larson thought this one would tank his career, but people went nuts over it.

Why’s it funny? Because it makes zero sense. Like, your brain tries to find a joke, but there just isn’t one. That’s the joke. It’s so confusing, it somehow becomes legendary.

People still bring it up when talking about weird comics — or when they want to sound deep about “surreal humor.” This is basically the original meme.

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“Fair is fair”: The dog at sea

Dogs pop up all the time in The Far Side, usually doing something weird. This one’s dark, though: a bunch of shipwrecked folks stuck at sea, and the dog is looking like he’s about to chew one of them.

What’s so funny? It’s that uncomfortable, snort-laugh kind of humor. You expect dogs to be loyal sidekicks, but here, he’s eyeing up dinner. It surely is morbid, but it’s also just so far out there that it loops around to being funny again.

The longer you stare at it, the weirder and funnier it gets. Larson really leans into that line between hilarious and horrifying.

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“The picture is pretty bleak, gentlemen…”: Dinosaurs and doom

Dinosaurs just can’t catch a break in The Far Side. In this strip, they’re having a meeting, and one of them drops a grim prognosis about their impending extinction. It’s a bunch of T. rexes getting the bad news about extinction.

Why does it work? Because it’s the exact way people act when facing big, scary problems: ignore it until it’s way too late. The whole thing is a perfect little nudge about how humans love to ignore warnings. Nerds and science geeks eat this one up, and for good reason.

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Humans and chickens have a hilariously twisted relationship

The Far Side just loves its chickens. In this panel, a woman’s coming back from the coop with eggs, and a chicken’s walking by carrying her own baby. Totally normal.

Why does it get laughs? Because it’s just so matter-of-fact. Like, sure, chickens collect human babies. What’s the problem? It’s that straight-faced delivery that makes you double-take and then lose it.

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The peg-legged cat

Larson’s love of animals and twisted humor shines here. There’s a pet store with a piranha in a bowl, and this poor cat with a peg leg is giving it the stink-eye. You can just picture the disaster that went down. If you don’t get it, this just means a past encounter that didn’t end well for the feline.

Why’s this a favorite? Because you get the whole story without a single word. It’s just a look, a fish, and a cat with a peg leg. You fill in the rest, and it’s hilarious and a bit gory. Nobody does silent storytelling like Larson.

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“Wiener dog art”: The art world parodied

This one’s just pure gold. Larson takes the highbrow art world, smashes it together with wiener dogs, and calls it a day. Wiener Dog Art isn’t just a running joke in the strip — it’s a whole collection, including eight new full-color pieces that are masterpieces for dog lovers and art snobs.

Picture famous paintings, but, like, add a dachshund or two — suddenly, Mona Lisa’s got paws. Is it ridiculous? That’s the point. Gary Larson’s not just poking fun at art — he’s celebrating how weird and wonderful creativity can get.

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“Should I?…”: The dark urge

Okay, this one’s a bit twisted. Picture two construction guys, just chillin’ way up high on a steel beam, munching their sandwiches. But — plot twist — one of them’s eyeballing the other and thinking, “Should I?…”

Like, he’s debating tossing his buddy off the edge. It’s that perfect mash-up of totally normal lunchtime vibes and this sudden, unfiltered peek at the human brain’s stranger side.

Honestly, who hasn’t had those completely random, slightly evil thoughts pop up now and then? Anyway, this panel’s so iconic that even psychology nerds have analyzed it. The Far Side has a way of making us laugh at stuff we’d never admit out loud.

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“The curse of Madame ‘C’”: Larson’s meta-humor

The Curse of Madame ‘C’ is a book that spins a wild, made-up origin story for Gary Larson’s comic strip — think evil cows casting curses, all sorts of weirdness, and a parade of the usual oddballs from his cartoons showing up.

Larson’s roasting himself here, and it’s hilarious to watch. The whole setup is so bonkers, and that inside joke just cranks it up a notch. Out of all The Far Side stuff, this one’s got a special place — people are always tossing it into their “must-read” lists for fans.

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“Alien gag gun”: The prankster extraterrestrials

Aliens in The Far Side are just bored pranksters. In one strip, two aliens zap a couple on a picnic, but instead of a “BANG!,” the gun pops out a silly flag.

Why’s that great? Because we always expect aliens to be all serious or terrifying. Not here. Gary Larson makes them cosmic goofballs, and it’s way more fun. This strip always gets a shoutout when people talk about the best The Far Side moments. It’s a perfect example of how The Far Side took familiar sci-fi tropes and flipped them into something unexpectedly hilarious.

And that’s just a taste of why Gary Larson’s comics are pure, weird genius.