The Far Side

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This article is about the comic strip. For other uses, see Far side.

The Far Side
Wiener Dog Art, one of many Far Side collections published in the United States.
Author(s)	Gary Larson
Current status	Ended
Syndicate(s)	Chronicle Features (1980–1985) Universal Press Syndicate (1985–1995)
Launch date	January 1, 1980
End Date	January 1, 1995
Genre(s)	Humor, Satire

The Far Side was a popular one-panel syndicated comic created by Gary Larson. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world, logical fallacies, impending bizarre disasters, or the search for meaning in life. The strip ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995, when it was retired (there were a few sabbaticals and vacations along the way). Reruns are still printed in many newspapers.

Around the world, The Far Side is perhaps better known for the compilation books and merchandise (especially calendars, T-shirts and mugs) than it is for its original incarnation as a daily newspaper feature.

The series was preceded by a similar panel called Nature's Way, also by Larson.

1 The comic
2 Recurring themes
- 2.1 Trouble Brewing
3 Humor confusion
4 Mistakes
5 Controversy
6 Publications
- 6.1 Collections
- 6.2 Other books
7 On Television
8 Online
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] The comic

Most Far Side cartoons are single rectangular panel, occasionally split into small sections of four, six or eight for the purposes of a storyline, with the caption or dialogue usually appearing under the panel as typed text, although sometimes word balloons were utilized for conversations. Sunday comics were done in water color or colored pencils, with captions hand written in Larson's own cursive.

Most of Larson's comics relied on some combination of a visual and verbal gag, rather than just one or the other.

Larson was recognized for his work on the strip with the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for 1985 and 1988, and their Reuben Award for 1990 and 1994.

[edit] Recurring themes

Far Side cartoons, though diverse in their humor, often rely on certain familiar situations. These include:

Animals

Cows - Gary Larson himself has said they are his favorite subject for humor. In an anniversary The Far Side comic book, Larson stated that he finds everything about cows to be funny, including the name "cow".
Chickens
Snakes
Sharks
Life on the farm, featuring the antics of farmers and their animals, especially cows and chickens
Dogs and/or cats and/or other family pets
Ducks
The fleas on dogs
Squid
Elephants
Parrots
Protozoa and other microscopic creatures
Gorillas, and/or Tarzan with Tantor.
Humans switching places with other various things, usually animals (such as fish trying to catch humans)
The african savannah, most commonly lions and rhinos.
Forest animals, most commonly bears, deer and squirrels.
"Perspectives in Nature We Rarely Enjoy." These are cartoons showing animals to have behaviour quite contrary to what the humans think they do.
Insects and many other wild animals living in human society or in human homes.
Lemmings

Settings

Life in Hell
Castaways on a desert island
Cavemen and dinosaurs
Scientists in labs, invariably wearing white lab coats
Doctors, often in surgery
Explorers and indigenous peoples or cannibals
Vikings and warriors
Death, complete with the robe, skeletal hands, and scythe
Nerds (with whom Larson admittedly identifies)
God, complete with white hair and flowing beard, as in Michelangelo's artworks, and other religious themes
Monsters of varying appearances, such as giant creatures (Godzilla), werewolves, and generic monstrosities such as Frankenstein's monster.
The Old West
Deep sea divers
Nuclear War
Dreams and Nightmares of various characters from Medieval knights to Elephants.
Complete and total randomness, such as a strip which simply shows an enormous explosion with the caption "Suddenly, the whole world blows up." Another example is a cartoon which is "Out of Order" depicting hundreds of characters thrown randomly over the cartoon panel.
Satire on comic strips, such as when characters from a "Serious Cartoon" appear at the Far Side apartment and find upright cows, several snakes and a duck residing in the room. Larson also makes fun of popular cartoons in his cartoon 'Ghost Newspapers,' where, while not part of the gag, the comics featured are named 'For Deader or Even Worse' (For Better or for Worse) and 'Marmadead' (Marmaduke.)
Parodies of the Escapades, such as the first Dirt Capades.
Factory Life
Bartenders, on the phone calling out to customers. These are normally references to pop culture or visual gags.
Scenes from various movies eg. Return of the Nose of Dr. Verlucci
The Lewis and Clark Expedition
Historical events
Aliens and their similarities and differences from Earth.

Other

Mixed metaphors of all kinds
Common sayings or figures of speech (often metaphors or similes literally coming true)
Musicians, musical instruments, and venues
References to science and scientific thought
Extensions on the tools and possessions of popular fictional characters such as Thor's Hammer, Screwdriver and Crescent Wrench, or Aladdin's Lamp, End Table and Sofa
The History of Jazz

Far Side cartoons are also known for similarities that appear throughout the series:

Most of the characters are overweight.
A majority of the characters wear glasses; most notably, the women almost always wear catseye glasses. In situations with non-human characters, the glasses usually indicate the character's gender.
When no glasses are worn, the eyes usually consist of a simple line, at least when they aren't showing expression.
The women usually have a beehive hairdo.
There are always doilies on couches and living room chairs.
There are usually framed photos of the character's species hanging on the wall of the living room or dining room.
The generic companies A-1, Ace, and Acme are used for most products featured.
Names of shops, restaurants, etc. are very simplistic (example: Bob's Diner).
Stand-up comedians always end their speech with the line "But, seriously folks," occasionally edited where appropriate.
Anything written by animals will have letters reversed, usually 'c's or 'e's.

[edit] Trouble Brewing

The recurring caption Trouble Brewing appeared on a few cartoons throughout the series, as "trouble brewing" was always a fundamental aspect of Larson's humor. This theme was used for the 2005 release of the Far Side calendar, with situations like:

Ed's Dingo Farm next door to Doreen's Daycare. This is a reference to the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance.
A falconer meeting next to the 12th Annual Teacup Poodle Fanciers Picnic
An angry mob leaving a migraine headaches center towards the marching band school next door, with the caption The dam bursts, which seems to be a little further than Trouble Brewing
Crutchfield's Crocodile Farm next door to Anderson's Sky-Diving School

[edit] Humor confusion

Larson's sense of humor, while original, can also be confusing to some, as in a comic dubbed "Cow Tools" (The Complete Far Side 1:251) that caused masses of readers to speculate on the use of the crudely formed tools depicted in the panel, while the cartoonist had just found humor in the idea that if a cow could make a tool, they would most likely look as he had drawn them; in other words, readers were looking for a deeply-embedded punchline which simply wasn't there.

Another famous example inspired by a marine-biologist friend of Larson's (The Complete Far Side 2:302, also discussed in the 1991 introduction) requires the reader to know facts some may consider obscure about sea life. The cartoon depicts two shipwreck survivors clinging to the bottom of a tall, rocky island. One survivor tells the other, "Well, we'll never want for food, Doris. ... This rock is absolutely encrusted with oysters and mussels — all the way to the top!" The joke is that these marine creatures live below high tide and that the two survivors will end up being underwater once the tide has come in.

Other times he was a little more obvious, though some knowledge was assumed: for example, one strip contained a family of spiders driving a car down the street. The joke was that the car's bumper sticker, "Have a Nice Day", featured a smiley face with eight eyes.

Larson also occasionally drew cartoons commenting on celebrities or current events, although these are rare. An example is a corollary to the Crutchfield joke: "What really happened to D.B. Cooper", showing a wide-eyed parachutist, laden with extortion money and heading down into the heart of a Rottweiler farm or a comic showing Madonna falling down on an emergency raft and puncturing the bottom with the cone-shaped bikini top that she wore in the 80s. Political-themed cartoons were also rare, though during the Gulf War he drew a comic of "Saddam Hussein's war room" with an entering pizza man asking "Who ordered the 'mother of all pizzas'?"

In one of his books, Larson comments that some of his cartoons are so obscure that many people won't "get" them. He goes on to say that occasionally, he draws one that even he doesn't "get".

[edit] Mistakes

Larson has made comment, most notably in the Prehistory of the Far Side, upon mistakes appearing in the cartoon, whether be it his fault or, arguably more commonly, that of the editor.

Drawing

Firstly, the cartoon "Chicken Sleds of the North" in which instead of dogs, the Arctic sled was being pulled by chickens. Unfortunately for Larson, when he drew the cartoon it was published, it was not noticed in the editing process that the chickens were in no way attached. When published now, an edited version is shown.
"I ask the jury, is that the face of a mass murderer?" states the caption. The scene is of a lawyer defending a man with a huge smiley face, reminiscent of a child's stick-man. The defendant in the cartoon is standing next to a desk, and while the man's face and torso are shown, the man's legs are nowhere to be seen. An edited version is now published.

Science

In one cartoon, an ape collecting bananas from a tree in the jungle is portrayed. However the banana crop is drawn in the fashion that we may eat bananas, while they actually grow upside down.
In another cartoon, penguins and polar bears are portrayed in the same cartoon, while they actually reside at opposite ends of the globe.
There are many cartoons portraying neanderthals and dinosaurs in the same cartoon. However Larson questioned this not for logic, but from a more religious stance, however he was to use this situation in several of his panels.

Caption Capers

Surprisingly often, the caption to the Far Side cartoon has been published wrongly in many newspapers, of which Larson comments in the Prehistory of the Far Side.

Dennis the Menace: As the two cartoons The Far Side and Dennis the Menace were published side by side, the captions were mixed up on several occasions, to what Larson believes to be both positive but most bizarre results. One is when three snakes are sitting down to dinner, when the youngest one complains "Not Hamsters Again!" This however was printed underneath the DTM cartoon, which portrayed Dennis and his friend eating sandwiches, while his mother is busy on the phone with the caption being "Lucky I learnt how to make peanut butter sandwiches, which was to appear as the Far Side's caption.
The other noted mistake concerning Dennis the Menace involves a Far Side cartoon where a cave man is consulting a mystic, while the DTM cartoon was that of a dinner conversation. During the caption switch, the DTM cartoon garnered the most bizarre caption of "I see your skull, petrified and sitting on a shelf somewhere," which Larson says he found quite interesting, for its own little quirks. The Far Side cartoon on the other hand is quite nonsensical, the caption being "If I grow as big as dad, won't my skin be too small," a rather inane question for a fully grown man to be asking.
In one case, the same caption was printed twice in a row. While the phrase "Eeny oony wana" may have made sense as the strange chant of slugs worshiping a salt shaker, when portrayed with a pest exterminator trying to an infestation of children and their tree houses, confusion reigned.

Editing has often annoyed Larson, though he admits that it was probably been for the best and has saved him on several occasions. Their input however has at times annoyed him. His qualms have mostly involved the effect on the humour, through unacceptable blatedness or softening of the gag, most notably in the cartoon featuring two mammoths, one of which has stepped on a human. The caption originally read, not written here in entirety, "I thought I smelt something." This was deemed unacceptable by one of the editors and this was altered to "I thought I heard something squeak," though the cartoon is now published in its original form.

[edit] Controversy

Larson's comic has been attacked by people and groups who found it offensive, often for religious content (the Judeo-Christian God is often depicted in a humorous or facetious light; a strip dubbed "Acts of God" and containing God doing various vaudeville routines on a stage is cited as one of the most notorious in this category). Several Far Side jokes have involved violence and murder, often between animals or humans and animals. Though not visually gory, some readers have found such strips to be too gruesome and dark for the comics page. For instance one cartoon shows two parents telling off a witch—who they had mistaken for a witch-like babysitter—for eating both of their children, as if one would have been acceptable but two is really out of it. Larson commented to slight controversy on this cartoon that when directed at children, this is a simple, told everyday, fairytale and that directing it at adults should not kick up such a fuss.

One cartoon shows two chimpanzees grooming. One finds a human hair on the other and inquires, "Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" The Jane Goodall Institute thought this was in bad taste, and had their lawyers draft a letter to Larson and his distribution syndicate, in which they described the cartoon as an "atrocity." They were stymied, however, by Goodall herself, who revealed that she found the cartoon amusing. Since then, all profits from sales of a shirt featuring this cartoon go to the Goodall Institute.

(Incidentally, Larson was attacked by Frodo, a chimp described by Goodall as a "bully" while visiting Gombe National Park in 1988. Goodall commented, "He somehow managed to get news of the cartoon.")

In The Complete Far Side as well as The Prehistory Of The Far Side, interspersed with the comics, there are letters from angry citizens to their newspaper's publishers, demanding the removal of The Far Side from their pages, and often citing a canceled subscription if this was not met. However, these protesters constituted a small enough minority that papers were able to continue to run the strip, with the matter becoming moot when compilation books were produced. Larson himself often laughs at the controversies of his comic as evidenced in The Prehistory of the Far Side, where he says these people have usually misunderstood the cartoon. He did however offer a response to all those who took the trouble to complain: a large print of a Larsonesque boy making a face on the following page along with a reprint of a letter from an entomologist proposing to name a newly discovered species of biting louse after Larson, Strigiphilus garylarsoni. The image of this insect is presented in the form of geometric design on the inside front and back covers of the book.

[edit] Publications

Gary Larson has produced 23 Far Side books, all of which have made it to the New York Times bestseller list. The cartoons were first collected in small books (see list below), and some were then republished in larger "best-of" collections (The Far Side Galleries). Additional "best-of" collections were published, such as The Prehistory of The Far Side, culminating in the final, most complete publication, The Complete Far Side.

[edit] Collections

September 1982: The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-1200-2)
August 1983: Beyond The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-1149-9)
August 1984: In Search Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2060-9)
April 1985: Bride Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2066-8)
August 1985: Valley Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2067-6)
August 1986: It Came From The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2073-0)
April 1987: Hound Of The Far Side (ISBN 0-8362-2087-0)
October 1987: The Far Side Observer (ISBN 0-8362-2098-6)
July 1988: Night of the Crash Test Dummies (ISBN 0-8362-2049-8)
April 1989: Wildlife Preserves (ISBN 0-8362-1842-6)
October 1990: Wiener Dog Art (ISBN 0-8362-1865-5)
November 1991: Unnatural Selections (ISBN 0-8362-1881-7)
November 1992: Cows Of Our Planet (ISBN 0-8362-1701-2)
November 1993: The Chickens Are Restless (ISBN 0-8362-1717-9)
November 1994: The Curse of Madame "C" (ISBN 0-8362-1763-2)
October 1996: Last Chapter And Worse (ISBN 0-8362-2131-1; published after the end of the strip)

[edit] Other books

November 1984: The Far Side Gallery (ISBN 0-8362-2062-5)
October 1986: The Far Side Gallery 2 (ISBN 0-8362-2085-4)
October 1988: The Far Side Gallery 3 (ISBN 0-8362-1831-0)
January 1989: The Prehistory of the Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit (ISBN 0-8362-1851-5)
October 1993: The Far Side Gallery 4 (ISBN 0-8362-1724-1)
September 1995 The Far Side Gallery 5 (ISBN 0-8362-0425-5)
April 1998: There's a Hair in My Dirt! (ISBN 0-06-093274-0; not a collection of single panels)
August 2003: The Complete Far Side: 1980-1994 (ISBN 0-7407-2113-5)

The five Far Side Galleries are the most popular of the books, each of them collecting together the best cartoons from three smaller books, along with a humorous foreword by a celebrity fan, e.g. Stephen King, Robin Williams, or Jane Goodall (who herself was the subject of a controversial Far Side cartoon).

In 1989, The Prehistory Of The Far Side was published to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the strip. In this book, Gary Larson discussed the development of The Far Side, the public's reaction to it, and presented a selection of his personal favorites from the cartoon's history, as well as previously unpublished sketches and strips rejected by his editor.

In 2003, The Complete Far Side was released, which contains nearly every Far Side comic ever published. (The collection is missing parody art pieces from Wiener Dog Art, some material from The Prehistory of the Far Side, and a panel run for a caption writing contest in the Telegram-Tribune newspaper.) The set featured two volumes (1980–1986 and 1987–1994), a foreword by Steve Martin, and an introduction by Larson's long-time editor Jake Morrisey. The first-edition hardcover boxed set weighs nineteen and a half pounds (8.8 kilograms). Some of the comics were altered for this book, either featuring a different caption or correcting errors. (Most notably altered is a comic where a man with a smiley face for a head is on trial for murder. In The Prehistory of the Far Side Larson noted that he forgot to draw the man's legs.)

[edit] On Television

In 1994, Larson produced an animated special, Tales From the Far Side, featuring his art style and gags from the strips. He followed up with a sequel in 1997.

[edit] Online

It is difficult to find many Far Side cartoons online, since Larson (and/or his publishers and lawyers) have been very effective at persuading people to not infringe on his copyright. There is a widely distributed letter online, attributed to Gary Larson, in which he explains the "emotional cost" to him of people displaying his cartoons on their websites, and asks them to stop doing so.

[edit] See also

Thagomizer

[edit] External links

v • d • e

Universal Press Syndicate

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Category: Comic strips started in the 1980s