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The Far Side – By Gary Larson

nullhole
36 replies
22h7m

Worth noting is Gary Larson's original response to the WWW was an open letter asking fans not to post his cartoons online. Akin to the Bill Gates letter on copying software, but, perhaps, more understandable. This website is a reversal of that original position. He was thoughtful then, and is thoughtful now.

The original letter: https://www.portmann.com/farside/index.html?home.html

And the reversal: https://www.thefarside.com/about/48/a-letter-from-gary-larso...

... for cartoons, my favourite has always been:

[A cow, wearing jewellery and holding a martini glass, stands by the picture window of a well-appointed suburban home, while a bull sits in an armchair, watching TV, with a beer in his hoof]

Cow: "Wendell... I'm not content"

themadturk
3 replies
19h10m

"I'm not content" was especially relevant if you remember the old Darigold Dairies commercial: "Darigold...home of contented cows."

mark-r
1 replies
17h51m

Contented cows were a very common dairy meme.

jethro_tell
0 replies
13h59m

Still are.

aksss
0 replies
11h47m

Driving through cow country it’s impossible not to think of all the far side comics involving them and ponder what’s really going on in their heads. XD

eichin
3 replies
18h33m

The "wings stay on/wings fall off" switch is the one I keep having to dig up at work (alternating with "Why do we even have that lever?" from emperor's new groove.) And then there's "Cow Tools"...

danparsonson
0 replies
13h14m

I think about the former almost every time I fly XD

crabmusket
0 replies
13h8m

All three of these are also frequently on my mind.

arwhatever
0 replies
12h6m

“Now That Should Clear Up A Few Things Around Here” Just has to be the most applicable to software development, assuming that’s what most folks around here are into.

LordDragonfang
3 replies
20h48m

Honestly, it's a real shame that it took so long for that reversal, because Far Side comics already had an almost perfect vibe for joining the early rise of internet meme culture, with the postmodernist elements they had in common. Hopefully for Larson things haven't moved on too far that he's totally missed that boat, because his comics absolutely deserve wider recognition among internet culture.

omoikane
2 replies
20h26m

I think the expectation from the early days of the internet was that information could be contained, and the realization from recent years is that the expectation no longer holds. So creators either have to make their own contents accessible or someone else will do it anyways, possibly poorly. Gary Larson might have arrived at this realization relatively late, but I don't think he is the last one.

psunavy03
1 replies
19h8m

Witness all the artists who refused to put their music on iTunes or streaming. How'd that exclusive CD deal with Wal-Mart work out, Garth?

Zircom
0 replies
13h32m

Garth actually had his own streaming service GhostTunes, which was created solely to only host his own music for streaming until he realized what a dumb idea that was.

jacquesm
2 replies
21h46m

For me it's also a cow one: 'Car!'.

Wistar
1 replies
10h50m

Someone close to me has the original of the “Car” cartoon. Gary gave it to him as a gift shortly after it was published. It is pen and ink and Letratone on paperboard and is about 18” wide.

For a year or two in the late 90s, the artwork went missing and was thought to have been stolen, but was eventually found to have been put in storage.

jacquesm
0 replies
10h32m

Wow, that is incredible. First that it wouldn't have pride of place somewhere (it's as if the gift wasn't properly appreciated), second that it would end up in storage and then that it was found again. If they need a safe place to store it give them my email ;)

chris_wot
2 replies
21h16m

My favourite was only published in his hardcover book. Newspapers universally rejected it:

http://doubleplusundead.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/far-side...

rilindo
1 replies
19h43m

I feel wicked laughing at this.

chris_wot
0 replies
18h27m

As did we all.

zem
1 replies
20h9m

my favourite was the horse parliament one. someone posted it to reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/b6g2ti/i_love_it_wh...

fedreg
0 replies
17h52m

So good! Thanks for sharing

mccolin
1 replies
21h20m

I’ve always loved “Beware of Doug”

pjmorris
0 replies
15h20m

We had two Dougs in our 1980's office. One of them had the cartoon on the entrance to his cube.

knodi123
1 replies
17h35m

although he still disables right-clicking on his site. So he's still putting some effort into the sisyphean "uphill slog"

paradox460
0 replies
9m

No RSS feed either

flkiwi
1 replies
19h27m

Inuit leaving an igloo: "Well, it's cold again." Kills me every time.

defaultcompany
0 replies
17h31m

Haha this reminded me of the two guys in hell and the one whispers to the other “I hate this place”.

pjmorris
0 replies
15h21m

About ten years ago I went back and forth a couple of email rounds with one of his aides trying to get permission to use one of his cartoons ('Old dog, new trick') in a presentation to ~200 people, but I couldn't justify the expense. I was bummed, but respect Larson's wishes too much to go freelance and just show the cartoon.

m463
0 replies
20h20m

I always recall turbulence.

krsna
0 replies
16h32m

So many childhood memories reading Farside. Here’s my favourite: https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2...

hans_carlsen
0 replies
18h15m

A farmer on the path home from the chicken coop with a basket of eggs meets a hen carrying a baby.

entropicgravity
0 replies
19h54m

Pilot to co-pilot, "What's that goat doing up here in this cloud bank?"

e40
0 replies
3h18m

As a kid in school, “Woah, wrong room” was my fav (says the alien who peeks into the classroom of small children).

dhosek
0 replies
17h35m

A group of cows huddled around another cow eating a hamburger.

“I’d say we taste like chicken.”

cgriswald
0 replies
12h8m

[Men in pith helmets and khaki shorts trekking hip deep through water with their gear held over their heads.]

Piranha: Just nibble at first. … But when you hear them yell “Piranha!” - go for it.

acheron
0 replies
19h10m

Embedded in styrofoam shoes, Carl is sent to ‘sleep with the humans’.

Arrath
0 replies
20h14m

I've always been particularly fond of the humble farmer dooming the planet to destruction by earnestly grasping the hand-shaped alien's entire head for an introductory handshake.

https://twitter.com/faineg/status/1387409269620985863?lang=e...

OldGuyInTheClub
12 replies
22h0m

If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be all of them. I only wish I had a thagomizer for the routine problems of work and day-to-day living.

dylan604
7 replies
21h45m

Mine was School For the Gifted

OldGuyInTheClub
1 replies
20h45m

I was drinking coffee when I saw "Early vegetarians returning from the kill". But not for long.

dylan604
0 replies
20h41m

I have redecorated with my morning beverage on many occasions myself.

urbandw311er
0 replies
19h6m
plowjockey
0 replies
14h25m

Many years ago attending the first company technical seminar that one was taped to the door.

Sometime in the late '80s the local daily began carrying the Far Side and the very first one had Popeye on the witness stand saying, "I yam what I yam."

pdonis
0 replies
12h45m

My parents gave me a mug with that on it for my birthday one year. I still have it.

geoelectric
0 replies
20h29m

I think of that one every single time I try to use a door the wrong way.

chris_wot
0 replies
18h19m
psunavy03
2 replies
21h45m

Didn't "thagomizer" work its way into paleontologists' slang, since they really didn't have a word for it?

stonogo
0 replies
21h20m
gramie
0 replies
21h26m

I think it worked its way into the official vocabulary!

urbandw311er
0 replies
19h5m
polygotdomain
9 replies
20h18m

Growing up my best friend and I loved The Far Side. In many ways it was the basis to the quirky humor we both shared, and would continue to explore throughout our youth. In elementary school we had countless Far Side books between us, and by middle school a few shirts too (I remember having "Midvale School for the Gifted").

Well he turned 40 just a few weeks ago, and I needed to find a present. I don't know why, as The Far Side hadn't crossed my conscious in quite some time, but I thought "I'll get him 'The Chickens are Restless'". After some quick searching, he ended up with the Complete Works containing every thing from The Far Side.

Wrapped, he didn't have a clue what I'd got him or why it was so damn heavy. The first glance as he opened in and realized what it was instantly brought a smile to his face. It's amazing how small things bring people together, and The Far Side will always be one of them for my best friend and I. I'm sure there will be some new comics we'd missed and there will be some new chuckles.

7thaccount
6 replies
15h43m

My mother used to drag me to the Hallmark store as a kid and she'd spend unreasonable amounts of time chatting with the workers and browsing who knows what. I think this was before I had a Gameboy and my only salvation was reading those Farside books. I both enjoyed them and was seriously creeped out by them. They also had Calvin and Hobbes which I adored.

justworkout
5 replies
11h56m

The creepiness is something nobody ever seems to mention about The Far Side and that's my biggest lasting impression of the comics. They're deeply unsettling and have a weird uncanny valley feeling to me.

That's not to say they're bad. But something about them always has a tinge of horror to me.

aksss
2 replies
11h51m

Well a lot of it is quite dark. One of my favorites being the jet pilots asking each other why there’s a mountain goat in the clouds.

vmurthy
0 replies
10h4m

This reminds me of the sub Reddit /r/twosentencehorror.

<https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoSentenceHorror/>.

Wistar
0 replies
11h4m

Mine, too.

dspillett
0 replies
7h40m

Surreal humour and art seems to trigger a little of that disgust reflex that makes it feel darker than it might otherwise be, and it tends to have a dark tinge to start with. That Far Side is often just a little surreal can make this worse in an uncanny valley sort of way, also it often takes the sort of thing that might be a simple kid's joke¹ a step or few further which touches that “I'd have rather kept that bit of innocence, thanks” nerve.

It isn't really that dark often² IMO, but it pushes your buttons and your head makes it so. Many people like that, some really find it creepy.

--

[1] a simple joke for kids, not a joke for kids who can't get into Midvale!

[2] except, of course, when it is!

bell-cot
0 replies
4h33m

Oh, yes - lots of unsettling, dark, and creepy. But within a kid-safe, G-rated context. And they're generally very cautionary (vs. any sort of pro-violence stuff).

And with how good humans suddenly become at learning, when they see someone else make a mistake and immediately suffer the consequences...I'd even call The Far Side educational.

lioeters
0 replies
17h17m

The Far Side was part of my growing up too, my friends and I shared much laughter and silliness. Those comics influenced our sense of humor and worldview.

kasey_junk
0 replies
15h16m

The day my kid got into the Far Side was a pretty good day.

Haven’t introduced him to the Pharcyde yet but soon.

jancsika
4 replies
21h45m

Is there a name for a cartooning style where the creatures seem to always be drawn as wide as possible?

I remember a few animators for Sesame Street who did the same thing. It was always striking.

Larson seems to also give them tiny heads for maximum ridiculousness. :)

It make me think of that Aubrey Beardsley illustration of Ali Baba where he's got the curved lines running off the page suggesting these gi-normous flowing comfy pants:

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediu...

Modified3019
2 replies
20h30m

I'm not certain there's a name, but Larson was heavily influenced by the work of B. Kliban

tomcam
0 replies
17h1m

Kliban was superior but also R to X-rated and transgressive af outside of his cat cartoons

aidenn0
0 replies
12h17m

Wow, if you told me that this[1] was a Far Side, I'd believe you.

1: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a8/8c/46/a88c46ca525d66d6444b55b3c...

alibrarydweller
0 replies
21h13m

Not cartooning exactly, but there is Boterismo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Botero

b450
4 replies
21h25m

I have several well-worn Far Side collections, including one with a lovely introduction by Jane Goodall, which has a funny story behind it [1]

Linking my favorite below [2]

Donning his new canine decoder, Professor Schwarzman becomes the first human being on Earth to hear what barking dogs are actually saying.

[1] http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The%20Complete%20Far%...

[2] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNZar0hX0AQB98d?format=jpg&name=...

noSyncCloud
0 replies
20h48m

What a great story. Love that

dmurray
0 replies
4h44m

I'm a fan of the SMBC take on this one:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/springtime

Ringz
0 replies
20h16m

This is also my favorite, which I have been able to laugh at for years.

AlbertCory
0 replies
19h51m

that's funny, because some comedian stole the idea, and had all the dogs saying "Fuck you! Fuck you!"

I still always think of that when I hear dogs barking.

artie_effim
4 replies
21h42m

We still refer to cat food as 'cat fud' in my house.

thebruce87m
2 replies
20h29m

“Fud” means something very different in Scotland. It used to be a common derogatory term.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fud

unethical_ban
0 replies
18h27m

Looks like it is related to futz, how I have heard it "don't futz around with that" with kind of means don't like at it because you'll break it.

m463
0 replies
20h18m

It was also used microsoft to great effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt

codeulike
0 replies
18h19m

Yes! I always write it like that on shopping lists now

https://twitter.com/jamiesmart/status/1691482826472828928

EvanAnderson
4 replies
21h41m

I've been reading the entire The Far Side (from the massive two book set) with my 10 y/o daughter. It's interesting to see how apparently the culture of the time of Gary Larson's upbringing imprinted itself on the strips. Reading 10 or so strips at a sitting makes it very apparent (along with making apparent Larson's go-to characters and tropes).

My daughter commented on there being few depictions of female scientists, academics, doctors, etc (instances if the archetypal The Far Side character in a lab coat) as an example. The strips that feature singles bar-type settings feel a little skeevy, too.

I'm not trying to say anything negative about the strips or Gary Larson. It's interesting to me to reflect on something I enjoyed in my childhood "showing its age", even as I enjoy it now.

ghaff
3 replies
21h13m

Pop culture (and, good as it is, The Far Side is pop culture) always reflects current society to some degree. I would actually say that The Far Side (and Calvin and Hobbes) probably less directly reflects when they were drawn.

For a more obvious example, see Dilbert. Leaving aside all the other baggage, with few exceptions, it's really more about 1990s PacBell cubicle life than anything about the current era, certain common stereotypes notwithstanding.

floren
1 replies
18h41m

I think society in The Far Side is built more out of, like, Looney Tunes cartoons and B movies from the 50s. Everybody is a stereotype: scientists in lab coats and glasses, "tough guys" in white t-shirts and pompadours, ladies with beehive hairdos. His cities, his houses, his restaurants, they all default to "stereotypically about 1955". It's easy to draw and it's easy to parse as a reader.

ghaff
0 replies
18h15m

That's probably fair. It's much less part and parcel of the 60s/70s than a number of other strips are.

hermitcrab
0 replies
19h9m

So much 'other baggage'. Ugh.

the__alchemist
3 replies
22h12m

Hey - I've been wondering about this for a while: Does anyone have an explanation of the Farside/AI crap that has been flooding Facebook for the past few months? Generally, the punchline is that animals are turning the tide on humans, and hunting them instead; husbands and wives hate each other; old men like creeping on young women while their wives gets mad.

The comics linked seem different.

evan_
0 replies
22h1m

I'm sure it's just your regular, everyday bid for eyeballs and clicks.

The linked comics are the "real thing", selections from a syndicated single-panel comic that ran in newspapers for years until the mid-90s. The gags tended to be pretty surreal.

dylan604
0 replies
21h43m

The comics linked seem different.

Whaaat? Say it ain't true! The AI crap isn't as good as the original? No! That's impossible!

csixty4
0 replies
24m

Yeah, I can kind of explain that as much as anyone can I guess. Someone made a page called The Far Side as a content farm. Great nostalgic brand for Facebook's main demographics = easy engagement. There's only 4,337 actual The Far Side comics, so they also run typical "boomer humor" strips from about the same era or apparently make their own low-effort comics. Lots of content with lots of engagement means the algorithm is likely to show it in people's feeds even at the expense of posts from their friends and groups they joined.

AlbertCory
3 replies
21h55m
xoxxala
2 replies
21h50m

"Bummer of a birthmark, Hal" has made its way into my everyday lexicon. Most of my coworkers immediately got the reference. There is something about Far Side humor that appeals to people in tech beyond all the science and nerd jokes.

MiddleEndian
1 replies
18h41m

I have that comic (text included) on a t shirt. Sometimes people ask me about it, and I will explain it in an excruciating amount of detail for my entertainment. Sometimes they will try to out-do me and respond by pretending to be confused by my explanation, but my tolerance for playing the fool is incredibly high so I can keep it up for quite some time and they inevitably give up first.

bbarnett
0 replies
12h51m

I picture an octogenarian, bored on a park bench, with endless time, inquiring as you pass and you outlasting them.

tpoindex
2 replies
18h53m

I love the Far Side, glad to have it online. The two volume set has a featured spot on my bookshelf. And fun to see other commenters here share some of my favorites Far Sides.

What contemporary comics are people following? Two of my current daily views are:

Bizarro - clever puns + such, single frame: https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/bizarro/

Dark Side of the Horse - low key sublime: https://www.gocomics.com/darksideofthehorse/

philipkglass
0 replies
17h55m

Perry Bible Fellowship: https://pbfcomics.com/

One of the best known strips, and a fine joke about historical fiction (or maybe just history itself): https://pbfcomics.com/comics/now-showing/

ahazred8ta
0 replies
18h8m

Doctor Fun from the 1990s was very farsidish but geekier.

https://nerocam.com/DrFun/Dave/archive.html -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Fun

codexb
2 replies
19h48m

I don't know why, but I was convinced that Gary Larson died like 15 years ago.

bsimpson
1 replies
19h2m

Apparently he retired when he was ~45.

ghaff
0 replies
18h11m

A number of our fondest cartoonists checked out relatively early.

Doing this kind of work day-after-day must be pretty draining. (And is, based one a couple of political cartoonists I knew.)

TJSomething
2 replies
21h33m

I just found out that Larson started drawing comics again on a very irregular schedule: https://www.thefarside.com/new-stuff

Loughla
0 replies
19h38m

The nudibranch beach got me.

FredPret
0 replies
18h58m

This is the best news ever. Gary Larson discovered Procreate! (Probably.) Hopefully he'll start churning out new stuff like crazy now.

smoyer
1 replies
16h22m

Two pilots sitting on the back of a very large infant with its arms outstretched - "Let's get this baby off the ground"

chris_wot
0 replies
14h21m

Two pilots in their cockpit and you can see a mountain goat in the cockpit windshield.

It is captioned “What the hey?”

pdonis
1 replies
12h40m

As Thak worked frantically to start a fire, Cro-Magnon Man, walking erect, approached the table and simply gave Theena a light.

akoboldfrying
0 replies
12h10m

Even the caveman names crack me up

jqpabc123
1 replies
3h44m

Needs an API to pull the single cartoon of the day with a link to the full web site.

Assuming there is any real interest in expanding viewership.

sphars
0 replies
1h11m

I'm sorta working on this, but as an RSS feed, since there is a dedicated page per day, with 1-5 comics each day, for example https://www.thefarside.com/2024/01/31

They try to prevent basic scraping but I found a way around it using Selenium. Just haven't published it anywhere. The notice at the bottom has given me pause so I'm thinking of the best way to do this

No images or other content displayed on this Website may be reproduced, digitized, stored in a retrieval system, made available via any computer or wireless networks, transmitted or circulated in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Scubabear68
1 replies
15h57m

“Midvale School for the Gifted”

jaclaz
0 replies
8h33m

Everyone have their own favourite, for me it is: "Well, I've got good gnus and I've got bad gnus."

DonHopkins
1 replies
21h41m
OldGuyInTheClub
0 replies
19h44m

Two Far Side mentions (at least) for our moderator? And here I envisioned him as a much younger man.

yboris
0 replies
13h4m

Have you heard of Strigiphilus garylarsoni, a species of chewing louse found only on owls? Named after Gary Larson!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigiphilus_garylarsoni

xd1936
0 replies
4h38m

The Boneless Chicken Ranch

https://i.imgur.com/mGxfMnr.jpg

ukyrgf
0 replies
14h51m

Just FYI, if people remember having the day-by-day calendars back when, the dates have now repeated and they're selling them again.

telman17
0 replies
14h26m

Love The Far Side. “Went to market” with the missing toe had me in tears when I first saw it!

southernplaces7
0 replies
8h6m

I've loved the far side since childhood and couldn't even begin to name a favorite. In a somewhat (though maybe darker and more cynical) similar vein, I also recommend checking out "Perry Bible Fellowship" and his comics. Google search leads right to the site where they're all posted.

smarks
0 replies
16h52m

"Whoa! Stuart blew his air sac!"

sizzzzlerz
0 replies
19h16m

My favorite is two bears, sitting a campfire, a hunter's clothing scatter around. One bear is telling the other "I love it when they play dead'.

senderista
0 replies
17h38m

When I was in college and would go home for Christmas, my mom would buy me a new Far Side calendar for the coming year, and on my last day home my dad and I would invariably stay up late reading through it together. Great memories now that he's gone.

rpmisms
0 replies
14h36m

Reading Far Side as a child with a truly hyperactive imagination opened up worlds to me. I would see a panel and build up the world around it. This caveman has meat in a basket on his coffee table—does he also use fruit in place of meat? Is the butchers shop full of cold cuts of citrus? Maybe the florist simply sells twisted up intestines in bouquets? I bet they use meat-scented colognes and perfumes.

Basically, Far Side gave me the tools to daydream. Thank you, Gary!

neilv
0 replies
12h46m

When I was an intern at a company that developed high-end software development tools, there was an intense project to build a new product suite...

So I posted the Far Side comic, about the office workers trapped by fire, atop the building of the Ace Ladder Co.

I can't find a non-copyright-violating copy on the Web, but the caption was: "Wait a minute! Say that again, Doris! ... You know, the part about `If only we had some means of climbing down.'"

(I'm lucky that my coworkers were so kind about my youthful tone-deafness.)

krosaen
0 replies
4h9m

One of my favorite t-shirts was a "rusty makes his move" with dog breath spray - I wore it weekly until it had yellow pit stains and holes in it.

kevinventullo
0 replies
14h15m

My father who was a professor in microbiology had this one on his office door: https://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/images/e...

I still use this phrase today when faced with a flood of information.

jonathankoren
0 replies
19h36m

I am so happy that Cow Tools has become a meme.

hprotagonist
0 replies
15h17m

i was very surprised to learn some years ago that gary larson is also a prolific author of crossword puzzles.

hackerbrother
0 replies
18h24m
glonq
0 replies
3h6m

I grew up on Garfield when I was a child, then The Far Side, Bloom County, and Calvin & Hobbes as a teen. Gen X really hit the jackpot back then!

dsquared2
0 replies
18h41m

“Yes… I believe there’s a question there in the back”

https://www.cardcow.com/images/set856/card00130_fr.jpg

didgetmaster
0 replies
26m

My favorite is the one where the Lone Ranger makes a startling discovery in his later years. He is reading an old Native American dictionary where he finds out 'kimosabe' means the backend of a horse.

codeulike
0 replies
18h13m
boxed
0 replies
11h48m

I wonder why a page like this thinks it needs cookie tracking, and thus the cookie banner. There are no ads, so what's the point?

arbuge
0 replies
20h19m

Everybody has their Far Side favorite... here's mine: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/54184001740077889/

Tangurena2
0 replies
4h42m

I deeply love the dog who is excited to be going to the vet to be tutored:

https://i.redd.it/wfapamqh3u471.jpg

Quekid5
0 replies
11h53m

Why? Anyone less gifted.

(It's very absurdist humor, but anyone into that should and MUST know about Larson, the person who did so much to damage the field by disappearing... willingly... etc. What a fly on the wall he wasn't, etc.)

PlasmaOInterest
0 replies
12h33m

So many favorites, but I really loved his dark humor in ones like this

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/352406739585675000/

NorSoulx
0 replies
5h51m

One of my favourite The Far Side strips: "Inconvenience Stores"

NickC25
0 replies
21h42m

Wow, The Far Side really brings back some cherished childhood memories. Larson is, IMO, one of the best to ever do it. His humor is really unique, and he's quite a thoughtful person as well, letting his work speak for itself. A relic of a bygone era.

One of my faves: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/oh-my-god-its-leonard-hes-stuf...

Gets me every time. I still have It came from the Far Side as well as Gallery and Gallery 2 on my bookshelf. Timeless.