Related
Summary
Gary Larson ’s darling comicThe Far Sidehas a plenty of recur gag , from cavemen making strange discovery to unfortunate people stranded on a desert island . However , the most imaginative of these is astronaut clear a surprising uncovering - precisely because , in the state of nature of space , Larson can take a hop any kind of ' yap ' he want on the pitiful Internet Explorer . While Larson ’s comicfocuses more on aliens visiting Earth , there ’s a special charm to seeing humanity wander beyond the stars and get more than it bargained for .
Here , then , are the 10 funniestFar Sidecomics where astronaut make a worrying breakthrough , whether it be alien life , unexpected celestial bodies , or just evident human error . Stick around to the end of the list to vote in our end - of - article poll , and allow us cognise which airstrip you mean is the funniest .
10Lunar Lander Love
This Early Comic Shows Gary Larson’s Love of Visual Humor
Originating from the start ofThe Far Side ’s 16 - class run in paper , this comic demonstrates Larson ’s abiding honey for visual gags . The same comic later in his career would in all likelihood have been raise with a witty legend , but truthfully that would be unneeded - the joke of an unusual alien creature being attracted to the astronauts ' lunar lander is dead delivered . Larson construct some playfulness choice to really accentuate the joke - the bent on legs of the lander and its back talk - like side plating are tiny details that do n’t jump out , but help immediately establish the gag .
One of the thing that makesThe Far Sideso unparalleled is that while it may have recur situation - at least on the conceptual level -it does n’t have recurring character . There ’s no single direction thatFar Sidealiens always bet , open up the space for jocularity like this . While it ’s a goofy , one - dimensional joke , it also shows how unstable Larson ’s thinking is - sometimes his aliens are basically tourists who took a wrong play , and sometimes they ’re so ' other ' that they comprehend NASA space vehicle as objects of lust .
9"Feldman Must Be Freaking Out"
Far Side Imagines First Contact as a Clumsy Hug
Perhaps because of his love of the natural world ( Larson in the beginning titled the laughable stripNature ’s way of life ) , Larson has a gift for treating humans as just another variety of animal . Here , they ’re really no different to the aliens they ’ve encountered , as the two groups originate impinging via a cosmic embracing . It ’s easy to imagine that on the exotic ship , the eight - limbed aliens are pitying their own astronaut for alike reasons . QuitewhyFeldman would be chosen for this mission when he suffers from arachnophobia is another query , though his broad eyes paint a picture that the place bird rider has accurately estimate his modality .
8Sunglasses
Larson’s Humans Remain Gloriously Petty, Right to the End
It ’s rare thatThe Far Sideshows much understanding for its human characters - no more than it would its clueless dogsor astonishingly evil duck . Here , even in the aspect of entire incineration , two cosmonaut encounter sentence to bicker over who owns the sole pair of sunglasses . However , all is not lost - it ’s possible that the guy who actually execute the Sun will see them add up and flip the gigantic electric switch that controls it :
It ’s typical of Larson to let in a joke inside a joke - the idea of astronauts wear thin shades for shelter as they float towards the Sun is a funny gag , even before they start bickering about them in the same breath as realizing they ’re about to die .
The Far Side does n’t consider humans the smartest brute , depicting a miscellanea of ways in which its pitiable character fulfil their end .
7"Shake the Jar!"
Larson’s Conservationist Streak Makes It to Other Planets
Along the same line of thinking that has an alien attract to a lunar lander , this funny asks what if aliens were essentially human , but way , way bigger ( an ideaThe Far Sidereturns to again and again . ) A lot of dark sci - fi lit manoeuvre from the canonical logic of ' what if aliens do by humans like we treat each other . ' For instance , H. G. Wells’The War of the Worldssees 1890s Britain experience colonialism from the other side , as interstellar conquerors arrive with ranking weapon system and no interest in passive co - cosmos .
The Far Sideisn’t shooting for that kind of grandeur , but as someone whose study often critique human cruelty to brute , Larson is doing basically the same thing - if we encounter aliens who see us as insects , we well desire they do by their insects better than us . Of course , Larson has something of a vested pastime in creepy crawlies , as the comical creator has had a species of dirt ball named after him by a biologist rooter -strigiphilus garylarsoni .
6Alien Mount Rushmore
A Lot of The Far Side’s Concepts Would Work as Genuine Sci-Fi
The idea of an astronaut down on another world and encountering an alien repository is surprisingly creepy-crawly - at least untilThe Far Sidebuilds on the thought with a Mount Rushmore of off - make Snorks . Knowing that an alien species are out there - and even what they look like - before in reality encounter them would make for a outstanding short history ( indeed , inThe Prehistory of The Far Side , Larson remark that some of his strips start life as short stories ) , though at least this astronaut recognise that whatever is waiting for him , it broadly share American value .
5Alien Picnic
The Far Side Doesn’t Play Favorites - Aliens Are Just as Likely to Lose Out
The Far Sidehas a dark mother wit of humour , and the strip loves few things more than turning minute of triumph into cloak-and-dagger calamity . Here , some cosmonaut cook an alien animated in their attempt to take one gargantuan leap for humanity . As inMen in Black ’s famous enlisting conniption , a first glance might suggest that the spaceman accidentally wipe out a mortal predator , but closer inspection reveals the wretched extraterrestrial was just out for a picnic . Larson love take mundane situations and having unearthly characters experience them out , chair to a fate moreFar Sidecomics where unusual beings enjoy a field day .
The Far Side never used resort characters , but here are the 11 best strips where something was added to the wittiness by naming one of the case .
4"We’ve Made It, Warren!"
Even on the Moon, The Far Side Isn’t Above Slapstick
Another other gag fromThe Far Side ’s paper run , this simple visual jest yet again swaps victory for tragedy . It ’s a funny cartoon amour propre that an astronaut ’s visor would shatter so easily , and the dumpy , faceless cosmonaut stop the bloodcurdling circumstance feeling too troubling . However , even this other inThe Far Side ’s run , Larson has master his habit of gift doomed characters a name , just to make their demise sense a little more personal .
3"Dear Henry…"
There’s a Thin Line Between Comedy and Horror
In another nightmarish scenario that could make for some great square sci - fi ( and in this event did , in Andy Weir’sThe Martian ) , an spaceman is abandoned on the moonshine because his fellow travelers start out tired of hold back . In an amusing snatch ofFar Side ’s surreal logic , he finds this out from a paper note left at the landing place site . Adding revilement to wound , the roquette in the sky makes it clean that if Henry had just been a small faster , he ’d have been able to catch his drive abode - hopefully he ’s run aground on the Mount Rushmore satellite , not the one where he ’ll be kept in a jounce .
2Scarecrow
Larson’s Use of Small Details Is Seriously Underrated
While essentially the same joke as the Mount Rushmore comedian , this strip better capsulise Larson ’s skill as a narrator . The Far Sideis the sovereign exercise of using a single comic control panel to tell a larger story , with a carefully chosen minute often communicating what go on before , after , and what a character is contribute into the berth . Here , Larson pull off to make a lilliputian , faceless astronaut feel deflated and fearful as they stand hold an American sword lily on a far different landscape painting than the one they expected - on the spur of the moment knowing that not only is this planet inhabited by mammoth , insectoid extraterrestrial being , but that the extraterrestrials are trying to keep off some sort of pack rat which is entail to be the perfect size to predate on humankind .
1"We Better Keep This Quiet"
Did Far Side Do the ‘Always Has Been’ Meme First?
Astronauts making it to space only to look back and let on something terrifying about Earth is another hard sci - fi concept that Larson play perfectly for laughs . The understated chemical reaction is pureFar Side , as is the hint of menace that ’s entail by the world being a balloon - who blew it up , who ’s holding the string , what if it bolt down ? LikeFrasier ’s hotshot jape where astronautJohn Glenn disclose he saw aliensand was force to keep it quiet ( while Frasier and Roz are too interfering spat to notice ) , there ’s an superfluous tier of humor / horror to the idea that this astronaut will simply return home and have to live with what he knows .
The Far Side ’s unfounded imaging and fluid resourcefulness is utterly captured in these strips where spaceman have to cope with touch discoveries . From ants live through nuclear armageddon to a city being attacked by a Godzilla - sized penguin , Gary Larson ’s comics constantly inhabit a earthly concern where the unexpected is always around the corner , and the human race is far , far stranger than it seems - the exact reason thatThe Far Sideflourishes most when it gets to leave Earth ’s ambiance .
