Why THE FAR SIDE is a masterclass in storytelling

Рет қаралды 1,477,260

Күн бұрын

The Far Side by Gary Larson is one of the best and most praised cartoons in history. But what makes The Far Side so good? What is the legacy of Gary Larson? And most importantly: what can we learn from The Far Side?
Check out the latest episode of The Gaze: • The hidden world of LO...
0:00 Pixar and Storytelling
1:22 How Gary Larson tells a story
2:42 The Far Side facts and figures
3:22 The level of detail in The Far Side
4:04 Telling a story with one image and a punchline
5:09 What is The Far Side about?
7:11 Gary Larson and naturalism
7:40 Controversy over The Far Side
8:10 The legacy of The Far Side
9:00 Conclusion
SOURCES
The Complete Far Side, Gary Larson, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1278p
Gary Larson and The Far Side, Kerry D. Cooper, University Press of Mississippi
The Pleasures of Stupidity: Gary Larson as Baudelairean Caricaturist, David Carrier, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1/2 (Fall-Winter 1998-1999), pp. 62-70
The Savage Mind of Gary Larson, Lucy Rollin, Studies in Popular Culture
Vol. 12, No. 1 (1989), pp. 75-86
Toy Story, John Lasseter, Pixar Studios, 1995
Interview of Gary Larson by Lynn Sherr, ABC’s 20/20, 8 January 1987
On the Far Side: • On The Far Side
The Simpsons Season 9 Episode 5 - Treehouse of Horror VIII
The Thagomizer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thagomizer
StrigiphilusGarylarsoni: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigip...
Norm & Cliff explain The Far Side to Woody, Cheers, S09E04, 1990
MUSIC
Andra Långgatan, pär: / andra-langgatan
A House of Glass, pär: / a-house-of-glass
Valiant, Luar: soundcloud.com/luarbeats/vali...

Пікірлер: 2 500

@Gundog55 11 ай бұрын

A reporter interviewed Gary’s mother and asked “When did you first notice his odd sense of humor?” Without skipping a beat she answered “When I woke him for his second day of kindergarten. He said “What? Again?”😂😂

@realjettlag 11 ай бұрын

I came here to mention Doris. My parents knew the Larsons (I just met them a few times) and one of the highlights of the holidays every year was getting Doris' Christmas letter. Gary got it all from his folks-both valued humor and intelligence and didn't mind laughing at themselves and their family...and humoring the occasional nosy child asking far too many questions about their decor. 😏

@evanthesquirrel 11 ай бұрын

That was my son's reaction to his first week.

@michelslaura 11 ай бұрын

That's hilarious!

@dziltener 11 ай бұрын

Lol, according to my mom, after my first day of school, I also was not at all thrilled that I'd have to go there again the next day.

@insideoutsideupsidedown2218 11 ай бұрын

I thought that every day until the last day in high school, and i miss none of it.

@Tommo44 11 ай бұрын

One favourite I’ve never forgotten, a beggar on the street asking passers by if they have a ‘spare armadillo?’ Walking towards him along the street a guy with two armadillos, thinking to himself, ‘dang, how am I gonna get past this guy’. So funny, cracks me up.

@andrew_s848 Жыл бұрын

The Far Side was and is brilliant, and still think of it almost daily when I’m feeding my dogs, how excited they are. Every single time. “Oh boy!…it’s dog food AGAIN!”

@robadams5799 11 ай бұрын

Everything you do is amazing to your dog. All you have to do is come home from work and they just can't believe how lucky they are to see you again.

@jamescollins3647 11 ай бұрын

@@robadams5799 They like you to think that way, remember you go to work they don't. LOL.

@mpdunphy 11 ай бұрын

I think of it when wondering what dogs are saying: “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!”

@catsthinkmynameisclaude6955 11 ай бұрын

I use that line on my wife when we eat leftovers... we're both fans...

@kiwitrainguy 11 ай бұрын

When you feed a dog, the dog smiles and thinks to itself "There must be a God”. But when you feed a cat, along with the attention they get, they’re thinking "I must be God".

@soulubilityofficial6635 2 жыл бұрын

My favorite one is a guy in an orchestra who is supposed to have two cymbals to crash together but he only has one. There’s a thought bubble that appears above his head that says “This time I won’t screw up. I won’t I won’t I won’t I won’t…” but then the caption at the bottom reads “Roger screws up.”

@stephenfennell 11 ай бұрын

It's amazing how just reading the verbal descriptions of many Far Side cartoons, without ever having seen them, makes me laugh out loud!

@rockyroad7345 10 ай бұрын

It's SUPPOSED to be a rat hole!

@veganvocalist4782 10 ай бұрын

SAME ;D

@tracytaylor5115 3 жыл бұрын

I love the one where an alien trips on the stairs as he descends from his spaceship, while humans look on. Another alien, looking out from the door of the ship says, “So much for instilling them with a sense of awe.”

@dalehall2067 3 жыл бұрын

This is the second day of April 2021 and we should really think of Joe Biden in a Foreside humor. But then Biden is humor

@RErnie-gv1hv 3 жыл бұрын

@@dalehall2067 Thanks for turning it political, Dale.

@jeannefoster5594 3 жыл бұрын

@@dalehall2067 anything can be turned into something to laugh at, including you.

@notsorandumusername 3 жыл бұрын

@@jeannefoster5594 I can see you speak from personal experience.

@JTA1961 Жыл бұрын

Readin comments it became clear that... we~all be trippin...

@peterzerfass4609 11 ай бұрын

Larson was a huge hit in the scientific community. Literally everyone had one pinned somewhere in the office or the lab even years after he stopped doing them.

@patriot9455 10 ай бұрын

My doctor's med clinic has one of his masterpieces on the wall

@kiyote437 10 ай бұрын

My aunt used to be a biology professor, and she is a big fan of The Far Side.

@hanshans387 10 ай бұрын

I don't think I've ever been to a lab which didn't have a larson cartoon pinned to a noticeboard somewhere, even today!

@chellesama8256 10 ай бұрын

A thagomizer is the distinctive arrangement of four spikes on the tails of stegosaurine dinosaurs. These spikes are believed to have been a defensive measure against predators. The arrangement of spikes originally had no distinct name. Guess where they got the name?

@realjettlag 10 ай бұрын

@@chellesama8256 It's a lovely tribute and one of the reasons I studied paleontology.

@nothingruler14All 3 жыл бұрын

I loved me some Far Side and had all the books as a young person. The one that never failed to make me hoot and cackle was the image of two spiders who've just finished spinning a web at the bottom of a playground slide. One says to the other, "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings."

@katbrown1449 11 ай бұрын

Damn right!! My mom bought them for me. She love dthem too. 4he best!! Wnet to the dentist today: trivia:" just for fun, let's see if w ecan fit this tennis ball in there ". Recognize that ?

@ntvypr4820 11 ай бұрын

THAT was one of my favs, and have used it many times in my life.😂

@oftenlucid 11 ай бұрын

I love that one too. And it encompasses a "What If" mentality I like to apply to life. . . briefly thought about getting it as a tattoo. . . It parallels the Princess Bride Quote: Buttercup : We'll never survive. Westley : Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has. The good bits are the unbridled optimism these two things contain.

@josephmorin8941 11 ай бұрын

I liked the one where in a courtroom, a defense lawyer is asking the jury "does this look like the face of a killer?" While pointing to the classic smiley face.

@DRHucke 11 ай бұрын

I tell that one to people every so often, especially if they say, "No, I never heard of 'The Far Side'." It always cracks them up!

@melissahdawn 3 жыл бұрын

Interesting fact, as part of my outpatient rehabilitation after severe nervous system/brain injury I was told to spend at minimum 1 hour per day reading humorous things, I asked if I could read a book of Farside comics, and it was not only approved, but highly recommended!

@timq6224 11 ай бұрын

something to make you think...did it work? =)

@melissahdawn 11 ай бұрын

@timq6224 well, if the goal was to overcome depression it definitely helped....like all cures that are part of a larger regime. I told my daughter that a piece of candy would cause weight loss when part of a guaranteed weight-loss diet (I think reading the farside books daily sorta molded my perspective on all things). 😃

@Lppt87 2 ай бұрын

They asked you to laugh, if that made you laugh they would say yes. It does not mean the quality of the work. Just laugh.

@haroldfisher1302 3 жыл бұрын

One of my favs..........Two cavemen next to a huge mammoth they felled with a single tiny arrow to its rump. One says to the other......"Maybe we should write that spot down"

@frglee 11 ай бұрын

The 'accidents waiting to happen' cartoons are the ones I like best. Like the parachuting school located next to an alligator farm. Or the Large Birds of Prey training club located right next to a miniature dog show in the next field.

@Roddy556 11 ай бұрын

"Uh, let's see. I'll try the mammoth, please."

@nickh5081 3 жыл бұрын

I'm in stitches just reading everyone's lists of favorites - one of mine is the ice flow packed with penguins and right in the middle is an enormous polar bear with a little penguin mask covering his nose. Caption: "Now Edgar is missing. Something's going on around here!" The fact that Polar Bears and Penguins don't share the same hemisphere just makes it funnier knowing that Gary Larson is well aware of that fact!

@TheEudaemonicPlague 10 ай бұрын

That's "ice floe", ignorant one.....

@macronencer 11 ай бұрын

Just reading descriptions of Larson's work in the comments here is making me laugh almost as hard as seeing the cartoons themselves, which goes to show that although the pictures are funny, it's the conceptual core that matters. Gary Larson is a master of ideas.

@sternenfresser 5 ай бұрын

Even the newspaper complaint letter descriptions of them are hilarious.

@ObservantHistorian 3 жыл бұрын

The first of the three complaint letters that flash by was regarding the one where the female chimp is grooming the male, finds a blond hair, and says accusingly, "Well, well...another blond hair...Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" The director of the Goodall Institute (at the time) threw a long-winded self-righteous fit, saying it was "inexcusable to refer to Dr. Goodall as a tramp," "obscene," etc. It's worth a read, if you pause the video! Here's the kicker: My ex-wife used to work for Jane Goodall. The director's tirade must have come before Jane Goodall had ever seen the cartoon, because she was tickled by it when she did finally see it! The original drawing of that Larson cartoon now hangs proudly in the lobby of the Goodall Institute headquarters, and has for years! BTW, I cannot accept Garfield in the same category as The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes, or Peanuts. I have always thought Garfield banal and stupid, and compared to those other masterpieces, it is like margarine to butter.

@grantm6514 3 жыл бұрын

Yes, I paused it to read those letters, holy cow there are some uptight people in the world, and my eyes nearly popped out when I saw that one was from the Goodall Institute, that an idiot! The joke relies *entirely* on the reader knowing who Jane Goodall is/was and her work, so to call it an 'atrocity' and an 'obscenity' is astonishing.

@ObservantHistorian 3 жыл бұрын

@@grantm6514 Yeah, and the cartoon doesn't imply that Jane Goodall is a tramp! To me, the cartoon was playing on the idea of the female's unfounded jealousy and lack of faith in her mate, like a wife accusing her husband of carry on with his secretary, when he really IS just working late! Some people just go out of their way to be offended.

@elizabethpiccolo5534 3 жыл бұрын

I read that Jane Goodall thought it was a hoot!

@stevemartin4249 3 жыл бұрын

@@elizabethpiccolo5534 Yep. Verified. She has a great sense of humor.

@darylking265 3 жыл бұрын

Gary wrote about the controversy in a book I read. After the controversy, the Goodall institute asked Gary for permission to use the cartoon as part of a fundraiser.

@riverraisin1 3 жыл бұрын

To this very day, every time I push on a door that says pull I always proclaim to whomever I'm with, "I went to the school for the gifted". Thanks, Gary!

@JTA1961 Жыл бұрын

Isn't that honkey~door~ie

@MrScrofulous Жыл бұрын

I say that whenever I do anything stupid.

@petcatznz Жыл бұрын

Me too. That image is indelibly etched in my brain. It's so deliciously clever. 😊

@MrScrofulous Жыл бұрын

@@petcatznz Along with, "bummer of a birthmark, Hal" and "She's looking good, Vern"

@maryrosekent8223 Жыл бұрын

While there aren’t any new Gary Larson cartoons, it’s still possible to buy his books and annual page-a-day calendars online. The good news is, they never get old!

@Calligraphybooster 3 жыл бұрын

Deer hiding behind a tree, searching hunter in the background. Deer: “He wants to kill me alright. Do I know this guy? I’ve got to THINK!” -priceless. The very best we can muster, thrown at a situation, and it’s completely pointless. It’s the human condition. 🤣

@douglashalliday8235 3 жыл бұрын

My fav. An open box from a pogo stick company lies on the apartment floor of a high rise. A few dots on the carpet and a smashed window with sky scrapers outside. This one just sends the whole story of the pogo stick owner who couldn’t wait to try it out.

@osfbg9901 3 жыл бұрын

The duck sitting under a tree on a small deserted island with “QUACK” written out in stones. Gets me every time.

@guyfroml 3 жыл бұрын

I loved the one where the Vet school student breezed through Equine medicine. The remedy for every ailment was "shoot."

@promiskept 3 жыл бұрын

@@adrianmeerman6493 Even without seeing the cartoon itself, this description draws the humorous depiction in our minds! I'm laughing with you!!

@mayorb3366 3 жыл бұрын

He had a number of funny deserted island panels. My favorite was the one where a box washes up to the shore. The castaway opens it to find a pet turtle habitat bowl with an island and a palm tree in it. I got cracked up again just typing this!

@mollflanders9314 3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂😂

@osfbg9901 2 жыл бұрын

lee wang ..... You quack me up. Great reply !

@Booboobear-eo4es 3 жыл бұрын

I liked the Far Side cartoon of two sabretooth tigers walking away from a club and bearskin on the ground. One is licking his chops. The other says, "I've heard all kinds of sounds from these things, but 'yabba dabba doo' was a new one on me."

@4_vaccuum_salesman_of_marr944 2 жыл бұрын

Lmao, never saw that one.

@PiercePlikett 2 жыл бұрын

KZfaq only showed me to “I’ve heard all kinds of sounds from these things…”, and I instantly thought “but Yabba Dabba Doo is a new one.” The Far Side is awesome.

@kevincharbonneau5953 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing😄

@sueparras6028 Жыл бұрын

Sounds like one I would love. I used to love reading the Far Side in the funnies in the newspaper. I really miss that. 😢❤

@leecowell8165 Жыл бұрын

How about the lions saying "I like these things, crunchy on the outside chewy in the middle".

@allensaunders449 3 жыл бұрын

My favorite is two unicorns looking at a floating Noah's ark leaving them behind. Was that today. Or the dog siting at a desk on the neighbors lawn. A person says the dog is doing his business on our lawn again

@schmoab 3 жыл бұрын

Good explanation of why the one-panel format works. Takes a very clever artist to create that snapshot humor and we all get it. It does take a bit more cognitive work on the part of the reader. This is how jokes should be constructed.

@5610winston 10 ай бұрын

Here's an image: A family of ghouls preparing to pour a cauldron of (presumably) frying-hot oil over a mansion parapet onto a small choir of carolers. Here's another: The driver of a flivver waving a late-model (for the time) Buick Roadmaster (count the portholes) to pass on a blind curve with a sheer cliff to the right and a sheer drop to the left, and there's an oncoming truck. Here's a third: A man on a ski slope looking in disbelief at a schussing skier whose tracks pass on both sides of a large tree. And the fourth: A panel divided into nine squares with a single poorly drawn microbe in each and a caption referencing the opening theme of an insipid 1970s sit-com. And yet another: A smiling lady, apparenty a housewife, lounging in an overstuffed armchair in a nicely furnished parlor, a smoking revolver in one hand and a telephone handset in the other, a pair of feet from a body just outside the panel alongside on the floor, the caption reads "Oh, not much, Agnes. How are things with you?" Charles Addams, perhaps the greatest practitioner in the history of the single panel cartoon, set a very high bar. Gary Larson made some good attempts, a few even outstanding, but never quite managed to clear it.

@freekgroeneveld5382 10 ай бұрын

Implication is as precise as it needs to be.

@shevetlevi2821 3 жыл бұрын

My favorite is one that shows 2 gigantic polar bears hovering over an igloo. One says to the other, "Oh, I love these. Crunchy outside with a chewy center."

@tolrem 3 жыл бұрын

Yes,that's the one I remember.

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

I lift you grab! Was that such a hard concept!?

@shevetlevi2821 3 жыл бұрын

@@ecec6852 Excellent. Should be Part 2 of that cartoon. Is this Gary Larson?

@chrislong3938 3 жыл бұрын

I can't believe your comment since I was going to reference it as the first Larson cartoon I'd seen! It was posted on a lab door where I worked back in 1981 and I thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen!!

@shevetlevi2821 3 жыл бұрын

@@chrislong3938 Chris, there's a series of 4 books. I think it's simply The Far Side, Part 1,2,3 & 4. It's great.

@murraystewartj 3 жыл бұрын

My late dad was a high school art teacher. His fave was God makes the snake, rolling long bits of clay though his hands and saying, "These things are a cinch". Dad said that was pretty much what every student did the first time they held a lump of clay. My own fave is "Cow Tools", just because it's hilarious unless you try to analyze it. Back in the day the best part of every morning was getting the paper, ignoring the page one headlines and turning first to the Far Side. That little bit of insanity made dealing with real world insanity a little bit easier.

@mayorb3366 3 жыл бұрын

In his book he said that his mistake was making one of the tools look a little too much like a saw. Therefore people wanted to make sense of the other tools. It drove people nuts!

@jamesmccartney5731 3 жыл бұрын

When Larson left I stopped buying papers

@JTA1961 Жыл бұрын

Athefumen ✅ ✅ ✅

@JTA1961 Жыл бұрын

@@mayorb3366 especially on saw~turd~day...

@shruggzdastr8-facedclown 11 ай бұрын

The '80s had some really good, cutting-edge, groundbreaking envelope-pushing and genre-redefining funny pages comics that made everything else in that section of the daily paper seem dull, boring, stale, uninspired, formulaic, and superficially funny, at-best (insulting to one's intelligence, at-worst) -- the golf-clap of humor, if you will. In addition to The Farside, other such comics that appeared within the same handful of years in the early-mid '80s include: Bloom County*¹; Calvin & Hobbes*²; Herman; For Better Or Worse*³; and Zippy The Pinhead (*¹which morphed into Outland, then Opus; *²referenced in this video; *³while not always intentionally funny, what made this strip revolutionary is that it was effectively 4-dimensional in a 2D format in how its creator made us follow the evolution of its protagonist family as those characters aged over time with the children eventually going off to college rather than being eternal primary school kids or adolescents for decades on-end)

@lw216316 3 жыл бұрын

There are sermons I have forgotten. There are songs I have forgotten. There are promises I have forgotten. There are Far Side cartoons that seem stuck in my head forever. Like the one where in his retirement years the Lone Ranger is reading an old Indian dictionary that defines the word kee-mo-sa-bee - it says the rear end of a horse. I still laugh every time I think of it.

@johnlozauskas778 10 ай бұрын

Thanks for the giggle!!!

@tranceporter7426 10 ай бұрын

BONELESS CHICKEN RANCH

@TampaDave 17 күн бұрын

Actually, "Tonto" basically means "stupid" in Spanish.

@lw216316 17 күн бұрын

@@TampaDave I looked it up and confirmed what you said. So I guess Tonto got his revenge !

@lancecampbell4323 3 жыл бұрын

The giant eye filling the cars mirror. “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear”. Greatest Far Side ever

@dpatts 11 ай бұрын

Which in turn was paid tribute with the T Rex in Jurassic Park (1993). It even has its own listing on TVtropes, under the heading "CloserThanTheyAppear"

@bpkmm3048 3 жыл бұрын

My wife got me the 365 calendar for many years for my desk at work. I *never* looked ahead. On Monday morning, I'd look at Saturday and Sunday. Same with vacations. He is brilliant.

@cubworx7397 3 жыл бұрын

I admire your self control.

@NidgeOSullivan 3 жыл бұрын

You made Mondays something to look forward to, a rare accomplishment

@hunchanchoc8418 3 жыл бұрын

I did exactly the same! It would be irreverent to do otherwise!

@crossleyr 3 жыл бұрын

I first saw a far side book, in a bookstore in Boulder CO, 30 years ago, when i was on holiday there, from the UK. I read it in the store, and laughed so much, i nearly got thrown out. I bought 2 Far Side T-Shirts and the book, on the spot. I've bought many books and calendars since. It just suits my twisted sense of humour.

@dalehall2067 3 жыл бұрын

I always kept a book of the far side am I waiting room. I always thought the people needed a little humor in their life

@palewriter1856 3 жыл бұрын

@@dalehall2067 Proctologist, right?

@palewriter1856 3 жыл бұрын

Why on EARTH would a Brit of such OBVIOUS GENIUS come all the way across the pond, only to visit Boulder, CO? The mine REALS!

@surgeonmd729 3 жыл бұрын

@@palewriter1856 It'a "the minD reELs", sir. Spelling!! And, being a proctologist, that is a worthy and useful occupation, which deserves respect. That it seldom gets....

@palewriter1856 3 жыл бұрын

@@surgeonmd729 Ha ha ha ha ha! With all DEW respect, as a wordsmith with an extraordinarily rare need of a dictionary, you can believe that I said PRECISELY what I meant to say. If you'd pull YOU'RE head out of your own work more often, perhaps you'd recognize a sick sense of humerus when ewe encountered one!

@LagrangePoint901 11 ай бұрын

You missed one of Larson's talents, ...his artistry. Not only unique but eye-catchingly odd and off beat. The subtlety of expression is a huge talent, ....a simple line for eyes, or out of porportion body parts, or just landscapes are just genius level.

@Lavonne9870 11 ай бұрын

He made a whole world of snakes. Reading a newspaper at the table, driving a car... As much as I loved the cows, deer, and squids, it was the lives of snakes that sparked my imagination. How did they cook dinner? How did they open the door? 😂

@bobs_toys 10 ай бұрын

The eyes dog in a boat after they've drawn straws on who gets eaten and someone else lost m

@donloughrey1615 10 ай бұрын

Well said. Genius !

@rockyroad7345 10 ай бұрын

Goofy buck teeth---even on fish. His window curtains.

@veganvocalist4782 10 ай бұрын

YES agree ;D

@paulrandig 11 ай бұрын

It is no coincidence that the office doors of the most intelligent university professors often have Gary Larson cartoons taped to them.

@arthurcutaiar9994 10 ай бұрын

Back when college professors were intelligent instead of evil robotic demonrats

@billsawers9462 3 жыл бұрын

It takes a very clever and talented individual that can use humour in cartoon form to illustrate how absurd and funny life can be .Thank you Gary Larson for being that individual..

@spikespa5208 Жыл бұрын

Larson provided me with more laughs than any other comic. I attribute it to an ever so slightly twisted outlook on the universe. On both our parts.

@maryerb6062 11 ай бұрын

He's brilliant!! ❤

@NAFUSO1 3 жыл бұрын

A deer with a target on his belly: "Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."

@coralynnbrown6761 3 жыл бұрын

My favorite one!!!

@stlrsmike 3 жыл бұрын

I still have the t-shirt.

@bc30cal99 3 жыл бұрын

Still have the faded coffee cup from my hunting partner way, way back when.

@muckerwood 3 жыл бұрын

Got the t-shirt also 😂

@Girdwoodian 3 жыл бұрын

@@bc30cal99 I have the coffee cup too...use it all the time!

@matthewmewhorter4726 3 жыл бұрын

So glad you pointed out that the genius of his comics was capturing the moments before or after a catastrophe. I love the cat with the peg legs and the piraña in the foreground. It causes you to craft the story in your head on your own.

@gordon1545 11 ай бұрын

My favourite of that genre is the scientist hammering rivets into a missile, while another scientists stands behind him holding up an inflated bag, about to bang it.

@timq6224 11 ай бұрын

and the cat did it more than ONCE!

@Robert08010 11 ай бұрын

A sadder but wiser cat...

@TheTibetyak 11 ай бұрын

Similar: The Caveman father trying to coax/teach his young son that it's perfectly safe to have the pet Pterodactyl sit on your finger. Father is missing an eye, a patch of scalp, half of one arm. The Pterodactyl is bigger than both of them and is menacingly spreading his wings. Ridiculously funny.

@RobbieZe 11 ай бұрын

Run Fifi Run!

@cynthiajohnston424 11 ай бұрын

Being a country person & former horse trainer & pet-sitter - the Farside animal cartoons are on target ! They could always be seen on the bulletin boards in barns & vets' offices & stuck on fridge doors , usually w/ a personal note attached saying " that's my horse / dog / cat " ! My favorite is a very happy dog in a car leaving his house excitedly yelling out to a neighbor dog : " I'm going to the vet's to get tutored ! " 🐎🐕🐈🤣🤣🤣

@terredee 11 ай бұрын

Your happy dog description made me giggle, then snort. Well done!

@rockyroad7345 10 ай бұрын

The boneless chicken farm cracks me up.

@katiekane5247 10 ай бұрын

Our family's is the famous "you look wonderful & whatever you rolled in sure does stink" as the suitor meets his doggy date at the door.

@truthsmiles 10 ай бұрын

I confess I’ve never felt confident I understood the tutored joke…. Is it just because it rhymes with neutered? Or is it that the dog believes he’s going to become a vet so he can, I don’t know, eat the cats people bring in?

@cynthiajohnston424 10 ай бұрын

@@truthsmiles tutored rhymes w/ neutered 🐕🤣

@texasforever7887 3 жыл бұрын

Old lady sitting in a chair reading a book. She has two pet dogs. One of the dogs says to the other. "do you want to have some fun? I'm going to go over to the closet door and while staring at it start to growl"

@lukestrawwalker 3 жыл бұрын

I remember the one of a fat old lady in a mumu, stapling a "lost dog" sign to a telephone pole, and the dog is stuck in her butt crack... LOL:) That was basically my parents... LOL:) OL J R :)

@fubartotale3389 3 жыл бұрын

The farmer carrying a basket full of eggs out of the chicken coop while a chicken carries a basket of babies out of the farmers house. So. Hilariously. Twisted.

@tolrem 3 жыл бұрын

Clever.

@mrmark8603 3 жыл бұрын

School for the gifted.

@fubartotale3389 3 жыл бұрын

@@mrmark8603 LOL! "PULL"

@DanieltheTruebadour 3 жыл бұрын

Fish, standing on a river bank, holding a rod, a pouch slung on his shoulder, says to another, who's sitting on the riverbank and who's affixing a piece of a sandwich onto a hook, "People biting?" To which the other fish replied, "Just a baby. I threw it back."

@Eigil_Skovgaard 3 жыл бұрын

In my country The Far Side was called "Far out Larson" (or "Langt ude Larsen" in Danish). One of the keepers with me was the image of the penguin on the icy Antarctica - he's in the middle of the next step and bound to slide in a dropped banana peel!

@stephenfennell 8 ай бұрын

Another exquisite one, and again I don't even need to see the picture and I"m laughing.

@christopherdean1326 3 жыл бұрын

One of my all-time favourites is the one I saw in a ceramic tile shop I was making a delivery. Big cathedral, few Italian guys laying floor tiles. Caption was; "Although largely forgotten by history, Gandini and Sons were responsible for the floor of the Sistine Chapel."

@bluesuncompanyman 11 ай бұрын

My father was an avid fisherman his entire life. On the wall of his garage were stapled photos of all the best catches he'd had with 1 far side that he loved. It was a drawing of 2 guys in a boat fishing together and they are watching as nukes are going off in the distance. One fisherman is saying to the other: "I'll tell you what this means Norm. No size restrictions and screw the limit". After my dad died I took the cartoon down and put it in a scrapbook of things celebrating his life.

@krokodyl1927 11 ай бұрын

Nice! 👍

@stephenfennell 8 ай бұрын

Oh, that's exquisite. I've just read a comment that Larson's cartoons often show the moment just before or just after a catastrophe, but clearly he could find other moments of humour too. These floor-laying guys: the humour must be the humbleness of their occupation, which literally everyone looks away from, and the changing of a single word in the familiar phrase "The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel".

@Jezza819 3 жыл бұрын

One cow is grilling hamburgers while two other cows are looking at it and one is saying "You're sick Jessy, sick, sick, sick".

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

Car!

@mrgee918 3 жыл бұрын

Jessy donning a chef hat. It's the attention to detail.

@lukestrawwalker 3 жыл бұрын

Yeah as a cattle rancher I always liked the cow ones... I remember that one very funny! OL J R :)

@lancecampbell4323 3 жыл бұрын

The other version he did with the cows saying, “As a matter of fact, we do taste like chicken.”

@ChaCha.44 3 жыл бұрын

This one still kills me omg 💀

@irekjakobik5043 3 жыл бұрын

Doctors laughing at a sick man in a hospital bed: "Testing whether laughter is the best medicine."

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

The one where they're feeding a dog what they remove from surgery? Or the organ that pops out and flies across the room: "Go get that! We'll probably need it."

@mollflanders9314 3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂😂

@virginiagould3167 3 жыл бұрын

Or the roomful of scientists testing if animals "kiss"

@senyahirol 3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂

@Zaloomination 3 жыл бұрын

Jerry Seinfeld trying his stand-up on his friend the patient

@daviddickey1994 11 ай бұрын

Reading through the comments it strikes me how memorable Larsen's cartoons are. Most of the comments are "My favorite was..." When my kids were still at home one of us could quote a caption from an old Far Side and we would all crack up. Larsen by far the greatest cartoonist ever.

@infledermaus 3 жыл бұрын

I love Gary Larson's comics. I have a couple of his books. My fave cartoon is the Native American shaman who got the steps of his rain dance wrong causing the sky to rain egg beaters. "... oh, two steps to the left ...". He's brilliant! Thank you for taking this look at him and his work! A tribute to him is all of the hours of laughter he provided me and many of my friends (and zillions of others) with. Can't count the times I spit my coffee out reading the morning paper!

@shawnwright240 11 ай бұрын

“Air spear, Air spear!”

@dcdc148 3 жыл бұрын

Far side never never never gets old .

@scurvyknave3462 3 жыл бұрын

It takes a special kind of surrealist sense of humor to imagine "The Far Side" into existence. Two of my favorites are: The dog showing another dog around his trophy room and pointing to a hand mounted on the wall and says, "And that's the hand that fed me." A panel depicting a man in a store with impossibly high shelves and an inattentive clerk captioned ",Inconvenience Store"

@jamesleland536 3 жыл бұрын

This is fabulous

@NidgeOSullivan 3 жыл бұрын

@John Barber anyone with a dog knows that they do shit like this to us lol

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

Okay Ginger that's it! Stay out of the garbage or else!

@owlfethurz8377 3 жыл бұрын

Scurvy Knave, I like your perceptive remark about Larson's sense of humor. The video is great; but I felt it over-analyzed Larson's motives. Good humor always has some of the elements that were mentioned, however, funny is funny. Just watch the Marx Bros. movies. They basically turned things upside down and backwards but it came out wonderful. Sometimes it's just good to laugh and appreciate the surrealist parts of life, like Gary Larson!

@lukestrawwalker 3 жыл бұрын

I always loved the one with a group of dogs in lab coats working feverishly in a laboratory, several are consulting with each other about equations on a blackboard, another is carefully studying something through a microscope, another is using a pointer to show details to some younger scientist dogs, etc... the caption was, "Knowing it would change their world forever, the dog scientists worked diligently to understand the "doorknob principle"..." Friggin' hilarious! OL J R :)

@alysong5568 3 жыл бұрын

The "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" with the giant eyeball and the "fly in the back seat of the woman's car" will always be my favorites 😆

@jeannefoster5594 3 жыл бұрын

Jurassic Park fed off that one!

@camelopardalis84 11 ай бұрын

Do you mean the woman with the bee? That's one I find.

@bearVshark100 11 ай бұрын

My favorite was always the one where the bee detectives are trying to figure out who threw a rock through the hive which had been tossed from the inside and there was just a full sized human kid in it because the caption is a full admission that Gary knew the joke was absolutely stupid but he had to hit his deadline. “Cartoonist: G Larson. Title: it was late and I was tired.” I really felt a connection to him.

@NuisanceMan 10 ай бұрын

The sad thing is, there probably WAS a good joke in there somewhere. He just needed more time to develop it but ran into a deadline...

@droneview8351 3 жыл бұрын

Two researchers in a lab. The one in back holding an empty glass having just drank its contents. The one in front holding a full glass and saying, "wait a minute, this is lemonade, what happened to my culture of amoebic dysentery?"

@mollflanders9314 3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@harrysachs2274 3 жыл бұрын

Yikes

@kkampy4052 3 жыл бұрын

One of my favorites is the one where there is a dog in a yard and a dog in a car going by with his head out the back window. The dog in the car says "haha, after we go to the drugstore, I'm going to the vet to be tutored."

@daboo7725 3 жыл бұрын

Laminated that one and had on my service counter at work for my customers to to see. Many a laugh was had.

@elemar8209 3 жыл бұрын

The dog holding open the dryer thinking “ please oh please oh please”.

@elemar8209 3 жыл бұрын

Waiting for the cat.

@mjrussell414 3 жыл бұрын

@@elemar8209 Yes, that is a great one.

@darlulittledeer3738 3 жыл бұрын

my favorite as well

@chesster415 11 ай бұрын

The in question scene did also contribute (slightly) to the story though. It was showing that Woody has fallen from his lofty "favorite toy" to being relegated to the toy box, where even the less prominent toys were poking fun at him, now that he's been brought down to their level. The fact that they were working in a Far Side reference made it a bit weaker on the story-driven side, but it still wasn't just a throwaway gag.

@gavinlewis666 11 ай бұрын

Two bears standing in the woods, one looking shamefaced, the other saying: "Is it true? Is it TRUE?! Do bears ... well, I know *you* do, Angelo." Among all his talents, Larson also always came up with the perfect names for his characters.

@richardshermanjr1899 3 жыл бұрын

I'm a carpenter. I have a far side cartoon hanging in my shop. It's the one where people are looking at a famous painting in an art gallery and a woman says "My son made the frame"

@spacecruisers 3 жыл бұрын

That’s great! I’m a plumber and at my shop we have one hanging up as well of a caveman plumber looking at a hole in the ground and saying to the couple “oooo...this not be cheap”

@richardshermanjr1899 3 жыл бұрын

@@spacecruisers Thanks for sharing that.. I guess great craftsman must think alike.😀

@chrisk8187 3 жыл бұрын

It definitely worthy of it's content and delivery. I've probably experienced all of these before, BUT they still made me laugh out loud due to the "surprise" of the unexpected power of the "joke" even now. True inspired genius !

@michaelshea1683 3 жыл бұрын

🤣🤣🤣

@awesomebillfromdawsonville9633 3 жыл бұрын

My fav is the kid at the gifted school that is pushing the pull door

@stephenphillip5656 3 жыл бұрын

Man washing car. Bird on wire above him thinking "You're mine, all mine"! Wonderful.

@robinhodgkinson Жыл бұрын

The first Gary Larson I saw was the classic “school for the gifted”. I was an instant fan!

@Kanooodledoodle 2 жыл бұрын

My absolute favorite of his, is a big group of lemmings heading down a hill into the water, all are blank-faced looking ahead except for one who is looking at you, with a little cheeky grin and wearing a floating ring. Cracks me up every time 🤣

@maxherzog3287 11 ай бұрын

He's got his tube!!

@plequaweebter7951 11 ай бұрын

God I remember that panel

@monkeychicken27 11 ай бұрын

I remember a different version. It’s one mid-jump shouting, “Cannonball!”

@RErnie-gv1hv 9 ай бұрын

Wasn't there another lemming themed cartoon with the caption, "Why can't we ever go to the beach?" Or mountains, some-such.

@plequaweebter7951 9 ай бұрын

@@RErnie-gv1hv not in the same book, but yeah, the lemmings return in another

@koolaid117 3 жыл бұрын

Two spiders on a leaf, one is wearing a paper bag saying, "did I scare you?" The other on the edge of the leaf has a long line of web coming from it. Priceless!!

@koriw1701 3 жыл бұрын

That was one of my favorites! I howled with laughter then, and I just did again reading your post! Thanks!

@gwenmartinsen3979 3 жыл бұрын

My absolute favorite. That pile of web just makes me laugh.

@swwagner1 3 жыл бұрын

I've been scrolling to find that one! my fav too

@Blackgeoff1 2 жыл бұрын

That's the one!!

@jinond 2 жыл бұрын

I first saw that back in high school and I laughed so long and loud I'm fairly certain everyone thought I was nuts.

@pixiewings21_9 3 жыл бұрын

My favourite, for many reasons: Anatidaephobia - the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

And that could actually exist!

@mayorb3366 3 жыл бұрын

Luposlipophobia- The fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor. This one got me too. Probably because there are actual named phobias out there that are only slightly less ridiculous than these!

@DanieltheTruebadour 3 жыл бұрын

Here's a companion piece: Two schoolkids, one offering the other some Cheetos, the other reacting in horror. The caption reads, "He's acinonxphobic. He's also dyslexic."

@mrmarmellow563 2 жыл бұрын

@@DanieltheTruebadour CHEETAH-Errz HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULEZZZZ!!

@mrmarmellow563 2 жыл бұрын

@FreshCOOKIES 21 NICE🕺😍 PLEAZ UPLOADED SOME OF YOUR FAV CARTOONZ..SIR@21😻

@ogmakefirefiregood Жыл бұрын

As a musician, "Gary's last day as sound man" is my favorite. You see a wide-eyed 👀 band dodging beer bottles as the sound man cranks the "suck" knob.

@77maturin 3 жыл бұрын

My fave was the spider hanging dead from his web, into which he'd spun the words "Goodbye cruel world." So darkly funny and simultaneously very moving.

@koriw1701 3 жыл бұрын

The couple welcoming a census worker; "oh, come in! Have you met our one point five children?" That one really got me!

@RaymondHng 3 жыл бұрын

It was not a census worker. It was Bob and Ruth. i.pinimg.com/originals/91/96/26/919626a148e311113447cc6cd6c169da.jpg

@jeannefoster5594 3 жыл бұрын

@@RaymondHng , Bob and Ruth went driving free. Bob hit a bump, Ruth hit a tree, Bob kept driving ruthlessly. Don’t know where that’s from. It’s permanently implanted in my brain. Partly because those were my parents’ names.

@kenbattor6350 3 жыл бұрын

One Viking holding a mace says to another "There's something about a new mace that makes you find an excuse to smash something". Enter another Viking blowing a huge bubble

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

I got it too Omar, a feeling we're going in circles.

@brye687 2 жыл бұрын

When I was a young kid, I loved the Far Side whenever I got the joke. When I didn't get the joke, I still knew it was funny...such was my faith in Gary Larson. I knew that I was either missing something, or not mature/experienced/perceptive enough to get it ...yet. 45 years old now and still love the Far Side (I usually get it now)

@okiepita50t-town28 11 ай бұрын

I’m happy for him that he could retire so young but sorry for us that we didn’t get to enjoy more of his work. I can only imagine the burnout you would experience having to come up with, and execute new ideas all the time.

@Sabbathtage 9 ай бұрын

But he IS back. The big reason he quit before? He was fed up with the pen he used. He's back and posts his comics online since he found the joy of drawing digitally. It hasn't lost its look or hilarity either.

@RErnie-gv1hv 9 ай бұрын

In an interview years ago Larson said he quit because of being worn out trying to meet the never ending deadlines.

@Jorlaxe 3 жыл бұрын

My favorite was Albert Einstein looking at a chalkboard with formulas and such. “After much research He discovers that time = money. “.

@rundmw 3 жыл бұрын

@jorlaxe Thanks for including this one. My favorite, too. 😀

@DelavarPix 3 жыл бұрын

"Yep. Everything's squaaaaared away."

@wooohoo2 3 жыл бұрын

A = πr2~E-mc2~π ∞x ∞+=$ well all be, he was right! lol

@dreamluchadore 3 жыл бұрын

The guy in Hell with a wheel barrow, whistling happily as a devil remarks to another "we're just not getting through to that guy".

@tubbers20 3 жыл бұрын

Hot enough for ya'?

@tubbers20 3 жыл бұрын

The maestro sent to the room full of banjo players.

@ChaCha.44 3 жыл бұрын

Lmao 😂!!!!! Omg yesssss!!!!!!!! Thanks for the memory of that one!! It is sooooo hilarious! I also like the one with the human egg and all the sperm are trying to trick her to let them in hehehe. I remember one had a tie on and a briefcase, saying something like he was selling something important or something. I think the caption was kinda like “the deception of the human egg” but I’m probably way off 😆!! Still, I own lots of the books!! By far my favorite!!

@bobsana4590 3 жыл бұрын

Or the guy in Hell telling the devil, I hate this place

@carldaniels4827 3 жыл бұрын

the guy in hell turning the air conditioning lower......

@markturpin7504 3 жыл бұрын

"And here's Higgin's last entry: " Having gained the trust of these mighty gorillas I have decided to test their sense of humor with a simple joy-buzzer hand shake."

@kevinseventeen3099 2 жыл бұрын

Berke Breathed: "Man, those Samoans are a surly bunch . . ."

@terencejay8845 2 жыл бұрын

Not Larson, mine, but Larsonesque; Young scorpion at the Docs, head bandaged. Mother scorpion, to the doc, 'He has no coordination, doctor. That's the third time this month he's stung himself in the back of the head.'

@matthewweng8483 2 жыл бұрын

Saw Toy Story in the theater, caught the Far Side nod immediately... ‘Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.’ is another of his most brilliant moments, which are too numerous to list.

@verbotn 3 жыл бұрын

As someone who grew up reading the Far Side, it really puts a smile on my face when I hear my 12 year old son giggling from the other room as he reads through the boxed set that we bought a year or two back.

@ratherbfishing455 3 жыл бұрын

Reading Far Side will give your kid an advantage. Many students have never read comic and have no sense of humor.

@calkelpdiver 3 жыл бұрын

I have a B.S. in Zoology, so I got a lot of the humor he put in. During my Animal Behavior class there was a series of Far Sides that dealt with the subjects in the class. I'd cut them out and give them to the Prof., got extra points for a solid week. Thanks Gary! My favorite is the one with the two deer talking in the forest, one says to the other "Bummer of a birth mark, Hal." Hal had a bullseye marking on his belly.

@leecowell8165 Жыл бұрын

yeah I remember that one... he almost always gave names to his characters. I have a mug that reads "Boneless Chicken Ranch". on it is a ranch with chickens flopped around everywhere.. of course they can't stand up... no bones. The date on the mug is 1983. I mean WHERE did he get his ideas from? And how about the harlequin glasses he put on the females? never the males only the females. Tell you what he drew no lines in the sand.

@oaflet 11 ай бұрын

@@leecowell8165 I have a "Boneless chicken ranch" tee shirt. When I'm wearing it, and someone stares or asks about it, I suddenly collapse. So far, 40% laugh, 60% are pissed off.

@kiwitrainguy 11 ай бұрын

@@leecowell8165 The Boneless Chicken Ranch might have come from an episode of The Odd Couple of the early 70s. Oscar saves Felix's life and Felix makes Oscar's life a living hell by being nice to him and doing everything for him ("I saved his life and for that he's trying to kill me"). So Oscar tries to feign dying so that Felix can "save" him to make things even. At one point Felix serves up a chicken casserole and Oscar makes out that he is choking on a chicken bone. When Felix says that it is boneless chicken Oscar says "How did it walk?"

@kevinrichards1667 2 жыл бұрын

love the one with two vampires looking in a mirror,Hank your reflecting ,total classic

@basvandoorn1597 3 жыл бұрын

"The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression."

@katperson1955 3 жыл бұрын

One of my favorites too!

@ekaterinabalderdash1274 3 жыл бұрын

I have preserved that one from the newspaper! I felt like it was the cartoon of my life.

@ekaterinabalderdash1274 3 жыл бұрын

I am in a way surprised that anyone else knew and retained this as I have. That’s cool!

@robertomolina6272 3 жыл бұрын

This is my favorite, hits a chord of a stretch of my life

@mollflanders9314 3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@thefarsidefanthefarsidefan7374 3 жыл бұрын

One of my favorite The Far Side cartoon panel is of a close up of hands, one holding a spreader knife, the other holding an opened sardine can getting ready to pour miniature men in business suits from a sardine can on to a slice of bread, the cartoon is captioned "Business Lunch".

@tommerwhite 2 жыл бұрын

In the spirit of the Larson world I watched Shawn the sheep…not a word spoken throughout the entire movie but the claymation expressed emotion beyond words

@thejils1669 Жыл бұрын

I love the one where Einstein is toiling over completing his most famous equation, E=mc...and he's trying all sorts of things to finish the equation...and, in the foreground is the cleaning lady, who has just finished tidying up the place, saying: "Well that about squares things up!" (or something like that)

@rogerlongfellow205 3 жыл бұрын

“Harold! The dog’s trying to blow up the house again! Catch him in the act or he’ll never learn”.

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

Rex takes out her flower garden once and for all!

@aurelienyonrac 3 жыл бұрын

Lol.

@zumamaya2396 3 жыл бұрын

Prehistoric cavemen with spears, carrying an enormous carrot on their shoulders..."Early vegetarians returning from the kill" He was brilliant.

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

They're holding their food against a fire, "Hey, look what Zog do."

@christopherdean1326 3 жыл бұрын

My tattooist has the "early vegetarians" one inked on his leg!

@oaflet 11 ай бұрын

@@ecec6852 At great risk of over-explaining, that's a different cartoon. Three guys are holding cuts of meat to the fire with bare hands, trying to withstand the heat. … Zog, wearing glasses (nerd?) at a separate (socially isolated?) smaller (more efficient?) fire, comfortably holds his food on a forked stick. Their comeuppance for disrespecting him all these diurnal anomalies. … At even larger risk of over-over-explaining, Larson's cartoons typically contain additional easter eggs. One of the most devious people I know. … Love that guy.

@gfixler 11 ай бұрын

I remember as a kid laughing extra hard at the lion in the elevator joke, because it wasn't just that the doors with going to startle the lion, but that it was also closing them all in a confined space with him. The thing that would send the lion into murder mode was the same thing that would ensure there was no escape. It could have just been someone walking by about to step on the lion's tail at an outdoor party, but the fact it was the doors of an elevator put it way over the top. Also, where we're positioned makes it funnier, because you can imagine two seconds later, all the muffled roaring and screaming coming from behind the now-closed doors, and imagine it rising up the shaft, with all the screams fading into the distance. It's all so tight and brilliant.

@mariaeugenia9387 4 ай бұрын

Congratulations: You made a far side cartoon scary.

@salamanca1954 3 жыл бұрын

What a great video. I miss the Far Side. I love the one where the postman has just entered his house and tells his shocked wife, "I stumbled into a nest of weiner dogs." and he is festooned with dachshunds all hanging from him by their teeth.

@Robert08010 11 ай бұрын

And where better than in a cartoon could one be "festooned"?

@nastiva 3 жыл бұрын

This was a well done, well structured, well researched, thoughtful, and reverent video! Thank you for this!!

@AnubisXII 3 жыл бұрын

I totally agree with you. And I'm glad you wrote this so graciously. It makes us look good.

@dancingmeerkat2078 3 жыл бұрын

Gary, is that you? 😂 👍 ❤️

@joedennehy386 3 жыл бұрын

Why didnt i just agree with your insightful comment instead of posting my own? Doh

@aegismule13 3 жыл бұрын

yes it was :)

@muiresuilgorm3452 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for reminding me to like. The Internet could use more appreciation.

@punch6832 3 жыл бұрын

My favorite of his is the one where three archeologists open a sarcophagus and the mummy, one hand on his hip and the other pointing to them says, “Ok, let’s see. That’s a curse on you, a curse on you and a curse on you.”

@rivaridge7211 Жыл бұрын

I used to clip "The Far Side" comics from my daily newspaper, and show them to my late Dad - he and I shared the same sense of humor and laughed like hell. Miss you Dad! Thank you Mr. Larson!!

@mlawson7341 3 жыл бұрын

I miss his cartoons. Always started my day off with a good laugh. Sometimes I giggled all day thinking about it. My absolute favorite was 2 unicorns on a cliff overlooking the animals entering Noah’s Ark 2 by 2. One unicorn looks at the other and says “I’m not waiting in that line, let’s get out of here”

@RErnie-gv1hv 9 ай бұрын

Or the one where a couple of dinosaurs watch the ark sail away and one says, "Was that today?"

@bobbrown5951 3 жыл бұрын

One of my favourites was the one where a guy spots Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and Jackie Kennedy all together at the same time and his camera jams. Another shown here is the bears in the woods seeing nudists and one says "There goes my appetite"

@freddieh5539 3 жыл бұрын

I always marveled at the way Larson could get maximum laughs with such an economy of words. He's the best.

@mena94x3 11 ай бұрын

Well said! 😂

@5610winston 10 ай бұрын

"That's the way we became the bacteria bunch!"? Really?

@sfdint 10 ай бұрын

To me his theme was not the stupidity of humans but the exploration of human and other species interactions. He surprises us by showing us the world from a polar bears perspective in the one where a polar bear is leaning over an igloo and telling his pal, "Oh I just love these things. Crunchy with a chewy center", or the most grotesque one where you see the mushroom clouds destroying a city in the background and in the foreground a bunch of bugs are holding hands and dancing around singing, "We won, we won, we won!"

@cocodojo Жыл бұрын

I love The Far Side comics, I bought I believe almost all the available comics they had out at the time. Its still amazing that they were almost all single panel comics, with a very few words used to help convey the humor to the reader. They were bloody brilliant in their simplicity and I loved them.

@dbmorton1114 3 жыл бұрын

I loved the Far Side. One of my favorites takes place in a courtroom, where the defense lawyer, a dog, is addressing 12 cats in the jury and as he points to the defendant, also a dog, he exclaims, "Look at that face! Is that the face of a cat killer?! Cat chaser maybe but, hey, who isn't?"

@joshmccoy1522 3 жыл бұрын

Father and son looking over a fence at the neighbor's house, wolves running all over the yard and in the house. "I know you miss the Johnsons, Bobby, but they were weak and stupid people. That's why we have wolves and other large predators."

@MrUndersolo 11 ай бұрын

I loved the one with the elephant confronting a man who tried to shoot him ("If you’re going to shoot an elephant...you better be prepared to finish the job"). 🐘

@sourisvoleur4854 3 жыл бұрын

I love how in the Cheers scene, Woody says "I don't get the Far Side," and the audience laughs. Because not getting the Far Side was such a familiar thing for all of us from time to time.

@Frombie_01 11 ай бұрын

I love how American sitcoms use canned laughter so I know when to laugh.

@oaflet 11 ай бұрын

@@Frombie_01 We also use canned laughter to cover the utter un-funniness of most such foot(.3048m)age.

@MrUndersolo 11 ай бұрын

A perfect Far-Side type of joke!

@realjettlag 11 ай бұрын

@@Frombie_01 I hate to break it to you, but those really were taped with live audiences. They rarely had to sweeten it, and when they did it just meant brightening the existing audio. No "canned" recording necessary.

@timq6224 11 ай бұрын

@@Frombie_01 every single cheers episode had a live audience. Why don't you peddle your ignorance elsewhere. By and large, this is a bunch of Larson fans with a penchant for facts, not trollish rhetoric.

@SteveBrownRocks2023 3 жыл бұрын

My favorite cartoons of all time; “The Far Side” & “Calvin & Hobbes”. 👏🏼😎

@philippetays4263 3 жыл бұрын

you too,,,, they are my favorites

@feliciaflores4680 3 жыл бұрын

Pearls before Swine here!! Great cartoon spread!!✌️

@bobmcilvain7230 3 жыл бұрын

Steve & Philip, mine too!

@verlinswarey507 3 жыл бұрын

Yep!

@standupp2885 3 жыл бұрын

I would add Bloom County to your list.

@mattlinthicum4207 3 жыл бұрын

My favorite has always been the one with a duck and a professor on a small deserted island with a ship sinking in the background. "Ah, professor Jenkins ; my old nemesis; we meet again, but this time the advantage is mine! HAHAHA!"

@niceguy4875 3 жыл бұрын

Cheetah wheeles

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

Alien ship flies near a deserted island, Man: "Thank goodness I'm saved!" But they just pick up the other palm tree.

@mayorb3366 Жыл бұрын

Man on an island with a single palm tree opens a box that has floated up. It contains a pet turtle island with a palm tree on it.

@frigginjerk 2 жыл бұрын

"The Desert Island Times" is one of my favorites. The idea that two guys stranded on a desert island would start a newspaper is funny enough in itself, but that their lead story in the first printing would be "Ned is a whiner" is gold. I don't know if that was passive-agressiveness, or that that was all the news they had access to but they still had to print something, but either way, the poor circulation caused the paper to shut down quickly.

@oaflet 11 ай бұрын

It was never clear to me that Ned was one of those two.

@purdyboi8078 11 ай бұрын

@@oaflet Well, one of them was the one who wrote it, soo, uh....yeah, there you go I suppose. Although, maybe not 😏

@raywest3834 11 ай бұрын

Here's how I see The Desert Island Times cartoon: Only ONE guy starts the newspaper, and uses it to complain about the other guy (Ned). The fight they're about to have is what "causes the newspaper to quickly fold." It's a brilliant take on the iconic 'tiny desert island with palm tree' stranded cartoon.

@sascotttx5145 11 ай бұрын

Lack of consistent advertising revenue. That's what killed the paper. At least that's what they told the stockholders.

@ralph3333 11 ай бұрын

@@sascotttx5145 The Bored of Directors were all whiners.

@scottatutube1 3 жыл бұрын

a little chihuahua with his little tail vibrating, standing on tip-toes on a stool in the kitchen reaching for a coffee cup above the espresso machine, "how nervous little dogs start their days"

@steveaugustine5832 3 жыл бұрын

The "Beware of Doug" sign on the tree almost killed me...and the Peter Pan unconscious in the bushes.."My, that bird hit the window awfully hard" Took me several days to get over that one as well...But my favorite is "Marvin doomed the earth when he grabbed the Martian leader by the head and shook him vigorously!!!!" (that one made me drool a bit) LOL

@mollflanders9314 3 жыл бұрын

Did he think the Martian was a snow globe or a castanet?😂

@lightningdemolition1964 3 жыл бұрын

Marvin's head looked like a hand.

@DMETS519 3 жыл бұрын

The daycare center directly next to the alligator farm. "Trouble brewing."

@orionred2489 3 жыл бұрын

There was sort of series of those. Teacup Poodle show next to Falconry Range... Parachute school next to alligator farm...

@ecec6852 3 жыл бұрын

Chucke Cheese between the liquor store and gun store? Oh wait that was real.

@DMETS519 3 жыл бұрын

I was a Mounted cop in NYC and I loved the one where it said: "Never park your horse in the wrong part of town." It showed a horse that was hitched to a post resting on cinder blocks missing a couple of legs and had graffiti scrawled on it's side.

@johns4384 3 жыл бұрын

Years ago, my wife and I were in a Hallmark store enjoying a Far Side Calendar. Needless to say, we were in tears from laughing so hard. I don't think Larson could ever do anything to irk me.

@Robert08010 11 ай бұрын

I saved the last Far Side strip printed in the new paper. It featured Gary's far side version of himself waking up in bed as if its the end of The Wizard of Oz. And he's pointing at his family members and saying "And you were there... and you..." It was as if the entire run of the strip was some sort of Oz like dream. I can even remember when the strip first appeared and most everyone was not getting it because it was a different style of humor.

@MK007-YT 10 ай бұрын

Funny can really be difficult to figure out at times....

@longbowshooter5291 3 жыл бұрын

Had a postcard one - humans scattering in panic down the street as a UFO swoops over them and up, inside the bubble cockpit is two tentacled eyed green blobs and the one at the control wheel is shouting "Yeeeeeeeeee-hawwwww!"

@alyteima4185 3 жыл бұрын

My all time favorite was ‘Hell’s library’ that only had books on math story problems. I felt that pain

@mollflanders9314 3 жыл бұрын

😂😂😂😂😂😂

@anonygrazer3234 3 жыл бұрын

Don't forget Gary Larson! His garbage man dragging the can with corpse to the front door and saying "Oh no you don't Mrs. Jablowski, you don't get rid of him that easy!" makes me laugh every time I even think of it...because of the look on HER face!

@katiearbuckle9017 2 жыл бұрын

Oh god, I would hate that.

@madnessbydesign1415 Жыл бұрын

I understand people not thinking it's funny (humor is subjective), but to actively 'hate' it seems absurd. I have several of the books and calendars. Whenever I run across them from time to time, I am compelled to re-read them. The 'in medias res' style of comedy is very powerful because it makes the reader an active participant, drawing them into that world. And it's a glorious world. The truly amazing thing is how prolific Gary Larson was. He was able to produce these works at break-neck speed for 15 years. He's the hero we don't deserve, and we are in his debt... :)

@MK007-YT 10 ай бұрын

Active Thinking is required to appreciate Mr. Larson. The "Under-Thinkers" have a problem with "Far Side" Humor. 🤔 🤣