Gary Larson's The Far Side comic strips are duly beloved by young and old alike. First published in 1979, The Far Side has gone on to win numerous awards and be lauded for its twisted but hilarious take on everything from nature to awkward social situations. The surrealistic yet smart humor is delivered in a one-panel format, allowing for readers to experience instant laughs.
It's understandably a challenge to pack a lot of humor into one singular panel with minimal captions. As a result, not all Far Side comics have gained laughs at first glance, or even fifth careful viewing for that matter, baffling readers instead of making them laugh. Here are some of the most puzzling Far Side comics that Larson has produced.
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Gary Larson has a multitude of comics that utilize familiar characters from pop culture. They are usually a slam dunk. However, this comic strip was not one of Gary Larson's best. Looking at the strip, it's actually pretty hard to tell where the joke is.
Even those who are familiar with the Frankenstein story would be baffled as to what the joke is in the strip. As a result, this comic has left viewers scratching their heads in puzzlement. What's most likely is that the joke just doesn't land, making viewers feel the need to search for something that isn't present or think that they're missing something.
The joke of this Far Side strip is supposed to be that the candy store is pulling the lady in through powerful suction. At first look, it's hard to get that that was the meaning and joke of the strip.
The strip is a bit vague, leading to some wondering what the joke meant when they saw it for the first time. This 1982 comic isn't the most politically correct these days either, perhaps explaining why this strip is not understood that easily. While there is a plethora of hilarious Far Side comics, this one isn't one of them.
The comic shows a group of wolves dipping sheep in some of Carol's sheep dip. That's it. That's the joke. As a result, it's hard to tell where the punchline is due to the no frills quality of the strip.
An instance of Far Side's absurdist tendencies, this comic possibly erred too much on the absurdity side. This comic is perhaps an example of the joke being so simple that it's glossed right over. However, that doesn't negate the fact that it is hard to grasp what this strip is saying or what's funny about it.
Those who are history buffs or lovers of the American Old West will be the few to understand this strip. It points to the historical figure of Buffalo Bill Cody, but the joke is that this Old West figure is placed in a modern career counseling office.
However, even among those who are aware of Buffalo Bill (not the Silence of the Lambs one!), many would have had a hard time getting this one because it is easy to surpass the historical reference. Given that Buffalo Bill Cody is placed in the modern age, people overlook that the man with the ten gallon hat and long beard is him. As a result, the "slaughtering a few thousand buffalo" joke would appear to come completely out of left field.
With an interesting setup, the strip makes a turn for the questionable when the "coconut-like sound" from the bumping of the heads creates a delighted response in the bird. With no further context or explanation given, readers were left wondering why the bird is so pleased that his housemates have all bumped heads.
Also, the joke of this strip is not particularly hilarious either. It would have helped if there were more clues or context to explain why the bird was so delighted. This would have made the joke more obvious, yet this is ultimately not what readers received, leaving them confounded in the process.
This Far Side strip has been flummoxing for viewers. It has been so puzzling that fans have taken to the Internet, turning to sites like Quora to get some insight from fellow Far Side readers to understand what it means. Those who did not get it have noted that they could not find the point of it.
Although, readers have explained to the bewildered that the snakes are scared because they think the kid looks like a gigantic mouse thanks to his novelty mouse ears and is going to eat them. Part of the confusion from the strip is that viewers thought that the snakes looked passed out rather than scared, changing the whole outlook on what the strip meant.
Referring to some sort of creature named Bob that is small enough to fit in a little jar, the man in the comic is worried about Bob cutting a rug on the dance floor. Some have pointed out that Bob must be an incredibly tiny creature or bug that would get squashed if they got out on the dance floor.
The strip requires a bit of thinking because at first glance, it is easy to be a bit dumbfounded about why the man would be so worried about Bob. One fan on Quora was stumped on what or who Bob was, attributing it to the acronym Bring your Own Beer, but that doesn't make much sense either.
A comic strip that sees rival cloning offices on the same block, the character Friendly Frank ushers in a prospective customer. Gary Larson was talented at creating funny science-based Far Side comics, however, this comic seems to lack the context it needs to be considered one of his best science-centered comics.
Some have suggested that the cloning offices close together in the comic is a comment on how coffee shops tend to spring up around each other, namely Starbucks. The strip then puts a scientific spin on it by having cloning offices instead of coffee shops.
This Far Side comic has been extremely perplexing to readers. It's so disconcerting, that there are message boards devoted to finding the meaning and joke of this strip. With a bowl of meat on the coffee table and a blank newspaper, there are a number of theories that readers have thrown out there.
Some are as simple as claiming that the man in the comic is blind, explaining why the newspaper is blank and that he possibly mistook a bowl of meat for a bowl of fruit. Other theories are as deep as thinking that the comic is meant to symbolize the mistreatment and deterioration of the American middle class by the upper crust. Whichever theory is correct is still up in the air, but one thing is for certain is that no one truly knows what this strip is about.
When The Far Side's "Cow Tools" comic was published in 1982, the strip was so inexplicable to so many people that newspapers and Larson himself received a ton of letters, asking for the joke to be explained. Eventually, Larson did explain the strip, which didn't seem to make the joke or strip any more appealing or sensical.
Very divisive among the Far Side fandom, some believe that the absurdist strip was ahead of its time, predating the memes of today. On the other hand, others think this is Larson's worst and that it was a huge miss that was lacking other Far Side comics' trademark blend of smart and bizarre humor. Whatever the case, "Cow Tools" has gone down as perhaps the most confounding Far Side comic that Gary Larson every produced.