The Far Side Turns 45: Five Comics That Prove Gary Larson Is a Genius

On January 1, 1980, Gary Larson’s The Far Side began its legendary run in a single newspaper — The San Francisco Chronicle — and by the time it ended on January 1, 1995, it had appeared in nearly 2,000 of them, delivering more than 4,000 comic strips to readers across the globe. More than three decades after its conclusion, the strip remains a cultural touchstone, and a fresh look at its best work reveals just why Larson’s genius endures. From the absurdly dumb to the quietly brilliant, The Far Side could be subtle and smart one day and utterly stupid the next, occasionally veering into the surreal. Larson could land a hilarious turn of phrase or draw a joke with not a single word on the page. Here are five of the finest examples of the many ways Gary Larson showed his genius.

The Incredibly Stupid

The funniest “stupid” characters usually come from genuinely smart writers — just look at Mike Judge and Beavis and Butt-Head. Larson often specialized in stupidity in The Far Side, with scientists acting like idiotic children and violent mobs assembling for the dumbest of causes. On September 29, 1983, Larson published a comic featuring a man so dumb that he can’t figure out he’s holding his spoon wrong. Only a genius could imagine someone so daft.

Image: Gary Larson

The Subtle and Smart

A number of Larson’s comics contain references to classic literature like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, though it seems Larson had a special affection for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, which he referenced several times. The most subtle Moby Dick reference came in a comic from August 21, 1980, where Captain Ahab is sitting at a bar with a whale activist, and the activist says, “Oh, sure — white whales. … We’ve got plenty of them.”

This comic requires the reader to have at least a basic knowledge of Moby Dick, including what Captain Ahab looks like — with his harpoon and peg leg — and his obsession with finding a white whale. That assumes the reader even catches on that this is about Moby Dick at all, as it’s entirely possible that this comic, and many other installments of The Far Side, went over people’s heads.

The Strange and Surreal

This comic also requires some knowledge going in, specifically of the song “Mack the Knife,” which was a big hit in the 1950s for rock ‘n’ roll singer Bobby Darin, although it existed well before that. It features anthropomorphic kitchen utensils sitting around in their humble apartment, with the knife and spoon playing poker and the fork playing the piano. Without knowing “Mack the Knife,” this cartoon would make no sense at all, and even for those who know the song, it’s still deeply strange to see living silverware.

An Ingenious Turn of Phrase

“Curiosity killed the cat” is such a common expression that it takes a truly brilliant mind to find a way to make it funny and surprising, but that’s precisely what Larson did with a comic featuring a police detective examining a crime scene full of dead cats. To take the expression and explore it in the most literal way possible — with cats being curious in a scientific sense — takes some real genius.

No Words Required

This is another example of Larson taking something common and finding a way to fundamentally reimagine it. While he did it with funny visuals and words in the previous one, this comic requires no explanation. It’s just a dog and a human in a car, with their roles reversed: the dog is driving and the man is excitedly sticking his head out the window. It’s simple, smart, and stupid all in one, representing a lot of what makes The Far Side creator Gary Larson a true genius.

Looking Ahead

What makes these five comics so enduring is that they never rely on the fleeting trends of their era. Larson famously worked alone, producing each strip by hand, and he deliberately refused to syndicate The Far Side into daily newspaper rotation — a decision that preserved its quality and mystique rather than diluting it. That singular approach is why the strip still resonates with new generations of readers who discover it through reprints, compilations, and online archives.

As The Far Side approaches its 45th anniversary, Larson’s legacy is less about nostalgia than about a timelessness that few creators achieve. His willingness to be dumb, to be smart, and to be strange all in the same breath is a lesson that extends far beyond the comic page.

“I’m not a cartoonist. I’m a humorist who happens to draw.”

— Gary Larson

Whether through a clever pun, a literary nod, or a wordless gag, Larson proved that a single panel could carry an entire joke. The Far Side may have ended in 1995, but its genius continues to draw readers in — one spoon, one whale, and one curious cat at a time.