10 Perfect Far Side Comics That Just Turned 40

Ready to time travel, Far Side fans? We promise our journey into the past won't go horribly awry like it did for The Far Side's time travelers. No, instead we're going to take a whirlwind tour of early 1986, to get a glimpse of what iconic cartoons Gary Larson was putting out exactly 40 years ago.

1986 is arguably the peak of The Far Side. It represents the mid-point of Act 2 of Larson's career, and it was the height of the comic's status as a national phenomenon.

40 years later, people are still obsessed with The Far Side, and these perfect panels from '86 go a long way toward proving why.

10 Looking Back At A Far Side Cartoon Where The Characters Wish They'd Turned Around

First Published: April 15, 1986

Forty years ago today (as of this writing), this is the Far Side comic you would have found if you opened up your morning paper to the funny pages. In the cartoon, a pair of big game hunters get into a tiff when one calls the other "buffalo breath," not realizing an actual buffalo has snuck up on them.

It's a classic comedic trope ("look behind you, dummies!") with a signature Far Side twist. And it's an innocuous enough punchline, aside from the subtle implication of looming violence. After all, it's cartoonish violence, not much different than Looney Tunes. If this was the first Far Side you ever saw, you wouldn't necessarily know what a wild ride you were in for.

9 The Far Side Shows Some Heart In This Perfectly Off-Beat Pet Comic

First Published: April 14, 1986

Now, we turn the dial on the time machine back 40 years + one day. In the paper, we find another classic Far Side. And another one that is actually pretty sweet. It's about as "family friendly" as The Far Side ever got. In the panel, a giant squid and a hound dog snuggle, as their owner explains that they were raised together.

"In the wild," he tells a friend, "they'd be natural enemies...but they do just fine together if you get 'em as pups." It's a slightly surreal twist on pet domestication, exactly the kind of shift just to the left of normal that Gary Larson made his whole bread and butter.

8 The Far Side Was At Its Best When It Was Brilliantly Stupid

First Published: April 8, 1986

Now, let's go back about a week. The April 8, '86 Far Side is a perfect example of Gary Larson's ability to find the nexus point between smart and dumb humor. That's part of what makes The Far Side so divisive. It's like that dress that was either white-and-gold or blue-and-black. Or "Yanny and Laurel." From one angle, The Far Side looks stupid. From another, brilliant.

Take "Giraffe Evolution," for example, in which Larson draws a progression of the animal from absurdly long legs and no neck to its familiar long neck and short legs. It's an intelligent joke with a purposefully silly execution. Or maybe it's a dumb bit that Larson is able to make feel smart. Either way, it artfully straddles that line.

7 Growing Up On The Far Side Isn't Easy, Just Ask This "Cartoon Teenager"

First Published: April 1, 1986

We're warping back another full week to April 1, 1986. This bit of Far Side meta-humor is often cited by fans as a favorite to this day. Captioned "cartoon teenagers," the panel depicts a young man shouting at his parents that he "didn't ask to be drawn." It's an amusing analog to real teenage life, but it's also what any self-aware Far Side character would probably say.

That is because while this kid might only be dealing with raging hormones, many other Far Side characters faced routine pain and destruction. This is another deceptively straightforward, and deceptively normal Far Side joke, but in terms of concept and delivery, its simplicity is a virtue, making it an all-timer.

6 This Far Side Cartoon Perfectly Fuses Its Image & Caption

First Published: March 20, 1986

Moving back into March now, we find Gary Larson still firing on all cylinders. Here, he delivers a memorable "cat and mouse" comic, in which a Garfield-esque tabby puts a nickle in a gumball machine that is full of rats, instead of hard candy. It's perhaps par for the course for The Far Side's oddball sensibility, but for a kid discovering the comic in 1986, this would have been high strangeness.

It's also notable as an example of a "double punchline" Far Side. It has the absurd visual gag of the anthropomorphic cat and the rats in the gumball machine, but then the caption offers an addendum to the joke. "Randy's goin' down," one of the rats cries as their compatriot is shot out of the machine into the waiting paws of the feline, in what is truly the panel's laugh-out-loud "it" factor.

5 Another Day On The Far Side, Another Chance For This Croc To Show Off Its Chicken Trick

First Published: March 8, 1986

Another iconic Far Side about unconventional pets. Heck, maybe even #1 in that category. In the panel, a guy shows off his pet crocodile's listening skills to his buddy Ernie, as the croc balances a live chicken on the tip of its long snout, waiting to be given the command to eat.

"He'll keep that chicken right there until I say okay," the proud owner explains. Here, Gary Larson asks Far Side readers to put themselves in Ernie's shoes. If you can do that, this joke is a great "what did I get myself into?" kind of punchline, especially when the croc's owner asks Ernie if he wants to be the one to give the go-ahead.

4 Our Visit To Far Sides Past Takes A Detour Through The Garden Of Eden

First Published: February 8, 1986

Okay, back in the time machine. We're peeling another whole month off the calendar and jumping back to February 8 of '86. Gary Larson's at it again with another riff on a Biblical tale, a Far Side staple. Captioned "Saturday morning in the Garden," the cartoon imagines a scenario in which the snake peddling forbidden apples was just one of many vendors tempting Adam and Eve in Eden.

Notably, February 8 was actually a Saturday. So the joke lined up with the actual date of publication. This might seem like a small thing, but it would have been a novelty of keeping up with The Far Side on a daily basis; the kind of thing that is lost in retrospect unless we really take a moment to appreciate it.

3 Once Again, The Far Side's Genius Lies In Being Dumb

First Published: February 10, 1986

"You can't shoot first and ask questions later!" one cowboy shouts at another in this Far Side western cartoon. At least, not these kinds of questions. "What's the average rainfall of the Amazon basin?" "Who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey?" These are the things a gunslinger shouts at the man he just shot dead in the street.

Again, The Far Side effortlessly tap dances along the dividing line between dumb and smart. It's a self-conscious joke about Gary Larson's affinity for trivia, and the trivial, while also poking fun at a familiar action movie trope. In this regard, this Far Side cartoon registers as a 5-star classic.

2 The Far Side Succeeded By Humanizing Its Animal Characters (And Vice Versa)

First Published: February 7, 1986

In this hilarious Far Side therapy panel, a croc confesses a dark secret: he's been disrupting the circle of life by devouring "those teeny tiny birds that walk around so trustingly inside a crocodile's mouth." It's the kind of joke that makes the most of both Gary Larson's affinity for nature and his low-key deep understanding of humanity.

It's clearly a joke Larson dreamed up while watching a documentary about dangerous reptiles. Ultimately, though, the way this Far Side cartoon humanizes its crocodile character is utterly charming, even if there's a disturbing note to it, and the result is a cartoon that still gets us to this day.

1 An All-Time Great Far Side Fourth-Wall Break Concludes Our Journey To 1986

First Published: January 1, 1986

Our last stop on this tour of The Far Sides of early 1986 is New Year's Day. It's worth mentioning this was the sixth anniversary of The Far Side, which debuted on January 1, 1980. Gary Larson kicked off the year with another fourth-wall breaker, an all-time great one to boot. "Ed...the later is back" a woman whispers to her husband, noticing the caption intruding on their personal space.

Notice that these characters seem to be the same, or very similar to, the parents of the self-aware cartoon teenager who appeared exactly three months later on April 1. This makes total sense. Multiple Far Side jokes often sprang from one source idea, and despite the delta between their publication, these panels were likely at least started around the same time.