These 10 Far Side Comics Prove Porcupines Are the Best Animal Out There

The Far Side is famous for having a level of freedom with its comics strips that other popular comic series simply do not. Unlike most others, The Far Side doesn’t feature a main character or characters. Peanuts has Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Garfield has Garfield and Jon, and Calvin and Hobbes has, well, Calvin and Hobbes. But, The Far Side? It doesn’t have to cater its jokes to fit an established character.

Instead, it features random cartoons with sometimes extremely strange characters, all of which only serve the specific joke being told in any given comic. That’s how The Far Side is able to get away with making comics about aliens, cowboys, babies, and even trees. And now, it’s time to highlight another ‘character’ The Far Side has spent a number of comics focusing on: porcupines. In fact, after reading these 10 hilarious comics, it’s fair to say that The Far Side will have one convinced that porcupines are the best animals out there.

10 Dances Aren’t as Much Fun for Porcupines in The Far Side

Porcupine Dance Party Disasters

Porcupine couples are all attending a 'Porcupine Ball' in the woods, all of them dancing their little hearts out. However, it doesn't seem like they're having that much fun, as each of them are saying "ouch" with every dance step. The porcupines are getting pricked by each other's quills while they're dancing, making the whole thing much more painful than it should be.

Usually, dances and balls are lovely affairs where couples can have a fun and romantic evening together, dancing the night away with the person they care for the most. That's how it is with humans, anyway, but humans don't have quills running down the back of their bodies. Porcupines, on the other hand, do, so holding each other close to dance becomes decidedly less fun for the little woodland creatures in The Far Side.

9 Porcupine Ranches Are Not Ideal for Herding Dogs in The Far Side

Herding Porcupines? Not For the Faint of Heart!

A rancher (who has been stuck with a bunch of quills that litter his body) is watching his porcupines getting herded by his dog. The dog is running alongside - and even on top of - the porcupines to keep them grouped together, and while the herding dog is certainly doing his job well, he's not immune to the downside of running next to a bunch of porcupines. The dog - like his owner - is getting stuck with the porcupines' quills as he's herding them, making the entire situation less than ideal.

The idea that a rancher would have a large number of porcupines is funny enough, but seeing his herding dog having to deal with them is even more hilarious. Usually, a dog like this would be herding sheep, not porcupines, but that's just life in the absurd world of The Far Side.

8 Porcupines Make the Best Caterers in The Far Side

A Prickly Problem

Porcupines have gathered together for a cocktail party in the woods, many of them holding martinis and engaging in polite conversation. However, every cocktail party needs caterers whose job it is to walk around the party, offering hors d'oeuvres to the guests. Usually, the caterers use trays to carry the food on, but these caterers are porcupines, so they do things a little differently: they carry the bite-sized snacks on their quills.

Visually, this comic is hilarious, as it's a bunch of porcupines at a party with their servers literally wearing the food they're offering to the guests. But it becomes even funnier upon looking at the comic Gary Larson sketched right next to the finished one, which shows a porcupine with a sausage wiener stuck to his back - a comic Larson actually liked more than the first one.

7 Porcupines Benefited from Robin Hood’s Misconception in The Far Side

Robin Hood's Quilly Mistake

The valiant vigilante Robin Hood bends down on one knee in front of a couple of porcupines, offering them a sack of riches he just stole from the wealthy. Stealing from the rich and giving those riches to the needy is kind of Robin Hood's MO, but the sight of him giving a bag of gold to a bunch of porcupines is decidedly strange.

Robin Hood is supposed to steal from the rich and give to the poor, but during his early adventures, he was stealing from the rich and giving to the porcupines. This wordplay is downright silly, but the porcupines in this area certainly benefited from Robin Hood's misconception in The Far Side.

6 Porcupines Can Still Have Fun with Balloons in The Far Side (Even If It’s Fleeting)

A Prickly Pair

Porcupine parents are sitting on their couch, reading a book and a newspaper respectively, while their child plays with a balloon on the floor in front of them. The dad looks up from his newspaper to see his child with their balloon, and he says, "Well this shouldn't last too long". Obviously, balloons and porcupines don't mix, as their quills will pop a balloon while the porcupine is playing with it. However, just because it is fleeting, doesn't mean playing with a balloon isn't fun for a porcupine.

The funniest part of this comic is actually what isn't shown, but what will happen immediately after the balloon pops in this child's face. It doesn't seem as though the kid knows their quills will be a problem, but their parents certainly know, and they're hilariously preparing for that fallout.

5 The Far Side Proves Porcupines Don’t Have to Worry About 1 Thing: Being ‘Food on a Stick’

Nature's Ultimate Bodyguards

A caveman has decided to open up his own small business, selling porcupines as food on a stick to other cavemen in his community. Readers can see that the caveman entrepreneur has already had at least one customer, but they don't seem very satisfied, as the porcupine he's trying to eat has hit him in the face with a number of its quills in self-defense. As the caption reveals, this setback is just an example of "early business failures", and the salesman-caveman will have to pivot to another 'food on a stick' if he hopes to stay in business.

While the visual of a caveman trying to sell a porcupine on a stick as food is funny, it's also absurdly hilarious that anyone thought this would be a good idea to begin with - even if he is a caveman.

4 Porcupines Aren’t Immune to The Far Side’s Famous Absurd Humor

It's a Prickly Business

A group of people who are clearly porcupine fanatics have gathered together for some kind of event where each of them shows off their very own porcupine. There's even a porcupine photo on the wall behind them, further hammering home how obsessed these people clearly are with porcupines. However, there's one person in the group who seems to be a fraud, as he brought an inflatable porcupine instead of a real one, and one of the other actual porcupines popped it right in front of everyone.

Everything about this comic is utterly absurd. From the idea that there are so many people obsessed with porcupines to the point where they'd have a party celebrating them, to the fact that someone would go out of their way to be a fraud among such people - but it's this level of absurdity that makes The Far Side so hilarious.

3 Porcupines Have ‘Quill-Care’ Routines in The Far Side

Quills & Relaxation

A porcupine goes to the home of another porcupine with flowers in his hand, picking her up for their date. However, the porcupine is a bit early, and his date isn't quite ready yet. She's annoyed with her date for being early, as he didn't give her enough time to finish her 'quill-care' routine, which is made clear by the 'quill-curlers' that are still in her quills as she's answering the door.

This scene depicting a guy messing up his date before it even begins is a classic comedic scenario. However, what's decidedly unique is the idea that a porcupine would have a 'quill-care' routine at all, let alone one that could be interrupted by a guy who clearly needs to get a watch. Plus, is this porcupine trying to curl her quills? Ridiculous (in the funniest way).

2 The Far Side Continues to Prove Why People Should NOT Eat Porcupines

Why You Should Never Eat a Porcupine

A team of surgeons is operating on a patient who's lying unconscious on the operating table. Once the surgeons had cut the patient open, they found that the cause of this person's pain was a live porcupine in their stomach. This person seemingly ate a porcupine, and the animal's quills were poking them from the inside, causing severe pain.

Not only is this Far Side comic hilarious on its own, but it also seems to be something of a sequel to the caveman comic. Humans learned thousands of years ago that eating live porcupines was not the smartest thing to do (which is why the caveman's business was in trouble). But, it seems this person didn't learn from the past, and is a modern-day example of why people should not eat porcupines.

1 Even Porcupines Go Through a ‘Punk Phase’ in The Far Side

A Prickly Rebellion

Three porcupines are standing together in the woods, and all three of them have one thing in common (other than the fact that they're all porcupines): they're punkers. Rather than conforming to the common appearance of a porcupine, these porcupines have shaved-off quills from sections of their bodies to give them a more 'punky' aesthetic. Mohawks on their heads, spikes down their backs, and splayed quills on their tails allow these porcupines to stand out from the crowd as "punk porcupines".

Most people know someone who has gone through a 'punk phase' (if they haven't gone through that phase themselves), and it seems the same is true for porcupines in The Far Side - proving that porcupines are the best animals out there.