Why The Far Side's "Dog With Gun" Comic (And Its "Sequel") Illustrate Gary Larson's Favorite "Animals Turning the Tables On Humans" Trope Better Than Any Other

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Widely considered among The Far Side's most iconic cartoons, "Dog With Gun" also perfectly encapsulates one of Gary Larson's go-to tropes for his comic strip: punchlines featuring animals, especially pets, turning the tables on humans. This perennial premise appeared time and again throughout The Far Side's run, but perhaps no other panel illustrated it more aptly than "Dog With Gun."

The beauty of The Far Side was the way Larson could return to the same joke in drastically different ways, sometimes weeks apart, and sometimes years; in a sense, "animals vs. humans" is an entire category of Far Side cartoons, and a subcategory within that involves animals subverting their usual dynamics with humans.

Naturally, dogs and cats were Larson's most effective animal characters for achieving this punchline, because those were the animals whose behaviors his readers were most likely to be familiar with.

The Far Side's "Dog With Gun" Comic, Explained (Why It Stands As One Of Gary Larson's Funniest)

First Published: June 3, 1987

Far Side, dog points a gun at its owner and says it is through begging

Far Side comics that stick with readers usually fall on two opposite sides of the comic's spectrum of confusion – that is, either they are incredibly hard to decipher, or incredibly simple. "Dog With Gun" is one of the latter; its humor, both at the level of the image, and the caption, are immediately clear, and stand a strong chance of connecting with readers, because of the comic's skillful inversion of familiar subject matter. What's more, readers can even imagine themselves in the human characters' shoes, something that was not always the case with The Far Side.

Most dog owners would be hard-pressed to picture their beloved pet suddenly pointing a pistol at them without bursting out laughing...here, Larson captures that fanciful passing thought in expert Far Side fashion.

In "Dog With Gun," a canine points a pistol at its owners as they eat dinner, the dog bearing its teeth and sternly telling the man of the house, "h ey Bucko...I'm through begging," leaving the man to process this drastic turn of events with his mouth still full of food. Part of what makes the cartoon so funny is this sense of escalation – without any further context for this moment, readers can presume the dog has, up to this point, acted like an ordinary household pet.

The caption of "Dog With Gun" takes dogs' most ubiquitous behavior – begging for table scraps – and flips it to achieve a hilarious result, as the dog completely warps the power structure of the pet-owner dynamic by bringing a firearm to the table, literally. More than just clever, this joke is easy for readers to connect with; most dog owners would be hard-pressed to picture their beloved pet suddenly pointing a pistol at them without bursting out laughing at the thought, and here, Larson captures that fanciful passing thought in expert Far Side fashion.

Gary Larson Produced A "Sequel" To "Dog With Gun" – The Far Side's "Dog With Dynamite Vest" Comic, Explained

First Published: February 6, 1988

Far Side, February 6, 1988, a dog with dynamite strapped to its chest goads its abusive owner into kicking it again.

Since the inception of The Far Side, the "animals turn the tables on humans" concept had been a staple of Gary Larson's recurring jokes and elements, and so it is interesting to note that "Dog With Gun" was published in June 1987 – at what is, essentially, the exact midpoint of The Far Side's run. In a sense, Larson had worked up to this iteration of the joke over the course of years, and even he seemingly knew how great it was, because he returned to joke with a "sequel" of sorts a little over six months later.

"Dog With Dynamite Vest" is a "sequel" in the sense that it takes the premise of the original and escalates it even further; rather than a gun, this dog confronts his owner with dynamite strapped to its chest. While this panel is also funny, it also has a harder edge to it, which, it can be argued, undercuts the humor – at least in comparison to "Dog With Gun." "Dog With Dynamite Vest" also firmly casts the readers' sympathies with the dog, rather than the humans, further changing the tenor of the joke.

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Fans of the far side can't pass up this master collection of Gary Larson's finest work. Originally published in hardcover in 2003, this paperback set comes complete with a newly designed slipcase that will look great on any shelf. The Complete Far Side contains every Far Side cartoon ever published, which amounts to over 4,000, plus more than 1,100 that have never before appeared in a book and even some made after Larson retired.

That is, the humor of "Dog With Gun" is rooted in the pet dog driven to a breaking point by its desire for people food, and consequently wildly overreacting. In "Dog With Dynamite Vest," the owner is presented as abusive, with the dog's exhortation of "you want to kick me? Go ahead!" making it clear that it has been driven to this point of desperation by the cruel treatment it has endured. In a way, this makes the "story" of this Far Side panel more immersive, but possibly at the expense of getting a laugh.

The Far Side's Animals Were Justified When They Took On Humans – For The Most Part

There is one way that "Dog With Dynamite Vest" is more reflective of the core theme present in The Far Side's "animal vs. human" cartoons than even "Dog With Gun" is that matter of perspective. "Dog With Gun" makes the reader relate to its human characters, while "Dog With Dynamite Vest" does the opposite, which is much more in line with The Far Side's pro-animal underpinnings. More often than not, when animals attacked on The Far Side, humans were depicted as having brought it on themselves by abusing nature.

The Far Side's "animal vs. human" panels pointed out the excesses of humans' violent behavior towards other species; though it did this through humor, Gary Larson's critique was very real.

This wasn't always the case – in plenty of panels, human Far Side characters were doomed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and encountering the wrong predator. Generally, though, The Far Side's "animal vs. human" panels pointed out the excesses of humans' violent behavior towards other species; though it did this through humor, Gary Larson's critique was very real. "Dog With Gun" managed to balance this theme with a laugh-out-loud illustration and an equally funny caption, possibly better than any other Far Side panel of its kind.

"Dog With Gun" Stands-Out The Most, But So Many Of The Far Side's "Animal Vs. Humans" Comics Hold Up

Larson Nurtured This Recurring Joke For Years

The reasons "Dog With Gun" remains so memorable are fairly self-evident – it is, perhaps, the closest Gary Larson came to producing a true successor to "Dogs Playing Poker" with The Far Side, in an image that struck a pitch perfect equilibrium between the absurd and the familiar. Yet many of Larson's "animals vs. humans" cartoons achieved similarly effective, and hilarious, results; essentially, each of The Far Side's most common animals, from bears, to cows, to ducks, and more, have their own top "turning the tables" moment.

Far Side wide-eyed man (left, color) and Larson's

Over 40 Years Ago, The Far Side Revealed the "Real Reason Dinosaurs Became Extinct" (Why the Joke Hits Even Harder Today)

"Smoking Dinosaurs" ranks among The Far Side's most well-received cartoons, and in the decades since its release, it has only become more impactful.

Part of The Far Side's strength came from playing on things readers recognized, and over time, it was able to cultivate its own familiar set of elements and recurring signifiers. By the time "Dog With Gun" was published, regular readers of Gary Larson's strip would have recognized the set-up, and appreciated the punchline for how close to home it hit, at least for the many American newspaper readers with pet dogs. In this way, the panel is representative of The Far Side at its most successful, in one of its comics with the widest appeal.

The Far Side

The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.

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