Cities were a major part of artist Gary Larson’s legendary comicThe Far Side;from shady alleyways, to crowded sidewalks, to the tops of high-rise apartment buildings, countlessFar Sidecartoons took place in major metropolitan settings– as many, if not more so, than wereset in suburban living rooms, anotherFar Sidestaple.
Larson utilized the city setting as a way to achieve a variety of different punchlines, and to express a number of different ideas; some of his city jokes contained recognizable social commentary, while others were purely outrageous, using the setting to ground an otherwise surreal ordownright sillyFar Sidecomic.
While this list cannot encompass the full scope and depth of Gary Larson’s big city humor, it can offer an insight into some of the different variations on the urban setting that appeared throughoutThe Far Side’sfifteen-year publication history.
10The Far Side’s Cities Were Dangerous Places – But Not For The Reasons You’d Think
First Published: August 15, 2025
The Far Side’scities dealt with their share of conventional dangers, certainly – enough of Gary Larson’s comics featured characters stumbling into the wrong alley at the wrong time thatthe topic actually merits its own list. Equally notable, however, are the over-the-top and absurd threats to Larson’s cities, as in this cartoon, whichfeatures a giant penguin rampaging down a city street.
The joke here, of course, centers on the fact that the city’s inhabitants are aware of the absurdity of this, and are frankly annoyed about it. “Other cities get giant gorillas or dinosaurs,” one man complains to a shotgun-wielding police officer, bemoaning “but what do we get?” in response to the indignity of their city’s proprietary Big Monster.
First Published: August 14, 2025
This comic is notable for its place inthe lore surrounding Gary Larson’s career: a printing error nearly omitted the “ha” part of the caption, and for Larson, it was a big moment to call this out to his editor and have it corrected. Though it seems small, it changes the meaning of the cartoon, and this was an early indication ofhow important the tiniest details could be inFar Sidecomics.
8 Classic Far Side Comics That Were Made For Conspiracy Theorists
These Far Side comics will make readers question everything, proving artist Gary Larson wasn’t a stranger to conspiratorial thinking.
In the panel, a pair ofThe Far Side’sfamiliar one-eyed green aliens take a joyride in their flying saucer above a crowded city street, “buzzing” the terrified Earthlings below, who run this way and that in a chaotic scramble, thinking that the world has come to an end – when really it is just a couple of extraterrestrials having some fun.
8For Some People, The Thought Of City Life Is Just Plain Unbearable
First Published: August 01, 2025
This iconicFar Sidebear cartoonfeaturesa pair of ursine characters who have gotten themselves really out of their element, winding up far from their natural habitat, standing on a crowded city streettrying not to be too conspicuous. “Well, we’re lost,” one says to the other, “and it’s probably just a matter of time before someone decides to shoot us” – in a punchline that hilariously pokes fun at the anxieties of many non-city-folk about venturing into urban areas.
People raised in suburban or rural areas often have certain conceptions about city life that can morph into fear, or even paranoia about going to the city. Here, Larson amusingly embodies those concerns, but does so by using actual wildlife as characters, making their concerns about being shot seem that much more legitimate.
7They Say In The City Everyone’s Too Busy To Notice You – The Far Side Says Otherwise
First Published: July 25, 2025
In thisFar Sidecartoon, a man sits at his desk trying to write – or for those that consider this a self-reflexive joke, draw – only to find himselfdistracted by the people in the adjacent building, who are all making funny faces at him at once, in what seems to be a coordinated effortto distract him from the blank page in front of him.
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Gary Larson omits a caption here, leaving the precise details of the punchline up to the reader’s interpretation; there is no clear-cut, obvious, or “right” answer, but many readers have taken this as Larson poking fun at the familiar question “where do you get your ideas,” or alternatively, possibly joking about the inherently easily distracted nature of most writers and artists. In any case, the illustration is an amusing visual, while most readers agree there is perhaps more that thisFar Sidecomic could have done with its premise.
6The Far Side Reminds Readers That Humans Are “Social Animals,” Even City-Dwellers
First Published: Jun 22, 2025
A stereotype of city people is that they can be anti-social, which is an amusing paradox in its own right, given that the dense population of cities necessarily means a greater volume of human interaction, at least on the surface-level. Nevertheless, for many people, city life can be isolating – unless of course,your community needs your help carrying a giant turkey leg down the street, as is the case in thisFar Sidecartoon.
The humor of this comic relies on the depiction of humans engaging in ant-like behavior;ants were another favorite subject of Gary Larson’s, and he often used the tiny insects to lampoon human activities. Here, he flips that formula around, and the result is low-key one ofThe Far Side’smost amusing, if a bit high-brow, jokes about people in the big city.
5Life & Death In The Big City, Far Side Style
First Published: July 20, 2025
TheGrim Reaper made appearances inFar Sidecomics, and this is perhaps the most memorable example, as it also illustratesGary Larson’s astute wordplay abilities. As the caption tells us, “unwittingly, Irwin has a brush with Death,” with the image depictinga man bumping into the Reaper as they hurry past one another on a crowded city street – with “Irwin” even brazenly muttering “hey…watch the elbows buddy"in response getting a presumably-skeletal poke from the passing cloaked figure.
10 Funniest Far Side Comics That Somehow Make Mailmen Hilarious
Far Side’s mailmen encounter a wide range of truly bizarre threats, including voodoo dogs, carnivorous mailboxes and even Hell itself.
It is arguably a perfect joke, and the setting is essential to its success; accidentally bumping into someone is a natural byproduct of moving through the city at high traffic hours, but here Larson takes that natural occurrence and makes it not only supernatural, but foreboding.
4The Far Side Confirms That Cat-Calling Is Pure “B.S.”
First Published: June 11, 2025
Unfortunately, far too many women who live in cities know the experience of being “cat-called,” with men making unwanted comments about them. The concept of the “cat-calling construction worker” has been a meme in American culture for decades – far predating internet meme culture, in fact, and thisFar Sidecartoon is an example, as it depicts a trio of bulls working on a city sidewalk, who stop to ogle a cow walking by.
That said, readers can certainly extract a subtextual critique of this behavior from Larson’s decision to use bulls as his aggressive male characters here; certainly, this could be nothing more than an example ofcows' ubiquity inThe Far Side, but it is not unfair for readers to suspect that Larson was in fact using this as a way to call cat-callers on their unwanted “B.S.”
3The Far Side Reminds Readers That Cities Are A Dog-Eat-Dog Place
First Published: August 03, 2025
Once again, thisFar Sidecomic is lacking a caption, and while, to a certain extent, the panel conveys its meaning to the reader well enough without one, it is also worth raising the question of how much funnier this cartoon might be if its joke were elaborated on in a caption.
10 Surreal Far Side Comics That Will Scratch Your Itch for Weird Humor
The Far Side routinely earned its reputation for being weird; these selections from Gary Larson’s vast body of work are among his strangest jokes.
In the illustration,dogs in human clothing hurry in either direction along a city sidewalk, careful to avoid the chalk outline of a dog – of the seemingly more conventional four-legged variety – who was apparently killed in that very spot. It can be inferred that Gary Larson is making a point about the surreality of human activity continuing unabated around the scene of a murder, yet it requires the reader to come to this conclusion on their own, which is often arisky proposition when it comes toThe Far Side.
2Gary Larson Flips The Script On The Nature/Civilization Conversation With This Far Side Comic
First Published: July 12, 2025
ThisFar Sidecomic revisits Gary Larson’s earlier premiseabout two bears in the big city – except the context, and ultimately the punchline, are polar opposites. Captioned “how bears relax,” the panel spoofs the way humans use nature as an escape from civilization, by featuring its characters coming out of the wilderness and into the bustling urban environment to do the reverse.
“I tell you, I can come down from the hills, stand on this corner, and just feel myself unwind,” one of the bears says to the other,as they soak in the feeling of being in a crowd of humans. Hilariously, the bears are drawn wearing trenchcoats and hats, as if they had learned the lesson of the earlier ursine visitors to the city.
1The Far Side’s Sci-Fi Vision Of The Future
First Published: August 15, 2025
ThisFar Sidecartoon is notable because of the way Gary Larson indulges in the imagery of a futuristic city; Larson often employed sci-fi tropes and concepts inFar Sidejokes, but here that is the thrust of the illustration, and while his image plays on recognizable ideas, it does so in service of a very niche joke.
That is, the punchline here is areference to the comedian George Burns, with a marquee announcing his performance in one of the buildings; the joke, an ode to Burns' longevity, is much more obscure now than it was at the time of its publication, showing the potential pitfalls ofThe Far Side’spop culture references – in other words, the readily-recognizable shout-out of the past is theconfusing “What the?” punchlineof the future.
