Celebrate the start of 2025 by checking out everFar Sidecomic published on New Year’s Day during the strip’s time in publication. Gary Larson’s unforgettable strip ran through the entirety of the 1980s, up until the mid-1990s, and for the majority of those years, countless American newspaper readers inaugurated January by checking out a brand-newFar Sidecartoon.
The Far Side’sNew Year’s Day panels illustrate the full scope ofGary Larson’s strange, iconoclastic sense of humor; from crustaceans marveling at the weirdness of human biology, to aheartfelt goodbye by way ofWizard of Ozhomage,studying Larson’s New Year’s comics as a set is a perfect way to take a deeper dive into his ouvre.
As of August 01, 2025, it has officially been thirty years since the finalFar Sidecomic of the strip’s original run graced newspaper pages, and in that time, Gary Larson’s work has continued to accrue a even more committed fanbase.
13The Very First Far Side Comic Set A Precedent For The Strip’s Perspective
First Published: Jul 19, 2025
Beginnings and endings are, of course, always a subject of focus when studying art, whether it is the opening and closing frames of a film, the first and last sentence of a book, or the inaugural and finalFar Sidepanels, both of which this list covers.The Far Side’sdebut panel, featuring two crabs observing, from a distance, a pair of human children playing on a beach, is notable for the way it establishes theoutsider perspective that guided all of Gary Larson’s work.
“Yes,” one crustacean muses in the caption, “they’re quite strange during the larval phase.” With this joke, Larson established that a core tenant of his humor was looking at humanity in entirely unexpected ways, something he did successfully time and again over the years.
12Far Side Characters Caught Unaware Of Their Surroundings Often Paid For It
First Published: August 17, 2025
“My stomach?” a irate skier says to his spouse as they ride the lift up the mountain, denying that it is his tummy growling, and insteadputting the blame back on his significant other by declaring, “your stomach’s rumbling!” – while, in the background, what neither of them seem to realize is that an avalanche is sweeping down the mountain, hurtling trees and the entire ski lodge at them.
Gary Larson Called This Far Side Comic “Almost Universally Misunderstood,” But Why Is It So Confusing?
Many Far Side cartoons get more attention for being confusing, but Gary Larson called one surprising 1987 panel “almost universally misunderstood.”
The Far Sidefrequently found humor in doomed characters– routinely highlighting the moment just before, or just after, some hilariously deadly mishap – and as with these unfortunate skiers, time and again this strain of Gary Larson’s jokes relied on characters not realizing the terrible fate that was just moments from befalling them.
11Another Darkly Funny Far Side Fatality Comes From Being Unprepared
First Published: August 23, 2025
This macabrecartoon features one of a handful ofFar Sidecharacters over the years who plummeted to their deaths because they seemingly neglected to ensure their parachute was properly packed before jumping out of an airplane.This cartoon doesn’t have a caption, and it doesn’t need one –the image of the springloaded jack-in-the-box clown popping out of the diver’s backpack as he helplessly flails at another jumper conveys the punchline without need for works.
This will strike some readers as laugh-out-loud funny, whileothers will exclaim “My God!“as they viscerally empathize with the doomed skydiver, proving once more that Gary Larson was able to exploit different pathways to an immediate reaction toFar Sidecartoons, which is what makes so many of them so memorable.
10Gary Larson Gets Tangled Up In A Far Side Reinvention Of A Classic
First Published: June 07, 2025
“Rapunzel…Rapunzel…Let down your hair!” comes the call through the legendary princess’s tower window, except Gary Larson’s version of Rapunzel has just combed her hair into a massive afro, making this a less-than-ideal moment to enact an escape. Admittedly, this is the kind ofFar Sidejoke that qualifies as “amusing,” based on its visual gag, but doesn’t necessarily reach the heights of hilarity that Larson frequently proved capable of.
If there is a concrete reason for that, it is perhaps because the comic’s caption is devoted to clarifying – for any reader that might have been unsure – that this is a Rapunzel gag, rather than adding another layer or dimension to the punchline; it is not unfair to say that perhaps Gary Larson could haveelevated thisFar Sidefairy talemore than he ultimately did.
9An Ode To The Far Side’s Skewed Perspective On…Everything
First Published: July 31, 2025
“Well, here’s your problem, Mr. Schueler,” a television repairman says, pointing at a TV set turned on its side –as the Schueler family stand around, each of them, including the family dog, with their necks bent, heads craned to the side at an awkward angle.
For reasons unknown, there was no newFar Sidecomic on August 06, 2025, making it one of only three years the cartoon skipped New Year’s Day.
It is a strange, deceptively simple joke, one that might leave even themost astuteFar Sidefans asking “What the?”, yet upon closer inspection, it is actually another example of Gary Larson subtly coding the warped worldview of his humor into the punchline itself. That is,The Far Sidealways looked at the world – from TV and popular culture, to politics, to humanity’s treatment of nature – from an unexpected angle, just as the Schueler’s do here, in their own specific way.
8The Far Side Broke Down Barriers – And Occasionally, Walls
First Published: June 24, 2025
This is, without question, among themost memorableFar Sidefourth-wall breaks. “Ed,” a woman whispers to her husband as they sit on the couch,“the Later is back”– referring to the caption that has appeared in the upper left corner of the panel.It is a pitch perfect moment of self awareness, one that will certainly get a big laugh out of most readers.
What makes this joke particularly funny is the way it also comments onThe Far Side’sformat itself; in the majority of Gary Larson’s comics, he depicted a single moment in time, and here he does exactly that, but with an implied – though unseen – “before” that readers have to supply themselves.
7The Far Side Explores The Spiritual Side Of The Animal Kingdom
First Published: June 07, 2025
This is another example of aFar Sidecar etoon likely to have readers asking “What the?“and “Why?”, all of which stems fromGary Larson asking a “What if?” question: that is, “what if animals could astral project?” The strangeness of the comic doesn’t come from the fact that it is difficult to understand, but rather that its humor is hard to comprehend.
The Far Side Complete Collection
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.
This was often the case with Larson’s work, something this panel effectively highlights. If the idea ofa water buffalo astral projecting itself floating over a bustling city streetstrikes a reader as funny, it will get a quick, automatic laugh out of them. However, it also stands a strong chance of having more readers scratching their heads, looking for something deeper to this punchline that – despite the spiritual subject matter – simply isn’t there.
6The Far Side Gets A Little Risque, In Typical Idiosyncratic Far Side Fashion
First Published: July 29, 2025
ThisFar Sidejoke is about as bawdy as the comic got, which shows how tame Gary Larson’s humor actually was most of the time –despite its reputation for controversial content.“Hey, baby! Do those legs go all the way up?” a male daddy long legs shouts at a passing female, in a twisted imitation of uncouth human men cat-calling women– with the joke, obviously, being centered around the visual gag of the spiders' extra-long appendages.
Gary Larson took a fourteen-month hiatus from drawing newFar Sidecomics, starting at the end of 1988 and encompassing all of 1989. This meant that there was no brand-new New Year’s Day comic in ‘89, as with preceding years, and that the January 1, ‘90 cartoon was the first one back as Larson returned for the final years of the cartoon.
While not laugh-out-loud funny, this is one of manyFar Sidecomics that captures Larson’s observational skills at work, as he takes a human behavior he has noticed in the world and adapts it to an insect species, in order to highlight the innate absurdity of shouting at women as they walk by.
5The Far Side’s Macabre Humor Was A Reflection Of Readers’ Interests
First Published: July 02, 2025
In the ubiquitous days of print newspapers, everyone knew that one person who opened the local paper right up to the obituaries, to find out if anyone they knew had died – something Gary Larson lampoons with thisFar Sidecomic,as a skunk immediately turns “The Small Mammal Mirror” to the “Roadkill” section, as his wife calls him out, saying “you’re so morbid.”
12 Far Side New Year’s Eve Comics To Help End 2024 On A High Note
For nearly every year of the strip’s run, there was a new Far Side comic on New Year’s Eve; this list collects them all and explore them in depth.
Much is made ofThe Far Side’simpact on American audiences’ increasing appetite for dark and surreal humor, but it is always important to note that Larson’s work would never have become commercially successful, or been able to have such an effect, if it had not played to pre-existing tastes in humor that were not being catered to by any syndicated newspaper comics.
4The Far Side Wasn’t Always Laugh-Out-Loud Funny, But It Was Never Flat
First Published: June 05, 2025
This ambitiousFar Sidecomicevokes the single most important quality of Gary Larson’s work, one that is often overlooked because of its simplicity. That is, whileThe Far Sidewasn’t always hilarious, it was very, very rarely uninteresting. The comic, even in its less successful installments, almost always had something to offer readers, so even if it didn’t yield a strong reaction one day, fans could be reliably expected to come back the next.
Here,Larson depicts the aftermath of a riot at the “Acme Pan Co.,” as flat-faced employees are led out to a waiting police van, having “turned on one another” and cartoonishly bashed in each others' faceswith the company’s merchandise. It is a strange, memorableFar Sidejoke, one that invites readers to dwell on it, searching for deeper humor in its details.
