On The Far Side
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- Опубліковано 8 лип 2018
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In this video:
For 15 years, Gary Larson took millions of readers over to the “Far Side.” Using anamorphic animals, chubby teenagers, universal emotions, a simple drawing style and a really bizarre, morbid sense of humor, The Far Side became one of the most successful - and praised - comic strips of all time.
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Sources:
www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/nov...
www.salon.com/1999/12/21/lars...
books.google.com/books?id=93D...
www.portmann.com/farside/index...
www.nytimes.com/1998/04/28/sc...
books.google.com/books?id=n5e...
articles.latimes.com/1996-10-0...
content.time.com/time/magazine...
www.nndb.com/people/281/000022...
www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...
www.scpr.org/blogs/offramp/20...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature%...
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Speaking of comic strip creators that very suddenly disappeared from the spot light, What Ever Happened to the Creator of Calvin and Hobbes: ua-cam.com/video/ZwMn9VMOBmQ/v-deo.html
I have a framed copy of his jane goodall tramp comic SIGNED by jane goodall! Dr Goodall told me they have been good friends over the years and even spent time in the wild together! I think that cartoon, plus the one with the poodle being called into the barricaded doggy door were his most controversial over the years. Great video!
Loved that one too thanks!
This is the best video series ever.
I had a feeling that this was related to you C&H video!
Today I Found Out
The fact that the writer considers daily desk calendars to be like literally printing money every year. Is exactly the kind of cynical bold-faced "I really give exactly zero s****," I would expect from the writer of Far Side.
It's nice to know that there's at least one celebrity who doesn't disappoint ;)
I proofread his books at the printing company when they were first published in early 1980’s.... I couldn’t stop laughing, he’s a genius!
Lucky!
that's a bit like a Far Side joke in itself
Far Side proof reader laughs himself to death
@@sprintershepherd4359 lol that’s a good one!
Damn I was hoping proofread was two words :-P .... It does look a little weird though.
@@NZWarriors1995 Don't feel bad, I imagine it's tough to catch a proofreader making a mistake. At least one who was good at their job.
I always loved the one where a polar bear is eating an igloo and says "I love these things. Crunchy on the outside, chewey in the middle."
That is one of my favorite comics too.
My all time favorite is the bear with two human skulls the cubs . Tell us the story again. " Ralph do you think there is a bear in that cave"
I love the one where two bears are looking at some campers in sleeping bags. Hey look, sandwiches!
Similarly, a smiling Gator on a riverbank, pith helmet & glasses floating by, ....
No horns, no hooves, no claws, just pink & tasty
I love you sir . Funny how you meet fans and after all these years we can name at lest 20 of our favorites cartoons he wrote
Gary Larson-my favorite comic artist. I’m grateful for his unique sense of humor and how much joy he brought to so many lives. I had no idea anyone had ever objected to his comics. Must be very miserable people.
The FAR Side is simply THE BEST cartoon ever drawn by man!!! Utter brilliance!!!
Much as I grieved the end of Far Side and do still miss it, I've always admired the decision to end the cartoon rather than have it slide into mediocrity or rehashed themes. Hearing that Larson's decision was at least in part a response to looming burn out is more admirable yet.
*coughs*
"Garfield"
@@evan1911 Davis hasn’t draw or Written Garfield since 1999.
@@plawson8577 maybe not. But the rights had been sold off since then and it's gone on looooong past it's due time
@@plawson8577 and yet the comic strip continues to this day, the writing being achieved by an online random garfield generator, widely held to be funnier than the strips Davis himself wrote.
@@plawson8577 He does still write them, and still holds 'creative control', it's the drawing that is done by others now.
I love Gary Larson even more knowing that some people are actually upset by his drawings.
Everyone from religious conservatives to Carl Segan (for the caveman being stomped by dino bit).
Millennials didn't invent being offended. They just took it to the next level.
Like the religious guy offended by the "Appliance Faith Healers" comic because he believed faith healers were legitimate and Far Side was making fun of them.
I love that he based his entire worldview on the sense of humor of himself and six friends.
Some people are upset by ANYTHING these days .... which is simply beyond parody.
Impolite as they were, the other bears could never help staring at Larry's enormous deer gut.
And with a crash, Bessy's barnyard adventure came to an end.
One of my favourites is the time the Far Side took us to the Pet Store: among the various animals depicted, Larson drew a piranha merrily hanging out in a fish bowl… and a cat with two prosthetic front legs. 🤣
And I couldn’t help chuckling again…
And the sullen expression on the cat’s face 😂
As a kid, my dad introduced me to two comic series: “The Far Side” and “Calvin and Hobbes.” I love them both and own compilation books.
my dad did that too! it probably shaped my humor lol
Same, both had great impacts on my childhood
And despite weighing more than my cat, I still treasure both of them.
I had them and all the Bloom
County
Berkeley Breathed sucked a ss
I love the backlash one of his comics received when it had a female chimpanzee finding a blond hair on the male and accused him of spending time with "... that Jane Goodall tramp" doing research.
Despite the public backlash, Goodall actually loved the cartoon and it was used on a t-shirt for one of the many charities she is associated with.
Even more than that, Goodall's press people were amongst the people getting angry… until they found out that their boss, i.e. Goodall, loved it.
I remember that one.
The Far Side always seemed to be viewed by (at least most) scientists as coming from "one of us". I'm not sure exactly why or how, but they never felt like someone from the outside poking fun at, much less attacking/vilifying, scientists. We do get an awful lot of that (the incompetent or evil scientist are very common tropes), but I don't know anyone in the sciences who ever felt Larson was doing that for some reason. :)
I think their ire was specifically because the female chimp referred to Goodall as "that Jane Goodall tramp." LOL
Some people just have no sense of humor. Happy to know Jane does ;-)
Good reminder that the times we are living in are the times we lived in...
I was a genuine electrical engineer, and I checked daily to see if Larson had lampooned my profession, and by extension me, in one of his cartoons. I can tell you that ALL of my associates and I were the ones who laughed hardest and loudest. Good lord, if you can't laugh at yourself, then you have a few loose screws in your skull.
I really like that Thagomizer is now in the lexicon of paleontologists
That was a classy & endearing move.
#NeverForgetThagSimmons
I would think Larson would take that as the highest honor.
@@keirfarnum6811 he had a parasitic insect named after him, too.
@@xenxander according to Wikipedia: The Strigiphilus garylarsoni is a chewing louse[1] of a genus found only on owls.
Like most, I was disappointed when Gary Larson retired BUT the idea that he is living a quiet life, doing things he loves, playing his jazz and avoiding attention makes me very happy.
He posted a website last year or there abouts.
What made Larson great was his comics were actually funny, which can't be said of the majority of newspaper comics.
yeah, comics like Far Side and Cathy are few and far in between
The Far Side’s hit to miss ratio was way better than any other comic in history.
I loved reading the comics page growing up but so much of it is stale and repetitive. They need to bring in new artists and let all that old stuff go.
@@gnosticelk8193 You really put those two in the same sentence....
Agreed
I love the one where two deer were talking to each other and one says to the other(who had a target on his side),,,"bummer of a birth mark, Ralph".
I’m pretty sure his name was Hal... not Ralph. My favorite!
@@bubbalandbeau9872 Yep. Hal is how I remember it as well.
Hal! I have said this to myself at least once a month since that comic came out. My favorite (I have the mug) is What we say vs what dogs hear.
hal.. and the target is on his chest.. just sayin
Sorry. But they are right. It’s Hal.
Welcome to Heaven, here is your harp. Welcome to hell, here is your accordion.
I LOVE the Far Side.
I used to play the accordion.... hahaha
"A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the accordion and doesn't"
I think Al Yankovic might take umbrage to that... but he'd probably still laugh.
omg, me too! even more than Calvin & Hobbes. Just the ones in this video had me LMAO! **reminds self to get something Far Sidey**
@UCmkugEVBeyjw06FeSl45grA yep me to , after my calendar ran out of date I cut the pictures/comic out and put them on my wall , yes I was THAT KID lol , need more material 😁
"The Arnolds feigned death until the Wagners, sensing awkwardness, were compelled to leave."
I laughed until I was nearly sick at that one.
Yessss!
As a college freshman in 1986, another girl in my dorm had just gotten her page-a-day Far Side calendar. A bunch of us sat around pulling off each page and reading and describing each page's comic. We tried to stop so she would have a calendar, but it was too hard to stop. There was one that almost killed us and that I and my best friend (who I met that year at college) still laugh about to this day. It was the one with a bunch of lions after a kill... and one says something like, "Remember the time after a kill when you laughed so hard an antler came out your nose?" You'd have thought we were high, stupid, and drunk the way we laughed non-stop with that one. How many other comics have such lasting effect, 35 years later? Larson was a genius.
Brilliant! 😂
I still laugh at the cow poetry one. The first part goes something like "The hills call to me with their green grass." But the end of the poem is "Damn the electric fence! Damn the electric fence!" 😂
I remember that lion cartoon and it made me laugh so hard (alas, no antler came out of my nose). That was an awesome one! ❤
Yes! That’s how clever they were. 😸
2923....
😂😂😂😂👍🏽😅
Two polar bears tearing up an igloo---I love these things, crunchy on the outside chewy in the middle.
My absolute favorite!!! I even had the coffee mug with that cartoon on it. Alas, it got broken many years ago.
@@gwynyvyr I have an old FS mug that has 3 goldfish standing outside their fish bowl. There is fire burning up their home in the fish bowl. The one fish says to the others, "Well thank God we all made it out in time ...course now we are equally screwed" I just love it. I have all his books, used to buy yearly desk calendars too. I miss Larson.
two spiders have streched a web across the bottom of a playground slide,,,the caption reads "If we pull this off we will eat like kings!"
My favourite!
This cartoon was the first one to ever make me laugh out loud. I laughed for hours. It's effing brilliant.
We had that on the wall at XCOR where we were trying to build a suborbital space plane, and eventually orbital launch systems. Alas, we never did eat like kings- but I did get to fly six times on a rocket plane.
@@r0cketplumber
That is incredible!
How did anyone ever complain about bad taste? 🤨
The world was a better place when Farside made us chuckle everyday. We were lucky to have had the art and humor of Gary Larson at that time . Brilliant simplicity..
Hitting a dog on the way to a job interview for an animal cruelty inspector position is about the most _Far Side_ real-life scenario I've ever heard. I laughed way too hard at that.
"The Far Side", "Calvin & Hobbes" & Monty Python, all major influences in my life. No wonder I laugh at the absurdity of life and see humor in situations others take as serious.
Those were your major influences? You are NOW BEING SURROUNDED BY THE FBI!...COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!...AND YOUR FLY DOWN!.....actually...that's optional.😕
Same
Gotcha!
How about the "old" MAD magazine?!!? It was also absolutely awesome back in the day! Why don't we have anything like this today? No one has a wicked sense of humor anymore? I loved the one where a rather obese lady is standing with her back to us and is calling out "Fluffy? Fluffy, come to Mama! Where are you, Sweetie?" We see a doggy lodged between her butt cheeks with its eyes & tongue stuck out & appears to be squished on the back of her capris, dead, I believe... That comic KILLED me!!! 😂🤣😅😁😜🤣😅😁 I really liked The Far Side. It was a big part of what made the 1970s so cool!
Same!
"Of course I killed him in cold blood. I"m a reptile."
Yeah: crocodile in court. Genius!
technically, if the guy killed was in cold blood, it would more likely be a sign he was a reptile...
I'm from the UK but was visiting family friends in Chicago in 1990 at 17 and the father introduced me to Larson in a bookshop.
I literally cried with laughter there and then.
Love his work on so many levels.
Wish him well.
Did his work ever translate over to the UK?
@@ryangossett8211 Of course it did not require translation. They speak English in the UK.
‘Simultaneously all three went for the ball, and the coconut-like sound of their heads colliding secretly delighted the bird. ‘
This was the cartoon inside my high-school locker in 1983. :)
I'll never forget the image of one dog left in the yard as the other pulls away in a car, yelling from the back seat, "ha ha I'm going to get tutored!"
That's the first of his cartoons that comes to mind anytime we discuss the Far Side!
SagerMan67 😂👍
I had to think for a second, then I'm LOLing!
my favorite was always the door to the "School for the Mentally Gifted" where the student is leaning with all his might trying to open the door that says "PULL"
The one that I immediately think of is the one where the cows are in the field standing around chatting until one shouts 'A CAR'S COMING!'
Luposlipaphobia: The fear of being chased around the kitchen table by timber wolves while wearing socks on a freshly waxed floor.
Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.
Charles, I was wondering if I would see this one in the comments. It's still brought up round the dinner table when I visit my parents for the holidays! My family's favorite.
I love how there are actual, stupidly weird medical conditions that only exist because of his comics!
Charles Jones omgosh!! Hilarious
Datapod growing up with animals, that made me laugh then/still does.
As a medical malpractice underwriter in the '80s, I loved the one with the patient on the operating table saying to the surgeon, "Leave a sponge in me, I can use the money."😄
There should be a dating website that separates out those who like Far Side & those who don't. Would make matchmaking so much simpler.
Mention in your profile.
I would subscribe!
My ex wouldn’t even smile. GOD was practically SHOUTING, ‘HE’S NOT THE ONE!’ I don’t even think he got the cow one
My fave is, the sign in the front yard that says "Beware of Doug" and the boy is peeking out from behind the tree.
I think my favorite is the airline pilot saying to his co-pilot "Say, what's a mountain goat doing up here in a cloud bank?"
Mine will always be the one of a man stepping out of his bed in the morning, looking at a massive sign on his wall that reads "Pants first, THEN your shoes." I've had an 8x11 sign saying the same thing pinned to the inside of my armoire for years! Second favorite is the silhouette of a snake on a cliff in the desert, hissing at the moon like a wolf would howl. Bless this man for the 30 seconds of joy he gave us every day.
Yes, and as someone named Doug myself, I wasn't sure if this was a compliment or an insult.
"That's not funny."
- Doug
I loved the "Beware of Doug" one, because I have a brother named Doug. Although, you didn't have to beware of him. He's nice.😂😂
I love the cat with 2 artificial paws sitting next to the piranha tank.
LMAO.
You never see it coming.
@HowieDoin That is my absolute favorite far side. Probably because of my hatred for cats.
They were peg legs, lol
@@e.jamesshepard7183 I like the cartoon cuz that's just the way my sense of humor runs. I sorta like cats. Their f...you attitude amuses me, more than aggravates me. I also like the bears that refer to the 2 hunters in their sleeping bags as sandwiches.
Mine is the couple in the car watching a family cross the street and the lady going, "Look, Roger! Nerds with some little nerdlings!"
I adore Gary Larson. And I admire him even more for stopping when he felt it was right. Live your own life, Gary. You earned it.
Not many people have caused so much joy and happiness as Gary Larson. Thank you.
Joy, happiness, and confusion.
@@ZlothZloth I was about to say Bewilderment!
I used to bag groceries for Gary Larson when I was a kid. He would come in about once a month and buy everything his family needed. He was one of my favorite customers even before I realized he was THE same Gary Larson from the Far Side. He was funny and just a bit off. He drove an early 80's beige Chevy truck and was just an all around cool guy.
Always good to hear that someone famous was just nice all around.
@Rebel N Trains Was this in Tacoma?
@Rebel N Trains On the Far Side of Narrows??
I read in a full volume of The Far Side where he talked about going to the grocery store wearing a Far Side shirt
Also I’ve been to Gig Harbor and it is delightful
Glad to hear he had a wide body chevy. Man of taste.
One of my favorite is where bunch of scientist are standing around a crooked rocket and one of them saying "Let's face it guys, we're not exactly rocket scientist"
I wonder if Elon has that one?
Don't be afraid of pluralization
Bird's eye view:
Bird in a tree looking down at people, cats, dogs, and cars - All with a Bullseye on top of them.
I lent a book of Far Side cartoons to my human evolution professor in college. He wrapped his arms around it and gasped in excitement like I’d just handed him over the skull of a newly discovered human ancestor. 😂
One of my favorite ones was the ark has a dozen holes in the side with the caption of: "the woodpekers have to go!"
I like the one where Noah who is looking rather pissed off. Is standing next to some big cats (lions, leopards etc.) who have just made a kill & says. *"Well so much for the unicorns! From now on all carnivores are restricted to deck C."*
The where a child is in front of a blown up chemistry set. His face obviously in the explosion.
“God as kid tries to make a chicken in his room.”
@@youtubeaccount5153 How about the God making Earth with 'Earth-quick' & saying as he takes it out of the oven. *"Something tells me this thing is half baked"* 🌎 🤣
One of my favs: handful of bruised and battered scientists standing around with one holding a boomerang and shouting, "we have got to figure out a means of disposing this hideous contraption"
@383mazda, That and the Scientists building a rocket out of a wagon with the caption, Well it's not rocket science
That's genius
Love it!
I got a birthday card once with a scientist working carefully on a bomb while another stands behind him, paper bag poised. Didn't need a caption!
LOL
I never saw that one
I loved Gary’s story of the callback from the SF Chronicle after he left his portfolio with the cartoon editor: “Is this Gary Larson?” “Yes...” “You’re SICK!!!” “I LOVE it!!!!” “Ah, okay....” ;-)
Gary is up there with XKCD for one-panel genius. The fact the Thagamiser was so named is one of my favourite moments in science.
Hilarious
This and Calvin and Hobbs were my 2 favorite comic strips
They are the best
yes, they were both incredibly genius
I came here after watching the Calvin and Hobbs episode.
Same
Me too
I'm a Texan, and I really enjoyed the circle of buzzards around a kill, and one is wearing a western hat saying; "Look fellas, I'm a cowboy. Howdy, howdy, howdy."
And the fact that they used that joke in Toy Story
Yes! My all time favourite!
I think I actually saw that one in the paper!
I love The Far Side, and love Larson even more knowing he was born and raised in my area! My mom was also born in Tacoma, WA. Miss his cartoons...favorite: Boy in schoolroom with tiny head raising his hand and saying, "May I be excused? My brain is full...."
My favorite also... especially as I've aged.
Tacoma, aka Pierce County, aka South Seattle. I thought Larson was born in Lynwood.
I was given a Far Side desk calendar in the 80’s. I still have the cartoons that I look at every once in a while. They never get old, and still make me laugh.
My favorite comic of all time. I want a herd of "Far Side Cow" cut-outs in my yard standing on their hind legs smoking cigs and drinking coffee with one yelling "CAR!"
I want that too, but with martinis.
Better one like that is ; The Real reason dinosaurs went extinct...
A friend left that comic on my drafting table... Clearly he was attempting to save my job 😏
that was my favorite one! only I think it should have been beer, instead of coffee. 😆
Being an old farm boy, I always thought that one to be a classic. As to other animals both domestic and wild around the farm, the dairy cows just seemed to be more laid back and having it together. I could just see them having a look out to warn them to act as expected when a human approached.
"May I be excused? My brain is full."
My personal favorite.
The "School for the Gifted" has been on my corkboard at work for years. Never fails to make me laugh.
I have that one on a Tshirt. Lol!
The Far Side, Calvin and Hobbs also Dilbert. The trilogy of satire.
Nailed it!
Chicago burns in the distance. One cow says to another cow, “It seems that agent 6373 has accomplished her mission.”
Classic 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Wouldn't that be hitting close to home nowadays...
Anatadaeiphobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.
lol doesn't even need a picture cartoon . its fun imagining a cartoon in the Larson style for yourself . go on try it :)
Far side gallery 2. Was the book this was in
Luposlipophobia: The fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table whilst wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
@@Matelot123 Love that cartoon.
Most of the scientists I know share Larsen’s sense of humour. Our main tutor in Zoology had his entire door plastered in Far Side panels, and there were quite a few up in the Biochemistry department of my first lab too. Along with my favourite medical Far Side knock off - a penguin couple anxiously visiting Dr Penguin, one of them balancing an egg on their head. “Well, Mrs Penguin”, says Dr Penguin, “these ectopic pregnancies can be tricky”.
Both Farside and Calvin and Hobbs were some of my favorites, they always seemed bring out some similar parallel experience you had to your mind, so in essence, you were always laughing both at the comic, and the memory of whatever similar situation that it made you remember, and smile knowing you weren't the only one who witnessed all these laughable absurdities in your life around you... I think this is a sort of testament to any comic genius, when, something is constantly being created that can trigger your own imagination and make you laugh or smile about things on several levels at once...
He really got Scientists. Back in the day, Science Professor's doors were covered with them.
The whole point being - we MUST be able to laugh at ourselves,it's just a joke! Most of the people who are tightasses and they just HAVE to put up a prudish face and enjoy coaining and being cynical about thing that don't warrant their effort to drag through the mud.Just so they can "appear" indignant " and superior by being a hater.
The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression
Same
My favorite was "Edgar finds his purpose".
Cowboys by the campfire. The cowboy with the coffee pot offers: “Latte, Jed?”
Be happy... bread and deep fry that SOG
A colleague just drew that chicken (with no caption, just the window and chicken) on a whiteboard at work and I immediately recognized it.
My favorite: the CLOWN shopping for a gun with the caption reading "laugh at me will they. "
When I was a kid I loved The Far Side. It was the first thing I read when I opened the paper. When I was around 13 years old, our paper stopped carrying it, which ticked me off. About a month later, the paper ran an editorial saying they were bringing it back. They said the reason they dropped it was to save money (this was around the 1988 to 1990 time frame when newspapers first started experiencing sharp declines in their readership), but that they received so many letters from subscribers complaining about it and had people actually cancel their subscriptions because of it, so they were bringing it back. They kept it until Gary Larson's last comic.
"Objects in mirror are closer than they appear." Giant monster eye filling it.
XD
One of the top ten
Lol
We still bring that one up along with with the Texas buzzards. Haha
My fav!!!
Loved the Far Side. One of my favorites was the two pilots flying in a cloud bank and one asking the second how that mountain goat got into the clouds.
I never seen that one.
Thats great.
This episode had me smiling the minute I saw the title. Smiled all the way through. I love this man's sense of humor. Always have. It's good to know he's doing well and enjoying life.
Thanks for the laughs, Gary! Carry on.......💌
"Thagomizer"
Lmao
Classic
How many takes to say those lines with a straight face?
Calvin and Hobbes made me smile but The Far Side made me laugh hysterically.
Both make me laugh outloud.
Same. No comic has made me laugh out loud hard except The Far Side.
They do have similarities, like being clever, artistic and thought provoking. I studied philosophy where the C&H author did. He named his tiger Hobbes, and I named my cat.
@@joshuacalkins Kenyon College, yes? I had all of his books in a box somewhere. When my son was about 11, he found them. He loved them, read them over and over, and has all of those books to this day. He’s in college now and still talks about them from time to time. Watterson’s work transcends time and generations.
@@DrGH201 That’s the place! I often recall the book my brother gave me, decades ago, “There’s treasure Everywhere!” It was C&H’s delighted reaction to the various debris they had found with a metal detector. As usual, Watterson’s thoughtful insight is funny and uplifting. Cool story about your son.
My husband and I first bonded over The Far Side.He passed away 2 years ago and I miss him and The Far Side still.
Virgina Gobetz don't worry your beloved husband will surely be waiting for you on The Far Side.
Virgina Gobetz sorry for your loss..
Oh
I'm very sorry for your loss, Virgina
@@Gribbo9999 Good one dude your absolutley RIGHT!!!!
All that talent, and a jazz musician. Figures.
One of my favorites is the single cell critter dressed as a cowboy holding a lariat, saying: "Well, it's adios, ameobas!"
High school 1985 sociology class teacher always put up the latest comic on the bulletin board. It was the best part of my day.
"Raymond's last day as the band's sound technician", as he's turning up the "suck" dial in front of an angry rock crowd
One of my favourites of his since I was very young was “Inconvenience Stores.” Just a single shelf about 30 feet up.
I love it. His scope was wide.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
'The Far Side' and 'Calvin and Hobbes' are the only comics that regularly made me literally laugh out loud.
I miss his cartoons so much. I have very occasionally found one that I’ve not seen. It is like striking gold. Come back Mr. Larson!!
Hard to pick a favorite, but this one's a contender: A group of cowboys is sitting around a campfire, toasting marshmallows. One cowboy is standing and holding a smoking gun, another cowboy is lying dead on the ground. The standing cowboy says to the group, "You're all witnesses. He laughed when my marshmallow caught fire."
I count Far Side high up on the list of things that has made me as strange as I am today.
Same! I managed to snag a copy of the complete series (the nice big hardbound one that weighs like 20 pounds) at a local used book store a few years ago, and it sits proudly next to the complete Calvin & Hobbes collection on a special shelf in my room.
Congratulations!
The Far Side, a place that if you're not strange, you're strange.
Honestly same
Embracing the strange, I saved my Far Side books for my kids, LOL.
I adore The Far Side. I once accompanied my boyfriend to a an office party. They held the party in the halls of the SF Academy of Sciences. We had the run of most of the exhibits that night. I spent most of my time in the exhibit of original Far Side cartoons, including the infamous “Why the dinosaurs really went extinct.” Best. Party. Ever.
Another of my favorites. My favorite The Far Side was two aliens standing next to a flying saucer with a clear bubble canopy. One has his hands cupped around his eyes, pearing through the bubble. The other is looking off to a distant hill with a large crowd of people cresting in and saying "Well, here they come. You locked the keys inside, you do the talking."
That joke is painfully unfunny
"Say, what's a mountain goat doing up here in a cloud bank?"
As a pilot, that one especially cracked me up.
Had never seen that one and I seriously laughed out loud. Priceless.
It is really strange that people were offended by cartoons, probably religious reasons. That one from the airline cockpit was humorous to me even though back in the 70's I pushed the plane out of the hangar and fueled it up at 3:00 am for a friend whom hours later flew right into a mountain.
That particular strip was the 9/11 of farside cartoons.
My favorite was bears sitting in a cave with ducks up their nose. Caption, Their environment destroyed, Bears have resorted to snorting quack.
Wolves, but yeah ;^)
I liked the one with the one bear holding two skulls with baseball caps on it's paws like hand puppets entertaining the smaller bears and the larger bear says something like, "Okay, one more time. Gee Billy, do you think there are any bears in this cave? I don't know, let's go look!"
Joe, you stay with the honey! Maybe that bear is injured and maybe it ain't.
James Anthony - that one is absolutely brilliant. Let’s go look. Aaaahhh haa ha ha ha!!!
two guys dying from thirst crawl to reach the top of a desert sand dune only so see a camel crawling toward them, caption: this doesn't look good !
Im so glad I bought nearly every Far Side collection book back in the 80s...This was the greatest comic of all time.
My favourite is the one where a bear is sitting up in a coffin, saying: "I was hibernating! Don't you ever take a pulse?"
I love The Far Side. Totally fits my sense of humor, and given the comments on this video it appears I have about 2000 new friends. LOL
“I will now test these gentle giants’ sense of humour with this simple hand buzzer.”
My other favorite is a split panel one about the scientist who invented a translator helmet to understand dogs. The left side shows a bunch of dogs going "Bark, bark, bark, " and the right side shows all the dogs going "Hey, hey, hey… "
Hilarious.
I was thinking of that one too it'always sticks in my head when I hear dogs barking
I always love the one where it is three guys who have clearly been lost in the desert for a while and they are lined up at a drinking fountain in the sand and the front guys is saying,” now hold your horses guys I’m sure it will get cold any moment now” hahahahahahahaha!!
Scientists seated at a table, looking through a one-way mirror to study primates. Eventually one makes a keen discovery: "For crying out loud, gentlemen! That's us! Someone's installed the one-way mirror backwards!"
The reason we scientists like the very Far Side comics that make fun of us is that they're embarrassingly true, and clearly done with love. We just like being included.
And Lord knows we've all had days where we feel like were' pushing on a door marked 'pull'.
Kind of an ice breaker for the non scientific community getting in the field?
The strips with scientists are some of the funniest
It used to be that we could laugh at others as well as laugh at ourselves. Those days are long gone. To laugh at all is now illegal and will result in jail time.
I Can't think of anyone in any occupation didn't have their favorite Far Side comic taped or pinned on a wall in their office or place of business.
Strigiphilus garylarsoni
is a species of chewing louse found only on owls.
It was named after Gary Larson, creator of the syndicated cartoon The Far Side. In a letter to Larson, Clayton praised the cartoonist for "the enormous contribution that my colleagues and I feel you have made to biology through your cartoons." In his 1989 book The Prehistory of the Far Side, Larson stated, "I considered this an extreme honor. Besides, I knew no one was going to write and ask to name a new species of swan after me. You have to grab these opportunities when they come along."[3] Clayton wrote he honored Larson "in appreciation of the unique light he has shed on the workings of nature."[1]
-Wikipedia
The power of gary larsons work is evident in how fast my tears of grief dried and a smile emerged while listening to this short bio.
My favorite Far Side cartoon was the one where a guy is driving down the highway. In his mirror, all you can see is a huge eyeball. On the bottom of the mirror are the words "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear."
Now the question is, did Jurassic Park rip that off?
Or the human-sized bee sitting in the back seat and the woman talking herself into acting natural and ignoring it :D
and you know very well that precise concept was years ahead of it being used in Jurassic Park
Love how all these descriptions are all I need to go straight back to the drawings!
My favorite was the fly driving the car with the bumper sticker that said maggot on board. I was in a store when I saw it and had to leave I was laughing so hard.
The Far Side and Bloom County were great comics.
I find it hilarious that Seattle thought his cartoon was weird and offensive.
As a Seattleite, I was quite confused, as well.
I was about to say the same thing. Seattle is another planet.
After a shocking number of people failed at pumping their own gas, i can see Seattle being mad at Far Side
The Seattle Times was (still is) the more conservative paper vs the Seattle Post-Intelligencer then. The Times covered more of the region, but I think in the city, people preferred the P-I. I subscribed to the P-I in the late '90s.
Seattle has a more prudish past than San Francisco. Remember, this was the late 70s too. Boeing town and before Microsoft.
My all time favorite is still referenced by my family. Dog shows up at a door for a date & says " Ginger, you look lovely & what ever you rolled in sure does stink".
My favorite, and I still think of this, is what animals hear when when we talk to them. Blah, blah, blah, GINGER! Blah, blah, GINGER! So true.
I always think of that one when we are talking to the dog. I’ve never forgotten it. It is so true!
Had a dog named Ginger, so I loved that one, too!
I quote that one ALL the time. Especially when someone is calling their dog and it completely ignores them. LOL
Actually it’s not true but still funny. They understand some words. “Wanna go for a walk? Dad is home. Wanna bone? ...”
@@judyl.761 speech is not required. Mine watches me put my shoes on, then coat. YES! Walkies! Yip yip yip!
You can often tell a person's level of intelligence by their ability to see humor in things. I'm not surprised many people were offended by his work, there's a lot of stupid people out there.
You know who got offended by his cartoons ? The moral less evangelicals who later choose Trump as president.
All them stupid people should be made to wear a sign.
In this day and age they are called "Lefties" or "Leftists" & they are offended by absolutely everything despite understanding it or not.
The people who were offended by his cartoons were taking his cartoons too seriously. Larson was poking fun at anyone.
@@valevisa8429ongratulations on making everything about Trump. Shows what a progressive brilliant thinker you are. I would vote for Trump again, and Larson is the best cartoonist. Ruminate on that (imagine cow standing up, chewing cud, with your clothes on).
"God makes snakes" is a personal favorite of mine.
I HOWLED when I found out they actually named the tail of a stegasaurus from The Far Side!
Life imitating art...
Pure genius that NEVER gets old
It was a great pleasure to have Gary Larson in a class I taught at Washington State University. He drew comics on the test papers before he turned them in! Great fun!
"Remember me, Mr. Simmons? Kenya, 1954. When you shoot an elephant, Mr. Simmons, make sure to finish the job."
Without ever seeing that comic, I can still picture it perfectly... probably the best compliment I could pay Gary :D
@@blueshattrick I had the same reaction.
That was one of my favourites!
@@MrUndersolo Hell of a birthmark, Hal
@@stephenlitten1789 I believe it was "bummer of a birthmark Hal" : )
Two bears as seen through a gun sight. The bear in the cross hairs is pointing to the other bear.
Loved the Far Side. Still quote the comic to this day. "Ha Ha Biff I'm going to the Vet to get tutored!" Miss it so much
My favorite was 2 sabertooth tigers munching in a tree and one looks at the other and says " I have heard them scream alot of things but yabba dabba doo was a new one "
I lived in the SF Bay Area back then and when it started I loved it. At one point had every book he had put out. I still think his genius is unrivaled. The mere mention of Luposlipophobia is enough to get me rolling on the floor. And the one where the pilot of the jet liner is looking at his copilot and there is a goat standing there in front of the plane in a parting between the clouds and he says HOW DID THAT GOAT GET UP HERE? You know when you still have favorites you remember and laugh at 40 years later it was brilliant.
Same here with "Luposlipophobia"!
Same here with the mountain goat on the cloud. My favorite! Seems to sum up so much of existrnce!
My favorite was the cartoon of a parrot reciting while roosting on a vine overhanging a pit of quicksand where two pith helmets were floating : "LET GO, FRED !! YOU'RE PULLING ME IN !! FRED, LET GO .....!!!"