Summary
Gary Larson’sThe Far Sidefamously loves animals - in fact, the strip was originally going to be titledNature’s Way- with a focus on everything from house pets toits recurring giant squid. While Larson definitely favors dogs,The Far Sidehas many great cat comics, with feline protagonists hunting down small creatures and putting humans in their place.
These are the 15 bestFar Sidecomics that focus on cats, published during Gary Larson’s original 1980-1994 syndicated run.Be sure to vote in our end of article poll for your favorite, and to see which strip other readers think deserves the top spot.
15"Keep the Door Shut!"
Far Side Takes Kitty ‘Gifts’ to the Extreme
Some of the bestFar Sidestrips are those where the dialogue and situation make everyday sense, with just one detail pushing the image into the absurd. Here, a cat owner tries to prevent their feline bringing small, dead animals into the household as ‘gifts.’ However, in Larson’s world it’s not one bird or mouse, but a whole trailer full of them. The bipedal cat and sidewalk setting give this strip asimilar look to George Gately’sHeathcliff- a strip with a similar appreciation of surrealism toThe Far Side.
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14"Randy’s Goin' Down!"
Far Side’s Classic Surrealism Gets a Feline Twist
The Far Sideoften drops animals into a human-like world, and here Larson imagines a cat ‘catching’ mice by buying them from a gumball machine. One of the hallmarks ofThe Far Sideis treating life as cheap - not necessarily in a ghoulish way, but more in the sense of adopting a scientific perspective. Larson treats the natural world as a place where predators hunt prey and the worst can very easily happen, with even his human strips maintaining this core philosophy. While it may technically be family friendly,The Far Sidewas (and remains) darker than the normal level of newspaper comic strip humor, as this strip demonstrates.
13Wooden Leg
Larson Loves Wooden Legs a Surprising Amount
One ofThe Far Side’s best tricks is flipping perspectives, asLarson presents a familiar situation, introduces an odd character, then forces the reader to adopt their perspective. In this strip, what’s initially an old sea dog’s wooden leg becomes a scratching post from a cat’s perspective. Larsonlovesputting a new spin on wooden legs, imagining pretty much every way animals could misunderstand the prosthetic, from beavers taking a bite to a squirrel nesting in an old man’s leg.
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Gary Larson considers this strip The Far Side’s worst comic, saying that it still makes him cringe to read. But is it really that bad?
12What to Do Today…
This Far Side Strip Shows How Color Can Change Larson’s Humor
This strip is essentially the definition of dramatic irony, where the true meaning of a moment comes from the reader possessing knowledge that the character doesn’t have. In this strip, a cat wonders how to spend its day, as a nest full of baby birds waits above, sure to end up as its next project. In-keeping withLarson’s appreciation of nature, a lot of his cat comics depict them predating on smaller animals, just as many of his dog comics show them bullying cats. It’s a major, even overused theme in cartoons, though in the world ofFar Side, there’s no sense of a bloodless,Tom and Jerry-style ending.
The different ways this strip has been colored shows how Larson’s comics can shift meaning when they move out of his original black and white. Above, one version of the comic uses minimal coloring, while another adds more cloud and shadow. While more detailed, the latter changes the joke, as now the chicks are hidden in shadow, rather than being on full display as the first thing the reader will definitely see. This is far from the most extreme effect color has had on one of Larson’s gags.
InThe Prehistory of The Far Side, Larson mentions that when one of his comics was selected for merchandising, the intent was accidentally flipped. The comic sees a penguin in a huge crowd singing about its individuality, with the joke being that it’s actually identical toall the other penguins around it. However, when the gag was colorized, the artist colored the penguin bright yellow, with Larson stating"the entire point of the cartoon had been reversed."
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11Cat Showers
Some Far Side Comics Really Need Their Captions
In one ofThe Far Side’s single weirdest images of all time, a cat stands in a traditional bathroom taking a shower - except instead of a jet of water, it’s using a gigantic tongue. The comic is a simple gag about feline self-grooming, but making the situation even a little more ‘human’ makes it way, way more disturbing. Without the caption clarifying what’s going on here, this panel could risk beingthe next Cow Tools- aFar Sidestrip so widely misunderstood that it actually made headlines because of the number of people trying to figure out what it’s about.
10"I Know Nothing"
Far Side Goes Full Looney Tunes
This is one of the rareFar Sidecomics that would actually be stronger without its text, as a pet owner comes home to a scene that tells a very clear story. The panel lays out Gary Larson’s ability to tell a short story with a single image, and the reader is just as aware as the pet owner who’s responsible for the destroyed bird cage and missing canary. The idea of a housecat using dynamite and a plunger to get at a bird irresistibly bringsLooney Tunesto mind, and there are similarities between Larson’s sensibilities and the classic cartoon’s. Most prominently,both have Acme Corporationsthat provide unusual inventions to their characters.
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9The Rothenbergs
Far Side Offers Up a Comic for Cat Owners
In another strip where the bare premise makes sense, but is given a subtle tweak, a cat husband complains because his wife Zelda has alerted their annoying neighbors that they’re home by using a loud kitchen appliance. Of course, everyone being cats, the moment turns into a gag on the way cats suddenly appear once they sense that dinner is about to be served.
8If Pets Wore Hats
Larson Nails the Public Perception of Cats and Dogs
Larson distills the cultural idea of ‘dogs are foolish but fun, cats are smart but aloof’ by simply putting them in the perfect headgear, showing a group of vacant-eyed dogs in baseball caps while the cats in the tree above are rocking stylish fedoras complete with ostentatious feathers. The joke could stop there, but Larson being a master, he uses a nearby window to depict a canary in a giant cowboy hat, communicating the undeserved confidence of the average pet bird.
7"Is He Friendly?"
Larson Creates the Best Form of the Joke by Prioritizing Inference
Larson loves the gag of someone blithelyunderestimating a clearly dangerous animal, especially if someone else in the scene has visible injuries that should make them think twice. In this case, the joke is made all the stronger because the cat is so small and calm, allowing the reader to at least dip into the speaking character’s perspective, assuming the pet is harmless. With that said, Larson also managed to make the gag work with an imposing pterodactyl.
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6Curiosity Killed the Cat…s
Far Side’s Recurring Detective Discovers a Deadly Idiom
The Far Sideloves taking a turn of phrase over-literally, in this case imagining a case where - instead of their inquisitiveness luring them into a dangerous situation - a group of cats are literally killed by an excess of curiosity. It’s worth noting that the saying “curiosity killed the cat” describes asingularcat, with Larson upping the death toll for an even weirder scene. Thankfully, this only ranks about halfway on the list of weirdest thingsFar Side’s trenchcoat-wearing detective has been called to investigate.
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