Far Side man (left, foreground color) with another man eating soup (black/white, right)
Setting was a crucial aspect of The Far Side, whether Gary Larson’s characters were lost in the desert, or dealing with fatal foibles in their own living rooms, or grabbing a bite to eat at the local greasy spoon, as is the case in these memorable Far Side comics set in diners, cafés, and other eateries.
Distinct from The Far Side comics set in restaurants, The Far Side’s diner jokes offer a different kind of atmosphere, and often a different style of punchline, even if they are stylistically similar. These panels tend to place more of an emphasis on food-based jokes, but in any case, they demonstrate Larson's effective use of the diner location as a way to draw readers into the setting, as diners represent one of the most recognizable American cultural touchstones, one almost all readers will have some familiarity with. 10 A Hilarious Far Side Diner Faux Pas First Published: August 13, 1985 After some deliberation, the man at a diner in this Far Side cartoon gives the menu one last glance and tells the waitress,"well, I guess I'll have the ham and eggs," which draws the attention of all the patrons at the tables surrounding his, because they happen to be chickens and pigs. Gary Larson often imagined the tension of a world in which humans and animals lived side-by-side, yet humans continued to eat beef, pork, chicken, and so on, and this is a particularly solid example of the humor that arose from that premise. This Far Side cartoon is the kind that will readily bring a smile to most readers' faces, even if it isn't incite uproarious laughter. 9 This Far Side Frog Reminds Readers "Waste Not, Want Not" First Published: March 8, 1985 "I beg your pardon," one of The Far Side's many frog characters says to the man sitting next to him at the counter at"Rosie's Diner," who has just fished a fly out of his bowl of soup and is going to dispose of it without making a fuss, with the amphibian interjecting and asking if it can have it. Related These Far Side "Sequel" Comics Prove Gary Larson Was Playing the Long Game The Far Side didn't have recurrin characters, but Gary Larson did produce the occasional"sequel" comic, including callbacks to his earliest cartoons. Posts 1 Here, Gary Larson insightfully plays on the"fly in the soup bowl" perennial punchline, while also poking fun at people who are quick to jump in and eat someone else's scraps, even a stranger's. The premise here is funny, but what pushes this Far Side joke over the edge are the details and the composition of the image, in particularly the tiny, almost easy-to-miss hat on top of the frog's head, which absurdly works to signify that it is just like any other customer in the joint. 8 At Snake Diners, The Wait Staff Always Know Whose Order To Take First First Published: August 12, 1985 The Far Side was full of comics in which snakes acted surprisingly, and at times disturbingly human; snakes were a childhood obsession of artist Gary Larson's, and as a cartoonist he made them into the subjects of some of his most hilarious reinterpretations of the human experience. Here, Larson delivers a sort of"slice-of-life" panel, with snakes swapped for humans; the caption establishes the location as"the Eat and Slither," and the illustration depicts a trio of snakes sitting on stools at a lunch counter, with the specials board on the wall advertising"hamsterettes,""the thumper special,""norway rats," and the"python's plate." Amusingly, one of the snake customers is depicted bulging in the mid-section, with a still-digesting meal in its belly, yet it is still taking a gander at the menu and considering ordering seconds. 7 A Classic Far Side Mix-Up Ends With A Mouth Full Of Worms For The Wrong Customer First Published: November 18, 1985 In this all-time great Far Side diner cartoon, a bird customer being served in the foreground of the panel looks down at the plate in front of it with concern, remarking to the waitress,"whoa, this just looks like regular spaghetti," and asking"where's my Earthworms Alfredo?" as a patron in the background looks up mid-slurp from a plate of what he previously thought, and now desperately hopes, are the noodles he ordered. Related 12 Hilarious Far Side Comics Set At Parties The Far Side featured many classic cartoons set at cocktail parties, including some highly relatable jokes & some totally"out there" punchlines. Posts 2 This is a hilarious use of The Far Side's mix of human and animal characters, with the punchline only obscured slightly by the fact that the drawing makes the human's meal look as much like spaghetti as the bird's, meaning it might take a beat for readers to realize the potential mix-up at play here. 6 All The Far Side Cow's Diners Were "All You Can Eat" First Published: November 28, 1985 In this funny Far Side cow comic, two bovine customers at"Lulu's" get up and start to put on their hats and coats, while the third member of their party isn't ready to leave yet, remaining at their table and asking,"hey, where's everybody going? I still have one or two empty stomachs!" The joke is primarily about cows' anatomy, yet it also evokes the very human, very familiar scenario in which there is always one person in a group that wants to hang out more, to keep the good times going, and to stay at the restaurant far too long, well after their companions are ready to go home and hit the hay, in this case literally. It is perhaps not a laugh-out-loud variation on this theme, but it is representative of how there was always a human basis to The Far Side's humor. 5 "No Brains, No Service": The Rules At This Far Side Diner Are No Joke First Published: December 31, 1986 This Far Side comic is perhaps the most well-remembered of Gary Larson's diner jokes, in large part due to its skillful blend of the familiar and the absurd. In the cartoon, a pair of dissatisfied customers are ejected from"Jack's Diner," as the cook, wearing a greasy, stained apron, points at the"no brains, no service" sign in the window.$71 At Amazon By omitting a caption in this Far Side panel, Larson invokes his readers' attention to an even greater degree, making them taking a closer look at the image. The riff on"no shirt, no shoes, no service," combined with the drawing of the two characters, which is meant to convey their"dumb" nature, make a caption unnecessary, clearing conveying the author's punchline while leaving room for the reader's own surplus interpretation of the scenario. 4 The Far Side Waxes Poetic About A Nice Lunch First Published: May 22, 1992 Gary Larson is often called a master of wordplay for the linguistic dexterity he displayed with many Far Side jokes, which makes it notable what a stretch this caption is, as its reformulation of a"business lunch" as a"beeswax lunch" hardly qualifies as an actual pun. The illustration, featuring a group of bees in business suits and ties sitting around a table at a luncheonette, is certainly amusing, and in a way the failure of the pun is almost funny in its own right; that said, it isn't unfair to say that Gary Larson could have elevated this Far Side comic even further by building on this premise with an even stronger caption. Still, the inhuman smiles on the bee characters' faces as they cut loose with some on-the-clock cocktails does have a certain charm to it, even if the caption leaves readers wanting more. 3 One Of The Far Side's Weirdest Punchlines Happened At The Lunch Counter First Published: June 24, 1992 When it comes to The Far Side's sense of humor, weird is best looked at as a spectrum; on a day-to-day basis, Gary Larson delivered jokes that ranged from mildly strange to outrageously odd, with this comic falling closer to the latter on the continuum. In the panel, one patron at"Ruby's Cafe" saves another by applying the Heimlich maneuver, with the caption informing readers that"as suddenly as it started, Joe's gagging is alleviated when a small ninja sword is dislodged from his throat." Related 10 Far Side Comics We Really Wish Had Sequels These Far Side comics would benefit from receiving sequels that could tie up their loose ends, building upon the existing jokes in new ways. Posts 2 This is an absurdist curveball on the familiar gag about finding something in one's soup, one in which the premise is brilliantly captured by the illustration, most notably the bizarre visual of the choking victim forcefully shooting a miniature sword out of his throat across the diner's lunch counter, as the other patrons all turn their heads in surprise. 2 An Interstellar Star Is Born At This Alien Far Side Diner First Published: November 24, 1992 Aliens were an integral part of The Far Side, and essentially any recurring joke, or repeat location that Gary Larson included in The Far Side involved extraterrestrials at least once; here, an alien diner,"Xzory's Place," is the setting for a delightfully silly joke, in which a talent scout discovers a waitress, asking her,"how'd you like to be in the movies, hon?" "Alien corner cafes," the caption explains to readers,"where sometimes dreams do come true." The composition of this Far Side cartoon is notable, as rather than being set in the diner, the illustration is framed so that the reader is literally outside looking in, glimpsing the scene of this star-making moment from a distance through the front window of Xzory's, which puts an amusing, and literally out-of-this-world, spin on the familiar location. 1 The Far Side Confirms That Diners Are For Mortals First Published: January 31, 1994 "Look, I gotta be honest with you," the waitress at"Roy's" levels with a booth full of customers,"nothin' we serve is exactly what I'd call food for the gods," which is ironic, and also unfortunate, because the patrons in question appear to be deities straight out of ancient Greek mythology. This punchline takes the concept of a no-nonsense, self-effacing waitress and takes it to a hyperbolic place, while also exhibiting Gary Larson's classic ability to insert the magical into mundane settings, a Far Side staple. This also stands as a Far Side cartoon in which the image and caption are equally important halves of conveying the panel's meaning; the caption and the illustration inform one another, with the humor of the comic situated in the overlap between the two. Writer Gary Larson Colorist Gary Larson Summary Written and drawn by Gary Larson, The Far Side is a comic strip series that ran from December 1979 to January 1995. A worldwide hit, The Far Side explores life's surreal side and uses a mix of humans and anthropomorphic animals. As of 2020, Gary Larson decided to pick his pencil back up again and has started The Far Side up, circulating the comics on his official website.
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