Having grown up in the 1960s,The Far Side’s Gary Larson is well-versed in the Golden Age of Television, with a young Larson watching a bevy of classics that ultimately endured for decades. It therefore makes sense thatFar Sideparodied a lot of legendary TV shows, but which of Larson’s classic TV show jokes was the funniest? In February 2024, we asked you to settle that question.
Screen Rant’s poll ran as part of our article ‘10 Funniest Far Side Comics That Reference Classic TV Shows,’ withover 1900 readers choosing the best of the bestfrom comics that parody shows includingLassie,BewitchedandThe Brady Bunch. Enjoy the runners-up by opening the image gallery below:
Voting was relatively competitive, with even our last-place entry receiving the support of 65 people. Classic sitcomsBewitched,The Love BoatandMr. Edwere still fondly remembered, but the strongest performers were the franchises that are still going strong - Larson’s take onJeopardy!is in third place,Star Trekin second, and the winner was a grim twist onThe Flintstones. Check out the winning entry below, after the full results of our poll.
65
3%
#9
74
4%
#8
103
5%
#7
139
7%
145
190
10%
#5
263
14%
#4
286
15%
#3
302
16%
#2
373
19%
#1
Far Side’s Funniest Cow Comic Is So Good, It Inspired a Hilarious Cheers Moment
Cheers nailed the experience of reading Gary Larson’s The Far Side with a genius joke that referenced one of his funniest comics.
Flintstones Won Our Vote for Far Side’s Best Classic TV Parody
Gary Larson Mocked the Modern Stone-Age Family
The winner of our poll forFar Sidebest classic TV reference shows two saber-toothed tigers reflecting on having just eaten Fred Flinstone - the patriarch of the 1960s animation. This wasn’t the only time that Larson took aim at the residents of Bedrock, with another strip showing the Flintstones' mailbox being discovered by archeologists.
Given thecontinuing love ofThe Flintstonesas a foundational piece of animated comedy, it’s no surprise that the love transferred to Larson’s strip. It’s also no surprise thatThe Far Sidewould be interested in taking onFlintstones, givenLarson’s obsession with caveman comedy…
Far Side’s cavemen are its most famous characters (next to Larson’s ubiquitous cows.)
The Far Side Rewrites the World’s Most Famous Joke in These 10 Hilarious Comics: Read
Here are the 10 funniest Far Side comics that just celebrated their fortieth birthday, including Gary Larson’s take on the world’s most famous joke.
Larson’s Caveman Obsession Didn’t Stop with The Flintstones
The Far Side’s Prehistory Comics Are Iconic
Next to his ubiquitous cows, cavemen are the most iconic stars ofThe Far Side. Larson created countless prehistoric gag strips overThe Far Side’s 14-year run, often taking modern inventions or behaviors and stripping them down to their ‘first draft’ status. Larson’s cavemancomics depict the invention of the wheel, clothing and milkshake, while charting the many, many ways that prehistoric people could meet a sticky end.
One of the central conceits of Larson’s caveman comics is that our forebears had some kind of sense of how the worldshouldbe, and most of their inventions were stumbling attempts to create the world as we know it now - for example, the early version of caveman checkers, which only uses two squares.Larson admitted his prehistoric comics did have one big flaw, sometimes showing cavemen contending with dinosaurs, despite the almost 65-million-year gap between them. InThe Prehistory of The Far Side, Larson writes:
I’ve always felt that I’ve committed some heresy by doing cartoons (like the ones above) that mixed dinosaurs with primitive people. I think there should be cartoon confessionals where we could go and say things like, “Father, I have sinned - I have drawn dinosaurs and hominids together in the same cartoon.”
Larson’s pop culture references didn’t stop at TV - he also created a wide range of gags mocking iconic movies likeThe Godfather,GodzillaandThe Sound of Music.
Larson may think he was wrong to combine humans and dinosaurs, but by doing so he actually contributed to paleontology. Larson’s strip whichdescribes a Stegosaurus' tail as a ‘Thagomizer’(after it flattened a caveman named Thag) provided real scientists with a word for the bodypart, which didn’t have an official designation at the time. Even today, paleontologists refer to the Stegosaurus' tail spikes as the Thagomizer.
These 3 Far Side Comics Combine to Explain Why Ducks Are Illegal in Gary Larson’s Surreal (But Hilarious) World
Published 12 years apart, these Far Side comics set up the idea that ducks are illegal in Gary Larson’s surreal world, then actually explained why!
The Far Side Didn’t Stop With TV
Gary Larson’s Work Includes a Wealth of Classic Movie Parodies
Larson had a great eye for which subjects would stand the test of time, often referencing movies andreal-life celebrities who are still relevanttoday. Gags include a shaken horse leaving a showing ofThe Godfatherand an adult version of Disney’s Dumbo taking revenge on humanity.
Larson had a particularly soft spot for horror movies, which fit perfectly with his morbid sense of humor.Jaws' shark returns, bringing its iconic score with it,Psycho’s Norman Bates trades his knife for a tank, and a truly disturbing chicken becomes the villain of the newNightmare on Elm Street.
Larson may have loved making fun of TV and movies, but pop culture got its own back with sly references toThe Far Side. Beloved shows likeCheersandThe Simpsonshave referenced Larson’s comic in the years since it started.Simpsonsrecreated one of Larson’s gags in the back of an episode, andHomer even met Gary Larsonin season 21’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Springfield.’
Gary Larson demonstrated an uncanny eye for the pop-culture references that would still be funny decades later, and in the process,The Far Sidebecame a cultural touchstone thatothercomedies could mine for laughs - all fans need to close the circuit is a newFlintstonesproject where Fred, Wilma, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm run into one of Larson’s cavemen.
The Far Side
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
