10 Best Far Side Comics About Snakes

Published Sep 27, 2026, 9:51 AM EDT

TJ Mills is an editor on ScreenRant's Comic team, where she combines her lifelong passion for DC with her analytical background as a former Intelligence Analyst. Since joining ScreenRant in 2023, she has specialized in covering major DC storylines, character evolutions, and industry developments. 

While Gary Larson’s The Far Side doesn’t have a cast of recurring characters on the same level as other iconic comic strips such as Jim Davis’ Garfield, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, or even Charles Schulz’s Peanuts, The Far Side does have multiple notable recurring subjects, from cows and ducks to cavemen and everything in between. However, among these recurring subjects, snakes are probably one of the most criminally underrated.

What makes the snakes of The Far Side stand out, despite not being one of the strip’s more popular recurring subjects, is the vast range of tones featured in their strips, from exceptionally dark humor to tongue-in-cheek cleverness to ridiculous gags and much more. This list showcases that wide range of tones while featuring ten of the best Far Side strips starring snakes.

10 Snake Cowboys

Published: October 31, 1990

Gary Larson’s love for snakes and cowboys collide in this strip, where absurdist and dad humor come together. The comic is set in a saloon populated by snake cowboys, and the longer you stare at it, the funnier it gets, from the well-fed lady snake pictured above the bar to the snakes with mustaches to the main joke of the strip.

The main joke is the two snakes locked in a standoff. However, as any Western fan knows, the main event of a standoff is drawing your weapon and seeing who can get off a shot faster. Larson imagines what this situation would look like with snakes, with the joke being that the standoff remains a standoff since the snakes have no hands to draw their weapons.

9 Bless His Little Rattle

Published: October 12, 1982

If you’re a parent, then you may find snakes far more relatable after this strip. Published on October 12, 1982, the strip pictures a rattlesnake family, with the baby rattlesnake shaking his head rather than his rattle. Some of the humor is obviously found in this visual, but the laugh-out-loud punchline is delivered through the strip’s caption.

The caption reads, “This is your side of the family, you realize.” Parents may recognize this as something they’ve said, or had their partner say, when their kid acts a little wonky. It’s a classic example of one parent blaming the other parent’s side of the family for passing down some less-than-ideal traits or behaviors.

8 Captain Monet

Published: September 18, 1986

Pirates have their fair share of stereotypical traits in fiction, and among the most popular is the captain whose lower leg has been replaced with a peg leg. Larson has fun with this stereotypical pirate attribute, making an overdone gag feel fresh and actually funny by imagining what a snake captain suffering from the same loss would look like.

Since snakes don’t have legs, Larson draws the snake as essentially a giant peg replacing the entirety of the snake’s body, resulting in some ridiculous visual humor that is topped off with the caption: “The door swung wide, and there, to the horror of the other pirates, stood Captain Monet—unmistakable with his one eye and pegbody.”

7 LOST SNAKE

Published: June 11, 1987

Most people have seen at least one “lost pet” flyer in their life, usually tacked up on posts, mailboxes, or other high-traffic, freestanding areas to alert the public and increase the chances of the owner finding and reuniting with their missing pet. Typically, these missing pets are cats and dogs, but not in The Far Side.

This strip shows a man putting up lost posters for his pet, Ginger, who, as the poster describes, is a 30-foot-long dark brown snake. The humor comes from the fact that this is, without a doubt, a terrifying pet to have on the loose, making the flyer feel less like a missing-pet poster and more like a public safety warning.

6 Skinny Dipping (Featuring A Snake)

Published: November 21, 1985

Skinny-dipping in a natural body of water is something many people can attest to having done, whether privately or with a gaggle of friends whom your parents swear are bad influences. However, have you ever considered what skinny-dipping with a snake might look like?

This Far Side strip pictures a man’s discarded clothes beside a pool of water, along with a shed snake skin, implying that a snake’s version of skinny-dipping is shedding its skin. Needless to say, snakes may not be the best skinny-dipping partners.

5 Playsnake

Published: August 7, 1981

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Larson’s snake-starring strips feature a wide range of humor, and this strip is a perfect example of some of his more adult-leaning humor. Here, we see a group of snakes looking at a magazine titled “Playsnake,” with the magazine unfolding across several pages to undoubtedly reveal the full length of a snake.

Since Screen Rant is a family-friendly website, we aren’t going to explicitly spell out the humor of this strip for you. However, if you were born before the 21st century, you’ll likely get the joke with no explanation needed.

4 Venom Pushers

Published: September 27, 1986

Returning to some all-ages-friendly humor, this strip, published in 1986, presents a ridiculous interaction between a man and a snake. The man has clearly been wandering through the desert for ages and desperately needs some water. Cue a snake who conveniently has a bottle of water in the middle of the desert and who definitely does not have any ill intentions.

The snake’s dialogue bubble reads, “Go ahead... Drink it. There's nothing wrong with it... C'mon, aren't you thirsty?” This is simply ridiculousness dialed up to 100, with the snake’s intentions so transparent, with it clearly trying to lure the man close enough for it to bite him.

3 RIP Garfield

Published: December 16, 1983

Shots fired at Jim Davis! This strip is definitely dark, but it is also downright hilarious. Here, Larson pictures a snake with a full belly. However, what the snake ate becomes horrifyingly and hilariously apparent when you take a look at the name on the still-full food bowl next to the snake: "Garfield."

This is an obvious reference to Jim Davis’ Garfield, implying the snake ate Garfield. It’s terribly dark, but also terribly hilarious.

2 God Makes The Snake

Published: January 11, 1991

In addition to snakes, another recurring subject of Larson’s Far Side strips was God. Known as the creator of all things, here we see exactly how God supposedly came up with the idea for and created the first snakes. The panel shows God at his workbench with a large hunk of clay, which he begins rolling into effortless long pieces.

The humor comes from the implication that creating snakes was a fast, easy task for God, and that this simple creation earned his enthusiasm: “Boy... these things are a cinch!”

1 Snake Dating Game

Published: May 20, 1993

Dating reality shows remain exceptionally popular, with some of the most notable being Love Island and The Bachelorette. However, the OG will always be The Dating Game. Premiering in 1965, the show featured a classic format in which a bachelorette sat on one side of a divider while three bachelors sat hidden from her view. She would ask them questions, hear their answers, and then choose one for a date without ever seeing them beforehand.

Here, Larson imagines what The Dating Game would look like if the contestants were snakes. The question that the bachelorette snake asks one of the male contestants? “Bachelor No. 3: Who would you rather swallow—Mickey Mouse, Speedy Gonzales, or Rocky the Flying Squirrel? And why?” A hilarious and very snake-like question.

These are just our favorite snake-starring Far Side comics. If we missed your favorite, let us know about it in the comments!