15 Best Far Side Recurring Locations

Think about movies for a moment. A good location scout is often the unsung hero of a film's success, and the same goes for The Far Side. Gary Larson had a great eye for settings, and he cultivated a stable of reliable recurring locations during his career.

The Far Side doesn't have "continuity," but it did repeat visuals and themes constantly. A cow in one comic might be identical to a cow in the next; that doesn't make them the same character, but it does make them signify the same thing. That goes for locations too, which spoke volumes for each Far Side comic.

Even more so than recurring characters, recurring locations proved to be essential to The Far Side. Below are the best of the best, the ones Far Side fans can list off the top of their heads, as well as some underrated deep cuts.

Dungeon

These comics got Gary Larson in a lot of hot water. At least with some readers, including members of the human rights organization Amnesty International, who protested The Far Side's use of torture for humor's sake. That never stopped Larson from making the jokes, though, when a good one came to mind.

The dungeon is demonstrative of what makes a memorable Far Side location. That is, the clash between the expected tone of the setting and the tone Larson strikes. The horror of a dungeon is jarringly contrasted with the punchline in these Far Side cartoons.

Take a closer look at "Torturer of the Month," for example, or the one where the hooded dungeon attendant gives his parents a tour of his workplace and shows them "The Rack." Or the one where the hooded dungeoner does some research on the clock, studying up on "Inner Torture" to add to his repertoire of physical torture.

Cave

Caves are one of The Far Side's most reliable locations. That's because bears live in caves, and bears are contenders for the title of The Far Side's funniest animal. And archeologists explore caves. Oh, and prehistoric people are colloquially referred to as "cavemen" for a reason. So, yeah, plenty of reasons for The Far Side to take place in and around caves.

Consider classics like "For Good Time Call Oona," or the one where a couple of unfortunate explorers find fresh dinosaur eggs, as a T-Rex shadow looms over them on the cave wall. Then there's "First Birthday Cake," where an innovative cavewoman inadvertently smokes out her tribe, and the one where a prehistoric man uses a pterodactyl for a pillow.

Or the one where a bear does a puppet show for its cubs with two hiker's skulls. Or the one where a lady in a bear costume shoots her human husband, a hunter, before he can kill her lover, an actual bear. That's only scratching the surface of how many Far Side comics made use of the cave as its central location.

City

A successful Far Side location is more than just a backdrop. It is an environment. The best Far Side environments are the ones everybody recognizes. So that when Gary Larson throws the setting, like a cityspace, into chaos, or flips the script on familiar city scenes, readers have a baseline understanding of what's going on.

Look at "Bovines at Work" as one example, where cat-calling construction workers are replaced by bulls mooing at a passing cow. Or The Far Side where a pair of bears accidentally wind up in the big city and worry about getting shot, not unlike a couple of out-of-their-element tourists.

Then there are all the times The Far Side's metropolises were attacked by giant penguins, aliens, giant robots, King Kong, giant postal workers, and more, once again making it painfully clear nowhere was safe in Gary Larson's world.

Laboratory

In another life, Gary Larson would have been a scientist, instead of a cartoonist. Instead, he became scientists' favorite cartoonist, the one who lovingly made fun of them with dozens of classic cartoons throughout The Far Side's history.

Between mad scientists and silly scientists, there was not a good role model for science in the bunch, but that didn't stop people in all different scientific fields from loving The Far Side. And crucial to the success of The Far Side's scientist humor was the laboratory location, where they did everything from accidentally melting themselves, to turning themselves into houseflies.

It was where The Far Side's scientists kept their heads in jars, and built their giant killer robots. Or sewed together their Frankenstein monsters. The Far Side featured both institutional laboratories and also basement labs, each lampooning the field in different, but equally laugh-out-loud funny ways.

Jungle

The jungle is another can't-miss Far Side locale. There's something about the exoticness of the setting mixed with the silliness of Gary Larson's humor that was a winning formula. One Larson exploited again and again in some of his funniest cartoons.

Whether it was Tarzan mistaking a snake for a vine and getting his head bitten off, or an explorer mistaking poison arrows for regular arrows (which are apparently fine to eat, by The Far Side's warped logic), or Ponce de Leon miscommunicating "Yute's Fountain & Snack Bar" as "the Fountain of Youth" to his conquistadors, The Far Side was always on point when it was set in the jungle.

Jokes set in the jungle (or similarly, the forest) just came naturally to Gary Larson. In terms of characters getting themselves in over their heads (sometimes literally, when quicksand got involved) there were few settings more fitting for The Far Side to make the most out of.

Restaurant/Diner/Bar

A meat truck hurtles toward a crowded vegetarian restaurant. The "DIDN'T WASH HANDS" alarm goes off after a man walks out of the restroom at a crowded restaurant. A customer gets something stuck in their throat at a crowded restaurant, except it is a restaurant for giraffes.

Those are just a few of the most memorable Far Side jokes set in restaurants, diners, and bars, all of which are represented under the same banner here.

One thing that stands out when looking at these cartoons collectively is how often the action of a Far Side cartoon stems from its setting. If we try to deconstruct Gary Larson's creative process, we'll find many cases where he seemingly started with an idea of certain charcters in a setting (giraffe restaurant, or cow restaurant, or snakes at a diner, take your pick) and worked out the joke from there.

The Moon/Space

Bang, zoom. Gary Larson was fascinated by aliens and space travel, and that interest manifested itself in some of The Far Side's funniest cartoons. Many 10/10 Far Sides were set on the moon. Plenty more took place in the depths of space, whether they featured extraterrestrials joyriding in their flying saucers, or astronauts from Earth facing the perils of interstellar exploration.

In one all-time Far Side joke, a group of aliens get together on the lunar surface to watch the Earth blow up. In another, a giant alien custodian spears NASA's lunar lander like nothing more than cosmic trash. Or, in another fan-favorite, a human couple get so lost on a road trip they end up on the moon.

The Far Side's space comics evoke Douglas Adams' brilliant Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels in the best way, reminding readers that the universe is vast, volatile, and very, very strange.

The Wild West

The Far Side's cowboys are among its most uproarious characters. Gary Larson grew up in the Golden Age of the Western. Films, novels, comics, for the first few decades of Larson's life, the Western was the predominant genre in American pop culture, and its iconography imprinted deeply on him.

Which led him to effortlessly spoof it all time and again with The Far Side. Whether it was a showdown in the town square, or an incident at the local saloon, Larson knew exactly how to flip the gritty tropes of Wild West fiction and make them funny.

Consider the Far Side cowboy who is actually dragged away by wild horses, like in the song, or the one who is carried into the saloon covered in severe burns after actually trying to ride off into the sunset. Or the shootout at the bar between an alien and an outlaw. The Western setting was a comedic goldmine for Gary Larson, one he could always tap into when he needed to.

Elevator

The elevator as a Far Side setting is an interesting case. Adjusted for number of uses, it might be the funniest Far Side location of all time. That's because Gary Larson drew just a select handful of elevator jokes over the years, but each one is undeniably brilliant.

Which is to say it definitely has a case for the most underused Far Side setting. An elevator proved to be the perfect setting for everything from lighthearted jokes like a guy saying "I hate elevator music" after stepping into one with a full orchestra inside. Or the outrageous panel where a man being bitten by multiple snakes casually steps into the elevator and asks someone to hit the "fourth floor" button for him so he can get to poison control ASAP.

Then there's the one where bears are riding the elevator, leading to "tragedy" for a guy named "Conroy." And "punk accountants," with its unique mashup of corporate culture and counterculture. Far Side elevator comics were always 10/10, which makes it too bad Larson didn't produce more of them.

Barn/Barnyard

Cows are The Far Side's most recognizable recurring figures. Chickens are definitely in the Top 5. That meant The Far Side spent a lot of time at the farm, in the barn or out in the barnyard, with Gary Larson's favorite farm animals.

Farm iconography is so familiar that it was ripe for subversion, providing a powerful setting for various hijinks over the years. Whether it was cows, or chickens, plotting to pull one over the farmer (ranging from pranks to full on killing and eating them), or trying to build a rocket ship, or just discoursing on scientific theories until the farmer comes around, the farm was another place where The Far Side never ran out of gags.

The Far Side presented a world where the familiar was weird, and the ordinary was outrageous, and few settings were more perfect for that clash of tones than the farm.