8 Far Side Comics From The 1990s That Were Perfect For The End Of Gary Larson's Era

Published Oct 2, 2026, 10:25 AM EDT

Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.

It wasn't like the world ended when The Far Side wrapped up at the start of 1995. The Earth kept spinning, newspapers kept being printed, and a wave of imitators tried to take Gary Larson's place in the funny pages. (Some papers even let readers vote on The Far Side's successor.) Still, it was a huge loss for pop culture, because Larson went out at the top of his game.

After taking all of 1989 off, and then some, Larson returned at the start of 1990 for five more full years of The Far Side before retiring, mostly for good, in the mid-90s. The cartoons below are underrated '90s classics that deserve to be called "perfect" Far Side panels by any metric.

These 10/10 Far Side cartoons show Larson firing on all cylinders, delivering the humor that made him a household name, while still trying new things and pushing his work into unexpected places right up until the end.

8 "A Swinging Door Was Just Plain Crazy"

First Published: June 14, 1990

If it is set in a cave, it is probably an all-time great Far Side cartoon. That's almost axiomatic when it comes to Gary Larson, whether the joke was about bats, or bears, or a prehistoric couple arguing about their pet mammoth. "Installing a swinging door was just plain crazy," the cavewoman says after it steps on one of their cavemates.

Gary Larson loved to imagine the spirit of innovation moving early humans to try new things. The humor of these jokes comes from the "and error" part of "trial and error." The first pet door was a novel idea, this caveman had it right, but until the domestication of the dog, he was sadly way ahead of his time.

7 "The Four Basic Personality Types"

First Published: October 5, 1990

You know the saying: either a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" person. Except there are actually two more categories, according to Gary Larson, which make up the "four basic personality types."

There are also the painfully indecisive types, who flip-flop on the fullness/emptiness of the glass so many times that they forget the initial question. Then there are the people who are like: "Hey, I ordered a cheeseburger!" This is an example of a Far Side panel where Larson expertly combined comedic escalation with a comedic curveball. The joke starts off in familiar territory, builds on that with an amusing bit, and then veers off into nonsensical territory.

6 "Primitive UFOs"

First Published: January 16, 1991

Let's go backward in time again, to The Far Side's version of an "ancient aliens" scenario. In this cartoon, Gary Larson hilariously envisions what it would be like if extraterrestrials did visit prehistoric humans, only for their technology to be surprisingly "primitive" in its own right.

That is, a flying saucer carved out of rock, with tree stumps for landing gear and a thatched roof instead of a glass dome. The humans on the ground are still shocked to see the saucer coming in hot; Larson does some A+ detail work in the bottom left of the frame with their reactions. Still, the chief punchline of this panel is the "primitive UFO" and the idea of aliens mastering spaceflight while still only working with sticks and stones.

5 "Bringing Mr. Gruenfeld Home"

First Published: July 8, 1992

This is one of the most convoluted Far Side cartoons ever. In the best possible way. In the final act of his career, Gary Larson grew a lot more verbose. He increasingly included more dialogue in Far Side panels, and his captions got longer, reflecting more conceptually elaborate jokes like this one.

Here, "with the surgical team passed out," it is up to "hospital custodian Leonard Knutson" to finish a tricky procedure. "With help from the observation deck," thankfully, as a doctor guides Knutson through what to cut, and what not to cut, via radio. At the same time, the press is up there too, capturing the scene live on camera.

It is a brilliant send-up of movies where a civilian has to land a plane, or disarm a bomb, while being guided by the voices of experts from afar. Transposed into an operating room setting, the absurdity of this scenario is highlighted in the way only The Far Side, and perhaps Saturday Night Live, really could.

4 "Stiff Neck!"

First Published: March 24, 1993

An underrated part of The Far Side is how relatable it could be. Plenty of readers have had this same experience, waking up after sleeping weird and thinking: "Dang!...Stiff neck!" Except Gary Larson makes the character in this cartoon a giraffe, with its neck bent at a full-on 90-degree angle.

Though Larson developed a reputation for weird and mystifying humor ("confusing, obtuse, esoteric, and strange" in The Far Side creator's own words), the opposite was actually just as often the case, if not more so. The Far Side is full of obvious jokes, forehead-slapping bad puns, and "duh" moments, which are just as essential to its style as confusing humor.

3 "The Not Fun Whatsoever House"

First Published: November 22, 1993

This Far Side cartoon isn't confusing, but it is mystifying. Readers have to ask themselves, "why would anyone buy a ticket to go through the Not Fun Whatsoever House?" Especially when you can see the stricken faces of the riders exiting as you stand in line at the ticket booth.

Yet what Gary Larson is really doing is asking a different question: "Isn't Funhouse a bit of a misnomer?" This is one of countless Far Side cartoons that read like an incredulous alien pointing out the absurdity of human traditions. Larson called it like he saw it, and he saw carnivals as a strange place, which made them ripe for comedic riffing.

2 ​​​​​​​"Forever Blowing Bubbles"

First Published: August 18, 1994

Gary Larson made frequent song references throughout The Far Side, but because many of the songs he referenced were old jazz standards, these have become some of his hardest references for younger readers to catch. This is one such example, in which the 1918 tune "Forever Blowing Bubbles" becomes a man's eternal punishment in hell.

"Oh, they'll find something for you real soon," a suffering soul says to a new arrival. "Me? I'm forever blowing bubbles," he says, and demonstrates. It gives the song a hilariously dark new meaning. Beyond that, the flourishes of detail Larson adds here help to make the joke more accessible, even for readers who don't fully get the joke.

That is, the guy whose damnation is endlessly playing the accordion, or the one forever playing paddleball. The surprising banality of hell was a recurring Far Side gag, and this late-career cartoon is low-key one of the best versions of the bit Larson ever pulled off.

1 "Don't Press Me Mitch!"

First Published: November 16, 1994

Gary Larson loved wordplay. One specific form of wordplay he loved was taking figurative language and making it literal in The Far Side. "Don't press me" colloquially means "get off my case," or "leave this topic alone." That's if you're a human saying it to another human. But if you're a dress shirt, saying it to an electric iron? Completely different story.

"Don't press me, Mitch!" In this cartoon, it becomes literal. But it still has that figurative meaning as well. The duo here read as roommates having a fight, and also a wrinkled shirt that doesn't want to be touched. Readers might not be conscious of the joke operating on these different levels when they look at a Far Side panel like this one, but part of why The Far Side works is because it is clicking for readers on those multiple levels, even if it is subconscious.