7 Hilarious Far Side Comics That Make Fun Of Comedians

Published Sep 30, 2026, 10:41 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.

The Far Side lovingly roasted all creator Gary Larson's favorite things about pop culture, including stand-up comedy. The comedy club was a memorable recurring location that Larson liked to visit, putting his own spectacular and surreal spin on the art form.

Larson was a fan of classic comedy, making frequent references to Henny Youngman (Who? We will get into it) and the formative era of stand-up stars. He was familiar with many of the tropes of stand-up, which resulted in hilarious Far Side send-ups that still have the feel of timeless classics today.

Below is a curated list of the funniest Far Side comics about comics, the best of Gary Larson's comedy about comedy, and the stand-out panels starring stand-ups. Which should give readers a clear sense of what Larson loved about humor of all types, from the stage to the page.

7 "Flew All The Way In From The Dump"

First Published: June 3, 1982

"Larry? Betty? Stand up, will ya?" The housefly in the checkered coat and the bow-tie says from the stage. "These are some friends of mine, folks, who flew all the way in from the dump." It is a classic comedy club scene, with an insect character subbed in for a human. It is also one of The Far Side's funniest fly jokes. And there were a lot of them over the years.

It's also a classic example of a Far Side cartoon that can hit in multiple ways. The image of the fly on stage doing his act is the visual punchline, while "flew all the way in from the dump" is almost like a failsafe, a bit of obvious humor that can still get a reaction out of readers if the cartoon fails to elicit a response.

6 "An Animal With Little Or No Sense Of Humor"

First Published: July 7, 1982

The life of a touring stand-up comic, playing small clubs wherever you can get booked and just trying to eke out a living, it isn't exactly glamorous. Plus, it can take you to some sketchy places. Some dangerous places. Gary Larson brilliantly captures all of that in this early Far Side cartoon.

A comedian (again in a checkered coat, plus wielding a small guitar and other joke instruments) steps up to the mic and gives it his all. The venue? An overgrown patch of grass on the African plain. The audience? The literal sketch of a rhino, barely more than an outline, but still emotive enough to come across clearly nonplussed by the comic's act.

Which is because "the African rhino," as the caption explains, is "an animal with little or no sense of humor." If he survives this gig, this comedian should probably fire his booking agent. If it isn't himself, that is.

First Published: November 4, 1985

This is a killer example of Gary Larson breaking form in the best possible way. Practically all The Far Side's cartoons about comedians took place in the comedy club setting. Here, Larson transposes the jokesters to a tragic setting, a graveyard, and turns it into a breeding ground for hilarity.

One woman leans down to lay a bouquet on a grave, only for the flower already in front of the headstone to squirt her in the face with water. In the background, dead and buried stand-ups continue to do their acts from beyond the grave. "Take my life, please," one says. "What are these worms doing in my suit? Ha. Just kidding. But seriously folks..." goes another.

First Published: March 11, 1986

As we can tell from most of the entries here, "_______ comedian" was a recurring Far Side bit Gary Larson was fond of. Larson mostly approached these panels in two different ways. There were the ones where the premise was the punchline, and the ones where the comic's punchline was the point of the joke.

Here we have "early comedians," with the caption functioning as set-up for the real punchline, which is the human ancestor on stage dealing with possibly the first heckler in comedy history. "Did you walk here tonight or brachiate?" Which, for anyone who doesn't know, is the scientific term for swinging between branches.

Which makes this Far Side cartoon border on too smart for its own good, but even readers unfamiliar with the word should be able to understand the gist of the joke.

​​​​​​​First Published: August 11, 1987

This time it is "canine comedians." And in this case, Gary Larson is parodying a real person. Henny Youngman's name still pops up in pop culture from time to time. In fact, it has become a go-to meta-reference of sorts, the anachronism of shouting out Youngman calling attention to itself.

In the 1950s through the '80s, though, he was a comedy icon. Like the dog on stage here, Henny Youngman incorporated the violin into his act, but he was best known as "the King of the One Liners." And his most iconic joke is still recognizable today: "Take my wife, please." With The Far Side's canine equivalent of the joke being what else? "Take my wife's fleas."

2 "The Nerve To Laugh At Death"

First Published: April 20, 1993​​​​​​​

Death isn't funny at all. But don't tell Gary Larson that. The Far Side frequently made the Grim Reaper a punchline. This might be the apex of the Reaper's recurring role in Far Side canon, as the black-robbed, faceless figure, still clutching his scythe, rolls up to open mic night at the comedy club hoping to kill it with his tight five.

The problem isn't that his jokes aren't landing. It is that the audience is afraid to laugh at Death. Except "Bernard," a guy sitting "in the front row," who "had the nerve to laugh." He throws his head back and guffaws as the Reaper awkwardly asks "did someone kill this microphone" following another presumably bombed punchline, and quickly follows up with, "Oh, I guess it was me."

1 "That's Not A Soup Spoon!"

First Published: July 1, 1994

"But seriously, folks..." It's a comedy business meme, the idea of a stand-up transitioning between bits with these words. The Grim Reaper said it in the last Far Side cartoon, and the comic here, an anthropomorphized fork, uses it too. In this instance, as part of a larger classic comedy scene set-up: the punchline without a set-up.

"And so the bartender says, 'Hey! That's not a soup spoon!" Readers can surmise that this is the end of a "______ walks into a bar" joke, but the details remain a mystery. The true punchline, of course, is the absurdity of a comedy club full of forks, and the fork stand-up (note the bow-tie) telling jokes about other silverware.

In that regard, it is deceptively simple. The real impact of a Far Side panel like this one, though, relies on how much baggage the reader brings to the table. The more familiar with comedy club culture, or comedy history, they might be, the more this cartoon is going to stick with them.

Final Thoughts:

Gary Larson was born in 1950, which means he grew up as part of the first TV-watching generation. That means early variety shows, and the first late night talk shows. Stand-up acts were a staple of both of these. Henny Youngman included. The Far Side's repeat use of the comedy club setting and set-up grew out of that.

So, all told, while Larson might have been a fan of George Carlin, or Richard Pryor, or Eddie Murphy Raw, his Far Side comedian comics are a gleeful throwback to an earlier era of the art form.