Gary Larson was a science nerd at heart, so it is no surprise that The Far Side often made light of scientists, turning their genius into a gleeful ineptitude that mocked as much as it celebrated. When it comes to sci-fi, it often feels that it was not necessarily Larson’s biggest inspiration, at least not compared to his love of Westerns or dogs. But you dig a bit deeper, and there are some obvious nods to the genre, and some comics bring Larson’s usual absurdist humor into science to create that movie or book scenario.
I adore sci-fi movies, and when he hits that intersection that appeals to my love of alien worlds, alternative realities, or scientific monstrosities, they always land perfectly. There was a fair amount to go through this time around, so to pick the best, I dug back through my copy of The Complete Far Side and tried to get a wide array of The Far Side comics that went full sci-fi; I tried to go easier on the aliens for a further list down the line. These are the funniest times The Far Side went full sci-fi.
Why You Should Trust Me: Gary Larson was a cornerstone of my early years and shaped a love of comedy I still carry decades later. I have amassed a large collection of his work that I revisit and reflect on often, and it’s become one of my roles at MovieWeb to curate his work for these lists.
The Time Machine Strikes Back
Starting with a big one, that combines Larson’s love of dinosaurs, dense scientists, and some sci-fi silliness. It is uproarious to think that humans will get to the point where we invent time travel, but lack knowledge of dinosaurs and don’t have the safety equipment to approach them. We now know dinosaurs were a diverse bunch. The humorous proposition of the cold/hot-blooded debate being presented as “still unresolved” is closer to the truth than you might expect: the view of dinosaurs as cold-blooded prevailed from around the turn of the 20th century until John Ostrom and Robert T. Bakker challenged it in the 1960s and 1970s, and even today most scientists caution against a simple warm-versus-cold-blooded answer. The only thing this strip is missing is the thagomizer.
Short Circuit in Shop Class
Hey, we all have to start somewhere on our mad scientist journey, but seeing what one little kid did here puts my nightmarish lab creations to shame. Larson’s take on a killer robot is visually cool yet terrifying, especially in the hands of a kid looking for revenge on his Metal Shop teacher. The strip is such a brilliant collision of the futuristic and the mundane, highlighting Larson’s ability to take something as terrifying as a killer robot and turn it into a playful image of a kid challenging a single adult.
Attack of the Clones
I have seen enough movies on cloning to know that it never turns out well. Still, there is room for a sci-fi world where that kind of service has become such a common practice that you can even get a discount clone of yourself. This thought alone is humorous in itself, particularly trying to construct your own plot around it, but honestly, it is the signage that makes me chuckle here, from “Friendly Frank’s Cloning” with the motto “Good Genes? Bad Genes? No Genes?” on the banner. He seems more welcoming than DNA Dan’s across the street; you have to respect the grind.
The Right Stuff Goes Wrong
Forget flat earth theory, forget turtles all the way down theory, I am embracing balloon theory; how else can the Earth stay afloat? There is often extra humor in Larson’s earlier works, as the crudity of his drawings oddly makes them stand out and often punctuates the humor. This seems like a ragtag crew discovering a big secret that needs to be kept quiet. If this were a movie, there would be an evil scientist or despot who discovers it and wants to hold the world to ransom by taking over the balloon string.
The Dentist From Another World
Our first visions of sci-fi often come when we are kids, with some bizarre science or aliens softly presenting themselves to fragile minds. This exposure can come with our first vision, terror, or a sense of dread; even ET was a bit unnerving in its design. What I love about this strip is that it dives into those childhood fears of the unknown, and a dentist who is secretly a monster seems like the perfect fodder for an uncomfortable childhood movie. I already assume the creature is from another planet, that he needs children’s teeth to power his spacecraft, and it will be up to Bobby to convince the other kids to fight back.
Cowboys & Aliens
The gag here is that this genre essentially does not exist, so how could it possibly be romanticized? Yet, this is just one of many examples of Larson (likely accidentally) predicting something, or perhaps inspiring others to expand on his concept. The genre mash-up has not become a cinematic staple. Still, Jon Favreau directed the 2011 comic book adaptation Cowboys & Aliens, which one could speculate was inspired by The Far Side. The visuals here are also phenomenal, with the little details like the cactus getting zapped. Larson loved Westerns, so it is not surprising his mind landed on this mash-up.
They Live Among the Anchors
The world of news media has become so muddled by political and economic interests that it is not hard to envision news anchors as the creatures in They Live. Combined with AI videos sneaking into online feeds, it can feel like something stranger is going on behind the curtains, or, in this case, the desk. Oops, sorry, I forgot to take my tinfoil hat off. Regardless, there is something so devious yet familiar with the idea that local anchors are aliens from the waist down, intent on their own quiet invasion. A rare instance where a Larson comic makes you both laugh and shudder at the same time.
The Wrath of Zsa Zsa
It is not very often that Larson directly references movies or TV, but when he does, it is an ideal combination for fans of both media. Star Trek is the only obvious sci-fi screen reference beyond a couple of Alien strips (and I guess Superman if you believe superhero counts), but what makes this great is how Larson further doubles up with a bizarre culture clash with cultural icon Zsa Zsa Gabor, whose lavish style and camp delivery earned her a lasting camp and queer-icon status. Why Larson paired Star Trek with Gabor, we may never know; in fact, maybe he just found the name itself a great punchline to pair with the visual.
2001: A Stone Age Odyssey
Many believe aliens have always been with us, helping shape humanity through technology that has allowed us to advance at an exponential rate. Yet, even aliens had to start somewhere. The idea of a primitive alien in ramshackle stone UFOs is such a gleefully absurd image that you can’t help but laugh. The strip delivers a lovely bit of anachronistic logic, the idea that even early humans had their own low-tech mysteries in the sky. The terrified cavemen are the pièce de résistance on top of an already hilarious visual of the crude alien craft.
Independence Day Cut Short
This scene feels like the opening of a larger sci-fi adventure, perhaps with a more advanced humanoid species as the main characters. Earth, picturesque, only to become a bug on a spaceship to open up to the broader world the movie will explore. The image here is certainly impactful, but it is the “oh gross!” that likens our very existence to cosmic roadkill, touching on Larson’s ability to hide something deceptively dark within a funny strip.
Larson proved he could riff on the cosmos as easily as he did the barnyard, and these are my picks for his finest trips into the genre. But the man launched enough sci-fi gags to fill a galaxy, so let us know which Far Side sci-fi strip is your favorite, or which one you’d have added to the list in the comments below.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
