The Far Side has a funny way of making readers nostalgic. Actually, more than one; while readers, new and old alike, wish they could go back to the time of The Far Side’s publication, many of Gary Larson’s cartoons, in their own right, traded in a form of nostalgia, or at least treated fans to a lighthearted form of revisionist history, which made decades and centuries past seem fun.

For readers revisiting The Far Side, who its time in newspapers, any one of Larson’s comics can give rise to a sentimental feeling about earlier days; younger generations of fans, meanwhile, are stuck with the sense of having “missed out” on the comic’s heyday.

No matter what age a Far Side fan is, the comics collected here successfully make light of history and culture, from the distant, to the relatively recent, and in each case, they will make readers wonder what it was like to live before their time.

10 Gary Larson Uses A Common Linguistic Misunderstanding To His Advantage In This Far Side Cartoon

First Published: August 17, 1994

another Far Side staple. Here, the caption informs readers that "it was tough for the guys in the vomitoriums to get dates," as the image shows "an assistant regurgitation engineer" failing to woo a woman over drinks.

In fact, the term "vomitorium" referred to the entrance/exitways of Roman public buildings, not a facility where citizens went to puke; though Larson, being a fan of history himself, likely knows this, he gleefully plays into the misunderstanding here, imagining what it would be like for employees at an actual vomitorium on the dating scene, and the answer is less than ideal.

9 The Far Side Reveals How Truly Wild A Legendary Old West Location Actually Was

First Published: May 21, 1993

Often, the charm of The Far Side came, in large part, from Gary Larson's ability to take dramatic situations and turn them silly. That is the case in this cartoon, as the author imagines a lighthearted alternate history of the infamous Old West town Dodge City. "It was a tough frontier town," the caption explains, underneath an illustration of a furious game of dodgeball taking place in the center of town, "but later...things calmed down, and the town's name was shortened to simply Dodge City."

In addition to being a classic Far Side play on words, it also serves to elicit nostalgia from readers in a more contemporary sense, as many will fondly recall games of dodgeball from their school days, the spirit of which Larson effectively captures here, with a delightfully absurd anachronistic twist.

8 The Far Side Spoofs "The Dating Game" With A Classic Snake Comic

First Published: May 20, 1993

The Far Side was full of nostalgic paeans to classic television; for contemporaries of Gary Larson, or for of subsequent generations who grew up watching re-runs of archaic TV in syndication, comics like this are sure to evoke a sense of wistfulness. For some younger readers, meanwhile, it will make them wish they could go back and experience analog TV in a bygone era.

In this Far Side cartoon, Larson depicts a serpentine version of The Dating Game. Exactly as depicted here, the show featured a female contestant on one side of a screen, and three male contestants on the other; the female contestant would ask a series of questions to get to know her potential suitors bettter; in The Far Side's take on this, the female snake asks which famous cartoon mouse the males would most want to devour, an animalistically macabre, and laugh-out-loud funny, punchline to a perfect Far Side reference.

7 The Far Side On The True Origins Of A Familiar Method Of Dividing Teams

First Published: July 25, 1990

This is another great example of Gary Larson's ability to subvert the seriousness of history, producing a decidedly more goofy interpretation of what life was like in the far reaches of the past. In this medieval Far Side cartoon, a group knights play a "pick up battle," with one side shedding their plate armor to be the "skins," with one of them complaining that it is "really dumb."

Again, Larson blurs familiar touchstones of the modern world with settings from the past in this Far Side , an effective comedic foundation that the artist was able to build on to varying levels of success on a -by- basis. Many readers will recognize the "shirts vs. skins" divide from youthful games of football, or soccer, and what makes this comic effective is the way it inserts this recognizable piece of Americana into a very different historical context.

6 The Far Side On The True Origins Of The Species

First Published: April 9, 1988

So long as there has been human civilization, people have yearned for earlier points in time, often those just outside the reach of their own lifetime. Often, especially in times like today, when society, and its problems, feel like they are rapidly accelerating in their complexity, this is connected to a desire to live in a "simpler time." In a way, this is reflected in one humanity's oldest, most well-known stories, the Biblical of Adam and Eve, who lived in the simplest time imaginable: just the two of them, with unlimited resources at their disposal, without even the knowledge of sin.

With The Far Side, Gary Larson visited the Garden of Eden a few times, but this is by far his funniest take on the the Bible's creation story, as he depicts the progenitors of humanity being spat out onto the Earth by God, tumbling naked to the ground, with a presumably angelic waiter's voice emanating from the cloud above, saying "I'm sorry sir! I don't know how they got in your soup!"

5 The Far Side Takes Readers Back To The Earliest Days Of School Electives

First Published: April 5, 1986

Many readers will have fond memories of machine shop, metal shop, wood shop, or some variation thereof from their school days; alternatively, plenty of people will be able to the relief of being able to avoid such a class. In any case, this Far Side cartoon hilariously portrays the prehistoric origins of such an elective, "Rock Shop 101," in which a group of Neanderthal students measure and chisel rocks.

In a way, this Far Side comic more generally communicates a sentimental feeling for school, a thing most people hate while they're stuck doing it, but later long for when life gets vastly more complicated. Gary Larson captures that feeling here, even if incidentally, by depicting the simplest version of a human being in the simplest incarnation of shop.

4 This Far Side Cowboy Comic Is All About The Vibes

First Published: November 14, 1984

Once again, Gary Larson undercuts the serious reputation of the Wild West, to great comedic effect, with this Far Side cartoon, which involves two gunslingers involved in a drinking contest. Except it is a caffeine drinking contest, and the dueling coffee-guzzlers are shown with bulging eyes, vibrating on an entirely different frequency than the crowd of cowboys assembled to watch them.

There is a reason tourists visit Old West towns, or dress up in Old West gear to take sepia-toned photos; it is because they want to safely visit the era, even over a century after it has ed. In its strange, cerebral way, The Far Side offers an opportunity to do that with its parody of the tropes associated with the wildness of the Western period in American history.

3 The Far Side Embodies The American Desire For How Things Used To Be Made

First Published: November 10, 1983

The Far Side, which debuted in 1980, existed at a crux in the commercial history of the United States, and indeed, the world; that is, the 1980s and '90s were when the large-scale industrial production of things like appliances really hit another level, after becoming more commonplace in preceding decades. As such, over the past 40+ years, a nostalgia for hand-crafted products has also been baked in the American psyche, even in young people, something this Far Side comic simply, wordlessly articulates.

In the , Gary Larson depicts a cave-craftsman chiseling a toaster out of stone. It is an amusing anachronism, on the surface, and that is enough to make it a memorable Far Side prehistoric gag, but it also betrays a hint of this desire for sturdier products, made by an individual, by hand, which was already creeping into people's minds in the early '80s.

2 A Modern Photography Prank Intrudes On A Solemn Civil War Moment In This Far Side Cartoon

First Published: December 16, 1981

The "bunny ears" hand sign apparently has a longer, more controversial history than one might realize, but the modern incarnation of the gesture, in the age of photography, as become a casual practical joke, a prank pulled at the very last second and memorialized in a picture.

This was already a thing by the 1980s, as Gary Larson uses it here to undercut the gravity of "a reflective moment" on the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg, as a group of Union soldiers and their general, presumably modeled after real-life Gettysburg general George Meade, pose for a portrait, or a primitive photo, with one of the men throwing up the ears behind his superior officer's head. It is worth wondering, just out of curiosity, whether in the history of Civil War re-enactments, anyone has ever re-created this Far Side cartoon, intentionally or not.

1 A UFOlogist's Epic Moment Of Revelation Turns To Embarassment In This Far Side

First Published: August 28, 1980

The punchline of this Far Side cartoon relies on outdated technology, but for people familiar with the idea of developing pictures in a dark room, it hits as one of Gary Larson's funniest jokes. In the , an amateur UFOlogist, in his dark room at home, holds up a still-developing picture of an unidentified flying object, triumphantly declaring: "I've done it! The first real evidence of a UFO! And with my own camera, in my own darkroom, in my own..."

At that exact moment, a bright stab of light fills the room, as if aimed directly at the picture, presumably ruining it at the critical moment. This is a perfect Far Side gag in its own right, earning this designation from the way it captures a moment of comedic irony alone, but there is also another layer to the joke. The fact that the speaker emphasizes "in [his own" repeatedly, and is cut off just before the word "home," makes the reveal of a flower-apron-wearing woman bearing milk and cookies, whom evidence suggests is his mother, a moment of embarrassment for the man, and leading to an iconic Far Side .