Legendary newspaper comic The Far Side is synonymous with the use of non-human characters, ranging from cows, chickens, and canines, to buzzards, bears, and various kinds of bugs, but some of Gary Larson’s cartoons stretched the limits of both his and readers’ imaginations more than others by utilizing truly unconventional characters.

At times, Larson brought inanimate objects to life, for the sake of some of his most out-there punchlines; in other cases, he wildly distorted the forms and figures of human and humanoid characters, in order to achieve a particular gag, or get a particular reaction out of The Far Side’s readers.

A closer look at these s can provide a greater understanding of how Larson’s sense of humor and artistic style worked together to make The Far Side famous, carving out a legacy in American popular culture that remains significant to this day.

10 Gary Larson Explores The Far Side Of Women's Fashion In This Hilarious Comic

First Published: December 15, 1981

In this early absurd Far Side cartoon, Gary Larson takes a stock phrase and flips it on its head, to great comedic effect. "Excuse me, Harold, while I go slip into something more comfortable," a woman says to her date, as she saunters away wearing a dress that is made out of a garage's worth of tools, including a chainsaw, a mallet, and assorted other heavy, burdensome objects.

The contrast between the "sexy" scenario and the ridiculous nature of the woman's attire has an immediately laugh-out-loud quality to it, making this a solid, successful Far Side cartoon. In of Larson's ability to go out on a limb to get a laugh, this cartoon represents the strain of his characters who take something to an unexpected and uproarious extreme.

9 Gary Larson's Most Obscure Aliens Pop Up On The Far Side Of The Moon

First Published: May 23, 1983

Far Side readers regularly encountered aliens, as Gary Larson routinely embodied his "outsider" perspective through the use of literal extraterrestrial characters; over time, Larson's go-to alien design became recognizable to fans of his work, but there was always room for experimentation, as exhibited by this cartoon, in which a pair of continent-shaped aliens look at the moon from Earth, identifying their features in the blue-and-green planet's landmass.

This is, by its nature, one of Larson's most "out there" jokes, in which the visual curveball is the punchline in itself. The best Far Side jokes took the familiar and made it strange, and in the sense that this does precisely that, it can be considered an underrated Far Side installment.

8 This Far Side's Vampire's Wandering Eye Is As Dangerous As His Thirst For Blood

First Published: March 6, 1985

In this amusing Far Side vampire comic, a bloodsucker crashes his car because he was craning his neck to get a look at the ludicrously elongated neck on a woman ing by on a busy city street. It is a simple, silly joke, the kind The Far Side doesn't get enough credit for, with the effectiveness of the humor entirely relying on the disproportionate anatomy of the woman in the foreground of the frame.

The Far Side was all about playful distortions, and this is a solid example of a joke which relies on a deliberate redesign of the human form, with the woman's unconventional appearance ranking her among Gary Larson's most visually distinct creations from throughout his career.

7 The Far Side Of Anthropomorphization, Explained

First Published: September 17, 1986

Gary Larson made a career out of depicting animals acting like humans, and sometimes vice versa, in what is The Far Side's most recognizable trope. This pushes that concept to its limit, with a joke that anthropomorphizes jellyfish, while at the same time leaning into their amorphous nature.

The cartoon features two out-of-place outhouses on the ocean floor, each adorned with an identical jellyfish silhouette, with the real thing floating above, as the caption notes, "only they know the difference." It is a joke that straddles the border of high-brow and low-brow, and makes readers question what the defining features of "anthropomorphization" really are. While this Far Side can be praised for taking a wild swing, it is also understandable that this joke hasn't reached the iconic status of many other Larsonian punchlines.

6 Hilarity Ensued When The Far Side Put Its Most Unusual Characters Under A Microscope

First Published:​ December 19, 1986

Most of the "unconventional" Far Side characters cataloged here were one-offs; amoebas are an exception, because they appeared regularly throughout The Far Side, but they warrant representation here because they rank among Gary Larson's most thoroughly inhuman characters.

Here, Larson depicts a literal "amoeba convention," which amounts to a bunch of identical one-celled organisms floating in the frame together, differentiated only by their nametags. It is a thoroughly goofy joke, the kind The Far Side deserves to be celebrated for, as much as it is noted for its notoriously dark vein of humor. In fact, Larson's bacterial strain of comedy represents some of his broadest appeal, even if it comes in the form of some of his most niche, unusual characters.

5 Gary Larson Had A Good Head On His Shoulders; Not Every Far Side Character Could Say The Same

First Published: December 22, 1986

Captioned "the Headless Horsefamily," this Far Side cartoon depicts the headless man of the house walking through the door after a long day at work and being greeted by his headless dog, and his headless children, as his headless wife cleans dishes in the kitchen, and even their headless goldfish looks on from its bowl.

The beauty of this Far Side cartoon is the way it takes a familiar figure from popular legend and finds the funniest possible extension of that character; in this case, the terrifying "Headless Horseman" of lore becomes an average family man, with their lack of noggins being a familial trait, rather than a gruesome result of injury, as in the original urban legend.

4 The Far Side's Most Iconic Anthropomorphized Objects, Explained

First Published: April 6, 1987

This Far Side joke is a riff on the class jazz tune "Mack the Knife," which pays homage to Larson anthropomorphized inanimate objects, in comparison to how often he made animals act like humans.

One of the joys of art is the ability to capture and evoke a feeling in a single image, and here, Larson's illustration is appropriately melancholy and mournful, and so despite the absurdity of the characters being a knife, a spoon, and a piano-playing fork, this Far Side comic still manages to capture the very real feeling of being a struggling musician, living in squalor and trying to make it big.

3 A Usually Sedentary Object Springs To Life In This Overlooked Far Side Classic

First Published: April 10, 1992

In another example of a Far Side anthropomorphized object , this laugh-out-loud comic features a suburban couple looking out their front window in surprise, as their recliner mows the lawn, with one of them remarking: "Holy cow! What's gotten into our La-Z-Boy?"

This Far Side cartoon absolutely deserves more attention, given the hilarious harmony it strikes between its caption and image. Linguistically, Larson delivers a classic Far Side play on words here, as this armchair refutes the reputation for inactivity that its name, and its very raison d'être, carry with it, while the image is strikingly funny in its own right, given the arch-absurdity of the joke from premise to execution.

2 The Far Side Explores The Silly Side Of Anthropology

First Published: September 15, 1992

", Calloway, this is their biggest and best warrior," one explorer tells another, as he straps boxing gloves onto the latter man's hands, preparing him to face an indigenous brawler, from a tribe made up of literal punching bags. "When you knock him down, he's going to come right back at ya," the first explorer elaborates further, stating what readers will recognize as the obvious from the "warrior's" design.

The Far Side was frequently outrageous, but just as often as it prompted actual outrage, it was instead over-the-top in its silliness, showcasing the fact that absurd humor comes in more than one form. Of Gary Larson's many jokes about anthropologists and explorers, this stands out as one of the strangest of the bunch, thanks to its unique and unconventional depiction of an indigenous island society.

1 The Far Side Elusive "Character Of The Lake" Is Laugh-Out-Loud Funny

First Published: October 23, 1992

This Far Side cartoon features a serene moment out on the lake fishing for a couple, which is punctured by the out-of-nowhere appearance of "the Character of the Lake," a strange, clown-like figure that scurries along the shoreline, in a moment the caption tells readers that the characters "Bob and Vera...would always ."

The incongruity of the "Character's" appearance and the wilderness setting make this an effective Far Side joke, one which will bring a smile to most readers' faces. It is certainly an unusual punchline, outside of the "standard" set by many of Gary Larson's best jokes, but it still manages to have an effect, making it a successful Far Side installment.