One of the great things about Gary Larson's Larson's humor is so unique and idiosyncratic that one person's least favorite comic is another's greatest of all time. But even in that context, it's shocking that in our poll to find out Larson's best cat comic of all time, the winner triumphed by a single vote, despite over 1100 responses.
In July 2024, we published '15 Far Side Comics That Prove Gary Larson Is Obsessed with Cats,' asking fans to vote on the very best of the best. Larson's cats quarrel with dogs, get themselves arrested and work out complex scientific theorems. In the ultimate narrow margin, the winner triumphed 135 votes to 134. Enjoy the runners-up by opening the image gallery below.
The runner-up comics appealed to pet owners, with Larson's comic about how much dogs and cats understand their owners coming in fourth, and a captionless comic where a cat desperately wants to hunt birds and rodents coming #3. The second place comic was a pun on 'curiosity killed the cat' - which Larson takes totally literally - while the winner (below, after the full results of the poll) takes the idea of cats scratching their owners to the extreme.
Far Side's Funniest Comic That Proves Gary Larson Is Obsessed with Cats |
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Subject |
Votes |
Percentage of Vote |
Position |
What to Do Today... |
25 |
2% |
#14 |
"Keep the Door Shut!" |
41 |
3% |
#13 |
If Pets Wore Hats |
51 |
4% |
#12 (t) |
Dog Threat Letters |
51 |
4% |
#12 (t) |
The Rothenbergs |
56 |
5% |
#11 |
"I Know Nothing" |
58 |
5% |
#10 |
Arrested |
71 |
6% |
#9 |
Wooden Leg |
80 |
7% |
#8 |
Trickery! Trickery! Trickery! |
86 |
7% |
#7 |
"Randy's Goin' Down!" |
92 |
8% |
#6 |
Cat Showers |
99 |
8% |
#5 |
What They Hear |
105 |
9% |
#4 |
Bob's Assorted Rodents |
108 |
9% |
#3 |
Curiosity Killed the Cat...s |
134 |
11% |
#2 |
"Is He Friendly?" |
135 |
11% |
#1 |
The Far Side Rewrites the World's Most Famous Joke in These 10 Hilarious Comics: Read
Here are the 10 funniest Far Side comics that just celebrated their fortieth birthday, including Gary Larson's take on the world's most famous joke.
Screen Rant Readers Crown This Far Side's Funniest Cat Comic
Gary Larson's 'Curiosity Killed the Cat' Joke Is a Close Runner-Up
Screen Rant readers made the slimmest of calls between the family who have been savaged by their pet and Larson's 'curiosity killed the cat' pun. The winner makes great use of the relationship between image and caption, as readers see two badly injured people and then discover via the dialogue that they're victims of feline rage.
In 1987, an interviewer confronted Larson with the question, "Would it be accurate to say that you have less respect for human beings than you do for animals?"
The joke hinges on the oblivious guest, who could surely work out for herself that the cat is anything but friendly, while Larson's subtle posing of the unruffled but clearly unfriendly cat shows his mastery of minimalist art. This winner begs a question that Larson was asked throughout his career - does he actually prefer animals to humans?
13 Funniest Far Side Comics That Somehow Make Worms Funny
In Far Side's funniest comics about worms, it's easy to see why Gary Larson loved the subject so much that he wrote a children's book about it.
Did Gary Larson Really Like Animals More Than Humans?
Far Side's Original Title Hints at His Priorities
Gary Larson is a major nature lover, having raised funds for conservationist charities via his Far Side work. Indeed, Far Side was originally pitched under the title Nature's Way, with an explicit focus on the animal kingdom. Indeed, while Far Side is never gentle with its characters, it certainly seems like Larson prefers it when animal characters win out over humans. Larson was questioned about this in a 1987 interview with 20/20, with the interviewer asking, "Would it be accurate to say that you have less respect for human beings than you do for animals?"
Larson jokingly replied, "Yeah, I guess it would be," but quickly clarified, "I don't know if I believe that or not. I guess down deep inside, no I don't, but I've never met an Irish Setter I didn't like." That's not to say that Larson gives his animal characters an easy time. In fact, his biggest mark of respect towards the animal kingdom is that Far Side acknowledges how cutthroat the natural world really is, and how hard most animals (but especially prey animals) have it.
Gary Larson may have loved animals, but he didn't pull any punches going after Snoopy and Garfield.
Nevertheless, if there's a Far Side animal that has a chance to eat, maim, or sting a human, it's a fair bet they'll get the chance. Of course, despite Larson's clear love of creatures great and small, there's one group of animals that he didn't mind actively treating badly.
15 Funniest Far Side Comics Starring Grumpy Old Men
Gary Larson's The Far Side loves depicting mundane reactions to truly bizarre situations, making grumpy old men his perfect subject matter.
There's One Cat That Larson Wasn't Wild About - Garfield
Far Side Often Took Shots at Its Competitors
The one group of animals who fare poorly in Larson's comics are those belonging to his competitors, including Peanuts and Garfield. It's clear that Larson's references were playful digs, but his comics include a satisfied Far Side snake having eaten Garfield, a WWI pilot shooting down Snoopy, and Calvin and Hobbes' tiger savaging his erstwhile friend.
In one of his most meta comics - in the image gallery below - Larson's Far Side characters spy on their comic strip rivals, with a bunch of in-jokes poking fun at competitors including Nancy (who's pictured with a machine gun), Peanuts' Charle Brown (who is threatening to put Snoopy to sleep), and Opus the Penguin (who just noticed the camera hidden in his home.)
While Larson is obviously just having fun with his contemporaries, there's a note of truth to these gags. Far Side was always a little more surreal and morbid than its funny-pages colleagues, and bringing them into its world allowed Larson to introduce a note of darkness into purely innocent worlds like that of Peanuts. For example, there are plenty of Garfield comics where the titular cat beats up his owner Jon Arbuckle, but he never goes as far as taking out an eye, like Far Side's pet cat.
Despite this major difference, it's clear there was a huge appetite for Larson's darker world, if proven only by our poll. With the #1 winner showing a cat having maimed its owner and the #2 showing a group of cats killed by their own curiosity, it's clear that from Far Side's 80s origins to today, that air of darkness has been more than welcome among the comic's fans.
- Writer
- Gary Larson
- Colorist
- Gary Larson
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
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