Summary

• The Far Side's holiday strips are strange and memorable, adding its quirky humor to Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
• The comic deconstructs holiday tropes in unique and often bizarre ways, using anthropomorphized animals and evocative visuals to present off-kilter looks at human traditions.
• The strip's humor comes from presenting the mundane from a surreal perspective, and turning familiar traditions and stories on their heads to create hilarious and unexpected scenarios.

The holidays are no different from any other topic that The Far Side skewers and subverts. Whether it be the greeting card holiday of Valentine's Day, Halloween's trick-or-treating, the Far Side adds its quirky, eccentric spirit to whatever it presents. While the holiday strips of the Far Side may not be the most sincere or heartfelt, they are memorable, which can usually be attributed to how strange they are.

The weirdness of its holiday strips does not remotely put a damper on the popularity of Far Side's representation of various major festivities – on the contrary, the unique – and at times bizarre – deconstruction of holiday tropes presented by Far Side creator Gary Larson is part of what makes the strip so enduring, in addition to the often evocative visuals, and the consistently hilarious captions. The series' holiday comics, in particular, always offer a distinctive take on the occasions that are held near to dear. Below are ten of the most notable holiday comics from the Far Side.

10 Valentine's Day

A Box Of Rodents For Cupid's Holiday Is The Cat's Meow

Valentine's Day may be a holiday too mushy for the Far Side's surreal humor. However, Larson adapts the holiday to fit his trademark style and comedy. Instead of a nice, normal box of chocolate, the strip presents two cats celebrating Valentine's with one cat gifting the other a unique surprise: a box of mice, hamsters, and gerbils. As it turns out, one animal's holiday is another animal's funeral. The strip perfectly exemplifies how the Far Side was able to switch the most mundane of things and turn them on its head, as well as offering a classic instance of its regular use of anthropomorphized animals to offer an off-kilter look at human traditions.

9 St. Patrick's Day

Everyone Is A Four Leaf Clover.

St.Patrick's Day is meant to commemorate the patron saint of Ireland, St.Patrick, and as a celebration of Irish culture in general. It is a tradition to look for four-leaf clovers, for good luck on the green-tinted holiday. Anyone searching for the plant would hit the jackpot if they saw the scene set in this Far Side strip. With people who appear only as clovers, the strip paints a Twilight Zone-esque picture that is a bit more off kilter than traditional St. Patty's Day sights. The strip's humor is somewhat cerebral, with its punchline coming in the form of the sign of one clover begging for change, which says: "down on my luck."

8 Halloween

Halloween Is A Monster Mash For The Far Side

The Far Side knew how to expertly blend recognizable characters from popular culture and place them in situations you would never expect. This is no more evident than in the Halloween strips that placed classic monsters like Frankenstein and his bride, as well as Dracula, in humdrum situations that made the monsters seem even more out of place. One of the funniest Halloween strips involves Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein at odds, requiring their creator to convince them that they were made for each other. One can't help but laugh at the joke, considering the pair were literally made for each other.

7 Thanksgiving

A Fun Tradition Is Horrific For Feathered Friends

The wishbone is a classic Thanksgiving tradition, where two people pull apart a bone, with the person who ends up with the bigger half of the wishbone supposedly gaining good luck, or the fulfillment of this wish. As seen in this Far Side , the bird's opinion on this tradition is understandably not enthusiastic. In fact, as this strip illustrates, it is, in fact, completely barbaric. It is odd seeing the breaking of the wishbone from a pet bird's perspective, but the Far Side always thrived in exactly these moments, presenting the mundane from a perspective where it became surreal, or in this case, reprehensible.

6 Thanksgiving II

A Very Xenomorph Turkey Day

The xenomorphs of the Alien movie franchise are instantly recognizable. However, no one would think to associate the terrifying extraterrestrials with the holiday of Thanksgiving, except Gary Larson, that is. In the sci-fi tinged send-up, the grown up aliens are at the adults table, while their not-so-adorable offspring are playfully chest-bursting through a turkey. While this scene is much less Norman Rockwell and more so freaky deaky, it is not the spine-chilling sight that the film's version with John Hurt portrayed.

5 Thanksgiving III

"Your Body Cavity Is Stuffed With A Tasty, Bread-Like Substance"

What makes this Far Side entry hilarious is its deadpan delivery of a bizarre interpretation of the familiar. In this case, an anthropomorphic turkey – named Mr. Griswold – visits the doctor, and receives a concerning diagnosis: he's full of stuffing. A staple of Thanksgiving dinner tables, stuffing usually goes inside of a dead bird; somehow, Mr. Griswold has managed to make it through Thanksgiving. However, he did not escape unscathed, evident by his visit to the doctor. Positing a turkey as a medical patient with a stuffing condition is an odd picture made all the more funny due to its sincere delivery, unconcerned with its own absurdity.

4 Christmas

A Gift That Is Sure To Surprise

A weird concept fleshed out in the eye-catching artwork of the Far Side, the Christmas portrayed in this strip can reliably be said to be one no other has experienced...hopefully. A father comes home on Christmas carrying a gigantic cockroach/beetle creature, whispering to his wife to keep it a surprise for the kids. Fixated on the TV in front of them, they have no idea what their father has come home with. Using the common trope of getting kids a dog for a surprise Christmas gift, The Far Side spins it to be a skin crawling, peculiar creature that no one – except for some very ionate entomologists – would want for a gift.

3 Christmas II

A Christmas Tragedy For One Rodent

Twas the Night Before Christmas is a classic yuletide story that countless readers will be familiar with, with many that can likely recite the rhyme by memory. The Far Side being the weird, kooky strip it is, puts a macabre spin on the popular poem. The mouse in the strip is definitely not stirring... because it's dead. Santa has accidentally clobbered the poor little rodent with his boot. Maybe the mice at the next houses will be luckier – and hopefully, this won't permanently ruin the iconic tale for anyone. In all seriousness, this is another example of Gary Larson's signature ability to turn the familiar on its ear, with great comedic results.

2 Christmas III

A Christmas Tree Makes An Impact On The Dance Floor.

A pine tree meets his significant other at a disco in this surreal Far Side work. A pine tree, decked out in his Christmas tree decor, dances up a storm. He obviously attracts the attention of everyone at the club with his expertise out on the dance floor. In his dancing, he gains the affections of the person who would make sure that this plant would no longer "be a lone pine tree." This Far Side is as odd a strip as they come, especially since it is a Christmas-themed comic, setting up an unpredictable pairing between a lady and a tree.

1 Christmas IV

Santa Threatens The Reindeer With Harsh Punishments.

Santa Claus is jolly and kind. He's supposed to be, at least. However, his personality takes a sharp turn in the world of the Far Side, where he is not scared to throw out some harsh threats. When he finds out the reindeer are complaining, St. Nick threatens to make venison out of them. Yes, Santa literally threatens to butcher his reindeer. It goes without saying that this is not the image most would conjure when thinking of Santa, with the Far Side's portrait of Santa far from the one kids all over the world adore – but as dark as it is, it is impossible not to laugh at.