‘The Far Side’s Last Comic Turned Its Entire 15-Year Run Into One Final Joke
Gary Larson ended The Far Side on 1 January 1995 with a two-panel strip that transformed its 15-year history into a final self-referential joke. Rather than offering a sentimental farewell, the cartoon suggested that the strip’s surreal world had been a dream inspired by Larson’s everyday surroundings, reinforcing the comic’s preference for absurdity over continuity.
The first, colour panel parodies The Wizard of Oz, with Larson told to say “There’s no place like home” and quack three times, recalling the strip’s recurring duck humour. The second shifts to black and white and shows him in bed among people resembling Far Side characters, echoing Oz’s visual transition while implying that cows, cavemen and other figures sprang from his imagination. By then, The Far Side had appeared in nearly 2,000 newspapers, been translated into more than 17 languages, and featured thousands of cartoons.
- Larson ended The Far Side with a self-referential dream joke.
- The finale parodied The Wizard of Oz.
- It reflected the strip’s surreal, character-free approach.
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The Far Side was a single-panel comic by American cartoonist Gary Larson, known for surreal scenes involving animals, people and unlikely situations. It began in 1980 and ran in newspapers for 15 years, reaching readers around the world.
Larson often used recurring subjects such as ducks, cows and cavemen, but the strip did not depend on an ongoing plot. Its humour came from unexpected twists and from treating strange situations as ordinary. The Wizard of Oz, referenced in the final strip, is a classic story in which a girl travels to a fantasy world and longs to return home.
The comic’s long newspaper run made its ending a notable moment for readers and for Larson’s work. Its final joke drew on familiar ideas from the strip and played with the boundary between the cartoonist’s imagination and everyday life.