7 Hilarious ‘Far Side’ Comics With the Worst Puns
Gary Larson’s Far Side comics paired clever observations with deliberately groan-worthy puns, using the contrast to create a different kind of humour from the strip’s more intricate jokes. The article presents seven examples as evidence that even Larson’s silliest wordplay could work because of the drawings and ideas around it.
The examples include people swallowed by carpets as a play on the La Brea Tar Pits, an “inconvenience store” with items out of reach, and a cow called “Cowmen Miranda” wearing fruit on her head. Other gags take “sketchy” literally and show runaway trains on milk cartons; Larson himself once named the runaway-train cartoon as his nominee for his worst. The article argues that its silliness is part of the appeal.
In short
- Larson used intentionally bad puns alongside clever visual jokes.
- The seven examples include “La Brea Carpets” and “Cowmen Miranda”.
- Larson called the runaway-train milk-carton cartoon his worst.
Explained simply
The Far Side was a single-panel comic strip by American cartoonist Gary Larson, known for mixing odd situations, animal characters and visual jokes. Some of its humour came from puns: jokes that use words with similar sounds or more than one meaning.
A pun can seem deliberately silly or predictable, but the drawing can give it a second layer. The La Brea Tar Pits, for example, are natural asphalt pits in California; a cartoon showing people swallowed by carpets turns that name into a visual wordplay joke.
Larson’s cartoons appeared in newspapers and were later collected in books, reaching readers well beyond their original publication. The appeal of the pun-heavy examples lies in how the words, drawings and absurd situations work together, even when the joke is meant to make readers groan.