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The Far Side – By Gary Larson
- krosaen 3y agoOne of my favorite t-shirts was a "rusty makes his move" with dog breath spray - I wore it weekly until it had yellow pit stains and holes in it.
- the__alchemist 3y agoHey - I've been wondering about this for a while: Does anyone have an explanation of the Farside/AI crap that has been flooding Facebook for the past few months? Generally, the punchline is that animals are turning the tide on humans, and hunting them instead; husbands and wives hate each other; old men like creeping on young women while their wives gets mad. The comics linked seem different.
- evan_ 3y agoI'm sure it's just your regular, everyday bid for eyeballs and clicks. The linked comics are the "real thing", selections from a syndicated single-panel comic that ran in newspapers for years until the mid-90s. The gags tended to be pretty surreal.
- dylan604 3y ago> The comics linked seem different. Whaaat? Say it ain't true! The AI crap isn't as good as the original? No! That's impossible!
- csixty4 3y agoYeah, I can kind of explain that as much as anyone can I guess. Someone made a page called The Far Side as a content farm. Great nostalgic brand for Facebook's main demographics = easy engagement. There's only 4,337 actual The Far Side comics, so they also run typical "boomer humor" strips from about the same era or apparently make their own low-effort comics. Lots of content with lots of engagement means the algorithm is likely to show it in people's feeds even at the expense of posts from their friends and groups they joined.
- nullhole 3y agoWorth noting is Gary Larson's original response to the WWW was an open letter asking fans not to post his cartoons online. Akin to the Bill Gates letter on copying software, but, perhaps, more understandable. This website is a reversal of that original position. He was thoughtful then, and is thoughtful now. The original letter: https://www.portmann.com/farside/index.html?home.html https://www.portmann.com/farside/index.html?home.html And the reversal: https://www.thefarside.com/about/48/a-letter-from-gary-larson https://www.thefarside.com/about/48/a-letter-from-gary-larso... ... for cartoons, my favourite has always been: [A cow, wearing jewellery and holding a martini glass, stands by the picture window of a well-appointed suburban home, while a bull sits in an armchair, watching TV, with a beer in his hoof] Cow: "Wendell... I'm not content"
- jacquesm 3y agoFor me it's also a cow one: 'Car!'.
- Wistar 3y agoSomeone close to me has the original of the “Car” cartoon. Gary gave it to him as a gift shortly after it was published. It is pen and ink and Letratone on paperboard and is about 18” wide. For a year or two in the late 90s, the artwork went missing and was thought to have been stolen, but was eventually found to have been put in storage.
- jacquesm 3y agoWow, that is incredible. First that it wouldn't have pride of place somewhere (it's as if the gift wasn't properly appreciated), second that it would end up in storage and then that it was found again. If they need a safe place to store it give them my email ;)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mccolin 3y agoI’ve always loved “Beware of Doug”
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoIf I had to pick a favorite, it'd be all of them. I only wish I had a thagomizer for the routine problems of work and day-to-day living.
- dylan604 3y agoMine was School For the Gifted
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoI was drinking coffee when I saw "Early vegetarians returning from the kill". But not for long.
- dylan604 3y agoI have redecorated with my morning beverage on many occasions myself.
- geoelectric 3y agoI think of that one every single time I try to use a door the wrong way.
- urbandw311er 3y agohttps://fifetli.blog/2019/01/15/midvale-school-for-the-gifted/ https://fifetli.blog/2019/01/15/midvale-school-for-the-gifte...
- chris_wot 3y agohttps://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/lord-we-thank-thee-the-far-side-gary-larson-one-of-my-favorites--415738609325149116/ https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/lord-we-thank-thee-the-far-...
- plowjockey 3y agoMany years ago attending the first company technical seminar that one was taped to the door. Sometime in the late '80s the local daily began carrying the Far Side and the very first one had Popeye on the witness stand saying, "I yam what I yam."
- AlbertCory 3y agoBummer of a birthmark https://i.pinimg.com/originals/86/64/d6/8664d684518509081caf591cb0af6fa4.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/86/64/d6/8664d684518509081caf...
- xoxxala 3y ago"Bummer of a birthmark, Hal" has made its way into my everyday lexicon. Most of my coworkers immediately got the reference. There is something about Far Side humor that appeals to people in tech beyond all the science and nerd jokes.
- MiddleEndian 3y agoI have that comic (text included) on a t shirt. Sometimes people ask me about it, and I will explain it in an excruciating amount of detail for my entertainment. Sometimes they will try to out-do me and respond by pretending to be confused by my explanation, but my tolerance for playing the fool is incredibly high so I can keep it up for quite some time and they inevitably give up first.
- b112 3y agoI picture an octogenarian, bored on a park bench, with endless time, inquiring as you pass and you outlasting them.
- NickC25 3y agoWow, The Far Side really brings back some cherished childhood memories. Larson is, IMO, one of the best to ever do it. His humor is really unique, and he's quite a thoughtful person as well, letting his work speak for itself. A relic of a bygone era. One of my faves: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/oh-my-god-its-leonard-hes-stuffed-himself--525232375276669962/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/oh-my-god-its-leonard-hes-stuf... Gets me every time. I still have It came from the Far Side as well as Gallery and Gallery 2 on my bookshelf. Timeless.
- jancsika 3y agoIs there a name for a cartooning style where the creatures seem to always be drawn as wide as possible? I remember a few animators for Sesame Street who did the same thing. It was always striking. Larson seems to also give them tiny heads for maximum ridiculousness. :) It make me think of that Aubrey Beardsley illustration of Ali Baba where he's got the curved lines running off the page suggesting these gi-normous flowing comfy pants: https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/aubrey-vincent-beardsley-ali-baba-aubrey-vincent-beardsley.jpg https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediu...
- alibrarydweller 3y agoNot cartooning exactly, but there is Boterismo - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Botero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Botero
- Modified3019 3y agoI'm not certain there's a name, but Larson was heavily influenced by the work of B. Kliban
- tomcam 3y agoKliban was superior but also R to X-rated and transgressive af outside of his cat cartoons
- aidenn0 3y agoWow, if you told me that this[1] was a Far Side, I'd believe you. 1: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a8/8c/46/a88c46ca525d66d6444b55b3c54a8132--jul.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/736x/a8/8c/46/a88c46ca525d66d6444b55b3c...
- artie_effim 3y agoWe still refer to cat food as 'cat fud' in my house.
- thebruce87m 3y ago“Fud” means something very different in Scotland. It used to be a common derogatory term. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fud https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fud
- m463 3y agoIt was also used microsoft to great effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt
- unethical_ban 3y agoLooks like it is related to futz, how I have heard it "don't futz around with that" with kind of means don't like at it because you'll break it.
- codeulike 3y agoYes! I always write it like that on shopping lists now https://twitter.com/jamiesmart/status/1691482826472828928 https://twitter.com/jamiesmart/status/1691482826472828928
- DonHopkins 3y agoNerd! ... Dang! https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c9/08/a0/c908a02a8dfa42db9973f743b761777f.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c9/08/a0/c908a02a8dfa42db9973f743b... Dang! ... Who ate the middle out of the daddy longlegs? https://ifunny.co/picture/dang-who-ate-the-middle-out-of-the-daddy-longlegs-OeLw20CcA https://ifunny.co/picture/dang-who-ate-the-middle-out-of-the...
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoTwo Far Side mentions (at least) for our moderator? And here I envisioned him as a much younger man.
- EvanAnderson 3y agoI've been reading the entire The Far Side (from the massive two book set) with my 10 y/o daughter. It's interesting to see how apparently the culture of the time of Gary Larson's upbringing imprinted itself on the strips. Reading 10 or so strips at a sitting makes it very apparent (along with making apparent Larson's go-to characters and tropes). My daughter commented on there being few depictions of female scientists, academics, doctors, etc (instances if the archetypal The Far Side character in a lab coat) as an example. The strips that feature singles bar-type settings feel a little skeevy, too. I'm not trying to say anything negative about the strips or Gary Larson. It's interesting to me to reflect on something I enjoyed in my childhood "showing its age", even as I enjoy it now.
- ghaff 3y agoPop culture (and, good as it is, The Far Side is pop culture) always reflects current society to some degree. I would actually say that The Far Side (and Calvin and Hobbes) probably less directly reflects when they were drawn. For a more obvious example, see Dilbert. Leaving aside all the other baggage, with few exceptions, it's really more about 1990s PacBell cubicle life than anything about the current era, certain common stereotypes notwithstanding.
- hermitcrab 3y agoSo much 'other baggage'. Ugh.
- floren 3y agoI think society in The Far Side is built more out of, like, Looney Tunes cartoons and B movies from the 50s. Everybody is a stereotype: scientists in lab coats and glasses, "tough guys" in white t-shirts and pompadours, ladies with beehive hairdos. His cities, his houses, his restaurants, they all default to "stereotypically about 1955". It's easy to draw and it's easy to parse as a reader.
- ghaff 3y agoThat's probably fair. It's much less part and parcel of the 60s/70s than a number of other strips are.
- TJSomething 3y agoI just found out that Larson started drawing comics again on a very irregular schedule: https://www.thefarside.com/new-stuff https://www.thefarside.com/new-stuff
- b450 3y agoI have several well-worn Far Side collections, including one with a lovely introduction by Jane Goodall, which has a funny story behind it [1] Linking my favorite below [2] > Donning his new canine decoder, Professor Schwarzman becomes the first human being on Earth to hear what barking dogs are actually saying. [1] http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The%20Complete%20Far%20Side.htm http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/The%20Complete%20Far%... [2] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNZar0hX0AQB98d?format=jpg&name=small https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FNZar0hX0AQB98d?format=jpg&name=...
- noSyncCloud 3y agoWhat a great story. Love that
- Ringz 3y agoThis is also my favorite, which I have been able to laugh at for years.
- AlbertCory 3y agothat's funny, because some comedian stole the idea, and had all the dogs saying "Fuck you! Fuck you!" I still always think of that when I hear dogs barking.
- dmurray 3y agoI'm a fan of the SMBC take on this one: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/springtime https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/springtime
- arbuge 3y agoEverybody has their Far Side favorite... here's mine: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/54184001740077889/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/54184001740077889/
- polygotdomain 3y agoGrowing up my best friend and I loved The Far Side. In many ways it was the basis to the quirky humor we both shared, and would continue to explore throughout our youth. In elementary school we had countless Far Side books between us, and by middle school a few shirts too (I remember having "Midvale School for the Gifted"). Well he turned 40 just a few weeks ago, and I needed to find a present. I don't know why, as The Far Side hadn't crossed my conscious in quite some time, but I thought "I'll get him 'The Chickens are Restless'". After some quick searching, he ended up with the Complete Works containing every thing from The Far Side. Wrapped, he didn't have a clue what I'd got him or why it was so damn heavy. The first glance as he opened in and realized what it was instantly brought a smile to his face. It's amazing how small things bring people together, and The Far Side will always be one of them for my best friend and I. I'm sure there will be some new comics we'd missed and there will be some new chuckles.
- w4ffl35 3y ago[flagged]
- w4ffl35 3y ago[flagged]
- gerdesj 3y agoOK, I've downvoted you. What is wrong with a reminiscence session about a subject posted here? When you click on the OP you just get a few disjointed Gary Larsen "out takes" and I guess you have to get to grips with it blah etc. I am a massive fan but that does not get you off the hook. @polygodomain gave us something new and tangible. They gave something of themselves and I find that engaging and rather charming. That's why I still hang out on HN, despite it being a bit shouty.
- w4ffl35 3y agoIt was predictable, just like the reddit comments section.
- codexb 3y agoI don't know why, but I was convinced that Gary Larson died like 15 years ago.
- jonathankoren 3y agoI am so happy that Cow Tools has become a meme.
- sizzzzlerz 3y agoMy favorite is two bears, sitting a campfire, a hunter's clothing scatter around. One bear is telling the other "I love it when they play dead'.
- tpoindex 3y agoI love the Far Side, glad to have it online. The two volume set has a featured spot on my bookshelf. And fun to see other commenters here share some of my favorites Far Sides. What contemporary comics are people following? Two of my current daily views are: Bizarro - clever puns + such, single frame: https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/bizarro/ https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/bizarro/ Dark Side of the Horse - low key sublime: https://www.gocomics.com/darksideofthehorse/ https://www.gocomics.com/darksideofthehorse/
- ahazred8ta 3y agoDoctor Fun from the 1990s was very farsidish but geekier. https://nerocam.com/DrFun/Dave/archive.html https://nerocam.com/DrFun/Dave/archive.html -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Fun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Fun
- philipkglass 3y agoPerry Bible Fellowship: https://pbfcomics.com/ https://pbfcomics.com/ One of the best known strips, and a fine joke about historical fiction (or maybe just history itself): https://pbfcomics.com/comics/now-showing/ https://pbfcomics.com/comics/now-showing/
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dsquared2 3y ago“Yes… I believe there’s a question there in the back” https://www.cardcow.com/images/set856/card00130_fr.jpg https://www.cardcow.com/images/set856/card00130_fr.jpg
- ClassyJacket 3y agoI don't get it. What's with this guy and indecipherable cow jokes?
- jamie1np 3y agoIm pretty sure the joke is that the slide is literally just saying “this is a cow” and someone is confused enough to ask a question.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hackerbrother 3y agoMy favorite: https://cdn.sanity.io/images/vgvol637/production/4b1d3f9eddbe10aef698e25341317222a7deb9ec-455x607.jpg?w=2000 https://cdn.sanity.io/images/vgvol637/production/4b1d3f9eddb...
- codeulike 3y agoYakity Yak Yak Yak! https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/500532946070783132/ https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/500532946070783132/
- senderista 3y agoWhen I was in college and would go home for Christmas, my mom would buy me a new Far Side calendar for the coming year, and on my last day home my dad and I would invariably stay up late reading through it together. Great memories now that he's gone.
- smarks 3y ago"Whoa! Stuart blew his air sac!"
- smoyer 3y agoTwo pilots sitting on the back of a very large infant with its arms outstretched - "Let's get this baby off the ground"
- chris_wot 3y agoTwo pilots in their cockpit and you can see a mountain goat in the cockpit windshield. It is captioned “What the hey?”
- Scubabear68 3y ago“Midvale School for the Gifted”
- jaclaz 3y agoEveryone have their own favourite, for me it is: "Well, I've got good gnus and I've got bad gnus."
- hprotagonist 3y agoi was very surprised to learn some years ago that gary larson is also a prolific author of crossword puzzles.
- ukyrgf 3y agoJust FYI, if people remember having the day-by-day calendars back when, the dates have now repeated and they're selling them again.
- rpmisms 3y agoReading Far Side as a child with a truly hyperactive imagination opened up worlds to me. I would see a panel and build up the world around it. This caveman has meat in a basket on his coffee table—does he also use fruit in place of meat? Is the butchers shop full of cold cuts of citrus? Maybe the florist simply sells twisted up intestines in bouquets? I bet they use meat-scented colognes and perfumes. Basically, Far Side gave me the tools to daydream. Thank you, Gary!
- telman17 3y agoLove The Far Side. “Went to market” with the missing toe had me in tears when I first saw it!
- kevinventullo 3y agoMy father who was a professor in microbiology had this one on his office door: https://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/images/extbrainfull.htm https://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/images/e... I still use this phrase today when faced with a flood of information.
- yboris 3y agoHave you heard of Strigiphilus garylarsoni, a species of chewing louse found only on owls? Named after Gary Larson! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigiphilus_garylarsoni https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigiphilus_garylarsoni
- neilv 3y agoWhen I was an intern at a company that developed high-end software development tools, there was an intense project to build a new product suite... So I posted the Far Side comic, about the office workers trapped by fire, atop the building of the Ace Ladder Co. I can't find a non-copyright-violating copy on the Web, but the caption was: "Wait a minute! Say that again, Doris! ... You know, the part about `If only we had some means of climbing down.'" (I'm lucky that my coworkers were so kind about my youthful tone-deafness.)
- pdonis 3y agoAs Thak worked frantically to start a fire, Cro-Magnon Man, walking erect, approached the table and simply gave Theena a light.
- akoboldfrying 3y agoEven the caveman names crack me up
- PlasmaOInterest 3y agoSo many favorites, but I really loved his dark humor in ones like this https://www.pinterest.com/pin/352406739585675000/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/352406739585675000/
- Quekid5 3y agoWhy? Anyone less gifted. (It's very absurdist humor, but anyone into that should and MUST know about Larson, the person who did so much to damage the field by disappearing... willingly... etc. What a fly on the wall he wasn't, etc.)
- boxed 3y agoI wonder why a page like this thinks it needs cookie tracking, and thus the cookie banner. There are no ads, so what's the point?
- southernplaces7 3y agoI've loved the far side since childhood and couldn't even begin to name a favorite. In a somewhat (though maybe darker and more cynical) similar vein, I also recommend checking out "Perry Bible Fellowship" and his comics. Google search leads right to the site where they're all posted.
- NorSoulx 3y agoOne of my favourite The Far Side strips: "Inconvenience Stores"
- Tangurena2 3y agoI deeply love the dog who is excited to be going to the vet to be tutored: https://i.redd.it/wfapamqh3u471.jpg https://i.redd.it/wfapamqh3u471.jpg
- xd1936 3y agoThe Boneless Chicken Ranch https://i.imgur.com/mGxfMnr.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mGxfMnr.jpg
- jqpabc123 3y agoNeeds an API to pull the single cartoon of the day with a link to the full web site. Assuming there is any real interest in expanding viewership.
- sphars 3y agoI'm sorta working on this, but as an RSS feed, since there is a dedicated page per day, with 1-5 comics each day, for example https://www.thefarside.com/2024/01/31 https://www.thefarside.com/2024/01/31 They try to prevent basic scraping but I found a way around it using Selenium. Just haven't published it anywhere. The notice at the bottom has given me pause so I'm thinking of the best way to do this > No images or other content displayed on this Website may be reproduced, digitized, stored in a retrieval system, made available via any computer or wireless networks, transmitted or circulated in any form or by any means, without prior written permission of the copyright owner.
- jqpabc123 3y agoThey try to prevent basic scraping... Well, this mentality is the problem. Including an active link at the bottom of a single "daily" cartoon would likely be the best way to attract people to the site. I certainly wouldn't object to this link and would just pass it along on my own web site. It would essentially be an open invitation to their web site that a lot of my users would accept.
- glonq 3y agoI grew up on Garfield when I was a child, then The Far Side, Bloom County, and Calvin & Hobbes as a teen. Gen X really hit the jackpot back then!
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y agoHmmm. I haven't had a Dove Bar in a while.
- didgetmaster 3y agoMy favorite is the one where the Lone Ranger makes a startling discovery in his later years. He is reading an old Native American dictionary where he finds out 'kimosabe' means the backend of a horse.