The Far Side

:This article concerns the Far Side comic strip. For other uses of the expression, see Far side.

Recurring themes

Far Side cartoons, though diverse in their humor, often rely on certain familiar situations. These include:

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• Life on the farm, featuring the antics of farmers and their animals, especially cows and chickens
• Dogs and/or cats and/or other family pets
• Castaways on a desert island
• Cavemen and dinosaurs
• Scientists in labs
• Nerds (with whom Larson admittedly identifies)
• Aliens from outer space
• God, complete with white hair and flowing beard, as in Michelangelo's artworks
• Devils and life in Hell, as in folklore stereotypes and Dante's Inferno
• Protozoa and other microscopic creatures
• Mixed metaphors of all kinds

Far Side cartoons are also known for similarities that appear throughout the series:

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• Many of the characters are overweight.
• A majority of the characters wear glasses; most notably, the women almost always wear catseye glasses. In situations with non-human characters, the glasses usually indicate the character's gender.
• When no glasses are worn, the eyes usually consist of a simple line.
• The women usually have a beehive hairdo.
• There are always doilies on couches and living room chairs.
• There are usually framed photos of the character's species hanging on the wall of the living room or dining room.

The recurring caption Trouble Brewing appeared on a few cartoons throughout the series, as "trouble brewing" was always a fundamental aspect of Larson's humor. This theme was used for the 2005 release of the Far Side calendar, with situations like:

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• Ed's Dingo Farm next door to Doreen's Daycare
• A falconer meeting next to the 12th Annual Teacup Poodle Fanciers Picnic
• An angry mob leaving a migraine headaches center towards a marching band school, with the caption The dam breaks, which seems to be one iota further than Trouble Brewing.
• Crutchfield's Crocodile Farm next door to Anderson's Sky-Diving School

Larson's sense of humor, while original, can also be confusing, as in a comic dubbed "Cow Tools", which was widely misunderstood. Another famous example requires the reader to know obscure facts about sea life, a comic that was misunderstood by a marine-biologist friend of Larson's.

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Other times he was a little more obvious, though some knowledge was assumed, such as the family of spiders driving a car down the street. The point of that fanciful situation was the car's bumper sticker, "Have a Nice Day", featuring a smiley face with eight eyes.

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He also occasionally drew cartoons commenting on celebrities or current events, although these are rare. An example is a corollary to the Crutchfield joke: What really happened to D.B. Cooper, showing a wide-eyed parachutist, laden with extortion money and heading down into the heart of a Rottweiler farm.

Related Topics:
D.B. Cooper - Rottweiler

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