10 Confusing Far Side Comics That Make “Cow Tools” Seem Easy To Understand

“Cow Tools” is widely considered The Far Side’smost confusing cartoon, but the panels collected here give it a run for its money in that regard. “Cow Tools” might have cemented Gary Larson’s reputation for perplexing punchlines, but these comics are the ones that arguably elevated it to a true art form.

“Cow Tools” is certainly a strange cartoon, but the more fans become acclimated to The Far Side’s style, and start to be able to read Gary Larson’s warped sense of humor more clearly, the meaning of the panel reveals itself more clearly.

These comics, meanwhile, are in many cases harder to decipher, or harder to understand the humor of, even after they have been explained.

First Published: September 11, 1992

This Far Side cartoon, from the latter stage of Gary Larson’s career, feels like it is directly of a lineage with “Cow Tools.” Here, Larson instead depicts “calf delinquents,” young prankster cows who stand on a cliff holding up a fake cut-out of lightning, in order to provoke their herd to stampede.

Except this punchline isn’t entirely obvious at a glance, causing confusion in a similar vein to the earlier bovine punchline. This is a common theme with The Far Side’s more esoteric comics; the joke is never truly, entirely out of the realm of comprehension, not even “Cow Tools,” but sometimes Larson failed to get his point across.

9

The Far Side’s “High Tide/Low Tide” Cartoon Illustrates The Perils Of Overly Subtle Humor

First Published: January 15, 1991

Gary Larson went as far as to “decode” this Far Side panel following his retirement; that is the extent to which the joke doesn’t land here. What is obvious about the cartoon’s premise is that the characters are the survivors of a downed plane, seen sinking into the ocean in the background, but the details don’t add up to the punchline Larson intended.

That is because the joke relies on a subtle bit of comedic irony. Too subtle, in fact. The fact that the rock is “encrusted with oysters and mussels,” which the man in the comic takes as a good sign, means that when high tide rolls in, the rock, and the couple, will be quickly submerged.

8

“Part Of The Problem”: Gary Larson Leaves Readers Guessing With This Unconventional Far Side Joke

First Published: August 13, 1988

This Far Side convention cartoon features a gathering of people who self-identify as “part of the problem,” but what the problem is, exactly, and how these people play a role in perpetuating it, are unsolved mysteries that Gary Larson offers no overt clues to. In fact, it is important to the humor of the cartoon that there is no answer.

Yet that leaves many fans yearning for more context, which this Far Side panel deliberately denies them. Instead, it leaves “the problem” and everything else about the “POTP” gathering wide-open to interpretation. Ultimately, the vibe is very similar to “Cow Tools,” in the abstract sense of how it leaves many readers feeling uncertain.

7

“Babette’s Botulism”: Gary Larson Makes A Reference Nobody Needed, And Few Will Be Able To Digest

First Published: June 10, 1988

What remains elusive about this Far Side comic is not just its meaning, but what makes it funny. When it comes to The Far Side, this is honestly closer to “meaning” than the actual details, or “facts,” of the panel itself; captioned “Babette’s Botulism: The Sequel,” the secret to this gag is that it is actually one of Gary Larson’s many deep-cut references.

In this case, Larson riffs on the Danish film Babette’s Feast, released the year before this comic. However, even for late ’80s readers, the movie would have had to be fresh in their minds for this callback to be obvious, let alone amusing, making it one of The Far Side’s comedic gambles that doesn’t quite pay off.

6

Who Is “Mr. Pembrose,” The Far Side’s Most Hard To Figure Out Character?

First Published: April 30, 1988

This Far Side cartoon is still debated to this day. In the panel, a therapist tells “Mr. Pembrose” that he has to work on his anger issues, except it is not exactly clear who, or what, the patient is. While most readers assume “Pembrose” is a disembodied eye, there are some who think it actually is the couch, which has one human eye.

Whatever the case might be, this ranks up there as one of The Far Side’s most perplexing comics. In this instance, it is a result of the illustration not fully conveying the joke in a way that lines up with the details of the caption. Which is interesting, given that confusing Far Sides were often the result of the opposite.

5

The Far Side Explores The Dark Side Of The Food Chain In This Captionless Cartoon

First Published: December 22, 1987

In this captionless Far Side cartoon, a shark sits in its living room reading a newspaper, with the walls surrounding it adorned with plaques bearing disembodied shark jaws. Most readers agree that the implication here involves the idea of sharks eating their own young. However, that is only an educated guess, which is precisely what Gary Larson wanted.

That is, this Far Side joke lives or dies with the extent of the reader’s knowledge of sharks, and that is a deliberate decision on Larson’s part, thanks to the omission of added context via a caption. Here, though, the strange imagery and high-brow concept are a higher barrier for “getting” the joke than the comic often set.

First Published: January 16, 1987

If “Cow Tools” can only have one rival for the title of “most confusing Far Side comic,” it is this one, and this one should arguably win. In fact, Gary Larson called this cartoon “almost universally misunderstood.” In the panel, a man in his pajamas pulls open the living room window’s curtains to find a cat tied up outside, dangling upside down.

Except the way the man is pulling the curtain cord made most readers think he’s hoisting the cat up. Further, the way he says “the dog ain’t goin’ for that new cat,” makes it sound like he’s giving the cat to the dog, when in fact that’s not what Larson intended.

3

The Far Side Recreates “His Master’s Voice,” But How Many People Get The Joke?

First Published: December 3, 1985

This is another incredibly subtle Far Side homage, this time to the archaic 19th century advertisement called “His Master’s Voice,” in which a dog looks down the horn of a gramophone, transfixed by the sound of a disembodied voice. Here, for whatever reason, Gary Larson swaps out a canine for a praying mantis, and leaves the cartoon captionless as an “IYKYK” punchline.

For people who did recognize this obscure shout-out, it is a satisfying “aha” moment, but for the majority of Far Side readers, even in the 1980s, there is a much greater likelihood that this cartoon left readers flummoxed, searching for precisely what to laugh at, once again grasping around for context that isn’t provided.

First Published: June 5, 1984

“No lions anywhere,” one skeptical giraffe asks another, who is standing on a chair to get an elevated look across the plain. Like “Cow Tools,” the risk the joke runs here is actually being too obvious. The humor is that the world’s most long-necked animal species feels the need to get just a little bit taller to scope out potential predators.

The deadpan quality of this gag is punctuated by the zebra in the foreground, giving a literal blank look at this behavior. Yet even astute readers might miss the joke, and instead look for some kind of deeper joke than there actually is, as was the case with the “Cow Tools” controversy just a few years prior.

1

“Columbus Discovers America”: This Far Side Cartoon Runs Aground Because Its Action Is Unclear

First Published: February 23, 1982

This is another example of a Far Side comic where there is a disconnect between the “action” of the frame and its caption, which in this case reads “Columbus discovers America,” with an illustration of sailors on a ship being tossed around by an unseen impact. This is the crux of the confusion, that the image features an effect, but not the cause.

After taking a beat to examine it, readers can infer that the “discovery” here equates to running their ship around, but the lack of clarity will leave a fair share of fans stumped, which makes this Far Side cartoon at least share a wheelhouse with “Cow Tools” and other confusing entries in Gary Larson’s canon.

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