The Far Side: Difference between revisions

* [[Abnormal Ammo]]: The "Dobie-o-Matic" gun.

* [[And You Were There]]: The final newspaper strip had [[Gary Larson]] wake up in bed next to all his family and friends, who happen to resemble a lot of the strip's more popular subjects. Of course, given that this is [[The Far Side]] [[Widget Series|this probably came as a surprise to nobody]]

{{quote| '''Gary:''' And Aunt Zelda all the women looked like you and Uncle Bob all the cows looked like you and Ernie there were cavemen that looked like you and there were all these nerdy little kids like you Billy and there were monsters and stupid-looking things and animals could talk and some of it was confusing and ...and...Oh, wow! There's no Place like home!}}

* [[Animated Adaptation]]: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109873/ Really]! Unsurprisingly, it was shown on [[Cartoon Network]] [[Nightmare Fuel|late night on Halloween]].

* [[Anticipatory Breath Spray]]

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: A section of Hell has rooms for murderers, terrorists, and "people who drove too slow in the fast lane."

* [[Art Evolution]]: The art started out a bit more grotesque. Larson also had a habit of not filling in all of the backgrounds in earlier strips (like a bulls-eye patterned rug that mysteriously vanished halfway across the panel) - he admitted that he preferred to "touch up" older strips to fill in half-completed background elements when they were published in collections.

* [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]: As vikings are storming a castle, one is trying to call their attention to gold fish in the moat.

* [[Bad Humor Truck]]: One strip shows neighborhood kids hiding from a "Liver and Onions" truck, and another features the "Vaccination Van" making its rounds. Also, the failed marketing ploy "I Cuss, You Cuss, We All Cuss For Asparagus".

* [[The Butler Did It]]: One strip shows a murdered butler at an international butlers' convention, and a detective complaining that he hates to start a week like this. Another shows a detective accusing the butler of goring and trampling a man to death as he sits next to the literal [[Elephant in The Room]].

* [[Captain Obvious]]: A cartoon depicts two Bedouin on camels in the middle of the desert, and the caption is "Hold still, Omar. Now look up. Yep, you've got something in your eye all right. [[Captain Obvious|Could be sand]]."

* [[Chekhov's Gag]]: In ''Tales From The Far Side I'', there is a 15-second "Meanwhile... back in Egypt" segment that consists of a desert marketplace full of locals who eventually stop and wave at the viewer before going about their business. Unlike the rest of the special, there's no weirdness whatsoever. But in the sequel, there's a segment with amoebas at a party that's abruptly interrupted when their "world" goes sideways. The camera cuts to a man putting down a mostly-empty water glass... then pulls back to him and his family exiting the same exact Egypt scene (sans waving) from the first special.

* [[Closer Than They Appear]]: In one cartoon, the rear-view mirror shows the angry eye of an unspecified but huge creature.

* [[Door Dumb]]: Provides the page image.

* [[Doorstopper]]: [http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Far-Side-1980-1994-vol/dp/0740721135 The Complete Far Side].

* [[Dude, Not Funny]]: Larson has a friend with a very strange sense of humor, so when he called and said "I loved today's strip!" it meant "I've offended half of America."

* [[Eskimo Land]]: On several occasions.

* [[Nobody Here but Us Chickens]]: Including a cartoon where a farmer returning home from collecting eggs in the chicken coop passes a chicken returning to the coop after collecting the farmer's infant child...

* [[Executive Meddling]]:

** Arguably a [[Tropes Are Not Bad|positive example]]. Part of his commemorative book, "The Prehistory of the Far Side", consists of him saying how grateful he is that his editors kept him in line and prevented certain risky cartoons from making it to the newspapers. He even credits one case of this as saving his career.

** [[Jazz]] musician [[Charlie Parker]] being forced to listen to New Age music for eternity.

** In one of the Far Side of Science strips, a physicist is led into a room full of astrologers.

* [[Kangaroo Pouch Ride]]: Hannibal's first attempt at crossing the Alps involves riding kangaroos along the narrow ledges. It is implied to not have worked very well.

** One time a bear had a "Shoot Me" sign on his back.

** Another featured a flower with a "Weed me" sign on its back.

** And an old man who somehow managed to survive having his head removed from his body:

{{quote| '''Grandmother''': "For heaven's sake, Henry, tell the kids a ''pleasant'' story for once - they don't always have to hear the one about your head."}}

** Including a caveman's parrot... saying "Grunt, snort... Grunt, grunt, snort."

** The leader of a group of gangsters insists on having his mob repeat the address of their new safehouse aloud a hundred times so as to not forget. Said gangsters are hiding out in a room full of parrots.

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: Several, but one notable example of two ancient Chinese warriors standing upon the newly completed Great Wall; one of them boastfully states "NOW we'll see if that dog can get in here!"

* [[The "The" Title]]: The collections with indexes feature sections for each letter of the alphabet. However, every letter but "T" is blank, as each comic is identified as "The one with the [x]".

* [[Time Travel]]: An occasional theme, i.e. "Disaster befalls Dr. Fitzgibbon's cleaning lady when she mistakes his Time Machine for a new dryer."

** Another one had a scientist travel back to the age of the dinosaurs and gets stuck there because his machine just ran out of gasoline.