29 Far Side comics For Classic Satire Fans

Michael Hartley

10 hours ago

A gallery of far side comics featuring Hal the deer with a bullseye birthmark, the paranoid man suffering from Anatidaephobia, and a group of prehistoric dinosaurs casually smoking cigarettes.

Updated on March 22, 2026

Far Side comics are the kind of humor that makes you laugh, then immediately feel suspicious about what you just laughed at. I was standing at the kitchen counter staring at a sticky note that simply said “call someone,” and I thought, yep—this is exactly the mental state those classic comics were made for. You ever laugh and then quietly go, wait… that’s messed up?

A far side comic depicting a "slideshow night" for witches. A witch stands by a projector showing a blurry image of a silhouette flying across the moon. The frustrated hostess tells her bored audience, "Listen, Noreen—you wanna be the photographer next time, be my guest."

This batch is for fans of Gary Larson, dry humor, and absurdist comedy that comes out of nowhere and lands perfectly. It’s animals acting like humans, humans acting like animals, and the universe acting like it’s running bits.

Let’s get weird for a minute with some Far Side Comics

This far side comic features "Jessy" the cow, wearing a chef's hat and apron while happily flipping beef patties on a charcoal grill. Behind her, two other cows look on in absolute horror, with one exclaiming, "You're sick, Jessy! ... Sick, sick, sick!"

dark humor far side comic showing two cows in a field overlooking a city engulfed in a massive inferno. Next to a sign for Chicago, one cow says to the other, "It seems that agent 6373 has accomplished her mission," blaming the Great Chicago Fire on a bovine saboteur.

In this far side comic, God is portrayed as a giant chef in a white hat. He is shown sprinkling a jar of "JERKS" over a bowl containing the planet Earth to "make it interesting." Jars on the shelves behind him are labeled for different groups of people, insects, and reptiles.

classic black-and-white far side comic revealing "The real reason dinosaurs became extinct." A group of large dinosaurs are gathered together in a prehistoric landscape, casually smoking cigarettes as a pterodactyl flies overhead.

This Western-themed far side comic shows a cowboy carrying a charred, smoking, and blackened man into a saloon. As the patrons watch, the rescuer explains the tragic accident: "Give me a hand here, boys! It's young Will Hawkins! ... Dang fool tried to ride into the sunset!"

far side comic featuring a hostess warning her guest, "Oh, wait, Doreen—don't sit there. ... That chair's just not safe." The purple armchair in question is hilariously rigged with giant spikes, a metal bear trap on the seat, and a cobra dangling from a rope above.

A monochrome far side comic where a cleaning lady has "tidied up" a scientist's complex chalkboard. She has replaced the variations of Einstein's mass-energy equivalence with literal squares, proudly stating, "Now that desk looks better. Everything's squared away, yessir, squaaaaaaared away."

In this prehistoric far side comic, a group of cavemen is busy butchering a woolly mammoth. An elderly caveman with a stick watches with disapproval, yelling, "What? You're just going to throw the tail away? ... Why, in my day, we used every gol dang part of a mammoth!"

A vibrant far side comic where a team of serious scientists in a lab suddenly break character. They are shown cheering and running away from their chalkboard and microscope toward the window because an ice cream truck is driving by outside.

classic far side comic showing two lighthouse keepers in their control room, looking on with utter exhaustion as Superman flies in tight circles around the top of the tower, following the rotating beam like a giant moth. One keeper mutters, "For God's sake, kill the lights, Murray—he's back again!"

In this far side comic, a suspicious-looking chicken wearing an apron stands in a cozy kitchen, carefully reading a box of "Hansen's Cake Mix." The joke is found in the background, where her own large eggs sit in a nest just through the doorway.

A vibrant far side comic where Professor Schwartzman walks down a suburban street wearing an elaborate, antennae-clad "canine decoder" helmet. He finally discovers the secret of animal communication: every single dog is simply barking the word "Hey!" at one another.

dark humor far side comic showing a man named Edgar frantically shooting a werewolf that has cornered him in a living room. In a thought bubble, he realizes the werewolf is actually the salesman who sold him the ammunition, as he recognizes the "obnoxious" polka-dot tie he saw earlier that day.

legendary far side comic that introduced the world to "Anatidaephobia," the irrational fear that a duck is watching you. It depicts a lone businessman sitting nervously at his office desk while a tiny duck peeks out from a window in the skyscraper across the street.

This biological far side comic features two mosquitoes feeding on human skin. One mosquito has been comically over-inflated into a giant, perfectly round grey sphere, prompting her companion to shout, "Pull out, Betty! Pull out! ... You’ve hit an artery!"

world-famous far side comic showing two deer standing in the woods. One deer has a perfectly circular red-and-white bullseye target naturally formed as a birthmark on his chest. His friend looks on sympathetically and remarks, "Bummer of a birthmark, Hal."

high-stakes laboratory far side comic where two scientists are working on a massive, red-tipped "MISSILE." As one scientist carefully uses a hammer on the hull, his colleague sneaks up behind him, holding an inflated paper bag, ready to pop it for a catastrophic prank.

A black-and-white far side comic where Farmer Brown catches two cows standing upright in a barn. One cow is holding a pen and has just finished drawing a "butcher's cut" diagram of a human on a large sheet of paper, marking sections like "Shoulder Chops" and "Spare Ribs."

In this airborne far side comic, a man named Ted is relaxing in his airplane seat. He reaches blindly for his recline button, unaware that his hand is hovering over a red toggle switch labeled "WINGS FALL OFF" right next to "WINGS STAY ON."

The magic of Far Side comics is the calm delivery. The world is totally ridiculous, and everyone in it is acting like it’s a normal Tuesday. That’s how you get a joke that hits fast and lingers. It’s not loud. It’s just… off in the exact right way.

And the animal stuff never gets old. Gary Larson had a gift for making cows, dogs, deer, and bugs feel like your coworkers. Petty. Strategic. Slightly doomed. Absurdist comedy works best when it’s treated like a documentary, and that’s the whole Far Side vibe. You’re watching a tiny, weird universe with its own rules, and you accept them immediately.

The science-y and cosmic bits are the cherry on top. Scientists panicking over something that should not be touched. Fate waiting in the corner like a prankster. Even the “everyday” scenes have a little trapdoor under them. That’s why dry humor fans keep coming back. It’s one panel, one twist, and suddenly you’re thinking about it while you do the dishes.

If these Far Side comics put you in the mood for more classic weirdness, check out 45 One Panel Jokes That Are Mean In A Smart Way, 44 Old School Cartoons Reimagined To Roast Themselves, and 26 Weird History Facts That Sound Fake But Aren’t.

Mike Hartley is a suburban storyteller who loves old comics, suspicious punchlines, and any joke that makes you pause mid-laugh and reassess your morals.

Michael Hartley

Michael Hartley, or just "Mike," is an editor and seasoned meme historian whose articles have traced the evolution of meme humor from early Impact-font classics to today’s TikTok sensations. With nearly a decade spent as senior editor at ViralHype and as a regular contributor to Cheezburger, Mike has dissected the rise of meme legends such as Bad Luck Brian, Success Kid, and Doge. When he's not hunting down meme gold for Thunder Dungeon, Mike teaches workshops on meme marketing and the psychology behind shareable content.