Gary Larson’sThe Far Sideshowcases his love of nature from beginning to end, but even in that contest, it’s hard to deny he has a special soft spot for creepy-crawlies. Mosquitoes, lice and wasps all feature heavily inThe Far Side, but worms are a particular favorite. Indeed, they have the rare honor of being the subject Larson wrote an entire children’s book about - 1998’sThere’s a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm’s Story.
These are the 13 funniestFar Sidecomics starring worms, from worm practical jokes and parties to their complicated relationship with birds of all kinds.Be sure to vote in our end-of-article pollto decide the official #1.
13Drums
Far Side Never Hid How Dark Nature Can Be
It’s a famous idiom that the early bird gets the worm… but that’s only true if they can find them. Birds use a variety of senses to hunt for worms, and sometimes even use vibration to lure them to the surface. However, none of that is necessary when a worm is wailing on a drum kit just below the surface. Larson’s composition effectively ‘hides’ the gag on the reader’s first look, showing the expected image of a bird chowing down on a worm.It’s only once they look closer that readers understand exactly how this grisly interaction played out.
Part of loving nature is acknowledging how brutal it can be, and Larson’s strip is borderline disturbing once you see the wide-eyed, screaming face of the worm in question. InThe Complete Far Side,Larson reveals he didn’t use recurring charactersbecause he wanted to depict a world where his characters would be"crunched, speared, shot, beheaded, eaten, stuffed, poisoned, and run over about twice a week.“That sadly goes double forFar Side’s bugs.
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12Earthworms Alfredo
Larson Flips an Old Joke to Make It New
Any other humorist would find a way to swap spaghetti for earthworms to the horrified reaction of a human. Indeed, plenty of comics, TV shows and movies have hinged jokes on humans accidentally eating bugs. However, in the world ofThe Far Side, it’s the animals who are inconvenienced, as an avian diner customer is put out to receive an unacceptable human meal.
11It’s Still Hungry
Larson Changed This Caption at the Last Minute
In this strip, two charitable birds attempt to feed the baby of a distracted parent, but some cross-species confusion leads to an unusual choice of sustenance. InThe Complete Far Side, Larson explains that he often conceived of his comic images separate to their eventual captions, coming up with a funny image then working out the ‘punchline.’ Indeed, in this case,the comic almost ran with a completely different caption, with Larson making the change at the last minute:
Look, but don’t touch - or the mother will throw it out.
InThe Prehistory of The Far Side, Larson says that some amount of hate mail was essentially guaranteed whenever his comic showed bad things happening to children or animals. Despite this, he didn’t stop at ababy being fed worms, also showing them being eaten by snakes and alligators, trapped in bottles, and stolen by vengeful chickens.
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Here are the 10 funniest Far Side comics that just celebrated their fortieth birthday, including Gary Larson’s take on the world’s most famous joke.
10Punk Worms
Larson Goes for a Simple Visual Gag
Sometimes,Far Sideis all about the visuals, depicting ‘Punk Worms’ with a series of piercings that are made out of the only option worms would really have to hand - fishing hooks.
9Cow’s Stomach
Larson Didn’t Stop at Earthworms
The Far Sideis so beloved because it sometimes asks a little more from readers, with gags that hinge on a prior understanding of culture or biology. In this case, the gag relies on the fact that cow stomachs have four compartments (sometimes misremembered as them having fourstomachs), then introduces tapeworms as protagonists who would have a very different take on this ‘fun fact.’
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The humans of Gary Larson’s The Far Side do everything in the weirdest way possible, and it turns out parenting is no exception.
8It’s a Worm!
Larson ‘Adapts’ the Famous Story
This comic requires a little knowledge of the classic tale ‘The Little Dutch Boy,’ popularized by Mary Mapes Dodge' 1865 children’s novelHans Brinker, or The Silver Skates. In the story, a young boy notices a small leak in a dike, plugging it with his finger to prevent it growing. The child stays in place all night until he’s eventually found by some adults from the town, who fix the break and celebrate his heroism. In Larson’s world, the poor kid isn’t just out in the cold all night - he’s also being savaged by fish who have mistaken his town-saving finger for a worm.
7Little Softies
Far Side Loves Its Grumpy Old Men
The Far Sideoften embraced the stereotype of the ‘grumpy old man,’ setting up bizarre characters to lecture the younger generation on how things were different in their day. Their victims include young worms, puppies, and Renaissance artist Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.
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The Far Side has a lot of obsessions, from delinquent cows to creative cavemen, and yet somehow eggs became one its funniest recurring ideas.
6This Is Larry
Far Side Explores the Animal Kingdom
ThisFar Sidegag hinges on the misapprehension that if you cut an earthworm in half, both halves regenerate into separate worms. ‘Worm’ is a general term that covers a lot of species with varying behaviors, leading to confusion about their biology. The species known as flatwormscanregenerate into two separate being, while earthworms are able to regenerate their tails from certain cuts. However, even in that case, the tail dies, rather than generating a new head.
5The Wrong End
A Great Visual Gag That Only Works With Worms
Larson often shows hisanimal characters socializing like humans, but with some unique twist introduced by their own instincts. In this case, worms party like everyone else, but their tubular bodies mean that you could waste hours talking to someone without realizing their head is somewhere else.
4More Worms?
Far Side Is Weirdly Obsessed with Fishing and Death
In this strip,Far Side’s worms go from characters to murder weapon, as a fish wife sets up her husband as the victim of an unseen fishing rod.Far Sidehas a weird obsession withcombining fishing and death- a concept that makes sense once you consider how often Larson adopts theanimals’perspective on human behavior.
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