Summary
Gary Larson is a master of comics, withThe Far Sideshowcasing some of the funniest gags to ever combine words and pictures. However, whileFar Sideran in syndication from 1980 to 1994, its best sports comic precedes that run entirely, having been created by Gary Larson when he was only seven years old.
In March, we asked you to vote one of 11 comics asGary Larson’s funniest sports comic ever. The options included a relay race run with chickens, table tennis in the Old West and Einstein’s little-known career as a basketball superstar. However, with hundreds of votes cast, Larson’s best sports comic is one he created as a kid.
Goldfish playing baseball and a skydiving accident waiting to happen both scored high, but ultimatelyit was Larson’s grisly game of stick figure volleyball (see below) that won out as your official #1.
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Gary Larson’s The Far Side can make anything funny, including marital issues (the fact they’re happening to robots, superheroes and fish helps.)
Larson used stick figures many times in The Far Side, utilizing the simplistic art style for meta humor.
You Voted Gary Larson’s Volleyball Comic #1
…But It Precedes The Far Side by Decades
Larson’s comic shows a group of stick figures playing volleyball, only to realize they’ve accidentally grabbed one player’s head instead of the ball. It’s a gag that adults and kids can both find funny, but one thatLarson created when he was only seven, even signing it along with his age. Thankfully, the strip qualified for our poll because itwaspublished as aFar Sidestrip.Larson officially published the comic on July 28, 2025, as part of hisFar Siderun, including his signature but giving no other sign that the comic was the ultimate throwback.
Despite being created so early, the stick figure volleyball comicfits right into Larson’s canon. Not only is the dark humor and meta-humor pureFar Side, but it wasn’t the last time Larson used stick figures in his art.Far Sideis packed with stick figure gags, with the jokes generally based on the realities of stick-figure characters existing in a world where everyone else is a little more sophisticated in their design - for example, Larson draws a screaming stick figure being carried to the nest of two far more fleshed-out birds, presumably to be used as part of the structure.
The Far Sideoften played with the ‘rules’ of comics, taking elements like simplistic art, speech and thought balloons, and even artistic mistakes and making them part of the joke. The fact that this instinct goes as far back as Larson’s childhood shows how adept he’s always been at finding readers' funny bones.
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These Far Side comics originally published in June 1994 are still hilarious today, despite being from the final year of Larson’s comic series.
The Far Side is full of meta humor, with characters aware they’re in a comic and even interacting with Larson as their creator.
Far Side’s Best Sports Comic Is Surprisingly Meta
Larson Was Never Scared to Break the Fourth Wall
With only a single panel to work with in most of his comics, Larson could have been forgiven for avoiding complex meta-humor, however he did anything but.The Far Sideincludes gags where characters can see each other’s thought balloons, where Larson hasn’t finished drawing his own characters, and one joke aboutFar Side Lite- a diet version of the strip where all Larson’s creations are slimmed down to half their intended size.
This is just one way thatFar Side’s humor predicted where gags were headingand the prevalence of meta-humor and fourth wall-breaking jokes today in hugely successful comedies likeDeadpoolandRick and Morty. Often, Larson’s characters were not just aware they were in a comic, but aware of him as the cartoonist and even of the existence of other comic strips. Larson drew comics where his characters spied on other strips, and even a particularly provocative one where his recurring python has seemingly eaten comic competitor Garfield alive.
16 Funniest Far Side Comics Starring Gary Larson’s Best Recurring Character, The Detective
Gary Larson’s recurring detective character is the best in Far Side history, playing the perfect straight man to a world of truly bizarre crimes.
Not all of Gary Larson’s inspirations were wholesome, and he cites growing up during the Cuban Missile Crisis as instilling his work with a sense of menace.
Gary Larson Was Born to Be a Cartoonist
Larson’s Inspirations Helped Create Far Side’s Unique Sense of Humor
It’s a major tribute to Gary Larson’s skill that a comic he drew when he was 7 still ranks amongFar Side’s best, however it’s not necessarily surprising. Many of whatLarson cites as his biggest influencescome from his childhood, shaping his sense of humor from the very beginning.
Larson cites the biggest influence on his sense of humor as his family, even writing"this is my brother’s fault"inThe Far Side Gallery 1.This is clearly no exaggeration, as many of Larson’s comics are based on experiences he had with his brother, from being told that a monster in the basement was going to get him to being terrified of a nightmarish, white-eyed wolf his brother described in vivid detail. InThe Complete Far Side,Larson shares that his familyloved laugh-out-loud humor, stating he came from a home with"a deep, sincere appreciation for the many uses of a good gorilla mask."
Larson has also cited Morrell Gipson’schildren’s bookMr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flatas an early influence - a story in which a large bear sits on and crushes the houses of animals he dislikes. This grim, surreal, nature-based story is essentially a model for Larson’s biggest obsessions inTheFar Side.
15 Far Side Comics That Prove Gary Larson Is Obsessed with Cats
Gary Larson’s The Far Side applies a surreal eye to animals, with cats starring in some of the franchise’s funniest comic strips.
However, not all the influences on Gary Larson’s sense of humor were this fun. In a 1987 interview with20/20, Gary Larson citedgrowing up during the Cold War- and especially the Cuban Missile crisis - as a major factor in his view of the world.This experience combined the innocence of childhood and ’60s Americana with the threat of instant, unpredictable death.Larson said:
It was going from Leave It To Beaver to bomb shelters. I remember sitting in my seventh-grade English class thinking that the world was going to end during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It made you look at the world a little bit askew.
It’s likely for this reason that Larson’s comics - including the volleyball strip - carry a strong sense of menace, where bad things can happen for seemingly no reason. Indeed, this idea was always core to Larson’s vision forThe Far Side. InThe Complete Far Side,he explains how, despite his editors trying to convince him otherwise, he didn’t want to use recurring characters in the strip because he wanted the freedom to brutalize them without upsetting or losing readers.
10 Funniest Far Side Comics Where Gary Larson Made Pirates Hilarious
Gary Larson’s The Far Side has a lot of recurring themes, from cowboys to clowns, but pirates are some of its most underrated stars.
Whilerecurring characters would theoretically have helped Larsondevelop a returning reader base in the same way asGarfieldorPeanuts, he wanted to create a world where his characters could be"crunched, speared, shot, beheaded, eaten, stuffed, poisoned, and run over about twice a week. (Tastefully, of course.)“Apparently, that list should also include volleyball beheadings.
Ultimately,Gary Larson’s many influences combined to create one of the greatest comic creators in the history of the medium, with a comic that he drew when he was just seven years old still cracking upFar Sidefans over six decades later.
The Far Side
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
