The Far Side’s Final Comic Revealed the Truth Behind Its Stock Characters
The truth behind the beloved and popular stock characters in The Far Side was revealed in the final comic of the original strip. Known for its abstract humor limited to one-panel jokes, The Far Side has been tickling readers’ funny bones for decades. Due to the short length of each strip, creator Gary Larson incorporated recurring stock characters to create a unique world. These characters included cavemen, nerdy kids, and famously, cows. In the final comic, Larson cleverly explained the reason for these reused characters.
The final Far Side comic features Gary Larson in the world he created, surrounded by his stock characters. A parody of Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz tells him he can go home by performing a parody of the iconic “There’s no place like home” finale to the film. Larson is then shown in bed surrounded by familiar-looking loved ones, explaining his dreams to them, similar to Dorothy Gale. He proclaims that “all the cows looked like” his Uncle Bob and “cavemen that looked like” a farmhand named Ernie. Larson implies that every single stock character from the original run was a dream made up by him based on the people in his life, and it works surprisingly well.
This Far Side Twist Perfectly Explains Larson’s Humor
This revelation explains the surreal humor in The Far Side. The strip uses unique and unconventional ways to deliver hard-hitting jokes that border on outlandish. Whether it’s showing dinosaurs went extinct from smoking or the perplexing “Cow Tools” comic, the jokes from these comics are best suited for dreams. They are completely surreal, with all senses of logic thrown out the window, similar to the children’s book that inspired The Far Side. By revealing that the whole strip was a dream with the stock characters being a mental creation of those in his life, Larson found the perfect excuse for his far-out sense of humor.
Larson’s Return to The Far Side Now Has a New Meaning
The startling truth behind The Far Side‘s incredibly popular stock characters was actually revealed in the original strip’s final comic. The Far Side is well-known for its abstract humor limited to one panel to get its jokes across. Gary Larson’s iconic comic has touched the funny bones of readers for decades as one of the funniest gag strips of all time. However, since it’s a comic that can’t focus on story due to how short each strip is, Larson found himself incorporating running stock characters to make his world feel unique. Some of these reused characters would include cavemen, nerdy kids and the ever-famous cows. In the strip’s final comic though, Larson actually gave a pretty clever explanation for his reused characters.
The final Far Side comic features a version of Gary Larson himself in the world he created. He’s surrounded by his various stock characters as a parody of Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz tells him that he can go home by performing a parody of the iconic “There’s no place like home” finale to the film. Larson is then shown in bed surrounded by familiar-looking loved ones as he explains his dreams to them similar to the way Dorothy Gale did when she woke up. He proclaims that “all the cows looked like” his Uncle Bob and “cavemen that looked like” a farmhand named Ernie. Every single stock character from the original run is implied here to be a dream made up by Larson based on the people in his life…and oddly, it really works.
This Far Side Twist Perfectly Explains Larson’s Humor
The best thing about this shocking reveal is that it makes sense regarding the humor from The Far Side. Every single strip is rooted in the surreal as it finds unique ways to deliver hard-hitting jokes that border on outlandish. Whether it’s showing dinosaurs really went extinct from smoking or the confusing “Cow Tools” comic that has haunted Larson for life, the jokes from these comics are things that would work best in a dream. They’re completely surreal with all senses of logic thrown out the window, similar to the children’s book that inspired The Far Side in the first place. By revealing that the whole strip was a dream with the stock characters being a mental creation of those in his life, Larson ultimately found the perfect excuse for his far out sense of humor.
Larson’s Return to The Far Side Now Has a New Meaning
The question remains though how this fits into the rebooted run of The Far Side that Larson began back in 2020. While he didn’t create comics as frequently as his newspaper days, his return to the series was just as funny as ever. However, what’s fascinating is that he likely isn’t dreaming this time. The very first comic shows off his genius as he laughs maniacally while crafting a new comic akin to Doctor Frankenstein and his monster. He’s even assisted by a disfigured cow serving him coffee and a snack to aid in the creative process. If he’s not dreaming here, this could mean that Larson himself went mad years after waking up trying to find ways to recreate the world he’d escaped decades prior. To replicate his most famous stock character, he could have crafted the cow Igor himself, which explains why it looks so different from how it looked in his dream. In essence, he’s recreating what he saw years ago while dreaming and bringing it all to life.
Regardless of what this means for the comic’s revival, the final strip for the original comic’s run was absolutely genius. Not only did it explain the strip’s bizarre humor, but it also showed that every single character was based on someone in the fictionalized Larson’s life. The Far Side will continue to live on for how bizarre it can be, and the startling truth behind the stock characters in the final comic just cements the series as one of the smartest ever created.
