The Far Side is one of the most highly acclaimed comics in history, known for its surrealistic humor that pokes fun at every facet of life from a number of different and oftentimes bizarre perspectives. Unlike other famous comic strips, The Far Side uses a single-panel format void of any one main character. Sometimes the comic features humans, other times anthropomorphic animals, and every once in a while, dinosaurs take the spotlight in The Far Side.
Created by Gary Larson in 1979 (who still creates new ones to this day), The Far Side is a masterclass in satirical comedy, with a heightened focus on the jokes themselves, which supersedes the agenda of a marketable main character. The Far Side doesn’t have its own ‘Charlie Brown’ or ‘Garfield’, as practically every comic features original characters that exist only to deliver a specific joke and message. That’s why Larson can utilize characters like dinosaurs without having them tied to any established narrative. And out of them all, these are 10 of the funniest Far Side comics starring dinosaurs!
10 The Far Side Confirms What REALLY Killed the Dinosaurs
A Hilarious Play About A Real-World Health Problem
The Far Side poses an interesting theory as to how the dinosaurs actually went extinct: smoking. This is a hilarious play on the real-world health risks associated with cigarettes, as it asserts that smoking is so deadly, it literally wiped out the dinosaurs.
Of course, this assertion is absurd, as smoking (likely) wasn’t something dinosaurs did. However, the comic doesn’t make light of how hazardous smoking is to one’s health, it simply applies the same risks humans take when they smoke cigarettes to dinosaurs. The joke is utterly hysterical, and actually acts as a pretty well done anti-smoking PSA.
9 Dinosaurs Hold a Press Conference to Discuss their Impending Doom
The Whole Thing Is Ridiculous And Hilarious
The only thing funnier than the idea of dinosaurs holding a press conference to discuss their impending doom is their meta-self-awareness in the fact that they shouldn’t have the brain capacity to do so. This comic shows one dinosaur explaining to a group of others that evolution is essentially leaving them behind because of their “pea-sized brains“. That explanation directly counters the entire scene, as dinosaurs with “pea-sized brains” wouldn’t be able to form a society that even holds press conferences. The whole thing is ridiculous, which is what makes it so funny.
8 The Far Side Presents a World Where Dinosaurs Collect Human Figures
A Bizarre Alternate Universe
An anthropomorphic Stegosaurus opens a package that just came to him in the mail, and he’s excited to see that it’s a figurine of a human labeled “The Nerd”, as this was apparently the final human figure this Stegosaurus needed to complete his collection.
The idea that, in another universe, dinosaurs would hold humans in the same regard as humans hold dinosaurs is hilarious (and a little surreal).
Just as humans collect figures of dinosaurs, which are differentiated by species classifications, this Stegosaurus collects different types of humans. The idea that, in another universe, dinosaurs would hold humans in the same regard as humans hold dinosaurs is hilarious (and a little surreal).
7 A Time-Traveling Scientist has a Fatally Unpleasant Experience with a Dinosaur
He Tried To Take The Animal’s Temperature
When a scientist travels back in time to determine whether dinosaurs were warm or cold-blooded, he attempts to take the dinosaur’s temperature. As he’s sneaking up behind a dinosaur with a comically large thermometer (one that can only measure temperature through a certain part of the body), the text beneath the comic reveals his fate.
This scientist and his time machine were “obliterated” by the dinosaur, and based on the ‘fart-joke’ setup, the implication as to how is disgustingly clear. This scene becomes even funnier by the comic’s text understating the decidedly gross fate of the scientist by lingering on the fact that his work will remain incomplete – as if that matters when faced with ‘death by dino-fart’.
6 ‘Dino-Bubble Gum’ is Horrifically Hilarious in The Far Side
Cavemen Were Just Bubble Gum
When a gang of exceptionally rowdy T-Rexes get together to egg on one of their friends, Wayne, they’re encouraging him to blow the biggest bubble he can with the gum he’s chewing. While this is fairly normal schoolyard/playground behavior, the part of this comic that’s decidedly different isn’t just the fact that these are dinosaurs instead of children, but that Wayne isn’t chewing bubble gum – he’s chewing a caveman. Apparently, according to the absurd logic found in The Far Side, cavemen were just bubble gum for dinosaurs, which is as disturbing as it is hilarious.
5 The Far Side Gives Readers a Peak into a Prehistoric Science Lecture
Their Methods Of Study Were Much More Hands-On
It seems even ancient humans were interested in studying dinosaurs, though The Far Side makes it clear that their methods of study were much more hands-on. When one caveman is giving a lecture on dinosaur anatomy, he points to the spiked tail of a Stegosaurus and tells his class that it is called the “thagomizer“. And the reason it’s called that is in honor of “the late Thag Simmons“.
Apparently, Thag got taken out by a Stegosaurus’ tail, and given how new this particular field of study was at that time, he became immortalized in its name. Obviously, there is no evidence to suggest that the existence of humans and dinosaurs overlapped.
But if they had, it’s hilarious to consider that human curiosity would have manifested in a manner similar to this, with hands-on research leading to categorizations as hysterically tragic as this one. And the best part? That part of a Stegosaurus’ tail is actually called a thagomizer (though Thag likely had nothing to do with it).
4 The Far Side Gives a Hilarious New Meaning to the ‘Jurassic Calendar’
The Same ‘To-Do’ Task Every Day
This single-issue comic simply depicts a T-Rex marking another day on his calendar, with the hilarious detail of each day containing the same ‘to-do’ task for the dinosaur: “Kill something and eat it“. As hilarious as the idea of a T-Rex using a calendar at all is (along with the idea that he’d need a daily reminder to not starve), this joke gets even funnier when considering the caption: “Jurassic Calendars“.
The term ‘Jurassic Calendar’ is more widely associated with the Jurassic Period, specifically the number of years within that period, not a literal calendar used by a T-Rex – which is why this comic is so funny.
3 The Far Side Sets Up a Scene Too Gory to Show
Two Explorers Are Killed By T-Rex
When two explorers venture into a cave and discover ‘fossilized’ dinosaur eggs, they quickly realize that the eggs aren’t fossils at all. As they are discussing their discovery, the shadow of a T-Rex looms over them – and readers can fill in the rest themselves.
The Far Side is no stranger to dark humor, making light of topics like death and the afterlife on numerous occasions. In this case, the image that the comic forces into readers’ minds is horrifically gory, highlighting the dark humor in the cosmic irony of these people being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
2 Dinosaurs are Minor Inconveneices Akin to Mice & Rats in The Far Side
Al Simply Calls An Exterminator To Get Rid Of The Dinosaur
This comic shows readers a world where dinosaurs exist in the modern day among humans, and society is way too chill about it. In this case, a T-Rex breaks into a butcher shop called Al’s Meats, and Al simply calls an exterminator to get rid of the monstrous dinosaur, as if the T-Rex was a simple rat or mouse.
Al’s phrasing also reveals that this isn’t an isolated occurrence, as T-Rexes apparently have a habit of breaking into his shop, which amounts to little more than an inconvenience for Al as opposed to visceral terror – making this comic utterly hysterical.
1 The Far Side Offers a Hilarious Example of Why the T-Rex is NOT Cut Out for Domestic Life
T-Rexes Couldn’t Even Pass The Potatoes During Dinner
When The Far Side takes readers to a world where dinosaurs evolved like humans in terms of adopting a civilized society as opposed to roaming the Earth as wild beasts, readers see the home life of a T-Rex family as they sit down for dinner. However, issues arise when one of the dinos asks the other to pass the potatoes, knowing full-well that they’re physically incapable of doing so because of their little arms.
Jokes about the tiny arms of T-Rexes are always hilarious given their apex predator status
Jokes about the tiny arms of T-Rexes are always hilarious given their apex predator status, as no matter how deadly they were, T-Rexes still had useless little arms that couldn’t even pass the potatoes during dinner. That’s why this is one of the 10 funniest The Far Side comics where dinosaurs take the spotlight!
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.
