Dive into Laughter: The 10 Funniest Far Side Comics Featuring dolphins and Whales!
Gary Larson's Far Side: Where Marine Mammals Meet Hilarious Mayhem!
Gary Larson's The Far Side is legendary. Those quirky, darkly humorous comics about nature, those animals getting into ridiculously human situations? Pure gold! And Larson's obsession with animals definitely includes those awesome marine mammals! Dolphins and whales feature heavily—creating a totally unique and memorable brand of humor and illustrating just how creative some of the ideas truly were. Get ready for a hilarious deep dive into ten of the funniest Far Side comics ever created. Prepare to laugh (maybe even a little too hard…), vote at the end to let us know your favorite!
Top 10 Hilarious Far Side Comics Starring Dolphins and Whales
10. Whale Watchers: The Exasperated Ocean Dwellers
This strip's pure genius is that the typical Far Side setup gets flipped. Instead of humans suffering because of annoying neighbors (think aliens, cavemen, or howler monkeys!), here, the whales get the brunt of unwanted attention. The intense expressions of the whales, showcasing extreme amounts of frustration is where the joke lands the hardest. Larson's mastery is using both foreground and background to display distinct locations in the same panel.
9. Tuna Punks: A Dolphin's Bad Influence
Larson takes that very real threat to dolphins (getting caught with tuna in fishing nets) and transforms it into a seriously funny family drama, exploring that concept surrounding parents worrying about their kids getting in trouble with their peers and those implications resulting from peer pressure and resulting actions – completely unexpected and strangely very effective at showing the parallels to this more serious issue faced within those groups and species.
8. Harpoon: A Fisherman's Unfortunate Surprise!
This early strip is unique. One of Larson's very first and incredibly concise, lacking captions and words; showing everything is simply visual and utterly relatable even though nothing happens; this showcases Larson's mastery and just how concise his ability to convey and create these important and extremely subtle and yet equally humorous details are. That moment; that entire gag shows that bad luck and incredibly unfortunate situations is where the jokes lands, and nothing else truly needed. The expressions? Pure gold, demonstrating why he felt emphasizing accurate character emotion was key.
7. Squeaky Shoes: Surreal Humor at Its Finest
A guy returns squeaky shoes. What makes this funny? The shoes are dolphins. It sounds random, absurd and quite crazy – completely unbelievable – however this surreal comedy that really feels taken directly from The New Yorker Caption Contest; creating amazing, totally unexpected situations that leave people dumbfounded yet somehow totally satisfied with those creative storytelling choices.
6. Fitness Class: Whales Who Work Out (Too Much?)
This comic borders on a cursed image – but makes perfect sense! The concept of these huge whales intensely working out, having thinner builds and not exactly happy. That contrast, those unexpectedly depressing elements show how effective Larson’s subtle satire and use of completely unexpected moments.
5. Catch Willie: A Cynical Sequel (Or Knock-Off?)
Larson’s humor shines brilliantly; the joke involves creating that completely absurd, cynically over-the-top yet strangely believable interpretation, and showcasing just how far Larson could use various tropes and themes related to current affairs, from past classic movies (think Free Willy), illustrating his knowledge of pop culture even years, sometimes decades later and what makes a joke work within that very specific time frame. It never ages poorly either! Those seemingly subtle jokes create more interest in revisiting Larson’s work!
4. Beached Whale: One Tiny Fly's Big Problem!
The joke here involves scale. A ridiculously tiny fly is trying to gauge exactly what size portion is taken by it. That incredibly absurd and impossible goal adds humor– using that scale difference to illustrate its impossible, but somehow believable objective which really demonstrates just how creative the concepts were!
3. Canning: A Dolphin's Deadly Recipe
This grisly joke revisits the whole tuna-dolphin connection. A wife cans her hubby. That chilling image shows Larson's mastery! That detail involving the staring police dolphin's eye adds extra impact, truly highlighting Larson’s ability to express incredibly nuanced situations. Those elements of human interaction are exactly what really makes a comic great.
2. The Whole Shmear: When Killer Whales Have an Appetite
A killer whale eats its trainer? This hits all those typical Far Side tropes – this perfectly explores humans overestimating their abilities regarding the ability to manage wildlife! The ending delivers another key detail which explains why people need to revisit Larson's work.
1. Strange Sounds: Scientists Misunderstand Dolphins (Badly!)
Scientists trying to “talk” to dolphins and completely missing the mark? The humor resembles Douglas Adams’ style: that quirky dark comedy, that very unexpected dark satire which emphasizes some profoundly important insights. That makes the ending even funnier, completely unexpected and deeply darkly humorous; yet equally profound! A truly amazing choice!
Conclusion: The Far Side's Enduring Humor
Gary Larson's The Far Side is more than simply humor; it shows the masterful use of subtle details; demonstrating the artistic vision which impacted everyone in their own particular ways. It explores darkly humorous themes related to human nature in interesting ways, utilizing various concepts which shows human flaws, in amusingly subtle yet effective methods. Those dolphin and whale strips really emphasize Larson’s style. They are unforgettable – those specific details emphasizing expressions remain legendary!
