Gary Larson hates this far side comic so much he cannot read it without cringing.
almost 14 years, Gary Larson produced almost 4000 The Far Side Comics; no creator gathers that volume of work without a few mistakes. Larson still finds himself uncomfortable reading one Far Side comedy, though; he regrets so much about it. It's to Larson's credit as a cartoonist that even the comic he despises isn't really bad and might find favor among some of his admirers.
Published October 3, 1994, the strip in issue has two clowns in an alley one advancing on the other while custard pie held aloft. His targeted victim fingers, warns, "I wouldn't do that, Spunky - I have friends in pie places." Larson notes in The Complete Far Side, Volume 3, "Cartoonist's note: Above is my own nominee for the Worst Cartoon I ever drew. (I still cringe.)". Making Larson's pain even more severe, the comic comes from the last year of The Far Side's publication and cannot be discounted as an early error when Larson hadn't yet discovered his voice. Larson had created thousands of Far Side comics at this point, and although he eventually altered his mind, he had assumed (at least momentarily) that this comedy would be appropriate among them.
Gary Larson Hates His "Pie Places" Far Side Strip
Larson's "worst cartoon I ever drew" is a straight pun, replacing "high places" for a more clown-appropriate warning. Though it's far from The Far Side's clever, macabre, surreal finest, it's far from a total flop by any criteria. Depending on their taste for puns, Gary Larson fans of The Far Side for its wordplay could even be inclined to rank this comic among the finest of the series. Larson might not enjoy this comic above all, but it's not the only time he's criticised his own work. Larson disliked the outcome enough in the comic below to call for a caption apologizing for the humor.
Gary Larson most certainly appreciated the picture of clowns tossing custard pies, even though he might not have enjoyed the "Pie Places" comic. Over The Far Side's run, the image resurfaced regularly with varying connotations. It is implied that clowns hurling pies are performing everything from genuine assault to a strange mating ritual. Larson even imagines an equally massive custard pie fired from a catapult defeating a monster King Kong-style clown. These strips highlight Larson's ability to take a picture or scenario the reader immediately recognizes and then twist in fresh and surprising directions. Most of Larson's comics feature only one panel to work with, hence every additional background he can get from popular culture or familiar imagery helps to complete the "story." This is maybe the benchmark that "pie places" fell short in Larson's perspective: although it offers a pun, the wordplay doesn't really fit the circumstances in a way that heightens the comedy.
Puns Never Made The Far Side Afraid
Examining some of Gary Larson's best puns helps one to understand why wordplay is a passion of fans for The Far Side. Usually, Larson uses a common phrase or idiom to center the comic's "story," therefore producing a cartoon world in which the remark makes sense. Under the guise of building a universe where the pun's new meaning makes a bizarre kind of sense, Old West cowboys play poker with literal varmints, cashiers serve half-drawn consumers and housewives open the refrigerator to find a food-based mugging in action.
The Far Side stands out among other comic strips in part because it frequently takes chances other ones wouldn't. The Far Side often shows gags where the reader must bring special cultural or scientific knowledge to the table in order to grasp the joke, while Jim Davis has written Garfield's popularity down to showcasing jokes and scenarios that make sense anywhere in the globe. For someone who has not heard the assertion that the typical American couple has "2.4 children," the strip below makes little sense. The Far Side has garnered many hardworking admirers from this high bar for readers, but it also means that Larson's objectives have occasionally gone astray. And unlike the "pie places" cartoon, the outcome wasn't always a poor gag; occasionally, degrees of indignation Larson worried would ruin his career.
The Far Side's clown comic isn't Gary Larson's biggest "mistake."
Larson lists several comics in The Prehistory of The Far Side where he made obvious errors that defied the strip's logic. The most well-known is "Sled Chickens of the North," in which the relevant birds in the first published strip lacked any attachment to the sled by anything (harnesses were added in later printings.) Given his passion of science and the vast following of scientists who so read his comics, Larson also acknowledges several factual mistakes that were particularly embarrassing. Larson writes that he got comments concerning a strip showing bananas growing down rather than up and also acknowledges letters for illustrating polar bears and penguins living together. Though the reality is, "it bothers me when I make these kinds of mistakes," he says, "one side of me wants to say, 'So sue me.'"
Though Larson acknowledges that he always feels guilty advancing the belief that the two ever lived side-by-side, suggesting that cartoonists should have a dedicated confessional where they can seek forgiveness for this kind of misleading choice, The Far Side regularly uses dinosaurs and cavepeople. Comics where readers simply didn't get the joke—the "Cow Tools" strip confused readers on publication, with many looking for deeper meaning in what Larson calls a simple "exercise in silliness," while a comic showing a family of cows on holiday fell flat because no-one noticed that one of the younger cows is holding up "b Bunny ears" behind the head (in the art, this mostly just looks like a bow.)
The Far Side: Examining the Iconic Comic Strip Backstage
Renowned comic strip The Far Side ran from 1980 to 1995. Designed by Gary Larson, the strip was well-known for its oddball comedy, strange circumstances, and generally sinister, morbid sense of taste. The Far Side became somewhat well-known because of its original approach and clever comedy that enthralls readers all around. Among the many characters in the strip—creatures, cavemen, aliens, and others—all of which found themselves in funny and often ridiculous circumstances—were animals,
The Far Side's unique approach and deft wordplay become trademark features of Larson's work. He was renowned for his ability to locate comedy in unlikely locations, frequently rendering commonplace items and events completely ludicrous. The Far Side is evidence of Larson's creative brilliance and the ongoing appeal of laughing is evidence of its strength.
