10 Funniest Far Side Comics That Will Change How You See Ghosts
The world of Gary Larson's Far Side is often a deadly place, with characters dying from everything from bear attacks to robots gone haywire. It's therefore not surprising that there are so many ghosts, spirit and wraiths wandering around Far Side's world, continuing to get into trouble long after they actually passed.
Here are the 10 funniest Far Side comics starring ghosts - while all of these comics are funny, we're interested in finding the #1, so don't forget to vote in our end-of-article poll. Not only can you help decide our official ranking of Far Side's ghost comics, but you can also see which strips got the most love from other readers.
10 Ghost Newspapers
Far Side Was Never Afraid to Get Meta
In this strip, a ghost reads the funny pages, but with the drawback that all spirits are totally transparent. That means that the reader themselves and all the characters in the comics they're reading can't be seen, removing the artform's entire reason for being. Larson adds to the joke by having each comic be a ghostly parody of his real-world contemporaries, including Dunesburied (Doonesbury), Marmadead (Marmaduke) and Deathnuts (Peanuts) - however, the best pun is the Far Side reference The Other Side.
This comic isn't unique in its meta humor, referencing the fact that The Far Side is a comic within the comic itself. Open the image gallery below for more meta Far Side comics.
Gary Larson's metatextual gags are some of his best, referencing the techniques and history of comics, often with his characters not just realizing they're in a comic, but in direct conflict with their creator.
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9 Ghost Riders in the Kitchen
Gary Larson's Characters Are Impossible to Impress
From the ghosts of Treasurer's House to New York's Peter Stuyvesant specter, stories of ghost sightings can be found all over the world. The most impressive of these include groups of spirits, like Roman Legionnaires or - in the case of this comic - Old West cowboys. To see cowboys and their bovine charges galloping through your house would be quite the sight, but one of Gary Larson's favorite gags is to show his characters seriously under-reacting to bizarre situations. In this case, ghost cowboys aren't even enough for Henry to put down his newspaper.
8 Sorry... We're Dead
Far Side's Salespeople Have Seen It All
Far Side's salespeople have to be the bravest in fiction, given how knocking on doors in Gary Larson's world could lead to meeting literally any kind of animal, monster or spirit. In this case, a salesman knocks on the door of a graveyard, only to be turned away by a ghost. It's the best-case scenario for how this interaction could have worked out, but sadly still doesn't result in a sale.
7 We Need to Get Some Chains
Larson Loves 'First Draft' Humor
In this comic, two ghosts walk away from an unsuccessful haunting, with one reflecting that using clown horns just isn't getting the results they're looking for. In typical Far Side style, Larson takes the image of a terrifying ghost covered in clanking chains and asks what the process might have been before the spirit landed on that terrifying accessory.
Throughout Far Side, Larson loves this joke of looking back at the unsuccessful 'first draft' that was trialed before landing on a modern-day behavior or tool. Most often, he uses cavemen to tell this kind of gag, as the early hominids mess around with early versions of checkers and plumbing that have some major flaws. Open the image gallery below for Far Side comics about cavemen and early invention.
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6 Ghost Moms
Gary Larson Never Met a Pun He Didn't Love
With metatextual humor and unique insights, fans could be forgiven for thinking that every Far Side comic is a work of genius. However, Larson is also a dedicated fan of goofy puns, constantly thinking up ways to present common sayings in a new context. In this strip, Larson takes the idea of 'raising the dead' and reinterprets it, swapping the implication of necromancy for the idea of 'raising' children. That leads to two ghostly moms commiserating about the difficulty of bringing up young specters.
5 Clumsy Ghosts
Far Side's Ghosts Are Scary, But Not the Way They Intended
Larson isn't done with the potential gags offered by invisible ghosts, presenting this slapstick masterpiece of a ghost falling down a giant staircase. While the terrifying spirit clearly wanted to scare the residents of this house by sneaking up on them, it instead tripped and achieved the same effect with pure chaotic noise. As a topper for the joke, Larson shows that the ghost has landed on the family cat, squashing it flat.
Like the 'early draft' gag earlier, it's pure Gary Larson to take a common stock character like a ghost and ask what defining attribute can be reversed. In the case of ghosts, they're ethereal, mysterious beings you can never be sure you've even encountered... so in the world of Far Side, they're total clods who unleash a cacophony of noise when they're trying to be quiet.
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4 Flashlight
Of Course Far Side Can't Take Ghosts Seriously
In this strip, two kids sneak into a haunted house while the resident specters plan how to terrify them. Sadly, the ghostly Carl has an expression that's far more goofy than scary, leading his undead 'colleague' to advise he doesn't draw too much attention to his Simpsons-esque overbite and tombstone teeth. While none of Far Side's characters are exactly beautiful, Larson has a love of grotesques, even in spirit form.
3 Tree Spirit
Far Side Doesn't Need Words to Earn a Laugh
This comic is the perfect example that anything can happen in the world of The Far Side, as a tree topples only for its spirit to rise from the 'body' and be raised up to Heaven by two attentive angels. A lot of Larson's work has a subtle conservationist theme, and when humanity takes advantage of nature or the animal kingdom, they rarely come out ahead. At least in this case, the logger just has a wild story to tell his friends - in other strips, he'd have been crushed under the falling tree and be undertaking his own journey to Heaven.
God and Heaven turn up a lot in The Far Side, with Larson generally imagining the great Hereafter as a relatively boring experience. With The Far Side's cynical, often morbid sense of humor, it's not surprising that Paradise doesn't hold much appeal. In fact, that might offer up another explanation for why so many ghosts are plaguing the living - moving on just doesn't seem worth the effort. Open the image gallery below for more Far Side comics about Heaven.
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2 Only a Cat!
It Wouldn't Be Far Side Without Animal Humor
In Gary Larson's world, even the wildest characters live mundane, everyday lives. Frankenstein and Igor bicker like an old married couple, circus elephants grumble about their pay, and terrifying ghosts are woken in the night by an inexplicable crash. Thankfully for the spirits in this comic, it was only their cat knocking over a lamp, although their relief does raise the question of what they were scared to find. Does the world of Far Side have ghosts who haunt ghosts, or would that just equate to an unwanted house guest?
1 The Ghost of Baron Rudolph von Guggenheim
Some Far Side Fans Don't Get This Comic
This strip is considered one of Far Side's most confusing, and it's true that the visual (while hilarious) is difficult to grasp without a little context. As seen on this list so far, one of the ghost qualities that Larson likes to play around with is their invisibility. In this case, a transparent specter has tripped and fallen into a bowl of bean dip, making only his face visible by covering it in the unappetizing sauce. What looks like a floating head is actually a ghost who fell and is on their hands and knees - a particularly embarrassing pose for an upper-class character like "Baron Rudolph von Guggenheim," dead or not.
Larson's love of language shines through in this strip, where the flowery history of Baron Guggenheim is contrasted with the simplistic "Edna's bean dip." Again, Larson showcases a mundane reaction to a wild scenario, as the two people who have just discovered the existence of ghosts look only mildly perturbed by having their dinner interrupted.
Those are The Far Side's 10 funniest comics starring ghosts, spirits and specters - don't forget to vote below on which of these comics is your number 1, and stay tuned for our official ranking once enough readers have voted.
- Writer
- Gary Larson
- Colorist
- Gary Larson
