10 Funniest Far Side Comics About Camouflage & Disguises
Gary Larson's humor is never what it seems, so it makes sense that The Far Side is full of disguises and camouflage designed to fool the naked eye. From deadly plants trying to draw in prey to zoologists studying animals up close and personal, Far Side is packed with characters who are pulling a fast one.
Here are the 10 funniest Far Side comics that depict camouflage and disguises, while also showcasing some of Larson's biggest obsessions and favorite themes - including unpredictable clowns, bloodthirsty bears and surprisingly malevolent ducks.
10 Zippo? ... Zippuh? ... Zipper!
Far Side's Scientists Will Stop at Nothing in the Hunt for Knowledge
In this strip, a zoologist uses a bear disguise to live among the animals, even managing to learn aspects of their language. Sadly, what he doesn't realize but the reader does is that his disguise was just exposed thanks to the costume's shiny zipper. Sadly, it's unlikely this dedicated scientist's findings will ever make it to the outside world. Larson loves pitting bears against humans, often mocking humanity for arrogantly venturing into the furry killing machines' territory. Open the image gallery below for more Far Side comics showing bears going up against humans.
Larson's love of bears is likely tied to one of his admitted influences - Morrell Gipson's children's book Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat. The story follows a giant bear as it sits on and crushes the homes of various other wildlife. It's the exact kind of surrealy inexplicable chaos that Far Side runs on. In a 1986 interview with 20/20, Larson stated:
There was something so mesmerizing about the image of this big bear going through the forest and squashing the homes of these little animals. I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world.
9 Park Bench
Far Side's Humans Aren't the Only Ones Using Disguises
From humans tricking animals to animals tricking humans, this strip shows an elephant using a human disguise to try and steal a bag of nuts. While elephants famously love the salty treat, the humor comes from the ridiculous lengths the elephant has gone to in order to snatch a regular-sized bag. The intense elephant side-eye is a hilarious artistic detail from Larson. Open the image gallery below for more Far Side comics starring elephants.
Larson always wanted the animal kingdom to be a huge part of The Far Side, and originally pitched the comic under the title Nature's Way. While the comic's scope expanded under its eventual title - including aliens, cavemen and various horror movie monsters - the heart of Far Side remains the humor of the animal and human worlds crashing into each other.
8 Animal Camouflage
Two Buffalo Turn the Tables on Humanity
Again, Larson flips the animal/human relationship, imagining two buffalo cruising through the city, using crude daubings of grinning humans to blend into their surroundings. It's a play on how humans use camo-pattern jeeps to avoid spooking animals while on safari, making it only fair that the animals turn the tables when they get curious in return.
7 Snake Charmer
Sometimes the Simplest Disguise Is the Funniest
Some disguises are absolutely infallible, while others don't quite hit the same mark. In this case, a snake charmer summons up his serpentine partner, only for the snake to emerge wearing a pair of Groucho glasses. It's unclear exactly what the snake is trying to achieve, other than potentially making a fool of the charmer, who takes immediate offense.
6 Dang It, Monica!
Far Side Puts a Bizarre Twist on Kitchen Sink Drama
In this strip, a husband finally exposes his deep, dark secret to his wife. However, while this kind of scene usually involves financial woes or a secret family, in the world of The Far Side he reveals that he is (and always has been) a komodo dragon in disguise. The wife's lack of reaction makes the reveal even funnier, since readers don't have any real context for how big of a reveal this is. Of course, a lot of humor comes from the implication that the two have apparently been living together for a significant amount of time without Monica ever suspecting her husband is a lizard in a rubber mask.
Larson enjoys recreating soap-opera style broken marriages with the weirdest possible characters. Far Side's couples cheat, argue and even try to bump each other off, but with the added twist that they're robots, fish or marooned on a desert island.
5 The Venus Kidtrap
Far Side Sure Does Find Kids Getting Eaten Funny
Camouflage isn't always about passing unnoticed - sometimes it's about obscuring what would otherwise be a clear and present danger. In this case, the world of Far Side introduces a giant version of the venus flytrap which is camouflaged as a tree with a bunch of tire swings, tempting in kids who are quickly devoured by the deadly fauna. Open the image gallery below for more Far Side comics about kids getting eaten.
Children get eaten a surprising amount in The Far Side. While the comic was syndicated in national newspapers and so had to fit a family-friendly remit, that mostly just meant that Larson couldn't get explicitly gory. However, he was apparently still comfortable implying situations where cub scouts are eaten by bears and babies are consumed by crocodiles.
4 You Listen to Me, Miss Billings!
Far Side's Maniacal Ducks Make Their Entrance
In this strip, successful businessman J.F. Jones trips in front of his secretary, accidentally revealing that he's a gaggle of ducks in disguise. Amusingly, the reveal doesn't change his basic personality, with the ducks sternly warning Miss Billings to forget what she's seen. Open the image gallery below for more Far Side comics starring ducks.
Ducks fulfill a weird role in The Far Side, with Larson consistently depicting them with a sense of menace. For whatever reason, the waterfowl really seem to have it in for humanity, suggesting that J.F. Jones' disguise might be a deliberate attempt to infiltrate the enemy.
3 The Arctic Clown
Far Side's Clowns Have Been Caught in Weirder Situations
In this strip, a clown disguises itself to avoid being mauled by a polar bear, albeit with its bright red nose still visible. Larson often treats clowns as a parallel species to 'real' humans, with their own mating habits and methods of survival. The concept of an 'arctic clown' perfectly encapsulates this idea, as it's suggested that this isn't just a case where a clown happened to stumble across a polar bear, but two natural rivals in a shared habitat. Open the image gallery below for more Far Side comics starring clowns.
Larson's clowns are generally shown causing trouble for its own sake, whether that means pieing innocent people on the street or messing with nuclear weaponry. Their motives are inscrutable, with goofy smiles plastered on their faces even as they're led to the electric chair.
2 Like the Peppered Moth
Larson Loves Treating Humans as Just Another Animal
In this genius comic strip, a woman who is wearing the same pattern as her wallpaper ends up surviving because of the camouflage effect it creates. Larson hilariously makes it so that 'Harold' isn't just not wearing the same camo, but is wearing an eclectic outfit with checkerboard pants and a stripey shirt - he never had a chance. Larson also showcases his love of language with the hilarious phrase "like the peppered moth and the arctic hare," while keeping things surreal by offering not even a crumb of context for why a monster is going door to door eating people.
1 Now Edgar's Gone...
Larson Called Out His Own 'Mistake' In Our #1 Comic
Sometimes, a disguise succeeds not because of its inherent quality, but because of the dull-wittedness of its target. In this case, a group of penguins are being picked off one by one, unable to guess the perpetrator despite the fact that there's a huge polar bear in their midst wearing a lackluster fake beak. In The Prehistory of The Far Side, Larson notes that he bent reality by depicting polar bears and penguins together when they actually occupy opposite ends of the Earth. Open the image gallery below for more Far Side comics starring penguins.
Those are the 10 funniest Far Sidecomics that include disguises and camouflage, showing just how bizarre Gary Larson's world can be.
- Writer
- Gary Larson
- Colorist
- Gary Larson
