The hit seriesBojack Horsemanoffered a hilarious look at an absurdist world where anthropomorphic animals and humans co-existed…sound familiar,Far Sidefans? Yes, whether directly or indirectly, the fan-favorite show is deeply indebted to the comedic legacy of Gary Larson’s infamous newspaper comic, and this panels highlight how, and the panels collected here highlight how.
Bojackdebuted in 2014, twenty years after thefinal year ofThe Far Side, and over thirty years after Larson’s work began to redefine the landscape of American comedy, one single-panel cartoon at a time.
In other words,The Far Sidepaved the way forBojack Horseman, and these comics prove how strong the parallels are.
10Gary Larson Turns “Bye Bye Blackbird” Into A Tense Final Moment Between Roommates
First Published: August 15, 2025
ThisFar Sidepunchline is a reference to the jazzstandard “Bye Bye Blackbird,” formulating its action from its opening lines, “pack up my cares and woes.” Here,a literal black bird is bidding farewell to its human roommate, who unlike the song’s singer, has neglected to take all of his baggage, or as the bird calls it, “depressing garbage.”
In its interaction between human and animal characters, along with both the tone and substance of the joke, this late-eraFar Sidegag is highly evocative ofBojack Horseman. Especially given the way it riffs on pop culture, this punchline would have been at home in the beloved animated series.
9This Far Side Ostrich Shoots Its Shot With A Human Love Interest
First Published: August 10, 2025
“According to the dictionary, I’m just a large flightless bird…but believe me Doris,“an ostrich says, hitting on a human woman in one ofThe Far Side’smany bar scenes, “once you get to know me, you’ll see I’m much more than that.“Here, Gary Larson hilariously lampoons human flirtation by swapping in an animal character.
LikeBojack Horseman,The Far Sidewasn’t afraid to depict its human characters in romantic situations with animals, except it was much more out of the ordinary, and even outrageous for some readers, duringThe Far Side’sheyday. In fact, Larson’s cartoons arguably helped make this kind of humor more acceptable, eventually leading toBojack.
8The Far Side Features A Feline Coming To A Hilarious Epiphany In Therapy
First Published: June 04, 2025
The Far Sidemade a number of laugh-out-loud therapy jokes, and the humor of these often stemmed from the unusual patients who wound up stretched out on a psychiatrist’s couch. Here, it is a cat, who lies belly-up, staring at the ceiling,and comes to the realization that it is “starting to feel dependent.”
It is a typical Gary Larson joke, straddling the linebetween smart and dumb humor like the best ofThe Far Side, with the punchline relying on the dissonance between the cat’s level of self-awareness and the implied fact that it is still, at the end of the day, a house pet.
7One Man’s Ruined Meal Is An Amphibian’s Delicacy In This Far Side Classic
First Published: July 18, 2025
Only in the world ofBojack Horseman, orThe Far Side, would it be totally normal to sit down at the counter of your diner next to a frog wearing a fedora. Hilariously, thisFar Sideinteraction between human and amphibianoccurs when the man experiences the classic “fly in soup” scenario.
As he presumably ponders whether to complain to the wait staff or not,the adjacent frog asks “you’re not planning to just throw that fly away?“For the frog, of course, this is a bonus treat, which will go perfectly with his oversized cup of coffee, in this laugh-out-loudFar Sidecartoon.
6Can This Couple’s Love Survive The Far Side’s Weirdest Big Reveal?
First Published: Jul 19, 2025
This unforgettableFar Sidecartoon mixes shades ofBojackand sci-fi body horror, asa giant lizard peels off the human disguise it has been wearing and reveals to its girlfriend that it is “a Komodo dragon, the largest member of the lizard family,“rather than “a television repairman who stumbled into [her] life.”
For sure, this is one of Gary Larson’s most bizarre punchlines, one that hints ata backstoryFar Sidefans would love to know more of. At the same time, it is aFar Sidecartoon that cries out for a sequelit never got, leaving fans begging to know how “Monica” reacts to this revelation.
5A Far Side Dog Uncovers The True Motivation Behind Their Antagonism Of Mail Carriers
First Published: August 05, 2025
Once again, let’s return to a familiar gag: animals in need of psychological counseling.ThisFar Sidecartoon hilariously featuresanother animal arriving at a startlingly human revelation about themselves, while in therapy. In this case, it is a dog,who admits a dark secret: “It’s the mailman, doc. He scares me.”
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Gary Larson took the canine vs. mail carrier rivalry to some strange and hilarious places over the years, but this joke sticks out as a strikingly funny swerve on the subject. As readers might expect, dogs were usually the aggressors in this conflict, as depicted byThe Far Side, yet this cartoon provides a surprising reason why.
4The Far Side Set The Precedent For Humans And Animals Co-Exisiting, If Not Always Getting Along
First Published: June 24, 2025
In this cartoon,The Far Side’subiquitous bovinesshow their ambitious side,attempting to build a rocket to outer space using materials appropriated from the barn.Meanwhile, a group of human farmers gather to watch and heckle them. “You’ll never get that contraption off the ground,” one shouts…and honestly he’s probably right.
The humor of this cartoon, like manyFar Sidepanels, relies on its human characters treating anthropomorphized animals as completely natural, in line with fictional worldBojack Horsemanwould later build, in which human and animal society was fully integrated. This establishes a foundation that both human and animal characters are able to hilariously take to the next level.
3The Far Side’s “Alligator On Trial” Cartoon Is Its Most “Bojack Before Bojack”
First Published: July 29, 2025
“Of course I did it in cold blood, you idiot,” an agitated alligator says in this iconicFar Sidecourtroom scene, having evidently taken the stand in its own defense. “I’m a reptile,” the witness says, in exasperation, as a potentially prejudiced human jury looks on, arguing that its internal temperature at the time of the crime shouldn’t be admissible.
This is a classicFar Sidecartoon by every metric, and it served as proof of concept forBojack Horsemana full two decades before the latter show debuted. Here, Gary Larson proves the deliriously funny potential of mixing humans and animals in an otherwise serious context, like a criminal trial, somethingBojackwould take to new levels throughout its run.
2Is This The Far Side’s Most Uncomfortable Human/Animal Love Connection?
First Published: August 11, 2025
Notably while this panel has parallels toBojack Horsemanin its interspecies romance, it does something that was less common onBojack, which is have its human character act more animalistic to match its partner, rather than overtly humanizing the animal. In this instance,a woman crams herself into a suffocatingly-small hole in the Earth, because it is her snake boyfriend’s home.
Gary Larson produced several variants on this joke, involving human and animal pairs, over the course ofThe Far Side’stime in publication, and this certainly ranks among the most uncomfortable, though less because of the amorous entanglement of a snake and a human, but because of theclaustrophic quality of thisFar Sideimagery.
1The Far Side Could Make Jokes Like This All Day Long, Until…
First Published: August 11, 2025
This earlyFar Sideanthropomorphic cow cartoon, also shows ofGary Larson’s knack for creative wordplay, in which he takes the saying “until the cows come home” and makes it literal, witha woman standing by her living room window and observing her bovine neighbors pulling up in a taxi, returning from a trip.
This is another joke thatBojack Horsemanwould later be obviously indebted to. The series made the most of puns and gags, both visual and verbal, that served as self-aware call-outs of the absurd anthropomorphic animal premise. The hit show can trace its lineage, in this regard, directly back toThe Far Side, which walked so it could run.
