Gary Larson’s The Far Side has a love of morbid humor, so it makes sense that the comic often parodies classic horror films. Over its 16-year run, The Far Side put its own spin on everything from Frankenstein and The Fly to modern classics like Alien.
Here are the ten funniest Far Side comics that reference classic horror movies – be sure to stick around to the end to vote in our reader poll, and tell us which of these Far Side horror comics is your personal #1.
Released at the tail-end of the 1950s trend for 3D movies, Creature from the Black Lagoon nevertheless found a lasting place in the public consciousness, and certainly seems to have had an effect on Gary Larson, who includes the titular creature (nicknamed the Gill-Man) in multiple comic strips. Larson’s favorite gag is to turn the Gill-Man into the opposite of a human (for example, showing it charging onto land with a wagon as a surfer runs in the opposite direction with a surfboard.) Larson also has several gags treating the Gill-Man as just another amphibian – including one where he falls victim to a hungry stork.
However, our pick for Far Side‘s best Creature from the Black Lagoon comic depicts a couple discovering the aquatic menace in their local car wash. The joke perfectly subverts the original movie’s premise of a mysterious creature stalking researchers in the Amazon, drastically reducing the space in which the Gill-Man apparently operates.
Larson parodied the iconic Psycho on multiple occasions, recreating the movie’s iconic shot of the imposing Bates Motel. While Larson’s love of wordplay sees a family of worms approaching the ‘Bait Motel,’ the best gag is Psycho III, where Larson imagines the third in the Psycho trilogy building the tension by introducing heavy weaponry into the famous shower scene. Releasing in December of 1983, Larson’s gag came out the same year as Richard Franklin’s Psycho II, and accidentally predicted the actual Psycho III in 1986. Sadly, the real third movie didn’t opt to include any combat vehicles.
One of Larson’s most surreal movie references, this strip sees the residents of Elm Street dealing not just with a dream-invading serial killer, but also a feathered master of disguise. The Far Side‘s many chickens are used to getting one over on their human oppressors, but this has to be their grimmest victory, as the family in question are tricked into eating their own dog.
From the surreal to the goofy, this parody of Robert De Niro’s iconic horror role is simply a pun on the ‘Cape buffalo’ – a subspecies of the African buffalo. Larson is a huge fan of nature, and makes his wide-ranging animal knowledge a major facet of The Far Side – indeed, the strip was originally pitched with the title Nature’s Way. It speaks to Larson’s unique perspective that he’d watch the nail-biting terror of Cape Fear and immediately see the opportunity for an animal pun. While J. Lee Thompson’s original Cape Fear was released in 1962, it’s likely that Larson was referencing the more famous 1991 remake, given this comic was published only a year later.
The Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise are some of the most iconic movie monsters in film history, with John Hurt’s grisly death cementing their larval ‘Chestburster’ stage in pop culture memory. Larson puts a far jollier twist on the young aliens’ tendency to burst out of their prey, recreating this tendency in a domestic setting. Larson has a tendency to combine mundane moments with the wildest characters possible, and even manages to make H.R. Giger’s mind-bending monstrosities feel approachable.
Whether it’s Kurt Neumann’s 1958 movie or David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake, the draw of The Fly remains the same – the utter body horror of a man who finds himself fused with an insect, losing his humanity thanks to a combination of hubris and impossibly bad luck. Of course, The Far Side doesn’t go as far as Jeff Goldblum’s horrific ‘Brundlefly’ transformation, and instead treats being fused with a bug as a minor inconvenience (though one that’s still worth telling the neighbors about in detail.)
In an accidental but fun twist, Larson’s other comic referencing the fly seemingly shows the same situation from a different perspective, as this time it’s the scientist himself who has undergone an insectoid transformation. Hopefully, when he figures out a cure, he scuttles across the street to help out George too.
While not as famous for its meta comedy as for its surreal perspective, The Far Side loves to break the fourth wall. From characters who know they’re in a comic to referencing other strips like Garfield and Peanuts, Larson’s sense of humor is perfectly suited to poking holes in the barrier between fiction and reality. In this tribute to Jaws, it turns out that John Williams’ iconic score was actually playing in-world all along, even functioning as a warning for Bruce’s next victims (not that there’s much chance the fishermen in this strip made it out alive.)
Easily the most obscure entry on this list, Them! set the standard for the ‘giant nuclear monster’ movies of the 1950s, as transformed insects overrun New Mexico and Los Angeles. If Larson loves nature, he adores insects, and many Far Side strips celebrate the quirks of bugs. Larson’s love of the natural world has invited several tributes from scientist fans (he even accidentally coined the term for the spikes on a stegosaurus’ tail), however the best has to be strigiphilus garylarsoni – a species of louse named in Larson’s honor by a fan. The strip itself is a simple play on the movie’s melodramatic title, as a phrase that isn’t out of place in a business meeting is given a far darker meaning.
Starting in 1932 with Boris Karloff as the titular monster, Universal’s The Mummy franchise ran to six movies, including The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Curse, and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy. Like The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Larson loved the Mummy enough for it to appear many times over in The Far Side, with the theme of the Mummy’s Curse nestled among goofy puns and fun visual gags, like a Matryoshka doll sarcophagus.
While the surprisingly scatological gag about Maurice offending a Mummy in a public bathroom is funny – and the ‘Mummy’s purse’ pun is enjoyable and groan-worthy – we’ve chosen a classic Mummy’s Curse gag as the best of the bunch. Larson’s sketchy art style goes light on detail, but he always nails the body language and expressions of his characters, and a peeved (but not murderously angry) Mummy casually handing out curses is a great visual.
Of all The Far Side‘s classic horror references, nothing can beat Larson’s obsession with Frankenstein. While Mary Shelley’s book gets some of the credit for Larson’s gags, the Universal film series was clearly a huge influence. (Indeed, with his flat-top head, neck bolts, and forehead scar, Far Side‘s Frankenstein is undeniably Universal’s version of the patchwork zombie.) Larson’s jokes reference movies including 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, explaining the latter away as Igor simply messing with the creature.
The Far Side thrives when it has clear rules it can subvert and play with, and the relationship between Frankenstein, Igor and the monster is perfect for this. Larson’s best gags paint the three as a dysfunctional family, however our favorite is a basic pun, as Igor realizes that he was sent out to fetch a brain, just as he’s about to instead drag a “train” down into the lab. It’s the goofiest possible gag, and Larson adds to the silly premise by adding as much physical impossibility as the panel will hold (not only is the doorway too narrow for the train to pass through, but then there’s the stairs.) However, it’s Igor’s expression that cinches it, as he realizes his mistake at exactly the same moment as the reader.
The Far Side didn’t tangle with pop culture very often, generally only choosing references so iconic that they were guaranteed to stand the test of time. From The Bride of Frankenstein to Psycho, Gary Larson has a great eye for the horror icons that would still be funny decades later, making The Far Side‘s classic horror comics some of its best – let us know your favorite in the reader poll below.