8 Hilarious Far Side Comics About Traveling

The Far Side was always a vacation from reality, but these cartoons made family road trips and holidays their subject matter. To laugh-out-loud results that anyone who has ever been on a less-than-fun vacation will be able to find the humor in.

Cramped cars. Yelling dads. Begging to make a pit stop. All classic tropes of the family vacation joke, all of which Far Side creator Gary Larson channeled into multiple hilarious punchlines over the years. This list looks at some of the best of the best.

As the summer vacation season commences, look back at these iconic Far Side cartoons for lessons in what not to do on the road this year.

Frankenstein And Igor Find The Perfect Souvenir In Hawaii

First Published: August 9, 1983

This early Far Side vacation joke is also an underrated Far Side Frankenstein cartoon. It’s possible that this one is overlooked because it takes Dr. Frankenstein, and his assistant Igor (a character The Far Side was just as fascinated with) out of their normal milieu, the mad scientist’s laboratory, and puts them in a completely different context.

But that is also what makes it one of the best Far Side Frankenstein jokes. “Look at this brain coral!” Frankenstein shouts to Igor, as they snorkel off the Hawaiian coast.

It’s a hilarious “you can’t take the mad out of the scientist” moment, highlighting how, even on vacation, Frankenstein still always has brains on the brain.

The Heyday Of The Far Side Vacation Joke Begins

First Published: January 9, 1988

“ _____ on vacation” became a can’t-miss formula for The Far Side in its later years; in this case, it’s “the Squid family,” a pod of giant squids, but their dynamic will be awfully familiar to anyone who has suffered through a bad human family road trip. That is, annoyed parents up front, annoying kids in the back, nobody having a good time.

“Jerry still won’t keep his tentacles on his own side,” one of the squid kids hollers from the back, as its guilty sibling shoots it a look full of daggers. In the passenger seat, Mama Squid is equally fed up with the kids’ backseat antics.

Behind the wheel, Father Squid’s eyes are obscured by glasses, but the way his brow is furrowed, readers can tell a blow-up is imminent, making this Far Side punchline as tension-filled as it is funny.

The Far Side Takes Its Vacation Jokes Up A Notch

First Published: June 6, 1988

This time, it’s “hummingbirds on vacation.” There’s no car in this cartoon; instead, the characters are flying through the air, but the effect is the same. The birds are drawn in formation mimicking the “parents up front, kids in the back” road trip dynamic, and the adolescent hummingbirds’ behavior is exactly the same as human youths.

“Dad! Dad!” they shout. “There’s a feeder,” they say, pointing to a bird feeder hanging from the gutter of a house below. “Can we stop?”

The details of Gary Larson’s illustration here are minimal, but look closely, and it’s possible to just make out the hummingbird father’s eyes bulging in annoyance. It’s only speculation, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the young birds have asked this same question about every passing feeder for hours on end.

The Far Side Imagines An Outrageous Clash Of Cultures

First Published:​​​​​​​ September 28, 1988

In the third Far Side vacation cartoon from 1988, this time it is “pygmies on vacation.” The panel shows a group of tribesmen transposed out of the depths of the jungle and into the concrete jungle of a major city. Where they quickly cause trouble with blow darts.

From the mouth of an alleyway, one of them shoots at dart, possibly poisonous, into the neck of an unsuspecting city-dweller as he tries to get into a cab.

The premise of this panel shows that Gary Larson was experimenting with this comedic formula and trying to push its boundaries. Meanwhile, the real punchline of this Far Side joke is the man’s eyes, wide with shock and confusion, completely unaware of what just hit him.

The Far Side’s Nicest Road Trip Dad Makes A Deadly Detour

First Published: May 17, 1990

With this Far Side cartoon, Gary Larson mixed up the vacation joke formula. This time, he depicts a “slug vacation disaster,” as a car full of the slimy insects on a road trip make the fateful error of taking a detour to “the Great Salt Lake.”

“Hey, everyone! Time for a swim!” the slug father shouts, seemingly catastrophically unaware of what that’s going to do to his family.

Actually, there’s also a note of tragic irony here, if you think about it. The angry dad is such a critical trope Larson worked with in Far Side vacation comics. And most of The Far Side’s dads wouldn’t make an unsanctioned pit stop for a swim. Here, the slug dad seems to be in a perfectly good mood, and willing to lose time for a stop, and it’s going to be their doom.

The Far Side’s Worst Dad Threatens To End The Family Vacation Catastrophically

First Published: January 25, 1991

Okay, back to angry dads. In fact, maybe one of the angriest Far Side dads of all time, in what is low-key one of The Far Side’s darkest cartoons: “Lemmings on vacation.”

And what are lemmings infamous for? Well, that’s exactly what the lemming dad here threatens to do, saying he’ll “just take this car and drive it off the first cliff I come to” if his kids don’t “knock it off” and stop making a ruckus in the back seat.

It’s a hilarious joke because, and only because, it’s a play on the apocryphal story of lemmings running off cliffs en masse. That launders the dark implication of the joke, but still leaves it for readers to pick up on, adding a twisted dimension to the humor of this Far Side panel.

The Far Side’s Tapeworm Equivalent Of The Grand Canyon

First Published: April 1, 1993

While the previous Far Side cartoon had a sinister edge to it, this one captures the feeling of awe that a great vacation destination can inspire. Yet it does so in a hilariously gross, borderline disturbing way. That is, by depicting “tapeworms on vacation.”

Being that tapeworms live in the stomach, it follows that they would visit other parts of the body on trips “out of town.” “This is it, kids…” the tapeworm dad says, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, and a ball cap, with a camera dangling around his neck. “The mouth,” as seen from the inside, from right behind the uvula.

It’s actually an all-time great artistic Far Side achievement, the fully-realized illustration of the inside of the mouth, which is just as crucial to the bit as the tapeworms, the dialogue, and the caption. Making this an underrated but unforgettable late-career Gary Larson home run.

One More Crabby Far Side Father For The Road

First Published: September 5, 1994

This classic Far Side cartoon from the final months of Gary Larson’s career is simultaneously too silly and too relatable. It’s another “angry dad on vacation” joke, but the family in question are crabs, and the crab dad is annoyed that his kids don’t appreciate beach vacations anymore.

Even though that’s, uh, where they live. “We’re not going to the mountains,’ the father shouts, “so shut up and let’s go!” The joke captures that bad family vacation energy perfectly, but also takes it to a ridiculous place with its choice of characters, and setting, and the conflict at the center of the gag.

And, once again, note the eyes. The eyes of the crab characters do as much work to convey the atmosphere as this Far Side joke as any other element of the panel, emphasizing the kid crabs’ frustration with their father, the dad’s irate attitude, and the mother crab caught in the middle.

Writer

Gary Larson

Colorist

Gary Larson