10 Funniest Far Side Comics About Penguins

Penguins have a way of making people laugh. They walk and sound funny, and their coloring makes them look as if they are wearing tiny tuxedos. They are flightless birds, and they have a habit of falling over.

It is no surprise that penguins have long been a source of comedy, including in The Far Side. They were not as central to Gary Larson’s work as cows or dinosaurs, but they appeared regularly in his daily strip, which ran from 1980 to 1995.

Here are 10 of the best penguin-themed Far Side comics.

10. July 22, 1981

A giant penguin terrorizing a town would be more embarrassing than frightening. Other funny animals can make convincing monsters. Monkeys are funny, but King Kong is one of the great movie monsters. A giant goat head-butting buildings would be horrifying. A giant penguin is harder to take seriously, especially when it is difficult to imagine one stomping.

A giant hamster might be funny too, though probably not as funny as a giant penguin.

9. July 15, 1981

This simple gag takes almost the opposite approach. The idea of a penguin infestation is ridiculous in its own way.

8. July 10, 1982

There is something delightful about the idea of two penguins stranded on a piece of floating ice, waiting for just the right person to come by.

7. September 27, 1983

Larson sometimes returned to the same idea as a running joke. He liked to portray scientists as childish idiots, playing on the contrast between their profession and their behavior. He also repeatedly mocked banjos, accordions, and the people who played them.

For penguins, a recurring gag was that they all looked alike. In this comic, one penguin says, “Say … you’re not Bob! … You look like him, but you’re certainly not him!”

The suggestion that even penguins cannot tell one another apart makes the joke especially good.

6. August 9, 1982

Larson returns to the idea that all penguins look alike, but gives it a different spin. A singing penguin is desperate to stand out from the rest.

5. August 26, 1986

Another joke about identical-looking penguins adds a murder-mystery twist.

4. February 1, 1987

This may be Larson’s best use of the identical-penguin gag. The wide Sunday panel gives readers plenty of penguins to inspect before they find the punchline.

3. March 12, 1984

The joke seems related to the penguins’ similar appearance, but its punchline depends more on an absurdly bad disguise and some less-than-sharp penguins. Whether real penguins are dim is another question.

2. October 23, 1985

Larson brings the kind of fresh perspective to an old subject that made his jokes so distinctive.

1. June 8, 1994

Larson’s best penguin comic builds on the birds’ tendency to fall over. A lone penguin has slipped on a random banana peel on a sheet of ice. The gag is simple, but every part adds to it: banana peels are slippery, ice is slippery, and penguins struggle to stay upright.

Then there is one more question: “How did the banana peel get there?”

 

Source: Polygon