7 Funniest Far Side Comics About Elephants

Elephants have long been a reliable source of comedy. Their trunks, tusks, reputation for never forgetting, and awkwardness in human settings offer plenty of material for jokes.

Gary Larson made good use of that potential during his 15-year run with The Far Side. His elephants turn up at cocktail parties, crime scenes, watering holes, and phone booths, often behaving just enough like people to make each scene stranger. Some strips play on familiar ideas about elephants. Others place them somewhere they clearly do not belong.

Here are seven of the best Far Side comics about elephants.

7. Eat or Don’t Eat

Larson imagines early humans keeping track of whether elephants are safe to eat, using primitive tally boards. The enormous elephant standing behind them makes their experiment seem less than academic.

6. Long-Distance Problems

An elephant makes a long-distance call and discovers that someone has turned its leg into a wastebasket. The strip takes on the grim subject of poaching.

5. Ivory Keys

A party is going well until an elephant notices that a piano keyboard is made of ivory. The mood shifts immediately, given where ivory traditionally comes from.

4. An Elephant Never Forgets

Larson takes the old saying literally. An elephant drinks to forget, only to find that he cannot. It is a miserable little joke built around one of the animal’s best-known traits.

3. Tiny Hands

Edgar tries to hide an odd ailment from the other elephants. The giveaway is hard to miss: he has suddenly grown a tiny human hand.

2. The Butler Did It

A detective confidently announces that the butler murdered the Colonel by goring and trampling him. An elephant sitting quietly among the suspects makes the conclusion a little suspicious.

1. Armed and Dangerous

Safari hunters usually worry about an elephant’s size, tusks, and temper. Larson raises the stakes by giving one a tiny knife, as if that should be the hunters’ main concern.

Source: Polygon