Gary Larson’s Far Side Comics Poke Dark Fun at Clowns

On Oct. 3, 1994, The Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson published what he would later call his worst comic strip. Two clowns stand in a back alley. One has his back to the wall, and the other is about to throw a pie at him. The cornered clown says, “I wouldn’t do that, Spunky — I have friends in pie places.”

Years later, Larson put a note under the panel in The Complete Far Side:

“Cartoonist’s note: Above is my own nominee for the worst cartoon I ever drew. (I still cringe.) — Gary Larson.”

I’m not sure I agree with him. The pun works for me in a “so bad it’s good” way. I also side with the Redditor who said the strip would be a lot funnier with no caption at all.

Either way, it isn’t Larson’s best work, and it certainly isn’t his best clown strip. Clowns turned up often in The Far Side. The best of those jokes tended to be very dark, with clowns dying, about to die, or causing horrible deaths for other people.

Here are 10 very funny and very dark Far Side comics starring clowns.

10. Draw!

This strip takes a second to land because your eye goes straight to the dead clown. Then you spot the pie in the gunfighter’s face, and the joke clicks.

9. A classic

This one ran in 1984, a full decade before the strip Larson later named his worst. It plays on a similar idea, with criminal clowns sticking people up with pies. It’s a heck of a lot funnier, though. Maybe the 1994 strip suffered because it came too close to this one.

8. Clown Kong

Clown Kong isn’t as dark as some of the others, but a clown is still terrorizing a whole city. Just imagine how many people those giant feet have stepped on.

7. Bulls vs. Clowns

If bullfighting were a sport where bulls simply chased down clowns, I think everyone would get behind it. Clowns might be the exception.

6. Heads will roll (with laughter)

This strip has no clown in it, yet Larson still makes clowns the butt of the joke. It makes you wonder how he felt about them. Other strips make it pretty clear he hated mimes, but clowns seem different. My guess is that he didn’t hate clowns. He just knew how funny it was to do terrible things to them, or to show them doing terrible things.

5. An eager clown

This one feels more dirty than dark, but it’s still very funny.

4. Poor clown

If I were this clown, I would do whatever these guys tell me to do.

3. The clown’s final walk

This strip has several layers. First comes the visual gag of a clown heading to the electric chair. That joke works fine without a caption. Larson still found a way to top it by having one of the two guards say, “I don’t think I’ll be able to tell the kids about this one.”

The line makes the strip funnier, and I think another joke arrives a few minutes after you read it. Why is this guard telling his kids about any of the executions he carries out? That surely isn’t something you share with your kids.

2. This just feels like a bad hire

Clowns should not be in charge of missiles. Everybody knows that.

1. Gary Larson’s darkest-ever clown comic strip

This strip is incredibly disturbing, and it feels like something you couldn’t get away with today. Maybe that’s why it still shocks me, and why it’s so very, very funny.

Source: Polygon