Nine Standout Far Side Comics Featuring the Nerdy Kid

One big difference between The Far Side and most other comic strips is the lack of a recurring cast. Charles Schulz’s Peanuts had Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the gang. Jim Davis’ Garfield has Garfield, Odie, Jon and a handful of others. Gary Larson’s The Far Side ran non-sequitur, single-panel jokes and had no regular characters, or at least not really.

Larson never gave his characters consistent names or personality traits, but he did seem to draw a few of the same humans again and again. A bearded, bespectacled man often played scientists. A large woman in horn-rimmed glasses appeared as various “wife” characters or catty neighbors. Then there was the Nerdy Kid, a heavy child with short red hair and glasses, usually wearing a striped shirt.

He wasn’t nerdy because he was smart. His nerdiness was closer to that of Milhouse from The Simpsons, whose face looks made for punching. He’s the kind of character who is fun to portray as a victim, and Larson did exactly that with relish.

The Nerdy Kid appeared in a wide variety of Far Side comics over the strip’s 15-year run. Here are nine of the best.

9. Ouch!

This is the quintessential Nerdy Kid comic. Two animal cookies bite him, which could only happen to a kid like him.

8. Not in the DSM

Here the Nerdy Kid is the perfect victim again. He suffers from a disorder called “Luposlipaphobia,” which Larson defines as “The fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.”

7. Let’s see this product on Shark Tank

The Nerdy Kid is such an ideal victim that he needs a Monster Snorkel to sleep at night. According to Larson, a Monster Snorkel “allows your child to breathe comfortably without exposing vulnerable parts to an attack.”

6. The bear toss

There are basically two Nerdy Kids in this strip, which shows that he isn’t really a single character. “The Nerdy Kid” is just a common way Larson drew kids.

5. Pull

The Nerdy Kid isn’t nerdy in the genius sense, and this strip proves it. He is clearly pushing a door that he is supposed to pull.

4. Activist ants

Sometimes the Nerdy Kid is less a victim than a funny observer. With his pupil-less eyes and buck teeth, he seems to be put upon just for existing. In this strip, he keeps some bugs in a jar in his room. Other bugs protest outside his window with signs reading “Free the Mayonnaise Jar Seven!” It’s as though this kind of thing is always happening to him.

3. And some other ants

Sometimes the Nerdy Kid is just a little weirdo. In this strip, the kid is named “Robby” and he has an ant farm. He’s branding the poor little ants. It’s a rare Nerdy Kid strip where he isn’t the victim.

2. Metal shop

The Nerdy Kid has the upper hand again here. His metal shop teacher has clearly been unkind to him in the past, so he has built a giant killer robot and plans to attack the teacher with it. Judging by the look of the teacher, he might have it coming.

1. The Far Side cast

This comic ran in 1988, eight years into Larson’s 15-year run on The Far Side. It lays out a variety of “recurring” characters, including the Nerdy Kid. Larson’s caption reads: “Making his cartoon debut as ‘the nerdy little kid’ was Jerry Miller. Jerry was originally turned down for the part of Sluggo in Nancy.”

The Nerdy Kid is such a loser that he can’t even make it into a lame comic strip like Nancy.

Source: Polygon