Ten Far Side Comics About Movies

For most audiences, going to the movies is meant to be an escape, offering a chance to tune out reality with snacks and a screen. The cinema trip often comes with familiar annoyances, from blocked views to scenes that hit uncomfortably close to home. Gary Larson routinely turned these everyday theater experiences into absurd humor in his comic strip The Far Side.

Throughout Larson’s run on The Far Side from 1979 to 1995, auditoriums welcomed dogs, horses, hummingbirds, mythological deities, and Death. Larson parodied films like The Godfather and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids while pushing cinema culture to surreal extremes.

1. Tall hats

Few things test a moviegoer’s patience like having their sightline blocked. Larson applied this annoyance to the upper echelon of the Vatican, illustrating church officials stuck behind towering papal headwear.

2. Taller gods

Larson revisited obstructed views in an Olympus multiplex. In the strip, ancient gods grow nervous as the titan Atlas approaches their row while balancing the entire world on his shoulders.

3. The Big Itch

In a theater populated by dogs, the scariest cinematic threat is naturally a parasite. Larson brought that idea to life with an audience of canines trembling before a horror film titled The Big Itch.

4. Fast Forward

To match their rapid metabolism and lifestyle, hummingbirds in Larson’s universe require nature documentaries played at high speed. The comic converts a simple biological detail into an absurd screening gag.

5. Honey, I Ate the Kids

Larson reimagined the family feature Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for an audience of praying mantises. Changing a single word turned the title into a grim nod to the predatory nature of the insects.

6. Ketchup Carnage

Larson created a strange scene featuring an audience of condiment bottles. On the screen, a shattered bottle spills across the pavement while a parent bottle reassures an unsettled child that the mess is only fictional.

7. Nature’s Rejects

Unusual premises have occasionally paid off for Disney, from The Black Cauldron to Inside Out. Larson took the concept of pitch meetings further by drafting fictional studio rejects, including Floyd: The story of a Live Fluke and the Boy Who Loved Him.

8. Death Date

Even the Grim Reaper encounters uncomfortable surprises at the theater. In this strip, Death looks across the aisles and catches his girlfriend on a date with Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the late advocate who assisted in more than 130 patient deaths.

9. Down in Front

This strip skips surreal monsters to capture a grounded childhood frustration. Impossibly tall adults take seats directly in front of young fans trying to watch Small Soldiers.

10. Horse Trauma

Larson delivered a bleak cinematic spoof by showing an emotionally wrecked horse leaving a theater. The equine patron had just finished watching The Godfather, complete with the famous severed horse head sequence.

Source: Polygon