Summary
- The Trojan Horse, one of antiquity's oldest myths, is an excellent metaphor for Gary Larson's style of comedy, which made The Far Side successful as a nationally syndicated newspaper comic.
- Gary Larson's humor relied on a "suspension of disbelief" – on a daily basis, his cartoons asked readers to lower their defenses and engage with his absurd brand of comedy.
- The success of The Far Side lies in Larson's unique talent for swerving readers, bypassing their expectations and consistently delivering the unexpected in each cartoon.
It's not unwarranted to describe the humor of The Far Side as "tricky" – something that artist and writer Gary Larson's repeated illustrations of the mythical Trojan Horse over the years can be said to have embodied. Like the infamous "Greeks bearing gifts" of antiquity, Larson often snuck the true punchline of his cartoons past readers' defenses.
Gary Larson readily acknowledged that his iconic newspaper comic The Far Side could variously be described as "confusing, obtuse, esoteric, and strange," and he was the first to warn readers off from asking where his ideas came from, or asking what any given Far Side cartoon meant.
That said, there was frequently more to Far Side panels than what was immediately apparent to readers on the surface – making the Trojan Horse an apt metaphor through which to describe Gary Larson's style of humor.
The story of the Trojan Horse is one of the oldest in Western culture; it originates as part of the series of epic poems and stories centered around the Trojan War, a ten-year conflict between a coalition of Greek kings and the city of Troy. According to legend, the Greek feigned acceptance of defeat, allegedly decamping and leaving a giant wooden horse as a tribute to Troy for their resilience. Of course, the Greeks were in fact hidden within the horse – when the Trojans made the mistake of bringing the horse within their walls, their enemies emerged and sacked the city.
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Gary Larson's TROJAN HORSE Style Of Comedy Made The Far Side Legendary
The Far Side & "Suspension Of Disbelief"
By and large, newspaper readers did suspend their disbelief for The Far Side, allowing Gary Larson to Trojan Horse his obsessions and weirdness into readers' homes for fifteen years.
Gary Larson's humor can be called a "Trojan Horse" method of comedy, in the sense that it relies on a form of "suspension of disbelief" – often one that tends to be at odds with all good sense at the reader's disposal. In the Trojan Horse story, the people of Troy bring the horse inside their city walls against their better judgment, a fatal error which invites their downfall. With The Far Side, readers do something similar: rather than reject the comic for its absurdity, they welcome it.
Suspension of disbelief plays a role in most forms of art and entertainment, from high-octane action movies, to "unscripted" reality television. With absurd or surreal content, especially absurdist comedy, this is a particularly crucial aspect of the audience's engagement; if the reader, in the case of The Far Side, is unwilling to meet the art on its terms, it will fail to have an impact on them. With The Far Side, readers had to accept that on a day-to-day basis, Gary Larson's humor could range from irreverently silly wordplay to unrepentantly morbid meditations on death and the apocalypse.
The Far Side's Trojan Horse cartoon from April 20, 1985 essentially serves as a sequel to Gary Larson's first-ever depiction of the Horse, from March 16, 1981. In the earlier panel, a soldier in the belly of the Trojan Horse admonishes his comrade for not going to the bathroom before getting into the Horse. In the subsequent panel, a horde of soldiers are depicted behind the walls of Troy, emerging from the bottom of the Horse and running toward an outhouse.
By and large, newspaper readers did suspend their disbelief for The Far Side, allowing Gary Larson to Trojan Horse his obsessions and weirdness into readers' homes for fifteen years. Debuting in 1980, the comic was an early indicator of American audiences' increasing tolerance for absurdist comedy; decades after Gary Larson retired in 1995, The Far Side is looked at as an early progenitor of the kind of internet humor popularized in the 2000s and 2010s, which has now become hopelessly intertwined with contemporary social media usage.
Reading The Far Side Was Always An Odyssey
Inside The Mind Of Gary Larson
Writing and illustrating The Far Side was an endless odyssey for Larson, something that was in turn reflected in the audience's experience reading the comic.
According to Gary Larson, his goal with The Far Side was always to get an immediate reaction out of the reader. As often as that reaction was laughter, he also was also satisfied if he could shock, and even outright confuse his audience. Consequently, The Far Side precipitated its share of controversy and criticism – a kind of reaction descended, perhaps, from the clamor and dismay of the Trojans upon discovering their city being reduced to rubble. That said, most readers recognized Larson's humor for what it was: a wild journey through one artist's psyche.
Gary Larson's creative process was deeply intuitive; inspiration was only the first step, as once he had an idea, he laboriously worked it into a shape and form that he thought would get a reaction out of the audience. In other words, writing and illustrating The Far Side was an endless odyssey for Larson, something that was in turn reflected in the audience's experience reading the comic. If nothing else, this explains the wild tonal variations that The Far Side became known for throughout its run.
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The Far Side Laid Siege To Readers' Expectations
Building Up Audiences' Weirdness Tolerance
Gary Larson expressed a unique penchant for twisting the familiar in just such a way that the people came away surprised – whether the result was laugh-out-loud funny, groan-enducing, or simply left the reader shaking their head.
It can be said that over the course of its fifteen years in publication, The Far Side did more than just regularly subvert readers' expectations, it laid siege to them, gradually changing the audiences' perception of unusual, unconventional humor. More than just its characteristic bizarre and off-brand humor, though, The Far Side Trojan Horsed all manner of ideas about science, history, and society into readers' minds, as any given Far Side comic was as likely to incorporate real-world historical events as it was to make fun of popular movies.
With whatever subject he approached, Gary Larson expressed a unique penchant for twisting the familiar in just such a way that the people came away surprised – whether the result was laugh-out-loud funny, groan-enducing, or simply left the reader shaking their head. He excelled at delivering panels that made readers do a double-take, and as a result, The Far Side left an indelible mark on popular culture. Whether it has the staying power of the Trojan Horse remains to be determined by far-future generations, but its popularity now is perhaps as strong as it ever was.
The Far Side Complete Collection
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Fans of the far side can't pass up this master collection of Gary Larson's finest work.Originally published in hardcover in 2003,this paperback set comes complete with a newly designed slipcase that will look great on any shelf. The Complete Far Sidecontains every Far Side cartoon ever published, which amounts to over 4,000, plus more than 1,100 that have never before appeared in a book and even some made after Larson retired.
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Gary Larson Had A Gift For Delivering The Unexpected
A One-Of-A-Kind Artistic Talent
The Trojan Horse metaphor is a useful tool readers can use for honing their sense of what makes The Far Side continue to resonate with audiences to this day.
Whatever terms one might use to categorize The Far Side – absurd, ridiculous, unique, idiosyncratic, etc. are all applicable to some degree or another – the quality that continues to draw readers to Gary Larson's work is his ability to swerve readers. Above all else, this was essential to distinguishing him from other successful cartoonists, such as Garfield's Jim Davis, or legendary Peanuts' creator Charles Schulz. While many of his contemporaries played into readers' expectations, Larson not only undermined those expectations, he consistently found ways to bypass them entirely.
Without a doubt, Larson was a singular creative talent; as many imitators have followed, and as much as modern meme humor is reminiscent of The Far Side, no humorist can do precisely what he did with his most successful cartoons. Though the Trojan Horse itself only appeared a handful of times, compared to many of Gary Larson's most beloved recurring elements, the image is perhaps a more fitting symbol for the series than any duck, bear, or elephant could be.
In any case, it is useful to consider the success of The Far Side, in order to consider its cultural impact, and to do that, it is best to develop a greater understanding of what makes a successful Far Side panel. Understanding what makes Gary Larson's humor work is a necessary underpinning of this kind of critical project, and the Trojan Horse metaphor is a useful tool readers can use for honing their sense of what makes The Far Side continue to resonate with audiences to this day.
The Far Side
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
