One of the joys of The Far Side is creator Gary Larson's dexterity when it comes to twisting familiar sayings to give them a totally unexpected new meaning. Larson's ability to find humor in popular phrases and iconic idioms was arguably unparalleled at his peak, and produced some of his most memorable punchlines.

The comic medium allowed Larson to literalize figurative sayings, a tactic he employed to great success many times throughout The Far Side's run, resulting in some of his greatest work.

These s were successful, in large part, because they embodied the absurdist side of Larson's humor, while still giving the reader something recognizable to grab hold of. In other words, these cartoons represent some of The Far Side's most balanced, effective humor, making them sure to get a reaction from the reader, one way or another.

10 If Anybody Knew "Out Of Left Field," It Was Far Side Creator Gary Larson

First Published: March 16, 1993

"And then WHAM," a bystander explains to a police officer, as she stands on a city street corner next to the body of a man crushed by a giant baseball, "this thing just comes right out of left field." Most readers will likely recognize this idiom, which uses the geography of a baseball field to describe something totally unexpected happening. More than that, fans of The Far Side especially will know that it is an apt bit of terminology to use when discussing Gary Larson's sense of humor.

Here, Gary Larson uses the phrase in the context of the shocking death of the victim, who has been crushed by a giant falling object – except by making the object an actual giant baseball, Larson skillfully doubles the meaning of the woman's words.

9 The Far Side Was Not A Place For Cinematic Endings

First Published: May 25, 1992

Gary Larson loved Wild West motifs and cowboy tropes, which allowed him the perfect outlet for the subversion of familiar iconography and idioms. This is because, for Larson – and so many Americans of his era – the popular conception of Old West was lodged in his mind by the decades-long ascendency of cowboy movies in Hollywood. Perhaps the most famous phrase these films gave rise to was the concept of "riding into the sunset" equating with an upbeat ending for a hero.

In this Far Side comic, Larson hilariously flips that by having one cowboy drag another, who is burnt to a crisp and still in flames, into a saloon, shouting that "dang fool tried to ride into the sunset!" It is a pitch-perfect inversion, one that reminds readers that The Far Side was rarely a place where anyone peacefully settled down and retired.

8 These Far Side Pet Birds Are Lucky Their Cages Are Holding Them Back

First Published: March 11, 1992

To "rattle someone's cage," metaphorically speaking, is to bother or upset them. This Far Side cartoon uses two of the strip's many pet birds to make this literal, as two birds in their respective enclosures are depicted in the middle of a confrontation, with one declaring to the other, "Oh yeah? Well maybe I'll just come over there and rattle your cage!"

The term comes, of course, from the idea of shaking a captive animal's cage to intentionally disturb it, and so in a sense, what Gary Larson does here is actually not a subversion of the phrase's purpose, but a return to its original meaning. This is a particularly fascinating application of Gary Larson's skills with wordplay, because it showcases a deep familiarity with the etymology of common phrases such as this one.

7 The Far Side's Most Exclusive Club – Apples Not Welcome

First Published: January 2, 1991

In this , Gary Larson takes the idea of "forbidden fruit" – something one wants, but cannot have – and delightfully literalizes it, but then goes a step further and twists the meaning of the saying as well. The Far Side's version of forbidden fruit is an apple being refused entry into the "Club Citrus," as a banana bouncer bellows at him that "we don't allow your kind in here."

In other words, the apple is forbidden from entering; it is a silly subversion of the phrase, but that is the beauty of it. Here, Larson shows his skill at finding the unexpected in the familiar, which was in many ways the essence of The Far Side, and which was at the heart of the strip's most obscure punchlines, as well as its most uproarious.

6 Gary Larson "Meant Business" When It Came To Playing With Common Phrases

First Published: April 9, 1990

This is another example of a comic in which Gary Larson circles back to the origin of a familiar phrase, as he depicts a horde of Vikings marching on a castle, all of them carrying briefcases, as the defenders atop the walls shout in terror that "they mean business!"

This idiom takes "business" and makes it synonymous with any serious activity – in this case, comedically extrapolated to an extreme in patented Far Side fashion, meaning the sacking of a city. Except Larson's Vikings, just some of the many who appeared throughout The Far Side, actually really do have business on their minds, as their spears and swords have been replaced with briefcases. Once more, by representing the phrase literally, Gary Larson exposes its inherent silliness, to great comedic effect.

5 Knocking On Death's Door Is One Thing – But After Dinner?

First Published: May 7, 1986

In one of Gary Larson's best Grim Reaper jokes, a traveling salesman "knocks on death's door" – literally, interrupting "the Deaths" just as they settle in for the evening. Larson's jokes about mortality were often tongue-in-cheek like this, containing nods to the different ways in which people talk about death and dying.

"Knocking on death's door" is generally used to describe someone who is ailing, who seems to be on the precipice of the end of their life. This can be envisioned as a knock that is welcomed, as death ushers the deceased through the door to whatever comes next; the crux of the joke here is the way Larson specifically targets that imagery, instead flipping it so that his knocker is actually a nuisance, inconveniencing these Reapers in their off hours.

4 What Else Would These Far Side Great Whites Be Dressed For?

First Published: August 7, 1985

this Far Side shark shows, those could be the strip's most unambiguously funny installments. This straightforward joke features two great whites dressed up in their finest, ready to go out on a fancy date, with one remarking to the other, "well, if you're almost ready, I'm dressed to kill."

Here, Larson emphasizes the hyperbole of the "dressed to kill" idiom, expressing just how strange it actually is that the height of fashion sensibility is equated with violence. He does this by putting the words in the mouths of nature's perfect predators, sharks, in one of The Far Side's most surprisingly thought-provoking cartoons.

3 Gary Larson Answers One Of Life's Most Inscrutable Questions

First Published: July 15, 1985

"If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, does it make a sound?" is one of philosophy's most enduring thought experiments, having stimulated the minds of countless people over the past several centuries. While its roots are uncertain, over time this unanswerable question has become ubiquitous – giving Gary Larson the perfect opportunity to provide his own answer in this Far Side .

Not only does Larson's fallen tree make a sound, it actually won't shut up, first bemoaning its fate, but then getting sidetracked into a digression, saying "this reminds me of a story..." before its word balloon runs out of space. This is as simple as it is effective; because everyone knows that the question lacks an answer by design, offering one is an almost-instant shortcut to a laugh.

2 Sometimes On The Far Side, Hell Was A Lack Of Options

First Published: July 10, 1985

With The Far Side, Gary Larson set many cartoons in hell, mining the depths of the underworld to achieve peak hilarity. Here, Larson literalizes the phrase "damned if you do, damned if you don't," by depicting an unfortunate soul, pitchfork prodded into his back, forced to make this unenviable choice, as an impatient devil mutters, "c'mon, c'mon – it's either one or the other."

The humor in this cartoon rests on the fully literal interpretation of the phrase, which is accentuated by the details of the , particularly the posture of the protagonist, as juxtaposed with the look of frustration on the devil's face. Given that the phrase represents a choice between two equally undesirable outcomes, few artists have ever represented this more completely than Gary Larson does here.

1 All Work And No Play Makes For Dull Rodents – But A Genius Far Side Cartoon

First Published: February 15, 1985

Without question, this is one of The Far Side's funniest takes one a familiar phrase. It features a trio of mice, one laboring over a complex equation at a white board, while the others read weighty tomes such as "Is the Universe Shrinking?" and "Social Anarchy in Rodents," – as a fourth mouse enters the room and onishes them: "Aw c'mon you guys – the cat's away and everyone's so dead serious."

Elaborating on the phrase "while the cat is away, the mice will play," this features The Far Side creator's ion for science, all in service of a delightful twist on a classic saying, which both takes the idiom literally and flips it on its head. In other words, this is one of Gary Larson's most perfectly executed punchlines, and one of The Far Side's most effective cartoons.

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