Warning: contains discuss of sensitive subject material, including suicide.

The Far Side is infamous for its dark, edgy brand of humor, but these comics in particular tread into taboo territory, making macabre jokes that would have been jarring for many readers to encounter in newspapers during the 1980-1995 run of Gary Larson's legendary cartoon. Though the absurdism of Larson's punchlines tended to undercut their bleakness, in some instances, critics questioned whether certain jokes should have been made at all.

The Far Side was a lightning rod for controversy, especially once the comic achieved national popularity in the mid-1980s, because of Gary Larson's willingness to "go there," to make jokes about death and cruelty, pain and suffering, mayhem and murder.

That said, there were certain lines Larson's humor only rarely crossed, such as suicide, and cannibalism – but when The Far Side did touch on these topics, the results were some of its most outrageous cartoons, which remain contentious to this day. Of course, even this comics have something valuable they can tell fans about what made The Far Side so iconic.

10 This Early Far Side Comic Showed How Far Gary Larson Was Willing To Go

First Published: April 16, 1980

The first year of The Far Side was all about setting precedents. Early and often, Gary Larson introduced readers to his warped comedic perspective, while making it clear he was willing to push boundaries. That is very much the case with this comic, in which two police detectives console a grieving woman after her houseplant has hung itself. "I can't believe it," the woman sobs, "I was just talking to him yesterday!"

The humor of the relies on the dissonance between the tragic scenario and the inanity of its twist on that premise, in which a potted plant is depicted taking its own life – yet there is a disturbing sense of realism to the cartoon, which, while heightening the comedic effect for some, will certainly be off-putting, if not outright disturbing, to others.

9 The Far Side Relied On Nonhuman Characters To Make Light Of Distinctly Human Tragedies

First Published: December 27, 1983

Larson once again uses suicide as part of a punchline in this unforgettable Far Side snake comic – yet whether this cartoon is memorable for good or bad reasons remains open to debate. In the , a snake walks through its front door, its serpentine jaw unhinged in absolute horror as it cries out, "Oh no, Elliott! Why?...Why?" at the sight of another snake that has hung itself.

The joke here is entirely focused on the visual of the dead snake, which has improbably tied itself into its own noose; yet the feeling that this will evoke in readers who have experience with similar tragedies arguably overwhelms this punchline, opening up this Far Side comic to the accusation of being distasteful. While many Far Side comics are mislabeled as such, the jury is still out on this one.

8 The Far Side Makes Cannibalism Funny – With Help From A Dummy

First Published: June 3, 1986

At the core of this all-time great Far Side desert island comic is one of the most disturbing topics in the world: people who eat people. Here, Gary Larson presents arguably one of his most complex scenes, featuring a man wading ashore on to a tiny island, occupied by a sunburned and obviously deranged ventriloquist and his dummy – who tries to warn the newcomer that "Ernie" is "mad" and will eat the man if he has the chance.

Despite the extremity of the taboo being joked about here, readers will concede that Larson is playing with a pre-existing trope of shipwreck stories. Further, the absurdity of this Far Side comic – one might even say its zaniness – successfully obscures the dark reality undergirding it, and the elaborate nature of the joke shows that the idea of cannibalism was just a starting point, rather than a punchline.

7 Another Borderline Bad Taste Far Side Snake Joke

First Published: October 28, 1986​​​​​​​

Again, Gary Larson returned to the idea of a snake that has hung itself with this Far Side cartoon; captioned "snake horror stories," it features an older snake in an armchair regaling a group of snakelings with the tale of discovering a dead body hanging in a closet.

It is a simple Far Side gag, but where simplicity was often a virtue of Gary Larson's best jokes, here it is worth questioning the effectiveness of the artist's mix of fanciful and dark subject matter. To be fair, it is less a problem of the illustration veering into "bad taste" territory, and more the fact that the caption doesn't elevate the potentially controversial image to another level of comedic success the way that other, ultimately better Far Side cartoons manage to. ​​​​​​​

6 A Top Five Iconic Far Side Once Again Makes Light Of A Major Taboo

First Published: July 22, 1987

"You're sick, Jesse!...Sick, sick, sick!" a cow shouts as it points at a fellow bovine who is caught grilling hamburgers out in the pasture, in what remains to this day one of The Far Side's most often shared, and most highly-regarded s. Once again, Gary Larson tackles the topic of cannibalism – except here, the use of The Far Side's ubiquitous cows in place of human characters allows readers full dispensation to laugh at it.

In this sense, The Far Side's occasional cannibalism comics succeed where its suicide punchlines struggle; here, the taboo subject is refracted through the absurd premise of anthropomorphic cows, which is then taken to the rational, if extreme, conclusion that if cows acted like humans, some of them would eat hamburgers. Though it is warped and idiosyncratic, there is a kind of logic to the joke which makes it more digestible for readers.

5 The Far Side Was Overstuffed With Dark Humor, Its Darkest Jokes Can Be Easy To Miss

First Published: December 18, 1987

From the time of its publication, to now – thirty years on from Gary Larson's retirement – the discourse surrounding The Far Side has often involved the question of which comics "cross the line." Fans of Larson's work are constantly trying to identify the darkest Far Side comics, or the Far Side comics that took things too far. Any attempt to do this, however, invariably results in at least one truly bleak being overlooked.

Case in point: this Far Side suicide joke, in which two bears come home to find that a third has "stuffed himself," with a note reading "goodbye world" tacked to his taxidermied chest. It is a riff on a premise Larson has played with before, and while it can rightfully be called more amusing this time, it is also even darker, if for no other reason than anthropomorphic bears are one step closer to seeming human than anthropomorphic snakes.

4 The Far Side Takes On The Dark Side Of Sibling Rivalries

First Published: January, 1988​​​​​​​

This Far Side comic once again uses suicide as part of its punchline, but this time, at least, the danger is not to a living, breathing creature, but rather an inanimate object – as an older brother positions one of his sister's dolls on the ledge of a second-story window, and then shouts down to her as she's playing in the yard, urgently calling out, "Oh my gosh, Linda! Linda! I think your Barbie's contemplating suicide!"

Plenty of readers with siblings will flinch at the verisimilitude of this premise alone, and what makes this one of Gary Larson's most low-key heartbreaking Far Side cartoons is the way that it raises the idea that older children are often at least partly responsible for their younger siblings' loss of childhood innocence.

3 One Of The Far Side's Most Grim Jokes Is About Workplace Violence

First Published: November 30, 1990​​​​​​​

It can't be denied that this cartoon features one of The Far Side's many memorable bits of wordplay, but the trade-off is that it is also one of Gary Larson's most brutal jokes, at least when it comes to the use of violence in a punchline. The features a man in "Ace Marble Inc." gear perched in the rafters of the company's warehouse, wielding a high-powered rifle and grinning wildly as he guns down his coworkers, with his boss "Mr. Wagner" about to suffer the same fate, after hearing people scream "Simmons has lost his marbles!"

It is an effective bit of dark humor, but given the increasing prevalence of workplace violence in the years since this Far Side cartoon was published, many readers' appraisal of the joke has certainly shifted in a more critical direction.

2 The Far Side Takes Another Crack At An Active Shooter Joke

First Published: April 4, 1991

Far Side featured plenty of s about violence, and more than its fair share of murders – but while some are clearly farcical, others hit closer to home, especially in these instances in which Gary Larson depicted seemingly random, senseless mass shooting scenes.

That is the case here – though the punchline is appropriately ridiculous, which arguably takes the edge off of the grim imagery of the – in which four victims are depicted lying dead around a tree, as two armed police officers take cover and try to get a line of sight on the shooter, with one lamenting, "first come the squirrels, and then come the squirrel guns." While plenty of readers will "get" the humor, many will understandably question whether it was worth it.

1 The Far Side's Taboo Topics Come Together In This Deliriously Funny

First Published: May 11, 1992​​​​​​​

This Far Side is rightly considered a laugh-out-loud success, as it is equally dark and silly in just the right proportions. While some readers certainly objected to the depiction of human-animal love affairs in many Far Side jokes, this was so ingrained in the surrealism of Gary Larson's humor that the taboo of the subject was rarely overt in people's minds.

That said, this cartoon merits inclusion, because in this case, a woman's relationship with a bear leads her to gun her human husband down. It is an outrageous Far Side punchline in all the best ways, making another comic that, because of its taboo elements –​​​​​​​ rather than in spite of them – ranks among the comic's greatest cartoons.