While Gary Larson's Disney. Starting in 1980, some of its references - such as the talking-horse sitcom Mister Ed - are now dated, but Disney's longevity means Larson's strip still has plenty to say about the movies and shows that fans know and love.
Here, then, are the ten funniest The Far Side strips which take a swipe at Disney, including everything from Dumbo to The Mickey Mouse Club, and a surprise bonus inclusion that puts a genuinely weird spin on Disney and The Far Side's relationship.
10 Jiminy Cricket
Gary Larson is particularly beloved by scientists, as his fascination with the natural world and the scientific process can be surprisingly deep. Larson has had multiple insects named in his honor, and his joke name for a Stegosaurus' tail spikes was actually adopted by paleontologists. It's therefore no surprise that in Pinocchio's iconic Jiminy Cricket, Larson saw a rare insect waiting to be studied.
One of the darkest comics on this list, Jiminy has been placed within an entomologist's 'killing jar,' where he'll be kept in pristine condition for later study. In a dark twist, the scientist is humming a song from Disney's 1940 movie, suggesting he's fully aware that Jiminy Cricket is sentient, but just doesn't care. The hat floating to the top of the jar's fluid is a grim but hilarious touch.
9 Arachnateers
A reference to The Mickey Mouse Club's Mouseketeers - child performers who would participate in variety numbers wearing Mickey Mouse ears - this comic imagines a world where Disney went with a scorpion for its mascot rather than a mouse. The comic draws attention to how odd it is that one of the most recognizable characters in the world is a fun take on a type of vermin, swapping out Mickey Mouse for, presumably, Rusty Scorpion.
8 Mickey Mouse Ears vs Snakes
This comic sees two snakes utterly perplexed by having lunged for what seemed to be a gigantic mouse, only to have slammed into the glass front of their cage. Larson's recurring character of the Dorky Kid is unconcerned with the snakes' attempt to eat him, while the animals themselves would rather their confusing prey moved on. A play on Mickey Mouse's verminous origin, the design of the iconic Mickey Mouse ears here deviates from their usual all-black design, likely to side-step any legal concerns.
7 The Incredible Journey
Less famous than Disney's animated movies (which are coming up next), The Incredible Journey is still a beloved film in which two dogs and a cat journey hundreds of miles to find their way home. Based on Sheila Burnford's novel of the same name, the movie also inspired the 1993 remake Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. However, all of these versions stick with the rather mundane cast of two dogs and a cat. In Larson's world, things get weirder, as a cow, a snake, and a giant squid are the trio hoping to make it home safe.
Cows and snakes are common sights in The Far Side, but particularly welcome is the strip's recurring giant squid. An odd, slightly threatening figure who perfectly captures The Far Side's sense of humor, the squid is often forgotten as one of Larson's recurring figures, but here gets a starring role as it quests across the Canadian wilderness.
6 Bambi
In this strip, the shooting of Bambi's mother is recontextualized as a JFK-like assassination. It's a famous refrain that everyone knows where they were when JFK was shot, but this is shockingly close to the truth - research by the Pew Research Center indicates that 95% of Americans born in 1955 or earlier could clearly the circumstances under which they heard the news. The Far Side combines this idea with the traumatic nature of the Bambi scene, which is commonly ed as a particularly upsetting moment for a children's film, and a scene that 'scarred fans for life.' Completing the joke is that, of course, all the animals were doing characteristic things when they heard, subtly allowing Larson to flex his considerable linguistic creativity.
5 The Mouseketeer
A final comic about Mouseketeers, this is a pure linguistic joke where 'mutineer' and 'Mouseketeer' sound similar, putting the Dorky Kid's loyalties into question when he unexpectedly finds himself aboard a pirate ship. While no longer ubiquitous today, The Mickey Mouse Club's Mouseketeers have produced some notable performers, including Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Ryan Gosling. So far, very few of them have been involved in nautical battles.
4 Captain Hook
From pirates to pirates, this strip sees Peter Pan's Captain Hook before his decision to become a Neverland freebooter. The main joke is that he was torn between piracy and becoming a masseuse, but the larger implication that his entire look was fully formed before he ever stepped on a pirate ship is significantly funnier. Given the canonical detail that Hook lost his hand to a crocodile which follows him even to this day, it's particularly funny that his encounter with the predator apparently had nothing to do with his later sea-faring career.
3 Pinocchio
Pinocchio is a clear favorite target for Larson, who published a surprising amount of strips based on the little wooden boy. These include Pinocchio being beset by woodpeckers and being used as a scratching post by Geppetto's cat - as well as the grisly fate of Jiminy Cricket - but the best sees the Blue Fairy grant Pinocchio's wish at the worst possible time, adding a note of irony to Larson's apparent desire to see the Disney puppet savaged by as many animals as possible (including beavers, in yet another strip.)
2 Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
The Far Side is beloved by comic fans for telling most of its gags in a single image, often implying events which have just ed (like the snakes attacking the Dorky Kid) or which will immediately follow (such as Pinocchio being torn to pieces by lions.) This strip is a masterclass in that talent, as fans get the whole story of a snake recently escaped from the zoo, making a meal of Happy, Doc, Grumpy, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy, and Sneezy, and slithering away just as Snow White arrives home to an eerily empty house.
The visual gag of seven separate bumps in the python's body is a perfect touch, though fans wondering why Larson is so focused on the theme of snake attacks will be shocked to learn it's a reference to his own real-life experiences. In The Pre-History of the Far Side, Larson relates a time when he was attacked by his own pet Burmese python, seemingly inspiring the same fate for many of his (and some of Disney's) characters.
1 Dumbo
In this strip, the perennially bullied Dumbo grows up and takes to the skies, terrifying the humans who once made his life hell. This comic takes the premise of a flying elephant that forms the basis for Disney's Dumbo and follows it to its logical conclusion, asking what happens when Dumbo is no longer a cute baby elephant, but rather a bull with huge tusks and enough body weight to make him a problem for ing aircraft.
In The Pre-History of the Far Side, Larson reveals that some of his strips emerge from short stories he writes to flesh out an idea. This Dumbo strip surely came from this sort of mental exercise, as the idea of a vengeful, flying elephant exorcising its childhood trauma is the perfect subversion of Disney's 1941 kids movie.
Bonus: Toy Story
In a celebrated moment from 1995's Toy Story, a rubber shark toy steals Woody's hat, proclaiming "Look, I'm Woody! Howdy, howdy, howdy!" That wholesome joke gets a grim twist in The Far Side, as a vulture makes the same statement about a cowboy that its flock are currently devouring... or at least, that would be the case if Gary Larson's comic didn't come first. Fans have speculated that Toy Story's incredibly similar moment is a deliberate homage to Gary Larson's comic, though it could also be pure coincidence, or even a case of cryptomnesia - a phenomenon where creators forget the source of a memory and accidentally mistake a phrase or image for an original thought. Either way, in this case it's not The Far Side referencing Disney, but the Disney/Pixar movie echoing Larson's comic.
The Far Side remains beloved to this day for its morbid but hilarious take on everything from alien abduction to Dumbo the Flying Elephant, with Gary Larson's Disney-inspired strips skewering some of the most iconic and beloved movies in the House of Mouse's ever-growing pantheon.
Source: Pew Research Center
