Early in the history of The Far Side, artist Gary Larson made frequent jokes about dragons, utilizing the mythological monsters to their greatest comedic potential. Though Larson's interest in dragon humor seemingly faded as he became more established as a cartoonist, his early s featuring the beasts offer a great way to spend more time exploring the formative years of The Far Side.

The dragon punchlines produced by Gary Larson offer a particular insight into his style of humor, as they skew toward the more lighthearted side of The Far Side's comedic spectrum, while not entirely lacking hints of Larson's characteristic dark humor, usually in the form of freshly devoured knights in no-longer-shining armor.

It is also worth analyzing these Far Side s for clues as to why dragons didn't remain a staple of the comic, in the same way that snakes and other reptilian creatures managed to become over the years.

8 "I Never Eat The Shells": Dragons Discuss Culinary Etiquette In This Early Far Side Comic

First Published: January 2, 1980

"Of course I never eat the shells," one satisfied-looking dragon remarks to another, in The Far Side's second-ever comic, as they stand over a ditch full of discarded suits of armor from errant knights whose quests for glory ended with them being devoured by the mythical monsters they sought to slay.

It is a simple joke, yet it is one that encapsulates the creative ethos that Gary Larson would refine over the years until – that is, the concept of approaching familiar tropes and scenarios from a non-human perspective. In this case, the dragons look at humans as nuts; literally, from their viewpoint, the armor meant to protect the knights coming after them is just a small impediment to the tender flesh inside. Despite the death and mayhem implicit in the punchline's premise, the joke being told from the dragons' perspective still manages to imbue it with a sly, tongue-in-cheek quality, which would become increasingly familiar to The Far Side's readers over the years.

7 "Come Out Of That Cave And Meet Your Doom!" The Far Side's Humor Was Always A Matter Of Perspective

First Published: January 13, 1981

POV is once again critical to this Far Side cartoon, though whereas Gary Larson's first dragon joke was written from the perspective of the dragons, this one takes a more objective, 3rd-person vantage point – which is crucial, because the limited perspective of the doomed knight in the comic is essential to the punchline.

"You can't hide in there forever, you overgrown chameleon," a white knight shouts as he charges into what he thinks is a cave, but which is, in fact, one nostril of the massive dragon he is hoping to defeat, exhorting it to "come out...and meet [its] doom," not realizing how badly outmatched he is. Observed from a distance, the tragic error on the knight's part is certainly darkly amusing, as rightly or wrongly, the would-be dragon-slayer gets his comeuppance for the hubristic failing of not having properly scouted his target. Further, Larson's capturing of the moment right before the knight's fatal mistake is a classic Far Side technique, perfectly exhibited here.

6 "We've Just Got To Get Ourselves A Real Damsel": These Far Side Dragons Aren't Fooling Anybody

First Published: July 8, 1981​​​​​​​

With The Far Side, Gary Larson excelled at taking the familiar and warping it through an unusual, and usually unexpected, filter. The Far Side's ubiquitous prehistory characters, but because he ultimately didn't produce hundreds of dragon jokes, this subset of the author's ouvre doesn't get enough attention for how effectively it illustrates this comedic technique.

Case in point, Larson's reversal of the traditional "damsel in distress" trope; here, the damsel is a poorly constructed facsimile, meant to draw in some ambitious young hero, so that the dragons lurking in their cave nearby can tear them to shreds. "We've just got to get ourselves a real damsel," one of the dragons says to the other, annoyed by their lack of success, in a joke that hinges on the idea that these non-human characters have the same familiar cultural touchstones as humans – they just approach them in significantly different ways.

5 "Blast it, Phyllis! Hurry Up With Those Hot Pads!": The Far Side Humanized Its Dragons, But Still Kept Them Deadly

First Published: December 13, 1981​​​​​​​

"Ooo! Ow!" the dragon in this Far Side shouts, juggling a red-hot suit of armor in its claws, which extend from short, T-Rex-like arms, as it shouts back into its cave at its wife to "hurry up with those hot pads!" Anyone who has pulled something too-hot out of an oven with their bare hands will immediately recognize the joke here, and the transposition of this behavior onto a medieval dragon and a freshly killed knight will likely get a strong laugh-out-loud response from many readers.

This comic, published near the end of The Far Side's second year in newspapers, is another potent example of the deliberate clash of styles that made Gary Larson's work successful. The highly relatable premise of the joke is an important foundation, but what elevates it is the way that, by making his character a dragon, Larson is able to add the macabre layer of a hint of violence, in the kind of lightly subversive way that newspaper readers reacted positively to.

4 "St. George And The...Wagon?": The Far Side's All-Time Great Historical Mix-Up, Explained

First Published: March 3, 1982​​​​​​​

The tale of "Saint George and the Dragon" is a Christian legend that provided the source material for a number of famous works of art over the centuries, most notably during the height of the Italian Renaissance. In this hilarious Far Side cartoon, Gary Larson depicts an "outtake," of sorts, one that is not as favorably ed by history, as a medieval artist makes a massive blunder, having misheard his patron monarch's directions as asking for a portrait of "Saint George and the Wagon," an error he only realizes when one of the king's men comes to check on his progress.

As once explained by Larson's longtime editor, the true humor of many Far Side s was centered around the eyes of characters, as they reacted to something shocking, or realized their fate a moment too late. This perfectly encapsulates that, with the look of horrified realization on the artist's face, as he stands in front of his nearly-complete – but completely wrong – painting.

3 "It's Fresh And Minty": The Far Side Finds Humor In Humans & Dragons' Very Different Ideas Of Hygeine

First Published: June 29, 1982

"I'm sorry, Irwin," a female dragon says, rolling over in bed after rejecting her partner's overtures at intimacy, explaining that, "it's your breath...it's fresh and minty." Once again, Gary Larson depicts a familiar human scenario, but with dragons substituted for people – allowing him to flip the parameters of desirable hygiene, in order to further strengthen the punchline.

The question then becomes – at least for those inclined to overanalyze The Far Side, even if Gary Larson advises against it – how exactly "Irwin" the dragon's mouth got so clean. Of course, as was the nature of The Far Side's humor, this is a question that not only lacks an answer, but was never intended to have one. Nevertheless, the fact that the comic raises this answerless question is, in fact, part of what makes it funny; it is almost like a strange, cartoon answer to a zen koan, as the reader is prompted to confront, and then embrace, the lack of deeper meaning beneath the surface of the joke.

2 "What Have I Told You About Eating In Bed?": Speculation On Why Gary Larson Stopped Using Dragons So Frequently

First Published: April 30, 1984

This Far Side comic offers another example of how effective dragons were as stand-ins for human characters during the early years of the cartoon's run. Here, one dragon pulls back bed sheets to reveal the crumpled remains of knights' armor, akin to crumbs, while rhetorically reminding another, "what have I told you about eating in bed?" It is another solidly executed iteration of the same joke as previous dragon cartoons – and it can be argued that this is exactly what caused Gary Larson to return to it less frequently.

That is, dragons were almost too effective as Far Side characters; these early dragon jokes were almost too-perfect, leaving little room for Larson's desired form of creative experimentation, and further, lacking the kind of almost-"punk rock" messiness that is a less-often acknowledged key element of what makes The Far Side great. This joke is technically perfect, and a strong example of The Far Side's charms, but for Larson, it is possible that too much of a good thing was less interesting than taking creative chances.

1 "The Young Dragons Would Stay Up Late Lighting Their Sneezes": Gary Larson Tries To Elevate His Dragon Jokes With This

First Published: September 19, 1987

As the years wore on, dragons began to appear less and less frequently in The Far Side; this cartoon comes from 1987, the mid-point of Gary Larson's career, and many would suggest, the peak of his work as a humorist. This was also when Larson was beginning to suffer from serious creative burnout, which would lead to a 14-month hiatus before the end of the '80s, and ultimately limit The Far Side to just four more years in publication after that. So, it is an interesting example of the artist returning to his earlier success, while also trying to make this familiar joke more strange, and more exciting for readers.

As an artist, Larson was never creatively satisfied – most Far Side comics, as the adage goes, were "abandoned," rather than finished.

In the , "young dragons," are substituted for adolescent humans, with the caption explaining that "with their parents away," the dragon children "would stay up late lighting their sneezes," analagous to behavior one might expect from a sleepover. The joke, which relies on readers' familiarity with the idea of kids doing dangerous things in the absence of parental supervision, might not strike every Far Side fan as laugh-out-loud funny, but it does exhibit something important about this era of Larson's work.

That is, this punchline is the result of Gary Larson trying to take something that worked before and push it to a new level. As an artist, Larson was never creatively satisfied – most Far Side comics, as the adage goes, were "abandoned," rather than finished. Yet once again, that amounts to part of their charm, a feature rather than a bug, and is a vital aspect of what keeps generations of readers returning to The Far Side to scrutinize Larson's vast body of work endlessly.