10 Funniest Far Side Comics About Cows That Only Get Better With Age

Naturally, not all The Far Side's cow comic strips are as timeless as the rest. Carmen Miranda references feel significantly dated even during this 1980-1995 run, so gags featuring cows with fruit-basket turbans just don't connect as quickly with readers born closer to this century. But even then, there are plenty of relatable, hilarious, and delightfully weird cow comics that have aged perfectly beyond The Far Side's original run, sampled below.

10 Cow Tourists

Published May 5, 1988

Taking a panoramic perspective unlike many other of The Far Side's largely one-panel strips, this particular moment is perfectly relatable while poking fun at tourists who make it far too obvious they're not familiar with the area. Touting a camera and a cow/buffalo dictionary, they're clearly in uncharted territory while trying to make the most of it, sporting loud colorful outfits, walking on two hooves while the buffalo intently stare, bewildered by these oddball outsiders. It's often relatable to be on both sides of this experience, but as these cows may find, the grass isn't always greener on The Far Side.

9 Hay Bar

Published October 25, 1991

Despite often sharing peaceful interactions and being commonly associated with one another on a farm setting, cows and chickens are two wildly different animals. But while cows will eagerly eat chicken feed, the same can't be said about chickens sampling cow diets, so each having their own safe havens to gather was clearly the answer for Larson. But in this case, he decided to turn this fish-out-of-water situation up a notch by throwing in a killer "gay bar" pun, turning this predominantly cow establishment into a "hay bar", turning a classic trope into a rather clever spin.

8 Auto Milker

Published January 7, 1992

This particular Far Side comic has hardly gone unnoticed here or elsewhere, and it's no wonder why: the cows are out for revenge, and just as Hammurabi would have it, the punishment matched the crime. They set out to unleash the Auto Milker on Farmer MacDougal and his wife, which is already an upsetting and deeply weird scenario, but the dark humor of police investigating the crime scene and finding it admittedly hilarious adds to the absurdity.

Putting aside the logistics of what the Auto Milker would do to humans and the mechanical weirdness of the implicit death by suction entrapment, this comic isn't necessarily outright about human cruelty toward animals. It's arguably poking fun just at the utter (or udder) madness of human ingenuity, while leaning into the notions of how cows would react if they achieved greater cognitive consciousness.

7 This Is Grass!

Published October 16, 1981

This particular comic from the early days of The Far Side is perfectly timeless in its execution, speaking even now to memes anybody can relate to, particularly the idea of reaching cognitive consciousness around the age of 5. Described nowadays with flashbang sound effects with adults reenacting childhood as they turn off "autopilot", this strip implies the cows are not only aware of the existence of grass, but noticeably disappointed by it the moment their consciousness kicks in. But as seen in Larson's other work, these cows are otherwise standing on all fours, grazing as usual, implying this to be the early stages of the featured cow's origin story.

6 Car!

Published January 6, 1984

Maintaining the illusion of being mundane cows is apparently tricky in The Far Side, as this 1984 strip shows they regularly watch for when they can be seen by humans, actively concealing their ability to stand on two legs. It begs the question of why they would go to such lengths to trick humans, other than the believable notion that people aren't ready for creatures which, on their hind legs, would regularly tower above virtually everyone.

5 Stop And Eat The Roses

Published March 28, 1983

This particular Far Side comic is at times funny while also deeply relatable, blending Epicurean-style philosphy about appreciating the simpler things in life. The parody here is of the classic idiom, "stop and smell the roses", that is, to take in the natural beauty of what one might otherwise pass by. It's a reminder to practice mindfulness toward the goal of achieving serenity. But cows are also perfectly content eating just about anything as it is, so perhaps they're further along than humans may ever be.

4 Let The Little Guy Roam Around

Published December 28, 1990

Kids can be a lot for any species to handle, especially when trying to manage the household all the while. In the case of cows, their young calves could easily trample furniture and cause all sorts of property damage. But Larson's solution in this comic for The Far Side is surprisingly clever improvised playpen made from an overturned table, but with the added twist of electrified cables running between the legs across multiple levels.

It's a hilarious twist on the electric fence solution for larger pastures, but maybe don't take this idea too seriously. It'd not be the first time people would react intensely to Larson's jokes about cows and his idea of tools for them to use. Nobody wants to be interviewed on the news saying they got their parenting advice from The Far Side's cows.

3 Milkshake

Published June 18, 1987

This one hardly needs much of an explanation, blending Larson's love for cows and recurring cavemen in one Far Side strip. Much like juvenile assumptions about getting chocolate milk from brown cows, a classic childhood joke about nervous cows goes one step further when Larson jokingly suggests the true origin of the tasty treat. But while everybody laughs at the idea of cavemen bouncing a cow around, the bigger technological achievement is right in front of them, as they appear to have made a crude, primitive version of the life net, a far more helpful invention. But it's okay, cavemen will instead get patronized for their painting many years later.

2 Cowintology

Published January 17, 1987

Known for the hard sell, cowintologists are hardly a mainstream belief system, taking off particularly in the mid-to-late 20th Century while still ultimately being seen as fringe today. It's a shame no real-world religion could possibly resemble this in any way, shape, or form, although Redditors will certainly fill in the gaps on how this experience can be for regular people opening their doors to such canvassers. It seems this particular cow hasn't stopped to eat any roses, lately, and the Church of Cowintology is perfectly eager to step in and talk about Cowanetics.

1 Power Stance

Published August 27, 1988

It would be far too easy to crack a pun like "Cower Stance" here, but realistically, there's no fear or shame anywhere near this cow who stands proudly to be milked while the farmer sits, hunched over and unsettled at the sight. It's suddenly a question of who is serving whom with a cow standing tall like this, hooves on the torso while looking down judgmentally. The farmer is uncomfortable and even thinks it, but dare not say it, a perfectly hilarious encapsulation of what fun The Far Side can have with cows, and just how quickly Gary Larson can turn a mundane situation into something truly, unforgettably weird.