Much of Gary Larson’s comic strip The Far Side is truly timeless. With subject matter like cows, cavemen, and dinosaurs, a lot of his work feels as fresh today as it was back in the 1980s and 1990s, when the comic was being published in newspapers all over the world. But not all of The Far Side is timeless. Occasionally, Larson would poke fun at something that was more relevant to the period he was creating them in, which is particularly true of his comic strips based on music.
Larson seemed to have lots of opinions on music. Accordions and banjos, for some reason, were frequently the butt of jokes for him. He also enjoyed disrupting the stuffiness of classical music. While he usually portrayed jazz in a flattering light, rock and pop music would sometimes be the target of his razor wit, though it might be tough to tell all these decades later.
Nowadays, the musical references Larson made decades ago may require a degree of explanation. Here are seven entirely dated Far Side comics, as well as what the heck Gary Larson was referring to.
1
Madonna
Madonna is still alive, and still making music, so most people have probably heard of “The Queen of Pop,” but she’s not quite as famous as she was back in 1992, when Gary Larson published this comic strip. The joke here refers to Madonna’s infamous cone bra, which she debuted during her “Blond Ambition” tour in 1990. The cone bra was intended as a symbol of female empowerment and a way for Madonna to skewer her conservative critics, but for Gary Larson, the extra-pointy attire just seemed like a really bad thing to wear on an inflatable life raft.
2
Mack the Knife
This surreal strip is referring to “Mack the Knife,” a 1928 song which originated in the musical The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. It’s about a serial killer nicknamed Mack the Knife who goes around murdering people. Despite the gruesome subject matter, “Mack the Knife” became a hit outside of the play, recorded by a number of artists like jazz vocalists Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. The most famous version came from rock and roll artist Bobby Darin in 1959. This means that, even back in 1987, when Larson released this comic, it was already dated by nearly 30 years.
3
Blueberry Hill
This one is really subtle, but also really funny. “Blueberry Hill” is a 1940 song by Vincent Rose, Larry Stock, and Al Lewis, but it didn’t really become a huge hit until the 1950s, when several big artists like Elvis Presley and Louis Armstrong recorded it. It was rock and roller Fats Domino, though, who released the most famous version in 1956. What’s great about this joke is that just knowing about the song isn’t enough, you also have to know the lyrics. The song begins with the line “I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill.” Larson just substituted “thrill” for “drill” and made it about a guy missing his power tool.
4
Joy to the World
This is another one where you’ve really got to know a song’s lyrics to get the joke. The band Three Dog Night was a rock band that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Their biggest hit was named “Joy to the World,” which had a lot of purposefully nonsensical lyrics in it. The opening verse of the song goes like this:
Jeremiah was a bullfrog
Was a good friend of mine
I never understood a single word he said
But I helped him a-drink his wine
And he always had some mighty fine wine
For Larson, all he did was take this opening verse and make a comic about some bullfrogs that are just hanging out, drinking some mighty fine wine.
5
Let’s Twist Again
Larson repeated the same formula here by taking a popular rock song and having the funniest animals possible act it out. Written by Kal Mann and Dave Appell, “Let’s Twist Again” was a 1961 hit by rock and roller Chubby Checker. It was basically a sequel song to his 1960 single “The Twist,” which launched a dance craze also named “The Twist,” a year earlier. The lyric being sung by the snake in Larson’s comic is straight from the song, entirely unchanged. A great little detail on this one is that Larson gave the singing snake Chubby Checker’s signature hair and bow tie.
6
Sinatra, Prince, etc.
This 1992 comic strip is more of a collection of little jokes, as opposed to the one big joke Larson would usually deliver in his one-panel comic series. With the caption “Albums to avoid,” this comic pokes fun at a variety of artists. For example, crooner Frank Sinatra and pop star Prince would probably make some pretty terrible duets together.
7
Jaws
Okay, this one easily could have become dated if Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster Jaws didn’t remain one of the most enduring movies ever made.