When readers reflect on his retirement from cartooning.
In The Complete Far Side Volume Two, Larson explained that misnaming the artist behind the classic painting colloquially known as Dogs Playing Poker in a Far Side cartoon truly bothered him, even well over a decade after it was published.
This example illustrates the care and attention to detail at every level that made Gary Larson such an impactful artist; while The Far Side was often full of seemingly throwaway silliness, each creative decision Larson made was as deliberate as possible – and for him as an artist, the smallest element could make or break a comic's punchline.
"The Great Conf": Far Side's Gary Larson On How & Why His Weirdest Cartoons Got Published
According to Gary Larson, once his comic strip The Far Side developed a reputation for being "weird" and "confusing," there was no looking back.
Gary Larson Regretted Not Getting The "Dogs Playing Poker" Artist's Name Right In A Far Side Cartoon
First Published: August 10, 1992
It is more than just that he wanted to be factually accurate; to Larson, the use of an incorrect name for the artist made the joke less funny.
Despite The Far Side's reputation for being alternatively fanciful and absurd, Gary Larson ofted relied on factul accuracy to elevate certain jokes. Before becoming a full-time cartoonist, accurate historical details to enhance his humor. The artist explained this in the context of discussing the ups-and-downs of producing a daily comic strip, as he noted that his "regrets" were more along the lines of nitpicks.
Looking back on his career, the occasional factual error was seemingly what Larson onished himself for the most. While itting that these weren't full on "failures," he noted that he was nevertheless impacted by making mistakes. He stated:
Then there are the small, factual details that I sometimes overlooked. I suppose these are more equivalent to stumbling in a cartoon rather than actually falling, but frankly it used to bug the hell out of me when I did it. Case in point: Cassius Marcellus Coolidge.
Coolidge, as Larson went on to explain, was the painter behind the beloved Dogs Playing Poker – yet despite this painting's fame, the artist himself had long since lapsed into obscurity by the end of the 20th century. To the point where Gary Larson didn't even feel the need to look him up when he went to make a joke about the painting.
Larson elaborated further, revealing how he not only learned Coolidge's name, but also the true name of his most famous work. The Far Side's creator wrote:
It was a dark and stormy night. I was working on a cartoon based on that famous-for-being-kitschy painting, Dogs Playing Poker. I had to come up with a name for the artist. No use in checking the painting's history, I decided – Dogs Playing Poker is just one of those artifacts in American pop culture that's always been around, right? It's just Dogs Playing Poker by the standard "artist unknown."
So I came up with the name "Gus Nickerson" for the long-forgotten artist. The cartoon gets published, years go by, and one morning I'm having breakfast and reading The New York Times, and wham! – there it is, front page: a human interest story about the life and times of Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, creator of A Friend In Need, the painting's real title, based on the fact that one dog is helping another cheat. Artist known.
While readers might question why this would be a "big deal" to Gary Larson, it is more than just that he wanted to be factually accurate; to Larson, the use of an incorrect name for the artist made the joke less funny. That is to say, details like this mattered deeply to Larson, and made a big difference in The Far Side, whether readers realized it or not.
For Gary Larson, Accuracy Was An Important Part Of The Far Side's Referential Humor
"A Friend In Need" – Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, 1903
While "Gus Nickerson" stands in perfectly fine in order to get the punchline of the across, fidelity to the true artist's name – even if few readers appreciated it – was a way of placing The Far Side in conversation with other pop culture artifacts.
Gary Larson's Far Side was replete with pop culture references, from the obvious to the obscure. To be fair to Larson, the name Cassius Marcellus Coolidge would have ranked among the more obscure, even if his work left an indelible mark on American popular culture. It's safe to say that when The Far Side's Dogs Playing Poker joke was published in 1992, the majority of readers wouldn't have known "Coolidge" from "Nickerson." Yet for Larson, there was a measurable difference in the joke's effectiveness, for anyone who did know the artist's name.
This is because The Far Side's jokes did more than just poke fun at pop culture; they operated as a form of observational humor, allowing Gary Larson to provide commentary on his subject. While "Gus Nickerson" stands in perfectly fine in order to get the punchline of the across, fidelity to the true artist's name – even if few readers appreciated it – was a way of placing The Far Side in conversation with other pop culture artifacts. Larson's Dogs Playing Poker joke still achieves this, even if, in Gary Larson's estimation, it would have simply been better with Coolidge's name.
The Far Side Complete Collection
Fans of the far side can't up this master collection of Gary Larson's finest work. Originally published in hardcover in 2003, this paperback set comes complete with a newly designed slipcase that will look great on any shelf. The Complete Far Side contains every Far Side cartoon ever published, which amounts to over 4,000, plus more than 1,100 that have never before appeared in a book and even some made after Larson retired.
"Dogs Playing Poker" Was The Forerunner Of The Far Side's Most Beloved Recurring Element
Anthropomorphic Dogs Have Always Been Funny
What makes the connection between Cassius Marcellus Coolidge and Gary Larson particularly interesting, of course, is the fact that Coolidge was an early progenitor of one of The Far Side's most celebrated recurring elements: anthropomorphic dogs.
Certainly, no one aside from Gary Larson himself would fault him for not looking up Coolidge's name. As he noted in The Complete Far Side Volume Two, Larson worked late at night, and he ultimately opted to follow a surge of creative inspiration rather than delay it in order to do research. It is important to note that the "Gus Nickerson" Far Side comic was released in the early 1990s, and while Larson may have been an early internet adopter, it was not the virtually-instantaneous source of information that it is today.
After all, it is Coolidge's art that Gary Larson was referencing; while he simply hadn't encountered the earlier artist's name before, his ability to call the painting to memory and riff on it to find a punchline is one of countless example of his deep reservoir of cultural knowledge. What makes the connection between Cassius Marcellus Coolidge and Gary Larson particularly interesting, of course, is the fact that Coolidge was an early progenitor of one of The Far Side's most celebrated recurring elements: anthropomorphic dogs.
The Far Side anthropomorphized many different animals throughout its run in publication, but given the nature of dogs' relationship to humans, it is understandable that Larson's dog cartoons stood out above the rest to many readers. Though Coolidge and Dogs Playing Poker may not have been a direct influence on Gary Larson, his engrained familiarity with the painting makes the case that there is at least some form of traceable lineage between the two American humorists and their shared subject matter.
Far Side Creator Gary Larson Brilliantly Described the Difference Between Cartoonists and Comedians
According to Far Side creator Gary Larson, despite similar end goals, there is a significant distinction between cartoonists & stand-up comics.
The Far Side's Humor Was As Sharp As It Was Absurd
Navigating Gary Larson's Brand Of Comedy
The best Far Side jokes found a kind of middle ground between artist and audience, and often, the smallest details made all the difference in navigating that space.
In the end, Gary Larson's reflection on his Dogs Playing Poker joke is interesting for the parallel between him and Coolidge, but moreso because it highlights the important of the finer details in Far Side cartoons. leaving them asking "What-the?" Though Gary Larson was happy as long as he got any reaction, it is clear that he didn't like for any joke not to live up to its full potential.
Gary Larson's sense of humor could be as subtle as it was often quixotic, yet as a closer look at The Far Side reveals, some of his most obscure punchlines were in fact failures to fully articulate the joke on his part, or otherwise, failure to "get" the joke on the reader's part. The best Far Side jokes found a kind of middle ground between artist and audience, and often, the smallest details made all the difference in navigating that space.
Source: The Complete Far Side Volume Two
- Writer
- Gary Larson
- Colorist
- Gary Larson
The Far Side is a humorous comic series developed by Gary Larson. The series has been in production since 1979 and features a wide array of comic collections, calendars, art, and other miscellaneous items.
