When readers reflect onThe Far Side, factual accuracy might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but according to creator Gary Larson, getting the small details right was always important to him – to the point where one mistake continued to gnaw at him well intohis retirement from cartooning.
InThe Complete Far Side Volume Two,Larson explained that misnaming the artist behind the classic painting colloquially known asDogs Playing Pokerin aFar Sidecartoon 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 madeGary Larson such an impactful artist; whileThe Far Sidewas 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.
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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: July 05, 2025
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.
DespiteThe Far Side’sreputation for being alternatively fanciful and absurd, Gary Larson ofted relied on factul accuracy to elevate certain jokes. Before becoming a full-time cartoonist,Larson had a background in science, and as he explained inThe Complete Far Side Volume Two, it was creatively satisfying for him whenever he was able to use correct scientific terminology, or technical jargon, oraccurate historical detailsto 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 admonished himself for the most. While admitting 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 belovedDogs 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’screator 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 Pokeris just one of those artifacts in American pop culture that’s always been around, right? It’s justDogs Playing Pokerby 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 ofA 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 inThe Far Side, whether readers realized it or not.
Though Larson identifies Coolidge’s famous painting asA Friend in Needrather thanDogs Playing Poker, the truth of the matter is a bit more complicated than that. Over the course of nearly two decades, Cassius Marcellus Coolidge produced more than a dozen paintings featuring anthropomorphic dogs, which are collectively known asDogs Playing Poker– despite several of the entries featuring dogs indulging in activities other than poker.A Friend in Needis likely the most recognizable of Coolidge’s paintings, but Gary Larson was not wrong to know the artist’s work by the name of the series.
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 to get the punchline of the panel across, fidelity to the true artist’s name – even if few readers appreciated it – was a way of placingThe Far Sidein conversation with other pop culture artifacts.
Gary Larson’sFar Sidewas 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 whenThe Far Side’sDogs Playing Pokerjoke 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 becauseThe Far Side’sjokes did more than just poke fun at pop culture; theyoperated 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 panel across, fidelity to the true artist’s name – even if few readers appreciated it – was a way of placingThe Far Sidein conversation with other pop culture artifacts. Larson’sDogs Playing Pokerjoke 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 pass 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 ofThe Far Side’smost 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 inThe 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 Sidecomic 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 isone 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 ofThe Far Side’smost celebrated recurring elements: anthropomorphic dogs.
The Far Sideanthropomorphized many different animalsthroughout 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 andDogs Playing Pokermay 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.
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The bestFar Sidejokes 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 hisDogs Playing Pokerjoke is interesting for the parallel between him and Coolidge, but moreso because ithighlights the important of the finer details inFar Sidecartoons.According to Larson’s perspective, something as small as a syllablecould make the difference between aFar Sidejoke getting a laugh from its reader, orleaving 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 humorcould be as subtle as it was often quixotic, yet as a closer look atThe Far Sidereveals, 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 bestFar Sidejokes 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
The Far Side
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.
