Gary Larson’s The Far Side doesn’t have many recurring characters, but when they do appear, they’re used for some of his best comics in the whole series. Perhaps the most iconic of Far Side‘s repeat offenders is ‘the woman in horn-rimmed glasses’ – an unfortunate star of Larson’s comic who has had more bizarre things happen to her than any other figure in Far Side history.

The woman in horn-rimmed glasses started out as just the way Larson tended to draw a similar type of character, but because she’s so recognizable, she quickly became a favorite of fans, appearing on the covers of various Far Side collections. Fans even eventually learned her name, as Larson’s strip introducing The Far Side‘s cast introduced her ‘actor’ as Arlene Carmichael, who apparently ‘played’ the many different women in horn-rimmed glasses across Larson’s comics.

Here, then, are the 15 funniest comics starring Arlene Carmichael, as she makes her way in the wild world of The Far Side. Be sure to vote in our end-of-article poll and have your say on which of the woman in horn-rimmed glasses’ many appearances are the best of the best.

15 Dog Food Again

A Rare Optimistic Far Side Comic

Some of Arlene Carmichael’s appearances are relatively thankless, as she plays the straight woman to funnier characters. In this case, Arlene serves a can of dog food to two overjoyed canines who are thrilled with her choice of meal. The gag hinges on the idea that surely it’s dog food every night, with the family pets somehow still being enthused and surprised when Arlene opens the can. Larson’s dogs were never his smartest characters, but here they star in one of his rare comics where everything works out for the protagonists.

14 My Couch!

One of Larson’s Darker Far Side Comics

Sadly, things can’t always work out in the world of The Far Side, and here Arlene is the mother of ‘Leonard,’ a Psycho-worthy obsessive who can’t stand anyone sitting on his favorite couch (essentially a lethal version of Big Bang Theory‘s Sheldon Cooper.) The shadow in the bottom left of the panel shows that the painting is about to become gory reality, though it’s a mark of Larson’s comedic genius that he makes Leonard’s presence so understated.

13 Sorry to Bother You…

Far Side loves swapping human and animal behavior, and here the woman in horn-rimmed glasses calls her neighbor with a request to come and fetch her husband, as he’s bothering her cat. The blasé way that characters handle bizarre situations is one of The Far Side‘s funniest conceits, although given everything Arlene has seen, it makes sense this doesn’t freak her out too much.

12 Rebuild the Fort Later

Larson Echoes Classic Sitcoms with His Childish Husbands

In the style of endless shows like The Simpsons, Married with Children, and King of Queens, Arlene plays the put-upon housewife dealing with a childish husband. However, in the world of The Far Side, the dial always goes up to eleven, so Arlene’s partner isn’t just engaged in selfish hijinks – he’s literally hiding in a pillow fort.

11 Don’t Sit There

Larson Loves Taking Common Sayings To the Extreme

One of The Far Side‘s favorite tricks is to take an idiom or saying and push it to its most absurd limits. In any normal household, saying that a chair isn’t safe just means it has a wobbly leg. However, in the world of Far Side, it’s besets with spikes, bear traps, and a hanging snake. Larson’s attention to detail is showcased by the fact that the snake isn’t just held up by a rope, but by a fraying rope that’s ready to give.

Working almost exclusively in single panels, The Far Side derives a lot of humor from moments that wouldn’t make any sense if you had to depict the lead-up. After all, how did Doreen miss the myriad dangers of this chair before needing to be warned?

10 I’m Not Kidding About This

Far Side’s Malevolent Ducks Are a Genius Choice

Larson loves bringing the bizarre into the inherently mundane, and some of his weirdest gags take place in offices or nice suburban households. Here, J.F. Jones is revealed to be that classic gag – several animals dressed up in a man suit. Hilariously, being exposed doesn’t change Jones’ attitude, as one of the ducks sternly warns Arlene’s character Miss Billings to forget what she just saw. Again, the gag hinges on the unseen – what did Mr. Jones look and behave like before the ducks were exposed?

Larson uses ducks throughout The Far Side, often giving them malevolent energy and using clichés associated with crime fiction. In another duck gag (above) Arlene is pushed down a staircase by two enterprising ducks, while in another an innocent office worker is terrorized by the distant gaze of a hidden waterfowl.

9 A Dream Come True

Larson loved to play with the enmity between cats and dogs, and here Arlene is again the straight woman as she turns on the dog after her cat is arrested for unknown crimes. While the woman in horn-rimmed glasses is probably right, some blame has to fall on the cat, who has apparently done something so heinous that the cops thought they’d need a shotgun for the arrest.

8 Howler Monkeys

Larson Loved the ‘Weird Neighbors’ Gag

This time without her glasses (she is in bed after all) Arlene stars in one of Larson’s favorite formats – an all-American family dealing with bizarre neighbors. The woman in horn-rimmed glasses appears in a lot of these comics, but we’ve chosen the howler monkey gag to represent them because of the amazing visual of the monkeys screaming for all they’re worth while staring directly at the poor couple just trying to sleep.

7 Does Someone Have a Hammer?

One of Far Side’s Most Surreal Visuals

In one of Larson’s most surreal comics (and another that thrives on playing with the idea of how we got to this point), a woman finds herself trapped inside her own wine glass. Thankfully, one of her fellow diners has been in this situation before. This is one of Far Side‘s biggest belly-laugh comics, but doesn’t appear higher on this list since the woman in horn-rimmed glasses is only an onlooker to the gag.

6 Not Even Drawn Yet

The Far Side wasn’t averse to meta humor gags that break the fourth wall, and here Arlene plays the nagging wife to a husband who Larson hasn’t yet finished drawing. Part of the genius of The Far Side‘s humor is how the caption often explains an image that makes absolutely no sense on its own, and that’s definitely the case here.

5 Didn’t Wash Hands

Larson Skips the Caption for This Genius Comic

Sometimes, The Far Side nails a gag so solidly that no caption is needed – in this case, a restaurant that has fitted a huge alarm to shame any diners who don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom. This is one of Far Side‘s funniest and best-loved comics but again, Arelene is only an extra here, keeping it from the top of our list.

4 A Vacuum

Is This Far Side’s Best Wordplay?

In perhaps The Far Side‘s single best wordplay joke, Larson plays on a sentiment often attributed to Aristotle. Originally intended as an observation about the natural world, Larson takes it as literally as possible, suggesting that flora and fauna could attack any moment, enraged by Arlene’s cleaning device. We’d love to have this higher on the list, but since ‘Alice’ doesn’t wear horn-rimmed glasses, it seems unfair to include it in our top three.

3 “Margaret!”

The Woman in Horn-Rimmed Glasses Gets a Turn as the Bad Guy

Arlene gets to be in on the joke again in this strip, in which she guns down her hunter husband, with the reveal that she’s been having an affair with his prey… a bear. The look on the bear’s face is hilarious, as the animal seems completely nonplussed about what’s going on, while the image of a suburban housewife gunning down her husband while wearing a bear costume could only come from the mind of Gary Larson.

2 Could You Go to Your Window?

The Woman in Horn-Rimmed Glasses Showcases Her Practical Outlook

Part of the fun of The Far Side is watching its characters take truly surreal situations in their stride. Here, Arlene has an admirably practical reaction to seeing a giant, Godzilla-esque eyeball at the window, even if it might actually be more advisable to run screaming from the house. Among Larson’s many movie references, Godzilla and King Kong are frequent visitors to the world of The Far Side, perhaps explaining why Arlene is so slow to panic.

1 DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS

This Early Comic Is from Far Side’s First Year

In this 1980 comic, the woman in horn-rimmed glasses appears even before Gary Larson had quite established The Far Side‘s art style. Again, the joke is her reacting to an extreme situation in a low-key way, as her husband being consumed by a crocodile is only a cause for embarrassment because he’s technically breaking the rule against feeding the animals. The simplicity of this gag makes it our #1, as well as the way it perfectly captures how Larson loves to combine the surreal, the morbid and the achingly mundane.

Those are the 15 funniest Far Side comics starring Arlene Carmichael’s woman in horn-rimmed glasses. Don’t forget to vote in our end of article poll and nominate your favorite Far Side comic starring Larson’s woman in horn-rimmed glasses.