‘The Simpsons’ Did Multiple Crossovers With ‘Far Side’ Comics
Over the course of 36 seasons, The Simpsons have had several celebrated crossovers with their animated brethren. The Family Guy episodes are notable thanks to the animosity between the two cartoons, and the Futurama mash-up is fun thanks to the Matt Groening connection. Groening was pissed when The Critic stopped by, but it was a fun Easter egg when Hank Hill showed up to complain about a football blowout.
Somehow flying under the radar? The show’s multiple crossovers with the comic strip Far Side. The absurdist, one-panel creations have popped into two different Simpsons episodes, with cartoonist Gary Larson himself appearing alongside Homer.
The first time Far Side comics appeared was on a Treehouse of Horrors episode in a segment called “The HΩmega Man.” The Omega Man/I Am Legend parody featured Homer shopping for a nuclear fallout shelter as diplomatic tensions increase between France and Springfield. At the “Bomb Shelter Blowout!” sale, a model called the Withstandinator catches Homer’s eye, a sanctuary capable of, well, withstanding a six-megaton blast.
Don't Miss
The fortress is equipped with everything Homer would need to ride out an atomic attack — blankets, a radio, canned steak, beans and… a Gary Larson calendar! Homer is excited about the bonus survival item; there’s just one problem:
It was art imitating life. Early in Far Side’s run, Larson had to follow up a one-panel cartoon with an explanation for all of the newspaper readers like Homer who just didn’t get it.
Readers formed a group called The Fellowship of the Unexplained, asking newspapers to explain the joke, according to CBR. The syndicator of the comic strip thought the gag was obvious, but sent newspapers an explanation by Larson anyway: “This cartoon was meant as an exercise in silliness. I’ve never met a cow who could make tools, but if I had, I feel sure that its efforts would lack something in sophistication and would resemble the crude specimens shown in the cartoon.”
Get it now, Homer?
The next crossover was more straightforward. As part of Cap City Nuclear’s recruitment pitch to employees of rival power plants, an HR representative notes that other outfits only allow workers to tape Far Side comics to their workstations. At Cap City, however, Gary Larson is actually on staff to provide the chuckles.
Wait — wasn’t Larson retired? “I was retired until I got the call from Capital City Nuclear offering me the chance to be the in-house cartoonist at a nuclear plant,” animated Larson explains.
Could Larson whip up an instant classic for Homer, Lenny and Carl? Sure, no problem — and this time, Homer gets the joke. “Man,” he chuckles, “a lion would not want to see that on his X-ray.”
