Did The Far Side Create This Beloved Futurama Character 19 Years Ahead Of Time?

Did The Far Side inspire one of Futurama’s iconic main characters? There’s certainly a case to be made, though fans will ultimately have to judge for themselves. It could just be a creative coincidence, of course, but Futurama’s Professor Farnsworth looks practically identical to a one-off Far Side character from 1980, nearly two decades before the animated sitcom aired its debut episode.

Futurama co-creator Matt Groening was a contemporary of The Far Side’s Gary Larson. They got their starts as cartoonists around the same time. For over a decade before The Simpsons took off in the late 1980s, Groening wrote and illustrated the comic Life in Hell. Gary Larson, meanwhile, debuted as a cartoonist in the late ’70s with Nature’s Way, which evolved into The Far Side. Larson achieved pop culture immortality first, but Matt Groening wound up changing the game entirely with The Simpsons.

It’s easy to recognized a link between Simpsons and Far Side, and the show has periodically shouted out its comic predecessor over the years. Gary Larson even cameoed as himself, in Simpsons form, years after his retirement. But The Far Side and Futurama aren’t often cited in the same breath, despite the fact that Larson seemingly invented a proto-Professor Farnsworth way ahead of the future show.

Not only does Larson’s character bear a striking similarity to Farnsworth, the early Far Side punchline that the proto-Farnsworth’s illustration accompanied feels like it could easily fit as a throwaway gag on Futurama.

This Early Far Side Character Looks Exactly Like Futurama’s Professor Farnsworth

The 1980 Gary Larson Cartoon, Explained

This Far Side cartoon comes from the very first month of the comic’s publication, January 1980. For context, that means it was only published in The San Francisco Chronicle at the time, though the panel would have lived on in reprints, and inclusion in the yearly Far Side collections that helped popularize the comic in the ’80s. It features early incarnations of two Far Side staples: prehistoric characters and scientists.

In this case, one of each have come together for dinner. And it’s hard for Futurama fans to deny that he looks like a rough sketch of Professor Farnsworth, from the top of his cranium down to his shoes. The character’s head and glasses are noticeably like the Futurama character, as is his wardrobe. If this cartoon had come out 20 years later than it did, it would seem like an explicit reference to the scientist character on the new Fox animated series.

So, the resemblance is impossible to ignore. What’s curious is that this has never been widely commented on. If Professor Farnsworth’s design had been an overt, intentional homage to The Far Side, it’s fair to think Futurama’s creative team would’ve acknowledged that at some point over the last 2.6 decades. The show is jam-packed with referential humor, and its creators usually aren’t shy about acknowledging their inspiration. What, then, are the other options?

Is It More Than Just A Coincidence That Farnsworth Feels Like The Most “Far Side” Futurama Character?

Homage, Subconscious Recycling, Or Creative Coincidence? You Decide

Professor Farnsworth is named after Philo Farnsworth, credited as the inventor of television; the character does look somewhat like his namesake, but it’s a stretch to think Gary Larson was visually referencing Philo with his Far Side cartoon back in 1980. Though with Larson, the possibility can’t be ruled out. A more likely explanation is that Larson based this one-off Far Side scientist on some deep-cut reference we’ve missed, one that Futurama’s creators later also reached back to.

Or maybe this Far Side sketch stuck in the back of Matt Groening’s mind after seeing it sometime in the ’80s and popped back up when he was designing Futurama’s characters. None of these possible answers are entirely satisfying, not really. Nor is the simplest explanation: coincidence.Still, until a better explanation comes to light, there’s only speculation.

What can be said, for sure, is that Professor Farnsworth is Futurama’s most Far Side-esque character, embodying both Gary Larson’s love of mad inventors and his knack for non-sequiturs. The Far Side frequently recycled jokes and character designs, but its Farnsworth prototype never reappeared. His spiritual Futurama successor, though, is one of the most beloved characters of a generation.

What do you think, Far Side fans? Futurama fans? How do you explain the similarities between the two characters?

Writer

Gary Larson

Colorist

Gary Larson