The Far Side is famous for its recurring elements, of which there were almost too many to count throughout the strip's fifteen-year run – yet while some are less fondly ed by fans, some remain unforgettable, and undeniably the best. For new fans just discovering The Far Side, understanding its most prominent recurring elements is key to "getting" creator Gary Larson's humor.

For Larson, a "recurring element" could cover a wide range of things; in short, it constitutes any premise, punchline, theme, location, or character, or in general, anything that the artist returned to again and again over the years.

Over time, readers came to recognize these recurring elements as a kind of shorthand between them and the artist. Whether it is an airplane up in the sky, or the devil himself down in hell, practiced Far Side readers can quickly adjust their expectations accordingly when they encounter one of Gary Larson's familiar motifs.

10 Airplanes

Far Side Appearance Scale: Regular

Gary Larson loved a gag about airplanes in peril – especially when the joke involved an incompetent pilot, a recurring element that appeared in The Far Side consistently over the years. Larson's airplane jokes channeled the fear of flying that many readers are likely to have felt at one point in their lives or another, transmuting it into humor in his own one-of-a-kind way.

On a practical level, this established an immediate connection for the reader between them and The Far Side's plane humor, something that was pivotal to any single comic's success. Gary Larson's humor is known for being obscure, and even obtuse, and so the difference between a cartoon that resonated with readers and one that left them asking "What-the?" often came down to these connections.

9 Aliens

Far Side Appearance Scale: Regular

Gary Larson's sense of humor is absolutely "out there," and so of course his take on extraterrestrial life ranks among The Far Side's most memorable recurring elements. Larson drew many flying saucers and alien visitors over the years, with these s often providing the perfect outlet for the artist's outsider perspective.

The Far Side's alien cartoons feature some of the strip's most exciting art; Larson's aliens riff on classic depictions of "little green men," while also maintaining an unmistakably Far Side feel to them. His extraterrestrial humor embodies the best aspects of Larson's ability to look at humanity through an unfamiliar lens, and also stands out for its high rate of laugh-out-loud jokes, as his aliens alternatively menaced earth, and tried to fit in among humankind.

8 Acme Products

Far Side Appearance Scale: Semi-Regular

Acme might not jump out at readers the way other Far Side recurring elements do, but they are merit inclusion because they include some of the most hilarious s Gary Larson ever produced. Rather than being the subject of these s, Acme was used to add an increased level specificity to certain jokes, usually those involving industrial products or factory settings.

The Far Side's Acme cartoons can be read as Gary Larson taking subtle jabs at consumer culture, but what makes them unforgettable is that they represent Larson at the top of his game as both an artist and a humorist. Essentially, the repeated use of "Acme," or the similar "Ace" was an Easter Egg for fans of The Far Side, one that readers would've been increasingly excited to catch throughout the strip's time in publication.

7 Amoebas

Far Side Appearance Scale: Frequent

The Far Side is known for its animal characters, and its ubiquitous insects, but there were also many appearances by microscopic forms of life over the course of the years. Gary Larson was always his own toughest critic when it came to the quality of his art, and his s starring amoebas, bacterias, and other single-celled forms of life proved to be the perfect opportunity for him to simplify things.

Still, Larson's amoeba drawings have a charm to them, making them exactly the kind of Far Side recurring element that readers shouldn't overlook. In fact, once it becomes clear how frequently Gary Larson depicted such characters – and how lighthearted and silly this strain of The Far Side's humor tended to be – fans of the artist's work will likely come to consider these some of his most undervalued s.

6 Bears

Far Side Appearance Scale: Frequent

Naturally, Gary Larson used different animals to achieve different types of Far Side punchlines. Larson's use of animals was often based on some observation about the dynamic between humans and other species; depending on how much tension, or potential danger, the artist wanted to inject into his joke, he might use a less or more predatory animal.

The Far Side's many bears seemed to offer the perfect balance for Larson. Bears are perhaps the most dangerous animals that humans have been able to train, to a certain extent, though they fall far short of "domesticated," and wild bears can still be incredibly dangerous. This dynamic informed Gary Larson's use of bears for comedy, and the result was some of the funniest Far Side comics.

5 Birds

Far Side Appearance Scale: Constant

Birds of all shapes, sizes, and species were a constant presence in The Far Side, yet in some ways they seem like the most mysterious of Gary Larson's recurring animal characters. As readers become more familiar with Larson's work, this will make more sense; it is almost as though, while he is fascinated by most animals and insects, The Far Side's creator reserves some kind of special awe for avians.

their flightless relative the penguin, birds are perhaps as ubiquitous as any animal to appear on The Far Side. Yet unlike other familiar Far Side recurring species, each type of bird has its own distinguished subtype of humor.

4 Clowns

Far Side Appearance Scale: Semi-Regular

Compared to some of the other most recognizable Far Side recurring elements, clowns appeared with somewhat less frequency – yet so many readers have such a visceral reaction to clowns that Gary Larson's skillful deployment of them sticks with fans of his work. Of course, as he was known for, Larson found unique ways to use clowns as part of a punchline, often by inserting them into situations far afield from where they belong.

The Far Side's clown cartoons tended, understandably, to accentuate the colorful nature of clowns, though occasionally Larson depicted them in black-and-white, delaying drawing readers' attention to the clown for a pivotal beat, making it that much funnier when recognition hit them. In nearly every case, Larson's clown s represent high-level collusions between his sense of wordplay and his visual style.

3 Cowboys

Far Side Appearance Scale: Semi-Regular

Many hilarious The Far Side use the Old West, and wild west tropes, in order to establish that vital immediate connection to readers – so that Larson could subvert their expectations. Gary Larson's cowboy cartoons undercut the aggrandized mythology of this era in American history, which had prevailed for decades thanks of Hollywood.

Larson's cowboys, rather than being tough, were often the subject of ridicule or humiliation; this is characteristic of the artist's skill at humorous inversion. The Far Side could be highly dangerous for its characters, yet when making jokes about a time and place that is known for being dangerous, Gary Larson's instinct was to be silly, and to lampoon, rather than perpetuate, this image of the west.

2 Desert Islands

Far Side Appearance Scale: Regular

Few Far Side locations were the source of more prolific humor for Gary Larson than the desert island. No single location served as the basis for as many genius Far Side cartoons, and as such, it is in contention for the single most iconic recurring element in the strip's history, perhaps only rivaled by cows.

The Far Side's desert island s offer wildly different elaborations on the same premise, without ever managing to get stale or derivative. Instead, each desert island cartoon feels like a logical escalation in turn – or even better, feels completely unexpected and totally obvious at the same time. Perhaps more than any other Far Side recurring element, the desert island represents the full scope of Gary Larson's abilities as a writer and an artist.

1 The Devil

Far Side Appearance Scale: Semi-Regular

Life in The Far Side could be hell – as the strip's frequent trips to the underworld, and and God Almighty himself made regular appearances throughout the strip.

Larson deliberately undermined the grandeur of both the concept of heaven and hell, using each in their own way as settings for goofy humor. Although these cartoons were at times some of The Far Side's more controversial installments, they nevertheless remain some of its most unforgettable, and its most delightfully funny. Fans of The Far Side – knew and old alike – will recognize Gary Larson's vision of the devil as one of the things that helped the artist carve out an irreplacable niche in American comics.