Pearls Before Swine/YMMV

"Pig: Aw, Andy. It's... It's because you're --
 * Complete Monster: Some of Rat's atrocities include: biting the head off a gingerbread man, telling an ignorant man to drive off a cliff, poking fun at Pastis, and often beats up Pig.
 * However, he does successfully straddle the line between this and a Comedic Sociopath with a Heart of Gold. Whenever, he is supposed to be a Complete Monster, he's obviously a parody.
 * Though, let us remember the storyline to where he literally locked his conscience in a trunk in the attic.
 * Crosses the Line Twice: The character of Alphonse the Porcupine revolves around pretending to attempt suicide to get attention.
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: "#$@&!* you, British Petroleum" - said by Pig.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: So much, see here.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Pastis has often said that Pig's sweetness is what keeps the strip from getting too dark:
 * Pig is sitting at a desk with a sign saying "Hold Me. Make my probblims go away." Rat calls Pig dumb for thinking that being held will make his problems go away. Pig then alters the sign to read "Hold me anyways."
 * Also, after Pig imagined that he was a butterfly and fell off the roof, Rat addresses him in the hospital and offers a rare Jerk With a Heart of Gold moment: "No, you dumb pig. You jumped out of the window and hit... (pause) ...the moon."
 * The December 1st, 2007 strip.

Andy: ... On a chain. A chain that gets a little weaker every time I pull against it... a chain that one day's gonna break.

Pig, hugging Andy: Oh, Andy.

Andy: Hey... Don't squish the hat."


 * There's also Pastis's touching memorial to his recently deceased father-in-law from February 2, 2010
 * The conclusion of an arc that has Junior Croc dating a girl zebra (Zebra's niece). When Junior finds out she's leaving he proceeds to break down his door (he was grounded at the time) and give her a goodbye hug.
 * Another one happens when the two string popcorn while Zebra decorates the tree after Billy runs away to spend Christmas with them.
 * Also involving Junior is this June 15, 2011 strip. Making it even more heartwarming is it was released a few days before Father's Day in many countries.
 * Given the strip's animosity towards Family Circus and Bil Keane, the December 25th strip was an oddly touching tribute...
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Da Crocs. Also, Orca. Ironically,
 * Pastis has commented that he gets letters if Danny Donkey goes to long without appearing.
 * Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Parodied.
 * Family Unfriendly Aesop: Every children's story Rat writes.
 * One that sticks with this troper is one of his Danny Donkey books. A group of Environmental Activists ask him to cut down on drinking beer, recycle, and he can help save the world. Danny replies, "Why? When the world is so full of lies and greed, why save it?". The Activists are awed by his speech and change the Save the World rally to a Destroy the World rally.
 * Fan Hater: Pastis claimed in an interview that he deliberately gets a rise out of these people. In response to angry letters, he sends them form letters of the "Thank You for Writing" variety, which only causes the complainants to send in more angry letters... in return for which he sends out more form letters...
 * Funny Aneurysm Moment: One strip featured a croc disappointed that Steve Irwin's head has never been bitten off, published just a few months before Irwin's real death from a stingray attack. Also, a fat joke about Ted Kennedy became much less funny after his death.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: Rat found Saddam hiding in a spider hole... playing a Game Boy.
 * The aforementioned "#$@&!* you, British Petroleum." strip came out the day they finally managed to cap the well.
 * Osama Bin Laden staying with the cast of The Family Circus became even funnier when it turned out that bin Laden was indeed hiding in plain sight.
 * In one arc, Rat wanted to kill a random guy because he was Farina's boyfriend. Sound familiar?
 * One Sunday strip had a group of people that Rat thought were so stupid, they shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.
 * In a strip from an arc where Pig had Newt Gingrich as a pet, Rat said that Newt can never be president and John McCain is a lock for 2008. He was proven right about the former, considering Newt's dropout of the 2012 election, but wrong about the latter, considering the other nominee won that election.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Rat can be this at times.
 * Moral Event Horizon: Rat has crossed this once, when he killed a random guy, just to stop him from reproducing.
 * The Woobie: Pig. So much. I mean, literally
 * Ellie the Elephant (one of the Rat's characters) who really, really wants a grand romance with her apathetic boyfriend and goes overboard trying to impress him or to make a lasting impact on the world, but ultimately resigns herself to romance novels.
 * Andy, a dog who's left outside on a chain day and night and never gives up hope of seeing the world.
 * Jerkass Woobie: Rat, who's sometimes even proud to be a jerk, has had his heart broken by his love, Farina, and fails at doing anything that would benefit others. There are even times that he worries that he is a worse person than he thinks.