Ctrl+Alt+Del/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Angst Dissonance: Ethan hates Rory because Rory constantly manipulated him as a child, injured him for his own amusement and always got what he wanted with zero consequences... says the guy who's married to a very nice woman, has several close friends, and has attained his dream of owning his own video game store (where he abuses Rob and the customers for his own amusement), all no consequences despite being Too Dumb to Live. Oh, and he will prospectively ruin his friend's career so he can get a game several months in advance.
  • Anti-Sue: Ethan. Despite not being particularly heroic, childish, unemployed at the beginning of the series, and the resident Butt Monkey of the series with almost no social skills. He winds up:
    • Married to the girl of his dreams, which would be fine if there were a good reason for it, but Ethan never really displays that towards Lilah.
    • Constructing not one, but two robots that perfectly mimic human life--by accident. Considering that even the most intelligent scientists find doing this on purpose impossible, and that Ethan did it twice, it's a egregious offense.
    • The founder of his own holiday, Winter-een-mas, and religion, the Church of Gaming, and Lucas and Lilah, both supposed to be the Straight Man, fully accept and support this endeavor as Serious Business, even sticking up against other religious figures, saying that they're no more likely to be right than Ethan.
    • Easily defeating and outwitting all of his opponents, eventually owning and running a successful gaming store, despite having no business knowledge, never doing his paperwork, and treating his customers and employees like crap.
    • Frequently being apologized to for things that were his fault to begin with, with nary a consequence unto him.
    • Bearing an eerie resemblance to the comics creator, Tim Buckley, they're even drawn the same, and up until recently, they had the same haircut. They even have the same tongue piercing.
  • Anvilicious: Notoriously the "gamer religion" arc. In a different way, the introductions of Emma and Christian get their respective characters across with all the subtlety of anvil pie to the face.
  • Complaining About Games You Don't Play: Buckley posted this comic then stated on the accompanying blog post that he had never played a Pokémon game. This attracted enough backlash that he deleted the blog.
    • Because of the backlash, he has since played one and says that, while he didn't think it was that good, he understands why people do enjoy it.
  • Critical Backlash: Despite that the comic is hated (So much, the main tropes page is even locked!), its readership is large enough that Tim Buckley is able to live off of this comic and related events. Note that as a webcomic, this is very rare.
  • Designated Hero: Christian is a jerk, doing some incredibly slimy things, but considering that Ethan's antics have also screwed over people whom he considers his friends for selfish reasons and have even put people's lives in danger, it gets harder to root for Ethan.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Kate attempts a Secret Test of Character on Lucas via a fat suit during their blind date to make sure he isn't dating her for her body. He politely indulges her for the evening but is just about to dump her when she reveals she's not fat. He then changes his mind at seeing her real body and they end up becoming a couple. There's really no way this couldn't end in a Broken Aesop or a Family-Unfriendly Aesop.
  • Fan Haters: OODLES.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Fans nicknamed the "cheating" Goth-ish Gamer Chick Gaz; her real name is Abby (hmmm).
    • Or possibly Sydney or Akasia.
    • "Side Panel Sid", for an unnamed, awkwardly drawn character in a strip about CPUs.
  • Flame Bait/Hate Dumb:
    • Do NOT go on a forum and say "Ctrl+Alt+Del? It's okay." Not to mention much of it is Bandwagon Hate due to the infamous Convenient Miscarriage arc.
    • Opinions on the cartoon range from "simply bad" to "insult to basic human intelligence." It's even flame baitier than the comic.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • B^U
    • CADbortion
    • Wordswordswordswords
    • "Buckley Boxes"
    • Zalgo - He comes! (it's been used on other comics before but it really took off with CAD)
    • Christian - What a guy! And also Rory.
    • Tim hasn't read Penny Arcade/watched any Fox animated shows in two years!
    • Lucas' Expressive Shirt (pocket is the eye, crease is the mouth; apparently Shirt is a silent Deadpan Snarker).
    • "Loss Edit": Replacing the last panel of any other comic (including comics other then CAD) with the last panel of "Loss".
    • Ethan's "hairbird" (his hair looks like a bird), after someone noticed the resemblance between Ethan's hair and another goon's photoshopped avatar of Nicholas Cage with the caption "My hair is a bird, your argument is irrelevant!". In an odd coincidence, Ethan's hair has become more bird-like since the haters started using the "hairbird".
    • For The Annotated Series: "HOOOOOOORSE CUM!" (a mondegreen(?) of the expy-Swedish Chef's nonsense dialogue)
    • Lilah's crotch bulge (she's bigger than her husband!).
    • $150.20, after the amount Buckley gained trying to raise 3000 USD to fund a con, was started by Something Awful, whose members chipped in... via the penny treatment.
    • "The miscarriage is often much harder on the man than the woman"
    • "You have been banned. Reason for ban: None given. Date ban will be lifted: Never."
    • Tim Buckley: As I was walking past the [reflective object], I caught sight of something beautiful. It was me!
    • "Hey, did you read the latest Ctrl-Alt-Del?" "Yeah, and Tim Buckley can go fuck himself!"
  • Never Live It Down: The miscarriage. Abbygate. See Unfortunate Implications below.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Although he predates Twisp and Catsby by years, Chef Brian is still cited as an example by those who think Ctrl+Alt+Del is a Penny Arcade ripoff.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: This comic.
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • The whole "Lilah apologizes to Ethan about being overly emotional following her miscarriage" at the end of Christian's Arc.
    • Ethan seems to show more emotion over Zeke leaving than Lilah's miscarriage; he even forces Rob to wear a Zeke mask at the wedding, which isn't addressed.
    • Ethan and Lilah's vow essentially breakdown to Lilah putting Ethan first in everything and committing herself to him fully...while Ethan only has to "try his best".
    • The second picture on this page, circa March 2009, also happens to be on the first page for a Google image search for "punk girl" and a similar girl is also featured on the artist's website. Compare Abby the gamer chick.
    • This quote from one comic:

Lucas: [Do you really think Lilah would believe video games are now illegal? That kind of trick only worked on you 'cause] You're a gullible idiot.
Ethan: Yeah, so, she's a girl.

    • This strip here which has opened up a debate on racial stereotypes.
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