Eat the Dog: Difference between revisions

'''Reverend''': Eat the dogs?!

'''Benjamin''': Aye, dog is a fine meal.

 

Sometimes the [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]] in the series isn't the [[Team Pet]]. Sometimes the characters are just keeping this poor animal around as emergency rations. Humor is often obtained when the creature is aware of their fate. There may even be a minor subplot about it trying to escape.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* The [[Trope Namer]] is Excel's thought process right after she first found Menchi in ''[[Excel Saga (manga)|Excel Saga]]'' (the manga even goes so far as to literally translate her name as "Mince"), where Excel boiled down Menchi's existence to the simple equation of "[[Rebus Bubble|Dog = Creature = FOOD]]". The anime's [[Ending Theme]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md3tuMKkrLE is sung by Menchi], and bemoans the poor creature's fate while a hand - presumably Excel's - periodically enters with a salt shaker to make sure she's properly seasoned.

* In the manwha, Ares, the titular character names a crow that follows him around, "Emergency Ration." His definition of "Emergency" is a bit loose though.

* In [[Cyborg 009]], the Pu'Awak humanoid race is used as this by the Athans, a race of scientifically advances winged dinosaurs. The Black Ghost group comes in and offers help, but soon they prove themselves to be just as bad as the Athans, and force the five Pu'Away princesses to be a part of their plans...

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** Wolverine meanwhile almost literally eats a dog. Technically it was a wolf that he fought and killed, but he lived off of the wolf carcass during the entire trek. The first thing he did when he reached civilization was scarf down a pile of burgers after confirming that they weren't wolf burgers.

* After being badly bitten by a dog, ''[[Rudi]]'' buys a Korean cookbook and invites the owner and his dog for "dinner", while preparing everything.

 

== [[Film]] ==

** Earlier, in ''[[The Dark Tower/The Waste Lands|The Dark Tower]]'' Roland mentions that a billy-bumbler's meat is no good, and he'd rather eat a dog (which [[It Tastes Like Feet|he did]]).

* This is the driving point for the entire plot in ''[[Charlotte's Web]].'' At least, after Wilbur's told by the goose that's what's going to happen to him eventually.

** Also the subject of a weirdly upbeat running joke that various characters use to hint that they never had enough to eat as children. Even Vimes gets into it at one point. "The small animal looked up at him. He remembered how he'd always wanted a dog as a child. Mind you, they'd been very hungry. Anything with meat would have done." And in another book: "Pets can be a great comfort in times of stress. And in times of starvation, too."

{{quote|"There's nothing ''wrong'' with it," [Teach] said hurriedly, with the sincerity of a man who had ordered bamboo shoots and bean curd for himself.}}

* Disturbingly inverted in one of the chapter-opening "quotes" in Orson Scott Card's ''[[Children Of The Mind]]''. A man always keeps his dog around even though it cannot be taught anything useful or funny. His friends tell him, "That's not a dog, it's a wolf." Then there's a plane accident and the man is terribly injured. The dog strolls up and begins chewing on him, and his last thoughts are "Thank goodness at least one of us will not starve." "[[Nightmare Fuel|This is the most beautiful story I know.]]"

* In David Gerrold's ''[[War Against the Chtorr]]'' novels, it appears that, at best, this might be the role assigned to humans in the invading Chtorran ecosystem. It's already the role assigned to the cute Chtorran bunnydogs.

* There are several references to lyorn legs being served as meat in the [[Dragaera]] novels. A lyron is essentially a large dog with a horn on its head.

 

* In an episode of ''Roundhouse'', the focal boy imagines visiting the home of his crush from [[Cloudcuckooland|a foreign country]]. It doesn't become nightmarish until he asks to feed the cute little dog and hears, "Of course; we are fattening him up for dinner!"

* In an episode of ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'', Larry David believes that his Korean bookie kidnapped and ate Jeff Greene's dog.

== [[Music]] ==

* A comedy song by Tony Hendra and Nick Ullett entitled "Rover (The Shaggy Dog Story)" is about a man and his dog who get lost in the desert, eventually leading to this trope.

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

'''Garfield:''' Times were tough. }}

 

* A running joke in ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' is that a wizard's familiar is only useful for emergency rations.

** The ''Complete Book of Villains'', a supplement for 2nd Edition, featured a warlord called Bakshra the Dog Eater as a demonstration NPC. As a child, Bakshra had been tricked into eating his beloved pet dog as a cure for a curse-imposed illness, and he obsessively continued the practice as a grown man.

* In ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', the goblin-like Gretchin, or Grots, serve as the weak but brainy backbone of Ork "civilization," working as unskilled laborers, farmers, merchants, bankers, and assistants to Ork Meks or Painboyz. In appreciation, the Orks use the poor Grots as cannon fodder, minesweepers, ammunition for some of their more twisted weapons, and of course, snacks.

** Likewise, in 40K and [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], squigs. Admittedly, since a squig is a carnivorous fungus monster that's [[More Teeth Than the Osmond Family|at least 80% teeth and bad attitude]], this is more of an Eat The Dog Before The Dog Eats Me.

 

* Dutch Comedian Herman Finkers has a musical bit about where [[Lassie]] saves a couple caught on a mountain from starvation. "Zijn daad heeft ons echt geraakt, geen hond die zo lekker smaakt." quite literally, his deed touched us, not a dog that tastes as good.

* Another Dutch comedian, Toon Hermans, had a famous routine about a dead pigeon, in which he mentions having lots of animals for his magic act, but then came the winter of 1944...

* Rosarita ("Rosita") Aries of ''[[Sakura Wars]] V'' treats her pet [[Weasel Mascot|weasel]] Niccolo like this.

* ''The Lost Crown'' gives you the option of befriending a pig named Cairon, which grunts happily each time you share your lunch with it. Try not to grow too attached to the animal, because there's barbecue on the menu for the May Day Fayre....

 

* [http://rpgworldcomic.com/d/20041108.html This] ''[[RPG World]]'' filler

* Vita from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'': [[Little Miss Badass]], [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Noble Wolkenritter]], [[Drop the Hammer|Mighty Iron Hammer Knight]], and in the [[Fan Web Comic]] by [https://web.archive.org/web/20131029032410/http://www.q-ice.com/comic/nanoha/index.htm Q-Ice], [http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/2873/nano098trsj7.jpg Hayate's Emergency Food Supply].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Food Tropes]]

[[Category:Animal Tropes]]