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{{trope|wppage=Platypus}}
[[File:perry-the-platypus.jpg|link=Phineas and Ferb|frame| He's got more than just mad skill: He's got a beaver tail and a bill!]]
{{quote|''We consider every day a plus
''To spend it with a platypus
''We're always so ecstatic
''<nowiki>'</nowiki>Cause he's semi aquatic.''|'''[[One of Us|Everything's Better With Perry]]''', ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension]]''}}
Much like [[Everything's Better with Monkeys|Monkeys]], [[Everything's Better with Penguins|Penguins]] and [[Pandaing to the Audience|Pandas]], the duck-billed platypus has achieved a certain level of popularity.
The platypus is probably the [[Overly Narrow Superlative|most iconic aquatic Australian mammal]]; many advertisements for pools, swimming lessons and fishing gear will use one. It is also used on the Australian 20-cent piece.
Some believe that the platypus proves [[Dogma|God has a sense of humor]], or He's a total psycho, or He's [[What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?|rockin' the ganj]], or that evolution is 100% real, because [[Blasphemous Boast|not even God]] could make that nonsense up. The reasons are myriad. This is an animal that, upon being sent to a British natural history museum to catalog, was believed to be a taxidermist's prank until a live specimen was sent to them. It looks like [[Mix-and-Match Critters|a beaver crossed with a mole with a duck's bill added for laughs]]. They belong to a group of mammals known as Monotremes, a group consisting of it and the echidna, which means they lay eggs. Additionally, they're an offshoot of mammals that evolved before teats/nipples evolved, so while they produce milk, they simply... [[Squick|sweat it out]] for their young to lap up. They also have ten sex chromosomes, where in most mammals there're simply two (X and Y). And their duck-bill? It's actually quite soft, and it acts as an electrical receptor. See, platypus eyes aren't too useful, especially underwater, so they use an electrolocation system in their bills to hunt shrimp and other aquatic invertebrates. Sharks have a similar sense, [[Everything
And to top it off, they're venomous. Yup, male platypi have venomous spurs on their feet, and while not lethal to humans, the cocktail of venom will usually incapacitate people, and can cause you to be in excruciating, incapacitating pain that can develop into a persistent ache for weeks or months. So it won't kill you, it'll just make you wish it had.
So, in short, it's easy to see how humans can become so interested in this goofy-looking creature. Odd appearance, cool features, and the ability to cripple you if you get stupid. What better metaphor for [[Land Down Under|Australia]]? And it's an [[Inherently Funny Words|Inherently Funny Word]]. And they [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=innjUqxG6Aw swim weirdly]. Also, baby playtpi are called "puggles," which is quite possibly the cutest word ever invented, and have been called so since before pugs were crossed with beagles to make the dog breed of the same name (Note: This isn't the ''official'' name for a baby platypus, just the most commonly used one. Another just-as-adorable name is "Platypup".).
All good things must come to an end, however. This is slowly becoming a [[Discredited Trope]], because it's gotten so that the platypus has become too popular to be considered "obscure" anymore. When a show is supposed to start including a "weird animal" in its cast, expect it to be a platypus.
Plus, if you want to talk about them in the plural, expect to confound linguists until the end of time. Is it ''Platypusses''? "Platypi?" [[Phineas and Ferb|''Platypeople''? Whatever.]]
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', the [[Axe Crazy]] mecha pilot girl has a pet platypus.
* ''[[Ranma ½
== Comic Books ==
* Norm T. Platypus of ''[[My Cage]]''
* Sanz Pantz: Ninja Platypus is [[
* The main character of ''Toto l'ornithorynque'', which has not been translated into English.
== Film ==
* The movie ''[[Dogma]]'' opens with a disclaimer that religious people who may be offended by the film look at the duck-billed platypus and consider that God must have a sense of humor. This is followed by another disclaimer, apologizing to the "noble" platypus and emphasizing that "it is not our intention to slight these stupid creatures in any way."
== Literature ==
* Umberto Eco wrote a book called ''Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition''. He noted in the very beginning that Immanuel Kant had nothing really to do with platypus, but it's just a good title.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Dot and The Kangaroo]]'', the platypus is described as "the wisest animal in the bush" and helps Dot find her way home. He and his wife also sing a song based on their latin name.
* The [[Tortall Universe]] book ''In the Realms of the Gods'' has a platypus - er, [[Call a Rabbit a Smeerp|duckmole]] god as a fairly major character. His name is Broad Foot.
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I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude. }}
== Live-Action TV ==
* The Platypus Family in ''[[Mister Rogers' Neighborhood]]''.
* A "Safari Solitaire" sketch on HBO's ''BrainGames'' had a platypus as its (correct) answer, and the narrator went into great length to describe how the platypus "lays eggs like a bird, nurses its young like a mammal, and the male has venom like a snake."
== Music ==
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Just mind me platypus duck. }}
* Commonly used theme by the band Flobots, in such songs as ''Handlebars'', ''The Moon'', ''No W''... Hell, one of their albums is even called ''Flobots Present: Platypus.''
* [[Tom Lehrer]] would prefer to "marry a duck-billed platypus, then end up like old [[Oedipus Rex]]".
== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Dungeons
==
* The musical ''Prozak and the Platypus'' is about a depressed young woman trying to deal with [[Parental Abandonment]] (her mother is dead and her scientist father is distant both emotionally and physically). It also has a platypus as a major character. Why not.
== Toys ==
* Patti the Platypus was one of the first nine [[Beanie Babies]].
** Oddly enough, it doesn't have a tail- one of the platypus' defining features.
* The Webkinz stuffed animal line has an animal known as a "Googles" which is basically a platypus with no tail and only two flippers. It has yet to retire, can easily be considered one of the cutest in their line, and comes in three different colors.
==
* Platypus venom is mentioned in both [[Persona 3]] and [[Persona 4]].
** Although they're mentioned as having "poisonous claws" rather than venomous spurs.
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* ''[[To the Moon]]'' has a toy platypus that has its freakiness [[lampshaded]] by the funny guy, Dr. Neil Watts, which turns out to be important later.
▲== Web Originals ==
* Very early in ''[[The Descendants]]'', a villain breaks into a zoo, steals a platypus, and uses the platypoison to cripple another character and steal her body.
* There is a website called [http://www.fredthemonkey.com Fred the Monkey] where the local [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] is Clydex the Platypus. Who never says anything other than "I'm a platypus." EVER.
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* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gM5TjSOQ48&feature=related P-p-platypus!]
== Web Comics ==
* Leonard in ''[[Sequential Art (webcomic)|Sequential Art]]''
* In ''[[Life and Death]]'' the personification of Chaos likes them.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100715004902/http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Maniac_Chainsaw_Wielding_Duckbilled_Platypus/index.php The Maniac Chainsaw Wielding Duckbilled Platypus]
* [[Platypus Comix]], named so merely because creator Peter Paltridge thought it would be a funny name for a comic publisher.
* WTB Dignity has Kel'thar (better known as Frumpy), a cranky but adorable platypus with a spiked collar, who is revealed as ranger Kylianna's animal companion. Though Kylianna thinks he's "kind of useless," Razputhen the undead soldier is immediately charmed when the platypus shows up.
* Lothar's adopted brother Kyle in ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' is a platypus. His bizarre appearance combined with his foolish decision to sell weapons to cultists behind his mercenary dad's back got him captured and tortured by the Inquisition who think he's some kind of chaos mutant.
* Eponymous character Platypus in ''[[Vinigortonio]]''.
== Western Animation ==
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* A Platypus was mistaken for an alien invader in ''[[My Gym Partner's a Monkey]]''. {{spoiler|However, it's somewhat subverted as it turns out Rick Platypus was an alien all along.}}
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has the ferocious [[Mix-and-Match Critters|Platypus]] ''[[Everything's Worse with Bears|Bears]]''.
** Wait. If
*** Everything Is Averaged Out With Platypus-Bears.
**** Or [[Precision F-Strike|fucked]].
* Kato Platypus, a [[Mix-and-Match Critters|half-cat, half-platypus]] superhero from Wharf City's past on ''[[Sushi Pack]]''.
* In the episode of the animated ''[[Hercules (
** Well, this ''is'' [[Cloudcuckoolander|Icarus]]...
* A platypus briefly appeared among McLeach's captured animals in ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'', but never speaks.
* Patricia from ''[[Spliced]]''. No reason not to believe that she's actually a beaver/otter/duck/whatever, though.
* [[Secret Squirrel]]
* ''[[The 13 Ghosts of Scooby
* An episode of [[Super Secret Secret Squirrel]], had the Platypus, an anti villain who illegally leaks the city's power plant to power his invention that would turn him into a normal animal. The heroes and the chief chase him down after accidentally getting their body parts mixed up by the device. Platypus eventually redeems himself after the heroes introduce him to a platypus girl, and he discovers that he was [[Beautiful All Along]].
* An episode of [[South Park]] featured Damien, the spawn of Satan, turning Kenny into a platypus. Stan's Uncle Jimbo shot Kenny after shouting that Kenny was going right to him.
== Real Life ==
* Averted for anyone who's been the victim of platypi venom, one of the most potent venom on Earth. While it won't generally kill you, it will make you wish it had as the venom goes to your pain receptors and cranks [[Up to Eleven]]. One victim of the venom had been shot in [[World War II]] and said without any hesitation that the platypus sting was far more painful.
* An interesting fact: During [[World War II]], [[Winston Churchill]] decided he'd like some brought to the United Kingdom. this required special facilities being fitted out on a ship, and navigation halfway round the world in a war. nevertheless, this was attempted, and the ship made it all the way to the mid Atlantic, when it was discovered that the measures taken to protect the animals didn't completely mitigate the effect of anti-submarine depth charges, and they died a few days before arriving.
* Kinda sums it up with this [[Fun T-Shirt]] [http://www.snorgtees.com/ourpowerscombined-p-512.html?osCsid=dba357e2b2c9780a1938f72282f0657a\]{{Dead link}}
* Sanrio has tried at least three times to launch a platypus character for the [[Hello Kitty]] universe, but it's never taken off.
* [[Robin Williams]]
* The trophy for the Oregon-Oregon State football rivalry game is the Platypus Trophy, because the platypus has characteristics of both schools' mascots, Oregon's duck and Oregon State's beaver.
* The official emblem of the Australian Federal Police is the platypus. The AFP official web site spends several paragraphs explaining why the platypus symbolises all the best qualities of the force, before finally admitting that it might also have something to do with the literal English translation of "platypus" being "flatfoot".
* The Platypus is also the unofficial mascot of [
* Comedian Richard Jeni had a bit about them in a special titled "The Platypus Man" and later a short-lived series by the same name. He describes watching a ''National Geographic'' special about them ("a confused, short-legged night feeder") and identifying with the creatures.
* USAF Basic Training uses Platypus as a duress word.
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[[Category:Mammal Tropes]]
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