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Everything's Better with Platypi: Difference between revisions
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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.
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{{examples}}
== Anime
* ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', the [[Axe Crazy]] mecha pilot girl has a pet platypus.
* ''[[Ranma ½]]'': In one arc, giant platypodes show up. And they were awesome (and cute).
== Comic Books ==
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* Sanz Pantz: Ninja Platypus is [[Made of Win]].
* 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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* 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 & Dragons]] has a [[Psychic Powers|psionic]] monster called a Thought Eater. It looks like a floating, skeletal platypus that attacks from the ethereal plane. And it, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|eats your thoughts.]]
▲== Theater ==
* 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 ==
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* 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.
== Video Games ==
* 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.
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* 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 ==
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{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Mammal Tropes]]
[[Category:Everything's Better with Indexes]]
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