All The Tropes

Everything's Better with Platypi: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Everything's Better with Platypi (view source)

Revision as of 17:32, 8 April 2014

175 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Dai-Guard moved page Everything's Better With Platypi to Everything's Better with Platypi: Lowercase prepositions)
m (Mass update links)
Line 6:
To spend it with a platypus<br />
We're always so ecstatic<br />
'Cause he's semi aquatic.''|'''[[One of Us|Everything's Better With Perry]]''', ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across Thethe 2nd Dimension]]''}}
 
Much like [[Everything's Better Withwith Monkeys|Monkeys]], [[Everything's Better Withwith Penguins|Penguins]] and [[Pandaing to Thethe 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 Onon 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 Is Even Worse With Sharks|in case they weren't scary enough]]. Of course, a real platypus tail looks nothing like a beaver's tail, but that doesn't stop the majority of cartoon depictions from showing one anyway, often complete with thumping behavior.
 
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.
Line 25:
== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Eureka Seven]]'', the [[Axe Crazy]] mecha pilot girl has a pet platypus.
* ''[[Ranma ½ (Manga)|Ranma One Half]]'': In one arc, show up giant platypus. And they were awesome (and cute).
 
 
Line 40:
== 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.
* ''[[Discworld (Literature)/The Last Continent|The Last Continent]]'' promises that readers may find out why the duck-billed platypus. Not why anything, just... ''why.'' As it turns out the wizards, stuck in the past Fourecks decide to help the local god in creating new species, by drawing a duck on a rock, but can't really reach consensus on what a duck looks like. The Platypus results from their squabble, playing to the old joke that the Platypus is a duck designed by a committee.
* 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 Aa Smeerp|duckmole]] god as a fairly major character. His name is Broad Foot.
** Duckmole was an early name for the platypus given to it by british settlers.
* ''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]'', when discussing [[Attack of the Killer Whatever|animal attack]] movies, suggests that one could be made where all animals attack all humans, because the scene with the platypus alone would be worth the price of admission.
** In the sequel, ''[[More Information Than You Require]]'', the author claims that someone else is now making this movie. Because it's so vague a premise, he is not going to sue, but only asks that he be given a cameo as the guy who gets killed by the duckbilled platypus. IT'S ONLY FAIR.
* There is a child's book featuring a lost platypus with the other animal characters picking up on his individual features and assuring him that he's a duck, a rabbit, a frog, etc. The story ends with him finding his place in life. [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|As a sideshow freak.]]
* A short story, "The Platypus of Doom," collected in ''[http://theentropytango.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/the-platypus-of-doom-and-other-nihilists-by-arthur-byron-cover/ The Platypus of Doom and Other Nihilists]'', featured the narrator seeking to have a wish granted by the all-powerful [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Platypus of Doom]]. Who, unfortunately, admitted that there's a difference between "all-powerful" and "ALL-POWERFUL," and therefore he couldn't grant the original wish.
* According to the [[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]] [[Expanded Universe]], [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Q]] created platypi as a sort of joke while rebuilding the Earth's ecosystem (which the other Qs forced him to fix after he [[Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs|wiped out the dinosaurs]].)
* Ogden Nash wrote a short poem called "The Platypus":
{{quote| I like the duck-billed platypus<br />
Line 59:
 
== 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."
 
Line 75:
 
== Tabletop Games ==
* [[Dungeons and 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 Onon the Tin|eats your thoughts.]]
 
 
Line 93:
* Rex and Elle, from the Aussie videogame/exercises in playful stereotyping ''[[Ty the Tasmanian Tiger]]'' series.
* [[Super Robot Wars|Mio Sasuga]]'s familiars
* [[Infocom]]'s ''Wishbringer'' had platypus royalty (they're also given a cameo in ''[[Zork (Video Game)|Beyond Zork]]'').
* Poyu-Poyu, Nana's pet in [[Vanguard Bandits]], is a small, pink platypus.
{{quote| '''Andrews:''' Ummm... Bastion? One question. What the hell is that thing on the table?}}
* Debate is up whether the [[Pokémon]] Psyduck is one.
* The [[Brain In Aa Jar]] in ''[[The Adventures of Sam and& Max: Freelance Police (Video Game)|Sam and Max: The Penal Zone]]'' claims to have looked a lot like a platypus when he had a body.
* The plot of the Flash game ''Cellcraft'' involves platypi from outer space.
** More specifically, it posits that this is the actual origin of platypi; their planet was in for a major, extinction-level cataclysm, so platypus genetics were encoded into some microbes. The goal of the game is to breed microbes that can take what Earth has to throw at them.
* Cuz from [[Gex]] 3 is an [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|overweight platypus in a hawaiian shirt]]
* The development team for [[Academagia]] and its fanbase are in full agreement with this trope. The ability to have a platapus [[Familiar|familiar]] was later patched in to the base game.
* ''[[To the Moon]]'' has a toy platypus that has its freakiness [[Lampshaded|lampshaded]] by the funny guy, Dr. Neil Watts, which turns out to be important later.
 
 
Line 115:
 
== Webcomics ==
* Leonard in ''[[Sequential Art (Webcomicwebcomic)|Sequential Art]]''
* In ''[[Life and Death (Webcomic)|Life and Death]]'' the personification of Chaos likes them.
* [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 (Webcomic)|Vinigortonio]]''.
 
 
Line 127:
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]:'' Perry the Platypus ''is'' this trope. A quiet, faithful family pet...until he daily dons his fedora as Agent P, secret agent extraordinaire.
** It's even better in the Spanish dub, where he's Perry el Ornitorrinco. That's how platypus is said in Spanish. Yes, it ''does'' sound funny. "un australiano, mamífero, semi-acuático, agente."
** [[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across Thethe 2nd Dimension]] has a song called "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEHHW0_kHfg Everything's Better with Perry]"
*** This could actually be a [[Shout-Out]] to [[TV Tropes]], considering that the authors [[One of Us|go on this site.]]
* ''[[Taz-Mania]]'', set in Australia, had the Platypus Brothers.
* A [[Power Rangers]] parody on ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'' shows Dot taking on the "Power of the Platypus".
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' features the titular character dressing up as the 'easter platypus' during the Christmas Episode and making the people of Earth ignore Dib's attempt at making [[An Aesop]] out of the episode. Instead, he convinces them to beat him up.
** It's worth noting that in Australia, they have the Easter Bilby. Aussies hate bunnies.
*** Chocolate Bilbies are generally sold to raise funds for their conservation. Only the adults hate bunnies.
* Edward Platypus from ''[[Camp Lazlo]]''
* The titular Ovide from ''[[Ovide and Thethe Gang]]''
* A Platypus was mistaken for an alien invader in ''[[My Gym PartnersPartner's a Monkey]]''. {{spoiler|However, it's somewhat subverted as it turns out Rick Platypus was an alien all along.}}
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has the ferocious [[Mix-and-Match Critters|Platypus]] ''[[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears|Bears]]''.
** Wait. If [[Everything's Better Withwith Platypi]], and [[Everything Is Worse With Bears]], do platypus bears make things better or worse? Or ''both''?
*** 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 (Disney film)|Hercules]]'' where the titular hero misappropriates the legend of Circe, Circe turns the main characters into an entire menagerie of animals, rather than just the regular pigs. Icarus gets turned into a platypus; when he gets into an argument, he threatens the other party with his poisonous spurs, then storms off because he "has some eggs to bury". [[Animal Gender Bender|Um...]]
** Well, this ''is'' [[Cloudcuckoolander|Icarus]]...
* A platypus briefly appeared among McLeach's captured animals in ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'', but never speaks.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/902718"