Ménage à 3

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
God bless new roomies...?

Ménage à 3 is a webcomic created and drawn by Giz (Gisèle Lagacé), and co-written by Giz and Dave Zero1. It started on May 17, 2008.

Ménage à 3 centers around the life of Montreal-resident and lifelong virgin Gary. Upon losing his old roommates Matt & Dillon on short notice (they decided to be an official gay couple), Gary is desperate to find a couple of new roomies to pay the rent. Luckily, Matt and Dillon put an ad in the local paper to find new people in need of shared living, and before long, the search pays off. Things change drastically for Gary when two girls, Zii and DiDi, suddenly share his apartment. Zii, obviously perplexed by Gary's purity, decides it's best for him to become more of a man and sets her goal to make him more confident and lose his virginity.

The comic is a Slice of Life comedy with a sitcom atmosphere and a predilection for sexual jokes. Almost all main characters, males included, get their naked shot, and many of the storylines revolve around the main characters' sexuality or relationships.

In short, it's Three's Company, just with more nakedness, and no Don Knotts (too many comedies of errors as it is!). Alternately, it's The 40-Year-Old Virgin in web comic form.

Even the first page is NSFW (although there's now a zeroth page warning new readers of this), so remember to label any NSFW links you want to use.

Tropes used in Ménage à 3 include:

Jung: Gonna blog about how horrible it was, the instant it's over!
Gary: But what if it's good?
Jung: If it's goo... Gary, that makes no sense.

  • A-Cup Angst: One of Kiley's defining traits. She reacts this way when she runs into DiDi (which has happened twice so far). In later strips, we see that she's obsessed with her small breast size. It doesn't help when others point it out to her.
  • A Date with Rosie Palms:
    • Gary, several times.
    • Zii also partakes, watching all-male pornography while calling DiDi's name. She does not notice the contradiction there.
  • The Alcoholic: Sandra is a borderline case; she often turns to drinking in uncomfortable situations.
  • All Gays Are Promiscuous: Actually, everyone is promiscuous...except Gary, who wishes he was. (Promiscuous, that is. Although...)
    • His ability to instantly bring women to orgasm with the Swirly-Go-Round is changing that gradually.
  • All Issues Are Political Issues: Parodied in a Flash Back in which Yuki calls a banana flambé 'oppressive' and the waiter who is trying to serve her this dessert a 'patriarchal phallocrat.' It's parody because she does this out of her "phallophobia", not out of any genuine feminist conviction.
  • All Men Are Perverts: The main characters—both male and female—are bad enough, but men who aren't major characters are completely incapacitated if DiDi so much as walks in, let alone when she turns up at a strip club.
  • All Part of the Show: Jung seems to think this about all the offstage drama in the play.
  • All Women Are Lustful:
    • Meet their poster girl: Zii. And so are the men.
    • DiDi's entire character arc has become a search for an orgasm, especially in the strips in the first half of 2012.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Yuki's father, when he finally shows up.
  • And This Is For:

Yuki: (kicks Gary in the shins) That's for lying to me, you jerk! (kisses him on the cheek) And that's for being my knight in spandex earlier.

  • Anticlimax: After three and a half years[1] of Gary trying to lose his virginity, Kiley jumps him on a whim, with him barely registering what's happening (unless giving cunnilingus counts, in which case there's a bit more fanfare).
  • Anything That Moves: Everyone (minus Gary, Jung, Kiley, and Yuki)... but especially Zii, and now Jordan... who is primarily gay, gets any guy he wants whenever he wants, but isn't averse to a roll in the hay with the odd woman.
  • Anticipatory Breath Spray: A stripper uses it before kissing DiDi and Sandra.
  • Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Didi is growing ever more frustrated (both sexually and ego-wise) that despite having spent days posing naked for Gary's drawing practice, the thought hasn't even crossed his mind that she wants him badly.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Kiley pulls one on Sonya in this strip.
  • Art Evolution: The art style overall has remained pretty consistent for such a long-running comic, though the series is slowing shifting from a straightforward Archie Comics style and occasionally incorporates a few manga features like enlarged eyes.
    • Compare Zii from early in the comic to a more recent incarnation. She seems noticeably younger now, although it's possibly due to her not wearing makeup in the second strip.
    • Lita (Zii's cat) has gotten decidedly less grumpy and ugly-looking since her first appearance. Maybe hanging out with Gary is having an effect on her.
    • Another example of the art evolution is Yuki. Between her first appearance and her most recent appearance (as of this writing), there's an obvious difference in her eyes and facial shape.
    • Even Gary's had some work done, in early strips he was gangly and a little goofy-looking but now he's Adorkable and Grade-A Mr. Fanservice. Then again, part of that could be the audience (and a handful of characters) realizing that he looks pretty good naked.
  • Artifact Title: The title was this for a while when Dillon moved back in, but since he moved out a second time, the household is a Ménage à Trois once again.
  • Artistic License Sex Ed: Discussed Trope. Zii explains to Gary why porn is not a good source of information as to what women do and don't like.
  • Author Appeal:
    • Depending on your position on the sliding scale of prudery vs. perviness, Giz's id is either frighteningly skanky or Crazy Awesome.
    • The comic, and at least the language of one character, contains authentic French. Look at the name of the comic artist!
  • Bedmate Reveal: Gary wakes up in bed with Dillon after a nightmare.
  • Beta Couple: Matt & Dillon. Well... not anymore...
  • Bi the Way:
    • Zii and Matt, definitely.
    • DiDi and Sandra thought they were, but changed their minds.
    • If you take a look at the cast page, Yuki's officially listed as bi, but it also takes note of her issue with mentally replacing penises with tentacles.
    • Probably DiDi and Sonya, and possibly Dillon.
    • Jossed in the case of Gary... for certain levels of the word. At one point, everything seemed to be conspiring to put him in situations with Dillon, and Senna quite literally kissed him stupid.
  • Big No:
    • Zii's reaction when DiDi tries to cut her hair into a mullet.
    • Kiley does it three times.
  • Bilingual Bonus:
    • Some of DiDi's Gratuitous French, although the majority is easy enough.
    • The title of the story Yuki's father wrote for her, "Yuki's First Snow", is a pun as "yuki" is the Japanese word for snow.
    • The title itself - "ménage à trois" literally means "household of three." The setting and the Gratuitous French almost certainly make this intentional.
    • Senna can speak five languages, and most of her dialog before she revealed she could speak English was in Brazilian Portuguese.
    • In an early appearance Yuki shouts "触手 (shokushu)!" This, of course, means "tentacles."
  • Bishie Sparkle: Hilariously subverted here with Gary, who immediately goes into shock when he puts two and two together.
  • Non Sequitur Episode: Two could be considered like this.
    • "'Gently Caress' You" features, from the main characters, only Zii and Gary while any other appearing character in that episode never returns. It's solemnly focused in a revenge-based plot that has never been mentioned again in the comic.
    • Similar with "Babes in Toyland", where the never-to-be-brought-up-again plot focuses on Zii and DiDi accidentally "breaking" one of Gary's Ttransformers and seeing what to do with it. Some consider this to be a payback to Zii for her actions in the previous Non Sequitur Episode.
  • Blatant Lies: Dillon's agent attempting to explain away the fact that he's in a Transparent Closet.

Dillon: You know...it's none of my business...but someday you will have to tell your wife you're gay.
Dillon's Agent: Ho-ho-ho! Don't be silly! I'm not gay! That's why I have you wear the wig!
Dillon: I think it might be a little bit gay.
Dillon's Agent: Dilly...straight married men have secret gay sex all the time!
Dillon: That sounds made up.
Dillon's Agent: It's true! It's called "being on the down low". Saw it on Oprah.

    • And the best part? Not only does the agent seem to buy it, but Dillon thinks it's credible because Oprah presumably said it.
  • Body Sushi: In one omake Zii and Didi are eating sushi on a nude girl, when suddenly Zii realizes that something's wrong....the girl they're eating on is not Japanese but Korean!
  • Book Ends:
    • The first volume opens with Gary coming home early from work, having a soon-to-be ironic thought just before opening the door, and walking in on Matt sodomizing Dillon, which is when he finds out that they're gay. Matt and Dillon move out shortly afterward. It ends with Dillon coming home early from rehearsal, having a soon-to-be ironic thought just before opening the door, and walking in on Sandra sodomizing Matt. Dillon moves back in with Gary shortly afterward.
    • The second volume opens with Gary having an Erotic Dream about Zii, which turns into an erotic nightmare when it's revealed it's a male version of Zii, because of the influence of Dillon's presence in the bed. It ends with Yuki in bed with Zii and having an erotic dream about a female Gary.
    • The third volume opens with Sandra waking up on DiDi's boobs, and ends with her waking up on Senna's.
    • The fourth volume opens with Yuki surprising Kiley in the shower, and ends with DiDi surprising Yuki in the shower.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall:

Dillon: DID I SKIP A PAGE?!

      • Dillon might be alluding to page as in a script, but it's pretty close to fourth wall breaking.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Jung's review of Dillon's play.
    • Kiley reading a pamphlet about breast enlargement when she first meets Yuki, after her A-Cup Angst when she saw DiDi.
    • Whisper whisper badminton racket Whisper whisper Tabasco sauce Whisper whisper Paddington Bear
    • Gary's "Giant-Size Man-Thing".
  • Call Back: Yuki's reaction at DiDi opening the shower curtain while she is having a shower is the same as Kiley's when Yuki did the same.
  • The Cameo:
    • Blair from Eerie Cuties shows up in one comic. (November 26, 2009, NSFW.)
    • Liz from Cool Cat Studio, one of Lagacé's previous works. (January 23, 2010, NSFW.)
    • The porn stars Zii barged in on on set that one time look an awful lot like Stan, Jack and Rich from Penny and Aggie.
    • When Yuki goes on her groin-kicking rampage, Stan from Penny and Aggie is unfortunate enough to get in her way, while a surprised Lisa looks on.
      • You can see a similarly-injured Jeremy and his girlfriend Belinda from Cool Cat Studio in the background of the same strip.
    • Dave Zero1 and Giz, the creators themselves, get a cameo at an anime convention, as the creators of their other strip, Eerie Cuties.
  • Canada, Eh?: Set in Montreal. DiDi is a francophone Québecois, thus the French accent.
  • Cat Fight: Dillon and Sandra when Sandra taunts Dillon about her relationship with Matt. Not a real catfight, of course, but looks like it, since Dillon is dressed as Black Canary and acts alike.
  • Caught with Your Pants Down: Flaming gay Dillon walks in on Zii having some alone time...while calling out the name of her female roommate...and watching Perry Hotter, Part 16.
  • Celebrity Paradox This strip: the authors of the comic, as authors of their other comic selling merchandise for it.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Swirly-Go-Round, which Dillon teaches Gary very early on, comes very handy when Gary wants to satisfy Kiley.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Kiley, the psych student who wants to use Yuki for her thesis. She's first seen in the background here; she's later seen working at a magazine store, where her role in the story soon becomes clear. She ends up being the first one to bed Gary too! (December 13, 2011, NSFW.)
  • Coitus Uninterruptus:
    • Gary and Yuki accidentally walk in on Jordan, the actor playing Dick Grayson, receiving a blowjob from an understudy. Unfazed, he says: "Oh, hi! You must be Gary!" Then comes Yuki...
    • Matt answers the phone while getting a blowjob from Jordan.
    • DiDi calls Sandra for a girls' night out... while she's having sex with Matt.
  • Compliment Backfire:

Kiley: MY IQ IS SMALLER THAN MY BREAST SIZE!
Gary: Uh... don't cry... I'm sure your IQ's much bigger than your breasts!

Gary: DAMMBIT! I SLEEB WITH GIRLS!!! Or, ad least, I'd like to...
Zii: Oh! You're straight? Are you su... hey, wait, what was that last bit?
Gary: Wha' lasd bid?
Zii: "Or, at least, I'd like to?"
Gary: Wazzat oud loud?

    • Yuki, after declaring that Gary is her boyfriend.
    • Sonya: H-How can I be in love with Yuki?! I'm... I'm in love with li'l Zii!
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Zii gets trolled on the internet, so she drives to the kid's house, has sex with his mom, and convinces her to break up with the troll's father (of course, he'd been having affairs with his secretaries for years, so it wasn't *just* Zii).
  • Distracted by the Sexy:
  • Dope Slap: DiDi's Good Angel, Bad Angel gives her one when she fantasizes about punching out Yuki to get Gary to give her an orgasm.
  • Double Standard:
    • Zii calls Gary out for offering her up for a threesome without asking, and rightfully so. But this is not very different from many things Zii has done to other people over the years. This also comes just a couple panels after Zii didn't call out Amber for tricking Gary into giving her oral.
    • After hearing Gary slept with Kiley instead of Yuki, Zii is ready to tear into him for cheating... despite the fact that Zii has had no problem with breaking up two prior relationships before.
  • Double Standard Rape (Female on Male): How exactly do you think this strip would've been received if the genders were reversed?
  • Drop What You Are Doing: Being around the main characters can be a bad idea when you're holding something fragile.
  • Dropped A Bridget On Her:
    • "Wow! Dinah looks like a man without her wig!" ...Wait a minute.
    • Originally suspected of DiDi, but very quickly averted.
  • Ear Ache: When DiDi insults Kiley, Zii drags the former away by her ear.
  • Editorial Synaesthesia: A "splash" effect around a male character's speech bubble is used as visual shorthand for 'has an orgasm while saying this'.
  • Embarrassing Cover Up: When Yuki needed Gary to take a day off, she called his boss, and told her that Gary needs to have a foreign object removed that he inserted into his butt ("Who'd make that up?"). This eventually got Gary into trouble, when he ended up in a hospital (for completely different reasons) and met his boss there.
  • Erotic Dream:
    • Gary had several about Zii and DiDi.
    • Yuki has recurring ones about Gary. Granted, he's a woman in those dreams...
  • Even the Girls Want Her: DiDi, without question.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: Gary, partially through looks and partially through being a nice and sensitive guy, which makes his virgin loser status all the more boggling as he accumulates his harem of interests.
  • Everybody Has Lots of Sex
  • Everyone Is Bi: So far every single character who's shown any sexual tendencies at all—yes, even Dillon—have shown hints of of being attracted to both sexes.
    • Finally (and hilariously) subverted by Sandra and DiDi when they agree that they are just two straight girls with poor boundary issues.
    • Also subverted by Gary. Matt helps him realize that he isn't sexually attracted to men, though he does appreciate beauty in general.
  • Faceless Masses: How large groups of anonymous people are drawn.
  • Face Palm: A resounding example here.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Didi completely overlooks the labeling and color on a bottle of Tabasco sauce before pouring it on Matt.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: Subverted. It seemed like Gary never will lose his virginity, then he ended up having sex with Kiley completely out of the blue.
  • Fainting: Gary used to pass out rather often in sexual situations, but he gradually got over it.
  • Fan Service: Pretty much one of the driving forces of the comic, and quite often played for laughs.
  • Fan Service with a Smile:
    • DiDi and Sandra work at a Hooters-esque restaurant.
    • Zii works at a comic book store and cosplays as various characters.
  • Freudian Trio: Sandra's subconscious is pictured as one of these.
  • Full Name Ultimatum: "Desirée Chastel! Were you spying?"
  • Funbag Airbag: Regularly happens with DiDi's assets.
  • Geeky Turn On:
    • The reason why Zii got a job in the comic book shop. Also, how else you could explain the costumes? (August 15, 2009, NSFW.)
    • Not so much a turn on, but when Gary gives Yuki a bouquet of faux flowers he made out of drumsticks and Mario mushrooms she warms up to him considerably and even starts showing genuine (if platonic) affection for him. Except in her erotic dreams, where he's morphed into a combination of himself and Zii.
  • Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!:
    • Kiley does this to Yuki to stop her from tearing up every magazine with naked men in the store where she works. She even says this exact line. Well, y'know, except for the "man" part.
    • Performed by DiDi on Zii when she considers sex (then a threesome) as a way of apologizing for breaking Gary's rare Transformer toy.
  • Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: On July 7, 2009 (NSFW), two clothed girls hugging distract a crowd of people from a naked stripper.
  • Girls Are Really Scared of Horror Movies: After seeing DiDi's reaction to a scene in Night of the Living Dead, Zii wants to watch another scary movie with her; however, they end up watching REC, and both get scared.
  • The Glomp: Yuki does it to Zii.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel:
  • Gratuitous French:
    • DiDi. The series is set in Montreal, though so far she seems to be the only one afflicted with the condition.
    • Happens at least once with somebody else, though only a one-shot character.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Yuki, being Japanese, uses Japanese idioms several times.
  • Groin Attack: Yuki does this a lot.
    • Poor Gary, especially since it's Not What It Looks Like. Though it looks like he had it easy. ** Later, Yuki goes on an epic rampage, kicking every man she meets in the street after a psychotic break when Sonya pulls out a strap-on right after she almost got over her condition enough to go down on Gary. Right after she calms down, she overhears some guys talking about art her father drew of two characters based on her having tentacle sex together and presumably flies to Japan to continue with her dad.
    • Implied in this strip. Poor Gary.
  • Guy-On-Guy Is Hot: Not only do we get Dillon and Matt as an early homosexual couple and more than enough random male homosexual couples making out, but we also get Zii, who is obsessed with yaoi (though, to be fair, she does like bisexual and lesbian porn as well), and DiDi doesn't seem to be against yaoi either.
  • Hand or Object Underwear: Gary first tries to use a pillow, then, when DiDi takes it away from him (in her sleep), Lita (which, according to Zii is a really bad idea), then finally, when Zii startles him and he drops Lita, his hands.
    • Matt mentions the end of a funny story about Gary where he ends up using a jar of pickles this way.
  • Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Sonya, the waitress Zii tricks into making out with her. Notable in that she doesn't invoke the trope until later that night... while eating Zii out. And after that, apparently obsessively, on a daily basis.
    • That is to say, she apparently eats girls out. On a daily basis (her boyfriend has taken to bringing other girls home for threesomes). All while invoking this trope.

Sonya: Thanks to you, I eat pussy on a nightly basis!
*CRASH* as her waitress friend overhears and drops a pot of coffee.
Sonya: I'm... I'm really not a lesbian!

  • Head Desk:
  • Hanlon's Razor: It is currently impossible to tell if the producer Nathan is evil or moronic or simply insane, but he is definitely the most romantically toxic character to grace the strip so far. Case in point: his "explanation" for cheating on Dillon and Amber and his wife all at the same time.
    • To say nothing about his "explanation" about how he's not gay or bisexual, despite starting each day out by having anal sex with one of his male subordinates.
  • Happy Place: Yuki has one. It contains three Ziis, all dressed as Sailor Moon.
  • Heroic Blue Screen of Death:
  • Hollywood Nerd: Type 2 in-universe with Gary. Ever since Zii's entered his life he's become Mr. Fanservice.
  • Hollywood Psych:
    • The entire point of Kiley's character. Somewhat Justified Trope in that she's intentionally portrayed at being terrible at psychology.
    • Yuki's "delusions" follow Hollywood logic. She's entirely sane (if abrasive) all of the time except for one very specific trigger, whereupon she becomes completely psychotic and violent, then snaps back to normal as if nothing has happened. It's the usual Hollywood combination of schizophrenia with dissociative identity disorder (and possibly post-traumatic stress disorder), while Flanderizing psychosis (meaning out-of-touch with reality) into rampaging violence.
  • Hope Spot: Every time it seems like Gary will get laid, Status Quo Is God comes into play, preventing him enjoying even the thought of a possibility of sex, if he even makes it that far (whenever DiDi or Zii guilt trip themselves into the idea of giving themselves to Gary, one will talk the other out of it; Amber wants to repay him with a threesome - but with Dillon; Yuki and Sonya fight a tug-of-war over Gary and now neither talks to him, etc.).
    • He finally succeeds with Kiley of all people pouncing him when he consoles her over her failure to help Yuki.
    • Also, every time it seems like DiDi will finally get an orgasm, something will always prevent it, like all guys being unable to satisfy her, her first time with Matt is interrupted by Zii, Yuki kicks Matt in her psychotic rage trying to get Gary to use the "swirly-go-round" on her is interrupted because there are other people in the house... and looks like the next chance will end up in lots of pain for Matt over the "salad oil". Then, when she and Matt are actually in coitus she apparently ruins the mood with a Wrong Name Outburst, making Matt think he is in bed with a female Gary.
  • Hot Mom: May be Generic Cuteness, but that internet troll's mother -- oooh.
  • I Banged Your Mom: Zii does this as vengeance on an internet troll with this in his sig line.
  • I'll Be in My Bunk: Zii and Gary... play guitar and rub their earlobes in #319
  • Idiot Hair: Gary and Zii
  • Inherently Funny Words: "Begonias" according to DaveZero
  • Implausible Deniability:

Gary: (to Yuki) YOUR DAD IS TAKERU "TENTACLE KING" OYAMA?! THE PREMIER TENTACLE HENTAI ARTIST OF THE DOUJIN WORLD?! (catches Yuki's look) I... I mean... I have no idea who that is.

    • In a later strip, when Zii nibbles Gary's earlobe:

Zii: D'you just cream your-
Gary: No, but on an unrelated topic, I need to go shower right away.

He [Gary] kissed another girl! How can he possibly do that when he doesn't even know that I might possibly be considering liking him?! Oh, right... all that stuff I just said...

Zii: It's only been a month since I moved in!
Gary: Really? Feels like two years.

Gary: Trolling's a fishing term. It means to lure a fish in with bait. He baited you until you bit, and then you were hooked, which got you caught, and then you were banned like a halibut.

  • Mistaken for Gay: Amber thinks Gary is gay when he goes to her and Dillon's apartment so that the latter can teach him more about the "Swirly-Go-Round" kissing technique. This changes to "bi-curious" when Gary mentions that two girls (Yuki and Sonya) are trying to go out with him, and she decides to trick him into doing the "Swirly-Go-Round" on her.
  • Moment Killer:
    • Several, such as when Sonya arriving (due to Zii trying to throw Gary a boner) just as Yuki was volunteering to model at least topless for Gary's drawing.
    • It seems like everything in the world is trying to keep Matt from giving DiDi a toe-curling orgasm, from nosy roommates to Japanese chicks afraid of penises.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Non-malicious variant; DiDi had so many boyfriends that she can't remember their names. For example, she calls Erik "Armand", "Philippe", "Derick" and "Jerry".
  • Naked Apron: Several occasions.
    • Dillon wears one for Zii (May 23, 2009, NSFW.)
    • One strip had Matt wearing one (August 18, 2009) for Sandra also, though the badminton racket might have been a partial motivator too.
    • DiDi wears one during her date with Sandra (starting March 28, 2011, NSFW)
  • Naughty Tentacles:
    • Yuki's father is renowned for his work creating hentai containing these. It helped cause Yuki's issues.
    • There's also Gary's earlier Dream Sequence (January 10, 2009).
    • Yuki has a dream where she sees Gary as a female tentacle monster.
  • Nipple-and-Dimed: In a rarity for a webcomic, it actually contains a fair bit of nudity, including nipples (and areola, which is even rarer). It still uses Scenery Censor to hide any full frontal, however.
    • The trope was played straight early on. Only later did the authors decide it was too much work and start showing nipples. You wouldn't notice going through the archives though, as they edited away some of the more dubious instances of Scenery Censor.
  • No Bisexuals:
    • Despite the Everyone Is Bi mentioned above, Dillon considers himself gay, even though that he did stuff like roll around naked with Zii and having slept with two girls in high school.

Dillon: ... but that was a threesome, so it only counts as one!

      • We do see this "threesome" later in the strip, and it's not as impressive as he makes it sound.
    • In addition, he rolled naked with her... in a pile of photos of naked guys. His pictures, that were wrinkled from his doing this so much.
    • DiDi didn't seem aware of the concept of bisexuality until Zii set her strai—explained it to her.
  • No Indoor Voice: Gary, when he gets really nervous. I'M YELLING!!!
  • No Name Given: The last names of Gary, Sandra and Matt are not revealed.
  • No Nudity Taboo:
    • DiDi has little or none, at least to the point of assuming that everyone sleeps in the nude. (Of course, she's right, at least in that household—Even Gary, who was for a time bunking with a gay man, doesn't slip into a pair of sweats.) Her "bathrobe" consists of a skimpy babydoll and a thong.
      • After posing naked for Gary's art on Yuki's request, Yuki asked her to be naked around Gary all the time. She acts innocently that she'll do it if it will help his art, but clearly she's still hoping to seduce him to experience his Swirly-Go-Round.
    • Matt and Senna don't bother with putting any clothes on when Sandra walks in on them having sex, although they do for Gary (in order to keep him from lapsing into a coma).
    • And to be fair about Dillon in Gary's bed, it's not like Gary was inviting him in. He even ended up getting a privacy lock to keep Dillon out (it worked... kind of).
  • Noodle Implements: June 6, 2009 NSFW, where Matt suggests to Sandra that they have a sexual encounter including a badminton racket, Tabasco sauce and Paddington bear.
  • Not a Date: When Sandra offers to take DiDi out for a dinner as friends, she interprets it as a date. Sandra, who is unaware that DiDi has a crush on her, doesn't catch on, even when she learns that they will go to a romantic restaurant; she thinks that DiDi has "so few female friends, she thinks girls' night outs are like her regular dates". When DiDi kisses her at the end, she's utterly shocked.
  • Ocular Gushers: In this strip, Yuki finds Gary at his job and drags him off to work on her doujin. Unfortunately for Gary's coworker (and possibly Gary himself), it sounded like Gary has this 3-girl harem going on.
  • Oh Crap:
  • Old Shame: Gary feels this way about his past as an internet Troll.
  • Older Than They Look:
    • Zii is genuinely surprised when Gary confessed that he's 29.
    • Yuki was 16 years old 8 years ago.
  • Omake: Comics appear on pay site Slipshine with more explicit full-frontal nudity and sexual situations.
  • On One Condition: Amber offers a threesome with Gary...with the third person being Dillon, making Gary nervous. When Gary nervously offers Zii as the third as a way to salvage things, Amber refuses. Her reason? "Dillon is my BFF...and he likes you soooo much!" She couldn't betray him with full-on straight sex with Gary, and she made it clear Gary would have to do stuff (oral sex) to Dillon before he could move to her "Otherwise, it's rude." This causes Gary to go from uncertainty to Heroic BSOD, and Zii to clear up that Gary (at the time in the strip) was not "bi-curious" but has "never been laid."
  • One Degree of Separation: Gary meets up with Zii and Didi, who meet up with Gary's old roommates Matt and Dillon, and then Gary ends up meeting Yuki who is Zii's stalker who ends up liking Gary, Zii meets up with Sonya who she hooks Gary up with but Yuki likes him too and then Didi meets up with Sandra who happens to be Matt's old girlfriend and then Dillon becomes roommates with Amber-Amber who is Gary's favorite porn star and then Sandra meets this trans person who is Matt's [2] and then Erik who is Didi's ex-boyfriend falls in love with Zii and then Gary performs oral sex on Amber-Amber and Sonya who Zii seduced is set up to date Gary in competition with Yuki who together decide to 3-way him but Yuki needs help with her tentacle/penis fear and gets Kiley to help her which leads Gary to meet Kiley when Yuki leaves her phone and oh no, I've gone cross-eyed...and then Kiley jumps Gary. ...and Zii was Amber's first lover in high school, beginning with a kiss in a game of "Truth or Dare"...
  • Only Known by Their Nickname:
    • Zii says in one of the early strips that her real name is Suzi, but nobody calls her that.
    • Everyboy only calls DiDi on her nickname except Sandra, who usually calls her Desirée.
    • Gary was originally only called "Violator-San" by Yuki, but ever since he gave her those flowers (made out of Mushrooms and drum sticks) she's started calling him by his real name.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Junghan and Amber have both been this.
    • Gary would be this if he wasn't the Butt Monkey.
  • Orphaned Punchline: "And then Gary comes out of the bathroom... wearing only a jar of pickles!"
  • Orwellian Retcon: See Scenery Censor.
  • Panty Shot: Gary gets one, followed by the predictable reaction.
  • Pass the Popcorn: June 24, 2008 (NSFW.)
  • Pinch Me: When Gary wakes up handcuffed to Yuki, he deduces that he's dreaming, so he tries to wake himself up by supplying his brain with a sensation that it can't replicate - groping her breast. Then he realizes that he's awake.
    • This moment has a hilarious Fridge Brilliance attached: he HAS groped breasts before, but not when he was awake. Remember when Zii and DiDi slept in his bed after being afraid of the thunder and lightning?
  • Pity Sex: Subverted. DiDi wants to "deflower" Gary, who is a hopeless virgin. Various mishaps prevent her from doing so; later, Zii explains to her that she shouldn't do that, because Gary would associate sex with being pathetic...and because she wants Didi for herself.
  • Poirot Speak: DiDi peppers her speech with random French words.
  • Porn Star with a Heart of Gold: Amber-Amber—as Gary imagines her to be.
    • And now that she's become an actual character, it seems to be true. (Although Amber is very... pragmatic... about certain matters...)
  • Post-Kiss Catatonia:
  • Practice Kiss: Gary, who's never kissed a girl, ask his (Camp Gay) roommate Dillon to help. Dillon does so by cosplaying as Gary's favorite porn star to help him get over his gender. This gets strange when he actually meets her and thinks she's Dillon, and she, to recreate the orgasm Dillon gave her (long story), blindfolds him so he'll "practice" between her legs.
  • Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Although it might not necessarily be the ass, the location is pretty close by. When Yuki yells out "TENTACLLLLES!", run.
  • Prison Rape: When Gary is afraid that Yuki will turn him in for accidentally molesting her, he says to Dillon: "Just remember me fondly as I get butt-raped daily in jail."
  • Protagonist-Centered Morality: One gets the sense that some of the things Zii does would be considered dickish or even constitute sex crimes if she wasn't one of the three main characters. The strip portrays everything she does as mere harmless sexual antics though and nobody calls her out on it. Some fans are perfectly fine with this, and some are not.
  • Punny Name/Gratuitous French/Bilingual Bonus: The strip name.
  • Put on a Bus: At the end of volume 3, Sandra is put on a plane to Brazil. She is said to come back to Montreal, but only after "several weeks". Given the short timeframe of the events in the strip, it might take a long time before that happens.
  • Questionable Consent:
    • Everything involving Amber and Dillon's sociopathic boss, Nathan.
    • Zii convinces two drunken straight men to perform an unspecified sexual act on each other; she talks about them "getting it on" the morning after, although Erik, at least, is anything but bothered.
    • Amber, thinking Gary is Dillon's boyfriend, and him thinking she's Dillon in a costume, blindfolds him and has him Practice Kiss her loins.
  • Really Gets Around:
    • Zii has been around and then some.
    • Dillon has been around almost as much as Zii, but not on-camera.
    • DiDi sort of subverts this—her harem of boyfriends runs into the dozens (none of whom satisfy her sexually), but she is easily the purest and most carefree of all the characters. If someone called her a slut as if it was an insult, she'd be extremely confused.
  • Recurring Extra: The blonde guy at the comics store.
  • Refuge in Vulgarity: Borderline. The strip's attitude toward sex can be described as "puerile shallowness" and Rule of Funny, though it seems every time someone even insinuates this on the forums, they'll be accused of objecting to the strip's frank depiction of the free love lives of sexually liberated young people.
    • The part about the forums is not accurate anymore, as their state right now suggests that an unchecked inrush of trolls and haters has chased away most (if not all) fans of the strip. These days, it's not messages with criticism, it's messages praising the story that will trigger a furious reaction from the majority of active members -- who appear to despise the strip and everyone who likes it.
  • Relative Error: Zii makes this mistake, then, panicked, tries to cover herself under it. (Zii is unused to monogamy.) Erik is sweetly understanding.
  • Right Through the Wall:
    • Gary and Zii have to listen to DiDi and her boyfriend; they eventually escape into a coffee house. Later Gary hears Zii and Yuki having sex.
    • Exaggerated - Matt and Dillion have sex to Gary's masturbation and tape record it for future use.
    • And DiDi comes home to an earful of Kiley's second orgasm and unrehearsed testimony as to Gary's prowess.
  • Rule of Sexy: Much of the world runs on this. DiDi's enormous breasts, completely natural and free of sagging, are a key recurring example, though many situations also apply.
  • Running Gag: People walking in on Matt having sex on the couch.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: "Yoink!"
  • Saying Too Much: After Zii breaks one of Gary's Transformers and learns that it was a highly rare Overlord, she tries to pin it on a cleaning woman she made up: "Tragic, I know. Poor Overlord... never knew what hit him!" Gary than asks how she knew it was an Overlord.
  • Scenery Censor: Flat-out abused at times, although the most obvious examples were edited out of the archived versions of the strips.
    • Breasts and buttocks are fair game though.
  • Sexy Shirt Switch: This is used to indicate that Zii slept with the Troll's mom.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Gary finally notices Zii's attractive when she's walking around in a cosplay outfit that's essentially a fur-lined bikini...of one of his favorite characters.

Gary: Jung! Z-Z-Zii's a GIRL!!!

    • Gary's no slouch, either—he comes across as a bit of a dweeb, but he has, to quote Dillon and Zii, a great ass, and can dress up as Nightwing without having to fake the physique, chin, or really anything. The only thing he really has against him is that he has pretty awful posture.
  • She's All Grown Up: DiDi's personal bad angel. "Wow! I don't think you've called on me since the 3rd grade... Holy crap! Check out the rack on me!" And that's nothing compared to her good angel, which has grown into a towering amazon—which is saying something, due to DiDi's already considerable height!
  • Ship Sinking: So much for Sandra and DiDi.
  • Shirtless Scene: Everyone, frequently.
  • Shock Party: Zii's "Surprise 6-some" for Yuki (January 11, 2010, NSFW.)
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shower of Angst: May 14, 2011 (NSFW) A-Cup Angst
  • Skinny Dipping: Senna went skinny dipping with Sandra... in Brazil, using her private jet.
  • Skinship Grope: July 31, 2008 (NSFW.) It's a lot less innocent for Zii than for DiDi, mind.
  • Slap Slap Kiss: Textbook example in this strip.
  • Sleeps with Everyone but You: Zii and DiDi are very promiscuous, but neither of them sleeps with Gary (or each other, althought Zii would very much like to).
    • For the record, both have come very close to sleeping with him, only to step back because they don't want Gary to think desperation is the ticket to getting laid in the future.
    • However, the fact that the only one giving Gary any sort of tutoring on the practical side of sexual interaction is Dillon (and, until recently, the only one Gary gets to practice ON), should point out how useless Zii is in her self-appointed "wing-girl" status and further cements this trope.
    • DiDi's sentiments on the matter seem to have changed after she overheard Gary make Kiley lose her mind. Gary, naturally, is completely clueless.
  • So Beautiful It's a Curse: DiDi, in that her appearance makes it easy for her to get boys but, also due to her overwhelming beauty, the longest any of them has lasted in bed has been 1 min 16 sec. As a result, she's never had an orgasm.
  • Something Else Also Rises: Zii's Idiot Hair.
  • Spank the Cutie: With Zii, who naturally is Too Kinky to Torture and very much enjoys herself.
  • Speed Sex:
    • The only kind of sex DiDi ever had.
    • Gary's first time lasted for 43 seconds.
  • Spit Take:
    • Gary when Zii asks him point-blank about being a virgin.
    • Eulice when Gary blurts out Zii has no job.
    • The on-line Troll upon finding out who Zii is.
  • Squee: Dillon does this when he finds out he's going to appear in a movie.
  • Stalker with a Crush:
    • Zii wants Yuki to leave her alone. Zii eventually gives up, and has sex with her. While Gary was on a pseudo-date with her. Loudly, all night. While Gary could hear.
    • Later, Yuki realizes that she's attracted to Gary, and leaves Zii alone.
  • Stereotype Reaction Gag
  • Stop Helping Me!: Or at least Gary might need to tell Zii that very soon. Or tell Yuki how not to carry somebody downstairs.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: Dillon, in story and in the Fandom. Him as Black Canary was a low blow.
  • Statuesque Stunner:
    • Definitely DiDi.
    • To a lesser extent, Sandra.
  • Suck Her Weak Point: Yuki knows perfectly well that if she wants Zii to stop struggling, her big toe is the way to go. (Ears, too, with Gary and Zii.)
  • Suddenly Sexuality:
    • Zii apparently has this aura that warps everyone around her into bisexuals. Is she really that good? She's made out and/or had sex with: a random waitress, a Troll's Hot Mom, etc. Not to mention everywhere she goes there is always a gay male couple making out for her to watch.
    • Lampshaded with the 'Bonularity' guest strip; the three are apparently the focal point of an event causing every single person in Montreal to have sex with everybody else.
  • Suggestive Collision: A collision among Gary, Zii and Yuki somehow ends up with Gary on his back, Zii sitting on his groin, Yuki sitting on his face, and the latter two facing each other.
  • Supreme Chef: DiDi.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Kiley. "It's not like I've been spying on you from a phone or anything!"
  • Take a Third Option: Gary ends up the object of both Sonya and Yuki's attention. To settle which one should get him, they both decide to have a "sex fight" in which they date him for a month, have a threesome with him, and then he picks one. Double subverted when this fails to resolve the tension between them, and when Gary take a different third option by having his first time with Kiley, Yuki's "therapist," after he tries to console her about messing up with Yuki and she pounces him.
  • Team Mom: Whenever DiDi or Zii slide into Jerkassitude the other leans toward this.
  • The Immodest Orgasm: The Swirly-Go-Round technique made it possible for Gary to do this to Amber...and later to Kiley.
  • Those Two Guys: Zii's flashbacks to previous "escapades" include two recurring non-named characters, possibly members of the band she used to be in.
  • Three-Way Sex: Ironically enough, this trope isn't used all that much. In fact, the few threesomes we have seen mostly ended badly.
  • Too Kinky to Torture:
    • Zii.
    • Yuki shows shades of this in the beginning with her "emergency handcuffs" and later when being tied up with bedsheets by a naked DiDi. She even asks Gary for some clothespins!
  • Title Drop: Finally happened on September 3, 2011 (NSFW.)
  • Tradesnark™: Minor one: Dillon's "open mouth swirly-go-round" kissing technique
  • Transgender: Senna, Matt's coworker and latest one night stand.
  • Translation Convention: Used with DiDi's French and Yuki's Japanese (brackets around English text). Averted with Senna's Portuguese (the forum provided translations have been copied to the trivia page).
  • Troll:
  • Twin Threesome Fantasy:
    • Zii -- not only reality, but a triplet foursome.
    • Dillon's manager tries to invoke it by having Dillon dress up as Amber-Amber and inviting Amber herself to their "session". He says he doesn't want to make two actual sisters have sex, so having Dillon dress up is just as good.
  • Underboobs:
    • DiDi when she wears a shirt she borrowed from Sandra, as it's too small for her.
    • The troll's mom when wearing Zii's shirt, which on Zii only leads to Bare Your Midriff.
  • Unsound Effect:
  • Unwanted Harem: Gary seems to be on his way to this - he seems to genuinely want to focus on Yuki, but Kiley and Sonya both want him. Kiley due to his oral skills, and Sonya because of how Zii talked him up, and because she seems to feel like he's a prize to catch. Sonya later backs off after her Love Epiphany concerning Zii, but Didi is also interested in him after overhearing him giving Kiley two orgasms in rapid succession.
    • And now Kiley backs off so that Yuki does not relapse.
    • We can now add Amber to the list.
      • And Senna.
  • Vapor Wear:
    • Judging by how visible her nipples always are, DiDi never wears a bra. It's amazing she can walk, let alone jog...
    • Though it's not as obvious, Zii seems to go braless as well.
    • DiDi is very obviously wearing a bra in at least one strip (but she's in disguise there).
    • Zii later also does it.
    • Kiley, apparently.
  • Virginity Makes You Stupid: One would think that Gary could tell the difference between kissing a man and cunnilingus even when blindfolded... especially considering he should be able to hear her talking clearly and moaning a few feet away from where he thinks "his" "mouth" is. He does however, eventually catch on to the speaking.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction: Sandra's skirt gets ripped; she doesn't notice it, but ends up getting more tips at the restaurant.
  • Webcomic Time: As per Giz, only 4 weeks have passed in the 2 years the comic has been running.
  • Wham! Episode:
    • And (combined with essentially a Wham Character) Zii getting a boyfriend who was seen only once literally hundreds of strips earlier and who Zii's entire interaction with prior was (intended as) a one night stand
    • Gary finally loses his virginity-- to Kiley, who he just met less than an hour before.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Gary and pretty much anyone, especially Zii, DiDi, Sonya, and Yuki.
  • Wingding Eyes:
    • Yuki's eyes become spirals when she goes into the "TENTACLLLLES!" mode.
    • Hearts and stars for eyes appear for several characters.
  • With Friends Like These...: It's a given that without Zii in his life, Gary would still be surrounded mostly by gay men (but still would have eventually had a run-in with Amber). However, some of the things Zii does (such as trying to prevent DiDi having Pity Sex with Gary) makes you wonder if she ever actually intends to go through with her promise of getting him laid by 30. In fact, when he ends up making progress the encounters are NOT set up by Zii: First Senna, then Amber, and finally Kiley.
  • Workout Fanservice: DiDi is shown sometimes doing her intensive exercise regime. But the other characters and passer-byers' reactions/effects are shows comedy.
  • Wrong Name Outburst: Didi calls out Gary's name while having sex with Matt.
  1. ↑ real time - 2-3 months comic time
  2. ↑ She seems to be M to F
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