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Pearls Before Swine: Difference between revisions
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(Import from TV Tropes TVT:ComicStrip.PearlsBeforeSwine 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:ComicStrip.PearlsBeforeSwine, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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* [[Animal Jingoism]]: Partly subverted by Zebra's conciliatory attitude toward his predators...used in full when he gets shot down at every turn.
* [[The Annotated Edition]]: The treasury collections contain annotations from Pastis which try to elaborate on where ideas came from and detail reactions to the more controversial strips. And tell us which things he found impossible to draw.
* [[April Fools' Day]]: ''Pearls'' did the same punchline involving a Ouija board as ''[[FoxTrot]]'' and ''[[Get Fuzzy]]''.
* [[Artistic License Biology]]: [[White Sheep|Junior]] decides to [[Carnivore Confusion|become a vegetarian]]. Crocs can't digest plant matter.
* [[Author Filibuster]]: When Pastis isn't punning on Sundays, he's using the extended format to ''really'' lash out at whatever bugs him.
* [[Author Guest Spot]]: Pastis' [[Author Avatar]].
* [[
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Guard Duck and Snuffles.
* [[Babysitter From Hell]]:Rat. See the [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] entry below.
* [[Badass Adorable]]: L'il Guard Duck.
* [[Bad Humor Truck]]: One Sunday strip has Pig getting hit by an ice cream truck. Rat explains to Goat that this happens every Sunday, and that when Pig comes to he just tells him that he won the Super Bowl.
* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]: [http://pearlswine.livejournal.com/514708.html The famous final line from] ''[[Gone With the Wind]]'' is intentionally misquoted in order to make yet another [[Overly Pre
* [[Beat Panel]]: Mostly when Rat realizes that he has made an [[Incredibly Lame Pun]].
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: In a strip where Goat convinced Rat to relax and stop worrying about everything, {{spoiler|then whacked him on the head with a frying pan as soon as he dropped his guard}}.
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* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: Pig got kicked out of a pig brotherhood because he enjoys BLTs.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "You dumb [[Phrase Catcher|pig]]." and "Hullooooo, zeeba neighba." Also, people tend to say "Please don't [do whatever [[Jerkass]] behavior you are engaged in]."
{{quote| '''Goat:''' [[Check, Please!]].}}
* [[Cats Are Mean]]: Played ''very'' straight, possibly to the point of satire, with Snuffles, who has at times moonlighted as a Nigerian scammer, a mercenary and a spokesperson for Al Qaeda.
* [[Character Filibuster]]: Goat's specialty... albeit frequently doomed in the face of Rat's pragmatism.
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* [[Conviction By Contradiction]]: Parodied [http://joshreads.com/images/08/01/i080113pbs.jpg here.]
* [[Crapsack World]]: Played for laughs.
* [[Creator Career Self
* [[Crossover]]: [[Family Guy|Stewie Griffin]] of all people appears to deliver the trademark pun at the end of one particular Sunday strip.
** Other [[Crossover]] victims include ''[[Cathy]], [[Baby Blues]], [[Get Fuzzy]], [[The Family Circus]],'' ''[[Sally Forth]]'' and ''[[Mutts]]''.
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'''Pig:''' I think happiness is finding an extra couple of french fries at the bottom of the bag.<br />
'''Rat:''' ...Pig made sense. The apocalypse is upon us. }}
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: In one [[Story Arc]], one of the crocs is jealous over the size of the other's tail.
* [[A Dog Named "Dog"]]: Pig, Zebra, Rat and Goat, of course.
* [[Dropped a Bridge On Him]]: Played for laughs.
* [[Dumbass Has a Point]]: Someone will occasionally be worried when Pig makes a good point.
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* [[Ear Worm]]: In one strip, Rat starts singing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" just to get it stuck in everyone's head.
* [[Elephant in The Living Room]]: [http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2009-01-13/ Literally.]
** [[Check, Please!]]
* [[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome]]: Initially, the crocs of Zeeba Zeeba Eata had a case of this, but they now pronounce their "R's" normarlly.
* [[
* [[
* [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: Everyone calls her Christmas Tree Girl.
* [[Expressive Hair]]: Pig's ears.
* [[Fan Disservice]]: [http://i36.tinypic.com/2ly4xhx.jpg Larry the crocodile] dressed as [[Alice in Wonderland|Alice]].
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* [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]]: Seen in one arc in which Pastis decides he needs to kill off major characters to boost circulation...namely, himself and Rat. It's OK, though; turns out God is the head of their syndicate, and there are stuffed animal sales at stake.
* [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot]]: Rat reads letters from readers on occasion. The letters are mostly fakes, although some are based on actual fanmail.
* [[Four
* [[Four Philosophy Ensemble]]: Pig - Optimist, Rat - Cynic, Goat - Realist, Zebra - Apathetic.
* [[Fourth Wall Portrait]]: In answer to a fan question, Pig was once shown as an actual pig, with Rat saying he needed hours of "cartoon makeup" each day.
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* [[The Ghost]]: For a considerable amount of time, despite constantly being referred to, lions were never shown in the strip. When Pastis learned to draw them, they started showing up.
* [[Goldfish Poop Gang]]: The crocs. Their stupid and half-witted schemes are more apt to kill themselves than Zebra.
* [[Good Angel, Bad Angel]]: Subverted; Rat has two devils.
* [[Groin Attack]]: Rat punishes Pig's ignorance by belting him in "[[Unusual Euphemism|the Oompa Loompas]]."
** Or Rat's idea of something [http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2011-04-03/ "new and funny"].
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** Snuffles the cat, who was eventually found to be harboring terrorists.
* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: All over the place, most notably whenever someone (usually Rat) calls out a particularly lame pun or plot device.
* [[Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics]]: As it turns out the [[Nine Out of Ten Doctors Agree|Fifth Doctor]] is [[The Runt At the End]].
* [[Lions and Tigers And Humans Oh My]]
* [[Literary Allusion Title]]: "Pearls Before Swine" comes from a passage in [[The Bible]].
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** Possibly also a nod at the [[Running Gag]] of Rat's "Angry Bob" series of novels, that always end with the titular character's horrible death just as he had found happiness, only for the next novel to begin with "Angry Bob un-died..." Pastis claims to want credit if "un-died" ever goes into the dictionary.
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: Rat.
* [[No Fourth Wall]]: The characters are well aware that they live in a comic strip. Rat frequently uses it to lampshade a horrible pun or demonstrate [[Self
** Another combination lampshade-hanging and fourth-wall destruction, with a dash of [[Shrug of God]]: When Zebra asks a croc what dialect they speak, the croc answers, "We ees speeking (white blob)." Cut to Pastis at his desk, saying, "Stupid Liquid Paper."
* [[No Name Given]]: This has been the most common approach to the constant deaths of the crocodiles.
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* [[One Two Punchline]]: Used frequently, especially in pun-based strips.
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Goat and (usually) Zebra.
* [[Overly Pre
** See [http://www.agtimes.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=67782&sid=d4e48e10b07beb1dc057abfdb7963e48 this], for example.
* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: The crocs' and lions' dialogue is rendered in mixed-case.
* [[Person As Verb]]: When Rat tries to introduce the phrase "pulling a Pastis" into the lexicon:
{{quote| "[[Self
* [[Pet the Dog]]: Every once in a while Rat is given one of these moments towards Pig. However, he is usually seen [[Kick the Dog|kicking the dog]].
* [[Pint
* [[The Pollyanna]]: Pig. Making him the perfect foil for Rat, of course. Though he occasionally mentions feeling like a total failure and desires to be somebody else.
* [[Rage Against the Author]]: Rat once held the strip hostage to his demands, and as noted once led a general strike. More often he's just displaying generic hostility towards Pastis, usually due to the did-we-mention-they-are-''really''-bad puns.
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** The 2004 Election series, oh so much. For example, Rat wants to bomb France, and at a baseball game, Pig kissed baseballs, and...{{spoiler|threw babies.}}
* [[Scandalgate]]: [http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2010-12-05/?Page=3 Gatesgaitgategate.]
* [[Self
* [[Serious Business]]: Never let your library books go overdue.
** The strip often points out how people in real life consider comic strips to be [[Serious Business]].
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* [[Staying Alive]]: Pastis's approach to the frequent deaths of his characters. (In ''Pearls Sells Out'', Pastis says he used to keep a list of the dead crocs, but once it got to 40, he gave up.)
* [[Strawman Political]]: Rat is a Strawman Conservative.
* [[Suicide As Comedy]]: [[Dude, Not Funny|Fans didn't react well]] to Alphonse The Depressed Porcupine.
** Actually, [[Moral Guardians|anti-suicide groups]] didn't react well.
* [[Sustained Misunderstanding]]: In one anthology, Pastis wrote that Pig "is rather easy to write for. He just needs to misunderstand everything said to him, and then when it's explained to him, he needs to misunderstand that too." The strip he referenced had this exchange:
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* [[Unnamed Parent]]: All the known parents of Rat, Pig, and Goat, but averted with Junior's parents, Larry and Patty.
* [[The Unintelligible]]: Snuffles the Cat.
* [[The Un
* [[Unsound Effect]]: [http://comics.com/pearls_before_swine/2006-05-19/ May 19, 2006] used "hula hula hula" to indicate Pig dancing the hula.
* [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]: Rat.
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* [[Whip It Good]]: [http://www.icoolen.com/sites/default/files/u6/20041029P.gif What happens when you take the title of a political discussion show at face value.]
* [[White Sheep]]: Junior
* [[Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?]]: Because Stephan has a short memory.
* [[Who Even Needs a Brain?]]: The storyline where Pig's brain gets tired of him and takes off. It's implied that this has happened to a lot of people. ("Explains a lot, doesn't it?") Strangely enough, while Pig is dumb, his brain is quite smart and makes a living winning ''[[Jeopardy]]''.
* [[Who Would Be Stupid Enough]]: Pig, frequently.
* [[Who Writes This Crap?]]: Almost word for word.
* [[
* [[Windmill Political]]: Rat once ran a political campaign based on the dangers of rainbows.
* [[Worlds Shortest Book]]: In one strip, Rat writes a book about what men want. There is one single page with the word "SEX" in all caps.
{{quote| '''Rat''': "It would have been shorter, but I included a paragraph about beer."}}
* [[Yank the
* [[Yiddish As a Second Language]]: An entire storyline in which Rat teaches himself Yiddish specifically because it's a great language to insult people in. Even the crocs pick up on it.
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