Penny Arcade (Webcomic): Difference between revisions

It should be noted that the two have been chosen for TIME Magazine's list of Top 100 Influential People for their 2010 issue under the "Artists" category.

 

 

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* [[GIFT]]

* [[The Merch]]: Brutally satirized [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/01/05/ here].

 

=== It also provides examples of: ===

** The group also suggested "Jim Fellmagic," "Fell DarkJim," "Jim Felldark," "Fell Darkevil," and "Ominous Darkfell Magic-Bad."

** Also, [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/5/4/ Doctor Raven Darktalon Blood].

** Also all characters/creatures by Franzibald. (Grimm Shado, Witchaloks, wolfoids, the [[Department of Redundancy Department|Shadowdark]]. Granted, some of these names aren't as much "sucky" as they are "horribly uncreative".)

* [[A Wizard Did It]]: Used to explain [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/2/ "reverse necromancy"]. As well as [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/1/18/ where babies come from].

* [[Bare Your Midriff]]: Anne does this in the earlier strips.

* [[Big No]]: Too late, Gabe [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/11/ realizes the awful truth] in "[[He Who Fights Monsters|He Who Fights With Nerds]]". More gruesome examples are [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/1/30/ here] and [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/5/6/ here.]

* [[Bindle Stick]]: Gabe has one [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/3/8/ here.]

** Real-life example: Mike Krahulik detests bullies. So much so that [http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html he publicly named and shamed a horrid PR spokesman] after he [[Jerkass|belittled]], [[Smug Snake|mocked]] and [[Moral Event Horizon|''threatened'']] a customer after providing terrible service. Said spokesman's career is in tatters now.

* [[Black Comedy]]:

** As mentioned earlier, the Fruit Fucker was renamed "Juice Bot" when appearing in ''Monday Night Combat''. Also, in ''Poker Night at the Inventory'', the Fruit Fucker appears on an unlockable table, but it is referred to as "Fruit Friend" (and even if you have the swearing uncensored, it ''still'' appears as "Fruit Friend").

* [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]]: Somewhere between this trope and [[Revenue Enhancing Devices]] is the [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/4/25/ Visa Crucible (for Everquest II).]

* [[Bring My Brown Pants]]: [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/10/26 Happens to Gabe upon being scared by Tycho]. Gabe then tries to deny the fact that he peed his pants.

{{quote| '''Gabe''': What, this? This isn't pee. You startled me, I spilled my...drink, is all.<br />

'''Gabe''': Yes, that's right. No. }}

* [[But You Screw One Goat!]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/12/31/ Not anymore, though.]

** [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/05/17 Tycho invented] [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/6/13/ a hippo.]

* [[Character Blog]]: The corresponding blogs on the strips.

** ''Extremely'' subtle, but you'll notice that the two children sitting in [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/06/17/ the middle] are wearing shirts depicting [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/1/5/ the Merch and Fleshreaper].

* [[Cosmic Horror]]: The recurring concept and species known as the Deepcrow.

** One really has to see [[The Rant]] for that comic. The back-and-forth of Gabe and Tycho slinging factoids about the Mega Man games is fun. Especially the last one, where Gabe unearths an unbeatable fact that proves him right.

* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Gabe. Not only is he the Cardboard Tube Samurai - whose skills may carry over in some form to his civilian persona - but he has received a blood transfusion from Spider-Man, and may be Darth Vader's son. Taking all this into account, Gabe may have the potential to be a web-slinging force-adept with the ability to slice things to shreds with a perfectly round tube, to say nothing of the potential synergy between spider-sense and force awareness. He's also the Beta Whisperer.

* [[Crowd Song]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/11/14/ this].

* [[Development Hell]]: Episode 3 of ''[[On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness]]'' was seemingly in this inferno, until the creators said the video game series was over and the storyline would continue as a [http://www.penny-arcade.com/rainslick/ novel].

** And then subsequently reversed the position, as a new developer took over the third game.

** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/10/10/ "The Great Divide"] is about how little sense it makes for Peter Molyneux to design [[Fable|Fable 2]] for non-gamers. Molyneux actually asked reviewers to play through the game, then get someone who doesn't game a lot to play through, in order to compare the different worlds the two different approaches would yield.

* [[Digital Piracy Is Evil]]: From the rant for [http://www.penny-arcade.com/2009/10/26/ October 26th 2009];

{{quote| It is not a mischaracterization to say that conversations with the hardcore PC community about software theft follow these tenets:<br />

* [[Epic Fail]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/11/15/ Gabe and Tycho use Kinect.]

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Gabe and Tycho may do horrible things to other people and one another, but [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/8/16/ they do in fact have limits.]

** There's also the comic called "[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/2/9/ Emerging From Hideous Cocoons]" where Gabe and Tycho, well, [[Captain Obvious|emerge from hideous cocoons]].

* [[Eye Scream]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/3/14/ THIS IS INCREDIBLE]

** Also, [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/3/28/ this.]

** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/8/7/ Here.]

* [[Gadgeteer Genius]]: Their cat, apparently. Earlier strips had Tycho and Gabe with some extremely futuristic device, with no explanation other than "The cat helped".

* [[GIFT]]: The [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/ Trope Namer.]

* [[Gilligan Cut]]: One covering [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/8/ twelve years] and an [[Art Shift]].

* [[Hold Your Hippogriffs]]: Gabe gets pissed off at one of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'s [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/7/23/ worst examples].

* [[Homoerotic Dream]]:

* [[Hot Mom]]: Arguably, Gabe and Tycho's wives have fallen into this category since, well, becoming moms (before, they were just hot).

* [[How the Character Stole Christmas]]

{{quote| '''Tycho:''' He's well and truly gone; the Gabriel we knew is dead. He [[Dug Too Deep|delved too deep]] and was remade in the hot veins of the Earth. I have heard him suggest that the game is crack, but it's more like [[Item Crafting|all of the ingredients and equipment]] that you need to make crack, which I'd say is worse. It's like: give a man some crack, and he'll... but if you teach him to make crack, and then... [[Dissimile|There must be a saying that explains all this, surely]].}}

* [[Just-So Story]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/3/ What the tooth fairy does with teeth.]

** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/10/07/ Inverted]

* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Gabe's first name is Johnathan, but this is of course rarely used.

* [[Overprotective Dad]]: Anne's parents [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/7/6/ say] she can't date boys [[Up to Eleven|until she's married]]. [[Logic Bomb|Wait, what?]] She also brings out the Overprotective Uncle in [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/2/13/ Tycho].

** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/7/15/ Though she doesn't take it] [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/7/18/ very well...]

* [[Perfectly Cromulent Word]]: Killographic, used also in [[Real Life]], and stuponfuicous.

** Such words are often used by Tycho when he writes the news posts that accompany comics.

* [[Potty Failure]]: The result of Gabe wearing his pants backwards like Kris Kross. (see [[Answer Cut]], listed above)

* [[The Power of Hate]]: Gabe tells Tycho, "I wish I could hate you to death." And then his nose starts bleeding.

* [[Pregnant Badass]]: Gabe's wife Kara, as least according to [http://www.penny-arcade.com/2004/8/23/ this post] by [[Unreliable Narrator|Tycho]]:

{{quote| I'm given to understand that she has the equivalent of [[Super Strength]] in this "trimester" or whatever it is called, and has the capacity to deal aggravated damage. Gabriel informed me yesterday that she lifted a car over her head, and threw that car at another car and then climbed up an office building. After a spectacle like that, your discourse tends to bear the proper reverence. }}

* [[Robot Buddy]]: Div, subverted. Although if you wanna get technical, Div isn't really a robot so much as he is a personification.

** The Fruit Fucker is arguably a different kind of subversion.

* [[Rule 34]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/12/30/ For the New Year], the guys have resolved to quit bizarre Internet porn (Tycho... coldturkeys.com?) and quit jacking off to the jellyfishes in the local aquarium (Gabe).

** [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/9/19/ In The Love Nest of Har'akki]

* [[Serious Business]]: [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/6/25/ Ping-pong].

** Leaches into real life, as Penny Arcade Company frequently hosts ping-pong tournaments at their offices against game developers and reviewers. This has led to some instances of calling out that have backfired. [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/2/16/ Especially with regards to SOE.]

* [[Shadow Discretion Shot]]: Found [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/3/3/ here], along with a [[Looming Silhouette of Rage]].

* [[Shell Shocked Senior]]: Frank.

* [[Shoehorned First Letter]]: In [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/6/11/ this comic] about [[Kirby]].

'''Meta Knight''': Yorganism?<br />

'''General:''' Y is kind of a tricky letter. }}

* [[Slice of Life]]: In more recent years, as the guys have started having families, these sort of strips have started to happen occasionally. [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/9/3/ An example.]

* [[Snap Back]]

* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: Some days, it's some of the most erudite commentary on videogame culture out there. Other days, it's a series of [[Back to The Penis Well|knob gags]]. That's not even when it's "[http://penny-arcade.com/2011/12/23 Semen Week]".

** Tycho. For a man with that big of a vocabulary, he sure does love using the F word. For example, "[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/12/15/ Things, Part Two]".

** In "The Verdict": "On the charge of manslaughter, we the jury find the defendant, Jonathan Gabriel, not guilty. Furthermore, the jury believes the deceased totally had it coming to him, on the account of the bogus shit he said about 'Jesse's Girl'."

** All of "[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/03/12/ The Case Of Texas vs. CryoLord]".

* [[Something Completely Different]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/9/1/ Here.]

* [[El Spanish-O]]: In [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/9/7/ "The Ruse"], Gabe tries to use this as part of a [[Paper-Thin Disguise]].

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: From [http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/6/14/ this post by Tycho]:

{{quote| It's like when you download something off BitTorrent - something legal!!! - and the client begins by creating an entire empty file to contain the wholly legitimate, fully licensed content you are grabbing from an authorized source.}}

{{quote| '''Tycho:''' I think Tim Buckley is the antichrist, and I think that miscarriage storyline was the first horseman of the Apocalypse.}}

** Earlier than that, they created rampant plagiarist and egotistical hack author L. H. Franzibald as a facsimile of him. (examples: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/5/24/ 1], [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/5/26/ 2])

* [[True Companions]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/2/21/ Gabriel is not my friend, he's more like my arm.]

* [[Trust Me, I'm an X]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/9/ "It's okay, I'm a dentist."]

* [["The Villain Sucks" Song]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/6/26/ Open Mic Night].

* [[Wall of Text]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/ I Hope You Like Text].

* [[What Could Have Been]]: [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/2/21/ Olympus], an actual dream of both of them, is an arcade utopia which will never come to fruition because neither Gabe or Tycho have millions and millions of dollars.

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:Penny Arcade]]