Pearls Before Swine/YMMV

• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The character of Alphonse the Porcupine revolves around pretending to attempt suicide to get attention.
  • Pig loudly cheering at the "fun" parade. As Rat tells him soon after, he was cheering at a funeral procession.
  • Rat as "Mr. Rogers."
  • The COVID-19 lockdown comics address the pandemic in the hilariously inappropriate way that only this strip can get away with.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: "#$@&!* you, British Petroleum" - said by Pig.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: So much, see here.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Pastis has often said that Pig's sweetness is what keeps the strip from getting too dark:
  • Pig is sitting at a desk with a sign saying "Hold Me. Make my problems go away." Rat calls Pig dumb for thinking that being held will make his problems go away. Pig then alters the sign to read "Hold me anyways."
  • Also, after Pig imagined that he was a butterfly and fell off the roof, Rat addresses him in the hospital and offers a rare Jerk with a Heart of Gold moment: "No, you dumb pig. You jumped out of the window and hit... (pause) ...the moon."
  • The December 1st, 2007 strip.

Pig: Aw, Andy. It's... It's because you're -- Andy: ... On a chain. A chain that gets a little weaker every time I pull against it... a chain that one day's gonna break. Pig, hugging Andy: Oh, Andy. Andy: Hey... Don't squish the hat.

• • There's also Pastis's touching memorial to his recently deceased father-in-law from February 7, 2010
  • The conclusion of an arc that has Junior Croc dating a girl zebra (Zebra's niece). When Junior finds out she's leaving he proceeds to break down his door (he was grounded at the time) and give her a goodbye hug.
    • Another one happens when the two string popcorn while Zebra decorates the tree after Billy runs away to spend Christmas with them.
    • Also involving Junior is this June 15, 2011 strip. Making it even more heartwarming is it was released a few days before Father's Day in many countries.
  • This touching tribute to Bil Keane, the original writer of the Family Circus comic and a good friend of Pastis'.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Da Crocs. Also, Orca. Ironically, Pastis decided to kill him off he thought he was unpopular. By the time he realized Orca was popular, it was too late. Until he brought him back a few years later.
  • Pastis has commented that he gets letters if Danny Donkey goes to long without appearing.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Parodied.
• Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Every children's story Rat writes.
  • One that sticks with this troper is one of his Danny Donkey books. A group of Environmental Activists ask him to cut down on drinking beer, recycle, and he can help save the world. Danny replies, "Why? When the world is so full of lies and greed, why save it?". The Activists are awed by his speech and change the Save the World rally to a Destroy the World rally.
• Fan Hater: Pastis claimed in an interview that he deliberately gets a rise out of these people. In response to angry letters, he sends them form letters of the "Thank You for Writing" variety, which only causes the complainants to send in more angry letters... in return for which he sends out more form letters...
• Funny Aneurysm Moment: One strip featured a croc disappointed that Steve Irwin's head has never been bitten off, published just a few months before Irwin's real death from a stingray attack. Also, a fat joke about Ted Kennedy became much less funny after his death.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Rat found Saddam hiding in a spider hole... playing a Game Boy.
  • The aforementioned "#$@&!* you, British Petroleum." strip came out the day they finally managed to cap the well.
  • Osama Bin Laden staying with the cast of The Family Circus became even funnier when it turned out that bin Laden was indeed hiding in plain sight.
  • In one arc, Rat wanted to kill a random guy because he was Farina's boyfriend. Sound familiar?
  • One Sunday strip had a group of people that Rat thought were so stupid, they shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.
  • In a strip from an arc where Pig had Newt Gingrich as a pet, Rat said that Newt can never be president and John McCain is a lock for 2008. He was proven right about the former, considering Newt's dropout of the 2012 election, but wrong about the latter, considering the other nominee won that election.
• Magnificent Bastard: Rat can be this at times.
• Moral Event Horizon: Rat has crossed this once, when he killed a random guy, just to stop him from reproducing. Other atrocities include: biting the head off a gingerbread man, telling an ignorant man to drive off a cliff, guiding hapless prey to predators, brining hell onto his friends mainly for a profit, and attempting to start wars purely For the Evulz.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Pastis' view on the strip's various controversies. All the people that it pisses off do nothing but promote the strip.
• Strawman Has a Point: Rat every now and then. Considering the Crapsack World that they live in is populated by Apathetic Citizens, petty Reality Warpers, war hungry tyrants and Ancient Conspiracies, is his anger at it all so unbelievable?
• What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Visually, the strip looks very child friendly. Content wise, it's more akin to the very much not kid-friendly Family Guy. Doesn't stop the albums from placed in the Children's Literature section of bookstores.
• The Woobie: Pig. So much. I mean, literally
  • Ellie the Elephant (one of the Rat's characters) who really, really wants a grand romance with her apathetic boyfriend and goes overboard trying to impress him or to make a lasting impact on the world, but ultimately resigns herself to romance novels.
  • Andy, a dog who's left outside on a chain day and night and never gives up hope of seeing the world.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Rat, who's sometimes even proud to be a jerk, has had his heart broken by his love, Farina, and fails at doing anything that would benefit others. There are even times that he worries that he is a worse person than he thinks.

---

Back to Pearls Before Swine