Jason: Do you wake up every morning and say, "Today, I'm going to find someone's dream that's come true and put an end to it"?
Davan: I look at it like this: the holiday season may have a phenomenally high suicide rate, but we can't hope to maintain that level of excellence if everyone doesn't do their part.
Davan: I look at it like this: the holiday season may have a phenomenally high suicide rate, but we can't hope to maintain that level of excellence if everyone doesn't do their part.
Something*Positive
is a Slice of Life webcomic by Randal Keith "R.K." Milholland based on the life and trials of Davan MacIntire, a put-upon, misanthropic author stand-in, and his best friends Aubrey Chorde, Pee-Jee Shou, and Jason Pratchett, who originated as caricatures of Milholland's real-life friends. The supporting cast includes Davan's acerbic but loving family, African-American Wiccan Kim Anansie, Pee-Jee's long-time gay man-crush Jhim Midgett, "pint-sized bisexual" T-Bob, reformed obsessive geek Mike Dowden, vain waste-of-space Kharisma Valetti, and Davan's hairless, amorphous cat Choo-Choo Bear. The cast is enormous, and various members pop in and out over the years.
Most of the comic's humor is incredibly dark and cynical, with glee for potential offense; few demographics have avoided skewering by the author's strawman constructs — it is remarkably fair and balanced in that approach. However, moments of sympathy sometimes rise to the surface, as the characters may be jerks (an admitted fact by Milholland himself), but they do love each other deeply, and go out of their way to help one another. Common elements include the stupidity of the common man, geek culture, tabletop gaming, and Davan's seemingly endless parade of psychotic girlfriends.
Expect a lot of Take That!. To fans of the comic (particularly stupid e-mails are almost always revealed to the fans on the comic's web page, or even in actual comics), to fans of certain shows or genres, and especially to Milholland himself, as well as his comic. It's equal-opportunity cruelty at its finest and most vulgar.
The title was created when the real Aubrey told Milholland to "shut up and do something positive for once."
Connects to the Walkyverse in a number of ways: Choo Choo Bear's offspring with Sprinkles have found their way into several strips, and Davan is also friends with GWS's Candy and Queen of Wands' Kestrel. Milholland has also done some guest strips for Questionable Content that may or may not be canon; Jeph Jacques isn't telling.
As of September 2025, every strip between January 15, 2002 and January 25, 2025 has been wiped from the site's archive with no explanation (and are not even available as e-books on the site). Whether this has to do with Milholland's work on Popeye is open to speculation.
Something*Positive contains examples of:
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Tropes A to H
- Aborted Arc: Bian, a new character with no connection to the existing story, was introduced with hints from Milholland that she would eventually meet the main cast. She hasn't appeared since a bit panel in 2013.
- Absent Animal Companion: Planned but then averted.
Word of God says that the original plan was that Davan would (reluctantly) adopt Choo-Choo Bear, who would then disappear for years until a dark Brick Joke where they discover his corpse behind the sofa or something. Perhaps due to his popularity, he's remained a part of the cast, even though he should be pushing forty by now. - Abusive Parents: It would almost be easier to list the parents - especially fathers - who aren't somehow abusive.
- Ollie's father apparently beat him when he was a boy. This is probably why Ollie does everything in his power to honor and protect the reputation of his otherwise Evil Uncle Avogadro, who put a stop to the abuse by raising Ollie himself.
- Avogadro is just as abusive, just in a different way. Avogadro never beat Ollie physically, but he abused the boy emotionally and sexually. Davan theorizes that Ollie was so grateful to escape one abuse that he happily accepted another form instead.
- On the emotionally abusive side is Jason's father. The man is described as using his psychology skills to get under his family's skin, and Jason's anecdotes about him are pretty disturbing.
- Monette's biological father. Even when trying to be nice, the best he manages to achieve is trying to send her a "I never thought you would achieve anything" card.
- Davan's father is shown to be loving, but has his moments; apparently when Davan was six, his father tried to "mathematically prove to him that the Vietnam War was his fault" and recalls with a friend how they both tied their boys to the car's bumper when they wouldn't settle down. "They were tough sons of guns too! It was four miles before they started screaming!"
- Rory's biological father refused to have anything to do with his son. When Rory sent a letter to him in an attempt to reach out, the jerk responded with a letter full of profanity. Rory keeps it as a reminder of who he never wants to become when he grows up.
- Kharisma's parents were largely neglectful, but her question about where babies come from was answered with "Sometimes mistakes just happen".
- Vanessa's entire family tree is... troubled, but her father gave her birthday present to his new girlfriend's daughter as a means to impress her.
- Gris's father constantly misgenders and deadnames them, and both parents are so negligent of their emotional needs that they send them away for the summer just so that they can get divorced without Gris's knowledge. Unsurprisingly, after Gris finds out, they stay with Rory because he and his parents actually respect them, and even before this they had planned to move out the moment they graduated high school.
- Ollie's father apparently beat him when he was a boy. This is probably why Ollie does everything in his power to honor and protect the reputation of his otherwise Evil Uncle Avogadro, who put a stop to the abuse
- Accidental Murder: Davan's father, Fred, pulled this off when he was a kid. Then again with the family dog at 14.
- Acquired Poison Immunity: Turns out Avogadro came by this after scores of actors had tried killing him. He grew to actually enjoy the taste of cyanide, using it to season his toast each morning.
- Action Survivor: Spoiled Brainless Beauty Kharisma, of all people, is becoming one, best exemplified here.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Davan tells a whiny little girl that he's going to buy the cake she wants her mother to buy, just to spite her. This earned him a glare from his dad... then the girl ran and told her mother about it.
- Adult Adoptee: Davan's parents adopt his acquaintance Monette after she moves in with them following a bad breakup.
- Advice Backfire: Fred's attempts to dissuade Scotty's parents from getting a divorce are well-intentioned, but hilariously misguided.
- Aerosol Flamethrower: "OH GOD! MY BEAUTY! MY HORRIBLY FLAMMABLE BEAUTY!"
- Age Cut: Davan digs out an old notebook where his friend Scotty would write up RPG stats for their toys. The last panel on this comic shows a page from the book, and the first page from the next one is the same page, over twenty years earlier.
- All Girls Like Ponies: "Customers being stupid?" "That's like asking me if ponies are still being awesome. Duh!"
- All Part of the Show: What Jason attempts to quell the Catgirl rampage - it works out surprisingly well for them.
- Alt Text: The below-comic comment started here after the first lengthy Fourth-Wall Mail Slot series.
- Always a Child to Parent: Donna's first attempt to give Rory The Talk... did not go well.
- Ambiguously Brown: Cora was called "too Hispanic" for a role by Ollie, and the same strip has her mention she's Hawaiian.
- Amicable Exes:
- Davan and Branwen, much to Vanessa's awkwardness.Vanessa: I mean, you're the good ex. It's not like you cheated on him. In fact, he still speaks well of you. This would be easier if you were awful and maybe had cloven feet... no, I take that back. Cloven feet are kinda "freak show" hot.
- Also, Scotty's parents divorced amicably after his death.
- Davan and Branwen, much to Vanessa's awkwardness
- And That's Terrible: Davan's reaction to the script for "Cancer - The Heartbreak That Is" has him complaining about how he'd never know cancer was bad if not for that play.Davan: Because, y'know, the first four plays we got that were about cancer didn't get that across.
- And Zoidberg: Kharisma's surprising Pet the Dog moment to Davan as she leaves Medicaid billing. "I wouldn't wish this job on the worst person in the world. Or you, either."
- Answer Cut: Jason has vague misgivings over adopting a child:Jason: For some reason there's something that bothers me when I think of parenting. I just can't put a face on it. [opens the door]
Jason's father: Hello, son. Long time no see. - Anti-Climax: It was only teased for a few months, but opening the time capsule from their childhood revealed that Scotty had swiped everything out of there to pawn off so he could pay his rent.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Choo-Choo discusses it in a Reader Q&A.
- Art Evolution:
- After nine years, Randy started... shading.
- After fourteen years, Randy started drawing everything digitally.
- Art Shift: He also has a penchant for watercolor, which he mostly uses on his comic Rhymes With Witch, and once had an entire D&D arc done in the style "because I'm an idiot."
- Ascended Extra:
- Fluffmodeus started here. Now he's a part of Kharisma's life. (The Rant below the comic reads "I am seriously tempted to put the little blue thing into the main comic unless ransom demands are met." Presumably, they were not.)
- Branwen was supposed to be a brief encounter before Davan drove her away, but someone close to Randy told him "You know, you could let Davan catch a break once in a while." She was with him for about a year, her influence lasted longer, and she's remembered as "the good one" among a string of crazy and faithless romantic mistakes. (Until Vanessa appeared.)
- Kwispie, a penguin with bacon for arms that was part of a few gag strips in 2011 became the mascot at Mike's new Burger Fool position.
- Fluffmodeus started here.
- Ashes to Crashes:
- PeeJee accidentally spills Faye's ashes down her panties.
- Vanessa and Davan replaced "'til death do you part" with "love each other forever", and she plans on keeping that promise.
- PeeJee accidentally spills Faye's ashes down her panties
- Asshole Victim: Some, but not all include...
- Mike had a series of humiliations and painful encounters, which he generally brought upon himself through thoughtless, stupid and hostile behavior.
- Pepito acted like a jerk to everyone after he inherited Avogadro's fortune, and when he returned to the spotlight at a convention he was torn apart by rampaging catgirls because he was dressed as their favorite character. He was later seen in Hell, once again Avogadro's sex toy.
- Kyle repeatedly lied and cheated to one of the main cast, and when caught was beaten and hospitalised.
- PeeJee had a coworker who threatened to charge her with sexual harassment when PeeJee rebuffed her advances. She was suddenly eaten by a trap-door alligator that struck from the air conditioning.
- Kharisma was a Rich Bitch and Brainless Beauty who really pushed this with her treatment of others, then scarred her face, tried to get Avogardo's fortune and was convicted of murder, went to prison and risked being killed, was broken out (and was still at risk of death) and lives a semi-criminal life putting her through a lot of Character Development.
- Kharisma's quasi-boyfriend, Gregory, inflicted an ironic punishment on a fellow inmate.
- Author Avatar: Davan was based on Randy five years before the comic started. His character moved away from being similar to Randy, but sometimes remains his mouthpiece. Rory is based on Randy's childhood (One of the tags on a Rory-centred comic reads "'This seems... familiar' — My father").
- Author Guest Spot
- Awesome McCoolname:
- Subverted with Mike's son. He wanted to call him Shazam Joss Whedon Dowden, but instead his girlfriend, Tamara, names him Shazam Wil Wheaton Dowden.
- Vanessa researches Davan's family history, and learns he had a great-great-grandmother named Dicey Justice Graves - Davan insists they make a baby right that second to name her that.
- Awful Truth: Rory has to have The Talk, which leads him to a horrible realization of why his mother thought Davan was his father.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Aubrey and Jason, exemplified here.
- Badass Adorable: Vanessa tries to perfectly combine cuteness and threat by cladding Choo-Choo Bear in armor - this effort later expands to the entire neighborhood.Vanessa: Behold! Complete adorabrutality!
- Badass Boast: Jason makes a henchmen beg in a tabletop RPG.
- Bad Boss: Davan's boss at Medicaid billing, to the point that he got depressed when he couldn't crush Davan's spirit.
- Bad News in a Good Way: Fred's cardiologist tries this method.Fred: Do you know anything about how to deliver bad news?!
Doctor: I know you don't sing it...now. - Bait-and-Switch: This is Fred's preferred method of humor, as evidenced when he pretends to be outraged over a joke PeeJee made - only to tell her that it was Actually Pretty Funny after she started crying in remorse.
- Beard of Sorrow: Davan, after Faye dies.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Sanderson appoints Davan to write a deliberately awful play for someone he hates to Direct - unaware that Davan had once written a play so awful it caused a riot.
- Nick runs afoul of this when he encourages Sherri's character - a Fairy Dogmother - to be a Jerkass Genie.Fairy Dogmother: Just when I thought magic couldn't be cooler, I learn the true magic of technicalities.
- Nick runs afoul of this when he encourages Sherri's character - a Fairy Dogmother - to be a Jerkass Genie.
- Benevolent Boss:
- Sanderson, mostly after hiring Davan to manage his theatre interests. He's a bit selfish and stubborn about his whims, but he genuinely likes Davan.
- Mike's boss, Eric, at the Kwispy Burger also counts — right away, he lets Mike know that nope, the customer's not always right, and minimum-wage employees still deserve at least some respect. When the restraunt is attacked by arsonists, forcing it to be closed down, Eric makes sure to give all the employees severance pay with their last paychecks (Even adding two months worth of pay to Mike's paycheck to thank him for a decade of work) and tells Mike that if he opens up another restaurant, he'll give Mike a job if he hasn't found another job by then.
- Berserk Button:
- Never sass Mister Peppermint around Davan. Makes one think of a certain other child entertainer...
- Also, believing in something without doing even the most cursory of research, as evidenced in his trip to Salem and this encounter with a Goth who idolizes Anarchy. Then again, he was already on-edge before that, and the comment was more The Last Straw.
- Never sass Mister Peppermint around Davan
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Monette's koala incident.Davan: Before I post your bail, tell me: Was it at least a female koala you had sex with?
- Best Served Cold: Playfully, but PeeJee admits that Davan probably has a list for why she deserved getting tricked into going into a puppet theater.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Sherri, one of Rory's original gaming group, causes Davan to predict she'll be "a walking doom" when she gets older.
- Beware the Silly Ones:
- Even if he is probably just a hallucination, and a initially benevolent one at that, Fluffmodeus can be pretty scary.Fluffmodeus: YOU'RE GONNA DIIIIIIIIE!
- The "benevolent" facade has been pretty much dropped as of this strip - and prior to that, this one.
- Even if he is probably just a hallucination, and a initially benevolent one at that, Fluffmodeus can be pretty scary.
- Be Yourself:
- In an awkward moment, Davan tries to apply this advice. Unfortunately, his self is too blunt and tactless for the situation.
- The next time he suggests it, Jason shoots down the idea as the last thing they want.
- In an awkward moment, Davan tries to apply this advice
- Beyond the Impossible:
- During a night of playing various tabletop games, Mike manages to die in Toon, which explicitly states that characters cannot die.Bat!Davan: I'm as impressed as you are.
- Avogadro complains about the lack of tortures in the "travel brochure" in Hell - and the Devil is baffled as to how Pompey keeps finding Bibles in Hell.
- During a night of playing various tabletop games, Mike manages to die in Toon, which explicitly states that characters cannot die.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ollie has a very sugary demeanor, but he also has no compunctions with saying someone ELSE was saying mean things as a way to get what he wants. Then it turns out he'd never actually gotten the rights to the production, and kept deliberately ignoring the Cease & Desist orders until a lawyer finally approaches Davan in-person to deliver a lawsuit.
- Black Comedy: Just how dark the humour gets varies from story to story, but the comic has no qualms about "going there" and includes Dead Baby Comedy, Undignified Deaths, Black Comedy Rape, general crushing of people's spirits and bright spots of hope and love.
- The first strip features an at-home abortion joke, setting the stage for things to come. Anyone who's read Something Positive has nothing to complain about: This strip is completely up-front with how offensive it is from the word go.
- As another example, Jason once bought Davan a sex doll as a joke gift - except the "doll" turned out to be a modified corpse.Jason: (While reporting it to the police) Davan, I really didn't mean to give you a dead girl to unleash your seed at.
Davan: I wish I could believe you this time, Jason. - Especially, perhaps, but certainly not exclusively, as can be seen in this 2010 strip:Nancy: Davan, wake up. I have a problem.
Davan: You live on the fifth floor; you've got a long stairwell that'll fix it for you. - Then there's his Halloween tradition of The Last Of The Trick-or-Treaters comics, which feature various supernatural monsters murdering trick-or-treating kids.
- Black Comedy Rape:
- Kim has a fetish for unconscious men (and yes, it is an actual thing). Which the others didn't know when they asked her to look after Davan while he was whacked out on medication, and she takes advantage of him
- Mike and the Redneck Trees. Initially, nothing actually happens to Mike. Deep-Immersion Gaming is a visual device, not something that actually affects the characters. It's not shown how graphically it was described to him, although based on his reaction, probably "very".
- Then, thanks to Davan's good memory, it was reenacted. And he was actually almost publicly sodomized by a man in a tree costume. But since he was an unsympathetic Jerkass, it was played for laughs, though PeeJee disagreed and intervened.
- Years later, Mike's girlfriend had one in a cyberpunk game, triggered by a request for "Root access."
- Then, thanks to Davan's good memory
- Then it happened again when Davan and Scotty thought Aubrey's boyfriend was cheating on her.
- The rejection letter Davan sends to the writer of a bad play claims that "A better title for your play would be 'Rape-Rape: A Tale of Rapening'. Also, your next play should have a little less rape in it."
- Kim has a fetish for unconscious men
- Body Horror: Odds are that any scene that includes Choo-Choo Bear will also include some horrible, horrible cat-related Body Horror.
- Bouquet Toss: The whole catching part is pointedly defied at Davan and Vanessa's wedding.
- Brain Bleach:
- Low-rent strippers. "Take me home so I can claw my eyes out in privacy, please."
- "I'm not sure her psyche was prepared for the horror that is role-playing geeks"
- "Leave us in our secret shame and sin!"◊''.
- Jhim tries desperately in to invoke it: "Must fight visual! Must... fight... visual!"
- More experiences in strip clubs, but it only gets bad at this point. (The next comic's tag reads "Reaction to yesterday's reveal — Men: "Meh?", Women: "I will fucking kill you, Randy!")
- Kegel balls and Pokémon, "You're not allowed to talk any more. Like, ever.".
- Lipstick, nipple rings and Popeye. Makes you scream "Milholland!"
- Monette inflicts this on Gaspar by quipping that his daughter also came out of her.
- Low-rent strippers
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: "What should we do first? Strip club? M.M.A.? The zoo? Stripper M.M.A. cage matches at the zoo?"
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Jason tries talking to a theater owner about needing fake blood for a show, but only gets so far as saying "we need to use a lot of blood for this show" before Hank steps in and asks "Do you prefer pig, hooker, or one month old orphan?"
- Brick Joke:
- While most of the annual "Old Familiar Faces" strips have this in some manner (e.g. a teen that constantly used the word "gay" becoming a Gay-For-Pay pornstar), this one takes a joke that hadn't been used since the first strip and runs with it.Gia's Daughter He bought every box, mom. How did you know?
Gia: Guilt has deep pockets. - Prior to that, this strip serves as one to this one.
- The man Rory uppercut to the groin? He started wearing a cup, which came in VERY handy when an adult kicked him in the crotch with steel-toed boots.
- While most of the annual "Old Familiar Faces" strips have this in some manner (e.g. a teen that constantly used the word "gay" becoming a Gay-For-Pay pornstar
- Bring My Brown Pants:
- Rory's coworker at the haunted house managed to literally scare a kid shitless.
- Grant is so petrified at the idea of a bar pet that his "cup runneth over" - into his pant leg.
- Rory's coworker at the haunted house managed to literally scare a kid shitless
- Brutal Honesty:
- PamJee hits a schoolyard bully with this hard, to the point that she got in trouble for making him cry. To be fair, she learned from the best. And as Mike describes Aubrey's level of honesty - "Yeah, I want a lower caliber honesty. Something a little less anti-tank."
- During the 2020 quarantine, PamJee tells her mother she's kind of sick of her face, only to be shocked that she said it back and goes to complain to Jason.Jason: You go and tell her it's my turn to not-like you!
PamJee: ...this must be that "building character" crap Uncle Davan talks about 'cuz it's really pissing me off.
- PamJee hits a schoolyard bully with this
- B-Side Comics: S* P 1937, Life with Rippy and to a lesser extent, Super Stupor.
- Butch Lesbian: Lisa developed into one after moving away with Monette.
- Call-Back:
- This strip featuring the Easter Bunny... who is the same as the one from a conversation on "cuddling yourself".
- The network running Monette's sitcom revises Monette's "Koala incident". Officially, It never happened — she slept with an aspiring screenwriter. It's not much better.
- This strip
- The Cameo:
- RPG creator Steve Jackson, playing Bunnies & Burrows at a convention with Aubrey and PeeJee.
- The Devil's Panties Author Avatar and main character Jennie Breeden chats with Davan by IRC.
- Wil Wheaton appears at the convention and flees the catgirl rampage with Davan and Jason.
- RPG creator Steve Jackson
- Canon Immigrant: Kestrel came from Queen of Wands, and Helen from Penny and Aggie .
- Cash-Cow Franchise: In-Universe. Action figures? Pedestrian. Try GURPS SODA. A 2019 strip featured a GURPS candy bar.
- Cassandra Truth:
- Alluded to in this strip about parenting, in which you know the teen will never listen to your advice, and you will thus gain a newfound appreciation for the Cassandra myth.
- Rory reads the rulebook for Cyberpunk 2020, thinking it's way off on the tech. His mother asks him to look at the politics, police-state, and corporations section.
- Alluded to in this strip about parenting
- Catapult Nightmare:
- The Cat Came Back: Davan and Fred try to release IRS so that he'll be at home in the wild when Fred passes away - the crow actually beat them back home. It turns out that Davan's tried this before several times but IRS always came back. Many years later, he tries again after Fred passes away, just for IRS to fly straight inside to keep waiting for Fred. IRS later flies away unprompted after the house is sold off and Davan and Vanessa move out.
- Cat Girl: The tween cosplayers who infest some conventions and are the audience for Jason and Davan's webcomic. From the cast page:Catgirls are a prime example of what happens when a severe need for attention mingles with the worst part of anime fandom and "tween" culture. Telltale signs your child is now a catgirl: cheap plush cat ears on head, possibly a tail pinned to their pants/skirt, communicates in broken Japanese and squeals, and might have killed four classmates for saying her Twilight fanfic where Edward turns into a glittering undead catboy needed some work.
- Cats Are Mean: Davan believes so, despite being a cat owner, and holds up a hockey-mask wearing Choo-Choo as evidence of feline evil.
- The "Kitty Kwiz" two years prior has Woogie ask readers which action (rubbing your leg, bringing you a "gift", showing their belly, or sending notes) was a cat expressing its love for you. The answer - none of the above!Woogie: Cats are soulless monsters incapable of feelings. Forged in Hell's hate furnace... all cats exist to make humans accept abuse as a form of love. After years of hate and evil, when a human needs our abuse to be happy, we commit our greatest cruelty. We die! (Plays with a ball of yarn)
- The "Kitty Kwiz
- Cerebus Syndrome: Davan's best friend Scotty kills himself at the tail end of the first year of the strip, setting off sadness, depression and nostalgic looks to the past being a major point of the comic thereafter. (Which makes this a rare case of Cerebus Syndrome in which the work... doesn't actually become any darker.)
- Character Development:
- Mike's growth really stands out. Introduced as a misogynistic whiny Jerkass, he later acknowledges most of his flaws and works to become a better person, and goes on to be the first member of the cast to get into a committed relationship and become a father. When things got rough, his worst traits re-emerged, and he and Tamara even broke up for a while. However, he did manage to get his act together, and even decided to become a "real-life superhero" as the Pythagorean. No one expected much to come of it, but apparently he's become quite popular with the local community.
- Kharisma. She shredded most of her Rich Bitch/Alpha Bitch attitude while in jail, and got one of the most exciting subplots in the comic.
- Mike's growth really stands out. Introduced as a misogynistic whiny Jerkass, he later acknowledges most of his flaws and works to become a better person
- Chewbacca Defense: Aubrey reveals her philosophy of life at the end of this crossover strip.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Happens to a fair amount of supporting characters, what with the huge cast. Some were dropped deliberately by the writer (Jennifer and Darrick, from early in the strip, when neither character panned out), while others just kind of faded away. This is dealt with fairly realistically, as people tend to just fall out of the others' lives. Milholland has written that the character of Jennifer is based on a real life person he knew. She agreed to appear as a character but she was unhappy with the way she was depicted and argued with Milholland over it. Milholland dropped Jennifer from the strip and also ended up losing contact with "Jennifer" in real life.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Aubrey at the end of "Dungeons & Dumbasses", due to Mike.
- Class Reunion: "Class of Eighty-Bore". Doubles as Nancy's introduction.
- Clean, Pretty Childbirth: Rory is convinced that it's this trope - his mom and Vanessa disabuse him of that notion, leading to his Groin Attack on Davan.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Eva.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: A rare solo example
- Comedic Sociopathy: Mostly made of it — try to find one recurring character without a Jerkass streak or something.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- "Do you even know what gay bashing is?" "How can I? You bastards never invite me."
- Later, Hugh's coworker brags about sending a dick pic, and the resulting reply is... a miniature guillotine. He's excited at the idea of trying bondage.
- "Do you even know what gay bashing is?" "How can I? You bastards never invite me.
- Comically Small Bribe: Not "bribe", per se, but Sanderson thinks $10,000 for the stage-production rights to Batman is a fair offer.Davan: Can my Christmas bonus be getting to listen in on this phone call? I don't think money could buy me half as much joy.
- Composite Character: A few members of the cast are based off of more than one person Milholland has met, merged into one being. Lisa and Monette in particular, as well as Mike and Eva (both of whom were based off of one good person, and one bad one — with the characters branching into one or the other).
- Cone of Shame: Worn by the catgirl in the "Spay your catgirl" poster.
- Continuity Nod: "I lava you".
- Corrupt Cop: Though his bribes are only half of the old one's.
- Cosmic Plaything: The entire MacIntire clan can be described as such.
- Covert Pervert: Vanessa, the most innocent and easily embarrassed member of the cast. She really likes "curvy girls" and she's always up for visiting strip clubs — "I wanna see tiiiitties!"
- Crapsack World
- Crazy Cat Lady: With dogs, but the effect with PeeJee is much the same. She also adopts dogs as a way to cope with quarantine.
- Creepy Child: PamJee is every bit her parents' daughter and then some.
- Creepy Stalker Van: Rory comes across one being sold while looking for his first car. It's cash-only, but it comes with duct tape and plastic bags!
- Criminal Mind Games: Played for Laughs. When asked how she and PeeJee never seem to get arrested for their frequent outbursts of Comedic Sociopathy, Aubrey explains that the trick is to commit crimes so confusing that the cops feel stupid writing reports about them.
- Curse Cut Short:
- Given the Groin Attack he'd just suffered, Jason's willpower is admirable.
- PamJee bites Davan:Davan: MOTHERFU—
Aubrey: Guess how many segments I'll break you into into if she learns even one swear word from you.
Davan: —untime puppy dreams and and cookies!
- Given the Groin Attack he'd just suffered, Jason's willpower is admirable
- Cute Kitten: Choo-Choo-Bear and friends. Sometimes bluntly deconstructed, which on one occasion has resulted in death threats against the author (see Internet Jerk entry below).
- Cuteness Overload: Utilized as a means to keep PeeJee from finally snapping over her boss' girlfriend's racist "jokes".
- Cut Himself Shaving: After a Bait-and-Switch strip on Valentine's day in which Randy asked his girlfriend if she... would do the dishes, he reappears with a black eye acquired from a doorknob.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon. Used for gags quite often.
- The Cutie: Kestrel, by virtue of coming from a less cynical webcomic, and Vanessa is described on the cast page as "probably the cast's last true innocent".
- Daddy DNA Test: The introduction of Donna and Rory. In a subversion, Rory's not Davan's son, but Davan bonds with him anyway. And when asked if he could go back in time and be Rory's actual father, he says yes.
- Darker and Edgier: My Little Pony made awesome.
- Dawn of an Era:
- Aubrey had always had some Zany Scheme or another every now and then, but establishing Nerdrotica in 2004 kept her busy for nearly twenty years as the owner/manager of the company.
- Not long after, Davan meets Mr. Sanderson, a wealthy producer who takes a liking to him and eventually offers him a job.
- Aubrey had always had some Zany Scheme or another every now and then, but establishing Nerdrotica in 2004 kept her busy for nearly twenty years
- Dead Baby Comedy: Quite literally, as the first strip and this one show.
- Dead Fic: Midnight Macabre and New Gold Dream. At first, Randy said he would be updating them a few times a week but between life being busy and personal circumstances that left him less inclined to work on them, both went on "indefinite hiatus". Super Stupor has not been updated since 2012.
- Dead Person Conversation: Davan occasionally has lucid dreams where he speaks to dead people, from those who were important to him (Faye, Rose), to relatives that have long passed (grandparents and great-grandparents), to people he disliked when they were alive (Pepito), and even to people he's never actually met (his cousin-twice-removed Davan). Seeing dead people usually tips him off right away that it's just a dream, but it doesn't lessen the emotional impact, especially when they start talking about unresolved feelings or someone hints to Davan that something bad is about to happen to him (such as the dreams he has in 2019 and 2020 that seem to foreshadow Fred's death).
- Deadpan Snarker: Most of the main cast.
- Death of the Author:
- Referenced in the catgirls arc. This trope appears to be something of a sore spot with the author.
- Discussed and deconstructed In-Universe when Shazam sees that Mike is getting rid of his books written by Orson Scott Card and J. K. Rowling, as well as all related memorabilia, because he doesn't want to support those authors anymore after their homophobic and transphobic comments, despite still loving the stories they wrote.Shazam: Can't you just separate the work from the author?
Mike: Some people probably can, and I’ve sure tried.
Shazam: What changed?
Mike: I realized “separate the work from the author” is easy for me to say when I’m not one of the people they dehumanize. - And it wasn't even the first time, though he tried striking a delicate balance.Mike: I thought about asking him about the gay marriage thing, and then I realized something. I don't give a damn what he thinks about it. The only thing I care about is him finishing the series he started. As long as he doesn't start weaving his opinions on gays into the plot of the books, his feelings have no effect on me.
- Deep-Immersion Gaming: Whenever the comic depicts a gaming campaign in its imaginary setting, the Player Characters typically bear a resemblance to their players (usually the core gang).
- Deliberately Monochrome: S* P 1937 and some flashbacks.
- Demonic Possession: Twitchy-hug seemingly making a return of sorts, the AxCrazy tendancies and color-shifting have been passed from his ashtray-slash-remnants to the son of Davan's former landlord. Maybe not Demonic, but Possession nonetheless.
- Depraved Bisexual: Monette, by her own admission, but in the midst of rejecting a role that centers on this trope.
- Description Cut:
- PeeJee tries to talk Davan's family into playing an role-playing game, choosing a setting of The Golden Age of Comic Books to appeal to Fred:Dahlia: Right. I don't know what lies my brother's spread about this family, but there's no way you're gonna rope us in playing one of those stupid games! Right, Dad?
[Cut to Fred imagining himself as a superhero]
Dahlia: Dad? - The following:Mike: And that's the great thing about PeeJee. She's got this soothing voice and calm demeanor that just makes you want to open up.
PeeJee: ...or a sock full of wood screws. So, yes, it is in fact quite plausible for me to beat a pregnant woman nearly to death and not be arrested. - Nancy with her boyfriend:Nancy: [thinking] ...I can't imagine anything ruining this moment.Lon: I'm going to slip into something more comfortable. You aren't allergic to cat hair, are you?
- Mike declares "I must be the only person who's haunted day and night by his own nagging stupidity." Next panel: Kharisma in her prison cell with her scarred face, being bothered by Fluffmodeus.
- Mike is fleeing an an armed blogger but still wants to help the cat that was abducted for the trap, thinking it's scared to death.Cat's Thought-bubble: (As the cat is pulling on the blogger's eyelids) I am your God and your pain is my altar. Now, worship!
- PeeJee tries to talk Davan's family into playing an role-playing game
- Dirty Old Man:
- Female version: "Y'know Davan, some of us Grandmas are good at more than baking cookies."
- And not long after, Non-Ironic Clown "Frolickin' Frank" tries to sexually harass Claire - Davan immediately gropes him in retaliation. This doesn't stop him from harassing other women and later masturbating while sitting in plain view.
- Female version: "Y'know Davan, some of us Grandmas are good at more than baking cookies
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: As a young boy, Fred was admitted to a hospital for an ear infection, where he was antagonized at every turn by a boy in a wheel-chair, who used his disability as an excuse to rage at the world, and every other child at the hospital hates him. Eventually, Fred and his friends team up to scare him and teach him a lesson... whereupon it is revealed that the boy is in the hospital for a heart condition, and the shock of the scare ends up killing him.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Nancy's first appearance in the strip is as arm candy for Davan thanks to a plan cooked up by Aubrey and Jason to make his high-school classmates feel... inadequate. And boy does she ever.
- The Ditz: Monette, especially at first.Kharisma: I don't know! I don't know anything! I swear! It's a life choice!
- Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Discovering PeeJee has a fear of puppets, Aubrey sneaks up behind her with a handpuppet and gets her hand broken with a hammer when PeeJee reacts instinctively.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male:
- Most of the cast engages in slapstick violence regardless of sex, but the women are generally more likely to threaten violence, and more likely to commit it.
- Aubrey and PeeJee are both rather hot-headed and prone to impulsive violence when people anger them (especially boyfriends), or upset their friends, or when it sounds like fun. Davan makes a good punching bag when no other is available, although this alluded to in the past (Aubrey has been beating on him since their childhood). An early strip involves the two of them inviting several unsuspecting guys out to a remote location on a date, and then jumping out of hiding and beating them with baseball bats. They intended to sell the videotape of doing so as a comedy ("When Rabid Asian Girls Attack"), and the strip treats it as just some of their "wacky hijinks". To some degree, they mostly grow out of it, or at least become more controlled about it.
- This strip wouldn't be half as funny if the genders were reversed. (Though in a large part, because the jokes wouldn't work.)
- Do Wrong, Right: The punchline of many strips, in the form of "that way isn't nearly as efficient/malicious/profitable/entertaining as the way I would do it".
- Do You Want to Copulate?: Vanessa bluntly asks "Who wants coitus?" and immediately admits it sounded better in her head than out loud.
- Dressed to Plunder: As seen on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Davan calls another cat "just the cutest kitty I've ever seen" - in front of Choo-Choo Bear.
- Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Or rather "Gal, He's Like Drugged Unconscious" — Kim while left caring for a medicated Davan.
- Dungeonmaster's Girlfriend:
- Dying Alone: Davan's old boss at the insurance company seems likely to meet this fate.
- Dynamic Entry: Aubrey demonstrates the technique.
- Dysfunction Junction: And acknowledges it.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: A rather literal version of the trope, as when the comic first started out there were a lot of weird elements to it, like Choo-Choo Bear being a Blob Monster, catgirl zombie apocalypses, characters randomly getting eaten by Canadian Trapdoor Alligators, and so on. During the 2010s, however, the comic shifted toward being a more grounded Slice of Life series and the weird and supernatural elements eventually disappeared completely from it.
- Eat the Rich: Name-dropped when Kharisma shares her fire with a Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense couple who think "roughing it" is having to eat at a Waffle House.
- The Eeyore: Davan.
- Embarrassing Browser History:
- Davan convinces Sanderson to invest in someone designing an implant that automatically deletes your text messages, browser history, and emails when your heart stops.Sanderson: ...the check's amount should have five zeros. Seven if I get the first working model.
- Vanessa finds a bunch of Pudding Cat tabs open on the computer, and Davan claims he was looking into donating to a rescue - only to scold Choo-Choo Bear to be more careful with his porn.
- Davan convinces Sanderson to invest in someone
- Enfant Terrible:
- The catgirls, especially in the grip of Fan Disillusionment."The laws of catgirldom are swift and merciless. Dishonor and the uncute must not be suffered to live — for all our sakes."
"The kawaii...is life." - Jason and Aubrey's adopted daughter, PamJee, is also this now and then. Before she could speak complete sentences, she figured out that she could cover her teeth in hot sauce so that when she bit someone (namely, Davan) it would add to the pain. They've also determined the types of mischievous giggles she emits when she's still a toddler.
- The catgirls, especially in the grip of
- Erotic Asphyxiation: It comes up surprisingly often, including this one featuring "Breath play Jabba".
- Establishing Series Moment: The first strip has Davan send a coat-hanger as a gift for a baby shower, establishing the tone right out of the gate.
- Ethical Slut: Sanderson and his wife are quite open about their cheating on each other, to the point that Sanderson will actually set her up on dates.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- After Cab gets a girlfriend that is indirectly racist around PeeJee, she hatches a plan to not only quit her job, but do so in a way that, in her mind, will spectacularly show Cab just how racist his girlfriend is being by turning the tables. This plan apparently involves some obscenely racist stuff that PeeJee ropes Kim into buying; and after Kim buys the stuff she (and everyone else made aware of the plan) realises that there is, unbelievably, a limit to how horrible they can be.
- A supervillain talked a blogger out of harming a cat beyond tying it up, saying "I'm evil but not a dick" as rationale.
- After Cab gets a girlfriend that is indirectly racist around PeeJee
- Even Nerds Have Standards: Rather often with different sub-fandoms, but an In-Universe example here when Davan wins a Geek-off by explaining how he and his friends would play Gamma World and Wasteland simultaneously on weekends.
- Everyone Has Standards
- As much of a miserable Jerkass as Mike was in the early strips, PeeJee felt compelled to intervene after seeing his disastrous "date" with Kharisma. Naturally, he called her an "interloping bitch" and ran after Kharisma.
- After the infamous Hell House Arc, Randy points out he actually had to censor most of what he researched about actual Hell Houses because they were too disgustingly horrible even for him.
- Davan runs afoul of this when his bugbear character is revealed to engage in Self-Harm as a means of stress relief.Davan: Well, see, he does have the whole "Afterschool Special" flaw set on his character sheet and — Don't you judge me!
- Chirag defends a guy with an awful sense of humor - until Yamile mentions how he's made fun of her prosthetic leg. And then the ass makes such a comment in front of Chirag.
- After the below incident, the mayor declares that "party lines be damned", and that every one of them should endorse the car-fucker to get Taylor out of office.
- As much of a miserable Jerkass as Mike was in the early strips, PeeJee felt compelled to intervene
- Evil Is Petty: After winning reelection, the Councilman that had tried to leverage the Pythagorean's fame for his own benefit tried outlawing "masked vigilantes" - thankfully, his colleagues call him out on his bullshit.Taylor: Oh, I see how it goes. I want to use the system to get a little revenge and I'm being petty. But back in March you used the system for the same reason and it was all okay, right?
Ward: My son was shot. My wife and I pressed charges. That's different.
Taylor: Agreed. See, I know society is better off without ugly kids around. - Exact Words:
- When Davan's boss makes a request, Davan makes it happen.
- Prior to this, Davan takes advantage of Aubrey's Clingy Jealous Guy's Freak Out to casually inform him that he'd seen Aubrey naked many times, and even offers to show him pictures, prompting the guy to run out of the bar cursing her and her friends.Aubrey: I noticed you neglected to tell him we were both toddlers when that happened.
Davan: I didn't want to make the situation awkward. - Vanessa's father pulls this when saying that his marriages ended because someone cheats.Vanessa: His marriages end because he's always the one who cheats.
Vanessa's Dad: "Always" is different from "usually"! Being technically right means I'm still right! - Vanessa is told "I'm not saying you should dress up like you would for a wedding, but it wouldn't hurt" - the poor fool didn't realize how she'd dressed for her own wedding.Vanessa: So, ignore the syllabus. Today we're going over the philosophy of following instructions in the most petty way possible.
- When Davan's boss makes a request
- Eye Scream:
- PamJee's first meeting with a mall santa resulted in this. Thankfully, his insurance covers retinal scratching.
- A wrestling heel plans on making a kid cry to increase their heel appeal. The kid spits a mix of hot sauce and jalapeno juice into her eyes.
- PamJee's first meeting with a mall santa
- Fag Hag: Pee-Jee and her crushes on gay men, or men that came out later.
- Family of Choice: The MacIntires are often at the center of this, with all the siblings and children they've gathered over the years. This includes Davan being Like Brother and Sister to Aubrey and thus an uncle to PamJee, Fred considering PeeJee a daughter to the point where he names her in his will as one of his children, and Davan becoming a father to Rory in place of his absent, abusive biological father. Fred and Faye also saw Monette as a daughter, though unlike the other cases they made it legally binding and adopted her.
- Fan Art: There is a fan movie encompassing some of the earlier strips.
- Fan Disservice: If you're a Superman fan, don't read this. Unless you want to see Bizarro giving Superman a sloppy kiss.
- Also, naked Avogadro.
- A one-off strip of Mary Worth... as a prostitute.
- Davan's neighbor is offended at Rory not accepting a hug from him, so Davan and his father show just how uncomfortable it could be - with the Alt Text saying "Panel Four is for the people who wish I did more Fanservice."
- And to plug upcoming convention appearances, Randy decided to publish a pin-up calendar... featuring himself.Rippy: I hate how comfortable you are with your body.
Randy: I'm also comfortable with how uncomfortable you are, so that's really nice.
- Also
- Fan Dumb: In-universe examples. Mike acts like this on a regular basis, while other...creatures encountered at conventions and gaming shops represent the unpleasant side of geekery. There are also the catgirl cosplayers, who embody the worst aspects of annoying pre-teen otaku.
- Fandom Heresy: In-Universe. Mike defends Joel Schumacher over The Lost Boys, and has a crisis of conscience over it.
- Fanservice:
- Aubrey and PeeJee get sexy to mess with Jason's head.
- This filler art which depicts PeeJee as a bunny girl, Aubrey as a French maid ("...someone dies for this"), and Claire as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
- Aubrey and PeeJee get sexy
