History ComicStrip / BabyBlues

* TheQuietOne: Wren. Darryl's dad, Mac, was described as this in his first appearance, with Darryl and Wanda surprised that he was willing to greet them with a "H'lo" when he and his wife came for a visit. Being able to dote on his grandchildren seemed to help him come out of his shell. In the TV series, Mac was completely silent, but he did open up his mouth sometimes. Now, he's completely silent and sometimes talks.

* TheSilentOne: Since Wren's "memorable quotes" are decreasing, only the reader and her family can understand her via facial expressions, gestures and actions.

* PunnyName: Hammie's name is sometimes used as a pun for "ham," the food. [[http://babyblues.com/comics/October-29-2002/ Wren's name was based off of the bird of the same name, but Wanda's story is a different story.]]

** [[http://http://babyblues.com/comics/october-20-2015/ This comic got away with it when Hammie said that he wanted his burger "hot and juicy" like his women.]]

* DisappearingDad: Because Trent lives with his mom, it's revealed what happened to his dad.

* AllGirlsLikePonies: [[http://babyblues.com/comics/July-1-2009/ Zoe]] [[http://babyblues.com/comics/January-5-2009/ is]] [[http://babyblues.com/comics/January-8-2008/ the]] [[http://babyblues.com/comics/January-7-2008/ big]] [[http://babyblues.com/comics/January-6-2004/ example]] [[http://babyblues.com/comics/August-2-2000/ of this.]] She likes [[http://babyblues.com/comics/October-27-2006/ unicorns]] too.

** Lampshaded by Jerry Scott in the 20th Anniversary book:

* FourFingeredHands: Every character have these. The first strip's title panel, however, had Wanda with five fingers. The "five fingers on a hand" concept is rarely seen throughout the strip, although it pops up from time to time.

* LastMinuteBabyNaming: Baby Wren was named after she was born; Wanda came up with the name when a bird smacked into the window while she was eating breakfast. Hammie, Keesha, and Bunny's twins (Wendell Jon and Wendell John) weren't named until after they were brought home; in the case of the latter, Bunny initially identified them as "Puce" and "Teal," based on the colors of their hospital wristbands.

* PunnyName: Hammie's name is sometimes used as a pun for "ham," the food, and Wren [[http://babyblues.com/comics/October-29-2002/ was actually named after a bird that smacked into the window.]]

* Tomboy: Wren is a soon-to-be tomboy, due to her hanging around with Hammie.
* TooDumbToLive: Hammie. Ever since he turned about six, and [[ComicBookTime stayed that way for a few years,]] he's been performing dangerous stunts nearly every time he appears! [[http://babyblues.com/comics/March-25-2009/ Wanda even told him once the many things that could go wrong]] and he acted like they were reasons to go along with it!

%%* YouDidntAsk: This can happen sometimes. Here's [[http://babyblues.com/comics/August-25-2000/ one of them from when Hammie was being potty-trained.]] and a later one with [[http://babyblues.com/comics/January-18-2004/ Zoe and Hammie on a walk with Darryl and Wren.]]

* AdultFear: Zoe goes missing in a department store when Wanda looks away for one second. Thankfully she's found but Wanda (and later Darryl when he's told the story) are both in tears.

-->'''Jerry Scott:''' I can't read this series without getting sweaty palms.
* AfraidOfNeedles: Zoe and Hammie have both shown fear of getting a shot.

* AllJustADream: [[http://babyblues.com/comics/november-30-2006/ Zig-zagged in one story arc.]] Zoe and Hammie both want extravagant amounts of gifts for Christmas. Darryl then tells them how, when he was a kid, he wanted so badly to have a toy airplane for Christmas but tired of it within a day. Zoe and Hammie then dream that they receive a ridiculous amount of Christmas gifts, and [[spoiler:upon finding themselves overwhelmed, try to get a letter to Santa (via toy airplane) asking for the excess gifts to be returned.]] Wanda compliments Darryl on the poignancy of his story on the airplane, which he admits he made up [[spoiler:— just as a toy airplane is visible on the roof behind him.]]

* ArtifactTitle: Zoe was always the primary focus, and she is no longer a baby. Even Hammie is grade-school age now.
** But Wren, the third child, was a baby, and is now a toddler. So new fans would probably assume Wren was the reason for the title.

* ComicBookTime: WordOfGod says that the strip goes at roughly a 3:1 time frame (i.e., Zoe is 10 after 20 years of being in the strip).

* IAteWhat: In the Easter 2012 Sunday Strip, Darryl is continuously asking Hammie, Zoe, and Wren if they are certain if they found all of the Easter eggs in the area while trying to heavily hint at the egg on the porch lamp. The kids continuously attempt to insist that they have found every single one, before Hammie points out just as Darryl is about to eat the egg that the one on the porch light didn't count, as that was there since last year. Cue Darryl rushing inside to the bathroom, presumably to vomit up the egg he just ate. It can be seen [[http://babyblues.com/comics/April-8-2012/ here.]]

* IWantGrandkids: Two examples actually:

* KidsPreferBoxes: [[http://babyblues.com/comics/January-6-2009/ This strip]] as well as [[http://babyblues.com/comics/May-28-2005/ this one]].
** Another example was a Sunday strip when Zoe was a toddler; Darryl had attempted to get Zoe to play with all her new Christmas toys, but Zoe ended up having a blast with two toilet paper rolls and a wooden spoon.
* LargeHamAnnouncer: Zoe, for a lot of examples. [[http://babyblues.com/comics/July-26-1999/ Here's an old one.]]

* SecurityBlanket: When Zoe was a baby, she had Boo-Boo Bankie.

*** With Wren, it's her stuffed teddy bear.

* WaterGunsAndBalloons: A week-long storyline involved Zoe and Hammie competing against Darryl in a water fight with giant water guns.

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: Because they were expecting a girl, it took Darryl and Wanda some time to find a name for their son until they finally decided on Hamish (Ham for short), after one of Darryl's relatives. It took a few family members some time to get used to the name; Wanda's mother burst out laughing when she was told, and Rhonda declared "Ham? That's not a name... it's an entree!"

* YouDidntAsk: This can happen sometimes. Here's [[http://babyblues.com/comics/August-25-2000/ one of them from when Hammie was being potty-trained.]] and a later one with [[http://babyblues.com/comics/January-18-2004/ Zoe and Hammie on a walk with Darryl and Wren.]]

-->'''Darryl and Wanda''': "Why didn't you give us that many presents when we were little?"
-->'''All grandparents''': "We didn't want to spoil you."
* YouthfulFreckles: Hammie.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: [[http://http://babyblues.com/comics/march-13-1998/ Princess High N' Mighty Big Shot Told-You-So Boss of the World]] (or "Zoe.") is a parody of Dot's full name from Animaniacs.

* [[FirstSnow First Snowflakes:]] In 2000, when Hammie was still a baby, Zoe taught him how to catch snowflakes on his tongue.

* ShoutOut: One of the crocodiles from ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' appears on a box of cereal. Most likely a reference to ''Pearls'' featuring a ''Baby Blues''-centric storyline around the same time.

*** The fact that the series is similar to Animaniacs, but with more adult jokes. Even the characters are parodies of the characters in the series. For example, Zoe is a parody of Yakko Warner, Hammie is a parody of Wakko Warner, Wren is a parody of Dot Warner but starting in 2016, Zoe is nowhere to be seen, Hammie is a parody of Yakko Warner now that he's taking care of his sister and Wren is still a parody of Dot Warner, except she's also a parody of Mindy in select comics.
*** The illustrations make a strikingly resemblance to ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' (especially when the kids yell or cry), ''Literature/HaroldAndThePurpleCrayon'' and the animated television series ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''.

* ParentalAbandonment: Spoofed in one strip as the family tries to find a kids movie to rent. "Do you have any family movies that have families in them?" Trent. We never see his mom in the strip, although one strip had Wanda talking to her off panel.

* BigEater: Darryl. One comic had Darryl [[http://http://babyblues.com/comics/march-21-2007/ eat two jelly donuts, a cruller, a big lunch and a slice of a friend's retirement cake... all in one day!]] In another comic, Darryl had eaten [[http://babyblues.com/comics/january-30-2009/ six creme-filled donuts.]]

* TheFaceLess: Many one-time characters have this feature such as Jessica or a Phoenix Suns player. One example is The Burnettes' cat. Its face is never seen, only half of its body is shown as it is running away from Darryl. It can be seen [[http://babyblues.com/comics/november-7-2015/ here.]]

** After a ''Pearls Before Swine'' storyline about the characters babysitting the ''Baby Blues'' kids finished up, one ''Baby Blues'' strip afterwards featured one of the kids chewing on one of the crocodiles.
*** The fact that the series is similar to Animaniacs, but with more adult jokes. Even the characters are parodies of the characters in the series. For example, Zoe is a parody of Yakko Warner, Hammie is a parody of Wakko Warner, Wren is a parody of Dot Warner, etc.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Hammie's name has been spelled "Hammy" and Zoe's name has been spelled "Zoey." And these are adult fans. And the names are SPELLED in the strip on a regular basis. In one book, Rick even had this happened to him due to a brain cramp:

* ThoughtBubbleSpeech: Done in the first strip. It was also done with Zoe even though Rick and Jerry decided against it.

Hammie: Hey dad. Wouldn't it be great if we could watch TV while we ate dinner?
* ConjoinedEyes: Wanda and Darryl. Wanda is rarely seen with normal circle eyes.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: The kids watch a show starring "Whistling Monkey Cowboys."

* TheFaceLess: The Burnettes' cat. Its face is never seen, only half of its body is shown as it is running away from Darryl. It can be seen here [[http://babyblues.com/comics/november-7-2015/]]

* GettingTheBabyToSleep: Zoe has often been the subject of this, even as she's gotten older. Her numerous attempts to stall bedtime include tying her shoelaces into large knots, refusing to go to sleep until she had all her stuffed animals with her, and even literally ''latching onto Darryl's face'' while she was kissing him goodnight.

* GirlishPigtails: Zoe's hair in preschool. [[http://babyblues.com/comics/May-11-2006/ And Wanda's hair as a kid.]]

* HypocriticalHumor: Back when Wanda was still nursing Hammie, two different strips had a similar punchline relating to this. In one instance, a male passenger sitting next to Wanda on an airplane protested to her feeding Hammie in public, calling it "disgusting"... while he's clearly looking at [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar a Playboy centerfold]]. In another series, a male lifeguard tried to kick Wanda out of a public pool, claiming her breastfeeding Hammie violated decency standards... only to stop ''mid-sentence'' in order to ogle at a nearby woman in a [[MsFanservice barely-there bikini]].
* IAteWhat: In the Easter 2012 Sunday Strip, Darryl is continuously asking Hammie, Zoe, and Wren if they are certain if they found all of the Easter eggs in the area while trying to heavily hint at the egg on the porch lamp. The kids continuously attempt to insist that they have found every single one, before Hammie points out just as Darryl is about to eat the egg that the one on the porch light didn't count, as that was there since last year. Cue Darryl rushing inside to locate a restroom, presumably to vomit up the egg he just ate. It can be seen [[http://babyblues.com/comics/April-8-2012/ here.]]

* ParentalAbandonment: Spoofed in one strip as the family tries to find a kids movie to rent. "Do you have any family movies that have families in them?"

*** The illustrations make a strikingly resemblance to ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', ''Literature/HaroldAndThePurpleCrayon'' and the animation on ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Hammie's name has been spelled "Hammy" and Zoe's name has been spelled "Zoey." And these are adult fans. And the names are SPELLED in the strip on a regular basis.

* WasntThatFun: Used to be a RunningGag with Hammie, now Wren. More than once this trope was the final panel, after Hammie got himself into trouble, and back out of it with the help of Wanda or Darryl. One strip had him falling off of the backrest of a chair he was trying to reach the candy at the top of the fridge from, and after Wanda caught him he cheerfully cried, "Again!"

* SpikyHair: Hammie, even on the strip where he was born.

* TheGhost: Zoe had a crush on Bryan Barge, who has never been seen or heard of in the strip. Unless he's [[NoNameGiven Bryan the Dinosaur.]]
* TheQuietOne: Wren. Darryl's dad, Mac, was described as this in his first appearance, with Darryl and Wanda surprised that he was willing to greet them with a "H'lo" when he and his wife came for a visit. Being able to dote on his grandchildren seemed to help him come out of his shell. In the TV series, Mac was completely silent, but he did open up his mouth sometimes. Now, he's completely silent and sometimes talks.
* TheSwearJar: Darryl having to put money into the Swearing Jar numerous times.

* {{Gasshole}}: Hammie, who is mostly a belch variant. He still does belch jokes, but not a lot as he used to. He now does both burp jokes and fart jokes. Now, it's Wren (because she taught herself to produce loud belches), to the point where she belches like a man to impress her brother. The example can be seen [[http://babyblues.com/comics/may-21-2016/ here.]]

* BurpingContest: Wren and Hammie did this once in a comic [[babyblues.com/comics/march-23-2018/]]. Wren rips a big one and wins.

* BurpingContest: Wren and Hammie did this once in a comic. Wren rips a big one and wins.

* ConjoinedEyes: Wanda

*** The illustrations make a strikingly resemblance to ''ComicStrip/Peanuts'', ''Literature/HaroldAndThePurpleCrayon'' and the animation on ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''.

A mainstream comic about parenting shown in many newspapers. Features the typical "nuclear family" set-up, but treats it with a much more realistic tone than most. Usually gag-a-day type four-panel strip with a few running jokes. It also serves as a sister to Animaniacs, due to its similarity and personalities.

[[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f7/Baby_Blues_logo.gif]]

* WasntThatFun: A RunningGag with Hammie. More than once this trope was the final panel, after Hammie got himself into trouble, and back out of it with the help of Wanda or Darryl. One strip had him falling off of the backrest of a chair he was trying to reach the candy at the top of the fridge from, and after Wanda caught him he cheerfully cried, "Again!"

* ComicBookTime: WordOfGod says that the strip goes at roughly a 2:1 time frame (i.e., Zoe is 10 after 20 years of being in the strip).

[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Baby_Blues_comic_9465.jpg]]

* FieryRedhead: Zoe is very spirited and precocious with a temper that Hammie has a knack for flaring up.

A mainstream comic about parenting shown in many newspapers. Features the typical "nuclear family" set-up, but treats it with a much more realistic tone than most. Usually gag-a-day type four-panel strip with a few running jokes. It also serves as a sister to [[WesternAnimation/Animaniacs]], due to its similarity and personalities.

* InvisibleToAdults: Played backwards and forwards in this series. Instead of the kids, it's the MacPhersons that can see things that the other adults can't see, since it is told by the family's perspective. Since it's ONLY the MacPhersons who can see their children (except Wren) as animals or creatures, the adults (sometimes children, paired with adults) rarely see Zoe (mostly) or Hammie in unusual form. An example is this comic: [[http://babyblues.com/comics/june-29-1997/]]

A mainstream comic about parenting shown in many newspapers. Features the typical "nuclear family" set-up, but treats it with a much more realistic tone than most. Usually gag-a-day type four-panel strip with a few running jokes. It also serves as a sister to [[WesternAnimation/Animaniacs]], according to some rumors.

* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: [[http://babyblues.com/comics/July-4-2001/ Princess High N' Mighty Big Shot Told-You-So Boss of the World]] (or "Zoe.") is a parody of Dot's full name from Animaniacs.

* FunetikAksent: This was how Zoe's and Hammie's baby-talk was represented.

* {{Gasshole}}: Hammie, who is mostly a belch variant. In the new comics, it's Wren, to the point where she belches like a man to impress her brother. The example can be seen [[http://babyblues.com/comics/may-21-2016/ here.]]

* TheQuietOne: Darryl's dad, Mac, was described as this in his first appearance, with Darryl and Wanda surprised that he was willing to greet them with a "H'lo" when he and his wife came for a visit. Being able to dote on his grandchildren seemed to help him come out of his shell.

* ToiletHumor: Many, many jokes about dirty diapers and farting. Somewhat justified, as babies do (a lot of!) that.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Despite becoming more tolerant of gross things since having kids, medical procedures in general (such as surgery or shots) make Darryl squeamish. When baby Wren had to get tubes in her ears, just hearing the word "surgery" caused Darryl to faint; he also fainted when Zoe's umbilical cord fell out.

A mainstream comic about parenting shown in many newspapers. Features the typical "nuclear family" set-up, but treats it with a much more realistic tone than most. Usually gag-a-day type four-panel strip with a few running jokes.