History Literature / AConfederacyOfDunces

* LadyLuck: Ignatius, a devotee of the philosopher Boethius, frequently invokes and beseeches Fortuna like she's his patron saint. The metaphor of Fortune's Wheel as a metaphor for how it's normal and expected for Fate to be capricious is lost on him.

* LadyLuck: Ignatius frequently invokes Fortuna.

* MightyWhitey: This is deconstructed with Ignatius. On some level, he sympathizes with the poverty-stricken black community of New Orleans, but he has no genuine respect for their humanity or needs, looking at them through his incredibly skewed pro-Renaissance worldview. His "rally" of the black factory workers is not done out of any desire to promote their cause, but to serve his crazed and selfish desires. The black workers at Levy Pants think of him as a hilarious fool, while Burma only associates with Ignatius for his own schemes.
* MisaimedFandom: In-universe example -- Ignatius's constant references to "Fortuna" demonstrate he didn't understand what Boethius' work was actually about.

* BornInTheWrongCentury: Ignatius, who yearns for a time before the Enlightenment, preferably with an absolute monarchy and "a good authoritarian Pope."

* CondescendingCompassion: Ignatius expresses sympathy for the plight of racial and sexual minorities in New Orleans, but does so in the most insultingly backhanded ways imaginable.

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: Myrna showing up to whisk Ignatius away]] doesn't come completely out of nowhere, but the timing is so perfect that Fortuna herself had to have ordained it. Ignatius {{Lampshade|Hanging}}s as much.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Darlene's stripped-by-a-bird act was not invented for this book. A Burlesque performer named Yvette Dare famously used a trained parrot to accomplish this in real life.

Set in UsefulNotes/NewOrleans in the mid-[[TheSixties 1960s]], the plot follows the misadventures and disasters of Ignatius J. Reilly, an overeducated, offensive, and [[MoralGuardians puritanical]] ([[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking not to mention]] [[FatBastard grotesquely fat]]) slob as he is sent out by his mother to find work to pay for damages caused by a car crash. In his quest Reilly provides the catalyst for a range of subplots involving hot-dog vendors, university protests, factory owners, pornographers, and sociopathic lesbians as he wages war on modern culture across the city. His ghastly personal habits and completely marginal ability to notice the existence of other people stun the gentle reader.

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: [[InUniverse Or so Mrs. Levy believes.]] She took a correspondence course in psychology (which she failed miserably) and constantly tries to apply her "knowledge" to her husband and Miss Trixie. Of course, there's a ''real'' Freudian moment when it's revealed that, with the right makeup and a wig, [[spoiler:Miss Trixie looks almost exactly like Mrs. Levy's mother.]]

** Downplayed by Mr. Clyde, Ignatius’ boss at Paradise Vendors, who has legitimate reasons to be angry at Ignatius and is generally reasonable if a bit grumpy, but forces Ignatius to dress up in an embarrassing pirate costume and threatens to stab him with a fork on more than one occasion.

* BestialityIsDepraved: Hinted at as a component of Ignatius' repressed, damaged sexuality. Consider his heightened interest when he finds out Harlett O'Hara will be performing with a "pet", or the fact that his masturbatory fantasy [[spoiler:is a happy memory of his late dog]].

* {{Black Comedy|Rape}} PrisonRape: The implied fate of [[spoiler:Lana Lee in the prison cell with Frieda, Betty and Liz.]]

* BodyMotifs: Ignatius' pyloric valve (usually just referred to as "the valve"), which, according to Ignatius, causes him gastrointestinal problems when something stresses him.

* BurgerFool: Ignatius' job with Paradise Vendors is the period equivalent to this: selling bad food while dressed in a ridiculous costume, as everyone around him remarks that hot dog vendors are just the lowest of the low.

* CelibateHero: Reilly has a love-hate relationship with Myrna and fantasizes sexually about her, but can't bring himself to have sex with her, her willingness-to-the-point-of-eagerness notwithstanding. The ending suggests that this might change.

** Irene definitely changes for the better over the course of the story when she makes friends with Mancuso's family and starts building a life for herself outside taking care of Ignatius, eventually growing enough backbone to stand up to his bluster. Ignatius himself pointedly does ''not'' change much and never honestly admits to his many faults, but this is perfectly consistent with his arrogant nature. [[spoiler:The confession he makes to Myrna is a hasty ploy to stay out of the loony bin, but his barely-disguised fondness for her leaves some hope that he might get better.]]

** Ignatius' letter from Levy Pants, written in his inimitable style to a customer complaining about a delivery of pants that were several feet too short. Much later in the book, Gus Levy gets a letter back from the customer threatening a libel suit for $500,000, which ultimately inspires him to [[spoiler:rebrand Levy Pants as Levy Shorts and shift their focus to Bermuda shorts. He also starts standing up to his wife and, despite knowing Ignatius wrote the letter because said inimitable style bleeds over into his speech, gets Miss Trixie out of his life by conning her into confessing to writing the letter]].

* TheChewToy: Patrolman Mancuso. He is forced into a variety of degrading PaperThinDisguise[=s=] by his superiors, who refuse to reassign him until he makes an arrest, any arrest. His disguises fool nobody, and at one point he catches a horrendous cold from having to sit in bus station restroom stalls all day. Meanwhile, his fellow officers quietly decide to use his tip of something funny going on at the Night of Joy to put together a sting operation themselves without letting him have any of the credit. [[spoiler:However, the plainclothes officers trying to lay the groundwork for the sting are found out immediately, and end up with no evidence -- which just convinces Mancuso's superiors that he made the whole thing up.]]

* ComedicSociopathy: Just try to read the chapter where Ignatius blithely [[spoiler:eats all the hot dogs in the Paradise Vendors cart]] without cracking up. It's impossible. This is made doubly funny by [[spoiler:his attempt to "adopt" a stray cat by ''stuffing it in the vending cart'' alongside the hot dogs.]]

** Santa Battaglia is the period equivalent, insisting on remaining active, having fun, and setting up her younger friends with each other despite being a "grammaw" with "grandchirren". She's also aware of the kind of person Ignatius is, and tells off Irene for taking care of him.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The image of Ignatius with a bird on his head which appears on the softcover edition. It must depict the scene late in the book in which [[spoiler:Darlene's cockatoo attacks Ignatius because it wants his earring]]. But the picture doesn't show him in his pirate outfit, which is an intrinsic part of the action of the scene.[[note]]There are also two ''much'' pickier objections to the picture: The bird is yellow even though, as a rose cockatoo, it should be pink and grey. And it is pecking at Ignatius' right ear even though, when he wears his earring, he wears it on the left side.[[/note]] In a way this makes sense: the image does nothing to spoil either the humor or the carefully-constructed confluence of subplots in the scene. But then, why choose that scene for the cover at all?

* ADateWithRosiePalms: One of Ignatius' more common responses to frustration and disappointment.

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler:Myrna showing up to whisk Ignatius away]] doesn't come completely out of nowhere, but the timing is so perfect that Fortuna herself had to have ordained it. Ignatius {{Lampshade|Hanging}}s as much.

* DysfunctionJunction: Absolutely ''nobody'' in this book is quite right in the head, and pretty much everyone has issues to work out. [[spoiler:In the end, many of them do (or are at least well on their way to getting better).]]

** His attempted political rally at Dorian Greene's party. Nobody cares what he has to say, he kills everybody's good vibes, and in the end he has to flee before some lesbians kick his ass.
** His trip to Night of Joy to see "Harlott O'Hara": [[spoiler:He ends up attacked by Darlene's bird, is nearly hit by a bus, and ends up in the hospital. The picture of him passed out ends up in the paper, causing him to lose his job. ''And all that'' is [[UpToEleven the tip of the iceberg]].]]

** Ignatius' opening scene, with him telling off Mancuso, annoying him, and manipulating the crowd and Irene to get himself out of trouble demonstrates Ignatius' blowhard personality.

* EverythingIsRacist: Myrna often accuses people who disagree with her ideas of being anti-Semitic. At one point, she accuses Ignatius of it for writing her a letter on stationery bearing the letterhead of Levy Pants, Ignatius' then-workplace.

** Mr. Gonzalez is insanely tolerant of Ignatius and Miss Trixie's antics.
** Irene is this to Ignatius, and spends much of her plot arc growing out of it.

* FatalFlaw: Many of Ignatius' troubles would be resolved if he understood that his own actions actually had consequences and accepted his need to improve himself.

** Ms. Annie, of all people, explains that [[spoiler:most of Ignatius' bizarre habits and beliefs can be traced back to the death of his dog, Rex, as well as (what he felt was) the inappropriate response to his loss from his priest and his mother.]]

* HappyEnding: For the most part. [[spoiler:Mrs. Reilly finally gets away from the misery of looking after Ignatius and plans to marry Claude Robichaux, Mancuso finally makes an arrest by collaring Lana Lee for solicitation and selling pornography to minors and may get a promotion out of it, Gus Levy has regained his self-confidence and his interest in running Levy Shorts (formerly Levy Pants) and may plan to offer Burma Jones a job with a living wage in the factory, Miss Trixie will finally be allowed to retire, Darlene appears to be on the brink of finding another job now that Lana is in jail, and Ignatius leaves New Orleans moments before he can be committed to start a new life with Myrna.]]
* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Mrs. Reilly, Ignatius' mother, is accused of this by Ignatius and Ms. Annie. It is unclear how true their accusations are, but she seemed to have no qualms about getting plastered at the Night of Joy, early on in the book. [[INeedAFreakingDrink Given the multifarious sources of stress in her life, though, it's understandable.]]

** Myrna’s letters criticize Ignatius’ many, many failings and flaws, while showing she has the same flaws herself.

** Ignatius' [[ListingTheFormsOfDegenerates speech to Mancuso]] at the beginning of the book is hilariously hypocritical, as he fits into at least two or three of the categories of people he rails against.

** Ignatius does suffer some ignominies during the course of the book, but despite all his cruel and mean-spirited behavior he ends the book not really any worse than how he started.

** [[spoiler:Lana Lee and George]] get their just deserts in the end. Though due to [[invoked]]ValuesDissonance, the crime they go down for, distributing pornography to high school kids, is much less villainous than their other actions from a modern perspective.

* LiteraryNecrophilia: A man also calling himself John Kennedy Toole and claiming to be the original's illegitimate son wrote a sequel novel called ''A Cornucopia of Dunderheads'' that focused on Ignatius' adventures in [[BigApplesauce New York]].
* LordErrorProne: Ignatius has many of these attributes, but without any of the influence or power.

* ManChild: Ignatius spends much of his time watching cartoons, and is very high-strung.

* MightyWhitey: This is deconstructed with Ignatius. On some level, he sympathizes with the poverty stricken black community of New Orleans, but he has no genuine respect for their humanity or needs, looking at them through his incredibly skewed pro-Renaissance worldview. His "rally" of the black factory workers is not done out of any desire to promote their cause, but to serve his crazed and selfish desires. The black workers at Levy Pants think of him as a hilarious fool, while Burma only associates with Ignatius for his own schemes.
* MisaimedFandom: In-universe example -- Ignatius' constant references to "Fortuna" demonstrate he didn't understand what Boethius' work was actually about.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler:Jones tells Patrolman Mancuso about Lana Lee's illegal porn business.]]
* MortonsFork: Lana puts Jones on this, making him work in shite conditions or else she'll turn him in to the police. [[spoiler:[[TheDogBitesBack He eventually turns her in to the police instead.]]]]

* NiceGirl: Darlene. She's one of the few characters who doesn't mistreat or look down at Burma for being black, and she's even (relatively) tolerant of Ignatius, only calling him out when the big oaf drives Irene to tears, [[spoiler:and only resenting him when he ruins her performance]].

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: As far as we know, [[spoiler:the stray cat Ignatius stuffed in the hot dog cart]] got away fine.

** Santa Battaglia, who makes it her mission to get Irene to lead her own fulfilling life, and especially to get her to send Ignatius to a mental hospital.
** Burma Jones, who is usually the sole voice of reason amongst the idiots and jerks he finds himself dealing with, and is the only one to catch on to Lana’s machinations and that Ignatius is nothing but trouble right off the bat, without even meeting Ignatius. Of course, not many people listen to him.
* PointyHairedBoss: Mr. Levy has pretty much has zero interest in running his factory, [[spoiler:since his father callously shot down every one of his ideas]]. He regains interest in the company [[spoiler:after Ignatius nearly gets him sued by one of his clients]].
* PoliceBrutality: Burma Jones' subplot is about him trying to find employment so the police stop arresting him as a vagrant.

* PsychoLesbian: Frieda, Betty and Liz, incredibly violent and stereotypical {{butch lesbian}}s whose main pastime seems to be brawling. They are last seen preparing to [[spoiler:rape Lana Lee]].
* PushoverParents: Irene at first. But eventually she [[CharacterDevelopment grows a spine]] and becomes increasingly frustrated with Ignatius' failures and excuses, [[spoiler:and decides to have him shipped off to the mental ward]].

*** He has a mean temper, and often mistreats Irene (Wrath).

* YouNeedToGetLaid: What Myrna thinks Ignatius' problem is. [[SexIsGood She thinks it's the whole world's problem]], [[SingleIssueWonk actually]], but regarding Ignatius she might be right (stopped clocks, you know).

Published in 1980, 11 years after the suicide of author Creator/JohnKennedyToole, ''A Confederacy of Dunces'' is often hailed as one of the funniest novels ever written.

Set in UsefulNotes/NewOrleans in the mid-[[TheSixties 1960s]], the plot follows the misadventures and disasters of Ignatius J. Reilly, an overeducated, offensive, and [[MoralGuardians puritanical]] (not to mention [[FatBastard grotesquely fat]]) slob as he is sent out by his mother to find work to pay for damages caused by a car crash. In his quest Reilly provides the catalyst for a range of subplots involving hot-dog vendors, university protests, factory owners, pornographers, and sociopathic lesbians as he wages war on modern culture across the city. His ghastly personal habits and completely marginal ability to notice the existence of other people stun the gentle reader.

* TheChewToy: Patrolman Mancuso. He is forced into a variety of degrading PaperThinDisguise[=s=] by his superiors, who refuse to reassign him until he makes an arrest, any arrest. His disguises fool nobody, and at one point he catches a horrendous cold from having to sit in bus station restroom stalls all day. Meanwhile, his fellow officers quietly decide to use his tip of something funny going on at the Night of Joy to put together a sting operation themselves without letting him have any of the credit. [[spoiler:However, the plainclothes officers trying to lay the groundwork for the sting are recognised as such immediately, and end up with no evidence -- which just convinces Mancuso's superiors that he made the whole thing up.]]

* DirtyCommunists: Mr. Claude Robichaux loves to accuse people he doesn't like of being "[[FunetikAksent communiss]]".

* DysfunctionJunction: Absolutely ''nobody'' in this book is quite right in the head, and pretty much everyone has issues to work out. [[spoiler: In the end, many of them do (or are at least well on their way to getting better).]]

** The "Crusade for Moorish Dignity", an attempt to organize the workers at Levy Pants. After they march up to the office, they get a bit tired of Ignatius' exhortations to violence, and it peters out. The end result is Ignatius getting fired, being the only person Mr. Levy has ''ever'' fired.

* FatBastard: Ignatius. The fattest character in the book, and its self-centered UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist. Mr. Clyde even calls Ignatius a "fat bastard" during an argument.

* JiveTurkey: Burma Jones. Pages and pages of the book are taken up with his own, hysterical, highly Nawrleen-accented speech. "Whoa! You don't gotta be like that. [[VerbalTic Oo-wee!]]"

** Ignatius does suffer some ignominies during the course of the book, but despite all of his cruel and mean-spirited behaviour he ends the book not really any worse than how he started.

* LazyBum: When Ignatius finally does get a job, he seems to do just about everything other than the work for which he is being paid. At Levy Pants, he files most of the paperwork he comes across straight into the wastebasket, and at Paradise Vendors, he eats most of his own inventory and even chastises potential customers for bothering him. Only when he wants to earn money to see "Harlett O'Hara" does he actually do any work.

* SpicyLatina: {{Deconstruct|ion}}ed with a waitress who works at Lana Lee's bar. She speaks in a combination of colorful Spanish phrases and YouNoTakeCandle English. Toole initially describes her as vaguely flirtatious and wearing high-heeled sandals, so we get the sense that she's a sexpot. However, beauty is only skin-deep: she's loud, pushy, and has ''really'' bad breath.

** Claude Robichaux, the old man from the beginning of the book who tries to stand up for Ignatius [[spoiler: and whom Mrs. Reilly eventually falls in love with]]. He has a bizarre obsession with the "communiss". Some of the bystanders who see him get arrested feel sorry for him, though, especially since he has six beloved Catholic "grandchirren", [[DownplayedTrope and he seems to be a good guy outside of this obsession.]]

** A written version with Myrna starting every letter she writes, even those to Ignatius and, based on his inner monologue at one point, everybody else, with "Sirs".

* ZanyScheme: Ignatius’ frankly insane and highly homophobic plan to establish world peace through free love and rub it in Myrna’s face, which involves having “perverts“ (read: gay people) infiltrate the government, secretly take over, and start throwing “global orgies” while he co-opts the movement so he can get a BioPic based on his life.

* AccidentalMisnaming: Miss Trixie keeps referring to Ignatius as "Gloria," confusing him with an employee who was let go the same day he was hired.

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: [[InUniverse Or so Mrs. Levy believes.]] She took a correspondence course in psychology (which she failed) and constantly tries to apply her "knowledge" to her husband and Miss Trixie. Of course, there's a ''real'' Freudian moment when it's revealed that, with the right makeup and a wig, [[spoiler:Miss Trixie looks almost exactly like Mrs. Levy's mother.]]

* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: Mrs. Reilly, Ignatius' mother, is accused of this by Ignatius and Ms. Annie. It is unclear how true their accusations are, but she seemed to have no qualms about getting plastered at the Night of Joy, early on in the book.

* {{Jerkass}}:

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Lana and George are both racist and harass Jones and call him by racial slurs on occasion, though in Lana’s case her enmity towards him seems to be caused by being a {{Jerkass}} in general.

** Ignatius, [[{{Jerkass}} unsurprisingly]], manages to embody them.

** Ignatius and Myrna hold political and philosophical positions that are both almost (''almost'') too absurd to be believed. Ignatius believes that Western civilization took a wrong turn at ''the Renaissance'', favors the return of feudal monarchy, and believes the Catholic Church to be insufficiently strict at a time (the book probably takes place in 1963, during Vatican II) when most Catholics felt quite the opposite; Myrna is a combination of a StrawFeminist and [[TheSixties a free-love hippie]] whose favorite activity -- besides sleeping with random men -- is organizing protests and rallies of various sorts (usually about how sex can solve everything). Naturally, [[OppositesAttract they're perfect for each other]].

* StrawHypocrite: Ignatius bemoans the "decadence" of Western society, but is all too eager to enjoy a sedentary lifestyle.

* WhiteMansBurden: How Ignatius feels about the black factory workers at Levy Pants. Of course, [[{{Jerkass}} being Ignatius]], he expresses his concern in the most condescending manner possible when he starts his "Crusade for Moorish Dignity". Also, Myrna takes a condescending attitude toward the supposed beneficiaries of her progressive activism and is baffled by their resulting resentment.

* WickedPretentious: Ignatius imagines himself as this worldly philosopher. But in reality, he's a lazy slob who acts like a buffoon.

* ZanyScheme: Ignatius’ frankly insane and highly homophobic plan to establish world peace through free love and rub it in Myrna’s face, which involves having “perverts“ (read: gay people) infiltrate the government, secretly take over, and start throwing “global orgies” while he co-ops the movement so he can get a BioPic based on his life.

* WhiteMansBurden: How Ignatius feels about the black factory workers at Levy Pants. Of course, [[{{Jerkass}} being Ignatius]], he expresses his concern in the most condescending manner possible when he starts his "Crusade for Moorish Dignity".

* JerkassHasAPoint: On a few occasions, Ignatius actually winds up being dead-on with his observations and makes a genuinely good point, albeit usually while being RightForTheWrongReasons.

* ZanyScheme: Ignatius’ frankly insane plan to establish world peace through free love and rub it in Myrna’s face, which involves having perverts infiltrate the government, secretly take over, and start throwing “global orgies” while he coops the movement so he can get a BioPic based on his life.

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: [[InUniverse Or so Mrs. Levy believes]]. She took a correspondence course in psychology (which she failed) and constantly tries to apply her "knowledge" to her husband and Miss Trixie. Of course, there's a ''real'' Freudian moment when it's revealed that, with the right makeup and a wig, [[spoiler: Miss Trixie looks almost exactly like Mrs. Levy's mother.]]

** Lana Lee. She makes Jones work for peanuts and threatens to take him into the police when he complains. She also makes Darlene work on commission and beats her up "offscreen" when the latter botches a line.
** Downplayed by Mr. Clyde, Ignatius’s boss at Paradise Vendors, who has legitimate reasons to be angry at Ignatius and is generally reasonable if a bit grumpy, but forces Ignatius to dress up in an embarrassing pirate costume and threatens to stab him with a fork on more than one occasion.

* BestialityIsDepraved: Hinted at as a component of Ignatius's repressed, damaged sexuality. Consider his heightened interest when he finds out Harlett O'Hara will be performing with a "pet", or the fact that his masturbatory fantasy [[spoiler:is a happy memory of his late dog]].

* CelibateHero: Reilly has a love-hate relationship with Myrna and fantasizes sexually about her, but can't bring himself to have sex with her in spite of her willingness. The ending suggests that this might change.

** Ignatius' letter from Levy Pants, written in his inimitable style to a customer complaining about a delivery of pants that were several feet too short. Much later in the book, Gus Levy gets a letter back from the customer threatening a libel suit for $500,000, which ultimately sparks him to [[spoiler:re-brand Levy Pants as Levy Shorts and shift their focus to Bermuda shorts. He also starts standing up to his wife and, despite knowing Ignatius wrote the letter becuase said inimitable style bleeds over into his speech, gets Miss Trixie out of his life by conning her into confessing to writing the letter]].

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Everyone seems to [[IdiotBall catch the stupid]] when Ignatius comes around with his insane ideas, at least long enough for him to convince them to do what he wants them to do. Mrs. Levy is the worst, thinking that Ignatius and Miss Trixie are competent employees, and for not accepting Mr. Levy's father as the stubborn ass he was.

** Myrna’s letters criticize Ignatius’s many, many failings and flaws, while also showing she has the same flaws herself.

* LordErrorProne: Ignatius has many of these attributes, but without any of the influence and power.

* NiceGirl: Darlene. She's one of the few characters who doesn't mistreat or look down at Burma for being black, and she's even (relatively) tolerant of Ignatius, only calling him out when the big oaf drives Irene to tears, [[spoiler: and only resenting him when he ruins her performance]].
* NiceGuy: Patrolman Mancuso who, in spite of his incompetence, spends his time quietly suffering and trying to help people out, even Mrs. Reilly, one of the people who caused him to get into his predicament of being forced to wear various humiliating {{Paper Thin Disguise}}s.

* NoRespectGuy: Jones is the sanest person in the entire story, but is the subject of PoliceBrutality and harassed and abused because he’s black.

* ZanyScheme: Ignatius‘s frankly insane plan to establish world peace through free love and rub it in Myrna’s face, which involves having perverts infiltrate the government, secretly take over, and start throwing “global orgies” while he coops the movement so he can get a BioPic based on his life.

* BadBoss: Lana Lee. She makes Jones work for peanuts and threatens to take him into the police when he complains. She also makes Darlene work on commission and beats her up "offscreen" when the latter botches a line.

** Claude Robichaux, the old man from the beginning of the book who tries to stand up for Ignatius [[spoiler: and whom Mrs. Reilly eventually falls in love with]]. He has a bizarre obsession with the "communiss". Some of the bystanders who see him get arrested feel sorry for him, though, especially since he has six beloved Catholic "grandchirren".

* ExtremeDoormat: Mr. Gonzalez is insanely tolerant of Ignatius and Miss Trixie's antics. Irene is this to Ignatius, and spends much of her plot arc growing out of it.

* HenpeckedHusband: Mr. Levy.

%%** Burma Jones qualifies.

Published in 1980, 11 years after the suicide of author John Kennedy Toole, ''A Confederacy of Dunces'' is often hailed as one of the funniest novels ever written.

** Ms. Annie, of all people, explains that [[spoiler:most of Ignatius' bizarre habits and beliefs can be traced back to [[invoked]][[TearJerker the death of his dog, Rex]], as well as (what he felt was) the inappropriate response to his loss from his priest and his mother.]]

* LiteraryNecrophilia: A man also calling himself John Kennedy Toole and claiming to be the original's illegitamite son wrote a sequel novel called ''A Cornucopia of Dunderheads'' that focused on Ignatius' adventures in [[BigApplesauce New York]].

** Burma Jones is this at the Night of Joy, figuring out Lana's machinations right away.

** Also, Patrolman Mancuso. Even then, he's a complete idiot in every other department.
** Burma Jones also qualifies.

** Also, Claude Robichaux, the old man from the beginning of the book who tries to stand up for Ignatius [[spoiler: and whom Mrs. Reilly eventually falls in love with]]. He has a bizarre obsession with the "communiss". Some of the bystanders who see him get arrested feel sorry for him, though, especially since he has six beloved Catholic "grandchirren".

* WorkOffTheDebt: How Ignatius gets hired at Paradise Vendors. He has no other way to pay for all the hot dogs to which he's helped himself.
** Indeed, this trope ''is'' Ignatius' storyline. Irene makes him get a job to pay the damage she caused from driving into a building while drunk.

-->-- '''Creator/JonathanSwift'''

* BodyMotifs: Ignatius' pyloric valve (usually just referred to as "the valve"), which, according to Ignatius, causes him gastrointestinal problems when he is stressed by something.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: Ignatius, who yearns for a time before the Enlightenment, preferably with a monarchy.

* [[BlackComedyRape Black Comedy]] PrisonRape: The implied fate of [[spoiler: Lana Lee in the prison cell with Frieda, Betty and Liz.]]
* BrilliantButLazy: Ignatius, despite having a college degree, lazes around, and during the story, works jobs for which he is massively overqualified. Irene bitterly notes that he is wasting his potential.

** Irene definitely changes for the better over the course of the story when she makes friends with Mancuso's family and starts building a life for herself outside taking care of Ignatius, eventually growing enough backbone to stand up to his bluster. Ignatius himself pointedly does ''not'' change much and never honestly admits to his many faults, but this is perfectly consistent with his arrogant nature. [[spoiler:The confession he makes to Myrna is a hasty ploy to stay out of the loony bin, but his barely-disguised fondness for her leaves some hope that he might get better]].
** Mr. Levy grows more comfortable with standing up to his nagging wife and with taking greater interest in running Levy Pants instead of leaving it to languish.

** Ignatius' letter from Levy Pants, written in his inimitable style to a customer complaining about a delivery of pants that were several feet too short. Much later in the book, Gus Levy gets a letter back from the customer threatening a libel suit for $500,000, which ultimately sparks him to [[spoiler:re-brand Levy Pants as Levy Shorts and shift their focus to Bermuda Shorts. He also starts standing up to his wife and, despite knowing Ignatius wrote the letter becuase said inimitable style bleeds over into his speech, gets Miss Trixie out of his life by conning her into confessing to writing the letter]].

* ComedicSociopathy: Just try to read the chapter where Ignatius blithely [[spoiler: eats all the hot dogs in the Paradise Vendors cart]] without cracking up. It's impossible. This is made doubly funny by [[spoiler: his attempt to "adopt" a stray cat by ''stuffing it in the vending cart'' alongside the hot dogs.]]

* ConsummateLiar: Ignatius is shockingly good at lying in order to further his own ends. Too bad he tends to [[EpicFail screw up the execution.]]

* CoversAlwaysLie: The image of Ignatius with a bird on his head which appears on the softcover edition. It must depict the scene late in the book in which [[spoiler:Darlene's cockatoo attacks Ignatius because it wants his earring]]. But the picture doesn't show him in his pirate outfit, which is an intrinsic part of the action of the scene.[[note]]There are also two ''much'' pickier objections to the picture: The bird is yellow even though, as a rose cockatoo, it should be pink and grey. And it is pecking at Ignatius's right ear even though, when he wears his earring, he wears it on the left.[[/note]] In a way this makes sense: the image does nothing to spoil either the humor or the carefully-constructed confluence of subplots in the scene. But then, why choose that scene for the cover at all?
* CovertPervert: Ignatius' moralistic facade hides his [[NauseaFuel bizarre masturbatory fantasies.]]

* {{Delinquent}}: George, a high-school-age kid who plays hooky, gives himself ludicrous fake tattoos, and sells pornography to his peers.

* TheDitz: Darlene. She has to deliver a single line for her striptease act, and after days of practice, she still messes it up every single time.

** The "Crusade for Moorish Dignity", an attempt to organize the workers at Levy Pants. After they march up to the office, they get a bit tired of Ignatius' exhortations to violence, and the whole thing peters out. The end result is Ignatius getting fired, being the only person Mr. Levy has ''ever'' fired.
** His attempted political rally at Dorian Greene's party. Nobody cares what he has to say, he kills everybody's good vibes, and in the end he has to flee before he gets his ass kicked by some lesbians.
** His trip to Night of Joy to see "Harlott O'Hara": [[spoiler: He ends up attacked by Darlene's bird, is nearly hit by a bus, and ends up in the hospital. The picture of him passed out ends up in the paper, causing him to lose his job. ''And all that'' is [[UpToEleven the tip of the iceberg]].]]

* FanDisservice: The scenes in which we read about Ignatius [[ADateWithRosiePalms choking the chicken]], as it were, would be bad enough just in principle. What he ''[[BestialityIsDepraved thinks about]]'' while he's doing it makes it [[NauseaFuel about ten times worse]].

* {{Foil}}: Myrna Minkoff downplays this somewhat. Her left-wing perspective certainly contrasts with Ignatius' right-wing and reactionary views, but she definitely shares his same rigid temperament and detachment from reality.

** Ms. Annie, of all people, explains that [[spoiler: most of Ignatius' bizarre habits and beliefs can be traced back to [[TearJerker the death of his dog, Rex]], as well as (what he felt was) the inappropriate response to his loss from his priest and his mother.]]
** The narration at one point mentions an embarrassing incident from Ignatius's adolescence when a science experiment gone wrong when he was in high school frightened him so much that he wet himself and had to walk around school in soiled trousers for the rest of the day. It's one of the only things in the novel that lends him a trace of humanity.
** Gus Levy himself has one in regards to his (mis)management of Levy Pants: his father who would insultingly reject any of his business advice. Thus, Gus developed a disinterest in the company.

* {{Gayborhood}}: The French Quarter isn't yet one of these at the time the book is set, but the fact that the Quarter attracts "characters" did [[TruthInTelevision actually help]] form a gay community there. Dorian Greene's party arguably shows a sort of intermediate stage in its development.

** Lana Lee is also pretty nasty too.

** [[spoiler:Lana Lee and George]] get their just deserts in the end. Though due to ValuesDissonance, the crime they go down for, distributing pornography to high school kids, is much less villainous than their other actions from a modern perspective.
** Ignatius suffers this as well, on a fairly regular basis... not that he understands the misfortune that befalls him is pretty much all his own fault.

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: [[spoiler: Jones tells Patrolman Mancuso about Lana Lee's illegal porn business.]]

* NoAnimalsWereHarmed: As far as we know, [[spoiler: the stray cat Ignatius stuffed in the hot dog cart]] got away fine.

** Burma Jones would also qualify.

* PointyHairedBoss: Mr. Levy has pretty much has zero interest in running his factory, [[spoiler: since his father callously shot down every one of his ideas]]. He regains interest in the company [[spoiler: after Ignatius nearly gets him sued by one of his clients]].

* PushoverParents: Irene at first. But eventually she [[CharacterDevelopment grows a spine]] and becomes increasingly frustrated with Ignatius' failures and excuses, [[spoiler: and decides to have him shipped off to the mental ward]].

-->'''Mrs. Reilly''': You learnt everything [at college], Ignatius, except how to be a human being.
* ScatterbrainedSenior: Miss Trixie. She loses the thread in the middle of conversations, consistently calls Ignatius by the name of his (female) predecessor, and once shows up at the office still in her nightclothes.

*** Ignatius considers himself to be above others in intellect, and refuses to consider the feelings of others.(Pride)
*** Ignatius refuses to do any actual work, spending most of his days loafing around. (Sloth)
*** He is obese, forces Irene to buy him junk food, and steals the hot dogs from the Paradise Vendors stand. (Gluttony)
*** He envies Myrna for her intellectual pursuits. (Envy)
*** He constantly chokes the chicken and has very hidden desires for Myrna. (Lust)
*** Even when he earns money, he refuses to give any to Irene to help her pay off her debt. (Greed)
*** He has a mean temper, and often mistreats Irene. (Wrath)
** Other characters in the story embody them too.
*** Lana Lee squeezes her employees and deals pornography under the table, even posing for some pictures. (Lust and Greed)
*** Mr. Levy doesn't do much but lie around, not taking any interest in his factory. (Sloth)
*** Mrs. Levy constantly belittles her husband and forces her ideals onto others, believing herself to be right. (Pride)
*** Frieda, Betty, and Liz are boisterous and often attack people. (Wrath)

* SwordFight: Ignatius with a plastic sword versus Clyde with his [[ForkFencing giant two-pronged fork]]. For no reason at all. (Well, maybe [[RuleOfFunny one particular reason]]...)

* DrinkOrder: Oh, so many:
** Mrs. Reilly likes a Muscatel (i.e. Moscato) for when she drinks (i.e. often); she keeps them in the oven, to Ignatius' consternation.
** Santa Battaglia, meanwhile, likes Early Times bourbon whiskey and always seems to have some on hand. When she hosts parties, she always makes sure that there's some Early Times on hand, to be served in [[CoolOldLady water glasses filled to the brim, thank you]].
** At the Night of Joy, Ignatius, pretentious ass that he is, orders a fancy New Orleans chicory coffee. The barkeep tells him they only have instant; Ignatius is outraged. He eventually settles on a brandy. More usually, Ignatius will have a Dr. Nut (an almond-flavored soft drink produced in New Orleans at the time).
** Dorian Greene drinks frozen daiquiris and [[UmbrellaDrink similar such drinks]].

*** Mr. Levy doesn't do much by lie around, not taking any interest in his factory. (Sloth)