History Literature / AConfederacyofDunces

* AntiHero[=/=]VillainProtagonist: Ignatius definitely qualifies as one or the other. He is so horrible and inconsiderate and he tends to offend just about everyone he meets that he definitely qualifies as an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist, if not these tropes as well.

Set in UsefulNotes/NewOrleans in the mid-[[TheSixties 1960s]], the plot follows the misadventures and disasters of Ignatius J. Reilly, an [[KnowNothingKnowItAll overeducated]], [[{{Jerkass}} 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.]]

* AmbiguouslyJewish: The Levys. Levy is a common Jewish surname, and Mr. Levy owns a garment factory, which is a common occupation among Jews. However, it's mentioned that the Levys celebrate Christmas, implying that Mr. Levy may be the only Jew in the family.
** Levy Senior notably refers to former President UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover as a "Schlemiel".
* AntiHero / VillainProtagonist: Ignatius definitely qualifies as one or the other. He is so horrible and inconsiderate and he tends to offend just about everyone he meets that he definitely qualifies as an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist, if not these tropes as well.
* BadJobWorseUniform: Ignatius's time at Paradise Vendors. It begins with him just having to wear a cruddy white smock (and [[CustomUniform refusing to wear the belt and paper cap that go with it]]). Later, his boss decides to send him out dressed as a pirate. The full pirate outfit won't fit Ignatius, so he ends up wearing just the accessories (scarf, earring, and plastic sword) ''with'' the white smock.

** 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]].

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

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

* BurgerFool: Ignatius's 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.

** 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's 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.]]

* CoversAlwaysLie: The image of Ignatius with a bird on his head 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 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.
* CovertPervert: Ignatius's moralistic façade hides his [[invoked]][[NauseaFuel bizarre masturbatory fantasies.]]

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: Myrna showing up to whisk Ignatius away]] doesn't come completely out of anywhere, 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). Even Ignatius shows some signs that he is capable of evolving, most notably finally leaving New Orleans.]]

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

** 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 [[SerialEscalation just the tip of the iceberg]].]]

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

** Mr. Gonzalez is insanely tolerant of Ignatius's and Miss Trixie's antics.

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

** Ms. Annie, of all people, explains that [[spoiler: most of Ignatius's 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.]]
** 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 few things in the novel that lends him a trace of humanity.

* FunetikAksent: Jones and other black characters are especially inclined to speak this way, but a few phonetic spellings -- most notably, "communiss" -- turn up in almost everybody's dialogue.

* 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's 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.]]
* HatedByAll: Ignatius alienates and annoys just about everyone around him. The sole exceptions are Myrna and Miss Trixie, and the latter is too senile to notice Ignatius's rotten behavior.

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

** Ignatius's [[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.

** [[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.

* 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.

* {{Malaproper}}: Darlene keeps screwing up the single line she is supposed to deliver as the Southern stripper character "Harlett O'Hara." Thankfully, no one seems to notice.

* 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 pre-Renaissance worldview. His "rally" of the black factory workers at Levy Pants is not done out of any desire to promote their cause, but to serve his crazed and selfish desires. The workers think of him as a hilarious fool, while Burma in turn only associates with Ignatius for his own ends.

* 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; otherwise, she'll turn him in to the police. [[spoiler: [[TheDogBitesBack He eventually turns her in to the police instead.]]]]
* {{MST}}: Ignatius does this for what he perceives as the [[MoralGuardians "offenses against taste and decency"]] in popular culture.

* 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]].

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Dorian Greene is a name the man gave himself. He claims that Ignatius would never speak to him again if he were to learn his boring real name, but we never find out what it is.

* PaperThinDisguise: Patrolman Mancuso is forced to wear a bunch of these by his department which don't fool anyone. Dorian Greene later points him out to Ignatius, saying that he and his friends all get a laugh out of watching him try to bust anyone in the French Quarter because he's so recognizable no matter what disguise he's wearing. The only people his disguises manage to work on are Lana Lee and the rest of the Night Of Joy employees, because they're all so stupid(minus Jones).
* 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's 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's failures and excuses [[spoiler: and decides to have him shipped off to the mental ward]].

** Also, despite being ''by far'' the heaviest person in the book in the beginning, Ignatius manages to gain ''even more weight'' as the story progresses [[spoiler: especially after he gets his job at Paradise Vendors.]]

*** Ignatius refuses to do any actual work, spending most of his days loafing around (Sloth).

*** He constantly chokes the chicken and has very hidden desires for Myrna (Lust).

*** Lana Lee squeezes her employees and deals pornography under the table, even posing for some pictures (Lust and Greed).

*** Myrna is as implacably convinced of her own intellectual rightness as Ignatius, writes about living off handouts from her father and doesn't do anything classically considered socially useful, and has casual group sex as her pet cause (Pride, Sloth, and Lust).

* ShowWithinAShow: ''The Journal Of A Working Boy'', the book Ignatius has been writing for quite some time on gigantic slabs of Big Chief paper scattered around his room. It's ostensibly supposed to be some kind of philosophical epic, but Ignatius really just uses it as a diary to vent his frustrations over the daily minor grievances he experiences while blowing them extraordinarily out of proportion.

* SouthernBelle: Darlene's character, "Harlett O'Hara", in the retooled version of her bird act.

** Ignatius and Myrna hold political and philosophical positions that are mutually opposed, but 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]].

* UnusualEuphemism: It is implied by Ignatius's outrage while reading Myrna's letters that, any time she describes a man as being "very ''real''", there is a better than average chance that she has slept with him. Considering her [[EthicalSlut position on sexuality]], this isn't surprising.

** Jones's dialogue is peppered with exclamations of "Whoa!" and "Ooo-wee!"

* 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's storyline. Irene makes him get a job to pay the damage she caused from driving into a building while drunk.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: What Myrna thinks Ignatius's 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).
* ZanyScheme: Ignatius's 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.

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

-->-- '''Creator/JonathanSwift''', used as the epigraph and source of the title

!!Tropes:

* KickTheSonOfABitch: While vending a hot dog cart, Ignatius refuses to allow George to buy a hot dog and starts ramming him with the cart for bothering him. Considering George is a racist criminal who beats up Patrolman Mancuso shortly after, it’s hard not to view this as karmic.

** Ignatius suffers this as well, semi-regularly ... not that he understands the misfortune that befalls him is pretty much all his own fault.

* 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 ''terribly'' bad breath.

* ChekhovsGun:

* CoversAlwaysLie: The image of Ignatius with a bird on his head 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 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?

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Ignatius, obviously.

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.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Dr. Nut is not a BlandProductName of Dr. Pepper but an actual discontinued soda that was popular in New Orleans at the time with a completely different flavor.

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

* 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 [[invoked]][[NauseaFuel about ten times worse]].

-->'''Ignatius:''' This city is famous for its [[TheGambler gamblers]], [[TheOldestProfession prostitutes]], [[TheHedonist hedonists]], [[KnightTemplar anti-Christs]], [[TheAlcoholic alcoholics]], [[DepravedBisexual sodomites]], [[DrugsAreBad drug addicts]], [[BondageIsBad fetishists]], [[ADateWithRosiePalms onanists]], [[SexIsEvil pornographers]], [[ConMan frauds]], [[IceQueen jades]], [[ThePigPen litterbugs]], and [[ButchLesbian lesbians]], all of whom are only too well-protected by [[CorruptPolitician graft]]. If you have a moment, I shall endeavor to discuss the crime problem with you, but don't make the mistake of bothering ''me''.

* SmallNameBigEgo: While he is smart, Ignatius thinks of himself as a great intellectual that no one else could ever understand rather than the lazy slob he really is.

* 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).]]

* 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.

* 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's adventures in [[BigApplesauce New York]].

* BadJobWorseUniform: Ignatius' time at Paradise Vendors. It begins with him just having to wear a cruddy white smock (and [[CustomUniform refusing to wear the belt and paper cap that go with it]]). Later, his boss decides to send him out dressed as a pirate. The full pirate outfit won't fit Ignatius, so he ends up wearing just the accessories (scarf, earring, and plastic sword) ''with'' the white smock.

** 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.

* ChekhovsGunman: Ignatius has a chance meeting with Dorian in the French Quarter while selling hot dogs, after having met him at the Night of Joy in the first chapter.

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

* CovertPervert: Ignatius' moralistic façade hides his [[invoked]][[NauseaFuel bizarre masturbatory fantasies.]]

** The "Crusade for Moorish Dignity", an attempt to organize the black 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 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 [[LampshadeHanging calls Ignatius a "fat bastard"]] during an argument.

** Ms. Annie, of all people, explains that [[spoiler: most of Ignatius's 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.]]
** The narration at one point mentions an embarrassing incident from Ignatius' 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 few 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 insultingly rejected all his business advice. Thus, Gus developed a disinterest in the company.

* HatedByAll: Ignatius alienates and annoys just about everyone around him. The sole exceptions are Myrna and Miss Trixie, and the latter is too senile to notice Ignatius' rotten behavior.

* 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 StubbornMule he was.

** Mrs. Levy continuously rails against Mr. Levy for, among other things, not listening to others or their viewpoints, while refusing to let him or the people she is trying to help get in a word edgewise.

-->'''Ignatius:''' This city is famous for its [[TheGambler gamblers]], [[TheOldestProfession prostitutes]], [[TheHedonist hedonists]], [[KnightTemplar anti-Christs]], [[TheAlcoholic alcoholics]], [[DepravedBisexual sodomites]], [[DrugsAreBad drug addicts]], [[BondageIsBad fetishists]], [[ADateWithRosiePalms onanists]], [[SexIsEvil pornographers]], [[ConMan frauds]], [[IceQueen jades]], [[ThePigPen litterbugs]], and [[ButchLesbian lesbians]], all of whom are only too well protected by [[CorruptPolitician graft]]. If you have a moment, I shall endeavor to discuss the crime problem with you, but don't make the mistake of bothering ''me''.

* MoralMyopia: Ignatius believes himself entirely above what he considers the filth and impropriety of the modern world, rather than a blinkered participant in its excesses and downfalls. Since Myrna falls into this as well, their correspondence is naturally full of sniping, harrumphing, Freudian analysis, and attempts to outdo and impress each other.

* NoRespectGuy: Jones is the sanest person in the entire story, but he is subjected to PoliceBrutality, harassed, and abused because he’s a black man in the DeepSouth in the early 1960s.

** 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.

* 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.

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

* SecretlySelfish: Mrs. Levy, who only embarks in her missions to help others like Miss Trixie and endless moralizing is just a cover, and she really only does it because she’s bored.

** You will not believe the ways in which the plot threads interact with each other, or how they all manage to tie up so well in the end.

* TheSixties: The time in which the book was written, as well as when it takes place.

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

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Ignatius is a devotee of Dr. Nut, [[AluminumChristmasTrees a real soft drink that was popular mid-century in the New Orleans area]], but has long since been discontinued (for the curious, some Dr. Pepper with a shot of Amaretto makes for a close facsimile).

* UnusualEuphemism: It is implied by Ignatius' outrage while reading Myrna's letters that, any time she describes a man as being "very ''real''", there is a better than average chance that she has slept with him. Considering her [[EthicalSlut position on sexuality]], this isn't surprising.

** Jones' dialogue is peppered with exclamations of "Whoa!" and "Ooo-wee!"

** 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".

* 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.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: What Myrna thinks Ignatius's 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).
* 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.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Ignatius is a devotee of Dr. Nut, [[AluminumChristmasTrees a real soft drink that was popular mid-century in the New Orleans area]], but has long since been discontinued (for the curious, mixing Dr. Pepper with Amaretto makes for a close facsimile).

** Levy Senior notably refers to President Hoover as a "Schlemiel".

* BornInTheWrongCentury: Ignatius is very nearly born in the wrong ''Millenium'', yearning as he does for a time before the Enlightenment, preferably with an absolute monarchy and "a good authoritarian Pope."

** 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 result is Ignatius getting fired, being the only person Mr. Levy has ''ever'' fired.

** 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]].]]

* MeaningfulRename: Dorian Greene gave himself the name as a ShoutOut to ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray''. It suggests his pleasure-seeking, homosexual lifestyle.
* 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 pre-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.

* 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.]]]]

** Ignatius tends to say "I suspect".

*** He is obese, forces Irene to buy him junk food, and steals the hot dogs from the Paradise Vendors stand (Gluttony).

*** 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).