History Webcomic / KevinAndKell

Bill Holbrook's ''[[http://www.kevinandkell.com/ Kevin And Kell]]'' is a UsefulNotes/{{Furry|Fandom}} comic and one of the [[WebcomicsLongRunners longest running webcomics on the net]], running without hiatus since September 1995. (Doubly impressive, since Holbrook also does two syndicated newspaper comics: ''[[http://www.safehavenscomic.com/ Safe Havens]]'' and ''[[http://www.onthefastrack.com/ On the Fastrack.]]'') The series began as a weekday-only black-and-white strip. It went full-color and fully daily in July 2000.

* Kell Dewclaw (Wolf) -0 ActionMom, MamaBear, Corporate Executive

Bill Holbrook's ''[[http://www.kevinandkell.com/ Kevin And Kell]]'' is a FurryComic and one of the [[WebcomicsLongRunners longest running webcomics on the net]], running without hiatus since September 1995. (Doubly impressive, since Holbrook also does two syndicated newspaper comics: ''[[http://www.safehavenscomic.com/ Safe Havens]]'' and ''[[http://www.onthefastrack.com/ On the Fastrack.]]'') The series began as a weekday-only black-and-white strip. It went full-color and fully daily in July 2000.

* Kevin Dewclaw (Rabbit) - TheBigGuy, runs an ISP out of their basement
* Kell Dewclaw (Wolf) - ActionMom, MamaBear, Corporate Executive
* Lindesfarne Dewclaw (Hedgehog) - Kevin's (adopted) daughter from his first marriage. {{Mad Scientist}}-in-training, secretly formerly human
* Rudy Dewclaw (Wolf/Fox) - Kell's son from her first marriage, teenager, [[YoungGun Alpha Male]]-in-training
* Coney Dewclaw (Rabbit/Wolf) - Kevin and Kell's daughter, [[TykeBomb already at the top of the food chain]]

%%* Kevin & Kell #26: (2020)

The comic is mostly a SliceOfLife comic, first dealing with the world's (dis)approval of K & K's "mixed" marriage, then moving into dealing with [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters their (increasingly) extended family]] (assorted inlaws, co-workers, and friends), with occasional forays into special arcs (like the [=Y2K=] storyline). While massive plot arcs have largely faded out after 2004, occasional multi-week plots still crop up from time to time.

!!Due to TropeOverload, the page for ''Kevin and Kell'' has been split into the following subpages:

!!''Kevin and Kell'' contains examples of:
* AccidentalAdultery: Supposedly {{averted}} [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2008/kk0918.html in this comic]] where Kell and her identical cousin Sheila switched places to play a trick on Kevin.
* AcquaintedInRealLife: Both Kevin and Kell receive an invite to be on-air guests on the Jerry Springer Spaniel Show starting on the Thursday 21 May 1998 strip. Once on camera, Jerry tries to intimate that Kevin has had an online affair behind Kell's back. "Think back. Last year. With someone named 'Deathpaw.'" Deathpaw was Kell's online persona while tutoring Kevin, a/k/a Incisor, on ways to be more predatory.
* AerithAndBob: The mole scientists, Avogadro and Bob. The former's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant name]] being a StealthPun.
* AfterTheEnd: Although it isn't brought up much, the world the characters live in was created by an organization of birds. After humans made Earth uninhabitable, and departed for a distant planet, the birds, the only surviving vertebrates, used the humans' intelligence rays to increase their intelligence, and travel back in time to 10 million BC, to stop humans from emerging, giving intelligence to other species in the process.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer:
** Kevin was widely rejected for being a fearless rabbit, even before he married Kell and thus became even more of an outcast.
** George was eventually thrown out of the gopher community because he'd rather grow his own vegetables rather than steal them.
* AllThereInTheManual: Lindesfarne's blog and later Catherina Aura's twitter have been used to explain or develop plot points in greater detail than merely within the strip.
* AltarTheSpeed: Lindesfarne promised to marry Fenton when she graduated college, giving her several years to put it off. In late 2009, she discovered that extra credits from high school could be integrated into her college credit work - the result being that she graduated several months short of the original date. Since she chose to keep her promise to Fenton, she got ''married'' much earlier as well.
** After a con where the foreigners that were after Caniche tried to get her deported, [[https://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0504.html Dip had a solution]] to make sure it would not repeat itself.
--->'''Dip:''' I never want to go through that again!\\
'''Caniche:''' Oui! Me either.\\
'''Dip:''' No, I mean... (''pulls out a ring, takes a knee'') ...I ''never'' want to go through that again.
** Aby and Mark's wedding makes this a LiteralMetaphor: [[https://kevinandkell.com/2018/kk0715.html they exchanged vows during a pit stop]] for one of his MOUSCAR races. It took all of 20 seconds.
--->'''Aby:''' We told everyone the reception would be in the Winner's Circle.\\
'''Rev. Bruinooge:''' That's confident.
* AmbiguousGender: Geese in the strip don't have words in their language that identify them by gender, something close to a real-world analogue of of non-binary people. As they have no identify markings between male and females and that it would be rude to ask, Lindesfarne and Fenton refer to the parent of a goose when they took both in, Onk, with gender-neutral pronouns as 'they' and 'them'.
* AndroclesLion: {{Invoked}} a few times.
** When Edgar was trying to hunt, at one point we see that [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2010/kk0817.html a bunch of mice were removing thorns from his paw]] after he had jumped into a thorn bush, so he would be in their debt.
** Carl felt indebted to Leona after she saved his life ''for the second time''. Edgar, her ex-boyfriend, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1116.html suggested getting her a box as a thank-you gift]] to settle it ([[StalkerWithACrush at least in his own mind]]).
* AnimalJingoism: Used and abused, occasionally Aesoped.
* AnimalsNotToScale: Most of the animals are of similar size, no matter what their species.
* AnimalStereotypes: blind bats, snooty water-hating cats, loyal dogs, hedgehogs with super-strong quills, cowardly rabbits with big families, deer stuck in directed light, and shark lawyers among others.
** This is often subverted, like with Kevin, who is basically a walking, talking, subversion of many of the stereotypes about rabbits.
* ArchivePanic: [[invoked]] [[http://kevinandkell.com/2013/kk1123.html Discussed]], where binge-watching every episode of a TV series was considered impossible before [=DVDs=], only for webcomics being a counterexample.
* ArcWords: "Never talk to your prey. You may become friends." They are ''very'' important.
** They led to the conception of Corrie
** They led to the romance between Corrie and Bruno
** They led to the friendship between Lindesfarne and Tammy, which ultimately saved the former's relationship with Fenton.
** While not preyed on, it did lead to the fling between Edgar and Miranda.
** It even led to Kevin adopting Daisy as a pet.
* ArrangedMarriage: Kevin and Fran Caudal, though the marriage was called off due to Fran's parents being concerned over his lack of fear. Kevin's disastrous first marriage was his own mistake, as he admits. The two later wound up opponents in a campaign for the local school board. Kevin won, and was influential in getting Fran the headmistress job at Caliban Academy, since he knew so much about her from campaign research and knew she was very well qualified.
** Lindesfarne also had to get out of one, which was handled when [[ContrivedCoincidence it turned out her fiance was dating her best friend online.]] They made it official.
** George and Martha Fennec once stated that their marriage was arranged in order to introduce some genetic diversity to their [[BlueBlood "extremely noble lineages"]]. Is it any wonder why they cheated on each other?
* ArtEvolution: Quite noticeable in some cases, especially with Cynthia and Justin (two obscure side characters).
* ArtisticLicenseBiology
** Fenton is shown to have terrible eyesight even with his glasses. In reality bats have fantastic vision. As Holbrook stated shortly after introducing him, he was toying with "blind as a bat" idea and decided that corrective eyeglasses gave Fenton a "geeky look" which fit him best. His echolocation is also portrayed highly inaccurately.
** The history of the Great Bird Conspiracy claims that they were the only species to survive the destruction of [[EarthThatWas our Earth's]] environment because they could fly over the trash heaps. Birds in real life are highly sensitive to pollution and would probably be some of the first common species to go. They also don't spend all of their lives in the air.
** Lindesfarne is shown a series of quills belonging to Princess Chertsey. Without even using any of her equipment, she is immediately able to tell them what the DNA looks like, "[[http://kevinandkell.com/2004/kk0115.html down to the last gene]]." It should go without saying that DNA strands are not visible to the naked eye, or even to a light microscope (one using lenses and normal light). DNA is only "visible" to an electron microscope.
** For that matter, ''hedgehogs do not have quills.'' Quills, like in a porcupine, are thin, barbed, and detachable. Lindesfarne's design (and Chertsey's) mirror that of a porcupine. Hedgehogs have ''spines'', which are thick, white, and a permanent part of their body outside of occasional shedding. Not shockingly, Lindesfarne is incorrectly portrayed as having the porcupine quills and behavior patterns, with the weak explanation that she "became an American porcupine" by being adopted (which was later revealed as a lie anyway, but a biologist like her should have known that.) For that matter, Chertsey, who never Americanized anyway, still appears as a porcupine despite supposedly being an English hedgehog.
** Rabbits are drawn with stereotypical cat-like button noses rather than slit-shaped noses. On the other hand, realistically-drawn rabbits are portrayed with the correct noses.
* ArtisticLicenseEconomics
** When Fiona loses all of her money, she reveals that all of her scholarship offers for college have also vanished along with it. The author, when asked about how this could possibly happen, suggested that the colleges were only offering scholarships to her because she was formerly rich. Scholarships are actually offered to people who ''don't'' have money. Even putting aside that ''scholarships do not work that way'', Fiona's high academics and successful athletics more than qualify her for even the most basic merit awards, let alone need-based awards. [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2009/kk0127.html This comic]] tries to handwave it with the claim that every single scholarship offer was simply offered to her because she'd be a rich alumnus...which is, again, not how scholarships work. Of course, the ''real'' reason for this happening in the plot is to facilitate Rudy selflessly giving up half of his Easter Bunny scholarship...which is completely undercut by how badly all of these events had to handwave reality to make this happen.
** Surely the IRS would have said something about Kevin and Kell filing jointly as spouses for ''ten years'' despite the fact that legally, thanks to Rudy, they were not married.
* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Legislation ''does not take place instantaneously''. This pops up ''a lot'' in the comic to try and create obstacles or simplistic resolutions to complex problems, such as the community wi-fi contract or Kevin and Kell's rush to marry before the anti-mixed species marriage act passes.
* AsYouKnow: A hallmark of all of Holbrook's comics.
* AscendedToCarnivorism: Coney the KillerRabbit.
* AskAStupidQuestion: Fiona's first reaction when she found she'd been moved into a different room when Bruno moved in with Corrie at her mansion.
-->'''Fiona:''' Bruno?\\
'''Corrie:''' No, [[Music/KanyeWest Kanye Wren]]. Of course, Bruno!
* AssInALionSkin: Many characters have used make up, costumes, and/or parts of other characters to disguise themselves as members of other species. For starters, Corrie had gone a long while disguised as a wolf named Dale. Kell has disguised herself as a rabbit and shortly after as a feline. George Fennec spent a while disguised as a rabbit despite disliking rabbits since he has always been confused as one his whole life. And at least three non-rabbits spent Easter disguised as the Easter bunny.
** And this occasionally pops up as Halloween costumes for kids. Kell noted one time that a child was using a...less-than-fresh pelt. (In fact, this is eventually where Corrie's "Dale" pelt went: into Coney's dress-up box.)
* AssholeVictim: Several minor characters get devoured as a result of their misdeeds, like when one personnel director tried to get Kell fired for being domesticated, only to get eaten by Coney before he could do so.
** Not surprising, the [[ManipulativeBastard personnel director]] was [[KickTheDog taunting Kell]] [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1997/kk0106.html with a dog collar]].
** Also the talk show host who tried to goad Kell into eating Kevin.
* AssShove: [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1214.html What ultimately happened to the poachers]] that tried to kidnap Carl:
--->'''Police #1:''' Um...how are we gonna get those guys down from there?\\
'''Police #2:''' Painfully.
* AstonishinglyAppropriateAppearance: Angelique as a rat.
** Averted because Angelique has ''Plastic Surgery'' to alter her ears to look rat-like after she was banned from calling herself a rabbit after [[spoiler:betraying secrets that rabbits use to evade their predatory foes. Though Kevin stated later that those were "secrets" the rabbits thought predators had already sussed out.]].
* AuthorFilibuster: The occasional storyline, usually the politically centered ones.
* AutoErotica: Not sex, but in the Lindesfarne betrothal storyline, she found out her roommate, Rhonda, was in an online relationship with Quinn, the porcupine she was betrothed to. She cooked up a plan for them to get married to break the betrothal so she could marry Fenton as planned. But after the wedding, when she wanted to discuss when they would divorce after the betrothal was broken, [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2007/kk0717.html she saw them making out in the backseat of her car]] and realized that wouldn't be necessary.
** As for actual backseat shenanigans, they are implied to take place between Kevin and Kell [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2011/kk0317.html in this strip]] not long after she became CEO of Herd Thinners.
--->'''Kell:''' Wally, this isn't the route to the office.\\
'''Kevin:''' I gave Wally the day off.
* AwfulWeddedLife: Kevin's first marriage to Angelique. It's also implied that Kevin's parents had a rocky marriage as well before they divorced.
* BadassAdorable: Several characters qualify, but the undisputed champion is Coney. Being half-wolf, Coney ends up effortlessly devouring attackers five times her size in a single panel. She was that dangerous even when she was in diapers, much to the (brief) dismay of unsuspecting predators.
* BadBoss: R.L. has little to no respect either for or from his employees and treats most of them poorly, firing Kell, one of his most loyal employees, on the advice of a contractor.
** Eventually this started to bite R.L. in the ass with Kell's HonestCorporateExecutive competing predator company treating it's employees fairly. Two strips have shown a spy hired by R.L. switching jobs because he liked working at Kell's company better, and that R.L.'s employees are malnourished which renders them unable to properly compete with Kell's employees.
* BarefootCartoonAnimal: Everyone except Francis. Lampshaded in a Christmas strip where Kevin and Kell wonder what these little textile objects with the names of the family members that they hang on the mantlepiece are supposed to be.
-->'''Kell:''' I always thought they're tiny body-bags.
* BeastAndBeauty: Gender ''and'' species flipped.
* BecomingTheMask: Lindesfarne drops some coyotes into the Rabbit Hole with rabbit disguises, suggesting that they might take years to discover the exit. At least one marries a female rabbit and keeps up the facade well into his old age.
** A milder example was Fiona disguising herself as Rudy to avoid paparazzi during her [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]] world tour, and as a result acting more like him-moody, lazy, irresponsible. When Rudy acting responsible literally knocked the disguise off her, she vowed to disguise herself as someone who wouldn't affect her work ethic. (Since she chose Lindesfarne, it works...but she starts to crave bugs.)
* BigEater: Coney's eaten animals whole before, including deer, large cats, and bears.
* TheBigGuy: Kevin, who's about three times the size of a normal rabbit.
* BlandNameProduct:
** There are no fewer than seven examples in [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0205.html this]] strip.
** How indeed could the [[WritingAroundTrademarks WikiBreaks]] be traced back to [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2011/kk0202.html Harelink?]]
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: To put it bluntly, the concepts of right and wrong in the K&K universe are both bizarre and alien to the average human mind.
** And to each other in some cases, guess that's what happens when your food is sapient.
** For example, Danielle expressed bafflement that while in the human world sexuality is a big deal, in Domain no one raises an eyebrow about Rachel's homosexuality, noting that ''diet'' is the, as she put it, 'pointless arbitrary division' everyone focuses on. (Kevin just asks what an eyebrow is.)
** Discussed when Fenton's tree house embezzles from Hare-Link. He states that while fauna have to follow their own rules to ensure that society remains orderly and functional, plants naturally consume all resources they can to sustain themselves, and Tree is making an effort to do the right thing.
* BoomerangBigot: The hate group N.O.P.E., who target the Dewclaw family for mixed species breeding. However, once Lindersfarne runs DNA tests on them, she finds that [[spoiler: none of them are pure-blooded as they claim. This has two effects: one member performs a HeelFaceTurn and turns in the members who committed felonies, and the info revealed ensures no one in the group will trust each other ever again, leaving them decimated.]]
* ABoyAGirlAndABabyFamily: Rudy, Lindesfarne and Coney, respectively.
* BrickJoke: Fenton was once asked, in the height of the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' craze, if he was a vampire bat. [[spoiler: Turns out his mother ''is''.]]
** A little longer period. In 1996, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1996/kk0808.html Lindesfarne said she was caught by Rudy to help him pass summer school.]] In 2011, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2011/kk0326.html Coney got herself "caught" by a friend, Lin, so they could play after school.]]
* BreakingTheFourthWall: In [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2007/kk0304.html this Sunday strip,]] it's refernced by name!
* BrokenPedestal: Lindesfarne finds out that the professor whom she's working for falsified his results on stem cell research. Rudy learns that [[spoiler:his biological father cheated on his mother]].
* BuriedAlive: The apparent fate of [[https://kevinandkell.com/2020/kk0606.html the fur traders that Ophelia escaped from]] as Tree collapsed the tunnel system under her to stop them, as the chase had cut some of her roots.
-->'''George:''' We need to make sure the guys after you are... uh...\\
'''Ophelia:''' Worm food?\\
'''George:''' Yeah.\\
'''Random worm:''' [[BlackComedy Give it about five minutes]].
* BurpOfFinality:
** Little Coney yields a burp after devouring a grown tiger who was poised to expose her mother's affliction with domestication, which would've gotten Kell fired.
** The [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Jerry Springer Spaniel]] Show tried to stir up trouble between Kevin and Kell over an online affair. The last panel of the Thursday 28 May 1998 strip has Kell give a burp while speaking to her husband; Jerry Spaniel is suddenly gone, his microphone lying on the set floor.
** And one is used at the end of the story where Angelique "rescues" R.L. from The Wild and takes him to prison to replace his doppelgänger.
--->'''R.L.'s doppelgänger:''' Hey, what's going on?\\
'''Angelique:''' R.L. is taking your place. I'll smuggle you out.\\
'''R.L.'s doppelgänger:''' NO WAY! IN HERE EVERYONE IS TERRIFIED OF ME! I LIVE LIKE A KING! I'M ''NOT'' LEAVING!!!\\
(''R.L. eats his doppelgänger'')\\
'''Angelique:''' [[BondOneLiner In a way, he was right]].\\
'''R.L.:''' (''burps'')
* TheBusCameBack: Harcourt Ursal unceremoniously returned in March 2013 after a 12-year absence. His disappearance had been explained as his entire family moving to Florida off-camera. His return? His family...moved back.
** Rhonda and Quinn suddenly came back into focus for a brief storyline in 2013. Quinn had ''literally'' only been part of a single storyline, the one that put Rhonda on the bus in the first place in 2007. His only ''other'' appearance in the strip was a crowd scene in 2010. Rhonda [[DemotedToExtra had not done anything significant in the strip]] since 2010 (where she was part of the wedding party) and two one-off gag strips in 2011. One of them literally used her as an extra.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: {{Invoked}} and PlayedForLaughs [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0113.html shortly after Lindesfarne found out she was pregnant:]]
-->'''Lindesfarne:''' Wow! Pregnant! I'm actually carrying a living being! This is amazing!!!\\
'''Fenton''' (carrying Lindesfarne on one of their flights): ...[[LiteralMetaphor or for me, this is Thursday]].[[note]]Oddly enough, this strip was released on a Friday.[[/note]]
* ButWeUsedACondom: Also {{invoked}} when Lindesfarne got pregnant. They pretty much figured that her quills likely compromised one. [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0103.html The look on Lindesfarne's face]] upon her realization really sells it.
-->'''Lindesfarne:''' It was just a matter of time before there'd be a puncture...
* CallBack: When Kevin had a near-miss with a predator, Kell [[http://kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0828.html suggested his 360° peripheral vision was going]]. After she got kicked out of Herd Thinners, the Rabbit Council told her [[http://kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0919.html they could see her ouster coming with their 360° peripheral vision]].
** As of October, 2012, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk1025.html Kevin finally has glasses]].
** Very early on, Rudy got a shocked expression [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1996/kk0209.html when he saw Fiona after a makeover by Lindesfarne.]] He gets the same expression [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1996/kk1031.html when she surprises him by moving back to Domain after having moved away for the summer.]]
** When Rachel the rhino was introduced, [[https://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1229.html she thought Bruno was a girl]] due identifying him only by scent due to naturally bad eyesight. Later on, Carl, another rhino, [[https://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk0731.html initially thought Leona was a guy due to bad eyesight]] (though for whatever reason, he never use scent as a clue she was a lioness).
* CallingTheOldManOut
** Lindesfarne's first series with Angelique has her doing this, expressing her resentment of how Angelique was distant from her in her childhood, and ultimately abandoned her.
** Rudy does this with the memory of his father, after he finds out that [[spoiler:Vin is his half-brother, meaning that he cheated on Rudy's mother]].
** And Leona doesn't take kindly to her father, Frank, nearly getting himself killed challenging R.L. to be CEO of Herd Thinners. Especially since [[spoiler:she'd already lost her mother]].
--->'''Leona:''' Doctor, is his jaw broken?\\
'''Dr. Caduceus:''' Why, no--\\
(Leona punches Frank in the jaw)\\
'''Frank:''' Ow! Leona! What--\\
'''Leona:''' '''THAT'S''' FOR ALMOST MAKING ME AN ORPHAN, DADDY!!!
* TheCameo: Larry the Croc from ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'' appeared in [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk0731.html this strip]] trying to get a job at Herd Thinners.
* CargoShip: In-universe example: Aby Eyeshine [[http://kevinandkell.com/2006/kk0425.html literally married her job.]]
** Complete with anniversary gift (a new sign) and concern about whether she's cheating on her job (by supplemental income from [[VideoGame/SecondLife Ninth Life]].)
* CarnivoreConfusion: The core of the strip, as well as a source of much of its humor. The strip basically establishes a morality in that so long as the predator is hunting for ''food'', predation of other people is okay. However, if the prey is targeted as an individual and not consumed, it's considered murder. It ''is'' considered extremely taboo for herbivores to eat meat.
* CastIncest: InUniverse in a story arc about the high school putting on a production of ''[[Theatre/WestSideStory West Habitat Story]]''. Fiona is cast in the role of Maria. Her boyfriend Rudy? Cast as Maria's brother Bernardo.
-->'''Fiona and Rudy:''' Awkward...
** Rudy is later recast as Chino, Maria's hot-blooded lover.
* CategoryTraitor: Herbivores marrying carnivores are viewed as such, and Kevin says that his family consider him and Lindesfarne "traitors" for his marriage to a wolf. Predators marrying prey species face less severe condemnation, but it's clear that many of the more traditional predators look down on prey species.
* CatUpATree: It is a common occurrence for cats in this universe to be chased up trees by dogs.
** Kell herself ended up stuck in a tree with Aby which served as [[LaserGuidedKarma karmic punishment]] for all the cats she chased up trees as a child--[[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk1219.html one of which may have been Aby herself.]] At one point, Kell ended up saving a kitten who had gotten stuck up her tree. The same kitten was later seen stuck up a tree again, but this time rescued by a squirrel.
** During a hunting competition, a cat claimed climbing trees was the advantage over Rudy in order to capture a squirrel. The responding fireman grumbled during the rescue.
* CharacterBlog: Lindesfarne's "Virtual Quill" and Catherine Aura's Twitter.
* CharacterDevelopment: Ralph used to be the centre of a RunningGag in which he would try to eat Kevin and fail, and was more or less the ButtMonkey. But then, an arc actually showed ''why'' he was so bad at hunting and he actually became a ''much'' more sympathetic character.
** Actually Ralph's development began when he swallowed his pride and went to work for Hare-Link, making his former would-be prey his ''boss''. His getting fat during this time could be a covert LampshadeHanging. He even said [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2001/kk0613.html he's glad he never caught Kevin]].
-->'''Kevin''': Between us we can appeal to both herbivores and carnivores. What do you say?\\
* {{beat}}*\\
'''Ralph''': That... I'm glad I never succeeded in devouring you?\\
'''Kevin''': [[{{Foreshadowing}} Maybe deep down you never really wanted to]]...
** Vin Vulpen, when it was shown how he was doing, actually was shown to have been a much better character in the wild from the glance we saw. When he was pretty much an utter bastard (literally, since we find out that he's [[spoiler:Rudy's biological father's son by an extramarital affair]]).
** Even Angelique got some, although it wasn't as major. She's had a ''few'' redeeming moments (Lindesfarne's graduation from high school.)
* CheatedAngle: Kevin always has one ear flopped over - the one furthest from the audience. Meaning that which is flopped and which is straight can change within the same strip if Kevin turns his head. Holbrook acknowledges this in the FAQ as a stylistic choice.
* ChekhovsGun: Danielle puts a human world quarter in a vending machine when it refuses to accept her human world dollars. When Rudy buys a Coke and gets that quarter as change, he starts getting suspicious about her.
** [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2009/kk0417.html this]] 2009 strip, it's established that R.L. employs a homing pigeon as a living GPS. [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2013/kk1014.html Four years later]], it's shown that Richard Rodent [[spoiler:secretly illegally uses a homing pigeon to navigate the Mouscar race maze]].
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1216.html Carl thinks Leona has this]] after she saved his skin three times in roughly half a year.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Most characters who depart the strip are at least given some plausible excuse, but a few simply drifted out of existence. A perfect example are Lindesfarne's friends at the prom where she met Fenton, an armadillo and a turtle.
** In July 2012, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0710.html Lindesfarne tried to catch up with them.]] [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0711.html While she found the armadillo, Colina,]] [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0713.html she could not find the turtle, Cara]].
--->'''Lindesfarne:''' It's as if she doesn't '''want''' to be found!
* ClingyJealousGirl: Shandra, from Catherine's twitter.
* CloningBlues: Averted with Dolly (Yes, she's a sheep), who begins aging rapidly for some time, but who is reverted to an infant, renamed Mary, and essentially given a fresh start on life.
* ComicBookTime: Time advances in fits and starts; pretty much whenever Bill feels like it. This is particularly noticable in some of the older strips, such as when [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/1997/kk0520.html Fiona notes she'll set her biological clock for 2008.]]
** Except Kell. After being established as [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk1218.html around 35]] [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk1219.html in 2006]], [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2011/kk0221.html she was aged to 40 suddenly in 2011]] while those around her have aged at the usual slow rate.
* CompensatingForSomething: This joke is made on occasion. The most acute example is [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2009/kk0516.html Aby's first boyfriend, Max Manx.]] She reasoned that he likely had a particular hunger for wealth to compensate for not having a tail.
* ContrivedCoincidence: This happens ''all the freaking time.''
** In the Christmas Tree storyline, Kevin almost encounters Kell while looking for a tree, and the tree later becomes "Tree".
** In the [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2010/kk0606.hatml wedding arc]], the one doctor who knows how to drain blood is hurt and bleeding internally, just in time for the freaking vampire bat to exit the house. Also convenient that she can instantly drain spinal fluid without any medical knowledge beyond "where's the jugular?" Would almost be amusing except that the art and writing take a huge drop when these things happen, and the only trope the author seems to like more than this one is CarnivoreConfusion / FunnyAnimal.
** Note that Rachel was introduced as being in Bruno's class...then is suddenly Lindesfarne's roommate.
** We need to write Rhonda out of the comic. How about revealing Lindesfarne has an arranged marriage she needs to get out of and make sure Rhonda's been dating the character we ''just'' mentioned?
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Kell's boss, R.L., and later Kevin's ex-wife when she marries R.L.
** This trope is tempered however by, of all tropes, BrilliantButLazy. R.L. shot down both world conquest and a racketeering scheme because it'd be too much work.
* CrapsackWorld: EarthThatWas in the backstory.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: The main universe of the comic, if taken seriously, would be one of the most terrifying fictional settings ever; of course (and fortunately), [[RuleOfFunny it's not]].
** In essence, at a first glance, the world of Kevin & Kell seems just a basic UsefulNotes/FurryFandom setting... until one really thinks about what the maintenance of pre-sentience foodchains means, which is made worse because they are often brought up as part of the storyline. Not only can anyone simply kill and eat you on the street just because they were peckish, the law can be brought down on you for trying to protect yourself and the government will actively interfere with steps to change society so that predators don't basically run everything. Of course, even being a predator is no protection because if a nastier predator wants to eat you, they can: nobody will notice or care if your boss eats you for falling behind behind the quota, for example. Some people are also ''bred'' to be used as goods, like Dip the "Sheepskin" Diploma.
* CrashIntoHello: How Carl and Leona initially met. While Leona was looking for Francis, who was wandering naked between the combined Herbivore and Carnivore summer camps that year, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk0716.html she tripped and fell over Carl's horn.]]
-->''''Carl:''' Hang on... I got something on my nose.
* {{Crossover}}:
** The webcomic ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'' is part of their analogous human universe, per a lengthy crossover series in both comics. [[spoiler:However, considering the nature of the involvement of GPF resident god-like character The Gamester, this may be a RedHerring.]]
** A 2019 storyline had the family attending the wedding of ''Shanda the Panda''
* DarkHorseVictory: Frank Mangle challenged R.L. for control of Herd Thinners. The winner? [[spoiler: Kell, who had only intervened to keep them from killing each other.]]
* DeathByChildbirth: Corrie's mother.
** Averted with Corrie herself, but in heartbreaking fashion: [[http://virtual-quill.tumblr.com/post/183180039927/change-of-plan she and Bruno discovered she had the same defect]] that caused her mother's death, and [[https://kevinandkell.com/2019/kk0226.html promptly give up]] on having children naturally.
* DeerInTheHeadlights: It happens on occasion. Kell [[http://kevinandkell.com/2004/kk0506.html does it deliberately with a projector]] as one of her hunting tactics.
-->'''Kell:''' Works every time!
* DemotedToExtra: This has happened to numerous characters that haven't been PutOnABus entirely. Most notable are Bruno and Corrie, whose complicated saga dominated almost a decade of the strip's existence and now only appear very rarely and in the background. Also notable are Lindesfarne's friends Tammy and Ray, who moved to a lighthouse and have decreased in appearances, often going a few ''years'' between appearances.
* DeusExMachina: Some multi-day story arcs are suddenly resolved by an instant event. For example, a tiny insect that threatens the Dewclaws gets instantly crushed by a falling book, or is eaten by a passing motorist.
* DeusExitMachina: Fenton was not involved in the storyline of Lindesfarne's betrothal in 2007. It was only after she had arranged for her betrothed, a porcupine named Quinn, to marry her college roommate Rhonda ([[ContrivedCoincidence who just happened to be in an online relationship with him]]) [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2007/kk0720.html that Fenton showed up.]]
-->'''Fenton:''' Hi Lindesfarne! [[LampshadeHanging I've been immersed in coding for the last few days! Anything happen while I was out of touch?]]
* DiabolusExMachina: A multi-month storyline involved Kevin's ISP, Harelink, competing with telecoms for a lucrative contract to provide free wifi to the city of Domain. After all this time spent with the reader wondering if they'll win the contract or not, they do...and the ''very next strip'' shows that the telecoms instantly passed legislation making offering community wifi illegal simply so Harelink would lose the contract. For some strange reason, Kevin also doesn't immediately take court action on a clearly unconstitutional law, simply going on an {{Anvilicious}} rant instead. This was all because Holbrook wanted to use the strip and its characters for his personal soapbox on telecom practices (he'd also used them to illustrate a campaign on the subject at the time.)
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The strip uses numerous animal characters to reflect real-world situations. The title characters appear to represent a mixed race couple, "domestication" is often treated as homosexuality (one character discusses the problems of her "openly domesticated lifestyle"), and another character's "trans-diet" surgery to change him from a carnivore to an herbivore is treated with scorn and derision for altering the manner of his birth - in other words, a reflection of transgender issues. It also subverts it from time to time - actual homosexuality in the world of Domain is completely accepted (in the strip's logic, because people focus more on the carnivore vs. herbivore differences than anything else). It's worth noting, however, that WordOfGod says that Domestication is not a direct reflection of any real-world condition, despite the more obvious reactions to it.
** Even worse: When Bruno's friends found out he was trans-diet, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk0217.html they literally found him]] [[LiteralMetaphor in a closet]], eating hay.
** The creator actually says in the FAQ that another part of the strip is a stand in for real world issues, ''all'' real world issues.
---> '''Bill Holbrook''': I would like to add, however, that species difference in "Kevin and Kell" represents all human conflicts, whether racial, religious, national, ideological, gender, etc.
*** Well, at least he's not biased . . . mostly.
** There appear to be degrees of discrimination; only the most extreme believers in species purity (like the Institute of Species Purity) oppose inter-species marriage as long as the two partners share diets, but predator/prey relationships have quite a bit of social opposition.
** Some fans have noted that [[http://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk1010.html the treatment of Rudy by opposing fans]] [[http://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk1012.html while on Beige University's competitive gardening team]] looks similar to the treatment of black students trying to attend traditionally-segregated Southern U.S. universities in the 1960s, or what Jackie Robinson dealt with busting Major League Baseball's color barrier in the 1940s.
* DopeSlap: Coney gave Rudy one when he admits he never sent in Kevin and Kell's marriage license.
** Kell gives Sheila one. ''[[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments With her tail.]]'' It was to clue Sheila in that if she wanted to get serious with Frank, she needed to also bond with Frank's daughter, Leona.
-->'''Sheila:''' Did you just give me a "dope slap" with your tail?
-->'''Kell:''' Somebody had to.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: The headmaster of Caliban Academy, a fly, is killed by a sheet of glass falling from a truck, opening his position for Fran Caudal.
* DungeonBypass: Two Rabbit's Revenge members burrow into Danielle's room to avoid having to go through Kell's house.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Vin Vulpen faked his death and escaped to The Wild in 2002. [[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk0601.html A year later,]] he is seen in The Wild with a mate and some kits.[[note]]According to Bill, the kits are adopted[[/note]]
* EasterBunny: Kevin was the Easter Bunny for a few years (after being the previous one's bodyguard), but a complex series of events led to Rudy getting the job.
* EatingTheEnemy: Done by proxy in the issue for Thursday 9 January 1997 when baby Coney devoured the tiger who was about to snitch on Kell being domesticated. Instead of Kell being fired, the tiger's head hangs as a trophy in Coney's room.
* EducationMama: Mei-Li (Lin's mother), who's a real Tiger Mom.
* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Literal example [[http://kevinandkell.com/2010/kk1116.html here]].
* EpunymousTitle: Punning on "heaven and hell".
* EstablishingSeriesMoment: [[http://kevinandkell.com/1995/kk0906.html The third strip]], in which the family reminisces about the wedding, in which the predator and prey sides of the family had to be separated by barbed wire.
* EvenEvilHasStandards - [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2008/kk0329.html "Attack our own customers?!"]]
* EveryoneIsRelated - The Dewclaws, Kindles, and Fennecs have not-so-gradually developed into a TangledFamilyTree. One comic from 2002 featured a [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2002/kk0526.html Dewclaw family tree]] that is now a little out of date, a current one would be difficult to portray in only two dimensions.
** Rudy and Vin, once bitter enemies, turn out to be half brothers.
** Corrie, a sheep, is the long lost daughter of Ralph, a wolf.
** And now it turns out that Wendell, the BrattyHalfPint rabbit that's been following Rudy during the last couple of Easter Bunny arc is [[spoiler:Dorothy's grandson and, by extension, Rudy's cousin.]]
** Not pictured on the scheme, Kevin's sister Danielle ([[spoiler:her doppleganger, but there's little difference]]) married George Fennec.
*** And this isn't counting the ones that are predicted to happen when they're old enough to marry, such as Bruno/Corrie and Rudy/Fiona. Lindesfarne and Fenton tied the knot recently.
** Also demonstrated in [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2005/kk0125.html this strip]].
** Some commenters on Lindesfarne's blog have referred to this phenomenon as "Dewclaw assimilation".
* EvilCostumeSwitch: Well, sort of. Kell's been sporting darker red business outfits (as opposed to her typical peach-colored ones) ever since [[spoiler: she became C.E.O. of Herd Thinners. Then again, she's significantly fairer than R.L. is.]]
** [[spoiler: And now she's switched to a more neutral green since she set herself up as a rival to Herd Thinners with funding from the Rabbit Council.]]
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Mei Li is a Tiger Mom in every sense of the word.
* TheFaceless: R.L. Somewhat subverted in that his muzzle is always clearly visible, but the rest of his head is always just off-panel.
* FakedRipVanWinkle: Lindesfarne and Fenton's tree do this to him by making him think it's three years later. [[spoiler:It kind of backfires. Fenton does curb his thrill seeking tendencies, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2007/kk0530.html but Lindesfarne inadvertently accepted his marriage proposal]].]]
-->'''Fenton:''' So, instead of conning me...\\
'''Lindesfarne:''' I conned '''myself'''.
* FantasticRacism: Mainly between predators and prey, although some inter-species prejudice, such as between canines and felines, exists. It must be said, though, that its take on the concept, which, while as seen above is not without its critics, is certainly more nuanced than most, and more relevant. While most parables about racism and cultural conflicts encourage people to put aside their differences, this one asks more difficult questions: What if some differences can never be put aside? What if some groups can never co-exist without hurting each other? Can we still find a way to make a peaceful world even then?
** The connection is made more explicit than ever [[http://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk1010.html when Rudy joins Beige University's competitive gardening team.]]
* FashionableAsymmetry: Kevin's ear, which the author has admitted will always flop the same way regardless of what side Kevin is facing for aesthetic purposes.
* FirstGirlWins: Fiona for Rudy. Oddly, VictoriousChildhoodFriend is ''subverted'': they had hated each other when they were in day care years before Fiona moved away, and didn't even remember that before a teacher told them about it.
* FootPopping: Holbrook seems to be a fan of these, possibly because [[BarefootCartoonAnimal nobody wears shoes]], creating a unique foot focus. Usually it's Kell who ends up [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk1022.html doing it]], but there's also [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1999/kk1206.html a notable one]] when Coney kisses Nigel just before the two [[ItMakesSenseInContext use a time machine to return themselves back to their usual toddler forms.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1997/kk0730.html This strip]] from 1997 arguably foreshadows [[spoiler: Kell eventually becoming CEO of Herd Thinners]].
** [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1129.html A month before Lindesfarne discovered she was pregnant,]] she, Fenton, and Rudy were discussing their mothers asking about when she'd start producing grandchildren for them.
*** [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1223.html And a week before that reveal,]] a comic implied Lindesfarne and Fenton [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar were having sex in the chimney]].
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Rudy and Fiona, who find out after dating for some time that they were in the same preschool - and hated each other.
* ForTheEvulz: Rudy's comic portrayed humans as ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain Planet|and the Planeteers}}'' villains in almost every respect except for the fact that [[VillainProtagonist they're the main characters]]. Of course, at the time he drew the comic, everyone in that universe thought humans were fictional creatures. The idea of a race that would deliberately destroy habitats was considered so outrageously absurd as to be humorous.
* FourLegsGoodTwoLegsBetter: Land mammals, though mostly on two legs, are just as adept at being on four legs. Though larger land mammals like elephants are more commonly seen on four legs in civilization, they can also be on two legs. Carl the rhinoceros is a good example, being seen on four legs most often early on, but being on two legs more often once he begins dating Leona.
* FourthWallMailSlot: Lindesfarne [[http://blog.kevinandkell.com runs her own blog,]] and 6/27/08, she started [[http://blog.kevinandkell.com/archives/131-TESTING-ONE,-TWO,-THREE.html responding to replies]].
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: Papa Kindle and Angelique try to frame the other for Sid's murder, thinking that the other did it. [[spoiler:It was actually (technically) Danielle, who was assigned to kill Sid, but couldn't do it, causing Sid to accidentally kill himself with her stake gun. Papa Kindle decides to [[TakingTheHeat take the fall]] for his daughter.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Ralph's desire to eat Kevin stems from the tragic death of his herbivore lover. Desdemona Fuscus pressures Lindesfarne and Fenton to get married so that Lindesfarne doesn't find out about her being a vampire bat before the wedding.
* FrivolousLawsuit: A bear attacks Kevin, who easily backhands him. The bear responds by suing Kevin, claiming that, as a rabbit, he violated the natural order by fighting back and demanding Kevin's weight in meat. Mei Li gets the case thrown out by pointing out that the bear using the judicial system to attack Kevin is equally unnatural.
* FurryComic: One of the longest running and best known.
* FurryConfusion: Basically determined by RuleOfFunny. For just one example, Lindesfarne's lab mice were long-running characters that lived in a cage like pets, even though they were actually sentient and capable of speech. Other parts of the comic have shown mice that are the same size as the main characters, complete with anthropomorphic features like hair and clothes. The status of the lab mice nearly break the strip's logic when Lindesfarne attempts to send them to the human world in place of herself and Danielle, but is informed by Catherine Aura that it wouldn't work with mice because they're "too small". This concept is also used for laughs from time to time - for just one example, Kell appears to be enamored of dogs in a pet store window, but the last panel zooms out to reveal it's a temp agency. The Dewclaws also keep a sentient flower for a pet. They're also aware of the concept of pets despite no appearances of other pets in the strip, though there may be other reasons why they feel this way besides RuleOfFunny.
** There's also the appearance of human-sized insects like moths, lightning bugs, and praying mantises...while insectivores like Lindesfarne and Fenton usually eat regular sized little insects. There was even an instance of a GIANT SPIDER attacking Tammy and Ray's (moth and lightning bug respectively) wedding, which Lindesfarne and Fenton ATE.
** Though one comic has Danielle realizing that pets don't exist in this world, which she admits makes sense as animals are the dominant species to begin with.
* GenderBender: In [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2007/kk0401.html this April Fool's comic]].
* GenderEqualsBreed: Averted, with the exception of Corrie for obvious reasons.
* GeniusLoci: Fenton's house
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Frequently. Perhaps most blatantly [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2009/kk0325.html here]].
* GoodAngelBadAngel: [[http://kevinandkell.com/2004/kk1009.html Conventional use]], and later [[http://kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0715.html leaning towards parody]].
* GreenAesop
* GreenEyedMonster: Vin has been jealous of Rudy ever since he worked for Kell as an intern. When Fiona rejects him in favor of Rudy, it only makes things worse.
* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: The comic's characters ''are'' aware of a need for clothes and covering up nudity...but some of them are naked and some of them aren't. For one such example, people who live in the wild forgo clothing, and Kell is visibly upset about being naked and covering herself up during a storyline where the family pretends to be uncivilized. However, Catherine Aura briefly wore a sweater (and no skirt) in her earliest appearances, though this was dropped in favor of her son and pretty much every other bird flapping around in the nude (her cousin wears sunglasses - and that's it). Nobody comments on this. The less anthropomorphic animals will also appear without clothes with about as much comment as Lindesfarne's pet mice.
** To justify one species not wearing clothes...how ''would'' snakes wear clothes?
** ''None'' of the animals wear shoes or socks, leading to an early joke in the series about the characters wondering why they hung Christmas stockings as they had no idea what they were.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Francis, though it's really complicated.
* HappilyAdopted: Lindesfarne, Mary, and Gweneth and her siblings.
* HappilyMarried: Kevin and Kell, since before the strip started.
* HasTwoMommies: Rabbit character Miranda has two fathers.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: The reason behind the Great Bird Conspiracy abducting Vin, Fenton, Ray and the elk that Rudy caught, along with a desire to make their computers [=Y2K=]-compatible.
* HeroicSacrifice: Danielle Kindle, by way of TakingTheBullet for George.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Douglas, aka D.B. Cooper.
* HiddenDepths: Rudy got the idea that Corrie was Ralph's daughter [[https://kevinandkell.com/2000/kk0909.html a year before she was revealed to actually be Ralph's daughter.]] This was because her wolf disguise at the time was Ralph's skin.
-->'''Corrie:''' Funny thing... Rudy actually guesses I was your daughter... from the scent of the wolfskin!\\
'''Ralph:''' Hey, Rudy can be a pretty smart kid.\\
'''Corrie:''' ...when his brain doesn't get in the way.\\
'''Ralph:''' Well said!
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: A bear sued Kevin for defending himself with force rather than the "natural tactics" of running in fear. Mei Li, acting as his attorney, points out to the judge that, by his own logic, the bear should only be attacking Kevin with tooth and fang, not a lawsuit. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome The case gets dropped immediately.]]
* HoldingTheFloor: Kevin, and then Coney when Kevin tried to get the Rabbit Council to either accept his resignation or stop taking bribes. The interesting variation is under herbivore rules, as long as someone is chewing on something, they hold the floor. [[spoiler: The council caved in and agreed to quit taking bribes right before Coney ran out of snake to chew.]]
* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: The Interspecies Marriage support group has been shown to have some rather bizarre pairings like this.
* {{Homage}}
* HumanityEnsues:
** Francis eventually changes to one entirely after two years as an indeterminate furry species.
** Ralph and Martha also briefly experienced this when they were transported into the human world. Ralph returned to his own self when he returned to their own dimension, but Martha remained human for a short time due to being in a lead container.
* IAmNotWeasel: George is ''not a rabbit'', thank you!
* ICanExplain: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] twice with Corrie, who doesn't quite confess to being a sheep disguised as a wolf before the people whom she believes realize her secret indicate they're talking about something else.
* IdenticalGrandson: Or, in Coney's case, Identical Granddaughter. She bears a great resemblance to Dorothy when she was Coney's age.
* ImpactSilhouette:
** Played with [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2011/kk0731.html here]] when Coney eats a hole in a hedge made to look like it had been caused by a giant predator busting through the hedge, and not her and her two companions.
** Rudy performs a belly flop into a pool, leaving a him-shaped crater in the pool's water in one strip talking about [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2014/kk0615.html impact craters.]]
* ImprobablyHighIQ: Played with. [[spoiler: Lindesfarne and Fenton's specific IQ scores are never mentioned, just that they're high enough that Commander Kitsune gave them UsefulNotes/{{Mensa}} memberships for a wedding gift.]]
* InfiniteCanvas (or rather finite newspaper column): Recent Sunday strips.
** RealitySubtext: That had been done because ''Kevin and Kell'' had been added to the Sunday comics for the ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'', and the spot allocated to them required a strip that could be placed vertically.
* InherentInTheSystem: The fact that anyone could be snapped up off the street and scarfed down with no repercussions whatsoever; it's not murder (even morally) as long as you eat who you kill. and in some cases if you didn't know them personally first
* InsultBackfire: When Kevin ran for the school board position, R.L. confronted Kell about the press describing Herd Thinners as a "bloodthirsty pack of rapacious, slavering predators"...because they forgot to add "vicious" and "relentless" to the description. They have a reputation to maintain, after all.
* IntelligentForest: Tree has mentioned in the past that [[https://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk1127.html all plant life can communicate with each other through their interconnected root system,]] though only she can relate directly to animal life because of the Great Bird Conspiracy's intelligence ray.
-->'''Tree:''' Go ahead, laugh. We had the Internet a billion years before you.
* TheInternetIsForPorn: Used in a rather PG way. Since the comic has a lot of internet jokes and setting it bound to come up.
** Also Ralph uploaded some old photos he found. He then finds out they were of his mother.
--->Kevin: First time I've ever seen a brain imploded.
* InterruptedDeclarationOfLove: In late 2019, this happened a few times when Carl sought to ask for Leona's paw in marriage:
** The first time, she walked away before he could ask, upset that she was [[PoorCommunicationKills the last to know his intention of going pro at the end of the current gardening season]]. It was a secret he was trying to keep so she could know first, but it leaked before he could.
** The second time, they were interrupted when they had to help his agent lay an egg.
* InterspeciesRomance: From the title couple on down. In fact there aren't very many same-species couples at all in the strip.
* InTheBlood: Corrie, in her Dale persona as a wolf, is able to get away with not hunting, since people assume that she's incompetent as a hunter due to being Ralph's daughter. People also initially believe that may be a reason why she is losing her instincts.
* {{Irony}}: When Martha initially found out Ralph was a father (he had just discovered Corrie was his daughter, and took her in), [[http://kevinandkell.com/2001/kk1017.html she initially dumped him because he was a single parent.]] Even though she herself is a single parent, with Fiona. [[NoticingTheFourthWall Cue the comic boxes melting over them]].
-->'''Martha:''' What's that?\\
'''Fiona:''' [[LampshadeHanging It's dripping with irony]].
** Another point [[https://kevinandkell.com/2000/kk0805.html when Corrie was introduced as Bruno's girlfriend.]] At the time, she was using the wolf skin she separated Ralph from previously to pretend to be a wolf.
--->'''Rudy:''' Psst! I '''knew''' you would find a cute babe if you stopped wearing that ratty old sheepskin.
* IWantGrandkids: Desdemona is a light version of this trope, she's seen asking Kell which of them should be the first to bring the topic up to Lindesfarne and Fenton.
** It's noted that [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1129.html they had begun asking]] about a month before Lindesfarne found out she was pregnant.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Ray is in love with Lindesfarne, rather than Tammy, but sacrifices his intelligence so that he won't stand in Fenton's way.
* IWarnedYou: Dorothy used to date Rudy's coach when they were young, only to dump him for Bentley (Kevin's dad) after she was told she'd have to give up her Easter Bunny position for marrying outside her species (the coach being a pig). Given that [[AwfulWeddedLife her marriage to Bentley collapsed in a messy divorce]], whenever the two talk the coach tells her "told you so."
* IWasQuiteALooker: Elanor, in a picture taken 30 years ago. [[ParentalSexualitySquick Ralph is squicked]] [[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1124.html when he finds out]] that the woman he found to be a babe is ''his own mother''. Kevin, meanwhile, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1121.html is apparently sincere]] in telling his mother-in-law she's ''still'' [[SilverFox a looker]].
* JerkAss: Several characters, such as Vin and Angelique, who are often motivated by pure spite against Rudy(later, R.L. and Angelique) and Kevin, respectively.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Rudy can be fairly snarky, especially with the herbivore members of his families, and is often self-centered, but can be counted on for help when it's needed.
* KansasCityShuffle: [[https://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1227.html In one strip]], Lindesfarne sets a trap to catch a group of predators...consisting of a box with a string and bait under (the bait being Corrie), the predators talk about how this is an obvious trap and that they will simply lift the box and take they prey, at that moment they fall into a trapdor, and the kids drop a tree over it so they cannot escape.
* KillerRabbit: Coney (and to a lesser degree, Kevin)
* KlingonPromotion: Promotion to Herd Thinners CEO requires a battle against the currently seated CEO, ending with the loser being devoured by the winner. In recent years, a series of succession challenges became important to the plot. [[spoiler:After Kell intervenes in a succession battle between [[CorruptCorporateExecutive R.L.]] and Frank Mangle, she is promoted to Herd Thinners CEO because she was the ''least'' injured. Kell breaks the rule of killing either opponent, sending them to a hospital instead. She later has to fend off a challenge against herself, in which she effectively defangs her challenger instead of eating him and points out that if the board doesn't support her decision, the resulting succession fight will doom the company. [[TakeAThirdOption She wins.]]]]
* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: R.L.
* LIsForDyslexia: Rudy (fox/wolf cross) and Dorothy (rabbit, Kevin's mother): (they have dystracksia, i.e. troubles with reading ''tracks'')
* LateArrivalSpoiler: Danielle and Lindesfarne are formerly human.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: During her dream sequence, Sheila told Leona's mother that [[https://kevinandkell.com/2020/kk0309.html "strangers" picked out]] her wedding dress. This references [[https://kevinandkell.com/2020/kk0119.html an earlier comic]] where readers were encouraged to note which of five wedding dresses they liked best.
-->'''Leona's Mom:''' [[ViewersAreGeniuses At least they had good taste]]...
* LetsDuet: Kevin and Kell sing a song about how they first met in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXG56RB3DM this video]], which Bill commissioned by Music/TomSmith. Tom sings for Kevin and Karen Underwood sings for Kell.
* LiteralMetaphor: '''Happens all the time'''. You could probably fill a page for such just from Aby. It's the reason such things from this comic are the trope images for DeerInTheHeadlights and MarriedToTheJob.
* LiveMinkCoat: Paying minks to hang around you like a coat.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Somewhat balanced by the frequent departures - there's a huge cast of characters, but rarely all at the same time.
* LongBusTrip: Franklin Dewclaw (Kell's father) and Randy Foxglove (Kell's first husband) spent time in the strip as spirits, but eventually departed. (Randy in 2008 when [[http://kevinandkell.com/2008/kk0517.html he finally sought forgiveness for cheating on Kell]] and siring Vin Vulpen, and Franklin in 2010 when [[http://kevinandkell.com/2010/kk1022.html Kell became CEO of Herd Thinners]].)
* LoopholeAbuse: The Domain version of ''Videogame/FarmVille'' [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2010/kk0905.html apparently doesn't disallow players from raiding their own henhouse]].
* TheMaidenNameDebate: Kevin changes his and Lindesfarne's last name to Dewclaw after marrying Kell, mainly because he had been disowned for doing so. This is probably the ''least'' unusual thing about their marriage.
** Lindesfarne has chosen to keep the name Dewclaw, likely because she's already a published scientist under that name.
** Dip took Caniche's last name, simply because he didn't have one of his own. Since he was bred originally to be food, there was no point.
* MalignedMixedMarriage: The title characters, of course. It's shown that mixes of various sorts receive different levels of difficulty - within the same taxonomic family (such as Fiona's parents before their divorce) are generally accepted, and the further the drift from that, the more likely they are to deal with prejudice (both of Kell's marriages were mixed; her first, to a fox, only got mild disapproval from her family. The second caused her dad to disinherit her).
* MarriedToTheJob: Aby. At one point it became a LiteralMetaphor, but eventually she fell in love with Mark, and married him.
* MeaningfulEcho: Lindesfarne turns a response about plans for grandchildren [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1129.html into a joke about preparing for actual intimacy with Fenton.]] Later, she requires a similarly long shower [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0110.html before family can hug her when they found out she was pregnant.]]
* MeaningfulFuneral: When [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2003/kk0923.html George Fennec has the original Danielle buried.]]
* MeatVersusVeggies: To its logical extreme.
* MicDrop: When [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk0417.html Miranda challenged Leona to try to patch up her relationship with Edgar]] over the summer, she finished with this.
* MilhollandRelationshipMoment - Kevin and Kell discover that they've been having an internet "affair"... [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1998/kk0528.html with each other]]. The truth comes out on a ''[[Series/TheJerrySpringerShow Jerry Springer]]'' show parody and ends up with the two of them on Oprah instead.
** ...After the [[AssholeVictim host]] [[KarmicDeath had gotten devoured by Kell]] for [[PayEvilUntoEvil trying to goad her to eat Kevin!]]
* MillionToOneChance: Danielle says "There's a one in 9,758,496,382,101 chance" of a plan for her and Kell to disguise themselves as each other while Kell acts as a diversion to allow Danielle to escape with Kevin succeeding. Naturally, it works.
* MiniatureSeniorCitizens: Dorothy, who had to have Kevin via C-section.
* MissingMom: Wanda Woolstone, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2002/kk0512.html Corrie's mother]], died in childbirth. Frank Mangle's wife and Leona's mother is never mentioned in the comic, but according to a September 2007 entry of Lindesfarne's blog, she died after a lengthy illness when Leona was eight.
* TheMissusAndTheEx: Martha, George's ex, and Danielle, his current wife, became unlikely friends when Danielle asked Martha to be a bridesmaid, and even choosing as her bridesmaid dress one Martha already owned.
** Then Dorothy starts dating Douglas. When he's discovered to be D.B. Cooper and jailed for the crimes they can prosecute on (many passing the statute of limitations), his cellmate is none other than Dorothy's ex, Bentley, and the two start to get along. This, with Elanor's friendship with Bentley, irritates Dorothy to no end. [[spoiler: Bentley later reveals to Kevin that he used his connections to get Douglas as his cellmate to make sure he was good enough for Dorothy. Kevin's ''surprised''.]]
--->'''Bentley:'''[[spoiler: That I'm a better ex-husband than a husband? ''Why??'']]
** Yet another variant when Leona, Edgar's ex-girlfriend, and Miranda, Edgar's current girlfriend, end up moving in (back in, in Leona's case) with Fiona and Greta.
*** This becomes a plot point when [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk1224.html Leona helps Miranda get Christmas gifts for Edgar.]]
* MoralDissonance: The comic will often do a TakeThat, HumansAreBastards, or even occasionally a YouBastard about the real world... and then get back to comics of sentient beings devouring each other. Not shockingly, this is often played up for humor as well, often from Danielle [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2009/kk1017.html pointing out]] the ridiculousness of the animal society from her perspective.
--> '''Danielle''': THIS CIVILIZATION ALREADY DOES THAT!!!\\
'''Kell''': Yes, but Francis gives them an "other" to blame.
* MrExposition: Rudy [[LampshadeHanging acknowledges]] [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall being this]] during [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0528.html a summer break comic:]]
-->'''Rudy:''' Bleah. It's way too early for all that exposition.
* MuggingTheMonster: Because predation is legal in society as a whole, being a criminal is far more dangerous than it is in the human world. Homeowners are perfectly entitled to devour burglars (in the earliest part of the comic, Kell actually deliberately sets it up to lure burglars in to sate her pregnancy cravings), mugging victims will eat their muggers if they can turn the tables (as shown when Danielle blithely avoids a puma and then grinds him up into mince for supper), and generally it's very difficult to figure out why anyone would be a crook in this world when the law basically says that police officers and victims alike can simply eat you rather than put you on trial.
** Predators attack Kevin, expecting an easy meal, only to discover that he prefers fighting to running away, and as a former WWF wrestler he has more than enough skill. One storyline involved a would be predator actually [[FrivolousLawsuit suing Kevin]] for using methods unnatural for a rabbit.
*** Kevin also crosses into BullyingADragon: Even if he's clearly a prey species, he's also four times the size of normal rabbits and as big as many predators.
* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Seen [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2001/kk1006.html here]]:
-->'''Martha:''' Ralph? Honey?\\
'''Ralph:''' I just sensed a great disturbance in the "Force..."
* MysteriousAnimalSenses: usually played for laughs
* NameAndName: '''Keven''' and '''Kell'''
* NoNameGiven: The husbands of Desdemona Fuscus and Mei-Li Lee have both appeared numerous times, but neither have had their first names mentioned.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Corrie wiped Caniche's online records. ALL OF THEM. Including records regarding her immigration to America and permanent residency, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0420.html leading to the Feds coming to look for her.]]
** Although [[RedHerring this was later shown to be a scam attempted by her foreign employers]].
* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Hybrids abound through the strip, and it's implied there are many more if the size of the Interspecies Marriage Support Group is any indication. And that's not even getting into Danielle Fennec's complicated genetics.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Many celebrities of the real world have appeared as fictional versions with the names slightly altered.
* NobleBigot: Kell has some difficulties dealing with felines, although she strives to remedy this. To an extent, Rudy towards herbivores, although with CharacterDevelopment, he gradually accepts his stepfamily.
* NonIndicativeName: Angelique is the least angelic recurring character.
* NoodleIncident: When asked if Kevin and Kell's human counterparts are seen as "unique", Danielle says yes but never explains why.
* TheNoseKnows: Characters have been known to communicate by scent. Kell's sniffer is apparently keen enough to track someone by smelling their ''website''.
** Rudy and Fiona discovered that Lindesfarne is pregnant because they were able to smell her morning sickness while ''driving past her house''. Rudy's response: "Mad canine skills".
* NWordPrivileges: Apparently, "herbivore" is Domain's version of this.
-->'''Rudy:''' Kevin, in these old magazines and texts I keep seeing references to "the H-word". What ''is'' that?\\
'''Kevin:''' "Herbivore".\\
'''Rudy:''' "Herbivore" used to be a '''slur'''?!\\
'''Kevin:''' We took it back as our own.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: [[spoiler: R.L. knew the Feline language the entire time, and knew about Frank's plan to challenge him, along with Kell's knowledge and failure to warn him.]] It does make one wonder why [[spoiler: R.L.]] didn't act on it, though...
* ObsessedAreTheListmakers: Candace is really strict about procedures. In one story arc, Candace and her husband adopt a child, whose morning rituals, such as getting out of bed, brushing teeth and getting dressed, become strictly listed and timed. There are even lines on the floor of the child's bedroom detailing where to go in fulfilling the tasks!
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0618.html After Kell counters]] R.L.'s patent infringement suits against Dewclaw's Fine Meats with a countersuit]] based off ''their own'' insectivore patents against Herd Thinners, she meets with R.L.'s legal counsel, a shark. [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0619.html They barely get past introductions]] before two texts come from R.L. for each of them: the shark's fired and Mei Li's [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0620.html offered his job (with six-figure permanent salary).]] She realizes it's an attempt to hurt Kell -- and [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0623.html only a picture of R.L.]] getting a ''sharkskin'' wardrobe convinces Mei Li she MUST refuse. [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0624.html It helped]] Lin was Coney's friend -- and saved Mei Li from making the biggest mistake of her life [[spoiler: and R.L. realizes she'd have made a good tiger-skin rug in a spot]]. [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0625.html Kell]] knew from [[DealWithTheDevil experience]] R.L.'s persuasiveness.
* OffhandBackhand: Kevin's usual reaction to Ralph's attacks.
* OhCrap: The characters do this at various points when they find out about various unfortunate developments. George does this when he learns that his wife is pregnant, and again when Kevin tells him that rabbits have litters (his child turns out to be a single birth, though).
* {{Omniglot}}: [[spoiler: R.L. Well, Domain's equivalent to this trope, anyway.]]
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: The Great Bird Conspiracy keeps order by manipulating society and kidnapping people who find out too much about their project while claiming that they're dead.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1103.html Rudy's coach, a pig, dated Dorothy]] [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1104.html way back when she was the Easter Bunny.]] She spurned his wedding proposal because just being the first female Easter Bunny was enough groundbreaking, that she felt she couldn't justify an interspecies relationship on top of that. This, of course, led her to marry Bentley. He frequently gives her grief for it.
-->'''Douglas:''' Is that why he starts off your phone conversations with "Told you so"?\\
'''Dorothy:''' ...[[OverlyLongGag for the past forty years]]...
* OneSteveLimit: There are ''four'' different background characters named Carl:
** The first was a snake, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2006/kk0922.html a friend Dr. Caduceus had in his youth]] that he mentioned to Danielle during one of her prenatal doctor's visits.
** The second was a leopard, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2007/kk0914.html one of Kell's co-workers at Herd Thinners.]]
** The third was a bear, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2012/kk0301.html a schoolmate of Coney's at Happy Little Predator Preschool.]]
** The most recent (and first to stick around) is a rhino, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk1005.html one of Rudy's gardening teammates at Beige U.]]
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Vampire bats in the K&K-verse are analogous to vampires in the human world, complete with stigmas, superstitions (such as the ones about garlic, mirrors, shapeshifting). About the only difference is that vampire bats are not undead creatures. The stigma in society led to Fenton's mother hiding her heritage from him so he would grow up as a normal bat, though her son shows no vampiric traits. Desdemona was later shown running a website dispelling various myths about vampire bats, pointing out that mirrors and garlic myths came about due to both being affected by sonar. Which, as she pointed out, affects ''normal'' bats as well.
* PaintingTheMedium: A pair of human scientists [[CrossOver (from another web comic]], ''Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault'') were able to travel to Domain ''through the internet''. (It might also have involved piggybacking on an existing portal, but for the most part the transport was internet-based.)
** There have been other examples of fourth wall painting, too, such as [[http://kevinandkell.com/1999/kk1001.html being weighed down by too much emotional baggage]].
* PapaWolf: '''Do not''' cross Kevin when it comes to Lindesfarne. Fenton found that out the hard way early on [[http://kevinandkell.com/1998/kk0325.html when Kevin discovered he was cheating on her]].
-->'''Kevin:''' For a split second there, I almost became a carnivore.
* PaperThinDisguise: Most disguises used by characters are pretty flimsy. However, they're still effective because most species go by senses other than sight. As long as you generally look the part and use pheromones to disguise your scent or similar precautions, you stand a solid chance.
** PlayedWith in regards to Edgar and Miranda. They [[http://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk0906.html dress up as Rudy and Fiona while on a date,]] but Edgar says they're likely not fooling anybody, and should stop trying to date on the down low.
* ParentalObliviousness: Bruno's parents, who are so caught up in watching television that they never even noticed that Bruno became a herbivore-or that they gave ''permission'' for him to have stomach implant surgery.
* ParentalSexualitySquick: The titular couple are very openly loving. Rudy is usually the victim of the squick.
** One early strip has Rudy walking in on his parents roleplaying ''Literature/LittleRedRidingHood''. Kell was playing Lil' Red.
** Ralph's head literally imploded when he learned the picture of the "hot babe" he had leaked onto the internet was of his mother, back when [[IWasQuiteALooker she was quite the looker]].
** Another featuring Rudy [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk1022.html sticking out his tongue]] after Kell [[FootPopping pops her foot]] for Kevin.
* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Double subversion. After Vin gets a crush on Corrie (in her "Dale" persona), he changes his password from the obvious "die_rudy_die" to "mr_and_mrs_vin_and_dale_vulpen". While the second password would be obvious to anyone who knew about Vin's crush, Corrie only gets it by dating him.
* PetTheDog: Despite her selfishness and spite toward Kevin, Angelique does want to reconcile with Lindesfarne.
* {{Phlegmings}}: R. L.; his drooling jaws are almost all we ever see of him.
* PietaPlagiarism: Done for Danielle I's death.
* PlanetOfHats: To a degree. As long as someone is a member of a species, or a type of diet, or history... they have to share ''all'' the traits of that subtype. Usually prefaced with "As you know, since I'm a..."
* PlayingCyrano: Parodied when Martha and Ralph meet online and have Fiona and Rudy give them advice and then eventually take over for them. {{Lampshaded}} when Martha and Ralph meet at a cyber cafe and their waiter is a rhinoceros named Cyrano. [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2001/kk0715.html The relationship ends up working out]] because thanks to Fiona and Rudy essentially re-enacting their relationship, Martha and Ralph end up mirroring theirs. Fiona even lampshades it:
-->'''Fiona:''' Not that it's such a bad relationship to re-create...
* PocketDial: In [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2010/kk0318.html one strip]], Kevin and Ralph note that the amount of calling usage has gone up in their area ever since a hippo family moved in, and it's revealed to be a result of this.
* PoorCommunicationKills: Carl kept his plans to go pro early close to the vest so he could announce it after proposing to Leona. But his gardening intentions were leaked, leading to Leona becoming ''the last to find out,'' and getting upset over it.
* PrecociousCrush: Lin gets a crush on Coney's cousin, Wendell.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality -- Pretty much a rule of the comic. Kell and Rudy killing and eating sentient creatures is played for laughs. When someone threatens the family or one of their friends, they're ''evil''.
** Vin Vulpen is being a jerk because he's gotten a stud contract. Fiona secretly uses her powers to ''sterilize him without consent.'' This is played as a joke because we aren't supposed to like Vin, even though Fiona basically mutilated him over her inability to just ignore him.
** Another good example: Lindesfarne [[https://kevinandkell.com/1998/kk1222.html committing wire fraud]] to help Angelique's biological children.
--->'''Gweneth:''' MOMMY! SANTA CAME!
* PutOnABus: A significant number of the supporting cast have departed the strip over the years, with varying excuses. Some of the more notable long-runners are Candice, who outsourced to New Zealand, the Ursal family who retired to Florida, Vin Vulpen, Rudy's longtime nemesis and half-brother (last seen in 2003 living in the Wild and having abandoned his old identity entirely), Rhonda who married Lindesfarne's fiance and apparently ceased to exist after moving in with him...the list goes on. This is a ''really'' common trend in Holbrook's comics.
** Rhonda made a one-shot appearance in the lead-up to Lindesfarne's wedding and will make at least a few more as she is part of the wedding party. She is also regularly mentioned on Lindesfarne's blog.
*** Rhonda eventually went to work with Kell's company, so these days she's more OutOfFocus.
** Candice, her husband, and Mary appear as wedding guests.
* QuicksandBox: [[invoked]] Discussed by Rhonda when she enters college and gets rather poor mid-term grades, where she mentions that she is terrible with studying because in high school, she was used to having to do homework all the time and found herself doing nothing in college, which involves more reading outside of class than in-class work.
* RagsToRoyalty: Played around a ''lot''. First they think Lindesfarne's the lost heir to the British throne. Then she finds Chertsey, who could also possibly be the heir. Then DNA proves Lindesfarne's the heir, but she conspires to switch her blood sample with Cherstey's so she could stay with her family. [[spoiler: Then it turns out that ''both'' of them are the heir-because Lindesfarne is Chertsey's counterpart from the human world.]]
* RedHerring: Kevin's father and Angelique frame each other for Sid's murder. It turns out that [[spoiler:Danielle was sent to kill him, but couldn't do it, and he accidentally killed himself]].
* RedShirt / MonsterMunch: Most of the time, deer and elks are the only species types that gets actively hunted.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Naturally, any engagements or marriages in this long-runner. But for a non-romantic example, when Lindesfarne and Fenton got engaged, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2007/kk0622.html Kevin insisted Fenton call him]] [[FirstNameBasis by his first name]] instead of "Mr. Dewclaw", as he did previously.
** [[http://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk1216.html Bruno moved in with Corrie at Fiona's mansion]] while Fiona and Rudy were off to college. Which makes sense, since they ''de facto'' got engaged long ago.
* RescueRomance: This is how the relationship between Carl and Leona began. She saved him from drowning at the Summer Camps in the summer of 2016. By the time the year was over, she'd saved his life an additional two times.
* RetCon: On occasion. For example, Kevin's parents and siblings supposedly meet with him for an online Thanksgiving, but it turns out that Kevin's father was acting as his wife and other children, in the hopes of Kell devouring Kevin and him inheriting his money.
** Rudy's age was retconned from twelve to fourteen because Holbrook felt his attitude was appropriate for a teenager instead of a younger child. The comic eventually [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded it]] with a storyline in which Rudy had to find a way to prove he was really fourteen and not twelve after learning that his mother had claimed him as two years younger to make up for his small size as a cub.
** Herd Thinners has been stated in various strips that is a company that has been running for a long time(the prehistory), but in the strip that revealed that [[spoiler: Douglas is D.B. Cooper]] shows that RL founded the company himself.
** Rhonda's name was actually "Rhoda" in her first appearance.
** Lindesfarne originally fretted that, since she was originally human, she and Fenton would bear human children. However, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0301.html their first child is definitely a bat]]. There may be other forces at play which are best left to discuss in WMG until they are made canon.
* RightInFrontOfMe: At an online costume party, Martha remarks that she broke up with Ralph because he had a teenage daughter while chatting with said teenage daughter (who was in a costume that made her difficult to identify).
* RiskyBusinessDance: [[http://kevinandkell.com/2009/kk0329.html Rudy does one]] when Kevin and Kell leave for their second honeymoon. Except he forgot that his sisters and grandmothers were still home.
* RousseauWasRight: Manages the impossible, combining this with HumansAreBastards. But any character who appears for an extended period of time WILL get a HeelFaceTurn eventually.
* RuleOfFunny: Holbrook has explained that the size and relative anthropomorphism of any species depends entirely on what's funniest. Hence why Lindesfarne can be friends with an anthropomorphic moth and firefly the same size as her, as well as eating realistic bugs that are the same size you would expect.
* RunningGag: Quite a few people have bad timing.
** Take out the comics which start with a character going about day-to-day life, and then equating it to animal behavior in the last panel. Then take out the comics which reverse that. What you're left with is almost entirely the story arc comics.
* ScarsAreForever: Leona, Edgar's lioness girlfriend, has a scar over her left eye thanks to a hunting match where a branch smacked her in the face, requiring her to get stitches.
* SecondLove: Most of the cast are happier with their second spouses/lovers than their first ones, as with Kevin and Kell, Angelique and R.L., Ralph and Martha, Douglas and Dorothy, George and Danielle, Aby and Mark, Leona and Carl.
** Averted with Edgar; he's on his ''third'' love with Miranda.
** Also averted with Angelique, who is twice divorced. Kevin was first, then the father of Gweneth and her 19 other rabbit/skunk hybrid children.
* SecretRelationship: An interesting case involving [[https://kevinandkell.com/1996/kk0104.html one of the earliest secrets of the strip]] is Bruno denying experiencing constant feelings about girls to Rudy at the age of 12, when in reality he's wearing his girlfriend, Corrie, as a sheepskin. It would still be four years before Rudy would meet Corrie, and even longer before he learned she was a sheep.
-->'''Corrie:''' So when you gonna tell 'im 'bout us?\\
'''Bruno:''' Patience, my sweet.
* SecretTestOfCharacter: Kevin's dad pulls strings to get Douglas bunked with him in prison so he could make sure he was a suitable partner for Dorothy.
-->'''Kevin:''' Dad, I'm surprised.\\
'''Bentley:''' ...that I'm a better ex-husband than a husband? '''WHY???'''
* SelfDemonstratingArticle: When Lindesfarne is [[MurderTheHypotenuse hunting Fenton's lover after finding out she's a nocturnal insectivore]], Rudy and Bruno mention she'll probably make a rookie mistake. Sure enough, [[http://kevinandkell.com/1998/kk0407.html she and Tammy got in a conversation and became friends.]]
-->'''Tammy:''' Fenton was dating you, too?\\
'''Lindesfarne:''' Yeah, what scum.
* SelfInsertFic: On Catherine Aura's Twitter, she talks about how she and Nigel are spying on a human (Subject A) that seems to have a 'psychic link' to the K&K world, and is drawing a comic about it. This is a rather obvious hint that Subject A is Bill Holbrook himself.
* ShaggyDogStory: The entire arc with Harelink vying for an extremely lucrative contract to provide free wi-fi to the citizens of Domain was ended in a single strip - after they won, the telecom industry ''instantly'' got a law passed that stopped cities from providing this service entirely because they wanted the contract for themselves. This also rendered the entire arc, which took place over several months, entirely pointless. [[{{Anvilicious}} The real purpose of the arc was revealed to be a soapbox against the telecom industry.]]
* ShipSinking: Catherine Aura tries to prevent Nigel from thinking about or contacting [[ToyShip Coney]] after they cross over to the human world.
* ShoutOut:
** Quite a few to ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes.
** ... And one to author [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2005/kk0320.html E. B. White]].
** In the [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2004/kk0201.html Interspecies Support Group]], you can see a [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle moose standing next to a squirrel]].
** And [[http://kevinandkell.com/2015/kk1229.html here]] we have a shout-out to ''Film/JurassicWorld''.
--->'''[[Tropers/{{Macsen}} Commenter]]:''' Now I'm imagining Marty being voiced by Creator/ChrisPratt.
** The strips from the 16th to the 24th of December 2009 are one big shout-out to ''Film/AChristmasStory''.
* SistineSteal: When George and Danielle regain their static connection, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1026.html one of their first poses mirrors "The Creation of Adam".]]
* SlapSlapKiss: Danielle [[spoiler: number two]] and George[[note]][[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1023.html It was an effort to get George to fall out of love with her]] since the original one died. [[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1025.html It]] [[http://kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1026.html failed.]][[/note]]
* SmellPhone: Rudy Dewclaw can ascertain that he's cyber-chatting with Fiona by sniffing the [=CPU=] exhaust fan.
* SomethingElseAlsoRises: Kevin's one floppy ear perks up when he's feeling frisky.
** It happened to Dip when his horns were growing in. [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2013/kk1022.html When Caniche kissed him, they grew suddenly,]] [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2013/kk1023.html and in the next strip, they were full bighorns.]]
* SpeciesSurname: damn near everyone, those who don't have surnames based on features of their species.
* SpiritAdvisor: Randy, Rudy's dead biological father, came back in spirit [[http://kevinandkell.com/2000/kk0508.html to give Rudy some pointers when he was going to fight Vin.]] Of course, this was ultimately {{subverted}} when it was discovered Vin was also Randy's son from an extramarital affair. He admitted [[http://kevinandkell.com/2002/kk0523.html he helped Rudy because he didn't want both his sons to kill each other.]]
-->'''Rudy:''' So who do I turn to '''now''' for a moral, ethical role model?\\
'''Randy:''' Why, Kevin, of course.\\
'''Rudy:''' '''''I MEAN ONE THAT I CAN ADMIT TO MYSELF!'''''\\
'''Randy:''' Oh. Now that's a toughie...
* StealthPun: [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2010/kk1116.html An elephant insurance man whom no one wants to acknowledge.]]
* StockAnimalDiet: Strip 2012-09-01 has one bird eating a mouse, and was able to determine the kinds of cheese in its last meal.
* StrawmanPolitical: They appear occasionally. Bill Clinton was apparently a rabbit, George Bush is apparently a butterfly. One of Lindesfarne's blog entries mentioned Kerry as a horse, though he was never shown within the strip. A strip did not show Obama on panel, but described him as the hybrid of an African Gazelle and a North American White Tail Deer. Trump's species is not shown, but it's revealed his ''hair'' is a furry little rodent-like...thing.
* StunnedSilence: This is pulled off [[https://kevinandkell.com/2019/kk0225.html Bruno and Corrie]] in the strip before we see them giving up on natural childbirth.
* StupidBoss: George Fennec, owner of Hare Link, is almost completely useless. For a while, his only actual purpose at Hare-Link was daycare for Francis and Coney.
** Not merely a stupid boss... he's also utterly clueless when it's obvious to everyone else that Danielle found out she's pregnant.
-->'''Danielle''' (in the bathroom with her pregnancy test) HOORAY! YEEEEE-HAH!\\
'''George''': Odd. She never does that at home when she...\\
'''Kevin''': Get a clue, George.\\
'''Ralph''': They sell those on eBay... along with cribs.
* SuddenlyVoiced: Kevin and Kell gain voices in a few simple [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/links/animation.html animations]] that have been done in the past. Kevin has been voiced by Bill himself and Music/TomSmith, and Kell has been voiced by Bill's wife Teri and, in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXG56RB3DM song]], by Karen Underwood. Fenton got a voice in [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/about the intro video]], and with a possible TV show on the horizon, more voices may be on the way.
* SureLetsGoWithThat: Harcourt's response when Harold [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0730.html arrived in Carnivore Summer Camp to rescue Jess]] and asked if his flapping alerted them to his arrival, when it was really his stench.
* TakeAThirdOption: At the end of the Danielle arc, Danielle believes she and Lindesfarne will have to return to the human world to restore the balance, but Lindesfarne realizes that any two individuals can restore the balance, opting to have her mice do so instead. According to Catherine Aura, however, they're too small, and [[spoiler: Catherine and Nigel fly through instead]].
* TakeThat: Plenty. Car dealerships, talk radio, Windows, politicians [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets (especially lobbyists)]], [[HumansAreBastards humans]]... The strip often uses Take Thats as punchlines.
* TakingTheBullet: Danielle I for George.
* TapOnTheHead: Averted. After Kell suffers a concussion in [[spoiler:the challenge she faces as CEO]], her doctor tells her to stop hunting. Considering how Kell took her previous non-hunting assignments, it remains to be seen how long this will last.
* TemptingFate: This one time at Carnivore Summer Camp, Lin and Harcourt fantasized about their first kills, but Coney warned them prey isn't going to fall right into their lap. [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2015/kk0724.html Cue Jess falling through their tent,]] a victim of another camper's plot to use a drone to kidnap a Herbivore Summer Camp camper.
* [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself This Is Something She Has To Do Herself]]: Kell facing a predator challenge 28 days after her ascension as Herdthinners' new CEO. It's company policy.
* ThreatBackfire: [[spoiler: RL finds out Kell's setting up a rival company and threatens to crush her company and devour her. She's ''thrilled'' that RL sees ''her'' as a threat.]]
* ToiletDrinkingDogGag: There's a RunningGag that Rudy, the wolf teenager of the mixed species family, likes drinking from the toilet.
* {{Tomboy}}: Jess is this, to the point Wendell didn't realize she was female until he saw the class roster at their school. Even though he knew she was a cow.
* TooDumbToLive: Several prey species in one-shot strips get eaten after falling into obvious predator traps or doing other careless things (like leaving their cell phones on).
* ToyShip: In-universe example: Coney and Nigel. They use the time machine to grow up for a few hours, and it turns out? It works. There was also hints regarding Coney and Harcourt Silvertip, the vegetarian bear who was the grandson of the Dewclaws' nieghbors, the Ursals, until the bears were PutOnABus to Florida. (And again once TheBusCameBack.) For a baby that only recently aged into a five year old, the carnivorous bunny sure gets around.
** Now Coney's protectiveness of Francis could be interpreted that way, despite their being biological cousins. And yes they count as related even though his mother is from an alternate universe and he recently turned into a human.
** And now there's the recent ship of Coney's cousin Wendell and best friend Lin (a rabbit and tiger respectively).
** This was threatened when one of Wendell's classmates, a bovine named Jess, [[UnsettlingGenderReveal was revealed to be a girl]]. But she was quickly paired off at Herbivore Camp with a herbivorous bird named Harold after he helped rescue her from a DamselInDistress situation.
* TropaholicsAnonymous: Being a part of K&K's N.R.A. is nothing to be proud of.
* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Kell and her cousin Sheila look similar enough to pass for each other, as Sheila is literally just Kell with different clothes and heavier makeup.
* UndeadTaxExemption: Averted when Catherine has to fabricate records for herself and Nigel in the human world.
* UnholyMatrimony: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive R.L.]] and [[JerkAss Angelique]] have been shown to be genuinely in love with each other, despite Angelique seeing R.L.'s disappearance as an opportunity to take over Herd Thinners to conquer the world. Yet when R.L. returns alive, he is only minorly perturbed and simply convinces her its easier to make piles of money instead.
* UnsettlingGenderReveal: It looks like Rachel might be trying to romance Bruno...until she [[SchoolgirlLesbians realizes he's a boy]]. Rachel, as it turns out, is gay. Bruno was wearing a fake sheepskin covered with his girlfriend Corrie's wool, thus making him smell like a girl and giving a species with poor eyesight no other cues to his actual gender. Bruno attaches ram horns to the sheepskin to prevent this from recurring.
** Comes back again when Wendell finds out Jess is a girl. Jess has horns, but [[ShownTheirWork a lot of people don't realize both genders of cattle have horns]].
--->'''Jess:''' What part of "cow" don't you understand?
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom
** [[Webcomic/GeneralProtectionFault Nick and Ki]], by arriving in Domain, [[spoiler:push the animal world past the tipping point, so that the balance must be completely restored (as opposed to merely having the two of them leave) lest instinct loss take over]].
** Kevin and Kell's appearance on the Jerry Springer type show leads to his insurance agency that he is married to a wolf.
* VerySpecialEpisode: When your title couple are the equivalent of an interracial marriage, you know these will happen and frequently.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Rabbit's Revenge is supported by almost three quarters of the rabbit community because they don't know of their methods.
* VisualMetaphor: When [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2016/kk1218.html Carl rose to two feet during his first date]] with Leona, commenters noted that was "standing up for her".
* VisualPun: Bill Holbrook is quite fond of these. There's a reason [[DeerInTheHeadlights it has produced]] [[MarriedToTheJob two Trope Images]].
* VitriolicBestBuds: Dorothy and Elanor, despite often clashing, particularly in their different approaches in their work for Aby and Coney's diet, have admitted that they're each other's only friends.
* WackyCravings: When Linsfarne is expecting, she is still eating her normal diet but is craving extremely exotic insects; listed examples include 17-year cicada, burying beetle, puss moth caterpillar, scorpion fly and something Fenton calls "a gum leaf skeletoniser".
* WackyMarriageProposal:
** When Martha proposed to Ralph, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2002/kk0208.html she hid the ring in a meatball.]] He ate it whole.
--->'''Martha:''' ...and thirty hours later, he accepted!\\
'''Fiona:''' *''FacePalm''*
** When Douglas proposed to Dorothy, [[http://kevinandkell.com/2009/kk0625.html he framed it as a business partnership]] where he'd be planting acorns as new real estate. Dorothy rolled with it.
--->'''Dorothy:''' But that'll require a formal financial partnership, with a security stake on your part!\\
'''Douglas:''' (''presents her with an engagement ring'') Will this precious metal holding suffice?\\
'''Dorothy:''' Oooo! '''Nice''' collateral!
** Not so much wacky, considering the circumstances, but when Aby proposed to Mark so he could adopt his orphaned nephew, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2018/kk0507.html he gave her a lug nut]] to stand in until they could get actual rings.
** Carl and Leona's engagement was pretty much a disaster (see: PoorCommunicationKills). Leona was convinced Carl was going to dump her when he decided to turn pro, and closed herself off emotionally to him, resulting in him returning the engagement ring after multiple attempts to even get to ask her. When she finally re-opened at the cajoling of Frank, he finally popped the question, and had to use the return receipt as a stand-in for a ring.
* WeAreAsMayflies: Taken to an extreme on the short lifepsan species. While it's technically the adult form that has the short lifespan, Mayflies and June bugs are commonly treated as having a sub-month lifespan while still integrated as fully functional members of society as long as they're alive. Examples include June bugs being considered fast food, or mayflies only needing a student loan of 35 cents (for the part of their life that they attend college.)
* WeakButSkilled: Francis compensates for his lack of natural defenses with clever use of tools and booby traps.
* WebcomicsLongRunners: Having started in September 1995--near the beginning of the medium--and still running in 2019, it is the undisputed longest of the long.
* WebcomicTime: Some characters remain in high school (or diapers) forever, while others leave home/get married/have children (or are even born and become characters in their own right).
** This also gets weird when you consider that Edgar is still high school age, yet his former girlfriend went into college long before he did - and was implied to have been dating her during that. Rachel also manages to mysteriously graduate so Lindsfarne could get a new roommate, but she was explicitly introduced as the same age as Rudy and Bruno.
** Vin's birthdate was eventually listed in the comic, showing him to be ''much'' older than he had been implied to be considering his introduction in the strip.
** This has become zig-zagged in the past fifteen years or so as Holbrook ages up the characters whenever it's time for a new batch of jokes about their current stage of life begins, particularly the main three Dewclaw kids. It allows Coney, Rudy, and Lindesfarne to age a few years here and there, consequently aging everyone as well. Coney was confirmed to be 5 in 2013 and remained so until 2017 when [[spoiler: Turvy]] was born. Since then, they have aged in almost real-time, with Coney now 7, Rudy peers now getting married and pregnant at the young but not unheard of age of 20, and Lindesfarne mentioning in 2020 that [[spoiler: Turvy]] is now two.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Lindesfarne to Angelique before the divorce.
* WhamEpisode: Lindesfarne and Fenton discover Vin to be alive, but while investigating it, Fenton is kidnapped, learns that Mrs. Aura is in charge of a conspiracy to prevent the world from descending into chaos and that everyone else, including Lindesfarne, believes that he is dead.
** The revelation that Lindesfarne is a former human.
* WhamLine
** One of the earliest. Just when Rudy had finally gotten a girlfriend...
--->'''Fiona:''' My family's moving in the morning.
** As Kell flees the Rabbit Warren (which she entered to find Kevin's parents) with the rabbit whom she saved and who had helped her.
--->'''Kevin''': [[http://kevinandkell.com/2001/kk1214.html Thanks, Dad]].
** Dorothy, while discussing requests for arranged marriages for Coney with Kevin, says she had set one up for him.
** Kevin finds an intruder in his house, who turns out to be working for his political opponents. When he says he's not up for re-election yet:
--->'''Intruder''': Check that. You're facing a recall.
** Lindesfarne tells Rudy that she's found Vin Vulpen's half brother, whom they need to give him a tail transplant. Rudy asks who would have to do it, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2002/kk0518.html and she says "Four inches should do it" while holding a ruler at his tail.]] Shortly thereafter, another comes [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2002/kk0519.html when Rudy realizes the implications of this and denies that his father committed adultery.]]
--->'''Rudy''': IT'S A LIE! IT's A SLUR! IT'S--\\
'''Kell''': It's something I hope neither you nor Vin inherited from him!
** The culprit in Sid's murder confesses
--->'''[[spoiler:Danielle]]''': I'd say [[spoiler:there's a 100% chance]] it's me, [[spoiler:Daddy]].
** [[spoiler:[[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2010/kk1010.html Kell... you... you WON. YOU'RE the new CEO of Herd Thinners!]]]]
** Dip reveals his true intended nature when he helps stop a cyber-attack on Dewclaw's Fine Meats:
--->'''Dip:''' I'm [[spoiler:a spy for Herd Thinners]]. Duh.
** Fenton gets clued in that [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0101.html his and Lindesfarne's lives are about to drastically change:]]
--->'''Fenton:''' Wait... [[spoiler:[[MorningSickness she was the designated driver...]] ([[VomitDiscretionShot as Lindesfarne throws up in the background]]).]]
** And another of the earliest in ''Kevin & Kell'', [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/1998/kk0814.html one that would dictate the early history of the strip:]]
--->'''Nigel:''' When do you think they'll catch on that we birds run the world?\\
'''Catherine Aura:''' [[TemptingFate Never]], [[{{Foreshadowing}} if they're lucky]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Kevin was elected to the school board in 2006, on a platform of eliminating high stakes testing. Which, in this comic's universe, leads to ''students being eaten alive to save money''. Despite the fact that both of his school-age children could be at risk of an untimely death, the comic has dropped the plot entirely and only occasionally revisits his school board post for mundane one-off jokes.
** After all the hoopla about baby Francis, his genetics, and ''turning into a human baby'', he's barely been seen in strip and the plotline has been dropped. This even includes an obvious SequelHook from Francis' birth storyline in which Danielle hinted that the only reason she would return to the human world would be to save him. [[AbortedArc This is never mentioned again.]]
** "Domestication", once a major issue in Domain (though its actual negative effects were nebulous at best), hasn't been a major plot point since 2002, when Vin Vulpen was PutOnABus. It hasn't been mentioned '''''at all''''' since 2005, when Caliban hunting coach Sam Pardus was outed as a domestic cat pretending to be a leopard.
** More literally, what became of Lindesfarne's mice/research subjects/assistants? The last time they were seen was at her and Fenton's wedding as guests.
* WhatTheHellHero: Rudy often gets these for his actions, and in one case, this overlaps with EvenTheDogIsAshamed, when Coney dope slaps him for not sending Kevin and Kell's marriage registration.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Domain's location relative to the rest of [[strike:Earth]] [[MirrorUniverse "the world"]] is pointedly never established. However, the town is heavily inspired by Atlanta, Georgia, where the author lives, and several landmarks from that region appear in the strip using fictional equivalents.
** Made even more ambigious by the fact that Domain is openly mentioned to not exist in "our" world in any shape or form (including Parallel versions).
** That being said, [[https://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk0312.html when Dorothy re-entered civilization,]] the address listed for the Dewclaw household had a ZIP code that, in the real world, represents Monroe, Georgia, a town 40 miles east of Atlanta. And the coordinates for her last den in the Wild are just south of the northern Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta.
* WhoWillTakeTheKids: An early story arc has Kevin and Kell debating over who should take the children in the event of their death. Ralph was automatically ruled out (this was before his CharacterDevelopment), Kell's parents were ruled out since her father was succumbing to Alzheimer's, her cousin Sheila would eat Coney (this was years before Sheila was properly introduced to the strip), and Kevin was still estranged from his family over Kell. In the end, they name Lindesfarne (then in high school) the legal guardian and vow to take separate planes until she's twenty-one.
* WholeCostumeReference: Wendell dress exactly like Calvin of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' and [[{{Expy}} shares more than a few]] [[BrattyHalfPint personality traits]] [[GirlsHaveCooties with him]].
* WickedStepmother: Inverted; Lindesfarne considers Kell more of a mother than her original adoptive mother.
* AWolfInSheepsClothing: Bruno (wolf) and his girlfriend Corrie (sheep) literally, figuratively, and just about every single variation one can think of.
* WrenchWench: Aby
* YouHaveFailedMe: R.L. typically fires people by eating them.[[spoiler:..or so we were led to believe. Turns out, most of his trophies (the people he fired) are still alive - R.L. hired them back as temp workers, preventing them from getting any benefits.]]
** However, it's implied that it's PlayedStraight when R.L. returns. This is punctuated with Marty's departure, as he left Herd Thinners when he found out he was on a Christmas Party menu.
* YoureNotMyFather: Lindesfarne stops calling Angelique "Mom" after the divorce, upset at being abandoned and not being acknowledged much even during the marriage.
* YourCheatingHeart: Fenton cheated on Lindesfarne when their schedules were separated, going out with a moth. [[https://kevinandkell.com/1998/kk0325.html Kevin saw them]] flying past their house one night. See: PapaWolf.
** George and Martha cheat on each other, [[https://kevinandkell.com/2000/kk0516.html and catch each other at the same time]] while both on dates with their lovers.
** Rudy and Fiona helped Ralph and Martha, respectively, arrange dates with each other, not knowing who they were dating, and found ''themselves'' [[https://kevinandkell.com/2001/kk0713.html falling in love with the person they were talking to, not realizing it was each other.]]
** Rudy's actually had a couple online flings with a character named "Darkeyes". "Darkeyes" turned out to be Corrie, which would've been a serious case of RelativeError had it actually fleshed out for real, considering Corrie is Rudy's cousin. Oddly, [[https://kevinandkell.com/1997/kk0120.html Bruno had zero problems with it]] either time ([[https://kevinandkell.com/2000/kk20000731.html though he did accidentally cause the second one]]). Fortunately, when they finally met, [[https://kevinandkell.com/2000/kk0803.html Rudy did so with the intent of ending the relationship]] once and for all, and it led to all four becoming friends.[[spoiler:..and eventually to [[https://kevinandkell.com/2001/kk1018.html Fiona and Corrie becoming stepsisters.]]]]
--->'''Corrie:''' Bruno, I'm so glad '''you're''' not threatened.\\
'''Bruno:''' Naw, someone that spineless must've been an invertibrate.
** The {{Cliffhanger}} for Summer 2016 revolves around [[https://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk0406.html Edgar having had an affair with a rabbit, Miranda,]] one of Rudy's gardening teammates.[[note]]Edgar and Miranda met as co-stars of a Beige U production of ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors''; they both played Audrey II, with Edgar providing the voice and Miranda operating the puppet. It's unknown if Miranda is in the drama program along with Edgar.[[/note]] [[https://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk0417.html Miranda gave Leona the summer break]] to patch things up with Edgar. Leona [[RescueRomance getting a crush on Carl]] ended their relationship, [[https://kevinandkell.com/2016/kk0904.html clearing the way for Edgar and Miranda]] to officially become a couple.
* YourTelevisionHatesYou: A variant: [[http://kevinandkell.com/2017/kk0107.html it was a stray Google ad]] that outed Lindesfarne as pregnant to Rudy and Fiona.
-->'''Fenton''' (dejected)''':''' Texting the families now...
** Later, we got [[https://kevinandkell.com/2018/kk1012.html another bombshell dropped]] due to Google ads:
--->'''Kell:''' Ad for a basal body thermometer?\\
'''[[spoiler:Corrie]]:''' Yes. [[spoiler:Bruno]] and I are trying...
----

* RescueRomance: May be in play for Leona and Carl: She's saved his life twice.