Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context ComicStrip / LifeInHell

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/big_book_of_hell.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:Before there was WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons, there was this.]]
3
4->''"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."''
5-->-- '''Creator/FriedrichNietzsche''', Chapter I: What is Love? (And What Makes You Think You Deserve Some?)
6
7''Life in Hell'' (later ''Life is Swell'' in 2007) was a weekly comic strip by Creator/MattGroening that ran from 1977 to 2012.
8
9Life in Hell started in 1977 as an {{Underground Comic|s}} book Groening used to describe life in Los Angeles to his friends. Groening photocopied and distributed the comic book to friends and sold it for two dollars a copy at the "punk" corner of the record store in which he worked. ''Life in Hell'' debuted as a comic strip in the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978, to which Groening made his first professional cartoon sale.
10
11The series focuses on the life of Binky, a bitter, depressed and thus "normal" rabbit stuck in a dead end job and a bad apartment, Sheba, his easily irked girlfriend, and Bongo, his illegitimate son. The stories follow Binky's interactions with other humanoid-animals and his misadventures as he deals with his own issues and those of the others around him.
12
13In 1985, Creator/JamesLBrooks invited Groening to pitch a set of animated shorts to be used as filler for ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow''. While Groening was originally planning on pitching an AnimatedAdaptation of ''Life in Hell'', he realised that would entail giving up full rights to the strip to FOX. As a result, while waiting in Brooks's lobby, he hurriedly sketched out a premise for a show about a crudely drawn DysfunctionalFamily. [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons You probably know the rest.]]
14
15Matt Groening stated that he would continue the strip as long as possible, though his production was strained by work on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. There were also accusations that success, fame, marriage and fatherhood had all conspired to dull his edge. Meanwhile, the steady decline of alternative newsweeklies post millennium meant that the market for "underground" strips was steadily diminishing. Finally, on June 20th, 2012 with distribution down to fewer than a dozen papers Groening announced that ''Life in Hell'' would end altogether.
16----
17!!Tropes associated with this work:
18
19* ThreeSixtyDegreeSwingSetSwing: [[https://lifeinhellarchives.tumblr.com/image/145260593697 One strip]] features Bongo trying out various "children's science experiments", many of which are dangerous, one of them being "is it possible to go all the way around on a playground swing?".
20* AerithAndBob: Akbar and Jeff.
21* AllAreEqualInDeath: Binky reassures his young son Bongo that "Death is the only thing that's fair. Everybody dies, and everybody stays dead the same amount of time: forever."
22* BadBoss: One comic depicts the many different kinds of bosses, in varying degrees of badness, ranging from {{Jerkass}} to violent psychopath, that one might have over the course of their life.
23* BeatPanel: Overused in a few Akbar and Jeff strips. Often with 20 or so per page.
24* BelligerentSexualTension: Akbar and Jeff ''hate'' each other - and love each other, too.
25* BlackComedy: Way too much for comfort. This comic gets risque in ways [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Simpsons]] would never dream of.
26* ButtMonkey: More often than not, Binky. And Bongo.
27* CrapsackWorld: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin If the title didn't clue you in already.]]
28** Even in this world, Los Angeles seems to be the worst part. One strip described it as being "like hell, but with worse television."
29* DarkerAndEdgier: The series is way more vulgar, sexual and depressing [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons than]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} any]] [[WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}} of]] Matt Groening's generally PG-13 rated output.
30* DestructiveRomance: To some degree with Akbar and Jeff. They admit they ''despise'' each other, but love each other too.
31* DistaffCounterpart: Sheba is described as "basically, Binky in drag".
32* FishEyes: Whenever a character is in existential despair. So, quite often.
33* HaveAGayOldTime: {{Deconstructed}} when a homophobe angrily tells Akbar and Jeff that "gay" used to mean happy. They tell him they're called that because they ''are'' happy.
34* HonorThyParent: In one 1991 installment, Bongo invokes the trope when faced with his father Binky, whose silhouette is looming over him, having caught him painting an identical mirror-image silhouette of him on the wall, with paint footprints on the floor. In a feeble attempt to get out of trouble, Bongo says: "It's called "Respect Your Elders.""
35* HypocriticalHumor: Used a lot in School Is Hell and Childhood Is Hell
36* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: There was a period where Groening changed the name of the strip every week to include a different joke: ''What The Hell'', ''Wife in Hell'', ''Hell^2'', ''Hellabaloo'', ''Laffs in Hell'', ''U.S. Out of Hell'', ''Like Hell I Will'', ''Hell Yes'', ''Hell-Bent'', ''Life in Whatever'', ''Lxfx xn Hxll'', ''Your Own Little Life in Hell'', ''[[StrawmanPolitical Life Under Reagan]]''...
37* JerkassGod: One strip is narrated by some unseen, apparently immortal and omniscient being who consistently mocks the protagonist throughout his entire life, calling him a loser and saying that everything he does is meaningless ("You'll never make it..."). Eventually, the protagonist dies of extreme old age in a nursing home, and the being smugly notes that it was right all along.
38* LateToThePunchline: One comic strip has Bongo hearing his friend tell a dirty joke that gets everyone laughing.[[note]]The joke is as follows: "A woman buys a dog, and for some reason, she names it Freeshow. Then one day, she takes off all her clothes and gets into the shower, but the dog jumps out the window, and she jumps out of the shower to run after him, still naked, yelling "[[{{Pun}} Freeshow! Freeshow!]]"[[/note]] It isn't until he's gone home, sat on his stoop, eaten dinner, and laid down to go to sleep that he bursts out laughing, presumably "getting it."
39* TheManyDeathsOfYou: [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/de/2d/1c/de2d1cb4e00a4bd6b424ad4f103e89d1.jpg The Los Angeles Way Of Death]]
40* MeaningfulName: Binky is a good name for a rabbit - the little jump they do when they’re happy is called a “binky”.
41* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: The strip pokes a lot of satirical jabs at American society and politics.
42* NoodleImplements: One strip's "Sex Toys for the Truly Adventurous" include a nervous parrot, water balloons, an air horn, a funhouse mirror, and a TV set tuned to ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', among other seemingly random objects.
43* OverlyLongGag. Most of the Akbar and Jeff strips. Some have a setup, 10-15 {{Beat Panel}}s, then a punchline; others have an excessive number of panels on the same theme and a twist at the end, such as "I'll dance on your grave," "I'll mambo on your grave," "I'll do the Charleston on your grave," and so on for another eleven panels until they decide to go to a dance party together.
44* SadistShow: the title should be your first clue.
45* SadistTeacher: Mr. Shute in ''School Is Hell''.
46* ShoutOut: Groening has admitted that the striped shirts of Akbar and Jeff were based on those of [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]].
47* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Quite cynical, right down to the title. However, much like Groening's other work, there is a genuine level of heartwarming and sweet moments.
48* SmoochOfVictory: Though, in Akbar and Jeff's case, they touch index fingers.
49* SphereEyes: Binky et al.
50* StrawmanPolitical: Groening doesn't think highly of UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and the right-wing. One strip identifies "voting Republican" as a psychological disorder.
51* ThinkingTheSameThought: There is a comic where Binky and Sheba are on a date and constantly thinking the same thing including "This would be much easier if I just knew what you were thinking."
52* {{Twincest}}: [[http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/comics-and-graphic-novels/2012/06/20/life-hell-not-eternal-matt-groening-ends According]] to WordOfGod, "Here’s my standard reply: 'Akbar and Jeff are either brothers or lovers — or both. Whatever offends you most, that’s what they are.'... Yeah, of ''course'' they’re gay!". It's never made clear if they're related, though they have an identical appearance.
53* UndergroundComics: Early on. It's since become more mainstream, but still isn't as well known as Groening's [[{{WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons}} other]] [[{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}} creations]]. Also, unlike ''ComicStrip/ZippyThePinhead'', ''Life In Hell'' was only syndicated to alternative weeklies and a small number of mainstream papers, and didn't appear as often. [[SelfDeprecation Parodied]] in one comic where Groening meets his self-proclaimed biggest fan, who knows all his works except ''Life in Hell''.
54

Top