Line #24 ComicStrip/ZippyThePinhead


1	!!!'''[[SimilarlyNamedWorks You may be looking]] for ''ComicStrip/{{Ziggy}}'', by Creator/TomWilson.'''
2	[[quoteright:192:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zippy-the-pinhead2_937.jpg]]
3	[[caption-width-right:192:[[CharacterCatchPhrase Are We Having Fun Yet?]]]]
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5	''Zippy the Pinhead'' (or ''Zippy [[WantonCrueltyToTheCommonComma th']] Pinhead'' or simply ''Zippy!'') is a syndicated comic strip written by Bill Griffith. Zippy first appeared in ''"Real Pulp Comix''" #1 (March, 1971) and went on to appear in UndergroundComics, later adapted into a comic strip in 1976. In 1986, a deal between Griffith and King Features ensured much greater distribution than before.
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7	It might be the strangest comic strip ''ever'' published in newspapers, and that's saying a lot for a medium that gave birth to ''ComicStrip/KrazyKat'', ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' (and its various copycats), and more recently, ''ComicStrip/{{Lio}}''. Its drawing style, realistic and intricate and yet otherworldly, would not have been out of place in the early days of NewspaperComics. The writing itself is a string of non sequiturs and dreamlike scenarios, with no real punchlines in the traditional sense. Author Bill Griffith actually put instructions on the strip's website on [[http://www.zippythepinhead.com/pages/aaaunderstanding.html how to read the strip]].
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10	!!Tropes:
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12	* AnimatedActors: A 2015 story arc reveals that Zippy has been played all these years by an actor. The actor quits from exhaustion at spouting [[TalkativeLoon all that surreal nonsense]] and Griffy auditions a number of replacements.
13	* AuthorAppeal: Diners and roadside memorabilia.
14	* AuthorAvatar: Griffy, a very nervous and self-deprecating example.
15	* CharacterCatchPhrase: Zippy has several, including "Are we having fun yet?" and "Yow!"
16	-->'''Griffy:''' Wouldn't it be horrible [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall if we could only speak in catchphrases?]]
17	* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: Dingburg, the strip's setting.
18	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Zippy, of course.
19	* CompanionCube: Zippy talks to the above roadside memorabilia. They talk back to him.
20	** One particular statue, the muffler-holding [[MeaningfulName Muffler Man]], was a major recurring character.
21	%%* DadaComic
22	* EvilTwin: Zippy's cynical, business-suited doppelganger, [[http://zippythepinhead.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=21-Apr-97&Category_Code=a1997&Product_Count=17 Lippy]].
23	* GagNose: Griffy.
24	* {{God}}: A floating head with a mustache and a bad attitude... or a cheerful retro-styled imp. The two are presented as being two sides of the same coin, each equally valid.
25	* {{Gonk}}: The San Francisco Doggie Diner; Zippy himself (partly inspired by a microcephalic character from ''Film/{{Freaks}}'').
26	* GreasySpoon: An increasing number of strips have occured in diners. Griffith even sponsored a few color Sunday strips devoted to saving various diners and roadside ornaments from demolition.
27	* LimitedWardrobe: Zippy and the other Dingburgers all wear the same style of muu-muu.
28	* NonSequitur Humor
29	* ObfuscatingInsanity / HiddenDepths: Zippy.
30	* RecursiveCanon: The Dingburg strips are revealed to be the fictional creation of the in-universe Griffy, as a result of his obsession with Zippy and the other pinheads. God has referred to it as real, but he has been explicitly stated as being an idea. Mr. The Toad has also managed to worm his way into Griffy's work, and thus into Dingburg.
31	* ShoutOut: To ''Webcomic/GarfieldMinusGarfield'', [[http://zippythepinhead.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/2010/images/050810.gif here]].
32	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Zippy's two identical children, Fuelrod and Meltdown.
33	** UncannyFamilyResemblance: Zippy, Zerbina, his EvilTwin, and his numerous relatives who all dress or look almost exactly like Zippy, despite having completely different personalities from the lackadaisical Zippy, with a few tertiary sexual characteristics and LimitedWardrobe accessories to tell them apart.
34	* TertiarySexualCharacteristics: Zippy wears a bow on his head, but his wife Zerbina's bow is outrageously bigger.
35	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Ding-Dongs and Taco Sauce
36	* UndergroundComics: Originally an underground comic strip before being syndicated to mainstream newspapers.
37	* VerbalTic: Pinheads never say "the." It's always "th'."

Context ComicStrip / ZippyThePinhead