Line #34 YMMV/PennyArcade


1	* AccidentalInnuendo: In [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/05/20/ this]] strip.
2	-->'''Tycho:''' What's topping? Let's top. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything I want to top.]]
3	* AluminumChristmasTrees: One level in ''Videogame/{{Scribblenauts}}'' can actually be solved [[CuttingTheKnot by just spawning the Starite]] (the item you need to collect to complete each level), as Gabe does in [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/09/23/the-wisdom-of-solomon "The Wisdom of Solomon".]]
4	* ArchiveBinge: Three strips a week for over 20 years. Good luck.
5	** The comic's usual avoidance of "the dreaded continuity" (the rare actual ongoing storylines rarely last more than a week's worth of strips) means there's no need to read the entire archive in order, but the addition of a "random comic" button in the site's newest redesign means you can lose hours just by putting the backlog "on shuffle." To say nothing of the "generate comic" button, which assembles a "new" strip out of three randomly selected panels from the archive and lets the reader be the judge whether surrealist hilarity is achieved.
6	* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
7	** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/09/13/part-one-confrontation Part One: Confrontation]], the strip for September 13, 2000, features Tycho as a ''turnip'' with absolutely zero context or explanation. The ''Attack Of the Bacon Robots'' paperback reveals that this is actually because Mike threatened to draw Jerry as a turnip as long as he put off buying a SEGA Dreamcast, but this is not explained in the strip, and this was before the News section existed, so unless you've read the books, good luck figuring out what the hell is going on.
8	** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/11/03/i-think-we-got-everybody I Think We Got Everybody]]. Gabe and Tycho are discussing video games they like when, out of nowhere, Tycho points out the cat and an eggplant shaped like Abraham Lincoln. Tycho merely states [[RuleOfCool it's cool]] when Gabe asks if anybody asked for that.
9	* BrokenBase: The reaction to [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/08/11/ "The Sixth Slave"]] was rather... [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/08/13/ mixed]]. Not helping this was Gabe's response -- that it was no different from [[BlackComedy their trademark style]] and the dickwolves were no worse than the Fruit Fucker 5000, a rapist character who'd been in the comic for years.
10	%%* Crazy Awesome:
11	%%** Gabe; [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/08/19/ Tycho calls him the trope name verbatim here]].
12	%%** And of course, World of... [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/i-hope-you-like-text/ Warhammer Online]]... Craft.
13	* CrossesTheLineTwice: Many of the strips. Probably the best example would be [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/10/11/ the comic where Tycho gets the hiccups]].
14	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
15	** Pretty much any character introduced for a one-off joke can be guaranteed to become a fan favorite, leading to many an AscendedExtra. Examples include Div, the Fruit Fucker 5000, Twisp and Catsby (also SpringtimeForHitler) and the Broodax Imperiate.
16	** Tycho's niece, Anne, also known as Annarchy, won a poll by a landslide to determine which character to focus on as an arc during the authors' trip to Comic-Con 2011. Hence, [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/07/15/ Annservice]].
17	* HarsherInHindsight:
18	** Their [[{{Squee}} reaction]] to ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM's'' initial announcement could be considered this, as general reaction to the finished product was... [[BrokenBase less than satisfactory.]]
19	** Tycho appeared in ''VideoGame/PokerNightAtTheInventory'', a crossover between ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'', ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', and ''Penny Arcade''. Jerry Holkins even wrote some dialogue for it, and this was back when he was a fan of ''Team Fortress 2''. But then, when [=TF2=] became free to play, he has expressed hatred for it.
20	** The punchline of [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/05/07/baby-versus-rhino this strip]] was a lot funnier before the infamous shooting of Harambe the Gorilla when a child fell into his enclosure.
21	** Directly addressed in the [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2018/08/27/craniomeganumerophilia news post for Craniomeganumerophila]]. They had already completed the Madden themed strip the Friday before the shooting at a Madden tournament in Jacksonville, Florida.
22	** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/07/16/she-might-have-struck-a-nerve This comic]] is rather painful in light of what happens in [[spoiler:''Film/AvengersInfinityWar''.]]
23	** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/11/21/the-jim-saga-part-two The fate of Jim]] isn't as funny when you realize that something like it [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/23/larry-ely-murillo-moncada-council-bluffs-disappearance-cooler-no-frills-supermarket/ actually happened]].
24	** Some episodes of the ''Penny Arcade: The Series'' web documentary showing two employees' getting engaged can be a bit sad to watch now almost ten years later with the knowledge the marriage didn't last.
25	** On September 6, 2006, Penny Arcade released a comic [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/09/06/arms-arent-even-that-cool# mocking the then-ongoing backlash against JRPGs]], with the commentary arguing that, while taste is taste, arguing that such games are bad because they aren't something else is petty and illegitimate criticism. Twenty years later, it's turned out that the [=JRPG=] backlash in general was not only overblown, with the genre undergoing a renaissance of both commercial success and popularity, but something that Japanese developers were both aware of and hurt by.
26	* HilariousInHindsight:
27	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/08/29/ This strip]], which is now accidentally brilliant because it makes perfect sense that anyone with knowledge of the future at the time it was published wouldn't remember that "Revolution" was the codename for the Wii rather than a huge historical event.
28	** Compare [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/06/21 this strip]] and [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6295138.stm this actual news article.]]
29	--> "We can categorically state that we [the British military] [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial did not release man-eating badgers]] into the local area."
30	** And this [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/11/03 infamous strip]], whose mockery of the bogus release date for ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' was funny in 1999 when the game was a year and a half late, but only grew more so as the game grew two years, four years, eight years, ''nine years'', only to loop back around to HilariousInHindsight when a demo of the game, now out of development hell, was released at PAX. And in 2010, when it actually came out, we had... [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/09/08 this]].
31	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/08/23/ This strip]] became a lot funnier when a few years later Tycho actually did miss a portion of PAX due to the birth of his child.
32	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/03/29/ In 2006, they ran a comic]] where Tycho had a dream in which Creator/BioWare received the licence to make a ''Franchise/StarWars'' MMO. [[VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic Five years later...]]
33	** Seen [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/14 here]], while discussing [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/09/03/ Gabriel's supernatural powers to destroy computers]]
34	** [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/12/27 This is so much funnier when you realize how popular/influential Penny Arcade is now.]]
35	** Consider [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/08/11 this strip from 2008]] and [[VideoGame/LollipopChainsaw this game from 2012]].
36	** Another one from 2008, [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/10/24/the-verdict this strip]] where Gabe says ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' is better than ''VideoGame/RockBand'' purely on the basis that one has "Jessie's Girl" as DLC and the other doesn't; fast-forward to four years later, ''Rock Band Blitz'' would ''actually'' include "Jessie's Girl", exportable to ''[=RB3=]'', in the soundtrack.
37	** A long-running RealMenWearPink joke is that Gabe, the more 'manly' of the two, is secretly obsessed with unicorns and ponies. [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic This ''used'' to be random and surreal...]]
38	** In 2003, it was just a [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/01/24/why-the-hell-not joke on video game movie rights]]. In 2014, [[http://www.movieweb.com/tetris-movie-story someone didn't get the joke]] and actual plans for making a Tetris film began.
39	** In 2004, they made a comic about a [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/02/25/if-you-siege-one-dungeon-this-summer Uwe Boll directed Dungeon Siege movie.]] Two years later, Film/InTheNameOfTheKing came out, directed by Creator/UweBoll with the subtitle A Dungeon Siege Tale.
40	** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/05/03/bench-arcade This strip]] has a squirrel with a cigar and a T-shirt that says "Fuck you" getting turned down for ''Conker's Quest'', for not being "accessible" enough to kids. Eventually, ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' came out, and the squirrel probably would have fit right in there.
41	** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/02/retroid This strip]], which is about retro characters that do not have modern counterparts à la ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' (namely VideoGame/{{Bubsy}} and VideoGame/{{Ristar}}) is pretty funny since Bubsy did eventually get a new game in 2017. Still no future Ristar, though.[[note]]But he did appear in ''VideoGame/SonicAndAllStarsRacingTransformed'' as a flag-bearer, for what it's worth.[[/note]]
42	** Any number of comics like [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2018/10/10/the-cockpit this one]] mocking serious racing sim games and the type of people who play them became retroactively more hilarious after Mike himself watched ''Film/FordVFerrari'' and got obsessed with racing. PA now has its own league in VideoGame/IRacing which has been running for two years, and Mike and Jerry have streamed VideoGame/MotorsportManager on Twitch.
43	** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/07/04/ionosphere Ionosphere]] has Gabe complain that the web swinging in the new Spider-Man game is unrealistic because the web swing aren't actually attached to anything, citing Central Park as an example. [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/SpiderManPS4 Six years later,]] a Spider-Man game came out that actually had realistic web swinging, and going through Central Park is indeed a hassle.
44	* HoYay: Whereof most involves Gabe.
45	** By the authors themselves:
46	*** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/02/01/ "Two Bodies In Space"]] (while poking fun at the physics engine in VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed).
47	*** [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/05/06/ The two strips]] [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/05/08/ that introduced Gabe's bisexuality]], and, in a {{Callback}} to that, [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/03/29/ "A Blatant Disregard For Canon"]].
48	*** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/08/09/ "In Too Deep"]].
49	*** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/03/03/ The Macintosh gag]], and Charles' and Gabe's reunion [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/04/06 a few years later.]]
50	*** [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/04/11 The vasectomy-strip.]]
51	*** The [[http://penny-arcade.com/2014/01/24/valentines-day-pin1 2014 Valentines' pins]] are heavy on the yay, what with the motif being Gabe and Tycho happily sitting together on a park(?) bench, the perspective making it seem as if their hands are touching, with a huge heart in the background.
52	*** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2016/12/23/ignition Tycho has a very clear opinion]] on {{VideoGame/Final Fantasy XV}}'s Ignis...it's really not even subtext.
53	*** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2022/05/23/eros-iv Gabe first suggests]] there should be an episode of {{Series/Star Trek Strange New Worlds}} where aliens steal Captain Pike's shirt so [[ShirtlessScene he just has to go around the ship shirtless]], and Tycho dispenses with all subtlety by saying he can see an episode where there's a [[BuffySpeak time thing]] leading the Enterprise to come to our Earth and Pike has to have sex with him a bunch of times "to, like, help the ship". Gabe declares that they should be writing Star Trek after hearing that.
54	*** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2023/08/25/cameo-dot-com-forward-slash-krisstraub Gabe apparently also has a thing]] for {{Creator/Kris Straub}}.
55	*** [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2023/12/20/creatcher The two of them are rather attracted to]] [[{{Series/Reacher}} Jack Reacher]].
56	** From {{Guest Strip}}s:
57	*** [[Webcomic/HarkAVagrant Kate Beaton]] weighs in [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/04/05 on the matter]].
58	*** Webcomic/{{xkcd}} [[LampshadeHanging would]] [[SlashFic like]] to [[http://xkcd.com/160/ join in]].
59	* MemeticMutation:
60	** [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/why-i-am-so-bald WHY I AM SO BALD?!]]
61	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/i-hope-you-like-text/ ZALGO COMES]]
62	** Thanks to Paul Christoforo's very public name and shame on the website, his face ([[https://twitter.com/#!/PaulChristoforo taken from his Twitter account]]) quickly got associated with terrible customer service. His horrible emails - both in terms of content and grammar - supplied such memetic gems as 'Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet'.
63	** In the more traditional sense of a meme, the word "[[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/09/12/ bullshot]]".
64	** In the early 2000's internet, cardboard tubes were often jokingly treated as "ultimate weapons" in reference to the Cardboard Tube Samurai.
65	* NauseaFuel:
66	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/06/09/ Steve Jobs punches out some guy's organs]].
67	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/11/03/ Gabe vomiting out of motion sickness from the Mirror's Edge demo]].
68	** [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/27 "You just found Grandma's man-candy."]]
69	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/05/18/ This close-up shot of Gabe's mouth.]]
70	** [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/07/11 Tycho telling Gabe about something he heard in the bathroom.]]
71	** [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/26 The Bump]], particularly the third and fourth panels.
72	* NightmareFuel: Tiny Kitten Teeth makes [[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Kapp'n]] seem [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/09/16/ creepy]].
73	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: In early 2003, the comic underwent a shift in art style to a somewhat sketchier look. This caused some initial backdraft, if mainly out of the suddenness of the change than anything else. These days, style changes to match the tone are considered the norm.
74	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/08/17/final-fantasy-x1 This]] strip was made at a time where ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' was more unknown than the reputation it would have [[VindicatedByHistory today]]: a SacredCow among ''Final Fantasy''.
75	* ValuesDissonance: Considering it's been going since the ''90s'', it's inevitable some things wouldn't age well. Some early strips could have some rather strong language, using words that would eventually go on to be see as slurs in the modern age. (Notably, the word 'retard' could be thrown around by the characters a few times in a derogatory context.)

Context YMMV / PennyArcade