[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/46a6e0c3edfadfcf71e0be65d5023efa.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"the most unlikely of friends"]]

archy and mehitabel\\
were a cockroach and a cat\\
archy had the soul\\
of a vers libre poet\\
and laboriously composed\\
by jumping on the keys\\
of [[DirectLineToTheAuthor don marquis]] s typewriter at night\\
while mehitabel supposedly\\
had the soul of [[UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII cleopatra]]


his output was published\\
in the new york evening sun\\
starting in 1916\\
and later in the tribune\\
at first as {{filler}}\\
when marquis couldn t produce his column

in it archy told\\
marquis of his and\\
mehitabel s adventures\\
toujours gai toujours gai\\
the poems were\\
a satire of\\
urban life in\\
the 1920s

it is probably most famous\\
for the [[PaintingTheMedium unusual typography]]\\
because archy couldn t\\
operate the shift key\\
consequently\\
the poems themselves\\
are underrated\\
and dismissed as gimmicky

!!books
* ''archy and mehitabel'' 1927
* ''archy s life of mehitabel'' 1933
* ''archy does his part'' 1935
* ''the lives and times of archy and mehitabel'' 1940
* ''archyology'' 1996 (posthumous)
* ''archyology II'' 1998
* ''the annotated archy and mehitabel'' 2006

!!plays
[[Creator/MelBrooks mel brooks]] co-wrote a musical ''shinbone alley'' based on the poems in 1957

!!western animation
an [[WesternAnimation/ShinboneAlley animated film]] of the brooks play was made in 1971

!!tropes
* {{aerith and bob}} pretty self explanatory
* {{all lowercase letters}} THOUGH A COUPLE OF THE COLUMNS WERE IN ALL CAPS
** then there was a time when the boss left the shift lock on for archys benefit but mehitabel made a jump for him see carnivore confusion below
--->'''archy''' i got away but she unlocked the shift key
* {{carnivore confusion}} mehitabel ate cockroaches and from time to time tried to eat archy
* {{direct line to the author}}: the poems were supposedly typed by archy at night and marquis would find them the next morning
* {{gratuitous french}}
-->there s a dance in the old dame yet
-->toujours gai toujours gai
* {{green aesop}} what the ants are saying
* {{heroic sacrifice}} freddy the rat
* {{mst3k mantra}}
-->boss i am disappointed in\\
some of your readers they\\
are always asking how does\\
archy work the shift so as to get a\\
new line or how does archy do\\
this or do that they\\
are always interested in technical\\
details when the main question is\\
[[TrueArt whether the stuff is\\
literature or not]]
* {{no punctuation period}} for the same reason as the lack of capitals
* {{offing the offspring}} mehitabel drowns her kittens
%% * {{painting the medium}}
* {{reincarnation}} both archy and mehitabel had human souls he a vers libre poet and she cleopatra and many others freddy the rat was a poet before and then there was the suicide club of bugs whose previous human selves had taken their own lives
* {{shame if something happened}} mehitabel s discussion of her kittens
-->...they are living\\
just now in an abandoned\\
garbage can just behind\\
a made over stable in greenwich\\
village and if it rained\\
into the can before i could\\
get back and rescue them\\
i am afraid the little\\
dears might drown\\
it makes me shudder just\\
to think of it
* {{talking animal}}s well a typing animal at least
* {{we all die someday}} archy speaks with a moth who wishes to get inside a light bulb even if it kills him the moth argues that life is short anyway and it is better to go out in a brief blaze of glory if you can
-->i do not agree with him\\
myself i would rather have\\
half the happiness and twice\\
the longevity\\
\\
but at the same time i wish\\
there was something i wanted\\
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

----
-->[[TheStinger love archy]]
----