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%%[[caption-width-right:350: Hey are you a flower?]]

''[[http://theoatmeal.com/ The Oatmeal]]'' is a comic and site by Matthew Inman. It is a web original that created a board game that raised over $8.7 million on kickstarter, 8 books, a bunch of merchandise, and comic with a unique style. These comics are what The Oatmeal is most known for.

Books:
* ''If My Dogs Were a Pair of Middle-Aged Men Book''
* ''5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth''
* ''How to Tell if your Cat is Plotting to Kill You''
* ''My Dog: The Paradox''
* ''Why Grizzly Bears Should Wear Underpants''
* ''The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distances''
* ''Penis Fairies and Queef Storms - An Adult Coloring Book by The Oatmeal''
* ''404 Not Found - A Coloring Book by The Oatmeal''

!!This work contains examples of:

* AscendedMeme: "Tumbeasts", the gremlins responsible for Website/{{Tumblr}} site errors.
* BeingGoodSucks: Inman [[https://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones decides]] to pay to watch ''Series/GameOfThrones'' legally to support the author, but every streaming service is ridiculously overpriced, doesn't have it, or requires him to jump through hoops to get the content he wants. He ends up resorting to piracy, which lets him see the entire series instantly for free.
* BlackComedy: [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/abortion_clinic How to Name an Abortion Clinic]].
* BlatantLies: "Please pet me, I am not a bear." It serves as the trope image.
* BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce: [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/sriracha TASTY FIRESTORM!]]
* CaninesGamblingInACardGame: Matthew drew a parody of the original "Art/DogsPlayingPoker" painting that he titled ''[[https://theoatmeal.com/blog/cats_playing_hippos Cats Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos]]''.
* CatsAreMean: [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/bobcats_monday The Bobcats]] will either fire you or plot your murder.
* CatsAreSuperior: [[https://theoatmeal.com/comics/baby_vs_cat Behold this strip]] on why cats are superior to babies.
* CatsLoveLaserPointers: A dog reacts to a laser pointer by asking if it is food. When told it is not, he is all "that's cool man" and proposes sprinting around in circles until they throw up. In contrast, four cats go completely out of their minds trying to kill the red dot. As one puts it:
-->Holy mother fuckity shit\\
What is this optical phenomenon\\
of light and confusion\\
I must stab it
* ChestBurster:
** [[https://theoatmeal.com/comics/happy_easter One has to wonder]] why the Easter bunny lays eggs for us to eat... [[spoiler: the egg hatches inside you and a baby bunny pops out of you]].
** And of course [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/aliens this strip]], featuring [[Franchise/{{Alien}} the Facehuggers]] themselves.
* ChildrenAreAWaste: He has a very, very negative opinion on babies.
* CoolCar: [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s What It's Like To Own A Tesla]].
* CountryMatters: Nasty as a swear-word, but it loses potency when reimagined: [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/c_word "When I hear it, I imagine a small, economy car from the mid-80's."]].
* {{Determinator}}: The Oatmeal is an Ultra-Marathon[[note]] 50+ miles[[/note]] Runner, which he likens to being a highly caffeinated mountain goat climbing over mountains and eating everything in their path, as opposed to regular Marathon runners, who are more like sleek cheetahs, able to run fast over shorter distances.
* DigitalPiracyIsEvil (But Sometimes Unavoidable): [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened]].
* TheDitz: [[https://theoatmeal.com/comics/house Domino]], one of Inman's 17 childhood cats, was "special". He foamed at the mouth when he purred, couldn't run in a straight line, and never figured out how to use the litterbox.
* DoesNotLikeSpam: Inman [[https://theoatmeal.com/comics/juicy_fruit hates Juicy Fruit]] (a brand of gum) because it loses its flavor about 0.2 seconds after being chewed. He describes it as going from "holy shit that's juicy!!" to "someone shit pencil erasers in my mouth".
* EasterEgg: If you view the page source of any page on his website, you'll be greeted by an ASCII version of the "motherfucking pterodactyl."
* FMinusMinus: [[http://theoatmeal.com/pl/top_tweets/your ...minus minus minus minus minus minus.]]
* ForeignQueasine: [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/asian_food Asian food in a small town]].
* GoodAngelBadAngel: The aforementioned comic about piracy. The bad angel wants Matt to just pirate ''Series/GameOfThrones'', while the good angel thinks of ways for Matt to watch the series legally. Eventually, the good angel runs out of options after trying just about everything.
* GrammarNazi: The Oatmeal even makes comics entirely about [[http://theoatmeal.com/tag/grammar how to use grammar correctly]].
* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Inman [[DefiedTrope takes issue with this]] regarding [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day Christopher Columbus]].
* InterchangeableAsianCultures: According to Inman, [[https://theoatmeal.com/comics/asian_food small-town Asian restaurants]] are horrible mish-mashes of food from 5 different countries.
-->'''Restaurant window of "Diarrhea Dragon"''': Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Thai/Vietnamese - Gourmet! Straight from the Orient! Try our Scary-Yaki Combo Meal! Only $2.99!
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: Describes "Grump", his family's pet parrot, as being this in ''I Have First-Hand Experience With An Undead Parrot''.
--> "Grumpy implies a dissatisfied, surly exterior lined by a tender, endearing underbelly. But Grump was not tender. His name should have been '''Asshole'''. His name should have been '''Genghis-Nightmare-Shitting-Khan'''. His name should have been '''OH GOD NO'''."
* LastResortTakeout: In "[[https://theoatmeal.com/comics/cook_home Why I don't cook at home]]", Inman is about to order from Mr. Chang's Chinese Pizza Barn, but sees a TV commercial talking about why fast food is bad for you. He decides to cook Pekingese Bison Casserole from a recipe book labeled ''Recipes! Super EZ! (Haha Not Really)'', but ends up making a grey pile of sludge that taunts him about his lack of cooking skills. Finally, he just gives up and orders from Mr. Chang's, looking very happy as he shovels pizza into his mouth.
* MisanthropeSupreme: Inman likes to think that his childhood parrot Grump was this, due to being very mean-spirited.
* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Invoked by Matthew, who considers getting his anti-SOPA animation featured on CNN to be this.
--> I'm fairly certain getting koala lovemaking on CNN is the highlight of my career and I wanted to share the moment with you.
* NotQuiteDead: [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/grump Grump, the Undead Parrot]], who kept cawing as he was being buried. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Actually]], he is very much dead. The dirt was pushing out the remaining air in his lungs.]]
* SophisticatedAsHell: Inman appears to be very well-read, and a lot of his comics are as informative as they are hilarious. That said, he's not above the occasional ClusterFBomb.
* SwallowedAFly: [[http://theoatmeal.com/story/flies And he never lived it down]].
* TakeThat: A popular pastime for Mr. Inman when dissecting his many pet peeves:
** One of the most infamous examples first [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell was this strip]], which showcased 14 years of frustration as a web designer. No wonder the man quit to pursue a career in drawing and writing web comics.
** [[http://theoatmeal.com/blog/funnyjunk_letter This]] response to the legal dispute with [=FunnyJunk=], complete with YourMom.
** UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison gets several in the [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla tribute]] to UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla.
*** Forbes Magazine gets [[http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_response several]] for not fact-checking the tribute to Nikola Tesla.
* TheInternetIsForPorn: Inverted - [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/state_web_summer "The State Of The Web, Summer 2011"]] mentions that social networking has overtaken porn in web traffic. "You've changed, internet. It's like I don't even know you anymore."
* ThirdPersonPerson: Inman sometimes refers to himself as "The Oatmeal."
* ThoseWackyNazis: Inman grew up in a town in Idaho that used to be the site of a Neo-Nazi compound and he grew up knowing a [[https://theoatmeal.com/blog/bus handful of little Hitlers]].
* TooOldToTrickOrTreat: One strip shows what Halloween is like at different ages; for teenagers, it's described as "They try to go trick or treating but get yelled at by stingy parents".
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Sriracha hot sauce, as noted [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce above]].
* VomitIndiscretionShot: All over the place. Many of his comics feature humans and animals indiscreetly barfing candy-colored vomit in ludicrous quantities.
* YourMom: [[http://theoatmeal.com/story/octopus This is why an octopus is more awesome than her]].
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