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Léonard le Génie is a comic from the Franco-Belgian school by artist Philippe Liegeois and writer Bob de Groot (better known as "Turk & de Groot"). It follows the eponymous character, inventor Léonard le Génie (Leonardo the Genius, loosely based on real world inventor Leonardo da Vinci) and his clumsy "disciple" Basile.

The stories vary in length from one or a few pages up to a whole album. The basic storyline is as follows: Léonard has thought up some new invention, and needs the help of his assistant to build and/or test it. Basile, being a Heavy Sleeper, first needs to be awoken, using another invention, explosives or just plain old cartoon violence. As the building or testing proceeds, Basile suffers Amusing Injuries, either from his sadistic master or through his own incompetence. The story usually ends in one of these ways: Basile goes a step too far in annoying Léonard and is chased by him, Basile finally gets fed up with the abuse and retaliates on Léonard, or the invention fails spectacularly and both Léonard and Basile are chased out of town by an angry mob.

Other characters in the comic are:

  • Raoul the cat, comments on the action and is sometimes seen applying first aid to Basile or repairing the property damage.
  • Bernadette the mouse, comments on the action and is occasionally chased by Raoul in Tom and Jerry style. She has taken over first aid duty from Raoul in the recent stories.
  • Yorrick the talking skull (a reference to Hamlet), comments on the action.
  • Mathurine (Saartje in the Dutch translation) the housekeeper, is sometimes the victim of a failing invention, but also tends to put both Léonard and Basile back in place if they make too big a mess.
  • The Great Albert (a time-travelling Albrecht von Bollstädt), a rival inventor. Although one album is just one long story about a huge battle between the two, in later albums they are shown to be on more or less friendly terms. Comes with a clumsy assistant of his own.
  • The Villagers: Sometimes seen chasing Léonard and Basile out of town after a failing invention destroys (part of) the village.
  • Mozzarella, (Mozza for short) making her debut in album 48. Léonard's adopted daughter whom he rescued from the streets. Mathurine take a liking to her while Basile dislike her for losing his bedroom to her.

A 20-episode All-CGI Cartoon was made in 2009.


Tropes:

  • Acquainted with Emergency Services: The local hospital keeps a room permanently reserved for Basile, with the staff complaining that even this is barely enough.
  • Adaptational Villainy: When Leonard and Basile travel into the fairy tales' world, the Little Red Riding Hood and her grandma are mugging people with the help of the Big Bad Wolf.
  • Alas, Poor Yorick: One of the characters is literally a skull named Yorick.
  • All for Nothing: Leonard's travel to discover the content of the missing 13th page of his grimoire turns out to be useless because there were never a 13th page to begin with, since the author was scared of this number.
  • Ambiguous Syntax: A joke that mostly works in French. When Leonard is building a tank, he needs to put the treads and asks Basille to bring him "chenilles", which is a French word for "treads". Basile then brings caterpillars because "chenille" is also mainly the French word for "caterpillar".
  • Amusing Injuries: Basile, either at the hands of Léonard or through his own incompetence. Léonard and the rest of the cast aren't always safe either.
  • Anachronism Stew: Although the stories supposedly take place in the 15th century, Léonard has electricity and modern tools at his disposal, and has built computers and robots, amongst others. Somewhat justified by him being an inventor, but still... Lampshaded at least once; Léonard invents a photo camera and, on having put the film in an envelope, realizes there's nowhere to mail it to. "Do I have to invent everything myself?"
  • Answers to the Name of God: When Leonard makes an apple gigantic with a sizeshifting pistol, Basile exclaims "My god!", to which Leonard answers that calling him "Master" is enough.
  • Anvil on Head: It's pretty common for Basile to have anvils dropped on his head, either by accident or courtesy of Leonard.
  • Apocalypse How:
    • Played for laughs. When coming back from a conference about astronomy, Léonard explains to Basile that the Earth will be destroyed when the sun will go to different stages before going supernova. Upon hearing this, Basile is incapable of sleeping, while Lénoard wonder if he should have told him that these catastrophes will take place millions of years in the future.
    • Léonard and Basile go to 2012 to check how things are. They find out that according to the Mayan calendar, it will be the end of the world on December 21, 2012. They travel to 2013 to find out that the apocalypse will not happen. They are relieved and return to their own time, except the next page shows a massive asteroid is heading towards the Earth.
  • Artistic License – History: Leonard is ridiculed by scientists for saying that the Earth is round. The comics take place in an era where every scientist knows that the Earth is indeed round.
  • Artistic License – Physics: Léonard and Basile create a hot-air balloon. It goes so high it floats into space, acting the same as if it was in normal air... as Léonard and Basile argue about whether the latter blew too much inside the balloon without any problems.
  • Bad Boss: Léonard physically punish Basile for any mishaps and didn't pay his salary for years. He is not so harsh against Mathurine however.
  • Bait-and-Switch:
    • Leonard sees a farmer using his wife to plow a field while the farmer follows behind. Leonard then says that these are inhuman working conditions and he's gonna make it easier. The last panel shows that Leonard built a wheeled chair for the farmer to relax, while the farmer's wife continues to plow the field by hand by pulling the plow and the farmer's chair.
    • Leonard asks Basile some of his family members' names so he can name one of his inventions. When Basile tells him one of his family members is named Monopoly, Leonard thinks it's a perfect name for his invention, which turns out to be a skateboard, not the iconic board game.
  • Bait-and-Switch Suicide: Once Basile is replaced by Leonard's nephew, he throws a rope over a wooden beam with a morose expression, as if he was about to hang himself. It turns out he was just making a swing.
  • Ballistic Discount: Happens in an unusual way. A man comes ask Léonard to invent a gun for him, and when he has finished building it, the guy immediately threatens him with it.
  • Bandage Mummy: Basile often ends up being completely wrapped in bandages after building and testing Leonard's inventions.
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: Almost every time Basile somehow gets accidentally sent out of the Earth.
  • Been There, Shaped History: While Leonard really was an inventor in real life, in this comic he invented pretty much everything, but other people who are also based on real life persons appropriated some of his inventions for themselves.
  • Berserk Button: Do not insult Mathurine by making rude comments about her weight. Or saying that she is not a woman. Bad things will happen to you.
  • Beyond the Impossible: Somehow, Basile managed to lose eleven fingers out of ten. It happens offscreen so we don't see how his hands look.
  • Bigger on the Inside: Leonard invents the caravan so everyone can take a vacation at the beach. Once inside, it has two stories, a staircase, four bedrooms, a kitchen and everything you expect in a house. How the caravan is normal-sized like the ones in the 20th century is a mystery.
  • Binomium ridiculus: Basile's bed is labelled "Disciplus Simplex", while Leonard's bed is labelled "Leonardus Geniales" or Maestro Genialis.
  • Bloodless Carnage: Zig-Zagged. Sometimes Basile bleeds from his wounds and sometimes he does not.
  • Bloody Hilarious: Often happens whenever Basile is injured, naturally, which can go as far as dismemberment.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Basile, in those rare moments when he's neither sleeping nor being tormented by his employer, turns out to be a gifted inventor in his own right, and he even builds a single-handedly builds a Saturn V rocket in one strip. Among the more competitive examples of this:
    • While Léonard is inventing the bicycle, he comes up with the motorbike.
    • When Léonard invents the safe and gets a little too arrogant about it, Basile one-ups him by inventing the cutting torch to crack the safe open.
  • Bucket Booby-Trap: Leonard invents the concept of practical jokes by doing the "water bucket on a door" prank.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Once more, Léonard insulted Basile for his usual blunder. Except this time, Basile was testing an exoskeleton that increased his strength tenfold. It probably wasn't a good idea to piss him off as Basile threw Léonard straight to the moon.
  • Bungling Inventor: Sometimes, Léonard invents something that fails spectacularly (often destroying the village) or is just plain useless. Don't call him this to his face though, unless you like getting "blunderbussed".
  • Call-Back:
    • The second story where plastic surgery is mentioned, Basile angrily reminds Leonard of the time he gave Basile Droopy's head.
    • Basile makes a reference to his family members Azerty and Scrabble, whose names were used as jokes in earlier stories.
  • The Cameo: Leonard invented television and everything that's being broadcast comes to life in the living room. This ends with the cartoon channel with several toons showing up: Duke, Tweety, Sylvester, Tom and Jerry and several others.
  • Can't Take Criticism: Whenever Basile points out any holes in Leonard's work, the latter will respond with violence.
  • Captain Obvious:
    • Leonard sometime does experiments leading to obvious conclusions.
      • He forces Basile's head into a water basket for six minutes and concludes that humans aren't made to live underwater.
      • He makes Basile tests a lifebuoy, which makes him sink underwater. Leonard then realises that a buoy should never be made out of concrete.
    • It takes a scientist a month of research to conclude that bananas taste better without the peel.
    • Basile is surprised that there are more Chinese restaurants in China than in Italy.
  • Catchphrase:
    • "DEBOUT DISCIPLE !" ("WAKE UP DISCIPLE !")
    • "Je sers la science et c'est ma joie" ("I serve science and it's my joy") note 
    • *sniff* (Basile's trademark reaction to suffering Amusing Injuries)
    • Whenever an invention of Leonard turns really bad, Basile asks "What do we do now, master?".
  • Cats Are Snarkers: Raoul the cat likes to make puns and sarcastic remarks.
  • Characterisation Marches On:
    • In early comics, Raoul couldn't talk, just like a real cat. He was later able to talk and tended to make puns and sarcastic remarks.
    • In her first appearence, Mathurine was even more intelligent than Leonard and was interested in inventing things. This was quickly dropped.
  • The Chew Toy: Basile constantly gets hurt because of Leonard and his inventions and has his body wrecked in cartoonish ways.
  • Comically Missing the Point:
    • Leonard wants to prove to his fellow scientists that the Earth is round. He goes on a trip around the world with Basile in tow. After many weeks and many misadventures, they arrive at the back of their house just as predicted by Leonard. An exhausted Basile is glad the trip is finally over. He turns around and begin the journey home in the opposite direction.
    • When Basile and Mathurine explain the concept of procreation to Léonard, they demonstrate it while dressed up as a bee and flower. Léonard takes it to mean that he has to seduce a flower, which he proceeds to attempt.
  • Complexity Addiction: Leonard builds a huge complex machine that requires plenty of physical effort from Basile, the point of which is to crack open the top of an egg by poking it with a spoon.
  • Cool, but Inefficient: Ahead of the 20th century, Léonard invents the walkman and have Basile testing it. Basile found it cool that he could listen to his favorite music anywhere he went, but comment that the device was extremely inefficient: the walkman was the size of a chair and had to be carried on his back.
  • Cool Car: Léonard has a pretty cool car, especially for an inventor supposedly living in the 15th century. It can even transform into other vehicles.
  • Cordon Bleugh Chef: Mathurine makes a gratin containing spoiled fish, fruit jam, garlic, chocolate and cheese. It sends everyone who tastes it to the hospital.
  • Corrupt Politician: Fed up with the roads filled with potholes and the corruption of the mayor, Léonard invents his own political party and rally the people to vote for him. The mayor, named Silvio Berlesconi, openly admits his corruption and says he won't tolerate rivals, so he had Léonard and Basile imprisoned.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: Léonard once refers to Basile as his "favorite and unique disciple".
  • Deadpan Snarker: Raoul shows traits of this.
    Basile: Testing? That's usually where my misery starts...
    Raoul: Misery? Oh no. You mean catastrophic disasters.
    Basile: *sniff*
  • Debating Names: The second time the cat is called "Prosper" by Leonard, Basile argues that "Raoul" is a better name, causing a debate between him and Leonard. In all subsequent appearences of the cat, he's called Raoul, meaning Basile won the debate offscreen.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: When Mathurine and Mozza go at the market place, the women spoke negatively of Mozza because of her Romani origin. This is still the Renaissance period after all.
  • Dem Bones:
    • One recurring character is a sentient skull named Yorick.
    • Basile is sometimes stripped to his skeleton, but he stays alive.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • Sometimes, Leonard invents things that are useless without a secondary invention.
      • He invents the TV before TV channels.
      • He invents the doorbell before electricity, meaning people have to yell a ringing noise themselves after pressing the button.
      • He invents photography, but does not invent a way of developing photos.
      • Leonard creates a complex-looking machine, then ponders what it could be used for.
      • He invents the diving board before the pool.
      • He invents suspenders before pants.
      • He invents the tin can before the can opener.
    • Léonard invents the hybrid car, powered with fossil fuel and electric batteries to make the air cleaner and free of pollution. After a successful test, Basile then ask what will they do with all those batteries when they reach the end of their life? Léonard didn't have an answer and decides to shoot Basile for ruining his day.
  • Digging to China: Léonard intents to in Génie en sous-sol. He has to build a machine as he admits his disciple could not do it with a shovel. However, in a gag, Basile did it with a sprint car and a roof.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Occasionally, Basile is so fed up by Leonard's invention hurting him that he decides to beat up Leonard in retaliation.
  • Double Knockout: Leonard and Albert decide to finish their rivalry fight with a gun duel, but they both shoot each other, then it's revealed that they were actually robots controlled by the real Leonard and Albert.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: Lénoard invents the immortality pill. Basile thinks it's a terrible idea, as if everyone lives forever, the world will run out of food, places to live and living will lose its meaning. Léonard admits he hadn't thought of all those consequences.
  • Early Installment Character-Design Difference:
    • In early comics, Leonard's beard was much smaller than usual. It quickly got its iconic length.
    • Basile had a bigger upper-jaw, slouched his head and had a dopey face.
    • Raoul looked like a more realistic cat.
    • Bernadete originally didn't wear clothes. she later dresses like a human.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • In early comics, Raoul would occasionally chase after Bernadette in a Tom and Jerry-like fashion. This was dropped and they were established as two friends who like to snark at Basile's Chew Toy status.
    • It took a while for the disciple to finally get a name: Basile.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: When Mathurine becomes a beautiful young woman after being subjected to Magic Plastic Surgery, Léonard and Basile are very seduced by her... and comment on how her outfit shows her navel. Raoul then comments on how *his* navel can be seen at all times, and wonders what's so special about it.
  • E = MC Hammer
  • Epic Fail: Basile invents the anonymous letter and sends one to Léonard to criticize him. Except he signed his name at the bottom of the letter. Predictably, this ends badly for Basile.
  • Everyone Chasing You: Several short stories end with the villagers chasing after Leonard and Basile because Leonard's invention ended up being too destructive.
  • Everyone Has Standards: One story has Léonard inventing a bodybuilding method, with Basile as the usual guinea pig. Once successfully completed (turning Basile into a Rambo-esque hero), Léonard attempts to try out how strong Basile has become by insulting a random passerby, assuming Basile would act as his bodyguard. Basile remained idle while the enraged passerby kicked Léonard's ass, then retorted Léonard had it coming.
  • Exact Words: After Basile complains about pushing a car and a boat all around the world, Leonard promises he won't need to push the car anymore. Cue Basile pulling the car.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
    • When Mozza attempts to shoot Basile, she hits the ceiling and a good chunk of debris falls on Basile's head. Basile explains to her that the blunderbuss has a strong recoil and she has to hold it firmly before firing. For the next seconds, Basile thinks hard of what he just said. Before he can react, he receives a volley of bullets in the head.
    • Léonard wants Basile to test his new device: the international emergency call, just dial 112. Basile protests and says he isn't in any distress at the moment. He then realizes what will happen next and start running. Cue Léonard chasing Basile with hostile beasts and torturing devices in hand.
  • Expy:
    • Mathurine is an expy of Miss Partridge and Cunégonde, two similar characters from Clifton and Robin Dubois respectively. The two series were created by the same authors before Leonard Le Génie came around. Miss Partridge is obsessed with cleaning and order, while Cunégonde is physically strong and doesn't tolerate sloppiness, traits that has been transposed to Mathurine.
    • Basile is also an expy of John Haig, the commissioner from Clifton. They are both slow-witted and clumsy.
  • Family-Friendly "Mature" Content: When Basile and Mathurine are about explain how babies are made to Léonard, Basile says they have to warn their editor that the following scene will have "Mature content".
  • Favors for the Sexy: Happens when Léonard turns (surgically) Mathurine into "Jennifer". It was actually a Batman Gambit from her.
  • Fingore: Out all of Basile's body parts, his fingers tend to be the ones that get hurt the most.
  • Frankenstein's Monster: Albert tries to get rid of Leonard by building a Frankenstein's Monster. Leonard counters this by creating a female Frankenstein's Monster. Both monsters end up falling in love and leave their respective masters. Later, you can see them strolling a carriage with a baby Frankenstein's Monster, much to the horror of the villagers.
  • Funny Background Event:
    • When not commenting on the main action, Raoul and Bernadette are often engaged in their own activities. Especially in the older comics these are small stories by themselves.
    • Once Léonard and Basile were talking and Raoul was in the background reading a Plaboy-like magazine with anthropomorphic female cats. Mathurine snatched the magazine and gave him a Finger Wag while Raoul was grumbling and sulking.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Léonard, the self-proclaimed greatest genius in the universe. To his credit many of his inventions actually work quite well. Sometimes too well....
  • Gamebooks: Leonard invents a live version and naturally Basile gets inevitably screwed whatever choices he makes.
  • Generation Xerox: Leonard and Basile's prehistoric ancestors were also an inventor and a disciple, respectively.
  • Genius Ditz: Basile is often shown to be an idiot, but there are moments where he surpasses Leonard in term of inventions.
    • He invents roller skates minutes before Leonard does himself.
    • He builds a motorcycle right after Leonard invents the bicycle.
    • He invented a rocket ship just because he had the idea when waking up.
  • Giant Medical Syringe: Leonard sometimes uses huge syringes.
  • Giver of Lame Names: Leonard isn't good at finding names for his inventions. He either includes his own name in it or names it after a random family member of Basile.
  • Glad I Thought of It: Most of the times Basile has an idea of his own, Leonard takes credits for it. But you can be certain Léonard will remember it was Basile's idea in the first place when it fails after all.
  • Gone Horribly Right: At one time, Leonard replaces Basile with his nephew who's much smarter and more competent. Unfortunately, Leonard quickly finds out that his nephew has a big ego and doesn't really need his uncle to invent stuff. Worse, Leonard realizes that he misses the times where he could physically punish his old disciple. This prompts him to rehire Basile and ship his nephew to China by mail.
  • Goofy Buckteeth: In early comics, Basile has noticable buckteeth to go with his dopey personality.
  • Hairy Hammerspace: Léonard can pull a variety of objects from his beard. Most often seen are mallets, anvils and his trusty blunderbuss.
  • Hammerspace:
    • Basile sometime sleeps in small spaces such as inside a faucet, a tin can or a banana.
    • Leonard creates a normal-sized suitcase containing multiple items of furniture. In a later comic, the suitcase is upgraded so it can contain a whole house.
  • Happily Adopted: Mozza is quick to adapt to her new home. At the end of the album, she calls Léonard her daddy for the first time.
  • Healing Factor: Basile seems to have regenerative abilities on par with Wolverine. Once, after being hit by an anvil, he just pulled on his hair to get his head back in the right shape, and another time he's seen reattaching his own limbs after they have been scattered by an explosion.
  • Heavy Sleeper: Waking up Basile takes high-yield explosives or similar violence. Most of the stories start with Léonard waking Basile up by some unorthodox means. Basile can also instantly fall asleep at any time. He even claims that he needs 22 hours of sleep per day. In one strip, he sleeps for 93 hours straight.
  • Hilarity Ensues: Basile's clumsiness is often a source of amusement to the rest of the cast, especially Raoul and Bernadette.
  • Historical In-Joke:
    • Léonard wrote Hamlet and repeats it with the help of Basile, Mathurine and a random passerby who speaks in rhymes. After everybody falls asleep during repetitions, Léonard decides his play is worthless, but the passerby likes it and buys the script for a pittance. In the last panel, Léonard looks at the bill of sale...
    It's signed : William Shakespeare.
    • One gag has Leonard sitting under a tree and receiving an apple on his head. In the punchline, he comments he has the feeling he's watching something important but can't put his finger on it. According to popular imagery, this is one version of how Isaac Newton discovered universal gravitation.
  • Humongous Mecha: In an Affectionate Parody of mecha-based Anime, Léonard and Albert each build a giant mecha looking like themselves and fight it out. Léonard calls his Leonorak, a Shout-Out to the French-language version of UFO Robo Grendizer, Goldorak. Hilarity Ensues even from the word "go":
    (CRRRAAAASSHH)
    Basile: (waking up groggily) Ah, I see through the hole in the roof that it's dawn already!
    (rotating gears in think bubble)
    Basile: THROUGH THE HOLE IN THE ROOF!!!??
    Léonard: (from Leonorak) Apprentice, shiver and quake before Leonorak!!
    Basile: (shivering) W-w-w-what d-d-do y-y-you th-think I'm d-doing, m-master?
    (CRRRAAAASSHH)
    Basile: I b-believe th-there c-comes the c-competition, m-master...
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • Whenever Basile is hurt by Leonard's clumsiness, Leonard calls Basile clumsy.
    • Basile is upset because Leonard's daughter is now sleeping on his bed, in his bedroom. Léonard tells him to keep it quiet because it's rude to awaken someone's who's asleep.
    • Léonard lend his blunderbuss to Mozza and she use it to shoot Basile. When she wants to use it again, Léonard tells her firearms aren't meant to be played with.
  • Idea Bulb: Sometimes used straight, but often toyed with.
    • When Léonard has a particularly good idea, or a series of ideas, he starts lighting up and making sounds like a Pinball machine or Video Game.
    • In one strip, Leonard notices that a lightbulb doesn't work, then he has an idea, causing another lightbulb to appear near him, which he uses to replace the old one.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The title for every album (aside from the third, titled Léonard Is A... What Was It Again?) includes the word "Génie" ("Genius"). Partially Lost in Translation, the Dutch titles are sometimes missing the word "Genie".
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: After Leonard invents warfare, Basile is being trained to shoot with a blunderbuss. Not only did he miss the target dummy, he also shot himself in the face because he was holding the firearm the wrong way.
  • Indulgent Fantasy Segue: When Leonard invents warfare, he gives a blunderbuss to Basile who's now a soldier. Basile fantasizes about shooting Leonard, only for the latter to warn him not to, since he also invented martial court.
  • Insane Troll Logic:
    • Leonard says that the number 5 appears everywere and uses Hercules's tasks as an example. Basile points out that Hercules actually had twelve tasks, but Leonard defends his own point by saying there were five tasks before the sixth.
    • Leonard is so used to using the names of Basile's family members that he believes he cannot invent the toaster because no one in Basile's family is named "Toaster".
  • The Insomniac:
  • Instant Bandages: Basile, after suffering Amusing Injuries. Sometimes justified by showing Raoul, or more recently Bernadette applying first aid.
  • Insult Backfire:
    Léonard: Your stupidity sometimes is so rich that I wonder if I shouldn't lock you in a Swiss safe.
    Basile: I'm not touched with flattery.
  • It Will Never Catch On:
    • Leonard invents the television, but the two citizens who see it think this invention has no future. Since TV channels have not been invented yet, the TV itself is useless.
    • When Basile creates a rocket ship, Leonard says that it will never be useful for anyone.
    • When Basile proposes that the submarine should be called, well... a submarine, Leonard think it's a ridiculous name and decides to call it a "sub-Leonard". Whenever Basile says a phrase that will become a Navy term, Leonard asks him to stop saying nonsense.
    • Léonard invents fashion and has Basile tries out various iconic costumes of Obélix, Tintin and Donald Duck. Basile then invents the tuxedo, which Léonard brushes off as unfashionable.
  • Kids Are Cruel:
    • In one gag, children were making a mess of the whole town by mistreating animals, attacking adults, breaking properties. Léonard invents the playground park, but the kids ignore it and continue to wreck everything around them.
    • At school, kids are mocking Mozza because she's adopted.
  • Knife Outline: Leonard tests a tommy gun by shooting around Raoul, making an outline of bullet holes around the cat.
  • Lack of Empathy: No one has sympathy for Basile when he gets hurt in every possible way when building and testing Leonard's inventions. In fact, Leonard tends to get angry at Basile getting hurt because it means he cannot work as effectively.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Raoul does this occasionally, such as wondering aloud how Basile manages to heal in between scenes.
  • Levitating Lotus Position: Léonard encounters an entire squadron of monks flying like this. One even shouts mayday because he has a leg cramp, meaning he can't get the landing gear out.
  • Lighter and Softer: The 2009 CGI cartoon made characters look cuter and toned the violence down in comparison to the original comics.
  • Literally Shattered Lives: Happens to Basile every page or so, Tex Avery-style.
  • Literal-Minded: When building a tracked vehicle, Léonard ordered Basile to fetch two caterpillars. He returned with two bugs, not understanding what a caterpillar was. In his defense, Léonard didn't explain what he was building.
  • Mad Scientist: Some of Léonard's inventions are downright wacky, and he also has a tendency to meddle with chemicals and strange reagents, often with explosive results. Don't ever accept a drink from him....
  • Magic Plastic Surgery: One story has Mathurine being subjected to such surgery, becoming a traditionally sexy Proud Beauty. Léonard and Basile go ga-ga over her.
  • The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Leonard has a mirror with a reflection of himself that has its own sentience. Leonard likes to compliment and kiss the reflection so he can stroke his own ego, but the Leonard reflection isn't actually fond of the real Leonard.
  • Market-Based Title: The comics has been translated into English as Leonardo the Inventor
  • Massive Numbered Siblings: Averted. With Basile having a huge extended family, you'd expect him to have many siblings, but he surprisingly doesn't have any.
  • Mean Boss: Léonard, although the occasional role reversal shows that Basile would arguably be even worse, given the chance.
  • Meaningful Rename: The first two times Raoul is called by name, he's called Prosper, but Basile decided that "Raoul" is better. While there originally was a debate between Basile and Leonard to decide which name was better, "Raoul" stuck.
  • Medium Awareness: Fed up with Léonard's antics, Basile uses his master's invention, the crossover, to jump into Ric Hochet's universe. Ric warns him that his world is a realistic comic and any grievous injuries can be fatal. After learning this the hard way, Basile goes back to his own comic while Raoul is accidentally stuck in Ric's universe.
  • Mirror Universe: There's a short story where Basile falls inside a mirror's reflection and finds himself in an alternate dimension where logic is either backward or nonsensical.
  • National Stereotypes:
    • When Léonard travels around the world, every foreigner he comes across is a national stereotype.
    • Downplayed with the protagonist themselves. While most of the strips could be set anywhere, we find the occasional reference (such as one character being called Mozzarella) to remind that, yes, the protagonists are Italian.
  • No Fourth Wall: The characters are aware they are in a comic—and Raoul occasionally addresses the reader directly ("Hey, it's our reader! Welcome to a new album!")—not to mention speech bubblesnote  just to name a few.
  • Non-Fatal Explosions: At worst they will burn Basile to ashes or scatter his body parts (bloodlessly) over the room, but he will be alright in the next scene.
  • No More for Me: When a giant caterpillar-like creature emerges from the ground and asks for Leonard's address, a drunk citizen throws away his bottle after giving directions.
  • Non-Indicative Name: When Leonard discovers a Z-shaped constellation, he decides to call it the "Leonard" constellation because of its form. Basile is dumbfounded by that lack of logic.
  • No OSHA Compliance: Léonard doesn't give a damn about Basile's safety or well-being, so Basile frequently has to do very, very dangerous work.
  • Not Me This Time: Basile is angry because of loud noises outside. He goes to see Léonard and accuses him of keeping him awake. Lénoard denies any responsibility and explained delinquent kids were the ones making all the ruckus.
  • Not the Intended Use: Retroactive examples. Some of Leonard's inventions were created for something different than their real life usages.
    • He invents the scaphander so people can peel onions without crying.
    • Leonard invents the submarine to get into the town's sewer to look for a ring he lost.
  • Ocular Gushers: Enough to drown the house when Léonard invents pessimism.
  • Overly Long Name: Leonard invents a spray called "Normophétolicyamimoldequoilinochlorinatrascorbisacharimagnésicholoïdamatimatolum". It makes random objects edible.
  • Overly-Long Tongue: When Basile is exhausted, his tongue tends to get several feet long.
  • Pacing a Trench: A common gag is for Leonard to walk in circles while working away at a problem, usually waist-deep by the time inspiration hits.
  • Parental Abandonment: Mozza's mother is dead and she never met her father.
  • Parental Substitute: Mathurine acts like a surrogate mother toward Mozza.
  • Picnic Episode: Léonard invents picnic. Unfortunatly, everything that could go wrong went wrong: bugs and rain just to name a few. The gang decide to happily go eating at a restaurant.
  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Léonard and Basile usually refer to each other as "master" and "apprentice", but the master doesn't teach and the apprentice doesn't learn.
  • Print Long-Runners: The series has always gotten one album per year without stopping to this day, since 1977.
  • Prochronic Product: Much of the humor comes from Leonard coming up with modern inventions that fail due to the Renaissance setting, such as a chainsaw that the lumberjacks use as a regular handsaw (then complain that it doesn't work).
  • Putting On My Thinking Cap: Léonard has a number of gadgets to help him concentrate. They usually involve strong coffee, or holding him upside down to improve the blood flow to his brain.
  • The Rival: The Great Albert. The album Genius contra Genius is entirely about a huge battle between the two, but later stories show them to be on more friendly terms.
  • Running Gag: The waking of Basile at the start of a new story and many, many other examples.
  • Santa Claus: One strip has Leonard taking the role of Santa before meeting the real one who doesn't appreciate that someone is copying him.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If a situation gets too dangerous or absurd, Raoul tends to be the first one to leave.
  • Series Continuity Error:
    • A strip has Leonard inventing various potato-based recipes, including French fries. A later strip is entirely dedicated to Leonard inventing French fries, even though he had done so already.
    • There's a strip where Leonard implies that he doesn't believe Mathurine has what it takes for inventing things, despite her inventing something in her introductory strip.
  • Shout-Out: Here.
  • Skewed Priorities: Whenever Basile is hurt by a tool or invention, Leonard is scared that the tool or the invention could be dented.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Leonard always calls himself a genius, thinks he's superior to other people and includes his name in most of his inventions. He even invented a mirror with a sentient reflection of himself whose role is to stroke the real Leonard's ego.
  • Sore Loser: Léonard invents the cooking contest and comes second behind Mathurine who won first prize. Léonard gets offended and insults both Mathurine and the judges.
  • Speech-Bubble Censoring: An amusing inversion where the text is censored by the image. Léonard uses an aerosol spray on the bubbles.
  • Spoiler Cover / Spoiler Title: The cover of album #48 shows Mozza along the rest of the main characters and the title is "My daddy is a genius!". Obviously, a new character will be introduced and she'll be Lénoard's daughter.
  • Squashed Flat: Yet another common amusing injury, often involving a hydraulic press or similar tool.
  • Street Urchin: Mozza lived on the streets all by herself before Léonard adopts her.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Happens all too frequently, but it's alright, they are all Non-Fatal Explosions.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: Léonard never stops complaining about how dumb and clumsy Basile truly is.
  • Sweeping Ashes: The usual result of Basile being hit by Non-Fatal Explosions or X-Ray Sparks.
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Largely averted with Bernadette, who wears gender-neutral clothing and otherwise looks no different than other mice. She sometimes wears feminine clothing, but only for special occasions.
  • The Talk: Mathurine and Basile mocked Léonard for not knowing how to make babies. They proceed to dress in a flower and a bee and made him a demonstration, which Léonard failed to understand as he went outside to seduce flowers.
  • Talking Animal: Raoul and Bernadette are respectively a cat and a mouse who can talk.
  • Teleporter Accident: Leonard builds a teleporter cannon and uses it on Basile to make him disappear, but he also makes Raoul's tail disappear. When Leonard makes Basile reappear, Basile's arm and Raoul's tail are swapped.
  • Tempting Fate: When Leonard is creating the bicycle, he brags that Basile would never have the skill and intelligence to create something similar, then the last panel shows Basile building a motorcycle.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Basile, when he knows the pain is coming.
  • 13 Is Unlucky: Leonard has a grimoire where the 13th page is missing. We learn that it was deliberately torn off by the author, who was scared of the number 13.
  • Time Machine: Léonard has built a few, and some are occasionally used in stories, taking him either to the prehistoric or to modern times (and yes, one of them is actually build into a Cool CarShout-Out, anyone?).
  • To the Pain: When Léonard gets particularly irritated by one of Basile's most recent screw-ups, he rants about everything he will (allegedly) do to make him suffer.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Not only does Basile stay with an abusive master, he simply can't get anything done without seriously injuring himself.
  • Torches and Pitchforks: The villagers sometimes chase Léonard and Basile out of town after one explosion too many.
  • Translator Microbes: Protz says that members of his species get translation devices implanted in them at birth, explaining how he can talk to humans.
  • Truth Serum: Leonard uses a truth serum on Basile, causing him to repeatedly insult Leonard.
  • Unprovoked Pervert Payback: When outside for an errand Basile lost his keys again. Not to worry. With Leonard's lastest invention, all he has to do is whistle and the keychain attached to the keys will play a tune. Unfortunately, a woman was passing-by when Basile whistled and she gave him a piece of her mind.
  • Unsound Effect: A variation of this trope used for comedy. Verbs are often used instead of common onomatopoeias, describing the invention being on-work, and Basile hurting himself.
  • Vague Age: Léonard is obviously an old man and Basile obviously a young man, however, at least two different stories have them aged down to children or babies, being the same age, going to school in the same class. Léonard already having white hair, this implies he is Younger Than They Look.
  • Wrong Parachute Gag: Two similar gags:
    • One comic has the disciple open the parachute, only to reveal a sheet of paper from the maid Mathurine, saying the parachute is in laundry.
    • In another comic, a similar joke is made by Léonard accidentally handing Basile the backpack containing their lunch instead of a parachute.
  • X-Ray Sparks: Happens every time Basile has to power on a new invention.
  • You Are Fat: There are several jokes about Mathurine being overweight.

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