A
Newspaper Comic begun in 1993 by cartoonist Jeff MacNelly, best known for his comic
Shoe. In
Pluggers, a cast of animal characters illustrate reader-submitted one-liners about "pluggers" — people who "unceremoniously keep plugging along, balancing work, play and family life." An example might be "You're a plugger when the most expensive piece of clothing you own is an NFL jersey."
It's not commonly known, but the five main characters have names: Andy Bear, Sheila Roo, Carl Rhinowski, Earl Houndstooth and Henrietta Beak. There's no reward for guessing that they are, respectively, a bear, kangaroo, rhinoceros, dog and hen. According to
an old version of the now defunct website
, there were once more characters.
MacNelly originally wrote the gags himself, but made the shift to reader-submitted gags after receiving so many. He handed art duties to Gary Brookins in 1997, who also took over in the same capacity on
Shoe after MacNelly died in 2000.
The strip can be read
here.
Tropes present:
- The Alleged Car: Apparently a fairly typical Plugger vehicle, if this strip is correct.
- All There in the Manual / Informed Attribute: The now-defunct website listed the names and backstories of the various characters. These traits almost never showed up in the actual strip (for instance, Sheila is supposed to be an aerobics instructor).
- Aside Glance: Sheila's default expression.
- Big Eater: Several strips make Pluggers out to be this. One example: A plugger's appetite suppressant is having a Dagwood Sandwich before dinner.
- Blanket Tug O War: "A plugger knows that one good turn gets most of the blanket."◊
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Most of the characters listed in the archived character sheet above have disappeared. A cat couple also showed up in the 2000s, but have disappeared as well.
- The Everyman: Andy Bear.
- Kangaroos Represent Australia: Sheila.
- Fat and Skinny: Andy and Sheila, respectively. Sheila is a constantly-bemused straight-woman... straight-flyer?
- Furry Confusion: Since the characters are drawn as anthropomorphic animals, but the ideas used in the strip are submitted by readers (i.e. humans,) the overlap can range from confusing (the bear taking a normal dog for a walk) to disturbing (the hen storing her jewelry in an egg carton).
- Inexplicably Tailless: Everyone, but Sheila in particular stands out. At least one strip◊ from the MacNelly era averted it, though.
- Interspecies Romance: Andy Bear and Sheila Roo are married, as are Earl and Henrietta. Even more confusingly, Andy and Sheila have both kangaroo and bear offspring.
- Meaningful Name: "Sheila" is Aussie slang for a woman. And then there's Henrietta.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Yes, Henrietta has breasts. One could even argue that a marsupial character shouldn't have breasts, either...
- Print Long Runners: 17 years as of 2010.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Seriously, how do you do something like this?
- Shout Out:
- This Loser Is You: A strange case, as the traits depicted are supplied by readers of the comic. It may be thought of, perhaps, as Self-Deprecation.
- For reference, common recurring themes in the comics are "Pluggers are fat," "Pluggers are afraid of modern technology," "Pluggers are couch potatoes," "Pluggers are slobs," "Pluggers have no sex drive," "Pluggers are fat," "Pluggers drive rattling junkheaps," "Pluggers have terrible diets," "Pluggers require constant medication to stay alive," "Pluggers are cheapskates" and "Pluggers are fat."
0 reviews 
