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These Tropers are crazy! (Ils sont fous ces tropeurs!)

Asterix is the protagonist of a French comic book, written by Rene Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo (and both written and drawn by Uderzo after Goscinny's demise in 1977), and now translated into over 100 languages and published around the world.

The Asterix comics take place in the year 50 B.C. The Roman Empire has all but conquered continental Europe, except for a few pockets of resistance. One of those pockets of resistance is a small but plucky village in Armorica, Gaul (Normandy, pre-medieval France), which has held back the Romans thanks to a Super Strength granting magic potion. The village happens to be the home of our hero, a small but plucky Gaul named Asterix. Along with his loveable lug partner, menhir (monolith) delivery-man Obelix (who fell into the cauldron of magic potion when he was a baby, which caused it to have a permanent effect on him), and the other inhabitants of the village (including Chief Vitalstatistix, Getafix the druid (the only person who knows how to make the potion), Fulliautomatix the blacksmith, and Cacofonix the tone-deaf bard), Asterix gets into all manner of adventures, which usually involve foiling the schemes of the Romans (and Julius Caesar himself).

Occasionally, a small (and very persistant) band of pirates (a parody of another comic series Barbe-Rouge) makes a cameo appearance; their ship was scuttled by the potion-enhanced Gauls in an early story — since that initial appearance, they are usually seen either paddling frantically away from any Gauls they encounter, or coming across the Gaulish warriors during an incidental encounter and getting scuttled — again (or even scuttling their ship themselves to minimize damage).

Part of the appeal of the series is probably the variety of humor, which includes slapstick fight scenes, plenty of wordplay, thinly-veiled social commentary, and Iron-Age versions of just about every European stereotype you can imagine.

Probably has the best translations of any comic-book ever; they're smart enough to keep the basic story while making new puns in the appropriate language.

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Asterix provides examples of:

• Acro Fatic: Obelix, easily.
  • One of the more hilarious examples is when he tries to teach his dog how to do tricks.
• Anachronism Stew: For example, Asterix and the Banquet has a mail wagon with the modern logo of La Poste.
• As You Know: Seems like once a book, they have to remind us that Obelix isn't allowed to drink any magic potion because he fell into a cauldron full of the stuff when he was a baby. Eventually turned into a Running Gag.
• Author Existence Failure: René Goscinny, the writer, died in 1977. The illustrator Albert Uderzo continued the series afterward. Opinions differ on the quality.
• Affectionate Parody
• Anti Villain: Caesar, who is often treated surprisingly sympathetically as a man of honour, though in a few stories he is clearly a Magnificent Bastard.
• Berserk Button: Don't call Obelix fat. Or hurt his dog.
• Big Eater: Obelix, totally.
• Big Ball Of Violence: Liable to get big indeed when the whole village gets involved in the fight.
• The Blacksmith: Fulliautomatix
• Blood Knight: The entire village.
• Book Ends: Subverted. Many fans got the impression that Asterix and the Falling Sky was going to be the last album since the cover is remarkably similar to that of Asterix the Gaul. Uderzo then stated it was not the case.
• Bound And Gagged: Guaranteed to happen to Cacofonix at the end of every book. Subverted in Asterix and the Magic Carpet, because Cacofonix's horrible singing saves the day and subsequently, he's treated as a hero.
  • Also in Asterix and the Normans, where Cacofonix is the one who teaches the Normans what they've set out to learn: fear.
• Canis Latinicus: Most of the Roman characters' names.
• Catch Phrase:
  • Obelix' line "These Romans are crazy!", often used by other characters, or with another ethnic group substituted for the Romans. (French: "Ils sont fous ces Romains!") In the Italian translation, it is "Sono Pazzi Questi Romani", punning on SPQR, the Roman initialism.
    • In Asterix the Legionary Obelix has to utter "We Romans are crazy", as they have just joined the Roman army.
  • "Who are you calling FAT!?"
  • Each time the Pirates are scuppered, they have a similar dialogue as they float in the wreckage berating each other.
  • "'Join up', they said. 'It's a man's life', they said."
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Played with in Asterix at the Olympic Games
• Crowning Moment Of Funny: Plenty of them.
• Darker And Edgier: Some stories, most notabily Asterix and the Laurel Wreath.
• Dis Continuity: Most fans prefer to pretend Asterix and the Falling Sky never was, and hope the next album will give a chance to the series to not end on a bad tune. Other fans prefer to think that the series died with Goscinny, and ignore all the Uderzo-only books (the ones from Asterix and the Great Divide onwards).
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Obelix at times.
• Dolphins Dolphins Everywhere: Asterix gets saved by a dolphin in the sea in Asterix And The Actress.
• Doorstop Baby: Asterix finds a baby on his doorstep at the beginning of Asterix and Son. It turns out he's the child that Cleopatra had with Caesar.
• Dreadful Musician: The villagers have been known to use Cacofonix as a weapon.
• Full Boar Action: It's the Gauls' favorite food. Obelix isn't fond of places who don't have it, or cook it wrong.
• Funetik Aksent: Some populations talk this way.
• Gladiator Games: Asterix the Gladiator
• Graceful Loser: Caesar
• Genre Shift: Asterix and the Falling Sky, which departs from the usual historical themes into science fiction. Many fans see it as a definite Jumping The Shark moment.
• Gentle Giant: Obelix
• Grievous Harm With A Body: This is a standard move for fighting Romans.
• Happy Rain: At the end of Asterix and the Magic Carpet, Cacofonix's rain-inducing voice finally finds a suitable use.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Asterix and Obelix.
• Hey Its That Voice: Craig Charles as Asterix and Howard Lew Lewis in Asterix Conquers America.
• Historical In Joke: lots of them
• Hoist By His Own Petard: In Obelix & Co, the Roman plan to undo the village's social structure backfires, resulting in unrest in Rome.
• Honest Johns Dealership: Asterix and the Banquet has an used car chariot dealer selling Asterix and Obelix a spanking-new ride with a strong black stallion... only problem is, the chariot falls apart within a few minutes, and the strong black stallion turns out to be a weakly white horse painted black, its paint washing off when it starts to rain.
• Horny Vikings: Asterix and the Normans
• How Unscientific: Asterix and the Falling Sky with aliens landing at the village. It Gets Worse.
• How We Got Here: Asterix and the Laurel Wreath.
• Ho Yay: Asterix and Obelix alternate between "just good friends" and outright Ho Yay surprisingly often.
• Hurricane Of Puns
  • Given that puns don't translate that well, the character's names get changed across languages (e.g. Idéfix -> Dogmatix, Panoramix -> Getafix etc.) They Changed It Now It Sucks.
• I Dye Grass - there is a particular spirit of Spring whose job it is to push up the plant stems and so on and so forth.
• I'll Take Two Beers Too: Obelix. With beers and boars. A Running Gag is Obelix having a tendency to overindulge in alcohol and getting drunk when he's offered plenty, at which point he speaks (moreso than usual) in Malapropisms and gains a weird Lisp.
• Improper Fraction
• Magnificent Bastard: Caesar.
• Megaton Punch: Justified by the fact that the people who do these punches are under the effect of the magical potion.
  • Except for Obelix, who is not allowed to, etc.
  • Obelix once drinks the potion in Asterix and Cleopatra in order to enhance his strengh even more to move a solid stone door. He sees no difference, yet he keeps asking for potion subsequently anyway.
• Mobile Shrubbery: Frequently used by the Romans to spy on the Gauls. In one episode a Roman soldier disguises himself as a tree and Hilarity Ensues when an owl begins to stalk him.
• The Movie: Several Asterix films, both animated and live-action, have been produced.
• Multiple Demographic Appeal
• National Stereotypes: The populations that Asterix and Obelix encounter are affectionate parodies of nearly every French and European stereotype around.
  • Although a few decades on, it's rather cringe-inducing to see the Germans depicted as goose-stepping, pickelhaube-wearing Goths, complete with banners reminiscent of the Third Reich.
    • Does it? Anyone with a minimal sense of history would get that the Goths were the precursors to Bismarck and ultimately Those Wacky Nazis, so it would not make sense to depict them in a wildly different way.
• No One Has A Memory Over Two Years Old: A "hotdog" joke that was used in The Great Crossing is reused in Asterix and the Falling Sky (this is in the French version).
• Offhand Backhand
• Oh My Gods: since in those days, all religions were polytheistic.
  • ALL religions? No! For one tiny sect still... um. The Jews, I mean. And to a lesser extent, zoroastrians.
  • Joked about early in Asterix and the Soothsayer, where the Gauls are said to have hundreds of gods, and created a code number system to simplify things.
• Once An Episode:
  • One person from the Gaul tribe generally gets tied up or is otherwise not at the party; Usually Cacofonix.
  • Pirates are generally trashed once per episode (at least in the cartoon).
• Order Versus Chaos: The fun-loving, chaotic Gauls versus the Roman Empire. The Helvetians also cop their share of problems.
• Painting The Fourth Wall: Asterix and the Goths features a "Gaulish-Gothic translator", but all that is different between the two "languages" is that the goths speak in a gothic letter type, so they're still speaking the same language. At one point Getafix (who has been captured by the Goths to get hold of the Magic Potion) is shown to master the Gothic font language, exposing the interpreter as a liar.
• Punny Name: Absolutely everyone who isn't a historical figure, and some who are (such as Pontius Pirate in the English translation). Impressive when you think they had to make new puns in every different translation.
• Purely Aesthetic Era: Most of the classical antiquity cultures presented in the series are actually just stand-ins for modern nations.
• Reassigned To Antarctica: In Asterix in Corsica, it's explained that the island's garrisons are a dumping ground for hopeless elements of the Roman Legion. Also, at the end of Asterix the Gaul, a displeased Caesar reassigns an officer to an outpost in Mongolia(!).
• Relax O Vision: Particularly savage fights take place off-panel.
• The Right Hand Of Doom: Verses the Persian from The Twelve Tasks Of Asterix.
• Running Gag: Fullautomatix hitting Cacofonix when the latter tries to sing, Obelix being very sensitive about his weight, and others.
• Shamu Fu: When the village gets into a fight, it's often started by Unhygenix's thrown fish.
• Shout Out: In Asterix in Britain, the heroes come across "four very famous bards" who look like the Beatles.
  • In Asterix in Belgium, they are warned of Caesar's arrival by the Thom(p)sons of Tintin fame; the courier being sent out to notify the clan leaders all over Belgium of this event is none other than cyclist Eddy Merckx (sans bike).
  • There are actually so many shoutouts it'd require its own page...
  • There's also a character (a druid/Roman spy who has a prominent role in Asterix's Odyssey) who looks like Sean Connery...
    • And is named Zerozerosix (Dubblosix in the English version). So Yeah.
• Shown Their Work
• Significant Anagram: The names of the two alien races in Asterix and the Falling Sky, Tadsilweny and Nagma are anagrams for "Walt Disney" and "Manga", respectively.
• Speech Bubbles: Speech bubbles turn green as characters are influenced by the seeds of discord sewn by Convolvulus in Asterix and the Roman Agent.
• Spiked Wheels: Dubbleosix's chariot in Asterix and the Black Gold.
• Status Quo Is God: The village was destroyed in Asterix and Son, but by the end of the story, Caesar promises to rebuild it as thanks for the Gauls protecting his son.
• Stout Strength
• Super Serum: Getafix's potion.
• Take That: The Nagma in Asterix and the Falling Sky are intended to be a swipe at Japanese comics in general. In contrast, the Tadsilweny are a not-so-subtle Affectionate Parody of Americans, and as such are treated much more sympathetically than the Nagma.
  • The contribution album Uderzo croqué par ses amis also had a swipe against manga, the page showing the village surrounded by the camps was changed to depicts Europe being invaded by "manga".
• Terrible Trio: The pirates.
• Theme Naming: The ending of most of the characters' names, depending of their ethnicity.
• Ted Baxter: Cacofonix is the musical equivalent of Uwe Boll.
• Throw The Dog A Bone: On one two three occasions, Cacofonix actually saved the day. The villagers' response? Rather than tie him up (as they usually do to keep him from playing his music during victory celebrations), they tied up Fulliautomatix to keep him from hitting him.
  • Cacofonix also attended the feast in Asterix the Gaul and Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield, even though he did not contribute anything to help save the day.
  • Also, at the end of Asterix and the Cauldron, the pirates get the gold filled cauldron after having been unfairly accused of stealing it and beaten up by Asterix and Obelix when in fact they were actually trying to go legit. Even the narrator exclaims "And for once the pirates are happy!"
• Trademark Favorite Food: Obelix will often ask for wild boar in completely unfitting situations.
• Ugly Guy Hot Wife: Geriatrix is (canonically) 93 years old, and yet his wife is the sexiest woman of the village.
  • Sexiest married woman; there's the drop-dead gorgeous Panacea, but she's not a regular villager, and not married (yet).
    • I beg to differ on the grounds of Asterix and the Actress.
• Unfortunate Implications: Various Nubian characters appear with quite dramatically stereotyped faces, and talk in a "Yes massa'!" faux-Southern-slave mushmouth dialect. This is particularly evident in the earlier books (when that kind of humour was generally more acceptable).
• Weird Al Effect: The pirates are a parody of another French-Belgian comic book series, Barbe Rouge, with the same characters reused. This series has become quite obscure nowadays, even in France and Belgium, and owes recognition mainly due to Asterix.
• Who Would Want To Watch Us
  Impedimenta: If anyone were fool enough to write the story of our village, you can bet they wouldn't call it The Adventures of Vitalstatistix the Gaul!
  • There's also the moment in Asterix and the Cauldron, where Obelix wants to tell stories about his and Asterix's adventures to raise money, but Asterix sees no monetary value in it.
• Woolseyism: The much-loved English adaptation of the original French dialogue added new jokes whenever they wouldn't translate well — e.g. the character's names.
  • Due to the extreme levels of word play in the French originals, Woolseyism is essentially the only option. The English translators has said that because they could not translate the puns, they compromised by making sure that every page has the same number of jokes as the French original.
  • It wasn't just the English translation. Nearly all of the translation were extremely well done. See the Italian example above.
• Villain By Default: Roman Prefects are invariably corrupt, greedy, scheming and decadent.
• Wouldnt Hit A Girl: Julius Caesar's titular secret weapon in Asterix and the Secret Weapon is an all-female army, intended to exploit the Gaulish code of chivalry against striking women.
  • Memorably bypassed when the village's women turn the whole plan inside out in a manner that must be seen to be believed.
• Zigackly What It Says On The Tin: Most titles are related to the plot in some way, whether it be where they go, another character, the plot itself, or a Mac Guffin.
• Zorro Mark: In Asterix and Caesar's Gift, Asterix duels with a Roman and carves a Z into his tunic.

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