Porcupines show up in nearly every form of media. It seems that porcupines tend to fall under two distinct personality types: They're either A) the
Grumpy Bear or
The Eeyore, pessimistic and anti-social, or B)
The Woobie, shy and lonely because no one wants to go near them.
Many works of media (particularly in
Video Games) portray porcupines as being able to
shoot their quills as projectiles, even though this isn't true in
Real Life (North American porcupines swing their tails at predators to dislodge the quills in their faces, while Old World porcupines tend to charge backwards at their enemies instead).
Also includes hedgehogs.
Compare:
Literal Ass Kicking,
Rump Roast
Examples
Film
Newspaper Comics
- Porky Pine from Pogo is the grumpy variety.
Literature
- One Darwin Awards urban legend mentions a man admitted to the hospital with a bunch of porcupine quills stuck in his crotch...
- In The Second Jungle Book, Ikki the porcupine has a brief cameo where he's a Deadpan Snarker - i.e., prickly. Pamela Jekel takes this a bit farther in her posthumous sequel The Third Jungle Book, where there's a story about Mowgli and Ikki playing pranks on each other, until Mowgli gets into real trouble and Ikki is the only one who can fetch help.
- A Porcupine Named Fluffy It's about a porcupine named Fluffy who befriends a rhinoceros named Hippo.
Live-Action TV
- From The Electric Company, Tom Lehrer's song "L-Y":
As you walk along the street
A porcupine you meet
How do you shake his hand when he says hi?
Carefully ... carefully .... careful ... L-Y
- Monty Python - in a documentary on organized crime, a companion of gang boss Dinsdale Piranha confides that he was convinced he was being watched by an enormous hedgehog he called 'Spiny Norman', who could be anywhere from 12 feet to 800 yards long, depending on Dinsdale's mental state. Over the end credits we see Norman, animated by Terry Gilliam, looming over London rooftops, balefully calling "Dinsdale!"
Music
Video Games
- Not a porcupine per se, but Sonic the Hedgehog would possibly qualify.
- In Urban Rivals, one of the factions is made of zoo animals turned antropomorphic by a freak accident. One of them is a porcupine who uses his quills as blowgun darts and picks himself bald over the course of levelling up.
- The Corehogs in The World Ends With You.
- Land forme Shaymin from Pokemon. Cyndaquil also has some hedgehog/echidna traits, as does Chespin.
- Porcupo from Super Mario Bros. 2.
- Needle Man's stage in Mega Man 3 has robotic porcupines that shoot their spines at you. They can also curl up into balls and use a Rolling Attack against you, during which they are Immune to Bullets.
Web Comics
Western Animation
