Tropes A to D | Tropes E to H | Tropes I to L | Tropes M to P | Tropes Q to T | Tropes U-Z
- Understatement: It's right there in the friggin' title of this strip.
- Undressing the Unconscious: In this page, Faye wakes up in Marten's bed confused about what happened last night and why she's not wearing any pants. It turns out Marten took them off since she vomited all over her pants and he didn't want vomit getting all over his bed.
- Unfortunate Search Results: While eating at a diner with Dale, Marigold excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Momo makes the same excuse despite being robotic, presumably intending to talk to her alone. While they're gone, Dale commands his glasses (which double as a personal computer) to look up "why would an AnthroPC need to go to the bathroom", then instantly regrets it.Dale: [yanking his glasses off, eyes tightly shut] SAFESEARCH ON! SAFESEARCH ON!
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Sorta.
- The Un-Smile:
- Hannalore tries to smile back at an admirer. It doesn't work as planned.
- Her attempt to make friends with Mieville fares no better.
- Marigold does one here for Angus.
- Hannalore tries to smile back at an admirer. It doesn't work as planned.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Early on Pintsize went on a date with another AnthroPC over the internet that he thought was a "girl", but turned out to be a "guy" when they chatted the day after they had the robot equivalent of sex. Though he wasn't bothered about doing it with an anthropc set to male, just surprised because he was pink.
- Unsound Effect:
- Unusual Hiring Practices: Tai hires Marten on the spot for a job in the college library because he notices that the application form is written in iambic pentameter.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: "You want the paper?" "Just the sports section, please."
- Unwanted Harem: Lampshaded by Marten's mother.
- Visual Pun: Melon impulsively decides to give herself a navel, using a melon baller.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Faye and Dora and many others.
- Momo, on May:She is foulmouthed, ill-tempered, and rude. She has also decided that we are friends, for some reason, so I must try to be less judgmental of her.
- Momo, on May:
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Plenty, usually associated with all the drinking everyone does.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: These tend to happen in the guest comics, with this being a grand example.
- Walk, Don't Swim: Momo is evidently waterproof. She is not, however, buoyant.
- Wall Pin of Love: Brun gets up in Clinton's face so he can smell her deodorant. Elliot walks in on the next page and mistakes it for something else.
- Webcomic Time: Some stretches of years can be nailed down to a few days thanks to a particularly long stretch of 'later that day' or 'the next morning'-type events; problematized further by up-to-the-minute music references. When creator Jeph Jacques was asked about this on the comic's forum, he replied "You know how glass isn't actually a solid, but an extremely viscous liquid?note Yeah."
- Lampshaded here, where it's explicitly pointed out that the previous 188 strips have comprised a total of one week.
- Lampshaded here
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The VespAvenger, arguably.
- Wham Episode: Has its own page.
- Wham Line: Subverted for laughs in Strip 2336:Momo: You were frightened of Gordon! That would have completely thrown off your biometrics, leading to a completely inaccurate compatibility rating with Pintsize!
Marten: You mean...
Momo: You should not have been assigned Pintsize as your companion.
[beat]
Marten: Well, it worked out all right in the end, so—
Pintsize: YOU MEAN I COULDA BEEN WITH A HOT CHICK THIS WHOLE TIME?! - What Could Have Been: In-Universe; after Momo tells Marten that Pintsize should not have been assigned to him, Marten wonders what robot he would have been paired with instead. Cue a panel of Marten riding a robot whale in the ocean.
- What Did I Do Last Night?:
- In #1081, after Faye wakes up after having hooked up with Sven between #1079 and #1080..
- When the main characters go out barhopping to celebrate Marten's dad's engagement.
- When Tai gets drunk and crashes on Hannelore's couch... and wakes up naked. They eventually find her clothes in the dishwasher.
- Marten says this to Faye the morning after his breakup with Dora; she decides not to tell him he was being a complete jerk.
- In #1081
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Zig-zagged. A.I.s have been granted full civil rights and those which are "sold" in stores are ones that choose to meet and bond with people. Such contracts can be ended by either party and the cost is refunded to the purchasing party. It's unclear how recently robots got those rights (earlier in the strip Pintsize and Winslow shrug off the idea of equal rights since it would mean equal responsibility), but generally speaking, this series is heavily on the idealistic side about human-robot interactions. Still, robots who try to integrate with human society face prejudice at times, and robots who don't want or can't afford a decent humanoid-shaped chassis can end up being marginalized in comparison to robots like Momo or Winslow post-upgrade. The issue is also muddied by cases where robots seem to be fine with treatment that humans would consider abusive or degrading: Pintsize clearly doesn't see the violence inflicted on him in response to his Comedic Sociopathy as abuse, and A.I.s can voluntarily end up in menial jobs as appliances like toasters, humidifiers, and trash cans, which would seem more like an And I Must Scream situation to a human.
- There is no specific evidence that all AI are of equivalent processing power. Station is clearly a very high-powered example. Momo remarks that much of her processing power goes on maintaining her consciousness. Some have highly refined olfactory senses, but Bubbles states that her “sensorium” offers a much reduced range of sensations compared to a human.
- What's a Henway?: The bottom text of this strip (in which Aurelia hopes that Yay finds her car keys) is "make sure you check under the buttfor", and The Rant says "deeeez".
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Faye occasionally gets called on what a bitch she's being or some action of hers.
- Later, after plenty of Character Development for them both, Faye delivers one to Dora.
- When She Smiles: Say it with me, d'awwwwwwwww.
- Who's on First?: Done with Islands.
- Blink and you'll miss it. Dora and Marten evidently did. Though it's not unusual for uncles and nephews to look alike, the way it was phrased...
- Dora's mother missed one too, in the same strip. Veronica Vance is Marten's mother.
- Blink and you'll miss it.
- Why Don't You Marry It?: Hannelore says this to Marten after he shows enthusiasm about a new coffee shop.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: This is a standard expression of shock or surprise. Examples:
- Dora in strips #1323 and #1343
- Faye in #1450.
- The Webcomics Weekend's hawk mascot in Yelling Bird's triumphant return.
- Dora in strips #1323
- Will They or Won't They?: The entire comic was built on the Unresolved Sexual Tension between Marten and Faye up until "the talk". This then happens with absolutely everybody else except Marten and Hannelore consistently after that.
- Wimp Fight: Angus and Marten's Scott Pilgrim impression.
- With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Marten quotes this, and Hannelore turns it on its head.Hannelore: It actually doesn't. My mom never woulda gotten where she is if she thought she was responsible for her actions.
- Working for a Body Upgrade: Completely benign. Marigold buys Momo a fancy new chassis, and Momo, touched by how much money Marigold spent on making her happy, immediately goes out to get a job and pay her back. She then spends all the money on video games that the two play together.Angus: I feel like this is a metaphor for something. Capitalism, maybe?
- Working Out Their Emotions: Bubbles the retired Robot Soldier takes to a punching bag when her social anxiety gets the better of her in early appearances. Despite her lack of endorphins, it seems to help.
- Later, Faye takes to Bubbles' punching bag when working off her anger and self-hatred about almost falling off the wagon.
- Later still, Momo also attacks a punching bag after an argument with May.Bubbles: I had pictured you as more of an interpretive-dance type. It is refreshing to have one's preconceptions recalibrated.
- Later, Faye takes to Bubbles' punching bag
- World of Pun: Everybody makes lots of puns.
- World of Snark: This is a defining trait of a fair number of the characters.
- Worse with Context: Subverted in this strip:Momo: I think Faye is doing her a lot of good.
May: They gonna fuuuuuck
Momo: You have been saying that about every group of two or more people we have seen today.
May: Are you tellin' me that bus full of soccer players isn't gonna bang the limousine full of models?
Momo: That was a traffic accident!
May: They were pouring champagne on each other! - Worth It: Oh Marten...
- Wrench Wench: Faye mentioned that she used to make metal sculptures, but making a miniature T-rex that poops espresso means she qualifies.
- She embraces this in true form when she starts working at the underground Robo-Fight-Club with a work-workout transition to boot.
- Writer on Board: Strips dealing with potentially heavy social issues are understandably skewed very much in favor of Jaques' beliefs, bordering on Author Filibuster at times. Marten's relationship with Claire tends to make this very apparent.
- Yaoi Fangirl:
- Marigold, first seen wearing a "YAOI ZONE" shirt, and whose favorite mangas, anime, and fanfiction (as well as several of her own efforts at fanfiction) are yaoi.
- And now, Hanners. To quote Deathmøle Jacques, "This cannot be good."
- Dora and Faye, apparently.
- Well, lookee here. "Normally I'd be all about the homoeroticism..." And here.
- Well, lookee here. "Normally I'd be all about the homoeroticism..."
- According to this, Dale owns a complete collection of Magical Love Gentlemen.
- Yonkoma: The majority of the early strips were in this format. The comic has moved away from them since.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Tai gives Dora a speech to this effect here.Tai: If you think you're a mess, it's only 'cause you hold yourself to a higher standard.
- You Are Not Alone: When May's body is on the verge of breaking down for good, everyone rallies to her side, setting up a donation site for a new body. Given her status as The Friend Nobody Likes, she was not expecting much to come of it. Then she sees that the totals are much higher than she anticipated.May: Who coded this website, a fucking macaque? There's no way that number's right.
- You Can See That, Right??: Library spiders
- You Monster!: Marigold was mistaken for one by a robot chassis-store, because she thought, that she wanted to give Momo back (she was completely mistaken, she wanted to buy her a new chassis, after she had promised her. She went through with this promise not, because of the promise, but because Momo is her dearest friend).
- You Must Be Cold: Sven pulls this on Hannelore on their "date." This is a very non-sexual variation, though.
- You Need to Get Laid: Said almost word-for-word by Dora.
- Younger Than They Look: Momo in her new chassis doesn't look 2.7 years old, but she is. Presumably all A.I.s in the comic are less than 10 or so years old, although we don't get a concrete timeline.
- Your Answer to Everything:Dora: Yes, I realize that projecting my internal dialogue onto my cat is probably not the healthiest way of dealing with stressful situations.
Mieville: Meow.
Dora: No, murder is not the answer. You always suggest that.- According to one of Hannerdad's team members the answer is "use silver nanoparticles as an epoxidation catalyst".
- Here we see that Faye's go-to repair idea is flame decals and spoilers.
- According to one of Hannerdad's team members the answer is "use silver nanoparticles as an epoxidation catalyst"
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Inverted in this strip. Marigold's disgusted reaction to a fanfic fills its author with pride and sadistic glee.Marigold: WHOEVER WROTE THIS FIC SHOULD BE IN JAIL
Marten: What?
Pintsize: (grinning ear to ear) Nothing! - Yuri Fan:
- Dora, apparently.
- A sizeable chunk of the cast shipped Faye and Bubbles before they officially hooked up (during which Faye considered Bubbles a good friend and Bubbles was developing a crush), sometimes to the point of using Social Engineering to encourage Faye to see it their way.
- Dora, apparently
- Zero-G Spot: Discussed: apparently the problem of zero-G sex isn't just physics, but killer robots as well.
