Webcomic / TetZoo Time!

Counterclockwise from top: Darren, Alice, King Preter, Pteranodon Punter, Princess Tetrapod, Toni, Memo, Dawn, TMO, John

TetZoo Time! was a Web Comic by Joan Turmelle and fellow troper Albertonykus that is based off of the blog Tetrapod Zoology and its accompanying podcast. It chronicles the adventures of Darren Naish and John Conway as they explore the Tetrapod Kingdom. The comic was heavily based on Adventure Time, including the art style.

An official character sheet of the main cast can be found here.

After a lengthy hiatus, the comic officially ended in 2018.

Not to be confused with the TetZoo Comic, which intersperses text from actual blog posts with Ethan Kocak's cartoon illustrations.

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This work provides examples of:

• Affectionate Parody
• Anachronism Stew: Played with. All tetrapods apparently live together at the same time in the comic, though this is sometimes forgotten.
  John: I like having more perrissodactyls. Too bad most of them died out.
  Darren: What are you talking about? We see extinct ones all the time! There's a chalicothere raiding our fridge right now!
• Beware the Nice Ones: Princess Tetrapod may be the loving ruler of the Tetrapod Kingdom, but she also happens to be a giant azhdarchid pterosaur.
• Black Bead Eyes: Most of the characters.
• Brick Joke: The chalicothere, named Knuckles by the credits, at the end of the first episode.
• Carnivore Confusion: Somewhat averted. All of the animals are sentient and yet the carnivores still have to kill other animals, for it is their nature to do so. However, this still causes fear.
  • Predators Are Mean is averted as well, as the predators act friendly and have polite conversations with others when they're not hunting (or already have made a kill).
• Cute Little Fangs: Alice.
• Dance Party Ending: "Rio Baby".
• Decomposite Character: King Preter resembles the Ice King, while Mark Witton resembles the Ice King's younger self, Simon Petrikov.
• Expository Theme Tune: Here.
• Expy: Everyone, due to the nature of the series:
  • Darren and John, of themselves and Finn and Jake.
  • TMO the Tablet Computer, of BMO.
  • Dawn the Eotyrannus, of Jake.
  • Toni, of Toni Naish and Lady Rainicorn.
  • Princess Tetrapod, of Princess Bubblegum.
  • King Preter, of David Peters and Ice King.
  • Punter the "Pteranodon", of Gunter the Penguin.
  • Alice, of Alice May Rogers and Marceline.
  • Mark Witton, of himself and Simon Petrikov.
  • Georgia, of herself and Betty Grof.
  • U.L.T.E.R.N.O., of Will Naish and N.E.P.T.R.
  • Darren Jr., of Emma Naish and Jake Jr.
  • Skate Comfort & Kirk Chameleon, of Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron and the Lemongrabs.
  • The Killdeer, of The Snail.
  • Wood Pigeon Butler, of Peppermint Butler.
• Evil-Detecting Dinosaur: Dawn has some shades of this.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: King Preter is convinced that all of his "researches" are true, despite the presence of living pterosaurs in this world (which he is convinced are all mutants).
• Feathered Fiend: The golden eagle in the first episode. However, it's not really evil and just trying to survive.
• Four-Fingered Hands: All the human characters.
• Funny Background Event: There are loads in the background of the theme song, including, but not limited to, a Megatooth shark, a pygmy right whale, over-enthusiastic swallowing, a rhinogradentian, and a babirusa, all of which have been featured on Tet Zoo.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: Not just Darren Naish and John Conway, any expert is pretty much portrayed in a positive or heroic light.
• Giant Flyer: Princess Tetrapod and Toni.
• Happily Married: Darren and Toni. Also Mark Witton and Georgia. Both of which are Truth in Television.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Darren and Toni had children...how, exactly?
• Incredibly Lame Pun: John gets two in a row, to the disapproval of Darren and TMO.
  John: Oh deer! sounds like we have ourselves a mile-high situation!
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Darren when a Spix's macaw annoys him, and John when he gets squicked out by Mark and Georgia making out.
• Interspecies Romance: Darren (a human) and Toni (a flying basilosaurid-narwhal hybrid).
• Kidnapping Birdof Prey: In the first episode.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: Set in a world where humans and sentient animals coexist.
• Meaningful Name: Dawn the Eotyrannus. Eotyrannus means "Dawn Tyrant."
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Toni Naish, Darren's wife, is portrayed in this series as a cross between a basiliosaurid and narwhal (by the suggestion of Darren Naish himself).
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: Dave can turn into a were-bulldog at will, hence living up to his nickname "The Tet Zoo Bulldog". Alice might also qualify, as she gained shapeshifting powers from being bitten by a rabid australopithicene.
• Pungeon Master: Preter makes bad puns based on the titles of his children's books.
• Shout-Out:
  • John and Darren live in a tree that bears a strong resemblance to John Conway's Troodon◊ picture◊.
  • On the banner of the Tumblr page, Princess Tetrapod is posed like one of Mark Witton's azhdarchid skeletals◊.
  • The title card for "Eagles Fly, Everyone Dies" is based on one of the theatrical posters for The Rescuers Down Under.
  • The title card for "Rio, Baby!" is an homage to Brazil.
  • Darren is shown wearing Black Mudpuppy boxers.
  • The title card for "Sink or Swim" is an obvious parody of Jaws.
  • One of the floaties John holds up is a Girafarig.
• Shown Their Work: Darren provides many accurate zoological facts (much like in Real Life).
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Mark Witton and Georgia, to John's disgust.
• Take That!:
  • David Peters is a recurring villain, as King Preter. In fact, any character with controversial views (namely BANDits or young-earth creationists) are given villainous roles.
  • In Episode 2, Darren was annoyed by a Spix's macaw which resembles Blu from Rio. This is a reference to the 7th episode of Tetrapod Zoology Podcast, where Darren stated he hated the film.
• Talking Animal
• The Speechless: Dawn cannot talk, due to her shape-shifting abilities removing her speech abilities.
• Unusual Euphemism:
  Darren: What the testudines was that?!
  • Also:
  Darren: Get up you son of a Siats!
  • And...
  Georgia: I'd rather to make your cranial grow...
  Mark: Oh baby.