12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: Make your case that the name/page is broken in the Opening Post, or the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what "Make your case" means.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
Brawl in the Family is a gag-based webcomic starring Kirby, and featuring various video game characters, mainly those that have appeared in the Super Smash Bros series, but most of the plots and running jokes are based on Kirby and King Dedede. It is written and drawn by Matthew Taranto, AKA TriforceBun from the Phoenix Wright Musical Project.The comic uses a fairly simplistic art style most of the time, originating from bored-in-class sketches and doodles. There is more complex art on occasion, including homages and tributes to the styles of other artists.It's also very funny and very cute. (That is, when it's not super disturbing.) If you are a Nintendo fan, this is a web-comic you must read.
All There in the Manual: Dedede's teacher in Cocoon Academy is a Mr. Dragmire. Sound familiar? It shouldn't. This is the last name given to Ganondorf in the English manual of A Link to the Past, and hasn't been mentioned in canon since.
Art Evolution: After experimenting with a particular shading style for the monochrome comics, it ascended from a one-time visual effect to a distinct style.
The Bad Guy Wins: In "A Mushroom Kingdom Carol," Bowser finally beats Mario basically by leaving the Mushroom Kingdom until old age catches up with the hero and then an adult Bowser Jr. comes back with a vengence.
In 2010, we get Jolly, Happy Jerk, in which he steals the presents from Whispy Woods while wearing the signature Grinch "crooked, jerky smirk"
For a literal brick joke, the dangers of invisible blocks are shown- with almost identical panels- in comics 71 (see Platform Hell) and 237's fourth comic.
Another literal brick joke in 348.
The Gooey Bomb.
Anyone else see the (possibly unintentional) brick joke between this comic and this one? Certainly helps explain why the Noddy felt the need to give Kirby his own revenge.
Eario might just take the cake, however. The man's job involves cleaning the floor under Thwomps and repairing automated Bullet Bill cannons.
Subverted with Luigi in ''Cloud Watching''; Matthew originally intended for Luigi to get hurt, but he decided against it with a stern no and made Mario the victim.
Call Back: Pretty much the entire joke of "Nasty" is totally subverting the earlier description of it via terrible visual puns.
Peach's appearance in "If it Takes a Lifetime" is meant to imply that it takes place in the same continuity as The Captive Princess.
One that almost happened, but didn't (still brought up in the mouse-over text) - Link pays a gossip and she would've mentioned hearing about Moblins playing with dolls, which references an earlier strip where a Moblin was playing with dolls.
Dream Land Mix calls back to multiple unfortunate situations involving Kirby's eating habits.
Christmas Special: How the King Stole Christmas for the 2008 holiday season, complete with a catchy Filk Song.
A Mushroom Kingdom Carol, for 2009, depicting Mario as Ebenezer Scrooge, Luigi as Bob Cratchett, Wario as Jacob Marley, Rosalina as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Kirby as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Shadow Mario as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.
Deliberately Monochrome: While the comic is usually monochrome except for every 5th strip, A Mushroom Kingdom Carol made creative use of color. Christmas past is in color, red and green reappear once Mario regains his resolve, and once he saves the queen, full color returns.
We eventually see what his face looks like in the Cocoon Academy arc. It's not what you might think. Or exactly what you think, if you played any Kirby game with him as a boss.
Easter Egg: Some of the earlier strips have Mr. Saturns hidden in plain sight. Others have other Earthbound objects hidden, seeing as it is one of Matt's all-time favorite games.
Peach: "Actually, I'm fine! He never laid a finger on me."
Bowser Sr.: "Well, I'm not a monster."
Everything's Better with Penguins: Dedede, of course, who was much, much more penguinish when he was a kid. His father was a photorealistic Emperor penguin, and his mother regurgitated chum for him to eat, despite them all living in a suburban house.
Gross-Up Close-Up: Six times to date. Once Kirby, then Waluigi (Third Comic), Weezing (particularly disturbing with the concept of the comic), Mario (as Eario sees him), and Dedede (as Kirby sees him), and also Link.
Here We Go Again: At the end of A Mushroom Kingdom Carol, Bowser says "Humbug", which elicits this reaction from the Ghosts.
Heroic Mime: Link, as always. It's been stated that, when necessary, he lets Navi do the talking for him. Subverted when the spirit of his CD-i selfpossesses him.
Subverted again in resolutions, Link's resolution is apparently "To speak his mind more." But before he can say it Navi shouts it out for him, drowning his voice.
Hidden Depths: Peach proves to be more cunning than she seems in this comic.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Played for laughs here. The idea is to look for Waluigi in the midst of a MASSIVE host of characters... but he's that easy to find because everyone in his immediate vicinity runs away from him.
Invoked also in the Kirby Super Star homage multi-comic, in the Spring Breeze strip. After Kirby sucks in one of the stars that come from Dedede's ground pound attack, he stops and thinks "What did I just eat...?'
Interface Screw: A rare non-gaming example. If you're going on an Archive Binge using the old version of the site, you'll hit the 2009 Waluigi April Fool's page. There's no "next" button, so the only way to continue is going to the archive page and clicking the next comic in line.
Klingon Promotion: Pichu is kicked out of Brawl for being (gameplay-wise) a clone of Pikachu, but evolves into one soon after. He then uses a Poké Ball on Melee's Pikachu, and takes over his position. See Cheshire Cat Grin above.
Lampshade Hanging: They love doing this, mostly with Mario universe conventions.
The second as a tribute to common minions, sung by Bowser
Christmas 2010 featured parodies of Christmas songs, including Frosty the Snowmanhere, the Carol of the Bells here, and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" here.
Christmas 2011 featured a tongue-in-cheek homage to the Slippy Slidey Ice World, set to the tune of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas", here.
Remembered I Could Fly: Strip 384 has Kirby, Meta Knight, Dedede, and Waddle Dee preparing to launch themselves upward out of a cannon to get an item. When an accident sends them flying into a wall, Dedede points out that they should just fly up there instead.
The Rival: Snake is this for both Captain Falcon (Romantically regarding Samus) and Olimar (In a contest of one-upsmanship in a vein similair to Spy vs. Spy.)
Running Gag: Several, including Kirby's "Food!", and King Dedede's "We gotta get that Kirby!"
Don't forget Kirby eating Dedede and turning into a minature version of him.
Rule of Funny: The Pokéwalker can only give 1 level up per transfer to the device, and 24601 EXP is not nearly enough to get a Pikachu to level 74. Doesn't stop this from being goddamn hilarious.
Round Robin: Turns out the Zombie Apocalypse was this all along, started by Dedede, disappointingly followed up by Adeleine, and horrifyingly concluded by Kirby.
Self-Imposed Challenge: Comic #200 has led to Pacifist runs of games, where the goal is to kill no minions (except those who are used to kill bosses) and if any minions are to die, have it be due to anyone other than the player i.e. a Koopa walking into a lava pit.
One memorable strip actually had a comment saying that Matthew's nerdiness had reached new heights (even though the reference isn't that hard to grasp).
#300 has Ganondorf kicking over a chessboard in a very Gaston-like context and fashion.
In part 10 of "Cocoon Academy", when Pinky wakes up in the nurse's office after absorbing some of Dark Matter, the first thing he says is "Mirror...MIRROR!!!"
The sound made when Peach falls into the grass outside Bowser's Castle in "The Captive Princess" is "POOMP", which is the same produced when you land a huge jump in Mario Kart 64.
For those who didn't get it, an early episode of The Simpsons did it when Homer was driving back home from a second job at the Kwik-e-Mart because he had to afford a pony for Lisa.
"I was going to have Luigi be the one to get the spiny in the face...but you know what? No."
Tomato Surprise: At the end of the "Cocoon Academy" arc, we learn that "Pinky" is actually Meta Knight. And Master Hand is Crazy Hand. Master Hand and Kirby were never actually in the strip at all.
Took a Level in Badass: Mario is shown to be a dork in Cocoon Academy, with Luigi of all people being the popular one. But when Dark Matter attacked, Mario gains admiration upon spinning Bowser around and using him as a living flamethrower.
Video Game Cruelty Potential: Strip 200 makes you realize what a horrible, horrible person you are for playing the average Mario game the way the developers intended.
Visual Pun: Comic #249 is advertised repeatedly as containing "excess gore, racism, foul language, public indecency, and frightening imagery". None of them are quite as severe as expected:
Excess gore: A number of televisions displaying Al Gore.
Public indecency: The Sneech and the Pokémon are naked.
Frightening imagery: A particularly creepy image of Tingle. Teddie too if you're familiar with Persona 4.
Wacky Marriage Proposal: Matt considered proposing to his girlfriend through the comic, complete with Waluigi Time joke... but ultimately ended up going with a more serious proposal. Still, in terms of What Could Have Been, it's pretty wacky. ("Expecting a ring? TOO BAD. WALUIGI TIME.")
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