Webcomic / Bug Martini

aka: Bug

Made you laugh? That's just the first panel.

Bug Martini (formerly Bug or Bug Comic) is a gag-per-day humorous webcomic written by Adam Huber, started on October 19, 2009. It stars caricatures of cockroaches, using them to poke fun at a wide array of subjects, with little pattern as to what Huber will lampoon. The comics themselves rarely have a set punchline, often instead having a joke in each panel, thus providing multiple laughs per strip. (See "Pizza Delivery" for a good example). Its general format is analogous to stand-up comedy.

The strip used to be updated three times a week, but recent real-life developments have reduced the pace to "whenever". There are also classic-style Sunday Strip comics exclusively for Patreon supporters.

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Bug Martini contains examples of:

• 0% Approval Rating: This comic shows the downsides of being a world-conquering Evil Overlord, one of which is to be hated by the oppressed citizens.
• Abuse Mistake: Bug feels sorry for guys whose girlfriends ACTUALLY walk into doors.
• Adolf Hitlarious: Hitler appears in a few strips, sometimes accompanied by Himmler!Nerdbug. For instance, in one strip Bug shows us it's a bad idea to argue with Hitler over the internet.
• Adults Are Useless: Instead they gamble on your every move.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • And abusive.
  • And it will judge you for the porn you look at.
  • And will call you a failure at life.
• Amnesia Danger: In this strip, the amnesiac Bug is told that he is a secret agent pursued by enemy operatives. Subverted in that the doctor is lying about the fact.
• Animated Actors: The characters basically treat it as a job and some strips revolve around them improvising a last-minute change.
• Apocalypse Cult: Discussed here, more specifically how persuasive the cult leaders must be.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Things you should never say when you're on a date with a girl:
    You look just like my ex-girlfriend, except you're fatter and not as pretty.
    What's up with your outfit? It's like you were dressed by deranged gypsies.
    I like comic books.
  • Also the magazines bug receives subscription offers for after he kills someone.
    No, I do NOT want to subscribe to "Murderer Monthly", "Killin' Quarterly", or "Maxim".
  • God's dossier on Bug, but mostly his list of sins.
    Blamed fart on handicapped man.
    Mocked weird-looking baby.
    Neglected to check tire pressure.
• Art Evolution:
  • Bugs became noticeably thinner, and their eyes are now much more expressive and less like blank white dots. Lampshaded here.
  • Parodied in this strip.
• Baby as Payment: In the "Website Woes" strip, the comic making a payment with baby-stealing folk. It currently provides the page image.
• Batman Gambit: A young bug used to instigate his friends into risky behavior so he could live vicariously through them
• Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...: Regarding doing jury duty from home over the internet: "Guilty, guilty, innocent, guy with his wang out, guilty..."
• Black Comedy: Done oh so well here and here.
• Blatant Lies: Skipping isn't gay. No, really, it's about as non-gay as unicorns, sparklers, ribbons, and baskets.
• Blessed with Suck: "A time machine is the worst gift you could receive."
• Bold Inflation: Usually in spots where one might naturally emphasize words.
• Brain Bleach: "Hm... maybe I can destroy this memory by drinking turpentine."
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick:
  • Things the bug would like to do before he dies: use a pun while beating up a bad guy, be a contestant of Jeopardy and give immature answers, and visit/attack France.
  • When considering the consequences of killing someone, the bug considers the obvious worst one last.
  • A cat's daily routine.
• Buried Alive: A sign you may be getting older. (A rare case where it's Played for Laughs.)
• Butt-Dialing Mordor: "Knockin' on Heaven's Portal" lampshades how many different ways there are of making a portal to Hell, whether on purpose or by accident.
  Making a portal to Hell is easy — you got rituals, science experiments gone awry... heck, you can probably open one up by farting a particular frequency!
• Cassandra Truth: "Son, there's no such thing as zombies..."
• Censor Box: Usually used to show when characters are explicitly naked, as private parts aren't normally shown. Lampshaded in one strip where an overweight bug's flab has covered up the censor bar on his crotch.
• Child Hater: Bug seems to be one, though he may be just brutally honest. Of course, he is more than willing to trade a child for a working web server.
• Concealment Equals Cover: This strip, also pictured above, features bullets bouncing off garbage cans.
• Cool Chair: The lack of one is the reason the bug could never be a super villain.
• Cursed with Awesome:
  • Getting your hands cut off can be more handy than you think.
  • Being short has no shortage of advantages.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Many are displayed in Discontinued Methods of Execution.
• Danger Takes A Back Seat: A reason why the bug is so paranoid.
• Desk Sweep of Rage: This strip shows us how it's done... and how it's not done.
• Diegetic Visual Effects: "Cartoon Generated Imagery" humorously explores which about the downsides of various cartoon visual effects appearing in real life. Patent thieves would stalk anyone with a light bulb floating above their head, stink lines would make it impossible to hide when you fart, and stray soap bubbles would get mistaken for drunk bubbles, leading to false drunk-driving charges.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Bug loves this trope.
  • "Stupid slow driver. Hope you get cancer."
  • "God? Billy called me: "booger breath" today. Please give him cancer."
  • This would also happen if the bug were Magneto.
  • "Wow. I never thought an argument about wheat thins would end like this."
• A Dog Named "Dog": In some early strips, the main bug character is writing a letter and signs his name as Bug.
• Dress Code: Variations on casual friday.
• Driven to Suicide: By his website going down.
• Dr. Jerk: This comic shows a doctor so uncouth in delivering a patient's diagnosis, they end up trying to request another doctor.
• Emo Teen: Even worse when they become a zombie.
• Enhance Button: Lampshaded here.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Invoked here.
  "Stupid kitten!"
• Extreme Omni-Goat: Though the goat doesn't eat anything, goats' propensity for eating anything is used in this comic.
• Falling-in-Love Montage: Deconstructed.
• Fan Hater: In-Universe example. The bug's Grinch persona is one.
• Five Stages of Grief: Inverted in "The Five Stages of Joy".
• Genghis Gambit: What the UN should be doing.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Want vs. need.
• Good Flaws, Bad Flaws: Is it possible to have indifferent flaws?
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Amusingly enough, for all of Huber's love of crossing the line twice, there's no swearing more harsh than "crap" found in the strips.
• Grammar Nazi: Lampshading the lack of other alternatives.
• Gratuitous French: Au contraire!
• Groin Attack: Discussed. Doesn't happen much when you're an adult.
• Growing Up Sucks:
  • Subverted: adulthood isn't all that different from childhood.
  • And played straight in "How to become an adult in three easy steps".
• Guns Akimbo: Invoked here.
  "Ack! What amazing peripheral vision!"
• HA HA HA—No: More like HA-HA-HEE-HEE-HA-HOO-HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HA! No., concerning whether or not you can afford a home.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Usually in business settings, where the characters wear ties and nothing else.
• Hitler Ate Sugar: Parodied here, where it's pointed out that it's hard to get in a web debate with Hitler, because you can't compare him to Hitler.
• Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Discussed here, on the second panel it's pointed out that people still want to kill him even after his death.
• Hollywood Satanism: Won't it be annoying if you were a former satanist and your satanism-practicing parents came over?
  ...And [have to] explain why you haven't been attending any sacrifices.
  • The differences between regular and Satanic churches.
• Hulk Speak: A prominent feature in Zombie Week.
• Humble Hero: "You didn't buy any condoms?" "I didn't want to appear presumptuous."
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In this strip a man in a wheelchair tells a man with a walker: "Move it, cripple."
  • In this strip the Bug claims that: "The only pet peeve I have is people with pet peeves."
• I Got a Rock: A newborn, a detonator, or a pencil; take your pick
• I Just Want to Be Special: The probable reason people who receive just the right amount of tanning are never happy with their tan.
• Improbable Falling Save: The strip "Plunging Prepubescents" brings up the point that catching a kid falling from a skyscraper would break the catcher's arms.
• In a World…: The first panel of this strip when discussing the effect of movie trailers on traveling.
• Insane Troll Logic: How Bug plans to get thin.
• Insistent Terminology: "We prefer to be called: "criminally challenged."
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: "I can go no further."
• Interactive Narrator: Characters are very aware of and sometimes talk to the narration boxes.
• It's a Wonderful Plot: One of the bug's irrational fears.
• Ironic Nursery Rhyme: Discussed here
• I Want My Jet Pack: Justifiably subverted.
• Jerkass: Reconstructed here. Being a jerk isn't entirely free from consequences, but at least you don't have enough conscience to care.
• Jumping on a Grenade: A proof of love, as long as it's not you doing it.
• Jumping the Shark: In-Universe. Signs your life has jumped the shark...
• Jurisdiction Friction: Played for laughs.
• Kill It with Fire: Sacre bleu!
• Kill the Poor: A strip depicts a bug politician demanding someone end poverty without resorting to evil after he's told that he can't end it by killing homeless people.
• Laser-Guided Karma: According to Big, cheating will eventually lead to dire (and embarrassing) consequences.
• Last Stand: Deconstructed.
• Like Brother and Sister: Turns out guys don't like hearing that.
• Like You Were Dying: Examined
• Logic Bomb: Turns out a logic bomb won't save you during a robot apocalypse.
• Loophole Abuse: Hilariously invoked here. It ends with Bug getting exactly what he wanted, though.
• Love Martyr: Deconstructed.
• Made of Explodium: One action movie cliché the author could do without.
• May the Farce Be with You: The "A New Dope" and "The Empire Talks Smack" series of strips.
• Medium Awareness:
  • "The narrator is really souring me to this experience."
  • "I really wish I could give you my kidney." "No you don't. Dude, I can read your narration up there."
  • "Alright, who's writing these!?"
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: The Bug reminisces about how fat he used to be. Another strip shows his original design, which had four arms.
• Meta Guy: "Whose talking goat is this?"
• Metaphorgotten: Lampshaded here.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: "My middle name is "cautionary discretion".
• Mister Seahorse: Parodied here.
• Mundane Utility: One strip tells you that if you ever get a time machine, you should just use it to skip commercials.
• Murder-Suicide: Played for laughs when the bug exacts revenge on his web server by doing this.
• Muscle Angst: "It's starting to dawn on me that I may never have six pack abs."
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: GASP! It's Kill 'Em All McGraw!
  • No one can stop Doctor Deathkill!
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Discussed; the bug thinks it's time we start speaking ill of the dead.
• No Accounting for Taste: The "Beyond Thunderdome" type of relationship.
• No OSHA Compliance: Rollercoasters no one wants to ride.
• No Sympathy: Dying is of no consequence to others in Bug's world.
• Not What It Looks Like: What happens when a weak person tries to uproot a tree.
• On One Condition: Deconstructed.
• Only Six Faces: Aside from physical differences, all characters have the same face to them. Lampshaded in a "Gift of the Magi" plot when the girl bug shaves her head and the two get confused as to who is who. She then complains about her lack of Non-Mammal Mammaries.
• Orphaned Setup: Subverted. While the first panel of this strip was just meant to be a throwaway gag setup for a Wacky Marriage Proposal, the strip that would’ve happened was actually written .
• Our Zombies Are Different:
  • They are Thanksgiving zombies.
  • Apparently zombies can be created by voodoo, science, or watching a full episode of Two and a Half Men.
• The Parody Before Christmas: The comic did one of these in which the narrator mistakes Santa for a burglar and promptly gets beaten up.
• Percussive Maintenance: *tap tap* "There. That do anything on your end?" "No."
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Midget Ninjas
• Prayer of Malice: This comic is supposedly a message from God, asking people to stop doing this.
• Preppy Name: "I'm sorry, Drake Douchington the Third, but it's over."
• Press-Ganged: This comic discusses reasons not to worry about it.
• Punny Name: Several strip names.
• Rapid-Fire Comedy: Not used as frequently in the earlier comics, but the later comics tend to feature a joke in each panel.
• Red Baron: Subverted.
  My middle name is "danger"!
  My middle name is "cautionary discretion".
• Rousing Speech: Double subverted in this strip. The coach-bug begins his speech by acknowledging his players' lack of talent, and rounded them up in percentages rather than urging each of them to give "their 100%". The Bugs seem quite moved by his speech anyway.
• Rule of Three: The latter comics tend to have one panel of set-up, followed by three more panels, each with a mini joke within them. "Random Thoughts" is a good example of this trope in action.
• Running Gag: Whenever taxes are mentioned, someone will usually try to list a household fern as their dependent.
• Sadist Teacher: "I hate happiness." She gets her comeuppance, though.
• Self-Deprecation: Many jokes are had about the title character's geeky interests or lack of physical attributes.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong:
  • Actually, you risk doing just the opposite.
  • This is also one way to end a relationship.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: The closest Bug ever came to this is when a girl put on a bathrobe he'd had since childhood.
• Shout-Out: In the strip about the witness protection program, Bug's new name is Funky Winkerbean.
  • The title of one strip is "Devil May Cry".
  • The Christmas Carol strips have the Ghost of Christmas Future go too far and show Paul Atreides.
  • This strip mentions Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Twilight Saga and Fifty Shades of Grey
  • And this one mentions Challenge of the GoBots (specifically Cy-Kill).
  • Go-Bots is mentioned again in this comic.
• Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids!: The bug believes in this trope.
• Sir Verba Lot: In one strip, one character responds to hearing the baby crying with the line "Hark. Sir Poops-a-lot requests an audience."
• Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Spoofed in "Piano Lesson".
• Slapstick: Examined; the more you know the victim, the funnier it is.
• Smoke Out: One way to end a relationship.
• Sore Loser: Discussed here.
• Speed Dating: Try speed relationship! Speed everything, speed walks on the beach, speed arguing, speed sex...
• Spoiler: People have no problem spoiling the bible. Do they?
• Spooky Séance: "Must be awkward to get the wrong spirit at a séance."
• Stable Time Loop: Combined with Breaking the Fourth Wall here.
  "Is he still back in panel one?!"
• Strictly Formula: Not always, but the general format is generally a set-up in the first panel with three panels each having their own take on it. Lampshaded in the first panel of this strip.
• Stock Aesops: The reason the bug could never exist in a television show with corny platitudes.
• Subverted Kids Book: Children's books for children you don't like...
• Sunday Strip: Recently added for Patreon donors.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Lampshaded in a Shout-Out to what would happen if the various mainstay running gags of Peanuts, Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes happened in the Bug universe.
• Take Over the World: Deconstructed.
• Take That!: The bug seams to really really dislike Michael Bay.
  • Also, watching a full episode of Two and a Half Men can turn you into a zombie.
  • Possibly another one here
  • One on Think of the Children!, exampled by the second panel.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: "Your puns are making me angry!"
• Thanks for the Mammary: "Must you hold my breasts when we talk?" "Must you tempt me with your grabbable boobs?"
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
  • The way the bug wishes he could clean his bathroom.
  • Also what a younger the bug wished would happen to his church.
    "What are you drawing, my son?"
    "Our church being destroyed by three Godzillas."
• Thief Bag: Discussed.
• Third-Person Person: Here
  "Funky don't lay low... nor does Funky speak in first person."
• Tied Up on the Phone: the main character says that one of the nice things about growing up in a home with a very long phone cord was the ability to clothesline his sister and Make It Look Like an Accident.
• Toilet Humor: The man likes his fart jokes.
• Toothy Bird: Yup. Characters frequently brush their teeth and there are even strips regarding flossing.
• Tuxedo and Martini: Bug imagines himself as a famous spy. It's not as cool as he hoped it would be.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Bug defies this, stating that they would mistreat/manipulate him do because of their beauty.
• Unfinished Business: Exploited to keep seeing movies.
• Unflinching Walk: Another action movie cliché the author could do without.
• Uranus Is Showing: "I claim this planet for Uranus." "ugh... hehe, anus..."
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Less popular methods of proposing marriage...
  • Real-life example here
• What Does She See in Him?: Deconstructed.
  • The reason they want to hunt women's love for jerks.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: The reason we need the stupid baby name police.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: The featured protagonist in this strip believes the best out of any situation, no matter how illogical it is.
• With Catlike Tread: "If you ask me to walk across a room I can usually do it without incident, but if you ask me to do so quietly I'll probably knock over an entire set of cymbals."
• Word-Salad Humor: This strip, which focuses on how crazy people aren't seen in groups.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: "So...this isn't a rom-com?"
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: "A Christmas Cacophony".
• Zero-G Spot: When it comes to space travel, all anyone cares about is whether the astronauts have sex in space.
• Zombie Gait: "Quick! Everyone saunter away!"

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