Matchu
is a webcomic by Mat Lippiello about the life of titular character Matthew Chu (or "Matchu" for short), jaded Unlucky Everydude, living his life with his eccentric brother Doug (called by his last name Chu) and pursuing Amber, the girl he likes, in a city so unremarkable, they couldn't think of anything better to name it than "Town". Sounds pretty standard, right?
Also, Matchu is a pointy yellow thing who is constantly as the mercy of slapstick gags, Amber is equally unlucky, and neither one can get near the other without something bad happening. Coupled with a loony Perky Goth, a demon MegaCorp CEO and alien police officers who came to Earth looking for an escaped fugitive from their home planet, the so-called "unremarkable city" turns out to be not so unremarkable after all.
Has been on hiatus since 2017.
Matchu contains examples of
- A Good Name for a Rock Band: Averted. Matchu thinks "Some Whores" is a terrible band name.
- Alien Abduction: Lala and Wheezy abduct Famine, but only so they can ask her questions. Famine was expecting something else.
- Aliens Speaking English
- Aliens Steal Cattle: Lala and Wheezy steal a cow from a farm in one story. The next time they show up, it's revealed Lala's been keeping the cow as a pet named Bea Arthur, and Wheezy demands he return her back to the farm.
- Amusing Injuries
- Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Famine really wanted those aliens to probe her.
- Ash Face: Matchu after being struck by lightning. twice.. Amber after shaking hands with a robot.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Matchu and Amber had a brief meeting when they were kids, with Amber helping Matchu feel better after getting beaten up by bullies and giving him a kiss "to make it better". No one had ever been that nice to Matchu before, and it sparked his love for her.
- Berserk Button: Don't tell Amber to cut or donate her hair
- Newman doesn't like sarcasm, being made fun of for his high pitched voice, and the number six.
- Bad Boss: Newman"I don't need another jerk to throw money at! I want the money! It's mine! MY MONEY!"
- Born Unlucky: Matchu.
- Bound and Gagged: A robot arm programmed to duct tape things together wraps Amber head to toe after she gets too close to it.
- Brick Joke: Quite a few.
- Buddy Cop Show: Lala and Wheezy's subplot "Space Cops" is set up like one, complete with theme song, episode card and commercial break.
- Butt-Monkey: Matchu, Amber, Wheezy, Rose, Gina and Loison. But especially Matchu and Amber.
- The Cameo: Osaka shows up in several comics, either as a background character, a piece of merchandise, or something more well hidden, ala Hidden Mickeys.
- Cartoon Creature: Matchu, Chu, Jay, Jamjars, Newman and Loison. Lala and Wheezy have the excuse of being aliens.
- Matchu is described as a "Sulking Yellow Cat Thing".
- Character Catchphrase: Matchu has "Meh, typical..." for when things go wrong. Jamjars has "AWW FUCK!" which he says often, as in that's all he ever says.
- Character Title
- Clip Show: Matchu 100 has one of every time Matchu and Amber have appeared on-panel together.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Chu, Famine and LalaChu: I'm so jealous of monkeys, they have hands for feet! That is so cool!
- Compressed Hair: Amber's hair is normally in pigtails that go down to her feet. When it is down, it drags quite a few feet away from her, much longer than the pigtails suggest.
- Cosmic Plaything: Matchu is struck by lightning twice, and a ufo falls on him right as he's about to finally say something to Amber.
- Crapsack World
- Cue the Rain
- Cute Mute: Amy
- Deadpan Snarker: Matchu, primarily, but several other characters are plenty sarcastic.
- Deathbringer the Adorable: Amber's cat Prince Zuko.
- Deuteragonist: Amber gets just as much character focus as Matchu.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Lettering Guy.
- Expressive Mask / Eye Glasses: Matchu's glasses change shape depending on his mood. Amber's do as well to a lesser extent.
- Fat Bastard: Reese Eller is obese and enough of an asshole that he attempts to attack Matchu, Amber, Amy and Thorn over a toy. It doesn't end well for him.
- First-Person Smartass: Whenever Matchu narrates.
- Floorboard Failure: A Running Gag
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Chu and Matchu
- Gaussian Girl: Amber to Matchu, in the first storyline after seeing she's in his class, and in Matchu 100 when a kindergarten aged Amber kisses Matchu's forehead better.
- Genki Girl: Famine
- Girlish Pigtails: Amber
- Greasy Spoon: A commercial is shown for "Billy Bob's Potater Hut", which is covered in grease. Lala and Wheezy are later seen eating there.
- Guest Strip
- Hammerspace Hair: Amber's morning routine includes getting rid of many ridiculous things that got stuck in her ridiculously long hair, such as a quarter, her cat, a pizza box, an atomic bomb, and even Famine, who does not even know why she was in there.
- I Call It "Vera": Famine's flamethrower "Stevie".
- Kick Chick: Thorn defends herself from Reese Eller with a kick to the chin, and breaks a punching bag arcade game by kicking it.
- Kitschy Local Commercial: Billy Bob's Potato Hut has one, complete with terrible bluescreen effects, clip art, Comic Sans and the guy holding the cue cards walking on camera.
- Last-Name Basis: Chu's first name is actually Doug, which only Matchu refers to him by.
- Loser Protagonist: Matchu has no friends, lives in a crappy apartment with his underpaid brother, is immediately assigned as a janitor when looking for a job, and the universe denies him any sort of happiness.
- Male Gaze: Matchu tries to motivate himself to speak to Amber, listing reasons why he should. He's sold at Amber's amazing rack.
- MegaCorp: Most of the characters work for NewmanCorp.
- Mummy Wrap: Amber is wrapped this way after getting to close to a duct taping robot. Famine is also tied this way when adbucted by Lala and Wheezy.
- Nobody Touches the Hair: Amber HATES people telling her to cut her incredibly long hairAmber: I know it's for a good cause and all, but so help me god, the next person who tells me that is going to become an organ donor.
- Noodle Incident: "Long story. Things get kind of blurred in between the bank robbery, the escaped giraffe and the car fire."
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: A caption appears under Reese Eller when he's explaining that he bought up all the Nomobo of a certain character because he hates her and wants to ruin her popularity.THIS IS SOMETHING SOMEONE ACTUALLY DID IN REAL LIFETHESE WERE HIS ACTUAL REAL REASONS FOR DOING ITI COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP IF I TRIED.
- Opaque Nerd Glasses: Matchu and Amber.
- Perky Goth: Famine
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: Inverted with The Psychic comics, which were put into Matchu because they failed to hold up as their own series.
- Running Gag: Matchu falling through the floor.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: Amber's glasses glow in the dark. She's not entirely sure how.Amber: Oh, this? Yeah it... it does that sometimes...
- Safety Worst: Germaphobic Amber attempts to shield herself from Lettering Guy with thick layered plastic wrap "armor". She can't get out afterwards.
- Severely Specialized Store: To Wheezy's surprise, there really is a Catapult Store.
- Shout-Out: Numerous to Disney, both affectionate or otherwise.
- Amber's cat is named Prince Zuko. When Famine asks why, a closeup of the cat shows he has Zuko's face on a cat body, complete with red mark over one eye.
- Matchu has a dream where he and Amber are in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, taking the roles of Link and Zelda respectively. Naturally, she pushes him off a ledge.
- Matchu's janitor rank is Scrub Monkey Third Class.
- A few pages of Toy Raider parody the Fertility Idol scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Shonen Hair: Thorn
- Shrinking Violet: Amy is so shy that she never speaks.
- Slapstick:You probably thought Amber would be slapstick proof, like every other female cartoon character ever created. You thought wrong.
- Space Cop: Naturally, The Space Cops Lala and Wheezy
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Matchu and Amber can't get near each other without something bad happening. Amber doesn't even know who Matchu is, and the one time she actually acknowledges Matchu's presence, a UFO lands on top of him mid-sentence.
- Stylistic Suck: Chu's "Hoodman" comic book. It's incredibly poorly drawn, and Hoodman himself is copy-pasted in one pose in every single panel he's in.
- Take That!: "I'm detecting low amounts of intelligence and sanity in this one, possibly a mental patient or a Team Fortress 2 player."
- Third Line, Some Waiting: Stories revolve around Matchu and Amber's intertwining lives, and both will have an evenly split subplot in some stories. The third line is the Space Cops subplot, which while there is some intertwining, it's generally removed from the Matchu and Amber plots.
- The Voiceless: Amy. Her silence makes it hard for Amber to communicate with her.
- Use Your Head: Matchu, of all people, headbutts the incredibly fat Reese Eller in self defense and manages to knock him down.
- Webcomic Time: Lampshaded in a Christmas Filler StripChu: Nope, it's December. It was September last week and will be September again next Tuesday!
- Whole Episode Flashback: Matchu 100
- Who's on First?: Rei and Talia have a bit over their printer not working.
- Billy Bob and Ezekeil over the U.K.
- World of Weirdness
