Nip And Tuck is one of Ralph Hayes, Jr.'s webcomics (Goblin Hollow and Tales of the Questor among his others).The main focus is on Nip and Tuck Todd, two fox brothers of the somewhat loopy Malarky County, located somewhere (judging by the cast's accents) in the southern USA. Throughout the series, the brothers get mixed up in various hijinx, including babysitting a pair of rival budding evil geniuses, accidentally entering Tuck's girlfriend into a porno photoshoot, helping a rookie journalist try to prove the existence of the local lake monster to the world, training a junior boxer to fight the town bully, and even MST-ing Nip's movies.The strip is on indefinite hiatus (though the characters have been transplanted to Goblin Hollow for the time being), but the archives are still available.You can find it here.Not related to Nip/Tuck
Tropes in the comic:
Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Gus the turtle, who owns the military surplus store. (Turtles are literally the only species in any of the author's comics to get this trope, which is understandable given how much a turtle's shell covers and how hard it is to cover.)
Author Tract: Taken to great lengths with various attacks on environmentalism, feminism and liberalism in general right from the first couple of pages. (see Straw Character section below)
Beautiful All Along: Played straight with Thelma here, with help from Tuck. Then again, Tuck admits that he had feelings for Thelma from the very beginning and had no idea how to deal with those emotions.
A bit with Zelda Porcupine as well.
Barefoot Cartoon Animals: Most of Malarkey County, though Gus Guthrie and Gilly are usually The Ones Who Wear Shoes. (Well, plus occasional guest characters, such as that crazy cat at the bus station.)
Brain Bleach: Nip learns to take care when admiring photos from a time before you were born.
Comedic Sociopathy: Whether it's knocking Gilly out with a board or electrocuting a reporter, this is pretty common. Slightly subverted, in that Tuck doesn't approve of such methods.
Tuck: Well, I s'pose you're learning all sorts o' new things...
Tagger: Yeah. I learned tofu gives you th' scoots.
Determinator: Bandit during a boxing match against a pig a lot bigger than him. He gets beaten to a pulp and still refuses to drop for a while.
Believe it or not, Straw Liberal Gilly Gopher is also one. While others would have realized long ago that Malarkey County isn't too kind to Know Nothing Know It Alls, he just keeps on trying to convince his neighbors he has the right idea.
Distressed Damsel: Subverted when Thelma Opossum, trapped into a lousy contract by a porn studio, becomes a professional wrestler to pay it off (surprising the heck out of poor Tuck's rescue party). Averted when Zelda Porcupine, confronted by a studio-barging Gilly Gopher, turns him into a pincushion. And lampshaded to a fare-thee-well when Nip winds up rescuing overly-aggressive, dyed-in-the-scales, capital-F Feminist Hortense from a guy she punched in the breadbasket! (She takes it with all the "grace" you'd expect, too.) See Values Dissonance... as noted, female characters in this strip aren't likely to be the fluttery, useless type.
Double Standard: Abuse—Female on Male: Heavily averted. Female characters who abuse male characters in this strip will receive a talking-to at least, a physical retribution at worst. Never subverted, though; males who abuse females get just as much of a smackdown.
Furry Reminder: Thelma's pouch, especially given how often Nip and Tuck forget about it. (Not to mention the first time an opossum baby shows up in the strip...)
Groin Attack: Thelma calls it the Hickory Nut Crunch. It appears as painful as it sounds, but hey, the guy did Kick the Dog first.
Hand or Object Underwear: Found in the very first strip when Nip knocks his own and his brother's dress clothing in the river right after throwing their old clothes in.
Heroic BSOD: Both Todd brothers tend to do this when sexually aroused.
Non-Mammalian Hair: Subverted with Hortence the lizard, who wears a wig.
Non-Mammal Mammaries: Played straight for the most part, but averted for Hortence the lizard.
No OSHA Compliance: Anything that Nip does that causes an explosion, but being a stuntman helps.
Not Quite Dead: Nip's character in "Rebel Cry" fakes his own death
Not So Different: There was a period of comic strips early in the series' run, titled Redneck Rebuttal, that pointed out that many redneck stereotypes can also be applied to numerous Democrat Party members.
or to various yuppies, city slickers, Hollywood elites....
The "family tree not branching" joke was applied to European Royalty. The Hapsburgs come to mind...
Obfuscating Stupidity: Nip, despite acting like a moron with no sense of self preservation, ends up outsmarting quite a few people and delivering a few of the Aesops. Although, in a way, this isn't completely his fault, as outsiders often assume he is an idiot based on his accent and looks.
Rage Against the Author: Not rage so much as confusion, but Bandit Ringtail's owner was somewhat let down by the way that his comic commission ended (no closure, didn't adhere to his script).
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The title characters, Nip and Tuck. While they're twin brothers, Nip is the rambunctious, loud one and Tuck is the cool, cynical one.
Slapstick Knows No Gender: Played very straight, in that the author is more than willing to let a female character catch the brunt of a gag.
Snipe Hunt: Tagger manages to send the entire protest bothering their Pioneer Days festival on one.
Something about a Rose: This occurs when the Todd's bull, Thunder, learns he is going to be used as a stud. And again when Nip is picking up Zelda for their date.
Southern Fried Genius: While Nip is not entirely an idiot, in early strips he is quite reckless; on the other hand, Tuck is definitely displaying this trope.
Speechbubbles Interruption: Mrs. Rabbit when Mr. Rabbit starts getting too detailed about why they have so many younguns.
Writer on Board: And proud of it. To be fair, generally avoids an Author Filibuster, if only by inches.
What Is Evil?: Subverted by Nip early on, simply by taking it to a logical conclusion.
What the Hell, Hero?: After Bandit's savage beating by Gus in a boxing match, his idol, Sierra, comes to visit him in the hospital wing. She pulls on his nose briefly, then gives him a scathing speech about how stupid the situation was, saying that not only did Bandit get into a fight unnecessarily, he also let his temper get the best of him and nearly got himself killed challenging a guy twice his height and weight to defend the honor of someone he'd never met in person. While Bandit cringes away from this, the scene turns out to be kind of sweet since Sierra then kisses him on the cheek for the thought.
Also when Hortense blasts Tuck for forcing Thelma into a beauty contest.
Actually in a skit following the Straw Liberal's rant and unsuccessful attempts to save face, Texas is mentioned.
Odd, since Hortence makes mention that it's cold nine months out of a year, and several strips (Especially during the Bandit arc) showed a pretty strong winter.
Some areas of Appalachia can have a lot of snow.
And if you're a lizard, Spring and Autumn are probably on the uncomfortable side of cool...
Wretched Hive: The Rusty Bucket, hangout of Gus Gunthrie and his equally nasty friends.
Malarkey County was thought of as this in the early strips, no thanks to the Strawman News Media.
Not related to Nip/Tuck
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