History ComicStrip / MyCage

* PettingZooPeople

* OfficialCouple: Norm and Bridget. A big segment of the finale centered around [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming their wedding]].

* PrankDate: Serves as both Maureen's most horrifying experience and Creepy Janitor Guy's CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even Violet is touched by ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Norm and Ashley are Type 2.

* OhMyGods: "The Cartoonists" are the supreme beings. [[{{Peanuts}} Charles Schulz]] is the most powerful of all.

** Culminating in an ''epic'' ShipTease with Norm and Ashley finally admitting their true feelings to each other...only to be interrupted by a personification of Creator/KingFeaturesSyndicate, come to inform them that the strip is being cancelled. (The revelation was dropped immediately thereafter and Norm and Ashley's relationship went back to normal for the ending strips.)

* EverythingsBetterWithPlatypus: Norm.

* BiTheWay: In the new 2015 strips Ashley tells Norm that she is Bi, something that probably wouldn't have worked too well when it was still in newspapers. Norm is a bit surprised when he learns this, but he and Ashley are still the best of work friends.

* FurryConfusion: Subverted with Squishy the Amoeba.

* GenderEqualsBreed: Subverted. Bridget (A Dog) has a daydream about her future children with Norm (A Platypus): A platypus girl and a puppy boy. However, their hair colors do match gender.

* GoldDigger: Maureen the "Poverty Avoider" though she's been shown to have HiddenDepths. Furthermore, she wants money less to blow it all on superficial things and more to ensure financial stability for her daughter.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: Kenny The Unicorn.

* Unicorn: Kenny calls himself one, but he's [[PaperThinDisguise clearly]] a horse with a nail in his forehead. Whether he was stupid before the nail remains unknown.
* UnusualEuphemism: "Go hunt yourself".

* WhatMightHaveBeen: WordOfGod is that a planned RunningGag was for Rex and Violet's child, Sunny was to be an Anti-Christ like force of evil, opposed by Norm and Bridget's yet-to-exist child. Cancellation put the kibosh on those plans, though it might be revisited if/when the comic goes to full webcomic format.

* SarcasmBlind: Jeff can't enjoy ''TheDailyShow'' for that reason.

* JustForFun/XMeetsY: The typical format for Norm's FanFiction, such as "[[ScoobyDoo Scooby-Doo and Shaggy]] Meet [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]]."

* XMeetsY: The typical format for Norm's FanFiction, such as "[[ScoobyDoo Scooby-Doo and Shaggy]] Meet [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]]."

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even Violet is touched by ''"ItsAWonderfulLife"''.

* {{Animesque}}: King Features boasts of it being the first anime-inspired newspaper comic. Despite evidence [[TheBoondocks to the contrary.]]

** To ''Blog/TheComicsCurmudgeon'', of all things.[[note]]Probably because Ed Power was a commenter there before the strip started and a lurker/occasional poster for its entire run -- many of the 'Mudges were big ''MyCage'' fans as well.[[/note]]

** Norm and Bridget's off-panel break-up was intended as a slam against ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'', which ended its run with a WallOfText epilogue after a main character's wedding that attempted to explain what should have been shown in the strip in only a few panels. In ''MyCage'', the only people happy after the wedding are the bride and groom, because they hated the wedding and the honeymoon and they thrive off being miserable.

** Norm and Bridget's off-panel break-up was intended as a slam against ''ForBetterOrForWorse'', which ended its run with a WallOfText epilogue after a main character's wedding that attempted to explain what should have been shown in the strip in only a few panels. In ''MyCage'', the only people happy after the wedding are the bride and groom, because they hated the wedding and the honeymoon and they thrive off being miserable.

** To ''Blog/TheComicsCurmudgeon'', of all things. Probably because Ed Power was a commenter there before the strip started and a lurker/occasional poster for its entire run -- many of the 'Mudges were big ''MyCage'' fans as well.

* TakeThatCritics: In one of the final strips, the authors made a special mention of a Comics Curmudgeon forumite named kahvigirl who had written a diatribe where she accused ''My Cage'' of being nothing more than "''{{Cathy}}'' in furry drag". They awarded this poster the Golden Squishy for "Best insult of 'My Cage' on the Internet".

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/My_cage_logo_200711.png
[[caption-width:189: "This is King Features calling to inform that you have been cancelled."]]

* ShoutOut: To TheComicsCurmudgeon, of all things.
** Probably because Ed Power was a commenter there before the strip started and a lurker/occasional poster for its entire run - many of the 'Mudges were big ''MyCage'' fans as well.

Oh June 1, 2015 the strip's creators announced they would be post new strips via [[https://www.patreon.com/mycage?ty=p https://www.patreon.com/mycage]]

Oh June 6, 2015 the strip's creators announced they would be post new strips via [[https://www.patreon.com/mycage?ty=p https://www.patreon.com/mycage]]

The strip ran from May 6, 2007 until it was suddenly canceled, with its finale running on October 31st, 2010. Ed and Mel's blog for the strip seems to have expired after some severe technical difficulties, but the strip has been in reruns on [[http://www.gocomics.com/mycage gocomics.com]]. Additionally, the creators announced plans to try and revive the series as a webcomic in the future once the rights to the characters revert back to them.

This comic strip provides examples of:

* UglyGuyHotWife: Used in a sitcom parody, and then later made official with Norm and Bridget's marriage. (The cartoonists had intended for both to be "average-looking," but readers said otherwise.) In still more LampshadeHanging, Maureen once complained about people expecting her to go through with this trope. Cue Norm's panicked attempt to distract Bridget.

* WingdingEyes: Apparently in this universe such pupils are medical condition. When Maureen learns her date makes 500K a year, her eyes bug out with dollar signs, which frightens her date and she has to be taken to the emergency room where she is treated for the "Creator/TexAvery [[EyePop Virus]]."

* [[{{She Cleans Up Nicely}} He Cleans Up Nicely]] Bridget comments how good Norm looks in a suit. He tells her to savor the image as the suit makes him sweat in buckets.

''My Cage'' is a syndicated comic strip by Melissa [=DeJesus=] and Ed Power. It features a world of anime-inspired anthropomorphic animals, including our hero, Norman T. Platypus, who looks to survive the daily rigors of his soul-sapping office job at McGuffin Inc. when he would much rather be poor and creative. He's joined in his personal hell by his co-workers, included Ashley, a tiger that delights in tormenting him, Maureen, his attractive gold-digging office mate, Jeff, an incredibly stupid shark that works out of a bathtub, Rex, a doberman who is the egotistical fiance of Violet, a chihuahua with the darkest of hearts, and finally the boss Max, a red dog who Norm believes to be Satan himself. Rounding out the cast is Norm's freespirited fiance, a dog named Bridget, and Squishy, Norm's beloved pet amoeba whom he appears to love more than anyone else.