History ComicStrip / Pogo

* {{Gonk}}: If it wasn't clear what Kelly's politics were, Simple J. Malarkey is by far the ''ugliest'' character in the strip-- not that his model was exactly a come-hither ravishing beauty.

** There are even characters whose ''names'' are FunetikAksent examples - Churchy La Femme being the foremost.

Early versions of Pogo and Albert (alongside a quickly-phased-out human protagonist named Bumbazine) were regulars in [[Creator/DellComics Dell's]] ''Animal Comics'' starting with its very first issue in 1942, but within a few years the characters had moved to the newspapers, and ''Pogo'' soon established itself as one of the all-time comic strip classics. Creator Walt Kelly (1913–1973), a former Creator/{{Disney}} animator, filled his strip with dozens -- actually, ''hundreds'' -- of characters, all of them with distinct personalities, motivations and goals that would frequently collide. Kelly's ear for dialect and language, in addition to his skill with nonsense poetry, has been compared to that of Creator/MarkTwain and Creator/OgdenNash.

* PretentiousPunctuation: Of a sort-- the Mole is sometimes referred to as "Molester Mole", but it's meant to be pronounced to rhyme with "pollster" (which is a job the Mole has a few times).

* PretentiousPuncuation: Of a sort-- the Mole is sometimes referred to as "Molester Mole", but it's meant to be pronounced to rhyme with "pollster" (which is a job the Mole has a few times).

* PaintingTheMedium: P.T. Bridgeport and Deacon Muskrat speak in stylized fonts.

** In the Dell comics, Pogo himself started out looking much more like an opossum (with grey fur, no less), and he was merely Bumbazine's sidekick, and Albert was overtly (if [[HarmlessVillain harmlessly]]) villainous, usually more annoying than aggressive. Even Churchy La Femme was initally an antagonist, being introduced as a villainour pirate (even if he wasn't as much of a HarmlessVillain as Albert).

** While the strip had many characters who would routinely hog the spotlight to the point where Pogo himself often became more a supporting character in his own strip, no character is more spotlight-hogging than Albert. In the Dell comics he had star billing above Pogo, and in the comic strip itself he's got such a major role that a lot of reader will insist he's the ''real'' main character.

** Albert, Churchy, and others are known to lean on or against the comic border for support--and Albert even lights matches by striking them against the borders.
* MondegreenGag: Every Christmas the strip would have the characters sing a mangled version of "Deck the Halls", which famously begins with "Deck us all with Boston Charlie..."

* TheOwlKnowingOne: Gloriously {{subverted}} and parodied with Howland Owl, who ''thinks'' he's a genius and is repeatedly shown to be an enormous fool even by Okeefenokee standards.

** Howland Owl and Churchy La Femme are ''almost'' as spotlight-stealing as Albert. You can bet entire weeks of strips that consist solely of those two arguing with each other or getting up to some bizarre hijinks.

** Bumbazine, the human boy. In the earliest ''Animal Comics'' stories he's ostensibly the protagonist, but he's quickly DemotedToExtra in favour of focusing on Albert and to a lesser extent Pogo. After a while he simply stopped appearing, and the strip became purely about the animals.

** In the Dell comics, Pogo himself looked much more like an opossum (with grey fur, no less), and he was merely Bumbazine's sidekick, and Albert was overtly (if [[HarmlessVillain harmlessly]]) villainous, usually more annoying than aggressive.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter ridiculously cute]] Pup-Dog disappeared from the strip without explanation in the mid-1950s.
* CigarChomper: Albert

* ReformedButNotTamed: Albert in the ''Animal Comics'' series. In the early stories, he was the [[PredatorsAreMean carnivorous villain]] of the swamp -- in the very first story, "Albert Takes the Cake" he first steals Pogo's bithbay cake and then tries to eat both Pogo and Bumbazine. He soon became far less of a menace, stopped trying to eat the others and got on fairly good terms with the rest of the swamp critters, referring to himself as "reformed." He still remained a selfish and temperamental pest, and his carnivore instincts weren't completely suppressed... as is shown when he and Pogo try to console a crying Missus Rackedy Coon about her missing son.

* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: And how! Even the bugs are adorable in this strip.