History ComicStrip / Pondus

* BannedInChina: In a way. The strip has been found "unfit" for an American audience. The "ugly ladies" are a mite ''too'' ugly.

--> '''Ivar''': "Isn't it like that all the time for us Hugo?
--> '''Hugo''': "That's what i said Ivar '''This is the life'''!

* TheBeautifulGame: The most SeriousBusiness of them all. On more than one occasion, Pondus has seriously questioned why any other sports than football even exists.

* MeaningfulName: Pondus is Norwegian for belly, and Pondus is somewhat overweight. Jokke is a slang term for humping, hinting at Jokke's love for picking up women.

** Later on in the series, it becomes established Pondus has nothing personally against gays nor does he wish to delay their rights. He just personally struggles to understand them and their desires.

* TheCameo: [[PerkyGoth Nemi]], a character from the [[{{Nemi}} series]] with the same name has appeared in a few strips. Mads Eriksen, Another Norwegian comic book artist was given semi-{{Take That}}s in the strips as a result of a minor war between the two. The famous comic character ComicBook/GastonLagaffe has made a cameo as the only customer who didn't get ripped off by the strip's recurring [[CrookedContractor car repairman]].

* BigOlUnibrow: The ultimate ButtMonkey moment (in a long series of ButtMonkey moments) for Hugo came when he developed a unibrow overnight. And ''there is no cure''.

* CasanovaWannabe: Hugo, through and through. All women rejects him, including the ugly girls that Jocke used to get some action from.

* TheChewToy: Jokke

** Averted with Tito and Baltazar, Pondus' next-door neighbors in the later strips, who are usually StraightGay.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: After Jokke [[spoiler: got together with Camilla and]] quit picking up ugly women in bars, the comic faced a problem in that the sequences with ugly women were highly popular among the comic's fans. The solution? The supporting characters Hugo and (to a lesser extent) Ivar, who had previously only been noted for their bottle cap collection hobby, were suddenly shown taking great interest in women of Jokke's standards, using the same horrible pick-up lines with the same luck.

** All averted with Tito and Baltazar, Pondus' next-door neighbors in the later strips, who are very much StraightGay.

** Very much averted with Tito and Baltazar, Pondus' next-door neighbors in the later strips, who are very much StraightGay.

* LimitedWardrobe: Hugo and Ivar are almost never ''ever'' seen wearing anything other than their work uniforms.

* StylisticSuck: In the later comics, Overli sometimes [[ShowWithinAShow showcases comics]] done by comic book artist Roger, all of them invariably crappy. At first they were just short, crudely drawn strips (including an obvious ''CalvinAndHobbes'' ripoff), but later Overli made whole, multi-page stories about "Tanga-Tore", a [[FanDisservice thong-wearing male vigilante]]. All of them feature [[IncrediblyLamePun lame wordplay for jokes]], [[GenericDoomsdayVillain painfully generic]] [[MadScientist mad scientists]] with [[DoomsdayDevice destroy-the-world machines]] for villains, bizarre plot developments and are usually resolved with a DeusExMachina (including [[TheCameo a surprise appearance]] by Series/{{MacGyver}}).

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: After Jokke [[spoiler: got together with Camilla and]] quit picking up ugly women in bars, the comic faced a problem in that the sequences with ugly women were highly popular among the coimc's fans. The solution? The supporting character Hugo, who had previously only been noted for his bottle cap collection hobby, was suddenly shown taking great interest in women of Jokke's standards, using the same horrible pick-up lines with the same luck.

* StylisticSuck: In the later comics, Overli sometimes [[ShowWithinAShow showcases comics]] done by comic book artist Roger, all of them invariably crappy. At first they were just short, crudely drawn strips (including an obvious ''CalvinAndHobbes'' ripoff), but later Overli made whole, multi-page stories about "Tanga-Tore", a [[FanDisservice thong-wearing male vigilante]]. All of them feature [[IncrediblyLamePun lame wordplay for jokes]], painfully [[GenericDoomsdayVillain generic doomsday]] [[MadScientist mad scientists]] with [[DoomsdayDevice destroy-the-world machines]] for villains and bizarre plot developments and are usually resolved with a DeusExMachina (including [[TheCameo a surprise appearance]] by Series/{{MacGyver}}).

* StylisticSuck: In the later comics, Overli sometimes [[ShowWithinAShow showcases comics]] done by comic book artist Roger, all of them invariably crappy. At first they were just short, crudely drawn strips (including an obvious ''CalvinAndHobbes'' ripoff), but later Overli made whole, multi-page stories about "Tanga-Tore", a [[FanDisservice thong-wearing male vigilante]]. All of them feature [[IncrediblyLamePun lame wordplay for jokes]], painfully [[GenericDoomsdayVillain generic doomsday]] [[MadScientist mad scientists]] with [[DoomsdayDevice destroy-the-world machines]] for villains and bizarre plot developments and are usully resolved with a DeusExMachina (including [[TheCameo a surprise appearance]] by Series/{{MacGyver}}).

* CategorismAsAPhobia: The titular character Pondus excels at this. He doesn't seem to have much real bigotry or even prejudice, it's just that he has this crippling fear of homosexuals and homosexual sex acts. He has nightmares about making out with guys, he starts shivering with fear at the sight of real life gays, and so on.

* SeriousBusiness: If you want to be taken seriously as a man in Pondus' world, you need to have an opinion on hard rock and football.

** Played for laughs when a weird combination of fat north Norwegian fisherman, black man ''and Sami'' entered the bus, making a gesture with his white stick while swearing in a Muslim way. At home, Pondus stated that while he was a quite tolerant guy, "blind, overweight fishermen-muslim-sami-negroes" might be more than he could handle.

* TheCameo: [[PerkyGoth Nemi]], a character from the [[{{Nemi}} series]] with the same name has appeared in a few strips. Mads Eriksen, Another Norwegian comic book artist was given semi-{{Take That}}s in the strips as a result of a minor war between the two. The famous comic character GastonLagaffe has made a cameo as the only customer who didn't get ripped off by the strip's recurring [[CrookedContractor car repairman]].

* RealMenWearPink: ''Completely'' averted, at least from Pondus' own POV. He has a set of strict rules for proper male behaviour, and if you break any of them, you don't deserve to be called a real man. Do you like music with synths? You're gay. Do you wear necklaces of any kind? You're gay. You don't like football? You're gay. Do you - ARRGH!! - '''wear your sweater around your neck!!??''' It doesn't matter what your sexual orientation is, because you're a freakin' '''eunuch''' anyway!!

* BritishFootyTeams: Pondus is a Liverpool fan. Jokke holds with Leeds. Camilla ([[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous shock and horror!]]) favours Manchester United. Their bickering gets PlayedForLaughs.

* [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous What Do You Mean, It's Not]] CampGay?: As a little league coach, Pondus won't let the boys stretch after exercise - It's "very feminine".

** He also makes it pretty darn clear that he doesn't like {{U2}}. [[SouthPark Not to the point where Bono is revealed to literally be the world's greatest turd]], but still.

Includes examples of the following Tropes: