History Creator / DanielPinkwater

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Ducks renounced their "slave names" in favor of these monikers: The Honorable Venustiano Carranza, President of Mexico (also known as "El Presidente"), Charles the Cat (the narrator), Igor, and The Indiana Zephyr.

The Wild UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} Ducks are a group of high school students who love spreading the message of Dada and writing short stories about ''Kevin Shapiro, Boy Orphan''. Once they find out there is an actual Kevin Shapiro in the school, they use their Dada skills to make him [[GoneHorriblyRight as successful as possible]]. There is also a sequel, ''Dead End Dada'', in which the Wild Dada Ducks abandon Dada in favor of [[UsefulNotes/Buddhism Zen]].

The Wild UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} Ducks are a group of high school students who love spreading the message of Dada and writing short stories about ''Kevin Shapiro, Boy Orphan''. Once they find out there is an actual Kevin Shapiro in the school, they use their Dada skills to make him [[GoneHorriblyRight as successful as possible]].

* MiseryLit: ''Kevin Shapiro, Boy Orphan'' is a parody of those harrowing young adult books about troubled teens. Kevin is gay, addicted to drugs, in and out of jail, and frequently tragically killed in addition to being an orphan.

* MonsterShapedMountan: The adventurers are given cryptic instructions to "look for the Elephant Gate". They eventually find it in the form of a rock arch shaped like a giant elephant, which is the only entrance into the Kukumlima Crater.
[[/folder]]

* DorkHorseCandidate: Kevin Shapiro, as a StudentCouncilPresident candidate.

* StarfishAliens: Arnold, the Amorphoid Fleshopod

* CoolSchool: Wheaton Academy, which is in an old mansion. Most of the teachers are fun to hang out with and more interested in the students having a good time and learning on their own terms than in making them do schoolwork. The administration is fine with students spending half the day out of class, and a lot of the learning is done through schoolwork.

* FlyingDutchman

--> - Pinkwater Podcast intro

--> Pinkwater Podcast intro

* RedScare: Many of the teachers at Riverview are paranoid about communist infiltration, and eventually Robert's ROTC instructor is dramatically removed for being a secret communist.

* {{Beatnik}}: Robert and his friends meet a number of beatniks (identified as such by the text) at the bookstore they frequent. Robert is interested in their poetry scene, but turned off by the amount of drugs they do.
* CoolSchool: Wheaton Academy, which is in an old mansion. Most of the teachers are fun to hang out with and more interested in the students having a good time than actually getting any work done. The students are are cool counterculture misfits.

* SchoolOfNoStudying: Both schools, for different [[JustifiedTrope reasons]]. At Riverview, the schoolwork is so low-level and boring that Robert feels disinclined to do any work. At Wheaton, the school is one by design- the education is so liberal that the students are expected to design their own work, and most of them get educated by reading books and having fun exploring the city rather than doing schoolwork.

* HumanAliens: Turns out [[spoiler: Alan Mendelsohn]], who looks like a normal boy [[spoiler: really is from Mars.]] Also the Nafsulians Manny, Moe, and Jack, who just look like short men.

* JungleOpera: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]], as Waka-Waka is a lot more boring than it first appeared, but the Waka-Waka portion certainly fits the setting and many elements.

* CargoCult: Many characters worship and respect the Great Popsicle. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as [[spoiler: the Great Popsicle is the godlike essence of pure love in the form of a popsicle.]]
* CoolUncle/CoolOldGuy: Borgel.

* DogFoodDiet: The protagonist and the dog Fafner are trapped at an interdimensional root-beer stand with nothing to eat but rootbeer floats for a month to their increasing dispair. When they find a bag of dog kibble in the car, both are overjoyed to subsist on the dog food. The narrator describes it as nutritious and excellent with root beer.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Has many similar elements (the setting, a storyline focusing on exploring the city, a SuckySchool with bigoted teachers) to the earlier Literature/SnarkoutBoys books, but is less humorous, more adult, and focuses far more on the negative school elements than those books.
* RedScare: Many of the teachers are paranoid about communist infiltration, and eventually Robert's ROTC instructor is dramatically removed for being a secret communist.

* JungleOpera: The book is about an adventure to Africa, where the characters encounter a number of otherworldy, perhaps extraterrestrial or supernatural things

* StarfishAliens: The titular Worms of Kukumlima, giant earthworms that supposedly arrive periodically to harvest elephant mouse hair. [[spoiler: Subverted, as the worms turn out not to be aliens at all, but permanent residents of the crater.]]

* SchoolOfNoStudying: Both schools, for different [[JustifiedTrope reasons]]. At Riverview, the schoolwork is so low-level and boring that Robert feels disinclined to do any work. At Wheaton, the school is a one of these by design- the education is so liberal that the students are expected to design their own work, and most of them get educated by reading books and having fun exploring the city rather than doing schoolwork.

!!''Young Adult Novel'''

!!''The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death/The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror''

* AnachronismStew: The books have a very [[TheFifties 50's]] flavor, but don't seem to actually take place then. 50's movies and objects (for example, Winston's 1957 Studebaker Lark) are often discussed but are usually presented as "old" or "this cool thing from the past." Hints such as Rat's dyed hair and the existence of a [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] radio station point to the books taking place in the [[TheSeventies 70's]] or later. But the kids also run into [[{{Beatnik}} beatniks]] (1950's) and {{hobos}} ([[TheGreatDepression 1930's]]), and attend debates at Blueberry Park, whose [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Square_Park_(Chicago) real-life]] [[FictionalCounterpart counterpart]] in Chicago petered out by the [[TheSixties 1960's]].
* TheButlerDidIt: [[spoiler: In the first book, Rat's butler Heinz turns out to behind the scheme to capture the Avocado. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in the second book, when the butler is suspected but turns out to be merely the [[TwinSwitch identical twin]] of the BigBad.]]
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Wallace Nussbaum is always behind whatever scheme takes place.]]
* {{Beatnik}}: All the denizens of the Dharma Buns Cafe, and Johnathan Quicksilver in particular.
* CelebCrush: Rat has devoted her life to the memory of [[Creator/JamesDean James Dean]].
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase
* ChronicallyCrashedCar: The Snarkout Boys' biology teacher periodically drives into a tree in the school parking lot.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Old German movies. [[SubvertedTrope It fails miserably.]]
* DistressedDude: Uncle Flipping. Gets kidnapped and lost on a regular basis.
* EvilTwin: Wallace Nussbaum to [[spoiler: Heinrich Nussbaum.]] [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at various points in the second book.
* {{Expy}}: World's Greatest Detective Osgood Sigerson, Dr. Ormond Sacker, and their nemesis Wallace Nussbaum, the "Napoleon of Crime," are all obvious parodies of [[Franchise/SherlockHolmes Sherlock Holmes]], Watson, and Moriarty. Sigerson is even described as dressing like someone in a [[Film/TheAdventuresOfSherlockHolmes1939 Basil Rathbone-as-Sherlock Holmes]] costume.
* FleetingDemographicRule: Many elements are recycled from Pinkwater's earlier novel ''The Education of Robert Nifkin''. The first couple chapters of ''Avacado'' read almost as a LighterAndSofter version of that book.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: The most dangerous man in the country when he has his lacrosse stick.
* ItRunsOnNonsensoleum: The giant avocado-based computer that somehow repels the alien realtors.
* JiveTurkey: ''The Avacado of Death'' has a trade unionist trying to organize a strike in a banjo pick factory, who speaks entirely in jive.
* LivingMacGuffin: Uncle Flipping, especially in the first book.
* MadScientist: Uncle Flipping.
* NoNameGiven: The Matthews' butlers are always called Heinz.
* OneParagraphChapter: ''The Baconburg Horror'' has quite a few short chapters, the shortest of which consists of the single sentence "Anything is possible."
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Rat. Her real name is Bentley Saunders Harrison Matthews, but everyone, including her parents, calls her Rat.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: In the second book.
* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler: After the Matthews family butler is [[TheButlerDidIt revealed]] to be the BigBad in the first book, the Matthews hire a new butler who looks exactly the same and call him by the same name.]]
* SeriousBusiness: Old movies seem to be the key to everything.
* SuckySchool: Winston and Walter's high school, George Armstrong Custer High. Nearly all the teachers are crazy, and some, such as their English teacher, are highly anti-semitic. Rat's school is implied to be just as bad.
* TheresNoBInMovie
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Uncle Flipping's inventions]] usually end up getting used for nefarious purposes.
* YouAreTooLate: At the end of ''The Avocado of Death'', the titular [[OrganicTechnology vegetable computer]] that repels the aliens is destroyed in spite of the heroes' efforts, so nothing will stop them from [[PuppeteerParasite possessing]] [[MilkmanConspiracy every licensed realtor in the world]]. They shrug and say "We'll have to get used to them".

* MultiethnicName: Grandpa's friend Milton X. Mohammadstein.

His books, and their tropes, include:
'''Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars''': Two middle-school boys become psychically enlightened and travel to an alternate plane of existence.

'''Borgel''': The protagonist and his many-times-great uncle Borgel go on an interdimensional tourist trip, and meet a godlike popsicle. This book got some unwanted publicity when a heavily rewritten passage was used as part of a standardized test on 8th grade reading comprehension and was frequently quoted in news articles about the controversial tests.

'''Fat Men From Space''': Earth is invaded by aliens who look like fat men, and steal all the junk food on the planet.

'''The Last Guru''': Harold Blatz parlays a horse-racing bet into a stock market fortune, becomes the richest person in the world, goes to Tibet, and finds enlightenment.

'''Lizard Music''': Eleven-year-old Victor's on his own after his parents go on vacation, leaving him with his mostly absent big sister. He's got a love of midnight bad sci-fi movie hour, but one night, instead of the usual mockable serials from the 50s, he sees a blurry shot of... lizards playing music. Joining up with a black hobo who has a hen on his hat, they set off to get to the source of the broadcasts: an invisible island populated by sentient lizards that's somewhere off the coast near [[CityOfAdventure Hogboro]].

'''The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death/The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror''': Two teenage boys who sneak out in the middle of the night to watch old movies get recruited to help the world's finest detective defeat werewolves, international criminals, and alien real-estate agents.

'''Slaves of Spiegel''': The fat men from ''Fat Men From Space'' arrange for a literal CookingDuel between the three best junk-food chefs in the universe.

'''The Worms of Kukumlima'''

* JungleOpera

'''Yobgorgle: Mystery Monster of Lake Ontario''': The Flying Dutchman is on a submarine in the middle of Lake Ontario, and needs help to break his curse.

* NotTheNessie

'''Young Adult Novel''': The Wild UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} Ducks are a group of high school students who love spreading the message of Dada and writing short stories about ''Kevin Shapiro, Boy Orphan''. Once they find out there is an actual Kevin Shapiro in the school, they use their Dada skills to make him [[GoneHorriblyRight as successful as possible]].

'''Newspaper Comics'''

* BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce: Chef Chow's Hot and Spicy Oil, a condiment used in folklore to kill a giant.

* With editorial cartoonist Tony Auth, Pinkwater produced the brief but very memorable surreal humor strip ''Norb'' from 1989-1990. It was about an eccentric GentlemanAdventurer named Norb, his [[HumanPopsicle defrosted]] [[TeamPet wooly mammoth Eugen,]] teenage neighbor girl Rat, and his [[TheBigGuy "stooge,'']] Jacobowitz. It was a little too weird for the general audience, and it only lasted exactly one year. An anthology book of the daily strips (but not the Sunday ones) was published, but old copies of it are hard to come by.

* With editorial cartoonist Tony Auth, Pinkwater produced the brief but very memorable surreal humor strip ''Norb'' in the mid-80's. It was about an eccentric GentlemanAdventurer named Norb, his [[HumanPopsicle defrosted]] [[TeamPet wooly mammoth Eugen,]] teenage neighbor girl Rat, and his [[TheBigGuy "stooge,'']] Jacobowitz. It was a little too weird for the general audience, and it only lasted exactly one year. An anthology book of the daily strips (but not the Sunday ones) was published, but old copies of it are hard to come by.

Daniel Pinkwater is an American author of children's books. His books have a number of recurring themes, including: