History Literature / RossOCarrollKelly

* BumblingDad: All of Ross and Ronans interactions

The books represent themselves as Ross's memoirs, to the point that Howard's name cannot be found on the cover. The novels follow Ross's life covering about one year apiece, and closely follow real time in Ireland. They begin in the late nineties, with Ross in his late teens, satirizing(primarily) the private school system in Ireland. They soon progress, with Ross, through university, organizing weddings, children, and the large number of subplots involving Ross's family and friends usually cover other topics. In the latest book, the ''Oh My God Delusion'', Ross is approaching thirty, and he and his friends are not coping well with the recession.

Fourteen novels have been published so far:

There have also been four plays (''The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger'', ''Between Foxrock and a Hard Place'', ''Breaking Dad'' and ''Postcards from the Ledge'') two semi-non-fiction books (''Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's Guide to (South) Dublin: How To Get By On, Like, €10,000 A Day'' and ''We Need To Talk About Ross'') and a spoken-word album.

* BadassTeacher: Fr. Fehily, the rugby coach, is subjects the boys to an strict training scheme, disregards academics, and is highly implied to be an ex-nazi. Ross worships him.

* {{Book Dumb}}: The first book prints Ross's Leaving Cert (final school exam) papers unedited. It is not pretty.

* BornWinner: Ross thinks he is this, he expects the call to be on the Irish Rugby squad to come any day now

* TheCasanova: The amount of women Ross goes through is mind boggling, he rarely remembers their names, and it regularly come back to haunt him

* UsefulNotes/{{Dublin}}: The setting is "Dublin's fair city", which is not all that fair, in any sense of the word.

* FakePregnancy: In the first book, Sorcha leads Ross to believe she is pregnant for several ''months'', purely to miss with his head.

* FlashForward: The entire play ''Breaking Dad'' is set roughly a decade into the future, where [[AcceptablePoliticalTargets Bertie Ahern]] has just led Fianna Fail back into power and Ross has to cope with the first time his daughter brings a boy home.
* FunetikAksent: Used constantly, even in narration, some accents are nigh incomprehensible without reading aloud. Howard isan excellent mimic. Some of the examples frequently used by Ross emphasise the soft "t" and the broad vowels eg. Right=Roysh, car park= cor pork. It is used frequently as a means of GettingCrapPastTheRadar.

* {{Homage}}: The first novel is a lengthy one to ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', with Ross as an affluent, obnoxious UnreliableNarrator comparable to Patrick Bateman (except without, you know, all the murdering people). Emphasized in a scene in Eddie Rocket's in which the dialogue of Oisinn and Ross comparing fashion tips is copied almost word-for-word from a similar scene in ''American Psycho''.

* LukeIAmYourFather: Twice, once with Ross discovering his [[spoiler:eight year old son Ronan,]] and once with [[spoiler:Charles]] revealing that [[spoiler:Erika]] is his daughter
* ManipulativeBastard: Charles [[spoiler: pays off Ross's pregnant ex so that she won't inform Ross about the child, Ronan]]
* MeaningfulName: Ross O' Carroll Kelly, and his parents, Fionnuala O' Carroll Kelly and Charles O' Carroll Kelly get a lot of jokes poked at their initials.

* MyNaymeIs: Tons of them -- Erika, Oisinn (the spelling Oisín is far more common), Leesa, Jayne
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Played with, Ross compares every woman he meets to a real life celebrity, partially as flattery, and partially to save the author the trouble of describing them. Real life Celebrities are frequently referred to in conversation, often as an AppealToWealth. Derek "One F" Foley, a friend of the real-life author, is the only real person to feature prominently. politicians, like Enda Kenny and Leo Varadkar, feature in later books, but mostly offscreen. Miriam O'Callaghan is also sometimes mentioned.

* RichBitch: Most of the women, but especially Erika

* RuleOfFunny: this is the fuel on which the plot runs.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Completely averted by Ronan, [[spoiler:Ross's son raided on the northside]], at eight years old, this child's wants to be a career criminal when he grows up, and is already preparing for the profession.

* GenderBlenderName: Hillary de Barra is a boy, named after HillaryClinton.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The novels are presented as Ross's memoirs, "as told to" Paul Howard.

* UpdatedRerelease: the first two books were published cheaply by the Sunday Tribune's own press as ''The Miseducation of Ross O'Carroll-Kelly'' and ''Roysh Here, Roysh Now… The Teenage Dirtbag Years''); they got higher-quality rereleases with added material as ''The Miseducation Years'' and ''The Teenage Dirtbag Years'')

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Played with, Ross compares every woman he meets to a real life celebrity, partially as flattery, and partially to save the author the trouble of describing them. Real life Celebrities are frequently referred to in conversation, often as an AppealToWealth. Derek "One F" Foley, a friend of the real-life author, is the only real person to feature prominently
* NouveauRiche: The Celtic Tiger is a relatively recent phenomenon in Ireland, so many of the characters are this by default. Ross's family was not so wealthy when he was a young child.

There have also been three plays (''The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger'', ''Between Foxrock and a Hard Place'' and ''Breaking Dad'') two semi-non-fiction books (''Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's Guide to (South) Dublin: How To Get By On, Like, €10,000 A Day'' and ''We Need To Talk About Ross'') and a spoken-word album.

* MoneyToThrowAway: In an iconic scene, Ross and friends throw money out the window in a poor part of Dublin, yelling "Affluence!"

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Played with, Ross compares every woman he meets to a real life celebrity, partially as flattery, and partially to save the author the trouble of describing them. Real life Celebrities are frequently refered to in conversation, often as an AppealToWealth. Derek "One F" Foley, a friend of the real-life author, is the only real person to feature prominently

* SpoiledSweet: Sorcha. She managed to spend €100,000 in LA "researching retail" but she is also a member of every charity group saving endangered animals and third world children she can find, and she needs a lot of provocation before she lashes out at Ross.

* FunetikAksent: Used constantly, even in narration, some accents are nigh incomprehensible without reading aloud. Howard isan excellent mimic. Some of the examples frequently used by Ross emphasise the soft "t" and the broad vowels eg. Right=Roysh, car park= cor pork. It is used frequently as a means of GettingCrapPastTheRadar.

* RetCon: Tons of it in ''We Need To Talk About Ross'', blaming an UnreliableNarrator. Also {{Handwaves}} several continuity errors (did Ross meet Christian in primary school or at Castlerock? Did Ross's dad go to school with Hennessy or did they meet later? Was Ross 15 or 17 when he met Sorcha?)

* BadassTeacher: Fr. Fenily, the rugby coach, is subjects the boys to an strict training scheme, disregards academics, and is highly implied to be an ex-nazi. Ross worships him.

Eleven novels have been published so far:

** His second child (that we know of), Honor, is even worse - less a harmless criminal and more a complete psychopath. Even her parents are terrified of her, and have almost no ability to control her.

* {{Bridezilla}}: Ross's bride to be, [[spoiler:Sorcha,]] unsuprisingly,

* ChildrenAreInnocent: Completely averted by Ronan, [[spoiler:Ross's son raided on the northside]], at eight years old, this child's wants to be a career criminal when he grows up, and is already preparing for the profession

There have also been two plays (''The Last Days of the Celtic Tiger'', ''Between Foxrock and a Hard Place'') two semi-non-fiction books (''Ross O'Carroll-Kelly's Guide to (South) Dublin: How To Get By On, Like, €10,000 A Day'' and ''We Need To Talk About Ross'') and a spoken-word album.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Sorcha, the tree hugging humanitarian who has put up with so much from Ross, loses the rag when her boutique closes down and responds by driving down the pedestrianised Grafton street and crashes intentionally into the window of Brown Thomas's, another boutique. The judge even lampshades it at the hearing

* MoodWhiplash: Aoife has anorexia and bulemia, her efforts to count her points, her asking how many calories lettuce contains etc. are all played for laughs. The hospital trip is not. Nor is [[spoiler:her death]].

* FunetikAksent: Used constantly, even in narration, some accents are nigh incomprehensible without reading aloud. Howard isan excellent mimic. Some of the examples frequently used by Ross emphasise the soft "t" and the broad vowels eg. Right=Roysh, car park= cor pork. It is even used frequently as a means of getting focking CrapPastTheRadar,

* IdiotHero: At least he's aware of it

* MoodWhiplash: Aoife has anorexia and bulemia, her efforts to count her points, her asking how many calories lettuce contains etc. are all played for laughs. The hospital trip is not. Nor is [[spoiler:her death]]

* CreatorProvincialism: Invoked, Ross's knowledge of geography outside of Dublin is intentionally terrible
* CulturalDissonance: Mostly between the Northsiders and Southsiders, occasionally includes culchies (country people). Constantly PlayedForLaughs.

* AccidentalIncest: averted (not for want of trying) with half-siblings [[spoiler:Ross and Erika]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: These books are not too shy about crap in full view of the radar, but they make use of teh more impenetreble aspects of Dublin slang to keep it in full view where it might not otherwise be allowed. For instance, Sydney Parade is the second stop on the Dublin train line, so "I Should have Got off at Sydney Parade" refers to Ross not finishing his trip.

* {{Jerkass}}: Ross
* JerkJock: Ross, and all his team mates

Ross O'Carroll-Kelly is the protagonist of a series of novels by Irish journalist Paul Howard, satirising the obsessions and habits of Ireland's privileged (and unprivileged) classes, particularly centering on the capital, Dublin city. For those unfamiliar with Dublin, it can be roughly divided into the North side (unprivileged), and the South side (priveleged). The characteristics of both sides are highly exaggerated in the name of RuleOfFunny. Ross, naturally, is from the south side, and is a spoiled, vain, womanizing, wealthy braggart who can't go two minutes without offending someone.

The books represent themselves as Ross's Memoirs, to the point that Howard's name cannot be found on the cover. The novels follow Ross's life covering about one year apiece, and closely follow real time in Ireland. They begin in the late nineties, with Ross in his late teens, satirizing(primarily) the private school system in Ireland. They soon progress, with Ross, through university, organizing weddings, children, and the large number of subplots involving Ross's family and friends usually cover other topics. In the latest book, the Oh My God Delusion, Ross is approaching thirty, and he and his friends are not coping well with the recession.

* AdaptationDisplacement: The newspaper column (begun in 1998) is by and large secondary to the novel series (begun in 2000)

* DesignatedHero: Ross can sometimes be rather unlikeable, among the most frequent of his crimes is serial adultery, but he is still our protagonist.