History Literature / TheSacredDiaryOfAdrianPlass

* JustForPun: A bad one that Adrian is completely unable to understand at the time, and only gets the explanation from Gerald in return for explaining how [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Everett Glander was converted by Norman Wisdom in a pub]]. Adrian had tried to mend Percy Brain's leaking roof but didn't have enough bits of slate. Gerald had called it "a futile gesture". [[spoiler:few-tile]]

* ScrabbleBabble: Thynn at one point insists that "vquex" is a valid Scrabble word, claiming it's a cross between a ferret and a giraffe. Gerald objects on the grounds that the [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction mating act between the two would be physically impossible]].

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: At one point Adrian becomes obsessed with giving a talk with three alliterative points because it's all the rage, but after coming up with "Humility" and "Holiness", is stuck. He unwisely turns to Gerald and Leonard for help, who suggest Henry Cooper, Haggis, Horstead Keynes...

The main cast besides Plass himself consists of his wife Anne, their son Gerald and Adrian's recovering alcoholic friend Leonard Thynn, but beyond that there are LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters.

* O{Irony}}: Situational version - Edwin Burlesford and Richard Cook are very different, with Edwin being the relaxed and wise liberal christian and Richard being sincere but self-serious fundamentalist. Guess who the Elder is. (Edwin, though this is partly due to the difference between Christians in the UK and US)

not

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Leonard is a {Cloudcuckoolander}, but he's pretty aware of it and both it and his alcoholism (that he's trying really hard to deal with) has really done a number on his self-esteem.

* {Irony}: Situational version - Edwin Burlesford and Richard Cook are very different, with Edwin being the relaxed and wise liberal christian and Richard being sincere but self-serious fundamentalist. Guess who the Elder is. (Edwin, though this is partly due to the difference between Christians in the UK and US)

%% * AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Uncle Ralph.

* {{Malaproper}}: Andromeda Veal, about everyone and everything. Other characters also have their moments, such as Leonard Thynn mistaking "generic term" for "geriatric tern" while discussing types of curry, and then assuming that an Indian restaurant serves 'elderly seagull done in the tandoori style' as a dish.

** Richard Cook claims his dreams are prophetic visions, but rather ruins the effect by (after talking about one that sounds like it could possibly be one) casually adds that "after a short further dream about getting into a bath full of Smarties wearing a Franchise/{{Batman}} costume, I woke up".

** "Inflated Ego" = "Feel a Tin God"

* WhamEpisode: Adrian comes to look past his own problems when CoolOldLady Kitty Dove passes away in an emotional scene.

--> '''Richard (complaining the sketch was unrealistic)''': All that stuff about acronyms was [[HypocriticalHumour completely O.T.T.]]

* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParent Amazingly Embarrassing Relative]]: Uncle Ralph

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Leonard Thynn
* TheComicallySerious: Richard Cook.

* [[DreadfulMusician Dreadful Band]]: Gerald's Christian GarageBand "Bad News for the Devil," which Adrian notes sounds like "a piano falling down a lift-shaft with someone trapped under the lid."
* EccentricMentor: Edwin Burlesford and Frank Braddock
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Stenneth Flushpool, who was so named because his parents couldn't agree on whether to call him Kenneth or Stanley and the hard-of-hearing vicar as the christening heard the medley as a portmanteau.

* TheFundamentalist: Richard Cook is a harmless example, his wife Doreen...''less so''.
** Their son, Charles Cook. [[spoiler: Until he decides to give up on Christianity all together.]]
** The Flushpools.[[spoiler: However, they get better.]]
* GentlemanSnarker: Frank Braddock.

* HurricaneOfPuns: The entire book "The Horizontal Epistles of Andromeda Veal."

* NoExceptYes: Mrs Thynn (Leonard's mother) maintains that she's not deaf, she just sometimes can't hear you.

* OverlyPrepreparedGag: Gerald's pun about wanting to go on a boat to Rotarua, New Zealand, with a girl called Rhoda who is both more angry and insolent than another girl called Rhoda, and whose task is to decide what order the oarsmen should do their work in. [[spoiler:The redder ruder Rhoda wrote a rota to row to Rotarua.]]
** A more minor example in "Theatrical Tapes". Firstly there is an argument about whether the title 'Chairman' for Adrian is sexist and they decide to cut it down to the non gender specific 'Chair', which a confused Mrs Thynn keeps giving as 'Wardrobe'. Then, Stenneth and Victoria Flushpool show up and Stenneth is asked to read out part of a poem about being a lion.

* PungeonMaster: Gerald.
** Other characters sometimes get their moments as well, such as Frank Braddock claiming that he is certain to go to Heaven because he is a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club. "My M.C.C. membership card guarantees me entry at any time, and at all times, to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Cricket_Ground The Lords Enclosure]]."
* QuirkyHousehold: The Plasses, of course, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Leonard (who might as well live there)]].

* SelfDeprecation: Plass writes his fictionalised version as hapless and slow on the uptake. This was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in a MindScrew moment when the fictional Plass got to see a production of ''The Theatrical Tapes of Leonard Thynn'' (which was of course written about the same version of the character) and was insulted by his portrayal (as was Thynn, who was offended at being played as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}).

--> '''Adrian''': Once upon a time there was a crappy little gab called Hordon - I mean a happy little crab called Gordon!
* TinyTyrannicalGirl: Andromeda

* WorldOfPun: And how!

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Leonard Thynn

* QuirkyHousehold: The Plasses, of course, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Leonard (who might as well live there)]].

* [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParent Amazingly Embarrassing Relative]]: Uncle Ralph

* BrickJoke: [[spoiler: Fairly early on in the first book, Adrian has the thought "Buy a tree frog and name it Kaiser Bill" appear in his head, and writes it down just in case it was sent by God. Towards the end of the book, Gerald is having a conversation with some visitors from the church about the various embarassing mistakes Adrian's made during previous parts of the book. Anne comes in saying she's discovered this note in Adrian's handwriting while doing the washing, and Adrian decides to change the subject by insisting she read it in front of everyone...]]

* CloudCuckooLander: Leonard Thynn

* HenpeckedHusband: Stenneth Flushpool

* IncrediblyLamePun: One that Adrian is completely unable to understand at the time, and only gets the explanation from Gerald in return for explaining how [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Everett Glander was converted by Norman Wisdom in a pub]]. Adrian had tried to mend Percy Brain's leaking roof but didn't have enough bits of slate. Gerald had called it "a futile gesture". [[spoiler:few-tile]]
* {{Kwyjibo}}: Thynn at one point insists that "vquex" is a valid Scrabble word, claiming it's a cross between a ferret and a giraffe. Gerald objects on the grounds that the [[HotSkittyOnWailordAction mating act between the two would be physically impossible]].

* NoodleIncident: We never get a satisfactory explanation for why Leonard keeps borrowing Adrian's cat, though we are told that [[NoodleImplements it involves a reel-to-reel tape recorder]]. In a later book, Leonard explains that [[spoiler: he just wanted an excuse to come round.]]
* NoSenseOfHumor: Richard and Doreen Cook and Mrs. Flushpool [[spoiler: at least until she mellows]]
* OverlyPrepreparedGag: Gerald's pun about wanting to go on a boat to Rotarua, New Zealand, with a girl called Rhoda who is both more angry and insolent than another girl called Rhoda, and whose task is to decide what order the oarsmen should do their work in. [[spoiler:The redder ruder Rhoda wrote a rota to row to Rotarua]].

* QuirkyHousehold: The Plasses, of course, [[AndZoidberg and Leonard (who might as well live there)]]

* SelfDeprecation: Plass writes his fictionalised version as hapless and slow on the uptake. This was {{lampshaded}} in a MindScrew moment when the fictional Plass got to see a production of ''The Theatrical Tapes of Leonard Thynn'' (which was of course written about the same version of the character) and was insulted by his portrayal (as was Thynn, who was offended at being played as a CloudCuckooLander).
** All the books are effectively a series of [[SelfDeprecation "Take that us!"]] about Christians (one of which, if read the top of this page, Adrian is).

* RealDreamsAreWeirder: Richard Cook claims his dreams are prophetic visions, but rather ruins the effect by (after talking about one that sounds like it could possibly be one) casually adds that "after a short further dream about getting into a bath full of Smarties wearing a Franchise/{{Batman}} costume, I woke up".

* NoodleIncident: We never get a satisfactory explanation for why Leonard keeps borrowing Adrian's cat, though we are told that [[NoodleImplements it involves a reel-to-reel tape recorder]].