Line #20 ComicStrip/Palomita


1	[[quoteright:304:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ptaoa.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:304:A typical day on Palomita's life.]]
3
4	''Palomita'' was a very popular Chilean comic strip created by the late cartoonist Eduardo de La Barra. It was published in the Chilean daily tabloid "La Cuarta" from November 13th (1984) until November 28th (2013)
5
6	The strip was famous for it's ingenious mix of quick jokes, chained puns and satirical humor (De La Barra's trademarked style) but mostly for the generous amount of nudity displayed at a regular basis, always presented in a way that avoided any kind of vulgarity.
7
8	The strip’s main protagonist is a sexy, well-meaning and naïve (but not stupid) 22-year old blonde girl nicknamed “Palomita” (Little Dove) and revolved around her daily escapades involving her liberal lifestyle and the troubles it used to cause her at her job, or with her relationship with boyfriends, lovers and neighbors alike, as she liked to practice free love and nudism, while her natural naivety used to get the best out of her half of time.
9
10	Every Saturday, the newspaper included a fun and games supplement called “Hachita y Cuarta” featuring puzzles, games, trivia and short comics, which included a longer Palomita story. During that day, she didn’t appeared in her usual newspaper’s strip.
11
12	The co-protagonist was Palomita’s skinny guardian dog, named “Platón” (Plato) who’s comments and reactions to his owner’s lifestyle made the core for the strip’s punchlines. Platón also used to take over the comic strip every Saturday while his master’s adventures were displayed in the “Hachita y Cuarta” supplement.
13	His solo strips were exclusively about political humor and gave him a cat partner, where both animals commented the world's and their country’s current politic issues.
14
15	Eduardo De La Barra died on November 10th of 2013 at the age of 71, after a long battle with cancer. Two weeks later, his comic strip was removed from the newspaper.
16	----
17	!!This work contains the following tropes.
18
19	* ActionGirl: When she wasn't chasing men (or being chased herself) Palomita used to engage in sports like martial arts, mountain climbing, free diving, acrobatic gym, hunting and such. She also packed a considerable wallop, much for her stalker's surprise.
20	* AesopAmnesia: Palomita never learns to lock doors and windows before stripping and bathing, keeps falling for slick guy's promises, always wears tiny bathing suits than never stay in place, always goes for nude sunbathing/nude swimming without checking her surroundings first, etc. Her dog used to lampshade this now and then.
21	* AllMenArePerverts: The strip's main source of Palomita's anger. [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe Ironically, she could get even angrier when this trope was not played.]]
22	* BarbieDollAnatomy: Played straight during the first years of the strip, since it was born during a military dictatorship and all Chilean newspapers were under a strict censorship comitee. Once the country recovered it's democratic government, De la Barra began adding detailed nipples to Palomita's design, subverting this trope.
23	* BarelyThereSwimwear: Palomita was fond of wearing these to showoff her curvy figure.
24	* BestKnownfortheFanservice: The comic had an unique art style, used clever wordplays, had genuinely funny punchlines and often went out of it's way to remind the readers that Palomita was not your typical dumb, defenseless blonde. Yet, the strip was mostly known by the protagonist's generous, detailed nudity which bordered on softcore at times.
25	* BigBreastPride: Palomita was quite fond of her generous chest.
26	* CasanovaWannabe: Played straight and some times inverted when Palomita gave them a chance and discovered the slimy guys were indeed, true beasts in bed.
27	* DeadpanSnarker: Platón, full stop.
28	** Palomita had her moments too, especially when she was talking with her female friends and workmates.
29	* DoubleEntendre: Well, it is an erotic comic strip so this was a given.
30	* DumbBlonde: Zigzaged. Palomita was naive, easy to fool and a very bad driver, but she was definitely ''not'' stupid, was very competent at her jobs and frequently could see straight through her suitors' lewd intentions.
31	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: During her early strips, Palomita was a pampered girl living with her old fashioned parents and having a middle aged nanny to take care of her.
32	** Palomita had a pear-shaped figure during the first year of the strip, as opposed to the hourglass figure that later became her standard design. She was also noticeably shorter.
33	** Originally, Platón had a bearded snout and his fur was brown colored.
34	* EveryoneLovesBlondes
35	* FanDisservice: Most of Palomita's boyfriends and stalkers are fat, balding middle-aged men, usually drawn in strips with them wearing little or no clothes at all.
36	* FanService: The protagonist is a curvy blonde who wears a very small dress and is frequently shown in her full naked glory.
37	** Palomita's female friends were also pretty and just like her, not afraid to show some skin.
38	** For the ladies, the strip also had several of Palomita's boyfriends or love interests being drawn as very handsome (and barely clothed) men.
39	* FriendsWithBenefits: This was played for both sides.
40	* GiveGeeksAChance: The comic used this trope as a mixed bag. Sometimes it paid off, other times it didn't.
41	* GoodBadGirl. Promiscuous? Yes. Prone to cheat her current boyfriend with several men at once? Yes. Friendly, sociable and ready to jump to go help any person or animal in need? Check.
42	* GoneSwimmingClothesStolen: One of the strip's running gags, as Palomita was fond of swimming nude in places where she was very vulnerable to thefts, pranks or plain old pervs.
43	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Sexual promiscuity aside, Palomita was a really nice, helpful and friendly young woman, at the point that her image was used more than once to rally people to help Chilean fellows after natural disasters hit their homeland.
44	* HeroicDog: Averted. Platón never defended his owner from the endless men stalking her.
45	** In fact, Eduardo De la barra himself confirmed that "Platón likes to watch."
46	* HurricaneOfPuns: The strip's main source of punchlines. This, and the fact that it uses Chilean Spanish is the reason why it's virtually impossible to translate into different languages.
47	* HypocriticalHumor: The strip loved to use this trope: Palomita constantly raged over men stalking, harrasing, spying on her or tricking her into undressing or having sex with them, but Palomita herself was fond of doing all of that and more to any men she considered attractive enough. To make things even more similar, just as Palomita used to deliver a deserved beatdown to especially annoying men, she also received her fair share of karmic beatdowns from some irate spouses or girlfriends.
48	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Usually invoked to get some special attention or to get herself out from a problem,like for example, Palomita flashing a breast to get the immediat attention from a waiter on a very crowded restaurant.Most of times, this worked like a charm.
49	* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Averted during the strip's first years, since originally Palomita had a chubbier, shorter frame. Played straight after a few years of Art Evolution.
50	* KavorkaMan: Many of Palomita's boyfriends and lovers played this trope.
51	* MeaningfulName: "Palomita" is an old Chilean slang to the 1970's which refers to young and sexually liberated women. Platón is spanish for "Plato", which fits the dog's calm and philosophical nature.
52	* MsFanservice: Palomita was purposely drawn prettier, younger and curvier than any other women on the strip. Plus, she liked to wear revealing dresses and several of her hobbies involved her wearing no dress at all.
53	* NaughtyBirdwatching: Played when Palomita was undressing and showering, but mostly played when she was skinny dipping on places she thought nobody was looking at.
54	* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Palomita has been an elementary school teacher, a saleswoman, a nurse, a waitress, a secretary, an adult film actress, and a long etc. The strip explained it as the direct consequences of Palomita having affairs with her current boss and being caught by his irate wife.
55	* NonHumanSidekick: Platón the dog is this to Palomita. Platón also had his own sidekick in the form of a patient, unnamed cat.
56	** Platón the dog constantly made acid comments about Palomita's sex life or about the endless men stalking her, but he never did anything to stop them because according to DeLa Barra himself, "Platón likes to watch."
57	* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Platón is a very skinny dog with a long, gangly neck, tail and legs... connected to a very small torso. Taken even further after a few years of art evolution, as his torso completely vanished, leaving him as a mere head with his legs and tail all connecting together at the end of his neck. And no, his unique design is not shared by any other dogs seen in the comic strip.
58	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: "Palomita" is only a nickname. The comic '''never''' revealed the protagonist's real name.
59	* OutdoorBathPeeping: Palomita loved to explore the countryside for ponds and lakes for her nude swimming hobby. Those places were always more guarded than how she thought.
60	* OutWithABang: The ultimate fate of several of Palomita's lovers, especially the oldest ones.
61	* PlayingHardToGet: Played with. Many strips begin with a close up of Palomita's face, firmly rejecting the advances of a man... followed by a wide panel showing how the scene is happening while she's taking a shower (in front of him) or with both of them in bed, naked and ready for a third round.
62	* PrintLongRunners: The comic strip ran from 1984 to 2013.
63	* ProgressivelyPrettier: Originally, Palomita looked like a pretty, yet slightly chubby girl on her late teens. She grew in height, bust size and gained a narrower waist, plus a much more toned body after the comic strip began piling up years.
64	* ReallyGetsAround: Well, it's a comic strip about a young girl's sexcapades. Palomita hs shared her bed with young men on their late teens, men old enough to be her gran-grandpa and even '''Santa Claus.'''
65	** In fact, the last comic strip published before De La Barra's death was about Palomita's wild night with Superman, which explained why he didn't had his trademarked red underwear in his lastest movie. (He forgot it in her bedroom.)
66	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The strip constantly showed how real life events directly affected Palomita's fictional life as well.
67	** Platon's solo strips were exclusively made out of this trope.
68	* SexIsGood: This was Palomita's motto. Her countless boyfriends all agreed with her.
69	* SexyBacklessOutfit:Combine this with CleavageWindow to form Palomita's iconic dress, which is actually based on a real (and racy) clothing fad from the 70's.
70	* ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Palomita liked to wear revealing dresses and tiny bikinis to showoff her figure, plus she had no problems to strip naked to sunbathe, swim or just relax around and neither had problems to take risky jobs such as being a stripper, a showgirl or an adult film actress. However, it's worth to menction that Palomita only stripped naked on situations where she considered it was normal doing it (the beach, for example) or when she felt it was safe for her (when she was at home or outside but alone.) Whenever she found out she was being spied or ended up naked without intending to, her first reaction was always covering herself and seek a safe place away from everyone's eyes.
71	* SkinnyDipping: One of the strip's running gags, as Palomita really liked to swim in the nude. According to her, it gave her an incredible feeling of freedom, which was often the setup for a punchline involving the police arresting her for indecent exposure or for trespassing into private land to dip in a stream, pond or lake.
72	* SlipperySwimsuit: A running gag during summer time strips. Some times this happened entirely by accident, other times Palomita's boyfriends or bystanders helped to make it happen.
73	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The strip loved to invoke this trope all the time to lampshade why it was a bad idea to imitate Palomita's life.
74	** Palomita went to the beach to swim and sunbathe in the nude? She ended up being arrested for indecent exposure.
75	** Palomita went to the countryside to swim nude on an idylic lake? She ended up arrested for trespassing AND for indecent exposure.
76	** Palomita stripped naked and tried to seduce her boss to get a raise or a better job? She ended up being fired instead. (And the list goes on.)
77	* TakeThat: De La Barra used the comic strip to voice his personal opinion about fellow cartoonists, politic issues and self proclaimed "stars" from the entertainment business. (De La Barra had a long historial of working in funny political humor magazines.)
78	* ThanksForTheMammary
79	* ThePeepingTom: Every time Palomita was undressing, bathing or even modeling for an artist. She was also fond of doing that to atractive men now and then, though.
80	* WardrobeMalfunction: All the time.

Context ComicStrip / Palomita