Line #75 Webcomic/Chicanery


1	[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chicanery.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:260:Your mind is officially nuked.]]
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4	->''"WARNING: By reading this comic, you legally join Ness and the others in a lengthuous hunt for fortune. You will be required by law to see Mr. T throw people, Battles between giant objects, and things that float gracefully over the comic, begging to be defined but cannot be explained. Disaster labs cannot be held responsible for any injury or fatality involving photons emanating from this comic. Do not read while operating heavy machinery. Do not read while watching Alf. If accidentally ingested, consult god."''
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6	[[MindScrew Mind-flayingly]] [[SurrealHumor bizarre]] SpriteComic barely based on ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}''. After stealing Giygas's $44,000,000 retirement fund, Pokey reunites with Ness and uses the funds to hunt for treasure. At least, that's how it starts out. What follows is a barely coherent acid trip of an adventure, as Ness, Pokey, Jeff and Mr. T battle monkeys, [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Mr. B Natural,]] soul-stealing photographers, the Eagleland education system and pretty much everything they meet.
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8	Chicanery [[strike:can]] [[OrphanedSeries used be found at (the now defunct) Disaster Labs,]] but much of the series is still available on [[http://chicanery.comicgenesis.com/ Comic Genesis]]. and [[http://web.archive.org/web/20090208141533/http://www.disasterlabs.com/index.php?sec=chicanery Archive.org]].
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10	!!This webcomic provides examples of:
11	* AbnormalAmmo: Jeff's homemade bullets. See ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill below.
12	* AnimatedAdaptation: [[DerangedAnimation Chicanery #138 and #139]]
13	* BadassBookworm: Jeff.
14	* {{BFG}}: Mr. Saturn carries around a [[RevolversAreJustBetter "modified DeathCo magnum"]] that's twice as big as he is.
15	* BreakingTheFellowship: The protagonists have been split up after [[TooDumbToLive willingly inhaling knockout gas]], with Ness lost inside a ''Film/{{Cube}}'' parody with a [[KillerRabbit psychotic]] [[VideoGame/ChronoCross Pip]]; Mr. T trapped in [[Film/{{Hostel}} a cross between an upscale hotel and a snuff film]]; Jeff and Pokey locked within [[Franchise/{{Saw}} a dark, blood-splattered basement...]] and Mr. Saturn [[Film/HouseOf1000Corpses cheerfully counting dead bodies]].
16	* BulletCatch: Ness can do this [[MindOverMatter with his mind]] - and then fling it back and blow your leg off.
17	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Paula appears exactly once, during a flashback to Jeff's memories of the events of the first game.
18	* ClickHello: [[CombatPragmatist Jeff]] skips the "click" and goes straight to "blow you messily in half".
19	-->'''Jeff:''' Hi!\
20	* PEW!*\
21	* SEVER!*
22	* CloudCuckooLander: Half of Mr. T's dialogue consists of quotes from ''Series/TheATeam''. At one point, his tendency to randomly throw people/animals/inanimate objects into orbit leads Jeff to commit him to a sanitarium.
23	* CombatPragmatist: Jeff and Mr. Saturn find themselves confronted by the BossRush teleporter room from VideoGame/MegaMan. Rather than battle every opponent, Mr. Saturn fires his gun into each teleporter, killing anyone on the other side.
24	* ComedicSociopathy: More than you could possibly imagine.
25	* CutShort: The series ended up stalling completely around 2008.
26	* DadaComic
27	* DidYouJustScamCthulhu: Pokey finances the gang's adventures using Giygas' retirement fund.
28	* DynamicEntry: Mr. T from appears out of the middle of nowhere to save Ness & friends from Doomsday the giant policeman, running him over.
29	** Jeff kills the soul-stealing Photo-man by [[LeapAndFire leaping in through a window and shooting him in the back of the head]] with a rocket-propelled bullet.
30	** Ness marks his debut appearance by phasing in out of hyperspace, slaughtering a group of performing actors in the process.
31	* EnemyMine: Ness's gang (piloting TV's Frank) and [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Rigid]] [[VideoGame/MetalGear Shaft]] (inside Dr. Andonuts's mecha) end up working together to stop all life on Earth being wiped out by a [[VideoGame/{{Worms}} concrete donkey.]]
32	* EyeScream:
33	-->'''Tough Kid:''' I'll see YOU after school, geek!\
34	'''Pokey:''' NOT ANYMORE!\
35	[[UnsoundEffect * spork!* ]]\
36	'''Tough Kid:''' OWOWOWOW
37	* FateWorseThanDeath: Ness and Pokey are put on trial for skipping class. Pokey is sentenced to death by firing squad, while Ness is sentenced to ''VideoGame/RagnarokOnline''.
38	-->'''Ness:''' Wanna trade?\
39	'''Pokey:''' Hell, no.
40	* ForTheEvulz: Ness & pals end up cloning and torturing the mayor to death simply to pass the time.
41	* GoKartingWithBowser: Pokey and Ness are the best of friends in this series - Pokey being TheDragon in ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}'' [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation was apparently part of a scheme to steal Giygas's money.]]
42	* HeroicComedicSociopath: Ness and friends will merrily slaughter anyone with little to no provocation.
43	* HumongousMecha: "[[Music/WeirdAlYankovic The 2000"]] [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 TV's Frank]] is online! Go forth and smite evil!"
44	** The entire Covert saga is about Dr. Andonuts constructing a giant mechanical Bruce Campbell. And then both robots go at it for a while.
45	* ImAHumanitarian: After Jeff kills the Photo-man, Ness and the gang eat him before they change their minds.
46	** Jeff and Pokey cheerfully devour the "recently liberated viscera" of the Hamburglar while trapped inside a basement.
47	** Film/MrBNatural's giant corpse is used to feed orphans.
48	* KillerRabbit: [[VideoGame/ChronoCross Pip.]] Pip and his high-speed, rotating buzzsaw teeth.
49	* KnightsAndKnaves: Parodied. Ness proceeds to rant at great length about this trope after getting it from the door to the rec room in the Covert Saga.
50	* MindRape:
51	-->'''Rigid Shaft:''' Crap. It's Ness. Standing in filth as usual. I ain't fighting that guy. He has stuff that will instantly kill me, if not make me cry uncontrollably or feel strange.\
52	''[several panels later]''\
53	''[[AC: KER-FLASH!]]''\
54	'''Shaft:''' Waaahhhh.
55	* MindScrew: ''The whole damn series.''
56	* MissionControl: Rigid Shaft is equipped with a "Cellular Brain" to keep him in touch with his superiors - unfortunately, it also tends to make him roll around on the floor screaming whenever someone contacts him.
57	* NighInvulnerability: Mr. T is shown to be capable of withstanding chainsaws, jackhammers and repeated hammer blows to the head without visible injury. In fact, most of the protagonists seem impervious to major damage - [[RuleOfFunny not even being on fire can faze them.]]
58	* NoRangeLikePointBlankRange: Jeff's favored method of execution.
59	* OrphanedSeries: Work on the comic eventually ground to a halt in 2008. Disaster Labs itself went offline in 2010, taking the archives with it, though most of the comics can still be viewed [[http://chicanery.comicgenesis.com/ here]].
60	* OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank: Levels of gore will run from PrettyLittleHeadShots to G.E.D. grading machines randomly spewing blood to {{Killer Rabbit}}s surfing on [[BloodyHilarious knee-deep pools of blood]] using the savaged corpses of their victims.
61	* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: President Action: Apparently, Jet Jaguar.
62	* RedShirtArmy: [[MadScientist Dr. Andonuts']] clone army - created from a random person picked up off the street by Pokey.
63	* RunningGag: Any nuclear explosion will have Franchise/HelloKitty's face in it. Why? ''[[RuleOfFunny Because.]]''
64	* SanDimasTime: Averted. Ness at one point goes back in time to stab himself through the hands with a pair of spikes, hoping to freak out some mafia goons in the present by the sudden unexplained appearance of [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic suspiciously-Christ-like hand wounds]]. Said goons note that he always had those wounds - one of them then gives a lengthy explanation about why making a change in the past and expecting it to only take effect an arbitrary amount of time later doesn't make sense. And he promptly [[TemporalParadox disappears into a singularity]] after Ness un-does the stabbing.
65	* ScheduleSlip: A two year gap exists between #133 and #134. The same length of time passes in the comic itself while the protagonists are left standing in the same spot, eventually growing extremely long hair and beards.
66	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Ness & chums are forced to [[EnemyMine work with Rigid Shaft]] to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt - but once TheLifestream shows up, the protagonists simply call it a day and Segway off.
67	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Pokey, Ness, and Jeff. Some other characters tend to dip into this as well.
68	* ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow: Averted - Ness and Pokey are arrested for their extremely long absence from school and are forced to gain their G.E.D.s before they can continue their adventures.
69	* ShoutOut: Far, far too many to list.
70	* SolveTheSoupCans: Ness gets challenged to a game of Return to Zork's Survivor, which is one of these. Defied, as instead of playing the game Ness launches into a lengthy explanation on how broken the game is and solves the puzzle by kicking it at the ones who challenged him when he's finished.
71	* SonicScream: [[HumongousMecha TV's Frank]] can stop lasers and defuse missiles with his trademark "EEEUUC-OOEEOO!" Somehow.
72	* SpriteComic
73	* StableTimeLoop: Averted - Ness and Pokey attempt to gain their GED by modifying the school records, but are warned of the consequences that will occur by their future selves. The pair subsequently change their minds and leave... causing their future counterparts to be painfully destroyed in the resulting TemporalParadox.
74	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Jeff's philosophy to designing "ludicrously deadly" bullets.
75	-->'''Jeff:''' This is it... The 3219 armor-piercing, drill-tipped, rocket-propelled, nuclear-powered, high velocity bullet with pneumatic shaft explosion dampener, buzzing flagellatory membrane, and a miniature camera so you can see the look on his face before you go through it.
76	* TookALevelInJerkass: The formerly kind, altruistic heroes from ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}'' are now profit-driven sociopaths. Partially inverted with Pokey - he has reigned in his omnicidal, reality-destroying ways and become more interested in gaining wealth.
77	* TraumaInn: [[LampshadeHanging "All he needs is a night of rest in a bed. Sleep has been known to cure anything! Even death!"]]
78	* TriggerHappy: Mr. Saturn loves that gun.
79	* UnsoundEffect: [[BoomHeadShot "Brains refusing to function noises!"]]
80	* WallOfText: Subverted, one comic starts off going into MrExposition mode, but the second panel with a text wall has Pokey bringing in Pip to eat the text.
81	-->'''Pokey:''' Ha ha! Take that, boring intermission!
82	* WorldGoneMad: Takes ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}}'' and pushes it from "offbeat" to "scrawling-on-walls-with-blood-and-fecal-matter psychotic".
83	* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Mr. Saturn says this while disposing of a temp worker.

Context Webcomic / Chicanery