Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!
is a newspaper comic by Tim Rickard.
It chronicles the crazy antics of the crew of the space station R.U. Sirius, led by Captain Brewster Rockit.
Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! provides examples of:
- Action Mom: Pam. She's a divorced mother of two.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Winky.
- Aliens Speaking English: Lampshaded at least once.
- A Planet Named Zok: Zorgo, the home planet of the Zorgons.
- Applied Phlebotinum / Misapplied Phlebotinum / Just Think of the Potential!: Benevolent aliens decide to give humans an unlimited energy source. Dr. Mel's first thought is how to weaponize it.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The pizza deliverers turn out to be stormtroopers. They take over the cargo bay, take prisoners, and (to Brewster's greatest consternation) deliver only anchovy pizzas.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Brewster, principally.
- "Bang!" Flag Gun: Because of gun control laws, the Death Moon tries to destroy planet Alderaan with a bang flag.
- Big Bad: Dirk Raider.
- Brought Down to Normal: Parodied May 6, 2013, when the Superior Four lose their superpowers.Irritable Belle (Pam): I'm not angry about this.
Empathy Lad (Winky): I don't feel bad for you!
Captain Hindsight (Cliff): I really saw this coming!
Short-Attention Span Avenger (Brewster): I was actually paying attention! - Butt-Monkey: Winky. Also Ensign Ted, but less frequently.
- Cargo Ship: Cliff dates Sari, his phone's personal assistant app.
- Captain Space, Defender of Earth!: The title character.
- Catchphrase: "Aaah! My spleen!"
- Cloudcuckoolander: Brewster.
- Companion Cube: Bucky the Robot, a bucket on a coat rack who nonetheless managed to win an election.
- Dead TV Remote Gag: Ended in a Stable Time Loop.
- Does He Have a Brother?: Spoken by Pam of a flattering male-voiced smartphone app.
- Dumb Is Good: Maybe not in general, but Brewster reportedly was a much less likable Narcissist before his brain damage.
- Earth All Along: Done twice, once in a Planet of the Apes storyline and another when Brewster crashed in an Earth Wal-Mart and thought he was on another planet.
- Expy: Dirk Raider is a take off of Darth Vader, though the man himself shows up now and again. Dirk Raider has his own stormtroopers and a giant sphere, the Death Moon (that's no moon). Not only is he similar in appearance to Darth Vader (although his helmet is more similar to Boba Fett), he even has a similar backstory to Vader's Start of Darkness in Revenge of the Sith. A notable difference, however, is that Dirk Raider's more of a Card-Carrying Villain instead of a complex character.
- Fantastic Ship Prefix: Used for a joke in the name of the space station, the R.U. Sirius.
- Fat Bastard: Cliff Clewless.
- Flashback Effects: Things get all wavy when someone reminisces.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Why Pam remains loyal to Brewster. He was a highly competent space captain who sacrificed his brain to save her from aliens.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Pam.
- Idiot Hero: Brewster.
- Ice-Cream Koan: Toada.
- I Taste Delicious: A gingerbread man has to gnaw off his leg to escape a trap. Then he can't stop.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Agent X's amnesia spray. He even uses it once on the audience.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Brewster once had a dream where he and other newspaper comics were being threatened by a dangerous ink spill.
- The Masquerade: No one on Earth knows about the aliens... somehow.
- Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: Whenever the crew travels into the station's past, the characters are drawn as they were back then.
- The Men in Black: Agent X.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Mel has one. Doubles as a Mad Scientist.
- Multiple Head Case: Hadron and Lepton fight each other in the dumbest ways for the dumbest reasons.
- Non-Powered Costumed Hero: Meet the Superior Four! Irritable Belle (Pam), Empathy Lad (Winky), Captain Hindsight (Cliff), and Short-Attention Span Avenger (Brewster). They wear costumes and claim to have powers, but they merely act their normal ways. Need a hero? Irritable Belle will yell at you, Empathy Lad will feel bad for you, Captain Hindsight will give you a useless hint, and Short-Attention Span Avenger will forget you.
- Noodle Implements: The strips for September 18 and 19 of 2007.
- Only Sane Employee: Pam.
- Only Sane Man: Pam and occasionally Brewster.
- Ow, My Body Part!: See Catchphrase above.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Brewster's Groucho glasses. To make matters worse, his Line-of-Sight Alias is "door."
- Planet of Hats: Planet of the donut people, anyone?
- Ping Pong Naïveté: Brewster is shown to be somewhat competent in his job in some strips and downright idiotic in other strips. This is explained by Pam as being caused by one too many alien abductions, which "swiss-cheesed" his brain, meaning he can be an intellectual leader at one time and a total moron at other times.
- Professional Slacker: Cliff, who spends most of his time watching T.V. and has a proclivity for minor acts of theft.
- Punny Name: Just about everyone who doesn't have a Meaningful Name. Pamela Mae Snap, Dr. Mel Practice, Cliff Clewless, etc.
- Red Shirt: Ensign Kenny!
- Right-Hand Cat: In several strips, Dr. Mel has a cat.
- Scare 'Em Straight: Brewster hires Convict-Bot to do this to "wayward aliens", but he ends up at Marie's birthday party instead. He teaches them how to make a shiv and not to trust "the man".
- Shout-Out/The Cameo: Numerous Science Fiction references. Dozens of Star Trek Shout Outs.
- Shown Their Work: Sunday strips will often focus on Dr. Mel a lecture on the planets and stars, often ending in a
Genius Bonus joke. Not surprising, since Tim Rickard is a MENSA member. - Stop Hitting Yourself: Technically, the question was "Why are you hitting yourself" Both when Brewster used "the Dork Side of the Force" on Dirk Raider and when one of Dirk's minions hacked a microchip in Cliff's hand.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: The standard alien abduction restraining method.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: A sign reads, "Area 51 Flavors Ice Cream (Not a Secretive Government Agency)." Yes, Agent X is involved.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Brewster loves his ham.
- Too Dumb to Live: Multiple characters.
- To Serve Man: Kenny gets a rideshare with an alien and finds a book with the trope name in the very hungry-looking alien's ship.
- Uranus Is Showing: Comes up pretty much whenever the unfortunately named O-Dor of Uranus appears. Certain members of the R.U. Sirius still haven't gotten over it.
- Useless Spleen: Winky appears to have an endless supply of replacement spleens.
- Worrying for the Wrong Reason: Recurring joke. "[Planet Name Here]... Isn't that the planet with the giant poisonous snakes?" "Good heavens, no. Those were all wiped out by the giant poisonous tarantulas."
- Zombie Apocalypse: The presumable origin of the Zombie Planet.
