Rudi is a German comic by Peter Puck, who after several unsuccessful nominations finally won the Max-und-Moritz-Preis for best German-language comics artist at the 2002 International Comic Salon in Erlangen. Launched in 1985, it tells about the life of Rudi and his buddy Freddy, their attempts to pick up women, parties in the scene and other hijinks.
It started out as a comic strip in various magazines. The strips have been collected in several anthology comic books.
Has a very good (German) homepage here
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Examples:
- The Alcoholic: Heinz
- Amoral Attorney: His one. He uses to say, if he had defended Hermann Göring in Nuremberg, he'd got off with a fine for "disturbance of the peace by night".
- Asians Eat Pets: After being badly bitten by a dog, Rudi buys a Korean cookbook and invites the owner and his dog for "dinner", while preparing everything.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: One lesbian feminist is turned on by Rudi in drags.
- The Big Guy: Their buddy Bully, who's a skinhead (not of the nazi kind, though).
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Of a Chinese cookbook. Surprisingly, the result is not that bad.
- Break the Motivational Speaker: Rudi's buddy also managed to do this.
- Casanova Wannabe: One of his buddies is the most obnoxious one you can think of. Sometimes however he is successful.
- Chez Restaurant: Rudi and Freddy try to get a free meal there by posing (badly) as obvious restaurant critics. Also has a Fauxreigner "French" waiter.
- Children Are Innocent: VERY subverted in a scene when Rudi talks with a mother who believes in this trope, while at the same time the kids play with Adolf Hitler dolls and throw atomic Cluster F Bombs at each other.
- Country Cousin: Rudi's cousin Alfi from the Bavarian countryside.
- Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: Rudi's buddy whose shrink became depressed himself after analyzing him and ended up as a beggar.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Adolf Hitler in hell is punished with daily moving (as in, moving all your crap from one apartment to another with all the usual hassles involved), for 10000 years.
- Cult: They end up on a Silvester party by them, and find out that collective suicide is due.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rudi, oh so much. His sister also has this somewhat: When Rudi reprimands her for wearing a sexy Little Black Dress, so all the guys on the street are staring at her:Vicky: "Don't like it? Sorry, but my burqa is being dry-cleaned..."
- Decade-Themed Party: He once made a Forties party. In other words, a nazi-themed party.
- A Degree in Useless: Two strippers Freddy hired for Rudi's birthday. One of them studies humanities - and still hopes to make big money in her line of work.
- Did the Earth Move for You, Too?: Used with a couple in a background gag who have sex when a real earthquake strikes.
- Dirty Old Man: The male model mentioned below.
- Dirty Old Woman: At the "club 69" where Freddy had booked their holiday. He had not expected that it would refer to the age of the other folks there.
- Disguised in Drag:
- Rudi and Freddy do this to visit a silvester party organized by a group of Straw Feminists. It doesn't end well.
- Once, Rudi tried this trick to get backstage when his favorite band was in town. While the roadie/bouncer didn't seem to see through the disguise, he informed Rudi that a) the boys are all gay and b) he (Olaf, the bouncer) actually would be interested...
- Dominatrix: Rudi once wanted to go to the dentist and confused the door. They thought he wanted to do some dentist-themed roleplay. And afterwards, he gets mistaken for a pervert.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: A teacher for shaolin kung fu. Who really was a drill sergeant in the army of East Germany."You call that a crane?! Looks more like a dachshund pooping!"
- The Eeyore: Rudi, sometimes. But especially his buddy whose dog is named Kafka.
- Emergency Food Supply Animal: During the war, Rudi's grandma and her family ate the cat when nothing else was left.
- Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Some rocker grabs a kebap from Rudi's hand. It backfires, because Rudi had ordered his kebap with five times the pepper, as a prank aimed at Alfi.
- Engineered Heroics: Rudi tried to do this, to help his buddy Bully. Unfortunately Bully forgot to tell them that the girl of his dreams was a martial arts expert.
- Fan Disservice: Rudi and Freddy take drawing lessons because they hope, they'll have to draw a sexy nude model. Unfortunately the teacher chooses an old guy instead as a model.
- Fanservice: Rudi isn't good at picking up sexy women, but at least the fans get something to look at. And one of the hottest is Rudi's sister Vicky, a model.
- Foil: Freddy is more optimistic and happy than Rudi.
- Funny Answering Machine: The Casanova Wannabe has one, where he's bringing a woman to orgasm. How the hell did he manage to make her agree with that?!
- Furries Are Easier to Draw: This was the reason why Rudi and other characters are drawn as this. Dog snouts are easier than human noses, apparently.
- Gentle Giant: Bully.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Fighting whether Rudi should take up smoking again or not. (Freddy started it again, we see, because his five or so shoulder devils mashed up his shoulder angel.)
- Goth: Several in a disco. "Today is great... I'm feeling so wonderfully depressed..."
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Rudi and Freddy. Goes so far that they don't get an apartment because the landlady thinks they're really a gay couple, which she can't stand.
- Hypocritical Humor: After a brothel has opened in Rudi's house:
- Man: "Excuse me, is this the right place? 'Two young Thai girls will care for the well-off gentleman'..."Rudi: "Can't you read the sign?!"Man: "'For fucking: Two floors higher!!'... oh, how vulgar!"
- I Can't Feel My Legs!: Rudi tries to pick up a woman at the supermarket by "accidentally" hitting her with his shopping cart. But he is nervous and uses too much power...
- The Ingenue: Alfi is enthusiastic about "digging the scene!!!", while Rudi is as cynical as possible.
- Innocent Inaccurate: When Rudi is trying out various therapies, this happens during drawing therapy. Problem: The person is an adult woman and a therapist.Therapist: That's nice! Who are those funny people in the striped pajamas?Rudi: That's the main place of Treblinka.Therapist (thinking): Dreblinker? Never heard of.
- In Vino Veritas: Some cute song birds start sieg-heiling, picking fights and generally acting like most obnoxious drunks after drinking beer.
- It's a Costume Party, I Swear!: Inverted. When he gets invited by the upper-class father of his girlfriend, he buys the most formal tailcoat he can get - only to see too late that all the fine folks are disguised as punks and skinheads. And his girlfriend calls him "impossible" for it.
- Kavorka Man: Cousin Alfi is a kind of country bumpkin, but has success with the ladies. The fact that he saves one woman, White Knight-style, from a drug dealer who wants to cut up her face probably helped.
- Limited Social Circle: At the beginning Rudi used to meet many different friends, but later his social circle shrunk to Freddy, Bully and Heinz. And the Girl of the Week.
- Mad Scientist: Rudi meets him when he needs some insecticide. It does the job too well, killing all the plants and Rudi's hair as well.
- Mistaken for Exhibit: A woman at the vernissage, with a mirror.Woman: "What a great piece of art! I could look at it all the time!"Rudi (thinking): "I don't have the heart to tell her it's just a mirror."
- Mistaken for Subculture:
- After being in a Goth disco, Freddy hits on an Italian girl (who was wearing black clothes, a hat with a veil and a big cross). Unfortunately she's the daughter of a mafia boss...
- Also, in an early story: Freddy got his hands on a hippie and a skinhead costume and coerces Rudi to join him for a costume party. When Freddy drags Rudi along on the street, a group of (strangely, non-pacifist) hippies mistake them for a skinhead beating up a hippie and decide to teach the "skinhead" a lesson. And then, some real skinheads arrive at the scene...
- Motorcycle Dominoes
- Nazi Gold: Subverted - when they get lost in a cavern, they find two skeletons of nazi soldiers and a huge box full of - invalid old paper money.
- "Nighthawks" Shot: With Rudi, a drunken guy rambling ("The foreigners take away our unemployment!") and an overweight, unattractive woman hitting on Rudi, it manages to be even more depressing than the original.
- Oktoberfest: Alfi and his village, of course
- Only One Name: His last name, if he has one at all, is never revealed. Even his doctor only calls him "Herr... er... Rudi".
- Parody Magic Spell: Used by Rudi and Freddy when they pretend to be satanists (It Makes Sense in Context). Ominous Latin Chanting mixed with nonsense or random Latin like "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres".
- Playful Hacker: Freddy isn't really a computer expert (he even talks about the "kilojoule" of his computer), but still manages to hack the Russian army computers.
- Porn Stash: Rudi has one. And a rubber mask, and a speaking rubber doll, and diverse other stuff. Which is found when he moves to a new apartment.
- Racist Grandma: Rudi's.
- Rape Is Funny If Its Male On Male: Rudi takes part in a workshop where people are supposed to get their problems solved via "sexperiences". Unfortunately for him, the teacher wants them to try same-sex ones.
- Reincarnation: Rudi once gets hypno-treatment (from a quack) and "remembers" that his back pain comes from an earlier life when he was crucified at the same time/place as Jesus.
- Shout-Out:
- Famous comic characters that appeared in Funny Background Events or so: Donald Duck and uncle Scrooge, the Marlboro man, Asterix and Obelix...
- Once, a sleazy guy from the film business approached Rudi, suggesting him to become an actor, after which we see some Imagine Spots with Rudi as Rambo, Django, Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, and James Bond. (Afterwards we find out that the films in question are porn, and Rudi isn't exactly happy about it.)
- The Slacker: Heinz definitely; sometimes, Rudi and Freddy too.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Rather on the cynical side.
- Soapbox Sadie / Animal Wrongs Group: Parodied with a group which protests the inhuman killing of vegetables.
- Stalker with a Test Tube: Parodied - one comic demonstrates how NOT to do it.Russian woman: "In 1997, I had anal sex with Bill Gates. Now I am pregnant..."
- Subverted Trope: In one comic, several stereotypes get subverted. So we get a super-smart blonde hairdresser, a boring comic artist, a black guy who can't stand black music and has a short dick, and some sophisticated nazi skinheads who are totally aware that they only project their own deficits onto racial minorities.
- Talking Animal: Apparently ants and slugs not only are this, but are also organized like a fascist state and actively planning to bring down human society. Especially, eat all their food. In other words, not only Humans Are Bastards in this comic.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Including a drummer who lost his job in a home for the deaf, because his music was too loud.
- Think Unsexy Thoughts: Rudi does this one time at a nude beach. Problem is that everything he tries to think of only makes him more horny. ("Square root of 4761 makes... 69! Shit, maths is too perverted!") Then, when he finally manages to get his Raging Stiffie under control (by thinking about cancer) - a pissed-of wasp stings him several times in a male body part, making things even worse.
- This Loser Is You: Probably.
- Those Wacky Nazis:
- Neonazi skinheads appear several times. Also some old ones. And once Rudi made a nazi-themed party.
- In his very first story, he and Freddy tried a new bar that looked interesting, the "Bunker". It was full of neo-nazis, and they got beaten up pretty badly.
- Toilet Humor: Rudi and Freddy want to break into a public swimming pool. They mistake the address and land in a sewage plant instead.
Squick. - Verbal Backspace: Multiplied by three, when Rudi needs help from some strong guys on moving day.Strong guy #1: "My doctor told me I have to be careful with heavy stuff, for my spinal discs..."Strong guy #2: "There's the kickboxing world championship on that weekend, I don't want to miss that!"Strong guy #3: "Oh, wait... I just remembered, that day's my mother's birthday..."Rudi: "That's really too bad... I only have girls as helpers yet, and they're all boobs and no muscle..."Strong guy #1: "Hey, what do these quacks know anyway?"Strong guy #2: "Eh, who cares for a stupid championship?"Strong guy #3: "Oh, wait... I just remembered, my mother died eight years ago..."
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot
- Walls of Text: The comic is (in)famous for this and sometimes lampshades it.
- What Does This Button Do?: It moves the kickstand of a motorcycle. Cue the dominoes.
