Doghouse Diariesnote is an exploration of modern America, an in-depth look at slacker culture, a smart examination of bachelor life, and a good source of info on fighting bears. Doghouse Diaries is a webcomic created by William Samari, Ray Yamartino, and Rafaan Anvari (referred to in the comic as Will, Ray, and Raf). While most strips are unrelated Stick Figure Comics or humorous graphs, the three authors will occasionally pop in as characters.
The comic, which began in 2009, is notable for its laid back and down-to-earth sense of humor (this is a webcomic that never Crosses the Line Twice) and for its uniquely drawn characters (the stickmen have a distinct headshape). Though comics tend to have no noticeable continuity, running jokes include fights with bears, obsession with sandwiches, and a general lack of communication between genders. Though it has only a modest fanbase, the comic has had some success with comics that perfectly lampoon film tropes, modern social media sites like Facebook, and simply how twentysomething adults interact.
The comic updated on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and every comic includes three extra jokes in the form of a slogan placed under the comic title (sometimes fan contributed), an Alt Text, and a comic annotation that often self-deprecatingly tells what Will, Raf, and Ray are up to.
On June 22nd, 2015, it was announced that, due to all of the authors having children they needed to raise, the comic would be moving to an irregular posting schedule. The final strip, four comics later, was posted on August 13th, 2015, and the comic remained on hiatus until May 1st, 2017, when three new comics were posted, followed by a switch to a new text-based format. The description of Planetary Migration stated that the comic's name would likely change in the future. However, after an additional few strips on twitter and facebook, they've appeared to have given up on resuming the comic.
The comic provides examples of:
- Blessed with Suck: The guy in Choose Your Superpower asked a genie to grant him the ability to read minds. He ends up becoming Captain Low Self-Esteem.
- Butt-Monkey: The guy in This Is My Story was put in an orphanage by his rich parents, who were just tired of his face, when he was 7. He was kicked out of the orphanage for wetting the bed too often. When he grew up, he married the love of his life, who recently divorced him and drove over his dog on her way out. He nursed the dog back to health, but it pooped in his shoes and ran away as soon as it could walk. Pretty terrible stuff if it's true... but the alt-text suggests that he might be a Manipulative Bastard. Since the man is auditioning for a Talent Show, and is accepted after the judges hear his story, despite him not displaying any talent(s), that might reinforce the latter interpretation, but it's more likely that the comic is just parodying the tendency of talent shows to accept anyone with a good enough sob story.
- Comically Missing the Point: Used many times. A few notable examples:
- In Wild Pizza, a man complains that the pizza he's eating is terrible. When his friend points out that it's actually a live bear he's chewing on, he responds:"Ok... I need you to stay calm... back away slowly... and bring me some salt."
- In Always forget something, two friends are just leaving on their trip, and one of them complains of forgetting something. When it's revealed that their trip is skydiving, and he realizes he's forgotten his parachute, his only reaction is to be relieved that he figured out what it was that he was forgetting, because it really would have bugged him if he couldn't remember.
- In Wild Pizza
- Double Standard: There's a titular comic about it: A woman is disgusted by her significant other (presumably) sprawled out across a couch, but thinks their dog, who's doing the same thing, is cute. It's something of a subversion, as a double standard isn't typically applied across two very dissimilar beings.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Parodied and lampshaded in Target Practice, where a guy at Bad Guy Training Headquarters is only allowed to pass his marksmanship exam when he can just barely miss a human-shaped target with every bullet in an assault rifle magazine, fired full-auto. This strip provides the page image for the trope.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Both the man and the woman in The Eternal Struggle have these. The man's angel and devil try and convince him to either leave the toilet seat up or put it down, and the woman's angel and devil agree that he needs to die for leaving it up.
- Made of Explodium: In The day after yesterday, expired milk explodes violently enough to demolish a house.
- No Sense of Direction: In Driving Skills, the woman is so bad at driving, she doesn't just get lost in space when trying to drive somewhere, she gets lost in time.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Superhero Movie Law #42 is a straight lampshade of the trope, simply pointing out that the tiniest of masks will turn any hero anonymous.
- Right on Queue: Played with in Going To The Airport. While there's no one actually waiting in line, there's still a long, winding corridor between the stanchions. Instead of going through it, or even just going around the sides, the guy elects to cut directly through the elastic barriers with pruning shears.
- Self-Deprecation: The authors enjoy doing this as much as is humanly possible. A good example is in Movies For Aliens,, in which the alt-text claims aliens must think Doghouse Diaries comics are epic literary tragedies.
- Space Whale Aesop: Don't run with scissors provides the trope image. Why should you not run with scissors? Because a guy wearing a chicken suit might bash you in the face with a club.
- Unsatisfiable Customer: What Kind of Restaurant Patron Are You? illustrates varying degrees of customers, from "picky" (I'll have the rosemary chicken, but just a light sprinkle of rosemary) to "Can't take you anywhere" (I'll have the rosemary chicken, but just a whisper of rosemary. Literally, I'd like you to turn down the lights and softly whisper the word "rosemary" to the chicken.")Alt-text: Are your avocados grass-fed?
Author comment: Can you serve the meal on an oven pan or coffee table book? I'm allergic to plates.
