Rory: Ye cheated, didn't'cha?
Aran: Aye...
Rory: Good.
Aran: Aye...
Rory: Good.
— The first strip
Ask the Ryans
is a Punch-Out!! fan comic hosted on Tumblr by Pulporila. It opened on September 21st, 2021.
As the name suggests, the blog primarily stars Aran Ryan and his sister Rory, and their antics in the WVBA.
"Me sister hits harder than you, tropes!"
- Accidental Misnaming: Whether or not it was accidental is up for debate, but in one strip, Rory refers to Super Macho Man and Soda Popinski as "Super Manly Lad" and "Soda Pop" respectively.
- Action Girl: Rory wants to be a boxer like her big brother, and in one strip, an older version of Rory in a boxing uniform is shown.
- Alliterative Name: Rory Ryan.
- Amusing Injuries: Aran choking on a chicken bone during a Christmas party is Played for Laughs.
- Bait-and-Switch: When asked about his cheating problem, Rory says she's been trying to get him help. Cut to the last panel, where said help is shown to be trying to convince him to trade horseshoes for firecrackers.
- Bandage Mummy: After the "firecrackers in the flail" incident, Aran is shown in the hospital with his face and torso wrapped in bandages, and two of his limbs plastered up.
- Berserk Button: Aran does not like being asked where he hides his flail during Title Defense.
- Big Brother Bully: Aran can be quite dickish to Rory at times.
- Bratty Half-Pint: According to this series, Rory was among the kids harassing Von Kaiser during his boxing lessons.
- Brick Joke: One of the earliest strips involved Rory failing to convince Aran to stuff his gloves with firecrackers. However, later an asker suggests he instead stuff his flail with firecrackers, which he gleefully accepts. It does not end well.
- Childish Tooth Gap: Rory has a gap between her front teeth.
- Disappeared Dad: The Ryans' father is mentioned to have passed away before the strip began.
- Drunk Driver: In one post, Rory mentions that Aran once drove her home from a party "rat-arsed"note .
- Enfant Terrible: Sometimes, Rory can be just as wild as her brother. This includes inciting fights between the other boxers and trying to talk Aran into stuffing his gloves with firecrackers.
- Everyone Has Standards: Aran refuses to stuff his gloves with firecrackers, claiming they would blow his hands off.
- Fangirl: Rory is a huge fan of Masked Muscle, which Aran is less than pleased about.
- Freudian Excuse: Aran took up cheating after having Masked Muscle's poison mist blasted in his face, believing was the only way to get ahead.
- Funetik Aksent: Aran and Rory's Irish accents are rendered like this, including swapping "my" for "me", "you" for "ya/ye", and certain consonants being dropped.
- Funny Background Event: During the interview with Joe, in the background is Disco Kid checking himself out with a mirror and Von Kaiser falling off a treadmill.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Aran and Mac getting burned by firecrackers is not shown; all we see is Doc Louis's horrified reaction.
- Groin Attack: Aran's first match ended with him kicking Glass Joe in the junk.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: Super Macho Man thinks Rory is a boy.
- Like Mother, Like Daughter: Daughter as well as son; the Ryans get their craziness from their mother.
- Named by the Adaptation: Aran's sister didn't have a name in the games. Here, she's called Rory.
- Oh, Crap!: When Aran is reminded by an asker to make sure his gloves are extra loaded in case he goes against a British boxer, Narcis Prince (a British boxer) is seen in the background with an "uh oh" expression on his face.
- Only Sane Man: Mr. Ryan was said to be the only normal member of the family, since "someone had to feed those crackheads".
- Pint-Sized Kid: Rory is tiny compared to the WVBA league. Justified, since she's a little girl while the league is comprised of muscular boxers who are almost all over six feet tall.
- The Prankster: Both Ryans (though typically Aran more than Rory) are fond of playing tricks on the other boxers, which usually involves hiding something insulting in their lockers.
- Running Gag: This strip really runs with the Weighted Gloves thing from the games, frequently making jokes about stuffing them with either cheeseburgers or firecrackers.
- Shown Their Work: Aran and Rory frequently use real-life Irish slang, such as "pup" ("naughty child"), "eejit", ("idiot"), and "boyo" ("buddy").
- Sticky Fingers: Aran and Rory used to nick random items off the other boxers for fun. They stopped doing this after Rory got her hands on Masked Muscle's dokugiri.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Aran gleefully stuffs his flail with firecrackers, likely assuming that he wouldn't be hurt since they're not actually in his boxing gloves. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he's wrong, and is fried along with Little Mac when they go off.
- Tooth Strip: Zigzagged; whether or not the characters have individual teeth varies from strip to strip.
- Twitchy Eye: In one strip, Aran's eye is twitching when he has the "cheeseburgers in those gloves" joke turned on him.
- Vague Age: Exactly how old Rory is is unspecified (though one of the early strips suggests she is nine).
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Although they frequently insult each other and call each other names, Aran and Rory still care about each other.
- Your Size May Vary: Rory. She constantly jumps between coming up to her 6'1" brother's thigh, waist, and hip.
