Webcomic / Original Life

Thomas, Abigail, and Janie

Original Life ^Caution Link is NSFW and leads to Jay Naylor's Patreon page; currently both Better Days and Original Life are behind a paywall. is a comedy webcomic written by Jay Naylor. The strip began on June 1, 2009, right after Naylor finished up its predecessor, Better Days. It details the life and times of Fisk and Elizabeth and their children - Abigail, Thomas and Janie - as well as the lives of other Better Days cast members and their children.

Unlike Better Days, Original Life features a lighter and more humorous plot, with minor segments of dramatic moments interspersed throughout. Also, rather than following Fisk and Lucy as they progress through life as in Better Days, the characters of Original Life do not age; the comic is also set in the 21st century present, as opposed to the 80s-90s timespan of Better Days. These changes are mainly due to Naylor opting to ‘just keep it fun’, stating that he enjoyed the lighter chapters of Better Days far more than the somber ones.

Sadly the series was discontinued in 2016 cited by the author as a lack of inspiration in further stories for the series. An new spin-off starting in 2018 began with the author releasing them on newly created a Patreon page as well as on Tumblr. Titled Original Life +5, the series jumps forward five years into the future centering on the same cast older, but not much wiser...

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This webcomic provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: The love letter. Maybe. Just when you least expect it, it pops up again.
• Addiction Displacement: Stacy switches from cigarettes to bacon, and then to porn and blogging on Tumblr.
• Adults Are Useless: Played mostly straight. The kids get up to some crazy stuff and adults rarely intervene even when it escalates into violence, such as during the Muffin Arc.
• All Men Are Perverts: Male sexuality is mused on by some male characters.
  • Fisk occasionally comments on its strength.
  • Tommy explains to Lucy how ‘ass men’ achieved great things throughout history specifically because of their preference.
  • Angelica’s father also comments on the deep effect his desire for his wife has on him, believing his wife’s self-grooming effort to be the result of societal pressure rather than her desiring him back.
• Ambiguously Bi: Mary, Audrey's girlfriend. While she seems like a typical Butch Lesbian at first glance and is definitely attracted to others of the female gender, she also dates a pre-op trans woman and it's suggested that she might be attracted to Aron (though, admittedly, Aron's effeminate-looking enough to be a very convincing crossdresser).
• Anthropomorphic Vice: While trying to kick her smoking habit, Stacy has a hallucination of a talking cigarette.
• Apocalypse How: Abigail is increasingly worried with the ultimate demise of the universe.
• Ascended Meme: Maybe.◊ Could be nothing more than a coincidence, though.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: A boy approaches Janie as she stands near the pool to make a pass at her.
  Boy: Hey Janie, ah... so, you really like swimming?
  Janie: Darn. I was hoping no one would notice.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Red’s father, a corrupt Alabama sheriff, who raped her repeatedly after her mother passed away. When Red killed him for it, his abundance of enemies made it easier for her to get away with it.
  • Fisk explains to Red to remind herself that the people they kill on the job are this—unlike enemy soldiers, who were probably forced into fighting against their will, their victims made a conscious choice to use violence to get ahead. She’s still unconvinced, wondering if the same circumstances that moved them to do what they did could have moved her to do the same if she were in their place.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Charlie, being a child, is not attractive per se, but she makes a very cute boy. Too bad she wants to be a boy to kiss Janie.
• Batman Gambit: Brice asks his wife Sissy, who is incredibly unfaithful, for an open marriage. She assumes it’s because he already has someone else he can sleep with, and is more attracted to him than ever because of that. He actually doesn’t have anyone—he’s been trying to tease her back and regain her interest.
• Better as Friends:
  • Charlie and Janie. Janie explains to Charlie that she wants boys for relationships, and using her to fill in that spot until one came along would be unfair, and ‘that’s not what friends do’.
  • Stacy tells her friend, who just broke up with her boyfriend Brad, that trying this won’t work, as it would only serve to remind him of everything that was a disappointment in their relationship.
• The B Grade: Miko is aghast at her B grade in history. Thomas says he got the same grade, and it’s his highest; Miko tells him his parents already expect little of him.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Charlie finally gets up the courage to shove two other boys aside, march right up to Janie, and give her a nice deep snog.
• Bilingual Bonus: The news piece covering Abigail’s fitness drug includes commentary by Dr. Schvantzen, MD. His last name is (broken, misspelt^note The correct form would be Schwänze.) German for ‘dicks’.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Sammy Thompson and the Kid-opolis in Thomas’ dream operate by ‘kid rules’, which means adult-created video games are banned, and possession over an item is determined entirely by ‘calling’ it.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Fisk imitates Liam Neeson’s British accent referencing Taken.
• Brick Joke: Abigail’s bedtime stories.
• Brutal Honesty: A boy who wants to date Stacy explains to her in detail how pornography ruined his concept of what women should look like and what that means for his expectations of her. She is not pleased.
• Bully Hunter: Angelica convinces the Justice Defender to become closer to this rather than protect only Jeffrey.
• Bullying a Dragon: A few drug dealers try to scare Stacy and her clients off of their territory. Her clients do not respond as they predicted.
• Bumbling Dad: Abigail notes that her father averts it.
  Stacy: You can elude the government but not your dad?
  Abigail: He’s not dumb like all the dads on TV!
• Butch Lesbian: Mary, Audrey’s girlfriend, who Aron says looks like ‘she could bench press jeeps’. She might be bi, though.
• Call-Back:
  • Elizabeth raises an eyebrow when Jessica, who got pregnant with her first child in college, says her niece Trixie doesn’t have kids because ‘she’s still in college, after all’.
  • Red points out that Fisk ‘has to deal with the same issues’, referring either to violently stopping a rapist at a young age, dealing with incest (Brother–Sister Incest in his case, Parental Incest in hers), or both.
  • Fisk’s guardian angel shows him a world Fisk is absent from, mentioning Elizabeth struggled after she caught her husband cheating, and the time Fisk prevented his war buddy Carlos from killing himself
• Catapult Nightmare: Thomas wakes up like this when he dreams the legendary Sammy Thompson is about to stab him with a spear.
• The Chessmaster: Angelica uses her writing position in the school paper to manipulate her schoolmates to resolve the muffin crisis in her favour. Her success is only temporary, as she doesn’t foresee the Ghost coming into play.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Angelica’s father cursing at the bear he just stabbed.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Charlie talks to Thomas about how awkward she feels wearing a dress instead of trousers, being an avowed Tomboy. Thomas says, ‘I wish I didn’t have to wear pants.’
  • Elizabeth asks Fisk to ‘say bad things’ to her when she’s in the mood. He does.
• Competition Freak: Janie, to the point her attitude is entirely reversed when she discovers it’s competitive. Later on, she meets her match in the form of Clarice.
• Completely Off-Topic Report: One story arc parodying The Metamorphosis turns out to actually be a book report written by Tom. The strip revealing this ends with his teacher telling him he was supposed to do a report on Beholding Bee.
• Compressed Hair:
  • Downplayed and lampshaded example with Beth.
  • Charlie’s bangs and ponytail turn into a mane about twice the size of her head when the cap comes off.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Engaged in on occasion, even by young children, about the nature of society, the universe. etc. Lampshaded when Janie and Angelica try to engage Trixie in their discussion about whether physical proof is needed to prove or disprove the existence of God, or mere logical philosophical reasoning could do, and she just turns away to talk to Abigail.
• Creator Career Self-Deprecation: Fisk is particularly aghast when his guardian angel shows him that without him, Beth would be a webcomic artist.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Miko tells Thomas this is what makes him so attractive.
  Thomas: Girls are weird.
• Daydream Surprise: Thomas daydreams he’s a Cowboy Cop yelling back at Da Chief that if the mayor doesn’t like his unorthodox methods getting results, ‘You can tell her to go to hell!’ He yells that last part in the middle of class, and, after a moment of awkward silence, gets sent to the principal’s office. (Like Father, Like Son, apparently.)
• Deep-Immersion Gaming:
  • Thomas plays Gears of War in one of the first comics... with the badass protagonist coincidentally drawn like his father.
  • Semi-justified with Mass Effect, as Shepard’s appearance is customizable.
• Destination Defenestration: The DEA agent who says the problem with the ‘Ferrigno Fluid’ is not with the drug itself, but with taxpayers having to pick up the tab for others’ mistake of using it.
• Dirty Cop: Red's father was a crooked sheriff who raped her.
• Disappeared Dad: Fisk, in part, since his job keeps him on the road. It’s been argued that he just drops by occasionally to enjoy the parts of fatherhood he likes, while skipping out on most of that messy parenting stuff.
• Disguised in Drag: Aron needs to go through this to sneak into an event strictly for women, to find a girl who was into him but in a relationship with another woman.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Thomas gets distracted in the middle of a football game when Miko waves at him.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Darren Blalock beats Thomas up and takes his PSP. Thomas trains and hits back.
  • Red’s father, a corrupt Alabama sheriff, raped her repeatedly after her mother passed away. Red killed him for it.
• Don't Think, Feel: Angelica tells Janie and Charlie that most people’s belief in this makes them easier to manipulate.
• Education Mama: Miko’s mother.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Janie is afraid of bugs.
• Fainting: Abby’s reaction to seeing the baby tooth she lost.
• Fantastic Drug:
  • Abby’s ‘Ferrigno Fluid’, which turns fat into muscle and reduces intelligence and sexual inhibition.
  • Turns out she has entire shelves of ‘chemical solutions to life’s problems’, among them a Love Potion.
• Forced Kiss: One of the boys Angelica wants to pay to kiss Janie tries to kiss her by surprise. He fails, and she doesn’t take it well. Ultimately, Charlie does it instead.
• Foreshadowing: The meaningful looks Charlie gives Janie and some of her dialogue strongly imply she was the one who wrote her the Love Letter. Made more obvious after Abigail lets it slip that the writer is female and the dialogue between Charlie and Janie afterwards.
• Free-Range Children: Elizabeth tells Trixie Thomas is basically this.
• Freudian Excuse: Red cites her father repeatedly raping her and ultimately killing him for it as the reason she became a monster.
• Fridge Horror: In-Universe, Abigail ponders about the implications of Tinkerbell’s and fairies’ existence in Peter Pan depending on others’ belief in them.
  Fisk: (To Elizabeth) Why’d you take her to that stupid play...
• Foul First Drink: A downplayed example: Fisk and Elizabeth's bokukko daughter Janie challenges Tommy and Lucy's son Leo to a beach volleyball match. After hours of intense play, Janie ekes out a win. At the extended family barbecue, Tommy offers Leo a bottle of beer for being a good sport. To everyone's surprise, Leo guzzles the stuff with ease. Lucy is aghast, and Tommy can only sputter, "I thought he'd hate it." Leo regards the bottle with the commentary, "I can see how this would be an acquired taste."
• Funny Background Event: Leo getting pinched by a crab while his parents chat casually.
• Gamer Chick: Janie, who seems to prefer Western RPG games.
• Gaydar: Abigail builds a device calculating a given person’s probability to be gay, without being aware of the concept. When Janie asks if that’s what it is, she says it could be a good name for it.
• Geek Physiques: Averted.
  Fisk: Geeks are a lot different today than when we were young.
• Genre Savvy:
  • Fisk and Elizabeth know when Angelica’s parents (with whom they are away at a couples retreat) are going to put them through a long, loud night, and decide they should get a room that doesn’t share a wall with theirs.
  • Charlie knows exactly why her parents are acting differently.
• G.I.R.L.: Amanda relishes this behaviour.
• Girls Have Cooties: This storyline.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: Which seems to pose a certain problem for Aron.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: After his guardian angel Steve shows him life without him:
  Steve: He’s been thanking his wife. All morning.
• Guys are Slobs: Fisk and cooking do not mix.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: A subtle example—Charlie says Justin Bieber ‘looks like a girl’ and wonders why girls like him, despite liking girls herself.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": Tommy asserts that ‘every man who walked on the moon was a well known and documented ass-man’.
  Astronaut: Haha! ‘Moon.’
• He-Man Woman Hater:
  • Janie encounters a particularly stupid one in New Vegas.
  • Charlie recalls how a boy she knew as a kid had that attitude, refusing to play with girls. She beat him and kissed him in front of his friend to embarrass him further.
• Here We Go Again!: Amanda goes to great lengths (including taking some death threats) helping Stacy kick her smoking habit. Amanda ultimately replaces this addiction for an intense love of bacon, but when she notices the ill effects and asks Amanda to help her quit again.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Angelica’s writings about the evils of commercialism and fat kids like Jeffrey as an example for the evils of excess make Jeffrey refuse to sell her his muffins, and the leader of a group of school bullies points out that the Justice Defender was inspired by her writings against bullying.
  • On a much darker note, Red’s father was a corrupt sheriff in Alabama, allowing him to get away with raping his daughter. When she killed him for it, the abundance of enemies he’d made made it easier for her to get away with it.
• Hypocritical Humor: Janie and Thomas have the same reaction to each other’s costume for the convention they’re going to.
  Janie & Thomas: Hey! I’m not going to the con with you if you’re going to dress like a dork!
• I Am a Monster: Red thinks so, having no qualms about killing others.
• I Am the Trope: When Alice warns Abigail that selling her fitness drug illegally could be dangerous:
  Abigail: Screw them. I am the danger.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship/Incompatible Orientation: Why Charlie and Janie can’t be together.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Sissy Swanson cheats on her husband constantly, but when he asks her for an open marriage, she thinks he’s lost interest in her and is more attracted to him than ever.
• Imaginary Enemy: When she tries to kick the habit, Stacy’s addiction to nicotine briefly manifests as a giant, talking, smoking cigarette trying to coerce her into relapsing.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Fisk’s reaction when Elizabeth confesses she hasn’t told her parents they’re atheists.
  • He’s sitting and drinking with a friend anyway, but it seems that Thomas trying to dig a pool in the backyard and getting into trouble accentuates his need for alcohol.
• Insane Troll Logic: Angelica asserts that ‘pretty people don’t need glasses’, although she’s borderline Blind Without 'Em.
• Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Janie and Abigail discuss this notion. Abigail explains why she doesn’t really care.
• In Vino Veritas: Trixie almost lets it slip that Aron is Disguised in Drag when they’re in an event exclusively for women.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Angelica tells Janie boys might not be into her because she intimidates them. Janie responds by practically threatening her with violence.
• It's a Wonderful Plot: Fisk is visited by an angel with this in mind. Problem is, he sneaks up on him in his sleep and gets smacked in the throat for it, and it only goes downhill from there—he comes to show Fisk how bad life would have been without him even though Fisk was never suicidal, so all it does is make him very angry. Eventually, they find a way to make it come across as an important experience for Fisk, his angel gets his wings, and Fisk becomes extra grateful for his life.
• Jewish and Nerdy: Continuing from Better Days, Jews are portrayed as mice.^note Then again, while according to Jewish tradition all three Black children are considered Jewish, since their mother is, Janie and Thomas are cats. While this is likely accidental, Abigail is the only mouse among the Black children, and the only one who is academically oriented.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Fisk wanted to hire Red specifically because she could get away with killing her father.
  • Angelica seems to get away with some fairly underhanded stunts, be it manipulating her way into getting some of Jeffrey’s muffins or betting against Angelica before her race against Clarice and trying to rig the competition. Thomas explains that it doesn’t matter because they’re just kids.
• Killer Teddy Bear: Do not mess with Mr. Bonk.
• Lame Pun Reaction: ‘Bad jokes will not get you laid.’
• Last-Second Word Swap: Fisk almost tells Janie her mother was crazy for wanting three kids, but replaces ‘kids’ with ‘cars’ at the last second. Janie seems convinced.
• Lighter and Softer: Naylor himself said that he wants to ‘keep it fun’, although fairly dark themes and an arc dedicated to political philosophy are still present.
• Little Known Facts:
  • Fisk seems to enjoy Trolling his kids this way.
    • When discussing with Elizabeth why she should probably handle important conversations, she brings up this incident (which Fisk says was not one he could tell the truth in):
      Janie: Daddy, where does the baby in mommy’s tummy come from?
      Fisk: Wal-Mart.
    • Happened again when Thomas asked about chicken nipples.
  • Tommy’s detailed explanation of how ‘ass men’ achieved great things throughout history specifically because of their preference.
• The Ludovico Technique: How Abigail cures internet addiction, using methods ranging from the comical Pie in the Face to the horrifying Electric Torture.
• Mad Scientist: Abigail heads into this territory from time to time.
• Magical Native American: The employee at the couples retreat Fisk and Elizabeth go to with Angelica’s parents tries to invoke this.
• The Makeover: Aron gets Trixie to give him one when he needs to disguise as a girl to sneak into an event strictly for women.
• Mathematician's Answer: Janie uses those to Troll Thomas.
• Meanwhile Scene: ‘Meanwhile, in Florida...’
• Medium Awareness: In a one-off gag, one character refers to ‘the girl in the last frame’.
• Might Makes Right: Janie tries to scare away a debt collector in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that way, citing her many achievements in the game. He doesn’t care.
• The Mole: Janie did not foresee Victor being on Thomas' side in the War for the Pool. It costs her a lot of ammunition.
• Moral Myopia: Angelica is eager to cover the story of Clarice becoming Janie’s match on the race track. When called out by her fellow journalist Ty, who reminds her she once said that ‘sports journalism is the intellectually challenged stepchild of real journalism’, she replies, ‘Not when I do it!’
• Most Writers Are Adults: None of the kids in this strip talk or act like kids.
• Mr. Imagination - Or Ms in Abigail’s case, though half of what she gets up to in real life is even more unbelievable.
• Must Have Nicotine: A brief plot arc revolves around Stacy’s cigarette addiction.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Fisk tells his guardian angel that preventing his war buddy Carlos’ suicide was specifically to avoid this, as he could never live with himself otherwise, and is angry about them using it as an example for his benevolence and importance in others’ lives.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Abby's response to learning that she's not turning into a horrifying caterpillar monster? A subdued "darn".
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: Two boys explain to Angelica they don’t want Janie because she’s a ‘ball buster’.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • A school bully says this to Angelica.
    Bully: We bully, but you persuade. How different are we really?
  • Red wonders if under different circumstances, she would’ve acted the same as the people she kills.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The government comes to shut down Abigail’s unregulated Lemonade Stand and fine her for it.
• Off with His Head!: Janie does this to a character on Fallout: New Vegas.
• One of the Boys: Thomas thinks this of Charlie. She’s flattered. Later on he teaches her how to be a boy at her request, and further on he gets her to join the boys in the War for the Pool.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with the men the Blacks hires to build their backyard pool—at least three are named ‘Bob’.
• Operation: Jealousy: That’s why Brice asks his unfaithful wife Sissy for an open marriage. It works.
• Parental Incest: Red’s father raped her repeatedly after her mother’s passing. She ultimately killed him for it.
• Passionate Sports Girl: Janie. Elizabeth thinks she'll grow up to be an Olympic athlete someday.
• Pass the Popcorn: Fisk’s attitude towards the War for the Pool.
• Patricide: Red killed her abusive, incestuous father and got away with it.
• Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Sissy Swanson remarks that when the Blacks get their backyard pool, Elizabeth could hire an attractive young Latino pool boy. Elizabeth asks her that’s what she did, and she says she ‘was dumb’ and let her husband hire the pool cleaner.
• Precision F-Strike: When Thomas fights back at Janie for control over the backyard pool, she decides to take it seriously.

  Janie: Alright, you little fucker.

• Putting the Pee in Pool: Abigail runs through a checklist to inspect the completion of the new backyard pool. When she notices Angelica in the pool with a suspicious expression of relief, she recalls she wanted to add ‘pee-seeking piranhas’ to the pool.
• Radish Cure: Subverted. When Leo asks if he can try some beer, his father Tommy gives him an entire bottle to drink under the impression that he'll hate it. Leo ends up guzzling the entire bottle without any real difficulty, though he admits that he can see why beer might be an acquired taste.
• Raging Stiffie:
  • Fisk gets an inconvenient one when he has to urinate in the morning. He tries to make it go away, only for Elizabeth to notice it and make things worse.
  • Aron is unaccustomed to seeing naked people everywhere, which becomes a bit of a problem when he and Beth visit the nudist colony Southhaven.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Bonk redesigned his character, so we get a couple comics dealing with Bonk’s redesign in-universe.
• Right Through the Wall: Fisk and Elizabeth are Genre Savvy enough to know this is going to happen.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Clarice will NOT throw her race against Janie for gambling money.
• Self-Deprecating Humor:
  • Tommy’s (entirely fictional) historical rant about how ‘ass-men’ advanced humanity is a light-hearted jab at Naylor’s own sensibilities.
  • For an in-universe example, Lucy jokingly says she wouldn't want to have a child who would inherit her brains.
• Serious Business:
  • The volleyball match between Janie and Leo—for Janie, because she wants to assert her superiority; for Leo, because of the potential satisfaction in winning.
  • Cooties for Thomas.
  • Jeffrey’s muffins are so good they start a whole plot arc.
  • Thomas and Janie engage in a full-blown war over their backyard pool. It’s such a serious issue that Janie even drops an F-bomb.
  • Inverted with the race between Janie and Clarice: Angelica sets up a bet on the race and tries to rig it by suggesting that Clarice throw it for a cut of the money people bet on Janie, Thomas pranks Janie and messes with her practice, and they’re back to being friends as if nothing happened. Clarice is amazed, saying this would’ve lead to fights where she’s from.
  Thomas: It’s called: ‘It doesn’t matter because we’re just being kids.’ You should try it.
  • Marley Strongman will not date a girl who owns an iPhone.
• Shout-Out:
  • Thomas wants Abigail to train him, like ‘Cato did for Inspector Clouseau’.
  • Thomas compares Janie to the Terminator.
  • Abby re-enacts scenes from The Fly (1986) and Darkman. She also quotes random bits of Yoda and Patton.
  • Abby strangles Not Me.
  • Abby’s stuffed animal is a representation of Naylor’s fellow artist friend Bonk.
  • Abby builds some rather familiar-looking turrets as part of Thomas’ self-defense training.
  • Blalock, you magnificent bastard...I read your book!
  • ‘Mirror... Give me a mirror.’
  • This strip features an appearance by singer Grace Jones. This was an In-Joke that also occurs in Better Days.
  • Janie and her classmates attend Jack Burton Academy.
  • My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic gets an unfortunate crossover with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
  • In one sub-plot, Thomas wakes up as a giant bug (it’s actually just an illustration of his report on the book).
  • This comic is a reference to Apocalypse Now.
  • Janie is annoyed by the thought of the perfection of The Elder Scrolls Online being subjected to every Jerkass on the internet. Stacy seems to agree.
  • Fisk assures Elizabeth he can be left home with the kids:
    Fisk: Besides, if anyone kidnaps them, remember: (British accent) ‘I do have a very particular set of skills...
• Sibling Rivalry: Janie and Thomas. Janie comes to appreciate it when he’s the only one who doesn’t show Condescending Compassion after she breaks her arm.
  Thomas: Janie, no matter what happens to you, you’ll always be the big sister I can’t stand.
  Janie: Aw thanks. That means a lot to me.
  Thomas: Now go away.
• Skewed Priorities: Fisk can’t believe how skewed Elizabeth’s are. (For context, they’re in a tree with a bear at the bottom.)
• Slice of Life: The comic shows the daily life of Fisk and Elizabeth and their children.
• Sore Loser/Unsportsmanlike Gloating: Thomas remarks that when it comes to competitive sports, Janie’s attitude combined with her physical prowess has made older boys cry. She eventually wins, and really wants to relish it.
• Spit Take:
  • Elizabeth’s reaction to Fisk’s, um, graphic allusion to explain why he hated Mass Effect 3.
  • Aron’s reaction to Audrey’s remark about Trixie.
• Status Quo Is God: The kids can do a wide range of mean things to each other and still stay friends as if nothing had happened. According to Thomas, none of that matters because they’re just kids.
• Stealth Insult: Abigail implies Thomas has no brain. He gets it though.
• Stealth Pun: Angelica says the story of Clarice turning out to be Janie’s match on the race tracks has many different factors making it sensational. Her colleague Ty suggests ‘race’ as one of those, as Janie is a cat and the girl is a hyena, species that are equivalent to white and black people, respectively, but it is a story about actual foot racing; Angelica says, ‘You said it, not me.’
• Stock "Yuck!": Broccoli for Abigail.
• Take That!:
  • From this comic.
    Thomas: Dad, how can The Beatles still be popular?
    Fisk: I don’t know, son.
  • When Fisk sees Janie trash-talking Justin Bieber, he is pleased.
  • Naylor delivers several at once, mocking some unpleasant types of characters found on the internet, albeit with a bit of Self-Deprecation poking fun at his own Accentuating the Negative.
  • When Abigail asks Stacy to sell her fitness drug:
  Stacy: But I have no idea where to start.
  Abigail: Go to where man is at his lowest. Where he has lost all hope of ever feeling good about his body. Go to where mankind has lost all control, and dwells in both the pleasures of the moment and a deeply repressed hatred of himself for doing so. Offer him hope.
  (Cut to Stacy standing next to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts)
  • Fisk and Elizabeth think their kids not watching Professional Wrestling is proof they’re ultimately Good Parents.
  • Fisk is horrified to the point of incredulity when his guardian angel shows him that without him, Lucy would date a man wearing a kilt.
• Take a Third Option: In the race between Janie and Clarice, Abigail is the only one who bets on a draw. She wins.
• Technical Virgin: Amanda.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Angelica’s father is glad they didn’t have to fight the bear off, and Fisk agrees. Neither of them notices the bear is right behind them and ready to pounce.
  • Miko’s older sister admires the beautiful day and the fresh air outside. As soon as she opens the window, a landscaper walks by with a leafblower.
  • Then she assumes a client wants a simple, innocent commission drawn, based on the stuff in his gallery. She is wrong.
• Testosterone Poisoning: The truck commercial Fisk watches, complete with homophobic slurs and abuse of a vaguely Southern Accent to accentuate its masculinity. Then it ends and cuts back to football.
• That Came Out Wrong: A friend of Fisk’s discusses the Double Standard men face when it comes to sexual liaisons with people of the same gender, a behaviour much more accepted among women than men. Fisk wonders if he wants to have sex with men, too, or be a bisexual woman.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted—Fisk’s company has group therapy sessions for its agents.
• Think Unsexy Thoughts: One strip has Fisk waking up with morning wood and a desperate need to pee. He tries to get rid of his boner by doing this, but then his sleeping wife starts cuddling him.
• Throwing the Fight: Angelica tries to convince Clarice to throw the race between her and Janie, because the bets are in her favour and she could get a cut from the money won by betting on Janie. She adamantly refuses.
• Tomboyish Name: Charlene ‘Charlie’ Swanson.
• Turncoat: Thomas convinces Charlie to join the boys’ side in the War for the Pool.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Not so much of a gender identity, but Aron is taken aback when he discovers that Audrey is Transgender. He doesn’t mind, but it requires some unforeseen mental readjustments.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Thomas elaborates on this theme in The Metamorphosis.
• Unwanted Glasses Plot: Angelica finds out she’s near-sighted and is not at all happy about needing glasses, thinking they’ll ruin her good looks.
• Vulgar Humor: Thomas apparently likes this.
• Water Guns and Balloons: The weapons of choice in the War for the Pool.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Fisk and the group of unsanctioned assassins that employs him seem to fall under this, judging by the explanation in Better Days.
• Wham Line:
  • Janie asks Abigail to find out who wrote her the anonymous Love Letter. Abigail refuses on ethical grounds.
    Abigail: If the author didn’t want to be anonymous, she would have signed it.
    Janie: Okay, okay... (Beat) ‘She’?!
  • Later on:
    Audery (kissing Aron & embracing tenderly): Hey. You're getting a boner.
    Aron: So are you-!!
• What Did I Do Last Night?: After having the effects of Abigail’s drug reversed, Jeffery wakes up to find that he had basically turned into a caveman and tried to abduct Amanda before being sedated. His response? ‘Oh. Cool.’
• What You Are in the Dark: Fisk tells Red that even if Elizabeth didn’t know if he were unfaithful, he would, and that alone keeps him from doing it.
• Wire Dilemma: Just one of the variety of life-threatening situations Fisk finds himself in throughout the course of his work.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Elizabeth tells Abigail a bedtime story about ‘the cutest girl in her whole village’. Abigail remarks, ‘Isn’t that subjective?’ Fisk says the same when she tries telling him the story.
• Wrong Side of the Tracks: Clarice is from Atlanta, and has never been to a school without metal detectors.
• You Can't Fight Fate: When the ‘Ferrigno Fluid’ wears off, different men take different approaches towards keeping fit; one of them decides he’s destined to be fat and gives up on trying to change it.
• Young Entrepreneur: Abigail uses her scientific prowess to open a ‘Lemonade+’ stand.

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