YMMV / Krazy Kat

• Audience-Alienating Premise: A mouse repeatedly hits a cat of Ambiguous Gender in the head with thrown bricks and rocks, which the cat interprets as gestures of love and welcomes wholeheartedly, whilst a bulldog in love with the cat tries to keep the mouse in prison because of his brick-throwing ways. All of it done with surrealistic artwork and heavy Funetik Aksent dialogue. No wonder a lot of people panned it when it came out, and many still do to this day.
• Cargo Ship: Hints of Ignatz×Bricks are actually quite apparent in a few strips. Which only makes the Love Triangles that much more complicated and bizarre.
• Fair for Its Day:
  • You'd be shocked to learn that Krazy Kat was actually written to be gender-fluid (or at least what it qualifies as nowadays), as confirmed by Word of God. Especially so when you consider that the strip was created in 1913. While they are presented as a bit of a klutz and their relationship with Ignatz isn't exactly healthy, they're never shamed or mocked for their gender identity in any way.
  • Yes, the Mock Duck speaks with a stereotypical Chinese accent and has a stereotypical job. However, in an era when Yellow Peril was a common trope, he was an honest bird and a respected citizen in the community. In fact, the Yellow Peril trope is subverted when Ignatz overhears the Mock Duck talking with other Chinese ducks, assumes they're up to no good, and wants in. Turns out it's all clean, honest, and above board.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In one strip, Ignatz refers to his family as the "House of Mouse".
  • The strip's consistent replacement of the letter "c" with the letter "k" would later become a trademark of a certain (in)famous video game franchise.
• Ho Yay: As mentioned before, Krazy's gender seems to change at times. Pupp's and Ignatz's never do, so when Krazy is male, the love triangle is all-male.
• Nightmare Fuel: The June 25, 1944 comic features Offisa Pup rescuing Krazy from drowning... or it seems to. Pup's and Ignatz's expressions, Krazy's silence, and the bottom panel imply that Krazy really did die. The kicker? This is the final strip.
• Once Original, Now Common: It can be hard for comic fans who aren't also art or history students to appreciate how formative the strip was to newspaper comics as a medium, by sheer dint of being one of the first.
• Vindicated by History: As noted above, the strip was not loved by the general public. Today, it has gained a cult following and has been praised by intellectuals arguing that comics can be serious art.

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