History ComicStrip / PiranhaClub

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: One storyline involves a tribe of South American natives attempting to murder Sid and steal Earl. They give him a drink made from 27 mushed-up toxic leaf frogs, which amazingly has no effect. It' then revealed that years of Effie's cooking has left Sid essentially immune to poison.

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: One storyline involves a tribe of South American natives attempting to murder Sid and steal Ernst. They give him a drink made from 27 mushed-up toxic leaf frogs, which amazingly has no effect. It' then revealed that years of Effie's cooking has left Sid essentially immune to poison.

* BackAlleyDoctor: Enos Pork does operate out of a seemingly legit Head/Nose/Throat clinic, but he is a textbook example of this trope. His medical degree is from an uncredited school in South America, he uses his surgical tools as kitchen utensils, and he's been seen more than once offering sidewalk medical services.

* DropTheCow: Whenever a joke or storyline has been going on for too long and there is no satisfactory resolution in sight, the usual prodecure is to turn the madness UpToEleven and follow it up with cut-away gag to [[SelfDeprecation Bud being escorted away from his desk by people from the insane asylum]] -- quite often while wrapped up in a [[InstitutionalApparel straitjacket.]]

* HumanMomNonhumanDad: The alien Zerblatt married and had children with a human female. In a somewhat uncommon variation, the resulting hybrids werent human in appearance, but resembled small frogs.

* ThePrankster: Spencer Husselmeyer makes [[TheSimpsons Bart Simpson]] look like a saint. Common pranks include greasing Ernie's toilet seat, putting tacks in Ernie's shoes, shoving raw fish down Ernie's pants, greasing Ernie's doorknobs, terrorizing Ernie with his slingshot and making Ernie eat salt.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: and squid. And ducks, parrots, moose, cows, chicken, frogs, gorillas, beluga, gigantic water buffaloes, snap turtles, and cockroaches impersonating Elvis. Amongst others.
** Specifically, one early storyline revolved around Ernie buying a small staff of trained house monkeys to do chores in his apartment. Unfortunately, since he didn't know sign language, Ernie couldn't communicate with them, and eventually, the chauffeur and maid monkeys eloped in Ernie's [=DeSoto=], while the rest of the monkeys were eaten by Effie.

* TheAllegedCar: Ernie's '57 DeSoto.

** Specifically, one early storyline revolved around Ernie buying a small staff of trained house monkeys to do chores in his apartment. Unfortunately, since he didn't know sign language, Ernie couldn't communicate with them, and eventually, the chauffeur and maid monkeys eloped in Ernie's Desoto, while the rest of the monkeys were eaten by Effie.

* AuthorAppeal: Squids and tentacles, not in a sexual context ,but Grace has stated that he enjoys drawing things like this due to a drawing by BasilWolverton of ''Magazine/{{Mad}}'' fame he saw when he was a kid.

* FakeCharity: The Piranha Club often promotes various charity drives for their Fund For Orphans And Widows. Said orphans and widows often look suspiciously like club members in bad costumes.

* {{Catchphrase}}: Reverend Bob has "I've '''got''' to get a new parish" and "Give me strength." Duane has his ever-reliable "Shee thish frog?" and variations thereof.

* DogLatin: the PretentiousLatinMotto of the Piranha Club is ''In Hoc Signo Piranha'' [[note]] cf. Latin "in hoc signo vinces" - "in this sign you will conquer", a motto associated with the Freemasons [[/note]]

* DropTheCow: Whenever a joke or storyline has been going on for too long and there is no satisfactory resolution in sight, the usual prodecure is to turn the madness UpToEleven and follow it up with cut-away gag to [[SelfDeprecation Bud being escorted away from his desk by people from the insane asylum]] -- quite often white wrapped up in a [[InstitutionalApparel straitjacket.]]

* PlayingPictionary: Literally. On a double date/game night with Doris' insufferable roommate Felicia, Doris completely fails to guess Ernie's drawing ("An omelet! An amoeba! Ecstacy! A SCUD missile!"). Crosses over into TerribleArtist, since nobody else manages to identify it either, even after being told what it is. [[note]]A dog.[[/note]] Meanwhile, Felicia's InsufferableGenius boyfriend Basil produces perfect renditions of the SistineChapel and Rembrandt's Night Guard in under 15 seconds.[[note]]Well, nearly perfect: he ran out of time and had to leave out The Fall of Adam and Eve.[[/note]]

* [[NeverMessWithGranny Never Mess With Mother Packer]]: Seriously. ''Don't.'' She has a HairTriggerTemper and the only reason why she isn't the WorldsStrongestMan is because she's the WorldsStrongestWoman.

* PerpetualPoverty: The Piranha Club meets in a dilapidated building they haven't paid rent for in years and the various furnishings inside are falling apart, this mainly due to the fact that none of the members pay their membership fees, and Sid embezzles the clubs funds at every turn.

* SpotlightStealingSquad: After a while, Uncle Sid pretty much took over as ''the'' main character of the strip.

The strip is set to end on February 3, 2018, after 30 years.

The strip would run until January 28, 2018 as the strip's creator retires.

* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: Zombies make an occasional appearance, most notably Bob The Zombie and his voodoo mistress, as well as a zombie ElvisPresley along with a zombie Colonel Parker.

** Specifically, one early storyline revolved around Ernie buying a small staff of trained house monkeys to do chores in his apartment. Unfortunatly, since he didn't know sign language, Ernie couldn't communicate with them, and eventually, the chauffeur and maid monkeys eloped in Ernie's Desoto, while the rest of the monkeys were eaten by Effie.

The Piranha Club (formerly ''Ernie'') is an American newspaper comic by Bud "Bo" Grace. Started in 1988, it focuses on loser Ernie Floyd the and various [[{{CloudCuckoolander}} eccentric]] and [[{{Conman}} sketchy]] characters around him in [[{{Joisey}} Bayonne, New Jersey]].

* AlienAmongUs: Zerblatt the alien was left behind by his people due to going off on a drunken bender and ended up assimilating to human society.

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: One storyline involves a tribe of South American natives attempting to murder Sid and steal Ernst. They give him a drink made from 27 mushed up toxic leaf frogs, which amazingly has no effect. Its then revealed that years of Effie's cooking has left Sid essentially immune to poison.
** Another storyline revolves around Sid and Elvis having a pie eating contest, with everyone expecting BigEater Elvis to win. It then turns out that Sid had Effie make the pies for the contest, allowing Sid, who's used to her food, eat at a leisurly pace and win, while Elvis can only soldier through about 3 bites, while violently vomiting the whole time.

* CoatFullOfContraband: Pops up from time to time... Most often in resturants. With the "contraband" in question being stomach pumps...

* ElvisImpersonator: One storyline involves Duane showing off a cockroach he claims is a reincarnated Elvis, complete with guitar, rhinestone suit and singing ability. Ernie accidently kills the cockroach and ends up in court, accused of having murdered Elvis. When he angrily blurts out that he killed an Elvis ''impersonator'', the judge immediatly drops the charges and invites him over for dinner.

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: and squid. And ducks, parrots, moose, cows, chicken, frogs, gorillas, beluga, gigant water buffaloes, snap turtles, and cockroaches impersonating Elvis. Amongst others.
** Specifically, one early storyline revolved around Ernie buying a small staff of trained house monkeys to do chores in his apartment. Unfortunatly, since he didnt know sign language, Ernie couldnt communicate with them, and eventually, the chaffeur and maid monkeys eloped in Ernie's Desoto, while the rest of the monkeys were eaten by Effie.

* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: Zombies make an occasional appearance, most noteably Bob The Zombie and his voodoo mistress, as well as a zombie ElvisPresley along with a zombie Colonel Parker.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Ernst, the Piranha Club mascot and Sids pet piranha, to the point where Sid uses him as a garbage disposal. He can even devour non organic material like car tires and metal with no problem.

* FanDisservice: As mentioned below, Bud Grace tends to take advantage of the lack of censorship in Swedish media by drawing nude characters you do NOT want to see nude, such as Enos Porks mother in law, and Arnolds equally ugly sister.

* HenpeckedHusband: Enos Pork, who is rutinely abused by both his wife and his step mother.
* HonestJohnsDealership: Elvis Zimmermann who'd sell a decrepid trashcan of a car to his own mother... In fact, he ''did''.

* LethalChef: Effie Munyon, notably she is never seen eating her own food. She IS capable of cooking decent food, but seems to end up making hideous concoctions out of some misplaced desire to seem unique.

* StylisticSuck: An early sunday page purportedly drawn by Grace's neighbour's dog, Sheba.

* TooHotForTV: Like most cartoonists, Bu Grace has a sizeable amount of strip sketches he never intended for publishing due to raunchy content. Interestingly, due to Swedens much laxer publication standards, the ''Ernie'' comic book there often publishes both these, and specials Grace draws just for Scandinavia, containing both nudity and sexual situations.

* WannaBuyAWatch: Many of Sid's less sophisticated schemes amount to this, ranging from fake rolexes, to fake Picasso paintings.
* WhyWereBummedCommunismFell: Parodied in one storyline where the fall of communism reduced the entire CIA to following the worlds last practicing communist around, a Russian immigrant named Boris who relocated to Bayonne when the USSR collapsed. They desperatly try to keep him alive and communist, because if he dies, the CIA will be forced to resort to massive layoffs. He eventually abandons communism as well and begins selling "sexy lingerie", which turns out to be husky-sized surplus sets from the former Soviet blocks. His only customer? Effie.
* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: The strip had a christmas storyline with this, with Sid as Scrooge, Enos as Jacob Marley, Ernie as Bob Cratchit, Doris as Mrs Cratchit and Spencer as Tiny Tim.

* {{Conman}}: Yes. An entire club full of them.

* [[NeverMessWithGranny Never Mess With Mother Packer]]: Seriously. ''Don't.'' The only reason why she isn't the WorldsStrongestMan is because she's a woman.

* AuthorAppeal: Squids and tentacles, not in a sexual context ,but Grace has stated that he enjoys drawing things like this due to a drawing by BasilWolverton of MADMagazine fame he saw when he was a kid.

* ExecutiveMeddling: On several occasions, sometimes for the better. For example, Sid was originally written as Ernie's friend, but was changed into his uncle when Grace's editor pointed out that nobody would want to be friends with a guy like that.

* YetAnotherChristmasCarol: The strip had a christmas storyline with this, with Sid as Scrooge, Enos as Jacob Marley, Ernie as Bob Cratchit, Doris as Mrs Cratchit and Spencer as Tiny Tim.

* {{Catchphrase}}: Reverend Bob has "I need a new parish" and "Give me strength" and Duane has his ever-reliable "Shee thish frog?" as well as variations thereof.