History Literature / Bunnicula

* BluntMetaphorsTrauma: In the first book, Howie at one point writes, "every sense was as finely tuned as a concert piano", which Harold, giving constructive criticism, praises as a good example of a simile. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Howie proceeds to use]] "like a finely tuned concert piano" whenever he wants to throw in a simile, no matter how little sense it makes. This becomes a RunningGag throughout the series, though it tapers off as Howie's writing improves, but [[BackForTheFinale comes back one last time towards the climax of his final book]].

* RunningGag: References to a "finely tuned concert piano" (see BluntMetaphorsTrauma above).

* TheyDo: After several books of being good (if argumentative) friends, Howie and Delilah make the change to OfficialCouple at the end of ''The Odorous Adventures of Stinky Dog''.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Harrison, from ''Howliday Inn''. For trying to steal and sell some of the guests, he loses his job at Chateau Bow-Wow, but he's basically given a slap on the wrist by the judge, who sentences him to a year of college, paid for by working at a zoo. And in ''Return to Howliday Inn'', it's mentioned he's now running his own comic book business. [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996 Then again...]]]]

* NoodleIncident: In ''Howliday Inn'', Chester remarks that he read the other animals' personal files while being held hostage. On the subject of Lyle (another cat who's [[CloudCuckoolander more than a little off-kilter]]), he'll only say Lyle has "had a rough life".

'''Books in the series:'''

'''There is also the spin-off series ''Tales From The House of Bunnicula'':'''
* ''It Came From Beneath the Bed!''
* ''Invasion of the Mind Swappers from Asteroid 6!''
* ''Howie Monroe and the Doghouse of Doom''
* ''Screaming Mummies of the Pharaoh's Tomb II''
* ''Bud Barkin, Private Eye''
* ''The Odorous Adventures of Stinky Dog''

'''There is also a series of ''Bunnicula'' books for very young readers:'''
* ''The Vampire Bunny''
* ''Hot Fudge''
* ''Scared Silly''
* ''Rabbit-Cadabra''
* ''The Fright Before Christmas''
* ''Creepy Crawly Birthday''
* ''Bunnicula Escapes!: A Pop-up Adventure''

'''As well as several non-fiction books:'''

* AmbiguousSyntax: In ''Howliday Inn'', the animals in the kennel are being [[TenLittleMurderVictims disappeared one-by-one]]. Harold finds an unpunctuated message scratched into the bottom of his food bowl and tries to parse out whether it's fingering the murderers ("Help! Howls out now!") or the next victims ("Help Howls out, now!").
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Harold's favorite food is chocolate cupcakes, even though a lot of chocolate can be dangerous to dogs. Whether this is artistic license on the part of the character or the author is debatable. It's specifically pointed out in both ''Bunnicula Strikes Again!'' and ''Hot Fudge'' that you should never give your dog chocolate in real life. It is also noted that some dogs can eat chocolate just fine, and Harold happens to (thankfully) be one of these. See also BreakingTheFourthWall.
** Howe didn't know chocolate was dangerous for dogs when he wrote the first book, but once he found out, he made sure to work the information into future books. And he certainly found a clever way to do it.

* CanineConfusion: Harold the dog has chocolate as his TrademarkFavoriteFood and he steals fudge in another book even though chocolate can kill dogs in real life.

* {{Fainting}}: Chester passes out when he finds little Howie is going to become part of the family at the end of ''Howliday Inn''... when the wiire-haired dachshund first howled!

* HellHotel: Chateau Bow-Wow in ''Howliday Inn'' and ''Return To Howliday Inn''. There's strange howling (simply a habit of two of the visitors) and disappearing guests ([[spoiler: caused by an employee-turned-petnapper trying to make extra money]]) in the first visit, and a guest who seems to have been murdered for discovering an alleged secret of the place during the second.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Bud and Spud, who come across as dumb hicks by some folks, but they are actually [[SouthernFriedGenius well-educated]]. Of course, most of the obfuscation comes from Chester's overactive imagination.

* ShoutOut: M.T. Graves and the ''Fleshcrawlers'' series are clearly a reference to R.L. Stine and ''Goosebumps.''

** While the other cats we meet in the books are off in different ways, they share the status of being potentially antagonistic at any point. Still not due to outright cruelty, though.

** One edition of ''The Celery Stalks at Midnight'' has Harold, Chester and Howie looking up at a gigantic celery stalk. In the book, the only celery to appear is normal-sized.

* DogsAreDumb: Chester certainly thinks so. However, he's quite prone to underestimating Harold's intelligence.

* {{Fainting}}: Chester passes out when he finds little Howie is going to become part of the family at the end of ''Howliday Inn''.

* GiverOfLameNames: In the first book, Mrs. Monroe is mentioned as always attempting to name each new family pet "Fluffy" (both Harold and Chester are deeply relieved to have escaped this fate). Sure enough, it's one of her first suggestions when trying to name Bunnicula (after the equally-rejected "Bun-Bun").

** Harold is singlehandedly responsible for thwarting Chester's attempt to starve Bunnicula.

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Bud and Spud, who come across as dumb hicks, but are actually [[SouthernFriedGenius well-educated]]. Of course, most of the obfuscation comes from Chester's overactive imagination.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Bunnicula isn't dangerous, goes to great lengths to help his friends, only drinks vegetable juice, doesn't sleep in a coffin...

Bunnicula is the name of a series of children's books written by Deborah and James Howe about a "vampire bunny" who is adopted by the Monroe family, who give him the name "Bunnicula" when they find him on a seat in the theater while going to see the movie Dracula. The story centers on the family's pets, Harold, an old, good-natured mongrel, who is the narrator of the story, Chester the cat, who has a vivid imagination and suspects Bunnicula of being a vampire, and the eponymous bunny, who never displays any overt vampiric traits despite constant accusations by Chester.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Oh, Chester.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Chester, paraphrasing ''Dracula'', pegs May 5th as Saint George's Day in ''Nighty Nightmare''. And so it was when ''Dracula'' was written, in the traditions of some Eastern Orthodox churches. The thing is, those churches actually celebrated it on April 23rd by the Julian calendar, which was May 5th Gregorian until 1901, when it became May 6th and will remain so until 2100, when it becomes May 7th.

* HellHotel: Chateau Bow-Wow in ''Howliday Inn'' and ''Return To Howliday Inn''

* LamePunReaction: In "Bunnicula Strikes Back" Howie cracks that "You're no bunny until some bunny loves you" and Harold's narration notes that he could ''hear'' Chester grind his teeth.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: In-universe - Chester was named after Creator/GKChesterton, when he was gifted to Mr. Monroe as a kitten along with a few volumes of the author's work (which also inspired Chester's love of reading).

* TenLittleMurderVictims: Parodied in ''Howliday Inn''.

* DependingOnTheWriter: Used in-universe as the quality, direction, focus, and title vary depending on if Howie or Delilah is writing Tales From The House of Bunnicula.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Chester, paraphrasing ''Dracula'', pegs May 5th as Saint George's Day in ''Nighty Nightmare''. And so it was by the traditions of some Eastern Orthodox churches, when ''Dracula'' was written. The thing is, it's actually April 23rd by the Julian calendar, which was May 5th Gregorian until 1901, when it became May 6th and will remain so until 2100, when it becomes May 7th.

* DarkerAndEdgier: While still very much a children's book, ''Howliday Inn'' does qualify somewhat when compared to its predecessor. Whereas ''Bunnicula'' merely dealt with Chester's madcap theories regarding the titular rabbit, ''Howliday Inn'' features an honest to goodness mystery involving [[spoiler:petnapping and the implied -- but false -- death of one of the characters.]]

* HairRaisingHare. Possibly. Chester assumes Bunnicula is an evil, vampiric bunny who will take over [=/=] destroy the world given enough time. To anyone else, he's not really terrifying.

** Harold is single-handedly responsible for thwarting Chester's attempt to starve Bunnicula.

* IDoNotDrinkWine: Chester's story in ''Nighty-Nightmare'' has Dr. Emil Alphonse Diabolicus, a vampire, declare that "I don't drink... milk." Subverted with Bud, a normal human who also says that "I don't drink milk." In his case though, it's just a matter of personal preference.

* LargeHam: Chester likes to present himself as the collected, mellow OnlySaneMan of the pets, but when his imagination riles him up he reveals quite a flair for dramatic overreaction. See [[DramaQueen his response]] to learning the Monroes will be boarding him and Harold in ''Howliday Inn'':

'''Chester''': ''I've'' read Charles Dickens, sport. ''(starts angrily bathing his tail)''

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Bud and Spud, who come across as dumb hicks, but are actually [[SouthernFriedGenius well educated]]. Of course, most of the obfuscation comes from Chester's overactive imagination.

** Harold has had his fair share of such incidents, but most of them are {{Noodle Incident}}s; the only ones we actually hear about are the time that he ate a geranium[[note]] which he admits was in bad taste -- and had tasted rather bad, too[[/note]], and when he tossed Mr. Monroe's electric razor into the toilet.

* TheVoiceless: Bunnicula himself never says a word, despite all other animals (cats, dogs, one weasel and a parrot) being able to talk just fine. It's hypothesized something terrible happened to him in his childhood and rendered him mute, and even after they find out what's causing his vampirism, he never talks.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Harrison, from ''Howliday Inn''. For trying to steal and sell some of the guests, he loses his job at Chateau Bow-Wow, but he's basically given a slap on the wrist by the judge, who sentences him to a year of college, paid for by working at a zoo. And in ''Return to Howliday Inn'', it's mentioned he's now running his own comic book business.]]

* FunWithHomophones: During book 1, Chester mistakes "driving a stake through a vampire's heart" with a ''steak'', and winds up pounding some meat on Bunnicula's chest while the rabbit sleeps.

* AbsenteeActor: Bunnicula is physically absent from three of the books -- he's staying with their neighbor Professor Mickelwhite in ''Howliday Inn'', and with Pete's friend Kyle in ''Nighty-Nightmare'' and ''Return to Howliday Inn''. Justified, since in all three cases, the family is away on vacation and can't readily take a rabbit with them.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: In ''Return to Howliday Inn'':
-->"I told you we were doomed," [Chester] said in the tone of voice he uses whenever he tells me we're doomed, which is on the average of twice a week.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Bunnicula may or may not be a blood-sucking fiend, though it becomes less debatable as the series goes on. Much of the humor in the series comes from Chester's belief that Bunnicula's eating habits mean that the world around them follows horror tropes.
** Also, Howard and Heather -- and by extension, Howie -- ''might'' be part werewolf, though the only real bit of "evidence" Chester has for this theory is their unusually loud, bone-chilling howls.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: In-universe - Chester, as a kitten, joined the family as a birthday gift for Mr. Monroe along with a collection of the works of Creator/GKChesterton, which inspired his name.

In 2016, Creator/WarnerBros Animation produced a ''Bunnicula'' [[WesternAnimation/{{Bunnicula}} animated series]], adapted fairly loosely from the original novels, which premiered on Creator/CartoonNetwork's Saturday morning block.

** Once, at a book reading, a child asked James Howe about this. Howe replied that he didn't know chocolate was dangerous for dogs when he wrote the first book, but once he found out, he made sure to work the information into future books. And he certainly found a clever way to do it.

** At a book reading, a child once asked James Howe about this. Howe replied that he didn't know chocolate was dangerous for dogs when he wrote the first book, but once he found out, he made sure to work the information into future books. And he certainly found a clever way to do it.