History Literature / Hoka

* AmusingAlien: An entire race of them.
* BaseballEpisode: "Joy in Mudville"
* BearsAreBadNews: At least, for your sanity.

* GreenEyedMonster: Tanni in "Don Jones"
* HeavyWorlder: The Brobdingnagian in "The Napoleon Crime."
* HilarityEnsues: ...at regular intervals on Toka.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:

* MadScientist: In the Space Patrol.

* [[OneSteveLimit One Tex Limit]]: Not in the Western setting. For the males, anyway, as they have about 20 names between them. The females keep traditional Hoka names, as otherwise they'd all be named "Jane".
* OnlySaneMan: Alex, of course. In at least one story, his wife gets to play the role when Alex is away. Her sanity is tested, though.

* RiddleForTheAges: What was Hoka society like before they learned about human stories? There is no way of knowing -- one anthropologist found an isolated Hoka tribe and started studying them, but had to abandon the project when they all started acting like anthropologists.
** Do Hoka really believe to be the fictional characters they imitate, or are they just into acting and ''very'' committed to the bit? There are hints that the latter may be true (see ObfuscatingInsanity above), but we never get a definitive answer.
* RockBeatsLaser: Hokas stick to their old navigational tricks -- captains use the new-fangled human ones for veneer.
* RuleOfDrama: [[PlanetOfHats The hat of the Hoka]] is to live their lives by this rule.
* RuleOfFunny: A lot of the background details.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Doralene, it turns out.
* SpacePirates: For once, not intentional. They're the ''[[SawItInAMovieOnce Space Patrol]]'' -- but have no legal authority.
* [[SawItInAMovieOnce Read It In A Book Once]]: The basic principle the Hokas operate on.
* SpaceWestern: The first Hoka story, featuring the Hoka version of the Wild West.

* UrsineAliens: The Hokas.

* WhiteMansBurden: Referenced, as humanity has re-embraced the trope as ''spaceman's'' burden, trying to uplift every tribal society they come across and make that species as much like humanity as they can. Experience with the Hokas teaches Alex that this might not always be a good idea. Or possible.

** The collective series is sometimes referred to as ''The Earthman's Burden'' series.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Explored. Alex Jones gets stuck on a ship with Hoka acting out Series/SpacePatrolUS, a SpaceOpera that is ''much'' softer than the Hoka setting itself. This makes the crew dangerously incompetent (they don't know that space travel ''requires maths'', for instance) and Jones has to work hard to keep them alive.

* MadScientist: In the Space Patrol

In most of the stories, the point-of-view character is Alexander Braithwaite Jones, the human ambassador to the Hoka planet, who generally finds himself being the OnlySaneMan. His outsider viewpoint, and the fact that unlike his furry charges he's capable of stepping out of the role he's been given, grant him a measure of GenreSavvy, but it doesn't always do him much good.

* UnableToSupportAWife: Alex's problem in "Don Jones"

-->''But I have been increasingly nagged by a very basic doubt -- a doubt of the value, even the rightness, of the Service's very ''raison d'être.'' Is it possible that our problem of "civilizing backward planets" is only a subtler form of [[MightyWhitey the old, discredited imperialism of Earth's brutal past]]? Have I merely been turning my wards into second-rate humans, instead of first-rate Hokas? I don't know. In spite of all our pretentious psychocultural tests, I doubt if anyone really knows.

-->''But I have been increasingly nagged by a very basic doubt -- a doubt of the value, even the rightness, of the Service's very ''raison d'être''. Is it possible that our problem of "civilizing backward planets" is only a subtler form of [[MightyWhitey the old, discredited imperialism of Earth's brutal past]]? Have I merely been turning my wards into second-rate humans, instead of first-rate Hokas? I don't know. In spite of all our pretentious psychocultural tests, I doubt if anyone really knows.

In most of the stories, the point-of-view character is Alex Jones, the human ambassador to the Hoka planet, who generally finds himself being the OnlySaneMan. His outsider viewpoint, and the fact that unlike his furry charges he's capable of stepping out of the role he's been given, grant him a measure of GenreSavvy, but it doesn't always do him much good.

* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: After a few years with the Hokas, Alex has this for alcohol.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Played straight in "The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch" (with the ''other'' natives of Toka, no less) and "Joy in Mudville" (although ''that'' lot are not entirely reptilian)[[spoiler:; subverted in "Full Pack (Hokas Wild)" with the snakelike Seesis, who turns out to be an innocent hostage -- and since the Hokas are acting out ''Literature/TheJungleBook'' at that point, he's seen as Kaa, the wise old python]].

* GargleBlaster: ''Old Panther Sweat. Made in Montana by Panthers.''

* TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin: It's a comedy series, so naturally this happens. See the [[YMMV/{{Hoka}} YMMV entry]] about possible reasons behind this.

* TheInfiltration: Alex Jones inflitrates the Hoka Pirates to prevent actual fighting from breaking out.

Each of the stories features a different story or genre being re-enacted, from TheWestern to Creator/RudyardKipling's ''Literature/TheJungleBook''. One of the most well-known stories, "The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound", features the Hoka SherlockHolmes.

* Multiboobage: Female Hokas have two rows of breasts, so in roles such as PirateGirl, they have to tailor their costumes appropriately, to show off all their cleavage.

* MsFanservice: Various female characters from time to time, but in particular Doralene Rawlins. Per the narrative:
-->[[OhCrap A foreboding chill twined about his vertebrae]]. This was an unusual phenomenon, for the Canadian lass, Doralene Rawlings, was generally believed to raise the temperature three degrees C. in any room where men were present. She was tall, strong, supple, red-haired, green-eyed, [[BuxomIsBetter unmistakably mammalian]], and addicted to skin-tight tunics and half-kneelength skirts.

* NobleSavage: Once the defeated Slissii realize the associations that come with being labled "injuns" by Wild West-acting Hokas, they milk this trope for all it's worth, to such spectacular effect that they manage to afford being able to hire a [[PutOnABus bus]].

* EverythingIsWorseWithBears: At least, for your sanity.

Humorous science-fiction series by Creator/PoulAnderson and GordonRDickson.