History Webcomic / PvP

* TheDitz: Skull.

* GagSeries

* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: Miranda.

* TheJeeves: Butler.

* SkywardScream

* StraightMan: Cole
* StraightGay: Max

* VersusTitle

* {{Deconstruction}}: Ladies and Gentlemen, [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2009/12/07/high-pitched-pitch/ Gordy and the Prarie Dogs]] "[[Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks Hula Hoops!]]".

''[[http://www.pvponline.com/ PvP]]'' is a gaming webcomic started in 1998 by cartoonist Scott Kurtz. It takes place around the office of a small magazine production company that produces the gaming magazine "[=PvP=]", focusing mostly on the office antics of a straight-laced boss, his snobby best friend, their bratty sixteen year old intern, a naive, careless troll, and two frat boys. Over time, the cast gained a female counterpart to the intern, a love interest for the snob in the form of a feminist gamer, and some other characters. It originally started as a pastiche AffectionateParody of video games and geek culture in general, moving away from that towards just being a slice of life comedy about its characters and an AffectionateParody of every 80s sitcom ever made.

* {{Deconstruction}} - Ladies and Gentlemen, [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2009/12/07/high-pitched-pitch/ Gordy and the Prarie Dogs]] "[[Franchise/AlvinAndTheChipmunks Hula Hoops!]]".

* TheDitz - Skull.
* EveryEpisodeEnding - Every "Bulldog and Cooch" segment ends with their vehicle or house boat blowing up.

* ExpressiveMask - Scratch Fury as Kringus.
* ExternalCombustion - The "Bulldog and Cooch" strips.

* TheFaceless - Jase's girlfriend, Bonnie.

* FantasticRacism - Skull occasionally expresses some disdain over the usual portrayal of trolls.

* ForgottenAnniversary - The author admitted when Brent and Jade's anniversary came that he'd forgotten it... so he followed up with a strip with both of them forgetting it.

* FrenchMaid - Robbie had one while trying out servants. See RealJokeName.

* GamerChick - Marcy is a cookie cutter example (right down to the {{Tsundere}} girlfriend aspects). Averted with Jade.

* GratuitousGerman - [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2009/09/28/schaden-fraud/ Here]]. Made even more hilarious by the comic notes.
* {{GIRL}} - Francis's ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' character, Catfight.
* HeavyMetalUmlaut - Parodied when Francis makes a FakeBand and initially wants to call it "Umlaüt". When he finds this was already taken by a real life band, he settles on "Djörk".
* HelloNurse - [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2012/01/05/hello-nurse/ here]].
* HeroicBuild - Francis of all people has this. Played with in that it's genetic as he doesn't work out.
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep - Butler. As well as one-shot character [[http://pvponline.com/comic/jul-15-2006 Suitecannes]] (pronounced "Sweet-can").
* HollywoodNerd - To a certain extent, Brent is this. He pretends he's not a nerd, but his interests are very nerd-oriented. Furthermore, as in this trope, he's good-looking and socially adept (in other words, "normal"). The twist is that Brent is the ''only'' HollywoodNerd in the main cast (except maybe Max Powers and Jade), since Francis and Cole are closer to popular perceptions of nerdom.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo - [[spoiler:Duck fires Cole]] and justifies it by claiming that [[spoiler:Cole is the reason the company is in such dire straits now. [[JerkassHasAPoint Which is at least partially true]], since Cole did hide the company's floundering finances instead of seeking help earlier.]]
* IHatePastMe - Somewhat played with. Duck is what Max once was. Max has a bit of a HeroicBSOD once he realizes what it's like to be on the other end.
* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey - Miranda.

* IntercontinuityCrossover - PVP has crossed over with Kurtz's other creations Captain Amazing and Samwise.

* TheJeeves - Butler.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold - Brent. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2010/04/07/family-matters-2/ this strip.]]
* [[JugglingLoadedGuns Juggling Loaded Rayguns]] - [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2008/09/15/count-of-two/ 2008/09/15]], when Scratch tries to threaten someone with his [[ShurFineGuns ray gun]].
* KlatchianCoffee - Francis' twitch gamer 'power drink'.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall - [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2010/04/07/family-matters-2/ This strip]] starts out as this, but moves on to straight-up [[BreakingTheFourthWall breaking it.]][[note]]In fact, Francis calls out [[DeadpanSnarker two]] [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold tropes]] by name and references a [[CheatedAngle third]].[[/note]]
* LevelUpAtIntimacy5 - Francis and Marcy. Literally. Came free with complimentary [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]].

* MoodWhiplash - Brent and Jade's wedding.
* MundaneWish - Subverted. When a genie offered Brent and Cole one wish, they used it to get the General Lee from ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'', but enjoy it so much they seem to have no regrets.

* NotSoImaginaryFriend - Skull's super-intelligent cat.

* ObliviousAdmirer - Ricky "Turtle" Tuttle is this to Francis.

* PacmanFever - [[http://pvponline.com/comic/2012/09/26/going-to-the-chapel Francis gets a ring with a Pokemon on it]]. Not a specific Pokemon, just "a Pokemon". A minor example, but considering Francis and Marcy are supposed to be nerds, the reference feels awkward. Of course the fact they are completely drunk at the time might help explain it.
* PaintballEpisode - a paintball storyline gets most of the rules right, then turns around and intentionally gets them wrong.
* PandaingToTheAudience - The Office Panda.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything - Very rarely does the plot involve the cast actually having to produce a magazine. The rest of the time the office is just a setting for hijinks.

* ProductPlacement - Not necessarily in the comic itself, but several of the site designs have been lousy with it, almost to the point that clicking anywhere outside the comic accidentally would take you to a sponsor site.

* ProudToBeAGeek - The whole cast, with the exception of Jade. Even she might just be a different style of geek...

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality - Particularly obvious with the treatment of Max Powers. He is, by all appearances, a friendly guy who's happy to help, whose worst crimes are being successful and pulling bad jokes [[http://www.websnark.com/archives/2004/10/because_i_keep.html no worse than the protagonists would pull]]. Yet every time he stopped by the [=PvP=] office he was received like he was some sort of colossal dick dead set on destroying everything the staff held dear, for no discernible reason. This was confronted and deconstructed during the [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2008/11/19/excuses-excuses/ Thanksgiving 2008 arc]].

* PunchClockVillain - [[http://pvponline.com/comic/2005/11/01/tue-nov-01 The Panda]].

* RealJokeName - Butler and the FrenchMaid Suitecannes.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot - Not long after Scott Kurtz moved from Dallas to Seattle in 2009, the [=PvP=] staff made a similar relocation.

* RedundantParody - In one Lolbat strip we see his GrammarNazi-themed RoguesGallery. Kurtz made one of the villains "Onomatopoeia" as a joke both on the theme and the use of onomatopoeia in the sixties Series/{{Batman}} show. However, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia_%28comics%29 there actually is a DC Comics villain called Onomatopoeia]], based on a sinister reinterpretation of the same reference, and he even looks somewhat similar (by coincidence) to what Kurtz drew. To his credit, on being informed of this Kurtz edited the strip and replaced him with a palindrome-themed villain.

* RunningGag - Several:

* SeventiesHair - Bulldog and Cooch. [[WebOriginal/LOLCats They haz it]].
* SexAsRiteOfPassage - Combined with a PlotRelevantAgeUp with Francis and Marcy.

* SitcomArchnemesis - Max Powers.

* SpeaksInShoutouts - Lolbat with internet memes.
* StraightMan - Cole

* SunglassesAtNight - Brent: He wore them under his bandages when he was blinded, and when he took them off, he was BlindWithoutEm.

* TakeThat - Kurtz inserts plenty of these, aimed at a wide range of targets.

* ThanksForTheMammary - Francis honks Jade's boob when he thinks that he's in the future and therefore his actions have no consequences (ItMakesSenseInContext). This leads to Jade leaving [=PvP=] to start her her own magazine.

* TwoGamersOnACouch - Robbie and Jase were very nearly a parody of this as a B side story. At one point they got locked in their playing room for four months and didn't even notice.

* UnconventionalSmoothie - Francis's twitch-gamer power drink.
* UnfortunateNames - When Skull creates his VideoGame/CityOfHeroes character, he makes a fire-based hero which he wants to name ''Flame Retardant.'' Unfortunately, the game engine's limitations prevent him from entering the whole thing which then ends up being ''Flame Retard'' instead.
* VivaLasVegas - [[spoiler:Francis and Marcie]] get a quickie Vegas marriage during a gaming tournament.

* WhatTheHellHero - Done twice in a row. [[spoiler:Max breaks into Cole's office and figures out [=PvP=] is going under and Cole calls him out on it and promptly fires him... But then Brent, after finding out Max is indeed right and that Cole had been ignoring Max, gives Cole an epic slap to the face.]]
* WhamLine - [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2013/06/14/change-of-plans1 "I'm late."]]

* WholePlotReference - Although the strip frequently alludes to films, comics and video games in its plots, the confrontation between Cole and Lucille which played out over several strips at the end of a 2013 LARP arc is taken practically line-by-line from the confrontation between Luke and the Emperor from ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', with Cole as Luke, Lucille as the Emperor, and [[spoiler:Max]] as Vader.
* YoungerThanTheyLook - Cole, Brent, Robbie and Jase were college roommates, which suggests they're around the same age. Cole states in one early strip that he's ''about to turn 30''. He looks a solid 15 years older than Brent.
* YourMom - [[http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2009/06/16/old-the-phone/ Expertly delivered by Francis.]]
* ZanyScheme - Referred to as "Wacky Adventure". On one occasion Cole actually vetoed a perfectly good plan to discover the identity of Jade's online romance on the grounds that it wasn't interestingly wacky enough.

** Scott once mentioned in his blog that after he moved into the Webcomic/PennyArcade offices, he and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Krahulik Mike]] started copying elements of each others' styles.

** In RealLife, Gabe and Tycho from PennyArcade, their good-natured cruelty to each other popping up in a strip every once in a while. Scott's foreword to one of their print collections ended with "Fuck them, and fuck you for buying this book and not PVP," and Gabe and Tycho refer to Scott as "Steve Kuntz" on a regular basis. Now that Scott is living in Seattle and working in the Penny Arcade offices, one only assumes that the hijinks will continue.

** Brent is actually an aversion, and while he admits to "interests that coincide with nerdity" he denies being an actual nerd, which Francis (a straight example of this trope) calls him out on. He's an avowed Apple geek who will buy ''any'' product they make, a D&D player, a gamer, he plays ''WorldOfWarcraft'' with his wife (who's in many ways geekier than him), quotes movies constantly, has declared Creator/JossWhedon his master, almost dropped out of college because he was hooked on Sega games, and consistently gets into arguments about genre fiction or gaming with Francis and Cole. [[BlatantLies But he's not a nerd. Definitely not a nerd.]]

* CameBackWrong: One of the party during the "Mines of Madness" TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons arc, his soul accidently becomes fused with the Gelatinous Cube that dissolved his body. [[spoiler:He thinks it's awesome.]]

** This [[http://pvponline.com/comic/2017-01-25 strip]] has made a bite on AuthorTract for Cole rather than being one itself.

* ButWeUsedACondom: Jade's pregnancy scare.

* {{Defictionalization}}: ''Farty Troll'' was made into [[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.toonhound.fartytroll&hl=en a real mobile game]].

** Brent occasionally shows some same-sex attraction, but he's always [[PlayedForLaughs playing it for laughs]] in-universe. Like Miranda, he may just be messing with people.

* CameBackWrong: One of the party during the "Mines of Madness" TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons arc. [[spoiler:He thinks it's awesome.]]

** [[http://pvponline.com/comic/getting-drafty-in-here This]] is a parody ending of one of the original Twilight Zones' most famous episodes,[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last Time Enough At Last]].

* TheUnseen: [[http://pvponline.com/comic/abby-normal Abby]], who was apparently a member of their D&D campaign who didn't work out.

* NeverWinTheLottery: [[http://pvponline.com/comic/mon-nov-07 Inverted. Hard.]] It ends up laying the groundwork and providing fuel and/or settings for multiple major story arcs, not to mention CharacterDevelopment out the wazoo, as well as introducing significant new characters.

** [[http://pvponline.com/comic/apr-21-2006 A line-up of pandas]] included Pan Pan from ''WebAnimation/Homestar Runner'''s 20X6.

* DidntWeUseThisJokeAlready: Brent's about to tell a joke, then realises they'd already done it before. He panics and blurts out "[[BreathlessNonSequitor Candle harmonica monkey fart]]!" [[spoiler: Cut to ten years prior and Francis saying the same thing.]]

*** Also, the old [=WoW=] guilds (Panda Attack for [=PvP=], the Knights of Arcadia for Penny Arcade) were pretty much an online, massively-multiplayer extension of the real-life relationship between the two. [[CtrlAltDel B^Uckley]] tried to get in on it with his own guild, but when Kurtz, Krahulik, and Holkins would have none of it, he ended things on a predictable note (e.g. massive hostility for all).