One of the most long-running, famous and beloved comic strips in Argentina, Inodoro Pereyra was created by el Negro Fontanarrosa as an Affectionate Parody of Martín Fierro.
The comic is about the life of a lonely, lazy and ugly Argentinian gaucho living in the Argentinian Pampa with his talking dog and ugly wife. The character introduces himself saying: "I'm Pereyra by my Mom, and Inodoro (meaning ‘toilet’, used ironically due to his father's profession) because my Dad was a sewage worker."
This work shows examples of these tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Inodoro Pereyra is a lazy and ugly Gaucho, loosely based on Martín Fierro. Cruz, an important character in the masterwork of José Hernández, even made a cameo in one of his first comic strips, but the two works take different paths and Inodoro Pereyra averts following the original work.
- Character Catchphrase: "¡Qué lo parió!" for Mendieta.
- Laborious Laziness: Inodoro hasn't a known job. And his "business", according to himself, is the monocultive of parsley... in The Pampas grasslands.
- Long-Runners: Has been running consistently since 1972.
- Meaningful Name: Inodoro (Toilet), calling to mind his general unattractiveness.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Mendieta, Inodoro's permanently-transformed lobizón, frequently appears alongside him for conversations and drinks.
- Partially Civilized Animal: Mendieta is a dog, but he converses and drinks mate with Inodoro. That's due to Mendieta being a ''lobizón''
, a man which transformed into a dog on the full moon. Unfortunately, he turned into a lobizón during a moon eclipse, and remained transformed into a dog (emperráu), but with the ability to speak nonetheless. - Polly Wants a Microphone: A hostile flock of parrots usually speaks with Mendieta and insult him. They also engage in very elaborated pranks to put Inodoro in ridiculous situations. Not even the (usually astute) Mendieta is able to prevent the pranks from happening. (Or, one suspects, he secretly enjoys them but keeps silent about it.)
- Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Mendieta is a lobizón, a human who turns into a dog at the full moon, but he remains permanently a dog due to transforming during a lunar eclipse.
