Funny / Digger

• From Digger and Shadowchild's encounter with the hyena pack:
  • Digger and Shadowchild whispering to each other as they're cornered:
    Shadowchild: Now what happens?
    Digger: Well, I can probably take two, and if you can take one, that only leaves five that will have to suffer simultaneous heart attacks.
    Shadowchild: Will that happen?
    Digger: No.
  • The hyenas declaring Digger a pervert, Digger's bewilderment at this, and Shadowchild's confusion.
    "What's a pervert?"
    "Tell you later."
    "Am I a—?"
    "No!"
  • Digger trying to persuade the hyenas not to eat her.
    "I'm positively vile! I wallow in my own filth! I'm corrupt and depraved and I smell funny! Dung beetles wouldn't touch me! I am uncleeeean!"
• One of the slug's prophecies is just a sentence fragment.
  Slug: Ahem. The leaf said "Bones of the sea."
  [Beat Panel]
  Digger: Bones of the sea what?
  Slug: Nothing. Just "Bones of the sea."
  Digger: That's it?
  Slug: Yep.
  Digger: That's not a prophecy! That's barely a phrase! What about the bones of the sea? Am I supposed to look for them, or avoid them, or sacrifice goats to them, or what?
  Slug: Look, buddy, they don't say "Continued on next leaf!" The leaf said "Bones of the sea," and that's what I told you. Don't salt the messenger. You want to sacrifice goats, that's your business.
• The vampire squash, and the best part is it's a real legend.
  • "It's a squash. I'm being attacked—or possibly romanced—by an angry squash."
• From Ain't No Rule:
  Jhalm: Honoured Burrower. Skulking though the woods I see?
  Digger: Is there a law against it?
  Jhalm: Several. But as you are unlikely to be either poaching or soliciting the sale of unnatural acts, I doubt we could make the charges stick.
• While Digger is protesting taking Murai along while investigating the tunnel.
  Statue of Ganesh: Burrower, I have many willing followers, but not very many of them can even fit a wombat tunnel. Of those who might make the trip, two are under nine years old, six are over ninety, and one is simple. Murai is the only choice.
  [Beat Panel while Digger thinks it over]
  Digger: How simple?
  Statue of Ganesh: He is not housebroken.
  Digger: Blood and shale...
• Boy, you can sure tell I was high when I dug this thing, can't you?
• Wombat Insurance
• And YES, I am conscious of the irony!"
• Never sign a work-for-hire contract with a god.
• The first time that Murai and Digger see the dead god...
  Murai: Honored Digger, my senses are not quite reliable... do you also see a team of lizards hauling on ropes forcing a giant suspended heart to beat?
  Digger: Yup.
  Murai: I had hoped it was the madness. This is horrible.
  Digger: And inefficient! Man, a couple of pulleys in the right places, and they could have halved their labor.
  Murai: *Death Glare*
  Digger: Yes, yes, morally reprehensible as well. I'm just sayin'.
• Digger describing the long trek back aboveground carrying an unconscious Murai:
  Murai was basically wire and bone, couldn't have weighed more than a hundred pounds dripping wet, and after fifteen minutes seemed to have the approximate weight of a pregnant hippopotamus.
• Surka the comedian.
• A whole page of funny. Death and pigs and penmanship...
• This next one is on a relatively spoiler-free page in the middle of a sea of spoilers. Be warned!
  Digger: You want me... to ride... the troll.
  Surka: Sure! They're quicker'n a greased porpoise in a sea o' snot!
  Digger: That metaphor did nothing whatsoever to sell me on the idea.
• The sound of a large gourd committing a kamikaze assault is difficult to render phonetically at the best of times.
• The line "What good is a god that doesn't fossilize?" is funny for how weird it is.
  • Also the fact that the Statue looks offended.
• Upon discovering that the temple's tomatoes grow antlers and fight each other (for a good reason):
  Digger: This is insane. You people have a serious problem with your vegetable crops around here!
  Statue of Ganesh: My point, burrower, is not horticultural.
• Oh Shadowchild.
  Shadowchild: Am I a hallucination?
  Digger: It'd make life easier, but no.
• The suicidal big toe.
  Digger: I have GOT to learn to stop asking these questions.
• Grim-Eyes talking about Shadowchild asking everything they hunt if they can talk, and mentioning that it thought a fish flopping on her line was doing a form of interpretive dance.
• Any scene that has Boneclaw Mother in it will be either this trope, or a Moment of Awesome, or a combination of both. Especially her first scene.
  • He smells adorable.
  • Some things are universal among parents.
  • Single combat. Cute.
• When Digger is fraught about having to eat liver, and the other hyenas start wondering what's taking her so long, Boneclaw Mother excuses it with "She's overcome with emotion."
• The following Vomit Discretion Shot. It Makes Sense in Context!
  Digger (narrating): "It appeared that Skull Ridges was displeased with the resting place of her earthly remains, and had decided to vacate the premises."
• Digger is being chewed out by the Hag for eating liver and making herself sick, and is being chewed out even more for drinking a medicinal draught from Owl-Caller.
  Hag: What on earth possessed you to just drink anything some canine witch doctor handed you?
  Digger: Well...
  (The Hag hands a cup to Digger)
  Hag: Here, drink this.
  • Followed by Digger commenting that the hyena had better bedside manner.
• The Statue of Ganesh very pointedly not using either reverse psychology or guilt to get Digger to accompany Murai on her journey up Peacock Mountain - almost certainly forgoing her chance to return home with Manuel the Trader. The last panel clinches it:
  Statue of Ganesh: Heh.
• Why arguing with Boneclaw Mother is a bad idea.
  Grim-Eyes: That's one of those fights where if you lose, you're humiliated, and if you win, you've beaten up a blind elder who can hardly walk on her own, which is arguably worse. She's good at using her weakness as a bludgeon.
  • Followed by the immortal justification used by parents everywhere: "Because I said so." Some things DO transcend culture.
• Ah, hyenas and romance. And for that matter, wombats and romance.
• Digger is ordinary as dirt!
• We're going to die, aren't we?
• Also pretty much anything to do with Herne, but especially this.
  • "Excuse me... are you a talking deer?" Oh, Shadowchild, we love you so much..
• Digger, Grim-Eyes, Murai and Herne all react differently to the sudden appearance of Shadowchild:
  Herne: What the...?
  Grim-Eyes: Oh, no.
  Murai: Greetings, honored demonspawn—
  Digger: Shadowchild? What are you doing here?
• There was an accident with a herbal supplement, okay?
• Man, I'm so glad I'm a herbivore.
• One moment while the group is trying to climb a mountain. Digger falls down a hole, and Grim Eyes comes up with a plan to get her out, which involves them pulling together. She decides the phrase for "start pulling" is "Bacon." This leads to "Bacon. BACON, DAMMIT!"
  • This one made the back of the print edition.
• This conversation in the abandoned monastery:
  Digger: My dear hunter-gatherer, allow me to introduce you to lignite. Grim Eyes, lignite. Lignite, Grim Eyes.
  Grim Eyes:...
  Digger: Brown coal. (Beat) Burning rocks.
  Grim Eyes: You can make rocks burn and you have a problem with magic?
• SOUND OF DISTANT ETHEREAL CHANTING! (There is no feasible onomotopeia for this) "Oh, great."
  • Then the ghost's reaction to Digger.
  • Then: SOMEWHAT MORE DISGRUNTLED ETHEREAL CHANTING!
  • BY-NOW-FAMILIAR SOUNDS OF GRUMPY ETHEREAL CHANTING!
• Grim Eyes learns her awesome grandma (or whatever she is) really isn't magic:
  Grim Eyes: Okay, he's coming this way. Do the thing! Do the thing!
  Boneclaw Mother: What thing?
  Grim Eyes: The thing where you tell people what they're thinking and freak 'em out!
  Boneclaw Mother: Grim Eyes, I love you, but you don't have the brains the gods gave an eggplant. The thing only works on people you've lived with for years who think their motivations are a lot better hidden than they really are.
  • It becomes a Moment of Awesome when she does it anyway after just a short conversation with Jhalm.
• In the cave, following a ledge along the upper edge of the wall.
  Ed: Ed is thinking Ed is being a little scared of heights...
  Digger: Lucky for you, we're so far underground that you'd have to tunnel a half-mile straight up to get anywhere near a height.
  Ed: Ed is not being comforted, somehow...
• "Do I have to go beat up Jhalm now? 'Cos I'm gonna need a minute."
  • Also, the reaction on the following panel:
    Murai: Honored Digger!
    Grim Eyes: Earth rat!
    Boneclaw Mother: Freaky adopted daughter!

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