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Being a comedy, Paranatural is naturally full of humour on almost every page. This is a list of some of the webcomic's best.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.


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     General 

  • All of P.J.
  • All of Isaac's Shonen protagonist moments. All of them.
  • Max's dad, in all his irresponsible, silly glory. Some examples:

     Chapter 1: The Activity Club and the New Kid 

     Chapter 2: Max and the Midnight Visitor 

     Chapter 3: Max, Isaac and the Secret Shortcut 

  • Isaac's use of idiom backfires since Max takes it literally: "What? No, I meant ... like, join the club of not ... not being told what..."
  • Max and Isaac abscond over a fence, and Ollie suggests Johnny to use him to climb over the fence. Johnny's response is to angrily scream, "THE FRIENDSHIP FUSION IS NOT A LADDER, IT IS A UNION OF SOULS!!"
    • Made even better in the alttext - "well how about I just throw you over - THE CAMARADERIE CANNON IS NOT FOR CLEARING OBSTACLES."
  • Johnny and Max's back and forth:
    Max: Johnny, I am picking up real subtle hints that you are a huge ludicrous oaf. I take it you still want to fight me?
    Johnny: "On a scale of yes to no"
    "Yes."
    Max: Wow, you just went full Zen Bully there. Pretty sure I'm enlightened now. ...And therefore a pacifist. ...And therefore can't fight you.
    Johnny: I'll pass a fist through your face
    Why you gotta play hard to beat up
  • Max's reaction to Johnny breaking his scooter. "I DON'T UNDERSTAAAND"
  • Suzy getting Max's attention by throwing her cellphone at his head from a moving bus.
    • On the next page, we find out that her ringtone is obnoxiously loud dubstep.
  • Suzy and Max's phone call.
    Suzy: HEY THERE, BUTTLIEGE! Do any activities lately?
    Max: SUZY. It WAS you!! You psychopath! You nearly chipped my flipping skull!!
    Suzy: Oh, chin up, scrub. I'm sure it's nothing that dumb hat of yours can't hide. No but seriously keep your chin up and maybe also put some ice on that
    Max: YOU ARE A MENACE.
    Suzy: Yes, well, know that I'm sorry about denting your forehead as you are about ignoring my invitation to hang with us journalism folks yesterday. Which is to say...not very? Very a lot sorry? You tell me.
    Max: I DON'T WANT TO JOIN YOUR STUPID CLUB. YOU CRAZED GOBLIN.
    Suzy: I'm trying to help you find a new passion, Max. A life without passion is like a fish without a bicycle in a parallel universe where fish ride bicycles.
    Max: You giving me advice is like an idiot giving me advice.
    Suzy: Haha! So charming!
  • Page 21 of chapter 3. The faces Isaac makes as he effortlessly stomps the bridge spirit, and then nonchalantly finds a way around his Invisible Wall.
  • Johnny's fake heart-to-heart. "I forgot where I was going with this but the takeaway is your parents don't love each other."
  • Max has just jumped through a bus using the emergency windows. What's Suzy's reaction? "3D blackmail."
    Colin: My god, you're crazy like the rest of them.
  • Johnny and his self-defeating chase. The scooter breaks due to his meddling, but he's still able to ride it until Max regains his bat and attracts the entire scooter back to his bat, leading to Johnny wiping out and smacking a rock.
  • Isaac and Max wind up in a position to eavesdrop on a phone call between Spender and his (unknown at the time) superior. Max manages to restrain himself, until a target comes along that he simply cannot resist:
    Spender: I don't see why this warranted a phone call. Honestly, it's bad enough seeing you in my dreams every night.
    Max: (bursting out from behind the couch) I DO DECLARE
  • The faces... THE FACES.note  Isabel compliments the paper making Isaac looking like a "brooding anti-hero", while Ed's busy wiping the ink off of his face by dragging his face against the floor.
  • Spender's reaction to being handed a possessed pencil: going "mmnnyurrh" while his facial features start sliding off.
    • Mr. Spender not having an answer to why there's a Masquerade.
  • A Funny Background Event: the late pass Mr. Spender gives Max literally just says "Late Pass"

     Chapter 4: The Activity Club and the Ghost Train 

     Chapter 5: The Activity Club and the Insidious Infiltrator 
  • When Max first wakes up after the whole Ghost Train debacle, it takes him a minute to remember his filter.
    Max's Dad: Oh ho! The son rises! How'd you sleep, li'l guy?
    Max: Mmn. Briefly. I feel like I got hit on by a train. Hit by a train.
  • While trying to uncover the mysteries of his new belongings, Spender gets a brilliant idea.
  • Johnny and the gang's advanced bullying tactics.
    Johnny: WHAT'S MAX'S DEAL?
    Ollie: What's your favorite flavor of movie?
    Johnny: WHO'S IN HIS CREW, AND HOW DO THEY FLOAT?
    Ollie: Did you know that everything's going to be alright?
  • During Hitball, Johnny and the crew contemplate RJ's picture of the paranatural crew floating above the ghost train, and Johnny laments that Stephen isn't there to help them solve the case, stating that he's cracked harder ones. Stephen's flashback/dream response is that it's by lizardmen. Complete with a pointing finger and a goofy expression.
  • Suzy shows off the blackmail photo she has of Max - the author apologizes for it.
  • The sheer blatantness of the Vice Principal's Paper-Thin Disguise, which consists of a T-shirt, fake arms, baseball cap, and jeans settled on her Gag Nose.
  • Jeff flings a ball that almost hits Max and leaves a crater in the bleachers. Cue a page of everyone reacting to this with shock and horror... except for one person.
    Cody: Wow, Jeff! Nice throw!
    Everyone else: Read the mood!
  • While getting Max escorted out of the gym, one bully is leaning by the door, mocking how "The new kid cried like a baby does!", only to be quickly pulled away by Ollie so Johnny can be the one leaning against the door dramatically.
  • Johnny screaming that he's the "roughest, Toughest, BUFFEST kid in SCHOOL!" as he flings himself off of a rope swing.
    • Said plan for the swing was for Ollie to launch Johnny at RJ (who's holding a baseball bat) at fifty miles per hour.
  • Isaac spots Isabel and Ed sprinting through the hall and starts to reprimand them, but Isabel grabs him as they pass, prompting an interesting combination of words.
    Isaac: Uhh, you guys know running in the halls is frowned upon by— JESUS
  • The gym/Jim confusion between Ed and Isaac.
  • Max remembers Hijack's invitation and finds it weird that a spirit would have a house or like video games.
  • After the ruckus with the hitball game, Jeff has apparently been placed in a cardboard box labelled "Calm Down Cube".
    Principal Pleezdo: Feeling better, young man?
    Jeff: The yelling's inside instead of outside now.
  • When the Doctopi on Max gleefully senses Mr. Spender's chest injury, Spender...panics.
  • The Journalism Club tries to get some dirt on the Activity Club via the wire on Max...only for the information to be sabotaged constantly. Max has placed a note on himself saying that he's bugged and casually threw out that he isn't in a very obvious manner. He also shuts up Spender when he's about to state the club's purpose. Then there's Dimitri snarking at Collin, causing him to leave, then the feedback from the wire keeps getting cut out due to Dimitri getting tangled in the wires,, then when it's Dimitri's turn at hearing the noise, he gets this interpretation:
    Dimitri: OK so it's mostly static but I'm pretty sure I heard the words "burning" and "the governor" and "in effigy".
    Suzy (frantically writing): HOLY GOD.
    • Then it's revealed that Dimitri had never pressed the button to record the audio. The next panel cuts with a caption of "Five minutes of screaming later".
  • Some of Mr. Starchman's hobbies include: Ice skating on wet floors, sitting on the vending machine and throwing change to kids like they were birds, and getting along with animals better than Cinderella.
  • Dr. Zarei's failed attempt to be intimidating, which provokes the opposite reaction.
    Agent Day: THAT WAS THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER OMG
    Dr. Zarei: STOP!! Saying that internet word out loud!!
  • This entire page is golden but "I know you are gay, but try to keep your composure." is a line out of legend.
    Patchworm: you are hiding under a table from a blind woman
    Dr. Zarei: It's a REASONABLE PRECAUTION! She found me in the plaza, didn't she?? She! assembled! a very flattering outfit!! We don't know what she's capable of!!!
  • The reveal of Agent Day's spirit, Venus Guytrap, not just for the incredibly great name, but because he uses Flowery Elizabethan English, and that's just wonderful.
  • Johnny's attempt to interrogate Ed. First there's Ed's reaction to the vague demand of "tell me everything", then he psychologically destroys Johnny, then there's his martial arts fantasies, then he accidentally yanks off Johnny's shirt trying to judo throw him so he just hits him in the gut instead, and finally Muse pops in to congratulate him and advise that they beat up even more children.
    • After deconstructing Johnny's bully behavior, Ed resignedly tells him to go ahead and punch him. Johnny looks very uncomfortable, and we get this gem of a Rant:
      if you turn the other cheek fast enough you can really get some force behind it and use it for offensive striking purposes
    • Johnny is wearing a shirt with a picture of a heart with "UR MOM" in it. When Ed strikes Johnny in the chest, knocking him over, the Alt Text says:
      Johnny's shirt is a hazard in battle because it shows your enemy both the location of your heart and the identity of the woman you love
  • Middle School politics is Serious Business.
  • The introduction of Flipflop, Isabel's new spirit. When Isabel raises her hand at him, he immediately ducks for cover and pleads for her not to blast him. After he tells her his power of flipping things, he ducks for cover again and tells her to blast him.
  • The end result of Johnny v Ed: Ed wearing Johnny's shirt like a bandana and RJ wielding a locker door as a shield.
    • Johnny then has a mental breakdown, followed by Ed having the Ed-equivalent of the same.
      Johnny: If I should be more, or less Johnny... and if the Johnny I've been really is who Johnny is or the only Johnny I can be. Johnny.
      Ed: Hmmm.
      (Beat)
      Ed (thinking): Oh man, he's totally expecting me to say something helpful or inspiring... but I'm no good at that! W-what should I do??
      Ed's mental image of Muse: Squats. Ten billion squats.
      Ed's mental image of Isabel's Grandpa: The dishes. Also squats.
      Ed's mental image of Isabel: Never talk to me again. Unfriended.
      Ed (thinking): No good, I have to dig deeper! What would my fictional mentors say in a situation like this??
    • He eventually just decides to recycle some stock inspirational quotes, which blow Johnny's mind anyway.
  • Johnny explains RJ's backstory after casually mentioning that RJ is nonbinary. RJ then ruins the moment.
    Johnny: From that day forward, RJ swore a vow of song an' silence... t'only use their voice for that which is truly metal.
    RJ: That's right.
    [Beat Panel]
    RJ: Irony is extremely metal.
  • After befriending Johnny and RJ, Ed sees a golden opportunity for more man power. Their reaction says it all.
  • After Johnny, RJ, and Ed manage to take down Mr. Starchman, we find out that a massive horde of other students was also pursuing him for his Starchman Stars just off camera. Apparently they've been trying for centuries.
  • Lucifer's reaction to Hijack revealing his connection to Dr. Zarei is that she's his mom. He's 600 years old and way too old for this shit.
  • Mr. Spender is confronted by Isaac. Isaac has drastically misinterpreted the situation though due to misunderstanding the explanation, and doesn't do himself any favors by similarly misunderstanding Spender's response.
  • Hijack playing the villain.
    Hijack!Spender: The teachers's lounge is where the teachers are. *Beat* ...At their most vulnerable. While lounging.
    • It then devolves into standard Saturday morning villain evil plots:
      Hijack!Spender: The world is impure. Therefore it is ethical, to destroy the earth.
      Max: GOD, you're the WORST!
    • The multiple Beat Panels with Ed and Isabel glancing at each other and back at Hijack, while Hijack stays frozen with the same pose and expression.
  • Dimitri's dodging strategy freaks out Hijack!Spender and Max. So much for his villain shtick.
  • P.J. and Max's interaction on this page.
    Max: ...Sorry, these things pop into my head and I say them. It's- you're fine.
  • The summary of the situation to Spender.
    Max: Yeah, dude was one part faux intellectual and two parts baby, so basically impossible to tell it wasn't you.
    Spender: I see... it sounds like you had it pretty rough.
    Isaac: ...you're just gonna take that, sir?
  • Hijack mentioning that his name on Miiverse is SlendermanMario. The mashup of interests on display is amusing enough, but picturing Mario with Slenderman proportions makes it even better.
  • The sudden switch on mood from the Dave using the vampire rules so that Cody will have to obey. He first demands completely serious that he destroys Hijack... and then tells him "Also, give me a kiss". Cody's face as he does so says it all.

     Chapter 6: Stephen and the Suspension of Disbelief 
  • When rebuffing his mom on how he got suspended from school, Stephen gives this line:
    Stephen: It's not my fault if Principal Pleezdoo wants to HATE ME JUST because I drove her hatchback through the quote unquote "open house".
    • Stephen's mom derails herself during her argument when she brings up her desire to be a stage magician. After grounding Stephen, his response is to angrily rip the tablecloth off while leaving all the food intact, including the mess the baby made. Stephen's mom goes back to dreaming about being a magician while her husband consoles her.
  • DJ Mothman responds to an angry comment a minute after it's posted and goes by the Overly Long Name of "APEX CELEBRITY THE GOD DJ MOTHMAN".
  • The clash of ideologies between Stephen and Ritz Price-Lee. Stephen claims that beating up innocent people is acceptable, but draws a line at beating up innocent animals. Ritz, meanwhile, beats up animals not for fun, but because they're poor.
    Ritz: Animals have been free-loading on our planet for WAY too long. SOMEone needs to teach them a lesson. Maybe then they'll stop eating berries in the woods or whatever and get a real job.
  • Ritz's expression as she trips over the dog.
  • After Stephen returns the dog, he finds out it was all a trick. Lavish Price, mother of Ritz, hijacked all the lost dog posters in town with her own phone number so that she can create a bitcoin mining dog slave ring.
    • Soon afterwards, Lavish's accomplice reveals himself to be an undercover cop trying to bust her for her crimes. Specifically, war crimes.
  • The end of the arc has Stephen sneaking the dog into his room and hurriedly trying to hide it from his mother. She catches him in the act, but because it looks like he's practicing some stage magic, she's driven to Ocular Gushers levels of Tender Tears.

     Chapter 7: Mr. Spender and the Activity Club 
  • Spender thinks that the bowl Jean is bringing with him is a curative poultice.
    Jean: It's spaghetti. What in the hell is a poultice.
  • Amy managing to beat Francisco with a ladle despite being unable to see him.
    Francisco: Gah! Who gave her a haunted ladle!?
    Amy: Don't sass me! Spectral or not, I have a sixth sense for sass!
  • When Spender takes Isabel camping.
    Francisco: Isabel. No tears tonight.
    Isabel: [looks hurt]
    Francisco: So if Spender cries, destroy him.
    Isabel: [snorts]
  • Jean welcomes the campers.
    Jean: All right you kooky campers. The first rule you gotta follow at Camp Lakeside is that it's happy faces only while you're here.
    [cut to Spender with a goofy-looking grin, young Isabel looking confused, and Mina's expression of irritation]
    Jean: So I'm gonna need you guys to average out what you got goin' on.
  • Jean's new workmates are Ageless Vampire Thralls Gage, Paige and Youth Culture, who, according to Jean, "sit in the shade and drink V8 all day". For bonus points, their cooler has a medical cross on one side and has the word "BLOOD" clumsily crossed out and replaced with "NORMAL DRINKS".
    "We have like a mutually assured destruction thing going on vis-a-vis our whole "none of us doing any work" situation. But there's a respect there too."
    "We hate you Jean."
  • After the shift into "text with art" as the medium, Paige tells a story about a monster that has never been seen, but leaves huge footprints and gashes in the walls as it goes.
    Jean: I thought that that was bears. Well, I thought that that was you guys but I told management it was bears.
    Paige: And then, of course...there are the KIDS that have gone missing.
    Jean: I thought that that was bears.
    [everyone but the vampires looks at him in horror]
    Jean: I'm kidding, I'm kidding! Nobody's gone missing, don't listen to her.
  • The narration lampshades that the "teens" are doing a terrible job of pretending they're not vampires, and the humans are doing an even worse job of noticing.
  • Spender meeting Catnine. He's even more arrogant than he is in the main comic.
    "I'm Spender. Richard Spender." Up here on the bubble, there were no ten year-olds to snicker at his hokey gravitas. "And you are?"
    "THE GREAT KING CATNINE DOESN'T DEIGN TO EXCHANGE NAMES WITH INSECTS!"
    Spender fought the urge to look directly at the camera.
  • We get to see Isaac's parents for the first time and now we know why he has such an anime protagonist air to him: they look like orange-haired Sailor Moon and Goku (with a mustache)

     Chapter 8: Mayview and the Dark Before Daybreak 

  • Fun Mayview activities: The local arcade is a lawless wasteland where customers hunt each other for prizes.
    "Well, I—oh, just a moment. That's my target over there." Max's dad pulled a wanted poster from within the ball pit to double check his bounty's mugshot, then revealed a laser pistol in a similar manner and fired off a few blasts over Max's shoulder. A six-year-old waddling past a nearby craps table screeched and ducked for cover; there wasn't enough room at Jackpot Junior's for a dedicated laser tag arena, so a rolling gunfight with haphazard cowboy LARP elements dominated the casino floor instead. "Walk with me, son," Mr. Puckett said, wading towards the pit's edge to coup de grace his target at close range.
  • It's been mentioned before that Suzy is being blackmailed by Lisa. She has some secret that she will do anything to keep hidden. Most of all, she wants to keep it from Isabel, who she definitely doesn't have a crush on. So what is her secret? What terrible thing lies in her past? She's Mr. Starchman's daughter.
    Isabel, however, had missed her English teacher's intimation for the much less subtle gossip that preceded it. "Wait, Mr. Starchman is your dad?" she asked, stating Suzy's greatest, most humiliating secret—the one she'd lied and bribed and schemed and suffered under Lisa's thumb to hide—with all too mild surprise. Besides the School Store's blackmailing proprietress, no one but the Journalism Club, for whom Starchman was advisor in name only, knew that Suzy was related to the world's most mortifying jester of a man. But now... now... "You're Suzy Starchman? Huh! I guess there was something I didn't know about you."
    Suzy's banshee shriek echoed out across both Mayview hills and up into a rosy twilight sky.
  • Cody's plan to escape to find his missing mom involves having to make sure his father thinks he's completely away from danger by making sure he gives him a command to stay in his room so powerful that wouldn't ever believe he could escape. Or, as the Hijacks put it...
    Hijack: "You... you want your dad to ground you with a vampire command?"
    Cody: "I want him to ULTRA SUPER MEGA EXTRA ground me!"
  • Stephen's mother Captain Henchman notices a conflict brewing between Fauxbia and Cody, and attempts to defuse the tension by pulling a quarter from behind the Witch's ear. Fauxbia's response?
    Fauxbia: "That's mine. Put it back."
  • After years of foreshadowing and build-up, the leader of Mayview's Death Cult is revealed. We finally get to see Razor Rex, in all her glory... Singing karaoke with Davy Jones. She looks ridiculous.
  • Baxter (Sister Cat) spends the entire party shamelessly sucking up to Razor Rex, using cat puns, and dunking on her fellow cultists.
    "He's normally more PINK than black and blue, your wretchedness," purred Sister Cat. She was perched on Razor Rex's lap, gazing down at Coach Oop with a pompous, feline sneer. "Perhaps now that Ape's shown you his true colors, he'll have the decency to BLUSH, and then we'll get to see a happy medium—I know I'd rather see THAT than this SAD ONE! AH-ha ha HA!"
    Razor Rex pet Baxter like the lapcat of a villain in a James Bond movie, which everyone thought was honestly a little bit much.
    "I COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF, SISTER CAT," the goddess lied. She totally could have said it better, because she had a beautiful voice, like a dying pterodactyl, and because Oop wasn't a medium so the wordplay didn't quite work. It was bad form to undermine your flunkies' dunks, though, and she'd sound like a huge nerd correcting a math teacher, so Razor Rex just went with it instead.

     Other 
  • All of the Supernormal gag strips but especially this one
  • Jeff's shirt on the cast page is a Lenny face with the word "troll" underneath it.
  • Zack's first attempt at naming Isabel's grandpa.
    Tumblr user: ZACK NO. NO. FRASCO IS NOT A NAME. IT LITERALLY MEANS BOTTLE.
    Zack: WELP.
  • Various Twitter sketches. Highlights include:
    • Suzy's explanation of the pizza incident.
      Suzy: He threw an entire pizza out a window.
      [Beat]
    • Forge misunderstands a commentator's question on his art form as "heart form" and descends into an angry rant.
    • When asked what his favorite burger is, Ed's response is to eat a hamburger and then not get the question.
    • Max's dad getting off of work early and visiting Max in his chicken mascot outfit.
    • Johnny's description of how he works out quickly devolves into nonsense, ending with "Loops, LARPs, lips, Death Jags and a balanced diet".
    • Forge and Doorman engaging in a game of Twister, with Nin calling the colors.
    • Isaac's Magical Girl Transformation turns him into...Isaac, except wet.
    • The Imaax pairing is portrayed as...Isaac and Max going to an Imax movie theater.
      Isaac: That sure is a big screen.
      Max: Mm-hmm.
    • Ed and Isaac being thrown around the out-of-control Ghost Train.
      Ed: I don't want to die off screen!
  • Zack draws the Activity Club members' ice cream flavors. Max has a snappy response to his gray ice cream, Ed is given a pizza, Spender tries to be dramatic with his chocolate/vanilla swirl, and Isaac just sips water from a cone.
  • This banner ad, featuring several overdramatic Isaacs, with one cradling a dying Isaac in his arms. The banner's message is "believe in yourself".
  • From the store:
    • Walker's tuxedo speedo on the Dream Vacation print, complete with dangling tie.
    • The Insolent Children shirt description:
      fill yourself with the spirit of the Insolent Child, who defies the authority of grown-ups, even when you're mid-mid-life crisis and the adult you're standing up to is a 22 year old barista. The whole world is your dad, and you HATE THAT GUY.
    • RJ's hood being pulled shut on the Friendship Fusion print.
    • The entire product description of the Friendship Fusion print.
      Commemorated in this poster print, the Johnny gang’s ultimate technique multiplies their brainpower and powerpower fourfold by fusing them into one being. Asked for comment, local tween Maxwell Puckett, who has survived an encounter with a partial Friendship Fusion, remarked “get away from me, Suzy” and “anything times zero is still zero,” like some kind of math nerd. In conclusion, the Friendship Fusion is a combination of contrasts.
      • The last sentence reads as if Suzy is BS-ing an essay.
  • To make up for missing two updates due to wrist strain, Zack made a short story using text-to-speech about the Activity Club (sans Ed, who runs off to play with bumper cars) going mini-golfing:
    • Max gaining the nickname "The Bogeyman" from other sophomores due to his abysmal score. On the penultimate hole, he scores 100.
    • Isaac duel-wielding clubs because he was imitating someone from a golf anime.
    • Max, Isaac and Isabel have to save Spender from a "final hole spirit" mainly because he's their ride home.
    • The final hole is....a windmill obstacle. Max lampshades how underwhelming it is.
    • Max talking about how odd it is that there's mini golf but not mini versions of other sports.
    • Isaac utterly fails to make a comeback:
      Max scoffed. "Don't get cute with me, Isaac."
      Poor Isaac stuttered out his reply, getting redder with each stumbled word. "I wasn't- It...it takes one to know- You're the one who- I - You- YOU'RE cute with ME!"
      His cheeks went supernova. Isabel's guffaw echoed out across the whole golf course.
    • Isaac trying to strike a cool anime pose after Max makes a hole-in-one on the final hole and getting blinded by fluorescent lights as a result.
    • Spender stepping out from behind the windmill and clapping loudly, exclaiming that "[they've] obtained the power of the most powerful spirit of all....team spirit." The Activity Club's response?
      Brandishing their golf clubs and shouting obscenities, all three Activity Club members charged their teacher...as a team.


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