Funny / Usagi Yojimbo

• In one of the very first stories, Usagi runs across a group of bandits that attack him. Most of them run away, but he does take a horse from one of the dead in order to sell. He takes the horse to the nearest village and tries to sell the horse to the magistrate, lying that he's had the horse for a few years. Unfortunately, said magistrate recognizes the horse as one that was recently stolen from him, forcing Usagi to flee for his life on the horse. He seemingly escapes, though the magistrate and his levy are following him, and comes across what he believes to be a group of horse traders in a cabin. Unfortunately, they're the same group of bandits that accosted him earlier.
  
  The bandits see the magistrate's troops following Usagi and believes that the ronin had sicced the authorities on them, while the magistrate believes that Usagi had led him and his troops into an ambush.
  
  Usagi once again manages to get away in the confusion of the ensuing battlefield. He runs into the woodcutter couple in one of their first appearances, the husband forced to pull his heavy cart behind him. Usagi decides that the horse is more trouble than it's worth and gives it to them for free. The two woodcutters thank him, and then state that they haven't had a horse since the magistrate confiscated their last one for his own uses. Making the connection, Usagi can't help but laugh uproariously at the whole situation as he leaves.
• Usagi encounters a tiny, friendly bipedal lizard whose call sounds like 'Zylla!' When he's menaced by enemies, the little creature frightens them away with fire breath, leading Usagi to ask, "Are you a god, Zylla?"
• The ending of Turtle Soup And Rabbit Stew; Leonardo somehow ends up in Usagi's world and starts fighting a bunch of Ronin. Meanwhile, Usagi is fighting a bunch of Neko Ninja. The two, upon seeing each other, assume the other is part of their attackers and charge. At that moment, Leo goes back to his world and crashes into his brothers, while Usagi crashes into a tree.
  Usagi: I HATE NINJA!
• When Usagi first encountered and worked with Gen, Gen, in "good" humor (or whatever is considered good humor by his standards), cheated Usagi out of his hard-earned Ryo by leaving him with the bill at the inn they stayed at. During their second encounter and job together, Usagi got Gen back... by playing the exact same tactic against him. Doubles as a Moment of Awesome for Usagi as well, showcasing how much of a cunning trickster he is on top of being a samurai.
• In "Fox Fire", Gen runs afoul of some trickster fox spirits and ends up with a torn pants leg. Usagi spends a good few pages of the very next issue mocking him for it and remarking that Gen's leg looks like a "swollen Daikon radish".
  • Then, when he spots a woman named Sakura getting accosted by Bandits, Gen tells him he'll never make it down the mountain path in time to help her, and suggests he go down the side of the mountain instead... resulting in Usagi tumbling down into every single bush and rock on the way down, only to then get mistaken for another bandit and attacked by the woman, who turns out to be very proficient with a whip and already scared off all the bandits herself. "Such is Karma, neh?"
    • Even better - Gen then shows up and casually greets Sakura like an old acquaintance, meaning he already knew she could take care of herself and just wanted to get back at Usagi for making fun of his torn pants.
• In one short story, Jotaro wants to try and cut a plum seed off of Usagi's nose just like Katsuichi did back in the day. Usagi, rather wisely, insists they use a pumpkin as a fair substitute. Jotaro takes one swing of his wooden sword and...there's not much left of the pumpkin.
  Jotaro: Er...it flinched.
  Usagi: That could have been my head!
• In Senso, when Usagi and Tomoe are trying to evacuate the town surrounding Lord Hikiji's castle during the Martian attack, who should show up but Jei and Keiko? Spotting his old enemy, Jei runs towards Usagi, spear raised...and promptly gets fried by a stray Martian death ray, leaving Keiko staring in stunned silence at his rather undignified corpse. The best part is that Usagi never noticed ANY of this happening.
• Another from Senso In the climax of the series, the good guys cobble together a giant USAGI MECHA BOT to sic on the Martians. When asked why Usagi was piloting the thing, the Lord stated it's because Usagi was their finest swordsman...the creator stated Usagi was the only one crazy enough to volunteer.
• In the collected edition of Senso, Stan has a little bonus comic telling 'normal' Usagi about the story and showing him one of the martians which Usagi remarks looks like an octopus and Stan clarifies that's how Wells described them in the original War of the Worlds. Usagi stated this would be an easy victory. Cut to Usagi now manning a Sushi Cart, and Stan walking away grumbling that he now has to find a new way to end the story.
• Issues 145-147 have Usagi in the middle with Kitsune steals a treaty pursued by Chizu. Chizu spends the entire story threatening to kill Kitsune and Usagi trying to stop her. Issue 147 is comedy gold.
  Kiyoko: Are all ninja so hot tempered?
  Kitsune: I wouldn't know. You'd think it would be a liability in their line of work.
  • Kitsune refuses to give up information unless Chizu promises not to kill her. In a beautiful panel, Chizu gets in Kitsune's face to scream for the info and a terrified Kitsune offers it up. Chizu is then in thought as if nothing happened.
  • Chizu believes that the merchant is setting up a trap to get the treaty and "kill a stupid thief at the same time."
  Kitsune: Hey! Who are you calling stupid?
  Chizu: You. Do you want to make anything of it?
  Kitsune: Oh no, I'm just clarifying, that's all
  • At the conclusion of the story, Chizu gives Usagi a kiss goodbye and Kitsune and Kiyoko gawk. Usagi brushes it off as "a way foreigners show affection." Kitsune nods and then gives him a kiss before walking off.
    • And it turns out during all that, the two thieves were robbing Chizu and Usagi of the treaty and their money.
• In one story, Usagi is drenched in green dye while fighting a group of local gangsters. When Gen comes along and digs him out from under the barrels, a now green Usagi gives a rather uncharacteristic Slasher Smile, and Gen tells him to stop grinning like some joker because he's creeping him out.
• Unlike just about everyone else who meets Jotaro and Usagi and immediately identifies them as father and son, Tomoe learns it firsthand from Usagi and has to process the information for a while. She recovers when the possibility of him settling down comes up.
• During the first meeting between Kitsune and Tomoe, Kitsune teases Usagi by implying that she and him have a romantic past by stating that they'd shared adventures "and many other things before". Cue Usagi desperatly trying to clarify himself to a disgruntled Tomoe.
  • Much later, Kitsune and Chizu meet, with Chizu planting a big kiss on Usagi before leaving... and now Kitsune demands to know what that was about.
• In "Bunraku", the first story arc of the IDW run, Usagi and Sasuké come across the body of a ronin who only has injuries on the lower half of his body, causing Usagi to remark it's as if he was attacked by children. Sasuké (likely already having guessed it's the work of living Bunraku puppets) counters that it's something more sinister, prompting a shocked Usagi to go "Something more sinister than CHILDREN!?"
  • For extra hilarity, this is coming from Usagi, who pretty much always gets along great with kids in any other story.
• Issue 7 of the IDW continuation had this dialogue between Usagi and Gen:
  Usagi: I know I haven't seen you in awhile, Gen, but you look... different...
  Gen: So, I put on a couple of pounds. It's no big deal.
  Usagi: You put on more than a couple of pounds.
  Gen: Well, maybe a few pounds!
  Usagi: No, I mean it... you put on a lot more weight. A real lot more!
  Gen: Shut up!
  Usagi: What have you been eating?
  Gen: Go away!
  • The entire issue's plot counts. Gen, Stray Dog, and Usagi are in possession of valuable swords stolen from a nearby clan, and they're trying to make it to the castle and cash in the reward. A single survivor from the original bandit group keeps siccing more bandits at the trio, and by the time they finally reach the castle, they're worn to a frazzle. Turns out the swords are a fake, and Kitsune stole the swords, replaced them with fakes to sell to a fence, and then turned them back in for the reward.