Ricky Rapper (Finnish: Risto Räppääjä) is a Finnish children's' book and film series created by Sinikka and Tiina Nopola. The series centers on a boy named Ricky who likes rapping and playing the drums, and lives with his aunt Serena due to his mother being a researcher constantly travelling the world and his father being dead. Other recurring characters include Ricky and Serena's neighbors and friends Nelly Butterfly and Lennart Lindberg and Serena's strict cousin Fanny.
Tropes in Ricky Rapper:
- Absent Animal Companion: In the first book, Lennart has a dog named Vanessa, who never appears again. In a later book, it's offhandedly mentioned that she died of old age.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: The first movie is an adaptation of both Risto Räppääjä ja Nuudelipää, where Nelly debuted, and Risto Räppääjä ja Pakastaja-Elvi, where aunt Fanny debuted.
- Ceiling Banger: In the first book, Henrietta Himberg is an extreme case: She sends angry letters to Serena and Ricky due to Ricky's loud drum playing, and ends up dognapping Vanessa to force him to stop. It turns out that it's because the sound of drums is her Trauma Button, as she was a circus acrobat who fell off a rope and severely injured herself to the sound of the drums.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Most of the books and movies are named this way, with the exception of the books Hetki lyö, Risto Räppääjä ("The Moment Strikes, Ricky Rapper") and Risto Räppääjä saa isän ("Ricky Rapper Gets a Father"), and the first movie, simply titled Ricky Rapper.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: One book has Nelly befriend a boy named Kullervo, who Ricky gets so jealous of that he ends up trying to stick a note on his back that says "I hate kissing" to make Nelly not want to kiss him.
- Disappeared Dad: Ricky's father died by getting hit by a car when Ricky was young.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first book, Hetki lyö, Risto Räppääjä, features several characters who never appear in the series again, has more of a Random Events Plot than most of the other books, and has a different art style compared to the other books illustrated by Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen. It's also one of the only two books whose title is not Character Name and the Noun Phrase.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: One of the books reveals that all of the main characters have one:
- Ricky's middle name is Joakim, but the government officials misheard it and wrote it as "Vaakim", which sounds like a duck's quack.
- Serena's middle name was Rusetti ("Bow"), but she changed it after being bullied for it in school.
- Nelly's middle name is Sitruuna ("Lemon"), which Ricky thinks is funny because her last name is Perhonen ("Butterfly") and the Finnish word for the common brimstone butterfly is "sitruunaperhonen".
- Lennart's middle name is Siirakki (Sirach
), and he also was bullied for it, because it sounds like "Siirappi" ("Syrup").
- Embarrassing Relative Teacher: One book has Serena accidentally become a substitute teacher at Ricky's school. She doesn't tell anyone that she's his aunt at his insistence, but does show videos of Ricky as a naked baby to the class, which leads to Ricky skipping school for a while.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Ricky's mother and Serena's sister Ursula, who is mentioned in many books but never shown.
- In-Series Nickname: Ricky calls Nelly "Noodlehead" because he thinks that her hair looks like noodles.
- Large Ham: Aunt Fanny, especially in the movies. For instance, when she finds out that Ricky and Nelly have ran away in Ricky Rapper and the Bicycle Thief, she yells "Someone won't be eating their sipatti today!" and sings a song about how nobody escapes her.
- Mistaken for Thief: In Aunt Fanny's debut book, Ricky, Nelly and Serena find a jewelry box in Fanny's bag and assume that she stole it, when it's actually a prop for a play.
- Mistaken Message: In Nelly's debut book, Serena writes a love letter to Lennart, and Ricky accidentally delivers it to Nelly, making her think that Ricky wrote it for her.
- Nephewism: Ricky lives with his aunt Serena, and his parents are rarely mentioned.
- Nom de Mom: Since Ricky and his maternal aunt Serena have the same last name, he apparently took his mother's name.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: In the books, Nelly has a cat named Alpo, but in the film adaptations Alpo is her stuffed cat toy, and the plot point from Risto Räppääjä ja Nuudelipää where Alpo runs away is removed. This is likely due to the difficulty of working with animals.
- Redhead In Green: Ricky has orange hair and usually wears a green hoodie.
- Rise of Zitboy: One book is about Ricky having a zit and Serena panicking about him growing up too fast. In the end, it turns out to be just some dried glue stuck on his face.
- Running Gag: Every time Ricky's mother is mentioned, she's always in a different country researching a different thing, often something silly.
- Talking in Your Sleep: Aunt Fanny talks a lot in her sleep, and some of the things she says in her debut book lead Ricky to assume she's a thief, when she's really just reciting lines from her play.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: One book's plot is kicked off when Fanny is upset that Ricky likes baking, thinking that it's a too girly hobby, and urges Serena to get Ricky a father figure.
