A webcomic of comedy, romance, adventure, and raccoon propaganda.
Sandra and Woo
is an English and German-language Long Runner webcomic written by Oliver "Novil" Knörzer and illustrated by Powree, about the adventures of middle-schooler Sandra North and her pet talking raccoon, Woo. It's drawn in an Animesque style with some Western comic stylizations, and makes up of mostly unconnected story arcs. Imagine Calvin and Hobbes aged up a few years, crossed with iCarly, and with some more serious plot threads.
The story mostly focuses on Sandra and Woo's misadventures but will also focus on one of Sandra's two best friends, Cloud and Larisa, or Woo's adventures with his woodland friends, Shadow the fox and Sid the squirrel.
It also has a forum thread on this site.
A video game based on the comic, Sandra and Woo in the Cursed Adventure, was released on May 5, 2017 and is available on Steam.
As of strip 1339, published on November 25, 2022 (following a Schedule Slip of over four months, which had not happened in all of the comic's history), the comic went on hiatus, with Novil stating that strip is the last one illustrated by Powree and has no plans to hire a new artist. The strip returned on August 12, 2023.
Sandra and Woo contains examples of:
- 20 Bear Asses: Discussed.Cloud: Hmm, any suggestions how they could improve their rank?
Sandra: Rumor has it that they're able to climb several places by giving Sandra an apology kiss.
Cloud: I see. But is that worth yet another cootie infection? They'd certainly prefer to bring you ten ogre heads or something… - Aborted Arc: In the comments for the January 2010 strip about Larisa's secret, Novil stated that he was writing the concept of an arc about Larisa's backstory, and that he planned on publishing it by fall 2011. That date came and went without any arc, and the plot of Larisa's secret would not be revisited until November 2013. At that time, Novil revealed that he dropped the arc because he eventually disliked it and considered it not being up to the quality of the comic. Larisa's secret was finally revealed in September 2015.
- Aerith and Bob: We have believable names like Sandra and Larisa, and then we have Woo and Cloud. Justified in that Woo is a pet and Cloud was named by Final Fantasy nerds and has a sister named Yuna.
- Animate Inanimate Object: An infrequent Running Gag involves male characters' penises talking, usually when said male characters are aroused.
- Afraid of Needles: Enough to attempt reporting a case of animal abuse.
- Age-Inappropriate Dress: Larisa's dress while doing her "homework"◊ in this strip. Age-inappropriate enough that an alternate version with more conservative attire was posted to the main page.
- Almost Kiss: Sandra and Cloud are ironically interrupted by two Shippers on Deck.
- And I Must Scream: Larisa's answer to "Three things I wish upon my worst enemy" is "immobility, insomnia and immortality".
- Animesque: The art style clearly borrows a lot from traditional manga, particularly with the large eyes and cute faces that many characters have.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Or, at least, it is if you're gay and your interest isn't. Subverted later on, though (the canonicity of this scene is not established, though).
- All Men Are Perverts: When Sandra starts reciprocating Zoey's feelings, she wants to make sure Cloud is okay with it first. Sandra assumes as much based on this, and is proven right.
- All There in the Manual: Landon's parents are only named in the narrative below the comic, not in the comic itself
- Alpha Bitch: Zoey and her best friend Michelle.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Ye Thuza. She even joins her son's friends in making fun of him on occasion.
- Ambiguously Human: Armin Fish. As if his unusual facial features and Pointy Ears weren't enough, Woo bites off his hand very easily, resulting in a bloodless wound (in a comic where Bloodless Carnage is generally averted) and what looks like a Stock Femur Bone poking out of his wrist. Fish expresses surprisingly little pain, and Woo disgustedly spits his hand out, calling it "totally rotten". In the next strip, he's more angry than concerned or pained about losing his "favorite hand", and shows no signs of wanting medical attention.
- Animal Talk: Woo and all other animals, including Woo's friends Shadow and Sid, speak the same language, but only Woo is able to communicate with humans. However, he's not talking to anyone but Sandra since he is afraid of ending up in a laboratory otherwise.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
- Sandra and Cloud's favorite political slogan: "Freedom! Justice! Cookies!".
- The Devil offers to turn Larisa into a succubus who will "debauch innocent young men to a dissolute life full of sex, drugs and dubstep."
- Sandra and Cloud's favorite political slogan: "Freedom! Justice! Cookies!"
- Art Evolution: A slight progression over the years, with body proportions, mainly everyone looking taller and longer.
- Art Initiates Life: Larisa's father had to destroy two of his paintings (depicting his daughter in poses of American and Russian patriotism), because they "became self-aware and began sending weapons of war to the Middle East".
- Ascended to Carnivorism: Ruth the "level 5 carnivore" pine squirrel.
- Babies Ever After: Woo and Lilly finally had kits!
- Badass Family: The Williams family. The mom is an ex-Child Soldier, the son is a trained swordsman and martial artist and the young daughter is a little Mad Scientist. Even David, The Team Normal, is badass by proxy for having all this people as family.
- Bad Future: In 2037, the U.S is desolated thanks to the Great Fires caused by Larisa, who set every forest on fire just to prove Smokey wrong.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Woo's previous owner, Mr. Farley, treated him like complete shit. Thankfully, Richard was able to give the bastard some entirely deserved comeuppance.
- Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: When Sandra's Holding Hands with Cloud.Sandra: Because I've already found the most precious thing.
[Cloud smiles]
Sandra: Look, my missing favorite earrings! They were in a side pocket of my backpack. - Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Richard and his new coworker, Melody, from the look of things.
- Berserk Button: Don't tease Sandra about her looks, even if you're her best friend, talking pet raccoon or even her father.
- Betty and Veronica: Sandra and Larisa, respectively, with Cloud as Archie. This is a case when the Archie chooses the Betty, as Cloud chooses Sandra.
- Beyond the Impossible: Larisa managed to set water on fire.
- Big Ball of Violence: Between Woo and a bunch of rats. Later on between Woo and Lily, though it was just play-fighting.
- Big "NO!": When Armin Fish threatens to cancel Richard's internet contract (which did involve giving up his firstborn child), Richard falls to his knees in horror when he realizes he'll have to switch to Comcast.
- Black Helicopter: A squad of Black Helicopters appeared for investigation, after Larisa (supposedly) tried to detonate a nuke.
- Boys Have Cooties:
- Lampshaded.
- A flashback to Sandra and Larisa's first meeting shows Sandra to have this reaction once they glimpse Cloud. Larisa is a bit more mature.
- Lampshaded
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Characters sometimes show awareness of story arcs and that they're in a comic made by Novil, most commonly Sandra and Woo.
- C'mon kid, do something funny.
- The text below this comic should give you an idea about the arc it's part of.
- A strip in tribute to Andy Warhol not only breaks the Fourth Wall, it takes a bite out of it.
- THE WALLS ARE GETTING CLOSER!
- Woo wants to have a new writer.
- Larisa shatters the Fourth Wall with an axe.
- Sometimes writing comics is so difficult, even the 4th wall doesn't survive it!
- It practically becomes a a plot point in one instance.
- C'mon kid, do something funny
- Bring My Brown Pants: Correction: I needed to go to the bathroom.
- Broken Record: upon getting hypnotized by the idea of making a lava moat, Larisa walks around repeatedly saying "lava moat," causing everyone around her to say "lava moat" as well.
- Broken Pedestal: Zig-Zagged. After being built up for several comics, it's revealed that Butterfly is terrified of climbing difficult obstacles, seemingly getting ready to turn into this trope. However, it turns out that all Butterfly needs is a bit of encouragement from Woo, allowing her to get over her performance anxiety.
- Bullying a Dragon: Ralph makes this mistake after being told by a schoolmate that he really, really should not bully Cloud, especially if Cloud is currently carrying a sword... or a plastic knife from the school cafeteria.
- Cardiovascular Love: A Heart Symbol is shown when Larisa is asking a girl if she's single, in [0661] Order Of Merit.
- The Cameo: 9 strips with Sir James Eglamore from Gunnerkrigg Court. Reynardine and Coyote, from the same comic, also show up, but much more briefly.
- Carnivore Confusion: Both averted and played straight. Woo is friendly with Shadow, a fox, and Sid, a squirrel. They regularly try to eat each other, but as the tagline says, fail. This doesn't stop Woo and Shadow from eating other woodland creatures, successfully.
- Justified by the fact that Sid and Shadow were both orphaned by a woman running over their moms, and she brought the surviving babies to a friend of hers who took care of them until they were old enough to survive in the wild and Shadow asks Woo not to eat Sid.
- While hungry, Woo found a sole apple guarded by a snake, he prefers to eat the snake, talk about badass.
- Woo's reaction to catching a grey squirrel bullying the smaller and weaker Sid was to carry the squirrel off to Shadow and his family for dinner.
- Justified by the fact that Sid and Shadow were both orphaned
- Casual Kink: Ye Thuza seems to have (at least) one.
- Catchphrase: Woo's "Woo!" What Woo is named after, and his common reaction to pleasant surprises.
- Character Blog: Sandra has a YouTube channel, also going by her alter ego Sandy the Third, empress and supreme ruler of Northia, there.
- Children Are Innocent: Defied to the point of being a recurring moral. Larisa, in addition to being generally vindictive, is a pyromaniac, and one strip has her, confronted with sushi, casually pull out the lighter she carries to set fires and cook it. Cloud's mother is a former Shan Child Soldier in Burma, and she frequently deals with relatives being menaced or killed by the SPCD.
- Civilized Animal: In the forest, the animals act like humans, sitting down, talking to their neighbors (cross-species), and making complicated dwellings. Ruth the squirrel even hunts animals with a human pistol and has a vegetarian crisis after seeing her actions affect the lynx's children!
- Clothing Damage: Woo leaps on Sandra at one point in a hyped-up state, and tears her clothes to shreds, leaving her in her panties. Much controversy in the comments box, under the circumstances....
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: If the C.I.A ever used
this CD, they would have crossed the Moral Event Horizon. - Corner of Woe: Woo assumes this pose when Sandra brings him home.
- Crawl: Kim Jong-un wins pie-eating contest.
- Creator's Culture Carryover: Knörzer and Powree are German and Indonesian respectively, but most of S&W points to a U.S. setting.
- Crossover: Sir James Eglamore and the god Coyote from Gunnerkrigg Court have appeared in the comic, which seems to state the two comics take place in the same universe. Renard and Ysengrin are there with Coyote as well, according to the tags.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Sandra and some of her friends lose a soccer game to a group of German girls 17-0.
- Dartboard of Hate: This strip has a picture of Aung San Suu Kyi with multiple darts stuck in it in a Burmese prison.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sandra, sometimes.
- Deal with the Devil:
- Parodied in this strip as Sandra accidentally sells her soul to the devil for a glass of lemonade.
- The Devil tempts Larisa into selling her soul, in exchange for saving Sandra's life from a capricious God. When he tells her that her service in Hell would likely involve becoming a succubus, tempting innocent young men into a life of lust, feeding the fires of hell until they engulf Elysium, the Devil has to tell her to stop drooling.
- Parodied in this strip
- Death by Origin Story: Sid's mother, Hazel. We hardly knew ye.
- Deconstructive Parody: Of the eponymous duo.
- Demon of Human Origin: In the "Divine Comedy" arc, Larisa sells her soul to the Devil, who says he'll make a succubus of her because anything else would be a waste of her talents.
- Denser and Wackier: The comic started with the only oddity being Woo's ability to talk to humans and his high intelligence. As the comic progressed, all animals were show to have human-like societies, supernatural deities appear with surprising regularity and Yuna's science experiments start reaching reality-warping levels. Storylines also became much more medium aware and generally less serious. Woo not talking to anyone outside of Sandra is basically The Artifact.
- Department of Redundancy Department:
- 'Pain is painful.'
- 'Only really gay lesbos kiss each other on the mouth. Keep that in mind'
- 'Pain is painful
- Devil's Job Offer : The Devil has a special job in mind for Larisa: he plans on making her a succubus, making it her job to tempt young mortal men with her feminine wiles. Larisa signs up right away, as the deal also involves saving Sandra.
- Digging Yourself Deeper:
- Larisa grumbling.
- Sandra does it to herself without even saying anything. Silence is not always golden.
- Dinner with the Boss: Sandra asks Woo to behave himself when her father's boss is over for dinner. Woo's idea of ideal raccoon behavior involves having sex with his girlfriend on the dining-room table while eating all the food there.
- Dirty Coward: When Roger Brown found out that Tommy wanted him as a Virgin Sacrifice, he tried to convince him to sacrifice Sandra instead.
- Don't Ask: "What the hell?"
- Do Wrong, Right: According to Sandra's grandmother, graffiti should have correct spelling and grammar.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Subverted. Sandra is prone to playing a game where she's the Evil Queen of her bedroom and her toys are her oppressed subjects. Cloud, whose mother spent her youth fighting against an oppressive regime, seems very offended when he catches her doing it... but it turns out that he was just guilt-tripping her as a ploy to get his hands on the evil queen's super weapon so he could stage a coup.
- Eats Babies: Ruth claims to eat wolf pups. She's already proved surprisingly adept with a gun despite being a squirrel.
- Engaging Conversation: Probably. And this.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Woo decides not to name his and Lily's kits based on names acquired through a [fake] Patreon drive. Because Lily threatened him when he suggested names other than what she decided.Woo: Even if you give Novil a million dollars, I won't commit suicide for you!
- Played with regarding the Devil: He is visibly disgusted by the whole plan about God killing Sandra, but when reading about what Larisa plans to make her worst enemy suffer (namely making them immobile, insomniac and immortal), he is beyond excited and even promotes her.
- Woo decides not to name his and Lily's kits based on names acquired through a [fake] Patreon drive. Because Lily threatened him
- Evil Poacher: "She makes Elmer Fudd look like an animal rights activist."
- Exiled to the Couch: Hey, David dared to cheat on an Unreal Tournament Deathmatch.
- The Faceless: Hannes Dörflinger's head is always cut out of view from the top of each panel.
- Fake Rabies: Tanya and a hunter, looking for a supposedly-rabid fox, come across Shadow, Sid, and Woo rolling on the ground and fighting, with whipped cream all over them.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: While not really delved upon, the comic takes place in the same world as Gunnerkrigg Court so its not unusal to see Ghosts, aliens, mermaids, talking animals and Gods and Goddesses.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: Said verbatim here.
- First Kiss: After three attempts were Moment Killer broken up—the first by Cloud's sister and mother, the second by a soccer ball, and the third by Larisa—Sandra and Cloud got fed up and made sure nobody would interrupt them again. Humorously enough, both of their first kisses came from Larisa. And of course, Sandra doesn't count this one.
- First-Name Basis: Larisa calls her parents, Jelena and Ivan, by their first names. She usually calls her mother "Lena", to boot.
- Foreshadowing:
- We get an early one for Larisa when she stops during a break in an adventure with Sandra, Cloud, and Woo, and takes some sort of medication. Only Woo sees her.Larisa: I guess... We all have our secrets. (scritches Woo under his chin) I wonder what yours is?
- Butterfly, a raccoon brought up for only a mention in #510, shows up in the second longest Sandra and Woo story arc starting with #530
- We get an early one for Larisa
- Food Slap: Sandra to her father, after he accidentally agreed with Larisa's assessment of her looks.
- From Bad to Worse: The ''Under A Killer Ballon" arc started with Sandra's favorite cereal getting changed to contain raisins and escalated to Sandra and other guy being kidnapped by a maniac in order to made them virgin sacrifices to the Aztec god of war, with Woo being the only able to save them.
- Funny Background Event: Woo getting bitten by a rat. The next strip brings his retaliation to the foreground.
- Funny Terrain Cross Section: In this strip.
- Garden of Eden: The comic presents a fresh take on the imagery: when Woo encounters the tree of knowledge, he doesn't care about the fruit on it, instead opting to eat the serpent.
- Genius Bonus: Invoked and parodied mercilessly; in response to claims that the webcomic wasn't challenging enough, the two introduced a simple 4-panel strip that, to read, one would have to solve a crossword puzzle, speak a certain Malay language, carry out a series of word puzzles, and have a bit of knowledge regarding coding, ASCII, and RGB values.
- The Glomp: Sandra gives an epic one to Cloud after he gives her a love letter.
- Godwin's Law: Parodied. Larisa seems convinced that this is a sound strategy to convince the soccer team to elect Sandra as captain, because a Jewish student cheated in a previous game. Unsurprisingly, the comments section is disabled for that particular comic.
- Gone Horribly Right: When a nature photographer catches Shadow as he's about to have sex with his wife and then uploads the picture to the Internet (along with another picture of Shadow taking a dump), Shadow convinces Woo and Sid to help him get revenge. They cover his house with pictures and statues of animals having sex, including filling his computer with furry porn. What they don't realize, however, is that the photographer's date is extremely kinky, and takes all of this as a sign that it's time to break out the whip and handcuffs. The trio just walks away, incredibly confused about what just happened and conclude that they don't really understand humans.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: After reading Zoey's steamy stories and not knowing what to do, Sandra's angels appear to offer advice. The bad angel reminds her that she's meeting Cloud on Saturday, so she should invite Zoey because three is better than two. The good angel apparently doesn't understand and suggests inviting Larisa as well, with Sandra calling her out on it.
- Good Colors, Evil Colors: When Larisa is looking for a place where Sandra can't be killed by angels, she happily exclaims that luckily the entire map is green. It takes her a moment to realize that she works with the devil.
- Goofy Print Underwear: The link for Bullying a Dragon.
- Gotta Pass the Class: Landon met Larisa when he offered to help her study so she wouldn't fail math.
- Grammar Nazi: Sandra's grandma gets into trouble for correcting graffiti.
- Grapes of Luxury: Sandra gets them for Woo.
- G-Rated Sex: Averted.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Sandra falls victim to it.Sandra: How can seeing your best friends being so happy make you feel so miserable?
- Groin Attack: A Boring, but Practical move.
- Happily Married:
- Cloud's parents.
- Shadow and Echo.
- Woo and Lily, who seem to commit to monogamy in the "Dark and Stormy Night" ark, which is rare for raccoons.
- Presumably, Sandra's parents, Richard and the late Julie North.
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream: In "Emergency Pack", a cracked Heart Symbol of Cardiovascular Love on the packaging for "Break-Up Emergency Pack" ice cream.
- Hell Has New Management: A Downplayed example. When Larisa lists the three things she'd wish upon her worst enemy are "immobility, insomnia, and immortality", the Devil is so impressed that he considers her for a position on Hell's Board of Directors.
- High-Pressure Emotion: Cloud does this and has a Sweat Drop when his mom teases him about marrying Sandra.
- Hollywood Restraining Order: Larisa has a map of town covered in circles marking places she's no longer allowed to go.
- Hot Guy, Ugly Wife: This is how at least some of Cloud and Sandra's fellow students see their relationship, wondering why a "ten" like him is going out with a "five" like her. Of course, there's probably some jealousy involved with that assessment of Sandra's attractiveness.
- Hot Teacher: Sir James Eglamore.
- Humans Are Ugly: Woo seems to think so, and apparently even has trouble understanding why humans are attracted to each other.
- Hurricane of Excuses: Larisa has a different excuse for every class as to why she didn't do the homework, including her father eating it for a performance art piece, it being classified information prohibited by the Maltese government, and accusing one teacher of molesting her. Apparently, one of the excuses is true.
- Hypocrite: The principal gives Larisa an earful about drugs while smoking - never mind that Larisa's drugs are prescription medication she literally needs in order to survive.
- Hypocritical Humor: Multiple:
- In this strip, a spoiled little dog accuses Shadow of having no honor and bringing "shame to all canids". Then he takes a ride in his mistress' handbag to his appointment with the dog groomer.
- A meta-example in this comic. Zoey is complaining about the author of a book she’s reading is Pandering to the Base... while Michelle gives her a kiss on the cheek.
- When Larisa's insulin is mistaken for hard drugs, the principal lectures her on how the school cannot tolerate any drugs at all because drugs are dangerous, as he opens a pack of cigarettes and begins smoking.
- Sandra has the audacity to declare boys are perverts at the thought of Sandra having another hot crush and Sandra having a smooching contest with Larisa when Sandra herself wants do do all of that.
- In this strip
- Immune to Mind Control: The black fedoras that Sandra and Woo obtained in "the arc with the cereal formula changing" makes the wearer immune to brainwashing.
- Improvised Lockpick: Woo uses his fingers to pick a padlock on the birdcage to an annoying Tweety Pie Expy.
- Incompatible Orientation: Zoey has a crush on her friend Michelle, and kisses her in a moment of excitement. Unfortunately for her, Michelle is straight.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Mr. Rogers was apparently the only human being ever to have this. This is a sore spot for The Devil, whose work relies on the fact that Humans Are Flawed.
- Innocent Innuendo:
- Subverted. After a recent adventure, Lily suggests Woo relax with "eating, sleeping and...cuddling". When they get to the "cuddling" strip, they show a tree and make it sound like Woo's having difficulty. The comic shows they're playing billiards. But then comes this:
- Played straight here. It's even lampshaded by Novil, who says the obvious "protection" joke would've been too raunchy.
- Subverted. After a recent adventure, Lily suggests Woo relax with "eating, sleeping and...cuddling". When they get to the "cuddling" strip, they show a tree and make it sound like Woo's having difficulty. The comic shows they're playing billiards. But then comes this:
- Innocent Swearing: In #189, Yuna completed her call for the freedom of the people of Burma with the word "motherfuckers". After she was told that it's an very offensive swearword, she apologized.
- Insistent Terminology:
- Larisa doesn't "bewitch" people. She "reorganises deep neural networks by supervised training."
- The Corrupt Corporate Executive who tries to take Sandra away is insistent that he's not a vampire.Armin Fish: Man-eaters, please, not vampires. The vampires are in the movie industry and we don’t get along with them very well.
- Instant Costume Change: Sandra changes clothes in a flash after hearing Cloud is coming over.
- Insult Backfire: Zoey tells Landon that he's "nothing but Larisa's little boy toy." He does not find that as humiliating as she had hoped.Landon: Sweet!
Zoey: Nooo! You're not allowed to like that! - Intellectual Animal: Shadow might be the most prominent example for this trope since he's for example able to come up with a rhyming carnivorous anthem.
- The Internet Is for Porn: Woo uses YouTube to watch videos of raccoons getting it on.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Shadow and his mate, Echo, are interrupted by a wildlife photographer.
- Interspecies Romance: The bird is in love with a stick insect in the first panel.
- Intimate Telecommunications: One storyline revolved around Larisa trying to send a nude pic to her boyfriend for his birthday but accidentally hitting "Send to All'' instead. A glitch involving a third party add-on she had installed caused the pic to be sent to all 60 million users of the app in North America. Not that she cared.
- Ironic Echo: One strip has Woo deride humans as "slaves to your hormones". Later on, he tries to defend himself from an angry Sandra by saying the same thing about himself.
- Jerkass Gods: Seeoahtlahmakaskay trolls her followers and even the Supreme Deity.
- Jesus Was Way Cool: Sandra thinks that Jesus was a swell guy, but she can't stand his fanboys. Landon's dad and Larisa agree.
- Jumping the Shark: Inverted, and taken literally.
- Just Friends: Invoked and discussed with "The ladder theory" before being averted in the next strip.
- Just the Introduction to the Opposites: This strip has immature behavior causing embarrassment at a restaurant... but it's David and Ye Thuza embarrassing their kids by acting childish.
- Kids Prefer Boxes: Sandra gives Woo a cardboard box full of bubble wrap as a gift.
- Killer Game Master: Sandra, when Cloud misbehaves.
- Kinky Spanking: Ye Thuza seems enjoy being on the receiving end.
- Kissing In A Tree:
- Yuna sings this while embarrassing Cloud and Sandra.
- Implied case of going all the way with Woo and Lily.
- Sandra and Cloud are kissing, Larisa is in the tree.
- Kissing Under the Influence: To celebrate Butterfly's successful climb, Seeoahtlahmakaskay declares early mating season.
- Knight of Cerebus: The lynx in the current story line. It ambushes the raccoon children, and in its attempt to devour them, Arcturus gets impaled by a pitch fork [1].
- Laser-Guided Amnesia:
- The end result of the "Divine Comedy" arc. The Western God is killed and replaced, the Devil gets Larisa to sign a contract to become a succubus in order to save Sandra's life, and Seeoahtlahmakaskay whips Cupid's ass raw, but ultimately Larisa and the audience are subjected to the "flashy thing" from Men in Black.
- Larisa removes Cloud's memory about Ye Thuza's Casual Kink, and later Richard North's memory of the sexy costumes Sandra ordered.
- Laugh Themselves Sick: The suggestion of intelligence agencies being held accountable was so ludicrous to Cloud, that he pretended to die of laughter.
- Layman's Terms: Inverted in this strip. "These are management consultants. From IBM. They don't understand your "Technobabble"."
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A brief gag with Cloud's parents
- Leet Speak: Cloud is apparently fluent.Cloud: BOOM! HEADSHOT! O lol lol, girlz are always teh suxx0rs at gaming!
- Limited Wardrobe: Averted: the characters obviously wear the same clothes when comics takes place sequentially, and change to hint a new day happens.
- Like Father, Like Daughter: Larisa is, like her father, an accomplished painter, both with different styles (Larisa is also a sculptor, which in case of her father wasn't confirmed yet).
- Like You Were Dying: Strip 718 finally confirms that at least some of Larisa's reckless behavior and cavalier attitude is due to her belief that since she'll be "blind in 10 years and dead in 20", due to Wolfram syndrome, the consequences of her actions don't matter and she might as well have fun.
- Look Behind You: Look!! A talking raccoon!!! Said by a talking raccoon in front of the guy.
- Loves Me Not: Played with here
- Luminescent Blush: Sandra gets very flustered when she reads the lewd fanfics Zoey wrote about the two of them, to the point that dunking her head in water produces steam that creates a rain cloud over Woo.Woo: Vantablack, the world's blackest black, meet Sandrared, the world's reddest red. Found exclusively on Sandra's cheeks.
- Madness Mantra: Can't trap them, raccoon will shoot me! Can't trap them, raccoon will shoot me!
- The Mafia: A pest control shop called "C. Nostra" (They're actually animals taking revenge on humans committing animal cruelty).
- Major Injury Underreaction: The eagle here is only mildly annoyed that Woo is eating her offspring.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Woo thinks having sex at the dinner table with his (very, very satisfied looking) wife is completely acceptable behavior.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Just about every single heterosexual relationship is between an energetic, fearless girl and a gentle, sensitive boy. The main exceptions are Woo and Lily (neither of whom is particularly masculine or feminine).
- Matter of Life and Death: Food, necessary to maintain the art of not eating squirrels.
- Meaningful Name: Sandra's last name is North. Sterling North wrote a book titled Rascal about a raccoon who becomes a human's pet.
- Medium Awareness: The characters apparently know the comic's update schedule.
- Meet the In-Laws: There was a story arc where Larisa went over to dinner at Landon's place for the first time. Landon's religious mother was convinced that she was either a witch or a succubus destined to give birth to the Anti-Christ. On the other hand, his father got along with her perfectly. Fortunately, his mother isn't an issue anymore since they got divorced and the father has custody.
- Memetic Mutation: In universe, a video of Cloud taking down a thug was "more popular than free bacon." It turns out that this was all part of Larisa's Batman Gambit to help out her dad's website.
- Missing Mom: Sandra's mother Julie died of an yet unknown cause two years before the comic began. She has only been mentioned on a few strips, and only shown on one (in flashback form).
- Mistaken for Junkie: Larisa, who is diabetic, is caught by a teacher when giving herself an insulin shot during recess. She's then sent to the principal who informs her that taking this "dangerous drug" violates the school's zero tolerance policy against drugs. The plot was inspired by a similar incident on a U.S. middle school in the 1990s. Start reading here.
- Mister Muffykins: A rather hypocritical one appears here.
- Moment Killer:
- Soccer ball, apply directly to the forehead!
- Earlier than that with Yuna and Ye Thuza.
- Who else but Larisa?
- Soccer ball, apply directly to the forehead!
- Money Spider: Played for Laughs. One strip has Cloud kill (or at least knock out) a rabid bat to protect Larisa. Then he finds out the bat had money on it for some reason.Cloud: Seventeen dollars?
- Monster Is a Mommy: Inverted when Ruth kills a lynx that tried to eat her, only for her kittens to come out and discover their mother's corpse.
- Mood Whiplash: The comic is notable for skillfully managing to weave between heartwarming childhood adventure, adult humor and some frighteningly dark themes without changing its pace, to an effect that can sometimes be jarring. Examples of this include the subject of Sandra's dead mother, Ye Thuza's childhood as a child soldier in Burma, Zoey's coming-out-of-the-closet, and, most recently, the fact that Larisa was born with a disease that would probably kill her by 30.
- Most Common Superpower: Lampshaded here.
- Motive Misidentification: Here.Roger Brown: I've always known that Kellogg's is keen on our three secret ingredients. But that they'd go this far…
Tommy: I'm not from Kellogg's, imbecile! - Mugging the Monster: Don't mess with Cloud.
- Music/Age Dissonance: One comic has Sandra's father play an Avril Lavigne song in a music game, while Sandra herself listens to Frank Sinatra.
- Name and Name
- Nature Is Not Nice: Mainly whenever the animal's carnivorous nature is brought up. Played for Black Comedy. Woo and Shadow have sometimes threatened to eat Sid the squirrel, even though they're normally friends, and Shadow had even shared a chunk of his childhood with Sid. Or an Eagle captures Woo to eat him, only to watch Woo eat its eggs. Or most recently, the carnivores animals claim to have been inspired by Zootopia to act nice to the herbivores, but it turns out to be a trick to attack and eat the herbivores now that their defenses are down.
- Nerf Arm: Cloud has a wooden katana.
- Nipple and Dimed: Courtesy of Woo's surprise tackle followed by shredding all of her clothes Sandra ends up buck-naked save for her underpants. Her nipples are nowhere to be seen even though in penultimate panel they technically should be.
- Noir Episode: The Under A Killer Balloon Story Arc.
- Non-Idle Rich: Sandra's grandparents are actually loaded, so farming is more of a hobby for them.
- Non-Indicative Name: Luna mentions a gang called The White Brotherhood took over her old neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey. Sandra assumes they're Neo-Nazis, but Luna points out they're actually a black gang. It's implied they got their name because they believe mayonnaise is Serious Business.
- Noodle Incident:
- Do we really want to know how playing "Truth or Dare" with Larisa can cause psychological trauma?
- Why did the school feel the need to specifically ban dueling between teachers and students?
- So that was the reason for the squad of Black Helicopters.
- So...What exactly ''DID'' Odin do with Driver's Logbook?
- The plasma incident [2]
- Do we really want to know how playing "Truth or Dare" with Larisa can cause psychological trauma?
- Nosebleed: Cloud gets a really bad one in this strip. It's bad enough that he needs an ambulance.
- No-Sell: Tommy tries using a Mind Control gun on Lloyd. It doesn't work.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Surprisingly Averted. Granted, all the main characters have Vague Ages, but through a series of conscious Art Evolutions on the part of the author, the kids have progressively grown older. Compare this strip from 2008 to one from 2011 and then one from 2015.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: How the game demo starts.
- Not What It Looks Like: Tanya and a hunter, looking for a supposedly-rabid fox, come across Shadow, Sid, and Woo rolling on the ground and fighting, with whipped cream all over them.
- Oblivious to Love: Thomas was completely clueless as to why Luna wanted to go to the Warriors game with him, despite the fact that she was wearing a shirt that said "Thomas, I like you!"
- Officer O'Hara: There's a recurring cop character by the name of Nigel O'Sullivan, but he doesn't really have any Irish stereotypes.
- Official Couple:
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: One of Cloud's fears regarding a love letter.
- Only Sane Man: Zoey is this in the storyline where she discovers she has a Shipper on Deck named Gilligan regarding her and another girl at school, Julia (who she has never even spoken to before, mind you). Absolutely everyone but her agrees that this guy has impeccable taste in ships, and therefore must be onto something regarding Zoey and Julia. This includes a judge, who throws out the case when Zoey takes her shipper to court on harassment charges; and even Julia herself. Even Zoey admits that Julia is totally her type. It's seemingly just the principle of the matter that's keeping her from going along with it.Judge: This case seems to be clear-cut. I just have one remaining question for the defendant. [takes out two pictures] Ichigo/Rukia or Ichigo/Orihime?
Gilligan: Ichigo/Rukia!
Judge: I see you are a man of culture as well. CASE DISMISSED! [bangs gavel]
Zoey: SAY WHAT?!!
Judge, Gilligan, and Gilligan's Lawyer: [linking arms and doing That Russian Squat Dance] ONE TRUE PAIRING! ONE TRUE PAIRING! HEY! - O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Larisa coaches Landon on how to spot an impostor pretending to be her: if she's no longer a Pyromaniac, something is wrong.
- Pædo Hunt: Mercilessly parodied. Larisa comes to a terrifying conclusion after dressing as a pedophile for Halloween:Larisa: Could it be that I am a pedo?
Sandra: What?
Larisa: Well, I'm totally into cute 12-year-old boys. 12-year-old boys, Sandy!!
Sandra: Totally disgusting… especially for a 12-year-old girl like you.
[...]
Larisa: You, on the other hand, seem to be solely interested in boys of your own age!
Sandra: I’m such a pervy perv.- Larisa winds up called out for it at the school psychologist's. She misses the point of her calling-out completely.
- Parental Neglect: Sandra's father is a video game addict which comes in the way of his parenting.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: one that no amount of Brain Bleach can remove.
- The Pen Is Mightier: Yuna demonstrates how this is done against the bullies.
- People's Republic of Tyranny: Demonstrated in this strip, where the more a country's name tries to sell it as prosperous, peaceful and democratic, the worse conditions actually are.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: The eagle deity Roc accidentally triggered a meteor-caused mass extinction event on his second day 65 million years ago. To make up for this mistake, he spends most of his time answering prayers from Earth's last remaining dinosaurs (birds).
- Physical God:
- Seeoahtlahmakaskay, the raccoon mother deity. She personally interacts with Woo multiple times, and talks to Butterfly after her death-defying rock climb.
- The "Divine Comedy" arc introduces God, the Devil, Odin, and Cupid, all of whom Larisa is able to see and/or speak to, along with Seeoahtlahmakaskay.
- Pirate Girl: Sandra dresses up as one for Halloween in the aforementioned strip:Sandra: Arr, Liz, didn't you want to dress up as something extra scary for the party today?
- Plot-Based Voice Cancellation: Played for Laughs here.
- Politically Correct Villain: Tommy is very proud of serving an Aztec God of War who has a modern, inclusive view of who qualifies to be a virgin sacrifice. The male virgin who's about to be sacrificed decries it as Political Overcorrectness.
- Precision F-Strike: Done by someone less than ten.
- Private Eye Monologue: Sandy South parodies this in a homage to Tracer Bullet.
- Product Placement: Oreos, saving squirrels from being eaten since 1912.
- Pun: Dessertification.
- Raging Stiffie: Cloud seeing Sandra in a swimsuit.Cloud: No! Not now!
Cloud's groin: You can no longer tell me what to do!- Then it gets worse as Sandra notices, and all girls present (including his own mother) proceed to tease him about it.
- Raptor Attack: Lampshaded in this comic.
- Read the Fine Print: On the payment contract of the North's internet provider.
- Refuge in Audacity:
- Get snatched by an eagle? Eat its eggs!
- No one will ever believe you if you told them that you heard a raccoon talk.
- Right Out of My Clothes: This happens at least twice; First, because of a surprise attack by Woo, and then in turnabout as Sandra shows how she feels about a love poem written for her.
- Ripped from the Headlines: 2019 has an arc that parodies the current European migrant crisis with Germans fleeing to America.
- Rousing Speech:
- Cloud to Sandra, followed by Holding Hands, Squee.
- Woo has a dream.
- Cloud to Sandra
- Running Gag: Sid is friends with Woo and Shadow which does not stop them from trying to eat him on a frequent basis. And when they're not trying to eat him, their mates or other predators are.
- Russian Guy Suffers Most: Subverted with Larisa Korolev, who is Russian and probably acts the most cheerful and carefree of the main characters, but played completely straight with her parents. Her father, Ivan, appears to be a stereotypical "tortured bohemian", with the requisite mane of unkempt hair and the obsession with painting dark and macabre pictures. Her mother Jelena is a ruthless businesswoman who treats both Larisa and her husband very coldly. Larisa even goes as far as to say that her family has always had a "penchant for misery", which she hopes to end (presumably via her own happy-go-lucky behavior). She says this in the context of telling a classmate about her terminal illness. Those Russians just can't seem to catch a break.
- Savage Wolves: Wolves are frequent antagonists in the comics.
- Saying Too Much: This strip has Ye Thuza unthinkingly blurting out something about herself that even she thinks her son should not know.
- Scenery Censor: This one, censoring Woo's thoughts with shrubbery.
- "The Scream" Parody: Sandra imitates The Scream when she remembers making a mistake on a math test.
- Self-Deprecation: A meta example.Larisa (summarising Germany in four words): Nazis bad, cars good, the end!
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Never ask a biologist to say something romantic.
- Serious Business: Larisa and kisses.Larisa: It's always a good moment for smooching!
Landon: No, we should definitely post-pone it!...Because I'm giving a presentation on Germany.
Larisa: (without stopping kissing him) Nazis bad, cars good, the end! - Shameless Fanservice Girl: Larisa has this attitude when she sends a nude picture of herself to all of North America by mistake. Her reasoning is particularly sad: she’ll be blind in 10 years and dead in 20, and some naysayers seeing her by mistake is insignificant in comparison.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Frequent occurrence in Cloud's family.
- Zoey gets what she initially believes to be a Stalker with a Crush, when in fact he is actually shipping her with another girl in school.
- Frequent
- Shout-Out: So many of them in fact that it requires its own page.
- Sold Her Soul for a Donut: A throwaway strip has Sandra remark that she'd sell her soul for an cold glass of lemonade on a hot day. To her surprise a glass of lemonade materializes on the picnic table next to her.
- Spaghetti Kiss: Subverted when Woo and Lily share an earthworm, but Lily sucks it out of Woo's mouth before they kiss.
- Spoof Aesop:
- Crops up at the end of the insulin ban storyline, where Sandra's dad gives the Incredibly Lame Pun of "ducks are bad for you," with a beer bottle in his free hand and something hand-rolled in his mouth.
- Also when Ruth has exhausted the forest's supply of predators and wants to move somewhere else, but Sid is so inconsolable at the thought that she ends up sticking around. The lesson, according to Woo?Woo: "Your girlfriend won't leave you as long as you're clingy enough."
Lily: That's a terrible lesson!
Woo: Still better than "good things come to those who wait."
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Would be played straight, but is avoided by the fact that the writer decided to legally give the spotlight to Cloud and Larisa instead, officially elevating them to Woo's level of focus.
- Stalker with a Crush: Zoey initially believes she's got one as a weird guy starts following her around. Subverted in that it turns out to be even worse - he's not a stalker, he's a shipper!
- Stellar Name: Woo and Lily's kits are named after stars: Sirius, Vega, Arcturus and Canopus.
- Stock Animal Name: Woo is initially christened 'Rascal'. He isn't pleased.
- Stuffed into a Trashcan:
- Done to Ralph by Cloud. It was a Shout-Out to Ozy and Millie where the trope was commonly abused by Jerk Jock, Jeremy.
- A sufficiently angered Sandra does this to Larisa after one biting remark too many.
- Straw Feminist: The new biology teacher, Dorothy Cambrigde and the Moral Police.
- Succubi and Incubi: When the Devil visits Larisa to convince her to sell her soul, he says that when she eventually goes to Hell, he plans to make her a succubus, tempting the innocent with her sexual wiles, feeding the fires of hell until they engulf Elysium. He then has to tell her to stop drooling at the prospect.
- Sudden School Uniform: Literally. Powree just started drawing the kids in identical white polos and dark pants without mention in the dialogue at all, let alone a subplot..
- Eventually reversed, with the same lack of fanfare. Luna's story arc is inaugurated by her being teased for wearing the same outfit every day
- Eventually reversed, with the same lack of fanfare. Luna's story arc is inaugurated by her being teased for wearing the same outfit every day
- Take That!:
-
In regards to the Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic merchandise. - And the Genius Bonus comic that required programming knowledge, understanding of a foreign language, extensive knowledge of the comic's history and comments and solving several word puzzles to figure out? All for a zinger at newspaper comic Marvin.
- Larisa fantasizes about burning Mark Rothko paintings in lava.
- And one to Ctrl+Alt+Del's infamously awful Convenient Miscarriage in terms of the layout, but a far happier ending.
- The Snappic scandal yields one directed at the Prison-Industrial complex in the US.
- Plenty of them in regards to American politics. Especially in more recent comics.
-
- Take That, Audience!:
- The Talk: Richard brings in Ye Thuza to talk to a mortified Sandra about safe sex. Ye Thuza's advice consists of "never have unprotected sex"; she and Richard then go on to explain that it's normal for things to happen, but you need to be prepared (which Ye Thuza jokingly says involves carrying a gun in the event a tiger eats the boy you're with).Richard: Ye Thuza will now tell you everything you need to now about relationships and sexuality.
Ye Thuza: Never have unprotected sex!
(Beat)
Richard: Go on, please...?
Ye Thuza: There's more to say?- Then again, her "talk" with Cloud amounted to her threatening to cut his head off if he got Sandra pregnant before they graduated from high school.
- Talking Animal:
- Woo can talk to both human and animals. Any case of another animal talking to Woo is a case of Translation Convention. Woo's kids inherited his talking ability as well.
- A dog was given the ability to speak human through a serum. Expectedly, it only says things like "play" and "cuddle".
- Tears of Joy: They don't need to watch the Paradise Falls to be happy together.
- Teen Pregnancy: Discussed here. Richard discusses the pill with Sandra, and Larisa advises Landon that, in one month, he could knock up a teenage girl. Given her character, the dynamics of their relationship, and the fact that she seems to be undressing, rest assured it is not innocent. Ye Thuza threatens to cut off Cloud's head if he gets Sandra pregnant before she graduates high school, which is most likely not an idle threat. Woo, on the other hand, doesn't see what the fuss is about, because for a raccoon, thirteen plus is too old to have kits.
- That Came Out Wrong: Sandra, you shouldn't bad mouth rebels (even in a roleplay game) when the son of a former real-life rebel is hearing you.
- Theme Naming:
- Theseus' Ship Paradox: Discussed here, in regards to computers and people.
- They Would Cut You Up: Woo doesn't talk in front of most humans because he's afraid this might happen to him if he does.
- This Is Reality: Sometimes it’s not like in the movies where everything will be alright again in the end.
- Through a Face Full of Fur: Lily here.
- Too Dumb to Live: Yes, Tom the Talking Toast. Play yourself up in front of a girl who can't decide what she wants for breakfast.
- Took a Level in Badass: Woo. One year he lets two of alpha raccoon Tibor's mooks have a girl he was courting uncontested. The next year, when he courts Lily (Tibor's daughter), he runs them out of the forest.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Between her pyromania, her unbridled lust, and Calling Parents by Their Name, Larisa could be the patron saint of this trope.
- Twerp Sweating: When Larisa takes Landon to meet her parents, he thinks he's going to get this when Ivan pulls him aside. But it's subverted when he instead tells Landon about everything Larisa likes.Landon: Wow, thanks for the tips.
Ivan: Better you as her boyfriend than some thug. - Umpteenth Customer: Parodied when Cloud almost becomes the 1000th alien abductee.
- The Unreveal:
- We never find out what Cloud wrote that caused Sandra to pounce on him, remove half his clothes, and beg him to marry her, though it does contain the line "Sandy's shining eyes".
- Strip 528: Larisa finally tells Zoey what's been haunting every fan's mind for the last three-going-on-four years... And right then and there the comic experiences its first ever case of technical difficulties! All we get are Zoey's reactions to Larisa's reveal... It doesn't seem like it's good news. At all. It would be almost two more years - over five and a half years after the original hint - that it would finally be revealed that Larisa suffers from Wolfram syndrome and will be blind in a decade and dead in two.
- Vague Age: The implication, through Art Evolution, is that they are aging in real-time, but the only certainty is that Cloud, Larisa and Sandra are, as of 2015, 12 years old. As of May 2017, Sandra is about to turn thirteen. If the characters were aging in real time, Cloud, Larisa, and Sandra would have been three years old when the comic first started in 2008. If they age one year for every two real years, then they would have been eight in 2008.
- Viewers Are Geniuses: This page takes it as a given that the reader knows why running blindly through tall grass and bushes is an unsafe idea. Unfortunately, most of those readers don't seem to go outside very often, as it went over everyone's head.
- What Cliffhanger: The comic titled "Cliffhanger", the team is about to open the bag, and one makes a loud scream as if something happened. Instantly resolved in the next strip as the bag being full of bugs.
- Wham Line: Larisa succinctly explaining her cavalier attitude towards her nude selfie being sent to all of North America and causing a colossal scandal: she'll be blind in ten years and dead in twenty. She clarifies her statement by explicitly revealing that she has Wolfram syndrome, a rare genetic illness that results in gradual blindness and nerve damage (and also has diabetes as an associated condition) with a typical life expectancy of around thirty years.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: What became of the kittens of the bobcat Ruth killed?
- Wise Beyond Their Years: In the vein of Calvin and Hobbes, albeit further away from the family-friendly end.
- Workout Fanservice: Ye Thuza provides some here.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: Zig-zagged. Sandra, Woo, Cloud, and Larissa decide to explore an abandoned factory at one point and come across a bag full of stuff that they believe to be treasure. When they open it, all they find are a bunch of bugs and dirt. A few strips later, it turns out that the factory was actually the hiding spot for a cache of stolen jewels, and the person who found and returned them was rewarded with 5% of the insurance payment.
- Your Television Hates You: In "Already Gone", Sandra's listening to her iPod on shuffle while walking and holding hands with Cloud, only for her to keep getting Break-Up Song after Break-Up Song, much to her displeasure. She eventually lands on "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias, a love song, and cheers up again.
