Webcomic / The Bedfellows

The Bedfellows is a furry-oriented webcomic (exclusively on FurAffinity) by Kris Patrick of CatGhost fame, later adapted to a YouTube series of comedy animated short films. It follows the crazy antics of two anthropomorphic roommates: Robert "Sheen" Hunter, a mean-spirited and ruthless green cat/dog cross; and Taylor "Fatigue" Stenson, a very dumb and happy-go-lucky purple Jackalope of unknown gender. Together, they do a lot of crazy stuff and get on each other's nerves.

It was announced in February 2013 that the webtoon series was picked up by Mondo Media (of Happy Tree Friends and Dick Figures fame) for distribution.

The comics are available to read at FurAffinity and the animated cartoons are watchable at YouTube. Be warned: They contain Not Safe for Work elements.

In February 2017, a video game adaptation called Bedfellows: Frenzy was released on Steam. The plot is basically Sheen and/or Fatigue playing the in-universe Rampage homage, Frenzy, while dealing with the eccentricities of the rest of the Bedfellows cast.

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Tropes include

• 419 Scam: Sheen prevents Fatigue from becoming a victim of this in "Spam". Subverted, as there really was a Nigerian prince after all, who is very distraught that no one is accepting his offer.
• Abusive Parents: As revealed in "Parents", Sheen's parents booed at him during a School Play along with other parents.
• All There in the Script: There are many characters whose names are only given in the web series' end credits, such as the overweight cat bashing the show in "Fans" being named Fatso, the policewoman being named Kathy and Sheen's lizard cellmate in "Rap Song" being named Malcolm X Ray.
• Affectionate Nickname: Considering Sheen's Hair-Trigger Temper, this is a very bad idea; the conversation below only proves it.
  Bauhaus: Now, Sheenie Beenie, tell me a little about how you have been feeling lately.
  Sheen: Wonderful, fabulous... I'm a ship sailing on calm seas... AND DON'T CALL ME THAT!!
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents:
  • Sheen's mother; Sheen even goes as far to apologize to a waitress for her "traditional" behavior!
  • Fatigue's mother has no qualms about flirting with others right in front of her own child.
• Ambiguous Gender: Fatigue exhibits masculine and feminine traits; other characters refer to Fatigue as a man or woman, Fatigue has a tampon in his purse, and in one episode, Fatigue appears to be peeing standing up in one episode when he's really pouring spoiled milk down a toilet. Additionally, Fatigue is shown to be the "woman of the house" compared to Sheen, and has Camp Gay tendencies.
  • Ever since the youtube series started Fatigue's gender was retconned to canonically unknown and the gender confusion was elevated to Running Gag status, but in the earliest comics, especially the NSFW ones, it was made graphically clear Fatigue was a male (with one even having Fatigue try to get Sheen to fellate him on his birthday).
• Angry Guard Dog: Sheen is half-dog, and it shows.
• Animated Adaptation: The work started out as a webcomic, but later got an animated web series posted to YouTube.
• Animated Music Video: "Keys Keys Keys", a parody of "Get Low" by Lil' Jon, and "Rap Song".
• Anti Climax Cut:
  • In "Bubble Gum," Sheen attempts to create a viral video by swallowing as much bubble gum as possible and taping the results. We get a close up of his moaning stomach as he squeals in anticipation... before we cut to him in a hospital bed being told that the gum formed a large blockage in his lower intestine.
  • In the second "Mothers Day" episode:
    Sheen: Take a seat, buddy. Let's have... dinner. (Maniacal laugh)
    (Cut to Sheen, Fatigue and Fatigue's mother quietly eating dinner)
• Armored Closet Gay: Sheen lives with, sleeps with, and rapes Fatigue, but is nevertheless abrasive to the point of borderline sociopathy and insists that his relations with Fatigue do not make him gay.
• Art Evolution: While the animation has always been rather stiff and limited, more recent episodes have had the occasional Animation Bump, full-body shots and more expressive Flash puppets.
• Art Shift: Make a rather awkward transition to cel-shaded CGI when 2D Flash puppets apparently became too expensive and time-consuming for the artists.
• As Himself: Andrew W.K. in "Next Door," complete with an allusion to his cover for I Get Wet when Sheen punches him in the nose, causing it to bleed profusely. Bonus points for the character he voices being his personal fursona.
• Ax-Crazy: Sheen, always being abusive to Fatigue.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • The second "Mother's Day" episode has Fatigue sneaking out of the house to go visit his mother, doing everything possible to avoid Sheen finding out. It looks as though he's doing this to avoid Sheen's wrath for going somewhere without telling him, but he was really just afraid that if Sheen came along, he'd make Fatigue's mom strip for them. He was right.
  • Sheen is introduced in the episode "Drinking" obscured by the shadows, with a Slasher Smile and Blank White Eyes and is quickly revealed to be absolutely piss-drunk, with the sinister music and atmosphere making it look like he's going to start abusing Fatigue again, until he's then revealed to be an incredibly friendly and pleasant drunk. which still horrifies Fatigue.
  • Double-subverted in "Toni P." Sheen is ashamed to call the titular character until Fatigue tells him not to be ashamed of himself and accept that "this is simply who he is." Sheen enthusiastically calls up a pizza place called "Toni's Pizza," who laugh at him for wanting a pizza with anchovies.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't touch Sheen's stuff.
  • Don't ask Sheen about Fatigue's gender.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: In "Fans", Sheen and Fatigue both call the overweight critic panning their show a "meanie jerkhead".
• Black-and-Grey Morality: Fatigue is an air-headed Butt-Monkey and Sheen is an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist.
• Black Comedy: A lot of the show's humor revolves around Sheen abusing and beating Fatigue whenever the latter pisses him off.
• Black Comedy Rape:
  • Sexual abuse is frequently implied between Sheen and Fatigue. For example, this exchange from "Two Friends Play Frenzy" when Fatigue tries to get Sheen to participate in doing a gameplay video of Frenzy for the Internet.
    Sheen: I'm not playing that! That game is boring!
    Fatigue: But-but you agreed that you would!
    Sheen: I never said that! You're a liar!
    Fatigue: Yes, you did! Remember? Like, like yesterday, when you had me dressed up in that fairy costume and I didn't want to, but you said to do it anyways and then I did, so—
    Sheen: (frantically puts his hands over Fatigue's mouth) Okay! Shut up! I'll do it! Uh...(chuckles) we'll just edit that out later, right?
  • "Rap Song" has Sheen rap about how he isn't legally allowed to rap, with a lot of jokes having him mention "rap" in a context that would make more sense if the word ended with a silent E and its present participle only had one P. Hell, the video ends with a Prison Rape gag where Sheen winds up in jail and finds himself having a lizard cellmate who turns off the lights as he tells Sheen he'll be the victim of his next "rap" song.
• Brick Joke: In "Next Door," Sheen wakes Fatigue up to "take care of a problem," which Fatigue takes to mean his Raging Stiffie. Sheen meant the noise next door, but he tells Fatigue to keep going. In the next scene, Fatigue knocks on the door with a hand covered in a dubious, white substance.
• Butt-Monkey: Both Sheen and Fatigue towards each other; Fatigue constantly annoys Sheen, and Sheen is physically abusive towards Fatigue.
• Camp Gay: Ambiguous Gender aside, Fatigue shows multiple traits of being a camp gay man, such as feminine mannerisms and flamboyant vocal inflections.
• Catchphrase: DIS-LIKE! (From a episode with Sheen rating videos)
• Cats Are Mean: Well, Sheen is only half-cat, but he's still quite a malicious prick.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: "Jacked Ass" ends with Fatigue walking in on Sheen masturbating.
• Christmas Episode: "The 12 Rapes of Christmas", consisting of Fatigue singing a Twelve Day of Christmas parody where they list items Sheen gave them as well as acts of abuse that Sheen inflicted on Fatigue.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Fatigue is the more absent-minded of the duo, as well as the nicer one.
• David Versus Goliath: In "Beach Bully", the titular bully - a tall, muscular Doberman anthro - shoves Sheen out of the way to flirt with Fatigue, when Sheen stands up to the bully and gets in a fighting stance, appearing ready to fight him. However, Sheen throws his punch at Fatigue instead, knocking them to the ground and calling them "a little slut" for accepting the bully's advances. He then leaves the bully in shock at what just happened.
• Depraved Bisexual: Sheen is often seen sleeping with random women, and can also be seen with men, and is presumably in an (abusive) relationship with Fatigue.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • On Sheen's laundry list of flaws. The first episode has him coming home from work to punch Fatigue in the face for hanging up on him! After Sheen specifically told Fatigue to hang up!!
  • In "Aspergers," Sheen claims that he once threw water in a girls face and called her a whore when she asked if a dress looked good on her!
• Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: In "Aspergers," Sheen's erratic, anti-social behavior is diagnosed as the titular disorder, which he immediately uses as an excuse to act out worse than ever, including speeding through traffic, beating up strangers, and eventually resisting arrest. Subverted at the end, when he's re-diagnosed as simply being a jerk.
• Disappeared Dad: We have no idea what happened to Fatigue's father.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Sheen's mother's anti-lizard racism is clearly a stand-in for racism against black people.
• The Dog Bites Back: Fatigue beats up and pepper-sprays Sheen in an episode, albeit on accident because Sheen came home completely bald and Fatigue thought that he was a stranger.
• Domestic Abuse: Played for Laughs. Hell, one episode has Sheen drunk and acting compassionate to Fatigue, but Fatigue responds as if he's being abused.
• Don't Eat and Swim: "Swimming" has Sheen eat a hot dog before getting into the pool and ignoring the lifeguard's warning that he must wait a bit first, getting cramps within seconds.
• Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Sheen's sexual abuse of Fatigue is treated as humorous.
• Ear Worm: In the "Jacked Ass" video, Sheen gets sick of Fatigue playing the "My Little Donkey" theme song loudly, so he yells at him to turn it down. Then he gets the song stuck in his head when he starts playing with his penis, causing him to sing it. He angrily struggles to get it out of his head, but he couldn't stop singing it, resulting in an Atomic F-Bomb he screams out in rage.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: "Collect Call" heavily implies that Fatigue has finally summoned the courage to leave Sheen and the toxic relationship they had behind. Subsequent videos have them together again, though Sheen is less abusive this time.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Be the idiocy in the form of an Ear Worm, or Being Touched, or who knows what else, you can count on Sheen to yell and curse and become violent on a hair trigger whenever it happens.
• Expressive Ears: Sheen. Justified considering that he's a hybrid between both a dog AND a cat, both of which have their ears as part of their body language.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • A raging asshole Sheen may be, but even he can't tolerate his mother's Fantastic Racism against lizards to the point where he actually apologizes for her behavior.
  • The titular character of "Beach Bully" is disturbed when Sheen retaliates to him trying to steal Fatigue from him by punching Fatigue.
• Faux Horrific: Fatigue's reaction to a drunken Sheen, who is nothing but pleasant and friendly towards them in a stark contrast to his usual abrasive and outright abusive behavior.
• Female Feline, Male Mutt: Sheen's parents consist of a female cat and a male dog.
• Freudian Excuse: The episode where Sheen starts seeing a shrink reveals that his bad attitude can be traced back to when he was heckled out of a kindergarten play. The hecklers? His own parents!
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Sheen could probably give Dan a run for his money in being perpetually pissed off.
• Hates Being Touched:
  • One of Sheen's flaws is that he doesn't like other people touching him.
  • In the Christmas Episode he allows Fatigue "9 Awkward Touches".
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Sheen, as revealed in "Parents".
• Hidden Depths: It's revealed in "Bored Meeting" that Fatigue works as an architect and is quite serious and passionate about it, and actually prefers function over form when it comes to his job, and overall uncharacteristically acts as the Only Sane Man towards his two superiors because of this.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In "Next Door," Sheen's noisy neighbor apologies for his loud music as kindly and well-spoken as possible, with the only thing really offensive being just how well-spoken he is causes him to be mildly annoying. Sheen tells him to "talk like a normal person and stop being an egotistical jerk!"
• Ink-Suit Actor: Andrew W.K.'s character in "Next Door," which also happens to be his real-life fursona.
• Jerkass: Sheen is a complete asshole who likes to do cruel and hurtful things to other people.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Sheen often gets away with abusing and beating Fatigue, but typically faces actual punishment when he tries to harm or inconvenience anyone else.
• Lighter and Softer: The post-2017 shorts significantly tone down Sheen's personality from an outright abuser towards Fatigue to being just an outright grouch.
• Manly Tears: Tears quietly roll down Sheen's angry face after Toni P laughs at him for wanting a pizza with anchovies.
• Meaningful Name: Fatigue. He gets Sheen in trouble a lot.
• Memetic Mutation: Parodied; one comic strip has Fatigue and a pal of his giving Sheen a cheeseburger only to mirror the "I Can Haz A Cheezburger" meme, much to Sheen's extreme irritation, who then yells at them to get out, resulting in Fatigue and his friend cooking spaghetti to mirror another meme.invoked
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Sheen is a cat/dog hybrid.
• Mister Seahorse: In the Christmas Episode after 10 Contraceptives.
  Sheen: (to Fatigue hugging a bulging stomach) WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE PREGNANT?!?
• Nice Guy: Fatigue is considerably more pleasant and personable than Sheen.
• No, You: In "Football", Fatigue calls football dumb and Sheen responds with "No, you're dumb!"
• No, You Hang Up First: In "Hang Up", when Sheen and Fatigue argue over who should hang up.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The one time Fatigue actually stands up for himself is in "Bored Meeting," when he calls out his bosses for doing nothing but patting themselves on the back (and other places) for their good work rather than make it even better.
• One-Hour Work Week: Sheen's job at the post office doesn't come up after the first episode, and we don't even find out if Fatigue has a job until episode 29.
• Pilot: "Just Give Him Ten Minutes", a short where Sheen and Fatigue go to a sperm bank to donate samples, serves as the pilot episode of the web series. It is not available on the main channel, but can be found through reuploads.
• Poor Man's Porn: Fatigue's architectural blueprints are enough to send his bosses into an orgasmic frenzy.
• Precision F-Strike: The lizard cook in "Dinner" who spits in Sheen's mom's salad.
  Lizard Cook: "Dinner is served.... muthafucka."
• Prison Rape: "Rap Song" ends with Sheen in jail and his lizard cellmate ready to violate him.
• Pun-Based Title: Some of the episode titles, such as "Jacked Ass" and "Bored Meeting".
• Racist Grandma: Sheen's mom expresses hate speech towards lizards in "Dinner", to the chagrin of Sheen.
• Retraux: The Frenzy video game in the "Two Friends Play Frenzy" cartoon resembles a game on NES.
• Ripped from the Headlines: "Yolo," but only because Sheen is the kind of person who'd misinterpret it the way most people did.
• Sadist Show: Boy howdy.
• Self-Deprecation: A video where Kris Patrick demonstrates how he animates the web series ends with him telling the viewer that the show is terrible and that no one should watch it.
• Shout-Out:
  • "My Little Donkey" in the "Jacked Ass" cartoon is a parody of My Little Pony and especially My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • The "Keys Keys Keys" music video is a parody of "Get Low" by Lil' Jon.
  • The game played in "Two Friends Play Frenzy" is similar to Rampage.
• Single Mom Stripper: Fatigue's mother Amy Stenson puts on exotic dances for money, with Fatigue's dad never even acknowledged.
• Sir Swearsalot: Sheen, who swears very often when he's angry, and that too is very often.
• Slipping a Mickey: In the Christmas Episode "11 Drinks with Roofies"
• Stealth Pun: In "Bored Meeting," Fatigue's bosses get hot and bothered (and, eventually, kinky) as he explains his blueprints for a ballroom. It's "artistic masturbation."
• Straw Feminist: "Train" has Sheen argue with and fall in love with a stereotypical man-hating feminist.
• Stylistic Suck: Fatigue's titular "show" on "Two Friends Play Frenzy".
• Sudden Anatomy:
  • In the animations, the characters normally don't have toes on their feet, but in the "Don't Touch My Stuff" and "Gary" cartoons, they suddenly gain toes and soles in a few shots.
  • This early comic shows that Sheen has pads on his feet in a closeup, although they disappeared in others.
  • Sheen, Fatigue and Fatigue's Mom all have toes though out the Christmas Episode. The style has stuck on since then.
• Suddenly Shouting: Sheen does it to his therapist for calling him "Sheenie Beenie".
• Take That!:
  • Suffice to say, My Little Donkey from the episode "Jacked Ass" is not an Affectionate Parody of Bronies, with the theme song insinuating that fans of the show are losers for fawning over a Merchandise-Driven show targeted at young children.
  • Subverted with "Yolo" in that it's a satire of the people who interpret "Don't let consequences rule you" as "I can do whatever I want and get away with it", which is exactly the kind of person Sheen is.
• Take That, Audience!: "Fans" is nothing but this, portraying the show's fanbase as so creepy that Sheen and Fatigue find the detractors preferable.
• The Twelve Spoofs of Christmas: As the title indicates, "The 12 Rapes of Christmas" has Fatigue sing a parody of Twelve Days of Christmas where they list what presents Sheen gave them as well as acts of abuse Sheen inflicted on Fatigue.
• Toilet Seat Divorce: In a scene in "The 12 Rapes Of Christmas", Sheen asks for a divorce over... Fatigue showing off his (Fatigue's) thong.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Sheen regularly abuses Fatigue and everyone else around him, and is a promiscuous and depraved bisexual.
• Vanity License Plate: On Sheen's car in the "Keys Keys Keys" video - "NOT GAY".
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Invoked and played with; when new viewers had trouble guessing Fatigue's gender, the creators decided to roll with the idea and have Fatigue's gender be undecided. People refer to Fatigue as a man or woman, Fatigue has a tampon in his purse, Fatigue appears to be peeing standing up in one episode when he's really pouring spoiled milk down a toilet...
• Villain Protagonist: Sheen abuses and rapes Fatigue frequently, and on the whole, is an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist.
• Volumetric Mouth: Sheen's mouth expands cartoonishly whenever he yells louder.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Fatigue has a weird accent that simultaneously sounds like an English one, an Australian one, and a South African one at the same time.
• Why the Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: "Fans" presents the nitpicking and hatred from people who dislike the show as pleasant when compared to the creepy TMI comments made by people who like it.
• With Friends Like These...: Sheen and Fatigue.
• World of Jerkass: Fatigue and their friend Gary seem to be the only genuinely nice characters to ever appear in this series, given that pretty much everyone else around them is a self-serving, unlikeable asshole (especially Sheen).

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