VG Cats
is a video game-themed Funny Animal webcomic by Scott Ramsoomair. Rather than directly emulate the Two Gamers on a Couch format that was popularized by Penny Arcade, this comic instead does humorous parodies of video games and anime with the main characters, Cloudcuckoolander Leo and Snark Knight Aeris.
The comic follows a gag-a-day format focused on Deep-Immersion Gaming segments, along with some strips set in Leo and Aeris' world. The main duo are occasionally joined by a small cast of recurring characters that includes the hapless superhero PantsMan, the serial Fan Boy Ternaldo, Doctor Hobo, and Krug the demon.
Ramsoomair spun off two subcomics: Adventure Log (2007), based on Final Fantasy XI, and Super Effective (2008), an Affectionate Parody of the plot of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen.
VG Cats was launched on 1 September 2001, averaging 25 comics per year at its peak. Updates fell off throughout the decades, going down to less than one a year in some cases, and the comic seemed to be in confused state when Scott announced his intent to leave it behind in 2022. Finally, after a long hiatus, sporadic updates resumed in late 2023 with no further comment.
Please note that the site does not use a permanent URL system for its archives, and so the links used in examples may no longer lead to the intended page. Ideally, along with a link, also give the issue number and title.
Provides examples of:
- 20% More Awesome: Used very nearly by name in #294, They'll Fix You. They Fix Everything. Leo, depicted as Adam Jensen, is made to be "20% cooler", likely as a reference to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Crossing over with V for Vendetta, Leo comes to a house in a Guy Fawkes mask and does the same speech, only replacing V with H. #216 Aech
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A bot playing as Coach tries to offer help to Aeris for minor situations, but quickly turns on her when she shoots him. They don't call them "bots" for nothing. (#277 Cheeseburger Apocalypse)
- Affectionate Parody: Is an affectionate parody of video games in general, exploring and playing with the tropes common in the genre.
- Alternate Universe:
- Scott ran a brief (very brief - like, not even into double digits) comic called VGKitties, exploring the notion that Leo and Aeris were ordinary housecats interacting in housecatty ways, rather than a pair of funny animals.
- Also used in one of the actual comics, which depicted an alternate universe where Sonic was more popular than Mario, Mortal Kombat (now "Minor Konflict") was family friendly, and the eponymous cats were now dogs with their roles in the comics swapped.
- Amusing Injuries: Oh so painfully Deconstructed in #210 The Lost Episodes. It shows a Tom and Jerry skit where Jerry hits Tom with a hammer; Tom gets sent to the hospital while Jerry gets sent to court, and eventually, prison.
- And Zoidberg: Ashley Williams of Mass Effect is specifically mentioned over the other species as stuff Commander Shepard would have sex with (except in her case, not).
- Animated Adaptation:
- A flash toon attempt, but only one episode exists: check it.
- To a lesser degree of "animated", there's the VG Cats Adaptation With No Name, which mostly adds voice acting to the existing comics.
- A flash toon attempt, but only one episode exists: check it.
- Animesque: Has a lot of anime-inspired expressions and effects.
- Anthropomorphic Shift: Early strips seemed to indicate that Aeris and Leo belonged to and lived with Scott, despite being anthropomorphic. Eventually it shifted to the two of them living independently as apparent college roommates, and in 2013-14 flashback strips showed them as children living in fully humanlike houses with their families.
- Arbitrary Equipment Restriction: "Wardrobe" has Aeris as Penelo find out the hard way about Final Fantasy XII's License System, finding herself stupidly wearing it on her foot. Leo as Vaan says without the XP, it's a wonder they can wipe themselves. With the hat on her face, she just wants to kill cactaurs until she stops being retarded.
- Arc Welding: #334 and #335 both take place in the same era (when Aeris and Leo were kids) but are unrelated. #336 ties them together and shows the aftermath of each story. Scott even says this was an arc weld, as he hadn't set out to do a three-parter, but changed his mind after writing the first comic.
- Art Evolution: Here is the earliest appearance of Aeris and Leo, back in 2001. And this is their early-2010 appearance. Yeah. Character style varies wildly from strip to strip.
- Artificial Stupidity: #277, Cheeseburger Apocalypse forces Leo, Aeris and Pantsman to play Left 4 Dead 2 with a bot playing as Coach, who proceeds to waste medkits on paper cuts, try to heal Aeris while she's standing in pools of Spitter acid or being punched in the face by a Tank, and generally make bad situations worse by ignoring Special Infected attacks outright or being easily distracted from them.
- Ass Shove: Solid Snake's attempt at solving the "temperature sensitive" keycard is to shove it up his ass because Otacon told him to find "a warm place".
- Also, from #76, the second appearance of Johnny Evilguy where he talks Leo into buying his "Orange Sapphire of Might", (some guy's testicle) as an insta-kill item. Leo's attempt at using it on a high-level enemy results in this trope.
- Atomic F-Bomb:
- This strip has Aerith setting up the apartment with speakers so she can get the best aural experience for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, legal release dates be damned. Turns out the cops are prepared for someone watching it as a 1015 and just as Cloud and Sephiroth are about to get to their climactic duel... the player gets a disc read error. That's when Aerith lets out a LITERAL use of the trope.
- In a not so literal example, Aeris gets scammed into buying a key that unlocks a crate that contains the same gun that she already owns. She lets out an F-bomb that's as wide as the comic before bursting into a Cluster F-Bomb immediately afterward.
- This strip
- Attack Backfire: Used in this comic for using fire as a weapon in cold weather; pleasant for obvious reasons.
- Author Avatar: Pantsman was originally this, but over the years he's become less prominent, and Aeris has stepped into the role of Ramsoomair's megaphone.
- Author Tract: "Nerd Rage", an entire strip consisting of a tirade on how casual gaming is ruining the industry. Lampshaded here where other characters point out that flat out explaining your points makes a shitty allegory, though that didn't stop him from dedicating seven panels to it.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the constant arguing, teasing, and general hatred, there's still a few moments that show that Leo and Aeris care for each other:
- #278 The Perfect Gift: Aeris wants to buy Dungeon Guy 3, but has no money. When Leo finds out, he does many jobs for money, and he doesn't buy the exact game but buys Dungeon Guy 2 instead. Aeris is content with the gift, and thanks Leo with a kiss and a "merry Christmas" note.
- #336 Epilogue: In their childhood, Aeris played Super Metroid with Leo to cheer him up after he accidentally killed his hamster.
- #278 The Perfect Gift
- Bad Santa: Santa's Bad List is, but of course, written in the Death Note.
- Better by a Different Name: In some Author Tract, Pantsman declares his hate for Inuyasha, saying it was better when it was Fushigi Yuugi, then calling it "Dragon Ball Z for girls!"
- Beyond the Impossible: Aeris aborts Leo from time - and he recovers from it.
- Bizarro Universe: In the aptly-titled "Bizarro!", where Sega won the Console Wars, and the protagonists are VG Dogs with flipped personalities. Damn you, Sliders!
- Black Comedy: Quite common:
- In "The Comedian," Aeris aborting Leo from his mother in the past, causing him to fade from existence.
- The babysitting gun turret from Portal, who technically does its job... of shooting, not babysitting. The turret kills the baby and then says "nap time" as if it were simply asleep.
- #143 Moral Dilemma: A guy demonstrates how life insurance is importance for babies by snapping a baby's neck as an example of one of the "dangerous things" that can happen. Aeris can only stare in shock.
- In #308 Conglaturation!, the supposed truth behind the Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death is revealed: it's the reason for the characters in ReBoot turning into slugs if the user beats the game.
- In one of the parodies of One Piece, Chopper tries to tell Zoro he has to remove his colon after one of his battles.Zoro: What's that, Chopper? "Band-Aids Heal Everything"?
Chopper: [holds up a colostomy bag] This is going to be your new rectum.
- In "The Comedian,"
- Black Comedy Rape: Many examples. One example is in #53 "Mr. Dumpty," where Snake stuns Leo just so he can hump his ass.
- Blatant Lies:
- "Updated every Monday!" This phrase that used to appear on the website became less true as the comic went on, due to it not updating every Monday because of
Schedule Slip and eventually concluding altogether. - The above is lampshaded in #246 "Left Behind," where Leo and Aeris complain about delays for the newest Super Smash Bros. game and condemning anyone who can't keep a schedule, before looking directly in front of them at the VG Cats website, which says that it updates on Mondays despite Schedule S Lip.
- In the Man of Steel parody, a guy claims a tornado is too fast, when in reality it takes 5 panels after he says it to reach him while he just stands there.
- "Updated every Monday!" This phrase that used to appear on the website became less true as the comic went on, due to it not updating every Monday because of
- Boob-Based Gag: This strip showing Phoenix having an Imagine Spot where everyone in the courtroom gets Mia's chest size.
- Brain Bleach: In #27 "Shake Your Bon-Bon," Aeris shields her eyes in disgust at seeing Al Gore's ass in Democrat Dance Revolution, a parody of DanceDanceRevolution.
- Brick Joke: The rat flail. Starts as a "weapon" during a D&D strip. Becomes a plot point when they re-enact Bleach as Ichigo!Leo's weapon.
- Bringing Back Proof: Parodied in a strip ribbing on video games' tendency to assign quests around this theme, where Johnny Evilguy appears as a quest giver who tasks Aeris with assassinating Tommy Goodboy and retrieving one of his testicles as proof of the kill. Aeris gives him the requested body part, but it turns out that she didn't actually kill him for it — she just got him blackout drunk and obtained the quest item while he was unconscious.
- The Cameo: Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw from Zero Punctuation appears in Strip 292, where he calls Duke Nukem Forever shit.
- Cats Are Snarkers: Aeris the cat is easily the most sarcastic character in the webcomic.
- Cheeky Mouth: Intentionally invoked on Sonic the Hedgehog and some of Leo's expressions. Seen less on Aeris and some of the more exaggerated expressions.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Krug. His last appearance was between issues 269 & 270... which was a guest comic to parody Ghostbusters.
- Cluster F-Bomb:
- "By Popular Request," in which Pantsman gives his opinion on Inuyasha, which amounts to "Fuck [aspect of the series or character name]" over and over again.
- "Kinder Surprise," to Aeris, quite expressively so. After she gets a duplicate gun from a loot crate, she unleashes an Atomic F-Bomb and goes on a rant:Aeris: Of all the fucking bullshit... duplicate SHITTY fucking item... fuck, FUCKIDY, FUCK fuck!
- "By Popular Request,"
- Con Recap: The comic has done recaps of conventions such as "E3 2011," with Nintendo introducing the Wii U, Sony not introducing anything, and Microsoft pushing for customers to buy the Kincet.
- Continuity Nod: In the ever-popular "The Perfect Gift," Aeris owns figurines of the monstrosities Leo created in "Wright to Life." They sit just below her Haruhi Suzumiya girls Playboy Bunny poster and next to a Lucario figurine.
- Couch Gag: The strip resumed in September 2020 with Leo digging his way out of the couch.
- Crate Expectations: Played with here. The crate in that comic is a loot crate from Team Fortress 2, and when Aeris opens it, she gets a duplicate gun, much to her fury. This is taken straight from the source game, where this happens with 90% of the crates you open.
- Cute and Psycho: Aeris looks adorable and can be sweet, but she is quite hot-blooded and violent at times, and has done thing such as threatening to rip Leo's spine out, strangling Bill Gates to death, erasing Leo from existence by aborting him from his mother (though he recovers), and much more.
- Cute Little Fang: Most of the time, Aeris has these little fangs sticking out, adding to her cuteness.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: The "First Comic" and "Last Comic" buttons are in the middle, between the "Previous Comic" and "Next Comic" buttons. This may be the only webcomic on the internet to do this.
- Darker and Edgier:
- Leo explains the origins of the Tooth Fairy and Chocolate Milk. Unlike the modern depiction of the Tooth Fairy and chocolate milk in real life, the backstory is quite dark. The fairies ripped out their own teeth to defeat their leader, Lord Bunny of Esternia, whose chocolate blood flowed into rivers of milk, and the fairies would later collect discarded teeth in case the rabbit came back.
- Their explanation of Frosty the Snowman here. The story starts off normal, with Frosty coming to life via a magic hat, but suddenly a pentagram forms on his head and Frosty turns demonic, with him gaining red eyes and razor-sharp teeth, and killing Leo & Aeris.
- Leo explains the origins of the Tooth Fairy and Chocolate Milk.
- Declarative Finger: Parodied here, where Leo points his finger up while saying he has to pee in a verbose manner.
- Deep-Immersion Gaming: Spoofed in one issue (#311 "Dress Rehersal") where Aeris and Leo, who are already dressed as Princess Peach and Luigi, are asked to put on the cat suits from Super Mario 3D World over top their existing costumes.
- Defictionalisation: The "Wright for Life" comic led to the actual Spore team creating their own,◊ replacing the drawn aliens with ingame ones, and later on physical models were made. Of course, Spore players can attempt something like this as well.
- Different World, Different Movies: This comic shows a world were Aeris and Leo are dogs with swapped personalities (Leo is now the exasperated straight-man and Aeris is the excitable simpleton) who play games such as Minor Konflict and the Shadow the Hedgehog-esque Yoshi the Dinosaur.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: Parodied here, where Dr. Hobo explains in his typical way that pirating songs lead a man to steal his house, at least before it disappears into complete incoherence.
- Distant Reaction Shot: Uses a variant in this strip in the form of a literal F-bomb being seen along a city skyline.
- Don't Explain the Joke:
- Aeris's response to Leo when he makes an incredibly misogynistic joke about why girls like stories about vampires and feels the need to spell out what he's talking about. Leo does this a lot. "Recurring, if you will."
- And again in #367 (Moostache), rather than letting it speak for itself Leo has to make absolutely certain we understand that the gag is that the guy doesn't just milk female Pokémon, but males as well.
- Aeris's response to Leo when he makes an incredibly misogynistic joke about why girls like stories about vampires and feels the need to spell out what he's talking about. Leo does this a lot. "Recurring, if you will."
- Double Entendre: #137 Medicinal Herbs: Leo's "That is the BIGGEST barrel I've ever seen, is it pump action?" can either be interpreted as him checking out the merchant's wares or checking out... another thing that the merchant has. Aeris interprets it as the latter.
- Dumbass Has a Point: In #155, after Leo mocks Aeris for playing an online MMORPG:Aeris: Online RPGs are about social interaction, damn it!
Leo: Yes, social interaction, of course.
Leo: "SPARE MONIES FOR A NEWB?"
Leo: "HEAL PLZ?"
Leo: "HOW I MINE FOR FISH?"
Leo: [turns to Aeris] "HAY A GRL LETS CYBER!" - Easter Egg:
- That password in "Nerd Rage" really works for Mega Man 2, all bosses, full e-tanks.
- In the 100th Comic flash video, one can access a scene where Pantsman does a mockup of Strong Bad Email... and since he's actually using Strong Bad's Compy, Strong Bad himself appears and tells him to get out.
- That password in "Nerd Rage"
- Entertainingly Wrong: In Wright to Life, the evolution theorist believes that creationism is wrong, because no merciful God would ever create a creature like Jeremy. Except that Leo is God, and there is nothing merciful about him.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: As the Trope Namer, it discusses the terrible implications of the alien face-huggers that clamp to one's face and put their offspring in one's stomach.
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Parodied in a strip about Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. His lovely female assistant finds residue from "some mysterious [white] liquid" all over his computer and tastes it. She exclaims, "Salty...must be blood!"
- For Science!: Leo used science as an excuse to dissect Winnie the Pooh, and again when experimenting with the past by cutting off his past self's arms.
- Funny Animal: Leo and Aeris are anthropomorphic cats.
- Furry Confusion: Lampshaded. Despite living in a house with a toilet Leo still does his business in a litter box much to the confusion of Aeris.
- General Failure: In one of the strips, an idiot general makes plans that involve bombing his own infantry. He is the page image for this trope and overthrown by the end of the strip.
- Geo Effects: Parodied in "High Ground," where standing on the high ground actually gives Obi-Wan a statistical advantage over Anakin, to which Anakin cries, "Hax!"
- Gone Horribly Right: In a parody of the 2016 US Election, Dr. Eggman wins the Mobius election, but the last panel shows that whatever his plan was, he didn't want to win the election for real.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Parodied in #143 Moral Dilemma: Dr. Hobo has two consciences: one is a devilish version of him, but in place of a good angel, there is a clown who says random things unrelated to the current situation.
- Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Leo's eyes are wide and somewhat goofy. Aeris, while not evil per se, is deeply cynical and dangerously unstable, and has narrower, unconnected eyes.
- Grammar Nazi: In "The PUNisher," a man is kidnapped, gets his ear cut off, and is pistol-whipped repeatedly for using Leet Lingo, poor spelling, and poor grammar on a forum post.
- High-Class Glass
- Used in the comic "By Popular Request." Yes, Inu-Yasha sipping tea while wearing a monocle. Notice the "monocle!" Unsound Effect.
- Leo's father also wears a monocle with a top hat, just to play up his "Britishness".
- Used in the comic "By Popular Request."
- High-Pressure Blood: This comic shows a Worms game going on... normal, right? Well, when part of the ground was destroyed by a rocket, we cut to... Leo in pain and blood stains behind him. Take a wild guess what happened. Also counts as Bowel-Breaking Bricks when you think about it.
- Homage:
- Leo's reaction to Dr. Hobo's death is an homage to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Before that he created a Comic replacing Byakuya and Ichigo with Aeris and Leo, and recreated the scene where Ichigo first used his Bankai.note
- Hulk Speak: Anything said by Krug, who uses a simple speech pattern where he refers to himself in the third person.
- Human-Focused Adaptation: Discussed in this comic.Starring a cast of two-dimensional characters no one cares about! With special guest stars the Transformers.
- Hypocrisy Nod
- This strip pokes fun at non-Japanese animesque works which overuse anime tropes. Works such as VG Cats itself being the implication.
- A characterm angered by the delayed release of a Super Smash Bros. game, declares people who miss deadlines should be shot. The strip itself often misses its update deadline: as a nod the characters stare nervously at the Fourth Wall. The strip came out after a long time with no updates.
- This strip pokes fun at Family Guy and its ratings-boost stunt at the time (Brian's death)... only to bring back a character that was Killed Off for Real in the strip years ago, in a similar stunt lampshading the strip's own situation.
- This
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: In #194 "Cuddly Little Cubby," a dissected Winnie the Pooh wants to die as he's torn up, but cannot due to the state of his body, so he begs Piglet to kill him.
- Identical Panel Gag: Very frequent, usually doubled as Beat Panels. Notably used when Aeris watches an illegally downloaded copy of Advent Children before it's cut off with a disc read error, which she stares at dumbfoundedly for four panels before letting out an Atomic F-Bomb.
- I'm Cold... So Cold...: This comic has Pea-Steve say this before dying while he and Pea-Bob wait for Potato-moto.
- In Name Only:
- At times. Some comics have only gaming, others have only cats, and still others have neither. Lampshaded in #77 (I'm gonna get sued for this..), at least as far as it not being relevant to gaming goes.
- The shortlived VG Kitties had nothing whatsoever to do with gaming, though it had plenty of Aeris and Leo.
- At times. Some comics have only gaming, others have only cats, and still others have neither. Lampshaded in #77 (I'm gonna get sued for this..)
- Jackass Genie: What happens when you ask the Monkey's Paw for Duke Nukem Forever. Leo does so and gets his game, but it comes at a price: it changes up the formula, which he's mad at, and later on it turns out there wasn't even a game at all: he just got the game box.
- Just One More Level!: This strip has Aeris getting in a "quick" game of Civilization. By the time she's reached the Bronze Age, she's not only gotten ridiculously old, but an apocalypse happened that involves soldiers fighting a giant mutant version of Leo.
- Kick the Dog: In #194 "Cuddly Little Cubby," Leo is curious about how Pooh manages to eat honey despite being a stuffed toy and dissects him alive For Science!Pooh: (lying on the operating table, disemboweled) Oh, bother. It seems I'm still alive. Be my mercy angel, Piglet.
- Lame Pun Reaction: In #184 Pungent Scent of Mildew, there is a strange case where this happens not to a character, but (a fictionalized version of) the author. A character says "I'm putting my money into lumber futures!". The authorities thought the pun was so bad that they put the author in jail, where he later died.
- Lampshade Hanging: In #300 An Airing of Grievances, the shopkeeper questions why one of his customers (Leo) is a cat, which is disregarded by Leo.
- Light-Flicker Teleportation: A parody occurs here. In Luigi's Mansion, the lights flicker on and off, but as soon as the lights turn on again, Leo-as-Luigi appears out of nowhere, sucks up Aeris' pants with the Poltergust, and she verbally tears into him.
- Lionsand Tigersand Humans Oh My: Funny animals, regular animals, and humans exist together in this webcomic.
- Mad Bomber: Red Link goes on a bomb-fuelled rampage for Force Gems.Red Link: Come on, Guy, I just wanna make you go pop!
- Man-Eating Plant: In a Fullmetal Alchemist spoof, the Elric brothers take up botany instead, with the accident being a giant purple flower with sharp teeth eating Alphonse.
- Mundane Solution: When playing Five Nights at Freddy's, Aeris pokes holes in the whole scenario, and rattles off several simple ways to counter the robots: dressing up in animal costumes to fool the robots, which is redundant as Aeris and Leo are furry animals to begin with, turning off some of the extra equipment to save power, or guarding the building from outside.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Aeris rants about how characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening are making out on the battlefield and asks if anyone wants to die having sex. Tharja does.
- No Dead Body Poops: Averted. When Leo wants to learn "poop", he opts to forget "breathe". He suffocates and then uses "poop" to no avail.
- Not Rare Over There: Used as part of a rant when Ash gets sick and tired of Team Rocket chasing after his Pikachu for ten years while it's not even special and he has about eight more of them, not to mention loads of other Pokemon as well.
- Not What It Looks Like: In #137 "Medicinal Herbs," Aeris walks in on what looks like a shady dealer showing Leo his "appendages". In reality, he's just showing his weaponry to him.
- Of Corset Hurts: Parodied with the belly slimmer from the Re-Invention channel, which squishes organs and disfigures the body for the sake of beauty. One woman even wears it around her neck.Ms.Dipshits: You don't need oxygen when you look this good...
- Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: Strip #304, parodying Slender, has the Slender Man accidentally take one of the creepy pages to the supermarket and leave his shopping list pinned to a tree instead, where Aeris and Leo find it.
- Orphaned Series: Not the main strip, but Adventure Log stopped at eleven strips and was deadlinked over a year later. According to Ramsoomair, the Adventure Log update schedule was directly tied to each release of the official Final Fantasy XI newsletter (which included the comic as an insert). The game always had rather shaky support from Square, and when they stopped making new newsletters, Scott stopped making new comics.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Aeris is literally pink. Leo is gray, but his preferred color of clothing is blue. Possibly a
Genius Bonus, as there are certain breeds of cats - thanks to specific recessive genes - that have grey fur, and the technical term for this is a 'Blue' cat. - Poe's Law: It's really, really hard to tell if "Nerd Rage" is an Author Filibuster or a Stealth Parody, as people have voiced every one of those complaints without irony.
- Pooled Funds: At the end of #288 "Kinder Surprise," after Aeris wonders what person would create a randomized loot crate that could potentially be a scam, the scene cuts to Valve Corporation, where Gabe Newell is shown swimming in a sea of dollars.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: 300 is parodied here; inevitably, a parody of the famous "This! Is! Sparta!" line is included, delivered by Fire Mario as "THIS! IS! MUSHROOM KINGDOM!"
- Quintessential British Gentleman: Leo's dad, Leo Leonardo The Second, wears the stereotypical British clothes (suit, monocle, and top hat) and, from what we've seen of him, generally behaves in a "proper" manner.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: A rare webcomic example - it often doesn't even have a punchline in the proper sense, ending the strip when it's out of jokes on the subject.
- Ret-Gone: Aeris attempts to do this to Leo by going back in time and aborting him from his mother. He gets better.
- Self-Deprecation: The creator is fond of this, typically with a heaping helping of Hypocritical Humor.
- In addition to the randomized "Updated whenever" comments in the title bar, there's his Author Avatar, Pantsman, turns out to be a lazy freeloader with a weakness for vodka. The two combine when Pantsmans says there won't be any updates to the comic due to SOPA, but is dismayed once the bill was dead.
- In a now-deleted comic, after calling out Sonic's new design being suspiciously similar to the recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the following panels reveal that Aeris and Leo are not too different from a certain other webcomic duo...
- In addition to the randomized "
- Serious Business:
- The peas in "Waiting" treat the idea of seeing a new toy very seriously since they wait for a very long time to see it, to the point where three of the peas die.
- Aeris in "Nerd Rage"◊ is very serious about video games, going into a long rant on what constitutes as a "gamer" and what doesn't.
- #117 "The Thin Blue Line": DetectiveMan shoots Leo just so he could get a hold on the game he had, as he feared that Leo was going to play it; he's about to do the same to Aeris, who is holding another game, at the end.
- In #287 "Boldly Went," Aeris is shown to be a massive fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, going on a lengthy tangent about the "death" of speculatory science fiction after Leo brings the franchise up, and being considered Jean-Luc Picard's "number one fan". This also applies to her hate of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: when Leo brings up Benjamin Sisko, she orders him to leave.
- The peas in "Waiting"
- Ship Tease: While Leo and Aeris are considered friends, there are a few moments that hint at their relationship becoming something more:
- The Perfect Gift◊: after noticing Aeris doesn't have enough money to buy Dungeon Guy 3, he goes under strenuous work to get the money for the next best thing: the game's prequel, Dungeon Guy 2. Aeris is satisfied, and plants a kiss on Leo's forehead as he's sleeping, along with a "Merry Christmas!" note.
- Also #204 Muppet Babies: A younger Leo hands a younger Aeris a book she dropped, and she blushes and clutches the book after he leaves.
- The Perfect Gift
- Shock Site: Not an actual shock-site, but a reference to one: a pixellated Goatse, one of the most infamous shock sites, appears on a TV in this comic.
- Shout-Out:
- Elcor quotes The Princess Bride: in this strip: "To which he replied... I'm not left-handed... either. Pointless narration... and then..."
- The main characters are named Aeris and Leo... both of which are Final Fantasy characters who are killed by the main villain of their respective games.
- Aeris's shelf in this strip is home to Gurren Lagann, Lucario, and Spore creature figurines. On the wall is a Haruhi Suzumiya poster.
- Speaking of Gurren Lagann, a scene is re-enacted in this strip.
- One of the update lines says the world ends with Update, if you want to enjoy life, expand your update.
- To My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic in this strip, this one, and most obviously this one.
- To 300, here. The famous "This is SPARTA!" scene is re-enacted with Super Mario Bros. characters.
- To Zero Punctuation in this Pawn Stars parody strip. Yahtzee himself appears at the end to give his opinion on Duke Nukem Forever.
- Aeris is wearing a BMO shirt while Leo is clearly seen playing FTL: Faster Than Light in this strip.
- Conglaturation has Dot Matrix and Phong with a bunch of nulls, two of which used to be Bob and Enzo.
- This strip features a wanted poster that looks directly like one from One Piece, complete with the Marine inscription.
- Elcor quotes The Princess Bride: in this strip
- Shower of Angst: After realizing she slept with Master Chief at a Christmas party, Samus takes a shower while having a blank-eyed stare.
- Skyward Scream: In #284, every time the Monkey's Paw doesn't give him what he wants, Leo yells the name of the paw while looking towards the sky.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Mocked in this strip; in a reference to Cooking Mama, Mama offers alternatives to this attitude. Shigeru Miyamoto responds poorly.
- Take That!: To InuYasha here. Pantsman goes on a rant that consists of "Fuck [character/story aspect]", beginning and ending it with "FUCK INUYASHA!" and claiming that "It's freaking Dragon Ball Z for girls!"
- Take That, Critics!: In response to complaints over an abortion joke, we got this. Pantsman "cheers up" the critics of "The Comedian" with a "dance routine" by five aborted fetuses, one of which was eaten by a cat.
- Temporal Abortion: In strip #259: The Comedian, Aeris has enough of Leo's stupidity and goes back in time to give his mother, Penny, an abortion with a coat hanger. However he's back to normal on the next page.
- That One Level: In-universe, this comic has Aeris going through her old games and remembering why she never finished them.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: An in-universe subversion here. Leo starts to hate on Duke Nukem Forever due to changing the formula by adding rechargeable shields, but then decides it's for the best.
- Thick-Line Animation: During the earlier comics, the characters had thick black borders surrounding them, especially from 2004-2006. This style is almost nowhere to be seen in later comics.
- Too Awesome to Use: Parodied here. Aeris gets an awesome "thing" in a video game, but chooses not to use it as she wants to save it for a tough boss; she ends up not using it at all, not even on the final boss.
- Too Dumb to Live: Leo is this very, very often, going so far as to forget how to breathe in order to learn how to poop in one comic strip.
- Troll: Spy Leo trolls Scout Aeris by breaking her key after she used it on a crate for his amusement, as shown by the goofy look on his face in the next panel.
- Tsundere: Aeris has a hot temper and is willing to do some psychotic things, but on the inside, she cares for Leo, despite the things that have occurred between them in the past.
- Unexplained Recovery:
- Leo comes back in the next strip after Aeris "Aborted [him]... from time". Blatantly lampshaded, to boot.
- After Dr. Hobo dies in #246 "WHO DO I THINK I AM?" he's suddenly alive and well in #314 "That Show that's not Bob's Burgers."
- Uninstallment: Inverted. There are many missing numbers in the archive, but you can find some of those in the "Misc Other Comics" section. Except for #200, which never existed to start with - for a time, there was an estimated release date next to the number, even as Ramsoomair released strips #201 & onward, but eventually he changed it to "TBA Never", suggesting he had some kind of blowout planned like the animated music video released in lieu of #100 but never finished it for some reason.
- Unsound Effect:
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Nobody in-universe seems to notice Leo and Aeris are walking, talking cats until the three-hundredth strip.
- Dr. Hobo Cassandra Truth's this way back in the 58th strip: he's the only one who notices that Leo is a talking cat, though it could be due to his craziness.
- Dr. Hobo Cassandra Truth's this way back in the 58th strip
- Vague Age:
- Aeris's ID in the (very brief) Animated Adaptation simply reads "Legal". She might at least be going to college, given this strip, which shows her and Leo as roommates.
- The first published version of this strip indicated that Leo was 21 years old; Ramsoomair later edited the figure to the less precise "many years earlier", as Leo himself has yet to reach that age to begin with.
- Aeris's ID in the (
- Vandalism Backfire: Aeris talks about how Leo had once been scammed into buying a console called Boxxors-O-Roxxors (really just a box of rocks) and had used Aeris money to pay for it. Aeris promptly beat the crap out of him with the box, and Leo has been attempting this trope as petty revenge. Unfortunately, Aeris saw it coming.Leo: So I've secretly been peeing in her coffee ever since!
Aeris: So I've been switching our coffees ever since.
Leo: [drinks coffee] Mmmmm! - Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Aeris and Leo, for all her antagonism and his dim-bulb moments, do care for each other. Shown in this comic where Leo buys a game for Aeris after he notices she doesn't have enough money to buy it.
- Walking Techbane: This strip has Leo bragging about how he not only red ringed Aeris's Xbox 360, but that they just die when he touches them.
- "Wanted!" Poster: A wanted poster for Leo is seen in #190 Da Bomb, with a bounty of 90,000,000 dollars.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: This strip. Professor Rowan entrusts unfathomable power to a bunch of kids. "What's the worst that could happen?" he ponders. The worst that happened is The End of the World as We Know It, and Leo and Aeris being stuck in space (and the former suffocating) after capturing the godlike Arceus.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Samus Aran gets this after a Christmas party. The answer is "Master Chief."
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: This strip spoofing Captain Planet inspired the meme. Ma-Ti's power is a literal human heart, and it does nothing.
- Yaoi Fangirl: Aeris has showed traces of this on a few occasions:
- #132 "Stranger Than Truth": Aeris's fanfic featuring an intimate relationship between Tidus and Auron, two male characters from Final Fantasy X, is briefly read.
- #222 "NSFH, Not Safe For HUMANITY": Aeris dreams about Fox McCloud and Falco (both male) falling in love and having sex.
- #276 "A Work of Fiction": Aeris grabs a romance novel with what appears to be burly men on the cover, implying it's romance between men.
- #132 "Stranger Than Truth"
- Your Mom: One of Leo's favourite forms of joke. In "The Comedian," he makes fun of Aeris's mom, claiming that she's cheap and people like her are easy to find. He suffered for it in the end, being aborted from time by Aeris (though he comes back).
- You Have Researched Breathing: Leo knows four Pokemon-style moves — Eat, Sleep, Breathe, and Videogames. He forgets "Breathe" in order to learn "Poop" and promptly faints.
- You Monster!:Leo: Do you think Sims feel pain?
Aeris: You're a MONSTER, and you're going straight to hell.
