YMMV / Something*Positive

• Anvilicious:
  • Pushes this from time to time, as a number of arcs tend to end in a character getting a lecture about how stupid they are (or how wrong they are for their views or stance on the issue at hand).
  • Special mentions goes to his Author Filibuster calling out the Salem Is Witch Country Trope. If there wasn't a Wiccan girl spouting a bastardized version of the Salem Witch Trials would you have guessed that you were still reading a webcomic?
• Archive Panic: At the start of year 16 (which was in 2017, for reference), Rippy mentions how the archive is big enough to scare new readers away.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Rather often, but this strip has an In-Universe example when Jason wants to write a play that has Cancer (the ailment) as the hero and a gay minister as the puppy-kicking villain.
  Davan: Y'know, Jason, there's a fine line between parody and basically wearing a sign that says "Please lynch me."
  Jason: And it's our job to spread our posterior cheeks and empty our bowels upon that line — in a literary sense, of course. Now, we need a dance number. How's this for a song - "God Wants More Animal Testing"?
  • The play itself - or what little we see of it is precisely as offensive as that exchange suggests.
  • While at a convention, Davan gets fed up with someone telling racist jokes and counters with a child-rape joke before throwing the guy's reason for such jokes being "okay" into his face when he gets outraged.
  • Randy recognizes that, if he wasn't going to Hell already, panel 3 of this strip would probably do the job.
• Designated Monkey: Possibly related to the Double Standard. Mike was treated like crap by the main cast for the longest time, but he never engaged in their Comedic Sociopathy.
• Die for Our Ship: According to Randy in this video, Vanessa's introduction was delayed for four years in order to minimize this. She was initially supposed to be brought in later that year after Davan's break-up with Branwen. She was very popular with the fans, and he didn't want them comparing them unfavourably.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: There have been a few of these over the comic's run.
  • Choo-Choo Bear
  • A one-off character, Princess Butterbell, proved surprisingly popular.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Davan and PeeJee. Devoted to each other, a obviously much better relationship than most of his girlfriends and her boyfriends (both of which are usually crazy or cheating or both) but they stop at Platonic Life-Partners. Milholland gets a lot of mail asking if Davan and PeeJee are going to hook up, so he did a Q&A strip saying no, the woman whom PeeJee is based on asked him not to, and he doesn't see it working, which means more than any amount of "They're meant to be!" emails. Of course, this isn't helped by the amount of Ship Tease Randy puts into the comic to begin with, which he's admitted to putting in to mess with people.
• Fridge Brilliance: Avogadro complaining about the lack of specific torments in hell is meant to showcase his monster and Depraved Bisexual status. But then again, the fact that he wants these torments (as indicated by the apparent erection he gets when describing them in the 3rd panel), and then being denied them, is Hell's way of inflicting torment upon him!
• Genius Bonus: PeeJee's dog, Lady Ruthven, shares a name with a character in The Vampyre, the first English-language Vampire Novel. She's a bloodhound.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • This one is a little chilling to read in the wake of the Boston Marathon attacks.
  • Kim's comment in this strip becomes less funny after she rapes Davan.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Either this or Harsher, but Fred's response to the Hell House is still oddly prescient.
  Fred: Wait. You don't want teenagers havin' sex but you don't want 'em playin' "Dungeons & Dragons" either? Isn't that like sayin' you don't want 'em to get sick but you'd hate to see them get vaccinations?
  • Davan's Brain Bleach artwork of Popeye in "Silence of the Yams" and his offer of a Garfield ghost strip became this when Randy was contracted for a two-week run of official Popeye comics.
  • In 2005, Davan's date opines that he'd be a caring husband and father, and Davan erupts in laughter at the thought of being a dad. He later proves her right through his relationships with Vanessa and Rory, respectively.
• Hollywood Homely: Despite looking pretty average when compared to the rest of the cast, people treat Davan as if he is one of the most disgusting, grotesque person in all of human creation. One girl actually started screaming in fear when she saw him for the first time. Granted, said woman was Kharisma and the jokes about Davan's appearance disappeared after the first few years.
• Ho Yay: A number of fans saw this between Davan and Jason. A filler comic confirms that it's just wishful thinking on the slashers' parts.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The bloodthirsty rampaging catgirls of "Kawaii of the Damned".
  • Jason's chihuahua nightmare, also suffered by the author.
    • Naturally, his wife proves to be a Nightmare Fetishist in that regard.
  • Even though Fluffmodeus is usually cute, he turns it up to 11 for his "New Friend".
  • In-universe, watching Choo-Choo eat.
  • "I don't think I'm supposed to be here." Gah.
  • The fate of Mrs. Willow, Kharisma's employer after her escape from Gregory.
    • Her son was in even worse shape, before being claimed by trapdoor alligators.
  • One from Randy himself: opening a door (that has "RUN" scratched in it in an Old Abandoned House to find a little girl wearing a clown mask standing on a chair with a noose around her neck, and holding a sign reading "THEY KNOW WHERE YOU ARE".
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Mike, a whiny, misogynistic jerk who blamed everyone else for his failures. Slowly, he realised that everyone thought he was an asshole, and that they were right and started to change. Even with some backsliding, he was trying to do the right thing and became much more sympathetic.
  • Kharisma, a dimwitted Rich Bitch who lost the money and kept the attitude, entirely self-centred and hated the ugly "little people". Then she scarred her face, went to prison, faced nearly being killed there, was broken out and now leads an off-the-grid semi-criminal life that has knocked the attitude out of her and also made her a sympathetic character. According to Randy: "I have to say I'm surprised by how many people actually look forward to Kharisma strips and more stunned it's not to see her suffer."
• Shipping Bed Death: According to this filler comic, a portion of the fandom isn't too happy with Davanessa being happy in marriage.
• Squick: Numerous instances, special mention going to "I could menstruate a better cup of coffee than this!" or the Redneck Trees.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: There are a lot of side characters in the strip, and a lot of them have these very interesting little bits of history to them, and have complicated private lives. Many of these situations are only explained in Info Dump exposition instead of shown, and thus we miss out on some very good bits.
  • Of particular note are the mess that Davan's ex Eva's life turned into (repeatedly getting back together with an abusive boyfriend while her ex-fiancee chases after her), and his other ex Celie and their weird history (she dumped him once he was no longer "useful to her", and spent their last days setting up her next relationship, then left Monette with an apartment lease and bailed on everyone, only to reappear in a few mini-arcs to interact with the cast).
  • Even Randy openly says there are characters he wished he'd done more with: Eve, Kim and more.

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