Cyanide & Happiness is a daily webcomic strip at
explosm.net
drawn and written by three separate people. It was begun by Kris Wilson originally, but after showing his work to some members on the sticksuicide.com forum several others joined in the fun: Rob DenBleyker, Dave McElfatrick, and Matt Melvin (who has since left). They have no shame in exploiting extreme
Black Comedy,
Literal-Minded-ness and affinities for the most hilariously controversially awkward situations known to webcomickind. Their comics involve the exploitation of simply-drawn
stick figures for all they're worth.
Dark, cynical, offensive, irreverent... and we're just getting started.
In 2013, a full animated series based on the comic, named
The Cyanide & Happiness Show, was successfully funded on Kickstarter, and began airing in 2014. For tropes pertaining to the series, see
the WebAnimation namespace.
After over six months of absence from the site,
Matt Melvin finally announced on August 31st, 2014 that he was no longer a part of the comic due to unspecified reasons. A post from the Explosm site blog followed a couple days later providing further details, as well as expressing thanks for Matt's contributions to the comic and wishing him luck on his future endeavors. Matt has since started work on a new project, currently titled
"The Last Nerds on Earth", and has also begun streaming regularly on
Twitch.
Cyanide & Happiness provides examples of:
- Accidental Athlete: The "Waiting for a bus" short. This being Cyanide & Happiness, the trope is Deconstructed.
- Actually Pretty Funny: "For the sake of that joke, I'm kinda glad it happened now."
- A Date with Rosie Palms: This comic, while not featuring the act itself, takes it to extremely awkward levels.
- Alt Text: Zig-Zagged. If you look at the URL for the images, many have fairly mundane names like "Bear" and "Debate" but several have jokes in the names.
- Ambiguous Syntax: A slightly inaccurate interpretation of Freud.
- And I Must Scream: Played as straight as possible.
- Poor Larry just so happened to be in the hospital with a full body cast at the time that the Delberry Dismemberer went on a killing spree through said hospital.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: In the video short "Junk Mail", the protagonist becomes rich and popular when the spam e-mails he responds to turn out to be legitimate. Then he gets a chain letter about a vengeful poltergeist, and he bizarrely assumes that this particular e-mail must be fake. Predictably, he dies.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Inverted.
- Art Evolution: Yes, in a stick figure comic:
- Kris's figures started out as being tall with has generally gotten shorter in height with relatively large heads in comparison (see first comic). By 2008 the body has shortened considerably (such as this comic) and has remained largely remained unchanged as of 2013.
- Rob's figures in his first comics (example) had more of a rhomboid face before steadily becoming rounder and flatter with time. As with Kris's drawings, Rob's had largely developed into his signature format by the end of 2008 remaining the same for the next five years or so.
- Matt's first comics started out in a similar fashion to those of Kris's. Diverging occurred within the first two year, with the dot eyes becoming short vertical dashes by mid-2006. The bottom of their torso's turned from round to square in November 2008 (before/after) and progressively shortened afterwards. For the record, this is the last comic he drew for the site.
- Dave's initial comics could be considered a mixture of the first three at first. However his figure's torsos turned square in August 2005. The comic style at the topic of this page (done in 2007) and more modern comics (such as this one in 2013) have remained largely unchanged, although the eyes got a bit larger around 2010 and have gotten smaller since then.
- Overall, the strips look a lot less amateurish than they did in the first couple years of the comic's run, even though the art is still usually very simplistic.
- The animated shorts have shown vast improvement over the years. Seriously, they've gone from looking like this◊ to THIS◊.
- Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Implied in this strip.
- Ass Shove: Taken just about as far as it's possible to go in "Pull My Finger".
- Ate His Gun: Literally.
- Author Appeal: Dave really likes drawing weird facial expressions as of around 2013.
- Bad Boss: Ted bear's producer fires him because he refused to eat his own penis.
- Badass Mustache: Musclestache!
- Balloon Belly: Literally.
- Beat Panel: Kris seems to love using these.
- Bedsheet Ghost: An attempted costume fails when the sheet isn't clean.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: "PEANUT ALLERGY, BITCHES!"
- Black Comedy: Pretty much every other strip deals with this.
- Literal "Dead Baby" jokes can be found in strip 2325, strip 55, strip 138,strip 271, strip 322, strip 1034, strip 1968, strip 2097, strip 2237, strip 2273, strip 2316, strip 2165, The sign part 2.
- The Blank: This comic.
- Blessed with Suck: One of the resident superheroes, Seizure Man
- Body Horror: I'm giving birth to piranhas!
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Implied here, with plenty of Squick.
- Breast Expansion: Unexpectedly.
- Brick Joke: A lot, but their short Waiting for the Bus is
probably their best example. - Broken Echo: In this strip, a man notices the cave he's in has an echo and eagerly shouts "I love you!", expecting to hear it back. After a moment of silence, the cave instead replies "Echo... echo... echo..."
- Bungled Suicide: Because he was too tall.
- Burn the Witch!: Combined with insult "burns".
- Butter Face: This comic is pretty much a straight demonstration of the trope.
- Butt Monkey / The Chew Toy: There are good reasons for Sad Larry to be so, well, sad.
- But Wait, There's More!: At about 0:55 in the video The Book.
- The Cameo: The most brief of ones. In Barbershop Quartet Hits On Girl From Taxi, pay very close attention at the 6 second mark - a bus goes by, and the 50 MPH man is running beside it (he's on the far side, but if you pause at exactly the right time, you can see the top of his head).
- Captain Ersatz: On this strip, which is a direct follow up to this one.
- Captain Obvious: Literally.
- Chirping Crickets: Exploited by one guy who wants to kill those crickets.
First Guy: Hey Naked Guy With A Shotgun! What're you doing?
Naked Guy With A Shotgun: Hunting crickets.
First Guy: Isn't that a bit much?
Naked Guy With A Shotgun: Nah, they only come out during awkward silences. Now, grab my ass!
Naked Guy With A Shotgun: AARGH! *fires shotgun several times*
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Double Subverted in this strip.
- Checkers: Street checkers!
- Chess: With added Alabama rules.
- Children Are Innocent: Subverted in this strip.
- Chocolate Baby: Inverted in this strip.
- Cloning Blues: An unusual take in this strip.
- Clown Car: A source of black humour here.
- Compensating for Something: Discussed.
- Comically Missing the Point: Stick-figure ignorance is how most of the other squick-related tropes come into play.
- This strip is a perfect example of this trope.
- Compliment Backfire & Digging Yourself Deeper: Taken to comically-tragic extremes on this trip, as well as in this trip.
- Continuity Nod: The guys in this comic are the same as the ones who found Jesus here.
- In season 2's 'Too Many Superheroes," all of the superheroes from previous shorts are brought back.
- Crapsack World
- Credits Gag: Waiting for the Bus 2 has as much credits as animation.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Inverted...or something in this strip.
- Cut-and-Paste Comic: Starting on this strip, there was a brief streak of comics done in this style. The humor was also a weird blend of surrealistic antics and so-unfunny-they-are-funny jokes during that period.
- Darker and Edgier: "Depressing Comic Week", a week where the guys take a more serious approach to subjects they would usually play for laughs.
- Death by Racism: The Speed Racist animated skit.
- Deconstructed Trope: Child Prodigies with jobs, in the Doctor Baby series.
- Defiant to the End: Couple with Do Wrong, Right.
- Demonic Possession: This comic's punchline.
- Disney Creatures of the Farce: On this strip.
- Disproportionate Retribution: What this kid does when he doesn't get his ice cream.
- Don't Explain the Joke: A perfect example.
- Doorstop Baby: Done here, with depressing results.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: If you can't beat 'em..
- Double Subversion: Many, many times.
- Downer Ending: "Waiting for the Bus".
- Dressed to Plunder: This strip hangs a lampshade on the trope.
- Driven to Suicide: By not being able to find Waldo.
- The Eeyore: Dan the Downer.
- Eldritch Abomination: Or whatever this thing is...
- Everyone Has Standards: Ted Bear is willing to do a lot of revolting, embarressing and cruel things (such as letting people think he died) for the sake of his show, but even he is horrified when he is ordered to 'eat his own penis' on camera.
- Exact Words:
- Explosive Instrumentation: The stopwatch exploded in Waiting for the Bus because the 50mph man runs too fast...
- Extreme Omnivore: This guy.
- Eye Scream: The Purple-Shirted Eye Stabber's M.O.
- Eye Shock: They don't go back, though.
- Evil Versus Evil: One of the funniest examples ever.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Inverted.
- Fan Disservice: A sexy car wash soon turns into Nausea Fuel.
- Felony Misdemeanor: This guy is really mad about his roses.
- Flat "What.": This comic, which also counts as a Fridge Logic moment:
The "she" in "that's what she said" is really annoying in bed.
- For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: The purple shirted eye-stabber.
- Fourth Wall Psych: Considering how weak the fourth wall typically is, this comes at a bit of a surprise.
- Frame Break: Here and here.
- Friend to All Living Things: Subverted.
- Gallows Humor: "Cancer comes with a free robot!?!"
- Glasgow Grin: Satan, when depicted, is shown to wear one of these.
- Godwin's Law: Even with hi fives.
- Gone Horribly Right: Cloning yourself won't alleviate loneliness.
- Gold Digger: Subverted. She's a literal gold digger, and he's the figurative one.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Invoked as they discuss the merits of cheating on a science project.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Double subverted in the animated short, "The Interrogation".
- Goomba Stomp: ...A darkly hilarious variation.
- Go Out with a Smile: See Better To Diethan Be Killed. and also One of the character's dad's death. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Not what you'd expect, though...
- Groin Attack: "Congratulations, it's a girl!"
- Gross-Up Close-Up: Betcha didn't think the characters are as ugly on the outside as they are on the inside.
- Grotesque Cute: The stick figures drawn by Kris and Dave are somewhat adorable. Sadly, the cuteness probably won't stay.
- Handicapped Badass: Suzy in the Gym Class short. And how.
- Hands-On Approach: Parodied here.
- Has Two Thumbs and...: This strip.
- Heel–Face Turn: The Purple Shirted Eye Stabber finds himself homeless and without meaning in life...then aliens with massive eyes land on Earth attacking humans. He got to work immediately.◊
- The Hero Dies: The 50 Mph Man, the protagonist of "Waiting for the Bus". How he died? He tries to start running again as an old man, but poor eyesight, lots of rain, and a wall do not mix.
- Hipster: Mocked a few times, like here, here, here, and here.
- Historical In-Joke: Apparently, Edvard Munch used a live model as reference for "The Scream".
- Hitler Ate Sugar: This comic.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Wordplay on the phrase, not an actual example.
- I Always Wanted to Say That: Parodied or deconstructed, depending on how you look at it.
- The Illuminati: They apparently control the food pyramid.
- Incoming Ham: Here comes the drama teacher.
- Impossible Thief: "The greatest thief I've ever met!"
- The guy in this strip, who somehow took the other person's heart without him noticing.
- It Always Rains at Funerals: Even cellphones aren't exempt.
- It Came from the Fridge: "Oh! There it is".
- It's What I Do: In this strip, a woman mentions that she's a full-time mom. The person she's speaking to asks "Who'd you fuck to get that job?", which normally is an insult, but here there's a perfectly good response to it — "My husband."
- Jail Bait Wait: With a touch of incest.
- Jesus Was Way Cool: Being crucified? Put some wheels on that cross and go skating like a boss. Sunglasses are included.
- Kick the Dog: Literally.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Characters reacting badly to silly puns is the basis of a few strips, like this one.
- Lampshade Hanging: Did someone say ''hat off?''
- Last Request:
- Late to the Punchline: Hey, wait a minute!
- Literal-Minded: Where plenty of the gags come from.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Put to Mind Screw-y use in this strip.
- Logic Bomb: The fate of Attorney-Tron.
- The Long List: Of diseases.
- Made of Plasticine: Ice cream cones are dangerous.
- Magic Feather: Can I have my money back?
- Male Frontal Nudity: C'mon Man.
- Mathematician's Answer: To "Did you say 'excitement' or 'excrement'?"
- Matryoshka Object: Russian prostitutes.
- Medium Awareness: "It's not your turn. Why are you here?" and "Oh my God, there is only three panels!!"
- Mexican Standoff: Another literal case...note ...Ultimately subverted.
- Minor Injury Overreaction & Major Injury Underreaction: Used at the same time!note By the way, the thing that was bothering the character wasn't even an injury.
- Mood Whiplash: The New Year's time travel series of comics is usually humorous, but one of them is part of a Depressing Comic Week. It's fairly jarring. The next strip we see them in still has the dog's blood on the time machine.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The Man Who Could Sit Anywhere
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Subverted. Two men fighting over a girl kill her to solve the problem, instead.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: "Um... That line only works if I'm about to die."
- My Eyes Are Up Here: But this guy knows what he's looking at...
- Nameless Narrative
- Nightmare Sequence: More of a very strange hallucination sequence; Larry has one in "It's a Sad Christmas, Larry" that depicts the car crash that killed Larry's dad and put Larry in a wheelchair.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Vampire Zombie Werewolf, actually. And herpes.
- No Fourth Wall
- "No. Just... No" Reaction: The common reaction to puns.
- No Mouth: Comics drawn by either Kris or Dave feature characters with no mouths when they're not talking.
- Nonstandard Character Design: It has been used from time to time. For example...
- No Sympathy: Ted Bear doesn't want to bite off his penis for the sake of his show. Nobody else cares. He ask's why they don't just use effects. The producer demands he do it live on camera or he's fired.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: "This conversation actually happened."
- N-Word Privileges: Played with on this strip.
- Parodied and subverted here with Holocaust jokes.
- Parodied again here.
- Oh, Crap!: The Wardrobe has the pedophile expressing this when the kid remove his disguise to show a lion(another costume/disguise).
- Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: Subverted in this strip.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: It sure would be nice to know how those guys got chopped in half and decapitated.
- Old Friend, New Gender:
- Onion Tears: Subverted or something.
- Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: Double Subverted here.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: And whenwolves, whywolves, and whowolves.
- Overly Long Gag: So long it needs a scroll bar.
- If you scroll rightwards at just the right speed, it's like a flipbook.
- "Ow, My Dick" has a guy screaming somebody hurt his dick for the entire duration of the episode (four minutes) and there isn't even a satisfying punchline.
- Overly Pre-Prepared Gag: this strip.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: The 50 Mph Man and his wife dress accordingly, as do their children (one son and one daughter).
- Well, to be fair, the wife dresses in more of a light purple...
- Plucky Comic Relief: Done super-straight.
- Precious Puppies: Uh, you be the judge of that...
- Prosthetic Limb Reveal: Parodied in a skit about an old sailor who tells a tale about how he wasted his life hunting for the elusive buttshark. He claims that the buttshark took his butt, among other things. When the listener mockingly questions this, the sailor turns around to reveal... peg legs in place of his buttcheeks.
- Raging Stiffie: Inverted here.
- Rambling Old Man Monologue: Can come in handy on occasion.
- Reality Ensues: In this strip. That's actually a fairly accurate depiction of how real boomerangs (fail to) work!
- Red Herring: A lesson on how to use it. note or was it "how NOT to use it"?
- Refuge in Audacity: Exemplified by this comic.
- Rule of Three: The third time the same joke is used, it's typically curveballed. Case in point.
- Running Gag: Tons.
- The Purple-shirted Eye Stabber is one of note, though he has since deceased fighting huge aliens. Godspeed, Purple-shirted Eye Stabber - godspeed.
- There's also the old man who becomes a seagull by flapping his hair like wings and detatching his head.
- *squeeze*
- Every depressing comic week contains something getting killed by a car.
- "Did someone say [X]-off?" Followed by two characters trying to outdo each other at whatever [X] is. Inevitably led up to this.
- Random superheroes with unusually specific powers/themes.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: With a big dose of Squick inducing it...
- Self-Deprecation: Also counts as Hypocritical Humor in this strip.
- This comic was one of the winners in a rewrite contest.
- Shaggy Dog Story: "...I wish the guys were here."
- Which is a straight retelling of a classic joke.
- Shaped Like Itself: THOSE MEAN THE SAME DAMN THING!!
- Shout-Out: To the infamous "horse's head in a bed" scene of The Godfather.
- Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Played for Squickiness.
- Slasher Smile: "I do it for the ol' fashioned joy of killing."
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism - One moment the strip is Black Comedy, the next it's standard, and there are times where it gets innocently silly.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: "THAT'S NOT A REAL CURSE!"
- Stable Time Loop: HELLO!
- Stealth Insult: This one.
- Stick Figure Comic
- Strange Minds Think Alike: See the first strip, among others.
- Straw Feminist: Defied here.
- Take That!:
- Take That, Critics!: "Youtuber comments on the more recent Cyanide and Happiness videos
- Those Two Guys: The green shirted and turquoise shirted figures who star in the random comic generator, and they literally have an endless possibility of, well, random misadventures to go on.
- Throwing Off the Disability: raarodied. Inspiring comic day!
- Title Drop: Here: 04.15.2005
- Unishment: A father, annoyed at his children's repeated "Are We There Yet?", turns around back to Disneyland.
- Too Dumb to Live: If every spam email on your phone came true, including the ad that allowed your penis to instantly grow as long as you are tall, why would you ignore one that threatened to kill you?
- Unsettling Gender Reveal:
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: These guys aren't terribly excited about catching a glimpse of Superman.
- Viewers Are Geniuses:
- People who don't know that C4 is a plastic explosive will never get this one.
- This comic will require a bit of web browser knowledge to get.
- Visual Pun: In this comic, a guy laments the lack of beer with "Aw man". In the next panel, a superhero with 'AW' emblazoned on his chest touches down...
- Wangst: Invoked with The Incredible Sulk!
- White Dude, Black Dude: Parodied.
- Who You Gonna Call?: Not exactly.
- Wingding Eyes: Doesn't stop at his eyes, though.
- Wishing for More Wishes: In this strip, a character successfully bypasses the three-wishes-per-genie rule by wishing for more genies.
- World of Pun: Half the point of the comic are the absolutely horrendous puns.
- Worth It:
- Yaoi Fangirl: Then give him butt-to-butt resuscitation!
- Your Head Asplode: Somewhat common. Usually caused by a Logic Bomb, although there have been exceptions.
- Your Mom: "That's what your mom said when I banged her...twenty-six years ago."
- You Wanna Get Sued?: "Blast!! Copyright-Infringement-Man!"
