Pearls Before Swine (comic strip)
Encyclopedia
Pearls Before Swine is an American
comic strip
written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis
, who was formerly a lawyer in San Francisco, California
. It chronicles the daily lives of four anthropomorphic
animals, Pig, Rat, Zebra, and Goat, as well as a number of supporting characters. Although created in 1997, it was not published until 2000, when United Feature Syndicate ran it on its website
. Its popularity rose after Dilbert
creator Scott Adams
, a fan of the strip, showed it to his own fans.
United Feature launched the strip in newspapers beginning December 31, 2001, in The Washington Post
. On January 7, 2002, it began running in approximately 150 papers. The strip currently appears in 650 newspapers worldwide.
The strip has become somewhat controversial due to its use of adult humor, mock profanity, violence, drinking and drug references and references to Middle-Eastern terrorism.
In 1999, he submitted Pearls Before Swine to syndicates. Several expressed interest and about three accepted it, but they could not convince their sales staff that it was marketable. However, Amy Lago, an editor at United Media
, saw the strip's potential and launched it on the United Media website in November 2000 to see what kind of response it would generate. When Scott Adams
, creator of Dilbert
and supporter of the strip, told his fans about "Pearls Before Swine", interest skyrocketed, and the strip was taken to print. Aiding Pastis in the artistic elements of the strip was Darby Conley
, creator of the comic strip Get Fuzzy
.
, Calvin and Hobbes
, Bloom County
and The Far Side
. Pastis regularly puts tributes to them in his strip. When asked in an interview about whether his profession as an attorney inspired the humor in the comic, Stephan said, "I was very unhappy as a lawyer, and humor is a reaction to and defense against unhappiness. Also, the law inspired me because if you dislike what you’re doing to the extent that I did, it gives you the impetus to get out." Pastis also regularly parodies comics he finds stale or unfunny, including Cathy
, The Family Circus
and Garfield
. The relentless and merciless riffing on classic comics (i.e. a series where Osama Bin Laden
comes to live with the Family Circus
, causing the parents, Billy, Jeffy, Dolly and PJ to be sent to Guantanamo Bay detention camp) has earned Pastis the disdain of many comic artists, which Pastis referenced in a later storyline where the Pearls cast is not invited to the 75th anniversary crossover party of Blondie
.
Stephan Pastis has also mentioned that the fact that the characters of the comic are cute, and that the humor is usually gallows humor, leads to incongruity, which is funny.
, misanthropic rat
, and is an anti-hero
. He frequently breaks the fourth wall, as well as being aware of his implementation as a fictional comic strip character. Because of this, Rat is often critical of the comic strip's style and art
work as well as the other characters in the strip and many other living things. Often self-employed, most of his businesses involve either punishing or defrauding people for their ignorance, much in the same vein as Dogbert
, though with a darker humor. Rat is often rude, and he can usually be found criticizing or insulting someone. Rat lives with Pig and Guard Duck in a house somewhere in Albany, California
.
Rat is an insensitive character in the strip, whose interactions with others are typically sarcastic, condescending, self-centered, insulting and sometimes violent. It's stated during a storyline where Rat dies and subsequently returns that nobody really likes him other than Pig. Rat frequently breaks the fourth wall
to berate his creator on various topics, including joke writing, artwork, or the general content of the strip itself.
In his spare time (almost always on Sunday), Rat writes one of three stories:
Pastis has mentioned that the character of Rat is his "voice" and that he identifies himself with Rat more than any other character.
products; He likes bacon
, ham
, corn dog
s, and so on, making him a cannibal, although he appears to misunderstand this. He is also sometimes able to tell which member of his family has been made into the food product. Pig is one of the few characters that does not utter mock profanity in the strip, however he did do so in the June 23, 2003 strip, for the first time; He tells Zebra the secret password to Rat's club, "Why should i tell you, dumb @#@&@*# pig?" He has a teddy bear named Mr. Pitters.
goat who interacts sparingly with the other characters, Goat (debut: January 18, 2002) usually appears whenever there is a small issue dealing with a character or a conflict to be mediated. Goat has an equally hard time dealing with Pig's incompetence and Rat's cruelty and occasional ignorance. Goat maintains an internet
blog
that, as Rat likes to point out, receives no hits. Goat in turn tends to criticize Rat's forays into writing, often telling him not to write them at all. In early strips, Goat had a beard; he first appeared without it in the March 31, 2004 strip.
In a few strips, he is seen telling Rat and Pig about various philosophical, political, and social
issues. However, Rat and Pig don't pay attention, and usually start talking about something else, like baseball
or The Apprentice
.
Goat dislikes conversing with the other characters at all; he much prefers reading. However, it seems that he most tolerates talking to Zebra; he is least tolerant when talking to Rat (although he tends to be equally hostile towards Pig). It is actually debatable if he dislikes talking to Rat or Pig more, Rat for his ego and self-centered remarks, which anger Goat greatly; However, Pig's stupidity has, on multiple occasions, equally driven Goat over the edge, particularly when he attempts to explain something simple to Pig, and Pig continues moving further and further into the wrong direction and misunderstanding everything Goat says. Goat's real name is revealed as "Paris" in the September 21, 2007 strip, claiming "Goat" is his stage name
.
Because Stephan Pastis was once unable to draw lions, these particular predators were not shown in the strip until May 31, 2007, when two were shown moving next door to Zebra, on the opposite side from the crocodiles. They are the second-most mentioned predators, behind the crocodiles. Prior to their appearance Zebra has been seen corresponding with them via letter, attempting to give them more culture than just eating zebras and establish a friendship between their species. Instead, the lions' replies are always terse responses, often featuring them taking his advice the wrong way by eating a zebra. Zebra's lion neighbors, however, are male lions, which do not hunt, and they seem to like Zebra, often giving him advice on how to avoid their wives, who actually would hunt him down if given the chance. However, the lion neighbors also caused some bad things to happen to Zebra (albeit unintentionally), such as suggesting that Zebra redecorate his house with Girls Gone Wild
merchandise to be more macho when his mother comes over to the house once.
One time, Larry sent a cat to Zebra, but in the first years, the cat, which was named Snuffles, was harmless to Zebra. However, in early winter 2008, Zebra was arrested by the FBI because of the cat's terrorist activities, although Snuffles loves Zebra, and he didn't mean to put his owner mistakenly in jail. In one strip, he was revealed to be a big fan of Peanuts (a strip Pastis cites as one of his many influences), which the crocs attempted to exploit, without success.
In the Pearls Sells Out collection, Pastis explains that Zebra has three neighbors: The Zeeba Zeeba Eata fraternity house, Larry the Croc and his family, and Max and Zack, the Lions. Larry's house is, in fact, behind Zebra's house (the houses are next to each other via backyards) while the Lions and the Zeeba Zeeba Eata are on either side of Zebra's house.
problem". He's known for a short temper and a violent streak. He has gone to several anger management seminars, but he leaves with more issues than he had before.
His first appearance was March 14, 2005 , when Pig bought him because a proper Guard Dog was too expensive. Pig's neighbors frequently laugh at the Guard Duck, but the neighbors usually then get beaten up or blown up by various types of weaponry. He often suggests militaristic solutions for neighborhood problems, often getting him locked in a clothes hamper by Pig.
Originally, Guard Duck was a violent duck with anger management problems, but he eventually transformed into a duck associated with the army
, seeing the world as his battlefield. He has occasionally referenced the Vietnam War
and war movies such as Apocalypse Now
. In one of his "missions" that he was given, he teamed up with Zebra's cat Snuffles to invade Cuba, but mistakenly invades Jamaica. While in Jamaica, the also shoots a Sheriff and his deputy. The moment he gets to Cuba, he and Snuffles are arrested, but released. He is also a member of the Order of Panelwalkers and taught Pig how to do panelwalking. In a series of strips, Guard Duck is seen training gophers to use grenade
s which causes problems in the neighborhood. Most recently, the Grenade Gophers went renegade & joined the Crocs as assassins.
In the treasury The Crass Menagerie, Stephan Pastis remarks that the Guard Duck has become so popular that he's become a sixth main character (after Rat, Pig, Zebra, Goat, and the crocs).
s and villain
s of the strip, described by Pastis as "inept and inarticulate neighbours" of Zebra and while they are indeed on very poor terms with all five main characters (with the possible exception of Rat), they are usually involved in various attempts to kill and eat Zebra, all of which fail.
The fraternity name is "Zeeba Zeeba Eata" (although one of them called it "Zeta, Zeta
, Epsilon" in their first appearance in a botched attempt to fool Zebra).
to do so, and is easily convinced to do stupid things such as when he stapled his head to a wall on a bet and shut off Zebra's water pipes in an attempt to force Zebra to drink from the fraternity's swamp, unaware that Zebra bought his water from Sparkletts.
Patty is a housewife with a beehive hairdo who loves both her husband and son, although she is continually frustrated with her husband's failed attempts to kill Zebra- which more often than not, result in Larry being forced to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and purchase food, which he eats by himself in shame (although Patty does do some grocery shopping and Larry once stole a frozen zebra from a pair of male lions that also moved into the neighborhood, which he claimed to catch)- as well as his lack of intelligence and common sense which led to her leaving him at least once.
Junior is the most intelligent and perhaps most refined member of his family. He is a vegetarian who can't understand why his father constantly wants to kill Zebra, believes that crocodiles should wear clothes because being naked is undignified, and is friends with his neighbor. Despite all his faults, Junior loves his father as well as his mother, but infuriates them with one small action- his love for a zebra (specifically, Zebra's niece). Surprisingly, despite her attitude, Patty is much more offended about this than Larry, considering it an embarrassment to her family and believing that simply grounding him will cause him to stop (although all it did was cause Junior to run away) However, it is expressed that Larry does not like Junior becoming a vegetarian, telling Zebra that Junior was "a big disappointment" .
Rat recently (April 22, 2011) challenged Pastis to an ugly face contest and said, "Whoa, you win," as soon as the contest started. Rat enjoys using dark humor around Stephan and once purposely spilled beer on a strip, despite warning. After seeing its effects on the strip, he said "I should really take your word for it." However, the special effects on the strip seen that day had been Photoshopped, not water damaged. In the strip, Stephan expresses common sense, unlike Rat and some of the other characters. His character has also expressed his hate of being an attorney, which was his former career.
, where Pastis currently lives (at least two strips have stated that the characters live in "Albany"). Every house appears to have siding on it. There is one brick wall, a beach, and the street which is usually littered with the same soda/beer can. Stephan says in a treasury that the can is the only piece of trash he knows how to draw. He then later exercises trash-drawing by adding a banana peel and crumpled up paper in another strip.
The continuity of the strip is very loose, and Pastis even says that "sometimes characters get jobs once, and you never hear about it again." Many storylines are left with open endings, and sometimes continuity leaps are made, especially when characters die (he says they "un-die", a word which has been added to the Urban Dictionary
due to Pastis creating it). Usually, relationships between characters are left unaltered. (Farina, who appears infrequently for long periods of time, has a relationship with Rat that usually picks up where it left off.)
gave according to Matthew
7:6 in the Bible
. According to Pastis, Rat, who considers himself a genius, casts his "pearls" of wisdom before Pig ("swine"), who is the only one naive enough to seriously listen.
; those shown with lips are generally big and puffy in this area, and the lips are merely a visual cue that they are unintelligent or ignorant. However, characters do have mouths when yelling (similar to Dilbert), or in the crocodiles' case, open their mouths when yelling. Pastis stated,
Pearls is also a meta-comic
in that it often satirizes the comics medium, and allows its characters to break the fourth wall
and either communicate directly with the author or with characters from other strips, which they often do. Pastis will often employ a shaggy dog story, using a great amount of dialogue to spin an elaborate yarn often resolved with a character's unforeseen death or near death. A variation known as a feghoot
builds to an intentionally bad pun
in the penultimate panel, with the final panel showing the cartoon version of Pastis as the target of criticism, hostility, or even physical violence
from the characters, usually Rat. Once, Rat sensed a bad pun coming, and stopped it with dropping an anvil on Pastis' head. The characters also frequently acknowledge the fact that they are in a comic strip published in newspapers; the strip published on January 14, 2008 had a "roof fish" sitting on top of the panel fishing for the characters, and other strips have had such events as smeared newsprint
or beer
affected the appearance of the strip or strips in which it seems as if the paginators had laid out the strip wrong. Other comic strips are often the butt of punchlines, and several cartoon characters from outside Pearls have appeared, most frequently the main cast of The Family Circus
, and even in one circumstance, Stewie
from Family Guy
appeared in the strip on April 20th of 2008, holding a candy cane, for a reference to the saying, "It's like taking candy from a baby." During that appearance, Stewie said two of his more famous phrases ("Touch it and you die, fat man" and "What the deuce are you staring at?") to Pig. The presence of the characters often affects the goings-on in the other strips, either directly (through their presence) or indirectly through setting
or dialogue
, such as when Rat replaced the words of a Family Circus comic with a quote from Benito Mussolini
.
Pearls is notorious for its large amount of dark humor; topics such as death, depression
and human suffering overall are common themes, and Pastis has recalled receiving complaints, including hate mail
and occasionally death threat
s from people who have been offended by his strips; two strips that portrayed a llama
United Nations diplomat named "Ataturk" who spits on other diplomats, prompted a letter to then-President George W. Bush
from the Turkish Ambassador to the United States demanding an apology, seeing it as a mockery of former Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
. Pastis has mentioned in his treasuries that the cartoonists whom he mocks (a trademark characteristic of Pearls) often take the insults in good humor, even occasionally asking for an original strip.
comes to visit him and Pig for the weekend as a houseguest. Rat and Satan go to a seafood restaurant where Satan orders the sole
, causing the waiter to run away screaming in terror. The reason for Satan's vacation is that the streets in Hell are being renovated by "Good's Carpentry Service" owned by Mr. Good, and the Chin brothers (of which there are 10), causing the pun that the "road to hell is paved with Good and Ten Chins". The strip caused some outcry amongst the religious right.
. In this letter, Rat tells Bush that if he is to bomb every country on earth before leaving office, he must bomb three countries every month. Goat warns Rat that if he sends the letter, the government will see him as a "whacko" and investigate him. However, in the last panel, Bush seems to accept Rat's plan to bomb three countries every month, saying, "Okay... October is Mexico
, Canada
, and Hawaii," apparently not realizing that Hawaii
is part of the United States. Pastis writes in his treasury that many people were offended by the negative depiction of Bush and criticized the strip, while an apparently equal number of people appreciated the mockery and praised the strip. (Other real-life figures have been portrayed this way in Pearls, albeit not as directly.)
, Miles Davis
, and Paul McCartney
are shown accepting medication for ADHD
to give to their children. In the final panel, Rat and Pig are shown at a record store. Rat is sighing because the only records available are those of Pat Boone
. The inference to be drawn is that the medication that the three musicians took as children prevented them from producing the music that (in true history) they would go on to produce as adults. The strip's message, that ADHD is a source of creativity and uniqueness, has some supporters. Some people believe that some of the characteristics of ADHD are positive, such as creativity, courage, a broad worldview, energy, versatility, and an enjoyable disposition. According to Pastis, many readers sent him e-mail concerning the strip, some of which criticized the strip, and some of which praised the strip.
and Palestine
. However, he also says that many more readers loved the strip. In all, the strip prompted around 2,500 emails to Pastis. Pastis said that while readers who wrote to him were almost unanimously supportive, letters written to editors were more "50/50", with the other half expressing concern over the topic being addressed in a humorous part of the paper.
, but Rat says that Bennie is attracted to both sexes only because he is lonely. Because Bennie does not choose to be attracted to be both sexes, Rat does not consider him to be a bisexual and instead calls him a "desperasexual." Many readers were offended by the strip's assertion that a bisexual chooses to be attracted to both sexes, taking as a comment on the political aspects of homosexuality, though Pastis has denied any political meaning one way or the other.
and Jerry Scott
, the creators of Baby Blues, for letting Pastis use their characters. According to Pastis, "mixing kids and alcohol and having Rat babysit while drunk just threw some uptight readers over the edge. Many of them responded like I had actually endangered real kids, making no allowance for the fact that the Baby Blues kids are pen and ink. In the next Monday's Baby Blues strip, Rick drew a beat-up crocodile on the floor of the kids' living room, proving to everyone that Rick and Jerry knew about this in advance. I think that quieted down some of the outrage toward me."
. Their interpretation of the strip was supported by the fact that Pastis is of Greek descent, and Greece
and Turkey
have historically been enemies. Pastis denied that the strip was mocking Mustafa Atatürk, saying that he knew almost nothing about Atatürk and used the name simply because he liked the sound of it. He received angry, hate-filled emails (some of which contained death threats). Pastis calls it the single biggest controversy he has ever experienced in the history of Pearls.
that aired February 7, 2008, Pastis mentioned that he had been approached by producers about an animated TV series based on Pearls.
In 2009, a line of Pearls plush dolls was released by Aurora World, Inc., featuring four characters (Rat, Pig, Zebra and Croc) from the comic, to which Pastis jokingly said he would use for reference when unsure how to draw the characters.
On October 20, 2010, RingTales
launched their series of animated "Pearls" strips on Babelgum
. Pastis has since begun to release these cartoons on YouTube
.
, creator of Get Fuzzy
, helped teach Pastis the technical aspects of cartooning. The two remain friends, sometimes poking fun at each other in their strips. In Pearls Blows Up, Stephan says that he replaces some of the usual squiggle-marks indicating swear words with a poorly drawn picture of Darby Conley's head. In a Get Fuzzy strip, Rob asks Satchel if an annoying lawyer named Stephan called. Satchel has a Pearls book next to him. Conley also drew Pastis in his strip twice during a week where the two cartoonists decided to play a prank on their syndicate by having Conley copy and paste Get Fuzzy characters over Pearls strips.
Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2002 and 2003, Pearls Before Swine won the award in 2004 and again in 2007.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis
Stephan Pastis
Stephan Thomas Pastis is an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine.-Background:...
, who was formerly a lawyer in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
. It chronicles the daily lives of four anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
animals, Pig, Rat, Zebra, and Goat, as well as a number of supporting characters. Although created in 1997, it was not published until 2000, when United Feature Syndicate ran it on its website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
. Its popularity rose after Dilbert
Dilbert
Dilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. First published on April 16, 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character...
creator Scott Adams
Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams is the American creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, business, and general speculation....
, a fan of the strip, showed it to his own fans.
United Feature launched the strip in newspapers beginning December 31, 2001, in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
. On January 7, 2002, it began running in approximately 150 papers. The strip currently appears in 650 newspapers worldwide.
The strip has become somewhat controversial due to its use of adult humor, mock profanity, violence, drinking and drug references and references to Middle-Eastern terrorism.
Origins
Prior to creating Pearls Before Swine, Pastis worked as a lawyer in California. In law school, he became so bored during classes, he started to doodle a rat, eventually casting it in a non-syndicated comic strip he called Rat. The title character of Rat would later become one of the main characters in "Pearls Before Swine." The "Pearls" character of Pig also came from a failed strip called The Infirm, about a struggling lawyer.In 1999, he submitted Pearls Before Swine to syndicates. Several expressed interest and about three accepted it, but they could not convince their sales staff that it was marketable. However, Amy Lago, an editor at United Media
United Media
United Media is a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. It syndicates 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. Its core business is the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association...
, saw the strip's potential and launched it on the United Media website in November 2000 to see what kind of response it would generate. When Scott Adams
Scott Adams
Scott Raymond Adams is the American creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, business, and general speculation....
, creator of Dilbert
Dilbert
Dilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. First published on April 16, 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character...
and supporter of the strip, told his fans about "Pearls Before Swine", interest skyrocketed, and the strip was taken to print. Aiding Pastis in the artistic elements of the strip was Darby Conley
Darby Conley
Darby Conley is an American cartoonist best known for the popular comic strip Get Fuzzy.-Background:Conley was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1970, and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee....
, creator of the comic strip Get Fuzzy
Get Fuzzy
Get Fuzzy is an American daily comic strip written and drawn by Darby Conley. The strip features the adventures of Boston advertising executive Rob Wilco and his two anthropomorphic pets: dog Satchel Pooch and cat Bucky Katt. Get Fuzzy has been published by United Feature Syndicate since September...
.
Comic strip influences
Pearls style and humor are inspired by several comic strips, chief among them being Peanuts, DilbertDilbert
Dilbert is an American comic strip written and drawn by Scott Adams. First published on April 16, 1989, Dilbert is known for its satirical office humor about a white-collar, micromanaged office featuring the engineer Dilbert as the title character...
, Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes
Calvin and Hobbes is a syndicated daily comic strip that was written and illustrated by American cartoonist Bill Watterson, and syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his...
, Bloom County
Bloom County
Bloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
and The Far Side
The Far Side
The Far Side is a popular single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from January 1, 1980, to January 1, 1995. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world,...
. Pastis regularly puts tributes to them in his strip. When asked in an interview about whether his profession as an attorney inspired the humor in the comic, Stephan said, "I was very unhappy as a lawyer, and humor is a reaction to and defense against unhappiness. Also, the law inspired me because if you dislike what you’re doing to the extent that I did, it gives you the impetus to get out." Pastis also regularly parodies comics he finds stale or unfunny, including Cathy
Cathy (comic strip)
Cathy was a comic strip drawn by Cathy Guisewite. It featured a woman who struggled through the "four basic guilt groups" of life — food, love, mom, and work — the strip gently poked fun at the lives and foibles of modern women. Cathy's characteristics and issues both made fun of and...
, The Family Circus
The Family Circus
The Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and currently written, inked, and colored by his son, Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from...
and Garfield
Garfield
Garfield is a comic strip created by Jim Davis. Published since June 19, 1978, it chronicles the life of the title character, the cat Garfield ; his owner, Jon Arbuckle; and Arbuckle's dog, Odie...
. The relentless and merciless riffing on classic comics (i.e. a series where Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
comes to live with the Family Circus
The Family Circus
The Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and currently written, inked, and colored by his son, Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from...
, causing the parents, Billy, Jeffy, Dolly and PJ to be sent to Guantanamo Bay detention camp) has earned Pastis the disdain of many comic artists, which Pastis referenced in a later storyline where the Pearls cast is not invited to the 75th anniversary crossover party of Blondie
Blondie (comic strip)
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, the strip has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930...
.
Stephan Pastis has also mentioned that the fact that the characters of the comic are cute, and that the humor is usually gallows humor, leads to incongruity, which is funny.
Main characters
Rat
Rat (debut: December 30, 2001) is a narcissisticNarcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
, misanthropic rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
, and is an anti-hero
Anti-hero
In fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
. He frequently breaks the fourth wall, as well as being aware of his implementation as a fictional comic strip character. Because of this, Rat is often critical of the comic strip's style and art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
work as well as the other characters in the strip and many other living things. Often self-employed, most of his businesses involve either punishing or defrauding people for their ignorance, much in the same vein as Dogbert
Dogbert
Dogbert is Dilbert's anthropomorphic pet talking dog from the Dilbert comic strip. According to creator Scott Adams, the character is being based on, if not a member of, the beagle breed.-Characterization:...
, though with a darker humor. Rat is often rude, and he can usually be found criticizing or insulting someone. Rat lives with Pig and Guard Duck in a house somewhere in Albany, California
Albany, California
Albany is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 18,539 at the 2010 census.-History:In 1908, a group of local women protested the dumping of Berkeley garbage in their community...
.
Rat is an insensitive character in the strip, whose interactions with others are typically sarcastic, condescending, self-centered, insulting and sometimes violent. It's stated during a storyline where Rat dies and subsequently returns that nobody really likes him other than Pig. Rat frequently breaks the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
to berate his creator on various topics, including joke writing, artwork, or the general content of the strip itself.
In his spare time (almost always on Sunday), Rat writes one of three stories:
- The Adventures of Angry Bob: A novel series about a 39-year old man who is always angry, attempts to find happiness, eventually does, then dies a horrible death immediately afterward.
- Danny Donkey: A children's book series about a donkey who tries to teach children morals by drinking, smoking, stealing, violence, hating people, and various other methods. However, in the treasury "Pearls Sells Out" Danny Donkey is at some point a real character, before Stephan gets complaints and is forced to keep him as a character in Rat's book.
- Elly Elephant: A series about a female elephant who is extremely friendly, thoughtful, and helpful toward other people, but does not receive the same consideration. These stories often end with Elly crushing those people by pouncing on them.
Pastis has mentioned that the character of Rat is his "voice" and that he identifies himself with Rat more than any other character.
Pig
Pig (debut: December 30, 2001) is the character that receives the most abuse from Rat. He is kind by nature, but very naive. Pig's jokes generally involve his incompetence and not knowing his true surroundings. His on-again-off-again girlfriend, Pigita, is driven insane by his naivety, but she can never bear to dump him. Pastis says that Pig has a habit of talking to inanimate objects such as food, stop lights, bait, and various other things. His dimness is often exhibited in the strip. Pig's least appropriate characteristic is his love of porkPork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
products; He likes bacon
Bacon
Bacon is a cured meat prepared from a pig. It is first cured using large quantities of salt, either in a brine or in a dry packing; the result is fresh bacon . Fresh bacon may then be further dried for weeks or months in cold air, boiled, or smoked. Fresh and dried bacon must be cooked before eating...
, ham
Ham
Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...
, corn dog
Corn dog
A corn dog is a hot dog sausage coated in a thick layer of cornmeal batter and deep fried in oil, although some are baked. Almost all corn dogs are served on wooden sticks, though some early versions had no stick.-History:...
s, and so on, making him a cannibal, although he appears to misunderstand this. He is also sometimes able to tell which member of his family has been made into the food product. Pig is one of the few characters that does not utter mock profanity in the strip, however he did do so in the June 23, 2003 strip, for the first time; He tells Zebra the secret password to Rat's club, "Why should i tell you, dumb @#@&@*# pig?" He has a teddy bear named Mr. Pitters.
Goat
An intellectualIntellectual
An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a personal capacity.- Terminology and endeavours :"Intellectual" can denote four types of persons:...
goat who interacts sparingly with the other characters, Goat (debut: January 18, 2002) usually appears whenever there is a small issue dealing with a character or a conflict to be mediated. Goat has an equally hard time dealing with Pig's incompetence and Rat's cruelty and occasional ignorance. Goat maintains an internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
that, as Rat likes to point out, receives no hits. Goat in turn tends to criticize Rat's forays into writing, often telling him not to write them at all. In early strips, Goat had a beard; he first appeared without it in the March 31, 2004 strip.
In a few strips, he is seen telling Rat and Pig about various philosophical, political, and social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
issues. However, Rat and Pig don't pay attention, and usually start talking about something else, like baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
or The Apprentice
The Apprentice (U.S. TV series)
The Apprentice is an American reality television show hosted by real estate magnate, businessman and television personality Donald Trump, created by Mark Burnett and broadcast on NBC...
.
Goat dislikes conversing with the other characters at all; he much prefers reading. However, it seems that he most tolerates talking to Zebra; he is least tolerant when talking to Rat (although he tends to be equally hostile towards Pig). It is actually debatable if he dislikes talking to Rat or Pig more, Rat for his ego and self-centered remarks, which anger Goat greatly; However, Pig's stupidity has, on multiple occasions, equally driven Goat over the edge, particularly when he attempts to explain something simple to Pig, and Pig continues moving further and further into the wrong direction and misunderstanding everything Goat says. Goat's real name is revealed as "Paris" in the September 21, 2007 strip, claiming "Goat" is his stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
.
Zebra
Zebra (debut: February 4, 2002), also known as "zeeba neighba" (zebra neighbor) by the Fraternity of Crocodiles next-door (Zeeba Zeeba Eata), is a zebra who is often seen trying to patch up relations between his herd back home and its predators, lions and hyenas. Pastis has also stated that the only goal of Zebra is to keep from being eaten by his inarticulate next-door neighbors, the Fraternity of Zeeba Zeeba Eata crocodiles.Because Stephan Pastis was once unable to draw lions, these particular predators were not shown in the strip until May 31, 2007, when two were shown moving next door to Zebra, on the opposite side from the crocodiles. They are the second-most mentioned predators, behind the crocodiles. Prior to their appearance Zebra has been seen corresponding with them via letter, attempting to give them more culture than just eating zebras and establish a friendship between their species. Instead, the lions' replies are always terse responses, often featuring them taking his advice the wrong way by eating a zebra. Zebra's lion neighbors, however, are male lions, which do not hunt, and they seem to like Zebra, often giving him advice on how to avoid their wives, who actually would hunt him down if given the chance. However, the lion neighbors also caused some bad things to happen to Zebra (albeit unintentionally), such as suggesting that Zebra redecorate his house with Girls Gone Wild
Girls Gone Wild
The Girls Gone Wild franchise, created by Joe Francis, is a video series by the production company Mantra Films, Inc., which is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.-Content:...
merchandise to be more macho when his mother comes over to the house once.
One time, Larry sent a cat to Zebra, but in the first years, the cat, which was named Snuffles, was harmless to Zebra. However, in early winter 2008, Zebra was arrested by the FBI because of the cat's terrorist activities, although Snuffles loves Zebra, and he didn't mean to put his owner mistakenly in jail. In one strip, he was revealed to be a big fan of Peanuts (a strip Pastis cites as one of his many influences), which the crocs attempted to exploit, without success.
In the Pearls Sells Out collection, Pastis explains that Zebra has three neighbors: The Zeeba Zeeba Eata fraternity house, Larry the Croc and his family, and Max and Zack, the Lions. Larry's house is, in fact, behind Zebra's house (the houses are next to each other via backyards) while the Lions and the Zeeba Zeeba Eata are on either side of Zebra's house.
Guard Duck
The Guard Duck is, as his name implies, the "guard duck" for Pig and Rat's home, and still lives with them despite often taking on different occupations. Pig has described him as "very sensitive and having an anger managementAnger management
The term anger management commonly refers to a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which someone with excessive or uncontrollable anger & aggression can control or reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state...
problem". He's known for a short temper and a violent streak. He has gone to several anger management seminars, but he leaves with more issues than he had before.
His first appearance was March 14, 2005 , when Pig bought him because a proper Guard Dog was too expensive. Pig's neighbors frequently laugh at the Guard Duck, but the neighbors usually then get beaten up or blown up by various types of weaponry. He often suggests militaristic solutions for neighborhood problems, often getting him locked in a clothes hamper by Pig.
Originally, Guard Duck was a violent duck with anger management problems, but he eventually transformed into a duck associated with the army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
, seeing the world as his battlefield. He has occasionally referenced the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and war movies such as Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
. In one of his "missions" that he was given, he teamed up with Zebra's cat Snuffles to invade Cuba, but mistakenly invades Jamaica. While in Jamaica, the also shoots a Sheriff and his deputy. The moment he gets to Cuba, he and Snuffles are arrested, but released. He is also a member of the Order of Panelwalkers and taught Pig how to do panelwalking. In a series of strips, Guard Duck is seen training gophers to use grenade
Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...
s which causes problems in the neighborhood. Most recently, the Grenade Gophers went renegade & joined the Crocs as assassins.
In the treasury The Crass Menagerie, Stephan Pastis remarks that the Guard Duck has become so popular that he's become a sixth main character (after Rat, Pig, Zebra, Goat, and the crocs).
Crocodiles
The Fraternity of Crocodiles are the main antagonistAntagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
s and villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
s of the strip, described by Pastis as "inept and inarticulate neighbours" of Zebra and while they are indeed on very poor terms with all five main characters (with the possible exception of Rat), they are usually involved in various attempts to kill and eat Zebra, all of which fail.
The fraternity name is "Zeeba Zeeba Eata" (although one of them called it "Zeta, Zeta
Zeta (letter)
Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 7. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Zayin...
, Epsilon" in their first appearance in a botched attempt to fool Zebra).
The Crocodile Family
In addition to the Zeeba Zeeba Eata fraternity of crocodiles, there is a separate family of crocodiles that live in the neighborhood and are also neighbors to Zebra. The family consists of Larry, his wife Patty, and their son Junior (originally named Billy). Larry is one of the typical dumb crocodiles in the strip, speaking in the same language as the fraternity ("Croc-ese", which is actually the reader's own language spoken with exceptionally improper grammar), which he is often seen with plotting to kill Zebra. By contrast, both his wife and son are intelligent, with Junior being particularly gifted. Larry is (or at least was) a huge fan of the Nintendo Wii and tried to encourage his son to drop out of school so he could play with him. He is also very childish, appearing when ever Simon saysSimon says
Simon says is a children's game for three or more players where one player takes the role of 'Simon' and issues instructions, to the other players, which should only be followed if prefaced with the phrase 'Simon says', for example 'Simon says jump in the air'...
to do so, and is easily convinced to do stupid things such as when he stapled his head to a wall on a bet and shut off Zebra's water pipes in an attempt to force Zebra to drink from the fraternity's swamp, unaware that Zebra bought his water from Sparkletts.
Patty is a housewife with a beehive hairdo who loves both her husband and son, although she is continually frustrated with her husband's failed attempts to kill Zebra- which more often than not, result in Larry being forced to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and purchase food, which he eats by himself in shame (although Patty does do some grocery shopping and Larry once stole a frozen zebra from a pair of male lions that also moved into the neighborhood, which he claimed to catch)- as well as his lack of intelligence and common sense which led to her leaving him at least once.
Junior is the most intelligent and perhaps most refined member of his family. He is a vegetarian who can't understand why his father constantly wants to kill Zebra, believes that crocodiles should wear clothes because being naked is undignified, and is friends with his neighbor. Despite all his faults, Junior loves his father as well as his mother, but infuriates them with one small action- his love for a zebra (specifically, Zebra's niece). Surprisingly, despite her attitude, Patty is much more offended about this than Larry, considering it an embarrassment to her family and believing that simply grounding him will cause him to stop (although all it did was cause Junior to run away) However, it is expressed that Larry does not like Junior becoming a vegetarian, telling Zebra that Junior was "a big disappointment" .
Stephan
Stephan Pastis appears self-reflexively in the strip. He is often seen with Rat who criticizes his jokes and artwork.Rat recently (April 22, 2011) challenged Pastis to an ugly face contest and said, "Whoa, you win," as soon as the contest started. Rat enjoys using dark humor around Stephan and once purposely spilled beer on a strip, despite warning. After seeing its effects on the strip, he said "I should really take your word for it." However, the special effects on the strip seen that day had been Photoshopped, not water damaged. In the strip, Stephan expresses common sense, unlike Rat and some of the other characters. His character has also expressed his hate of being an attorney, which was his former career.
Snuffles
Snuffles the cat is a character sometimes seen with Guard Duck, because of his lack of logic. He was first bought by the crocs to kill the zebra, but Snuffles like the zebra. Snuffles is often shown doing vile acts, such as stealing credit card numbers or selling nuclear technology. This character doesn't speak, as most of the strip's characters do, but rather he uses the phrase "meow" while the other character(s) in the scene speak for him, similar to a silent protagonist.Setting
The strip is set in a fictional suburb within or around Albany, CaliforniaAlbany, California
Albany is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 18,539 at the 2010 census.-History:In 1908, a group of local women protested the dumping of Berkeley garbage in their community...
, where Pastis currently lives (at least two strips have stated that the characters live in "Albany"). Every house appears to have siding on it. There is one brick wall, a beach, and the street which is usually littered with the same soda/beer can. Stephan says in a treasury that the can is the only piece of trash he knows how to draw. He then later exercises trash-drawing by adding a banana peel and crumpled up paper in another strip.
The continuity of the strip is very loose, and Pastis even says that "sometimes characters get jobs once, and you never hear about it again." Many storylines are left with open endings, and sometimes continuity leaps are made, especially when characters die (he says they "un-die", a word which has been added to the Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary is a Web-based dictionary of slang words and phrases, which contained over 6 million definitions . Submissions are regulated by volunteer editors and rated by site visitors...
due to Pastis creating it). Usually, relationships between characters are left unaltered. (Farina, who appears infrequently for long periods of time, has a relationship with Rat that usually picks up where it left off.)
Meaning of the title
The title Pearls Before Swine refers to the admonition "Neither cast ye your pearls before swine" that JesusJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
gave according to Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
7:6 in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. According to Pastis, Rat, who considers himself a genius, casts his "pearls" of wisdom before Pig ("swine"), who is the only one naive enough to seriously listen.
Style
Artistically, Pearls is extremely simple. Most of the characters have either mouths represented by lines or no mouths at all, dot eyes, and stick limbsLimb (anatomy)
A limb is a jointed, or prehensile , appendage of the human or other animal body....
; those shown with lips are generally big and puffy in this area, and the lips are merely a visual cue that they are unintelligent or ignorant. However, characters do have mouths when yelling (similar to Dilbert), or in the crocodiles' case, open their mouths when yelling. Pastis stated,
Pearls is also a meta-comic
Meta-joke
Meta-joke refers to several somewhat different, but related categories: self-referential jokes, jokes about jokes , and joke templates.-Self-referential jokes:...
in that it often satirizes the comics medium, and allows its characters to break the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
and either communicate directly with the author or with characters from other strips, which they often do. Pastis will often employ a shaggy dog story, using a great amount of dialogue to spin an elaborate yarn often resolved with a character's unforeseen death or near death. A variation known as a feghoot
Feghoot
A story pun is a humorous short story or vignette ending in an atrocious pun where the story contains sufficient context to recognize the punning humor...
builds to an intentionally bad pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
in the penultimate panel, with the final panel showing the cartoon version of Pastis as the target of criticism, hostility, or even physical violence
Violence
Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...
from the characters, usually Rat. Once, Rat sensed a bad pun coming, and stopped it with dropping an anvil on Pastis' head. The characters also frequently acknowledge the fact that they are in a comic strip published in newspapers; the strip published on January 14, 2008 had a "roof fish" sitting on top of the panel fishing for the characters, and other strips have had such events as smeared newsprint
Newsprint
Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper most commonly used to print newspapers, and other publications and advertising material. It usually has an off-white cast and distinctive feel. It is designed for use in printing presses that employ a long web of paper rather than individual sheets of...
or beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
affected the appearance of the strip or strips in which it seems as if the paginators had laid out the strip wrong. Other comic strips are often the butt of punchlines, and several cartoon characters from outside Pearls have appeared, most frequently the main cast of The Family Circus
The Family Circus
The Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and currently written, inked, and colored by his son, Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from...
, and even in one circumstance, Stewie
Stewie Griffin
Stewie Griffin is a fictional character from the animated television series Family Guy. Once obsessed with world domination and matricide, Stewie is the youngest child of Peter and Lois Griffin, and the brother of Chris and Meg....
from Family Guy
Family Guy
Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
appeared in the strip on April 20th of 2008, holding a candy cane, for a reference to the saying, "It's like taking candy from a baby." During that appearance, Stewie said two of his more famous phrases ("Touch it and you die, fat man" and "What the deuce are you staring at?") to Pig. The presence of the characters often affects the goings-on in the other strips, either directly (through their presence) or indirectly through setting
Setting (fiction)
In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may...
or dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
, such as when Rat replaced the words of a Family Circus comic with a quote from Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
.
Pearls is notorious for its large amount of dark humor; topics such as death, depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
and human suffering overall are common themes, and Pastis has recalled receiving complaints, including hate mail
Hate mail
Hate mail is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient...
and occasionally death threat
Death threat
A death threat is a threat of death, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or groups of people. These threats are usually designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behavior, thus a death threat is a form of coercion...
s from people who have been offended by his strips; two strips that portrayed a llama
Llama
The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since pre-Hispanic times....
United Nations diplomat named "Ataturk" who spits on other diplomats, prompted a letter to then-President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
from the Turkish Ambassador to the United States demanding an apology, seeing it as a mockery of former Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....
. Pastis has mentioned in his treasuries that the cartoonists whom he mocks (a trademark characteristic of Pearls) often take the insults in good humor, even occasionally asking for an original strip.
Controversial strips
As written above, Pearls often contains dark humor. Some of the strips have been seen as controversial or offensive. Such strips include the following:Satanic Visit
from March 1-5 2004, Rat's old friend SatanSatan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
comes to visit him and Pig for the weekend as a houseguest. Rat and Satan go to a seafood restaurant where Satan orders the sole
Sole (fish)
Sole is a group of flatfish belonging to several families. Generally speaking, they are members of the family Soleidae, but, outside Europe, the name sole is also applied to various other similar flatfish, especially other members of the sole suborder Soleoidei as well as members of the flounder...
, causing the waiter to run away screaming in terror. The reason for Satan's vacation is that the streets in Hell are being renovated by "Good's Carpentry Service" owned by Mr. Good, and the Chin brothers (of which there are 10), causing the pun that the "road to hell is paved with Good and Ten Chins". The strip caused some outcry amongst the religious right.
President Bush strip
On August 17, 2003, the Pearls Before Swine strip featured Rat writing a letter to then-president George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. In this letter, Rat tells Bush that if he is to bomb every country on earth before leaving office, he must bomb three countries every month. Goat warns Rat that if he sends the letter, the government will see him as a "whacko" and investigate him. However, in the last panel, Bush seems to accept Rat's plan to bomb three countries every month, saying, "Okay... October is Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and Hawaii," apparently not realizing that Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
is part of the United States. Pastis writes in his treasury that many people were offended by the negative depiction of Bush and criticized the strip, while an apparently equal number of people appreciated the mockery and praised the strip. (Other real-life figures have been portrayed this way in Pearls, albeit not as directly.)
ADHD strip
The Pearls Before Swine strip for November 9, 2003 featured a "'Pearls' Walk Through Alternative History." In this alternative history, the parents of musicians Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
are shown accepting medication for ADHD
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
to give to their children. In the final panel, Rat and Pig are shown at a record store. Rat is sighing because the only records available are those of Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
. The inference to be drawn is that the medication that the three musicians took as children prevented them from producing the music that (in true history) they would go on to produce as adults. The strip's message, that ADHD is a source of creativity and uniqueness, has some supporters. Some people believe that some of the characteristics of ADHD are positive, such as creativity, courage, a broad worldview, energy, versatility, and an enjoyable disposition. According to Pastis, many readers sent him e-mail concerning the strip, some of which criticized the strip, and some of which praised the strip.
Jerusalem Bus strip
On December 28, 2003, the Pearls Before Swine strip shows a television set on which a news program is being aired. The news program describes a bus that exploded that day in Jerusalem. The announcer talks about the humanity of the children who died in the explosion, emphasizing small characteristics of their lives that show them as normal children. The announcer strays off topic as he or she attempts to convey that the children have similarities to the people watching the news program. In the final panel, however, the announcer reminds those watching the program that the children are now dead. The strip is sad and sympathetic, in that it laments the loss of the children, and unusual in that it does not attempt to be funny and shows none of the strip's regular characters. Pastis says that some readers were angry because it (apparently) showed only Israel's side of the conflict between IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. However, he also says that many more readers loved the strip. In all, the strip prompted around 2,500 emails to Pastis. Pastis said that while readers who wrote to him were almost unanimously supportive, letters written to editors were more "50/50", with the other half expressing concern over the topic being addressed in a humorous part of the paper.
"Desperasexual" strip
On July 2, 2004, Pearls Before Swine showed Rat introducing his friend Bennie to Goat. Rat explains that Bennie is physically attracted to both men and women. Goat says that this means that he is a bisexualBisexuality
Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...
, but Rat says that Bennie is attracted to both sexes only because he is lonely. Because Bennie does not choose to be attracted to be both sexes, Rat does not consider him to be a bisexual and instead calls him a "desperasexual." Many readers were offended by the strip's assertion that a bisexual chooses to be attracted to both sexes, taking as a comment on the political aspects of homosexuality, though Pastis has denied any political meaning one way or the other.
Rat the Babysitter
In a series from March 20-25 2006, Rat was hired to babysit Zoe and Hammie from the family-geared, tyke-focusing strip Baby Blues. Instead of responsibly watching the children, Rat began to drink from a beer hat and do tequila shots. He then forced Zoe and Hammie to go to the liquor store to get him more alcohol. On the way to the liquor store, Hammie ran over Jeremy from the comic Zits, instantly killing him and then crashing the car into a gas pump causing a massive explosion. Rat then left baby Wren alone so that he could catch a movie, causing the infant to nearly be attacked by the Crocodiles, who were ultimately killed by Wren, who was portrayed as a "street-smart" and swearing character capable of talking. The series caused quite a fervor, and Pastis claims it to be one of his most upsetting comics. Angry letters were also sent to Rick KirkmanRick Kirkman
Rick Kirkman is a cartoonist and co-creator of the comic strip Baby Blues. He received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 1995 for his work on the strip. Served as co-executive producer of the WB Network TV series of Baby Blues.Prior to the creation of Baby Blues, Rick...
and Jerry Scott
Jerry Scott
Jerry Scott in South Bend, Indiana. He is an American cartoonist, co-creator of Baby Blues and co-creator of Zits.-Career:...
, the creators of Baby Blues, for letting Pastis use their characters. According to Pastis, "mixing kids and alcohol and having Rat babysit while drunk just threw some uptight readers over the edge. Many of them responded like I had actually endangered real kids, making no allowance for the fact that the Baby Blues kids are pen and ink. In the next Monday's Baby Blues strip, Rick drew a beat-up crocodile on the floor of the kids' living room, proving to everyone that Rick and Jerry knew about this in advance. I think that quieted down some of the outrage toward me."
The Midget strip
On November 15, 2005, a farcical strip in which Pastis pretended to be on hiatus ran. In his stead, Rat "wrote the comic" that day. In the strip Rat decides to throw a midget off a pier to see how much distance he could get. Despite the general idea of the strip being to parody Pastis's history of offensive strips, an angry letter ran in an Oklahoma newspaper (The Stillwater Newspress), outraged that it was supposed to be considered humorous that someone would propose throwing a midget off a pier ("as though this sort of thing goes on all the time in Oklahoma," remarked Pastis, commenting on the strip in the treasury The Crass Menagerie). "Pearls Before Swine" was canceled from the paper. Pastis retorted, "Is there even a single pier in Oklahoma?" in the same comment.Ataturk the Llama strips
As is written above, two Pearls Before Swine strips (January 9 and 10, 2007), which showed a llama named Ataturk, caused the Turkish ambassador to the United States to send a letter to George W. Bush, demanding an apology. In these strips, Ataturk is a United Nations diplomat, whose form of diplomacy is to spit on other diplomats. Many readers of Turkish descent were offended, seeing it as a mockery of former Turkish president Mustafa Kemal AtatürkMustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....
. Their interpretation of the strip was supported by the fact that Pastis is of Greek descent, and Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
have historically been enemies. Pastis denied that the strip was mocking Mustafa Atatürk, saying that he knew almost nothing about Atatürk and used the name simply because he liked the sound of it. He received angry, hate-filled emails (some of which contained death threats). Pastis calls it the single biggest controversy he has ever experienced in the history of Pearls.
Lou Gehrig's Disease strips
In an introduction on one of his books, Stephen Pastis wrote that "Pearls" was hated by Lou Gehrig fans because in one strip, Pig thought it was a coincidence that Lou Gehrig would die of a disease that had the same name as himself, not knowing that the disease was named after Gehrig.Other media
In an interview on The Big Idea with Donny DeutschThe Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch was a talk show on CNBC hosted by Donny Deutsch. The show offered success stories that outlined a "roadmap to the American Dream." Every weeknight at 10pm, Donny Deutsch, the CEO of advertising and media business Deutsch Inc., introduced the audience to successful...
that aired February 7, 2008, Pastis mentioned that he had been approached by producers about an animated TV series based on Pearls.
In 2009, a line of Pearls plush dolls was released by Aurora World, Inc., featuring four characters (Rat, Pig, Zebra and Croc) from the comic, to which Pastis jokingly said he would use for reference when unsure how to draw the characters.
On October 20, 2010, RingTales
RingTales
RingTales is an animation production company that creates short online cartoons from existing print comics. Their flagship series, The New Yorker Animated Cartoons, was nominated for a 2008 Webby Awards for Online Animation.-List of series:...
launched their series of animated "Pearls" strips on Babelgum
Babelgum
Babelgum is a free to view Internet television platform supported by advertising. The project was set up in 2005 by Italian media and telecommunications entrepreneur Silvio Scaglia and scientist Erik Lumer, with the aim of developing interactive software for distributing TV shows and other forms...
. Pastis has since begun to release these cartoons on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.
Technical aspects
Cartoonist Darby ConleyDarby Conley
Darby Conley is an American cartoonist best known for the popular comic strip Get Fuzzy.-Background:Conley was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1970, and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee....
, creator of Get Fuzzy
Get Fuzzy
Get Fuzzy is an American daily comic strip written and drawn by Darby Conley. The strip features the adventures of Boston advertising executive Rob Wilco and his two anthropomorphic pets: dog Satchel Pooch and cat Bucky Katt. Get Fuzzy has been published by United Feature Syndicate since September...
, helped teach Pastis the technical aspects of cartooning. The two remain friends, sometimes poking fun at each other in their strips. In Pearls Blows Up, Stephan says that he replaces some of the usual squiggle-marks indicating swear words with a poorly drawn picture of Darby Conley's head. In a Get Fuzzy strip, Rob asks Satchel if an annoying lawyer named Stephan called. Satchel has a Pearls book next to him. Conley also drew Pastis in his strip twice during a week where the two cartoonists decided to play a prank on their syndicate by having Conley copy and paste Get Fuzzy characters over Pearls strips.
Awards
After being nominated for the National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
Award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip in 2002 and 2003, Pearls Before Swine won the award in 2004 and again in 2007.