List of Pearls Before Swine Characters - The Crocs

The Crocs

The Fraternity of Crocodiles are the main antagonists and villains of the strip, 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).

The male crocodiles often speak in broken English or improper grammar. In an e-mail to a fan, Pastis claimed, "My inspiration was probably from a Saturday Night Live skit that had Tarzan and Frankenstein trying to talk ." (The "language" would later be called "Croc-ese" by Pastis in a February 2009 strip.) When talking, they often say words in the phonetical style, such as "nome" (gnome), "keel" (kill), "eediot" (idiot), "gud" (good), "woomun" (woman), "mouf" (mouth), "juss" (just), and "stoopid" (stupid). They also say "me" instead of "I', refer to themselves as "crockydiles", and omit the linking verbs. The Fraternity also writes this way (i.e., a valentine sent to Zebra reading "Hapy valeentine day, zeeba neighba! Me keel yu ded, Me eet yu hed"). They also speak in an unusual font: their dialogue is shown in crude, lower-cased letters (sometimes shown in capitals when they yell, scream or talk loudly) which is also used for the lions, toy Vikings and the Killer Whale, although they spoke normally. They often begin with their catch phrase "Hullooo, zeeba neighba!". On one occasion, a croc tried to explain their accent. One of these crocs is Larry's young son Junior, who despite his father's idiocies is actually quite intelligent. The female crocodiles, Junior, and various "Smart Guy" crocodiles speak normally. In a 2010 strip, Larry claimed to have a speech impediment.

It should be noted that Junior actually thinks that killing wildlife is immoral and decided to become a vegetarian.

They believe they are hunting prey when they catch plastic flamingos, garden gnomes, or carved "tofu cows". The crocs usually need to go to the Safeway supermarket or order fast food (one ordered pizza every night for seven straight weeks; at least one croc has resorted to cannibalism) to get food. Larry has been known to buy Kentucky Fried Chicken, often crossing out the brand logo and writing, "fres zeeba meet" to try to fool his wife. They often come up with harebrained plans to lure Zebra into their house, including toga parties, swimming, and attempts to get into his house (one croc posed as a cable guy). Rat has often taken advantage of their incompetence (Including by selling them tomato seeds that he claims will produce Zebras). Their inability to catch prey is looked upon with shame by other crocodiles, especially their wives, girlfriends, and mothers. The main crocodile in the strip is "Larry". Other crocs include Bill, Biff, Bob, Floyd, Rick, Jerry (this and the one before it were seemingly named after Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott, and both appeared in a story arc involving the characters of Baby Blues), Willie, Jojo, Fat Fred, Ted, Frank, Fred, Erik, Dan, Bert, Smart Guy Fred, Gary, Gus, Nick, Joe, Jimmy and Vern. Larry usually works with Bob, Floyd, or another crocodile. Larry is known as the Zebra's arch nemesis.

At least two of the crocs have girlfriends or are married (not to be confused with Larry's family); one croc had two children who were accidentally eaten by his wife, Debbie, after he slapped her on the back (she had opened her mouth to show Zebra that crocodiles hide their young in their mouths to hide them from other predators; Larry remarked that "Is okay. We make more").

In September 2007, the crocs finally did catch Zebra; Jeffy from The Family Circus jumped into the crocs swamp, thinking it was a swimming pool, Zebra jumped in to save him, and the crocs got them both. Jeffy persuaded the crocs to release him (Zebra commented "I always liked Billy better") and Guard Duck scared the crocs away with a rocket launcher.

A recurring gag is the crocs' tendency to die, usually due to their own ineptitude; they have been shot, blown up, choked, eaten, stabbed with a speargun, drowned, covered in cement, suffocated, nuked, shredded, had a heart attack, wood chippered, hung, and killed in some way by other characters; often, it is a result of their own attempts to kill Zebra. Regarding how they always come back, it is unclear if they are many crocs with the same names, or come back to life a la Kenny McCormick.

While Pastis had depicted various crocodiles in the strip as early as February 2002, these crocs were relatively competent and spoke normal English in a normal typeface. "Da Brudderhood of Zeeba Zeeba Eata" (to quote the title of Pastis' fifth book) were not introduced until January 3, 2005; they have since become the collective fifth "main character" of the strip.