Herbie Popnecker - Recurring Gags

Recurring Gags

There are many recurring gags in Herbie comics:

• Herbie speaks very little. He is terse, leaving out many words.
• Herbie is unemotional, in spite of everything around him, understating everything he says. Herbie's captions are free of exclamation points, except when his lollipops are threatened.
• Women swoon over Herbie, loving his round physique. Sometimes women who first loved Herbie eventually run off with an animal (e.g., alien bug king, gorilla, camel).
• Herbie encounters many look-alikes, most of whom he thinks are ugly.
• Although ridiculously fat, Herbie does not eat much, especially in later issues, although he sometimes sleeps while he eats. He is always sleeping, much to the dismay of his father.
• Herbie sometimes bites his adversaries, and sometimes they bite him.
• Herbie wears many disguises, most of which are absurd.
• Herbie often appears, to his embarrassment, in boxer shorts.
• Herbie sometimes happens to have just the right item for the job: marshmallows in King Arthur's time, worms to drop in Mao's mouth, a bicycle pump in his pocket, or a blowtorch in the frozen north. ("Never mind where I got it from, either.")

Herbie sometimes refers to his favorite lollipop flavors, including "hard-to-get cinnamon".