Tom The Dancing Bug - Recurring Characters and Segments

Recurring Characters and Segments

Tom The Dancing Bug has no real narrative continuity, however, certain recurring features within the strip are seen frequently on a rotating basis. They include:

• God-Man: The Superhero With Omnipotent Powers!: Placed in normal superhero situations, God-Man fights villains like Nietzsche-lad, Dr. Moral Relativism and Blasphemy Boy. God-Man's "mundane identity" (when he does not want to attract suspicion) is Milton Baxter. God-Man occasionally solves problems by re-creating the universe and organizing the atoms so that the problem is prevented in the first place. Bolling, speaking in an interview about readers who take offense to the God-Man strips, said "God-Man isn't actually God. He is a straw man that I'm using to make fun of some people's very simplistic views about religion and philosophy." Billy Billings is "God-Man's Pal", a parody of Jimmy Olsen.

• Louis Maltby is an introverted kid with a major guilt complex. He's featured in segments like "Games Louis Plays", which describe how Louis looks at the world, and "The Education of Louis", which show his confusion at the world around him. Louis is used to make social commentary by displaying how school and society treats him, and may be semi-autobiographical. He also sometimes appears in other segments when a kid is needed and has an alter-ego, 'The Passive-Aggressor'.

• Lucky Ducky: The Poor Little Duck Who's Rich In Luck, is a recurring segment purportedly presented by Wall Street Journal Comix. Lucky Ducky is a duck who despite being homeless, destitute, and working in a crummy job always manages to enrage his arch-nemesis, the very wealthy Hollingsworth Hound. Hollingsworth usually views any source of joy or happiness in Lucky's life to be too much of an advantage and does his best to eliminate it, claiming that the joy or happiness is at the expense of the rich. Hollingsworth tries to show that taxes on the rich especially hurt the poor, and demolish claims that they do not. Lucky Ducky first appeared after The Wall Street Journal editorialized against progressive tax policies, calling poor workers "lucky duckies" because they have a smaller federal income tax burden. Hollingsworth Hound has occasionally been seen in solo adventures.

• News of the Times parodies current events.

• Charley is an australopithecine — a less-developed hominid from the pliocene epoch. He does not have some of the more advanced emotions of humans. He has a taste for grape soft drinks. He appears to be a satire of Curious George.

• Bob is the extremely average male. He sits at home drinking beer and watching scrambled porn on TV on the weekends, and tries to avoid doing chores and other household duties. During the week, he works in the cubicle by the elevator.

• Billy Dare, Boy Adventurer parodies the clichés used in boy adventurer stories. Billy is very similar in appearance to Tintin, the famous cartoon Belgian boy adventurer.

• Sam Roland, the Detective Who Dies is a Sam Spade-esque noirish private detective, except that he always dies.

• Judge Scalia is an extremist version of the U.S. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, used to criticize Justice Scalia's Supreme Court opinions and overall judicial philosophy.

• James K. Poult, a Mallard Fillmore parody, is an "unbiased media chicken" with multiple conservative media outlets.

• Harvey Richards Esq., Lawyer for Children is about a lawyer who works for children by using the standard children's tricks for getting out of things or getting people to do things ("My fingers were crossed!" "I called no crossies!"). The point is that lawyers act an awful lot like young children. The character has been optioned for a feature film by New Line Cinema, to be co-produced by Universal Press Syndicate's AMUSE division.

• Larry Dodson is an "average joe" type character whom the art world has called "the most important artist of the 21st century."

• Nate the Neoconservative is a neoconservative who refuses to admit his mistakes.

• Did You Know? points out "Fun Facts" in all sorts of things, poking fun at statistic-and-tidbit-obsessed society. The cult of celebrity is also a frequent target, with subversive trivia such as Nicole Kidman had to work as a waitress before she became famous, and not a single person asked her for her autograph and claiming that the Universe has never been nominated for an Oscar.

• The Impossible Squad is a military squad of stereotypical 'tough guys', all sergeants that list 'explosives' as their expertise except for one member (whose specialty is usually extremely different from his squadmates). They consider explosives to be the only way to complete any mission. However, the 'different' member will always suggest another solution based on his skills but his idea is usually shot down by the rest of the team (probably because it doesn't involve the direct use of explosives).

• Hollywood Tales are stories that depict Hollywood celebrities, featuring realistic (but static) likeness of their faces, in humorous situations.

• The Outer Reaches of Plot Twists parodies The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, showing stories that use multiple plot twists to the point that suspension of disbelief is difficult to achieve.

• The Ghost of James Caan is a character introduced in a Hollywood Tales story concerning actor Zack Efron. He is supposed to be the disembodied spirit of actor James Caan, despite the fact that he is (as of the time of his ghost's introduction) still very much alive. This is also true within the comic, causing confusion to the other characters that appear alongside him.