Hijinks Ensue

Hijinks Ensue is a geek-oriented thrice-weekly updated webcomic, written and drawn by Joel Watson.

This comic is centered around "Geeking for the sake of Geekery". Most of the comics use one geek pop-culture reference to make fun of another geek pop-culture reference. The creators describe it as "Penny Arcade minus video games, plus everything else."

Not to be confused with the trope Hilarity Ensues.

Tropes used in Hijinks Ensue include:

• Alt Text: Starting with the September 2010 site redesign.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Parodied in this strip.
• Art Evolution
• Bacon Addiction: According to Josh, everything's better with bacon.
• Bazaar of the Bizarre: District 9, as parodied in this strip. "Oooh! Spoiled pig face!"
• The Bear: Josh is a textbook example.
• Bait and Switch Comparison: Between spoiled hollandaise sauce and antifreeze.
• Cosplay: Josh's infamous Kratos costume, which spurs him to create a kickass Big Daddy/Little Sister combo suit.
• Filler: The various "photo comics" that Joel has begun posting whenever he goes on a trip somewhere.
• Guest Strip
• I'm a Humanitarian: Josh ate his own replacement arm he had been growing from pig DNA when he realized it was made of pork.
• Hobos: The recurring character Boxcar Pete, who wears a monocle, talks like a pirate, and buys Josh's used iPhones.
• Life Embellished: Obviously almost none of what goes on in the strip really happened, but the characters are real people.
• Podcast: Weekly.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Many strips are based on real-life events (and branch off according to the Rule of Funny): Josh's Kratos costume going viral, the site's issues with their first host, Joel's hard drive dying, Joel's spine problems...
• The Red Stapler: The shirt from this strip became a real shirt "due to overwhelming demand", although this was clearly the intent.
• Schedule Slip: Since it relies on topical humor, there's no backlog, so whenever something comes up in Joel's personal life that keeps him from drawing a new strip (which is often), there's no new strip.
  • At one point, the site's banner read "4 Times a Week." This lasted roughly one week, during which there were only three strips.
    • Come to think of it, that might have been the week of April Fools' Day...
• Slice of Life
• Take That: Too many to count. Starting from the very first installment, which makes fun of Spider-Man 3.
• Talk Like a Pirate: Boxcar Pete.
• They Killed Kenny: Josh. There's actually a tag for "Josh dies".
• Trademark Favorite Food: Josh really likes bacon.
• Unsound Effect: Frequently.
• Write Who You Know: The main cast is Joel and his two real-life friends.