The Adventures of Dr. McNinja



"Dr. McNinja: Could this boy's youthful innocence and exuberance be what I need to keep my dark and troubled soul in check?

Dr. McNinja's Inner Voice: (You're not a dark and troubled soul. You're a doctor who wants to be Batman.)"

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja an action-comedy webcomic by Chris Hastings and Anthony "Nedroid" Clark, and the love child of the Rule of Cool and the Rule of Funny. It is the most awesomely epic / epically awesome webcomic ever.

The story unofficially begins with the eponymous omnidisciplinary doctor who is also a Ninja discovering that the McBonald's restaurant chain has created a burger bearing his name. Naturally, he solves this copyright infringement by battling Donald McBonald himself.

The next arc, "Meet The Doctor And His Friendly Staff" introduces Dr. McNinja's gorilla receptionist, as the two of them race against time to save a patient with Paul Bunyan's Disease (an illness which turns children into giant lumberjacks).

"So What IS A McNinja?'' introduces the Doctor's family, who are very disappointed with him for not becoming a professional ninja. The McNinjas' origins are revealed, and of course there are pirates.

The next morning, the Doctor finds a raptor in his office ("There is a Raptor in My Office"). This turns out to be the tip of the iceberg, said iceberg being a conspiracy involving paleontologists-turned-banditos, organic jetpacks, My Space and Fox News NewsCorp. At least the Doctor gets a sidekick out of the deal: a gunslinging, mustachioed 12-year-old named Gordito.

"D.A.R.E. To Resist Ninja Drugs and Ninja Violence" begins with McNinja facing a hard choice: Will he help his father defeat 80's action movie star Frans Rayner and his army of drug-enhanced ninja Mooks? Or will he help the clone of Benjamin Franklin create a medicine to cure death?

...And everything after that point simply must be seen to be believed.

What's interesting about the comic is Hastings' sheer commitment to utter weirdness. Every Almost every Every bizarre twist gets a completely straight reaction from the cast, and can have repercussions that stretch over multiple chapters. The overall effect is like a geodesic dome of absurdity, where every time the authors throw in a killer weatherman or cyborg bears or zombie Ben Franklin re-enacting the "Thriller" music video with situationally-appropriate lyrics, the plot becomes that much more believable. In the words of Chris Hastings, "Dr. McNinja lives in a world that operates like a Mortal Kombat stage." (but Cumberland, Maryland is a real place), so if you're a stickler for scientific and historical plausibility and blow a gasket whenever you see Hollywood Physics, please stay far away from this webcomic.

And just to prove the series hasn't hit the peak of absurdly awesome yet, in Summer of 2010, Doctor McNinja took part in a Crossover with Axe Cop. In addition, on November 7, 2011, the doctor faced down with Saxton Hale. He lost, but the very idea of such a fight was awesome.

Tropes:
"Doctor McNinja: I hate you. I hate you so much. I will hunt you down forever. When you die, my laughter will be so bright, it will be the last thing you will hear, see, smell and feel."
 * Acceptable Targets: Diabetics, In-Universe, as far as the doctor is concerned. They're always whining.
 * Achilles Heel: or, more specifically, Achilles' Right Butt Cheek Frans Rayner has one; and he has the ability to relocate it. What makes Dr McNinja particularly threatening to him is his ability to identify its location.
 * Action Mom: Mitzi, a rare example who is entirely willing to sacrifice her children if necessary, although in the specific example in question it was to save him from a Fate Worse Than Death.
 * Affably Evil: Dracula.
 * The Ahnold: Frans Rayner, although his backstory actually hews closer to The Jean Claude Van Damme or The Chuck Norris. Geographically, he'd be more like the Dolph Lundgren. Doctor McNinja himself (minus the accent) in the "Army Of One" story arc. Do we even have to mention how hilariously awesome it is?
 * All Myths Are True: And will show up in the current arc if they get so much as a passing mention.
 * Alt Text: Musings on the story, a pithy phrase, the punchline to the strip or even little stories are all stuck in here. It can generally be assumed that even if the strip itself does not contain a joke, the Alt Text will. Chris will also bitch about how hard pirate hats are to draw whenever there are pirates, because perspective is difficult with their odd shape. He hates trees too.
 * And Knowing Is Half the Battle: "Doctor McNinja's Final Thoughts" at the end of every chapter. Spoofed all to hell, as you may have guessed.
 * Animal Wrongs Group: Gordito's father was assassinated by PETA. To be fair, his closing act was pretty brutal.
 * Anticlimax: Discussed in the Alt Text twice. Here's an example. Here's another.
 * Antagonist in Mourning: After Dr. McNinja fakes his death, King Radical muses that he was one of the few radical things about Cumberland.
 * Anti-Hero: Doctor McNinja's a hero, no doubt about it, but he's kinda vicious about his methods.
 * Anti-Villain: King Radical. Sure he's the head of a nefarious crime ring and he's definitely hiding something but all of his actions benefit the community, and he seems to be in it primarily for the fun of it.
 * Apocalypse How: Class 4 or 5 in the fourth time line. Played for Laughs.
 * Arch Nemesis: Amusingly, the "Birdosaurus" has become this for the Doc.

"Dinosaur President: The Alpha Shield can't be broken by anything on earth!
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Sean calling Gordito out here
 * is described as a combination of "Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, atomic bombs and Seabiscuit."
 * Art Evolution: Went from stark black and white to computer-shaded black and white. Now in glorious full color.
 * Artifact of Doom:
 * World-ending Mayan tennis machine, anyone?
 * Ascended Extra: Bearclaw in the main webcomic, and Beeman in the back-up story for the third print volume.
 * And more recently, Archibald, King of the Hobos, originally a character conceived for a t-shirt and now an in-universe character and mayor of Cumberland.
 * Asshole Victim: Something of a running gag thus far is invoking this trope in an increasingly forced or unlikely way, after the good doctor becomes responsible for their death somehow.
 * As the Good Book Says...: "Physician, heal thyself!"
 * As You Know: "Oh. Thanks for catching us all up on that. We all knew it. But thanks."
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Persons who contract Paul Bunyan's Disease turn into fifty-foot-tall lumberjacks.
 * Author Avatar: Ron Wizard, Hasting's City of Heroes character, is King Radical's court magician.
 * Awesome but Impractical:  has a bionic laser eye, which is incredibly lethal. Unfortunately it lacks an external power source, and so burns his own calorie reserves for fuel. Even one shot is enough to render him unable to fight.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Did you not read the title?
 * A Wizard Did It: What the Alt Text to the July 1st, 2011 news entry/fill-in comic implies.
 * Ax Crazy
 * Back From the Dead: Ben Franklin, via cloning; the Doc himself, via invoking Only a Flesh Wound;, thanks to Never Found the Body.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: DOC AND THE DANE: TWIN FISTS OF FURY
 * Badass Bookworm: How can a ninja doctor not be one?
 * Badass Beard: Subverted by Frans Rayner, whose neckbeard caused everyone to laugh at him.
 * Badass Creed: Gordito borrows Roland's from The Dark Tower, impressing Dan - but not Sean, who's also read the books (though he refuses to admit it).
 * Badass Labcoat: As worn by the good Doctor.
 * Badass Moustache: Both Dan McNinja and Gordito. Dan's 'stache is always visible through his ninja mask. This is important, because the Badass Moustache is, in fact, Despite years of study and experimentation, Dan still doesn't have a concrete idea as to exactly why or how this works.
 * Also, while Dan just sort of gets his via the power of being a McNinja, Gordito grows his through SHEER FORCE OF WILL. Fuck yeah.
 * has one, which is impressive, considering.
 * Badass Pacifist: The Ultimate Diplomat, who makes hardened warriors and ninjas throw down their weapons with a single sentence.
 * Bad Dreams: In the "zombie ninjas" and "Doc Gets Rad" arcs.
 * Bad Future:
 * There have been multiple Bad Futures, all averted thanks to Chuck Goodrich travelling back in time. Other ones include a Zombie Apocalypse caused by Ben Franklin's eternal life serum, and a Robot Uprising of vacuum cleaners. However, every time Chuck prevents one of these, it just shunts us into a new timeline where a different Bad Future will occur, and a different Chuck will come back to stop it.
 * Batman Cold Open: Monster Mart begins with Doc and Gordito battling another giant lumberjack, this time with a giant blue ox. The book-only story Beyond Winter Wonderdome begins with Dr. McNinja battling fish-man Elvis impersonators.
 * Becoming the Mask: Deliberately invoked in-world, from birth, for McNinjas. This gives them a means of escape if there is no other way out, since they can simply remove their ninja masks and slip into anonymity.
 * Battle Couple and Badass Family: Dan and Mitzi; the McNinja family as a whole. Probably includes Gordito, who's basically Dr. McNinja's adopted kid at this point. And maybe Judy and Yoshi, which means that this Badass Family includes a  deinonychus velociraptor, a gorilla receptionist, and a Mexican kid with a mustache and guns. Meaning the ninjas are the normal part of the family.
 * Battle in the Center of the Mind: Doc gets dragged into one during his fight with the NASAghasts.
 * Beard of Evil : Victor
 * Benevolent Architecture: Lampshaded brilliantly here.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: When the dolphins finally get you to land, don't stick around to thank them. (Of course, that's because they're getting revenge for this.)
 * Big Bad: One each arc. The Big Bads seen so far and the story arc they first appeared in: Donald McBonald (Issue One Half), Pirates (So what IS a McNinja?), the Jet Pack Man (There is a Raptor in My Office), Frans Rayner (D.A.R.E To Resist Ninja Drugs and Ninja Violence Parts 1 and 2), Dracula and the Ghost Wizard (Punch Dracula), King Radical (Monster Mart), Sparklelord (Doc Gets Rad), the intelligent dinosaurs (Futures Trading).
 * So far, there are three candidates for the current arc: The Hobo King (with Mummy Prince), Dr. McLuchador, and some Demonic Armor...thing.
 * Big Entrance: Dr. McNinja makes a pretty good entrance here, mainly as a Shout-Out to Batman.
 * Bilingual Bonus: On this page, the first three lines of runes can be translated to  However, the rest of the sentence is covered up.
 * Bland-Name Product: McBonald's angers Doc by selling the McNinja burger
 * Bloodier and Gorier: The epic battle at the end of Army Of One. Due to there being many, many identical combatants,  it isn't necessary to keep them all alive and in one piece for the story to continue.
 * Blood Knight: Dan McNinja would even kill the little boy giant lumberjack and turn his body into a roof. Doc increasingly shows hints of being as Ax Crazy as him but occasionally feels bad about it.
 * Body Horror:
 * "[He has a disease that turns his butt into a spider at night."]
 * The deadly curse of the mummy.
 * A Boy And His Raptor: Gordito and Yoshi. If the reference here isn't obvious enough, Gordito actually does the Mario and Yoshi double jump at one point.
 * Brain Drain: King Radical and his Mafia prevent the brain drain from occuring in Cumberland, MD, by encouraging high school and college graduates to stay in the area. Very strongly encouraging.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: "Dr. McNinja's Final Thoughts," in which he often delivers An Aesop a Spoof Aesop on the events of the previous chapter.
 * "I don't like adressing mature issues in my comic."
 * Breather Episode: "Judy Gets a Kitten."
 * Brick Joke: The "Birdosaurus" that the Doctor off-handedly punched keeps coming back at the most inconvenient times. It's getting close to being a Running Gag.
 * Acknowledged by the Doc himself, here
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: The Doctor. The man is a great doctor, but he'll wear a ninja mask the whole time he's treating you. As an aside, he has even "disguised" himself as another doctor with the mask still on. The administrators of the hospital in question have gotten tired of this routine.
 * Captain Ersatz: Dr. McLuchador..
 * Car Fu: As well as Bike Fu.
 * Casual Danger Dialogue: "There is a raptor in my office."
 * Catch a Falling Star: Lampshaded here: "Thank you for saving me, Superman.". Played straight here, though.
 * The Cavalry: Several in "Futures Trading." First,  returns, and saves   from certain death at the hands (er, claws) of a raptor. Then, a few pages later, who comes in to bust the Doctor and Sean out of a tight spot?  ! Then, at the climax,
 * Chainsaw Good. Chainsaw nunchuck, even better.
 * Chandler's Law: Problem: you have a whole family of ninja performing a rescue, but pirates aren't much of a challenge, and you can't send the ninja in because they're already there. Solution: send in the UBER-ninja.
 * Characteristic Trope: Rule of Cool / Beyond the Impossible / Serial Escalation
 * Charm Point: Moustaches are Serious Business.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: The organic muscle jetpack. And to a lesser degree, almost everything the Doctor does, ever.
 * Frans Rayner, whose perfect body control allows him to move around weak points in his body.
 * Also,, who jumped to the Moon.
 * Charm Person: The Ultimate Diplomat.
 * Chase Scene: But of course.
 * Chekhov's Gag: Too many to count, but this deserves special mention. (Don't spoil it if you haven't already read up to there - it's the sort of joke that takes years to mature.)
 * Eventually becomes something of a boomerang brick.
 * There's also an arc-long example in There Is A Raptor In My Office. "But I have diabeeeeeteeees."
 * In the Alt Text here, Chris mentions that he was disappointed with King Radical's entrance, and decides to have skateboarding trumpeters announce his presence next time. They do.
 * Dan McNinja boasts that he absorbed the poison from his wife's picked beets so that he'll later be able to shoot it from his eyes, "Like a toad." He does just that later on.
 * King Radical saying he was going to use a special warhead to blow up an orphanage.
 * There's a double at the end of "Revenge of the Hundred Dead Ninja". One is an in-story reference, the other in the alt text calls back to "There Is A Raptor In My Office".
 * In the alt text of this page it alludes to making Doc's brother the protagonist once Doc is dead. Cut to the current arc where
 * A character invented as an alternate explanation of something McNinja said in the alt text here and here becomes something real here.
 * We have Mikey, cured by Doc, but forever unable to grow a beard. 6 years worth of webcomics later, we visit Mikey again in the dinosaur infested future, where we see Mikey get dumped once again.
 * In the Alt Text of this page, Hastings comments "I think I'll have [the birdosaurus] stalk Doc forever now." Sure enough, four books later...
 * Chekhov's Gun: Very frequent. If, early on in an arc, an ability is explained or an obstacle brought up that forces the protagonists to take a different route to solving their problems, you can bet the ability will be required and the obstacle will have to be dealt with in spite of all efforts to the contrary.
 * Doc's ability to punch ghosts by humming the Ghostbusters theme appeared several story arcs before again becoming vital in his fight with the Nasaghasts.
 * Paul Bunyan's Disease.
 * Remember way back here when we found out that ? It just got important now.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Well, lookie here.
 * The Chosen One: Every future so far has some disaster that will doom humanity, and every time is chosen to go back in time and stop it. Subverted, however, in that all he's accomplished is to create parallel realities where the disaster doesn't happen, not save his own.
 * Christmas Miracle: Katanakka Miracle, anyway.
 * Chuck Norris Facts: Frans Rayner. Every Chuck Norris movie was one that Frans Rayner turned down first.
 * Church Militant: The Roman Catholic church is surprisingly Badass, hiring the McNinja clan as mercenaries to stop a ghost wizard and providing holy relics for them to use as weapons, including a substantial chunk of the True Cross and nunchaku made from the bones of Mother Teresa -- and bullets blessed in the Pope's mouthwash for Gordito's gun.
 * So does that make them literal Nun-Chuks?
 * Presumably, this also includes the holy shurikens Doc uses against.
 * City of Weirdos: The residents of Cumberland, Maryland don't particularly care when the mayor installs a citywide anti-zombie system, and a rampaging Paul Bunyan is treated by the police as ordinary police work, not worthy of exceptional notice. Now dinosaurs, that is taking it too far.
 * Which makes one wonder how they're taking it now that.
 * When Doc, the main reaction is being offended because he gives the finger while doing so.
 * Classical Movie Vampire
 * Clean Cut: Subverted and lampshaded.
 * Clingy MacGuffin: The evil horsie.
 * Cloning Blues: Mostly averted with Benjamin Franklin II, who is basically a continuation of the original Franklin in a new body. Also averted with Dr. McNinja's own clones from college; they seem to consider themselves one person with multiple bodies and are happy to merge with him once their tasks are complete.
 * On the other hand, clones show brief signs of individuality before they get slaughtered. But again, they were made with inferior cloning technology which is why they were both less clever than the doctor   as well as Made of Plasticine
 * Code Name: The McNinja family. Dan and Mitzi have since gone back to their original names; Sean's is "Dark Smoke Puncher."
 * Comes Great Insanity: According to the doctor, one side effect of possessing  is insanity due to lack of oxygen.
 * Computer Equals Monitor: Spoofed here.
 * Conservation of Ninjutsu: A law of nature in the arc "An Army Of One"
 * It was also referenced years earlier in a throwaway gag involving ninja zombies, but nonetheless established as a real force in the McNinja universe.
 * Continuity Creep: Issues One Half, One, and Two are one-shot stories, and other than a throwaway line in Issue Two they certainly don't make any less sense if one doesn't read the previous issues. Issue Three makes brief mention of Issue Two, but then near the end of the storyline has a plot point that makes absolutely no sense without having read Issue One Half. With Issue Four, a more-or-less continuous storyline starts, and from that point on it's written with the assumption that the reader has read previous issues.
 * Continuity Nod: At one point in "So What Is A McNinja?" Doctor McNinja attacks a crew of pirates in the dark and (presumably) cuts off their faces. In "D.A.R.E To Resist Ninja Drugs and Ninja Violence" he encounters pirates with peg faces, noting they must have been among the ones he fought.
 * And of course, we can't forget this strip. Particularly, the alt text, which lists a specific other strip. Which one? Naturally, the one where he CALLED the exact method of death he'd deliver to the Big Bad.
 * Cool but Stupid: The Alt Text for this strip (in which Doc focuses his energy to fight ghosts by humming the Ghostbusters theme) reads, "Very stupid ideas taken very seriously. Dr. McNinja."
 * Cool Pet: Yoshi the velociraptor.
 * Cool vs. Awesome: Oh my yes. When your protagonist is as cool as Doc, your antagonists have to be pretty good to keep pace.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Donald McBonald.
 * Cosmic Horror Story: "We pray they ignore us, and we try our best not to attract their attention."
 * Crazy Prepared: Mayor Chuck Goodrich, who set up a zombie defense system in his town.
 * Subverted in that and
 * Dr. McNinja has his barber on speed-dial for no other reason except that life is craaaazy. (He's not wrong.) The good doctor also has a bullet-proof clipboard.
 * Crossover: With Axe Cop, a webcomic that matches this series in awesomeness.
 * Cure for Cancer: Dracula discovered it and hid it on Mars.
 * Curse Cut Short: They're visually bleeped out now, but this happened early on whenever Dr. McNinja said "motherf--" HE SAID A BAD WORD!
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy: Frans Rayner
 * Before that, there is the helicopter pilot in the D.A.R.E. arc, who wisely advised one ninja not to fire a rocket launcher at Dr. McNinja, because he would dodge it.
 * Dark Action Girl: Hortense.
 * Dark Age of Supernames: Parodied: Sean's ninja name is "Dark Smoke Puncher", and Doc mocks him for it at one point.
 * Darker and Edgier: Though not a complete, or even major, departure from the goofy setting and previous stories, ever since Doc Gets Rad the storyline has gotten considerably darker, with no overt victories and several significant defeats that would be played for tragedy anywhere else.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Dr. McNinja is an interesting example. He's clearly good and heroic, despite being a ninja, but has also committed some decidedly antiheroic, if not downright evil acts. The Doc and his Nakama are certainly more willing to kill than most super heroes.
 * It's attributable to Early Installment Weirdness, but in the first story he killed a security guard in cold blood (for no good reason).
 * Dead Person Impersonation: In the AWOL MD arc, there are two..
 * Deadly Doctor: McNinja himself.
 * Dr. McLuchadore is a more villainous example. Though he means well, his patients tend to end up worse off from his treatments, either due to toxic medicine or "unconventional" wrestling-based methods of applying it.
 * Death by Origin Story: Gordito's father
 * Death in All Directions: In the tennis temple. the Alt Text snarks "clearly he dies on the next page".
 * Death Is Cheap, but not necessarily easy. Lampshaded in the comic itself, where it complains about resurrections making death meaningless.
 * Depraved Dwarf: Dr. Knickerbockers.
 * Determinator: Gordito, who grew his mustache out of sheer willpower. Later subverted when it's revealed that he grew it out of panic, and uses it to hide his insecurities under a badass facade. He finally ends up Becoming the Mask, however.
 * The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: If a My Space page is mentioned in the comic, it will not only exist but have been created well in advance.
 * Did Not Do the Research: In "Judy Gets A Kitten", Chris notes in the Alt Text that he doesn't even know if kittens even prop themselves up against the side of the cage as their shown, and he drew it as if it were a dog.
 * Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Doc laying down the law on a Nasaghast.
 * And, well, the chapter is called 'Punch Dracula...
 * Dirty Business
 * Dodge the Bullet: Played straight by the Doctor; subverted by Beeman.
 * The Dog Was the Mastermind: Occurs in the story
 * Don't Sneak Up On Me Like That: Gordito is reluctant to wake up Dr McNinja for this very reason. The good doctor's parents apparently ingrained it into him by attacking him in his sleep, because... well... he's a McNinja.
 * Dracula: The entirety of "Punch Dracula".
 * Don't Try This At Home: "Please do not pour beer on your wounds and tell your legal guardian that I was the one who suggested it."
 * Dressed to Heal: The Doctor always wears a lab coat and stethoscope, in addition to the ninja mask and katana.
 * Drives Like Crazy: Doc, to the point of reducing his younger brother to tears
 * Droste Image:
 * Dynamic Entry: King Radical does this with a dirt bike.
 * Enemy Mime: Donald McBonald, even though he's a clown and not a mime. He even
 * Epic Hail: "Ha ha! We just sent a distress signal....to
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Hank the pilot.
 * Every Car Is Rear Wheel Drive: Dr. McNinja's Honda Accord in this strip almost qualifies, but in gravel a front wheel drive car can drift.
 * Every Japanese Sword Is a Katana: Averted. Doc's sword is clearly a ninja-to.
 * Everything Fades: Starting about here, the bodies of McNinja's many clones gradually disappear.
 * Justified; in "Dr. McNinja's Final Thoughts" for that issue, Doc even points out that those particular clones were created using inferior, outdated technology, and were so unbelievably shitty that they literally melted after they died. Then he plays a video showing how they were going to start literally falling to pieces at any minute anyway.
 * Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: It really is.
 * As of Space Savers and Futures Trading, not so much. (Awesome, yes, but not better.)
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Judy, the Gorilla Receptionist.
 * Cute Kitten combined with the above is what we can expect from the aptly named story arc, "Judy Gets a Kitten"
 * Evil Overlord:
 * Exact Words:
 * Cute Kitten combined with the above is what we can expect from the aptly named story arc, "Judy Gets a Kitten"
 * Evil Overlord:
 * Exact Words:

[...]

Dr McNinja's Message: Dracula, please fire your moon laser at this precise location."

"Dan McNinja: Gorillas are cowards! Nowadays you're not allowed to say it, but it's true!"
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: His family name is McNinja. He's a doctor. These are his adventures. Any other questions?
 * Issue #8: "Punch Dracula".
 * Expansion Pack Past: Maybe. Maybe not.
 * Exploding Barrels
 * Explosion Propulsion
 * Eyepatch of Power: . Lampshaded in the Alt Text:
 * after its run-in with Yoshi.
 * Eye Scream: Inverted. TWICE
 * Played straight here
 * Eye Take
 * Fake Defector:
 * Fan Boy: The one copilot astronaut to Chuck Goodrich. It doesn't end well.
 * Fan Service: the good Doctor himself, here... and much appreciated, by the way.
 * The cover of the fourth book has the doctor posing on his motorcycle with his shirt unbuttoned, showing off a patch of his chest hair.
 * Fantastic Racism: Dan seems to have some prejudices against gorillas.

"Dr. McNinja: I shall. Name you. Yoshi."
 * Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Zombies, ghost wizards, vampires, resurrected Ben Franklin and Hitler, drugs that confer ninja skills, Headless Horsemen, superheroes, a disease that turns you into Paul Bunyan, and cloned dinosaurs, thieving lobsters and a mafia led by a radical dirtbiker (...and a world-ending Mayan tennis machine. Seriously.)
 * Of note: the radical dirtbiking mafia leader looks suspiciously like The Burger King, though Word of God states that the inspiration of King Radical was actually King Boo on a Dirtbike.
 * A perfect example in Futures Trading:
 * Fascinating Eyebrow: One of Doc's many graduate degrees must be in this. Gordito is a quick study.
 * Flat What: Used more than a few times, practically being a Running Gag. One instance is so flat it even lacks punctuation.
 * Another with no punctuation, found here. Though, considering that  this is justifiable.
 * Yet a third with no punctuation. Though it's a bit understandable, since Doc looks up just in time to see what appears to be a coming straight down at him from a clear sky.
 * Even King Radical utters it upon seeing the return of the McNinja Burger. Justified in that
 * Fluffy the Terrible: What is the identity of the strange motorcycle that appears to brainwash the people riding it, and manipulated the Doc into and ? A unicorn. Named Sparklelord. Also...

"Benjamin Franklin: But the excitement does get to you! I suppose this lifestyle isn't so bad.
 * Footnote Fever: The dinosaur-riding banditos speak English with a sprinkling of Spanish, which is always translated in footnotes. Even when the meaning is clear. Even when the word appears multiple times in the same panel.
 * The editor helpfully explains the meaning of "policía" four times.
 * Foreshadowing: "And sometimes, they wore tank tops."
 * Doc seeing while chasing after King Rad through the caves.
 * Related to the above, Doc is But then he "jumps too far ahead," to
 * Forgets to Eat: The titular Doctor. Low blood sugar makes him cranky, too.
 * Freudian Excuse: Parodied in "Monster Mart" where not only is stupidity of an alternate form used as an excuse but gets instant forgiveness granted once told.
 * Future Badass: Dark Smoke Puncher. And Gordito. And.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Dark Smoke Puncher.
 * Gainax Ending: The Space Savers arc ends with
 * Gallows Humor: How do the creators celebrate an anniversary in their comic? By having something bad happen to the Doctor (year 1: ; year 3:
 * Gambit Pileup: Let's see, we have the Doctor himself, King Radical, and Sparklelord. Dracula, of course. Victor the plumber, who is most definitely not the tiniest spy in the world. Rayner, who can't seem to stay dead. And whatever Chuck Goodrich is planning.
 * Genius Cripple: The father of Dr McNinja's college friend Martin is a scientific genius confined to a wheelchair. Who also bears a fairly good resemblance to Stephen Hawking. His name? Professor Birding.
 * Genre Savvy: The Doctor himself.
 * Gordito also shows his savviness as early as the D.A.R.E arc, and doubles as Tempting Fate on Franklin's part.

Gordito: Ah, don't! Dude, in "this lifestyle" if you say something like that it's pretty much like pushing a "make the situation worse button". It's the opposite of what they have at the office supply store. [A helicopter appears] See? That's Schrodinger's helicopter right there.

Benjamin Franklin: Well it can only be more ninjas and we've had no problem with those so far.

Gordito: Oh please keep talking."

"Benjamin Franklin: I need to see the Doctor immediately.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: This exchange between Doc's former mentor and his gorilla receptionist

Judy: [signing] He's seeing patients. You're going to have to wait.

Benjamin Franklin: Judy, I am being stalked by a horse. A spooky horse.

Judy: Oh, just one second! I'll get the Physician's Desk Reference! I'm sure "spooky horse" is covered in there! Hm. Doesn't look like it. But this is the 2006 PDR. Maybe it's in the 2007.

Benjamin Franklin: Why don't you look up "witch gorilla"?

Judy: Nothing. Sorry.

Benjamin Franklin: It might be spelled with a 'B'."

"Frans Rayner: Hey, Dan, come on. You are just the baby school, and I am the Big League Chew. Why do you try?
 * "Get Out of Jail Free" Card: BASE!
 * To elaborate, because he so often helps the police, the mayor made a deal with Doc that he could get away with any of the laws he broke while doing his Batman ninja thing if he got to his office before the police did and said "Base!"
 * Girls with Moustaches: A prank by King Radical results in a bunch of kids, girls included, ending up with bushy beards.
 * Good Is Not Nice: Doc... sometimes.
 * Gory Discretion Shot: This page, as explained in the Alt Text.
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: "Damn," "ass," and "hell" are about as bad as the profanity gets. Anything stronger is visually bleeped out or amusingly censored (i.e. "You have got to be [flarking] [pooping] me.")
 * Additionally, the Doctor's standard expression of surprise or dismay is the exceedingly mild "Oh my goodness."
 * Gratuitous English: The Great Dane himself, Frans Rayner, especially in the older days.

Dan McNinja: Frans, I can't wait to see how much worse your horrible English will be once your skull is concave. It'll be hilarious."

"Do you think I run around with a twelve year old boy just because I like his inferior grasp of girls and higher level math? Do you think I left him with my psychotic parents because I wanted him to die? No, you undead pale ponce! Gordito is the effing badass kid. So go ahead and finish up your masterful scheme to make me let you kill me, because Gordito's going to slap around whatever ghost lackey you have like he was a pinata on the Mexican day of the dead.""
 * Gratuitous Spanish: Parodied with the paleontologist banditos.
 * Grievous Harm with a Body: Dan's fatherly advice covers this subject with regard to alligators.
 * Also, rips an arm off  and uses it to bludgeon
 * Groin Attack: "Hahahahah. He kicked you in your genitals. Ninjas have no honor."
 * Grumpy Old Man: Dan.
 * Gun Kata: Gordito is seen practicing these outside the office here.
 * The Gunslinger: Gordito.
 * The Grim Reaper: In Doc's world, Death is a skeletal maitre d' with a tidy little moustache.
 * Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal:
 * Hand Wave: "Ninja tricks" is the explanation given for how the ninja characters can eat, shower, and brush their teeth without revealing their faces, as Dan McNinja demonstrates by eating a bagel without removing his mask. (He still has to cut a hole in front to reveal his mustache, however.)
 * If you had a mustache like that, wouldn't you?
 * Hard Head: Usually played straight. Averted in one instance when Doc gets a concussion and has a hallucinatory (if helpful) conversation with a roast turkey.
 * Has Two Thumbs And: The Abs Man
 * Haunted Headquarters: NASA headquarters is inhabited by THE NASAGHASTS, which attack anyone who dares to harm astronauts within the building.
 * Head Desk: At least once
 * Headless Horseman: Dracula, from his moon base, hatches a plot to turn the clone of Benjamin Franklin into a headless horseman in order to find out more about the afterlife. The headless horseman was chosen because it retains its physical form. Turns out they can also travel through space.
 * Heel Realization: "Sound familiar, Dr. McHelicopterexploder?"
 * Hero Antagonist:
 * Heroic Dolphin: The story Death Volley has the implication of dolphins getting revenge on Agent Bearclaw. His story: "One time I swam out to sea, and pretended to be injured so that dolphins would swim up to rescue me. I did this so that I could kill them with my bare hands."
 * Hero Insurance: "Base!"
 * In three easy steps.
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Bearclaw, an NSA agent who makes a hobby out of slaughtering animals with his bare hands.
 * Hired Guns: In "Death Volley", the doctor is constantly harassed by a gun-toting masked assassin. It turns out the client is
 * Hot Shounen Mom: Mitzi... probably.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Judy, the gorilla receptionist.
 * And Gordito:

"Axe Cop: If bad guys steal this book [that forces you to be on their team]... I'll chop your head off. After I kill all the bad guys you can heal yourself with your doctor power.
 * The Mummy that accompanies Archibald King of the Hoboes, which grants him immortality and protects him from assassination attempts.
 * Hypothetical Casting: In this interview, creator Chris Hastings said that his casting choices for a Dr. McNinja movie would be Sam Rockwell or Will Arnett as the Doc, Sam Elliot or Hulk Hogan as Dan McNinja, and Anjelica Huston as Mitzi McNinja. The villains would include Williem Dafoe as Donald McBonald, Jean Claude Van Damme as Frans Rayner, Phil Fondacaro as Knickerbockers, and Bela Lugosi as Dracula, "The Crow style."
 * I Am One of Those, Too: Subverted -- Sean calls Gordito out on his inner geekiness, only to backpedal rapidly as he realizes he has just revealed his own.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills: Where do you think Gordito got it from?
 * Doc too. He hit a pirate on a ship from a plane in motion, despite not having any way to see his target. Especially impressive, given what his payload was.
 * Improvised Weapon: The razor-sharp frozen shamrocks used by the Irish proto-ninjas.
 * I Know Mortal Kombat: Doc claims to have trained his skills with Batman. In reality, though, he's just learned from reading his comic books and watching his movies.
 * I Know Your True Name: Doc never tells anyone his real name because of "the wizard."
 * I Love Nuclear Power: A Running Gag in the Space Savers arc involves (who knows what KINDS of) crazy space radiation causing weird things to happen.
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Lampshaded.
 * In a Single Bound: Taken to the ultimate extreme -- with enough skill one can apparently jump from the Earth to the Moon, or vice versa.
 * Incredibly Lame Visual Pun: Jefferson Airplane.
 * Also here
 * Also, Dr. Birding.
 * I Need a Freaking Drink, with Drowning My Sorrows: Jose Cuervo: 1; Dr. McNinja: 0.
 * Incendiary Exponent: Ninjas can't catch you if you're on fire.
 * In the Monster Mart story, Marty tries to threaten some thugs, it doesn't work, he piles up some barrels of flammable liquid behind him, smashes them and tries again, framed by the firey explosion. It works.
 * Ineffectual Loner: Doc manages to turn  from a One-Man Army to one of these by invoking 80's buddy martial-arts movie rules.
 * Inexplicably Awesome: Normally, diplomacy is awesome but not quite this effective.
 * Inn Between the Worlds: Purgatory is a restaurant. With really, really  slow service.
 * Inner Monologue: Often. Doc has been known to argue with his inner voice.
 * (And lose.)
 * You hush.
 * (No.)
 * Insane Troll Logic: The Axe Cop crossover proves that, yes, there are some things too crazy to make sense even in this comic.

McNinja: Just... Just protect the book, okay?"

"Captain O'Shay: For each one of my men ye touch, I will kill five members of yer family.

(Dr. McNinja glances at the three other members of his family, tied up and on the edge of the plank)

Dr. McNinja: ...that math does not work out at all."

"Newspaper: It is Oct 4th, 1979! That's it. Nothing is going on. Slow day. No one even died."
 * BAD MATH PROVES A POINT!
 * The point that you're a total dumbass, Captain O'Shay.
 * In Spite of a Nail:
 * Instant Chucks: Chainsaw nunchucks
 * Intelligible Unintelligible: Subverted with Judy. Her sign language is translated for the reader, and Ben Franklin II understands it, but Doc doesn't know sign language.
 * Inventional Wisdom: "You just cut the elevator?! What are you doing?!" "Why is there even a button for that?"
 * Ironic Echo: Lampshaded by Frans.
 * It's Been Done: "This sounds a lot like Lost."
 * It's Personal: Here.
 * Jaw Breaker: Doc does it to a zombie. Since it was undead, it doesn't really kill the thing, but it does prevent it from biting him.
 * Jigsaw Puzzle Plot: Many later chapters have an increasing amount of call backs to previous weird events, proving they were actually perfectly logical. Quite unexpected, since there is so much weirdness going on, we didn't really think about it.
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind: When attacked by the final, Doc is pulled into his own mind and forced to confront the creature there.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The Doctor himself, in Let's Get Rad, due to.
 * Jump Scare: When I say "Happy" you say "Birthday!" HAPPY!
 * Just One Man: A plot point in One Man Army.
 * Kansas City Shuffle:
 * Karmic Death: Agent Bearclaw, who finds himself alone at sea surrounded by dolphins here.
 * Parodied with the anonymous pilot of Bearclaw's airplane.
 * Kill Sat: Dracula's moon laser.
 * Klingon Promotion: Frans Rayner plans on becoming President this way. (He Did Not Do the Research.)
 * Kryptonite Factor: The Doctor's special anti-ninja drug, which he created to stop Frans Rayner and his personal army of "drug ninjas". After getting a lot of flack for hoarding the drug, he defended his actions by stating that he had "created his own Kryptonite" and therefore wasn't going to let it out of his control.
 * Lampshade Hanging: And what wonderful lampshading it is! It's everywhere, even in the Alt Text. At one point, McNinja's Genre Savvy self can't lampshade a plot because he's laughing too hard at the inanity of it all.
 * Latex Perfection: Sean's "technomage" getup is pretty convincing. Dan's pirate costume successfully fooled a whole bar full of pirates. Though, the masks are typically only convincing when portraying weathered, wrinkly faces with obscuring facial hair.
 * Law of Inverse Recoil: Subverted. When Gordito, who is physically less than five feet tall, and weighs maybe a hundred pounds, fires a shotgun, the recoil might reasonably be expected to knock him over. Instead, it propels him in an arc over the desk behind him and into a chair with enough force to topple it. Played straight with Doc a page or two later.
 * Lethal Chef: Mitzi's pickled beets are apparently just this side of edible, even when they're not poisoned.
 * Let's Get Dangerous, with Badass Boast: A rare instance where the hero says it on behalf of his sidekick. And it's awesome.
 * Light Is Not Good:
 * Like You Would Really Do It: Lampshaded by the Alt Text on this page. And then on this one too, for good measure.
 * Load-Bearing Boss: Inverted: losing to the giant robot causes everything to fall apart.
 * Loan Shark: Lampshaded and mocked.
 * Love Bubbles: When the Ultimate Diplomat pays you a compliment, you know you've been complimented.
 * Made of Explodium: Averted, Doc actually settles for "two of three" since nothing will explode if he throws the Big Bad off a cliff onto sharp rocks. He's satisfied with the end result.
 * Played straight with the multicar pileup blocking the road into town, and with many a barrel.
 * Made of Plasticine: The clones of Old McNinja, as they were made with low-quality cloning technology.
 * The Mafia: Led by KING RADICAL.
 * Macross Missile Massacre: In a storm. A nasty storm. With pterodactyls. Seriously.
 * Magic Music: For Doc, the Ghostbusters theme (see Musical Assassin).
 * Magic Pants: Averted in the "Monster Mart" arc, causing Doc to feel a crippling sense of physical inferiority. Inverted with Paul Bunyan's Disease, which actually makes clothes grow on the afflicted when they transform.
 * Man On Fire: Dr McLuchador sets the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services on fire, sends him off a skateboard trick ramp and into a tub of murky liquid..
 * A Man Is Not a Virgin:  Averted? Subverted? Who knows.
 * May be the only reason Hortense was introduced.
 * Manipulative Bastard:
 * Masked Luchador: Dr. McLuchador.
 * Mayincatec: The Inocktec in "Death Volley": an ancient, generically-South-American people who invented the game of tennis and whose "tennis temple" houses a device (supposedly) capable of destroying the entire world.
 * McNinja: Trope Namer.
 * Meat-O-Vision: Implied here ("What Ben sees is a man with dreadlocks made of fried chicken legs.")
 * Mecha-Mooks: The Inocktec temple guards.
 * Me's a Crowd:
 * The Messiah: Edwin Tyranoman, the Ultimate Diplomat fills this role in the "Futures Trading" arc.
 * Metaphorgotten: At the beginning here.
 * Meteor Move: Through at least two decks.
 * Mighty Lumberjack: Lumberjacking makes people susceptible to Paul Bunyan's Disease, which causes those it affects to turn into a giant lumberjack who is "enraged at how many trees still stand within his vicinity."
 * Mind Control Eyes
 * Misapplied Phlebotinum: Happens a fair bit:
 * Played for laughs on this page: "James! The leader of our group. He invented jet boots, and he used them to kick people."
 * And then there's Martin, who is basically The Hulk, who uses his ability to advertise his chain of super-markets..
 * But easily topping them both: Using a Time Portal for garbage disposal. And a septic tank, somehow.
 * Mistaken for Terrorist: Doc on a plane. It's an honest mistake.
 * Moody Mount: Yoshi the raptor won't let anyone but Gordito ride him. Unless Gordito is in danger.
 * Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate: Even though doctors are sworn to take no life, there's no shortage of grisly deaths at the hands of the titular character.
 * Mundane Afterlife: Purgatory is a restaurant. With really bad service. The worst. The existence of Heaven and Hell is implied, however.
 * Mundane Utility: According to the Alt Text from this page: "Everything in the McNinja household has hidden displays for security alerts. They are also wired to the microwave, so they know when pizza bagels are done."
 * Musical Assassin: Doc becomes one when he runs out of holy weapons to use against the third . Inspired by a memory of his dad, he proceeds to spend four pages doing nothing except humming the theme from Ghostbusters. It begins with him tentatively humming it, but culminates with him screaming the finale as he does this and then this.
 * My Horse Is a Motorbike: Or rather My Motorbike Is A  .
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Agent Bearclaw. Ninja names apparently take this route if Dark Smoke Puncher is anything to go by. Mitzi and Dan just use their real names.
 * Nerd in Evil's Helmet: Dark Smoke Puncher.
 * Newspaper Dating: Parodied.

"Dr McNinja: NO! It can't be! I was pretty sure you were dead!"
 * Never Found the Body: Uh oh.

"Dan: Who would call us on Katanaka?
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mitzi accuses Gordito of this when he knocks out a possessed Dark Smoke Puncher rather than shooting him, ostensibly making her kill him instead. Gordito takes a third option, however.
 * Nightmare Fuel: An in-universe Real Life Writes the Plot example in Dr. Knickerbockers, the crazy smiling, evil laughing midget doctor. Apparently a similar being haunts Kent Archer's nightmares, making it grievously difficult for him to ink pages in which Knickerbockers appears.
 * Naturally, the Alt Text takes a dig at this: "Kent took a really long time to ink the last panel. He kept getting tears and vomit all over the page."
 * Also, the opening pages of chapter 17. "From now on this comic is going to be 100% Chris Hastings Nightmare Diaries."
 * And don't forget: When I say "HAPPY" you say "BIRTHDAY"!
 * Early cloning experiments.
 * NASA's security system.
 * Ninja, including:
 * Conservation of Ninjitsu: Lampshaded here. Also played straight when
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: Rayner's mooks.
 * Averted with Old McNinja, who is very competent at staying hidden.
 * McNinja: The Trope Namer!
 * NGO Superpower: King Radical appears to have his own private army.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Too many instances to name.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot Monkey Clown BANDITO WEREWOLVES! Well, not in that order.
 * Also, robot commando temple guards.
 * No Sell: Catholic School nuns learned long ago to resist mustaches of authority.
 * Noodle Incident:

Mitzy: Your father's still dead, right?

Dan: Well, we'll never be sure, but I don't think he'd just call."

"Sean: Yeah, this is a prototype. It's designed to set off a contained chemical reaction so that whatever it's blowing up immediately converts to harmless fiber. It's a way to limit collateral damage...dawg."
 * No Name Given: Lampshaded with "Now I know you've never been to my office, so you've never seen the degree that hangs by my desk. So I will let you know -- it's made out to Dr. McNinja, not Judas McNinja."
 * Later handwaved when
 * No One Could Survive That:.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Dark Smoke Puncher, who tries to hide his Gadgeteer Genius tendencies and general geekery behind a facade of bad slang and acting cool.
 * Off-Model: "So long, pirate ship I drew slightly differently in every panel."
 * Offscreen Teleportation: pulled by Mitzi on Gordito with a Stealth Hi Bye here
 * Oh Crap: "Rayner, party of one, your table is ready."
 * King Radical provides a priceless example here.
 * Happens three times in a row: Once with a space dinosaur and twice more with Doc and Chuck.
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In a particularly strange way, too. Sean/Dark Smoke Puncher uses a lot of slang to try and conceal from his parents that he's a nerd. Occasionally, he'll forget it, or in the case of this strip, he forgets, and tries to tack it on at the end.

"Dan McNinja: OH YOU SONS OF SEA COWS WILL WISH YOU HAD NEVER BEEN BORN WITH LIMBS ON YOUR BODIES! BECAUSE I'M GOING TO COME ONTO THAT SHIP AND SHOW YOU HOW MANY DELICIOUS STOCKS AND BRAISES I CAN MAKE WITH THEM!"
 * Old Shame: Issue One Half. It's on the site, even listed in the archives, but the reader is begged not to actually read it first.
 * Omnidisciplinary Scientist: The Doctor and Ben Franklin II.
 * Only a Flesh Wound: Usually played straight, but averted at a critical moment.
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Sebastien's coven of languid, gothy vampires; Dracula's very evident strength, intelligence, and resourcefulness
 * Overly Long Gag: Almost - Chris Hastings originally planned to do an entire week of Dr. McNinja falling down stairs. Instead, it became just one strip. Of course, who knows if he was telling the truth?
 * Played with again in the Alt Text to this strip: six more pages of bodies getting disintegrated and mashed together!
 * Eventually Played Straight with the second panel of the "Judy Gets a Kitten" story arc, in which the good doctor is still going on about what to get at the supermarket from before.
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: "WHCRUNCH".
 * Papa Wolf: Dan

"Dan: Ha. Alright kids, not bad. Not bad. How about a drink in honor of all your beginners luck? Here. I'll pour you a Molson. It's got a higher alcohol content than most American beers. And maybe that will help sterilize all those cuts on your face.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Gordito has been donning a couple lately.
 * Also here. Keep in mind that our protagonist is already a doctor and is already dressed in full medical garb, so his disguise consists of a nametag. It is apparantly not the first time he's done this. To that particular doctor either.
 * Lampshaded here. believe Doc was trying to fool them by  This just annoys them further.
 * Parental Abandonment: Gordito's parents are dead.
 * Pick a Card: The Great Flying Shooting Juan.
 * Pirate
 * A Pirate 400 Years Too Late
 * Planet Eris
 * Police Are Useless: "It's the mayor's job to deal with weird stuff. Look it up."
 * "There is a reason you so rarely see the police in the pages of this comic."
 * Poor Communication Kills: Responsible for every major problem in both "Space Savers" and "Futures Trading."
 * Post Dramatic Stress Disorder: After jumping from the moon, once the adrenaline is out of his system, Doc just collapses. "Ohgodmylegs"
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: "We are on Eastern Pain Time, and it is Dan O'clock."
 * Preemptive Declaration: At the beginning of D.A.R.E To Resist Ninja Drugs And Ninja Violence:

Punk: Uh, what cuts, my man?


 * SMASH*

Dan: I have no idea."

"Dr McNinja: Judy!
 * Pre-Mortem One-Liner
 * Gordito has a little trouble executing his properly. He's getting better, though.
 * "I spy with my little eye... a ninja who's about to die." Subverted on the next page, of course.
 * "I AIN'T AFRAID OF NO GHOSTS!"
 * President Evil: The President of the future.
 * Product Placement: In this strip as an April Fool's Day gag. The page was edited back to normal on April 2. For those who missed it, Dr. McNinja was wearing a red t-shirt of himself instead of his labcoat.
 * Pseudo Crisis: Played for laughs. In this comic, the Doc is shown being caught by a cop, which would derail his mission. The next comic reminds you "HE IS A NINJA." and skips entirely over how he dealt with the cop.
 * Punch-Punch-Punch Uh-Oh: Not so much "punch" as "sword swing", as when Doc desperately swings at the final Nasaghast's head but is horrorstruck when his sword simply passes through it without doing any damage.
 * Punny Name: Gordito Delgado. Translated from spanish it roughly means "Slim Fatty".
 * Pyrrhic Victory: "Doc Gets Rad".
 * Quip to Black: The Doctor pulls this off when he gets the opportunity to try out his new bike.

Judy: Ugh. * tosses sword and motorcycle helmet to Doc*

Dr McNinja: * catches and puts on the sword and helmet* Let's practice.

Alt Text: Then Horatio jumps out of the bushes and puts on his sunglasses."

""The babies hate the steaks.""
 * Reality Ensues:
 * Beeman, a Batman wannabe, faces several bank robbers with guns. They open fire on him, he gracefully flips through the air....and then flops across the floor, riddled with bullets.
 * The only ones who can defeat a powerful, self-resurrecting demon are those of the Belstein family's "pure" bloodline. So, to keep the bloodline pure, they engaged in inbreeding, resulting in the last of the Belstein line being a crippled invalid.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: After a time-traveller from a dystopian future sits down with Cyberdyson to explain how their robotic vacuum cleaners eventually become sentient and take over the world, Cyberdyson makes sure the culprit chip is never put into production.
 * Rebus Panel: Gorilla + Bazooka > Ninja
 * Reckless Sidekick: Gordito at times.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning:  robot eye.
 * Redshirt Army: The future rebels are not terribly bright. Lampshaded in the Alt Text, where they're referred to as "La revolution incompetente."
 * Refuge in Audacity: Especially when Sebastien describes his favourite meal.

"T-Rex: I GOT OPINIONS."
 * Subverted two pages later, when the vampires are shown eating baked ziti. Innocent baked ziti.
 * Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Played abnormally straight in this strip.
 * Retcon: On January 30 2012, the return of the McNinja burger in-comic, Hastings went and changed all "McDonald's" references to "McBonalds" so that he wouldn't have any legal issues printing the book later, including a modified logo and renaming Ronald McDonald to Donald McBonald. The protest signs on this page only had strokes added over the D's to change them to B's, rather than the letters being redrawn.
 * Rise From Your Grave
 * The Rival: Doctor McLuchadore is this to Dr. McNinja. Apparently the former's tendency to treat his patients via insane wrestling moves got on the latter's nerves and the ninja-doctor ran the wrestler-doctor out.
 * Robot Me: Here
 * Robotic Reveal: Played straight with, inverted with
 * Rocket Ride: This page
 * Rule of Cool and
 * Rule of Funny: Together with Refuge in Audacity, these rules cover everything that happens. Everything. There's considerable overlap, such as blocking a sword swing from Dracula with a stethoscope. In the words of the creator, "Dr. McNinja lives in a world that operates like a Mortal Kombat stage."
 * Running Gag:
 * Charles "Chuck" Goodrich: * Insert title here* 
 * It's Dr. McNinja's birthday? He's going to die. Spectacularly.
 * Scenery Censor: "The pants aren't stretchy."
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here: While fighting Paul Bunyan, the cops see Yoshi. They draw the line at dinosaurs.
 * Screw Yourself: Dan suspects it of the Doc and his clone. "It's what any of us would do!"
 * Sdrawkcab Name: Lampshaded. It's pretty easy for the Doctor to figure out who "Mr. Alucard" is. It's not as obvious for Benjamin Franklin II, which brings us to an arc that was almost 2 years long. Doc's reaction says it all.
 * Send in the Clones: plan once he learns about Old McNinja.
 * Serious Business: Tennis, and with damn good reason.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The good Doctor. "Pirate, you have got some straight up testicular elephantitis, comin' in here, and sittin' next to a ninja." He's saying the pirate has major balls.
 * Shaggy Dog Story: The entire "Death Volley" arc appears to have been one. Or not?
 * Shirtless Scene: The Doc has one here.
 * Shooting Superman: "Hello? Ninja?"
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog:.
 * Shout-Out: Truckloads of them.
 * This page, rife with Legends Of The Hidden Temple references.
 * When the Doc was dead/not-dead, the subtext mentioned that the skeleton maitre'd wasn't Spanish, not wearing a black tux, and was not a travel agent, sorry.
 * In this page, look closely at the second panel, in other words . Phone booths....
 * "I do not kill with my gun. I kill with my heart. He who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father." It becomes a plot point when Dark Smoke Puncher uses it to figure out Gordito is exaggerating his bad-ass qualities.
 * At the bottom of this page, Frankenstein's Mongo.
 * The Weapon of Choice for each of the four McNinjas (at least during the Punch Dracula arc): a katana, two sais, a staff, and nunchuks. Sound familiar?
 * This strip contains a recruitment pamphlet for the Foot Clan. The Alt Text lampshades it as well.
 * The T-Rex in the last panel of this strip strikes a similar pose to the star of Dinosaur Comics, and his one line pretty much sums up the comic in question.

"Doctor McNinja:I shall... name you... Yoshi!"
 * And Word of God says that this timeline's version of T-Rex was the one who came up with
 * "It seems logical to mistake me for Dr. McNinja, as we are both doctors and he in fact does the exact same thing I do. McNinja and I even go to the same barber... although I have a slightly better haircut."
 * "This sounds a lot like Lost"
 * Dark Smoke Puncher has 99 problems.
 * Doc's plan to  is almost identical to a plan that Jamie Madrox (aka Multiple Man) pulled off in an issue of X Factor.
 * And the alt-text even mentions the similarities to a certain character from Harry Potter.
 * To Somewhere in Time in the Alt Text to this page.
 * And that comic itself is one to Back to The Future, Part 2.
 * The Nasaghasts take of the form of skeletons wearing space suits, similar to the Vashta Narada of Doctor Who.
 * His entrance into the series of tunnels under Cumberland using a dead Pterodactyl (or something) as a hang-glider pulled by a motorcycle has to be a shout-out to Yor, Hunter of the Future.
 * The pilot of Doc's plane in this comic's last words are a reference to Red vs. Blue.
 * Judy is a shout out to Koko, a cat-loving female gorilla capable of sign language.
 * "Did you know that you can get a loan from a bank? It turns out that's how they make money." Not anymore they don't! Ha ha, the economy! - Ed.
 * Doctor McNinja Finds a Raptor in his office! What does he do?

"Dr. McNinja: I'm really sorry, but it looks like the test confirmed it, and your cancer is back. But I do have some good news.
 * There is no Jenny... ONLY ZUUL!
 * Shown Their Work: The Alt Text usually confirms what they've studied in regards to things such as blood transfusions or submarine classes.
 * One hilarious example is a sequence involving decompression on an airplane, the dramatic "hole blown in the side" type. While the sequence is proceeding, the Alt Text goes on about how Hastings asked his dad (who had flown a similar plane) what would probably happen, but decided to go with Rule of Cool.
 * Maybe not always "studied", but hey, same diff.
 * Shrug of God: Hastings doesn't know how the Robster gets his suit over his claws.
 * Sidekick: Gordito.
 * Signature Laugh: Dr. Knickerbockers, the evil midget doctor: "Eeeheeeheheheheheh!".
 * Single-Stroke Battle: Subverted
 * Sky Pirates: Kidnapped the Doc. Thought they kidnapped the Doc.
 * Slow Clap: Dan McNinja thinks the first recorded Slow Clap was delivered by the ninja who witnessed the ancient McNinjas staving off a Pirate attack. Then the Alt Text informs us that this is incorrect: the first Slow Clap was Peter's reaction upon seeing Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.
 * The Slow Path: Taken by after his plan to sabotage the McNinja clones goes wrong.
 * Smoke Out: Played straight more often than not. Subverted once, when Doc deployed a smoke bomb as a startled response to encountering someone in public he was trying to avoid.
 * Soft Glass
 * Some of My Best Friends Are X: Parodied in the alt text here: Some of my best myselves are creepy lab clones.
 * Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying: Various dinosaurs appear on the scene. No attempt is made to make them faithful depictions of real dinosaur species. Alt Text reinforces MST3K Mantra to the fullest.
 * Sound Effect Bleep: In the middle of a July day, Doc looks up to see and manages to stammer out "What. The. *FUMP*".
 * Spanner in the Works: Old McNinja, for Rayner.
 * Both Chuck Goodrich and Alt!Chuck Goodrich's co-pilot in the latest arc.
 * Spoof Aesop: Remember, it's better for people to think you're a moron than to think you're a jerk.
 * Never forget the teachings of those whom you shoot in the face after they become zombies.
 * Stable Time Loop: Sparklelord's fate. Also an Ontological Paradox, because of the question of what happens to his mass.
 * Starfish Character: At death's door, Dr. McNinja's soul splits into a doctor and a ninja.
 * Stating the Simple Solution: The Doctor himself
 * Stealth Hi Bye: Utilized to great effect by the good doctor here.
 * Stealth Pun: Dr McNinja's clone who got a degree in agriculture and currently has a farm goes by "Old." As in "Old McNinja." (E-I-E-I-O.)
 * In chapter 16, Dan finds Judy in a gambling club called 'Le Brouillard', French for 'the Mist'. All its clientele are... uh...
 * Stepping Stones in the Sky: Dark Smoke Puncher does this with angel-winged flying sharks.
 * Strong as They Need to Be: The  seem to work under this. Two are dispatched in short order by the doctor, and the third taken by surprise and almost killed. Then it
 * Stuff Blowing Up: Cars, planes, ships, Mayincatec temples, trains, helicopters, airships, etc. The comic runs on this trope alongside Rule of Cool.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: Of the Soylent Green variety.
 * Switching to GEICO: Subverted

Patient: "Didja save a bunch of money on your car insurance, Doc?"

Dr. McNinja: ... "If any doctor were ever to say that they would lose their license immediately. Do you really think that's funny?"

Patient: "It's a funny commercial on TV!"

Dr. McNinja: "Is cancer funny to you? Is cancer funny to you?!"

Patient: "I'm sorry."

Dr. McNinja: "You should be.""

"Dr. McNinja: I wouldn't say necessarily that we fight crime so much as we..."
 * Tap on the Head: Includes both the 'neck chop' and Pistol-Whipping variants. Still, you know... ninja.
 * Take a Third Option: After running a poll to determine whether to shade the comic or only use line drawings, Hastings decided to hire another person on to the McNinja team to do the coloring.
 * In AWOL MD, Gordito has to figure out which teacher at school is actually a demon. Since the demon only showed up recently, he checks which teachers are new, and finds that there are only two new teachers; the Gym teacher and the English teacher. He ends up.
 * Take That: Jack Chick was right!
 * Also one to Paula Deen in Alt Text of this issue
 * Check the Alt Text here.
 * Taking You with Me:
 * Technical Pacifist: The Doctor takes his Hippocratic Oath seriously, most of the time.
 * And
 * They Fight Crime: Played with here:
 * They Fight Crime: Played with here:

"Mitzi: "That. Was. Pathetic."
 * This Is Gonna Suck
 * This Is Sparta:

Dr. McNinja: "Please. Don't. Stabmeintheeyeballs.""

"Dan McNinja: "Come on! Let's go bust some asses! What, are you too cool to bust ass with your old man?"
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works (again, Doctor. Ninja. Etc.)
 * Time Travel: Apparently there's evidence for it all over the place: Thomas Jefferson, Sparklelord, Chuck Goodrich, and King Radical have all used or been affected by it.
 * Toasted Buns: In one Bad Future, a man using a jetpack has horribly burnt legs from the experience. The lack of safety is justified: as he was given the jetpack and set loose by dinosaurs who were paying to hunt him for sport, one would assume jetpack safety to be the least of his worries.
 * Totally Radical: Most of Sean's "cool" slang. Also the joke behind this priceless exchange:

Dr McNinja: "Dad, that means farting."

Dan McNinja: "What, are you too cool to blast ass with your old man?"

Dr McNinja: "Diarrhea."

Dan McNinja: "Damnit I want us to go injure people!"

Dr McNinja: "That would be 'kick' ass.""

""That was... the most menacing promise of dine and dash I've ever seen.""
 * Let's not forget the patron saint King Radical.
 * Training From Hell: Doc's entire childhood and adolescence. Gordito gets a taste of it, complete with a Training Montage, when he visits the McNinja family
 * Traitor Shot: Lampshaded by "Victor the plumber" in this comic.
 * Trust Me, I'm A Doctor: "You know who" feels it is important every once in a while to remind people who are having discussions with him that he's a doctor, even while arguing with Death.
 * A Twinkle in the Sky
 * Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Dark Horse Comics asked who would win; Dr McNinja, or Saxton Hale? The winner is....
 * Unfinished Business: A pizza. Yes.
 * Unflinching Walk: Lampshaded brilliantly.
 * Unicorn:  Beautiful.
 * Universal Driver's License: Doc has operated everything from light aircraft to earthmoving equipment. Dan McNinja might have one too.
 * Unsound Effect: CREEPEDOUTENOUGHTOBEEASILYTHROWNFROMTHEBIKE.
 * Also CEASE AND DESISTED at the end of the first story.
 * Doc Gets Rad. gave us SICKNASTY! driving.
 * Also, WHCRUNCH. The alt text parodies this by claiming it wasn't actually a sound effect and Doc just painted it on the ground, where someone landed there, face first.
 * MAGIC!
 * YOINKAROO
 * THE SWEETEST DUNK
 * BANISHPOOF
 * Up to Eleven: The entire webcomic does this. Then throws it out the window. Then sets it on fire...
 * Viewers Are Goldfish: Parodied in the annotations from this page.
 * Villainous Breakdown: King Radical hides under a blanket when he learns the nature of the Doctor's new motorcycle.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: King Radical is starting to become one.
 * Virgin Power: Sparklelord was a unicorn disguised as a motorcycle(long story). It chose Doc to ride it and at the end of the arc, Gordito pointed out that unicorns usually only approach virgins. Doc tries to justify Sparkelord's choice in a way that implies that Doc is a virgin and doesn't want to admit it.
 * Wall of Text
 * Walking Shirtless Scene: The abs guy (Justified in that there are probably no shirts that can accommodate his Organic Jet Pack) and Mongo.
 * Warrior Therapist
 * We Can Rebuild Him:
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: The Doctor's motivation for most of his interactions with his family, until he gets fed up with them.
 * Wham! Line: Chuck Goodrich,  
 * What an Idiot!: Lampshaded in Army of One, in which both Conservation of Ninjutsu and Conservation of Competence work against the Doc for once.
 * What Could Have Been: The name and premise of the comic come from Chris Hastings' username on the Something Awful forums. Before he settled on Dr. McNinja, he was going to use the name "Dr. McNuggets." One can only imagine how that comic would've turned out.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: The Crater of Racial Tolerance.
 * In order to save the world, humanity's champion must
 * Also, awesomely firing a plumber.
 * The Alt Text makes this into a Running Gag by providing absurdly mundane explanations for characters acting in a dramatic manner. Example: "I need to get MY SLIPPERS."
 * Also, awesomely firing a plumber.
 * The Alt Text makes this into a Running Gag by providing absurdly mundane explanations for characters acting in a dramatic manner. Example: "I need to get MY SLIPPERS."

"Gordito: You blew up his helicopters. You blew up the train car. You knocked out a crowd of McDonald's customers. You wrecked a pharmaceutical lab. You cut the faces off several pirates. You stole a shipment of potato chips. You chloroformed me and left me on top of a mountain to fight a robot bear in the rain!"
 * What Measure Is a Mook?: Subverted and played for gallows humor: The Doctor thinks (almost) nothing of occasionally killing security guards and drug-enhanced ninja mooks, and he gets chewed out for this, big time.
 * And the church is probably cool with it, too!
 * This is a major plot point in the first arc, where the Doctor actually has nightmares of all the mooks he killed coming back as zombies to get him. When the zombies actually DO come, he truly believes they wanted to came back to life just to get revenge.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Doc has no moral conflicts about unleashing his awesome-fu on anything the Hippocratic Oath doesn't cover (robots, zombies, etc.)
 * Bearclaw is haunted to the point of paranoia by his previous treatment of dolphins when a group of them rescue him. It Got Worse.
 * What Measure Is a Non Unique: Subverted when Doc insists that they save his clone ("He's just as much your son as I am!")
 * What the Hell, Hero?: In addition to the above,. "You know you've been a pretty terrible doctor lately, right?"

"Dan McNinja: Boy, I didn't understand a word of what you said back there, and it made a man's head explode."
 * And when McNinja learns that a future disaster he's asked to prevent (hyper-intelligent dinosaurs take over the Earth) is not a scheme of King Radical, and thus in that future King Radical's plans have failed, he suggests he might not be interested in preventing it. Gordito subtly shows his disapproval.
 * And when Doc distracts his brother, who is in the process of fighting dinosaurs.
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?: has grown bored with life, so he's planning to effectively commit suicide soon. But first, he wants to know what awaits him in the afterlife.
 * Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Done when Dr McNinja is angry/scared/shocked. It's lampshaded by Alt Text.
 * A Wizard Did It: Anything completely illogical regarding the McNinjas can be filed under "ninja tricks" and of course Rule of Cool.
 * The Worf Effect: Bearclaw when fighting the robot temple guard
 * Worthy Opponent: KING RADICAL -- the only character capable of giving the protagonist a run for his money in the coolness department.
 * Would Hit a Girl:
 * Xanatos Roulette:
 * You Didn't Ask:
 * You Fight Like a Cow: Dr. McNinja: A properly executed pre-mortem one-liner is vital to our health.
 * You Have Failed Me: "I bet that I could catch the both of you if you were on fire."
 * You Have to Burn the Web: Zelda thwarts the doctor again!
 * Your Head Asplode: Happens to one of the steam-punkesque sky-pirates after being told that his sword is Awesome but Impractical, his Goggles Do Nothing and his Anachronism Stewed outfit bears Unfortunate Implications. Also, he dropped a sprocket and someone said Queen Victoria was stupid.


 * The author thanked a David Malki! of Wondermark in the Alt Text for helping him make fun of Steampunk.
 * Young Gun: Gordito.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Ninja Zombies, at that.
 * Zerg Rush: Almost works here.