FoxTrot/Characters

These are the main characters in the comic strip FoxTrot.

Roger Fox
The patriarch, whose activities include watching most sports, playing golf (or trying to and failing miserably), losing at chess to anyone who will play him, setting himself on fire while barbequeing, regularly reformatting the hard drive on the iFruit by accident, and obliviousness to his own incompetence, a trait he has passed onto his children. He works a white-collar job as a pencil-pushing dilbert for a Mean Boss.


 * Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When asking for his job back.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: In a few strips, Roger ends up ranting about the costs and finances regarding something (including starting a website and selling seasonal greeting cards), with him often insinuating that if he were there, he'd be making a fortune. Unfortunately, he often does this within earshot of Jason, who often uses Roger's rants as a means of starting a money-making scheme.
 * Big Eater: Lampshaded in one strip when Roger has Peter grab the end of one belt and pull it until he was apparently outside on the house on the road. Roger reveals to Andy that he bought an elasticized belt for Thanksgiving with excitement and Andy sarcastically saying "Oh, joy."
 * Bumbling Dad: An extreme example. Roger is almost literally Too Dumb to Live, and would have died several times if the comic were of a more realistic bent.
 * At least not in the early years, where he's actually more of a clueless dad and actually admits to not knowing some stuff and being terrible at it. (Such as, for example, not knowing how to use computers at all. Silly example nowadays, but back in even the late 80s, it's more realistic than you might think.)
 * Characterization Marches On: Not many people remember that Roger's first act in the comic was to beat Andy at chess. (He had actually done so several times before he was made to be possibly the worst player ever, with the not-too-subtle implication that the only people he even stands an actual chance at winning in internet chess are three year olds and preschoolers.)
 * He still comes close sometimes, but his wife is a sore loser who will often threaten him with sleeping on the couch if he wins.
 * Comically Small Bribe: Roger has no concept of an appropriate tip, instead tipping the paperboy with a nickel and then wondering why the paper always ends up on the roof or in the rosebushes.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Says this to Jason when he calls him "poor unemployed Dad", only for Jason to clarify that he means "poor" in finances.
 * Doom It Yourself: The inevitable result of his attempts at home improvement projects.
 * Epic Fail: Flooding the house with a dishwasher.
 * Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Trope Namer, inspired by Roger's novel-writing Story Arc "His Code Name Was the Fox," which portrayed him as a Marty Stu in a bad Tuxedo and Martini spy novel that he wrote.
 * Idiot Ball: Although Roger has done his stupid parts, the biggest stupid decision he ever made was when he tried to fix the furnace. Due to not quite remembering what the heating guy said, he turned the safety cut-off to the off position, which caused the gas to leak in a hissing manner, and after putting on furnace gloves, putting a lit match on a stick, and covered his face with his free hand while placing said lit match into the furnace. Things literally blew up in Roger's face, creating an explosion powerful enough to leave an outline of Roger Fox on the wall (although he survived), and shaking the foundation of the house.
 * Man-Made House Flood: See Epic Fail.
 * Must Have Caffeine: To the point that he has shuffled around the kitchen moaning like a zombie, and tried to drink the answering machine.
 * It was even the subject of an arc in the story, where Andy tries to have him go without coffee without a day thinking he is addicted to it. Predictably, it really just shows that Roger truly can't function without coffee (such as zoning out while Andy is trying to talk, not actually knowing that Jason is pouring elbow macaroni and vinegar instead of cereal and milk, tripping down the basement steps because he mistook the basement door for the front door, and going through a productive and successful work day...only to find around noon that he was in the wrong building.
 * Not Me This Time: In one arc, Andy blames Roger for messing up their computer with soda and a hair dryer. Despite Roger's protests that it wasn't even him who did it, he is punished for it. Turns out, it was Paige and Jason Fox who did it (albeit completely by accident).
 * One-Hour Work Week: Although many strips show him going to or leaving work, very few have shown him actually at work. Probably because all we know about his job is that it's really boring.
 * Ridiculous Procrastinator: Roger frequently waits until the last minute in regards to chores or taxes. He once even bragged to Peter about having completed his senior thesis in the night before it was due.
 * Talking in Bed: He and Andy do this frequently.
 * Took a Level In Dumbass: He started the strip as slightly clueless and harried, but neither stupid nor incompetent. Come the strip's second decade, he's pretty much a total moron.
 * Walking Techbane: Roger has proven completely incapable of operating a computer since the strip's first year. This is a man who once got completely wrapped up in dot-matrix printer paper; who crushed 3½ inch diskettes trying to put them in; who thought "backing up the computer" meant pushing it off the desk. He has deleted the entire hard drive of a computer in two clicks, while trying to open a word processor. He has destroyed various other forms of electronic equipment as well, and even managed to flood the house using the dishwasher.

Andrea "Andy" Fox
She writes columns for the local newspaper and is the only family member exempt from Ted Baxter syndrome. Originally, that was all the personality she had; later she became a Jerkass health-foods nut, leading to Lethal Chef tendencies, and grew prone to addictive behavior (such as getting hooked to Jason's First-Person Shooter, Beanie Babies, and the movie Titanic).

Andy also has a love-hate relationship with her mother, because everyone likes her more than they do Andy, including Roger. (Her introduction was a major watershed for the character because it was the first time Andy had a character.)


 * Always Someone Better: Her mother.
 * Character Development: Mentioned above.
 * Cordon Bleugh Chef: Andy can cook competently, she just prefers to make "health food" instead of using normal ingredients (With the exception of Thanksgiving, where they do eat the traditional meal without any "health food" involved).
 * It sometimes borders Lethal Chef territory, such as the arc where she burns Thanksgiving dinner in an attempt to try and outdo her mother, whom everyone thinks is perfect. They ended up having pizza.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Flanderization: Andy went from a simple caring and concerned mother to the Moral Guardian of the strip who serves her family earth-friendly fare like braised zucchini every meal, keeps the thermostat so low that it flash-freezes the steam from a cup of coffee, throws a fit if she catches the boys playing a violent video game, and is often very hypocritical. Unfortunately, since the series became Sunday-only, there's little chance of her changing.
 * Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: Andy is prone to this, with examples including Beanie Babies and Nintendogs.
 * Gender Blender Name: It's rare, but some people named Andrea do go by Andy for short. (What's more, her full name has only been revealed a couple times.)
 * Grammar Nazi: As an English major, she's prone to correcting others' grammar, sometimes going off on rants about it.
 * In one shining example, she rants about someone on TV saying "realtor" wrong, after which Jason says "Wow, you're really going nucular." just to get a rise out of her.
 * Granola Girl: Exaggerated; see Cordon Bleugh Chef above.
 * Hypocritical Humor: As mentioned above, she can be very hypocritical. A perfect example is one arc where she bought a DVR called a MomVo, which drastically monitored what the family watched, programmed to replace the usual mindless shows they watch with "quality programming" (it wouldn't let Paige watch Newlyweds and suggested Masterpiece Theatre, for instance) whether they liked it or not. The story ends with Andy returning the MomVo because it wouldn't let her watch her soaps.
 * Jerkass: She restricts the family from several things, she's a health nut who forces this habit onto the rest of the family, she's a cheapskate, she is sometimes a hypocrite in regards to what she tries to preach in terms of morality, and she always has cruel and unusual punishments (including physical abuse, even towards Roger, her own husband).
 * Manipulative Bastard: At times she comes across as being even more manipulative than even Jason. A notable example is when Roger is returning home to watch the score counts for the week before the Super Bowl, and Jason is apparently playing videogames in front of the TV set, giving Roger a hard time trying to even access the TV. It's later revealed that she orchestrated all of this from the start, all because she wanted to prevent Roger from seeing the scores.
 * Moral Guardian: Andy is a rather preachy example of this in-universe, towards her own children (especially on the topic of video games to Peter and Jason, although she hardly actually bans either of them from playing gory games, and sometimes plays these same games herself, or even procrastinates herself despite telling her kids not to do so.). She also took offence to Donkey Kong not wearing any pants.
 * Not So Above It All
 * One-Hour Work Week: During the time that the strip established her as a columnist, she was almost never shown to be actually writing columns. Her writing job has since been, well, written out of the strip since the late 1990s.

Peter Fox
A high-school junior with an inability to be attractive to girls and a complete love of food; he is often characterized by his bottomless stomach and being Bill Amend's punching bag. He often fantasizes about the sports or rock star he'd like to be, though when he tries out for school teams the results are dismal (in one gag, his name is pre-printed on the athletics department's dismissal sheets, leading him to have been cut from the girls' gymnastics team); essentially, he's an athletic Non-Action Guy. Other than that, he's a pretty traditional big brother, teasing Paige and playing sports (unsuccessfully) with Jason. And yet, he still manages to have more athletic ability than his father...

"Peter: Plate 599 and feeling fine."
 * Big Brother Mentor: In his more mature moments.
 * Big Eater: He and Roger frequently tag-team on Thanksgiving to see who can eat more:

"Roger: Why the long face?
 * As for which one is the reigning champion, it should be noted that on a particularly gluttonous visit to a fast food restaurant, Peter is moaning in pain with the rest of the family...while Roger notes with sudden interest that the restaurant serves both apple and cherry pies.
 * Speaking of Thanksgiving, he also managed to eat two thanksgiving dinners (one with his Family, another with Denise's family), with Roger congratulating on deciding to do both, while Andy, shocked that he would actually have two thanksgiving dinners, half asked and half exclaimed if he was insane.
 * His status as this also cost his family any food they would have, with them being lucky to get even a small amount of food if he allowed it. One strip in particular had them going to a buffet line and they let Peter be first of his family. Predictably, he ended up cleaning up the entire buffet booth before his family could even get the chance to pick their meal, resulting in Roger irritably vowing that the next buffet they attend, Peter's going last.
 * It also got himself into trouble as well. As noted in the Burger Fool trope below, Peter, whenever he works at the local theater, would sometimes eat food while working at the Snack Bar:

Peter: I got my first week's paycheck today. I'd forgotten how much that stupid movie theater deducts. This thing is hardly worth cashing.

Roger: Welcome to the wonderful world of taxes.

Peter: Taxes? The taxes are nothing.

Roger: (looks at check) How many tubs of nachos did you eat?!

Peter: It was a slow day! I was working the Snack Bar!"

"Peter: So where do I come in?
 * Butt Monkey: The rest of the family often get these moments, but Peter seems to have the most Butt Monkey moments.
 * Book Dumb: He predictably does not do well at school, only very rarely achieving an A, and even then, sometimes he misinterprets how he got the letter grade by something other than studying (such as a t-shirt). He also seems to have a very hard time reading getting through some books almost to the point of exaggeration, with one comic even going so far as to have Peter take until nighttime, while sitting at his desk reading, to even finish reading one page.
 * Burger Fool: Although not a fast-food job, Peter's job at the local theater counts. He's constantly made to wash the bathrooms, once had to wear a Garfield costume to promote the movie, and all in all receives very little pay (including deductions for all the food he eats while working).
 * Character Development: Peter started in the strip as being a bit of a Jerkass at times, but was eventually reverse-flanderized into being the Straight Man.
 * Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: At least twice, Peter has cut himself pieces of pizza that made up at least half the pizza. Another time, he showed Roger a chart for how to cut the turkey: one slice each for the rest of the family, and the entire rest of the turkey for him.
 * Dagwood Sandwich: One of his favorite foods. "Paige, pass the salt and a ladder."
 * Dreadful Musician: It's repeatedly implied that he's horrible at singing and playing guitar, particularly when the guitar is turned Up to Eleven.
 * Drives Like Crazy: This led to a Crazy Awesome moment when Jason needed to reach light speed in order to Time Travel because of Eileen (long story), giving us the following conversation:

Jason: I've seen how you drive on the freeway.

Peter: You're talking nine digit numbers. I've only flirted with four."

"Andy: Peter, Mrs. Humbarger says she saw driving down the street like a runaway missile.
 * And another:

Peter: No way! Impossible! She couldn't have!

Jason: We were going much too fast too be seen."


 * There was also the time Paige was watching Jason play Carmageddon and she comments that this looks oddly familiar. Cue Peter coming in, asking if anybody wants to go to the mall.
 * A Sunday strip had Jason make a Hot Wheels track based on a recent car trip with Peter.
 * Drunk with Power: He once locked his brother and sister in the basement of their own home for not bowing down to his will when Andy and Roger left him in charge.
 * Hyperactive Metabolism: A rare non-video game example. Zig-zagged in one arc where he gorges himself on all-you-can-eat pizza night; he is rotund for a day, but returns to skinny a day later.
 * Kafka Komedy: As he's the Butt Monkey, he sometimes gets put through this. A notable example is an arc where he punches someone in the nose for making a joke about Denise. He is given detention and probation for it, and when he gets home accidentally spills the beans to Andy when she wanted to let him know the school found his lost wallet.
 * Klatchian Coffee: Any of Peter's "stay awake" drinks, one of which was "coffee-tea" (tea brewed with coffee rather than water). Paige ended up wigging out after drinking a dozen cups of it.
 * Limited Wardrobe: He's always shown wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, pants and a baseball cap. This has been parodied at least twice, including one arc that showed baby photographs (with baby Peter wearing a baseball cap) and another time when Jason received Peter's hand-me-downs.
 * Morality Pet: Peter cares greatly for Denise, who is blind. He's also protective of her, and punched a classmate for making a joke about her.
 * Must Have Caffeine: Most certainly inherited from Roger.
 * My Sister Is Off-Limits: Says this in one strip.
 * Nice Hat: His blue and white baseball cap with an "A" on it (supposedly a reference to Amend's alma mater, Amherst College).
 * Only Sane Man: Has his moments. A notable example is an arc when Andy becomes doped up on allergy medicine, he seems to be the only one who cares.
 * He's usually the first one to point out his Mother's hypocrisy and tell her when she starts going too far.
 * Paranoia Gambit: Being the target of a "Jason Vow of Vengeance" causes Peter to completely freak out and spend the day subjecting himself to ever-nastier hiding places (winding up grounded in the process). That is Jason's vengeance.
 * Precision F-Strike: Peter, when Jason vows vengeance on him for breaking a model. Peter's response? "Crap." Counts, as it's one of the few times that sort of response is used.
 * Ridiculous Procrastinator: Peter often procrastinates for assignments, often being well behind schedule the first week of school. He also seems to get tips on how to pull an all-nighter from Roger.
 * Straight Man: Was un-Flanderized into this.
 * Sleep Learning: Peter has tried this with varying degrees of success. One time, he had so many books under his pillow that he woke up with his neck horribly twisted. Another time, he listened to The Odyssey on CD while sleeping, and ended up with a dream sequence that was a pastiche of it.

Paige Fox
A freshman in high school. Like her brother, she seems invisible to the opposite sex--with the sole exception of supernerd Morton Goldthwait. She does many typical female teenage things, spending her time chatting with friends about cute boys and makeup and other inconsequentialities. She is also an even more Lethal Chef than her mother. (To be fair, Andy can cook normal food just fine; it's only when she starts experimenting with the tofu curds and wheat grounds that things get out of hand.) Finally, she has a sibling rivalry with her younger brother Jason.


 * Characterization Marches On: During Peter's Tyrant Takes the Helm stint, he forces her to bake cookies for him. Later on… see below.
 * Lethal Chef: Even moreso than Andy. One instance had her burning her cookies so badly that Roger actually used them as a substitute for charcoal briquettes after Andy "directed him towards a stash" when they ran out. Previous strips indicated that she was pretty good at cooking, or at least baking, as Peter Fox forced her to bake cookies for him when he let his position as man in the house get to his head.
 * Heavy Sleeper: She actually sleeps up until dinnertime some days.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard: Why does Jason torment her so? Well, she used to enjoy terrifying him by waving her teddy bear in his face when he was a baby, which probably led to him subconsciously developing an innate hostility toward her. So, for all that crap she goes through, she basically has no one to blame but herself.
 * No Indoor Voice: As Peter puts it, she just likes to yell.
 * Oven Logic: One story arc has Paige trying to cook Thankgiving dinner. She is told to clean the turkey, and does so by putting it in the oven and hitting the "clean" button.
 * Paranoia Gambit: Similar to Jason's Vow of Vengeance Arc, Paige ends up threatening to invoke vengeance on Jason for something Quincy did, so Jason ends up hiding in the garbage, not realizing that that's exactly what Paige planned.
 * School Play: In one story arc, Paige stars in the school production of Antony and Cleopatra. Unfortunately for her, Morton Goldthwait is Anthony.
 * Sorry, I'm Gay: She briefly considered giving this as an excuse not to date Morton.
 * Sweet Tooth: Quite obviously. Her idea of "one scoop" of ice cream is to dig out the entire gallon with the scoop. She once unrolled Ho-Hos, filled them with chocolate syrup and sugar, then rolled them back up.
 * Took a Level In Badass: A notable instance of this was when she managed to tell off two party crashers at Peter Fox's Halloween party who attempted to kill him because he simply didn't have beer at the party.

Jason Fox
A 5th-grader, super-duper nerd who, among other things, programmed a virus that destroyed the Internet. He entertains a variety of get-rich-quick schemes which never get anywhere, is Paige's Annoying Younger Sibling (which inevitably ends with Jason getting beat up), and spends a lot of time on video games or the Internet, eventually became hooked to "World of Warquest." He also has a thing for fellow nerd (but not social outcast) Eileen Jacobson, though he would never admit it.

"Jason: "Never send to know for whom the belch tolls; it tolls for thee."
 * Author Avatar: Since Amend is a major nerd, he often projects his nerdiness onto Jason, as confirmed in a compilation.
 * The "B" Grade: Jason reacts this way to A++ grades, since he usually does far better.
 * Big Eater: Implied in a few strips. A notable one was during a Halloween party where, while wearing a Jabba the Hutt costume, the food and punch mysteriously disappear and everyone starts looking at him.
 * Blackmail: Jason often blackmails Peter through his reckless driving. In one strip, he has Peter buy him a meal at a fast-food place for not stopping well enough at a stop sign.
 * Breakout Character: In early stories, all three Fox siblings got pretty much equal time. The strip eventually shifted to focus more on Jason than on Paige or Peter.
 * Brilliant but Lazy
 * Characterization Marches On: In a story arc from the second or third year of the strip's run, Jason is upset that Quincy ruined one of Paige's sweaters, makes a sincere apology to Paige, and even goes out of his way to try and replace the sweater.
 * In another example, he puts off doing homework to work on his comic. In most other cases, he's obsessed with doing schoolwork and complains whenever he doesn't get enough.
 * Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He tries several ludicrous schemes to make money (such as thousand-dollar snow dinosaurs) despite the fact that he has effortlessly built machines and coded programs that could have made him millions had he simply sold them. His problem seems to be that he has the knowledge of an adult, but the wisdom and idealism of a ten-year old boy.
 * He once tried to form a one-man corporation, but all he had to show investors was "a dinky little program I wrote for fun." Unfortunately for him and them, the Darth Jason virus did not "kill off interest," it "killed off the Internet."
 * Epic Fail: In one strip, he accidentally launches rockets into the ground by putting the engines in upside-down, then has to deal with the second phase. While he and Marcus run away, Jason even says, "Why can't my successes ever be as spectacular as my failures?"
 * Evil Sounds Deep: Jason implies that the reason he often has Marcus always root for the Rebellion while he roots for the Empire is because he sounds like James Earl Jones, the voice actor of Darth Vader.
 * Freudian Excuse: As a baby, he was apparently terrified of Paige's stuffed bear. Paige gleefully tormented him by waving it in front of his face every chance she got. When she's through waxing nostalgic over it, Andy points out that this is probably why she's become Jason's favorite target. It's also implied that the start of his making Paige his revenge target was when he finally decided to get over his fear of Paige's stuffed bear (by using bear-traps for teddy bears).
 * Funny Money: Jason gets paid $10, adds it to the money he had under his mattress, and announces that he's a millionaire in Turkish lira.
 * Gasshole:

Paige: "Bell," you moron. It's "for whom the bell tolls!"

Jason: BRAAAP! I believe you stand corrected.

Paige: You know, my friends at school think I make these stories up."

"Andy: Leave him alone, Peter, or you'll be grounded for two decades."
 * Gender Bender: In a parody of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Jason transforms into a mini-Paige. It was All Just a Dream.
 * He had another one where he turned into a mini Lara Croft.
 * Girls Have Cooties: As a 10-year-old, he still believes this... to such an extreme that he's repulsed by video games with female protagonists (see above).
 * I Just Want to Be Special: Too many times to count.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Jason loves making these. Once, when asked to bring Roger coffee, he coughs into the mug and explains that "I am the coffer, so this mug is the coffee."
 * Another time, after Jason saw Avatar, he dreams that he becomes a Na'vi with the ability to connect his mind with that of a computer - which wanted him to "write some object-oriented code". He describes it to Peter as his "Javatar" dream.
 * It's Popular, Now It Sucks: In-universe, Jason's response to the "mainstreaming" of Tolkien geekdom due to its highly successful film series. Although for him, it's not so much "It's Popular, Now It Sucks" as much as "It's Popular, Now Nerds Won't Be Special." The series gave the title to one of the book collections, "Orlando Bloom Has Ruined Everything", the cover depicting Jason and Marcus sitting in a theater surrounded by googly-eyed girls.
 * Jerkass: Mainly to Peter and Paige.
 * Just One More Level: This trope is often present in-universe as a plea when Jason is playing video games and Andy wants him to do a chore or go to bed. Also subverted once when Jason says he'll go to bed right after he finishes level 47 on a game...conveniently leaving out the fact that he's currently on level 13.
 * Karma Houdini: Jason gets away with a lot of things.
 * Limited Wardrobe: As of 2010, he strictly wears a blue t-shirt, cargo pants and white sneakers.
 * Literal Minded: Jason sometimes invokes this intentionally such as modifying all the comic strips in the paper to what their names are (such as drawing shells on the kids heads in Peanuts) and playing shot put with all of Andy's records that have flight-related names (such as Led Zeppelin).
 * Little Professor Dialog: Usually. Although he once looked through a thesaurus so he could insult Paige without her knowing it.
 * Nerd Glasses: With Opaque Lenses no less.
 * Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: Played straight most of the time. Played with in one arc where Jason tears his hair out trying to figure out an extra-credit math problem and finally admits defeat — only to discover later on that it had a typo.
 * Nerdgasm: In-universe, his response to seeing a beautiful foldout of a computer.
 * Nerds Are Sexy: Played with. After Jason reads a study that states just that, he tries to be as un-nerdy as possible, only to revert when Peter starts acting nerdy in an attempt to get girls.
 * Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: Will do his sibling's work for fun. And can even do homework on autopilot.
 * The most extreme was when his math teacher assigned the chapter review as homework, so he did all of them. In several textbooks, up to advanced calculus.
 * Parental Favoritism: Jason is the 'younger child' example of this, mainly because he does so well at school (to the point where Roger took Paige telling him she got an A on a test to the fact it was Jason). Another example is in a strip where Jason gets Peter into trouble by reprogramming his cell phone so he called Andy when thinking it was Denise:


 * Jason does occasionally get beaten up by Peter or Paige. The more magnificent pranks he pulls against them leave him safer.
 * Revenge: Implied to be the main motivation for making Paige his favorite target. See Freudian Excuse.
 * Ridiculous Procrastinator: Inverted. He usually manages to get all of his assignments and final exams done by the start of school, often leaving him depressed.
 * Snowlems: Jason regularly builds snow dinosaurs.
 * Straight Man and Wise Guy: The Wise Guy to Peter's Straight Man.
 * Spanner in the Works: Jason finds it impossible to beat one guardian monster in a video game, as it instantly squashes his character every time he tries. Paige, who almost never plays video games, takes the controller and gets by the guardian by simply walking around him.
 * Teen Genius: He's 10, but close enough.
 * Troll: In the arc that introduced Miss O'Malley (his new teacher), we learn that Jason loved to torment his old teacher Mrs. Grinchley by going above and beyond in regards to schoolwork . Miss O'Malley responds to these acts by giving him extra credit, which annoys Jason to no end.
 * TV Genius: He is academically and technically skilled but rather lacking in scruples and common sense. A rather sterling example comes in one Sunday strip where we see a diagram Jason's worked out for a catapult-like device to launch himself and Marcus into Paige's room so they can ambush her with squirt guns. As they panic ("Wait, she closed the window!" "Aagh! The rope's slipping!"), Peter muses on how somebody can be so smart and yet so stupid.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Sometimes. See TV Genius above.
 * The Unfavorite: Even Jason has his moments in this trope: One instance was when Paige announced that someone just got an "A", and Andy, thinking Paige got the "A," baked a plate of cookies to celebrate. Paige then tells Jason (who is currently shouting that Paige was referring to him) that its not her fault if Andy guessed wrong as she's enjoying the cookies.
 * He's also quite annoyed when, despite scoring much better than his siblings, his mother has a disinterested reaction to his grades staying the same compared to Peter and Paige's rising, until she offhandedly remarks that they went up slightly.

Quincy
Jason's pet iguana. He's very cute for a lizard, and takes everything with reptilian aplomb. (Unless Jason is throwing him at Paige, at which point his expression becomes appropriately panicked). Unlike most comic strip animals, Quincy is usually played straight, without any Funny Animal behavior or thought balloons. He sometimes gains these characteristics in order to poke fun at the trope.


 * The Chew Toy: He's been thrown across rooms, electrocuted, and has apparently swallowed a dart. Subverted in one arc where he very nearly chokes to death on Paige's shoelace.
 * Head Pet: Occasionally.
 * Perpetual Expression
 * The Voiceless: If any of the dream sequence arcs use this type of character, chances are that said character will be protrayed by Quincy.
 * Talking Animal: That being said, there were only two instances where Quincy talked (not counting when Jason tries to disguise himself and Quincy as someone or something): Once Quincy tells Jason to listen to his mom regarding cartoons not being real, and the second was at the very end of an Odyssey-style Dream Sequence (caused by Peter's attempts at Sleep Learning the Odyssey), where he is playing Penelope and says "Hug me... Kiss me... Love me..." which was strongly implied to have resulted in Peter waking up earlier than usual out of disgust.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: Scared of cats.

Denise Russo
Peter's blind girlfriend. She was introduced in a 1990 Story Arc.


 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She hasn't appeared at all since the early 2000s, although there was never a story arc wherein she and Peter broke up.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl
 * Deadpan Snarker / Disabled Snarker
 * Disabled Love Interest
 * "Just Joking" Justification
 * Morality Pet: To Peter
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Once lists all of Peter's negative qualities and says she never has to worry about another girl taking him.
 * Satellite Character: Averted. Although Peter is the one she interacts with the most, she has also interacted with other members of the Fox family, and even had a week-long arc that focused around her and Paige and another week-long arc that focused on her and Jason.
 * Together Umbrella: Denise is muttering and cursing until it starts to rain, to which she squeals with delight. Peter comments on their newfound closeness; "Wow, good thing you brought this umbrella."
 * What the Hell, Hero?: During their temporary breakup, and after Peter punched a classmate for insulting her blindness.

Nicole
Paige's best friend with similar interests. Steve (see below) and Nicole are generally the ones to encourage Paige or Peter to do something risky or questionable, but that's a function of the way the strip is set up; it wouldn't be An Aesop if Paige were the one to suggest shoplifting and Nicole stayed on the straight-and-narrow.


 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
 * Global Ignorance: In one arc, Nicole was once asked to locate Iraq on a world map without country names. However, it comes to light that Nicole not only can't locate Iraq on the map, she can't even locate the United States. Eventually, Paige locates Iraq on her first try— by pointing at the only place Nicole didn't try.
 * Satellite Character: She pretty much existed only to interact with Paige, and rarely interacted with any other characters. A notable exception is one Story Arc where she and Paige get invited to Morton's Halloween party.

Steve Riley
Peter's best friend. Probably had more mentions from Peter than actual dialogue.


 * Big Eater
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
 * Flat Character
 * Satellite Character: Never interacted with anyone except Peter.

Morton Goldthwait
A freshman who has an eternal crush on Paige. Jason hero-worships him for the same reasons Paige detests him.


 * Abhorrent Admirer: To Paige.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
 * Dogged Nice Guy: To Paige.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: At Science Camp, which he regrets when he finds out Jason is Paige's brother, though oddly enough Jason was actually planning on setting them up as payback before he knew.
 * Drunk with Power: See the above, though given the treatment he gets at school, it's understandable.
 * Hollywood Nerd
 * Nerd Glasses: Also of the Opaque Lenses variety.
 * Shorter Means Smarter: He's about the same height as Jason.

Marcus Jones
Jason's best friend. They share similar interests, but Marcus never really got that much in the way of character development.


 * Black Best Friend: Being a best friend of Jason's, he doubles as Black and Nerdy.
 * Flat Character
 * Only Sane Man: Mostly because he's a flat character, he's more likely to play Straight Man to Jason than the other way around.

Eileen Jacobson
Like Calvin and Hobbes' Susie Derkins, she is more likely to get the drop on Jason than the other way around.

"Eileen: [You realized] that you should just ignore what other people think and follow your own heart?
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She got a non-speaking cameo in 2008 and didn't appear again until 2011. But at least she eventually returned, unlike most of this strip's secondary characters.
 * Deadpan Snarker: In reaction to Jason. Some prime examples come from the arc in which Jason is upset that he didn't get a mushy Valentine's Day card from her, then spends weeks trying to cover up anything that sounds like him liking her. In one strip, he says that he came to a realization that he was wrong after seeing the movie Titanic:

Jason: No, no — we should just secretly communicate by semaphore.

Eileen: More and more I see the wisdom in keeping our relationship hidden."


 * Official Couple:

Phoebe Wu
Eileen's best friend, she meet Eileen, Jason and Marcus at Science Camp.


 * Asian and Nerdy
 * Flat Character: Granted she only had two arcs so it's understandable.
 * Genre Savvy: During the second arc she figures out it's Eugene just from watching TV mysteries: The culprit is always the secondary character who's introduced early on and then forgotten.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: Nice and humble to Eugene's raging egotism.

Eugene Wu
Phoebe's twin brother and an egotistical genius who makes Jason look humble by comparison. Introduced in the same arc as Pheobe.


 * Asian and Nerdy
 * Sibling Yin-Yang: See Phoebe's entry
 * Speak of the Devil: During the second arc with him and Phoebe his only appearance before The Reveal is showing up when Jason and Marcus come to the conclusion that if Phoebe's here, so is Eugene.
 * Ted Baxter: As mentioned above he somehow manages to top Jason in this department.
 * Villainous Breakdown: After Marcus and Jason vote for Eileen and Phoebe's project over his, costing him the victory.

Pierre
A young, suave Frenchman who regularly shows up in Paige's dreams. By all appearances, he seems to be an amalgamation of what Paige would consider to be the traits of an ideal boyfriend.


 * Everything Sounds Sexier in French
 * Funetik Aksent
 * Gratuitous French
 * Imaginary Friend
 * Imaginary Love Triangle: When both he and Juan Carlos try to court Paige, the dream being the result of her having trouble deciding whether to take Spanish or French when school starts.
 * Lover Tug of War
 * Phrase Catcher: "Ooh, Pierre."
 * Relationship Sue: Invoked and justified, because he's a dream.
 * The Rival: To Juan Carlos
 * Romance Novel: Both he and the dreams themselves seem to be parodies of this, or at least of the covers.
 * Rule of Funny: Some of the more lavish stuff he does (his massive Paige art gallery, for instance) can only be put down to this...
 * Rule of Romantic: ... Although, from Paige's perspective, it's this.
 * Sorry I Left the BGM On: Variation: In one strip with Paige dreaming of him (in a manner similar to Rapunzel), she is monologuing with Pierre as he comes up, and was about to kiss him... only for him to uncharacteristically say "Let's go with U.S. Presidents for $400, please, Alex." Cut to Jason watching Jeopardy! while Paige was napping.
 * Wish Fulfillment: He's basically Paige's subconscious attempting to fulfill her desire for a steady relationship as well as her less-realistic desire for the perfect suitor.

Cartoonist
Whenever one of the characters is reading a newspaper and there is a close-up of said newspaper, it usually features a headline mentioning this guy and the latest incredible feat he has accomplished or is currently undertaking.


 * The Ace
 * Author Avatar
 * Chick Magnet
 * Hero of Another Story
 * No Name Given: Typically, just called "cartoonist", although one headline from the first year referred to him by name.
 * Parody Sue
 * Perpetual Smiler
 * Ridiculous Procrastinator: One strip had Jason commenting that the cartoonist has to pay a fine to his bosses the next time he is late with his strips. The punchline is the implication that he is two to three decades late (Paige: "Hey guys! Did you hear about Watergate?")