Triangle and Robert
Encyclopedia
Triangle and Robert is a webcomic
by Patrick Shaughnessy that ran from August 1999 to September 2007. It is about the adventures of two polygon
s, an equilateral triangle
named 'Triangle', and a rhombus
named 'Robert'.
As Patrick Shaughnessy, appearing in the strip as 'the Cartoonist', has explained on many occasions, he can't draw, and he makes up the story as he goes along. All of the characters are simple shapes that he creates using a cheap paint program. More complicated objects are represented by simpler stand-ins (a sheep, for instance, appears as a rectangular place-holder marked "Insert Sheep") or not represented at all. The appeal of the strip seems to lie chiefly in its sophisticated humor, which is rife with popular culture
references and self-reference
.
Triangle and Robert takes place in a world in which the dominant species is a race of polygons. This world has a rich archaeological
history, with evidence of other past dominant races, including humans. The world is located in a universe whose basic physical structure is one of pudding
, and 'cuisine
magic
' plays an important role. The chief keepers of cuisine magic are the 'sentries', one for each major food group
.
The main plot centers on a struggle over which species will continue to dominate Triangle and Robert's world. The adventures depicted take place during a prophesied 'Time of the Oval
', an epochal turning point during which control of the planet is likely to shift. Species that seem to be in the running for dominance include polygons, sheep, possibly humans, pharmaceuticals
, and monosodium glutamate
.
A major theme of Triangle and Robert involves the Cartoonist and his relation to his creations. This is sometimes manifest as bickering between characters in the strip and the Cartoonist over his writing and drawing skills. More significantly, there are allusions to unrest in the world of polygons over how poorly they are drawn. Demonstrations are sometimes held in an effort to get rid of the cartoonist and return to a world free from his artistic limitations. On one occasion, Triangle confronted this issue of creator vs. creation by beginning his own comic strip
, "Dot and Other Dot", but the characters soon escaped his control, and began their own comic, "Cartoonist Guy" - who, in turn, created his own strip, "The Beforings", which may or may not have led to the Beforings creating the universe of pudding in which Triangle and Robert currently live. This ontological
dispute was eventually abandoned when Triangle and Robert were called away on another wacky adventure.
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
by Patrick Shaughnessy that ran from August 1999 to September 2007. It is about the adventures of two polygon
Polygon
In geometry a polygon is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain orcircuit.A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments...
s, an equilateral triangle
Triangle
A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
named 'Triangle', and a rhombus
Rhombus
In Euclidean geometry, a rhombus or rhomb is a convex quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. The rhombus is often called a diamond, after the diamonds suit in playing cards, or a lozenge, though the latter sometimes refers specifically to a rhombus with a 45° angle.Every...
named 'Robert'.
As Patrick Shaughnessy, appearing in the strip as 'the Cartoonist', has explained on many occasions, he can't draw, and he makes up the story as he goes along. All of the characters are simple shapes that he creates using a cheap paint program. More complicated objects are represented by simpler stand-ins (a sheep, for instance, appears as a rectangular place-holder marked "Insert Sheep") or not represented at all. The appeal of the strip seems to lie chiefly in its sophisticated humor, which is rife with popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
references and self-reference
Self-reference
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding...
.
Triangle and Robert takes place in a world in which the dominant species is a race of polygons. This world has a rich archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
history, with evidence of other past dominant races, including humans. The world is located in a universe whose basic physical structure is one of pudding
Pudding
Pudding most often refers to a dessert, but it can also be a savory dish.In the United States, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, though it may also refer to other types such as bread and rice pudding.In the United Kingdom and...
, and 'cuisine
Cuisine
Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...
magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
' plays an important role. The chief keepers of cuisine magic are the 'sentries', one for each major food group
Food groups
A food group is a collection of foods that share similar nutritional properties or biological classifications. Nutrition guides typically divide foods into food groups and recommend daily servings of each group for a healthy diet.-Common food groups:...
.
The main plot centers on a struggle over which species will continue to dominate Triangle and Robert's world. The adventures depicted take place during a prophesied 'Time of the Oval
Oval (geometry)
In technical drawing, an oval is a figure constructed from two pairs of arcs, with two different radii . The arcs are joined at a point, in which lines tangential to both joining arcs lie on the same line, thus making the joint smooth...
', an epochal turning point during which control of the planet is likely to shift. Species that seem to be in the running for dominance include polygons, sheep, possibly humans, pharmaceuticals
Pharmacology
Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...
, and monosodium glutamate
Monosodium glutamate
Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate or MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids....
.
A major theme of Triangle and Robert involves the Cartoonist and his relation to his creations. This is sometimes manifest as bickering between characters in the strip and the Cartoonist over his writing and drawing skills. More significantly, there are allusions to unrest in the world of polygons over how poorly they are drawn. Demonstrations are sometimes held in an effort to get rid of the cartoonist and return to a world free from his artistic limitations. On one occasion, Triangle confronted this issue of creator vs. creation by beginning his own comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
, "Dot and Other Dot", but the characters soon escaped his control, and began their own comic, "Cartoonist Guy" - who, in turn, created his own strip, "The Beforings", which may or may not have led to the Beforings creating the universe of pudding in which Triangle and Robert currently live. This ontological
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
dispute was eventually abandoned when Triangle and Robert were called away on another wacky adventure.
Characters
- Triangle (an equilateral triangle) - The protagonist, and the 'chosen one' of the Time of the Oval. With Robert, he runs a 'Wacky Scheme Consultant' business.
- Robert (a rhombus) - Triangle's sidekick, and the source of much zaniness. His schemes, always wacky, often verging on absurd, work out a surprising amount of the time.
- Cube (a cubeCubeIn geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. The cube can also be called a regular hexahedron and is one of the five Platonic solids. It is a special kind of square prism, of rectangular parallelepiped and...
) - An archaeologist who has been involved in researching the history of their world. He is somewhat secretive, and extremely skeptical of the Cartoonist and his perceived bumblings. - Orpuddex (a ghost-shape) - The Pudding-Watcher, keeper of the Pudding Factory of the Dead, and possibly sentry of the igneous food group. Initially presented as evil and bent on the destruction of all that is not smooth pudding, he figures into the plot in increasingly complicated ways.
- Mr. Disease [a Chinese characterChinese characterChinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
, 病 (Literally: sickness; Cantonese: beng6)] - Restaurateur, cuisine magician, and sentry of the metamorphic food group. Mr. Disease trained Triangle in cuisine magic, and his advice and Chinese food is often appreciated. - Linda Concarne (a shaded rectangleRectangleIn Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...
) - The meatMeatMeat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
sentry, formerly meat enforcer with the International Culinary Institute. She shouts a lot, sometimes flips out and kills people, and doesn't always get along with the other sentries. - The GrainCaryopsisIn botany, a caryopsis is a type of simple dry fruit — one that is monocarpelate and indehiscent and resembles an achene, except that in a caryopsis the pericarp is fused with the thin seed coat....
Sentry (an equilateral triangle, partly shaded) - The grain sentry, formerly the Food PyramidFood guide pyramidA food guide pyramid is a triangular or pyramid-shaped nutrition guide divided into sections to show the recommended intake for each food group. The first food pyramid was published in Sweden in 1974. The most widely known food pyramid was introduced by the United States Department of Agriculture...
, was on the run from the law when he was introduced, having been framed by the International Culinary Institute in an attempt to preserve the doctrine of the food groups. His name cleared by Triangle and Robert, he has joined the other sentries. - The VegetableVegetableThe noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
Sentry (an acute isosceles triangle, point down) - The vegetable sentry was introduced in a deep, coma-like mediation from which Triangle and Robert had to awaken him in order to deal with a threat from Orpuddex. - The DairyDairy productDairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing comes mainly from cows, and, to a lesser extent,...
Sentry (an irregular heptagon) - Originally introduced in an enchanted form as an inverted capital 'G', the dairy sentry was Triangle and Robert's pet dog prior to his disenchantment by the power of the bone of the Starham. - The Cornersheep (a rectangular place-holder marked "Insert Super-Intelligent Telepathic Sheep") - The Cornersheep is a super-intelligent telepathicTelepathyTelepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
sheep and sometime arch-villain, created when Robert's attempt to rustle sheep by hotwiring them went wrong. Triangle and Robert then gave up sheep rustling in favor of wacky scheme consulting. The Cornersheep commands a herd of ordinary sheep from a headquarters in ScotlandScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and occasionally makes trouble. - Prozac the Bear (a prozacFluoxetineFluoxetine is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class. It is manufactured and marketed by Eli Lilly and Company...
capsule) - Probably the weirdest character, Prozac is shunned and feared by the other characters. He is a representation of the Cartoonist's incompetence - meaning he shows up whenever the Cartoonist loses his grip on the plot of the strip, or when the characters are questioning him too much and he panics. He has no continuity (illustrated by the incident in which he becomes a small planet for no apparent reason, leading Triangle to exclaim "He's a being with no continuity. There's no reason for him NOT to be a massive dusty planetoid that we've inadvertently landed on") and usually just barely makes enough sense to be part of the plot. Recently was given an origin story in an attempt to bind him to the strip's rules. - The MSG entity (not pictured) - An entity which emerged from the world's supply of MSGMonosodium glutamateMonosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate or MSG, is the sodium salt of glutamic acid, one of the most abundant naturally occurring non-essential amino acids....
gaining consciousness. It is able to influence the plot by forming itself into shapes, such as a dome or spaceship. - The Cartoonist (not pictured) - The Cartoonist has an ambiguous relationship with his creations, but continues to draw Triangle and Robert despite criticisms from inside the strip, and sometimes despite his paint program not working properly, forcing a temporary text-only mode.
- The Beforings (not pictured) - The Beforings seem to be creators of Triangle and Robert's universe in a different sense than the Cartoonist is. They lie outside of time, and appear about once a year to remark on how things are going.