Get Fuzzy
| Get Fuzzy | |
|---|---|
| 100px Logo for Get Fuzzy comic strip. | |
| Author(s) | Darby Conley |
| Website | Get Fuzzy Website |
| Current status/schedule | Running |
| Launch date | September 1999 |
| Syndicate(s) | United Media Syndicate |
| Genre(s) | Humor |
Get Fuzzy is an American daily comic strip written and drawn by Darby Conley. The strip features the day-to-day adventures of Boston advertising executive Rob Wilco and his two anthropomorphic pets: cat Bucky Katt and dog Satchel Pooch. Get Fuzzy has been published by United Media Syndicate since September 1999. It appears in over 200 newspapers nationwide. It is also in the developing stages of becoming a movie.[1]
The strip's humor comes from the conflict between Bucky's and Satchel's personalities, which are extreme stereotypes of cats and dogs. Sweet, trusting, naïve Satchel is routinely subjected to the exploitation of cruel, self-centered, aloof Bucky. Rob, the middleman, is often frazzled from dealing with them, or more specifically, from dealing with Bucky's destructive nature and overall nastiness. The three characters live in an apartment on Longwood Avenue in Boston.
Main characters
Bucky Katt
An incredibly evil and twisted Siamese cat, Bucky Katt is selfish, cynical, and lazy. His ears are nearly always drawn laid back flat on his head in a defiant and aggressive manner. According to Rob's friend Joe Doman, Bucky is named after legendary Negro League baseball player Buck O'Neil (a teammate of Satchel Paige in the 1930s and 40s). However, Rob has mentioned that Bucky was given his name in reference to his fang, which protrudes from his mouth much like a buck tooth. Bucky has only one upper cuspid, having knocked out one of his own teeth in a fight. Rather than having his own room, as his "roommate" Satchel Pooch does, Bucky lives in a dresser located in the hall closet of Rob Wilco's apartment. he seems to misunderstand many sayings such as "Go for the jugular" to "Go for the juggler". He attacked a clown at the fair in a recent comic, and said to Satchel, "If you ever put on a clown suit, I'll take you down faster than a Florida congressman," an apparent reference to disgraced Rep. Mark Foley.
Bucky is frequently depicted as possessing an abundance of disagreeable feline traits, such as antisocial tendencies, delight in random destruction and violence, hostility, and self-centeredness. He delights in trying to deflate Satchel's rosy outlook on life, but seldom succeeds, because Satchel is not sharp enough for his withering sarcasm and is often unaware that he is being insulted, although in one series, he flips out on Bucky in response to Bucky calling Satchel's friends "a bunch of Eurotrash", resulting in meek and kinder behavior from Bucky for a period of time. In a mild display of insubordination, Bucky calls Rob "Pinky," referring to Rob's shameful lack of fur and skin color. At other times he calls him "Robert," "Robbo," "Wilco," "Miss," and occasionally "Cracker," rarely using his preferred title, "Rob."
Bucky continually finds ways to antagonize and annoy Rob and Satchel. He sometimes wears Rob's VW hood ornament as a necklace. He claims to be a fan of the "Yankers" (Yankees), only because Rob is an ardent Red Sox fan. He taunts Rob when the Red Sox play poorly, but knows little about baseball (as a past bet on the New England Patriots to win the World Series indicates). Bucky's one acknowledgement to Rob's obsession with Rugby Union football came when he inexplicably performed the Ka Mate haka made famous by Rob's favorite national team, the All Blacks of New Zealand. Although he professes a lack of interest in the Harry Potter series, Bucky has read the books, and even took part in a spoiler-filled discussion of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince with Rob regarding the allegiance of Severus Snape. Bucky seems to like Slytherin because Satchel is a fan of Hufflepuff House. In addition, Bucky fits the house qualifications of being an ambitious and cunning pure-blooded (Siamese) animal. But his attempts at intellectual superiority are undermined by his constant malapropisms and his habit of making ridiculous claims such as saying that England does not exist. He also claimed at around the same time that Canada doesn't exist, even though he's been there. He thinks the only difference was that everyone drove around with their headlights on in the daytime.
Three obsessions dominate Bucky's life: trying to kill Fungo Squiggly (the ferret who lives next door), his desire to eat a monkey, and wanting a movie made about him. None of these goals has any reasonable rationale behind it, and he fails brilliantly in his repeated attempts to fulfill them. Fungo routinely disrupts Bucky's schemes, and the single encounter he had with a monkey resulted in the chimp trying to peel Bucky like a banana.
Bucky owns a plastic bear named "Smacky," obtained by his refusing to exchange toys with Satchel at a McDoodles restaurant even though each had the toy the other wanted (Satchel ended up with a plastic T-Rex, which he named "Smiley"). It is one of the few objects Bucky seems to care for. In one storyline, Fungo Squiggly demanded possession of Smacky to guarantee the safe return of Bucky's autobiography, which the ferret had stolen. Bucky tried to trick Fungo by giving him a "fake" Smacky, and Fungo in turn gave Bucky The Collected Works of Ira Gershwin instead of the manuscript. As Christmas gifts, Bucky received two other bears which he named "Cracker" (because "he's white") and "Punk," but they do not appear often.
As it turned out, Smacky was a collectible "Steiff" bear, a fact that was revealed to Bucky when he, Rob, and Satchel went to an Antiques Roadshow-type show in the area to get Rob's Honus Wagner baseball card (which turned out to be counterfeit) appraised. Bucky was told that his bear was worth over $7,000- in mint condition - while in the condition Smacky was in made him worth only $100. After the appraiser said that bears like Smacky weren't in high demand and other animals were, Bucky asked him about "a birdy," then promptly flipped him off.
Bucky also owns a ragged doll named "Ms. Pretty." She has only been seen once, but is occasionally mentioned. Bucky carries the doll in a backpack when he goes outside. Despite his lack of sensitivity, Bucky cares deeply for Smacky and Ms. Pretty. He was also distressed when Rob washed his blanket, and when Rob threw out his dead piscine friend, Smell E. Fish.
On most outdoor excursions, when Rob is present, Bucky is carried in a strap-on baby carrier, referenced as a way of keeping the cat out of trouble. Rob has also been known to use a harness leash on him for the same purpose.
Although he feels the need to maintain an "alley cat" image, Bucky occasionally reveals a kitten-like nature; in one strip, Rob flipped on the light during the night to discover Bucky "snuggling." He once voluntarily fixed Satchel's watch. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bucky was badly shaken; while Rob and Satchel left to donate blood, he decorated the apartment with thankful balloons and signs, and baked some cookies for them to show his appreciation.
The strip has made gradual revelations about Bucky's birth and early life. Rob once mentioned that he found Bucky huddled on a trash can, while the cat was only five ounces and a few weeks old, in Hackensack, New Jersey. While Bucky's father has never been mentioned, Bucky gave his mother's maiden name on a credit card application as "Tricky Woo," possibly after a canine character in All Creatures Great and Small. One comic shows early "baby pictures" of a young Bucky clinging to Satchel. Interestingly, this is the only strip that shows Bucky with both upper cuspids. Starting in September 2006, Bucky's cousin from Manchester, Mac Manc McManx, arrived at Rob's apartment, and subsequently revealed that Bucky's hatred of and desire to eat monkeys is apparently genetic. He also revealed to Bucky that he has 3 pounds of money, causing Bucky to think he meant the unit of mass instead of pound sterling.
Satchel Pooch
A naïve, friendly, and easily amused dog. His father, named Copernicus, a Labrador Retriever and a retired guide dog, and his mother, a Shar Pei, live in Cheticamp, Nova Scotia. His father, one of a long line of guard dogs and Army dogs, was disappointed that Satchel was happy to be a "House dog" He has been alleged by a friend of his sports fanatic "owner" Rob Wilco to be named after the legendary baseball player Satchel Paige.
Satchel is kind, gentle, and sympathetic. These traits, coupled with his naïvete and gullibility, make him a natural target for the scheming Bucky Katt. Although he often seems oblivious to his own exploitation (Bucky once sold Satchel his own Nerf football by writing "Sooper" above "Nerf" to make it a "Sooper Nerf"), Satchel occasionally expresses frustration towards Bucky and his hostile attitude. He seems to have forgotten that dogs are traditionally the natural aggressor in relationships between dogs and cats, and in fact, intimidation appears to be completely alien to the affable and easygoing dog. He has only threatened Bucky with violence once, and that was due to Bucky insulting Satchel's friends, rather than anything aimed at Satchel directly. Other times, Satchel has been nice to Bucky, such as giving him Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream for his birthday, which elicited an unprecedented display of gratitude from Bucky (he apparently believed it contained actual monkeys).
Satchel's jokes tend to deliver either a pun comment or the strip's punch line. Both are usually preceded by his laughter. His jokes often involve him not fully understanding an idea. Typically, a punchline provided by another character is followed by Satchel delivering a second punchline.
Satchel's personality serves as foil to that of Bucky's: easy to please, optimistic to the extreme, and perfectly content to peacefully coexist with everyone. He is good friends with Bucky's nemesis, Fungo Squiggly.
True to his character, Satchel takes a neutral position in the ongoing sports feud between professed New York Yankees fan Bucky and rabid Boston Red Sox fan Rob. Satchel says he likes the Chicago Cubs. Satchel is also very proud of his Canadian heritage, taking the time to watch Queen Elizabeth II whenever the monarch is on television. He is a Harry Potter enthusiast, and was once the flustered victim of a spoiler filled conversation between Rob and Bucky regarding Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. As a fan of the Harry Potter series, Satchel displays a Hufflepuff poster in his room, a house affiliation that naturally suits the loyal and friendly, but not too bright, dog. Naturally, Satchel is also a supporter of animal rights.
Although Satchel cannot tell time, he wears a watch he calls "Handy." Though the watch was destroyed in an accident with a bicycle, it was later found and repaired by Bucky. Satchel then received a digital watch for Christmas that he named "Dingy" (then called "Beepy"), though he is still unable to tell time with it. In addition to the watch, Satchel names everything from the carpet ("Rugger Green") to a lamp ("Lampy") after what they are.
Satchel's sexual orientation has been jokingly questioned several times throughout the strip's run. One strip in a series of "rejected storylines" was titled "Doggie Civil Unions?" and illustrated with a sketch of Satchel with his arm around the eponymous main character of the well-known comic strip Marmaduke. Satchel once said that he would have to "come out of the closet" he was hiding in to fulfill some demand of Bucky's, whereupon Bucky began to declare that he had been waiting "three years" for this to happen before being cut off by Rob. Satchel has also appeared wearing a sweatband that reads "Lady Foot Locker." However, this aspect of Satchel's personality has never been treated as anything other than a mild amusement, and is counterbalanced by his occasional tendency to fall in love with both human and canine females.
Rob Wilco
"Owner" of Satchel and Bucky. Works in advertising, but not proud of it. Vegetarian, Leo Kottke fan, and a Boston Red Sox fanatic. He's also a big rugby union fan, which is quite interesting considering the sport's relative obscurity in the US and Rob's rather un-rugby-like physique and personality. Rob also enjoys video games. He serves as the straight man between Satchel's goofy naïveté and Bucky's cynical hostility.
Rob is portrayed as a bit of an everyman: a mediocre performer in a job he dislikes, not particularly successful romantically, and an all-around relatively quiet guy with a bad haircut and chronic lower back pain. His passions, which often border on obsessions, include sports (particularly the Boston Red Sox and rugby), video games, and books. Rob is often shown reading, usually while in bed. He is also a vegetarian due to what he feels are too cruel methods of killing the animals (he occasionally lapses from time to time, and he ate meat much more often in the beginning of the strip). He seems to particularly like the Harry Potter series, as does Satchel.
Many of Rob's interests are displayed visually rather than mentioned, and lean towards a supposition that Rob is a nerd. From the t-shirts, hats, posters, and books variously seen in the strip, it can be assumed that Rob also likes the New Zealand rugby union team, South Doyle High School Track team (Conley's high school in Knoxville, Tennessee), Irish Rugby Team, Québec Nordiques, Manchester United F.C. (and, oddly, also archrivals Manchester City F.C.), Otago, New Zealand NPC rugby team, MXC, South Park, science fiction, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Marine Corps, and the music of Leo Kottke, The Ramones, Green Day, The Dropkick Murphys, Ween, Pink Floyd, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Sprouts (a reference to Darby Conley's brother's band).
At one time, Bucky, obsessed with a Persian who was living in the building, attempted to grow his hair out with a bottle of Rogaine. After two bottles were used and Rob flipped at the long tufts of hair that sprouted from the cat's head and chest, Bucky mixed some "no hair cream" with Rob's shampoo that he intended to use later. However, Rob got to the shampoo first, and as a result was bald for several weeks.
Rob's back has put him out of commission for two extended periods in the strip's history. On both occasions, Bucky used the opportunity to steal Rob's wallet and establish his own dominion over the household.
Despite having love troubles of his own, Rob has helped Satchel deal with his own love problems.
Rob is a sports fan, and it is alleged by his friend that he named both pets after stars of baseball's Negro Leagues – Buck O'Neil and Satchel Paige. Coincidentally, Bucky also has only a single fang, his "buck" tooth. An alternate theory (probably untrue) is that Bucky is named after late 1970s New York Yankees outfielder Bucky Dent who hit a game-winning home run against the Boston Red Sox in a tie-breaking playoff game to determine the American League Eastern Division champion in 1978. This would make sense, since Rob is a Boston Red Sox fan and Bucky is Rob's constant foil. However, this has not been explored in the strip, but it should be noted that at one point Bucky damaged a Taylor Guitar, causing what Bucky called a "Bucky dent": Rob responded by angrily ordering Bucky to "never, NEVER mention that name in my house again" (naturally, Bucky responed by shouting "Bucky dent" repeatedly). Rob is named after two friends of Conley's graduating class at Doyle High School (now South-Doyle High School) in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Supporting characters
Other characters that appear occasionally:
Fungo Squiggly
A neighboring ferret whom Bucky intensely dislikes. The two frequently engage in fights which leave Satchel, Fungo's friend, in the middle. The fighting (which Bucky instigates most of the time) once resulted in the cat suing Fungo on the Judge Judy show. Fungo was victorious. Fungo also smokes cigars, a habit which angers Bucky and annoys Rob.
When a new family moved into the apartment next door to Rob, they introduced Fungo as their pet. The amiable Satchel made friends with the newcomer easily, but Bucky immediately regarded him as a mortal enemy. Although he whispers in Satchel's ear on occasion, Fungo does not speak audibly in the strip.
Bucky's attempts to defeat and/or humiliate Fungo almost invariably backfire rather badly. For example, Bucky once tried to trap the ferret in a crude snare. Fungo yanked on the rope, causing Bucky to smack into a wall and lose two teeth: his trademark cuspid and a smaller tooth. To add insult to injury, Fungo wears the smaller tooth on a necklace. (Bucky's "fang" was reattached at great expense, and a gold tooth inserted to replace the other.) Other plots have had similarly unintended consequences, such as Fungo's kidnapping of Bucky's beloved toy Smacky (twice). Another instance was when Bucky destroyed a large portion of a wall in an attempt to get Fungo once and for all. However, all that Bucky got was a chunk of plaster to the head, as well as two hours in his closet. One memorably misguided attempt involved Bucky throwing a baseball at a ferret he took to be Fungo; the ball struck Fungo's mother and knocked her down a garbage chute. The two had a pie fight afterward, though Rob broke it up as Fungo had filled his pie with tools.
No explanation is ever given for Bucky's intense hatred for Fungo, save that Fungo seemed a bit aggressive in their first meeting. Bucky may mistake the mustelid for some sort of rodent, or the enmity may be as inexplicable as his desire to consume a monkey. Perhaps it is simply another by-product of Bucky's boundless hostility towards the world in general. In any case, many (but not all) of Fungo's aggressions toward Bucky are simply reactions to the cat's attempted assaults, as Fungo does not seem to go looking for trouble.
Joe Doman
Rob's friend and co-worker, one of the few people who actually gets along reasonably well with Bucky. He also watched over them for a few occasions in the comic. Occasionally he compliments Bucky. He once stated that Bucky was a sort of feline triathlete because of the reckless destruction he caused. His name may be a pun on the phrase "you da man."
Mac Manc McManx
In a sequence that began 2006-09-19, Bucky met his cousin, Mac Manc McManx, otherwise known as "Mac," "M3", or "M&M&M." Mac lives in Manchester, England, but uses a considerable amount of Cockney rhyming slang and other speech patterns typical of London. He explained that he and Bucky shared a common grandmother. Mac's father was from a place in the States called "Otis", and came to England during the First Gulf War. Upon hearing this, Rob suggested that Bucky's family was therefore from Massachusetts, to which Bucky replied " I'm a dang communist!" In addition, Mac's ears are laid back flat on his head, much like Bucky's ears, which may indicate that aggression runs in the McManx / Katt bloodlines. It was thought that Mac returned to England on 2006-12-09, after living in the kitchen and using Rob's sweater drawer as a litterbox (to no one's knowledge) for the previous few weeks. However, he was really waiting at the airport for over a month, having been detained by Homeland Security because he lost his ticket and no one could understand him. He revealed that he has either a dinner plate or a teacup embedded in his head, the result of an argument with his girlfriend Julie over which soccer team was better, Manchester UNited or Man City.
Chubby Huggs
A portly cat who believes positive reinforcement (mostly through hugs) solves all problems (once stopping a 'duel' between Fungo and Bucky) and one of the few beings that scares Bucky and can keep Fungo at bay (an impressive feat, considering that it has been implied that when Fungo can't get the toast out of the toaster, he chews his way into it instead). He once had a "little mouse friend" named Fowly who hated him and was vicious towards him even though Chubby would take the threats as words of kindness (a possible reference to Krazy Kat).
Francis Wilco
Rob's father, a retired firefighter who reluctantly "babysits" Bucky and Satchel from time to time. Doesn't like Bucky all that much, and is willing to do a fair amount to keep him out of his hair. He is divorced from Rob's mother and apparently lives alone. He wears glasses, has thinning hair, and can usually be found with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
Roger Wilco
Rob's brother, who visited to help Rob when Rob injured his back in 2005. He had made a previous, silent appearance in the strip shortly after 2001-09-11, when he was shown with Rob and his father at a memorial service for firefighters killed in the attacks. He also made another appearance alongside his brother and Joe Doman in a Sunday strip parodying Jackass, in which Rob allowed himself to be attacked by Bucky. His appearance in this one consists of him laughing at his brother's misfortune. His name is a pun on "roger, wilco", a phrase from 1940s naval radio code meaning "message received, will comply." He was referred to as "your idiot brother" by Francis.
William (Wilco?)
Rob's Marine cousin, who lost a leg in the Iraq War. An uncharacteristically serious story arc showed Rob meeting his plane when he returned home. Like Satchel, he was saddened by the fact that Dunkin' Donuts no longer made crullers.
Laura
A character that appeared early in the strip's history. Sweet, friendly, and far too optimistic in anything related to Bucky, she served as a love interest for Rob, but vanished from the strip early on. Her name may be a reference to a love interest or relative of Darb Conley for many of his comic books are dedicated.
Todd
Rob's boss at the ad agency. Once thought of putting Bucky in an ad for a tool company, threatening to put Rob back on the "Kissy Lips" ads which Rob intensely disliked working on. Bucky got all sorts of free tool samples (including a power saw he used to cut a cake and a belt sander he used to trim the fat off a piece of ham) before Rob finally put his foot down and said no. He also owns a rugby video game that Rob also has, and beat Australia 50-0 using England to unlock a secret team that Rob had been trying to for nearly 3 days straight (using Australia against England).
Kellie
Rob's first love interest in the strip. Broke up with Rob after one or two dates for no apparent reason, although an incident where Bucky and Satchel were staked out in Rob's car during the date may have had something to do with it. Has not been seen since her last date with Rob.
Kellie may also have ended her relationship with Rob over an incident in one of the earliest strips, where she called while Rob was in the shower. After yelling at Satchel or Bucky to pick the phone up, he got out of the shower to answer it, and hit his knee on the coffee table where the phone was. The strip ended with Satchel talking to Kellie, and Rob in pain on the floor nude saying vile words and threatening them.
Frodo Cattins
A cat and a friend of Bucky, who made a one-off appearance. The story started when Rob, while walking down the hall, saw him out the corner of his eye and greeted him as Buck, then realized that that wasn't Bucky. Frodo was holding Bucky's collar in his hand, and said that he had been charged with being the ring-bearer, but fears he has failed in his quest to destroy it by throwing it into the furnace. After his people pick him up, Rob tells Satchel that Frodo lives twenty miles away, and had been missing for weeks.
Negative reactions
Pittsburgh
Many residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania reacted angrily to an 2003-10-30 strip. When Bucky asks a travel agent for suggested destinations "based primarily on smell," the agent promptly produces a brochure from the Pittsburgh board of tourism. This was originally intended as an "in-joke" jab at a friend who lives in the Pittsburgh area. Conley later confessed shock over the large volume of hate mail and even death threats he received in response[2], and Pittsburgh city officials publicly denounced the strip.
An apology promised by Conley took a rather unexpected form. The 2003-11-17 strip questions why the Pittsburgh joke caused such an uproar and archly notes that several protesters rather hypocritically stated that New Jersey smelled worse than Pittsburgh. Satchel closes the strip by explaining that the original strip "should have made it more clear that it was (nearby borough) Sewickley Heights that smells" [3]. Unsurprisingly, this "apology" failed to appease many of those who had complained.
Conley took things a step further in the next three strips, the first of which showed a survey in which voters ranked the five smelliest places in the United States. In order, they were ranked Cleveland, New Jersey, Darby Conley's ass, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.
The second showed apparent greeting signs/tourism slogans for people that come into Pittsburgh. Featured were "Pittsburgh: Turn Left at Erie", "Pittsburgh: If You Smell Anything, It's Coming from Ohio, and "Pittsburgh: Gateway to Cleveland!"
The third and final one showed Satchel and Bucky as trading cards, with Satchel being "Mario Lepooch" (a parody of Pittsburgh Penguins owner and star Mario Lemieux) and Bucky being "Buck Tekulve" (after former Pirates reliever Kent Tekulve). The last panel showed Satchel wearing a Browns hat and Bucky in a LeBron James jersey.
At the time of the controversy, Get Fuzzy did not run in any Pittsburgh newspapers. However, the strip now runs in the city's Post Gazette and Tribune-Review papers.
Bob Lobel
A strip published on 2005-05-13 resulted in legal action. In the original strip, Rob, Bucky and Satchel are watching television. Satchel asks "Is this sportscaster... drunk?" Rob replies "Lobel? Who knows. He's like some TV outreach program or something." This is despite the fact that it has been reported elsewhere that Lobel is known to drink and has appeared on air in an intoxicated state.
Less than a week later, Boston sportscaster Bob Lobel filed a libel lawsuit against Conley, United Features Syndicate, and the New Bedford Standard-Times newspaper. (The New Bedford paper was named specifically because it did not censor the strip as several other Boston-area papers did, including The Boston Globe; most either refused to run the strip or substituted "Him?" in place of Lobel's name.) The lawsuit claimed that the strip was both personally and professionally damaging, especially given that his contract was under negotiation for renewal at the time.
On 2005-11-16, a brief article in the Boston Herald reported that Lobel and Conley had settled the suit out of court. Conley made a public apology to Lobel, saying the strip was not intended to imply that he had been drunk on the air. Further details of the settlement were confidential, but the Herald quoted an unnamed source as saying Conley had made a substantial donation to charity.
Notable storylines
- Bucky answered the phone and found that the caller was from a credit card company. He said he would like a credit card, and the application came saying Bucky had been pre-approved. On the application he gives his mother's maiden name as Tricky Woo. Bucky then starts buying things, including a TV set which Bucky is watching in his closet when Rob opens the door, having noticed an extension cord going into the closet. When Rob asks where all the stuff came from, Bucky says they were free from a store, which Rob doesn't believe. Rob then calls 13th National Bank to get the credit card cancelled.
- In May 2002, the strip featured a range of absurd characters "From the Rejected Characters File" in a non-narrative, single-panel format (e.g., "#8: Norton, the Self-Conscious Skunk", "#26: Snatch McGrubber, the Klepto-Manatee", "#2: Vichy, the Chain Smoking French Poodle", and "#38: Flipper Brown, the Dung Throwing Monkey".).
- During July-August 2002, Bucky took Fungo to court on the Judge Judy show for breaking his tooth (a baseless claim, since the injury had occurred while Bucky was attempting to trap Fungo). After several weeks of leadup to the trial, Judy made short work of Bucky's claim in her trademark caustic style, and Bucky re-broke his tooth when making a lunge at Fungo afterward (thanks to Satchel tackling him so he couldn't get to Fungo).
- Bucky's friend Frodo Cattins, who was going to destroy "the ring" (Bucky's collar) by throwing it into the furnace.
- On 2005-04-04, Bucky listed his suggestions for traditional holiday meals as "Christmas turkey, Thanksgiving turkey, Valentine's Day beaver, Easter bunny." After a beat, during which Satchel worriedly asked about "Saint Patrick's Day leprechauns," Rob said, "Hold on...Valentine's Day what?" Many newspapers considered this joke inappropriate for publication because of what the word "beaver" is also slang for, and an alternate version of the strip was issued with "beaver" replaced by "marmot."
- During the week of 2006-04-17, Conley "plagiarized" the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. The Get Fuzzy storyline showed Conley mistakenly receiving a week's worth of Pearls strips drawn by Stephan Pastis. He then pasted stock images of the Get Fuzzy characters over the characters in Pearls and ran the strips as his own. The week ended with Conley blocking Pastis' number from his cell phone.
- In one 2000s Sunday strip, Conley parodied several comic strip characters, drawing them sitting around Rob and the animals on the subway. Among the characters he parodied were Monty of Monty (which was then still published under its original name Robot Man), Dilbert of Dilbert, Steve Dallas of Bloom County - in Sean Penn-inflicted body cast, Captain Haddock of The Adventures of Tintin and Calvin and Hobbes (with a particularly foul mouthed Calvin on the train). Bucky remarked that the subway was "full of weirdos."
Books and treasuries
Reception and awards
Initially appearing in 75 newspapers nationally, the strip grew in popularity very quickly.
Conley received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 2002 for his work on Get Fuzzy.