Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

Allie opens this graphic essay with confirmation of her dog’s low intellectual abilities. After adopting her, Allie tries—and fails—to train the dog to walk normally up and down the stairs. The dog wants desperately to please her.

In full-page illustrations on pages 21-25, Allie tries to train the dog to sit. Confused, the dog tilts her head at extreme angles and ends up flopping on the floor instead.

At first, Allie believes that her dog simply needs more training. But when she sees the dog licking the floor at random, she performs a web search for “dog IQ test” (26). The dog fails the first test, which is to respond to her name when called (and avoid responding to other words). The dog fails the second test, which is to get out from under a blanket. The dog continues to fail subsequent tests.

The final test is to sniff out and retrieve a dog biscuit which has been placed underneath a plastic cup. Illustrations on pages 29-32 depict the many things the dog tries to do to pass the test—these include retrieving a tennis ball and running at full speed around the cup. Allie accepts that her dog won’t pass the test and knocks over the cup, exposing the biscuit. 

Allie details her experience deciding every day for 35 consecutive days to not return a movie rental to Blockbuster. After 35 days, she decides to deal with the issue by simply never returning to Blockbuster again. She contextualizes this decision within ongoing difficulties she experiences with motivation as a “horrible, scary game” (35).

In full-page illustrations on pages 36-41, Brosh uses dual-panel images to show the dynamic between her self-motivation talk and her actual behavior. She experiences difficulty with task completion. Despite feeling frustrated with herself, she does not change her behavior. She explains that this tendency stems from an inability to believe that the future will be real.

Brosh uses the image of a spaceship to demonstrate hurtling toward failure at high speed. She relates that coming close to failure is the only reliable motivational technique she’s discovered. Through procrastination, she ends up so close to disaster that, terrified, she flees toward success.

With smaller goals, such as washing the dishes, Brosh explains that shame has become the only useful tool for taking action. In a sequence of dual-panel images, her motivational self describes her regular self as a “shameful, embarrassing menace” (47) for neglecting the dishes. To avoid being a shameful menace, she eventually does the dishes.

In a section subtitled “How Horrible Can I Be Before I Experience a Prohibitive Amount of Shame?” Allie explores the many options available to her at the grocery store after picking up a banana she decides she doesn’t want to buy. She decides to place the banana back in the produce section, albeit not with the other bananas. Though fear and shame inform most of her behavior, Allie hopes to someday use willpower instead.

As a child, if given even a tiny amount of sugar, Allie would become intensely hyperactive and hyperfocus on obtaining more. In a series of illustrations on pages 56-59, Brosh illuminates the process, which ends in a blurry panel of her child-self with a giant grin and the caption “CAKE IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS” (59).

Allie’s mother bakes a cake for her grandfather’s birthday. When her mother’s back is turned, Allie sneaks up onto the counter and steals a handful of cake. To avoid further theft, Allie’s mother carries the cake around; she then hides it on top of the refrigerator. Allie climbs the fridge, so her mother puts the cake inside the fridge and leaves a heavy box in front of the door. Unable to move the box, Allie throws herself against it without success.

Her mother tells her to play with her toys, and Allie does so. They dress for the party and leave for her grandparents’ house, where her grandfather’s birthday gathering will be held. Allie struggles away from her grandmother as her mother carries the cake into a back bedroom and locks the door. Because Allie screams and punches in this struggle, the adults lock her out on the patio and tell her to “go play outside” (67). But instead of playing, Allie sobs right up against the glass. Her mother tells her to go play in the side yard instead, where Allie sees that one of the windows has been left open.

It turns out to be the window to the very same bedroom where the cake is locked away, so Allie pushes out the screen and climbs inside. She eats the entire cake. Her mother comes looking for her and finds her in the bedroom. Allie spends the rest of the party gleefully alternating between running around in a sugar rush and vomiting up cake.