Webcomic / By Mistake On Purpose

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By Mistake On Purpose

It has a sitcom/sketch format with episodes being short or longer gags featuring recurring characters. As of 2024 it features approximately 100 episodes plus a 12-episode spinoff, Gastropub Saga. Unusually for a webcomic, but not uncommonly for cartoons and comics of the traditional sort found in British newspapers, it rarely uses speech bubbles, and the characters' dialogue is shown as a caption under each frame.

The comic is described as 'traditional British comedy in a modern vector style' and tends to focus on Bathos and the humour of everyday situations and avoids political themes, although topics such as political correctness and censorship are occasionally targeted. The series is set in the fictional English Midland city of Grotcester and its neighbouring leafy suburb, Grotley Green. Other locations mentioned include the fictional Scottish city of Grimburgh.

Tropes used by this webcomic:

• Art Shift: Nearly all the comics are drawn in a vector-illustration style. However, in the episode 'Therapy' a flashback is shown illustrated in ink/watercolour.
• Banned in China: In-Universe. Nevil goes to a bookshop and discreetly asks to buy copies of Lady Chatterley's Lover and BDSM novel The Story of O, both of which were historically banned from publication in the UK. When Blodwyn, the shop owner, asks even more discreetly if there is anything else he would like, he asks if she has any Enid Blyton books, referencing Bowdlerization rewriting to censor the author's dated attitudes.
• Big Beautiful Man: Nevil. He and his partner Vivien seem quite happy with his body the way he is. Also takes a fair bit of pride in his grooming and attire, and seems to be a bit fussy about personal hygiene.
• Big Beautiful Woman: Lizzie, a professor of quantum physics and Rubenesque woman, who attracts the romantic attention of fellow academic Rowan.
• Birds of a Feather: Melvin and Blodwyn, an eccentric and rather weird-looking couple. Gamer Chick Blodwyn dresses in an eccentric and slightly childish way, whereas Melvin seems to be drawn to look like a stereotype of a male gamer. It's implied they are both autistic in the episode The Funeral.
• Butch Lesbian: Florence's girlfriend Robin occasionally appears. She is muscular with a short hairstyle, seems to have previously been in the Armed Forces, and currently works as a gardener.
• Carpet of Virility: In the episode Heat Wave a sun-burned Melvin expresses reluctance to take off his shirt out of concern the neighbours will laugh at his man boobs. When Blodwyn encourages him to do it by telling him that she likes his body, his chest hair is so dense as to obscure all sight of them.
• Chubby Chaser: Rowan pursues and eventually establishes a relationship with quantum physicist Lizzie. He describes her as the woman of his dreams and is uncritical of her very voluptuous physique. Also is seen to have a plus-size bikini catalogue mixed up with some research notes in one episode. His sister Vivien who is in a relationship with Nevil, a fat man, may also count.
• Cool Uncle: Denise's Aunti Vivi and Uncle Nevil. Some of the things they do, she finds very entertaining but her parents don't exactly approve of, such as the rubber snakes they keep buying for her despite her mother having ophidiophobia.
• Double Entendre: The title of Nevil's food blog is 'Meat and Two Veg' this being British slang for male genitalia.
• Down on the Farm: Father and daughter duo Silas and Florence Silage probably fit, and to some extent, subvert this trope along with The City vs. the Country. Silas is uncharacteristically open-minded to most people, apart from city dwellers, whom he sees as idiots. Florence the Farmer's Daughter is in a relationship with a woman and is portrayed as world-wise and intelligent.
• Eco-Terrorist: A recurring character called Lofty lampoons extreme environmental ideologies and protesters generally. Seen often holding signs with nonsensical protests, interfering with the Silages' farm, and in the episode State of the Art is talked down by the police from pouring soup on an artwork and into pouring it on himself instead, to the disgust of a soup-kitchen queue outside the art gallery.
• The Everyman: Norman, a hospital porter, husband to Evelyn, and father to Denise, who is sensible although not particularly bright, and seems to lead a very ordinary life.
• Fat Bastard: Professor Sir Rupert Crackpot, OBE. Outwardly a photogenic and charismatic TV personality. To his colleagues at the university, an unhealthy, morbidly obese, hypocritical bully. Has a mysterious ability to appear younger and slighter on camera.
• Gentle Gorilla: A large silverback gorilla quietly steals Lofty's possessions while he is protesting at the zoo in the episode Monkey See, Monkey Do. He generously gives the parts of the lunch that don't interest to him to a female gorilla with an infant.
• Incredibly Conspicuous Drag: In the episode Birkenhead Drill what appears to be the Harwich/Hook of Holland Ferry is sinking in a reference to the film Titanic. The captain calls to fill the lifeboats, women and children first, and his crew mutiny by lining up dressed as women and children.
• "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Farmer Silas Silage's warning signs about his farm in Signwriting are all misspelled, leading Vivien and Nevil to incorrectly interpret a sign warning 'beware of the bog' as referencing a dog, when in fact it was spelled correctly, causing Nevil to sink up to his waist in the runoff from the pig field. In the episode A Humble Shopkeeper, a dyslexic martial artist in a dobok approaches the keeper of a 'Marital Aids' shop requesting to buy a black belt.
• Man-Eating Plant: Rowan and his PhD student Adam grow one genetically engineered by Rowan's so-called friend in Little Faculty of Horrors a spoof of Little Shop of Horrors.
• Mistaken for Insane: Nevil and Norman's father/ Denise's grandfather. Other characters express concern about his sanity from time to time.
• Nouveau Riche: Two of the main recurring protagonists are a couple of hustlers called Vivien and Nevil Nouveauriche. A number of episodes involve a grudge match between them and an 'old money' couple called Octavia and Harold Bumgardner-Smythe, notably Raspberry Tart in Gastropub Saga, in which Octavia describes them as a 'used car salesman' and a 'common tart.'
• Police Are Useless: Constable Kidd is trying her best, but she looks like she's twelve. Constable Constable and Sergeant Pepper aren't taken seriously because of their names.
• Psycho Poodle: The Nouveauriches' poodle, Voodoo, seems to have some trust issues after being abandoned by his previous owners in favour of the baby they found out they were expecting. Voodoo is also a replacement for a deceased previous poodle called Magic, whom Nevil sees as irreplaceable.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Nevil does it at his mother in the Mother's Day Special episode. Also does it in Gastropub Saga after he breaks a chair (by sitting on it inappropriately while being probably twice the weight it was designed for) and Vivien asks him to do his 'best puppy dog face' so she can take a picture of him so they can sue the pub for negligence.
• Purple Prose: Nevil writes a blog about food, which typically of food blogs uses some rather flowery turns of phrase.
• Quack Doctor: The doctor who appears in several episodes has questionable bedside manner, and dismisses her patients' issues as being caused by being fat or female. Appears as an incompetent vet in one episode, with it suggested as being the result of a Doctor's Disgraceful Demotion pending a malpractice investigation.
• Sibling Rivalry: Nevil and his older brother Norman are generally supportive of one another, but tend to wind each other up a lot because of their rather disparate personalities. Norman is a straight family man and more traditional, sensible, and sporting, whereas Nevil is bisexual and has some strange interests, is described by his mother as being the one in the family with all the wits, is fat and dislikes sport, and seems to see himself as a bit of an intellectual. Used to lampoon the princes of the British Royal Family in the coronation special episode Laundry.
• Spiders Are Scary: In the episode Arachnophilia Denise is fascinated by a tarantula. Her mother Evelyn describes the spider as being 'cute' whereas her father Norman is terrified of it.
• Spoiled Brat: Nevil, despite being an adult, seems rather dependent on his mother and his partner Vivien. He's also rather childish and rude in the way he treats local innkeeper Gerald, invoking his ire and causing him to play pranks back on him.
• Starving Student: Adam can't afford to pay his rent as well as feed himself while he works to obtain his PhD, and looks for odd jobs to make up the shortfall.
• The Professor: Rowan Tustain, Professor of Botany at the local university. Passionate about his research, supportive of his student, and a bit prudish and accident-prone, with an eccentric dress style.
• Toilet Humor: As in most British comedy, examples abound.
  • The Expansion Melvin's cat Leeroy defecates on the floor while he is engrossed in his online game.
  • Beach Body A man attempts to show off to a lesbian couple while putting on a wetsuit at the seaside. After getting into the water, he finally and inadvertently attracts their attention by farting in it, causing it to inflate like a balloon.
  • Raspberry Tart (Gastropub Saga) Vivien breaks wind on an enemy's meal following a heated argument about tables and toilets, Raspberry Tart being Cockney Rhyming Slang for fart.
  • The Business Proposal echoing the above, Vivien again breaks wind on the same character following criticism of her business plan. Appears to be satire of a recent episode of the TV series The Apprentice.
  • Whodunit At school, a boy is wrongly credited with Denise's fart, with the reasoning being that a girl is not capable of producing something so potent.
  • The Challenger a martial artist slips in a dog poo while attempting to spar with Nevil.
• Tomboy: Denise, who in the episode Bedtime Story doesn't like a story about a beautiful princess, until her father resorts to Artistic Licence to cater for her interest in amphibians and reptiles, and changes the story to be about a beautiful tadpole.
• Troll: Nevil's blogging and social media tends to attract them, possibly because his writing style tends to come off as pompous and flowery.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: In the episode Alarm Clock Nevil and Vivien are woken by the characteristic noise made by their poodle, Voodoo, who is about to vomit. The dog ultimately vomits in the garden with his head cut out of the frame, so as not to spoil a sunrise.
• Who You Gonna Call?: In the Halloween special The Poachers, Nevil and Vivien are told by Silas of a haunted wood. Rather than staying away from it, they go there in the dead of night dressed as Ghostbusters and trap the ghosts in order to sell them on an online auction site.