Dog Man: Mothering Heights

The silly and humorous antics of the characters in Dog Man: Mothering Heights convey Dav Pilkey’s belief in the inherent value of silliness in creating humor and joy. In the exposition, a play-on-words leads Chief to believe that Dog Man has been injured “in the Line of Duty,” but instead, he has been injured in the “Line of Doodie” (24-25)—a line for the bathroom. Being injured “in the line of duty” carries connotations of serious and life-threatening injuries while serving as a first responder or military member, such as a bullet wound, stab wound, or car crash in a pursuit. On the other hand, Dog Man hurt his fingers when the toilet seat fell on his hands as he was drinking from the toilet. This injury is a satirical, silly, and far less serious version of what Chief—and the reader—originally suspected, which creates humor when the true nature of Dog Man’s injury is revealed. This anecdote also illustrates Pilkey’s use of toilet humor, a recurring motif throughout this work and his other works in the Captain Underpants and Dog Man series.