This is a partial list of characters in the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis.

Rat

Personality

Rat is a megalomaniacal, misanthropic rat, who is frequently critical of the strip's style and artwork, as well as the other characters in his and other strips, real life people, and almost all living (and often nonliving) things. He believes himself to be much more intelligent than he actually is, and thinks more or less anybody else is stupid with the only person he believes worthy of his respect being Leonardo da Vinci. He tends to irritate people, particularly his intelligent friend Goat, and is easily irritated by his naïve, dim-witted housemate Pig. Rat believes himself to be the wisdom of the strip, if not wisdom itself, and that anybody else is more or less dumb, whereas most other characters view him as "a loudmouth, pompous malcontent". He may or may not be a personification of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Rat is very prideful and arrogant (he once made a list of all the geniuses in the world that only said "Mozart, da Vinci, Me", and then said that he only put 'that music dude' there to be nice), and is constantly dreaming up schemes that invariably would keep him away from anyone and everyone else, though these inevitably backfire. He often appears incapable of seeing his own faults.

The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus or Sus domesticus), often called swine, hog, or pig when there is no need to distinguish it from other pigs, is a large, even-toed ungulate. It is variously considered a subspecies of the wild boar or a distinct species. Its head-plus-body-length ranges from 0.9 to 1.8 m (35 to 71 in), and the adult can weigh between 50 to 350 kg (110 to 770 lb). Compared to other artiodactyls, its head is relatively long, pointed, and free of warts. Even-toed ungulates are generally herbivorous, but the domestic pig is an omnivore, like its wild relative.

Domestic pigs are farmed primarily for the consumption of their meat, called pork. The animal's bones, hide, and bristles are also used in commercial products. Domestic pigs, especially the pot-bellied pig, are sometimes kept as pets.

Description

The domestic pig typically has a large head, with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone and a disk of cartilage at the tip. The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food, and is a very acute sense organ. The dental formula of adult pigs is 3.1.4.33.1.4.3, giving a total of 44 teeth. The rear teeth are adapted for crushing. In the male the canine teeth can form tusks, which grow continuously and are sharpened by constantly being ground against each other.

Animal

"Swine" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga, taken from her third studio album, Artpop (2013). The song was written and produced by Gaga, Paul "DJ White Shadow" Blair, Dino Zisis, and Nick Monson. The song debuted at number 88 in the Gaon Chart of South Korea, selling 2,430 copies. In the United States, "Swine" reached a peak position of number 23 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Songs chart. "Swine" was featured (along with Gaga's "Till It Happens to You") in the 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground, which focuses on rape at American universities.

Composition

Musically, "Swine" is a dubstep and industrial song. Based on the "teaser" of Gaga rehearsing for the iTunes Festival, Entertainment Weekly described "Swine" as a "real shocker with Nine Inch Nails lyrics and bull-in-a-bong-shop Deep Purple groove".Consequence of Sound noted the creation of the Twitter hashtag #swinefest and called the song a "melancholy piano ballad that eventually erupts into a raging pop-rocker, backed by piercing guitar and synths". Gil Kaufman of MTV News described the track as a "Rock-Heavy" song. Lyrically, the song denounces a suitor by comparing them to a pig.