Maw and Paw are a couple who live with their children in a rural part of the US. Their pet pig Milford appears to be the most educated and therefore the brightest in the family. A well-known running gag in the cartoons involves Paw stepping on a loose lumber of their house, causing his nose to get stuck in the hole of that wood as it flips. His eldest son would try to help him by punching his nose. Paw is naïve and occasionally absent-minded. This naïveté sometimes results in him getting knocked out by his wife.