Bizarro gives an eccentric, exaggerated and, as the name implies, bizarre look at everyday life. Piraro has described it as "about the incredibly surreal things that happen to all of us in our so-called 'normal' lives." The situations are surreal, yet often plausible. Some cartoons involve celebrities, such as Sheryl Crow and Penn Jillette, while others make reference to themselves or characters from comics or animation, such as Superman and Gumby. Comics critic Tom Heintjes described Bizarro's themes, cryptic aspects and expansion into performance art: