The Tick (animation)



"Yes, evil comes in many forms, whether it be a man-eating cow or Joseph Stalin, but you can't let the package hide the pudding! Evil is just plain bad! You don't cotton to it. You gotta smack it in the nose with the rolled-up newspaper of goodness! Bad dog! Bad dog!"

1994 Animated Series, a casual but incisive send-up of Superhero shows (based on an independent comic by Ben Edlund written in the early 90s), featuring as its title character a super-strong, "Nigh Invulnerable" (or so he says), and probably insane moron with a hypertrophied sense of justice and Melodrama, given to bold, thoughtless action and near-incomprehensible Aesop-like pronouncements. Assisting the Tick in his daily struggle against the forces of Evil is Arthur, a former accountant, now moth-themed Sidekick. Frequently joining their adventures are Die Fledermaus and American Maid, two fellow crimefighters who bear a funhouse-mirror resemblance to a pair of well-known characters from The DCU.

The Tick's adventures are evenly split between well-intentioned cluelessness and actual battles against supervillains. These villains -- such as Chairface Chippendale, El Seed, Brainchild, and the Terror -- are frequently just as bizarre as the Tick and his allies. Some, like the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight ("One of these days, baby! Milkshake! Boom!"), have even developed their own fan followings.

In every episode, this program gleefully skewers the tropes and cliches of the Superhero genre, distorting and twisting them like Silly Putty until they can stretch no more and snap back to hit you in the face. The resulting lunacy has spawned a cult following that continues to this day.

In 2001, Fox attempted to revive the series in a live action format with Patrick "Puddy" Warburton as The Tick. American Maid and Die Fliedermaus were absent due to licensing and rights issues, being replaced by near-lookalikes Captain Liberty and Batmanuel. Although some of the animated show's style and wit was retained, along with different humor, it was too expensive to have the Protagonists actually battle evildoers, so the show was often more Seinfeld-in-tights, although did provide some comedic Deconstructions. It was canceled before it could run a whole season. Where's the siege?! (Probably didn't help anything that the last Episode, The Terror was scheduled to run on 9/11/2001.) Watch it legally here.

Recently, the comic has returned as a bi-monthly, ongoing title, written by Benito Cereno and drawn by Les McClane.

This series is the Trope Namer for:

 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress
 * If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten
 * Nigh Invulnerability

This series provided examples of:
"Taft: Come on man, I'm your mother! Tick: No, you're not! You're Taft!"
 * Achilles in His Tent - Handy might well have named this trope.
 * Adaptation Distillation - Most fans agree that the cartoon version was a great step for the franchise.
 * Alien Among Us: Tick and Arthur get new neighbors in one episode: Thrakkorzog, some normal guy, and Thrakkorzog's brain-eating tongue.
 * All Psychology Is Freudian - In one episode, The Tick goes to see a psychiatrist. His "therapy" consists of being forced to wrestle the psychiatrist's assisstant Shaft Taft in various disguises.

"Tick: (clears throat) All right…uh…this is quite a pickle. But no reason to panic, Arthur. Arthur: (long, anguished scream) Tick: (spots a Phone Booth) Ah…come along, Arthur! We'll call for assistance! Arthur: (screams again)"
 * Animal-Themed Superbeing: The Tick... even if he doesn't actually suck blood. Also, Arthur is not a bunny.
 * Not to mention Sewer Urchin, Die Fledermaus, The Ant, Man-Eating Cow, Bumbling Bee, Caped Cod, Portuguese Man-of-War, Cockroach, The Praying Mantis, Blowfish Avenger, Caped Chameleon, Captain Lemming, Fishboy, The Angry Red Herring, The Fin, Octo-Raymond, Shiela Eel, and more.
 * An Aesop
 * Anal Probing: Subverted. When The Tick is abducted by aliens, he is enthusiastic about being probed to expand interstellar knowledge, but it turns out the aliens actually want him to help defeat their enemies. The thought of probing him never crossed their minds.
 * And That's Terrible - "Eating kittens is just plain wrong, and no-one should do it! Ever!"
 * Amazonian Beauty / Statuesque Stunner - Jungle Janet
 * Animated Shows
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever - The Plot behind The Tick Vs. Dinosaur Neil.
 * Auction of Evil -Takes place in the episode Coach Fussell's Lament
 * Ax Crazy - The Bomber What Bombs at Midnight
 * Badass Mustache -- This excerpt has the Tick grow one.
 * It didn't grow so much as...find its way onto his face.
 * He seeks moustache advice from Taft, a man with a Badass Moustache who is totally not Shaft.
 * Badass Normal: In the cartoon at least, most of the heroes aside from the Tick himself are this or at least trying to be this. Some have a gadget based gimmick like Arthur.
 * Sewer Urchin is probably the closest when acting in his element, since he has faced off against those weird filth monsters and won.
 * Badass Spaniard: El Seed, to a certain degree.
 * Bad Guy Bar : The Evil Eye Cafe
 * Bad Santa - Multiple Santa.
 * Badass Grandpa: The retired superheroes from Grandpa Wore Tights, who despite their advanced age and failing powers, put up quite a fight against The Human Ton and Handy.
 * Baleful Polymorph: In the animated episode "Coach Fussell's Lament, Brain Child uses one of his inventions to turn the Tick into a two-headed bluebird that only speaks high school French and lays chocolate eggs. Later, as Arthur tries to reverse the transformation, he is briefly turned into a flatworm, a chimp, an ant, a sock and a cow before his sidekick finally finds the button marked "NORMAL".
 * Bat Signal - The Tick Signal first seen in The Tick vs. Arthur's Bank Account.
 * Der Fladermaus has one, as pointed out by the mayor, but leaves town and stops answering his phone whenever it's lit.
 * Battle Cry /CatchPhrase - '"SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!"'
 * "Not in the Face! Not in the Face!"
 * "Boom baby, Boom!"
 * "... And so he says to me..."
 * "I vote for JUSTICE!"
 * "Knock Off All That Evil!"
 * "[Something]. Definitely [something]."
 * Bilingual Bonus - Die Fledermaus is German for "The Bat."
 * This is averted in the Colombian Spanish dub, since they translated his name literally from German to Spanish and it's translated as La Rata Voladora (The Flying Rat)
 * Body Horror: "ARTHUR! My mustache is touching my brain!" Actually possible - a little bit of your brain actually does protrude into your sinuses (that's how you can smell). Also, The Ticks transformation in Coach Fussels Lament.
 * In the animated episode "Armless But Not Harmless", the Tick and Arthur are struck by a ray that causes their arms to fall off. The Tick takes his sudden debrachiation in stride. Arthur…not so much:

"Idea Man: Well, we thought we’d steal a lot of money, and then we’d be rich, and we wouldn’t have to work anymore! Tick: You cads!"
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Authur is pretty competent in a variety of things, once you look past he's in a giant moth suit all the time.
 * Averted in Arthur's backstory in multiple adaptations - he attempted to wear his moth suit all the time at his accounting position, and this bothered the higher-ups enough that he was "encouraged" to take a leave of absence and get psychiatric help.
 * The Tick himself qualifies, as well. When compared to most of the other "heroes" in The City, at least The Tick has the drive and focus to get the job done.
 * Call Back: Batmanuel is referred to as Die Fliedermaus by Destroyo in "The Tick vs The Trial".
 * The Cameo: The 10th anniversary re-release of Tick issue #1 has a bonus segment showing Tick's escape from an insane asylum. It turns out Dr. Bunsen and his assistant Beaker ran the place.
 * Captain Ersatz - All over the place. The live action series had them for the major characters.
 * In Transformers Animated, of all places, The Tick gets one. Sentinel Prime is voiced by Townsend Coleman, resembles the Tick (he's large, blue and has a lantern jaw and antennae) and even speaks like the Tick at times. The biggest difference being that Sentinel is a Jerkass instead of a Cloudcuckoolander.
 * Captain Geographic: American Maid and Captain Liberty.
 * Captain Patriotic: Captain Liberty is a spoof of this.
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Many of the antagonists, particularly Chairface Chippendale and The Terror.
 * Catapult to Glory: the Human Cannonball.
 * Chainsaw Good - Wielded by the aptly-named Chainsaw Vigilante.
 * Characterization Marches On - The first episode has Die Fledermaus springing into action, among other superheroes, to stop the Idea Men. He was distracted by American Maid.
 * Chef of Iron / Evil Chef - The Breadmaster
 * The City, called, oddly enough, "The City". It's said to have been poorly Anglicized from the French "Les Citrons" (The Lemons). Apparently early French explorers found a large quantity of some kind of fruit in the area.
 * Clark Kenting - Clark Oppenheimer's glasses and The Tick's hypnotic tie.
 * Cleavage Window - Captain Liberty's outfit in the live action show has a star-shaped window. Destroyo remarks on it in his Hannibal Lecture.
 * Closer to Earth (American Maid, compared to Die Fliedermaus and most of the rest of the cast)
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Tick, turned to 11.
 * 11? The Tick's dial goes all the way to "Justice"!
 * Combat Stilettos: American Maid wears them and actually uses them in combat as throwing weapons.
 * Continuity Nod: Countless examples, in addition to the Deface of the Moon example below. In one case, Handy loses one of his eyes at the end of "The Tick vs. Arthur's Bank Account" and when Handy returns in "Grandpa Wore Tights", he's wearing an eye patch.
 * Conservation of Ninjitsu: In the comics. The third issue is titled appropriately "Night of a Million Zillion Ninjas" and they're every bit as ineffective as you'd expect with such large numbers. Justified in part by the revelation that Ninja has become a cheap franchise.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Tick versus the Infinity Orb.
 * Dating Catwoman: Die Fledermaus meets his own personal Catwoman when he encounters The Ottoman, a stylish woman who knows everything about furniture.
 * Dead Little Sister: Little Wooden Boy
 * Deconstructor Fleet
 * Deface of the Moon: An aborted attempt by Chairface Chippendale to write his name. The letters "CHA" appear on the moon as a Continuity Nod.
 * Later the Tick successfully blows up the C, but is blown off the moon before he can complete his job, leaving a "HA" on the moon. Later that episode, a Captain Ersatz of Galactus takes a bite out of the moon, which also remains.
 * One has to wonder, considering how large he wrote the first three letters, how Chairface Chippendale expected to fit his entire name on the surface of the moon.
 * Maybe he intended to write just "Chairface".
 * The Ditz: The Tick.
 * Does Not Know His Own Strength
 * Doppleganger Spin: Multiple Santa, who duplicates whenever touched by an electrical spark.
 * Dumb Muscle: The Tick himself.
 * Early-Bird Cameo: In one issue of the comic book, a mysterious female figure wearing a flying suit identical to Arthur's appears in a few panels. The comic ended before her story was revealed, but she later appeared in the animated series as Carmelita Vatos, daughter of the suit's inventor and (eventually) Arthur's love interest.
 * Egopolis: Pineapple Pokopo and Pokoponesia.
 * Embarrassing Old Photo: In The Tick vs. Brainchild.
 * Enfante Terrible: Charles/Brainchild, who was also a Mad Scientist.
 * Eldritch Abomination: Thrakkorzog, Tun-La Not Of This Earth.
 * Eureka Moment: Given the less than stellar intellects of many cast members, these tend to be gems such as "...Water. People swim... in water!"
 * Expy - Since the live action version couldn't get all the rights to characters from the animated version, Die Fledermaus became Bat-Manuel and American Maid became Captain Liberty.
 * For added hilarity, Batman Die Fledermaus and Wonder Woman American Maid were already Expys in their own right. Also, Shaft Taft.
 * Everything's Better with Cows: The Man-Eating Cow, possibly-heroic scourge of the criminal underworld and star of her own spin-off comic.
 * Also, the off-screen fifty-foot fire-lactating bovine known as Apocalypse Cow in the live-action version.
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Yank.
 * Evil Plan: Parodied in the pilot episode, when the heroes catch one of the Idea Men and demand he tells them his scheme:

"Gravity is a harsh mistress! I hate broccoli, and yet, in a certain sense, I am broccoli. You know, when a tomato grows out of your forehead, it gets you thinking. I'm about to write you a reality check. Or would you prefer the cold, hard cash of truth? EMBWBAM: AN OBJECT AT REST, CANNOT BE STOPPED! SURF'S UP, SPACE PONIES! I'M MAKING GRAVY WITHOUT THE LUMPS!"
 * Esperanto, the Universal Language: "Actually, Tick, I've taught myself to speak all your Earth languages. Except Esperanto. * chuckles* You could see that one was going nowhere."
 * Evil Old Folks: The Terror, a crazy old has-been supervillain who used to be buddies with Stalin. Back in the day he used to be a credible threat; these days, not so much, but he still gives Arthur and The Tick a good go of it.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight.
 * Expospeak Gag: Google "acetylsalicylic acid".
 * Eye Lights Out
 * Fantastic Voyage Plot: Without as much shrinking though. The just needed to get into Dinosaur Neal's body to remove the dinosaur DNA.
 * Feghoot: the episode The Tick Loves Santa. Dear GOD, the episode The Tick Loves Santa
 * Five-Man Band: Of Sorts.
 * The Hero - The Tick
 * The Lancer - Die Fleidermaus (Sometimes American Maid)
 * The Big Guy - The Tick again
 * The Smart Guy - Arthur
 * The Chick / Action Girl - American Maid/Carmelita on occasion.
 * The Quiet One - Sewer Urchin (Sometimes The Chick)
 * Team Pet - Speak the Capybara
 * There was an actual one in The Civic Minded Five
 * Flowers for Algernon Syndrome: in the episode "The Tick versus Pineapple Pokopo."
 * Foot Focus: Find a fighting scene with American Maid
 * For Science!: The primary motivation of most of the shows various mad scientists, most notably Dr Chrome Dome.
 * Franchise Zombie: Ben Edlund wants to focus on science fiction and horror for his entertainment output. Fans keep asking for more of The Tick. He's apparently grown quite disgusted with the character as a result.
 * Genius Ditz: The Tick may be very, very ditzy in just about everything, but he has shown a certain level of philosophical thought in some cases. Especially so in the second episode of the live action series, where he learns that everyone (even potatoes) can die, and after thinking about it for about a minute, gives Arthur a motivating speech that actually makes sense.
 * God Guise: Of sorts, as other inmates of the Evanston Asylum that escaped when The Tick did start worshipping him, forming the Mystic Order of Arachnid Vigilance. Which then underwent Defictionalization as The Tick's fanclub.
 * Good Guy Bar: The Comet Club
 * Gratuitous Latin: Milo from the supervillain team Venus and Milo spouts Latin phrases constantly.
 * The Greatest Story Never Told: In the comics, just to tweak Chairface Chippendale, his attempt to carve his name in the moon is hushed up and subsequently blamed on Charo.
 * Grievous Harm with a Body: "Arthur, my body is a weapon. Use it!"
 * Hand Puppet: Handy, the Human Ton's good pal. Read a book!
 * Hannibal Lecture: Parodied with Destroyo in the live action series. Trying it on Captain Liberty just made her not able to shut up about insecure she was.
 * Highly-Visible Ninja: Parodied to the point of ludicrousness (just take a look at the picture on the trope page).
 * The Flying Squirrel superhero student in "The Tick vs Education" proved to be pretty effective with her squirrels.
 * Hot-Blooded: The Tick, especially in his more scenery-chewing moments.
 * I Am Not Weasel: Arthur's moth costume is confused for a rabbit rabbit.
 * Ice Cream Koan: Many quotes by The Tick and The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight.

"Tick: Guns and superheroes don't mix. Seek professional help."
 * Idea Bulb: The terrorist group Idea Men have a light bulb logo.
 * Idiot Hero
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Keith "Crime Cannibal" Donner, superhero with the power to eat human beings incredibly quickly.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: "It's a YULE TIDE!!"
 * Another episode had a gun that turned half The City into "some guy named Ray".
 * Apparently there was also a "Tommy Gun" that did something similar.
 * In the Name of the Moon: "Sun-worshipping dog-launchers, you face... The Tick!"
 * In with the In Crowd
 * Instrumental Theme Tune
 * It's All About Me: Sure Destroyo tried to nuke The City, but Batmanuel had the right of way, and he should not get higher car insurance because of it.
 * Jungle Princess: Jungle Janet
 * Lampshaded Double Entendre: The Tick doesn't "know what they mean".
 * Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: A hand puppet compared The Tick to Achilles in his tent. When no one, even his ventrilloquist, got it he said "It's from The Illiad. Read a book!"
 * Lantern Jaw of Justice: Really, just look at the Tick's profile (preferably against the Tick-signal).
 * Let's Get Dangerous: "That'll be QUITE ENOUGH OF THAT!"
 * Limited Wardrobe
 * Live Action Adaptation
 * Love Freak: The Tick. He avoids being a Wide-Eyed Idealist simply by the world being only *slightly* less loony than himself.
 * Mad Bomber: The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight (yes, that is his full title).
 * Magic Pants: Subverted and lampshaded in The Tick vs. Dinosaur Neil, where Dinosaur Neil's monstrous transformation renders him completely nude, causing a group of top scientists outside of The City to attempt to clothe him with the largest pair of pants.
 * Well, they would. They carefully studied the situation, and came to the conclusion that the fact that he was pantsless was Neil's beef.
 * Matryoshka Object: The Living Doll.
 * Mayincatec: The Deertown Aztecs are classic examples of this, right down to the trap filled temple pyramid.
 * Meganekko: Arthur's sister Dot
 * Metaphysical Fuel: The Whats' starships run on fear -- their own.
 * Miles Gloriosus: Die Fledermaus
 * Mini-Dress of Power: American Maid
 * The Monolith: In the comics, a Monolith upgrades a town full of farmers into full-blown mad scientists.
 * Monster Clown: The Proto-clown.
 * My Brain Is Big: Brain Child and Dr. Chromedome.
 * My Name Is Inigo Montoya
 * Nested Mouths: Thrakkorzog has a little face on his tongue that talks about eating brains.
 * Nineties Anti-Hero: Parodied with Big Shot.

"The Mayor: "You heroes keep sending us these things and they just don't work. Every time we flash the Die Fledermaus signal he unplugs his phone and skips town for a week.""
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Sewer Urchin has Dustin Hoffman's "Rainman" voice.
 * Die Fladermaus acts like the Adam West Batman.
 * No Export for You: Finally averted when the live-action version got its UK premiere, in January of 2011. At 9PM on a Friday night.
 * No Name Given: The Tick
 * Out with a Bang: Captain Liberty sleeps with The Immortal, which somehow gives him a heart attack and kills him. This was a guy who once fought a man made out of black holes!
 * Paper Master: Papercut
 * Plant Person : El Seed
 * Pokémon-Speak: The language of the Whats and the Heys.
 * Pulling Themselves Together: The Living Doll is, as his catchphrase goes, "full of tinier men". Of course, that means that once the fighting's over he has to round himself up and make sure he's got all of them in the right order.
 * Punny Name: Scarf Ace, a knitting supervillain.
 * For that matter, the "Rive Droite" bank whose fitting slogan is "The Right Bank for You"
 * Reinventing the Telephone: Parodying the Bat Signal

"American Maid: Oh well, I suppose I could do a lot worse. Tick: Neat!"
 * Retro Rocket: A miniature one was used as a Jet Pack by The Suffragette during her hero career.
 * Robot Dog: Brainchild has one.
 * Roof Hopping: But tends to smash the parts he lands on, and they don't take too kindly to that in Europe.
 * Santa Claus
 * Sapient Cetaceans: "The Tick vs Nevada" featured a dolphin who, like Blowhole, wanted to conquer mankind rather than amuse it.
 * Sarcasm Blind:

"Arthur: (sotto voce) "Who knew Sewer Urchin of all people would be this cool?" Sewer Urchin: (revealing that he heard Arthur just fine) "Down here I'm the apotheosis of cool.""
 * Screams Like a Little Girl: Arthur in the live action series, making The Tick think it's a Distressed Damsel.
 * She's Got Legs: American Maid
 * Shout-Out: To many sources, including Dick Tracy and The DCU.
 * SMURFING: The Whats mistake Arthur for a Hey and he still manages to get through an interrogation.
 * Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: Evil giant ants plan to deliver Karmic Deaths to all of humanity via one gigantic magnifying glass.
 * Spikes of Villainy: Baron Violent's costume.
 * Spoof Aesop ("You know, though today was the worst day of my life, I learned many things. First, the world looks a lot different when you're six inches tall and covered with feathers. Second, two heads are definitely not better than one. And finally, you can lay eggs and still feel like a man.")
 * Super Breeding Program: El Seed had an ultimate goal of creating an army of super-strong animated plants.
 * Superhero
 * Superhero Packing Heat: Parodied with Big Shot.
 * The Talk
 * This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman: Sewer Urchin, normally somewhat useless and meek, becomes a Badass in the episode where they have to battle his sewer-based archnemesis. Here, he is largely unflappable with just the right tools for the job and a pretty cool base of operations.


 * The Unintelligible: The Idea Men, while theyre helmets are closed anyway.
 * Villains Out Shopping: Which can turn even that into doing unspeakable evil.
 * Watch Where You're Going: Arthur manages to crash into ......LeonardoDavinci while flying. Twice.
 * Wearing a Flag on Your Head: American Maid
 * Webcomic Time: "I dreamed I stopped existing for eight months!"
 * We Need a Distraction "Hi, I'm Arthur, and this is my diversion!"
 * We Want Our Jerk Back: With the villains bringing him back. "We've got to rescue the Blue Tick, who is also mad, but in a much more goal-oriented way."
 * What Kind Of Lame Power Is xxx: Many heroes and villains have weird/marginal abilities: The Indigestible Man, Pig Leg/The Deadly Bulb, Bi-Polar Bear, the Caped Chameleon, the Carpeted Man, Four-Legged Man, Baby Boomerangutan, loads more...
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The Tick fights crime in a city named The City.
 * The Worm That Walks: "ANTS IN PANTS!"