Dexter's Laboratory: Difference between revisions

[[File:Dexters-Lab.gif|frame]]

 

 

One of [[Cartoon Network]]'s earliest original series, ''Dexter's Laboratory'' originated as one of the [[What a Cartoon Show|World Premiere Toons]], a series of short cartoons solicited through a contest for nonprofessional animators. (''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' was also brought in through this contest, and note that the two shows seem to take place in the same [[The Verse|universe]], and seem to share similar styles. [[Craig McCracken]] and [[Genndy Tartakovsky]] collaborated on both shows.)

Dexter is a very young scientist with a Central European accent, thick-rimmed glasses and a gigantic laboratory in his bedroom. For all his genius, Dexter is never able to keep his sister, Dee Dee, out of his lab.

 

 

This show follows a fairly standard "[[Three Shorts]]" format, with a ''Dexter'' cartoon at the start and end, and another series in between. Throughout its run, this slot was filled by spinoff series ''Dial M for Monkey'' and ''Justice Friends'', both of these [[Superhero]] parodies. ''Dial M For Monkey'' followed Dexter's eponymous pet monkey, who fought aliens and monsters behind Dexter's back. ''The Justice Friends'' provided a domestic sitcom take on ''[[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]'', exploring the apartment life shared by three superheroes. Outside the US the filler shows were sometimes dropped and the ''Dexter'' cartoons shown in a different order.

 

* [[Absentee Actor]]: Dexter doesn't appear in "Paper Route Bout", which instead focused on Dee Dee.

** He also doesn't appear in "Surf, Sun, and Science" which is a [[Day in The Limelight]] for Mandark.

* [[Actor Allusion]]: Koosalagoopagoop is voiced by [[Large Ham|Dom DeLuise]] and is a parody of the increasingly saccharine [[Don Bluth]] movies DeLuise had been in, like [[A Troll in Central Park]].

** Rasslor from the ''Dial M For Monkey'' episode of the same name was voiced by [[Randy Savage]]. His last line in the episode was, naturally, "''OH '''YEAAAH!'''''".

* [[All Girls Like Ponies]]: Dee Dee (plus her [[Five-Token Band|racially diverse friends]] Mimi and Lee Lee)

* [[All Work vs. All Play]]: Played with with Dexter and Dee Dee (respectively All Work and All Play), where there would be episodes where Dexter would be more relaxed like DeeDee, or DeeDee more work-minded like Dexter only to turn back at the end. [[Status Quo Is God]] or an [[Aesop]] of being yourself?

* [[Bald of Awesome]]: Dexter in the [[Bad Future]].

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: You '''do not''' want to see Dexter's father angry. Same with his mother.

** And God help you if you make ''Dee Dee'' seriously angry.

** Parodied in an episode where Dexter shrinks the house to observe it inside his lab, leaving Dexter's lab of normal size on the inside, but a disembodied door on the outside.

** Also parodied in an episode where Dexter draws a map of the house. Guess which is the smallest room.

* [[Big No]]: Dexter, numerous times. Including the scene where he's surrounded by cooties.

* [[Big Red Button]]: "What does THIS button do~~?"

* [[Boredom Montage]]: In "Space Case", after the aliens kidnap Dee Dee, Dexter has one of these in his lab.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Who else? Dexter.

** Especially his backbone-lacking teenage/young adult self in "Ego Trip", who works for Mandark designing cubicles in the future.

* [[Cartoony Eyes]]

** "DEE DEE! GET OUT OF MY LAB'''O'''RATORY!"

** "AT LAST! MY ''GREATEST CREATION'' IS COM''PLE''TED!"

* [[The Chew Toy]]: Dexter, sometimes. Though he has nothing on the ice-cream man in "Ice Cream". Turns out ever since Dexter bought ice cream from him, and paid him in ''pennies'', a series of unfortunate events had happened to him since, including chipping his tooth trying to put them in the safe but tripping on his laces after counting them, dumped by his girlfriend, having his car towed away, getting kicked out of his apartment and being forced to live under a highway because of this one act.

** And to add insult to injury, once the Ice Cream Man forgives Dexter and allows him to purchase ice cream, Dexter pays the Ice Cream Man with a 100 dollar bill.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: There is a rumor of an episode, called "Rude Removal", that was only shown at at least 3 panels. The episode consisted of Dee Dee and Dexter creating evil twins of themselves, after Dexter makes a "Rude Removal" device. The episode consists of their twins cursing.

** The episode does exist but was only ever shown at a handful of animation conventions. It has not been aired or released on DVD to date and may become a [[Missing Episode]].

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: Mee-Mee and Lee-Lee (Dee-Dee's friends) wear green and purple versions of her outfit.

* [[Combining Mecha]]: Dexter builds one in ''Last But Not Beast'' to battle Bedaxtra, which requires the help of his family to use.

** Cue [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM9liWZMfPk&feature=related theme song]

* [[Crapsack World]]: The future in "Ego Trip".

* [[Creepy Child]]: One falls in love with Dexter in "Aye, Aye, Eye".

* [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass]]: Dexter's dad.

* [[Cryptid Episode]]: There's both a Bigfoot episode and a Chupacabra episode.

* [[Deconstructive Parody]]: The episode where Dexter tries out different superpowers.

** That said, this is quite justified, as anyone with brothers or sisters will tell you. Even in the show, Dexter would be overly spiteful towards Dee Dee, or be just plain petty for little to no reason at all. However, there was also a few times where he'd show compassion towards Dee Dee and right any wrongs that happened to her. Yeah, that's sibling rivalry for you.

** Mandark can either be a hammy and morally ambiguous rival to Dexter, or genuinely villainous.

** Dexter can go from being woobie to an [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]], sometimes even within the same episode.

* [[The Ditz]]: Dee Dee.

** [[Genius Ditz]]: There are rare moments when Dee Dee shows a surprising level of insight.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The Muffin Episode. Drug addiction or sex (muff-a-holic?) addiction, take your pick.

* [[Downer Ending]]: In one episode Dexter and Mandark {{spoiler|fail to stop an asteroid from destroying the world}} due their refusal to work together. The two fail to notice this, still bickering inside their mechs in outer space. Thankfully, [[Negative Continuity|that doesn't mean much here.]]

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The monster in "Dee-Dimensional" definitely counts.

** The interdimensional beast "Jojo" in "Mandarker". He apparently helped Mandark write the book ''The Magic of Science by Mandark and Jojo'', but when Mandark summons him as part of a science fair project, he goes berserk and tries to eat Dee Dee.

* [[Emergency Broadcast]]

* [[Ending Theme]]: Narrated by [[Mako]], no less!

* [[For Science!]]: Much of Dexter's motivation.

* [[Foot Focus]]: For Dee Dee. In ''two'' episodes, and it was plot-relevant.

* [[Freaky Friday Flip]]: Played with in "The Old Switcheroo", where Dad forces Dexter and Dee Dee to switch places.

* [[Future Badass]] / [[Future Loser]]: Dexter has ''both'' in [[The Movie]].

** For that matter, Dexter's grandpa and old Dexter himself from the movie look nearly identical.

* [[Genki Girl]]: Dee Dee.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLJ6DaD4fd0 SUZY SUZY SUZY SUZI SUZI!]

* [[Girls Have Cooties]]: The so-called cooties Dexter encounters are in the form of butterflies which inhabit Dee Dee's bedroom.

* [[Gosh Dang It to Heck]]: In "Book ′Em," Dexter has a nightmare where he's being judged by the Devil for not returning his library book on time:

* [[Gross-Out Show]]: At times, particularly when people/animals get diseases.

* [[Gross Up Close-Up]]

* [[Hartman Hips]]: Dexter's mom and the Touchy-Feely Neighbor Lady from "Nuclear Confusion" have the biggest butts in the whole series.

** Thus beginning many forays into [[Perverse Sexual Lust]]...

** Martin Mull and Fred Willard are two of Dexter's robots that are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc8hzAp11bg ridin' that hog!!]

** In Mexico and Denmark, Dexter is [[Winnie the Pooh|Piglet]].

* [[Hollywood Law]]: This is most relevant in the end of Season 2, Episode 32, Part 3: "Dexter Detention".

* [[Hollywood Science]]: But what do you expect? It's a ''[[Rule of Funny|funny cartoon]]''.

* [[Hypocrite]]: Dee Dee once got on Dexter's case for experimenting on one of her dolls. Ignoring her own frequent(ly destructive) visits to his lab.

** Pretty much anytime Dee Dee meets someone of her own clingy and destructive level she finds them intolerable and inconsiderate. Ironically subverted one time Dexter loses it and ''completely destroys her room and all her personal belongings''. Her response?

** Dexter himself occasionally shows [[No Sense of Personal Space]] and can be equally intrusive and annoying. His father has to trick him into leaving when his badgering interupts a golf game for example.

* [[I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That]]: A variation occurs in "The Old Switcharooms": Dexter tries to sneak into his lab from Dee Dee's room to ensure that she isn't trashing it. Dexter's dad, who is somehow aware that Dexter is doing this even without looking at him, casually mentions (in a very stern tone) that if he were to catch anyone trying to escape their punishment, that person would find themselves suffering an even greater punishment.

* [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha]]: Dexter's default response to almost any physical threat is to build a mech and go shoot the danger to bits. Eventually he ends up with a hangar full of mecha, which he walks through, pondering which one to use for playing dodgeball.

* [[In the Future We Still Have Roombas]]: Dozens of helper robots working for Dexter. Two of them even get [[A Day in The Spotlight]].

* [[It Runs in The Family]]: Dexter believes that his grandfather's dinky lab is just child's play, but Dexter doesn't see his grandfather create free energy with it - the one thing Dexter himself couldn't achieve.

** Scenes of Dexter's mother cooking show her using the same scientific precision and unbridled glee as Dexter in the throes of creation.

** Likewise, his father acts much the same as Dee Dee does when disturbing Mom in the kitchen. She even ends up shouting at him in much the same way.

* [[It's Personal]]: After Dexter had Dee Dee destroy Mandark's lab, only ''then'' did Mandark swore revenge on Dexter and became rivals since.

* [[Kiddie Kid]]: Dee-Dee

* [[Killer Game Master]]: Dexter is one, which is why his friends readily insist that Dee Dee be given a chance to run the game.

* [[Lock and Load Montage]]: Used when Dexter suits up and boards his [[Humongous Mecha]].

* [[Luke, I Am Your Father]]: Hilariously parodied in "The Muffin King".

* [[Man On Fire]]: "My hair is on fire! My hair is on fire!"

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Dexter's dad is this when he wants to be in "The Muffin King" and "Snowdown".

* [[Mid-Air Bobbing]]: The episode where Dexter visits Mars.

* [[Mini-Mecha]]: Dexter's backpack can become one.

** It is still available as [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]] via [[YouTube]] and Eastern European video sites.

* [[Mockumentary]]: "Blackfoot and Slim", which ends with {{spoiler|Dexter being tranquilized, tagged and released back into his natural environment.}}

* [[Mundangerous]]: In the episode "Sports a Poppin", Dexter is completely incompetent in sports, and despite his best efforts lets his father down who was trying to teach him to be good at sports. Then at the end of the episode, as his dad goes back inside, a monster let loose by Dee-Dee attacks Dexter. he proceeds to fight it, using skills that obviously should have made him be more capable at the sports than he was.

* [[Musical Episode]]: "Hellooo, dear brother! What have you got there?"

* [[Negative Continuity]]: Used, but not consistently. Dexter's Lab is destroyed in every other episode, but when Mandark's is destroyed in his first appearance, it actually stays that way until the next time we see the character.

* [[Never Say That Again]]: Dexter about Mandark.

'''Dexter''': ''hisses'' }}

* [[Never Trust a Hair Tonic]]: Dexter makes a hair tonic for Dee-dee after she accidentally cuts off one of her pigtails. Despite repeated warnings to use only one drop, Dee-Dee uses the entire bottle. Three guesses what happens next.

* [[No Knees]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|"Hello, knees!"]]

* [[No Name Given]]: Dexter's parents.

* [["No Respect" Guy]]

* [[Noodle People]]: Dee Dee. The fact that her eyes are larger than her torso contributes to it.

* [[Not a Morning Person]]: Dexter's parents, again.

* [[No Sense of Personal Space]]: Pretty much the defining premise of Dee Dee's character.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Lisa the Babysitter from the episode, Babysitter Blues.

* [[One-Sided Arm Wrestling]]: Dad vs. a Trucker... before the arm gets upgraded from truck parts.

* [[Out-of-Genre Experience]]: "Cracked" feels more like an episode of a slice-of-life show. It's also dialogue-heavy, and Dexter's titular lab isn't even ''mentioned''.

* [[Parental Bonus]]: In addition to everything listed under [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] above, the show takes delight in constantly implying that Dexter's parents are not only very much still in love, but have a ''very'' healthy [[Good People Have Good Sex|sex life]].

* [[Perspective Reversal]]: Dee Dee crushes a bunch of ants, because she thinks they're filthy. Dexter, who find ants interesting, shrinks them both down to ant size so Dee Dee can get a better idea of their society. After some adventures, they return to normal size, at which point Dee Dee happily thanks Dexter show showing her just how cool ants really are - while Dexter is squashing them.

* [[Ping-Pong Naivete]]: Dexter, having gas cramps isn't going to make you ''explode''. [[Like You Were Dying|You can calm down now.]]

** He ran a test to see what the cramps would do to him. [[No Control Group|On a balloon]].

* [[Sanity Slippage]]: This happens a few times to Dexter. One episode memorably had him thinking he was a "little piggy" and reverted to babyhood.

** What about his dad? When he's insane, he's really insane.

** Mom too for that matter, on the occasions when her cleaning obsession and fear of germs come to the front. Most notable is one episode where Dad takes her trademark dish gloves while she's asleep, and then wont let her clean the house next day, since its Mothers Day, and the family will take care of the housework for the day. Unfortunatly, its such a messy disaster, that Mom basically has a nervous breakdown and begins to have disturbing hallucinations. It ends well though, as her Mothers Day gift is a brand new pair of gloves.

* [[Satellite Character]]: Dexter's friend Douglas.

** There's a shout out to the theater doors sequence from [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3K]]. This shot was also used in the ending credits

** [[Power Rangers|"It's morphing time!"]]

** [[Ghostbusters|"Who ya wanna call?"]]

** Dee Dee and Dexter are obviously playing [[Primal Rage]] at one point.

* [[Shrunken Organ]]: Dexter decides to put a genius-level brain in Dee Dee's head. He needs a pair of tweezers to remove her old one.

* [[Signature Laugh]]: Several, notably Mandark (especially in the no-dialogue episode).

** In one episode, it was implied he actually died.

** And don't forget when the earth was destroyed by meteors.

* [[Squee]]: Dee Dee.

* [[Stable Time Loop]]: In ''Ego-Trip'', the robots that invaded from the future were actually created by Dexter at the end of the film with the help of the later versions of himself to destroy Dee Dee in retaliation for her being the one to (unwittingly, as usual) defeat Mandark.

* [[Suck E. Cheese's]]: Chubby Cheese's. Run by MiB, no less.

* [[The Faceless]]: Earl in "Hamhocks And Armlocks".

* [[The Renaissance Age of Animation]]

* [[Three Shorts]]

* [[Time Stands Still]]: "Morning Stretch".

* [[Toilet Humor]]: When Dee-Dee and Dexter get their hands on labeling devices to mark their property, Dexter marks a gallon of apple juice as his own and drinks it all... then gets to the bathroom, only to find Dee-Dee's marked it for herself.

** We see it happen to Dexter in ''Ego Trip''.

* [[Took a Level In Dumbass]]: Dad, as part of the [[Seasonal Rot]]. Dee Dee might have gotten dumber too, but it's harder to tell with her.

* [[Unexplained Accent]]: Dexter.

* [[Villain Protagonist]]: Dexter could get rather villainous sometimes (such as in ''Game For A Game'' and ''Used Ink'')

** Dad in ''The Muffin King,'' since he's technically the villain there.

* [[Voice Changeling]]: Dexter adopted this ability. Some kind of machine enabled him to copy the exact voices of others. This was in the babysitting episode, where he used the voices of the babysitter and her boyfriend to sever their relationship, so that he could move in himself.

* [[What Does This Button Do?]]: [[Trope Namer]], because Dee Dee made this into an art form.

* [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: Dexter can acquire whatever parts he needs to build whatever he wants without even having any suspicious shipments of mail arrive at his house. Sometimes he gets robots to assemble everything for him.

** Except when [[Rule of Funny]] dictates he get a bill from NASA.

*** "Kid-friendly" in that it takes place in a school and feature no shooting. It's still about [[Nightmare Fuel|a psychotic man trapping a small child in his school late at night an torturing him.]]

* [[Wig, Dress, Accent]]: Mandark, when he kidnaps and impersonates Dexter's mother in "Momdark".

* [[Wildlife Commentary Spoof]]

* [[Younger Than They Look]]: Mandark's the same age as Dexter, but he's as tall (if not taller) as Dee-Dee.

 

* [[Action Girl]]: Agent Honeydew, although she can occasionally slip into [[Damsel in Distress]] when the plot demands it

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: Barbecuor ([[Fantastic Four|Galactus]]), and his [[Silver Surfer|Silver Spooner]].

** Rasslor is a Captain Ersatz of [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]]'s Champion.

*** [[Actor Allusion]]: [[Randy Savage|"OOOOOHHH YEEEAAAH!!"]]

* [[Cat Fight]]: Agent Honeydew and Peltra (both were even meowing and sticking out their hands in clawing motion, and Peltra was wearing a literal catsuit)

* [[Cruella to Animals]]: Peltra.

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Quackor the Fowl.

** [[Samus Is a Girl]]

** In "Barbequor", if you look closely, Agent Honeydew was about to [[Erotic Eating|eat a whole hotdog]], while a fellow agent stares with glee.

** That whole episode was banned for gay stereotyping and a pseudo-drunk Krunk. It can still be found occasionally on Cartoon Network Video, though, and is pretty damned funny.

* [[Hartman Hips]]: Agent Honeydew. The bodysuit helps!

* [[Heroic Spirit]]: Even though Monkey can't beat Rasslor, he never gives up, and that convinces Rasslor he has finally found a worthy opponent.

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Monkey and Agent Honeydew

** In another Monkey-related cartoon, Monkey and {{spoiler|[[Foe Yay|Quakor]]}}.

* [[Magma Man]]: Monkey fights one in his first episode.

* [[Missing Episode]]: "Barbequor" never airs on Boomerang, since it features a [[Camp Gay]] character. On the "''Dexter's Laboratory'': Season One" DVD, it was replaced with a ''Dexter'' short from the second season and the original [[What a Cartoon]] short.

** Oddly, it comes up in the rotation on Cartoon Network Video.

* [[Ms. Fanservice]]: Honeydew again.

** Monkey after breaking free of being [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] in "Organ Grindor"

* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: Monkey both in and out of costume.

 

 

* [[All Just a Dream]]: The episode where Krunk dreams of him meeting the Puppet Pals. {{spoiler|Which turns out to be a [[Dream Within a Dream]] by Puppet Pal Mitch himself.}}

* [[Anticlimactic Parent]]: Major Glory's uncle.

* [[Delicious Fruit Pies]]: Major Glory's weapon of choice when [[Ad Bumpers|saving Dexter and Dee Dee from the Mathmagician]].

* [[Disney Acid Sequence]]: Krunk's dream, which includes (among other things), a multi-eyed roller-skating zebra in a trenchcoat.

* [[Expy]]: Of [[The Avengers (Comic Book)|The Avengers]]

** Val Hallen - [[Thor]]

** Krunk - [[Hulk]]

** And other characters are [[Expy|expies]] of other comic book characters.

*** Disgruntled Postman - [[The Joker]]

*** White Tiger - [[Black Panther]]

*** Capital G - Black Goliath

*** Living Bullet - [[Iron Man]] + [[The Flash]]

*** Snowman - Abominable Snowman

*** The Silver Spooner - A [[Camp Gay]] Silver Surfer

* [[Improbable Weapon User]]: Val Hallen fittingly used a guitar (or as he referred to it, his "Mighty Axe") as his weapon, and it was also the source of his powers; without it he becomes physically ill and reverts from a Viking-esque god of Rock to a scrawny, short-haired nerdy-looking guy, presumably his true form.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Ratman's backstory don't seem to add up.

'''Ratman:''' What do you mean? [[Comically Missing the Point|I got the costume, and the belt! What's not to get?]] }}

* [[Laugh Track]]: Used to resemble the sitcoms it parodies.

* [[Multilayer Facade]]: Krunk tries to take off the mask of Major Glory, only to reveal several layers of masks beneath it.

** "Krunk stop Kat's reign of terror! ''Here kitty-kitty-kitty!''"

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Val Hallen, especially in 'Pain in the Mouth'.

* [[Played for Laughs]]

* [[The Power of Rock]]: Val Hallen.

* [[Pro Wrestling Episode]]: "Rasslor" in ''Dial M For Monkey''.

* [[Punny Name]]: Val Hallen is both a pun on Valhalla and rock group [[Van Halen]].

* "When I say '[[Secret Identity]]', I ''mean'' '[[Secret Identity]]'!" (Major Glory after having his mask removed eight times, each one revealing another copy of the same mask)

* [[Shout-Out]]: In "Can't Nap", after Major Glory gets locked out of the apartment by White Tiger...

** And two seconds later, Krunk walks out [[Crowning Moment of Funny|dressed as Wilma]]. With the Flinstones theme playing in the background.

* [[So Unfunny It's Funny]]: TV Puppet Pals

* [[Superhero]]

* [[Tom Kenny]]: Val Hallen

* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|Why Did It Have To Be Bees]]

 

[[Category:The Renaissance Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Science Fiction Western Animation]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]

[[Category:Dexter's Laboratory]]