King Arthur's Disasters

• Main
• YMMV
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

King Arthur's Disasters (2005-2006) is a British cartoon about King Arthur but having very little to do with actual Arthurian Legend, it features the voices of Rik Mayall (The Young Ones), Matt Lucas (Little Britain), Phil Cornwell (Saturday Night Live), and Morwenna Banks (Reeves and Mortimer). It airs on children's channel CITV and Nickelodeon UK.

King Arthur loves Princess Guinevere, unfortunately she's a Rich Bitch/Upperclass Twit and he's a complete moron (in fact no one in this show is very bright). His attempts to woo her (usually by being sent on some deadly Fetch Quest by her) are aided by Merlin, a nervous wizard who tries in vain to stop Arthur from going through with these promises. Arthur is opposed by two wayward Knights, Lancelot and Martyn and eternally cheerful but dim Robin Hood and his ever suffering Merry Men and Women (well, Woman).

Of course even if Arthur gets the item Guinevere requested she never returns his affections. The show is Strictly Formula but the gags are good enough to maintain it anyway.

Tropes used in King Arthur's Disasters include:

• Ambiguously Asian - Sir Martyn is portrayed as being a Japanese samurai. Then again, his full name is Sir Martyn the May Tin Gong which sounds Chinese.
  • Phonetically at least, it sounds a lot like Sir Martyn's calling himself "Before the Sky's Bright".
  • Exactly.
• Ambiguously Gay - Robin Hood
• Anachronism Stew - Played for humor; for example, in one episode King Arthur and Merlin land on the moon.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign - Arthur speaks fake Japanese to Sir Martin, much to his dismay.
• Bishonen - Lancelot.
• Butt Monkey - Arthur, Robin Hood, Lancelot, Martin, WHO ISN'T A BUTT MONKEY IN THIS SHOW?!?!
• Chew Toy - See Butt Monkey.
• Curse Cut Short: "With all his troubles in the past/King Arthur sat down on his * gets trampled by horses.* "
• Deadpan Snarker - King Arthur and Lancelot.
• The Ditz - Robin Hood.
• Estrogen Brigade - An in-universe example: Lancelot has his own little group of fangirls following him around in "Mission: Implausable" and "The Yodeling Dolphin of Kirkwall."
• Estrogen Brigade Bait - Lancelot.
• Everything's Better with Penguins - Morris Dancing Penguins!
• Everything's Worse with Bears
• Failure Is the Only Option
• Fetch Quest
• Freaky Friday Flip - Arthur and Guinevere in the episode "King Guinevere"
• Getting Crap Past the Radar - Lancelot's catchphrase "Oh Blow" would do the trick for American viewers.
  • The scene where The French Fashion Designer lifts up Merlin's robe may count, but it's done in a silly non-sexual way.....
  • A more firmer example would be in the final episode where right after Lancelot flirts with Lady M. Martyn says "We're here to marry Princess Guinevere" to which Lancelot replies "Yes, but it wouldn't hurt to have a backup plan." Hmmmmm.....
• Gonk - Petal, Lady Griselda and one time character Rachel. Morgan Le Fay certainly counts. Also the old lady seen flirting with Lancelot at the beginning of "The Yodeling Dolphin of Kirkwall."
• Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have! - wizard spa worker Wanda (Safe For Work)
• Harmless Villain - Lancelot, Martyn and Robin Hood.
• Having a Gay Old Time - "Oh Blow!" That is all.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: King Arthur is Drop Dead Fred, Merlin is Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Guinevere is Mama Pig and Lancelot, Splag and Robin Hood are Murdoc Niccals of Gorillaz. Mmmmmmm.......Motorola.
• Ho Yay: In "The Surpripse Quest," Arthur has only one last chance to use the love cream on Guinevere. When an owl lands on his shoulder, he accidentaly hits Splag. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Let's not forget the scene where a French fashion designer lifts Merlin's robe admiring its silk.
  • There's also a scene in "The Ice Palace" where Sir Martyn jumps on top of Lancelot and pushes him on to King Arthur's bed as Lancelot tries to wriggle him off.
  • The fact that Sir Martyn's line "Two despicable knights together" quote in "Mission: Implausible" can be taken totally out of context certainly doesn't help.
    • Hell, with some editing, you could actually make something out of that.
• I See London - From Merlin as seen here. (Don't worry: it's safe for work.)
• Inept Mage - Merlin.
• No Fourth Wall- "Great. I'm a cartoon bear!"
• No Export for You - Kinda subverted as anyone can order the DVDs (as long as you have an all regions DVD player), but as of now, it has been aired only in England, Australia, France, Mexico, Portugal, Italy, and Spain thus contributing to it's lack of love
• Odango Hair - Countess Griselda sports one.
• Only Sane Man: Merlin, not that Merlin is particularly sane. He's just more sensible than everyone else.
• Rich Bitch: Guinevere.
• Secret Identity - 'Sir Margaret', the most capable knight (indeed most capable character generally) is clearly really Lady M, Arthur's sister. Naturally, no one ever realises this.
• Shout-Out - More than a few. Not least of which, a Donkey seller dressed like Super Mario selling a Donkey named Kong. Rik Mayall actually did a couple of adverts for Nintendo back in the Snes era.
• Strictly Formula
• Thick Line Animation - In fact, to some extent it feels like a Butch Hartman show (if he'd been British).
• The Unintelligible - Splag
• Unusual Euphemism - Lancelot's catchphrase "Oh Blow!" But Americans most likely see this as something else....
• Upperclass Twit - Guinevere
• William Telling - King Arthur becomes the target for one of these in "The Ice Palace". He has to stand with an apple on his head and be shot at in turn by Robin Hood, William Tell and Sir Maragaret.
• X Meets Y - Cake Entertainment (distributor of the series) described it as "Shrek meets Monty Python".
• You Fail Biology Forever - In one episode, Petal's sister Tatiana shows a deep concern for her apes. Yeah, Tatiana? APES DON'T HAVE TAILS!
  • Lampshaded when King Arthur states that whales aren't fish - they're mammals.