Oggy and the Cockroaches
The slapstick trickster cartoon. You know the drill: some character pulls a mean one on another. The victim retaliates. Both parties get caught up in an escalating spiral of cartoon violence. Hilarity Ensues, until houses are leveled down, forests are ravaged, cities are lain waste, and the world goes Kaboom!!. Then they start it all over again in the next episode.
This time-honored formula, featured in many Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry shorts, gets a revival in the French production Oggy and the Cockroaches (Oggy et les Carfards- 1998-1999, 2008). Each 7-minute short (there are 195 of them) follows the life of the blue rotund cat Oggy, who has the misfortune to share the same house with three cute but naughty roaches: Dee Dee, Marky and Joey. Their sole purpose of existence is to have fun with Oggy by pulling a series of practical jokes. Oggy is sometimes helped by his cousin Jack, a green cat with a knack in mechanics and a short fuse. Factor in a burly neighborhood bulldog named Bob, and you have a great slapstick set-up.
Oggy is renowned for its expressive use of mime -- the cats may make cat sounds or (rarely) speak in gibberish, but there is no dialog, and written words are kept to a minimum. Without the need for dubbing, the show is able to reach a wide international audience.
- Accordion Man: actually accordion cat.
- Adorkable: Oggy
- Amusing Injuries: DEAR LORD, to say that the injuries of the characters are amusing is an understatement. This is Tom And Jerry Up to Eleven, and by GOD, is that saying something.
- Angry Guard Dog: Bob.
- Annoying Laugh: The cockroaches.
- Balloon Belly: The cockroaches once filled Oggy's belly with helium, making Oggy to believe he was pregnant, see Viewer Gender Confusion.
- Battle Discretion Shot
- Big Ball of Violence: Often seen with Bob the Dog and Oggy.
- Big Eater: Dee Dee the cockroach. Also an Extreme Omnivore. Oggy also shares this quote.
- Bigger on the Inside: Oggy's house is a PRARDIS - Purple Roof and Relative Dimensions in Space.
- Butt Monkey: Oggy and Jack
- Camp Straight: Oggy
- Cats Are Mean: This is mostly for Jack although Oggy is no saint either.
- Crazy Prepared: Jack sometimes.
- Creepy Cockroach
- Deranged Animation
- Driving Test: The car is destroyed, but Oggy gets a pass. The instructor is blind.
- Drunk with Power: Jack in "The Dictator"
- Exposed Animal Bellybutton
- Expy: The meaty doctor from "Face Off" seem to be similar to Wall from Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi.
- Fantastic Voyage: Dee Dee gets a close up view of Oggy's Bizzarchitechture insides in the episode 'Globopolis' where it soon turns out Oggy is operated by tiny ghost-clones.
- Fat Bastard: Oggy
- Fat Cat: Oggy.
- Furry Confusion: Watch "The Neighbor's Cat".
- Interspecies Romance: Oggy once had a very pretty human girlfriend who has a crush on one of the roaches. Oggy of course was jealous
- Gonk: Many of the 'human' characters in the show.
- The Goomba: Bob, sometimes.
- Gratuitous Spanish: The "El Salsafiore" record.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy are Dee Dee, Marky and Joey the cockroaches.
- Jazz guy from Crashbox, I mean the Grim Reaper is Oggy's brother Jack. Jack's lover Monica is Tara Strong.
- Jerkass: All of the characters share this quote.
- Leitmotif: Bob the bulldog has a French-horn theme, while Jack is often accompanied by electric guitar. The cockroaches have their theme tune, harpsichord, or both. Oggy shares his theme tune with the show's opening.
- Man Child: Oggy.
- Meat-O-Vision: One of the cockroaches gets a snootful of mushroom spores and sees Jack as a giant roast chicken. And tries to eat his leg.
- Mime-and-Music-Only Cartoon
- Musical Theme Naming: The cockroaches are all named after members of The Ramones.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The roaches are named after members of the punk band The Ramones.
- Recurring Character: Monica, Pink-nose Cop and The Penguin.
- Santa Claus: As a giant godlike anthropomorphic Christmas stocking. Which makes it all the more funny when he accidentally trips over a tree stump and destroys the last standing Christmas tree in a forest.
- Screwy Squirrel: The three roaches, to the extreme.
- Slapstick
- Sphere Eyes
- Squashed Flat: The cockroaches survive this all the time. (except in one episode where Oggy kills them)
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Oggy was this when he had a live-action human head in "Face Off"
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Ping-nose Cop and The Inspector from "The Fugitive".
- Tarot Motifs: After breaking a mirror on Friday the 13th, Oggy draws three different Deaths and a Nuke.
- Toothy Bird: The peguin and the bird Oggy rode on in the pizza episode.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: Oggy's sister Monica looks just like him, except for some Tertiary Sexual Characteristics.
- This is averted with Jack, who is Oggy's cousin yet doesn't even have the same fur color.