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* Apparently some fans believe that the term 'twinkle toes' was coined by ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''.
** [[The Flintstones|"Twinkle Toes" Flintstone]] would have something to say about that.
* Who first used [[Humongous Mecha]]? Was it ''[[Transformers]]''? The [[Japanese Spider-Man]]? [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Starship Troopers]]''? The tripods from the original ''[[wikipedia:War of the Worlds|War Of The Worlds]]'' book from 1898? The [[wikipedia:Garuda|Tale of Garuda]] from ''ancient Hindu legend'' had a robot with [[Chainsaw Good|rotary saws for hands]]. This one is officially one of [[The Oldest Ones in Thethe Book]].
** Then there's Talos from Greek mythology, the original model for ''Dungeons & Dragons''' "iron golem".
** Myths are replete with this. Hittite mythology has one. Golden automata and other mechanical creatures were all over [[Greek Mythology]]. Rabbi Loew's Golem was well-known for being large and powerful. Creating a mechanical man is a very old idea indeed, and making it huge is simply the next step up. Naturally, it's arguable which of these "count" as actual mecha, but the basic idea goes back.
* Some people associate "Whoop whoop whoop" noises with [[Futurama|Zoidberg]], [[Weird Al Effect|completely forgetting]] ''[[The Three Stooges]]''.
** The DVD subtitles, at least, give "MIMICS THREE STOOGES" or "IMITATES CURLY FROM THE THREE STOOGES" rather than "WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP".
* The triangular [[Cool Shades]] worn by Soundwave and Prowl of ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' are often mistaken to be a [[Shout-Out]] to the [[Memetic Mutation|famous]] ones worn by Kamina of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', but [[Word of God|Derrick J. Wyatt]] said they were actually a reference to the much older ''[[ABC Warriors]]'' of ''2000 AD'' fame. They were also worn by several other characters before Kamina, including [[Calvin and Hobbes|Calvin]] (in one strip) and Ash's [[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Squirtle]]. Many also thought the ''Lagann'' had some influence on the Headmaster design (both are robots that could become the head of another mecha to boost it's power). However, besides the idea of a robot becoming a Transformer's head dating back to [[Transformers Generation One1|G1]], Wyatt stated that he'd never seen ''Gurren Lagann'' until after the first season was already done with production (though he stated that if he ''had'' seen it before, the design would probably have stubby legs and let Masterson poke his head out the top).
* Although many people think the catcall "[[Hello, Nurse!|Hellooooo, nurse!]]" was originally from ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'', it originated several decades ago, in vaudeville.
** As did most things on ''Animaniacs''.
* The cars in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pxap-M_--k&feature=related this short] bear a certain striking similarity to [[Cars]]. Thing is though, the short is actually from ''1952''!
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** Homer Simpson's iconic "D'oh!" outburst is from Laurel and Hardy (though in a shorter form), as [http://www.heraldscotland.com/what-s-the-story-with-homer-s-d-oh-1.840349 confirmed] by [[Word of God|Matt Groening]].
** While Homer Simpson is named after creator Matt Groening's father, he also shares his name with a supporting character in Nathanael West's novella, ''The Day of the Locust'', which was written in 1939. This has amused more than a few English majors.
*** Of course, it you think that is [[Older Than They Think]], you need to take a closer look at the title of episode 7G03 from the first season, ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Homer's]] [[The Odyssey (Literature)|Odyssey]]''.
** [[Adam West]] was [[Adam Westing]] ''seven years'' before [[Family Guy]] premiered in "[http://youtu.be/SclZxoKyq24 Mr Plow]".
* Ah, [[Toy Story]]! What a cute and creative idea, the thought that toys actually come alive while their master is away. Older folks remember reading those stories when they were about good old ''[[Raggedy Ann]]''.
** ''The Velveteen Rabbit'' was slightly younger -- 1922 to Raggedy Ann's... call it 1918 -- but the doll predates the stories by a couple years. Seems older, what with the scarlet fever, and all.
*** "[[The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Literature)|The Steadfast Tin Soldier]]" beats both of those, being first published in 1838.
*** ''[[The Nutcracker and The Mouse King (Literaturenovel)|The Nutcracker and The Mouse King]]'' was written by [[ETAE. T. A. Hoffmann (Creator)|ETA Hoffmann]] in 1816 and turned into a ballet by [[Tchaikovsky]] in 1892.
*** Children's imaginations ''beat all of them.''
*** Read ''When Toys Come Alive'' by Lois Rostow Kuznets. She has the whole history.
* ''[[The Princess and Thethe Frog]]'', featuring Disney's first black princess, has already been accused of trying to cash in on the Obama presidency. Anyone who follows Disney will remember this was on the drawing board years before Obama was nationally known, and the first teaser trailer was available before the Democratic primaries. Anyone with half a brain will know you can't just pop out a fully animated film, complete with merchandise and advertising, in less than a year.
** Another case of this trope in action. Disney's first black princess was actually Kida from ''[[Atlantis the Lost Empire|Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]''. She was not added to the [[Disney Princess]] toy line was because the movie flopped. Of course, it's also a [[Ambiguously Brown|bit of a stretch]] to call her [[But Not Too Black|black]].
*** ...Because "black" means "Recentally African" rather then a skin color for some reason. The Australian Aboriginals say hi.
**** [[Crocodile Dundee]] referred to the black limo driver as a 'black fella' in the first movie and clearly isn't differentiating him from Australian Aboriginals in this.
* The American ''[[Darkstalkers (Video Game)|Darkstalkers]]'' cartoon featured a bespectacled boy named Harry Grimoire who was studying magic (and happened to have Felicia as a "pet"). This would've been an obvious rip of ''[[Harry Potter]]'', if not for the fact that the cartoon came out some years before.
** A similar thing happened with [[The Books of Magic]], which has a bespectacled young boy who is destined to be a wizard -- in fact Neil Gaiman admits that despite having a bespectacled wizard go to school wasn't his original idea, and that he and Rowling were more inspired by Arthurian legends than each other. (Unfortunately, a magazine [[Mis Blamed]] him as having accused Rowling of ripping off his ideas, which he rebutted)
* Most Disney fans assume that [[Mickey Mouse]] is Disney's first cartoon character, and Peg-Leg Pete was created to be his primary enemy. Actually, Pete was the ''very first recurring Disney character'', created in 1925 (before even ''[[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]]'') for one of Disney's [[Alice Comedies]], a series of shorts which mixed live action and animation. Pete was always a villain, but the fact is that he was imported into the earliest Mickey cartoons to [[Rogues Gallery Transplant|give Mickey an established character to fight]], not the other way around.
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* There used to be a very vocal faction at the IMDb forums which reckoned that "all of Dreamworks' ideas were stolen from Pixar" (yes, '''''all''' of them''). At least two of their favourite examples were shown to be nonsense, as they were in production years before and only bore a superficial resemblance, and in any case one of them (''[[Flushed Away]]'') was actually an [[Aardman Animations]] movie -- the Dreamworks involvement was minimal.
** It was significant enough for the [[Executive Meddling]] to turn the animation from what would have been a great Stop-Motion film into a CG film... one of the biggest complaints against the film is that the characters "look/move weird." Note to Dreamworks: CG does ''not'' play well with characters designed for claymation.
* Spoofed in the "Springfield Shopper" booklet that comes with the ''[[Simpsons]] Movie'' DVD; in it, Homer (as a movie critic who's ''way'' behind with his column) describes ''Star Wars'' (by which he means ''[[A New Hope]]'') as being "a parody of ''[[Spaceballs (Film)|Spaceballs]]''".
* Stop me if you've heard this before: An animated action series with a [[Fiery Redhead]] [[Action Girl]] whose blond male sidekick and a [[Voice Withwith an Internet Connection]] help her pursue a hot former crimefighter with long black hair who turned to crime [[For the Evulz]] because she was bored being a good guy. What? What the hell is this "[[Kim Possible]]" you speak of? I'm talking about [[Where Onon Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?]].
** You know, Kim Possible? The [[Buffy-Speak|slang-happy]], petite, fashion-forward cheerleader who [[Action Girl|fights bad guys]] and occasionally saves the world while trying to maintain a normal social life, with the help of her two classmates, a [[Cool Loser|nerdy]] computer hacker and an [[Butt Monkey|ineffectual goofus]] with [[Hidden Depths]] who's secretly in love with her? They occasionally butt heads with the [[Alpha Bitch|bitchy rich girl]], or Kim's [[Dark Action Girl|snarky brunet]] [[Shadow Archetype|nemesis]] who defected from the good guys to [[The Dragon|hench]] for a perky villain-. No, wait, I was thinking of [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]. ''Awkweird''.
* Now and then someone will accuse ''[[Thundarr the Barbarian]]'' of being a ripoff of ''[[He -Man and Thethe Masters of Thethe Universe]]'', despite the fact that ''Thundarr'' predates ''He-Man'' by several years.
** In fact, [[Hanna-Barbera]] produced both cartoons. Originally, He-Man was based off ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' but they opted to essentially turn the character into "the new Thundarr".
* To this day, there are still fans of the ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' cartoon who are surprised when they find out the cartoon was preceded by the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' comic book by ''41 years''. Heck, the fact that the [[TV Tropes]] page for the cartoon was added to this wiki before the page for the comic book series should tell you something...
* In one episode of ''[[Recess]]'', Gus is involved in a plot against the Ashleys wherein he claims Ashley is also his name - insisting that it's not that unusual in the progressive 1990s. In reality, "Ashley" was almost solely a boy's name until the early 20th century; it was perfectly acceptable for a boy to be named Ashley ''over a hundred years'' before the episode was written or aired.
** One of the best known examples ''in pop culture'' would be Ashley Wilkes of [[Gone Withwith the Wind]], a film consistantly put in top 10 lists.
*** Which was a best-selling ''book'' first.
* Here's one: [[The Pollyanna]] type in a place that is quite clearly [[Hell]], run by a creature that is quite clearly [[Satan]], who acts as a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]. No, not ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', but an earlier show called ''[[The Baskervilles]]''.
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{{quote| '''Shaggy''': Those cave teenagers love their rock music?<br />
'''Scooby-Doo''': (laughs) I don't get it. }}
* On a larger scale, a lot of baby boomers who grew up in [[The Sixties]], if they have no knowledge of animation history, will be surprised when you tell them that cartoons from [[The Golden Age of Animation]] such as ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and ''[[Tom and Jerry (Animation)|Tom and Jerry]]'' were coming out in the 1930's and 40's, and were already decades old back when they remember watching the cartoons on Saturday mornings.
** My mom grew up in the 60s and thinks Bambi came out when she was a kid, and won't let me tell her otherwise.
* [[Adam West]] as Catman is a parody of [[Batman (TV series)|Batman]] in ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]''. However, there actually is a Catman which is a Batman villain created in the 60s.
** And the crazy paranoid Adam West in [[Family Guy]] made his first appearance in an episode of [[Johnny Bravo]].
*** And that's an interesting case because, before creating ''[[Family Guy]],'' [[Seth MacfarlaneMacFarlane]] worked on ''[[Johnny Bravo]].''
* The expression "Cowabunga!" did NOT originate on ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''. It was originally used on ''[[The Howdy Doody Show]]''.
** The phrase originated with Californian surfers, not any TV series within this troper's awareness zone.
* Judging from its sheer presence on the internet, it's a fair assumption that the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' franchise never caught on with males until ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', but there were bronies (not that they ''called'' themselves that) back as far as Generation 1 - believe it or not, the G1 cartoon series usually dealt with boy-friendly epic fantasy adventures, not stereotypically girly fare. But since 4Chan wasn't around in [[The Eighties]], the male fans of the show didn't make themselves known as a significant [[Periphery Demographic]] until the latest series.
** The infamous "Rainbow Dash always dresses in style" quote is usually associated with G3.5 (as is the theme song the lyric appears in), but the quote - and the song - were actually borrowed from G3.
** Actually, who here remembers the ''first'' time we saw multi-coloured equines dancing across the screen in [[Western Animation]]. You know, small unicorns dancing around, and pegasi too. What, [[The Eightiees]]? No...we saw these as early as [[The Fourties]] - I'm talking about the Pastoral in ''[[Fantasia]]''.
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