Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Avatar: The Last Airbender‍'‍s Pakku gets a pretty excellent one before fighting Katara: "If you want to learn waterbending so badly, STUDY CLOSELY!!"
    • "I'm sorry it has to end this way, brother." "No you're not."
    • "Did I ever tell you how I got the nickname Dragon of the West?"
    • "They're mine!"
    • "Trust me, Zuko, it's not gonna be much of a match."
  • The Legend of Korra has Korra, in the first episode confront a gang of three thugs. Surprised by the fact that anyone has the nerves or stupidity to challenge them, the confrontation leads to this exchange:

Thugs: Who do you think you are?
Korra: Why don't you come and find out?

  • In Total Drama Island, by the end of the fight between Izzy and Chef in "Hide and Be Sneaky":

Izzy: Bye bye! (kicks Chef)

  • Ben from Ben 10 loves to spout these before turning alien and leaping into action. They tend to be incredibly cheesy, but give him a break, he's a Kid Hero.
  • Played with in the The Simpsons several times. In the episode "Simple Simpson" when Homer becomes Pie Man. After a series of heroic exploits and delivering multiple pastry-based one-liners just before subduing his various victims, he eventually just uses, "I have run out of pie-related puns!"
    • In the episode "Itchy & Scratchy Land", while fighting out-of-control animatronic Itchy and Scratchy robots with cameras, Bart says in Schwarzenegger-esque voice "Hey mouse... say cheese." followed quickly by "With a dry, cool wit like that, I could be an action hero." It's played with even further when moments later, Homer emerges from a pile of defeated robots, saying "Die, bad robots, die!... With a dry, cool wit like that, I could be an action hero."
    • In a Halloween episode, Homer has to think of a witty remark to say before he assassinates Kent Brockman... but when he thinks of it, he realizes that there's nobody around and so he doesn't have to say it.
  • Clone High: "More tea, Wesley?"
    • "Bah! Chamomile!"
  • My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic:[1]
    • Rainbow Dash, when she's about to start rounding out the parasprites in "Swarm of the Century":

"Time to take out the adorable trash."

    • "A Dog and Pony Show":
      • When one of the Diamond Dogs tries to put a bridle on Applejack, she quips "If you can take this bull by the horns, you better be ready for a ride!" before starting to buck him off.
      • "A Dog and Pony Show" also gives us the precursor to a verbal ass-kicking:

Rarity: "I am not whining. I am complaining. Do you want to hear whining?"

    • In "The Return of Harmony", Twilight Sparkle gives one just before she and the mane cast defeat Discord with the Elements Of Harmony. Probably one of the most Badass ways of invoking The Power of Friendship ever.

Twilight Sparkle: "All right, ladies. Let's show him what friendship can really do!"

    • In "It's about Time," when Twilight prepares to kick the ass of Cerberus. Yes, that Cerberus. The moment is ruined by Fluttershy, but it's still pretty awesome.

Twilight Sparkle: "Hey, Cerberus! You look like you could use some obedience training. Magic obedience training."

  • Transformers: "One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall." So nice, they used it twice. Also, and more to the point, "Megatron must be stopped."
    • Surely the true one-liner is in this exchange:

Megatron: Why throw away your life so recklessly?
Optimus: That's a question you should ask yourself, Megatron.

    • At the end of The Movie, Rodimus Prime gets two in the same scene.

Rodimus Prime: (after wrestling the MacGuffin from The Dragon) This is the end of the road, Galvatron. (throws him through a wall)
Rodimus Prime: (as he activates the Deus Ex Machina MacGuffin) Now... light our darkest hour!

    • Almost everybody gets one of these.

Devastator: PREPARE FOR EXTERMINATION.
Frenzy: First we crack the shell, then we crack the nuts inside!
Wreck-Gar: You check in, but you don't check out.
Grimlock: Me Grimlock want to munch metal.

    • Bulkhead is the current reigning king of one-liners. He spouts one in every episode so far.
  • Kim Possible
    • Both heroes and villains often break them out, with Shego especially fond of them. With everyone recovering from a cold, Shego declares, "Looks like someone's been drinking a lot of fluids -- and retaining every ounce..."
    • This, from The Movie.

"You're right, Drakken. Boys? Dating? Oh, it's hard. But this? Is easy." Boom.

  • Teen Titans
    • This is Robin's job. It gets a bit ridiculous at times.
    • Starfire gets one in one of the first episodes.

Starfire: I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am stronger than I look. (WHAM)

    • Raven and Beast Boy have them during their Berserk Button moments,

Raven: Don't come any closer.
Beast Boy: I am not a man, I AM AN ANIMAL!!!

  • Earthworm Jim: "Eat dirt, everything in the vicinity!" (and about a billion variations thereof...). Brilliant when you think of it. He's an earthworm and his kind generally tends to eat... well..
  • Stripperella. "Look out crime. I'm gonna to take a bite out of you. But... not in a way you're gonna find... pleasurable."
  • Darkwing Duck:
    • "Let's get dangerous!"
    • Darkwing Duck's shift from comic relief to serious threat post-"Dangerous" constitutes its own trope.
    • "Suck gas, evil doer!"
  • Danny Phantom has the title character spout a few of these. Unfortunately it doesn't run in the family: Jazz's one-liners are terrible. Except for when she's saving Danny for once, and it's combined with a Don't Say Such Stupid Things and a Shut UP, Hannibal:

Jazz: Excuse me. I don't know this kid, but I hope it's okay if he gets a second opinion.

  • Metalocalypse: "That's my bread and butter you're fucking with." If anyone utters that, you know, RUN!
  • Robot Chicken: "GO F#%* YOURSELF!"
  • King of the Hill: "That's my purse!! I don't know you!" (kicks person in the balls). Seriously, you can't tell me you wouldn't get caught off guard by some fat kid yelling "That's my purse!" then yelling "I don't know you!" before kicking your nuts into your throat is a great way to finish it.
    • Also, from the episode where Bobby and Joseph become professional panhandlers.

Bum: What're you gonna do, tell my mommy?
Hank: No, I'm going to kick your ass up one side of the street and down the other.

  • Dexters Laboratory: A mix-up involving cereal-prize decoder rings leaves Deedee being threatened by the Pony Puffs, and Dexter having to team up with Action Hank to save her. As Hank bursts through the wall with his team to save Dee-Dee from being dunked in scalding-hot oatmeal, he delivers that classic line:

Hank: Breakfast is no longer being served! Prepare to get brunched -- in the face! [2]

  • Popeye, spoken before using spinach: "That's all I can standz, cause I can't standz no more!"
  • From Stunt Dawgs:

Needham: It's T. T. Kaaaaaaaay B.!
Others: Time to kiiiiiiiick butt!

    • The only thing villains hate to hear more than that one is the one that means you're well and truly screwed:

Needham: It's P.B.T.!
Others: Pay-back time!

Scooby Doo: Bad Dog. Time to heel.

    • He followed it up with something even more bad ass, especially given his utterly cold delivery.

Scooby Doo: Play Dead.

  1. ↑ What, you didn't think a My Little Pony show would have examples of this?
  2. ↑ heh, heh
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