So Bad It's Good/Western Animation

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Kids these days...they'll watch anything the TV shows 'em. Back in our days, we had nothing but crappy cartoons, and by gum, we liked 'em!

Crow: You mean walking?

Mike: Let's not jump to conclusions.

"AIDS is the best thing since the black plague!"

    • Not true. AIDS STINKS!
    • Captain Planet gets mortally wounded just by getting splashed with a little dirty motor oil. And there's that one episode where Adolf Hitler (seriously) beats Captain Planet by simply staring at him because his hate is so immense, Captain Planet just can't take it. Yeah...
      • They didn't even get Hitler's mustache right!
      • Or maybe it was Fu Man-Hitler?
      • Hitler's mustache was most likely intentional, as a Hitler stache would immediately invoke a cryout from some people.
      • I AM GOING TO HATE YOU TO DEATH
    • As Spirit of the Earth, Gaia was enormously powerful and likely capable of beating the villains by herself... but she chose a group of children to do it for her, to teach them about the perils of pollution. That's more important than putting children in dangerous situations, it seems.
    • "If it's doomsday this must be Belfast": the episode that presented The Troubles as the Jets Vs The Sharks, complete with lines like this:

"You beat each other up over your names?"
"Why not? 'tis as good a reason as any".

      • Also perpetuated the belief that Irish people call everyone "Boyo".
      • "That's a Protestant name if ever I heard one". To all who hated the "Oirish" accents in Heroes Volume 2, check this episode out on Youtube and see how lucky you were.
      • And the Israel/Palestine subplot from same:

"You Jewish oppressor!"
"You Arab terrorist!"

      • From the same subplot:

"You stop demolishing the Arabs' homes and you stop throwing stones at the soldiers."

    • Wheeler utters the immortal line, "Okay, think Wheeler. If you were a zombie, where would you be? ...The vice-president's office!" Adam West would be envious.
      • Take That Al Gore, or Dan Quayle whoever the case may be.
    • Linka. If she's not your type, you can always laugh at the combination of Tsundere and Strawman Political.
  • Both the Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm cartoons fall squarely into this category; they're filled with Narm, plotholes, and all-around wackiness, and it's all in a way that's heartwarmingly amusing.
  • Take one of the most violent and overly innuendo-filled fighting game series of all time, attempt to make it family friendly, add a bespectacled tween magician for the young ones to associate with (before Harry Potter took off!), and you get the American Darkstalkers animated series, one of the best examples of unintentional So Bad It's Good ever. See for your self.
    • Oddly enough, it has a strong bent toward intentional humor... and odder still, many of the jokes can be said to work. Probably not what you'd come looking for in a Darkstalkers adaptation, but there it is.
    • Probably the least logical "action" sequences in the history of western animation (A laser beam that turns into a cloud of gas?)
    • Every character, male and female has taken part in the running gag of saying "you are curiously attractive for a fishman" to the well, fishman. Really. Everyone wants to bone the fucking fishman! They often say it in very creepy ways, "You are curiously *breathe* attractive, for a fishman." "So I've been told..."
    • Then there's this animation goof, where Felicia changes outfits between shots.
  • Celebrity Deathmatch, anyone? Claymation versions of celebrities fighting each other to the death. Some of the most memorable have been Jim Carrey vs Mariah Carey, Madonna VS Michael Jackson, and David Letterman vs Jay Leno.
  • Freddie the Frog was the strangest children's movie ever made. Made by the British during the Disney Renaissance, it had such strange plot devices as the Loch Ness Monster saving a prince from his evil witch aunt in medieval France. Then he suddenly grows six feet and becomes a Frog secret agent in twentieth-century Britain. It also features Brian Blessed as El Supremo, a morbidly obese Large Ham with a rockin' villain beard. He's playing himself. Watch the trailer here, at your own risk.
  • Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos. Hilarious, at least the opening. But it has So Bad It's Good Moments with the zany fight scenes, horrible acting, and Super Ninja's (oh no, he's a ninja, and he's super?!) effeminate voice. Here are some of the "best" moments.
  • John Candy's Celebrity Toon Camp Candy. And Rick Moranis' Gravedale High.
  • The Little Shop cartoon.
  • Jibber Jabber. The characters crawled out from the deepest pit in the Uncanny Valley. The whole series is ridiculously cheesy. That's what makes it so hilarious!
  • There is a Mr. T. animated series. It features the T-man delivering live-action segments at the beginning and end. It's spectacularly Anvilicious...and the opening credits feature T. spinning a crocodile over his head. Consult The Agony Booth for more information.
    • In one memorable bit, a bunch of grunts slide down a banister to escape Mr. T. Not to be outdone, Mr. T kicks the banister into splinters and jumps down after them.
    • The time when a door spontaneously exploded to reveal Mr. T behind it? Supposedly he kicked it down like he always does, but the animation didn't suggest any kicking at all.
  • The Magic Voyage documented the voyages of Christopher Columbus and his friend Pico the woodworm as they sailed with Columbus' crew of three or possibly four men to the New World to rescue Pico's girlfriend, Marian the firefly, enduring various hardships such as bizarre dream sequences and wacky musical numbers.
  • Happily Ever After is a rather unique take on the "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" fable. The evil queen had an evil brother named Lord Maliss who lives in a desolate wasteland called "The Realm of Doom" and can shapeshift into a dragon at will, and the seven dwarves have moved away and left behind their cousins "The Seven Dwarvelles", who happen to all be female and all have special elemental powers given to them by Mother Nature. Oh, and the villain has a talking owl that smokes and a talking bat as henchmen, and the prince has a bizarre resemblence to He-Man. (Not surprising considering the people who made it.) The movie is Snow White teaming up with the elemental dwarvelles while she journeys to The Realm of Doom in an attempt to find out what happened to the prince after they got separated, unaware that the prince is now the creepy Shadowman that follows her. The movie bombed at the box office and was Filmation's last project, but since then, the movie has gained a small cult following that finds the movie delightfully entertaining in its cheesy badness. Watch the movie here, at your own risk.
  • Mutilator: Hero of the Wasteland is an early 90s animation project in two parts. It is horrible in every way imaginable: the art looks like something out of Liquid Television that didn't age well with perspective and anatomical issues up the hole, the sound is poorly mixed (with voices barely audible), and the plot is even worse: a man with a mechanical arm kills things in the wasteland. Yet somehow, the combination of these poor elements is nothing short of hilarious today. A cursory look through the YouTube comments reveals a general attitude that this was Too Good to Last.
    • Imagine, if you will, Rob Liefeld's drawing used as a starting point, and then animated by the same people who made the Philips CD-I Zelda games, on a shoestring budget, while everyone involved was high as a kite, and you'll get close to understanding the animation style.
    • The video was posted by the guy who animated it. That's right, only one guy.
    • To be fair this was done by a student as his college project. And the guy who made this is Eric Fogel, who went on to create Celebrity Deathmatch. So he's done better stuff since then.
  • The Mel-O-Toons shorts from the early 1960s are yet another unholy union of low budget animation and voiceover. Like the Paul Bunyan and David and Goliath shorts. Just try to keep a straight face as you learn all kinds of amazing things about Paul Bunyan that they didn't teach you in grade school. When watching the latter, pay particular attention to Goliath's booming voice, frightening battle stance and grisly death.
  • The Lion Men episode of the Mega Man cartoon. Just the concept of furries invading Mega Man's universe[1] is hilariously stupid. And it gets better...
  • Dominator.
  • Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Whoooooo boy. Where to begin? This cartoon suffers from horrible, Off-Model animation and terrible writing, thanks to a low budget and a five-days-a-week schedule that forced its creators to churn out more episodes rather than make better ones. This show lasted longer and had more episodes than its counterpart SatAM. But it is great riffing material! And those faces are so expressive. They make great reaction pics!

"Kids... That's NO GOOD!"

    • "SnooPING AS usual I see..."
    • The four-part "Quest for the Chaos Emeralds" is considered not only the best of the entire series, but also almost as good as SATAM, complete with clever writing and decent animation, all wrapped into a four-part storyline of Time Travel where Sonic fights with Robotnik through the high seas, the Middle Ages, ancient pseudo-Egypt and prehistoric Mobius to collect four chaos emeralds, each of which grants a different power.
    • The Holiday Special and the pilot episode weren't bad, either. This show wasn't a bad idea, but it was mishandled. Sonic fans call this series "Crudely made, but forgivable..."
    • Speaking of that hedgehog's bastard children, Sonic Underground is divisive, but some consider it just ridiculous enough to be good. Maybe it depends on the episode.
      • It does. The three-parters, for instance, are pretty well written and enjoyable in their own right (compared to the rest of the series, at least), but just try and watch Knuckles's debut episode with a straight face. Or, failing that, Cyrus (the lion...-ish dude)'s "NO!" face.
    • The main appeal of the show is in fact, Dr. Robotnik, played by the gloriously hammy Long John Baldry, who clearly set his "act-o-meter" Up to Eleven, and then decided to keep going. The results are truly hilarious.
  • G.I. Joe Extreme. Between the laughable live-action sequences, the hammy acting, and the pitiful animation, it has something for everyone to laugh at.
  • The Beatles. Good, Lennon, you look kinda cool! Ringo's the incompetent, bumbling Butt Monkey, and John sounds American. None of the voice actors are played by actual Beatles, no matter what the credits may tell you. The cartoon feels wrong, and that is why it rules.
  • Toxic Crusaders, which ditched the R-rated qualities of Toxic Avenger and replaced them with hilariously ridiculous dialogue, plots, and animation. Many things made no sense whatsoever: Toxie went to live in the town dump after his mom suggested it, even though she had no problem in later episodes visiting him or boasting that he's her son. He also mentions later that he and his friends need to "pay rent" -- to the dump?! All the mutants were called, every single time, "hideously deformed mutants of superhuman size and strength." There were constant ass pulls: when a Mad Scientist creates french fries that turn anyone who eats them into nearsighted, forgetful old people - his own words - it turns out that putting pepper on them turns the mutagen chemicals into bubble gum, which negates the process. There is also a Running Gag in which the Big Bad's main henchperson Psycho will predict, with eerie accuracy, exactly how their plans will be foiled. The Big Bad never listens; once, he tells Psycho to stop spoiling things for him. There's also lampshade-hanging galore.

Junkyard: Do we have time for a flashback?
'Toxie: Oh sure! It'll probably take Killemoff some time to come up with a new plan to destroy us.

    • After Killemoff loads a giant monster truck on a barge which predictably (Psycho said it would) sinks the whole thing to the bottom of the river:

Killemoff: I thought this sort of thing only happened in cartoons.

  • Colin's Bear
  • Gene Deitch was quite brilliant in his 1950s stylized modern work; he took the stodgy, flagging Terrytoons in an interesting direction. But when he took on the Tom and Jerry franchise in the early 1960s, it went in a whole weird Eastern European-filtered direction.
  • The hilarious stupidity of Rock-a-Doodle.
  • The butchered versions of The Thief and the Cobbler, specifically the Miramax version. Half-hearted attempts at Disneyfication, dated Award Bait Song-ridden musical numbers, dialouge dubbed over characters intended to be silent, and sloppy filler animation interlaced with Richard Williams' much more fluid and detailed original work. Yeah.
  • Most aspects of the French animated series based on Donkey Kong Country actually aren't all that bad. The characters are accurate to their game counterparts and have likeable personalities, some of the jokes written for the show are genuinely funny, and though the mere presence of singing in the show can be unsettling to new viewers, the songs themselves aren't bad. However, it still tends to be mentioned in these sorts of situations because the animation, perhaps the first thing people notice about cartoons, really is So Bad It's Good, and in some people's opinions has thus become by far the biggest reason to watch the show. The badly-deformed character models fall into the Uncanny Valley with such force, they bounce back out of its depths and end up looking hilarious, rather than scary.
    • This video in particular has become very popular online for the reasons mentioned above. Try routinely pausing it during DK's singing to get some of the most hilariously-ridiculous facial expressions ever in a cartoon.
  • The 1960s Spiderman cartoon counts. While the show did have many geniune fans, it also has a large So Bad It's Good fandom. All te camp of the Adam West Batman show (being as it, like the Batman show, crawled out of the goldmine of So Bad It's Good that was the Silver Age) add to that the most unsuitable voice ever for the guy who plays Spiderman, low budget animation, and stock footage used over and over again, and it's very difficult for most veiwers not to laugh at the hideous result. A monstrosity IN COLOR!

Spider-Man: This is for the man you killed.
(He punches Uncle Ben's murderer so hard he breaks through the door)

  1. ↑ by turning humans into other furries with Eye Beams
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/So_Bad_It%27s_Good/Western_Animation?oldid=2043916"