Courage the Cowardly Dog: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 18:05, 10 September 2020 (view source) Looney Toons (talk \| contribs) (fixed unconverted CamelCase link) ← Older edit		Revision as of 02:09, 11 September 2020 (view source) Looney Toons (talk \| contribs) (deleted non-existent tropes, misused tropes, and dubious assertions; moved "Shout-Out" to new Trivia page) Newer edit →
Line 23: * [[Affectionate Parody]]: ''The Hunchback of Nowhere'' is one of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'', while ''Squatting Tiger, Hidden Dog'' is another one of ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]''. * [[All Just a Dream]]{{spoiler\|...[[Or Was It a Dream?]]}}: "Cowboy Courage". * [[All-Stereotype Cast]]: The show features an '''[[Up To Eleven\|incredibly]]''' extreme example of this; Eustace is a [[Grumpy Old Man]], Muriel is a Scottish [[Kindhearted Simpleton]] that also becomes a [[Brave Scot]] in certain episodes, Le Quack is a [[French Jerk]], Di Lung is an [[Asian Rudeness\|Asian]] [[Nouveau Riche]] [[Insufferable Genius]], Mad Dog is (debatably) a [[Scary Black Man]], Kitty (prior to her redemption at the end of "The Mask") is a [[Politically Incorrect Villain\|Klan-robed]] [[Straw Feminist]], the Flan King is a [[Dashing Hispanic]] [[Fat Bastard]], Freaky Fred has [[British Teeth]], Rumpled Kilt Skin is a [[Violent Glaswegian]], Courage is a [[Southern-Fried Genius]], Katz and the Perfectionist are [[Evil Brit\|Evil Brits]], Courage's Computer is [[British Stuffiness]] incarnate, Maria Ladrones is a female [[Bandito]], the General and the Lieutenant are [[Armed Farces]], Dr. Zalost is a [[Mad Scientist]] / [[Herr Doktor]], Dr. Vindaloo is a [[Bollywood Nerd]], Cajun Fox and Big Bayou are [[Ragin' Cajun\|Ragin' Cajuns]]...honestly, it would be easier to list the characters that '''aren't''' blatant caricatures in this show. * [[Exclusively Evil]]: Birds, it would seem. * [[Always Someone Better]]: Eustace's brother Horst, who was better at pretty much everything. * [[Amazing Technicolor Wildlife]]: The titular dog is pink with black spots. ** Also, Katz is a fire engine red cat with purple stripes, Shirley the Medium is a green chihuahua, the Duck Brothers are bright blue with green, purple, and red eyes and neck markings, and there has been a chicken with an electric blue wattle (Although, to be fair, the chicken and ducks were from outer space. Maybe they're the fowl versions of [[Human Aliens]]?) * [[Ambiguously Brown]]: Mad Dog looks (and acts) like a highly stereotypical [[Scary Black Man]] and has rather-distinctly brown fur, but fur colors are not necessarily the same thing as skin colors. * [[Anachronism Stew]]: "Modern" China looking '''considerably''' more like Ancient China in ''Squatting Tiger, Hidden Dog''. * [[Asian and Nerdy]]: Di Lung is about as [[Ethnic Scrappy\|stereotypically]] Asian as cartoon characters get, and also [[Genius Ditz\|about as talented]]. Line 102 ⟶ 100: * [[Cyberspace]]: Played straight in "Hard Drive Courage". On an interesting note, Cyberspace is depicted as the actual inside of a computer. You know, chips, motherboards, the usual. Plus ''a lot'' of green binary code. * [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Not all the monsters Courage meets are [[Exclusively Evil]] or hostile - some of them are just [[Chaotic Neutral]] or even friendly. In fact in some cases they even need Courege's help. * [[Darker and Edgier]]: This could be disputed, as the entire series was darker than most other animated series; however, most episodes from the final season are significantly more dramatic in nature compared to other seasons, especially the first. In fact, the show's two ~~Half Hour~~half-hour episodes (''"The Tower of Dr. Zalost''" and ''"The Mask''") deviate dramatically from the show's usual [[Monster of the Week]] formula, dealing with much more realistic horrors such as depression (in ''"The Tower''") and abusive relationships (in ''"The Mask''"). * [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Courage's Computer, as well as Shirley the Medium. ** Katz can be rather snarky as well. "Pity..." Line 303 ⟶ 301: * [[Sand Is Water]]: One episode has the titular character forced by Eustace's mother to hunt a sand whale, who is trying to get his accordion back from Eustace's mother. And Courage is forced to row a boat in the sand. Another slight subversion, considering that the ground only worked like water for the sand whale, and [[Magic A Is Magic A\|not the rowboat]]. * [[Scare Chord]]: HMMM. I believe that all of the Title Cards had one of these playing in the background. Especially Perfect and Wrath of the Librarian. * [[Scary Black Man]]: In ''The Mask'', Mad Dog is heavily implied to be one of these by [[Ambiguously Brown\|his fur color]], his extremely brutish personality, and the Klan(-esque) robe that Kitty wears because of him. * [[Scenery Porn]]: A lot of the shots of the farm house either at night or at sundown are awfully pretty for a [[Nightmare Fuel]], [[Crapsack World]]. ** To elaborate, the show uses a technique of overlaying photos with animation, so the skies you see are (mostly) pictures, although exaggerated or altered. Line 311 ⟶ 308: * [[Secret Ingredient]]: The secret ingredient in all of Muriel's cooking is vinegar. * [[Sexophone]]: Plays when the General takes off his uniform to reveal his [[It Makes Just As Much Sense in Context\|stomach-entering]] outfit in ''Muriel Blows Up''; needless to say, [[Audience Surrogate\|the Lieutenant is every bit as confused as the audience probably is]]. * [[Shout-Out]]: To, of all things, [[Sweeney Todd]], in the form of Muriel's "crazy barber" nephew Fred. The horror is negated somewhat by his cheerful rhyming and the fact that in the end, he's ''mostly'' harmless. Also, stock footage of King Ghidorah, a recurring nemesis of Godzilla, appears several times throughout the series. The ending to the original short features Courage holding open the iris out to comment "This shouldn't happen to a dog!". The iris then closes on Courage's nose, causing him to yelp in pain. This gag is a reference to the classic [[Bugs Bunny/Characters\|Bugs Bunny]] short "Hare Ribbin'". Which is further played with in the sequels. "This ''still'' shouldn't happen to a dog!" Also, there are figurines of Dilworth's Dirty Birdy short in the house. The twin raccoons from "Campsite of Terror" have the same design as Avery, a character from Ace & Avery, a segment on [[Big Bag]] which Dilworth worked on prior. Nedd from Noodles & Nedd (a series of ''[[Sesame Street]]'' segments by Dilworth) often appears, most commonly as a framed picture in the Bagge house lounge room. The word "Dil" often appears, this is referring to Dilworth. The episode "The Mask" contains a few overall elements and themes of gritty exploitation and noir, especially the violently abusive gangleader boyfriend. {{spoiler\|Mad Dog's defeat is rather similar to that of Sykes from ''[[Oliver and Company]]'', being too caught up in his fight with [[The Hero]] to realize his car is heading right into an oncoming train until its too late, the crash itself happening offscreen.}} [[Quentin Tarantino\|Benton]] [[No Celebrities Were Harmed\|Tarantella]]. An episode where Courage, Muriel and Eustace are brought 1000 years into the future, where [[Planet of the Apes\|everyone is a banana]], as a kind of inverted [[Shout-Out]]. "Wait! I sense a disturbance in the Force!" In "The Ride Of The Valkyries", a rather dim-witted bird is called the [[Monty Python's Flying Circus\|Norwegian Blue]]. The entire episode "The Demon In The Mattress" was one to ''[[The Exorcist]]''. A lot of things the Snowman has said or done are a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Sean Connery]] and [[James Bond]]. Muriel picking up playing the sitar after an early episode may be a shoutout to [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]], and how Captain Picard picked up playing an alien flute after "The Inner Light". The episode "Serpent of Evil River" features a serpent named Carmen who loves opera music. Guess what opera music they used to attract the serpent?... One episode is titled "Courage vs. Mecha-Courage". Just take a guess what that's [[Godzilla\|a shout out too]]. ** In "The Duck Brothers" they have a pretty blatant shout-out to [[The Three Stooges]] * [[Slasher Smile]]: Freaky Fred has one. * [[Smart People Build Robots]]: In ''Courage VS Mecha-Courage'', Mecha-Courage is built by [[Asian Rudeness\|Di]] [[Insufferable Genius\|Lung]]. Line 336 ⟶ 313: * [[Snowlems]]: A living snowman (sounding suspiciously like [[Sean Connery]]) became a villain due to [[Hollywood Global Warming]]. * [[Solar CPR]] * [[Southern-Fried Genius]]: Courage is implied to be one of these by his incredibly hillbilly-ish teeth and personality (and, you know, his shockingly high intelligence level). * [[Space Whale]]: A dangerous predator, in "Last of the Starmakers". * [[Space Whale Aesop]]: "Swindling only begets swindling, as selfishness [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context\|begets banana-head]]." Line 343 ⟶ 319: * [[Staring Contest]]: Katz and Courage have an [[Cooking Duel\|epic duel to the death]] in the form of a staring contest. * [[Stock Audio Clip]]: Quite a few. See the trope page for details. * [[Straw Feminist]]: Kitty is a "hating dogs rather than hating men" variant of this in ''The Mask''...{{spoiler\|until she redeems herself at the end of said episode, at least}}. * [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: Eustace is pretty much a carbon copy of his parents. Lampshaded in "The Sand Whale Strikes", when the Sand Whale has confused Eustace for his father, Ickett. Eustace pulls out a picture of his father (who looks exactly like him with a huge beard) and says "I don't see the resemblance." * [[Sunglasses At Night]]: Di Lung does this in ''Cabaret Courage'', ''Fishy Business'', and ''The Nutcracker''. Also, Cajun Fox does this {{spoiler\|in ''Ball of Revenge''}}.