Take That/Western Animation: Difference between revisions
Mentioned Reverend Jack Cheese from Ren and Stimpy.
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Trace amounts of mental activity detected. Possibly a dead weasel or [[Take That, Audience!|cartoon viewer.]]"''|'''Brainspawn,''', the ''[[
Because sometimes it's good to [[Take That|poke fun]] at your more [[A Worldwide Punomenon|two-dimensional]] competitors.
----
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** One episode has Bart and Milhouse watching an obvious pastiche of ''[[South Park]].'' The Kyle-pastiche mentions that they're at a concert with a band consisting of Steve Guttenberg, Calista Flockhart and Farty the Crippled Robot. Farty farts out [[OJ Simpson]], who declares he's gonna kill everyone and says how he's gonna find the real killer. This is followed by Bart wondering, "How do they keep things so fresh after 43 episodes?" ''[[South Park]]'' had previously lampooned ''[[The Simpsons (
** The show took occasional jabs at ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]'', particularly the long gaps between new episodes. One notable example also mocked their tendency to re-use old animation with newly dubbed voices, with a scene with Bart, Lisa and Marge doing this and commenting on how ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]'' do this all the time.
{{quote|
** Seems this rivalry is over now. Just recently ''[[John Kricfalusi]]'' did the couch gag for a recent episode.
** The show has ripped into ''[[
*** In one episode, a wanted police book in Italy cites [[Family Guy
*** In "Treehouse of Horror XIII", Peter Griffin can be seen in the middle of a crowd of thousands of cloned versions of Homer.
*** In "Missionary: Impossible", Betty White hosts a TV pledge drive, urging viewers to call right away "if you don't want to see crude, lowbrow programming disappear from the airwaves." As she says this, she turns off a TV that has the ''[[
**** Notably, this episode first aired at a time when FOX was first threatening to cancel ''[[
*** In "The Wandering Juvie", as Bart and a girl from the neighboring female juvenile delinquent facility exchange insults, Gina responds to Bart calling her a psycho and a future skank by calling him a "family guy."
** "Black Widower" takes swipe at ''[[Dinosaurs]]'': "It's like they saw our lives and put it right up on screen!" In return, ''Dinosaurs'' had Earl commenting they've made one big successful show and now others are making cheap rip-offs of it. Baby Sinclair replies, "Don't have a cow, man," a regular catch phrase used by Bart Simpson.
** "Last Temptation of Krust" references the trope itself, when guest star [[
** In "They Saved Lisa's Brain", when Mensa makes improvements in Springfield, the city moves up to #299 on the list of America's 300 most liveable cities. Comic Book Guy shouts: "Take that, East St. Louis!"
** In "Sweets and Sour Marge", Chief Wiggum tosses a few Butterfingers into a candy bonfire only to see them repelled unharmed: "Even the fire doesn't want them." [[Take That]], soon to be ex-endorsement!
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*** In the Tree House of Horror XVII short "Homer the Blob", Homer eats a space-blob of goo that is trying to escape his body. Homer then proceeds to say "If I can keep down Arby's, I can keep down you!" After many ruthless escapes going as far as ''out his nostrils and ears''.
*** From season 8's "A Milhouse Divided":
{{quote|
'''Kirk van Houten:''' "Just throw it over the fence and [[Somebody Else's Problem|let Arby's deal with it]]." }}
** [[The Simpsons]] have also taken a jab or two at Mountain Dew, the most memorable of which being from "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson."
{{quote|
'''Vendor:''' Mountain Dew or [[Squick|Crab Juice]]
'''Homer:''' Blech, ewwww! I'll take the Crab Juice! }}
** In another episode, Homer and Bart were offered a drink. As soon as they started drinking it, the man offering it said it was bear urine, which causes Homer and Bart to pause. The man then says it was really Fresca, wherein Bart and Homer spit it out.
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**** ...while somehow providing one of the few sympathetic portrayals of Barbara Bush to be shown in an American sitcom.
***** But only as a pastiche of Mrs. Wilson.
**** Completely and utterly averted in his first appearance, when after Lisa exposes a corrupt Senator's land deal (taking bribes to allow drilling for oil on top of Mount Rushmore), an emergency expulsion bill is sent to President Bush. He signs it, commenting "This ought to make my bosses happy... all 350 million of them!" <ref>
** There's been two shots taken at [[Disney Theme Parks|Disney's California Adventure]]. Granted, it's been absolute [[Snark Bait]] since it opened...
** The Comic Book Guy acts as a walking [[Take That]] to geeky [[Fan Dumb]] everywhere.
{{quote|
'''Bart:''' Hey, I know it wasn't great, but what right do you have to complain?
'''Comic Book Guy:''' As a loyal viewer, I feel they owe me.
'''Bart:''' What? They've given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free! What could they possibly owe you? If anything, you owe them!
'''Comic Book Guy:'''*beat* Worst episode ever. }}
** In one episode, Homer watches ''A Prairie Home Companion'' and starts shaking his TV screaming, "Be more funny!"
** In one episode, Lenny and Carl are at a church ring toss game, and Carl remarks, "Ah, it's all a big scam." Lenny asks, "This booth?" Carl replies, "No, religion in general."
*** Similarly, in ''The Movie'', as Grandpa starts speaking-in-tongues in church:
{{quote|
'''Homer''': ''(reading a Bible)'' I'm trying, but this book doesn't have any answers! }}
** MAD magazine seems to come under fire a little as well, with most of the "hilarious" satire being weak and simplistic.
** Another episode has [[The Lion King|Mufasa]] appearing in the clouds only to say to Lisa "You must avenger me [[Kimba the White Lion|Kimba]]...I mean...Simba." An obvious stab at ''[[The Lion King]]'' [[They Copied It,
** One Halloween episode has Ned, after getting [[The Dead Zone]]-esque powers of predicting people's death by touch, commenting upon seeing that Rosie O'Donnell's musical being closed down that he "didn't need special powers to know that was coming!" an obvious take that on the quality of the musical. Also falls into [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] (or [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]]) when Rosie O'Donnel's revived talk show ends up being cancelled without even a series finale.
* ''[[South Park]]'', especially after the first few seasons, has turned its entire concept toward social commentary and Take Thats at celebrities and entertainment.
** Perhaps its most famous Take Thats came from the show's two-part episode "Cartoon Wars."
*** The bulk of the episodes attacked ''[[Family Guy]]'', portraying the show as little more than [[Manatee Gag|an unconnected string of meaningless pop culture references selected at random by Manatees.]]
**** [[Seth
*** The episodes also attacked its own channel, Comedy Central, for "pussing out" and refusing to allow them to air a cartoon depiction of Muhammed, which the episode argued was necessary to preserve America's freedom of speech.
*** The show also saved some room for a [[Self-Deprecation|self-deprecating]] Take That at itself when one character states that at least ''Family Guy'' "doesn't get all preachy and up its own ass with messages..."
**** Which turned out to be a weird sort of [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]] in light of what came later on Family Guy. But at least Family Guy has managed to keep the avails limited to every other episode or so, as opposed to South Park that's got at least one per episode.
** Then ''Broadway Bro Down'' featured Randy trying to sabotage a Wicked production to save his daughter from "subliminal subtext." "It's time to put an end to Broadway!" He slips into a spider man costume and heads off to ruin the production...
** After "Blame Canada" lost the Best Song Oscar to Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart," the episode "Timmy 2000" depicted Collins always clutching his Oscar, using underhanded tactics to break up Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld.
{{quote|
'''Doctor:''' [[My God, What Have I Done?|My God. What have we done?]] }}
** Liane Cartman, is a real-life Take That at Trey Parker's ex-fiance, who cheated on him. Liane Cartman is often described as a "slut" and a "crackwhore." Parker had previously made a similar Take That in ''[[Cannibal!
** The show leveled a Take That at the entire concept of celebrity guest appearances, most notably by having George Clooney provide the barks for a gay dog as his only contribution. Clooney apparently took it in good humor and was granted an actual speaking cameo in the film.
** Speaking of Clooney, he's had a few Take Thats leveled at him. Including one from this [[wikipedia:Smug Alert!|this episode]] and ''[[Team America: World Police]]''. Clooney has taken it all in stride.
** While Parker and Stone love to poke fun at religions from Catholicism, [[N-Word Privileges|Judaism]], Mormons etc. You often get a balanced view of idiosyncrasies for that religion offset by practitioners being pretty decent. When it comes to Scientology on the other hand, they tend to up their Take Thats toward the celebrity followers as well as the teachings.
*** When telling the story of Scientology, they play it entirely straight and the [[Take That]] is actually them [["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer|adding the caption at the bottom that this is what Scientology actually believe.]]
*** Upped significantly when Scientologist cast member Issac Hayes left the show as a result of their parodying of his religion.
** The episode "Canada On Strike!" is a Take That aimed at [[Unions in Hollywood|The Writer's Guild]]'s strike in attempt to get "all that internet money." Notably, Parker and Stone are not members of the Guild.
** [[Barbra Streisand]] used to be their favorite punching bag. In one episode Streisand is the villain and turns into a [[Kaiju]] monster much like Mecha-[[Godzilla]]. One Halloween episode is presented in "Spooky Vision," which is just letterboxes featuring Streisand's face. In the film, Cartman's most offensive curse is "Barbara Streisand."
** Possibly the episode's title, "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods", was to make fun of Ebert for giving poor reviews to ''[[Orgazmo]]'' and ''[[
** Perhaps the show's most scathing attack came against TV psychic John Edward of ''Crossing Over.'' The show painstakingly explains how they think Edward's uses cold reading to fool his victims and argues that his show exploits people in mourning. They finish off the episode by dubbing him "The Biggest Douche in the Universe," and play the credits over an actual photograph of his face.
** The episode "Whale Whores" is one long Take That at ''[[
*** Some critics have noted that the past few seasons have featured mostly episodes revolving around daytime TV shows no one really cares about. The food network, Ancient Aliens, Cash for Gold, Hunt for big foot, I Shouldn't Be Alive, Nascar, and Professional Wrestling among others. I doubt many South Park fans even knew what Whale Wars was, dulling some of the satire.
** And in earlier seasons (and the movie), [[Moral Guardian|Sheila]] was Take That ''incarnate''.
* In the ''[[Johnny Test]]'' episode "Coming to a Johnny Near You", a television advert for a movie entitled [[Kindergarten Cop|Preschool Parole Officer]] declares it as "the best movie in the history of the world... ever!". Johnny and Dukey go to see it... and are instantly disappointed at its lack of comedy.
* The opening of the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''Bender's Big Score'' features a sequence where Planet Express had its delivery license [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|cancelled]] two years ago by executives from the Box Network, a load of brainless idiots... who were, as a result fired and badly beaten. Several died from their injuries, and they were then ground into a fine powder, putting Planet Express back in business. Just in case some of the viewers couldn't get it, when the Box Network building is shown, the sign is malfunctioning and flickers between reading "Box" and "Fox." Just to rub it in, the rest of the movie cited increasingly unpleasant uses for this "executive powder" as it went on in fake-ads, such as unclogging one's toilet.
** ''Bender's Game'' feature 3: First is George Takei's head ramming a ship into one driven by [[Star Trek: Enterprise|Scott Bakula]] and tells him "Thanks for [[Ruined FOREVER|ruining]] [[Star Trek|the franchise]]!". Second, there's the gratuitous take that to [[Robin Williams]] when they run into "[[Mork and Mindy|Morks]]" and kill them while telling them [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|they're not funny]] and need to shut up. Third, there's when they reach the kingdom of "Wipe Castle", where you can eat lots of burgers without gaining weight [[You Fail Biology Forever|because they give you diarrhoea]].
*** In general, ''Bender's Game'' vacillates between an [[Affectionate Parody]] of ''[[Dungeons
*** "Bender's Game" is also an [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[The Lord of the Rings]], the series that D&D is based on.
** In one original episode they go down into the sewers. The mutants there can only use what people flush down the toilet. What do they have to read? Only crumpled up porn and copies of ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''.
** In the 100th episode, the mutants in the sewers are given scholarships to Brown University (a real world Ivy League school), which is shown to be there in the sewers with them. Leela questions if it is a legitimate university and not just a sewer cleaning service.
** A subtle one against ''[[Family Guy]]'': in 1999 Pizzeria Panucci has a FG calendar with Brian and Stewie on the cover, which says "One laugh a month!".
** Cleverly done in "Silence of the Clamps" as a form of self criticism:
{{quote|
'''Fry''': '''(laughs)''' Billy West? What kind of dumb made up name is that? }}
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' has made a few shots in return for all the abuse that it's taken. It's also open for debate whether its frequent skewering of popular culture and society constitutes various forms of Take That, [[Affectionate Parody]], ''Non''-Affectionate reference or some combination thereof.
** In the [[Cold Open]] of the fourth season, Peter listed off [[The Long List|all the shows that Fox had tried to air between the time Family Guy was cancelled and resurrected]] - twenty-nine, to be specific.
** They once took a shot at Courtney Love. Let's just say Kurt Cobain quit taking drugs and never committed suicide.
{{quote|
'''Executive:''' ''...who?'' }}
** In a [[The Naked Gun
** Again with Homer Simpson in "The Juice Is Loose". Adam West is talking to someone off the screen, "We don't want you in our town Simpson. We don't love you like we did back in 1993. . ." [[Bait and Switch|We think]] he was talking to [[OJ Simpson]], but the screen cuts to Homer Simpson yelling "D'oh". Adam's quote references the public's love of OJ before his crime exposure in 1994 and 1993 was considered to be the heyday and peak of ''The Simpsons''.
** ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' is very similar in that respect.
*** Which lead to the hilarious ending of ''Blue Harvest''. And it gets even better [[Actor Allusion|when you realize exactly which two people do the voices for the characters involved...]]
*** Echoed in ''Road To The Multiverse'', where Stewie and Brian's ''[[Sliders]]''-parodying universe tour includes a brief stop in the [[Robot Chicken]] world.
{{quote|
'''Stewie:''' How's it feel to be on a major network for 30 seconds?
'''Chris:''' FUCK YOU! }}
**** Made even funnier by the fact it was actually ''only 20 seconds''.
** One episode had Peter, Brian, and Peter's stepdad spend a whole three minutes bashing [[Madonna]].
*** In the [[DVD Commentary]], they admit that it was [[Filler]].
** And ''another'' had Quagmire abducting and seducing Marge Simpson, before being discovered by Homer and being forced to kill the entire Simpson family with a shotgun.
*** Matt Groening was pissed off about that episode, to the point where he actually stopped speaking to Seth MacFarlane for a while. MacFarlane realized that he had probably gone too far and ultimately had to apologize.
*** It didn't help that when Fox refused to air the sequence, Seth responded with a long rant on the DVD commentary for the episode where he said ''The Simpsons'' was awful and Fox was showing unfair favoritism toward
** In "Mother Tucker", Brian accuses Stewie of selling out. Cut to Stewie holding a Butterfinger bar and saying, "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger... D'oh!" [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Ironically]], Peter Griffin would go on to do advertisements for Subway, and a Stewie parade balloon would appear on a Coke commercial in the 2008 [[Super Bowl]].
{{quote|
** Note that the rivalry between ''[[Family Guy]]'' and ''[[The Simpsons]]'' is a friendly one, and Matt Groening has even told Seth MacFarlane that he likes the show.
** And a deleted scene from "Lois Kills Stewie." "There's the guy who watched ''[[The Simpsons]]'' back in 1994/And won't admit the damn thing isn't funny anymore."
** Peter, Brian, and Stewie have an entire song dedicated to how they feel about the FCC (or rather, he, since [[Talking to Himself|Seth MacFarlane voices Peter, Brian, and Stewie]]).
** And ''[[Family Guy]]'' probably got the greatest [[Take That]] of all time, in the episode ''Boys Do Cry'', where Peter concluded the episode by speaking directly to [http://www.parentstv.org/ all the people complaining the show is encouraging children to mimic bad behavior].
{{quote|
** There were a few shots at ''Entertainment Weekly'' magazine earlier in the show's run. One scene had the magazine as a suggestion for toilet paper, and another one had a character beat up a reporter from it. This was possibly done in response to the negative reviews that the magazine gave ''Family Guy'' in it's initial run (even calling it the "fifth worst show of the year" during the second season).
*** You can't forget that they called it the "worst show of the year" in its first season.
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** The DVD for that episode also includes a bonus feature that pops random facts up on the screen while you watch the show. Most of these are tongue-in-cheek gags related to what's happening on-screen. During the scene where Peter as Han Solo mocks his line "I thought they smelled bad....... on the ''outside''" by breathing heavily for a ''very'' long time during the pause, a pop-up appears with the words "Take ''that'', Harrison Ford."
** In "Blue Harvest," in the scene where Luke (Chris) finds Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen killed by the Empire, and the London Symphony Orchestra burned as well, he also complains that they'll have to listen to [[Danny Elfman]] music for the remainder of the movie. Cue [[Danny Elfman]] conducting his orchestra to the tune of the [[Desperate Housewives]] theme, only for Chris to proceed to decapitate him mid-song.
* In one episode, Chris says, "This is just like [[My Two Dads|that sitcom where there's two dads]], except no one's laughing. [[Oh, Wait!|No, wait]]. It's the same."
* ''[[Totally Spies!]]'' takes an obvious dig at ''[[Kim Possible]]'':
{{quote|
* The original title for ''[[
** ''Animaniacs'' kind of likes taking potshots at Disney in general. "Jokahontas" takes a few. For starters, a song about how formularic and unoriginal their heroines are, John Smith has red pants with two yellow buttons and a catch on his helmet to release a pair of round ears. Oh, and John Smith is [[Animated Actors|Mel Gibson. Straight up.]] Not voiced by him, but it's still hard to miss.
** In one episode, Yakko asks whether Wakko and Dot know what time it is. This is followed by Dot replying, "[[Lampshade Hanging|Time to make fun of the]] [[Disney Channel]]?"
*** That would be an installment of the "Wheel of Morality", which [[Executive Meddling|network executives mandated]] be included to "add educational content to [[Take That|what would otherwise be an entirely entertaining show]]". Yakko would always ask this question, and Dot and Wakko's responses would always be some form of [[Take That]]
**** Interestingly, there was only one scenario where this trope was averted with the "Wheel of Morality." The moral was: "Brush your teeth after every meal." Furthermore, Yakko added "This moral brought to you by the American Dental Association."
** In the Animaniacs movie, ''[[Wakko's Wish
** Their [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of Jerry Lewis, whom the Warner Bros. keep telling to shut up.
*** This was more of an [[Affectionate Parody]] as one of the head writers (who also did the voice of Lewis's lampoon) has gone on record as calling him one of the funniest men in the world.
** One segment from 1997 had Slappy Squirrel speaking out against the FCC's demands on the three-hours-a-week increase in educational programming. In fact, Slappy would repeatedly badmouth [[Moral Guardians]] cracking down on violence, and the watered-down cartoons that resulted from it.
** The Take That episode aimed at a well known, hated and [[Barney and Friends
** Or the "Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation" sketch, which was a major Take That aimed at [[Nerd|a certain subset of]] [[Fan Dumb|fans]].
** In one of the Wheel of Morality segments (itself a sarcastic comment on [[Executive Meddling|government meddling]] in children's programming), the moral of the day is: "You can teach an old dog new tricks, [[Evita|but you can't teach]] [[Swept Away|Madonna how to act.]]" Another is: "If you can't say anything nice, you're probably at the Ice Capades."
* ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''' "Weekday Afternoon Live", an episode done [[In the Style Of]] ''[[Saturday Night Live]],'' featured an out-of-freaking-nowhere purple-skinned parody of Bart Simpson called "Blart Simpleton" as the guest host. He took more anvils to the face than this editor can remember. Interestingly enough, he was voiced by Nancy Cartwright, Bart's actual VA.
** In an episode commentary for one of ''The Simpsons'' DVDs Matt Groening mentions that the producers of ''Tiny Toons'' requested permission to use ''The Simpsons'' theme song in the show and were denied. With that in mind, the bitterness makes more sense.
** ''Tiny Toons'' was loaded with Take Thats and parodies. [[Walt Disney]], video games, Madonna and even [[You Bastard|their own fans]]! The writers must have been REALLY bitter...
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** [[The Movie]] featured an extended take-that directed at Disney's theme parks. A subplot involves Plucky and Hampton traveling to Happy World-Land, an obvious parody of Disneyland. The capper is the Happy World-Land theme song: "Welcome to a land where the fun never stops! We have six thrill rides and four hundred gift shops!"
** "Please take care of Buster, I'm begging you! Otherwise, ''Tiny Toons'' will be canceled & we'll all end up on [[Alvin and The Chipmunks|some chipmunk show!]]"
* In one episode of ''[[Back
* ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' takes a shot at ''Family Guy'' in the final episode. Dante and Randal stumble upon the producers discussing ideas for what else to do with them (a la [[Looney Tunes|"Duck Amuck"]]), and one of them is holding a book labeled "How to Write Cartoons by Seth MacFarlane" and suggests that they put them in a ''[[
** In the commentary for that episode, Kevin Smith drops all pretense and flat-out states that he thinks ''Family Guy'' is one of the worst cartoons ever made.
** ''Family Guy'' would retaliate on the episode "Peter's Progress", where Peter's ancestor said he was happy to be away from the films of Kevin Smith.
* ''[[
** In one of the Dating Game parodies, the prize is that the couple take a trip to the deserted theme park [[Disney Theme Parks|EuroDizzyland]], obviously making fun of the real life park's initial lack of visitors. When the bachelorette, Miss Information, picks him as her suitor, host Nostradamus complains that he doesn't want to go to EuroDizzyland.
** The show also featured a fictional WB network exec named Lydia, who served as a mockery of the censors placed on cartoons. She would do things such as interrupt lessons in order to censor works of fine art that happened to depict tasteful nudity, and at one point was even beaten up and then bound and gagged so she couldn't interfere with the plot anymore.
* An episode of ''[[Pinky and The Brain
** The ''Manny the Uncanny'' parody may be considered a [[Take That]] to some people, but to those aware of the crew behind the orignal ''[[
*** You're saying they were in fact paying homage to a regular feature on the block that was stealing their ratings?
** In the same season, the original ''[[
** And then there was this:
{{quote|
'''Pinky:''' You mean [[Disney Theme Parks|Orlando]]? }}
*** PEATB used a similar line in an episode where they visted [[Mr. Alt Disney|Duckyland]]:
{{quote|
'''Pinky:''' Oh no, Brain. Narf! You're thinking of that other park in Orlando. }}
* In the [[Made for TV Movie]] ''Re-Animated'', Sonny Appleday is supposed to have destroyed the legacy of his father, Milt Appleday, ruined the reputation of his cartoons, and nearly bankrupted his company by trying to do a [[Totally Radical]] update of the cartoons using [[
** Since Milt Appleday is a clear [[Mr. Alt Disney]], Sonny might also have been a dig at Micheal Eisner.
** Outrageously ''[[Inverted Trope|Inverted]]'' due to the fact the current president of Cartoon Network, Stuart Snyder, triggered [[Network Decay]] after making the movie into a live-action cartoon series, [[Out of
* Following the success of the ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' movie, [[Filmation]] cashed in with ''[[
** Except that [[Writing Around Trademarks|they really had to rename it due to a conflict with that previous show]]: ''The Ghost Busters''. It had a totally unrelated plot and was long over, but they still held the rights to the name of the TV show. So they had to rename it, and ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' sounds like just as good a name as any.
*** It's indirectly justified in show, as one or two episodes explain that the movies were just adaptations of the Ghostbusters' adventures—-hence, the Ghostbusters we're seeing ''are'' the real Ghostbusters.
** Speaking of the Real Ghostbusters... One episode featured TV programmes coming to life, among them zombified space cadets who clearly represented ''[[Star Trek:
* Usually [[Garfield]] has the last word in the theme song for ''[[Garfield and Friends]].'' In one episode, he gives a [[Take That]] to [[Heathcliff]].
** In another episode, he says that his show has what he calls "the Garfield Guarantee", which involves a [[Take That]] against both [[The Smurfs
** "Maybe not as funny as pro wrestling, but a lot more realistic."
** Also, in "The Incredibly Stupid Swamp Monster", Roy calls his agent and asks "Isn't Hanna-Barbera casting? What about cable? I hear they're doing a ''funny'' version of ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]''."
** The Buddy Bears from ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' were intended as a Take That against ''The Get-Along Gang'' and, to a lesser extent, anything else that promoted [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong]] — the head writer for the series always found that Aesop [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop|disturbing]].
*** The head writer was [[Mark Evanier]], who wrote for ''The Get-Along Gang'' earlier in his career. This earned Evanier a complaint letter from a network standards board.
** Then there's the episode where "Gramps' Groceries," a mom-and-pop store, is about to get swallowed up by "The Food Monster", a protest against the major chains squeezing out local competitors. The manager of the Food Monster is shown to be a fat crook who deliberately organizes the store so the stuff people want is impossible to find, and price-gouges customers by bombarding them with false promises of coupons, specials and contests, so they don't notice how much more they're paying. Oh, and he wants to buy out the mom-and-pop store so he can bulldoze it and put in more ''parking spaces''. He's finally defeated when Garfield [[Engineered Public Confession|secretly broadcasts one of his evil speeches across the entire store]], and the customers get mad and leave.
** An episode from the last season featured a Tyrannosaurus Rex who, having survived the comet that made his species extinct, decides to enslave mankind and [[Take Over the World]]. How does he do it? [[Barney and Friends
* Christy Marx, the main writer of ''[[Jem and The Holograms]],'' did a [[Take That]] at her own brother, as two thirds of his name is used to name the series' [[Big Bad]], Eric Raymond.
* In the ''[[Spider
* On an episode of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series
** More subtly, Baby Doll's failed version of ''[[Macbeth]]'' bears a striking resemblance to Roman Polanski's version.
** The episode "Mean Seasons" is ripe with this. Donna Day, a bitchy fashion designer kidnapped by Calendar Girl, is based on fashion mogul Carrie Donovan. Day and several other fashion moguls are bound and gagged by Calendar Girl, who then lectures them about how "sick" America's obsession with youth is. Just in case you don't get the jab, Calendar Girl was played by Sela Ward, a former model and actress who famously launched a campaign against ageism in Hollywood after a film director made a remark about her age.
* In ''[[
** In addition, the villain team The Pack could be seen as this as well.
* ''[[Megas XLR]]'' has a company by the name of PoP TV. The logo shows this is an obvious reference to MTV. If at any point there is something from a company to destroy. The first will be one for PoP TV, usually after hearing a soundbyte from a show parodying one from MTV. This is because the series creators had a show called ''[[Downtown]]'' on that station, which was cancelled.
* The last episode of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' before the 4 part finale was a retelling of the entire 3 seasons as a play, and consisted of a long chain of affectionate Take Thats at both their fans and [[Take That Me|themselves]].
** The July 2008 Comic Con ''Avatar'' panel included a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiUtbcpjd8A&feature=watch_response video] that took a good whack at overzealous [[Shipping]]. Though [[Portmanteau Couple Name|Zutara]] was the heaviest hit, [[Crack Pairing|CrackPairings]] Sokka/Toph and Azula/Aang get skewered, too,
** In the episode "Sokka's Master", Aang tries on a ridiculously elaborate [http://iroh.org/screencaps/ep44/ep44-116.png set of armor]{{Dead link}}, which he's unable to move in and falls backwards while he's still wearing it. The [[DVD Commentary]] confirms that this was a swing at the type of [[Rummage Sale Rejects|ridiculous]] and [[Impossibly Cool Clothes|impractical]] choices in character/costume design that the series creators don't exactly agree with.
*** Specifically, it was Mike and Bryan's response to Nickelodeon asking them to give Aang such a set of armor so they could use it in toys.
** "[[Calling Your Attacks|Sneak attacks don't work]] [[With Catlike Tread|if you yell it out loud]]."
** "A couple more years, and you might be ready to [[Fandom Rivalry|fight]] a [[
** "There's no girls in the Avatar universe! Just ask Mattel!" *whip crack*
** The episode "Nightmares And Daydreams" has Aang having a nightmare about being [[
* In an episode of ''[[My Dad the Rock Star]]'', Rock Zilla is upset that his never-before-mentioned rival, Max Hype has managed to get a reality show, despite Rock Zilla being a much better performer and singer. In addition to having a reality show, he has long black hair and is completely addled to the point that he apparently frequently gets stuck walking into walls or corners. No points for guessing who he's supposed to be a mean-spirited [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]] version of.
* The [[Grand Finale]] of ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'' was axed because [https://web.archive.org/web/20130406012004/http://www.micahwright.com/downloads/networkslam.mp3 it explicitly slammed] [[Nickelodeon]]'s re-re-re-re-rerunning practices and would have exposed them to the [[Viewers are Morons|ignorant children]]. How many slots do you think ''[[
* Speaking of ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', SpongeBob had the episode "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100503055138/http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/HVM4Q44uhyo/ KrabbyLand]", which was basically one long [[Take That]] at McDonald's.
* In one episode of ''[[The Fairly
** The very same episode has the people of Atlantis deciding that Cosmo sinking them was a good thing after viewing ''Wet Willy'', a fictitious movie starring a very thinly veiled [[Captain Ersatz]] for Aquaman, who is [[This Looks Like a Job For Aquaman|primarily noted for sucking]].
** The episode "Shelf Life" they give many stabs to the state of Missouri.
** Really? This is practically the show's ''third'' biggest source of humor, Next to [[Parental Bonus]] and [[Domestic Abuse]].
* In ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', after the Dinobots gain sentience, Megatron turns them against the Autobots. It ultimately results in Grimlock saying "Cars bad. Car Robots ''worse''!" For the uninformed, ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'' was originally called "Car Robots" in Japan.
** There's a more direct one in the script-reading "Bee in the City", where Optimus Prime states that waiting in a line for 17 hours "took longer than an ''[[Inuyasha]]'' [[Story Arc]]". This is also an [[Actor Allusion]], as Prime has the same voice actor as Sesshomaru, a recurring character.
** {{spoiler|Starscream's [[Me's a Crowd|army of clones]]}} can be considered as much [[Take That]] as it is [[Homage]] to {{spoiler|the Seekers and the idea of [[Palette Swap|redecoes]]}}.
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
** One episode had a computer being booted up and had the faux loading message "Matrix good — Sequels: not so good", obviously a dig at ''the [[The Matrix|Matrix]]'' films.
** Another episode dealt with a girl named [[Dora the Explorer|Dora]], who Grim said reminded him of something. He went on to say she reminded him of "his favorite program" which Billy describes as "Is it that one about the little girl who wanders around the jungle [[Free-Range Children|with no parental supervision]], avoiding crises and conversing with the local wildlife with the aid of her foreign language-speaking monkey?"
*** Isn't that last one less of a [[Take That]] and more of a [[Shout-Out]]?
*** Didn't Dora turn out to be Pandora who had an evil plot to trick Mandy into opening her lunchbox and destroying the world?
* Berry's debut episode in ''[[
** [[Dora the Explorer|Explorin' Lauren!]]
*** Heh, [[Lauren Faust|Lauren]]...
* ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'' did a "Take That" to their fans via the appropriately titled ''City of Clipsville'' episode. It starts off as a standard clip show then moves onto material obviously never made. Most the supposed segments taking potshots at [[Fanfic]] writers, including Powerpuff Girls/Rowdy Ruff Boys [[Shipping|shippers]].
** [[Insult Backfire|It backfired.]] The shippers loved it.
* In ''[[My Life
{{quote|
* The animated movie ''[[Batman: Mask of the Phantasm]]'' features a fight between Batman and the Joker in a delapidated park that strongly resembles a cross between EPCOT and Tomorrowland of Disney World. During the course of their fight, it is completely demolished, finishing off with the huge sphere burning to cinders as it falls to the ground, just before the entire place blows up.
** [[Word of God]] says that it was directly inspired by the World's Fair, as it tied in well with the show's art deco-inspired style. It looks like Epcot because Epcot itself was also inspired by the 1939 fair.
** An episode in the series itself, after the art style change, featured an episode that had a scene where a network TV spokesperson previews a new line up of shows with bad premises and bad actors meant for the "teen/young adult" group. Either a shot at the WB! or at prime time TV in general.
** One of the Mr. Freeze episodes of ''[[Batman: The Animated Series
* ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' had the Ultimen, who were all designed to be parodies of the "made-for-TV" members of the ''[[
* ''[[Justice League]]'' featured a scene in "Injustice For All" where statues of the widely-hated [[Wonder Twins]] are violently smashed during a battle.
* After ABC was bought out by Disney and dumped ''[[
* An episode of ''[[Yin Yang Yo
** Another episode is a whole-episode [[Take That]] against ''[[Teen Titans (
* The ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'' episode "Panfake" was a poke at a Disney cartoon that was being made (cancelled as soon as Cartoon Network found out), which was a ripoff of the series premise. The creator hoped that the ripoff (called Poopdeck) would air around the premiere of this episode, but it, again, was canceled.
* ''[[Batman:
** In the same episode, Bat-Mite briefly views the rubberized Batsuit from the much-maligned ''[[Batman and Robin (
*** Likewise, Bat-Mite conjures up the [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Frank Miller]] Batman from [[Dark Knight Returns]] but dismisses it as being "too psycho".
** "A Bat Divided" features a scene where Batman is split into several clones embodying his various personality traits, and the embodiment of Batman's rage angrily screams out "Batman does not eat nachos!" This could be seen as a dig at the fandom's vitriolic response to the previous Batman cartoon, ''[[
** The final episode of the show features a scene where ''The Brave and the Bold'' is cancelled and replaced with a "darker", CGI Batgirl TV series. This greatly upsets Bat-Mite, who dismisses the Batgirl cartoon as a poor substitute. In real life, it has indeed been announced that a darker Batman series called ''Beware The Batman'' will be launched as a replacement for ''The Brave and the Bold''.
** The "Siege of Starro" two-parter has a scene where [[Booster Gold]], [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]] and [[Firestorm]] try to evade Starro's zombie hordes by removing their costumes and dressing as civillians. Booster remarks that "The toy company won't like this one bit!", a reference to Mattel, the company that provided a sizable portion of the show's budget and as such [[Executive Meddling|would step in and make demands pertaining to the series' content]] from time to time.
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' did a HUGE take that at Nickelodeon, as Zim captures a human child and implants an ENORMOUS probe in his skull that forces him to be eternally happy. The child's name? Nick. This is funny because of how Nickelodeon tried to always lighten up the plots and mood of the show, which would eventually lead to them cancelling it. To make the irony more delicious, Nick was voiced by the creator of the show and the primary victim of Nickelodeon's executive annoyance, [[Jhonen Vasquez]].
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Summer Belongs to You", the titular duo and their friends get stranded on a deserted island, and Phineas frantically tries to find something they can use to continue their journey. He digs a massive hole in the ground, and at one point comes back up holding [[
** They also featured a quite a few directed at Twilight in the episode The Curse of Candace.
{{quote|
:: The song of the episode mocks Twihards and their habits, shopping choices, general gothic attitude.
** A '''HUGE''' one toward [[Moral Guardians]] in "Quantam Boogaloo".
* ''[[The Boondocks]]'' has too many of these to count because it's based on a comic built around the trope.
* ''[[Freakazoid!]]'', in the episode "[[Candle Jack]]" :
{{quote|
'''Kids:''' AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!! *run into cabin and hide* }}
** Not to mention the episode where he gets teleported back in time and prevents the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He then goes to see what has changed. He finds a theater playing [[Macbeth]] with Sharon Stone. He is shocked to find she is good. "She's really good. Sharon Stone can act!" He also sees Rush Limbaugh became a bleeding heart liberal. Then he picks up a paper and also learns Euro Disney is packed, Cold Fusion works, and there are no Chevy Chase movies!
* ''[[Superman:
** The animated movie ''Superman: Doomsday'' has a scene where Superman destroys a giant robot spider, and a bemused man resembling Kevin Smith remarks that the fight was "lame". In real life, Smith wrote a rejected script for a Superman movie and frequently talks about how producer Jon Peters repeatedly asked him to include a scene where Superman fought a giant robot spider.
* Independent animator [[Bill Plympton]] did a scathing parody of abstract animation called ''Spiral''. It was actually controversial within the indie animation community and angered many abstract animators. One of them, Steven Woloshen, did a film rebutting called, well, ''Rebuttal''.
* [[American Dad
** Another episode had Steve and Roger talking (metaphorically) about Steve's place in the family. He used to be "first class" now he was back in coach between two fat ladies from Toronto. Roger responds "Blue Jays fans are the worst!" They then go on to make fun of Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox fans.
* In ''[[The Swan Princess]] 3'', Zelda mentions the names of three other works' villainesses during her [[Villain Song]] "Bad Days Ahead": "Move over, [[The Rescuers|Medusa]]; [[101 Dalmatians
* Pretty much all of Ezekiel's plot in ''[[Total Drama World Tour]]'' is a Take That to ''[[Total Drama Comeback]]'', [[Big Name Fan|Kobold Necromancer]], and Ezekiel fans.
** Sierra's main purpose is to show how pathetic and nucking futs Cody's legion of fangirls are. You may think [http://antisierraclub.deviantart.com/ it backfired,]{{Dead link}} but when you realize that there pretty much just demonizing themselves, the [[Take That]] is even sweeter.
* In Walt Disney's ''[[
** Also, when the Pink Elephants made an appearance in the show ''[[House of Mouse]]'', some of said Pink Elephants can actually be seen [[Winnie the Pooh|drinking out of a honey pot]] at one point.
* One episode of ''[[Arthur (
** In another episode, Buster creates a self-aggrandizing cartoon based around his own imaginary adventures. Describing the premise to his friends, Arthur notes that the show is supposed to be "edutainment," which causes everyone to recoil in disgust.
** There were also several Take Thats against ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]'', which was represented in the show as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwh_ekDGhlA ''Peabrain and Nutthead''] several times.
{{quote|
'''Arthur:''' But I don't get it!
'''Buster:''' Neither do I, but they don't have to know that. }}
* Soon after [[Futurama]] left [[Adult Swim]] for [[Comedy Central]], [[
** Another episode has Carl's girlfriend telling her kids' babysitter that the children are only allowed to watch animated programs, and therefore "No Cartoon Network". At the time, Cartoon Network was coming under fire for the increasingly large amount of live-action and reality shows being aired on the channel.
* Saleen, a mermaid character from [[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]], actually pokes fun at [[The Little Mermaid
{{quote|
** She also gives Jasmine the hairstyle of said mermaid, but complains it "Looks like every other Princess under the sea".
* The ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers" could be seen as a [[Take That]] towards over-use of [[Limited Animation]] and the various attempts to water down the Loony Tunes franchise. It involves Bugs Bunny's rivals being replaced by [[Stepford Smiler|eerily-cheerful]], [[Off-Model|badly-drawn and badly-animated]] clones from the planet Nudnik (named for a Russian [[Limited Animation]] series), including Daffy briefly being animated in [[
** Another Looney Tunes short from the 90's, "Blooper Bunny" relentlessly made fun of the fuss Warner Bros. made to promote Bugs' 50th anniversary.
* A ''G.I. Joe'' episode has Cobra creating a childrens cartoon called The Likables which is a blatant ''Smurfs'' parody. It involves two green trolls turning a purple troll's color green and saying "when everyone looks, thinks, and acts the same, we can achieve world peace". Followed by Duke turning off the tv and saying "this has got to stop".
* In an episode of ''[[Good Vibes]]'', Gina asks Mondo if he would like to watch a porno with her. She turns on the TV, and Mondo exclaims "Yuck, it's all shock value and no plot!" Gina then tells him that it's ''[[Family Guy]]'', and then puts on the porno.
* An in-universe example from ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'':
{{quote|'''Korra:''' ''You have a battleship?''
'''Varrick:''' ''Of course I do! I bought the first one they made! Named her the Zhu Li.''
'''Bolin:''' ''You named your battleship after your assistant?''
'''Varrick:''' ''Yep! They're both cold, heartless war machines.''
|''[[The Legend of Korra]],'' Night Of A Thousand Stars}}
* The ''[[Ren and Stimpy]]'' episode, "Stimpy's Cartoon Show" where Ren acts like a tyrant towards Stimpy being an animator is basically a jab at John Kricfalusi's perfectionism and [[Jerkass]] behavior over his own animators as well as being very hard to work for.
** Reverend Jack Cheese, a very insane individual was also a satirical parody of John K. when he was fired and became Ren and Stimpy's biggest critic as well as why episodes were delayed because of him.
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