Take That/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Because sometimes it's good to [[Take That|poke fun]] at your more [[A Worldwide Punomenon|two-dimensional]] competitors.

*** From season 8's "A Milhouse Divided":

{{quote| '''Neighbor:''' "A possum drowned in the pool. You have any garbage bags?"<br />

** [[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| '''Homer:''' That khlav kalash was pretty bad, do you have anything to drink to get rid of the taste?<br />

**** [[Seth Macfarlane]] has responded that this is pretty much an accurate description of how the show is written. Is a Take That still a Take That when its subject says it's true?

*** 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.

**** 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| '''Chef:''' You've made them so dull and boring that they're actually going to a Phil Collins concert!<br />

** 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 Musical]]'' by naming an unfaithful horse "Liane."

** 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 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert! this episode] and ''[[Team America World Police]]''. Clooney has taken it all in stride.

*** 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.

** 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.

** ''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 and Dragons]]'', a mild and still affectionate Take That against some of the more egregious tropes of the game (such as the very Gygaxian use of multitudes of random-roll tables) and a flat-out Take That against the anti-D&D hysteria of the '80s (with Bender becoming an over-the-top parody of the "steam-tunnel gamer" urban legend -- the gamers who supposedly lost their minds and grip on reality playing D&D). Of course, anyone who's played the game will be able to tell you that their portrayal of the game was hilariously innacurate, for the sole reason that the players were actually using the d12. Even whatever edition would exist a thousand years from now, the d12 will still have fewer uses than even the d3, which is both nonexistant AND geometrically impossible.

*** 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.

'''Stewie:''' How's it feel to be on a major network for 30 seconds?<br />

'''Chris:''' FUCK YOU! }}

** 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.

** The ''Manny the Uncanny'' parody may be considered a [[Take That]] to some people, but to those aware of the crew behind the orignal ''[[Pinky and The Brain (Animation)|Pinky and The Brain]]'' TV series (specifically how Manny was a regular on a block produced by former ''Pinky and the Brain'' writer/producer Peter Hastings and was played by Paul Rugg, a regular writer/voice actor for [[Warner Bros]] Animation at the time), this could be the show's way of paying [[Homage]] to those who once worked on the show before Elmyra entered the picture.

*** You're saying they were in fact paying homage to a regular feature on the block that was stealing their ratings?

* 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 [[Synchro Vox]]. This is attacking ''[[Loonatics Unleashed (Animation)|Loonatics Unleashed]]''.

** Since Milt Appleday is a clear [[Mr. Alt Disney]], Sonny might also have been a dig at Micheal Eisner.

* Following the success of the ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' movie, [[Filmation]] cashed in with ''[[Filmations Ghostbusters (Animation)|Filmations Ghostbusters]]'', a cartoon based off its 1970s TV show. Forced to cede trademark, [[Columbia Pictures]], which produced the ''Ghostbusters'' movie, retaliated by calling their cartoon ''[[The Real Ghostbusters|The '''Real''' Ghostbusters]]''.

** 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.

** "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 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.

* 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 Man the Animated Series]]'' episode, "I Really, Really Hate Clones", after he heard the Scarlet Spider's story, the ''real'' Spider-Man said, "This is starting to sound like a bad comic book plot!" This was a reference to the infamous ''[[Dork Age|Clone Saga]]'' arc, which ran from 1994 until 1997 due to [[Executive Meddling]].

** 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.

** The episode "Nightmares And Daydreams" has Aang having a nightmare about being [[Dragonball|Goku.]]

* 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.

* Speaking of ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', SpongeBob had the episode "[http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/HVM4Q44uhyo/ KrabbyLand]", which was basically one long [[Take That]] at McDonald's.

* In one episode of ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'', a citizen of Atlantis states that the diet of his people consists of crabs, starfish and the occasional underwater squirrel. Take a wild guess [[Spongebob SquarePants|which show they're mocking]].

* 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.

* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'' had a lot of digs and Take That moments.

** 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.

*** 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?

** [[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.

* ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' had the Ultimen, who were all designed to be parodies of the "made-for-TV" members of the ''[[Super Friends]]''. The episode also took digs at the corny [[An Aesop|morals about civic responsibility]] featured at the end of every ''Super Friends'' episode.

* ''[[Justice League]]'' featured a scene in "Injustice For All" where statues of the widely-hated [[Wonder Twins]] are violently smashed during a battle.

** Another episode is a whole-episode [[Take That]] against ''[[Teen Titans (Animation)|Teen Titans]]'', unfortunately, it's much more [[Shallow Parody|shallow and poorly-done]] than the above, or their [[Affectionate Parody]] of ''[[Looney Tunes]]''.

* 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.

** In the same episode, Bat-Mite briefly views the rubberized Batsuit from the much-maligned ''[[Batman and Robin (Film)|Batman and Robin]]'' film, and dismisses it as being "took icky".

*** Likewise, Bat-Mite conjures up the [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Frank Miller]] Batman from [[Dark Knight Returns]] but dismisses it as being "too psycho".

{{quote| "Legs. What's all the fuss about?"}}

** She also gives Jasmine the hairstyle of said mermaid, but complains it "Looks like every other Princess under the sea".

** 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".