The Dog Bites Back/Western Animation

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Examples of The Dog Bites Back in Western Animation include:

  • On many Looney Tunes and Tex Avery cartoons, a silly little character will come out of nowhere as a Running Gag. Eventually, the villain would get fed up and ask him who he is. The response: "Why, don't you know? I'm the hero in this picture", followed by a Hyperspace Mallet to the head.
  • In the Porky Pig cartoon "The Case of the Stuttering Pig", the villain brags to the audience that there is nothing they can do to stop him. "Especially you! You in the third row! You big softie!" In the end, the villain is dispatched by a theater seat hurled into the screen...

Pigs: Who did that?
Guy: Me!
Villain: Who are you?
Guy: I'm the guy in the third row, ya big sour-puss!

  • Wallace and Gromit have a literal example in A Matter Of Loaf And Death, when Fluffles, the mistreated poodle belonging to the 'cereal killer', not only bites back but then proceeds to take them on with a fork lift truck (a reference to the end of Aliens).
  • Jonny Quest TOS episode "Dragons of Ashida" has an island ruled by a mad Yellow Peril scientist experimenting with genetically modified lizards and his Yellow Peril bodyguard, a hulking brute who is the only one able to train the savage beasts. Dr. Ashida bullies, abuses and slaps Sumi several times throughout the episode, until Sumi decides he's not going to take it any more, hoists his "master" off of his feet and throws him to the lizards, which kill and eat him. Unlike most examples of this trope, Sumi did not take advantage of Dr. Ashida's weakness, nor did he die while exacting revenge (though Fridge Logic suggests that when the authorities arrive, they drop down on Sumi's head as they would have originally done Ashida).
  • In an episode of Ben 10 Alien Force, Gwen tricks Charmcaster by summoning a mystical vortex that pulls her and her rock minions inside. One of the rock minions manages to hold on to a nearby pole with Charmcaster clinging on. But her one too many contemptuous insults results in an angry glare from the rock monster, who lets go of the pole, pulling it and Charmcaster into the portal as she screams in angry disbelief: "YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE!"
  • In the Teen Titans episode "Aftershock Part II", Terra's last words to Slade, who had previously beaten and abused her, are: "You can't control me anymore!"
    • Spike, the dutiful mechanic of Atlas, turned on his master after having enough of his abuse. Unable to maintain himself, Atlas was soon defeated.
  • In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Joker's Favor", one of The Joker's victims, a regular Joe Normal, apparently goes crazy and tries to blow both of them up with a bomb. His acting is so good that even Joker buys it and covers in fear behind Batman. And the best part? The bomb was fake.
    • The same trope ultimately causes the death of the Animated Series Joker. As revealed in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the Joker kidnapped Tim Drake, the second Robin, and subjected him to torture and a steady stream of mind-altering drugs. He molded him into a "Joker Junior" in order to hurt Batman, and, after gaining the upper hand on the Dark Knight, tossed a lethal trick gun to Robin. Instead of shooting Batman, Robin turned the gun on the Joker and killed him.
      • He really did this two-fold. Batman is obviously not one of the Joker's underlings, but Batman did spend an entire series enduring the latter's verbal and physical assaults and crazy plots while maintaining as calm of a facade as he could. But when the Joker kidnapped and tortured Tim Drake, this sent Batman over the edge. Bruce would've likely had no qualms killing him if Drake hadn't done it first.
    • Harley Quinn also attempted to do this regarding the Joker twice: First was in the episode where he tried to destroy Gotham City with a nuclear device (since he was perfectly willing to abandon the other inmates and their pet hyenas), shooting down his plane with a rocket launcher (which wasn't fake). The second time was when she met Poison Ivy and attempted to kill The Joker for his earlier abuse towards her when it went too far. It's subverted twice: First, when she had the perfect opportunity to kill him when they meet again face to face, it turns out she was using a bang flag gun, and the second time, she ends up just forgiving him when he apologizes, to Poison Ivy's disgust.
    • In Justice League, Superman ends up defeating Darkseid in his final battle, then bringing his battered body to his home planet and then telling the natives to "do as they please" with him. It's subverted, however, in that, despite Darkseid frequently abusing his followers, they end up picking him up and helping him to his castle, much to Superman's shock and horror.
  • At the end of Tokyo Mater, as a result of Kabuto losing to Mater in a drift race, is actually stripped of his modifications and is laughed at by his own ninjas.
  • In WITCH, Cedric gets tired of Phobos' manipulations and swallows him whole. Problem? Phobos had the power of two Hearts, thus Cedric gained a few extra powers, forcing the girls to fight him at the end.
  • The Disney's Aladdin sequel The Return Of Jafar begins and ends with Iago turning his back on Jafar after one insult too many.

"I was a fool to let you run the show/I'm cuttin' ya loose pal, look out below!"

  • A milder example than most occurs in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it has far-reaching consequences and is set up interestingly; Mai's betrayal of Azula to save Zuko catches everyone by surprise, but what nobody sees coming is that Ty Lee takes out Azula with a paralyzing attack from behind and tries to escape with Mai before the guards catch them. This seems a surprising testament to Ty Lee's friendship with Mai, given how cheerfully Ty Lee seemed to go along with Azula's plans, but taken in the context of all the flashbacks of Azula belittling Ty Lee, being extremely jealous of her every success, and not thinking twice to put Ty Lee's life in jeopardy to get what she wants from her, the sudden betrayal may not so much be an impulsive decision to betray one friend to save another as Ty Lee finally overcoming the unholy terror she has of getting on Azula's bad side and attacking her both to save Mai and deliver retribution for what was probably years of abuse at Azula's hands. Ty Lee turning on her leaves Azula so incoherently furious she can't even speak properly for a moment, and shortly after this event, her mind snaps like a twig.
    • Zuko's entire role in the second half of third season is basically this, albeit indirectly.
  • In Young Justice, Sportsmaster aka Lawrence Crock was an abusive dad to his two daughters, Jade and Artemis, and gets a double dose of this in the episode "Usual Suspects." First Artemis fights him and with the help of her teammates traps him, and then Jade, who he'd had an uneasy alliance with, refuses to help him escape and leaves him to be captured.
  • In The Simpsons, when Homer has to take over Smithers' duties to Mr. Burns while Smithers goes on vacation, Homer was frequently met with a large amount of abuse by Mr. Burns. Eventually, he reached his breaking point and ended up punching Mr. Burns in the eye, initially fearing he killed him when he actually survived, but was also deeply traumatized by the event. Smithers chose Homer so Mr. Burns would want Smithers back, but it backfired.
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