The Mask (animation)/YMMV

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The original The Mask comic series has the following tropes:

• Complete Monster: ANYONE who wears the mask becomes this. No exceptions.
  • Kathy was perhaps the only one to avoid this fully, knowing what the mask was and what it did to people and only wearing it when absolutely necessary. Still... she did kill lots of people while wearing it and had a hell of a time keeping in control.
• I Am Not Shazam: "The Mask" is the title of the book. Anyone who wears the mask itself is always referred to as "Big Head".
• What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: Specially compared to the film.

The movie adaptation of The Mask has the following tropes:

• Adaptation Displacement: All adaptions since have at least used some inspiration from this film, despite the comics being very different.
• Complete Monster: Dorian, particularly the Mask version of him.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: "Hey, Pachuco! HEY!" Also "Cuban Pete." Observe.
  • "Hey Pachuco" is so awesome, that it was reworked as the opening theme for the Animated Series.
• Crazy Awesome: The Mask.
• Designated Villain: Lt. Kellaway is a Jerkass cop that ends up being humiliated at every turn and is chewed out by the mayor at the end. We're supposed to laugh but in reality, the guy was trying to arrest a bank robber. He's a Hero Antagonist: In the comics, where he tries to stop the users of the mask from causing destruction and death at any cost.
• Designated Hero: Likewise, the movie is sometimes called a "superhero comedy". While Stanley is a nice guy and the Mask does briefly joke about becoming a superhero, he doesn't really fight crime except at the end but he's more or less forced into that position since it involves Tina and his stolen mask.
• Ear Worm: "They call me Cuban Pete, I'm the king of the Rumba beat."
  • "Start dancing, I'll blow your brains out!"
  • HEY PACHUCO!
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Ben Stein tells Stanley "It's mythology" and reminds him that a book is metaphorical, not literal.
  • In the Oscar Bait scene, The Mask references A Christmas Carol (among other things). Fifteen years later, Jim Carrey starred in A Christmas Carol.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSMOKIN'!
  • Ooh, somebody stop me!
• Memetic Outfit: The banana yellow suit, which actually was based on a suit Jim Carrey's mom made for him when he first did stand-up.
• The Problem With Licensed Games: There was a tie-in game released for the home consoles. The problem? As with any super hero that has infinite powers and is nearly invulnerable, the character has to be seriously stripped of powers and made weak to make the game work. As a result, The Mask is often beaten up by low-level thugs with pocket knives. And as you'd expect, the level layouts, bosses and plot progression really don't match the film in anything but the loosest sense. Otherwise, it's a mostly fun action platformer.
  • You also have to fight Dorian Mask, the final boss... while Stanley is still wearing the mask. Just think about that for a second.
• Sequelitis: Son of the Mask. It won a Razzie Award.
• Trailer Joke Decay: The trailer featured most of the crowning moments of funny of the movie, so those who saw the trailer first were left unsatisfied by the end of the movie.
• Visual Effects of Awesome

The Saturday morning cartoon version of The Mask has the following tropes:

• Everybody Remembers the Stripper: Literally in "Flight as a Feather," with the one-time appearance of the Mayor's ex-girlfriend Cookie BaBoom (who is a strip -- er, exotic dancer). You know there's a plot about a Swedish karaoke contest and the Mask losing his feather and running through the city to get it, but once you see that entire sequence with Cookie, you'll forget about that right quick.
• Fetish Retardant: Whenever a woman puts on The Mask it's just his regular face on a woman's body, even though whenever any man other than Stanley puts on The Mask he looks entirely different.
  • Two different women put on the Mask in the series and look WAY different than when Stan puts on the Mask and does a female transformation. If anything this is more true to the comic as the cartoon does have subtle design changes.
• Foe Yay: Pretorius has this moment from The Bride of Pretorius: "Mask, your powers are bizarre, unpredictable and beyond the realms of science ... and if you were a woman I would marry you." The Mask is suitably squicked.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment: Everything about Cookie BaBoom's assassination plot in "Flight as a Feather" stops being funny due to the following events and social changes:
  • The September 11th, 2001 attacks have effectively made putting terrorism in Western media (whether played for laughs or drama) a big taboo.
  • Cookie ending up naked in front of Kellaway and Doyle would not be considered kosher to air on television (especially children's television -- unless it's Cartoon Network) thanks to the FCC cracking down on indecency from the Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction fiasco in 2004.
  • A year after this episode aired, the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky scandal happened (though the idea of a corrupt city politician having an affair with a woman who has a job in the sex entertainment biz is more reminiscent of Eliot Spitzer, which wouldn't happen until the late 2000s).
  • In 2003, a man by the name of Brian Wells robbed a bank with a bomb strapped to his neck (not as outrageous as a suicide belt bikini, but the principle's the same) and died when it detonated.
  • The beginning of "Counterfeit Mask" where the Banana Republic Liberation Army freedom fighters hijack a plane. The whole thing turns out to be a dream, thankfully, which is more than what anyone can say about "9/11."
    • And after that dream sequence we get a scene where a Jerkass security guard doesn't bother to look at Stanley's luggage (which was switched with one containing counterfeit money. Imagine if it was a bomb...) because "a wimp like you couldn't sneak a peanut past a sleeping baby". And when Stanley insists he gets his bags checked he gets thrown out. Isn't negligent airport security funny? Especially in an age of body scans, pat downs and other abuses made in the name of said "security"?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The episode "Broadway Malady" centers on a disastrous musical made from the "Mad Monkey" movie series, much like the Spiderman musical would years later.
  • The beginning of the episode, "Future Mask," has The Mask playing on a mini-golf course. The prop on the seventh hole can easily be mistaken these days as a character on the Adult Swim cartoon, Squidbillies.