The Pink Panther: Difference between revisions

* [[Accidental Hero]]: Clouseau isn't able to save the world from Dreyfus' laser in ''Strikes Again'' until {{spoiler|he just happens to sit on a catapult out of exhaustion}}. Douvier's men kidnapping his former mistress Simone with the intention of disposing of her ''literally'' collides with Clouseau and Cato's attempt to spy on Le Club Foot in ''Revenge''.

** Better off? {{spoiler|Clouseau}} ends up in police protection, chased by a mob of women convinced he is the sexiest jewel thief in the world. When a policeman asks him how "he" pulled off all those robberies, he glances back at the women and says thoughtfully, "Well, you know, [[It Wasn't Easy|it wasn't easy]]."

* [[Balloonacy]]: In ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again'', Clouseau is floated out of his apartment window by the inflatable hump in his hunchback costume, thereby causing him to miss the bomb Dreyfus sets off.

* [[Bathroom Break Out]]: In ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again'', Dreyfus orchestrates the escape of a prisoner being transported by train. He goes to the bathroom, then climbs out through the ventilator on to the roof of the train and into a waiting helicopter.

** In ''Strikes Again'', {{spoiler|Omar Sharif}} is the Egyptian assassin whom the Russian one mistakes for Clouseau on their initial meeting - he beds her, and she falls in love and chooses not to kill him, which is extremely confusing for the real Clouseau later.

** In ''Curse'', {{spoiler|Roger Moore}}, billed as "Turk Thrust II", {{spoiler|plays the post-[[Magic Plastic Surgery]] Clouseau.}}

* [[Carnival of Killers]]: In ''Strikes Again'', the world's greatest assassins descend on Munich in attempt to kill Clouseau and end up wiping each other out. (Coincidentallycoincidentally, given this trope's name, the sequence in question takes place at an Oktoberfest celebration.).

* [[Classy Cat Burglar]]: {{spoiler|Claudine in ''Return'' and Simone in ''Curse''.}} The unmade ''Romance of the Pink Panther'' had one of these as the film's antagonist, and would have ended with {{spoiler|Clouseau making a [[Face Heel Turn]] out of love for her}}.

* [[Double Entendre]]: Auguste Balls' name is one of the goofiest ever. Even more so with his slogan in ''Revenge'': "...when duty calls, you've got Balls!" (Thethe close-up of Graham Stark reciting that line was due to Peter Sellers' inability to stop laughing when they tried wider shots of the scene.).

** Dreyfus also suffers the same fate. In his first appearance, ''A Shot in the Dark'', he was simply [[Da Chief]] who was annoyed by Clouseau's antics. From "''Return"'' onwards, he becomes a tic-ridden lunatic who only wants to kill Clouseau, even when the latter did nothing offending at all.

* [[Inspector Oblivious]]: Clouseau's opening scene in ''Return'' hinges on him getting distracted from a bank robbery. Moreover he's dim enough to accept bombs - the Incredibly Obvious kind, mind you - from suspicious persons without a thought, only realizing what they are just before it's too late. (''Revenge'': "Special delivery, a bomb! Were you expecting one?").

* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Clouseau is an arrogant man and believes enough in his own brilliance and rightness that he often misses the obvious. This also contributes to his chronic clumsiness. (Sellers himself saw Clouseau as a man who knows he's an idiot but is determined not to let anyone else find out.). On the other hand, he is genuinely on the side of good, is quite chivalrous with women to the point of unfounded faith (he was betrayed by his own wife), conducts himself with all the dignity he can muster, and as ''Trail'' points out, he ''never gives up''. As pointed out on the [[Karma Houdini]] page, it was perhaps this that made the character so sympathetic to audiences.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: Lytton and his accomplices; as the trope entry points out, they are ''never'' caught in any of their appearances. {{spoiler|Clouseau and Chandra are almost this at the end of ''Curse'' - they aren't found out by Sleigh, but Lytton's wife steals the diamond from them!}}

*** A similiarsimilar thing happened before ''Trail'' in ''Revenge of...'', nobody remembers Dreyfus' scheme in ''Strikes Again'', and they even ask to give a eulogy to Clouseau's (faked) funeral.

** ''Return'' ends with ''nobody'' going to prison for the actual theft of the diamond. Partially [[Justified Trope]] in that a lot of people thought Colonel Sharki was in on the conspiracy {{spoiler|and he's too dead to defend himself}}.

*** Claudine Lytton {{spoiler|the actual culprit}} is not seen in the epilogue, though.

* [[Malaproper]] and [[Poirot Speak]] -: Clouseau's unique speech patterns stem from a combination of these tropes. His accent is so thick it verges on [[Just a Stupid Accent]] in the 1970s entries, and this occasionally leads to him ''apparently'' saying one word while intending another, because other characters do not understand it. (''Rim'' instead of ''room'', ''massage'' instead of ''message'', etc.). He sometimes swaps words or consonant sounds in a phrase as well: "a rit of fealous jage", "Sir Charles Phantom, the notorious Lytton", etc.

* [[Phantom Thief]]: The Phantom.

** Not only that, in ''Trail of...'' he is Chief inspector again. You could say between the events of this film and ''Revenge'' that [[Unexplained Recovery|he got cured]], but then we have ''Strikes Again'' in wichwhich Dreyfus tried to [[Take Over the World]]. Unless that movie is not in the same canon (Thoughthough ''Trail'', ''Curse'' and ''Son of'' can be this too.), What kind of idiot would put one of the most dangerous maniacs back in his position.

'''Clouseau''' (gravely): The exploding kind. }}