The Runt At the End: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* Weird anime example: Team Sexy Madam (Lovely Madam in the English translation) from ''[[Pretty Sammy|Magical Project S]]'' was a team of adult women (housewives and [[Office Lady|office ladies]]) press-ganged by the villain, Ramia, to defeat Pretty Sammy with Sexy Power. Except for the sixth and final member, who was very small—and was later shown to be a popular junior high school girl.

* In an episode of ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'', a Gliscor and its group of Gligar followers had one of these. Ash ended up catching it. Paul, meanwhile, caught the leader.

* In ''[[Fables]]'', Bigby used to be the runt of his litter, and his name was even given by his brothers as mocking of his tiny size. Lately they abandoned him, but Bigby got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until he became ''the'' [[Big Badass Wolf]] of legend.

* Joe Dalton in ''[[Lucky Luke]]''. He tries his best to act the leader, but even when that works, he just ends up the Runt At The Front instead.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[The Sound of Music]]'', one of the children asks Uncle Max if they're really going to sing in front of a whole lot of people tonight and he says they are and reads their names from the program, ending with Gretel. She asks why she's always last and Max replies "Because you are the most important."

* Snot Rod from ''[[Cars]]'' appears to lag behind the other Delinquent Road Hazards, the only time he ever catches up is whenever he sneezes. Snot Rod is the only Road Hazard not to be based on a Japanese tuner car (he is based on an American drag racer instead), the only Road Hazard to be colored with warm colors (he is colored orange, while everyone else is colored purple, green, or blue), and according to his toy bio, he is the youngest member of his quartet.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

"To pay for having been born last? Not a bit more than if I had been born first. Any girl in the family owes you as much for life as I do; it is up to the others to pay back in service, after they are of age, if it is to me. I have done my share.'' }}

 

* Corporal Jones in ''[[Dad's Army]]'' is smaller, stands at the end when the troops fall in, and always comes to attention half a second behind everyone else.

 

* The Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a group of male ballerinas (yes, you read that right) demonstrate the trope nicely in this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfKdC6SYcnM pas de quatre] from ''[[Swan Lake]]''.

* In ''[[Of Thee I Sing]]'', when the Presidential baby is about to be born, the White House receives baby carriages from many world countries (France, of course, is not one of them). These are presented in a long line, and the last is a wee one from Scotland.

* The opening sequence of ''[[Super Mario Bros 3|Super Mario Bros. 3]]'' also does this—a group of koopas goes past, then one lone Koopa Troopa follows at twice the speed, trying to catch up...

* In ''[[Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'', Bowser's ultimate attack, the Broggy Bonker, can, with good timing, result in a gang of Blitties running by to mob the enemy. There is of course a brief pause between the time the penultimate Blitty runs offscreen and the time the last one appears.

* There's a group of ogres that patrol across the Badlands in ''[[World of Warcraft]]''. They walk in a line and the last one is about one third the size of the others.

** And then, there's [[Feathered Fiend|Mazzranache, the evil pink tallstrider of Mulgore]]. As of ''Cataclysm'', she's followed by a new clutch of babies. The last in line is not only a runt, but skitters around erratically.

* Seen in ''[[Skin Horse]]'' during [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/shaenongarrity/skinhorse/series.php?view=archive&chapter=32015 this week] (next-to-last strip).

* Among the dev'esses of the Sarghress clan in ''[[Drowtales]]'', you wouldn't be blamed for thinking that [https://web.archive.org/web/20130802073504/http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=475 Sang and her son Kor'maril Niz'zre] are this trope given that the other characters (including the token human) tower over them, but Kor'maril is one of the highest ranking Sarghress and a certified [[Badass]] in his own right, while Sang is described by the author as "small and mean" and an old friend of Quain'tana. [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Long story short]], in the drow world, The Runt At the End tends to be a [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse]] if they have managed to survive that long.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Benny in ''[[Top Cat]]''.

* A [[Looney Tunes]] short which parodied Disney's ''[[Fantasia]]'' fused this with an inversion of "The Ugly Duckling": a black duckling attached itself to a family of swans, adding a discordant visual and auditory note to their graceful progress.

* The animated adaptation of ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'' did this with King Azaz's senior advisers.

* A particularly early episode of ''[[The Fairly OddParents]]'' had Timmy wishing for "a ton" of clones of himself in order to deal with all the chores imposed on him by Vicky. Cosmo and Wanda do the math and figure out that it adds up to exactly "forty-four and a half Timmies". After Timmy gives the orders to his clones, they all march out of the room grunting like soldiers. Right after the 44th Timmy? A half-sized clone with a high-pitched voice.

* MGM and [[Warner Brothers]] both use this trope in a number of animated shorts with animals ranging from hounds to crocodiles. The runt usually says [[Lampshade Hanging|"I've been sick."]]

** From the same show, when a mob war between Fat Tony's mob and the [[Yakuza]] erupts on their front lawn, Homer, in a moment of [[Genre Savvy]]ness, recognizes the little Yakuza member as a [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse]].

{{quote|'''Marge''': Maybe we should go inside.

* Happens twice on ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' when Doofenshmirtz decides to clone himself and in another episode when he clones Perry. The botched version of himself doesn't seem to understand the situation and believes Perry to be a bunny. When one of the Perry clones come out awkwardly Doofenshmirtz feels very affectionate towards the poor creature, trying to teach it to use words instead of hitting people (even though the rest of the clones are an army).

* The Western episode of ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'' had the Coyote Gang, which comprised Wile E., a couple of [[Dumb Muscle]] coyotes, and a The Runt At the End who looked like a [[Palette Swap]] of Calamity.

** This is mirrored later in the episode when Rainbow Dash {{spoiler|tries to break into the hospital to finish reading the book.}} Dash runs afoul of two battleaxe nurses, an angry doctor...and an adorable little trainee filly.

* In ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force]]'' episode "Save The Last Dance" when [[Mister Seahorse|Ben lays eggs]] [[Monster Is a Mommy|as Big Chill]], a runt was hatched, and when it was uncertain Big Chill had to prod it to follow its siblings to the stars.

 

* [[No Such Thing As Notability|There is a]] [[Riff Trax]] gag in the ''[[Transformers]]'' movie poking fun at a short man hanging in the back of the group at an army meeting.

{{quote|'''Kevin:''' Hehe. Hey, look at that little eager guy in the back there.

'''Bill:''' *In a high, nasally voice* I want to help too, sir! }}

* The little ant who's always stopping to do things in the song "The Ants Go Marching One by One".

* And ''this'' little piggy went "wee wee wee wee" alllll the way home. Why? Who knows?

** [[Wii|Nintendo knows]].

* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20131016151532/http://www.otterpopstars.com/mtb_lil.html Lil Orphan Orange]'' (a parody of ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'') one of the mascots of Otter Pops, is the physically smallest character, which used to be especially apparent when all the characters were printed on the sides of the popsicles.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==