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The Smurfs<ref>And, no, the plural of smurf is not "smurves". Although maybe it should be.</ref> (originally ''Les Schtroumpfs'' in French) are originally an extremely popular (and still ongoing) [[Belgian Comics|Belgian comic book series]] by cartoonist Pierre Culliford (aka ''Peyo'') that started in the [[The Sixties|1960s]]. It is more universally known for the long-running [[Saturday Morning Cartoon]] series that [[Hanna-Barbera]] created for [[NBC]] in the 1980s.
The Smurfs were born in another comic, ''[[Johan and Peewit]]'', where they made their first appearances in October, 1958. [[Breakout Character|They became so popular]] they got their own [[Spin-Off]] books. Starting with short comics in 1959, receiving their first album in 1963. These stories [[More Popular Spinoff|eventually overshadowed the comics that created them]].
The Smurfs are tiny creatures, who looked human except for their blue skin and tails, and were constantly pursued by Gargamel, an impoverished sorcerer who plotted to steal the Smurfs so he could create gold (or eat them, he's [[Robot Chicken|never really been at that clear on his motivations]]). Papa Smurf, an alchemist in his own right, generally saved the day.
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{{tropenamer}}
* [[If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You]]
* [[The Smurfette Principle]]
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* [[An Aesop]]
* [[Affirmative Action Girl]]: Sassette.
* [[
** May be a subversion: the only sentient robot was the garbage-eating one (because [[A Wizard Did It|he ate some of Papa Smurf's magic potions]]) who then reprogrammed every other one to obey him.
* [[And I'm the Queen of Sheba|And I`m The Queen Of Sheba]]: In ''Smurf Versus Smurf'', when Papa Smurf has switched bodies with Gargamel (long story), and the smurfs have caught not-Gargamel, he reveals that he's really Papa Smurf. Cue one smurf: "Yes, and I'm the Smurfette."
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* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Papa Smurf. He often saved the day and would often volunteer for dangerous physical tasks.
* [[Bankruptcy Barrel]]: Brainy Smurf in ''The Gambler Smurfs''.
* [[Battle-Interrupting Shout]]: In the comic book story and cartoon episode of "King Smurf," all that is needed to stop the Smurf civil war is for Papa Smurf to return and roar, "Stop!"
* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]: Actually more of an inversion, but Smurfette originally looked like a male smurf with a bad black wig and a dress. The cartoon features her makeover as seemingly coming with her [[Heel Face Turn]], which adds a slight layer of [[Unfortunate Implications]] (the comics had Papa Smurf give her some ''[[Magic Plastic Surgery|Plastic Smurfery]]", so it wasn't an entirely automatic transformation.)
* [[Bedmate Reveal]]: In a one-page comic gag, a Smurf takes a walk outside when he can't get any sleep, only for the clouds to obscure the light of the moon so that he couldn't see his way, so he ended up going back to what he thinks is his own house and goes to sleep. In the morning, he wakes up and finds out {{spoiler|he is sleeping in Papa Smurf's bed}}.
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* [[Big Eater]]: Greedy Smurf and Bigmouth.
* [[Big Friendly Dog]]: Puppy, who is relatively bigger than the Smurfs, becomes Baby Smurf's pet.
* [[Big "Never!"]]: In the comic book story "You Don't Smurf Progress", the waste disposal robot, who became the tyrant of the Smurf Village, shouts this when he tries to escape from the front door of his castle, but finds himself surrounded by the Smurfs that were once his captives, demanding for his surrender. He tries to use a secret escape hatch, only to be turned into furniture when Handy cuts off his escape with his furniture-making machine.
* [[Black and White Morality]]: Smurfs = GOOD. Gargamel = Evil.
** Though Gargamel become more of a minor character as the series went on. The most important problems come generally from the Smurfs themselves, especially when [[Mentor Occupational Hazard|Papa Smurf is away]].
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* [[Dreadful Musician]]: Harmony Smurf.
* [[Dressing as the Enemy]] / [[The Mole]]: Gargamel and Hogatha posed as actual Smurfs at one time or another, with Hogatha (Gargamel in the original comic books) being the first but lacking a tail which made her a dead giveaway near the end of the story.
* [[Dropped a Bridget On Him]]: the originally female Azrael canonically became a tom when the animated series began.
* [[Dumb Is Good]]: The other Smurfs disliked Brainy's [[Insufferable Genius|bossy know-it-all]] behavior, despite the times he actually has a point.
* [[Enfant Terrible]]: The so-non-aptly-named Jeantil (which sounds like "gentil", meaning "considerate").
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* [[Four-Fingered Hands]]: The Smurfs have four-fingered hands and four-toed feet, while the humans they encounter have five-fingered hands. In their first comic book appearance, though, they did have five fingers.
* [[Freaky Friday Flip]]
* [[Frothy Mugs of Water]]: Averted. Gargamel and Azrael were bottle partners, and the Smurfs themselves were fond of drinking alcohol- at the point that Papa Smurf had to invent a wacky story of an evil genie trapped inside a bottle to prevent the Smurfs from opening it and drinking the special liquor he had on it.
* [[Furry Female Mane]]: Although not a furry, Smurfette embodies the spirit of this trope: Males of a species are apparently bald but females must have plenty of head hair.
** The Smurfs are rarely seen without their hat, Papa Smurf being an exception while in the first album.
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* [[Heel Face Turn]]: The Smurfette. Note she was never evil in a [[The Vamp]] or [[The Baroness]] way, more a case of [[The Scrappy]]: She got on everyone's nerves, [[Stop Helping Me!|offered her help despite not being useful]], and expected that [[Attention Whore|everyone paid attention to her]] and fulfill all of her wishes, no matter how outrageous. Also note the list of "ingredients" when Gargamel creates her, which includes [[Envy]] and vanity. Strangely, her most negative deed (she actually tried to have the entire village ''flooded'') [[Fridge Logic|happened after said smurfical surgery]]. Yet, when she reveals that Gargamel created her, she is put on a trial. Which is heavily biased, but in her favor: everyone testified for her because she was pretty! In later stories, she ''is'' good, but no real explanation is given.
** In the cartoon show, Smurfette was changed into a real Smurf through the use of magic, and this following her attempt to flood the village and she confesses she was doing it on Gargamel's orders. With that her change of heart is genuine and she quickly proves it to everyone.
** In the cartoon, Smurfette followed Gargamel's orders out of fear because he created her and could un-create her as well. In the comic, Smurfette was just left to be found by trhe Smurfs and her mere presence should have cause them to fight for her <ref>which failed because the Smurfs didn't find her attractive, and even despised her annoying attitude</ref>, so she was never following any orders and just knew Gargamel as the guy who created her, [[You Didn't Ask|something she didn't find important to tell and ended coming in casual conversation]]. On both cases, she ended up ditching Gargamel by her own will.
* [[Hello, Nurse!]]: Smurfette, after her makeover, elicits this response in her fellow Smurfs. She actually became a nurse several times in the comics, such as in ''Doctor Smurf''.
* [[Hidden Elf Village]]: in the original books and the first few seasons of the cartoon.
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* [[The Klutz]]: Clumsy Smurf.
* [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All]]: Brainy.
* [[Lady in Red]]: Smurfette wore a red dress in the comic book story "The Great Smurfette", though it was more the feminine version of Papa Smurf's outfit, and it was mostly to show that she was in charge of the Smurf Village.
* [[Lilliputians]]
* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: [[Walking Shirtless Scene|Just a hat and pants for the male Smurfs]]. Papa Smurf wore red pants and Grandpa Smurf yellow; other Smurfs wore white.
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* [[Literal Ass-Kicking]]: In a comic book story where Handy Smurf creates problems with a new handheld power driller by drilling through everything he can get his hands on, the Smurfs retaliate by turning his power drill into an ass-kicking machine.
* [[Loin Cloth]]: Tailor Smurf made one to Wild Smurf to wear. Before that, Wild Smurf was covered with leaves.
* [[Loves Me Not]]: Deconstructed. One smurf was doing the routine, and ends up with "Loves Me Not". Another smurf asks him about his luck and he replies, gesturing to the now barren flower field that "Yeah, I can't find one that has an odd number of petals!"
** And there's other time that, as a joke, two Smurfs take petals from the flowers to ensure the one doing the routine always gets "Loves Me not".
* [[Ludd Was Right]]: Whenever a Smurf decides to bring a new technology or system that is meant to make their lives easier, it will always be dropped by the end.
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* [[Papa Wolf]]: Don't threathen the Smurfs if you don't want to be on the receiving end of one of Papa Smurf's potions.
* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: This was subverted when Gargamel once put on a rabbit suit — with his face still visible — and the Smurfs had a lot of trouble to keep themselves from laughing (even Azrael laughed) as they decided to pretend his disguise fooled them, until they trapped him with a paralyzing potion.
* [[Perma-Stubble]]: The Swoofs (magically-disguised Smurfs in the album "The Astrosmurf") have what appears to be a ring of Fred Flintstone stubble around their mouths, though it could also simply be tribal face paint. In the animated adaptation of the story, there's a Swoofette, who is Smurfette in disguise, and even she has it!
* [[Pervert Dad]]: Papa Smurf's one-time attraction to Smurfette in "Romeo And Smurfette".
* [[Pet the Dog]]: In the album where Baby Smurf is introduced, when Grumpy Smurf learns that the stork is coming back to take away Baby Smurf, he decides to take him away in the woods because he doesn't want him to leave. When he eventually returns, he cries and shows more emotion that he has ever done in the series.
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* [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]: Papa Smurf in ''The Finance Smurf'' refuses to go along with the title character's suggestion of charging his little Smurfs for his services, even as impoverished as he is when he has to pay off his little Smurfs for their services during the time he was sick when the Smurf Village monetary system was in place. Eventually every Smurf decides to go Screw The Money to Finance Smurf when they realize that the old ways of cooperation and sharing were better.
* [[Series Continuity Error]]: the story ''The Finance Smurf'' introduces the money system and the Smurfs are revealed as not knowing what money is at all. This contradicts earlier stories, such as ''The Egg and the Smurfs'' where a Smurf makes a wish to become "rich" - and ends with jewels and money as a result - and in ''Smurf Stories'' where Handy Smurf creates a machine that can turn hazelnuts into gold coins and Handy Smurf tells Papa Smurf he'll use the coins to buy more hazelnuts.
** During the Smurflings origin story, three Smurfs are sent to Father Time's home to get a new sand clock for Papa Smurf. The place is full with all kinds of clocks, and there's a lot of coins scattered in the floor, because "Time is money". The Smurfs recognize them as money and even can tell their worth.
* [[She's a Man In Japan]]: Azrael was female in the original ''Spirou'' stories and made male in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. In what has to be a first for this trope, the gender switch was made canon!
* [[Silly Reason for War]]: In ''Smurf Versus Smurf'', a civil war erupts in the Smurf village over whether the word "smurf" should be used as an adjective (south end) or a verb (north end). This gets funnier in languages that allow for many composite words (e.g. Dutch and German) because now the war is about whether the proper term is "corksmurf" or "smurfscrew".
** As a whole, this was parodying the language divide issues in Belgium.
* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: The [[Trope Namer]]. so many smurfs, yet only two of them are female.
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'''Smurf:''' No, no! "I go to the woods" is "I smurf the smurf"! As for "I smurf the smurf", it means "I warble at aurora" ! }}
* [[Status Quo Is God|Status Quo Is Almost God]]: Save for some new characters (the Smurfette, the Smurflings...), the village always come back to its previous state at the end of the story.
* [[Stealth Pun]]: The waste disposal robot in the comic book story "You Don't Smurf Progress" would eat garbage and turn them into bricks that he would expel from his rear hatch. In essence, he was {{spoiler|shitting bricks}}.
* [[Stern Chase]]
* [[Sticky Situation]]: Gargamel creates a treat that ends up trapping a Smurf that touches it, but as Gargamel runs over to where he has set the trap, he also gets stuck in the trap, and so do birds, a cow, and several other things on his way home. Papa Smurf makes a potion that frees everything that got stuck in the trap -- everything, that is, except for Gargamel, whom Papa Smurf has no more potion for, but he does leave a recipe for the formula for Gargamel to make up.
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** Also see [[Zombie Apocalypse]] below, they almost faced extinction that time.
* [[Sugar Bowl]]: [[Medieval Stasis]] never looked so good. Also Gargamel creating a Female Smurf being the only change he ever successfully made to their village.
* [[Symbol Swearing]]: You might be surprised but it happened all the time in the original comics by Peyo. Yep, the comic overall was much less childlike than its [[Animated Adaptation]].
** Snappy Smurf cursed all the time.
** It was even played with in one one-page gag story, where a random Smurf hits his foot with a hammer and begins [[Symbol Swearing]] up a storm until Papa Smurf tells him to wash his mouth out with soap. In the last panel, when the Smurf speaks again, his word balloon is completely clean, but now soap bubbles containing swear symbols are floating all around him.
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* [[The Virus]]: "The Black Smurfs" (adapted into the episode "Purple Smurfs").
* [[Walking Shirtless Scene]]: Pretty much what a male Smurf's life is, coupled with the [[Limited Wardrobe]]. Given that in cold weather they tend to wear little else besides a scarf, it would suggest that they are adaptable to weather changes.
* [[We Are as Mayflies]]: The Smurfs are definite long-livers compared to humans — they can live up to 600 years (Grandpa Smurf is a few centuries beyond that) and still remain active and sprightly. In the [[Animated Adaptation]], it's mostly due to the Long Life Stone which gives the Smurfs their longevity, though its power must be replenished every 1000 years or the Smurfs will suffer [[Rapid Aging]] that leads to their death.
* [[We Want Our Jerk Back]]: In a comic book story, Papa Smurf plays a prank on Jokey Smurf in order to get him to stop playing his pranks on other Smurfs, only to find out that the other Smurfs are bored from the lack of his pranks, so he allows Jokey to play them once again.
* [[Weather Control Machine]]: The Smurfs invented one, but Farmer Smurf and Poet Smurf fought over which weather they wanted, and caused it to go berserk. Papa Smurf in the comic books, and Handy in the cartoon show, had to destroy it.
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