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''The Venture Brothers'' (2003-2004, 2006, 2008-2010) is a cartoon series on [[Adult Swim]]/[[Cartoon Network]] that focuses upon the lives and adventures of the titular Venture brothers (snarky Hank and brainy Dean) and their father, scientist/adventurer Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (who has grown bitter and abusive towards his own children due to his failure to live up to the legacy of his super-scientist father Jonas Venture, making him a sort of pulp version of a [[Former Child Star]]). They are followed by their government issued bodyguards: first Brock Samson, an ex-black ops agent who's described as a [[Heroic Sociopath|Swedish murder machine]] and then Sergeant Hatred, a former super-villain/recovering pedophile who was drafted by the military to replace Brock when he quit the job.
 
The Venture family travels the world, getting into all sorts of bizarre adventures and spoofing the everloving hell out of ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]'' along the way -- at least at first. The series [[Growing the Beard|quickly developed]] into something far more interesting than a mean spirited ''Jonny Quest'' parody as the characters gained depth and the show took a dark turn into deconstructing the entire "boy adventurer" genre. The focus of the series shifted from the brothers and onto Rusty Venture, and as the theme of "failure" became the central element of the series, the series began to show what happens to boy adventurers as they grow up and discover that the promises of the era of "super-science" in the 1960s never came.
 
There is also [[Ensemble Darkhorse|The Monarch]], Rusty Venture's longtime nemesis who transforms from lame joke villain based around butterflies to bad-ass super-villain; his quest to win back his girlfriend and get revenge against fellow villain Phantom Limb, who framed him for murder, catapults him into the spotlight in a number of episodes.
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Notable for, out of all of [[Adult Swim]]'s original shows, coming the closest to making ''any actual sense''. As the seasons go by, episodes focus more on the characters' bizarre and intersecting backgrounds, while surprisingly deep [[Character Development]] [[Cerebus Syndrome|adds delicious layers to the humor]].
 
[[J.G. Thirlwell (Music)|J. G. Thirlwell]] (aka '''Foetus''') does the soundtrack, which is [[Crowning Music of Awesome|awesome]].
 
There is a [[The Venture Brothers (Animation)/Characters|Character Sheet]] for the series.
 
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'''Richard Impossible:''' Sssssssscience? }}
** The [[Hardy Boys|Hale Brothers]] were driven to murder their father by his psychological abuse.
** [[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Action Johnny]] is another former boy adventurer and recovered addict with severe father issues.
* [[The Ace]]:
** Dr. Henry Killinger will fix all of your problems, personal or career-related, with his "magical murder bag." He isn't just [[The Ace]], he's a character for whom the role of [[The Ace]] is played straight but turned up to eleven so he'll have huge comedic effect.
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* [[Adobe Flash]]: The [[Pilot Episode]] was done in Flash, although the rest of the cartoon is legit cartooning.
* [[Adolf Hitler]]:
** Girl Hitler, a minor recurring character, looks pretty much [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|exactly what you would expect her to look like]]: a woman who looks and acts like Adolf Hitler, mustache included. She turns out not to actually be evil, but her catchphrase is "you mess with this girl, and" (arm shoots up in Nazi salute) "'''you get ze Hitlahr!'''"
** In the fourth season premier, Hitler himself appears possessing a dog. The Nazis want to use Rusty's (now revealed) cloning technology to bring him back. Dean grows attached to the dog. "He's not all bad. Hitler just needs someone to believe in him. Can't you just give Hitler a chance!"
* [[Adventurer Outfit]]: The Professor when in the jungle.
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* [[Anachronic Order]]:
** "Blood of The Father, Heart Of Steel". The part of the story focusing on the Venture family is done [[Back to Front]], starting with the climax of the [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler]] plot and running to the start. However, at the same time, we see what's been happening to Brock Sampson; his plot is told in ''normal'' chronological order, and is played in between segments of the Venture family plot. The timeline is established by titles displaying the CGC value of #21's ''Marvel Comics'' #1 and by the length of Hank's hair.
** Season one and two had similar out-of-order problems upon first airing. Phantom Limb's debut episode didn't air originally until the week before "The Trial of the Monarch" when it was supposed to air earlier in the season. Similarly, "Assassinanny 911" originally aired as the third episode of season two when it was originally supposed to air midway through the season, meaning Trianna's friend Kim was shown hanging around before she was to be officially introduced. The later created (temporarily) a [[What Happened to Thethe Mouse?]] scenario as her debut episode (Victor.Echo.November) ended with Kim being given a Guild contact card and Kim proclaiming that she was going to become a villain and torment the Venture Brothers, after Hank kept accusing her of being a super-villain. When aired in proper order, "Assassinanny 911" reveals that she didn't go through with it.
* [[Animal Assassin]]: The Monarch is a fan of these. He sends a tarantula to kill Doctor Venture in his sleep, but it was thwarted by a scorpion sent by Baron Ünderbheit. He also put 21 up to the task of killing Venture's psychiatrist by planting a snake in the air vents of his office. He has also used caterpillars and dangled the Venture family above an amazonian river filled with Candiru fish. Rusty is saved from a cobra in a package by virtue of [[Forgot to Feed Thethe Monster|having left said package on his desk for several months.]]
* [[Animation Bump]]: On top of the to-be-expected [[Art Evolution]], the pilot was, instead of having higher quality animation, animated in ''Adobe Flash''.
* [[Anticlimax]]: {{spoiler|The Orb}}
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* [[Battle Cry]]: O.S.I.! O.S.I.! O.S.I.!
* [[Because You Can Cope]]: Subverted: Rusty routinely saddles Hank with the lion's share of the emotional trauma of being a boy adventurer because {{spoiler|Hank knows it's all fake. Doc Venture tries to protect Dean while maintaining his belief in super science and the threat of costumed aggression.}}
* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]]: [[Buddy Holly (Music)|Buddy Holly]] and the Big Bopper -- among others -- are alive and members of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, which previously counted as members [[Mark Twain]], [[Aleister Crowley]], and [[Oscar Wilde]], to name a few.
* [[Berserk Button]]:
** Don't make fun of Brock Samson.
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* [[Body Backup Drive]]: The titular Venture Brothers had a backup army of clones, at least until their dad had to stop cloning them for legal reasons.
* [[Bond Villain Stupidity]]: Why not just kill a hero? Because the Guild of Calamitous Intent's bylaws prevent it. In fact, supervillains are generally not even allowed to arm their henchmen with actual guns, which is why the Monarch and his henchmen use darts. [[Joker Immunity|Heroes also have to adhere to this]] if they don't want to piss off the Guild, which is described as a powder keg of psychos who like using kid gloves but have access to far, far worse.
* [[Bored Withwith Insanity]]: After his escape from the Guild of Calamitous Intent's prison in season four, Phantom Limb gradually regains his sanity, culminating when Professor Impossible restores his limbs completely with the added side effect of screwing on his head tightly in place.
* [[Boring but Practical]]: Monstroso's plan to take down Venture was to do it bureaucratically rather than some grandiose invasion like the Monarch had hoped for.
* [[Bottle Episode]]: "Tag Sale - You're It!" was meant to be one, as it took place entirely on the Venture compound, except that Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick loaded the background with brand-new bit characters, going against the whole idea... They tend to do that a lot.
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** The Monarch orders 21 and 24 from prison to dispose of the charred remains of Wonderboy, {{spoiler|whom he later admits he "kind of slew" during his period of heavy drinking following the breakup with Dr. Girlfriend.}} In the season three premiere, the Monarch told an offhand war story about "Captain Sunshine" in which he [[Big Bad Wannabe|tricked the hero into thinking that the Monarch was invulnerable.]] For all the viewers know, this is just some guy the Monarch made up to impress Dr. Girlfriend. Captain Sunshine charges into the story in the second episode of season four and loudly declares that he knows the Monarch is invulnerable.
*** Both Monstroso and Sgt. Hatred are also characters based off Brick Jokes. #21 mentions that most of the Monarch's henchmen went to work for Monstroso when the Monarch was sent to prison, and Sgt. Hatred was originally just some guy the Monarch stole technology from (and his henchmen played pranks on), only to become a main character by Season 4.
** 21 realizes Hank's immortality in season two and tells him he's the [[Highlander (Franchise)|Highlander]]. In season four, after Hank's clones are all destroyed, 21 tells him that it looks like he won't see the Quickening after all.
* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: Rusty can be pretty competent when necessary (he's certainly adept at {{spoiler|cloning}}) and weapons of mass destruction. It has been shown however that many of Dr. Venture's inventions are in fact creations of his late father, and sometimes his own modifications to his father's work. It's also implied that Pete White is a skilled scientist as well, though he spends most of his time playing video games and goofing off. However, Pete White's specialty is computers and technology, with most of his hobbies (video games, radio, internet) reflecting that.
* [[Broken Pedestal]]: The series has made a point of showing that Jonas Sr. was really a [[Jerkass]] whose actions either psychologically damaged Rusty or caused incredible amounts of suffering to others.
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** Less obviously than most, the Action News Team is based on the Freedom Fighters (including Firebrand), with Captain Sunshine being the Ray.
** Otto Aquarius aka [[Aquaman (Comic Book)|Aquaman]]/[[Sub-Mariner|Prince Namor]]
** Brown Widow, an actual [[Spider -Man]] living in New York, who shoots webbing out of the spinnerets located on his lower back.
*** His stopping the runaway cab in a wall of web is a direct [[Shout-Out]] to the 60's animated spiderman opening credits.
** Molotov Cocktease is based off Marvel's Black Widow.
** This is [[Lampshaded]] with Dr. Entman/Humongoloid. Brock says that Entman reminds him of an unnamed [[Marvel Comics]] [[Ant -Man|character]].
** Hunter Gathers is Hunter S Thompson (as written by himself).
** Col. Gentlemen aka Allan Quartermain/[[James Bond]] (as played by [[Sean Connery]]).
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** Jefferson Twilight is [[Blade]] as originally written in the '70s. Unlike Blade, though, his vampire-hunting specialty is restricted to [[Blacula|Blaculas]].
** [[Dr. Doom|Baron Ünderbheit]]. He is even [[Lampshade Hanging|called a "dime-store Dr. Doom"]] when mentioned in the first episode.
** Most of the cast ends up corresponding with someone. Dr. Venture is [[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]] as an adult, his father was [[Doc Savage]]. Visually he's based on Benton Quest... somewhat. Mostly the beard.
** Rusty's boy adventurer support group is composed of Action Johnny ([[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]), middle-aged murder suspects Lance and Dale Hale (the [[Hardy Boys]]), Ro-Boy ([[Astro Boy]]), and the first Robin (who is now fat and broke).
** And yet it's implied, as well as being outright stated, that (at least some of) the real characters exist in-universe, like the Quest family, as well as Daphne and Velma. Even odder when you consider characters like Rusty and the fake Scooby Gang in season 2 are parodies of certain real life counterparts (Johnny Quest and, well...the Scooby Gang, respectively.)
* [[Cargo Cult]]: The season three episode "What Goes Down Must Come Up", where {{spoiler|a group of chemically addled children trapped in an underground bunker}} derive their entire culture from {{spoiler|punchcard recordings Jonas Venture made to educate Rusty in the event of a nuclear apocalypse... and VH-1 Classic.}}
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* [[Catch Phrase]] "Go Team Venture!" *fanfare*
** 21: "Why doesn't anyone tell me this stuff?"
* [[Caught Withwith Your Pants Down]]: One episode has the Monarch watching Dr. Girlfriend seducing Dr. Venture on a video monitor. He starts rubbing his chest, his hand drifts downward... and stops abruptly when a henchman passes through.
* [[Cavemen vs. Astronauts Debate]]: 21 and 24 debating [[Who Would Win]] in a fight: Anne Frank or Lizzie Borden? "We are talking about a large, healthy woman- of questionable stability..."
* [[Celebrity Paradox]]: Unusually, parodies of characters and celebrities exist alongside the real thing. Rusty, modeled as a grown-up [[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]], interacts with the actual Jonny Quest; Jonny and Rusty gossip about [[Scooby -Doo (Animationanimation)|Daphne and Velma]] in "Self Medication" despite parodies of the characters showing up in "Viva Los Muertos!" - not even touching the fact that other characters have [[Lampshaded]] Hank wearing Freddy's signature outfit; Col. Gathers points out the similarity between the 80's OSI superstars and [[The Village People]]; Professor Impossible and his family exist in a world where people read comics about ''[[The Fantastic Four]]''; and Captain Sunshine and Wonder Boy are real while [[Batman (Franchise)|Batman]] and Robin are fictional.
** <ref>You know how one of the themes of ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' is how different the world would be if superheroes really existed? For instance, there aren't any superhero comics, since there's actual superheroes. Well, as part of the "failure" theme, ''The Venture Brothers'' shows a world that's functionally the same ''despite'' the presence of superheroes, super-science, etc. Magic and mad science exist, but are in the hands of the same inept, petty people as everything else, and are thus no more successful. In reflection of this, the world of ''The Venture Brothers'' has exactly the same escapist fantasy literature and cinema as our world; the presence of real superheroes has ''failed'' to make any impact.</ref>
* [[Celibate Hero]]: Deconstructed with Col. Bud Manstrong, who is so sexually repressed that his girlfriend cheats on him with Brock Samson. He's shown to be a complete Mama's Boy too, and it is later revealed that {{spoiler|his mother's an [[Evil Matriarch]] whose bullying of her son has caused him to repress any and all sexual desires, to the point of having a [[Heroic BSOD]] when said girlfriend gives him a handjob right before she dies}}.
* [[Cerebus Retcon]] (relatively speaking): Billy's inability to remember how he got his robotic hand.
* [[Chain of Corrections]]: The definition of the sex act called a "Rusty Venture."
* [[Chaos Architecture]]: Underland is somehow in Eastern Europe and at the same time bordering with Michigan.
* [[Character Development]]: Most of the characters started out as ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]''/pulp comic parodies whose personalities could be summed up in one or two sentences, but all of them have become more complex and three-dimensional as the show progressed. For example:
** Dean has gradually changed from an enthusiastic adventure boy to a Type 2 [[Seen It All]] who really just wants to hang out with kids his own age. He's also become more likely to get into fights (though he hasn't [[Took a Level In Badass|Taken A Level In Badass).]]
*** Dean is by no means a Badass, but let's be fair, he did manage to kneecap Baron Ünderbheit with a steel baton after being caught *completely* off-guard by The Revenge Society. Definitely an improvement over Dean's previous onscreen fight, where he just flailed wildly against Dermott. In the same scene his rape whistle seems to disable Mr. Impossible, or at least forces him to put his hands over his ears instead of using his stretching powers to subdue Dean. It takes Phantom Limb's "killer hand thing" to drop him.
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* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: A bunch, some huge, some subtle, like Phantom Limb using a muscle accelerator to heal Brock Samson. He says it was a left over from his day as a goodie two-shoe scientist. In season three we learn that using similar devices on himself is what gave him his powers.
* [[Chew Toy]]: H.E.L.P.eR
* [[Child Byby Rape]]: {{spoiler|Dermott.}} Either his father knowingly had sex with a minor, which is statutory rape, or his mother mislead him about her age, which is rape by deception. Either way {{spoiler|Dermott}} is the result of a rape.
* [[Children Forced to Kill]]: A clip from ''The Rusty Venture Show'' shows young Rusty being forced to shoot a bad guy to save his father.
** In the season 3 finale, Doc tells Sgt. Hatred that his father made him kill a man with a house key. He was ten.
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* [[Cyanide Pill]]: Brock has a false tooth loaded with arsenic, which he offers to Dr. Venture in "Love Bheits".
* [[Dark Mistress]]: The Monarch's right-hand woman, former [[Trope Namer]].
* [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms]]: "Don't knock or anything! It's not like I live with 80 guys and no women, so there is ''no chance that I am masturbating!''"
** '''Dean:''' "I'm practicing being a boyfriend, Pop!" {{spoiler|Subverted. He's just kissing his hand}}.
** The episode "Guess Who's Coming to State Dinner" is one long masturbation joke.
* [[Dead for Real]]: {{spoiler|Wisdom}}
* [[Death Montage]]: When we find out {{spoiler|the boys are clones}}, we are treated to a hilarious montage.
* [[Deconstructive Parody]]: The show starts out as an analysis of how boy adventurers like [[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]] would fare later in life.
* [[Deconstructor Fleet]]: On top of the genres mentioned above and the several tropes listed on this page, specific episodes have also featured grim [[Black Comedy]] deconstructions of ''[[The Fantastic Four]]'' and ''[[Scooby -Doo (Animationanimation)|Scooby Doo]]''.
* [[Decoy Protagonist]]: The Venture Brothers aren't necessarily the protagonists. The show is constructed as more of an ensemble piece than anything else. Many episodes focus on Dr. Venture and Brock, and the season arcs in general seem to narrate the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as they become professional villains. Hank, however, is definitely the protagonist of season four.
* [[Deliberate Values Dissonance]]: In the flashbacks to the original Team Venture.
* [[Den of Iniquity]]: A low-key example of this appears in the fourth season; it's a room inside the Monarch's cocoon where his minions would quietly gather for drinks on their downtime.
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: From circumcision to orangutans, the Amazon in the episode "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman" looks more like the Malay Peninsula.
* [[Did We Just Have Tea Withwith Cthulhu?]]: Dr. Orpheus is friendly with the lord of the underworld, who prefers the form of Cerberus because he can give himself triple autofellatio. Also, hell in ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' has [[Divine Comedy|the Ninth Circle]].
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: The Outrider literally does this in "The Better Man."
* [[Disney Villain Death]]: Both {{spoiler|Molotov Cocktease and Monstroso go off a cliff in a limo in the season four finale. The explosion is rather telling.}}
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** The Pupa Twins eventually lose their Dragon position to Henchman 21, or as the other henchmen call him, [[Took a Level In Badass|General 21 and two-ton Twenty-one.]]
** Depending on whether or not one sees Rusty as a [[Villain Protagonist]], Brock Samson could also count.
* [[Dressing Asas the Enemy]]: Attempted by the original Venture Team in ''[[FemBot]] swimsuits''.
* [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]: Col. Hunter Gathers; Sgt. Hatred; 21.
* [[Dropped a Bridget On Him]]: Inverted in that Dr. Venture never learns Ginny is a woman ''because'' he's not remotely attracted to her.* [[Dude, Not Funny]]: Invoked in-universe when the Monarch accidentally brings cigarettes to King Gorilla's welcome home party. To be fair, he expected the cancer about as much as we did.
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** Season three also implied that Phantom Limb and Professor Impossible worked under Jonas Venture Sr. as part of group of assistants to his scientific work. Professor Impossible confirms this in season four in a conversation with Dean.
** However, Dr. Orpheus went to "a junior college upstate" where he majored in communications ([[Discworld|Post-Mortem Communications?]]). And the Doctor title was bestowed upon him by a higher power than a mere college professor.
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Spinning]]: The Monarch's Death's Head Panoply at the end of season three.
* [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears]]: That creepy as sin bear supervillain in Bright Lights, Dean City, who frightened the hell out of the Revenge Society's leaders. He's dripping in blood, has a scary costume, never speaks, shows up out of nowhere, and has a knife (identified as Scare Bear in commentary).
* [[Evil Costume Switch]]: {{spoiler|Professor Impossible}} dons a darker outfit following his [[Heel Face Turn]] with Phantom Limb.
** Dr. Venture would have had one in "The Doctor is Sin" if {{spoiler|he had agreed to become a super villain.}}
* [[Evil Laugh]]: The Monarch loves a good laugh.
* [[Evil Overlooker]]: On the cover of the [[Better Onon DVD|DVD]] for season two.
* [[Expy]]: The entire show is one giant satirical deconstruction of various classic animated and comic book heroes, and kudos if you can pinpoint them all.
* [[Face Heel Turn]]: {{spoiler|Richard Impossible}}. Subverted with {{spoiler|Colonel Hunter Gathers}}.
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** The Council of Thirteen, though some of them can be identified by their silhouettes (Wild Fop, for one...) However, Word of God says that they often use silhouettes when they haven't decided exactly what a character will look like.
*** Two councilmen, 8 and 3, were revealed in ''The Revenge Society'' as Dragoon and Red Mantle (or as {{spoiler|The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly}} in their earlier days).
* [[Fake Crossover]]: Race Bannon from ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]'' makes an appearance in "Ice Station-- Impossible!", but dies onscreen within minutes of appearing (he later appears as an OSI interrogator in a flashback in season three). In the season two episode "Twenty Years to Midnight", the group has an encounter with a deranged, drug-addled, middle-aged [[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]. Though Warner owns rights to both the Venture Brothers and Jonny Quest, the character names were changed in season three due to possible interest in reviving the Quest franchise. Thus, [[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]] became "Action Johnny," Doctor Zin became Doctor Z, and Hadji became Radji, who works for Jonas Jr. and has a strained relationship with his wife due to his desire to help the drug addicted Action Johnny.
** In "The Buddy System," The Captain (fake [[Ghost Pirate]]) describes his past adventures as a villain to the kids, which all sound like episodes of ''[[Scooby -Doo (Animationanimation)|Scooby Doo]]'', particularly the part about getting to meet "the guy who did the vaice fer [[Inspector Gadget]]." The implication is that the Captain is, in fact, really from ''[[Scooby -Doo (Animationanimation)|Scooby Doo]]''.
** "Self Medication" included some dialogue between Dr. Venture and his fellow former boy adventurers that referred to Daphne and Velma as if they were real, with Action Johnny having slept with Velma, much to the surprise of his companions who all thought she was a lesbian.
* [[Fake High]]: Unfortunately the victim of the prank was allergic to oregano.
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** Not to mention cameo villain [[Our Ghosts Are Different|Intangible Fancy]].
* [[Foreshadowing]]: ''LOADS''
* [[Forgot to Feed Thethe Monster]]
** "Okay, who forgot to feed the butterflies?"
* [[Formally-Named Pet]]: The Monarch keeps his old cat, Mister Mostly Mittens, mounted in his dining room. "Mostly," since it had three white paws and one non-white paw.
* [[For Science!]]: Dr. Venture and Professor Impossible both put their scientific work before their families and produce morally unsound creations, like Venture's Joycan, a [[Lotus Eater Machine]] [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child]].
** It's important to note that Dr. Venture sees science only as a [[Meal Ticket|means to an end]]; his underlying motivation is [[Money, Dear Boy]], and to a slightly lesser but still very strong degree, recognition. ''How'' he gets there is of little importance to him. Professor Impossible meanwhile is portrayed as a borderline [[Complete Monster]] whose treatment of his wife and son borders on cruelty. At best, he treats them as possessions and not as human beings.
*** Later seasons, however, have implied that both characters have come to take their families for granted as a result of their scientific exploits rather than neglecting to care for them at all; examples are {{spoiler|the mess Dr. Impossible has become as a result of Sally's leaving him in season three}} and {{spoiler|Dr. Venture's arguably greater interest in his sons' well-being after all of their clones are destroyed at the end of that same season}}.
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{{quote| '''Captain Sunshine:''' ''Get out of my Sanctum Solarium!''}}
* [[Ghost Pirate]]: Or so it seems, until it proves to be a hoax by not-so-ghostly pirates.
* [[Girls Withwith Moustaches]]: Girl Hitler has a Hitler moustache, as her name implies.
* [[Going Commando]]: Rusty in "Ice Station -- Impossible!" {{spoiler|which turns out to be a bad idea after his Impossible jumpsuit shatters.}}
* [[Good Costume Switch]]: Seargent Hatred not only switches to a venture compound suit, he also removed the H tattoo on his face and replaces it with a V tattoo.
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* [[Great Escape]]: The Monarch's escape plan, after being [[Wrongly Accused|framed for a murder that didn't happen]], involved the cooperation of several fellow imprisoned villains... who all looked the other way when he made his move due to threats of death from Phantom Limb (who framed the Monarch so he could reclaim his ex). He got out with help from King Gorilla, who defied Phantom Limb due to his own issues with the Guild and the Monarch's reveal why he was framed.
* [[Green Eyes|Green Eye]]: Molotov Cocktease, with the red hair to boot.
* [[Grievous Harm Withwith a Body]]: In Hank and Dean's [[Unreliable Narrator|testimony]] in "The Trial of the Monarch," Brock has [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|knocked off a stone golem's arm and proceeded to repeatedly punch it in the crotch with said arm]].
** In "Ghosts of the Sargasso", after clamping the arm of a "ghost pirate" in his buttocks, Brock dispatches both of his captors by [[Grievous Harm Withwith a Body|swinging the clamped pirate bodily into the other]].
** In "Love-Bheits" Brock impales two mooks on opposite ends of a spear like weapon, then uses them to take down a third mook.
** Hatred finds himself {{spoiler|using a shrink ray to enlarge Dr. Venture to massive proportions}} to save him from the Monarch, and indirectly crushing the villain as a result.
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* [[Hahvahd Yahd in My Cah]]: Pete White.
* [[Hallucinations]]: After {{spoiler|24's}} death, {{spoiler|21}} began carrying around his skull and talking to it. In the season four mid-season finale, {{spoiler|24}} appears as a ghost only {{spoiler|21}} can see and gives him advice in combat situations. At one point, he (the ghost) implies that he may be only a product of imagination, giving {{spoiler|21}} confidence in his own abilities. Which is met with a frantic "NO! You are real!" In the season four finale, it is confirmed that {{spoiler|24}} is a hallucination, not a ghost.
** In "Showdown at Cremation Creek Pt. I and II" Dean has a complete (peaceful) breakdown where he imagines that a trek through the inside of the cocoon's engine room is a magical adventure with his childhood hero, Giant Boy Detective, and he is [[The Chosen One]]. It's basically an extra-Freudian ''[[The Neverending Story (Literaturenovel)|Never Ending Story]]''.
* [[Handicapped Badass]]: {{spoiler|Phantom Limb}}, who has one arm, one leg, and one testicle, goes up against an army of robotic Diamond Dogs, Guild Foot Soldiers and 15 foot robots. It doesn't end well for the army.
* [[Hard Gay]]: King Gorilla and Shore Leave.
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** Most of the villains, even those that look to be [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] at first, foul up somewhere and become this.
** Seems to be what the Guild of Calamitous Intent and the OSI are designed for. The members seen seem to be more about annoying their arches rather than outright killing them.
* [[Has Two Mommies|Has Two Daddies]]: Brock and Rusty to the twins (well, the show is satirizing ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]'' after all). Brock seems to fulfill the "mother" duties, being much more personally involved with the boys than Rusty.
* [[Hates Small Talk]]: In episode with the [[Walt Disney]] [[Expy]] Mr. Brisbee, Brock at first tries to get along with Brisbee's bodyguard, but the other is completely silent and rude. Later on Brock is bored and tries to light a cigarette but can't, at which point the other bodyguard produces a lighter, prompting Brock to say "You're all right." Of course, it was all a trick to knock him out.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Sgt. Hatred has replaced Brock as the Venture family bodyguard.
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** Dermott (who is just a stupid [[Jerkass]]).
** Brock has slept with a lot of women, and occasionally (if unintentionally) beats up their significant others shortly afterwards.
* [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]]: Brock Samson as of season three. Even after being terminated from his mission, he continued caring for the safety of Venture and, more noticeably, the boys, when facing three deadly assassins.
** Orpheus' master never misses the opportunity to mock Orpheus for his failures in life, {{spoiler|or Triana for how she could possibly fail}}, but he arguably does this for his pupil's benefit (to show him where he's gone wrong and encourage him to change).
** Rusty Venture has some genuinely soft moments like when he {{spoiler|cried over Brock's "grave" in "Dia de Los Dangerous!," or when he ordered Brock to spare the life of his brother who just tried to vaporise him with a laser,}} but then there are times like when {{spoiler|he used the soul of an orphaned child to power a sentient "pleasure chamber" in "Eeney, Meeney, Miney...Magic!"}}
* [[Journey to Thethe Center of Thethe Mind]]: ''Assisted Suicide'', and briefly in ''The Doctor is Sin.''
* [[Kissing Under the Influence]]: Henchman {{spoiler|Number 21}} and Dr. {{spoiler|Mrs. the Monarch}}.
* [[Kissing Warm Up]]: Dean practices kissing on his hand. When he later describes it as "practicing being a boyfriend," it's [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|not taken the right way]].
* [[Knife Nut]]: Brock.
** The Moppets. "We can take out his tongue - " "With a ''knife!''" "Remove his heart - " "Yeah, with a ''KNIFE!''" "A BIGGER knife!" "Fuckin' '''''KNIFE!!'''''"
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** The only time that Orpheus doesn't speak this way is when he delivers withering sarcasm.
* [[Last Unsmoked Cigarette]]: In the episode, "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman," the titular doctor wears a crystal necklace throughout the episode. We find out after she suffers an epileptic seizure and her home burns down that it's her last cigarette, which she proceeds to smoke to deal with the stresses of the evening.
* [[Leader Forms the Head]]: Comes up when JJ Venture's team spoofs ''[[Voltron (Anime)|Voltron]]'' with the "Ventronic," complete with the "I form the " exclamations. The combined form has two heads, the one formed from JJ's robot, and the "left arm" clown head, shaped in a way to be recognizable and comfortable to Ned. Instead of just putting the clown head on top, they wind up with a stubby, useless arm, not too dissimilar to JJ himself.
* [[Legacy Character]]: Captain Sunshine, as it turns out. Not suprising since most of his character is a parody of Batman and the first Robin recently assumed the title.
* [[Leitmotif]]: Dr. Orpheus has his own ''dramatically'' '''RISING MUSIC''' ''whenever he'' '''''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioEgPlxjDok SPEAKS ALLLLOUD!]''''' Which is to say pretty much all the time.
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** Dr. Venture (Rusty, with the others tied for second)
** Dr. Orpheus (Although he prefers magic to science: his doctorate is in Communications with a minor in Women's Studies)
** Dr. Impossible (May have intentionally caused the accident which gave him superpowers and [[Blessed Withwith Suck|disfigured the rest of his family]])
** Dr. Girlfriend (Actually quite rational, apart from her staying with the Monarch)
** Dr. Henry Killinger (Utterly sane. ''Terrifyingly'' sane. Probably the most horrifyingly sane man on the planet.)
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* [[Manly Tears]]: A more sound-based example: {{spoiler|Brock is sobbing when he's seen destroying his [[Cool Car]] that tried to kill him}}.
* [[Mauve Shirt]]: #21 and #24. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] with that page's quote. By the season three episode "The Lepidoperists" they become [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]], though. {{spoiler|#24 has since died (probably) for violating one of the rules.}}
* [[May the Farce Be Withwith You]]
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Assassins Jean-Claude LeTueur, Russel Sturgeon, and Heinrich Triggermensch; "Le Tueur" is French for "The Killer", Sturgeon is a kind of fish (and Rus specializes in maritime assassinations and general aquatic activity), and Herr Triggermensch ("Hair Trigger"), (German: Mr. Trigger-person, or Trigger-man) is a former biathlete, expert marksman, and gun fetishist.
** Brock Samson himself: while his name is mostly meant to bring to mind "Race Bannon", he's a strong and somewhat amoral guy with long hair, like the biblical Samson, and has brick/rock-like qualities. The name "Brock" also means "badger". You do not want to voluntarily mess with a badger.
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** Molotov Cocktease.
** The [[Distaff Counterpart]] of Dr Venture is Dr Quymn, it may be spelled funny, but quim [[Country Matters|is British slang for a certain part of the female body]].
** Otaku Sensuri, of the Onani Corporation (see [[Bilingual Bonus]] above) is caught [[A Date Withwith Rosie Palms|getting very "excited"]] in the presence of Dr. Venture's Oooo Ray.
* [[The Men in Black]]: Mr. Doe and Mr. Cardholder.
* [[Mind Screw]]: The Christmas Special. It's a dream within a dream within a nightmare and when Dr. Venture wakes up from it, his legs are gone and the four of them are in Bethlehem.
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* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]:
** Dr. Henry Killinger looks, sounds, and acts a lot like former Secretary of State Dr. Henry '''Kiss'''inger, right down to his magic murder bag. Then again, it's heavily implied that that's ''exactly'' who he is. As if the name didn't give it away.
** Brock's mentor, Col. Hunter Gathers, is a distillation of the public persona of Dr [[Hunter S Thompson|Hunter S. Thompson]], with the addition of a {{spoiler|gender dysmorphism}} of which Thompson appeared to be free, or perhaps medicated out of existence.
** Col. Gentleman, while he looks and sounds like [[Sean Connery]], shares many of the personal traits of the late William S. Burroughs: a relationship with a Maghrebi adolescent boy named 'Kiki', a fondness for hashish, and a tendency to write on and on and on like a crazy person.
** Mr. Brisby is a jaundiced view of [[Walt Disney]], differing only in that he appears to have been limited to a wheelchair for the past twenty years, as opposed to having died and been kept frozen in the basement of Tomorrowland.
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** Guild council members Red Mantle and Dragoon describe an alternate explanation of the events of [[Don McLean|The Day The Music Died]] in ''The Revenge Society''.
** The Revenge Society later picks up married couple Lady Hawk Johnson and Lyndon Bee. And yes, they do look and sound exactly like President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife "Lady Bird" Johnson.
* [[No Delays for Thethe Wicked]]: Subverted--the Guild of Calamitous Intent's [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|labyrinthine rules]] for "arching" often delay the Monarch's schemes long enough to reference the documentation. However, the protagonists are similarly constrained by GCI policies.
* [[No Indoor Voice]]: Byron Orpheus and the Grand Galactic Inquisitor.
{{quote| '''''IGNORE ME!!!'''''}}
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* [[Oh Crap]]: Doctor Venture in "From The Ladle To The Grave The Story of Shallow Gravy" when {{spoiler|He hears Dermotts last name and figures out that he's the boy's father.}}
* [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]: The Council of Thirteen
* [[Once Killed a Man Withwith A Noodle Implement]]: Rusty Venture once killed a man with a housekey. His father forced him to. He was ten.
* [[The Only One Allowed to Defeat You]]: The Monarch and Baron Ünderbheit argue with each other over who can claim this title; disputes of this nature are apparently arbitrated by [[Weird Trade Union|The Guild of Calamitous Intent]].
** This is how Molotov views Brock when they aren't [[Slap Slap Kiss|making out]].
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** Because she's too [[Nice Guy|well-adjusted]] to be interesting at all.
* [[Overly Long Gag]]: "We are about to engage...THE NOZZLE."
* [[Overshadowed Byby Awesome]]: As more time passes with Sgt. Hatred as the Venture bodyguard, we get to see that he actually has some competence, but it's all too easy to compare him to [[Badass|Brock]].
* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Despite the fact that Jonas Venture Senior is a 6'2" white guy claiming to be "Japanese man from the village of Japaninawa", despite dressing like a Chinese person and holding the outer corners of his eyes with his fingertips to make them look slanted, and despite Scaramantula explicitly pointing these facts out, he never fully realizes that he's talking to the man he's planning on blackmailing.
** Also, Hank in "Showdown at Cremation Creek":
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* [[Plot Armor]]: By season three, Henchman #21 mentions how he and #24 can't die, having practically become main characters. Henchman #24 tells him not to jinx it. {{spoiler|It's good advice.}}
* [[Plot Induced Stupidity]]: Lampshaded in "Return to Malice", where Sergeant Hatred apparently couldn't just contact the boys.
* [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child]]: [[Trope Namer]] (the [[Lotus Eater Machine|Joycan]]).
* [[The Power of Rock|The Power of Progressive Rock]]: The inspiration for Rusty's science (and Dean's attempt.)
* [[The Power of the Sun]]: Captain Sunshine's gimmick.
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* [[Psychic Nosebleed]]: Happens to Dr. Orpheus when he tries to probe Dr. Henry Killinger's mind.
* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: The Monarch's henchmen, and, previously, {{spoiler|the Monarch and Henchman #24}} for Phantom Limb, as well as Dr. Venture's single-episode "Venchmen". Mr. Brisbys bodyguard, Mandelay, was a great example of this as well.
* [[Put Onon a Bus]]: {{spoiler|Baron Ünderbheit}} after he was exiled from {{spoiler|Ünderland}} and refused lodging by the Monarch in "Love Bheits".
** {{spoiler|Triana decided to live with her mom for a while.}}
** {{spoiler|It's debatable whether or not this actually a case of being put on a bus. Being a background character most of the time her absence is no greater than that of several other characters. Orpheus for example is absent for six episodes at the start of Season Four, which is roughly the same number of episodes Trianna is absent for}}
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* [[Robot Buddy]]: H.E.L.P.eR
* [[Rule of Funny]]: Just about every horribly violent thing that Brock does to the [[Mook|Mooks]] in the show. Pole-vaulting by lodging the pole in a guard's throat ([[It Makes Sense in Context|writing cannot explain this adequately]]), brutalizing two people with only his ass muscles, [[Dead Baby Comedy|racking up a massive kill count]] as part of a staged battle just to give the Monarch a birthday gift, [[Made of Plasticine|decapitating somebody with a shark's mouth]], and more.
** Doc Hammer commented that episode four, trope namer for [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child]], was a bit too early for such a [[Moral Event Horizon]] moment on Rusty's part, but they went with it anyway because it was funny.
* [[Running Gag]]: Several, including 24's [[The Alleged Car|Nissan Stanza]] and 21 complaining about not being told about things, such as the fact that the wings on the henchmen's costumes are actually flight-capable. There are also other episode-specific ones, such as the lingering smell of the stinkbomb in season four's finale.
** There's also the episode commentaries. Throughout the entire series Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick joked about how no-one would listen to the commentary before seeing the episode. (Sometimes the season.) This culminated in season three when, at the beginning of ''every'' commentary, Doc told the listener that {{spoiler|24 dies at the end of the season}}. (See [[You Should Know This Already]]) This was later paid off when they were given a signed photograph by the ''one'' person who had listened to the commentary before seeing the episode.
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* [[Shotacon]]: Sgt. Hatred. Probably Captain Sunshine, though his obsession with Wonderboy ''may'' be non-sexual.
** Word of God from Jackson Publick's blog says this is not the case for Captain Sunshine
* [[Shout-Out]]: Has its [[The Venture Brothers (Animation)/Shout Out|own page]].
* [[Shown Their Work]]: The stolen Rembrandt painting that Phantom Limb tries to sell to a Mafioso is a real painting that is currently missing.
* [[Silence, You Fool]]: The Council of Thirteen in the season three opener. Lampshaded when the first council member to shout it out has to explain himself to one of his confused comrades ("I was just trying to sound intimidating."), then subverted when another member attempts it and repeatedly screws up the timing ("Ok, you need to do that when SHE'S talking.").
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* [[Spiritual Successor]]: Shares a creator, an actor, and several themes with [[The Tick]].
* [[Stairs Are Faster]]: The Monarch and Henchman 21 take the chute down to the Monarchmobile while Henchman 24 takes the more sensible stairs. He gets there first and closes the sunroof just as they would fall into the car.
* [[Stalker Withwith a Crush]]: Myra, Rusty's old bodyguard. In her defense, it's not exactly her fault she thought there was something between them after she {{spoiler|is implied to have had his children. See [[Shrug of God]].}}
* [[Stealth Pun]]: In the season four finale, "Operation: P.R.O.M." Sgt Hatred has most of his HATRED tatoos removed, with the exception of the D, as it's [[Groin Attack|in kind of a tender area]], and replaces the H with a V for "Venture," meaning his tattos now read "VD," venereal disease.
* [[Stock Scream]] In particular the Wilhelm Scream, but since this series a huge [[Deconstruction]] of the [[I Want My Jetpack|future of yesterday]] it's probably a homage to it more than anything else.
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** Apparently inverted with born-again Holy Diver and Sky Pilot, who are allegedly Gay Straight, but he revealed later that it was a cover-up and that he actually is still [[Camp Gay|very, very gay]]. Hell, [[Hello, Sailor!|he's in the navy]].
* [[Straw Feminist]]: Ginny, Dr Quymn's bodyguard.
* [[Sweet Onon Polly Oliver]]: Baron Ünderbheit mistakenly attempts to marry Dean when he is dressed as Slave Leia.
* [[Take a Third Option]]: {{spoiler|Season four revealed that Eugene Sandow actually broke the Orb, instead of killing Colonel Venture. This could be justified as Sandow couldn't bring himself to kill Venture, but the potential threat the Orb poses was too great.}}
* [[Take Our Word for It]]: Lt. Baldavitch's face. The alien (disguised as Jonas Venture Sr.) in "Twenty Years to Midnight" as well. Annoyed by Rusty's berating him for showing up as his dad, he reveals his true appearance to everyone's horror.
* [[Tap Onon the Head]]: lampshaded in The Revenge Society
{{quote| '''Dragoon:''' What is this, an episode of ~Gilligan's Island~? Everybody gets hit once and they are instantly unconscious?<br />
'''Red Mantle:''' Good one. Six bucks says he has [[Easy Amnesia|amnesia]] when he wakes up. }}
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* [[Thrown From the Zeppelin]]: Literally in "ORB."
* [[Time Travel]]: "Escape To The House Of Mummies Part II" with Grover Cleveland's Presidential Time Machine.
* [[Tongue Onon the Flagpole]]: In "Now Museum, Now You Don't", Hank sticks his tongue to [[Human Popsicle|the ice block containing Ug-Ugh.]]
* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: 21. The mid-season finale pretty much has raised his status to one of the most competent characters on the show now, as goofy as he still acts. He even manages to go toe to toe with Brock **** ing Samson. He loses, but upon waking from being knocked out, Brock commends him for his ability. Hank also fits this when he {{spoiler|tries to join SPHINX.}}
* [[Too Much Information]]: Col. Gentleman and Sgt. Hatred's sex lives. Billy Quizboy's "guilty pleasures" list is considered too much information by Billy himself when he realizes he misunderstood the question.
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** Dr. Dugong
** Phantom Limb's selling of stolen artwork as supervillainy.
** [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]] (according to H.E.L.P.eR, at least).
** Dr. Zin Of ''[[Jonny Quest (Animation)|Jonny Quest]]'', who revels in acting out as a [[Large Ham]] to the benefit of younger villains and heroes and to entertain kids.
* [[What Happened to Thethe Mouse?]]: We never really find out exactly what Doctor Girlfriend said to Monarch at the end of season two.
** This happens a ''lot.'' A lot of subplots are resolved just by virtue of the episode ending: Doc getting stuck in a wall, Doc and Sgt. Hatred being busted by the police while Hank runs away, Phantom Limb's fate at the end of "The Revenge Society," and the entire B-plot of "Return to the House of Mummies Part 2" ([[Don't Explain the Joke|of course, that was the point.]]) Usually helped out by [[Rule of Funny]], as many of these resolutions are either boring or [[Noodle Incident|funnier in the audience's imagination]].
* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: Manic 8-Ball, whose only power seems to be the ability to respond with Magic 8-Ball answers in his chest instead of speech.
** The Impossibles (save Dr. I) fall into this category and [[Blessed Withwith Suck]]: Sally's skin is invisible (making her a walking anatomy model) and her power is to make it ''opaque'', Ned's entire body is severely callused (though not invulnerable, so he's in constant pain), and Cody is instantly combustible with oxygen (he ''also'' is physically sensitive to his own power, though he seems to immediately heal when extinguished).
** Also, lampshaded by The Order of the Triad, which includes a sorcerer and an alchemist with great magical powers... and Jefferson Twilight, whose power is to track and hunt [[Blaxploitation|Blackulas]] (and [[Crippling Overspecialization|only Blackulas]]). He is also, however, an accomplished martial artist and military veteran, and {{spoiler|lives between two worlds.}}
** There's also the amateur supervillain Fat Chance, a morbidly obese guy who has the power to grab items from a link to another dimension in his belly button. What comes out is entirely random, which leads to other supervillains to just start pulling stuff out of him in an attempt to find something even remotely useful or deadly to kill Dr. Venture with. {{spoiler|The power also works the other way}}
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* [["What the Hell?" Dad]]: Especially when Sgt. Hatred is their bodyguard.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Dr. Thaddeus Venture is a supposed good guy, and yet a lot of the things he does disturbs and disgusts the people around him. He has:
** Created the Joy Can, a [[Lotus Eater Machine]] [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child]]. Dr. Orpheus is suitably disgusted with this information.
** Revived a dead [[Mook]] and started planning on Frankensteining more dead people in order to use them as cheap labor, only to change his mind via a phone call with the military and eschew the plan in favor of using the "Venturesteins" as what ammounts to ''zombie suicide bombers''. Brock Samson was quite disturbed at this.
** {{spoiler|Eschewed protecting his children in favor of letting them die to be replaced with clones, much to Brock's disgust}}.
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* [[You Cloned Hitler]]: Averted and Lampshaded in the season four premiere.
{{quote| '''Hank:''' Is it me, or does like every Nazi want to clone Hitler? It's like the only thing they think of! }}
* [[You Got Murder]]: Lampshaded. One afternoon, Rusty is going through some old mail when he opens a large box containing a death threat from the Monarch, involving a cobra jumping out of the box to bite him... [[Forgot to Feed Thethe Monster|Except not really]].
* [[You Know I'm Black, Right?]]: Averted and parodied in "What Goes Down, Must Come Up":
{{quote| '''Jefferson Twilight''': [To Dr. Orpheus, regarding why Orpheus doesn't want him and the Alchemist to see his master. Note that Jefferson is black.] Yeah, tell the truth. You're embarrassed of us, aren't you? It's 'cause The Alchemist's gay, isn't it?<br />
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