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19 Cartoon Tropes I Hate (And You Probably Do Too)

Animated Memories

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Every long-running cartoon repeats itself eventually — the same beats, the same shortcuts, the same excuses dressed up as plot. I ranked 31 of the worst offenders, from mildly annoying to the one trope that ruins more episodes than anything else on this list.

A few shows actually figured out how to make a tired trope work, and a few made it so much worse — Batman: The Animated Series, Futurama, Gravity Falls, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Simpsons, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Pokémon, and more all make an appearance.

Which one is your most hated? Tell me in the comments — I read every one, and the next trope video might come straight from what you tell me.

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#CartoonTropes #Animation #VideoEssay

9 Comments

@RychuJohnson90234 5 days ago

It's great that you've gone back to this. I'm looking forward to future episodes.

@patrickjames9612 4 days ago (edited)

I think at least some of these tropes can be great if written well or be subverted or played with. the "fake birthday sadness" trope could be subverted, the character's friends could have actually forgot their birthday. the "it was all just a dream" trope could be made if it turns out the character has hidden fears and anxieties, in the cartoon "Loud House" Lincoln would have nightmares of the status quo changing, his sisters would have new interests or new dynamics, and the cartoon has done this plot so many times, you could use this to show how a character is afraid of change and when change actually happens, the character could have a panic attack and try to convince themselves that its a dream but they will eventually accept it. the "secret twin nobody mentioned before" trope could be made that the reason the character never mention a sibling or cousin before was because they're estranged and didn't had a good relationship growing up. the "evil clone" trope could be made great if you added psychological thriller and horror elements, the evil clone has the original's memories and are confused by the way they're acting now compared to their memories and at first they think they're the original until they quickly find out they're the clone, they might start trying to kill the original to steal their life, through character development they could give up and try to forge their own identity, which could either result in them living their own life or decide to embrace their evil, Fern from Adventure Time is a good example.

@chrisholloway5460 1 day ago

I will say Gravity Falls did the "long lost twin " troupe perfectly. There were hints throughout the entire show and it wasnt a one off character; he was and became a very important character to the show.

@WindowsFanmaderOFFICIAL 43 minutes ago

I also have critics to HATE the Smurfs Films rather than the Hannah Barbera Show.
& oh yeah The Smurfs Movie was really hated SOO Bad
I also really felt bad to hate the Smurfs after it's peak since the 1980s

But also i am feeling bad for the Garfield Films
Such as the 2004 Additional film called: "Garfield Movie"
Later in 2006 got a sequel called: "Garfield 2: A tale of two Kitties"
BOTH OF THESE FILMS GOT A 5.1★ ON IMDB
Then...The TRUE Garfield Movie was released in 2024 with the classic Garfield Body they used in the 90s
With a better 5.7★ on IMDb
But i feel VERY VERY BAD To hate these popular francises
(Garfield started in 1977 & the Smurfs started in 1980)

@DTgamer_Shiver-is-best-waifu 1 day ago

The stuff woks for Doofenshmirtz and Team Rocket because they’re really goofy as “villains” of the show. I also didn’t realize about Ned. Really sad to see characters change for the worse.