History CourageTheCowardlyDog / TropesNToZ

* NightmareFace: The violin girl in "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City" turns around to reveal a horrific face.

** The [[DemonHead Violin Girl]] in "Courage in the Big, Stinkin' City." As if having a live action little girl composited into a cartoon wasn't creepy enough, she then turns around to reveal a horrific claymation face.

** Shwick threatens Courage that if he doesn't retrieve the package he ordered, he'll open a tiny locked door that seems to harbor some kind of monster. While Shwick does eventually unlock it after Courage damages the package's contents, it is never shown what the monster looks like and at the end of the episode, with Eustace's skeleton it is shown what it can do while the monster can be heard chewing and belching as its door closes.

** We never see the process by which Katz turns people into machines in his "spa", but given the agonizing horrible screams Eustace and Muriel give off while Courage is tied up outside, it must be truly horrible.
** Despite Freaky Fred being one of [[HarmlessVillain the least malicious antagonists in the show]], he still manages to have an aura of creepiness to him that manages to unsettle both Courage himself and the audience.
* NotWearingPantsDream: One of the nightmares Courage has in "Perfect" has people laugh at him while he's juggling. Courage looks down and realizes to his horror that his lower body has been shaved.

* OddJobGods: The Goose God, the God of Honking.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: In "The Mask", Courage takes down two much bigger and more muscular dogs. We don't see what he did but he apparently needed along with his shovel, explosives and several arrows.
* OffWithHisHead: The premise of "The Revenge of the Chicken from Outer Space" episode, which ends with Eustace being seen that he had been decapitated.
** Eustace, Muriel, and Courage are decapitated by the vengeful ghosts of the vandals in "Windmill Vandals", although thanks to RuleOfFunny they inexplicably survive and their bodies simply reattach their heads as if they were dolls. In-universe, this may or may not be [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] due to the supernatural nature of the ghosts and their weapons.
* OminousFog: Clyde the fog spirit from ''The Fog of Courage'' is (as his name implies) surrounded by mist when he appears.
* OminousPipeOrgan: This type of music plays in a few episodes, beginning with "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City". Noteworthy in that they don't use it unless something ''very'' creepy and supernatural is happening. The song also contains [[ForDoomTheBellTolls church bells]] and a choir.
** The Stitch Sisters' {{Leitmotif}} also makes use of this trope, although it's more quiet and somber than the song mentioned above.

** "There is nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. [[BearerOfBadNews But there's nothing I can do]]. [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Nothing at all]]. Just keep soaking it." Dr. Vindaloo says this a lot.

* OneWomanWail: "Doc Gerbil's World", where the final boat chase between Doc Gerbil and Courage is accompanied by almost no sound other than this. It simultaneously comes off as SoundtrackDissonance and SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic. The only reason it's Dissonance is because said chase scene was between a plaid-wearing gerbil and a pink dog on jet-skis.
** In the early episode "The Shadow of Courage", whenever Muriel would catch Eustace abusing Courage in any way, she would run at him with her rolling pin, accompanied by a triumphant, operatic one-woman wail.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The episode "Remembrance of Courage Past" features Courage in a catatonic state after seeing missing dogs on a milk carton. He remembers how his parents were taken to the moon by an evil vet, and stays at the same spot the whole night, not moving an inch. Eustace tries scaring him with his usual "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" mask, but this time, ''Courage does not react.'' Muriel's so worried about that that she decides to take him to the vet.
* OpaqueLenses: Muriel & Eustace, as well as Eustace's whole family. Similarly, all of the recurring normal, non-villainous human characters except the General had their eyes obscured. This seems to emphasize Courage's status as a Cassandra type, as nobody else sees what's obvious to him. Subverted in the Hothead episode (though it's fairly surreal looking).

-->'''Nowhere Newsman''': We interrupt this program to bring you...Courage the Cowardly Dog Show, starring Courage the Cowardly Dog! Abandoned as a pup, he was found by Muriel, who lives in the middle of Nowhere with her husband Eustace Bagge! But creepy stuff happens in Nowhere. It's up to Courage to save his new home!
* OriginsEpisode: "Remembrance of Courage Past" serves partly to give the full details on how Muriel ended up adopting Courage.
* OurMonstersAreWeird: Quite a few of the monsters on this show are bizarre when they're not outright terrifying. One example is the titular villain of "The Clutching Foot", a fungus which infects Eustace and takes over his body, becoming a giant purple disembodied foot covered with green warts and toes with faces that talk like mobsters.
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Muriel gets bitten by a weremole in the episode "Night of the Weremole".
* OverlyLongGag: Katz and Courage falling down the stairs in Katz Kandy... and falling... and falling... goes on for about a full minute.
* OverlyLongName: The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Lovable Duckling is quite a mouthful to say.

** [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Benton Tarentella]] wears a pair of Groucho glasses in his debut episode "Everyone Wants to Direct". It doesn't really hide the fact that he's a zombie, yet Muriel and Eustace remain none the wiser. Oddly, he doesn't even bother with a disguise in "Angry Nasty People", yet the Bagges still trust him.
** In "Journey to the Center of Nowhere", Courage tries to stop the sentient eggplants from attacking Muriel by talking them out of it while disguised as The Great Eggplant. His disguise is a very obvious eggplant costume, complete with visible tag.

** To help Eustace regain his self-esteem in "Aqua-Farmer", Courage uses a hat, eyeglasses, a fake nose, and a fake beard to disguise himself as a therapist. The deception works, even though Courage barks instead of using words when he talks to Eustace.
* PhysicalGod: An unnamed, female, teenage storm deity of great power.

** "1000 Years of Courage" has Courage suddenly needing to go shortly after he, Eustace, and Muriel get banana costumes to make it easier to blend in with the banana people, a comment from Muriel indicating that Courage has to pee because he drank a lot of soda off-screen. While in the bathroom, the banana man the three got their banana costumes from in the first place finds Courage and forces him down the drain, where Courage eventually discovers that a pair of monkeys are manipulating the banana people with their promises of going to Bananahalla solely so they can eat them.

** To help Eustace regain his self-esteem in "Aqua-Farmer", Courage uses a hat, eyeglasses, a fake nose, and a fake beard to disguise himself as a therapist. The deception works even though Courage barks instead of using words when he talks to Eustace.
* PassFail: Kitty's mask and dress are a fairly obvious metaphor for failing to masquerade as a different demographic.
* PetTheDog:
** Horribly, ''horribly'' subverted, in "The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Lovable Duckling", where a duckling thinks Eustace is its mommy. Eustace tries to be a good mom, but the bird secretly wants to kill Muriel. Eustace doesn't seem to care about Muriel (then again, did he ever?), even if the bird blatantly tries to kill her. It doesn't help the bird is as bad as Eustace. This ended up with the pair being blown to the moon (in Muriel's place), and each pairing lives quite contentedly.
** Eustace also has a few more genuine moments of this. For example, in "The Mask", he seems genuinely concerned about Kitty's past, and reassures Muriel when she worries about her faults. While he rarely show its, his AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther moments with Muriel show that there actually is some amount of heart buried beneath that crotchety greedy exterior. Also while he can't stand him, Eustace at least is willing to put up with Courage, if only for Muriel's sake. He also bought Courage a burger in "Heads of Beef", however, he did so reluctantly and asked for the smallest one they had (which was still a decent sized burger for a small dog).
* PhraseCatcher: "Stupid dog!" is usually shouted to Courage by Eustace, though other characters occasionally do the same.
* PhysicalGod: The Goose God and an unnamed, female, teenage storm deity are both gods of great power.

* PossessionLevitation: In "[[Recap/CourageTheCowardlyDogS1E4TheDemonInTheMattressFreakyFred The Demon in the Mattress]]", after Muriel got possessed by a demon living in her new bed mattress by going up her nose, her body floats as she's sleeping.

** In "Hothead", Eustace forces Courage to wear a leash. At one point, Courage needs to pee and has to wait for an opportunity to remove the leash before he can use the restroom.

* ProportionalArticleImportance: Featured in the episode "One Thousand Years of Courage", where Courage and his family end up transported into a future ruled by sentient bananas. Eustace is reading a paper, and complains about the RidiculousFutureInflation in an ad ("Eight million bucks for a salami!") before Courage and company [[NewspaperDating notice the date on the paper.]]
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Most episodes (certainly not ''all'', but most) will feature a classical piece, either as a random part of the episode's soundtrack, or even as a character's Leitmotif.

[[folder:Q]]
* QuirkyDoctor: Dr. Vindaloo is a FunnyForeigner doctor who regularly underestimates every problem he encounters, using prolonged soaking in water as a cure-all for everything. He also owns bizarre stuff like a pet elephant and is occasionally seen doing things in his office like taking bubble baths and ripping his body hair off with a giant bandage.
[[/folder]]

** Whenever Katz makes an appearance. You could tell a few seconds before he is actually shown, by the creepy beat that suddenly starts playing. And it keeps playing. Until it could cause shuddering years later.
* ScaryScarecrows: Subverted in "Night of the Scarecrow" the Bagges find one who isn't scary, much to his chagrin. After he goes overboard with protecting Muriel they convince him to be a hay ride driver, which he greatly enjoys.

* SchmuckBait: Courage's computer enjoys baiting him with false advice that results in him being tarred and feathered among other things.
* ScrewPolitenessImASenior: Eustace Bagge is elderly and a complete asshat.
* SealedEvilInACan: Velvet Vic from "Record Deal" had his spirit imprisoned in one of his records. Playing the record causes him to temporarily become free, but he tries to make his freedom permanent by having Muriel take his place.

* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: Katz in "Katz Kandy" is sore about always getting second place.

* TheSecretOfLongPorkPies: Subverted in "Heads of Beef". When Eustace takes Courage to a new fast food restaurant, Courage looks around, and notices many strange things that lead him to assume that the restaurant's owner, a PigMan named Jean Bon, is making his hamburgers out of human flesh. [[spoiler:It turns out that everything Courage saw was just an unfortunate coincidence. Jean Bon's burgers really are made of beef, and he doesn't mean to hurt anyone.]]

* ShownTheirWork: In "Muted Muriel" Shirley the Medium summons a giant starfish made of earth that can only be stopped by the sound of Muriel's voice. While the idea of a starfish on land sounds absurd, [[https://youtu.be/Lbg-tQ6FJgQ it has been proven that Starfish can indeed move on land exactly as the monster itself is able to.]]

** In "Remembrance of Courage Past", Courage becomes completely silent and unresponsive after he remembers that a veterinarian sent his parents to space, orphaning him. [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness He doesn't even scream when Eustace tries to startle him with his mask]]. [[OhCrap He snaps out of that silence]], however, when a worried Muriel decides to take him to that same vet.
* SiliconSnarker: Courage's PC was known to make biting remarks about the titular dog, even going so far as to outright call Courage an idiot to his face.
* SkewedPriorities: One episode had Muriel and Eustace being sucked by an evil vortex, so Courage hurried to get a clothesline to tie them safely... But not before folding all the clothing that was hanging there. Muriel as well, as the first thing she asked when he came back is if he folded the clothes, and calmly commends him when he confirms it.
* SlasherSmile: Freaky Fred has a large, unnerving grin.
* SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig Zagged,]] while the show's usually balanced when it comes to dealing with comedic themes and horrific themes, some episodes take the side of comedy or horror.

* StrongFamilyResemblance:
** Eustace is a carbon copy of his parents. Lampshaded in "The Sand Whale Strikes", when the Sand Whale has confused Eustace for his father, Ickett. Eustace pulls out a picture of his father (who looks exactly like him with a huge beard) and says "I don't see the resemblance."
** In "Remembrance of Courage Past", it is shown that Courage's parents look just like him, except his dad has bushy eyebrows and a mustache while his mother has [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics eyelashes and lipstick]] and wears a hat and shoes.
* StuffBlowingUp: In "Hothead", a hair tonic has the side effect of making things explode when the person using it gets angry.

* SuperStrength: Eustace is amazingly able to eat just about anything with no problem, despite having no teeth whatsoever - this includes lobsters still in their shells, raw carrots, candy canes, and other hard/crunchy foodstuff.
** Courage basically gave himself this with a 5-second workout during "The Forbidden Hat of Gold", muscles and everything, just to rip open the door to the dungeon he and Eustace were thrown in, only to promptly "unzip" his muscles like they were a costume immediately afterwards.
* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: In "Heads of Beef", it appears that Eustace and Courage fell into a trap setup by a cannibal pigman and his wife, with Courage just barely managing to escape. Courage cowers at home thinking Eustace has been eaten. The ending reveals that it was all just a misunderstanding: the pig couple were nice, just [[NotEvilJustMisunderstood unintentionally creepy]] and Eustace is perfectly fine, stuffing his face with the free hamburgers they give him. [[ThrowTheDogABone It's one of the rare episodes where nothing bad happens to Eustace.]]
* SurrealHumor: While most of the comedic moments in the show are normal enough, there are situations meant to be taken funny, but come off as ''so bizarre'' they still make you laugh while scratching your head. A quiet moment in "Dr. Le Quack, Amnesia Specialist" has Muriel, suffering from amnesia, quietly strumming on a sitar. No context, no warning, yet it comes off as charmingly and ''strangely'' hilarious.
* SurrealHorror: Especially with the blue fetus thing in Courage's dream in "Perfect", a perfect example of UncannyValley involving computer animation, and the SynchroVox tree and moon qualify as well.

-->'''Tiger''': Yummy! Beat it, kid.
* SupernaturallyMarkedGrave: In "Last of the Starmakers" when the last adult Starmaker dies. Just after she sees her children float off into the sky she dies happy and leaves behind a beautiful bed of flowers.
* SynchroVox: The Spirit Of The Harvest Moon and The Magic Tree Of Nowhere use the technique of filming live-action lip movements in a cartoon.

* TalkingAnimal: Nearly every animal in this show is capable of speech. Strangely, Courage talks frequently in the early episodes, but later becomes a SpeechImpairedAnimal over time. This is actually a result of ExecutiveMeddling, CN forced Dilworth to give Courage less talking lines as they felt he was funnier as a babbling animal. The latter is somewhat subverted at one point. Realizing he can't talk to Muriel directly, he runs to a payphone and calls her.
* TheEnd: Every episode ends with it's "The End" cards.
* TheatrePhantom: The Great Fusilli, a crocodile who runs a stage that transforms its actors into puppets. Ironically, he falls for his own trap when he mistakes Courage for a Theatre Phantom.
* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Eustace often dies or at least suffers some kind of terrible fate by the end of each episode that doesn't stick.
* ThinChinOfSin: In "The Quilt Club'', [[CreepyTwins the Stitch Sisters]] are a pair of ungodly thin, pale-skinned ConjoinedTwins whose eeriness is supported by their pencil-thin chins.

* TooDumbToLive: Muriel and Eustace (but mostly the latter) are prone to making dumb decisions that put themselves in danger.

** Throughout much of the series, Courage loves liver, yet in "Ball of Revenge" it's implied he hates it and the series finale shows fried chicken dumplings as being his favorite. This actually may keep in line with continuity, because there is an episode where Muriel tells him he can no longer have liver (presumably due to what she perceives as nightmares).
** The Bagges seem to really love their pancakes, they have them almost every morning for breakfast.
** While Eustace in general is a BigEater, in Season Three his favorite food is "chopped meat".

* PossessionLevitation: In "[[Recap/CourageTheCowardlyDogS1E4TheDemonInTheMatressFreakyFred The Demon in the Mattress]]", after Muriel got possessed by a demon living in her new bed mattress by going up her nose, her body floats as she's sleeping.

* ShownTheirWork: In "Muted Muriel" Shirley the Meidum summons a giant starfish made of earth that can only be stopped by the sound of Muriel's voice. While the idea of a starfish on land sounds absurd, [[https://youtu.be/Lbg-tQ6FJgQ it has been proven that Starfish can indeed move on land exactly as the monster itself is able to.]]

-->'''Eustace:''' [[RunningGag OWWW!!]] [[{{Catchphrase}} What did I do?]]

-->'''Computer''' ([[CatchPhrase frequently throughout the series]], usually to [[ButtMonkey Courage]]): You twit.

* YouFool: The {{catchphrase}} of Di Lung.

** The Flan King sounds like Creator/PeterLorre with a slightly altered accent (sounding more Spanish than Eastern European) and even looked like Lorre [[DisSimile if he were fatter and had red hair]].

* SpaceWhale: A dangerous predator, in "Last of the Starmakers".

* ZorroMark: One episode tells the story of the cast's [[IdenticalGrandson Identical Ancestors]] in the Old West. Eustace's ancestor was a bandit named The Whip who was quite proficient with his WeaponOfChoice, even leaving a {{Franchise/Zorro}}-style "W" on the clothing of his victims.

** Eustace also has a few more genuine moments of this. For example, in "The Mask", he seems genuinely concerned about Kitty's past, and reassures Muriel when she worries about her faults. While he rarely show its, his AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther moments with Muriel show that there actually is some amount of heart buried beneath that crotchety greedy exterior. Also while he can't stand him, Eustace at least is willing to put up with Courage, if only for Muriel's sake.

* ShowTheirWork: In "Muted Muriel" Shirley the Meidum summons a giant starfish made of earth that can only be stopped by the sound of Muriel's voice. While the Idea of a starfish on land sounds absurd, [[https://youtu.be/Lbg-tQ6FJgQ it has been proven that Starfish can indeed move on land exactly as the monster itself is able to.]]