History Headscratchers / Animaniacs

[[/folder: Why Did the Pigeons Cross the Road?]]

** Sometimes, Brain's world domination plots rely on working in a particular time frame (I remember one had him having to impersonate Cher at a celebrity golf tournament, so he obviously couldn't wait to do that). Brain also has a [[SmallNameBigEgo massive ego]], and prides himself on never repeating a scheme: in one episode, he disguises himself and Pinky as network executives who are [[ShowWithinAShow creating a show about two lab mice who want to take over the world]], then asks for potential writers to provide "plots" that he intends to steal for himself. So if a plan doesn't work once in some way, he discards it and moves onto another.

* The constant fourth-wall breaking in Animaniacs is one of the most refreshing aspects of the show. However, they break the fourth wall on so many different levels that I don't understand what's supposed to ''really'' be going on. A good example is in the episode "This Pun for Hire", when Freakazoid "accidentally" bursts into the office where they're shooting the episode, and Dot tells him where to find his own office, then saying to the viewer, "This is a zany episode!" But why would she have said that if that had been unscripted, like it was supposed to seem? How much of the show is meant to be scripted, and how much is "real"? Do we ever meet the "real" Warners, or is it all just an act?

* Related to the above question, what are we to make of ''Wakko's Wish''? It would probably be best to assume it's meant to be a play/movie all the characters are in, rather than "real". But then why are we supposed to care when it's revealed who the Warner's parents are? Whereas if the world of Wakko's wish ''is'' supposed to be "real", then how did they get there?

** Because why not? Possibly it was also meant to clash with the fact that he's the least serious and the messiest, yet he is, in fact, the one with the Liverpudlian accent (voiced to sound like Music/RingoStarr because Wakko is the shortest of the Warners). {{Irony}}, in other words, coupled with RuleOfFunny. JessHarnell actually decided to do the voice when auditioning (it was either Ringo or Lennon; Wakko was going to be auditioned by Harnell to be British either way), so there was probably a bit of ThrowItIn there, too.

* Two Pinky & the Brain segments had them requiring a ton of money to fund the Brain's world domination scheme (they needed the money either for a machine or component thereof). They end up [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption failing of course to win said money]]. So how come the Brain just didn't devise some other way of getting the required funding?

* I think that they are younger than Slappy because they are NotAllowedToGrowUp.

** At least in the case of "Finger Prince" you're ignoring some of the context. At the time the Warners are searching for clues and Yakko tells Dot to look for ''PRINTS''. She then produced Prince having misheard him. He then corrects her and tells her ''FINGER PRINTS". It's funny to the kids because she misheard him and thought it had to do with the Artist Formerly Known as. There are plenty of other times when the show made other references but most of them were less innapropriate than over the heads of the audience. I know at twelve Charlie Sheen, Ben Verene just happened to rhyme with lima bean which was the only part I needed to understand.

** Sometimes, Brain's schemes rely on working in a particular time frame (I remember one had him having to impersonate Cher at a celebrity golf tournament, so he obviously couldn't wait to do that). Brain also has a [[SmallNameBigEgo massive ego]], and prides himself on never repeating a scheme: in one episode, he disguises himself and Pinky as network executives who are [[ShowWithinAShow creating a show about two lab mice who want to take over the world]], then asks for potential writers to provide "plots" that he plans to steal for himself. So if a plan doesn't work once in some way, he discards it and moves onto another.

* Two Pinky & the Brain segments had them requiring a ton of money to fund the Brain's world domination scheme (they needed the money either for a machine or component thereof). They end up [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption failing of course to win said money]]. So how come the Brain just didn't devise some other way of getting the required funding?

** It's a fourth wall breaking sign off. I took it as him implying that the censors would shut the episode down over it if they continued the joke, since it was a blatant radar moment. Or it sounded like a blatant radar moment (like the conjugate joke).

*** [[WordOfSaintPaul Saint]] Paulsen says in his podcast that Yakko hated Berle's breath. Whether you accept this (because who knows Yakko better than RobPaulsen?) or not (because it isn't canon) is up to the reader.

*** Yeah, and it's not like it was a new thing either - RockyAndBullwinkle did the same thing with pop culture and literary references that no kid would have gotten. Besides, Animaniacs also ran on wacky humor, so I figure most kids would just giggle because "finger prince" sounds funny.

** Because why not? Possibly it was also meant to clash with the fact that he's the least serious and the messiest, yet he is, in fact, the one with the Liverpudlian accent (voiced to sound like RingoStarr because Wakko is the shortest of the Warners). {{Irony}}, in other words, coupled with RuleOfFunny. JessHarnell actually decided to do the voice when auditioning (it was either Ringo or Lennon; Wakko was going to be auditioned by Harnell to be British either way), so there was probably a bit of ThrowItIn there, too.

* What's with the phrase "goodnight everybody"? I know it's ''supposed'' to be there when a radar moment happens, but sometimes Yakko says it when there's ToiletHumor, which, while a bit gross, isn't ''dirty''. And also sometimes I just don't get it, but maybe that's because my mind is pretty clean in general. And most important of all, ''what do dirty jokes have to do with going to bed?!''

** From master comedian JackBenny's [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OglGCrYUTzM#t=08m15s Si, Sy, Sue]] skit featuring Mel Blanc. Sue's full name is [[OverlyLongName Conchita Guadalupe Lolita Hernandez, Gonzalez Clarita del Frado Ramirez]].

* What's everyones problem with Chicken Boo? Before he's revealed as a giant chicken, most people like him and he usually does good things, with only the person who can see through is disguise hating him for simply being a chicken. But then when he is revealed to be a giant chicken, everyone turns on him even after all the good stuff he did. I know FantasticRacism is a thing, but normally people don't want the person they were previously racist to after that person saved their lives or made them millions of dollars!

* When did the Warners stop living in the orphanage and start living in the tower?

*** Maybe being in the Water Tower for 60 years made 'em [[TheAndyGriffithShow beautiful preserved!]]

* Does Katie Kaboom give teenage girls a bad name?

* They stated in one episode "We're not cats".

***** The "son of a bitch" clip was made by the animators as an in-house gag never meant to be shown to the public. They would never have put anything like that in a real Looney Tunes short. (It is true, though, that before UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, some cartoons did have things that they wouldn't be able to get away with once the Code was in place, Ub Iwerks's FlipTheFrog being a notable example.)

* Ok... HOW THE HELL DOES KATIE KABOOM HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE IF SHE BECOMES A LITERAL MONSTER AT THE DROP OF A HAT!!!! One possible nightmarish answer could be... what if OTHER Teenage girls besides Katie are like this... pleasant dreams everyone!