History WesternAnimation / ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop

* HornedHairdo: Sylvester Sneekly has a hairdo that invokes the shape of devil horns to fit his ObviouslyEvil nature.

* ObviouslyEvil: The Hooded Claw, in spades! He's got a giant nose, a flabby chin, and a lanky body with a walk to match. As Sylvester Sneekly, he has a HornedHairdo, which indicates his true colors.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Six of the mobsters.

* {{Retraux}}: The show has elements of a silent-film melodrama, like the piano-heavy music and the title cards using an old font. Not to mention the Hooded Claw looking like a Snidely Whiplash villain except for the mustache.

Headlined by one of the most fetching females in animation, ''The Perils of Penelope Pitstop'' was one of two animated series spun off from ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' (the other being ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAnd MuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines''). Implied to be set between 1911 and 1930, the series was strongly influenced by ''Film/ThePerilsOfPauline'', a silent movie serial.

Headlined by one of the most fetching females in animation, ''The Perils of Penelope Pitstop'' was one of two animated series spun off from ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''. Implied to be set between 1911 and 1930, the series was strongly influenced by ''Film/ThePerilsOfPauline'', a silent movie serial.

* KarmaHoudini: Though he was a luckless villain who often fell victim to his own devices, the Hooded Claw was naturally never caught or discovered, and ended nearly every episode making a VillainExitStageLeft.

* ObviouslyEvil: The Hooded Claw in spades! He's got a giant nose, a flabby chin, and a lanky body with a walk to match! As Sylvester Sneekly, he has a HornedHairdo, which indicates his true colors. Frankly, I'm surprised nobody ever commented on this before.

%%* GenreBlindness

* JekyllAndHyde: In "London Town Treachery", The Hooded Claw rented a house from Jekyll and Hyde as part of a plan to capture Penelope, inviting her and the Ant Hill Mob for tea while disguised as the Earl of Krumpet. After realizing there was no tea there, he improvised with some random ingredients. He planned to have the Bully Brothers capture Penelope while he distracted the Ant Hill Mob with the tea. However, the tea turned them into seven "Mr. Hydes" and they captured Penelope. To get their SentientVehicle Chugaboom to cooperate, they gave him some of the "tea" and he also became a "Mr. Hyde".

* ComicBookAdaptation: Penelope appeared in four issues of Gold Key Comics' ''Hanna-Barbera Fun-In'' and two issues of ''Golden Comics Digest''. The digest stories had Sylvester Sneekly as Penelope's neighbor (she owned a ranch in those stories) instead of her guardian. Only two stories were adapted from TV episodes--"Jungle Jeopardy" (Fun-In #1, as "The Hooded Claw's Sinister Plot") and "The Boardwalk Booby Trap" (Fun-In #4).
Of original stories:
** Fun-In #2 - "The Great Space Chase". Sneekly gets Penelope to volunteer in testing his new rocket powered elevator, but as the Hooded Claw, he sends Penelope into outer space with it.
** Fun-In #3 - "The Catnapper's Curse." Sneekly sets up Penelope as the thiefxwho stole a rich widow's prized pet cat.

** Fun-In #2 - "The Great Space Chase". Sneekly gets Penelope to volunteer in testing his new rocket powered elevator, but as the Hooded Claw, he sends Penelope into outer space with it.

* Digest #11 - "The Treasure Trail." Penelope discovers valuable antique wares discarded by pioneers buried on her ranch land.

-->'''Claw:''' Who did you expect?
[[WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines Dick Dastardly?]]

It's been said that the Claw's line was predicated on originally in development having Dick Dastardly on the show first as the villain then as the [[HeelFaceTurn protector of Penelope's brother.]]

-->'''Claw:''' Who did you expect? [[WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines Dick Dastardly?]]

-->'''Hooded Claw:''' Exciting, isn't it?

* EvilPlan: Practically non-existent for the heroes. They just know that the Claw wants to kill Penelope for some weird reason, unaware that the reason is so that he can inherit Penelope's family fortune once she's done away with.

* HeelFaceTurn: The Bully Brothers in the series finale, "London Town Treachery". The Claw intends to fire them after the Ant Hill Mob -- turned into miniature Mr. Hydes from a spiked tea -- put Penelope in a peril, leaving the Brothers with no alternative but to try to rescue Penelope. This turns into a subversion in that they only did it so they could keep their jobs of putting Penelope in perils themselves.

-->'''Hooded Claw:''' Let me tell you about my brilliant trap, Penelope.

-->'''Hooded Claw:''' Well, that's too bad, cause I'm gonna tell you anyway.

* MascotVillain: Penelope's nemesis, the Hooded Claw, drives the plot in every case, and he's a LargeHam to boot, which is magnified by having Creator/PaulLynde as his voice actor. Only the Ant Hill Mob gets as much screen time as the Claw, but their overall competency ranges from barely adequate to horribly hopeless.

* {{Retraux}}: The show has elements of a silent-film melodrama, like the piano-heavy music and the title cards using an old font. Not to mention the hooded claw looking like a Snidely Whiplash villain except for the mustache.

* StealthInsult: The narrator throws in a doozy after the Claw has a fit over a plan gone wrong:

** Upon seeing the episode again, one can see that Sneekly saved his butt by assuming his normal identity and volunteering his time at the circus as a quick-change artist. His getting up as the Claw was just him showing a sample to Penelope, again to cover himself. Penelope idealistically doesn't believe Sneekly would stoop to that level. Little does she know.

** His cape and hat are hooding his identity, and claw because he always grabs Penelope.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Dum-Dum, despite his name, has helped Penelope in big ways twice. Once when he threw a feather into the mouth of a man-eating plant so it would gag and spit her out, and when he snagged the Hooded Claw's cape and hat so Penelope could win a scavenger hunt. Both times he was rewarded with a kiss from Penelope.

* ActionGirl: Penelope Pitstop might have been naïve and prone to danger, but she was actually far more capable than she looked and often saved the day.

* BondageIsBad: Given his usual means to try to dispose of Penelope and how gleeful he is placing her in it, the Hooded Claw practically has a G-rated kink. At one point he's watching his device gradually mummify her from toe to head while [[PassThePopcorn eating popcorn.]]

* SmartBall: Though Penelope predictably got rescued by the Ant Hill Mob a lot, there are many instances she rescues herself (or at least tries to) or a role reversal happens where she has to save her protectors.

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Animals have helped Penelope escape several times, and with little wonder; "Arabian Desert Danger" she seems far more concerned about a camel (whose legs have been bound by Sneeky) than her own life.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Despite the lightheartedness of the show in general, the whole premise centered on the Hooded Claw's attempts to kill Penelope, more often than not in quite nasty and juicy ways like mummifying her alive or impaling her on a harpoon. Or feeding her to crocodiles.

* NeverSayDie: Played with, in that whilst the word is never said, it's very obvious the Hooded Claw is trying to kill Penelope. In fact, it’s almost [[TropesAreTools worse]] that the Hooded Claw won’t outright say it, because he instead takes the time to describe ''exactly'' what’s going to happen to Penelope using words like “punctured”, “shredded” and “popped”.

* ComicBookAdaptation: Penelope appeared in four issues of Gold Key Comics' ''Hanna-Barbera Fun-In'' and two issues of ''Golden Comics Digest''. The digest stories had Sylvester Sneekly as Penelope's neighbor (she owned a ranch in those stories) instead of her guardian. Only two stories were adapted from TV episodes--"Jungle Jeopardy" (Fun-In #1) and "The Boardwalk Booby Trap" (Fun-In #4).