History WesternAnimation / TheVentureBros

** Many famous musicians, writers, and artists are revealed to be members of the [[WeirdTradeUnion Guild of Calamitous Intent]]. Creator/MarkTwain, Creator/AleisterCrowley, and Creator/OscarWilde are founding members. Music/BuddyHolly and Music/TheBigBopper were recruited into it as the villains Red Mantle and Dragoon, with the plane crash that resulted in their real life deaths being a cover. Music/DavidBowie is strongly implied to be the shapeshifting Guild Sovereign ([[spoiler:this later proves to be a RedHerring, but the Sovereign is said to have collaborated with the real Bowie]]) while Bowie associates Music/KlausNomi, Music/IggyPop, and Music/BrianEno are high-ranking Guild members. Others seen or implied in bit appearances include Music/FreddieMercury (as the SuperSpeedster "Mister Fahrenheit"), [[Music/ThePlasmatics Wendy O. Williams]] (as the PsychoKnifeNut "Stab Girl" with an outfit based on ''ComicBook/TankGirl''), Music/PhilSpector (as [[MakeSomeNoise sonic powered]] "Shrill Specter"), and Music/HarryNilsson (as the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]] "Scary Nilsson").

*** Mister Fahrenheit, "the Supersonic Man", is a SuperSpeedster who physically resembles Music/FreddieMercury and whose name is taken Music/{{Queen}} song ''Don't Stop Me Now''.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: So many examples, befitting the show's status as a DeconstructiveParody of [[TwoFistedTales boy's adventure series]] and costumed heroes/villains, that the series has [[CorruptedCharacterCopy/TheVentureBrothers its own page]].

* [[CorruptedCharacterCopy/TheVentureBrothers Corrupted Character Copy]]
* [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/TheVentureBrothers Deconstructed Character Archetype]]
* [[EvenEvilHasStandards/TheVentureBrothers Even Evil Has Standards]]
* [[Foil/TheVentureBrothers Foil]]

* ShoutOut: So many that the series has its [[ShoutOut/TheVentureBrothers own page]]. The [[Recap/TheVentureBros Episode Recaps]] also list the shout-outs from each episode.

* CaptainErsatz: Many, ''many'' characters are thinly-veiled pastiches of both famous and obscure fictional characters, although in many cases this approaches subversion or deconstruction. The creators love to make 'realistic' interpretations of other characters and watch them fall apart. Due to the sheer length, examples can be found on the [[Characters/TheVentureBrothers character page]] for the applicable character.

* ShoutOut: So many that the series has its [[ShoutOut/TheVentureBrothers own page]]. The [[Recap/TheVentureBrothers Episode Recaps]] also list the shout-outs from each episode.

Character specific tropes can be found on the [[Characters/TheVentureBros series' character pages]] while episode specific tropes should go on the appropriate [[Recap/TheVentureBrothers recap page]].

Character specific tropes can be found on the [[Characters/TheVentureBrothers series' character pages]] while episode specific tropes should go on the appropriate [[Recap/TheVentureBrothers recap page]].

* [[WhamEpisode/TheVentureBrothers Wham Episode]]

* CastingGag: Captain Sunshine is a Franchise/{{Superman}} and Franchise/{{Batman}} combo {{expy}} who leans ''heavily'' into the Batman and [[Characters/{{Robin}} Robin]] MistakenForPedophile misconception (using copious InnocentInnuendo to play it up). Of course, they get Creator/KevinConroy, who has more credits as Batman than any other actor, to play him.

* CelebrityParadox: Unusually for the trope, parodies of characters and celebrities exist alongside the real thing. Rusty, modeled as a grown-up WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest, interacts with the actual Jonny Quest; Jonny and Rusty gossip about [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo 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 '80s OSI superstars and Music/VillagePeople; Professor Impossible and his family exist in a world where people read comics about ''The ComicBook/FantasticFour''; and Captain Sunshine and Wonder Boy are real while Franchise/{{Batman}} and Robin are fictional. Similar to how one of the themes of ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' is how different the world would be if superheroes really existed, as part of the ''Venture Brothers'' "failure" theme, we see 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 like 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.

* SmallReferencePools: Deconstructed with extreme prejudice. The creators, as they've stated themselves in the DVD commentary, go out of their way to defy this as often as possible with incredibly obscure [[GeekReferencePool nerdy references]], [[HistoricalInJoke Historican In-Jokes]], and plenty of AuthorAppeal toward their eclectic/esoteric interests, and you ''know'' they've ShownTheirWork too. French literary character Literature/{{Fantomas}} and occultist Creator/AleisterCrowley as founding members of the Guild? Victorian Era "father of bodybuilding" Eugen Sandow as the bodyguard to Lloyd Venture (including a reference to his failed foray into the chocolate industry)? Recordings on gramophone cylinders, James Whistler's "Arrangement in Black and Gold" painting (and it being the basis for ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray''), Archimedes of Syracuse, Henry Clay Frick? And all of those are from ''[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS3E11ORB just one episode]]''. By their own admission, the creators have had to talk each other ''down'' from including even more obscurce references in the series. Examples from other episodes can be found on the appropriate Recap pages.

** O.S.I. agents are seen several times using these on uninvolved civilians to keep them out of the way/from learning too much. When Doe and Cardholder show up on Spider-Skull island to reign Jonas Jr. in for not wanting to play the heroes/villians "game", the immediately tranq the Pirate Captain (leading to his addiction) and attempt to tranq Ned, but can't pierce his skin.

* VillainsOutShopping: A core dynamic of the Guild villains is that, while they're on the clock, they're full-blown [[CardCarryingVillian Card-Carrying Villains]] with everything that entails. While [[PunchClockVillains off the clock]], they tend to lead rather normal/mundane (if still eccentric) lives where they go shopping, attend parties, go out to bars, date, etc. Sometimes this even includes GoKartingWithBowser by inviting their supposed "arches" to these types of things. Several episodes specifically focus on this, as noted in their Recap pages.

* VillainsOutShopping: A core dynamic of the Guild villains is that, while they're on the clock, they're full-blown {{Card Carrying Villian}}s with everything that entails. While [[PunchClockVillains off the clock]], they tend to lead rather normal/mundane (if still eccentric) lives where they go shopping, attend parties, go out to bars, date, etc. Sometimes this even includes GoKartingWithBowser by inviting their supposed "arches" to these types of things. Several episodes specifically focus on this, as noted in their Recap pages.

* VillainsOutShopping: A core dynamic of the Guild villains is that, while they're on the clock, they're full-blown ((Card Carrying Villian}}s with everything that entails. While [[PunchClockVillains off the clock]], they tend to lead rather normal/mundane (if still eccentric) lives where they go shopping, attend parties, go out to bars, date, etc. Sometimes this even includes GoKartingWithBowser by inviting their supposed "arches" to these types of things. Several episodes specifically focus on this, as noted in their Recap pages.

* ViewersAreGeniuses: The creators seem to genuinely believe this about their audience and, in an example of [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Tropes Are Not Bad]], it actually enhances the series humor while averting SmallReferencePools with a vengence. Obscure real life figures (Eugen Sandow, Gaeten Dugas, etc.), obscure fictional characters (Literature/{{Fantomas}}, at least outside of France, Series/Bibleman, etc.), tons of extremely niche [[GeekReferencePool geeky references]], you pretty much have to be a genius to fully appreciate the humor.

* VillainsOutShopping: A core dynamic of the Guild villains is that, while they're on the clock, they're full-blown CardCarryingVillians with everything that entails. While [[PunchClockVillains off the clock]], they tend to lead rather normal/mundane (if still eccentric) lives where they go shopping, attend parties, go out to bars, date, etc. Sometimes this even includes GoKartingWithBowser by inviting their supposed "arches" to these types of things. Several episodes specifically focus on this, as noted in their Recap pages.

* UnknownRival: The Monarch to Rusty, throughout the first season. While Monarch considers Rusty his true ArchRival, Rusty is more annoyed by the "prick in a butterfly costume" and doesn't seem to think of him as anything more than the rest of his RoguesGallery. Over the rest of the series, Monarch becomes a more significant character and spends most of the time as Rusty's official "Guild sanctioned" arch (and when he's not, he's scheming on how to get that status back).

The Venture family travels the world, getting into all sorts of bizarre adventures and spoofing the ever-loving hell out of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' along the way -- at least at first. The series [[CerebusSyndrome quickly developed]] into something far more interesting than a [[DarkParody mean-spirited ''Jonny Quest'' parody]] as the characters gained depth and the show took a dark (though still humorous) turn into [[GenreDeconstruction deconstructing the entire "youth adventure" genre]]. The focus of the series shifted from the brothers and onto Rusty, and as the theme of "failure" became the central element of the series, the episodes began to show what happens to boy adventurers as they grow up and discover that their [[TheSixties 1960s]] childhoods' promises of peace, love, and [[ForScience super-science]] have failed to materialize.

* CloningBlues:

** After roughly two-and-a-half seasons spent as a DeconstructiveParody and GenreDeconstruction for everything from "[[TwoFistedTales action adventurers]]" to superheroes/villains to SpyFiction to ForScience-style {{Science Hero}}es, the series starts to reconstruct some tropes within these genres. The episode "ORB" is frequently pointed to as the point where the show veers noticeably towards reconstruction. In that episode alone, Rusty mocks his father's catchphrase several times, but at the end he says it unironically, making it clear that for all his father's ''many'' serious failings, his ideals still had value. Downplayed in that there is still plenty more deconstruction that takes place in the seasons to follow, but the series reconstructs enough of them (CloningBlues, TheRival, PunchClockVillain, to name just a few) that the vibe has noticably shifted.

** Hank and Dean's mother is left a mystery for nearly the entire series. After brief indications that it could be Rusty's former bodyguard Myra Brandish or Dr. Quymn, the FinalMovie finally reveals [[spoiler:that their biological mother is Debbie St. Simone, daughter of Bobbi St. Simone (one of Jonas Sr.'s flings) and the then-leader of the Guild, Force Majeure. She traded Rusty some of her eggs in exchange for his help in transferring her mother's invisibility powers. Rusty then carried them in an artifical womb]].

* {{Expy}}: The entire show is one giant [[GenreDesconstruction satirical deconstruction]] of various classic animated and comic book heroes. Everyone from the main characters to countless one-offs are based, at least in part, on someone or something from those genres. See the series character and recap pages for full lists.

* [[Haiku/TheVentureBrothers Haiku]]

* GivingUpOnLogic: Happens all the time and is frequently {{lampshaded}} when it does, going hand in hand with the SeenItAll and ConditionedToAcceptHorror nature of many of the main characters. On several occasi, when a newer and/or more sane character tries to question something bizarre, the other characters will often mention a ContinuityNod or NoodleIncident that makes the current situation seem downright reasonable by comparison. Specific examples can be found on the appropriate Recap page.

* GivingUpOnLogic: Happens all the time and is frequently {{lampshaded}} when it does, going hand in hand with the SeenItAll and ConditionedToAcceptHorror nature of many of the main characters. On several occassions, when a newer and/or more sane character tries to question something bizarre, the other characters will often mention a ContinuityNod or NoodleIncident that makes the current situation seem downright reasonable by comparison. Specific examples can be found on the appropriate Recap page.

* RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic: Largely averted as most characters include a realistic amount of "ums", "ahs", and pauses in their dialogue, as well as them interupting each other and trailing off. Goes hand-in-hand with the show's tendency toward BuffySpeak, as some of the most prominent examples include Henchman 21 and Billy who are prone to this as well, and quite a few characters [[LikeIsLikeAComma say "like" a lot]].

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Brock's usual solution to a problem is to kill the one responsible. Downplayed in later seasons, however.
* WhoWritesThisCrap: Invoked almost exactly when Phantom Limb tries to claim leadership of the Guild.
-->'''Red Mantle:''' "MAKE WAY FOR THE DASHING PHANTOM LIMB!" I didn't write this crap.
* WhyAmITicking: Hank in "Ice Station Impossible".
* WilliamTelling: One set of Hank and Dean clones died trying to do this to each other simultaneously.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: Dean and Triana. [[spoiler:They won't. Probably.]] Brock and Molotov.
* WimpFight: ''Any'' time that Hank or Dean gets into a fistfight except that one time Dermott is being rude to Triana, and Dean ''kicks his ass.'' Brock beams with pride when he does.
* WorfHadTheFlu: In the third episode of season four, Dermott shows up to hang out with Hank. When Hank brings up the time Dean beat the shit out of him, Dermott claims he was "cheap-shotted when I wasn't ready" and "had a massive stomach flu". Obviously, he's lying.
* XCalledTheyWantTheirYBack: Shore Leave says this to Col. Gathers. Gathers' comeback is unconventional:
-->'''Shore Leave:''' The Village People called, and they want you to ''GO FUCKING KILL YOURSELF, YOU PRANCING BASTARD!''
* YellowPeril:
** Parodied in a flashback where Jonas Venture Sr. infiltrates Scaramantula's evil organization in a PaperThinDisguise as "Dr. Fangdragon" from "Japananawa".
** Dr. Z, an extremely AffablyEvil parody of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'''s Dr. Zin.
* YouBastard: Tiger Shark to Brock and [[spoiler:Scott Hall]] to Henchman 21.
* YouClonedHitler: Averted and lampshaded in the season four premiere.
-->'''Hank:''' Is it me, or does like every Nazi want to clone Hitler? It's like the only thing they think of!
* YouGotMurder: 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... [[ForgotToFeedTheMonster except not really]].
* YouKnowImBlackRight: Averted and parodied in "What Goes Down, Must Come Up":
-->'''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?\\
'''Doctor Orpheus:''' No, it's because you soiled yourself... ''and'' he's gay.
* YouMonster: [[https://youtu.be/G5hViHTGC8w When]] Augustus St. Cloud uses the original Henrietta Pussycat puppet from ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' as a soap mitt Billy Quizboy is incensed.
-->'''Billy:''' It's sacrilege! That's a priceless artifact and a part of our collective childhood, you monster!
* YoureInsane: Inverted when Phantom Limb is introducing his fellow members of "The Revenge Society", who are all inanimate objects, in front of Guild Councilman Red Mantle (who has Councilman Dragoon's head sewn onto his shoulder) and Billy (who has been stuffed inside a potato sack):
-->'''Billy:''' Why can't I hear them?\\
'''Red Mantle:''' Because you are ''sane!''
* YouWouldntShootMe: Brock says this to Hank and Dean when they're BrainwashedAndCrazy. In this case, though, Brock says it as a threat; it's not that they're afraid to kill him, they're afraid of what he'll do to them if they try.

* {{Troperiffic}}: Exaggerated, with a heavy emphasis on the "underlying love for the genre" portion. The creators have even stated they read TV Tropes and mention several tropes by name throughout the DVD commentaries. Notably, given the nature of the series as a DarkParody and GenreDeconstruction of its many source genres, many of the tropes are Subverted, Zig-Zagged, Deconstructed, and/or otherwise played with to show just how they'd work (or fall apart) under more realistic circumstances.

* VillainsOutShopping: The thematic core of the series is more or less built around this trope.
* VisionQuest:
** Brock Samson goes on one in "¡Viva los Muertos!"
** Dr. Orpheus' visits to his daughter's closet might qualify as well.
* TheWallsAreClosingIn: With SpikesOfDoom as an added bonus and [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]].
-->'''Doctor Orpheus:''' How fast are the spikes?\\
'''Doctor Venture:''' Uh, slower than "haunted house" spiked walls but not quite as slow as "evil scientist" spiked walls.

* WagerSlave: Dean dares Hank to drink some awful substance, and in exchange Dean will be Hank's slave.
* WasntThatFun: Appears in the season 2 finale; after fighting off dangerous Guild helicopters, having the X-1 crash into The Cocoon, and the whole lot of them winding up crashed in the Grand Canyon, Brock plucks Hank out of the water. The first thing Hank says?
-->'''Hank:''' Again! Again!
* WeaksauceWeakness:
** Captain Sunshine's powers don't work at night.
** Watch and Ward order Stormfront to get a power inhibitor in "Any Which Way But Zeus", mentioning the time he apparently killed The Candy Man, a guy made entirely out of sugar, by dousing him in rain. When Stormfront moans that nobody on the team is going to mind getting a little wet, Iron Anvil raises his hand with an audible squeak.
* WebcomicTime: A throwaway gag in the Season 1 episode "Past Tense", which was set in 2004, mentioned something of note happening two years and seventeen days later. The Season 7 episode "Arrears in Science" (which was made in 2018) [[BrickJoke has this event transpire]], indicating that the setting of the series is still in the mid-2000s.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Speedy. Poor little guy. He was ''this'' close to earning his wings.
* WeWillMeetAgain: St. Cloud delivers an extremely straight-faced version to Billy Quizboy at the end of "What Colour Is Your Cleansuit?".
* WeirdTradeUnion: The Guild of Calamitous Intent, which apparently competes with smaller, less reputable villainous unions, such as The Peril Partnership, and the Fraternity of Torment.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Rusty toward Jonas Venture. This is implied with Hank - when [[TheAce Dr Killinger]] comes to take over the Venture compound, he hangs out with Hank, encouraging him with sports and other physical activity. Season four gives us [[spoiler:D-19, a deformed clone of Dean who Rusty flushed away when he didn't come out right (though unknown to him he survived). Poor guy end up having delusions of a imaginary Rusty talking to him and trying to make a body suit out of the skin of the deceased Dean clones.]]
* WhamEpisode: ORB. This episode reveals, among other things:
** In addition to guarding Dr. Venture, Brock is also expected to [[spoiler:kill him if he finds and activates the Orb]].
** The Guild of Calamitous Intent began as a group of powerful people guarding the Orb, and Dr. Venture's grandfather was one of them. A lesser point is that Phantom Limb's grandfather was also part of this group.
** We have [[WhamEpisode/TheVentureBrothers a page]] on this.
* WhamLine: At the end of the Season 3 finale, after Brock quits the OSI:
-->'''Dr. Venture:''' Where are you going? Aren't you gonna help clean this up?\\
'''Brock:''' [[ExactWords I said "I quit".]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: This happens a ''lot.''
** We never really find out exactly what Doctor Girlfriend said to Monarch at the end of season two.
** A lot of subplots are resolved just by 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" ([[DontExplainTheJoke of course, that was the point.]]) Usually helped out by RuleOfFunny, as many of these resolutions are either boring or [[NoodleIncident funnier in the audience's imagination]].
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway:
** Manic 8-Ball's only power seems to be the ability to respond with Magic 8-Ball answers in his chest instead of speech. His scene with Baron Underbheit implies that he might be able to predict the future (although if you scare the shit out of him or your questions aren't useful, his answers might be at best MetaphoricallyTrue), but then again, he might not. Reply hazy, try again.
** The Impossibles (save Professor Impossible) fall into this category and BlessedWithSuck: 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).
** 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 [[CripplingOverspecialization only Blackulas]]). [[spoiler:In Season 4, Jefferson gets his own magical power when it's revealed that he exists between worlds, enabling him to save the others after they end up trapped in hell.]]
** There's 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 starting tp pull stuff out of him in an attempt to find something remotely useful or deadly to kill Dr. Venture with. [[spoiler:The power also works the other way.]]
** One had the power of Polygamy and another the power to grow by ''barely an inch'', Prof. Impossible had to squint to even notice the difference. It turns out he was ''standing on his toes''.
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: One of the running themes of the show, but fully explored in ''Viva Los Muertos!'', when Rusty uses a mook Brock casually killed to create "Venturestein". The episode revolves around Brock's guilt and eventual reconciliation, both with himself and Venturestein himself.
* WhatTheHellHero: 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 LotusEaterMachine PoweredByAForsakenChild. Dr. Orpheus is suitably disgusted with this information.
** Revived a dead {{Mook}} and started planning on Frankensteining more dead people 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 amounts 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]].
** Allowed a young child to be killed on a tour of his compound and ''returned a genetically modified clone to his parents in his place'' (although claiming that he was doing the boy a favor since his DNA made him "a ticking time-bomb for cancer"). Again, much to Brock's disgust.
** Dr. Killinger once attempted to make Rusty an official villain, only for him to back out at the last moment, horrified to know that he's potentially just that evil. Even Brock himself has some EvenEvilHasStandards moments with Rusty and is hesitant and answering Doc's question of whether or not he's a [[VillainProtagonist bad guy]] (settling for a very dark morally gray area).
** Trying to solve his money problems by stealing orangutans from the Amazon and teaching them to box. Brock (notice a pattern?) called this "a new personal low"--and not just because orangutans don't live in the Amazon.
** Using Sally's (Richard Impossible's then-wife) love for him to get a crucial machine part for him. Once again Brock calls him out for this.