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3%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
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7!!Works with their own pages
8[[index]]
9* ''ShownTheirWork/AvatarTheLastAirbender''
10* ''ShownTheirWork/DuckTales2017''
11* ''ShownTheirWork/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
12* ''ShownTheirWork/PhineasAndFerb''
13* ''ShownTheirWork/TheLionGuard''
14* ''ShownTheirWork/TheSecretSaturdays''
15[[/index]]
16----
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18* Unlike the other animated adaptions, ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' gets a surprising amount of detail right from the games. The power-ups work exactly as they're supposed to unlike ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', right down to referencing rare power ups like the P-Wing and the Kuribo's Shoe (albeit renamed "Karubi's Shoe"). The disguises Mario and Luigi wear in "Reptiles in the Rose Garden" bear a great resemblance to the Hammer Suit as well. They even had the rulers of Desert Land, Giant Land, Sky Land and Ice Land make appearances, though they're given different appearances from the game. Several episodes even refer to King Koopa as Bowser, making it the only Mario cartoon to ever use his American name, once by Bowser himself! Series concept art even revealed plans to incorporate the Tanooki Suit into the show, but it never came to pass.
19* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' displays a very good understanding of the complicated play dynamics of ''Magic: The Gathering'' in their card game episode. For instance, land cards are used to summon creatures, creatures are tapped to activate their abilities, and the spell cards used have effects present in the real game.
20** The writers actually created the whole card game in real life so that when Jake and Finn played it, it would seem like a real game and not just a load of nonsensical gibberish. The game has since been released in real life, with decks for Finn, Jake, BMO and Lady Rainicorn. Interestingly, a game with Finn and Jake's decks is unlikely to play out as it did in the episode.
21* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'', "Runaround Susie": Part of the plot, Susie participating in a language competition, seems to be begging for AsLongAsItSoundsForeign. To be fair, some of the words we hear do sound like such. But the overwhelming majority of them are correct.
22* Some of the background animals in ''WesternAnimation/AlmostNakedAnimals'' are a furless tiger with faint stripes imprinted into his skin and a furless bear with black skin and whitish hair strands all over his body.
23* ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'': In the episode "Don't Be Caddie", Mayor Jamal says that his favourite golf ball was previously used by a golfing legend who shot an eagle on the 7th hole at Inverness. This could be a reference to Ted Ray's exploitation of that hole in the 1920 U.S. Open.
24* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'' did this quite a bit between "The Presidents Song" [[note]] US Presidents in order [[/note]], "Wakko's America" [[note]] US states and their capitols [[/note]], "Yakko's World" [[note]] The nations of the world [[/note]], "Yakko's Universe" [[note]] the relative size of the universe [[/note]], "The Flame" [[note]] a gentle re-telling of how Jefferson wrote the US Declaration of Independence[[/note]], with another episode re-telling the tale of Paul Revere, and still another about Francis Scott Key writing The Star Spangled Banner, "The Planets Song" [[note]]the planets in our solar system. [[/note]], "The Ballad of Magellan" and "Bones in the Body", slipping some actual facts into amusing episodes.
25** Yakko's voice actor Rob Paulsen later went back and performed a fifth verse to "Yakko's World", listing all the new nations and other geopolitical changes that occurred since the song was first written in 1993.
26* For a show about one of the world's most irresponsible secret agents, ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' is ''very'' good about gun safety. Firing or setting off explosives without proper protection [[SteelEarDrums usually renders someone deaf]] (and usually Archer, going around saying, "Mawp? Mawp?"). One episode shows Cyril being irresponsible with a gun and accidentally setting it off; when Lana takes it from him, she clicks the safety off, ejects the clip, ''then'' ejects the round from the chamber, just in case.
27** Most of the anecdotes about espionage history and "proper" tradecraft are also either accurate or closely based on the truth before the characters mess it up.
28** Not to mention, any time Archer makes a seemingly-random political, philsophical or literature reference, it's not only a real thing, it's almost always mentioned in the correct context (or if it isn't, it's instantly {{Lampshaded}} and the correct context mentioned).
29* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
30** Killer Croc's skin condition is real, though exaggerated for effect.
31** Minor villain Mary Dahl/Baby-Doll appears to be perpetually a child of approximately six. This is indeed a rare condition, most famously carried by Gary Coleman. Dahl also has an "adult" voice she rarely uses -- the result of practicing such a voice, rather than puberty. Her first episode "[[Recap/TheAdventuresOfBatmanAndRobinE11BabyDoll Baby-Doll]]" also features her post-fame failure, an all too common trend among child stars.
32** In "[[Recap/TheNewBatmanAdventuresE24JudgementDay Judgement Day]]", Harvey Dent develops a third SplitPersonality called "the Judge" who suffers a vigilante complex separate from his other two halves [[spoiler:and eventually declared the dominant Harvey "guilty"]]. People with Dissociative Identity Disorder/Multiple Personality Disorder very commonly have more than one extra personality living in their mind, and it's also not unusual for one or more of the identities to want to kill one another.
33* ''WesternAnimation/BonVoyageCharlieBrown'' features a lot of accurate little details during Charlie Brown and friends' trip through Europe, from the designs of trains and buses to road signs. The "Chateau of the Bad Neighbor" Charlie and Linus stay at is actually based on Manoir de Malvoisine, a real landmark in Le Héron, France.
34* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' has one episode where Muriel suddenly de-ages into a 3½-year-old girl from being sucked into a tornado. Courage's snarky computer tells him that the only way to turn her back to her original age was by throwing her into a tornado spinning in reverse. When Courage asks whether tornadoes do spin in reverse, the computer replies, "Only in the Southern Hemisphere, you twit." While the de-aging power of tornadoes is total fiction, the fact that tornadoes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres spin in opposite directions (counterclockwise and clockwise, respectively) is generally true.
35* While not quite perfectly, ''WesternAnimation/DinosaurTrain'' tries to be more accurate in its facts about dinosaurs and prehistoric life. They even point out birds are a kind of dinosaur.
36* Especially before its original cancellation, ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' would often work in references to people, places, products and events that one could only truly appreciate if one was a native of Rhode Island or had lived there for a length of time. For instance, while Quahog is fictional, Lois comes from an old money family in Newport, a real-life coastal city and one of the wealthiest in New England. Also, the city backdrop used on ''Quahog News'' is the actual Providence skyline. On the other hand however, the show's never been too good on getting the ''shape'' of the state right on maps.
37** A subversion in an episode where it's revealed that Lois had an affair with Gene Simmons back before he was known by that name. She only remembers him as Chaim Witz, which was indeed his original name, but the writers did not complete their research: In RealLife, Simmons stopped answering to the name Chaim Witz when he moved from Israel to New York at the age of ''ten''. His original ''American'' name was Eugene Klein.
38* Rather an EnforcedTrope for ''WesternAnimation/FiremanSam'', seeing as it delivered AnAesop about fire safety or something related OnceAnEpisode. If they deviated from reality at all it was only as a concession to the limits of their special effects and/or to provide a subtle PSA about what the viewer should do in that situation.
39* ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'''s "villain" Fanboy once drove the eponymous hero nuts with gobs of detailed information about Disney movies.
40* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Writing [[http://theinfosphere.org/The_Prisoner_of_Benda a mind-swap episode]] is way too easy. [[http://theinfosphere.org/Futurama_theorem Let's create a real mathematical theorem]] and prove it to explain our body-swap episode. This sort of thing is what happens when one of your writers has a Ph.D in Applied Mathematics. In fact, ''Futurama'' may have the most highly educated writing staff on TV (there were at least 4 Ph.Ds on staff during the original run).
41* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' was very accurate and detailed in many of the mythologies it referenced, though it changes a lot. Scottish history is also heavily important to the show's backstory--[[AntiVillain Macbeth's]] flashbacks, for example, basically combine the [[TruthInTelevision historical king's]] real life with some elements of the famous play (mainly [[DragonWithAnAgenda the Weird Sisters]]) and the show's own themes.
42* While ''WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries'' had ArtisticLicense in force for obvious reasons, most of the material seen and talked about had basis in the sciences at the time of the show's airing. Even a few non-science subjects are presented accurately, such as Mendel Craven using his sock to filter water for drinking purposes in one episode, a real life wilderness survival technique. In fact, this show is actually much more scientifically accurate than the film that preceded it.
43* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' got the local wildlife true to real life as well (with a few exceptions such as [[MisplacedWildlife grizzly bears and alligators]]... but then, the premise of the show ''is'' that the titular town is a WeirdnessMagnet).
44** The SceneryPorn of the opening scene, as well as many of the show's backgrounds, is very accurate to actual Oregonian landscape.
45** As said before, almost every real-life animal seen living wild in Gravity Falls is actually native to Oregon, including the somewhat obscure purple finch.
46** The goat that lives near the Mystery Shack has rectangular pupils, just like goats in real life.
47** In "Northwest Mansion Noir/Mystery", the mudslide [[spoiler: that killed the lumberjack]] was the result of the deforestation that ensued from [[spoiler: him building [[DeathByIrony the Northwest mansion]] ]]. Deforestation can cause mudslides, because the lack of trees destabilizes the soil, so whenever it rains in a treeless era, the ground becomes saturated and slides.
48** For all the stereotypical paleontological inaccuracies present in "Land Before Swine", the episode did get quadrupedal pterosaurs right (down to terrestrial hunting like azhdarchid pterosaurs) and portrayed ''Ceratosaurus'' with three laterally-flat horns.
49** The beavers from "Legend of the Gobblewonker" have yellowish teeth like real beavers.
50** In "Little Dipper", Dipper feels insecure because Mabel is revealed to be growing faster than he is, despite them being the same age. This makes sense: as anybody with a similarly-aged sibling of the opposite sex can attest, there is an awkward phase growing up caused by the fact that girls hit puberty earlier than boys.
51** Fans often say Dipper and Mabel have a 'heart', or more 'heart' than the other pair of twins, [[spoiler:Stanley and Stanford]]. Turns out that opposite gender twins are a lot more accepting and open-minded than [[spoiler:same gender twins]].
52* EVERY character in ''WesternAnimation/{{Jellystone}}'' is a real character from the Creator/HannaBarbera library, even their more obscure ones, like Glump from ''WesternAnimation/ValleyOfTheDinosaurs'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheCattanoogaCats''. [[spoiler:The one exception, Mr. Flabby Dabby Wabby Jabby, can be excused as he's the punchline to an episode-long joke, and is pretty much a tall and nerdy Augie Doggie lookalike anyway.]]
53** In "Ice Ice Daddy", Baby Puss is drawn with a bulky body and a short tail like a real ''Smilodon'', as opposed to a typical cat-like body like his original counterpart. In the same episode, Glump's plates are drawn as arranged alternatively true to a ''Stegosaurus'', instead of paired plates like in the original.
54** Wally Gator now has visible sharp teeth in the series, with the upper teeth overlapping the lower ones like they should on an alligator.
55* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'', a thief is trying to steal the world's largest cubic zircon, but when she tries to cut the glass case with a small buzzsaw the blade dulls since the case is actually made out of diamond. She then smashes Johnny's head into the case and it breaks. Not only is this exactly what would happen in real life (diamond is extremely hard, and therefore resistant to cutting, but is also brittle and will shatter if hit hard enough), the way the case shatters is pretty accurate too (it doesn't break into shards like glass, but seems to crumble to dust: when diamond shatters it breaks along crystal planes into multiple tiny diamonds rather than shattering like glass).
56* The Tinymon episodes of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest''. The first episode grasped a great many mechanics from Franchise/{{Pokemon}} such as evolving by happiness. The second episode has references to more obscure ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games (most notably ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum''), fandom terminology, and even Franchise/{{Digimon}}.
57* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' has several UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance games. The second and third ones especially put a lot of effort into getting all the little details right, from the ridiculous Drakken plot to Ron dancing like the Oh Boyz, they nailed the look and feel of the episodes.
58* ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', for the time this was made, and remember it was thirty-odd years ago and the complete remains of some of the featured species (especially ''Tyrannosaurus'') hadn't been found yet, was the most accurate dinosaur movie ever made (ignoring the AnachronismStew and TalkingAnimal issues). Even today, the care put into the film is impressive.
59** Sure they may not be living in the right place or the right time, nor do they look very realistic, but the variety (and obscurity) of some of the dinosaurs featured is quite astounding. It may be the most redeeming feature of the sequels.
60** Rather than sitting on Tricia's egg, Cera's parents incubate it by covering it with grass. It's theorized that this is exactly what certain dinosaurs did in real life (the fermenting vegetation would have warmed the eggs, not to mention the fact that a ''Triceratops'' would likely be heavy enough to crush its eggs if it tried to sit on them.)
61** Feathered dinosaurs appear from time to time, though they're not quite feathered enough. The ''Nothronychus'' and ''Yutyrannus'' (whose name actually means "''Feathered'' tyrant") from the fourteenth film stand out in particular.
62** Despite being an ''Oviraptor'', Ruby doesn't have that dinosaur's StockAnimalDiet of eggs. She prefers to much on plants (and, in one episode, clams), making her an omnivore like her species was in real life.
63** The ''Triceratopses'' all have nearly accurate skin covering (the word "nearly" is in there due to the lack of quills), with crocodile-like scales on their bellies and thick armored scales on their backs.
64** An odd case; at one point in the seventh film, Sierra makes a paddling motion with one foot while [[KidNappingBirdOfPrey carrying Ducky in the other]]. While this was definitely not something pterosaurs could do, it is behavior displayed by modern birds of prey when they're carrying particularly heavy loads in their talons.
65** The ''Liopleurodon'' is very accurately depicted, especially for the time the movie came out in (though it is closer in size to a ''Kronosaurus''). Most dinosaurs in the series, including sharpteeth, have a stylized, cartoony look about them. The ''Liopleurodon'' does not, and looks like a real animal. The effect makes for a fairly threatening villain, even if it never gets to cause any real damage.
66** While Mutt looks more like a hadrosaur than a ''Muttaburrasaurus'', he is shown as bipedal and lacking an ''Iguanodon''-like thumb spike, which ''Muttaburrasaurus'' is believed to be in real life. Meanwhile, the ''Iguanodon'' are correctly portrayed as quadrupeds (as are the ''Ouranosaurus'', though that is controversial).
67** The female ''Pteranodons'' for most of the films [[BizarreSexualDimorphism don't look the same]] as the male ones. Petrie's mother is much shorter and has a much smaller crest than his uncle, which is something rarely seen in media, even in a documentary. Unfortunately, the fourteenth film forgets this with Etta, a female ''Pteranodon'' who looks like a [[AnimalGenderBender male]] ''Pteranodon''.
68** The fourteenth film features a colony of "diggers", which are based on burrowing ornithopods such as ''Oryctodromeus''.
69** Unlike in a lot of fiction, the dinosaurs and pterosaurs are clearly warm-blooded being able to survive (albeit with some problems) and stay active in cold weather. And yes, there ''was'' snow and winters during the Mesozoic era.
70* Subconsciously or not, ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' does this with the opening chase sequences of many a ''WesternAnimation/RoadRunner'' short (when the predator is able to catch up to his prey so easily). A real coyote can top out at 38 mph while a real road runner can top out at 20 mph. Of course, HilarityEnsues starting with the little burst of speed the Road Runner puts on.
71** While not always the case, some shorts display the actual scientific names of the roadrunner and coyote (''Geococcyx californianus'' and ''Canis latrans'' respectively).
72* Even though ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'' is considered a cheesy show, they did a fairly good job at researching the games; most of the character designs, while changed quite a bit, at least kept most of the unique design aspects, and sometimes the ''entire'' design. Designs aren't where they stopped, Mega Man's name was "Rock" before he became, well, Mega Man; this fact is somewhat more well known nowadays, but it wasn't back then. Heck, it looks like they paid attention to [[http://www.themmnetwork.com/2010/03/18/the-great-mega-man-finger-phenomenon/ the fingers of the characters]], as in a BadFuture episode, a Mega Man fan ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRb1OZv_7j4&feature=related actually does this]]'', at about 0:09. People deride the show for being inaccurate, but that's incredibly far from the truth.[[note]]Although it kind of is inaccurate in one respect: Proto Man is portrayed as one of the bad guys. While he was an opponent in [[VideoGame/MegaMan3 the third game]]: he was wasn't necessarily working for Dr. Wily. It's a long story. He was also framed as the main villain in [[VideoGame/MegaMan5 Mega Man 5]], which was the new game at the time, the actual main villain being Wily.[[/note]]
73* ''WesternAnimation/{{Metalocalypse}}'''s animation is often carefully synced to the music, with the chord positions and fingering of the guitar parts shown in some detail.
74* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': The creative team behind the series did a lot of research into the history, cultures and traditions of Native Americans.
75** On a darker note, the show often delves into Molly's grandfather Nat's childhood in an Indian residential school; given that this show's target demographic is ''preschoolers'', it really is commendable that the creative team shined a spotlight on such a troubling aspect of North American history, while still keeping it acceptable for young children.
76* A subtle example: In the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroachesTheMovie'', Oggy evolves from a microbe into a cat. If one looks closely, after he becomes a jellyfish, he evolves into a worm-like thing (Possibly a ''Pikaia'') and into an eel (Possibly an Agnathan fish).
77* Part of what makes the atmosphere of ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'' so effective is the work put into capturing the environments, clothing, and musical styles of the past eras which influence the setting. Some examples:
78** Per the above, there is a good argument to be made for how each chapter of the story refers to a theme in the ''[[Literature/TheDivineComedy Inferno]]'', and even if not all of the parallels are intentional, there are definitely subtler references that some viewers might not pick up on.
79** The song the Pottsfield villagers sing is based on an obscure old style of American choral music known as shape note singing[[note]]a style associated with songs written in shape-note notation[[/note]], which fits perfectly with the vibe of the town. The soundtrack calls the song "Pottsfield CM": many shape-note tunes are named after places, followed by the song's meter ("CM" - common meter).
80** In chapter 7, when Lorna and Wirt block a door handle with a chair, they were originally going to be wedging the top of it under a doorknob like people do now. But since it happened that there were no doorknobs at that time, the door was changed to have the accurate vertical bar handle, and the chair's carving was altered to be able to slide into the handle sideways instead.
81* ''WesternAnimation/ThePatrickStarShow'':
82** In "Fun & Done!", Patrick eats lunch by ejecting his stomach out, like a real starfish.
83** In "Olly Olly Organ Free", an organless Patrick quickly devolves into a floppy, shapeless mass. In real life, starfish don't have bones.
84* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' actually delved into this a lot, usually brought up by Kowalski, the most intelligent penguin of the group and the most analytical. In one episode, a raccoon scares the usually fearless penguins into running away when he shouts "leopard seal!". Assuming they are adelie penguins, they are a common source of food to Leopard seals in the Antarctic. Another episode had the penguins betting against King Julien and his lackeys in a game of catch the flag, and fail every time. They finally get the upper hand when they realize the lemurs can move so quickly because lemurs travel by the tree-tops, rather than on land.
85** One chimpanzee on the show uses sign language. The staff has consulted with sign-language experts to make sure that each sign and facial expression is accurate.
86* ''WesternAnimation/PennZeroPartTimeHero'': The main character's Aunt Rose and Uncle Chuck own a pet chinchilla, which is shown giving itself a dust bath like chinchillas in real life.
87* ''WesternAnimation/RazzberryJazzberryJam''
88** In “Super Sounds”, most of what the Jazzberries (who, for context, are [[AnimateInanimateObject anthropomorphic musical instruments]]) do to find their “new sounds” are actual musical techniques (at least until the cartoonish antics start taking over)- Billie plugs herself in to a distortion pedal, Louis tries using various objects as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mute_(music) mutes]], RC bows himself [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_legno col legno]], and Buddy and Krupa try using [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percussion_mallet#Brushes drum brushes]]
89** Mike being able to play Lebowski’s tune back to him in “Tuning In” isn’t an AssPull- microphones and speakers are both electroacoustic transducers (to put it simply, in microphones sound in the air makes a thin membrane vibrate, and the vibrations are converted into a signal in a wire; in speakers, a signal in a wire makes a thin membrane vibrate, and the vibrations are transferred into the air as sound), so it’s actually possible to use a microphone as a speaker if you ReverseThePolarity (though you shouldn’t expect good sound quality from it).
90* In the ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'' episode "Earthday Birthday", Face 9000 says that Mindy would be almost 17 years old on planet Mercury. Mindy is 4 years old on the show. If you multiply 4 by 365 (the number of days in an Earth year), you get 1,460. Divide that by 88 (the number of days in a Mercury year), and you get 16.5909090909, which rounds up to 17. So, yeah, Face 9000 was correct. The series in general teaches a lot of accurate facts about space and science. It helps that NASA is on board with the show.
91* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': In one episode, Rick tells a group of aliens that the recipe for powerful spaceship fuel is 'cesium, plutonic quarks and bottled water'. Anyone who knows what happens when you mix cesium and water in real life might guess that Rick just tricked the aliens into blowing themselves up.
92* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Robotboy}}'' has Tommy and Gus doing shadow puppets of animals. The former does a puppet of a deer which barks, which is actually true for real deers, as the sound they make does sound like barking.
93* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
94** Nearly any time features a foreign language, the staff does its best to make sure it's portrayed accurately, such as Portuguese in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E15BlameItOnLisa Blame It on Lisa]]", when the Simpson family travels to Brazil, or German in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E17TheHeartbrokeKid The Heartbroke Kid]]", when Homer sings the original German lyrics to "99 Luftballons" aka "99 Red Balloons". Even UsefulNotes/{{Albania}}n gets in the mix when exchange student Adil speaks a bit in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E11TheCrepesOfWrath The Crepes of Wrath]]"
95** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E7MommieBeerest Mommie Beerest]]", Homer and Marge are starting to kiss when Marge has to bail out fast. As he sees his lips still locked for a kiss, Homer decides to put them into use by pulling out a trombone from under his bed and playing "Greensleeves". Any trombone player in the audience will notice the animators accurately replicated the moves a real player would make on the instrument's slide.
96** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E13TwoBadNeighbors Two Bad Neighbors]]" (first aired January 14, 1996), Homer pranks UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush with cardboard cutouts of "George Bush Jr. and Jeb Bush". The DVD commentary claims that the writers had no idea that George Bush, Sr. actually did have [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush a son who shared his name]][[note]]though George the younger did have political stature, having assumed the governorship of [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Texas]] one year earlier, and Jeb at that point was reasonably well known[[/note]], but if you believe that, you'll believe anything.
97** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E1TheCityOfNewYorkVsHomerSimpson The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson]]" took a lot of work from the animators, but they managed to accurately depict New York City, from the traffic density to the architecture. Except for the World Trade Center, as the towers seem to alternate between being parallel to each other and being at an angle as they actually were.
98** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E13TheJoyOfSect The Joy of Sect]]", many of the Movementarians' tactics and practices are taken directly from RealLife cults including Jim Jones' People's Temple, Heaven's Gate, and the Church of Scientology.
99** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS20E9LisaTheDramaQueen Lisa The Drama Queen]]", Juliet's Creator/JohnGrisham-loving dad puts on the album of Music/JamesHorner's score for ''Literature/ThePelicanBrief'' - track 3 is indeed called "Researching The Brief."
100** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E7TheTwoMrsNahasapeemapetilons The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons]]", the writers studied Hindu wedding traditions, such as sending a lotus flower as a marriage notice.
101** [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E18TheDayTheViolenceDied The Day The Violence Died]] correctly cites a ''lot'' of legal trivia, such as Lionel Hutz' now memetic "Hearsay and conjecture are ''kinds'' of evidence" line (yes, they actually ''are''; not good kinds, but still are kinds of evidence), having Hutz ask the defense if they have a copy of his film (Yes, you actually can ask opposing counsel for evidence, and yes they have to turn it over if they have it even if it's harmful to their case), Lisa reading a book titled "Copyright Law, 1918-1923" (as the Copyright Act of 1923 changed how copyrights worked in that year, and the film was made in 1919), and Lampwick marking his film as (c) 1919 (Yes, that ''was'' all you needed to do to copyright a work. Nowadays of course you don't even have to do that to hold a legitimate copyright over a work).
102* Somewhat surprisingly, ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. For example, the episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E8LePetitTourette Le Petit Tourette]]" actually goes out of its way to point out excessive cursing is ''only one possible symptom'' of the disorder and shows characters with other tics. Episodes addressing controversial issues like politics and religion are also generally well-researched, as are their numerous parodies. Though of course, RuleOfFunny can cancel anything out.
103** "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E9OsamaBinLadenHasFartyPants Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants]]" is correct in having most of the Afghan characters speaking Farsi (albeit with accents that sound Iranian). But in keeping with the RuleOfFunny, bin Laden [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign speaks a random collection of insane gibberish]] and has the other characters lapse into English when the plot requires it (with LampshadeHanging).
104** Henrietta's room after she becomes emo in "[[Recap/SouthParkS17E4GothKids3DawnOfThePosers Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers]]" is filled with visual puns and inside jokes about emo culture that must have taken some research on Parker and Stone's part. Besides a conversation about Music/FallOutBoy [[ItMakesSenseInContext playing the Super Bowl when emos take over the world]], easy emo culture jokes are avoided, with a ShoutOut reference going to obscure emo pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate.
105** In order to pull off a role reversal the way they did in "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E7RedMansGreed Red Man's Greed]]" they have to seriously study the history of native American people.
106** Travis and the lice in Clyde's hair in "[[Recap/SouthParkS11E3LiceCapades Lice Capades]]" look different than [[spoiler:Creator/AngelinaJolie's pubic lice]], which is accurate, as they are separate species.
107** "[[Recap/SouthParkS10E7Tsst Tsst]]" spoofs the idea that the dog training methods of Cesar Milan (aka the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Whisperer_with_Cesar_Millan Dog Whisperer]]'') could be applicable for training an unruly human child (in this case, [[EnfantTerrible Cartman]]). Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone were big fans of ''Dog Whisperer'' and very much aware of the nuances of Milan's training methods (Stone himself being a dog owner), and Milan himself commended the episode for its pitch-perfect accuracy.
108* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', being the brainchild of a marine biologist, is chock-full of this:
109** Patrick's stupidity came about as a result of the fact that starfish don't have brains in real life (though sponges are brainless as well, [=SpongeBob=] having one was just a case of ArtisticLicenseBiology and RuleOfFunny).
110** By contrast to the above, Squidward's intelligence and role as the OnlySaneMan both stem from the fact octopi are among the most intelligent animals.
111** [=SpongeBob=]'s budding and filter feeding are actual biological processes used by sponges, as is the fact that [=SpongeBob=] is (according to WordOfGod) asexual.
112** The show has shown a few times and even used as a plot point the fact that [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick can regrow their limbs, which both sponges and starfish can do in reality.
113** Plankton's singular eye is a trait of his real-life inspiration: a microscopic group of crustacean-type zooplankton known as copepods.
114** In "Karate Star", Patrick severs his hand after becoming addicted to karate, only for him to grow a new hand and the old one to grow a new Patrick. While making for an odd joke, regeneration in starfish does actually occur like this.
115** In "Just One Bite", Squidward mentions eating his own tentacles if starving, which is an actual survival mechanism of octopi.
116** Mr. Krabs's greed and position as a fast-food restaurant owner both tie in to the ecological niche of crabs as scavengers. The fact that crabs are scavengers is pointed out in "Feral Friends".
117** In "Sandy, [=SpongeBob=], and the Worm", Mr. Krabs froths at the mouth as he runs out of breath from his rant at Sandy pretending to want his money. Real crabs do froth at the mouth when they have trouble breathing.
118** In "Band Geeks", Mr. Krabs mentions his "big, meaty claws" aren't just used for attracting mates. In some crab species, particularly fiddler crabs, males will use their big claws to attract a mate.
119** The stock footage used for an infant [=SpongeBob=] in "Your Shoe's Untied" is of a real-life sponge offspring.
120** Anchovies swarm in schools made up of several thousands in real life, which is a plot point in the pilot episode "Help Wanted".
121** In the show, scallops represent the undersea equivalent of birds, which may seem random, but in fact scallops [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBH3UvlZo90 can and do swim exactly how they do in the show]].
122** The ''Tylosaurus'' seen in "Lost and Found" has a tail fluke, and none of the dorsal fringes or armored scutes mosasaurs are often afflicted with in popular culture. Also, the ''Tanystropheus'' is portrayed walking along the ground as opposed to swimming, possibly referring to the fact it was a shore animal.
123** As pointed out in "Feral Friends", lobsters do in fact eat their own molted shells and starfish do feed by ejecting their stomachs.
124** "Sharks vs. Pods" has a gang of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sharks]] that appear to be thugs, but turn out to be NotEvilJustMisunderstood. This is based on the fact that sharks are very misunderstood animals, not the [[ThreateningShark bloodthirsty monsters]] people picture them as.
125** In "Oral Report", Squidward tells [=SpongeBob=] that "statistics show that public speaking is the number three cause of stress right behind death and marriage." While there are more stressful events (such as having a divorce or flunking a class), it's been proven that talking in front of a class ''does'' have a high stress rating, even compared to death and marriage.
126** "The Krabby Patty That Ate Bikini Bottom" has Mr. Krabs mentioning that he can breathe air as long as he keeps his lungs moist. This is accurate, and crabs in real life can also do this.
127** Bikini Bottom is based on the real-life Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, hence why whenever the show needs stock footage of a large explosion, they constantly use footage of an American hydrogen bomb test conducted there during the Cold War.
128** Creator Stephen Hillenburg actually made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5EuFGwbLXE a cute short documentary]] with Jean-Michel Cousteau discussing how closely the characters resemble their real-life inspirations (or don't) as a special feature for ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie'' DVD.
129** In "Pressure", Mr. Krabs retracts his eyes into his head, and says that "everyone in [his] family can do that!" This sounds odd when you remember that his daughter, Pearl, is a sperm whale. However, [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sperm_whale_eye_retraction.ogv sperm whales can actually retract their eyes as well]]!
130* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' has an alien race made of gemstones. While a lot of astrology research gets used (like rose quartz being associated with healing, and the Rose Quartz character having healing powers), it can go down to crazy levels of detail. [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Lapis Lazuli]] is a cracked gem we meet early on that befriends the main character Steven by making fart jokes. In real life, a lapis lazuli stone absolutely ''reeks'' of sulfur when broken or ground to powder. No one but someone that works lapis or knows someone who does would know this, but there it is.
131** A specific example: A character mentions that a drill to reach the center of the Earth would need to withstand up to 360 gigapascals of pressure and 9800 degrees of temperature. 360 gigapascal is the current upper estimate of the pressure at the inner core, and 9800 is its actual temperature in Fahrenheit degrees.
132* ''Tales of Hungarian History'' is an animated adaptation of Cronica Pictum (with some episodes drawing from the Gesta Hungarorum or legends of various Hungarian saints), and will follow its source materials instead of actual history. Nevertheless, when the plot gets too derailed in terms of historical accuracy, a bald history teacher will show up to tell his version (at one point even getting into a fight with the narrator).
133* ''WesternAnimation/AThousandAndOneAmericas'': While the shows takes some artistic liberties regarding the portrayal of the pre-Columbian civilizations (for example, they can communicate with main protagonist Chris in his language despite the Indo-European languages not having been spoken in the Americas before the arrival of UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus), it still excels at presenting true-to-fact information about the civilizations' cultures, costumes and struggles, including facts that surprise Chris himself (who wouldn't have thought of them as true otherwise).
134* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' has won over many of its [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks detractors]] not only with a well-written plot and episodes, but also through lots of {{shout out}}s, small and large, That show that the writing and animation teams do in fact know and care a lot about the series' that came before.
135** Not to mention that they usually utilize a pretty accurate knowledge of Detroit streets and roadways, with a few exceptions when the story elements call for it (like [[PatchworkMap the volcanic island in the middle of Lake Erie]]).
136** Then there's [[http://www.angelfire.com/anime2/digipedia/annotated_almanac.html the AllSpark Almanac]], [[AllThereInTheManual as the manual can attest to]].
137* Some of the hand-to-hand fights in ''WesternAnimation/SymBionicTitan'' are very well choreographed and use a lot of authentic kung fu, specifically in "Fortress of Deception" when Lance fights and uses moves taken right out of Wing Chun and Jeet Kun Do.
138* In the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon ''WesternAnimation/TheCatConcerto'', the notes Tom hits while playing the piano are (for the most part) the correct ones unless the gag requires otherwise.
139* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': General Treister is a Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross Expy who thinks he's turning into a Hulk; a fitting reference to the character that Ross is often chasing. It's a ruse at first, but when he actually transforms he's a clear reference to the not nearly as mainstream ''ComicBook/RedHulk'' which is immensely fitting as that's who Ross does eventually transform into.
140** When Red Death graphically recounts the deaths of the "Movie Night" victims, his description of their ExplosiveDecompression experience is far more realistic than the standard, and he even goes into the risk associated with holding your breath in the vacuum of space.
141* ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'' really goes out of its way to teach obscure yet true animal facts to the viewing audience.
142* ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys'' is actually a very insightful series that puts great detail into describing the behaviors and facts of animals:
143** Female lions do most of the hunting, woodpecker finches use tools to catch insect larvae in trees, elephants can communicate through infrasonic rumbles and the males leave the herd when they're fully grown, Komodo dragons use their tongues to smell, stoats use a hypnotic dance to lure rabbits and change fur color in winter, spotted hyenas are ferocious hunters and not cowardly scavengers (and its scientific name is ''Crocuta crocuta''), basengi dogs cannot bark and are used by the tribal Pygmies of Africa to hunt more stealthily, camels store fat in their humps and not water, emus are hunted by wedged tailed eagles, octopi are highly intelligent and can solve complex problems, female hornbills stay inside dens in trees to hatch their eggs while their mates give them food, baby orangutans are dependent on their mothers, hippos have to keep themselves submerged in water during the day because they have no sweat glands and are also the most dangerous animals in Africa and not the cute, lazy bums as Eliza's cousin, Tyler, erroneously thought.
144** Not only did the show go out of its way to teach kids facts about animals, but it also attempted to accurately depict the various peoples and cultures the family encountered around the world, such as the !Kung and Maasai of Africa in the episode "The !Kung and I" and the Incas of Peru in the episode "Nigel Knows Best". In one episode, Marianne and Debbie are puzzled to find the coastal town of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam deserted and shops closed. After a weary day of walking aimlessly around the town, three total strangers invite them into their house in the middle of night and are given flowers, food and gifts, to their confusion. In the end, it's revealed that it was a lunar new year called the Honor of Tet (or Tết Nguyên Đán) where all first visitors after ten get food and gifts in hope that they bring the family good luck for the rest of the year.
145** Hell, they even put historical geography right in the opening credits by pointing exactly where the family is on Earth right down to the local counties.
146* ''WesternAnimation/XavierRiddleAndTheSecretMuseum''
147** Aside from a few cases of ArtisticLicenseHistory, the show does have a lot of research and accuracy put into it. For example, Helen Keller and the water pump, the Bronte Sisters' made up world called Glass Town, George Washington Carver's secret garden, Amelia Earhart's homemade roller coaster, Zora Neale Hurston's characters named Miss Corn Shuck and Mr. Sweet Smell, etc.
148** The crew went out of their way to make the ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' TV set look 100% accurate in "I Am Fred Rogers". The puppets, the clock tower, the stoplight, everything.
149* WesternAnimation/TwelveOunceMouse:
150** Fitz is sightly larger than his wife. Male mice are typically larger than females.
151** Fitz's daughter looks accurate to an actual baby mouse.
152** Fitz and his family have small ears rather than the stereotypically large ears that cartoon mice have.

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