Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context WesternAnimation / BettyBoop

Go To

1%%
2%% Zero Context Examples are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them.
3%% Note: Please put character-specific tropes in the Character page.
4%%
5[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/betty_boop_title_card.png]]
6[[caption-width-right:350:Assisted. ''Yeah...'']]
7
8->''"Made of pen and ink,''
9->''She can win you with a wink''
10->''"Yoo hoo!"''
11->''Ain't she cute?''
12->''"Boop-oop-a-doop! (Oop!)"''
13->''Sweet Betty!"''
14-->-- A shortened version of Betty's [[BraggingThemeTune theme song]].
15
16Pioneering cartoon series (from [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation 1930-1939]], plus a few one-off revivals) from Creator/FleischerStudios, ''Betty Boop'' was the mirror of the stereotypical [[TheFlapper flapper]], simultaneously looking for a good time and good-at-heart. In early cartoons, Betty's pals were WesternAnimation/KokoTheClown and Bimbo the dog; later on, Betty's grandpa Grampy, wild cousin Buzzy, and nonhumanized puppy Pudgy headlined episodes of their own.
17
18UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode essentially killed off all interest in Betty Boop -- [[AnimationAgeGhetto obviously, as a cartoon she couldn't wear such flamboyant outfits or maintain such a flirtatious attitude.]] The producers tried to make her more wholesome with more concealing clothes but this approach failed, it having been her flamboyant but sweet attitude that was so much fun to watch for her original viewers in the first place.
19
20Despite not having a starring role since 1939, Betty remains a household name in the modern era due to the truly massive assortment of merchandise bearing her likeness, as well as her status as a sex symbol and a feminist icon.
21
22As of 2013, Olive Films is releasing fully restored shorts of the series on Blu-Ray, [[http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Betty-Boop-The-Essential-Collection-Volume-One-Blu-ray/74378/#Review culminating with four volumes.]] A [[RogerRabbitEffect live-action/CGI hybrid feature film]] based on the series [[http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/betty-boop-film-planned-by-simon-cowell-and-animal-logic-102692.html was planned]], and was to be produced by Creator/AnimalLogic. However, this film (like most of the previous attempts at a film) has been cancelled.
23
24Back in 2016, there were [[http://deadline.com/2016/02/betty-boop-animated-series-max-fleischer-1201700613/ plans for a new animated series starring Betty Boop]] by Normaal Animation, however, very little has been announced since and according to concept artists who worked on the show, it has been reportedly cancelled.
25
26A 4-issue comic book series was published by Dynamite in 2016.
27
28In 2023 a new stage musical titled ''Boop! the Betty Boop Musical'' announced a pre-Broadway run in Chicago, which opened on November 19 with Jasmine Amy Rogers on the cast in the titular role.
29----
30[[folder: Filmography]]
31
32!1930
33[[index]]
34* WesternAnimation/DizzyDishes (WesternAnimation/{{Talkartoons}}) August 9[[labelnote:*]]also a WesternAnimation/LittleAudrey cartoon from the 1950's[[/labelnote]]
35* Barnacle Bill (Talkartoons) August 31
36* Accordion Joe (Talkartoons): December 12: An episode believed to be lost until a print was found in 2023.
37* Mysterious Mose (Talkartoons): December 26
38
39!1931
40
41* Teacher's Pests (Talkartoons): Feb 7, 1931
42* WesternAnimation/TheBumBandit (Talkartoons): April 3rd
43* Any Little Girl That's a Nice Little Girl (Screen Songs): April 18, 1931
44* Silly Scandals (Talkartoons): May 23
45* My Wife's Gone to the Country (Screen Songs): May 31, 1931
46* WesternAnimation/BimbosInitiation (Talkartoons): July 24.
47* Betty Co-ed (Screen Song) August 1, 1931
48* Bimbo's Express (Talkartoons): August 22
49* Minding the Baby (Talkartoons) Sept. 26
50* Kitty from Kansas City (Screen Songs) October 31
51* Mask-A-Raid (Talkartoons): November 7
52* Jack and the Beanstalk (Talkartoons): Nov. 21
53* Dizzy Red Riding Hood (Talkartoons): Dec. 12
54
55!1932
56
57* Any Rags? (Talkartoons): Jan 2
58* WesternAnimation/{{Boop-Oop-a-Doop}} (Talkartoons): Jan 16
59* WesternAnimation/MinnieTheMoocher (Talkartoons): Feb 26.
60* Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie (Screen Songs): March 4
61* WesternAnimation/SwimOrSinkSOS (Talkartoons): March 11
62* Crazy Town (Talkartoons): March 25
63* Just One More Chance (Screen Songs) April 1
64* The Dancing Fool (Talkartoons): April 8
65* Chess-Nuts (Talkartoons): April 13
66* Oh! How I Hate to Get Up In The Morning (Screen Songs): April 22
67* WesternAnimation/AHuntingWeWillGo (Talkartoons): April 29
68* Let Me Call You Sweetheart (Screen Songs): May 20
69* Admission Free (Talkartoons): June 10
70* The Betty Boop Limited (Talkartoons): July 1
71* You Try Somebody Else (Screen Songs): July 29
72* Rudy Vallee Melodies (Screen Songs) August 5
73* Stopping the Show: August 12: Betty Boop's first standalone short. Talkartoons were replaced by the Betty Boop solo series from here on out.
74* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsBizzyBee: August 19
75* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopMD: Sept. 2
76* Just a Gigolo (Screen Songs): Sept. 9 1932
77* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsBambooIsle: Sept. 23
78* Betty Boop's Ups and Downs: October 14
79* Romantic Melodies (Screen Songs): Oct. 21
80* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopForPresident: November 4
81* WesternAnimation/IllBeGladWhenYoureDeadYouRascalYou: November 25
82* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsMuseum: Dec. 16
83* Time on my Hands (Screen Song): Dec 23
84
85!!1933
86
87* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsKerChoo: Jan 6 - Public Domain
88* Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions: Jan 27 - Public Domain
89* Is My Palm Read?: Feb 17 - Public Domain
90* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsPenthouse: March 10
91* WesternAnimation/SnowWhite1933: March 31.
92* Popular Melodies (Screen Songs): April 7
93* Betty Boop's Birthday Party: April 21
94* Betty Boop's May Party: May 12
95* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsBigBoss: June 2
96* Mother Goose Land: June 23
97* WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailor: July 14: Billed as a Betty Boop cartoon, but she only makes a brief appearance in what is otherwise a PoorlyDisguisedPilot for the ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailor'' cartoons.
98* WesternAnimation/TheOldManOfTheMountain: August 4
99* WesternAnimation/IHeard: Sept. 1
100* Morning, Noon and Night: Oct. 6
101* WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsHalloweenParty: Nov 3
102* Parade of the Wooden Soldiers: Dec. 1
103
104!1934
105
106* She Wronged Him Right: Jan. 5
107* WesternAnimation/RedHotMamma: 2 February
108* WesternAnimation/HaHaHa: 2 March
109* Betty in Blunderland: 6 April - Public Domain
110* Betty Boop's Rise to Fame: May 18 - Public Domain
111* Betty Boop's Trial: 15 June
112* Betty Boop's Life Guard: 13 July
113* WesternAnimation/PoorCinderella: 3 August: First of the ''WesternAnimation/ColorClassics'' series of cartoons, only Betty Boop cartoon in color. [[labelnote:*]]Korean recolored prints notwithstanding[[/labelnote]] - Public Domain
114* There's Something About a Soldier: 17 August
115* Betty Boop's Little Pal: 21 September
116* Betty Boop's Prize Show: 19 October
117* Keep in Style: 16 November
118* When My Ship Comes In: 21 December
119
120!1935
121
122* Baby Be Good: 18 January - Public Domain
123* Taking the Blame: 15 February - Public Domain
124* Stop That Noise: 15 March - Public Domain
125* Swat the Fly: 19 April - Public Domain
126* No! No! A Thousand Times No!!: 24 May - Public Domain
127* A Little Soap and Water: 21 June - Public Domain
128* WesternAnimation/ALanguageAllMyOwn: 19 July - Public Domain
129* Betty Boop and Grampy: 16 August - Public Domain
130* Judge for a Day: 20 September - Public Domain
131* Making Stars: 18 October: Not shown on American television due to racial caricatures.
132* Henry, the Funniest Living American: 22 November: A Cross Over with Carl Anderson's "Henry" comic strip. - Public Domain
133* Little Nobody: 18 December - Public Domain
134
135!1936
136
137* Betty Boop and the Little King: 31 January: A Crossover with the then popular Newspaper Comic character ''The Little King''. - Public Domain
138* Not Now: 28 February - Public Domain
139* Betty Boop and Little Jimmy: 27 March - Public Domain
140* We Did It: 24 April - Public Domain
141* A Song A Day!: 22 May - Public Domain
142* More Pep: 19 June - Public Domain
143* You're Not Built That Way: 17 July - Public Domain
144* Happy You and Merry Me: 21 August - Public Domain
145* Training Pigeons: 18 September - Public Domain
146* Grampy's Indoor Outing: 16 October - Public Domain
147* Be Human: 20 November
148* Making Friends: 18 December - Public Domain
149
150!1937
151
152* House Cleaning Blues: 15 January - Public Domain
153* Whoops! I'm a Cowboy: 12 February - Public Domain
154* The Hot Air Salesman: 12 March - Public Domain
155* Pudgy Takes a Bow-Wow: 9 April - Public Domain
156* Pudgy Picks a Fight!: 14 May - Public Domain
157* The Impractical Joker: 18 June - Public Domain
158* Ding Dong Doggie: 23 July - Public Domain
159* The Candid Candidate: 27 August - Public Domain
160* Service with a Smile: 23 September
161* The New Deal Show: 22 October
162* The Foxy Hunter: 26 November
163* Zula Hula: 24 December:Rarely shown on television due to race caricatures.
164
165!1938
166
167* "Riding the Rails": 28 January
168* "Be Up to Date": 25 February
169* "Honest Love and True": 25 March: Lost episode.
170* "Out of the Inkwell": 22 April: An attempt at reviving the classic Fleischer series, although Ko-Ko does not appear in it.
171* "The Swing School": 27 May
172* "The Lost Kitten": 24 June
173* "Buzzy Boop": 29 July
174* "Pudgy the Watchman": 12 August
175* "Buzzy Boop at the Concert": 16 September: Was thought to be lost for a long while until a complete print was found in 2020.
176* "Sally Swing": 14 October
177* "On With the New": 2 December - Public Domain
178* "Thrills and Chills": 23 December
179
180!1939
181
182* "My Friend the Monkey": 28 January - Public Domain
183* "So Does an Automobile": 31 March - Public Domain
184* "Musical Mountaineers": May 12 - Public Domain
185* "The Scared Crows": 9 June - Public Domain
186* "Rhythm on the Reservation": 7 July: Last of the theatrical Betty Boop cartoons.
187* "Yip Yip Yippy": 11 August: A Betty Boop short In Name Only, as it is a western-themed short with no ties to the Betty Boop series.
188
189!1980
190* ''Hurray for Betty Boop'': [[/index]]After a package of colorized Betty Boop shorts (using the same South Korean tracing method some of the early WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts received) failed to find television distribution, this feature-length ClipShow built from that package -- redubbed and rescored to create a story of Betty running for President of the United States -- was assembled in 1976 as ''Betty Boop for President'' (not to be confused with the short of the same name). Intended as a theatrical release, Creator/NewLineCinema sent it straight to early cable instead, and the 1984 Warner Brothers VHS is the only legit home media copy.
191[[index]]
192!1985
193* ''WesternAnimation/TheRomanceOfBettyBoop'': A made-for-TV special.
194
195!1988
196* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': [[/index]] Voiced by Mae Questel herself, Betty has a cameo in the Ink & Paint Club as a waitress, claiming that while things have been slow since cartoons went to color, she's [[StillGotIt still got it]]. She can also be seen in the final sequence.
197
198!1989
199[[index]]
200* ''WesternAnimation/BettyBoopsHollywoodMystery'': A made-for-TV special. Betty was voiced by a young, pre-''Anime/CowboyBebop'', pre-''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' Creator/MelissaFahn.
201[[/index]]
202
203[[/folder]]
204----
205!!Tropes found in Betty Boop cartoons include:
206* AccidentalGoodOutcome: In "Betty Boop's Ker-choo", one of the many ways Betty wins the car race [[WorkingThroughTheCold that she is competing in despite a cold]] is her inadvertently pushing her car along by sneezing.
207* ActionMom: "The Bum Bandit" has Betty (or Nan as she's called in this one) as a badass with [[MassiveNumberedSiblings seventeen kids]].
208* AdaptationDyeJob: According to her one colored cartoon, Betty is a redhead (as we see in WesternAnimation/PoorCinderella). Her hair is colored black in all works afterwards because she's associated with dark-looking hair.
209* AdaptationPersonalityChange: In "The Romance of Betty Boop" Betty is presented as a shallow GoldDigger.
210* AdviceBackfire: In "Making Friends", upon seeing Pudgy is down and lonely, Betty advises him to "go out and make friends with the world". Sure enough, Pudgy makes friends with a bunch of nearby woodland creatures. Unfortunately, when he invites them back to Betty's house, they proceed to trash the place.
211* AmbiguouslyJewish: Betty ''might'' be Jewish, and is hinted as such in "Minnie the Moocher", where her parents have Yiddish-sounding accents and her father wears a yarmulke. The Fleischers had Jewish heritage as well, and her primary voice actress, Mae Questel, was Jewish, so that could only support the case.
212* AnthropomorphicShift: She started out as a dog, if you can believe it.
213* AscendedExtra: Ever heard of Bimbo? No? Bimbo was Fleischer's humanized dog hero starting in 1929. In 1930, Betty Boop appeared briefly as Bimbo's love interest (as an anthropomorphic ''dog'') and quickly became a star. Bye, Bimbo. Hello, Betty.
214* AssKicksYou: Done by Betty to two other woman in her [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WRwtzYGX2c&feature=related "I Wanna Be Loved By You"]] musical number in the animated special, "The Romance of Betty Boop".
215* AtTheOperaTonight: Betty and Buzzy attend one in the previously lost short, "Buzzy Boop at the Opera".
216* AWeightyAesop: In one episode involving Betty trying to exercise, a mishap involving her exercise machine makes her as skinny as a noodle, this makes Little Jimmy laugh in hysterics over her appearance. She ends up laughing as well, and then the furniture starts coming alive to laugh at her too. This laughing fit goes on to where they all start to get bigger in size! The furniture laughs even harder to the point of falling apart as Betty and Jimmy turn morbidly obese. To end the short they waddle dance and sing, "If you're thin, don't worry over that. Just begin to laugh and you'll grow fat!"
217* BeanstalkParody: The simply titled "Jack and the Beanstalk" is this with Bimbo as Jack and Betty as the giant's enslaved cook.
218* {{Big Damn Hero|es}}: Grampy pulls this on the abusive farmer in "Be Human"--by running him down with his car, no less!
219* BizarroUniverse: "Crazy Town" revolved around everyone doing everything backwards; fish fly while birds swim, banana peels are eaten, cutting your hair with scissors causes it to grow back, etc.
220* {{Bowdlerise}}: The Hays Code cleaned Betty up.
221* BlackComedy: In 1934's "Poor Cinderella", the anthropomorphic pumpkin laments how overjoyed he is to be used as a carriage- so he won't get chopped up for pie.
222* BodySled: In the Screen Song, "Wait Til the Sunshines, Nellie!" Betty and Bimbo ride down a snow-covered hill on a goat; the goat doesn't like it so he re-positions himself so his curved horns are sliding on the ground rather than his stomach. They lose him after crashing into a rock and switch to riding a pair of snakes like they were skis.
223* BootCampEpisode: The Screen Song, ''"Oh! How I Hate to Get Up In The Morning"'' has a boot camp as its setting with Betty making a small appearance as the camp's [[HospitalHottie nurse.]]
224* BraggingThemeTune: "Made of pen and ink, she can win you with a wink", etc.
225* BrokenAesop: "Be Human" has been criticized for its ending, in which the farmer who has been whipping his animals gets whipped himself by Grampy's machine. So beating someone up is okay as long as you're on the good side.
226* BrokenLeverOfDoom: The 1936 cartoon "Betty Boop And Little Jimmy" has Betty using a reducing machine (basically, an orbital motor agitates a leather belt that allegedly jiggles body fat away). Little Jimmy stumbles onto its control lever, both pushing the device to maximum and snapping off the handle. A desperate Betty sends the boy out to fetch an electrician. Y'know, instead of pulling the cord from the power socket himself.
227* CarFu: Used by Grampy to catch the abusive farmer in "Be Human".
228* CatConcerto: "Not Now"
229* CatsAreMean: [[PlayingWithATrope Played straight]] in "Taking the Blame" and "Not Now"; {{averted|Trope}} in "We Did It", "Happy You And Merry Me" and "The Lost Kitten"
230* CharacterCatchphrase:
231** "Boop-boop-a-doop!" (Betty)
232** "Okay, colonel!" (Bimbo)
233** "Ahahahaah! ''I've'' got it!" (Grampy)
234* ChessMotifs: The cartoon "Chess-Nuts" has chess pieces morph into our characters including Bimbo as the White King and Betty Boop as the Black Queen; unfortunately, the Black King, Old King Cole [[DamselInDistress kidnaps]] [[SoBeautifulItsACurse Betty]] and tries to force her to love him.
235* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Once the Hays Office grew its claws, [[InterspeciesRomance interspecies couples]] like Betty and Bimbo were completely taboo, so by 1934, Bimbo was abruptly dropped from the cartoons. The film ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' has Betty slightly lamenting this in her first scene. He did appear in Betty Boop's Hollywood Mystery, however, and he still pops up in merchandise time and time again.
236** Koko the Clown also disappeared from the Betty Boop shorts after "Ha! Ha! Ha!".
237* CircusEpisode: In "Boop-Oop-a-Doop", Betty and her friends are working at a circus, with Betty as one of the star performers.
238* ClipShow: The short ''•Betty Boop's Rise To Fame'' puts together footage from three prior Betty Boop shorts with a framing device.
239** ''Hurray for Betty Boop'' is a feature assembled solely from footage from the shorts, albeit colorized, redubbed, and rescored.
240* ComicBookAdaptation: Betty had a few comic adaptations including "Betty Boop's Big Break" in 1991 by First Publishing and Creator/DynamiteComics's Betty Boop in 2016.
241* CouldntFindALighter: In ''I Heard'' a ghost lights his cigar off the lit fuse of a CartoonBomb.
242* CourtroomEpisode: The cartoon "Betty Boop's Trail" has Betty in a courtroom after receiving a speeding ticket from Fearless Fred.
243* CreepyJazzMusic: A common occurrence in her old cartoons, especially when Music/CabCalloway played creepy characters.
244* CrossOver: With WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat in the ''ComicStrip/BettyBoopAndFelix" newspaper comic.
245** Betty also did a crossover with Carl Anderson's Henry in "Henry The Funniest Living American" and popular newspaper comic character The Little King in "Betty Boop and the Little King".
246* DamselInDistress: Betty every now and then for very obvious reasons.
247* DastardlyWhiplash: [[PunnyName Heeza Ratt]] from the 1934 "She Wronged Him Right".
248* TheDeadCanDance: "Minnie the Moocher" features Betty and Bimbo discovering a cave full of singing and dancing ghosts and skeletons.
249** Also "Betty Boop's Museum" has dancing skeletons from a museum exhibit.
250* DeanBitterman: The principal in "Sally Swing" was against the swing band performing, until he learns to enjoy it.
251-->'''Principal:''' Stop! I am the principal here and this is entirely against my principal!
252* TheDentistEpisode: In "Ha! Ha! Ha!" Betty takes it upon herself to remedy Koko the Clown's toothache and draws up a dentist's office for her to use.
253* DemotedToExtra: Bimbo was replaced by Fearless Fred in 1934.
254* DerangedAnimation: The shorts from 1930-1933 had some very wacky animation, typical of the work of Fleischer Studios. By the mid to late 30's, this was either toned down considerably or thrown out altogether.
255* DigitalDestruction: The "Definitive Collection" series of VHS tapes brings together almost all of Betty's original theatrical cartoons--but at the price of some of the most blatant DVNR ravaging of any old cartoon restoration! Also of note is that on one of the tapes, the print included of "Romantic Melodies" made the mistake of reusing a sloppily retraced recolor print of the cartoon, which has blatantly inferior quality to the actual film, and even de-colorizing it into black and white to pass it off as the real cartoon!
256** The new Essential Collection bluray and DVD sets avert this by having pristine restorations completely devoid of DVNR. Unfortunately, the aspect ratio on some of the pre-1933 shorts tended to be cropped, most notably with the ''Snow White'' short, which had a good chunk of the top part of the picture inexplicably cropped.
257* DistantDuet: The [[WhatCouldHaveBeen canceled]] Betty Boop movie was planned to have a distant duet between Betty and her father. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiaodCj0pak See it here.]]
258* DownerEnding: The ''WesternAnimation/ScreenSongs'' short "Romantic Melodies" (which is really a Betty Boop short in all but name) ends with Bimbo and his band getting hauled off to jail due to [[DreadfulMusician their dreadful music]] (probably for disturbing the peace) much to Betty's tearful despair.
259* DreadfulMusician: Bimbo and his band in "Romantic Melodies"--they play so badly, the local scenery (fire hydrants, trolley cars) are repelled by them! Eventually the telephone calls the police on them, getting them hauled off to jail for disturbing the peace.
260* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The early shorts were ''much'' looser in terms of animation, particularly when Betty was animated by by Creator/GrimNatwick, and Betty was an anthropomorphized French poodle.
261* EatTheCamera: Inverted in the opening of "Betty Boop's Museum", where the cartoon proper begins with the camera exiting out of Koko the Clown's mouth as he calls for people to board the bus for the museum.
262** In "Betty Boop's Halloween Party" a singalong takes place and the camera zooms into the mouth of one of the singers, who has an intersection where his tongue should be and a sign on his uvula which says "Downtown."
263** Used in WesternAnimation/TheOldManOfTheMountain with the introduction of the titular character.
264* ElectionDayEpisode: "Betty Boop For President" has Betty running to become President of the United States... and she wins.
265* EverythingTalks: One of the common staples of the classic Betty Boop shorts was having normally inanimate objects briefly come to life and grow limbs or a face for the sake of a gag. Usually the objects would do everything possible to assist Betty in her day to day life.
266* EvilDebtCollector: Heeza Ratt from "She Wronged Him Right".
267* ExcusePlot: Most cartoons have a very thin plot line, simply intended to showcase wild surreal gags and catchy song and dance numbers.
268* FalseTeethTomfoolery:
269** The cartoon "Ha! Ha! Ha!" includes anthropomorphic false teeth when she and Koko dabble in dentistry.
270** In ''"Boop-Oop-a-Doop"'', a trapeze artist swinging by his teeth ends up falling to the ground after his teeth fall out and stay clenched onto the trapeze bar.
271* FireAndBrimstoneHell: The setting of "Red Hot Mama".
272* FirehouseDalmatian: In the short, "Ding Dong Doggie", Pudgy the Pup sees a Dalmatian marching outside a firehouse. When he catches the attention of the Dalmatian, the spotted dog then encourages Pudgy to join him, but Pudgy is unable to do so due to Betty's strict orders to stay inside. Eventually, Pudgy manages to sneak out of the house undetected and catches up to the Dalmatian riding on a fire truck, where they arrive at a burning store. However, Pudgy does a horrible job at fire rescue compared to the Dalmatian and is soon confronted by EvilLivingFlames. The Dalmatian is last seen when Pudgy [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere decides to run back home]], laughing at his predicament.
273* FriendToAllLivingThings: [[EverythingTalks And pretty much everything in her world is living.]]
274* FunnyAnimal: Betty Boop, initially. Betty's doggy pal, Bimbo, was the studio star at the time of Betty's creation. Betty was created to function as Bimbo's girlfriend, so initially she had a black nose and dog ears. After about 10 cartoons, these features vanished, leaving Betty human, though Bimbo is still quite plainly interested in her.
275* GainaxEnding: "Betty Boop and Little Jimmy" features Betty accidentally getting trapped in an exercise machine and becoming ludicrously thin. As she and Little Jimmy laugh over her predicament, they both begin to swell up. Then all of the furniture in their attic comes to life to join in the laughter, making them both even fatter. While the weight gain is somewhat foreshadowed by an earlier song remarking "If you're thin, don't worry over that, just begin to laugh and you'll grow fat!", the sentient furniture, coupled with the fact that both Betty and Jimmy are huge at the end of the short, do feel like a bizarre ending, especially because they come right the heck out of nowhere.
276* GreasySpoon: Betty works in one of these in "Betty Boop's Bizzy Bee"; the food she makes ends up giving everyone stomach pain.
277* HaveAGayOldTime:
278** "Bimbo" was slang for a coarse, simple-minded ''male'' at the time these were made.
279** "Ain'tcha kinda glad? And ain'tcha kinda gay? When you hear me say I loves ya...".
280* HeadTurningBeauty: Betty got whoops and catcalls from nearly every male character she encountered before the Hays Code interfered.
281* HiredForTheirLooks: "Betty Boop's Big Boss" has Betty land an office job but only because her new boss is attracted to her.
282* HumanSnowball: Betty and Bimbo form one in the screen song "Wait Til the Sunshines, Nellie!" and Betty forms one in "Snow White".
283* IdeaBulb: Grampy's "thinking cap" has a bulb on it that lights up when he's inspired.
284* InkblotCartoonStyle: All Betty Boop cartoons have this art style, just like most of the cartoons from that era.
285* InNameOnly: The final short under Betty Boop's name is "Yip Yip Yippy" which is a western-themed short with no ties to the Betty Boop series.
286* InstantGravestone: In the short ''Betty Boop, M.D.,'' a wheelchair-bound elderly man takes a swig of Betty's patent medicine Jippo, dances around seemingly rejuvenated, but then lies down in the road and pulls the asphalt over his head, as a scat-singing tombstone pops up. The man's arm then pokes out of the grave to plant a flower on it.
287* IntentionalWeightGain: "Betty Boop and Little Jimmy" involves Betty Boop and a young boy deliberately [[ArtisticLicenseBiology making themselves fat by laughing]].
288* InterspeciesRomance: Between Betty and Bimbo.
289* JungleJazz: "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You" involved Betty's adventures on a jungle expedition. Betty, Bimbo, and Koko the clown are menaced by tribe of cannibals—who are all caricatures of Music/LouisArmstrong and His Orchestra (who also provide the cartoon's whole soundtrack).
290* KickTheDog: The farmer in ''Be Human''
291* KillerGorilla: Gorillas were often used as antagonists in the shorts which included, "Dizzy Dishes", "Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party" and a toy gorilla in "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers."
292* LaughingGas: The episode "Ha! Ha! Ha!" opens with supposedly Max Fleischer's hand drawing Betty Boop on a sheet of paper. When Max leaves the studio, Koko comes out of the inkwell for the very last time, and starts eating the candy bar Max had left on the table. Almost immediately he develops a toothache, so Betty draws a dentist room to operate on him, herself acting as the (most sexy) dentist. She first tries to pull Koko's tooth, but when that doesn't work, she tries laughing gas. The laughing gas soon pervades everything, causing not only Koko and herself to laugh, but even the clock, the typewriter, and outside in the real world, the mailbox, the cars and real people. Even a bridge and some graves join in.
293* LionsAndTigersAndHumansOhMy: There were usually more FunnyAnimals than humans in the classic cartoons.
294** Averted in ''The Romance of Betty Boop'', which features only humans. Though Koko the Clown doesn't appear.
295* LegFocus: A lot of attention is paid to Betty's curvy legs and her short skirt.
296* LivingToys: "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" in which Betty is a toy herself.
297* LonersAreFreaks: One could interpret the {lesson of Betty Boop's song in ''Making Friends'' as being this trope, though it could also be interpreted more benignly as "socializing is good for you".
298* {{MacGyvering}}: Grampy was well known for building fantastic inventions out of whatever he could find lying around.
299* TheManInTheMoon: Like everything else, the moon comes to life in some shorts.
300* MediumBlending:
301** Many shorts in the series use the Fleischer-created Stereoptical Process, allowing for two-dimensional characters to appear in front of three-dimensional model sets.
302** The short "Buzzy Boop" mixes a hand-painted train cabin with a live-action train ride in the background.
303** And of course her cameo in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' where she played alongside the live-action Creator/BobHoskins. What's more, she was the only monochrome 'toon in the film that we get to see.
304* MickeyMousing
305* MindScrew: Many of her cartoons were these, the most notable examples being "Bimbo's Initiation", "Minnie the Moocher" and "Betty Boop, M.D."
306* MrFixit: Grampy, an old man who seemingly can invent anything out of anything else.
307* MsFanservice: Betty is one of the pioneering animated examples. Pretty much every fanservice trope is present: LegFocus, DudeMagnet... the list goes on.
308* MusicalEpisode: Often. Even more than Fleischer's other cartoon series, which partook in this as well, Betty Boop often had cartoons based around musical numbers, typically sung by Betty herself as in "Sally Swing" or "Oop Boop a Doop." This especially became a series trademark once it started famously doing musical numbers with guest star musicians, such as:
309** Any of the episodes featuring Music/CabCalloway - "Minnie the Moocher," "Old Man and the Mountain," and "Snow White."
310** "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You", featuring Music/LouisArmstrong.
311** "I Heard," which features a show-stopping number by Don Redman.
312* NaturallyHusklesscoconuts: In "Is My Palm Read", there are coconuts without a husk growing on palm trees. Bimbo uses one of such trees to catapult the fruit at ghosts chasing Betty.
313* NewJobAsThePlotDemands: Even though she's usually a singer, Betty Boop is often shown working at different jobs in her cartoons.
314* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Though singer Helen Kane lost her suit against the Fleischers, the resemblance to her is strong, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rclfkeyy1bg especially when you hear her sing]].
315* OncePerEpisode: Every Betty Boop cartoon has at least one song in it with Betty singing it or at least one part of it.
316* OutOfCharacterMoment: In "The Romance of Betty Boop" Betty is depicted as a shallow GoldDigger.
317* PantyShot: In Pre-Hays Code cartoons, Betty's bloomers appear on-screen as a {{Fanservice}} moment.
318* PhraseCatcher: Crowds of Betty's fans would often chant, "We Want Bet-ty!"
319* PieEyed: Most of the character designs.
320* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The 1938 cartoon "Sally Swing" featured Betty presenting the eponymous Sally Swing, a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute created for the swing era... but she didn't catch on.
321* PublicDomainAnimation: Several of her cartoons have slipped into the the PublicDomain, so it's not uncommon to see some of her old cartoons compiled onto Dollar Store DVD sets.
322* PuddleCoveringChivalry: In "The Old Man Of The Mountain", [[FurIsClothing a bear takes off his fur coat]] to help Betty cross a puddle.
323* PunnyName: A cat in the cartoon "Pudgy the Watchdog", gives Betty [[MyCard his card]] which reads, Al E Katz. Also Heeza Ratt from "She Wronged Him Right".
324* RavenHairIvorySkin: Although the studio's sole attempt to colorize her ("Poor Cinderella") revealed her to be--surprise!--a redhead. FridgeBrilliance in that she was partially modeled after the actress Creator/ClaraBow, who also had red hair, though many people didn't know it due to the black-and-white film.
325* RepeatedRehearsalFailure: The 1936 cartoon ''Betty Boop and Little Jimmy'' has Betty using a reducing machine (an electric motor agitates a leather belt, purported to jiggle body fat away). The machine's control switch gets broken, leaving Betty with no way to turn the device off. She sends tot Little Jimmy to fetch an electrician. Being a young lad, Jimmy is easily distracted, and his mantra, "Gotta find an electrician, an electrician," devolves into seeking a musician, a politician, then a magician. Purely by accident, Little Jimmy returns alone, but stumbles over the electric cord, stopping the machine. Poor Betty is pencil-thin at this point.
326* RepulsiveRingmaster: "Boop Oop a Doop" features Betty as a circus performer. The ringmaster of this circus begins to lust after her, and starts making advances on her. When Betty's friend Koko the Clown tries to stop the ringmaster, he starts resorting to violence. Fortunately, Koko wins the fight.
327* RogerRabbitEffect:
328** Occured in a few of her shorts, such as ''Ha!Ha!Ha!''. Also, Betty made an appearance in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', the TropeNamer itself, almost 50 years later — voiced by the same actress!
329** Newer advertisements for Lancome's Betty Boop Mascara feature her interacting with real humans.
330* {{Rotoscoping}}: Music/CabCalloway's dance moves were rotoscoped for his appearances in the cartoons, most famously as a dancing walrus. Calloway loved it and was said to have fallen out of his seat in convulsive laughter upon first viewing his animated ''Odobenus rosmarus'' counterpart. Calloway loved the cartoons that featured his songs ("Snow White", "Minnie The Moocher" and "The Old Man of the Mountain") for another reason as well; he had stated that his concerts enjoyed higher ticket sales in cities where the Betty Boop cartoons played before. Betty Boop became his "advance woman", introducing movie audiences to his musical style.
331* ScarilySpecificStory: In the episode "Baby Be Good", Betty [[BabysittingEpisode is babysitting a little boy]] who seems to be about two years old and is misbehaving. She scares him with a story about a boy "just like him" who also misbehaved and [[SpaceWhaleAesop it nearly cost him his life when a lion escaped from the zoo]] (and in the illustrations, the boy in the story looks just like the real boy).
332* SexyBacklessOutfit: Betty, of course.
333* SexySilhouette: Betty does this in two of her shorts (though not on purpose). In "Is My Palm Read?" after the room's lights turn off besides a lamp directly above Betty, Bimbo and Koko sneak a peek at Betty's figure through her hoop skirt dress. Also in Red Hot Mamma, while walking past some flames her figure is shown through her night gown.
334* SheCleansUpNicely: Betty was able to transform a plain looking cleaning woman into the stunning Sally Swing.
335* ShownTheirWork: "A Language All My Own" was made after discovering Betty's popularity in Japan. In the short Betty Boop visits Japan to perform, where at one point she dons a kimono and sings in Japanese. Animator Myron Waldman had his work reviewed by Japanese college students to make sure Betty's gestures wouldn't offend their Japanese fans. It's respectful in a time when Asian people were often portrayed as racist caricatures.
336* SignificantGreenEyedRedhead: In her only color theatrical cartoon "Poor Cinderella", Betty's eyes were colored green and her usual black hair was colored red. This was all to take advantage of the Cinecolor process used to color the cartoon.
337* SkiResortEpisode: In "Thrills and Chills", Betty and Pudgy go on a ski trip and keep encountering a guy demanding a kiss from her.
338* SnakeOilSalesman: Betty in "Betty Boop M.D.", selling a substance known as Jippo that basically does anything.
339* SneezeInterruption: In "Betty Boop's Ker-choo", Betty Boop sings, "I've got a cold in my--" but then starts singing gibberish and supposedly intends to say, "nose", but sneezes. This happens twice.
340* SoundtrackLullaby: The episode "More Pep" focuses on Betty and an offscreen guy named Uncle Max trying to make Pudgy the dog more energetic. Pudgy keeps falling asleep and whenever he falls asleep, "Brahms' Lullaby" plays.
341* StockingFiller: Betty is rarely seen without her signature garter on her left thigh, with the exception of cartoons under the Hays Code.
342* TamerAndChaster: Betty is possibly one of the earliest examples - the advent of The Hays Code forced the producers of the cartoon to change her from a flirtatious flapper in a very short dress to a much more conservatively dressed spinster/career girl. This was eventually undone years later. Betty Boop has since gone back to being a sexy flapper in a [[LadyInRed red dress]].
343* ThatRussianSquatDance: Pudgy and the parrot do this while the other animals are tearing up Betty's house in "Making Friends".
344* ThatsAllFolks: A lot of Betty's cartoons ended with her saying her extended catch-phrase, "Boopy-Doopy-Doopy-Doop-Boop-Oopy-Doop".
345* TheTease
346* ThreesomeSubtext: Bimbo was, of course, Betty's original boyfriend, but Koko had a couple of romantic encounters with her as well. The two were shown on several occasions wooing her together (rather than a [[TwoGuysAndAGirl competitive]] LoveTriangle). Bimbo never seemed to mind Koko's overt flirtations, and Betty herself responded positively to them.
347* TropicalIslandAdventure: The Betty Boop shorts that take place on a tropical island are "Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle", "Is My Palm Read?" and "Zula Hula".
348* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Buzzy and Betty, Sally Swing and Betty.
349* UnplannedStaycation: In ''Grampy's Indoor Outing'', a rainstorm dampers Betty's plans to visit the fair with her nephew, so Grampy uses his MacGyvering skills to transform the whole apartment building into a fairground.
350* {{Vaudeville}}: Betty performed in one of these in "Stopping the Show".
351* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Pre-Hays Code Betty can often be seen retrieving items from the front of her LittleBlackDress, usually a compact mirror with makeup.
352* WackyRacing: "Betty Boop's Ker-choo".
353* WalkThisWay: Used as a gag in ''Is My Palm Read''.

Top