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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/life_with_louie_9.jpg]]
2
3->''"Let me tell you about my family."''
4-->-- '''Louie Anderson''' as the episode starts
5
6''Life With Louie'' is an American cartoon co-created by stand-up comedian and actor Creator/LouieAnderson and loosely based on his childhood. The series ran from 1995 to 1998 and won multiple awards, including two Emmy Awards.
7
8The story is set in Wisconsin in TheSixties. Louie Anderson is an 8-year-old kid, living with several brothers and sisters, mother Ora and father Andy. Andy is [[DadTheVeteran a neurotic, overbearing but caring World War II veteran]] who often seems to be a little... out of touch with reality. We follow Louie's [[SliceOfLife adventures and everyday life]], which would be pretty simple (eating, sleeping, watching TV, having a crush on schoolmate) if either Louie or Andy wouldn't constantly botch it.
9
10To this day, the show [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes is still not available on DVD,]] even though many other cartoons from the same era are- since it was a show that was produced and aired on Creator/FoxKids, it's expected.
11
12Not to be confused with [[WesternAnimation/KaBlam ''Life With Loopy'']], which is an entirely different thing.
13
14----
15!!''Life With Louie'' provides examples of:
16
17* ActuallyPrettyFunny: In the first ChristmasEpisode, Louie and Tommy give Andy a couple of tools... tools he already owns and had been looking for. He concedes that was a decent gag.
18* AnachronismStew:
19** The real Louie was born in 1953, and in the show he is [[NotAllowedToGrowUp eight years old]], which would put us in 1961. However, in a season 2 episode, Louie and Andy meet President Eisenhower (whose term ended in January 1961). Furthermore, it is never clear exactly how old Andy was when he was in World War II. In most flashbacks he appears much younger, and in one episode Ora and Andy claim that they met shortly after Andy returned from Europe. But if that's the case, then they've known each other only about 15 years--even though some of their children seem to be adults.
20** InUniverse: Andy's war stories. One of them includes a Japanese Zero attacking Andy. In North Africa.
21* TheAllegedCar: The family's Rambler. It even gets its own ADayInTheLimelight episode due to its sorry state.
22* AsHimself: Creator/LouieAnderson voices his childhood self and also has a small live-action segment opening each episode.
23* BeenThereShapedHistory: Andy claims to have coined the phrase [[UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower "I Like Ike"]] during his war service. Unlike a lot of his other stories, this one seems to be true as UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower actually knows who he is.
24* BigThinShortTrio: The school bullies of Louie's class Glen Glenn (big and fat), Craig Eric (small and fat), and Paul George (thin yet taller than Glen Glenn).
25* BornInAnElevator: While explaining why he wants so desperately to keep fixing the Rambler rather than buy a new car, Andy explains that Louie and one of his other siblings were born in the back seat at the drive-in.
26* BraveTheRidePlot: In "A Fair to Remember", the Anderson family go to a fair. Louie's little brother, Tommy, keeps wanting to ride the exciting rides, one of which is a tilt-a-whirl with a dragon theme. Louie, who's been tasked with watching him, keeps trying to go on kiddie rides. But is ultimately forced to ride it when Tommy sneaks away from him.
27* BrokenPedestal:
28** In one episode, Louie starts idolizing a stand up comic, but at one point realizes that he was a bit of a JerkAss seeing as his comedy was a variety of InsultComic. He ditches his first chance at being on stage and instead goes home. Where he starts telling stories to his parents and siblings and how crazy they are as a whole, and how he loves them, effectively finding his voice as a comedian.
29** There's another episode where Louie finds a picture of his dad's alleged squad but without his dad. It takes an episode to find out [[StatusQuoIsGod why]].
30* ButtMonkey: Both Andy and Louie can never win. Even Louie's younger brother treats him like this.
31* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: In the Halloween episode, Louie steals a single piece of candy. The shop's owner informs him that he will make an inventory check and if anything is missing, he will know whose parents to call. Louie was so scared that the next night he ''broke into a store'' to return that candy. The same episode introduced three criminals, who all started their careers by stealing ''one piece of candy''.
32* CatchPhrase: Several, but the most used are Andy's "For crying out loud!" and "[[IHeardThat I heard that]]." in response to anyone's (mostly Louie's) DeadpanSnarker comments about him. And another one very often is Louie's mom berating Andy with ... well.. "'''''Andy'''''!"
33* CelebrityToons: Natch, and one of the rare cases where the celebrity involved did the voice work.
34* TheChessmaster: Literal example. Both Louie and Andy are ''very'' skilled at chess, but it's not reflected by any other skills typical for TheChessmaster.
35* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Andy, without a shadow of a doubt.
36* ComicRolePlay
37* TheConscience: Jeannie, most of times when Louie does something bad.
38* DeadpanSnarker: Louie and Andy both get a lot of mileage out of this trope.
39* FakeUltimateHero: Andy portrays himself as an incarnation of some god of war in his stories. In one episode he scared a squirrel that attacked Louie, however each time he was telling somebody about it, he was replacing it with more dangerous animals. It ends with a story where he handles a giant ''snow''bear (A fictional animal / folk legend in story) with his bare hands.
40-->'''Andy:''' When we were stationed in Siberia, I was fighting with bears for money. Five rubles for bear's skin. I was earning 25 rubles per day!
41* FormerlyFit: Flashbacks show WWII-era Andy being slender and fit. After twenty years and eleven kids, he's gone to pot. Ora, on the other hand, is shown as always being somewhat chubby and is now matronly.
42* FreudianExcuse: Louie is the second youngest in the family, so he knows a thing or two about older siblings bullying him and telling him what to do. Tommy coming along meant Louie got to do that to someone else for a change.
43* GangOfBullies: Glen Glenn and his two buddies, Craig Eric and Paul George.
44* GenerationXerox: Andy bears a strong resemblance to his mother Helga, to the point of sharing the same glasses, nose, chin, and some militaristic tendencies. Naturally, they resent each other for the most part.
45-->'''Tommy''': You two look more and more alike every day.
46-->'''Helga''': Well, we ''are'' related.
47-->'''Andy''' and '''Helga''': {in unison} Just my luck!
48* GoshDangItToHeck: According to Louie, how you feel after getting hit in the ear with a slush ball makes you want to "swear."
49-->'''Louie:''' DARN IT!
50* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Played with for Andy and Ora's eight other kids. Sometimes they've been outright seen, but usually [[TheFaceless the]] [[TheGhost three]] [[TheVoice variants]] are made use of in some fashion.
51* {{Hikikomori}}: Louie has a close call with a tornado and is obviously traumatised. He refuses to leave his own room, and even inside of it, he keeps hiding under a bed (to which he ties himself with a rope) for the most part.
52* InsultComic: Louie once became acquainted with an immensely popular stand-up comedian (who used to be friends with Louie's mother) whose whole routine revolved around selecting people in the audience to insult for humor. When Louie himself became a target of mockery for his weight, he decided that he didn't want to become known as a comedian who made fun of other people's misery. The end of the episode shows the comedian LonelyAtTheTop.
53* IsThereADoctorInTheHouse: When Ora goes into labor at the drive-in, Andy grabs the speaker and yells "Medic! Is there a doctor in the house?"
54* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Andy's almost-exact words about a new concept of a "mall".
55* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Andy is a lot more caring than he lets on.
56* LighterAndSofter: Andy is a much more sympathetic portrayal of Anderson's real life dad than how he has originally described him as.
57* MamaBear: Ora doesn't have many moments, but when she outright ''snaps Andy's shotgun in half'' for [[ItMakesSenseInContext bringing a loaded weapon in the house to shoot a deer]], you know she's got some qualities.
58* MassiveNumberedSiblings: Louie has ''nine'' siblings, and only Tommy is younger.
59* NostalgiaFilter: How Anderson was able to turn an emotionally abusive childhood growing up with an alcoholic, wife-beating father in the slums of St. Paul, Minnesota into this.
60* NoSwastikas: Played straight in Andy's UsefulNotes/WorldWarII flashbacks. To a point. Although there aren't any Swastikas, the German soldiers he is seen fighting ''do'' have prominent Waffen-SS lightning bolt insignia (even if they're wearing UsefulNotes/WorldWarI-era Pickelhaube helmets for some reason).
61* OneNeighborNeighborhood: Anderson's only neighbors we see are Jensens.
62* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: How Louie proved to Ora that everybody are going nuts without [[{{Jerkass}} Jen Glen]]
63-->'''Louie:''' Hey, dad, tell me about war.
64-->'''Andy:''' What war?
65* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: In conjunction with the FakeUltimateHero and PhonyVeteran entries, Louie is desperately trying to find someone who knows his father but none of his old war buddies have ever heard of Andy Anderson. After Andy saves them from a fire during the parade, it is revealed that his old war buddies only remember him by his nickname of "keister". It turns out his one real act of heroism was that he was making breakfast one morning unaware that enemies were approaching. He slipped and sat on the hot stove and his screams of pain awakened his buddies who quickly discovered and defeated the enemy ambush. In honor of his wounds, Andy was nicknamed "keister" for the rest of the war.
66* PapaWolf: Despite his faults, Andy will go out of his way for his family if they're in danger.
67* PhonyVeteran: Andy defines this trope. Andy remembers things... differently from what really happened. Might be that it is a defense mechanism of trying to cope with what really happened, making Andy a ShellShockedVeteran. For all the jokes about how he's a fake, one episode revolved around Louie finding a picture of his dad's old squad... without his dad. [[BrokenPedestal The logical ensues]]. Until he meets his dad's old squaddies, and they glorify him and say he was ''holding the camera''.
68* PoliticianGuestStar: President UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower briefly appeared in the Washington D.C. episode to confirm that Andy's stories about him are true.
69* PuppyLove: Jeannie and Louie. Though not of the sickenly cute variety.
70* RidiculouslyLongPhoneHold: In one episode, Ora (the mother of the main character) calls the camp where Louie is on a vacation, since she wants to talk to him. Due to the fact that Louie is currently on a trip through the forest, and a troubled one at that, the woman who receives the call tells Ora that it might take some time before he can come to the phone. Ora says that she will wait anyway, possibly spending a few hours just sitting at the phone silently. The episode ends with Louie's dad receiving an absurdly high phone bill.
71* ShapedLikeItself:
72-->'''Andy:''' Of course I can tell the difference between army, and...em...say...army.
73* ShowWithinAShow: ''Night Sniffer'', an in-verse comic and TV show (performed by puppets) about an anthropomorphic dog dressed in typical judge garb who solves crimes and is loved by the kids.
74* ShoutOut:
75-->'''Judge:''' I want the truth.
76-->'''Andy:''' [[Film/AFewGoodMen You can't]] '''[[Film/AFewGoodMen handle]]''' [[Film/AFewGoodMen the truth!]]
77** The best part? Judge wanted to know whether Andy parked in a site for disabled people.
78** Another episode (Same one as mentioned in TheChessmaster) Andy recaps how chess was regarded in the past. Cue him being strapped to a table, with a small compact chess set in his hand, [[Film/{{Braveheart}} dropping it and shouting]] "[[BigWordShout FREEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM]]."
79** When Louie seems addicted to films, Andy points out they need to lure him away from [[Franchise/StarWars the dark side]]. It turns out he got it from a film, ''Curse of the Mummy''.
80** When Andy and Louie try to catch a particularly large fish: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
81** When organising a search party for Louie and Glen Glenn, Andy quotes almost verbatim ''Film/TheFugitive'' address to the search parties. The episode itself is one big shout-out to ''Film/TheDefiantOnes''.
82** Once Andy takes over as a baseball coach, he both dresses up as and paraphrases ''Film/{{Patton}}''.
83* SmartPeoplePlayChess: Subverted. Louie and Andy are of their town, the best at playing chess. Neither of them will be winning Nobel prizes any time soon.
84* SnobbyHobbies: When Earl Grunewald, Mike's father, gets promoted to middle management, his family suddenly starts having a lot of extra income - and the attitude that goes with it. The episode centres on the Grunewalds taking all their friends to a ski resort, explicitly to show off their newfound wealth. Each of the Andersons attempts to deal with the fact that they stand out like sore thumbs in the crowd of rich folks.
85* SnootySports: At one point, Louie got a part-time job as a golf caddy. The sport is portrayed as a way for the filthy rich to kill time and discuss business in a more friendly environment. It actually rubs on Louie, who gets stuck up toward his family and peers, but also providing him with insider trading intel that Andy manages to apply at the end of the episode.
86* SummerCampy: One of the episodes has Louie ending up in one of those. So does Glen Glenn. It quickly escalates into HorribleCampingTrip, as they end up [[ItMakesSenseInContext lost in the woods while chained together]]. Oh, and Ora is ''constantly'' calling to check out how's Louie doing.
87* {{Tomboy}}: Jeannie, who is integral part of the otherwise all-boy group of friends, acting just like the rest of the boys.
88* TranslatorBuddy: Andy's use of military jargon typically goes over the heads of Louie, Tommy, and his other children. Ora explains to them what Andy is trying to say.
89* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The show proudly admits it's only inspired by the real Louie Anderson's childhood, with Anderson himself telling the actual story before the episode begins.
90* VerySpecialEpisode: An unusually unpreachy one in which Louie's family has to cope with the death of his grandmother.
91* VocalDissonance: Creator/LouieAnderson changes his tone rather than his pitch to play himself at age eight, giving the character a surprisingly deep voice for someone who's still several years away from puberty.
92* WeWantOurJerkBack: In one episode Glen Glenn's mother, Jen, {{Jerkass}} and LargeHam feared in the entire town, lost her voice to everybody's relief. At last at first... [[FromBadToWorse Then]] entire town started acting like if they were turned into some decayed DarkWorld or even MirrorUniverse versions of themselves. In the end they all worked together to raise enough money to pay for her operation. Even Andy, who hates Jen's guts, gave everybody a RousingSpeech.
93-->'''Andy:''' We are like army. And army takes care of its soldiers. Even if that soldier is a pain in the butt.

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