[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mv5bmdzmzgq0zgutywrmmc00ytvmltllnjctodkzmtg3zjzhndkzxkeyxkfqcgdeqxvymji4otg3mtc_v1.jpg]]
Superman's latest week has been so odd that he wonders if he's going crazy. Things seem to be happening that no one else can see, and mixed up in it is a strange little man. Then the Man of Steel discovers that the bizarre occurrences have been caused by a 5th-dimensional imp, Mr. Mxyzptlk, who unfortunately wants to play games with him. The only way to get rid of him is to force him to say/spell/etc. his name backwards, but this only works for 90 days at a time, and each time Mxy gets angrier and more determined to beat him. Can Superman get rid of this exasperating imp once and for all?
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!!This episode contains examples of:
* AccidentalMisnaming: Subverted; Clark deliberately calls Mxy "Klytpzyxm" the second time the little guy appears, successfully [[CorrectionBait provoking Mxy into saying it himself]].
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Mrs. Gsptlsnz and then some! The orignal was a short imp not much that different from Mxy. This version is a stunning Jessica Rabbit-like babe.
* AllMythsAreTrue: Mxy claims to have inspired the stories about imps, genies and leprechauns.
* AlternativeCalendar: As Mxy builds his giant robot, the months of "George" and "Relish" go by, until he's finally ready on the 30th day of "Pants".
* BatmanGambit: Superman plays Mxy every time after the rules are set, especially in their last battle.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Mxy wanted a mere mortal finally worthy of his time and who could be the ultimate challenge. He got it and then some.
* BigDamnKiss: Gsptlsnz gives this to Mxy at the end following his final defeat.
* CompleteImmortality: Mxy seems to be completely immortal: he mentions that he has been tormenting humans for centuries, he is [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace capable of living in space without air or any form of vehicle]], he [[LosingYourHead removed his own head]] without ill effect, and any injures he sustained with his powers could be [[HealingFactor instantly healed]].
* CymbalBangingMonkey: Mxy turns a Superman statuette into one of these at the conclusion.
* DubNameChange: When this episode was dubbed for Brazilian viewers, Mxyzptlk was renamed "Mxyzpixilated". However, he [[AvertedTrope retains his original name]] in [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E5LittleBigHeadMan "Little Big Head Man"]].
* TheEndOrIsIt: Superman meets Mxy's condition and - supposedly - gets rid of him for good, but Mxy vows to find some way to return at the end. (And as a later episode shows, he does.)
* EpicFail: After Mxy spends the entire three months of George, Relish, and Pants building a giant robot to fight Superman, he's banished again before Gyspy can even finish her countdown from five.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Gsptlsnz says using their powers to torment others is "so three-dimensional."
* ForcedTransformation: Mxy turns Ma and Pa Kent into chickens, then ducks, then ostriches, then, for "the sake of novelty", alien beasts, and finally an AmericanGothicCouple painting "for safekeeping" while he talks with Clark. Later, he turns the ''Daily Planet'' staff into a complete menagerie of animals.
* FreezeFrameBonus: The page that Mxyzptlk's comic-strip appears on is ''full'' of parodies of popular newspaper strips, all "starring" various DCAU staffers (''e.g.'' [[Creator/PaulDini Dini]] [[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS the Meany]][[note]]Which is ironically structured like a parody of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''[[/note]]). The "[=McGurk=]" strip was done by Siegel and Schuster.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Again, Mxy sought out Superman because he wanted a mere mortal who could be the ultimate challenge and worthy of his time. As Mxy quickly discovers, his plan worked ''too'' well.
* GreatGazoo: Mr. Mxyzptlk is a RealityWarper from another dimension that enjoys playing pranks on humans. He claims to be the inspiration for the stories of genies and leprechauns — but after a while, he got bored of messing with ordinary people, but then Superman shows up.
* GuileHero: Unable to use his strength to deal with Mxyzptlk, Superman has to rely on his brains to make the little guy go away.
* HereWeGoAgain: Clark only says "here we go" when the Daily Planet staff gets changed into animals.
* ItsPersonal: At first Mxyzpltk only sees Superman as his playmate or play thing, but as Superman keep outsmarting him and getting him banished very quickly and easily, he becomes obsessed with beating Superman , and even builds a huge robot to destroy the Man of Steel. Averted with Superman who only sees Mxy as nothing more than an annoyance.
* {{Jerkass}}: Mxy. While most versions of Mxy mostly just want to toy around and have fun with Superman, sometimes even believing himself to be doing the Man of Steel a service, [[AdaptationalJerkass this one]] explicitly hates him and wants nothing more than to kill and humiliate him, not necessarily in that order.
* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Tricking Mxy into ''saying'' his name backwards in the opening rounds. Actually, it only works twice because Clark's able to take Mxy by surprise during Round 2. From thereon out, Mxy catches on and Clark has to come up with other, non-vocal ways of tricking Mxy.
* JustIgnoreIt: Before the final confrontation of the episode, Clark puts on a great show of indifference to Mxy transforming the ''Daily Planet'' staff into animals and threatening to expose Superman's {{secret identity}}. He thus goads Mxy into raising the stakes from a ninety-day reprieve to a permanent departure.
* LastSecondWordSwap: After Mr. Mxyzptlk realizes Superman tricked him into skywriting his own name backwards twice, he says "Oh sh... oot my monkey."
* LoopholeAbuse: Invoked. After being banished for the final time, Mxy ''vows'' to find a loophole in his promise to Superman that will allow him to return to Earth. As this is the episode's final scene, of course, nothing comes of that vow here. Instead, Mxy will have to wait until his [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E5LittleBigHeadMan next appearance]] before finding that precious loophole he can exploit (albeit one that ends up backfiring on him ''spectacularly'').
* MadnessMantra: After Mr. Mxyzptlk is banished for a third time, he angrily repeats "Gotta beat Superman" again and again when he returns home.
* MovingTheGoalposts: After Superman manages to get rid of him several times by tricking him into saying his name backwards, Mxy promises to leave ''forever'' if he does it twice in a row. (Which Superman still manages.)
* MsFanservice: Mr. Mxyzptlk's wife Ms. Gsptlsnz is a blatantly sex-on-legs HeadTurningBeauty (especially when you consider her VA is Creator/SandraBernhard). She's basically Creator/VeronicaLake by way of [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Jessica Rabbit]] in terms of figure and hair, sultry voicing, and apparently spends her days lounging around the 5th dimension in a midriff-exposing shirt and unzipped Daisy Dukes. It comes to a head in a scene where she attempts to {{distract|edByTheSexy}} Mxyzptlk from his crusade against Superman, she gives what can only be described as a PowerPerversionPotential montage, changing her look to various SexyWhateverOutfit. In order: a FemmeFatale, a [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule sexy schoolgirl]], a pin-up inspired sailor outfit, a [[BarelyThereSwimwear frilly bikini]], a [[PomPomGirl cheerleading outfit]], a tropical dancer, a Creator/BettyGrable swimsuit, a bathrobe-bra-and-panties combo, then finally nothing but a ModestyTowel. Alas, her loving but temporarily obsessed husband is NotDistractedByTheSexy.
* MundaneUtility: Superman uses his [[EyeBeams heat vision]] to shave.
* MythologyGag:
** The scene at the beginning with Mxy looking for his friend "[=McGurk=]" and then "finding" him by bringing the statue to life is from Mxy's original first appearance, ''way'' back in ''Superman #30'' [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks from 1941.]]
** Mxy turns Jimmy into a turtle. In the comics, a growth ray combined with a turtle turned the hapless kid into a [[{{Kaiju}} giant turtle boy]].
** Mxy turning Lois into a horse is a nod to her time as a [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G-sAqNbVadg/Up_LMvGrzSI/AAAAAAAA49A/9g0J4aKClpo/s1600/splash-supermangirlfriend-92.jpg superfilly]].
** Lois confirms her sister Lucy is in this continuity, and [[TheThingThatWouldNotLeave is just as much of a pain]].
** Mxy using his powers to make Streaky the cat fly, a nod to the cat gaining superpowers in the Silver Age comics.
** The strip "Mr. Mxyzptlk" is said to be written by Creator/JerrySiegelAndJoeShuster, Mxy's creators (not to mention Superman's).
** Mxy's claim of being the source of stories about imps, genies, and leprechauns is a nod to ''Series/LoisAndClark''. It's also a nod to a ''Superfriends'' episode where he pretends to be a genie.
** Clark's initial mispronunciation of Mxy's name (he pronounces it as Mix-ill-plick) is a reference to how it was pronounced in ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}''
* NoIndoorVoice: Mxy never speaks quietly and often yells. What do you expect from Creator/GilbertGottfried?
* NoOntologicalInertia: After Mxy is banished for good, everything returns to the point immediately before he starting turning the staff into animals.
* NoodleIncident: Mxy spends three months creating a giant robot to fight Superman. We never hear about what happens, but he pops back into the fifth dimension a few seconds after leaving.
* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Gsp tries to get Mxy's attention with [[CatholicSchoolGirlsRule various]] [[WalkingSwimsuitScene come-hither]] [[AllGuysWantCheerleaders outfits]], but he remains focused on building his giant robot.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Superman plays dumb with Mxy twice. First is when he claims not to know which one of them is supposed to say Mxy's name backwards. Second is when he makes several writing mistakes, getting Mxy to spell-check and mark off the necessary letters.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Despite Mxy showing up with a giant robot (that he spent months building), Superman somehow managed to defeat him in ''three seconds''.
* OhCrap: Mxy several times, immediately after realizing that he just triggered another banishment.
-->"Aw nuts!"
* PreemptiveShutUp: After completing a HumongousMecha, Mxy goes off to mess with Superman again, gloating as he disappears. His wife ignores this, knowing it won't go well. When Supes banishes him back immediately after her [[ThreeTwoOne countdown of five]] reaches three, he tells her "Not. One. Word." before she can say a thing.
* PronouncingMyNameForYou: When Clark initially mispronounces his name, Mxyzptlk corrects him and provides the handy mnemonic (which he illustrates using his powers) "Mix", [[Music/{{YES}} "Yes"]], [[SpitefulSpit "Spit"]], [[LickedByTheDog "Lick"]].
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Mxy to Gspy after his robot plan fails: "[[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain Not. One. Word.]]"
* RealityWarper: Mxy can use his powers to alter reality in several ways, such as turning the ''Daily Planet'' staff into animals, or bringing Rodan's ''Thinker'' to life.
* RelativeButton: Clark becomes livid after his parents are turned into alien beasts. Mxy is actually scared of him.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After Mxy turns the staff into animals, Superman just gives up and leaves. That was part of his plan, though.
* SeenItAll: Clark doesn't blink an eye when he sees a penguin walking by his computer desk. Afterward, he only says "[[HereWeGoAgain Here we go]]" when the ''Daily Planet'' staff change into animals.
* ShirtlessScene: Clark when he's shaving himself in the privacy of his bathroom before Mxy interrupts.
* ShoutOut: The ''Daily Planet'' [[http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab85/dariaRTthread/Pan02.jpg comics page]] has a couple of these. One strip is "Dini the Meany", which sounds similar to ''ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS'', but with an art style similar to ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''. It's attributed to "Bill Wemissu"[[note]]A reference to Creator/BillWatterson having retired from creating ''Calvin and Hobbes''[[/note]]. Also on the page is "Gleen", with an art style directly lifted from ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}''. "Dini" of course is a reference to Creator/PaulDini. "Gleen" is probably a reference to Glen Murakami, who did art for the show, as the strip's scene suggests the trials and travails of an animation director. It's likely the whole page consists of shoutouts to the crew.
* SoreLoser: To say that Mxyzptlk doesn’t take losing to Superman well would be a huge understatement, becoming more and more enraged and totally obsessed by beating Superman as the episode goes on.
* StalkerShrine: After being permanently banished back to the Fifth Dimension, Mxy's home now contains an obsessive amount of Superman memorabilia. It just underscores how Mxy's been consumed by his hatred and how he's stuck trying to figure out a loophole to exploit to return to Earth.
* SymbolSwearing: A rather clever visual instance in the climax. When Clark blows off Mxy's blackmail threat and takes off unconcerned (as part of his final Batman Gambit). For a moment, Mxy just stands there in disbelief...then erupts into a psychotic rage. The twist is that instead of any furious shouting or dialogue, we get instead Symbol Swearing above his head.
* TakeThat: The way Clark pronounces Mxy's name and how the latter gets mad at him is a clear jab at WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: According to Lois, her sister does this whenever she visits.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck:
-->'''Lois:''' [[ItMakesSenseInContext Was that a penguin?]]\\
'''Clark:''' I'm afraid so. ''[Lois gets turned into a horse]'' Here we go.
* TrickedIntoSigning: Superman tricks Mxyzptlk into writing out his name both on paper and then in the sky after Mxyzptlk caught on that Superman was tricking him into saying his own name all the time.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Mxyzptlk and Gsptlsnz. He's a tiny, balk unattractive guy, while she's a HeadTurningBeauty.
* UnknownRival: Mxy bexomes obsessed with the idea of beating Superman, while Superman just sees him as a pest, though a very annoying one.
* VictoryIsBoring: Mxy cites this trope as his reason for challenging Superman. After centuries, he's tired of effortlessly besting your average rank-and-file mere mortal; there's just no sport or fun in it anymore. In Superman, Mxy sees the ultimate challenge he's been looking for and worthy of his time and talents.
* WhamShot: The reveal in the climax that Clark wasn't flying in random directions across Metropolis to evade Mxy in their final clash. He was actually tricking Mxy into skywriting his own name backwards twice.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Gspy sarcastically asks this when Mxy gets tricked the third time, giving Mxy the idea to create a giant robot to kill Superman.
* WomenAreWiser: Gsptlsnz chastises Mxyzptlk using his powers to torment others. She says he should just destroy Superman outright instead of play games, but she also knew exactly how that would go.
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