Artistic License Military / Western Animation

• American Dad!: Stan is a CIA operative and not only frequently brings it up to friends, family, and random strangers, but frequently brings people into the headquarters with him to use top-secret CIA technology. In real-life, CIA operatives are not allowed to tell anyone about their employment except for co-workers and family, and even the latter are under a "need-to-know" basis. Somewhat justified as the head of the CIA is depicted as an incompetent Cloudcuckoolander and overly permissive of what his employees can do. "Permanent Record Wrecker" also shows that the CIA apparently has a sniper that kills people when former agents tell them about their job at the agency.
• Beavis And Butthead: In the episode "Drones", not only does the military accept dropouts and delinquents (according to one officer), but they were too incompetent to notice the duo sneaking into a restricted area and piloting a drone.
• Birdman (1967): In the episode "Professor Nightshade", a U.S. military officer addressed as "Admiral" is clearly wearing an Army uniform.
• Dan Vs.: "Sergeant Saskatchewan" is the most intently overly patriotic Canadian superhero ever. As he's based on a Mountie, you'd assume he'd wear the RCMP sergeant emblem (three chevrons pointing down with a crown above them) or at the very least the Canadian Armed Forces sergeant emblem (same deal, just a maple leaf instead of a crown). Instead, he wears the American staff sergeant emblem (three chevrons pointing up).
• DuckTales (1987): The Navy is presented as rather... unique.
  • Donald is addressed as "Seaman Duck," yet wears a (upside down) petty officer third class crow.
  • Admiral Gribbitz seems to be captaining the aircraft carrier (he should be the admiral overall in charge of its battle group, there's no ranked Navy captain to be seen who would normally be the ship's commanding officer).
  • Why the hell does an admiral spend so much time with a lowly seaman? Fraternization/Favoritism!
  • Aircraft carriers cannot open from the front to take in a submarine. Nor would they have room to put one in.
  • It's definitely done for Rule of Funny, but you can't swab an aircraft carrier flight deck (it's mostly a rough material called nonskid, swabs get stuck to it), nor would you really want to.
  • Also, in at least one scene, Donald is Peeling Potatoes on KP as a punishment. That isn't done any more. Mess halls have more efficient ways to do it nowadays.
  • Donald's court martial more resembled a Captain's Mast/Non-Judicial Punishment Hearing (or Admiral's Mast one supposes), and is still pretty off. He had no JAG lawyer present, no JAG judge presiding, no jury. And to nitpick, a trial for treason would probably take over a year to put together, and he would have been put in the brig probably for close to life, not merely busted down and booted from the service.
• The Galaxy Trio:
  • Episode "Versus the Moltens of Meteorus". While Vapor Man is talking with his superior at Intergalactic Security (a military-style organization) he ends a radio conversation (where he received the message) by saying "Over and out".
  • Episode "Galaxy Trio and the Sleeping Planet". When an Intergalactic Headquarters radio officer receives a signal he concludes the transmission with "Over and out", and when Meteor Man receives a transmission from Intergalactic Headquarters he does the same thing.
• G.I. Joe:
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero can go from surprisingly realistic military procedure to outright tomfoolery.
    • Duke or Flint in the first season seem to be almost always in charge, despite being a first sergeant and warrant officer, respectively, with many members of the team outranking them. And Duke is explicitly stated to be higher in the food chain than Flint in Season 2 (at least by then they had a general leading them). Not even getting into how every member of the Joe team can expertly pilot the F-14 expy, among other things.
    • This was invoked In-Universe in one episode where Cobra hacked into the D.O.D. computers to elevate Lifeline, Dial-Tone and Shipwreck to the rank of Colonel (instantly elevating them to just under General Hawk on the chain of command), in order to screw with the Joes' morale and field competence. This openly baffles the Joes they leapt over in rank, including field commander Beach Head:
      Beach Head: How is this possible? Shipwreck's not even in the army! Why not Roadblock or Slipstream or... ME!
    • Several members of the Joes sport facial hair (not just the ones who have Navy backgrounds), even though this has been against military regulations for some time. (Blame the action figure line, who did it as a selling point.) On the other hand, there are various exceptions on grooming standards for real-life special forces, too.
    • G.I. Joe team member Shipwreck is stated to be an E-7 at his introduction, but is pictured wearing "dungaree" uniform: blue chambray shirt and denim bell bottoms. While his rank insignia on his sleeve is correct for an E-7, this uniform would never have been worn by a Chief Petty Officer. Once promoted beyond the rank of E-6, the dungaree uniform was replaced by khakis.
  • G.I. Joe: Renegades:
    • The show has people calling Duke "sir", when he's a Sergeant.
    • This version of Scarlett is called a "Lieutenant" in the credits and dialogue, but no such rank exists in the U.S. Army. No, not even Army Intelligence, where Scarlett came from. There are 2nd and 1st Lieutenants, but simply "Lieutenant" with no modifier is a Navy rank. Although, given the aforementioned pronunciation errors, and the informal structure of their group, it was never mentioned if she was first or second lieutenant, and both 2nd and 1st Lieutenants are typically called "Lieutenant" when talking.
    • Flint is listed as Warrant Officer in the opening credit sequence but is a Lieutenant in the show. His original rank in RAH was Warrant, so probably a production snafu.
• Hey Arnold!: A "wrong rank" version happens in one episode, where the ex-military substitute teacher gives his rank as "Lieutenant Major." No such rank exists. Given that a flashback established him as the drill sergeant of Gerald's father in the Vietnam era, he was likely meant to have been a retired Sergeant Major.
• King of the Hill:
  • Bill is supposed to be a sergeant in the Army, with a barber MOS. He has never transferred, deployed, nor does the Army have a barber MOS.
  • In one episode, Bill takes orders from a random corporal and calls him "sir." That said, this might just be to show how unassertive he is and how pathetic everyone else sees him.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: There's a whole youtube video of military bronies reacting to the problems in Wonderbolts Academy. For example, the drill sergeant type character is about the opposite of everything a real one would be.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle: A deliberate example. Boris Badenov showed up at an American military compound and tried to seize control based on his seniority, claiming that he was a six-star general. When the general in charge showed that he, too, had six stars, Boris responded with "Yes, but yours don't light up". The rest of the base accepted this without question. Nobody points out that there is and has only ever been one six-star general in the US Army — George Washington, who was given the rank posthumously in 1976 so that he could outrank officers who held rank of five star general which was created in WWII^note John J. Pershing was granted the equivalent rank of General of the Armies while on active duty during World War I, but his insignia was four gold stars since the five-star rank didn't exist yet, but used — which meant that at the time the episode was originally aired, both parties were claiming a rank that didn't even exist.
• Sheep in the Big City: Private Public serves as second-in-command to General Specific, when in real life private is the lowest military rank possible aside from a recruit rank.
• The Simpsons: The episode "Simpson Tide" takes Artistic License in lots of areas, as the show often does, but two examples could probably be chalked up to this trope.
  • First of all, Barney's mother wouldn't be allowed an assignment on the submarine, as Navy regulations at the time forbid females from doing so.
  • Second, the only way to be dishonorably discharged is to be court martialed, as Homer clearly was not.
• South Park: While likely an intentional joke, the ' miniseries "Imaginationland" had the two Army soldiers in charge of the Stargate spoof simultaneously wearing senior Sergeant patches and General stars.
• Superman: The Animated Series: In the episode "Ghost in the Machine", Lex Luthor is showing off his latest invention, an anti-aircraft laser cannon, by announcing that two Sidewinder missiles have just been fired at the building he and his assembled guests are in. The AIM-9 Sidewinder is an air-to-air missile used to shoot down other aircraft. It's not used to shoot ground targets like buildings and its targeting system wouldn't be able to lock onto one in the first place as it uses infrared sensors to lock onto the thermal emitions of jet engines.
• SWAT Kats: While the Enforcers are an entirely fictional organization, and more like highly militarized police than actual military, there's still a few noteworthy issues:
  • The Enforcers' leader, Ulysses Feral, is stated to be a commander. However, in "The Wrath of Dark Kat," he addresses a subordinate as "Captain." The "captain" is a generic Enforcer pilot with no discerning rank insignia. Also, in real life, captains usually outrank commanders.
  • Lieutenant Commander Steel is almost always addressed as "Lieutenant," except by himself and on his nameplate. The correct shortened form of address for a lieutenant commander is "commander." Steel is likely addressed as Lieutenant in order to avoid confusion with Feral.
  • Sergeant Talon and most of the other generic sergeants have shoulderboards with one gold stripe apiece, almost identical to that of Lt. Commander Steel. The only real difference is that Steel's stripes are on the edges of his shoulderboards, while the sergeants' are in the middle.
  • The sergeant who appears in "Enter the Madkat" and "Katastrophe" doesn't just wear two slightly different uniforms in each episode, but both are different from the other sergeants'.
  • Evidence room clerk Smitty in "Katastrophe" has a sergeant's three rank chevrons on his sleeves. No other sergeant has these. Confusingly, they're on his dress shirt, not the jacket worn over them (presumably, anyway; Smitty isn't seen with his jacket on).
  • Felina is a lieutenant, but lacks any insignia to distinguish her from Enforcers of other ranks.
• The Venture Bros.: Colonel Gentleman claims to be former RAF, despite the rank of colonel not existing in the RAF. The equivalent rank is Group Captain.
• Woody Woodpecker: The 1971 cartoon "The Reluctant Recruit" has Woody tricked into joining the Foreign Legion. There are three errors in the cartoon:
  • Woody is tricked into joining the Legion when a recruiting office, presumably in the United States, makes him think it's a travel agency with free tropical vacations. The Foreign Legion does NOT recruit soldiers in their homelands. One has to travel to France to enlist.
  • The sergeant in the cartoon constantly trying to stop Woody's escape? While his uniform is mostly correct, his rank chevrons point upside down. They should be pointing upwards.
  • As for that sergeant's uniform, it dates from WorldWar I. By the 1970s, the Foreign Legion had switched to the more modern olive drab, khaki or camouflage pattern uniforms.

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