Cargo Ship / Western Animation

Um, Jorgen... that's not what we mean by Screw da Rules.

Cargo Ships in Western Animation.

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• A literal example was canon in Futurama: Bender×Planet Express Ship. Fry even lampshades it: "Wow, Bender, are you and the ship an item? I mean, I know you're both items..."
  • Also, Fry once made out with a radiator woman from a radiator planet, before learning that it was just a normal radiator.
    • Hey, you gotta admit she was hot.
  • "Prisoner of Benda" gives us the oddly poignant story between Scruffy and his (robotic) wash bucket.
    Scruffy: I'm a man, and you're janitorial equipment.
• American Dragon: Jake Long:
  • The episode "Ski Trip" had Spud×Ski Lift chair, complete with a fantasy montage in which Spud marries the device and they have half-human, half-ski lift children. The relationship ends by the end of the episode, with Spud claiming "I broke up with you!")
  • In "The Love Cruise", Cupid's Arrows cause multiple people on the cruise to fall in love with whatever object they were looking at when they got hit, such as a speaker, a sandwich, and a reflection.
• Family Guy has a cutaway gag where Peter tried to marry a blueberry pie. ("Loooove you"). In the amount of time it took for the lawyer to get over his disbelief and retrieve the necessary papers to fill out, Peter had managed to eat the pie.
  • Peter and a bag of fat that was sucked out of Lois's body. It was exactly what it looked like.
  • Peter and a cardboard cutout of Kathy Ireland from the Drunken Clam. Which ended tragically after he broke her upon finding out she was with his son Chris.
  • Peter and his Surfing Bird record, who he sleeps with his arms around and states, "I took it to bed, had sex with it..."
  • New Brian and Stewie's teddy bear, Rupert.
    • Stewie and Rupert have a Ho Yay relationship.
  • And there was also a cutaway gag about a woman catching an STD from a toilet.
  • Meg and hot dogs.
• Gravity Falls:
  • Mabel has been shipped with her grappling hook.
  • In "Soos and the Real Girl", the end credits scene shows Grunkle Stan marrying Goldie (A novelty dispenser shaped like a prospector panning for gold) in Vegas.
  • In "The Stanchurian Candidate", when Gideon is incarcerated, he says that he can't sleep because his cellmate took his pillow for a wife.
  • Though uncommon, some fans ship Bill Cipher with his top hat. Fanfics of it can still be found if you look hard enough.
• Homer Simpson once had an illicit affair with a shish kebab.
  • As well as a giant sandwich... let's just say Homer and food.
  • "Oh, Television....teacher, mother, secret lover..."
  • Moe and his bar rag are a canon example. The thing is actually his best friend. At one point he also reveals he has a collection of photos of himself with his pickle jar, including one depicting them lying together on a beach, and he mourns when it gets shot.
  • "Are you hugging the TV?!" "No!"
  • Marge has been shipped with potatoes. Why? She just thinks they’re neat.
• Kaeloo: Olaf the emperor penguin and his ice cube, Olga. He even claims that she is his "wife".
• On the Rule of Funny-based side of canon, Spunky the dog on Rocko's Modern Life fell in love with a mop in "Clean Lovin'". Following the series' proud tradition of demographically inappropriate humour, there is even a scene that heavily implies Spunky actually had sex with it.
  • The psychologist Rocko hires to cure Spunky of the fixation also winds up fixated on the mop, and is shown taking it on a date near the end of the episode.
  • Heffer and a milking machine.
• Ben 10×Omnitrix.
  • Ben×Eunice.
  • For some reason, there's Kevin×Car. No, really. It's not all that crack, considering the events of "Paradox".
• Danny PhantomxFenton Thermos.
  • Danny and the Girl's Locker Room.
  • Danny and a lamp
  • Also, Tucker and his PDA.
  • Vlad and his Ray Nitsche Football.
• Canon example: SpongeBob SquarePants and the Krabby Patty in "To Love a Patty" — one kept unrefrigerated long enough to have mold. And in what is the funniest and/or most disgusting part of the episode, at the end, he eats it, mold, fungus and all. Now that's true love.
  • The early episode "Just One Bite" included a montage where Squidward falls in love with, marries, and grows old with a Krabby Patty. It's a Dream Sequence, but still.
  • SpongeBob×Spatula.
  • Mr. Krabs×Money. One episode involved Plankton disguising as a sentient stack of money and eventually marrying Mr. Krabs.
  • Squidward×Clari. He even sleeps with the instrument. "I've got a hot date with a little lady, and her name is Clarinet."
  • Plankton and Karen. They're married in canon, and in one chapter they said their relationship started in junior high school or so...when Karen was just a security camera...
    • Since Karen is an AI this would probably be considered Robosexual.
  • And there's Patrick who marries a street lamp, because of a lie made up by Mr. Krabs.
  • Love Triangle example in "Karen's Virus". Acting like a drunk due to the titular virus, Karen flirts with Mr. Krabs' cash register, much to his horror. Mr. Krabs then snatches the cash register from Karen, shouting "Don't break up our happy home!", then he tells the register "I forgive you, baby!" and gives it a smooch.
• The Looney Tunes Show has Elmer Fudd and a gwilled grilled cheese sandwich, and in New Looney Tunes he shows attraction towards a lava lamp.
  • In another episode, Lola gets into an entire conversation with an armoire, and is seen telling it that she already has a boyfriend.
• One episode of The Venture Bros. has The Monarch having sex with the broken down remains of Guard-O, the Venture Brothers' non-sentient security robot. This is even weirder in context: its monitor was displaying Dr. Venture's face, and he said he was trying to give it chlamydia.
  • After building his own "Butter-Glider", he becomes obsessed with it to the point of sleeping with it and having rooftop picnics with it. His wife is unamused.
  • Herr Trigger and his guns.
  • Phantom Limb and Lady Nightshade (a.k.a. a woman's shoe)
  • In the pilot they had a ninja trying to get hold of Dr. Ventures new invention. Not to steal it, but to do... other things with it.
• In Total Drama World Tour, Beth starts a relationship with a pole, the same pole Bridgette made out with a couple of episodes before.
  • Cody×Statue of Liberty, from when Cody fell into Lady Liberty's cleavage. He also married a cactus in Total Dramarama.
  • Alejandro/Pineapple, from when Alejandro frenched a pineapple-headed effigy of Heather.
  • Zee x soda due to his addiction to the stuff.
• A whole episode of 6teen was dedicated to this trope with Jude and Betty the Massage Chair.
• Lurking amidst the murky sea of Invader Zim crack pairings, pairings exist involving Zim's computer, Tak's ship, Zim's PAK (the backpack thing that's attached to his spine, filled with useful tools) and GIR. The last one is a borderline example, however, and is often done in complete seriousness.
  • Actually, there are some scenes in (at least) the episodes "Bloaty's Pizza Hog" and "Tak, the Hideous New Girl" which imply that GIR has a (obviously one-sided) little crush on Gaz.
  • GIR×Rubber Piggy is practically canon.
• Perfect Hair Forever: "Can you get this Vacuum cleaner to f*ck this cake?", Uncle Grandfather.
• Transformers: Animated features canonical Constructicons×nonsentient cars.
  • There's also Beast Wars Megatron×Beast Wars Megatron's Beast Mode Head. He's actually seen petting it like a Right-Hand Cat sometimes, and there's scenes like the time it looks around while Megs is 'asleep,' or Megatron turning away from the screen and his head-hand quickly turns to look at it, as if sneaking a peak when Megatron isn't paying attention. However, it has little in the way of support compared to the true OTP of Beast Wars: Megs×rubber ducky.
• Thomas & Friends: With most characters being steam locomotives, the list is long. Thomas/Emily, Thomas/Rosie, Thomas/Molly, James/Emily, James/Molly, Toby/Mavis, etc. Due to the overwhelming amount of male characters, Cargo Yaoi Shippings are arguably more popular than the above pairings listed. Generally Thomas/Percy, Edward/James and Gordon/Henry are accepted, either seriously or just for the hell of it.

• Spudken. Kim Possible fanfic crack pairing of the blue-skinned, scar-possessing Dr. Drakken and a potato.

• Code Lyoko: Some of the fans accuse Jérémie of caring about the Supercomputer more than his girlfriend, Aelita. Some jokingly... some not so much. Sissi actually makes a comment in-story to Aelita that Jérémie is "already married to a computer chip."
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Valentine's Day episode has Tiny Love Imps forcing the entire cast (and a hoagie) to randomly fall in love. As there are more boys than girls, they have Ed falling in love with the sandwich, and Eddy falling in love with Plank.

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: As shown on the Page Quote, Dr, Weird, being....Dr. Weird, somehow manages to get a lawnmower intoxicated and have sexual relations with "her."
  Steve: [In response to the page quote] Oh well, uh... I'm sure someone thinks that's pretty neat. So did you do that for science, or...
  Dr. Weird: NO! It was FREE! And she was drunk and didn't know what she was doing!
  [the lawnmower's engine block cracks open, revealing an egg with mechanical arms]
  Dr. Weird: MY METAL BOY!
• Wolverine and the X-Men (2009)'s Bad Future version of Lorna Dane reconstructs and reanimates a Sentinel, which bad future Marrow dubs "Rover", fixates upon, repairs, talks to, spends all her time with, and ultimately betrays Professor Xavier to Master Mold in rage and grief over Bishop sacrificing Rover as a decoy.
• At the end of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Skipper of the Penguins marries a Hawaiian doll.
  • Then there is the spin-off series The Penguins of Madagascar that shows both Rico and Julien showing interest in a large Barbie doll. Even Skipper makes a subtle pass at her. Miss the wife already, Mr. Married-man?
  • One episode has Kowalski falling in love with the animal control van.
  • Julien had a vaguely disturbing semi-Ho Yay semi-Narcissistic obsession with "Lemmy", the robot version of himself, and Mort was jealous of it. Then, at the end of the episode, it gets dragged offscreen by a space squid and is never seen again.
  • "Quiet, Maurice! I am wooing the smoothie!"
• In Courage the Cowardly Dog, a goose god falls in love with Eustace's truck because of the sound of its horn, and eventually ascends with the truck to heaven (they get a new truck). In a later episode there's a quick cameo of the goose god cuddling it on a fluffy cloud.
• Never explicitly shown in the series, but Ro and Zeta from The Zeta Project are a very justifiable example of this trope.
• Bill Plympton, having a taste for the bizarre, has some:
  • His first long film "The Tune" features a noseless cab driver who has a broken relationship with... guess what.
  • "The Fan and the Flower", an unusually sweet short film, completely devoid of his usual Deranged Animation.
• Clerks: The Animated Series: "And then that Caitlyn chick started making out with the Ferris wheel!"
• Hank Hill from King of the Hill is a prime example in canon. He ignored his wife over his guitar for a while in an earlier episode. He cried over his car breaking down like a dying family member, and of course "Sweet Lady Propane."
  • "Sir, we go back fifteen years, and in all that time I have only had one mistress, and her name is propane."
  • His lawn. "I think you owe me, and my lawn, an apology! ....We're waiting!"
• In Adventures in Care-a-Lot, Grizzle×Mr. Beaks, in that Mr. Beaks is a bird made out of scrap parts, who Grizzle treats as animate (and more than just a friend), but everyone else sees as inanimate (most of the time).
• Canon example: Odie in The Garfield Show falls in love with a brush in one episode.
• Robot Chicken has an ongoing gag involving the Humping Robot, who has vigorously loved both a washing machine and a jukebox in his time, as well as the Casino slot machine, Herbie, and a bell.
  • There's also the short about a scientist showing off his latest (feminine-looking) prototype robot.
    Scientist: ...and the power cell recharges as it moves! It's a revolution in robot longevity!
    Audience Member: Can you fuck it?
    Scientist: ...excuse me?
    Audience Member: [without hesitating] Can you fuck it?
    Scientist: Wha... no!
    Audience: [groans and leaves]
• An early episode of The Fairly OddParents! had Cosmo and Wanda acting out a Jerry Springer-esque talk show, in which Cosmo played a redneck who married his car. In a later episode, Unnamed Parent Mr. Turner falls in love with his car.
  • Then there is Cosmo/Phillip, i.e. the ^note  Female nickel that Cosmo found and keeps in the goldfish castle, in one episode he is seen sleeping with it in his arms, while Wanda was right next to him.
    • Well, a nickel doesn't go very far these days. Wanda's probably aware of that.
  • In another episode, Mr. Turner whilst under a spell by Cupid's arrow comes very close to marrying a dead rose bush.
  • During Jorgen's Polka in "School's Out: The Musical - Part 2", there was a scene of Jorgen marrying Da Rules book. ^note Jorgen was the bride.
• In an episode of Spliced Peri, Entrèe and Two-legs Joe all fall in love with "Helen", a pancake.
• Gorillaz biography Rise of the Ogre actually describes Murdoc's pelvic thrusts in the end of the "Feel Good Inc" video as "bass-shagging action". There is fanfic.
• The Bugs Bunny cartoon "Rabbit Every Monday" starts with Bugs cooking carrots over a rotisserie spit singing "It's Magic" (Oh carrots are divine, you get a dozen for a dime, it's magic...). At the end of his tune he takes a carrot from the spit and lovingly caresses it.
  • "The Grey Hounded Hare" has Bugs fall for an electric rabbit from a dog race. He called her "Dreamboat" and was determined to save her from the dogs that were chasing her. Bugs was electrocuted when he tried to kiss her, but didn't mind.
  • "Hair-Raising Hare" has Bugs build a robot that looked like a female rabbit in a slinky evening gown to confuse his enemies. At the end of the episode, the robot walked by and Bugs pointed and said "Eh, mechanical." Then she kissed him on the cheek. "So she's mechanical!" Bugs says before following her.
  • An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures had Bugs in a relationship with his Schloscar award he got for Knighty Knight Bugs. Daffy even thought he finally found a girl.
  • Similarly, Daffy Duck fell for a mechanical duck in "A Coy Decoy". They even had little clockwork ducklings together.
• Fred Jones on Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated has an obsession with traps. His bedroom is littered with them.
• Dr. Blight×Mal from Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
• Hyena×Coyote from Gargoyles.
• Captain Murphy×Bucket-Head Wendy from Sealab 2021.
  • One episode originally had Stormy and a Debbie-bot, with Quinn later stealing the Debbie-bot, but those scenes were cut.
• An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures had Montana Max fall in love with a giant gold nugget that he called "Goldie".
  • Not to mention in "Prom-ise Her Anything", Gogo Dodo's prom date is a fire hydrant named Suzie. And then there's Bugs Bunny, who's depicted as being pretty much married to his Schloscar.
• Rugrats: Chuckie and Boppo. A kid his age should be outside playing with his friends, not sitting alone in his room bopping his Boppo.
• The VeggieTales song "His Cheeseburger."
  • King George and the Ducky features a king who really loves his duck.
• In The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, Peppermint Larry's wife is a candy sculpture... and in a truly Flapjackian twist, it turns out to be a Love Triangle with Captain K'nuckles secretly in love with her. At one point he even runs off with her, leaving Peppermint Larry heartbroken.
• In Recess, TJ and his red baseball hat. God help anyone who tries to get between those two.
• In American Dad!, Stan has had some strange interactions with a gun and a lighter.
  • There was also one episode where Stan ran outside to console his SUV, saying he was going to 'tongue [its] gas-hole'.
• Dan×Turkey Sub in Dan Vs. "The Fancy Restaurant."
• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom has Applejack×Bloomberg or Fluttershy×Bloomberg (Bloomberg's a tree), Derpy Hooves×Muffin, Soarin'×Pie, Pinkamena×Madame Le Flour, and, thanks to the fanfic Progress, Luna×Abacus. The Season 2 premiere introduced Rarity×Tom the Rock (who's also known as Dan, thanks to YouTube's auto-caption generator), and "Lesson Zero" lead to people shipping Big Macintosh and Twilight's Smarty Pants doll.
  • Also Tom×Bloomberg
  • There's even parings with Princess Celestia and the door she unlocked by inserting her horn into a slot in "The Return of Harmony Part One".
  • And, of course, Trixie×Pinecone.
  • And Raindrops×Bread.
  • And Rainbow Dash×Kitchen sink.
  • And Pinkie Pie×Patio Furniture.
  • And The Golden Oaks Library and The Carousel Boutique.
  • The episode "Maud Pie" gave us Pinkie Pie's rock-obsessed sister Maud and her pet rock, Boulder (which is pebble-sized). It didn't take a full hour for the Maud/Tom and Boulder/Tom fanart to start piling up on Derpibooru.
  • Of course, there's Twilight Sparkle × Books while "Castle Sweet Castle" gave us Twilight Sparkle × pancakes.
  • In "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone", Pinkie Pie flirts with a statue of King Grover.
    • Guess she has something in common with her sister
• The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat did an episode where the Bag of Tricks got stolen, and Felix went into spasms of animated angst. He even had a hard time sleeping alone, and carried a wallet full of photos of himself and the bag in various romantic scenes. The show also gave us Bermuda Triangle×Times Square, Felix×Cactus, and Cactus×Mountain. None of these are too surprising in a show where Everything Talks, but they're still pretty darn weird.
• In the finale of Motorcity, the Duke flirts with and "pets" one of his many cars. Chris Prynoski said they had a Duke "car porn" scene cut from that episode.
• In the Mickey Mouse (2013) short "Goofy's First Love", Mickey and Donald assume Goofy is in love with a waitress, when he's really in love with the sandwich she has on a platter. At the end of the short Goofy marries the sandwich, them promptly eats it.
• The We Bare Bears episode "Burrito" has Grizz getting a little too attached to a bear-sized burrito. At the end, it turned out that the reason he was so attached was that it subconsciously reminded him of a fireman who rescued him from a tree when he was a cub.
• In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Grim is very attached to his scythe. Not only does he sometimes refer to it by she/her pronouns, but even calls it "Jodie" in one episode. And then in Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, he goes through the Five Stages of Grief when he loses it (along with his job as Reaper), and reacts very much like reuniting with a lost love when he gets it back after he's reinstated.
  Grim: (hugging the scythe close to him) I missed you so much! (kisses the blade a few times)
• In the Milo Murphy's Law episode "Sunny Side Up", Milo's science teacher is show to be more than a little obsessed with her home-made desk, to the point that saucy jazz music starts playing as she sings its praises.
  • There's also Scott the Undergrounder, who's Happily Married to a milk carton named "Mildred" (and once briefly took up with an orange juice carton when he thought she had been lost forever) and Bradley Nicholson, who fell in love with an ice cream dispenser he named "Carla" and continued to mourn "her" death episodes later.
• The Loud House has three In-Universe examples: Luan with her dummy Mr. Coconuts, Lucy with the bust of an Expy of Edward Cullen named "Edwin", and Lily with a teddy bear. Both has referred to the inanimate object as their "soulmate" and, at one point, Lincoln sees Lucy kissing Edwin's bust.
• The Amazing World of Gumball: Happens In-Universe in "The Love", when Bobert falls in love with an old vacuum cleaner.
• Referenced in episode 2 of Tuca & Bertie in a Freeze-Frame Bonus. One of the videos suggested from the car crashes Tuca is watching is titled "I want to kiss a car."
• Played for laughs in-universe in the Jelly Jamm episode "White Trainers", where Goomo receives the eponymous shoes to replace his flip-flops. The montage of him doing everything but actually wearing the shoes plays out like a Falling-in-Love Montage, employing multiple romance tropes such as Spaghetti Kiss, Sweetie Graffiti, and Watching the Sunset.
• Nerds and Monsters has Zarg and Maiden Cheena, an inflatable pool toy who Zarg considers his wife.
• The final episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is about XR falling in love with the team's ship after it gains sentience, predating the Futurama episode "Love and Rocket" by two years.
• In the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Partying Is Such Sweet Soireé", Coco dates a lamp.