Diegetic Soundtrack Usage / Western Animation

Examples of Diegetic Soundtrack Usage from Western animation.

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Examples:

• The 7D: The Bing-Bong Bell's chimes are a rendition of the show's opening theme.
• In the Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers episode "Battle of the Bandits" our heroes perform (or pretend to perform) the theme song in a competition.
• Adventure Time: At the end of the Grand Finale, "Come Along with Me", Finn and Jake talk to The Music Hole, who has come up with a new song. The song turns out to be the Adventure Time credits theme (which was composed by the Music Hole's voice actor). The title of this episode also comes from the credits theme's lyrics.
• In at least one episode of Alvin and the Chipmunks, the theme song popped up on the radio.
• The end credits theme shows up a few times in The Amazing World of Gumball, the conclusion of "The Fan" has Sarah awkwardly singing the tune, with Gumball questioning her, right before the show cuts to credits. In "The Disaster" and "The Rerun" two parter the Wattersons sing the end credits theme, while making up their own lyrics, at the beginning of each episode. The jingle also shows up when Sarah is inspecting the notebook from The Awesome Store in "The Shippening", and in the last moment of the last episode, on a freeze frame of Rob falling in The Void.
• In The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, Felix is heard humming a beautiful tune while using the vacuum in "The Manhattan Triangle", and he is seen humming the Felix the Cat theme while turning his tail into a banana in "The Fuzzy Bunny Show".
• Jake and Halley's cellphones in American Dragon: Jake Long feature the opening theme as a ringtone. Spud also sings a few bars of the themes in one of the later season 2 episodes.
• Pinky is knocked silly in an episode of Animaniacs and mumbles, "There's baloney in our slacks" as he stumbles around. It's a line from the opening theme.
  • "Take My Siblings, Please" has Wakko playing with this trope while singing to himself: "We're tiny, we're toony, we're all a little looney... Nah, I'm tired of that one. It's time for Animaniacs!"
  • And another episode featured Beethoven attempting to compose his fifth symphony. Songs he tries and rejects include the themes of Looney Tunes, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Animaniacs. Apparently the writers liked this gag.
• Arthur:
  • In "D.W., Dancing Queen", while Binky is giving advice to D.W., he begins to recite the lyrics of the the show's theme song. When the familiarity is pointed out, he comments that he heard it somewhere but can't quite remember where.
  • "Breezy Listening Blues" has an instrumental of the theme being played off a CD. Arthur comments it sounds familiar, and Buster wonders if the music contains subliminal messages.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender has a slightly more dramatic version in "The Firebending Masters" when the closing theme is played by characters during the climax of the episode.
• The music played in the opening titles of each of The Beatles cartoons was the signature music for King Features Syndicate's television distribution arm.
• At the beginning of the crossover episode Ben 10/Generator Rex: Heroes United, Rex muses that he could use his own theme song, and starts singing one. However, instead of singing his show's Real Song Theme Tune, he sings a new one to the tune of the original Ben 10 series.
• BoJack Horseman:
  • "Escape From L.A." uses the theme music in one of its final scenes, to highlight how Bojack has fallen back into his horrible cycle of behavior, with his actions forcing him to return back to Los Angeles.
  • In another episode, Ana Spanakopita asks Bojack whether he's "A horse or a man", paraphrasing the end credits tune.
• Some of the lyrics of The Boondocks theme tune make a cameo in "The Story of Catcher Freeman", specifically "... [be] a soldier, until the war is won".
• Bubble Guppies, in the episode "Bubble Scrubbies".
• The Bump in the Night episode "Auntie Matta" began with Squishington whistling the theme song.
• Bunsen Is a Beast features an instrumental version of the show's theme song in "Wilda Beast".
• The Butt-Ugly Martians episode "Meet Gorgon" has Ronald hum the show's theme song.
• In Caillou's Holiday Movie, Caillou performed an original Christmas song to the tune of the show's theme song.
• In Captain Pugwash, Tom the Cabin Boy is an expert concertina player, and part of his repertoire is "The Trumpet Hornpipe" (a.k.a. the Captain Pugwash theme).
• In an episode of Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, Cheer, Harmony, Trueheart, and Love-a-lot start a band and are heard practicing the show's theme song.
• Unlocking a good ending in the Carmen Sandiego interactive special "To Steal or Not To Steal" will net you a bonus clip of the cast singing the theme song from a different incarnation of the franchise — specifically, Rockapella's theme from Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego.
• One Casper the Friendly Ghost Christmas special features the title ghost meeting up with a girl named Holly Jolly (yes, really). Holly, embarrassed by her, ah, seasonal name, tells Casper to imagine how embarrassing it would be to have "Holly Jolly" for a name — Casper proceeds to imagine his own theme song, with the words "Casper" replaced with "Holly Jolly". Its Ear Worm tendencies are also lampshaded near the end of the scene:
  Casper: Oh, great. Now I've got that song stuck in my head.
  ''(flies off with the "Holly Jolly the Friendly Ghost" song playing in his head}
• The Adventures of Chip 'n Dale was a compilation special made in the late 1950s featuring a bunch of Chip 'n Dale shorts tied together with a catchy theme tune ("I'm Chip! I'm Dale! We're just a couple of crazy rascals out to have some fun!"). At the beginning of one of the shorts ("Donald Applecore"), Donald Duck starts singing this song to himself as he's heading out to harvest apples, only to catch himself and call himself an idiot.
• On Chip and Potato, Chip's family uses the music of the show's theme tune as the tune for their own intro song for their home movies.
• Chowder:
  • One episode had Shnitzel literally facing the music, which happens to be the show's theme song. Chowder cheerfully hummed along while Shnitzel begged them to stop.
  • Done in another episode, when the tune plays on the radio and Mung Daal sings along nervously in an attempt to drown out the sound of Chowder and Schnitzel being mauled to near-death by Meaches.
• In The Cleveland Show episode, "'Til Deaf", Donna plays the title theme with a recorder when Cleveland leaves in a not-so hunting trip.
• In The Critic episode, "Siskel, Ebert, Jay & Alice", the show's theme plays at the Academy Awards as Jay comes out to present an Oscar.
• Danger Mouse, Penfold and Colonel K perform the show's theme at the end of "Play It Again, Wufgang" due to the villain Wufgang Bach stealing all the music in the world, including the episode's normal music. The show's announcer, Isombard Sinclair, accepts no responsibility for it.
• Found in Danny Phantom:
  • Tucker's cell phone's ringtone in "Double Cross My Heart".
  • Danny plays it on giant-robot-Technus' chest in "Attack of the Killer Garage Sale".
• In an episode of Darkwing Duck a brief scene shows Megavolt pacing in his lighthouse tower, singing a version of the title theme, with no lyrics. He soon breaks off and complains, "Agh, I can't get that song out of my head!" His irritation is understandable, since the song is a Bragging Theme Tune about his nemesis.
• The British Dennis the Menace's ringtone is an 8-bit version of Dennis & Gnasher's main theme
• Dinosaur Train: The characters sometimes sing the show theme tune, at least the part about "We're gonna ride, ride, ride the Dinosaur Train."
• In "Le Dia Del Maestro" from Dragon Tales, Enrique sings a portion of the "Clap" song from the "Dragon Tunes," the melody of which is used for the song for Quetzal's Teacher Day (Le Dia Del Maestro.)
• The Drawn Together theme appears in altered versions serving as a sub-theme in various episodes.
  • In "Ghostesses in the Slot Machine", a jazzy version serves as the theme to a Trading Spaces parody.
  • In "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special", a mellow version serves as the theme to a parody of Very Special Episodes.
  • In "Mexican't Buy Me Love", a tejano version serves as the theme to a Mexican-flavored episode.
• In The Dreamstone, characters can sometimes be heard humming "Better Than A Dream". A polka version is also heard in the episode "Zarak".
• DuckTales (2017): In the episode "The Last Adventure!", an instrumental version of the show's iconic theme music is played in-universe by a band of animatronic musicians at Funzo's Fun Zone during Webby's birthday party.
• At the beginning of the Dungeons & Dragons (1983) cartoon episode "Child of the Stargazer", Diana is humming the D&DC theme-music.
• In the episode "Read All About Ed" in Ed, Edd n Eddy, while delivering newspapers, Double D is briefly heard whistling the show's theme song.
• On Esme & Roy, a portion of the theme tune is used as the alert signal telling the two that they have a monster child to babysit.
• Occurs in The Fairly OddParents!:
  • When Timmy wishes to be able to read minds, and hears elevator music when reading Cosmo's.
  • At the beginning of the TV movie "Timmy's Secret Wish!", upon Timmy wishing his one millionth wish, Jorgen Von Strangle gives him a song written just for him. After getting through the first few lines, he decides it's a bad fit and calls for the band he summoned to play a different tune.
• The end of the Family Guy episode "Believe It or Not, Joe's Walking on Air" had Peter humming the theme song (with the line "Joke's on you" in place of "Laugh and cry" included) when Joe is back to being paraplegic.
• In Fish Hooks, many of the characters have the theme song set as their ringtone, most notably Bea.
• Often done on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, by various characters.
• In an episode of Freakazoid!, Dexter hums a few notes of the opening sequence as he takes out the garbage.
• Garfield and Friends often had characters humming or softly singing the theme songs. Interestingly, this they'd continue to sing the original theme even after the show had switched to its second theme song; possibly because the new one, while less inappropriately saccharine, was not as easy to hum.
  • Lanolin even parodies the theme in one episode: "Friends are there to help you get started, but once you get started, who needs 'em?"
  • The Spanish version of "Fortune Kooky" has Wade singing "Friends are there" in Spanish while walking. In the original version, he was happily singing a generic song.
  • Orson would eventually sing the second theme song in "The Wolf Who Cried Boy" while bathing. The instrumental version of this music sounds almost like a kazoo playing it.
  • Nermal hums the theme song while carving meat he received from Herman Post in the episode "Cute For Loot".
  • In a season 1 episode, Bo sings the song, and says that it has been stuck in his head. He turns to the viewer and comments that he wonders where he heard it.
• A more comedic episode of Gargoyles ends with a minor character walking away, humming the show's theme.
• In the G.I. Joe episode "Cold Slither" COBRA tries to brainwash audiences with subliminal messages in a rock band's music; the Joes foil the plot at a concert, and pacify the crowd by becoming The Average Joe Band. Guess what song they play?
• The season 2 premiere of The Ghost and Molly McGee has its opening titles segue into a jam session with Molly and Scratch poorly playing instruments, as they are recording the video for the theme song the duo may someday need.
• Harvey Street Kids:
  • In "Blame That Tune", the show's main theme proves to be the only thing capable of getting an Ear Worm out of the kids' heads.
  • "Whoa-oh-oh-oh! It's the Harvey Girls!"
• In one episode of Henry Hugglemonster, the Hugglemonster family all play the theme song for a concert.
• In one episode of the Seventies puppet animation series Here Comes Mumfie, Mumfie and his friend Scarecrow meet an old man who has a collection of boxes that, when opened, produce various sound effects. At the end of the episode, Mumfie opens one of these boxes (which he has just been given as a gift) and the show's theme music starts to play, leading into the closing titles.
• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi naturally has this trope come into play several times. Two examples:
  • Kaz singing the theme tune HORRIBLY, near the end of "Dis-Harmony".
  • The Talent Suckers, in their debut episode, sing the theme tune as well, after they steal the girls' talent.
• An episode of Horrid Henry has the titular character sing the theme song to a group of OAPs. He says that it's an "old classic" of "The Killer Boy Rap Stars" (Henry's favourite band).
• In House of Mouse various characters have a Leitmotif that plays in the shorts and their intros. Several episodes feature Mickey humming along with his own theme.
• I Am Weasel, "I Are Music Man". Red Guy repeatedly sings the lyrics of the show's theme song to "Pop Goes the Weasel" (which is in fact the melody of the theme).
• On his way to Hobo 13 in the episode of the same name, Invader Zim shows off to GIR while flying the Voot Runner. While doing so, he starts sing the theme song.
• The Jetsons' doorbell plays the first four notes of their theme song ("Meet George Jetson...").
• In an episode of Justice League Unlimited, Green Arrow hums along to his own Theme Music Power-Up (though it's his personal Leitmotif, not the show's theme). And then the instrumental version plays, similar to the Castle example above. Link.
  • Earlier in the DC Animated Universe, an episode of Batman: The Animated Series had the Joker whistling his own Leitmotif.
  • In the episode "The Once and Future Thing Part 1", when the time-displaced Justice League members saddle up with some of DC's other Old West characters and take off to the villain's hideout, a Western version of the original Justice League theme plays.
    • Coincidentally, the "Western Justice League" consists of seven members, the same as the show's original League.
• In one episode of Kaeloo, Stumpy's Not So Innocent Whistling is to the tune of the theme song.
• Kim Possible:
  • The Kimmunicator's ringtone, heard in pretty much every episode, with the four-note sequence being the first notes of the theme song.
  • In the episode "Team Impossible", the team faces a group of professional heroes for hire with their own theme song, and Ron spends the rest of the episode writing one for himself and Kim in response. One of the songs he comes up with is, naturally, the show's theme song.
  • Also in Sitch in Time, she gives Ron his own "Ronmunicator" so he can "Call me or beep me, you know, if you want to reach me." Further, in So the Drama, Kevin's dad says he'll give Kevin her number, so he can "call you, bee—" (and that's as much as we get, but we all knew where it was going).
  • In another episode, Ron attempts to win a rap music contest, and his entry is Rufus's theme from the soundtrack. Ron would hum the "Naked Mole Rap" in at least two other episodes after that.
• A rather hilarious example from LEGO Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles in The Empire Strikes Out. When Darth Maul makes his first appearance, how exactly does he enter? By singing his own rendition of "Duel Of The Fates" with lyrics consisting mostly of the word "awesome". Yes, that is still Sam Witwer voicing him.
• In "I Want to be Tall" on Little Princess, Little Princess sings to the theme tune that she's a big princess when faking being tall. In "I Want My Plaster," the "brave song" is the theme tune sung on "la." In another installment, the Queen is playing an instrumental of the theme on a radio while taking a bath. (With the radio on the edge of the bathtub no less, which really isn't advisable.) In "I Want to Recycle," Princess sings her song about how she's not going to waste things to the tune of the theme.
• Littlest Pet Shop (2012)
  • Blythe's ringtone is a MIDI/chip tune version of the cartoon's theme song.
  • In "Commercial Success", Blythe and Mrs. Twombly brainstorm ideas for their LPS commercial. One of them is of Mrs. Twombly singing a Broadway-style version of the theme song.
• At least one episode of Lolirock had the main characters singing part of the show's theme at the end of the episode.
• The familiar themes to Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes have been featured in several early cartoons with lyrics. "Merrily We Roll Along" was used in Billboard Frolics (1935) and Toy Town Hall (1936, both performed by an animated Eddie Cantor, who co-wrote the theme) before even becoming the Merrie Melodies theme. "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (Looney Tunes) was a standard from 1934 and was performed by Daffy Duck with different lyrics in 1938's Daffy Duck and Egghead as well as 1949's Boobs in the Woods. Similarly, "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter", which debuted in Bright Lights (1935), became the sing-along centerpiece of a Merrie Melodies short of the same name, as well as being sung by Daffy Duck in Daffy Doodles.
• The "Cabin Fever" episode of Magic Adventures of Mumfie has Mumfie whistle the theme song to the annoyance of Scarecrow. It also plays as background music.
• Maryoku Yummy, in the episode "The Best, Best Friend".
• One episode of Megas XLR has Coop teaching an S-Force friend how to sing Karaoke. We don't get to hear the music, but we do see that the lyrics are the show's theme tune.
• On Max and Ruby, the theme song often turns up on the in-show radios and speakers.
• Miraculous Ladybug:
  • The titular heroine whistles part of the show's theme song as she casually approaches Puppeteer in the eponymous episode after having rendered her and all of the villains harmless, allowing Ladybug to effortlessly purify Puppeteer's Akuma.
  • In "Frightningale", singer Clara Nightingale is shooting a music video for a song titled "Miraculous" that was inspired by the exploits of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Said song straight up is the show's theme song.
  • While not actually singing, during season 5, Marinette occassionally uses the phrase "I'm just an ordinary girl with an ordinary life", which is from the monologue she gives before the show's theme song starts.
• Molly of Denali: The show's theme song recurs as Molly's phone ringtone.
• The traditional My Little Pony theme is heard often on Friendship Is Magic, mostly as background music, although characters have hummed it on occasion.
• Ninjago: In "The Last Voyage", Cole whistles the Ninjago Overture when the ninja are repairing their ship. When Lloyd looks at him he says "What? It's catchy."
  • The Weekend Whip can be heard at the ends of Season 8, Sons of Garmadon, and Season 9, Hunted (two of the only three arcs of the show not to use it as the opening theme). The first time the Ninja sing the song as part of Kareoke and the second time Lego versions of the Fold (the real life band that performs the song) sing it at a massive party thrown in the ninja's honor.
• In The Owl House episode "Hunting Palismen", the Golden Guard whistles the show's opening theme.
• Used twice in PJ Masks:
  • In "Catboy's Tricky Ticket", the heroes sing their own theme song after stealing Jayden Houston's golden microphone back from Luna Girl.
  • In "Moonfizzle Balls", Catboy sings the theme song to snap Gekko and Owlette out of Luna Girl's Moonfizzle Balls induced trance.
• PAW Patrol:
  • In "Pups Save Ryder", the titular Distressed Dude can be heard whistling the theme song at the beginning of the episode.
  • In "Pups Party with Bats", Rubble plays a techno version of the theme tune.
• The Patrick Star Show:
  • In "Neptune's Ball", the music that Squidina wants to play on the DJ's sound system is an instrumental of the show's theme song.
  • In "A Root Galoot", when Shmandrake sees Patrick on TV, the music playing in the background is the Patrick Show's end credits theme.
• Peanuts:
  • The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show: There's a skit surrounding jack-in-the-boxes, each of which plays the show's theme song. In another skit, Snoopy plays an organ grinder playing the theme tune as well.
  • Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales has Snoopy playing a little music, only for Lucy to pass by and comment that "O Suzanna" wasn't very Christmas-y. In response, Snoopy switches to "Christmastime is Here", from the original A Charlie Brown Christmas.
  • In the original strip, Snoopy was playing "Lady of Spain", but supposedly, they couldn't afford the rights to the song.
  • At the end of the This Is America, Charlie Brown episode on American music, Charlie Brown is asked his favorite song, and he replies that it's one by Vince Guaraldi. "I believe it's called "Linus and Lucy" — by coincidence."
• The Penguins of Madagascar has its theme as elevator music and one Kowalski whistles it.
• In Percy The Park Keeper, Percy sometimes idly whistles the theme tune while he's at work.
• Peppa Pig:
  • “Whistling”: The tune the characters whistle is the theme song.
  • “Musical Instruments”: The theme song is played on various instruments.
  • Peppa, her classmates and Daddy Pig play a lively rock-and-roll version of the theme tune in "Shake, Rattle and Bang" to end the episode.
• In the Pepper Ann episode "The One With Mr. Reason" P.A. whistles the show's theme song.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  • A Running Gag is the kids putting into action the wild activities mentioned in the lyrics or shown onscreen. For example, in "Last Train to Bustville", Ferb takes out a list with items like "Frankenstein's brain" and "Climb Eiffel Tower" and checks off "Find Dodo bird". Buford is liable to break the fourth wall about it; he'd much rather give a monkey a shower (which, for the record, they've already done) than build a robot dog, and just mumbles "main title, whatever" when Phineas and Ferb show off the nanobots they've created.
  • The second verse of the song plays in "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo", when Phineas and Ferb Time Travel 20 years into the future and meet their nephews. They (along with a 20-years-older Bowling for Soup in a Creator Cameo) encourage the next generation to make their summer count.
  • The Tag for "Phineas' Birthday Clip-O-Rama" set various clips of Candace calling for her mother to the instrumental theme song for a Voice Clip Song.
  • The song "Summer (Where Do We Begin?)" from the Big Damn Movie briefly segues into the opening theme.
  • In their May the Farce Be with You special, they appropriately get a Star Wars spin: an instrumental version of a few lines plays as Phineas and Ferb's speeder horn, and they tell their mother that they plan to give a Bantha a shower later that day. They receive their Call to Adventure as they return home from said Bantha-cleaning.
  • "Doof 101", the very rare episode set during the school year, has Doofenshmirtz point out that "There's 261 days 'til next summer vacation".
• "Pink Panther and Pals", "Pink Pink Pink Pink", Pink Panther plays the theme song on his keyboard.
  • In the earlier theatrical short "Pink Plunk Plink," he disrupts an orchestra performance with his constant attempts to inject the Pink Panther theme into it.
• Popeye used to sing his theme song in every cartoon in the really old days, and, as time went on, he still contented himself with humming or scatting the theme of the tune while walking down the street.
  • Later in the Fleischer series and from then on, the Popeye theme would be used when he ate his spinach.
• In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever," the girls stay inside and pretend to be themselves, humming their own theme song. One of only a swarm of hilarious Mythology Gags and more normal jokes from that particular episode.
• Postman Pat often hums the theme song. In one episode where it's his wife Sara delivering the post, she sings the actual lyrics, albeit with the pronouns altered from male to female.
• Puppy in My Pocket: Adventures in Pocketville: The theme song, the Friendship Song, exists in the Pocket Kingdom. It's often heard everywhere.
  • It's often sung during Friendship Ceremonies, and even during the ceremony in episode "Finally Free" in which Kate and Magic become honorary Royal Guards.
  • The song is heard from the first Magic Drop found in "Going Home".
  • In "Friendship is a Treasure", Kate and her friends arrive at the secret golden flower field, they hear this song.
  • In "A Gift for Ava," a group of bats in the Bottomless Cave sing this song, which catches the attention of Kate and Magic. One bat even knows Kate as a famous singer of it.
• Razzberry Jazzberry Jam: As shown in “Billie’s Biggest Fan”, “We Wanna Thank You” is not only the show’s Ending Theme but also how the Jazzberries close off their in-universe performances.
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • In "How We Found Your Sun", it is revealed that the Propulsions found Earth by picking up a radio signal that was playing a 1950s rock 'n' roll song called "Jet Propulsion". It sounds just like the show's theme song, and is the protagonist's namesake. However, it has different lyrics. Here are some lines from the song that can be heard during Jet's narration:
  Jet Propulsion, that's what I've got. Jet Propulsion, man I'm hot. I'm on fire, baby give me some room. You've brought love to light up the room. It was a love by the light of the moon. E=Mc2, baby you could take me there.
  • In the beginning of "Satellite Selfie", Jet hums the show's theme song.
    • Also in that episode, Sean, Jet, and Mindy briefly reminisce about how Jet got to Earth. An instrumental version of the show's theme song plays during it.
• Season 5 of The Real Ghostbusters does this quite a bit, mostly characters humming the tune but in episode 14 Ray sings the opening lyrics.
• The Rupert episode "Rupert's Undersea Adventure" featured Rupert Bear whistling the show's opening theme together with the Whistle fish. In the episode "Rupert and Grolwer", Rupert also whistles the theme song while he's walking in the forest. ^note The original version, not the theme song used for the Nick Jr. broadcasts.
• Done as a deliberate fourth-wall breaker on Samurai Jack, where a boy whose family Jack stays with overnight expresses his admiration for the famous roving hero by singing a line from the show's theme song.
• Scooby-Doo:
  • On A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, at the end of an episode, two pop stars sing their new song, the theme song of the show.
  • One of the Scooby-Doo movies has Velma singing the classic theme song for a concert.
  • On What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Shaggy has the theme as his ringtone.
  • Almost every time recurring characters The Hex Girls (a Wiccan rock band) show up on What's New, Scooby-Doo? or in the movies, they end up singing the theme song.
  • In one episode of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Daphne hums the theme of The New Scooby-Doo Movies while brushing her hair.
  • Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island had Fred hum the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! theme song while getting ready for dinner.
• An actual plot point, in one episode of The Secret Show an Imposter had taken on the apperance of Anita and along with the real Anita, appeared at the same time to Victor. What does Victor do? As the Imposters don't replicate memories Victor simply had to sing the theme song of the show itself and took out the Anita that wasn't singing along!
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Bart Gets Famous", Bart comes downstairs whistling the Simpsons theme song only to be reprimanded by Marge for whistling "that annoying tune." (This is the first of many self-referential jokes within this episode.)
  • The producers of The Simpsons were thinking about adding a groan / scream to the beginning of the theme, simply because of the odds that someone would be groaning at hearing it again.
  • In "Angry Dad - The Movie", the theme song is played when Bart wins an award.
  • The same thing happened with Homer in "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes".
  • In "22 Short Films About Springfield," right before hitting Chief Wiggum with his car Snake can be heard listening to a remix of the show's theme.
  • At the end of "Homer's Triple Bypass", Homer's heart beats to the theme.
  • The ending of "Lisa vs Malibu Stacy" has Homer playing the theme on the toystore's giant floor keyboard a la Big.
  • The original Simpsons theme is used regularly in "Bart Gets Hit By a Car" and the mid-credits scene of "The Dad Who Knew Too Little."
  • In "Bart the Mother", Nelson is humming the theme while cooking.
• Classic example: The Smurfs are prone to la-la-ing their 1980s Animated Adaptation theme song. Even Gargamel does it in the 2021 version.
• In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Shocker, Ox, and Ricochet are riding an elevator, and Ox starts to hum the show's theme song, prompting the other two to stare at him. "What? It's catchy."
• The first time Peter Parker puts on the Spider-Man costume in Spider-Man Unlimited, the song that plays is the theme from Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • The Milestone Celebration special for the 20th anniversary special, "SpongeBob's Birthday Blow-Out", ends with the cast singing an original birthday song to the tune of the show's theme.
  • In a roundabout way in "I Was A Teenage Gary". The song that Gary, SpongeBob, and Squidward "sing" at the end of the episode is "Blow the Man Down", which is what the theme song of the show is based on.
  • Similarly done in "Wet Painters", with Mr. Krabs singing the tune as he gets back from shopping, and in "Krusty Krab Training Video" by the young Mr. Krabs during the "From Humble Beginnings" segment.
  • In "Krabs vs. Plankton", SpongeBob hums the credits tune of the show while walking into Mr. Krabs' office.
  • In "Old Man Patrick", SpongeBob sings a little of the theme song to Patrick to help him remember who he is.
  • In "Handemonium", SpongeBob starts singing the theme song to get Hans to show up and help fight the Chum Bucket glove.
  • In "Karen's Virus", Karen sings a deluded version of the theme song when she is infected with a computer virus.
  • At their impromptu performance near the end of "Krusty Koncessionaires", SpongeBob, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs perform "Peg Leg Waltz", one of the show's original soundtrack introduced in season 7.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks sends a Shout-Out to its franchise-mates Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager by having Boimler hum their theme tunes.
• During an Imperial parade in Star Wars Rebels, the band actually plays the Imperial March.
• The pilot episode of Steven Universe shows that the main theme was written by the titular character while waiting for the other Crystal Gems to return from a mission. In the series, it was the first song that Steven ever wrote as a young child. In the season five finale, we hear it as a Triumphant Reprise as Steven and company return to Earth and Steven is invited to sing during Sadie's concert. From there, it plays over a montage of the Diamonds healing the corrupted Gems.
• 'Strawberry Shortcake'':
  • In Berry Bitty Adventures, Strawberry has the theme song as a ringtone for her cell phone.
  • In Berry in the Big City episode "Trick AND TREAT", Strawberry is heard humming the "Fright Fall Night" song from Season 1.
• The closing theme of TMNT cartoon was frequently used as battle music on the show. Various other pieces of the show's music included their own snippets of the main theme.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) uses the theme song of the original TMNT as ringtones, and even a couple of times during victory dances.
• Teen Titans:
  • In one episode, a happy, upbeat Cyborg sings a version of the theme song centered around himself.
  • In Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, Beast Boy does a karaoke version with surreal Gratuitous English lyrics, and the entire cast sings this version over the end credits. Weirder still, the oddball lyrics Beast Boy sings are a mostly-accurate English translation of the Japanese version of the theme song!
  • The Titans' communicators play a tinny, ringtone-style version of their title theme's primary lick.
• In the Thomas & Friends episode "Percy and the Calliope", after finally getting the calliope to work, it plays a remix of the show's original theme music (a popular callback for older fans as it had long been replaced since then).
• In the 3-2-1 Penguins! episode "Practical Hoax", Zidgel hums the theme song when doing his hair.
• Several characters have whistled the theme tune for Total Drama, most notably Chef in "Paintball Deer Hunt".
  • And in the third season, it's revealed Chris's ring tone is the theme.
• On T.O.T.S. (Tiny Ones Transport Service), the signal alerting that there's a new baby to deliver is a brief instrumental of the opening of the theme song.
• Transformers has done this on a few occasions:
  • Hardhead sings the ending theme at a karaoke party in the Transformers: ★Headmasters episode "The Shadow Emperor, Scorponok".
  • Kakuryu sings a bit of the end theme to Transformers Victory in an early episode. Considering the theme tune sings about driving villains away, and The Dinoforce eventually turns against Deathsaurus, this qualifies as foreshadowing.
  • Beast Wars features Waspinator, after being shot out of the air, warbling a line from the original Transformers theme tune just before he collapsed into a crumpled heap.
    • In the pilot episode, when Cheetor encounters Waspinator, he first thinks it's a real wasp. When he realizes it's not, he says it must be "Robots in Disguise!", the famous line from the original Transformers theme.
  • Animated once showed Sari humming the theme song while listening to some music on headphones, even though the music playing sounded different. In another episode of Animated, Bumblebee left an auto parts store with a car horn that played the first few notes of the theme song. An in this short, Ratchet whistles it.
• One episode of The Trap Door had Berk finding a boombox and playing it. What played from it? The full version of the theme tune! The entire episode being nothing more than a glorified music video. At the end of the episode, Berk says he quite liked the song and hoped they'd play it again. Cut to credits and end theme.
• Undergrads has Good Charlotte guest star as the band preforming at a fair State U is having. Nitz says something along the lines of "Good Charlotte? What have they done that I've heard of?" Someone immediately walks by, listening to the show's theme song on an MP3 player. The band later sings the song at the fair itself.
• Not a theme tune, but in the VeggieTales episode "Madame Blueberry," the episode's Silly Song ("His Cheeseburger") shows up as muzak playing in the food court.
• In Wakfu, characters sometimes whistle the opening theme song. Ruel even hums it and references some of the lyrics. A big example of this trope is when Ruel uses a remix of the theme song as the sequence to a dance-pad activated lock to his house right afterwards. Evangelyne also hums it while showering in Sadlygrove's hallucination of her in episode 22.
• We Bare Bears: The last of the videos shown in "More Everyone's Tube" has an animated version of Estelle leading the Bears and their friends in an a capella extended version of the show's theme song.
• Oh, jeez... where to begin in Wild Kratts:
  • In the Season 2 episode "To Touch a Hummingbird", Chris Kratt brought it up as his favorite theme song. Martin winked like he knew what Chris was talking about, played his bugle and, in turn, PLAYED THE THEME SONG. It was so catchy, Chris and Martin were actually swaying to the beat. Of course, being true to their personalities, their original intention was to wake up Aviva and Koki, which of course succeeded, and led to Aviva doing a Facepalm and Koki's Berserk Button to be pressed. It doesn't help that this was the beginning scene right after the theme song was played as per the usual with every episode.
  • There was also the ringtone in the Season 3 episode The Hermit Crab Shell Exchange, when Chris called the Tortuga. The ringtone played on the big computer spanning the whole wall, Koki's screen and Aviva's computer. The only difference between this and To Touch a Hummingbird was that it played the last four—I'm sorry, five—words of the theme song (Go Wild Wild Wild Kratts!) instead of the whole theme song.
  • In the Season 3 episode Mystery on the Prairie, Chris can be heard whistling part of the chorus of the theme song as a bison spots him and he says, "Nothing but a buffalo bush here" and backs up slowly, keeping his hands in the air the whole time.
  • The Opossum in My Pocket episode had Chris, Martin and Aviva whistle the beginning part of the chorus of the theme song in unison as they were returning Jillybean to her mother.
  • Martin hummed part of it while walking around the alligator pool in Crocogator Contest.
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: Xavier briefly hums the show's theme tune at one point in "I Am Madam President".
• At the end of an early episode of X-Men: Evolution, a relaxed, jazzy tune plays over the kids' enjoying themselves in the pool. It's a version of the early '90s X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon theme.
• In "Zou's Drum" on Zou, Zou the zebra's Nana plays a gentle version of the show theme tune on the piano and Zou joins softly on his drum.

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