Distinction Without A Difference / Western Animation

Distinctions Without a Difference in Western Animation.

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• The Addams Family: "The Day Gomez Failed" has Gomez, who's tired of being great at everything, try to fail at something for once, only to succeed with blinding colors at everything he attempts in spite of himself. His quest to fail at something is finally stopped by Morticia telling him that he's been failing at failing, which is good enough for him.
• Adventure Time: In "Up a Tree", when Finn is being held prisoner by squirrels, he asks whether he will be a prisoner forever. The squirrel guard replies that that's only sort of true — he's simply a prisoner who will never be free.
  Finn: So does that mean I'm a prisoner forever?
  Squirrel: Well yes. And no. Are you a prisoner? Yes. Will you ever be free? No.
• Aladdin: The Series: In one episode, Iago says "This isn't stealing! It's surplus inventory reduction!"
• In the Alvin and the Chipmunks Halloween special, "Trick or Treason", Simon accuses Alvin of lying to him that they were going to go recycling when he was actually going to try prank a neighborhood kid everyone thought was a monster, but was really a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold.
  Alvin: No, I adjusted the truth to get what I wanted. Adults do it all the time.
  Simon: Don't stoop to their level!
• The Amazing World of Gumball:
  • Twice happens in "The Name":
    Gumball: I can't do it! I'm weak!
    Darwin: You're not weak! You just lack upper body strength, lower body strength, and mental strength!
    
    Gumball/Zach: Zach doesn't listen... he hears.
    Darwin: They're the same thing.
    Gumball: What's that? I can't listen you right now.
  • In "The Boss":
    Gumball: You have a better idea?
    Darwin: No, I have a much better idea.
• Archer:
  • A Running Gag is for somebody (usually Krieger) to be accused of some immoral or bizarre activity, then to give a long, implausible denial, and finally state "Also, yes."
  • In "Job Offer", we learn that Malory had moved without telling Archer when he was a kid coming back from Boarding School for the winter break, leaving him stranded at the station on Christmas.
    Malory: Eve! It was only Christmas Eve!
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • Avatar Kyoshi calls this out when Aang tries to say she wasn't responsible for Chin the Conqueror's death (he stubbornly refused to move when she caused a rift between two sections of land and wound up falling to his death). Kyoshi responds that there's no distinction to make; while she didn't actively kill Chin, she also made the deliberate choice to not prevent his death, and even then she was willing to kill him directly if he pushed the issue.
  • A group of pirates prefers to think of themselves as "high-risk traders".
• One episode of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse sees Barbie start a boutique that quickly becomes popular. Raquelle, envious as always, decides to open her own store to compete. She tasks her twin brother Ryan with stocking the shop and tells him what she'll be doing:
  Raquelle: I'll be formulating a business plan and conducting market research.
  Ryan: ...you're gonna go spy on Barbie.
  Raquelle: [already in camouflage] I'm gonna go spy on Barbie.
• Bojack Horseman: At the end of Season 3, Princess Carolyn decides to leave her career as a Hollywood agent to focus on her new relationship... and then decides to become a "manager" instead. The distinction between the two she states is incredibly flimsy and from that point on, she is clearly doing exactly what she did before. Even characters that exist entirely in her own imagination are confused by it.
• Central Park: Owen (and the Shart tagger)'s nervous tic of rubbing their hands on their pants when they're stressed or nervous isn't a compulsion, it's just "automatic, and [they] get upset if [they] can't do it."
• The Critic: In one episode, Jay's mother Eleanor writes a very cruel children's book based on Jay called The Fat Little Pig. Jay asks if it's about him, and she replies, "No, no, a thousand times, no... well yes, but so what?"
• Danger Mouse uses this in "Gremlin Alert" when he corners the anti-logic Gremlin with a "how can you agree with me when gremlins always disagree?" argument.
• Dan Vs.:
  • "Dan vs. the Bank", Dan corrects Chris that they won't go to jail for robbing the bank. Prison, probably, but not jail.
  • "Dan vs. the Dinosaur": Dan admits to being "a deceiver, a misleader, and a fabricator", but denies being a liar.
• In the series finale of Daria, Kevin reveals to Brittany that instead of going to college like the rest of his class, he has to repeat his senior year. He initially tries to lie saying his grades were so good, they want to see if he can do it again.
  Brittany: Oh... (realization sinks in) Wait a minute! Your grades aren't good! Kevvy! You flunked!
  Kevin: No, no, no. I just didn't pass.
• DuckTales (2017): In "Louie's Eleven", the Three Caballeros tell Scrooge they aren't asking him to give them money, but rather expensive stuff like a jet. Then they decide he's too busy to go jet-shopping and say they would just take the money to do it themselves.
• Family Guy:
  • Rush Limbaugh regarding his car: "I'm not saying you have to be gay to drive something else, but if you drive something else, you're probably a guy who likes to pleasure other men sexually".
  • "It's not so much that I want to kill [my mother], just that I want to... make it so that she's not alive anymore."
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, "Berry Scary": "We can still do it together, just without you."
• In "Franklin's Maple Syrup" from Franklin, when Bear and Franklin lose a sledding race to Rabbit and Fox, they cheer about being first and Bear cheers "We're second!" Franklin asks what's great about being second when there's nobody to be third. Bear argues that it's better than saying that they lost.
• Futurama:
  • From "The Problem with Popplers":
    Fry: It looks like a ditch full of fried shrimp!
    Bender: What are you, blind? It looks more like a hole full of fried prawns!
  • From "Anthology of Interest I", Bender claims that since "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word he prefers the term "extortion". The "x" makes it sound cool.
  • "The Cryonic Woman" has this happen two times. The first occasion is when Fry claims that he doesn't regret a decision he made, but he does rue and lament it. The second is when he claims that his girlfriend is clearly different because before she was demanding and possessive, but now she wants him to do stuff for her and be with her all the time.
  • In "The Sting", Professor Farnsworth assures Leela that nobody's saying she's going crazy, but he is thinking it loudly.
  • "A Clone of My Own" uses this twice. This is first invoked when Dr. Zoidberg makes a joke about how he's not saying that Professor Farnsworth is old, "but considering his age, he's likely to die soon". Later, Farnsworth's young clone Cubert states that just because they're identical in every way it doesn't mean he's anything like him.
  • In "The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz", Free Waterfall Sr. assures Leela that they're not going to enjoy shooting penguins... but if they have to shoot penguins, they might as well enjoy it.
• The Ghost and Molly McGee: In "Getting the Band(shell) Back Together", Molly and her family are trying to raise money for repairs to the Brighton Bandshell. Scratch comes in with a big sack of cash, and Molly accuses him of stealing it from a bank. Scratch insists he didn't, but after a dye pack goes off in his face he admits he stole it from a credit union.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  Mandy: Objection! He's leading the witness!
  Billy: I'm not leading him, I'm just making him say everything I want him to!
• Invasion America: When the evil Dragit attempts to capture the Cale Oosha so he can invade/conquer Earth, this exchange takes place:
  Cale: TREASON!
  Dragit: Revolution.
• Kaeloo:
  • In the episode "Let's Play Gangster Poker", Kaeloo tells Mr. Cat that she and the others wanted to play poker, but Stumpy lost the cards. Stumpy explains that he didn't lose the cards, he just doesn't know where he put them.
  • In Episode 145, Kaeloo sees Stumpy playing a war-themed video game and gets mad because she'd told him not to play games based on war. Stumpy tells Kaeloo that the game isn't about war, but a game about stopping an enemy from attacking your territory, stealing your weapons, and going out with your sister.
• Kim Possible: Drakken once decided to start "outsourcing" instead of "stealing"... yeah.
• The Little Rascals: In "King of the Hobos", after Porky introduces his friends to Boxcar Bill, Darla asks the hobo to wash all the windows on her house.
  Boxcar Bill: You mean, work?
  Darla: Think of it as a game you have to play.
• Muppet Babies: In "Piggy's Time Machine", when Miss Nanny scolds Piggy for being impatient for her birthday, Piggy insists that she's not impatient, she just wants her birthday to happen now.
• In My Adventures with Superman, after Clark Kent discovers that Lois Lane stole the Daily Planet badges of Cat Grant, Ron Troupe and Steve Lombardi.
  Clark: You stole their badges?
  Lois: No. I borrowed them.. secretly.. when they weren't looking.
  Clark That's the definition of stealing.
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey: Lampshaded in an episode where Adam thinks that Lola the llama is trying to steal Ingrid's life.
  Windsor: It does appear that Ingrid is a victim of an APA: Aggressive Pack Assimilation. It's when a wayward and oftentimes mentally unstable animal with no pack to speak of attempts to circumvent the normal and customary rituals for joining a group by simply disposing of the weakest member and taking their place.
  Adam: So, Lola's stealing Ingrid's life? That's what I said.
  Windsor: Yes, but my description was wordier.
• Played for Laughs in The Oblongs when Bob gets injured at Globicide's theme park and their legal team is trying to placate him so he doesn't sue:
  Lawyer: Just whatever you do, don't talk to any lawyers!
  Pickles: But aren't YOU guys lawyers?
  Lawyer: Heavens, no! We're attorneys!
• The Raccoons: In "Moving In!", when the Pigs talk to Mr. Willow about getting unemployed:
  Pig One: As a result of recent cutbacks, we find ourselves available for gainful employment.
  Pig Three: But we'd settle for a job.
• Rick and Morty: In "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", Rick explains to Morty how he created a microscopic universe with a planet filled with intelligent life that manually generate electricity for themselves and secretly, to Rick's car.
  Morty: You have a whole planet sitting around making your power for you? That's slavery!
  Rick: It's society. They work for each other, Morty. They pay each other, they buy houses, they get married and make children that replace them when they get too old to make power-
  Morty: That just sounds like slavery with extra steps.
• Rugrats (1991): In an episode just after Chas and Kira's wedding (and after the word "no" was established as Chuckie's first word), Chuckie is offered some juice and accepts, despite replying with "no". The adults understand him. This is Truth in Television, as "no" is easier to pronounce and is learned earlier.
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: In the first episode season 3, Hordak plans to exile Catra to Beast Island as punishment for letting Shadow Weaver escape, but Entrapta points out that Catra has improved the Horde's efficiency since she's so good at finding First Ones tech. So Hordak decides to send Catra to the Crimson Waste instead so she can find more tech.
  Catra: The Crimson Waste? It's a total dead zone. Nothing survives out there.
  Hordak: (chuckles) Exactly.
• The Simpsons:
  • "Tennis the Menace":
    Lisa: You're replacing me?
    Homer: Oh Lisa, dumping is such a harsh word. Let's just say I'm replacing you.
  • From "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife", when caught lying, Homer claims that he was writing fiction with his mouth.
  • "Team Homer":
    Mr. Burns: Look at them, Smithers, enjoying their embezzlement.
    Smithers: I have a much uglier word for it, sir: misappropriation.
  • "Homer Defined":
    • When the power plant is having a meltdown, Kent Brockman asks Mr. Burns about it in a news report. Mr. Burns replies saying that meltdown is "one of those annoying buzzwords" and calls the situation an "unrequested fission surplus".
    • When Marge is trying to convince Milhouse's mom that Bart isn't a bad influence, she explains "He's got a spark. It's not a bad thing. Of course, it makes him do bad things..."
  • In "Krusty Gets Busted", when Krusty the Clown is accused of armed robbery and the Simpsons are gathering Krusty merchandise for a public bonfire, Homer firmly denies giving in to mob mentality. He's just hopping on the bandwagon.
  • In "I Am Furious (Yellow)" when Bart creates the web comic "Angry Dad", based on Homer, he claims that it's actually a Composite Character of his dad, Lisa's dad, and Maggie's dad. Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, of course, are full-blood siblings.
  • In "Don't Fear the Roofer", Homer is led to believe that his new friend was a hallucination. Doctor Hibbert states that this is usually treated with electroshock therapy. When Homer is worried, he clarifies that the correct medical term is electroconvulsive therapy, which makes Homer feel better.
  • In "Homer Simpson in: Kidney Trouble", Homer insists to Moe and his fellow bargoers that his upcoming kidney extraction surgery is a "procedure," not an "operation."
• In Sonic Boom, Cubot does this frequently, almost to the point of Running Gag.
  Orbot: But what will we do in your absence?
  Cubot: Never mind that, what are we gonna do while you're away?
  • Knuckles also does it on at least one occasion, in "Aim Low":
    Tails: Ever since Eggman got depressed, Sonic's been making me nuts!
    Knuckles: He hasn't cooked for me. He's just been driving me crazy.
• South Park:
  • "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery": "They're not pirate ghosts; they're ghost pirates!". The distinction, apparently, is that a ghost pirate is the ghost of a pirate, whereas a pirate ghost is a ghost that decided to become a pirate.
  • "Crack Baby Athletics Association":
    I don't make the rules for crack baby basketball. I just think them up and then write them down.
  • "Bloody Mary":
    "I'm not drinking and driving, I'm driving while I'm drinking. Right, boys?"
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • "Storm over Ryloth": When Commander Axe asks Ahsoka why they're retreating, she replies that they're "not retreating. [They're] following orders." Those orders are to retreat.
  • "A Distant Echo": When Anakin comments that he hopes no one is afraid of heights, the other Bad Batchers all turn and look at Wrecker. He denies that he's afraid of heights, just that he "has a problem with gravity" when he's high up. So... he's afraid of heights.
• Super Mario World:
  • Oogtar puts it plain and simple. "Oogtar not lost! Oogtar just... not know where he is."
  • This exchange:
    Oogtar: Oogtar not run. Oogtar jogging for health!
    Yoshi: Jogging good for health?
    Oogtar: Is when hungry, Oogtar-eating caterpillar behind you!
• TaleSpin: In "Plunder and Lightning", Don Karnage insists that he and his crew will not be robbing Cape Suzette, they'll be plundering it. The difference being, in his mind, that when a pirate is the one doing the stealing and looting it becomes more dashing and romantic.
• Tangled: The Series: In "Fitzherbert P.I.", when Eugene asks the other crooks whether they agree with Cassandra's statement that he's a two-bit hood who's no good at anything other than lying, cheating, and stealing, Big-Nose says that they don't agree with her, as such. They simply happen to have come to the same exact conclusion.
• Played for Laughs in What If…? (2021) episode 2, where the redeemed Thanos of that timeline insists that, while he's no longer attempting to wipe out half of all life in the universe, he thinks the plan had merits. When Okoye points out that it sounds an awful lot like genocide, Thanos argues that it isn't because it's randomly selected. This is technically true, since the Geneva conventions define genocide as the targeted extermination of an ethnic, national, religious, or racial group, and randomly killing half of all people in the universe doesn't target any specific group. That said, "indiscriminate mass murder" is functionally the same as genocide at that point.

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