Eureka Moment / Western Animation

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• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius had a recurring delayed reaction to this. When the heroes have exhausted all their obvious options, Jimmy starts thinking about the episode's events. One completely ordinary-seeming event would pop into his mind, he'd shout "Brain Blast!", and he'd come up with a solution based on that event.
  • A similar thing happens in Chico Bon Bon: Monkey with a Tool Belt whenever Chico panics and a character suggests that he needs to take a Banana Break.
• In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Tails' New Home", Sonic tries to find Tails a home (due to Sonic's concern for Tails' well-being after the latter gets injured as a result of Scratch and Grounder) and he eventually finds Tails' real parents... or so he thinks; right after Sonic leaves Tails, it's revealed to be a trap set by Robotnik. Meanwhile, Sonic gets depressed over Tails being gone and has a flashback to when they first met and Sonic gave him the nickname Tails due to him hating his real name Miles, and then after remembering Tails' "father" saying "Tails belongs with his own kind", he then realizes that if those were actually Tails' real parents, that they would've called him Miles, not the nickname Sonic gave him (since they'd have no way of knowing it), and Sonic then immediately springs into action to save Tails from his fake parents and Robotnik.
• Finn from Adventure Time has one in which the word "RENCE" on one half of a murder weapon makes him think of Clarence, whom he had met several minutes prior.
  Jake: "Rence"?
  Finn: Some Donkus's real name must have been.... ReeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENCE?!?!
  • In "Apple Thief", Finn solves a case when he's tipped off by the sentence, "This place could use a scarecrow."
• According to Animaniacs, Albert Einstein has conceived his famous mass/energy equivalence formula (you know, E=mc^2) while watching Wakko writing "Acme" backwards (his "a" looked like a "2"). In a similar episode, the Warners were cleaning Beethoven's chimney (badly, of course) and humming an obnoxious tune that went a little something like "Hm hm hm hmmmmmmmm". As they're leaving, ol' Ludwig finally has the inspiration for his Fifth Symphony. The next house on the Warners' route is "that Van Gogh grouch again", and Wakko picks a sunflower to help cheer him up.
• Arcane: Viktor has a violent attack while experimenting with Hextech late at night that causes him to cough up blood and collapse. When he returns to the lab, he notices first that the Gemstone he was working with has changed color, and then his blood splattered on the table. This helps Viktor realize that it can react to organic matter.
• In Arthur, Buster Baxter solved a case involving missing quarters thanks to a comment from Alan, a.k.a. "Brain".
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: In "The Siege of the North - Part 2", Aang visits the Spirit World where a Face Stealer named Koh is the only one who knows the spirits of the ocean and the moon. Koh says the spirits are named Tui and La, and are always pushing and pulling in an endless dance. This causes Aang to realize the spirits are the two koi fish he looked at prior to crossing over.
• In Batman: The Animated Series, virtually every conversation Batman has with Alfred while pondering the crime du jour leads to a Eureka Moment (and an "Alfred! You're a genius!" declaration, and a bemused "Of course, sir" response).
  • In "What is Reality?, Batman and Alfred are staring at the Riddler's latest riddles and Alfred makes the comment that the riddles all involve numbers. From that, Batman turns the numbers into Roman numerals and then simultaneously, both declare, "Of course! The Department of Motor Vehicles!" (suddenly seeing the Roman numerals DMV together could easily be a Eureka Moment for any American.)
  • "Off Balance" has Batman deducing where Count Vertigo's hideout is when Alfred tells him that he soon won't know his right hand from his left. Yes, he was confused about which direction Vertigo escaped in because his senses were scrambled, and he had actually gone in the opposite direction Batman had originally thought.
  • In "Vendetta", Batman realizes the nature of his foe due to Alfred's offhand comment that he was going to keep dinner in a Crock Pot to keep it warm.
    Batman: Alfred! You're beautiful! [dashes off]
    Alfred: Imagine if I'd gotten around to telling him about the salad.
• The Batman has some moments like its predecessor, as well. In "The Clayface of Tragedy", Bruce deduces the true identity of Clayface after saving Alfred from being attacked by a sample of the clay.

  Alfred: Nasty puddle of putty, wouldn’t you say?
  Bruce: Putty…
  Alfred: Sir?
  Bruce: Joker’s Putty formula. What if Ethan was infected? Clayface was first seen in Ethan’s neighborhood, and Ethan’s been at odds with Chief Rojas. Ethan… is Clayface.

• In Beast Wars "Code of Hero", an early human picks up the makeshift hammer Dinobot made with a stick and a stone. He is at first surprised when he uses the hammer to easily split open a coconut. Then the same giant snake that consumed another early human at the beginning of the episode lunges at him. He instinctively kills the snake with the hammer. He then holds the hammer aloft and yells in triumph as he realizes what tools like the hammer can do.
• Invoked and subverted on BoJack Horseman. BoJack complains about how unrealistic mystery stories are and wishes he could get a random detail of his own that would help him connect the dots. When Princess Carolyn mentions Matthew Perry, it makes BoJack recall a moment with Hollyhock where they talked about the time Matthew Perry hosted SNL and starred in a skit called "Chandler's List." Instead of everything immediately falling into place on its own, the mention of Matthew Perry is what motivates BoJack to do the dirty work himself of finding out who Hollyhock's mom is.
• Bob's Burgers: Louise has one regarding the therapy doll killer while discussing Old Yeller with Millie.
• Captain Flamingo runs on this trope. Every use of the eponymous character's "Bird Brain" is either this, or a full-on I Was Just Joking, depending on which would be funnier. Either way, it's played for laughs, as the ideas he gets are usually ridiculous... but always manage to work.
• Captain Planet and the Planeteers:
  • "The Dead Seas": The Planeteers are stuck inside a sphere on a conveyor belt heading for some machinery. When Gi hits the side of the prison out of frustration with Greedly's scheme (which will hurt sea life), Linka criticizes her for making the sphere rock. That's when Wheeler realizes that if they rock the sphere hard enough, they can get it off the belt.
  • "Don't Drink the Water": Ma-Ti and Kwame go in search of clean water to wash off the Captain after he gets covered in polluted water. Frustrated at their failure, Ma-Ti knocks over several barrels, saying that there isn't a drop of water to be found. Then Kwame realizes that there's a dripping water pipe nearby.
  • "Heat Wave": The team is trying to get the eco-sub inside a tube attached to the dome Dr. Blight built over Hope Island and is not having much success. When Wheeler comments that they have "a whale of a problem", it gives Ma-Ti the idea to call in a whale to help ram the tube.
  • "The Big Clam-Up": The Planteers get sent to San Francisco to investigate a series of mysterious food poisoning incidents and Ma-Ti, who's become fascinated by noir novels, tries his hand at detective work. After several false conclusions as to who was responsible for the poisonings, he manages to figure out something from all the clues he picked up from each mishap, realizing that they're all items that one gets from a seafood restaurant. He checks the matchbook for the restaurant's name and its address.
• After Saying Too Much to Jérémie, Code Lyoko's fake-Franz Hopper's words give the young genius the clues to find that Franz couldn't possibly have known that "[he] was the one who let XANA destroy [Franz's] diary," flashing back to an earlier episode about it. Nice job, XANA.
• Danny Phantom: In one episode, the Guys in White have taken over the Fenton lab and kidnapped Sam and Tucker in a plan to attempt to destroy the Ghost Zone. To access the Fenton ghost portal, they need a password, and the interrogation leads to this exchange.
  Operative K: Says who
  Tucker: Says me!
  Operative K: Says me... says-a-me, open sesame!
• Dexter's Laboratory:
  • In "Dexter's Rival", Dexter has an internal conversation with himself after Mandark, who had forced him to shut down his lab, asks for him to set him up on a date with Dee Dee, leading to Dexter getting an idea for revenge.
    Dexter 1: (Appearing on Dexter's right) No way! You don't owe that jerk any favors!
    Dexter 2: (Appearing on Dexter's left) That's right! He made you shut down your lab!
    Dexter 3: (Appearing below Dexter 1) He's right!
    Dexter 4: (Appearing below Dexter 2) Yeah!
    Dexter 5: (Appearing over Dexter's head) And besides, Dee Dee is hyper and clumsy, and she would probably wreck Mandark's labor- (All six Dexters go wide eyed before adopting a sly look)
  • In "Figure Not Included" Dexter is down because some kids made fun of him for not having the new Major Glory action figure, to which Dee Dee comments that he should just make his own.
    Dexter: Make my own doll?! I am just a little boy! Doll-making requires specialized tools and equipment, hi-tech machinery! In order for me to make a doll, I would need...(beat, before his eyes narrow wickedly) ...a laboratory. (Gives off an Evil Laugh)
• Dragons: Riders of Berk:
  • While Hiccup is trying to get the other riders out of the Death Song's amber, Fishlegs tells him that blunt force or cutting won't work, since the hardened amber is tougher than anything they've seen. Hiccup then realizes that since the Death Song spews the amber in a liquid state, heating up the amber will weaken it enough for the others to break free.
  • A blinded Astrid is stuck on the sidelines listening to the others try and fail to tame a Triple Stryke. By doing so, she realizes that the Triple Stryke communicates by clicking its pincers, so she clacks two of Stormfly's spines together to replicate the noise. This succeeds in calming the Triple Stryke down long enough to approach it.
• In DuckTales (2017)'s Grand Finale, "The Last Adventure!", Bradford has the Duck-McDuck family on the ropes as he has Scrooge bound to a Magically-Binding Contract that states that Scrooge can only have his family if he gives up adventuring. As Bradford attacks the Ducks, the triplets get the contract and look it over. It seems iron-tight until Louie mentions that Scrooge can only get his family if he gives up adventuring. It makes everyone realize that there was a loophole in the contract - Scrooge can't give up adventuring for his family because "Family is the greatest adventure of all!" Bradford thinks it's the stupidest thing ever until the contract disintegrates.
• In an episode of The Fairly OddParents!, Timy is trying to save Dimsdale from a continuous series of natural disasters. As he tries to think of how to protect the city from an earthquake, his dad comes by and gives him some gelatin dessert. "No matter how much it shakes, the broccoli stays perfectly inside." He then wishes for the entire city to be encased in a gelatin mold which acts as a shock absorber to keep the city unharmed.
• Lampshaded in the Futurama episode "That Darn Katz!":
  Farnsworth: Amy, technology isn't intrinsically good or evil. It's how it's used. Like the Death Ray.
  Amy: Maybe you're right. I guess science has to keep pushing forward, with the hope that... That's it! Pushing forward. Professor, I know how to restart the Earth!
  Farnsworth: Pssh. You can't suddenly know something by assembling a committee of words... That's it! I'll assemble your committee!
• Gravity Falls: In "Boyz Crazy", Robbie saying "Catch you on the rewind!" gives Dipper the inspiration to play the record of Robbie's song in reverse, revealing the subliminal brainwashing lyrics.
• Hoppity Hooper: When Uncle Waldo got an idea how to make profit or execute a Zany Scheme, he'd make several funny poses, accompanied by mechanical sound effects.
• Spoofed in an episode of Johnny Bravo where Johnny's enlisted the help of Adam West to find his missing Momma. They stop for lunch at a Chinese restaurant and West interprets his fortune cookie message ("Your heart's afire"), via Batman (1966) logic, to mean that Momma Bravo's being held prisoner at the golf course.
• In one episode of Johnny Test, Johnny gets the smart idea to shrink the clutter in his house to microscopic size because:
  Dukey: You got all of that from me saying "little".
  Johnny: Yeah, that's right.
• Justice League: In the episode "Comfort and Joy", the Flash sets out to find a DJ Rubber Ducky toy as a Christmas present for the kids at the Central City orphanage. The problem is that the toy is so popular that every store the Flash visits is sold out. At the last store he tries, he sees a display for Santa's Workshop in the window. This inspires him to "go to the source", running to Japan to get a toy from the manufacturing company.
• Kim Possible:
  • Shego's mockery of her evil employer Dr. Drakken often gives him inspiration for his next plot to Take Over the World, such as when he decides to go on the offensive against Kim Possible.
  • When Kim visited her cousin Larry, he commented that Monty Fiske, the archeologist they had assisted earlier, was a master of Tai Shing Pek Kwar or Monkey Kung-Fu, prompting Kim to realize that he was the villain Monkey Fist.
  • Ron lapses into one when Kim mentions "Homefield" in "Ill Suited".
• In the climax of Over the Garden Wall, the Beast offers to save Greg if Wirt becomes the new lantern-bearer.
  The Beast: (distorted) I'm trying to help you.
  Wirt: You're not trying to help me! You just have some weird obsession with keeping this lantern lit! I-It's almost like...your soul is in this lantern.
• The penultimate episode of The Owl House sees Luz undergo this on a personal level. "For the Future" sees Luz truly realize what it is that she's always wanted her whole life. Understanding, specifically understanding from her mother. After Camila assures Luz that it's okay to fail and to embrace her nerdy nature, with Camila stating that her own greatest failing as a parent was in ever trying to suppress that side of Luz. Thanks to Amity explaining that the thing she wanted was something abstract, specifically freedom, that caused her to bond with Ghost, Luz's own Palisman Stringbean awakens at that moment with Luz herself voicing that she can't believe it took her so long to realize that was what she had always wanted for so long.
  • This is also a huge psychological breakthrough moment for her as it directly addresses the root causes for her extreme self-loathing, first talking her Guilt Complex by emphasizing that life is all about making mistakes and learning from them with her mother finally acknowledging to Luz's face not just that Camp Reality Check was a mistake on her part but also why it was, and two the fact that Luz has in some way been rejected by literally every person she has ever met prior to meeting Eda, so hearing another human being particularly her mother not just accept but outright praise all of her weird eccentricities especially when combined with Camila’s admittance of guilt is incredibly healing for Luz’s mental health.
  • Despite having made a Found Family, True Companions, and a Loving Girlfriend, with people who love her for exactly who she is, none of them are human and thus can’t quite grasp some of the difficult intricacies in Luz's struggles in her life in the Human Realm the way that Camila can, the same way Witches and Demons can understand her in ways that humans can’t (Camila for example clearly can’t see what’s so appealing to Luz about the Boiling Isles, at least at first.) Luz had the latter the entire series, but she needed the former to be psychologically whole, especially after all the trauma she’s been through, trauma that even in the best cases would exacerbate a person’s underlying psychological issues.
• The Patrick Star Show:
  • In "The Starry Awards", GrandPat tries to take the "#1 Dad" mug Patrick gave to Cecil, saying that he (GrandPat) deserves "all the awards!" This gives Squidina the idea to host an Award Show.
  • In "Dr. Smart Science", GrandPat saying that his day is going just as his horoscope predicted it what reminds Patrick of pseudoscience, giving him the strength to call him out and defeat him.
• Alternative Character Interpretation of Pinky and the Brain says that Pinky has one of these every time Brain asks him "Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?", but since Pinky's thought processes are rather unique, neither the audience nor the Brain can figure out what Pinky's talking about.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
  • In "Mommy Fearest", after the girls are grounded by the Professor's new girlfriend Ima Goodlady, Blossom gets a call from the Mayor saying that Sedusa is robbing him of his jewels. There, Blossom puts the pieces together about this coincidence and deduces that the two of them are one and the same and it was all part of Sedusa's scheme to keep them away while she committed crime.
    Blossom: Don't worry, Mayor. We'll catch Sedusa... as soon as she gets home.
  • In "Bought and Scold", Princess become the new Mayor and gets the Powerpuff Girls out of her way by legalizing crime and criminalizing crimestopping, leading Bubbles to lament "We have to be bad if we want to be good". This gives them an idea to get things back to normal: robbing Princess blind so she can repeal the law to get them recover everything before her father finds out (and she can't have them arrested either, because crime was still legal when they committed the theft).
  • In "Mime for a Change" after Bubbles is unable to save her sisters from Mr. Mime's silent colorless world, the narrator asks her what she is going to do now; Bubbles immediately replies, "I've got it!", and proceeds to unleash The Power of Rock to restore all the colors.
• In an episode of The Raccoons, Cyril is accused of stealing a gem during a blackout. Bert is trying to solve the crime but is stumped until he sees Cedric drop his Opaque Nerd Glasses in the river. It's then that he realizes that the gem was not stolen but knocked in an aquarium, and was rendered invisible by water refraction, same as Cedric's lenses.
• Ready Jet Go!: In "Sounds Abound," after Sean sees his friends making music with cooking items, he realizes how he can perform his sound experiment. He even shouts "Eureka!" followed by "Whatever that means."
• Used twice in the Rocko's Modern Life episode, "Wacky Delly":
  • First, after ending production on Meet the Fatheads, Ralph wants to create an artistic masterpiece. However, his network contract states that he has to make one more show before they can let him go, but he has no ideas. When he tells this to Rocko, Heffer, and Filburt, Heffer suggests that Ralph's new show be about deli meats. Filburt says that idea is so bad, it'll get Ralph kicked out of his contract. When Ralph hears this, he decides to go with Heffer's idea.
  • Later in the episode, Wacky Delly becomes the newest hit animated series despite both Heffer and Filburt's creative differences for the pilot episode and Ralph's attempts to sabotage it. At one point, Ralph hears Rocko and his friends inside the editing room after having completed the latest episode, specifically Filburt say saying that turning the light on would expose the film. This prompts Ralph to open the door, and for good measure, bring along a searchlight to ensure it's overexposed. Like every other sabotage attempt, it just makes the show more popular.
• The Samurai Jack episode "Jack vs Aku" starts with three of his attempts on Jack's life failing even worse than they usually do. The villain curses the shoddy attempts by the robots, slumps in his throne, and mumbles, "Guess it's true what they say, you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself..." Then his eyes open wide as he gets an idea (lure Jack into a trap by challenging him personally), which kicks off the episode's main plot.

• The Simpsons:
  • In "Funeral for a Fiend":
    Millhouse: My feet are killing me.
    Lisa: Feet... killing... We have to save Bart!
  • Used on several of the earlier Sideshow Bob episodes, with "Big shoes to fill" and "Tonight on MacGyver" being two of the phrases that trigger Bart to figure out Bob's evil schemes.
  • Not to mention, in "The Great Louse Detective" (where Sideshow Bob is the detective for once and Homer is the would-be victim), he discovers who's trying to kill Homer after Chief Wiggum mentions the work a mechanic did on the parade float. He then flashes back to the wrench that was used to prevent Homer from escaping a sauna and the oil fingerprint on the invitation letter to said sauna, as well as the mechanic that he and Homer had met earlier.
  • In "And Maggie Makes Three", several people congratulated Homer because Marge had become pregnant (with Maggie). Homer, himself unaware of the pregnancy, misinterpreted these comments (even the ridiculously direct ones) as regarding his new job.^note That's "ridiculously direct", as in "Hey, Homer, way to get Marge pregnant!" "This is getting increasingly abstract, but yes, I do enjoy working at the bowling alley" Then Maude congratulates him on the new job, prompting Homer to respond, "New job? MARGE IS PREGNANT!?"
  • When the family is trying to figure out a way to keep Apu from being deported during "Much Apu About Nothing", Abe mentions he could try living in a balloon. Lisa exclaims "That's it!", leading Bart to declare that she's as dumb as him. She explains that she connects Abe being a grandfather with grandfather clause, with his statement being irrelevant.
  • In "Milhouse of Sand and Fog", when Bart and Milhouse's scheme to end Kirk and Luann's rekindled romance backfires horribly, resulting in yet another marriage crisis between Marge and Homer:
    Lisa: Mom and Dad have a marriage on the rocks, and they need to work through it in therapy to make sure it doesn't shatter.
    Bart: Rocks... shatter... jagged cliff... Lis, you've just given me an idea for the most insane, hair-brained, fool-proof scheme ever!
    (Lisa groans in exasperation)
  • In the "Treehouse Of Horror XXXIV" segment "Ei8ht", Lisa has grown up to become a criminal psychologist and is investigating a Theme Serial Killer with Nelson, now a police officer. Lisa is confused by the killer all saying all the victims are "the first," since they obviously can't all be. It wasn't until Sherri's funeral, where Terri mentioned Sherri was her older sister, that Lisa realized the victims were all the first-born children in their families.
• Skull Island (2023) S1 E5 "Doggone It": Cap realizes something about Irene and Annie's connection to one another, and is about to call it out when an attack distracts everyone.
• South Park:
  • Sent up in a Running Gag in "Cancelled". The astronomer investigating Cartman's satellite dish implant draws several correct conclusions after increasingly absurd free association sessions based on conversations with Chef.
  • In "The Entity", Mr. Garrison struggled to invent a new vehicle until Mr. Hat commented "Boy, that Enrique Iglesias can sure gyrate his hot ass around" and decided on a gyroscope.
• In SpacePOP, Rand not disposing of his trash properly inspires Athena to dress the band up as garbage workers to bypass Geela's fleet.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Terminal Provocations", while Rutherford and Tendi are running from Badgey, Tendi takes the time to compliment Rutherford on Badgey's programming, saying that he is amazing even if he is trying to kill them. Rutherford then notes that it is weird that Badgey hasn't murdered them yet, and they finally notice that he is just as exhausted as they are from running. Rutherford realizes that he is being affected by the physical conditions of the simulation even though he shouldn't be, and if they can tire him out, they can probably freeze him out too, and changes the simulation to a blizzard to try freezing him to death.
• A minor example: in the Steven Universe episode "Log Date 7 15 2", Peridot spends much of the episode trying to understand why Garnet enjoys being fused all the time. She ultimately figures it out when it's put in the terms of her favorite Earth TV show:
  Garnet: I'm Percy and Pierre.
  Peridot: ...oooooh!!!
  • In "The Trial" Steven has been brought to the Gem Homeworld to be put on trial for Rose shattering Pink Diamond. While trying to prepare his case, the Zircon defense attorney is exasperated to learn that Steven doesn't really remember what happened way back when- and realizes that the reason he's being put on trial at all is because the official story has glaring contradictions.
    Defense Zircon: ...You don't know how it happened. I get it. There's a reason why they want you to explain how you did it. It's because it doesn't make sense!
    • Then again, the real story manages to explain how no one else was able to actually know how Rose Quartz got close to Pink Diamond: Rose was Pink Diamond all along! The only one else who knew about the real story was her Pearl, the one who sided with the Crystal Gems.
• In the Super Friends Grand Finale "The Death of Superman", the Super Powers Team (the rethemed Superfriends) visit the Fortress of Solitude to put Superman's items in order after sending his body into the sun. As they do, they're aided by a Superman robot who gives them a brief tour. At one point, the robot mentions that Superman had developed a technique to slow down Kryptonite poisoning. Firestorm, who had been with Superman when he had died, realized Superman had been in that same position when he found him. This makes the team realize Superman wasn't dead and they rush to rescue him from the sun and revive him.
• From Teen Titans episode "The End 3"; Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg are being beaten senseless by their Evil Knockoffs:
  Beast Boy: Dude! I had no idea I was this tough!
  Cyborg: You're not! I could kick your butt any day of the—
  [beat, as they all figure it out]
  Starfire: If we cannot defeat ourselves, maybe we can defeat each other!
  Beast Boy & Cyborg SWITCH!
  [they tag hands, they swap enemies, fight starts again, they make short work of the villains]
  Cyborg: Told ya I could kick your butt!
• In the Teen Titans Go! episode "Video Game References", the Titans are all put in simulations parodying video games. Beast Boy's is a parody of Frogger, where after several failed attempts to cross the road, he thinks about the words "cross the road" and decides that it'd be easier to cross as a chicken, so he turns into a chicken and is able to cross without getting run over... only to get eaten by a gator.
• In Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo, Starfire's offhanded use of the word "fear" reinvigorates Robin's belief in trouble brewing in Japan. Now, if only it hadn't happened when they were about to kiss.
• Terrytoons' TV character Tom Terrific will usually get a Eureka Moment when Mighty Manfred the Wonder Dog says something off the cuff to try to weasel out of a situation. In "Go West, Young Manfred," Tom is looking for a way to get back to the settler with his cap full of gold:
  Manfred: Please, Tom. Don't saddle me with your problems.
  Tom: Saddle. Pony. Pony Express! That's it, Manfred! We'll go by Pony Express!
• Work It Out Wombats!: In "Racecar Wombats," when the racecar starts falling apart, Malik realizes the solution to the problem; the wombats should take the car apart, bring all of the individual pieces through the door, and then reassemble the car outside.

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