In comedic medieval settings, a knight (usually one of the shining persuasion) will be introduced whose name sounds like "Sir Lancelot", only punnier. The "Lance" part will be replaced with a verb (often one that rhymes with "Lance", so "dance" and "prance" are common versions). The "elot" may be replaced with "a lot", or even if it's not, it's understood as a pun that way. Thus, we get a Punny Name and a Meaningful Name which describes the knight's preferred activity. The reverse version of the pun (e.g. "Sir Lancelittle") shows up occasionally, but is much rarer.
This is such a well-known trope that it has extended beyond this context, becoming a sort of "Stock Pun" used by characters, actual human beings and businesses who have nothing to do with knights.
Ironically, given that the character Lancelot was a 12th century French addition to Arthurian legend, the end of his name would rightly be pronounced more like "low" or "lo" than "lot", which rather spoils the joke.
Compare "Miss X" Pun.
Examples:
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Advertising
- Sir Shakes-a-Lot the milkshake-loving knight from Burger King's "Burger King Kingdom" ads.
- Around 2012, SPAM introduced a mascot named Sir Can-A-Lot.
Not to be confused with Spamalot.
- Chef Boyardee's canned pasta product Sir Chomps-a-Lot.
Comic Books
- DC Comics COO Geoff Johns came up with an idea for a Masters of the Universe character named Sir Laser-Lot when he was eight years old. Many years later, he would enter the official canon in a DC comics series written by Johns himself, with an action figure following later (see Toys entry, below).
- Scooby-Doo! Team-Up: At the beginning of "Out of this World", Velma reveals the real identity of Sir Haunts-a-Lot.
Comic Strips
- Garfield: Jon and Garfield play a medieval themed video game where Jon chooses to play as a character named "Sir Whines-a-Lot." Whenever Jon doesn't get to choose him, he shows what makes him fit the character.
Films — Live-Action
- Jumanji has a store called "Sir Save-A-Lot".
- In Stuart Saves His Family, Stuart wanted to enter a contest by naming a cleaning product mascot "Sir Cleans-A-Lot". His father then nicknamed him "Sir Eats-A-Lot".
Literature
- The children's book Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger stars a knight who... actually, you can probably guess.
Live-Action TV
- Robot Wars:
- Sir Killalot, the house robot.
- The contestant robot, Sir Chromalot.
- Whenever The Muppets do anything based on the Arthurian legends, or anything that takes place in a medieval/fantasy setting, nearly every other character they put up will be a play on this.
- "The Storyteller" (actually Moriarty) tells a story about a knight named Sir Boast-a-Lot on his children's storytelling show in the Sherlock episode "The Reichenbach Fall". Sir Boast-a-Lot brags about going on epic quests and slaying dragons, but the other knights come to wonder if these stories are just lies he tells to make himself look good. This is Foreshadowing for his plan: to utterly discredit Sherlock as an egomaniacal fraud.
- In Friends, Chandler lost a toe during his college years when Monica accidentally dropped a knife on his foot, and because of that he got nicknamed "Sir Limps-a-lot". Ross was the one that came up with that.
Music
- The musician Sir Mix-A-Lot. His use of this trope has been parodied by Robot Chicken (see below).
- The name Sir Dance-A-Lot has been used by DJs and bands alike.
Pinballs
- Medieval Madness has two jousters with puns on Lancelot's name, but only "Sir Miss-A-Lot" qualifies here.
Puppet Shows
- There's an episode of The Book of Pooh, where Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, and Tigger decide to become 'The Knights of the Roundish Table', after Owl reads them the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Tigger becomes Sir Bounce-A-Lot, Piglet becomes Sir Piglet of Small, Pooh becomes Sir Pooh-cival, and Rabbit becomes Sir Hairyhead.
Pro Wrestling
- In the service of an Incredibly Lame Pun: CHIKARA has featured a tag team made up of two guys in knight costumes, each of whom was named "Lance Steel", called Lancelot, or Lance-A-Lot.
- Spanky does a cannonball twister he calls "sir spanks-a-lot", though as Josh Matthews reminds us, Spanky also has a move called Dr. Teeth.
Tabletop Games
- Paranoia supplement Acute Paranoia. One of the new secret societies in the book was the Knights of the Circular Object, which was partially inspired by the tales of King Arthur. One alias taken by a member of the society was "Sir Lanceabot".
Theme Parks
- At Disneyland, there is a suit of armor on the Mr. Toad ride labeled "Sir Clinks-a-Lot." There are also non-knightly examples: an animatronic Indian that waves at the riverboat is informally called Chief Waves-a-Lot, and elsewhere in the park are two "cigar store Indian" sculptures sometimes referred to as Chief Stands-a-Lot and Chief Leans-a-Lot.
Toys
- Sir Prance-A-Lot is one of those soft toys for babies with different parts with different textures and sounds.
- As part of the Masters of the Universe line's 30th anniversary in 2012, an action figure based on a design Geoff Jons came up with when he was eight years old and dubbed Sir Laser-lot is to be released by Mattel.
- From the toy series Monster High, we got Sir Hoots-A-Lot, pet owl of Ghoulia Yelps.
- From Mixels is Camillot, one of the members of the Medivals tribe. Meanwhile, his specific family name is "Mixelot".
Video Games
- Anders from Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening used to have a cat named Ser Pounce-a-Lot during his childhood at the Circle. The Warden-Commander can give him another cat as present, which he also names thusly, though the other Wardens later force him to leave it with a friend in Amaranthine before Dragon Age II.
- In DragonFable, all of the Pactagonal Knights follow this theme, ranging from Sir Jun and Sir Prise to Sir Loin.
- One nickname players can choose to customize their nameplate in Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is "Sir Hugs A Lot", available from the Season 2 pass.
- In Granblue Fantasy's "Big Bad Shadow" event, the Grand Blues! version of Lancelot (depicted as permanently chained to a wall like his canon self was in his base event art) is referred to as "Sir Chainedalot".
- Vyrn's nickname for Percival is Sir Burnsalot.
- In Las Venturas, the No Communities Were Harmed version of Las Vegas in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, there's a medieval-themed casino called Come-A-Lot.
- The Jump Start games have an anthropomorphic rabbit named Mr. (not sir, funnily enough) Hopsalot as a main character.
- Pac-Man World Rally has a secret weapon charged by collecting Pellets, dubbed "Sir Pac-a-Lot".
- The Sims 2 has a "pet brick" called "Sir Bricks-a-lot".
- Super Mario Bros.: Donkey Kong '94 and Mario vs. Donkey Kong have a robotic enemy named Sir Shovalot, who will chase down and push Mario with their shield if they see him in their line of sight. This can squish him against a wall, but players will also have to use them to push Mario through tight gaps.
- Wario: Master of Disguise has a series of robotic enemies that use this naming scheme:
- Sir Lance-A-Lot, based on medieval armor and wielding a lance.
- Sir Flap-A-Lot, a flying robot bird who can only deal damage and be damaged when you activate a Spirit Switch.
- Sir Hop-A-Lot, a Lance-A-Lot that travels on and weaponizes a pogo stick - unless Wario breaks it, at which point it behaves like a regular Lance-A-Lot.
- Sir Worth-A-Lot, a Lance-A-Lot that maintained perfect attendance for five years, and for doing so earned a golden set of armor that improves its resilience.
- Sir Steal-A-Lot, a Worth-A-Lot carrying a Thief Bag that makes them behave as a Piñata Enemy, dropping valuable gems when attacked or defeated.
- Fate/Grand Order: The second Halloween Event features Cleopatra and Sir Lancelot himself. At one point in the English translation, she takes a jab at his reputation by calling him "Sir Lances-a-Lot-of-Married-Women".
Web Animation
- 1/1 Heroine has the knight "Hamsalot", who wears a hamster-themed helmet and eventually provides Hamster-Wheel Power for the titular heroine's phone.
Web Comics
- Invoked in an Arthur, King of Time and Space strip:
Lancelot: My mother wanted me to join the priesthood.
Arthur: Then she ought to have named you Praysalot. - When Durkon's armour alerts enemies to the team's presence in one The Order of the Stick strip, Greenhilt takes to calling him Sir Clanksalot.
- In one Bug strip, one character responds to hearing the baby crying with the line "Hark. Sir Poops-a-lot requests an audience."
- A secondary character in The B-Movie Comic is Sir Lostalot, an archaeologist.
- Lit Brick: During the The Canterbury Tales storyline, the rapist knight of the Wife of Bath's tale is referred to as "Sir Rapesalot", because he didn't have a name in the source material.
Web Original
- TV Tropes:
- The Trope Sir Cameos-a-Lot.
- The Trope Sir Swears-a-Lot.
- This very trope, obviously.
- www.sirlinksalot.net is a collection of web directories.
- www.sirjogalot.com is a blog about jogging and running.
Western Animation
- In one episode of Animaniacs, Yakko, Wakko and Dot are given the titles "Sir Yaks-A-Lot", "Sir Waks-A-Lot" and "Lady Dots-A-Lot".
- "Sir Pantsalot of Dropseat Manor" in the Looney Tunes short "Knights Must Fall".
- One Robot Chicken skit actually features Sir Mix-A-Lot as a member of King Arthur's court. He's the one who suggests the concept of the Round Table, via the song "Table Be Round" (a parody of "Baby Got Back").
- From the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "My Pretty Seahorse", after the customers at the Krusty Krab are complaining about their food not being brought to them;
Squidward: Why don't you ask Cowbob Ranchpants and his faithful companion, Sir Eats-A-Lot?
Mr. Krabs: SpongeBob! What's with all the nicknames!?!? - The hero of the children's animated television series The Adventures Of Sir Prancelot. External link.
- The Fairly OddParents!:
- After they are transported to the middle ages, Timmy Turner proclaims that they're in the middle ages, and Cosmo calls him "Sir Points-Out-The-Obvious-A-Lot."
- In "Knighty Knight", Timmy asks a fellow knight if they'll be fighting dragons, but his job is to point to the bathroom. He's revealed to be short. Timmy says "Thanks, Sir Lance-A-Little".
Short knight: They always call me that here.
- The mascot pig kidnapped by Homer and his roommates in the Simpsons episode "Homer Goes to College" is named Sir Oinks-A-Lot.
- Beetlejuice
- The episode "Family Scarelooms" had B.J. and Lydia end up in the Land of Lost while trying to find Beetlejuice's family's Coat of Arms so that his parents would be allowed membership of the Society for the Oldest and Moldiest Families of the Neitherworld". The antagonist of the episode is the long lost uncle of the society's executive president Vera Snooty, a brutish knight named Sir Lost-A-Lot who turns out to be a thief willing to stoop as low as stealing a boy's goldfish. BJ recovers his family's Coat of Arms in the end and exposes Vera Snooty's uncle for the disgraceful cad he is for good measure.
- In "King BJ", one of King Arthur's knights is named Sir Lunch-A-Lot.
- The Proud Family has a rapper named Sir Paid A Lot.
- In the Bob the Builder feature length video The Knights of Can-A-Lot, all the machines take Sir Verbalot names when they pretend to be knights.
- One episode of Totally Spies! has Clover commenting that going on a mission is "better than quality time with Nanny Yells-a-lot".
- Queen Delightful on The 7D has a pet dog named Sir Yipsalot.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Party of One", one of Pinkie Pie's imaginary party guests is a lump of lint she calls "Sir Lints-a-lot".
- Nella the Princess Knight:
- Nella and her friends attend a school named Learn-a-Lot.
- In "Nella vs. the Wicked Wizard", Nella and Trinket cross a mount named Move-a-Lot.
- In the Random! Cartoons short "Kyle + Rosemary", Kyle's Questworld avatar is named Sir Horace Hitsalot.
- Total Drama: One of Season 4's Jo's many nicknames for her teammate Brick is "Sir Leaks-a-Lot". Needless to say, he does not appreciate it.
- The ChalkZone episode "Knight Plight" features three knights named Sir Dance-A-Lot, Sir Glance-A-Lot and Sir Cramps-A-Lot.
Real Life
- Sir Stor-a-Lot (their spelling) is a self-storage facility in West Park, Florida.
- Sir Flush A Lot is a plumbing company, with the pun-tastic slogan "we won't charge a king's ransom to fix your throne".
- Sir Bounce A Lot's is a children's birthday party play area in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as well as being the name of many bouncy castle rental companies.
- Not to mention such businesses as Sir Build-a-Lot, Sir Bikes-A-Lot, Sir Thrifts-A-Lot, Sir Lines-A-Lot, Sir Moves-A-Lot, Sir Cakes-A-Lot, Sir Stamps-A-Lot, and many, many more.
