Species Subversives

From pew to woo.

When you see an animal in a piece of media you expect certain behaviors. Lions are brave and noble, owls are wise, foxes are cunning, reptiles are slimy, and so on. But some creatures love to subvert the trope concerning various animals and instead made a trope of subverting animal tropes. What makes the animal character special is that they are unlike their brethren.

To be a part of this trope, it is not enough to do something unexpected of a real-life animal like, for example: riding a motorcycle or flying an airplane (unless it is a penguin or ostrich doing the latter). It must utterly conflict with what is expected of the animal.

This is the animal version of Stereotype Flip and thus is very much the opposite of Animal Stereotypes. See also My Species Doth Protest Too Much when a stereotype is usually true in the story but not for a particular individual.

Subtropes:

• Ascended to Carnivorism
• Baa-Bomb
• Beary Friendly
• Cute Owl
• Devious Dolphins
• Flying Flightless Bird
• Flying Seafood Special
• Hair-Raising Hare
• Huggy, Huggy Hippos
• Killer Rabbit
• Predator-Prey Friendship
• Psycho Poodle
• Speedy Snail
• Unwise Owl
• Vegetarian Carnivore

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Examples

Comic Books

• The Beano: Richard the Lion, instead of being King of Beasts, is weedy, skinny, and only 'king' of Lord Threadbare's Safari Park.

Fan Works

• Born to Be Wilde: Carla Hyenandez inverts both Heinous Hyena and The Hyena, seeing as she's not that morally unsavoury despite being The Mole, and she doesn't have a sense of humour.
• The Zero Context Series: Bahija, Missy Coco's sheep-girl secretary, subverts Sweet Sheep. At first glance, she seems meek and nice enough, albeit a bit cranky and downtrodden due to her enemies and her own boss not giving her much respect. Later on when Circe's wedding is attacked, her birth form—that of a gigantic Western-style blue dragon—is revealed, and she's shown to be very powerful, prideful, and arrogant.

Films — Animation

• The Bad Guys (2022): Dianne Foxington is kind, helpful, and diligent, the exact opposite of how foxes are normally portrayed. It's because she was once a thief because of negative stereotypes associated with her species, similar to The Bad Guys themselves. However, one day, Dianne realized that she had her life all wrong; not only did she make a full Heel–Face Turn, but she took her entire life 180 degrees to become a well-respected governess.
• Barbie as the Island Princess: Subverted for the monkey. At first, she's quite the opposite of a Silly Simian, being very civilised and eating everything with a knife and fork. Once she relearns how to climb, however, she begins acting more like a typical monkey.
• Charlotte's Web: Invoked with Samuel, who refuses to be a copycat like the other sheep, as he considers that "following", which is a negative stereotype of sheep.
• Finding Nemo: It's a Running Gag that despite being a clownfish, Marlin isn't funny. In fact, he's a very serious Nervous Wreck, only knows one joke, and is bad at telling it. He does later perfect the joke, but (as shown in Finding Dory), he's still not very funny in general.
• Madagascar subverts several animal tropes. Alex the Lion is hardly brave or powerful (proud on the other hand...) Marty the Zebra is the farthest thing from elegant, noble, and hard-working (although he is really stereotypically black). Gloria is far from a lazy, slobby hippo. The Penguins are the farthest thing you'll ever get from clumsy, and they don't even like cold weather.
• The Princess and the Frog: Louis is an alligator who is friendly, rather stupid, has a remarkably low pain tolerance, and would prefer to play jazz trumpet music than eat frogs like the other alligators.
• Robin Hood (1973):
  • King Richard may be representative of the typical brave and noble lion, but his brother Prince John definitely isn't.
  • Nutsy and Trigger, the vultures who work for the Sheriff of Nottingham, subvert the Vile Vulture trope. Unlike the other villains who enjoy their jobs (or in Sir Hiss' case, the perks), these two are mere Punch-Clock Villains whose fealty simply lies with whoever's in charge. Nutsy in particular is too dumb to be malicious. Unlike Prince John, Sir Hiss, and the Sheriff, the duo get no punishment and instead act as prison guards for the three when King Richard comes back.
• Buster Moon in Sing and its sequel, Sing 2 is a very ambitious koala who never gives up on his dreams to be successful in the show business, subverting the Laid-Back Koala stereotype.
• Zootopia:
  • The main characters Judy and Nick are deliberately trying to not fit the stereotypes of their species: Judy (Rabbit) wants to be brave, and Nick (Fox) wants to be seen as honorable and kind.
  • Cheetahs are typically lean and fast, while Clawhauser is a chubby cheetah who can't catch up with Mrs. Otterton when she outmanuevers him.
  • Bellwether subverts Sweet Sheep, as she appears to be a meek yet helpful secretary, but she turns out to be Evil All Along; she's the one behind the civilians in Zootopia turning feral. As a power-hungry mastermind, she also subverts Mindless Sheep.
  • When Judy tries to get information on the whereabouts of Mr. Otterton from a nudist place, the owner points to an elephant, Nangi, who was his yoga teacher. He constantly remarks on Nangi's excellent memory, except that she has zero memory of Otterton, including even the most basic details about him (While the owner remembers everything down to his license plate number).

Films — Live-Action

• The Cat in the Hat: The eponymous cat is lactose intolerant, breaking the stereotype of cats liking milk (though this is actually quite common among real cats).
• Oz the Great and Powerful: Subverted for the flying monkey — he gets offended at people assuming he likes bananas just because he's a monkey, but he likes them anyway.
• Our Man Flint: Eagles are normally seen as very patriotic towards the U.S.A.. The Galaxy organization has an anti-American eagle guarding its headquarters: it's trained to detect and attack Americans.
• Peter Rabbit: Zigzagged for Pigling Bland. He's trying to go on a diet, defying Gluttonous Pig, but he's bad at following said diet. Despite this, however, he does invert Messy Pig, dressing in formal attire and speaking in a posh accent.
• The Wizard of Oz: Lions are normally seen as brave; the Cowardly Lion is infamously not...it is even in his name.

Literature

• The Ur-Example is often found in Beast Fables, some from Aesop's Fables and, more recently, heh, from Jean de La Fontaine's Fables^note that popularized them, though there are exceptions, the usual An Aesop is that: you should stay true to yourself. Conversely, the exceptions have this to say: you can learn from each other and help one another despite the differences.
• Animal Farm: Instead of Sweet Sheep, sheep are depicted in a negative and unfriendly manner. Sometimes a very creepy effect as seen in the 1954 animated film; some of the farm animals (except pigs) don't like them at all. They are, however, perfect examples of Mindless Sheep.
• The children's book Duckat has one subversion and one straight example: a duck appears to be afraid of the water, but he's just pretending. However, a cat then swims in said water.
• The kids' book The Kiwi That was Scared of the Dark features a kiwi bird (who are nocturnal) being afraid of the dark.
• Similar to the above is Jill Tomlinson's The Owl Who Was Afraid Of The Dark.
• Ramayana: portrays two vultures as Noble Bird of Prey, as opposed to their normal villainous or creepy portrayal.
• Ratburger: Armitage is an inversion of You Dirty Rat!, being portrayed as a very cute, innocent animal, and while he isn't housebroken, he's not portrayed as filthy or disease-ridden either.
• A children's book called Slobcat sets up and subverts Cats Are Lazy. The narrator spends the book explaining, in detail, how their pet cat does nothing but sleep and eat all day, practically embodying the trope. But the pictures show that as soon as the narrator stops watching him, Slobcat sneaks off to have adventures, protect kittens and children, stop burglars, and generally save the day.
• The Story of Ferdinand: In an inversion of the Brutish Bulls stereotype, Ferdinand likes to just sit down all day.
• The Worst Witch and its adaptations — Tabby is a witch's cat, but he's not sinister like the stereotypical witch's cat; he's actually pretty doofy. He's also a tabby cat rather than the traditional black one.

Live-Action Series

• Saturday Night Live had an In-Universe example. A zookeeper introduces a video made by high school students to educate people about sloths. The video features a heavy metal song depicting sloths (normally very lazy animals) as rabble-rousing party maniacs. When it finishes, the zookeeper says "That's not entirely accurate."

Myths & Religion

• Donkeys are usually portrayed as stupid plodding creatures. In The Bible, the prophet Balaam is taken aback when his donkey suddenly speaks to him and opens a theological debate.

Puppet Shows

• Dumbo's Circus: Ringmaster Fair Dinkum is a koala who is afraid of heights, despite koalas spending most of their days up in the trees.
• The Muppets: Miss Piggy is an anthropomorphic pig, but she's very high-class and posh.
• Sesame Street: Two cows, Gladys and Miss Moody, break the stereotype of cows being common farm beasts and speak in posh accents.

Radio

• The John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme Storyteller sketch about zoo spies had the sloths being utterly hyperactive and uncontrollable, but only when the zoo was closed.

Video Games

• House of the Dead: Fool from The House of the Dead 3 is a mutated giant sloth that is shockingly fast at moving around its cage compared to the normal sloth.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is the rare work that shows sheep in a negative light. In this trilogy, sheep are creepy troublemakers known for causing mischief to unsuspected travelers. The heroes end up fighting them on a few occasions and in one particular battle, they show a disturbing ability to "combine" into a big unsettling ovine gestalt.
• Starbound: The Laid-Back Koala stereotype was inverted with the update titles when it was in Early Access, which are themed around a koala becoming more and more enraged, starting with "Perturbed" and ending with "Rampaging".
• Webkinz features a skunk who, far from being antisocial and spray-happy, spends her time lamenting that she has no friends.

Web Animation

• Happy Tree Friends:
  • Cuddles may be a rabbit, but he's not a Shrinking Violet like the stereotypical rabbit — in fact, he's a daredevil.
  • Petunia is a skunk, but she's the opposite of a Smelly Skunk — she wears an air freshener and a flower accessory, is a Neat Freak, and takes several showers a day. Played for Drama though, since she's implied to have OCD.

Web Videos

• Kid Time Story Time: While the Rat brothers, White Rat and Gray Rat, do play some stereotypes of rats straight (they like cheese and live in New York), they invert You Dirty Rat!, being very friendly and sociable.

Webcomics

• Exterminatus Now: Eastwood the fox is not cunning. He could charitably be described as a lucky idiot who is only competent in dire situations or when the enemy is standing between him and his morning coffee. If a plan of his has more than two or three steps, and none of them contain the verbs "shoot" or "explode", it's time to make sure you've got the real Eastwood.

Western Animation

• Arthur: Jenna is an anthropomorphic cat who's allergic to milk.^note which, by the way, is different from being lactose intolerant — lactose intolerance causes gastric problems, while milk allergies cause anaphylaxis.
• Babar and the Adventures of Badou: Hoot is a friendly spotted hyena, in contrast to the usual portrayal of hyenas.
• Beast Wars: Rhinox is the smartest and mildest of the crew, which is not what one would expect from a rhino.
• Bluey: Pretzel is a chihuahua, but he's not snobby or aggressive; he's in fact very laidback, preferring to lie about while his classmates play.
• Chico Bon Bon: Monkey with a Tool Belt: Clark the elephant is afraid of almost everything except his friend Tiny, who's a mouse; so much for Elephants Are Scared of Mice.
• Dinotrux: Hadrosaurs like Parasaurolophus are usually depicted as peaceful, social animals. The Poundersaurolophus (half-Parasaurolophus, half-piledriver), however, are total opposites of that by being solitary and extremely aggressive creatures that they pound everything in sight.
• DuckTales (2017): Violet Sabrewing is The Stoic, which is the exact opposite of what one would expect from a hummingbird.
• Fluffy Gardens: The Narrator lampshades how some of the characters exhibit different behaviour from how their species are usually portrayed. Oona the Owl is afraid of the dark, hence why she stays awake during the day, Tootie the Elephant is very fit and athletic, Mia the Tapir is sociable instead of shy, Scoopy the Pink Rabbit likes ice cream instead of vegetables.
• The fox in the Columbia studio's The Fox and the Crow cartoons isn't cunning at all, but instead kind of prissy, naive, and a constant patsy to the trickster crow.
• The Kwicky Koala Show: Unlike the typical Laid-Back Koala, the titular koala, Kwicky, lives up to his name, being able to move at Flash Step speeds to escape the pursuing Wilford Wolf.
• Lambert the Sheepish Lion: Most of the sheep are a subverted example of Sweet Sheep for most of the cartoon, doing nothing but pick on Lambert, a lion cub that got adopted by a mother sheep, with Lambert's foster mother bring the only who doesn't. Due to Lambert not being a sheep, the rest of the flock rejects the poor cub and are seen bullying and mocking him complete with a song about how they don't accept him. Eventually, once Lambert and the other lambs become older, the flock still rejects him until Lambert (now a grown lion) rescues and protects the sheep (especially his mother) from a wolf. The sheep eventually become friends with Lambert by the end of the short.
• The Lion Guard:
  • Bunga is friendly and cheerful, as opposed to being a Bad Ol' Badger as commonly expected from honey badgers.
  • Jasiri and her clan are hyenas who completely avert the Heinous Hyena trope.
  • Pua averts Never Smile at a Crocodile by being kind and wise. That said, a flashback shows he did have his limits.
  • Unlike other large predatory reptiles in the show, pythons are shown to be non-menacing.
• Littlest Pet Shop (2012): Pepper zigzags this; unlike real-life skunks, she can produce sweet scents when happy or excited, however, if feeling a negative emotion, like anger, sadness, or fear, she will produce all sorts of stink. Mitzi, another skunk, is introduced as only able to create sweet scents, but as it turns out, this is because she has lost the ability to stink due to her Stepford Smiler tendencies. Once Pepper encourages her to be honest with herself, she learns to smell terrible again.
• The Loud House:
  • Charles the dog is three-quarters pit bull, but he's very much not aggressive.
  • Played With for Ann, the skunk from "Love Stinks". While she does spray a few times, she also enjoys wearing perfume and having her claws painted.
  • In "White Hare", Lincoln dreams that he and his sisters are anthropomorphic rabbits. The rabbit version of Lisa is still a Child Prodigy, reversing the stereotype that rabbits are stupid.
  • Another Loud House example — zigzagged for Cliff and his relationship to water — he does hate being bathed, but he likes playing in the rain.
• Martha Speaks:
  • Rinty is an Alsatian, but he's a Big Friendly Dog.
  • Zigzagged for Martha herself — in "Carolina Picks a Lily", she reveals that she's part pit bull but points out she's not aggressive. However, she also appears to be part Labrador or Golden Retriever and she does fit the "excitable Big Eater" stereotype associated with those breeds.
  • Zigzagged for Lily herself — no one knows her breed, but people have wondered if she's a bulldog, Rottweiler, Doberman, or even a "bullweilerdoberdoodle". However, they also note that, unlike most portrayals of bulldogs, Rottweilers, and Dobermans, Lily isn't vicious.
• My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Played with — while Skunk does spray, and he's proud of it since "that's what skunks do", he also angsts over the bad rap it gives him, noting that he only does it when scared.
• Peter Rabbit: Pig Robinson wears a three-piece suit and is very formal, completely averting Messy Pig.
• The Ren & Stimpy Show:
  • Ren zigzags this. He exaggerates the stereotype that chihuahuas are temperamental, to the point that he's Ax-Crazy. However, for a cartoon dog, he is reasonably intelligent.
  • Stimpy breaks the Cats Are Mean stereotype, instead being a sweet-natured Kindhearted Simpleton.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splinter is a rat but he’s noble, brave, and on the good guys’ side.
• 3rd & Bird: Ben, the pig, is both a subversion and an inversion of the Messy Pig trope — Samuel and Rudy think he will be dirty when they hear he is a pig, but he is actually a Neat Freak.
• Tiny Toon Adventures: Hamton is the opposite of a Messy Pig; he's a complete Neat Freak.
• T.U.F.F. Puppy: Zig-Zagging Trope. Verminious Snaptrap is a rat who is allergic to cheese but he's a criminal.
• We Bare Bears: Nom Nom is the opposite of a Laid-Back Koala, being aggressive, irritable, and often violent.

Real Life

• The Turkish Van is a breed of cat that is known for being prone to enjoying swimming, breaking the Cats Hate Water stereotype.

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