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"For those of you that walked in late,
Allow me to reiterate,
The title of this movie
Is Spy Hard!"
For some reason, the folks who make children's shows think that their audiences will forget what show they're watching during the Title Sequence. As a result, many children's shows feel the need to repeat the title of the show in the Theme Tune as many times as possible.
May also incorporate a popular Catch Phrase from the show.
This does not necessarily preclude the theme song from being catchy or even good, but it does make it difficult to detach the two. Particularly in kiddie shows, the practice helps to cement the name of the show and its merchandise in the minds of the little viewers so they can nag the parents for the toys later.
Can easily overlap with the Expository Theme Tune. Compare Title Drop.
Examples
open/close all folders
Anime
- While not as common in anime these days (a few still do it), it was more or less a regular thing during the 1960's and 70s', just like it is in America now. In the 70s, some subversions, and even aversions started coming up. That is, while the song may be named after the show, it may not necessarily contain the entire title, or it may omit the title. For example, the song is called "Cutey Honey", but the closest it comes to containing the title is when it refers to the character "Honey" by name, and also when it incorporates her transformation phrase ("Honey Flash!"). Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999 have theme songs named after their respective shows, but do not contain the actual titles of the shows in their lyrics. Instead, they merely describe what they are talking about.
- As you go-go-GO, Astro Boooooy!
 /Testuwa-n Aaaatomu! The Trope Maker, at least for anime.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (at least in the dub).
- Averted with 5D's, but we had to fight for that one.
- The Italian version of the 5D's theme has YU-GI-OH! in pretty much every line of the chorus, and at the beginning: "Yu-Gi-Ohhhh! Your still fighting for... Yu-Gi-Ohhhh! ... Fighting for your life! Yu-Gi-Ohhhh!" and so on.
- Onegai My Melody does this in some seasons of the show, such as Kuru Kuru Shuffle, where they sing "Onegai My Melody!" and "Kuru Kuru Shuffle!" At the end of the Onegai My Melody Kirara★ theme, they sing "My Melody!"
- Same goes for every opening of Pokémon.
- The themes for Battle Dimension, Galactic Battles, and Sinnoh League Victors are less like this, though they still have to Title Drop at the very end to remind us that we're watching Pokémon.
- The openings for Master Quest, Advanced Challenge, and Battle Frontier also, said phrases only mentioned once throughout the song.
- Same goes to the Japanese opening too. Some of the opening are a few exceptions such as Best Wishes and Spurt.
- The dub for Dragon Ball Z puts even less effort into it: "Dragon, Dragon, Rock the Dragon, Dragon Ball Z." Followed by some rock music, then more Dragons. (Later re-airings of the dub replaced the opening with an Instrumental Theme Tune).
- And the least said of the French theme tune (itself also eventually replaced), the better.
- But lots can be said about the extremely catchy Italian theme tune ("What's My Destiny Dragon Ball").
- The original Anime Theme Song of The Big O consists mostly of "Big-O!" repeated over and over to an auditory homage to Queen's "Flash Gordon", with three lines of actual lyric ("cast in the name of God, ye not the guilty, we have came to team") in the middle. There's also a line or two of Japanese that borders on Expository Theme Tune. (Swear an eternal oath/to this city that lost all of its past./Light a light in a lonely heart/Dying me with words.)
- The second tune had less repeating of the name of the show, but was an auditory homage to UFO
- The first three seasons of the Digimon dub had a similar theme for all three seasons, changing only a few words. "Save the digital world" became "Save and defend the world", etc.
- While seasons four and five eased up on this trope quite a bit, season five still references the whole title ("Digimon Data Squad") in its song.
- While not entirely a Title Theme Tune, the "Digirap" that opens the first dub movie repeatedly repeats the title, most especially the "digi" in the title, making it something of a Hurricane of Puns using the show's title.
- Every single season of the Pretty Cure franchise.
- Lupin the Thi-ird! Lupin the Thi-ird! Lupin, Lupin, Lupin, Lupin...
- Macross, Macross dodedoodedoo MAAAACUUUROSSSS
- Almost every show licensed or created by 4Kids, one exception is the Mew Mew Power theme tune. Which actually, isn't that bad.
- "She is the one named Sailor Moon!"
- The dub of Dinosaur King: Dinosaur King is what you want to be, yeah. Ironic in that being the "dinosaur king" is actually what the villain wants to be — the protagonists just want to prevent him from obtaining (and abusing) the dinosaurs.
- Samurai Pizza Cats
- Naruto's German opening is an odd example.
- GA-GA-GA GA-GA-GA GAOGAIGAR
- Actually, recall ANY 70s or 80s-era giant robot series! Yep. Name's there, too!
- "Itooshi Hito No Tame Ni" ends with "... mugen heto, hirake Fushigi Yuugi!"
- ...whoaaaa, Gatchaman! GATCHAMAN!
- A few psuedo-Ominous Latin Chanting tracks on the Escaflowne soundtrack have lyrics that consist solely of repeating the word "Escaflowne" over and over again.
- "So-nic's on the run! So-nic's number one! So-nic's coming next, so watch out for Sonic X!"
- Another version of the theme tune takes this trope Up to Eleven, whereupon the entire song solely consists of only the title.
- "Maya, Maya the Bee!"
- The Japanese version also sort of did this with its theme song.
- Gigantor! Gigantor! GIGAAAAAAAAANTORRRRRR!
- "BYUN! to tondeku Tetsujin... NIJUU-HA-CHI GO (28-go)!"
- And of course we CAN'T forget: "Go Speed Racer, go Speed Racer, go Speed Racer GO!"
- "Mahha (Mach) go go, mahha go go, Mahha go go GO!"
- "We're off to outer space! We're leaving Mother Earth! To Save the human race! Our...Star...Blazers!
- "Saraba Chikyuu yo! Tabidatsu fune wa... Uchuu Senkan... YA-MA-TO!"
- "Ken! (Ken!) Survivant de l'enfer! Ken! (Ken!) Souvent croise le fer! Ken! (Ken!) Dans la chaos d'espirit! Ken! (Ken!) Contre les fous les bandits" (from the infamous French dub of Fist of the North Star, a.k.a. "Ken le Survivant").
- The Mysterious Cities of Gold. True for most version, including the French, English or Spanish ones.
- One cannot possibly forget "Fly! Gundam" from Mobile Suit Gundam. It even includes such lines as "Tobeyo GANDAMU / Kido senshi GANDAMU! GANDAMU!" ("Fly Gundam! / Mobile Suit Gundam! Gundam!"). This English version (effectively a professional fandub) is quite badass, considering the 70's campiness of the original.
- Another Western Animation trope present in Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
- The famous theme song for Space Battleship Yamato drops the name of the series several times.
- The opening of Cardcaptors, the Nelvana dub of Card Captor Sakura. Also an Expository Theme Tune.
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
Live-Action TV
- As with anime, it was most common in tokusatsu shows, at least up until the 1980s or 90s:
- Power Rangers in every incarnation. Quite possibly the worst offender. The original theme song consisted entirely of the lines "Go go Power Rangers / Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers." The first season version had two lines of exposition in the beginning to explain the plot of the show, one of them was the Trope Namer for Recruit Teenagers with Attitude, and a longer version of the song, with verses, often accompanied the Thunderzords into battle.
- "Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, together we can fight the fight!" Ironically, its original Japanese analogue Kamen Rider Ryuki (like almost all Heisei era Kamen Rider shows) averts this trope, giving each series a potential top-40 single as its theme song (Kamen Rider Decade had a theme song by popular J-rock artist Gackt).
- "Chou-henshin! Kamen Rider Kuuga!" (with extra doses of just "Kuuga" preceding that) and "Ready to go, Count ZERO, Kamen Rider Agito" count. They are the only Heisei shows that follow the trope because they were produced before the record company switch.
- That being said, the themes of Kamen Rider Faiz, Kamen Rider Decade and Kamen Rider Double, the first theme for Kamen Rider Blade and the ending theme of Kamen Rider Hibiki still drop (respectively) the words "Faiz" (in the form of the punny "Justifaiz"), "decade", "double" (sorta), "blade" and "hibiki", but not "Kamen Rider".
- Going further back, the theme song of the very first series finished with "Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider, Rider, Rider!"
- Saban's Masked Rider falls under this pretty well (literally, the only lyrics are "Masked Rider" repeated over and over), but we don't really like to talk too much about it...
- Going with the US Tokusatsu themes, there was also: ULTRAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! (TIGA!) ULTRAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN! (Laaaaarger than) Larger than Life, ULTRAMAN!
- The Addams Family
- American Bandstand
- Say hello to your friends, (BabySitters Club), say hello to the people who care...
- The most classical example: "Batman! Nanananana Batman! Nananana Batman! Nananana Batman!"
- Notably, it managed to get an instrumental award; that's right: its vocals were deemed instruments.
- Bill Nye the Science Guy. Mention it to any geek or nerd who was between 5 and 15 in the 90s, and rather than mention a specific episode or parody song, they start singing the Theme Song.
- "Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!"
- Ten years later and smarter, and I still can't tell you a thing about Inertia except that it is a property of matter.
- Likewise, my only opinion about Science is that it rules.
- A pure example is the old gameshow Blankety Blank: "Blankety Blank Blankety Blank *Dum*Dum* Blankety Blank Blankety Blank *Dum*Dum*..." (you would never guess what lyrics are used to introduce the Supermatch Game round).
- The Boy Meets World theme song for seasons 5-7: "When this boy meets world, boy meets world..."
- "That's the way we all became The Brady Bunch!"
- Daktari.
- Diff'rent Strokes
- In France, Soap Opera viewers are probably considered morons, since most soap dubs get a Title Theme Tune (most notably Dallas and Santa Barbara).
- Evening Magazine... ♫
- The Facts of Life
- Season 2 of Getting By.
- Who could ever forget the choir belting out about Good Times!
- "Green Acres is the place to be"
- "Sunday, Monday, Happy Days"
- "HEEEEEEEEEE HAWWWWWWWWW! Hee hee hee haw haw haw! Hee Haw!"
- Older viewers might remember: "It's Howdy Doody time!" They might easily have forgotten the song's other lines.
- Parodied by the theme to It's Garry Shandling's Show: "This is the theme to Garry's show/The opening theme to Garry's show/Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song..."
- "Living in the Land of the Lost!"
- Love American Style
- The Love Boat
- Martin, Martin, Martin
- "And then there's Maude"
- "Hey, hey, we're The Monkees!"
- "We'll muddle through One Day At A Time (One Day at a Time!)"
- The last line sung in the opening and closing credits of One Foot in the Grave is the title.
- PJ KATIES FAAARRRRM PJ KATIES FAAARRRRRM (sung by PJ Katie with no musical accompaniment, at least originally)
- "Keep them doggies movin', Rawhide"
- "Kenny wasn't like the other kids... Remote Control!"
- Any sort of Disney Channel show — The Replacements, Phil of the Future, Life With Derek, etc., etc.
- The International dubs of Return of the Saint has a bilingual vocal theme in French and English: "Here comes The Saint now, Watchin' The Saint now..."
- Silver Spoons
- An unusual example is the instrumental theme tune to Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, which spells out the title in Morse code.
- Soul Train, Soul Train!
- Stingraaaay, Stingray! Dananana nana!
- "Hang about — Look out! For Super Gran." (Song by Billy Connolly.)
- Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills. Since it was a Power Rangers knock-off, it repeated the words over and over after explaining the premise.
- Diamonds, daisies, snowflakes, That Girl!
- "Down at our rendezvous, Three's Company too"
- Also parodied by The Tom Green Show: "This is the Tom Green Show/It's not the Green Tom Show/This is my favorite show/Because it is my show!"
- A French exemple for a Japanese series: San Ku Kaď (a.k.a. Uchu kara no messeji: Ginga taisen).
- Also true for the Spanish version: Sankuokai.
- The Weird Al Show theme tune also appeared on his Running With Scissors CD (unfortunately, long after CBS canned it).
- Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?
- "Get us out from under, Wonder Woman!"
- Two game show themes with lyrics: The Wizard Of Odds (NBC, 1973) and Monopoly (ABC, 1990).
Music
- The Backstreet Boys hit Everybody (Backstreet's Back).
- Parodied in Tom Lehrer's "Oedipus Rex" (from An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer). In his spoken-word introduction, he explains that he feels the 1957 film version of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex did not fare well with audiences because it "did not have a title tune which the people could hum, and which would actually make them eager to attend this particular flick". He then attempts to "supply this need" with a "prospective title song''.
- ''Hey Hey, we're The Monkees...and people say we monkey around..." (already mentioned under Live Action TV Shows, but the band made a full-length cut on an album of the theme.)
New Media
- Parodied by The Other Other Wiki with their own rendition of the Samurai Jack Theme Tune Rap, which was recently removed from their article on the show. Reproduced here for your convenience:
Samurai Jack? Samurai Jack? Who Jacked Jack? Look out! Samurai Jack? Samurai Jack? Jack Jacked Jack? Jackity jack, jack jack jack, jackity jackity! Jacky jacky Jack! Jackity jack, jackity jack, jacky jack jack!! Look out!! Jacking jacking jackity jackity, ja-jack jack jack!! Jackawa jack! Jack jack jack! Jack jack jack!! Jacka jacka jack jack jack jack jack! JACKITY JACKITY JACKITY JACK! Jack jack jack jack jack jack jack jack! Jack jack jack!? JACK JACK JACK JACK JACK JACK JACK JACK JACKITY JACKITY JACK!!! JACK JACK!!! JAAAACK!! Jack? Can you hear me? JACK?! JAAAAAAACK?!
Puppet Shows
Video Games
- Oddly enough, there's a video game example: The only legible words in the opening theme for Katamari Damacy are the game's title. Other versions of the theme within the game have actual lyrics.
- Sonic Heroes. The game's title is also used rather ridiculously throughout the game: "Why can't I defeat you?" "Because we're Sonic Heroes!"
- Donkey Kong 64. "D.K! Donkey Kong is here!"
- To be fair the exact title appears nowhere in that song. It's more about the character(s) and less about the game.
- Petville (YEAH!) Doodle-dee-doo doo-doo Petville (WHEE!)
- As a pastiche of James Bond movies' tendencies to have title theme tunes, as noted above, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has a subtitle theme tune "Snake Eater".
- Almost every theme song of Super Robot Wars Boisterous Bruisers involves this. Especially "Ware Koso Waaa... Ware Koso Waaa... BARAN DOBAN!". Also Rand Travis' theme "Land Crasher" "Gun, Gunleon, Gunleon! Gun, Gunleon, Gunleon! Gun, Gunleon, Gunleon! Land Crasher...". Yes, both are Boisterous Bruisers.
- Segata Sanshiro! Segata Sanshiro! Sega Saturn... shiro!!
- (Burning Rangers!) To the brand new sky we dive. (Burning Rangers!) Dreams we have are shining bright!(Burning Rangers!) Aquamarine colored skies. Fly high with grace and pride...
- The actual name of the song however is "Burning Hearts" (also known as "Angels With Burning Hearts").
- Night Trap has this. The characters lipsync to it at one point.
Web Original
- In this episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd, a theme has this; this song is about "shitty" games for Spider-Man and how it sucks his "spider-balls." The song also has James' song, called the Angry Nerd.
Western Animation
Note that almost every western animated series does this. However, if you are looking for specific examples, read on...
- Allen Gregory
- "The Ambiguously Gay Duo! The Ambiguously Gay Duo! They are taking on evil, come what may, They are fighting all crime to save the day. They're extremely close in an ambiguous way. They're ambiguously gay. They're ambiguously gay. The Ambiguously Gay Duo!"
- Animaniacs has a lampshaded example.
- "Everything's Archie!"
- "Your backyard friends, The Backyardigans!"
- The Battletoads cartoon pilot.
- The same can surprisingly be said for Ben 10.
- The theme song for Bubble Guppies is literally the title being repeated over and over.
- The theme song to the Bubsy animated pilot episode featured the title character's name sung throughout it. However, it's not as repetitive as some of the other examples given. Also, the character's catchphrase "What could possibly go wrong?" is spoken toward the beginning of the theme.
- "BUCKY! Captain Bucky O' Hare! He goes where no ordinary rabbit would dare!"
- Caillou — which is sung by the character too. "Growing up is not so tough, 'cept when I've had enough — I'm Caillou. Caillou! Caillou! I'm Caillou! That's me!"
- "CHALK! CHALK! CHALK! CHALK! CHALK! CHALK! CHALKZONE!"
- Ch-Ch-Ch-Chip 'N Dale! (Rescue Rangers!)
- "And so I found a place, where everyone will know, my happy mustached face, this is The Cleveland Show!''
- "Code Lyoko, tout reprogrammer, Code Lyoko, un monde sans danger..." And that's just the original French version. There are other versions for English, Spanish, Welsh, Portugese, Hebrew, Chinese, and a few more after them!
- "Combo, Combo Nińos; Combo Vamos; Combo, Combo Nińos; Vamos!"
- "He's the greatest, he's fantastic, where ever there is danger he'll be there Danger Mouse..."
- "'Cause he's Danny Phantom!"
- "Denver, the Last Dinosaur! He's my friend and a whole lot more!"
- "Dinosauceeerrrrs!"
- Dora The Explorer, which is known for repetition, features the character's name well over a dozen times. That doesn't stop it, though, from possibly being the best aspect of the show. This is one of the ones that incorporates a catchphrase: "Swiper, no swiping!"
- "DuckTales, whoo-oo!"
- "Earthworm Jim, we think he's mighty fine! Earthworm Jim; a hero for all time!"
- “Lucky, there’s a Family Guy!”
- The Flintstones: Flintstones, three times. Yabba dabba doo, one-and-a-half. Plus an infamous phrase and another one that everyone has trouble remembering.
- "Hey, it's Franklin, coming to your house. Hey, it's Franklin, coming to my house. Hey, it's Franklin!"
- "Super teen extraordinare. Freakazoid! Freakazoid! Runs around in underwear. Freakazoid! Freakazoid!"
- "George, George, George of the Jungle! / Friend to you and me! (AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!) / Watch out for that tree!"
- “G.I. Joe (A real American hero!)”
- He-Man! He-Man!
- Hurray for Huckle, a mystery-solving series featuring Richard Scarry's BusyTown characters features the series names a couple of times in the theme tune. For the U.S. broadcasts, the series was retitled as BusyTown Mysteries — it still sort of works, as the lyrics include "We're gonna solve a BusyTown mystery," but not quite.
- The Inspector Gadget theme song clearly belongs here.
- "Jem, Truly Outrageous."
- Actually, every Sunbow/Marvel series based on a Hasbro toyline used the same theme song heard in the toy commercials. In the case of Jem though, that was just for the first two seasons (i.e., the "Super Sunday" episodes, plus the first season of the regular series). Afterwords, a different theme song was used ("Me and my friends are Jem girls...").
- Johnny Test
- Kim Possible; contains two of the series' catchphrases in addition to the title — this one barely counts in that it's a full-fledged song with, like, lyrics and everything that do more than vaguely describe the recurring plot.
- ♫ "He's Krypto the Superdog. He has super powers. He's a superdog. And his name is Krypto!" ♫
- "We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship, zoomin' through the sky, Little Einsteins! Climb aboard, get ready to explore, there's so much to find, Little Einsteins!"
- "Ride on The Magic School Bus!"
- M.A.S.K., of course.
- The Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon gave us the immortal description "Super fighting robot... Mega Man!" Over and over and over again.
- Anime example: the English themes for Mega Man NT Warrior repeat the title endlessly...
- ... as does the English theme for Mega Man Star Force. Mega Man cartoons apparently live on this trope. This time they were just making trouble for themselves, though. One character, Sonia Strumm (a.k.a. Sonia Sky a.k.a Hibiki Misora), is a pop idol who sings while she fights — and she often sings the Japanese theme. The English version had to substitute a whole new song.
- "GO! Mighty Orbots!"
- "My Friends Tigger & Pooh, we're always there for each other!"
- "Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff..."
- "My Little Pony, My Little Pony..."
- Postman Pat (and his black-and-white cat)
- The Powerpuff Girls has its notorious, "fighting crime, trying to save the world, here they come just in time, the Powerpuff Girls", running in a seemingly infinite loop.
- RoboCop Alpha Commando is the worst example possible: the theme music is essentially just the word "RoboCop" repeated over and over for a whole minute.
- Scooby, Scooby-Doo, Where are you?
- "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, Seven Little Monsters (Hey!)"
- She-Ra, She-Ra!
- Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, whose Theme Tune consisted of no lyrics other than the title of the show.
- ♫Theee Siiiiimpsoooooons...
- "Fastest Thing Alive", the theme song of ABC's Sonic Sat AM. "Blue streak / speeds by / Sonic the Hedgehog / Too fast / For the naked eye / Sonic the Hedgehog / Sonic / He can really move / Sonic / Has got an attitude / Sonic / He's the fastest thing alive"
- Some versions of Sonic X replaced the theme "Gotta Go Faster" with the show's title being repeated over and over.
- And even that had the words "Sonic X" repeated.
- "Come on down to South Park and meet some friends of mine."
- "[[The Spectacular Spider-Man Spec! Tac! Ular! Spectacular Spider-Man!]]" It even goes so far as to spell out SPECTACULAR in the animated opening credits in time with the singer singing that lyric.
- To be accurate, Stan Lee does this in basically every show that uses his characters — and certainly every Spider-Man show — with the exception of the '90s X-Men show (but see below). The '90s Spidey show was my favorite, with the techno "Spi-der-man... Spi-der-man... Ra-dio-Active Spi-der-man..." in the background of the music.
- And don't forget the '60s version with "Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man!"
- "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Spongebob Squarepants! Absorbent and yellow and porous is he! Spongebob Squarepants!"
- Stargate Infinity
- Averted in the DCAU, except for Static Shock.
- Both the 2003 and 2009 Strawberry Shortcake series make liberal use of the main character's name.
- Actually, the first of the 1980s TV specials also did this, although the actual special was called "The World of Strawberry Shortcake", so it's not a straight example.
- "We are the Stunt Dawgs, watch our show! We are the Stunt Dawgs! Go, go, go!"
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!!
- "Sushi, sushi, sushi, sushi, Sushi Pack!"
- "When there's trouble, you know who to call—Teen Titans!"
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in all of its incarnations.
- The 1987 version manages to fit the entire phrase in 12 times in the course of a minute.
- Then of course, there's Thundercats. "Thunder-thunder-thunder-Thundercats."
- "It's the Tom And Jerry Kids!"
- "Transformers! More than meets the eye! Transformers! Robots in disguise! Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of... The Decepticons!" Beast Wars was even worse — the theme tune was just an instrumental piece over which somebody kept shouting "Beast Wars!"
- Me Grimlock say Beast-Dino words good.
- For the record, in America all Transformers series have a variation of the original theme. But hey, it's catchy and we love it. It's a good way to get non-fans to leave the room so you can watch in peace.
- "When criminals in this world appear / and break the laws that they should fear / the cry goes up both far and near for Underdog!"
- Will And Dewitt's title theme tune is loaded down with Incredibly Lame Puns based on the title characters' names. "You've got the skill, just find the Will & Dewitt!"
- "We are! We are! We are W.I.T.C.H.!"
- In the same fashion as W.I.T.C.H., Winx Club constantly repeats the lines "We are the Winx" and "Come join the club" in its 4Kids dub theme. In the original (Italian) version, it's mostly just the word "Winx" that's repeated and emphasized, especially in the season four theme song.
- The Aborted Pilot "Pryde of the X-Men" plays this straight: "X-Men! (X-Men!) Saves the day! (saves the day!) X-Men! (X-Men!) Coming your way!"
- Lenny And Sid repeats the name several times, and not unlike Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog, it has the two characters interacting with each other while their names appear on-screen in several fonts.
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