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Suspiciously Similar Song / Western Animation

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"Oh, brother, I hated the real version of this song."
— Nat Peterson, SpongeBob SquarePants

The following have been moved to a subpage due to length:

  • The Muppet Babies (1984) theme song bears a strong resemblance to Grease's "We Go Together".
  • Gravity Falls:
    • The main theme and Brad Breeck's Made Me Realize, to such an extent people often stick them together. However, Brad Breeck made Made Me Realize for MTV, and says they have nothing to do with each other.
    • The song "Taking Over Midnight" from "Scary-Oke!" has a structure that resembles Bon Jovi’s "Livin' On a Prayer". Although the lyrics and melody are pure bubblegum pop.
    • The show gets a lot of mileage out of using intentionally obvious sound-alikes for jokes, including "Disco Girl" (for ABBA's "Dancing Queen") and "Don't Start Unbelieving" (for Journey's "Don't Stop Believing".
  • The Simpsons:
    • The main theme played during the openings resembles John Barry's "007 Theme" used in early James Bond films.
    • The Simpsons hangs a lampshade on the trope when, at the opening ceremonies of a nationwide Spelling Bee, celebrity moderator George Plimpton announces, "And now, our unlicensed knockoff of the Olympic Games anthem."
    • It also played this one straight, in quite a lot of episodes. Who can forget "Springfield, Springfield," or the whole of the episode "Simpsoncalifragalisticexpiali(annoyed grunt)tious"? The latter was a parody of Mary Poppins, and had some of the best of these you're likely to see anywhere - particularly Barney's version of "Feed the Birds" ("Buy Me a Beer") and the family's version of "Spoonful of Sugar' ('Cut Every Corner").
      • And "The President Wore Pearls," a Whole-Plot Reference of Evita. Also lampshaded in the closing subtitles, which insist the producers (as advised by their lawyers) "have never heard of a musical based on the life of Eva Peron."
    • The end of "Life on the Fast Lane" parodies the end of An Officer and a Gentleman; you have to listen very carefully to the BGM to notice it isn't really "Up Where We Belong".
    • The rambling song Homer sang in hopes of becoming a food critic was based around West Side Story's "I Feel Pretty".
    • Then there's "See My Vest", Mr. Burns' PETA-unfriendly ripoff of Beauty and the Beast's "Be Our Guest".
      • In turn, "Be Our Guest" resembles the titular song from Me and My Girl, and the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation version has an interlude similar to Jacques Offenbach's "Can Can".
    • Lampshaded again during a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs parody with a song called "Ho Hi" ("this song's not like any song you know...if Disney sues we'll claim fair use").
    • Some earlier episodes repeatedly underscored action sequences with a pastiche of the "Axel F" theme from Beverly Hills Cop. In fact, they had at least two distinct versions of it.
    • Sideshow Bob's personal theme music is a reworked version of Bernard Herrmann's Cape Fear theme.
    • "Lady Bouvier's Lover" closes with "The Sound of Grandpa", a knockoff of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence."
    • "Flaming Moe's" has a very funny parody of the Cheers theme.
    • The James Bond parody couch gag uses an obvious knock-off of its famous opening theme.
    • The episode where Homer becomes a hippy replaces the end theme with the bass and drums from Tomorrow Never Knows, with a sitar playing the Simpsons theme on top - several years before Giles Martin played the vocals and sitar of Within You Without You over the same, causing the Simpsons version to sound like a Suspiciously Similar Song version of that.
    • Several early episodes had a bit of incidental music that was a tweaked version of Edvard Grieg's "Morning Mood" from Peer Gynt; it was used to in the same manner as Grieg's original, to denote the dawning of a new day. Since the composition was in the public domain when those episodes were produced, it remains unclear why they didn't use the Grieg original. Even more confusingly, the 9th season episode "Bart Carny" does actually use the original, untweaked "Morning Mood".
    • "They'll Never Stop The Simpsons", the closing song from the Clip Show "Gump Roast", lyrically parodies Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire" but uses a different melody.
    • "Thank God, It's Doomsday" has "Who Got Their Haircut?", a parody of the Baha Men's "Who Let the Dogs Out".
    • Dark Stanley's theme from "Yokel Chords" is based off of Ástor Piazzolla's Suite Punta del Este I. Introduccion: Allegro pesante and his music in general (due to the song's heavy use of a bandoneon and strings), to the point that many people will incorrectly state that it is the same song (much like the theme to 12 Monkeys).
    • In "That 90's Show", "Shave Me" is obviously based on the Nirvana song "Rape Me," while "Margerine" is based on "Glycerine" by Bush.
    • "Lisa's Pony" has a dream sequence where Homer dozes off while driving - as originally aired, and on the DVD, the score is basically an instrumental cover of The Beatles' "Golden Slumbers" with the vocal melody played on acoustic guitar. When the clip reappeared in "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", the action was re-scored to an entirely different composition. Televised reruns of the episode use the same piece as the original airing, but remove the recognizable guitar melody.
    • An in-universe version in the show itself: the Itchy and Scratchy ending theme (as heard in "The Front") sounds similar to the theme to the Lighter and Softer version of the show in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge".
  • The Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers theme song was probably intended as a spoof of the MacGyver vignette.
  • Family Guy used to do this in its early seasons — e.g. "Give it Up" from the toad-licking one, which was a pastiche of "You're the One That I Want" from Grease. In later seasons, however, they use straight lyrical parodies.
    • The apotheosis: Peter singing about his diplomatic immunity with "Can't Touch Me!", an intentionally obvious soundalike of "Can't Touch This", which includes the line "so Hammer you can't sue!" while talking to an animated MC Hammer.
    • One aversion occurred when they couldn't get the rights to the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon theme, so they had Peter sing the Batman TV show theme (owned by Fox), replacing "Batman" with "Spider-Man". It's actually much funnier that way.
    • The Season 3 episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" has Peter crooning a song called "I Need a Jew", which sounds suspiciously like "When You Wish Upon a Star", from Disney's Pinocchio. The publishers of the Disney song apparently thought so, too, as they unsuccessfully sued Family Guy producer Seth MacFarlane and composer Walter Murphy for copyright infringement.
    • In the episode "Love Blactually", Brian dresses up as Snoopy for a costume party. When Peter demands that he "do the dance", Brian complies, accompanied by a suspiciously similar version of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy", the famous Peanuts Bootstrapped Theme.
    • In "Saving Private Brian", the music in the US Army commercial is The suspiciously similar version of the intro to Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me".
    • The "I'm A Tumor" song in "Petarded" is a suspiciously similar version of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus". Of course, The Simpsons did it first, using the same tune as the basis for "Dr. Zaius" in "A Fish Called Selma".
    • Meg's song in "Adult Education" is a suspiciously similar version of "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast.
  • Histeria!, an educational cartoon about history, parodied a lot of songs with similar, but original, melodies. In the episode on Teddy Roosevelt, adapted versions of "Wooly Bully" (as "Bully Bully") and "Ghostbusters" (as "Trustbuster") were both used, altered enough to be free of royalties.
  • Doug's theme song sounds a lot like 'Little Bitty Pretty One' by Thurston Harris.
    • Doug also used suspiciously similar versions of the Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark, for Race Canyon, Superman's Theme Tune for Quailman, the James Bond theme for Smash Adams, the Mission Impossible theme (in Doug's Secret Song when Porkchop is sneaking into Bebe's house) and a knockoff of "U Can't Touch This" in "Doug Can't Dance" (starts after Mr. Dink stubs his toe), among others.
  • Justice League's theme was based on the theme to the Hammer Horror Twins of Evil. That film's theme even served as temp track.
  • Jimmy Neutron does this all the time with their montage sequences. One notable one is a couple notes off from "Hey Ya" by Outkast.
    • Another notable, and rather obscure, one is a knock-off of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" (heard in a number of classic Looney Tunes cartoons) in the episode "Return of the Nanobots," during a montage where the Nanobots delete everyone in Retroville (and we even briefly cut away a couple of times to the robots dancing to the music!)
    • In another episode, the "Donut Boy" theme song sounds very similar to (and is likely a reference to) the theme from Shaft.
    • In the episode, "Send in the Clones", the song during Cool Jimmy's strut sounds very similar to "Stayin' Alive". The scene itself is likely a homage to Saturday Night Fever.
    • In an episode where Jimmy and his friends are chugging soda like a bunch of frat boys, a song greatly resembling "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen plays - an obvious reference to Animal House.
    • The title theme music in the episode "Vanishing Act", which is also used at the beginning of Jimmy's magic show, is essentially "Sirius" by The Alan Parsons Project with a few notes changed.
    • The music that plays during Jimmy’s repeating birthday parties is based on "Birthday" by The Beatles.
  • Phineas and Ferb
    • The episode "Ladies and Gentlemen, Meet Max Modem!" has Mr. Fletcher, practicing as Max Modem, plays a riff on a synthesizer that sounds a lot like the intro to "Bloody Tears" from the Castlevania series.
    • The Perry the Platypus theme sounds an awful lot like the song "Secret Agent Man."
    • "Meatloaf Surprise" features a song that starts off sounding a lot like "Wonderwall" by Oasis, except it's about the singer's love of meatloaf.
    • In "Meapless in Seattle", the brothers and friends go to Seattle, where they're greeted by a guitar riff that's suspiciously similar to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.
      • The 2012 syndicated version of this show uses a theme sounding suspiciously similar to the Disney Channel version but instrumental.
    • "Backyard Aquarium": The music at the beginning, as Phineas peers into Goldie's fishbowl, sounds very close to the track "Field Trip" from Thomas Newman's score for Finding Nemo.
  • Chowder:
    • In the episode "Grubble Gum", where Chowder's gigantic, all-consuming wad of gum starts picking up everything in its path: the Background Music, appropriately enough, is a lawyer-friendly version of the Katamari Damacy theme.
    • The episode "Sniffle Ball" has one scene blatantly parodying the classic Super Mario Bros fight with Bowser, to the tune of a variant on the classic underground theme.
    • The sleepeating episode uses the first few notes of "Thriller".
    • Another episode involving Schnitzel's obvious Bruce Lee parody used an equally-obvious and suspiciously similar version of the song "Eye of the Tiger".
    • And in "Sing Beans", when Schnitzel is playing the steel drum, it sounds EXACTLY like Target's (Australia) "Make Me Happy" aka 100% Happy ad campaign jingle.
    • There is a recurring theme that often plays when a character is sneaking around, that sounds like The Pink Panther theme. It reuses the first same ten notes.
    • During the live-action sequence in "Spending Spree", the disco music that accompanies the car wash sequence sounds like the theme to Car Wash.
  • An early sketch in Robot Chicken features Voltron in a dance-off against a Robeast to "Work It Out On the Floor", an obvious parody of DMX's "Get It On the Floor". On the DVD version and all future airing, the song is replaced with a horribly generic, lawyer-friendly take on the song.
    • During their The Greatest American Hero parody, the theme song is "Believe It or Don't, I'm Flying Around", a parody of "Theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)".
    • Used in-series when a sketch about the Libertarian Party have them needing to use the suspiciously similar version of various songs because they can't afford the real ones. Such as "Airborne Mini-dirt" (Dust in the Wind) and "We Are the Victors" (We Are the Champions). They still got sued for "Friend Choo-choo" (Love Train).
    • A sketch about the Kraken from Clash of the Titans featured a suspiciously similar version of "Memory".
      • A large amount of the music used for Robot Chicken are suspiciously similar versions of many popular tunes from movies, television shows, and even video games. This makes sense as parodies are a big part of Robot Chicken.
  • The Teletoon-animated seasons of Johnny Test use their own theme song, which is a Suspiciously Similar Song version of... the original Johnny Test theme song (from when the series was animated by Warner Bros.). The "same franchise as the original music" deal strikes again!
    • Also occurs on the Cartoon Network broadcast version and on the Netflix Watch Instantly releases.
    • Incidentally, while the original Johnny Test theme sounds highly styled after your average top 40 rock band, the second series theme song is actually a suspiciously similar Version of "American Idiot".
  • The eighth episode of Samurai Jack opens with a jukebox playing the suspiciously similar Version of Quincy Jones's "Soul Bossa Nova" (which you may recognize from Austin Powers).
    • Or, for those Canadians playing at home, Definition.
  • The Flapjack Christmas Episode begins with "It's the Most Marvelous Time of the Year", which is a several notes-off version of (of course) "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year".
  • In an episode of The Angry Beavers, "You Promised", Norbert and Daggett race around their dam on bikes to the suspiciously similar, yet instrumental, version of "I'm A Believer" by The Monkees.
    • "In Search of Big Byoo-tox" featured Dag trying to avoid being seen by Norb to The Suspiciously Similar Version of "Hush" by Deep Purple.
    • Also, one of the instrumentals used frequently in episodes of The Angry Beavers sounds a lot like the beginning of Andy Williams' song, "Can't Get Used to Losing You". In fact, the show's soundtrack is practically a "Best of".
    • One episode of the Angry Beavers featured a suspiciously similar version of "Say You'll Be There" by the Spice Girls.
  • The original version of the Fireman Sam theme definitely sounds like Billy Ocean's "When The Going Gets Tough".
  • Futurama does some almost indistinguishable please-don't-sue-us versions of songs like "Happy Birthday To You"note  and "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" - the latter has to be listened to very, very closely. The excuse in the director's commentary was 'we thought it'd be alright because the songs would have changed over the years'. Fry lampshades this during the former by singing "And you smell like one, too!", out of context from the Captain Ersatz version, but in the style of the real song. Of course, that line is not an official part of the song, so there's no copyright violation.
  • The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police loved throwing in suspiciously similar versions of appropriate Background Music.
  • Listen to the theme song of Teen Titans (2003), then compare it to Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man".
  • In Drawn Together the ukulele riff that sometimes accompanies Wooldoor is an obvious pastiche of a similar one from SpongeBob SquarePants.
    • Drawn Together had some songs like this, both on the show, and some on the DVD releases to clear royalties. One DVD example was in the episode "Dirty Pranking Number 2", with the song "This Is Our Version", a song that sounds like "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", the original song that was on the TV broadcast. Another example that occurred on the show was in the episode, "Foxy vs. The Board of Education" with the song "Board of Education", a song that sounds like "I'm Just a Bill" from School House Rock.
  • Superjail!—as explicitly pointed out by the bumps on [adult swim]—could not get the rights to "Love Shack", so the Warden sings the royalty-free, lawyer-friendly, not-gonna-get-sued-for-it "Party Bar" during the episode where they build a bar in the jail.
    • The episode "Combaticus" features parodies of both "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's theme, as well as the song "Shenhua" from the video game Shenmue.
  • For The Little Rascals' Christmas Special, a 1979 animated holiday special featuring Our Gang, the producers didn't get the rights to use Leroy Shields' classic theme music, so the special's music composer wrote a suspiciously similar Version of it.
  • The Main Theme to The Amazing World of Gumball sounds a suspicious lot like "December, 1963" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
    • In "The Job", we several times hear Background Music that sounds like the theme from The Omen (1976), except with the lyrics replaced with pizza toppings in dog Latin.
    • Gumball's song from "The Refund" is one to "We Are The World".
    • "The Tag" features an off-key sound alike of "Baby" by Justin Bieber played for all of one second by Gumball and Darwin to threaten Mr. Robinson, who had engaged an Escalating War with Richard.
    • Mrs. Robinson's song from "The Wicked" is clearly based on "My Favourite Things" from The Sound of Music.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants has quite a number of songs that sound like others.
    • The theme song is based on the melody of the sea shanty, "Blow the Man Down".
    • The Astronaut's March is obviously a pale imitation of Elmer Bernstein's theme for The Great Escape.
    • A dance scene in the episode "Jellyfish Jam" uses a techno song called "Stadium Rave A" that sounded a lot like "Get Ready For This" (A.K.A. "NBA Jam") by 2 Unlimited.
    • The Krusty Krab Training Video uses a soundalike for Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" called "Quest for the Best".
    • Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's official Leitmotif is The Lineman, an all-too-obvious (and very fitting) similar song to the Adam West Batman theme.
    • Joked about it once: A Krusty Krab customer listened to a song and said (perhaps not exact quote) "I hated the REAL version of this song."
    • Best Day Ever takes a cue from Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline".
    • The episode "Ugh", during a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey's uplifting sequence uses music that sounds frustratingly similar to, but just different enough from, "Also sprach Zarathustra". The episode also makes use of a soundtrack similar to György Ligeti's "Requiem", the composition used with the Monolith scenes from that film, when SpongeGar discovers that fire can be used to cook food.
    • The title card song for the episode "Pickles", "The Gunfighter" is a near-complete copy of the suite to the 1969 Spaghetti Western "The Forgotten Pistolero"/"IL Pistolero dell'Ave Maria'". "Pistolero" is Spanish for "Gunman" hence the song's title.
    • In "Little Yellow Book", the Bikini Bottom Municipal Anthem in which SpongeBob dances in his underwear sounds like Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1".
    • "Sounds of Science 1", heard in "SB-129", sounds like the Stage 3 music from Donkey Kong Junior.
  • In an episode of ReBoot, the two computer-generated delivery men from Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" music video make a cameo appearance. Cue a guitar riff that sounds suspiciously like "Money for Nothing".
  • Done frequently on South Park.
    • For instance, there's one episode where the adults put on some Cher. The song on the stereo sounds a lot like Cher's "Believe."
    • When Stan's grandfather wanted Stan to understand how awful it is being old, his grandfather puts on a song that sounds a lot like Enya's "Orinoco Flow".
    • In "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut", a soundalike of "My Heart Will Go On" played during Liane's flashbacks whenever someone caught her eye.
    • When Randy is incapacitated from being "served" and Stan visits him in the hospital, a tune almost identical to Eminem's "Lose Yourself" starts playing.
    • Subverted in the episode "Canada on Strike." The Star Wars Kid is shown, but instead of John Williams' Star Wars theme, it seems to be a knockoff. It's actually John Williams' Superman theme.
    • In "Christian Rock Hard", Cartman plays one song that is kinda similar to the Delfonics' "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time).
    • DVDA's "Now You're a Man" is basically "You Give Love a Bad Name" with different lyrics and a different meter (the chorus is in 7/4 instead of 4/4).
    • In "Timmy 2000", the Lords of the Underworld song uses a riff very similar to that of Rush's "The Spirit of Radio".
    • The Princess Kenny song from the Black Friday Trilogy sounds like a Japanese version of the Nelly and Kelly Rowland song "Dilemma". Also, the Princess Kenny Song also sounds similar to the opening theme song from the anime Princess Lover!.
  • Pretty much the entire soundtrack to the The Powerpuff Girls episode "Meet the Beat-Alls" is suspiciously similar versions of (you guessed it) songs by The Beatles, including "A Hard Day's Night", "Eleanor Rigby", "Across the Universe", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", "Strawberry Fields Forever", and "The Ballad of John and Yoko".
  • Batman Beyond's theme song sounds a lot like "Hey Man Nice Shot" by Filter.
    • The episode "Sentries of the Lost Cosmos" is full of simulated Star Wars music.
  • The end theme for Captain Planet and the Planeteers is a suspiciously similar version of "Step By Step" by New Kids on the Block.
  • The long-awaited Daria DVD set occasionally opts for suspiciously similar versions in place of the more generic cues that comprise the majority of the music. Technically averted with Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" - MTV had apparently tried to license the original recording due to how important it was to the episode it appeared in, but Lauper no longer allows the song to be licensed and they were forced record a cover version (since Mr. DeMartino actually sings the official lyrics).
  • Sym-Bionic Titan has an interesting version of this trope in the episode "Roar of the White Dragon". When Mike Chan/White Dragon shows up at the school, we hear some music that sounds suspiciously like the song by the Teriyaki Boyz called "Tokyo Drift (Fast and the Furious)". Compare the two here and here. Fitting, but still weird.
  • In Billy And Mandy's Big Boogie Adventure, music that sounds almost like the Monkey Island theme can be heard playing during the race.
  • Animaniacs did this frequently with their numerous song parodies. For example, "Yakko's Universe" is a similar song to "The Galaxy Song".
    • A Pinky and the Brain segment in the 2020 revival series includes a song called "Lakes Are Fun", heavily based on "Kites Are Fun" by The Free Design.
  • The song "If You Can Dream" by the Disney Princesses is actually a suspiciously similar version of Mya's "Where the Dream Takes You." Guess which animated Disney movie that song is from!
  • Thomas & Friends:
  • In The BBC's "Woodland Animations" show Bertha, The main theme, -especially the first three lyrics- sounds like a direct homage to "Heartaches" by Al Bowlly. This doubles as Hilarious in Hindsight in the wake of the Colbert Bump "Heartaches" experienced upon being used as a leitmotif for "It's Just a Burning Memory" that plays at the beginning of the Album "Everywhere at the End of Time (Stage 1)" By The Caretaker.
  • The title theme to The Mask is basically Royal Crown Revue's "Hey Pachuco" as a Bragging Theme Tune.
  • In The Boondocks, there's a recurring tuba motif for Uncle Ruckus that sounds a lot like Jabba the Hutt's theme.
  • A weird sort of cross-media-type example with the opening to the German dub of the Ruby-Spears Mega Man cartoon, which bears some similarities to, of all things, the Cheetahmen theme from the deplorable Action 52 collection.
  • An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures featured a parody of Super Mario Bros. called Super Pluckio Bros. which played over a suspiciously similar version of the overworld theme of the original Super Mario Bros game. Adding to this was the fact that sound effects from the actual game were actually used in the episode.
  • The music that plays during the credits for Action League NOW! is a pretty obvious take on the James Bond theme.
  • The Looney Tunes Show
    • In "To Bowl or Not to Bowl", the song "Let's Bowl" is a parody of "Far From Over" by Frank Stallone.
    • The Merrie Melody "Daffy the Wizard" has a near-identical melody to "Children of the Grave" by Black Sabbath.
  • In Catscratch, there's a point in the show where a song very similar to "Zelda's Lullaby" plays...No, really.
  • The main theme of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog had The Hall of the Mountain King and Flight of the Bumblebee mixed with the original Sonic game's title song.
  • Just Missed: Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) almost had this theme, which sounds a lot like INXS's "The One Thing." The actual show's intro theme has a recurring riff that sounds like a rock version of the "Colonel Bogey March."
  • The theme to The Critic was done in the style of Rhapsody in Blue.
  • The theme song of Inspector Gadget is based on Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King.
  • Star Trek: The Animated Series featured a lot of pieces and cues that are suspiciously similar to ones from Star Trek: The Original Series (most noticeable in the theme tune: TAS, TOS).
  • Superman: The Animated Series - its Awesome Music theme bears a striking resemblance to a sped-up version the Aaron Copland masterpiece "Fanfare for the Common Man" melded with bits the John Williams theme from Superman: The Movie. Given that the series was heavily influenced by the John Byrne era Superman (Clark is the real person, Superman is his disguise, and Clark sees himself as a perfectly normal person who happens to have extraordinary powers), this probably wasn't unintentional.
  • The opening theme for Sabrina's Secret Life sounds a lot like the P!nk song "Get the Party Started".
  • The main theme of Transformers: Prime sounds a lot like the theme of another sci-fi epic.
  • From the 1939 animated film of Gulliver's Travels; the song "It's A Hap-Hap-Happy Day" is extremely similar in melody to the Snow White song "Whistle While You Work." Compare them both; Hap Hap Happy Day and Whistle While You Work.
  • In the Motorcity episode "Off the Rack" when Julie is sneaking around KaneCo, the music playing in the background is similar to the theme from Mission: Impossible. Notably Julie dives and hangs from the ceiling in a similar fassion.
  • Some folks on YouTube noticed the similarity between The Smurfs (1981) theme song and the scatting melody of the J. Geils Band's "Centerfold", both of which came out in 1981.
    • The episode "Smurfing For Ghosts" uses a tune that sounds very similar to Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters", while the cartoon special "The Smurfic Games" uses one that's similar to Vangelis' Chariots of Fire theme tune.
  • The theme song to the 2012 Littlest Pet Shop sounds similar to Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" or the Jesse Fredrick song "Everywhere You Look".
  • A tune that played during action scenes in She-Ra: Princess of Power contains a 7-note segment that sounds like the theme to Popeye.
  • Scooby-Doo
  • The "This is It!" theme from The Bugs Bunny Show and other television broadcasts of the Looney Tunes shorts sounds similar to the first theme tune from The Flintstones.
  • There's a background song on Rugrats that sounds a lot like Colonel Bogey March.
  • The theme to Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures is performed a cappella in a manner silimar to the original Mighty Mouse Playhouse theme, only duplicating the note structure of the line "Here I come to save the day."
  • In the Ben 10: Omniverse episode "Jolt from the Past", when Ben challenges Rook to find him some opportunities for heroics, the resulting On Patrol Montage is to a tune that sounds a lot like the intro to "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler.
  • Largely averted by Regular Show, where the creators typically manage to secure song clearances. In one such notable exception, a soundalike of "Subdivisions" by Rush plays while Mordecai, Rigby and Skips are on a car trip; additionally the guitar riff that plays when Mordecai & Rigby are heading into the karaoke place is very close to "Working Man".
  • The chorus of the theme song to Lilo & Stitch: The Series, "Aloha E Komo Mai", sounds similar to the one of the Mardi Gras song "Iko Iko", except it is a bit sped up and is at a higher pitch.
  • A rare example of this used with a song in a show itself-the beginning of the song "I'm Skating" from Magic Adventures of Mumfie sounds like a slowed and pitched down version of "The Beginning of Things"!
  • The Silverwing theme song sounds similar to "Frantic" by Metallica, except it's a bit slowed down.
  • The theme to X-Men: The Animated Series sounds like Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight".
    • Then, a decade later, string quartet Bond's "Explosive" sounds like the theme song as well.
    • It also resembles the theme song for a popular Hungarian TV series, Linda the Policewoman, which first aired around a decade before the animated series. The resemblance is allegedly uncanny, enough for a Hungarian representative of the estate of the now-deceased TV series theme's composer to sue Marvel and associated companies for that rip-off.
  • The theme to Silverhawks sounds like "The Edge of a Dream" by Steven McClintock. Both even have an awesome-sounding guitar solo.
  • The CBeebies cartoon Boj has its theme based on, of all things, C.W. McCall's Convoy.
  • The ChalkZone episode "Lost in Chalk" has a sound-alike of "Get Ready for This" by 2 Unlimited playing during the fair...which was recycled from an episode of The Fairly OddParents!, "Totally Spaced Out" (Guy Moon, the composer for OddParents also composed the first two seasons and the first half of season three of ChalkZone, and often re-used Background Music from the former show for the latter)
    • "The Label Police" includes a sound-alike of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse".
  • "Rise and Shine" from Sofia the First sounds similar to "When Will My Life Begin?" from Tangled.
  • The composition of the opening theme to Danny Phantom sounds strikingly similar to that of "Invisible Man" by Queen. Right down to the bassline used in both songs.
    • The comparison becomes even more evident when you listen to the first, unused theme for the show.
  • Sonic Boom episode 9 has a couple of obvious riffs, one to The A-Team theme and another to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
    • The song Sonic, Tails & Knuckles perform in "Battle of the Boy Bands" sounds a bit like "Can't Stop" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
    • "Late Night Wars" has a piece that is most definitely not Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees.
    • A number of scenes throughout the series, such as the pillow fight in "Cabin Fever", are scored with a jumpy saxophone solo that sounds very much like "Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph.
    • The scene following Eggman assembling his team in "Victory" sounds a lot like Eddie Murphy's "Party All The Time", including the clapping.
  • Fairly OddParents:
    • The theme song sounds very similar to "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin, especially the first few bars.
    • Then of course, "Fairy Idol" featured a song by Norm the Genie, also sounds similar, right down to the motif and jazzy style.
    • A few episodes ("Nectar of the Odds", "Baby Face", "Wishy Washy", and "Force of Nature") play a soundalike of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" during montages where characters are working or building something.
    • "Anchors Away" has a soundalike of Kenny Loggins' "Highway to the Danger Zone".
    • The Training Montage in "Old Man and the C-" plays a soundalike of the Rocky training music.
  • The Wander over Yonder episode "The Catastrophe" has Wonder being addicted to cute cat videos. One of them is a clear reference to the "Keyboard Cat" meme playing a song that sounds almost exactly like it.
  • The Winx Club Season 7 song "Love is All Around" uses the same melody as Katy Perry's "Roar".
  • In an episode of A Kind of Magic, Tommy accidentally summons a superhero out of a comic book. The hero's leitmotiv is an obvious pastiche of the The Incredibles main theme.
  • An offbeat version of the Saw theme appears in As Told by Ginger episode "Ten Chairs" when Lois is woken up at night by spooky sounds.
  • Julius Jr. has done this a couple of times, notably with a riff resembling Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in one episode and Take me out to the ball game in another.
  • The VeggieTales song "We're Vikings!" sounds very similar to "A Pirate's Life For Me'' from Pirates of the Caribbean. It even contains the line "A viking's life for me!" at the end of each verse.
  • During the flashback of the lead-up to Harleen Quinzel becoming Harley Quinn in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Mad Love", the BGM sounds a lot like Making Christmas from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
  • The Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "Hunt for Ziro" features the Hutt clans celebrating with a musical performance... a showgirls number in homage to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, complete with a lawyer friendly Huttese sound alike to Anything Goes.
  • Steven Universe: Sadie and the Cool Kids' song "Working Dead"'s baseline is suspiciously similar to Ludo's "Safe in the Dark". The melody of the show's theme song is also noticeably similar to David Bowie's "Space Oddity".
    • Steven and Connie's "Jam Buddies" song in "Sworn To The Sword" sounds incredibly similar to the Christmas song "Jingle Bell Rock."
  • The Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "One False Movie", in which Mac's (the main character) imaginary friend Bloo directs a movie, the movie contains a song which is an obvious pastiche of "All-Star" by Smash Mouth. (It does makes sense in context; the song also mentions ogres, making it partially a reference to Shrek.)
  • World Tour, the third season of Total Drama, had about half of its songs sound like obvious imitations of already existing ones. These include:
    • The first few lines of "Paris in the Springtime" from "Can't Help Falling in Louvre" are similar to that of "I Love Paris" from the musical Kiss Me, Kate.
    • "Changing Guard Mix" from "I See London..." is one for The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever".
    • "We Built Gwen's Face" from "Sweden Sour" sounds like "Dancing Queen" by ABBA.
    • "I'm Gonna Make It" is a simulated version of Tom Cochrane's "Life is a Highway".
  • The theme music from Grossology was inspired by The Incredibles.
  • The King Arthur & the Knights of Justice theme tune sounds like a faster version of the verse of Bananarama's "Cruel Summer".
  • The theme song of The Loud House is very similar to "Uncontrollable Urge" by Devo.
  • The theme song to PAW Patrol sounds very similar to Parry Grip's theme song for The 7D.
  • Darkwing Duck's theme song sounds a lot like a slower version of Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal", especially the bridges.
  • The Animated Adaptation of Soul Music did this a lot. "Pathway to Paradise", for example, is basically all Jimi Hendrix songs played at once.
  • A sixth-season episode of Totally Spies! called "Nine Lives" featured one of the girls turning into a catgirl (AGAIN), and when it starts, the soundtrack plays a tune that is not quite "Cat Blues" from Cowboy Bebop.
  • Big City Greens: The song "Burgs' and Fries" is clearly a parody of "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast.
  • The Buzz Lightyear of Star Command episode "Haunted Moon" has a scene where Buzz and "Wild Bill" Cooley finally retrieve the Comet Duster from the wrecked ship and use it to deflect the comet. The music that plays during that scene bears a more than passing resemblance to "Duel of the Fates" from The Phantom Menace
  • The main theme of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) is very similar to the refrain of Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia", just faster.
  • In The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Golden Films), The song at the beginning is trying to be "The Infernal Galop", but not actually using the real song, despite it being public domain.
  • In The Crumpets, one recurring music piece sounds a lot like "Eye of the Tiger".
  • The Teen Titans Go! song "The Pee Pee Dance" sounds like "Boogie Shoes" by K.C. and the Sunshine Band.
  • The Pelswick theme song bears a resemblance to "A Flowery Song" by Five Iron Frenzy.
  • The Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat theme bears a slight resemblance to the Season 1 ending theme of Toad Patrol.
  • Jem: The original theme, "Truly Outrageous", sounds like a mash-up of Eddie Murphy's "Party All The Time" and Van Halen's "Panama".
  • The theme song to Timothy Goes to School sounds similar to "The Touch" by Stan Bush.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (2016):
    • The rap "Princess B Tough" is very similar to Missy Elliott's "Work It", especially at the start.
    • "Home, Sweet Homesick" features a song based on David Bowie's "Space Oddity".
    • "Monkey Love" contains songs referencing The Manhattans' "Shining Star" and The Beach Boys "Wouldn't It Be Nice?".
  • The Bragging Theme Tune for Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps sounds similar to "Roam" by The B-52s.
  • The famous DuckTales theme song sounds a lot like Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams". Here's a mashup.
  • "One Together is Two", the theme music for Hanna-Barbera's Laurel and Hardy cartoon, is a suspiciously similar version of "Dance of the Cuckoos", the theme for Laurel & Hardy's movies.
  • Ninjago
    • The guitar intro to the song that Dareth dances to in "Spy for a Spy" is almost identical to the Chuck Berry song "Johnny B. Goode".
    • The song that Ghoultar dancers to in "Kingdom Come" and that multiple ghosts are seen dancing to in "Curseworld, Part 1" bears a striking resemblance to the theme song from the movie "Ghostbusters".
  • Jorel's Brother:
    • In "Gangorras da Revolução", after the kids take over the school and begin doing whatever they want to, they chant a song that resembles the chorus for Rock Lobster.
    • Season 3 had a song that was basically Nirvana's "Sliver" with lyrics regarding the episode ("Grandma take me home" became "Grandma take me to school").
  • School House Rock has two notable examples.
  • The Underdog theme sounds like Stan Jones' "Ghost Riders in the Sky" mixed with "They Call The Wind Maria" from Paint Your Wagon. The "Riffraffville" episode even has a Spaghetti Western arrangement of the theme.
  • The Doc McStuffins theme song bears a resemblance to Michael Bublé's "Haven't Met You Yet".
  • The song "Shame" from Big Mouth bears a resemblance to both "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from The Little Mermaid and “Shiny” from Moana.
  • The theme song for PAW Patrol bears a resemblance to Simple Plan's "Can't Keep My Hands Off You"
  • The theme to Puppy Dog Pals sounds similar to the theme song to another dog-themed cartoon: PAW Patrol.
  • Vampirina: Mostly due to both songs being made with the same Garage Band samples, "The Spooky Shuffle" sounds virtually identical to, of all things, "Your Turn to Go" from Your Turn to Die.
  • Ready Jet Go!:
    • "Potatoes on Mars" from the episode of the same name sounds very similar to "Life on Mars?" by David Bowie, but at a higher pitch. Word of God confirms that this was the intent.
    • "Space Racin'" bears a resemblance to "Hey Little Cobra" by The Rip Chords.
    • It might be a stretch, but "The Spirit of Christmas" sounds similar to "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid at some points, especially towards the end. It makes sense - the song stems from Mitchell's inner desire to be friends with Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy — to be part of their world. In real-time, Mitchell gets invited in, which the gang learns is the Spirit of Christmas - friendship and kindness.
  • "The Wizard" from The Looney Tunes Show borrows heavily from Black Sabbath... however rather than "The Wizard" as one might expect from the title, it sounds similar to "Children of the Grave"
  • The theme song for Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! sounds similar to "Hey Ya!" by OutKast.
  • The theme to The Weekenders sounds very similar to "Word Up" by Cameo.
  • In the animated adaptation of Boogie, el aceitoso, there are two songs very similar to these:
  • Yo Yogi!: The theme song is very similar to "Unskinny Bop" by Poison.
  • The theme tune to Mysticons sounds very similar to "Naturally" by Selena Gomez.
  • The theme song to Blue's Clues & You! sounds similar to the second theme song from the original series, "Another Blue's Clues Day".
  • The theme song to the 2000 version of Clifford the Big Red Dog sounds like the Schoolhouse Rock! song "My Hero Zero".
  • Barbie examples:
  • Fudêncio e Seus Amigos usually averted this trope in the early seasons, using licensed songs occasionally. When the DVD for Season 1 was made, all those songs were replaced; the third episode featured a Training Montage set to "She's a Maniac", which, in the DVD, was changed to a soundalike with Portuguese lyrics. The episode "Tutti-Fruta" was just excluded from the DVD altogether, because it prominently featured two real-life songs which were impossible to replace.
  • The Dora the Explorer theme song sounds like "Soul Limbo" by Booker T. & the M.G.'s.
  • The opening theme to Team Umizoomi bears a slight resemblance to Good Charlotte's "The Anthem".
  • The opening theme for Eloise: The Animated Series bears a strong resemblance to "Hit the Road Jack" by Ray Charles.
  • The theme song to HouseBroken is similar to the theme song for Oggy and the Cockroaches.
  • "Good Mood", Adam Levine's song from the end credits of ''PAW Patrol: The Movie" sounds similar to "Best Day Of My Life" by American Authors. The "woo-hoo" refrain also sounds similar to "Let's Get It Started" by Black Eyed Peas.
  • Uncle Grandpa: The music that plays when the RV arrives in the episode "Charlie Burgers" sounds a lot like the king theme from Super Mario Bros. 3.
  • The theme song to What About Mimi? (especially the first few bars of it) sounds similar to "Pleasant Valley Sunday" by The Monkees.
  • The theme song to My Dad the Rock Star sounds similar to the theme song of My Life as a Teenage Robot. Concidentally, both shows premiered within a month of each other and both aired on Nickelodeon (although the former show was a 3rd party acquistion from Teletoon, not an official Nicktoon)
  • The theme songs to Ned's Newt and Seven Little Monsters share similarities with each other. Both shows were produced by Nelvana.
  • The theme song to Pepper Ann sounds similar to "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks.
  • Praise Petey has a rendering of Beauty and the Beast's number Belle with a much bluer theme. Instead of singing about the innocent and curious village beauty, they sing about how Petey has a UTI.
  • The theme song to Pound Puppies (2010) is incredibly similar to the theme song for Recess. An interesting case where both shows have the same creators!
  • The theme song to 6teen sounds similar to the theme for the English dub of Franchise/Beyblade. Like the Seven Little Monsters/Ned's Newt example, both of these were produced by Nelvana.
  • The theme song to Detention sounds incredibly similar to "Trouble" by Shampoo.
  • The theme song to Disenchantment sounds like a slowed down version of "Hotel Room Service" by Pitbull.
  • The theme song to My Goldfish is Evil sounds similar to "Peaceful Valley" from The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, except sped up.
  • The theme song to George Shrinks shares similarities with "Tutti Frutti" by Little Richard. Considering the 50s vibe the show is going for, this might have been intentional.
  • The song "Go Back To City Hall" from The Ghost and Molly McGee episode "Citizen McGee" sounds similar to "Family" from James and the Giant Peach.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The opening theme sounds similar to the weapons select screen music from Earth Defense Force.
  • "When You're Coming Down That Slide" from Danger Rangers sounds similar to "Variety Speak" from Animaniacs. Randy Rogel was a songwriter on both shows.
  • "The Amazin' River" from ChalkZone shares similarities with "Barbecue" from Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas .
  • In the first episode of Hailey's On It!, when Hailey and Scott are in the tunnel of love, a suspiciously similar version of "I Swear" by John Michael Montgomery plays.
    • In "Beta'd and Hooked", when Hailey's dad is telling the story of how he caught One-Eyed Jack, he plays a tune on his ukulele that sounds like an instrumental version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.
    • In "The Wild, Wild, Mess", during the flashback that shows why Bitter Bertha became so mean because her previous owner abandoned her for a motorbike, a song that sounds similar to an instrumental version of "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2 plays.
    • In "Cubix Dudes", the song that plays during the Cubix Dudes show sounds similar to "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence.
  • In the Rugrats episode "Chuckie's Complaint" when Chuckie gives the guy in the Reptar costume flowers, the background music sounds incredibly similar to "Won't You Be My Neighbor" from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
  • The theme song to the third season of Atomic Betty, Atomic Betty: Mission Earth, sounds incredibly similar to the theme song for Totally Spies!, which is, coincidentally, another Teletoon show about Action Girls.
    • The original theme song used for the first 2 seasons shares similarities with "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne.
    • Occasionally, a piece of background music (usually used when Betty is about to do something heroic) is used that sounds similar to John Wiliams' Superman theme.
    • In "Lulu On The Loose" when Sparky gets choked up after hearing Beatrixo's backstory, the background music sounds incredibly similar to the first few notes of "Good Day" by Paul Westerberg from Open Season.
  • The first few notes of the theme song to Producing Parker sound similar to "The Office" from Brazil Especially noticable when the instrumental version of the song plays over the show's end credits.
  • Hazbin Hotel: "Hell’s Greatest Dad" bears a strong resemblance to "Other Friends" from Steven Universe: The Movie. Considering the song ends with the grand entrance of Mimzy (voiced by the same person who sang "Other Friends" in the first place), the similarity may be intentional.
  • The opening notes of the theme song to Franklin sound similar to the opening notes of "Just a Girl" by No Doubt.
  • The Smurfs (1981):
    • Some folks on YouTube noticed the similarity between The Smurfs theme song and the scatting melody of the J. Geils Band's "Centerfold", both of which came out in 1981.
    • The episode "Smurfing for Ghosts" uses a tune that sounds very similar to Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters", while the cartoon special "The Smurfic Games" uses one that's similar to Vangelis' Chariots of Fire theme tune.

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