Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is a Web Original series created by Seth MacFarlane, of Family Guy and American Dad! fame. It consists of short, random sketches, and may be found on Seth's YouTube channel; a DVD compilation of all 50 shorts was released in May 2009. The Cavalcade umbrella includes advertising for both Burger King and Priceline.com.
This series provides examples of:
- And Then What?: "Die, Sweet Roadrunner, Die" has Wile E. Coyote going through an existential crisis after finally catching and eating the Road Runner. He gets (and loses) a job as a waiter, then tries to commit suicide via ACME catapult before finding God and becoming a Jehovah's Witness.
- Artistic License – Biology: Two jokes play off of frogs having penises. They do not.
- Bait-and-Switch: A short covers the origin of AIDS, and suggests that it's because a flight attendant had sex with a monkey...except it turns out it's the attendant who's carrying the AIDS virus and gave it to the monkey.
- Character Catchphrase: The "Scotsman Who Can't Watch a Movie Without Shouting" frequently gives the admonishment "You're not using your brain!"
- Cringe Comedy: Some of the skits rely entirely on this, though some such as the dog getting fed chocolate and being put in a microwave were just tasteless for viewers.
- Decon-Recon Switch: A man living in a glass house shouldn't throw rocks at people. However, what if the glass house has an automatic turret to prevent people from throwing rocks back at him? Unfortunately in his hubris the very rock he's throwing at people is what destroys his glass house.
- Deconstruction: One of the most noticeable and hilarious deconstructions is of the gameplay of Super Mario Bros. here.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Finally killing the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote is struck with an existential crisis as he finds himself in dead-end jobs and wasting time watching TV. He eventually goes insane from the lack of drive and almost kills himself...before becoming a born-again Christian.
- Deus ex Machina: The resolution of the Gay Knight.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Over half of the episodes have titles like this.
- Happily Adopted: A sketch is about a kid who sneezes out literal turds discovering from his parents with five feet nipples that he's adopted. However, in spite of the initial shock, he accepts it as no matter how unrelated they might be, his adoptive parents still raised him as their very own and tells them he loves them regardless.
- Hypocritical Humor: An episode is a lengthy discussion between a horse and two black guys about jokes based on stereotypes, with the horse taking great offense to the "why the long face" joke and firing back with some actual racist jokes. In the end, everyone involved tries to start over and introduce themselves. The horse introduces himself as Sarah Jessica Parker, a constant victim of jokes about looking like a horse.
- Literal Metaphor: One episode features a man who lives in a glass house throwing stones at his neighbor.
- Parody Episode: "Mario Saves the Princess".
- Road Runner vs. Coyote: Subverted. It actually works.