Knuckleheads (Au pays des Têtes à claques in French*) is a Canadian French animated series produced in Quebec and based on a French-language humour website known as Têtes à claques.
The show was pretty much a variety comedy show, with each episode having a different plot, and a different set of characters each time. All of the characters use Synchro-Vox animation to animate their mouths and eyes.
The show's French version began airing on the French version of Teletoon at Night in 2012, while the English dub was shown on the Canadian feed of [adult swim].
This series has no relation to the similarly titled 1992 Fighting Game Knuckle Heads.
Knuckleheads contains examples of:
- Actually Not a Vampire: Gabriel assumes that Countess Tatiana's butler is a vampire, just like his mistress. He turns out to be a werewolf.
- All Men Are Perverts: Raoul lusts for, and attempts to flirt with every attractive women he meets. His father is no different.
- Amusingly Awful Aim: Satasha the elf's poor archery skills are a Running Gag in the two-part episode "The Googoos". Even when given an arrow that never misses its target, she still winds up hitting the wrong thing.
- Answers to the Name of God: In "Un Noël brun", a priest exclaims "Oh my God!" when Jesus appears before him. Jesus answers "No. That would be my father."
- Art Evolution:
- Season 1 resembles more of the crude look of original Têtes à claques short episodes. In later seasons, the art style is improved by using CG as opposed to clay sculptures.
- Some episodes in both the French version and the English dub have slightly different backgrounds and character models. Season 1 episodes that were translated into English were reanimated.
- Aside Glance: Characters tend to look at the audience when someone is doing or saying something weird.
- Ass Shove:
- Private Miller shoves a watch inside his own ass so no one would steal it.
- One of Abdulla's plan to kill General Hebert is to shove a bomb into a camel's ass and send the camel to the military base. Miller later shoves the bomb into Abdulla's ass in retaliation.
- While they're about to enter the French president's head after being shrunk, Private Miller and Sergeant Martin are accidentally inserted in General Hebert's ass.
- Awful Wedded Life: Martha and Walter, the rather disfunctional married couple. Well, at least that's how Walter feels. In The Invasion, Walter doesn't seem to hesitate having sex with an attractive alien girl in front of his own wife... and even does it three times (although it was to save the Earth).
- Badass Boast: The first three times they meet, Jack Curtis is boasting about how he's gonna kill Santana, but Santana shoots him the middle of his rant.
- Blackmail: In "The Hockey", Turner is blackmailed into throwing a hockey match so his brothers can be taken out of prison.
- Blatant Lies: Walter tells his wife that he hated having sex with a bunch of alien women, even though he clearly enjoyed himself. She's not fooled, slaps him and tells him she was just turning the light off (she installed lamps that turn on and off by clapping the hands in her garden earlier).
- Brats with Slingshots: Gabriel is already one hell of a bratty kid, but when he owns a slingshot in The Vampire Neighbour, he torments Henry even more than usual. His slingshot ends up being the key to defeating the titular vampire neighbour by shooting a clove of garlic straight in her mouth.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Santana doesn't remember killing Jack Curtis's family. When Jack tells him what he did, Santana thinks that Jack could be anybody.
- Card-Carrying Villain: When Santana is accused of cheating at cards, he simply pulls his gun, sticks it at his opponent's nose and admit that he does indeed cheat, because he finds it fun.
- Catchphrase: Uncle Ted's "Isn't that amazing?" and "Unbelievable!"
- Coin-Targeting Trickshot: Wong's training of Jack Curtis and Santana involves shooting coins in the air, among other well-aimed shots.
- Covered in Kisses: Raoul is covered in lipstick marks at the end of The Invasion, courtesy of some Zwizzes women.
- Cultural Translation: The season 1 episodes were reanimated when they were translated into other languages than the original French. They also modified every references to Quebec to be references about Canada in general.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The air-force attempts to attack a Zwizz spaceship, only for the spaceship to obliterate every plane in less than a second.
- At the beginning of The Revenge of Jack Curtis, all of Jack Curtis's attempts at killing Santana end up with Santana riddling Jack with bullets while he's in the middle of his Badass Boast.
- After Countess Tatiana's butler turns into his wolf form, Darryl simply kills him with a bazooka shot before the butler can could do anything.
- Cyclops: In "The Googoos", Turner is reimagined as a giant cyclops.
- Dark Is Evil: Santana is a Western bandit wearing black clothes and riding a black horse.
- Dirty Cop: The police chief blackmails Turner into losing a hockey game. Police officers Jimmy and Ray, two established characters in the Knuckleheads universe, are also content with participating on the blackmail.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Police officer Ray always eats donuts.
- Dub Name Change: Some characters have different names in the English dub. Others though retain their original French names.
- Uncle Tom becomes Uncle Ted. Probably for the best that they changed that one...
- Monique and Lucien become Martha and Walter respectively.
- Police officier Réjean becomes Ray.
- Gaëtan becomes Henry.
- Bison Poilu becomes Janice.
- Private Morin and Sergeant Monette become Miller and Martin respectively.
- Turcotte becomes Turner.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The concept of the Knuckleheads started with short episodes that were only a few minutes long. They latter switched to a 20 minute-episode format, but still did a few short episodes after that.
- Enfant Terrible: Gabriel and Samuel really like to torment adults in general but they mostly enjoy making their neighbor's life a living hell.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: When Countess Tatiana's butler reveals himself to be a werewolf after a long dramatic transformation sequence, he's blown up by a bazooka shot before being able to show if he's as dangerous as he looks.
- "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: In Voyage au centre de la tête, Private Miller and Sergeant Martin shrink down and travel inside the French president's head to blow up a piece of cheese stuck on his brain.
- A Father to His Men: General Gonzalez claims that he regards his men as his children, only to shoot one of them for accidentally shooting his tequila bottle.
- Flipping the Bird: The last thing General Gonzalez does before dying of a cannonball hole in the chest is to flip the bird at Santana.
- Foreshadowing: The fact that Countess Tatiana's butler does have a mirror reflection foreshadows the fact that he's not a vampire. He's actually a werewolf.
- French Jerk: When visiting a Canadian military camp, the French president acts rude toward the music group who plays the Marseillaise in his honor, by comparing the song to ducks having their throat sliced. He also calls a poutine "shit" when offered one, right in front of one of the men who cooked it for him.
- Funny Afro: The first attempt at curing a zombie gives him a big ginger afro without turning him back to normal.
- Gatling Good: Wong fires a Gatling at General Gonzalez's men.
- Generation Xerox: In The BBQ Flu, we see that Raoul's father is as much of a womanizer as his son. Played for Laughs when a baby born from Raoul and a Zwizz woman is seen enjoying a porn mag despite being a infant.
- Gratuitous English: In the French version, characters tend to include English words in their sentences.
- Groin Attack: The montage of Gabriel shooting at Henry with his slingshot ends with Henry being shot in the crotch.
- Hammerspace: Wong somehow manages to fit a Gatling inside a small trumpet case.
- Heel–Face Turn: Santana goes from one of the most feared bandits in the West to a friendly burrito maker between The Revenge of Jack Curtis and Les trois amigos. This is thanks to him falling in love during his time in prison, which convinced him to change his ways.
- Hockey Mask and Chainsaw: Henry scares the kids by holding a chainsaw and wearing a hockey mask.
- Holy Water: Holy water is used to fight Countess Tatiana.
- The Hyena: Ahmed from Soldiers of Misfortune only communicates by laughing.
- Hypocritical Humor: General Hebert complains about working with morons just after being caught playing with toys in his office.
- Immortality Seeker: Count Mephisto, an evil wizard who uses children to create an elixir (from a coffee machine) to prevent him from aging.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: General Gonzalez has about an hundred men, and none of them can shoot Santana, Jack Curtis or Wong despite them being in an open space.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Thanks to Wong's training, Santana and Jack Curtis are skilled enough with guns to pierce coins in the air with bullets, among other well-aimed shots.
- Instant Sedation: In The Silicone Psycho, only a brief breath in a chloroform tissue is enough to knock people out.
- Ironic Echo: When Jack Curtis and Santana meet again in The Three Amigos, they say each other's line from when they meet for the first time in The Revenge of Jack Curtis.
- Who are you, stranger?
You don't remember me?
- Little Green Men: The Zwizzes are generic green humanoid aliens with two antennae.
- Made of Iron:
- Jack Curtis is still alive after being shot by Santana about a dozen times.
- Santana survives having a gun, a trumpet and a tomahawk thrown at him, and having his body riddled with arrows.
- Manchild:
- Whenever General Hebert gets excited, he pretends to shoot at people and imitates the sound of explosions all while cursing, as if he were a child playing war. He also plays with dolls in his office.
- The soldiers in the military camps act like children in a summer camp. At one point, a soldier asks his superior (who is busy sunbathing) if the soldier can use the helicopter to fetch a frisbee stuck on a roof.
- Mars Needs Women: Gender-inverted. The Zwizzes need a man to impregnate women of their species because space travel somehow sterilized the male Zwizzes.
- Missing Reflection: Gabriel proves to Darryl that Countess Tatiana is a vampire by pointing out that she doesn't appear in mirrors.
- Mistaken for Gay: When Turner is about to confess to his teammates that he's being blackmailed, they think he wants to confess that he's gay.
- Multiboobage: Zwizzes women have three breasts.
- Not Hyperbole: When the police chief says that every media outlet is talking about the Silicone Psycho, we see it's true when even the weather channel and a Spanish news channel talk about it. Even though the Silicone Psycho only strikes in Canada.
- Not Rare Over There: For the Zwizzes, maple syrup is an extremely valuable ressource. A single drop can fuel all of their spaceships for a billion years, or make a tiny singing toy work for four days.
- One-Man Army: Thanks to Wong's training, Jack Curtis can take on 40 bandits on his own without problems.
- One-Word Title: The English title is just the word "Knucklehead". Averted for the original French title.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The police's plan for protecting Harvey Smitty from the Silicone Psycho is to put hidden police officers all around his house. As in, the officers are just standing still while wearing lampshades on their head, even those who are "hidden" outside.
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Santana used to be taught the art of gun-slinging by Wang, until he started using his shooting skills for evil.
- The Remake: The Revenge of Jack Curtis is a remake of an older short episode that's been remade with better graphics and extended from a two-minute confrontation to a twenty-minute story.
- Right Behind Me: At the beginning of Voyage au centre de la tête, Private Miller complains about General Hebert to Sergeant Martin, only to realise that the general is behind him and heard all the insults.
- Running Gag: Countess Tatiana keeps getting pieces of spinach stuck between her teeth.
- Santa Claus: Santa exists in the Knuckleheads universe, though he only appears in short episodes.
- Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Even as an adult, Harvey Smitty doesn't regret bullying Nealan who would grow up to become the Silicone Psycho. In contrast, Jimmy, who was another bully of Nealann, grew up to become a police officer and visits Nealan in prison to apologize to Nealan for the bullying after his arrest.
- Shout-Out: The Powercop armor is taken from RoboCop.
- Shoot the Bullet: During Jack Curtis and Santana's last duel, all of their attempts at shooting each other fail because the bullets keep bouncing off each other.
- Skewed Priorities:
- According to an alien brain scan, what Walter cherishes the most in the world is not his wife Martha but a shopping mall and a kind of fast-food. Martha is also surprisingly understanding about the fast-food.
- During a zombie apocalypse, Gabriel is more focused on criticizing Henry's house decoration than on doing anything useful. Later, Gabriel accuses Henry of having bad priorities when Henry asks him to bring his golf club, because Gabriel assumes Henry wants to play golf instead of using the club to fight the zombies.
- Synchro-Vox: The show basically ran on this trope, with every character's face being animated in this manner.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: After Countess Tatiana's butler reveals himself to be a werewolf, he's disposed of by being blown up by a bazooka.
- Took a Level in Badass: After some training from Wong, Jack Curtis goes from an incompetent gunslinger to a One-Man Army.
- Trademark Favorite Food: In "Love Academy", Louise, one of the bachelorettes is usually with a bowl of cheese puffs and is constantly eating from it.
- Vampire Episode: The episode "The Vampire Neighbour" is about Gabriel and Samuel trying to stop their new neighbour, who's a vampire.
- Vampires Hate Garlic: Being a vampire, Countess Tatiana is weak to garlic.
- Vampires Sleep in Coffins: Countess Tatiana sleeps in a coffin.
- Wax On, Wax Off: Wong starts Jack Curtis's training by making him clean and iron all of Wong's clothes, which takes a whole day and night. Once it's done, Wong tells Jack that he can start his training, much to Jack's frustration who thought that the cleaning was part of the training.
- The Western: The Revenge of Jack Curtis and Les Trois Amigos take place in a Western setting.
- Wooden Stake: Altough they don't use them, Gabriel, Samuel and Darryl bring wooden stakes to fight Tatiana.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Santana's reaction at being confronted by Jack Curtis, despite shooting him twice earlier in the same day is an annoyed "Oh, now you must be joking!".
- You Killed My Father: Jack Curtis's motivations to kill Santana is the fact that Santana killed all of Jack's family and "had the sex" with his sister.
- Your Head Asplode: Being force-fed a clove of garlic causes Countess Tatiana's head to explode.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Episode 9 of Season 1 is about a zombie invasion resulting from a Freak Lab Accident. The antidote to the zombie plague turns out to be hairspray.
