In the distant future, mankind is losing a war against evil aliens known as the Glorft. Only one hope remains: a stolen Glorft prototype robot that has been converted into the Mecha Earth Guard Attack System (MEGAS). But while sending the robot through time in order to turn the tide of the war, it accidentally ends up getting sent too far back into the past. It sits in a junkyard in Jersey City for 70 years, until it is found by Coop, a large, jovial gearhead and video game fanatic.Coop manages to repair the robot and also makes a few modifications, like replacing the absent, destroyed head with a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. He dubs it XLR - "Xtra Large Robot", but just as he's showing it off to his friend Jamie, who should show up but soldier, mechanical expert, and all-around Action Girl Kiva Andru, who's traveled from the future to reclaim the robot she modified. Unfortunately, due to Coop's modifications, he's now the only one who can pilot it. What's worse, a band of Glorft troopers, led by the tyrannical Warmaster Gorrath, have followed Kiva through time and are intent on reclaiming what was once theirs: Megas. Now Coop — with the help of Kiva and, to a lesser extent, Jamie — battles the Glorft, along with countless other threats to the Earth. Usually doing just as much damage as the things he fights.Formerly on Cartoon Network's Toonami. Currently on iTunes and Xbox Live.Not to be confused with The Megas.
Also, in the second episode, Jamie managed to find the Planet of the Space Amazons, which, up until then, was thought to only exist in a comic book. Coop also found a food court there.
Animesque: Though the art-style is distinctly Western, the genre itself is purely Japanese. It helps that Jamie and Kiva are voiced by famous (to American fans of dubbed anime) actors.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: All of Coop's regular rants against the bad guy. One time, it was more like "Jaywalking, Littering and Playing Loud Music." Oh, and he did all three of the acts, not the bad guy. Lampshaded by Kiva and Jamie.
As Long As It Looks Foreign: The odds table in "Battle Royale" includes not only alien scripts, but also lines in English and jumbles of Greek characters that would be unpronounceable to someone who could read them.
Batman Can Breathe in Space: The roll-up windows and retractable roof of Coop's car are able to resist the vacuum of space. And it's not like there's anything special about them, either; Coop punched one out barehanded.
Beam-O-War: In "Dude, Where's My Head?", where Coop wins by turning on the high beam headlights.
Blessed Are the Cheesemakers: A one-shot villain is a gigantic blob of spray cheese caused by filling Megas's fusion power core with that stuff.
Brain Freeze: Kiva gets one after trying a Mega Slush for the first time.
Brick Joke: Occurs very, very often — almost Once an Episode. In the pilot, for example, Coop misfires a missile, which strikes a PoPTV satellite... which crashes on top of the ridiculously huge final robot right on time to save the cast.
Button Mashing: Coop does this a lot when piloting Megas.
Call Back: The Kaiju-sized space jailer from the end of "D.M.V.: Department of Megas Violations" is seen sipping tea as Coop and gang are uncontrollably warping through different points in the universe in "Coop D'Etat"
Cameo: Several characters from MTV's Downtown show up throughout the show. Goat is an obvious one. Alex makes an appearance in two separate episodes. The nerd Wedge appears at least once. Serena is in the pilot episode "Lowbrow". The girl Jamie gets a date with by borrowing Coop's car appears to be the same girl Fruity was flirting with on the subway.
Catgirl: Possibly a foxgirl, in the title sequence, and the "Battle Royale" episode.
Caught on the Jumbotron: In "Terminate Her", Coop first realizes that Jamie and Kiva are in trouble when Jamie appears on the Jumbotron holding hands with a girl, who happens to be Kiva's ancestor. Though his first concern is that they aren't bringing him nachos.
Character as Himself: The end credits list Goat as being voiced by "Himself". Goat is the nickname of Scot Rienecker, a friend of the creators. He indeed plays himself on the show, and was a regular in Downtown before.
Chekhov's Gun: Pretty much every episode ends with some mundane thing Coop did earlier in the episode saving the day.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Parodied. Coop gets captured by the Glorft. Gorath's torture techniques? Eating a Philly Cheese Steak slowly in front of Coop. And smashing Mega Slushes. This would be considered Cool and Unusual Punishment, but since it's Coop... Humorously, it's just as much torture for Gorath, who can barely stomach the Philly Cheese Steak.
Combat Stilettos: Kiva's boots have high heels, though admittedly rather thick compared to most.
Mercilessly abused and mocked with the Gatchaman-style opponents in "Bad Guy". Then horribly spoofed when Megas needs their power against a mutual foe, so it grabs one mecha and literally shoves a foot up its ass until it's on like a boot, does the same for the rest of its limbs, then grabs the leader's eagle-mecha by the neck and slams it onto the back, complete with each S-Force member whimpering at the violation. The result is a humiliating abomination, that surprisingly looks perfect, which the villain approves of. Even more surprising, it actually works, somehow giving Megas access to all the other mechas' weapons. And here you people thought Kaminainvented that trick!
The Glorft have one in the first episode made up of most of their army.
Cool Car: It's a car mixed with aHumongous Mecha! Coop is entirely aware of this, and Jamie even more so. When Coop enters Megas in a car show, he's actually worried about the competition.
Jamie: Competition? You have a giant robot from the future, with a car for a head.
Dark Reprise: Kiva's battle theme, Lose My High, is played while she fights in pretty much every ep. In the final episode, it's played while Coop is fighting an evil version of himself...and Kiva, who has wired herself into her mech because she's so insane.
Detonation Moon: Coop blows up part of the moon in "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Coop". And then he has to reassemble it piece by piece at the end of the episode.
Subverted in "Space Booty" — Coop tries to use a Deus Ex Machina called The Equalizer, but it stalls. In his frustration he accidentally activates Megas' horn, which turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun.
Disaster Dominoes: "Buggin' The System", where Coop knocks down a series of skyscrapers on a giant space doughnut. One of his flashback cutaways in that episode has him do the same to a library.
Do-Anything Robot: Megas seems to have a weapon for every occasion. Now, whether or not it actually works is an entirely different issue.
The dashboard includes buttons like "Destroy The World," "Smite The World," "Destroy The World WORSE," and "Save The World." Guess which one was busted?
Subverted in "Battle Royale" where, in attempt to get Jamie to climb a pillar, Kiva tells him that if he doesn't, he'll never find the Planet Of The Space Amazons. Jamie then gets a determined gaze while dramatic music swells, only to stop trying to climb and whine about how he still can't do it. They ended up on said planet by the end of the episode anyway.
Living here in Jersey / Fighting villains from afar / You gotta find first gear / In your giant robot car... YOU! DIG! GIANT ROBOTS! / I! DIG! GIANT ROBOTS! / WE! DIG! GIANT ROBOTS! / CHICKS! DIG! GIANT ROBOTS! Nice.
Eyedscreen: You can't get through the opening theme without being assaulted by this editing.
Fascinating Eyebrow: Used as a gag in "Dude, Where's My Head?". When Jamie activates the Atomic Disruption Cannon, a little eight-bit face comes up on Coop's screen and does the look.
"Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Villainous example, and something of a variation — a couple Glorft mooks look out the window to see Megas seconds away from crashing into the mothership, right where they stand. One turns to the other and says, "I've always hated you." Cue explosion.
Failure Is the Only Option: Early episodes dealt with Kiva raising hopes of fixing the time drive. This was dropped as the series continued.
Kiva trying on modern clothes at the mall in "Breakout", including a punk rocker outfit and pajamas. Jamie was actually trying to get her to try on deliberately goofy outfits to embarrass her as a bit of petty revenge, but with her figure she can't help but look good in them. There's also her outfit in the mosh pit episode, which Goat is quick to call attention to.
The Ultra Cadets, being Sailor Moon parodies.
Fantastic Voyage: In one episode Megas enters a planet-sized creature.
Foe Yay: Parodied with in the credits background of the first season finale. It shows a valentine with Coop and Gorrath in it, and the caption "Best Enemies".
Foot Focus: The close-up of Kiva's bare feet in "Breakout" and "S. Force S.O.S.".
Fun with Acronyms: Mecha Earth Guard Attack System (MEGAS) Xtra Large Robot (XLR).
Replicant Engineered for Galactic Infiltration and Sabotage (REGIS) mk. V
Gilligan Cut: Combined with Tempting Fate when Jamie says, "It's not like the Glorft have a new death machine built specifically to take us out." Then the camera pans into space, and guess what the Glorft have just finished building.
Used several times, actually, in this same matter.
Maganimous: [To Kiva] Now, put the fist down, sweetheart. We both know there's no way you can fight all of us, and protect the, sub-form here.
Jamie: Sub-form?!? Go get 'im, Kiva, I got your back.
Godzilla Threshold: It might as well be called the Megas Threshold. Some of the threats Coop faces cross this, but Coop is going to use maximum destruction (intentional or not) either way.
Grand Finale: The two parter, "Rearview Mirror Mirror". The ending left it opened ended in case they got renewed but sadly that wasn't the case.
Green-Skinned Space Babe: Jamie's ultimate dream in life is scoring with one of these. Technically one of the ones he eventually lands with for about ten minutes has green fur. For once, his failure wasn't his own fault.
Jamie: Coop, what are you doing!? I was just about to get digits from green-skinned girls. GREEN-SKINNED GIRLS!!!
Heroes Want Redheads: Captain Warlock takes this to obsessive new lengths. Alternate!Jamie also happened to hook up with the fiery redhead Kiva, before everything bad happened.
Hero with an F in Good: Though he means well, Coop's Destructive Savior nature has resulted in him destroying entire planets and dooming civilizations by accident, so much so that the S-Force assumed him to be a villain at first glance. How much he's called out on this varies per episode and crime. It's lampshaded the most in "Bad Guy".
Hollywood Tone Deaf: Played with. Coop's tone-deaf singing is used as a weapon at one point, but it was more due to the decibel levels (cranked up thanks to Megas' speakers) than the actual tonal range, or lack thereof.
Human Doorstop: Kiva to Jamie, as Kiva rushes to fix the mech and Jamie stands around complaining: "Could you hold this wire? And this one?"
I Know Mortal Kombat: Coop learned his incredible piloting skills from playing too many video games. Justified because he designed the controls of the robot to simulate a video game, complete with Nintendo, Sega and Sony controller pads. As well as a DDR pad and a pair of Power Gloves for "manual control" when the CPU unit isn't attached. There's also the "secondary cammand bridge" (sic) with retro Atari controllers, in case the car isn't attached.
I Like Those Odds: In the first episode, a large number of Glorft surround Megas and Kiva's mech. Coop's response is to agree that the fight isn't fair... and smashes Kiva's mech. "Now it's fair."
Imported Alien Phlebotinum: Megas is a Stolen Alien Phlebotinum that Kiva finished building and then Coop tore apart and "modified" so half its gadgets don't work anymore.
Indy Ploy: Every plan eventually devolves into this.
Inventional Wisdom: Some of the labels on the buttons would only make sense in Coop's mind. Others not so much.
Coop: I've seriously got to rethink my layout design.
Konami Code: Used numerous times as part of Coop's usual arsenal of special attack input commands.
Knight of Cerebus: AU Evil Coop and AU Evil Kiva. "Rearview Mirror Mirror" was actually relatively comedic until they showed up, but by part 2, the comedy actually seemed downplayed.
Leader Forms The Head: As expected, the show parodies this. The Glorft's UMD is a combining mecha made from other combining mecha, repeated for a couple of cycles. At its final stage, It is completed by Gorrath's personal mech docking in the center. Without Gorrath's part, it doesn't seem to be useable at all, enforced when he leaves the battlefield, and the dozens to hundreds of mechs and pilots that also made up the UMD. Gorrath having a Never My Fault mentality, all of this to be expected.
Loud of War: Used/Invoked in the second episode Magnanimous, where Coop defeats the eponymous villain by firing up Megas' super sound system and singing The Riddle Song, very badly.
Captain Warlock. "Warlock" means "Oath-breaker". He breaks every promise he makes and tells nothing but lies.
Mecha-Mooks: Expendable Glorft robots. Though Gorrath does appear to conserve them a few times, and the commander notes that they can't always afford to lose mechs. They're probably building a lot of new ones per episode.
When Coop was faced with a giant robot that fed on energy, he took care of it by throwing it into the Grand Canyon, which he then completely filled in. He also destroyed Hoover Dam in the same episode.
The moon landing site.
Mood Whiplash: The pilot opens with a losing battle in Space Opera fashion before cutting to two guys in Jersey screwing around and never looks back until the Series Finale when things took a turn to dark sci-fi drama again.
Morality Pet: Jamie really doesn't come off as one, but in the alternate universe where Coop and Kiva are evil, Jamie is the one who retains his morality, to the point where he leads the rebellion against Coop, and seems to do a great job of it.
Mundane Fantastic: Coop's rampages in Megas, and indeed the fact that he has a giant robot in the first place, is treated as normal by pretty much the entire town.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: The almighty dashboard and its hundreds of buttons provide a good deal of these. A great deal of humor comes from what new ultra-destructive weapon Coop will use next and how badly it will fail.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Coop is the undisputed master. It seems that nearly every single threat he faces was directly or indirectly his fault in the first place. And even when it's not his fault at all, his actions to resolve the problem generally cause more devastation than letting it rampage unchecked would have done. According to Word Of God, had the show continued it would have been revealed that this even extends to creating the Glorft. This quote in the first season sums it up nicely:
Kiva: Now where did that come from? Grrkek: I should thank you for releasing me. Kiva: Of course.
Thoroughly abused and played with. One day, Coop fills New Jersey's air with smog to disable a solar-powered robot while triggering an artificial winter, and next thing you know, New Jersey is good as new. Later, the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman-like heroes show up to punish Coop for being the Ultimate Destructor of the Earth.
Totally averted when Coop blows up a good chunk of the Moon, causing lots of natural disasters and leading to him having to reconstruct it during the credits.
Partially averted with the planet of the space-yetis. Though none of them died, Coop's destruction of their rival planet completely screwed up their ecosystem.
*Coop locks at least fifty missiles on his target one after another* Kiva: Uh, Coop, overkill? Jamie: Yeah... Do more!
When faces with a monster that responds to No Kill Like Overkill by getting stronger, there's this timeless classic of a line.
Kiva: To reiterate: smashing bad. Jamie: Normally I'm pro-smashing, and I hate to agree with future girl, but maybe smashing's not the way to go this time. Coop: We tried no smashing, and that didn't work! I'm sticking to my strengths, and smashing is my strengths. I just need to find the right kind of smashing.
Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Among the numerous buttons on his dashboard is an entire section of WARNING labels and signs telling Coop not to push the Big Red Button in the middle that would launch a nuke at the enemy. Despite Coop's desire to push it, Kiva and Jamie protest until he decides not to. Also note that he wanted to do so in an enclosed underground base.
Coop: What's the point of having nuclear weapons if you never get to use them?
Ominous Latin Chanting: Parodied with the REGIS Mk.5. The score breaks into ominous Latin chanting as his Leitmotif, then immediately cuts out as soon as the camera changes to focus on something else, only to resume whenever he's on-screen again. The fact that it does this for everything REGIS does just makes it funnier.
Only Friend: The first season finalereveals that Non-Action Guy Jamie resents being taken on dangerous missions, and the main reason why he doesn't simply leave is because Coop's his only friend.
Oral Fixation Fixation: Goat, who was a chain smoker in MTV's Downtown, seemed to quit smoking, and replaced cigarettes with lollipops to pass the censors.
Pilot: Lowbrow. A lot of the animation from it was reused for the first episode of the finished series.
Planet Eater: Coop attracted a planet-shaped one to Earth when he accidentally unleashes a signal-disrupting EM pulse trying to juice up his satellite dish.
Precious Photo: Alternate Universe Jamie carries one of himself and Kiva, back before Coop went power mad and Kiva followed him. Or rather, carried, and dropped it dramatically.
Quintessential British Gentlemonster: A creature from "Coop D'etat" appears drinking a Spot of Tea to autoharp music. He appears again in "Department Of Megas Violations" speaking in a sophisticated British Accent.
Reverse The Polarity: Kiva uses the phrase in "Breakout". In a moment of Genre Savvy, when she uses it again in "Universal Remote", Jamie immediately gets her meaning and starts taunting the bad guy.
Ruleof Three: Coop's rants before beating the big bad often fall under this category.
Running Gag: In many episodes, a conveniently placed building is usually destroyed, including many schools, the "Museum Of Irreplaceable Art", the "Gunpowder, Ballbearing, and Shrapnel Factory", and even a "[[Strike: Homework Factory]] Cough syrup, Liver, and Homework Store".
Even a thousand years in the future, Pop TV buildings are doomed to be destroyed by giant robots, according to one BattleTech sourcebook (and reporter Kiva Cooper).
Serial Escalation: People think Gurren Lagann paved the way countryside for this trope, and they're right. However, what they don't realise is that Megas XLR made that countryside... by VAPORIZING the MOUNTAIN that was originally there!
Skyward Scream: Done in All I Wanted Was A Slushie, when he realized the alien robot just destroyed the last Mega Slush machine in the greater Jersey area. He even pulled back Megas' convertible hood for the full effect.
Smug Super: The REGIS Mk.5, despite repeatedly being reduced to scrap. Justified since it will not and possibly never will stay dead. Michael Dorn doing the voice only further enhances the quality.
Staring Kid: This kid was a recurring character who was usually standing around, drinking a Mega Slush or something, and proclaiming "cooooooool" at all the destruction going on in the episode.
Some of the attacks have recycled footage in them, mostly when he's jumping around or fighting the Glorft, or when Coop destroys his own garage.
In the episode "Dude, Where's My Head?" while Coop is piloting a headless Megas from the secondary command bridge, stock footage of standard Megas with a head throwing a punch is used. You have to be paying attention to catch it though.
Once an Episode, something belonging to their MTV pastiche, PoPTV, gets destroyed. Do you think the creators are still bitter about the cancellation of Downtown?
One of the buildings Coop has destroyed was marked "A Dot Com (And Therefore Obviously Empty)".
Technology Marches On: Played with. In "Viva Las Megas", Coop accidentally releases a giant robot that was being developed by the U.S. military during the Cold War. It uses reel-to-reel tape for memory and boasts "There is no way you can defeat the superior power of my massive 56 kilobyte processor!".
Coop's Car heater settings read "Warm," "Hot," and "DANG!" The last one activates flamethrowers;
The stereo system goes up to eleven MILLION.
Urban Legends: In one episode, Megas actually uses pop rocks and soda to defeat an enemy.
Verbal Ticked: T-Botuses words that rhyme a lot, ("T-Bot will pounce you, trounce you, and utterly denounce you!") but near the end of the episode, he does not.
T-Bot: T-Bot doesn't know failure! Will, uh... Lock you... In a trailer!
Weirdness Magnet: Repeated attacks on Jersey City by a variety of alien forces, aside from the Glorft, for no apparent logical reason other than Megas is there.*
Jamie: *pointing at a square blue button* What's that? Coop: Dunno. *Coop presses the button, which causes a massive cannon to form over one of Megas' fist. The ensuing beam from it disintegrates a house* [Beat] Coop: O... kay... now we know what that does.
Coop ignites a planet of sentient robots and it explodes. Not before he slaughtered a couple dozen of them himself, though.
Averted in "Clockwork Megas", where Coop frees "innocent robots" from being brainwashed in a prison. Unfortunately, said prisoners happened to be the universe's most dangerous criminals. So apparently he can respect sentient robots, but his Idiot Heroness among other things always gets the best of him.
That one wasn't entirely Coop's fault. Quarrol (the warden) kept attacking MEGAS, had his guard machines kill seemingly innocent robots who were going to tell Coop how to get home, and generally acted like a badguy. Until the end, even the audience didn't know that the robots were criminals and that Quarrol was a goodguy. If he'd taken the time to explain the situation to heroes, instead of trying to have the ground into shavings, and given them directions back to Earth, Coop would have likely sided with him.
Worthless Yellow Rocks: In space, Jamie's pocket lint, french fry, and button are more valuable than his two coins.
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