Yes, evil comes in many forms, whether it be a man-eating cow or Joseph Stalin, but you can't let the package hide the pudding! Evil is just plain bad! You don't cotton to it. You gotta smack it in the nose with the rolled-up newspaper of goodness! Bad dog! Bad dog!
1994 Animated Series, a casual but incisive send-up of Super Hero shows (based on an independent comic by Ben Edlund written in the early 90s), featuring as its title character a super-strong, "Nigh Invulnerable" (or so he says), and probably insane moron with a hypertrophied sense of justice and melodrama, given to bold, thoughtless action and near-incomprehensible Aesop-like pronouncements. Assisting the Tick in his daily struggle against the forces of Evil is Arthur, a former accountant, now moth-themed hero/sidekick. Frequently joining their adventures are Die Fledermaus and American Maid, two fellow crimefighters who bear a funhouse-mirror resemblance to a pair of well-known characters from The DCU.The Tick's adventures are evenly split between well-intentioned cluelessness and actual battles against supervillains. These villains — such as Chairface Chippendale, El Seed, Brainchild, and the Terror — are frequently just as bizarre as the Tick and his allies. Some, like the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight ("One of these days, baby! Milkshake! Boom!"), have even developed their own fan followings.In every episode, this program gleefully skewers thetropes and cliches of the Super Herogenre, distorting and twisting them like Silly Putty until they can stretch no more and snap back to hit you in the face. The resulting lunacy has spawned a cult following that continues to this day.In 2001, FOX attempted to revive the series in a live action format with Patrick "Puddy" Warburton as The Tick. American Maid and Die Fliedermaus were absent due to licensing and rights issues, being replaced by near-lookalikes Captain Liberty and Batmanuel. Although some of the animated show's style and wit was retained, along with different humor, it was too expensive to have the protagonists actually battle evildoers, so the show was often more Seinfeld-in-tights, although did provide some comedic Deconstructions. It was canceled before it could run a whole season. Where's the siege?! (Probably didn't help anything that the last Episode, The Terror was scheduled to run on 9/11/2001.) Watch it legally here.Recently, the comic has returned as a bi-monthly, ongoing title, written by Benito Cereno and drawn by Les McClane.
Adaptation Distillation - Most fans agree that the cartoon version was a great step for the franchise.
Alien Among Us: Tick and Arthur get new neighbors in one episode: Thrakkorzog, some normal guy, and Thrakkorzog's brain-eating tongue.
All Psychology Is Freudian - In one episode, The Tick goes to see a psychiatrist. His "therapy" consists of being forced to wrestle the psychiatrist's assisstant ShaftTaft in various disguises.
Animal Themed Superbeing: The Tick... even if he doesn't actually suck blood. Also, Arthur is not a bunny.
Not to mention Sewer Urchin, Die Fledermaus, The Ant, Man-Eating Cow, Bumbling Bee, Caped Cod, Portuguese Man-of-War, Cockroach, The Praying Mantis, Blowfish Avenger, Caped Chameleon, Captain Lemming, Fishboy, The Angry Red Herring, The Fin, Octo-Raymond, Shiela Eel, and more.
Anal Probing: Subverted. When The Tick is abducted by aliens, he is enthusiastic about being probed to expand interstellar knowledge, but it turns out the aliens actually want him to help defeat their enemies. The thought of probing him never crossed their minds.
And That's Terrible - "Eating kittens is just plain wrong, and no-one should do it! Ever!"
Badass Normal: In the cartoon at least, most of the heroes aside from the Tick himself are this or at least trying to be this. Some have a gadget based gimmick like Arthur.
Sewer Urchin is probably the closest when acting in his element, since he has faced off against those weird filth monsters and won.
Badass Grandpa: The retired superheroes from Grandpa Wore Tights, who despite their advanced age and failing powers, put up quite a fight against The Human Ton and Handy.
This is averted in the Colombian Spanish dub, since they translated his name literally from German to Spanish and it's translated as La Rata Voladora (The Flying Rat)
Body Horror: "ARTHUR! My mustache is touching my brain!" Actually possible - a little bit of your brain actually does protrude into your sinuses (that's how you can smell). Also, The Ticks transformation in Coach Fussels Lament.
In the animated episode "Armless But Not Harmless", the Tick and Arthur are struck by a ray that causes their arms to fall off. The Tick takes his sudden debrachiation in stride. Arthur…not so much:
Tick: (clears throat) All right…uh…this is quite a pickle. But no reason to panic, Arthur.
Arthur: (long, anguished scream)
Tick: (spots a phone booth) Ah…come along, Arthur! We'll call for assistance!
Arthur: (screams again)
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Authur is pretty competent in a variety of things, once you look past he's in a giant moth suit all the time.
Averted in Arthur's backstory in multiple adaptations - he attempted to wear his moth suit all the time at his accounting position, and this bothered the higher-ups enough that he was "encouraged" to take a leave of absence and get psychiatric help.
The Tick himself qualifies, as well. When compared to most of the other "heroes" in The City, at least The Tick has the drive and focus to get the job done.
Call Back: Batmanuel is referred to as Die Fliedermaus by Destroyo in "The Tick vs The Trial".
The Cameo: The 10th anniversary re-release of Tick issue #1 has a bonus segment showing Tick's escape from an insane asylum. It turns out Dr. Bunsen and his assistant Beaker ran the place.
Captain Ersatz - All over the place. The live action series had them for the major characters.
In Transformers Animated, of all places, The Tick gets one. Sentinel Prime is voiced by Townsend Coleman, resembles the Tick (he's large, blue and has a lantern jaw and antennae) and even speaks like the Tick at times. The biggest difference being that Sentinel is a Jerkass instead of a Cloud Cuckoolander.
Chainsaw Good - Wielded by the aptly-named Chainsaw Vigilante.
Characterization Marches On - The first episode has Die Fledermaus springing into action, among other superheroes, to stop the Idea Men. He was distracted by American Maid.
The City, called, oddly enough, "The City". It's said to have been poorly Anglicized from the French "Les Citrons" (The Lemons). Apparently early French explorers found a large quantity of some kind of fruit in the area.
Clark Kenting - Clark Oppenheimer's glasses and The Tick's hypnotic tie.
Cleavage Window - Captain Liberty's outfit in the live action show has a star-shaped window. Destroyo remarks on it in his Hannibal Lecture.
Closer to Earth (American Maid, compared to Die Fliedermaus and most of the rest of the cast)
Continuity Nod: Countless examples, in addition to the Deface of the Moon example below. In one case, Handy loses one of his eyes at the end of "The Tick vs. Arthur's Bank Account" and when Handy returns in "Grandpa Wore Tights", he's wearing an eye patch.
Conservation of Ninjutsu: In the comics. The third issue is titled appropriately "Night of a Million Zillion Ninjas" and they're every bit as ineffective as you'd expect with such large numbers. Justified in part by the revelation that Ninja has become a cheap franchise.
Deface of the Moon: An aborted attempt by Chairface Chippendale to write his name. The letters "CHA" appear on the moon as a Continuity Nod.
Later the Tick successfully blows up the C, but is blown off the moon before he can complete his job, leaving a "HA" on the moon. Later that episode, a Captain Ersatz of Galactus takes a bite out of the moon, which also remains.
Early-Bird Cameo: In one issue of the comic book, a mysterious female figure wearing a flying suit identical to Arthur's appears in a few panels. The comic ended before her story was revealed, but she later appeared in the animated series as Carmelita Vatos, daughter of the suit's inventor and (eventually) Arthur's love interest.
Eureka Moment: Given the less than stellar intellects of many cast members, these tend to be gems such as "...Water. People swim... in water!"
Expy - Since the live action version couldn't get all the rights to characters from the animated version, Die Fledermaus became Bat-Manuel and American Maid became Captain Liberty.
For added hilarity, Batman Die Fledermaus and Wonder Woman American Maid were already Expys in their own right. Also, Shaft Taft.
Everything's Better With Cows: The Man-Eating Cow, possibly-heroic scourge of the criminal underworld and star of her own spin-off comic.
Also, the off-screen fifty-foot fire-lactating bovine known as Apocalypse Cow in the live-action version.
Evil Plan: Parodied in the pilot episode, when the heroes catch one of the Idea Men and demand he tells them his scheme:
Idea Man: Well, we thought we’d steal a lot of money, and then we’d be rich, and we wouldn’t have to work anymore!
Tick: You cads!
Esperanto, the Universal Language: "Actually, Tick, I've taught myself to speak all your Earth languages. Except Esperanto. * chuckles* You could see that one was going nowhere."
Evil Old Folks: The Terror, a crazy old has-been supervillain who used to be buddies with Stalin. Back in the day he used to be a credible threat; these days, not so much, but he still gives Arthur and The Tick a good go of it.
Foot Focus: Find a fighting scene with American Maid
For Science!: The primary motivation of most of the shows various mad scientists, most notably Dr Chrome Dome.
Franchise Zombie: Ben Edlund wants to focus on science fiction and horror for his entertainment output. Fans keep asking for more of The Tick. He's apparently grown quite disgusted with the character as a result.
Genius Ditz: The Tick may be very, very ditzy in just about everything, but he has shown a certain level of philosophical thought in some cases. Especially so in the second episode of the live action series, where he learns that everyone (even potatoes) can die, and after thinking about it for about a minute, gives Arthur a motivating speech that actually makes sense.
God Guise: Of sorts, as other inmates of the Evanston Asylum that escaped when The Tick did start worshipping him, forming the Mystic Order of Arachnid Vigilance. Which then underwent Defictionalization as The Tick's fanclub.
The Greatest Story Never Told: In the comics, just to tweak Chairface Chippendale, his attempt to carve his name in the moon is hushed up and subsequently blamed on Charo.
Hand Puppet: Handy, the Human Ton's good pal. Read a book!
Hannibal Lecture: Parodied with Destroyo in the live action series. Trying it on Captain Liberty just made her not able to shut up about insecure she was.
Highly Visible Ninja: Parodied to the point of ludicrousness (just take a look at the picture on the trope page).
The Flying Squirrel superhero student in "The Tick vs Education" proved to be pretty effective with her squirrels.
Hot Blooded: The Tick, especially in his more scenery-chewing moments.
I Am Not Weasel: Arthur's moth costume is confused for a rabbit rabbit.
Ice Cream Koan: Many quotes by The Tick and The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight.
Gravity is a harsh mistress!
I hate broccoli, and yet, in a certain sense, I am broccoli.
You know, when a tomato grows out of your forehead, it gets you thinking.
I'm about to write you a reality check. Or would you prefer the cold, hard cash of truth?
EMBWBAM: AN OBJECT AT REST, CANNOT BE STOPPED!
SURF'S UP, SPACE PONIES! I'M MAKING GRAVY WITHOUT THE LUMPS!
Idea Bulb: The terrorist group Idea Men have a light bulb logo.
Lampshaded the Obscure Reference: A hand puppet compared The Tick to Achilles in his tent. When no one, even his ventrilloquist, got it he said "It's from The Illiad. Read a book!"
Lantern Jaw of Justice: Really, just look at the Tick's profile (preferably against the Tick-signal).
Love Freak: The Tick. He avoids being a Wide-Eyed Idealist simply by the world being only *slightly* less loony than himself.
Mad Bomber: The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs At Midnight (yes, that is his full title).
Magic Pants: Subverted and lampshaded in The Tick vs. Dinosaur Neil, where Dinosaur Neil's monstrous transformation renders him completely nude, causing a group of top scientists outside of The City to attempt to clothe him with the largest pair of pants.
Well, they would. They carefully studied the situation, and came to the conclusion that the fact that he was pantsless was Neil's beef.
Out with a Bang: Captain Liberty sleeps with The Immortal, which somehow gives him a heart attack and kills him. This was a guy who once fought a man made out of black holes!
Pokémon Speak: The language of the Whats and the Heys.
Pulling Themselves Together: The Living Doll is, as his catchphrase goes, "full of tinier men". Of course, that means that once the fighting's over he has to round himself up and make sure he's got all of them in the right order.
The Mayor: "You heroes keep sending us these things and they just don't work. Every time we flash the Die Fledermaus signal he unplugs his phone and skips town for a week."
Spoof Aesop ("You know, though today was the worst day of my life, I learned many things. First, the world looks a lot different when you're six inches tall and covered with feathers. Second, two heads are definitely not better than one. And finally, you can lay eggs and still feel like a man.")
Super Breeding Program: El Seed had an ultimate goal of creating an army of super-strong animated plants.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Sewer Urchin, normally somewhat useless and meek, becomes a Badass in the episode where they have to battle his sewer-based archnemesis. Here, he is largely unflappable with just the right tools for the job and a pretty cool base of operations.
Arthur: (sotto voce) "Who knew Sewer Urchin of all people would be this cool?"
Sewer Urchin: (revealing that he heard Arthur just fine) "Down here I'm the apotheosis of cool."
The Unintelligible: The Idea Men, while theyre helmets are closed anyway.
We Want Our Jerk Back: With the villains bringing him back. "We've got to rescue the Blue Tick, who is also mad, but in a much more goal-oriented way."
What Kind Of Lame Power Is xxx: Many heroes and villains have weird/marginal abilities: The Indigestible Man, Pig Leg/The Deadly Bulb, Bi-Polar Bear, the Caped Chameleon, the Carpeted Man, Four-Legged Man, Baby Boomerangutan, loads more...
.Recently, the comic has returned as a bi-monthly, ongoing title, written by Benito Cereno and drawn by Les McClane.
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