What's the best way to teach Christian values to children? Through semi-anthropomorphizedGod-loving vegetables. Obviously. A cast the size of a produce department, silly songs, and plots taken from The Bible make for much better entertainment than you might expect. Why vegetables? Well, they're good for you, and what child wouldn't want to munch on versions of their favorite characters? But mostly because they didn't originally have the budget for CGI that could handle complex characters, but if you make a green sphere and call it a grape, who's to argue?Early videos used the format: Introduction by Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber talking about some issue (e.g. anger at siblings, materialism, not learning to share, not telling the truth, wouldn't help others, won't be patient or confident, etc.), sometimes prompted by a viewer letter; short story which illustrates the issue; silly Intermission, usually in the form of "Silly Songs With Larry"; another short story; discussion of the moral and relevant verse, the latter provided by QWERTY the computer. Later installments began using one long story with "Silly Songs" at the intermission. Currently, a given video could be either of these formats or simply be a single long story with no introduction, intermission, or theme song. Usually longer now than the Theme Song's claim of "half an hour" (which a recent updating of the opening removed).References and parodies plots from The Bible, The Grapes Of Wrath (literally), Gilligan's Island, Star Trek, Batman (Larry Boy), Madame Bovary (Madame Blueberry), Gilbert and Sullivan, Indiana Jones, Hamlet, The Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, Sherlock Holmes, and all kinds of others.Two movies, a TV series, a few video games, and a Flash-animated series for Larry-Boy have been produced.
Absurdly Spacious Sewer: In Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed, this is where the Mother Weed lives.
Adaptation Distillation: The Penniless Princess is the VeggieTales adaptation of A Little Princess. It's a pretty faithful adaptation aside from a lot of simplification.
All-Cheering All the Time: "Tomato Sawyer And Huckleberry Larry's Big River Rescue" had a trio of female pea cheerleaders who showed up at random times during the story.
Intentionally averted for most of the other characters. Series creator Phil Vischer explained:
"If it were a typical Christian show, I figured, they'd be named Tommy Tomato and Kooky Cucumber. But the last thing in the world I wanted was to make a typical Christian show."
Always Chaotic Evil: Supposedly, the Rhubarbarians from "Duke and the Great Pie War."
Pa Grape: I'm a viking, and I've come to take your land — oh, yes — I've come to take your land; and I've come to burn your crops and steal your horses! And I've come to step on your chickens, and soil your quilts!... oy.
Junior Asparagus:(skeptical) Did [the Israelites] really build a rocket in the middle of the desert and get Slushees dropped on their heads?
And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Dave and the Giant Pickle, Gideon: Tuba Warrior, Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Sampson's Hairbrush and Sumo of the Opera.
Archibald: Does the hippo see them? Is the poor mute cebu successful in communicating the imminent danger to the other passengers? Is the boy injured? Why is the sad cebu sad? Is the canoe wood or aluminum?
Art Evolution: The early episodes looked very crude; as technology increases for later episodes, the episodes get better lighting, softer textures, and smoother animation.
Which of course makes sense, given that Larry-Boy is a fairly obvious Captain Ersatz for Batman.
Bears Are Bad News: In the Silly Song "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps", the veterinarian's yodeling did not actually work; the nurse would have to give people the real cures to their pets' various ailments. By the time someone brought in their pet bear, the nurse had given up because the veterinarian wouldn't give him a raise, and the bear got angry and started chasing the veterinarian.
Big Eaters: Jimmy and Jerry Gourd. In fact, when they made their debut in the Affectionate Parody of Star Trek, they managed to save the starship from crashing into a meteor made of popcorn by eating the entire meteor.
Big "NO!": By Larry during "Is this the End of Silliness?", when Archibald Asparagus explains why Larry lost his silly songs.
Many of the stories taken from The Bible are toned down; for example, in the original story of Daniel and the Lion's Den, the king puts the evil advisors and their families to death by tossing them in said den. With lions that went to bed without supper. The VeggieTales version of it instead ends in a more cartoonish way, with the advisors running off while the king chases after them.
However, they never try to hide the fact that they are trying to kill Daniel. The lyrics to the song in that episode 'What We Gonna Do?' are all different ways they want to kill or seriously injure Daniel, and they finally decide on 'Tie him up, and beat him up, and throw him out of Babylon!'
On the other hand, the Jonah movie intentionally includes the ending where the title character is bitterly angry with God and curses his own life. After the scene, Pa Grape (who is telling the story via Flashback) abruptly ends the story and turns his attention elsewhere, much like the Bible story.
They also Bowdlerized one of their own cartoons. In Rack, Shack, and Benny, "The Bunny Song" is a song that the protagonists refuse to sing. The song originally had some genuinely troubling lyrics—which resulted in letters from parents because despite it being condemned onscreen, children were singing it anyway. It was then completely rewritten as "The New And Improved Bunny Song" for the sing-along video, as a good and wholesome version of the song, but some parents were still bothered by the original, so when Big Idea started rereleasing all their videos, Rack, Shack, and Benny got its version's lyrics replaced with refusals to eat healthy food. Weird when you realize the song is now essentially condoning cannibalism. (However, they did not Bowdlerize the very child unfriendly fate of being thrown into a fiery furnace.)
Possibly one of the strangest examples was their version of Esther. In The Bible account, Haman intended to hang the Jews on gallows he was setting up. The Veggie version: banishment to the Island of Perpetual Tickling. "They never stop! Not even if you say "pretty please!!"
"King George and the Duckie" is an adaptation of the story of David and Bathsheba; while the Biblical story centers around adultery, the VeggieTales version substitutes rubber duckie theft. It's particularly clever since both versions are incited by the king seeing someone bathing on the roof.
Also because the king gets a chance at reconciliation (the guy survived and won the war single-handedly in this version).
Also, David was changed to George, because David had been the hero in an earlier episode.
And in the Jonah story of the Bible, Nineveh was a city of adulterers and thieves. It was changed in their version to people who slap others with dead fish. Um, what?
Actually they were generally bad, but that was what got most mentioned
"Moe and the Big Exit" is an adaption of The Exodus From Egypt. Although they tone down most of the plagues for children, people receive a plague of gophers instead of frogs, and acne instead of skin disease, they don't ignore that all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians were killed on Passover. And the burning tumbleweed instead of the burning bush!
Brick Joke: One of the first Silly Songs With Larry, The Hairbrush Song ended with Bob confessing to Larry that he gave his hairbrush to The Peach, and Larry decides to let him keep it. After the song, The Peach made only a handful of other appearances, and never even got a name. Fast forward to the Indiana Jones parody, one of the most recent productions. When Larry/Minnesota Cuke consult an illustrated Bible manuscript in search of Samson's Hairbrush, the character standing in for Samson is The Peach!
In one of the earliest episodes' songs, Jerry mentions that 'Aunt Ruth has a beard.' In the I Love My Lips Silly Song, Larry had to kiss his great-Aunt Ruth. 'She had a beard, and it felt weird.' She also appears in The Song of the Cebu, during Larry's Embarrassing Slide.
In The Toy That Saves Christmas, there is a sled wreck, and then Bob says: "You roll your dice, you move your mice. Nobody gets hurt." Guess what happens in The Tale of St. Nicholas....
Bubble Pipe: In its Sherlock Holmes parody, the Sherlock character has a bubble pipe, and at one point he inhales by accident and chokes on the soap.
Butt Monkey: Mr. Lunt, who is frequently the worthless sidekick, appears insufferably lazy, cross-dresses at least twice, and laments that his life has only included one half hour of happiness. That one day. Between two and two-thirty.
"And remember, kids, God made you special, and he loves you very much."
"Perhaps I can be of assistance!"
"I'm Bob, I'm a tomato, and I'm here to help you!" "I'm Larry, I'm a cucumber, and I'm here to make you giggle!"
Chain of People: In The Toy that Saved Christmas, Louie and a bunch of penguins do this to save Mr. Nezzer from falling off a cliff. And then George has to go save them all from dangling off the edge of a bridge forever.
Combined with Viewers Are Goldfish in The Toy that Saved Christmas. The bridge to Puggslyville is out...clearly it's important because it's mentioned at least three times.
In a scene very early on in An Easter Carol, Reverend Gilbert and Edmund are talking about Mr. Nezzer, and the reverend mentions offhand that Nezzer's family owns a lot of land, even the land St. Bart's Church sits on. This becomes critical to the episode's plot.
In Lord of the Beans, Randalf comments on the jewel Lord Falaminion Tereglith is wearing. Lord Falaminion Tereglith was bribed with it to send Toto into a trap.
In The Star of Christmas, Seymour promises Millward he can drive his rocket-powered car at some point. It happens towards the end of the episode.
Christmas Episode: Five so far: "The Toy That Saved Christmas", "The Star of Christmas", "Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving", "The Little Drummer Boy", and "Christmas Sing-Along Songs!".
Comes Great Responsibility: A major theme in Lord of the Beans. Billboy (Archibald) and Ahem (Mr. Lunt) both used the bean irresponsibly and Scaryman (Scallion 1) wanted the bean for selfish reasons, but when Toto (Junior) is given it he refuses to use it for frivolous things, and instead searches for a way to use it that would be meaningful.
Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt's reaction to Larry's lyrics in The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: "I've never plucked a rooster and I am not too good at ping-pong and I've never thrown my mashed potatoes up against the wall and I've never kissed a chipmunk, and I've never gotten head lice and I have never been to Boston in the fall!"
Pa Grape: Huh?!? What are you talking about? What's a rooster and mashed potatoes have to do with being a pirate?
Mr. Lunt: Hey, that's right! We're supposed to sing about pirate-y things!
Pa Grape: And who ever kissed a chipmunk? That's just nonsense! Why even bring it up?
Of course, Larry goes on to sing, "And I've never licked a spark-plug and I've never sniffed a stink bug and I've never painted Daisies on a big red rubber ball and I've never bathed in yogurt and I don't look good in leggings and I've never been to Boston in the fall."
Pa Grape: You just don't get it.
Composite Character: Mr. Nezzer is sort of one. "The Toy That Saved Christmas" introduced Nebby K. Nezzer's brother Wally, who had the exact same character model and voice. Eventually they started casting "Mr. Nezzer" in other roles. Although we've never seen this out of character in the "real world", it can probably be assumed that he is a single character.
Scallions: We could give him jelly donuts, take 'em all away, we could fill his ears with cheese balls and his nostrils with sorbet. We could use him as a footstool or a table to play Scrabble on, then tie him up and beat him up and throw him out of Babylon! (from the song "What We Gonna Do?")
From "Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie":
Guard: ...The slap of no return! Everyone: [laughs]
But then you see it's a giant metal fish that swings down on you, turning you into a paste.
From "Gideon — Tuba Warrior":
Gideon:We will defeat the Midianites with our horns and flashlights!
Then there's the Hebrews marching around Jericho getting slushies dropped on their heads.
The Corrupter: The villains in the Larry-Boy films tend to be this:
The Fib in Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space! convinces Junior to tell lies to cover up the fact he broke a plate belonging to his dad. It turns out Junior's lies make the Fib more powerful, and before long Fib has kidnapped Junior and is destroying the city.
The Rumor Weed in Larryboy and the Rumor Weed takes what she hears from Junior and Laura about Larry-Boy's butler and spreads it across the whole city, and eventually everyone is convinced Alfred is a robot and views him with fear and hatred.
The Cover Changes The Gender: "The Rumor Weed Song" is sung by the female Rumor Weed, and other characters in the song say "she's a rumor weed!" The lead singer of The W's is male, so when The W's covered the song, the backup singers say "he's a rumor weed!" instead.
Critical Research Failure: In-Universe example—in Tomato Sawyer and Huckleberry Larry Bob/Tomato Sawyer wants to open a Tax Firm on the land that they're trying to own... but little does he know, the income tax hasn't even been started in America yet.
Darker and Edgier: The first two Larry-Boy episodes are noticeably darker in tone than most VeggieTales. Both feature manipulative villains who trick innocent people into telling lies or spreading rumors. The Fib from Outer Space has a lot of city destruction and a child's life being in constant danger for about half the episode, and The Rumor Weed has an entire city turned against an innocent man to the point that they don't care if he dies. And in both of these episodes, the villain dies at the end.
In Rack, Shack and Benny. What else do you call burning people alive because they won't sing a song about chocolate bunnies?
Happens again in The Toy that Saved Christmas. While Nezzer's understandably angry at the group for sneaking on his property and using his tv studio without his knowledge or consent, responding by planning to send them off a cliff to their deaths is rather over-the-top.
Early Installment Weirdness: Where's God When I'm S-Scared? is the only episode to use opening titles in each segment, and Larry's voice is completely different, with a deeper, dumber-sounding voice. He also used that voice in God Wants Me To Forgive Them?!?
This happens in The Toy That Saved Christmas too. On Christmas Eve, Mr. Nezzer tries to kill Bob, Larry, Junior and Louie (and gets caught red-handed by the entire population of Dinkletown, including Junior's parents.) On Christmas Day, he gets invited to their Christmas party anyway.
Elvish Presley: Literally, in Lord of the Bean. Larry wears a sequined jumpsuit and fake elf ears for his Silly Song. Jimmy Gourd even invokes the trope by calling him "an Elvish impersonator."
Embarrassing Slide: A version of this occurs in one of the silly songs (The Song of the Cebu): the song is sung along with a slideshow... which eventually stops showing relevant pictures and starts showing vacation pictures instead. The song quickly ends, to the consternation of Archibald, who wonders just what the ending of the song was supposed to be.
Enhanced on DVD: Later releases of The Toy That Saved Christmas have had several scenes reanimated to be more fluid, George's car was given a different design, details are added such as shadows in the windows on the houses at the end, and at one point the camera moves to show what's going on on the television when in the earlier version the camera stayed on the faces of the family watching.
Exact Words: When Pistachio realizes he's been tricked, this exchange happens:
Pistachio: But you said you wouldn't steer me wrong!
The Fox: No, we said "why would we steer you wrong?" And the answer is, five. Gold. Coins.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Silly Songs with Larry," the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song.
Excited Show Title!: God Wants Me to Forgive Them!?!, Very Silly Songs!, Larry-Boy! And the Fib From Outer Space!, Josh and the Big Wall!, Jonah Sing-Along Songs and More!, The Wonderful World of Auto-Tainment!, Bob and Larry's How to Draw!, Heroes of the Bible! Lions, Shepherds and Queens, Oh My!, Heroes of the Bible! Stand Up, Stand Tall, Stand Strong!, Heroes of the Bible! A Baby, A Quest and the Wild, Wild West!, and The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything Sing-Along Songs and More!
Executive Meddling: The politically-correct kind — NBC made them take the explicit Christian references out of the present-day segments of the TV show. Which, unfortunately, somewhat defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
Expository Theme Tune: Whether this is played straight or averted is rather iffy. The theme song says the show's name an awful lot, addresses the show's demographics (It's for the kids who like to talk to tomatoes), and even states how long an episode is. (Cauliflower, sweet and sour, half an hour, Veggie Tales) However, it speaks very little of the show's premise, aside from the mention of the lack of the characters' dexterity, a common point the show makes, and doesn't even speak of the religious aspect, confusing a lot of first-time viewers.
Everything's Better with Penguins: The Toy that Saved Christmas introduces a bunch of penguins. Since then, penguins occasionally have cameos, such as a penguin dressed as a parrot in the Silly Song "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" or as Junior's poor sick penguin in "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps."
Evil Makes You Ugly: Used in "Sweetpea Beauty"; the queen's obsession with becoming beautiful coupled with the evil mirror's manipulation leads her to do increasingly horrible things, which gradually makes her more and more hideous. The mirror hides this fact by showing her false reflections of herself.
The Faceless: Rack's, Shack's, and Benny's savior.
Facepalm: Hope does this a few times in An Easter Carol in response to some of the things Nezzer says.
One of Dave's brothers in Dave and the Giant Pickle does this when he realizes Dave really is going to face Goliath.
In Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Dad Asparagus faints when he realizes the monster has Junior. He faints again when the monster catches Larry-Boy too.
In An Easter Carol, Reverend Gilbert (Dad Asparagus) faints when Nezzer announces his plan to build Easterland on the land St. Bart's Church currently sits on.
Food Fight: "The Great Pie War", which plays a role in both King George and the Ducky and Duke and the Great Pie War.
Forbidden Chekhov's Gun: Towards the end of The Star of Christmas, Seymour warns Millward not to use the eleventh rocket on the rocket-powered car as it has not been tested yet. Millward ends up using it.
Foreshadowing: After Larry, Mr. Lunt and Pa Grape successfully host an entire episode (Gideon: Tuba Warrior) as The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, Pa makes a mock poster with a suggestion to star in their own pirate movie." A year later and guess what happens?
At the end of the episode (Sheerluck Holmes), Larryboy (Larry the Cucumber) states his dress rehearsal for the next show (Larry Boy and The Bad Apple) starts in two minutes.
And Buzzsaw Louie from The Toy that Saved Christmas has fingerless hands.
Framing Device: Most episodes are framed by scenes of the characters on the countertop, who tell the stories. A few don't use the countertop scenes but still have the main episodes' plots put in the context of a character telling a story. It's averted in Esther: The Girl Who Became Queen, though.
Frothy Mugs of Water: During any tavern or bar scene, root beer is substituted for the real stuff.
In The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's, their The Wizard of Oz parody, their Dorothy analogue is named "Darby" and played by Junior Asparagus.
In A Little Princess, the homeless child and the baker that Sara meets were both female, but in The Penniless Princess, these characters are played by Junior and Bob.
Which means that everyone was Shocked, and slightly embarassed, per The Hairbrush Song.
Good Shepherd: Reverend Gilbert (Dad Asparagus) in The Star of Christmas and An Easter Carol. He is seen teaching his son Edmund moral lessons, extending goodwill to people like Mr. Nezzer, and going out of his way to help those in need. He keeps this general attitude even when he's under a lot of pressure, such as the possibility of the church he works at being knocked down or his son becoming deathly ill.
Goofy Print Underwear: When the van crashes into a clothesline in Jonah, a pair is plastered against the windshield.
Graceful Loser: While not exactly a loss in the technical sense, the effect is still the same. In Sumo of the Opera, Apollo Gourd and The Italian Scallion (Larry) have a sumo match. The result of the match is a draw. Since no one had ever gotten that far against Apollo Gourd, all the praise gets showered on The Italian Scallion anyway. Apollo is a good sport about it.
Grandpa God: During both Snoodle poems and the Pirates movie, although these portrayals are allegorical.
Guilty Pleasures: Larry likes his soap operas, and owns a plush of Barbara Manatee that he dances with.
Hand Wave: Done in-universe in The Toy that Saved Christmas. When Annie questions the fact that a toy just came to life in the story George is telling her, George waves it off with, "Maybe he was wired different! Who knows?"
Herbivore Confusion: A world populated by talking vegetables and fruits, there are pies and popcorn balls as food, and apparently "apple choppers". It was confirmed in the commentary for Duke and the Great Pie War (and demonstrated in Jonah) that there are non-sentient fruits and vegetables in their world as well.
In their version of Daniel and the Lion's Den, a cucumber is tossed to lions.
Hive Mind: The other little weeds in Larry-Boy and the Rumor Weed turn out to be under the control of "the mother weed", a giant weed that lives under the ground.
I Am X, Son of Y: In "Lord of the Bean": Randalf, son of Mandalf; the leader of the Razzberry Forest, Lord Falaminion Tereglith, son of Therebil-Elithimon.
I Can See My House from Here: In The Star of Christmas, Edmund says this when the rocket-powered car is launched upwards after Millward uses the eleventh rocket.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Discussed and then averted in The Toy that Saved Christmas. At the end, Louie wants to get rid of his buzz saw because even though the fact he had it saved everyone's lives earlier, he thinks that it's too dangerous to keep around. Then he changes his mind and goes into carpentry.
I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Laura uses this to excuse herself when Junior breaks his dad's plate in Larry-Boy! And the Fib From Outer Space!
Identical Ancestor: Nebby K. Nezzer's Victorian-era ancestor Ebeneezer is presumably one.
Insane Troll Logic: "The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down With All The Bananas" : The Englishman takes all the bananas from a hill, but doesn't eat them because "You can't eat bananas without strawberries!" And then a Swedish man takes all the strawberries from another hill, but "can't eat stawberries without bananas!" And then they refuse to share with each other.
Invisible Anatomy: Averted with feet (the characters move around by hopping), but the characters' lack of hands is constantly Lampshaded.
Right from the start, before the theme song:
Bob: I know! You play the guitar! Larry: Bob, I don't have any hands.
Josh and the Big Wall had Tom Grape and Pa Grape lampshade how they and other characters were applauding a giant rocket.
Tom: How are we clapping? Pa: I have no idea.
"Lyle the Kindly Viking" has a reference.
Bjorn (Lunt): I would clap if I could.
Dr. Jiggle and Mr. Sly repeatedly shows close-ups of a character's hands and feet, who is then shocked when he doesn't have limbs in the long shots. It's kind of weird, really.
Invisible hair as well - in Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's Hairbrush, Martin notices Minnesota's haircut even though he never had any hair to begin with. Though a few scenes later, Minnesota can't use the power of the hairbrush since he has no hair (a reference to The Hairbrush Song). Go figure.
From the personalized show:
Larry: I think we should give our good friend a hand! Bob: But, Larry, we can't. We don't have hands. Larry: I was speaking metaphorically, Bob.
It Was With You All Along: In Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy and Alfred get a bit frantic trying to figure out how the monster can be stopped, especially after the Fib catches Larry-Boy. As it turns out, the only one who can stop the Fib is Junior Asparagus, who has been about five feet away from Larry-Boy for the past several minutes.
It's the Only Way: In The Toy that Saved Christmas, Junior uses this to justify sneaking into Mr. Nezzer's factory when Bob and Louie question the wisdom of doing so.
In "The Story of Flibber-O-Loo", the crooks (the Scallions) who mug the Flibbian (Larry) simply run off with his money and are never seen again.
In Madame Blueberry, the Stuff-Mart people wind up destroying Madame Blueberry's house. No one sues them.
In Lord of the Beans, the Elders of the Razzberry Forest were bribed by Scaryman to betray the Fellowship. Nothing happens to them.
In Pistachio, a puppeteer tries to kidnap Pistachio, and when Pistachio flees in terror he encounters three con men who trick him out of his money and then toss him into the sea. These guys all quietly drop out of the story after their scenes are over.
Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: "Where's God When I'm S-scared" starts with Junior Asparagus watching "Frankencelery," and becoming frightened by everything in the house after that. However, the point of the episode is that Junior doesn't need to be scared because God is taking care of him, not that he shouldn't have watched the movie.
King Kong Climb: In Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, the Fib carries Junior to the top of a water tower. Then Larry-Boy flies up there after them in his Larry-Plane.
Played with in the next Larry-Boy movie, when the Weed is wrapped around a building and reaches out a vine to grap Archibald.
Large Ham: Archibald, Larry as Larry-Boy, occasionally Bob
Lighter and Softer: The League of Incredible Vegetables in comparison to the earlier Larry-Boy episodes. The villain is a Large Ham who is not nearly as calculatingly manipulative as the villains in the earlier Larry-Boys, many of the characters' fears are Played for Laughs, and even the lighting and the music is much lighter and more cheery.
Littlest Cancer Patient: Edmund Gilbert (played by Junior Asparagus) is apparently perfectly fine in The Star of Christmas, but he becomes dangerously ill by An Easter Carol. What sets Ebeneezer Nezzer towards his change of heart is Hope informing him that Edmund has less than a year to live if nothing changes.
The Toy that Saved Christmas: A Buzzsaw Louie doll mysteriously comes to life, realizes that he doesn't like the sound of whatever he was originally programmed to say, and sets off to find the true meaning of Christmas.
Pistachio: Pistachio (played by Junior Asparagus) is a wooden toy carved from a "very special" log.
Lotus-Eater Machine: How Bad Apple plans to conquer Bumblyburg just like her great-uncle almost did, starting with the mayor, the reporter, and Larry-Boy.
Lured Into A Trap: In Lord of the Beans, Scaryman bribed the Elders of the Razzberry Forest to send Toto to the Land of Woe where Scaryman could ambush him and take the bean.
Medium Awareness: In The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's Larry tells Bob that they can't let the show be too short, they have a whole DVD to fill.
Also in The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's when asking why Pa Grape/The Lion didn't eat the rabbits and animals in the forest if he was so hungry he responeds with "It's a kid show, they won't let me do that."
In Jonah, Dad Asparagus isn't satisfied until there's a big musical number to close the film.
In Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, Larry-Boy must find the mysterious object that fell from space. The object in question is Fib, who is out with Junior. Larry-Boy says "hello" to them one time and another time passes by without even seeing them. He gives up and goes home...only to have to head out again because Fib is destroying Bumblyburg.
In The Penniless Princess, Mr. Carrisford and Sara run into each other while Sara is running errands. After they have a friendly chat, Mr. Carrisford leaves, having no idea that he just spoke to the girl he's been searching for for a long time.
Archibald: You can't just start a song and leave it hanging like that!
Also parodied in "St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving". Bob stops the story at a seemingly random point (hesitant to tell his audience of very young vegetables that Nick's parents die) and they can't believe it's over already. Larry explains to them that it's one of those "Russian endings" meant to raise "more questions than answers."
No Flow in CGI: The whole reason why the series stars vegetables was to deliberately avert this. While other CG cartoons at the time tended to look stiff and choppy, the simple designs of the VeggieTales characters left the creators free to put a lot more work into making sure they animated fluidly.
No Fourth Wall: The intro and outro segments, some of the Silly Songs, and less frequently the stories themselves.
A rather memorable example was during a segment modeled after a Shakespeare play. As the gourd, Mr. Lunt was pushed onto the "stage" in full drag:
"I think we're going to get letters about this."
Jimmy Gourd's reaction is endlessly hilarious to this "fair Ophelia".
No Indoor Voice: As the creators have pointed out in commentary, it wasn't really until Lyle the Kindly Viking that Junior's voice actress stopped screaming all of her lines.
No Product Safety Standards: "The Toy that Saved Christmas" has Buzz-Saw Louie, the hot new toy with a real working buzzsaw!
Once per Episode: Bob hates the song that precedes the final Aesop; Larry loves it. Turned on its head in Lord of the Beans, when the evil sporks stole the record — and Bob admits he misses the song.
One Steve Limit: Played straight with the real names of main characters, but averted with names belonging to characters who appear less often, or characters they play. The name Louie appears very frequently—Junior invites someone named Louie to his birthday party in Are You My Neighbor, Bob says he danced at Uncle Louie's polka party in the Silly Song "Dance of the Cucumber", the toy in The Toy that Saved Christmas is named Louie (and Laura Carrot's youngest brother, who also appears in that episode, is named Baby Lou). Also the fact they have a character named George did not stop them from having Larry play a George in King George and the Ducky.
Parental Abandonment: In The Penniless Princess, Sara's mother is never shown and is implied to have died. (In the book it's based on, this is indeed the case.) Her father is in the opening scene, but dies later on.
And Monty Python references, the most explicit being the French Peas as the people of Jericho taunting the Israelites from atop their wall. Oddly enough, they started out playing Philistines in a less explicit reference to the same scene.
In Lyle, the Kindly Viking, the episode starts off with Larry mentioning various viewer questions about sharing, such as "When do I have to share?", "Why do I have to share?", "Whatever happened to Sonny & Cher?".
On that note, in the Silly Song with Larry "I Love My Lips", when Larry sings "It's a lip, it's a lip, it's a lip lip lip" to the tune of the William Tell Overture during a Rorschach test, one of the cards is a non-animated photo of Sonny Bono.
"What are the Phillipines?" "The Phillipines are an island archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, but that's not important now. The Philistines...."
Perverse Sexual Lust: An in-universe example; in "Barbara Manatee," one of the Silly Songs With Larry segments, Larry appears to be crushing on a manatee from a TV show. He even has a plush of her, which he sings to and dances with.
Piano Drop: Once on a cake in Esther, and several times down a flight of stairs in Sumo of the Opera.
Playing Against Type: In-universe example: the episode Pistachio has Junior, the kind, lovable asparagus, playing a rebellious, talkative puppet.
Perhaps nowhere more obviously than in Lord of the Beans, where two of the adventurers' names are food puns on those of actual Fellowship members — Ear-a-Corn and Leg-o-Lamb.
Remembered I Could Fly: In The Toy that Saved Christmas, at one point the protagonists are tied up on a sled hurtling to their doom. It doesn't even occur to Louie to use his built-in buzz saw to get them out of this predicament—and then Larry accidentally bumps his arm.
Louie: Watch it! You bumped into my...(realizes)...buzz saw...
Shout Out: In addition to almost every non-Bible story a being straight-up parody or pastiche of some book or movie, we have the following:
At the end of A Snoodle's Tale (which is told in the style of Dr. Seuss), Larry comments that "there was something about that story that made me want to eat green ham."
In Pistachio, Khalil, who is playing the Cricket, says "I'm no fool, no-sirree!" a line from the educational films Disney produced in the '60s and '70s starring Jiminy Cricket.
From The Ballad Of Little Joe, made into a very out-of-place Shout Out simply because of the accent Larry says it in:
And of course the title character is a reference to Bonanza.
In It's A Meaningful Life, Larry and Petunia's characters are named Stewart and Donna, after the actors who played the characters they're parodying in It's a Wonderful Life.
Another It's a Wonderful Life reference in "The Star Of Christmas": Bob as Cavis states "I will teach all of London how to love!"
"Sumo of the Opera" has numerous ones to Rocky, such as the main character being named "the Italian Scallion" and his attempt to at least tie with the current heavy-weight champion.
Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple has a scene parodying the first Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie: when Bad Apple introduces Larry-Boy to his Lotus-Eater Machine (a museum of chocolate), she wears a purple hat like Wonka's, and does a crazy rant like Wonka does during the boat's Disney Acid Sequence.
Cavis and Millward's "Princess and the Plumber" in Star of Christmas.
Marlee's "Up with Bunnies" in 'Twas the Night Before Easter.
Small Town Rivalry: In "The Story of Flibber-O-Loo" (a re-telling of the Good Samaritan story), the towns of Flibber-O-Loo and Jibberty-Lot have a heated rivalry, where they launch shoes and pots at each other with catapults and other devices.
Snowball Lie: Happens in Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space! Junior lies to avoid getting in trouble for breaking a plate, the lie keeps getting bigger as the people around Junior figure out he's not telling the truth....and then the lie has gotten so big that it is literally destroying Bumblyburg.
Species Surname: Most of the characters' last names are the type of vegetable they are. Sometimes this leads to characters who don't seem to be relatives having the same last name, like Junior Asparagus and Archibald Asparagus. Some of the characters, like Mr. Nezzer or Mr. Lunt, avert this.
Spell My Name with an S: Larry-Boy/Larryboy/LarryBoy. The first was used in Fib from Outer Space & Rumor Weed, the second was used in the Flash-animated spinoff series, and the third was used in Bad Apple.
Edmund/Edmond Gilbert (played by Junior Asparagus) in The Star of Christmas and An Easter Carol. He is credited as "Edmond" but in subtitles and on the back of the box for The Star of Christmas it is spelled "Edmund".
Spit Take: When Dave announces his plan to fight Goliath, King Saul spits out his drink.
Stealth Pun: The antagonist in Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple is an apple who dabbles in dealing with temptation. In other words, she's the Forbidden Fruit.
Story Arc: In Josh and the Big Wall, technical difficulties prevented Larry from properly ending The Song of the Cebu, that video's "Silly Songs With Larry" segment. Archibald became so disappointed with Larry's lack of preparation, he announced the cancellation of "Silly Songs" in the next video (Madame Blueberry)'s segment. The Framing Device of the video after that (The End of Silliness?) showed Larry desperately trying to recover from the loss, until Archibald announces that a fan petition prompted him to uncancel "Silly Songs."
Surveillance Station Slacker: Jimmy and Jerry Gourd, as seen in the episode "Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space!"
Take That: In the Oh, Santa! Silly Song, Larry gives cookies to both a bank robber and a Viking "because it's Christmas." And then the next person comes to the door.
"I'm from the IRS! And I've come to tax your—" (SLAM)
During The Asparagus of La Mancha, there's a potshot towards Starbucks when Don and Pancho are trying to compete with the Food Factory and decide to open a coffee shop:
"Why pay a little for coffee when you can pay a lot?"
And Jimmy and Jerry Gourd. And maybe the French Peas.
Took a Level in Kindness: Ebeneezer Nezzer in An Easter Carol when he starts changing for the better. Hope does this too; in her early interactions with Ebeneezer she is rather snarky and occasionally harsh, but around the point where Ebeneezer is very upset when he learns Edmund is probably going to die, Hope softens up considerably and is a lot more careful in how she interacts with him.
The Ultimate Silly Song Countdown was the result of a viewer poll to determine the silliest of the first ten Silly Songs with Larry (not counting Oh, Santa!). The winner was The Hairbrush Song.
Unhand Them, Villain!: Towards the end of Sweetpea Beauty, the mirror grabs Sweetpea and carries her to the top of a tower. When the queen demands he let her go, he obliges.
Uriah Gambit: In King George and the Ducky, King George has Thomas sent to the front lines of the Pie War because he wants his ducky. It causes Thomas to temporarily go insane.
Valley Girl: Only Big Idea would go so far as to turn the Princess of Egypt in their retelling of the story of Moses in the Bulrushes into this - hilariously.
"The Rumor Weed Song" in Larryboy and the Rumor Weed.
Bad Apple's "The Temptation Song" from Larry-Boy and the Bad Apple and Larry-Boy: Revenge of The Bad Apple.
Visual Pun: One of the books Archibald pulls out in the "Modern Major General" song from The Wonderful World of Auto-tainment! has a picture of Larry in a robe and crown. Larry King!
Scallion #1 (the tall one), Archibald, and the narrator for "Silly Songs with Larry" used to sound different. Archibald's delivery was more hammy, and Scallion's lacked the faux British accent the others had. This gradually blended together until it's pretty much all the same voice. Larry eventually hung a lampshade on this at the end of The Biscuit of Zazzamarandabo by acting surprised that Archibald and the narrator were not the same character. Archibald was surprised, too. In fact, now the creators attempt to place Scallion #1 and Archibald in the same scenes at times, just to prove that they're not the same character.
Just as noticeable is Jerry Gourd, who started out sounding like an impression of Jimmy Gourd's voice (enough to mark them as a matched pair of characters but with a subtle enough difference to be clearly a different actor — Phil and Mike use this approach extensively) but now sounds almost exactly like Larry.
Water Hose Rodeo: In Larry Boy and the Bad Apple, one character attempts to hose off a statue that's been covered in cobwebs. It turns out that the firehose is too strong for him, and he gets flung all over.
Waxing Lyrical: Mr. Lunt's character in "St. Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving" slips into this several times.
Wax On, Wax Off: Mikey, in "Sumo of the Opera," teaches sumo to the Italian Scallion by mopping the floor and climbing the down escalator.
Wham Line: In Lord of the Beans, Toto thinks he's figured out why he was sent to the Land of Woe...until Scaryman comes out and reveals the real reason:
Scaryman: The elders sent you here because I told them to.
What the Hell, Hero?: King George sees someone bathing on a roof and he wanted his duck, despite having tons of his own, which leads to a Uriah Gambit. Then he gets called out on it by the castle's wise man.
Youthful Freckles: Both Tom and Rosie Grape have them, as do many of the pea characters, no matter their age. However, the French Peas' trickster nature is highlighted through these.
Twippo:(to Khalil the tow truck driver) Ah... have we met?
Animation Bump: Due to the animators having a movie-sized budget, the animation in Jonah is probably the best in the series. Notably, Big Idea was able to get lighting animators who had just finished work on films like Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius and Ice Age. The end result is gorgeous.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything sort of doesn't count, because it wasn't animated by Big Idea. The animation was provided by Starz Animation.
The caterpillar/worm that eats the shade plant near the end of the Jonah story becomes Jonah's traveling buddy and a recurring character. His mother was a caterpillar; his father was a worm. But he's okay with that now.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech that he gives Jonah was, in the original, delivered by God Himself. The bug get to deliver God's lines. How's that for an ascended extra?
The reason for Ninevah's fish obsession was because in real life, they did indeed worship a fish god.
Deus ex Machina / The Cavalry: The King is the one that rescues the heroes from the villain's lair in Pirates. According to the commentary, this is justified since the film is a Christian parable.
Fish out of Water: In the second movie, a trio of layabout waiters freshly fired from a Pirate-themed dinner theatre are thrown back in time to the past.
Foreshadowing: In Jonah, the last pair that Khalil has during the game of Go Fish is a whale.
Freeze Frame Bonus: In Jonah, the menu items in the seafood restaraunt Bob and the gang stop at goes as follows:
Followed by Mercy (Market Price) later in the film.
GASP!: Jonah, Khalil, and the Pirates all take turns at dramatic gasping when they see just what "The Slap of No Return" is, before all doing a simultaneous gasp.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Parodied: In-universe, as the commentary for Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie (from Larry and Mr. Lunt, self-proclaimed actual producers of the film) points out, the first VeggieTales movie (not Jonah), "Socks with Stripes," according to Mr. Lunt, proved a flop in the US, but highly regarded in France.
Heroic BSOD: Jonah when God refuses to destroy Ninevah, with a healthy dollop of Wangst.
It Is Pronounced Tro PAY: Jonah keeps mispronouncing Khalil's name — until the end when Khalil abandons him.
I Will Find You: In The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Princess Eloise is determined to save her brother Alexander after he is kidnapped. Later, George (Pa Grape), who has developed a sort of fatherly relationship with the princess, becomes determined to find her after she meets the same fate as her brother.
Left the Background Music On: Inside the whale, Jonah and the angels are holding a massive celebration. Cut to the surface as two fisherman hear the music and wonder what on earth is going on.
Khalil:You see the whale as half-empty. I see the whale as half-full!
Jonah: I have no idea what that means.
Khalil: Neither do I.
Medium Shift Gag: The Pirates description of Ninevah causes the film to shift briefly to traditional cel animation.
Musical World Hypothesis: Played with, as Jonah's musical number inside the whale apparently is supposed to actually be happening, as there is a cut to confused fishermen up on the surface who can vaguely hear the noise coming from underwater.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Jonah constantly calls Khalil a wrong name, like "Carlyle". He finally pronounces it correctly when Khalil abandons him.
The Mean Brit: Willory, the Princess's aide, is subtly disapproving of the Pirates when she's around, and openly hostile to them when she's not. Part of the joke being that he's right on with his criticisms.
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The Trope Namers themselves star, and the trope itself is deconstructed, as the opening of Jonah has their slacking result in them being completely broke, only to later actually "do something" and get in fantastic adventures.
Khalil: Would you look at yourself?!? You care more about that weed than about all the people in Nineveh!! Jonah: Well... I... Khalil: Why are you here now? Instead of back in the belly of that whale? Because God is compassionate! He wanted to help you! And because he is merciful! He gave you a second chance! Jonah: Oh, yes — and I'm very grateful— Khalil: Has it ever occurred to you that maybe God loves everybody, not just you?! That maybe he wants to give everyone a second chance! He saw that those people needed help - that they didn't know right from wrong - and he wanted to help them! And that is why he sent you! And when you told them what they were doing wrong they said they were sorry - they put down their mackerels and their halibuts - and they asked God for a second chance. And by golly, he gave them one! Don't you see? God wants to give everyone a second chance! And so should we! Jonah: Well, if they get a second chance — those fish-slappers — well, then... it would be better if I were dead! Oh, I wish I were back in that whale! Khalil:(stonily) You are pathetic.
When Jonah protests Khalil's decision to leave, Khalil then retorts:
Khalil: I wanted to be big and important... just like you! But the world doesn't need more people who are "big and important," the world needs more people who are nice. And compassionate. And merciful. That's what I want to be. You can find yourself a new traveling buddy. Goodbye. Jonah: You can't just leave! Khalil: Can and am!
Schizo Tech: In an era of sailing ships and exploration, the King and Big Bad are apparently master tinkers that have built, respectively, a Time Machine and a sort of Powered Armour.
Up to Eleven in Jonah, where the Pirates play ping pong, baby wipes, plush toys with sound chips, tape recorders with motivational tapes and have their own outboard power motor.
Shamu Fu: The Ninevites in the first film are notorious for this.
Shaped Like Itself: One of the extras in Jonah is a tour of Big Idea Studios, where at one point the viewer sees a staff member working at his computer on the unreleased DVD... which you watch on your DVD. Phil Vischer directly Lampshades this.
The Credits Song. "This is the song that runs under the credits. These are the credits, so this is where it goes. Has nothing to do with the movie so we'll say 'Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!...'"
Jonah: I'm afraid the only thing left is to be thrown into the sea.
Larry: Oh, you don't have to do that! We've got a plank! You can just walk off!
Waldorf: This show makes me nervous about what we do. Statler: Got anything to be ashamed of? Waldorf: No, I'm just worried that one of the tomatoes we throw might say "Ow!" Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!
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