Left to Right:Yippee, Yappee, Yahooey
Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey are a trio of Hanna-Barbera Funny Animal cartoon characters whose shorts are set in what appear to be The Cavalier Years. Imagine a crossover of The Three Musketeers and The Three Stooges and you'll have a good sense of what these three characters were about. Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey are the King's Royal Guards, but cause so much trouble for their sovereign that he'd be better off getting protection from his so-called protectors — it's not for nothing that the King often refers to them as his "goofy guards." Amusing Injuries and overall soldierly ineptitude are the order of the day in this series, with the King bearing the brunt of the abuse.
Yippee, a blue-colored hound, is played by Doug Young (best known for voicing Doggie Daddy). Yappee, a white-furred sheepdog, is voiced by Hal Smith (he plays the King as well). Yahooey, a small brown-hued bulldog, is voiced by Daws Butler in a manner reminiscent of Jerry Lewis (he even speaks in a similarly singsong fashion). All three wear fancy plume-studded swashbuckler hats and tabards as well as cavalier-style boots and gloves, and their trusty fencing swords are normally within reach if not in hand. When on the move, they often announce themselves, shouting "Yippee! Yappee! Yahoo-ey-ey-ey-ey!"
They appeared as the last Three Shorts entry in The Peter Potamus Show. Apart from a brief mention in an Animaniacs episode by Slappy Squirrel, they pretty much vanished after their show ran its course, until they finally reappeared in Jellystone!.
Yippee! Yappee! Yahoo-ey-ey-ey-ey! This series provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: Like Touché Turtle and Dum Dum, this show takes the swaggering romanticized swordsman genre, typified by works such as The Three Musketeers and Zorro, and plays it for laughs.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Yippee is colored a vibrant shade of blue. While there are of course some blue-colored domestic dog breeds (he's most likely based on the Bluetick Coonhound), they most certainly don't come in Yippee's color.
- Amusing Injuries: Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey's incompetence usually results in slapstick abuse being inflicted on themselves and the King they're nominally trying to protect.
- Badly Battered Babysitter:
- In "Wild Child," the King and Queen decide to take the evening off and leave the bratty Prince in care of his goofy guards. Needless to say, Hilarity Ensues.
- Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey are charged with keeping the palace quiet while the King takes a nap in "Sleepy Time King." The Prince apparently didn't get the memo, however, and the three guards have their hands full keeping the young man quiet.
- The Blind Leading the Blind: The King's nephew arrives for a visit in "Outlaw In-Law" and decides he wants to learn how to be a Royal Guard. Too bad he decides to take lessons from our trio of starring nitwits.
- Boot Camp Episode: "The Volunteers" sees the incompetent trio undergoing a bout of rigorous training to become better at their job, put through their paces by a drill sergeant modeled after Sgt. Bilko. They instead manage to wreak havoc on their instructor and seemingly haven't learned a thing by the end of the episode.
- The Cavalier Years: The episodes in this segment appear to take place in 17th century Europe or thereabouts.
- Character Catchphrase: When on the move, the goofy trio often announce themselves, shouting "Yippee! Yappee! Yahoo-ey-ey-ey-ey!"
- Dogs Are Dumb: Given their lack of judgement and utter stupidity, the three main characters make the most simpleminded canine examples seem like rocket scientists.
- Dragons Are Demonic: An unfriendly dragon shows up in the episode "Double Dragon."
- Drives Like Crazy: Played with in "King of the Roadhogs." The three guards build a car for the King's driving pleasure, but when they test it out, the infernal machine runs out of control despite Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey's best efforts.
- Eyes Out of Sight: Given that Yappee is a sheepdog, it's perhaps not surprising that he's depicted with a long fringe of dark hair that always obscures his eyes.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Oftentimes, Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey string a sentence among themselves, one phrase at a time.Yippee: Your wish...Yappee: ...is our command,...Yahooey: ...Sire!
- Friend or Foe?: While out on a hunting trip, the King dons a female unicorn costume in "Unicorn on the Cob," attempting to lure one of the mythical beasts in for the kill. Unfortunately, Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey miss the intended target and spear the King in the butt instead.
- Funny Animal: While Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey are dogs, they behave like humans. They are examples of a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal, walk bipedally, talk intelligibly to humans in English, use human tools such as swords, hold down a job (if ineptly so), and live in the King's castle where they are seen sleeping in beds or playing pool.
- The Grand Hunt: Being the Great White Hunter that he is, the King decides to bag a unicorn (the one trophy missing from his collection) in "Unicorn on the Cob." He and his inept guards head out to bag one and encounter all sorts of problems — not the least of which involves Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey throwing spears at the King, who is disguised as a female unicorn.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: Given Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey's stupidity and utter ineptitude, it's not surprising the King often refers to them as his "goofy guards."
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: The three main characters sport fancy plume-studded swashbuckler hats and tabards as well as cavalier-style boots and gloves. None of them wear pants, though.
- Horsing Around: In "Horse Shoo Fly," the King gets a flying horse as a gift. The critter proves ornery and uncontrollable, and it's up the the three goofy guards to rein it in.
- Hot Witch: The witch from "Witch Is Which" becomes a young, beautiful knockout after drinking a revitalizing potion.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: In "Wise Quacking," the King and his guards decide to go duck hunting, which goes about as well as one might expect. One scene sees the four of them repeatedly firing at the flying bird without hitting it once — and eventually pushing their boat over a waterfall with the constant combined recoil.
- Inexplicably Tailless: Given that Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey are dogs, it's surprising that they don't have tails, stubby or otherwise — especially in Yippee's case, as it seems he's some breed of hound.
- Job-Stealing Robot: "Job Robbed" sees the fed-up King replace Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey with a robot guard. While the decision works out at first (and the three canines are repeatedly unable to defeat the robot), the infernal machine goes rogue on the King by episode's end.
- Monster in the Moat: The short "Black Bart" ends with the King, fed up with the trio's incompetence, throwing them into the moat and siccing his three alligators on them ("There's one for each of you!").
- Ms. Fanservice: The witch from "Witch Is Which" transforms into a buxom, curvaceous redheaded knockout after drinking a revitalizing potion.
- Murphy's Bed: In "Unicorn on the Cob," the three goofy guards are first seen snoring in a triple-tiered bunk bed. When the King's shouts awaken them, they manage to collapse the bunk bed setup and fall through to the floor below.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- Yahooey's voice strongly resembles that of Jerry Lewis, both in vocal quality and singsong manner of speaking.
- In "The Volunteers," the drill sergeant tasked with infusing some needed spit-shine into Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey looks and sounds like Phil Silvers as Sgt. Bilko.
- Obligatory Joke: While fighting a duel with a unicorn (who has taken off his horn and is using it as a sword) in "Unicorn on the Cob," it's abundantly clear the three guards are laboring at a disadvantage. When the exasperated King asks them if they're men or mice, we get this exchange.King: What are you guys — guards or mice?Yippee: Uh — you mean we've got a choice?
- One-Hit Polykill: At the end of "The Volunteers," the furious King fires a cannon at the fleeing trio of guards and their boot camp instructor. He hits all four of them with one cannonball, which bounces off each of their heads while knocking them out.
- Pantomime Animal:
- In "Double Dragon," the three guards dress up in a dragon costume, allowing the King to play the great dragon slayer. Naturally, a real live example shows up soon enough.
- While out on a hunting trip, the King dons a female unicorn costume in "Unicorn on the Cob," attempting to lure one of the mythical beasts in for the kill — and the move backfires spectacularly. The male unicorn takes a romantic shine to the phony pony and chases him towards the three guards, who impale him in the butt with spears.
- Peeling Potatoes: When Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey continually screw up during training in "The Volunteers," the fed-up drill sergeant finally puts his three knuckleheaded charges on KP duty as punishment.
- Pirate: Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey (joined by the King) take to the high seas to battle the buccaneer Captain Kidder in "Nautical Nitwits."
- Ring Around the Collar: Like most Hanna-Barbera characters from this time, Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey each wear an accessory around their neck (a collared musketeer-style tabard) to facilitate animation shortcuts. The furred collar on the King's outfit serves the same function.
- Robot Maid: The three guards decide to build a robot butler to assist the king around the castle, in "Palace Pal Panic." Not surprisingly, the machine goes out of control and causes havoc.
- Signature Headgear: The trio wear fancy plume-studded cavalier-style hats.
- Surrounded by Idiots: The King routinely expresses exasperation at his bungling bodyguards.
- Swashbuckler: This show is an Affectionate Parody of the swaggering romanticized swordsman genre typified by works such as The Three Musketeers and Zorro, Played for Laughs.
- Three Shorts: Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey appeared as the last installment of The Peter Potamus Show.
- Watch Where You're Going!: The three clumsy guards are frequently seen crashing into each other, often while making a dramatic entrance.
- Wicked Witch: When an evil witch turns the King into a frog, it's up to the three goofy guards to bring her back and undo the spell. Occurs in the episode "Witch Is Which."
