Team Rocket Wins in Western Animation

This trope has always intrigued me, since Western Animation has a funny way of making what is basically a bad guy winning and making it astonishingly cathartic and fun to watch, be it an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain (eg. Tom, Elmer Fudd) or just a karmic Butt-Monkey (eg. Donald and Daffy Duck, Squidward). Discuss notable Team Rocket Wins moments in Western Animation.

I'll start us off with this one. Who would think there was fun in a destructive martian telling us he's doomed us all:

This example was oddly cut from the shortened theatrical version, taking away the best part of an otherwise mediocre short.

Waspinator happy at last.

But has the *actual* Team Rocket (from Pokemon) EVER won? I'd like to know.

They taken twenty levels in the show since they arrived in Unova. They don't blast off at all anymore, and are arguably a real treat now...

but Ash still manages to beat them apparently.

edited 29th Nov '12 4:26:11 PM by HandsomeRob

They've won fights and contests, and several episodes have at least ended on a happy note for them. They've even successfully stole the odd Pokemon, even if the boss usually has no interest in it, and it usually ends up part of their squad instead.

In more extreme terms of ending an episode screwing Ash and co over, I don't think that's ever happened though (though their start to "Badassery" had them decimate Pikachu and then escape unscaved).

An anime counterpart of this thread may need to be made for them.

edited 29th Nov '12 4:38:58 PM by Psi001

I believe the second season of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes animated series began with the villain finally conquering the world, and the heroes forced to move into resistance-fighter mode. It's not really cathartic, as the villain wasn't particularly charismatic, but it was the first time I remember a villain ever winning, even as just a plot point.

That may apply more as The Bad Guy Wins then, Team Rocket Wins seems to apply more to semi-rootable loser villains finally getting their moment. It's also usually a more petty and almost karmic victory since it very often just involves humilating the heroes after they become too arrogant and unprovoked to root for anymore (eg. Tom never got to kill or eat Jerry but occasionally got a last laugh on him when the latter drawn the first blow) though it can be for malicious stuff at times (eg. my above example, even if Marvin still manages to make blowing up the Earth endearing in execution).

For another of my selection, I'll put "The Spidermobile" from The Dreamstone. The usually pathetic Urpneys spend the entire episode invincible against the heroes, taking out more or less the entire population of the Land Of Dreams with their machine. Naturally the heroes get the stone back in the end, though a conviniently placed Shoo Out the Clowns moment means Blob's men avoid a defeat and get to enjoy Zordrak and Urpgor getting a Humiliation Conga in their place.

Sadly there was never a full on example where the Urpneys "won" an episode, which is a shame since their dynamic was sympathetic and petty enough to warrant it at times (the nearest to the Noops "losing" to them was "The Dream Beam Invasion", and even that was more along the lines of a "neither side gets the last laugh" example). They did get a few happy endings however, usually when something bad happened to Urpgor.

edited 5th Jan '13 8:33:18 AM by Psi001

Of course, there's the Itchy and Scratchy short "Burning Down the Mouse". Even if we didn't see it played out on screen, it still counts.

"Plug it in! Plug it in!"

"What? The rock tumbler or the TV?"

"The TV! The TV!"

edited 1st Dec '12 8:26:00 AM by redhed311

Apparently it's such an ingenius example of Team Rocket Wins that it can never be shown again. Not it a million years. HUAH, HAH, HAH, HAH!!!

Well, technically, Scratchy also won in that short where he and Itchy teamed up against Hitler. Although I don't remember it that well, so it's possible it ended up with Itchy killing Scratchy as well.

edited 1st Dec '12 5:37:30 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

He did. Itchy chopped his head off almost right after they killed Hitler.

(Insert half-witty Treaty of Versailles analogy here).

edited 1st Dec '12 5:38:35 PM by NapoleonDeCheese

Daffy Duck beats Bugs Bunny!

Never happened in an actual short sadly, though he did pwn Speedy once.

Would Cartman's victory in "Scott Tenorman Must Die" also count?

edited 5th Jan '13 8:56:02 AM by Psi001