History AllJustADream / WesternAnimation

--->'''Candace''': That's it! I'm dreaming!

--->'''Candace''': Oh, I get it. This is all a dream!\\

'''Candace''': Oh, no, I see ''him'' all the time. But ''this'' [Jeremy proposing to her], this ''has'' to be a dream!

* Subverted and discussed at the end of Season 5 of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''. After a season that went in [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent a completely different direction]] and upon learning that Lana's baby is also his, Archer spaces out and wonders if he's about to wake up from a coma he's been in since the end of the previous season. Turns out that's not the case.

** "Cuddle E. Hugs" has a particularly weird example. The episode was a dream had by [[spoiler: an ordinary hamster whose owner is a child who's a big Spongebob Squarepants fan.]]
** "Swamp Mates" ends on the realization Bubble Bass was dreaming the events of the episode. Interestingly, its sister episode "One Trick Sponge" shows Sandy exploring an alternate dimension, and the events of "Swamp Mates" can be seen in the background despite the fact they were dreamt up.

** [[WesternAnimation/FelixTheCatClassic The classic era short]] ''WesternAnimation/FelixDinesAndPines'' uses this after Felix enters a nightmarish vision after eating an old boot for dinner.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewMrPeabodyAndShermanShow'', Peabody and Sherman go back in time to watch Charles Dickens write "A Christmas Carol", only to find him being haunted by three ghosts that are fans of his work. After calming the spirits down by promising to write them into his next book, Dickens wakes up from his dream with inspiration and no time for visitors, leaving the real Mr. Peabody and Sherman confused and disappointed as they didn't get to do anything.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

* Subverted and discussed at the end of season five of ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''. After a season that went in [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent a completely different direction]] and upon learning that Lana's baby is also his, Archer spaces out and wonders if he's about to wake up from a coma he's been in since the end of the previous season. Turns out that's not the case.

** In a season three episode, Ed has a nightmare about Jonny. But then the episode ends with ''Jonny'' waking up in horror. So Ed had a dream that he was scared of Jonny, but then it's really Jonny having a dream that Ed had a dream that...he's scared of Jonny...[[LogicBomb uhm]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' episode "Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom", Dib receives supernatural powers from the alien race of the Meekrob, to help him stop Zim and the Irken invasion. The episode portrays Dib's following life being a celebrated Hero and the most successful paranormal investigator in the world, until old age, where in a TV interview he confesses having tossed a muffin at Zim in the school cantine once, upon which the moderator pulls of a mask revealing Zim's face laughing at him. Dib wakes up in Zim's laboratory realizing all of this was just a dream, programmed and simulated by Zim.

** The episode "Rewriting History" repeatedly {{lampshade|Hanging}}d the increasingly unlikely coincidence that [[GenerationXerox all the cast's grandparents]] were involved in a plot at the start of the century, with a last minute solution that "seemed like something from a dream" - because that's what it all was. Which is sad, because GenerationXerox plot seemed pretty cool. Though, oddly, the episode did end with an even more absurd GenerationXerox being canon. Though WordOfGod is that Kim and Ron's ancestors from the dream actually existed.

* ''WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity'' used this in the season one finale "To Sheep, Perchance to Dream", where several bizarre events (such as Sheep and Swanky getting married and General Specific suddenly transforming into a sheep) are explained away as being dreams the characters are having. The narrator isn't pleased at all, but then dreams that [[EvilAllAlong Sheep is actually evil]] and intends to use the narrator for his narrator-powered ray gun. At least, [[OrWasItADream the narrator assumed he was just dreaming like the others]].

** In the season six episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E2LisasRival Lisa's Rival]]", Lisa is competing so hard against a new student, Allison, for the first chair saxophone position that she faints in the middle of it. After "regaining consciousness", she's told that Allison got the chair and Lisa screams. The screen then blacks out and she really wakes up... only to be told the exact same thing with the added disclaimer, "And believe me, this is not a dream!"

** Also subverted in the season 3 episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS3E2SpontaneousCombustion Spontaneous Combustion]]". Cartman was tied to a cross for a crucifixion re-enactment, but his friends forgot about him and left him up there. A couple of days later, Chef finds him and takes him off the cross. The following conversation is from the car ride home.

* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' has one too. In "WesternAnimation/HeavenlyPuss," Tom wangs his head and kills himself where he ends up in train station in Heaven. The boarder however won't let him through due to his chasing Jerry all the time but give Tom a change to redeem himself by getting Jerry to sign a forgiveness certificate, otherwise Tom will end up in Hell tormented by a devil looking Spike. Tom is then sent back and tries everything he can to get Jerry to sign the thing. In the end though he doesn't make the deadline and it looks like he's doomed...till he wakes up and more than glad to find it was a dream. Even kissing his worst enemy to show his gratefulness.

* The better part of episode 20 in ''WesternAnimation/{{Wakfu}}'', which thoroughly confused the non-French-speaking people watching it without subtitles, though it could only have been [[DisneyAcidSequence one other trope]] if not this one.

* {{Deconstructed|Trope}} in the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode "Failsafe". The whole episode turned out to be an UnwinnableTrainingSimulation the characters were undergoing while in a psychic trance. However, partway through the exercise, M'gann's PsychicPowers [[HolodeckMalfunction turned off the safety features]], essentially brainwashing herself and everyone else to forget that it was fake. ComicBook/MartianManhunter was eventually able to perform an [[RescuedFromTheUnderworld Orphean Rescue]] before everybody slipped into permanent comas, but the whole next episode deals with them facing the trauma from the experience, and it ties into several character arcs that last throughout the series.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'', Lazy, Brainy, and Greedy enter a paradise world behind a waterfall in the episode "Paradise Smurfed", where its master eventually tries to imprison them for his own purposes. Brainy and Greedy escape, but Lazy doesn't. Fortunately, Lazy finds out that it was all just a dream.

* The MGM short ''WesternAnimation/TheRookieBear'' has Barney Bear getting ready for a long winter nap when there's a knock on a door. He gets a telegram stating a free vacation from the U.S. Government, in other words, he's been drafted. After several ordeals and now marching, his feet are begining to heat up and his corns starts popping like... popcorn. The scene changes back to Barney back in bed. He's awaken to his fireplace popping, realizes in relief that is was just a dream, and hears a knock on the door. He gets a telegram stating that he's been drafted. The last sentence reads "And this time, buddy, it ain't no dream!"

** ''Scrap Happy Daffy'' (1943) is a cartoon-short-length dream WesternAnimation/{{Daffy|Duck}} has that he's defending his scrap drive pile against Nazis and proceeds to throttle them with superhuman powers. Or was it a dream?

** In a case of TropesAreNotBad, most fans agree that "Woodland Critter Christmas" becomes ''funnier'' when you find out, right in the middle of the climax, that the whole messed-up story is something that Cartman wrote for a school assignment.

** The episode "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted" revolves around Candace actually managing to bust Phineas and Ferb, resulting in them being sent to an extremely strict reform school where they are brainwashed. She soon realizes how much she misses them and, along with Jeremy, ventures to break them out. But as they escape, and seemingly run into a dead end, things get increasingly weird until it's revealed that it was a dream Candace was having. She discusses it with the family the next morning, which results in them playfully guessing that Perry is a secret agent, causing government agents to bust in and take them away while Perry is told he'll have to be relocated... and ''this'' turns out to be [[DreamWithinADream just a bad dream that Perry is having]]. The actual moment she realises what's going (the first time), is hilarious.

** Though not yet a real episode, many bronies have demanded an episode titled "The Cutie Mark Adventure" be made in which the Cutie Mark Crusaders' getting cutie marks all turned out to be a dream since "Crusaders of the Lost Mark."

* ''WesternAnimation/Arthur'': Happens Twice to Binky. Due to his nightlight not being turned on, he suffers from two nightmares.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'':
** The episode "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted" revolves around Candace actually managing to bust Phineas and Ferb, resulting in them being sent to an extremely strict reform school where they are brainwashed. She soon realizes how much she misses them and, along with Jeremy, ventures to break them out. But as they escape, and seemingly run into a dead end, things get increasingly weird until it's revealed that it was a dream Candace was having. She discusses it with the family the next morning, which results in them playfully guessing that Perry is a secret agent, causing government agents to bust in and take them away while Perry is told he'll have to be relocated... and ''this'' turns out to be [[DreamWithinADream just a bad dream that Perry is having]]. The actual moment she realises what's going (the first time), is hilarious.
--->'''Candace''': Oh, I get it. This is all a dream!\\
'''Jeremy''': That would explain the talking zebra.\\
'''Candace''': Oh, no, I see ''him'' all the time. But ''this'' [Jeremy proposing to her], this ''has'' to be a dream!
** Just like [[Film/TheWizardOfOz the film it's parodying]], "Wizard of Odd" is a dream.
** Subverted in the ChristmasEpisode: Phineas [[CatapultNightmare sits up in bed]] and exclaims, "It was all a bad dream! [[SavingChristmas Christmas isn't cancelled]] after all!" -- only for [[RevealShot the camera to pan out]] to Isabella, who says that no matter how many times he tries that, [[ThisIsReality it's not going]] [[ThatWasNotADream to change anything]].

** "The Night Patty" ends on one, revealing all the monsters [=SpongeBob=] met at the Krusty Krab were just hallucinations he had from overwork.

** "The Night Patty" ends on one, revealing all the monsters [=SpongeBob=] met at the Krusty Krab were just hallucinations he had.

** "Butterfly Effect" has Lincoln accidentally destroy Lisa's chemicals with a yo-yo trick, and when he removes the evidence, it sets off a [[DisasterDominoes chain reaction]] of his sisters experiencing events that cause them to become not themselves. Once all sisters have gone through this, we suddenly flash right back to Lincoln before he removed the yo-yo, revealing it was all a daydream he had if he doesn't tell Lisa the truth.

** First appeared in "[[Recap/SouthParkS2E7CityOnTheEdgeOfForever City on the Edge of Forever]]", which twisted the conventional ClipShow by having each clip end with a completely different situation from its original episode, ending every time with [[RunningGag a reference to ice cream]] among other things. This was all {{fram|ingDevice}}ed with the kids telling stories while the bus lies on the edge of a cliff. At separate points, they flash back on a [[Series/HappyDays Fonzie]] stunt they witnessed (which never happened on the show) and an earlier moment in the framing device itself. When the bus finally falls into the chasm, it inexplicably lands on a giant tub of ice cream. All of this, including an unrelated subplot surrounding Ms. Crabtree, were all part of a dream by Eric Cartman which ended with him eating beetles and ice cream once again being brought up, thus revealing that the entire episode was a dream within a dream conjured by Stan. ("Dude. That's a pretty fucked up dream." "Yeah, I must be having some real emotional problems.") After ''that'' was established, however, the episode returns one last time to Ms. Crabtree's subplot, where her love interest Marcus -- [[IHaveManyNames or was it Mitch?]] -- tells her that he can't stay, as everything on her side of the story was just a kid's dream. Her response? "I know, but let me just pretend as long as I can." (Aha! So ''Miss Crabtree'' was imagining [[IKnowYouKnowIKnow that Stan was imagining that Cartman was imagining]] that the bus was teetering on the edge of a cliff! Clear as mud.)

* Parodied by ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeRenegades'': TheStinger of the final episode cuts to the original 1980s ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' cartoon and reveals that ''Renegades'' was just [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAznMVCdBcg 80s!Duke's dream]].