History WesternAnimation / LaffALympics

* DistractedByTheSexy: One episode has the Dread Baron distracted by Taffy posing on a tree branch while he is climbing across vines, causing him to miss the vines completely and ''climb through mid-air''. [[GravityIsAHarshMistress He falls when by the time he realizes it]].

* AscendedExtra: While the teams mostly consisted of lead stars, a few supporting characters such as Cindy Bear and Scooby-Dum were regulars.

* TheBadGuyWins: The Really Rottens win in "New York and Turkey" and "Morocco and Washington. D.C."
* TheCameo:
** Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble and Jabberjaw are recurring guest stars
** Peter Potamus and Ranger Smith both show up once each.

** Similarly, WesternAnimation/CaptainCavemanAndTheTeenAngels were replacements for WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats due to clearance issues with the rights holders "Radio Comics" as well as Babu appearing alone because Creator/ColumbiaPictures Television still owned ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie''[[note]]Never mind that the two appeared together on ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'')[[/note]]. This is evident in ABC's print ad for the September 1977 ''Magazine/TVGuide'' issue where Jeannie ''and'' Josie and the Pussycats featured and the fact the former was included in the main model sheets and counted for in the opening narration.

* ComicBookAdaptation: In the 13-issue comic book series published by Marvel, each story had a central plot with the usual event participation. In the comics, Scooby-Dum (Scooby Doobies) and Sooey Pig (Really Rottens) were left out. A 14th issue, about a vengeful college professor, was not published. A special giant-sized story, "The Man Who Stole Thursday", featured most of the regular stars and cameos from other classic H-B characters. The series also revealed Dread Baron and Dick Dastardly were brothers.
* CompositeCharacter: Orful Octopus combines traits of Squiddly Diddly and Occy the Octopus, the Gruesomes' pet octopus from ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''.

* HeelFaceTurn: Mildew Wolf was originally an antagonist, in the "It's the Wolf!" segments of ''WesternAnimation/TheCattanoogaCats''. On that show, Mildew was voiced by Creator/PaulLynde, who by 1977 was subject to scandal. John Stephenson would voice Mildew on ''Laff-a-Lympics''.
* HumanLadder: The Rottens used one of these to win a "Freestyle Pole Vault" competition; in this case "freestyle" meant "anything goes", so it wasn't cheating, but they sure [[LoopholeAbuse abused that loophole]] for all it was worth.

* NearVillainVictory: "France and Australia" has the Really Rottens almost end up the episode's champions in spite of Snagglepuss's protests that they cheated in the kangaroo race with a robot kangaroo because [[LoopholeAbuse the rules didn't say robot kangaroos weren't allowed]], but they end up disqualified at the last minute when it is revealed that the robot kangaroo was controlled by Dirty and Dastardly Dalton.

* and lastly, the '''Really Rottens''', a team of [[CardCarryingVillain cheaters]] who bear similarities to many villains and creepy characters, among others from the company's past shows. This team was led by a [[AdaptationalVillainy now villainous]] Mumbly (himself a [[CaptainErsatz blatant copy]] of ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''' Muttley who debuted the previous year in an updated version of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTomAndJerryShow The Tom and Jerry]]/[[WesternAnimation/TheGreatGrapeApe Grape Ape Show]]'') and Dread Baron (created for this series as Mumbly's equivalent of Dick Dastardly). At the time, Dick Dastardly and Muttley unable to appear because they were co-owned by Creator/MerrillHeatter and Bob Quigley, and Hanna-Barbera created the Dread Baron character and made Mumbly his sidekick.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Mumbly is a crime fighter in ''The Mumbly Cartoon Show'', but in this series he acts more like Muttley from ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces''. Interestingly, both were preceded by the dog Mugger from the movie WesternAnimation/HeyThereItsYogiBear (1964).

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Notably in the Hole-In-One contest where it doesn't specify the par for the hole unless it was a par 1 since the object was to get the ball in the hole in one stroke. Dinky Dalton gets it in two strokes (a cheating tactic backfired gruesomely) which technically scores as a bogey, but the announcer called it as a birdie (one stroke under par).

* CaptainErsatz: Hanna-Barbera wanted to use Dick Dastardly and Muttley as captains of the Rottens, but Creator/MerrillHeatter allegedly still had part ownership of the ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' characters; one issue of the [[ComicBookAdaptation comic book]] revealed that Dread Baron was Dick Dastardly's brother. Similarly, WesternAnimation/CaptainCavemanAndTheTeenAngels were allegedly created as substitutes for WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats (due to clearance issues with "Radio Comics"[[note]]which was just an imprint used by Creator/ArchieComics, who had always been the rights holders[[/note]]), and Babu appeared alone because Creator/ColumbiaPictures Television[[note]]Now Sony Pictures Television[[/note]] still owned ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' (never mind that Jeannie and Babu appeared together on ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies''). Curiously, ABC's print ad for ''Laff-a-Lympics'' in the Sept. 10–16, 1977, issue of ''Magazine/TVGuide'' had Jeannie ''and'' Josie and the Pussycats featured.
** The order of who got bumped or replaced before whom is debated, except that Jeannie's removal was clearly last as she's counted in the opening narration and was included in the main model sheets for the series.
** In the second season, Mumbly did get mistakenly called "Muttley".
* CardCarryingVillain: Every member of the Really Rottens revel in being underhanded crooks. Case in point, Daisy Mayhem is personally offended in "France and Australia" when Mildew Wolf congratulates her team for winning without cheating.

* ColorCodedCharacters: The competitors wear their team shirts ''over'' their [[LimitedWardrobe normal attire]] ([[HalfDressedCartoonAnimal where applicable]]). The [=YYs=] wear red uniforms, the [=SDs=] are blue, and the [=RRs=] are green.
** In Brazil, shirts like that are used as admission tickets to some Carnaval parties. They're called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abadá abadás]]. It is unclear whether Laff-a-Lympics was the inspiration for the scheme, but one Brazilian troper definitely doesn't remember such use from before the show's time.

* {{Catchphrase}}: Mildew Wolf likes to refer to other characters as "savages" (usually in some variation of "They're all savages! Savages!"). This is an invention of the series, he does not have this quirk in the original ''[[WesternAnimation/TheCattanoogaCats It's the Wolf!]]'' shorts he debuted in. As explained below, this might be a reference to his original voice actor Creator/PaulLynde, although [[{{Irony}} ironically]] Lynde did not reprise the role in this series. Mildew [[TheOtherDarrin is instead voiced]] by Creator/JohnStephenson this time around. Lynde did voice Claude Pertwee in the 1970 summer series ''WesternAnimation/WheresHuddles'' where he regularly referred to football players Ed Huddles and Bubba [=McCoy=] as "savages," which would make this a CallBack of sorts.

* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: The Rottens ''want'' to win by cheating. The one time they win a competition legitimately, it leaves them pissed off, although they don't object to winning individual events legitimately.
* DistractedByTheSexy: One episode has the Dread Baron distracted by Taffy posing on a tree branch while he is climbing across vines, causing him to miss the vines completely and ''climb through mid air''. [[GravityIsAHarshMistress He falls when by the time he realizes it]].

** The Dread Baron is a ridiculously blatant one of [[WesternAnimation/WackyRaces Dick Dastardly]].
** Issue #13 of the comic book portrays Dread Baron and Dick Dastardly as being "brothers".
** Three of the Rottens are the next incarnation/redesigns of the Gruesome family from ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' (who in turn were expies of WesternAnimation/MrAndMrsJEvilScientist).
** Daisy Mayhem is an evil version of the ''ComicStrip/LilAbner'' character [=Moonbeam McSwine=]. Hers is the only instance on the show where the original character is not from Hanna-Barbera, though arguments can be made that she's a PaletteSwap of Taffy Dare of the Teen Angels with some traces of [[WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats Alexandra Cabot]] and/or [[WesternAnimation/{{Jabberjaw}} Shelly Seastruck]] .

* FaceHeelTurn: Mumbly was originally a police detective.

** Usually, the points awarded for each event are 25 for the winner, 15 for the second place and 10 for third but some episodes have one event that offers a 50-point-bonus or all points are given to a same team. It doesn't always guarantee overall victory for the team that wins it.

* PepperSneeze: In the "Acapulco and England" episode, Wally Gator uses black pepper to make the whale sneeze out the Yogi Yahooeys team so they can win the speadboat race in Acapulco.

** Mildew Wolf referring to everyone as "savages" is a double reference to both his original voice actor, Creator/PaulLynde (who again, originally voiced Mildew), and the Hanna-Barbera series ''WesternAnimation/WheresHuddles'' (CBS, 1970), in which Lynde played Claude Pertwee, a character who often referred to show's football-playing Fred and Barney [[{{Expy}} expies]] as "savages".

* SpoofyDoo: One of the competitors is a group called the Scooby-Doobies, a team that gathers Scooby and Shaggy, their expies [[WesternAnimation/SpeedBuggy Speed Buggy and Tinker]], and Captain Caveman and the Josie and the Pussycats / ''Series/CharliesAngels'' expies, the Teen Angels.

* TeamRocketWins: In the second season, the Really Rottens won twice legitimately -- episodes #18 and #22 -- as much to their surprise as everyone else's. They also had a three-way tie in episode #24 of that year -- [[WinWinEnding all teams received a trophy]].

* WolverinePublicity: Laff-a-Lympics was a subseries in a package series known as ''Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics''. In its original two-hour format on ABC, the full show featured two half-hours of Scooby-Doo content with reruns of ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' and episodes of what would eventually become ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooShow'', including reruns from ''The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour'' of the previous year, along with brand new episodes. That gave the remaining hour to ''WesternAnimation/DynomuttDogWonder'', ''WesternAnimation/CaptainCavemanAndTheTeenAngels'', and ''Laff-A-Lympics''. Even with the full title, ''Laff-A-Lympics'' barely focused on Scooby outside the intro. When the show aired as simply "Laff-a-Lympics" in 1980 and 1986, only the [=LAL=] segment intro was used, but reruns on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and even DVD releases oddly enough would freqeuntly reuse the original title, [[SpotlightStealingTitle a testament to Scooby's lasting popularity]].

* WritersCannotDoMath:
** Slight version here in the opening credits where it says there are 45 stars. Counting all three teams and announcers, there's 44. If recurring guest stars are counted (Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Jabberjaw), there are 47.
** The real reason being that it was written before Jeannie was cut. Unless the narrator is counting himself as the 45th (and hey, Creator/DonMessick narrated a lot of Hanna-Barbera cartoons in that "Ranger Smith" voice, so why not?)

''Laff-A-Lympics'' is an animated television series created by Creator/HannaBarbera in 1977. Originally airing as a part of Creator/{{ABC}}'s Saturday morning package series, ''Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics'', which was renamed ''Scooby's All-Stars'' the following year, this was basically a SaturdayMorningCartoon version of [=ABC=]'s ''Battle of the Network Stars'', which itself had debuted the previous year and parodied the Olympics held throughout that same year. In hindsight, it can be considered a celebration of the legacy of Hanna-Barbera, which had reached its 20th anniversary since its establishment way back in 1957. As such, the three teams that were featured consisted of characters spread out throughout the company's history, including:

** Daisy Mayhem is an evil version of the ''ComicStrip/LilAbner'' character [=Moonbeam McSwine=]. Hers is the only instance on the show where the original character is not from Hanna-Barbera, though arguments can be made that she's a PaletteSwap of Taffy Dare of the Teen Angels.