History WesternAnimation / WhateverHappenedToRobotJones

* MalfunctionMalady: In "Sickness", Robot gets a computer virus, which presents itself as the robot version of a cold.

* AnAesop: Robot gets these with his "Datalog Entries" but his perspective as a robot makes them {{Spoof Aesop}}s more than anything else.

''Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?'' is an animated series created by ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' storyboard artist Greg Miller which pays affectionate homage to the middle-American culture of late [[TheSeventies 1970s]] and early [[TheEighties 1980s]].

Set in an alternate history where robots have become a major part of society, the world's most technologically advanced robot, named "Robot Jones," is given the task to attend a human junior high school to understand humanity. Along the way he befriends a trio of boys named Socks, Mitch, and Cubey, and develops a crush on a nerd named Shannon, whose BracesOfOrthodonticOverkill and prosthetic leg make her look robotic. However, lurking in a secret base in the school air ducts, there are the Yogman Twins, two evil brothers that wish to steal Robot's brain and use it to control the minds of everyone in the school.

* AllBikersAreHellsAngels: In "Family Vacation", Robot is mistaken for a vending machine by a biker, which results in Robot, his family, and his friend Socks being chased by a stereotypical biker gang.

* AnAesop: Robot Jones gets these with his "Datalog Entries" but his perspective as a robot makes them {{Spoof Aesop}}s more than anything else.

* TheBadGuyWins: "Cube Wars" features the Yogman Twins cheating to win a competition and got away with it.

* BrainFreeze: Robot Jones gets brain freeze in "Hookie 101" after consuming a Super Cooler with his friends.
* BrokenAesop: By the end of "Work" Robot concludes "work is for suckers" despite the fact that work is what got him the money he needed to begin with.

* ButtMonkey: Robot Jones. He is ostracized by everyone in Polyneux Middle School for being a robot, the girl he loves hates him and even the principal has it out for him.
* CalculatorSpelling: When Jones is trying to tutor classmate Shannon in math, it comes up that you can make a calculator say "hELLO" by entering 0.7734 and turning it upside-down.
* CaptainObvious: Robot Jones has his moments. One example would be from "Jealousy", where he tries to explain to Shannon why he can help her with her failing grades.
-->'''Robot Jones:''' I am a robot.
-->'''Shannon:''' You don't say, [[AirQuotes "Robot"]] Jones.

** In "Electric Boogaloo", Robot spanks the Yogman Twins' robot Yogbot X before Cubey tells him to stop and just get his brain back.
** In the episode "Hookie 101", Robot imagines getting spanked by Dad Unit when Socks tells him what might happen if they get caught skipping school.

** Robot Jones, Mitch, Socks, and Cubey get covered in kisses from the girls near the end of "Garage Band", much to their amusement.

* CuteMachines: Robot Jones himself. He is a curious and somewhat [[RobotKid naïve robot with the voice of a small boy]].

** "Cube Wars" has Robot Jones losing the Wonder Cube competition because the Yogman Twins cheated by swapping two stickers on his cube. To make things all the more aggravating, the very end of the episode has Robot Jones see Lenny and Denny taunt him while on television.

* DramaticTVShutOff: At the end of "Cube Wars", Robot loses the titular championship thanks to cheating by the Yogman Twins, and he angrily watches the awards ceremony on TV with his parents. As one final twist of the knife, the Yogmans "thank" Robot during their acceptance speech, at which he finally has enough and turns his TV ([[IrisOut and the episode]]) off.

* GracefulLadiesLikePurple: Shannon wears a purple sweater. Subverted, in that Robot Jones is so infatuated with Shannon that he thinks she's graceful, when Shannon is really awkward (mostly because she's a teenage girl and mostly because she has BracesOfOrthodonticOverkill and a prosthetic leg).
* HeldBackInSchool: "Scantron Love" featured a background gag where among the hallway of middle school students was a grown man who claims that he's had to re-take the test 137 times.
* HypocriticalHumor: In "P.U. to P.E.", Robot Jones makes fun of his classmates in gym class for looking ridiculous while wearing a jockstrap on his face.

** In "Vacuum Friend", Robot Jones is invited to his friend Socks' pool party. Robot turns down the offer after imagining that jumping into the pool will electrocute everyone.

* {{Jerkass}}: Lenny and Denny Yogman are always causing trouble for Robot Jones. Most of the other human characters tend to be rude and inconsiderate to Robot as well.
* KidsAreCruel: Practically all the students at Polyneux Middle School pick on Robot Jones. Even his friends can be hurtful to him at times.

** The foreign exchange Austrian robot kid Finkman (yes this is how his name is spelled) was such a arrogant ass to Robot and even admitted he was "stealing Robot's woman", his behavior tempted to make Robot defy his programming to fight another robot but before anything happens Finkman was for unknown reasons being sent back to Austria which leaves Robot confused and the other boys in class cheering for Robot for they too hated Finkman... not before successfully making Shannon hate Robot for thinking he's the reason why Finkman has to go back to Austria. The only lesson Robot learned for his data log entry is he hates Finkman! Finkman also apparently stole government documents at some point.
* LaserGuidedKarma: In "PU to P.E." Mr. Workout the gym coach spends the entire episode trying to get Robot Jones to shower in gym despite being oblivious to the fact that Robot fears exposure to water because he would rust... instead of rusting Robot Jones accidentally electrocutes Mr. Workout and the students instead.

** In the episode "Work", Robot encounters parodies of [[Series/KnightRider Michael Knight and KITT]].

* NeverMyFault: in "PU to P.E.", Mr. Workout spends the entire episode trying to get Robot Jones to shower and after being electrocuted by accident he blames Robot for it.

* TheNudifier: The vaccum cleaner in the episode "Vacuum Friend" when it vacuums the dress off of Robot's teacher Miss Rucoat's body, implying that she's either naked or in her lingerie exposed in front of the classroom with [[FanService two boys sitting next to Robot enjoying the sight of their exposed female teacher]] before she screams "ROBOT JONES!!!" and pointing to the detention room. Also counts as StrippingSnag.

* OrwellianRetcon: Robot Jones's [[TheOtherDarrin second-season voice change]] was applied to the first season by redubbing the episodes, upsetting the fans that preferred his original voice. According to [[WordOfGod creator Greg Miller]] the Cartoon Network executives thought the voice sounded "too weird" and wanted to go more "Hollywood." He did robot dialogue for all eps but some of them were never properly mixed into the second season episode. There was a rumor that Apple threatened to sue for using the software without their permission, but it wasn't true.
* PaperThinDisguise: In "School Newspaper", Principal Madman attempts to frame Robot Jones for various misdeeds by photographing himself wearing a cheap mask and a grey bodysuit. Everyone at Polyneux Middle School buys it even though Madman's shoddy disguise gives the appearance that Robot is somehow fat and naked.

* PuttingOnTheReich: Principal Madman's mustache looks like Adolf Hitler's and he's very tyrannical to his students, including Robot Jones, whom he personally wants expelled because he thinks just because Robot Jones isn't human means that he's a troublemaker.

* RubiksCubeInternationalGeniusSymbol: Robot Jones' ability to quickly solve a [[BlandNameProduct "Wonder-Cube"]] cube provides the main plot of "Cube Wars".

* SatelliteLoveInterest: Robot Jones appears to only like Shannon because she's partially made of metal.

** The Yogman twins constantly wear [[Music/{{Devo}} Energy Domes]].
** Denny Yogman saying [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings "My precious"]] in "Sickness."

* SpockSpeak: Robot Jones usually avoids using slang and colloquial terms, though exceptions occur sometimes
* SssssnakeTalk: Lenny Yogman. He even says 'Hissss' at the end of some of his sentences.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Lenny Yogman sometimes demonstrates a large vocabulary, even insulting Cubey and Mitch by saying that they have very low intelligence quotients instead of simply saying they are stupid.
* SkippingSchool: "Hookie 101" has Robot being talked into playing hooky by his friends Cubey, Mitch and Socks. Principal Madman ends up catching them, but gets beaten up by Dad Unit and arrested before he can do anything to punish the boys for skipping school.

* TooDumbToLive: Apparently in "Sickness" Principal Madman has these wild misconceptions of robots being sick and "computer viruses" until a computer teacher cleared things up for him. Also in "PU to P.E." Mr. Workout the gym teacher and the students have no idea what would happen to machines when exposed to water, and when Robot did get exposed to water in the showers instead of rusting it electrocuted them.

** Robot Jones' need for an oil change in "Family Vacation" is treated like him having a PottyEmergency and he eventually "relieves" himself by running into a bathroom stall and unleashing a big mess of oil.
* ToiletPaperTrail: Shannon is shown exiting the girl's bathroom with toilet paper stuck to her foot in the episode "Embarrassment".

* UrineTrouble: In "P.U. to P.E.", Robot Jones tries to avoid coming into contact with water. At one point, he tries to hide in a bush, only to jump back out when he sees a dog lift his hind leg near him.

* VocalEvolution: Socks' voice got deeper in the second season.

->Data Log Entry: Today I have learnt that humans secretly long for the same capacity of wit, efficiency and knowledge as a machine, which I fear will someday be their downfall. Analysis: TVTropesWillRuinYourLife.

Data Log Entry: Today I have learnt that humans secretly long for the same efficiency, wit and intellectual level as a machine, which I fear that someday will be their downfall. Analysis: TVTropesWillRuinYourLife.

----

* OffModel: Robot's proportions change so frequently from scene-to-scene that it's easier to list all the times he's ''on'' model!

The show was one of the finalists in the the "Voice Your Choice" event in 2000 where viewers voted on their favorite pilots for new shows. It lost out to ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' (under its original name ''Grim and Evil'', back when it aired along its eventual spinoff ''Evil Con Carne'') and while it did eventually go to series, the network gave it very little support or promotion. ''...Robot Jones'' became the very last of Creator/CartoonNetwork's Creator/CartoonCartoons[[note]]Not counting when ''Evil Con Carne'' was eventually spun off into its own series.[[/note]] and, along with the network's [[WesternAnimation/TimeSquad other]] [[WesternAnimation/SheepInTheBigCity shows]] [[WesternAnimation/EvilConCarne that]] [[WesternAnimation/MikeLuAndOg debuted]] at the beginning of the decade, ended up being one of its briefest, airing from 2002-2003 with 26 episodes made but only 13 aired in America.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: Shannon isn't spared from slapstick just because she's a girl. It's especially noticeable in "Embarrassment" and "Summer Camp".