History CourageTheCowardlyDog / TropesAToM

** "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City": Schwick is an anthropomorphic cockroach who lures people into the Radio City Hall basement where they are eaten by a [[NothingIsScarier mysterious creature that is never shown on-screen.]]

* AuthorAppeal: Birds seem to be a recurring theme in this show. There are multiple characters who are ducks, geese or chickens.
* AxCrazy: Katz and Freaky Fred are both clearly shown to be psychotic and unstable. Ironically none of them favour axes, Katz is into more indirect and convoluted yet much more dangerous death traps while Fred only uses sharp shavers.

* BagOfHolding: Muriel has one, seen in "Curse Of Shirley".

* DemonHead: That girl who plays the violin in "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City" has a really horrifying face.

* ItMakesSenseInContext: A majority of the plot devices fall under this. Most memorably, an episode which took place in an Old West setting has Courage, who takes the role as sheriff, bribe the military to send in a stealth bomber to drop a piano on a zombified outlaw.

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* {{Jerkass}}:
** Eustace is always scaring and mistreating Courage unprovoked and is generally a rotten and spiteful man.
** Eustace's mom and brother never treated him well and are likely why he's the way he is today.
** Di Lung (the Chinese Punk Kid), whose catchphrase is "Watch where you're going, you fool!" He's consistently portrayed as an arrogant dick.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Eustace sometimes fits this trope but just in rare cases - see "The Curse of Shirley" where at the end he gives his hat to the "kid version" of him in order to protect him from the rain.
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* KarmicDeath: The evil vet from "Remembrance Of Courage Past" is sent into space with his own rocket like he did to a huge number of dogs (including Courage's parents). For further karma, he finds himself surrounded by the dogs he launched into space who proceed to take their revenge on him. Additional karma is the fact the very dog he orphaned was the one who did this to him.
* KickTheDog: Eustace literally takes every opportunity he can to torment or harm Courage.
* KnightTemplar: The Harvest Moon. Believing that Eustace is a poor farmer who doesn't respect the land, he demands that Eustace either prove his ability to grow a plant or leave his home. When Eustace refuses Harvest Moon tries to kill the Bagges.

* LanguageFluencyDenial: [[TalkingAnimal Courage can talk just fine]], but communicates with his owners Muriel and Eustace through babbles and charades. Downplayed since he doesn't his ability to understand what they're saying.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Eustace tends to get his just desserts for being a misanthropic grouch in nearly every episode.
** A large number of villains suffer this as well.
* LaughingMad: Quite a few instances have characters laughing excessively as a sign of insanity.

** Almost every character in the show has their own theme music. Muriel has soft piano music. Eustace has banjo and fiddle music. Le Quack's is French. Dr. Vindaloo's is Indian. Shirley's sounds Romani. Cajun Fox has cajun music. Katz has jazz music. The Weremole has a rather haunting piano piece.
*** Sometimes, different characters share the same leitmotif. For example: The Demon in the Mattress and the Windmill Vandals share the same motif; Freaky Fred and the Evil Librarian share one; King Ramses and [=McPhearson=] Phantom share one; The Great Fusilli, and the Paper Shadow Maker from "Profiles in Courage" and the disgruntled actor from "Cabaret Courage" share one; Basil the Burglar and Evil Weevil share one; among others.

* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: The titular dog is pink with black spots.
** Also Katz is a red cat with purple stripes; Shirley the Medium is a green chihuahua; the Duck Brothers are bright blue with green, purple, and red eyes and neck markings; and there has been a chicken with an electric blue wattle. (Although, to be fair, the chicken and ducks were from outer space. Maybe they're the fowl versions of HumanAliens which is further supported by their antennae).
* AmbiguouslyGay:
** Big Bayou, the snake that enslaves the slugs, has prominent eyelashes and constantly flaunts and talks about his own beauty.
** Kitty and Bunny repeatedly describe each other as "friends", but the happiness they show when reunited suggests that they may be more than just friends.

** Also in the final episode "Perfect", Courage has to learn to accept his personal imperfections.

-->'''Spirit of the Harvest Moon''': I am the Spirit of the Harvest Moon.
-->'''Eustace''': And I'm a bucket of sardines.
* AngryItemTapping: In episode "The Revenge of the Chicken from Outer Space", Courage goes to go get Eustace out of bed to help him save Muriel from the alien chicken seeking revenge; after he just ignores Courage and goes back to sleep, Courage wearing a blank expression taps Muriel's slipper in his hand which is followed by some comical off-screen whacking sounds which results in Eustace chasing Courage to the desired destination.
* AngryMob: Eustace gathers an angry mob in "Courage Meets Bigfoot". When Bigfoot reunites with his adoptive mother however, [[spoiler: they ''turn on Eustace'']].

* AnnoyinglyRepetitiveChild: In "Little Muriel", Muriel is [[BabyMorphEpisode turned into a toddler]]. Throughout the episode, she bugs him this way, such as listing things she wants, yelling that she's hungry and thirsty several times in a row, and bouncing on an unconscious Eustace while yelling "[[WesternAnimation/EasterYeggs I want an easter egg!]]" at [[MotorMouth breakneck speeds]].

* ArousedByTheirVoice: Katz, captivating his victims with his smooth sexy voice before he, you know, kills them.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** The possible candidates for Muriel's cousin Fred as imagined by Courage: A mummy, a giant bug, Frankenstein's monster, and a mime (and THAT's the one he shudders about).
*** Fred's an interesting subversion, in that the truth: He's a compulsive barber, is less "monstrous" than the mummy or the bugs, but he turns out to be far scarier.
** And in "Big Ball of Revenge", at the climax Katz pulls out a flamethrower, The Big Toe is wielding a spiked club, Cajun Fox has a cleaver, the Queen of the Black Puddle has a conch shell ''with a missile inside'', and the were-mole... has a flyswatter.
* ArtEvolution:
** While the series' look and style as a whole remains completely consistent from the first episode to the last, the last two seasons (Season Four in particular) makes more use of lighting and atmosphere, and the characters' coloring reflects such, making them really look like they're in that environment, as opposed to just using their standard color schemes.
** The animation in the earliest few shorts could get jerky at times and weren't consistently fluid, though the show got the hang of that rather quickly

** In the series finale "Perfect", Courage has several nightmares with each one being drawn in a different style of animation, such as CGI for one that features a creepy blue trumpet thing and stopmotion for another that has Courage performing in a talent show.

* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: In "Mother's Day" Courage is shown eating chocolate with no ill effects even though chocolate is known to be harmful, if not lethal to dogs.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: According to the "Cabaret Courage" episode, if you feel sufficiently disgusted by other people's selfishness, [[MindScrew you can become an ulcer in your own digestive tract, which will grow large enough to engulf an entire theater]].

** ''StraightOuttaNowhereScoobyDooMeetsCourageTheCowardlyDog'': Nowhere is being plagued by giant cicadas who provide the main conflict in the story.

* DirtyKid:
** The titular duckling from "The Precious, Wonderful, Adorable, Lovable Duckling" at one point tries to peep on Muriel while she's bathing. Courage catches him and smacks him upside the head.
** Surprisingly, Courage himself is shown to have been one in one of the flashback sequences of when he was a puppy in "Remembrance of Courage Past". While looking for his parents, he stumbles upon a woman showering and happily takes a second look before continuing his search.
* DisproportionateRetribution:
** The evil librarian from "Wrath of the Librarian" torments Courage and transforms Eustace and Muriel into characters from his overdue library book just because he can't afford to pay the fine.
** Shirley the Medium often puts a curse on the Bagge family because of slights, though in Shirley's cases it's usually because Eustace adds on his {{Jerkass}}ery to his refusals to pay her and she always gives him a chance to lift the curse.
** The biggest example of unreasonably harsh retribution by far, however, was in the episode "Ball of Revenge", where Eustace [[spoiler:hired Courage's past foes to kill Courage - all because Muriel gave Courage the blanket Eustace wanted.]]
* DisruptingTheTheater: In one episode, Eustice goes to a theater to watch a movie, but he ends up blocking the screen for other people because of a curse inflicted on him that has a raincloud over his head which also gets their popcorn wet. When he rudely refuses to move after they politely asked, he is thrown out of the theater.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** In "Revenge of the Chicken From Outer Space", the way Muriel is heard screaming after the Chicken captures her makes it sound like she's being raped.
** In "Freaky Fred", it's quite easy to interpret Fred's poem as ramblings of an insane serial-rapist. Plus the whole "locked in a bathroom" thing...
** "The Mask" deals with domestic abuse situations.
** "The Quilt Club" villains use the same tactics as cults do. Start out wanting someone to join your "club," proceed to alienate them from their friends and family, and then proceed to state their group is the ''only'' thing that matters. And it ''works'' on Muriel.
** The Tree of Nowhere": a wise, miracle-working teacher is killed [[Literature/TheGospels but promises to return in three days]].

* DoubleSubversion: Courage tries to defeat the Cajun Fox by putting a detour sign on the road so that he drives his steamroller into a bunch of rocks blocking the other road. He ignores it, thinking he's too smart for that, and plows over the detour sign [[spoiler:plummeting off a cliff.]]
* DownerEnding: In "The Great Fusili", [[spoiler:Courage fails to stop Muriel and Eustace from being turned into puppets]]. Also, in "Muriel Blows Up", [[spoiler:Courage fails to stop Eustace from eating the explosive carrot, and rushes back [[CruelTwistEnding to find a gigantic Muriel feasting on a whole patch of them]] ]]. But due to NegativeContinuity, these endings don't stick and the ResetButton is always pressed.

'''Courage:''' Ooooh, ''forget the DOOR!!''
* DubNameChange: In the Norwegian dub, Eustace is named Rasmus and Muriel is named Matilda. In the Latin American dub Eustace is Justo (Juste).
* DysfunctionalFamily: Eustace was treated like crap by his brother and mother. We don't know about his father though, as he was only mentioned.

* EarlyBirdCameo: All of the monsters, creatures and antagonists seen in the first season's opening wouldn't appear until the second season: Shwick (who first appears in "Courage in the Big Stinkin' City"), the [=McPhearson=] Phantom (who doesn't appear until the episode of the same name), Robot Randy (who doesn't appear until his self-titled episode), the mummified Mayan baker (who doesn't appear until the episode "Courage Meets the Mummy"), Carmen (who doesn't show up until the episode "Serpent of Evil River" and who only appears because of her looks and not because of any antagonism on her part), and one of the banana people (who don't appear until the episode "1000 Years of Courage").
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: A small number of the first season episodes have a lot of tradition cartoon antics (chases scenes, slapstick violence, etc), and can actually become quite goofy at times, with John Dilworth himself admitting a number of the earlier episodes were "cartoon filler". "Cajun Granny Stew" is easily the most stand-out episode of this.
** "Cajun Granny Stew" is the one and only episode where Eustace does not appear.
** In one of the earlier episodes, Muriel calls Eustace "Grandpa".

* EasilyForgiven: Courage, after Bigfoot causes him to splatter pie all over the kitchen. Muriel tells him that next time he should get a plate. Played with because he didn't really do it but Muriel thought he did and took it rather well nonetheless.
* EasyAmnesia: Muriel [[spoiler:and later Eustace]] suffers memory loss from a concussion in "Dr. Le Quack Amnesia Specialist".
-->'''Eustace:''' Where am I? (''to Courage'') Who are you? Who am ''I''?

* EldritchAbomination: There are a whole lot of these that show up on the show.
** The giant starfish which Shirley summons that eats cities and won't stop until hearing Muriel speak.
** The starmakers are probably the only example in all of fiction of not only being benevolent examples of this but also sympathetic ones too.

* EverybodyLaughsEnding: Not ''everybody'', but a vast majority of the episodes end with this schtick of Courage, or whichever character, [[AsideGlance looking into the camera]], and letting out a goofy and idiotic sounding laugh, before we iris out.

* TheGhost: Several times, Muriel mentions relatives that we never see. For instance, she mistakes a police officer for her Cousin Harold in "Muriel Meets Her Match" and she mentions a sister named Dorothy in "Angry Nasty People".
* GiantEqualsInvincible: Eustace becomes a giant kangaroo monster in one episode, [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity then starts destroying cities and kidnaps Muriel]]. These marsupials can only be defeated by another. This necessitates that Courage must also become a giant kangaroo monster to combat him.

%%** Water, used in "Journey to the Center of Nowhere". (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
%%** Also flan, in another episode.

* GreenAesop: Although the presentation is [[FantasticAesop very]] [[SpaceWhaleAesop cartoonish]], the snowman's episodes make a point of how global warming and ozone depletion are bad for Earth.

* HammerSpace:
** How, exactly, Courage manages to fit anchors and full-grown whales into pockets that he doesn't even have is inexplicable and simultaneously hilarious.
** Where does Eustace pull the gigantic fright mask from when he scares Courage?

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Quite a few villains end up being defeated because of their own actions.
** Fusilli the magician is turned into a marionette after mistaking Courage for a phantom and falling onto the stage.
** The Flan King gets this twice in a row at the end of the episode, with Courage using his equipment to undo the spell he's cast to make everyone addicted to his flan and the end of the episode having the foe get hypnotized by one of his billboards and become addicted to his own flan.
** This is Courage's preferred method of dealing with villains, rather directly or indirectly, but Big Bayou is one of the greatest, as not only is he beaten by a spell from his own spell book, he is defeated by his own shed skins he stuffed animated in part with his own venom. And to top it all off, he is so vain that he can't bring himself to attack his likeness. He is hoisted by at least three or four of his own petards.
** The evil vet from "Remembrance Of Courage Past" also is hoisted by several of his own petards. Not only does the dog he emotionally tramatized for life ultimately defeat him, he does so using his own rocket. He is then further hoisted when the dogs he's been launching into space see him and decide to take their revenge on him.
** The Cajun Fox spends his entire episode trying to put Muriel in a stew. In the end, he falls in his own pot.
* HollywoodHeartAttack: Happens to Courage in "Night of the Weremole"; he clutches his chest and collapses during one of his wild takes. It's followed by an AmbulanceCut. Then after he recovers in Dr. Vindaloo's office, he runs off with him, snapping the ECG leads and showing a {{Flatline}}.
-->'''Dr. Vindaloo:''' You almost bought it, boy. What is up with that?
* HornyVikings: The Windmill Vandals in "Windmill Vandals" though they are decidedly more modern as they were around a mere 250 years before the series started. The also are horseback riders as Nowhere, Kansas is a desert, and therefore has no water for miles outside of the windpump on the farm (which is why the attacked the farm nearly 3 centuries ago).
* HostageHandlerHuddle: Muriel gets captured by a group of water-starved eggplants. In a particularly cruel effort to turn the tables, they decide to avenge every eggplant by [[ToServeMan eating Muriel]]. Their squabble starts when it comes down to the method of cooking her. One suggests that they grill her, another suggests that they fry her. They break into two groups, each screaming one of these two methods. Finally, a lone eggplant suggests that they bake her. Everyone agrees.

*** The aftermath of saying "no" to Flantasy Flan:
---->'''Eustace:''' What happened to you, woman?! You look like a house!\\

*** Follow up: Courage fixes everyone's Flantasy Flan addiction, except ''his''.

* ComicBookAdaptation: Several comic stories based on ''Courage the Cowardly Dog'' appeared in ''Cartoon Cartoons'' and ''Cartoon Network Block Party'', which were two of several comic books consisting of comic adaptations of Cartoon Network shows published by Creator/DCComics.