Rhymes On A Dime / Western Animation

"When (there's some kind of trouble), I am not slow.
It's hip, hip, hip, and away I go!"

— Underdog

Examples to trample,
Of Rhymes on a Dime,
In Western Animation, as made in this nation.

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• Mo and Bo from Abby Hatcher speak in this manner.
• Adventure Time:
  • Jake has a habit of doing this. And sometimes makes Finn do it as well.
    "Promise me you'll speak in rhymes. Speak in rhymes all the times."
  • Choose Goose, a minor character, only speaks in rhymes. In "Finn the Human" his Alternate Universe counterpart, Choose Bruce, does so as well.
• Concrete mutant Vinnie The Mass from A.T.O.M. speaks mostly in rhyme.
• "Rhyme for Your Life," an episode of Arthur, sees Binky trying to write a Mother's Day poem for his mom. After struggling to come up with anything, he dozes off and has an extended Dream Sequence about "Verseburg," a land where it's a crime not to speak in rhyme (in a bit of Genius Bonus, poor William Carlos Williams, a famous American free verse poet, shows up as a prisoner for refusing to follow the rules). After a lengthy adventure, Binky wakes up, and by the next day he's able to come up with a beautiful poem for his mother on the spot. Unfortunately, though, he's now so good that he can't stop speaking in rhyme—at least until he comes across Arthur's name.
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Haiku battle start! / Sokka tries so valiantly / But his counting's off.
  • Pathetic Sokka / it's for this very purpose / contractions were made.
  • Poor foolish Sokka / An unnecessary word: / "Ladies, I rock ya!"
• Rollerbear in the Bitsy Bears pilot cartoon. She even wears headphones and rollerskates.
• Boundin', in which the whole story is narrated as a rhyming poem.
• The Bump in the Night episode "I Got Needs" featured a trio of Vikings who spoke in rhyme.
• Care Bears
  • The Cheshire Cat from the Care Bears version of Alice in Wonderland, who gives the titular characters advice by rapping.
  • Princess Starglo from Share Bear Shines mostly does this in a rhyming slang kind of way ("Toodles, poodles!"), but uses it in her normal conversation quite a bit, too.
• The title character of the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Freaky Fred" does this, remarkable because he's the villain and the episode is told from his point of view. His rhymes follow an AAAB scheme, with B always (with one exception) ending with "NAAUUUUUGHTYYY…"
• In his host segments on Disney Sing-Along Songs, Jiminy Cricket will sometimes do this.
• A few one-off Disney cartoons are spoken in rhyme, including:
  • Lambert the Sheepish Lion
  • Casey Bats Again (the follow-up to "Casey at the Bat" from Make Mine Music, mentioned above)
  • Pigs Is Pigs (1954)
  • Adventures in Music Duology has Professor Owl speaking this way.
  • The narrator of the Donald Duck short The Litterbug speaks in rhyme.
  • Most of the characters in The Three Little Pigs shorts, mainly Practical Pig, speak in rhyme.
• The Christmas Episode of Danny Phantom, has Danny ticking off a spirit known as the Ghost Writer who has Reality Warper powers—anything he writes about comes true—by unintentionally destroying the Christmas poem he had been writing. Said ghost responds by forcing Danny and his friends to live his replacement poem until he learns his lesson. As a side effect, everyone suddenly starts talking in constant rhymes, but only Danny notices. When the Ghost Writer is defeated, Danny continues to do this out of habit, leading his friends to ask why he's speaking in rhymes.
• The Dog & Pony Show: In one episode, when Dog and Pony become building superintendents, the magic Pony kept using on the building ultimately accumulated into bringing the building to life. When brought to life, it spoke in rhyme.
• Marimonda the plant-controlling wood sprite from the Elena of Avalor episode "Realm of the Jaquins''.
• The Fairly OddParents!:
  • There are the employees of "Flappy Bob's Happy Peppy Camp and Learn-a-torium", Happy Peppy Betty and Gary. They not only rhyme almost all their sentences, they also sing them, and tend to complete each other's sentences!
  Betty: And, umm... Gary! I'm all out of rhimy-whimies!
  Gary: That was a rhimy-whimy!
  • Subverted by the Gigglepies, who start out talking like this, until Timmy asks what they do once they've extracted all the resources from a planet:
    Overlord Glee: We blow it up and move on to the next one! Isn't that cute?
    Timmy: No! It's terrible! (Beat) And it didn't rhyme!
    Overlord Glee: He's on to us! Get him!
• In the Hungarian dub, The Flintstones do this constantly.
• Uncle Pockets, from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
• Hermes from Futurama has a modular catchphrase - "Sweet X of Y!" - that's always spoken in rhyme. e.g. "Sweet guinea pig of Winnipeg!"
  • It's notably subverted when a depressed Hermes is unable to come up with a rhyme, and simply says "Sweet something of…someplace."
  • In the episode "Sly and the Slurm Factory," the Grunka-Lunkas (Oompa-Loompa Expies) try to do this, but their rhymes are less than impressive. "Grunka-Lunka-Dunkity-Dingredient, you should not ask about the secret ingredient! Grunka-Lunka-Dunkity-Darmed guards…"
    Bender: SHUT THE HELL UP!!!
• Haggle, a supporting character in The Gary Coleman Show.
• Roadblock from G.I. Joe talks like this sometimes (but sometimes it's just Jive Turkey).
• Wordsworth, a side character from Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats.
• Home Movies - Brendon makes a video PSA to keep kids from putting marbles in their noses, but his puppet Spiky McMarbles, with his rhyming speech and his snarky attitude, makes kids want to put marbles in their noses.
• Marc Bolan in House Of Rock does this. The other housemates evict him.
• Spring-Heeled Jack in Jackie Chan Adventures, who speaks in nothing but rhyming couplets. Amazingly, even after being split into his good and evil sides by the Tiger Talisman, he still pulls it off.
• An episode of Johnny Bravo spoofing Green Eggs and Ham rhymes the whole time...except when Johnny comments that "this rhyming stuff really hurts my tongue."
  • A Christmas Episode narrated by Adam West is done in the style of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."
• Fred from The Jungle Bunch does this, being a singer and all.
• On The Legend of Zelda (1989), the Triforce of Wisdom was a sentient object, and would occasionally dispense advice and prophecies in cryptic rhymes.
• Nedley on Maggie and the Ferocious Beast
• The Magic Key: Detective Jake Blake from “The Cream Cake Mystery” speaks in rhyme, as does the unseen robber. This is actually a hint that they’re one and the same.
• Bob from Maryoku Yummy. To a lesser extent, Yuzu, whose appearance in an episode usually includes coming up with a new rhyming catchphrase for his and Nonki's fix-it shop.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
  • Zecora the zebra:
    • Particularly impressive in "The Cutie Pox", where she sets herself up to make a rhyme with "tooth" before she sees that Apple Bloom chipped her tooth (From Apple Bloom's posture, it was an easy guess). Even her description in the app rhymes: 'Zecora is a zebra, wise beyond her years. People seek her out and help allay their fears.'
    • There was a gag in the main MLP comic #9 where she noted (in rhyme, naturally) that she needed a moment to think up a rhyme for her next comment.
    • Zecora's ability to rhyme her lines is so iconic, when she lost it to Swamp Fever her friends rushed for the tonic.
  • Not as frequently as Zecora, but Pinkie Pie still likes to rhyme a lot... especially when she's singing.
  • Discord. Not as often as Zecora, mind you, but loves handing out torturous riddles. He normally sounds far more menacing while doing so as well.
  • Iron Will's inspirational Catch Phrases. To name a few:
    Iron Will: When somepony tries to block, show them that YOU ROCK!
    Iron Will: Never apologize when you can criticize!
  • Twilight briefly rhymes like Zecora in "Secret of My Excess" after she tells him about Spike's greed-induced growth:
    Twilight: You mean, the more things a dragon collects, the bigger and greedier he gets?
  • Twilight does it again in "The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2" when in a Bad Future where Nightmare Moon has unleashed eternal night over Equestria:
    Twilight: I have to get back to the map so I can stop Starlight from changing the past, because every present I come to is worse than the last!
  • Also exchanged between Twilight and Rainbow in "All Bottled Up" once they manage to find the key in the escape room:
    Twilight: This is it! I'm so impressed!
    Rainbow: I'm not, I knew we were the best!
• Stickety Lipid, a one-time villain in the Osmosis Jones cartoon, Ozzy & Drix dressed and acted like a stereotypical beatnik; he claimed his crimes against Hector (the boy the cells lived in) were performance art, and spoke in Beat-style rhymes while accompanying himself on bongos. As with other examples, his rhyming rubbed off on Drix.
• The Collector from The Owl House was introduced speaking in rhyme in their first appearance. They kept this up until they couldn't find a word that rhymed with "Unity", and decided to just drop the rhyming entirely.
• This exchange in Phineas and Ferb episode "One Good Turn" as the kids decide what they want to do today:

  Ferb: I'm filled with remorse/ That we haven't, of course / Even thought of building an obstacle course.
  Phineas: Then let's build one and make it our new tour de force!
  Ferb: That is a plan I can clearly endorse.
  Phineas: Of course!
  Baljeet: Of course!
  Phineas: Of course!
  Buford: Of course! I'm puttin' an end to this before it breaks into song! Where's Perry?

• At the beginning of the Popeye color double-reel short Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp has Olive Oyl, portraying a screenwriter at a movie studio, speak like this.
  Olive Oyl: Gosh, but this story of mine should be great!
  I really don't know how the people can wait!
  I have to decide who the actors'll be.
  I think I'll make the heroine me.
  The hero, Aladdin, is handsome and smart.
  Why, Popeye the Sailor is great for the part!
  • The Royal Vizier also briefly speaks like this.
• The entirety of The Powerpuff Girls episode "Dream Scheme" is all done in rhyme, even with Bubbles using the "anyone want a peanut" gag.
• Toby exhibits this trait in "Callie's Cowgirl Twirl" from Sheriff Callie's Wild West as he prepares to call for a square dance, much to Peck's chagrin. Even more so for Peck once he briefly starts doing it himself.
• In one episode of Rugrats, the kids attend a safety course with a cop named Officer Dan. The officer uses short, memorable rhymes to help his lessons stick (e.g. "Don't pet a dog that's strange to you. That could be a dangerous thing to do." Later, when Chuckie starts following his example, he tries to rhyme as well, but can't quite remember the right phrases ("Or you might get something on your shoe").
  • The horrific doll "Mr. Friend", a toy version of a Monster Clown that Stu invents, spouts out rhymes non-stop: "OH BOY, A BRAND NEW FRIEND TO PLAY! WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A HAPPY DAY!" Some of the rhymes are rather lousy—"Do your homework, study hard, and don't eat food that's cooked in lard!"—prompting Stu to promise to hire a writer.
• While his isn't usually an example, the Green Goblin of the The Spectacular Spider-Man does this in "Opening Night". Not only is it lampshaded, but it's also partially justified: several of his lines are quotes from Shakespeare's verse. It also acts as a clue to the Goblin's identity: Harry Osborn, the prime suspect behind the mask, was supposed to be playing Puck in a school play, and all of the Shakespeare lines are Puck quotes. Turned out to be a Red Herring, but nice touch…
• "Bad Rap", an episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, is spoken entirely in rhyme, as it's about "Rap Land" being taken over by King Koopa, and the heroes' attempts to stop him. Granted, it's not exactly good rhyme ("We're the Flab Boys! Hi-dee-ho! This Koopa dude's got to go!"), but it's a solid effort.
• Most of the characters especially Dudley Pig from the animated Tales from the Cryptkeeper episode "The Third Pig", the wolf has a hard time coming up with them and yells at the Cryptkeeper when he tells him to do so.
• The wicked sorcerer Zig Zag from The Thief and the Cobbler rhymes whenever he speaks, often rather elaborately. He actually manages to be both amusing and menacing in this way. For example, when he said "One mistake will suffice! Don't treat me lightly twice!" after taming the alligators he had been thrown to by the ungrateful Big Bad One Eye.
  • Lampshaded in the infamous Miramax cut when the thief, overhearing one of Zig Zag's private rants, comments to himself, "It must be tough to always speak in rhyme."
• Several locomotives actually started to speak in rhyme at times in the more recent episodes of Thomas & Friends. It is getting mercifully downplayed however.
  • Thomasand Friends All Engines Go also had some moments where some of the characters spoke in rhyme, but it wasn't frequent compared to seasons 13-16 of the original series.
• The female flight attendant who is always heard speaking in Toot & Puddle as Toot / Toot & Puddle's plane travels to another country always speaks in rhyme. A typical example: "As we land in Majorca, we hope it's been a good trip. To enjoy our island, we offer this tip. Take a stroll down our streets to the edge of the sea, try the apples and oranges, they're delicious, you'll agree."
• In The Transformers, most of the time, the unpopular character Wheelie always speaks in rhyme! The Transformers Wiki had quite a bit of fun, and made all the lines on his page rhyme (every single one)!
  • Mercifully, he stops doing this in Transformers: ★Headmasters and in several other continuities, such as Dreamwave Comics.
    • Until his return in IDW's spotlight series, which actually made Wheelie's rhyming cool by making it the only way that he can communicate with a marooned alien with a strange speech pattern
  • Blaster has a habit of this too.
• In Underdog, the title character speaks entirely in rhymed couplets, albeit not always with much attention to meter. As Shoe Shine Boy, he speaks normally. Providing the quote for this subpage is his catchphrase to action.
• Winx Club: In Season 6, fairytale character Rumplestilskin from the Legendarium speaks in rhyme. It was lampshaded by Stella in Episode 22.
• What's with Andy? had an episode where Andy was dared to speak in rhyme for an entire day. He mastered it pretty well, up until he was challenged to rhyme the word 'orange'. Which he succeeded; it rhymes with 'door hinge'.
• One episode of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! featured the Hopping Dipple-Dop, a character who only spoke in rhymes.
• Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D in Yellow Submarine, who justifies it, saying:
  If I spoke prose, you'd soon find out
  I don't know what I talk about!
  • He's also capable of rhyming whatever the Beatles say, even if doesn't follow iambic pentameter precisely:
    Paul: (pointing to the Boob) Hey, fellas. Look.
    Boob: (writing on a notepad with a pen between his toes) The footnotes for my nineteenth book.
    This is my standard procedure for doing it.
    And while I compose it, I'm also reviewing it!
    George: A boob for all seasons.
    Paul: How can he lose?
    John: Were your notices good?
    Boob: It's my policy never to read my reviews.
• Yogi Bear does this often too.
• Groove on The Cattanooga Cats; everything he says is either a rhyming couplet, or rhymes with the last sentence someone else said.
• Danger Mouse must contend with Penfold as a rhyming superhero after he swallows a vitamin pill that turns him into the Blue Flash.
• How Murray Saved Christmas: Being a Christmas story is told mostly in rhyme. However near the end, Murray and Edison are stopped by a police officer on their way home who ask if he has his "poetic license". When Murry reveals he doesn't have one, the officer tells him to stop rhyming before complaining that he has trouble having to keep doing it daily while on the job.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Exchanged between SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs in "Born Again Krabs":
    SpongeBob: But it's old, and cold, and so very full of mold!
    Mr. Krabs: You're not to make another patty until that one is SOLD!
  • Done in the short episode "SpongeBob vs the Patty Gadget" in Season 5, in which majority of the dialogue are in rhymes.
• Jack The villainous Jack-in-the-box from the Hanna-Barbera series Timeless Tales episode "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", voiced by Tim Curry.
• Pretty Bit, one of the Popples does this.
• In his role as Giggler in the Super Cluepers on Franklin and Friends, Rabbit has a tendency to recap where things are at in the mystery-solving in rhymes.
• In the Australian animated series The Silver Brumby, Mopoke the owl is an advisor to main stallion Thowra, but he always gives advice (and basically speaks) in only rhymes.
• In the Miraculous Ladybug episode "Frightningale", pop singer Clara Nightingale talks like this. Then she gets akumatized into the titular villain Frightningale and enforces the trope on everybody else in Paris, on the penalty of being Taken for Granite if they fail to rhyme.
  • In "Timetagger", the titular villain speaks mostly in rap.
• Teen Titans have a Trapped in TV Land episode where the Titans are dragged into the world of television, into a variety of different channels. Starfire notably ends up in a Dr. Seuss parody where every moment of dialogue rhymes by default.
  Pelican: Oh, have you seen my hippo? He hides and I must seek.
  Starfire: I cannot play. Please, do you know a strange man named Control Freak?
• In "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" from Beat Bugs, the Beat Bugs and other bugs in the backyard village are all hit with a "rhyming curse" which makes it so that they can only speak in rhyme.
• The 1993 Hanna-Barbera Christmas Special The Town Santa Forgot has all the dialogue entirely spoken in rhyme. Justified in that it's adapted from the Christmas poem "Jeremy Creek" by Charmaine Severson.
• Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum: A lot of rhymes are made in "I Am Mark Twain." For example, "We didn't notice the fence got done/We were having too much fun!"
• The Smurfs (1981): Gargamel in the intro.
  Gargamel: "Ravage the land as never before. Total destruction from mountain to shore!"
• Yam Roll: During a game of Jabberwocky street hockey in "More Walkie, Less Talkie":
  Yam Roll: That's it, I quit. Look, it's too rocky to play socky hockey with a stocky cocky jockey knocking Yakotaki's walkie-talkie into Takoyaki's gawky, squawky hawk Butaki. Besides, it's 4 o'clocky, and I gotta go to my dry cleaner's and pick up my smocky.

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