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Battle for Dream Island is a unique animated comedy web series created by Flash animators and sibling duo Cary and Michael Huang, a.k.a. jacknjellify. Inspired by Total Drama Island in premise, and Homestar Runner in art style and animation style, its enduring popularity led it to become one of the first and most successful of the Object Show style of web animation.

Okay, so there's this luxurious island. And there are twenty anthropomorphic objects that all want the island for themselves. But only one will get to own it. Who is it? The teardrop? The ice cube? The sponge? The flower? The tennis ball? Or any of the fifteen others? Well, there's only one way to settle this... and it's a reality series, where they will compete in challenges until only one remains.

But who will get voted off each episode? That is entirely up to the viewers. Each episode comes out on a monthly basis, and with each episode crazier than the one before it, who will end up winning the big prize is anyone's guess!

The first season began on January 1, 2010, with new episodes every month. It finished on January 1, 2012. A second season, Battle for Dream Island Again began on June 29, 2012, but suffered a serious Schedule Slip, and has had no new episodes since August 2013, despite Jacknjellify repeatedly stating it would come back (which eventually became true a full decade after the supposed release date). It finally did on September 1st, 2016... as a "third season", IDFB, which was also Cut Short after the first episode.

And then a fourth, more silly, random, surreal, looser, and oddly dark season, named Battle for BFDI, came into existence on November 3rd, 2017. It has all the BFDI and BFDIA characters in it, including the ones flung to the LOL, along with some new characters, for a total of 64 contestants—the hosts, Four and X, came from a previous animation called "X Finds Out His Value".

On August 29, 2019, American book company Scholastic published an official character guide for the show, which describes all the 64 contestants.

On January 1, 2020, BFDI turned ten years old, becoming one of the longest-running web series of all time in the process.

The series splintered into two shows on March 25, 2020, with the release of "The Escape From Four", the 16th episode of Battle for BFDI. The episode acted as a double Backdoor Pilot for both a new show named Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two (abbreviated "TPOT"), which has a new host, Two, and took most of the contestants, and Battle for BFB, a continuation of Battle for BFDI still featuring Four as the host, which takes the remainder.

TPOT was released on January 10, 2021. Battle for BFB (now with a much smaller cast) wrapped up on April 9, 2021, meaning that the BFDI franchise has finally finished a second season. Only took eleven years.

Other spinoffs of BFDI include the object camps BAGUETTE and Ten Words of Wisdom, both hosted by Cary.

The success of the show inspired many shows in a similar vein, like Inanimate Insanity, Object Overload, Brawl of the Objects, and more.

The series can be found here.

Now with its own drinking game!


We sold the examples because of budget cuts.

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Find the tropes of the other seasons at:

    Tropes A-F 
  • Absurd Phobia:
    • Woody has a lot of them, to an almost comical extent. These include, but are not limited to:
      • Blocky
      • Breaking apart
      • The number 5
      • Tests (referred to as "testophobia")
      • The color gray. He even suffered a fatal heart attack because of it in the finale of the original BFDI.
    • Eraser (and to a lesser extent, Pen) freaks out at all mentions of pentagons. When he realizes a pentagon-shaped object (Foldy) is on his team, he does not like it. Justified Trope, as he keeps getting Jump Scared by pentagons (although it may be in his mind).
  • A Dog Named "Dog": Almost all of the characters are named after the objects they resemble (i.e., Flower is a flower, Needle is a sewing needle, Bubble is a bubble, etc.), with some notable exceptions being David, Dora, Loser, Winner, and the Announcer.
  • A Lizard Named "Liz": BFDI had set the standard for some characters on object shows to have "-y" at the end of their self-explanatory name.List as followed 
  • All the Worlds Are a Stage: The final challenge in Episode 23, "Hurtful," recalls every single challenge that had been completed up to that point, with only four contestants left in the game.
  • Animate Inanimate Object: All of the contestants (sans David and Dora) are these.
  • Animation Bump: Certain sequences in some episodes have much more fluid, exaggerated animation than normal. A major one is the animation as of BFB 13, being given a higher budget. (Examples include the opening of episode 15, most of episode 20 after the black hole scene, and IDFB's opening.)
  • Anyone Can Die: Though the Recovery Centers mean that Death is Cheap. Unless the recovery source is destroyed, which has happened multiple times.
  • April Fools' Day:
    • In Episode 4, "Sweet Tooth" (2010), the episode starts with a message that the video has been removed, only to say "APRIL FOOL'S!" shortly after.
    • In Episode 16, "Bowling, Now With Explosions!" (2011), the beginning of the episode uses puppet animation.
  • Arc Number: 2,763 is a recurring number throughout the series whenever a specific number in the thousands range needs to be given out. This is Subverted in "Fishes and Dishes", where the Team8s! need to travel 2,762 miles, leading to this exchange.
    Pin: 2,762?
    Coiny: Yeah? Not everything is always the same distance.
  • Armless Biped: Being the one who started the trend in the first place, BFDI is the very first to have armless characters in an object show, best exemplified by the abundant number of them on the show.note  And this doesn't include the variations such as leglessnote  and limblessnote  characters.
  • Art Shift:
    • David, Dora, and Yellow Face are all drawn in a much cruder style than the rest of the show.
    • The Long Lost Yoyle City (and, less noticeably, Davidland) are animated in the 3D modeling program Blender, while the rest of the show is animated in 2D. The sequence where the contestants race up Yoyle Mountain uses the 2D contestants in a 3D environment.
    • Season 4 uses a completely different animation style, most likely because it's easier to animate.
    • Season 4 also has Eternal Algebra Class (or EXIT, as it's more commonly referred to), which, like Yoyle City, is a 3D rendered environment with 2D animated characters.
  • Artistic License – Physics: In general, the show plays very fast and loose with the laws of physics - enough that one fan made 4 trivia videos discussing these inaccuracies.
  • Audience Participation: Generally, the audience is the one who votes off the characters. However, there are times when that responsibility is given to other characters, and the viewers are instead asked to vote an eliminated contestant back into the game. As of BFB 17, the voting system has swapped to saving contestants. And then there are the recommended characters who cameo in almost every episode...
  • Batman Can Breathe in Space: Everyone can in "Gardening Hero", due to budget cuts.
    • Subverted in BFB 20, "A Taste of Space". The Have Cots immediately begin to suffocate after Gelatin breaks the plastic wrap windows. Luckily, Four gives them air for the Cake and Stake and this trope is Played Straight due to the fact that the Have Cots were able to stand on the surface of the sun itself! Although Lollipop does begin to melt.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Needle does not like being called "Needy". Her first instinct is to slap the offender and say, "Don't call me Needy!" Sometimes, it actually benefits the offender, intentionally or otherwise.
    • Book will freeze you with a syringe if you call her "well-read".
  • Big Damn Hero: In Episode 25, "Return of the Hang Glider", the contestants decide to execute Leafy with Flower's crusher for stealing Dream Island. Firey swoops in with the hang glider and saves Leafy at the last moment.
  • Bigger on the Inside: The TLC. When viewed from the outside in X-ray view, the eliminated contestants are packed tight. When viewed from the inside, there is plenty of room inside.
  • Big "NO!":
    • In episode 6, Snowball does this when he gets Rocky and Golf Ball on his team.
    • Parodied in episode 8. Snowball does this again when he isn't chosen for the relay race; it's sped up this time.
    • In episode 17, Leafy does one after shattering Ice Cube again (after spending hours trying to recover her), causing them to fail the challenge.
    • In BFB 8, after not knowing the answers to two questions, Bubble is demoted from the alliance by Match to a "bemb", and her reaction was this.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The first season. Leafy escapes an execution attempt from the other contestants with the help of Firey, but without recovery centers, they are all doomed to the restraints of mortality. Fortunately, a Hand Powered Recovery Center is created in the next season, but Leafy still has a bad reputation among the contestants.
  • Book Ends:
    • The first and last words spoken in the first season was "yeah", said by Match to Pencil. Pencil even lampshades this just before it happens.
    • Also, as lampshaded by the Announcer, Flower was the first and last contestant to be eliminated.
  • Breather Episode:
    • BFDI episode 11, "Lofty", which is the shortest episode in the series, and also happens right before the merge.
    • BFB 12 also counts as one of these, only having major consequences for a few teams. Right after these two is the intense two-parter that is BFB 13 and 14, and BFB 15 is filled with revelations about several key relationships, as well as the chaotic aftermath of North Goiky being flooded with lava. Right after that is BFB 16, which introduces Two, as well as splitting the show apart into two different shows.
    • After four chaotic and dramatic episodes in a row, BFB 17 is definitely this.
    • After a bunch of long episodes, BFB 25's short length is this.
  • Broke the Rating Scale: In episode 4, the Magic Die of Judgement invokes this several times:
    • Golf Ball gets a 0 because there was dirt in her cake, and she didn't realize it. When the die shows its score, she complains that that's not even possible.
    • Leafy is the third to present a strawberry cake, so the Announcer gives her a 4, and Flower gives her a 0. The die gives her a 15.
    • It is likely that the die also gave Woody a high score, considering that he had a higher score than most of the others with strawberry cakes.
  • The Cake Is a Lie: Sometimes, the safe contestants don't get any cake at a Cake at Stake ceremony. They might get something else instead... or nothing at all.
  • Cardboard Pal: A few of the "Evil" recommended characters in BFB, including Evil Leafy, are this. Since they were perfectly willing to be in the crowd shots in earlier seasons, the reason for this trope is currently unknown.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: In Season 2, more consistent story arcs were introduced, the characters could retain a status for several episodes, and in general, more depth was added to the cast.
  • Character Catchphrase: Many.
    • Bubble: "Oh Noio!" and "Yoylecake!"
    • David: "Aw, seriously?" — which is (almost) the only thing he says.
    • For Eraser, an annoyed "WHICH IS?"
    • Ice Cube: "I want revenge!"
    • Needle: "Don't call me Needy!"
    • Bomby has "Oh no Firey, you lit my fuse!", though it is barely intelligible.
    • Gelatin: "Alright, you just need to calm down." and "There isn't enough room up here!"
    • Fanny: "I HATE [insert character or subject here]!"
    • 8-Ball: "I don't have a favorite number."
    • Bottle: "I'm so excited to start preventing death! ...and [insert character here] is dead!"
  • Chekhov's Gag:
    • One of Yellow Face's commercials advertises a box of paper slips that he claims can be used to create money. Pen uses it twice later on (first to get a taco from Leafy, and later in an attempt to bribe the viewers into getting voted back into the game). Then Leafy does the same in order to buy Dream Island in the finale.
    • The Ferris wheel scene with Firey and Leafy ends up being one of the most important scenes in the season. First, it leads to the reveal that Leafy cannot be revived since the Recovery Centers are sold. Then, Leafy is denied access to Dream Island because of this, and this fact kickstarts all the events of the finale.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Pretty much every contestant qualifies as one, but most notably Puffball, Rocky, and Yellow Face. X is this in BFB, but it's extreme with 4, who are almost an Eldritch Abomination in their own right.
  • Cluster Bleep-Bomb: In Episode 19, David rolls down a hill and bleeps to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
  • Cold Open: Every episode has one, usually a short skit that only occasionally has any relevance to the regular plot.
  • Confusing Multiple Negatives: At one elimination, the announcer tells the eliminated contestant:
    Announcer: You didn't not ain't not get no any none of nothing.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Episode 22 has the contestants escaping from an active volcano. Firey can handle the lava just fine, but as for the others, well... the Recovery Center goes into overdrive.
  • Counterfeit Cash: Exists in the form of a box of paper slips being advertised by Yellow Face. Later used by Leafy to steal Dream Island.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Implied with Flower's Announcer Crusher, which she attempted to crush the Announcer with in Barriers and Pitfalls. Once it collided with Golf Ball, it crumbled and exploded, implying that it was only good at crushing the Announcer and nothing else.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • The Squashy Grapes are twice as big as the Squishy Cherries by Episode 9.
      • This changed after the teams split, creating an even worse team with three out of the five being armless. The other two? They absolutely hate each other.
    • In BFDIA's first challenge, one team is several times as big as the other. Despite pulling in several more people later, the second team can only rival the first in challenges by means of a lucky elimination prize, a literal Cartoon Bomb, and a stick that can fly 2760 miles.
  • Curse Cut Short: Implied in the intro to episode 18.
    Coiny: Oh no! That means he knows about all the times I called him a- (cuts to title sequence)
  • Cute, but Cacophonic: Bubble gets on Match and Pencil's nerves until their eliminations.
  • Darker and Edgier: In the early episodes, dying and being recovered was something that only a select few characters (Bubble, Ice Cube, etc.) had to contend with. However, in later episodes and seasons, being killed is a regular occurrence with several contestants dying in each episode. Even the wiki lists all the deaths that happened in the series
    • Several episodes qualify for this:
    • The 24th episode, "Insectophobe's Nightmare 2" hits this when Leafy burns to death. When she doesn't come back, the Announcer says that all of the recovery centers have been destroyed. Afterwards, he releases tons of bugs. As the remaining contestants run, Flower gets hit by a meteor, Firey gets eaten by a bug, and after the Announcer reveals he made the bugs, he pops Bubble. It soon turns into comedy soon after with the David Cloner, and then the revelation that the contestants faked their deaths, but it still is shocking to see all of the remaining cast dead.
    • The finale of Season 1, "Return of the Hang Glider" starts out with the usual lighthearted comedy, but it becomes even darker around the 6-minute mark. After winning Dream Island, Firey lets everyone in, except for Leafy, because it hurt his feelings when she wanted to get out of the Ferris Wheel. Leafy then steals Dream Island, rendering the whole contest a "Shaggy Dog" Story. Around 8 minutes in, Flower crosses the Moral Event Horizon, destroying all of the recovery centers and killing Bubble. She then dies by being crushed by a UFO. Woody also dies from a heart attack due to his fear of grey. Then, Pin declares that Leafy deserves the death penalty for stealing Dream Island. Thankfully, it ends on a sweeter note as Firey saves Leafy, and they fly off into the sunset, but it's little consolation for the numerous dark twists.
    • Another very dark one is BFDIA episode 5c, "No More Snow!" First, Ruby accidentally kills Bubble by popping her, then Ice Cube and Match die when she presses the wrong button on Evil Leafy, and then Pencil gets vaporized when Ruby presses another wrong button. It seems like they will be brought back, but the Hand Powered Recovery Center was inside of Evil Leafy, so they're dead forever. Ruby then dies of sadness. W.O.A.H. Bunch then falls off a cliff with a spiky bottom, so they press Spongy on the spikes. Everyone gets across, but not Needle. This leads to them killing her with fire, resulting in a pretty scary scene. To make matters worse, Fries, Rocky, Puffball, Golfball, Gelatin, Firey, and Tennis Ball had already died, leaving only 7 people left. They thankfully come back, but it's still dark.
    • BFB 14 has a giant lava apocalypse start and kill half of the contestants and it continues into the next episode.
  • Deadly Dodging: Pin throws a knife at Leafy. Leafy jumps to avoid it, causing it to fly towards the rest of the cast. Everyone else jumps out of the way, and it hits Puffball's speaker box.
  • Death is Cheap:
    • Due to Recovery Centers that will respawn anyone upon death. This gets zig-zagged in BFDIA: the recovery centers are destroyed, so many characters who died last season cannot come back. Then Teardrop wins a Hand-Powered Recovery Center, leading to this trope happening again.
    • While recovery centers are no longer around in BFB, Four has the ability to revive any dead contestant. After he got killed off for a period of time, any contestants who die remain dead indefinitely. In BFB 10, he comes back, though, and every dead contestant during his absence gets recovered.
  • Diabolus ex Machina:
    • Blocky is missing in episode 2, causing his team to lose valuable time.
    • In the mini-teams challenge, the Coiny-Needle-Ice Cube team beats Snowball, Rocky, and Golf Ball to the final gate, only to be pushed away by Snowball at the last minute, causing their team to be up for elimination. It's even worse considering all the most unpopular Grapes were on the latter team.
    • In episode 9, Another Name is leading the three-legged race until they encounter a tightrope. Firey has a fear of heights. They place second.
    • This is basically everything that happened in "Lofty".
    • The maroon balls in episode 13, which will result in a loss of ten points for anyone who picks them up. Match falling in the danger zone and being eliminated was aided by one of those penalties.
    • Blocky and Pencil were both screwed by the game's twists - the first was sitting in third place on the leaderboard by the end of episode 16, but went up for elimination and got the most votes due to only Firey getting immunity this episode, and the latter won the contest in episode 18, but because of the double-digit points looping over, ended up in the danger zone and also got eliminated.
    • "Gardening Hero", which is "Lofty" taken up to eleven.
    • The "Delete Pole" and "Restore Pole" buttons in episode 23.
    • Why did Leafy end up being the only one not allowed access to Dream Island by Firey? She died on a Ferris wheel and he felt hurt by it.
    • WOAH Bunch winning the second challenge. See Gambit Roulette.
    • And again when Puffball betrays her team for the prize, and Coiny throws a stick 2,760 miles that lands on the magnet button in the FreeSmart SuperVan.
  • Disproportionate Retribution:
    • It is considered perfectly normal to slap someone who got your name wrong or committed some other minor offence.
    • Flower kicks Ice Cube just because she didn't think Flower was beautiful.
    • Leafy gives Ice Cube a red ball she found to help her in the contest. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a maroon ball, so Ice Cube incurs a penalty. The next episode, Ice Cube lets a Chain of People fall when Leafy calls for help.
    • In BFDIA 4, Golf Ball kicks Fries into an incinerator because he called her factory a waste of time. Pencil suffers the same fate moments later, just for calling Golf Ball bossy.
    • Puffball takes away Pin's limbs (albeit reluctantly) because she (accidentally) stabbed her speaker box.
    • Spongy kills nearly everyone thanks to the lava apocalypse he created in BFB 14, just because his team forgot about him.
    • Flower kicks people due to them not liking her sweaters in BFB 23.
  • Disqualification-Induced Victory:
    • This trope is why Book, Puffball, and Yellow Face were able to compete in BFDIA despite not getting enough votes to join. The rules of BFDIA stated that a character must be present in order to compete, and Bubble and Flower were dead and Leafy was absent,note  so there were three open spaces that they filled in since they got the most votes out of anyone that wasn't in the game yet.
    • This trope returned in TPOT when Price Tag joined the game because Nonexisty who was ranked higher got disqualified because his value was considered to be zero and therefore could not be a contestant that could fix the show having a prime number of contestants.
  • Divergent Character Evolution:
    • Firey and Coiny started off as immature arch-enemies who often got into petty slap-fights for an unexplained reason. Over time, Firey was established as somewhat ditzy and Innocently Insensitive, also gaining some Keet traits, while Coiny became a charismatic Schemer with more leadership skills.
    • Pencil and Match were BFFs with similar personalities, but they were differenced later on. Both have Jerkass tendencies, but Pencil is snarky, apathetic, and a Manipulative Bitch, while Match is a full-on Valley Girl and has more enthusiasm than Pencil.
  • Drowning Pit: In episode 18, the eliminated contestants attempt to escape from the TLC. This fails, and the TLC falls into the lake, with water slowly pouring in. Fortunately, the rising sun lifts the TLC out of the lake just in time.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • Rocky spoke in the very first episode, but he has otherwise been The Voiceless, save for two occasions: a quick gag in Episode 19 and in BFB Episode 12 when an impostor gives away his identity by talking while in Rocky's body.
    • Snowball is way less mean than in later episodes, and would only bully someone if they pressed his button, rather than him being mean on his own.
    • Pin was a heroic jerk who only bullied others to get them to help her out, yet she still cared for her team.
    • In the episode 1 two-parter, Woody is revealed to have a crush on Teardrop while Needle mentions having one on Coiny. Tennis Ball and Golf Ball are also teased about being in love, which Golf Ball denies. Crushes and romance are never mentioned again after this first episode.
  • Easter Egg: In the finale of Season 1, Eraser points out that the first word of Episode 1, the second word of Episode 2, and so on, put together will form a coherent but somewhat redundant sentence. Season 2 does the same thing, but so far, only the first eight words are known.
  • Eject the Loser: The eliminated contestants are either flung into the TLC or teleported there by lasers, depending on the progression of the show. In BFB, Four absorbs the eliminated contestants.
  • Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: A variant. Bubble says an "oi" sound for most vowels.
  • Everybody Cries: At one point in one episode (and in Total Firey Island), all the contestants have to cry to fill up the container as a challenge.
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending:
    • In BFDI 24, everyone but the Announcer and David is eaten by bugs.
    • In BFB, episode 14 sets a new record - by the end of the episode, only 29 out of 54 contestants are confirmed to be alive.
    • BFB 27 kills everyone by the end of the challenge except for 4, X, and Teardrop.
  • Everyone Can See It: At least Coiny does. Tennis Ball and Golf Ball insist otherwise.
  • Exact Words: When the Squashy Grapes split up, Leafy opts to keep the team name for her group. Firey tries to do the same, but Golf Ball says it has to be another name. Therefore, the second group is called "Another Name."
    • Several team names are this in BFB and TPOT.
  • Executive Meddling: In-universe, thanks to the show's poor budget, many high-cost props and elements have to be sold or replaced to deal with it, which Announcer sums up as "budget cuts." Eventually, the Announcer is forced to sell Dream Island to make up for the show's expenses despite saying it's not for sale in the first episode. Averted when the Announcer returns in BFB, as Four and X didn't spend much money due to their Reality Warper abilities. As such, the Announcer starts spending quickly.
  • Fast-Forward Gag: In episode 6, Snowball makes a Big "NO!". In episode 8, he does it again, except it's sped up.
  • Formula-Breaking Episode:
    • Episode 5b of the second season is a Platform Game, compared to the other parts of Episode 5 (And all other episodes in general), which are all regular Flash animations.
    • "Welcome Back", the first episode in three years, was quite different, featuring slice-of-life comedy antics instead of challenges, and voting for a character to return instead of being eliminated. Even the name is different, now known as IDFB.
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Played for Laughs - Flower tends to threaten the audience whenever she has the chance to get back in the game.
    "You'd better vote for me, or... or I'll stretch you!"
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: If the Unreadably Fast Text doesn't waste your time, it will explain situations that seem out of the blue.
    • The Announcer's Diary in episode 19 explains why episode 20 takes place in space.
    • In episodes 18, 19, and BFDIA 2, Dora explains why she eats islands and that she doesn't like David.
    • Sometimes, when Bleh's name is said by a character, their mouth changes into the shapes of the characters on that team for a frame or two.
    • Pausing when Cloudy's collection is on-screen shows that new items are added nearly every single time it appears. In addition, the blueberry bush in said collection grows as well.
    • For a few frames when Golf Ball says “Just watch!” in Zeeky Boogy Doog, you can see the price of telling Yellow Face how a vat can pour an island go up by $80.
  • Fully Automatic Clip Show: In episode 3, the Announcer asks Pin if she wants to use her win token. She declines because she can't think of anything mean she has done that would make people want to vote her off. Cue a supercut of all the mean things she has done in the past two episodes.
  • Fun with Acronyms:
    • BFDI stands not only for Battle for Dream Island, but for these too:
      • Blocky's Funny Doings International, Blocky's prank program.
      • Fries labels the rooms in the Evil Here Hotel as Bad, Fancy, Decent, and I ffy.
      • Beryllium Fortress, Destruction Impossible, the metal box Purple Face was trapped in.
      • The Beautiful Face Devotion Institute, a team formed in BFDIA 10 by those who couldn't resist Icy's beautiful face (and Golf Ball who was forced to join.)
      • Buried Forest, Deciduously Insulated, an inverted planet discovered by Team Ice Cube! in BFB 13.
    • The TLC, the first season’s prison for eliminated contestants, stands for the Tiny Loser Chamber. Later the TLC is put inside the LOL, or Locker of Losers.
    • BFDIA has the team "Wheel Ooze a Hole Bunch", which is abbreviated to "W.O.A.H. Bunch".
    • The third season is called IDFB.
    • BFB has the team “Death Prevention and Creating Trust.” It ends up being shortened to “Death P.A.C.T.

    Tropes G-Z 
  • Game Show Physical Challenge: A lot of challenges involve physical competition, such as running up a flight of stairs as fast as possible, doing the longest long jump, or completing an obstacle course.
  • Hollywood Acid: Nearly all the acid in the show is corrosive, including Rocky's vomit and the battery acid, which can easily melt objects (even the living ones).
  • Hong Kong Dub: The Spanish dub does not modify the mouth animations to match the translated dialogue, leaving certain moments where the contestants are talking even if their mouths are not moving, and vice versa.
  • Hope Spot: This will only apply if you hate Leafy, but in the finale, it seems that she will finally be executed once and for all. Then Firey swoops in...
  • Informed Kindness: While Leafy is a nice character, she does have several mean moments. She gets mad at Bubble for tossing away her present for the sake of winning one round of a staring contest. After Bubble apologizes, Leafy accepts the apology but claims Bubble has a ways to go before she can be as nice as her. Leafy then pulls out a list of levels of niceness that states that she's eight levels above "reality-ending nice," while all the other contestants, aside from Bubble, are way below the "mean" level, despite many of them being Leafy's friends. Then Leafy steals Dream Island after Firey denies her entrance. BFB 2 continues this trend with Leafy killing Balloony and then getting eliminated. In BFB 27 she kills 3 people.
  • Impossible Leavening: In "Sweettooth", Needle adds so much yeast into her cake to the point that it expands so much and becomes a star in the following episode.
  • Instrumental Theme Tune: The first two seasons use a short bass guitar piece by "beatloaf" of freesound.org.
  • Jerk Jock: Blocky, Eraser, and Snowball in the first season. Snowball is particularly mean to Golf Ball, who is smart, bossy, and physically disadvantaged against him.
  • Killed Off for Real: Implied for several characters. BFDIA does not reintroduce the contestants killed in the first season's finale, implying this as their fate. Bubble and Flower have since been brought back again. In IDFB, Woody is brought back, only to be burned. All the previously killed contestants are brought back for BFB, including Woody.
  • Kill It with Fire: Many of the contestants are flammable, so they burn easily. Many are also unfortunate enough to die after running into Firey. Ice Cube is a frequent victim since she can melt. Leafy spends a lot of time with Firey late in season 1 and burns when she tries to save him from falling into the water.
  • Kill It with Water: Since Firey is made of fire, he is frequently extinguished with water.
  • Kissing In A Tree: Coiny does this to Tennis Ball and Golf Ball, complete with doing poses.
  • Larynx Dissonance: Quite a few characters have very androgynous voices.
  • Law Of 100: In Episode 18, the scoreboard is downgraded due to budget cuts. It can no longer hold triple-digit numbers, so anything that hits one hundred loops back to zero. This works against Pencil, who wins the competition but goes up for elimination.
  • Multipart Episode: Every competitive season has one - the premiere in Season 1, episode 5 of Season 2 (four parts and a video game), and episodes 13-14 of Season 4.
  • Mutagenic Food: Yoyleberries and yoylecake cause whoever eats them to turn into Yoylemetal.
    • In BFB 11, "Get to the Top in 500 Steps", Leafy rejoins and wins a photorealistic cake, which she gives to Needle, who turns CGI after eating it.
  • Nice Girl: Leafy. Played straight in the first 24 episodes but later subverted in the last episode when she selfishly buys Dream Island for herself, alienating the other contestants (sans Firey).
  • Nice Mean And In Between: Applies to the Blocky/Eraser/Pen trio with Pen as the nice, Blocky as the mean, and Eraser as the in-between. This is also carried over to Battle for BFDI pre-split.
  • No Budget: In-Universe, The Announcer frequently mentions things being sold or cut back because of "budget cuts".
    • The show nearly gets cancelled in BFB 29 due to this.
  • No Fourth Wall:
    • They are very aware they are on a competition show, often calling what is currently going on part of an "episode", rather than a more general time term. The characters also refer to viewers of the show by name.
    • The characters may possibly know that they are fictional characters. They even know David (and possibly Dora) look(s) like (a) human(s), despite not knowing exactly what they are.
  • Non-Indicative Name:
    • Certain episodes have names that make no sense to their contents. For example, "Gardening Hero" has absolutely nothing to do with gardening for the contestants.
    • Team Ice Cube in BFB - Ice Cube is not on it. This is Lampshaded multiple times. The name was chosen by Bracelety, who idolizes Ice Cube.
    • Cake at Stake is this, as there is a very high chance that the prize has nothing to do with cake.
  • Non-Standard Character Design:
  • Offscreen Villainy: Aside from Evil Leafy, who very much averts this trope, all of the objects that have an "Evil" prefix are never actually seen doing anything evil. Granted they are all recommended characters and this limits their ability to do stuff, but you would think that at least one of them would be Ax-Crazy enough to kill the rest of the crowd of recommended characters.
  • Oh, My Gods!: Just about every character has their own "OMG", usually referencing their origin/creation. Here is a list of them.
  • Only Sane Man: Although the cast are goofy and wacky, there are times where the contestants are level-headed. The examples are Tennis Ball, Fries, Nickel, Gaty, Eraser, Tree, Pie, Donut, Black Hole, and a few others.
  • Power Trio: A few.
    • The most notable trios are Blocky, Eraser, and Pen, as well as Pencil, Match, and Bubble. However, starting in BFDIA, doubt begins to spread amongst Pencil, Match and Bubble and the group falls apart a few episodes into BFB.
    • The newbie alliance Gelatin, Lollipop, and Teardrop.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Eraser thinks that pink is a manly color. This is probably because he himself is pink.
    Eraser: What was that for?
    Snowball: The balloons were PINK! Pink is too girly!
    Eraser: I would disagree. I think pink is quite manly!
  • Revenge Before Reason: Needle will automatically slap anyone who calls her "Needy". Others sometimes use it to their advantage.
  • Riding into the Sunset: The final episode, when Firey and Leafy hang-glide away at the very end.
  • Rhyming Wizardry: Leafy uses the rhyme from Blue's Clues to hop into a map of Yoyleland, singing: "Blue Skidoo and we can too" in Season 2.
  • Running Gag: Several.
    • Golf Ball announcing her chance of winning after elimination.
    • Tennis Ball being referred to as "That clumsy Tennis Ball".
    • Needle slapping anyone who calls her "Needy".
    "Don't call me Needy!"
    • Things being sold or cut back due to "budget cuts".
    • Yellow Face's commercials for completely nonsensical products, such as "Revolutionary Headphones" in "Bowling, Now With Explosions", or the "Bubble Transformer" in "Puzzling Mysteries".
    • The "Blocky's Funny Doings International" segments, where Blocky pulls cruel pranks on contestants.
    • Rocky's vomiting.
    • Eraser's "WHICH IS?!"
    • Flower's threats to the announcer or viewers.
    • The contestants forgetting the Announcer's name.
    • Golf Ball accidentally naming her teams while coming up with a decent name, since the 9th episode and except for BFDIA. All three of her teams since then have the word "name" in them.
    • Ice Cube being expelled from Cake at Stake due to not being on the losing team.
    • Gelatin mentioning how there isn't enough room on something small, then one or more contestants fall (usually pushed off by Gelatin). This gets reversed in BFB 15, where Gelatin himself is pushed into the lava by Flower.
  • Running Gagged: As of post-split BFB, some of the above gags have been subverted.
    • For committing perjury under oath, Blocky's Funny Doings International was rendered a non-entity as all associated parties were sentenced to 2,763 years in prison. He ended up transferring the company to Woody during his elimination, but eventually Woody started refusing to do any more pranks, leaving the company without its original purpose.
    • Once the Announcer returns to BFB, he immediately starts spending, since Four and X barely spent any money from the budget. Firey Speaker Box also updates BFDIA's equipment since he had a budget surplus thanks to his friend Lewis winning the lottery, and certainly not him using Coiny and Nickel to generate infinite money.
    • In Fishes and Dishes, the Team8s have to walk 2762 miles as opposed to the usual 2763.
  • Sadist Show: Has become this over time, with the TLC and viewers having the ability to vote someone to go inside there, not to mention getting eaten alive or frozen.
  • Saying Too Much: When Leafy steals Dream Island, this line gives it away.
    Leafy: I know. Especially because Firey never received Dream Island at all.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Season 1 ends up like this. See Darker and Edgier above.
  • Ship Tease:
    • Tennis Ball and Golf Ball are Birds of a Feather thanks to their similar interests and are therefore inseparable. Coiny seems to be a Shipper on Deck for them, much to Golf Ball’s chagrin.
    • Coiny and Pin are, as Coiny puts it, “partners in crime” thanks to their many strategies in BFDIA. When Pin worries about Loser’s potential elimination and if the rest of her team can function without him, Coiny reminds her of her leadership skills and their excellent teamwork, successfully cheering her up.
      Coiny: There’s nothing to be afraid of, Pin. I promise.
    • Subverted with Lollipop and Barf Bag. Lollipop forcefully shaking Barf Bag’s arms can easily be mistaken for the two of them dancing, when in reality, Lollipop was mocking her by making her do the arm-fluttering gesture to change the subject at hand, and the two of them do not get along overall.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Sole Survivor: Firey in BFDI, and Pencil in the unreleased prequel series.
  • Sore Loser: Snowball, Pencil, and Flower (multiple times) all attempt to destroy Announcer once they're voted off.
  • Space Episode: "Gardening Hero", Episode 20 of BFDI, takes place in space because of budget cuts. Yes, that's the title. BFB 20 also takes place in space.
  • The Speechless:
    • Teardrop cannot (or chooses not to) talk, and instead communicates using facial expressions and other nonverbal gestures.
    • Rocky was able to talk, but, according to Tennis Ball, he forgot how to talk in episode 4.
  • Stylistic Suck: All of the fake "commercials" in the show are very crudely animated.
  • Sudden Anatomy: A lot of the characters, despite having no fingers, somehow grow them when counting, pointing, et cetera. It's also incredibly exaggerated sometimes, like right here.
  • Super-Strength: Every character seems to possess this to some degree, especially in the first episode, where physics are at their wildest, but special mention goes to Flower, who can pick up the Master Recovery Center effortlessly, Bubble who can lift all of Team Ice Cube including SPONGY, and Loser, who can lift large, heavy baskets with ease.
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Averted with most female characters, due to their nature as inanimate objects with no eyelashes. Especially noticeable when Larynx Dissonance is also an issue with a character, especially Leafy. Played (relatively) straight with Flower and Puffball.
  • Un-Canceled: In-Universe. The Announcer threatens to cancel BFDI if the vote tally goes down again in "Don't Pierce My Flesh". He fulfills the promise in the next episode, but decides to continue the show by the end of it. BFB 29 also cancels BFB by the beginning but it comes back by the end.
  • Unreadably Fast Text: Every time you see some text, pause the video. You'll probably be wasting your time, though.
  • Unrealistic Black Hole: The black hole in Episode 20 doesn't act too strangely... until it is sold because of budget cuts. And then in BFB, it became alive and joined the competition after being compressed to a smaller size.
  • The Unreveal:
    • Played with. On Needle's elimination, Coiny asks Needle why she doesn't like being called "Needy". However, before she can answer, she is flung to the TLC.
    • The end of BFDI also qualifies. We never find out what Dream Island looks like.
  • Valley Girl: Match.
  • Verbal Tic: Exaggerated. David says almost nothing but "Aw, seriously?"
    Announcer: Say something else.
    David: No!
  • Vocal Evolution: Many of the characters' voices have gotten significantly deeper since the start of the show, due to the creators hitting puberty.
    • Bubble's voice started out high-pitched and pronounced many vowels with an "oi" sound. This aspect remained, but it got deeper as early as episode 2. However, starting with "Don't Lose Your Marbles", her voice got higher and more nasal, almost sounding like she had a cold. It got even higher in Season 2.
    • Firey's voice got lower over time, as Coiny's also got lower, but less raspy.
    • Match's voice also got higher again in Season 2.
    • In her first appearance in "Reveal Novum", Ruby had a very high, raspy voice. However, it got much clearer in Season 2.
    • Rocky's voice was fairly high in its first appearance, but when he talked again in "Rescission", his voice somehow got even higher.
    • By the time IDFB was released, Needle became impossible to voice because of her high pitch. Cary had to ask for another voice actor in one of his other videos.
  • The Voiceless: Woody and Rocky. The former often whines whenever he feels nervous or terrified, and the latter usually minds his own business. However, Rocky spoke at the beginning of the first season, and Woody spoke at the finale ("Wha? Hi, SB!" and "Leafy?", respectively).
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
    • Rocky does this almost all the time.
    • Pin also vomits on Woody in Episode 1.
  • Voted Off the Island: The contestants are usually voted off by viewers, but they sometimes vote each other off.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye:
    • Inverted. Flower, the first to be booted off, eventually returns to the show, with 57 more votes than Teardrop.
    • Played straight with Woody, who was booted off third and doesn't return till IDFB.
    • Donut, who was eliminated first in BFDIA, also qualifies.
    • Dora only had three speaking roles during her time in BFDIA, and two of them were from before she became an official contestant.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Season 1, "Reveal Novum". Aside from David's joining the game, there is also the eliminated contestants trying to escape and nearly drowning, Bubble throwing away Leafy's spring shoes, kickstarting a bitter rivalry, and the points being downgraded to double-digits.
    • Also in season 1, episode 22. The announcer is destroyed, and Firey and Flower build their own speaker boxes.
    • "Insectophobe's Nightmare 2". Leafy dies in a Ferris wheel (this scene was proven crucial for the outcome of the season), and turns out she can't be recovered. BFDI is also announced to be canceled due to the decrease in viewer votes. Then bugs hatch all over the place, and all remaining contestants run away from them, only to eventually die. With only David left alive, the Announcer tries cloning him to continue the show (which is Un-Canceled). And then every single continuity change is reversed like nothing happened.
    • And of course, the season 1 finale. Firey wins Dream Island and bans Leafy from it due to the aforementioned Ferris wheel scene. Leafy then buys Dream Island from the Announcer (without Firey knowing) using Yellow Face's paper slips. Flower jumps off the slippery slope and destroys the recovery centers, kills Bubble, then gets crushed by a UFO that abducted multiple contestants earlier. Woody, who was in that UFO, also dies from a heart attack. Then the Announcer escapes with all the knock-off speaker boxes. It ends with the cast finding out what Leafy did and sentencing her to the death penalty, only for Firey to save her at the last minute.
    • Season 2, "Get Digging" Evil Leafy escaped the TLC and is haunting the Evil Forest.
    • Season 2, Episode 5a. Leafy returns from Yoyleland, only to be crushed by Gelatin's hammer. Pin accidentally stabs Puffball Speaker Box, and gets de-limbed in return. Firey Speaker Box takes over as the host. Pencil's alliance (including the recently eliminated Match and Bubble, who was not allowed to enter the competition) forms a third team called "FreeSmart". It ends with FreeSmart, GB, TB, and Rocky being Swallowed Whole by Evil Leafy.
    • "No More Snow" from Season 2. Two-thirds of the main cast (and Evil Leafy) die, the HPRC is destroyed, and the episode ends on the alive contestants spinning the HPHPRCC to get their friends back.
    • The very first episode of Season 3. Firey is trapped in a cage, Woody is revived somehow, Golf Ball is implied to have a Dark and Troubled Past tied to the Science Museum, Pin gets her limbs back but at the cost of her color, and possibly Evil Leafy (by the way, she is alive again), and Rocky regained his barfing powers. All this will probably be never explained.
    • Season 4, Episode 6. A Better Name Than That executes a plan to get rid of Four. Donut now has Four's powers and personality inside him, and is announced as the host.
    • From the same season: Episode 10, "Enter the Exit". The characters realize the competition is impossible to continue without Four, and Four is brought back. We also learn where the eliminated characters go, and it's EXIT, a place inside Four where the people in it are doomed to solve mathematical problems forever - and there is a rejoin.
    • Season 4's episodes 13, 14, and 15 are massively important. BFB 13/14 shows, among other things Ice Cube trying to switch off of Bleh (but is still counted as a member), much of Goiky being flooded in lava, many contestants dying in said lava, Book realizing her behavior against Taco has gone too far, and for the first time ever Bleh is up for elimination. Meanwhile, BFB 15 gives more information on Firey and Leafy's friendship for the first time since BFDIA, with Firey revealing to Eggy that Leafy stole Dream Island at the end, as well as featuring the return of Clock. In addition, Book now becomes the most hated member of Bleh and Taco tries to process her feelings about Book saving her.
    • And then there is episode 16. The eliminated contestants concoct a plan to escape EXIT, and meanwhile, Four is struggling to eliminate Spongy. This prompts the exitors to change plans and escape through Spongy and, after the remaining BFB contestants catch onto this, start trying to help free them while Four tries doing the opposite. Spongy and Loser are the only ones that manage to escape and, in the midst of Four trying to chase them down and reeliminate them, a new character named Two shows up and starts convincing a majority of BFB's cast to switch to their new show, dubbed The Power of Two. Many contestants do so and rub it into Four's face. Taco and Book also finally make up, and the remaining 14 BFB contestants (which include Spongy and Loser) are sent elsewhere to compete for their competition, while TPOT remains where BFB once took place.
    • BFB 22 finally resolves the Firey-Leafy conflict, forms the newbie alliance, Woody and Blocky become friends, and Taco is eliminated by just one vote
    • BFB 28 brings back the Announcer while 4 sinks into the earth.
    • BFB 29 cancels BFB and reveals that the Announcer hosted BFDIA in secret.
  • Wham Line: From "Return of the Hang Glider":
    Leafy: I know. Especially because Firey never received Dream Island at all.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The show takes place in a land called "Goiky", but it is uncertain whether it is a made-up place on Earth or on a different world altogether. Goiky is implied to be very close to the North Pole.
  • World of Funny Animals: Disputed. The stick figures like David and Dora are conflicted on whether they count as human(oid) beings or some kind of Animate Inanimate Object. And how are the viewers known in the BFDI world?
  • World of Jerkass: Many of the characters are not nice people, and mistreat each other with cruelty.


Bubble: "Yoylecake!"

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Woody Is Scared Of Everything

Pin explains that Woody is always scared of everything like sharp things (like Pin's sharp top), fire (like Firey) , and even... bubbles (like Bubble).

How well does it match the trope?

5 (9 votes)

Example of:

Main / ArsonMurderAndJaywalking

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