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Don't let the title fool you. This show is for children.

At the beginning of the 2010s, small-time American illustrator Noah Z. Jones happened upon a minor miracle of the animation industry: working on two different cartoons produced in two different countries within the same timeframe and having his name attached as creator for both. Out of these curious events came the 2010 underwater teen sitcom parody Fish Hooks, which was produced by Disney Television Animation in the United States, and this oddball series, which was produced by 9 Story Media Group in Canada.

Almost Naked Animals centers on a hotel called the Banana Cabana populated by... well, just read the show's title — crudely shaved animals wearing nothing but their underwear. The cabana is managed by a cheerful but dimwitted dog named Howie and his ragtag bunch of misfit friends, including his fearful best buddy Octo (an octopus), as well as Bunny, Duck, Piggy, Narwhal, and Sloth (no prizes for figuring out any of their species). Minor villainy comes up through Howie's mean older sister Poodle, the owner of a much swankier competing hotel named the Chateau Chattoo, who seeks to drive Howie out of business and buy his hotel, with the help of her henchman Batty.

Almost Naked Animals debuted on the Canadian kids' network YTV on January 7, 2011, and later came to Cartoon Network in the United States on June 13, 2011 alongside fellow YTV series Sidekick as part of a general trend of Canadian imports having prominence on CN at the time. It ran for 3 seasons and 52 episodes, concluding on May 22, 2013.

Not to Be Confused with the trope Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal.


This show contains examples of:

  • Achievements in Ignorance: After misunderstanding Howie's orders to prepare a room to an upcoming VIP's liking as he likes "open space", as in large open fields. Duck takes this literally and turns a random room into outer space.
  • Appease the Volcano God: Fiddler crabs try to do this to Octo in "S.S. Banana Cabana".
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
    • Octo's worst fears are the dark, heights, and Brussels sprouts.
    • In another episode, he mentions fears of Earth spinning off its axis, the sun falling out of the sky, and getting stuck in a rocking chair.
    • In the Bizarro Universe, every member of the "Bizzaro Cabana" has oddities and superpowers such as breathing fire and two heads. Bizaro Octo is just regular Octo with 9 arms.
  • Art Shift: The ridiculously highly detailed Episode Title Cards, depicting a random moment from the episode.
  • Bad Liar: Howie always twitches when he lies.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Octo never saw Howie check in a guest, or clean anything, or clean a guest who was checking in.
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Octo inks himself when he's scared.
  • The Chew Toy: Batty and Octo both have a fair amount of abuse thrown their way.
  • Christmas Episode: "The Perfect Gift" is about Narwhal trying to find a suitable gift for Bunny, whilst "Home for the Howiedays" is about Poodle having to stay at the Cabana during Christmas when her hotel is destroyed.
  • Cloud Cuckoolander: Duck. When Howie says that Duck is his hero, Duck thinks it means he's going to be made into a hero sandwich. ("It tickles when you bite!")
  • Cutaway Gag: "Or maybe we just need to stop leaving the remote in such weird places!" Cut to Howie taking the remote from the edge of a volcano.
  • Cutting the Knot: As Howie's last trial to escape the Bizarro Universe, Bizaro Octo mixes the ruby plunger Howie needs to escape with 2 fake identical ones. Howie points out that it's actually easier to just take all three of them and brute-force them at the portal toilet.
  • Did You Get a New Haircut?: After Howie and Duck have caused everyone to age to old age in "The Rotation Situation", Bunny angrily asks if they notice anything different about her. Howie's first guess is new lipstick.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Howie whistles the opening theme in "Imaginary Friend".
  • A Dog Named "Dog": Everyone but, oddly enough, Howie the dog (though to be fair, Howie is a pretty common name for dogs).
  • Dub Name Change: In Brazil, this series is known by a title that means "Almost Dressed Animals". In Spanish-language countries, it's "Animals in Underwear".
  • Fanboy: Howie is a major Dirk Danger fanboy.
  • Feather Fingers: Duck's wings and Narwhal's fins.
  • Fur Is Clothing: Almost taken to its literal extreme; even animals who lack fur wear some form of underwear. Howie even has a white patch of fur in the shape of a vest.
  • Gasshole: Bert and Bert, the Baked Bean Bandits in "Cowboy Cabana". At the end of the episode, they use their farts to power a speedboat.
  • Gross-Out Show: With that name and character designs, what do you expect?
  • Halloween Episode: Has a couple:
    • "Hotel of Horrors" is about Howie winding up in a Bizarro Universe version of the Cabana where he finds that the residents there are freaks.
    • "Howieween" is about Howie deciding to help Octo pick a costume for Halloween, which works too well and makes everyone think he is a monster.
  • Has Two Thumbs and...: In "Cool Paw Howie", Howie (who has turned the hotel into a minimum-security prison) asks his staff "Who has two thumbs and likes running a prison?". However, as none of the staff like running a prison, he gets no response.
  • Here We Go Again!:
    • In "S.S. Banana Cabana", Howie installs new superpowered toilets that set the hotel afloat and crash it on an island. By the time they get the hotel back in place, he installs new showerheads that do the same thing.
    • In "Jellyhead", after a Jerkass jellyfish gets stuck to Octo, it tries to control him. By the time he gets the jellyfish off, a starfish has latched itself to him.
  • Hide and No Seek: In "The Night Shift", Bunny does this to ditch Howie; telling him to count up to a ridiculously high number while she goes off to bed.
  • Hulk Speak: Piggy is somewhere between this and some weird mashup of a Russian/French accent, most often in the form of "Piggy [infinitive verb] [noun]." More easily defined as a fragmented foreign accent.
  • Idiot Hero: Howie is excitable, impulsive, and not that bright, but he's still the leader.
  • Imaginary Friend: Howie gets hit on the head and reunites with a childhood imaginary friend named Platymoose.
  • Interrogation by Vandalism: In "The Rotation Situation", Bunny forces Howie to tell Duck to turn off the machine that is speeding up the earth's rotation (It Makes Sense in Context) by threatening his Dirk Danger doll.
  • It's All About Me: Narwhal, particularly in the episode when he laments having lost his number-one fan.
  • Jerkass: The jellyfish in "Jellyhead", who takes control of Octo's life.
  • Jerkass Ball and Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Bunny, Piggy, Narwhal, and sometimes even Batty too.
  • Manchild: Howie, what with his short attention span, hyperactive movements, obliviousness to Sloth's love, and love of things usually associated with younger people (one source even describes him as being like an 11-year-old in an arcade).
  • Market-Based Title: The show is known as Banana Cabana in many parts of Europe.
  • Mind over Matter: Happens in the episode of that same name. Howie gets a remote stuck to his head, and gains telekinetic powers after it gets wet in an attempt to remove it.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Howie's imaginary friend is a platymoose.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: Self invoked by Piggy during "Imaginary Friend".
    Piggy: Dog Thing choose. Friends and Piggy, or pretendy trouble causer.
  • The Nicknamer: Piggy has nicknames for everyone, including "dog thing" for Howie.
  • Non-Mammalian Hair: Also taken to its extreme. Species that wouldn't normally have hair, or at least not a full coat of it, still have the "shaved" appearance.
  • Non-Mammal Mammaries: Most non-mammal characters have these
  • Nose Nuggets: Howie's head-sized booger at the end of "Ear Wax Elf".
  • The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The top-secret password to gain access to Dirk Danger's hermit lair was "top secret password".
  • A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: The lobster pirates who attempt to take over the cabana in "Narwhal's Birthday".
  • Putting the Pee in Pool: This exchange from "The Rotation Situation":
    Howie: Oh Bunny! You and your rules. 'No bathing in the pool'. Next you'll be saying you're not allowed to relieve yourself in the pool.
    Bunny: [angrily] You're not!
    Howie and Duck: [in unison] Oh.
  • Safety Worst: "Better Safe and Sorry" has Octo trying way too hard to install safety measures for the rest of the Cabana crew.
  • Self-Serving Memory: Of a sort. A vengeful moose Howie meets while disguised as one expresses his hatred for Howie after an incident he remembers "perfectly" where Howie while riding on a penny-farthing and holding a pie in old-timey getup, declares to the moose that he looks like someone for "some good shaming", and then throws the pie at him and breathes fire in his face, with the cast in similar attire laughing at his misfortune. Howie, however, properly remembers it as an accident involving a rocket-powered tricycle he was riding which caused Piggy to throw a pie in the air which landed on the moose and a rocket from the tricycle to discharge on his face, much to the horror and worry of the cast for the moose's safety.
  • Shown Their Work: Background characters include a furless tiger with faint stripes imprinted into his skin and a furless bear with black skin and whitish hair strands all over his body.
  • Sibling Rivalry: Howie/Poodle. She manages a rival hotel and constantly tries to get Howie to make a fool of himself or go out of business so their father will give ownership to her. Howie, however, is completely oblivious to her antics.
  • Sluggish Sloths: Sloth does everything slowly and is reliant on a luggage cart to get around.
  • Space Whale Aesop: Eat your vegetables or they'll eat you!
  • Spit Take: Happens with Dirk Danger when drinking "creative juices" made by Howie from Dirk's original costume.
  • Stealth Pun: In the puking episode, we learn that Howie has puked on everyone in town a dozen of dozen times. What's a dozen of dozens called? A gross.
  • Super Zeroes: Howie meets one with a toaster on his head, and another with toothbrushes on his hands. They use toast and toothbrushes/toothpaste, respectively, to solve problems. They're actually quite effective.
  • Tan Lines: Howie. And only Howie.
  • Terrestrial Sea Life: Octo and Narwhal are seen living on land with no problem whatsoever.
  • Thematic Theme Tune: A few lines about the Cabana.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • Howie who is a hyperactive idiot.
    • Duck as well, though he is more insane than he is stupid. Many times he's shown outright psychotic.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Howie's favorite restaurant is the Fruity Noodle Hut, and his favorite drink is Captain Fizzy's Fuzzy Orange Soda (yum!)
  • Tsundere: Bunny's biography says that she is this, but she seems to be on the tsuntsun side. This becomes a plot element in one episode, where Howie bets that, if Bunny can go a day without being angry, she won't have to dress as the cabana's mascot.
  • Unrequited Love: Sloth loves Howie, but he seems oblivious.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In "Home for the Howiedays" we get a flashback to Howie and Poodle's childhood, when they were both best friends.
  • Who Is Driving?: Happens to a speedboat in the imaginary friend episode.
  • World of Funny Animals: And even outside the Cabana, they're almost naked.
  • You Need a Breath Mint: Howie, after he and Octo are roped together in "Cowboy Cabana".
    Howie: One of us could really use a breath mint.
    (Howie sniffs twice)
    Howie: Yeeeeah, that's me.

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Almost Naked Animals

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