Along with their many anthology programs such as Oh Yeah! Cartoons and KaBlam!, both Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. have aired many different types of shorts between their programs by a variety of young people, in-house, and even by kids over their 20+ year history. The shorts have had premises revolving around everything from singing food, turning inside out, the alphabet, and lots more. A number of shorts based on their beloved Nicktoons have also been made.
Some notable shorts and interstitials on Nickelodeon include:
- Short Films by Short People: A series showcasing shorts created by kids, and included interviews with the kids who created them and behind the scenes looks at their shorts. Among these shorts are Foil Man
and Attack of the Giant Vulture. - Inside Out Boy: Stop-motion. A series of shorts about a boy who swung all the way around the swing-set one day and gained the ability to turn himself inside out as a result. Four shorts were spread across the first two Rugrats VHS releases (Tales From The Crib and A Baby's Gotta Do What A Baby's Gotta Do) in 1993 in-between episodes on the tapes.
- The Non-Adventures Of Safety Queen: Traditional animation. A kid who is having a problem accomplishing a difficult or possibly hardest task gets visited by a strange girl known only as the Safety Queen. The Safety Queen motivates the kid to have more courage with their task with Reverse Psychology. She explains to the kid why they shouldn't finish the task at hand, citing a number of absurd or outlandish outcomes of going through with it. Invariably, the kid goes through with it and finds that what they were trying to do wasn't so difficult after all. One example. Three shorts were included on the 1996 Rugrats VHS Phil And Lil: Double Trouble, playing in-between episodes.
- The Off-Beats: Traditional animation. Originally played during commercial breaks in late 1995 to early 1996 before it became part of KaBlam!'s lineup in Fall 1996 and aired on the show for the first two seasons (the original pre-KaBlam! shorts would continue to play until late 1997). It eventually got its own Valentine's Day special in 1999. Thee shorts were included on the 1996 Rugrats VHS Tommy Troubles, playing in-between episodes.
- CatDog: Traditional animation. Originated as a series of pilot shorts before the series premiered. One short, "Fetch!", was also attached to The Rugrats Movie as a sneak peek (a another short, "Winslow's Documentary", was attached to the movie's VHS and DVD)
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: 3D Computer-generated animation. Originated as a series of shorts made to hype his movie. Later became a series as well.
- Mr. Meaty: Puppets. This originated exclusively as shorts airing between shows on the channel before becoming greenlit for a full-on series.
- Astrology with Squidward: SpongeBob SquarePants' nasty sealord Squidward Tentacles explains the Western Zodiac during different times of the year. He describes the behaviors of people of each symbol, and he predicts their future lives. The zodiac symbols are based off of other SpongeBob SquarePants characters.
Shorts from the various anthology shows often aired between shows during normal Nickelodeon programming as well.
Some notable shorts and interstitials that aired on Nick Jr. include:
- Face: From 1994 to 2004, the Nick Jr. block was hosted by a smiley face on a color-changing background, who engaged in humorous antics before announcing the next show or ad break. Face was given a revamp in 2003 that only lasted for a couple months before he reverted to his original design and eventually was phased out. Voiced in the US by Chris Phillips, and in the UK by David Holt. In 2022, Face would be rebooted again as the host of Face's Music Party, this time voiced by Cedric L. Williams in English.
- Amby & Dexter: Traditional animation. A pair of hands doing something boring such as playing the piano or going out the door turn into two small people who accomplish the task in a way that two dwarf-sized people would do it. One short featuring the two painting a picture.
- Countin' Carl: Live-action. A strange man in a superhero outfit rides a bicycle around the neighborhood and helps kids with their counting skills.
- Joey's Lunch: Stop-motion. Talking food come out of the unseen Joey's lunchbox and do silly things or sing a song. Usually ended with one of the food characters asking the viewer if they had ingested a certain food today.
- Maggie and the Ferocious Beast: Traditional animation. A little girl's adventures with the eponymous Ferocious Beast (who isn't really that ferocious at all). Later became a full-on series.
- Max And His Alphabet Adventures: Traditional animation. Before going to bed, young Max talks about the oddly alliterative adventures he goes on with 26 letters of the alphabet. Every short ended with the adventure suddenly being interrupted by Max's dad reminding Max to go to sleep. An example with Max visiting the letter T.
- Oobi: Puppets. The first season was a series of interstitials that aired during commercial breaks on Nick Jr. and Noggin. It was later developed into a long-form show that played on Noggin for many years.
- Nanalan': Puppets. A series detailing the antics of 3-year-old Mona as she spends the day at her Nana's house.
- Winky Love: Traditional animation. A girl talks about what it's like living in the big city and what she does there. Notable for having an African-American female protagonist.
- Muppet Time: Puppets. Shorts and music videos made by Jim Henson Studios.
- Deko Boko Friends: An Japanese import anime series. Various characters come out of a red door and join in different activities. This show aired during the Nick Jr. block and on the Nickelodeon-owned Noggin channel.
- Ni Hao, Kai-Lan: Began as an interstitial show called Downward Doghouse.
Songs from The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and various Nick Jr. shows often aired between shows as well.
These shorts provide examples of:
- 360-Degree Swing Set Swing: Inside Out boy got turned inside out as a result of doing a full 360 swing on a swingset.
- Abandoned Mascot: Face was the mascot of Nick Jr. from 1994 to 2004 before being pulled.
- Ascended Extra: The shorts that eventually wound up getting their own series.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Many of the characters Max meets during his alphabet adventures happen to start with the letter that Max is traveling with. (For example, Max sails out to sea on a sailboat with the letter S and get stranded on a sandbar. They sing to pass the time until they are rescued by a smelly skunk named Silas riding a submarine.)
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Well, not fifty-foot, but still larger than normal, there's the vulture in the Short People short "Attack Of The Giant Vulture".
- Big Applesauce: The city that Winky Love lives in strongly resembles New York City, but it's never stated that it is New York.
- Birthday Episode: The Max episode revolving around the letter B revolved around Max's birthday. Technically it would be a "Night-Before-Birthday-Episode" as Max's dad reminds Max that tomorrow is his birthday after reminding him to go to sleep.
- Body Horror: Inside Out Boy has turned himself inside out. However, it doesn't seem to hurt him. In fact, he actually has a lot of fun with it.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the Astrology with Squidward short "Cancer", Squidward tells people not to eat animated seafood. This means he knows he's an animated character.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: In one of the Nick Jr. Face segments, Face notices that it's dark. While the lights are off, the only part of his, uh, face that's visible is his eyes.
- Captain Obvious: Most of the "predictions" made by Squidward in Astrology with Squidward are facts that were inevitably going to happen anyway. For example, in one segment he "predicts" that in the year ahead, everyone you know is going to turn one year older... of course, everyone turns a year older every year.
- Compulsive Liar: In the Astrology with Squidward short on Pisces, Squidward explains that all Pisces have an uncontrollable tendency to lie, even if they think they're telling the truth. He then gives Pisceans who want to stop lying all the time a simple piece of advice - never talk again.
- Cursed with Awesome: Inside Out Boy has a ton of fun freaking people out with his inside-out...ness and becomes the most popular kid at school following his accident at the swing set.
- Disaster Dominoes: In "The Non-Adventures of Safety Queen", Safety Queen always spins some absurd worst-case scenario that starts with something like pulling off a loose band-aid or jumping off the high-dive at the public pool.
- Every Episode Ending:
- Joey's Lunch: "Have you had some (insert food here) today?"
- Max And His Alphabet Adventures:Dad: (as Max makes an Oh, Crap! expression) Max!
Max: Uh oh...
Dad: Go to sleep, Max.
Max: Good night, Dad!
Dad: Good night, son.
- Excited Kids' Show Host: Face, quite obviously.
- Gentle Giant: The Ferocious Beast in the Maggie shorts (and subsequent series).
- Gross-Out Show: With the premise being about a character who can turn himself inside out, Inside Out Boy would have to be this.
- Interspecies Romance: The Max "W" short is centered around a wedding between a walrus and a woodpecker (the latter of whom also apparently having used to date a whale).
- The Klutz: Countin' Carl, who sometimes crashed into things while on his bicycle and exited one of his shorts by falling down the stairs.
- Mad Libs Dialogue: It's present in the Face bumpers if you listen closely."Perfect! And just in time because...Rupert...is next! Right here on Nick Jr! Brr brr brrr!"
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: One of the "Inside Out Boy" shorts features a hip-hop musician named MC Mallet.
- Pinocchio Nose: The trope is referenced in the Astrology with Squidward short on Pisces, where, after he describes Pisceans as Compulsive Liars, Squidward gives a prediction for Pisceans that "your nose will keep working just fine".
- Random Events Plot: As the Max shorts involve many people, animals, and things all starting with the same letter crossing paths with Max, several shorts wind up bouncing from one subject to the other.
- Reverse Psychology: Played with in the "Safety Queen" shorts. To encourage the kids she visits to be brave with their tasks, Safety Queen sarcastically validates their assumed fears. This always leads to the kid going ahead and doing their task, and realizing it was actually easier than they thought it would be.
- Rise of Zitboy: Attack of the Hideous Pimple, an Australian-made Short People film deals with a girl getting a talking sentient pimple on the day of the school dance, much to her consternation.
- Same Language Dub: Face has a British V/O in the bumpers made for the UK's version of Nick Jr. channel, Max on the same feed's dub of Max and His Alphabet Adventures.
- Spin-Off: Astrology with Squidward is a spin-off of SpongeBob SquarePants focusing on Squidward.
- Token Black Friend: Inverted in one of the Winky Love shorts, where the African-American Winky talks about her white friend Gill.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Upon first turning inside out, the first thing Inside Out Boy says after seeing what happened to him is: "Where are my pants?"
- Uranus Is Showing: In the Astrology with Squidward segment on Gemini, Squidward makes a joke that "this month, Gemini's moon is in Uranus, so you smell funny".
- Vocal Evolution: Face's voice was a bit lower in his first year.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: One Face bumper involves Face suddenly glitching out and going bonkers. He's relieved upon returning to normal. ...And then he goes to static.
- Western Zodiac: Astrology with Squidward is about Squidward explaining the zodiac symbols.
