Western Animation / The Venture Brothers

aka: The Venture Bros

"Go Team Venture!"

The Venture Bros. (2003–2018) is an animated series on [adult swim] that focuses upon the lives and adventures of the Venture brothers (snarky Hank and brainy Dean) and their father, scientist/adventurer "Dr." Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (who has grown bitter and abusive towards his own children due to his failure to live up to the legacy of his super-scientist father Jonas Venture, making him a sort of pulp version of a Former Child Star). They are followed by their government-issued bodyguards: first Brock Samson, an ex-black ops agent (described by arch-enemy the Monarch as a "Swedish murder machine"), who was briefly replaced by Sergeant Hatred, a former super-villain/recovering pedophile who was drafted by the military to replace Brock when he originally quit the job.

The Venture family travels the world, getting into all sorts of bizarre adventures and spoofing the ever-loving hell out of Jonny Quest along the way — at least at first. The series quickly developed into something far more interesting than a mean-spirited Jonny Quest parody as the characters gained depth and the show took a dark turn into deconstructing the entire "youth adventure" genre. The focus of the series shifted from the brothers and onto Rusty Venture, and as the theme of "failure" became the central element of the series, the episodes began to show what happens to boy adventurers as they grow up and discover that their 1960s childhood's promises of peace, love, and super-science fail to materialize over the course of their own lives.

There is also The Monarch, Dr. Venture's longtime nemesis, who transforms from lame joke villain based around butterflies to bad-ass super-villain; his quest to win back his girlfriend and get revenge against fellow villain Phantom Limb, who framed him for murder, catapults him into becoming the show's deuteragonist, the story is as much about Team Venture as about the Monarch's struggle to balance his personal life with his desire to "arch" Dr. Venture.

Through the Monarch, the show skewers and deconstructs supervillain tropes by presenting a world where "arching" is seen as a profession rather than a passion, which is strictly moderated by the Guild of Calamitous Intent, a supervillain organization that assign ranks depending on one's power level and social status, and subsequently determines who the villain can "arch" according to the Guild's rules. However, the Monarch constantly rebels against the system, and due to several... setbacks over the course of the series, sees his rank dropped from level 10 to level 3. Despite this, the Monarch is determined not to let this stop him from arching his sworn nemesis, regardless of what the Guild has to say about it...

The Ensemble Dark Horse of the Adult Swim line-up, it's notable for, out of all of their original shows, coming the closest to making any actual sense. As the seasons go by, episodes focus more on the characters' bizarre and intersecting backgrounds, while surprisingly deep Character Development adds delicious layers to the humor.

J.G. Thirlwell (aka Foetus) does the soundtrack.^note Witness!

On September 7th, 2020, Adult Swim cancelled the show after seven seasons. This was after initially renewing it for an eighth season. On May 12th 2021, the network announced that the show's creative team was developing a movie set after the events of the seventh season. James Urbaniak confirmed it will function as the series finale.

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The Venture Brothers provides examples of:

General trope examples:

• Corrupted Character Copy
• Deconstructed Character Archetype
• Even Evil Has Standards
• Foil
• Haiku
• Wham Episode

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Trope Namer

• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Dr. Girlfriend is the Trope Namer! When Brock discovers in bed, she says something along these lines. Brock declines, appearing to not be interested in a non-consensual encounter. Dr. Girlfriend is somewhat disappointed and pouts that she's not going to beg.
• Doctor Girlfriend: The Monarch's right-hand woman, the trope was renamed as Dark Mistress.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The Joycan, a Lotus-Eater Machine.

#-D

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick have commented on how pleasantly surprised they are to get CG animation from Korea on any objects that have complex movements. Some examples are The Monarch's jet car, Sergeant Hatred's tank when it first appears on the Venture compound, and the Sphinx aircraft in the season four finale.
• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • Dr. Quymn's pseudo-Butch Lesbian bodyguard, Ginnie, coming on to Brock. It appears that he's put off by a woman being as blunt and sexually-forward as he normally is (it also probably didn't help that Brock misheard her name as Jimmy and initially thought she was a man).
  • Sally Impossible for Dr. Venture (which is saying something considering he's normally a Casanova Wannabe who has little luck with women), probably due to her being desperate, clingy, and overly dramatic around him, not to mention that if she loses her concentration, her skin turns invisible and reveals the bare tissues underneath. Though this luckily gets solved in Twenty Years to Midnight, where she instead gets together with Jonas Jr., who reciprocates her feelings.
  • Dr. Venture himself for Dr. Girlfriend. She seduced him as "Charlene" in the Season 1 episode Midlife Chrysalis under the Monarch's orders, and once Dr. Venture recognizes her in the Season 2 finale, he proceeds to hit on her almost every time they're alone together from then on, which she responds to with snarky annoyance.
• Abusive Parents: A running theme is that only horrible parents would drag their kids into dangerous adventures week after week.
  • Rusty is just as selfish, reckless, and condescending towards Hank and Dean as he is to everyone else. He has almost no regard for the safety and well-being of his sons, who get dragged onto adventures where they often get kidnapped. In fact, both boys have actually been killed and replaced several times over the years, necessitating their replacement by near-identical clones that Rusty has kept since they were born. Under the guidance of their father (and learning beds), Hank and Dean have grown up to be socially awkward teenagers without the knowledge or skills to succeed in regular society.
    Dean: I can tell you how many taste buds the average tongue has, but I haven't ever kissed a girl!
  • While Jonas Sr. seems like the perfect role model, flashbacks reveal him to be even worse than Rusty when it comes to parenting. He routinely torments Rusty with dangerous experiments and adventures. When he's not completely neglectful, he's bringing Rusty along to orgies and publicly humiliating him in front of his team.
  • Although Doctor Orpheus is a surprisingly caring and domestic father, he keeps a dimension gateway in Triana's closet and mindwipes her every time she opens the door, leading to some cumulative trauma.
    Dr. Orpheus: Well, you see, dear, I was just...Oh this is pointless. SLEEEEEEEEEEEEP! In your sleep all is forgotten.
  • Dr. Impossible fails to refer to his infant son by name, referring to him as THE CHILD, when he even remembers he has a son. Then there's this gem:
    Sally Impossible: What could possibly be more important than your son?
    Richard Impossible: Sssssssscience?
  • The Hale Brothers were driven to murder their father by his psychological abuse. Maybe. It was never proven (Dale hints that they did it, but it could just be Survivor Guilt).
  • Action Johnny is another former boy adventurer and recovered addict with severe father issues.
• The Ace:
  • Dr. Henry Killinger will fix all of your problems, personal or career-related, with his "magical murder bag." He isn't just The Ace, he's a character for whom the role of The Ace is played straight but turned up to eleven so he'll have a huge comedic effect.
  • Brock Samson as well — the poster boy for the Hypercompetent Sidekick, as long as the solution is killing something.
  • The super-intelligent, incredibly handsome, fabulously wealthy, and outwardly-perfect Dr. Jonas Venture. Jonas Jr. skirts this trope but keeps from falling in by being a dwarf who spent several decades being mistaken for a tumor.
  • Dr. Girlfriend/Dr. Mrs. The Monarch is another Hypercompetent Sidekick. She's clearly the brains of the Monarch operation.
• Action Hero: Brock Samson, to the point of deconstruction.
  Brock: I've seen enough spinnin' butterfly... naked boy armies... screw this... I'd rather, uh, quit.
  Brock: Look, you don't want my life, Hank. This job's not all it's cracked up to be. I've been at this for over twenty years and what do I have to show for it? A metal plate in my chest, Vatican karate gorilla blood on my hands and a footlocker full of Manboro miles?
• Actor Allusion:
  • Kevin Conroy, who also does the voice of Batman, plays a wealthy superhero who likes to take on young boys as sidekicks.
  • Bill Hader's voice for Dr. Phineas Phage is just his Vincent Price impression, as demonstrated in the recurring "Vincent Price Holiday Special" sketches on Saturday Night Live.
  • Mark Hamill, who does the voice of The Joker, does the voice of Presto Change-O who is also a clown base villain.
  • In the pilot "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay," in addition to Dean Michael Sinterniklaas voices the ninja Otaku Senzuri. This was right when he'd just started voicing a certain well-known reptilian ninja.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • Go-Fish's specialties: Aquatic Annihilations, Moist Murders, Sea Slayings, Liquid Lynchings.
  • 21's insistence that the "Monarch Mind Infractor" should have been called the "Monarch Mind Machine" or the "Monarch Mind Mutilator."
  • There is "The Mighty Monarch!" himself, along with his Monarch-Mobile. In the episode "Shadowman 9 in the Cradle of Destiny," he poses as The Mighty Manotaur, a supervillain with a Malevolent Murder Maze.
  • Phantom Limb calls Billy his "prodigiously perspicacious protégé."
  • Also the Murderous Moppets.
• Adventurer Outfit: The Professor when in the jungle.
• Affably Evil:
  • Phantom Limb. Not so much since he was imprisoned and stripped of his Guild membership for attempting to usurp control of the Guild from David Bowie.
  • Dr. Henry Killinger, who appears to help people by drastically improving their lives, but then turns out to be setting them up as super-villains that are "destined" to plague some specific good guy he's picked out for them.
  • Both the Monarch and Doctor Girlfriend
  • Henchmen #21 and #24 As of the Season 5 premiere, 21- or rather Gary- is now the only member of Sphinx, and he's trying to keep it as a good-guy organization. He goes so far as to protect the Venture's interest!
  • Sgt. Hatred, who vowed to subvert the trope with his rivalry with Doctor Venture, just to piss off the Monarch for stealing technology from him. It worked too well as Hatred ended up replacing Brock as the Venture family's bodyguard.
  • The Sovereign is so nice and polite in person that you tend to forget he's running the world's largest organization of costumed villains. Although considering that The Guild has rules and regulations binding them, and discourages killing (without prior escalation), they're not nearly as bad as the usual criminals. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Sovereign actually is a shape-shifter impersonating David Bowie.
  • Most of the council of 13 seem like pretty likable guys; in fact, most of them are old supervillains who seem to have known each other for years. Most of them actually seem like friends who actually enjoy hanging out with each other outside of work.
• All Amazons Want Hercules: Several of the series' most prolific Action Girls have shown interest in strong man of action Brock Samson, including Molotov Cocktease, Dr. Quymn's bodyguard Ginnie, Amber Gold (definitely interested in Brock, and probably an Action Girl considering she's an OSI agent), and Warriana. Quite literal in Warriana's case, since she's an actual Amazon (as a Captain Ersatz of Wonder Woman) and her Affectionate Nickname for Brock is Heracles. Dr. Girlfriend has also shown some lust for Brock and is clearly annoyed that he didn't take advantage of her when he had the chance.
• The Alleged Car: Henchman #24's powder blue Nissan Stanza. It's not much to look at, but it runs okay when we see it.
• All There in the Stinger: It does this constantly and even has some fake Un-Installments.
• Always Identical Twins: Averted with the Venture family, Rusty and J.J and Hank and Dean are fraternal. Played straight with the Quymn sisters.
• Always Someone Better: Keeping with the show's central theme of "failure," most of the main characters have someone "better" at what they do out there.
  • Jonas Jr. is this to Rusty. Despite being a malformed twin Rusty absorbed in the womb and carried inside of himself for 43 years, JJ proves to be a far more competent scientist and far more popular with the ladies within weeks of breaking out of his brother's body.
  • Phantom Limb was this compared to the Monarch early in the series. The Monarch was a lame joke villain who drove Dr. Girlfriend (the only source of competence he had) back to her ex-boyfriend, Phantom Limb. Limb was a far more competent villain, having risen to the highest ranks of the Guild and given command over the best Guild operatives, as well as being far more refined and deadly in battle with his Touch of Death. Later, this becomes inverted, when that same refinement and professionalism drive Dr. Girlfriend back to the Monarch, as Monarch proves he is far more passionate about his career and Dr. Girlfriend herself.
  • Dr. Orpheus has one in the Outrider, the man his wife left him for. Orpheus has trained his entire life just to "perceive that there is a second world," while the Outrider can travel through it. (This too, eventually inverses itself in a way, when it is shown that the Outrider cheated to obtain his powers while Orpheus' master admits that Orpheus is truly his best student.)
  • After Dean's internship in season four, we learn that Rusty isn't even the most successful version of himself in existence:
    Alternate Universe Rusty: Look, you’re the Dean of this dimension, right? Explain to ‘The Untalented Mr. Ripley' here he can’t just waltz into my dimension and try to kill me with a rock and replace me! Just because I happen to have more hair, more money, and a hit play on Broadway!
  • Played with Sergeant Hatred and Brock when it comes to the job of protecting the Ventures. Brock is The Ace and one of the world's most dangerous people, but he's not actually that great at running security: he dislikes guns, doesn't care about prevention, is easily distracted by women, combat and OSI business and generally has a fair laissez-faire attitude towards the boys' safety, since for most of his tenure Rusty just kept their clones. On the other hand, there's Hatred, the overweight has-been: he prefers lethal and immediate force over flashy duels, runs on the clock security measures and trains the boys so they can actively protect themselves; in the end, he's actually a bigger menace to the Monarch than Brock ever was. He still gets replaced as the Venture bodyguard once Rusty moves up in the world because Brock outranks him.
• Amazon Brigade: Molotov's Blackhearts.

• Ambiguous Gender:
  • Doctor Girlfriend, whose chain-smoker voice made many think she had a sex change (or was planning one).
  • Hunter Gathers. He supposedly got GRS to go undercover (and avoid being assassinated for being a rogue agent), but after de-transitioning, he misses his breasts (and he did a lot of cross-dressing before the operation as well).
• Ambiguously Gay: Everyone seems to see Pete White as this, much to his frustration.
• Amoral Attorney: Monstroso. "He's a supervillain and a lawyer! That's like a shark with a grenade launcher on its head!"
• Anachronic Order:
  • "Blood of The Father, Heart Of Steel". The part of the story focusing on the Venture family is done Back to Front, starting with the climax of the Stupid Jetpack Hitler plot and running to the start. However, at the same time, we see what's been happening to Brock; his plot is told in normal chronological order and is played in between segments of the Venture family plot. The timeline is established by titles displaying the CGC value of #21's Marvel Comics #1 and by the length of Hank's hair.
  • Season one and two had similar out-of-order problems upon first airing. Phantom Limb's debut episode didn't air originally until the week before "The Trial of the Monarch" when it was supposed to air earlier in the season. Similarly, "Assassinanny 911" originally aired as the third episode of season two when it was originally supposed to air midway through the season, meaning Triana's friend Kim was shown hanging around before she was to be officially introduced. The latter created (temporarily) a What Happened to the Mouse? scenario as her debut episode (Victor.Echo.November) ended with Kim being given a Guild contact card and Kim proclaiming that she was going to become a villain and torment the Venture Brothers after Hank kept accusing her of being a super-villain. When aired in proper order, "Assassinanny 911" reveals that she didn't go through with it.
  • The entirety of The Very Venture Halloween Special takes place during the first commercial break of What Color Is Your Cleansuit?, the first episode of season five. This is a bit problematic, as before the break, Dean just becomes a goth, which he was throughout the entirety of the Halloween special, but immediately afterwards, he knows that he and Hank are clones.
• And Starring: Kevin Conroy and Nathan Fillion got these in their guest appearances.
• Animal Assassin: The Monarch is a fan of these. He sends a tarantula to kill Doctor Venture in his sleep, but it was thwarted by a scorpion sent by Baron Ünderbheit. He also put 21 up to the task of killing Venture's psychiatrist by planting a snake in the air vents of his office. He has also used caterpillars and dangled the Venture family above an Amazonian river filled with Candiru fish. Rusty is saved from a cobra in a package under having left said package on his desk for several years.
• Animation Bump: On top of the to-be-expected Art Evolution, the pilot was, instead of having higher quality animation, animated in Adobe Flash.
• Anticlimax: Pretty common on this show.
  • The Orb was actually broken by Sandow and thus completely useless.
  • Home Insecurity, where The Monarch and Underbeit trade lasers and daggers, and get ready to fight, but peter out because they were just grandstanding.
  • Bright Lights Dean City, where The Revenge Society, made of newcomers, and old faces, have spent the entire B-plot trying to kill Dr. Venture, and they finally have him surrounded, until one guy trips and sends Dr. Venture to another dimension.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Dr. Orpheus can fall into this one during his dramatic speeches. Combine it with his Large Ham tendencies and swelling music Leitmotif, and anything he says sounds more dramatic. Lampshaded by Dr. Venture in "The Trial of the Monarch", who comments on this tendency with a near-Mystery Science Theater 3000 level of snark as Orpheus testifies in court.
• Anyone Can Die:
  • At the end of season one the series hadn't been picked up for another season, so the main characters both get killed, only to turn out in the next season's premiere (which was produced over a year later) to have been clones (which explains why their father ignores them so much - he's already coped with the deaths of the originals). The later death of Henchman #24 is a Wham Episode worthy of spoiler tags and was a total shock to the fanbase since the show's focus had shifted so much since the first season.
  • All This and Gargantua 2 ups the ante by killing off multiple tertiary characters, but with the major secondary character death being Jonas Venture Jr..
• Anything That Moves:
  • In a DVD commentary for season two, Col. Gentleman was stated to be above sexuality. "Of course I'm having sex with Kiki, what would you do with him? Look at 'im, he's beautiful! That doesn't make me gay, that makes me smart!"
  • Dr. Girlfriend/Mrs. The Monarch/Queen Etheria had quite an interesting personal life before joining up with the Monarch. The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch are the most notorious swingers in the Guild. When #21 confesses to his makeout session with the Monarch's wife, the Monarch doesn't even bat an eye. Manta Claus did much nastier things to his woman while he watched. And then she made them all breakfast!
  • Brock Samson. The early episodes show him bedding mostly unattractive women and even paying a particularly skanky prostitute. Later he's shown to be more of a memetic sex god, having bedded most of the female characters on the show.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Rusty and Dr. Orpheus spend the entirety of "Return to the House of Mummies pt II" debating this.
• Arc Words: The Venture Brothers. They don't necessarily refer solely to Hank and Dean.
• Arch-Enemy: Many. In this series, there's an official, sanctioned version of this from the Guild of Calamitous Intent, which involves a full system of rules and laws for "arching", as it's called, that both the "antagonists" in the Guild and their sanctioned "protagonists" that they arch must follow. Some significant examples include:
  • The Monarch is Dr. Venture's de facto primary arch-enemy throughout the series. In some seasons, he is also Venture's legal Guild-sanctioned arch, but in others, this is taken from him by other villains, much to his frustration, which leads to him actively trying to take out the competition so he can legally arch Venture again. Also worth noting that the feeling is not fully mutual, as the Monarch is much more passionate and Rusty much more apathetic about their rivalry.
  • In the earliest episodes, Baron Underbheit was considered to be Rusty's arch-enemy (though not Guild-sanctioned), much to the Monarch's annoyance. The original plan was for the Monarch to be Dr. Venture's more comical Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain nemesis, while Underbheit would be the serious, genuinely menacing nemesis. However, this was faded out as Underbheit's presence in the series was greatly diminished after the first season and Monarch fully grew into the role of Rusty's (albeit still fairly comical) main enemy.
  • Other Guild-sanctioned arches for Dr. Venture have included Sergeant Hatred in Season 3 and Wide Wale in Seasons 6 and 7. Both of them actually requested to arch Venture specifically to get back at the Monarch; in Hatred's case, he went out of his way to treat the Ventures kindly and ended up becoming their bodyguard starting in Season 4, and in Wide Wale's, he subcontracted his arching of Rusty out to other villains.
  • The Order of the Triad, especially Dr. Orpheus, actually wanted their own Guild-sanctioned arch-enemy, to the point of hosting tryouts for the position in one episode. Torrid emerged as the winner by kidnapping Orpheus's daughter Triana, and the Triad are shown battling him a few times in future episodes.
  • Billy Quizboy, and by extension Pete White, have Augustus St. Cloud, who only joined the Guild in the first place for the sole purpose of being able to arch Billy.
  • Action Johnny (the grown-up Jonny Quest) has Dr. Z, a Captain Ersatz of Jonny Quest's arch-enemy Dr. Zin. He also arched Jonah Venture, judging by his relationship with Rusty.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • From "Any Which Way But Zeus," various villains must submit to a power inhibitor for a joint hero/villain summit. After reading off a long list of side-effects, one of which is "loss of life."
  • Dr. Venture's id: "And there shall be laughing! And mirth! And also ass-grabbing!"
• Arson Murder And Life Saving: Played with when Brock gets this in "Mid-Life Chrysalis" during an exam required to renew his (literal) license to kill. The test-giver isn't actually upset by the "arson" and "murder" parts, he's impressed.
• Art Evolution:
  • The main cast's faces became a lot more detailed by season two, while Dr. Orpheus' face just settled. Backgrounds were more detailed by season three. By season four there is more detail all around and the colors are more vibrant. The series also evolved from somewhat Limited Animation that was filled with a lot of sliding animation into place, reusing the same animations over and over, or characters just sort of standing there blinking and talking, to much more impressive and expressive animation as later seasons got more budget overall.
  • Even between the first episode and second episode, the character designs shifted a fair bit, gaining more vivid colors, darker and more defined lines, and other little changes. This resulted in the titles looking a little... odd... since they still use all the designs from the first episode.
• Artistic License – Chemistry: In the first episode Professor Impossible unveils an environmentally friendly car that emits ozone to repair the ozone layer. Two problems with this: 1) ozone molecules are unstable enough that any ozone released at ground level would break down into regular oxygen molecules before reaching the upper atmosphere, and 2) ozone is toxic. Though probably unintentional, this does fit in perfectly with Impossible's later revealed state of mental (un)health. Why an auditorium full of scientists didn't bring this up, on the other hand...
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Baron Ünderbheit mistakenly attempts to marry Dean when he is dressed as Slave Leia.
• Author Appeal: In the DVD commentary for the Doc Hammer-written "ORB", Jackson Publick remarks that the script was "a list of stuff Doc likes." Most notably, allusions to late 19th/early 20th-century American painters. (Doc Hammer is also a painter.)
• Author Avatar:
  • In the DVD commentaries, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick have said whenever they're stuck on the writing, they create a pair of characters loosely based on (and frequently voiced by) themselves. #21 and #24 are the Ur-example; others include Watch and Ward, the Moppets and the 'Lepidopterists' Agents Doe and Cardholder.
  • Of course it has been suggested that Pete White◊ looks suspiciously like Doc Hammer◊, and they share a love of 80's electronica. White also speaks with a Hollywood New England accent, a possible reference to Doc Hammer being born and raised in Connecticut - though Jackson Publick admitted that his voice for Pete White was more an impersonation of his own father. Even White's name may be a reference to Requiem in White, a goth rock band that Hammer was part of in the '80s and '90s.
  • Averted: While it seems like Pete White is Doc Hammer if he was albino and voiced by Jackson Publick; Billy Quizboy is Jackson Publick if he was a midget and voiced by Doc Hammer, in the official Art Book, they confirmed that it was just coincidence that the characters looked like eachother.
• Author Filibuster: Possibly a subversion, but: the season four episode had two (Pro-Choice and Anti-Vegan/Vegetarianism) for the price of one, when now Imaginary Friend 24 delivers a tangent about the "truth" about souls: everything BUT unborn babies have souls (babies don't get their souls until their first year of life) and that God doesn't care if you eat animals/plants that have souls.
  • Perhaps the writers consider eating babies to be better than eating vegetables.
• Awesome, but Impractical: A common source of humor in regards to many of the Zeerust devices.
  • Jetpacks. "My shoe is on fire!"
  • The Walking Eye, which of course has many important uses: ...general Walking Eye stuff.
  • The Monarch's Flying Car, for a host of reasons. (Expensive fuel, being mistaken for a UFO, difficulty landing...)
  • The Monarch's Battle Panoply (Erratic flight, inability to aim, inability to move arms or legs...)
  • 21's design for the Mark V henchman battle armor. It's far too advanced for current technology to actually create most of its systems.
  • Subverted occasionally as 21 thinks that the henchman suits are just for show, but turn out to include first-night vision goggles and later the seemingly impossible functional butterfly wings.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Hank and Dean, though season three removes the resurrection option from the table.
  • Colonel Gentleman, whose season two death was handwaved away as being in a diabetic coma.
  • Brock, in the first episode, after getting shot with hundreds of The Monarch's henchmen's tranquillizer darts, getting run over by the Monarch Mobile and buried.
  • Henchman 24 returns in season four as an Obi-Wan-esque ghost. In the season four finale, it is revealed that he wasn't a ghost at all, but just 21's wishful hallucination.
• Baguette Beatdown: While chasing Dermott from the mall The Alchemist finds a mobility scooter filled with ISO-Standard Urban Groceries and throws a baguette at him while in hot pursuit (he misses).
• Banana Republic: Puerto Bahía. Its president is in US pay, and the country seems to support itself mostly on coffee cultivation and slave labor.
• Battle Cry:
  • YO! S.I.! YO! S.I.! YO! S.I.!
  • Also "SPHINX!" said with a lisp by Shoreleave.
  • Actionman will yell "ACTION, ACTION, ACTION!" repeatedly while shooting costumed mooks in the face.
• Bears Are Bad News: That creepy as sin bear supervillain in Bright Lights, Dean City, who frightened the hell out of the Revenge Society's leaders. He's dripping in blood, has a scary costume, never speaks, shows up out of nowhere, and has a knife (identified as Scare Bear in commentary).
• Because You Can Cope:
  • Subverted: Rusty routinely saddles Hank with the lion's share of the emotional trauma of being a boy adventurer because Hank knows it's all fake. Doc Venture tries to protect Dean while maintaining his belief in super-science and the threat of costumed aggression.
  • Subverted: In the Halloween Special, Dean decides to handle the emotional trauma of knowing the Venture brothers are clones by himself and not reveal this information to Hank, to spare him the pain of knowing.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper — among others — are alive and members of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, which previously counted as members Mark Twain, Aleister Crowley, and Oscar Wilde, to name a few.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't make fun of Brock Samson.
    So... anyone who doesn't immediately show you respect, you murder?
  • Also, apparently, rudely hitting on Triana Orpheus in front of Dean. Or her father.
  • Never mention Wonderboy or the Monarch to Captain Sunshine. Especially not in the same breath. Just ask Scorpio.
  • And don't talk about Dr. Quest in front of Action Johnny!
  • Don't say anything about 24 post-mortem in the presence of Two-Ton Twenty-One.
    That was no car accident! 24 died in a car intentional.
• Berserker Tears: Dean. See above.
• Best Her to Bed Her:
  • Gender reversed: Brock Samson fell in love with Molotov Cocktease when, the first time they met, she tied him to the bed and set the building on fire, and stole his cigarettes..
  • And Ginny, who is clearly attracted to Brock and considers him the only real man she's ever met.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Professor Victor Von Helping is a pacifist... to a point. Once he's pushed too far, lookout.
• Beware the Silly Ones:
  • This may as well be the mantra of the entire show. Every character has some weird quirky thing going on and are insanely comedic, but a large portion of them can be extremely dangerous as well.
  • The Guild is the organization embodiment of this. As Brock notes, takes away the spandex and rules keeping everything in check, and you have a group of super-rich nutjobs with death rays and private armies at their command.
• Big Bad: Has had several, depending on the season. Frequently has a Big Bad Ensemble as well.
  • Season 1: The Monarch and Baron Ünderbheit, with the Monarch as a Big Bad Wannabe and Ünderbheit the much more threatening villain.
  • Season 2: Monarch moves into a Villain Protagonist role, Ünderbheit gets Put on a Bus, and Phantom Limb takes over as the Big Bad towards Rusty and the Monarch over the course of the season.
  • Season 3: Monarch is barred by the Guild of Calamitous Intent from arching Dr. Venture, so Sgt. Hatred takes over as Rusty's Guild-sanctioned arch. He subverts the Big Bad role though, by being dead set on gaining Rusty's respect and love, largely to torment the Monarch by not killing Rusty. Throughout it all, you have Molotov Cocktease and Colonel Hunter Gathers' Black Hearts Mercenary group manipulating events, especially in the season finale.
  • Seasons 4 and 5: Monarch retakes the role, though occasional Arc Villains like the returning Phantom Limb, Monstroso, and Molotov Cocktease get their share of focus as well.
  • The All This and Gargantua 2 post-Season 5 special has The Sovereign in this role.
  • Season 6: The Monarch is arch-blocked by Wide Wale and his cadre of subcontractor arches for Dr. Venture. The Monarch then becomes the Blue Morpho to get back to arching Dr. Venture by unintentionally killing all of the subcontractors.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Monarch and Doctor Mrs. The Monarch come out of freaking nowhere to rescue Doctor Venture and Billy in "Bot Seeks Bot". Immediately subverted when the rescue results in disaster anyway.
• Bilingual Bonus: In the pilot, the character "Otaku Sensuri" is introduced as representing "the Onani Corporation of Japan". Onani, in Danish and Japanese, means masturbation, and "onanism" is a dated English word for masturbation. Not to mention "Sensuri" - or rather, "senzuri" - is itself another Japanese slang word for masturbation. Pair this with the well-known word "Otaku" (meaning "fanboy"), and the whole damn company is basically about Fan Wank... whether literal or metaphorical is best left unsaid.
  • In English, the 'sin of Onan' refers to the Biblical tale of a man who "spilled his seed" rather than impregnate his late brother's wife. Though technically Onan was practicing coitus interruptus rather than masturbation, anyone well versed in Judeo-Christian theology would understand that onanist = wanker, The Danish term would have the same origin.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor:
  • Done very subtly. The creators had to fight tooth and nail with Cartoon Network to get them to cough up the money to use a licensed song in the second season premiere. According to the commentary for that episode, the network may well have had a decent point because (according to Doc Hammer) the rights cost an eighth of the entire series budget.
  • The same commentary plays with biting the hand humour too, playing a message from CN denying them the money, and revealing that the network only agreed after seeing the scene cut to music written by Doc Hammer which was bad enough to convince them they needed the track to make the sequence work.
  • The third season premiere has the Guild's Council showing a video of the Monarch having sex with Doctor Girlfriend for the first time, only to replace the song (by The Sugarcubes) with generic music (Brock's training song from season one) because they couldn't afford the rights, much to the Monarch's annoyance.
  • Venture Bros. box sets tend to have some digs at Adult Swim:
    Billy Quizboy: [narrating] ... With more special features than an Adult Swim DVD.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The season three finale. The three assassins who tried to kill Brock turned out to not have been with the OSI, but they were Molotov's assassin rivals. However, the others don't know yet and Molotov is still likely not an enemy of the Venture family, so they're safe for the time being; it also appears Sergeant Hatred might perform a Heel–Face Turn. However, Brock's experience with the whole situation convinces him to quit the OSI, thus he also quits being the family bodyguard. Finally, the attack on the Venture Compound by the Monarch left the boys' clones destroyed, but Dr. Venture may be likely to protect his boys more often (as he told Hank, "you only live once"). His cloning experiments (which are illegal) have been made public. Henchman 24 and H.E.L.P.eR are dead; the former now talks with his best friend, Henchman 21, from beyond the grave (he also helped said friend become a badass) and the latter had his head placed on a walking eye Dr. Venture made some time ago.
  • Season four's finale, similarly. The episode balances out ending relationships while also starting some new ones. Dean is forced to give up on Triana again. Molotov leaves Brock for Monstroso and seemingly commits suicide with Monstroso rather than being captured. Henchman 21 is fully disillusioned with Dr. Girlfriend as well as the Monarch, quitting and flipping them off but opening the door for a full Heel–Face Turn, as well as being forced to finally face the fact that his best friend is truly dead and he's been hallucinating him this entire season. At the same time, the Alchemist finally hooks up with Shore Leave and Sgt. Hatred is reunited with Princess Tinyfeet. Hunter Gathers is finally able to end the feud with OSI, but at the same time, General Triester ejects himself to possible death in search of an alien cure after being shown to be a really good guy. Finally, 21 buries 24's skull, putting him behind him. In regards to Molotov's death, however, the creators of the series have stated numerous times that no one is dead unless you see them die on screen.
• Black Comedy:
  • The conversation that named the trope Powered by a Forsaken Child.
  • Sgt. Hatred's attraction to underage boys has been Played for Laughs.
  • Invoked during a funeral. The Monster Clown-themed supervillain (that just died) has the man doing eulogy make a "jack in the box" joke with his own casket because said villain wanted "the last laugh". The audience is unamused especially the Dragoon who openly dismisses the joke (but never liked the man's jokes to begin with).
• Black Comedy Rape: Stated to be the reason, or at least one of the reasons, why King Gorilla is in prison.
  Phantom Limb: You eviscerated and sodomized Vince Neil on live television!
  King Gorilla: I only sodomized half of him.
• Bland-Name Product: In one episode, 21 disguises himself as a delivery person from a shop called "Pharm House" whose logo and wordmark are a clear parody of the Duane Reade brand common in the New York area. He even has a fake name tag of 'Duane' to make it complete.
• Blatant Lies: Practically the only thing that comes out of Dermott's mouth.
• Blood Is the New Black: After a fight, Brock (especially in earlier seasons or flashbacks) will often be shown covered in paint-like swaths of blood.
• Body Backup Drive: The Venture Brothers had a backup army of clones, at least until their dad had to stop cloning them for legal reasons.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Why not just kill a hero? Because the Guild of Calamitous Intent's bylaws prevent it. In fact, supervillains are generally not even allowed to arm their henchmen with actual guns, which is why the Monarch and his henchmen use darts. Heroes also have to adhere to this if they don't want to piss off the Guild, which is described as a powder keg of psychos who like using kid gloves but have access to far, far worse.
• Bored with Insanity: After he escapes from the Guild of Calamitous Intent's prison in season four, Phantom Limb gradually regains his sanity, culminating when Professor Impossible restores his limbs completely with the added side effect of screwing on his head tightly in place.
• Boring, but Practical: Monstroso's plan to take down Venture was to do it bureaucratically rather than some grandiose invasion like the Monarch had hoped for.
• Bottle Episode: "Tag Sale - You're It!" was meant to be one, as it took place entirely on the Venture compound, except that Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick loaded the background with brand-new bit characters, going against the whole idea... They tend to do that a lot.
• Brain Bleach: When Hank finds out that Dermott's older sister—to whom he lost his virginity—is not only Dermott's mother, but Rusty is Dermott's father he goes to Brock at SPHINX headquarters to have his recent memories erased.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Hank and Dean in "The Incredible Mr. Brisby."
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Gary (21), as the sole remaining member of SPHINX, once tries to predict The Monarch's new weapon gimmick based on his apparent tactics. He guesses that it's either something with acid or some kind of magnet. Cut to The Monarch, ordering his minions to "ready the acid magnet!"
• Break the Cutie:
  • The Monarch dumping Dr. Girlfriend in "Trial of the Monarch", especially given how the Monarch reduced his lover to tears by calling her a whore. Unseen, but mentioned, was Dr. Quymn's off-camera break-up with the father of her two kids, which left her emotionally destroyed until her childhood friend Rusty came back into her life.
  • Rusty's childhood consisted of a lot of this, thanks to his father being a complete Jerkass, a constant with the fathers/guardians of former boy adventurers/detectives. Thus, this applies to Dean Venture as well.
  • Lovable loser Henchman 21 gets broken in season four. This comes as a result of his being broken in the season three finale.
• Break the Haughty: Dr. Thaddeus Venture, when after an entire episode of Dr. Killinger puffing up his ego, finding out that Killinger was doing it because he'd make a great supervillain. Venture turns him down, but asks Sampson in a weak voice "Am I a bad person?"
• Brick Joke:
  • There are a few here and there, but the Call-Back to "Dawn Venture" in the third season finale.
  • In one of the earlier seasons, it's mentioned that the boys had a crush on the postwoman who delivered to the Venture compound, as she was the only female they ever saw. Hank tries to take her to prom in the season four finale.
  • The Monarch orders 21 and 24 from prison to dispose of the charred remains of Wonderboy, whom he later admits he "kind of slew" during his period of heavy drinking following the breakup with Dr. Girlfriend. In the season three premiere, the Monarch told an offhand war story about "Captain Sunshine" in which he tricked the hero into thinking that the Monarch was invulnerable. For all the viewers know, this is just some guy the Monarch made up to impress Dr. Girlfriend. Captain Sunshine charges into the story in the second episode of season four and loudly declares that he knows the Monarch is invulnerable. He is also still very angry that The Monarch killed his sidekick, Wonderboy.
  • Both Monstroso and Sgt. Hatred are also characters based on Brick Jokes. #21 mentions that most of the Monarch's henchmen went to work for Monstroso when the Monarch was sent to prison, and Sgt. Hatred was originally just some guy the Monarch stole technology from (and his henchmen played pranks on), only to become the main character by Season 4.
  • 21 realizes Hank's immortality in season two and tells him he's the Highlander. In season four, after Hank's clones are all destroyed, 21 tells him that it looks like he won't see the Quickening after all.
  • In the season 4's finale, one of Hunter's demands to General Treister in exchange for Monstroso is for the O.S.I to stop sending agents to try and infiltrate SPHINX, as they're starting to get tired of killing them and can't afford the body bags. By the end of the episode, it's implied that all but five of the SPHINX agents are O.S.I moles.
  • Subtle one in "Bot Seeks Bot": A canoe is seen in Brock's storage unit while they are looking for villain clothes. Hank in an earlier season had asked Brock if he got the canoe from the cigarette rewards.
  • In Season 6 Episode 5, Tanks For Nuthin, The Monarch takes a dump in Dr. Venture's pool, which was first suggested by 21 in Season 3 Episode 8, Tears of a Sea Cow. That's a 3 season brick joke. (about dropping a brick!!)
  • In Season 1, Doctor Orpheus predicts the Action Man will die in "two years, seventeen days, from a stroke." Guess what happens in Season 7!
• Brilliant, but Lazy:
  • Rusty can be pretty competent when necessary (he's certainly adept at cloning and weapons of mass destruction). It has been shown however that many of Dr. Venture's inventions are in fact creations of his late father, and sometimes his own modifications to his father's work.
  • In the Halloween Special, it's revealed that Ben and Jonas Venture were the ones who perfected the technology. Besides "is Rusty a clone, too?", it raises the question of whether he actually has the chops to be for super-science at all. He never earned his doctorate, and the few impressive things he's made (Guardo, Ooo-Ray), have all been in early episodes.
    His most recent "successful" creation in the season 5 premiere, a force field for the Gargantua-1 station he helped cause to self-destruct, was still largely developed and built by many other college intern scientists (who had begun experiencing "Einstein levels of mental processing" due to the radiation it emitted).
  • That said, in addition to Guardo and the Ooo Ray, Rusty also created the Joy Can and managed to bring the dead back to life. Given the nature of all of these accomplishments (a killer robot, a deathray, a lotus-eater machine that is Powered by a Forsaken Child, and zombie soldiers, it may well be that Rusty is brilliant, but only when it comes to stereotypically evil science. Doctor Killinger certainly believed it to be the case.
  • However, with the Gargantua-2, we do see him successfully fix the force field generator with just Dean's help, so he's at least good at that.
  • Season 7 finally has him do something big with a successful matter transporter device.
  • It's also implied that Pete White is a skilled scientist as well, though he spends most of his time playing video games and goofing off. However, Pete White's specialty is computers and technology, with most of his hobbies (video games, radio, internet) reflecting that.
  • Dr. Girlfriend went to college for a degree in science, designed the Monarch's working wings and the cocoon's security system. She mostly makes snacks for henchmen and reads all day. She had great potential as a supervillain but she prefers to be the power behind the throne because it's easier.
• Bring It: When Brock tries to enter the UN, a UN guard tries to confiscate Brock's knife (this after witnessing Brock kill a crocodile with his bare hands). Brock's response?
  Brock: Go ahead. Take it from me!
• "Bringer of War" Music: * There's an scene that invokes this for a villain suit-up scene, with the Holst piece playing in the background as the characters hum/scream the melody over top.
• Broken Pedestal: The series has made a point of showing that Jonas Sr. was really a Jerkass whose actions either psychologically damaged Rusty or caused incredible amounts of suffering to others.
• Brown Note: The Grand Galactic Inquisitor's voice is not only extremely loud but it sounds like it's filtered through a low-quality speaker at a drive-thru. It causes Hank to grab his crotch in pain.
  Ugh, I can feel it in my chonies!
• Buffy Speak: Jefferson Twilight tends to do this a lot. Nik-L-Nips. That is all.
• Bungling Inventor: Dr. Venture. He can be somewhat capable when he applies himself, however, his Brilliant, but Lazy tendencies lead to failure more often than not.
• Buried Alive: Brock in "Dia De Los Dangerous"
• The Bus Came Back: Venturestein in "Venture Libre." The German Plastic Surgeon shows up working for the OSI in "O.S.I. Love You." Baron Ünderbheit reappears in the second half of Season 4 after having been put on a bus early in Season 2.
• Butter Face:
  • Anna Baldavich. Apparently. When she died in season two, a news banner states she receives a closed-casket funeral.
  • Col. Hunter Gathers after his sex change. Body of a supermodel, same face as before (beard included.)
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Billy Quizboy. Most of the characters are on the receiving end of tons of abuse, but Billy is roundly dismissed as a loser even among his fellow losers. However, don't push him too far. He's groin punched Brock Samson and lived, not to mention he apparently managed to shake off the effect of O.S.I. brainwashing technology as well as being shown to be a brilliant amateur surgeon.
  • Sgt. Hatred. When we're first introduced to him, he's a supervillain on par with the Monarch, with his own hover tank and a literal army of henchmen. Since then, he has been repeatedly humiliated and degraded to the point where he is now working as a security guard (not a security chief — a guard) for his former archenemy.
  • Subverted with the Monarch: the pilot shows him as a hapless punching bag for Team Venture, but as the series progresses, the Monarch takes less abuse and becomes more of a dominant figure.
• Cain and Abel: Dr. Jonas Venture, Jr.
• Camp Gay:
  • The Alchemist, who ironically is the one member of the Order of the Triad who also sees how utterly silly the trappings of super-heroism are and constantly busts Dr. Orpheus's balls whenever he starts taking things way too seriously.
    The Alchemist: But being a magic superhero that keeps chasing the same guy? It’s completely gay. That is coming from a guy that voluntarily has sex with men!
  • Most of the members of the aforementioned OSI, who resemble Village People and are all very enthusiastic about "hitting the showers" together. Eventually, we learn that Shoreleave was kicked out of the group for being gay, indicating that the group apparently lives in a Transparent Closet.
    Col. Gathers: Oh yeah? Well, the Village People called, and and they want you to fucking kill yourself, you prancing bastard!
  • In The Guild flashback, Oscar Wilde, who's referred to by Aleister Crowley as "The ugly queen".
• Captain Ersatz: Many, MANY characters are thinly-veiled pastiches of both famous and obscure fictional characters, although in many cases this approaches subversion or deconstruction. The creators love to make 'realistic' interpretations of other characters and watch them fall apart.
  • Less obviously than most, the Action News Team is based on the Freedom Fighters (including Firebrand), with Captain Sunshine being the Ray.
  • Otto Aquarius aka Aquaman/Prince Namor
  • Brown Widow, an actual Spider-Man living in New York, who shoots webbing out of the spinnerets located on his lower back. His stopping the runaway cab in a wall of web is a direct Shout-Out to the 60's animated Spider-Man opening credits.
    • Even funnier because Brown Widow's love of singing and intention to enter musical theater could be a shout-out to Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which was under development at the time.
  • Molotov Cocktease is based on Marvel's Black Widow.
  • This is lampshaded with Dr. Entman/Humongoloid. Brock says that Entman reminds him of an unnamed Marvel Comics character.
  • Hunter Gathers is Hunter S Thompson (as written by himself).
  • Col. Gentlemen aka Allan Quatermain/James Bond (as played by Sean Connery).
  • King Gorilla aka Gorilla Grodd and Monsieur Mallah and the Gorilla Crime Boss of Gotham City.
  • The Grand Galactic Inquisitor is one of Jack Kirby's Celestials with shades of the Living Tribunal and the Watcher, other creations of Kirby's.
  • Professor Impossible and his associates are full-on parodies of the Fantastic Four. It's even mentioned that they won "Best Group Costume" at Halloween as the Fantastic Four.
  • Mr. Monday aka Calender Man.
  • Dr. Orpheus is an imitation of Dr. Strange and Mandrake the Magician.
  • The OSI is a mixture of SHIELD and G.I. Joe, with SPHINX as a mixture of their respective rival organizations, HYDRA and COBRA.
  • Sphinx Commander turns out to be Cobra Commander: the Egyptian Years, complete with Chris McCulloch's heroic attempt at a Chris Latta impersonation.
  • In season four, Phantom Limb seems to have temporarily imitated a crazier The Shadow as "Revenge." Even before, he was a villainous version of the Phantom, down to the purple suit with cowl and ghost motif. He's also a version of Fantomas, a French pulp character who was an influence on the Phantom. It's revealed in season 3 that Phantom Limb is a direct descendant of Fantomas.
  • "¡Viva los Muertos!" gave us the Mysteries Inc. gang with the members switched out with famous criminals.
  • Rebuilt Billion-Dollar Astronaut Steve Summers is The Six Million Dollar Man.
  • Captain Sunshine seems to be a cross between Batman and Superman, complete with a Jason Todd Wonderboy uniform behind glass. His characterization also resembles Michael Jackson.
  • Monstroso is an evil Genius Bruiser in the mold of The Kingpin.
  • Le Tueur aka Kraven the Hunter.
  • General Treister is a combination of Nick Fury and General "Thunderbolt" Ross (given that he's a red hulk).
  • Jefferson Twilight is Blade as originally written in the '70s. Unlike Blade, though, his vampire-hunting specialty is restricted to Blaculas.
  • Baron Ünderbheit. He is even called a "dime-store Doctor Doom" when mentioned in the first episode.
  • Brainulo is a combination of Brainiac and M.O.D.O.K..
  • Scaramantula has similarities to Francisco Scaramanga from the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, albeit with a spider theme.
  • The Clue Clown seems to be a mix of The Riddler and The Joker.
  • Dr. Venture is Jonny Quest as an adult, his father was Doc Savage.
    • The original Team Venture is also full of references. Colonel Gentleman is Sean Connery playing Ham Brooks (one of Doc Savage's aides). Kano is Kato from The Green Hornet.
  • Rusty's boy adventurer support group is composed of Action Johnny (Jonny Quest), middle-aged murder suspects Lance and Dale Hale (The Hardy Boys), Ro-Boy (Astro Boy), and the first Wonder Boy (Robin, the Boy Wonder), who is now fat and broke.
  • Red Death is a composite of the Red Skull and the horseman of war. He's also wearing Dracula armor from Bram Stoker's Dracula.
  • And yet it's implied, as well as being outright stated, that (at least some of) the real characters exist in-universe, like the Quest family, as well as Daphne and Velma. Even odder when you consider characters like Rusty and the fake Scooby Gang in season 2 are parodies of certain real-life counterparts (Jonny Quest and, well...the Scooby Gang, respectively.) which gets even weirder when one considers that Jonny Quest and Rusty have met several times.
    • Action Jonny is Jonny Quest, but due to the possibility of a Jonny Quest reboot series, Cartoon Network asked Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick to refer to him by another name in future appearances, hence the Action Jonny moniker.
  • Marsha Backwood in Season 5 is a rather obvious parody of Michelle Bachmann, even going as far as making the names sound roughly similar.
• Carcass Sleeping Bag:
  • The episode "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II" parodies the The Empire Strikes Back scene, with Brock cutting open Edgar Allan Poe for Hank to rest inside of him.
  • In another episode, Rusty is stranded naked in the arctic. Brock shows up just as he is about to be attacked by a polar bear, and skins the bear with incredible speed to keep the Doc warm. In this case, it's partly residual body heat from the bear (its skin is shown to be steaming) and partly just the benefit of a fur coat.
• Captain Fishman:
  • One of the members of the original Team Venture was Otto Aquarius, the half-human, half-Atlantean retired hero. After Dr. Venture's death and the Team disbanded, Otto became a Jehova's Witness, and is the only one who hasn't aged thanks to his Atlantean genetics.
  • A lab accident involving an experimental gene-splicer resulted in Dr. Douglas Ong and his brother Charles being mutated with aquatic DNA, the former becoming the heroic Dr. Dugong and the former becoming infamous Kingpin and Level-10 supervillain Wide Wale. While the former had his DNA spliced with benign sea-creatures like seals and starfish, Wide Wale has bits of whale and shark in him, his daughter Sirena inheriting his mutant genes as an Apparently Human Merfolk.
• Cargo Cult: The season three episode "What Goes Down Must Come Up", where a group of chemically addled children trapped in an underground bunker derive their entire culture from punch-card recordings Jonas Venture made to educate Rusty in the event of a nuclear apocalypse... and VH-1 Classic.
• Cargo Ship:
  • The Monarch and his new Butterglider seen in the second part of season four. invoked
  • Phantom Limb and 'Lady Nightshade,' a high-heeled shoe he stole from Dr. Girlfriend's closet.
  • Rusty (Brock, Hank and Dean) with that "iron cylinder of unearthly delights" they call the Joy Can.
• Car Meets House: Brock has done this intentionally on more than one occasion. Hank did it on accident once while driving Brock's car.
• Carnival of Killers: At the end of season three.
• Cartoon Bomb: The Monarch, 21, and 24 discuss using one of these on Dr. Venture, along with dropping an anvil on him and other silly attacks.
• Cast Herd: Done intentionally, not for lack of characterization but in an attempt to avoid too much Talking To Himself for creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick who voice the majority of the characters on the show.
• Casting Gag: So you have Captain Sunshine, who is a combination of a Superman Expy and every Batman and Robin gay joke in the world. Who did they get to voice him? Kevin Conroy.
• Cast of Snowflakes: There's a wide variety of distinctive facial features, body types, and even species on display that's easy to tell who everyone is even when they're out of costume. In the few instances where characters do have similar facial features, it usually ends up being plot-relevant, as is the case with Rusty Venture and the Monarch.
• Catchphrase "Go Team Venture!" *fanfare*
  21: Why doesn't anyone tell me this stuff?
• Caught with Your Pants Down: In 'Midlife Chrysalis' the Monarch watches Dr. Girlfriend seducing Dr. Venture on a video monitor. He starts rubbing his chest, his hand drifts downward... and he stops abruptly when a henchman passes through.
  • In another episode, 'Tears of a Sea Cow,' the Monarch is caught by Dean having sex with a robot (don't worry, it wasn't H.E.L.P.eR!) in Dr. Venture's lab. (The robot does not appear to be sentient, otherwise this could be considered Interrupted Intimacy)
• "Cavemen vs. Astronauts" Debate: 21 and 24 debating Who Would Win in a fight: Anne Frank or Lizzie Borden? "We are talking about a large, healthy woman- of questionable stability..."
• Celebrity Paradox: Unusually, parodies of characters and celebrities exist alongside the real thing. Rusty, modeled as a grown-up Jonny Quest, interacts with the actual Jonny Quest; Jonny and Rusty gossip about Daphne and Velma in "Self Medication" despite parodies of the characters showing up in "Viva Los Muertos!" - not even touching the fact that other characters have lampshaded Hank wearing Freddy's signature outfit; Col. Gathers points out the similarity between the 80's OSI superstars and Village People; Professor Impossible and his family exist in a world where people read comics about The Fantastic Four; and Captain Sunshine and Wonder Boy are real while Batman and Robin are fictional.\\ ^{Here's how it works} You know how one of the themes of Watchmen is how different the world would be if superheroes really existed? For instance, there aren't any superhero comics, since there's actual superheroes. Well, as part of the "failure" theme, The Venture Brothers shows a world that's functionally the same despite the presence of superheroes, super-science, etc. Magic and mad science exist, but are in the hands of the same inept, petty people like everything else, and are thus no more successful. In reflection of this, the world of The Venture Brothers has exactly the same escapist fantasy literature and cinema as our world; the presence of real superheroes has failed to make any impact.
• Central Theme:
  • Failure. Characters rarely succeed in the big epic ways that you would come to expect from other superhero stories. Anticlimax abounds, the realistic outcome follows in brutally honest ways, and any victories the characters achieve are usually more of the mental or emotional variety (Rusty accepting his life, 21 recovering from 24's death etc.). If any success does happen, usually it turns out that there's Always Someone Better to take you down a peg or that there is no achievable endgame.
  • Identity. Heroes and Villains are not something one is so much as roles characters play, comparable to that of a children's game of cops and robbers. The relationship between those aligned as good or evil operates on a professional basis, attacking one another under a heavily regulated system and then Go-Karting with Bowser when they have finished arching for the day, not unlike the rules of a game of pretend. Since super-science, magic and all of the other fantastical elements of the world are either too expensive, dangerous or impractical for anyone else to use, only rich or insane weirdos have access to them and have defined an entire community and economy around them. Character Development for many characters usually results in switching specific roles (Sgt. Hatred starting as a villain and then becoming a full-time member of Team Venture, Hunter defecting with a sex change and then changing back, the Monarch taking on the heroic identity of the Blue Morpho, etc.), with their capacity to have these identities - hero, villain, scientist, henchman - more important than doing it well.
• Celibate Hero: Deconstructed with Col. Bud Manstrong, who is so sexually repressed that his girlfriend cheats on him with Brock Samson. He's shown to be a complete Mama's Boy too, and it is later revealed that his mother's an Evil Matriarch whose bullying of her son has caused him to repress any and all sexual desires, to the point of having a Heroic BSoD when said girlfriend gives him a handjob right before she dies.
  • Lampshaded by Rusty. When he organizes an event for fans of his adventures, he warns Hank and Dean not to tell them that he has children as the kids' heads would explode upon discovering he has had sex.
• Cerebus Retcon (relatively speaking): Billy's inability to remember how he got his robotic hand.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Not nearly as drastic as most examples, but Venture Bros. went from being a parody of Jonny Quest and other action/adventure franchises to a more serious examination of the characters.
• Chain of Corrections: The definition of the sex act called a "Rusty Venture."
• Chained to a Railway: Red Death dispatches Blind Rage with this, taking a moment to lecture the upstart about "classic" villainy and how even a tired old scheme like this can still be terrifying psychological torture for the victim.
• Character Development: Most of the characters started out as Jonny Quest/pulp comic parodies whose personalities could be summed up in one or two sentences, but all of them have become more complex and three-dimensional as the show progressed. For example:
  • Dean has gradually changed from an enthusiastic adventure boy to a Type 2 Seen It All who really just wants to hang out with kids his own age. He's also become more likely to get into fights. Though he hasn't Taken A Level In Badass, let's be fair, he did manage to kneecap Baron Ünderbheit with a steel baton after being caught *completely* off-guard by The Revenge Society. Definitely an improvement over Dean's previous onscreen fight, where he just flailed wildly against Dermott. In the same scene his rape whistle seems to disable Mr. Impossible, or at least forces him to put his hands over his ears instead of using his stretching powers to subdue Dean. It takes Phantom Limb's "killer hand thing" to drop him. He's more of a Badass Pacifist now, who usually solves his situations through peaceful methods.
  • The Monarch has become more intelligent and sane in his villainy, even pulling off a Batman Gambit — though it's possible he was always this way since he became horrifically lethal the moment he was arching anyone other than Venture. His relationship with Doctor Girlfriend (now Dr. Mrs. The Monarch) has dramatically evolved, too.
  • Brock has become more moral over the course of the show, questioning things that didn't seem right when he looked closer, leading up to quitting in the season three finale.
  • The entire purpose of Dr Henry Killinger is to force this in characters. He's like a more affable Mike.
  • While still not all that smart, Hank isn't nearly as naive or childish as he used to be in early seasons now that he's older. The largest evidence came during his angry speech when 21 kidnapped him and his brother and accused them of killing 24. Brock's absence, while unfortunate, is actually having a pretty cool effect on his personality and actions. Now he's a bit of an action junkie, a Casanova Wannabe, and a relative badass being able to take down lower threats, and escape from almost any situation the O.S.I. could think of putting him in. And yet he's still the same lovable doofus.
  • Dr. Venture himself has slowly but surely overcome some of his daddy issues. Hand in hand with this is him becoming less callous toward his sons (if more openly vitriolic).
  • Henchman 21, following 24's death, has become one of the most competent people not just in the Monarch's organization, but in the Guild. He was actually capable of earning praise from Brock Samson for their fight. Compare this to earlier episodes where "Death by Samson" was a regular cause of death for the Monarch's henchmen. That 21 could fight Samson to a standstill was awesome, though one wonders if Brock had brought his A-game.
• Characterization Marches On: The writers describe their characterization process as simply writing whatever was funniest at the time, then modifying the character afterward so that it comes across as Hidden Depths. An example is the change in Brock's personality over season 1 - in 'Are You There God, It's Me Dean' Doc Hammer had Brock attack the Monarch's henchman to cheer up the Monarch on his sad excuse for a birthday, though, (as Doc explains in the commentary for the episode) at the time of writing, Brock had not shown such compassion before. Other examples are:
  • Hank and Dean going from one step short of Single-Minded Twins to extreme opposites of recklessness (Hank) and cautiousness (Dean).
  • The Monarch going from joke villain to a bad ass villain with character depth to make him one of the most fully developed characters of the series.
  • They even do it to an entire organization. The Guild of Calamitous Intent is described in their first appearance by Brock as quick, efficient and no-nonsense. He famously calls them "The only organization [he] still respects". A far cry from their later description where - while most of the guild members are individually dangerous - the guild itself is almost comically incapable and filled with red tape. The council of 13 bickers amongst themselves about anything and nothing and even their shape-shifting leader can't keep his (assumed) identity secret from his minions.
• Cheated Angle: Dr. Girlfriend's hair in the early episodes.
• Chekhov's Gun: A bunch, some huge, some subtle, like Phantom Limb using a muscle accelerator to heal Brock Samson. He says it was a leftover from his day as a goodie two-shoe scientist. In season three we learn that using similar devices on himself is what gave him his powers.
• Chew Toy: H.E.L.P.eR
• Chick Magnet / Dude Magnet:
  • Brock Samson, having slept with a large number of one-off female characters (especially in the first season), and attracted the attention of several of the most badass women in the series, such as Molotov Cocktease, Ginny, and Warriana. Dr. Girlfriend has also shown signs of attraction to him.
  • Dr. Girlfriend herself is quite popular with men, as she's married to The Monarch, Phantom Limb is her ex-boyfriend, she successfully seduced Dr. Venture (who has since become an Abhorrent Admirer to her), Gary/Henchman 21 kissed her and was "probably in love with" her, and one-episode villain CopyCat flirted with her and set up a Frame-Up just to make her husband look bad in her eyes. Though this is completely averted with Brock (who thinks she's transsexual due to her voice), to her annoyance.
  • Monumentally inverted by Doctor Venture. His selfish attitude and utter cluelessness make his inept forays into romance into complete disasters.
• Child by Rape: Dermott is the result of statuatory rape.
• Children Forced to Kill:
  • A clip from The Rusty Venture Show shows young Rusty being forced to shoot a bad guy to save his father.
  • In the season 3 finale, Doc tells Sgt. Hatred that his father made him kill a man with a house key. He was ten.
  • Although not exactly a child, Killinger makes Hank kill a man who stole from his father.
• The Chosen Zero: Dean Venture's bizarre mental breakdown during the season two finale has him imagine himself as the chosen one of a fantasy world. The ruler of the fantasy land is not impressed and assumes that it's some kind of a joke.
• Christmas Episode: "A Very Venture Christmas".
• Clone Army: the second season premiere revealed that the boys were clones, and Doctor Venture kept a room of clones for when they inevitably die. In the season 3 finale Sergeant Hatred uses the boy's clones as a Redshirt Army. They all die.
• Cloning Blues:
  • Hank and Dean, upon discovering the laboratory where their clone slugs are kept, curl up and start weeping. Dr. Venture subsequently claims that the clones are a Christmas present to end their blues.
  • In "Perchance to Dean," a deformed Dean clone who was aborted as a baby but somehow survived hidden in the Venture compound, wishing he was the 'real' Dean. Oh, and also making a Dean-suit out of the skins of dead clones.
  • "The Better Man" adds a new wrinkle to this, possibly. Dean's genes are useless for reproduction, as the cloning process has made him unable to father kids that aren't freaks. Since the clones were all made at once, this must mean the cloning technology has some serious flaws. Of course, the Master could easily have been exaggerating to make a point.
  • In the Halloween special, "A Very Venture Halloween," Dean learns that he and Hank are clones; furthermore, no efforts are made to wipe his memory or cover-up the knowledge. After a brief reflection on the ethics of "playing God", he decides to drown his sorrows in cheap beer and adopts a rebellious emo persona. When Hank finally asks Dean what's bothering him, Dean finally tells Hank that they are both clones and not even the original Hank and Dean. However, in an aversion of this trope, Hank thinks that being a clone is pretty awesome and is not bothered at all, which helps Dean feel better, too.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Hank and Dean, each in their own special way.
• Comic-Book Time: Thanks to a particularly long-due Brick Joke, it was shown that exactly two years and seventeen days passed between the Season 1 episode "Past Tense" and the Season 7 multi-premier "Arrears in Science". But given that those episodes debuted about 13 years apart, and that technology and pop culture seem to move at the same speed in the show as they do in real life, you end up with a somewhat thorny example of this trope. Worse around season 6 the creators decided to move several key events up several years like Jonas' death from 1983 to 1987.
  • This applies In-Universe as well. With Dr. Venture being shown as as a child both far longer or earlier than he could have been. Take when the Action Man kills Turnbuckle in 1966, Rusty helps his father build Gargantua-1 in 1971, and Kano kills Venturion in 1976, Rusty is depicted as essentially the same age despite ten years passing. Seeing as how the Turnbuckle incident and Venturion's death were both shown on-screen only a few episodes apart, this seems to be very intentional. Of course Rusty being a clone means he could have been a child in 1966, 1971 and 1976.
• Comic Trio: Starting with season four, a lot of Those Two Guys-type relationships were expanded into comedy trios - the Revenge Society (Phantom Limb, Impossible, Ünderbheit), SPHINX (Brock, Hunter, and Shore Leave) and even the title duo was expanded into a trio. The Order of the Triad has been a Comic Trio since season one.
• Companion Cube: Phantom Limb's "Revenge Society" consists of a coffee mug, a toaster, and a shoe...and he talks to them. This was due to Limb's prior nervous-breakdown after suffering through various losses to the Guild and The Monarch. He eventually pulls himself together and replaces said inanimate objects with real people (Underbheit, Professor Impossible, etc.). At least, we THINK the people replaced the objects...
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: in "Assisted Suicide" Rusty is mind-controlled with intent to force him to kill himself. Orpheus warns that watching his body self-destruct against his will could have broken Rusty in itself - but Rusty explains that the repeated trauma from his father's upbringing made him immune.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In a throw-away line at the end of the first season, the Monarch instructs his henchmen to "send Captain Sunshine the charred remains of his beloved Wonderboy." Said Captain appears for the first time three seasons later. On top of that, Captain Sunshine's belief that the Monarch is invulnerable confirms a story that the Monarch told to impress the future Dr. Girlfriend in a flashback in the third season.
  • The show actually has a ton. In the first half of the season three finale, Hank mentions to professional assassin Le Tueur that he'd once dressed up in a Batman costume and jumped off the roof of his house... or at least, he thinks did— it might have be a dream. In the season two premiere, we actually see a Hank clone do exactly that in a Death Montage. Which begs the question: how does the current Hank remember that?
  • When Dean's testicles wrap around themselves in season one, Rusty blames himself, muttering "Should have fixed this in the prototype phase," and then the second season reveals what he meant by that.
  • Even one of the show's main characters started this way. Originally Sergeant Hatred was just part of a throwaway gag; the Monarch idly mentioned he'd stolen some pieces of his Hover Tank. A whole season later, Hatred becomes Rusty's new arch enemy, thus stealing the Monarch's job. It turns out he planned this all just to get back at the Monarch for stealing his tank parts. Later still, he's promoted to one of the four main cast members when Brock quits the team.
  • While Sergeant Hatred was introduced in the season 2 finale two-parter, he becomes a recurring character in early season 3, as Doc's new Arch. However, in the previous episode, which flashes back to Billy's time as an OSI Operative, Brock gets bawled out by a shouty, redheaded OSI noncom. In the montage which ends the episode, he is shown putting on a Guild of Calamitous Intent ring.
  • In the midseason finale of season four, "Pinstripes & Poltergeists." The Monarch is executing a business deal with the hugely oversized Devil-themed villain Monstroso; as far back as the season one finale, Dr Girlfriend was assumed to have some history with Monstroso, and #21 mentions that a number of his fellow henchmen went to work for Monstroso after The Monarch was sent to prison.
  • When Alchemist phones up Watch and Ward to ask them what a Rusty Venture entails, they immediately reply that "the guild is not responsible if a third party kills their assigned archvillain." This is a clear reference to the Triad's nemesis being dispatched by the Outrider in an earlier episode.
  • The Scooby-Doo knockoffs in Viva Los Muertos have a flashback where the Shaggy and Scooby analog brutally kill Hank and Dean. They encounter them again (as clones) and assume that they are ghosts. When the "gang" sees the tanks of clones, the Fred analog is heard to say "They're not ghosts, they're the freaking Boys From Brazil!"
  • Augustus St. Cloud has been a background character since the first season. It's not till the fifth that he gets a voice and a story.
• Contractual Genre Blindness: Literally, when you sign a contract with the Guild of Calamitous Intent.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: 21 uses the Chinese Water Torture on Hank and Dean, which just proves to be kind of annoying at worst. Doesn't help that he neglected to keep them completely isolated and keeps telling them that they're going insane.
• Cool Car:
  • Brock's Dodge Charger, which still holds together despite him using it as a weapon with some frequency. And, showing how tough he is, it's shown that he tore it apart before the beginning of the two-part season three finale when it tried to kill him.
  • The Monarch's new Monarchmobile, which can fly. This is in marked contrast to his previous transport, Henchman #24's beat-up Nissan Stanza, and even the purple, war wagon Monarchmobile. Well, okay, the original original Monarchmobile was actually pretty cool - the purple war wagon he adopted later was a little fruity.
  • Myra's Bullitt Mustang is a nice complement to Brock's Charger. The car chase scene in Bulitt is between a Mustang and Charger and is often listed as the seminal chase scene.
  • Colonel Gathers' Jensen Interceptor, with gadgets similar to 007's DB5. All OSI members past and present seem to have some identifiable 'cool car' from the late 60s or early 70s.
  • 'Venture Motors' SAAB 96 in which Hank and Dean were likely conceived.
  • Blue Morpho's Morphomobile, which is a sporty car, and has all the standard spy tech devices in it.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Befitting the show's status as a Deconstructive Parody of boy's adventure series, it loves this trope.
  • Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture and Action Johnny are both this to Jonny Quest (in fact, the latter was supposed to be Jonny Quest himself but that was vetoed by Executive Meddling): both former boy adventurers who were both left traumatized by the many near-death experiences they had over the course of their adventures. They've become differently jaded as a result; Rusty has become a super-scientist who's a neglectful father himself, only less successful than his father, and Johnny has rage issues and drug addictions.
  • Rusty's father, Jonas Venture, is likewise one to Doc Savage, being an adventuring scientist and Genius Bruiser par excellence, but was a terrible father to Rusty, exposing him to numerous traumas and then making minimal effort to help him with the problems he developed from it. And that's not even getting into what a horrible friend he was...
  • Professor Richard Impossible is the head of the Impossibles, a Fantastic Four parody. Introduced as a Captain Ersatz of Reed Richards, he soon shows a much darker side as a sexist and bigoted Jerkass who's uncaring and abusive to his family. Much like Reed's Ultimate Universe incarnation, he ends up becoming a villain in his own right.
    • Even his turn to the dark side is corrupted as the same traits that made him a terrible hero also make him a sub-par villain, paired with his inexperience in the field.
    • Likewise, the rest of the Impossibles have terrible powers; Sally's skin becomes invisible whenever she's not actively concentrating to keep it visible, Cody flames on in contact from oxygen and can feel the burns despite being impervious to them, and Ned has mental deficiencies.
  • The Groovy Gang is one to Mystery Incorporated, as they're all send-ups of famous serial killers and other Real Life infamous figures and use solving mysteries at spooky old places as an excuse to loot said places and kill any witnesses.
  • Red Death is one to the Red Skull, being a terrifying villain who is genuinely imposing and has the latter's Skull for a Head, but is a Punch-Clock Villain like all Guild members and is a pretty darn nice guy when he's not engaging in acts of villainy.
  • The Blue Morpho is one to the Green Hornet, as having a reputation as a villain means that he can and will do some depraved things in the name of duty, such as performing every known sex act to Dr. Z while disguised as Billie Jean King. Then it's revealed that Jonas blackmailed him into doing such work.
    • As Venturion, he's one to Robocop. The rest of Team Venture was horrified by Jonas's decision to revive the Blue Morpho as a cyborg, which caused him to lose interest in doing anything with Venturion other than making him Rusty's nanny, which turned out to be a huge mistake as it awakened his memories of his own son and a plane crash, which led him to strangle Rusty and in turn having his neck snapped by his former sidekick Kano, who took a vow of silence in remorse.
    • His "Vendata" persona is one to Darth Vader, a cyborg Fallen Hero who was found and rebuilt by Dr. Z and repurposed into a supervillain. However, most of his villainous acts are because of a morality dial installed on him and the remainder are out of justifiable anger at Jonas for turning him into Venturion in the first place.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: A great deal of build-up is given to 21's crush on Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, and his fear of The Monarch's wrath. He eventually learns they have an open relationship anyway...which weirds him into no longer being interested...
• Crapola Tech:
  • The prototype lightsaber #21 purchased from Dr. Venture during the episode "Tag Sale, You're It!" It actually does produce a lightsaber blade...it just can't cut anything.
  • Another episode features The Monarch attacking Dr. Jonas Venture at Spider-Skull Island, using his "X-Ray cannon—" which fizzles, causing him to whine "Ah, the X-Ray cannon sucks!"
• Crapsack World: One of the themes of the show is how the age of super-science that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s never produced the cool technology (such as jet packs and flying cars) promised to the common man.
• Creator Cameo: Doc Hammer apparently went to high school with Dermott.◊
• Crimefighting with Cash: Inverted. Augustus St. Cloud decides to join the Guild to arch Billy Quizboy and states that his supervillain power is "having a lot of money."
• Crippling Overspecialization: A few examples:
  • Implied to be the bane of Jefferson Twilight, Blacula hunter, since he exclusively hunts black vampires. Later countered when it's revealed that he is a former army vet and has a ton of practical skills such as the ability to drive a tank. That said, abandoned, fueled-up, ready-to-drive tanks that can actually be driven by one guy are probably much less common than Blaculas. Don't...be so sure.
  • Head Shot is a really good sniper. Normally, that would be more than enough to be useful. However, he works for the O.S.I., which frequently requires undercover espionage and close-quarters combat with legitimately superpowered and/or magical enemies, leaving him at a disadvantage and left out of missions as a result.
• Crossdressing Voices: Dr. Girlfriend
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • Hank handily beats all the "tests" thrown at him by a secret organization he wants to join, all of which were designed to make him go away. Hank himself points out that he's spent so much time with people trying to kill him or abduct him that this stuff is old hat.
  • In season 5 "Venture Libre" Hank gets separated from the group, overdoses on caffeine, then decides to go Batman on Venturestein's Guerrilla Faction. And it works...sort of.
• Cryptic Background Reference: Many characters and elements started as offhand references. Baron Ünderbheit, Monstroso, Sgt. Hatred, Truckules and Captain Sunshine were all briefly alluded to as part of the show's world-building before they became important parts of the story.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Though any scene where Brock puts a beatdown on the Monarch's henchman is an example, nowhere is this more noticeable than in the first episode where he runs them over with his car. He had to turn his windshield wipers on to clear the blood away so he could find more to run over.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check:
  • Referenced; the Monarch paid a couple of million dollars for some robot caterpillars just so that he could ransom the Venture boys for ten million. He explicitly says that he is doing this For the Evulz.
  • Played straight with Jonas Jr. who makes a comfortable living selling the advanced tech he initially improvised to try and kill Rusty.
• Cutscene Incompetence: On Brock's part in the opening of season two, when Dr. Venture kicks Brock in the shin and somehow manages to escape in the X-1.
• Cyanide Pill: Brock has a false tooth loaded with arsenic, which he offers to Dr. Venture in "Love Bheits".
• Dark Parody:
  • Their parody of Jonny Quest shows how in the real world, Johnny's life would be traumatizing and shows an adult Johnny as a drug addict.
  • Their parody of Scooby-Doo has the characters replaced with well-known scumbags of The '70s.
• Dating Catwoman:
  • Brock and Cocktease.
  • Hank Venture and Sirena in Season 6.
• Deadly Force Field: In "Tanks for Nuthin'", Brock manages to make it up to the residential area where he proceeds to fight off the villain Think Tank. During their scuffle, Think Tank manages to stop Brock's knife-strike with a force-field, his upper arm stuck in the force-field. Brock thinks they are still evenly matched, only for Think Tank to retort that if he wanted to, he could cut his arm off through the bone and blast the rest of him point-blank. Brock isn't too concerned about it.
• Deadly Ringer: Subverted in "The Devil's Grip". The Monarch tries to torture Dr. Venture by placing him under a large bell and striking the side of it, hoping the ringing will make his eardrums explode. But Dr. Venture spent a lot of his childhood travelling in a supersonic jet, so the noise barely affects him.
• Deal with the Devil: Any deal made with "the Investors," a trio of mysterious Intangible Men in the employ of the Guild.
• Death Montage: When we find out the boys are clones, we are treated to a hilarious montage.
• Decon-Recon Switch: On the one hand, the O.S.I/Guild rivalry is often played for as much comedy as possible, with many of the jokes centering on how ineffectual and hidebound they are, and the childishness of it all. In fact, Rusty outright calls both the Guild and O.S.I "Children." On the other hand, it's made very clear during the tenure of the reborn S.P.H.I.N.X that compared to the prospect of serious, more adult villains armed with super-science who eschew a costume and gimmick, the current structure is probably for the best.
• Deconstructive Parody: The show starts as an analysis of how boy adventurers like Jonny Quest would fare later in life.
• Deconstructor Fleet: On top of the genres mentioned above and the several tropes listed on this page, specific episodes have also featured grim Black Comedy deconstructions of The Fantastic Four and Scooby-Doo.
• Decoy Protagonist: The Venture Brothers aren't necessarily the protagonists. The show is constructed as more of an ensemble piece than anything else. Many episodes focus on Dr. Venture and Brock, and the season arcs in general seem to narrate the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as they become professional villains.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: In the flashbacks to the original Team Venture.
• Den of Iniquity: A low-key example of this appears in the fourth season; it's a room inside the Monarch's cocoon where his minions would quietly gather for drinks on their downtime.
• Destination Defenestration: A flashback to Doc and Brock's college days in The Venture Brothers ends with a rampaging Brock throwing someone through a window. He also does this to a random thug in the pilot episode.
  • In a later episode, Rusty leaps through the window of a skyscraper. He's not committing suicide, he wants to show off a device that lets him hover. Unfortunately for him, he didn't take into account the glass shards and a huge one punctures his leg, causing him to blackout.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Outrider literally does this in "The Better Man."
• Disney Villain Death: Both Molotov Cocktease and Monstroso go off a cliff in a limo in the season four finale. The explosion is rather telling. Still, we just saw the car explode, not the occupants.
• Disproportionate Retribution: A guy they knew in college actually his robot clone, the real person was dead tries to get back at his college associates for his mistaken belief that they were doing everything they could to separate him from his crush. Rusty has this following gem: "Oh come on! You're going to kill me because I had fake sex on graph paper with a girl who barely spoke to you in real life??"
• Distaff Counterpart: Dr. Quymn's twin daughters, Nancy and Drew, were written to be counterparts of Dean and Hank, but with far more worldliness. Dr. Quymn herself is one to Rusty Venture. Ginnie Dunne fills the spot in comparison to Brock.
• Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Professor Richard Impossible.
• Distressed Dude: The young Rusty Venture, to the point where there's a Guild of Calamitous Intent bylaw for hostages known as "Rusty's Law".
• Documentary Episode: "From The Ladle To The Grave: The Story of Shallow Gravy"
• Doesn't Like Guns: Brock, who will gladly crush you with knives and bare hands instead. However, he does geek out when Jonas Jr. shows him his late '60s Death Ray, and really wants to shoot it.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • Sgt. Hatred becoming Dr. Venture's arch-nemesis over Monarch is treated very similar to him being the new lover and Monarch is the ex (particularly when he goes on about how he will treat Venture better than Monarch ever could.)
  • Hank's reactions to Sgt. Hatred being his new bodyguard clearly resembles those of a stepchild not liking their stepfather. "You're not my real bodyguard!"
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: This happens with Hank and Brock.
• Doomed New Clothes: We'll miss you, Butterglider.
• Double-Meaning Title: While the title of the show clearly refers to Dean and Hank, by the end of Season 1 their father Thaddeus Venture has discovered his Long Lost Sibling. In the opening of Season 2, Thaddeus and Jonas Jr. replace Dean and Hank in the Title Sequence, and JJ soon reminds Rusty: "We're the Venture Brothers!" Indeed they are the only Venture brothers since Dean and Hank have (temporarily) died.
  • Season 7 reveals that Rusty and The Monarch are biologically related — specifically, they are half brothers, meaning that they too could be the "Venture Brothers" the title refers to.
• Downer Ending: The series ends on one: Hank has gone abandoned the family after Dean sleeps with his girlfriend, Rusty and Monarch have discovered they are brothers (with the implication that Jonas Sr murdered Monarch's mother and turned his father into Vendetta, who in turn killed Jonas furthering their blood feud going forward). OSI is still messing with Rusty's attempt to use his brother Jonas Jr's fortune to make the world a better place and Brock is exposed as actively conspiring to help Hunter Gatherers keep Rusty from doing anything of value to benefit society (like creating teleportation tech). And while Monarch got his level ten villain status back, it hinged on him impersonating his father Vendetta's former heroic identity as the Blue Morpho, which will surely come out now that he and Rusty are brothers is common knowledge and probably destroy his marriage to Mrs. Monarch. Not to mention that a faction in the Guild are clearly trying to leverage 21's growth as a number two to get him to leave the Monarch, even if he did reject their offer to make him a mid-range villain in the final episode.
• The Dragon:
  • Dr. Girlfriend made a career out of playing "Number 2" to various supervillains, including the Monarch and Phantom Limb. Shortly after their marriage, however, she and the Monarch became an Evil Duo, with the Pupa Twins (formerly Dr. Girlfriend's Murderous Moppets) acting as twin Dragons.
  • The Pupa Twins eventually lose their Dragon position to Henchman 21, or as the other henchmen call him, General 21 and Two-Ton Twenty-One.
  • Depending on whether or not one sees Rusty as a Villain Protagonist, Brock Samson could also count.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Attempted by the original Venture Team in Fembot swimsuits.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Col. Hunter Gathers; Sgt. Hatred; 21.
• Dude, Not Funny!:
  • Invoked in-universe when the Monarch accidentally brings cigarettes to King Gorilla's welcome home party. To be fair, he expected the cancer about as much as we did.
  • The Monarch calls Jonas Venture Jr. a retard in the presence of mentally challenged Ned Impossible. Jonas calls The Monarch out on it.
• Dumbass Has a Point: When Dermott gives Dean girl advice, Hank marvels that it was actually good.
• Dumb Muscle: Deconstructed with Ned Impossible, who was mentally challenged before the freak accident that gave him superhuman strength.
• Dysfunction Junction: The characters who don't have multiple mental issues can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand.

E-H

• Easily Forgiven:
  • Heroes and villains are often friendly enough to talk with each other and even work together as a means to an end, then they are right back to fighting not long afterwards.
  • From "The Revenge Society" in a flashback about the orb, Sandow, Lloyd Venture's bodyguard, breaks the orb and spares Lloyd's life. At first, Lloyd is pissed because he wanted to use it to help humanity until Sandow tells him that his orders had been to kill Lloyd if he tried to use the orb. Lloyd quickly drops the matter and even thanks Sandow for his work.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay", the pilot, has quite a few differences from the regular show.
    • It's the only episode animated using Adobe Flash, giving it a distinctive look.
    • The episode sticks far more closely to a "Parody of Jonny Quest" format than the series does. The twins own a pet dog, Scamp, to better match Jonny Quest (Scamp only shows up in the series in season 3, having died sometime after the pilot). Dr. Venture is regarded as a brilliant scientist with a good reputation, while later episodes portray him as a no-talent laughing stock. He's also completely genre-blind to the military use of his invention, while in the series proper, he's is eager to produce inventions for whatever application will give him the most money, including the military.
    • Brock is far less of a father figure for the boys, in fact seeming quite happy to ditch them. His character design is also different. He sometimes looks like he has a unibrow, and his skinny legs are more exaggerated.
    • The Monarch's design is different. He has a larger crown and a furry collar rather than the black cowl, smaller crown and chest plate.
  • The first season employed differing styles of choppy and limited animation.
  • The tone of the dialogue changes noticeably after the first season, as well, and it stands out on rewatches. For example, in the first episode (Dia de los Dangerous) where Doc and the boys are in Tijuana, Hank's first line is "This place it tits! Divvy this, we got these boss Mexican hats." and in The Incredible Mister Brisby, he is happy to point out an elephant's penis and accuse his father of being "on the rag". Even though he says some pretty outlandish things, it's hard to imagine Season 3 or 4 Hank talking this way.
  • In the first few seasons Dr. Venture's relationship with his father was more positive. While it was clear that his childhood adventures and living in his father's shadow were the source of Rusty's problems, Jonas Venture Sr. was seen to be caring and supportive. Rusty even had fond memories of his boy adventurer days. This is opposed to later seasons where Jonas and the rest of Team Venture are shown to be abusive and manipulative bullies who constantly traumatized Rusty by making him come along with them on their dangerous adventures.
  • In the title sequence, Hank has a Girly Run with his hands flapping around at his sides, while Dean has an exaggerated sprinter's gait. By Season 2, it's explicitly stated that Hank is "more athletic" than Dean.
  • In season 1, the Monarch also acts different. He clings way more to the Monarch persona, including in private (He for example sleeps with his crown on. When telling his origin story to Dr. Girlfriend he refers to being 8 years old as "still a caterpillar in the butterfly business"), and there's a running gag that he has a poor understanding of monarch butterfly biology. He's also, for lack of a better word, more quirky and less stable. For example, he's concerned about Dr. Venture's lack of attention to Dean and Hank in the same episode where he was ready early to torture one of them.
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Jefferson Twilight frequently fails to finish his sentences in his first appearance in "Fallen Arches." At first, this seems like some quirk of his character, but it is dropped in subsequent episodes.
• Ectoplasm: In one episode where he tried to bring Hank and Dean back from the dead, resident wizard Dr. Orpheus ends up covered in ectoplasm.
• Elite Mooks:
  • Subverted with the "Black Guards" of the Monarch while he was working with Dr. Henry Killinger. They were actually just the Monarch's normal incompetent henchmen with more intimidating uniforms. (Dr. Girlfriend, unarmed, defeats several without issue at one point.)
  • Guild "Strangers" are implied to be Elite Mooks, and during most of their appearances, are shown to be much more competent than the usual supervillain mooks.
• Embarrassing First Name:
  • Sgt. Hatred. It's Courtney.
  • Rusty himself is shocked to find out "Rusty Venture" is a term for a dirty sex act.
• Emo Teen: Hank in season four and Dean in season five
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: in Ünderland, both men and women are apparently subject to conscription into Baron von Ünderbheit's army until age 38, at which point You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
• Eskimos Aren't Real: In "Ghosts Of The Sargasso":
  Hank: Brock, if pirates really exist, I... I mean Santa Claus and the tooth fairy could even be real, right? It's like all bets are off!
  Brock: Hank, nobody ever said pirates don't exist.
  Hank: So you agree with me that this is impossible.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Rusty Venture (who's just very, very morally ambiguous, as opposed to evil) refusing to clone Hitler in the season four opener.
• Everyone Went to School Together:
  • Rusty was in college with Baron von Ünderbheit (similar to Doctor Doom's relation with Reed Richards), as well as Pete White, Brock Samson, and the Monarch. This is quickly lampshaded by Hank. Also, Professor Impossible was one of their teachers.
  • It's later revealed that Billy Quizboy and Dr. Girlfriend also went to State University, but not at the same time as everyone else and that Phantom Limb used to teach there, having taken over Professor Impossible's position at the school when Impossible was involved in a scandal involving a student named "Sally".
  • It's lampshaded again in season four when the Monarch meets Pete White for the first time, and remembers White from his college radio show and acts surprised that they hadn't met before then.
  • Season three also implied that Phantom Limb and Professor Impossible worked under Jonas Venture Sr. as part of a group of assistants to his scientific work. Professor Impossible confirms this in season four in a conversation with Dean.
  • However, Dr. Orpheus went to "a junior college upstate" where he majored in communications (Post-Mortem Communications?). And the Doctor title was bestowed upon him by a higher power than a mere college professor.
• Everyone Has Standards: Brock was told never to kill women or children as an OSI officer, which led him to refuse to kill his former superior in "Assassinanny 911" when he underwent a sex change to be a woman. This rule and the above example pretty much cause the events of the third season finale. Brock will hit Molotov Cocktease, but she's as tough as he is and likes it.
• Evil Costume Switch:
  • Professor Impossible dons a darker outfit following his Face–Heel Turn with Phantom Limb.
  • Dr. Venture would have had one in "The Doctor is Sin" if he had agreed to become a supervillain.
• Evil Is Petty: Augustus St. Cloud reveals that his hatred for Billy Quizboy is because Billy outbid him in an online auction for one dollar, and subsequently tries to force Billy to eat a hundred pennies as revenge.
• Evil Laugh: The Monarch loves a good laugh.
• Evil Overlooker: On the cover of the DVD for season two.
• Expy: The entire show is one giant satirical deconstruction of various classic animated and comic book heroes, and kudos if you can pinpoint them all.
• Expy Coexistence:
  • Despite the fact that the original concept of the show was a darkly comedic parody of Jonny Quest, characters from Quest show up as early as the seventh episode, when Race Bannon, a special agent and the badass bodyguard for the Quest family, interacts with his Expy Brock, a special agent and the badass bodyguard for the Venture family. More characters from Quest would later appear on the show, although this became complicated when for legal reasons they had to be turned into expies of the Quest characters instead of the actual characters.
  • It's been shown frequently that despite about half the cast being parodies of some stripe, the pop culture of the show's world is broadly similar to our own. For instance, Doctor Orpheus, the Impossible family, Brown Widow, Dr. Entmann, and so on are all based on Marvel Comics characters, and yet Marvel also exists as an in-universe comic company that publishes much the same books it does here. There have been quite a few cases of characters directly bringing up the resemblance.
• Eye Cam: A few times. Most notably, the episode that introduces Venturestein is shown extensively from his POV.
• Face–Heel Turn:
  • Richard Impossible. After his wife left him, Phantom Limb did not have to do too much work to talk him into it.
  • Subverted with Colonel Hunter Gathers.
  • In the season four finale it is revealed that Doe and Cardholder are double agents for the GCI.
• The Faceless:
  • The Sovereign, up until the season two finale, where he is revealed to be David Bowie, or, according to Monstroso, a shapeshifter impersonating him.
  • The Council of Thirteen, though some of them can be identified by their silhouettes (Wild Fop, for one...) However, Word of God says that they often use silhouettes when they haven't decided exactly what a character will look like.
    • Two councilmen, 8 and 3, were revealed in The Revenge Society as Dragoon and Red Mantle (or as The Big Bopper and Buddy Holly in their earlier days).
    • One of the councilmen can be easily identified as Dr. Z (an ersatz of Dr. Zin), who himself made appearances as a civilian on a few occasions throughout Season 3.
    • After Season 5, most of the Council has been revealed, as with "All This and Gargantua-2." Out of all 13 including the Sovereign, the only surviving members are Dr. Z, Phage, Red Mantle/Dragoon, and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch. The killed off were Wild Fop, Monsenor(suspected), Don Hell, Steppenwolf, Councilman 10, The Nerve, Sovereign(suspected), and Mommy Longlegs.
• Fake Crossover:
  • Race Bannon from Jonny Quest makes an appearance in "Ice Station— Impossible!", but dies onscreen within minutes of appearing (he later appears as an OSI interrogator in a flashback in season three). In the season two episode "Twenty Years to Midnight", the group has an encounter with a deranged, drug-addled, middle-aged Jonny Quest. Though Warner owns rights to both the Venture Brothers and Jonny Quest, the character names were changed in season three due to possible interest in reviving the Quest franchise. Thus, Jonny Quest became "Action Johnny," Doctor Zin became Doctor Z, and Hadji became Radji, who works for Jonas Jr. and has a strained relationship with his wife due to his desire to help the drug addicted Action Johnny.
  • In "The Buddy System," The Captain (fake Ghost Pirate) describes his past adventures as a villain to the kids, which all sound like episodes of Scooby-Doo, particularly the part about getting to meet "the guy who did the vaice fer Inspector Gadget." The implication is that the Captain is, in fact, really from Scooby-Doo.
  • "Self Medication" included some dialogue between Dr. Venture and his fellow former boy adventurers that referred to Daphne and Velma as if they were real, with Action Johnny having slept with Velma, much to the surprise of his companions who all thought she was a lesbian.
• Fake High: Unfortunately the victim of the prank was allergic to oregano.
• Failure Is the Only Option: For everyone. This trope is practically enforced since it's a theme of the show.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Dermott's "sister" Nikki turns out to be his mother. His father is Rusty Venture.
• Famous Ancestor:
  • Subverted with Rusty. He's the son of the famous Dr. Jonas Venture and is descended from a long line of super scientists, but he's nowhere near as competent as they were.
  • Phantom Limb is the grandson of Fantômas.
• The Fantastic Faux: Professor Impossible is almost a note-for-note parody of Reed Richards, down to being a scientist with rubber abilities. The rest of his group includes his wife Sally, who can only turn her skin invisible, Sally's mentally-impaired cousin Ned, whose skin became one giant callous, and Sally's brother Cody, who bursts into flame if his skin touches oxygen (and with no immunity to burning). The parody pys up the darker aspects of the FF and turns them up to eleven, with the team eventually falling apart and Impossible becoming an antagonist in later seasons.
• "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Lampshaded.
  Pete White: Innerspace is not a classic.
  Master Billy Quizboy: Whatever, I was talking about Fantastic Voyage anyway.
• Fan Wank: In-Universe Example: In addition to who would win a fight between Lizzy Borden and Anne Frank, 21 and 24 also debated such important topics as the reproductive strategy of Smurfs.
  21: Smurfs! Don't! Lay! Eggs!
• Fastball Special: Villanous Example in "Pomp and Circuitry" with Phantom Limb as the ammo and Richard Impossible as the pitcher.
• Fembot: The Leslie Cohen gynoids in "Past Tense".
• The Fettered: The Guild Of Calamitous Intent and their Arches are much more dangerous than they appear at first, because they adhere to numerous rules (no attacking civilians or law enforcement, no fighting in religious places) and because any sudden escalation of violence on one side will be met with greater power from the other.
• Fetus Terrible:
  • Jonas Venture Jr., Dr. Venture's fetus-in-fetu parasitic vanishing temporarily evil twin.
  • As well as Tiny Attorney, inverted as the parasitic twin is a Matlock-esque Southern gentleman and the brains of the operation while the host is an inbred simpleton who doesn't speak. Tiny Attorney is a direct shoutout to "Kuato", the leader of the Mutant Rebellion in Arnold's Total Recall.
• Film Noir: Hank's detective agency daydreams are a parody of this.
• Firearms Are Cowardly: Brock Samson goes out of his way to avoid using guns, going so far as to outright refuse to fire one during his Kill License recertification, regarding it as "fruity". Right before grabbing said gun and throwing it to destroy one of the targets he was meant to shoot. Possibly a nod to his Camp Gay teammate Shore Leave who is known for using nothing but guns in combat.
• Flat "What": Hank delivers one of these in "Pinstripes & Poltergeists", when, after being assured that SPHINX can effortlessly erase their minds, Doc Venture casually tells him and Dean they're clones.
• Fog Feet:
  • The Phantom Limb has a very dangerous version of this trope.
  • Not to mention cameo villain Intangible Fancy.
• Foreshadowing: LOADS
  • During part of the Monarch's captivity to Wide Whale in S7E2, the Monarch dreams that he's swimming in the ocean and he asks Rusty to join him. Rusty refuses because it's cold and the Monarch starts to say something along the lines of "oh come on, you were never there for me". This reference is semi-explained in the next episode. The next episode shows that the Monarch may have played with Rusty when they were kids because their dads were "good" friends. Venturian (cyborg Blue Morpho) hallucinates about the two playing with a toy train together which may be one of his lost memories. Furthermore, the next episode hints that Rusty and the Monarch are half brothers, revealing that the Monarch's and Rusty's hatred of each other maybe some kind of subconscious Cain and Abel and Sibling Rivalry complex. Speaking of the half brothers, that twist was foreshadowed from the get-go: they have the exact same hair color and head shape.
• Foul First Drink: In "A Very Venture Halloween", Dean learns that he and Hank are clones from Ben, who also gives Dean his first beer to help cope with the revelation. Later, Dean tells Hank he learned something important, but he decides against telling Hank about the cloning and instead says that "beer taste like pee-pee".
• Forgot About His Powers: Lampshaded in "Return to Malice", where Sergeant Hatred apparently didn't try to just contact the boys on their wrist communicators.
  • "SPHINX Rising" sees Hank and 21 imprisoned and harassed until Hank remembers his uniform is actually a strength-enhancing exoskeleton.
• Forgot to Feed the Monster: "Okay, who forgot to feed the butterflies?"
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Played with in "Twenty Years to Midnight", where an alien takes the form of Dr. Venture's father, much to his annoyance. He eventually berates the alien until it reveals his true form, which is indeed very disturbing.
• Formally-Named Pet: The Monarch keeps his old cat, Mister Mostly Mittens, mounted in his dining room. "Mostly," since it had three white paws and one non-white paw.
• For Science!:
  • Dr. Venture sees science only as a means to an end; his underlying motivation is Money, Dear Boy, and to a slightly lesser but still very strong degree, recognition. How he gets there is of little importance to him. And he is willing to produce morally unsound creations, like Venture's Joycan, a Lotus-Eater Machine Powered by a Forsaken Child. Later on, however, he becomes more concerned about his family taking greater interest in his sons' well-being after all of their clones are destroyed at the end of that same season.
  • Professor Impossible's treatment of his wife and son borders on cruelty. At best, he treats them as possessions and not as human beings. Later seasons, however, have implied has come to take his family for granted as a result of his scientific exploits rather than neglecting to care for them at all; examples are the mess Dr. Impossible has become as a result of Sally's leaving him in season three.
• Frankenstein's Monster: Venturestein.
• Freak Lab Accident:
  • One was involved for Phantom Limb, Dr. Entman/Humongoloid, and Dr. Dugong (if indeed that is not a costume).
  • Season one has Baron Ünderbheit suggesting Rusty Venture was responsible for the loss of his jaw during a lab accident, though it turns out the explosion was caused by the Monarch in an attempt to kill Rusty.
  • "Bright Lights, Dean City" in season four expands on this, showing that freak lab accidents have created quite a few notables in the show's setting. Brown Widow (the Spider-Man shoutout) is another example and even notes that the experience soured him on exploring further careers in super-science.
  • Happens to Dr. Paolo Salazar in a story in the fifth season opener. He gets turned into a giant gold-coloured Beetle and supposedly joined the circus. Eventually he got himself cured and is a leading expert of reversing genetic mutation.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Spanakopita!" When Rusty first returns to the island of Spanikos after being there once when he was a kid, he is seen wearing his College attire as seen in season one's "Past Tense". The same clothes he was wearing when he learned his father just passed away and went back to where he had the time of his life.
• Freudian Slip: When the Monarch is handing out orders on who each of his henchmen is to "find and subdue," Dr. Mrs. the Monarch accidentally says "find and seduce Brock Samson."
• Friendly Enemy: Sergeant Hatred. "I'm going to make his life wonderful! And you can't do squat about it!"
• Full-Frontal Assault: Brock in "Victor. Echo. November."
• Gambit Pileup: The creators really like this trope. First there was "Operation PROM" where everybody had a plan and some plans were completely tangential to the whole mess. Then there's All This And Gargantua-2, which is an elaborate chess game between Henry Killinger, the Investors, the sovereign and Phantom Limb, with everybody hiding something or double-crossing others.
• Gambit Roulette:
  • Brock is a victim of a one by Molotov Cocktease and Hunter Gathers, as they trick Brock into thinking OSI is out to kill him to get him to eliminate the competition for their new assassination agency which was organized by Hunter Gathers, to get Brock free of O.S.I. and recruit him for the newly restructured SPHINX which was planned by General Treister to install Hunter as the new head of the O.S.I. and flush out Doe and Cardholder as moles.
  • "The Lepidopterists": The Monarch, by arching Jonas Jr. and riling him into serious retaliation, trick everyone into thinking J.J. nearly destroyed him. Long story short, he and his men were fine and the Monarch was granted the right by Guild law to get revenge upon J.J. by attacking his family, finally making it possible for him to once more assault Thaddeus Venture without incurring the wrath of the Guild.
• Gentleman Adventurer: Colonel Horace Gentleman
• Get Out!: Final line of an episode
  Captain Sunshine: Get out of my Sanctum Solarium!
• Ghostly Glide: The sinister cadre known as The Investors are shown not only gliding smoothly from place to place but also have the habit of entering or leaving a room by levitating out of/into the floor.
• Ghost Pirate: Or so it seems until it proves to be a hoax by not-so-ghostly pirates.
• Girls with Moustaches: Girl Hitler has a Hitler moustache, as her name implies.
• Giving Up on Logic: Happens all the time and is frequently lampshaded when it does. Most of the main cast doesn't even bother to question truly absurd things anymore, and when a newer and/or more sane character tries to question something bizarre, the other characters will often mention a Continuity Nod or Noodle Incident that makes the current situation seem downright reasonable by comparison. A few specific examples:
  • When Rusty notes that Hank is taking the whole Rusty has been turned into a caterpillar thing awfully well, Hank just shrugs and points out all the other crazy stuff they've been involved in. Rusty winds up agreeing.
  • In the season three two-part finale, "The Family that Slays Together...," there is a final epic battle between an O.S.I. army, an army of Monarch henchmen, and an army of naked Hank and Dean clones led by Sgt. Hatred. Most of those involved don't see this as anything particularly unusual, but it proves to be the straw that breaks the camel's back for Badass Bodyguard Brock Sampson. He mentions some of the weird things he's seen over his years as the Venture family bodyguard and quits on the spot.
  • Discussed by Hank and Dermott in the season five episode "Momma's Boys" when Dermott questions how Rusty could believe that his friend "Teddy," which is actually just a talking teddy bear the boys were using to play a prank on him, is in danger. Hank mentions some of the outlandish things that have actually happened, which make the Teddy situation seem perfectly reasonable by comparison.
• Going Commando: Rusty in "Ice Station — Impossible!" which turns out to be a bad idea after his Impossible jumpsuit shatters.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: After the failed joint sting operation against The Blue Morpho by the O.S.I. and The Guild, Rusty finds a game of "good guys vs. bad guys" volleyball going on in his pool.
  Rusty: Why are you on the bad guy's side?
  Hank: Because Phantom Limb left in a huff, but mostly because we're winning!
  Rusty: [beat] Fuck it. Who wants a Doc-tail?
• Good Costume Switch: Sgt. Hatred not only switches to a venture compound suit, but he also removed the H tattoo on his face and replaces it with a V tattoo. Better, it used to say HATRED down his front, he removed all but the D because that one was "in a tender area".. so now it just says.. VD...
• Good News, Bad News
  Gathers: Do you want the bad news or the good news first?
  Brock: I don't know, the good I guess.
  Gathers: There is no good news! Just bad news and weird news.
• Goth Girls Know Magic: A somewhat less surprising (and less "rebellious", as it's actually the "family business") example is Triana Orpheus. The Goth girl daughter of necromancer extraordinaire Dr. Byron Orpheus, Triana is studying magic with her mother, also an accomplished sorceress.
• Great Escape: The Monarch's escape plan, after being framed for a murder that didn't happen, involved the cooperation of several fellow imprisoned villains... who all looked the other way when he made his move due to threats of death from Phantom Limb (who framed the Monarch so he could reclaim his ex). He got out with help from King Gorilla, who defied Phantom Limb due to his own issues with the Guild and the Monarch's reveal why he was framed.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • In Hank and Dean's testimony in "The Trial of the Monarch," Brock has knocked off a stone golem's arm and proceeded to repeatedly punch it in the crotch with said arm.
  • In "Ghosts of the Sargasso", after clamping the arm of a "ghost pirate" in his buttocks, Brock dispatches both of his captors by swinging the clamped pirate bodily into the other.
  • In "Love-Bheits" Brock impales two mooks on opposite ends of a spear-like weapon, then uses them to take down a third mook.
  • Hatred finds himself using a shrink ray to enlarge Dr. Venture to massive proportions to save him from the Monarch, and indirectly crushing the villain as a result.
• The Grotesque: D-19, an aborted, disfigured clone of Dean who only wants to be accepted by Dr. Venture as his son.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy:
  • Played straight and parodied here and there.
    Military Policeman 1: Oh, uh, I'm sorry, sir. Go on ahead.
    Military Policeman 2: What are you doing? Why'd you let 'im go?
    MP1: What? It's just a bunch of vets campin'.
    MP2: Dude, that was a shaved Bigfoot and Steve Summers in a wig made out of shaved Bigfoot.
  • Subverted in the "The Incredible Mr. Brisby" when Mandalay pulls a captain sensible and opts not to fight a pissed off Brock Samson, stepping aside so he could rescue the Ventures.
• Hahvahd Yahd In My Cah: Pete White.
• Hair-Trigger Sound Effect: Go ahead, just mention SPHINX *Sphinx!*
• Hallucinations:
  • After 24's death, 21 began carrying around his skull and talking to it. In the season four mid-season finale, 24 appears as a ghost only 21 can see and gives him advice in combat situations. At one point, he (the ghost) implies that he may be only a product of imagination, giving 21 confidence in his own abilities. Which is met with a frantic "NO! You are real!" In the season four finale, it is confirmed that 24 is a hallucination, not a ghost.
  • In "Showdown at Cremation Creek Pt. I and II" Dean has a complete (peaceful) breakdown where he imagines that a trek through the inside of the cocoon's engine room is a magical adventure with his childhood hero, Giant Boy Detective, and he is The Chosen One. It's basically an extra-Freudian Never Ending Story.
• Handicapped Badass: Phantom Limb, who has one arm, one leg, and one testicle, goes up against an army of robotic Diamond Dogs, Guild Foot Soldiers and 15 foot robots. It doesn't end well for the army.
• Hard Gay: King Gorilla and Shore Leave.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Played with between the Outrider and Dr. Orpheus in The Better Man. The Outrider has gained an ability Orpheus never has, the ability to travel between worlds, but dangerously cheated to get it. However, by cheating instead of working hard, the Outrider has made time for his wife (Dr. Orpheus' ex-wife) who left Orpheus because he was a workaholic who never had time for her. In the end, Outrider admits that Orpheus is the better sorcerer, but at too high of a cost to his personal life.
• Harmless Villain: Sergeant Hatred. Then again, he does it on purpose, pledging to "make [Rusty's] life wonderful" just to piss off the Monarch.
  • Most of the villains foul up somewhere and become this.
  • Seems to be what the Guild of Calamitous Intent and the OSI are designed for. The members seen seem to be more about annoying their arches rather than outright killing them. This is done because they have rules about arching and the alternative is that you have a bunch of pissed-off nutbags with ray guns and giant octopus tanks with laser eyes running around.
• Hates Small Talk: In the episode with the Walt Disney Expy Mr. Brisbee, Brock at first tries to get along with Brisbee's bodyguard, but the other is completely silent and rude. Later on, Brock is bored and tries to light a cigarette but can't, at which point the other bodyguard produces a lighter, prompting Brock to say "You're all right." Of course, it was all a trick to knock him out.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Sgt. Hatred has replaced Brock as the Venture family bodyguard.
  • Gary (21) leaves The Monarch in "Operation P.R.O.M."
• Heel Realization: Dr. Venture in "The Doctor Is Sin".
• Helicopter Pack: In "Hate Floats" Brock Sampson and Phantom Limb find a couple of them.
• Hero of Another Story: Inverted for a villain with Sergeant Hatred. He was originally a catch-all for whenever another villain needed to be mentioned, particularly for 21 and 24 to steal stuff from. He eventually gained a few unsavory quirks from offhand mentions before he debuted in the series proper and was integrated into the main cast.
• Hero's Classic Car: Brock drives a 1969 Dodge Charger that he converted to electric. Never mind what the Venture brothers thought; her name is Adrienne.
• Heroes "R" Us: The OSI, technically.
• Heroic BSoD: Dean has a very minor one in the Halloween special when he wakes up on the examining table of an aged geneticist named Ben, who reveals that he is actually a clone born in a lab tank. Ben helps to talk him through it though.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Dr. Venture and Brock Samson
  • Later, Dr. Venture and Sgt. Hatred
  • Pete White and Billy Quizboy
  • Watch and Ward Operation P.R.O.M. offers the strong possibility that Watch is gay (Ward doesn't seem to mind, though), but this trope allows one or both of the 'life partners' to be homosexual, as long as there is no actual romantic link between them.
  • Mr. Doe and Mr. Cardholder
  • #21 and #24
  • Tim Tom and Kevin
  • Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer
• High-Five Left Hanging: Happens often to Dr. Billy Quizboy. This may be because Billy has a metallic cybernetic hand (although the one time he high-fives with it, White doesn't seem to mind). Occasionally subverted and Billy gets his high five or Go Team Venture salute.
• Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: The Monarch's Mooks wear bright yellow uniforms with ridiculous oversized butterfly wings on the back. Lamp Shaded in season four when 21 complains that their uniforms make them stand out without actually providing any protection and that the non-retractable wings make it difficult to get through all the tapered doorways in the Cocoon.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Everyone in Dr. Venture's therapy group, which includes expies of Robin, Jonny Quest, and the Hardy Boys. They even refer to him as "Johnny".
• Historical Domain Superperson: * The series is rife with examples, befitting an Alternate History universe complete with '60s era Super Science! and real Functional Magic. To note:
  • The original incarnation of the Guild of Calamitous Intent included several Historical Domain Characters with implied supernatural/technological abilities including Aleister Crowley, Samuel Clemens, Oscar Wilde, and "Father of Bodybuilding" Eugen Sandow. They were rivals of Nikola Tesla, who fielded an army of airships along with his Avon Ladies. Col. Lloyd Venture, another founding member and great-grandfather of the eponymous brothers, was a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Theodore Roosevelt (later revealed to be the actual first person on the moon, doing so in 1902).
  • Zig-Zagged with the Guild Sovereign, one David Bowie, who is shown to have Shape Shifting abilities. However, in later seasons, it is revealed that the Guild Sovereign isn't the real David Bowie, merely a shape shifter in his form. However, the two have met and collaborated, with it said that the creature on the cover of Bowie's Diamond Dogs album to be the shape shifter's true form.
  • Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper were recruited into the guild by Fantômas, with the plane crash that killed them in real life being a cover for their induction into the guild. They became the supervillains Red Mantle and Dragoon, respectively, the former being a Geomancer (with other magical abilities implied) and the latter possessing Stout Strength enough (even in his old age) to battle the much younger and superpowered Phantom Limb.
  • Iggy Pop and Klaus Nomi were two of the guild Sovereign's closest associates, the former capable of tossing Energy Balls and the latter with Make Me Wanna Shout powers.
  • Numerous other guild members, most often shown in flashbacks or bit appearances, bear strong resemblance to deceased musicians and possess superpowers:
    • Mister Fahrenheit, "the Supersonic Man", is a Super Speedster who physically resembles Freddie Mercury and whose name is taken Queen song Don't Stop Me Now.
    • Stab Girl is pretty clearly Wendy O. Williams of The Plasmatics with an outfit based on Tank Girl.
    • Shrill Specter is Phil Spector with sonic abilities.
    • Scary Nilsson is a werewolf Harry Nilsson.
  • Dr. Henry Killinger is strongly implied to be Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon's Secretary of State. He serves as a Magical Guardian and Trickster Mentor with functional Parasol Parachute and a Bag of Holding that can produce anything his clients could possibly need.
• Historical In-Joke: The ghost of Abraham Lincoln pins Colonel Manstrong in a full nelson, referencing Lincoln's past as a wrestler.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Baron Ünderbheit is deposed and exiled from Ünderland after violating his own prohibition of same-sex marriage, when he forces Dean to marry him (granted, Dean was dressed as Princess Leia for Halloween, but you think he would've checked first).
• Homoerotic Dream: One of the members of SPHINX comments on having one of these.
  I had an erotic dream about Henry Rollins list night, and I'm straight as an arrow!
• Hover Tank: Sgt. Hatred's vehicle
• Hypocritical Humor: Rusty tells Hank how awkward his 16th birthday was because his father invited prostitutes to the party. For Hank and Dean's home school prom, he tries to hire some whores for it.
• Hypothetical Fight Debate: Henchmen 21 and 24 debate who would win in a fistfight between Lizzie Borden and Anne Frank.

I-L

• I Have No Son!: Lance Hale considers Dale his "allegedly" twin brother.
• I Know Mortal Kombat: Hank tries to justify getting a chance to shoot at Neo-Nazis by referencing his skill in Medal of Honor.
• Iconic Sequel Character:
  • Sgt. Hatred didn't appear until late in season 2 and didn't get much characterization until season 3. Come seasons 4 and 5, he is a main character as the new Venture family bodyguard and is present in almost every episode.
  • Dermott didn't appear until season 3 but has since become a main cast staple, appearing nearly as often as the Venture bros. themselves in Seasons 4 and 5.
• The Illuminati: Dr. Venture is invited to join the Illuminati in "The Unicorn In Captivity." He spends the whole episode hemming and hawing about whether to join their ranks and play by their rules. Turns out the Illuminati are fake and the whole time Venture has been hooked up to a VR simulator.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: In one episode, a group that seems oddly familiar infiltrates Dr. Venture's mansion and snoops around. In the end, they run afoul of a berserking Brock Sampson, who promptly kills the Fred, Shaggy and Scooby equivalents. As Shaggy dies, gutshot and bleeding out on the floor, he whimpers, "So cold, man...."
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Shore Leave is deadly accurate with his pistols, being able to shoot specific targets on 21's costume from a large distance. One handed. Also Sgt. Hatred, able to do the same thing but with a scoped rifle.
• Incompetence, Inc.: Venture Industries has been in freefall since Jonas died, and by the time of the first season, is a shell of its former glory, with little more than a dilapidated compound and a tiny handful of employees (mostly Rusty himself) to keep the lights on. "The Doctor Is Sin" suggests that they haven't had a single significant breakthrough in decades.
• Incredibly Lame Pun:
  • A lot of characters are named based on puns, such as Phantom Limb, Manotaur, Quentin Ball, Killermanjaro, and "Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Nightmare-coat".
  • Also, Dr. Dugong's "Cuddlefish".
  • In "Home Insecurity", Baron Ünterbheit presents three disloyal high-level henches with gifts of Tiger Balm, exits the room, then, after the henches contemplate Ünterbheit's apparent mercy sends in killer tigers with bombs.
• Indian Burial Ground: The X-1's hangar is built over one.
• I Need No Ladders: In the mid-season finale of the fourth season, Brock is about to charge into the lab of an evil (non sanctioned) scientist. he uses a rope arrow, despite being told that there is a ladder next to him, because, well "where's the fun in that?"
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Monarch and the Ghost Pirate Captain, the latter being a parody of Scooby-Doo villains (at first).
• Inherently Funny Words: Spanakopita!
• Ink-Suit Actor: A sort of inverted example, the duo Pete White and Billy Quizboy look a lot like creators Doc Hammer and Chris McCulloch (AKA Jackson Publick), with added deformities. Inverted because each character is voiced by the other voice actor.
  • Subverted - in "Go Team Venture! The Art and Making of the Venture Bros" book, Jackson and Doc mention multiple times that when they're stuck creatively, they'll create two new characters as avatars to banter to each other with, and both Henchmen #21 & #24 and White & Quizboy are a result of this practice. They also say that it's purely coincidental they look like the two - though White and Quizboy were both conceived early on in the show's development.
• Insane Troll Logic: In one episode, while attempting to rescue Dean from Baron Von Underbheit and his henchmen, Hank gets separated from Rusty and Brock, thanks to a trap. He decides to go alone anyway, despite Brock telling him to wait and warning him that he'd be outnumbered, using this sort of reasoning.
  Brock: He's got an entire army, Hank.
  Hank: Exactly! They won't be expecting one lone warrior. It's just Crazy Enough to Work!
• Insult Backfire:
  Shore Leave: Wayland Flowers called, he wants his Madame back. Boom!
  Col. Hunter Gathers: Oh yeah? Well, the Village People called, and THEY WANT YOU TO FUCKING KILL YOURSELF, YOU PRANCING BASTARD!
• Intergenerational Friendship: 21 and 24. 21 was recruited as a henchman for the Monarch when he was still in the 8th grade, while 24 was already a Guild-registered henchman when the Monarch was breaking out as an independent supervillain, so there is likely over a decade between them.
• In the Future, We Still Have Roombas: H.E.L.P.eR.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Averted. When the Outrider tries to convince Dean to think like this Dean shoots right back, "You know what I think? Fuck you."
• Jail Bake: Phantom Limb sends his regards to King Gorilla by baking a "Tarzan" into a cake.
• Jerkass: Almost everyone gets a turn.
  • Dr. Venture, most of the time.
  • Prof. Impossible (who attempts to keep his family a hidden secret).
  • Dermott (who is just a stupid Jerkass).
  • Brock has slept with a lot of women, and occasionally (if unintentionally) beats up their significant others shortly afterwards.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Brock Samson as of season three. Even after being terminated from his mission, he continued caring for the safety of Venture and, more noticeably, the boys, when facing three deadly assassins.
  • Orpheus' master never misses the opportunity to mock Orpheus for his failures in life, or Triana for how she could fail, but he arguably does this for his pupil's benefit (to show him where he's gone wrong and encourage him to change).
  • Rusty Venture has some genuinely soft moments like when he cried over Brock's "grave" in "Dia de Los Dangerous!," or when he ordered Brock to spare the life of his brother who just tried to vaporize him with a laser, but then there are times like when he used the soul of an orphaned child to power a sentient "pleasure chamber" in "Eeney, Meeney, Miney...Magic!"
• Joke Exhaustion: In season 4, Hunter and Brock are on their way from a strip club, when they mention one stripper having "sad, mournful tits". This leads to them rattling off a bunch of jokes about just how sad her tits are. In the DVD commentary, Doc Hammer says that he wrote the rest of the script first, and at that scene just wrote a note for himself saying "boob jokes" for him to fill in later.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Assisted Suicide, and briefly in The Doctor is Sin.
• Karma Houdini: Arguably, Pete White. He basically destroyed Billy Quizboy's life, first ruining his reputation as a quizboy by cheating for him, then losing both the money that Billy had been saving for college and the boy's hand by accidentally entering him in a dogfighting ring. To retain Billy's friendship Jack had his memory wiped, allowing him to completely avoid the consequences. It's really no wonder that Zero introduced Billy as "under the villain Pete White."
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: Rusty Venture is a former Jonny Quest parody who grew up into a bitter Mad Scientist who heaps abuse on his own sons.
• Killed Off for Real: Wisdom; henchman 24; Jonah Venture Jr.; General Treister
• Kissing Under the Influence: Henchman Number 21 and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch.
• Kissing Warm-Up: Dean practices kissing on his hand. When he later describes it as "practicing being a boyfriend," it's not taken the right way.
• Knight of Cerebus: For a little while, Phantom Limb in "Victor. Echo. November.", when he calls in an order with the Guild to kill the Venture family and Doctor Venture loses his left arm.
• The Krampus: In the Christmas special, the Krampus is accidentally summoned by Hank and Dean and proceeds to punish Rusty Venture.
• Lactating Male: In the episode "Home Insecurity", when Dr. Venture and his sons are dropped into the panic room, Hank notices wet spots on Dr. Venture's shirt where his nipples would be. Dr. Venture states that "some men" "lactate". Hank thinks Dean does so as well after seeing the giant pee stain on his pants.
• Lampshade Hanging: Excessive lampshading in the Season 4 Volume 2 DVD, even invoking TV Tropes and a few tropes by name.
• Large Ham: The Monarch, who does it for fun and show, and Doctor Orpheus, who seems incapable of not doing it.
  • The only time that Orpheus doesn't speak this way is when he delivers withering sarcasm.
• Last Unsmoked Cigarette: In the episode, "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman," Dr. Quymn wears a crystal necklace throughout the episode. We find out after she suffers an epileptic seizure and her home burns down that it's her last cigarette, which she proceeds to smoke to deal with the stresses of the evening.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Invoked in the DVD commentary for season three, where Doc Hammer gives away one of the season's biggest developments in the commentary for every episode.
  24 dies this season. (...) I just want to do that every time, because nobody should be watching this unless they've seen the season.
• Leader Forms the Head: Comes up when JJ Venture's team spoofs Voltron with the "Ventronic," complete with the "I form the " exclamations. The combined form has two heads, the one formed from JJ's robot, and the "left arm" clown head, shaped in a way to be recognizable and comfortable to Ned. Instead of just putting the clown head on top, they wind up with a stubby, useless arm, not too dissimilar to JJ himself.
• Legacy Character: Captain Sunshine, as it turns out. Not surprising since most of his character is a parody of Batman and the first Robin later assumed the title.
• Leitmotif: Dr. Orpheus has his own dramatically RISING MUSIC whenever he SPEAKS ALLLLOUD! Which is to say pretty much all the time.
  • The Monarch has one too, particularly when he laughs: ominous horns, followed by a sinister string slide.
• Less Embarrassing Term: Dean: "My big gift is a jumpsuit???" Dr.Venture: "Speedsuit Dean, Speedsuit. I don't ever want to hear you say jumpsuit again."
• Light Is Not Good: Captain Sunshine, who is solar-powered, just for extra irony. Well, OK, he's still a superhero, but he does some... questionable things.
• Lightning Bruiser: Brock Sampson.
• Lima Syndrome: The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend develop this regarding the boys in the first episode after Dr. Venture doesn't respond to their (numerous) ransom demands.
  • Happens again during a flashback in the episode "Spanakopita!," where a young Rusty Venture is accidentally kidnapped by Greek pirates. When his father, Jonas Venture Sr., doesn't respond to their ransom demands, the pirates throw the distraught Rusty (who they felt bad for due to his neglectful father,) a festival complete with games.
• Limited Wardrobe: Most of the cast. Exceptions include Brock, who has been seen wearing at least three different shirts.
  • Lampshaded in the episode "Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean":
    Hank: I had to sleep in my clothes! Now I feel gross wearing them two days in a row!
    Monarch: You're kidding me, right? That's the only outfit I've ever seen you in!
    Hank: Well, that doesn't mean I never wash it.
    Monarch: Fair enough.
    • After which, Hank spends most of the rest of the episode in a minion costume.
  • Lampshaded in "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II", when we learn Triana Orpheus always wears the same outfit due to a maddening fear of her closet, it being the doorway to the Necropolis.
• The Load:
  • Hank and Dean, most of the time. They get better as the show goes on, with Hank becoming braver and more physically capable, while Dean becomes more crafty. They're both still idiots, so they never quite outgrow this trope.
  • Dr. Venture on occasion.
• Logic Bomb: In season four, Sergeant Hatred speaks nonsense to the robotic guard outside Malice. The guard's head shoots sparks and its face pops off because while it's programmed to answer over 700 questions, "none of which include chicken fingers."
• Lost Him in a Card Game: St. Cloud challenges Billy Quizboy to bet Pete White on a quiz competition. Billy accepts immediately. Fortunately, Billy wins.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: The Joycan.
• Love Freak: King Gorilla. The only reason he helped the Monarch escape from prison was in the name of love.
• Love Interest: While it's more common for Brock, Rusty, or even occasionally the boys to have a Girl of the Week, there have been a few recurring love interests throughout the series:
  • Molotov Cocktease for Brock in the earlier seasons, stated to be the one woman he's ever loved. This is seemingly not the case as of the latest seasons, since while she and Brock are technically on the same side, she's deceived and betrayed him multiple times, and hasn't appeared since Season 5.
  • Triana Orpheus for Dean, also in earlier seasons. It was kept ambiguous as to whether or not she had any romantic interest in him until Season 4 when it's revealed that she doesn't, and she and Dean mutually decide not to pursue a relationship and still be friends when she moves to go live with her mom. However, when she accompanies Dean to prom as his friend in the season finale and he gets overly jealous about her now having a boyfriend, she leaves in a huff, and has not appeared since^note Which will probably remain the case, since she was voiced by Doc Hammer's now-ex-wife.
  • Dr. Girlfriend (later Dr. Mrs. The Monarch) for The Monarch throughout the show's whole run. They were dating at the beginning of the series, broke up at the end of Season 1, Monarch spent all of Season 2 trying to win her back, and succeeds by the end of the season, ever since which they have been married.
  • In Seasons 6 and 7, Sirena Ong for Hank. It has to remain a Secret Relationship due to her father, Chester Ong/Wide Wale, being an Overprotective Dad and supervillain who happens to be Dr. Venture's official arch-enemy.
  • Also in Seasons 6 and 7, Warriana for Brock.
• Love Redeems: Word of God states that the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend are meant to be a subversion: they have a functioning and loving relationship while still being irredeemably evil villains who kill people at the drop of a hat. The prevalence of the trope combined with the hilarious and over the top nature of their Moral Event Horizon moments make it a little hard to realize that this is happening.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Dermott has told at least one person that he is Brock Samson's long-lost son. It's revealed that Dr. Venture is actually his father.
• Lyndon Johnson: The characters Lady Hawk Johnson and Lyndon Bee.

M-P

• Machine Empathy: Brock Samson has demonstrated the ability to sense when someone's in his car even if he's not physically present. Hank, upon witnessing a demonstration of this talent (which, despite the presence of superpowers and magic in this setting, seems to be purely mundane), comments to another character "I've seen him do that from a continent away."
• Made of Iron: Brock and Molotov
• Made of Plasticine: Just about everybody who goes up against Brock, notably the Monarch's Mooks and even more so Sargent Hatred's Mooks.
• Mad Scientist/Mad Doctor:
  • Dr. Venture (Rusty, with the others tied for second)
  • Dr. Orpheus (Although he prefers magic to science: his doctorate is in Communications with a minor in Women's Studies)
  • Dr. Impossible (May have intentionally caused the accident which gave him superpowers and disfigured the rest of his family)
  • Dr. Henry Killinger (Utterly sane. Terrifyingly sane. Probably the most horrifyingly sane man on the planet.)
• Magic Bullets
  Hank: I'm gonna take my shot now. I have it figured out that if I can just skim Pop's belt buckle, maybe the bullet will ricochet off it and kill the guy with the gun!
  Sergeant Hatred: Hank, I will give you so much money to not shoot your dad.
• Magic Eye: Jefferson Twilight's "Blood Eye," which allows him to track and hunt Blaculas.
• Magic Versus Science: The rivalry between Doctor Venture and Doctor Orpheus that comes to a head with the Two Lines, No Waiting challenge to shrink themselves. Dr. Orpheus ends up quitting because his master tells him how, philosophically, he's already as small as he can get in comparison with the vastness of the universe. Venture wins by default because Orpheus was the bigger man in admitting his failure, faster than Rusty could say he couldn't fix his father's shrink ray even with Pete and Billy's help.
• Malaproper: Hank
  Hank: [to Sgt. Hatred] I already know you used to be a pedestrian.
• Mama Bear/Never Mess with Granny: When Augustus St. Cloud attempts to do recon by breaking into Billy Quizboy's house he encounters Colonel Horace Gentleman and Rose Whalen, Billy's mother. The Colonel gets to him first, picking him up by his cape and telling Rose what he's up to. When Rose finds out St. Cloud is Billy's nemesis she doesn't take kindly to that at all.
  Rose: You want to hurt my Billy? Horace, put him down! Mama bear wants a piece of that action!
  Horace: Oh, you're in for quite a pummeling there, sonny.
  Rose: I'll let you take the first swing, and if you don't put me down I'll beat the living shit out of you 'til my arthritis kicks in, and I just took my Humira.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe:
  • Inverted with the Venture Bros themselves. At least based on everything we know about them and Dr. Venture so far, Rusty is their real father; however, the identity of their mother is unknown. Myra's first appearance in Season 2 implies that she's their mother, but later in Season 5, it's revealed that she was just delusional and isn't really related to them at all. The topic of their mother's identity hasn't been brought up since.
  • Played straight and inverted with Dermott. Dermott's mom led him to believe that Brock was his father, but when Hank and the Alchemist do some investigating together, they find some holes in this story. Turns out that Dermott had the identities of both parents wrong (though he was closer about his real mom than his real dad): his "mom" is actually his grandmother, and his "sister" Nikki is his biological mom. Furthermore, his biological dad is not Brock, but Rusty.
  • It is very heavily implied in Season 7 that the Blue Morpho's child by his wife (Malcolm/the Monarch) is not actually his, but Jonas's biological son.
• Manchild: Captain Sunshine.
• Manly Tears: A more sound-based example: Brock is sobbing when he's seen destroying his Cool Car after it tried to kill him.
• Mauve Shirt: #21 and #24. Lampshaded with that page's quote. By the season three episode "The Lepidoperists" they become savvy, though. #24 has since died (probably) for violating one of the rules.
• May the Farce Be with You
• Meaningful Name:
  • Assassins Jean-Claude LeTueur, Russel Sturgeon, and Heinrich Triggermensch; "Le Tueur" is French for "The Killer", Sturgeon is a kind of fish (and Rus specializes in maritime assassinations and general aquatic activity), and Herr Triggermensch ("Hair Trigger"), (German: Mr. Trigger-person, or Trigger-man) is a former biathlete, expert marksman, and gun fetishist.
  • Brock Samson himself: while his name is mostly meant to bring to mind "Race Bannon", he's an immensely strong guy with long hair, like the biblical Samson. The name "Brock" sounds like "brick" and "rock," and also means "badger," which all speak to his toughness. Finally, as Brock has been established as being of Swedish heritage, it's worth noting that Swedish surnames are (or were) often literal - "Johansson" means "son of Johan," "Swenson" means "son of Sven," and so on. This would make Brock Samson the "Son of Sam," a possible reference to David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam serial killer. Given Brock's over-the-top violent predilections, this seems quite fitting. Also, given Brock's love of smoking, it's an interesting coincidence that both "Brock" and "Samson" are name brands for loose-leaf tobacco.
  • The Venture family will often "venture" into danger. This is also a reference to Jonny Quest and his similar surname.
  • Molotov Cocktease is a play on "molotov cocktail" and a "cocktease." She's a deadly Russian who continually leads Brock on.
  • The Distaff Counterpart of Dr Venture is Dr. Quymn. Her surname is a homophone of "quim," an old British term for a certain part of the female body.
  • Otaku Sensuri, of the Onani Corporation (see Bilingual Bonus above) is caught getting very "excited" in the presence of Dr. Venture's Oooo Ray.
  • Doctor Byron Orpheus the necromancer is obviously named after Orpheus, a figure from Greek mythology who travelled into the underworld to meet with Hades and bring his wife back from the dead. Like Byron, the mythical Orpheus also failed to get his wife back.
• The Meaning of Life: While 21 is talking to the ghost of 24.
  24: Seriously, ask me any question.
  21: Okay. What's the meaning of life?
  24: The color 12.
  21: Really?
  24: No idiot. Ask me something less Hitchhiker's Guide, dork.
• Memory Wipe Exploitation: Knowing that SPHINX was gonna wipe the last few moments of Hank and Dean's memories, Dr. Venture with sadistic glee reveals to his sons that they're clones and the identity of their Missing Mom (Off-screen of course).
• The Men in Black: Mr. Doe and Mr. Cardholder.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break: Billy, White, and St. Cloud agree to put a battle on hold because White has a teeth cleaning the next morning, St. Cloud "has a bunch of things he flaked on", and Billy didn't sleep well the previous night. St. Cloud assures them that he will get them... at a reasonable hour.
  • An earlier episode has the Ventures tied up by The Monarch over a crocodile-infested swamp when Dean starts yelling in pain. As it turns out, Guild Law states The Monarch has to let them go if the ailment is unrelated to the arching. It turned out Dean had a case of testicular torsion, and the family is tied up in the same spot by The Monarch after Dean makes his recovery.
• Mind Screw: The Christmas Special. It's a dream within a dream within a nightmare and when Dr. Venture wakes up from it, his legs are gone and the four of them are in Bethlehem.
• Misblamed: Baron Underbeit was Rusty's laboratory partner at college, and became Rusty's enemy after being disfigured in a laboratory explosion that was actually caused by a young Monarch trying to kill Rusty.
• Missing Mom: Nearly omnipresent. Rusty's mother is never even referred to, Hank and Dean's mother left right after they were born, and Triana's mother left her husband for another man.
• Mistaken for Gay: Brock Samson and Dr. Venture, dressed as Rocky and Dr. Frank-N-Furter, respectively:
  Doctor: [Venture is taken to the emergency room to extract a tumor] Sorry, medical personnel only.
  Brock: I go where he goes.
  Doctor: Oh. You must be his... partner then?
  Brock: No, it's more like I work for him— Wait a minute! NO!!
  • Pete White. Frequently, and much to his annoyance.
• Mixed Metaphor: Fairly common, due to the prevalence of Buffy Speak.
  Phantom Limb: Let the rats desert the ship. It's the big-fish-rats we're after.
• Mocky Mouse: Roy Brisby's character Bizzy Bee is a cartoon bee with many obvious visual similarities to Mickey Mouse.
• The Mole:
  • Sergeant Hatred in OSI.
  • Hunter Gathers in the Black Hearts, though it turns out Hunter Gathers was working for SPHINX the entire time, and has recruited Brock, Shore Leave and a whole slew of former OSI agents into his organization.
  • If Phantom Limb's plan in "Bright Lights, Dean's City" is to be believed, The Moppets.
  • Agents Doe and Cardholder for the Guild in OSI.
  • Sky Pilot/Mile High for the OSI in SPHINX.
• Monster of the Week: Discussed by the Pirate Captain at his booth in The Buddy System. He touts the benefits of being a "small-time diversionary menace," playing off his original role as a parody of a Scooby-Doo villain, as opposed to a career supervillain.
• Mook Horror Show: There's a very good reason why one of Brock Samson's nicknames is "Slayer of Henchmen".
• Motionless Makeover: In "O.R.B.", Hank and Dean cover Orpheus in toilet paper while he's astral projecting, which freezes his body.
• Motive Decay: This appears to happen in an episode when The Monarch suddenly demands ransom money instead of his usual MO of trying to kill Dr. Venture. It's revealed that he is simply doing it to hit Rusty where it hurts. His wallet.
• Mr. Alt Disney: Roy Brisby, creator of Brisbyland.
• Muggles Do It Better: Not a hard and fast rule, but normies like Brock, Molotov, and OSI agents are usually more effective than their powered enemies and peers.
• Mundanger: In place of their usual attempts to scare their father on Halloween, the Venture brothers change it up one year by by faking a cancer scare, Dean getting an STD, and a burst pipe in the kitchen.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Everybody but Brock indulges in this.
  • #21 donning his henchmen uniform while humming Mars, the Bringer of War and providing his own sound effects. Then, when #24 shows up and sings along with him.
  • Doctor Byron Orpheus! and The Order of The Triad.
  • Go Team Venture! (Except when the original 60s team does it.)
  • The "Ooo Ray".
  • #21's "weapon stockpile".
  • Dr. Dugong.
  • Phantom Limb's selling of stolen artwork as supervillainy.
  • Led Zeppelin (according to H.E.L.P.eR, at least).
  • Dr. Z, who revels in acting out as a Large Ham to the benefit of younger villains and heroes and to entertain kids.
• Mundane Solution: How do you dissolve an impenetrable shield generator force field? Put a little club soda on it.
• Mushroom Samba: At a spiritual healing party held by Dr. Orpheus, Brock ingests a hallucinogen of sorts and then rides the beautiful dolphin into the bosom of his wisdom-dispencing motherfather figure.
  • In the episode "What Goes Down Must Come Up." we see a flashback where the original team Venture inhales a little too much of what is supposed to be a mood-enhancing drug. The hallucinations they (and the children with them) subsequently have are positively terrifying.
  • When Brock gets orders to kill Hunter and Molotov Cocktease comes to babysit the Ventures, Hank gets pricked in the neck when he accidentally discharges Molotov's boot heel spike. The resulting hallucinations convince him that killing his father will allow him to be with Molotov. He may have been more successful had his weapon of choice not been a papier-mache model sword.
• My Beloved Smother: "Colonel Bud Manstrong, listen to your mother!"
• My Brain Is Big:
  • Subverted with Billy Quizboy, who is actually hydrocephalic.
  • Jonas Venture-era villain Brainulo acts like this, but in the DVD commentary, the idea that Brainulo doesn't have any actual inborn mental powers (and that he was originally written as if this were the case) is raised.
  • Played straight with Think Tank.
• Nemean Skinning:
  • Brock does this to a polar bear in "Ice Station Impossible".
  • And to Edgar Allan Poe in the fake preview for "Escape to the House of Mummies part 3"
• Never Found the Body: Henchman 1/Scott Hall. After two seasons of being presumed dead, he appears in season four as "Zero."
• Never Trust a Trailer: The fourth season trailer (beware of spoilers if you haven't watched up to the season three finale). Several clips used in it turn out to be fake-outs of some sort, especially the clip of Future!Doctor Venture juxtaposed with a shot of Dean aging - the two scenes have nothing to do with each other in the series, and Future!Doctor Venture is just David Bowie in disguise. The trailer also milks fantasy sequences and out-of-context lines for as many cool scenes as they can.
  • The Trailer for The Better Man focused on a "Hell Beast From Hell," who was even in the Cold Open and wasn't even from Hell. Despite physical appearances, it was not on the level of Cthulhu. The rest of the trailer talked about Triana entering a "portal to the Second World." Except it's not a portal to the Second World. Orpheus doesn't have a portal to the Second World. Half the episode centered on Orpheus not having a portal to the Second World.
  • None of the season four trailers can be trusted: AT.ALL!
• Nice Guy: Byron Orpheus, theatrics notwithstanding.
  Orpheus: I'm making my famous frittatas!
  Orpheus: Who wants PIZZA ROLLS?
  Orpheus: I would make a whizbang salesman!
• Nighttime Transformation: Minor characters Lady-Hawk and Lyndon-Bee Johnson. She's a woman in the day and a hawk at night, and her husband is a bee in the day, and a human at night. They are cursed to never be human at the same time.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Brock Samson's Joy Can vision includes ninjas raining from the sky, cowboys with flamethrowers riding Tyrannosaurs, polar bears on motorcycles with scuba divers manning machine guns in the sidecars.
• Nipple and Dimed: Near the end of season three when the Monarch, his wife, 21, 24, Tim-Tom, and Kevin break into the Venture compound, Dr. Mrs. the Monarch waits in Brock's room so that she can seduce... er, subdue him when he shows up. As she adjusts her outfit, you can briefly see one of her nipples.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Dr. Henry Killinger looks, sounds, and acts a lot like former Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger, right down to his magic murder bag. Then again, it's heavily implied that that's exactly who he is. As if the name didn't give it away.
  • Brock's mentor, Col. Hunter Gathers, is a distillation of the public persona of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, with the addition of a gender dysmorphism of which Thompson appeared to be free, or perhaps medicated out of existence.
  • Col. Gentleman, while he looks and sounds like Sean Connery, shares many of the personal traits of the late William S. Burroughs: a relationship with a Maghrebi adolescent boy named 'Kiki', a fondness for hashish, and a tendency to write on and on and on like a crazy person.
  • Mr. Brisby is a jaundiced view of Walt Disney, differing only in that he appears to have been limited to a wheelchair for the past twenty years, as opposed to having died and been kept frozen in the basement of Tomorrowland.
  • David Bowie and his associates Iggy Pop and Klaus Nomi. David Bowie gets another subtle one in "ORB" during the flashback to the Victorian Era Guild: "Tesla and the Avon Ladies are attacking."
  • Brian Eno shows up, too, in "The Revenge Society". Flying in the Warm Jets, no less.
  • When 21 and 24 finally see each other out of costume, they comment that they look like Kevin Smith without a beard and Jerry Seinfeld with a unibrow, respectively.
  • Appearing for only a few seconds is the BDSM-themed supervillainess Bettie Rage.
  • Guild council members Red Mantle and Dragoon describe an alternate explanation of the events of The Day The Music Died in The Revenge Society.
  • The Revenge Society later picks up married couple Lady Hawk Johnson and Lyndon Bee. And yes, they do look and sound exactly like President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife "Lady Bird" Johnson.
  • Keith Flint is seen running around in the forgotten underground of the Venture Compound.
  • Lloyd Venture, Rusty's grandfather and founder of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, is Theodore Roosevelt through and through, including physical appearance, dress, and unique manner of speaking.
  • One of the cops interrogating Brock and Rusty in the season 3 finale, bears some resemblance to Al Pacino, down to the voice.
  • Dr. Z had a lost weekend phase in Hollywood, where he went out drinking with sonic supervillain Shrill Specter and werewolf sidekick Scary Nilsson
• No Dead Body Poops: Race Bannon has a noisy bowel movement when he dies.
  Brock Sampson: Yeah, that's the part they don't show you on TV.
• No Delays for the Wicked: Subverted—the Guild of Calamitous Intent's labyrinthine rules for "arching" often delay the Monarch's schemes long enough to reference the documentation. However, the protagonists are similarly constrained by GCI policies.
• No Indoor Voice:
  • Byron Orpheus
  • the Grand Galactic Inquisitor.
    IGNORE ME!!!
  • SPHINX COMMANDER - MYTHIC MASTERMIND, also known as Michael, to the point where he's yelling even when he's spying on his ex.
    Bypasser: You're waking up the whole block with that screaming. What are you doin'?
    Michael: MY GIRLFRIEND LIVES THERE!
    Bypasser: Why are you still screaming?
  • The Mighty Monarch has an indoor voice, but he often forgets to use it.
• Nominal Importance: Henchman #1 is a study in all aspects of the trope. It doesn't appear to save him (turns out he survived long to become insane, though).
  24: You are nameless-
  1: I'm Scott Hall! My name is Scott Hall!
  24: Mmmmm, nope! Not gonna help!
  21: Yeah, now it's just pathos. You're all dying in my lap and I'm all, SCOTT, SCOTT DON'T YOU QUIT ON US, DON'T YOU DARE!
  24: You've just made your unavoidable death more pathetic.
  Ironically, we learn 21's name (Gary), but not 24's.
• Noodle Implements: The Nozzle is wonderfully lampshaded.
  Master Billy Quizboy: What the Hell was that thing?
  Col. Hunter Gathers: I have no idea.
• Noodle Incident:
  • The reason the Monarch hates Dr. Venture. All we know is that it started in college. It gets lampshaded when the Pupae twins ask Dr. Mrs the Monarch what happened and she answers them with a long speech that tells them absolutely nothing.
  • Dr. Venture is understandably concerned when he loses a kidney in the first episode because he had already lost the other one before the series.
  • The first season finale Return to Spider-Skull Island begins after a non-specifically disastrous showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
  • The episode Past Tense starts with the Venture family having been delayed by saving the "ant people" and being rewarded with their great treasure...a half-eaten Jolly Rancher.
  • In Love Bheits, Brock mentions a villain known as the "Wallflower" that the family previously encountered. According to Rusty: "Lamest. Villain. Ever."
• Note to Self: Hank does this prior to a memory wipe so he'll know he finally got laid, leaving out the part that it was with Dermott's mother (who he thought was his sister) who had been knocked up by Rusty.
• Not Me This Time:
  • When Rusty and Brock are knocked out and kidnapped by a flying coffin, Hank and Dean immediately call the Monarch and demand he return them. He responds that it wasn't him this time, but "I have something planned for Thursday."
  • In the same episode, Brock accuses Baron Von Underbheit that he's responsible for kidnapping them. As Baron Underbheit is also in this predicament, he quips, "As usual, your detective skills are impeccable, Samson. You have succeeded in exposing my sinister plan to lock myself in a dungeon, chained to an albino."
  • Rusty proclaims this in "Pomp and Circuitry" when the new wing of State University blows up — tacitly admitting responsibility for the lab accident that cost Baron Underbheit his jaw even though it was actually the Monarch. (Of course, Rusty probably doesn't know it's the Monarch's fault.)
• Not Quite Starring:
  • David Bowie, aka the Sovereign, in the two-part season two finale. His first appearance is even accompanied by text at the bottom of the screen that says: "celebrity voice impersonated". Allegedly, they tried to get David Bowie himself but he didn't get back to them before the episode aired.
  • Fun Fact: His voice actor is the same as Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" S. Venture and his twin brother, Dr. Jonas Venture Jr. Oh, and Phantom Limb. They're all, more or less, scientists.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Monarch and Rusty actually share a moment to reflect on their lives in The Devil's Grip and realize they have a lot in common.
  • Lampshaded when Phantom Limb is about to begin a speech about how similar he and Brock are, but Brock cuts him off, saying he knows that speech well enough from hearing it every time.
  • Phantom Limb points out that Richard wasn't that far from being a supervillain in the first place.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Monarch. Do not screw around with the king butterfly, man.
  • Pretty much called out in "The Lepidopterists" where not playing by Guild rules to satisfy their crazy supervillain games ends up getting a lot of people dead. When bored supervillains don't have heroes to play stupid games with they tend to commit real crimes.
  • Revenge, Phantom Limb's alter-ego after he snaps, appears to be completely insane, as his revenge society initially consists of a Wisdom (a mug), Chuck (a toaster), and Lady Nightshade (a woman's dress shoe). However, all end up being useful to some degree, demonstrating that Revenge is, as he puts it, "Fruit-loop as a fox!"
• Not That Kind of Doctor: Yet another thing the show parodies. Rusty Venture dropped out of college and has since bought his doctorate from a degree mill in Tijuana. Meanwhile, Doctor Orpheus says he gained his doctorate from "a higher source". He does have an earthly bachelor's degree in communications if that makes you feel better.
  • Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, however, does have a legitimate doctorate, in physics. Billy Quizboy, meanwhile, has an illegitimate medical doctorate thanks to Monstroso.
• Not What It Looks Like: In "Spanakopita!", Sgt. Hatred sneaks past St. Cloud's hotel window and sees St. Cloud with his albino manservant kneeling in front of him and seemingly giving him a blowjob. Turns out the manservant is just drawing abs on him.
• Obliviously Evil: Dr. Venture never seemed to realize that his huge accumulation of horrible deeds could qualify him as a "bad person."
• Oculothorax: "Release the walking eye!" Dr. Venture's eye robot.
• Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Used frequently. The Audience is never shown The end of Brock's fight with Henchman 21, 21 and Brock vs. Monstrosso, Brock and the rest of the family fighting the fly women in (P.R.O.M.), 21 and Sphinx fighting the Monstroso henchmen, and the battles between The monarch Henchmen and the OSI and the Monarch henchmen vs. guild henchmen, are continuously cut away from to showcase other characters antics The build-up to these fight scenes, and no payoff represents the theme of failure in the show.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Doctor Venture in "From The Ladle To The Grave The Story of Shallow Gravy" when He hears Dermott's last name and figures out that he's the boy's father.
  • Hunter Gathers gets a nice one when he realizes that the 'suits' who'd been interviewing all the people involved in the Molostro incident were impostors.
    • Sgt. Hatred gets a great one in Diving Bell vs. The Butter-Glider
      21: [leading a horde of henchmen] You see... we're what you might call "on strike". So no Monarch, no Guild. No Guild, no Guild rules.
      Hatred: [gasps] They've gone rogue. [begins running back to the compound entrance] CODE RED! CODE RED!
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Council of Thirteen
• Once Killed a Man with a Noodle Implement:
  • Rusty Venture once killed a man with a housekey. His father forced him to. He was ten.
  • Brock once exploded a man's head with a sock full of party snaps.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You:
  • The Monarch and Baron Ünderbheit argue with each other over who can claim this title; disputes of this nature are apparently arbitrated by The Guild of Calamitous Intent.
  • This is how Molotov views Brock when they aren't making out.
    Molotov: You know I'd never let anyone kill my Samson. That is my job.
• Only Sane Man: Subverted in that pretty much every character feels like this at one point, only to turn around later and act unstable again.
• On the Rebound: After being dumped by The Monarch, Dr. Girlfriend then shows up at Phantom Limb's place, completely despondent, and begins dating him.
• Out of Focus: Triana seemed like she'd end up being Dean's love interest in the show, but midway through season two the Venture brothers stopped being the real center of the show, and thus Triana became more of a background character seen now and then. Because she's too well-adjusted to be interesting at all. The fact that she's voiced by Doc Hammer's ex doesn't really help, either.
• Overly-Long Gag: "We are about to engage...THE NOZZLE."
• Overshadowed by Awesome: As more time passes with Sgt. Hatred as the Venture bodyguard, we get to see that he actually has some competence, but it's all too easy to compare him to Brock.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Although Jonas Venture Senior is a 6'2" white guy claiming to be "Japanese man from the village of Japaninawa", despite dressing like a Chinese person and holding the outer corners of his eyes with his fingertips to make them look slanted, and despite Scaramantula explicitly pointing these facts out, he never fully realizes that he's talking to the man he's planning on blackmailing.
  • Also, Hank in "Showdown at Cremation Creek":
    Hank: Hello-ski! I am, how you say? Russian Guyovitch!
  • The superteam in "Handsome Ransom" is instantly recognizable as the Action News team.
• Parody Magic Spell: "Everybody Come to Hank's" uses this. When assisting Orpheus in casting a spell, an incantation is required, and The Alchemist decides to have fun with it.
• People Jars: Hank and Dean's clone storage.
• Perky Goth: Triana Orpheus, with the twist that her single father is a Nice Guy Large Ham Necromancer.
• Pineal Weirdness: Dr. Venture's Lotus-Eater Machine "The Joy Can" operates by creating a direct link to the subject's pineal gland.
• Ping Pong Naïveté: Hank and Dean, about sex, reality in general, and the fact that Brock kills people in front of them regularly. May have something to do with those learning beds, which Dr. Venture believes screwed up his own social life. This was also due to their clones not getting the advantage of first-hand experience for very long; the current Hank and Dean are getting much more well-rounded the longer they're alive.
• Pink Is Erotic: In season 7, Brock Samson and Warriana had some interest in each other but only had sex after Brock was extremely horny under the influence of God Gas. During this time, Brock's eyes were pink and he woke up in a pink bed (with Warriana's whip still in his ass).
• Pinky Swear: Between the Monarch and Dr.Girlfriend.
• A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: The episode "Ghosts of the Sargasso".
• Plot Armor: By season three, Henchman #21 mentions how he and #24 can't die, having practically become main characters. Henchman #24 tells him not to jinx it. It's good advice.
• Powered Armor:
  • The Monarch's "Death's Head Panoply", which couldn't be controlled due to insufficient testing.
  • The SPHINX Countess' strength suit, appropriated by Hank.
• Power Levels: In-universe, the Guild ranks villains using an "E.M.A. Rating" (which stands for "Equally Matched Aggression") to pair them with Arch Enemies of an equal threat level and avoid a horrifically one-sided murder. According to Monarch, Villains with vast resources at their disposal such as an army of henchmen count as a Level 10 while villains with nothing but their costumes and any weapon on their person count as a Level 4.
• The Powerof Rock: The inspiration for Rusty's science (and Dean's attempt).
• The Power of the Sun: Captain Sunshine's gimmick.
• Power Perversion Potential: Orpheus's Master is a shape-shifter and well aware of the benefits. First demonstrated when he takes the form of Cerberus and one of his three heads continuously licks his genitals, which he admits to loving (but he can also taste it, which is maddening). Then later when he takes the form of Catherine the Great's horse (a scene that was mostly cut but is included in the DVD extras), and finally lampshaded when he takes the form of Orpheus's surprisingly still hot ex-wife and claims he's going to jump rope naked in front of a mirror, in her body, after Orpheus leaves. "I mean would you look at these breasts? You could bounce a penis off these!"
• Precision F-Strike: Dean launches one at the end of Operation P.R.O.M. Particularly effective since Dean previously had a comic aversion to "bad" words.
• Previously on…:
  • Parodied in "Return to the House of Mummies Part II", where the five minute Previously on… is all that exists of Part I. Ends with an On the Next for a Part III which we never get to see either.
  • In "Showdown at Cremation Creek Part 2," there is a Previously on… which basically shows the major events of the previous episode in super-fast motion, ending with the scene of the cliffhanger, played normally.
• Prisoner's Last Meal: In the episode "Past Tense," Mike Sorayama kidnaps Venture, Brock, White, and Ünderbheit and, while he holds them captive, he brings them their "last meals" that he "brought in special from the State University dining hall," before revealing his plans to exact revenge and kill them for what they did to him back in college.
• Product Placement: Brock: "Ever heard a Real Doll? It's a type of sex doll that you can make look like anyone. You can even put a uhhh.."
• Psychic Nosebleed: This happens to Dr. Orpheus when he tries to probe Dr. Henry Killinger's mind.
• Psycho for Hire: Herr Trigger, one of the three assassins sent to kill Brock. He is a gun fetishist and considers his job to be "ecstasy".
• Psycho Knife Nut: Brock.
  • The Moppets. "We can take out his tongue— " "With a knife!" "Remove his heart— " "Yeah, with a KNIFE!" "A BIGGER knife!" "Fuckin' KNIFE!!"
• Punch-Clock Villain: The Monarch's henchmen, and, previously, the Monarch and Henchman #24 for Phantom Limb, as well as Dr. Venture's single-episode "Venchmen". Mr. Brisby's bodyguard, Mandalay, was a great example of this as well.
• Put on a Bus:
  • Baron Ünderbheit after he was exiled from Ünderland and refused lodging by the Monarch in "Love Bheits".
  • Triana decided to live with her mom for a while. It's debatable whether or not this actually a case of being put on a bus. Being a background character most of the time her absence is no greater than that of several other characters. Orpheus for example is absent for six episodes at the start of Season Four, which is roughly the same number of episodes Triana is absent for.
  • Venturestein and the German Plastic Surgeon.
  • Most of the cast when the Venture family moved to New York.
• Putting on the Reich: Dr. Venture accuses actual Nazis of stooping to this "old cliché", mostly due to skepticism over their atrocious German accents.
• Putting the Band Back Together: When the boys had to round up the original Team Venture to save Brock and Rusty.

Q-T

• The Rashomon: In "Victor. Echo. November.", three completely different origin stories are given for Phantom Limb by various characters and all of them involving Billy Quizboy somehow. In 'The Invisible Hand of Fate" Limb's origin is revealed and did indeed involve Billy.
• Raw Eggs Make You Stronger: In season one, Hank gives Brock a glass of raw eggs when he starts training to get his secret agent license back.
  Hank: When I'm through with you, you're going to eat lightning and crap thunder!
  Dean: It looks more like he's going to eat eggs and crap... eggs.
• Reconstruction: Much of the second and third seasons were spent lampshading the utter ludicrousness of the Guild of Calamitous Intent and the Office of Strategic Intelligence's secret costumed battle for supremacy, showing them both to be hidebound, ossified and frankly, quite ineffectual. By the time Hunter Gathers reestablishes SPHINX, though, we see that the Guild and OSI do serve a valuable purpose - the prospect of realistic "Bad guys" with access to superscience and no respect for the rules is genuinely unsettling.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted with a few characters more than others. Particularly 21 and Billy, who both happen to share a tendency to talk like regular real-life young nerds who stammer, cuss, and say "like" a lot.
  21: You're like, what, like... like a Wandering Spider, or something?

• Reassigned to Antarctica: A flashback shows an OSI officer named Haine Actually Sgt. Hatred sending Col. Gathers to Guam and giving Brock a fluff assignment to guard Dr. Venture, because the two won't stop wasting time investigating the Guild.
• Red Herring: It is strongly implied that Brock is Dermott's father, but in reality Dermott is Rusty's illegitimate son.
  • A similar situation exists with Myra, who is originally presented as the boys' mother, but she turns out never to have actually given birth to them.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Between the two most recent Venture body guards. To illustrate, Brock is a fit, Psycho Knife Nut and man of few words, Sgt. Hatred on the other hand is an overweight, pistol-wielding fellow who talks a lot.
  • Dean and Hank are shaping into this as their characters continue to grow. Dean is becoming more skeptical, pragmatic and passive, while Hank is becoming more headstrong, confident, and aggressive.
• Red Right Hand: This one is extremely common on the show. Almost every single villain, and a sizable fraction of the heroes, have some kind of freakish physical trait. Notable examples are Phantom Limb, whose arms and legs are invisible, and Scaramantula, who has eight fingers (and an abnormal amount of hair) on his right hand and wears a rubber four-legged spider on his nose (with his eyebrows and mustache forming the other four legs).
• Red Shirt: Lampshaded incessantly by Henchmen #21 and #24 with Henchman #1.
• Red Shirt Army: The Monarch's henchmen, more than any other supervillain, especially right after breaking out of prison and hiring a bunch of thugs off the street.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: For all his money problems Doc Venture never considers selling cloned organs. However, the clone slugs seem to grow in real-time, so doing so wouldn't be very fast (and according to General Treister the clone farm is illegal). He was able to make a "quick and dirty" clone of a boy who died in "The Buddy System," but the quality of that clone was pretty questionable. Though Dr. Venture did mention that this clone would "get better" with time and that he had fixed several genetic anomalies while the clone was incubating. "I did his parents a favor, it was a real mess in there."
  • "The Unicorn in Captivity" shows what happens when a truly disruptive super-science gadget is invented: The Organization of Secret Intelligence grabs hold of it to protect the status quo and keep it out of the wrong hands. Given that it seems to be a standard procedure, it implies that many amazing pieces of technology were never allowed to see the light of day.
• Replacement Goldfish: In the season four premiere, 21 tries to convince Dr. Venture to clone 24. However, as the only payment he can come up with is a vintage comic book, Doc declines. In "Handsome Ransom", Capt. Sunshine seeks to make Hank his new Wonderboy. He's desperately trying to use Hank to replace his slain sidekick because he's not ready to deal with it, spoiling and sheltering him for fear that he'll feel that loss again.
• Retired Badass Roundup: In the episode Past Tense, when Rusty and Brock are kidnapped, Hank and Dean reunite the original Team Venture to track them down.
• Reunion Revenge: "Past Tense" centers on Dr. Venture, Brock, Pete White and Baron Ünderbheit being kidnapped by a supposedly (and actually) dead college classmate for their "crimes" against him - all of which are extremely minor, petty pranks which he thinks ruined his chances with the girl of his dreams (they didn't; he was a total loser and she wasn't interested).
• The Reveal: Averted. One detail contributing to the Monarch's enigmatic quality was that he always wears a hood, leaving all but his face obscured except in flashbacks... then, in "The Diving Bell vs. The Butter Glider," he unceremoniously appears without the hood. The mystery is dispelled in an extremely undramatic manner.
• Rewatch Bonus:
  • In "ORB", at the end of the flashback showing Col. Venture about to activate the ORB you can hear glass breaking, foreshadowing the reveal in "The Revenge Society" that Sandow broke the ORB instead of killing Venture.
  • The series is chock-full of Rewatch Bonuses. Early Bird Cameos, Foreshadowing many seasons in advance, Call Backs to throwaway gags or one-off jokes... All are much easier to pick up the second time through.
• Robot Buddy: H.E.L.P.eR
• Rotten Rock & Roll: To convince the goody-two-shoes Rose Whalen to have dinner with him, Action Man Rodney conspires with Hank Venture to convince her Hank had been corrupted by rock and roll. While Hank's act is utterly unconvincing to anyone that knows anything at all about actual rock and roll culture, Rose is sheltered enough to buy it hook, line, and sinker. As soon as she suggests showtunes as an alternative, Hank pretends to do a Heel–Face Turn.
  Hank: Hey, old man. I was just playing my bass at a volume that's unreasonable. Can you give me some money to buy records with clear warning labels?
  Rodney: Oh, Rose. You got to help me straighten him out!
  Hank: You ain't never gonna stop me from overly-sexualized dancing and dressing like an indigent. Loud rock music!
• Rousing Speech: Brock gives a pretty good one to the Monarch's henchmen in "Showdown at Cremation Creek".
  Brock: '''You! Are! Murderflies!
• Rule-Breaker Rule-Namer: The supervillain guild has several hostage-related regulations named after Doctor Venture since he was constantly getting kidnapped as a boy hero.
• Rule of Funny:
  • Just about every horribly violent thing that Brock does to the Mooks in the show. Pole-vaulting by lodging the pole in a guard's throat (writing cannot explain this adequately), brutalizing two people with only his ass muscles, racking up a massive kill count as part of a staged battle just to give the Monarch a birthday gift, decapitating somebody with a shark's mouth, and more.
  • Doc Hammer commented that episode four, trope namer for Powered by a Forsaken Child, was a bit too early for such a Moral Event Horizon moment on Rusty's part, but they went with it anyway because it was funny.
• Running Gag:
  • Several, including 24's Nissan Stanza and 21 complaining about not being told about things, such as the fact that the wings on the henchmen's costumes are actually flight-capable. There are also other episode-specific ones, such as the lingering smell of the stinkbomb in season four's finale.
  • There are also the episode commentaries. Throughout the entire series Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick joked about how no-one would listen to the commentary before seeing the episode. (Sometimes the season.) This culminated in season three when, at the beginning of every commentary, Doc told the listener that 24 dies at the end of the season. This was later paid off when they were given a signed photograph by the one person who had listened to the commentary before seeing the episode.
• Sadist Show: Word of God says that the show is about "failure." Just to illustrate how dedicated the producers are to this concept, one episode showed the home of former game show host Pete White. He lived in a trailer, the standard fictional home of losers. In the establishing shot, a billboard is shown in the foreground informing the viewer that that trailer is the only house of a planned subdivision. The character is a failure, his home's a failure, and the ground his home is standing on for miles around is a failure.^note And it's in a very sunny climate, which would be perfectly lovely for most people, but he's an albino. One time when he hit rock bottom, he just sat on his own doorstep for a while and turned the color of raw hamburger. However, the show also subverts this: Rusty and a lot of his generation seem either doomed to the results of their "Adventure" lifestyles or partially breaking away from them, such the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend's marriage, 21 growing up, and even Rusty settling his issues. Their children however are moving on and showing signs that they'll break this cycle and either be successful or at least not be psychologically scarred. Word of God highlights this subversion, in recent years the creators have stated that they want the show to be about more than failure, and give its characters some victories.
• Sad-Times Montage: After Hank and Dean are killed, the first episode of Season 2 opens with a montage of characters looking depressed, Doc breaking down, fleeing the compound in the X-1, and Brock tracking him through various exotic locales as Doc "finds himself". Unusually for most montages of this type, the accompanying music is an upbeat techno track, which undergoes a Diegetic Switch as Brock finally catches Doc at a rave.
• Scarecrow Solution: "Escape To The House of Mummies Part II". Dr. Venture, sitting on Brock's shoulders and dressed in a green blanket waves a flashlight at cultists to save Hank and Dean. It doesn't work.
• Scary Black Man: Mandalay, Mr. Brisby's bodyguard, who dwarfs even Brock in size and is just as intimidating.
• Science Hero: Every Dr. Venture except Rusty.
• Scooby Stack: Naturally, the Groovy Gang does this pose. White, Rusty, and Billy also do it at least twice. Since White is a little taller than average, Rusty is kinda short, and Billy is tiny, it makes a little sense they would stack like that.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Mandalay does this just after Brock returns. He immediately breaks his usual silent personality, says he isn't paid enough and simply leaves.
  • During the season three finale Brock quits his job at the OSI as a secret agent and his job for Venture as a bodyguard because he can no longer stand all the weird, jacked-up crap he has to deal with daily.
  • 21 does this at the end of Season 4, seemingly fed up with the Monarch and just leaves.
• Searching the Stalls: Brock is looking for Phantom Limb inside a bathroom. He begins searching each stall, encountering a different villain in each one, before finding his target. It has to be said that at this point Brock is completely naked and covered in blood. His appearance quickly cures 24's constipation as he sits on the john.
• Secret Weapon: Subverted with the Monarch's Death's Head Panoply, a set of Powered Armor that isn't actually powered, and is in fact too heavy for the Monarch to move in. Doubly subverted when the Monarch actually activates it and does manage to take out a large chunk of three armies with it (well, two armies, one of which was his own, and a bunch of naked clones), and then triply subverted when he loses control and falls over. The armor spun so badly the Monarch was dizzy to the point of vomiting uncontrollably.
• Seen It All: Everybody in the entire Venture universe.
  • Played straight in the season three finale...
    Doc Venture: You don't know me. Why in my prime I saw some things that would make your head spin!
    Sgt. Hatred: Yeah, I've seen a guy's head spin, like right off his neck. Why? 'Cuz I punched him! Top That!
    Doc Venture: Okay, okay... My father made me kill a man- kill a man! -with a house key. I was ten.
    Sgt. Hatred: That's nothing. I ate a whole Labrador retriever once!
  • ... and subverted.
    Brock: I've seen enough spinnin' butterfly... naked boy armies... screw this... I'd rather, uh, quit.
  • ... and averted completely in another episode.
    Dr. Mrs. the Monarch: Gary, you've seen too much.
    Henchman 21: I've seen my only real friend die. I've seen a giant penny roll over a guy dressed like a rainbow. I've seen the Donkey Kong kill screen. I've seen attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
    Dr. Mrs. the Monarch: (in a cheerleader's costume) Oh, G-A-R-Y! You ain't got no alibi! You're Gary! What, what?!? You're Gary!
    Henchman 21: Okay, I have not seen that ever!
• Seinfeldian Conversation: This show is very dialogue-heavy. A large chunk of it consists of nerdy trivia. This gets taken up to eleven whenever 21 and 24 are on screen.
• Sequel Hook: Each season finale had these. In fact, seasons one and especially three have had full on Cliffhanger deaths. On killing Henchman 24, Doc Hammer stated that it was such a stupid decision that you have to see where they're going with it.
  Hammer: I mean, who the hell kills one half of a comedy duo?
• Sequential Symptom Syndrome: Hank displays the symptoms of "Goliath Serum" poisoning while watching a filmstrip describing its effects.
• Series Continuity Error: The series is very good about continuity for the most part, but there are a couple of examples:
  • In Victor. Echo. November. in Season 2, Hank remembers Billy operating on Dean to fix his testicular torsion in Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean, even though, as a Season 1 episode, this actually happened to their clones, implying that Hank and Dean still have memory of this through their memory beds. However, in All This and Gargantua-2, when Billy brings this up, Hank doesn't remember it and asks when that happened, before concluding it must have happened to their clones, suggesting they don't have memories of this.
  • Related to the above, Hank in the former episode mentions Billy operating on "your balls, Dean", which suggests that this happened only to Dean and ignores the Here We Go Again! moment at the end of the original episode that implies that Hank also got testicular torsion. Billy's words in the latter episode to Hank about fixing "you and your brother's" testicular torsion, however, do acknowledge this moment and apparently confirm that it happened to both boys.
  • In Everybody Comes to Hank's in season 4, Dr. Orpheus is among the people who finds out that Dermott's father is Dr. Venture. However in Momma's Boys in season 5, Dr. Orpheus doesn't seem to know and is confused by the fact that he could hear Dermott's call for help as if he was one of the Venture Brothers.
  • In The Unicorn in Captivity, Dr. Venture states that he wants to have enough money to retire to "Spanakopita", clearly referencing the events of the episode of the same name. However, it was an actual plot point in that episode that "Spanakopita" was the name of the made-up holiday, which itself was named after a type of pie, and the name of the island itself is Spanakos. Rusty is essentially stating here that he wants to retire to the holiday or the pie, rather than to the island like he presumably meant.
• Serious Business: Most supervillians take themselves very seriously. Especially the Monarch:
  Jollyrancher82: I just thought, you know, "The Monarch," I thought you were into cosplay?
  Monarch: Real name. And I am into costume business, not costume play.
• Shaped Like Itself: In the episode Mama's Boys, wherein H.E.L.P.eR is introduced as:
  Gary: And that’s our crime robot that we named Crime Robot!
• Shared Universe: The events of Jonny Quest are canon to The Venture Brothers, at least where the writers can get away with it. Throwaway dialogue in the episode "Self-Medication" implies that Scooby-Doo is canonical to the universe as well, which is amusing considering that psychotic Expies of the Mystery Incorporated crew appeared much earlier in the series.
• Sharp-Dressed Man:
  • The Sovereign, obviously, since he's based on David Bowie's "Thin White Duke" persona.
  • Also the Investors, whose trademark are their black pin-stripe suits.
  • The Blue Morpho and Kano dress in a nice blue pinstripe suit and a blue chauffeur suit respectively. Monarch and 21 dress the same when they take over their identities.
• Ship Sinking: "The Better Man" has one of the more gentle examples. "Operation P.R.O.M" torpedos the Molotov/Brock pairing. She threw him over for Monstroso! It also drives another nail in the coffin of the Dean/Triana ship by introducing Triana's new boyfriend.
• Ship Tease: It's common knowledge (to the fans and of course Henchman 24) that Henchman 21 has a thing for Mrs. the Monarch and it's generally seen as one-sided...until season four's episode "Assisted Suicide" where the two of them are seen bonding over an unconscious Monarch. 21 ups the ante by kissing Dr. Mrs. the Monarch... seconds before the Monarch wakes up from his mind-control arching. Thankfully, he didn't catch them but the damage is still done. The more interesting part is that Mrs. the Monarch does genuinely like 21 so maybe it's not as one-sided as we think.
  • Additionally, the status of Pete White and Billy Quizboy as Heterosexual Life-Partners has been milked for a good number of jokes in the fandom, including Jackson Publick himself quipping that they "do it in [his] fanfiction". Given allegorical versions of themselves have made out by request as of season four, it appears Mr. Publick is willing to put his money where his mouth is.
    Fan: When are Pete and Billy going to get girlfriends?
    Doc: I thought you were going to ask the more obvious question. "When are they going to get...it on?"
    Jackson: Like they do in my fan stories.
    Doc: Like I read on the internet.
  • Then there's Shoreleave's sarcastic "Oh yeah, friend. Friend." in "The Silent Partners." Honestly, that entire episode, especially right after the offscreen kiss in "Assisted Suicide" was just begging for more people to ship those two.
• Shooting Gallery: Subverted. Brock has to prove his marksmanship skills at a shooting gallery as part of a test to get his OSI license renewed, but refuses to use the gun he is given, opting instead to jump over the barricade and tear apart the bad guy card board cut-outs with his knife (and using one innocent bystander cut-out as a club, which he props back up after destroying all the other targets).
• Shorter Means Smarter: JJ (who obtained two doctorates in a month) and Billy (a surgeon who once successfully transplanted one guy's head onto another guy) are two of the smartest characters in the series and they're both very short.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page. The Episode Recaps also list the shout-outs from each episode.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The stolen Rembrandt painting that Phantom Limb tries to sell to a Mafioso is a real painting that is currently missing.
  • In the season three episode "ORB", after Brock and Kano listen to Sandow's recording:
    Kano: That's about it. The rest is Sandow listing chocolate recipes. That's why I kept it. I like to bake.
    The real Eugene Sandow had several ill-fated attempts at opening cocoa factories in the 1910s.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Hank and Dean are this in later seasons.
• Side Effects Include...: "In Every Which Way But Zeus", the side-effects of the power inhibitor are as follows:
  Ward: Side effects may include: Nausea, headaches, insomnia, constipation, oily discharge, severe deja vu, stiffness in joints, blurred vision or temporary blindness, loss of life, diarrhea, thrombosis, and rectal bleeding.
• Silence, You Fool!: The Council of Thirteen in the season three opener. Lampshaded when the first council member to shout it out has to explain himself to one of his confused comrades ("I was just trying to sound intimidating"), then subverted when another member attempts it and repeatedly screws up the timing ("Ok, you need to do that when SHE'S talking").
• Simple Country Lawyer: Tiny Attorney.
• Single-Target Sexuality: SPHINX Commander has an extreme case of this for Countess, to the point that he treats Hank as her because he's wearing her armour.
• The '60s: Most of the characters are drawn from the books, comics, movies, and cartoons of that decade, but with modern twists.
• Sky Face: An episode featured Dr. Killenger's face in the sky at the end reciting Shakespeare's "all the world's a stage" monologue, followed by General Manhower laughing and telling us we can read all about it in the Bible. It's entirely unprovoked and unexplained.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Brock's relationship with Molotov Cocktease is.... volatile.
• Sleek High Rise Apartment: After the death of Jonas Jr., Rusty inherits his estate and quickly moves into a penthouse atop a highrise in the center of New York City.
• Sleep Learning: Hank and Dean. Dean has expressed a dislike/fear of this at multiple points.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Several.
  • Rusty Venture. He believes himself to be a towering pillar of awesome who just so happens to shun the spotlight (going so far as stating that he has a standing policy of shunning the media and not doing interviews), but the rest of the world views him as a has-been, wanna-be, and uses his name for a ridiculously long series of bizarre sex-acts. Also, the Venture Brothers (Hank in particular) themselves seem to be oblivious to how pathetic they really are.
  • Subverted with the Monarch, who, despite going around making up crap about butterflies being poisonous and such, is treated as a legitimate villain by his peers even if they mock his butterfly motif. (He proves his lethality several times over when he's up against any foe other than Rusty Venture.)
  • If Dermott was half as awesome as he says he is, he'd be right up there with Brock. Instead, he gets his ass handed to him by Dean. Triana sees through his bullshit even before that.
• Small Reference Pools: Averted, inverted, and thrown out the window on fire.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Dr. Henry Killinger has only had three major appearances to date (with a few bit appearances in other episodes,) but has made a significant impact on the Venture universe in each. First, by helping to rebuild the Monarch's organization and reunite him with Dr. Girlfriend, setting Monarch down the path of becoming a Not-So-Harmless Villain, and second, giving Rusty Venture a much needed Heel Realization, that eventually helped to bring out more of Rusty's Jerkass with a Heart of Gold tendencies. Then in his third appearance, he slays the Investors and reforms the Guild of Calamitous Intent after the Sovereign's defeat.
• Smug Snake: Phantom Limb. Oh so much.
• Soaperizing: There's a big focus on the characters' interpersonal relationships: Rusty (and Brock) trying (and failing, or not even trying) to parent the boys, the Monarch and Dr Girlfriend breaking up then getting back together, 21 mourning 24... (And a few soapy Everyone Is Related twists.)
• Spanner in the Works: The only reason Molotov's Black Hearts were prevented from murdering everyone present at the prom during Operation P.R.O.M was thanks to Rusty drugging them with his Spanish Fly. Which then subsequently turned them into mutant flies.
  • In the season 3 finale, Brock probably would have succeeded in getting the OSI and the Monarch to wipe each other out had it not been for Sgt. Hatred suddenly intervening with the clone army.
• Special Edition Title:
  • Season 2 opener swapped out Hank and Dean for Rusty and Jonas Jr. for its opening credits, on account that Hank and Dean are dead.
  • Season 3 opener swapped out the Venture compound for The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend (in the places of Hank and Dean) and Henchmen 21 and 24.
• Spider-Man Send-Up: The Brown Widow
• Spider Tank: The new H.E.L.P.eR as well as the Walking Eye.
• Spikes of Villainy: Baron Ünderbheit has these on his armour
• Spirit Advisor: In season four, 24 appears to be this to 21, until the season finale. The Master is one to Dr. Orpheus, and Dr. Orpheus helps Brock get in touch with a spirit guide that takes the form of Col. Gathers in season two. Jonas Venture gives Rusty this piece of unheeded advice in an early episode:
  Dr. Venture: You don't need diet pills, you just need to work a few things out.
• Spiritual Successor: With The Tick. They share a creator/writer (Jackson Publick), an actor/voice actor (Patrick Warburton), and numerous themes (including various genre deconstructions.) Tick creator Ben Edlund is also the only person to write an episode (¡Viva los Muertos!) of the Venture Brothers outside of creators Publick and Doc Hammer.
• Spit Shine: Done by Hank when he must shine his father's shoes as punishment on an episode.
• Stairs Are Faster: The Monarch and Henchman 21 take the chute down to the Monarchmobile while Henchman 24 takes the more sensible stairs. He gets there first and closes the sunroof just as they would fall into the car.
  24: You'll thank me later. It's gonna rain!
• Stalker with a Crush: Myra, Rusty's old bodyguard. In her defense, it's not exactly her fault she thought there was something between them after she is implied to have had his children. See Shrug of God.
• Stealth Pun: In the season four finale, "Operation: P.R.O.M." Sgt Hatred has most of his HATRED tatoos removed, except for the D, as it's in kind of a tender area, and replaces the H with a V for "Venture," meaning his tattos now read "VD," venereal disease.
• Stock Scream In particular the Wilhelm Scream, but since this series a huge Deconstruction of the future of yesterday it's probably a homage to it more than anything else.
• Straight Gay:
  • The Alchemist and Colonel Gentleman.
    The Alchemist: But being a magic superhero that keeps chasing the same guy? It's completely gay. That is coming from a guy that voluntarily has sex with men!
  • Played with for born-again Holy Diver (Shore Leave) and Sky Pilot (Mile High), who were allegedly Gay Straight, but they later revealed this to be a cover up. Mile High appears to be straight, while Shore Leave is actually still very, very gay. Hell, he's in the navy.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Happens to Dean in "A Very Venture Halloween". Subverted when he is just given a medical check-up and then released unharmed.
• Straw Feminist: Ginny, Dr Quymn's bodyguard.
• Superior Successor: Given that this show is a Deconstructive Parody of various works in media from movies to TV to books with the characters being an Expy of other characters, this trope was bound to come up.
  • Both of Dr. Jonas Venture Sr. sons are this towards him in various ways. While Rusty has all of his negative qualities, he's clearly only A Lighter Shade of Black at his worst when compared to his father who was an amoral, narcissistic, sociopath that cared for no-one and at best saw others as tools/entertainment or worse subject for his experiments. Rusty is no saint but he's got way more heart than his father ever did and is surrounded by friends and family that care deeply for him with Rusty admitting he cares for his family and friends too. As for his other son, Jonas Jr. is basically Jonas Sr. with a conscience, ideals, and discipline when it comes to inventing and usually finishes what he starts. Like Jonas Sr., Jonas Jr. is also a ladies man but is chivalrous and unlike his father wasn't trying to just get in their pants but truly cared about them and was interested in them as people.
• Supernatural Team: The Order of the Triad.
• Symbolic Wings: The Monarch's minions have wings on their costumes as part of the theme. Subverted in season three when they turn out to actually allow flight.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Monarch has a moment of it for Dr. Venture when he finds that Venture is already too broken for Monarch's attempts to unleash sanity breaking mental trauma to work.
  What can I do to this guy that life hasn't already?
• Take a Third Option: Season four revealed that Eugene Sandow actually broke the Orb, instead of killing Colonel Venture. This could be justified as Sandow couldn't bring himself to kill Venture, but the potential threat the Orb poses was too great.
• Take Our Word for It: Lt. Baldavitch's face. The alien (disguised as Jonas Venture Sr.) in "Twenty Years to Midnight" as well. Annoyed by Rusty's berating him for showing up as his dad, he reveals his true appearance to everyone's horror.
• Tap on the Head: Lampshaded in "The Revenge Society"
  Dragoon: What is this, an episode of Gilligan's Island? Everybody gets hit once and they are instantly unconscious?
  Red Mantle: Good one. Six bucks says he has amnesia when he wakes up.
• Team Hand-Stack:
  • Inverted with "Go Team Venture"... where the Venture brothers' catch phrase is uttered, only by them, at the end of a caper and almost always ironically.
  • Double subverted when the original Team Venture does it.
  • They all do it with two fingers raised in a "V," but only the two Venture-brothers do it by touching their V'ed fingers together in a victory celebration after the adventure; meanwhile only the original Team Venture simply raises their fingers when they're about to join together in a battle.
• Technical Euphemism: The members of the Guild of Calamitous Intent hate the terms "good guy" and "bad guy" and would rather say "protagonist" and "antagonist" instead.
• Technical Pacifist: The Guild of Calamitous Intent forces this on their members. Weapon tiers are strictly enforced.
• Teleporter Accident: Dr. Venture gets his torso embedded in a wall and parts of him in the television and sewer.
• Tempting Fate: Do not brag about your Plot Armor. Someone dies in the season three finale, and it sure as hell isn't a Venture brother. DOZENS of Venture Brothers die in that episode, just not the currently active Hank and Dean.
• That Man Is Dead:
  Henchman #1 is dead! I am Zero!
• There Are No Therapists:
  • After three seasons of seeing how messed up Dr. Venture is, he finally goes to a therapy session. The delay is even given an in-story justification, as it's revealed that Jonas Venture, the source of all of Rusty's trauma and mental issues, was his son's therapist and messed it up royally by sneaking out while his son talked and them went on a long-winding lecture condemning his son as an ungrateful whiner who should shut his mouth and never blame his father for his life since the isolationism and forced trauma was considered by Jonas to be something "better" than the life of most normal kids. The episode has a second justification for this trope. The therapist is killed by a snake that the Monarch had 21 plant so Rusty doesn't have an excuse to get out of arching. The Monarch is damn determined to get at Rusty. Furthermore, Rusty's aversion to therapy and unwillingness to confront himself are direct contributors to the pill-popping habit he displays throughout the series. Rusty, and perhaps the similar super-scientists, have more faith in chemicals than they do in words and emotions.
  • Dr. Orpheus provides a unique brand of mental-spiritual healing from time to time, like for Brock in ¡Viva los Muertos! and Rusty in Assisted Suicide.
  • Dr. Killinger functions as a therapist in his appearances, particularly in The Doctor is Sin with Rusty.
• There Was a Door: Played with in the Season 2 premier, when Doctor Orpheus teleports through the lab's ceiling, covered in ectoplasm.
  Venture: We have a door, Orpheus!
• Those Two Guys: Pete White and Billy Quizboy, #21 and #24, Watch and Ward
  • After The death of #24, Monarch eventually takes his place alongside #21.
• Throwing Your Gun at the Enemy: Brock rescues the boys from being held at gunpoint. The mooks start firing as they flee.
  [Mook 1's gun empties he looks at it then throws the gun at Brock and the boys who are no longer in range]
  Mook 2: I have more bullets you know. You gotta stop doing that.
  Mook 1: [sheepishly] I know, it just looks so cool.
  Mook 2: Well, go get it.
• Thrown from the Zeppelin: Literally in "ORB."
• Time Travel: "Escape To The House Of Mummies Part II" with Grover Cleveland's Presidential Time Machine.
• Tongue on the Flagpole: In "Now Museum, Now You Don't", Hank sticks his tongue to the ice block containing Ook-Ook.
• Too Broken to Break: Rusty could very well be the Trope Codifier. No matter what horrible things can happen to him in the show, he's been through worse. An abusive childhood has made him incredibly callous, as mentioned in the quote above. When the Monarch tries Cold-Blooded Torture on him, nothing has any effect due to him having experienced almost all of it at some point. Trying to crush his spirit doesn't work either, because he's so depressed and bitter that old college friends of his consider it almost creepy to see him looking happy. The Monarch puts it best:
  The Monarch: What can I do to this guy that life hasn't already?
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • 21. The mid-season finale pretty much has raised his status to one of the most competent characters on the show now, as goofy as he still acts. He even manages to go toe to toe with Brock f-ing Samson. He loses, but upon waking from being knocked out, Brock commends him for his ability. Hank also fits this when he tries to join SPHINX.
  • The Monarch starts as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain. Starting with Season 3 he gets more competent, less goofy and more frightening. When he was being shuffled from arch-to-arch in season 3 he was downright lethal, and at one point even the Axe-Crazy Pupa Twins were scared of him.
  • The Monarch's redshirt Henchmen themselves have become markedly more effective since the start of the show, although they still suffer massive casualties regularly. In episode one, they were literally only good for being slaughtered by Brock, but by the finale of Season 2, they're able to go toe-to-toe against the Guild's own enforcers. A season later, they manage to fight armored OSI shock troops to a stalemate.
  • Season Five shows that Hank has taken one to the point where he can go toe-to-toe with jungle mutants and not only survive but beat them. Of course he was hyped up on coffee at the time...
• Too Much Information: Col. Gentleman and Sgt. Hatred's sex lives. Billy Quizboy's "guilty pleasures" list is considered too much information by Billy himself when he realizes he misunderstood the question.
• Tranquil Fury: "They hit me with a truck." So sayeth Brock Sampson, before he proceeds to murder most of Monarch's henchmen.
• Tranquillizer Dart:
  • Subverted in the first episode; Brock takes about a dozen butterfly darts, and only goes down when hit with a truck. Of course, it is Brock.
  • The pirate captain has an addiction to tranquillizer darts in the episode "The Lepidopterists."
  • 24's attempt to kill Hank in the episode "Tears of the Sea Cow" are averted because he didn't know his rifle only shot tranquillizer darts.
• Transvestite: In the years before his gender reassignment, Col. Gathers evidently used any excuse to use a feminine persona as a "disguise". Even funnier as he changes neither his voice nor his permanent five-o'clock shadow.
• Trash the Set: At the end of All This and Gargantua-2, the Venture Compound is burned to the ground.
• Troperiffic: Gee, you think? The creators even state that they read TV Tropes and mention several tropes by name on the Season 4 DVD commentary.
• Try Not to Die: Brock actually says this to Hank in the season two finale.
• Twinmaker: The Venture twins enjoy immortality through cloning until the season three finale, when their clones are used as an army during an attack on the Venture compound.
• T-Word Euphemism: From the first episode:
  Hank: Ah, double dammit!
  Dean: Hank! You said the double-D word!

U-Z

• Überwald: Ünderland, the tyrannical kingdom of darkness ruled with an iron fist by Baron Ünderbheit. It borders on Michigan.
• The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: 21 and 24 like to debate these. Their debut consisted of an argument about who would win in a fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden. When this conversational well runs dry, they also engage in excessive Fan Wank. In all cases, 24 takes whichever position is most obviously wrong. invoked
• The Unfavorite: As the series goes on, Dr. Venture shows more contempt - or at least snark and negligence - toward Hank, brought on by Hank's Too Dumb to Live Small Name, Big Ego tendencies. Rusty held Hank back and told him "You only live once" after Hank unleashed the naked clone army to be ground up in the season three finale, thus ending their effective immortality. It is later elaborated on more, when he admits to Hank (who is disguised as a kidnapper) that the reason he's so mean to Hank and protective of Dean, is that Hank understands the world he lives in and Dean doesn't, meaning that Dean needs protection from "harmless" threats (like kidnappers who clearly aren't going to hurt anybody) because he won't realize that he's not in danger, while Hank will. Of course, even with all this shown, he still clearly favors Dean over Hank due to Dean's greater intellectual capabilities.
• Un-Installment: "Escape to the House of Mummies", Parts I and III
• The Unintelligible: H.E.L.P.eR
• Unknown Rival: The Monarch, until the end of the first season.
• The Unreveal:
  • The reason why the Monarch hates Dr. Venture so much has yet to be revealed, leading to much speculation from both fans and characters. In one episode, the Monarch begins to reminisce about the first time he felt hatred for Venture, and the screen begins to get wavy as if we're going to a flashback... only it turns out things look wavy because his wings are on fire thanks to the laser security system at the Venture Compound, and he interrupts his own reminiscence to mention this.
  • In a much earlier episode, Dr Venture says he's going to get the boys a new mommy. When Dean points out they don't know anything about their mom, Rusty scratches his chin and ponders, "That's right, I never really told you boys about her..." but is interrupted by car honking and leaves on a date before going any further.
  • There were several fake-outs before the show finally explained how Billy lost his hand. For a few seasons it looked like they were never going to get to it.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal:
  • Inverted in that Dr. Venture never learns Ginny is a woman because he's not remotely attracted to her.
  • Also inverted with Brock and Dr. Girlfriend. She tries to seduce him multiple times, but it fails because Brock thinks she's actually a man. The truth is that she just has an unusually deep voice.
• Urban Legends:
  • Kidney theft is a major plot point in "Dia De Los Dangerous" as well as the chupacabra. There are apparently tons of them.
  • Billy Quizboy was granted an automatic 4.0 GPA for a semester of college because his roommate committed suicide.
• Used Future: Whenever a utopian project is started in the past, expect to see its ruined present equivalent to be contrasted immediately. Most of Jonas Venture Sr.'s projects fall under this.
• Viewers Are Geniuses: There are so many obscure references, to just about any topic, in every episode that you kind of have to be one to fully appreciate the humor.
• Villain Episode: "Shadowman 9: In The Cradle Of Destiny". While many other episodes have a majority of the episode dedicated toward the Monarch, this episode did not cut to the Venture family at all. Brock has a cameo only and didn't speak.
• Villainous Breakdown: Phantom Limb. Big time.
• Villain Protagonist: The Monarch, Dr. Girlfriend, and their henchmen. Rusty and Brock may count for some people, though Brock is far more a Nominal Hero.
• Villains Out Shopping: The thematic core of the series is more or less built around this trope.
• Vision Quest:
  • Brock Samson goes on one in "¡Viva los Muertos!"
  • Dr. Orpheus' visits to his daughter's closet might qualify as well.
• The Walls Are Closing In: With Spikes of Doom as an added bonus and lampshading.
  Doctor Orpheus: How fast are the spikes?
  Doctor Venture: Uh, slower than "haunted house" spiked walls but not quite as slow as "evil scientist" spiked walls.
• The Voiceless: Dr Orpheus's ex-wife Tatyana appears but doesn't talk. Hammer and Publick mention in an episode commentary that they'd like to do something with her someday, so they want to leave their options open for a voice actor until then. So they imply she's a wine mom who's a little fed up with her current husband to justify why she hasn't got a lot to say.
• Wager Slave: Dean dares Hank to drink some awful substance, and in exchange Dean will be Hank's slave.
• Wasn't That Fun?: Appears in the season 2 finale; after fighting off dangerous Guild helicopters, having the X-1 crash into The Cocoon, and the whole lot of them winding up crashed in the Grand Canyon, Brock plucks Hank out of the water. The first thing Hank says?
  Hank: Again! Again!
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • Captain Sunshine's powers don't work at night.
  • Watch and Ward order Stormfront to get a power inhibitor in "Any Which Way But Zeus", mentioning the time he apparently killed The Candy Man, a guy made entirely out of sugar, by dousing him in rain. When Stormfront moans that nobody on the team is going to mind getting a little wet, Iron Anvil raises his hand with an audible squeak.
• Webcomic Time: A throwaway gag in the Season 1 episode "Past Tense", which was set in 2004, mentioned something of note happening two years and seventeen days later. The Season 7 episode "Arrears in Science" (which was made in 2018) has this event transpire, indicating that the setting of the series is still in the mid-2000s.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Speedy. Poor little guy. He was this close to earning his wings.
• We Will Meet Again: St. Cloud delivers an extremely straight-faced version to Billy Quizboy at the end of "What Colour Is Your Cleansuit?".
• Weird Trade Union: The Guild of Calamitous Intent, which apparently competes with smaller, less reputable villainous unions, such as The Peril Partnership, and the Fraternity of Torment.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Rusty toward Jonas Venture. This is implied with Hank - when Dr Killinger comes to take over the Venture compound, he hangs out with Hank, encouraging him with sports and other physical activity. Season four gives us D-19, a deformed clone of Dean who Rusty flushed away when he didn't come out right (though unknown to him he survived). Poor guy end up having delusions of a imaginary Rusty talking to him and trying to make a body suit out of the skin of the deceased Dean clones.
• Wham Episode: ORB. This episode reveals, among other things:
  • In addition to guarding Dr. Venture, Brock is also expected to kill him if he finds and activates the Orb.
  • The Guild of Calamitous Intent began as a group of powerful people guarding the Orb, and Dr. Venture's grandfather was one of them. A lesser point is that Phantom Limb's grandfather was also part of this group.
  • We have a page on this.
• Wham Line: At the end of the Season 3 finale, after Brock quits the OSI:
  Dr. Venture: Where are you going? Aren't you gonna help clean this up?
  Brock: I said "I quit".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: This happens a lot.
  • We never really find out exactly what Doctor Girlfriend said to Monarch at the end of season two.
  • A lot of subplots are resolved just by the episode ending: Doc getting stuck in a wall, Doc and Sgt. Hatred being busted by the police while Hank runs away, Phantom Limb's fate at the end of "The Revenge Society", and the entire B-plot of "Return to the House of Mummies Part 2" (of course, that was the point.) Usually helped out by Rule of Funny, as many of these resolutions are either boring or funnier in the audience's imagination.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?:
  • Manic 8-Ball's only power seems to be the ability to respond with Magic 8-Ball answers in his chest instead of speech. His scene with Baron Underbheit implies that he might be able to predict the future (although if you scare the shit out of him or your questions aren't useful, his answers might be at best Metaphorically True), but then again, he might not. Reply hazy, try again.
  • The Impossibles (save Professor Impossible) fall into this category and Blessed with Suck: Sally's skin is invisible (making her a walking anatomy model) and her power is to make it opaque, Ned's entire body is severely callused (though not invulnerable, so he's in constant pain), and Cody is instantly combustible with oxygen (he also is physically sensitive to his own power, though he seems to immediately heal when extinguished).
  • Lampshaded by The Order of the Triad, which includes a sorcerer and an alchemist with great magical powers... and Jefferson Twilight, whose power is to track and hunt Blackulas (and only Blackulas). In Season 4, Jefferson gets his own magical power when it's revealed that he exists between worlds, enabling him to save the others after they end up trapped in hell.
  • There's the amateur supervillain Fat Chance, a morbidly obese guy who has the power to grab items from a link to another dimension in his belly button. What comes out is entirely random, which leads to other supervillains starting tp pull stuff out of him in an attempt to find something remotely useful or deadly to kill Dr. Venture with. The power also works the other way.
  • One had the power of Polygamy and another the power to grow by barely an inch, Prof. Impossible had to squint to even notice the difference. It turns out he was standing on his toes.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: One of the running themes of the show, but fully explored in Viva Los Muertos!, when Rusty uses a mook Brock casually killed to create "Venturestein". The episode revolves around Brock's guilt and eventual reconciliation, both with himself and Venturestein himself.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Dr. Thaddeus Venture is a supposed good guy, and yet a lot of the things he does disturbs and disgusts the people around him. He has:
  • Created the Joy Can, a Lotus-Eater Machine Powered by a Forsaken Child. Dr. Orpheus is suitably disgusted with this information.
  • Revived a dead Mook and started planning on Frankensteining more dead people to use them as cheap labor, only to change his mind via a phone call with the military and eschew the plan in favor of using the "Venturesteins" as what amounts to zombie suicide bombers. Brock Samson was quite disturbed at this.
  • Eschewed protecting his children in favor of letting them die to be replaced with clones, much to Brock's disgust.
  • Allowed a young child to be killed on a tour of his compound and returned a genetically modified clone to his parents in his place (although claiming that he was doing the boy a favor since his DNA made him "a ticking time-bomb for cancer"). Again, much to Brock's disgust.
  • Dr. Killinger once attempted to make Rusty an official villain, only for him to back out at the last moment, horrified to know that he's potentially just that evil. Even Brock himself has some Even Evil Has Standards moments with Rusty and is hesitant and answering Doc's question of whether or not he's a bad guy (settling for a very dark morally gray area).
  • Trying to solve his money problems by stealing orangutans from the Amazon and teaching them to box. Brock (notice a pattern?) called this "a new personal low"—and not just because orangutans don't live in the Amazon.
  • Using Sally's (Richard Impossible's then-wife) love for him to get a crucial machine part for him. Once again Brock calls him out for this.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Brock's usual solution to a problem is to kill the one responsible. Downplayed in later seasons, however.
• Who Writes This Crap?!: Invoked almost exactly when Phantom Limb tries to claim leadership of the Guild.
  Red Mantle: "MAKE WAY FOR THE DASHING PHANTOM LIMB!" I didn't write this crap.
• Why Am I Ticking?: Hank in "Ice Station Impossible".
• William Telling: One set of Hank and Dean clones died trying to do this to each other simultaneously.
• Will They or Won't They?: Dean and Triana. They won't. Probably. Brock and Molotov.
• Wimp Fight: Any time that Hank or Dean gets into a fistfight except that one time Dermott is being rude to Triana, and Dean kicks his ass. Brock beams with pride when he does.
• Worf Had the Flu: In the third episode of season four, Dermott shows up to hang out with Hank. When Hank brings up the time Dean beat the shit out of him, Dermott claims he was "cheap-shotted when I wasn't ready" and "had a massive stomach flu". Obviously, he's lying.
• X Called; They Want Their Y Back: Shore Leave says this to Col. Gathers. Gathers' comeback is unconventional:
  Shore Leave: The Village People called, and they want you to GO FUCKING KILL YOURSELF, YOU PRANCING BASTARD!
• Yellow Peril:
  • Parodied in a flashback where Jonas Venture Sr. infiltrates Scaramantula's evil organization in a Paper-Thin Disguise as "Dr. Fangdragon" from "Japananawa".
  • Dr. Z, an extremely Affably Evil parody of Jonny Quest's Dr. Zin.
• You Bastard!: Tiger Shark to Brock and Scott Hall to Henchman 21.
• You Cloned Hitler!: Averted and lampshaded in the season four premiere.
  Hank: Is it me, or does like every Nazi want to clone Hitler? It's like the only thing they think of!
• You Got Murder: Lampshaded. One afternoon, Rusty is going through some old mail when he opens a large box containing a death threat from the Monarch, involving a cobra jumping out of the box to bite him... except not really.
• You Know I'm Black, Right?: Averted and parodied in "What Goes Down, Must Come Up":
  Jefferson Twilight: [to Dr. Orpheus, regarding why Orpheus doesn't want him and the Alchemist to see his master. Note that Jefferson is black.] Yeah, tell the truth. You're embarrassed of us, aren't you? It's 'cause The Alchemist's gay, isn't it?
  Doctor Orpheus: No, it's because you soiled yourself... and he's gay.
• You Monster!: When Augustus St. Cloud uses the original Henrietta Pussycat puppet from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood as a soap mitt Billy Quizboy is incensed.
  Billy: It's sacrilege! That's a priceless artifact and a part of our collective childhood, you monster!
• You're Insane!: Inverted when Phantom Limb is introducing his fellow members of "The Revenge Society", who are all inanimate objects, in front of Guild Councilman Red Mantle (who has Councilman Dragoon's head sewn onto his shoulder) and Billy (who has been stuffed inside a potato sack):
  Billy: Why can't I hear them?
  Red Mantle: Because you are sane!
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Brock says this to Hank and Dean when they're Brainwashed and Crazy. In this case, though, Brock says it as a threat; it's not that they're afraid to kill him, they're afraid of what he'll do to them if they try.
• Zeerust: The entire Venture Compound, as well as the other Venture bases and various other elements of the show. Virtually all super-science has a traditional 60's Zeerust vibe to it, and the ones that don't (mostly Jonah Venture Jr.'s stuff) have an 80's Zeeurust vibe to it instead.

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"I am everywhere, and nowhere. I’m a man on a mission, and a mission on a man. I’ll find myself, even if I have to look IN myself. It’s time I grow up. Call me... THE BAT!"

— Henry “Hank” Allen Venture

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