The Dover Boys / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Was Dora really too dumb to understand the door was locked on her side, or was she hoping for the Dover Boys to show up and "rescue" her as a demonstration of how much they cared about her, and decided to leave with the bathing suit guy, unhappy that they took too long to "save" her?
  - The idea that Dora is Obfuscating Stupidity is teased at one point in the ReAnimated version – after knocking Dan over a second time, she briefly glances at him with a smug expression.
- Although the titular Dover Boys are described as having “ uncompromising moral fortitude”, many of their actions in the short are… questionable: they all dive into a Bad Guy Bar during a game of Hide-and-Seek, refuse to pay a postman (even trampling the poor guy in the process), burst through a door to save Dora even though she was standing right behind it, and beat up the now incapacitated Dan. They’re either Idiot Heroes or anti-heroes with good publicity.
  - The Narrator hints at it too, almost calling the three brothers “jerks” before correcting himself.
Cry for the Devil: Dan Backslide may be a villain, but man does he get it bad here. After kidnapping Dora, he finds that she's more than he can handle. A lot more in fact, as she effortlessly beats the shit out of him so badly, that he pathetically cries for help from his sworn enemies the Dover Brothers while lying on the floor in pain and fear. Then once they show up, they proceed to continue his ass kicking, even though he's at the point where he not only can't fight back, but can barely stand. For a Card-Carrying Villain, he sure winds up being pitiable.
Ensemble Dark Horse: This short is one compared to the rest of the Looney Tunes library, as it's oddly popular for a one-shot despite (or perhaps because of) Warner not holding the copyright for it anymore. Special mention goes to Dan Backslide, as nearly all of his dialogue has gone memetic.
Fanon: Pretty much everyone seems to agree that the Runabout Dan "steals" is actually his Runabout. Not only does this explain the fact that it inexplicably has an outfit that fits him perfectly in the trunk, but it also speaks to his status as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain (he's so bad at being evil that he can't even properly steal something)
Fountain of Memes: Dan Backslide, coward-bully-cad-and-thief. AND NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!
Fridge Brilliance:
- Dora's kidnapping shows that both she and Dan are strong enough to carry a tree, and that they're both dumb enough to not notice at first. Between that and Dan being a coward-bully-cad-and-thief, it makes sense that he wouldn't know how to handle Dora at the cabin and was thrown around like he was.
- Why does Dora run off with the Old Sailor? Because she was still behind the door when the Dover boys knocked it open, and that was her way of getting them back.
- Despite their uncompromising moral fortitude, the Dover Boys eventually hide in the tavern for the game of hide and go seek. This just looks like them being blundering oafs setting up a gag, but it is definitely a spot that Dora herself would likely never enter alone, thus would eventually win the game for the Dover Boys. Shame about that kidnapping, though.
Fridge Horror: Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain though he may be, one shudders to imagine what dastardly plans Dan Backslide had for Dora after kidnapping her. Was he simply going to hold her for ransom, or were his intentions even more sinister? And why was he creeping up behind her after he'd already abducted her? We should be thankful that Dora is a Pint-Sized Powerhouse and Dan is, well, Dan.
Genre Turning Point: For Chuck Jones specifically (see below). Also for animation in general, as techniques pioneered here would, for better and worse, come to be used for Limited Animation as cartoon budgets began to seriously drop in the mid-50s.
Growing the Beard: This, along with "The Draft Horse", was a major turning point in Jones's career, when he decided to abandon his Disney-esque roots in favor of making funny cartoons.
Jerkass Woobie: Dan Backslide; coward-bully-cad-thief-victim.
Love to Hate: Dan Backslide manages to be a wonderfully entertaining and hilarious bad guy, thanks to being a Large Ham Fountain of Memes.
Memetic Mutation:
- I'LL STEAL IT! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!^explanation
- In an odd example, Dan Backslide's line "Confound those Dover Boys! […] They drive me to drink!" has become half the source for, of all things, a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic meme. Someone took an out-of-context screencap of Twilight Sparkle with what looks like a bottle of liquor, tossed in Dan Backslide's line with "Ponies" replacing "Dover Boys". and just like that, the Dover Boys had made yet another lasting contribution to internet lore. Also a YouTube video.
- To viewers of the MLP streaming site Bronystate, the cartoon will forever be linked with the mashup-remix "1000 PEOPLE CLICKED ON THE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON BY ACCIDENT", which features clips of Backslide and even uses "Confound those ponies!" during the intro. It got to the point where an alternate version of the video was made especially for Bronystate, which started off as The Dover Boys but cut to the mashup when Backslide was about to say "Confound those Dover Boys!" specifically to fool viewers who were seeing it for the first time via the stream.
  They drive me to UNPROTECTED BUTT FUN!
- "A meme about the Dover Boys! THEN DORA MUST BE ALONE AND UN-PRO-TEC-TED!!!!"
- In the first half of 2016, the cartoon exploded in popularity on Tumblr. Just search for it there, and count how many memes you find.
- UNHAND HER DAN BACKSLIDE!
  - Hey, we're getting in a rut!
- JoJo fans have taken extremely well to the Dover Boys, resulting in a number of mashups, such as having Dan Backslide drawn in a parody of Araki's art style, and snowclones of Dover Boys quotes with a decidedly Jojo bent to them.
  - A roundabout! I'll steal it! No-one will ever know!
- Mashed up with Dream Daddy in this strip from Manly Guys Doing Manly Things.
Parody Displacement: Let's face it — odds are good you never even heard of the Rover Boys before watching this short parody of them.
Signature Line: "I'LL STEAL IT! NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW!"
Signature Scene: Dan Backslide stealing the runabout, thanks to his memetic delivery of the Signature Line.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Given how hilarious the main cast is, it's a shame that they didn't get more appearances, especially since their only appearance is a fairly influential one for Chuck Jones and the cartoon slapstick genre as a whole.
Values Resonance: The fact that Dora manages to defeat her kidnapper all on her own with no effort is pretty refreshing, given how many women in similar cartoons at the time existed only to be saved. She's still very clearly dumb, but to be fair, so is everyone else in the cartoon.
Watch It for the Meme: Many are drawn to this short to view the scenes where Dan Backslide says some of his most memetic lines such as "I'LL STEAL IT! NO-ONE WILL EVER KNOW!!!"
The Woobie: It's hard not to feel bad for Dan Backslide near the end. Sure, he's a coward-bully-cad-and-thief, but he's long since given up his dastardly intentions by the time the Dover Boys arrive to beat him senseless, as Dora's already beaten him within an inch of his life.

YMMV / The Dover Boys

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