History Literature / WheresWally

[[caption-width-right:169:[[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder HAH! FOUND YA!]].]]

* IncrediblyLamePun: Constantly by The Narrator, and occasionally by Wally or Wizard Whitebeard.

* DubNameChange: Wally is called Walter in German, Charlie in French, Willy in Norwegian, Holger iin Danish, and Waldo in America and Canada. Additionally, when the cartoon was aired in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Waldo was changed back to Wally.

* YouALLLookFamiliar: [[spoiler:The Great Waldo Search]]

* OnlySixFaces: Handford's drawing style isn't particularly imaginative, with almost every character having the same basic face with different colors of hair and skin. Even the women simply look like men with long hair and...uh...[[UnusualEuphemism "equipment."]]

* AdaptationExpansion: the animated series. Among other things, it gave Odlaw a reason to antagonize Waldo (he wanted to steal his [[MacGuffin magical cane]]).

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In one episode, Wizard Whitebeard invites Wally to his house, where he is blatantly having a "party" with several young women [[{{Casanova}} much younger than he is]]. Wally's more interested in cave paintings though.

* FoeYay / StalkerWithACrush: Odlaw apparently spends 24/7 stalking Wally by peering through his windows and following him everywhere he goes, having no life outside this. He seems to do this off camera as well, as in one episode, the camera comes up behind him spying on Wally and the narrator asks him to get out of the way, to which Odlaw replies, "Oh. I didn't know you were filming today." Say whaaaa?

* MemeticMutation: Waldo soon invaded the pop culture in a big way, with spoofs of his character turning up (among other places) in ''Film/TheNakedGun'' film series and on the ''AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' spinoff ''America's Funniest People''.

Has become a catchphrase for finding various things; see WheresDeado, for instance.

** Not to mention JeffBennett, [[TinyToons Joe Alaskey]], [[AaahhRealMonsters Greg Berger]], [[PinkyAndTheBrain Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche]], [[CliffordTheBigRedDog Cam Clarke]] and Creator/FrankWelker were all also cast members.

** Not to mention JeffBennett, [[TinyToons Joe Alaskey]], [[AaahhRealMonsters Greg Berger]], [[PinkyAndTheBrain Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche]], [[CliffordTheBigRedDog Cam Clarke]] and FrankWelker were all also cast members.

[[caption-width-right:169:It's never this easy.]]

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: SantaClaus is seen going on a nature hike at the camp site Waldo visits. No reason; just 'cause.
* CelebrityParadox: Similarly, Tarzan, Paul Bunyan, and Count Dracula make cameo appearances in the "realistic" first book.

* EvilTwin (Odlaw)

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Look carefully. There are naked people.
** You don't need to look that carefully. One's ''a naked clown hopping on a pogo stick''. He's pretty impossible not to notice.

* LostInACrowd (The Great Waldo Search)

* {{Mayincatec}} (Find Waldo Now)

* ReferenceOverdosed: (Where's Waldo? The Wonder Book)

* SillyReasonForWar (Find Waldo Now)

* SdrawkcabName (Odlaw again)

* VisualPun (Lots of them)
** The original 1987 book alone has a "school" of, uh, [[SomewhereAMammologistIsCrying "fish"]] (with the whale in front wearing a professor's mortarboard), an oversized playing card in a World War I-era biplane [[DontExplainTheJoke (a "flying ace," get it?)]], and a literal "one-armed bandit" (a cowboy with an amputated hand) on a carnival midway.
* WizardBeard (Wizard Whitebeard)
* YouALLLookFamiliar (The Great Waldo Search)

* BigBallOfViolence: In ''A Stone Age Story'', and I'm sure others.

* StillTheEighties: When Waldo stops by the airport, passengers are shown disembarking from the jets via external movable stairways like they did for most of the twentieth century (and, presumably, during Martin Handford's childhood), rather than by way of the connected tunnels that were common in airports by 1987;.

* MemeticMutation: Waldo soon invaded the pop culture in a big way, with spoofs of his character turning up (among other places) in ''NakedGun'' film series and on the ''AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' spinoff ''America's Funniest People''.

* NintendoHard / BeyondTheImpossible: ''Where's Wally/Waldo 3: The Fantastic Journey'' ends with having to pick Wally out of [[spoiler:a dimension filled almost entirely with other Wallies (The only way to know he's the real one is that he's missing a shoe]].

* MemeticMutation: Waldo soon invaded the pop culture in a big way, with spoofs of his character turning up (among other places) in ''NakedGun'' film series and on the ''AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' spinoff ''Americas Funniest People''.

* MemeticMutation: Waldo soon invaded the pop culture in a big way, with spoofs of his character turning up (among other places) in one of the ''NakedGun'' films and on the ''AmericasFunniestHomeVideos'' spinoff ''AmericasFunniestPeople''.

''Where's Wally?'' (titled ''Where's Waldo?'' when exported to North America) is a series of picture books where each page is a complex scene filled with hundreds of tiny people. The goal is to find Wally, a man in glasses, a bobble hat and a red-and-white striped shirt, carrying a cane. Each page has a short flavor text where Waldo describes his adventures, pointing the reader to other, usually humorous, things to look for.

[[AC: The Where's Wally? books include:]]
* ''Where's Wally?''

* ''Where's Wally? The Ultimate Fun Book''
* ''Where's Wally? In Hollywood''
* ''Where's Wally? The Wonder Book'' (more fantasy scenes)

* DubNameChange: Wally is called Walter in German, Charlie in French, Willy in Norwegian, Holger iin Danish, and Waldo in America and Canada. Additionally, when the cartoon was aired in the UK, Waldo was changed back to Wally.

* NintendoHard / BeyondTheImpossible: ''Where's Wally 3: The Fantastic Journey'' ends with having to pick Wally out of [[spoiler:a dimension filled almost entirely with other Wallies (The only way to know he's the real one is that he's missing a shoe]].

* HeyItsThatVoice: The animated series has Jim Cummings as the Narrator and Brad Garrett as Wizard Whitebeard.
** Not to mention [[JeffBennett Jeff Bennett]], [[TinyToons Joe Alaskey]], [[AaahhRealMonsters Greg Berger]], [[PinkyAndTheBrain Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche]], [[CliffordTheBigRedDog Cam Clarke]] and [[FrankWelker Frank Welker]] were all also cast members.

* NintendoHard / BeyondTheImpossible: ''Where's Wally 3: The Fantastic Journey'' ends with having to pick Wally out of [[spoiler:a dimension filled almost entirely with other Wallies]].

-->''....oh, there he is.''\\
-- Last line from the cartoon show's theme song.

* AffablyEvil: Why DOES Odlaw want Wally's cane so badly anyway? What started all this?

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Pretty much everything that isn't Wally himself.