History WesternAnimation / EarthwormJim

* BigNo: This has been said by Jim when Peter plays with Jim's suit controls in the cold opening of Sword of Righteousness.
** He even said this when he was effectively stripped of his hero status and demoted to sidekick in Lounge Day's Journey Into Night.

--->'''Jim:''' That'll learn ya... (Opposites Attack)\\

* DisabilityImmunity: Jim cannot be defeated by really bad sounds or smells, as he has no ears or nose. Overlaps with ForgotICouldFly as this rarely comes into effect until one of the characters explicitly mentions this. Note that this [[MST3KMantra doesn't ever stop Jim from being able to hear or smell normally]].

'''Evil:''' That is PRECISELY what I shall do! (The Origin of Peter Puppy)

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: The president of tge United States of America is this in the series. Whenever the characters become confused at how different he is, [[LampshadeHanging he explicitly points out in every episode he appears in]] to be "''one of those generic presidents TV shows use to keep from being dated''".

* HeroesWantRedheads: And Jim wants Princess What's-Her-Name.

* CartoonCreature: Evil the Cat looks more like a rat with pointed ears.

* DoesNotLikeSpam: Peter really hates haggis. At one point, he's turned into a haggis, much to his dismay.

** Peter Puppy eats haggis, the one food that he doesn't like, and states verbatim that it is "[[ForeignQueasine the heart, lungs and liver of a sheep boiled in its own stomach]]". The gag being that he loves haggis until finding out what it really is.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Parodied in an episode where, after his super-suit has been swapped for a weaker version, Jim tries various generic ways of gaining super powers (including [[ComicBook/FantasticFour space radiation]] and [[Franchise/SpiderMan radioactive arachnid bites]]). One of his attempts is to [[NoFourthWall tell the viewer]] he will get powers if the audience were to "Believe! Believe and clap very hard!" prompting

* AdaptedOut: There are characters from the original game who never appear in the cartoon, most notably Major Mucus, Chuck and Dr. Duodenum. (Major Mucus did appear in the show's pitch reel, which was used for early Kids WB promos, though).

* PreAsskickingOneLiner: Jim's assorted variants on his "Eat dirt!" line

[[WidgetSeries Yes, it's every bit as messed up as]] [[VideoGame/EarthwormJim the video game on which it's based.]]

* NowWhichOneWasThatVoice: The credits list all the voice actors, but don't specify which belongs to which character.

* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: The president in this series, [[LampshadeHanging as he points out in every episode he appears in]], is one of those generic presidents TV shows use to keep from being dated.

** The two bank robbers that appear at the beginning of "Upholstered Peril" look remarkably like [[Film/PulpFiction Vincent Vega and a white, blond Jules Winfield]].

%%* IAteWhat: Peter has this reaction to eating haggis in the third episode. %%What reaction?

** There was one episode where Evil Jim got hold of a gun that made Evil Twins of anything it hit (he wanted to make duplicates of the sidekicks so he would have some friends); unfortunately, the opposite of an ActionGirl isn't particularly useful, and pissed off Evil Peter Puppy (who ''loves'' haggis) becomes a civilized monster. Eventually it was discharged against all the villains; Evil Evil The Cat becomes Good The Cat who neutralizes acid furballs, Evil Professor Monkey-For-A-Head becomes Monkey Professor-For-A-Head (they run away together), Evil Queen Slug-For-A-Butt is an old lady more concerned about knitting, and since evil Jim is already the opposite of Jim blasting him with the gun creates another Jim, lots and lots of other Jims.

-->'''Professor Monkey-For-A-Head:''' Actually, it's kind of handy. If I twist the monkey's tail I can make pumpernickel.

A Saturday Morning cartoon adapted from [[VideoGame/EarthwormJim the side-scrolling action game]] for the Super Nintendo and Genesis by Creator/{{Universal}} Cartoon Studios (the guys who brought us ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'') and aired as one of the launch series of Creator/KidsWB, ''Earthworm Jim'' is the saga of Jim, once an ordinary earthworm until a super-suit fell from space, and he crawled inside it and was mutated into a slightly-goofy superhero. With the assistance of his sidekick Peter Puppy (who has a tendency to turn into a hulking purple monster when provoked, but turns back if calmed down, usually by tickling) and the beautiful Princess What's-Her-Name (who was changed from her typical DamselInDistress role in the games, with [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]] portraying her as a ditzy stereotypical beauty type, into an ActionGirl), Jim battles an assortment of oddball villains, including The Evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-Filled, Malformed Slug-For-A-Butt (Princess What's-Her-Name's evil sister); the bird-headed mercenary Psy-Crow; the aptly-named MadScientist Professor Monkey-For-A-Head (and his sidekick, Monkey Professor-For-A-Head); Evil The Cat, the diabolical feline ruler of Planet Heck; and Bob the Killer Goldfish.

'''Jim:''' I ''meee-an'', [[WhipItGood use me like a whip!]]

* StepThreeProfit:
-->'''Evil:''' (''EvilLaugh'') Now I shall destroy the universe!\\
'''Henchrat:''' Uh, what we do then, Boss?\\
'''Evil:''' Hmm. ''[eyes widen, {{beat}}]'' I really hadn't thought about it, actually.

* DisneyDeath: {{Averted}} with Bob's henchcats [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep 1, 2 and 3]]. They went to the place where all cats go, [[FluffyCloudHeaven Kitty Heaven]].
** [[WhatTheHellHero And then Jim kills 7.]]

* SadlyMythtaken: Surprisingly partly averted in one case. The [[BadassSanta Santa Claus]] of this universe was known by a different name in his young net days: [[SuddenlyShouting Woden, Norse god of judgment!]] Woden is another name for [[Myth/NorseMythology Odin]], who was indeed (among other things) the god of judgment. Played straight in terms of appearance and weapon, this Woden has both of his eyes and wields a large axe instead of Orin’s signature spear Gungnir.

* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: {{Averted}}, in that Jim keeps insisting that Princess Whats-Her-Name is so '''[[EveryoneCanSeeIt obviously]]''' his girlfriend... except nobody, not even '''''[[ObliviousToLove the Princess]]''''' knows what he's talking about.

* DecompositeCharacter: Professor Monkey-For-A-Head and Bob the Killer Goldfish. Creator/DougTenNapel originally conceived of the Professor as more of an EvilutionaryBiologist (loosely based, apparently, on a high school science teacher he used to argue with about creationism) but in the cartoon, he's a more generic MadScientist while Bob, who didn't have much of a personality in the original game, gained a HollywoodEvolution gimmick.

* AdaptedOut: There are characters from the original game who never appear in the cartoon, most notably Major Mucus, Chuck and Dr. Duodenum. (Major Mucus did appear in the show's pitch reel, which was used for early Kids WB promos, though.)

* AndYouWereThere: Appropriately, at the end of "Wizard of Ooze." Upon returning home, Jim and Peter are greeted by the Princess, Walter, the Hamsternator and the GrimReaper.

** Just before a battle between Jim and hundreds of Zurbs in "The Egg-Beater."

* ButterflyOfDoom: In "Sword of Righteousness", Jim learns of the eponymous sword's "Portal of Time" ability and decides to play a trick. He hands Peter a penny and tells him to watch Lincoln's face change. He then travels back to the Gettysburg Address and interrupts Lincoln mid-speech, shaving his beard off (to which Lincoln says "That's a big goodbye to my credibility.") When he returns to the present, expecting everything except the penny to the be the same, he instead finds that Peter is now a southern gentleman who looks like Colonel Sanders and Jim himself is now known as "Earthworm Bubba." The sword orders Jim to go back and fix everything, and forbids any further time traveling. The whole fiasco lasts less than two minutes.

* CutawayGag: "We now interrupt Earthworm Jim for three seconds of dancing turtles." (turtles pop out and sing a few bars of a classical tune) "We now return to Earthworm Jim."

* DontFearTheReaper: Death, in his standard "Grim Reaper" garb, becomes an affable semi-regular character in the second season of the show, first appearing in "Opposites Attack" lamenting that Jim survives jumping a chasm on his Wormcycle ("Dangit, I was sure I had 'im that time!"). Later on he becomes "The Tin Reaper" in the episode "Wizard of Ooze" taking departed souls to the mall of eternity, secretly coveting the free frozen yogurt the eternals enjoy. He later appears as himself in Jim's house in the same episode, assuring Jim "Don't worry it's just a social call." Finally, he appears among a variety of mythical characters in "For Whom the Jingle Bell Tolls" expressing jealousy over Santa Claus being everyone's favorite.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Well, it's a lot easier than always having to say "Princess What's-Her-Name."

* FluffyTheTerrible: In "the Great Secret of the Universe" Evil the Cat unleashes a beast of Lovecraftian proportians who he believes is known as "The Nameless Beast." The beast corrects him by revealing his true name: [[Film/CitizenKane Rosebud]].

* HereWeGoAgain: Subverted at the end of "Hyper Psy-Crow." Psy-Crow tries to do this, but Jim says otherwise--opting for DropTheCow.

** "Note to self: do not throw super-villains at buses full of orphans."

* IceCreamKoan: The Master of Wow-Lin, whom Jim claims to have studied under. He spouts nothing but useless platitudes so nonsensical, even Jim is quick to realize he's "a senile old bat-nugget."

* LameComeback: "Don't play dumb with me, you... dumb guy."

** Lampshaded in "The Great Secret of the Universe." Evil the Cat tries several paper thin disguises, until he gets frustrated and appears at Jim's door as himself using the direct approach. Jim then naively does exactly what he wants.
* ParentalBonus: Peter reading a framed letter from [[UsefulNotes/HarryTruman President Truman]]. "Thank you for your kind offer to end UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, but we have a [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsofHiroshimaandNagasaki bomb]] we wanna try out."

** Including all the amenities of your basic old-timey prison, such as the chain gang and "completely pointless rock breaking."

* RememberTheNewGuy: In the first season after several episodes that gave no indication Jim and Peter were close to anybody in Terlawk, "Grayson, young genius inventor and president of the local Earthworm Jim fanclub" turns up and is given a conspicuously overblown introduction by Jim. Nonplussed, Grayson states "Um, yeah, I know who I am."

** Peter Puppy eats haggis, the one food that he doesn't like, and states verbatim that it is "[[ForeignQueasine the heart, lungs and liver of a sheep boiled in its own stomach]]." The gag being that he loves haggis until finding out what it really is.

* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Jim, which is no surprise [[Creator/DanCastellaneta given who voices him]]. It's pointed out to him in one line from "Upholstered Peril."

** Moreso in the fact that by alien standards Queen Slug-For-A-Butt is considered the pretty one while her sister Princess What's-Her-Name is considered hideously deformed. An unrelated episode featured the Princess being okay with being hit by a ray gun that made her gigantically fat as "this look is very popular on her planet."

*** In "The Exile of Lucy", Slug-For-A-Butt is called back in to help fight Psy-Crow and Professor Monkey-For-A-Head when all other options have been checked. (And not for lack of trying on the Princess' part.)

'''Jim:''' Page 6 of the script, see? Bob: "Hello, I've come to conquer your planet." Aliens: "Aaah! We surrender".[[note]](For context: this scene played about a minute before, and said aliens are from the Planet of Easily Frightened People, thus explaining the response)[[/note]]\\

* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: Parodied in the second episode, which features "Ye Newwe Printyng Shoppe: Free Spelling Correkshun."

* SlapStickKnowsNoGender: This is '''Earthworm Jim''' we're talking about. Everyone gets flattened by a cow at one point or another!

* GreenLanternRing: The Orb of Quite Remarkable Power.