Line #6 WesternAnimation/Pibby


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pibby.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"I discovered [[Creator/CartoonNetwork whole other worlds]] that are nothing like mine. And we're [[CrisisCrossover all]] under attack."'']]
3	->''"Pibby is ripped out of her safe, preschool world and thrown into unknøwn lands. She has to grow up, LEARN, and become a b∆dass to stop the cartoon A₱⊙C⋀L¥⍴$∑//////////////////////"''
4	-->--'''Official Website/YouTube description for the trailer'''
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6	''Pibby'' (also known as ''Come and Learn with Pibby!'', ''Learning with Pibby'', or ''Pibby: Apocalypse'') is an action-horror {{metafiction}}al animated short created by Dodge Greenley (known for his work on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} shows such as ''WesternAnimation/SanjayAndCraig'' and ''WesternAnimation/PinkyMalinky'') and uploaded to Creator/AdultSwim's [=YouTube=] channel on October 30, 2021.
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8	Pibby is a cute little girl who stars in her own educational cartoon for preschoolers (''Learning with Pibby''), learning about things like spelling and caring with all of her cuddly animal friends. However, this all comes to a screeching halt when a glitchy, eldritch blob suddenly invades her world, consuming and absorbing all of her friends. Just as she is about to be eaten herself, Pibby finds herself in the credits of her own show.
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10	Soon, she finds herself traveling to other worlds – that is, other cartoons (both real and fictional) – and discovering that they are also under threat of being assimilated into this nightmarish abomination. While her newfound allies doubt that they'll be able to deal with such an apocalyptic problem, Pibby holds out hope that there's a way of beating back the darkness – but before then, she'll need to learn a lot more than she ever hoped to.
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12	The trailer/short/pilot (titled "Come and Learn with Pibby!") can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btu0O47u3rY here]]. As part of an April Fools' Day 2022 stunt, Adult Swim had Pibby, [=BunBun=], and the glitch blob invade multiple shows, leading to renewed interest in the characters and speculation for a potential television show. The full "corrupted" broadcast can be seen [[https://youtu.be/YCKO1qgotHY here]], while highlights of Pibby and company can be seen [[https://youtu.be/ZEk5_TYDNYw here]].
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14	On October 3, 2023, Greenley announced via [[https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx8hRaRPaMr/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Instagram]] that Pibby had not been greenlit to become a full-length series and would not be for the foreseeable future. On April 26, 2024, Dodge Greenley uploaded parts of a storyboard for a Pibby pilot to his website [[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/64fa101d79d8231beea36ed6/t/64fa52bbefc55b4b5ef8662b/1694126797621/01_PIBBY-+Pilot+-+EDIT.pdf ]]. The storyboard was removed from the website the following day.
15	----
16	!!"Troping with Pibby, troping is so fun!":
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20	[[folder:#-L]]
21	* AcmeProducts: During the trailer Melira wields an Acme ray-gun, and Pibby is wearing an Acme rocket while firing a laser weapon.
22	* AllThereInTheManual: The superhero sidekick and Disney-esque villain who are forced to team up with Pibby are left unnamed in the short. A few days after the short was uploaded, Dodge Greenley [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CV50TZPP5UG/ posted the credits for it]] on his Instagram, revealing their names as Alloy Boy and Melira, respectively.
23	* AnyoneCanDie: From the trailer, it looks like ''anyone'', no matter what franchise or show they're from, can and will get assimilated into the Darkness. Even if the character normally gets by due to ToonPhysics or any powers they have that can possibly stop it, they're still doomed. As the April Fools' Day 2022 Adult Swim broadcast shows, even live-action programming like ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'' isn't immune to the corruption.
24	* AprilFoolsDay: In 2022, Pibby and [=BunBun=] (and the glitching) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEk5_TYDNYw became the stars of Adult Swim's annual joke]], making appearances throughout the night's reruns.
25	* ArtStyleClash: The crossover aspect is hammered home by the many disparate art styles used for each dimension in the trailer. Pibby has a brightly-colored and simple design (befitting the protagonist of a show for preschoolers), the superhero characters are all more detailed and live in a world with painted backgrounds, Melira and her universe have a more fluid {{Disneyesque}} style, and one scene depicts the main trio in a [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black-and-white setting]] with [[{{Retraux}} noticeable film grain]]. This also goes for all previously-existing characters, who are drawn and animated in the styles of their original shows -- Fred Flintstone, for instance, looks exactly out of ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' proper, complete with a false shadow underneath him that mimics old cel animation.
26	* ArtStyleDissonance: As part of its SubvertedKidsShow nature, the short juxtaposes bloody violence and frightening imagery with a cutesy and cartoony art direction. The many cartoon styles featured in the trailer are all generally child-friendly, not at all suited for an action horror series centering on an EldritchAbomination devouring entire worlds.
27	* TheAssimilator: In addition to the Darkness consuming several different characters and occasionally wearing their faces on its body, one scene near the end near the end of the trailer shows Pibby and company facing a horde of victims that are fighting on the abomination's side and share its OminousVisualGlitch-laden aesthetic.
28	* BadassAdorable: The point of the series is for Pibby, the star of a preschool show, to become hardened into a warrior capable of fighting off the Darkness.
29	* BangFlagGun: At one point in the trailer, Melira fires a revolver at the void while escaping in the Mystery Machine, only for it to fire out a harmless little "Bang!" sign, to her confusion.
30	%%* BlankWhiteEyes: Anyone that the Darkness has corrupted tends to develop these with a few exceptions.
31	* BloodlessCarnage: [[PlayedForHorror Horrifically]] {{subverted\|Trope}}. Being from a preschool show that taught simple subjects, the very concept of blood is foreign to Pibby, so when [[EyeScream something scratches her eye out]] she doesn't understand why "red water" is coming out of her.
32	* BlueIsHeroic: In the main trio of heroes, Pibby and Alloy Boy have a blue skin tone and outfit, respectively.
33	* BodyHorror: Anyone that have been claimed by the Darkness are depicted as being stretched and warped in unnatural ways, most prominently involving their jaws elongating widely.
34	* BreakTheCutie: Pibby begins as the sweet, innocent protagonist of a cartoon for small children, only for an EldritchAbomination to invade, ruin her world, and force her to mature quickly as she grapples with the horror of the scenario. The trailer strings together several scenes to show her progression: she goes from innocently wondering what "red water" is after [[EyeScream receiving an eye injury that causes her to bleed]] to leading an army of cartoon characters against the antagonist, sword in hand, with a following scene showing her wiping blood from her mouth without a second thought.
35	* CaptainErsatz:
36	** One brief scene in the trailer shows a rabbit with a heart symbol on its belly that is clearly designed to emulate the ''Franchise/CareBears''. They're even able to shoot heart-shaped lasers from it like a CareBearStare.
37	** The superhero that Alloy Boy is a sidekick to is basically a recolored [[WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers Captain Planet]], with an outfit that combines elements of Franchise/{{Superman}} and a pinch of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica.
38	* CardCarryingVillain: Melira is a self-proclaimed villain, although the trailer indicates she's more of a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, if not an outright PunchClockVillain.
39	* CareBearStare: Parodied, thanks to a LampshadeHanging by Pibby, when Melira sarcastically asks her if she's going to save the world with ThePowerOfLove. GilliganCut to Pibby wielding a freaked out Care Bear {{Expy}} as a weapon.
40	* CatchphraseInterruptus: Fred Flintstone is partially finished belting out a triumphant "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!" before he cuts himself off with a scream of terror as he realizes that he's about to get assimilated into the glitch blob.
41	* CharacterTitle: ''Pibby'' – both the trailer itself and the fictional children's show within its setting – is named after its protagonist, Pibby.
42	* ComfortingComforter: In one scene, Melira uses her fur coat to cover Pibby, who is crying herself to sleep.
43	* TheCorruption: The trailer's main antagonist is a black, glitchy void that worms its way into various cartoons and infects the characters within, turning them into zombie-like monsters.
44	* CosmicHorrorStory: The premise of the short is that various otherwise cheery and optimistic cartoon worlds, including many beloved classics (or expies of said classics) are being corrupted and devoured one by one by a horrific, nigh-unstoppable GlitchEntity that [[OutsideContextProblem no one knows the origin of]].
45	* CoversAlwaysLie: The series poster has [[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls Buttercup]] and [[WesternAnimation/{{Unikitty}} Unikitty]] as some of the "infected" characters. In the trailer, they are both normal and fighting against The Darkness in the MirroredConfrontationShot.
46	* CrisisCrossover: The premise of the series, as shown in the trailer, is that an EldritchAbomination is destroying several different cartoon shows (fictional and real, the latter all owned by Creator/WarnerBros) and killing their casts. Pibby is forced to dimension-hop into these shows and meet with other characters in the hopes of stopping it.
47	* CrossoverExclusiveVillain: The EldritchAbomination seen in the trailer invades several different worlds, [[TheAssimilator absorbing and taking control of their citizens]]. It's not from any of the real shows included in the crossover because ''Pibby'''s target demographic is far more adult than theirs – underscored by the disturbing manner in which it assimilates its victims (all of which are children's cartoon characters).
48	* DarkReprise: The trailer opens with ''Learning with Pibby'''s theme song, a cheerful and innocent tune suitable for a cartoon for small children. Near the end, well after [[SubvertedKidsShow the true tone of the series becomes evident]], the BackgroundMusic changes to a version with slow, emotionless vocals and a progressively harsher mechanical beat. In particular, as Pibby witnesses the EldritchAbomination assume the form of [=BunBun=], the last line is layered to sound outright demonic.
49	* DeadSidekick: Inverted. One of the worlds seen in the trailer is a city inhabited by a [[TheCape traditional superhero]] and his [[KidHero young sidekick]], Alloy Boy. A later scene shows the former being assimilated by the EldritchAbomination antagonist (hammered home by Pibby's narration concurrently saying that "there's no superheroes left"), which is implied to leave Alloy Boy with insecurities about his ability to save the world on his own.
50	* DeclarationOfProtection: Pibby promises [=BunBun=] that she'll always protect him... only for him to be consumed in the next scene. Pibby is later [[MyGreatestFailure horrified to see a giant BunBun coming out of the ooze]].
51	* DeconstructorFleet: The short appears to be a {{Deconstruction}} of various children's cartoon tropes. Ending credits are apparently foreign to cartoon characters, Pibby genuinely has no idea what blood is, and the corruption represents forces from outside the fictional world leaking in.
52	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: One scene in the trailer is set in an old black and white cartoon, though the main three remain in color.
53	* DissonantSerenity: The cartoon zombies all have wide, blank eyes and large, hanging grins; sometimes hanging to the point where their jaws appear to be melting.
54	* EldritchAbomination: The trailer sets up the series' main antagonist: a formless, [[OminousVisualGlitch glitchy]] inklike mass that invades various worlds and relentlessly consumes anything it can touch. If someone gets [[TheAssimilator assimilated]] into it, they become a part of it – either their glitched face appears on its body or they become one of its malformed minions, sporting an eerie grin and glitch-marred facial features in both cases. Several shots depict it with a lower FPS than anything else in the scene to further indicate how alien it is.
55	%%* EnergyWeapon: At one point, Pibby fires one towards somewhere.
56	* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: The beginning of the trailer shows Pibby's hair styled into two neat hairbuns to show how childlike she is. Over the course of the trailer, her hair becomes messier to show how unprepared she is for what she's up against, culminating in her [[LettingHerHairDown letting her hair down]] to show she is no longer a CheerfulChild, but a hardened and experienced warrior after the horrors she's gone through.
57	* {{Expy}}: Two of Pibby's allies are a young superhero named Alloy Boy, who parodies typical superhero sidekicks like ComicBook/{{Robin}}, and an anthropomorphic cat named Melira, who parodies classic Disney villains such as [[WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians Cruella de Vil]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ursula]]. The dog characters who appear to be native to Melira's show, however, more resemble designs from ''WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies1980s''.
58	* EyeBeams: The trailer briefly shows the unnamed superhero character firing lasers from his eyes to (ineffectually) fight the EldritchAbomination antagonist.
59	* EyepatchOfPower: The trailer shows Pibby with an eyepatch on after she receives [[EyeScream an injury to her left eye]]. It ties into her maturation and CharacterDevelopment, as several scenes afterward show her acting as a sword-wielding leader.
60	* EyeScream: One of the key moments of Pibby [[InnocenceLost losing her innocence]] is losing her left eye in a bloody manner, which she subsequently covers up with a bandage and later an EyepatchOfPower.
61	-->'''Pibby:''' What's this red water? I've never seen it before...
62	* FirstInjuryReaction: After [[EyeScream losing her eye]], Pibby is seen hunched over, voicing her confusion about the "red water" pouring out of her, having never seen blood before.
63	* FourthWallObserver: Being a pre-school cartoon character, Pibby is semi-aware of the fourth wall and the audience, which allows her to [[BreakingTheFourthWall enter credits sequences, commercials and even production bumpers]] during the Special Broadcast, at one point even begging for the audience to help her.
64	* FromSpecialToSeries: Played with. The 2022 April Fool's Day event, called a "Special Broadcast" by Adult Swim, is more like a PoorlyDisguisedPilot for Pibby.
65	* GenreRefugee: A protagonist from a preschool edutainment series, a dopey superhero sidekick, and a classic cartoon villainess are thrust into a multiverse-spanning CosmicHorrorStory against an EldritchAbomination. Adult Swim's 2022 April Fool's Day event has Pibby and [=BunBun=] going through various Adult Swim programs and being both confused and horrified at shows such as ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' and ''Series/TheEricAndreShow''.
66	* GilliganCut: PlayedForDrama in the trailer. After Pibby promises that she'll always be there to protect her friend [=BunBun=], the very next shot shows the latter being swallowed up by the EldritchAbomination antagonist, with Pibby being unable to save him.
67	* HalloweenEpisode: {{Discussed\|Trope}}: during the credits of the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode for Adult Swim's 2022 AprilFoolsDay event, Pibby and [=BunBun=] incorrectly assume that the 'scary episode' preceding it is just a simple Halloween special. A few moments later, the latter ends up getting corrupted by The Darkness.
68	* HarmfulToMinors: Even disregarding [[EldritchAbomination The Darkness]] not being picky with who or what it assimilates, Pibby also ends up [[EyeScream losing an eye]] in the trailer.
69	* InnocenceLost: Pibby begins as an innocent character in a children's cartoon. After an EldritchAbomination destroys her world and [[TheAssimilator assimilates]] her friends, however, she is forced to grow up and take action against it. One scene in the trailer emphasizes this in particular: after receiving a [[EyeScream gruesome eye injury]], she wonders what the "red water" leaking out of her is, completely unfamiliar with what blood is.
70	* ItCanThink: The dark glitchy void, or at least the characters it assimilates, seems to have some degree of logical thinking. The void sets itself up at the bottom of a dinosaur tail for Fred to fall into, and at the end when [=BunBun=] reappears as part of the void, he's shown alongside at least one other cartoon rabbit, implying that the void is sorting them.
71	* JitterCam: Once the Darkness begins invading Pibby's world in the trailer, the framing begins to emulate a jittery handheld camera (including losing focus intermittently), contrasting with the more controlled blocking used during the previous scene and driving home just how alien the threat is to their child-friendly setting.
72	* LawyerFriendlyCameo: Worlds resembling ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' and ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' briefly appear, but characters from them are not explicitly shown, likely to avoid getting into legal trouble with Creator/ParamountGlobal.
73	* LettingHerHairDown: In an inversion of the usual portrayal of this trope, Pibby spends most of the trailer with her hair in a pair of buns, and her letting her hair down is supposed to solidify her graduation from a preschool character who doesn't even know what blood is to a BadassAdorable ActionGirl.
74	* LightIsNotGood: The MirroredConfrontationShot towards the end of the trailer has the sun among the Darkness' minions, while the moon is among Pibby's makeshift army.
75	%%* LittleMissBadass: Pibby, who becomes a hardened badass after the horrors she's been put through.
76	* LovecraftLite: While it's an interdimensional horror that can assimilate the likes of superheroes and protagonists normally protected by cartoon logic, the trailer indicates that it's possible to fight back against the Darkness. It is unknown if it's possible to permanently defeat it.
77	%%* LoveToHate: Interestingly, Melira is an InUniverse example. According to Greenley, she's meant to represent why people love bad guys.
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80	[[folder:M-Z]]
81	* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: The short and its poster feature appearances and cameos from various characters owned by different Creator/CartoonNetwork and Creator/WarnerBros [=IPs=] – including ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'', ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'', ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', ''Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls'', ''WesternAnimation/CraigOfTheCreek'', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'', ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Unikitty}}'', ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'', ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', and ''WesternAnimation/Ben102016''. The April Fools channel takeover included Creator/AdultSwim shows ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', ''WesternAnimation/SmilingFriends'', ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'', ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdgirl}}'', and ''Series/JoePeraTalksWithYou''.
82	* MediumBlending: The trailer has a brief scene where the main cast (all cartoon characters) run across a table in a commercial for grape juice, with a live-action young boy watching in shock.
83	* MetafictionalDevice: Implied in the trailer. The opening spells out certain words in the theme song on-screen, typical of a cartoon made for very young children. Once the Darkness invades, however, the letters in "Pibby" are shaken up by the impact. Later scenes suggest that the characters can directly interact with these: Pibby inadvertently blows her cover while hiding from corrupted versions of Finn and Jake when she attempts to tell her friends to be quiet and summons the word "QUIET" by accident, while a massive battle in the same setting briefly shows other letters scattered on the ground amid the commotion.
84	* MindControlEyes: Characters who have been consumed by the glitch all sport whited out eyes, if not covered by the glitch completely (eg. Finn's BlackBeadEyes).
85	* MirroredConfrontationShot: Near the end of the trailer, there's a shot depicting Pibby leading an army of uncorrupted cartoon characters against the Darkness, each at opposite ends of the screen; driving the dichotomy home, [[SolarAndLunar the heroes have a moon on their side while the antagonist has a sun]].
86	* MoodWhiplash:
87	** The trailer opens with what appears to be the intro to an educational show for young children... only for it to be interrupted with a sudden jolt, a [[OminousVisualGlitch glitchy]] EldritchAbomination pouring in immediately afterwards.
88	** One scene in the trailer depicts Pibby cowering as the Darkness surrounds and begins to move in on her... only for the scene to abruptly cut to the end credits of her series, complete with rainbow-colored letters and a cutesy song.
89	** One scene in the trailer has Fred happily state "you're gonna love it here" to Pibby and Alloy Boy, followed by him performing a homage to ''The Flintstones''' opening, only for him to see the glitch entity waiting for him, Fred visibly panicking before it overtakes him and the distorted faces of various Cartoon Network characters appear alongside him.
90	** The climax of the trailer depicts a serious action scene where Pibby witnesses the EldritchAbomination taking on her friend's form, then immediately reverts back into a cutesy children's show for a brief moment before it ends. {{Downplayed\|Trope}}, since the visual glitches continuing afterward show it's not all well and good.
91	* MusicalisInterruptus: The very start of Pibby's show begins with her theme introduction before the glitch darkness invades her world.
92	* MythologyGag:
93	** The trailer has a dark gag that recreates ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''' opening, with Fred yelling "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!" and sliding down a ''Brontosaurus'' to exit work... only the glitch abomination is waiting for him at the bottom. Fred tries to scramble back up the ''Brontosaurus'', but the entity takes hold and assimilates him.
94	** Near the end of the trailer, [[WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog Muriel]] can be seen in a crowd shot wielding her husband's mallet.
95	* NoNameGiven:
96	** The sidekick superhero and classical villain characters aren't named in the short. [[https://www.instagram.com/p/CV50TZPP5UG/?utm_medium=copy_link Some credits posted on Instagram]] gives them the names Alloy Boy and Melira, respectively.
97	** The series' main antagonist isn't given a conclusive name.
98	* OminousVisualGlitch: This is the calling card of the antagonist, an EldritchAbomination that appears as a blob of visual glitches and moves at a significantly lower frame rate than anything else in the trailer. All of the characters it assimilates are also affected, their facial features becoming distorted by artifacting in an unnerving fashion.
99	* OnrushingArmy: Near the end of the trailer, Pibby, along with the surviving fighters, charges towards The Darkness and its own army of consumed cartoons.
100	* OriginalGeneration: The main trio of Pibby, Alloy Boy, and Melira don't come from any existing Cartoon Network, Hanna-Barbera or Warner Bros. shows, instead being from [[ShowWithinAShow fictional cartoons]].
101	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Once consumed by the glitch, toons come back out as corrupted shambling husks of their former selves.
102	* OutsideContextProblem: The glitch is completely unlike anything Pibby has encountered, and the same goes for many of the other shows seen. Also applies to Pibby experiencing violence for the first time and not even knowing what blood is.
103	* ThePowerOfLove: Parodied and subverted. In the trailer, Melira sarcastically asks if Pibby will use "the power of love" to defeat the EldritchAbomination that threatens their worlds, to which Pibby agrees that it sounds like a good idea. The very next shot shows a much later point in the plot, where Pibby is using a Franchise/{{Care Bear\|s}} [[CaptainErsatz knock-off]]'s heart-shaped CareBearStare as a makeshift weapon against the Darkness.
104	* PowerTrio: Pibby, Alloy Boy, and Melira are the three main protagonists. Pibby is the main character from a preschool cartoon, Alloy Boy is the sidekick from a superhero cartoon, and Melira is the villain from a {{Disneyesque}} cartoon about two dog children.
105	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits:
106	** One scene in the trailer highlights that the protagonists are hardly the first choices for defeating an EldritchAbomination that threatens the entire universe. While Pibby (a small little girl from a preschool cartoon) explains the situation to Alloy Boy and Melira, they protest that they're just a sidekick and a villain, respectively.
107	--->'''Pibby:''' I know we're not heroes. But maybe... we can learn.
108	** The crowd of characters involved in the MirroredConfrontationShot includes many non-leading characters and/or secondary protagonists from their respective shows in lieu of their (already captured in most cases) protagonists, such as [[WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball Darwin]], [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Lady Rainicorn]], [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Lion]], [[WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog Muriel]], and [[WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy Jonny and Plank]].
109	* ReluctantHero: Greenley describes Pibby as wanting nothing more than to remain child-like forever, but being forced to mature and be the hero she needed if she wants to survive.
110	* {{Retraux}}:
111	** Downplayed. ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones'' scene in the trailer gives Fred and other non-background elements fake shadows underneath them, emulating the cel animation used in the original show, though otherwise it is not that far off from the "regular" style. The same applies for the brief glimpse of [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou the Mystery Gang]].
112	** The trailer has a brief scene where the background is patterned after an old black and white cartoon, complete with simulated film grain.
113	* RogerRabbitEffect: As well as going through a number of animated series while fighting the Static, the main trio also stumble upon a live-action advertisement at one point, where a child appears to be shocked by their presence. The Adult Swim April Fools 2022 event features Pibby and [=BunBun=] backstage during ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'', and later shows Pibby wandering outside a church at the end of ''Series/JoePeraTalksWithYou''.
114	* SavedByCanon: Since the final clip of the trailer shows what appears to be a FinalBattle, Buttercup, Darwin, Lady Rainicorn, Lion, Muriel, Samurai Jack, and Jonny and Plank are all confirmed to have survived The Darkness up to that point.
115	* ScarsAreForever: In the trailer, Pibby is shown with a scar beneath her other eye after something scratches it out.
116	* SensoryAbuse: The trailer prominently uses the ear-grating sound of static for horror, punctuating the monster's presence by an overwhelming amount of noise. Best shown in the scene right after Fred Flinstone is assimilated, where the audio [[JumpScare suddenly cranks up]] as several corrupted characters emerge from the glitchy mass and stare at the camera.
117	* ShoutOut:
118	** Two shots in the trailer have backgrounds resembling WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants' house and O-Town from ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife''.
119	** The rabbit that shoots hearts from their belly is a reference to ''Franchise/CareBears''.
120	** The scene of Pibby running down a forest path as a corrupted [[WesternAnimation/TheJetsons George Jetson]] comes out of the woods to chase after her is reminiscent of the chase scene between Ashitaka and boar god-turned-''tatari-gami'' Nago from ''Anime/PrincessMononoke''.
121	** The main trio briefly run through a commercial for "Grapes of Atwater" juice as they flee the Static, a reference to Cody Goodfellow's horror story "Atwater", about an EldritchLocation that, not unlike the Static, subjects anyone who crosses it to extreme BodyHorror.
122	* ShowWithinAShow: While most of the worlds come from existing properties, the main trio all come from their own, fictional shows that are homages or parodies to existing ones.
123	** Pibby comes from her own titular show, ''Learning with Pibby'', which is a preschooler Edutainment show akin to ''WesternAnimation/DoraTheExplorer'' about learning all kinds of things like spelling.
124	** Alloy Boy comes from a superhero show akin to ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanet'' or ''{{ComicBook/Superman}}'' as the sidekick to said Captain Planet/Superman-esque hero.
125	** Melira comes from a Disney-esque show akin to ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' as the feline villainess who antagonizes a group of dog characters, with Melira herself resembling a female version of Fat Cat.
126	* SleepCute: Pibby sleeps next to Alloy Boy while riding somewhere in the trailer.
127	* SolarAndLunar: The MirroredConfrontationShot in the trailer shows a living moon on the protagonists' side, presumably from Pibby's show, staring down a [[OminousVisualGlitch glitched]] sun previously seen at the beginning of the trailer on the antagonist's side.
128	* SoMuchForStealth: While hiding from corrupted versions of [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn and Jake]], Pibby whispers to Melira and Alloy Boy to keep quiet, but the word "Quiet" pops up above them and a narrator loudly says "QUIET!". Cue Pibby, Melira and Alloy Boy screaming and running away.
129	* SubvertedKidsShow: The trailer/short opens up as though it were a typical completely-unironic preschool show, with a fun theme song and cutesy imagery, only for an EldritchAbomination glitch blob to interrupt and reveal the short's true nature as a more mature cartoon with bloody violence, and a dark work of metafiction and ExistentialHorror.
130	* SugarApocalypse: Pibby's home is all smiles and sunshine until the glitch blob starts invading and reduces it to sweet-looking wasteland.
131	* TookALevelInBadass: Pibby goes from being an innocent and naive preschool character to a kick-ass and experienced eyepatch-wearing warrior who battles against the apocalypse.
132	* WhamShot: The short begins as a 100% genuine preschool cartoon straight out of Playhouse Disney, Nick Jr., or Cartoonito (Adult Swim's neighbor on the schedule), with Pibby teaching her friends about spelling and hugging as a cheery theme song plays in the background. When the song hits the first reprise, it abruptly cuts as a quake knocks over the cast. The camera then shakily pans to the cause -- a massive, glitchy black void that's quickly consuming the world. Pibby and [=BunBun=] make an escape, and the short's tone veers into a {{Meta Fiction}}al horror.
133	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Aside from Pibby herself and [=BunBun=], a dinosaur, ladybug and skunk are shown with them in the first scene of the trailer, only to never appear again. As [=BunBun=] is consumed early on, it's implied they met with the same fate.
134	* TheWorfEffect: The Darkness proves how great a threat it is by taking over all sorts of heroes. Not even a ComicallyInvincibleHero like WesternAnimation/BugsBunny is safe, and even the more experienced and powerful heroes, such as [[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls the Powerpuff Girls]] (minus Buttercup), [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Finn and Jake]], [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Amethyst]], and [[WesternAnimation/Ben102016 Ben Tennyson]] have lost to this monster and were assimilated. The April Fools 2022 special would reveal even [[WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty Rick Sanchez]], the ultra-intelligent wrecker of worlds and fourth wall breaker, is totally powerless against it.
135	* ZombieApocalypse: The Darkness has most of the hallmarks of one: it a spreads infection via foreign agent (in this case literally) that causes the transformation of anything it touches into hollow glitch-like monsters that attack anything uninfected. The only thing missing is a PatientZero, assuming there's one.
136	[[/folder]]
137	----
138	-->''Learning with Pibby! Learning is so fun ''\
139	''We like to spell and we love to hug ''

Context WesternAnimation / Pibby