A Fool And His New Money Are Soon Parted / Western Animation

Moments where Fools and their New Money are Soon Parted in Western Animation.

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• Ickis went through this on an episode of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters; the monsters' currency is toenails, so he struck it rich by stealing from an eccentric millionaire who saves his toenail clippings. Ickis gets greedy and is nearly caught by the human, who concludes it was all a dream... telling him to clean up his act. Meanwhile, Ickis ends up losing his stash of toenails on his way home.
• Adventure Time: "Furniture & Meat". After practically hoarding their gold stash gotten from their adventures, Finn and Jake realize they can actually spend it and proceed to do so. Of course anyone who knows these characters know it won't take long to burn through it: they end up insulting Wildberry Princess who has them arrested, confiscates their gold, then melts it to have it poured over them as punishment. After they escape, their once huge pile is now barren. They don't mind, but the gold would have been pretty useful four episodes later when one of Jake's kids repossesses their house.
• All Hail King Julien episode "Gimme Gimme Gimme: The Game" has King Julien try to establish a money-based economy based on just his experience with a Monopoly-like board game. Giving everyone an equal amount of money and then just leaving it at that turns out to be a terrible idea and it doesn't take long for everyone to be broke and all the money ending up in the hands of one person.
• American Dad!:
  • In the episode "There Will Be Bad Blood", Stan inherited 20 grand from his grandfather as a teenager, while his half brother Rusty inherited land. Years later, Rusty has made millions in mineral rights from the land, and when Rusty asks Stan what he did with the money, he says he lost it — not in stocks or bonds, but he left it on the bus.
  • In the episode "Less Money, Mo Problems", Stan and Francine attempt to live on minimum wage, having only $938 for a month. Stan blows almost all of it on their first day, first by renting a shabby apartment and then buying a Pontiac Aztec to live out of, along with sacks of potatoes and rice to eat. Then the car is towed away, leaving them homeless.
• In the Animaniacs episode "Temporary Insanity", Yakko Warner tricks Plotz into signing a check worth zillions. As soon as Yakko shows it to his siblings, Plotz rips it out.
  Yakko: We're rich!
  [Plotz yanks the check away from Yakko and goes back to his office]
  Yakko: ...We're poor!
• Batman: The Animated Series. In the episode "Joker's Millions", rival gangster King Barlowe inexplicably leaves his entire fortune to the Joker, who's so strapped for cash he doesn't even question it. Only after he's bribed his way to freedom, hired a new Harley and outright thrown money into the streets does he find a video will revealing the catch - less than a tenth of what he inherited is real money (which he already spent). Everything else is counterfeit, and he can either face the Intimidating Revenue Service or admit to the world he's been had.
• The Beetlejuice episode "A Ghoul and His Money" has the Ghost With The Most winning a healthy sum of money in a sweepstakes, but the company refuses to hand over the prize unless he swears not to "juice" anybody (play a prank). He turns the other cheek when other denizens insult him, but when they insult Lydia... well, B.J. may kiss his money goodbye but it's a principle for which he stands up.
• BoJack Horseman has Todd get 8 million dollars as an owner of a company Mr. Peanutbutter sold... Only for him to immediately lose it during his celebratory dinner. And not on the dinner itself, that was just fast food, but on tipping the waitress. This is an interesting example because BoJack is the type of show where every choice the characters make matters and things don't generally revert to status quo; except in this case, where they intentionally play the trope as straight as possible, all while drawing attention to it.
  Todd: Oh crap! I accidentally tipped the waitress eight million dollars! Well, guess I'm broke again.
• Clone High has an early episode where Scudworth makes a lucrative licensing deal with a food company, and proceeds to immediately start blowing the money, such as having his Robot Maid gold-plated. Predictably, by the end of the episode, the deal gets cut off due to the student body realizing how ludicrously unhealthy the company's goods are. Needless to say, Scudworth is Genre Blind to the whole thing.
  "Why, I watched the first two-thirds of MC Hammer: Behind the Music, and if there's one thing I learned about money, it's that it never runs out!"
• In an episode of Code Monkeys, the staff borrow against their IPOs and become very wealthy. When they leave their jobs, Gameavision stock plummets, bringing most of the staff to ruin. Except Dave, who invested his new money wisely, but ends up using it to bail out his former co-workers.
• In the Disney cartoon "Get Rich Quick", Goofy, as George Geef, seeks every opportunity to make a quick buck by gambling. Naturally, he is, more often than not, unsuccessful — until he goes to a poker game, where he finally does win big. Alas, when he returns home with his winnings, his scolding wife not only disapproves of his gambling addiction, but she promptly confiscates his winnings to use for herself, leaving a crushed Goofy to mutter, "Easy come, easy go..."
• The Droids episode, "Coby and the Starhunters" avert this when a young character inherits a fortune, but C-3P0 and R2D2 firmly keep him from spending it foolishly, including mentioning the moral about a fool and his money. At the end, when the heroes thwarts some villains and find someone who is doing a worthy cause but needs money to pursue it, the kid offers his inheritance and the benefactee takes him on as a partner.
• DuckTales (1987): In one episode, a family that won the lottery moved into a mansion next to Scrooge. By the end of the episode, they spent so much money they had to move back to their old home.
• Family Guy:
  • In "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater", one of Lois' forebears dies and leaves her a luxurious home. Peter, attempting to fit in with upper-class society, bids $100 million for a vase at an auction — more than the luxury home is worth. He tries to raise the value of the home by fabricating historical events, only to discover that it was actually a presidential brothel. This somehow allows him to trade the home for the vase (which is never seen again). Selling the story to a tabloid leaves him with enough cash to re-purchase their former home. Throughout the episode, Lois is more upset with Peter for acting phony than she is that he spent $100 million on a vase, and then gave away a mansion that actually belonged to her. Although Lois never seems to mind the fact that she grew up incredibly rich only to marry someone with little money and live as middle class.
  • In "Lottery Fever", which provides the quote for the main page, the Griffins win $150M in the lottery. Peter being Peter, immediately quits his job, spends the money on outrageous items, treats his friends like crap, and becomes broke and homeless in a month's time. Everything is back to normal by the end of the episode. For double irony, the family, sitting homeless on the street, decides their only chance is to try to win the lottery again. Cut to the exact same scene with Lois saying she can't believe they won and lost all that money TWICE. It's never explained how anyone could be rendered completely destitute when many of those outrageous items were made of solid gold. The logical solution is to sell them for scrap gold.
• Futurama
  • In "A Fishful of Dollars", Fry discovers he'd left some cash in a forgotten bank account, and the accrued interest has made him fabulously wealthy. When he buys a can of (extinct) anchovies Mom has her boys kidnap him to get his PIN (1077) so she can steal all his money and be forced to sell the anchovies (which hold the secret to producing a very cheap, but potent, robot oil). She gives up when she learns he doesn't know this, instead intending to eat the anchovies. Also fulfills the "worse off than before" part: When Fry and co. actually ''do' eat the anchovies, everyone except Fry immediately coughs them up, due to their disgusting taste. Everyone, that is, except Zoidberg. He suffers the opposite effect, since his species is implied to be the reason anchovies went extinct in the first place due to having a strong Horror Hunger for them. Before the episode cuts to black, Zoidberg aggressively yanks Fry toward him, screaming "MORE! MORE!" ^note The amount of money in Fry's account after a thousand years of compound interest is accurate. However, it does not take inflation/deflation into account, nor the fact that dormant accounts are seized by the government after a number of years (which varies by state, but is always below 1,000 years).
  • "Three Hundred Big Boys" had the whole nation getting a tax three hundred dollar refund due to Zapp defeating a spider planet and bringing back the riches. The course of the episode sees all the cast wasting it in some form or another (Fry buying a hundred cups of coffee, Bender gets supplies to steal a rare cigar, Farnsworth a temporary stem cell procedure, Amy a talking tattoo, Hermes a walking pair of stilts to impress his son, etc.) save for Zoidberg who, for the first time in his life having more money then ever, tries to "live like a rich person". He gets shot down when his refund is revealed to be peanuts to the social elite. But a fire breaks out at the reception for the spider people's loot, costing Nixon, in addition to the tax break, millions. Zoidberg then spends his money on a small buffet, which he invites everyone to join.
  • In "Future Stock", Fry and a sleazy stock trader maneuver Planet Express into being bought out by Mom's company, meaning the entire cast would become rich off their previously-worthless stock holdings. However, just as the deal is about to be finalized, the guy succumbs to a case of boneitis, and Fry blows the merger presentation, causing the stocks to rapidly crash back to their previous worth.
  • In "Viva Mars Vegas", Zoidberg lives richly for a short time by using the Robot Mafia's stolen money, only to lose it all in a Martian casino, due to his poor money managing skills. What makes this even crazier is that he actually managed to pick the correct number on a roulette spin twice^note At 1 to 36 odds, oddly generous since most casinos pay out at 1 to 35 odds and the true odds are 1 to 37, unless the wheel was different somehow, turning 8 million into a little over 10 billion. Even when being told to walk away, he kept going. Naturally the third time wasn't the charm. He actually takes it all in stride since he's so used to being broke, it didn't matter if he was rich or not.
    Amy: See, this is why you never see a poor person with millions of dollars.
• Garfield:
  • An episode of Garfield and Friends has the titular fat cat winning the lottery after Jon tosses away his lottery ticket. The two and Odie get to live the high life until an interview reveals that Garfield was underage when he won, thus leading to the winnings being voided (despite Jon telling them that he was the one who bought the ticket) and the winner being declared as the interviewer himself.
  • An episode of The Garfield Show had the test run of a holographic postman delivering the mail and newspaper go slightly awry when a glitch in the system resulted in the newspaper being from tomorrow. After Jon notices this, he buys a lottery ticket using the yet-to-be-announced results and manages to become a millionaire because of this. He then decides to hand his fortune over to an investor who promises to increase his deposit. However, the future newspaper he has reveals that the investor will run away with it, but they're too late to stop him. Jon decides to just use the next newspaper to win the lottery again, but the experimental system that produced the future newspapers breaks down beyond repair.
• In the Jem episode "Roxy's Rumble", Roxy finds a lottery ticket on the street and it turns out to be a million-dollar winner. Roxy ends up quitting The Misfits and goes back to Philadelphia to brag to the people who thought she wouldn't do anything in life. Due to the fact she Never Learned to Read she loses most of her money due to not understanding the contract she signed when she hosted a festival. The IRS takes the rest. She ends up rejoining her band afterwards.
• This happens to The Jetsons.
  • In one episode, George invents a new wonder product that brings in lots of cash. They lose it all, not so much because George was an idiot, but because his company's product goes under.
  • In another episode, George won the lottery. However, a collapse of the economy of Venus caused the value of the prize to decrease considerably before he had a chance to convert it into dollars. When George was told he won, the prize was worth 7.5 million dollars. The collapse caused its worth to be practically nada.
  • In another, George and Jane win a fortune at the racetrack thanks to some phlebotinum. They get chased by two guys in dark outfits -from the future tax agency.
• In one episode of Kaeloo, Stumpy turns out to be a brilliant artist, and he decides to sell his art. Mr. Cat then comes up and tricks him into signing a contract that gives 95% of the profits to Mr. Cat. In the end, however, they never manage to sell any of the art.
• Kim Possible In the episode "Ron Millionaire," Ron gets a check for the current royalties he's owed for inventing the Naco. Ron never even spent all the money; his entire fortune is stolen from him by Dr. Drakken because... Ron kept it all in his cargo pants pockets (which should weigh a metric ton even if it was all in $100 bills). Drakken, after getting the money and dropping the trope name almost word for word, spends all of it on a laser cannon... which destroys itself.
• Done in The Oblongs when Milo, Biff and Chip find a huge bag of money that was supposed to be a bribe for the Mayor in a car they all brought together. Not surprising they spend it like crazy despite threats from the Mayor and city staff. Subverted though as Milo doesn't act any different with his friends and it actually makes the boys popular. They eventually lose it when Milo tosses a sparkler onto the remaining cash pile and it burns up.
• A pair of Popeye instances, both from the Al Brodax era:
  • One cartoon was a spoof of the 1950s drama The Millionaire, and had Popeye as the mysterious benefactor who gives out $1 million cashiers' checks to Olive, Wimpy, Swee' Pea and even Brutus. He goes out in his sailor suit to see how they had been spending the money (Wimpy buys a cattle farm but can't summon the heart to grind up an innocent cow into hamburger; Swee' Pea buys the mother of all-day suckers; and Olive is getting the mother of all makeovers). Brutus uses his million to buy up and bury all the spinach farms in the world, leaving Popeye with no spinach—except the green wad Brutus shoves in his mouth (we all know what happens next). At the end, Popeye says he's seen what money did to his friends so he gave his last million to the sailor's relief fund.
  • Another had Wimpy as the heir to a fortune. He is to be a referee at a prize fight in which Popeye is a participant. Wimpy bets every dollar he has on the opponent, and during the fight, his butler KOs Popeye out cold. Wimpy is counting Popeye out but, busrting into tears, he doesn't have the heart to double-cross his pal. He gives Popeye some spinach, Popeye knocks out his opponent, and Wimpy says goodbye to his money.
• In The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Moral Decay", this happens to Buttercup at the end of the episode. Buttercup plans to save up money for a new punching bag after she unintentionally knocks out one of Bubbles' teeth, which leads up to her getting money from the tooth fairy. After trying several times to knock out more of Bubbles' teeth, but failing, Buttercup spends the rest of the episode knocking out villains' teeth while doing her duties as a heroine, but eventually, after a day of no crime, she becomes impatient and beats up the main villains unwarranted. When the villains convene at the dentist office and tell Bubbles and Blossom what she was doing behind their backs, they work together to set up an ambush for Buttercup in order to teach her a lesson. Buttercup, as a result, has her teeth knocked out by the villains in return when they beat her up, and then loses all the money she obtained through her scheme when the Professor uses it pay off her dental bills.
• Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy once won 47 million dollars and instant celebrity as part of a television contest. When Stimpy finds that his newfound fame and fortune are meaningless without his best friend Ren he "gives away" all his money and returns home. Ren is less than joyous about this.
• Rugrats (1991):
  • In the episode "Chuckie is Rich", Chaz won ten million dollars in a sweepstakes, and moves to a big fancy mansion. Under Drew's advice, he makes an investment on the "Ear-Whiz" (basically a water gun that supposedly cleans your ear perfectly). Unfortunately, the company ends up going bankrupt due to the invention actually increasing ear wax, leaving Chaz with nearly all of his money gone due to Drew investing his entire fortune without telling Chaz. Thus, the Finsters are forced to move back to their old house (to Chuckie's relief since he didn't like their life being rich). Chaz at least ended up with enough money to fix his old house's leaky roof, and he did get to keep his glass elephant (which Stu accidentally shattered).
    Chaz: Listen, Stu, I'm sorry I acted like such a jerk when I was rich.
    Stu: Hey, I'm the one who had the problem handling it. I guess I was just jealous. So, you're money's all gone, huh?
    Chaz: Not all of it. There's enough left to fix the roof at least. And I did get to keep the glass elephant.
    (Tommy approaches Chuckie playing with his ball)
    Chuckie: Tommy?
    Tommy: Hi, Chuckie. I'm sorry you're not rich anymore.
    Chuckie: Ah, don't be. Being rich isn't all that great.
    Tommy: Aren't you gonna miss that big house, all the toys, and that swimming pool full of ice cream?
    Chuckie: Nah, not as much as I miss being regular ol' Chuckie.
    Tommy: It's good to have ya back. (They hug each other)
    Stu: Boy, it is a nice elephant, Chaz.
    (Loud CRASH! is heard)
    Chaz: AAAAAAHHHH!!!
    Stu: Oops.
    (Episode ends)
  • In the Las Vegas episode, Grandpa Lou wins the jackpot playing nickel slots. He later uses some of his winnings to pay for tickets to a Siegfried and Roy knockoff and later throws the rest at some security guards to save his family.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Simpson and Delilah", Homer once bought a hair-growth product that actually worked and it eventually got him a promotion. Homer ignored Marge's advice about saving money for emergencies and it came back to bite him when Bart, while trying to use the product to grow himself a beard, accidentally spilled it out and Homer had no money to buy a new batch before becoming bald again and being demoted back to his old job.
  • In another episode, Bart pretended to be kidnapped to avoid punishment for sneaking out. When Lisa found out the truth, Homer told her they should keep it a secret because he had already sold the story for a fortune he had already lost. While how he lost it is anyone's guess, since we were never given a clue, we can be sure it was out of foolishness, since it's Homer we're talking about.
  • One episode averts this. Homer wins the lottery, and since Status Quo Is God, the money is quickly spent. However, Homer didn't blow it on foolishness, but instead he spent the money doing nice things for his family. Though a bit twisted as he only did this because he hid the fact he won from his family because he bought the ticket when he should have been with Marge singing for a wedding. In the end it is revealed that Marge wouldn't have cared when she realized he won a million dollars.
  • In "Trash of the Titans", Homer runs for the position of Springfield's Sanitation Commissioner, and after being elected, he ends up spending his entire year's budget in one month because he didn't realize how expensive his extravagant campaign promises would actually be.
  • This exchange in "Homer's Barbershop Quartet":
    Principal Skinner: Well, Willie, I'm back. And how did you spend your summer?
    Groundskeeper Willie: I made millions in software, and then lost it at the track!
  • Another episode had Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Moe buy into a lottery together and win, only for Carl to abscond with the winnings to his native Iceland. His plan is to use the money to prove that his family wasn't responsible for a war atrocity. Unfortunately, it turns out that his family actually was guilty of said atrocity, rendering his journey for nothing.
• South Park:
  • In the episode "Cartmanland", Cartman inherits one million dollars and decides to buy an amusement park for himself calling it "Cartmanland", but needs to allow visitors to keep the park maintained and running. This frustrates him so much, he decides to sell the park to its previous owners. He gets his money back, but the IRS took most of his fortune from unpaid taxes and penalties and the rest (more than what he had) for a lawsuit settlement resulting from Kenny's death on one of the rides.
  • "Red Man's Greed" has the town raise 10,000 dollars to save themselves being bought out by a Native American Casino, when they need 300,000. Naturally, they decide to bet it on roulette with 1-35 payout, and actually win, giving them more than enough to prevent the buyout. However, rather than pay off the casino and save the town, the people realize that if they bet again, they have a chance to win over 12 million dollars. Naturally, Randy bets all the money and loses it. He refuses to accept any responsibility, as "you can't quit when you're on a streak."
  • The reason why Randy doesn't want Stan to be in a boy band in "Something You Can Do With Your Finger". He dropped out of high school to become a member of a boy band. He had everything of wealth including women and fast cars and until one day as quick as it started, the studio replaces him and his comembers. He loses all of the money he made being in debt to the studio and had to come back to Colorado and face everyone he abandoned.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • Providing the image for the main page is the episode "Porous Pockets", where SpongeBob and Patrick find a giant pearl, which they sell for ludicrous amounts of money. Somehow SpongeBob ends up with all of the money, buys a mansion, and gives the rest away to his house guests. Soon as they find out he has no money left, they leave and SpongeBob realizes he shouldn't have neglected Patrick because he had money.
  • This is also pretty common in episodes that involve Mr. Krabs whenever he tries to gain money for himself through ill-gotten means. Karma will instantly step in and deprive him of his money. One such example happened when Krabs used Gary as a magnet to attract coins, not caring how much it hurt the poor snail. He gets too greedy, tries to attract a tidal wave of coins, and is hospitalized. All the money Krabs took over the course of the episode is then used to pay his hospital bill.
• Early from Squidbillies fell into this trap the instant he had a legitimate lawsuit against Dan Haylen, letting himself be bought off with a settlement consisting of a few motorized chrome beer hats.
  Granny: A fool and his money...
  Early: Together again!
• Steven Universe:
  • "Mr. Greg" begins with Greg Universe musing with his son Steven over how to spend his 10 million dollar royalty check from a song his former manager Marty had sold as a burger shack jingle without permission in the previous episode. The conclusion is that Greg is content with his life, so they resolve to spend it on a night on the town in nearby Empire City. Steven insists that they take Pearl, Steven's fellow Crystal Gem. Upon arrival, the beached dressed trio buy tailored tuxedos, fine dining, and a penthouse room, and proceed to dance the night away. Amongst their affluent spending, Pearl and Greg resolve a long standing interpersonal conflict. The next morning, a musical reprise has the characters questioning whether this was the best use of their new found fortune. Subverted in that he still has plenty of money left.
  • Subverted with a later episode, where Greg rents a boat to take Steven and Lapis out on a fishing trip, but events lead to the ship being wrecked and Greg noting that he now has to pay for the ship in full. In this case, it has nothing to do with Greg himself; he's just unlucky. And again, he still has plenty of money left.^note It's mentioned later in the series that he still has about 9 million dollars left out of the original 10.
• TaleSpin used this trope often:
  • "The Road to Macadamia": When Baloo and Louie save the desert kingdom of Macadamia from an Evil Chancellor, they expect a huge cash reward when the King tells them he'll give them their rewards. Instead, Baloo gets only the paltry sum he owed them at the beginning of the episode. (And Louie a promised sack of nuts)
  • "Your Baloo's in the Mail": Rebecca wins a lottery, then entrusts Baloo to turn in the winning Lottery Ticket before the deadline. To make a long story short, he doesn't.
  • "Idol Rich": After going through alot of trouble to obtain a valuable idol, Baloo loses all the money it was worth to a tab he had run up at Louie's.
  • "Baloo Thunder": Shere Khan gives Baloo a sizable reward for helping to keep his secret project (a helicopter) out of the hands of his competition, only for his secretary (under Khan's orders) to reclaim it for outrageous purposes.
  • "Save the Tiger": Baloo saves Shere Khan's life, who now owes Baloo a debt. Baloo first asks for a few simple things, before being reminded that Shere Khan is one of the most wealthy and powerful men in the world. Baloo then buys back his plane, isolates most of his friends, and becomes bored with his new wealth and gifts. Eventually Baloo ends up irritating Khan with endless lists of demands; Khan secretly arranges for Baloo to be kidnapped and the ransom requires the selling off of everything Baloo had demanded and Higher for Hire. By the end of the episode, Baloo's friends get him back, and Baloo, having learned his lesson goes to Kahn hat-in-hand with a last request for the status quo to return.
  • "The Balooest of the Blue Bloods": Baloo inherits a mansion and the butler and maid try to kill him so they can inherit it for themselves. The mansion gets repossessed at the end of the episode for outstanding debts.
  • "Pizza Pie in the Sky": When Baloo opens a pizza-delivery service, the money he earns is just enough to pay for all the health code violations he racks up while running the operation.
• The Tom and Jerry cartoon "Million Dollar Cat" has Tom inheriting $1 million under the provision that he harm no animals — even a mouse. This gives Jerry the chance to yank Tom's chain throughout the cartoon until the conclusion when Tom's camel complains of a broken back — he rips up the telegram and sets about thrashing Jerry, stopping long enough to say this to us (in Bill Hanna's voice):
  Tom: Gee. I'm t'rowin' away a million dollars... BUT I'M HAPPY! [continues his onslaught]
• Episodes of Top Cat feature this happening a few times. The most notable one is where a millionaire gives Benny a check to T.C for one million dollars after he finds out how rough the gang has it. When the merchants' association finds out, T.C and the gang are treated like royalty. In the end, it all goes away because Top Cat, who didn't give Benny a chance to explain about the million dollars, tore up the check. To be fair, Top Cat thought that Benny had been tricked into accepting a ticket for a 25 cent raffle, so he didn't know any better.
• Wish Kid: Nick used his magic glove to wish his family was wealthy, causing them to win the lottery. As anyone familiar to the series' premise can attest without watching the episode, it was just a matter of time before the wish wore off and they lost the money. Then again, the way they were spending the money, they'd have squandered it all.
• Woody Woodpecker:
  • Woody falls victim to this trope when he inherits some money that Buzz Buzard decides to con out of him.
  • However, it is Buzz's turn to fall into the trope in The New Woody Woodpecker Show. Buzz and Woody were on a Scavenger Hunt where incomplete proverbs were the clues to the items they had to find. They were tied when there was only one item left to be found and the clue was "A (space) and his money are soon parted". Claiming to have no idea of how to solve that clue, Woody proposed that he and Buzz shared the money prize. As Buzz was enjoying the money, Woody introduced Buzz to the game's host as the fool to be soon parted from the money.