Don't ask why he's got a more realistic-looking skull on the side.
Types of skeletons in Western Animation television series.
- Skeletons were a common sight in old cartoons, usually dancing and living it up like undead party animals. Disney's Silly Symphony The Skeleton Dance (1929) is the most obvious example, but Disney also made The Haunted House (also 1929) and The Mad Doctor (1933) with the same dancing skeleton characters.
- Fleischer had skeleton characters in numerous Betty Boop and Bimbo shorts...
- And Van Beuren Studios had them in Tom and Jerry's Wot a Night (1931) and Plane Dumb (1932) among others.
- The early Merrie Melodie Hittin' the Trail to Hallelujah Land (1931) features dancing skeletons too.
- Columbia Cartoons had the Ub Iwerks-directed remake of The Skeleton Dance, called "Skeleton Frolic" (1937).
- Two skeletons appear in Who Killed Who?, one regular and another with red bones (a Shout-Out to Red Skelton). There's also a skeletal cuckoo in a clock.
- The Adventures of Puss in Boots: A magic ring allows its wielder to animate and control an army of skeletons. The ring passes through several hands before Puss in Boots decides the Skeletons are nice, and Frees the Genie, in a sense, by giving the ring to the skeletons and inviting them to live in San Lorenzo.
- Aladdin: The Series: One episode features a villain with skeleton minions. Aladdin and crew pull off the standard "knock the minions together" knockout, only for the skeletons to pull themselves back together into new shapes. Two got smash together to form a centaur with four arms and two heads.
- Animaniacs: Mr. Skullhead; usually he appears in the "Good Idea, Bad Idea" segments, but sometimes appears in others, including a musical skit which was a Homage to the song that's the Trope Namer. Before that he was born doing skits for Tiny Toon Adventures; the skull is inspired by Elmyra's skull on her headband.
- Aqua Teen Hunger Force: In "Totem Pole", Shake and Carl visit a rock band performance and are used to build a troll pole, which ends up summoning hundreds of skeletons from the ground leaving them trapped in the building without anyway to escape.
- Beetlejuice: A recurring character is Jacques, a skeleton with a French accent who wears a beret and is mildly obsessed with building his muscles... of which he of course has none.
- Codename: Kids Next Door has Black John Licorice, a rival candy pirate of Stickybeard's and a one-time villain appearing in the episode "Operation L.I.C.O.R.I.C.E.". Thanks to a cursed licorice tree Black John and his crew chopped down and stole, a curse was placed on them that turned them into black licorice skeletons that only come alive at dusk, then are reduced to piles of licorice bones at dawn until they come alive at dusk again, unless they could replant a Red Stalk Seed on the very island where they once destroyed the red licorice stalk forest in order to become human again, which Heinrich Von Marzipan accidentally ate during his time at the Kids Next Door prison, and is kidnapped by them as a result, forcing Numbuh Five to join forces with Stickybeard to find him. Black John is described to be a more vicious candy pirate who'd "do anything for candy, even steal it from his mom". The song Stickybeard and his crew sing about him is very self-explanatory
. - Danny Phantom: One of Youngblood's minions in "Pirate Radio". Also, one of the ghosts Vlad sent after Danny in "Kindred Spirits" looked like a Bedsheet Ghost; but in reality, the bedsheet was covering one of these, albeit with black bones. Not to mention Pariah Dark's army which is composed of skeleton warriors.
- Dungeons & Dragons (1983): When the children confront Venger in the Dragons' Graveyard, he summons draconic skeletons to attack them. There's also Dekion, the skeletal Celestial Knight cursed due to his cowardice.
- El Tigre has the Rivera family's greatest enemy, Sartana of the Dead and her undead army. Her ethnicity makes her a genuine calaca.
- Family Guy: The Grim Reaper is this underneath his robes. In one episode we see him in normal person clothes.
- Freaktown: Ben Bones, the protagonist. He's also able to disassemble himself if needed.
- Ghostbusters:
- Filmation's Ghostbusters: The villain Scared Stiff is an odd robotic version of this. There's also the company phone, Ansa-Bone.
- The Real Ghostbusters: Several of the ghosts they face are walking skeletons including; the Scottish soldiers in "Bustman's Holiday", the Pirates in "Sea Fright", the train passengers in "Knock, Knock" and some dancing and singing skeletons in "The Haunting of Heck House".
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero: In "The Phantom Brigade" a skeleton rises up from the floor to threaten Cobra Commander into giving up control of three spirits. The Commander is reasonably freaked out and even the Joes who walk in on the scene can't believe what they're seeing.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: Grim is like this under his robes (which leads to a lot of humorous situations). More than once, the other two protagonists, Billy and Mandy, have taken him apart in order to carry him in a backpack or other small container. The show also provides the image for the subpage.
- Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats: Dingbat and the Creeps has Sparerib, a broad skeleton that could arrange himself into several configurations, like a floor lamp in the opening.
- Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil: Becky, Satan's administrative assistant, is an animated skeleton.
- Not Without My Handbag: The Back from the Dead version of Auntie is a skeleton with a dress and hairdo.
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes has a character named A Real Magic Skeleton, who is... well, you can probably guess
- Olliver's Adventures: In the episode "Warpo General Hospital", when Ollie is sent there for getting stuck in a funny face, he meets the resident doctor, who's a living skeleton. He seems to have no idea what Ollie's problem is, and does treatments on him that make no sense. Plus, he regularly falls apart. Ollie discovers he has a calcium deficiency, which is the source of his current state. He fixes him up by having him drink a mixture of carrots (to improve his eyesight) and milk (to strengthen his bones).
- Over the Garden Wall: The residents of Pottsfield once they make The Reveal. They're all dressed up in pumpkins and straw when Wert and Greg meet them, but at the end of the episode, we see a skeleton rise out of a freshly-dug grave and dress up like all the others.
- Ruby Gloom: Skull Boy. He's also the main characters's love interest. There's also a band called the Skeletunes, which Skullboy sometimes hangs out with.
- Skeleton Warriors. In this one, the "curse" of becoming a skeleton could be reversed by removing a ruby in their chest, as they were immortal otherwise.
- Spider-Man Unlimited: Carnage has a very skeletal appearance.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: One episode has Mr. Krabs battling an army of living fish skeletons in a cemetery to reclaim a "#1 Fan!" soda-drinking hat SpongeBob had buried. His weapon happened to be the skull of a swordfish.
- SuperTed: One of the baddies is a skeleton accidentally awakened by Texas Pete who comes along for the ride.
- SWAT Kats had a recurring villain, The Pastmaster (an ancient sorcerer who keeps trying to bring back the Dark Ages). One of his shticks was reanimating skeletons, as he demonstrated in his first appearance. It wasn't very effective, as an Enforcer helicopter sees them, asks them to stand down, and then delivers a parody on the Miranda Rights right before shredding them to bits with the on-board Gatling (well, laser, but it looks like a Gatling):"You have the right to remain buried!"
- Out of all of Elmyra's zombie pets seen in the Tiny Toon Adventures segment "Night of the Living Pets", Goldie the goldfish is the only one that is merely a walking skeleton.
- The Venture Bros.: Dean is aware of the trope — when he investigates a plane crash and sees the charred skeletal remains of the crew he cries out "Brock! I think I figured out why the plane crashed — there were SKELETONS driving it!"
- Wander over Yonder: Lord Hater is a skeletal being, although he may just be alien rather than undead.
