Characters who are oblivious to their own descriptions in Western Animation.
- Animal Mechanicals. Certain situations will elicit a conversation like this:Team: If only we had someone who could stretch that far... [everyone turns to Sasquatch, who is The Big Guy and resident Rubber Man]
Sasquatch: Yeah... but who could that possibly be? [Beat] I know! The Mighty Sasquatch can stretch that far! - Animaniacs: In the "Baloney and Kids" segment, Baloney wears a paper plate mask of... himself, and dares everyone the Warners to guess who it is.Yakko: Is it a big fat polyester dinosaur who's the color of an International House of Pancakes holding a paper plate over his face?Baloney: No, it's me, Baloney!
- In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sokka fails to recognize when Suki is talking about him.Suki: I lost someone I care about. He didn't die. He just went away. I only had a few days to get to know him, but he was smart, and brave and funny.
Sokka: Who is this guy? Is he taller than me?
Suki: No. He's about your height.
Sokka: Is he better looking?
Suki: It is you, stupid! - Bob's Burgers: In “Land of the Loft,” Teddy is annoyed that Bob and Linda’s new friends "decided to come here one day, liked the food, showed up more and more often and now they're here every single day", thinking it's "creepy." All Bob and Linda can think of as a reply is a confused "uh..."
- In the Bump in the Night episode "To Sleep, Perchance to Burp", Mr. Bumpy starts searching for a monster under the bed who's keeping the boy whose bed he lives under awake. Even when Molly Coddle points out to Bumpy that he's most likely the monster bothering the boy since he himself is a monster living under a bed, it takes a while for Mr. Bumpy to make the connection.
- Futurama:Amy: Only weirdos and mutants join third parties!
Zoidberg: (apprehensive) Really? I'd better keep an eye out at the next meeting. - Garbage Pail Kids Cartoon: In the movie parody segment "Garbage Pail Aliens from the Junkoid Zone Attack Earth", the aliens Alien Ian, Janet Planet and Martian Marcia are eventually persuaded to leave after they hear a report warning that aliens have attacked the Earth, not realizing that they are the aliens the report is talking about,Alien Ian: Aliens?!
Janet Planet: Let's get out of here!
Martian Marcia: Yeah, before the aliens find us! - Gravity Falls: In “Dreamscaperers”, after the gang defeats Bill Cipher for the first time, he remarks that they’re a lot more clever than they look, “especially the fat one”. Soos whispers to Mabel “I think he’s talking about you.”
- Hey Arnold!:
- One episode has Helga doing stand-up impersonations of everyone at school. Mr. Simmons is the only one who doesn't recognize Helga's parody of him, including not noticing his own Catchphrase.Helga: Okay class, we're all going to do something very special, that's all going to show how all of you are special in your own special way.
Mr. Simmons: Who is that? Is that Mr. Packenham? Who is she doing?
(later)
Mr. Simmons: (to Helga) Are you going to do that "special guy" again? You know, the one who says "special" all the time? Who is that? - In another episode, Arnold, Gerald, Sid, Harold, and Eugene go on a fishing trip with their dads (and Arnold's grandpa) that turns into an unmitigated disaster, culminating in the group being stuck outside in the rain and swarmed by frogs. When someone suggests they tell scary stories, Harold snaps and tells a "scary story" which is just a recap of everything that has happened to them. Once he's finished and starts sobbing:
Eugene: Gosh, that sounds awfully similar to what happened to us.
Arnold: (glaring at him)' It is what happened to us. - One episode has Helga doing stand-up impersonations of everyone at school. Mr. Simmons is the only one who doesn't recognize Helga's parody of him, including not noticing his own Catchphrase.
- One episode of The Lion Guard has the leaders of different animals in the Pridelands gathering and arguing a bit. During that, this exchange happens.Big Baboon: I was having a perfectly nice time when suddenly this... this hippo with a horn bumps into me.
Mbeya: Who are you calling a hippo? I'm a rhino, you baboon!
Big Baboon: Who are you calling a baboon?!
Bunga: [deadpan] You are a baboon.
Big Baboon: Oh. Right. - On Metalocalypse, the band hires body doubles for security reasons. They resemble the actual band members to varying degrees, but Murderface's double is a dead ringer.Murderface: Hold on, this guy doesn't look like me! He's hideous, he's grotesque, look at 'im!
Ofdensen: Actually, Murderface, he—
Murderface: Look at that head, that disgusting forehead, that stupid-shaped hair, beady eyes, like, stupid flat nose, wide hammer-ass, chicken-plucked legs idiot! (at Ofdensen) You need to get your eyes checked, you piece of shit! This guy doesn't look like me!
(pause)
Murderface: (about to cry) Oh God, he looks just like me. - In Miraculous Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng can't see herself in Adrien's love poem (which is actually written about her but not to her) without some convincing from Tikki.
- The Patrick Star Show: In "Bummer Jobs", when Squidina mentions the Patrick Show, Patrick says that he loves it because "that pink guy is so dumb!"
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Often with Dr. Doofenshmirtz, constantly talking about some dummkopf or slob which could just as easily apply to himself. For example, in "Finding Mary McGuffin", he's rooting through a box of on-off switches to find one that will work with his latest -inator.
Doofenshmirtz: Oh, and here's one. The exact same size and shape that I'm looking for except it's upside-down. I mean, the words are actually printed upside-down. What kind of a dummkopf would invent an upside-down... switch...that... [Beat, he sighs and turns it right-side-up.] I did it!- In "Hide and Seek", the introductory episode for Irving, Baljeet, of all people, dismisses Irving as a nerd.
- The premise of Candace and Linda's plotline in "What Do It Do" is that Linda, normally the Reasonable Authority Figure, is going through all the usual motions of her high-strung teenage daughter. She spots a bizarre object in the yard, it mortifies her, she tries to call someone (in this case, her husband Lawrence), he doesn't believe her, she drags him away from what he's doing, only to find the object has vanished. While Candace notices it almost immediately, Linda never realizes the similarities.Lawrence: [from his work, after Linda has called him about the rocket] Linda, my dear, I love you, but you couldn't have chosen a worse moment to go completely bonkers! I'm sorry, but I've got to call you back! Bye!
Linda: Ohhhh, he doesn't believe me!! He said I sound crazy!!
Candace: Ohhhhh, reeeeeeally???
Linda: Yeah! You know I'm not imagining this!
Candace: Of course not! Gosh, that must be so frustrating to have someone not believe you when you're telling the truth!
Linda: Oh, you don't know the half of it.
Candace: That feeling you have right now: that's how I feel every single day when you don't believe me about what Phineas and Ferb are doing! Now that you finally understand, would you come with me to the backyard?
Linda: Why?
Candace: Now, keep in mind how Dad just made you feel, okay? [With total confidence] Phineas and Ferb have reverse-engineered and built an exact duplicate of this thing and at this very moment, they're trying to figure out what it does by forcing it to belly dance and work in a library.
Linda: Candace, honey, I love you, but you couldn't have chosen a worse moment to go completely bonkers! - In "Summer Belongs To You", the characters find themselves in Paris, the City of Love. Candace, Ferb, and Isabella are eager to spend time with their crushes, but none of them go anywhere. Candace can't work up the nerve to talk to Jeremy, Vanessa's father finds her and Ferb believes she's left him on the Eiffel Tower, and Phineas' Oblivious to Love tendencies kick into overdrive as Isabella is pouring her heart out in song form
. When they regroup, Phineas sympathizes with their romantic woes but fails to identify Isabella's.Phineas: Hey Ferb. Where's Vanessa?
Ferb: She went off with someone else.
Phineas: That's too bad. I thought the two of you, you know, a boy, a girl, alone in the City of Love. I thought romance was a foregone conclusion.
[Isabella grunts, loudly, and snaps her pencil in two]
Phineas: Isabella, did you say something?
Isabella: [through gritted teeth] I need a new pencil.
[Ferb hands her another pencil. Candace enters]
Phineas: Oh, hey, Candace. So how'd it go? Did you see Jeremy?
Candace: Well, I saw him. I just didn't talk to him.
Phineas: Oh, that's too bad. I thought, you know, the two of you, a boy, a girl, alone in the City of Love—
[Isabella grunts, and all of a sudden, her head explodes]
Phineas: Isabella? Isabella! [cut back to reality, to reveal the explosion just in Isabella's imagination] Isabella, are you alright?
Isabella: [calmly but still aggravated] Peachy. - In "Night of the Living Pharmacists", Stacy's subplot revolves entirely around her setting up a new home entertainment system and watching a horror movie. She jokes to herself about how clueless the movie's characters are, while she never turns around to see that Zombie Apocalypse that has broken out in Danville. In fact, her obliviousness, combined with the fact that she never leaves the house, cause her to be the only known character (other than the immune Doofenshmirtz) not to get zombified by the night's end.
- Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island:Simone: I've had enough of that meddling dog!
Scooby-Doo: Dog? Where? - The Simpsons:
- In "D'oh-in' in the Wind", after Homer's antics end up ruining an organic juice shipment:Brockman: And, in business news, Groovy Grove Juice Corporation has announced it will miss delivery on its third-quarter shipment. A spokesman attributed the production shutdown to a half-witted oaf.
Homer: Aww, it was sweet of those guys to blame an oaf. But really, it was my fault. - In "Bart of Darkness", Ned is falsely assumed to have murdered his wife after Bart overhears a girlish scream and an exclamation that he’s become a murderer, among other things. Eventually, Maude is revealed alive and well and Ned explains the whole thing was an overreaction to him having ruined a plant of theirs. The only detail he’s unsure of is the scream, which Bart brings up after the story is explained. When the dead plant is presented to Chief Wiggum, Ned lets out the very same scream.
- In "The Old Man And The Lisa", a newly poor Mr. Burns doesn't realize how low most Springfielders' opinion of him is.Burns: (cheerfully) I'm riding the bus.
Barney: Hey, aren't you that guy everybody hates?
Burns: (chuckles) Oh, my, no. I'm Monty Burns. - In "Guess Who's Coming to Criticise Dinner", Homer looks up the newspaper headline from the day he was born and sees a front page "Unusually Large, Ugly Baby Born". Even though the photo accompanying the article looks suspiciously like him, he dismisses it by saying "I'd sure hate to be that guy!" and pulls a face of disgust.
- An exaggerated example from "The D'oh-cial Network":Grampa: (Looks disparagingly at Homer) And I created an alcoholic hippo!
Homer: You never showed it to me!
Grampa: A stupid alcoholic hippo.
Homer: I still want to see it.
Grampa: There is no hippo!
Homer: Then why did you say it?
Grampa: 'Cause you're the hippo!
Homer: Are you just saying that 'cause you don't want me to see the hippo?
Grampa: I don't have a hippo! - Bart does a variation of this to himself in "Bart the Mother", after he hatches a clutch of what he thinks are bird eggs, but are actually Bolivian tree lizards. Skinner then tries to exterminate the lizards, since they're an invasive species that eat the eggs of local bird populations. Bart tearfully tells Marge "Everyone thinks they're monsters, but I raised them and I love them! I know that's hard to understand..." and Marge responds "Not as hard as you think".
- In "D'oh-in' in the Wind", after Homer's antics end up ruining an organic juice shipment:
- In the first episode of South Park, Eric Cartman is watching a news report on Crop Circles and the camera pulls back to show that the circles form an exact portrait of himself.Cartman: Hey! That looks like... Tom Selleck.
- Spongebob Squarepants:
- In the episode "Hall Monitor", Spongebob gets worried when he hears the news about a maniac terrorizing the citizens of Bikini Bottom and causing traffic accidents, not realizing that that's exactly what he has been doing as hall monitor.
- From "Hooky":Patrick: Well, that Mr. Krabs is just a big dummy! Are you gonna listen to a big dummy, or are you gonna listen to me?
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): In "Turtles at the Earth's Core", after arriving in a Lost World beneath the Earth's crust where dinosaurs are alive, Shredder scolds his two minions, Rocksteady and Bebop, for sending a Diplodocus to deal with the turtles instead of something more dangerous, like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Bumbling Henchmen Duo explain how hard it is to train dinosaurs.Rocksteady: Gee, boss, it ain't easy getting dinosaurs to obey.
Bebop: Yeah... snort... They're all muscle and no brains.
Shredder: (beat) I won't say it. It's too easy. - When the Toxic Crusaders look for jobs, Nozone thinks it would be a stretch to answer an ad seeking “someone outgoing and with a large nose.”
- Velma: Velma Dinkley constantly chastises rich white men like Fred for being entitled assholes who have everything handed to them and yet still treat themselves as the victim when they mess things up because of their fragile egos, which actually can practically sum up everything about her in the series and lacks any self-awareness about it.
