Pun Based Title / Western Animation

It's all downhill from here.

• Defied by Adventure Time. The episode "What Was Missing" even had its named changed during production specifically because it had a pun-based title (it was originally called "Door Jam").
• The burgers of the day in Bob's Burgers often uses punny names for the Burger Of The Day, usually referencing pop culture: for example, one burger was called "I've Created A Munster", a reference to a famous line in Frankenstein and another was called the "She's A Super Leek" burger, a pun on Rick James' hit song "Super Freak".
• The series Chowder is a Protagonist Title that works as this: The show is food-themed, and while "Chowder" is also a food name, it sounds pretty similar to "chow down", an expression that refers to eating food.
• Disney's Animated Series DuckTales (1987)^examples "Send in the Clones", "Sphinx for the Memories", "Earth Quack", "Once Upon a Dime", Darkwing Duck^examples "Beauty and the Beet", "Night of the Living Spud", "Steerminator", "Star Crossed Circuits", Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, have plenty of punny episode titles (and, in the first and last cases, punny series names as well).
• The title of practically every episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy has a pun with "Ed".
• The Fairly OddParents! has a habit of using pun titles.
  • "The Big Problem!". Timmy wishes himself into an adult, and begins to realize just how hard it can be (such as trying to drive but running into traffic, or needing to pay for his own bills at a restaurant).
  • "Spaced Out!" is an episode where Timmy wishes up an alien, and has to go to space to talk to his parents.
  • "Father Time!" is an episode where Timmy goes back in time to meet his dad as a kid and prevent him from earning a trophy that he destroyed in the present day.
  • "Timvisible" in a pun on "Timmy" and "invisible", since he wishes himself to be invisible on a school day.
  • "Twistory" is a pun on "twist" and "history", since Timmy wishes up the Founding Fathers into the present day to interview them for a school assignment, but accidentally changes the course of history.
  • "Ruled Out" is an episode where Timmy wishes he didn't have to live by his parents' rules, leading them to completely neglect him.
  • "MicroPhony" involves Timmy using a magic microphone that makes his voice sound more high-pitched.
  • "Odd Jobs" has Timmy wishing up a website that can magically give his dad cool new jobs.
  • "Sleepover and Over" has Timmy attending Chester and AJ's sleepovers at the same time.
  • "Mother Nature" has Timmy wishing his mother was the new town weatherman.
  • "Most Wanted Wish" is a play on the phrase "most wanted list", and Timmy wishes to be the most wanted person in the world.
  • "Crime Wave" features a Crimson Chin comic starring a water-themed supervillain as a subplot.
  • "Chip Off the Old Chip" is a play on "chip off the old block". It's an episode where Timmy wishes he had boy-band singer Chip Skylark's voice.
  • In "Parent Hoods", Timmy's parents are confused for identical-looking evil counterparts. Thus, the title is a pun on "parenthoods", but also means "parent hoodlums".
  • "Shelf Life" is a phrase for how long an item has to last. The episode plays with it and refers to bookshelves, since Timmy wishes himself into various library books.
  • "Mind Over Magic" is a play on "mind over matter", and Timmy wishes to read peoples' minds.
  • "A Bad Case of Diary-Uh!" is thankfully not about anyone getting diarrhea, but Timmy getting revenge on Vicky by reading her diary to learn her embarrassing secrets.
  • "A New Squid in Town!" is a pun on the phrase "a new kid in town", the kid/squid in question being alien Mark Chang.
  • "Genie Meanie Minie Mo" is a play on the nursery rhyme "eenie menie minie mo".
  • "Love at First Height", where Timmy wishes himself to be a teenager to ride a rollercoaster and Vicky falls in love with him. The title's a play on the phrase "love at first sight."
  • "You Doo!" is about Timmy wishing up working voodoo dolls.
  • "Just Desserts!" is a phrase for someone getting their comeuppance. In this episode, Timmy wishes all food was desserts.
  • "Go Young, West Man!" is a play on the phrase "go west, young man". The plot is that Timmy wishes Catman, or Adam West, was also a kid to hang out with him.
  • "The Gland Plan" is a play on "the grand plan", with Timmy, Wanda, and Cosmo scheming to get Anti-Cosmo out of prison so Cosmo can have a gland transplant.
  • "Back to the Norm" is a phrase for going back to basics. In this case, it's a pun on Norm the genie returning.
  • "Talkin' Trash", a phrase for insulting someone. The episode focuses on Timmy wishing his trash away instead of taking it out, leading to disturbing magical wishes.
  • "Oh, Brother!", where Timmy wishes up an older brother.
  • "Smart Attack!", where Timmy wishes his dad was smart, is a play on "heart attack".
  • "Something's Fishy!". Timmy wishes that he could swim underwater, but everyone seems scared of Cosmo for some reason. Turns out he's the one who sunk Atlantis.
  • "Mission Responsible" is a pun on Mission: Impossible and revolves around Timmy babysitting Poof.
  • "The End of the Universe-ity" is a pun on "end of the universe" (what'll happen if Timmy accepts Dark Laser's offer) and "university" (he uses the guise of accepting him to free college).
  • "Chindred Spirits", where Timmy wishes the Crimson Chin had a girlfriend, is a play on "chin" and "kindred spirits".
  • "Dread 'n' Breakfast" is a pun on "bread 'n' breakfast", which the Turners set up, and the fact that Timmy's enemies all stay for a night.
  • "Momnipresent", where Timmy sets up for a party but his mom follows him everywhere, is a pun on "mom" and "omnipresent".
  • "Mice-Capades" is an Affectionate Parody Tom and Jerry, with the title being a pun on "mice" and "escapades".
  • "Formula for Disaster" is a play on "recipe for disaster" and Poof's baby formula, which is a major plot point.
  • "Bad Heir Day" is a play on "bad hair day".
  • "Fly Boy", where Timmy's head gets swapped with a fly.
  • "Super Zero", which is about Cosmo becoming a superhero.
  • "Dadbra-Cadabra" has Timmy's dad become a magician, with the title being a play on "abra-cadabra".
  • "Timmy Turnip" combines Timmy Turner's name with turnips, a food grown in his grandparents' native country and play a major role in the episode.
  • "One Man Banned", where Timmy becomes a successful single act musician after being rejected from the school band.
  • The soccer-themed episode "He Poofs He Scores!" is a pun on "he shoots, he scores".
  • "Teacher's Pet". Tired of AJ always getting good grades, Timmy wishes he was a teacher's pet... and then ends up turning into a guinea pig that Crocker captures.
  • "Balance of Flour" is a play on the phrase "balance of power", and the bake-off between the fairies and Anti-Fairies that determines who gets to have godkids.
  • "Take and Fake" is a play on "take and bake", a type of pizzeria.
  • "Dad Overboard" is a pun on "man overboard".

• "Space Ca-Dad", where Timmy's dad takes his Squirrely Scout troop into space, is a play on "space cadet".

• All over the place in Futurama, but for sheer Feghooterifficity the prize has to go to the Fountain of Youth episode where Leela, having met her birth parents in a previous episode, takes the opportunity of being a teenager to try and have a normal childhood: "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles".
• Filmation's Ghostbusters and The Real Ghostbusters were well known for their punny titles. For example, FGB had "Mummy Dearest" (Mommie Dearest); RGB had "A Fright at the Opera" (punning on a Marx Brothers movie and a Queen album). However, they shared a pun by having one episode each called "Rollerghoster!".
• From Sunbow's G.I. Joe cartoon, we have "The Viper Is Coming". Which is 20 minutes of dreadful setup for the horrible pun: the "Viper" in question is a foreignese-accented "Vindow Viper".
• Aside from the obvious Punny Name of Gravity Falls, there's also a number of episodes with punny titles:
  • "Tourist Trapped" introduces the setting of the Mystery Shack, a Trashy Tourist Trap where Dipper and Mabel are spending the summer, and has the twins discover some strange goings-on in town when some lonely gnomes trap Mabel and try to force her to become their queen.
  • "Headhunters" involves Dipper and Mabel literally trying to hunt down the stolen head of a wax sculpture of their Grunkle Stan.
  • "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel" is a reference to The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and involves Mabel attracting the attention of "Li'l Gideon" Gleeful, a Stalker with a Crush who isn't above threatening her family members to get what he wants.
  • "Double Dipper" is a play on the phrase "double dip", and involves Dipper cloning himself as part of a scheme to get closer to Wendy.
  • "Irrational Treasure" is a Shout-Out to National Treasure, and features Dipper and Mable tracking down the eccentric true founder of Gravity Falls.
  • When Soos tells a story in "Bottomless Pit!", he averts and lampshades this trope with his story: "Soos' Really Great Pinball Story: Is That a Good Title? Do They Have to be Like Puns or Whatever?"
  • "Little Dipper" is a play on another name for the constellation Ursa Minor, and it involves Dipper getting tired of Mabel teasing him for being slightly shorter and setting out to make himself taller with some magic size-changing crystals.
  • "Carpet Diem" is a play on the phrase carpe diem ("sieze the day"), and the plot involves a carpet that can swap people's minds around.
  • "The Land Before Swine" is a reference to The Land Before Time'', and features Mabel's pet pig Waddles being abducted by a pterosaur and taken to a Lost World in the caves beneath Gravity Falls.
  • The season 2 premiere "Scary-oke" is a play on karaoke, and the climax of the episode involves Dipper, Mabel, and Stan using the power of song to defeat a swarm of zombies attacking the Mystery Shack's grand re-opening party.
  • "The Golf War" is a play on The Gulf War, and features Mabel and Pacifica's rivalry culminating in a game of mini-golf.
  • "Sock Opera" is a play on "rock opera", and involves Mabel putting on an elaborate sock puppet musical to impress a guy.
  • "Soos and the Real Girl" is a reference to Lars and the Real Girl, and involves Soos playing a dating sim whose heroine turns out to be a violently jealous artificial intelligence.
  • "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" is a play on Little Shop of Horrors, and the plot involves Stan regaling a lost tourist with a series of "Tales Designed To Sell My Merchandise".
  • "Blendin's Game" is a play on Ender's Game, and features a vengeful Blendin Blandin (from "The Time Traveler's Pig") challenging Dipper and Mabel to a series of gladiator games.
  • "The Stanchurian Candidate" is a reference to ''The Manchurian Candidate", and features Dipper and Mabel resorting to mind control to make their Grunkle Stan, who's running for mayor of Gravity Falls, behave himself on the campaign trail.
• Inspector Gadget had quite a bit of this. Notable examples include "Plant-Form of the Opera" (The Phantom of the Opera) and "Basic Training" (the episode took place on a train).
• "Around the world / Together we're Justin Time (2011)!"
• Pun-based show title: King Leonardo and His Short Subjects.
• Hanna-Barbera's version of The Little Rascals has "Yachtsa' Luck" ("lots of luck"), "Porky-O and Julie-Et" (Romeo and Juliet), "All the Loot That's Fit to Print" ("All the news that's fit to print", slogan of The New York Times), "Alfalfa's Athlete's Feat" ("athlete's foot") and "Wash and Werewolf" ("wash and wear").
• Let's Go Luna!: The title of the episode "London Frog" is a pun on "London fog". The episode is about Andy, an anthropomorphic frog, wanting to find Big Ben on A Foggy Day in London Town.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Chances are, for example, if Bugs Bunny is in it, the toon's title will often make a pun with the word "hare", "rabbit" or "bunny". Famous titles include Hare Trigger, Rabbit Fire, Hare Brush, What's Opera, Doc?, or Ali Baba Bunny.
  • Same for Road Runner shorts, which usually have titles that're puns involving either the Road Runner's superspeed (or uttering of "Beep! Beep!") or Wile E. Coyote's tendency to get maimed (Fast and Furry-ous, Zoom at the Top, Wild About Hurry, To Beep or Not to Beep, Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z, Boulder Wham!, Scrambled Aches).
  • The Ducktators, Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips, Plane Daffy, The Old Grey Hare, Herr Meets Hare, Hair-Raising Hare, Long-Haired Hare, A Bear for Punishment, Tree for Two, Bully for Bugs, Duck! Rabbit! Duck!, From A To Z-Z-Z-Z, Wet Hare ... the list is endless.
• Molly of Denali:
  • "Turn on the Northern Lights" is a pun on "turn on the lights".
  • "Fiddlesticks" is a pun on how Molly finds herself in a predicament involving fiddles. Also, Oscar plays the fiddle, and Molly plays the drums, the latter of which involves drumsticks.
• Most of the episodes of Mr. Bogus had episode titles that were puns on phrases or movie titles. These included "Et Tu, Brattus?" ("Et tu, Brute?"), "Shop Around the Clock" ("Rock Around the Clock") and "No Snooze Is Good News" ("No news is good news").
• My Friends Tigger & Pooh has "Lumpy's Pet Project" - a "pet project" is one pursues as a personal favorite, however, this episode is about Lumpy needing help to take care of pet fish named Max.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has many of these: "The Stare Master" (a pun on the StairMaster exercise device), "Griffon The Brush-Off" (given the brush-off), "Owl's Well That Ends Well" (all's well that ends well), "Lesson Zero" (less than zero), "Magical Mystery Cure" (Magical Mystery Tour), "The Ticket Master" (Ticketmaster), "Boast Busters" (Ghostbusters), "Look Before You Sleep" (look before you leap), "Feeling Pinkie Keen" (feeling peachy keen), "A Friend in Deed" (a friend indeed), "Castle Mane-ia" (Castlevania), "Filli Vanilli" (Milli Vanilli), "Secret of My Excess" (The Secret of My Success), "Bloom & Gloom" (gloom and doom), and "Tanks for the Memories" (thanks for the memories).
• PAW Patrol uses one right in the title that is a Bilingual Bonus: the English word "patrol" comes from the French word "patrouiller", meaning "watch or guard something in a certain place". In Classic French, this word was "patouiller", which came from the word "pate", meaning "paw".
• Pound Puppies (2010) tends to use these fairly often. Examples include "Prince and the Pupper", "Mutternal Instincts", and, perhaps slightly less groan-worthy, the Halloween Episode "Nightmare on Pound Street".
• The Powerpuff Girls had its share of punny episode titles. Examples include "Geshundfight," "Boogie Frights," "Cat Man Do," "Abracadaver," "Cootie Gras," "Ice Sore," "Mommy Fearest," and "Octi Gone."
• The king of Western animation pun-titles is likely the Jay Ward shows, particularly Rocky and Bullwinkle. Each R&B story ended in a cliffhanger ending, with the narrator giving two possible episode titles, both of them usually puns. Example (when Rocky's strapped to a runaway missile): "'The Squirrel Next Door', or 'High, Neighbor'!"
• Ready Jet Go! is a pun on the phrase "ready, set, go". The main character is named Jet.
• Sid the Science Kid:
  • "Sid's Pet Project" - "pet project" is a term for a project pursued as a personal favorite, but the episode itself is about a literal pet - Sid learns about pets to better take care of his grandma's dog over the weekend.
  • In "Seed the Science Kid," Sid learns about the importance of seeds after being bothered by the seeds in his apple at breakfast.
• Especially in later seasons, most of The Simpsons episode titles are puns such as "Mobile Homer", "Moaning Lisa", or "The Bart of War". The Mona Lisa, in fact, is one of the most frequent target of parodied episode titles; there have been at least three episodes whose titles use that pun, while the others are a more diverse - the only other recurring theme is "<member of the Simpson family> vs. <plot point>".
• The title of Splash and Bubbles sounds like the phrase "Splashing bubbles".
• SpongeBob SquarePants is also fond of punny titles.
  • "Dying for Pie" is an episode where Squidward gives SpongeBob a pie as a much-awaited Employee Brotherhood Day gift... except the pie is a bomb, and will kill SpongeBob before sunset.
  • "Once Bitten"'s title is a pun on the idiom, "Once bitten, twice shy".
  • "Penny Foolish" is an episode where Mr. Krabs goes to extreme lengths to get a penny SpongeBob found. The title is also a pun on the phrase "penny wise, pound foolish".
  • "The Cent of Money" is a Fun with Homophones gag on "cent" and "scent", since the episode involves Mr. Krabs seeking out coins.
  • The title of "Lame and Fortune" is a pun on "fame and fortune".
• Star Wars Rebels: "Fighter Flight", in which Ezra and Zeb accidentally steal a TIE fighter, sounds almost exactly like "fight or flight".
• Star Wars Resistance: Short "Dart and Cover" riffs on the phrase "duck and cover".
• Steven Universe:
  • "Lion 2: The Movie" involves Steven and Connie trying to ride Lion to the movie theatre.
  • "Say Uncle" does indeed involve Uncle Grandpa.
• The 1973/74 Super Friends episode "The Shamon U". The title device was a U-shaped giant gold-attracting magnet owned by the villain. Its title was a pun based on the phrase "Shame on you".
• The main animated segment of Tamagotchi Video Adventures is titled "Now Museum, Now You Don't", a pun on the phrase "now you see it, now you don't".
• Taz-Mania = Tasmania.
• The use of this trope in cartoons was popularized by Tex Avery, with most of his work having punny titles, especially at MGM.
• "You've got the skill, just find the Will and Dewitt!"
• Dragon Tales has a fair few of these. "Knot a Problem" is about Max having trouble tying knots. "The Fury is Out On This One" is wordplay on the phrase "the jury is out on this one." "Bully for You" is about a literal bully, but the phrase is a British phrase that means "good for you," usually used sarcastically.
• God Rocks!: Because it's trying to tell you that God rocks, but it's about actual rocks. It's also a pun on the term "rock god".

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