Not to be confused with the shows that succeeded Tiny Toons, and became the crown jewel of Warner Bros. Animation, Animaniacs! finds Plucky having to crunch in the Animation 101 class he skipped all semester (with help from Buster) so he can make an animated short for the school's student animation festival.
Tropes found in this episode include:
- Art Shift: Found in the students' animated shorts, save for Plucky's and Max's shorts. For example, Elmyra's is done in crayon drawings, Hamton's is a stylized black-and-white animation, and Gogo's is live-action.
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: Plucky finds out that he has to make an animated short for the ACME Looniversity Student Animation Festival, and since he skipped Animation 101 class all semester, Buster has to show him the basics of making a cartoon. In the Animation festival, we get to see the students' shorts, each with a different animation style. In particular, Elmyra and Dizzy's are drawn crudely in crayon, Hamton's is a stylized black-and-white animation, and Gogo's is live-action. Despite Plucky's short, "The Plucky Duck Story" only being five seconds long (thanks in part to Shirley's film being 17 and a half hours long) and showing him as a kid crying after his toy deflates, Plucky wins the film festival, and his grand prize is having to take Animation 101 over, since he skipped it the first time.
- Bad Santa: In Montana Max's short, "A Montana Max Christmas", Monty plays Santa Claus, and pulls a sledge hammer on Buster and Babs. The two rabbits cut the film before any actual violence is seen.
- Big Eater: Dizzy's short is him literally eating the entire world.
- Black Comedy: Elmyra's short "Elmyra's World of Aminals, Aminals, and More Aminals", which depicts Elmyra doing what she does best to an unlucky dog.Elmyra: I wuv the wittle furry things, but when they run away, I can't believe they'd want to leave so I squeeze them 'til they's dead!
- Credits Gag: Class Couple - Dougman and Victoria.
- Darkhorse Victory: Plucky wins primarily on the basis of his movie being the shortest of the bunch.
- Everyone Has Standards: While the different subjects prompt various reactions, everyone agrees that Monty's short was awful, stop it before it's done, and kick him out of the building for it.
- Flashback: Buster describes this narrative device to Plucky as he walks him through the animation process. All it takes for them to travel back to a moment from Plucky's infancy is to think that they are there. Unfortunately, Plucky doesn't know how to flash back to the present, so he and Buster wind up finding themselves in the middle of a battle during World War II, and then in prehistoric times surrounded by cavemen. While Buster flashes back to the present, Plucky does not, and by the time Buster finds Plucky, he has turned into a single cell organism near the beginning of time.
- Flat "What": The looks on the audience's faces during Gogo's "cartoon".
- Got Volunteered: Daffy and Porky are made judges because everyone else got away. Bugs remarks they have to do it or else Time Warner will yank their tenure.
- Here We Go Again!: Plucky's reward for winning the animation festival is getting to take the animation class over again, since he skipped it the first time.
- Hidden Depths: Gogo made a live-action short that wasn't remotely wacky. When Babs points this out, an indignant Gogo remarks he's allowed to have his more serious moments and expresses annoyance over being expected to only do wacky gags.
- I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Daffy's first attempt to leave early is to claim he has a sudden meeting in Tibet to go to.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Plucky wins and his prize is being forced to retake the class after skipping it for the entire semester.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Daffy insists the judges be allowed to leave early, saying they're old timers who only have a six-minute attention span (i.e. more or less the length of their original shorts).
- Medium Awareness: After he, Bugs, and Porky see So You Want to Learn To Dance, Daffy mentions that when it comes to cartoons, old-timers like them only have a six-minute attention span, referencing the average length of a Looney Tunes short.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Occurs twice:
- First, during a board-meeting between Bugs and the other faculty:
Bugs Bunny: Distinguished friends, honored colleagues, beloved cartoon stars, and, uh, you too, Daffy.
Daffy: Oh, har har, it is to laugh...- Then as Buster opens the animation festival:
Buster: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen....and Monty. - Oh, No... Not Again!: Porky when volunteered to judge the students' films.
- Playboy Parody: While Bugs, Daffy, and Porky serve as judges for the ACME Looniversity film festival, at one point Bugs notices Daffy reading a Playduck magazine instead of paying attention and snatches it away. Then he starts reading it himself.
- Porky Pig Pronunciation: From the Trope Namer himself:Porky Pig: Please, Bugs, I can't take anym-m-m... m-m-m... I've had enough.
- Produce Pelting: Montana Max does this to Buster at the beginning of the Acme Looniversity Film Festival. Fortunately, Buster dodges the vegetables, grabs one of the carrots (obviously so he can eat it later), and catches a watermelon with his ears and tosses it back at Monty.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator: Plucky skips Animation 101 all semester, but ends up regretting it on film night and enlists Buster's help.
- Running Gag: Comedy beets.
- Sanity Slippage: Bugs, Porky, and Daffy are reducing to babbling basket-cases by the end of Shirley's astoundingly long short.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- When Bugs is looking to the rest of the faculty members to find judges for the animation festival, they all bolt from the room except Daffy and Porky who get caught by Bugs before they leave.
- Daffy later attempts to leave the festival, citing a "business meeting in Tibet", only to be stopped by Bugs.
- Then, when Shirley Loon reveals how long her animation is, (namely 17 hours and 34 minutes) Daffy, Porky, and Bugs scream and run for the door. (Unfortunately for them, Shirley has made sure that the judges will not be able to leave.)
- Stylistic Suck: Dizzy's short "Dizzy Eat World" is the most obvious out of all of them.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even though he (barely) completed the cartoon on time and even won the film festival, Bugs informs Plucky that because he cut class for the entire term, he has to take it over again.
- That's All, Folks!: How Dizzy concludes his short.
- Visual Pun: The comedy "beets", plus the "pencil test".
