Verbal Backspace / Western Animation

Verbal Backspaces in Western Animation.

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• In The Adventures of Puss in Boots, when the Sphinx warns Puss that the Fountain of Youth is guarded by her meaner sister.
  Puss: I am certain we can defeat her!
  Sphinx: Oh, and she breathes fire.
  Puss: I am ... fairly certain we can defeat her.
• American Dad!:
  Hayley: My mother stole my boyfriend!
  Stan: Your boyfriend stole my wife! Let's get back at them by dating each other!... Wait a minute....Daddy didn't think that one through.
• In an episode of The Angry Beavers, Daggett becomes the park ranger, but he goes mad with power and all the other animals decide to revolt as Daggett stays out of reach in a watchtower.
  Daggett: Ha! You'll never defeat Ranger Dag!
  (a large item hits him)
  Daggett: Well, maybe at some future date, you'll defeat Ranger Dag!
  (an even larger item hits him)
  Daggett: OK, I'm defeated!
• Archer:
  • Dr. Krieger is of German ancestry, grew up in Brazil, and is a spectacularly bad liar.
    Krieger: Leave me alone! I am not a Nazi!
    Cyril: What about your father?
    Krieger: No! He was a... scientist!
    Cyril: Pretty sure the Nazis had scientists.
    Krieger: No! No they didn't! That's why we... ergh... they lost the war! Lack of science!
  • Then there was the time Archer tried to justify his pay to the office drones:
    Archer: Hey, I put my life on the line every — (beat) — many of the days!
  • Krieger again, when he's showing Archer the features of his new spy car:
    Archer: What else does it do?
    Krieger: Press that red button.
    Archer: I — wait, is it gonna kill everyone?
    Krieger: Press that blue button.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
  Dr. Weird: Gentlemen! There's a chance this will work! (hoses attached to body, occasional swelling)
  Steve: Actually, you said there's no chance this will work.
  Dr. Weird': [looks back to see a keg of BBQ sauce] FOOL! That will never work!
• Central Park:
  • In Season 1 "Dog Spray Afternoon", after Molly discovers where the tagger will make his next tag and Owen informs his crew their next move:
    Owen: Looks like we're doing a stakeout.
    Elwood: You mean we all get overtime?
    Owen: Looks like I'm doing a stakeout with Molly.
  • In Season 1 "A Fish Called Snakehead", when the Tillermans are spitting their toothpaste out into the sink:
    Molly: If my spit is a different color and we're using the same toothpaste, is that bad?
    Owen: Yes. (Spits out toothpaste) Oh, God! Look at my spit. Eh, maybe it's fine.
• Code Lyoko:
  Yumi: I'm Ulrich's girlfriend! (blushes) I mean, I'm his good friend.
• In The Critic, Duke is running for President and announces that Jay's father, Franklin, is his running mate.
  Franklin: Son, I'm going to be Vice President, and we're going to be honest with the American people. I will not wear this toupee anymore. [rips the hair off his scalp]
  Jay: Dad, you don't wear a toupee.
  Franklin: I will from now on.
• Family Guy:
  • Lois asks Quagmire for help.
    Quagmire: Sure, Lois. I would do everything to you.
    Lois: What?
    Quagmire: I would do anything for you.
  • And when Peter is recounting the story of how he lost the Cheesie Charlie's booking:
    Manager: Our ice cream comes in four flavors: Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, or People.
    Peter: What was that last one?
    Manager: Chocolate.
• Futurama:
  Leela: I vow to become the best blernsball player ever.
  Hermes: That's statistically impossible. At this rate you'll go down as the worst blernsball player ever.
  Leela: Then I have a new vow. I vow to become not the worst blernsball player ever.
  • "A Flight To Remember":
    Leela: Well, our accommodations aren't great, but it sure is beautiful out here.
    Fry: Yeah. It's pretty romantic. Ah, I mean platonic! Th—that sure is one platonic view.
• Get Ace: Cash Bankroll Jr. has such a habit of doing this that it borders on a Verbal Tic. His attempts at correcting himself are so transparent, either the other characters don't listen to what he says, or they just don't care.
  "I can make a lot of money out of you — ah ha ha — I mean for you, son."
• Glitch Techs has this little moment of Zahra's crush on Five slipping out:
  Zahra: Do we get to bring a plus Five? I mean, a plus one. I said plus one.
• Gravity Falls: This happens multiple times in "The Legend of the Gobblewonker" when Dipper needs to reasses the number of back-up cameras he has when they get smashed.
• From The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  Billy: Mandy's gonna take your pants off!
  Grim: "Beat your pants off".
  Billy: BEAT YOUR PANTS OFF!
  • In "Toys Will Be Toys", when the Jurassic Creeps zap Milkshakes with a laser and attempt to use him to sneak by Grim:
    Grim: Milkshakes, where are you going?
    Triceratron: To destroy all that is good. I mean, meow.
• Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness in season 1, episode 15 during Peace Jubilee, Po and Temutai are both trying to get Peng as their new recruit and after Peng chooses Jade Palace:
  Po: Ha, in your face!
  Shifu: Po!
  Po: ...is look of wonder and beauty.
• Metalocalypse:
  Skwisgaar: Well, there are two things to do in a blackout. Get drunk. One thing to do.
• In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Flutter Brutter", Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are discussing the latter's slacker brother, Zephyr, and Rainbow tells her she was "100% Right" to have her parents kick him out. Zephyr then bursts in announcing that he plans to stay with Fluttershy instead.
  Rainbow Dash: "...Okay, maybe like 70%."
• Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales:
  Girl Who Keeps Changing Her Name: Today my name is Jezebel.
  Linus: Jezebel was the evil wife of king Ahab in the Old Testament. In II Kings, it says that her servants threw her out the window and she landed on her head.
  Girl Who Keeps Changing Her Name: Today my name is Susan.
• Phineas and Ferb:
  Phineas: ...we're going to laser our faces into the comet! Then, when it comes back in seventy-three and a half years, we can all show our grandchildren! Oh, yeah - my parents are cooking steaks for everyone.
  Isabella: You had me at "our grandchildren".
  Phineas: (Record Scratch) What?
  Isabella: "Steaks"! You had me at "steaks"!
• Ready Jet Go!:
  • Jet does one in "Space Junk" when he says that he's been to space, and then covers it up by saying that he's seen movies about it.
  Jet: I've been across half the galaxy—(Sydney gives him a "Be Quiet!" Nudge) Oh, I mean, I've watched a lot of Earth movies about space. That's uh—that's what I mean. Never been there. (chuckles weakly)
  • Again in "Beep and Boop's Game".
  Jet: Wow, I thought Earthies (Sunspot gives him a "Be Quiet!" Nudge) I mean, us Earth people, had faster technology.
• Samurai Jack: After seeing Aku destroy the last time portal in front of him, Jack gets very VERY angry. Aku decides to take the opportunity to egg him on with this:
  Aku: (sarcastically) Careful, Samurai. All that anger could give you a heart attack! (thinks) Oh wait, what am I saying? Please continue!
• In She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Glimmer confidently asserts that "money is no object" when it comes to hiring the right captain. She then gets a look at Seahawk's fee.
  Glimmer: ...Money might be an object.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "The Telltale Head", Homer listens to a football game on a Walkman while in church, with the broadcast somehow syncing up with Reverend Lovejoy's sermon.
    "IT'S GOOD! IT'S GOOD! IT'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! It's... good to see you all today."
  • In "The Last Temptation of Homer", an attractive redhead named Mindy begins working at the nuclear power plant alongside Homer. Sexual tension ensues, especially during one scene where they share an elevator:
    Mindy: Well, I guess this means we're going down together... I mean, getting off together... I mean—
    Homer: It's okay, I'll just press the button on the stimulator— I mean, elevator.
  • Perhaps the greatest example of all comes from "Who Shot Mr. Burns?: Part II" with Moe hooked up to a Lie Detector:
    Eddie: Okay, sir, you're free to go.
    Moe: Good, 'cause I've got a hot date tonight.
    [Buzz]
    Moe: A date.
    [Buzz]
    Moe: Dinner with friends.
    [Buzz]
    Moe: Dinner alone.
    [Buzz]
    Moe: Watching TV alone.
    [Buzz]
    Moe: Alright! I'm going to sit at home and ogle the ladies in the Victoria's Secret Catalog.
    [Buzz]
    Moe: ...Sears Catalog.
    [Ding!]
    Moe: Now would you unhook this already, please? I don't deserve this kind of shabby treatment!
    [Buzz]
  • Done again in the episode parodying The Departed. After getting a mole into Bart's group, Chalmers gloats that they're going to put Bart away for a long time. Skinner points out that, legally, the most they can give him is a ten-day suspension. "Well, that's long to a kid!"
  • In the "Treehouse of Horror XI" story "G-G-G-Ghost D-D-D-Dad", Homer dies eating a piece of broccoli, and medical attendants put a bodybag over him.
    Attendant: Sure is easy when they're stiff like this... [sees that Bart and Lisa are upset] and very sad.
  • In "She Used to Be My Girl", Chief Wiggum is warning people to stay away from the erupting volcano.
    Chief Wiggum: I'm sorry, folks. You're not allowed to go up there. In fact, I don't even know why I'm here. This lava is not a criminal. It hasn't hurt anybody...
    [Man screams as the lava burns him]
    Chief Wiggum: Anybody I know...
  • In "Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life", Lisa discovers that Marge used to be a straight-A student like her until she fell in love with Homer, leading her to throw out anything that could be a distraction in hope that she won't go down the same path as her mother.
    Marge: That's odd. Lisa just threw her saxophone out the window.
    Homer: Oh, that's probably because, to her, the saxophone is a me, and she doesn't want to end up like you. Goodnight.
    Marge: She doesn't want to end up like me?
    Homer: Uh, no, she does. Totally. But, uh, with a happier ending. Goodnight.
• South Park:
  • Gloria Allred.
    Gloria Allred: We owe it all to me! And these six brave little boys.
    [Kenny dies]
    Gloria Allred: Five brave little boys.
  • Done again in "Tonsil Trouble":
    M.C.: With nothing but each other, and overcoming all odds, these two brave friends...
    Kyle: Oh stop! We're not friends! He's the one who infected me with AIDS!
    [beat]
    M.C.: These two brave lovers...
  • In "Chef Aid", at Chef's plagiarism lawsuit, the judge tells him that if he fails to raise the royalty money, he'll go to prison for eight million years. After the bailiff whispers something to him, he revises this to four years.
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • At one point in "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler", Strangler (posing as SpongeBob's bodyguard) is sick of SpongeBob's detours and long-winded talk and tells the chatterbox sponge to hurry up.
    Strangler: Open the door so I can strangle you... I mean, uhh, choke you... I mean, uhh, crush your windpipe... gah, I mean...
    SpongeBob: Protect me?
    Strangler: Thanks.
  • Twice in "Boating Buddies":
    • When Mrs. Puff speaks to the students:
      Mrs. Puff: Okay class, how about we get to know our new students, by telling each other why we were sentenced to— I mean, why we are enrolled in boating school.
    • Then Mrs. Puff says "Yours, too?" when Squidward says that SpongeBob is the bane of his existence. She corrects herself by asking him to come to the board and draw a diagram of how he got to boating school.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Much Ado About Boimler", when Rutherford sees Boimler looking normal again at the end, he blurts out his surprise before catching himself, revealing that he wasn't as confident as he claimed that the phase misalignment would resolve itself.
• Steven Universe:
  • "Political Power" (season 1 episode 47): After the Gems accidentally caused a city-wide power outage, and the mayor says he needs them to fix it:
    Steven: He's right, Mayor Dewey, this is our responsibility, we'll help you clean up this mess.
    Garnet: (from inside the house) No we won't!
    Steven: I'll help you clear up this mess!
  • "Historical Friction": Jamie the mailman is fretting at the premiere of his first play:
    Jamie: This is it — this could make or break my career!
    Steven: It could cost you your job at the post-office?
    Jamie: This could make or break my hobby!
  • "Gemcation": Steven confesses that he didn't tell Greg or the Gems about the fight he had with Connie during "Dewey Wins" about the Heroic Sacrifice he pulled in "I Am My Mom" because he thinks everyone else is also furious with him and feared that they would have instantly sided with Connie. Greg responds with this:
    Greg: Oh Steven, of course we're not mad! I'm sure Connie's not mad, either. Well, at least I'm sure she doesn't hate you.
• Teen Titans (2003): An instance serves as a Call-Back and Continuity Nod.
  Dr. Light: No one defeats Doctor Light! No one!
  (Light turns to see Raven)
  Raven: Remember me?
  Dr. Light: (turns back around, looking absolutely horrified) I'd like to go to jail now, please.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): In "Attack of the 50-Foot Irma", when Irma, who had recently been hit with a growth ray, accidentally steps on Vernon's foot.
  Vernon: You and your big feet!
  Irma: I'll have you know my feet are not big! (her feet grow larger) Oh... On second thought, they do look a little bigger.
• Transformers: Animated: Starscream gets so caught up in an argument that he nearly forgets that his Assassination Attempt on Megatron is supposed to be a secret and has to hurriedly backpedal:
  Megatron is offline! Terminated! I did it my- (realizes what he almost said and cringes) I saw it myself...
• Work It Out Wombats!:
  • In "Gift For a Fish," Ellie asks to dance with Mr. E. He excitedly shouts "That is a thumbs up affirmative!" After realizing what he just said and that it might reveal his feelings for Ellie, he says "Uh, I-I mean, sure!"
  • Two in "Racecar Wombats":
    • Ellie suggests that the wombats squeeze with her and Mr. E in their racecar, but Zadie turns down the offer. Mr. E says 'whew,' relieved that he would get to be alone with Ellie, then backtracks and says "Uh, I mean, we'll see you soon."
    • When the wombats finally make it to the race, Mr. E snarks that "It's about time." Ellie shoots him a look, so he backtracks and says "Uh, rather, you came at the very perfect time!"
  • "Zadie and the Really Big, Really Loud Noisy Thing": When Zadie finds her Big, Loud, Noisy Thing, Super says she thought she threw it away, then backpedals and says she thought Zadie lost it.
• Young Justice: In a season two episode, Nightwing sends a team consisting of Miss Martian, Wonder Girl, Batgirl, and Bumblebee on an infiltration mission to Bialia. He mentions that Queen Bee has the power to mind control men, stating that that's why it's an all-female team, at which point he's met with immediate protest about whether he'd ever feel the need to justify sending an all-male team on a mission.
  Nightwing: There's no right way to answer that, is there? Nightwing out.

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