Waxing Lyrical / Western Animation

• The Simpsons:
  • The episode "Bart Gets an Elephant" has a scene where Homer crashes the family car into a statue of a deer, leading to a funny moment as the characters inadvertently recite the opening line of "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music.
    Homer: D'oh!^note (or maybe "Doe)!"
    Lisa: A deer!
    Marge: A female deer!
  • In "Homerpalooza", Homer mourns his loss of the freedom he had in his youth, "I used to rock and roll all night and party ev-e-ry day. Then it was every other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find one night a month in which to get funky."
  • In "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", when Homer is forced to leave the Rock 'N' Roll Fantasy Camp:
    Mick Jagger: Cheer up Homer, it's only Rock 'n' Roll Camp.
    Homer: But I like it...
  • From "The Sweetest Apu", Homer's attempt to put off telling Apu that he knows about Apu's affair:
    Homer: So, if you take that bottle down, and pass it around...
    Apu: Yes, yes, I know. There will be 47 bottles of beer on the wall!
  • In "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", when Homer pretends to be a robot in a robot fighting competition, he defeats one robot using a buzzsaw by using its own weapon against it, leading to this commentary:
    Announcer 1: He's killing him softly with his saw.
    Announcer 2: Killing him softly?
    Announcer 1: With his saw!
  • In "Bart After Dark", when the Springfieldians decide to keep their beloved burlesque house, the Maison Derriere, Reverend Lovejoy paraphrases the Crosby, Stills & Nash song, "Our House":
    Lovejoy: This house is a very, very, very fine house.
  • In "Bart Gets Hit by a Car" Bart goes to Hell and meets the Devil, who says: "Please allow me to introduce myself."
  • In "Lisa the Vegetarian", when Paul McCartney hears Lisa say that she ran away from home, he says, "What, she's leaving home?", referring to The Beatles song "She's Leaving Home", and his then-wife Linda says, "Whenever we're in Springfield, we like to hang out in Apu's garden in the shade", paraphrasing "Octopus's Garden".
  • In "Margical History Tour", the retelling of King Henry VIII's life shows Henry (Homer) introduced singing "I'm Henery the Eighth, I Am".
  • In "Who Shot Mr. Burns: Part 1", before he was shot, Mr. Burns paraphrases the Simon & Garfunkel song "Feelin' Groovy", saying "Hello, lamppost, whatcha knowin'? I've come to watch your power flowin'...".
  • In "Missionary: Impossible", when Marge is calling Homer over the radio, she says "Hello, is there anybody in there?", quoting Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb".
• South Park:
  • In "Red Man's Greed" the citizens of South Park are all being evicted by an oppressive Native American casino. They rise up and march and sing as one. The song includes lines such as "We are strong" and "No one can tell us we're wrong" and sounds like an inspiring protest song... 'til it turns out they're singing "Love Is A Battlefield".
  • In "Kenny Dies", Cartman appears before Congress, and after making his speech, says "I'm not the best speaker. Maybe I can put it best in the words of a timeless song." He then proceeds to lead Congress in "Heat of the Moment".
  • The boys warn the police that criminals are going to be at the monster mash in "A Nightmare on Face Time".
    Sgt. Yates: How many people at the Monster Mash?
    Officer: Most of the town, sir. It's a graveyard smash.
    Officer 2: Look, whatever we do, we'd better hurry. It gets on in a flash.
• Family Guy
  • The episode "Running Mates" where Peter runs for the head of the PTA had him just reciting sitcom lyrics in his speech:
    Peter: This is life. The one you get, so go and have a ball. Because the world don't march to the beat of just one drum, what might be right for you, might be wrong for some. You take the good and take the bad and there you have... my opening statement. Sit, Ubu, sit. Good dog.
  • This gag would be rehashed in during Angela's funeral in "Pawtucket Pete".
    Peter: So, no one told you life was gunna be this way. (claps hands) Angela. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name. Angela. (sings Sanford and Son theme tune). Angela.
  • Also, in "Holy Crap" when Peter's dad vanishes at the baseball game after going to "buy some peanuts and Cracker Jack", Brian responds with "I don't care if he never gets back." *Beat* "I wasn't being cute, I really hope he's dead."
  • In "Model Misbehavior", Peter asks Lois, "So don't you wanna go back and do your little turn on the catwalk? On the catwalk? Yeah, on the catwalk? Do your little turn on the catwalk?"
  • In the Return of the Jedi parody, when Leia strangles Jabba, his subtitles may read "Help, I'm being strangled!" but his Jabbaspeak is the lyrics to Lady Marmalade. Later, when C-3P0 is regaling the Ewoks with stories, he is telling them the opening theme to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
  • When Carter Pewterschmidt suffers a heart attack, he exclaims "I’m having a heart attack-ack-ack-ack! You oughta know by now!" before losing consciousness.
  • In "Foreign Affairs" Bonnie gets in a relationship with another paraplegic. Joe says that he truly loves her and proves it by standing (with help from Quagmire). The other paraplegic states that he would do anything for love, but he won't do that.
  • In "A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas", Lois tells Stewie to behave on Christmas as Santa is watching.
    Stewie: What the devil do you mean, "watching"?
    Lois: Well, honey, Santa's making a list and checking it twice.
    Meg: He sees you when you're sleeping.
    Chris: And he knows when you're awake. *Beat* I almost caught him last year. But he's magic!
  • In "Family Gay", Brian asked the doctor how long the effects of the gay serum would last. The doctor said that it's unknown, but it could range between "A day, a week, or five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes."
  • In "Crimes and Meg's Demeanor", Lois' friend, Annie, was in a coma, after being assaulted and she waxed lyrical, while Chris supported her.
    Lois: Annie? Are you okay? ... So, Annie, are you okay? ... Are you okay, Annie?
    Chris: What happened to her, Mom?
    Lois: She was hit by-She was struck by a smooth criminal.
    Chris: That was fun, Mom. We don't usually get to do stuff like that together.
  • A brief little quip of this was done by Stewie in "Prick Up Your Ears", when Stewie nicknamed Brian, "Threw my chevy to the levee but the levee was Bri."
  • In "The Simpsons Guy", during Peter's apology to Homer after their big fight, the two wax lyrical from their respective show's theme songs (in Homer's case, the only vocals in an otherwise instrumental song).
    Peter: I'm sorry we fought. I just wanted to make you laugh and cry. You see, I'm a family guy.
    Homer: I understand. I'm a the Simpsons.
• The Venture Bros.:
  Dr. Venture: You know I feel so dirty when they start talking cute.
  The Monarch: Yeah, well get used to it.
  Dr. Venture: I want to tell her that I love her, but the point is probably moot.
  The Monarch: ... Are you reciting Jessie's Girl?
  • Also at the start of "Ghost Pirates of the Sargasso", we see Major Tom's last conversation before his spaceship crashes; the conversation is mostly David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and "Ashes to Ashes".
  • As well as Hank reciting The Doors lyrics while tripping on Molotov's spy poison, and several gags done with the aging rockstars that seem to constitute most of The Guild's leadership. Venture Bros does this a lot actually.
• The Powerpuff Girls:
  • An entire episode of this joke. "Meet the Beat-Alls", in which most lines of dialogue were from Beatles songs. It was nominated for an Emmy. And neatly subverted at the end:
    Blossom: Well, it's like the song goes - the love you take is equal to... equal to... oh, who cares, it's by some dumb old band anyway.
  • Another episode that wasn't even remotely Beatles-related threw one in, too:
    Princess: Help! I need somebody! Help! Not just anybody!
  • Before the narrator gives his end of episode Catchphrase in "Knock it Off"
    Narrator: I guess the love you take IS equal to the love you make!
  • When the Mayor looks through a telescope during the heat wave in "Ice Sore":
    Mayor: Goodness gracious! Great ball of fire!
  • In "Say Uncle", the Professor reads a telegram from his brother.
    "I'll be on the last train to Clarksville. Come meet me at the station."
  • In "Moral Decay," the Professor quotes the closing Theme Tune Roll Call when he tells Buttercup, "I know you're the toughest fighter..."
• Futurama, "Xmas Story":
  Leela: Fry's outside? He's in great danger!
  Dr. Zoidberg: Why?
  Leela: I'm telling you why! Santa Claus is coming to town!
  • In the same episode,
    Robot Santa: You've been very naughty, Fry and Leela. I checked my list.
    Fry: Well, check it twice!
    Robot Santa: I perform over fifty mega-checks per second!
  • "The Sting":
    Fry: How big's the honeycomb?
    Hermes: Honeycomb's big, yeah, yeah, yeah.
    Bender: It's not small?
    Hermes: No, no, no.
  • Near the end of "Three Hundred Big Boys", when the piles of war plunder catch fire, Richard Nixon yells "The loot! The loot! The loot is on fire!"
  • In the second straight to DVD movie, "The Beast with a Billion Backs", Prof. Wernstum orders some tentacle-resisters to "Stop! In the name of love!"
  • Also from "I Dated A Robot".
    George Michael's Head: Please pick me up before you go-go?
  • Also this from "Bender's Game":
    Elevator Steward: Maintenance shaft 7 serving...
    Professor: Shut your mouth.
    Elevator Steward: I'm just talking about the shaft.
  • Still in "Bender's Game":
    Robot Psychiatrist: You're suffering from a breakdown. Now stop, hammertime. (activates the "treatment", which is basically hitting the patient with a hammer.)
  • In "The Tip of the Zoidberg", The Professor tells Dr. (John) Zoidberg to flee by saying, "Go Johnny, Go!".
  • "Mobius Dick":
    Fry: Leela, I'm no doctor, but I'm afraid you be exhibiting symptoms of illin'.
• American Dad!
  • Variation: In the episode where Roger poses as a college professor, his opening lecture quotes from the spoken introduction of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy". ("Electric word, 'life', it means forever, and that's a mighty long time...")
  • In "Multiverse of American Dadness," reggae singer Shaggy guest stars As Himself and apparently slept with Principal Lewis' wife; when Principal Lewis confronts Shaggy about this, their dialogue is lifted word-for-word from Shaggy's Signature Song, "It Wasn't Me."
• Kim Possible:
  • Señor Senior Sr. paraphrases from Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime" when he tells his son "This is not a party, this is not a disco, this is not... fooling around!"
  • In another episode:
    Dr. Drakken: Your Nana is a bad grandmother...
    Kim: Shut yo' mouth!
    Dr. Drakken: I'm just talkin' about Nana.
  • In "Rufus in Show", when Kim and Ron infiltrated a dog-show, and Kim discovered the gems stolen by Falsetto Jones:
    Kim: And Bingo was his name-o.
• 101 Dalmatians: The Series
  • When Rolly is Egg Sitting, the Eggs, he is laying on, begin to hatch. Rolly panics and tries to get the Eggs back together, barking; "Get back! Get back! Get back to where you once belong!"?
• Rocko's Modern Life:
  • Rocko's attempt at hiding his nail-biting habit using a ham and a monkey puppet leads him to remark, "Everybody's got something to hide, except for meat and my monkey."
  • In another episode, Rocko recalls a school bully named Dingo who literally harassed him until the day he moved to America.
    Rocko: Why he never liked me, I'll never know, and Dingo was his name...
    Heffer & Filbert: Oh.
• In Monkey Dust, several of Clive's many excuses for being late.
• 29 years before the Futurama example above, the Stop Motion Christmas Special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town worked in a similar gag while still averting a Title Drop.
  Kris Kringle: You better watch out. You better not cry, you better not pout.
  Children: Why?
  Kris Kringle: I'm telling you why! Because I came to town.
  • As did fellow Rankin-Bass Stop Motion Christmas Specials Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.
• The first episode of the Family Dog has a moment when one character says to the Butt-Monkey dog, "It just goes to show you, you can't always get what you wa-ant."
• Robot Chicken:
  • A sketch featuring a crossover of The Jetsons, I, Robot, and Unsolved Mysteries, introduces the case with the line "Meet George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy, Jane his wife." The sketch ends with a preview of the 'next episode', Jem. Was she outrageous? Truly, truly outrageous?"
  • The principal walks in on a student who murdered his music teacher.
    Principal: (shocked) The leader of the band!
    Student: His blood runs through my instrument! (plays the saxophone as blood spurts out)
• In Metalocalypse, Senator Stampingston introduces Dethklok to the Tribunal using the lyrics to the theme song.
  Skwisgaar Skwigelf, taller than a tree. Toki Wartooth, not a bumblebee. William Murderface. Murderface. Murderface. Pickles. The drummer. Doodily doo...ding dong doodily...doodily doo. Nathan Explosion.
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy:
  • Grim said, upon realising he was in a dream "This is not me beautiful house! This is not me beautiful wife!" and woke up to Billy chanting "Same as it ever was! Same as it ever was!"
  • In another episode, Billy chastises General Skarr for not being as evil as Billy thought he was.
    Billy: You ain't bad! YOU AIN'T NOTHIN'!
  • "Fear not, William! I am very well acquainted with all matters mathematical. I understand equations both the simple and the quadratical."
  • Apparently, Grim gets his mojo flowing by chanting 'Mamase mamasa mamakusa', which many would know from Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".
• Transformers: Animated: "I am Wreck-Gar! I dare to be stupid!" Also a Mythology Gag, since that song was featured in The Transformers: The Movie.
• In one of the climactic battles of Transformers: Cybertron, Optimus orders his troops into battle formation with the command, "Come together, right now! Over me!" The Cybertron dub had a lot of those.
• An episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force combined this with The Power of Rock with the Foreigner Belt, which gave its wearer super-powers triggered by reciting the titles of Foreigner songs.
  • From the villain roll call in The Last One:
  Ignignokt: Just say 'here', and we'll consider that short for 'Here I am, rock you like a hurricane'.
  Err: You do as the Scorpions have before you!
• On Tiny Toon Adventures, when Babs arrives at New York, she says "New York, just like I pictured it. Skycrapers and everything", a line from the spoken section of Stevie Wonder's "Living in the City".
• Animaniacs:
  • The Warners watched a pretentious French film with dialogue from the original lyrics to "Frere Jacques" and "Alouette".
  • In "Woodstock Slappy", when the festival gathers right outside Slappy's tree and she wonders aloud what's going on, Skippy says "There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear." Slappy is unamused.
  • In "Deduces Wild", the Warners' scavenger hunt list gradually turns into "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
  • In "This Pun For Hire", Yakko asks Hello Nurse "What's your story, sister?". Dot takes it as her cue to quote the opening lines of "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" before Yakko explains that he wasn't talking to her.
• Jackie Chan Adventures:
  • In one episode, Jackie explains that he's in a western town because "I've been working on the railroad." The people he's talking to get angry, and he adds "All the livelong day?"
  • In another, the thunder demon Tchang Zu is revived, only to discover that his former realm is now part of Hollywood:
    Tchang Zu: My palace! These humans have paved my paradise and constructed a...
    Ratso: Uh, parking lot?
• In Christmas is Here Again, Buster the fox refuses to follow the others into the Big Bad's hideout.
  Paul Rocco: Let him stay. He only gets us into trouble anyway.
  Buster: He's right. I'm troubled waters, see. Now be a bridge and ease my mind.
• The Flash pulled one on Justice League Unlimited when asked where Batman was:
  "Running late. The Batmobile? It lost a wheel. The Joker got away." (the League members cast pained expressions at Flash) "That's what I heard."
  • Doubles as a Continuity Nod to Joker's version of "Jingle Bells" in "Christmas with the Joker."
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • In the episode "A Bird in the Hoof," Fluttershy realizes, "I'm late! For a very important date!" Bonus points for her being reminded by a rabbit with a pocket watch.
  • In "Best Gift Ever" we hear that Twilight Sparkle has "made a list and checked it twice", a paraphrase from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".
• Referenced on Hey Arnold!, where his grandma says Arnold "was born on the backseat of a Greyhound Bus, going down Highway 41." Grandpa Phil points out that's "from an old hippie song".
• On an episode of Squidbillies where Krystal wins the lottery and Dan Halen pretends to be in love with her to get to her money, he says, "Krystal, I want to know what love is, I know you can show me. I feel like making love to you. Love in an elevator, lovin' up as I'm goin' down."
• In an episode of Arthur, while giving some advice, Binky Barnes starts reciting the lyrics of the show's actual theme song ("You gotta listen to your heart/Listen to the beat/Listen to the rhythm/The rhythm of the street"). He then notes that it's just something he heard somewhere.
• Inverted in the Schoolhouse Rock! sketch "The Preamble", in which much of the song is just the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States set to music. And it is awesome.
• In an episode of Bump in the Night, Mr. Bumpy, Squishington, and Molly Coddle are in a contest to see who can freak each other out. Squishington "averts" to a sight behind the door:
  Squishington: Get back! Get back to where you once belonged!
• Though the CD didn't come out until about two seasons later, Code Lyoko's William says "Being sensible is just not sensible". Yumi points out that it came from the Subdigitals (then the Subsonics, but they changed the name to avoid copyright from another similar band).
• An episode of Bojack Horseman has a scene in which Beyoncé trips and twists her ankle, sending the media into a frenzy, as well as a string of terrible Beyonce-related puns:
  Reporter in the field: Well, Tom, I'm told that she fell on all the single dollars."
  Tom: ALL the single dollars?
  Reporter in the field: ALL the single dollars!
  Tom: (despairingly) Bills, bills, bills...''
• Luna from The Loud House is a rocker, so she often sprinkles her sentences with lyrics to rock songs.
• Looney Tunes:
  • In Herr Meets Hare when Bugs Bunny pretends to be Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering tries to appease him.
    Goering: I kiss mein Fuehrer's hand! I kiss right in der Fuehrer's face!
  • In A Gruesome Twosome, as a cat tries to woo a female by quoting "You Ought to Be in Pictures".
    Cat: Do you want a sky-high penthouse? Do you want a king-size car? Do you want to be in pictures? Do you want to be a star?
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: In the pilot "To the Rescue", Professor Nimnul, who is plotting to destroy the city by creating a giant bolt of lightning, says "It's gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight!"
• In the Ready Jet Go! episode "Jet Can't Sleep", the characters are playing charades. Sunspot acts out a thunderstorm by dancing around with a flashlight and drum. Jet guesses "I got rhythm, I got music".
• In the Duck Dodgers Zorro parody, Dodgers says the oppressed peasantry yearn "to be born free, as free as the wind blows", quoting the theme of the film Born Free.
• OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes: In "Know Your Mom", K.O. decides to help his mother, a retired hero, relive her glory days with a rematch with one of her old enemies, Succulentus of the Kactus Krew. Succulentus, played by Johnathan Davis of Korn, peppers his dialogue with references to nu-metal acts like Linkin Park ("Every step that I take is another mistake for you!"), Disturbed ("Now you've woken up the demon in me!"), and Evanescence ("Some coffee would really wake me up inside.").
• Daria:
  • A Chekhov's Gun in "Speedtrapped". When a cowboy gets (rightly) suspicious of Quinn's tale about a hitch-hiker stealing her and Daria's money, Daria wins his trust by paraphrasing from Conway Twitty's "Don't Call Him a Cowboy", which the hitcher sang to the girls earlier ("I don't call 'em cowboys till I see 'em ride...'Cause a Stetson hat and them fancy boots don't tell me what's inside").
  • In "Daria!", Kevin yells "We are the champions, my friends!" from Queen at the pep rally.
  • Daria quips "It's a small world after all" from Disneyland in "Speedtrapped" (Mystik Spiral's "world tour" amounts to a gig 100 miles away) and "Psycho Therapy" (Jane's online camera feed to "the world" gets a total of eight hits, three of them from Daria).
  • In "Art Burn", when Daria sees Jane's booth at the art exhibition, she says "One of these things is not like the others", the name of a Sesame Street song.
• Bob's Burgers: In the season 9 Halloween episode "A Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street", the neighborhood kids hunt a prankster who has been snatching trick-or-treaters' candy. At one point they spot the teenagers Jimmy Jr. and Zeke eating sweets, which they take as evidence that the two are the culprits. The pair's stumped response to being accused leads to the following:
  Rudy: You know damn well what we're talking about.
  Andy: Let's give them something to talk about!
  Ollie: How about love!
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: "No Small Parts": Riker says "It was a long road, getting from there to here" as he mentions that he was playing the holoprogram about the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise.
• In the Rugrats episode "King Ten Pin," Phil and Lil have this exchange when they see bowling shoes for the first time:
  Lil: Look! Clown shoes!
  Phil: Yeah! Maybe they'll send in the clowns!
  Lil: (looks at the old people bowling nearby) Don't bother. They're here.
• Total Drama:
  • LeShawna mocks an opponent by saying "'He dropped it like it was hot!"
  • In the first elimination round of the second season, Chris quotes Steam's "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" when saying anyone who tries to interfere with the voting process will be eliminated immediately.
  • When recapping the breakdown of Gwen and Trent's relationship, Chris says that "He was a boy, she was a girl."
  • The way Harold describes his favorite superhero Owl Man ("Catches thieves just like mice") directly homages a certain other superhero's iconic theme song.
  • Harold also lets off a "For those about to rock, I salute you" during a guitar challenge.

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