Web Animation / Greeny Phatom

The logo of a show about logos.

Greeny Phatom is a... bizarre MS Paint web cartoon, created by "animator" Robert Stainton in 2008. The show incorporates Surreal Humor, Limited Animation, and limited voice acting, and it boasts many episodes over its long run.

The show centers around the hard-to-decipher adventures of Little Guy, Dr. Beanson, and company. Little Guy and friends often find themselves face-to-face with petty tribulations, such as not being able to buy a toy they want or a dinner party gone bad. Also, Santed Sailor, a regular character who operates the Beach Park, serves as the main antagonist of the show.

There are also variety of spin-offs and copycats, such as Gree City, Geo's World, World of Jake, and many others, some of which even got their characters to appear in the actual Greeny Phatom. The show has also been parodied several times, SMB Madman (The Greeny Phatom Show) and finally (of all people) SiIvaGunner. This show even inspired the characters of felipebross, a former Scratch celebrity.

The earlier episodes can be found here, while the later episodes can be found here.

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I'm Dr. Beanson, the one of a kind soldier, who brings you these tropes:

• A Day in the Limelight: There have been episodes focusing on more obscure characters such as Dr. PBS and Gree Guy, the main protagonist of the above-listed spin-off series.
• Affectionate Parody:
  • "Rejected Greeny Phatom" is a parody of the MAD segment "Rejected Toy Story 3 Characters".
  • Many scenes from the show are taken straight from MAD, but one specific skit stuck with Robert and his "followers" - "Cloudy with a Chance of Flavor", the cereal commercial. Starting with Little Guy Forevers.
• Anachronism Stew: Some of the "older" episodes were set to have premiered in the 1980s or 1990s, but it only takes a cursory glance to see that this is obviously not true. Some episodes even employed sepia, black and white, and film effects from Windows Movie Maker to convince people that the episodes actually were that old!
• Anti-Hero: Little Guy sometimes acts like a jerk to his friends, and occasionally kills them if they disagree with him. Despite his bossy nature, he does come through for his friends and does nice things for them, like throwing loud, raucous parties.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Little Guy sometimes asks this question to Little Guy 2, especially in The Movie, although using the "thinking" variation. The quote is taken directly from Bananas in Pyjamas.
• Art Shift:
  • The characters, depending on how they are drawn (and who's drawing them), although quite marginally. For instance, in the show, Little Guy is drawn as pretty much a glorified stick figure with a basketball-like head, round torso, and thin black arms and legs. Certain episodes and spin-offs try to draw the characters in a more detailed fashion.
  • One thing that constantly varies: If a character's legs is not visible in the shot their body is drawn as a rectangle, otherwise they have two stacked balls for bodies.
• Author Appeal: Logos (chiefly vanity plates and their ilk) and references to children's series (c.f. Little Guy declaring himself the king of 123 Greeny Phatom - though most of them are directed towards Bananas in Pajamas).
• Battle Discretion Shot: When there's a fight, the show sometimes cuts to text saying the fight was censored.
• Berserk Button: Little Guy flips out whenever Doctor sings a Russian song. Other characters also get immediate anger from other events.
• Big Bad:
  • Santed Sailor is considered to be the show's villain, but only because he operates an amusement park that Little Guy hates. He occasionally has evil schemes in place, like he somehow did in The Movie, but they are never shown to be put into action.
  • Dr. Beanclownson is a villain in the spinoff Dr. Beanson.
• Blatant Lies: Greeny Phatom is presented by Robert Stainton as if it were a real show that aired on television. To name a few:
  • Many episodes are claimed to be produced by various companies (most notably Sony Wonder, Children's Television Workshop/Sesame Workshop, and Cinar), featuring their logos at the beginning of episodes (and bizarrely referencing the logos themselves throughout the series).^note To compound this, Sony Wonder, CTW/Sesame Workshop, and Cinar making a show together is highly improbable (if not outright impossible) in real life, as Cinar is now defunct, as they became Cookie Jar and later DHX Media and even later WildBrain. Furthermore, not only is Sony Wonder also defunct, but it was mostly just a distribution company and never really made any original content of its own (although they did at one point own Sunbow Entertainment, which made almost every pre-2000s cartoon based off of Hasbro toylines as well as stuff like The Cramp Twins, The Brothers Flub, Generation O!, etc.). Finally, Sesame Workshop's main goal is to make series that are educational, meaning making a show like Greeny Phatom that doesn't have much education in it would be Playing Against Type.
  • He claims that the show premiered on TV in 1995, when in reality not only did the show first appear on the internet around 2009 (with hints of its existence showing in 2008), it could for a multitude of reasons never even remotely see the light of day on TV.
  • He has made trailers advertising DVDs of the show, when really there aren't any. That doesn't stop the show's fans from making their own homemade DVDs, however.
  • In the past, fans tried to create a Wikipedia article, and IMDB and TV.com pages for the show. Unfortunately all using the false information, causing their deletion. A Wikipedia article is still up for a couple different language Wikipedias, however.
  • To see more examples, all you really need to do is check out the wiki.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Several episodes begin with a character (usually Little Guy) acknowledging the viewer and introducing themselves.
• Broken Record: In "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds", Little Guy tells the clouds, "hands off of the sun" multiple times until the clouds finally listen.
  • This would sometimes lead to a Running Joke where a character talks about something that they're gonna do, but not just any something, but a something, that a something.
• Catchphrase: Dr. Beanson, at the start of an episode, has this rather amusing one (and its variations):

  Dr. Beanson: Hello! I'm Dr. Beanson, the one of a kind soldier that brings you this message.

• Christmas Episode: "Macedonia's Christmas Poem" is about Little Guy celebrating Christmas. There are other Christmas episodes as well, some even taking direct footage from A Charlie Brown Christmas.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Most of the characters.
• Disproportionate Retribution: One of the show's staples. Little Guy is known to get angry at other characters for minor actions, and has even threatened to kill characters several times.
• Enemy Mine: Little Guy is sometimes seen teaming up with his alleged enemies.
• Evil Counterpart: Several characters have their own (e.g., Gree Guy is considered to be this for Little Guy).
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Many episode titles, such as "Pube Beanson goes to Showbiz Pizza Place".
• The Face of the Sun: In "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds", when Little Guy looks at the sun, it is shown as the Baby Sun.
• Felony Misdemeanor:
  • In the world of Greeny Phatom, you can be arrested for many mundane activities, such as playing tricks on people, or even non-activities, such as being a cheeseburger.
  • In The Movie, Little Guy and his clone actually team up to have Dr. Beanson jailed just for stealing a toy from Toys 'R' Us.
• Filler: The show is chock-full of it. Most notably, the "Sing Along Songs with Doctor" segment. What is filler and what isn't could really be anyone's guess.
• Gainax Ending: Many episodes have strange endings that don't really wrap up the story.

• Gratuitous Foreign Language: In some episodes, the Bananas in Pyjamas theme plays in multiple different languages.
  • The character Sergente Beanson speaks in a German text-to-speech voice, accompanied by subtitles, given how the show usually is, his German is probably poor Google Translations.
• Gratuitous Russian: Whenever Doctor "sings" one of his Russian songs.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Little Guy goes into an abusive rage whenever anyone dares to go against him.
• Hero of Another Story: Gree Guy in Gree City, aside from being an antagonist in this show.
  • Also, Geo Guy in Geo's World.
• Hulking Out: Little Guy will sometimes turn into a giant mouse if he's angry enough.
  • Gree Guy hulks out quite literally in a couple episodes, such as "Little Guy Uses Windows 95 2 - The Sequel" complete with Hulk roar and music.
• Limited Animation: The art style is shown in still frames.
• Massively Multiplayer Crossover: The show and its spin-offs were frequently crossed over.
• Medium Blending: The show often has the cartoony characters drawn on top of photographs.
• Misspelling Out Loud: "Phatom" is a blatant misspelling of "phantom".
  • Despite that, due to its popularity, by searching for "Greeny Phantom" on Google, it will automatically correct to the misspelling.
• The Movie: Yep, and it's feature-length!
  • On a side note, GoAnimate: The Movie is an almost shot for shot ripoff of this film, just with different characters and slight dialogue changes, along with the addition of a Big Bad. But the best part is that most people, although they consider both films terrible, actually prefer GoAnimate: The Movie due to it actually having animation (well, kinda animation, but at least it moves) and a style easier to look at (not by a large margin).
• No Antagonist: Many episodes, even those with Santed Sailor, as he often has no evil plan to act on. When he does, it's more often than not a Poke the Poodle scenario.
• No Ending: It's common for episodes to have endings that seem abrupt or strange.
• No Fourth Wall: This series breaks the fourth wall on several occasions:
  • Many episodes begin with Little Guy or Dr. Beanson greeting the audience.
  • The characters will talk about upcoming seasons of the show multiple times throughout the series, as well as refer to previous episodes by name and number.
  • In the episode "Take One", Green Bob introduces himself as "the new Greeny Phatom character in the universe."
• Non-Indicative Name: Just what does "Greeny Phatom" even mean? The title is kind of reminiscent of a similarly named "phantom".
  • Also, some of the episode titles. To name some JUST from the fake DVD trailers:
    • To Normal or Not to Normal
    • The Logo and the Pizza
    • A Twisted World of Sony Wonder
    • The Dial Diary at the Mirmus Fate (what is a "Mirmus Fate", anyway?)
    • Little Guy and Friends to the Beanstalk (did they mean "go to"?)
    • The New Room in the Block
    • Have You Seen the Sony Wonder Logo?
    • The Shippy Video of Death ("shippy" is a word used in the show, mostly by Santed Sailor, though what it means is unclear)
    • Play It Again, Logo
    • Little Guy Maid the Mind of Darn It Cicus (even considering that "maid" might actually be "made," and "Cicus" may be "Circus," it still doesn't make sense)
    • Monster Jam Will Never Stop Greeny Phatom
    • The Best Sleeping Time With Santed Sailor (do we even want to know?)
    • Walter Made Lemon Yellow
    • Dr Beanson Go Camping
    • Believe It or Not and Little Guy Is Walking on Air
• Only Sane Man: Dr. Beanson is probably the most level-headed character in the show. He enjoys quiet activities, and calls out Little Guy for his erratic behavior.
• The Parody: The Greeny Phatom Show, created by a user named SMB Madman, where Little Guy seeks out a womanizing Dr. Beanson to help him talk to girls.
  • SiIvaGunner has parodied the show on three separate occasions.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Little Guy really doesn't do much leading for someone who's the king of 123 Greeny Phatom.
• The Place: The series is named after the fictional city of 123 Greeny Phatom. The spin-offs are named after other locations, such as Geo's World and Gree City.
• Random Events Plot: Nearly every episode fails to follow an actual and is instead a series of logo-related gags and cartoon references stringed together.
• Repetitive Name: In "Rejected Green Bob", a character named Green Green Bob turns everybody else into him.

• Running Gag: Many throughout the show to count. Getting angry at mundane things, forcing people to watch "scary" logos as a punishment, and playing random songs or videos in their entirety are what's most common though.
  • "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds" has a gag where the clouds constantly get in the way of the sun and annoy Little Guy.
• Self-Deprecation: Intentional or not, the episode "Things Gone Wrong" begins with the phrase, "The Following Episode is best enjoyed when not viewed", implying that the episode isn't very enjoyable to watch.
• Send in the Clones: Almost every character has at least one clone. The show has seen the likes of "Little Guy 2", "Doctor", and "Beanson".
• Shout-Out: Many, mostly to shows that Robert Stainton is familiar with.
• Slice of Life: The show mainly revolves around the everyday adventures of Little Guy, Dr. Beanson, and supporting characters, fantasized or otherwise.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Little Guy is the self-proclaimed "king of 123 Greeny Phatom."
• Stylistic Suck: This trope just defines the whole show, with its MS Paint art-style and gratuitous use of Synthetic Voice Actors.
• Spin-Off: This show has an official spin off named "Dr. Beanson", and another more recent one called "Greeny Phatom on Tux Paint".
• Stairway to Heaven: Little Guy goes to Heaven in "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds" and sees the staircase.
• Surreal Humor: Logos (be them actual logos or Vanity Plates) are a key element of the show's formula, including, infamously, its jokes. To give such an example from one of the show's "cancelled episodes":
  Geo Guy: Cough! What in the world is this?
  Little Guy: Um, Sony Wonder Soup.
• Synthetic Voice Actor: Most of the characters are voiced by text-to-speech voices.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Characters die in nearly every episode, only to be brought back in the next episode, or even in the next scene.
• Thinking Out Loud: This is a very common trope throughout the series. Here is an example from the beginning of the episode "Break a Bit":

  Little Guy: Since that the clock tried to woke me up very early, my excellent plan is to call him Red Dr. Beanson, but not just any Red Dr. Beanson, but a Red Dr. Beanson, that a Red Dr. Beanson, will torture Doctor's business and cancel his Russian music videos, and destroys him. And then, I will eat a double cheeseburger after painting, but not just any double cheeseburger, but a double cheeseburger, that a double cheeseburger, has the ingredients flamed grilled beef, cheeses, pickles, and ketchup. After eating double cheeseburgers, I will sing "Bananas in Pyjamas" by New Castle, an Austrian T.V. show for kids. And it was daylight time, we will change it in this country. Finally I will locate a shopping mall that is called Birchwood. This will be located into a message from the inbox. Some soldier gave this bucket to me for being loved so very much.

• Long-Runners: It's been around since 2008.
• Uncredited Role: Occurs in "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds". According to Little Guy, the episode was distributed by Sony Wonder, but their logo wasn't shown. invoked
• The 'Verse: Greeny Phatom and its many spin-offs form the GreenyToons Universe.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: In the episode "Coke Collar III", after Little Guy beats up Doctor, a color bars screen is shown. A few seconds later, there is a Bananas in Pyjamas intro with a "Technical Difficulties" screen. More Technical Difficulties screens can be seen in other episodes.
• Word Salad Title: We have no idea what Greeny Phatom is supposed to mean, exactly. The wiki claims Robert Stainton was drunk when he came up with the name.

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