Web Animation / Sheriff Hayseed

"Watch out criminal world- there's a new sheriff in town!" ("And deputy!") ^note Clockwise from bottom right: Todd, Shawn, Lloyd, and The Mayor.

Deep in the West, where the bandits roam
Where the law is scarce and you're far from home
You'll find a place with a friendly pace
And a fuzzy face who'll crack your case
It's Sheriff Todd, not odd but flawed
With a boomerang, here to stop your squad
So hold your throttle
Think before you violate the laaaaw!
Sheriff Todd Hayseed! (WA-CHA!)
Justice guaranteed!
He'll fight all day so he can see
That Troughwater is free!
(And also Shawn!)

— The show's Bragging Theme Tune

Sheriff Hayseed was a web animated series created by Mike "Piemations" Pitts.

The animations take place in the Wild West town of Troughwater, a town inhabited by Funny Animals (particularly horses and other ungulates) and plagued by a wide variety of criminals of varying shapes, sizes, and methodologies. All that stands in the way between the town and total anarchy is the new sheriff, Todd Hayseed the fox (voiced by Eloidiel), and his deputy, Shawn Burrowitz the donkey (voiced by Blake Swift aka ShadyVox). While they're certainly not the most competent or smartest, they're all Troughwater's got.

Despite the pilot and first episode's success, updates and news on the series was oftentimes rare and slow to come out. This came to a head on December 3rd, 2023 in an update video on Piemation's channel that confirmed, as a result of both longstanding and recovering wrist pain, and just overall dissatisfaction with a multitude of creative decisions related to the series, all future animated projects for Sheriff Hayseed would be canceled, with what's been finished thus far being uploaded in the following days.

Media for Sheriff Hayseed

Episodes

• Strategically Stupid! (August 19th, 2017) - The series' non-canon pilot. Todd and Shawn's game of chess is interrupted by a bank robbery.
• Boomerang in a Gun Fight! (December 21st, 2019) - The first official episode. After a criminal manages to get away, Mayor Joy (through her assistant Lloyd) puts Todd and Shawn through a series of combat training.
• The Quick Pickpocket (December 19, 2023) (Storyboard only) An incomplete episode featuring Taylor, the titular pickpocket, and Todd and Shawn struggling to deal with her throughout, especially after she manages to pickpocket something special to Todd.

Shorts

• Animated Bloopers (February 8th, 2020) - Bloopers from Boomerang in a Gun Fight! animated to show the characters acting out their VA's mistakes.
• Blackjack (December 9th, 2023) - A short style test for the intended next episode. Todd and Shawn play a card game.

Shawn Covers by ShadyVox

• Stuck in The Middle With You (February 7th, 2019)
• Budapest (March 23rd, 2019)
• Take Me Home, Country Roads (August 12th, 2020)

Tropes for this show include:

• The Alleged Expert: Todd got the job as Troughwater's sheriff because he said on his resume he helped guard the Whatchamacallum fortune, which Joy took as a sign he was competent. It turns out that Whatchamacallum is a knick-knack store in his hometown, and he was a cashier there. His experience in guarding a fortune was helping his boss hide his fortune from the IRS.
• Amusing Injuries: The Training Montage in "Boomerang In A Gun Fight" is full of them.
• Animal Stereotypes: Inverted; Todd is a fox and Shawn is a donkey, but Shawn is easily the smarter and more strategic of the two.
• Art Evolution: Between "Strategically Stupid" and "Boomerang In A Gun Fight" the art style changes significantly thanks to Mike's art skills improving in between the two.
• Badass Adorable: Pretty much everyone, considering it's a Western with anthropomorphic animals instead of people.
• Battle Boomerang: Todd's weapon of choice and he's surprisingly effective with it.
• Butt-Monkey: Huck from "Boomerang In A Gun Fight" is used as the punching bag of everyone, though it's completely accidental and he takes it surprisingly well.
• Catchphrase: "Wha-cha!" is apparently Todd's, used whenever he uses his boomerang.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Todd's conflict in "Strategically Stupid" is that he doesn't bother to strategize in a fight, preferring to use his boomerang for everything. This presents problems when the short's criminal antagonist catches his boomerang.
• Da Chief: Mayor Joy fulfills this role for Todd and Shawn.
• Deadpan Snarker: Shawn.
  • Mayor Joy, to a lesser extent.
• Death Glare: Mayor Joy gives one to Todd and Shawn over her shoulder after trashing her office.
• Ditzy Secretary: Lloyd, Mayor Joy's secretary, doesn't seem to be the sharpest crayon in the box, and is quite cowardly and whingy to boot.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Todd refuses to use a gun because he might kill someone. Considering he's the sheriff, this naturally causes problems, though he does well enough with his boomerang.
• Dramatic Unmask: After beating the Scarecrow in "Boomerang In A Gun Fight", Todd and Shawn pull off his mask to reveal...Mayor Joy.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Lloyd plays this up during Todd and Shawn's Training Montage. As this was to put his own training under Mayor Joy into action, it's implied that she's this trope for real.
• Fluffy the Terrible: One of the worst criminals wanted in Troughwater is a supposedly innocent-looking weasel named...Jerry. Although to be fair, he is wanted for Dead.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Sanguine: Todd, who is cheerful, energetic, and innocent in a lot of ways.
  • Choleric: Mayor Joy, the mayor of Troughwater and a former combat veteran with a fiery temper.
  • Melancholic: Shawn, Todd's snarky deputy who values strategy and is more levelheaded than Todd.
  • Phlegmatic: Lloyd, Mayor Joy's meek and timid secretary.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: Invoked after the pair's training in "Boomerang In A Gun Fight", where Todd, Shawn, and Lloyd go to the saloon to celebrate. Todd wonders if he's old enough to drink beer, but Shawn snatches his drink away and says that it's root beer...probably.
• Furry Reminder: After Todd refuses the gun from Mayor Joy, Shawn volunteers to take it. After catching it, it slides off. Then, Shawn remembers that he has hooves, which unlike paws, has no fingers. Therefore, there's no way he can use it.
• Great Offscreen War: Mayor Joy apparently lost her leg in "The War", though nothing else is really stated about it.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Mayor Joy is normally polite and understanding, but when she gets mad, she gets mad.
• Handicapped Badass: Mayor Joy lost a leg in "the war" but is fully capable of masquerading as a violent criminal and giving Todd and Shawn a hell of a fight. Ol' Boomstick is also a blind mole rat who's nevertheless apparently a successful bank robber.
• Heroic Blue Screen of Death: Todd faints after discovering that the Scarecrow is Mayor Joy. Lloyd is later revealed to have fainted just from the fight with the Scarecrow.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: After subduing the Scarecrow, Todd exclaims "Holy haystacks!"
• Ironic Name: Mayor Joy is actually a very stern and serious mayor with a Hair-Trigger Temper.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mayor Joy might have some temper issues but she's usually quite reasonable and she does praise the guys when they're able to successfully subdue her when she's dressed as a criminal.
• Kid Hero: There's a joke in "Boomerang In A Gun Fight" about Todd possibly not being of drinking age. He's also quite short.
• The Lancer: Shawn is this to Todd, being more worldly, smarter, and more levelheaded.
• Lighter and Softer: Definitely more kid-friendly than some of Piemations' other cartoons. At least until you get to the bloopers which contain a plethora of swearing that's more up Piemations' alley, along with the incomplete "The Quick Pickpocket" which specifically has two instances of characters saying the word "fuck" (which the intro card even warns about).
• Mad Bomber: Ol' Boomstick, one of Troughwater's criminals, who uses dynamite in his crimes.
• Meaningful Name: Shawn Burrowitz, seeing as he's a donkey. There's also Lloyd Herdwick, who's a sheep. Since male foxes are 'tods', this also fits Todd Hayseed.
• Medium Awareness: After the training montage in "Boomerang in a Gun Fight", Todd expresses surprise at his and Shawn's progress considering how much they jumped between activities. Lloyd then says that it was an intense 50-60 seconds.
• Minion with an F in Evil: The Snake Boy underlings in "Strategically Stupid" need their boss to remind them that they're criminals.
• Miranda Rights: Shawn starts reciting this to Boomstick before he realizes that Todd is holding dynamite.
• Mirthless Laughter: After Todd and Shawn describe Ol' Boomstick as the criminal that got away to the mayor, they share a laugh. Joy partakes in this before throwing everything on her desk against the wall.
• Moment Killer: At the end of "Boomerang In A Gun Fight", Shawn interrupts an otherwise heartwarming moment between Todd and Mayor Joy to announce that Lloyd passed out during the fight. The music even abruptly ends on a jarred piano note.
• Oh, Crap!: The Scarecrow gives a look like this at the camera right before Todd's boomerang slams her in the face.
• Rage Breaking Point: Mayor Joy trashes her office in a blind rage after discovering that Todd had no formal training prior to being hired as sheriff.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Todd is the red; Shawn is the blue.
• Retired Badass: Mayor Joy apparently used to be an army veteran who lost her right leg and had it replaced by a prosthetic in a previous war.
• Samus Is a Girl: The Scarecrow is referred to by male pronouns, but eventually turns out to be Mayor Joy in disguise.
• Secret Test of Character: More "Secret Test of Competence", but Mayor Joy dresses up as a criminal called the Scarecrow at the end of "Boomerang In A Gun Fight" to test how Todd and Shawn's training went.
• The Sheriff: Todd, although he's a bit different due to being a rookie Sheriff that's also a Kid Hero.
• Skilled, but Naive: Todd is quite skilled with his boomerang and no slouch in a fight, but he doesn't know who the IRS is and willingly helped his old boss break the law without knowing it. Which is understandable, since he's apparently a Kid Hero.
• Stealth Pun: Mayor Joy is a mare who is also mayor.
• Stunned Silence: Following Joy's office-wrecking temper tantrum in "Boomerang In A Gun Fight", Todd and Shawn are both frozen in their seats in fear and stiff as boards. Shawn even falls out of his. The ending also has one after the Scarecrow is unmasked to be Mayor Joy.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Mayor Joy is the only female out of the four main characters, but she is easily the tallest.
• Toon Physics: Shawn tells Todd to breathe after he gets overexcited from knocking out the Scarecrow. He does so... and immediately pops like a balloon, followed by him running out of the saloon to unmask the Scarecrow.
• Training Montage: "Boomerang In A Gun Fight" has Mayor Joy put Todd and Shawn through one of these to make them better at their job, and ends up testing them herself in disguise to see what they've learned.
• Veteran Instructor: Mayor Joy. Subverted in that she doesn't actually teach Todd and Shawn, but she does give Lloyd instructions on how to teach in her place. Including adopting a Drill Sergeant Nasty attitude.
• Wild West: The series is set in the Wild West, complete with outlaws to catch, banks for said outlaws to rob, and a sheriff protagonist to catch them.
• World of Funny Animals: The world is populated entirely by anthropomorphic animals. Even insects like spiders have some degree of sapience, as they can talk and even wear hats.

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