The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction (often referred to by its acronym AAoOD) is, to put it simply, an animated One Direction fanfic, created by Mark Parsons, its purpose being to fill the gap of fanfics written by men. In it, One Direction is a band of superheroes out to save the world's pussycats from the evil Lord Faptaguise.
The original episode was uploaded on 13 March 2012, around the time One Direction really took off in the United States, and can be watched here
. It went viral, was watched by the boys themselves, and sparked two sequels, aptly named The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction 2, uploaded on 13 March 2013, and The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction 3, uploaded in 12 episodes over the course of December 2015.
The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction contains examples of:
- Big "NO!": Exaggerated with Harry, who gives one that apparently lasts for several minutes when he realizes Lord Faptaguise has kidnapped his cat.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Little facts (that pertained in 2012) about One Direction appear on screen that relate to the story, and characters are aware of these and interact with and Lampshade them.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": In their superhero costumes, the members of 1D have the letters of their first names on their chests. Gets a bit confusing with Louis and Liam, who both have Ls on their chests.
- Buffy Speak: Lampshaded by Harry:Harry: [Tac-O's] even make the milk taste like tacos!
Liam: That's even disgusting-er.
Harry: That's not even a word! - Character Catchphrase: Liam often says "it's on like donkey kong", although he later switches it out in AAoOD 3 for "bomb.com" (and variations like "a-okay.co.uk"), much to Harry's disappointment.
- Chekhov's Gag:
- Louis hitting Harry in the balls whenever he makes an Incredibly Lame Pun allows Harry to hit the high note needed to activate the Pussy Magnet.
- Niall keeps making fun of Zayn's hair, comparing it to things like a ski slope. When they need a ramp to skateboard out of the garbage pit, guess what they use?
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: After helping Niall out of the garbage pit, Zayn isn't seen again, even in the ending. Come the sequel, and it turns out he just stayed there for nine months.
- Color-Coded Characters: Each of the band members has a monochromatic outfit in their superhero forms. Harry is orange, Louis is red, Niall is blue, Liam is purple, and Zayn is yellow.
- Femme Fatale: April/May, who seduces Harry to capture him and bring him to Lord Faptaguise.
- Groin Attack: Louis gives these to Harry as punishment for his bad puns.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Harry keeps making these. The other members, especially Louis, never find them funny.
- It's Personal: Said word for word by Harry, when he finds out his cat was stolen by Lord Faptaguise.
- Mission Control: Psymon.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Paul McCartney is portrayed as a monk.
- Power-Up Food: For Harry, tacos, complete with a Popeye-esque transformation.
- Punny Name:
- Lord Faptaguise. Liam only realizes the pun when Lord Faptaguise insists on patting Harry down.
- 1D's Mission Control is named Psymon, which sounds identical to Simon, as in Simon Cowell, the owner of their record label.
- Short Teens, Tall Adults: Sorta... the 1D boys are all drawn noticeably shorter than the other adult characters in the story, but their ages are ambiguous. If they correlate with their real-life ages, that would make them 18–20 in the first installment and 21–23 by the third.
- Shout-Out:
- Psymon, as a floating head in a tube that acts as Mission Control, is a reference to Zordon.
- Squick: In-Universe, Tac-O's, a meat, cheese, and lettuce flavored cereal served in a tortilla bowl that also makes the milk taste like tacos. Only Harry likes them, while the other members of One Direction find them disgusting.
- Temporal Theme Naming: Played for laughs with Lord Faptaguise's Femme Fatale, May, who used the fake name April.Lord Faptaguise: Well done, May.
Harry: May? I thought your name was June.
April/May: April.
Harry: Whatever. - Trademark Favorite Food: Tacos, for Harry. They're also his Power-Up Food.
- Wimp Fight: Niall making fun of Zayn's hair causes these to occur between them.
The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction 2 contains examples of:
- Comically Missing the Point: When Megafan presents a bowling ball, with the intent of throwing it into the trash compactor to demonstrate what would happen to their dates if they do not agree to be his slaves.
- Megafan: Here we have just an everyday bowling ball.Louis: Who goes bowling every day?Megafan: Some people do.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Megafan's voice is very deep.
- Destroy the Villain's Weapon: Liam throws a spoon at Megafan's blades, destroying them.
- Likes Older Women: Harry, who's dating the elderly Sarah.
- Love Interest: Natalie and Sarah for Niall and Harry, respectively.
- Shout-Out: Liam's spoon nightmare is a parody of both "Pink Elephants on Parade" and "Heffalumps and Woozles". At one point, a devil appears that bears a striking resemblance to Chernabog.
- Stealth Pun: Megafan is a literal fan, and also intends to make 1D his personal slaves.
The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction 3 contains examples of:
- Big Eater: Of the items he bought from the 1D store to give as gifts, Niall wants the lunch boxes until Zayn informs him they're empty; he can't be trusted to not eat the cookies for Santa; and he accepts without qualms Harry's offer to to be eaten first when the boys get stranded, which Louis immediately shuts down.
- Chekhov's Gun: Harry secretly buys the suspenders Louis admires in the shop for his birthday, which ends up saving his life.
- Christmas Episode: The series details One Direction saving Christmas.
- Conveyor Belt of Doom: The elf pretends to Santa that a weakened Louis is actually a defective doll and throws him onto a conveyor belt to be incinerated.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The train conductor has a habit of repeating things back to people with increasing shock, while they wish he would just get to the point.
- Heroic BSoD: Fed up, Louis goes into one at the end of part 5, but is talked out of it by Henry in part 6, who also gets sad around Christmas.
- Herr Doktor: The villain is an elf scientist with a German accent.
- Just in Time: Harry leaps off of Liam's Twit-CAM down the chimney just in time to save Louis from falling off the Conveyor Belt of Doom into the furnace, not even expecting to find him there.
- Metafictional Device: Niall has an Idea Bulb, which he then literally uses to burn the leeches off himself and Zayn.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: The boys meet a faun named Henry on their way to the North Pole, although he is half-goat from his waist up rather than the other way around.
- Passing Judgment: The kids on the Polar Express say "stay away from us" and "y'all are crazy" when the boys want to know they're okay after surviving the train derailment.
- Perennially Overshadowed Birthday: Louis' birthday is on Christmas Eve (as in real life), and he fears throughout the story that Harry has forgotten his birthday.
- Puppet Shows: The penultimate episode is live-action with paper dolls.
- Robotic Reveal: Lady Gaga informs Harry that the train conductor is actually a robot, which is why he seemed kinda off.
- Stock British Phrases: While shopping with Harry, Louis says "Cor, look at those braces! They're smashing!", which Mark subtitles as "Dude, look at those suspenders! They're baller!" He also says things like "jolly good" and "blimey".
- Vampiric Draining: The effect of the villain's leeches draining a superhero of their star power is they grow weak and paper thin.
- Wish-Fulfillment: Despite Zayn having left the band earlier in 2015, the story still includes him.
