The Grover Guys is a Web Animation created by No Parking Berry. It features the voice talents of Christian Frates, D.J. Berry and Matthew Littlemore. It was released on August 5th, 2019.
The plot follows two men and a duck as they rescue Henrietta Horvitz from Dirty Dick Avery.
The cartoon can be found here.
Tropes in The Grover Guys
- Abduction Is Love: Dirty Dick Avery initially planned to steal a motorcycle and an "enter" sign to win Henrietta's heart but winds up abducting her as well.
- Alliterative Name: Henrietta Horvitz
- Badass in Distress: Although Henrietta was captured and briefly tormented by Dirty Dick, towards the end, she (albeit off-screen) was able to free herself and defeat him by beating him up and using a wolf whistle.
- Berserk Button: Dirty Dick Avery gets easily frustrated when people interrupt his "evil monologue".
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Grover Guys briefly teleported to the film's Adobe Premiere file.
- Delayed Reaction: Henrietta was relieved of being freed from the puddle before realizing that she was rescued by Dirty Dick, and began screaming after tossing her pogo stick. Later in the short when Henrietta was being tortured to watch terrible '50s cartoon shows, it took until Henrietta calmly removing the tape from her mouth to complain about the cartoons out-loud.
- Evil Is Petty: Dick Avery holds most contempt for D.D. due to an incident where D.D. ate his hat. Even the narrator agrees that such a reason is ridiculous.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Dirty Dick Avery explains how he wants his "cylinder" collaborate with Henrietta Horvitz' "top and bottom spheres", while holding an actual cylinder and two spheres.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: After getting booted from the bar, Dirty Dick Avery shouts "flubbernuggets, raspberries and a glass of vinegar on the side".
- How Is That Even Possible?: To avoid another pogo stick incident like earlier, Henrietta lied to the Grover Guys stating that a bulimic crocodile ate her pogo stick. Although accepting it at first, towards the end, in the middle of the night, the Grover Guys question on how that was possible.
- ''"Wait! Why would a bulimic crocodile want to eat a pogostick?!""
- Interactive Narrator: The narrator interacts with the characters.
- I Lied: After The Grover Guys leave Dirty Dick's cabin, Henrietta revealed to the audience that she lied about the bulimic crocodile eating her pogo stick, as she has a spare one in her purse, only doing it to avoid another mud-puddle incident like earlier.
- I Regret Nothing: D.D. holds no regrets on the infamous "hat" incident.
- "It tasted like chicken seasoned with shame too."
- Karmic Butt-Monkey: Dick Avery ran over a turtle, which made the turtle gave him a sneer look in contempt as a result. Towards the end of the cartoon, the turtle returns to beat up an already-beaten Dick Avery as revenge.
- "This is for not taking the slow and steady you filthy punk."
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: D.D.'s voice is based off of Gilbert Gottfried.
- Henrietta Horvitz is named after voice artist Richard Steven Horvitz while she is modeled after Major Doctor Ghastly from Evil Con Carne.
- Dirty Dick Avery is named after both Dick Wolf, creator of Law & Order, and cartoonist Tex Avery; whom is known for using wolves in his cartoons.
- Hades' voice was based off of General Skarr from Evil Con Carne.
- Given Name Reveal: D.D. refers to Dirty Dick as "Richard" after flicking him on the nose.
- Romantic False Lead: The narrator reveals towards the end that Henrietta left The Grover Guys for someone who can "double-dutch while wearing roller-skates with a candle-stick under the jump rope".
- Simple Solution Won't Work: After The Grover Guys teleported to Dirty Dick's cabin, Beanie suggested that they could've teleported outside of the cabin so that they can make a dramatic entrance. Mikey and D.D. dismissed the idea since they blew their animation budget on the teleportation effects and that making it to the cabin was good enough. Beanie begrudgingly agrees as a result.
- Shout-Out: The entire cartoon is a pastiche homage to The Dover Boys, especially with the cartoons' use of smear in-betweens and borrowed gags from the short.
- The scene where a bar customer gasps in front of Dirty Dick Avery the moment Avery says the word "repugnant" is a reference to the Pinky and the Brain episode "TV or Not TV".
- Dick Avery calls the turtle Franklin and Cecil Turtle.
- The narrator got the Sun to leave by telling him there was Raisin Bran, alluding the common Sun mascot in the cereal.
- The Grover Guys are hopping on Mikey's dad's stomach, alluding the Dr. Seuss book Hop on Pop.
- The Grover Guys briefly teleported to the '30s Ub Iwerks cartoon, Balloon Land, because D.D. apparently binged watched cartoons from that decade.
- "Go choke on Cookie Crisps, Dick!" is an allusion to the famous cereal brand known for it's wolf mascot.
- Dick Avery states that the dog whistle Henrietta used sounds like the "Big Bad Wolf" song from the series, House of Mouse.
- Take This Job and Shove It: The narrator briefly quits out of annoyance of the Grover Guys taking too long to think of a rescue plan, as well as being insulted from D.D. calling them an "underpaid narrator". They return towards the end as it's required by their contract to conclude the story.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Henrietta does not like the use of pogo sticks as transportation, especially since she later got in a mud puddle. At one point, she complained on how the Grover Guys preferred that over double-dutching over a candle-stick while wearing roller-skates.
- ''I told those boys that pogo stick jumping wasn't my thing. Apparently double-dutching while wearing roller-skates with a candle-stick under the jump rope is too good for them. OHHOHO!! LORD KNOWS IT HAD TO BE FREAKIN' POGO STICKS!"
