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Angry Kid is a British Stop Motion series of shorts created by Aardman Animations, involving a redheaded Bratty Half-Pint who usually harasses his father, sister and, well, practically anyone unfortunate enough to come in contact with him. These shorts originally aired on the Channel 4 block 4Later before being aired on BBC Three as well as the now-defunct video website Atom.com. Unlike most Aardman productions, these series of shorts use an animation technique known as pixilation, in which a live actor potraying the body of Angry Kid had to wear masks and use small movements to create a stop motion effect; this was dropped in Series 3 as the masks were replaced with CGI.The show had run for two series between 1999 and 2002 and had two additional revival series on YouTube in 2016 and 2019 respectively. A few special shorts were also made, ranging from the "Handbags" music video and the BBC Who Do You Think You Are? special.
Provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Angry Kid's father shows traces of this, especially in the first series and the special, wherein the latter we learn that his behaviour caused Angry Kid's mother leaving him. However, this was toned down in the revival series, in which he showed more empathy and acted more of a good parent.
- Animated Shock Comedy: Fits this trope to a T, and wears it with pride.
- Bathroom Control: Subverted in the short "Piss". AK has to go while he's in the car with his father. His dad is annoyed by this and initially refuses to pull over, but he hands him a bottle to use when AK insists that it's urgent. As it turns out, there's much more than can be held by one bottle, and so they end up using every single receptacle in the car to hold all the piss. Eventually, Angry Kid's did agrees to stop when they reach the last bottle... but unfortunately stops a little too suddenly.Dad: Alright, I'm stopping! (brakes hard)Angry Kid: NONONONONO-! (all the bottles of urine in the car spill everywhere)
- Behind the Black: Despite what Angry Kid can be capable of on-screen, he is shown to appear and disappear in different places off-screen with little explained as to how he did it.
- In "Headlights", he was able to vanish outside of his dad's car while driving through headlights, before getting stuck on a truck's bumper outside and appearing back in the car again.
- In "Speed", he was able to interrupt a police radio frequency by appearing inside the police car itself just after fleeing from the car's point of view on his bike with Li'l Sis in tow, and before the bike comes back in view with AK and Li'l Sis having swapped places.
- Bratty Half-Pint: The titular character.
- Butt-Monkey: All of the recurring characters, including Angry Kid himself.
- Camera Abuse:
- The ending to "Love Bite".
- Some of the trailers and DVD menu transitions show AK hitting the camera with a pork chop.AK: I'M THE DADDY NOW!
- Christmas Episode: "Queen's Speech" and "Birdy".
- Cool Bike: Angry Kid's Chopper.
- Country Matters: As a show from Britain, where the word is not as taboo as it is in the States (though still seen as vulgar), the C-word has cropped up a couple of times in dialogue uncensored:
- In "Tourettes":
AK: Buggerweepisspoo... boobies CUNT!- In "I-Spy", AK tries to come up with a word beginning with C by saying "cunt-stubble", but quickly tries to play off that he meant to say "constable".
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Most of the episode titles and their plots (for example an episode called "Chips" involves the main character eating chips, and another called "Queen's Speech" where the main character does a Queen's speech styled video).
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: In "Buzz Off", AK puts a set of oversized false teeth in his mouth, then proceeds to attach a toothbrush to the vibrator and brush them.AK: Hello lovely lady. Hello!
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Card Trick", if you look carefully at the television, it is shown playing a distorted frame taken from an Angry Kid episode, namely "Strange Trip".
- Funny Background Event: In "Curious", while AK is talking to Dad, Li'l Sis can be seen feeding her dinner to the pet dog.
- Gross-Out Show
- Jar Potty: In "Piss", AK has a Potty Emergency, and Dad won't stop, so he gives AK a bottle to pee in. AK quickly fills it up, and asks for another one, which he fills up as well. Before long, he has used up every bottle in the car.
- Jerkass:
- Angry Kid.
- Dad to a lesser extent.
- Kirk Summation: In the special, Li'l Sis directs an excellent one towards AK in the essay he forces her to write for him:The ginger demon's sociopathy knows no bounds. He has never been seen to show remorse or exhibit the slightest empathy for those around him. Furthermore, even when castigated for his misdemeanors, he fails to learn from his experiences. He will always attempt to choose the easiest way out of a difficult situation, and frequently blames others for his own mistakes. My only hope is by reading these words, he will be forced to pause and consider, and perhaps will come to see the error of his ways.
- Mood Whiplash: In "Backwards Writing" during the part where Dad struggles to answer AK's question on why "ambulance" is written backwards on vehicles:(When Li'l Sis shows the word "Daddy" written on a piece of card backwards on the mirror)Dad: That's it, Poppet, exactly.(Angry Kid snatches the paper, writes "Daddy is a twat", and reveals it)Dad: (Reading) Daddy is a... OI!
- Motor Mouth: Used as the gag for the episode "Tourette's", especially the ending in which AK blurts out as many cuss words as possible very quickly.
- Mundane Made Awesome: According to the Series 1 DVD, Angry Kid describes some of the most basic things he does in the shorts as "adventures":You've made an excellent choice with this, my first DVD release, featuring 25 of my most amazing adventures - like when I was brushin' my teeth and when I ate some chips... great stuff like that!
- No Fourth Wall: In some episodes, Angry Kid would talk to the viewer as if they're there with him.
- In "Catapult", he introduces the said object and teases the audience by pretending to fire it at them. However, when doing so he inadvertently fires it at a school teacher's car.
- In "Love Bite", he tells the viewer that "he's got a girlfriend" after giving himself a love bite, and then another one before shoving the camera.
- In "Workout", he does a fitness video parody where he attempts to engage the audience to participate with him.
- No Indoor Voice: Angry Kid tends to talk this way.
- On the Series 1 DVD, if one were to go on the "hard of hearing" choice AK himself will scream the sentence out loud.
- No Plot? No Problem!: A lot of the shorts don't have much of a story, just consisting of Angry Kid being himself.
- Put on a Bus: In the revived series, Speccy does not appear in any of the episodes, save for a mention in "Puberty". Similarly, Li'l Sis is nowhere to be seen in most of the episodes, but only returned for three separate ones.
- Re-Cut:
- There are two different versions of the "Russian Roulette" short, where the extended version features what happened to Speccy when he's been hit with the hammer. While the cut version showed a still frame of AK covering Speccy's forehead after the credits, the extended version features the scene in full. A patch of skin peels away from Speccy's forehead and starts to bleed heavily, and AK claps a hand over the wound while muttering, "Oh, shit!"
- In "Jackanory", when Angry kid brings in Speccy dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, he originally makes a comment that "she" looks like a "bender"note . When the episode was given an HD edit on YouTube, AK instead calls Speccy a "bellend" and refers to him as a "he" rather than a "she".
- Running Gag:
- "Are we there yet?".
- Dad getting angry whenever AK winds him up.
- Shout-Out:
- In the episode "Buzz Off", one of the things Angry Kid does with the vibrator is he puts it up to his neck while it's vibrating, and says "Exterminate! Exterminate!" as he mimics a Dalek.
- The episode "Road Safety" is a tribute to old 1970's Public Information Films, complete with a grainy visual style and a Green Cross Code Man-expy.
- The episode "Card Trick" is one episode-long Shout-Out to famously bad magician-comedian Tommy Cooper.
- In the background during his "vlogs", you can see that Angry Kid has framed photos of the Chuckle Brothers and Homepride Frednote on the shelf.
- Speccy's horrifying allergic reaction to nuts in "Swollen" is the Elephant Man.
- Spit Take: An off-screen spit-take (courtesy of the sound effects) happens in the short "Curious" when the titular Angry Kid asks his dad "What's a butt plug?" after inquiring about some 'strange noises' he heard from his mum and dad the night before.
- Stylistic Suck: Angry Kid's drawings.
- Superhero Episode: The episode "Superhero".
- Too Dumb to Live: Angry Kid by all but literal definition. Despite being 15 years old he is constantly taking the piss out of everyone around him, often leading to things like humiliation from Li'l Sis, getting mag-slapped by his dad despite not holding off his fowl backwards-writing, causing harm towards Speccy, making someone shoot themselves on the phone, causing a police chase that might bite him in the backsides later on...
- Took a Level in Kindness: In Season 3, Dad's abusive traits are noticeably absent, here he is shown to be much more level-headed and reasonable towards AK and his antics.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Take a good guess.
- Verbal Tic: Angry Kid has a tendency to murmur "Weyyy..." to himself.
- Villain Protagonist: Angry Kid himself.
