A series of 1-minute shorts created by [adult swim] parodying Superfriends. They star the Wonder Twins (and Gleek the Space Monkey) in various adventures; however, unlike in their source cartoon, the twins are presented as incompetent superheroes. Wendy Harris and Marvin White appear in supporting roles.
These shorts provide examples of the following tropes:
- Art Shift: Although a lot of dubbed Superfriends footage is used in some shorts, and the newly done Harvey Birdman-like animation hews very close to the old style (albeit a little more fluid in movement), there's still a noticeable difference between the two.
- Black Comedy: Almost every short features this, usually with at least one teenager dying.
- Black Comedy Rape: "Make-Out Mountain" has the Wonder Twins' rescue attempts delayed because a male eagle tried to hump Jayna in her eagle form.
- Cringe Comedy: "Be Kind, Rewind" lacks the usual dark comedy the other shorts have. Instead, it's about the Wonder Twins accidentally running into the now-adult Marvin and Wendy at a video store. The twins try to avoid them but they end up wandering into the adult section and meet Marvin in it. The short combines the awkwardness of being caught in that section with the awkwardness of meeting an old acquaintance you didn't get along with before.
- Dark Parody: The premise of the shorts are that they concern Zan and Jayna from Superfriends being such incompetent superheroes that the teenagers they try to save end up dying instead.
- Did Not Think This Through: In one episode, the Wonder Twins try to save some teenagers whose car is dangling on the edge of an excavation pit. To help, Zan transforms into a bridge. As in, a bridge made of slippery ice.Teenager: [holding onto the edge of the bridge] The bridge is made of ice! AND THERE'S NO GUARDRAILS!
- It goes from bad to worse when Zan tries to reshape himself into an ice bridge with guardrails—said rails appear on the edge that one of the teenagers is clinging to, and their sudden presence makes him fall.
- Downer Ending: Every episode besides "Be Kind, Rewind" ends with someone dying.
- Formerly Fit: The once slender Marvin grew up into a rather chubby adult. Lampshaded by Jayna: "Marvin got puffy."
- Formula-Breaking Episode: "Be Kind, Rewind" is the one episode that doesn't involve teenagers getting horribly killed as a result of the Wonder Twins failing to save them in time. Instead, Zan and Jayna are at the video store and find themselves in an awkward meeting with Marvin after unsuccessfully trying to hide from him in the adult video section.
- Frictionless Ice: In "Drag Race," Zan turns into an ice bridge to help save some teenagers in danger of falling into a ravine. Two of them promptly slip uncontrollably and fall off.
- Graceful Loser: Marvin and Wendy don't have any hard feelings toward the Wonder Twins for replacing them in the Super Friends; their band has even signed with a major record label, and they're doing very well for themselves. It's actually Zan and Jayna who make things awkward by trying to hide from the others.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: Every short begins with the Wonder Twins at various non-heroic activities including playing ping-pong, going camping, miniature golfing, or renting videos. It makes the inevitable disasters all the funnier.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Marvin doesn't even notice the Wonder Twins are in a disguise when he sees them in a video store. After all, an ice chair and a bear rug really stand out in such an environment.
- Retraux: The shorts are in the style of the Superfriends cartoon.
- Stylistic Suck: The animation is made to look like Superfriends, complete with all the animation oddities and errors.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Much of the shorts' humor derives from this trope.
- In "Initiation", the Twins try to stop a rampaging bear. Jayna becomes a gopher to dig a small trench around the bear, and Zan turns into water to fill the trench. After a pause, the bear simply walks over the moat and continues brutally killing the teenager in the cave.
- In "Joy Ride", the Twins try to save a pair of teenagers who have stolen a plane. The teens freak out at the sight of a talking eagle carrying a bucket of water that's also talking, and when Jayna and Zan try to assume new forms to help, the plane crashes because they took too long to choose.
- In "Drag Race", one of the cars in the titular race ends up dangling over an excavation pit. Jayna turns into an elephant to pull it back — so far so good — but then Zan becomes an "ice bridge" for the teens in the car to walk on. The ice, being, you know, ice, is incredibly slippery and immediately sends one girl plummeting to her death. To make matters worse, Zan forgot to put guardrails on the bridge, and when he does add them, their sudden presence sends another teen over the edge. And the only teen that lives ends up with a broken ankle because her foot landed in Zan's mouth.
- In "Make-Out Mountain", the Twins rush to the rescue when they hear a car with teenagers inside is precariously perched over a ravine. An eagle shows up, takes an interest in Jayna's transformed state, and distracts the two by humping her. When they finally reach Make-Out Mountain, the Twins encounter a cop who coldly informs them that the teens are "at the morgue by now."
- In "Be Kind, Rewind", the Twins try to disguise themselves in the porn section of a video store by becoming "an ice chair" and "a very skinny bear" (to resemble a rug). Marvin immediately recognizes the two (when's the last time you saw a chair made of ice sitting over a bearskin rug in a porn shop?) and strikes up a conversation with them.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Averted. While the twins are taking their free time saying their catchphrases, an airplane that is quickly crashing into the water crashes anyway.
- Toilet Humour: "Joy Ride" ends with Zan turning into fecal matter after yelling "Crap!"
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Averted in "Joy Ride". Zan and Jayna try to save two teenagers who have taken a faulty plane for a ride. When they see Jayna as a talking eagle carrying a bucket of talking water, they freak out and cause their plane to fall into the ocean. Something similar happens in "Drag Race".
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Zan's power of being able to turn into water is barely useful, if at that. Furthermore, when he does take on more impressive forms, such as an ice bridge, he typically fails to consider the implications of people walking on ice.
- What the Hell, Hero?: At her son's funeral, the grieving mother of a man who died due to Zan and Jayna using their powers incorrectly gives them a big "The Reason You Suck" Speech before slapping them.Jayna: Well, I guess we all learned a valuable lesson: that initiations are dangerous!
Woman: I learned my lesson, too.
Zan: What?
Woman: I learned that a 1-inch-deep gopher moat won't contain a bear... Oh. I'm sorry, I already knew that. That's your lesson. You [Jayna] could have used your powers to turn into a dinosaur, or another bear to fight him off. Or you [Zan] an ice cage. But instead you dug a gopher moat. And now my son is dead. - Women Are Wiser: Jayna is marginally more intelligent than Zan and creative with her powers, but that's not saying much. Zan is also prone to boasting about his skills during the introduction at various amusements, and usually ends up eating crow.
