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He's a T.U.F.F. Puppy, T.U.F.F. Puppy, he's a T.U.F.F. Puppy!

Dudley Puppy was a plain old mutt (Plain old mutt)
He'd scratch, he'd dig, and then he'd chew his butt (Chew his butt)
But when bad guys get too rough
He went to work for T.U.F.F.
And now he's doing secret agent stuff!

The third Nicktoon created by Butch Hartman (after The Fairly OddParents! and Danny Phantom). It ran from October 2, 2010 to April 4, 2015.

In the show, a "dim-witted dog" named Dudley Puppy is recruited by the Turbo Undercover Fighting Force (T.U.F.F.) to protect his hometown of Petropolis with the aid of his partner, Kitty Katswell, against villains like the Diabolical Order Of Mayhem (D.O.O.M.).

Now has an (in-progress) recap page.


Tropes:

  • Academy of Evil: In "Disobedience School", Dudley infiltrates Snaptrap's new "Snaptrap School of Evil".
  • AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: A running gag in the episode which introduces the Chameleon is Dudley (and eventually, Kitty and the Chameleon himself) pronouncing his name as "Cham-e-LE-on."
  • Accidental Hero: When Dudley first encounters D.O.O.M, he knocked out all the henchmen simply because he was trying to recover his chew toy. He was so good at this trope that it's the reason he was recruited to T.U.F.F
  • Accidental Marriage: When Snaptrap and Chameleon go on a Wedding Smashers spree, Dudley and Kitty have to fake a wedding to catch them. After all is said is done, it is hinted that Keswick was actually certified and their marriage was real (though Keswick claims he was joshing Kitty and Dudley to mess with them after they faint).
  • Accidental Misnaming:
    • There are times when a character doesn't get the other character's name right. Examples includes Peg mostly calling Kitty "Mitzi", and even Jack mostly calls Dudley different names like "Davey" and "Dumply".
    • Keswick corrects Snaptrap the first couple of times he says his name incorrectly, but quickly gives up. Keswick does it with his own name at the end of the episode, as well as Snaptrap's, with Snaptrap correcting him.
  • Accidental Truth:
    • In "Cruisin' For a Bruisin'", Kitty lies to Dudley about a bad guy trying to ruin T.U.F.F.'s cruise so he can leave her alone. As it turns out, this is actually true — Snaptrap is trying to sink the ship with his iceberg lair.
    • In "Rat Trap", Dudley and Kitty cover up playing ping pong on duty by lying to the Chief that they're planning how to stop a new villain named Jeff. While they made Jeff up, he turns out to be real at the end of the episode.
  • Action Girl: Kitty Katswell is a woman and does a fair amount of kicking butt.
  • Advance Notice Crime: In "Doom and Gloom", Verminious Snaptrap always announces his evil plans to T.U.F.F. so they can stop him. When Larry tells Snaptrap that it's not a good idea to tell T.U.F.F. his plans, Snaptrap tells them that the only reason he does so is because he feels it would be rude not to (this is despite the fact that as a villain, he has no obligation to be polite). After being released from prison, Snaptrap is ready to tell T.U.F.F. his next plan. Larry points out that the reason they keep getting arrested is because he keeps telling T.U.F.F. his plans, and when Snaptrap doesn't listen to him, Larry quits working for him, taking over the Diabolical Order of Mayhem (or D.O.O.M. for short), renaming it Genius Larry's Order of Mayhem (G.L.O.O.M. for short), committing crimes without telling T.U.F.F. his plans, and changing his name to Murray. Although this doesn't stop Larry from telling his plans to Snaptrap by the phone just to brag, which leads to Snaptrap telling T.U.F.F. the details.
  • Affably Evil: Ollie the opossum, one of Snaptrap's henchmen, is one of the most polite characters on the show.
  • Affectionate Parody:
    • The series' theme song is based on the theme to the 1960s TV series Secret Agent.
    • The theme song to T.U.F.F. and D.O.O.M. in "Share-a-Lair" used The Brady Bunch's theme tune but tweaked the lyrics and graphics to fit.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Keswick's sentient toaster R.I.T.A. in "Toast of T.U.F.F." ends up going berserk and turning against T.U.F.F.
  • Alien Among Us: As a minor running gag, it is occasionally implied that Keswick is actually an alien.
  • Alliterative Name: Kitty Katswell and Peg Puppy.
    • Dudley's original name was Dudley Dog.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Dudley is a combination of every breed of dog in existence, giving him the skills of each one (i.e. the nose of a bloodhound, speed of a greyhound, strength of a boxer, etc.) He must have quite a family tree.
    • He's also got a dash of billy goat, though Keswick isn't quite sure how to explain that.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Dudley and Kitty. Neither of them show any obvious Jewish traits, but their mothers do.
  • Annoying Laugh: Snaptrap has an intentionally annoying laugh.
  • Anti-Villain: Birdbrain's henchmen: The Owl and the Bat.
    • Slush, Snowflake's twin brother in "Chilly Dog".
    • Also Percival, Stink Bug's henchman.
  • Anvil on Head:
    • Happens to Dudley in "The Dog Who Cried Fish"
    • Happens the Chameleon (disguised as a poodle) in "Puppy Love".
    • Also happens to the Chief with multiple anvils in "Mission: Really Big Mission".
    • Happens again to Kitty Katswell in "Bark to Nature," Accompanied with circling stars.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The camp in the episode "Snappy Campers" is surrounded by a nuclear reactor, a dynamite factory and an 88¢ store. Subverted in that the 88¢ store sells bombs for 88¢ each.
  • Artificial Limb: The Chief has a bionic foot that makes him even cooler than he is already.
  • Art Shift: Happens on "Puff Puppy", in which a vortex Dudley accidentally created could change anyone's style to CGI should they enter it.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The Chameleon has a hard time focusing on his schemes over his stoma- OOH LADYBUG! *nom*
    • Dudley during the beginning of the episode "Watch Dog".
    • Kitty when in the train's cat car In "Guard Dog"
  • Ash Face: In the episode "Frisky Business", after the Chameleon escaped, he comes back as a rocket to grab his hotdog, but in the process of landing and taking off, blasts Kitty with the flames and leaves her completely charred black and smoking.
    • Happens to Kitty multiple times in "Doom-mates", when Dudley blasts her with a gun, and also when the Chameleon blows her up with a bomb multiple times.
  • Ass Kicks You: Dudley has attacked enemies by lunging his rear end at them on occasion.
  • Attractive Bent-Gender: The episode "Chilly Dog," when Dudley dresses up as a girl to go with Kitty's boy. Boys fall in love with Dudley as a girl.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Dudley and Kitty have several moments where they prove to care about each other in spite of how difficult it is for them to work together.
  • Backing Away Slowly: Dudley, Kitty and Keswick back away from the Chief after he blames the flood on ghost rain in "The Dog Who Cried Fish".
  • Badass in Distress: Almost every mission leads to Dudley and/or Kitty getting caught or kidnapped by the villain. They usually manage to free themselves and turn the tables on the bad guys.
  • Bad "Bad Acting": From "Doom-Mates":
    Kitty: Oh, no. My whiskers are still gone.
    Dudley: Oh, no. Don't fall on the bomb detonator.
    (Cue fall)
    • Also from the scene with Dr. Apocalypse in "Super Duper Crime Busters".
  • Bad Humor Truck: "Pup Goes the Weasel" has the Weasel trying to lure Dudley and Snaptrap out of hiding so he can kill them, one of his methods being that he tries to entice them by driving an ice cream truck.
  • Bad News, Irrelevant News: From "Mall Rat":
    Keswick: Chief, I've analyzed the blueprint of the mall. The bad news is, there's absolutely no way to stop the mall from hurtling toward the sun.
    Chief: Hmm. What's the good news?
    Keswick: The food court's open till nine.
  • Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Most of the male characters are never seen wearing shoes, except for Keswick. Also, "Moms Away" has a gag about a kangaroo mom who can't find shoes to fit her huge feet.
  • Bears Are Bad News: Leather Teddy is a D.O.O.M. agent who happens to be a bear.
  • Beard of Evil: Dudley *and* Kitty each wear one in order to resemble their evil twins: Dr. Rabies and Madame Katastrophe.
  • Berserk Button: In "Bagel and the Beast", Bigfoot gets infuriated whenever anyone rejects the bagels he offers.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Dudley is mostly a good-natured, if Lethally Stupid dog, but once he notices that someone is hurting his friends or whenever someone takes one of his chew toys without asking him, the enemies will pay big time.
  • Big Bad: Snaptrap, though other recurring villains not related to him have their own episodes as well.
  • Big Ball of Violence: In "Doom-Mates", Dudley and Kitty make this up after a Wimp Fight for a few seconds.
  • Big "NO!": Four times the charm in "Watch Dog".
    • Kitty, when Dudley is sending her to the "Non Reserved Visitor Parking" floor to stop her from getting the last donut.
    • In the same episode, Dudley has three times the reaction: one, when Kitty attempted to eat the last donut he races her for; two, when his attempt to use a time travel watch would lead to altering the timeline where Snaptrap rules, and three, when he comes back from the use of time travel to get ice cream wearing pants.
  • Big, Thin, Short Trio:
    • The three main T.U.F.F. agents consist of Dudley (Big), Kitty (Thin), and Keswick (Short).
    • Snaptrap's henchmen consist of Francisco (Big), Ollie (Thin), and Larry (Short).
  • Big "WHAT?!": In "Mom-A-Geddon", three times.
    • Everyone's reaction of finding out Birdbrain's bracelet, which is under the possession of Dudley's mother Peg, is really a deadly laser toilet.
    • Also, Peg reacts like this when she is not pleased of finding out Dudley's job as a secret agent (at first).
    • Lastly, Everyone's reaction of her not planning to make Dudley quit his job.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: "Bagel and the Beast" has Snaptrap commit robberies while disguising himself as Bigfoot, which prompts T.U.F.F. to arrest Bigfoot and Dudley trying to prove Bigfoot's innocence due to being friends with the cryptid since he was a kid.
  • Bird-Poop Gag: Dudley gets covered in bird droppings in the episode "Dog Dish".
  • Black Sheep: "Diary of a Mad Cat" reveals Kitty has a criminal sister.
  • Bond Gun Barrel: "The Wrong Stuff" features a spoof of the gun barrel sequence from the James Bond movies where the gun barrel moves past Keswick holding a piece of cake and focuses on a sillhouette of Jack Rabbit holding a carrot.
  • Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
    • In "Mall Rat", Kitty tries to warn that Snaptrap's having reformed is probably a scam, and the citizens of Petropolis should not trust his kindness.
    Kitty: They could be poisoned, or bombs, or...or poisonous bombs!
    • "Iron Mutt" has Snaptrap wear a fake mustache as a disguise at one point, a dress as a disguise in another and at the end of the episode states that he wants to wear both.
    • "Dog Daze" has Dudley e-mailed hypnotizing messages that each give him a different instruction for bizarre behavior. Keswick gets exposed to one that combines all of them.
    Keswick: I'm a pretty pirate princess who's late for the woodpecker ball, HA-GI-GI!
  • Bring My Brown Pants: "Pup Goes the Weasel" ends with Snaptrap learning that The Weasel is now his cellmate. This horrifies him, afterwards he implies that the shock made him soil himself.
  • Butterfly of Doom: Parodied. Dudley travels back in time two minutes in order to grab the last donut before Kitty gets it. This somehow causes Snaptrap to always have been the ruler of Petropolis and prevents the formation of T.U.F.F.
  • Butt-Monkey: Larry, especially from Snaptrap.
    • Pretty much all the main characters at some point.
  • Calvin Ball: In "The Rat Pack", some of Dudley's clones play "Monkey In The Middle". Unfortunately, they don't know the rules.
  • Camp Wackyname: The episode "Snappy Campers" takes place at Camp Itchy-Owie-Boo-Boo.
  • Canines Primary, Felines Secondary: Dudley Puppy the dog and Kitty Katswell the cat in are actually partners in a spy team (with Kitty being the senior partner), but most of the plot line in the show revolves around Dudley and Kitty plays a more supporting role.
  • Captain Obvious: In "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'", after Snaptrap has accidentally eaten some blue cheese and blown up to the size of a blimp:
    Ollie: Come to think of it, aren't you allergic to cheese?
    Snaptrap: Well, thank you, Captain Obvious.
  • Carnivore Confusion: A world of talking animals, including cows and birds, has steak, fried chicken, and other meat as food.
    • One of Kitty's flashbacks to her childhood, in "Operation: Happy Birthday", shows her eating a talking mouse magician hired to perform at her birthday party, something that makes the other partygoers freak out. Her mother then scolds for that.
    • Though lampshaded and averted in "Forget Me Mutt" where Snaptrap is thinking of a plan to get back at the Monotrail workers who wouldn't let them on. His alligator lackey Francisco suggests "We could eat 'em" in which Snaptrap flat-out states "that's just dark and disturbing".
    • In "Mind Trap", Dudley and Kitty once fell down the stairs into a basement filled with bear traps. Dudley even asks why would anyone need so many bear traps.
    • Lampshaded in "Happy Howl-O-Ween", where is mentioned that Dudley was forced to hire a lawyer because he ate a turkey in Thanksgiving.
  • Catchphrase:
    • Dudley: "Hi-gee-gee!"
    • Snaptrap: "It is I, Verminious Snaptrap!" and "I shall now plot my revenge!"
    • Just like Snaptrap, Chameleon also has "it is I, The Chameleon!"
  • Cats Are Superior: With Kitty Katswell, it should probably come as no surprise, as she is naturally the brains of the duo.
    • To be totally fair, the bar isn't exactly set too high...
    • Parodied in "The Curse of King Mutt"
    Kitty (To Dudley): "Honestly, why can't you be more like a cat? Determined, and focused, and... (Spots a toy mouse) MOUSE!" *Kitty proceeds to chase it*.
  • Cartoon Creature: Word of God says, "[T.U.F.F.] always knows [Keswick] will have the answer, but they just don't know what kind of animal he is."
    • Case in point, the webbed feet may lead one to believe him a platypus, but then there's the lack of duck bill or beaver tail...and the fact that he has gills. And that he laid an egg.
    • Lampshaded earlier in the same episode:
      Dudley: ...find a female dog or kangaroo or whatever it is you are.
      Kitty: I thought he was a labradoodle.
      Dudley: He can't be, he's got a pouch.
      (Keswick stuffs an object down his pants)
      • Its revealed in a later episode that Keswick is actually part of his own species, also called Keswick. They have quite an unusual life cycle, including a 'platypus phase' where they shoot toxic quills when they hiccup.
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Parody: The episode "Candy Cane-ine" is partly this, as it involves a candy factory owned by a Willy Wonka expy called Willy Wombat.
  • Cheated Angle: Dudley's ears.
  • Cheek Copy:
    • Dudley does several photocopies of his derriere in "Puppy Unplugged" and mentions that he gave a photocopy of his backside to his friend Phil as a wedding gift.
    • One of the ways Dudley goofs off in "Puppy Pause" is by photocopying his buttocks to make greeting cards with butt-related puns.
  • The Chew Toy: Kitty suffers Amusing Injuries in almost every episode. The same can be said for Snaptrap, who also has his own personal Chew Toy, Larry.
  • Christmas Episode: "A Doomed Christmas", where Dudley and Kitty have to stop Snaptrap, Bird Brain and the Chameleon from ruining Christmas and Dudley obsesses over getting a racecar bed.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
    • In earlier episodes, D.O.O.M. included additional members who were mainly limited to background roles, such as the Mole, Leather Teddy and Bad Dog. After the first season, they stopped appearing, with Snaptrap, Ollie, Francisco and Larry being the only members of D.O.O.M. shown.
    • "Lucky Duck" showed Quacky to have other cohorts/co-stars besides the Sharing Moose, such as the Counting Cougar and the Phonics Fox. Subsequent episodes have the Sharing Moose as Quacky's only henchman, with the only acknowledgement of the others ever given being the Quacktion Figures made in their likeness that are used in Quacky's plan in the episode "Quack in the Box".
  • City of Adventure: Petropolis.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Averted. Zippy in "Mom-a-geddon" tells Bird Brain that he can fly if he only believes. Brain Brain tries it and promptly falls to the ground.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: The Chief. "Yay! I love it when we get to evacuate!" Also, whenever a huge disaster that would destroy the world or do something similarly bad is about to occur, a Running Gag is for him to say, "Oh No! that means that (rather minor and inconsequential side effect) will happen. His "Oh No!" Catchphrase is also used to exaggerate the seriousness of minor incidents.
  • Companion Cube: Vivian, Verminious Snaptrap's bar of soap friend in "Mall Rat". He even talks on the soap's behalf by feigning a barely feminine voice.
  • Cone of Shame: Dudley has to wear a cone in "Dog Dish" so he won't scratch at the horrible red rash on his butt.
  • Continuity Nod: In "A Doomed Christmas", Dudley gets a race car shaped bed from Santa. We see it in his bedroom in several later episodes.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Zigzagged with the volcano rides at Lava Land in "Disobedience School".
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: At the end of "Cruisin' For A Bruisin'", the D.O.O.M. members are punished by having to listen to Keswick's terrible attempt at karaoke.
  • Cop/Criminal Family: T.U.F.F. agent Kitty Katswell has a sister who is in prison, who her mother apparently favours more since she bothers to call her on her birthday.
  • Couch Gag: The gag of something different happening at the end of every title sequence comes in the form of the outcome of Dudley's guitar riff in the opening, as well as which part of the show's logo he's at and whether or not it's Kitty, Keswick or Snaptrap playing the guitar instead.
  • Counting Sheep: Snaptrap and his minions try to get Dudley to fall asleep in "Dog Tired" by putting on sheep costumes and taking turns jumping over a fence so that he'd count them. Unfortunately for D.O.O.M., Dudley doesn't know how to count.
  • Crossover: Around two years after the show ended its run, Dudley and Kitty resurfaced in the promotional short Fairly Odd Phantom, which crossed over with the other Butch Hartman-created Nicktoons The Fairly OddParents!, Danny Phantom and Bunsen Is a Beast.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Dudley, definitely. From time to time, he proves himself capable of being an effective secret agent in spite of his idiocy and immaturity.
  • Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: In "Operation: Happy Birthday", Snaptrap takes a slice from the cake Dudley has made using Keswick's flash-baker after convincing the villain to throw a birthday party for Kitty before killing the two T.U.F.F. agents, then he devours the rest of the cake after leaving the slice he took. This proves to be Snaptrap's undoing, as the cake turns out to be cheesecake and he gets incapacitated by swelling tremendously due to being a rat with an Ironic Allergy to cheese.
  • Cute Kitten: Kitty as a kitten is just darn adorable.
  • Da Chief
  • Darker and Edgier: "Toast of T.U.F.F" despite still having silly moments, was probably the first "quite serious" episode, compared to the overly goofy and silly episodes before it. With one of the rare (If not only) villains that was "truly evil, and not wacky in any sense" and the defeat of the regular villains were somewhat dark. Snaptrap being blasted in the face, pointblank range with a moon destroying laser, it never showed him recover, while usually he says something wacky, this time he just laid there. And The Chameleon being turned into a grub and trying to devour himself.
  • Dartboard of Hate:
    • In "Doom and Gloom", when Snaptrap is moping in his mom's house and Larry (Murray) is running loose Snaptrap takes out his aggression by throwing darts (and a wood axe) at pictures of him.
    • "Dancin' Machine" has the Chameleon imprisoned after he had been taking people's quarters by disguising himself as an arcade machine. He has a photograph of the arcade's assistant manager Toby Finkle in his cell, which the Chameleon has thrown darts at in retribution for Toby banning him from the arcade for his actions.
    • Bird Brain's usual henchmen are shown throwing darts at a picture of their boss in "T.U.F.F. Break Up".
  • Deadpan Snarker: Most of the characters, though Kitty and Keswick do it the most in any given episode.
  • Death by De-aging: In "Pup Daddy", a gadget called the Young Gun causes the agents sans Dudley and Snaptrap and his gang to gradually de-age from teen to toddler to baby. Dudley has to return them to normal before they age backwards too much that they cease to exist.
  • Department of Redundancy Department: In "Happy Howl-O-Ween", Dudley announces the villains will be attacked by "Our zombie army of zombies who are zombies".
  • Depraved Kids' Show Host: Recurring villain Quacky the Duck first appeared as the good-natured host of Petropolis' most popular children's show, but turned to crime when the cancellation of his show in the episode "Lucky Duck" caused him to snap.
  • Digging to China: Dudley creates a hole in the Earth from America to China in the episode "Mission: Really Big Mission".
  • Disappeared Dad: Dudley's and Kitty's fathers.
  • Disney Death: In "Toast of T.U.F.F.," Keswick was presumed zapped to oblivion when he tried to help defeat Rita in the climatic showdown. It was actually a holographic image of him, as he reappears at the end.
  • Ditzy Genius: Dudley, who seems to be little more than a hyperactive Idiot Hero, has flashes of genuine cleverness and defeats villains through outsmarting them almost as often as he out-muscles them.
  • Dodge the Bullet: Kitty's ex-partner Jack Rabbit is capable of this.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": Kitty Katswell is a feline whose first name is Kitty.
  • Dogs Are Dumb: Dudley is a dog and is consistently shown to be a bumbling goofball.
  • Dogs Love Fire Hydrants: Dudley very often demonstrates the tendency for dogs to be associated with fire hydrants, particularly in "Dudley Do-Wrong" (where he states that he likes Mayor Teddy for painting the town's fire hydrants bright orange so they're easier to find at night) and "Dog Tired" (where he is shown dreaming about chasing an anthropomorphic fire hydrant).
  • Doomy Dooms of Doom: D.O.O.M. of course.
  • Dumb Blonde: Dudley's girlfriend Daisy from "Girlfriend or Foe".
  • Dystopia: The Snaptrap-ruled alternate timeline created by Dudley's use of Time Travel in "Watch Dog".
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: While not the most extreme example out there, the early episodes do have some slight oddities compared to later ones.
    • While never the brightest bulb, Dudley is considerably less idiotic in the early episodes and more competent to the point of being able to defeat enemies without needing Kitty's help.
    • Snaptrap is also more competent as a villain rather than needing his henchman to think of ideas for him.
    • DOOM also has more agents in the first half of season 1 such as Bad Dog, Leather Teddy, The Mole, a skunk agent in Crusin for a Bruisin, and several unnamed agents in Operation: Happy Birthday. In fact in the first episode, the former two appear as Snaptrap's main henchmen alongside Francisco instead of Ollie and Larry. By the end of season 1, the group soon whittles down to just Snaptrap, Ollie, Larry, and Francisco.
    • The music that plays at the end of each episode is slightly different early on as well and there are a couple early episodes where the characters don't make an action pose at the end shot.
  • Eating the Enemy: Dudley gets himself shrunk by messing with a Shrink Ray in "Internal Affairs". At the same time, he and the Chief, a flea, have to stop the Chameleon who has used his form shifting suit to infiltrate the government in order launch a missile at T.U.F.F Headquarters. They went to stop him, only to get quickly eaten up. After a "Fantastic Voyage" Plot, the two escape. The Chameleon tries to eat them again, but the Chief anticipates this, grabs his tongue, and slams him around into submission.
  • Eek, a Mouse!!: Word for word in the episode "Share-a-Lair", from an elephant.
  • Egg-Laying Male: The male Bird Brain has laid eggs for comedic effect, and so does Keswick.
  • Elephants Are Scared of Mice: In "Share-A-Lair", Agent Jumbo, one of T.U.F.F.'s elephant agents, is afraid of mice and will freak out when she sees one, especially Agent Rodentski, T.U.F.F.'s newest field agent. Near the end of the episode, it is revealed that the Chameleon disguised himself as Agent Rodentski, as well as D.O.O.M.'s newest field agent, Agent Weaselman and a real estate agent as part of his plan to get revenge on T.U.F.F. for putting him in jail and D.O.O.M. for never inviting him to their weekly ice cream socials. As part of his plan to defeat the Chameleon, Dudley tricks him into disguising himself as Agent Rodentski to scare Agent Jumbo so she will freak out and jump on top of him.
  • Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: In "Flower Power", Bird Brain derives a Super Serum from a rare flower that gives him incredible strength as well as a full head of hair, but comes with the side effect of making him pronounce his R's as W's.
  • Embarrassing Hospital Gown: "T.U.F.F. Love" has Snaptrap wear a hospital gown and complain about how it doesn't cover his butt.
  • End-of-Series Awareness: "T.U.F.F. Break Up" (which was the last episode in production order in spite of being the first episode of the third and final season to air) has shades of this, as the plot involves T.U.F.F. being forced to disband due to lack of funding and Kitty at one point remarks on how they've had their run.
  • Endangering News Broadcast: In "Internal Affairs", the Interactive Narrator from the old news reel documentary about the Chief gave away his name, which is supposed to be secret. Not only did the narrator do it two more times, but also gave away the Chief's complete address. In response, the Chief stepped out of shower and blasted the narrator.
  • Episode Title Card: As with Hartman's other works, this one has this, in the form of a case file portfolio.
  • Enemy Mine: Dudley and Snaptrap have worked together a couple of times against other villains.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
    • "Mom's Away" has D.O.O.M. scheme to strand every mother in Petropolis on an island under the reasoning that being ordered around by their mothers are annoying. Larry dissents under the grounds that he loves his mother unconditionally, which of course subjects him to more abuse from Snaptrap.
    • It is mentioned that Kitty's criminal sister Katty used her One Phone Call to call their mom on her birthday, which is one reason Mrs. Katswell views Katty more favorably.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Verminious Snaptrap admits in "Operation: Happy Birthday" that he would never kill anybody on their birthday without letting them celebrate it first. "No one's THAT evil!"
    • When Snaptrap asks for suggestions on how to get revenge on the "meanies" at the monotrail for not letting them ride in "Forget Me Mutt", Fransisco suggests that they eat them. Snaptrap rejects this option as "just dark and disturbing".
    • The reason why Snaptrap tells the Agents his latest plan is because he thinks it's rude not to.
  • "Everybody Laughs" Ending/Every Episode Ending: Not quite a laugh, but everybody who appears in the last scene of an episode will smile and pose for the camera before it fades to black, even if the situation is highly dangerous for the heroes.
  • Everything's Deader with Zombies: "Happy Howl-o-Ween".
  • Evil Duo: Villains in certain episodes.
    • Snowflake and Slush (Chilly Dog)
    • Dr. Rabies and Madame Catastrophe (The Doomies) who are also Dudley's and Kitty's evil twins
    • Birdbrain and Zippy (Mom-a-Geddon)
    • Quacky the Duck and The Sharing Moose in Lucky Duck.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Just about every villain on the show is prone to chewing the scenery and shouting flowery dialogue.
  • Evil Is Petty: In addition to doing things that qualify as evil, most of Snaptrap's actions seem to Poke the Poodle.
  • Evil Twin:
    • Dr. Rabies and Madame Catastrophe in "The Doomies" are villains who happen to be nearly identical to Dudley and Kitty. Oddly, they have evil goatees that make them look like they're from an alternate dimension, but it's just a coincidence and they're actually Criminal Doppelgangers.
    • In "A Tale of Two Kitties" it's revealed Kitty's criminal sister Katty is also her twin.
  • Explosive Breeder: Keswick is said to multiply when he gets wet.
  • Expository Theme Tune: Like The Fairly OddParents! and Danny Phantom before it, the theme song is made to explain the premise of the show.
  • Expy:
  • Face–Heel Turn: Quacky the Duck becomes evil as of "Lucky Duck" after his show gets cancelled.
  • Fallen Hero: Jack Rabbit used to be a well-regarded secret agent, but is now willing to sell secrets to supervillains to get rich.
  • False Teeth Tomfoolery: "Internal Affairs" has both the Chief and General Warthog lose their dentures by snoring.
  • "Fantastic Voyage" Plot: Dudley and the Chief have this experience when they're swallowed by the Chameleon in "Internal Affairs".
  • Fauxreigner: Ollie admits in "True Spies" while under the effects of the Truth Syrup that he's faking the accent and isn't really British.
  • Female Feline, Male Mutt: Dudley is the male mutt and Kitty is the female feline.
  • Five-Second Rule: In "Cruisin' For a Bruisin'", Snaptrap's mobile iceberg lair, which he plans to use to sink the T.U.F.F. cruise ship, has an all-you-can-eat salad bar inside it. When Snaptrap serves himself some salad, a lettuce leaf falls onto the floor. Snaptrap then exclaims "Five-second rule!", and in his effort to catch the leaf with his tongue, gets his tongue stuck to the icy floor.
  • "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: In "Smarty Pants", Keswick makes Dudley smart by having him wear the Smarty Pants gadget to increase his intelligence. But, the side effect is that Keswick's intelligence decreases at the same time.
  • Food Slap: In "Freaky Spy-Day", Dudley (who is Kitty's body) does it to Jack. First, he spills water on him, then he puts ketchup and butter to his face.
  • Fountain of Youth: In "Pup Daddy", the Young Gun causes its victims to gradually age backwards (from teenagers to toddlers and finally to babies) until they cease to exist. This leaves Dudley the responsibility of keeping the de-aged Keswick, Kitty, Chief, Snaptrap, Ollie, Francisco and Larry out of trouble while reversing the effects before it is too late.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: This becomes especially obvious in this scene from "Purr-fect Partners":
    Snaptrap: Ready to lose one of your nine lives?
    Kitty: I'd rather use my ten claws! (brandishing her claws, of which there are clearly only eight)
    • Actually, that is an accurate fact about cats. They only have four 'fingers' on each paw, but also have a fifth claw further up their legs. So she would have ten claws and four fingers.
  • Four-Legged Insect: Chief the flea has four limbs and is bipedal.
  • "Freaky Friday" Flip: The episode "Freaky Spy Day" has Dudley use a brain-switching gizmo to switch brains with Kitty after finding a recorded message from Jack Rabbit on Kitty's phone and being suspicious of Jack Rabbit's wish to see Kitty again. The episode also has Kitty switch minds with Snaptrap to foil Jack Rabbit's plan to steal T.U.F.F. secrets and sell them to Snaptrap and Dudley switching brains with Jack Rabbit to use his credit card to pay for Dudley's tab at Wong's.
  • Freudian Excuse: Verminious Snaptrap might qualify considering all the hints dropped on the show about his Mother being abusive, and how much he hates her.
    • Also, the Chameleon, caused by being a social outcast.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: In "A Doomed Christmas", Dudley wishes to get a race car bed as his Christmas wish; in the climax as he and Kitty help Santa deliver the gifts, Santa has no presents left to give to the last child, who wanted the same race car bed as Dudley. Dudley decides to make the ultimate sacrifice and gives the bed to the child, though this turns out to be subverted later on when he gets a new version of said bed as thanks for helping.
  • Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Kitty, Keswick and Peg Puppy all wear a full set of clothes, shoes included.
  • Fun T-Shirt: In "Mall Rat", Dudley wears a blue variation of his shirt with "I ♥" and the graphic of a muffin.
  • Fun with Acronyms: T.U.F.F. (Turbo Undercover Fighting Force) and D.O.O.M. (Diabolical Order Of Mayhem). Further on, there is R.I.T.A. (Robotic Interative Toasting Appliance), G.L.O.O.M. (Genius Larry's Order Of Mayhem), F.L.O.P.P. (Fiendish League Of Potential Perpetrators), T.R.U.S.T. (T.U.F.F.'s Recreational Ultimate Survival Tool), etc.
  • Funny Animal: Dudley is a walking, talking secret agent, but still harbors affection for chewing his own butt and chew toys. Also, Kitty has little to no balance when her whiskers are cut, as the popular (but incorrect) myth states about real cats.
  • Fur Bikini: In "Hot Dog" Kitty makes herself one by shaving off all her fur except for one big patch in the shape of a one-piece. Dudley leaves a two-pieces bikini of fur after he shaved.
  • Fur Is Clothing:
    • "Mom-A-Geddon" has the fur covering the lower portion of the ordinarily pantsless Dudley's body treated as a pair of pants when they are pulled back to reveal his underwear after his mother states that she put a tracking device there.
    • "Hot Dog" has a weird example where Kitty takes off all her clothes and shaves her body until her remaining fur functions as a one-piece swimsuit.
  • Furry Confusion: In the very first episode we see Verminious Snaptrap, a large anthropomorphic rat, use a mystical Artifact of Doom known as the Kruger Rat to control the minds of all rats in the city. Feral rats.
    • In "Snap Dad", it reveals Snaptrap used to have a pet hamster.
    • We've also seen an anthro-cow as a TUFF agent, and normal cows drawn to Snaptrap's lair with a giant magnet.
    • Kitty used to leave dead mice at the Chief's door. Hopefully, these are non-anthropomorphic mice.
    • Quacky the Duck is an anthropomorphic duck, but Bird Brain's henchman Duck looks like a common duck.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Keswick, by far. He's made a machine that makes donuts out of thin air and redesigned D.O.O.M.'s lair using soup cans and a shark tank.
  • Gag Haircut:
    • Dudley gave himself one in "Hot Dog".
    • Kitty has lost her hair and fur several times in a few episodes, although in most cases by the next scene it’s back to normal. In "Hot Dog," she shaved off almost all of her fur (except her hair, tail, and torso, making it look like she was wearing a one piece swimsuit) when Petropolis had turned into a hot desert. Then half of her hair was blown off by a bomb in "Doom Mates." Also, her hair was burned off (though the rest of her was fine) in "Snappy Campers." In "Big Dog on Campus," she went undercover to Dudley's high school reunion as a girl who had lost all of her hair in an accident - after Keswick revealed this to her her head was shaved before she could react, and she angrily asked why she couldn’t have just said her hair grew back.
  • Getting Sick Deliberately: In "Law and Odor", the Stink Bug gathers up everything stinky in Petropolis to create a giant stink bomb called the Air Unfreshener, which he plans to use to make all of Petropolis too stinky to bear. Dudley is unable to stop him due to having a super-sensitive nose. Meanwhile, Keswick is revealed to have gotten sick from licking a handrail at a hospital, rendering him unable to smell anything. When Dudley finds out, he gets Keswick to make him sick so he can't smell anything and will be able to foil the Stink Bug's plan.
  • Gilligan Cut: Happens in "Kid Stuff" when Dudley comes up with a plan to beat Snaptrap with Quacky the Duck's help.
    Dudley: I'm president of his fan club. He can't say no to me.
    (Cut to Dudley bruised and bandaged)
    Keswick: I can't believe he said no to you.
    Dudley: He didn't just say no. He had his bodyguards throw me down a flight of stairs!
    • Also, in "Booby Trap":
    Dudley: What's he gonna do? Put us in jail?
    (cut to Dudley and Kitty in jail)
    Dudley: Wow, he put us in jail.
  • Girl of the Week:
    • Dudley falls in love with a bank teller named Becky in "Love Bird", but she doesn't appear in any other episodes.
    • Dudley's girlfriend Daisy isn't seen again after her debut in "Girlfriend or Foe?"
  • Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Dudley frequently points his index finger at people he suspects is the Chameleon while shouting "Or should I call you...THE CHAMELEON?!" in the episode "Doom-mates".
  • Goggles Do Something Unusual: Subverted at the end of "Mind Trap"; Keswick makes a pair of goggles that allow the wearer to see people's underwear. Kitty promptly throws them down the garbage chute before anyone can use them.
  • Goo Goo Getup: For her disguise as an unhatched egg in "Bad Eggs", Kitty hides inside a giant eggshell while wearing a pink T-shirt, a bonnet and a diaper.
  • Got Me Doing It: Two separate examples in "Doom-Mates": Dudley repeatedly mispronounces "Chameleon" as "CHAM-eh-LEE-on" and says "Or should I say, THE CHAMELEON!" to anyone he suspects of being the Chameleon, both of which rub off on Kitty and the Chameleon himself. In fact, the Chameleon copies both at once.
    (when revealing himself from his disguise as Dudley): "Or should you say....THE CHAM-EH-LEE-ON?"
  • Got Volunteered: Dudley was chosen to go undercover in Snaptrap's School of Evil in "Disobedience School" when Kitty and Keswick stepped backwards.
  • Grand Finale: The series ends with "T.U.F.F. Break Up", which was the first episode of the third and final season to air, but the last episode in production order. The plot involves T.U.F.F. being forced to shut down due to underfunding, only for Dudley, Kitty and Keswick to re-form in order to save Petropolis from a new villain called the Overbear.
  • Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: In "Puppy Love", The Chameleon realizes that he can't stick to walls in the form of a French poodle. Only then does he fall off the side of the building that he has been stuck to for a while now.
  • Green Gators: Francisco, one of Verminious Snaptrap's henchmen is an alligator who is depicted with green scales.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: In "Doom-Mates", Dudley repeatedly uses Kitty as a club.
    Kitty: Dudley! Stop hitting things with me!
  • Gross-Up Close-Up:
    • Dudley's butt rash in "Dog Dish" is given very disgusting close-ups, much to everyone's horror.
    Chief: My eyes!
    • "Really Big Mission" shows a close-up on Snaptrap's disgusting teeth when he uses the Chameleon as a toothpick.
  • Had the Silly Thing in Reverse: Or rather, forward, when Dudley attempted to back out to escape the Chameleon and ended up running over him.
  • Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Dudley. He doesn't do pants. This is frequently lampshaded.
    • Averted in Mom-A-Geddon where it's shown that Dudley wears underpants underneath pants that look like naked animal legs.
    • Many other characters wear shirt but not pants: Larry, Francisco, Bird Brain, Bad Dog, etc.
  • Halloween Episode: "Happy Howl-o-ween" has Dudley and Kitty having to get back all the candy and toilet paper stolen by Bird Brain, Snaptrap and the Chameleon while Petropolis is overrun by zombies.
  • Hammerspace: Kitty pulls a cannon that's about ten times her size out from behind her back in "Mall Rat". Later in the same episode, she pulls out two pom-poms to perform a gloating dance after it turns out that she was right about Snaptrap being evil the entire time that he was pretending to have changed after his stay in prison.
  • Harmless Liquefaction: The Chameleon's debut episode ends with him getting blown up twice and his malfunctioning transformation suit electrocuting him until he melts (with a fart sound).
    The Chameleon: I will now defeat you, by turning into a pile of smoldering goo! [melts] Feeeaar meeeee...!
  • Hartman Hips: Kitty is a female with wide hips.
  • Heh Heh, You Said "X":
    • In "Rat Pack", Dudley dejectedly calls himself a nincompoop and immediately laughs at himself for saying "poop". The episode ends with his clones laughing at him for saying he's "pooped".
    • "Dudley Do-Wrong" has the Chameleon disguised as Mayor Teddy Bear declare that Dudley and Kitty are public enemies number one and two. Dudley laughs that he said "number two".
    • "Girlfriend or Foe?" has Dudley's girlfriend Daisy laugh at him for saying "doody" after he says "Duty calls".
  • Helium Speech: Kitty and Dudley end up speaking in high voices after inhaling helium in the "Bored Of Education" episode. Dudley has fun with it by pretending that he is a very tiny secret agent and continues talking in a high voice well after the helium has worn off.
  • The Hero: Dudley
  • Here We Go Again!:
    • The episode "Snap Dad" has Dudley's mom dating Snaptrap. After that relationship doesn't work out, Dudley is shocked to see his mother date another villain, the Chameleon.
    • "Quack in the Box" has Quacky the Duck open a fast food restaurant and declare Dudley the winner of a special prize as a front for his latest scheme. After Quacky is apprehended, we then see Snaptrap enacting a similar plan.
  • Hero with an F in Good: Snaptrap's temporary Heel–Face Turn in "Snap Dad" was foiled by the fact that he was a kleptomaniac Jerkass, as well as generally incompetent as a good guy.
  • Hot-Blooded Sideburns: Kitty, quite prominently.
  • Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Kitty is a terrible singer.
  • Honesty Aesop: In "Lie Like a Dog", Dudley lies about having a dental appointment to get out of doing a number of boring and trivial activities at T.U.F.F. HQ, and spends each one doing something fun. However, in each fun activity he partakes in, he ends up stopping a villain in that place while in disguise. These acts of heroism make him Petropolis' new mystery hero. However, since he can't let anyone know he's been lying, he can't reap the benefits of saving the town. When Dudley gets a call that the dentist he had allegedly been going to is really a supervillain, he has to stop the evil dentist when his lie rules against him. Once Dudley gets there, he finds out that the dentist isn't actually evil, but instead a ruse by the other T.U.F.F. agents to get him to come clean. When all becomes forgiven, everyone decides to have some actual fun, but unfortunately for Dudley, he finds out that he really does have a dental appointment.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: Ollie (and maybe Fransisco and Larry as well) to Snaptrap.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • In "The Doomies", the Chameleon disguises himself as a parking meter to steal all of Petropolis' money. At one point, a bear puts in a subway token instead of change. Chameleon's response? "Hey! That was a subway token! Honestly, this town is filled with crooks."
    • "Guard Dog" has Snaptrap and his gang switch to astronaut disguises after dismissing their initial cowboy disguises as silly and immature.
    • In the episode "Freaky Spy-Day", Dudley remarks that unlike himself, Kitty is weak and has no willpower. Immediately afterwards, he sees a bowl of jellybeans and yells that he must eat them all right now.
    • "Girlfriend or Foe?" has the Chief berate Kitty for obviously lying about having a boyfriend when she claims his name is Fire Alarm. This is when the Chief has spent the entire episode unconvincingly lying that he has a girlfriend named Exit (even going to the lengths to hold up the ruse by hiring the Chameleon to pretend to be his girlfriend).
    • In "Mission: Really Big Mission", the Chameleon's happiness over assisting D.O.O.M leads to him wanting to sing. He gets one line in before Snaptrap tells him that D.O.O.M has a strict rule against singing. But literally seconds after that, Snaptrap's entusiasm over his plan leads to him wanting to sing, and the very same scenario happens. He gets one line in before the Chameleon reminds him of the rule.
  • I Can't Dance: Kitty is a terrible dancer, as shown in "The Rat Pack" and "Hush Puppy". Later gets lessons at Snaptrap's dance boutique in "Dancin' Machine".
  • I'm Standing Right Here: In "Doom and Gloom", Kitty gloats in front of several incarcerated villains that they are boobs for blabbing their plans to T.U.F.F. before carrying them out. The Chameleon is among the inmates and objects "Hello, this boob has ears!"
  • I Resemble That Remark!: "Puppy Pause" has Kitty call Dudley a procrastinator, to which Dudley objects by denying the accusation and then claiming that he'll prove he doesn't procrastinate later.
  • I Taste Delicious: In "Toast Of T.U.F.F.", the Chameleon tries to turn everyone into bugs. The spray backfires and turns him into a mealworm.
    Chameleon: Oh, the irony. I must resist the urge to eat myself. Well, maybe just a nibble. Aieee! Ow! How can something that tastes so good feel so bad?
  • I Want Grandkids: According to Kitty's diary her mother is pressuring her to get married.
  • Identical Twin ID Tag: The one difference between Kitty and her sister Katty, besides their clothes (Kitty wearing a spy uniform while Katty is clad in Institutional Apparel), is Katty has a white streak in her hair.
  • Idiot Ball: In "Agent of the Year" Dudley tricks Kitty into grabbing a rocket by pretending it's a phone. Kitty is usually far too smart to fall for a trick that blatant.
  • Idiot Hero: Dudley is the main hero and is a complete nitwit.
  • Informed Deformity: In "Diary of a Mad Cat" there's a Running Gag where people point out Kitty's "broad shoulders."
  • Informed Species:
    • Despite supposedly being a British opossum, Ollie looks more like a weasel or a brown rat.
    • The Chief looks like a frog with antennae than a flea.
  • Inventional Wisdom: What was a 'Flood the City' button doing on the city dam?
    • For that matter, why was there an 'Unflood the City' button?
  • Insistent Terminology: Inverted. Birdbrain is quite insistent that the team up between him, Snaptrap and the Chameleon is not called Team Evil.
  • Instant Bandages: Kitty got these in the episode "Snap Dad" for example when she hit a tree due to Snaptrap's distracted driving.
  • Insult Backfire: In "Diary of a Mad Cat".
    Dudley: What's this next to my name?
    Kitty: Nincompoop.
    Dudley: Does that mean handsome?
  • Interspecies Romance: Snaptrap and Peggy Puppy (Dudley's mom) in "Snap Dad." It didn't last.
  • Ironic Allergy: Snaptrap is a rat who has a severe cheese allergy which gives him massive swelling if he comes in contact with it. When lampshaded, he says he is well aware of the irony.
  • Jail Bake: When Dudley and Kitty are sent to T.U.F.F. Detention in "Tattle Tale" after F.L.O.P.P. tattled on them for sleeping on the job (though in Kitty's case, she was actually knocked unconscious from being forced to carry around a heavy piano by the Chief), Keswick helps them out when the agents are needed to stop F.L.O.P.P. from devastating Petropolis with an earthquake generator by giving them a cake with a mallet in it. We're intially led to believe that Dudley will use the mallet to smash the robot keeping Dudley and Kitty from leaving, but instead he injures himself and Kitty with the mallet so the robot will let them go to see the nurse.
  • Jerkass Ball:
    • Dudley and Kitty in "Agent of the Year" where they arrest innocent people just to win an award. It could be argued it's in character for Dudley since his idiocy has been known to make him screw up by attacking the wrong people, but it's definitely out of character for the far more competent Kitty.
    • Dudley in general has had occasions where his habit of inconveniencing or harming Kitty goes beyond what can be chalked up to mere carelessness. One particularly glaring example of Dudley being insensitive would be in "Sheep Dog", where he uses Kitty's money without her permission to perfect his disguise as a rich and elderly sheep woman and ultimately stops the Chameleon by making a money coat out of Kitty's life savings and eventually destroying it.
  • Jewish Mother: Dudley's mother is a blatant one.
    • Kitty's mother. She has a Jewish accent and is always pressuring Kitty to get married.
  • Joke of the Butt:
    • One of the show's running gags is Dudley having a habit of chewing his own butt, which is almost always prominently on display due to his aversion towards wearing pants.
    • In "Mom's Away", Dudley and Kitty disguise themselves as a mother so they can take down Snaptrap's scheme of kidnapping all the mothers in Petropolis from within, with Kitty having to crouch underneath the dress's skirt under Dudley's reasoning that moms are supposed to have big keisters. Snaptrap even comments on how big the behind is.
    • In "Puppy Pause", Dudley photocopies his behind to make greeting cards with butt-related puns ("Merry Christmas and a Happy New Rear", "Happy Keister" and "Bummed You Weren't Here").
    • "T.U.F.F. Love" has a bit where Snaptrap complains about his hospital gown not covering up his rear, showing his unsightly backside while doing so.
    • Bird Brain's species is said to be a blue-bottomed boobie, plus he is sometimes subjected to jokes where said blue bottom is remarked upon or emphasized.
  • Keet: Dudley is consistently shown to be very loud and hyperactive.
  • Kids' Meal Toy: invoked
    • In "Mission: Really Big Mission", Dudley and Kitty travel around the world to find the three pieces of T.U.F.F.'s laser system before Snaptrap does with the intent use it to heat up the Earth's Corn Belt. After T.U.F.F. loses the first piece to Snaptrap in the middle of the Pet-cific ocean, Keswick accidentally sends the coordinates of the second piece to the Meaty Moose restaurant and Dudley and Kitty his lunch order. Dudley and Kitty order lunch from the Meaty Moose drive-thru along with the coordinates, and Dudley asks the cashier for a toy with his meal. The toy he gets is an action figure of Meaty Moose, which he complains that he already has. When he tries to give it to Kitty, she tells him she already has it as well.
    • In "Quack in the Box", Quacky the Duck opens a fast-food restaurant called Quack in the Box, and one of the things he sells at it is a Sloppy Meal, which comes with a set of Quacktion figures, which are action figures of Quacky and his co-stars; the Sharing Moose, the Counting Cougar, the Phonics Fox, and the Math Moth. As part of his plan to get revenge on T.U.F.F. for foiling his plan to destroy the TV station in a previous episode, "Lights, Camera, Quacktion!", Quacky gives the Quacktion figures to Dudley and controls them to destroy every other fast-food restaurant in Petropolis and frame Dudley.
  • "King Kong" Climb: Bird Brain does this in "Barking Tall", knocking down T.U.F.F.'s airplanes, and later grabbing Kitty.
  • Last Episode, New Character: The Overbear is introduced in "T.U.F.F. Break Up", which was the first episode of season three to air, but the last one in production order.
  • Last of His Kind: Bird Brain, who uses this to his advantage to protect himself from TUFF. Until he violates this by creating a giant mutant Boobie, therefore no longer protected by the law for being the last one.
  • Last One's Ploy: In "Booby Trap", Professor Birdbrain discovers that his species, the blue-bottomed booby, is an endangered species and this gives him legal protection. He uses his newly discovered status to go on a crime spree, with an eco-police officer even arresting Dudley and Kitty when they assault Birdbrain the moment he shreds their stuff. Birdbrain ends up foiling himself when he clones a monster booby bird, thus making him no longer endangered and revoking his statusnote .
    • Possibly Keswick, who is part of his own species. Part of their life cycle is growing a reptilian tail that breaks off and becomes another Keswick, who they must fight to the death.
  • Leatherman: There used to be a recurring villain named Leather Teddy.
  • Left the Background Music On: In "Dog Daze", when Snaptrap was hypnotizing Dudley, eerie hypnotic music was playing in the background. In the end, it turned out to be being played by Larry, who Snaptrap told to knock it off as it was creeping him out.
  • Legion of Doom: The Diabolical Order Of Mayhem
  • LEGO Genetics: Dudly is a combination of every breed of dog ever, and somehow a bit of goat. But the all-time winner is Keswick, who has gills, webbed feet, lays eggs, has a pouch, and who knows what else.
    • Partially justified with Dudley as a long enough blood line could mix every dog breed, the goat is something else.
  • Lethal Chef:
    • Lunch Lady Bug. Except to Dudley who loves her food.
    • "Internal Affairs" has the Chief try to bake pies, which Keswick claims taste terrible.
    • In "Mind Trap" Kitty bakes fish cookies that even she hates.
  • Limited Wardrobe: As is standard for most cartoons, every character almost always wears the same clothes.
  • Line-of-Sight Alias:
    • In The Wrong Stuff, Dudley and Keswick try to hide their identity from Kitty by saying that their name is "Bob" and the name of a sign, such as "Men's Room" or "Don't Feed The Squirrels" or "Stay Off The Grass".
    • In "Girlfriend Or Foe", the Chief desperately claims he has a girlfriend named Exit, because he looked at the exit sign over a door. Kitty also looks at the fire alarm to give "Fire Alarm" as the name of her made-up boyfriend, which the Chief admonishes her for.
  • Literal Metaphor:
    • From "Puppy Love":
    Kitty: We've just been a little disorganized since we lost our secretary.
    Chief: The secretary quit?!
    Keswick: No, we literally lost her. She took a ten-minute break, stuff piled up, and we never saw her again.
    • And later:
    Dudley: Whoa! Your dress is smoking!
    The Chameleon, disguised as Fifi: Thank you.
    Dudley: No, I mean it's really smoking!
    • In "Snap Dad", Dudley's mother Peggy isn't too broken up over Snap Trap turning back to his evil ways, saying she saw the writing on the wall...because Snap Trap literally wrote it on the wall.
    • In "The Rat Pack", when the Chief said that the reviews for a musical were terrible, Snaptrap replied that the critics didn't know anything....because he had their minds erased.
    • Really, damn near half the jokes on the show is like this. Especially the episode featuring Jack Rabbit, where doing this is a running gag. He offers Kitty to go to "The Old Stumping Ground". Turns out there's a restaurant called that. Later, Snaptrap is eating sushi from three days ago... that is, from the restaurant called "Three Days Ago". It keeps going and going and going, and that's just in ONE episode.
  • Look Behind You:
    • "Snap Dad" has both Snaptrap and the Chameleon distract people by shouting "Look, it's the Easter Bunny!"
    • "Mind Trap" has Dudley distract Kitty from seeing him dispose of the cookie she gave him by saying "Look, a giant ball of yarn" and the Chief distracts Dudley by yelling "Look, dogfood that makes its own gravy!"
  • Love Redeems: Invoked and subverted in "Snap Dad" when Snaptrap agrees to go straight because he's fallen in love with Dudley's mom, and was actually sincere about it, trying his best to perform a Heel–Face Turn. He eventually breaks it off with her because of his inability to actually act good and the fact he still cares too much for his former D.O.O.M. teammates (except Larry) to turn on them.
  • Mad Scientist: Bird Brain. Keswick is a heroic version of this, as he often invents things for the sake of inventing them, including dangerous things like an acid spraying waffle maker, which even he questions why he created.
  • Magic Feather: Kitty gives Dudley a collar that is supposed to reduce fear in "Thunder Dog". The collar is ordinary, however.
  • Mailman vs. Dog: "Hot Dog" has Dudley obsessed with winning a dog show where the grand prize is getting his own mailman to antagonize.
  • Male Gaze: "Puppy Unplugged" starts with a close-up on Kitty's butt.
  • Manchild:
    • Dudley and Kitty act more like pre-teen siblings rather than adult agents, one who lives in their own apartment. Even more so with Dudley, he still lives with mom, and joins in with the kids when Snaptrap uses the "no hitting or killing near kids" rule to his advantage, doing kid related stuff along with crimes.
    • All the main characters seem to qualify to an extent, since they're all huge fans of the children's show host Quacky the Duck (though Kitty isn't as fond of his show for getting rid of the character Grammar Gopher).
  • Medium Blending: Dudley, Kitty, Birdbrain, and Snaptrap become CGI in "Puff Puppy".
  • Minion with an F in Evil: Percival in "Law and Odor". Because of his repeated incompetence, Stink Bug fired him when he pulls out a sign for his signal known as "Air Un-Conditioner". This would lead him to side with T.U.F.F. in the end.
  • Mirror-Cracking Ugly: "Hot Dog" has the Chief look at his reflection and the mirror promptly cracking.
  • Mistaken for Dying: In "Dead or a Lie", Dudley lies to Kitty about eating cupcakes behind her back by saying that he was poisoned by the Chameleon, which makes Kitty try and make Dudley's "final hours" his happiest, and makes Chameleon popular with Snaptrap and Birdbrain. Eventually, Dudley tells Kitty the truth, and she's not pleased about it.
  • Mistaken for Toilet:
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Kitty does it in "Freaky Spy-Day" after switching brains with Snaptrap to stop Jack from giving out the information of every undercover T.U.F.F. agent.
    Kitty: [in Snaptrap's body] No chance, Jack, cause I'm not really Snaptrap. I'm Kitty Katswell!
  • The Name Is Bond, James Bond: Jack Rabbit introduces himself in this manner in "The Wrong Stuff", because no James Bond homage would be complete without the pastiche character saying his surname and then his full name.
  • Nap-Inducing Speak:
    • A Running Gag in "Bored of Education" has Kitty putting everyone to sleep whenever she talks about proper health. At one point, Keswick uses this on a bear neighbor of his so she can hibernate and he can use her pool.
    • "Mind Trap" has Keswick continually putting the other agents to sleep with his long boring technobabble speeches. Taken Up to Eleven when Keswick starts to give a long speech about why he isn't boring and promptly puts himself to sleep.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Keswick is a straight up parody of Jerry Lewis, while The Chameleon is clearly based on Peter Lorre. Booby is a play on Jonathan Harris (of Lost in Space fame) in full Dr. Smith mode. Kitty's former partner Jack Rabbit is a lot like Sean Connery-era James Bond. Snaptrap's voice is an impersonation of Ed Wynn. The episodes "Top Dog" has The Mere Kat, who is a Paul Lynde impersonation.
  • No Indoor Voice: Dudley Puppy constantly shouts whenever he speaks.
  • Nobody Can Die: Usually played straight (it's a cartoon by Butch Hartman on Nickelodeon, for crying out loud), but rather surprisingly averted in the second episode. The Chameleon, seeking revenge on Kitty Katswell for capturing him, traps her in a small chamber with a bomb that can be detonated several times. He proceeds to blow her up 8 times, supposedly killing her repeatedly until she's only got one life left (since as a cat she has 9 to start with).
  • Non Sequitur Causality: In "Watch Dog", Dudley uses a time travel watch to go back and beat Kitty to the last donut. This somehow changes the present so Snaptrap has taken over the world. And at the end, Dudley uses it again when he misses the ice cream truck and this somehow changes the present so he's wearing pants.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The Chameleon, despite having the ability to transform into anyone, he (usually) still uses his normal voice, occasionally using phrases related to his disguise. For example, when he infiltrated T.U.F.F. by disguising himself as "Fifi Oui-Oui", a gorgeous French Poodle, he said "French" phrases like "Notre Dame", "Eiffel Tower" and "Jacques Cousteau".
  • Not in Front of the Kid: TUFF Rule 857 states that agents can't fight bad guys around children. Unfortunately, when Snaptrap found out, he takes advantage of it by attracting kids to him, leaving Dudley and Kitty powerless to stop him from committing his crimes.
  • Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: In the episode "Toast of T.U.F.F.", after Keswick "sacrifices" himself to save everybody, Dudley, Kitty and the Chief are all crying in a huddle. Keswick appeared and asked why they were still crying. Kitty then exclaims, "Not now Keswick, we're too sad about what happened to Keswick!" Then they all realize that Keswick is alive and the Chief says "Wait a Minute! Keswick? You're alive!"
  • The Nudifier: "True Spies" has Snaptrap's plan involve using a T.U.F.F. invention called the De-Threadulator to destroy all the fabric in Petropolis and leave everyone in town too embarrassed by their resulting nudity to stop him. Fortunately, the Chief deactivates the device before anyone ends up naked.
  • Number of the Beast: The Indecision Ray that Snaptrap buys from the Chameleon in "T.U.F.F. Choices" is shown to cost $666.66.
  • Nutritional Nightmare: Quacker Jacks, a ridiculously unhealthy snack food sponsored by Quacky the Duck, whose ingredients involve a ton of trans-fats and artificial bacon cheese. So unhealthy, that when Dudley wins a lifetime supply of them, he's only given two boxes, because according to Quacky: "You can't eat more than two boxes and live!"
  • Oddball Doppelgänger: Agents Meow Meow and Bark Bark in "While the Cat's Away" are odd-looking versions of Kitty and Dudley who aren't very bright and turn out to be clones of Kitty and Dudley created by Keswick. Weirdly enough, they tend to involuntarily fire lasers from their bodies.
  • Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: When Dudley goes undercover to learn one of Snaptrap's plans, he finds this, and thinks it's in code.
  • One Phone Call: It is mentioned that Kitty's twin sister Katty used her one phone call to call their mother on her birthday, which is one reason Mrs. Katswell views Katty more favorably.
  • The One Who Wears Shoes: Kitty and Keswick are the only two characters who don't go barefoot.
  • One-Word Vocabulary: Bird Brain's henchmen Owl and Bat only say "Who?" and "Where?", respectively. This infuriates him repeatedly.
  • Onion Tears:
    • "Snap Dad" has a bit where Dudley's mom is in tears over the phone and it turns out to be because she's slicing onions while preparing dinner.
    • "Puppy Unplugged" repeats the gag of a character getting teary-eyed from cutting onions, having it demonstrated by both Keswick and Dudley.
  • Only Sane Man: Arguably Kitty is the only one with any sense.
    • Ollie would also be this for DOOM.
    • Bird Brain when you compare him to Verminious Snaptrap and the Chameleon.
  • Overly Long Scream: In " 'Til Doom Do Us Part", the Chief tells Dudley and Kitty they'll get married. They start screaming, the show goes to commercial,when the show comes back they're still doing it. The Chief claims they've been screaming for 30 straight minutes.
  • Overly-Long Tongue: The Chameleon, naturally.
  • Pantsless Males, Fully-Dressed Females: Played straight with Dudley and Kitty. All other males are fully clothed.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The Chameleon - not visually, because he can copy appearance perfectly, but in acting. He's an incredibly bad actor (except when he's not), and his idea of sounding convincingly anything is to litter his talking with random phrases related to the person he's impersonating (when he acts French he inserts French foods into his sentences for no reason, same with impersonating a general with military talk). Surprisingly, this never fails to fool anyone.
  • Parental Bonus: The Affectionate Parody of The Brady Bunch in the episode "Share-a-Lair".
    • One ep had Dudley and Kitty wearing sports jerseys, Dudley's has 86 on it and Kitty's has 99!
    • One of Quacky's minions is a shapely woman called the Counting Cougar ("cougar" being sexual slang for middle-aged women who pursue younger men as partners).
  • Perky Female Minion: Zippy, Birdbrain's overly cheerful assistant.
  • Persona Non Grata: After ruining a Chinese parade in one episode, Dudley is never allowed back in Chinatown.
  • Pluto Is Expendable: In "Lucky Duck", Chameleon threatened to blow up Pluto, but T.U.F.F. are more concerned with watching the latest episode of Quacky the Duck's TV show. Then at the end, he decided to blow up the sun.
  • Pointy-Haired Boss:
  • Poke the Poodle: F.L.O.P.P's shtick is attempting evil deeds that are more nuisances than felonies, at least until they threatened to unravel space and time.
  • Portrait Painting Peephole: Snaptrap peeks through eyeholes hidden in portraits in "Hide and Ghost Seek".
  • The Power of Friendship: Dudley was able to convince Kyle R (really Kill-R) not to destroy T.U.F.F thanks to reminding him of their pleasant bonding in "Dog's Best Friend".
  • Prank Call: "Share-A-Lair" has Dudley prank Snaptrap by calling him on the phone just to trick him into repeating the names Anita Bath and I.M. Stinky.
  • Pretend We're Dead: In a Halloween Episode, Dudley pretended to be a zombie to follow real ones towards the place where Snaptrap, Birdbrain and Chameleon were hiding all candy and all the toilet paper. He befriended two zombies who told him where the bad guys were hidden.
  • Production Throwback: The Petropolis Aquarium has a giant fishbowl on the top of it, which resembles Cosmo and Wanda's fishbowl in T.U.F.F. Puppy's sister series, The Fairly OddParents!.
  • Pun-Based Title: Most of the episodes' names are puns. Examples: Mom-A-Geddon, Chilly Dog, Forget Me Mutt, Law and Odor, Mutts and Bolts, and so on.
  • Punny Name: Everyone in F.L.O.P.P. is named/based around a pun - the Escape-Goat (an incompetent escape artist), the Missing Lynx (who never shows up), the Bluffalo (who bluffs a lot), etc. Their leader is The Meerkat, which doesn't seem like a pun until he reminds everyone that he is "no mere kat."
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Dudley.
    • The Chameleon disguised as Dudley uses these to get back into Kitty's apartment after being thrown out in "Doom-Mates".
  • Rake Take: "Scared Wit-Less" has Keswick subjected to the gag of hurting himself by stepping on a rack and hitting himself in the face with the handle twice.
  • Rapid-Fire Comedy: Well, it IS a Butch Hartman show, so constant gags is to be expected.
  • Real After All:
    • The Ghost of Dr. Hyden Vonseek in "Hide and Ghost Seek" at first appears to just be the Chameleon in disguise and Keswick constantly states that ghosts aren't real, but the end of the episode shows that the ghost is actually for real.
    • "Great Scott" once again makes it so that the episode's supernatural creature (in this case, the Loch Ness Monster) is just the Chameleon in disguise, only to later show that the monster really does exist.
  • The Real Spoofbusters: "Hide and Ghost Seek" spoofs Ghostbusters with the Ghost Bashers, a trio of bears in jumpsuits who randomly smash people's stuff with mallets trying to find ghosts.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Chameleon gives out on to Kitty while disguised as her mother in "Diary of a Mad Cat".
    The Chameleon: Now, when are you going to get married? Why don't you ever call me on my birthday? Why can't you be more like your sister?
    Kitty: My sister's in jail!
    The Chameleon: Yes, but she used her one phone call to call me on my birthday!
    Kitty: STOP COMPARING ME TO HER! I'M PRETTY, TOO!!
    The Chameleon: Actually, your shoulders are a little large, and we all know why you always wear gloves.
  • Recycled In Space: Get Smart WITH ANIMALS!
  • Repetitive Name: Kitty Katswell.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Francisco the crocodile of D.O.O.M. and The Chameleon are reptiles and bad guys.
  • Retired Badass: The Chief was once T.U.F.F.'s top agent and an amazing fighter. In one episode, he comes out of retirement to help Dudley deal with the Chameleon. While things don't work out well at first, Dudley manages to give him a pep talk and he shows he's still got it by beating up the Chameleon.
  • Revenge: Chameleon's motivation almost always comes down to getting even with people who've wronged him in most of his appearances.
    • Quacky the Duck also wants this after his show is canceled.
  • Rodents of Unusual Size: Verminious Snaptrap.
  • Romance Novels: The Chief secretly reads these.
  • Running Gag: Snaptrap throwing Larry into the shark tank.
    • Chameleon trying to wear glasses.
    • Hell, there is at least one running gag per-episode! Some examples are Kitty putting people to sleep with her talk about proper health in 'Bored of Education' and Dudley ending every description of how bad the Stinkbug smells with "in Atlantic City!" in 'Law and Odor'.
  • Scooby-Dooby Doors: Used in "Hide And Ghost Seek".
  • Scrabble Babble: Snaptrap plays "Schmoodled" in the episode "Share-A-Lair". When Larry complains that it isn't a real word and demands that Snaptrap use it in a sentence, Snaptrap responds by firing a ray gun at Larry's chair and saying "There. I schmoodled Larry."
    • It became a Running Gag for the episode that whenever stuff blew up, they used "schmoodled"
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Chameleon started dating Dudley's mother Peggy in "Snap Dad", but instantly broke it off and ran for it when he found out she had kids (though it may have been who her son was).
    • After Larry abandons D.O.O.M. to start his own organization in "Gloom and Doom", Snaptrap tells Ollie and Francisco that they get to be thrown in the shark pool instead of him now. They promptly haul tail and join Larry.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: In the episode "Dog House", Dudley's roommate is named "Partpans". It's really Snaptrap, even though he swears his name isn't Snaptrap backwards.
  • Senior Sleep-Cycle: To prove a point that the Chief was old, a Running Gag in "Internal Affairs" was him falling asleep.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Kitty is affected by this after her uncle gives her a word-a-day calendar.
  • Serious Business: As seen in "Watch-Dog", getting the only chocolate donut in the breakroom is such for Dudley and Kitty.
    • Everyone, everyone is obsessed with the Quacky the Duck show. The army even lets Dudley and Kitty walk out of an military base with a missile and a tank simply because Quacky asked for it. Even Kitty is just as into it as everyone else (the only reason she stops is because Quacky "fired" her favorite character).
  • Shapeshifting: The Chameleon, but only because of his suit.
  • Shark Pool: Snaptrap has one in his lair, and he throws Larry to the sharks in most episodes.
  • Ship Sinking:
    • In "Dog Tired", when Dudley was in danger of falling asleep forever, the Chief made him dream about marrying Kitty, which Dudley considered a nightmare. Having her turn into bacon only made things worse in Dudley's book. That scene could pretty well crush the hopes of Dudley/Kitty fans.
    • "Love Bird" contains Dudley falling for a bank teller. Let's just say it wasn't received very well by the Kudley fanbase.
    • "Till Doom Do Us Part" seemed to have been made to solely sink the Dudley/Kitty ship. Kitty and Dudley are shown to not be able to stand each other (even more than usual) and object to having to stage a wedding to capture D.O.O.M. by making it clear how undesirable they find the idea of marrying each other, plus Kitty shows that Eric the water delivery guy is the only man she loves.
    • "Girlfriend or Foe" features another love interest for Dudley, named Daisy.
  • Shout-Out:
    • In "Mom-a-Geddon", Agent Nuts shoots his reflection in a mirror after shouting, "I know it was you, Fredo!"
    • In "Share a Lair", Keswick is working on a not-so-giant version of The Iron Giant
    • In "Dog Daze," Chief is wearing an apron that says "Top Chief." This apron's font is in the same style as the television show Top Chef, complete with a knife between the two words.
    • In the first Chameleon episode, at one point he turns into an anthropomorphic Model T Ford from Cars.
    • Snaptrap's cabin in "Back To Nature" has an hockey mask on the wall & the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis laying around.
    • In "Candy Cane-ine", The Chameleon has a candy store named the "Caramel Caramel Caramel Caramel Caramel Chameleon" in reference to the chorus of Culture Club's song "Karma Chameleon".
    • At the end of "Flower Power", when Keswick becomes muscular, he takes a sword and rides on the back of a tiger, like He-Man from the Masters of the Universe franchise.
    • "Rat Trap" has Snaptrap and Dudley engage in scenes from Rocky, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars.
    • In "Mission: Really Big Mission", when the Chameleon introduces himself to D.O.O.M., he tells them he does impressions at the Chuckle Hut every other Friday night, and transforms into look-alikes of Toucan Sam and Po the Panda.
  • Sickeningly Sweethearts: "Vermie" and "Peggy-poo" in "Snap Dad." Dudley vomited at least once.
  • Smelly Skunk:
  • Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: In "Hot Dog", the Chameleon puts up a giant magnifying glass to fry the city of Petropolis.
  • Spaghetti Kiss: Sucking on the same strand of spaghetti is one of the ways Dudley tries to catch Keswick's cold so he'll be unable to smell the Stink Bug's stench in "Law and Odor".
  • Species Surname: Dudley Puppy and Peg Puppy.
    • Inverted and played straight with Kitty Katswell.
  • Speech-Impaired Animal: Birdbrain's henchmen, an owl who only says "Who?" and a blind bat that only says "Where?".
  • Speech Impediment: Keswick stutters, and Snaptrap has a lisp.
  • Spoiler Opening: The Episode Title Card will always have a picture of the episode's main bad guy. Usually it's the last picture. This can be a bad thing with several episodes, such as "The Wrong Stuff" and "Toast of T.U.F.F".
  • Spy Catsuit: Kitty's usual outfit. Bonus points since she's, y'know, a cat.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: Maybe "schmoodled" is a real word, since it was used by people other than Snaptrap after he made up the word to cheat at scrabble in "Share-A-Lair".
    • Honestly, it's one of the most used jokes in the show. The only real difference between the thought processes of T.U.F.F and D.O.O.M is that one thinks for good and the other thinks for evil.
  • Subverted Suspicion Aesop: "Mall Rat" is about Kitty Katswell being distrustful of Snaptrap's claims to have reformed. She destroys the muffins he gives to the citizens of Petropolis under the belief that they are poisoned, only for Keswick to confirm after the fact that the muffins weren't poisoned. After that, she again ruins a good deed by Snaptrap when she destroys the weather device he uses to make the weather sunnier during a rainy day at the beach. Kitty Katswell just about accepts that she is being unreasonably paranoid after Snaptrap opens a mall and invites everyone with the offer of free yogurt, but learns that her distrust of the legitimacy of Snaptrap's reformation was warranted after all when the mall turns out to be a ploy to round up everyone in Petropolis and shoot them into the sun.
  • Suck E. Cheese's: Peet-za Possum's.
    • Quacky the Duck also creates one in "Quacky Birthday" as a plan to destroy Dudley, and calls it "Quack E. Cheese's".
  • Sure, Let's Go with That:
    • In "Snap Dad", Snaptrap starts dating Dudley's mother and says they met at the laundromat.
      Peg: No grown man should be walking around with ketchup on his shirt.
      Snaptrap: Yes...that's what it was, ketchup. Lots and lots of ketchup.
    • From "Mission: Really Big Mission", after T.U.F.F. loses the first piece of their laser cannon to D.O.O.M.:
      Kitty: Dudley! Snaptrap's sub is getting away! Do you know what this means?
      Dudley: It means that only millionaires will be able to eat movie popcorn!
      Kitty: No, it me... (Beat) Okay, let's just go with that.
  • Surprise Slide Staircase: Used in "Hide And Ghost Seek".
  • Suspicion Aesop: "Girlfriend or Foe?" has Kitty thinking that Dudley's new girlfriend Daisy is a spy feeding Snaptrap information enabling him to steal missiles from T.U.F.F. She later learns that Daisy had nothing to do with it and that Snaptrap knew what he knew because Kitty neglected to hang up the phone and Snaptrap eavesdropped the conservations held at T.U.F.F. HQ.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Many, many times. An example from "Puppy Love":
    Kitty: Just between us, my partner, Dudley, has a crush on you.
    The Chameleon, disguised as Fifi: (grimaces) Well, that doesn't creep me out at all.
  • Talking Animal
  • Tastes Like Purple: Mayor Teddy Bear claims to smell purple and yellow in "Hide and Ghost Seek".
  • That Poor Plant: A plant withers and dies after Dudley disposes of one of Kitty's mackerel cookies into it in "Mind Trap".
  • Threatening Shark: Snaptrap's favorite form of torture (mostly Larry's) is a tank filled with sharks.
  • Time Skip: Played for Laughs in "Doom and Gloom" where D.O.O.M. gets arrested and released 3-5 years later.
    • In a later episode, Dudley doesn't come to work for a year.
  • Title Drop: In the episode "Toast of Tuff", Keswick referred to R.I.T.A as such.
    • The end of the very first episode has Kitty refer to Dudley as this.
  • Title Theme Tune:
    "He's a T.U.F.F. Puppy, T.U.F.F. Puppy, he's a T.U.F.F. Puppy. [...] He's a T.U.F.F. Puppy, T.U.F.F. Puppy, he's a T.U.F.F. Puppy!"
  • Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: The intro shows Dudley drinking from the toilet. Within the series, the episode "Share-a-Lair" has him mistake a toilet for a drinking fountain and implied to have also done the other way around.
  • Toilet Humour: Dudley is a dog after all.
  • Toilet Paper Trail: In "The Curse of King Mutt'', Snaptrap trails toilet paper, then trips and wraps himself in it, looking like a mummy. The Chameleon and Bird Brain think he wrapped himself in toilet paper to disguise himself as King Mutt's mummy and scare Dudley into finding King Mutt's bone for them, and Snaptrap nervously tells them they're right before telling them what really happened through Suspiciously Specific Denial.
  • Top-Heavy Guy: Dudley.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Kitty has lost her hair and fur several times to Gag Haircut situations, although it’s back to normal by the next scene. Played straight in Big Dog on Campus, when she spends the whole episode with her head shaved since she had to go undercover as a former student who lost her hair in a freak accident (although a furious Kitty points out to Keswick after he has her head shaved before she can react, she could’ve just said her hair grew back) Fifi (the Chameleon in disguise) briefly had part of her head shaved by a vending machine haircut (in addition to her poodle fur).
  • Tricking The Shape Shifter: Dudley does this to the Chameleon by pretending to believe the Chameleon can't pose as a realistic mouse. Chameleon proves him wrong, but unfortunately, the elephant agent was in front of him.
  • Tron Lines: The Chameleon's suit has these.
  • True Companions: The ending of "Toast of T.U.F.F." showed this between the main protagonists. And it was ADORABLE.
    • Keswick pretty much confirms this in "Snapnapped", calling T.U.F.F his family.
    • "Snap Dad" hints that D.O.O.M. might be a very dysfunctional version of this (or, alternatively, only one from Snaptrap's point-of-view). Snaptrap even said that Francisco and Ollie were like family to him (though he had no problem blasting Larry).
  • Truth Serums: "True Spies" has the conflict caused by Dudley and Kitty eating waffles topped with Keswick's Truth Syrup, which makes them unable to lie and puts all of Petropolis in jeopardy due to the effects making them give away to D.O.O.M. when they are trying to deceive the villains to catch them by surprise as well as Dudley blabbing the existence of a T.U.F.F invention called the De-Threadulator, which Snaptrap plans to use to destroy all the fabric in Petropolis and leave everyone too embarrassed about being naked to stop him. Dudley and Kitty eventually save the day after taking an antidote and tricking the members of D.O.O.M. into consuming Truth Syrup-topped waffles to get them to reveal how to stop the plan.
  • Tuxedo and Martini: Kitty Katswell's former partner Jack Rabbit introduced in "The Wrong Stuff" is a very overt pastiche of James Bond, to the point that his voice is a blatant Sean Connery impression.
  • Twin Switch: In "A Tale of Two Kitties", the plan concoted by Kitty's evil sister Katty is to impersonate her sister so she can steal a golden fishbowl, which she does by switching outfits with Kitty and using spray paint to hide the white streak in her hair while adding one to Kitty's hair. Dudley notices that something is off about "Kitty"'s behavior and obsession with the golden fishbowl, but eventually thwarts the plan by proving his loyalty to Kitty when the police catch him holding the fishbowl and he chooses to take the blame instead of ratting out "Kitty" for stealing it.
  • Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Happens in "Dog Tired", when Dudley and company must take the T.U.F.F. elevator, they meet Ida Bromstein, whom Keskick tied and pushed into the elevator a while before. He remarks that's weird.
    • In "TUFF Sell", this happens when Keswick is waiting for the T.U.F.F. elevator just after he resigned from working there.
  • The Un-Favourite: Kitty's mother wishes she was more like her sister, even though said sister is a criminal.
  • Verbal Backpedaling: In "Puppy Love", right in front of The Chief and T.U.F.F.'s two best agents, no less:
    The Chameleon, disguised as Fifi: I look forward to destroying you, I mean working with you!
  • Verbal Tic: Keswick stutters a lot.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: R.I.T.A. is the only villain who is completely devoid of comedy.
  • Villains Out Shopping: When they were being interviewed by a cameraman, they tried to take down the Chameleon, thinking he's doing evil, when he is really shopping.
  • Villain Team-Up: In "The Curse of King Mutt", Snaptrap, Chameleon, and Bird Brain work together to steal King Mutt's jewel-encrusted bone. Naturally, given their personalities, Hilarity Ensues.
  • The Walls Are Closing In: In "Snapnapped", complete with Spikes of Doom. The ironic part is that it wasn't in a bad guy's trap, but happened in their own HQ!
  • Welcome Episode: Unlike many of Hartman's works where the show's pilot takes place after the events of the Expository Theme Tune, the first episode of T.U.F.F Puppy explains how Dudley became a secret agent.
  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Kitty says "What's the worst that could happen" in"Snapnapped" when the TUFF agents are locked in the conference room, and then the walls start closing in...
  • Who's on First?: Bird Brain's two henchmen, an owl that only says "Hoo" & a blind bat that only says "Where", tend to cause this much to the booby's annoyance.
    • Then he gets two more henchmen: a female sheep (or ewe) and a Duck! named Skip.
    • Followed by Holey Cow.
    Bird Brain: Remind me to hire a henchman named "Everyone Jump Into The Woodchipper"!
  • Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Keswick says the trope name almost word-for-word where after Dudley's messing around with his cloning machine results in the Chief ordering to get rid of it.
  • Wimp Fight: Dudley and Kitty's occasional fights with each other.
  • Wire Dilemma: 'Quacky Duck', the Show Within a Show, aparently had an episode where he taught kids how to disarm a nuclear missile!
    Cut the blue wire, not the brown
    Or you'll blow up the whole darn town
    Cut the red wire, make your mama proud
    Or you'll end up in a mushroom cloud
  • World of Funny Animals
  • World of Ham: Name pretty much any evil character on this show (Snaptrap, Chameleon, Bird Brain) and they'll fall under Large Ham. Dudley himself also qualifies.
    • Kitty even shows large ham tendencies in episodes like "Super Duper Crime Busters".
  • Would Hit a Girl: Dudley doesn't have any problem hitting Kitty, even kicking her in the very same episode, also being seen giving her slaps, bites and, what could be, punches. She doesn't hesitate to do the same to him, though.
    • The Chameleon, hurting Kitty too.
    • Doom Agents
    • The Sharing Moose, being seen hitting Kitty on the head with a metal pipe, and even smiling while doing that
  • "YEAH!" Shot: Almost every episode ends with one of these, possibly definitely parodically.
  • You and What Army?: Said by Birdbrain when Dudley and Kitty announce they're taking back the stolen candy in "Happy Howl-o-ween".
  • You Dirty Rat!: Verminous Snaptrap is an anthropomorphic rat and one of the show's most frequently appearing villains.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In "Bored of Education", a group of kids from Petropolis Elementary decide to join the Chameleon in raiding a bunch of stores; but the second they play with all the stuff they raided, he sees them as deceiving him since all the stuff is only for him, thus he denounces them as his friends and decides to eat them.
  • Younger Than They Look: Bird Brain, according to "A Doomed Christmas" is 23, though that doesn't stop everyone else from thinking otherwise.
  • Your Size May Vary: The Chief
    • In "Barking Tall", Kitty is almost as tall as a ship while giant Dudley and giant Bird Brain are fighting.
  • Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal:In the Halloween Episode, Keswick reanimated some corpses to have zombies for the holiday. He said the zombies would be harmless as long as there were candies for them to eat. Otherwise they'd eat brains. When Keswick commented Dudley would be safe, Dudley proved the pointing by claiming he didn't understand it.

Top

T.U.F.F. and D.O.O.M.

After the Chief declares that T.U.F.F. and D.O.O.M. has to share the office, Snaptrap doesn't know how will that work. It segues into a parody to the intro of The Brady Bunch, but tweaks the lyrics and graphics to fit.

How well does it match the trope?

4.89 (9 votes)

Example of:

Main / AffectionateParody

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