Charlie the Unicorn

Blue: Hey! Hey Charlie! Wake up!
Pink: Yeah Charlie! You silly sleepy-head, wake up!

Charlie the Unicorn is a silly video by Film Cow following the short adventure of a pink unicorn and a blue unicorn dragging their ..."friend" Charlie, a gray unicorn, on an adventure to the magical Candy Mountain (sadly not the MAD Candy Mountain Kirby goes to). After some time, a sequel came out about their quest to return the magical amulet to the Banana King, and a third episode about saving the future soon made the series a trilogy. All the videos really rely on the Pink and Blue unicorns' nonsensical behavior and the fact that Charlie seems to be the only one in any video with an ounce of rationality.

A pair of possibly canon one-shot shorts were released for the YouTube Live event, as well as another advertising Charlie the Unicorn merchandise at Hot Topic.

Then there's the spin-off/parody/mindscrew videos, charlie teh unicron and charlie teh unicron 2. Be warned that the only thing that you will learn from watching these is that the Liopleurodon is named Leo. No joke. And there's a dragon at the Poconos. And unicorns puke rainbows. And they are also pyromaniacs. And they like pancakes.

Tropes used in Charlie the Unicorn include:
  • Abhorrent Admirer: The starfish...WANTS TO BE WITH YOU FOREVER!
  • Actually, I Am Him: Fool! Charlie did speak to the weasel, for the Blue unicorn is the weasel!
  • Ambiguously Gay: In the charlie teh unicron videos, the pink unicorn suggests they all make out. Due to the ambiguous gender this trope may apply.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Charlie lampshades this in the second episode: "Guys? Guys? Or girls. I'm not really sure what you two are." Word of God says that their genders are deliberately not specified because it's funnier that way.
  • Anticlimax:

Charlie: What is "The Door?"
Blue: The Door is everything.
Pink: All that once was and all that will be!
Blue: The Door controls time and space.
Pink: Love and death!
Blue: The Door can see into your mind!
Pink: The Door can see into your soul!
Charlie: [shaken] Really? The... the Door can do all that?
Pink: Heh, no.

  • Bilingual Bonus: In the YouTube Live short, the pink and blue unicorns inexplicably don fur hats and beards and start speaking in Russian; as it turns out, they're literally saying My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels. At the end, when they're being menaced by Rick Astley, the pink one goes back into Russian mode and shouts "Communism!"
    • In one of the one-shots, they encounter a... well, giant Z. Upon meeting it they start speaking in Spanish.

Blue: ¡El hombre con el sombrero nos envió!
Pink: ¡Él nos contó muchas historias asombrosas!

    • This translates to "The man with the hat sent us! He told us many amazing stories!". Considering the rest of the series, though, it probably doesn't mean anything.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In the course of the series, those two sweet, dimwitted friends of Charlie: knocked him out to steal his kidney, his TV, and his horn just so they could make a snowman. And that's if you don't count merely being near them as a horror in itself.
  • Non Sequitur Episode/Random Events Plot: Pretty much, yeah.
  • Brick Joke : "Oh, look, it's my kidney."
    • From charlie teh unicron

Pink: "Oh no way!"
Blue: "That crap's still burning!"
Pink: "Man, that is from last episode, how is that still goin'?"

  • Butt Monkey: Charlie, of course
  • Cameo: Charlie makes a cameo appearance at the end of the music video for the Weezer song, Pork and Beans.
  • Call Back: Pink and Blue burning down the forest is a reference to Charlie asking them if the meadow was on fire in the first episode.
    • In the Charlie teh Unicorn, Pink points out in Denny's that the fire was from the episode before. Blue Lampshades this by asking how it was still burning.
  • Captain Obvious: "We're on a bridge, Charlie!"
    • "Charlie!" "What?!" "We're naked!"
  • Continuity Nod: "Oh, hey, look, it's my kidney."
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Double Subverted in the Hot Topic video. The blue unicorn is in a room full of lava, and then proceeds to be set on fire from the heat. Then in the next scene, it's not on fire anymore, but still in the room full of lava.
    • Assuming, of course, that the blue unicorn bursting into flames had anything to do with the heat.
  • Crap Saccharine World: A world that basically is shaped by two sadistic unicorns was bound to be this, at least for Charlie.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Charlie

Pink: We're from the Future!
Charlie: Oh, I bet.

  • Department of Redundancy Department: Charlie, this is redundant, Charlie!
    • Candy Mountain! It's a land of sweets and joy... and joyness...
  • Did Not Do the Research: Liopleurodon is pronounced "Lye-Oh-Plur-Oh-Dawn", not "Lee-Oh-Plur-Oh-Dawn". If this bothers you more than the other stuff, consult your psychologist.
  • Did You See That Too
  • Disney Acid Sequence: Each episode has a bizarre musical number toward the end.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Pink and Blue almost always talk with insanely cheerful, singsong voices.

Pink: Yaaay! DARKNESS!

  • Eldritch Abomination: An Alternate Character Interpretation of Pink and Blue is that they're really some sort of insane gods who have chosen Charlie as their plaything. The fact that some of the stuff they summon is genuinely disturbing backs up this theory.
    • Rick Astley in the YouTube Live episode is played like an Eldritch Abomination from the internet.
    • Charlie himself seems to agree.

Charlie: I'm not even gonna ask how I'm still alive, cause you know what I think ? I think I died long ago and you two are my eternal punishment.

  • Flat What: All the time. On encountering the giant Z:

Blue: ¡El hombre con el sombrero nos envió!
Pink: ¡Él nos contó muchas historias asombrosas!
Z: *bing bing bing dodolo dodolo*
Pink and Blue: Ho ho ho ho ho!
Charlie: ...what.

  • Genre Savvy:
    • By the second cartoon, Charlie knows to expect "horrible things" to happen when the other two are around. He grows so accustomed to their antics that by the third episode, very little actually fazes him in terms of weirdness.

Blue: Ring ring!
Pink: Hello?
Blue: Ring ring!
Pink: H-h-Hello?
Blue: Ring ring!
Pink: Hellooo?
Blue: Ring ring!
Charlie: YOU HAVE A BAD CONNECTION!

Charlie: ... You know what I think? I think I died long ago and you two are my eternal punishment.
Blue: You're like a constant downer, huh?

Blue: Charlie! We're here!
Pink: In the future! *blows party horn*
Charlie: This looks EXACTLY the same!

Pink: Charlie!
Charlie: What?
Pink: We're NAKED!

  • No Name Given: Pink/Red and Blue, which happen to be their Fan Nicknames.
  • "No Respect" Guy: Charlie, Charlie, Charlie.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: The other two unicorns appear to be childish and stupid, but the occasional line of insight and the fact that all of the episodes are plots to steal things from Charlie seem to suggest that they are very odd Chessmasters or at least Cloud Cuckoolanders with magical powers and odd goals.
  • Off the Rails: Pretty much everything made after the third one, losing all grips on what loose idea you could call reality in the first videos.
  • Only Sane Man: Charlie considers the entire trip ridiculous and wishes his friends would stop repeating everything.
  • Organ Theft: "They took my freakin' kidney!"
  • Say My Name: Charlie! Charlie! CHARLIE!
  • Self-Deprecation: charlie teh unicron is a self-parody by the creators that makes fun of the original.
    • According to Word of God, it's also a Take That to fans who email Filmcow with suggestions for future Charlie the Unicorn episodes, "a parody of what Charlie the Unicorn would be like if it was written by random internet people."
  • Shaggy Dog Story: Each and every episode ends with the two crazy unicorns robbing Charlie, the entire insane journey having just been an elaborate plot to steal his kidney, TV, and horn, respectively.
  • Shout-Out: The rap segment of the "In the Ocean Blue" segment in episode three is very reminiscent of the Pokérap.
  • Spin-Off: Kinda? The only real difference between Unicron and the main series is that Pink and Blue act more adult and lose the Eldritch Abomination feel. Plus Charlie is less of a straight man and more a bystander. Weird things still happen, they just seem more "normal", in the sense that you could believe that's just how the universe works in this world.
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: Charlie has no idea how he's breathing underwater, and frankly, he'd rather not ask.
  • Time Travel: Possibly. Notable in that the three unicorns live in a forest, so there is absolutely no visual difference between the "present" and the "future".
    • And their future clothes disappear when they're in the future.
  • Unexplained Recovery: In episode 3 loses his horn as its the last missing piece to the snowman. In the Hot Topic and Youtube Live shorts (which may or may not take place after episode 3), he has his horn again.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Charlie, three times. Not that they are complicated plans.
    • Granted, Charlie seems to know that something bad is going to happen, yet goes with them anyway.
  • Vocal Evolution: Compare Blue and Pink's voices in the first segment to their voices in the Hot Topic video. Or the Charlie teh Unicron videos.
  • A Wild Rapper Appears: In the third episode's musical number.
  • With Friends Like These...: Charlie and the two unicorns—that is, assuming they really do consider Charlie their "friend" (he sure doesn't see it that way) and it's not just a ploy that's part of their insane agenda.
  • Yandere:

Starfish: STARFISH REALLY LOVES YOU!
Starfish: LOVE ME, LOVE ME!
Starfish: I WANT TO BE WITH YOU FOREVER!

    • His face as he says that and Patrick-like voice really drives it home.
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