I Am Weasel

It would be my job... no, duty. FOR! I. Am. Weasel!

You don't need pants for the victory dance
Cause baboon better than weasel
I.R. Baboon is big star of cartoon
"I AM WEASEL!"

I.R. Baboon reigns king in his mind
He's just as good as the weasely kind
But 'round any corner he's likely to find
"I am Weasel! I am Weasel! I...AM...WEASEL!"

—Show's theme song

This cartoon was originally a bunch of shorts in Cow and Chicken. Later on, it became a self-contained Spin-Off. 79 episodes were released between 1997 and 2000.

The show centered around a polite, hypercompetent, socially savvy weasel named I.M. Weasel in his daily life attending to many people's needs. Weasel is incredibly accomplished in countless fields, including medicine, law, politics, music, science, and more. And behind him is his 'friend', the extremely dim-witted I.R. Baboon, who is jealous of Weasel's talents and is constantly plotting to ruin him. Weasel is aware of this, but remains pals with Baboon anyway, possibly because he realizes Baboon is far too stupid to pose any real threat. After the first series of episodes, The Red Guy from Cow and Chicken also joined the main cast.

Tropes used in I Am Weasel include:

• The Ace: I.M. Weasel (more noticeable in the early seasons), bordering on God Mode Sue.
  • Broken Ace: Later episodes start to show some dents in Weasel, he often shares the Butt Monkey role with Baboon, and gains a more neurotic and ego driven attitude as a result of being several times more intelligent (and usually far more considerate) than everyone else around him.
• Animated Actors: "I Am Cliched", essentially a Take That on old cartoon tropes.
• Anvil on Head: Mercilessly parodied in "I Am Cliched" (see Animated Actors above). Weasel and Baboon get hit by an anvil, a piano, five more anvils, an elephant, a whale, and a kitchen sink. It eventually becomes the running gag for this episode, where every scene ended with someone getting an anvil dropped on their head.
• Big Eater: Lullabelle is shown to be this in the ice fishing episode.
• Breakout Character - Full series spun off from Cow and Chicken
• Butt Monkey: I.R. Baboon (more noticable in the early seasons). Quite literally, too.
• Charlie Adler: I.R. Baboon and The Red Guy
• Characterization Marches On: I.R. Baboon was much more overtly antagonistic towards Weasel in the earlier seasons, usually trying to (unsuccessfully) upstage or sabotage him. Once the Red Guy was transplanted from Cow and Chicken, Baboon and Weasel started gravitating towards Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Baboon hates it when Weasel saves him, because he knows that's only going to make Weasel even more beloved by the public.
• Crapsack World: Often the show's universe appears to almost equally brainless as Baboon, with Weasel usually playing the Only Sane Man.
• The Ditz: Baboon.
• Wicked Weasel: averted with I.M. Weasel
• Getting Crap Past the Radar
  • This Bridge Not Weasel Bridge"

Bridge Worker: I'll get to see my wife and kids! I've never even seen my little Johnny, he was born two years after I took this job!

• Go-Karting with Bowser: Though Baboon and Weasel were usually at odds, there were episodes where they were comrades. By the end of the show's run they are more or less Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Baboon's entire motivation is to show up Weasel at something. But he's so dumb and self-centered that it never works out.
• Hanna-Barbera
• Happy Dance: Baboon.
• Hello, Nurse!: Loulabelle - Weasel's assistant.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Michael Dorn (aka Worf) plays Weasel.
• I Am Not Weasel: the Trope Namer, sort of.
• I Just Want to Be Special: I.R. Baboon, if not also trying to one-up Weasel.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: I.R. Baboon in the third season episode "The Hole", when he plugs up a large hole that turns out to be a "ground-level volcano". The resulting build-up of pressure causes an Earthshattering Kaboom.
  • IM Weasel also counts. In one episode, he cried so hard he flooded the earth with his tears by accident.
• Mind Screw: In one episode Both Weasel, Baboon and the Red Guy believe they are the last people on earth, after finding all the streets deserted. It later turns out that everyone is just home, watching I Am Weasel on television. The very same episode in fact. One shot even shows weasel standing in front of the television that shows him standing in front of a television that shows him standing in front of a television that shows him standing in front of a television... you get the picture.
  • Another episode called "Dessert Island" has Weasel and Baboon wake up on an island where everything is made of candy, and is inhabited by a tribe of gingerbread men. It later turns out the island is actually an ice cream sundae. And it's about to get eaten.
• Monkeys on a Typewriter: Who are insulted when Weasel tries to pay them in bananas.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After being convinced Weasel has swiped his family for the Christmas celebrations, Baboon bitterly sneaks into his house and sabotages the festivities. He arrives back at his house, suddenly realising the cruelty of his actions and bursts into tears.

I.R.Baboon: *sobs* I.R. bad person....I.R PERSON BAADDD!!!

• Naked People Are Funny: I.R Baboon and his big red butt.
  • There's also I.B. Red Guy a.k.a. The Red Guy from Cow and Chicken.
• Nice Guy: IM Weasel
• Niche Network: The Airplane Channel.
  • At the end of a Wright Brothers documentary, the brothers decide to toast with a root beer float, after which the channel inexplicably becomes the Root Beet Float Channel.
• Nurse with Good Intentions: Loulabelle herself.
• Parody Sue: In early episodes, Weasel played The Ace rather genuinely. As the seasons progress however he becomes a more pretentious Small Name, Big Ego that suffers due to living in a world of fools.
• Personality Swap: The brain-switching episode.
• Piano Drop: Parodied in "I Am Cliched" (see Anvil on Head above).
• Real Song Theme Tune: Sort of. The melody is similar to the nursery rhyme Pop Goes The Weasel.
• Rules of the Road: In the opening credits, Weasel's driving a convertible with a hot blonde. But he passes a road sign that reads "LOGO". He leaps out of the car in the direction the sign indicates, and jumps into the logo for the show.
• Satan: The Red Guy, he's also referred as "I.B. Red Guy", an allusion to names of Weasel and Baboon.
• Spin-Off
• Shrunken Organ: Weasel and Baboon get in an accident which causes their brains to fall out. Weasel has a huge brain and Baboon has a tiny brain, both disproportionate to their respective head. Understandably, the doctors get them mixed up.
• Take That: "I Am Cliched" is pretty much a slam on Tiny Toon Adventures.

Weasel: Your'e using old scripts! You crossed out Bugs Bunny, then Buster, then scribbled in Weasel!

• The Devil Is a Loser: If he's not running some aimless fraudulent business, Red Guy will sometimes be the Damsel in Distress Weasel and Baboon need to protect.
• The Rival: Baboon in earlier seasons. Toned down in later episodes.
• This Is Sparta: Weasel's name declaration.
• Toilet Humour
• Too Dumb to Live: Baboon's brain is as small as his ego is large, so when he inevitably screws something up, Weasel has to bail him out.
• Weasel Mascot: Take a guess.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Baboon and Weasel in a ping pong tournament. With electric guitars!
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Does any one remember Weasel WALKING ON WATER? Okay, it may have been the shallow part but still...
• What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Quite a few episodes are simply... really weird.