< Narm

Narm/Western Animation

Western cartoons can often be silly, even when they're trying to be dramatic.

  • G.I. Joe: The Movie introduced an Ancient Conspiracy named Cobra-La, prompting the battle cry "Cobra-La-La-La-La-La" during the finale. (The writers have since claimed that Cobra-La was intended as a stand-in title for the Ancient Conspiracy in early drafts of the script, but they were later forced to keep it due to Executive Meddling.)
    • The infamous And Knowing Is Half the Battle PSAs, especially if you know Fensler Films' take on them.
    • The hamhanded delivery of Duke's last words after being bitten by one of Serpentor's snake staffs.

"GO .... JOE ...."

    • "TAKE THEM FROM BEHIND!"
    • The sequel series G.I. Joe Extreme had live-action intros at the beginning of a few episodes. All of them have bad acting and loads of Conspicuous CG but the intro of the thirteenth episode is especially ridiculous.

"DRINK IT!"

    • There is a member of G.I. Joe with the codename "Snow Job."
    • Also from the 1987 animated movie: "We must shut down the BET!" G.I. Joe wants to put an end to Black Entertainment Television?
  • Ralph Bakshi made an Animated Adaptation of The Lord of the Rings in the late seventies, a time when he was in love with the technique of Rotoscoping. He filmed much of the movie in live-action and then traced over it, creating an odd-looking form of animation. The result of this process is, depending on your point of view, either a cavalcade of nightmare fuel or a perfect storm of Narm:
    • Whoever played Gandalf in the reference footage must have been instructed to overact as much as possible. He doesn't get through a single sentence in his monologues without flailing his arms about like a madman. Indeed, he looks like an extra in a Harold Zoid movie; and Frodo often looks like he wants to run away.
    • The armies of Orcs are photocopies of guys standing around in cheap monster masks.
    • The Nazgul initially look scary; but once they dismount, they shuffle around moaning as if they suffer from severe arthritis.
    • Sam's Dethroning Moment of Suck comes early and must be seen to be believed.

"Ooh, HOORAY!!!"

      • Sam in general. Seeing the simple yet honest and fiercely loyal Badass Normal of Tolkien's books reduced to a buck-toothed country bumpkin is at once very funny and very sad.
    • In the single most infamous scene of all, the Balrog (remember, they could have easily used conventional animation at any time during the production) is rotoscoped from footage of a man in a cheap bear costume with fairy wings who appears to be wearing fluffy slippers.
    • The magnificent CarrotTreebeard! This, also, must be seen to be believed.
    • There's Viking Boromir and Indian Aragorn (although John Hurt's performance was good) looking flashy in their miniskirts.
    • Legolas looks like he has Down syndrome.
    • Oh, hell, if you want to see all the Narm-iest moments (except for the Balrog), just look at this video. Note the appropriate music choice.
    • They forget that Saruman spells his name with an S halfway through.
      • That was Executive Meddling due to the presumption that Viewers are Morons. Are you ready for this? They thought that people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Sauron and Saruman. They both started with the syllable "Sa(u)r," after all. So they cut the letter S from Saruman, making half the film about stopping Aruman's (or, as some characters pronounce it, "arrow man"'s) evil plot. The only problem was, they weren't consistent. It might have worked if the S hadn't crept back in.
  • This song from Rankin-Bass' take on The Return of the King: Where There's a Whip, There's a Way. It's catchy, though.

"More of Tolkien's precious dialogue. Note to Peter Jackson: CGI monsters are a poor substitute for dialogue and proper continuity of events."

      • Merry apparently stabs the Witch-king in the ass. The video-game sound effects don't exactly help either.
      • Also, Eowyn is animated as saying her last line in that scene quietly, but the voice actress shouts it out.
      • Speaking of shouting, Sam can't seem to stop doing it in this version.

THE GARDENS OF MY DELIGHT!

  • Fire and Ice, has plenty of narm, but not enough to make it bad. Necron speaks in narm every time he opens his mouth.
  • In Bakshi's Wizards, the battle scene was rotoscoped over the ice battle from Alexander Nevsky -- which was a classic silent film. It made for some... overwrought drama; what makes for good acting has changed since then.
  • Don Bluth films sometimes have such exaggerated animations, especially in certain characters' facial expressions, that scenes that should have been harrowing or dramatic are instead silly and goofy. This isn't so bad in films such as Rock-a-Doodle and The Pebble and the Penguin, where the characters are intentionally cartoony. But it is extremely distracting in Anastasia and Titan A.E.
  • In An American Tail, there's Fievel's absolutely bizarre facial expression when he sees the giant wave coming at him. He's supposed to be terrified, but it looks like he's having a seizure or a bad acid trip.
    • Every time he Screams Like a Little Girl when he's in danger.
    • Fievel tries to sing "Somewhere Out There" and has trouble hitting that note on the word "pale" in the first verse. This can spoil other versions of the song.
      • On the other hand for both of these, Fievel (and his voice actor) is a preteen boy, with all of the unfortunate vocal and lyrical implications that presents. To some, it probably sounds more genuine because it's not a 30-year-old trying to voice an eight-year-old.
  • The Land Before Time (the original): Littlefoot's mouth constantly hangs open.
    • In fact, the expression is overused in every Don Bluth movie ever. It reeeeeeally gets annoying.
  • Rock-a-Doodle is the Narmiest Bluth film of all. For one thing, it has the Duke (Christopher Plummer), an utterly terrifying owl who has quite a screen presence -- until he starts lecturing the young hero, Edmund, and then starts coughing up what looks like Lucky Charms. His nephew calls him "Uncle Dukie"; that can't help his villain cred.
    • The Involuntary Transformation undergone by Edmund is diminished somewhat when he screams, in that annoying little kid voice, what sounds like "Jeepers, I'm a furry!" He's saying "Jeepers, I'm all furry"; but his speech impediment all but wipes out the 'l' sound, turning this into one of the narmiest moments in the movie for those who know what furries are.
    • There is also the bit where the heroes stop the owls from eating the farm animals by shining a helicopter searchlight on them. Edmund decides to make an announcement to the owls, and it comes out something like this:

"Awight youh owls! This is Edmund! Itsh Ovuh for youh! We've got Shawntyclaiwe!"

      • The Clip is here, starting from 2:28. Words cannot describe it.
      • Wait a minute...they've got WHAT?
        • It's supposed to be Chanticleer, the character the title refers to. Unfortunately, the Chanticleer legend didn't get passed down very well in America, and this film didn't jump-start it.
    • Frankly, everything that kid says is Narm. That voice could make excitement over a Toys-R-Us shopping spree sound hammed up.
    • Someone tell Edmund that Fievel wants his sweater back.
      • And his hat. Seriously, that kid went from wearing pajamas to looking like a Cossack whose clothes were too big!
    • At one point, the only thing keeping the owls from attacking the farm animals is a flashlight, and the owls taunt them about their dying batteries. In song. Beginning with the words "twiddley-dee."
  • Beast Machines had a definite Narm moment: the scene where Blackarachnia and Megatron were trying to one-up each other by reminding Silverbolt about what they gave him when they were trying to convince him to choose a side.
    • "I gave you X! I gave you X!" "We gave you X! We gave you X!" Sounds good enough for Broadway already, doesn't it?

"You... gave... me... NOTHING!"

    • Also in the episode when the Maximals receive Spark boosts. Optimus goes to fight the Vehicons, and we get a slow-motion shot of him literally tearing through the Vehicons with the speed of light... and he makes these totally random, ridiculous-looking poses. Almost makes you wonder if the animators just got bored.
    • Transformers Prime also has one- this video is supposed to promote Unicron, but after he says "I awaken" his shout.. well, he honestly sounds like he stubbed his toe.
  • The 1979 made-for-TV animated adaptation of Narmia the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has cheesy seventies animation. Mr. Tumnus is especially narmy, especially during his scene with Lucy that is supposed to be very sad ("I'm a BAAAAD FAUN!!!"). (Yes, that line comes from the C. S. Lewis book; no, it doesn't help.) The White Witch practically screams every other line.

"If EITHER of you mentions the name 'ASLAN' again, he WILL BE INSTANTLY KILLED!!!!"

Symbiote Spidey: "SHOCKEEEEER! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE MEEEEE! I'LL CHASE YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EAAAAARTH!"

    • The best ones are in "Enter The Green Goblin," starting when the Goblin starts holding a mock trial and running like mad from there. Goblin's oddly high-pitched voice makes most dramatic things spoken by him funny by default, which is probably why they had Goblin do more malevolent baiting later and Osborn do most of the dramatics.

"NOOOOOO.... STTOP STAAAAAARING AT MEEEEEEEE! NEEEED MY... strength back... NEEEEED MYYYY... strength..."

"I NEED MORE PLASMA!"

    • The 2nd part of "Hydro-Man Returns" has 'MY SUIT is torn (!)' No incorrect punctuation. That's how it came out.
    • In the second Insidious Six episode, there's a scene which has Shocker fall into a water tank after his suit rips, and so he has to get rid of it before it blows up. The next we hear of him is his ranting to Doctor Octopus on a walkie talkie:

"My suit! My beautiful suit!"

    • How about this one from Alistair Smythe?

"Get away from MY BEAUTIFUL machine!"

    • Rhino would like you to know that he's lookin' for da Whizzer.
    • The scene when Spidey's trying to escape Venom, and thinks he's lost him.....then Venom shows up in a semi....and honks the horn.
  • In The Batman vs. Dracula, Bruce Wayne deduces Alucard's true identity by writing his name on a tray with lipstick and holding it up to a mirror. Alfred gasps. Cue the scary music. This was supposed to be dramatic and following the "show, don't tell" rule of storytelling; it ended up looking childish and silly because the viewer already knows this. And surely a full grown adult can reverse spell Alucard in his mind.
    • Dracula's final words before his "death" was "You're Bruce Wayne!" in a surprised tone. Strange, considering how unimportant Batman's dual identity was to the story. Batman's response, however, is appropriately awesome.
    • The Penguin feels the need to announce that he is bleeding when we can clearly see it (for once). Since blood hadn't shown up on this show before, the writers must have wanted to point out that they could do that now.
    • The Batman also has "The Man Who Would Be Bat," in which Bennet is spit at with a sticky substance by Man-Bat. Astonished, he yells, "What is this?" And he asks it in a way that suggests he wants to know what got spit onto him.
  • One Very Special Episode of Static Shock is quite narmy. Richie was shot in the leg and cried, "It hurts, it hurts! It's not like on TV shows, it really hurts!"
  • Spawn: The Animated Series has one when Chapel is boinking his girlfriend, suddenly remembers killing Al, and suddenly starts yelling out "I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" at a volume that puts both Leonidas and BRIANBLESSED to shame.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Katara melodramatically saying that the Fire Nation "took her mother away" in "Crossroads of Destiny". She uses the same euphemism to the same effect in "The Southern Raiders." (It comes off as particularly strange when one considers this show's usual immunity to Never Say "Die".) In the same episode, Katara says "There's the monster" when she sees the guy who killed her mom. The line is supposed to convey her bloodthirsty rage, but it comes off as corny and fake-sounding, which ruins the drama.

"Who's a man and a half? She's a man and a half!"

    • Late in the episode "The Beach," the team of villains start bickering around a campfire - essentially swapping backgrounds and explaining why they're so maladjusted. This is hardly meant to be taken seriously. But Zuko decides to complain about why he can't worry about bad skin, points to his head, and shouts, "My father decided to teach me a permanent lesson... on my FACE!" The camera goes into a bizarre close-up where Zuko's chin is somehow twice as large, and the entire moment almost seems like a non-sequitor.

"I'm so pretty! Look at me, I can walk on my hands! WOOOO!"

    • 'The Blue Spirit' was meant to be a dramatic episode, but Aang keeps making this one goofy facial expression when he's screaming in fear that could kill the mood the episode was trying to create. It looks more like a comical take than being profoundly scared. This seems to happen to him a lot throughout the series.
    • ...I'm glad I'm not the only one who found that face oddly hilarious in that episode.
    • Zuko's Big No. Complete with slow-motion.
    • "He's being attacked by a Platypus-Bear."
    • Zuko's "LEEEEAAAAVE!" from "The Chase".
      • And Zuko's scream after Iroh gets zapped by Azula,
      • That scream used to great comedic effect in this video, at around 1:14.
    • And then Zuko's screaming on the mountaintop from the following episode. Zuko could out-narm Katara any day of the week.
    • Also, in the final battle against Azula, Zuko says, "No lightning today? What's the matter? Afraid I'll redirect it?"...but the delivery comes across as "Afraid I'll re-DUH-rect it?" That killed the mood for a moment.
    • Do they need to do a Scare Chord every single time there's a closeup of Azula's face? We get the point!
    • The writers evidently noticed how narmy Zuko and Katara could be. In "The Ember Island Players", the habit of spouting pure, distilled narm is the sole defining trait of the Katara character in the play. The actor playing the Zuko character gets narmy, too. And while we're here, the Iroh character's face is visual narm. Guy looks like a lump of dough. It's supposed to look idiotic, but... yeesh.
    • For some, Azula's mental breakdown in the finale crossed the line into Narm Territory because of her psychotic expressions.

Azula: Alright hair, it's time to face your doom!

    • Aang's pure emotional turmoil at the thought of "killing" a watermelon. Yes, it represented how he felt about his apparent need to go against his beliefs and kill the Fire Lord. Yes, it's okay for him to feel conflicted about killing Ozai. But this was just a melon.

'I just can't do it! I can't kill an innocent melon!'

      • The de facto "killing" of the melon got a Gory Discretion Shot. Uh... wha?
      • That was the joke. The writers obviously knew the moment was absurd.
    • From "Avatar Day": Aang's "You think I...KILLED SOMEONE??" Not only his voice, but also the look on his face, was amusing.
    • When the Gaang discovered that Jet was brainwashed by the Dai Li, Jet gives a rhyming rebuttal:

"That's crazy! It can't be! Stay away from me!"

      • The Gaang begin to ominously surround him immediately afterwards. It doesn't work well.
    • Aang's reaction when Roku tells him about Koh the Face Stealer. While Koh is ten kinds of Nightmare Fuel, Roku's description sounds like something straight out of the Department of Redundancy Department ("they call him the Face Stealer...he will steal your face"), and Aang's horrified face (which, mind you, appears before he finds out why Koh is so scary) just begs for a PENIS GOES WHERE? caption.
    • Zuko's dream. The dragons, being eaten by the floor, can pull off narm charm. But Zuko looking in the mirror, and seeing himself as Aang; NAKED. And ripped, at that. It was just too much.
    • The reaction to the "Abandon hope" scratched into the gate in front of the Serpents Pass. Some punk left a grafitto, that's no reason to panic. Granted, it was probably a Shout-Out to the inscription on the gates of Hell in the Divine Comedy, but it could have been played better.
    • Katara threatening to kill Zuko. Supposed to be dramatic and intimidating, and to a point, yeah, it was. Still, would've been a lot more effective if she'd been more direct instead of going on about how she'd "make sure [Zuko's] destiny ends. Right then and there. Permanently."
  • From the Sequel Series, The Legend of Korra: Mako and Bolin's parents were killed by a firebender. This is actually well-done and tragic. So what's the problem? We keep meeting characters who all have "loved one(s) killed by firebenders" as part of their backstories. The third time it happened, it just got ridiculous.
  • Good Lord, Captain Planet:
    • Hitler keeps Captain Planet away. By staring at him. The explanation is that Hitler's hatred is so pure and strong, it's like pollution, Captain Planet's kryptonite.
    • "AIDS is the best thing to come along since the Black Plague!"
      • Not true. AIDS STINKS!
    • Captain Planet gets mortally wounded just by getting splashed with a little dirty motor oil.
    • "If it's doomsday this must be Belfast": the episode that presented the Troubles as the Jets Vs The Sharks, complete with lines like this:

"You beat each other up over your names?"
"Why not? 'tis as good a reason as any".

      • Also perpetuated the belief that Irish people call everyone "Boyo".

"That's a Protestant name if ever I heard one".

      • To all who hated the "Oirish" accents in Heroes Volume 2, check this episode out on Youtube and see how lucky you were.
    • The Israel/Palestine plotline from that episode is just as bad:

"You Jewish oppressor!"
"You Arab terrorist!"

      • From the same plotline:

"You stop demolishing the Arabs' homes and you stop throwing stones at the soldiers."

"Oh, no."
"This is terrible."
"We're nerds."
"We're dweebs."

    • More emphasis needs to be placed on the fact that the evil plan of this episode involves forcing Milli Vanilli to get real jobs. (Though, considering what happened in Real Life after Milli Vanilli was unmasked, that likely would've been an excellent evil plan.)
      • And the song they sing in the episode is the exact song that infamously skipped during a live concert.
    • What about the screaming fangirls? Look how wide their mouths are opened!
    • Rob and Fab's attempts at voice acting. It literally sounds like they shoved them into a recording booth and gave them a single take to record their lines.
    • In reruns and DVD releases of the Mario cartoons, copyrighted music had to be deleted and replaced with a generic tune. This applied to the Milli Vanilli episode; when they "sing" (those quotes work on so many levels), you see their lips moving but hear nothing but nondescript instrumental music.
      • That mostly applies to the Super Show. 3 and SMW for the most part already had generic royalty music, with the possible exception of the above.
    • The episode "Brooklyn Bound" has Mario and Luigi getting a chance to return to Brooklyn, but Mario begins having second thoughts. "Maybe we should stay and help the Princess," he tells his brother, saying it in a way that it sounds like he's saying they should "hump the Princess." It helps that Princess Peach responds by saying "No way, Mario!"
      • Hmm...stay in this bizarre world with talking dinosaurs and a princess to hump, or go home and clean toilets? Such a hard decision!
    • That the Super Mario World cartoon episode "Mama Luigi" is such a staple of YouTube Poop is in part due to Luigi's bizarre, wheeze-ridden voicing of lines like "Or is it the bagel?" and "Good thing I found a magic balloon!"
  • Superman: Doomsday had a lot of odd moments; but the absolute winner in that category had to be a shirtless Lex Luthor beating on (what turns out to be a clone of) Superman with Kryptonite gloves, screaming at him for "leaving" him, which ends in Luthor essentially mounting Superman and saying "Who's your daddy?" If this was supposed to be an intense beatdown, it was marred because Luthor's dialogue made him come off less like Superman's archnemesis and more like his whiny ex-boyfriend. It's so wrong, it's either funny or creepy.
    • Made worse with the Cartoon Network version, in which they (inexplicably) removed most of the violence in the movie. Now, imagine the "Who's your daddy" scene WITHOUT the entire beating scene to put it in context. Yes, Cartoon Network had problems with the violence, but was perfectly fine with a sweaty, seemingly nude Lex whose apparently mounted Superman and just finished raping him patting him on the cheek affectionately and asking "Who's your daddy?" Narm at its best.
  • Batman: The Animated Series has a moment at the end of one episode where a robot double of Batman kills himself after thinking he killed the real Batman. As if his anguished cries ("I'VE TAKEN A LIFE! MY CITY! MY PEOPLE! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!") weren't bad enough, the real Batman later muses, completely seriously, "What if he had a soul... a soul of silicon, maybe, but a soul no less."
    • Your Mileage May Vary. That last line nearly had me in tears.
    • There's also Batman's ridiculously out of character reason for wanting to fight Bane.

"He trashed my car, Alfred. Between a couple of guys that's real personal."

    • Aside from the fact that he was obviously being sarcastic?
  • I think Batman was joking in that last example, though.
    • In the episode Blind as a Bat, Bruce gets temporarily blinded by an explosion. Pretty harsh; unfortunately, this is revealed in one of the most silly, needlessly dramatic way possible - Alfred asks why doesn't his master want to go to a regular hospital, which our hero answers with "Because... I don't want anyone to find out.... that I can't..... SEE!!". The random use of dramatic silence by itself was quite funny, but the scene also goes alongside some pretty tragic BGM, and the animation team didn't help it.
    • Any time Poison Ivy starts making hammy eco-terrorist speeches. Yes, the woman's insane, but come one now! Bruce Timm and company seem to have realized the narminess too; in "The New Batman Adventures" and comics set in it's continuity, the speeches have all but vanished.
      • The problem honestly lay in the delivery--Diane Pershing's insane anger sounded very forced. Ivy's insane ranting worked much better when the character was eerily calm.
      • Don't forget how still-sane Harvey Dent melodramatically collapses after being given an overtly-long Kiss of Death by Ivy. First he seems to just feel a little ill, then his eyes roll on the back of his head, and THEN he faints on his own chocolate mousse. Face first. It was such a ridiculously hammy sequence that by the time Harvey is all passed out, the viewers are more likely to laugh than be tense. Even *Bruce* himself was laughing until almost the end of the ridiculous scene.
    • ALOT of stuff in the episode "The Last Laugh", especially the Joker's lines. "You're going to be cooked like a Griiiiilled cheeeese SANDWICH!"
    • In Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, there's a flashback to Bruce proposing to a girlfriend. She happily agrees to marry him, even though her father was planning to move them to Europe. But a few days later, Bruce gets the ring back in the mail, along with a note reading "Left with Dad. Too young. Need time. Forget about me." This could have been a sad scene, except he reads it aloud in the most retarded-sounding tones imaginable.
    • The Mad Hatter's Stalker with a Crush behaviour toward Alice should have been creepy, but was somewhat undercut by the fact that she was Too Dumb to Live even before he resorted to mind controlling her. He takes her out on a date after she and her boyfriend break up (temporarily), and she somehow fails to notice the highly conspicuous mind-control devices that he puts on pretty much everyone they encounter.
    • "Avatar," wherein Ra's Al-Ghul resurrects an ancient Egyptian queen who quickly goes One-Winged Angel on the hapless supervillain, thus prompting Batman and Talia to rescue him, is genuinely creepy until it's time for Batman to slay the hideous queen-mummy. He urges the others to run, shouting that "I'll do what I can to stop that....thing!" It's supposed to be a tense moment, but the way he says "thing" makes you immediately picture the letters of the word festering and oozing slime down their sides, like some really bad horror movie poster.
    • The scene where a very pissed off Robin (Dick Grayson) punches out Batman, is pretty dramatic... until it cuts to Batgirl gasping.
  • "Kids, there's nothing more cool than being hugged by someone you like. But if someone tries to touch you in a way or in a place that makes you feel uncomfortable, that's no good!"

Sonic, they're so SLOOOOOOW!

Cammy (in the middle of her Heroic BSOD): EVERYTHING IS LIES, EVERYTHING IS LIES!!!!!!

Ryu: Oh, man. I just got slimed by Arnold the pig! That's it; I'm OUT OF HERE!
Ken: Oh, Guile! That colour ith tho, you!
Fei Long: Look at you, you've ignored your training and you've turned against all of your friends!
Ken: Then you... you're a LOSER!!

    • These two compilations sum it up well.
    • For the opposite of Bison's "Yes!", check out this clip of Guile letting out a Big No.
    • There's also a scene where Bison is knocked into the computer, and the computer looks like it is eating Bison alive, just... Just watch.
      • There is a part when Zangief knocks out Dee jay, who falls over. We get a close up of Dee jay's face that's supposed to be framatic. Instead, he has his jaw hanging down, and is staring into space.
        • When Zangief proceeds to pick up Guile, Bison is floating in the back ground with his arms stretched out like he's being crucified.
  • The brief Disney Death Danielle received in Danny Phantom, because Danny sounds like he's in a middle school play. He sounded so fake and stilted, as if he was glad about what happened.
    • Not to mention that Danny seems to scream "Get away!" at his enemies more often than anything else.
      • Especially when they're (so he thinks) stronger than him.
    • An example of this as Narm would be when in The Ultimate Enemy the older ghosts are closing in on him and he screams "GET AWAY!" somewhat dramatically... while cowering against the wall hiding his face.
    • And of course "Eye for an Eye" which is a treasure trove of Narmy quotes from Vlad ("I'm rubbing your nose in this mess you made, Daniel, doesn't it smell yummy?" and "You forgot to take your supplements, have a dose of vitamin-ME!" for example).
  • The new songs from the 10th anniversary edition of Pocahontas. Perhaps they were cut from the theatrical release of the film for a reason. They don't fit with the rest of the film, and they sound like Josh Groban songs.
    • Although, the reason why "If I Never Knew You" was put back into the movie was popular demand. It's one of the most popular Disney songs of all time despite only appearing over the closing credits in the original version.
    • From the original movie, the lyric: ""They're not like you and me, which means they must be evil!" The Nostalgia Chick's stunned reaction says it all.
  • The early (pre-series) Raccoons TV specials are chock-full of Narm:
    • In The Raccoons on Ice, there's the entire scene where the Raccoons and Sophia Tutu sneak into Cyril Sneer's mansion to try to convince Cedric to play on their team against Cyril's. A particular highlight: When Cedric (who has a different, incredibly whiny voice in the specials) worries about getting into further trouble with his father, he whines, "I've already been grounded for a month...and no chocolate pudding!!!" The Narm factor is upped by Sophia's response:

"Cedric, this is bigger than chocolate pudding!"

      • At the end of that scene, when Cedric chickens out after being threatened by Cyril again, Sophia responds by apparently dumping him on the spot, exclaiming "Cedric Sneer, your heart is as cold and hard as a hockey puck!" and taking away the picture of her on Cedric's nightstand. The delivery of the line, and Cedric's whiny sobbing afterward, make it pure Narm.
    • In The Raccoons and the Lost Star, any time Sophia Tutu opens her mouth is potential Narm. For example, whenever Sophia says something like "Oh no, how dreadful!" or "That's terrible!" in a moment meant to be sad....
      • When Cyril Sneer ambushes Cedric and Sophia to kidnap Sophia's puppy Broo and get his hands on the lost star, Sophia believes that Cedric led her into the trap (which he didn't know about) and returns his gift of chocolates, saying in the Narmiest way imaginable, "I'll never be able to look at a chocolate again!"
      • The scene where bad guys take Broo away from Sophia, and Cyril gets his hands on the star. Overly dramatic music plays; Sophia tearfully exclaims, "You leave Broo alone, you bullies!"; we see a menacingly grinning bear henchman from Broo's P.O.V., reaching for him, his shadow cast over Broo; and finally, Cyril taking the star from around Broo's neck and exclaiming "My star! At last!" as the music reaches crescendo. The whole bit is overly (melo)dramatic and instant Narm.
        • Sophia tells Cyril, "You're a beastly, horrible...BEAST!"
  • The Raccoons series has its share of Narm moments. In the episode "Moving In," Lisa, unable to cope with moving away from her old neighborhood, lashes out at her parents and lets her Wangst out in front of everyone at the dinner table.

"I have no friends anymore, I miss my school, I hate this house! Nobody cares what I think! None of this would have happened if you hadn't lost your job!"

  • The '90s X-Men animated series had this in spades. It was a well done show overall, but the female characters got ridiculously dramatic - especially Lilandra, Rogue, and Storm, who would go into a fit of "Aaaaarghhhhh" or "Noooooo!" at the slightest injury.
    • Some of the best unintentionally silly moments can be seen in these montages. Highlights include Rogue having No Indoor Voice, Wolverine acting like a cranky old guy rather than a Cool Old Guy, and -uh- Tableman.
    • One of the narmiest moments in that series was the first appearance of Banshee, who sees the Professor falling into the sea, starts screaming and leaps off a cliff (which is how his powers work in the comics, but comes across as absurd when you can actually hear it).
    • Cable's classic WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?!
  • In the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 2002 episode Roboto's Gambit, Teela mourns the destruction of Roboto. This makes no sense because Roboto is Just a Machine that can be rebuilt as new.
  • In the ReBoot movies, almost every scene involving Dot and Enzo's father is pure Narm. This was due to a combination of questionable writing, his ridiculous appearance, and his voice, which sounded like he was speaking through a mouthful of water.

No! Don't touch me! The nulls!

  • In the Turtles Forever movie, after Ch'rell finds out that there is more than one TMNT universe, he cries "Turtles, Karai! Ninja... Turtles!" in a way that sounds like he just had a bad dream.
    • And every time, thanks to the never say die rule, does Shredder always, always, 'ALWAYS, says "Perish" in at least one of his sentences every episode he appears in, it just gets ridiculous.
  • Tom and Jerry: The Movie: "We've GOT to have... moonnnnnney!"
    • May be Nightmare Fuel to some, but Dr. Applecheeks approaching the ice cream truck like a pedophile is very funny to watch.
  • Every time, every continuity after the first movie literally every time Optimus dies; the Transformers Wiki even acknowledges this.
  • Eddie Brock's Villainous Breakdown from The Spectacular Spider-Man qualifies for some. "It only loved me for the hate!"
    • There's another one mere minutes after Eddie's breakdown. Flash learns he just got a part in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and gets to kiss his crush Sha Shan. Note that at the time, Flash was wearing a Spider-Man outfit and on crutches. It Makes Sense in Context. Then Sha Shan points out that Flash got the part of Bottom. You know, the guy who got an ass' head. Then an abrupt Imagine Spot happens and Flash is suddenly Spider-Man on crutches with a donkey's head. We know you love Shakesphere, Weisman, but that's just surreal even with context.
      • That was actually a Getting Crap Past the Radar moment. Sha Shan was saying that Flash was perfect the role and his face was replaced with a Donkey's. She was essentially calling him a Jackass.
        • Peter Parker's design on the show. Most character designs work well...except for Peter's. He's supposed to be in high school, but he looks about twelve years old.
  • The voice of the Narrator and Admiral Yularen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is just plain silly. It's less "Star Wars" and more "Buy Scrubbing Bubbles!"
    • Also, there was this one scene where Anakin and Asoka had to rescue babies from a platform sinking into lava. The show is normally melodramatic, but that episode took it to new heights.
    • Season three's ninth episode, "The Hunt for Ziro", takes the cake with the prominently featured love story of a gay slug and his long-mouthed girlfriend who are being chased across the galaxy to finally find the money for a peaceful life away from crime and war. It is painfull to watch, especially when they meet Ziro's mother, the bastard child of too many clichés to count.
  • In the Direct-to-Video Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Ultraman at a point bitch-slaps the President of the United States... and the slap makes him bleed. They probably intended to show that Ultraman was an ultrastrong badass, but the way this scene was directed made it look like the President was a living bottle of tomato sauce.
  • Some of the fights in the first season of Teen Titans were poorly choreographed, and the dialogue didn't help. (Robin punching a giant goo monster, anyone?) Fortunately, the show shaped up by the finale.
    • The Big Bad of the last season was literally a Brain In a Jar. After facing a demon lord with the power to destroy worlds, well....Also, his voice is either Nightmare Fuel or this trope.
      • And if his voice wasn't this, his scream when Robin blows up the communicator he's attached to definitely is. Yes, somebody who uses a Stephen Hawking-like robotic voice screamed.
    • How about the dialogue in "Aftershock"? Seeing people say so many euphemisms for death in such a dark episode really puts off the mood.
  • The Shredder's trial scene in the third season finale of the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has two rather Narmy things going for it: First, when the Utroms declare that they find C'hrell guilty as charged, C'hrell gasps as if he is really surprised that they didn't clear him of his charges, despite the fact that the Utroms just finished providing foolproof evidence of C'rell committing numerous crimes. Second, when the Utrom guards are escorting the handcuffed Karai and Dr. Chaplin away, Karai yells: "This is not what I wanted, Leonardo! This is NOT what I wanted!". No shit, Karai?
    • There are also lots of narmy moments littered throughout the series. Some hold Narm Charm while others... just watch "April's Artifact" and prepare to cringe at the ultra cheesy montage song.
  • In Kirikou and The Sorceress, there was that scene where Kirikou pulled the skunk/badger/whatever out of the squirrels' burrow to protect them. The image of a very tiny little boy pulling a badger by the tail out of a burrow is funny.
  • The Total Drama Island episode "Search and Do Not Destroy" has Heather's evil plan involve kissing Trent in front of Gwen. After it happens, and Gwen runs away crying, Trent walks away and falls to the ground, smashing his hands on the ground. If that isn't Narm-ish enough, Gwen was also doing the same thing, while crying and yelling, and her yelling does sound sorta strange...
  • Any "dramatic" scene in Action League NOW. This is probably due to everyone being, well, a toy.
  • Any scene in a Spark Plug Entertainment movie, such as when the titular character cries in A Cars Life Sparkys Big Adventure.
  • The intro to Widget the World Watcher. "Nature called, we didn't care!" sounds like "Had to go to the bathroom, but we ignored it and peed in our pants!"
  • The Princess and the Frog: Quick question; a mad witch-doctor has you pinned to the ground and transformed into a frog, has all but won the plot, and is gloating about how, had you taken his previous offer, you wouldn't reamain a slimey frog all your life. But you have a plan to take him down. What is your pre-asskicking one-liner? If you answered; "It's not slime, it's mucus!" as a reference to an earlier inside joke which wasn't really funny to begin with, you have made your victory narmy.
  • In the Legion of Super Heroes cartoon, Brainiac 5 shouts 'Superman!'. Unfortunately, it sounds more like 'SOOUPERMAN!'
  • The Animated Adaptation of Ctrl+Alt+Del is one of those things where the things that are meant to be funny aren't, but what isn't meant to be funny is due to Narm. Seeing how bad the animation and voice acting could get was the only entertainment to be derived from it. Special mention goes to the Star Wars spoofs, with Ethan's awkward falling and Lilah's hilariously terrible delivery: "OH MY GOD LUCAS LOOK BEHIND US."
  • The New Adventures of Batman was full of this stuff:
    • Electro in 'Bite-Sized' is probably the Narmiest villain Batman's ever faced. "THEY SHOULD RENAME YOU THE DYNAMIC...PICKLES!"
    • It is hard to take a villain named 'Professor Bubbles' seriously, especially when his henchman is called 'Blow'.
    • Zarbor. A being who is meant to be a powerful Big Bad, yet has a voice like he inhaled an entire bunch of balloons and a stereotypical 'Fu Man Chu' look.
    • Speaking of Zarbor, the episode where he made Batman and Robin evil is full of Narmilicious delight. "Why are you doing this, Batman?" "Two reasons: wealth...and power. HAHAHAHAHA."
    • The Hurricane of Puns in general. "Keep up the BAD work, Penguin, old pal."
    • Hear how the Riddler speaks and laughs here.
  • The Generator Rex episode "Hunter" would be a lot cooler if not for the use of Stock Sound Effects normally heard in comedy. Slide whistles do not belong in battles with EVO's!
  • Metalocalypse does this alot.
    • Toki's distraught over his dying father and the rest of the band members instead would rather focus on throwing firecrackers at Murderface.
      • Is it Narm if the humor is intentional?
      • The best part is when his father slips under the ice and disappears.

"Oh noes noes noes! You're in the waters under the ice! And now you'res sinkings where I can'ts see you! Noes noes noes!"

  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: "Jack has been blown to smithereens!" Okay, Mayor, we know you're understandably upset, but could you have said that any less hilariously?
    • "THE KING OF HALLOWWEEEENNN HAS BEEEEENNN BLOOOOWN TO SMITHEREEEEENSSS!!!"
    • Anytime the Mayor is upset. He just can't do drama.
    • SKELETON JACK IS NOW A PILE OF DUST! Way to break it gently to the citizens of Halloween Town, Mayor.
    • Some think that Jack delivering those scary presents is more funny than terrifying. Or otherwise thinks the presents are really cool.
    • When Jack confronts Oogie Boogie, he's lying on a table in a pose that said doesn't say badass and looked more like he's Ready for Lovemaking. And this is just after the Mayor's bit.
  • Felidae: In the English dub, the voice actor for Francis is obviously trying his hardest to sound angry and upset in one scene, but it's just so pathetically done that it's hilarious.
    • "YOU!? But Kong, why YOU!?" Francis is probably just humoring Kong, but he's sounds like he's cooing a three year old.
      • "Youspoketoa MAN!?"
        • Anytime English Francis groans or screams. Subverted in the German version, where he actually sounds like he's in peril, and it isn't overdone.
  • Monster House has an old man yelling at some kids to get off his property. He picks one of them up and threatens them with, "DO YOU WANT TO BE A DEAD PERSON?!"
  • Marvelanimationfromthepast
    • One particular one was the adaptation of The Avengers issue 4, where Iron Man introduces the team to Captain America. A split second later, there's a close up of the team, their heads bunched together... and Giant Man giving us the most ridiculous "DURRRR" face ever! Doesn't help that his voice actor sounds just as goofy!
  • The Direct to Video Bionicle movies contain a few such moments:
    • The classic opening scenes with Turaga Vakama's narration explaining the basic backstories behind each movie, using colorful stones to represent the major players. The visuals and music score both add to the sense of epicness, but then you realize: these are just rocks doing stuff in a sandpit!
    • Mask of Light starts with a scenic image of the village of Ta-Koro as the camera pans over the area to focus on a lonely Ta-Matoran, Jaller. Over Nathan Furst's beautiful music score, the first bit of character dialog can be heard: Jaller repeatedly calling for Takua in his vaguely surfer-accented, teenage-toned voice. "Tuh-KOO-aaah! Tuh-KOO-aaah!" The tone set by the intro is shattered.
    • When Hahli brings the news that Mata Nui has to be awakened, the crowd of gathered Toa and Turaga starts murmuring, unsure of what to do. Vakama, after a long session of stroking his metal-beard, decides to set things into motion (since this would be the most important event of their lifetime, after all), but Onewa promptly reminds him that marching into the Big Bad's lair might be dangerous (despite the fact that they have six immensely powerful heroes to aid them). Cut to the whole crowd suddenly murmuring again, with a confused Hahli looking over them. This was meant to be a serious scene.
    • The Skrall squad running in place at the beginning of the big battle in The Legend Reborn.
  • Young Justice: Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent are in a diner discussing Superboy and Clark's refusal to act as the father figure that the boy desperately needs. It's a fine scene...up until Clark leaves and angrily tells the waiter that he'll have the apple pie he just ordered to go. Pie is not well known for being appropriately dramatic.
    • That entire scene could count for some. It's literally The World's Finest Bromance having an arguement over custody. This exchange pretty much says it all.

Bruce: The boy needs his father.

Clark: I'm not his father!

    • Superboy's over-emotional feral screaming in a lot of the early episodes (especially in Bereft), while not being totally uncalled for given his pre-character-development personality, can become rather silly and over the top.
  • Gargoyles: The Macbeth flashbacks in City of Stone attempted emotional drama, but the combination of terrible character animation and questionable Scottish accents rather sank the whole endeavour. It will go down as one of the less successful fictionalised accounts of that monarch's life.
  • "Starveillance"': Mischa Barton skit. It's not the dream idea thing that made me consider this for entry, oh no, it's not the claymation--it's one thing with the zombies in claymation, but Lifetime zombies? It probably should have freaked me out--but seeing Shannon Doherty, Star Jones, and Michelle Rodriguez in that skit made me smirk just a little bit at how Narmy it all was.
  • As much as this troper loves Megamind, there is a particularly Narmful Opening Narration from the title character.
    • "He bought their affections with showmanship and extravagant gifts of deliciousness. So I too will make this pop-ped corn and win over those mindless drones."
  • The Flim-Flam brothers laughing in the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "The Super-Speedy Cider-Squeezy 6000". Seriously, Flim sounds like fricking Mandark for Gods sake!
    • Or as one of the comments put it, "Fleamis and Flamhead".
    • I'd love to add this. I had to replay that scene 8 times just to make sure that just happened. And here's the best part! They laugh again later on, but it sounds nothing like the first one. Somehow, the laughs become even narmier.
  • Futurama:
  • From Adventure Time, the scene of Princess Bubblegum creating Lemongrab in her lab was set up to be really creepy. Outside the window, the sky is dark. The music is soft, ominous strings. She pours the life-giving serum on Lemongrab's head, and his face slowly forms. His eyes snap open in terror, and he lets out a loud, high-pitched groan. We all knew that he's mentally unstable, so the audience expected something scary to happen. Instead, Lemongrab bolts up, flaps his arms around like noodles of limp spaghetti, and screams a cracking, shrill scream that just oozes concentrated, undiluted narm- and his eyes roll back into his head. To some, that scene is completely hilarious. But to others, it's actually genuinely disturbing on a few levels.
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