Potter Puppet Pals

Alas, a cornucopia of awesome.

Neil Cicierega, of Animutation fame, created two flash cartoons featuring hand-puppet versions of the main characters from Harry Potter. The humorous cartoons quickly gained popularity (even with Rowling herself and Daniel Radcliffe), and the Potter Puppet Pals series was born.

Eventually, Neil and his friends moved on from animated shorts to live-action shorts featuring real puppets, and they've even done a couple of live shows with the puppets. The series is most famous for the number of memes it has spawned.

Also, Neville is a butternut squash.

Shorts include:

• "Bothering Snape": Ron and Harry bother Snape.
• "Trouble at Hogwarts": Voldemort invades Hogwarts, and it's up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione to stop him.
• "Potions Class": Snape describes Potions Class to Harry and friends in a very disturbing way. Not to mention Dumbledore wanting expired gorilla milk for his bowels.
• "Wizard Angst": Harry's feeling cranky and pubescent today, and he doesn't know why!
• "Mysterious Ticking Noise": The entire cast sings along to a mysterious ticking noise which unfortunately turns out to be a pipe bomb. (Yes, this includes Voldemort.)
• "Wizard Swears": Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn magical profanity.
• "School is for Losers": Harry Potter says school is for losers!
• "The Awakening of the Incorruptible" (later renamed "Albus Dumbledore Lists Your Good Qualities"): The most epic Potter Puppet Pals short ever.
• "The Vortex": A strange vortex appears, and Ron finally goes through puberty.
• "Ron's Disease": Ron gets Wizard Lice, and only Hagrid can cure it.
• "Snape's Diary": Harry steals Snape's diary, and he reads it aloud to Ron and Hermione.
• "Mustache Buddies": Voldemort decides to grow a mustache and has Snape do it too.
• "Ron's Parents": Ron has parents, Harry doesn't.
• "Harry's Nightmares": Harry recalls a series of horrible nightmares.
• "Draco Puppet": Harry introduces us to the puppet's puppet version of Draco Malfoy.
• "Ginny": Harry flirts with Ron's hot younger sister.
• "Neville's Birthday": Harry, Ron and Hermione attend Neville's birthday party on threat of expulsion.

Some of the fans of this series made Fanvids of these Fanvids, using the same or similar programs and posted them on YouTube.

Tropes used in Potter Puppet Pals include:

• Alternative Character Interpretation: All the characters is exaggerated and twisted versions of the original Harry Potter characters, all in the name of Rule of Funny.
  • Dumbledore is an outrageous ditz who also happens to be an android. A gay android.
  • Ron is a pathetic, effeminate Yes-Man who adores Harry despite constantly being insulted by him.
  • Harry is a self-centered Jerkass who is desperate for attention.
  • Snape is a Comically Serious loner who nobody takes seriously because of his tendency to get angsty over almost everything.
• Audience Participation Song: The "Avada Kedavra" song in the live show
• Butt Monkey: Ron.
• Call Back: In "Snape's Diary," we learn just how much "Bothering Snape" really did bother Snape.

Harry Potter: "I remember that, Ron! Gimme five!"

• Canis Latinicus
• Christmas Episode: The Yule Ball 2010 live performance.
• Cluster Bleep Bomb: Dumbledore's recitation of The Elder Swear in "Wizard Swears", also invoking Noodle Implements to a degree:

Your mother is a (censored)-ing (censored) Lorem Ipsum (censored) Admitum Venium (censored) Treguna (censored) hippopotamus (censored) republican (censored) and Daniel Radcliffe (censored) with a bucket of (censored) in a castle far away where no one can hear you (censored) soup (censored) with a bucket of (censored) Mickey Mouse (censored) and a stick of dynamite (censored) magical (censored) alakazam!

Note that it takes him no less than forty-three seconds to say this.

• Comedic Sociopathy: Poor, poor Neville. Haha.
• Completely Missing the Point: In "Snape's Diary".

Snape's Diary: I was at the Yule Ball with Lily Evans. I asked her to dance. She asked me to die. Would that I could Lily...would that I could...
Harry: "My mum was awesome!"

• Continuity Nod: In "Snape's Diary", one of the diary entries is about "Bothering Snape."
• Cuckoo Nest: Occurs in "Harry's Nightmares" as a Shout-Out to Shutter Island.
• Curse Cut Short:

Ron: Maybe he's in loooove!
Hermione: Who'd fall in love with such an a-
Ron: Maybe he needs a hug!

• • Harry says "What the f--" just as Neville is exploding in "Neville's Birthday".
• The Ditz:
  • Ron.
  • Dumbledore most definitely qualifies.
• Driven to Suicide: Played for Laughs of course.
  • Harry at the end of "Ginny".
  • Neville Self-Destructs when he realizes that no one likes him. And yes, it's funny.
• Easter Egg: "Follow the butterflies, follow the butterflies, WEE~!" "Ronnicus Explodicus!"
• Even Nerds Have Standards: In "Neville's Birthday", after Harry and Hermione inform Neville that nobody likes him:

Ron: Even I look down on you! ME!

• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Done with a beautifully nonsensical twist in "Wizard Angst".
• Everything's Better with Plushies
• Evil Sounds Deep: Voldemort is depicted with a deep, reverberating voice.
• Fantastic Racism: Lampshaded when the Draco Malfoy puppet says "I'm really proud that I'm pure-blooded white -- I mean, wizard."
• Gilligan Cut: The end of "Wizard Swears"
• Group Hug:
  • The end of "Trouble at Hogwarts". It's a pretty weird version, though, considering one of the members of the group is a naked old man...
  • And in "The Vortex": "Lose some weight before you hug me, Ron."
• Halloween Episode: The Youmacon 2010 live performance.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Harry. At one point he leads a half-awake Hagrid all over the school grounds to club everyone in sight. Except Voldemort.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Invoked by Harry, who constantly makes snide remarks about Ron's eating habits and weight, despite Ron obviously being build from the same puppet template as him. Which is hilarious, considering that Ron in the books is extremely tall and thin.
• Homoerotic Subtext: Ron has an obvious one-sided crush on Harry. Apparently Harry returns Ron's feelings on a subconscious level through his attraction to Ginny, who is basically just Ron with Tertiary Sexual Characteristics.
• "I Am Great" Song: in "The Vortex", about being the king of the school, and defeating Voldemort as a baby. It has a melancholy end, though, as Harry remembers he also lost his parents as a baby, and had to move to an abusive foster home.
• Jerkass: Harry.
• Kick the Dog: Harry mercilessly picks on Neville, Ron and Snape.
• Kill It with Fire: The final fate of the Draco puppet.
• Large Ham: "I mean everything I ever say, ever, because I'm Harry Potter." (thunderclap)
• Mister Seahorse: Parodied in "Harry's Nightmares".
• My God, What Have I Done?: Harry's reaction when Neville explodes. Until he tastes the chunks.
• Naked People Are Funny

Dumbledore: NAKED TIME!

• Non-Standard Character Design:
  • Neville is a butternut squash on a stick.
  • Cedric Diggory is a foot.
• Noodle Implements: Harry and Ron's potential punishment in "Wizard Angst" has some of these. Though if you think about it, assuming that the cactus in question is a potted one, it will be picked up and placed over their heads or bare bums and hammered down with the croquet mallet by the drunken Filch. Or Filch will smash one of them with the mallet and then just shove the cactus in/on the other one. Alternatively, the mallet could also be used to shove the cactus in... places.
• Pet the Dog: Subverted hilariously in "Neville's Birthday". At first Harry appears to feel guilt for making Neville so upset that he self-destructs... then he starts eating chunks of what's left of Neville.
• Porn Stache: In Mustache Buddies.
• Puppet Permutation
• Rhyming with Itself: Harry's song in "The Vortex" is pretty nothing but this.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: In "Ron's Disease", Dumbledore is revealed to be a gay android.
• Sarcasm Mode: Harry's opinion of the fan-favorite suggestion to introduce a Puppet Pal Draco, and execution of same.
• Saying Too Much: "I just happened to find this book in Snape's bedroom in a locked trunk under his bed."
• Serendipitous Symphony: "What is that mysterious ticking noise?... it's kind of catchy..."
• Shout-Out:
  • Besides the Take That to Twilight in "Snape's Diary", there's a quick shoutout to Shutter Island at the end of "Harry's Nightmares".
  • In Neville's Birthday, there's this.

Snape:"It's just a cake."

• Small Name, Big Ego: Harry.
• Straw Loser: Ron. Subverted in "The Vortex".
• Take That, Audience!: The short Albus Dumbledore Lists Your Good Qualities.
• Take That:
  • "Awakening of the Incorruptible" has been declared to be a stab at fans who were whining about the sporadic updating. Not that they have a lot to complain about, "The Vortex" was uploaded shortly after.
  • Also:

Ron: Is it a young adult vampire romance novel? (Cut to later with Ron standing in the corner)

• The Smurfette Principle: Hermione is the only voiced female puppet of the cast.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Ginny resembles Ron with longer hair and a bow.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Wizard Swears"
• Villain Song: The "Avada Kedavra" song
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Except since they're puppets, it's made out of yarn.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: In the live show.

Dumbledore: "... The spell we know as love."
Ron: "Love?!"
Harry: "Lame!"
Hermione: "That's not magic!"

• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him:
  • Aversion -- at the end of "Trouble At Hogwarts", they do shoot Voldemort.
  • Also in "Mysterious Ticking Noise" Voldemort uses it on the good guys because the source of the noise...

Ron: "It's a pipe bomb!"
Harry and Hermione: YAY!!!
-Snape and Dumbledore look at each other in stunned disbelief-

• A Worldwide Punomenon:

Angel Neville: "It's what's on the inside that counts".