Who did you think of?
Was it one of these guys?
If it was, you're likely not alone. I mean, talk about legends of the game.
But there are plenty of other characters a person might choose, too. And as a lover of animation, that's the subject that came to my mind even back when I was designing the original custom card in this growing set. I figured a good follow-up card would feature some of the all-stars of the animated world. So I came up with a list.
Check out the card back and see who rounds out the top 10.
I tried to make the list fairly accurate, based on a few criteria: "catchiness" of the catchphrase, popularity of the cartoon character, and number of seasons or iterations the cartoon has had. The right-hand column lists the fictitious, estimated number of times each character has uttered their catchphrase. (No, I did not look that up online, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone out there has tried to compile actual stats.)
I really wanted to put Charlie Brown in the top three, but I felt that having him finish just off the podium would be the most fitting thing for poor Chuck, who has once again had the proverbial football swiped away just before he kicked it. (I love the Peanuts gang, and wanted to stay true to Charles Schulz's storyline.)
And there were some good ones I left out for one reason or another. For example, G.I. Joe's "Yo Joe!" is fantastic, but it was uttered by all the Joes, not just one; Shaggy's "Zoinks!" is a classic, but pretty much every Scooby-Doo character has a catchphrase, so I decided to put only one character (Velma) on the list to make room for some other cartoons; and He-Man's "By the Power of Grayskull, I Have the Power!" was just too long to fit on the card.
But overall, I think all 10 characters earned their places on the list.
And that's that. Another fun custom card is in the books.
Would you have put any other characters on the list? Or re-ordered the top 10? Let me know in the comment section, and thanks for reading!
PS: Bonus points if you can spot the spelling error on the card back.
Fun stuff! ... As far as reordering, I might put Roadrunner first. That whole cartoon's dialogue was "Beep! Beep!"
ReplyDeleteThanks, Night Owl! Good point about Roadrunner, hahah.
DeleteWhat's Up Doc definitely came to my mind first.
ReplyDeleteCan't really argue with any of your choices. Maybe "that trick never works" or "smarter than the average bear" have a case. I'm a big fan of Animaniacs, but the best catchphrases from that are probably the Brain's "are you pondering what I'm pondering" and "same thing we do every night, Pinky...try to take over the world". And those are not really popular enough, not to mention that like the He-Man one you mention, they're too long. I also like "Wonder Twin powers, activate", but can't argue it's on the same level.
If we're including feature films, though, we might consider "To infinity and beyond!"
Oh man, Animaniacs. Great show. Good suggestions, too. "Helllooooo Nurse!" was another catchphrase I thought about adding ;-)
DeleteWasn't sure of which turtle who said it... but Michaelangelo's "cowabunga" was the first to pop into my head. The second was Quagmire's "giggity".
ReplyDeleteCan't go wrong with a Turtles quote, right?
DeleteI believe Michelangelo is the misspelling?
ReplyDeleteThis is a great list, and there are so many other good ones that could have been in there too.
Inspector Gadget! "Go go gadget . . .!" "I'm always on duty!"
Surprised not to see any Disney characters, but I guess they were never that big on catchphrases? "What's the big idea?" by Donald Duck would be a good one, as would Goofy's "gawrsh".
"Smarter than the average bear"! Lots more from the 60s that used to rerun all the time when I was a kid in the 80's, like "Sufferin succotash!" or "I tawt I taw a puddycat!"
Would have to check with kids for what's popular today, like Ninjago must have something for example. Though kids these days are more likely to get their catchphrases from TikTok videos. Last year on the playground the big phrase for the 7- and 8-year-olds was "Emotional damage!" Times have changed . . .
Yep, Michelangelo was misspelled. Good eye, Bo! (And no, it wasn't a deliberate "Easter egg" type of error. I just made the error and didn't catch it during proofreading.)
DeleteYou made some good suggestions, too. Along the same lines, I thought about "Heavens to Murgatroyd" and even "Captain Caaavemaaaaan!" Quite a few good catchphrases out there.
Pretty funny about "Emotional damage", hahah!
Awesome card! I remember an episode of The Simpsons, where there was a joke where everyone in the town uttered their catch phrase, only to end up with Lisa, who doesn't have one.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt! I'd forgotten all about that Simpsons clip, heheh.
DeleteVery cool! I'm glad Optimus Prime made the list. What would have made Charlie Brown's miss ever more tragic would have been if he lost out by 1. The only other one comes to mind is "Tonight!" from Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but his last name may have been too long for the card too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jafronius! After reading through all these comments, maybe I should have made space on the back of the card for a top-15 or top-20!
DeleteI love your reasoning behind putting Charlie Brown in the 4th spot. In fact, I think that that's my favorite part of the card. Seems like these were all solid choices. The only two that come to mind that aren't here are Yogi Bear (as already suggested by Bo), and perhaps my personal favorite, Mumm-Ra. Although his "Ancient spirits of evil..." invocation during his transformation would probably be too long for this card.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon! Glad you like the Charlie Brown placement so much. I think Mr. Schulz would have liked it, too. And yes, there were plenty of characters whose catchphrases were simply too long for the card. Mumm-Ra is a good addition. Scary dude.
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