Western Animation / Random! Cartoons

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Random! Cartoons was Nickelodeon and Frederator Studios’ second animation anthology series after Oh Yeah! Cartoons (and in fact was initially produced as a fourth season of Oh Yeah! Cartoons before it was decided at the last minute to rebrand the anthology as being its own thing). Initially meant to air on the main Nickelodeon channel by the end of 2007, it would end up being shelved before premiering on Nicktoons in December 2008, though some of the individual shorts would appear separately both on television and online as early as January 2007.

Like OYC, it was supposed to be a potential launching pad for new Nicktoons. However, only one of the 39 shorts would be picked up by Nickelodeon themselves to become a full-fledged series: Eric Robles' Fanboy and Chum Chum, which would run for two seasons from 2009 to 2012 to a largely negative reception.

These days, the program is far better known as the birthplace of Pendleton Ward's Adventure Time, which was greenlit by competitor Cartoon Network and would go on to be a Cash-Cow Franchise for that company, running from 2010-2018 and credited for spawning a renaissance of cartoons with overarching plotlines and deconstructions of well-known cartoon tropes and conventions. The success of Adventure Time would also lead to Frederator self-financing Ward's other RC short, Bravest Warriors, which became a flagship series for its Cartoon Hangover channel in 2012, with Nelvana eventually joining as a co-production company for that cartoon's fourth season as a traditional television series.

See also Nickelodeon Animated Shorts Program, Nickelodeon's current animation initiative. Compare Cartoonstitute, a failed animation anthology series that was being produced by Cartoon Network during the same time period, but nonetheless spawned two successful series, Regular Show and Uncle Grandpa.

Tropes applying to Random! Cartoons include^note The Adventure Time pilot has its own own article:

• Absurdly Dedicated Worker: Wil Wheaton was very interested in performing the Kyle character in Kyle + Rosemary due to the story reminding him of his troubling school crushes as a kid, to the point where he kept asking his agent about the status of his audition. Months later, his agent called Wheaton back informing him that he got the job. Wheaton documented his experience auditioning and recording for the short on his blog.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: A lot of the cartoons feature anthropomorphic animals wearing clothes.
• Accidental Misnaming: In the short, "Ratz-A-Fratz", the security guard character, Crank's, real name is "C. Rank" as identified by his nametag and according to the creators on the Frederator blogs. The blogs also indicate that Crank is aware of the characters referring to him as such and enforces to ban anyone from the mall who does so.
• Adaptation Species Change: "Solomon Fix" is loosely adapted from a comic by Doug TenNapel, where the title character was an anthropomorphic cat rather than a sentient teddy bear.
• All-CGI Cartoon: Solomon Fix, Boneheads and Fanboy are all animated entirely with three-dimensional computer graphics (except for Fanboy having a Flash-animated opening cartoon).
• Anthropomorphic Food:
  • The title character of "Bradwurst" is a grumpy sausage.
  • The main character of "Garlic Boy" lives up to his name by being anthropomorphic garlic.
  • Albeit undead, Gaillard from "6 Monsters" counts since he was previously a scallion.
  • An incidental character named Ted from "Bronk & Bongo" was known to have a strawberry for a head. He was also identified as "Ted Strawberry Head" in the credits.
• Art Shift: 6 Monsters is done in several different animation styles.
  • Kyle + Rosemary also shifts between traditional animation during the real-world scenes and CGI for the Questworld scenes.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: The plot of "Mind the Kitty", about a trio of young animals who try to babysit a young kitten, only for her to turn out to be a violent Bratty Half-Pint who chases them out of the house with a chainsaw, locks them out, and proceeds to destroy everything inside. The main trio spend most of the short trying to get back inside and slapstick ensues.
• Bad Date: This is Played for Laughs and is the main plot of "Girls on the GO!: First Date" in which the main character Katerina receives a love letter whom she believes to be from a handsome senior at her high school named Spencer Spencerson. However, when she arrives at the date, the guy who wrote the letter turns out to instead be a geeky student named Spencer Applebaum. Said date talks about his nerdy interests, has disgusting habits, and orders shellfish despite being allergic. The two do get their happy endings though, with Spencer A. deciding that Katerina is not his type and instead going out with her Perky Goth friend Tess (and Katerina being fine with it), and Katerina meeting Spencer S. with the two hitting it off.
• Backstab Backfire: In "Bradwurst", when the titular character finds out from his supposed friend Willy the party was for him, he warms up to him and admits that he was his "best friend". However, the moment an officer arrives demanding who the party was for, Bradwurst immediately shifted the blame to Willy and made a quick escape. But not only was the officer only there to party but Bradwurst got stuck in his own getaway trap, causing the other guests to mistake him for a talking pinata, which leds him to be whacked by them.
• Bait-and-Switch Credits: "Hornswiggle" opens with a title card depicting the silhouette of a realistic looking rhino. It is then followed with an establishing shot of a jungle in this same semi-realistic art style, which continues until the titular character enters the scene, where everything then morphs into the mid-century cartoon art style of the actual short.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The title character of the short "SamSquatch" is a Sasquatch child who befriends an old woman running a diner and outsmarts a cryptid hunter trying to capture him.
• Captain Colorbeard: The title character of "MooBeard the Cow Pirate", a bovine buccaneer whose coat sleeves are stuffed with all sorts of gadgets. With the help of his first mate Sailor Bird, he goes on a journey to find the treasure of the island Hookamookapookalap.
• Comical Overreacting: In "Krunch and the Kid", Krunch is so sensitive that a mere papercut from receiving his script caused him to go on a crying attack involving breaking the entire studio to the point where he was skiing and rowing a boat while crying.
• Creator Cameo: Moobeard creator Kyle Carrozza cameoed toward the end of the cartoon as a cat villager walking with a cameo expy of animation artist, Sam Erdini.
  • A caricature of Squirrely Town creator Doug Tennapel appeared in one of the title cards.
  • Mike Gray, co-creator of The Infinite Goliath, appeared during the opening song as a fast-food customer.
  • The animation crew at Renegade Animation make cameo appearances on Sugarfoot as students.
• Disney Death: In "Krunch and the Kid", Krunch spends most of the episode mourning the apparent death of his frog "Hoppy". It turns out Hoppy was actually lost in the sewers in the end.
• Does Not Like Spam: The title character of "Teapot" doesn't like oatmeal.
• Enemy Eats Your Lunch: Gaillard eats Cathy's lunch in front of her in "6 Monsters" with the excuse that he's doing so to help her understand math.
• Expy:
  • The titular character of Hornswiggle is a pastiche of Sidney the Elephant in that he is a child-like megafauna unaware of how annoying others find him, albeit being a rhinoceros rather than an elephant. The short was originally planned as a Silly Sidney short, but had to be retooled into something else when it was discovered that Nickelodeon didn't have the rights to Terrytoons at the time (as well as the unsuccessful pilot Curbside that was Nickelodeon's last attempt at reviving the Terrytoons characters still being fresh in the executives' memories).
  • The titular character of "The Infinite Goliath" is a rather blatant imitation of Darkseid, being a grey-skinned alien with red eyes and blue armor as well as a reputation as a vastly-powerful supervillain with a predilection for conquering worlds.
• Friends Turned Romantic Rivals: "Hero Heights" is about two friends named Smart Alec and Strikeout living in a neighborhood inhabited by superheroes, who both turn against each other after they fall in love with the new neighbor Olympia. It isn't until Olympia finds out that the boys have picked on the other girls in the neighborhood and punishes them that Smart Alec and Strikeout reconcile.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: On "Dr. Froyd's Funny Farm" due to the titular characters' Spooneristic way of speaking, many of his sentences are hidden innuendos such as "Never hive up dope!" and "I'm so piss-a-dointed". Another particular scene where he asks Bossy LeCow to "sink a teat" instead of "take a seat" causing the surrounding characters to shout "What?" in shock.
• I Am Not Weasel: This was a running gag in "Moobeard" where the bovine titular character was mistaken for a pig due to his enlarged, porcine-shaped snout which angers him. At first Darkblade was surprised that he was a cow but later threw that to his face when he had the upperhand in combat towards the end, which led to Moobeard head-butting him in rage, causing his defeat.
• It's All My Fault: Willy in "Bradwurst". When Bradwurst frames Willy to the surprising officer and escapes, Willy tearfully blames himself thinking it's because the punch he made for Bradwurst was "bad", even though party guest Jerry pointed the obvious of Bradwurst ditching him.
• Jerkass: Gaillard in "6 Monsters". One segment has him offer to help Cathy with her math solely as an excuse to devour her lunch in front of her, while another has him underhandedly manipulate Buck into paying $50 for bottled water.
  • The title character in "Bradwurst" was known, except for Willy, by the party guests as such. Fellow guest Jerry even pointed it out numerous times.
• Karmic Butt-Monkey: The title character of "Bradwurst" is a complete bastard who goes out of his way to ruin a party just because he believed he wasn't invited. This makes the misfortunes and injuries he suffers throughout the short very well-deserved.
• Living Toys: "Tiffany" is about a young girl discovering that her doll is alive.
• Loony Fan: "Hornswiggle" exhibits this where he harasses and unintentionally injures the jungle man Zan-Tar to no end, wanting to be his sidekick. He even received a restraining order from him, in which he believes to be a reward for winning a game with him when in actuality was from him crashing into him in a cliff. Towards the end of the short, it reveals that other similar jungle men were hospitalized dealing with the overly-enthusiastic rhino as well.
• Lost Pet Grievance: "Krunch and the Kid" revolves around Krunch being upset by the assumed death of his pet frog Hoppy.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: "6 Monsters" has Buck repeatedly tell Roy "Don't you know the penalty for [act of misbehavior Roy just committed]?", usually followed with "That's right, [absurdly over-the-top punishment]!"
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: In "Dugly Uckling's Treasure Quest", Dugly states that luck is his middle name, causing Quiggins to retort that he thought his middle name was Larry.
• Monster Mash: The short "6 Monsters" stars a Pumpkin Person named Cathy, a ghost named Gaillard, a black cat named Buck, an ape-man named Roy, a demon named Lulu and Lulu's skeleton grandfather who works as a janitor.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The mayor on Flavio had a voice inspired by Ed Wynn.
  • Teapot had an alarm clock that was basically an expy of James Brown, and was even credited as such!
  • According to Mike Gray, the titular character Thom Cat's voice was inspired by Davy Jones.
  • According to Kyle Carrozza, George Takei was somewhat of an influence on Dark Blade of Fire's vocal tone but not a direct influence on his character.
  • According to Manny Galan, Bronk & Bongo are based off of Abbott and Costello and Jerry Generic is based off of Sidney Fields.
  • Crank from Ratz-A-Fratz is obviously Christopher Walken.
    • The female singer shown throughout the short, according to the creator, was based off of Shakira.
• No Ending: "Dr. Froyd's Funny Farm" ends with no resolution to Bossy LeCow running off in Lulu's body and Lulu in Bossy's body following her to try and undo the brain-switching.
• Pumpkin Person: One of the characters in "6 Monsters" is a pumpkin-headed girl named Cathy.
• Rambunctious Italian: Flavio, from the short of the same name, is an Italian goat inventor who has the tendency to over-emote.
• RPG Episode: Kyle + Rosemary, which has two teenagers date via playing a MMORPG.
• Same Language Dub: Unlike the other shorts, the animation on Boneheads was completed first at Polygon Pictures, then subsequently ADR-ed over at Nickelodeon by the voice cast.
• Seadog Peg Leg: The title character of "MooBeard the Cow Pirate" has two peg legs.
• Shout-Out: The flashback scene in Squirly Town was a homage to the anime film, Akira to the point where the characters actually spoke Japanese.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Sparkles and Gloom, from the short of the same name. The former is cheerful and sweet, while the latter is moody and dark.
• Sir Verb-a-Lot: In "Kyle + Rosemary", Kyle's Questworld avatar is named Sir Horace Hitsalot.
• Stuff Blowing Up: When The Infinite Goliath has Roger’s ball, his friends all tackle him, causing an explosion to happen when The Infinite Goliath falls down.
• Tarzan Boy: "Hornswiggle" stars the Tarzan pastiche "Zan-Tar of the Jungle" whom the titular character is a huge fan of. He even has a loyal chimpanzee companion in akin to Cheeta, Tarzan's ape sidekick.
• Toilet Paper Substitute: Due to his negligence in heeding his mother's instructions to buy more toilet paper, the titular character of "Teapot" is forced to give his friend Bouche pieces of paper with his rap lyrics written on them when Bouche complains that there's no toilet paper in the bathroom.
• Vandalism Backfire: In "Bradwurst", the title character destroys the presents at the party he crashes, only to later learn that the presents were for him.
• Wolverine Wannabe: "Hero Heights" features a minor character named Razorclaw, who is a blatant Wolverine pastiche, complete with retractable claws.
• Wonder Woman Wannabe: Olympia from "Hero Heights" is more or less Wonder Woman as a preteen girl.