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Created by Cosgrove Hall in 1993 and lasting for two seasons, Avenger Penguins seemed to be made as an Affectionate Parody of the Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats trope. It revolved around a trio of motorcycling penguins - Marlon, the brash leader, Rocky, a large penguin lacking in brains, and Bluey, a small penguin that spoke in a nearly indechiperable language. When they weren't challenging the 'Sleaze Brothers' or hanging out at their favourite ice cream joint, they were trying to stop evil genius Caractacus P Doom (no relation), along with his henchman Harry Slime, from trying to Take Over the World.
Tropes used in Avenger Penguins include:
- Affably Evil — Doom
- Aliens Speaking English — Mildy subverted, an alien speaks in a strange language only Bluey can understand, but some of what it says can be recognised as a variation on English
- Animal Superheroes
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever — Doom creates a huge monster made of disgusting things, than Marlon becomes large himself
- Bond Gun Barrel — In 'Fishfinger', which spoofed James Bond.
- Brainless Beauty — Recurring character Delores Divine. Fittingly, she's a love interest for Rocky.
- Butt Monkey — Harry Slime
- Card-Carrying Villain — Doom
- Yet Another Christmas Carol — Doom gets the treatment courtesy of the penguins
- City of Adventure
- City with No Name: It's simply called "Big City". In The Future seen in "The 23rd Century", it becomes either "Mega City" (according to the signs) or "Mega-Big City" (judging from the dialogue).
- Deranged Animation — Quite a bit, especially from Doom.
- Distaff Counterpart — Doom has a female version of himself in the future.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom
- Dumb Is Good — Rocky, the dumb penguin, is usually cheerful and chipper, while Marlon, who is smarter, is more cynical and grumpy. Likewise, Harry Slime, who is quite stupid, is also less evil than the genius Doom.
- Easily-Conquered World — After Marlon is disposed with in 'I Married An Android', Doom takes over the world quite quickly.
- Episode Title Card
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin — The show takes place in 'Big City'
- Expository Theme Tune
- Everything's Better with Penguins
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: Which transforms into a giant Drill Tank...thing.
- Feather Fingers
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: The word 'Hell' shows up a few times. The show was even originally called 'Hell's Penguins' before there was an opposal to such a title.
- "Hello, I'm Harry, I'm single and a vir....."
- Good Feels Good — Something Harry Slime actually discovers in 'A Winter's Tale'.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal
- Happy Fun Ball — Doom manufactures these in the pilot.
- Hey, It's That Voice! — Mike McShane as Marlon and Doom.
- Identical Grandson — In 'The 23rd Century', the penguins, Doom and Harry all have descendants who resemble them exactly.
- Incredible Shrinking Man — 'Big City, Little City'
- Interspecies Romance — While averted with the Penguin's crush on Bella, they are seen lusting after human women quite often.
- Lazy Artist — Parodied with the 'Badly Drawn Brothers'.
- Local Hangout — Slush City
- Mad Scientist Laboratory
- May the Farce Be with You — Doom dresses up as Darth Vader in 'Starstruck', and 'The 23rd Century' has the 'Doom Star' and 'Bow Tie Fighters'
- Minion with an F In Evil — Harry Slime
- Musical Episode — 'Rock and Roll Penguins'
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast — Caractacus P Doom
- Never Say "Die" — Averted. Rocky actually says this phrase once or twice.
- Nightmare Sequence — 'Nightmare at Tea Time' is based on this trope. Doom also has nightmares about the penguins.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed — Doom is loosely based on Orson Welles and Harry Slime speaks like Peter Lorre. A President Target even speaks like Richard Nixon.
- No Fourth Wall — To the point where Doom would explain his plan to the audience.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries — Bella, the female penguin that runs Slush City
- Once an Episode — Doom tries to take over the world and/or destroy the penguins
- Parody Episode
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent — Used and subverted with Harry Slime
- He's more amphibian-like
- Shout-Out — Harry Slime's name is a reference to Welles movie 'The Third Man'.
- Status Quo Is God — The first season may have ended with Slime becoming good and Doom on Mars, but at the beginning of the second season, the former was inexplicably evil again and Doom was back on earth.
- Stealth in Space — Parodied. In 'The 23rd Century', the Enterprise expy uses its 'cloaking device', which consists of a robotic arm coming out of the side and dropping a black tablecloth with stars painted on it over the ship. It works.
- Strong Family Resemblance — Doom has a cousin who looks exactly like him and even has his own 'Harry Slime'
- Talking to Himself
- They Called Me Mad
- Title Theme Tune
- Toothy Bird
- Which, however, are attacking an obvious expy of the Starship Enterprise...
- The Wild West — 'The Wild Wild Wild West' and 'High Doom'
- X Meets Y — It's more or less Biker Mice From Mars Meets Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, even though the three shows came out around the same time.