Left to right: Sheep, Duck, Dog, Ant, Pig, Bear and Frog.
WordWorld! (WordWorld!) —The first lines of the show's Expository Theme Tune
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WordWorld is a very odd preschool show that centers on Funny Animals and a non-anthro dog—who are all living words. They can build new things out of letters. If you need a house, just build one out of the appropriate letters.
The series premiered on PBS on September 3, 2007, and was produced by WTTW Chicago. The series received critical acclaim and awards. The show ended on January 24, 2011, but it can still be seen in reruns on PBS Kids affiliates, particularly the 24/7 kids channel.
It's time to build a trope, let's build it, let's build it now! T-R-O-P-E (KIDS: Trope!) Yeah, we just built a trope, we built it, we built it!:
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Either there are two main cats, one a blue Siamese cat and one a purple cat with a white muzzle, facial blaze, and white paws, or Cat changes color depending on her job in the episode. Also, why are Sheep's arms and legs purple? Pig's hooves . . . they sure like purple in this show.
- Carnivore Confusion: Shark
- Chaste Toons: Pig's three nephews
- Christmas Episode: "The Christmas Star / A Christmas Present for Dog"
- Deadpan Snarker: Duck
- Disembodied Eyebrows
- A Dog Named "Dog".... and a sheep, and a bear, and a duck, and a frog...
- The Everyman: Sheep
- Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Averted with shark.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The animals themselves.
- Four-Legged Insect: Inverted with Cricket and averted with the other insects.
- Cricket has eight legs like an arachnid and Spider has six legs (and two antennae) like an insect.
- Funny Animal: Everyone except Dog and Cow.
- Furry Confusion: Cow and Dog rarely talk, though often Dog's barks sound close to words. There are even realistic sea creatures.
- Dog can't talk, but he actually owns a house, whereas Pig lives in a barn, Bear lives in a cave, Sheep lives in hay, Frog lives in a log, and Duck has a nest.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: Pig and Ant, Duck and Frog, and Bear and Sheep
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Who knew that Sheep was Ash Ketchum?
- Interactive Narrator: He is sometimes heard talking with the characters, usually at the beginning of a story.
- Loads and Loads of Characters: Potentially any noun that refers to a living thing.
- Living Prop: Cow
- Merchandise-Driven: Tons of merchandise sold at Target. The new characters introduced for merchandise who don't appear in the show presumably have been Killed Off for Real.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: In an episode in which Pig is sneezing, Sheep attempts to take him to the hospital.
- No Cartoon Fish: Only a few cartoony fish have been seen.
- Our Monsters Are Different: Monster, who is a red monster shaped like his name.
- Partially-Civilized Animal: Any four-legged Word World character (Tiger, Elephant, Turtle, Monkey, Dog, Cat, and Goat)
- Shaped Like Itself: Litteraly.
- Single-Minded Twins: Pig's nephews
- The Smart Guy: Frog
- Except when his Large Ham qualities turn him into a Know-Nothing Know-It-All.
- Steam Never Dies: The train is a large blue steam locomotive shaped like the word "TRAIN" that is for some reason fuelled by letters, couldn't decide whether it should have a 2-2-2 or a 4-2-0 wheel arrangement, and doesn't have anyone driving it.
- Tailfin Walking: Shark