Greeny Phatom - TV Tropes

The logo of a show about logos.

Greeny Phatom is a MS Paint web cartoon created by Robert Stainton in 2008.

The show centers around the adventures of Little Guy, Dr. Beanson, and company. Little Guy and friends often find themselves face-to-face with tribulations such as not being able to buy a toy they want or a dinner party gone bad. Santed Sailor, a regular character who operates the Beach Park, serves as the main antagonist of the show.

There are also variety of spin-offs and copycats, such as Gree City, Geo's World, World of Jake, and many others, some of which even got their characters to appear in the actual Greeny Phatom. The show has also been parodied several times, some examples including SMB Madman's The Greeny Phatom Show and SiIvaGunner. This show even inspired the characters of felipebross, a former Scratch celebrity.

The series is rather notorious for its Surreal Humor, Limited Animation, and limited voice acting, and it boasts many episodes over its long run.

The earlier episodes can be found here, while the later episodes can be found here.

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I'm Dr. Beanson, the one of a kind soldier, who brings you these tropes:

• A Day in the Limelight: Some episodes focus on more obscure characters such as Dr. PBS and Gree Guy, the main protagonist of the above-listed spin-off series.
• Affectionate Parody:
  • "Rejected Greeny Phatom" is a parody of the MAD segment "Rejected Toy Story 3 Characters".
  • Many scenes from the show are taken straight from MAD, but one specific skit stuck with Robert and his followers - "Cloudy with a Chance of Flavor", the cereal commercial. Starting with Little Guy Forevers.
• Anachronism Stew: Some of the "older" episodes, such as "Reading Windows Errors" are set to have premiered in the 1980s or 1990s, but contain thingsthat were made after their premiere years. For example, the aforementioned episode, which features Windows XP error messages, claims to have released in 1995 when Windows XP released in 2001.
• Anti-Hero: Little Guy sometimes acts like a jerk to his friends, and occasionally kills them if they disagree with him. Despite his bossy nature, he does come through for his friends and does nice things for them, like throwing loud, raucous parties.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Little Guy sometimes asks this question to Little Guy 2, especially in The Movie, although using the "thinking" variation. The quote is taken directly from Bananas in Pyjamas.
• Art Shift:
  • The characters, depending on how they are drawn (and who's drawing them), although quite marginally. For instance, in the show, Little Guy is drawn as a stick figure with a basketball-like head, round torso, and thin black arms and legs. Certain episodes and spin-offs try to draw the characters in a more detailed fashion.
  • If a character's legs are not visible in the shot, their body is drawn as a rectangle. Otherwise, they have two stacked balls for bodies.
• Author Appeal: Logos (specifically the ones at the end of shows, such as vanity plates) and references to children's series (c.f. Little Guy declaring himself the king of 123 Greeny Phatom - though most of them are directed towards Bananas in Pajamas).
• Battle Discretion Shot: When there's a fight, the show sometimes cuts to text saying the fight was censored.
• Berserk Button: Little Guy becomes angry whenever Doctor sings a Russian song.
• Big Bad:
  • Santed Sailor, the owner of an amusement park that Little Guy hates, is the show's main villain. He occasionally has evil schemes in place, like in The Movie, but they usually aren't put into action.
  • Dr. Beanclownson is a villain in the spinoff Dr. Beanson.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Several episodes begin with a character (usually Little Guy) acknowledging the viewer and introducing themselves.
• Broken Record:
  • In "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds", Little Guy tells the clouds, "hands off of the sun" multiple times until the clouds finally listen.
  • This would sometimes lead to a Running Joke where a character talks about something that they're gonna do, but not just any something, but a something, that a something.
• Character Catchphrase: Dr. Beanson, at the start of an episode, has this rather amusing one (and its variations):

  Dr. Beanson: Hello! I'm Dr. Beanson, the one of a kind soldier that brings you this message.

• Christmas Episode: "Macedonia's Christmas Poem" is about Little Guy celebrating Christmas. There are other Christmas episodes as well, some even taking direct footage from A Charlie Brown Christmas.
• Evil Counterpart: Several characters have their own, such as Gree Guy for Little Guy.
• The Face of the Sun: In "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds", the Baby Sun from Teletubbies is used to depict the sun itself.
• Felony Misdemeanor:
  • Characters can be arrested for mundane activities, such as playing tricks on people, or even non-activities, such as being a cheeseburger.
  • In The Movie, Dr. Beanson is sent to jail for buying a toy from Toys 'R' Us, which is treated as stealing.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language:
  • In some episodes, the Bananas in Pyjamas theme plays in multiple different languages.
  • The character Sergente Beanson speaks in a German text-to-speech voice, accompanied by subtitles.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Little Guy is known to get angry at other characters for minor slights, and has even threatened to kill other characters several times.
• Hero of Another Story:
  • Gree Guy in Gree City, aside from being an antagonist in this show.
  • Geo Guy, who is the titular protagonist of Geo's World.
• Hulking Out:
  • Little Guy will sometimes turn into a giant mouse if he's angry enough.
  • Gree Guy hulks out quite literally in a couple episodes, such as "Little Guy Uses Windows 95 2 - The Sequel" complete with Hulk roar and music.
• Limited Animation: The series is often presented in a slideshow format, with still frames with audio playing over them. However, there are occasional scenes and even a few videos that attempt animation using the slideshow format, such as "Doctor Gets Bitten By A Whale".
• Long-Runners: It's been around since 2008.
• Massively Multiplayer Crossover: The show and its spin-offs were frequently crossed over.
• Medium Blending: The show often has cartoony characters drawn on top of photographs.
• The Movie: The creator of the series would upload a feature-length film for the series in 2012. You may watch it here.
• No Antagonist: Many episodes, even those with Santed Sailor, as he often has no evil plan to act on. When he does, it's more often than not a Poke the Poodle scenario.
• No Fourth Wall: This series breaks the fourth wall on several occasions:
  • Many episodes begin with Little Guy or Dr. Beanson greeting the audience.
  • The characters will talk about upcoming seasons of the show multiple times throughout the series, as well as refer to previous episodes by name and number.
  • In the episode "Take One", Green Bob introduces himself as "the new Greeny Phatom character in the universe."
• Only Sane Man: Dr. Beanson is probably the most level-headed character in the show. He enjoys quiet activities, and calls out Little Guy for his erratic behavior.
• The Parody:
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Little Guy really doesn't do much leading for someone who's the king of 123 Greeny Phatom.
• The Place: The series is named after the fictional city of 123 Greeny Phatom. The spin-offs are named after other locations, such as Geo's World and Gree City.
• Random Events Plot: Nearly every episode consists of a series of logo-related gags and cartoon references stringed together.
• Repetitive Name: In "Rejected Green Bob", a character named Green Green Bob turns everybody else into him.
• Running Gag: "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds" has a gag where the clouds constantly get in the way of the sun, increasingly annoying Little Guy.
• Self-Deprecation: The episode "Things Gone Wrong" begins with the phrase, "The Following Episode is best enjoyed when not viewed".
• Send in the Clones: Almost every character has at least one clone. The show has seen the likes of "Little Guy 2", "Doctor", and "Beanson".
• Slice of Life: The show mainly revolves around the everyday adventures of Little Guy, Dr. Beanson, and supporting characters, fantasized or otherwise.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Little Guy is the self-proclaimed "king of 123 Greeny Phatom."
• Spin-Off: The series has two official spinoffs: "Dr. Beanson" and "Greeny Phatom on Tux Paint".
• Stairway to Heaven: Little Guy goes to Heaven in "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds" and sees the staircase.
• Surreal Humor: Logos (be them actual logos or Vanity Plates) are a key element of the show's formula, including its jokes. To give an example from one of the show's "cancelled episodes":

  Geo Guy: Cough! What in the world is this?

  Little Guy: Um, Sony Wonder Soup.

• Synthetic Voice Actor: Most of the characters are voiced by text-to-speech voices.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Characters die in nearly every episode, though are brought back in the next episode, or even in the next scene.
• Thinking Out Loud: A very common trope throughout the series. Here is an example from the beginning of the episode "Break a Bit":

  Little Guy: Since that the clock tried to woke me up very early, my excellent plan is to call him Red Dr. Beanson, but not just any Red Dr. Beanson, but a Red Dr. Beanson, that a Red Dr. Beanson, will torture Doctor's business and cancel his Russian music videos, and destroys him. And then, I will eat a double cheeseburger after painting, but not just any double cheeseburger, but a double cheeseburger, that a double cheeseburger, has the ingredients flamed grilled beef, cheeses, pickles, and ketchup. After eating double cheeseburgers, I will sing "Bananas in Pyjamas" by New Castle, an Austrian T.V. show for kids. And it was daylight time, we will change it in this country. Finally I will locate a shopping mall that is called Birchwood. This will be located into a message from the inbox. Some soldier gave this bucket to me for being loved so very much.

• Tyop on the Cover: It is often believed that the "Phatom" in Greeny Phatom is a misspelling of the word "phantom".
• Uncredited Role: Occurs in "Why Little Guy Hated Clouds". According to Little Guy, the episode was distributed by Sony Wonder, but their logo wasn't shown.
• The 'Verse: Greeny Phatom and its many spin-offs form the GreenyToons Universe.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: In the episode "Coke Collar III", after Little Guy beats up Doctor, a color bars screen is shown. A few seconds later, there is a Bananas in Pyjamas intro with a "Technical Difficulties" screen. More Technical Difficulties screens can be seen in other episodes.
• Word Salad Title:
  • Most infamously, the title of the series itself. It's never explained as to what the title is meant to mean or how it relates to the series itself, but some believe that it may have been derived from Danny Phantom.
  • Some of the episode titles also fall under this, as well. To name some from fictitious DVD trailers:
    • To Normal or Not to Normal
    • The Logo and the Pizza
    • A Twisted World of Sony Wonder
    • The Dial Diary at the Mirmus Fate
    • Little Guy and Friends to the Beanstalk
    • The New Room in the Block
    • Have You Seen the Sony Wonder Logo?
    • The Shippy Video of Death ("shippy" is a word used in the show, mostly by Santed Sailor, though what it means is unclear)
    • Play It Again, Logo
    • Little Guy Maid the Mind of Darn It Cicus
    • Monster Jam Will Never Stop Greeny Phatom
    • The Best Sleeping Time With Santed Sailor
    • Walter Made Lemon Yellow
    • Dr Beanson Go Camping
    • Believe It or Not and Little Guy Is Walking on Air

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