Sonic Shorts

Sonic Shorts is a Newgrounds Flash collaboration by The Sonic Paradox Team set in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe. As expected, the shorts parody various aspects and scenarios of the games and TV shows, but many of them contain plenty of meta-humor involving the characters' reactions to their own in-universe works.

Currently, eight "volumes" and a Spin-Off (Knuckles Briefs) have been released; it was originally planned to end with the sixth volume, but the creators have so many unused ideas left over that they completed a seventh installment. However, many collaborations were not finished, and so the seventh is entirely animated by thewax70. An eighth followed once the other animations were finished. Many members of the team have since contributed to Sonic F as well.

In 2018, Sonic Paradox started the Sonic Seconds series, which also features short clips parodying the Sonic series, as well as having Sonic Mania themed credits. Another related video is Sega Shorts, which features shorts of other Sega franchises as well.

There is also a series of musicals based on Sonic Heroes levels (Seaside Denied and Metropolis Mayhem), which were originally presented in the Summer of Sonic events in 2012 and 2013. These videos are included in the official Sonic Shorts playlist on YouTube. A third part, titled Casino Calamity, seems to be in Development Hell, and in 2018, a live stream included animating for it.

The first volume can be found here, the sixth here, and The Sonic Paradox Team has uploaded the entire series to YouTube. Individual shorts can also be found on their respective creator's YouTube channels.

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This collaboration contains examples of:

• Actor Allusion: One short has Robotnik mournfully flying through his dystopia belting out "Let the Heartaches Begin" by Long John Baldry, his voice actor from The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Parodied, yet played straight in a Sonic Sez segment which tells the audience that copying Flash animations to YouTube without the author's permission is not cool.

Tails: Now I know! Sonic: And Knowing Is Half the Battle! G.I. JOEEEEEEEEE!

• Black Comedy Rape

Amy: Hey, Sonic. Guess who lost their virginity. Sonic: Uhm, y... Amy: ...You did.(Holds up a bottle of chloroform)

• Brain Bleach: A common subject of shorts featuring Eggman.
• Brick Joke: Comes up often.
• Carnivore Confusion: In volume 7, Chris tries to feed his furry friends, and provides them with what their real life counterparts would eat; Cream the Rabbit is in tears when Tails is served rabbit, and he loves it.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The subject of a short featuring the forgotten Sega characters Mighty the Armadillo, Ray the Flying Squirrel, and Bean the Dynamite... who even Mighty and Ray could not remember. [Bark was left out entirely.]
• Continuity Nod: Volume 5 is full of these to previous shorts.
• Crossover: Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Robotnik and SatAM Robotnik both express disapproval with Sonic X Eggman in separate skits.
• Curse Cut Short: Sonic: *Sees instruction for barrel* "Up and Down? Up and down?!? What the fu-" *cue Time Over*
• Fan Disservice: Eggman's latest ultimate weapon? A shot of him posing in briefs set to Right Said Fred's Wonderman.
• Grave Humor: Knuckles's tombstone in the Omochao short.

Here lies Knuckles. Unlike Sonic I don't chuckle. I like to flex my muscles. He dedicated his life to the protection of a precious stone. Bit of a crap life, really.

• • As well, other tombstones say "R.I.P. Sonic's dignity" and "Mighty".
• Gilligan Cut:

Omochao: You got: the Fighting Gloves! They're yellow! Knuckles: What the hell? Why don't you just give me some gloves with "I Am Gay" written on them? Omochao: You got: the "I Am Gay" gloves! Knuckles: *angry growl*

• • Another one in volume four:

Shadow: You blue idiot, you ate all the eggs! Sonic: Yeah, so what if I did? What're you gonna do, break my arms? cuts to Sonic lying in hospital bed with broken arms* Knuckles: You really shouldn't be giving him ideas.

• Groin Attack: Sonic defeats Metal Sonic with this.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Voice actor Game Buddy has appeared in every volume. A few of his credits include Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Tails, Eggman, Mighty, Bean, Big, Tails Doll, The Penguinator, Heavy, and Doctor Mario. Needless to say, this often leads to Talking to Himself.
  • Along with Game Buddy is The Chio, also appearing in every episode, providing the voice of Knuckles and Dr. Eggman.
  • Also appearing is Rina-chan, who makes a few appearances following Volume 3, usually as Elise, Amy, Rouge, Bunnie, or Sally. Oddly enough, these are usually in Flash Twister's shorts.
• Hypocritical Humor: Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Robotnik calls Sonic X Eggman and demands that he take his plans more seriously, then after the call, tells Scratch and Grounder to be careful with the parts for his bouncing raccoon cannon.

Robotnik: We need to hitch it up to the ocean to stop Sonic once and for all! Scratch: Yes, your maliciousness! Grounder: This plan makes so much sense!

• I Am the Trope: "I AM SEGA!"
• I Got Better: Said by Knuckles when recapping the events of episode 5.
• Lampshade Hanging: When Knuckles wants to create his own Flash movie, Sonic notes a lot of the clips are him "running into things and getting hurt."
• Left the Background Music On: The intro to the Newgrounds version of Sonic Shorts 6.
• Mistaken Identity: Game Buddy has changed his user logo and animation style so many times it's difficult to determine which shorts he has actually created.
• Musical Episode: In a parody of the beginning of Sonic 3 and Knuckles, Knuckles threatens Sonic for breaking into his home by using his singing voice. Volume 2 has two other singing segments, although the penultimate short is more of a "dance" segment.
  • A very, very disturbing dance segment. Eggman's the one doing the dancing. Admittedly, he's not half bad for a fat guy.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Eggman's secret underwater volcano laboratory... IN SPACE!
• Parody Commercial: One of SoBe, another of SunnyD.
• Refuge in Audacity: Oh, yes.
• Rickroll: Done with a Knuckles plushie in the credits of Volume 5.
• Running Gag: Throughout Volume 2, Big the Cat's attempts to catch Froggy. Eventually, in Volume 3, Froggy announces he is fed up with being chased and leaves. Big, heartbroken, hangs himself.
• Schmuck Bait: Go ahead, click the dumb looking Sonic with the bird on his head in Volume 2. We DARE you to.
  • Other Schmuck Baits include a poorly drawn Vector in Knuckles Briefs, and Mario racing on Starlight Carnival in Sonic Shorts Volume 7.
• Ship Tease: Plenty of Sonamy moments exist in the shorts, and Sonadow is frequently hinted at (and, in one instance, Sonic and Shadow stumble across it... much to their mutual displeasure.) One skit even has a Die for Our Ship moment with Shadow hitting the wall as Sonic and Amy embrace.
• Shout-Out: "Sonic Shorts 2" has a short wherein Sally is in a locker room with the rest of the female game characters. Amy then shouts "An American! There's an American among us!"
• Smoking Hot Sex: (Robot) Sally in Volume 6. There was nothing funny about that kiss at all, Tails!
• Sorry I Left the BGM On: Episode 6's opening. Eggman's robots are also often seen providing the BGM when the scene is in one of his bases.
• Stop Helping Me!: Relentlessly parodied with the Omochao short.
• Stylistic Suck: Knuckles Briefs, a Spin-Off of Sonic Shorts, most prominently Big the Cat's brief. Justified by the creators, in that they had to put it together quickly for Summer of Sonic '09.
  • Sonic Shits also falls under this category.
  • Tails's monotone voice in the Sonic Sez section of Volume 2 is clearly a parody of Corey Bringas's Tails voice for the Sonic Adventure games.
• Synchro Vox: In "How to Create a Sonic Fan Character", the narrator guy does this when he says "lazy".
• Take That: Several, but the most prominent one is where SatAM's Robotnik, fed up with Sonic X Eggman's Anti-Villain nature, decides to blow up 4Kids! Entertainment as a result. However, he then ends up changing the channel to Sonic Underground...and Snively immediately starts setting up the coordinates.
  • Sonic screaming "Oh my God! Noooooo!!!" while holding a game box for the 2006 Sonic The Hedgehog game.
  • In the the second one, a brief snippet takes a cheap shot at Sonic Drift.
  • In another, BioWare images of newest Sonic character Shade the Echidna are discovered by a Sonic fan. His initial reaction?

Fan: Oh my god! They've got a new Sonic character! I must. draw. PORN OF IT!

• • The entire "How to make your own Sonic Fan character" bit in Volume 6. And it is Awesome
• Ted Baxter: Knuckles. He made Knuckles Briefs because he was jealous of all the attention Sonic was getting, and he wanted to show how awesome he was. However, most of the other characters merely made fun of him or made him look ridiculous.
• Villainous BSOD: Metal Sonic, after realizing he's a robot rather than the actual Sonic.
  • Set to music from Mega Man X 5's ending. And it is glorious.
• Walk, Don't Swim: Often played with, but most notably demonstrated by Sonic at the Olympic Games. In a follow-up short, Eggman can't swim either.

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