48 Fun Facts About Dexter's Laboratory

Who created Dexter's Laboratory?

Genndy Tartakovsky. He meant to study advertising, but those classes were full when he registered, so he took an animation elective and fell in love with it.

What kind of performer is Dexter's older sister dressed as throughout Dexter's Laboratory?

A ballerina. She came first: for a college assignment the creator animated a tall, dancing girl, then drew a short, blocky scientist as her opposite.

Where does Dexter keep his secret laboratory?

In his bedroom. It is hidden behind a bookcase, and his sister keeps getting in and wrecking his experiments.

Dexter's Laboratory began as a 1995 short in which Cartoon Network showcase for new cartoons?

What a Cartoon! Dexter's short won a popular vote in 1995 and became the first of the showcase's 48 cartoons to earn a series of its own.

Dexter's Laboratory was the first series under which Cartoon Network brand for its original shows?

Cartoon Cartoons. Most of the shows that later carried the label started the same way Dexter's did: as a pilot short.

In Dexter's Laboratory, a sleep-learning mishap leaves Dexter able to say only which French phrase?

Omelette du fromage. The phrase makes him a celebrity, until he gets home and can't speak the password to his lab, which blows up in his face.

Which future creator of The Loud House ran Dexter's Laboratory when it returned in 2001?

Chris Savino. The show's creator was busy launching his next series, so Savino took over as creative director and, by the final season, as producer.

In 'Last But Not Beast', planned as the last Dexter's Laboratory episode, Dexter is an exchange student in which country?

Japan. There he accidentally frees a giant monster from a volcano, and the show's superheroes are flattened before his own family helps him stop it.

Who was the original voice of Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory?

Christine Cavanaugh. She retired to Utah in 2001, partway through the show's return, which is why Dexter sounds different in the final seasons.

Which voice of Cheese in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends took over as Dexter in Dexter's Laboratory?

Candi Milo. She stepped in during season three when the original actress retired, and was still playing him in 2025, in a Jellystone! crossover special.

What is Dexter's pet monkey secretly?

A crime-fighting superhero. Dexter keeps running experiments to give Monkey powers and never notices that he already has them.

Who is Monkey's partner in Dial M for Monkey?

Agent Honeydew. A date of theirs goes wrong when a villain's hypnotic organ music lures Monkey away and he is ordered to rob Fort Knox.

Which trio of flat-sharing superheroes has its own segment in Dexter's Laboratory?

The Justice Friends. The creator later named it the one project that fell short of what he pictured, saying it 'could have been funnier'.

Which superhero in Dexter's Laboratory wields an electric guitar and talks like a Shakespearean surfer?

Valhallen. He is a send-up of Thor: the creator learned English partly from superhero comics, and they inspired the whole segment.

What colour is the Infraggable Krunk?

Purple. The childlike strongman spoofs the Hulk with the colours swapped: purple skin and torn green trousers.

A Dexter's Laboratory episode pairs the planet-eating Barbequor with a spoon-riding herald who spoofs which comic-book hero?

Silver Surfer. The Silver Spooner's episode aired in 1996 and was then pulled from reruns; the US season one DVD carries 'Dexter's Lab: A Story' in its place.

A six-year-old fan sent in his Dexter's Laboratory episode idea as what?

An audio cassette. The producers animated straight over Tyler Samuel Lee's recording, so the boy himself narrates the finished episode and voices Dexter in it.

The Dexter's Laboratory short 'Chicken Scratch' preceded which film in cinemas?

The Powerpuff Girls Movie. In the short Dexter catches chickenpox, can't stop scratching and turns into a chicken; it reached television 16 months later.

In which city was the creator of Dexter's Laboratory born?

Moscow. His family left when he was a boy, fearing anti-Semitism, and he said he learned English fast because he was hooked on American television.

At which art school did the creator of Dexter's Laboratory make the student films behind the show?

California Institute of the Arts. He called it a 'mystical Disney school' he never expected to get into; once there, a homework assignment gave him Dexter.

Which superhero cartoon gave the creator of Dexter's Laboratory an early job in Madrid?

Batman: The Animated Series. After two years at art school he took the job, then joined Hanna-Barbera, where Dexter took shape.

On which Hanna-Barbera cartoon was the creator of Dexter's Laboratory a storyboard artist in the early 1990s?

2 Stupid Dogs. A producer on it saw his student pencil test of Dexter and took it to the young Cartoon Network, which is how the boy genius got a pilot.

In Dexter's Laboratory, Dad turns wild at the smell of which of Mom's baked treats?

Muffins. In 'The Muffin King', Dexter and his sister are told to guard a fresh batch while Mom is out shopping, and Dad hunts it like an animal.

The Dexter's Laboratory episode 'Mock 5' is a send-up of which classic racing cartoon?

Speed Racer. The title puns on the hero's car, the Mach 5, and Dexter takes the wheel in a soapbox derby down Volcano Mountain against his rival.

In Dexter's Laboratory, which wrestling star voices Rasslor, a cosmic champion who challenges Earth's heroes?

Randy Savage. The 'Macho Man' plays an alien champion who stakes the planet's fate on a wrestling match and flattens one superhero after another.

The Dexter's Laboratory episode 'LABretto' retells Dexter's life story in the style of what?

An opera. The title folds 'lab' into 'libretto', an opera's sung text, and the story runs from Dexter's birth to the building of his secret laboratory.

Which real first name does Dexter's rival Mandark hide in Dexter's Laboratory?

Susan. The secret comes out in an origin episode titled after Johnny Cash's 'A Boy Named Sue', which shows him growing up as the child of hippies.

Why does Dexter have an accent, by his creator's account?

All well-known scientists have accents, he joked. It also echoes his own childhood: classmates mocked the thick accent he had as a young immigrant.

The sibling rivalry in Dexter's Laboratory was modelled on its creator's relationship with whom?

His older brother Alex. The twist is that the creator was the pest: Alex guarded his intricate toy soldiers just as Dexter guards his lab.

Jeff Bennett, the voice of Dad in Dexter's Laboratory, also voices which Cartoon Network title character?

Johnny Bravo. Bennett won the part with an Elvis Presley impression, and the muscle-bound charmer began as a pilot short in the same showcase as Dexter.

In an early Dexter's Laboratory episode, Dexter builds a robot exoskeleton to survive which gym-class game?

Dodgeball. A substitute teacher forces him to play, and three bullies pelt him without mercy until he comes back wearing a suit of robotic armour.

The flat, simple look of Dexter's Laboratory drew on 1950s shorts by UPA, the studio behind which cartoon character?

Mr. Magoo. UPA's stylised designs broke with Disney-style realism, and Dexter's crew borrowed its habit of animating only what a scene truly needs.

Frank Welker, who voices Monkey in Dexter's Laboratory, took over in 2002 as the voice of which cartoon dog?

Scooby-Doo. Welker had voiced Fred in the same cartoons since 1969, having first auditioned for the dog, and finally added the title role as well.

Which creator of a hit adult cartoon worked on Dexter's Laboratory early in his career?

Seth MacFarlane. He joined Hanna-Barbera straight from art school, and a pilot short he made there, 'Larry & Steve', grew into Family Guy.

The creator of Dexter's Laboratory went on to direct the first three films in which animated series?

Hotel Transylvania. He treated his first feature as an experiment: could computer-animated puppets stretch and snap like a hand-drawn Tex Avery cartoon?

Which Nickelodeon hit did a Dexter's Laboratory storyboard artist create, borrowing its bold look?

The Fairly OddParents. Butch Hartman started on Dexter doing backgrounds before moving on to storyboards, and credits it for his own show's bold colours and simple shapes.

In 2023, what reason did Dexter's creator give for refusing to reboot Dexter's Laboratory?

The original voice actress died in 2014, and he would not replace 'the soul of Dexter', though by 2025 he was joking that a revival might yet pay his mortgage.

When Mandark first arrives at Dexter's school in Dexter's Laboratory, what does he force Dexter to do?

Shut down his lab. Mandark wants the power for his own bigger laboratory, but he then falls for Dexter's sister, which hands Dexter his revenge.

In the Dexter's Laboratory film Ego Trip, who actually saves the future by pressing the right button?

Dee Dee. She wanders out of the time machine and presses it without a clue, so the four furious Dexters build robots to destroy 'The One Who Saved the Future'.

In the Dexter's Laboratory film Ego Trip, what has Mandark been reduced to in the far future?

A brain in a jar. In that utopia old Dexter is revered as the man who saved the world, yet he is too senile to remember how he did it.

Ego Trip was the last installment animated using what technique?

It also marked one of the final performances by Dexter's original voice before her retirement.

Dexter's original voice actress also spoke for the title animal of which 1995 film?

Babe. In 1998 the piglet and Dexter made their debuts as giant balloons in the very same Thanksgiving parade: two characters sharing one voice.

Besides Dexter, which Rugrats character did Dexter's original voice actress play?

Chuckie Finster. She voiced the nervous toddler from the show's start until she retired, when the part passed to Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.

The creator of Dexter's Laboratory handed the show on in 2001 to launch which Cartoon Network action series?

Samurai Jack. A children's show couldn't have a swordsman cutting people up, so he had Jack fight robots, which is why the story is set in the future.

Which rapper recorded 'Dexter (What's His Name?)' for a 2002 Dexter's Laboratory album?

Coolio. To launch the album, Cartoon Network devoted an entire Friday-night block to Dexter and premiered the first of its three music videos.

Which film title is the spoken password that opens Dexter's laboratory?

Star Wars. A few years on, the show's creator got to make his own Star Wars cartoon, Clone Wars, the one project he had said he always wanted to do.

Which Warner Bros. fighting game, launched in 2024, included a stage set in Dexter's laboratory?

MultiVersus. The crossover brawler put the lab beside Bugs Bunny and Wonder Woman, but its servers were shut down for good on May 30, 2025, a year after launch.

Why does Mom in Dexter's Laboratory wear rubber gloves all the time?

She is afraid of germs. The creator first drew the parents as stock all-American types, and only later decided her ever-present gloves needed a reason.