Warning: This article contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem!

Summary

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a hilarious and entertaining blockbuster with snappy dialogue and action-packed scenes.
  • The film captures the turtles' wacky sense of humor, making them feel like actual teenagers and delivering plenty of jokes, gags, and one-liners.
  • The movie explores themes of acceptance and understanding, showing that people fear what they don't understand but can change when given the chance. The turtles' friendship with April is a meaningful example of this.

Jeff Rowe's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem's funniest quotes occur right alongside action in a half shell, making it one of the summer's most entertaining blockbusters. All the ninja turtles want to do is eat pizza and go to regular high school, but Splinter is too over-protective to let them go explore above the sewer. But when a fellow notorious mutant named Superfly starts building something to make mutants the dominant species on Earth, they put down their pizza and pick up their ninja stars, with investigative reporter April O'Neil hoping to get the scoop.

One of the most endearing qualities of the Seth Rogen-produced animated film is its wacky sense of humor that makes the turtles feel like actual teenagers. It will definitely be worth a rewatch, not only for all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Easter eggs but for all the snappy dialogue happening concurrently throughout the beautifully rendered action scenes. There's so much to take in and enjoy about the film that it's easy to miss all the jokes, gags, and one-liners happening all the time.

15 "Okay, Batman."

The Turtles Looking at a Scroll in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles long to experience the real world but until Splinter ever lets them do anything other than grocery shopping, they have to be confined to the sewers. When Leonardo is strategizing how best to collect the items on Splinter's shopping list, he takes a little dramatic license with his "mission" and instructs each turtle how to apply stealth, strength, and agility to retrieve bread, milk, and a party size bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. This prompts his brothers to roll their eyes and compare him to the Caped Crusader because of how much he's dropping his voice, a funny nod to Batman's famous gravel whisper.

14 "Humans Are The Demon Scum Of The Earth."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem - Release Date, Cast, Story Details, Trailer & Everything We Know

Splinter has no love of humans after the way they treated him and his turtles after they'd been turned into mutants, and he's instilled paranoia and mistrust in them ever since. Before they go on errands for him, they recite a surprisingly dark mantra that begins with this sobering Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem quote. Given how glib the turtles are, it's hilarious to listen to them say this very dour speech about death and destruction.

13 "They Look Like Little Shreks To Me."

The turtles huddled up close in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem

After some thugs steal April's scooter, the turtles jump into action and test out their ninja skills on the bad guys. Their attackers have never seen mutant turtles before and one of them compares them to "little Shreks." As funny as the quote is, it's also apropos to the larger message of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem; people fear what they don't understand, but once they're given the chance to do so, they often engage from a place of tolerance, acceptance, and affection.

12 "The Longer You Lurk In The Shadows The More Sus You Get."

April O'Neil in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem trailer writing in a notebook

After the ninja turtles beat off the thugs and save April's scooter, she's still able to see them trying to hide in the autoshop. She calls them out for lurking in the shadows and forces them to step into the light which, while nerve-wracking, ultimately helps them become closer to her and other humans. If they had doubled down on staying hidden forever, then they would never have had the chance to decide their own narrative, and change how they were perceived as monsters above the sewer.

11 "I Would Love To Have A Champagne Brunch With Tom Brady."

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Rafael, and Donatello make goofy expressions while eating pizza and on their phone in Mutant Mayhem.

When the turtles discuss what they would love to do on the surface if they had a chance, their choices match their personalities. While everyone else is choosing a trip to Flavortown with Guy Fieri or hanging out with Drake and Lizzo, Leonardo just wants a champagne brunch with Tom Brady. Leonardo is always trying to come across as more mature, and despite the fact that he's a teenager and wouldn't be able to drink the champagne anyway, he thinks it make him sound like less of a kid.

10 "Do You Know How Hard It Is To Date Mutants My Age?"

Splinter holds up a wooden rod in TMNT Mutant Mayhem.

While the turtles are preoccupied with daydreaming about life above the sewer, they never stop to consider that Splinter might have had to suppress his own dreams. Splinter prevents them from going to the surface or any human from coming down into their home at great cost to his own personal life. As he memorably complains to the turtles all the time, it's difficult for someone his age to find a date, especially since he's a mutant rat, but fortunately, Splinter gets a romance with Scumbug later in the film.

9 "Our Dad Is Definitely Not A Giant Rat."

Jackie Chan as Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem

While the ninja turtles might be prepared to step into the human world, Splinter certainly isn't. When they try to explain their home life to April she doesn't really understand, so they try to downplay the fact that their dad is a giant rat. Turtles April can handle, but apparently knowing that a giant rat exists in the sewers is too far (especially since she has a phobia around vermin), which makes her friendship with Splinter later all the more meaningful.

8 "We Don't Even Have Nipples!"

The Turtle Tots in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

A reoccurring gag in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem involves a fear of being "milked" for a science experiment by some sort of machine. The turtles always dismiss Splinter's concern about being captured and hooked up to the machine because, for one thing, they don't have nipples! As they find out later on in the movie, nipples aren't necessary for the milking process, which turns out to be all too real.

RELATED: Do Turtles Have Nipples? TMNT Mutant Mayhem's Turtle Fact Check

7 "That's Your Skin!"

Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Mutant-Mayhem-Donatello-Michaelangelo-Leonardo-Raphael

When April first officially meets the turtles, she thinks that they're superheroes dressed like animals. When she tries to take their masks off, she realizes that they're actually turtles who have mutated into humanoid versions of the reptiles. It's a testament to her open-mindedness that even after realizing their masks are just "skin" she still befriends them, no doubt because as the turtles learn later on, she's been ostracized herself and doesn't have a lot of friends.

6 "The Peoples, Zey Got To Go."

Mondo Gecko in TMNT Mutant Mayhem

Lots of original characters from throughout the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise appear in the movie, including Mondo Gecko, voiced with aplomb by Paul Rudd. In the comics and 1987 animated series Mondo Gecko was a friend to the turtles, but in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem he starts off as a minion of Superfly's after what happened to Baxter Stockman. Rudd gives him an interesting accent in the movie, which makes him parroting Superfly's world-domination vocabulary unintentionally hilarious.

5 "Cowabunga!"

TMNT Mutant Mayhem Post Credits

The ninja turtles have had a lot of catchphrases over the years, but without a doubt, one of their most well-known is, "Cowabunga!" Whether it's a battle cry or a rallying cry to dive into an extra-cheese pizza, it means that the turtles are about to go all-in. One of the best things about the ninja turtles has always been their boundless enthusiasm, and it's great to hear this from them during the epic ending of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

4 "You've Got A Rage Problem Raph."

Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Mutant-Mayhem-Raphael

All the ninja turtles have their own distinct personalities; Michaelangelo is the wisecracking jokester, Donatello is the brains of any mission, Leonardo is the altruistic leader, and Raphael is the serious-minded one. This is one of the funniest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem quotes because of its irony. When first putting his martial arts skills to use, he often needs to be talked off the edge.

3 "Ooooooooze."

Cynthia in the TCRI lab in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

There are some lore changes in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, but Superfly, the ninja turtles, and all the rest of the mutants were created with a radioactive green substance. Superfly prefers "sludge" but the turtles don't think it has the right sound, so they prefer the pleasant tone of "ooooooooze," which is just the start of their myriad differences. The mutants couldn't be more different in their approach to radioactive etymology and their plans for the human race, which the ninja turtles wanting to befriend them, and Superfly wanting to erase them from the Earth so that it can be dominated by mutants.

2 "Sorry, Am I Supposed To Film All The Stuff You Do Because A Lot Of It Is Dumb."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem

April is given the honor of breaking the ninja turtles' story to the world, hoping to record them fighting enemies and taking down Superfly so that humans will know they're on their side. Unfortunately, all the ninja turtles want to do is make silly Tik-Toks and mess around. April sees herself as a hard-hitting journalist and wants the real scoop, and her commentary about the turtles' behavior is responsible for some of the funniest quotes in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

1 "Hey, Don't Use That Word That Way!"

Donatello screaming in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem

When April references "rats" in a demeaning way, like to reveal confidences told in secret, the ninja turtles are quick to correct her. Protective of their dad, they think that her words show prejudice against rats, and they don't want her to have a negative opinion of his species before they make an introduction. Little do they know that April will meet Splinter by herself in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle: Mutant Mayhem and extend him a great deal of kindness and courtesy