The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

"Jimmy: It's a heavy burden being a man of science. Sheen: I know what you mean, Jimmy. That's why I set out early to sabotage my highly scientific brain with cartoons and sugar."

Based on the movie Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, this CGI Nickelodeon series follows the adventures of Jimmy, a preteen genius who creates inventions in his underground lab. He, his robot dog Goddard, and fellow grade-schoolers Carl, Sheen, Libby and Cindy (and occasionally extra characters like Bolbi or Betty) save Retroville/the world from invention-induced disasters just about every episode. The show lasted from July 2002 to November 2006.

Of interest is that the film and television series was made from consumer-grade programs. The show strains to compensate for the lack of raw technical power with very clever visuals. As per the very nature of its premise the "science" was either never explained or clearly made up.

It was a fairly successful show, running for three seasons. It was involved in a few crossovers with The Fairly OddParents and in later Massive Multiplayer Crossovers in the Nicktoons Unite! series and Nicktoons MLB.

Feel free to further amuse yourself by checking out the Character Sheet or FanficRecs.

A Spin-Off has been made, Planet Sheen.

"Miss Fowl: It has come to my attention that some of our candidates have been guilty of bribery, blackmail, and MURDER!! [the kids in the audience scream] Sorry, not murder, I meant operating a zeppelin on school premises."
 * Accidentally Accurate: Despite coasting along on Rule of Cool, the show sometimes got something right even when the writers obviously weren't even aiming for accuracy. One such highlight occured in Sorry, Wrong Era when Jimmy shattered the big diamond in an attempt to break off a chunk small enough for his jury-rigged Bamboo Technology time-warping device. Diamond, while certainly the hardest natural substance on earth, is also brittle enough to shatter using little more than a hammer, chisel, and a little bit of precision.
 * Actor Allusion: Jimmy once refers to Carl as Rob.
 * Adaptation Decay: Show Within a Show example; Principal Willoughby's In Name Only play "Macbeth In Space"
 * Adults Are Useless : Taken to its literal extreme, There Are No Adults, in the movie, when the entire grown-up population of Retroville is kidnapped by aliens.
 * Played straight with Jimmy's dad in the TV series, who is probably one of the biggest idiots in the city.
 * Subverted with Jimmy's mom, though. She's incredibly athletic, coordinated, intelligent, and she keeps a plasma rifle in her utility closet (for those tough ground-in stains!)
 * Aesop Amnesia: Jimmy
 * Affably Evil: Professor Finbarr Calamitous
 * His daughter Beautiful Gorgeous inherited this from him
 * Grandma Taters counts as well in her appearance in the League Of Villains.
 * A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Nanobots have a bad habit of taking Jimmy's orders to their most logical extreme. After being told to correct for errors and then Logic Bombed with "humans' flaws are what make them perfect", they decide to delete humanity.
 * Aliens Speaking English: Taken to quite an extreme with not only the Yolkians, but the fact there is a "galactic television lineup" with billions of channels, all in English.
 * All CGI Cartoon: Notable for being the first film and series animated entirely with over-the-counter programs.
 * Alternate History: "Time is Money"
 * Ambiguously Gay: Principal Willoughby.
 * Anguished Declaration of Love: Almost. Cindy attempts this tactic to calm Hulk!Jimmy down in "The N Men", but passes out before she can complete her confession.
 * Anime Hair: Jimmy's. This is lampshaded pretty regularly.
 * Area 51: Appeared in the movie. In the episode N Men, Cindy, Libby, Sheen, and Carl are taken to "Area 86" after they prove unable to control the superpowers that they developed from contact with space radiation.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Jimmy for President"

"Carl: Not that fresh air and ticks in your sleeping bag isn't fun, but why do we have to go camping with you, Jimmy? Jimmy: Because if you don't, I'll be forced to publish these high-definition photos of you two playing with Pomono Beach Debbie Dolls. Sheen: Pomono Beach Debbie is an action figure. She posesses special powers that can defeat any adversary"
 * Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Ms. Fowl in "Substitute Creature."
 * Back-to-Back Badasses: Cindy and April in the made-for-TV-Movie "Win, Lose, or Kaboom!" There's even a scene where they run towards each other and then run up eachother's feet as though running up a wall.
 * Bad Future: "The Tomorrow Boys": Garbage-Surfer!Sheen, Wanted!Carl, and LoserMarriedToCindy!Jimmy
 * Bad Job, Worse Uniform
 * Bamboo Technology: Trapped in prehistoric times because of his Dad goofing around with a time-warping device, Jimmy built a replica with wood.
 * Bare Your Midriff: Betty Quinlan's Lady Macbeth costume in "Out Darn Spotlight." There is no way this would be worn in an elementary school play in real life.
 * There was also Cindy in her N-Men costume and a minor character named Britney no way a school would let her dress that way.
 * Batman Can Breathe in Space: Lampshaded in one episode, where Sheen asks how this is possible. Jimmy's explanation is not heard due to Carl singing during it.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Jimmy and Cindy.
 * The Bermuda Triangle: One episode takes place in the "Bahama Quadrant", which Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl visit so that Jimmy can prove them that nothing supernatural is going on there. They end up finding a super villain/scientist that appears to be the cause for odd sightings and disappearances....
 * Sheen once refers to the Bermuda Triangle as the mythological North Dakota.
 * Beta Couple: Sheen and Libby.
 * Betty and Veronica: An unusual example. The sweeter, more mature Betty is...well, the Betty, while the edgier and occasionally antagonistic Cindy is the Veronica. In the end he chooses
 * Bizarrchitecture McSpanky's, which is in a burger-shaped building.
 * Not just a burger, but also including the giant head of the mascot sticking out of its side, with his mouth serving as the drive-thru window.
 * And the lolipop on the Candy Bar. Although according to Nicktoons Unite!, these are only huge to the cast, and would be even smaller than normal to real, live action humans.
 * Black Best Friend: Libby.
 * Blackmail:

"Sheen: Well how was I suppose to know Ultra Lord wasn't our founding father? That's what it said in the Ultra Lord website! Jimmy: Wait; didn't you write the Ultra Lord website? Sheen: Your point? (Jimmy walks away as Sheen thinks for a moment) Oh."
 * Bond Villain Stupidity: "Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion."
 * Brain Critical Mass: Jimmy's normally ditzy friend Sheen gets his intelligence increased with Jimmy's Phlebotinum and gains telekinesis.
 * Brawn Hilda: After time traveling into an alternate future where he is rich, Jimmy soon discovers he has a cranky, hideous nanny named "Hilgo."
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Why do something as simple as neatly put away your piles of pants when you can implant chips in them that do it for you? Carl and Sheen call him out on this, though.
 * Bumbling Dad: Hugh.
 * Butt Monkey: Jimmy. His inventions usually cause troubles. And when it doesn't come to his inventions, he's picked on by those left and right. How rare is it that the main character falls under this trope?
 * Jimmy might also be a Woobie because he's always picked on and sometimes you just want to hug him.
 * What about Carl? He's the Guinea pig to all of Jimmy's experiments.
 * Camp Gay: Principal Willoughby is quite blatantly gay, with his campy behavior and his love for Judy Garland and musical theater.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Cindy and Jimmy to each other, and, to a lesser extent, Libby to Sheen.
 * Can't Get in Trouble For Nuthin'
 * Captivity Harmonica: After being thrown into the brig by the Junkman, Sheen does this.
 * Catch Phrase: Jimmy - "Gotta Blast" in the movie and "Brain Blast" in the series.
 * Cat Fight: Cindy and Green-Skinned Space Babe April the Gorlock in "Win, Lose, and Kaboom."
 * Character Development for a series so episodic in nature there's a surprising amount, though not in terms of learned aesops, but interpersonal relationships. Throughout the series you can note small but noticeable changes in character interaction. Especially when it comes to romantic couples
 * Chekhov's Gun: The solution to the problem in the episode is usually this.
 * Chosen One: Literally. Sheen is called "The Chosen One" by the monks of Shangri Llama, thanks to his strange ability to put his foot behind his head. Subverted by the fact that he isn't the true Chosen One, but merely a substitute (since the monks were sick of waiting around for the real one to show up).
 * Christmas Episode: "Holly Jolly Jimmy."
 * Colony Drop: A meteor starts to head toward Retroville just after Jimmy dumbs himself down.
 * Comic Trio: Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl.
 * Confusing Multiple Negatives: Sheen to Mrs. Fowl in "Sheen's Brain". Carl tries the exact same trick, but Mrs. Fowl tells him to "PLANT IT!"
 * Contrived Coincidence: See Colony Drop above.
 * Covered in Gunge: In "The Tomorrow Boys", a bucket full of Mrs. Vortex's repulsive chafing-foot scum gets dumped all over Sheen's head.
 * Cross-Dressing Voices: Debbie Derryberry as Jimmy, also Candi Milo as resident bad boy Nick.
 * Crossovers: Three times with The Fairly OddParents in the Jimmy Timmy Power Hours.
 * Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Jimmy and his parents could have been millionaires if he sold some of his inventions instead of just making them for fun.
 * They backfire way too much for someone to mass produce them, though.
 * Also, Jimmy's dad once got a job making toys, which Jimmy amped up with his technology. The first one was met with such success that he got the job... as long as he kept making toys of that same calibur every day. Jimmy ended up exhausting himself after a few days, which led to the accident of the week; the Nanobots making a rampage on Retrovile on a doll-faced toy tank that grew in size to be a real tank.
 * Daddy's Little Villain: Beautiful Gorgeous.
 * Demonic Dummy: Flippy.
 * Demoted to Extra: Nick, he was a somewhat relevant character in the movie even though he just had Informed Ability. In the series, he is much less prevalent
 * Did Not Do the Research: Sanskrit is Indian, not Egyptian.
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Sheen with practically any attractive female (most notably Libby, Beautiful Gorgeous, Sally and Princess Guan Qi "Peggy" Tsu); Jimmy with Betty Quinlan, Sally, April, and later with Cindy. Oh yeah, and Carl with Jimmy's Mom.
 * The Ditz - Bolbi, though he seems like just a goofy foreigner at first.
 * Do-Anything Robot: Goddard.
 * Door to Door Episode: Complete with Jimmy using science to employ a Zany Scheme.
 * Dutch Angle: Spoofed in "The Evil Beneath" where during the villain's brief and crazy Motive Rant the camera slowly tilts itself, which causes his henchman and furniture to slide in the direction the camera is tilting.
 * Expy: When they all get superpowers it is exactly the same as other well-known superheroes. Cindy has Superman flight and strength, Libby is The Invisible Woman, Sheen is The Flash and Carl...well has burps that seem like Black Canary. Jimmy was originally just turned orange and looked like an Oompa Loompa, until he got angry...
 * Tee is an alien who talks and acts like Mr. T.
 * And another alien, Travoltron, acts like John Travolta. Or at least his character in Saturday Night Fever.
 * The third one, Zee, talks like Jon Lovitz. A bit more devious than Jon Lovitz though ...
 * Quentin Smithee seems to be simply an expy of Quentin Tarantino up until we find out
 * Jet Fusion is basically a James Bond expy.
 * Egocentric Team Naming: When Jimmy and his friends gain superpowers due to cosmic radiation he immediately calls them the "N-Men" (as in Neutron Men,) despite a couple of protests.
 * In the episode where they form a band, Sheen proposes the name "Sheen and the Sheenettes".
 * Epic Fail: After losing to many times in a gym race against Cindy, Jimmy sprays his shoes with a chemical compound to give him super speed. He runs in circles around her and showing off how fast he is, all gloating and confident, but he still lost. Why? Because he fell for the old point and look behind your back distraction, being a "1957 Van de Graff electrostatic generator" of all things.
 * Eskimos Aren't Real: Jimmy's friends are positive that ancient Egyptian curses are a myth, just like the Loch Ness Monster and North Dakota.
 * Everyone Has Standards: Cindy enjoys the way that Eustace Strych treats Jimmy (or should we say mistreat), but she is horrified to discover that Eustace Strych is planning to murder Goddard.
 * Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: "Sorry, Wrong Era."
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: "My Big Fat Spy Wedding."
 * Evil Twin: Jimmy's evil clone in "Send in the Clones."
 * Evolving Credits: Certain clips in the opening eventually got replaced with clips from newer episodes. Libby got promoted to opening titles at the same time.
 * Face Full of Alien Wingwong (Carl is impregnated with an alien child in "Who's Your Mommy?". The extra fat grows out from well, his butt - but let's not go there.)
 * Fantastic Voyage: "Journey to the Center of Carl."
 * FemBot: In the episode "Maternotron Knows Best", Jimmy constructs a robotic substitute mother while Judy is away at the spa.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero: Jimmy
 * The Lancer: Cindy
 * The Smart Guy: Libby (a subversion as both Jimmy and Cindy are smarter than her, but her personality is intellectual)
 * The Big Guy: Sheen
 * The Chick: Carl
 * Team Pet: Goddard
 * F Minus Minus: In one episode, Sheen gets an F with four minuses on a test.

"Carl: Oh no... It's started! The gnawing hunger! MUST RESIST DESIRE TO EAT HUMAN FLESH!!"
 * Freaky Friday Flip: Jimmy and Cindy in "Trading Faces."
 * Incidentally, at the end (where they had to manually switch back their memories) They found that one of the two had an extreme dislike of the other one. However Sheen said that it got too confusing reading the hilariously long name and deleted it, never getting to the end (and thus, figuring out who it belonged to). It is after that one that the two started getting closer.
 * Free-Range Children: The fifth grade cast behaves more like young adults/older teenagers. They run all about Retroville, hang out at the local fast food joints, and that's only what they do when not on a adventure caused by Jimmy's invention.
 * From the Mouths of Babes: Baby Edward "Eddie" Neutron, Jimmy's infant evil cousin, who can be very crass at times.
 * Funny Foreigner: Bolbi Stroganovsky from Backhairistan.
 * "Slap slap slap, clap clap clap, slap, slap, slap, clap clap clap..."
 * Future Loser: Jimmy in "The Tomorrow Boys"
 * Garage Band: There was an episode where Jimmy & Co. try to start a band for a talent show.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Now with it's own page.
 * Generation Xerox: Averted with Eustace Strych and his a father. Though Eustace's father is a very kind man who is not corrupt at all despite his wealth, his son Eustace is anything but friendly, especially towards Jimmy Neutron. Fortunately, since Hugh Neutron is friends with Eustace's father, he helps him deal with Eustace and the way he misbehaves.
 * Ghost in the Machine (playfully Parodied in "Incredible Shrinking Town", where Sheen pretends to be Tee's inner voice. "Thanks, bug in mah head!")
 * Giant Spider: "Stranded."
 * Girls Have Cooties: Jimmy, Sheen, and Carl all exhibit this sentiment from time to time, especially at the beginning of the series. It wears off as the show progresses, however, giving way to Distracted by the Sexy.
 * Give Geeks a Chance: Sheen and Libby, definitely.
 * Gold Fever: Ruby madness in "A Beautiful Mine."
 * Goofy Print Underwear: In "When Pants Attack", Hugh runs around in a pair of white, heart-covered boxers. He can be seen wearing these (and only these!) again in "Lights! Camera! Danger!" during his Gollum impression.
 * Not to mention in the same episode everyone else Sheen's imported Ultralord underwear, Jimmy's plaid boxers and Cindy's polka dot panties
 * On one occasion, Carl's underwear. I forget what was on them, though. I think llamas.
 * Green-Skinned Space Babe: April the Gorlock - quite literally.
 * Groundhog Day Loop: Jimmy's birthday in "Hypno-Birthday to You."
 * It's justified; his parents were brainwashed to think every day was his birthday.
 * Halloween Episode: "Nightmare in Retroville."
 * Hand Puppet: Sheen in "Broadcast Blues."
 * Hate Plague: Ruby madness in "A Beautiful Mine."
 * Head Desk: Done by Jimmy when he couldn't think of a script for a movie.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Cindy Vortex is Sandy Cheeks.
 * Professor Finbar Calamitous is Tim Curry and his daughter Beautiful Gorgeous is Chicha.
 * Jet Fusion is Christian Slater.
 * Tim Allen as evil alien game show host Meldar.
 * Hungarian dub: Arnold is an inventor who hangs out with Mandark (later Finn) and Sasuke Uchiha. Cindy Campbell is Arnold's rival.
 * Hilarious Outtakes: These appear out of the blue at the end of the episode "Crouching Jimmy Hidden Sheen."
 * Hollywood Tone Deaf: Sheen is mocked relentlessly for his inability to sing throughout the series - there is even a reprise song number at the end of "My Big Fat Spy Wedding", where the characters belt out in glorious harmony "We all can sing except Sheen!" Becomes beneficial in "Attack of the Twonkies" - Sheen's singing is so bad that it actually puts the Twonkies (who normally become enraged and then mutate when they hear music) to sleep.
 * Horrible Camping Trip: "Aaughh!! Wilderness!!" due to Hugh's stupidity.
 * How Do I Shot Web?: "The N Men."
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Implicitly Carl, after thinking his stomach was growling during the Horrible Camping Trip (it turned out to be a bear.)

"Cindy: I see London, I see France! Carl: Wow, you have really good eyesight...."
 * I Know Karate: Cindy - she actually says this in "King of Mars."
 * Important Haircut: Libby gets one in the Beach Party Mummy episode to fool a bunch of mummies that were chasing the gang. She keeps the new look for the remainder of the series.
 * Impossibly Delicious Food: In the episode "Krunch Time."
 * Incredible Shrinking Man: Jimmy at various points throughout the series, Lampshaded in "Incredible Shrinking Town."
 * Ingesting Knowledge: Jimmy creates Books Chewgum with this effect.
 * I See London: Jimmy, Carl, Sheen and Cindy's pants get minds of their own and run away... in the first episode.
 * This is actually said in the first episode/movie, by Cindy, when Jimmy's pants fall down.

"Jimmy: May I suggest that instead of the arm-missiles button, you push the one right below it? Carl: I know what button to push! I was just testing you."
 * Isolation Despondency: In "The Feud", Jimmy and Carl are forbidden to play with each other again by their fathers, due to an incident involving weed spray that was borrowed and never returned.
 * The Jimmy Hart Version: The title card for "Hypno-Birthday to You" has a Jimmy Hart Version of The Beatles' "Birthday" playing over it.
 * Jimmy's Mom: "Has Got it Going On," says Carl.
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind: Jimmy goes to Carl's mind in "I Dream of Jimmy".
 * Just Testing You: "Carl Wheezer Boy Genius" has:

"Sheen: I'm peeing! In the shower! I'm still doing it! (Pumps both hands in the air) Go go go!"
 * Large Ham: Both King Goobot and Ooblar have their moments. "HELLO, TOAST!"
 * Last-Minute Hookup: Jimmy and Cindy in "Lady Sings the News."
 * Latex Space Suit: Cindy in "King of Mars."
 * Legion of Doom: "The League of Villains."
 * Limited Wardrobe: the only time this changes is the episode where Libby gets a makeover, and declares that she's keeping the new look. From then on that became the outfit she wore every episode.
 * Love Triangle: Betty and Cindy toward Jimmy, though the latter two would claim not to like each other.
 * In the Jimmy Timmy Power Hours, there was also Timmy/Cindy/Jimmy -- the two boys fight over her in the second power hour ("When Nerds Collide"), but Cindy ends up
 * Lets not forget Carl's infatuation with Jimmy's mother.
 * Love Potion: Another one of Jimmy's inventions. It causes him to fall for Cindy and Sheen, Libby. And Carl falls for Jimmy's Mom, which then goes on to become a Running Gag. Poor Carl.
 * Poor Carl? How about "Poor Judy?"
 * Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Beautiful Gorgeous, Calamitous' Daughter, subverts this: she's actually evil.
 * Mel Brooks: Guest stars in the Christmas Episode...as Santa Claus.
 * Me's a Crowd: Jimmy's clones in "Send in the Clones"; each one represents a different personality type.
 * Meaningful Name: James 'Jimmy' Isaac Neutron is not surprisingly, interested in science.
 * Also Jimmy's classmate Nick Dean, a child version of move badboy James Dean.
 * Sheen Estevez; a Shout-Out to Charlie Sheen and Martin/Emilio Estevez.
 * And Jet Fusion, the in-show version of James Bond (fusion actually means bond)
 * Beautiful Gorgeous is beautiful and gorgeous.
 * Movie director Quentin Smithee, who had no records at all...
 * Missing Mom: Sheen.
 * Word of God says his mother died when he was young - they don't say her cause of death, however.
 * But she's visible in the movie at the end! She's right behind Sheen's dad!
 * Mister Seahorse: See Face Full Of Alien Wing Wong above.
 * Monster Mash: Halloween Episode
 * My Future Self and Me: Jimmy, Carl, and Sheen all get to meet their future selves as well as future Cindy and Libby.
 * Naked People Are Funny: In "Jimmy Goes to College", the boy genius streaks through the halls of the Pomona School of Advanced Physics - only to find himself face to face with the elderly female patroness of the coveted Moran Grant. He quickly covers his front with a book and his backside with an exit sign. In the movie, Sheen can also be seen naked - peeing, in the shower!

"Sheen: "Wow, Jimmy, you just screamed for just 4 minutes.""
 * Never My Fault: In "King of Mars", Cindy blames Jimmy for her Face Heel Turn with Eustace, for never paying any attention to her.
 * Never Say "Die": In the episode The N-Men, Jimmy has to save himself and his friends before their "life forces" are depleted.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nearly every episode and movie is this. Jimmy's inventions and motives usually cause the problem of the week and it's up to him to fix the problem he caused.
 * Overly Long Scream: Lampshaded by Sheen in Jimmy Neutron when Jimmy finds out in the Bad Future that he is MARRIED to Cindy.

"Sheen: (As he and his friends ride down a T. rex's tail) Yabba Dabba Dooooo~!"
 * Other Me Annoys Me
 * Panty Shot: Cindy gets a few... gracious Egregious shots (blue thong) in The N-Men.
 * Parody Names: Quite a few of the episode titles. Examples include "I Dream of Jimmy" (I Dream of Jeannie), "A Beautiful Mine" (A Beautiful Mind), "The Junkman Cometh" (The Iceman Cometh), "Crouching Jimmy, Hidden Sheen" (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), "My Big Fat Spy Wedding" (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), and "Trading Faces" (Trading Spaces, although the episode was originally titled "A Mind is a Terrible Thing, Two Ways" - a parody of the educational slogan "a mind is a terrible thing to waste). "Journey to the Center of Carl" (Journey to the Center of the Earth) is actually a Fantastic Voyage Plot.
 * Parody Episode: Quite a few. Lights! Camera! Danger! is notable for combining parodies of The Matrix, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Chicago, and references a truckload more. Specific targets for a single parody episode include Jaws, Fantastic Voyage, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, of all things. There's one episode devoted to poking fun at various superhero movies. One episode is devoted to old horror monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Wolf Man. Not even Macbeth and Star Wars were immune. In the same episode. At the same time.
 * Pizza Vampires Don't Believe In Humans Either: Pops up at the end of the sleepover episode. The climax of the episode features a series of increasingly-nonsensical Catapult Nightmares involving the various characters and a flying vampiric pizza. The final nightmare turns out to belong to an actual pizza vampire, sleeping in his pizza box; when he explains his terrible dream to his wife, she consoles him that children don't exist, everyone knows that.
 * Playing Sick: Invoked by Jimmy when he invents patches that make the wearer sick when applied. He gives them to the rest of the kids so they can skip school.
 * Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity: Jimmy's Brain Drain in "Normal Boy" makes him an idiot.
 * Pivotal Wakeup
 * Precocious Crush: Carl on Jimmy's mom Judy
 * Premiseville: Retroville has a retro theme.
 * Punny Name: Ms. Fowl has a few bird-like attributes
 * Recycled in Space: In-Universe. Macbeth... IN SPACE!
 * Retro Universe: Retroville.
 * Robot Buddy: Goddard.
 * Robot Kid: Brobot
 * Romantic False Lead: Betty.
 * Running Gag: Jimmy making something using Hugh's toasters.
 * Carl's crush on Jimmy's mom, Judy.
 * Nick: "Oww, I broke my leg."
 * The exact same footage is used for this scene every time this happens. "Lady Sings the News" even Lampshades it when Jimmy and Cindy note that this has happened fifteen times with Nick, and that everyone is expecting it to happen to Nick again shortly after he recovers.
 * The Twonkies that Sheen had after an episode appear in several later episodes; they don't morph however.
 * Samus Is a Girl: Beautiful Gorgeous.
 * Taken surprisingly literally, considering Beautiful Gorgeous was wearing robotic armor similar to Samus'.
 * Sarcasm Blind: Cindy in "Out, Darn Spotlight".
 * Sassy Black Woman: Libby.
 * Satire, Parody, Pastiche: Numerous examples of this include "Attack of the Twonkies" (Gremlins), Monster Hunt (Jaws), "Stranded" (Cast Away), "Love Potion #976/J" (Love Potion #9), "Lights! Camera! Danger!" (The Matrix, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, to name a few), "Win Lose and Kaboom" (every gameshow ever) and "Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion" (James Bond).
 * School Play: MacBeth in Space
 * Schmuck Bait
 * Science Hero: Jimmy, who solves the problems his inventions create.
 * Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale
 * Self-Destruct Mechanism: Goddard has one, though he can reassemble himself.
 * Severely Specialized Store: Retroville has stores like Cheese World, Mime World, and Rug World.
 * Shout Outs (Some episode titles, such as "The Tomorrow Boys")
 * Meltyface, anyone?
 * "Uh, Libby, I don't think they need no stinkin' badges."
 * Jimmy's Blue Time Traveling Telephone Booth, anyone?
 * Actually, when it first appeared, I think it was red, not blue.
 * Cindy's entire character could be a shout out to June from KaBlam!! Let's see, bossy 10-11 year old girl with a ponytail, crush on the main boy... yup, it's June.
 * Or Helga
 * The N Men episode, particularly Retroville's reaction, is similar to the X-Men.
 * Not just that, but Cindy, Sheen, Libby and Carl's powers are similar to Supergirl, The Flash, The Invisible Woman and Banshee, well if Banshee was burping instead of screaming. Carl's costume is also a shout out to Plastic Man. Jimmy was well, orange....
 * And, think of Sheen's name idea. The Fantastic League of Justice Bringing Avenging Men (and two girls!)
 * Jimmy in Hall Monster is like a condensed version of Nineteen Eighty-Four
 * Sheen's full name seems to be a Shout-Out to actors (and brothers) Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez.

"Sheen: Don't do it Jimmy. Don't tell him about the limitless power-source you found on Mar-(Jimmy covers his mouth) Carl: And we're not going there to get the limitless power-source if that's what your thinking- (Jimmy covers his mouth) Sheen: MARS! (beat) Sorry I just get excited."
 * One ride seen at Retroville in the movie has the name "Bat Out of Heck".
 * Mr. Neutron's full name is Hubert Beaumont Neutron.
 * "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Sheen" has a definite air of Kung Pow! Enter the Fist.
 * In The Halloween Episode, Jimmy builds a machine that turns people into monsters. One of the monsters pictured is Michael Jackson.
 * Leppy the Leptictidium shares a color scheme with the Leptictidium from Walking With Beasts. Incidentally, this program's first scene also showed it erroneously living in the Cretaceous.
 * Show Within a Show: UltraLord -- Sheen is crazy over it to the point of claiming that Ultralord fills George Washington's role as the father of America. Also present is the Happy Happy Show Show, which Jimmy considers to be So Bad It's Horrible that's the source of the brainwashing in Retroville.
 * Six-Student Clique: With 5 students
 * The main character: Jimmy
 * The Muscle: Sheen
 * The Quirk: Carl
 * The Pretty One/The Smart One: Cindy
 * The Wild One: Libby
 * Alternatively
 * The Head/The Smart One: Jimmy
 * The Muscle: Cindy
 * The Pretty One/ The Wild One: Libby
 * The Quirk: Sheen and Carl
 * Slap Slap Kiss: Jimmy and Cindy.
 * Space Does Not Work That Way
 * Lampshaded when Sheen asks Jimmy how they could go on space without spacesuits or how they can get to the moon in mere minutes, but Carl's singing blocks out Jimmy's answers.
 * Space Whale Aesop: The pilot episode, "When Pants Attack", has one: Always remember to be responsible and clean up after yourself, because if you don't, those pants that you forgot to pick up off your floor might become sentient and go on a mad rampage.
 * Special Edition Theme Song: The Bowling For Soup theme used in The Movie.
 * Spin-Off Planet Sheen. Guess who's the star?
 * is it Sheen,Sheen, or SHEEN?!
 * NONE OF THE ABOVE! It's SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 * Stand-In Parents: Cindy Vortex had an aunt stand in for her mother at Retroville's parent/child sporting day.
 * Superhero Episode: "The N Men."
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial:


 * Stalker with a Crush: Carl to Jimmy's mom. It's shown in several episodes that he has a picture of her and Hugh. Hugh's face is obscured by Carl's taped over it. Cindy comes off like this to Jimmy In Season Three.
 * Taking You with Me:
 * Time Machine: Jimmy's Time Booth.
 * Time Travel
 * The Full Name Adventures
 * The Scottish Trope: In the episode Out, Darn Spotlight bad things would happen whenever someone in the play said
 * Tropey Come Home: The storybook Goddard Come Home!
 * Tsundere: Cindy.
 * In the original movie she explains that she only became one to Jimmy, because she was jealous of his better grades and hated his tendency to show off his intelligence on every given occasion.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Hugh and Judy, though Hugh's just a moron, and Carl and Elkie, though it's just a one episode fling, and then there's The Junkman and Beautiful Gorgeous.
 * Undead Author: Jimmy points out the difficulties with this.
 * Un Evil Laugh: Eustace Strych and Beautiful Gorgeous.
 * UST: Jimmy and Cindy, which slowly developed into a real romance.
 * Villain Team-Up: The League of Villains consists of King Goobot, Finbarr Calamitous, Beautiful Gorgeous, evil genius Eddie, the Junkman, Eustace Strych, Grandma Taters and the Space Bandits.
 * Well Intentioned Extremist: Grandma Taters wishes to brainwash Retroville into being happy (and later the rest of the world) because she genuinely wants to make people happy.
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Averted, Retroville is in Texas.
 * This is also played with in one of the episodes where Jimmy states that his script for a movie has one of the locations in 'a fictional city in Texas'.
 * Although, in the first episode Cindy mentions that Jimmy's head is the size of Texas, to which Carl, upset, replies that his uncle is from Texas, and not that they live in Texas.
 * The company who does the animation on the series is itself based in Dallas.
 * Word of Gay: Principal Willoughby
 * Yellow Sash of Power: Jimmy in "Hall Monster."
 * Youthful Freckles: Libby gained some in season 2 after her redesign.