Sit Down, Shut Up (2009 TV series)



Sit Down, Shut Up is an animated series on FOX, part of their Sunday night animation block, premiering April 19, 2009. It is based on a sitcom of the same name from Australia, which was cancelled after 1 season.

The show is about a group of oddball, misfit teachers. It follows the many misadventures they have during their work day. It uses animation superimposed on live-action background shots.

The show is created by the same people behind Arrested Development. Josh Weinstein, a creative talent for a number of years behind The Simpsons as well as his own short-lived show, Mission Hill is also involved. Many talents from Arrested Development are involved in the show as well, including many of the voice actors. When it first premiered, the Pilot received mainly negative reviews from national critics. Subsequent episodes were received similarly, with its rating dropping as well. Eventually, because of its poor reception and ratings, it was canceled from airing on FOX primetime after four episodes. The rest of the episodes (along with the four episodes from primetime) aired at midnight (eastern standard time) on FOX in the months after the network cancelled Mad TV and needed filler to air while waiting for the premiere of The Wanda Sykes Show. Eventually, FOX stopped airing the reruns at midnight in favor of reruns from the canceled live-action sitcom Brothers. Sit Down Shut Up aired on Comedy Central from May 2010 to July 2010.

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Tropes:

 * Activist Fundamentalist Antics: Miracle: "Look Larry, I'm idealistic, ok? I believe in doing things that're unrealistic, or have no effect. That's who I am."
 * Actor Allusion: On the episode "Hurricane Willard," one of the pictures on Willard's enemy chart is Fonzie, the Happy Days character made famous by Willard's voice actor, Henry Winkler.
 * An anti-drug poster in the hallway also depicted Fonzie, and Willard insisted "it's still relevant".
 * Ambiguously Gay: Andrew LeGustambos, even though it was established that Andrew is bisexual.
 * Stuart too, what with his trying to date Larry, kissing him on two different occasions and all.
 * Animated Adaptation
 * As Long As It Sounds Foreign: Whatever it is that Happy speaks, although he speaks perfect English in the last couple episodes.
 * Big Ol Unibrow: Ennis has one.
 * Blue Eyes: Miracle has them.
 * Breakfast Club: Parodied on "Back in Time".
 * Butt Monkey: Willard Deutschebog.
 * Catholic School Girls Rule: Miracle is dressed like one when she goes back to high school.
 * Catch Phrase: Strangely parodied. ("I need a catch phrase!")
 * Clip Show: Used in the fourth episode.
 * Cold Opening
 * Comically Missing the Point: "I was the 'Whoop-de-do Kid'." -gasp- "You were a kid?"
 * Companion Cube: Ennis and the raffle ball cage in "Miracles Are Real." He later gets it on with some windshield wipers in "High School Confidential."
 * Helen and any of her various partners. She actually prefers the company of objects or robots, probably because they can't judge her.
 * Cross Dressing Voices: Principal Sue Sezno is voiced by Kenan Thompson. Yes, that Kenan Thompson.
 * Depraved Bisexual: Andrew LeGustambos.
 * The Ditz: Miracle and Stuart.
 * Does Not Like Shoes: Miracle is always barefoot.
 * Drives Like Crazy: Miracle. Also Helen.
 * Dumb Blonde: Miracle.
 * Evil Redhead: Marie.
 * Fight Clubbing: The Pillow Fight Club, down to rules 1 and 2.
 * Actually, when Sue says she thought the first rule was not to talk about Pillow Fight Club, Miracle chastises her with, "Then how are we having this conversation? Think, Sue." The first rule is actually about proper pillow stuffings.
 * Flower in Her Hair: Miracle.
 * Flash Back
 * Foot Focus: In "Hurricane Willard," Stuart uses his feet to rub Principal Sezno's shoulders.
 * Funny Foreigner: The janitor, Happy.
 * Fun With Subtitles: The translator whenever Happy talks.
 * Gag Boobs: On Stuart of all people (after he took Helen's estrogen medication, believing they were steroids and when he was pretending to be his own sister), which are quite bouncy.
 * Girlish Pigtails: Miracle has these in a flashback to her high school days. She wears them again when she has to actually go through high school, and again in Pillow Fight Club.
 * GIS Syndrome
 * Good News, Bad News: Sue Sezno does this.
 * Granola Girl: Miracle is a prime example.
 * Hello Nurse: Miracle, so much so every school fair she has a "mouth massage" booth that always has long lines.
 * Hippie Teacher: Miracle Grohe. Subverted in that she's a Conservative Christian, or at least a parody of one.
 * Hot for Teacher: When Miracle goes back to high school to finally graduate, she and Larry are caught kissing.
 * Hypocrite: Sue Sezno is this on quite a few occasions.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Ennis's "little nut sack."
 * Jerkass: Ennis Hofftard.
 * Keet: Stuart Proszakian.
 * Kavorka Man: Ennis, except he's not that ugly and somewhat in shape.
 * Leaning On the Fourth Wall: A lot in "High School Musical Musical", but they actually do this more often than not.
 * Limited Animation: There's hardly any background animation at all.
 * Limited Wardrobe
 * The Long List: Larry's list of dying career fields in "H.S. Confidential".
 * Missing Episode: "Math Lab," which was originally supposed to air after "Back in Time," but due to its content (and the fact that the show wasn't bringing in the big ratings that FOX wanted it to), the show was cancelled after the fourth episode. "Math Lab" -- and the other eight episodes that were supposed to air on primetime Sunday after The Simpsons -- ended up airing on late Saturday night when FOX was trying to fill the void left behind when Mad TV was cancelled.
 * Also, when the show aired on Comedy Central, the pilot episode and "High School Confidential" never aired.
 * Monster Clown: Or in this case, Prison Clown. Stuart Proszackian was a clown who entertained at prisons before he was hired as an assistant principal. He demonstrated this in episode two, where in order to cheer up Larry he appears in a prison-striped clown outfit and sings "Someone Sent You A Prison Clown."
 * Medium Awareness
 * Ms. Fanservice: Miracle.
 * New Age Retro Hippie: Miracle.
 * Noodle Incident: Naked Miracle and the Papier Mache Monkey in the Flash Back that was never shown due to content issues.
 * Only in Florida
 * Porn Stache: Ennis wears one in his dating class advertisement.
 * Punny Name: Everyone.
 * Refuge in Vulgarity: The Other Wiki predicted it might be the first show on FOX to be rated TV-MA. That prediction never came true. In America, the show airs with a TV-14 rating for suggestive dialogue (D), offensive language (L), sexual content (S), and graphic violence (V) (though subjectively speaking, the show was only considered a Refuge in Vulgarity by network TV standards. Sit Down Shut Up's content would be considered normal for basic cable [and low-grade on digital/premium cable]).
 * Sassy Black Woman: Sue Sezno is a bit of a toned down version of this, but she still fits.
 * Snap Back: Certain things that happen in an episode, like Willard losing his job or being evicted from his apartment, are never mentioned in the episodes after.
 * Strawman Political: Miracle manages to be this of both the Hippie and Christian evangelicals.
 * Suspiciously Specific Denial: Sue is not up to no good at the school's auto shop.
 * Teens Are Short
 * The Eighties: Parodied in the episode "Back in Time."
 * Ultimate Job Security: Miracle is supposed to be a science teacher, yet she knows very little about science.
 * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: The whole cast.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Miracle's breast are refer to as "Miracles".
 * Actually, they're using the possessive: Miracle's Are Real
 * In the same episode, however, Ennis did refer to them as "chesticles" and "sweater puppies".
 * Vomit Discretion Shot: In "Math Lab" the meth addicts were getting nauseous and just when they were about to blow chunks, the scene suddenly cuts to the main cast changing into a different clothes. Larry, hoping to show the world a negative effects of drugs, yells "wait, they cut that!?", Stuart proclaimed that it was "really gross".
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Miracle's storage space for the student starvation drive.
 * As well as Sue's for the Willard Death Pool and her raffle ticket.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Pillow Fight Club.
 * Will They or Won't They?: Larry and Miracle are set up for this.
 * Helen and Andrew, too, especially in the last episode's break-up-make-up plot. Andrew: "If you were a woman or even a man, I'd totally kiss you." Helen: "And if you were a robot or a chair, I'd consider it."
 * Helen and Andrew, too, especially in the last episode's break-up-make-up plot. Andrew: "If you were a woman or even a man, I'd totally kiss you." Helen: "And if you were a robot or a chair, I'd consider it."