Detentionaire

""Detention's let out at 4:15. Trouble is, I'm nowhere near detention right now""

Detentionaire is a Teletoon cartoon that began weekly airing in 2012, although it had a preview week the September before. Lee Ping, an Ordinary High School Student beginning 10th grade, gets a year's worth of detention after a massive prank pulled on the first day. The catch? He didn't do it. To top it off, his mother, a teacher at his school, has grounded him for the same length of time. Since no one will listen to him, Lee has to clear his name by sneaking out of detention every day with his only ally, the school bully.

This cartoon provides examples of:
"Lee: I've met squirrels with longer attention spans!"
 * Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Under the Green Apply Splat factory, as well as under the school. They turn into strangely high-tech hallways.
 * The Ace: Despite his supposed geeky rep before the series start, Lee gains instant popularity after getting detention. Also, he's a pretty good action hero for an ordinary high school student. This also counts as a subversion, in that while Lee is fairly intelligent and resourceful, he struggles through the more physical aspects of being an Action Hero (for example, the first time he swipes a skateboard to escape, he does have some trouble with his coordination). Not to mention his reputation as a legendary troublemaker was completely false.
 * Adults Are Useless: On the one hand, Barrage toes a fine line between overtly stern and tyrannical and Lee's mom (embarassingly enough, a math teacher at his school) doesn't believe that her own clean-cut son didn't pull the prank. On the other hand, Vice Principal Victoria is sympathetic to the students and is swift to deal with bullies like Biff, and Lee's dad tries to make his son's grounding period at least bearable. To be fair, her son has a tattoo and probably dyes his hair partially red. She may not see him as that clean-cut.
 * Alpha Bitch:
 * Brandy, Lee's new (and self-proclaimed) girlfriend is made out to be this, or possibly a Lovable Alpha Bitch. Episode 5 shows that she wants to be a part of the Alpha Bitch clique, and at the end of that episode, warms up enough that she stops calling Lee "Leaping" and refers to him properly as Lee Ping.
 * Chazz is a male example of this to Tina and all of the media group. Vain, self-absorbed and verbally abusive unless on camera, he definitely isn't the Jerk Jock.
 * Anachronism Stew/Rule of Funny: How did that guy on the news team have an operating 1920's (though really 1930's) video camera?
 * Anime Hair: Lee sports a mullet with emo bangs, that's red on top and black in the back.
 * Art Shift: The style shifts from Flash animation to still images to depict the chaos of the gym at the first day. The last two seconds of the intro also briefly shift into sketchy traditional animation.
 * Asian and Nerdy: Lee is a rather downplayed version in that he gets good grades, but uses his brain more for his investigations and is almost nothing like a stereotypical nerd.
 * Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: The skater clique. Dear God, the skater clique.


 * Attention Whore:
 * Chazz, the head reporter for the school news.
 * Brandy slowly makes the school play about the founder about her, when it's supposed to be about the school's founder, Alexander Nigma. She goes so far as to change almost every bit of the play.
 * Batman Cold Open
 * Betty and Veronica: Tina and Brandy for Lee, even if the former hasn't shown an explicit romantic interest in him.
 * Book Dumb: For once averted for a high school-age male protagonist. The only bad grade in Lee's last report card was a C, and that was only for gym. Yet despite this, his mom won't let him catch a break.
 * Brick Joke: Cam's hypnotic suggestion returns in the Season 1 finale, when the key words come up coincidentally.
 * Butt Monkey: It's not just the prankster that wants to get at Lee; 99% of those around him either never listens to him, frustrates him to no end, creates unnecessary drama, or all of the above.
 * Camp Straight: Holger.
 * Can't Get Away With Nuthin:
 * Biff, sometimes intentionally.
 * Lee in general. Naturally, on the one day Lee wants detention to protect himself, he has a free pass. Even trying to set up the bullies fails to nab the right culprit.
 * Casanova Wannabe: Camilio Martinez, along with wannabe gangster.
 * Cassandra Truth
 * Clear My Name
 * Cloudcuckoolander/Funny Foreigner: Holger, a vaguely Laplander foreign student at the school.
 * Cool Loser: Lee's pretty much the only one at A. Nigma who could care less about fitting into a clique, favors his own individuality, and whose love interest isn't an obviously unpleasant Alpha Bitch.
 * Cyborg: The new principal is this. Why is completely unknown.
 * Deadpan Snarker/The Snark Knight: Lee isn't one 24/7, but has his moments.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: Principal Barrage.
 * Education Mama: Lee's mom to a T. They even made her his teacher!
 * Embarrassing Middle Name: Camillio Esmereldo Martinez
 * Everythings Cuter With Kittens: Biff's adorable orange kitty, Mr. Rumplekittykat.
 * Expy: Vice Principal Victoria is basically a slightly more kid-friendly version of Jessica Rabbit.
 * Faceless Goons: The Cleaners. Dressed in white hazmat suits, they literally turn up everywhere.
 * Genius Bruiser / Gentle Giant: Biff. He's Lee's inside-man whenever they're in detention. He's big and muscled, and always gets himself in trouble so he could go to detention, but it actually gives him the free time to do things like knitting a sweater, being Lee's eyes in the sky, and playing with his adorable pet kitten. Granted, his threats to cease being Lee's 'eyes' and show him 'how much of a bully [he] really can be' if he couldn't get DoD back together in episode 6 is also a good indicator that he really can be a strong threat.
 * Girl Next Door: Tina.
 * Hidden Depths: Biff seems to have a passion for sewing, even making the costumes for the school play. His hacking skills when he helps Lee also count.
 * Hot Scoop/Intrepid Reporter: Chazz and Tina, who are head anchors for the school news show. Chazz is more a subversion on the Intrepid Reporter. He'll try to get the scoop with the minimal amount of work possible. He only really cares about being on camera.
 * Hot Teacher: Well, Victoria, if vice principals can count.
 * How We Got Here: Most every episode starts at a few minutes from 4:15, with Lee investigating outside the detention room. The rest of the episode entails the events leading up to those last few minutes.
 * Irony: As the series goes on, it's readily more apparent that Lee's also breaking rules himself in order to prove his innocence. Even he can't help but lampshade it about 5 episodes in.
 * It Was All Just a Dream: Lee's explanation for the events in episode 7.
 * Jerkass: Principal Barrage.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Biff. Camilio also has shades of this, in that while he does exploit Lee's newfound popularity to boost his own, he is able to set some of his priorities straight and help Lee gather valuable information for his investigation.
 * Keet: Both Camilio and Holger, Holger probably more so.
 * Limited Wardrobe
 * Magic Music: The Prank-Song, which apparently played during the prank on the first day,
 * Meaningful Echo: In "RadCircles"'s first appearance, he says, "I know everything. I know, it's scary." Biff said the same thing in Episode 3. We don't know if they are the same person yet, though.
 * Meaningful Name: Lee's surname means "peaceful" or "level" in Chinese, which makes good sense for his character.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: It takes about five episodes for Brandy to be able distinguish "Lee Ping" from "leaping."
 * Ninja Pirate Robot Zombie: The school is run by a Cyborg Drill Sergeant Eyepatched Badass Principal.
 * Odd Friendship: Lee and Biff are slowly forming one.
 * Red Oni Blue Oni: Biff and Lee respectively, though Lee is the main character.
 * The Omniscient: Biff reveals that he's this to Lee. "I know everything! I know, it's actually pretty scary sometimes."
 * "Rad Circles" also has elements of this. And the fact that he used the same line as Biff might throw suspicion...
 * Only Sane Man: Lee's probably the most collected teenager in the show.
 * Pet the Dog: Principal Barrage going back for the students left behind in episode 10.
 * Plot Mandated Friendship Failure: Episode 6 has the Dudes of Darkness break up, partially instigated by Lee. By the end of the day, of course, the band is back together.
 * Power Trio/Token Trio: Unusual in that Lee, an east Asian, is the center of the trio.
 * Punny Name: The high school is called "A. Nigma High". Sounds like "enigma", as in puzzle. Get it?
 * Camilio refers to Lee as "Homes," which in context is the same as "home boy," but is pronounced the same way as "Holmes."
 * School of Hats: The entire school has the typical cliques, but segregated and even more 1-dimensional than usual.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Biff loves to knit and play with his kitten.
 * Recycled in Space: The creators have referred to the series in press releases as "Twenty Four in high school"
 * Redheaded Hero: Lee; at the least he's a half-redhead.
 * Right Behind Me: Lee utters this when he sees that the skaters he was talking to are stunned by the arrival of Barrage.
 * Rule of Cool: Pretty much sums up why the school would have a cyborg drill sergeant for a principal.
 * Robot butlers for a penthouse party.
 * There's a red lizard/dragon/whatever the heck it is roaming around the school. They call it a tasselworm.
 * Sacred First Kiss: To Brandy. A source for much tension later on.
 * Senior Sleep Cycle: One just wonders how the old teacher supervising detention can wake up.
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: Lee to Brandy. To be fair, the way they "get together" is pretty bizarre, not to mention completely involuntary on Lee's part. By episode 9, he actively tells people that he has a girlfriend. Whether he wants it to be Brandy or would prefer Tina still remains to be seen.
 * Shout Out: Lee disguises himself as a football player wearing a visor-equipped helmet in order to scout info at the football tryouts. The scouting info part aside, that does evoke elements from one football story...
 * Shut Up Kiss: Lee gives one to Brandy in episode 3 to avoid getting caught by Barrage. She's then left with Post Kiss Catatonia. Another Shut Up Kiss pulled in Episode 8, again with Brandy.
 * Story Arc: Each episode is motivated by some clue found at the end of the previous episode. The plot is to find the school prankster.
 * Team Pet: The tasselworm, at least for the school. That thing has threatened bodily harm very often for a school mascot.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: For Lynch, a beverage called Green Apple Splat. It's the splattiest!
 * Troubled but Cute: Lee accrues this image of himself after being put guilty for the first-day prank. Brandy exploits this and claims him for herself to further her popularity.
 * Two Lines No Waiting: Every episode has a B plot that's self-contained to the episode. The A plot might have both an investigation portion and its own self-contained plot.
 * We Will Not Use Photoshop in The Future: The plot of episode 4 is kicked off when someone e-mails an obviously fake photo of Lee picking his nose to the student body. Despite Lee and Biff clearly seeing through the ruse, nobody else does.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2; Biff may not be totally mean, but that doesn't mean he doesn't take amusement to Lee's predicaments.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Heinous: Threatening to cut Holger's fabulous hair? How dare you, Mathletes?!
 * Wig Dress Accent: Lee uses one is Episodes 5 and 6. Subverted in 6 when everyone but Barrage is able to see through the disguise.
 * Xanatos Gambit: Utilized by Brandy, to get Tina out of Lee's life. It involved setting her environmentalist friend up to be noticed by Tina, and so the both of them set out on a date. Her obvious plan was to set her up so that she would spill acid onto Tina's head to dissolve her hair. When Lee stepped in and pushed Tina out of the way, however, it was the date who got his hair dissolved, saying that he didn't want to believe Brandy that Tina was such a shallow person who played him for a fool. Needless to say, it was lose-lose for Lee and Tina's relationship.
 * Yes Man: Brandy is revealed to be this to Kimmie, the improbably self-absorbed leader of the school "Glamazons."