Drawn Together

""The world's first animated reality show."second.|undefined"

A Comedy Central cartoon that ran for three seasons (2004-2007), Drawn Together is a Reality Show parody, the concept being that eight cartoon characters from different genres are forced to live under one roof. A notable mark of the show is how each character manages to be both a parody of a specific style of animation and a parody of the stock characters usually put together in Reality Shows. The show is one of the more polarizing ones to come along in recent years; it draws some ferocious hate for its reliance on gross-out humor and Dead Baby Comedy, but it also has an extremely loyal fanbase.

Following the show's television run, a direct-to-DVD movie was released in which the gang discovers their show has been canceled and attempt to get back on the air.

This show provides examples of:
"Clara: Have you noticed we haven't been getting any screen time this week?
 * Absentee Actor: In "Captain Hero's Marriage Pact," Toot and Clara (both voiced by Tara Strong) are virtually absent from the entire episode until the last few minutes. This could be due to Strong dedicating the majority of her time voicing Unusually Flexible Girl in that episode. The writers quickly Lampshade Hanging this:

Toot: Well, uh, duh! That's because we've been in the basement all week making this awesome potato gun!"

"Ling-Ling's father: I am ashamed to call you Ling-Ling Hitler Bin Laden Seacrest!"
 * Acting for Two: Tara Strong does the voices of both Toot and Clara.
 * Activist Fundamentalist Antics: Princess Clara is prone to this. At one point, she wishes Xandir and his new boyfriend live happily ever after... until God throws them both in the fiery pits of Hell, of course.
 * Adobe Flash: The movie is no longer drawn animation and is clearly flash.
 * Adult Child: Captain Hero, quite often. One episode, "Super Nanny", is entirely based around this trope.
 * The Alcoholic: Toot.
 * Always Need What You Gave Up: Hero gives up his powers.
 * Amazing Freaking Grace: Plays in the background pretty much any time a character delivers a moral of some sort.
 * Ambiguously Jewish: Quite a lot of them, mainly Hero. Also, Toot has a Jewish surname, but she's never explicitly stated to be Jewish -- only very vaguely hinted. Wooldoor is heavily implied to be Jewish, but he's explicitly stated as being Christian in some episodes; blame Negative Continuity.
 * Maybe he's an ambiguous Jew for Jesus?
 * Toot was also reciting the Mourner's Kaddish in one episode -- a Jewish rite.
 * Spanky Ham is a strange case. In a third season episode, he all but proclaims himself to be a Jew when he chides Franken Berry (formerly Frankenstein) for turning his back on his heritage, stating "Assimilation is our people's greatest enemy". In the first season, Spanky was explicitly stated as being a convert to Islam... so he's either a Jew (due either to Negative Continuity or a Retcon) or a former Jew, which in the latter case, would make his speech very ironic indeed.
 * The creators themselves are Jewish, as is Tara Strong (Clara and Toot).
 * Anatomically Impossible Sex: It happened a few times. One such involved a female cow and Captain Hero saying "I always dreamed of meeting a woman with six penises!"
 * Then again, this being Hero, he was probably just mistaking udders for penises.
 * Anything That Moves: Captain Hero, who doesn't even limit himself to that. In fact, he seems to prefer things that don't.
 * Also Foxxy, especially in Toot Goes Bollywood.
 * Arch Enemy: Hero and Xandir each have one. Xandir's is Lord Slashstab, a pastiche of Venger from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, while Hero's arch nemesis is a bizarre villain called Scroto whose entire villainous gambit consists of coming up with new ways to trick Captain Hero into washing his privates...
 * Foxxy Love has had so many of her children taken away from her, she considers the woman from Child Services to be her arch nemesis.
 * Well, she has admitted to putting Foxxy's children in horrible foster homes.
 * Arson Murder and Jaywalking: The warning label on the movie's DVD cover reads as follows: "Warning: This program is recommended for mature audiences only. It contains adult language, situations, nudity, and awkwardness."
 * Art Evolution: Averted with The Movie. It's animated in Adobe Flash and it's very noticeable. Inverted with the series -- with each successive season, the quality of the animation gets poorer. The series is also a rare instance of this happening to the sound, as well as the graphics: Toot's voice was at first deliberately made to sound like the low quality, scratchy audio recordings of the 1920's cartoons she represents, but the effect was abandoned after the first episode.
 * The Artifact: The fact that the series is supposed to be a reality show became less and less important and stopped being mentioned at all midway through season two.
 * Until The Movie, when the show's cancellation became the focus of the entire plot.
 * Art Shift: Each character is animated in a style appropriate to their origin. For instance, Clara is drawn in a Disneyesque style, Foxxy is drawn like a Hanna Barbera character, etc.
 * Also everything in the movie.
 * As Long As It Sounds Foreign: Ling-Ling speaks Japanese gibberish, and he knows it's gibberish.
 * Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Wooldoor.
 * Attention Whore: Most of them, but especially Toot.
 * Author Avatar: The Jew Producer. The writers of the show are both Jewish. Unique in that he's deliberately created to be utterly despicable.
 * Badass Adorable: Ling-Ling.
 * Bambification: Parodied.
 * Beard of Sorrow: Of all things, on Foxxy Love in the episodes "Captain Hero's Marriage Pact" and "Spelling Applebee's".
 * Better Than a Bare Bulb
 * Between My Legs: parodied in the promotional artwork for "The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!", as seen here.
 * Big Eater: Toot
 * Big No: Including nine times in one episode.
 * Big Ol Unibrow: Spanky Ham.
 * Bishonen: Xandir.
 * Black Best Friend: Subverted on the show, as while Foxxy and Clara are sometimes depicted as friends, more often Foxxy's attitude toward Clara runs the gamut from genuine dislike to exasperated ambivalence. Played straight in real life, as Tara Strong and Cree Summer have been best friends for over twenty-five years, even growing up together.
 * Bloody Hilarious
 * Bulletproof Human Shield: Captain Hero's "Hero Shield" move.
 * Butt Monkey: Half the cast seems to take turns fulfilling this role; it's arguable who gets it the worst.
 * Can Crushing Cranium: Hero does this in the pilot episode.
 * With an entire keg, no less.
 * Captain Ersatz: All the characters except Spanky are parodies of other well-known characters. Spanky parodies Flash cartoons and internet-based characters, but is not based on a specific character.
 * Captain Superhero
 * Cat Scare: Happens in "Breakfast Food Killer" while Toot is searching for the final MacGuffin.
 * Catch Phrase: Captain Hero's "Save Yourselves!"
 * Toot's "Goddammit!"
 * Xandir has "What is going on?!" in the first season finale.
 * Wooldoor's "Wheeee!"
 * Foxxy's "Them ain't yo' Funyuns... They's Foxxy Funyuns!!!"
 * Character Development: Xandir over the course of season one and two went from being trapped in a transparent closet to being openly gay and coming out to his family.
 * Toot arguably changes for the better over the course of the series, going from, as the show puts it, a "one-dimensional fat joke" to a sympathetic Plucky Girl with some actual depth.
 * Characterization Marches On: Spanky Ham was a much bigger jerk in the early episodes. Clara was more naive, and well, let's be blunt, nicer; this was before the writers stumbled onto her religious fanatic persona. And Captain Hero was a lot more heterosexual.
 * It was around season three that Captain Hero simply stopped not talking in his girly screechy voice.
 * Chew Toy: Everyone, at one point or another.
 * Citizenship Marriage: Spanky "gay marries" Xandir in order to obtain health insurance.
 * Click Hello: Parodied.
 * Clip Show: Parodied twice; old clips were shown, but were overlaid with goofy/nonsensical captions.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Wooldoor.
 * Clumsy Copyright Censorship: When the show was forbidden from using "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" on the DVD release, a quick parody version was produced to fill the space and Lampshade Hanging that fact.
 * Cluster F Bomb: A certain Captain Hero speech contains 21 Sound Effect Bleeps. The speech is uncensored on the DVD.
 * Combining Mecha: Episode three of Season one, "Gay Bash", reveals that Asians can do this.
 * Comically Missing the Point: Captain Hero is a master at this. To cite one of many examples, in one episode, an immigrant family from Greece moves in next door. When Captain Hero hears the word "Greeks", he assumes it's a fraternity and immediately rushes over to their house and tries to become a pledge... which he keeps at long after the reality of the situation has become abundantly clear. He is even explicitly told the truth at multiple points and refuses to believe it.
 * "The Lemon-AIDS Walk" is the best one. He becomes convinced that the AIDS walk is a sporting event, not a charity marathon, and decides to "Do more walking and have more AIDS" than anyone else. He then gets hooked on steroids so he can win the AIDS walk, goes mad and lives with Popeye for a while until Popeye dies of AIDS from using contaminated needles, and then enters the AIDS walk... and wins by killing all the other people taking part. So not a single dollar is actually raised for it because no one but Hero actually finished it. And then he steals the AIDS quilt thinking it's his trophy.
 * Comic Role Play: When Xandir runs away, the housemates roleplay the experiences of a young naive teenager moving to the big city and becoming a prostitute. While played horribly to-life, the comedy comes when the housemates keep acting out their abusive, sexual roleplay when Xandir isn't even there.
 * Coming Out Story: With Xandir, both played straight (in Gay Bash, when coming out to the house) and parodied (in A Very Special Drawn Together After School Special, when coming out to his parents).
 * Commercial Break Cliffhanger: Spoofed.
 * Commercial Pop Up: Spoofed.
 * Confession Cam: A common feature of the early episodes; somewhat phased out as the series goes along.
 * Contest Winner Cameo
 * Cousin Oliver: Parodied with the character of Strawberry Sweetcake.
 * Cowboy Bebop At His Computer: Xandir's whole "Never ending quest to save his girlfriend until he realized he was gay and switched to a never ending quest to save his boyfriend" thing was really only important for the first three episodes of the first season. But any media outlet that described the show acted like it was an important part of his character.
 * Same deal with Clara's Octopussoir. It's mentioned in exactly two episodes, yet articles on the show speak of it like it's a vital part of her character.
 * Crack Pairing: The show made a point of pairing every single character in every possible combination over the course of the show. Don't believe it? Pick two characters. Any two. Over the course of the show, these two will kiss, sleep together, have a relationship, or be teased to Hell and back.
 * Crapsack World
 * Cross Dresser: Hero, Xandir, and Wooldoor tend to appear in women's clothing an awful lot, often with no explanation given.
 * Spanky and Ling-Ling in "Little Orphan Hero".
 * Also Ling Ling in Foxxy vs. The Board of Education.
 * Toot as "Stan" in "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special".
 * Cross Dressing Voices: The male Ling-Ling is voiced by the female Abbey McBride. Also, whenever a young boy shows up, he's generally voiced by Tara Strong.
 * Darker and Edgier: The first half of Season Three, much to the show's detriment.
 * Dark Skinned Blond: Xandir.
 * A Date With Rosie Palms: Every character, even the ultra-prudish Clara, has had their masturbation referenced or shown on the series.
 * Heck, the episode Clum Babies is all about masturbation!
 * Dead Baby Comedy
 * Denied Parody: Wooldoor's incredibly elaborate masturbation ritual was thought by many fans to be a parody of Spongebob SquarePants's technique for producing bubbles underwater. However, the show's executive producer denied any reference to SpongeBob, stating that Wooldoor's masturbation was done the way it was in order to appease network censors; it couldn't in any way resemble real masturbation.
 * Department of Redundancy Department: The name of The Movie is The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!
 * Deus Sex Machina: In one episode, Ling-Ling and his "Permanent Battle Partner", Ni-pul enjoyed their battle sequences like sex, until it becomes too stale to enjoy. Ling-Ling's partner suggests to make things more interesting by actually, as Ling-Ling would put it, "dipping his noodle in her duck sauce"...
 * Disney Creatures of the Farce: Clara's ability to conjure up animals when she sings is parodied often, most memorably when Spanky and Wooldoor survive a "food ban" by hunting said small animals.
 * Disturbed Doves: One of the show's favorite running gags.
 * Does Not Like Shoes: Wooldoor is always in sock feet.
 * Driven to Suicide:.
 * Not to mention Xandir during the episode he finds out he's gay and before he comes to terms with it. Of course, as a video game character, he had more than one life, so he ended up stabbing himself in the gut and dying several times.
 * Wooldoor, so it seems, in the beginning of the second season. Later, he reveals that he was taking his "afternoon noose nap", and the people who buried him thought he was dead.
 * Drugs Are Bad: Or drinking in this case. After a drinking game (mentioned above) which results in Ling-Ling killing Xandir and more importantly, the guys running out of beer, Hero, Spanky, and Wooldoor go out to get more. They then run over a homeless guy "because they were drinking and driving" as Wooldoor said. He continuously says this for the first half of the episode before Hero punches him.
 * There's also that time "Ling Ling OD'd... somehow" on his birthday.
 * Egg Sitting: Parodied. Toot's mothering skills are tested by giving her instead of an egg, an actual Nicaraguan baby to watch.
 * Embarrassing First Name: Captain Leslie Shero. "The "S" is silent, you hithead!"
 * Embarrassing Middle/Last Name: Ling-Ling... Well, not so much 'embarrassing' as much as offensive, but still hilarious:

"Captain Hero: Who the hell is that asshole?"
 * Embarrassing Tattoo: Xandir: "'Living Positive' just seemed like such a cool motto back in 1986..."
 * Also all of Unusually Flexible Girl's tattoos to Hero.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Captain Hero's occasionally flirtatious relationship with Xandir, and Wooldoor's rather obvious crush on Captain Hero.
 * Everyone Is Bi
 * Everyone Meets Everyone: The first episode.
 * Everythings Better With Princesses: Clara.
 * Exactly What It Says On the Tin: "Live Action Cow", "Live Action Squirrel With Big Balls", the list goes on, I mean really. Oh, and live action squirrel with big balls, fights live action cow, and I'll give you a hint about live action squirrel with big balls, it involves big balls.
 * Exiled to The Couch: After Captain Hero stands up Xandir at the mall, Xandir that night orders Hero to sleep on the couch -- despite the fact that the two sleep in separate beds.
 * Expy: Each of the house members are supposed to be one, and many more of other cartoon characters show up throughout the series.
 * Captain Hero is an expy of masculine superheroes, most notably Superman.
 * Clara' is an expy of Disney princesses, and is notably designed after Ariel from The Little Mermaid and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Her naivety is a parody of Julie from The Real World: New Orleans, a sheltered Mormon girl who still referred to black people as "colored" (though she got better over time).
 * Foxxy is an expy of Valerie Brown from Josie and The Pussycats, most prominently the 1960s cartoon version, who played in a band and occasionally solved mysteries.
 * Ling-Ling is supposed to be Pikachu.
 * Toot is an expy of Betty Boop, right down to the monochrome.
 * Wooldoor is obviously Spongebob SquarePants. This was the only one that was actually disputed by the producers.
 * YMMV. He also wouldn't be out of place alongside Ren and Stimpy or another Spumco production.
 * Xandir is based on Link from The Legend of Zelda.
 * Spanky is not based on a particular character, instead parodying Internet downloads in general. Although people have drawn parallels between Spanky and Squigly.
 * Extreme Omnivore: Exaggerated with Toot.
 * Evil Feels Good / Faith Heel Turn: Clara undergoes both of these together in the two-part "Lost in Parking Space".
 * Fake Band: The Foxxy 5. Hey hey hey!
 * Fake Boobs: Wooldoor: (anguished) "Just like I didn't deserve to be crowned Miss Universe! These aren't real! These aren't real!" *rips off shirt and rubs his 'breasts' on the camera lens*
 * Fan Service: Both spoofed and played straight.
 * Fat Bastard: Guess.
 * Foe Yay: With Captain Hero and Scroto.
 * Forgot I Could Fly: If Captain Hero could use his powers properly, the majority of plots would be resolved within five minutes. Of course, expecting Captain Hero to not be an idiot is like expecting your dog to mow the lawn.
 * Forgotten Fallen Friend: Captain Hero enters the AIDS walk after witnessing his friend Popeye dying of AIDS by using contaminated needles. He manages to "win" the competition (actually killing all the other participants) and after having taken the prize he sees Popeye's face in the sky. He doesn't even recognize him!

"Wooldoor: You ask me if I have a God complex? I AM God..."
 * Four Fingered Hands: In keeping with the characters' various animation styles, the more realistically drawn human characters -- Hero, Foxxy, Clara, and Xandir -- have five fingers on each hand, but the more "cartoony" characters, Toot and Wooldoor, only have four.
 * Friend to All Living Things: Spoofed with Clara.
 * Fully Automatic Clip Show: The two Xandir "girlfriend" montages in the first episode.
 * The Fundamentalist: Clara.
 * The Fun in Funeral: Two funerals are held in the show. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Fun With Subtitles: Ling-Ling's subtitles are used as the basis for numerous gags.
 * Funny Foreigner: Ling-Ling is a stereotype of Asian people, including mangling pronunciations of the few English words he speaks, talking primarily in Foreign Sounding Gibberish, having stereotypical Asian sexual fetishes, and so on.
 * Gasshole: Spanky. He even draws out a fart for a full minute in one episode.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: The Mexican dub has the profanity beeped out, but the beep is only short enough to cover a single letter (Ex: Pend*jo), making the cuss words painfully obvious.
 * Painfully? More like hilariously.
 * A God Am I: Wooldoor in the second season episode "Terms of Endearment"

"Foxxy: Is there anyone out there who didn't think that this would go gay?""
 * God Guise: Toot ends up in India and is worshiped by Hindus as a talking cow.
 * Good Times Montage: A literal parody, in "Breakfast Food Killers". Whenever Toot mentioned "I'll always remember the good times..." it cuts to a short montage of previous footage with the theme from Good Times playing. It also features all the characters sporting Afros.
 * Gorn And looots of it.
 * Grandfather Paradox: Captain Hero almost causes his younger self to commit suicide, and ends.
 * Gross Out Show: Ugh. So. Very. Much. Seriously this isn't a show you want to be eating anything while watching.
 * Gross Up Close Up
 * Grotesque Cute: Strawberry Sweetcake and hell, Ling-Ling.
 * Hand in The Hole: Parodied.
 * Handsome Lech: Captain Hero.
 * Heroic BSOD: Xandir gets one for half of a two-part episode when the field trip (to the mall) he was supervising takes a turn for the worse.
 * Wooldoor gets one in The Movie when he learns that the show has been canceled.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Heroic Sociopath: Captain Hero, Ling-Ling in early episodes.
 * High Pressure Blood: Toot as a "blood fountain".
 * Hollywood Homely: Parodied. Foxxy and Clara both have perfect bodies; Toot is only slightly pudgy, yet is treated as if she's as big as a whale. Unfortunately, the show tends to undermine this by actually drawing her fat and gross for a cheap joke now and again.
 * Hollywood Pudgy: Toot again.
 * Lampshaded in one episode where after yet another ruthless fat joke she screams "I'm not even that fat! I'm slightly overweight!"
 * Hooker With a Heart of Gold: Foxxy as "Chocalandra" in "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special".
 * Also Foxxy normally, since she's blatantly shown to have sex for money and be the most caring member of the household.
 * Ho Yay: Given that everyone is bi, this crops up quite often, with both males and females.
 * Ho Yay: Given that everyone is bi, this crops up quite often, with both males and females.

"The bottle points to Wooldoor: "WHEE!!"
 * Hypocritical Humor
 * If Its You Its Okay: The otherwise straight Wooldoor Sockbat is extremely infatuated with Captain Hero.
 * Then there was the scene in season one where Spanky, Hero, and Wooldoor all took turns playing spin the bottle with each other, culminating in a three-person mouth orgy.

Captain Hero: "Hey! If you're going to be gay about this, you can't play!" He proceeds to kiss him."

"Baby Xandir: You ass-kissing adopted homo!
 * I Just Shot Marvin in The Face:
 * I Love the Dead: Captain Hero really has a thing for dead bodies. Season Three is packed to the brim with jokes about how much he loves them, and in The Movie, he carries a girl's corpse around for the entire movie, calling her his girlfriend, "Molly".
 * I'm Dying Please Take My MacGuffin: In "Breakfast Food Killer", the murdered cereal mascot Quackers gives Toot four of the five golden UPC codes before he dies, imploring her to find the fifth so they can bring down the evil cereal empire.
 * Indian Burial Ground: "Ghostesses in the Slot Machine"
 * Informed Judaism: The Jew Producer. Other than the name, there's no indication of his Jewishness.
 * Innocent Bigot: Clara, when she first met Foxxy.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One: A nice example in "Drawn Together Babies".

Baby Captain Hero: I am NOT adopted!"

"Spanky Ham: How old are you, Strawberry Sweetcake? Eight?
 * Japanese Ranguage: A very common gag with Ling-Ling.
 * Jerkass: Some more so than others, but all of them display Jerkass tendencies at times.
 * Keet: Wooldoor.
 * Kill Em All:
 * Killer Rabbit: Ling-Ling.
 * Knight Templar: Clara.
 * Lampshade Wearing: Spanky at the beginning of "Charlotte's Web of Lies." Well, with a traffic cone, anyway.
 * Lantern Jaw of Justice: Parodied.
 * Lawyer Friendly Cameo: Oh so many; it is a parody of animation after all.
 * Least Rhymable Word: There's a first season episode that has Foxxy give the cast a "sex ed" talk as if she were a Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher and the rest of the cast (obligingly) act like kindergartners. She rhymes "pee pee" with "teepee", but when she gets to vagina, she calls it a "gigi", which in her words "rhymes with puppy...but not very well."
 * Legal Jailbait: Parodied with Strawberry Sweetcake.

Strawberry Sweetcake: More like eighteen, silly-billy! I just taste eight.

Spanky Ham: (grinning) She's so legal!"

"Foxxy: Tooky, can't you just be happy for Mapplethorpe? (referring to Wooldoor)
 * Lifetime Movie of the Week: Parodied heavily in the Very Special Episode.
 * Limited Wardrobe: All the characters.
 * Long Title: The episode "Wooldoor Sockbat's Giggle-Wiggle Funny Tickle Non-Traditional Progressive Multicultural Roundtable!" A bit of trivia: the Italian dubbing goes the opposite way and bluntly renames the episode "Gay Terminator", after the featured villain.
 * Let's not forget the limbless undercover sting unit in "Little Orphan Hero" called the "Special Tactical Operations Unit To Catch People Who Set Up Suicide Hotlines Because Of A Reality Show Challenge And Then Didn't Follow Through On Them So They Cause The People Who Needed Them To Take Their Own Lives And Then They Change Their Minds When They Realize Not All People Should Be Forced to Live So They Try To Assist Someone In Euthanasia". Or the STOUTCPWSUSHBOARSCATDFTOTSTCTPWNTTTTMWTRNAPSBFTLSTTTASIE for short.
 * Lyrical Dissonance: In one episode, Foxxy sings a song called "Crashy Smashy Die Die Die." The song describes a horrible car accident that killed her bandmates, but it is musically upbeat and catchy.
 * Male Gaze
 * Manipulative Editing: The show's producer openly admits that he does this, and he persists with it despite the housemates' objections.
 * Lampshaded by Foxxy Love: "Goddamn white producers and their goddamn white flashes. They can edit us to make us say whatever they want. My [edit] taint [edit] is [edit] made [edit] out [edit] of [edit] bacon. [shakes fist] STOP IT! Now where was I? Oh yeah... My taint? 100% pure bacon, y'all."
 * Manufacturing Victims: Season three's "Toot Goes Bollywood" has Foxxy going into therapy for her nymphomania. The psychiatrist, Wooldoor, implants a false memory of childhood sexual abuse, and this false memory takes over her life. Ruining her life, making her end up in jail, and make her murder a lot of innocent people - in that order.
 * Meat-O-Vision: Several times with Toot, and once with Spanky.
 * Miles Gloriosus: Captain Hero.
 * Miss Conception: Clara is tricked into thinking that being kissed by Foxxy impregnated her.
 * Mister Seahorse: Parodied; Xandir, Captain Hero, and Wooldoor have been jokingly suggested to have the ability to become pregnant.
 * The Movie: A direct to video one. Called The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!, no less.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Foxxy Love.
 * Mushroom Samba: In one episode, Ling-Ling's fur secretes a hallucinogen whenever he's disappointed. In another, Toot starts hallucinating after drinking saltwater.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: In the third season and the movie, Foxxy had a bizarre tendency to call her housemates and even herself by the wrong name. Lampshaded by Toot in the episode "Breakfast Food Killer".

Toot: Why don't you assholes believe me? (to Foxxy) And why don't you know any of our names?"

"Wooldoor: We can't all keep dying and then coming back to life the next episode IT'S TOTALLY ILLOGICAL!"
 * Native American Casino: "Ghostesses in the Slot Machine"
 * Naughty Tentacles: Clara's Octopussoir.
 * Negative Continuity: Like most things, heavily Lampshaded. As they say in the show, "Continuity is for bedpans".

"I have a new name for you, Two Hands!
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Clara's character was partly inspired by Julie from The Real World: New Orleans, the show's first Mormon housemate, known for her unenlightened views based on her sheltered upbringing (though she learned as she went along and had made a complete turnaround by the time she appeared in a later crossover series).
 * By the same token, Spanky was originally based on Puck from The Real World: San Francisco, although this characterization was pretty much gone by the end of the first season.
 * Noodle Incident: Why you dissin' on Tori?
 * She knows what she did.
 * "That was one crazy Yom Kippur"
 * "Right, Craig?!"
 * No Periods Period: Averted like hell.
 * Nothing Can Stop Us Now: Spanky's use of "Nothing can possibly go wrong!" is always followed by something going wrong.
 * N Word Privileges: Judaism is mocked ruthlessly. Both creators are Jewish.
 * Obituary Montage: Spoofed in the series finale.
 * Off Model: Some early third season episodes suffered from this, particularly "Wooldoor Sockbat's Roundtable" and "Spelling Applebee's".
 * Oh and X Dies: Less than two minutes into The Movie, we find out that is going to die.
 * Older Than They Look: Implied with Foxxy, who looks to be in her early-to-mid twenties but has a teenage grandson.
 * Only Sane Man: Foxxy was this at the beginning of the series, though by the end, it was Spanky more often than not.
 * Operator From India: Mocked in "Toot Goes Bollywood"; even the nation's Prime Minister is seen taking tech support calls.
 * Out of Focus: All characters not named Captain Hero.
 * Outside Inside Slur: Godzilla calls Ling-Ling a Twinkie ("yellow on outside, white on inside") for turning his back on his Asian heritage.
 * Overly Long Gag: Several times; the most notorious is probably Spanky Ham farting for an entire minute. Usually the outros are overly long gags. More frequent in the earlier episodes.
 * Panty Shot: Toot, quite often.
 * Parental Incest: Clara's father seems to be sexually attracted to her, and Clara is so naive, she equates this with paternal love. Foxxy also has an unhealthy fixation on her own father, who went to get cigarettes over 20 years ago and never came back.
 * Pinball Protagonist: Xandir in most episodes which focus on him, particularly the afterschool special.
 * Ping Pong Naivete: Captain Hero and Princess Clara both exhibit this quite a bit.
 * Pity Sex: Xandir throwing Toot a "mercy-f**k"
 * Pixellation: Spoofed in the first episode. Foxxy gives Clara the middle finger, but Clara is unable to tell because "Foxxy's hand went all blurry".
 * Playing to The Fetishes: Multiple blatantly fetishized references to Foxxy's feet, a few on-screen other instances and a couple merely dialogue.
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: Captain Hero to an incredible extent.
 * Poorly Disguised Pilot: The Spinoff Babies episode was intended as a possible one if the parent show got cancelled; the network wasn't interested.
 * Pop Up Trivia: The clip shows do this, though the "trivia" notes are fake.
 * Positive Discrimination: Though she has her moments of Flanderization like the rest of them, Foxxy is often portrayed as the only person in the house with any sense.
 * Precision F Strike: Princess Clara curses much, much less than the other characters, and as a result, it tends to be hilarious when she does so. Strongly averted with everyone else, however.
 * Pre Mortem One Liner: Captain Hero, upon thwarting the supervillain "Two Hands" (actually just Xandir in disguise ):

[punches him in the stomach and rips out his intestines]

"Semi Colon"!"

"Foxxy Love: Thank you for calling the suicide hotline. My name is "line". How can I help you? Remember to sound like you care."
 * Pretty in Mink: Captain Hero buys a fur-trimmed coat after winning a bet with Spanky that he could get Clara's cousin Bleh to sleep with him. Later in the episode, Bleh is shown wearing an identical coat, having made a similar bet with one of her friends.
 * Princess Classic: After her rebellious phase, Clara turns into a parody of this.
 * Rapid Fire Comedy
 * Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Foxxy does this while running a suicide hotline in "Little Orphan Hero".

"You can't be funny unless you're also relentlessly preachy."
 * Reality Show Genre Blindness: Only Foxxy seems to have any sense of Genre Savvy with regard to reality shows, and even with her, it comes and goes.
 * Reality TV Show Mansion
 * Really Gets Around: Foxxy Love.
 * Rearrange the Song: The final episode featured many of the show's songs being performed in radically different arrangements from their previous renditions. The show also rearranged its own theme song on occasion to suit the needs of certain episodes.
 * Rebellious Princess: Clara in the first season.
 * Refuge in Audacity: There doesn't seem to be a limit to the show's audaciousness, which unfortunately leads to...
 * Refuge in Vulgarity
 * Relax O Vision
 * The Resolution Will Not Be Televised: The show's final episode was a network-mandated on-the-cheap clip show that both the fans and the show people were dissatisfied with. The series' proper resolution came in the form of a direct-to-DVD movie.
 * Retroactive Wish: In the first episode.
 * Royal Crown: Although her outfit is relatively modest by princess standards, Clara is almost never without her tiara.
 * Rich in Dollars Poor In Sense: A very early character trait of Clara's, mostly forgotten after the first episode.
 * Rogues Gallery: Hero's consists of Scroto; the Koala Bear Rapist; the Gigantic Midget; the Mad Libber (and his henchman, Quadriple-Jack); the Mad Felcher; and the most confused supervillain of all: Senor Eskimo Goldberg ("What the hell am I?!").
 * Rule of Funny: The show lives by this trope.
 * Running Gag
 * Sassy Black Woman: Foxxy Love.
 * Satellite Character: Steve from Long Island. First appeared in "Clum Babies", as Ling-Ling's friend from Long Island to be Ling-Ling's wingman at the clubs. Started randomly showing up in later episodes that had nothing to do with Ling-Ling.
 * Scooby Dooby Doors: Parodied in the La La La La Labia video. They even show you how they work!
 * Screwed By the Network: Comedy Central's screening schedule was erratic, to say the least. The show would often be off the schedule for months; many viewers assumed it was cancelled long before it actually was.
 * Lampshaded by the plot of the direct-to-DVD sequel, obviously.
 * Self Deprecation: Seasons Two and Three are especially rife with jokes about how bad the show is, especially one episode in season 2 where the housemates fight back against an Entertainment Weekly article writer who graded their show an "F" [which happened in real life]. Entertainment Weekly, of course, got wind of the episode and branded that one with an "F" as well.
 * Short Run in Peru: The second half of Season Three, delayed by Comedy Central for almost a year, was broadcast in Latin America two weeks before the US.
 * Shout Out: Many, even to Sesame Street, with the gang randomly impersonating the Yip Yips.
 * In one episode Toot goes to her Fat Camp reunion and has pigs blood dropped on her.
 * In season 1, episode 4, there's an extended Star Wars shoutout with Toot and Jabba the Hutt and Xandir in Leia's slave outfit. There's even a carbonited Han Solo that she eats like ice cream.
 * In "Capt. Hero's Marriage Pact" Capt. Hero daydreams that Toot is Chewbacca, Xandir is !!C-3PO, Clara is Leia, and Wooldoor is !!R2-D2 from the Ceremony Scene.
 * Muppet Babies
 * Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids
 * School House Rock
 * They even send a shout out to Jon Stewart via Lampshade Hanging.
 * Shower of Angst: Parodied twice, first with Captain Hero and then later with Xandir.
 * Spelling Bee: "Spelling Applebee's".
 * Spinoff Babies: The "Drawn Together Babies" episode.
 * Ironically, as they were making fun of shows that did this, this was even a possible REAL spin-off series, but the network didn't go for it.
 * Spoof Aesop: Quite common.
 * Stairs Are Faster: A ridiculously exaggerated example. Events in the episode have left Captain Hero a quadriplegic. At one point he has to ascend a ludicrously long flight of stairs in his wheelchair. Just a moment after he finally reaches the top, his housemates arrive by elevator.
 * Start My Own: Captain Hero decides to start his own fraternity after being rejected by what be believes is a fraternity next door. The fact that it's not a fraternity at all but merely a family of Greek immigrants never occurs to him.
 * Status Quo Is God: Lampshaded more than once.
 * Staying Alive: Taken to a ridiculous degree. The cast even began lampshading it after a while.
 * Sting: Frequently.
 * Stock Footage: There is a silent film scene of a wolfman creature that is heavily used, especially in "Drawn Together Babies" (to parody Muppet Babies' usage of live action films).
 * Take That: Against South Park in The Movie.

"Wooldoor: We can't all keep dying and then coming back the next episode! It's totally illogical!
 * Take That Critics: After Entertainment Weekly gave the show an F, the show devoted an entire episode to lashing out at them over it, but sort of zig-zagged with it. They mocked the reviewer, but admitted the criticism was fair, regardless of that. EW still gave them another F for that one.
 * Added to that, Spanky on the person who reviewed the show: "No wonder! You're a Jewish conservative pro-life born-again overweight Asian homophobic lesbian broad who cuts herself! YOU'RE NOT OUR TARGET AUDIENCE!"
 * Talking to Himself: A small handful of performers, also members of the main cast, voice most of the guest roles on the series. Tara Strong even voices two main characters, Clara and Toot.
 * Talks Like a Simile: The show is very fond of these, and they become progressively more warped as the series goes along.
 * Technical Virgin: Clara never has straight-up coitus over the entire course of the series, but she does get her rocks off in some odd ways, like car accidents.
 * That Poor Cat: A cat scream is heard any time an object falls or is thrown offscreen.
 * Theme Music Power Up: "Ling-Ling into battle go! ... Kill kill kill die die die!"
 * They Killed Kenny: The entire cast, but Toot and Ling-Ling especially.

(previously dead) Ling Ling: Tell me about it."

"Toot: Thank God I'm in the other story."
 * Third Person Person: Now, the Foxxy will frequently talk in third person, y'all.
 * Title Drop: A running gag; Lampshaded in "Lost in Parking Space, Part 2", where it becomes a Berserk Button for Spanky.
 * Toad Licking: In "The Other Cousin", Xandir, Toot, and Wooldoor discover that Ling-Ling secretes a hallucinogen whenever he is disappointed. After directly referencing the similarity to toads, they proceed to lick the life out of him.
 * Tonight Someone Dies: Spoofed.
 * Too Kinky to Torture: Captain Hero can get off on most anything, and the more painful, the better.
 * Too Soon: "Terms of Endearment" was shelved for over a year following the death of Christopher Reeve, whose paralyzing horse riding accident was parodied in the episode.
 * Bit of Fridge Logic as to why they would draw the line there of all places.
 * Totem Pole Trench: Taken to extremes in the episode where they were all babies. In the same episode the doctor was four babies in a lab coat.
 * Transparent Closet: Xandir in episodes 1 and 2, after which he becomes Camp Gay.
 * Twofer Token Minority: Foxxy.
 * Two Lines No Waiting: Most episodes; many times the two stories don't even intersect with each other.
 * Lampshaded in "The Lemon-AIDS Walk", where the separate plots are Hero training for an AIDS walk and Wooldoor getting caught stealing from the mall. Wooldoor is leaving the mall security office when Hero, having joined the Mall Walkers, shoves him aside, shouting, "Out of the way, subplot. Main story coming through!"
 * Also lampshaded in "A Tale of Two Cows", when Toot, who is away in her own plot that week, materializes out of nowhere to comment on the ridiculousness of the main plot.

"Foxxy: It turned out that the princess didn't know a damn thing about sex. How does she get guys to pay her rent?"
 * Underwear of Power: Xandir.
 * The Unintelligible: Ling-Ling.
 * Vagina Dentata: The Octopussoir again.
 * Vague Age: Wooldoor; in the earliest episodes of the show, the characters ages were shown whenever they were in the confessionals. Wooldoor's age was the only one not given, being shown as "??"
 * It's been hinted that he might be thirteen.
 * Very Special Episode: Spoofed.
 * Virginity Makes You Stupid: Clara.


 * Vocal Evolution: Clara's voice has gotten deeper and less chirpy over the course of the series, while the opposite has happened to Foxxy and Toot. Spanky's voice has gotten gruffer, to the point of becoming distinguishable from Adam Carolla's natural speaking voice.
 * Wacky Sound Effect: Wooldoor first and foremost, but the others get their fair share.
 * What the Hell Hero: In reaction to Captain Hero, appropriately enough.
 * When Elders Attack: Happens to Toot in "Alzheimer's That Ends Well" and Foxxy in the movie.
 * White Dwarf Starlet: Toot.
 * White Haired Pretty Boy: Xandir.
 * Wait, you're trying to tell me he's not blond?
 * Whole Plot Reference: Numerous episodes.
 * Wig Dress Accent: Spoofed.
 * X-Ray Vision: Captain Hero. It's no particular surprise what he uses it for.
 * You Already Changed the Past: Captain Hero manages to contact himself in the past, instructing his younger self to do humiliating/horrible things, one of which gives him his name. His older self explains it by saying that he's getting revenge because someone did the same thing to him when he was younger.
 * You Know I'm Black Right: Clara's remarks to Foxxy in the first episode.
 * Your Makeup Is Running
 * You Need to Get Laid: Toot; she's generally considered far too unpleasant to ever have sex with. She's even challenged to find some as one plot.
 * Despite this, she seems to have had sex with Xandir, Captain Hero, and Clara, as well as threesomes with Foxxy and Spanky, and Ling-Ling and a Mexican hooker.