Gossip Girl

""There's nothing Gossip Girl likes more than a good catfight and this could be a classic.""

A Prime Time Soap starring a bunch of rich kids (and a few middle class kids) (sort of) from the Upper East Side of New York. Started off as a series of young adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar, then made into a television show for The CW by Josh Schwartz, the creator of The OC and Chuck. There also exists a Manhwa series by Hye-Kyung Baek.

The novels and show followed the lives of several characters, primarily Blair Waldorf, Nate Archibald, Serena van der Woodsen, and Dan Humphrey, who (basically all) become involved romantically even though they are part of different crowds. Blair is the Determinator queen bee of the Upper East Side, while Nate is (in the novels at least) the stoned Prince Charming. Serena is a former bad girl, and Blair's mortal enemy/bff while Dan is struggling to merely get accepted into a prestigious college, owing to the fact that his family doesn't have much money. Add in a wide array of friends and former friends, a Love Dodecahedron or two, and the narration of the mysterious "Gossip Girl".

"Nate: Aren't you curious to know what it says? Chuck: I think I can guess. "You're a disappointment of a son. I'd die of embarrassment if I wasn't already. Why do you wear so much purple?""
 * AB Negative: Rufus and Dan, but not baby Milo.
 * Aborted Declaration of Love: Happened three times with Blair and Chuck.
 * Above the Influence: Chuck when Blair throws herself at him in The Grandfather.
 * Absentee Actor: Ed Westwick (Chuck) was missing from several episodes in season one. Chace Crawford (Nate) was missing from at least one season one episode, and notably missing from a season two episode where Nate really should have been involved in the storyline. Kelly Rutherford (Lily) missed the first three episodes of both seasons 2 and 3 for pregnancy and personal issues. Taylor Momsen (Jenny) has only appeared in a grand total of 4 episodes of the fourth season, despite still being listed in the credits. (Both she and Jessica Szohr, another cast member who keeps missing episodes, were dropped from the regular cast for season 5; and since Taylor subsequently announced she was giving up acting, Little J may well be Little AWOL now.)
 * Abusive Parents: Nearly every one on the show, but particularly Bart Bass.
 * Accidental Marriage: Subverted when Serena thinks she got married accidentally in a trip to Spain during a drunk night. Fortunately for her, she didn't, although she kept dating the guy.
 * Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Chuck Bass. In the books he was deprived but seemed quite happy with himself and his life. In the series he's the Jerkass Woobie/ Butt Monkey with a ton of emotional damage.
 * Adaptational Attractiveness: In the books, Jenny Humphrey is a sweet, artistic girl whose main appearance anxiety is that she is short, brunette, and busty, unlike her tall, slender blonde idol Serena Van Der Woodsen. Who do they cast to play her in the TV series? Tall, slender blonde Taylor Momsen.
 * It's likely that the producers weren't comfortable putting out a casting call for a 14 year old girl with double-D breasts and decided too not even bother matching the character's description from the books..
 * More extreme is the case of Vanessa Abrams, who was described as sullen, little overweight, with a shaved head and black clothing. In the TV Series, she is she is curly-haired and slender, and is mostly styled in boho chic. While some fans did not welcome the change, others loved it.
 * A similar case happened with Dan Humphrey, who was described as shaggy, unshaven most of the time, and kind of "nerdy". In the TV series, he has very short hair and is clean shaven and is portrayed as the "good guy", especially when compared to Chuck Bass
 * Adaptation Dye Job: Jenny, who went from brunette to blonde.
 * Adaptation Expansion: Gossip Girl is based on an 11 (eventually 12 + spinoff) novel series by Cecily von Ziegesar.
 * Aesop Amnesia: Jenny with the "not letting the cool kids change who I am" thing.
 * Vanessa with her attempts to beat Blair at her own game, never realising for more than a few episodes at a time that sinking to Blair's level means she can't claim moral high ground.
 * All Gays Are Promiscuous: Subverted. Eric is probably the least proiscuous character on the show.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Blair, despite knowing Chuck is a Jerkass, insists on having a relationship with him
 * Lily, especially in her youth days.
 * Also, Carter Baizen in seasons two (Blair) and three (Serena), though the latter season seems to be pushing for Carter as Jerk with a Heart of Gold rather than a true bad boy.
 * All Love Is Unrequited: Very prominent in season 1 - Nate loves Serena who loves Dan, Vanessa loves Dan who loves Serena, Chuck loves Blair who loves Nate. Slightly less so in season 2 - Jenny wants Nate who is dating Vanessa, and then Nate loves Blair who loves Chuck. By season 3, however, everyone seems to pair off pretty happily.
 * Season 4 sends everyone back to the land of the lonely, with Dan and Nate both pining for Serena, Vanessa feeling unloved by Dan, and Blair and Chuck both believing the other no longer loves them even though the opposite is true.
 * All Take and No Give: Nate and Chuck. Contrary to what one might expect, it's actually Chuck who's the giver and Nate who's the taker.
 * Nate is also the Taker to Blair's Giver when they were going out in Season 1. In 'The Handmaiden's Tale', Blair tries so hard to make Their First Time special (after Nate screwed everything up by sleeping with her best friend) and all Nate can do is call her out about not being sympathetic to him about a problem he never told her about in the first place.
 * Also applies to Serena and Chuck where he again is the giver.
 * All Women Love Shoes
 * Alpha Bitch: Blair at first. Penelope is quick to fill the void.
 * Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese theme song is called "Get Away".
 * Always Someone Better: Blair always seems to be upstaged by Serena.
 * Ironically, Blair completely stops caring about this in Season 5, only for the situation to reverse, with Serena looking on jealously (and eventually furiously) as Blair gets everything Serena wants.
 * Anchored Ship: Chuck did this with Blair twice.
 * Blair also did it once with Chuck, after Jack's "sabotage brunch".
 * Blair does it again to Chuck when she finds out Chuck set her up to sleep with Jack in exchange for his hotel.
 * Blair and Chuck mutually do this in season 4, after deciding they need to find themselves before finding each other again. There's even references to time traveling to whenever there will be Chair again!
 * Pretty much what happened with Serena and Dan once they found out that they shared a brother.
 * And Now You Must Marry Me:
 * And This Is For: Done when Nate's dad is leaving the country, Nate starts to go, then turns around and punches his father, saying, "That was for Mom."
 * Anguished Declaration of Love: Both the first and the second time Blair tells Chuck she loves him.
 * Apologises a Lot: Serena's favorite thing to do in the first two seasons was to apologize to everyone around her for everything that had ever happened.
 * Chuck also does this a lot in season three (even apologising to Blair for needing time to get past his anger over her tricking him into kissing a guy so that she could get to give a speech).
 * Arc Words: "Three words, eight letters, say it and I'm yours".
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Chuck on a letter from his father:

"Sabrina When you won that essay competition, who showed up? Even when you treated him so terribly."
 * Ascended Extra: Georgina, Chuck, Eric, and most of the parents.
 * Dorota went from being a background character with one line every few episodes to having an entire episode revolve around her nuptials.
 * A Threesome Is Hot: Dan is mighty proud over having had one with Olivia and Vanessa. Nate, and Blair, think he's out of his mind.
 * To be more accurate: they both know the unwritten rule that the third person has to be a stranger. Neither of them actually has a problem with the threesome, interestingly.
 * Attempted Rape: Chuck, twice in one episode actually. But, remarkably, no one seemed to care.
 * Rufus certainly cared when he learned about his attempted rape of Jenny.
 * Jack in Season 2, who doesn't get off so lightly.
 * At the Opera Tonight: The season two episode You've Got Yale.
 * Author Appeal: The constant on-again/off-again relationship between Dan and Serena probably has something to do with the fact that the actors have been friends for almost a decade and have dated in Real Life throughout the run of the show. Blake Lively and Penn Badgley are notorious on the set for showering each other in public displays of affection immediately after either one of them films a love scene with any of the other actors.
 * Auto Erotica: Blair, Chuck and the limo.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Chuck and Blair. Oh so very much.
 * Now Dan and Blair, very much.

"Blair: Why? Give me a reason - and 'I'm Chuck Bass' doesn't count."
 * Now back to Chuck and Blair, after 10 episodes of Blair listing all the reasons she could never love him again.
 * The Baby Trap: Georgina with Dan.
 * Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Jenny does this to Blair in "A Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate" in order to become Queen herself, which leads to an Escalating War between the two.
 * Bad Guys Play Pool: Comically averted - Chuck owns a pool table but the only one who ever seems to play is Nate. Dan has also been shown playing pool in season one. Also, since when Chuck turned into St.Bass in Season 4 he had taken to playing pool, so maybe for this particular show it's Good Guys Play Pool
 * Except for Jack, who enthusiastically rubs a pool cue while propositioning Blair.
 * Bargain with Heaven: Blair in 510 for.
 * Batman Gambit: In Bonfire of the Vanity Blair's mother's new love interest, Cyrus Rose, knows that Blair would disapprove of him and that she would try to find something she could use against him. Cyrus thus gave her a sob story about him finding true love and cheating on his wife in the process, knowing Blair would tell Eleanor. He then invited Cindy Lauper to Blair's birthday party, knowing how much Blair was into her. As planned, Blair tells her mother about Cyrus being an adulterer, and then meets Cindy Lauper at her party, and feels guilty about it enough to undo the damage she caused.
 * Chuck attempted one in season two. He wanted Blair, but without having to say those pesky three words, so he started talking to Serena about how she should be queen of Constance, planting the idea in her head. Then he hired a girl, Amanda, to Meet Cute with Dan and hit it off with him, upsetting Serena and angering Blair, and eventually convincing Blair's minions to burn off part of Amanda's hair. This then prompted Serena to take over as queen, leaving Blair vulnerable and alone, with few people left to turn to but... Chuck. It didn't work out the way he had hoped, but it was a solid effort.
 * Georgina in season 3's The Lost Boy, where she sends Blair a fake invitation to an elite society and uses a contact who works for someone Chuck is trying to impress in order to send the pair after the same photograph, thus bringing out both Blair and Chuck's competitive, self-serving sides and attempting to drive a wedge between the pair. The same episode also features another Blair/Chuck classic, where it turns out they were setting Carter up in situations that would make him look bad in front of Serena, knowing Serena would be reluctant to trust Carter's version of events.
 * Jack Bass pulls off a pretty impressive one in season three. Feeling Chuck took what he cared about the most (Bass Industries) he decides to do the same to Chuck. So he goes out and finds Chuck's not-so-dead mother/not-so-dead-mother impostor and behind the scenes helps her do all the right things to make Chuck believe her. Then he pays off a bunch of women to accuse Chuck of sexual harassment before making his own appearance, driving Chuck to signing over the hotel to his maybe-mom to keep it safe and away from Jack. He then reveals to Chuck that the two of them have been in cahoots from the start, making Chuck believe that Jack wanted the hotel as payback for Chuck keeping Bass Industries, which pushes Chuck to do just about anything to get the hotel back. Jack then goes after what he really wanted. He goes to Blair and tells her he offered Chuck the hotel back in exchange for a night with her, and that while Chuck refused he is still willing to make the deal with her, behind Chuck's back. Blair tells him no, but Chuck is so broken up about the loss of the hotel that eventually she gives in and goes to Jack. Who tells her that Chuck was in on it with Jack and skillfully manipulated her into whoring herself out ("I gave him a choice. The hotel or you. He chose to give me you.") which is a deal breaker for Blair who ends their relationship. Jack then tells Chuck that he never wanted the hotel, he wanted to take away what Chuck cared about the most - Blair.
 * Beard of Evil: Jack Bass sports one when he returns in season three.
 * The Beard: This has been used several times in the show.
 * Dan and Serena after 511.
 * Nate and Serena in S2 to Catherine.
 * Beat Them At Their Own Game: In order to avoid having to tell Blair he loves her, Chuck asks her to say it first (knowing she probably can't).
 * The Beautiful Elite: Nearly every character on the show.
 * Becoming the Mask: Jenny in Season 3.
 * Bed Trick: Chuck attempts this with Blair during a blackout, but never gets further than making out. Subverted in that she knows its him all along but pretends to believe it's her boyfriend.
 * The "B" Grade: Blair has a B-Grade freakout in season two, leading her to humiliate the teacher who dared give her the grade. Admittedly, this was mainly because a less than perfect grade put her chances of getting into Yale into jeopardy and less about the grade itself, but the trope still applies.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Blair and Chuck.
 * In the second half of season 4, Blair and Dan.
 * Best Served Cold: Blair, Chuck, and Georgina are constantly setting new standards for this trope, and it's always personal.
 * In Season 4, Juliet serves up a full-course meal to Serena. Too bad it wasn't actually Serena who had destroyed her brother's life, but Lily.
 * Better as Friends: Eventually Dan and Serena land on this conclusion.
 * So do Blair and Nate in season two.
 * Better Than Sex: Blair describes a take-down as "better than sex." And then immediately has sex with Chuck for comparison purposes...
 * Betty and Veronica: Given the Love Dodecahedron in the show, there's plenty of them, actually:
 * Dan, in season 1, was torn between Serena (Veronica) and Vanessa (Betty). And then again at the end of season 3 and first half of season 4.
 * Blair had to choose between Nate (Betty) and Chuck (Veronica).
 * Nate had a brief period where he was torn between Vanessa (Betty) and Jenny (Veronica).
 * Lily was torn between Bart and Rufus, though which is the Betty and which is the Veronica depends on whether you see Rufus distracting Lily from the "more appropriate" Bart or Bart coming between a couple that has been looking for the right moment for twenty years.
 * Serena has had several. Nate (Betty) and Dan (Veronica). Nate (Betty) and Tripp (Veronica). Dan (Betty) and her professor (Veronica).
 * Mid-season four has Dan (Betty) and Chuck (Veronica) for Blair with Prince Louis supplying as the Third Option Love Interest.
 * Beta Couple: Used to be Chuck and Blair, although with Dan and Serena no longer an item they've been promoted to alpha.
 * Lily and Rufus may also count as this.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Dan, starting near the end of season 3. In full bloom in season 4.
 * It's not certain if it was the Jenny banishment or the Peace Treaty that broke the camel's back.
 * Big Applesauce: Gossip Girl is set and filmed in Manhattan's Upper East Side.
 * Big Bra to Fill: See Adaptational Attractiveness, above.
 * Big Brother Is Watching: Bart Bass
 * Gossip Girl (the character) can arguably fit into some kind of Big Brother too.
 * Big Man on Campus: Nate Archibald.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows: Chuck and Nate.
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: The Vanderbilts.
 * Big "Shut Up!": Blair and Serena scream this at one another during their Cat Fight in "New Haven Can Wait."
 * Billionaire Playboy: Chuck Bass.
 * Birds of a Feather: Chuck and Blair.
 * Nate and Serena certainly fit this trope.
 * And also to some extent, Dan and Vanessa.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Blair can arguably qualify. Some fans place Vanessa in this category also.
 * Bi the Way: In the books, Chuck. And perhaps Serena and Blair as well.
 * Possibly Chuck in the TV show as well - at least he told Blair it was not the first time he kissed a guy when she set him up to do so.
 * Blackmail: Georgina blackmails Serena in season one, Chuck and Blair blackmail people whenever it suits them and Jenny claims that blackmail is what she does all day long. Georgina
 * Bondage Is Bad: Blair and Chuck, the two most morally ambiguous main characters on the show, apparently used handcuffs a lot when they were dating. And apparently a bidding paddle can be put to other uses...
 * Bottle Fairy: Serena.
 * Brainless Beauty: Nate and Serena.
 * Brainy Brunette: Blair and Dan.
 * Breakout Character: Chuck Bass. In the novels, he's a depraved obnoxious bisexual nobody wants to be around, and is barely tolerated by people because of his money (and a minor character). It seemed that in the pilot he was to have the same background -save for his bisexuality-, but was instead portrayed as a tortured Anti-Hero who really does care for his friends and eventually formed the on/off Chair (Chuck and Blair), In fact, Chuck has a long rabid group of fans and storylines and arcs involving him are always in the spotlight.
 * Lily and Rufus were secondary characters in the books, but in the series they get a lot of attention.
 * Break the Cutie: Jenny's desire to fit into the Upper Eat Side leads to this.
 * Brief Accent Imitation: Serena and Georgina pretending to be foreigners.
 * Chuck pretending to be Blair's British boyfriend.
 * Which is funny, because his actor Ed Westwick is British.
 * The Bro Code: Mostly averted (neither Dan nor Nate seems to mind that the other is dating their ex), but played straight in season one when Nate found out Chuck and Blair had been together. Even this was a bit of a subversion though, since Nate was positive to the idea of Chuck being in love with Blair. He just didn't want him to use her for sex.
 * Strange subversion in the season 3 finale, in which Nate apologizes to Dan after Dan made out with Nate's girlfriend...
 * Broken Base: About half of the audience now wants Blair to end up with Chuck, half with Dan. (This was stated by Producer Josh Safran "here".)
 * Burlesque: Chuck owns a burlesque club. Blair getting up on stage and dancing for him is what lead to their initial hook-up.
 * But Not Too Bi: Chuck's experiences with women seems to outweigh his experiences with men by far
 * Bullying a Dragon: You'd think that people would learn not to annoy/insult/try to take down Chuck Bass. You'd think wrong.
 * But Not Too Gay: Eric and his boyfriends act more like best friends than lovers.
 * Butt Monkey: Dan gets the most dramatic abuse, but Hazel is constantly ragged on by everyone in the show. The only way to differentiate her from the other secondary bitchy girls is she's the one everyone makes fun of. At least until Nelly Yuki becomes one of the mean girls and subsequently takes over the Butt Monkey position from Hazel.
 * Chuck Bass. His father hates him, his uncle is evil and out to destroy him, his mother either died giving birth to him or gave him up at birth and returned eighteen years later to take his hotel and ruin his life, his adoptive mother rarely pays attention to him, his adoptive sister likes to verbally abuse him and often takes pleasure in sabotaging him (only to come running whenever she needs his help), his best friend Nate treats him like crap half the time and ignores him the other half, Vanessa hates him for no apparent reason, Dan tried to exploit his childhood pain to get published... The only one who treats Chuck well is Blair, but he seems to have burned that bridge with the Jack/Empire fiasco.
 * Over the course of Season 4, Dan is either a target or collateral damage in just about every scheme. He gets manipulated, deceived, betrayed, and humiliated (privately and publicly), by everyone from Juliette to Blair to, of all people, Vanessa. He suffers from not one, but two cases of unrequited love. His psychopathic ex-girlfriend tricked him into thinking he'd fathered her child so she could use his apartment as a hideout, and he spent the summer taking care of the baby only to have the rug pulled out from under him at the last minute. And now it looks like he's picked up a Stalker with a Crush.
 * California Doubling: Averted like whoa. Not only is the series both set and filmed in New York, but the episodes set in Paris were indeed shot in the City of Lights. The series doesn't film in California unless the scripts actually call for it (witness the backdoor pilot "Valley Girls" and the episodes with Serena on the West Coast).
 * Calling the Old Man Out: After being shown as constantly trying to force his son into being what he's not and doing what he doesn't want to do, Nate gets his father arrested for drug possession after his father punches him.
 * Also Blair with her mother in "Bad News Blair".
 * And Serena calls out her mother on always putting her boyfriends before her kids, in front of the press, no less, when they wanted to give the 'Happy Family' image.
 * Lily herself does this to Bart in "The Magnificent Archibalds".
 * When Jenny leaves the house in order to pursue a designer career and even tries to get an emancipation order from her father.
 * Eric gives an epic one to his father when Will comes back in season three, outlining his homosexuality, his suicide event, and how he doesn't need him.
 * Cannot Spit It Out: Serena to Dan regarding Georgina. See also Chuck, Blair, and those three little words.
 * Scott, with telling Rufus and Lily that he's their son.
 * Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Chuck, towards Blair.
 * The Captain: Howie Archibald.
 * Career Versus Man: Gender flipped with Chuck, who has to choose between the Empire hotel (and according to his father and uncle, his future as a business man and Blair. He chooses the hotel. But also with Blair, who chooses her career over Chuck in S4.
 * Carpet of Virility: Originally just Chuck, but now Nate and Dan have followed suit.
 * Casa Lane Parenting: Averted. While Rufus Humphrey might be an ex rock star and his wife Allison is an artist who is a Missing Mom, Rufus at least is shown to be the most attentive parent on the show.
 * Casanova: Chuck.
 * Catapult Nightmare: Usually how the golden age Hollywood dream sequences end.
 * Catch Phrase: "You know you love me. XOXO - Gossip Girl."
 * "I'm Chuck Bass."
 * Lampshaded by Blair in 02x01, when Chuck asks Blair not to leave with her new boyfriend

"Chuck: If you have a problem with my proximity to Blair, then maybe you should ask Serena not to get herself into so much trouble."
 * And Cyrus has "Not enough".
 * Serena says "I should go" so often that it's starting to count as a catchphrase.
 * Cat Fight: Serena vs. Blair. Two memorable ones, actually. Clothing ripping included.
 * Caught with Your Pants Down: Blair Waldorf, who is desperate and horny for Chuck Bass, gets caught masturbating by her maid Dorota whose face is stern as she says, "Don't forget. God is watching, Miss Blair."
 * Character Blog: Gossip Girl, of course.
 * Characterization Marches On: Chuck started out as a depraved attempted rapist and has now turned into some sort of Gandalf, running around offering advice and looking out for the rest.
 * Now that he's been de-Blaired he's pretty much reverted back to his early season one self.
 * Charity Ball: The characters frequently attend these.
 * The Chessmaster: Chuck, Bart and to some degree Blair. Also, Juliet.
 * As of midway through Season 5, Georgina appears to have outdone them all.
 * Chick Magnet: Nate Archibald.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: Nate loves coming to the rescue of females in distress, especially since it usually ends up winning him a new girlfriend or stalker.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Aaron, Cyrus' son and Serena's boyfriend in Season 2. We are told the episode after they headed off to Argentina they they broke up in flight.
 * The Clan: The Vanderbilts and, though we are told more than we see this, the Buckleys.
 * Comforting Comforter: When Chuck ditched Blair in the middle of the night in Oh Brother Where Bart Thou? he was at least nice enough to pull the comforter over her before he left.
 * Coming Out Story: The season one episode "All About My Brother" is Eric Van Der Woodsen's. This being Gossip Girl, his outing wasn't complete without Gossip Girl-fueled rumors and scandal, mostly having to do with his closeted love interest who was using Jenny as a beard.
 * Conservation of Competence: Blair versus all her stupid, stupid minions.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: If Chuck ever loans out Blair's underwear to a pole dancer again she will start wearing flannel to bed.
 * Cool Big Sis: Serena.
 * Cool Loser: Dan Humphrey in the first two seasons, until it is revealed that he is actually the biggest Insider of them all. Congratulations, Dan. Now you're king of the Hipsters.
 * Coolest Club Ever: Chuck's two clubs Victrola and Gimlet.
 * Convenient Coma:
 * Convenient Miscarriage:
 * Crazy Jealous Guy: Chuck when it comes to Blair, more often than not.
 * Cultured Badass: Chuck Bass. Wore suits to kindergarten, developed his taste for single malt at the age of twelve, enjoys both ballet and opera. While he may not physically hurt you, Chuck is likely to make your life a living hell if you cross him.
 * Daddy's Girl: Blair Waldorf, even though her father left her and moved to France with his boyfriend.
 * Dances and Balls: Practically every other episode of the show. Seriously.
 * Dark Secret: Serena has one in Season 1.
 * Date Rape Averted: Three times, all with Bass men. Chuck assaults Serena in the pilot and gets kneed in the balls. Then he tries to assault Jenny, but gets punched in the face by Dan. Finally, Jack Bass tries to rape Lily in the bathroom in 2.16, but gets punched in the face by Chuck.
 * As the Gossip Girl finger puppets put it: "What is it about Attempted Rape by a Bass that brings people together?"
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: One episode features Blair having a sex fantasy about Chuck and then telling Dorota she will be down for breakfast once she's "finished something".
 * Dating Catwoman: Nate and Bree Buckley
 * Dating Do-Si-Do
 * Dead Man Writing: Bart Bass.
 * Dead Person Conversation: Bart appearing to Chuck in "The Debarted."
 * Deadpan Snarker: Blair. Chuck. Dan.
 * Death by Childbirth: Chuck's mother.
 * Death Glare: Chuck is the king of this trope. Blair isn't half-bad either.
 * Death of the Hypotenuse: Bye Bart!
 * Demoted to Extra: Aaron Rose, who played a much larger role in the books.
 * Determinator: Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass. Those two will stop at nothing to get what they want. Which makes things interesting when he wants her and she wants Nate.
 * Did Not Do the Research: In episode 4x09, Jenny couldn't have stolen the SIM out of Serena's phone because it doesn't have one. Thanks to Verizon's gratuitous Product Placement, every phone on the show is CDMA.
 * Didn't See That Coming: See Blair's reaction to Georgina's You can tell Jesus that the bitch is back.
 * Eric says this word for word when Dan tells him he . After laughing hysterically, of course.
 * Disappeared Dad: Blair's father, who came out as gay.
 * Also Serena's father.
 * Nate's father after he gets arrested.
 * Averted because he comes back during the fourth season to play a part in the Russell Thorpe storyline, then played straight again during season five.
 * Damsel in Distress: When Serena isn't being blackmailed by the girl who was with her when she sort of killed someone, or getting into car accidents thanks to wolves randomly roaming about New York she's probably being conned by her boyfriend. Even the other characters are well aware of her extraordinary ability to end up in these situations.
 * Damsel in Distress: When Serena isn't being blackmailed by the girl who was with her when she sort of killed someone, or getting into car accidents thanks to wolves randomly roaming about New York she's probably being conned by her boyfriend. Even the other characters are well aware of her extraordinary ability to end up in these situations.

"Vanessa: So you're telling me that Chuck had his dad's company make an offer on the bar in order to get back at Dan? Isn't that a little convoluted, even for you? Blair: Real estate was just foreplay. Seducing and humiliating you was the ultimate goal."
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Dan, running out on his family and Vanessa when Georgina takes Milo away. Eventually opens up but there's barely any Wangsting, even though it was one of those occasions that actually warrant it.
 * Double Entendre: At least 70% of Chuck Bass's dialogue consists of this.
 * The Drag Along: Nate during most NJBC adventures. He would rather leave Chuck to stew in his own vomit than force him to attend Bart's funeral, and he would rather get some coffee than help Serena get back all the money her boyfriend Gabriel stole from their friends.
 * Dream Sequence: Blair is prone to having dreams where she's in one of her favorite movies. Usually they are nightmares.
 * Dan also had a couple in the season one episode where he worries about losing his virginity.
 * Chuck in season 3, in which he dreamt of Blair being kidnapped/manhandled by men in very nice suits. Which is what happens when you try to have your girlfriend sleep with your uncle in order to save your hotel.
 * Dress Hits Floor: In "Victor/Victrola", when Blair performs at the club
 * Driven to Suicide: Eric, Serena's brother, was driven to attempted suicide before the show. He's why Serena returns in the first episode.
 * Also Chuck almost, in "In the Realm of the Basses" following his grief-induced bender.
 * The Driver: Arthur the limo driver.
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him: Bart is hit by a car offscreen. To add insult to injury, he was on his way to try and reconcile with his wife, Lily, who had been drifting further away from him and more towards old flame Rufus.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: Chuck.
 * Drugs Are Bad: Subverted. Nate and Chuck use drugs on a regular basis, with no ill effects other than one brief suspension for Chuck.
 * Played straight with Jenny in season three.
 * Played straight also in the flashback where Serena "kills" a guy.
 * Drunken Song: Chuck gives us a rendition of "Farewell and Adieu to you Fair Spanish Ladies" when he's balancing drunk on Victrola's roof.
 * Duel of Seduction - Chuck and Blair. Subverted as they do, in fact, love each other. They are just incapeable of saying this to each other.
 * Dumb Blonde: Serena.
 * Dysfunction Junction - The show moreso than the books.
 * Easily Forgiven: Considering that Serena took Blair's boyfriend's virginity, then moved to Connecticut the next day without telling Blair she was leaving, and then ignored Blair's calls, e-mails and letters even though she knew Blair's father suddenly left her mother for another man, Blair forgave her pretty darn easily.
 * Chuck and Serena keep doing mean and spiteful things to each other which they rarely apologise for, but they always seem to forgive and forget within a day or two.
 * The whole Indecent Proposal arc of season 3, and how Blair forgave that more easily than the Chenny hookup.
 * Easy Evangelism: In Season 5, Blair, who was never shown before to even attend church somehow starts to believe in God strongly enough that she is willing to because she believes God is against it.
 * Emo Teen: Jenny Humphrey.
 * Emotions vs. Stoicism: Bart and Jack keep telling Chuck he's weak for loving Blair and therefore letting his emotions control him, and that the only way Chuck can become successful is by being stoic. Chuck buys into this completely, telling Blair "I can't let my feelings cost me all that I've built" after he sold her to Jack in exchange for a hotel.
 * Engineered Public Confession: Vanessa used this on Blair in Enough About Eve.
 * Enter Stage Window: Vanessa in season one, much to Dan's annoyance.
 * Erotic Dream: Blair has one starring Chuck in season two.
 * Dan with Serena (kind of) in season one.
 * Erotic Eating: Serena with some chocolate covered strawberries in an early season two episode.
 * Escalating War: Any ongoing fight between Serena and Blair. Also Blair and Chuck throughout all of season two and the start of Season 4.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Inverted. The Estrogen Brigade trope describes "an enclave of female fans within a traditionally male-dominated fandom." Gossip Girl is primarily aimed at women and girls (as is almost anything else from The CW and/or Alloy Entertainment). If anything, Serena van der Woodsen and/or Blair Waldorf are Testosterone Brigade Bait.
 * This troper freely gives Blake Lively the sole credit for keeping him watching the show.
 * This troper freely gives Leighton Messter credit for keeping her watching the show.
 * Even the Guys Want Him: Chuck. Mr. Ellis sure was happy to get to kiss him.
 * Everybody Has Lots of Sex
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Captain.
 * Everyone Can See It: Blair and Chuck, sort of.
 * Also happens with Dan/Vanessa in season three. Everyone from Dan's girlfriend to Vanessa's mother is informing Dan that he carries a torch for his BFF.
 * Dan and Blair.
 * Hair Decorations: Blair's headbands.
 * Evil Counterpart: Georgina Sparks started out as what Serena could have become; in later seasons she seems to have become more of an Evil Counterpart to Blair around about the same time Blair became her main enemy.
 * Carter Baizen was an even-more-evil counterpart to Chuck in seasons one and two.
 * Evil Matriarch: Serena's grandmother, who tricks her into appearing at her Debutante Ball and having paid off Dan's father to stay away from Serena's mother.
 * As of "The Townie," we now know that Lily is even worse than her mother, and always has been.
 * Evil Uncle: Jack Bass.
 * Evil Versus Evil: The overall plot of Season 4. At first, Juliet seemed to be The Dragon, then the Big Bad. Turns out, she had very good reason for wanting retribution. She just had the wrong target. Serena didn't destroy her brother's life. Lily did.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Fag Hag: Jenny to Eric.
 * Fallen Princess: Blair after some character development (and after she loses her Queen Bee status). Serena, after she comes back from boarding school in tne first episode.
 * False Start: Blair up on the roof in Brooklyn.
 * Also appears in the season three finale, where Blair lampshades it.
 * Fan Service: Dan and Nate tend to strut around without their shirts off.
 * For those who don't like guys, Serena's breasts are by now considered characters in their own right. Plus Blair's many lingerie scenes.
 * Eric and Jenny in season three.
 * The Fashionista: All the girls except for Vanessa.
 * Fashion Show: Several. Though hardly surprising, since Eleanor Waldorf is a professional designer and Jenny used to be into designing too.
 * Fatal Flaw: Mention the magic words, "Bart would(n't) be proud" and Chuck will do anything to get back to where he thinks his father would want him to be, even sell Blair out for a hotel.
 * Fauxlosophic Narration: Gossip Girl sometimes falls into this.
 * Feud Episode: Serena and Blair at least once per season.
 * Nate and Chuck after the truth comes out about Chuck and Blair. They go from being Heterosexual Life Partners to having a rocky on-and-off friendship that thus far hasn't returned to its former glory.
 * First Kiss: some first kisses mean more to some fans than others, mostly because there was no UST, Belligerent Sexual Tension, or Will They Wont They for some of the pairs that needed release.
 * Dan and Serena - season 1
 * Nate and Blair - season 1
 * Chuck and Blair - season 1
 * Nate and Serena - season 1
 * Nate and Vanessa - season 1
 * Nate and Jenny - season 1
 * Chuck and Vanessa - season 2
 * Chuck and Jenny - not sure if the pilot ep counts...
 * Dan and Vanessa - season 3
 * Dan and Blair - season 4
 * First Law of Resurrection: Evelyn Bass... maybe.
 * Fish Out of Water: Dan Humphrey in season one.
 * Blair Waldorf at NYU in season 3.
 * Flanderization: Poor Rufus, what happened to you?
 * In late season three the writers decided to revisit all of Chuck's bad traits and crank them up to eleven.
 * Flash Back: Episode 3.12 features a very well-done flashback to Bart's death.
 * In season 1's Thanksgiving episode, it showed what Thanksgiving had been like the year before, when Serena hadn't slept with Nate/"killed" someone/and then proceeded to leave for boarding school.
 * Flirty Stepsiblings: Inverted as Dan and Serena attempt to stay apart when they realize they each share a half-sibling and their parents eventually get married. The books played this straight with Blair and Aaron but the TV Series skipped it.
 * Serena and Dan have occasionally kept flirting and considered getting back together though throughout the show's run.
 * Chuck and Jenny.
 * Florence Nightingale Effect: Chuck and Eva.
 * Foiler Footage: This was done at the end of season 2, when Blair was filmed kissing both Nate and Chuck in the finale. No one fell for it.
 * Foot Popping: Blair does this in the season two finale when she and Chuck finally get together.
 * Forceful Kiss:
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: Serena - sanguine, Chuck - choleric, Blair - melancholic, and Nate - phlegmatic.
 * Franchise Zombie - Cecily von Ziegesar only wrote the first 8 books of the original series. The last four books, and the two spinoffs, The It Girl and Gossip Girl: The Carlyles, are ghostwritten.
 * Freudian Excuse: Chuck (relates to the Death by Childbirth thing)
 * Friendship Moment: The Non-Judging Breakfast Club, as well as numerous between Blair and Serena. In the last few seasons, Chuck and Nate have more than any other pairing combined.
 * Friends Rent Control: The Humphreys with that Brooklyn loft.
 * Friends with Benefits: Dan and Vanessa attempt this in season three, but it quickly turns into a real relationship. Chuck and Blair also had a similar arrangment in season one.
 * Chuck and Blair try this again in season 4, but don't get very far before admitting that they still love each other and need to wait until they're ready to fully be together again.
 * Full-Name Basis: Nelly Yuki.
 * Full Name Ultimatum: Subverted. Chuck Bass' adoptive mother Lily calls him Charles (and is the only one to do so on a regular basis). She only calls him Chuck when he's misbehaved or when referring to his deviant side.
 * Funny Background Event: Dan's attempt at being a chef literally going up in smokes in the background while Olivia talks on the phone.
 * Gambit Roulette: Chuck and Blair do this from time to time. Vanessa lampshades it in a season two episode.

"Chuck: If you two want to kiss... it won't count as cheating. Serena: Creepy, Chuck."
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Blair has thus far called Chuck both "basshole" and "motherchucker".
 * A season two episode opens with Blair having a fantasy featuring herself and Chuck in his limo where he kisses his way down her body and eventually disappears below waistline. Cue closeup of Blair's ecstatic face. While a song called "Going Down" plays. When Blair is interrupted in her fantasy she tells Dorota she will be down in a minute, she just has to "finish something".
 * The season three episode where Chuck and Blair have not had sex in five days, and they are bidding for the same object at an auction. Chuck asks Blair how she plans to win. She answers: "Your lack of focus" while running her hand over his crotch. When the bidding starts Blair gives Chuck an excited smile while moving her hand back and forth, while Chuck looks, erm, strained.
 * Chuck and Blair again. In season four, we open on Blair lying in bed, smiling. Serena comes in and Blair proceeds to hit her moving duvet. Obviously anxious, she warns Serena not to "lose her HEAD", voice rising on the last word--and as soon as Serena leaves, Chuck pops out from under the covers. Well.
 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Chucks's reaction to his girlfriend and adoptive sister making up after a fight?

"Jenny: You look like hell. Chuck: Small price to pay to feel like heaven."
 * Girl Posse: The show plays this one straight (Kati, Isabel, Hazel, Penelope) and subverts it (The bespectacled Asian nerd who routinely receives the highest test scores of anyone in the school eventually becomes one of Blair's henchmen).
 * Good Angel, Bad Angel: Two of Blair's minions serve as angel and devil when she tries to decide whether or not to destroy the English teacher who put her chances of getting into Yale at risk.
 * Blair and Bart play these roles to Chuck, regarding whether or not he should buy the homeless shelter, in "The Debarted".
 * Good Bad Girl: Serena is the epitome of this.
 * Gorgeous Period Dress: More like Gorgeous Modern Dress.
 * Go Seduce My Arch-Nemesis: Blair urging Chuck to seduce Vanessa in a season two episode.
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: Don't eff with an effer.
 * Granola Girl: Vanessa to a degree. Also her mother.
 * Gratuitous French: A lot. Blair particulary loves this trope.
 * But generaly the writers Did Not Do the Research. The worst being "La table Elitaire".
 * Guttural Growler: Chuck Bass, Bart Bass and Dr. William van der Woodsen.
 * Hands-Off Parenting: Most parents on the show but Lily van der Woodsen really takes the cake. Except when it comes to Chuck.
 * Handsome Devil: Chuck Bass.
 * Happily Adopted: Chuck.
 * Happily Married: Eleanor and Cyrus.
 * Happiness in Slavery: Dorota ought to count.
 * Harem Seeker: Chuck when he's not with Blair.
 * Heartbroken Badass: Chuck Bass.
 * The Hedonist: Chuck Bass when he's not with Blair.

"Blair to Dorota: Now we can date outside the confines of the 7-1-8. We can walk down Madison Avenue hand in hand."
 * Heel Face Turn: While he hasn't turned completely good, Chuck sure has mellowed since he fell in love with Blair.
 * He/She Who Must Not Be Seen: Gossip Girl. The one attempt to discover his/her true identity, at the end of season two, backfired spectacularly.
 * Her Codename Was Mary Sue: The stories aspiring-author Dan writers are all thinly veiled re-tellings of what has happened in his life so far, all of them focusing on the cultural clash between him and the UES-ers. He doesn't exactly try hard to hide it either - Chuck Bass is called Charlie Trout, for instance.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners:
 * Blair and Serena, to the point they dumped their respective dates at prom, and spent the rest of the night together remembering old days. And now in season 4 they live together.
 * Chuck and Nate, at least in season 1, to the point the latter slept at Chuck's a lot.
 * Chuck and Nate live together as of 3.09, so those sleepovers live on!
 * Apparently their actors are a real life example.
 * Dan and Nate, since they doodle each other's names in their notebooks and call out each other's names in their sleep. And even Serena can't get in the way of their friendship.
 * Hide Your Pregnancy: Kelly Rutherford in season two.
 * High-Class Call Girl: Brandeis.
 * High School: Seasons one and two.
 * High School Dance: Every other episode in the first two seasons.
 * Holding Hands: In early season two Chuck insists to Blair that they wouldn't work as a couple because the idea of them going to the movies together or holding hands just seemed wrong. In a late season two episode Blair discusses their non-relationship with Serena and says: "Did you know it's not a real relationship if you can't hold hands?" By the end of the episode Blair and Chuck wake up in his limo, hands intertwined.
 * By the time Chuck and Blair actually begin dating Chuck seems to have gotten over his aversion. They are often holding hands in season three.

"Lily: (To Serena) Oh, don't put your dirty package on the table. Chuck: If I had a dime for every time I heard that..."
 * Hollywood Driving: Tripp, although it's a subversion since he ends up losing control of the car and crashing.
 * Hollywood Hype Machine: The show itself. A lot of jokes are made about how it's the hippest, most talked-about show nobody watches.
 * Hood Ornament Hottie: Blair makes use of this trope in a season two episode to get Chuck to sleep with her.
 * Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Subverted with Elle. Chuck thinks he's found one of these when he meets her, but she turns out to just be playing him for an escape plan and some cash.
 * Invoked with Eva. She was a prostitute but fell in love with Chuck as a person not knowing who he was. She in turn, worked wonders on him and made him a better person. Too bad that doesn't last....
 * Hormone-Addled Teenager: Hi, all teenage characters!
 * Horrible Judge of Character: Serena dates all the wrong guys for the most part, and will trust anyone until they steal her mom's friends' money or steal her boyfriend. And even after that, she'll usually believe they had good intentions.
 * Basically, Serena believes that anyone who likes her is good and anyone who doesn't might be bad. Prime example being Carter Baizen. When he was interested in Blair, Serena deemed him public enemy number one and even forced him out of the country. When he was interested in Serena he was suddenly just misunderstood, and actually a great guy.
 * Hot-Blooded: Chuck.
 * Hot for Student: Rachel Carr, who is drawn to and eventually hooks up with Dan in season two.
 * Hot Guys Are Bastards: Chuck Bass.
 * House Husband: Rufus Humphrey.
 * How's Your British Accent?: "Blow out your candle."
 * I Am Not My Father: Chuck keeps repeating that he's not like his father. Though he can't seem to decide if that's a positive thing or a negative.
 * I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me!: a gender-flipped version of this trope. Serena has been Dan's dreamgirl since he was 15. The best -or worse- for him was about to begin when she noticed him
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All episode titles are a play on names of movies.
 * Most of the books are named after or very close to song titles and/or lyrics.
 * Idiot Ball: Serena seems to have picked this up at the start of Season 3 and run with it. A lot of what she does this season would have made sense two years ago, but not after the character development she's supposed to have undergone in the first two seasons.
 * She is being an idiot, yes, but she's doing it precisely because her father rejected her this past summer. So while it's still stupid, she has a character-driven excuse.
 * The stuff she does for paparazzi attention is because of her father, yes. Jumping from "true love" to "true love" every other week (especially the whole Tripp affair) is just her being a moron.
 * Serena's actions in "The Freshmen" is definitely her hugging the idiot ball. She deflects from Brown and doesn't want Blair to find out, so she goes to Chuck and asks to stay with him until further notice. Because there's no way Blair will find out she's not at Brown when Serena is staying in Blair's boyfriend's one bedroom hotel room.
 * Not to mention everything involving her father. Seriously, how could she not tell that he was shady and up to no good?
 * Ivy seems to have caught the Idiot ball for season 5: Ok, revealing that Ivy was your name to a complete stranger was one thing that you couldn't avoid given the circumstances, but revealing the truth about your role during the events of the preceding season and putting yourself in position to be blackmailed while said stranger had absolutly no idea of what transpired until then, instead of inventing a random excuse such as Ivy being an alias or something else? Wow, great move Ivy.
 * If I Can't Have You: Chuck puts a dating embargo on Blair after their breakup. Sorry, dating fatwa.
 * If I Had a Nickel:

"Dan: Do you really want me and Serena to get back together? Blair: I just want you to be happy."
 * Ignore the Fanservice: Serena's cunning plan to make Jenny dislike Damian in season three consists of Serena throwing herself at Damian. Unfortunately for Serena it turns out not everybody is dying to have sex with her.
 * Improbable Age: Jenny, a fifteen year old mini-couturier who is not only supposed to be a lot better than professional designer Eleanor Waldorf, but also able to rival every other professional designer during New York's fashion week.
 * Chuck runs a hotel, hosts an election party and has a grand pub opening, all at the age of eighteen (the underage thing somehow not an issue in getting that liquor license) and with no previous experience other than owning part of a burlesque club. And the guy didn't even do well in high school.
 * Blair apparently going from Intern to some kind of manager at her fashion magazine within the space of about 2 weeks.
 * And as of the season 5 finale,
 * I'm Standing Right Here: Blair argues that Chuck having sex with Vanessa is just as bad as Blair having sex with Jack... with Vanessa standing right next to them.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: Gossip Girl thrives on these.
 * The characters never seem to run out of lame puns on the name Bass.
 * Informed Ability: Jenny and Vanessa.
 * Jenny is supposed to have a real talent for designing but most of her pieces have been pretty blah.
 * Vanessa got into Tisch because she's such a great writer but we've never seen any proof of that. She's also supposed to be a talented documentary film maker but she seems to mostly just walk around randomly with a camera.
 * Informed Attractiveness: Arguably, Serena. She is supposed to be incredibly beautiful, putting everyone around her in the shade, but some feel that while Blake Lively is gorgeous, she doesn't live up to this hype. Of course, this may be a symptom of how beautiful everyone is on the show.
 * In Love with Love: Nate, who's had more relationships than the other characters combined.
 * Serena in season three.
 * In-Series Nickname:
 * Lonely Boy (Dan)
 * Little J (Jenny)
 * Queen B, or B (Blair), and S (Serena)
 * The Captain (Howie Archibald)
 * Instant Birth, Just Add Water: Pretty much how Anastasia was born.
 * Interactive Narrator: Gossip Girl herself.
 * Intergenerational Friendship: Blair and Dorota.
 * Interrupted Suicide: Chuck on the roof of Victrola, stopped just in time by Blair.
 * In the Blood: See Rufus and Dan's interest in women and, on the other side, Lily and Serena's taste in men.
 * Also, both Chuck and his uncle Jack can't seem to let go of Blair - unlike all the other men, who seem to be much more interested in Serena. Though with Jack, it's just creepy.
 * In with the In Crowd
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
 * Chuck at the end of S4 for Blair.
 * Dan in 510 for Blair.
 * Blair in 515 for Dan.

"Chuck: Please don't leave with him. Blair: Why? Give me a reason. And "I'm Chuck Bass" doesn't count."
 * Chuck throughout season 5 for Blair
 * Iconic Item: Chuck's signature scarf.
 * Ivy League for Everyone: And how!
 * Most extremely with Serena, who despite poor grades and zero extracurriculars manages to get into Yale (above Blair, who has perfect grades and loads of extracurriculars) and Brown.
 * Mostly Justified, though, as kids with legacies, connections, and money do tend to have an upper hand at getting into prestigious schools.
 * This isn't the 1970s anymore though, and without great grades Serena's application would have been rejected automatically to even the "lesser" Ivies, much less Yale. And even with valedictorian-level grades, without good EC's it would be rejected in the first round. Unless you or your parent is either a household name (like Bush) or literally donating a building, they will not be willing to damage their stats in the highly competitive rankings by admitting someone who will lower them, as detailed in books like "A is For Admission". For example, 99-100% of Yale's class has been in the top 10% of their high-school class for years. And in fact, now that they are seeking economic and geographical diversity, poor people and people from poor areas are favored by admissions committees over rich people.
 * Well, uh, you definitely did the research.
 * Jacob Marley Warning: Evil!Ghost!Bart mocks Chuck's life choices and tells him to put business above love, like he once did.
 * Jerkass: Chuck Bass and Carter Baizen, at least initially.
 * Jack Bass.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While Chuck can really be unpleasant, underneath it all he really does care for Blair. Carter Baizen also seems to be shifting from Jerkass to this.
 * Chuck has actually proven these tendencies towards a lot of characters. Nate, Serena and Eric being a few.
 * Just Friends: Dan and Vanessa. Some weird version of this where both characters had some unrequited love/feelings for the other when they were younger, and then after they slept together (in a threesome), Dan's feelings have come back.
 * Karma Houdini: Juliet, after nearly killing Serena (Season 4), leaves the city free of any pursuits, and even her brother Ben, who helped her to scheme against Serena, finally gets a litteral "Get Out of Jail Free" Card (though, to be fair, he never wanted to hurt Serena the way Juliet did).
 * Serena, throughout the entire series, but especially during the the end of the third season and first half of the fourth. She helps her dad escape the cops and has an affair with her professor, and in the latter, people help her get out of trouble.
 * Killed Off for Real: Bart Bass.
 * Also.
 * Lady Drunk: Cece Rhodes.
 * Ladykiller in Love: Chuck.
 * A Lady on Each Arm: The first time we see Chuck he's flanked by Blair's minions Kati and Iz. The second episode has him waking up in-between two women from room-service (who apparently keep visiting him together). Not to mention, twins find Chuck.
 * Lampshade Hanging: The show really likes to take popular fan opinions and throw them into the dialogue. Examples:
 * People calling Dan or Vanessa out on being judgmental.
 * Blair being afraid she and Chuck will become boring as a couple, and Chuck saying they can never be boring.
 * The occasional overfocus on Serena - "At least I won't have to watch the next episode of the Serena Show."
 * Nate jumping from girl to girl almost every week - "Nate Archibald - class whore."
 * Blair with Chuck's catchphrase in the season two premiere.
 * Blair with Chuck's catchphrase in the season two premiere.

"Chuck: You and Serena have it easy. Until now your biggest concern is whose hair is shinier."
 * Chuck pointing out how much purple he wears.
 * Dan commenting on Jenny's makeup. - "You look like one of the Incredibles."
 * People commenting on Blair's overuse of headbands.
 * Nate at one point lampshades Blair being the NJBC Team Mom.
 * The Humphreys and those waffles. - "My family is really into waffles."
 * Chuck lampshades the audience's belief in Serena and Nate's eternal stupidity.

"Blair: (to Nate) Hold that non-thought."
 * Also lampshaded by Blair at one point.

"Jack: Were you hoping to catch me in a compromising position? A litte... high school, don't you think? Leave the plotting to the experts."
 * And even Jack at one point lampshades Serena's and Nate's inability to plot.

"Rufus: I dated a girl like Serena, once. Actually, a lot like Serena. And girls like that might be challenging. That's true. And they're complicated, and enigmatic. And usually worth it. And the only way you know for sure is to jump it with both feet. Dan: What happened with you? Rufus: I swam for a while. Till I drowned. Dan: Oh. Well, thanks, Dad. That's a great story."
 * The Limited Social Circle of the NJBC is lampshaded in the Empire Strikes Jack.
 * Chuck stalking Blair has been lampshaded twice.
 * Nate's One-Hour Work Week is lampshaded by Blair in season three.
 * Late for School: Serena all the time in the books. Shows up a few times on the show as well.
 * Launcher of a Thousand Ships: In-universe, Serena. Every man who passes her way falls in love with her, risking everything from steady relationships to political careers in order to be with her. In fanfiction, however, it's Blair. Fans want to pair her up with anyone and everyone, even with men who have only ever been devoted to Serena.
 * Blair is now an in-universe one with a total of three current love interests desperate to have her, including Dan, who had previously only loved Serena.
 * Let's Wait a While: All three male teen leads do this at some point in season one.
 * Dan makes Serena wait from episode seven when it is first mentioned, until episode ten. He was a virgin and she was not.
 * An ongoing plot in the first seven episodes was Nate putting off sex with Blair, despite her best efforts.
 * Chuck tells Blair they should wait and "do it right this time" when they get together in the season finale.
 * After admitting her feelings for Dan in season five, Blair tells him "whatever this is, it will have to wait".
 * Also apparently Dan and Blair
 * This was probably also because
 * Life Imitates Art: Despite the endless "It's all about Blair, honest it is" cries from fandom (and sometimes the producers), the in-universe tendency for Serena to outdo Blair became very much an in-real-life thing as well regarding their respective actresses... something the intensely Blair-centric season five did nothing to change. (It did change the show's ratings - badly - but that's another story.)
 * Likes Older Women: Nate Archibald.
 * Limited Social Circle: The show nicely avoided this in the first two seasons with everyone but Dan (aka Lonely Boy). In season three however the Non-Judging Breakfast Club members only seem to hang out with each other (except for Nate who also hangs out with Dan, so... one additional person). This was lampshaded in "The Empire Strikes Jack" when Blair announces she has thirty friends coming to a fashion show and Nate asks Serena, "What friends?"
 * Lingerie Scene: Lots. Usually it's Blair.
 * Living Emotional Crutch: Blair to Chuck.
 * Locked in a Freezer: Twice, both times with Serena and someone else in an elevator.
 * The Loins Sleep Tonight: Chuck, with women who aren't Blair.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Let's see... Blair's parents are both absent most of the time (both actually live in France but her mother comes to New York a few times each season), Chuck's father never paid attention to him and then died, Nate's parents aren't around much either. All three characters are only children. Serena and Eric at least had each other... until Serena left for boarding school.
 * Long-Lost Relative: Lily and Rufus' son, Scott Rawson, who was adopted at birth. The knowledge of this is the ultimate breaking point in Serena and Dan's relationship as the fact that they share a sibling is too much for them to look past.
 * In season 3 it turns out Chuck's mother may be alive.
 * Lovable Alpha Bitch: Blair
 * Love Dodecahedron: In the first season, Dan and Serena were in love, but Vanessa loved Dan who used to love her and Nate (who is involved with Blair, who has a steamy fling with Chuck, who is best friends with Nate) was into Serena. There's also a Love Dodecahedron involving Dan's father, Serena's mother, and Chuck's father. Yes, really.
 * They then add a Vanessa/Nate/Jenny pairing on top of this. The whole thing is Chuck/Blair/Nate/Serena/Dan/Vanessa/Nate/Jenny (who also seems to have a Will and Grace thing for the slightly Camp Gay Eric). I think.
 * Let's not forget Vanessa and Chuck's one night stand in order to make, respectively, Nate and Blair jealous.
 * It's just getting ridiculous now. From the main characters, the only straight pairings that haven't happened are Dan and Jenny because they are brother and sister, then Dan and Blair. But this last one is being worked on as we speak. Oh, and Chuck/Serena I think. The entire set of pairings that have happened on the show is now something like Chuck/Vanessa/Dan/Blair/Chuck/Blair/Nate/Serena/Dan/Vanessa/Nate/Jenny/Chuck.'
 * Dan and Blair are now together. Wouldn't be suprised if that elusive Serena/Chuck relationship happened now.
 * Now it's back to Chuck and Blair as of the season 5 finale, with the possibility of
 * Love Epiphany: Subverted. Blair realizes "Dan loves me for me." in 5x16
 * Played straight in the next episode, where she tells Dan that she "realized my heart belonged to someone else".
 * Love Hurts: Chuck has loved Blair for five seasons and been miserable for it whenever they're not together. Which is most of the time.
 * Love Makes You Crazy: Georgina Sparks. Quite literally.
 * Also Jenny in season 3, doing anything and everything to try to get Nate away from Serena.
 * Love Martyr: Blair Waldorf for Chuck Bass. However, she eventually realises that it's not healthy to love someone so much you'd literally do anything for them, and ends the relationship.
 * Love Redeems: Chuck became a better person after falling in love with Blair. Then she dumped him and he became a much worse person...
 * He spends much of season 5 becoming a better man all over again, telling Blair it's because she was the "lightest thing in my life."
 * Love Triangle
 * Lysistrata Gambit: Reversed. Chuck refuses to sleep with Blair until she can tell him she loves him. Cue a lot of sexual frustration on Blair's end.
 * Madden Into Misanthropy: Blair after she gets kicked out of Yale.
 * Chuck after he loses Blair.
 * Magnificent Bastard
 * Georgina Sparks tends to have half the cast wrapped around her little finger at any given point in time, and no matter how many times they get rid of her, one way or another she always comes back. Like any good MB, she plays the game well, she is her own best piece, and you just can't keep her down.
 * As it turns out, Doctor Van Der Woodsen, the Big Bad of Season 3. Just about everything that happened over the course of the season, from Lily's fake cancer diagnosis to Rufus' supposed infidelity, turned out to be part of his convoluted scheme to drive Lily back into his arms. He even gets away in the end.
 * Juliet, who started out as The Dragon of Season 4, but wound up usurping her brother Ben as the Big Bad (before being revealed mid-season as more of an Anti-Villain). Her ability to be a set the regular cast at each others throats, turn defeat into victory, and stay one step ahead of everyone else would impress Machiavelli.
 * Make It Look Like an Accident: Used several times.
 * Juliet tries to make Serena's drug overdose seem accidental in S4.
 * Tripp creates an "accidental" car crash in 510.
 * Mama Bear: Blair, for the NJBC members. Chuck sometimes shows Papa Wolf tendencies.
 * Lily won't hesitate to destroy people's lives for the sake of her family's convenience.
 * Mandatory Line: Vanessa.
 * Man Hug: Nate makes a joke about it in season four.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Chuck Bass.
 * Jack Bass. It runs in the family.
 * Lily has beaten both Basses at their own game.
 * Manly Tears: Chuck, twice. He shows up on Blair's bed, crying, after his father's funeral. He is also shown shedding tears when she professes her love for him again in the season two finale, and he rejects her once more.
 * Chuck, again, in "The Debarted". This time combining the reasons behind the first two times he's cried on the show.
 * Chuck, again, in "The Empire Strikes Jack", when his mom tells him she ain't his mom.
 * Still Chuck in the episode, "Double Identity," when Blair tells him she doesn't love him anymore.
 * And again in "The Witches of Bushwick" after he and Blair finally look like they're back together for good until she realizes she can't live with being "Chuck Bass's girlfriend" until she is able to make it on her own first.
 * Man of Wealth and Taste: Jack Bass.
 * Matchmaker Crush: Chuck spends the first seven episodes of the show trying to help Blair lose her virginity to Nate. Then she gives it up to Chuck instead and he falls in love with her.
 * May-December Romance: Nate and Lady Catherine.
 * Nate and Diana.
 * Meet Cute: Dan and Amanda. Subverted, as it turns out, since she was hired by Chuck who orchestrated the whole thing to mess with Dan and Serena.
 * Played straight with Dan and Olivia.
 * Jenny and Asher in season one.
 * Eric and Elliot.
 * Metaphorgotten:
 * Metaphorgotten:

"Serena: It doesn't make sense! Blair: Feelings never do. They get you all confused. Then they drive you around for hours before they drop you right back where you started."
 * Blair, after Chuck brought her along for an all-night trip to find Georgina, just to get her away from Nate:

"Blair: Chuck. You know that I adore all of God's creatures and the metaphors that they inspire. But these butterflies... have got to be murdered."
 * Blair's response to Chuck revealing the thought of her gives him butterflies:

"Serena: The second he starts to call the shots these gloves come off and the nails come out. I just mixed metaphors, didn't I?"
 * Military School: Chuck ends up being sent there in the books.
 * Misplaced Wildlife: Those wolves... You know the ones.
 * Missing Mom: Dan and Jenny's mother, though she comes back for a few episodes.
 * Chuck's mom, possibly. In season three a woman claims to be his mother, saying she abandoned the family when Chuck was only a baby.
 * Mistaken Declaration of Love: At a masquerade ball in season one Nate confesses to a blonde woman that he loves her, believing it's Serena. It's actually Jenny, who has traded masks with Serena.
 * Mistaken for Cheating:
 * Mistaken for Pregnant: In the first season, this is the catalyst for Blair's social downfall. Serena covers for her to buy her a pregnancy test, so she is initially Mistaken for Pregnant as well, thanks to Gossip Girl.
 * Eleanor in season three.
 * Mixed Metaphor:

"Chuck: So long, friends... Dan."
 * The Modest Orgasm: Blair when Serena walks in on her while Chuck is under the covers doing... well you figure it out.
 * Moment Killer: Dan, when Blair was about to tell Chuck how she felt up on the roof of the gallery.
 * Vanessa, when Dan and Serena try to have sex.
 * Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You: When Chuck's supposedly dead mother Elizabeth returns it brings back Serena's issues over her father leaving her, so she goes to Elizabeth to hear why she left, hoping it will be because of this trope. Serena's hopes are cruelly crushed as she keeps offering Elizabeth good reasons for why she might have left, only for Elizabeth to tell her that she left because she didn't want to be a mother, didn't love her baby and had no desire to be a part of her child's life.
 * Most Writers Are Writers: Dan Humphrey, an aspiring writer who often chronicles the lives of Manhattan's Elite (and of his interferences in said lives).
 * Ms. Fanservice: Oh boy Serena... and her breasts. And her legs. And her hair. And her behind. And her...
 * And what about Blair? Not exactly lacking in that department.
 * My Friends and Zoidberg:

"Dan: I even miss Chuck Bass, who would get so close to talk."
 * Naked People Trapped Outside: Jenny's way of getting back at Chuck.
 * Never My Fault: Chuck can be this way sometimes. Like when he somehow gets Blair to agree that their breakup was "nobody's fault" even though they broke up because he whored her out to his uncle.
 * No Bisexuals - Averted, though Eric believes it. Lampshaded by his Bi the Way love interest, who can't understand why he didn't even think it was an option. Also possibly Chuck, who has kissed men before, according to Blair.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Dan's actress girlfriend Oliva Burke is a mix of Emma Watson and Kristen Stewart.
 * Nonuniform Uniform: Let's just say the characters are creative with how they wear their school uniforms...
 * No Periods, Period: Averted in the books.
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Chuck Bass delights in this.

"Chuck: You know what they say. The family that plays together stays together. Serena: Ah, incest, the universal taboo. One of the only ones you haven't violated. Chuck: Well I'm game if you are."
 * Not a Date: Dan is accused of having a sexual relationship with his new teacher Rachel Carr. Naturally, they decide the only solution to this problem is to go on Not a Date at a quiet romantic restaurant. Naturally Serena, Dan's girlfriend at the time, accidentally sees them and gets the wrong idea. And gets photographic proof, which Blair then uses to get back at Rachel for putting her place at Yale at risk.
 * All of Dan and Blair's movie dates. And coffee and breakfasts meets. That not even Gossip Girl knows. How did that happen?
 * Not Blood Siblings: Subverted twice with Serena and Dan. In season one, Serena asks Lily not to get together with Rufus because it would make things weird with her and Dan. Season two seems to skirt closer to the actual trope as for a while Serena and Dan continue to date after Lily and Rufus get together. Once they find out about their shared half-brother, aka Lily and Rufus' child, though, their relationship falls by the wayside, seemingly for good this time.
 * Averted with Serena and Chuck when Lily and Bart Bass got married, though given the timing anything other would have appeared forced.
 * Although it was mentioned:

"Nate: Man, I have to find out if she's seeing someone. It's killing me. You guys are still pretty close, aren't you? Chuck: Uh... Yeah... Nate: Could you find out who she's seeing? Chuck: Me. Nate: Yes. Come on man, who better?"
 * In the books, Blair and Aaron.
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: The cast seems to live in the part of New York where no one has a New York accent and Chuck sounds strangely British
 * Nouveau Riche: The Basses.
 * Odd Friendship: Chuck and Nate in the TV-show. As Gossip Girl puts it, a dark prince and a white knight.
 * As of season 4, Dan and Blair.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Georgina takes out off-screen.
 * Every time Chuck and Blair are about to have a steamy moment in season three they cut away. Fans displeased.
 * Dan and Blair was freeze-framed in season four.
 * Older Sidekick: Dorota to Blair.
 * One Born Every Minute: Serena, who in late season two is conned by Gabriel and Poppy.
 * One-Hour Work Week: Nate, Dan and Blair sure have a lot of free time on their hands for a bunch of college kids. The only time they mention going to class is when they're talking about skipping that class. Chuck doesn't seem to be doing much work either.
 * One-Note Cook: Well, three notes, actually. The Humphreys can make waffles and chili and... bolognese. Waiting for the fourth.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: The Captain.
 * And Gossip Girl.
 * Only Sane Man: Dan Humphrey and Eric Van der Woodsen are the Only Sane Man tag-team of the Upper East Side.
 * In "Gaslit," Dan was the only one Juliet wasn't able to fool into thinking that Serena overdosed.
 * But lets be fair, he didn't know her back when her overdosing was a daily possibility.
 * Operation: Jealousy: Vanessa and Chuck teamed up to make Nate and Blair jealous.
 * Also the whole reason Blair dated Marcus.
 * In "The Hurt Locket," Serena goes to the French Ambassador's dinner with Damien to make Nate jealous. Burn!
 * Opposites Attract: As it is now in mid-season 4, Dan and Blair.
 * Paper-Thin Disguise: Ivy in S4.
 * Parent Trap Plot: The van der Humphrey children try this when it looks like Rufus and Lily are going to call off their engagement in "Rufus Getting Married." The episode title gives away that it works.
 * Lampshaded by Rufus. "I knew I let you kids watch Parent Trap too many times..."
 * Serena seems to be trying this again with her mom and dad in late season 3.
 * Parental Abandonment: Blair is probably worst off, seeing as all four of her parents have left her and moved to France.
 * Chuck has it pretty bad too, with his father having trouble accepting him after his mother died during childbirth. According to season 3, Bart had trouble accepting him after his mother ditched them and forced Bart to tell Chuck that she died in childbirth. And then his mom comes back just to steal his hotel from him and ruin his life.
 * Nate's dad flees the country, then returns only to end up in federal prison.
 * Serena and Eric's father left when they were little, and Lily wasn't around much either.
 * Parental Issues: Everyone. Even the relatively well-adjusted Humphries are not immune and if you think it's just the teens, take another look at Lily and Cece.
 * Parental Neglect: Probably the main reason why Chuck acts the way he does is to get some attention from his ever absent father. His adoptive mother is not much better, having often left Serena and Eric alone to run off with some new guy. Blair's parents do a pretty good job of neglecting her as well.
 * Parental Substitute: Dorota is this for Blair. Lily tries to do this for Chuck, but she can barely parent her own kids, so...
 * Parenting the Husband: It really feels like Lily has to do this with Rufus, day in and day out. Especially since he has no job and just mopes around her house, strumming his guitar and wondering where everyone went.
 * Parent with New Paramour: Serena and Eric have experienced this more times than they can count.
 * Blair was initially excited to meet her mother's new boyfriend Cyrus but was incredibly disappointed when he resembled Danny Devito more than he did Cary Grant. Although by the time Cyrus becomes her stepfather they have a pretty close bond.
 * While Chuck's father was this for Eric and Serena, Lily was this for Chuck. Initially they got along great, then he hated her for a while when he held her responsible for Bart's death, but after agreeing to let her adopt him he's grown quite close to her. Lily actually seems to be a better parent to him than she is to her biological children.
 * The Patriarch: William Vanderbilt.
 * Peer Pressure Makes You Evil: Jenny.
 * Perpetual Expression: Extreme confusion is Nate's favorite state of mind. Fans like to call it Natefusion.
 * Platonic Life Partners: Vanessa and Dan, after he chose Serena.
 * Playing the Victim Card: Jenny Humphrey's favorite activity.
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: Oh boy were Chuck and Blair hit hard with this in late season three... When Elizabeth shows up claiming she's Chuck's birth mother, neither Chuck and Blair, two of the most untrusting characters in the history of television, think to get a DNA test. Even though Chuck's mother is supposed to be dead. Nor do they think to do any actual research to find out if her claims are true. They simply settle for taking her word for it since she has a photo of herself holding a baby (rock solid evidence alright), even though there should be countless people who actually met Chuck's mother and were around when Chuck was born who could substantiate her claims or prove them to be false. When Chuck finally :gets the DNA test he believes the results (sent to him by text) even though he knows his evil uncle has shown up to try and get his hotel, and this has CON written all over it and promptly signs over his hotel to the "mother" he's only known for a few weeks and who has done nothing to earn his trust. When all of this of course blows up in his face he doesn't think to do the first thing anyone would do in this situation, which is to press charges for fraud.
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: The second season episode "Valley Girls", which followed a teenage Lily in The Eighties. The spinoff series didn't get picked up, which makes the episode a bit of an outlier.
 * Pop Culture Pun Episode Title
 * Popular History: The backdoor pilot in Valley Girls.
 * The Pornomancer: Chuck Bass.
 * The Power of Friendship: The Non-Judging Breakfast Club. "With friends like these, who needs armies?"
 * The Power of Love: Loving Blair is the main reason why Chuck turns from attempted rapist to good guy, and then turned into the worst, again.
 * Preppy Name: Applies to both some of the characters and some of the actors. Like Blair Waldorf, played by Leighton Meester, and Nathaniel Archibald played by Chace Crawford.
 * Prince Charming: Nate Archibald.
 * Princess in Rags: Blair from time to time.
 * Private Detective: Several. On speed dial.
 * Product Placement: Vitamin Water, anyone?
 * Bluefly.com and Henri Bendel bags are prominently featured throughout the show, and we can't forget about the characters' preferred wireless carrier, Verizon.
 * Bing.
 * Chanel, Tiffany and I spotted a Tally Weijl shopping bag in one of the episodes where Blair and Serena are in Paris
 * Pun-Based Title: Every episode title is a play off a movie title ("the Thin Line Between Chuck & Nate", "the Debarted", "the Empire Strikes Jack", etc).
 * Put on a Bus: several times:
 * Kati Farkas was said to have moved to Israel halfway through the first season.
 * Georgina Sparks, for almost a full season after she is sent to reform school in the season one finale.
 * Aaron Rose, who went with Serena to Buenos Aires and seemingly never came back. Despite now being Blair's stepbrother, as yet we have no idea what happened to him.
 * Marcus and Lady Catherine in season two, returned to England once they had served their purpose.
 * Jenny was sent to Hudson in the season 3 finale.
 * The Bus Came Back briefly and then left again.
 * Vanessa was sent to Spain in the season 4 finale.
 * Quick Nip: Chuck is fond of this.
 * Ready for Lovemaking: Blair has done this twice for Chuck and also did it for Nate in the first episode.
 * Really Gets Around: Nate, Chuck and Serena. The show calls attention to the gender issue involved, in that Serena is called a slut while nobody has anything to say about Nate or Chuck bedding people left and right.
 * though that seems to be more about the fact that Serena was involved with (at different stages) her best friend's long-term boyfriend, one of her professors and a married man, rather than the number of people she sleeps with.
 * if anything, Serena hardly ever faces any judgment for her crappy boyfriend choices - Blair, on the other hand, becomes a virtual pariah at school after it gets out that she's had sex with more than one boy.
 * Vanessa can also count (and certainly does in the eyes of the fans) given that she's the only girl who's slept with all three male leads.
 * And THAT is the true double standard, lol.
 * No love for Blair? Come on, until third season she has a pretty high sex count on her hands, and certainly seems to be more focused on sex then the other characters.
 * Real Men Wear Purple: And sometimes pink.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Blair gives this to Vanessa in "Enough About Eve," and it actually ends up being a trap set by Vanessa.
 * Jack gives one to Chuck in Inglorious Bassterds.
 * Recycled in Space: Gossip Girl is basically The OC IN MANHATTAN'S UPPER EAST SIDE!
 * Older Than You Think: The books predate The OC by a year and a half.
 * With Gossip Girl and The OC sharing creators, wouldn't that make Gossip Girl a Spiritual Successor?
 * Okay, how about Beverly Hills, 90210 IN MANHATTAN'S UPPER EAST SIDE!
 * The Red Stapler: Chuck's trademark scarf sold out within days of the pilot episode airing.
 * Reformed but Rejected: Georgina in late season two.
 * Relationship Upgrade: Dan and Vanessa in season 3. Arguably also Nate and Serena, since they are supposed to be friends, but it was rarely seen onscreen before their romantic relationship began.
 * Dan and Blair in season 5, very much so.
 * Remember That You Trust Me: Three episodes in a row had this storyline with Chuck and Blair. She tried to get him to open up about the woman he thought might be his mother, he pushed her away, then towards the end changed his mind and came to her for comfort (while apologising for having pushed her away). All three episodes had Blair reminding him towards the end that she's on his side.
 * Retcon: The Basses have been subjected to this more than any other characters on the show.
 * The pilot episode has Chuck mentioning his mother twice, and it's clear that she is alive and in his life. Later on in the season we find out he lives with just his father, and we don't get to see his mother. In season two it's revealed that she died when Chuck was born.
 * Season three appears to be retconning the entire relationship between Chuck and Bart. Up until then the entire reason for their extremely rocky father/son relationship had been because of Bart's inability to properly deal with the death of Chuck's mother. Chuck always believed Bart hated him for having killed Evelyn, but Bart eventually told him that the reason he couldn't connect with Chuck was that he looked too much like his mother and it was too painful to have the constant living reminder. All of that makes no sense whatsoever right now, as season three heavily implies that Chuck's mother is alive and well, and simply didn't want to be a mother so she left when Chuck was born. And she wasn't Bart's beloved wife, just some random teenager he knocked up.
 * It could be argued that Bart was just perpetuating the lie that Evelyn/Elizabeth was dead, and was actually resentful of the fact that it was because of Chuck that his wife left him.
 * The feelings between Serena and Nate in season three. But mainly, Serena's comment in the second half of the third season that she's "waited so long for this". The writers have gone out of their way in the first two and a half seasons to show that Serena doesn't have romantic feelings for Nate. Then again, it is Serena, so maybe the two weeks that have gone by since she started to like Nate in 3.12 is a long time by her standards...
 * Rich Bitch: Blair Waldorf and her friends. Subverted in that Serena is rich but not a bitch, at least if you exclude the start of season two after she and Dan get back together and break up again.
 * To be fair, Serena tried very hard to be considerate of Dan and maintain a friendship with him, despite still being heartbroken over the breakup, while Dan immediately started dating again. He didn't behave in any manner that suggested he'd even considered the effect it might have on Serena until she broke down and called him out on it. She deserves some credit for at least trying to take the high road at first.
 * Right Through His Pants: The kitchen sex scene between Serena and Nate in season three ends with both still being fully dressed.
 * Also Chuck, whenever he's got a sex scene. This thanks to the actor's odd love of huge, ugly tattoos. It's a little weird seeing Chuck Bass in pajamas right after he's had hot sex with his girlfriend.
 * Then again, Chuck was sleeping with girls in his pajamas way back in the first season, before Ed Westwick had any tattoos on his arms or chest. (Although Ed's tattoos are probably a big reason why Chuck wears pajamas a lot after season 1.)
 * Right Through the Wall: Serena and Nate have loud sex in the kitchen right outside Chuck's bedroom door. They are then treated to the sounds of Blair having a very loud orgasm. Nate is dumbfounded when Chuck calls in the middle of Blair's "performance". Turns out Blair is just reading a fashion magazine, faking a loud orgasm to drive the point home of how you might want to keep your voices down when you have roommates in the next room.
 * The Rival: Carter Baizen to Chuck Bass.
 * Romance on the Set: Blake Lively (Serena) and Penn Badgley (Dan) have been dating for 2.5 years. Ed Westwick (Chuck) and Jessica Szohr (Vanessa) dated for 1.5 years, but have supposedly broken up since. Leighton Meester (Blair) and Sebastian Stan (Carter) have dated on and off throughout the show's run, but are supposedly off now.
 * Romantic False Lead: Arguably, everyone to everyone else. But if we exclude relationships between the core cast:
 * Serena: Aaron Rose and Tripp Vanderbilt. Maybe even Ben Donovan.
 * Dan: Mrs. Carr, Amanda and Olivia.
 * Blair: Marcus Beaton, Carter Baizen and Prince Louis.
 * Nate: Lady Catherine in early season 2 and now in season 4 Juliet.
 * Lily: Bart Bass and Dr. van der Woodsen.
 * Chuck: Elle, Eva
 * Romantic Two-Girl Friendship: Serena and Blair.
 * Rousing Speech: Jenny gives a rousing speech about the end of the Constance Billard monarchy in early season three. The other students fail to be roused.
 * Runaway Bride:
 * Running Gag: People (Blair especially) referring to Nelly Yuki by her full name.
 * Blair loves her headbands. Nobody else does.
 * The strange details of Chuck's many hook-ups. "Not many women can put their leg up behind...", "She got held up in customs", "She can hold her breath for five minutes"...
 * Blair's nightmares placing her in movies. She has at least one per season.
 * Dan the cater waiter.
 * In the first season, Cedric.
 * Sarcastic Confession: When Chuck is sleeping with Blair behind Nate's back.

"Penelope: This is madness! Blair: (knocking Nelly's book out of her hands) No. This. Is. Constance."
 * Scarf of Asskicking: Chuck. Although Nate claims that death by scarf is not that intimidating.
 * Scarpia Ultimatum: Jack telling Blair he'll only give the Empire back to Chuck if Blair sleeps with him (Jack) may count as this. Subverted though in that Chuck was in on it.
 * School Newspaper Newshound: Gossip Girl herself is basically a modern-technology version of this.
 * School Play: The main cast perform The Age of Innocence, with much of the episode's plot paralleling that of the play.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Dan believes everyone on the UES has this attitude, which is one of the major problems in his relationship with Serena. And all the other UES but now that he's an UES himself he's starting to have less of a problem with this.
 * There have been times when this has been played straight, however it hasn't always worked as well as the rich character hoped.
 * Secondary Character Title: Gossip Girl herself is a minor character on the show.
 * Secret Relationship: Blair and Chuck for a few episodes in season one.
 * Chuck and Blair also try this for a little while in season 4. It fails.
 * Dan/Serena and Nate/Vanessa both try this in season two, but get outed by Gossip Girl in less than an episode.
 * Dan and Blair's secret "non-friendship". Which they ended in 4x17. Or did they?
 * Nope. Keep going with a secret friendship/relationship until 5x17.
 * Serial Romeo: Nate Archibald, especially in season 2.
 * Serena from season two and onward.
 * Seemingly-Wholesome Fifties Girl: Blair, espeically in Season 1.
 * Serious Business: Being "Queen" of your high school or college (and yeah, you read that right - college) is very serious business, m'kay? It would be Truth in Television if they didn't take it to such unbelievable extremes, but the way they portray it (everyone bows to the Queen, no one dares to defy anything coming out of her mouth, the popular kids are not-jokingly treated as freakin' monarchy, etc...) is just downright ridiculous.
 * Servile Snarker: Dorota, though not so much by making verbal remarks as by making faces whenever Blair says or does something she deems snark-worthy. Fans have dubbed this Dorota's WTF face.
 * Sex Equals Love: Chuck falls in love with Blair after taking her virginity.
 * Nate falls in love with Serena after she took his virginity.
 * Sex Face Turn: Juliet came pretty close.
 * Sexy Man, Instant Harem: Chuck.
 * Sexy Shirt Switch: Nate and Serena in season 3. She enters the kitchen wearing just his shirt, showing that she clearly spent the night. They then have an unambiguous sex scene, after which, she's still wearing the shirt and he's fully clothed.
 * In season five, Lola also wears Nate's shirt.
 * Shallow Love Interest: Most love interests Chuck and Blair have had on the show.
 * Shaming the Mob: After several of the characters try to discover Gossip Girl's identity to stop her increasingly hurtful posts about them, she gets the whole class into one place and sends them all a message that they're looking at Gossip Girl right now: the only reason she's so hurtful to all of them is that they all keep sending her information.
 * When Chuck is told he is not Skulls and Bones material, he blackmails the organization by threatening to reveal their secrets.
 * Sharp-Dressed Man: Chuck Bass. Nothing suits him like a suit.
 * She's All Grown Up: Subverted with Nate and Jenny in season 3. She tries hard to show him this, but he wants none of it.
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: Season 4 - Dan and Blair's mutal denials of... whatever it is they have has led to allegations of an affair or more.
 * She's Got Legs: Just about all the main female characters, but especially Serena.
 * Shipper on Deck: Dorota for Blair and Chuck. Blair's parents and step-fathers also seem to be on board.
 * Serena goes back and forth between being a Chuck and Blair shipper and disapproving of the relationship, as does Nate.
 * Eric seems to ship Dan and Blair.
 * Jenny used to be a shipper for Dan and Serena.
 * Blair for Serena and Carter, at least once she stops trying to convince Serena it's a bad idea.
 * Shout-Out: Blair, to Chuck: "Who are you? House"
 * Also, in "Carnal Knowledge":

"Blair to Dan: Don't go all The Notebook on me, not now. I need you."
 * Blair to Dan in season four: "I think someone Freaky Friday'd me. This can't possibly be my life."
 * And also in season five:

"Blair: I have an idea. Chuck: I've already had it."
 * The Show Must Go On: In "The Last Days Of Disco Stick," Olivia leaves Dan's Snow White Gaga play, forcing Vanessa to step in as her replacement. This leads to Dan having to kiss Vanessa onstage and, of course, realizing he is in love with her.
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts: Chuck and Blair subvert this trope deliciously.
 * Sidekick: Dorota to Blair.
 * Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: Jenny with Nate.
 * Single-Target Sexuality: Chuck goes through a period where he can't get it up for anyone but Blair.
 * Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Partially, when Serena seeks into Dan
 * Six-Student Clique Gender variation.
 * The Head: Blair
 * The Muscle: Serena
 * The Quirk: Vanessa
 * The Pretty One: Nate
 * The Smart One: Dan
 * The Wild One: Chuck
 * Sleep Cute: Chuck and Blair waking up in his limo in a late season two episode.
 * Also Chuck and Blair waking up on her bed in the season one finale.
 * Also Dan and Blair at Dan's loft, Season 4.
 * Smart People Play Chess: Blair and Dorota.
 * Smug Snake: Jack Bass.
 * Socialite: Lily and Cece. Averted with Blair and Eleanor, who firmly declares that Waldorf women are not socialites.
 * So Proud of You: Blair frequently says this to Chuck in season three. Until they break up.
 * Special Guest: No Doubt appears as Snowed Out, an eighties band in the flashback episode "Valley Girls".
 * Lady Gaga appears as herself in Season 3 episode "The Last Days of Disco Stick".
 * Cyndi Lauper also appears as herself, in the season 2 episode "Bonfire of the Vanity".
 * Sonic Youth perform at Rufus and Lily's wedding. Not to mention their lead singer perfors the ceremony.
 * Lisa Loeb in late season one.
 * Rita, a record exec and Robyn were unceremoniously invited to Blair's birthday party in order to humiliate the Queen B.
 * Split-Screen Phone Call: Dan and Blair.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Chuck to Blair.
 * Stalking Is Love: Chuck frequently stalks Blair or has one of his PIs do it. Blair lampshades this on two separate occasions (and claims Chuck isn't even very good at the stalking).
 * STD Immunity: Averted. There's even a scene where Chuck and his uncle Jack bond over which medication they've taken to cure STDs.
 * Strange Minds Think Alike: After Blair finds out the liqour license she helped Chuck get for his club opening was a fake, she decides that the best way to save the situation is to call the cops and have them raid the bar. Turns out Chuck has already done exactly that.
 * And in another episode when their original plan goes to hell:

"Blair: (after Chuck told her he loves her) But, can you say it twice? No I'm serious, say it twice. Chuck: I love you. I love you. That's three. Here's four - I love you."
 * And they proceed to act out said idea without taking one second to talk it through or even compare notes first.
 * Suddenly Sexuality: Dan in the books. Also a massive head scratcher because a) he was clearly shown to be attracted to girls in earlier books and was in love with Vanessa, b) all he did was make out with a guy while in a drunken stupor, c) he quickly dismissed the idea of being bisexual due to Rule of Drama and d) everyone else did too.
 * Sweeps Week Lesbian Kiss. Boy version. Chuck and Mr. Ellis.
 * Swimming Pool: The episode School Lies opens with a secret pool party going terribly wrong.
 * Tangled Family Tree: Lily marries Bart Bass and then marries Rufus Humphrey, making Serena and Eric step-siblings with Chuck, Dan and Jenny. This makes Dan and Serena an extreme version of Flirty Stepsiblings until it's revealed that Lily and Rufus had an illegitimate son years earlier and thus the van der Woodsen's and Humphrey's share a half-sibling.
 * Then there's the whole debacle with Charlotte Rhodes. It turns out that Lily's sister Carol hid her daughter from the family (going so far as to hire an imposter, Ivy, to pose as her) because she is actually William van der Woodsen's daughter. This makes Charlie both Serena's cousin and her half-sister.
 * Team Mom: Blair is the Team Mom of the Non-Judging Breakfast Club. And a Mama Bear one at that.
 * Tears of Remorse: Chuck sheds a few when Blair lies to him and says his many mistakes have made her stop loving him.
 * Teacher-Student Romance: Dan and Rachel Carr in season two.
 * Serena and Colin Forrester in season four.
 * Test Kiss:.
 * The Bus Came Back: Georgina seems to have several round-trip tickets.
 * Jenny also returned briefly for a couple of episodes in season 4.
 * Their First Time: Twisted example in the first season. Blair and Nate have been together for a long time, but Blair wants to put off losing their virginity. Nate, however, has already lost his - to Blair's best friend, Serena, an act that is initially suggested to be the reason behind her sudden departure. From the very first episode, every time Blair tries to plan Their First Time something Serena-related crops up:
 * The instant Blair learns Serena has returned, she drags Nate upstairs from a party for Their First Time - which gets interrupted when her mother announces Serena's arrival.
 * Later that episode, Blair plans Their First Time again, only for Nate to choose that moment to tell her about cheating on her with Serena.
 * In the next episode, Chuck gives Blair the key to his suite for her to sleep with Nate, but when they arrive in the suite Serena is already there because Nate asked her to meet him
 * It's hinted during the Masquerade Ball episode that the scavenger hunt Blair sets for Nate will lead to them sleeping together if he finds her before midnight. This breaks the pattern slightly since Serena was the final clue-giver and Nate's distraction actually stemmed from his father (though he still goes to Serena over Blair about it), but still ends up in him confessing his feelings to who he thinks is Serena.
 * Hours after they break up, Blair loses her virginity to Nate's best friend Chuck in the back of his limo. A few episodes later, Blair and Nate are back together and they finally have sex with each other, though this reunion only lasts until Nate finds out about Blair and Chuck.
 * There's also the episode in Season 2 where Blair, Serena and Chuck try to stop a younger girl from losing her virginity to the wrong guy, since she only wants to do it to beat "Muffy the lacrostitute" to the punch.
 * Season three has an entire episode where everyone runs around trying to prevent Jenny from losing her virginity. It comes off as rather strange that these characters who all lost their virginity before senior year would think it's so horrible that a sixteen year-old might have her flower plucked.
 * That plot line has officially been resolved in a particularly twisted way, with Jenny finally losing her virginity to Chuck of all people, because she thinks everyone hates her and he thinks Blair no longer loves him. Of course, Blair shows up two seconds later to reunite, Chuck leaves Jenny in a hot second, and she realizes that sleeping with him was a terrible idea.
 * There Will Be Toilet Paper: Dan before Ivy Week.
 * This Means War: Chuck to Blair after she makes Eva leave.
 * Three-Way Sex: The Dan/Olivia/Vanessa threesome in season three.
 * Also appears to be Chuck's sexual modus operandi when he's not with Blair.
 * Throw It In: This ad-libbed dialogue in the last scene from season two:

"Vanessa: Do you want to get together and download about the epicness last night?"
 * Tin Man: Chuck.
 * Token Evil Teammate: Chuck, although Blair seems to take on this role increasingly as seasons progress.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Serena and Blair.
 * Took a Level In Dumbass: Nate grows more and more stupid every season. Serena's not exactly gotten brighter over the years either.
 * Took a Level in Jerkass:
 * Eric van der Woodsen in season four. Up until this point he was the only character who always acted decently. In season four he hates on Chuck for having had consensual sex with Jenny and plots with Dan to bring Chuck and Blair down.
 * Louis is taking this way during season five, the white prince turning into a Basstard more and more as the season goes, while Chuck is becoming a decent person.
 * Totally Radical: Mostly averted, but this line was pretty cringe-worthy:

"Serena: Look B, I understand why you're reluctant to burst your happy bubble but I'm not giving up. Blair: I'm sorry if unlike some people I haven't been on the pill since I was fifteen. Serena: Okay I am giving up."
 * Tough Love: Bart with Chuck, to the point where Chuck honestly believes his father hates him. Bart even points this out in the letter he leaves Chuck in season two.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: The Humphreys and their waffles. Blair with her macaroons.
 * Traveling At the Speed of Plot
 * Troubled but Cute: Chuck.
 * Nate has his moments, once you know his family background.
 * True Companions: The Non-Judging Breakfast Club.
 * True Love Is Exceptional: At the start of the show Blair was convinced she belonged with Prince Charming Nate. As it turns out her soulmate is Chuck, Nate's polar opposite.
 * Tsundere: Blair Waldorf, but mostly tsun.
 * Twin Threesome Fantasy: Twins find Chuck.
 * Twitchy Eye: Rufus.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Cyrus and Eleanor. Some argue that the opposite is true of Dorota and Vanya.
 * Undying Loyalty: Dorota. Come what may she is on Blair's side and at Blair's side.
 * The Unfair Sex: The audience sometimes plays into this. Chuck sleeping with Vanessa after Blair and Nate start dating is outrageous, but Blair sleeping with Chuck's uncle after Chuck disappears to mourn his father's death is completely understandable.
 * The fans reaction probably has a lot to do with how hated Vanessa is. The fact that Chuck doesn't argue with Blair when she equals him sleeping with Vanessa to her sleeping with Jack is seen by some as a Lampshade Hanging of Vanessa's Scrappy status. But within the context of the show itself it makes no sense that Chuck having sex with Vanessa would be anywhere near as bad as Blair bedding Jack.
 * The Unfavourite: Ironically, both with characters who had no siblings at the time: Blair, who thought her mother liked Serena more than her, and Chuck who wasn't even The Unfavourite compared to someone else.
 * Unlimited Wardrobe: The UES characters. Except for Chuck's trademark scarf. And his sleeping attire of choice, which has had more screen-time than some of the recurring guest stars...
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Vanessa Abrams
 * Briefly Victorious Childhood Friend, then reverted again at the end of S3 when Dan kisses Serena: Master of the Mixed Message.
 * Unusual Euphemism: Quite a few. "Fustercluck", "Bass-hole", "Oh my effing God", "Don't eff with an effer", "Damn that motherchucker"...
 * And then there's Serena telling Chuck he's not going to "use Blair as sexual Drano".
 * "Like a Bass out of hell".
 * Never forget that Blair wanted to get a "Bass-ectomy" in 4.08.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In 2.03 everyone stops and stares at Blair and Marcus when they begin to argue on the staircase after he found her making out with Chuck. You'd expect these people who are obsessed with gossip to find this at least a little interesting, but after all of two seconds everyone goes back to minding their own business.
 * Subverted in the season two finale, the scene where Blair comes home to find Chuck waiting by his limo with flowers and gifts. Throughout the scene people can be seen in the background, stopping to stare.
 * Upper Class Wit: Chuck.
 * Vacation Episode: Season four sees Blair and Serena enjoy their summer vacation in Paris.
 * Verbal Backspace:

"Blair: This is the worst out-of-body experience ever."
 * Visit by Divorced Dad: Dan and Jenny's mother, and Blair's father.
 * Serena's father in late season 3.
 * Vocal Evolution: Chuck's voice has grown increasingly deeper since the first season. Ed Westwick has by now confirmed the fan theory that he uses a lower voice on the show because it helps him maintain his American accent.
 * Walk in Chime In: Chuck when the rest of the NJBC are discussing his mother.
 * Wall Glower: Chuck in the season two finale, when everyone else meets up at the bar.
 * Wedding Day: Twice, both with Lily as the bride.
 * Eleanor Waldorf's impromptu interdenominational wedding in "Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?"
 * Dorota and Vanya receive a wedding courtesy of Chuck Bass, in an attempt to win Blair back, in "The Unblairable Lightness Of Being."
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Chuck Bass.
 * We Used to Be Friends: Serena and Blair at the very beginning of the series.
 * We Want Our Jerk Back: The way some fans reacted when Chuck tried to be a goody-two-shoes in early season four.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Non-living example. Chuck's signature scarf disappears early in season two. Just when fans were starting to suspect that someone in the costume department lost it or accidentally destroyed it the scarf makes a cameo appearance in the season four premiere.
 * What Is This Feeling?: Chuck: "I feel sick, like there's... something in my stomach. Fluttering." He admits that having this weird feeling is humiliating. It doesn't get better when Blair tells him that these butterflies must be murdered.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: Chuck's action's in "Inglorious Bassterds." Nate has berated him for this every episode since.
 * Dan gets the treatment in the 4th episode of Season 5.
 * Wham! Episode: The end of "The Debarted", let us count the ways: Rufus and Lily's marriage is in trouble. Wham. Jenny's been dealing drugs for cash. Wham. Chuck's mom might be alive. Wham. Wham. Wham.
 * "Victor/Victrola". Ends with the surprise hook-up that marked the beginning of the beyond a doubt most popular ship on the show.
 * "Inglorious Bassterds".
 * "Last Tango, Then Paris". Dan suddenly loves Serena again! But can't pursue her because Georgie is pregnant with his baby! Chuck takes Jenny's virginity! Then tries to propose to Blair! Then gets shot and might die!
 * S04E11, "The Townie," is the whammiest to date. Turns out, neither Juliet nor her brother Ben are The Dragon or the Big Bad of Season 4. Lily is. She destroyed Ben's life, and sold Bass Industries out from under Chuck.
 * S05E13:
 * S05E16:
 * Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Bart usually takes this stance towards Chuck.
 * Wild Teen Party: The birthday party Serena planned ruined for Jenny her own ego in "Remains of The J" turns into one of these after a disgruntled Jenny texts Gossip Girl with details about a rager at the van der Woodsens.
 * Will They or Won't They?: Chuck and Blair. Now also applies to Dan and Blair.
 * Word of God: Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage have cruelly crushed hopes for Vanessa/Rufus, saying that fans who want them are barking up the wrong tree.
 * Worst Whatever Ever: Blair upon seeing hers and Chuck's doppelganger's making out:
 * Worst Whatever Ever: Blair upon seeing hers and Chuck's doppelganger's making out:

"Chuck: I don't have a real mother Blair. I never will. Blair: That doesn't mean you're alone. I love you Chuck. And I will always be your family."
 * Wrong Guy First: Blair is really, really set on Nate being the person she should be with in season one (Chuck: All this talk of how you have to be with Nate or the world will end...). Gradually she realises that Nate is not The One, Chuck is.
 * Wrote the Book: In "There Might Be Blood", Blair claims to have written the book on distracted, self-centered mothers.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Juliet, The Dragon the Big Bad the Anti-Villain of Season 4, wouldn't be able to play the cast against each other so well if she couldn't update her schemes at a mile a minute.
 * Yandere: Georgina for Dan.
 * Jenny for Nate.
 * Yiddish as a Second Language: Cyrus Rose (and Blair on occasion).
 * You Are Not Alone:

"Blair: What if I lose everything? Dan: You'll still have me."
 * Then there's this:


 * You Have Got to Be Kidding Me!: Blair's reaction to finding out Chuck has feelings for her, almost verbatim.
 * Your Favorite: Chuck in the season two finale.