Curious George

"George is a monkey, and he does things we can't do."

—the PBS Kids show

Curious George is a series of books and a TV spin-off, plus a movie, based on the character by Margret and H.A. Rey. George is a monkey who is found overseas in Africa by "The Man With the Yellow Hat," a father-figure who takes the monkey home with him to his apartment in the city. Hilarity Ensues when the monkey is treated like a human child, rather than a pet. The books and series are marketed to the preschooler/early reader group and attempt to give children an early grasp on patterns and other bits of necessary information about life.

The original books

There have also been a number of pastiche works, most of them out of print for years.

Curious George (1941).
Curious George Takes a Job (1947).
Curious George Rides a Bike (1952).
Curious George Gets a Medal (1957).
Curious George Flies a Kite (1958).
Curious George Learns the Alphabet (1963).
Curious George Goes to the Hospital (1966).

The following tropes are common to many or all entries in the Curious George franchise.
For tropes specific to individual installments, visit their respective work pages.

Adults Are Useless: The Man With the Yellow Hat often leaves George to his own devices. Let us repeat: George is a monkey.
Black Bead Eyes: In the books.
Caretaker Reversal: Occurs in a few of the tv series episodes.
Curious as a Monkey: Trope Namer
Deadpan Snarker: Junior. Actually Junior is made of this.
Don't Try This At Home (See the above page quote; used with the twist that the only death-defying stunts George does are his monkey antics)
Everything's Better with Monkeys
Great White Hunter: The Man with the Yellow Hat's role in the first book, where he captured George for an American zoo.
Heroes Want Redheads: Maggie.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Frank Welker as George in the movie and TV series.
Hot Teacher: Maggie.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ivan.
No Name Given: The Man With the Yellow Hat, until the movie, which revealed his name to be Ted Shackleford.
Nice Hat: The Man With the Yellow Hat, natch.
Person with the Clothing: The Man with the Yellow Hat.
The Nose Knows: Ivan.
Once Per Episode: George's curiosity would always get him in trouble. Then he would do something heroic, and all would be forgiven.
Shallow Love Interest: Thankfully averted with Maggie.
The Unfavorite: Junior.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Junior.
Shirtless Scene: Only happened once in the episode Curious George Sees Stars, where the Man in the Yellow Hat is seen in his swim trunks.

The Movies Include Examples Of:

Adaptation Expansion: The Movie, especially the character of Ted.
The Chew Toy/The Woobie: Ted spends most of the movie going between these two.
Crazy Prepared: The theater's phone tree has an option for Klingon.
Deadpan Snarker: Ted in the movie, when things don't go well for him.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: During Ted's exchange with an unseen and unheard angry motorist, Ted yells back, "Well, that's physically impossible for me to do!"
Sequel: Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey - Direct to Video
Single-Issue Landlord: Only in The Movie.
The Other Darrin: In The Movie Ted was voiced by Will Ferrell; in the Sequel he was voiced by Jeff Bennett