Recess/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Randall: Kids of the playground! I give you...BALLS!"

    • And another line in "The Madness of King Bob", when King Bob is trying to pull a prank on T.J.

King Bob: There you are my round little friend, I believe you have a rendezvous...with wetness!"

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: The entire series is now on iTunes! But before you begin rejoicing, let's hope you understand German.
    • Recess: School's Out and Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade is now avaible on iTunes. Just in time for the show's fifteenth anniversary!
  • Anvilicious: Sometimes in later episodes.
  • Base Breaker: Gus, Spinelli, and Mikey are considered either good characters or really annoying ones.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: In "Dance Lessons", there's a scene where the fourth grade class had just been given The Talk, and this is never refrenced again in the entire episode. It was probably just an excuse to flip off the Disney censors.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: "The Box"
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: It has it's own page.
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: It has it's own page
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: It has it's own page
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The music that plays whenever TJ has a plan.
    • Mikey's cover of "Green Tamborine" during the credits of The Movie.
  • Ear Worm: The theme tune is VERY catchy.
    • Perhaps not so surprising, given that it seems to be closely-modelled on Elmer Bernstein's famous march from The Great Escape.
    • The Otter Dance
    • The Nitwitz 3 theme
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: King Bob, for his haminess.
    • Cornchip Girl became this for her cuteness
    • Hustler Kid is a pretty popular character among the fandom
    • Butch is as popular as Hustler Kid, and the two are commonly shipped together. He's also popular among Japanese fans, though more people ship him with T.J. over there as opposed to Hustler Kid.
    • Lawson is another Ensemble Darkhorse, especially in Japan, where he's another shipping target for T.J.
    • Miss Grotke's a bit of an Ensemble Darkhorse herself, escpecially among older male fans (which eventually led to her becoming a target for Rule 34), and various other fans who find her cute.
  • Fridge Horror: Dr. Slicer, his treatment of his students and his Nazi-like behaviour raises few uncomfortable questions: 1) Considering his personality, cruelty and his methods what knows what could have happened if Slicer would have taken over Third Street School and remember that he made TJ (who always stands up to adults and rebels against their evil behavior and students are always win because of him) afraid and unable to rebel, 2) What if he was the principal of the other schools and what could have happened in those schools, 3) Considering his Nazi-like behavior, he may be worshiping Nazis and Hitler.
    • In The Movie, Benedict's plan to destroy Summer is bad enough from a kid's point of view, but then you look at it as an adult and realize that he was effectively trying to restart the Ice Age, which would almost certainly destroy civilization, if not humanity in general. All for the sake of test scores.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: Even though the episode in question involves Third Street School's reactions towards a certain government experiment (no points guessing what), the title "Recess Is Cancelled" seems... harsh now.
    • The movie has Dr. Bennedict trying to get rid of recess. He fails, but Micheal Eisner succeeded.
    • In a fantasy sequence in "Teachers Lounge", Miss Grotke's award case features an Emmy award. In real life, Recess was nominated for two Emmys and lost. It did get a Young Artist's Award, though.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show is very popular in Germany, the U.K., Canada, and Japan.
  • Growing the Beard: Season two is when the show started to get really good, with more Character Development, the first uses of the word "whomp", and T.J.'s famous catchphrase, "tender", coming into use.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In one episode, the Ashleys are showing Spinelli pictures of a bunch of boys they like. Spinelli points to one picture and says, "Boys!? That one looks like a girl!". Guess who it resembles
  • Hollywood Homely: For a girl with huge glasses and an overbite, Gretchen's pretty cute.
    • T.J. has been described by the creators as a "funny-looking kid". He's not really that funny-looking.
  • Marty Stu: This dude that was only around for one episode, and who was the focus of said episode. Said dude is basically better than everyone at everything, to the point where he gets contracts from the government despite being no older than any of the other kids. These facts lead into the point of the episode, with him being a Deconstruction of the Marty Stu. Because of these facts, not only is he a social outcast (due to everyone being jealous of him), he's not even at school long enough to make any friends. Once this was elaborated upon & he becomes friends with some of the cast, he's called away & never seen again.
  • Memetic Badass: Miss Grotke
  • Memetic Mutation: This meme whomps!
    • WHO THE HECK IS WHOMPY WHOMPERSON!?
    • The Otter Dance
    • Tender.
    • How deliciously moist...
    • SCANDALOUS!
    • Safety Man!!!
    • You're all a bunch of Hooligans!
    • And YOU must be B.J...
    • Miss Grotke doesn't lie. Lie is such a harsh word. She prefers to say that she "massaged reality".
    • Boys kissing girls...girls kissing boys! And you know what, YOU'RE ALL GONNA LIKE IT!
  • Misaimed Marketing: There was a lighter with the main six on it. Not something you'd buy a member of the target audience.
  • Moe: Cornchip Girl
    • The main six are all pretty adorable, but as kindergartners in Recess: All Growed Down, they were downright moe.
    • Miss Grotke is a rare example of the trope who's over 18 (she's hinted to be in her 30s)
    • T.J. has his moments, and is considered very Moe over in Japan.
    • Gus is one of the cutest kids among the main six.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Mayor Fitzhugh in "The Biggest Trouble Ever " when he wanted to send Recess gang to six desperate schools because they accidentally broke statue of Thaddeus T. Third III and were genuinely remorseful. He also enjoyed his cruel treatment of Recess Gang.
  • Nightmare Fuel: "Schoolworld"
  • Periphery Demographic: There were many teenagers and adults (not just the parents of the target audience, but various other adults without kids) who enjoyed this show when it was on, special mention goes to The Movie, with all the `60s references.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Not a character example, but fans weren't pleased with Myles Jeffery's performance as T.J. in the 2003 DTV movies, Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade and Recess: All Growed Down (except for the kindergarten flashback in the latter, which fans didn't mind), due to him lacking the spunk and having a voice too high for the character than his previous actors. This was subverted, on the other hand, when Andy Lawrence replaced Ross Malinger as T.J. in season two (well, at least after the first two episodes of the season), whom fans believe to have been an even better voice for the character.
    • King Freddie II from Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade was this for King Bob fans. Though he was also this in the eyes of some of the students as well.
  • The Scrappy: Randall in the eyes of some fans. Though this was probably intentional.
  • Seasonal Rot: The sixth and final season is considered the worst of the series, with two Ensemble Darkhorses being dropped and the show becoming Anvilicious.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night: Butch x Hustler Kid is a popular pairing among the fandom...yet the two never really interacted with each other outside of group scenes.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: While the main six are all the main characters (duh) in The Movie, because of who it mainly focuses on, some say Recess: School's Out should've been called The T.J. Detweiler Movie.
    • Gus got a ton of focus in the later episodes, and had the most episodes about him in season four.
  • Tastes Like Diabetes: The main six in kindergarten in "All Growed Down", especially T.J.
  • Tear Jerker: Has it's own page
  • They Just Didn't Care: The Latin American dub just didn't care to pay attention to the original voices of the characters, and most of the voices sound very off (leading to most of the kids sounding like adults)
    • It becomes even more disconcerting in said dub when the kids sound like adults and Miss Grotke sounds more or less like a whiny five-year-old girl.
  • Toy Ship: TJ and Spinelli.
  • Villain Decay: Miss Finster was more of a threat in the first season than the rest of the series, but this was out of Character Development more than anything, so Tropes Are Not Bad.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: While it is a kids show, just look at all the parental bonuses and crap past the radar!
  • The Woobie: Gus, oh so very much. Other examples on other occasions are:
    • Vince in the episode "I Will Kick No More Forever" (and arguably, "Me No Know")
    • Ashley A. in "Outcast Ashley"
    • Gretchen in "Outcast Ashley", "Gretchen and the Secret of Yo", and "More Like Gretchen"
    • Spinelli in "Parents' Night", "Mama's Girl", and "More Like Gretchen"
    • Miss Finster in "Weekend at Muriel's"
    • Mikey in several episodes, from "The Voice" and onward.