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* [[Nerds Are Sexy]]: Kind of the whole point.
* [[Neural Implanting]]: How the Intersect is put into Chuck's brain in the first place.
* [[Never Mess with Granny]]: As of "Chuck Versus the Push Mix
** Hartley Winterbottom's mother qualifies as well.
* [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]]: The function of Intersect 2.0 in Chuck's head.
* [[Nice Guy]]: Chuck Bartowski.
** Despite being very muscular, Devon is a very gentle person.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]:
** Ted Roark is essentially Steve Jobs if Steve Jobs decided to moonlight as a murderous supervillain.
** Premier Alejandro Fulgencio Goya seems to be based on Fidel Castro (though in "Chuck Versus the Coup d'Etat", there is a mention of him hanging out with the real Castro). In "Chuck Versus the Angel de la Muerte"
* [[Non-Lethal KO]]: The tranq gun is Chuck's [[Weapon of Choice]].
* [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]]: Alexei Volkoff, though apparently a Russian, retains [[Timothy Dalton]]'s English accent. Justified in "Chuck Versus Agent X"
* [[Not Himself]]: {{spoiler|Morgan with the Intersect. Chuck
**
*** Ahem. The real cue for Chuck was
* [[Not So Dire]]: Very common gag.
* [[No, You Go First]]: Happens a lot between Chuck and Sarah.
* [[Odd Couple]]: The moment {{spoiler|Morgan Grimes hired John Casey as Lieutenant Assistant Manager at the Buy More}} is the moment a new, hilarious [[Odd Couple]] was born. {{spoiler|This continues to be hilarious the moment John Casey inducts Morgan Grimes to the CIA and is assigned to train him
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Beckman:''' It was ''your'' idea to make him part of the team, it's ''your'' job to make him field-ready. He's a diamond in the rough... very, very rough... but I'm sure you'll make him... [[Sarcasm Mode|sparkle]]
* [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]:
** FULCRUM.
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* [[Overprotective Dad]]: Casey.
* [[Parental Abandonment]]: A recurring theme.
** Chuck and Ellie's mother "left them" and their father "wasn't around much
** Morgan's father is never seen or mentioned.
** Sarah
** Vivian Volkoff being abandoned by her father.
** {{spoiler|Casey}} was this to Alex, who grew up thinking he'd died before she was born, although he wasn't aware her mother was pregnant at the time he disappeared.
* [[Part-Time Hero]]
* [[Performance Anxiety]]: Chuck has difficulty using his ability to "flash" while under pressure.
* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: This has often been played straight as part of the show's [[UST]].
** As Morgan puts it in "Chuck Versus the Coup d'Etat":
{{quote|'''Morgan''': You are both, without a doubt, crap communicators. No, no, no- precious looks and whimsical little make-ups after big misunderstandings... you guys are fantastic, sure. But actual, real-life day-to-day communication?
'''Chuck''': Fine, I get it.
* [[Portmanteau Couple Name]]: Jeffster! (as a platonic version for [[Those Two Guys]]). Invoked in-universe.
* [[Power Incontinence]]: See [[Green Lantern Ring]] above. If Chuck could do all that on command, he would be a [[Boring Invincible Hero]]. Fortunately - fortunately for the plot, unfortunately for the characters - his ability to flash on a skill depends on his emotional state in some not-yet-clear way. When he's nervous in a taking-a-test or stage-fright way, he can't flash, and when he's afraid for his own well-being, he can't flash (unless the person he feels threatened by is a pro wrestler), but when he's afraid for the sake of someone he cares about, then he flashes all the time, whether it's a good idea or not.
* [[Pretty Little Headshots]]: Boy howdy, "Chuck Versus the Fake Name". A sniper rifle with a large enough caliber to make the shot half a mile away, leaves a small head wound on a guy's head. This would be possible if the back of his head was blown out, but not a speck of blood is visible around the body.
** Also, the agent shot by Sofia in "Chuck Versus the Suitcase".
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* [[Product Placement]]:
** Toyota. Taken a bit far at one point when Chuck extols the virtues of the Venza as a getaway car.
*** When called out by Ellie for buying a minivan, Awesome actually responds with "Toyota Sienna, safest family auto in its class." Even though Awesome keeps on trying to sell Ellie on the Sienna (dropping all sorts of statistics on its safety, natch), she prefers to ride her dad's "unsafe" Mustang '68 convertible.
** Subway, especially in
** Looking for a new drinking game? Take a shot every time you see an iPhone.
** [http://www.sleepsheep.com/ Sleep Sheep!] Though, real ones don't play Jeffster! songs.
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* [[Public Secret Message]]: {{spoiler|Stephen Bartowski}} provides Ellie with a method for contacting him through coded messages in the personal ads.
* [[Put on a Bus]]:
** Anna Wu at the start of
** Hannah later in the same season.
** Harry Tang is sent to Hawaii in
* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: Adam Baldwin could almost be the [[Trope Codifier]] for this. John Casey is a [[The Comically Serious|Comically Serious]], [[Necessarily Evil]] [[Colonel Badass]] who carefully upholds a [[Jerkass Facade]] and is a veteran of basically everything since the 1980s. Very much a real man, right? He also meticulously takes care of a bonsai tree, has perfect pitch due to a childhood as a choirboy, and is apparently quite skilled at wedding planning and decorating:
{{quote|'''Miles''': ''*
'''Casey''': No, no, no. That clashes with the bunting.
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Carina and Sarah.
* [[Refusal of the Call]]
* [[Remember the New Guy?]]: Season 5's final [[Big Bad]] Nicholas Quinn.
* [[Repurposed Pop Song]]: The [[Theme Tune]] for ''Chuck'' is an instrumental thirty-second cut of "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" by Cake.
* [[Reset Button]]: The writers seem to love [[Status Quo Is God|hitting this]] in the cruelest ways possible. In the
* [[Romantic False Lead]]: Bryce, Jill, Lou, Shaw, Hannah... seemingly correct choices for Sarah and Chuck who ended up disappointing them.
* [[Running Gag]]:
** "Chuck, [[Wait Here|stay in the car]]." (
{{quote|'''Chuck''': It's ''never'' safe in the car!}}
** In Season 1, Chuck needs to come up with an excuse to explain Sarah's absence, and he blurts out the first thing which comes to mind, which to his surprise is that "she has a spastic colon". From this point onwards, he uses this excuse whenever he needs to cover for Sarah in civilian life. In
** Every time a hot girl walks through the Buy More, the Buy More Wind Machine appears to be running and pointing directly at the girl in question, whose hair billows gently in its artificial breeze as she [[Male Gaze|strides through the store in slow motion]].
*** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in "Chuck Versus the Three Words", where Carina gets the treatment walking into a housewarming party. Apparently the Buy More staffers bring it with them wherever they go.
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** Captain Awesome has a tendency to accidentally tackle the good guy (see "Chuck Versus the Angel de la Muerte" or "Chuck Versus the American Hero").
** Jeff's tolerance for drugs of all kinds has definitely become a [[Running Gag]]. He uses chloroform recreationally and shrugs off ''[[Immune to Drugs|three times as many tranq darts as it takes to put Casey down]]''.
** Also, various people alluding to the Tron poster Chuck has. {{spoiler|It's a [[Chekhov's Gun]]
{{quote|'''Heather Chandler:''' Thanks for that, movie dork. I bet you have, like, a Tron poster in your room.}}
** [[MI 6]] agents are always undercover
** If [[With My Hands Tied|your hands are bound]] behind your back and you don't have any accessible tools to unbound yourself, you'll probably have to break your thumbs. This has been referenced at least once a season since
*** Lampshaded by Tuttle in "Chuck Versus the First Fight" when he discovers a method that doesn't involve breaking his thumbs. {{spoiler|Of course, since he's actually Alexei Volkoff and they were on his plane, he probably wasn't actually bound}}. Volkoff actually uses this (non-thumb-breaking) technique in "Chuck Versus the Push Mix".
** Sweeping the leg comes up quite often.
* [[Scary Black Man]]:
** Big Mike (partially subverted).
** Mr. Colt (played by Michael Clarke Duncan, so of course he is) in "Chuck Versus the First Date".
** Mitt (played by Michael Strahan) in "Chuck Versus the Breakup".
* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]]: Numerous times throughout the series, but a notable example pops up in the
* [[Sealed with a Kiss]]: Every episode 13 from Season 3 on
* [[Secret Identity]]:
** No cowl and no cape, but Chuck's status as both an agent and the human Intersect is kept secret from his family and friends. {{spoiler|At least, until mid-third season. Even Ellie and Devon don't know about the human Intersect, and in
** Just about every spy in this show seems to have one. Sarah Walker and John Casey are both covers:
*** Sarah's real name was partly revealed, assuming she wasn't lying when she told Shaw her real first name
*** Casey's given name was
*** Heck, even Chuck is known in the CIA and NSA as "Charles Carmichael" rather than "Chuck Bartowski".
* [[Secret Keeper]]:
** As of the end of Season 2
** As of the end of Season 3, {{spoiler|Morgan Grimes and Ellie Bartowski
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Morgan:''' My best friend is a spy? This is the best news I've ever heard
{{spoiler|'''Ellie:''' Morgan Grimes--the boy that took my ''pillow'' as his date to Junior Prom--knows more about my family being spies than I do
** By the end of the show, {{spoiler|the only member of the main cast who ISN'T one is Big Mike
{{quote|[[spoiler:'''Big Mike''': So what you're saying is, Chuck Bartowski is a spy who runs a spy company ''beneath the store''?
'''Lester''': The exciting part of the story is that ''we'' saved the day. You didn't get that? We'll go again.
'''Big Mike''': I got it. But do I ''believe'' it? [[Cassandra Truth|Not a word, boys. Not a word
*** But given that
* [[Sensitive Guy and Manly Man]]: Casey often mocks Chuck and his "lady feelings".
* [[Sexy Walk]]: Almost all sexy women who walk into the Buy More and Sarah when she's wearing a [[Stripperific]] outfit.
* [[Shipper on Deck]]: Pretty much everyone ships Chuck and Sarah. Even Casey. ''Even Beckman''.
* [[Shoot the Dog]]:
* [[Shout-Out]]: [[Chuck/Shout Out|So many, we had to give it its own page.]]
* [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]]
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** Pre-show, [[First Episode Spoiler|Sarah and Bryce]].
** Double subversion: James Bond [[Expy]] Cole Barker tries to woo Sarah into this only to give up when he realizes she's in love with Chuck. "Well, who'd have thought it? Cole Barker loses the girl to Chuck Bartowski."
** Sarah and Shaw become this in
** As of "Chuck Versus the Other Guy", {{spoiler|Chuck and Sarah finally qualify
** Casey and Verbanski, in
* [[Statuesque Stunner]]: Two, no less: Ellie and Sarah.
* [[Status Quo Is God]]: No matter what happens at the end of each season, Chuck and Morgan will always end up back at the Buy More. At the end of
* [[Stepford Smiler]]:
** While she is a genuinely nice person, Sarah has a disturbing ability to turn on a perky, bubbly personality at will even if it is completely at odds with her actual feelings. Chuck eventually lampshades this aspect of her personality in the second season
** In "Chuck Versus the Breakup", after a particularly heart-breaking speech from Chuck, they both do this at exactly the same time. Quite moving, considering both of them had been on the verge of crying only moments before. In detail: Chuck has been convinced that Sarah's feelings for him will get one or both of them killed, and so lies through his teeth, telling Sarah that he wants someone normal and that she can "never be normal". Chuck is not liking to have to be saying this, and Sarah is... well, she's just been told that Chuck, the first person she has ever loved, doesn't want to be with her because she is a spy. She's crushed. And then the two of them look at each other sadly, and then put on really sincere-looking grins as they prepare to spend the night pretending to be a couple and discussing Ellie and Devon's upcoming wedding.
* [[Stock Superhero Day Jobs|Stock Spy Cover Jobs]]: Actually quite an original one - as a computer techie, Chuck's got a 9-5 job that he can easily drop at a moments notice just by claiming he's "on an install". How Casey the floor-sales guy gets away with the same thing is... [[Fridge Logic|less clear]].
** It's somewhat explained that everyone is too afraid of Casey to ask. Also considering how insane the other employees can be, someone no-nonsense like Casey would be a
* [[Sugar and Ice Personality]]: Sarah.
* [[Take That]]: The show doesn't seem to hold the FBI in high regard. Chuck bluffs about having an enemy surrounded by a task force. When the villain points out that he can't see anyone, Chuck responds with "Of course you can't. Who do you think we are, the FBI?" In another episode, they have to sneak past two FBI agents and when Chuck makes a noise, Casey cautions him "It's the FBI, they're dumb not deaf."
* [[Talking Heads]]: Beckman and Graham start out as this. But in later seasons, Beckman's character becomes more fleshed out. She makes a few in-person appearances (and even going on the field with them in one episode) and her communications with Team Bartowski show her in settings other than her office, such as her home. She also becomes more a part of the show's humor rather than just a [[Mr. Exposition|Ms. Exposition]].
* [[Those Two Guys]]: Jeff and Lester.
* [[Time Compression Montage]]: [[Subverted]] in
* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Over the course of
** Also
**
* [[Too Kinky to Torture]]: Jeff. Possibly Lester.
* [[True Companions]]:
** Team Bartowski, extending to Morgan, Ellie and Awesome; especially after {{spoiler|they all become [[Secret Keeper|Secret Keepers]]}}.
** The Buy More staff. Except for [[Jerkass|Harry Tang and Emmett Milbarge]].
* [[Tyrant Takes the Helm]]: Emmett Milbarge stars in this story arc.
* [[Unrequited Love Switcheroo]]: Although Chuck's interest in Sarah is pretty much clear from the beginning, Sarah initially insists that their relationship is only part of their cover. However, when Chuck moves on and begins to date a girl
* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: Non-sexual example. Casey's codename for briefings is "yogurt time".
* [[UST]]: Frequently. Chuck is a [[Hollywood Nerd]] with a really hot [[Action Girlfriend]]. However, to her it's just a job, or at least she is trying to maintain her professionalism and her calm reserve, especially after how her last workplace relationship ended. ''Every''one has remarked on her feelings for him, and he wears his heart on his sleeve. After a brief period of trying to be a couple, mostly off-screen between
* [[Video Phone]]: General Beckman's interchanges with the team mostly happen through one of these, as do liaisons between Castle and various field operatives.
* [[Visual Pun]]: Chuck frequently wears Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers.
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* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]:
** The assassin from "Chuck Versus the Angel de la Muerte". He fails to assassinate Goya, kidnaps Awesome to set up "Chuck Versus Operation Awesome", but isn't heard from again.
** Season 2 ends with {{spoiler|Stephen}} handing Chuck his wrist computer so that he can help Casey and Sarah {{spoiler|stop The Ring from taking the new Intersect}}. In
*** The wrist computer was last seen in Orion's secret base.
* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Although neither seem to have any problems when it comes to killing in the heat of battle or in self-defense, both Chuck and Sarah enter this mode with regards to each other at various points: Chuck, after seeing Sarah {{spoiler|murder the FULCROM agent to protect him}} in "Chuck Versus Santa Claus" and Sarah enters this mode regarding Chuck when she
* [[Will They or Won't They?]]: Chuck and Sarah:
** Brutally [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] by the bad guys of all people in "Chuck Versus the Fake Name
** Drawn out for more than twenty episodes ''after'' they demonstrated their feelings for each other, complete with numerous [[Reset Button|ResetButtons]]. This may be a new record.
**
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''General Beckman:''' And off the record? [[Lampshade Hanging|It's about damn time
** A somewhat ambiguous example in the finale where the viewer is left to wonder {{spoiler|whether Chuck and Sarah actually do end up together when Sarah has no memory of their relationship. It's implied that she's getting her memories back and that the [[Sealed with a Kiss|final kiss]] means they're headed back to normalcy, but not everyone saw it that way
* [[X Meets Y]]: ''[[Get Smart]]'' meets ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''.
* [[You Look Familiar]]: The actor who played Yuri the Gobbler had also played one of La Ciudad's goons.
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