The Middleman: Difference between revisions

* [[Absurdly High Stakes Game]]: Shabumi in "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown"

* [[Action Girl]]: Wendy Watson, bien sur!

** The Fabulous Face, former Middle organization super villain.

** Guy Goddard {{spoiler|former Middleman}}.

** Wendy Watson

** And as of the Comic-Con panel for the 13th episode: {{spoiler|previous Middleman Raveena Rao, and Clarence Colton, the current Middleman's real name.}}

* [[Air Vent Passageway]]: Lampshaded ("Was this building designed by television writers?") and then justified with "The [[Shout-Out|Nakatomi]] Protocol."

* [[Aliens Speaking English]]: Justified, they live on Earth after all.

* [[The Alleged Car]]: Wendy's Hruck Bugbear AKA "the poor man's Yugo."

'''The Middleman''': You said you had a car! }}

* [[Allergic to Love]]: The Middleman himself has a mild to moderate case.

* [[Alternate History]]: The Titanic figures in. And they did the research.

* [[Applied Phlebotinum]]: The Middleman admits he has no idea whence come the weapons and gadgets and things -- they just show up sometimes in boxes.

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: In the 13th episode: {{spoiler|"You murdered my boyfriend, destroyed my workplace, trapped Noser in a giant diamond, gave my best friend Lacey leukemia, and did God knows what to the only father figure I've ever known, and the worst you could think to do to me was ''put me in '''[[Star Wars|a slave girl costume]]'''?''"}}

* [[Artifact of Doom]]: The Cursed Tuba.

* [[Badass]]: The altMiddleman - or the [[Fan Nickname|Plisskenman]] - as well as the altNoser.

* [[Beard of Evil]]: ''Every'' male in the alternate universe has a goatee. {{spoiler|Except from the guy who wants to leave it}}

* [[Big No]]: In the very first episode

* [[Blackmail]]: Pip against Wendy.

** Tahiti Water is a [[Captain Ersatz]] of Fiji water.

** [[Scout Out|Wilderness Girls = Girl Scouts]]

*** Skinny Mints = Thin Mints

*** Bora Boras = Samoas

** The uMaster = The iPod

* [[Birds of a Feather]]: Wendy and Tyler

* [[Calvin Ball]]: The card game.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: Don Calfari in the pilot.

'''Don Calfari''': That would mean someone had to give the order... Someone that was not me. }}

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Pip tries to tell everyone that Noser is a ventriloquist, but it doesn't really help that he puts in the part about Lacey kissing him.

* [[Cat Fight]]: Subverted, bigtime.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Several:

** "You have to admit, my plan is sheer elegance in its simplicity."

* [[Celebrity Star]]: [[Boy Band]] Varsity Fanclub

* [[Celestial Bureaucracy]]: The Underworld is a giant office building with files in the back room.

* [[Chekhov MIA]]: Wendy's father disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

** The concussive stun field generator.

** The rarely accurate Tarot card reader girl.

** And don't forget the catsuit and the "[[Dr. No|Honey Ryder]] nightmare."

** Prefer your eye candy male? The Middleman's spent some time in a bicep-baring toga (and later a tank top), altMiddleman goes shirtless in leather pants. And then there was the time he wore a tux. And got handcuffed to a pipe.

* [[Fantastic Voyage]]: Or, as they put it, [[Die Hard on an X|Die Hard]]. In a robot.

* [[Final Speech]]: {{spoiler|Cindy's}}.

* [[Foreshadowing]]

* [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself]]: Supernatural creatures picking jobs that no one would bat an eye at discovering them doing.

* [[Geeky Turn On]]: Wendy and her boyfriend have sex for the first time after locating and playing an ultra-rare, super violent video game.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: The bleeping occurs only when it's funnier to do so.

** Dub-Dub said "[[Planet of the Apes|Get your paws off me, you damn dirty ape]]" without being bleeped.

** Wendy also used a tube of brown paint to make an excrement metaphor.

** "Now let's try to get there before that little girl sucks the band through a hole... [[In Space]]. "

** In "The Cursed Tuba", the Middleman is telling Lacey why they can't date, citing a "rule at my job". He wishes he could get around the rule, but his choice of quote and metaphor has an unfortunate alternate interpretation...

** The Middleman insists that Wendy must infiltrate the Omegas because a sorority house is the one place someone like him would never be "allowed to penetrate".

** The last televised episode has Wendy's boyfriend spending the night.

** Wendy referring to the genetics lab monster as a "hentai tentacle monster".

* [[Heroes-R-Us]]: O2STK, the "Organization Too Secret To Know", which apparently bankrolls and operates the Middleman Organization.

* [[He Who Must Not Be Seen]]: Sensei Ping, after his introductory episode.

** In "The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown", {{spoiler|Middleman '69 [[Redemption Equals Death|sacrifices himself]] to save the current-day Middleman, who he had [[Face Heel Turn|betrayed]] in jealousy earlier on.}}

** In "The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse", {{spoiler|the Middleman makes "the ultimate sacrifice." It's not what you think it is.}}

* [[Human Popsicle]]: There's a Middleman who was in cryogenic storage until he was needed.

* [[Hunting the Most Dangerous Game]]: "The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum"

* [["I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight]]

* [[Informed Ability]]: Noser's abilities with music and ventriloquism are supposed to be virtuoso level; we know this from the reactions of people around him rather than ever seeing him ply his craft.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: approximately half of the snark, lending credence to Wendy's [[Photographic Memory]].

* [[It's Not You, It's My Enemies]]

* [[It's Personal]]: Certain things make even MM break the rules.

'''Wendy:''' It's just a very specific thing to hate. }}

* [[Jerkass]]: Pip is usually described as a "malignant nematode", but the idea is the same.

*** And then [[Chekhov's Gun|it's used in "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol]].

* [[Literal Metaphor]]: More a case of confused slang terms.

'''Guy:''' I meant a drink. }}

* [[Layman's Terms]]: MM explaining the H.E.Y.D.A.R. to Wendy.

* [[Martial Pacifist]]: Dub-Dub and to a lesser degree, Lacey, playfully parody the trope.

* [[McGuffin]]: In "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome," all of them are named after famous [[McGuffin|McGuffins]].

* [[Mickey Mousing]]: Sensei Ping's every sudden move is accompanied by a "whoosh!" sound effect. Possibly an [[Actor Allusion]] to Mark Dacascos's [[Iron Chef America|most famous role]].

* [[Missed the Call]]: Tyler was supposed to be the next apprentice Middleman... but his roommate misplaced the envelope.

* [[Monsters Anonymous]]: Roxy Wasserman's succubus halfway house.

** The guitars of Spy Mysteriousness.

** The horns of [[Spy Drama]].

** In the comics, his first name is revealed as {{spoiler|Clarence, during his funeral.}}

** In the 13th episode, his name is revealed as {{spoiler|Clarence Colton.}}

'''Wendy:''' [who paused to ask why rather than simply obeying and got hit by the device's discharge] ...concussive stun field generator. Yeah. '''[thud]''' }}

* [[Noodle Incident]]: Lacey refers to something involving "blueberry pudding pops and the elliptical machine."

** A slightly different version of the trope is used when the Middleman and Dubbie manage to bluff NASA away from a downed space probe...by pretending to be NASA. After the real agents leave...

'''The Middleman:''' It's thinking like ''that'' that led to drug-resistant malaria. }}

::: Note however that doing the same thing every time ''really is'' what leads to drug-resistant malaria...

** In the same episode, a minute earlier...

* [[Older Than They Look]]: If everything said about Sensei Ping is taken at face value, he must be at least seventy years old, but he only appears to be around forty.

* [[Once an Episode]]: ''Every'' [[Motive Rant]] includes the villain claiming that his or her plan is "sheer elegance in its simplicity."

** [[Disappeared Dad]]: Wendy's father has been missing since she was 14. All she has to remember him by is a Zippo lighter {{spoiler|which the Middleman used to frame her for the event at which they met so he could recruit her}}.

* [[The Pete Best]]: Tyler

'''Wendy:''' Abstract Impressionist. }}

* [[Pineal Weirdness]]: Apparently losing your pineal gland either lets you see ghosts or puts you in psychic contact with your [[Mirror Universe]] counterpart.

* [[The Power of Love]]: {{spoiler|MM and Lacey}}

** What might be a subversion, as they are taken hostage/over by demonic puppets, which turn into real people if married while on the arms of two people who are in true love.

** The Middleman organization's motto: {{smallcaps| ''Pugnantes Malos, ne hos Pugnetis''}}: We Fight Evil So You Don't Have To

** Pip used pretentious Latin in the gallery show he'd tried to pull off: {{smallcaps| Deus ex Pip}}.

'''Lacey:''' That's not what it means. }}

* [[Prophecy Twist]]: "Young Noser will be rent limb from limb to save you!"

* [[Rule of Cool]]: Sensei Ping.

* [[Running Gag]]: The Interrodroid getting its head ripped off, Ida always calling Wendy a stoner, and removal of the pineal gland causing psychic powers. Also, the fake IDs used by Middleman and Wendy:

'''Wendy''': Well, if you can teach the criminally insane, you can teach anyone. }}

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: The Middleman gives Wendy a list of three things she must never bring up in conversation with Sensei Ping. Naturally, she ends up bringing up all three.

* [[Serial Escalation]]: Every episode seems able to top the last in making everything ''more'' awesome.

* [[Shoe Phone]]: There's a lot of unusual spy gear, ranging from watches to funky glasses.

* [[Spicy Latina]]: Invoked by Middleman '69, who refers to Wendy as "a hot and spicy Spanish girl."

* [[Split Screen]]: very uniquely done.

* [[Spy Catsuit]]: "This is how a real woman dresses?"

* [[Spy Drama]]: Spoofed, bigtime.

* [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]: Lacey and MM.

* [[Strange Minds Think Alike]]: This show practically runs on it.

* [[Technical Pacifist]]: Wendy hates guns, but has a bit of a geeky affection for the sci-fi weapons the Middle organization uses. She also loves training with Sensei Ping, and she frequently protests the Middleman's tendencies toward violence. But she had no problem whatsoever beating a venomous Peruvian Pike to death.

* [[They Fight Crime]]:So you don't have to.

* [[Title In]]: Spoofed, playfully, and with increasing wackiness and tongue-in-cheekness.

* [[Truth Serums]]: One of the Middleman's gadgets works like a room-wide dispersal of such.

* [[Tyke Bomb]]: Cindy

* [[The Unpronounceable]]: The name of the energy drink "!!!!" is "pronounced" by doing jazz hands, stomping a foot, and making a rather enthusiastic face.

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: Frequently used by the Middleman, usually a form of [[Shout-Out]]. "[[The Guns of Navarone|Guns of Navaronne]]!" "[[Flowers for Algernon]]!"

* [[UST]]: MM and Lacey. And sort of freakily, Middleman '69 and ''Ida''. Pip and Lacey.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: A brilliant physics student invents a way to take over other people's bodies - and uses it to get revenge on a sorority.

* [[What Would X Do?]]: "WWWWD...What would Wendy Watson do?"

* [[Will Not Tell a Lie]]: The Middleman, at least when he's not undercover. Hilariously used in the pilot:

'''Middleman:''' Self-knowledge is the gateway to true happiness, Dubby. }}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:TV Series]]