The Middleman: Difference between revisions

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

* [[Actor Allusion]]: In "The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse", {{spoiler|they stick Tyler ([[Lie to Me (TV series)|Brendan Hines]]) in the interrogation room, to find out if he's telling the truth. The room has a lie-detection system.}}

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

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

* [[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

* [[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.

* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: Doesn't that guy from Varsity Fanclub look familiar? It's Bobby Edner, who played Justin Smith in the second episode of Veronica Mars.

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: The aformentioned Little Vladdie was played by [[Gideon Emery]], who is best known for his roles in [[Final Fantasy XII|video]] [[Dragon Age 2|games]].

** 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"

** The first episode is called "The Pilot Episode Sanction," from the first trade paperback titled "The Trade Paperback Imperative."

** The second is called "The Accidental Occidental Conception".

** "The Flying Fish Zombification"

** "The Boy Band Superfan Interrogation"

** "[http://themiddleblog.livejournal.com/35995.html The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation]"

** "[http://themiddleblog.livejournal.com/35802.html The Obsolescent Cryogenic Meltdown]"

** And #13 - "The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse".

* [["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.

{{quote|'''Tyler:'''"That's the longest game of stump the band I've ever seen without hearing any music."}}

* [[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]].

* [[Mentor Ship]]: Between the Middleman and Wendy according to some parts of the fandom, {{spoiler|and between the Middleman and ''his'' Middleman, Raveena Rao, in [[Canon]]}}.

* [[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.}}

{{quote|'''The Middleman:''' Dubbie, cover your eyes! [fires device, which subdues someone who had been hiding on the ceiling]

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

** [[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

{{quote|'''Middleman:''' Photographic Memory?

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

* [[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}}.

** [[Indiana Jones]]

** ''Jake2.0'': A show Javier Grillo-Marxuach worked on before ''[[The Middleman]]''

** ''Joe 90''

** ''[[Kill Bill]]''

* [[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.