History Characters / RegularShowMainCharacters

* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Not getting a high school diploma and sometimes being reminded that he only got his current job by Mordecai vouching for him. [[spoiler:He eventually does get his degree, though.]]

** For Mordecai and Margaret. At first it was zig-zagged, but then played perfectly straight until Margaret's departure on season 4.

* IKnowMortalKombat: Inverted; it's all but stated that the otherwise tech-illiterate Skips is an unmatched expert at the video games Mordecai and Rigby play because the controls for the PowerFist he periodically uses to fend of Klorgbane are exactly the same. This leads into a straight example of the trope where Mordecai and Rigby are experts at using the fists for the inverse reason.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Proven in the "Death Punch" episode.

* DeathIsCheap: Rigby has died at least three times (expelled from his own body, thrown into a time void, crushed during an arm wrestling match), being revived each time.

** The first Halloween special drives home Rigby's dependency on his friends. The characters all share a horror story for the group: Pops' idea of horror is a scary doll drawing on people's faces. Muscle Man's idea of horror is dying in a crash. Rigby's idea of horror? Everyone ''but'' him dying and before finally being left all alone. He dies too, at the end, by means of a giant egg. This gets worse when you find out later he is deathly allergic to eggs.

** The first Halloween special drives home Rigby's dependency on his friends. The characters all share a horror story for the group: Pop's idea of horror is a scary doll drawing on people's faces. Muscle Man's idea of horror is dying in a crash. Rigby's idea of horror? Everyone ''but'' him dying and before finally being left all alone. He dies too, at the end, by means of a giant egg. This gets worse when you find out later he is deathly allergic to eggs.

** "I Like You Hi" shows Mordecai and CJ taking art classes.

* InformedAbility: He mentioned offhand in "Camping Can Be Cool" that he went to an art college, though initially didn't actually shown any real interest or talent in art (though that could just be a throwaway reference to his creator and voice actor, J.G. Quintel), though in "The Best VHS in the World", he did tell Button [=McButtonWillow=] that he should take life drawing classes because of how bad his fanart of The Best VHS in the World is. In "Fool Me Twice", Mordecai brings up attending art college again but Rigby reveals that he never graduated which may explain why he works as a groundskeeper. It becomes subverted in "Bad Portrait" where Mordecai paints a portrait and it's revealed that we never see him draw or paint is because of him struggling with doing portraits and his fear of people misinterpreting or getting offended by his artwork. He gets over it by the end, [[spoiler:as he paints a painting that is incredibly well received and ends up hung in Benson's office]] and is seen taking an art class at community college with CJ in "I Like You Hi". [[spoiler: The finale shows Mordecai becoming a successful artist in the future, with the pieces we see being done in abstract styles]].

--->'''"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!! YOU LAZY, NO-GOOD SLACKERS [[BerserkButton DRIVE ME]] ''[[BerserkButton NUTS]]!!!'' CAN'T YOU JUST LISTEN TO ME ''ONCE'' IN YOUR WORTHLESS LIVES?!?! 'CAUSE IF YOU DID, YOU'D SEE THAT [[ToughLove I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TEACH YOU SOME SIMPLE RESPONSIBILITY, SOME PRIDE IN DOING A JOB WELL DONE]]!!! BUT YOU WOULDN'T KNOW A JOB WELL DONE [[TheSlacker IF YOU PAID SOMEONE TO DO IT FOR YOU]], AND EVEN THEN [[JerkassHasAPoint YOU'D SCREW IT ALL UP ON ACCOUNT THAT YOU CAN'T EVEN FOLLOW THE]] ''[[JerkassHasAPoint SIMPLEST]]'' [[JerkassHasAPoint INSTRUCTIONS, WORRYING MORE ABOUT LOOKING COOL THAN]] ''[[JerkassHasAPoint DOING YOUR JOB]]''!!!"'''

* OutOfFocus: Downplayed in Season 7. After the last two seasons focused heavily on his love life, Mordecai takes a back seat to Rigby (who gets several episodes where he's the lead). There are still a bunch of episodes focusing on him and Rigby, but the only episode where Mordecai is the main character is "Just Friends", where he shares the role with Margaret. He also has minimal screentime in "The Lunch Club" and "Hello China".

* {{Foil}}: He could be considered one to Mordecai, since they were portrayed as being rivals early on. Mordecai is a tall, lanky, blue bird who is a mellow NiceGuy, but he's irresponsible, is VitriolicBestBuds Rigby, and has a disastrous love life centered around two girls. Muscle Man on the other hand is a short, fat green humanoid who can be an obnoxious {{Jerkass}}, but is hardworking, rarely has beef with Fives, and is in a healthy relationship for most of the series.

The show's main cast consists of seven guys who are employees of an urban park. Mordecai, Rigby, Benson, Pops, Skips, Muscle Man and High Five Ghost (or Fives). And the majority of the show is centered on how insane and off the wall their lives can get with normal, mundane tasks and in just ''eleven minutes''.

* {{Gonk}}: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. He's the most consistently unattractive man in the cast, but its more owed to his slobbish behavior. When he actually [[HeCleansUpNicely dresses himself properly and combs his hair]], he more resembles a BigBeautifulMan.