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* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: Both the pilot and "Pretty Great Day With A Girl" from season 1 has a much more laid back and even melancholic tone akin to ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold''. The rest of the show is a full-on ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''-esque ZanyCartoon with at times even SadistShow elements and NegativeContinuity.
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Trope has been disambiguated. Removing for not fitting any other tropes.


* SurpriseCreepy:
** "Rise and Shine" has Clarence encounter a ''mountain lion'' in his backyard.
** "Rough Riders Elementary" has Clarence's school enter into a partnership with Rough Riders Chicken [[spoiler: who turn out to an alien chicken cult that uses their brand-new Cinnamon Ranch sauce to turn the students into mindless drones. The whole thing turns out to be Clarence's project on "Why Rough Riders Chicken is My Favorite Food."]]
** "Clarence's Stormy Sleepover" has Jeff tell a story that implies he came close to discovering what might have been a dead body. In the end, Percy plays with his "treasure", a severed hand.
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Off Model is definition only


* OffModel: Done deliberately in "Lil' Buddy" with Sumo. When he repeatedly stabs a twig in a mud puddle, he's drawn in a scratchier style to show his inner rage.

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* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: "Pilot Expansion," which is just the original pitch pilot of ''Clarence'' sandwiched between framing devices of Jeff, Clarence and Sumo as old men in the future trying to tell the story of how they met. And, for reasons known only to the writers, it ends with a shout-out to ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''.
** "Goldfish Follies," which shows Clarence bringing a goldfish home from the pet store as a Fleischer Studios cartoon.
* SpaghettiKiss: In "The Forgotten", Clarence finds spaghetti in the dumpster and asks Brady to eat it with him "like dogs do".

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* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: "Pilot Expansion," which is just the original pitch pilot of ''Clarence'' sandwiched between framing devices of Jeff, Clarence and Sumo as old men in the future trying to tell the story of how they met. And, for reasons known only to the writers, it ends with a shout-out to ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''.
SpaghettiKiss:
** "Goldfish Follies," which shows Clarence bringing a goldfish home from the pet store as a Fleischer Studios cartoon.
* SpaghettiKiss:
In "The Forgotten", Clarence finds spaghetti in the dumpster and asks Brady to eat it with him "like dogs do".
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-->'''''Sumo''': "Do you think making Clarence eat 500 deviled eggs that sat out in the sun was a bad idea?"''

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-->'''''Sumo''': -->'''Sumo''': "Do you think making Clarence eat 500 deviled eggs that sat out in the sun was a bad idea?"''idea?"
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* NotWhereTheyThought: In "Field Trippin'", when Clarence comes back from the gas station, he mistakenly enters the bus to West Aberdale Elementary instead of Aberdale Elementary. He realizes that he's on the wrong bus when he sees a kid he doesn't recognize in one of the seats.

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* RealityEnsues: The show utilizes this trope to maximum effect in order to subvert all the cliched premises, tropes, and character types seen in children's slice-of-life shows.
** In "Straight Illin'", Clarence ate 500 deviled eggs to fulfill the dare made by Belson who's only doing it to take him down a notch. Clarence get sick not just because he ate too many of them, but also because the eggs stayed outside where it was sunny and hot... Rotting them enough to give him the egg virus which infect the whole school.
-->'''''Sumo''': "Do you think making Clarence eat 500 deviled eggs that sat out in the sun was a bad idea?"''

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* RealityEnsues: The show utilizes this trope to maximum effect in order to subvert all the cliched premises, tropes, and character types seen in children's slice-of-life shows.
** In "Straight Illin'", Clarence ate 500 deviled eggs to fulfill the dare made by Belson who's only doing it to take him down a notch. Clarence get sick not just because he ate too many of them, but also because the eggs stayed outside where it was sunny and hot... Rotting them enough to give him the egg virus which infect the whole school.
-->'''''Sumo''': "Do you think making Clarence eat 500 deviled eggs that sat out in the sun was a bad idea?"''


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* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The show utilizes this trope to maximum effect in order to subvert all the cliched premises, tropes, and character types seen in children's slice-of-life shows.
** In "Straight Illin'", Clarence ate 500 deviled eggs to fulfill the dare made by Belson who's only doing it to take him down a notch. Clarence get sick not just because he ate too many of them, but also because the eggs stayed outside where it was sunny and hot... Rotting them enough to give him the egg virus which infect the whole school.
-->'''''Sumo''': "Do you think making Clarence eat 500 deviled eggs that sat out in the sun was a bad idea?"''
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* ScaryStingingSwarm: In the pilot, Clarence somehow fills a piñata with bees then breaks it open near the end.
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* NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel/{{Clarence}} Has its own page.]]
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* Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
* Nightmare Retardant: In “Tuckered Boys”, Jeff goes into a dirty bathroom and sees the face of a random man with a wide-eyed stare. Pretty creepy at first, but then [[HelpImStuck the man speaks.]]

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* Nightmare Fuel: NightmareFuel: [[NightmareFuel/{{Clarence}} Has its own page.
page.]]
* Nightmare Retardant: NightmareRetardant: In “Tuckered Boys”, Jeff goes into a dirty bathroom and sees the face of a random man with a wide-eyed stare. Pretty creepy at first, but then [[HelpImStuck the man speaks.]]

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* Nightmare Retardant: In “Tuckered Boys”, Jeff goes into a dirty bathroom and sees the face of a random man with a wide-eyed stare. Pretty creepy at first, but then [[Help, I’m Stuck!the man speaks.]]

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* Nightmare Retardant: In “Tuckered Boys”, Jeff goes into a dirty bathroom and sees the face of a random man with a wide-eyed stare. Pretty creepy at first, but then [[Help, I’m Stuck!the [[HelpImStuck the man speaks.]]
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* PunnyName: The judges of ''Supreme Court Squad Extreme'' have names that pun on current members of the Supreme Court of the United States.

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* PunnyName: The judges of ''Supreme Court Squad Extreme'' have names that pun on current then-current members of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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* Nightmare Retardant: In “Tuckered Boys”, Jeff goes into a dirty bathroom and sees the face of a random man with a wide-eyed stare. Pretty creepy at first, but then [[Dramatic Slip the man speaks.]]

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* Nightmare Retardant: In “Tuckered Boys”, Jeff goes into a dirty bathroom and sees the face of a random man with a wide-eyed stare. Pretty creepy at first, but then [[Dramatic Slip the [[Help, I’m Stuck!the man speaks.]]
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None

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* Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
* Nightmare Retardant: In “Tuckered Boys”, Jeff goes into a dirty bathroom and sees the face of a random man with a wide-eyed stare. Pretty creepy at first, but then [[Dramatic Slip the man speaks.]]
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** Even when the show does introduce a legitimate bad guy like Joshua, Balance, or Belson’s [[spoiler: father]], this is mostly done for experimental effect, as their villainous role is typically a one-time thing that doesn’t change the show’s formula too much.

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** Even when the show does introduce a legitimate bad guy like Joshua, Crazy!Joshua, Balance, or Belson’s [[spoiler: father]], this is mostly done for experimental effect, as their villainous role is typically a one-time thing that doesn’t change the show’s formula too much.
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None

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** Even when the show does introduce a legitimate bad guy like Joshua, Balance, or Belson’s [[spoiler: father]], this is mostly done for experimental effect, as their villainous role is typically a one-time thing that doesn’t change the show’s formula too much.
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Back to [[WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}} Main]].
----
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: In-Between Clarence and Sumo, mostly the latter had gotten this category when it does not involves having clothing being torned or removing them, but mostly being involve in places that has something to do with swimming.
* NegativeContinuity: In "Chalmers Santiago", while digging through a box of stuff his mom wants him to drop off at the thrift store, one of the toys of note he found is the [[CreepyDoll broken, old Lil' Buddy doll]] which he tosses aside in disgust, calling it creepy despite happily playing with the doll by the end of "Lil' Buddy", the episode that preceded this. His change of attitude towards the plaything is notorious [[WhamEpisode considering the recent events]].
* NightmareSequence: "Clarence's Millions" has this in the middle of the episode.
** Also in "Honk", when Clarence realizes he has a problem with honking his horn all the time.
* NoAntagonist: The series is way too goofy and mundane to have any villains or antagonistic characters. Belson sometimes acts in a slightly antagonistic manner towards Clarence, however, Clarence doesn't seem to notice and it is shown Belson has a friendly and soft side too, similar to [[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold Harold Berman]].
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Lauren's dad, who appears at the end of "Big Trouble in Little Aberdale", gently encourages Lauren to talk about her needs while using puppets, which is highly reminiscent of Fred Rogers, the host of ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood''.
* NoEnding: "Hoofin' It" ends with the pig race descending into chaos and rioting, which [[LampshadeHanging even the narrator of the episode is baffled by]]. Cue test card!
** "Plane Excited" ends just as Chad is attempting to land the plane, not showing whether or not he succeeded.
* NoodleIncident: What happened between Josh and Sumo that gave Josh his scar.
** "Dullance" opens with Chelsea cornered by an angry mob when Clarence appears with a painting with a letter hidden inside. We never find out about what led to this. Later in the episode, Clarence runs into various characters asking for his help, but he is too tired to help them out. At the end, Clarence runs over to help them, only to find that their problems have worked themselves out somehow. Of particular note is a girl who looks just like Clarence, who apparently wanted him to take her place; in the end, she bids goodbye, talking about learning a lesson from Gilben.
* NoOSHACompliance: The "Fun Dungeon" has obviously not been inspected lately. How else could Clarence and Jeff get on top of it so easily? It can be said that the whole "Fun Dungeon" is a parody of such play areas such as at [=McDonald's=] and Chuck E. Cheese's.
* NoSympathy: In "Zoo" the children are angry at Breehn when his nut allergy prevents them from going to certain parts of the zoo. Then when Breehn has to be taken to the hospital from an peanut butter allergy, Nathan punches him in the arm because him getting sick canceled the field trip. Though Breehn did intentionally eat the peanut butter despite knowing what it would do to him.
* NotSoAbandonedBuilding: The house across the street from Clarence's in "Chalmers Santiago", where the title character supposedly lives. [[spoiler:It turns out to be Belson, whose father bought the house. He uses it to play videogames alone.]]
* OffModel: Done deliberately in "Lil' Buddy" with Sumo. When he repeatedly stabs a twig in a mud puddle, he's drawn in a scratchier style to show his inner rage.
* OneSteveLimit: There's (presumably) two different unseen characters named Damian; Clarence's biological father and Nature Kate's boyfriend.
* ParentalBonus: In the episode "Company Man" Clarence stumbles into an office building where he is believed to be the boss's son. On a refrigerator in the break room, letter magnets can be seen spelling out "2 BIG 2 FAIL." [[spoiler: Especially relevant when the boss is arrested for fraud at the episode's conclusion.]]
* ParentalObliviousness: In "Patients" Tinia's mom is busy reading a magazine through most of the episode and just lets Tinia have all the candy she wants. But she turns MamaBear when she thinks Clarence is bothering her daughter.
** According to "Company Man", [[spoiler:Belson's dad doesn't even know what he looks like]].
* ParentalSubstitute: Chad, as a stand-in for Clarence's DisappearedDad.
* PooledFunds: Clarence dreams of swimming in Clarence Bucks in "Clarence's Millions".
* PoorCommunicationKills: In "Turtle Hats", Ms. Baker is about to give the kids their weekend assignmet when she gets a text from her boyfriend that reads "I think you're turtlehats." She wonders out loud what turtlehats means, and the students think that's the assignment. She doesn't realize her mistake until Monday when she sees the kids working on their projects.
** LostInTransmission: Turns out "turtlehats" was an auto-correct mistake and was supposed to read "totally hot". [[spoiler:Then he sends a message reading that he sent it to the wrong phone, meaning that he was dating someone else. Ms. Baker erases him from her contacts.]]
* PreviouslyOn: Used on "Clarence's Stormy Sleepover". Since Clarence provides the narration, they reflect his own unique slant on things.
* PuddleCoveringChivalry: Discussed in "Clarence Gets a Girlfriend". Clarence practices chivalry with Sumo to impress his new girlfriend; they go to a puddle and Sumo instructs him to throw his coat over it. "What's maybe something you could do? Maybe something you've seen on TV?"
* PunnyName: The judges of ''Supreme Court Squad Extreme'' have names that pun on current members of the Supreme Court of the United States.
* RadishCure: In "Honk", Jeff tries to cure Clarence of his obsession with horns by having the other kids honk horns at him. It backfires, as not only does it encourage Clarence more, the other kids start enjoying it too, until the teachers confiscate them all.
* PutOnABus: Sumo switches schools in Season 3. Subverted in that he's still a regular character, continuing to hang out with the others, only when Clarence is not at school.
* RealSongThemeTune: The end credits song is "Good Habits (and Bad)" by Saba Lou, a song recorded a few years prior to the start of the series.
* RealityEnsues: The show utilizes this trope to maximum effect in order to subvert all the cliched premises, tropes, and character types seen in children's slice-of-life shows.
** In "Straight Illin'", Clarence ate 500 deviled eggs to fulfill the dare made by Belson who's only doing it to take him down a notch. Clarence get sick not just because he ate too many of them, but also because the eggs stayed outside where it was sunny and hot... Rotting them enough to give him the egg virus which infect the whole school.
-->'''''Sumo''': "Do you think making Clarence eat 500 deviled eggs that sat out in the sun was a bad idea?"''
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech:
** Sumo gives one to both Jeff and Clarence in "Jeff's New Toy", telling Jeff not to be so uptight, and Clarence not to mess with other people's stuff.
** Balance gives a big one to Belson when they first met.
* RecklessGunUsage: In the pilot, a cop attempts to shoot a swarm of bees.
* RichBitch: Both of Breehn's parents, who spend the entire episode of 'The Dinner Party' showing off their house, condenscendingly shut down Mary when she tries to start a conversation, and are more worried about the damage done to their house than the fact that several children could've been hurt, ''and one of them being their own son''.
* RunningGag: People calling Josh, Joshua instead, with Josh correcting whoever does it last at the end of the episode.
** Also, Josh keeps getting new injuries with each appearance.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In "Dare Day" Jeff refuses to participate in Clarence and Sumo's dares. Halfway through the episode, he actually leaves to go on vacation in Madrid.
* ShowWithinAShow:
** Cartoon sci-fi legal procedural ''Supreme Court Squad Extreme'', supporting a [[MerchandiseDriven toyline]].
** ''The Blurbs'', an old sitcom shown on "Brain TV".
* SlipperySwimsuit: In "Pool's Out For Summer", Sumo once lost his swim trunks after jumping off the diving board. This time he brought suspenders, and made the jump perfectly, but when he attempts to jump off the ''big'' diving board, the suspenders get tangled on it and he lies hanging over the pool. With no other choice, he simply takes off his shorts and jumps completely naked.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: "Pilot Expansion," which is just the original pitch pilot of ''Clarence'' sandwiched between framing devices of Jeff, Clarence and Sumo as old men in the future trying to tell the story of how they met. And, for reasons known only to the writers, it ends with a shout-out to ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''.
** "Goldfish Follies," which shows Clarence bringing a goldfish home from the pet store as a Fleischer Studios cartoon.
* SpaghettiKiss: In "The Forgotten", Clarence finds spaghetti in the dumpster and asks Brady to eat it with him "like dogs do".
** In "Belson Has a Girlfriend", Clarence tries to make Belson and his girlfriend eat a slice of pizza together like this.
* SpecialEditionTitle:
** The title sequence to "Goldfish Follies" is in [[DeliberatelyMonochrome sepia tone]], and the theme song is in the style of big-band music.
** For the "Clarence's Stormy Sleepover" mini-series, the normal title sequence is interrupted by the episode title card.
* SpecialGuest: Creator/{{NPR}}'s Terry Gross as Deborah Copper, local radio interviewer.
* SpitTake: Jeff has one when Clarence reveals he has a new girlfriend in "Clarence Gets a Girlfriend".
* StacysMom: Mrs. Belson. Who one of the kids describes as "foxy."
* StoryArc: "Clarence's Stormy Sleepover" in season 3.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: It's obvious which one of Jeff's moms gave birth to him.
* SuckECheeses: The Pizza Swamp fits this trope to a tee. It's complete with "Big Betty" (That creepy basketball game where you throw the ball into a "breathing" puppet-like target), "The Money Broom" (The old "Shoot-a-coin-into-the-pile-and-see-what-falls-out" game) and a game where you swat seals with a giant mallet. It's basically a carbon copy of the real place.... [[CaptainErsatz But it's not!]].
* SuckySchool: Aberdale Elementary is filled with incompetent staff who can barely do their job correctly.
** The management would often issue unfair tests, like the gender-biased quills and crayons in "Average Jeff" and the spelling bee that only students with 20/20 vision would be able to win.
** The detention monitor is susceptible to sugar highs and easily falls asleep during lunch break.
* SuddenVideoGameMoment: In "Chalmers Santiago", Clarence crossing the street is show as a TopDownView game with sound effects.
** In "The Tunnel" Belson's trip through the sewers, along with Sumo and Clarence running around on the surface, appear as a platform game. Complete with Belson losing "lives" whenever he runs out of light.
* SurpriseCreepy:
** "Rise and Shine" has Clarence encounter a ''mountain lion'' in his backyard.
** "Rough Riders Elementary" has Clarence's school enter into a partnership with Rough Riders Chicken [[spoiler: who turn out to an alien chicken cult that uses their brand-new Cinnamon Ranch sauce to turn the students into mindless drones. The whole thing turns out to be Clarence's project on "Why Rough Riders Chicken is My Favorite Food."]]
** "Clarence's Stormy Sleepover" has Jeff tell a story that implies he came close to discovering what might have been a dead body. In the end, Percy plays with his "treasure", a severed hand.
* SweetheartSipping: In "Clarence Gets a Girlfriend", a nervous Clarence sees a picture of a couple sipping from the same milkshake and tries the same with Ashley, but just ends up making a mess.
* SynchroVox: The principal of Clarence's school.
* TakeThat:
--> '''Clarence''': Maybe I should just get paid for doing nothing, like a statue, or a senator.
* TeachersOutOfSchool: In "Neighborhood Grill", Clarence is shocked to see Ms. Baker at the restaurant. An ImagineSpot shows that he thought she was a robot that spent the nights at school being charged.
* TimeMaster: Clarence thinks the watch he got from a cereal box in "Time Crimes" gives him the power to control time.
* TimmyInAWell: Spoofed on "Chimney". After the boys fall down a well, the dog Chimney appears to be going for help at first, but then it just wanders around and eventually starts dropping sticks down the well. Eventually the sticks are made into a ladder and the boys get out on their own, by which time Chimney had simply wandered off.
* TinFoilHat: In "Space Race", Clarence becomes paranoid about the moon and starts wearing tin foil on his head. He also uses up all the tinfoil to cover his room.
* TheUnintelligible: Sumo seems to be this to everyone except Clarence and possibly Jeff briefly, but the series soon makes it clear that everyone else can understand him.
* TheUnreveal: In "Lil Buddy" Clarence is sent to see the principal, but when his chair turns around we see Ms. Baker sitting in it instead, as she's filling in for him temporarily.
* UranusIsShowing: In "Space Race", Percy puts a banana in Belson's rocket and says it's going to Uranus. The closing title states that Sumo will become the first astronaut to explore Uranus.
* VocalEvolution: Jeff's voice deepens as the show progresses.
* WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: The ending of "Hoofin' It".
* WeirdCurrency: Clarence Dollars in "Clarence's Millions". Benson tried to make his own currency.
* WellIntentionedReplacement: The fake toy box Clarence makes in "Jeff's New Toy".
* WhamEpisode:
** ''Lil Buddy''. [[spoiler: Clarence goes from optimistic bundle of joy into a basic opposite of himself who constantly gets into more trouble than usual, punches Belson in the nose and came very close to getting expelled]].
** ''Company Man''. [[spoiler:Clarence meets the boss of a company and he is Belson's father, who mistakes him for his own son. Then it takes a darker turn when it turns out he is a CorruptCorporateExecutive and he was getting away with it for years because [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney he's rich]], causing him to get arrested because the undercover agents bugged Clarence to get the conversation recorded. On top of that, Belson is unaware of what happened and he may feel the hit to his rich social life soon because of Clarence.]]
* WhatTheHellHero: Mrs. Baker's immediate reaction to Jeff's behavior in "Average Jeff", after landing in the average class.
-->'''Jeff:''' No! I want my life to be better than theirs!
-->'''Miss Baker:''' (unamused) Jeff, I want you to think about what you just said.
* WholeEpisodeFlashback: "Pilot Expansion".
* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have To Be Fire Hydrants?]]: Apparently, [[TheUnintelligible Mavis]] is terrified of them.
* WildTeenParty: In "Detention", the kids take advantage of Mr. Reese's sugar crashes to turn detention into a nightclub.
** Clarence, Jeff and Sumo infiltrate one such party in "Attack the Block Party".
* WomenAreWiser: Quietly subverted in "Average Jeff", wherein the kids' class is broken into two groups based on an intelligence test, one smarter group and one dumber group. Paying careful attention to the background characters in every scene reveals that the smarter group is overwhelmingly female, and the dumber group is overwhelmingly male. This seems to be a straight example when noticed, but [[StatusQuoIsGod the episode ends with the whole thing undone]] as the test came under fire off-screen for being gender-biased.
* YellowSashOfPower: Jeff is inordinately proud of being made hall monitor in "Detention", even sewing the sash to his shirt. He then abuses his power to turn detention into a happening nightclub. (ItMakesSenseInContext)
* YouNoTakeCandle: Blaide in "Dollar Hunt" speaks like this. He seems to be a lost foreigner trying to find a bus stop to get home.
** However, Blaide is shown to be in Clarence's class, as seen in "Zoo".
* YourHeadAsplode: Jeff's head explodes at the end of his nightmare in "Average Jeff".

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