History DanVs / TropesAToL

%%* AllMythsAreTrue

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: A TyrannosaurusRex is the antagonist in "The Dinosaur".

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Has its [[Radar/DanVs own page]]. The most daring one is a recurring subtle element: whenever Dan awakens Chris and Elise in the middle of the night and they are shown in their pajamas, sometimes they look normal but other times their clothes are disheveled and their hair is untidy, like they'd been doing something that can't be talked about in a PG-13 show [[Creator/MontyPython *nudge-nudge* *wink-wink*]].

* GoLookAtTheDistraction: Chris calls the cooks at the dinner theatre away to look at an obvious distraction. They discuss it for a moment before deciding to go see it.
--> '''Chris:''' You missed it. Never mind.

** There's [[http://dan-vs-fim.tumblr.com/ Dan vs. FIM]], a Tumblr blog with [[FanFiction fan comics]] and Website/YouTube videos.
*** Dan is frequently seen in Fluffymixer's Fluffle Puff videos.

* KarmicMisfire: This is played with in, "''Dan Vs Dan''" and "''Dan Vs The Telemarketer''". Surprisingly, the latter ends with Dan in jail while the Imposter is out free.

** At the end of "Burgerphile", Dan tells his new girlfriend Hortense to forget about him so she can move to Santa Monica and achieve her dream of becoming Burgerphile's Regional Manager (despite the fact that Santa Monica is only a twenty minute drive from Van Nuys -- which Chris points out -- but then again, we all know what bad luck Dan has with his car...)

** Going by the events of the "Summer Camp" episode its starting to come together about Dan's upbringing but it's still hard to tell what happened with his parents. The writers drop a lot of small hints about his parents either being negligent parents or abusive parents. There are even small hints that his parents may have passed when he was young and he was raised by his Grandmother.

* AnimationBump: Very noticable entering season 3, especially "The Mummy".

** A visual example: in "The Dentist", Dr. Pullem passes over three buttons before choosing the Dentobots; the buttons are labeled "Robohygenist," "Mouthwash Flood," and "Insurance Forms".

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: In "Neighbors", Dan's neighbors install security bars on their apartment and Dan's. Legally speaking, only the landlord of an apartment building has authority to make such cosmetic or structural changes to the building (many places don't even allow new paint jobs to be done).

* AssShove: [[ItMakesSenseInContext When Dan, Chris and a hobo are crawling through a vent]], a crowbar shoots free from holding a fan, right into the back of the hobo, whose facial expression implies it.

* DumbMuscle: Moose and Harold of "The Lemonade Stand Gang", Chris occasionally boarders on this.

** And in "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre," Dan gives out a few more evil laughs.

** In Dan Vs. Dancing, Elise threatens Dan with her new "taser blade". Dan asks "Taser Blade?" to which she replies "It is exactly what it sounds like.
* ExtremeOmnivore: In 'The Mummy', Chris and Dan pose as cavemen in a museum exhibit. Chris eats a bit of model meat that he's holding. Dan, surprised, comments on this. Chris replies that "They didn't even add mammoth flavoring,", shrugs, and takes another bite.

* FacialHorror: In the Shakespeare episode, Chris is whipped with a fencing epée, marking him for most of the episode; when waiting in line, a girl handing out programs is repulsed and flees.

* FalseFriend: Elise's parents to Dan in "Family Thanksgiving".
* FanDisservice: The Boss from "The Boss" starts out as a hot business woman in a suit, then turns into a hot demon woman in a suit, but her final form is a muscular male demon with a goatee.

** In "Vegetables", he explains to Chris that Potatoes technically aren't a vegetable, admonishing him to "read a book without pictures once in a while." He also aware that vegetables contain beta carotene and folic acid.

* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: Literally, Dan tells the angry mob of theatre-goers attacking the defeated actor to "rise up, and stab him with your spoons".

* DepravedDentist: Dr. Pullum.

* BigEater: Chris. Occasionally inches close to ExtremeOmnivore territory. In "Art", Chris eats an entire plastic apple pie and half a plastic sandwich that was part of a realistic looking exhibit, but once he realizes what they are, he heads to the hospital to get his stomach pumped. In "Golf" he has no problem eating Mr. Mumbles' birthday cake, which is primarily comprised of ''cat food'' and in "Dan" Elise mentions that he once ate her shoes along with half a bottle of shampoo.

** Though less shown, Chris is can be just as dangerous, despite his easy going attitude.

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: A yeti shows up in "Canada."

* BlandNameProduct: Chris's Coldpoint refrigerator (for Hotpoint), Shorts Drugs (for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longs_Drugs Longs Drugs]]), UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} Beans (for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goya_Foods Goya beans]]), and Yamamma mechanical equipment (for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha Yamaha]], probably).

* [[ThreateningShark Everything's Even Worse With Sharks]]: Dan and Chris steal a shark from the aquarium in an attempt to drive beachgoing tourists away in "The Beach". It doesn't end well.

* {{Fanservice}}: Kelly from "Reality TV" pulls this off without a doubt, with short skirts, serious curves, HartmanHips, and an often baring midriff.

* FictionalCounterpart: The Salvation Armed Forces and Greatwill. And to a lesser extent Barry Ditmer's unnamed company, a parody of Apple.
* [[FourTemperamentEnsemble Five-Temperament Ensemble]]: Dan (choleric), Elyse Jr. (melancholic), Chris (phlegmatic), Don (sanguine), and Elyse Sr. (leukine).
* {{Flashback}}: Parodied in "The Ninja." Elise starts to say, "[[ItsALongStory It's a long, long story]]," [[FlashbackBackBack harp music starts to play]], and the [[FlashbackEffects screen starts to ripple]]...but then she says, "I don't want to talk about it," and everything goes back to normal.

** Dan had his first encounter with bad traffic in "The Wolf-Man." Then came "Traffic."
** Occasionally, something will rile Dan up while he's in the middle of exacting revenge on another party. This results in Dan whipping out a steno pad and writing down the offending object on his list of things to get revenge on later. (The list includes: Babies who cry at the park, babies in general, generals, dull pencils, pencils that are too sharp, and Arizona.)
*** In ''Animal Shelter'' Dan adds Burger Phile after accidentally drinking Chris' milkshake there. Later in the season, a whole episode revolves around Dan's vendetta against the fast food restaurant.

** In the first few minites of "The Gym," the physical trainer touches Dan and Dan wonders why his hands are so cold. The episode later reveals that it's because [[spoiler: the gym trainers are all robots, and thus lack human warmth]].
* ForgottenAnniversary: In "The Fancy Restaurant" both Chris ''and'' Elise forget when their anniversary is.

* FrenchJerk: Chef Puree

* FriendVersusLover: Pretty much an everyday occurence for Chris, but played to a T in "Dan vs Dancing", where Dan and Elise argue over who can have Chris right in front of him. Of course, being a complete pushover, he can't put his foot down.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In ''Dan Vs. Summer Camp'', Chris is seen eating an apple in the present while Dan tells his story. As the episode goes on, every time it cuts back to the kitchen table, Chris is eating something else while the remnants of food pile up on his side of the table. By the time the episode is over, Chris is eating another apple and there's a bunch of various discarded food containers littering the floor around him.
** "Dan Vs. Parents": Dan swerves the car while driving so that Chris hits his head on the window. As the conversation continues, tires are heard screeching when a car passes the swerving Dan, and we see said car lose control through Dan's back windshield.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Has its [[Radar/DanVs own page]]. The most daring one is a recurring subtle element: whenever Dan awakens Chris and Elise in the middle of the night and they are shown in their pajamas, sometimes they look normal but other times their clothes are disheveled and their hair is untidy, like they'd been doing something that can't be talked about in a PG-13 show *nudge-nudge* *wink-wink*.

** Dan attempts this on Store Manager Jeff in "Burgerphile." He responds by claiming assault and calling the cops.
** Chris successfully pulls it off in "Dan Vs. Chris", challenging Dan to the ritualized duel from their favorite sci-fi B-movie.

* HairFlip: Hortense in ''Dan Vs. The Wedding'' after taking off her hat.

* HartmanHips: Hortense, and Amber from ''Dan Vs. Anger Management''.

* HellishCopter: The copter Dan hijacks in ''Dan Vs. The Traffic'' crashes to the ground and is destroyed.
* HelpImStuck: In "The Fancy Restaurant," Dan escapes the dungeon by crawling through the vent that leads to the men's room, only to get stuck on the way out. Fortunately, Chris was able to pull him out.

* HeroAntagonist: Terrifi-Guy in ''Dan Vs. The Superhero''.

** The ending of ''Dan Vs. The Beach''.

** The ending of ''Dan Vs. Baseball'' is pretty much a much shorter version of the intro, but with basketball instead.
** The ending to ''Dan Vs. The Neighbors'' [[spoiler:after Dan forces the previous ones out with a roach infestation.]]
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Elise almost does something like in ''Dan Vs. The Bank'' (but Dan is an accomplice, not a InnocentBystander) and even says it word for word.

--->'''Elise:''' You're right, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint he knows too much.]]

---> '''Dan:''' Chris, that is not in the christmas spirit! Now come and help me annihilate Santa!
** Imposter Dan says that Dan should let things go at the end of "The Telemarketer" [[spoiler: yet he spent the entire episode driving him insane out of revenge.]]
* IAteWhat: The theatre-goers' reactions upon discovering they've been eating soap soup. Except Chris, he just keeps eating.

** Subverted in "The Wedding". [[spoiler:While Dan does eventually let Hortense go, he plans to back together with her when Jeremiah Burger dies.]]
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'' alumni Kevin [=McDonald=] voices the Creator/SteveJobs {{Expy}} in "Technology."

* ImpossibleHourglassFigure: Elise. Kelly from ''Dan Vs. Reality TV'' and Honey O'Houlihan from ''Dan Vs. The Catburglar'' qualify as well.

* InternalDeconstruction: "Vs. The Neighbors" shows how some ''normal people'' would react to interacting with someone as violently crazy as Dan (in contrast with Chris and Elise, who've become jaded through years of experience with Dan).

** An InUniverse[=/=]PlayedForLaughs example happens in "Dan Vs. Telemarketer"

** Dan. He actually goes around wearing [[FunTShirt a shirt that says "Jerk"]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on it.]]
%%** Elise's parents, more so with Elise's dad.

* KarmaHoudini: Carla in the penultimate episode "The Family Cruise". After locking up Dan, Chris, Elise and her family, she and the other passengers leave the ship. However, this ordeal turns out to be Dan's prediction if he tagged along with Elise and her family.

** Dan believes Chris to be this in ''Dan Vs. The Wolfman''.

** Ironically enough he keeps trying to get Elise to kill Ninja Dave just for eating his cookies. He stops though when Ninja Dave replaces them.

** Dan turns all the "failed" chefs imprisoned in the restaurant basement of ''Dan Vs. The Fancy Restaurant'' into this.
* LameComeback: In ''Dan Vs. Canada''.

* LaserHallway: In ''Dan Vs. New Mexico'', Elise has to get through one in [[{{Area 51}} Area 52]]. [[spoiler:She just flips it off with a light switch.]]
** Subverted in ''Dan Vs. The Dentist'', where he looks for them in the doctor's office.

* LetThePastBurn: In the episode ''Dan Vs. The Family Thanksgiving'', Elise's Parents' house gets burned down after Dan storms out of the celebration. While everyone else is upset at how the day ended, Dan is suitably happy with the house burning down, making everyone spend the night together in a hotel.

** You do NOT ask Chris to make cocoa at 3 am and then LEAVE right when it is ready, SIT DOWN!!!

** And besides, shut up.

* ChristmasEpisode: "The Mall Santa," where Dan's new mall job as a holiday elf brings him into conflict with a BadSanta.

* EscalatingWar: Dan's war against the Lemonade Stand Gang. The kids were lucky Chris stepped in to change the rules, or Elise would have shipped them to Korea.

* EvilCounterpart: Amber for Dan. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Once Dan gives her a taste for exacting revenge]], she quickly proves to be worse than him. While Dan does take advantage of Chris by roping him into his revenge schemes, Dan does at least genuinely like Chris as a friend. Amber doesn't even like Dan and forces him to help her by threatening to fail him in their anger management classes. Her behavior is so atrocious that ''[[NiceGuy Chris]]'' is the one who gets angry and [[BewareTheNiceOnes decides to exact revenge on her when Dan won't.]]

** In "Monster Under the Bed" Dan returns to Madame Zelda's from "George Washington" and Canada is still suffering from the iceberg disaster from "Canada".

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: ''"To the car mobile!"''

* EatingTheEnemy: In the episode "Vegetables", Dan accidentally creates a giant broccoli monster. Naturally, the monster threatens to eat Dan. A group of vegans and vegetarians (who are starving because of a vegetable shortage... that Dan also caused) save Dan by overpowering and eating the broccoli monster.

* BlackComedyRape: Implied at the end of "The Animal Shelter", with a man, who is ''not'' a doctor, who approaches Dan in a hospital room, ordering that he removes his pants.

** In "Gigundo-Mart" he does indeed state that Generic-Os are his favorite cereal.

** In "The Fancy Restaurant", Dan laments his favorite sandwich shop being bought out by a trendy gourmet restaurant, since he won't be able to get his favorite turkey sandwich anymore. When the sandwich place comes back at the end of the episode, Dan and his friends order the fabled turkey sandwich, which Dan takes one bite of before flatly declaring they're not as good anymore.

** In "The Lemonade Stand Gang", Elise planned on sending the kids in the episode to North Korea to work in factories. During "Gigundo Mart" she mentions that they shouldn't have kids working in factories when she has to fix a prototype built by them. Not because she is against it on Moral Grounds, but because according to her their hands are to weak and small to properly make complicated electronic machinery, she was basically only complaining because a top secret weapon was malfunctioning and she was having trouble fixing it

** In "Canada" Dan [[spoiler: makes a glacier fall and cover the entirety of Canada]]. In "The Monster Under The Bed" Dan goes back and [[spoiler: Canada is still covered in snow. Dan remarks "They never recovered from that avalanche... oh well."]]
** In the beginning of "The Mummy," Dan chides Mr. Mumbles for playing with toilet paper when he stole Chris's sneaker for her to chew up. A few scenes later, and Chris can't find one of his shoes.

** In "Jury Duty", Dan starts by telling Elise and Chris that he was abducted by aliens; naturally, they don't believe him. [[spoiler: Cut to the security footage at the end, and you see that he was indeed abducted after destroying the burger joint.]]

** In "Burgerphile" he references classical mythology and quotes Latin maxims, in "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre" he is well-versed in Shakespearean plays and in "Stupidity" he demonstrates ample knowledge on politics.
** This is Lampshaded in "George Washington" by Chis saying that Dan has a random wealth of knowledge. Using the fact that Dan knows who built Mount Rushmore and not where it's located -- he thinks it might be in Ecuador, which he also thinks is a US state.

* CanadaEh: The entirety of "Canada."
* CannotSpitItOut: Dan in "The Wedding" when he tries to tell Hortense he loves her.

* BestialityIsDepraved: In "Art", the hobo tells Dan that Mr. Mumbles is female, leading to this exchange;

* BlackComedy: Many horrible and disturbing topics such as kidnapping, murder, theft, torture, tear gassing, and arson are PlayedForLaughs.

* BlackComedy: Many horrible and illegal things such as kidnapping, murder, theft, torture, teargassing, and arson are PlayedForLaughs.

* GreenEyes: Dan.

* BiggerBad: The main cause of Dan becoming what we all know him as now is either his parents, his grandma, or [[spoiler: the Summer Camp Counsler.]]

** There's [[http://dan-vs-fim.tumblr.com/ Dan vs. FIM]], a Tumblr blog with [[FanFiction fan comics]] and YouTube videos.

* BadassGrandpa: A store greeter is so old that he fought in [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar San Juan Hill]] and constantly thwarts Dan's revenge attempts against Gigundo Mart.
-->'''Old Man:''' ''(Has Dan in a neck-lock)'' I learned this move on the ''(cough),'' on the beaches of Normandy.
-->'''Dan:''' Shooting out or shooting in?

* AdultChild: Dan behaves this way sometimes. Lampshaded in "Parents".