History HeyArnold / TropesJToP

* NotInFrontOfTheParrot: In "Helga's Parrot," the parrot nearly divulges Helga's secret because it's remembered one of Helga's poems. Luckily, [[spoiler: the parrot is devoured by a monitor lizard]] before it can say anything.

** Arnold, big time. This is actually subverted in a couple of later episodes where it is implied that his ''subconscious'' knows that Helga is in love with him and is trying to get him to figure it out. Justified because he might be a little reluctant and uncomfortable being involved with someone who has given so much grief over the years...and does it ''right'' after being nice to him. He at least, however, generally shows that he knows she is a much nicer person than she lets on.
** Helga, meanwhile, seems oblivious to Brainy's crush on her - even after he tries to give her a ring.

* OddFriendship: Rhonda and Nadine. Rhonda is a stuck-up primadonna and is into fashion, which Nadine isn't. Nadine is much more down to earth and is fascinated with bugs and arachnids, which gross Rhonda out. But despite this, they've been best friends since they were four years old.

** Rhonda is also mostly seen hanging out with the boys. Despite her wealthy upbringing and snobby, self-righteous attitude, she has been known to play contact football and a variety of other sports along with the other children even to the point of destroying her beloved outfits in the process as seen in "Mudbowl" and "New Bully on the Block".

--->'''Mr. Goose:''' You! What's your name?!
--->'''Curly:''' "Curly."
--->'''Mr. Goose:''' Your hair's not curly, boy! What's your ''real'' name?!
--->'''Curly:''' ... "Thaddeus."
--->'''Mr. Goose:''' ''[{{beat}}]'' Curly, go stand in that corner!
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** When Grandma starts acting serious you know something is wrong.

*** In "Arnold's Cousin" he bluntly tells Stinky to shut up, after the latter insensitively has been going on about how much Lila prefers Arnie to Arnold throughout the episode.
** In "Chocolate Turtles" Timberley's adorable confession was so touching that ''Oskar'' of all people gave a sock full of dollars with tears in his eyes. In the same scene one can also see Frankie G. (the one who tried to force Arnold into helping his gang rob an electronics store) in the listening crowd. Timberley's speach was apparently that good!

** Arnold himself had very few episodes dedicated to him in seasons 4 and 5, and when he did appear it was usually to act as TheConscience.

* PlaceboEffect: In "Helga's Love Potion", Helga drinks a potion to make her fall out of love with Arnold. [[GoneHorriblyRight It worked, but then she desperately wanted to reverse the effects of it because she felt empty]]. [[spoiler: She was cured when she found out that all she drank was some grape soda (with a little chamomile)]].

** Also Lila, who is devastatingly poor and has a MissingMom, but always smiles and acts polite. This makes sense when you realize that Lila is now taking on the responsibility of caring for her father all by herself at the age of nine. This is already a tough task as an adult, but as a child it has to be even more difficult. Also considering that she doesn't want her father to worry about any of this forces Lila to smile and keep her real feelings tucked away. Much like in real life, Lila is an excellent example of what can happen if a child is burdened with a heavy load at such a young age [[spoiler: considering her repressed dark side confirmed by Craig Bartlett. See StepfordSmiler on [[HeyArnold/TropesQToZ Tropes Q to Z]].]]

---> '''Helga''': What an ''idiot''!

** In "Phoebe's Little Problem" [[spoiler:Harold wets his pants in front of the whole school.]]

** In season 1, Arnold had a crush on Ruth [=MacDougal=], a sixth grader. In "Crush on Teacher", [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin he develops a crush on his substitute teacher.]] In "Summer Love", he met the eponymous Summer, who is also clearly older than him.

* ProgressivelyPrettier: Helga for most of season 1 has an ape like face, a thicker unibrow, a big nose, and a big overbite, from season 2 onwards (after ArtEvolution kicks in) her features are toned down and she gets cuter as a result.
* ProperlyParanoid: In most of the episodes centering Sid he's often wrong about something he suspects, but then there are those rare cases where he is right, like "Sid The Vampire Slayer" (or, at least it's implied he is right about Sid being a vampire).

** In ''Eugene, Eugene'', the protagonist's romantic rival was a {{Jerkass}} indeed, but the NiceGuy protagonist is trying to '''homewreck''' and '''harass''' the girl with his "persistence".

-->'''Helga''': ''(cheerfully)'' Look at me! I'm terrible at helping others. I'm the worst! I have no moral conscience whatsoever.

** Eugene Horowitz, in "Coach Wittenberg", bowling. He throws the ball, falls flat on his face, but makes a wide split

** There was originally a tenant at the boarding house named Lana, but she disappeared after season 1. There was supposed to be a subplot with her falling in love with Arnold; unsurprisingly, Nick shot down that idea in a hurry, so Lana was removed as a result. But she still appeared in the title sequence, and made several cameo appearances in later episodes.

* JabbaTableManners: Helga is occasionally shown to be a messy eater, as seen in "Heat", "Helga's Masquerade" and "Big Bob's Crisis", where she has ice cream ("Heat"), chocolate syrup ("Helga's Masquerade") and barbecue sauce ("Big Bob's Crisis) all over her face.

* JerkassBall: Arnold has a few moments of being uncharacteristically cruel, such as in "New Teacher" (where he assists the students in bullying Mr. Simmons into quitting his teaching job) and especially in "Egg Story" (where he rips Helga a new asshole even though she was trying to be nice to him for a change, telling her that he doesn't like her and would rather work with anyone else but her, this one, in particular, seemed like an OutOfCharacterMoment)

** Most of the bullies who pick on the kids never get punished by adults. A lot of people do some very rude/mean things and get away with it. ''Especially'' the older kids like Wolfgang. Only once do we see a couple of them get told off or called out on their actions...and they were one-shot characters with no names.
** Tragically {{deconstructed|Trope}} in "Helga and the Nanny". When Miriam gets a new job, Helga's parents hire a nanny named Inga to look after Helga. However, while Inga actually cares for Helga, Helga feels as though Inga is trying to control her life, especially when Inga calls her out on her bad behavior, telling her that sewing is a sane way to canalize anger. Finally, Helga loses her patience completely and frames Inga for theft...only to be surprised when the other kids [[WhatTheHellHero call her out]]. Inga is fired and has to return to her country. When Helga finds her, her guilt gets the better of her, and she confesses to the framing, only for Inga to tell her she knew it all the time. Helga is confused as to why she is getting off scot-free until Inga explains that she is not: at the end of the day, Helga is nothing but an angry and sad kid, who pushes away those who care about her, and because of that she cannot be happy. The show ends with Helga in her unhappy home, sadly sewing something, realizing that her actions have cost her a happy home and someone who cares about her.

-->'''Principal Wartz:''' Are you attempting to leave the school grounds without permission, Miss Pataki?\\

** An audible variant happens near the end of "The Aptitude Test." When Helga screams in horror among seeing Miriam burning her poetry, it fades to Harold's house where Harold is also screaming in horror, but because he found out he actually flunked the titular test.

* MeetTheCelebrityContest: In “Pre-Teen Scream”, Phoebe wins an evening with pop star Ronnie Matthews, only to be [[BrokenPedestal disappointed]] when she finds out that he’s a vain, egotistical fraud who not only doesn’t write his own songs, but can’t even really sing.

* MiracleRally: Arnold and friends end up winning their ball game against the fifth graders in "Mudbowl" when Arnold takes Helga's place as quarterback.

* MistakenForToilet: The episode “Rich Guy” has two scenes where Grandpa Phil mistakes a sink for a toilet.

** The infamous pairing of "Arnold Betrays Iggy" and "Helga and the Nanny," two episodes which are [[DownerEnding unusually cynical]] considering how optimistic the rest of the series is. With the former, just for letting Iggy's humiliating secret out, [[DisproportionateRetribution he first gives Arnold the passive-aggressive treatment for months on end]], then forces him to endure a HumiliationConga himself on live TV. The usually-forgiving Arnold treats this as beyond the pale and severs ties with Iggy. With the latter, Helga ends up framing her nanny for theft, ruining her career prospects and leading her to declare Helga beyond help.

* MythologyGag: In the episode "Monkey Business" Helga gives away her sousaphone when she thinks she's gonna die from monkeynucleosis. In the original Arnold claymation shorts, she played a sousaphone in Arnold's band.

--> '''Grandma:''' (''walking by with a surfboard obscuring her'') Up the establishment!
--> '''Grandpa:''' Aw, Pookie, nobody wants to see ''that''!
--> '''Grandma:''' (''laughing'')

** Ernie, the construction worker that lives at the Sunset Arms. He's so short that he can fit into a briefcase (as demonstrated in the [[GameShow "Fighting Families"]] episode). Played with in "Ernie In Love," in which he falls for the tall and Lovely fashion model, Lola. He also takes a bit too much pride in his work - demolishing skyscrapers and other ''tall'' buildings.

--> '''Grandpa:''' ''(after thinking he died)'' Well, that's it, I must be in heaven. Oh no! Oskar's here! This must be the other place!

* NoMoreLies: In the episode '''"The Big Scoop,"''' Arnold and Helga argue about how to run the school newspaper. Helga wants to tabloidize it and run big juicy stories that run deeper than the truth, while Arnold wants to stick to the facts and tell the truth. Helga eventually left with her best friend Phoebe to make her own newspaper. Helga finds success in her newspaper by posting fake stories and half-truth stories, while Arnold struggles to compete with her by just posting the truth. Helga is shown to be willing to steal Arnold's stories and add lies to them. Eventually, Arnold and his best friend Gerald heard that Helga planned to post a story that said the school would be torn down and an amusement park would be built in the school place. Arnold and Gerald investigated and asked Principal Warts, who revealed that while the school was going to be torn down because walls were going down, no amusement park was going to be built in its place. [[PoorCommunicationKills Walls would be torn down because they would add to the school, building more classrooms]]. After getting a quote that confirms Principal Wart's story, Arnold and Gerald posted the story, and when Helga tried to post her version of the story, their classmates angrily said that's not what Arnold's stories said, and with Principal Wart's confirmation no one believed Helga story. And when Arnold tells Helga that no one believes anything in her paper, she tries to save face by telling more gossip and reducing her paper's price, only for her classmates to say no more lies. When Helga asks why everyone is so upset, she wants to tell good juicy stories that delve deeper than the truth; Arnold answers that she pushed the truth too far. This causes Helga to finally close down her paper and rejoins Arnold's paper, reporting the weather.

-->'''Pookie''': Well, I'm off to raise the Titanic!

-->'''Helga''': "Alright Pheebs, looks like I'm gonna be needing a few things. A box of thumbtacks, a ball of string and a watermelon..."
-->'''Phoebe''': [[BewareTheNiceOnes "How about a pack of trick gum?"]]
-->'''Helga''': "Good idea, Phoebe! Write that one down..."

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, this was confirmed by ||| WordOfGod revealing it to be him.

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, this was confirmed by || WordOfGod revealing it to be him.

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, this was confirmed by -| WordOfGod revealing it to be him.

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, this was confirmed by -—WordOfGod revealing it to be him.

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, this was confirmed by —WordOfGod revealing it to be him.

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, this was confirmed by WordOfGod revealing it to be him.

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, WordOfGod confirmed this to be him.

** There was yet another unseen tenant who disappeared after the first season, Mr. Purdy. In later episodes we occasionally see a middle-aged bald man with a pet chicken, WordOfGod confirmed this to be him.

-->'''Helga''': ''(cheerfully)'' Look at me! I'm terrible at helping others. I'm the worst! I have no moral conscience whatsoever.* PuppyLove: The kids are probably the horniest 9-year olds in history of Western Animation, even though only one or two pairings are established canon by Craig Bartlett saying so (Arnold/Helga and Gerald/Phoebe).

* OminousPipeOrgan: In the episode "Helga vs. Big Patty", after she told him that Big Patty will still beat her up, even though she apologized for her behavior before, Helga walks away from Arnold having lost hope while a short, but powerful pipe organ tune plays ominously. Organ music, along with DramaticTimpani, is also played at the end of the episode after Helga walked out of the school gym [[spoiler:as if she was beaten my Big Patty]].

* PyschoSupporter: Helga, at times. Though she often means well in situations where she is made to help others, her idea of the right way to do something is a little... skewed. In episodes where she gives advice or puts down a plan of action, chances are that plan will be harsh, immoral, and ultimately not helpful. She lampshades it in "Deconstructing Arnold" while explaining to Arnold why he is the right person to give advice and she... isn't.

** The whole Arnold and Lila thing would have never happened in the first place if Helga didn't write "Arnold loves Lila" on a wall in an alley. (She originally wrote her own name in place of Lila's but quickly changed it as a group of girls were approaching.) Lila seeing the message resulted in her being interested in Arnold and later Arnold being interested in Lila, much to Helga's frustration.

* MeetTheCelebrityContest: In “Pre-Teen Scream”, Phoebe wins an evening with pop star Ronnie Matthews, only to be [[BrokenPedastal disappointed]] when she finds out that he’s a vain, egotistical fraud who not only doesn’t write his own songs, but can’t even really sing.

* OffModel: A big problem in the first season, when the character designs were less consistent.

* NoMoreLies: In the episode '''"The Big Scoop,"''' Arnold and Helga argue about how to run the school newspaper. Helga wants to tabloidize it and run big juicy stories that run deeper than the truth, while Arnold wants to stick to the facts and tell the truth. Helga eventually left with her best friend Phoebe to make her own newspaper. Helga finds success in her newspaper by posting fake stories and half-truth stories, while Arnold struggles to compete with her by just posting the truth. Helga is shown to be willing to steal Arnold's stories and add lies to them. Eventually, Arnold and his best friend Gerald heard that Helga planned to post a story that said the school would be torn down and an amusement park would be built in the school place. Arnold and Gerald investigated and asked Principal Warts, who revealed that while the school was going to be torn down because walls were going down, no amusement park was going to be built in its place. Walls would be torn down because they would add to the school, building more classrooms. After getting a quote that confirms Principal Wart's story, Arnold and Gerald posted the story, and when Helga tried to post her version of the story, their classmates angrily said that's not with Arnold's stories said, and with Principal Wart's confirmation no one believed Helga story. And when Arnold tells Helga that no one believes anything in her paper, she tries to save face by telling more gossip and reducing her paper's price, only for her classmates to say no more lies. When Helga asks why everyone is so upset, she wants to tell good juicy stories that delve deeper than the truth; Arnold answers that she pushed the truth too far. Helga closes down her paper and rejoins Arnold's paper, reporting the weather.