History Series / Cuckoo

* BloodyHilarious: At a dinner party where Rachel and Ben try to set him up with their friend, Dale performs a friendship ritual from his cult at said friend's request. The ritual consists of touching one person and saying "Friend, take my trust", touching a second and saying "Friend, take my love", and [[spoiler: [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers slicing his palm open with a big knife, saying "Friend, take my blood", and rubbing his bleeding hand all over a third person's (in this case, Ben) face]].]]

* MushroomSamba: Lorna is pulled over and has marijuana in her pocket. She hands it to Ken (which the police officer notices) and he eats it to avoid being arrested. A short while afterwards, he has to defend Steve against (entirely justified) accusations of medical malpractice. HilarityEnsues.

* OverprotectiveDad: A big part of the reason Ken isn't very fond of Cuckoo.
** Connie becomes a female variant of this when [[CannotKeepASecret Lorna lets it slip]] that Dylan and Zoe are going to have sex.

* ShowerOfLove: Dylan and Zoe try the bath variant of this but [[UnderStatement it doesn't go well]]. Specifically, [[spoiler: Dylan has food poisoning and has a [[PottyFailure diarrhoea attack]]. And then Zoe's [[OverprotectiveDad mother]] bursts in.]]

-->'''Lorna:''' Sorry love were you, er ''(beat)'' [[ADateWithRosiePalms fiddling]]?\\

* NotSoDifferent: It's suggested a couple times that Ken wasn't so different from Cuckoo when he was growing up.

* TheFunInFuneral: Episode 4 of Series 2 is made of this trope. Ken lends a very rare book that's worth [[spoiler: £1,000]] to his dying history lecturer Dr Rafferty, who wants to read it before he dies. Rafferty dies earlier than expected and Ken goes to the funeral (dragging Lorna and Dylan along) to get the book back, and Dale goes because his unexpressed grief over Cuckoo is causing him to take Rafferty's death very hard. At the funeral; [[spoiler: Dale is mistaken for Rafferty's gay American lover, Ken steals the book out of Rafferty's niece's bag (unaware that a passage from it is to be read at the funeral) and swaps it for "A History Of Genocide", and Dylan gets off with Rafferty's great niece Chastity.]] It all culminates with [[spoiler: Dale publicly reading a passage about genocide in the Khmer Rouge as part of the service, Ken and Rafferty's niece having an angry back and forth about the ownership of the book during a part of the service where mourners are invited to share their memories of the deceased, the reveal that Dale isn't Rafferty's lover, and the entire funeral party going to Rafferty's rose garden to spread his ashes only to see Dylan [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces getting a handjob]] from Chastity.]] Cue a DramaticDrop of [[spoiler: the urn.]]

-->'''Lorna:''' Sorry love were you, er ''(beat)'' [[ADateWithRosiePalms fiddling]]?
-->'''Dylan:''' Mum I've told you I don't wank, I have ''never'' wanked.

* NakedPeopleAreFunny
* NoisySexNextDoor

* OddCouple: Not a couple persay, but much of the comedy is driven by the personality clash between head-in-the-clouds idealist hippy Cuckoo and cynically down-to-earth everyman Ken.

* RomanticFalseLead: [[spoiler: Ben.]]

* ShowerOfLove: Discussed
** Dylan and Zoe try the bath variant of this but [[UnderStatement it doesn't go well]]. Specifically, [[spoiler: Dylan has food poisoning and has a [[PottyFailure diarrhoea attack]]. And then Zoe's [[OverprotectiveDad mother]] bursts in.]]

''Cuckoo'' is a 2012 comedy series on Creator/TheBBC, starring Andy Samberg, Greg Davies and Helen Baxendale.

* AshesToCrashes: At Dr Rafferty's funeral, [[spoiler: the urn gets dropped and shatters on the ground when the funeral party see Dylan [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces getting a handjob]] ]] as they go to the rose garden to spread the ashes.

* WhamShot: The Christmas special ends with [[spoiler: Rachel hearing Dale's truck and tearfully running down the driveway as she helplessly watches him drive away.]]

* TheFunInFuneral: Episode 4 of Series 2 is made of this trope. Ken lends a very rare book that's worth [[spoiler: £1,000]] to his dying history lecturer Dr Rafferty, who wants to read it before he dies. Rafferty dies earlier than expected and Ken goes to the funeral (dragging Lorna and Dylan along) to get the book back, and Dale goes because his unexpressed grief over Cuckoo is causing him to take Rafferty's death very hard. At the funeral; [[spoiler: Dale is mistaken for Rafferty's gay American lover, Ken steals the book out of Rafferty's niece's bag (unaware that a passage from it is to be read at the funeral) and swaps it for "A History Of Genocide", and Dylan gets off with Rafferty's great niece Chastity.]] It all culminates with [[spoiler: Dale publicly reading a passage about genocide in the Kmehr Rouge as part of the service, Ken and Rafferty's niece having an angry back and forth about the ownership of the book during a part of the service where mourners are invited to share their memories of the deceased, the reveal that Dale isn't Rafferty's lover, and the entire funeral party going to Rafferty's rose garden to spread his ashes only to see Dylan [[MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces getting a handjob]] from Chastity.]] Cue a DramaticDrop of [[spoiler: the urn.]]

* BadAss: Dale became one in the third season, after aquiring some "skills" from his trip to Shanghai.

* SmallNameBigEgo: Connie describes herself as a qualified psychiatrist despite only having done a two day course.

* Bad Ass: Dale is one. In the beginning of the first episode of season 3, we see him beating up thugs in Shanghai with extreme ease.

Series 2 introduced two major cast changes: Tamla Kari (Rachel) was replaced by Esther Smith, and Cuckoo was written out because of Andy Samberg's other work commitments and replaced by his long lost son Dale (TaylorLautner). It also introduced a new regular character in the form of Rachel's new boyfriend Ben (Matt Lacey); a safe and boring solicitor who works with Ken and Rachel.

* DawsonCasting: Zoe is around 16 at the start of Series 1 (2012) while Holly Earl was born in 1992.

* TheOtherDarrin: Tamla Kari (Rachel) was replaced by Esther Smith at the start of Series 2.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The Christmas special ends with Dale and the family celebrating Christmas, but Dale secretly leaves town in his truck.]]

* WhamShot: The Christmas special ends with [[spoiler: Rachel tearfully running down the driveway as Dale leaves town in his truck.]]

* TheCastShowOff: In the Series 2 finale, TaylorLautner (a blackbelt since the age of eight) gets to show off his martial arts skills.

* WideEyedIdealist: Cuckoo initially believes his book will change the world for the better. He figures out this isn't practical given the current need for a job and decides selling potatoes will do the job as well.