History Series / TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete

** Even the International Adult Conspiracy does little more than gossip about and complain to each other over the phone.
** Subverted with shop teacher Mr. Slurm, the Janitor at Pete's school, and--arguably--Artie.

* BaseballEpisode: "Field of Pete"

* BiggerOnTheInside:
** This is another source of the show's quirky humor. Artie's residence looks like a normal Port-A-Potty, but apparently it is [[ClownCarBase big enough to host a dinner party]] with a lot of people...?
** Artie is a [[Series/DoctorWho Time]] [[WildMassGuessing Lord]]? [[EpilepticTrees Well, that makes a lot of sense.]]
* BigBad: Oh god, [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant "Endless" Mike...]]
* BigDamnHeroes: Little Pete saving Big Pete from the Pumpkin [[XtremeKoolLetterz Eters]] in "Halloweenie".

* CallBack:
** The show has several of these, which is legitimately surprising, given how continuity ends up working within the series.
** In "Time Tunnel", Big Pete calls back to the OpeningNarration from the original shorts when he thinks about Ellen--she is a girl and a friend, but is she a girlfriend?

*** [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]] also had a recurring role as Nona's [[strike:dad]] pop.

* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Pretty much anything and everything that either Pete tries to pull off ends up biting them on the butt later on.

* CharacterAsHimself: Mom's Plate, the metal plate in Mrs. Wrigley's head; Petunia, Little Pete's tattoo.

* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Since the show never explains how Artie became "the strongest man in the world", this is the best explanation we have.

* CloudCuckooland: Wellsville qualifies, though the outside world does not seem any saner.

* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: Dad attempts to use CPR to revive [[ItMakesSenseInContext his lawn]]. It doesn't work, because it's a lawn.

* DriveInTheater: This is used as a setting when Big Pete and Ellen go on a date.

* TheDeterminator: Little Pete rarely gives up on anything. In a world filled with people for whom adult swim--no, not [[Creator/AdultSwim that one]]--is treated like the oppression of free speech, Little Pete is the king doing insane things solely on principle.
* DisproportionateRetribution: This is both played straight and played with in "Grounded for Life". The episode's basic arc is that Dad has been in a lawn war with an obnoxious neighbor for the past several summers. The man with the best lawn gets to watch the loser mow both lawns for the remainder of summer. Dad always loses, but this year, he is counting on his sweet Kentucky bluegrass to give him the edge. When one of Little Pete's science experiments leaves a scorch mark on the lawn, Dad ''forces him to replant the grass one seed at a time, makes him into a human sprinkler, and forces him to give the grass a Swedish massage.'' Pete retaliates by stealing Dad's lawn mower and driving it all the way to the Canadian border. Dad's punishment--grounding Pete for a month--could be seen as DisproportionateRetribution ''only'' if you consider how Pete would miss the 4th of July fireworks, which is his favorite part of summer. This being ''Pete and Pete'', the show treats it as SeriousBusiness, as it does with [[JustifiedTrope the Fourth of July itself.]] Eventually, [[spoiler:Dad decides to free Pete on the night of the 4th, only to discover he tunneled out. He starts to ground him ''again,'' but they end up watching the fireworks together and making up.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the original shorts, Hardy Rawls does not take the role of Dad until so much later; [[TheOtherDarrin another actor]] played him in the first few shorts.

* EmbarrassingTattoo: Played straight in that Little Pete has a tattoo on his arm of "Petunia", a lounging woman in a Spanish-style dress[[note]]The design was based on a real-life Creator/AlphonseMucha painting[[/note]]. Subverted in that ''Mrs. Wrigley'' is the one embarrassed by it.

* EnemyMine: In "Last Laugh", [[spoiler:Pit Stain]] and Little Pete team up against [[spoiler:Schwinger]].
* EnfantTerrible: Downplayed but present with Little Pete who is capable of pulling some extraordinarily nasty acts against those who wrong him (or when he is DrunkWithPower) but is rarely motivated to do so on his own volition. The events described in the NoodleIncident section also suggests that he is a borderline supervillain. Played more straight with the bullies he faces.
* EscalatingWar: Ellen's father and Mr. Wrigley get into a huge prank war in the episode "Apocalypse Pete".
* ExactWords: Little Pete and two other unruly students take Principal Schwinger up on his order to stay in the office until he gets back - And the plot of "All Nighter" is thus set off.
* FleetingPassionateHobbies: This is basically Ellen's defining character trait.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: You can see Bus Driver Stu beating the [[strike:crap]] straw out of a scarecrow through the bus window while Mike is talking Big Pete into pranking Bill on the bus in "Yellow Fever".
* GardenHoseSquirtSurprise

* In "Grounded for Life," Artie visits grounded Pete as if he were in a maximum-security prison (right down to Pete wearing a plain denim button-up shirt and talking to Artie on a phone on one side of a pane of glass). This also involves Dad frisking Artie...and Artie declaring, "You have soft hands for a man, Don! HEH-HEH!"

* GuardianAngel: Inspector 34.

* HeatWave: "How We Spent Our Summer Vacation" and "The Call" use this in their own plots.

* HumanAlien: [[spoiler: Joe Jones]]

%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExample- what happens? How is this like the trope? * KidsPlayMatchmaker: "Apocalypse Pete" to the extreme.
* LargeHam: Every guest star gets to be one. Artie, however, is the only show regular who qualifies.

*** Mike's surname, "Hellstrom", is quite a MeaningfulName--one of those you want [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast to run away from]].

* {{Metaphorgotten}}: "The Day Of The Dot"

** Hell, the Wrigleys once found a fully-functioning car buried in the sand at the beach with a metal detector and drove it home. No one else on the beach appeared to care that much.

** Syd Straw is an indie musician; she gets to sing and play guitar in one episode. Not TheCastShowoff because she's in an ensemble lead by Little Pete.

[[quoteright:298:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pete-and-pete_4347.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:298:Left to right: Pete Wrigley, Pete Wrigley.]]

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: Where The Hell Is Wellsville?: Wellsville, USA is four hours away from Canada if you run (or use a riding lawnmower) and is located in a forested-yet-flat section of the country that is close to the beach.[[note]]Could be northwest Oregon, actually...[[/note]] While a few episodes apparently stated they were in Michigan, they filmed in New Jersey, and there is a real town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellsville,_New_York Wellsville, New York]]. It appears to be east of the Mississippi River, as the call letters for Wellsville radio stations begin with "W" and call letters for radio stations west of the Mississippi start with a "K".

* RockPaperScissors: Papercut always threw [[CaptainObvious paper]].

* [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Where The Hell Is Wellsville?]]: Wellsville, USA is four hours away from Canada if you run (or use a riding lawnmower) and is located in a forested-yet-flat section of the country that is close to the beach.[[note]]Could be northwest Oregon, actually...[[/note]] While a few episodes apparently stated they were in Michigan, they filmed in New Jersey, and there is a real town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellsville,_New_York Wellsville, New York]]. It appears to be east of the Mississippi River, as the call letters for Wellsville radio stations begin with "W" and call letters for radio stations west of the Mississippi start with a "K".

%%ZeroContextExample- what happens? How is this like the trope? * KidsPlayMatchmaker: "Apocalypse Pete" to the extreme.

* AdultsAreUseless: Even the International Adult Conspiracy does little more than gossip about and complain to each other over the phone.

* {{Beachcombing}}: This happens in the surreal and hilarious way that defines the show's humor. During a family trip to the beach, Dad's metal detector finds a car buried in the sand. The Wrigleys then dig it out and drive home in it.

* BiggerOnTheInside: This is another source of the show's quirky humor. Artie's residence looks like a normal Port-A-Potty, but apparently it is [[ClownCarBase big enough to host a dinner party]] with a lot of people...?

* CallBack: The show has several of these, which is legitimately surprising, given how continuity ends up working within the series.

* TheCameo: One of the great joys of the show was the plethora of guest stars--including Creator/SteveBuscemi, Creator/JaneaneGarofalo, Creator/AdamWest, Music/LLCoolJ, and Creator/BebeNeuwirth.

* CharacterAgedWithTheActor: Time in the show, from the shorts to the series proper, progressed almost the same as in real life. Both Michael Maronna and Danny Tamberelli were kids when the first short was aired--11-12 and 7 years old, respectively--and at the end, they were in High School and Middle School.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The show has several examples, most notably "Endless" Mike's dating advice in "Time Tunnel": "No fog, no fun."

* IconicOutfit: Little Pete wears a red flannel cap almost everywhere he goes. This gets lampshaded when he is wearing it in the middle of summer. He also wears long-sleeved shirts, even in the middle of the summer, to hide Petunia--a decision mandated by his mother. Oh, and he seems to wear boots all the time.

* IndecipherableLyrics: The theme song, "Hey Sandy", is made of this. The most commonly misinterpreted lyric was "Don't you talk back" as "Does your dog bite?". The lyrics have long since been published...except for the third line, which, according to the DVD commentary, will remain a mystery.
** According to the DVD subtitles, the third line is "Can you settle to shoot me?".
*** ...which fits in with the long-standing rumors that the song is about the Kent State Massacre.

* LargeHam: Every guest star gets to be one.
** Artie, however, is the only show regular who qualifies.

* ParentTrapPlot: "Apocalypse Pete" to the extreme.

* EmbarrassingTattoo: Played straight in that Little Pete has a tattoo on his arm of "Petunia", a lounging woman in a Spanish-style dress[[note]]The design was based in an Creator/AlphonseMucha's painting, in real life[[/note]]. Subverted in that ''Mrs. Wrigley'' is the one embarrassed by it.

* EmbarrassingTattoo: Played straight in that Little Pete has a tattoo on his arm of "Petunia", a lounging woman in a Spanish-style dress[[note]]The design was based in an Alphonse Mucha's painting, in real life[[/note]]. Subverted in that ''Mrs. Wrigley'' is the one embarrassed by it.

''The Adventures of Pete & Pete'' was one of several sitcoms aired by Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} during the early 1990s, about two brothers and their oddball family/neighborhood/school/world in the town of Wellsville. Creator/WillMcRobbAndChrisViscardi, two members of Nickelodeon's marketing department, created the series in 1988 as shorts meant to advertise Nickelodeon in a more roundabout way. The commercials took off, leading to half-hour specials being produced (five from 1991 to 1993), and eventually a full-series order with a three-season run. The plug was pulled in 1996.

The two titular brothers are named Pete Wrigley for reasons that are never explained within the series proper[[note]]the shorts mention their mom wanted their names to rhyme[[/note]]; co-creator Will [=McRobb=] once noted that, should you feel the need to ask, [[BellisariosMaxim you're probably watching the wrong show]]. This is, after all, the same show where underpants inspectors are guardian angels, a metal detector can find an entire car (still in good condition) buried at the beach, you can run to the Canadian border in four hours (or use a riding mower), and a mentally challenged man who speaks incoherent sentences and runs around in spandex pajamas is the personal superhero of the younger Pete Wrigley. Why two brothers have the same name should be the ''least'' of your issues.

The series was fairly successful on Nick when it aired, alongside other live-action shows such as ''Series/SaluteYourShorts'' and ''Series/ClarissaExplainsItAll''. The first two seasons were also released to DVD as part of Nickelodeon's "Rewind" series, which showcased shows from that era. ''Pete and Pete'' in particular was also a hit with [[PeripheryDemographic college-aged young adults]]--a demographic that Nick wouldn't attract again in such large numbers until ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' in 2001--who enjoyed its quirkiness. Additionally, by being shot on location and eschewing a laugh track, it pioneered a format that became the preferred one for sitcoms by the time the 2000's came around.

This is ''The Adventures of Pete and Pete''. And [[Recap/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete this]] is its recap page.

Hey, look! [[Characters/TheAdventuresOfPeteAndPete A character sheet]]! Pipe!

!!This show provides examples of:
* TheAce: Inspector 34, who is perfect at ''everything''... except at having fun. Being scrutinized for bringing a fork, knife, and napkin to a messy outdoor barbeque is what causes him to finally break his "everything must be perfect" attitude.
* AcmeProducts: Everything from the Krebstar corporation.
* AdultsAreUseless. Indeed, even the International Adult Conspiracy itself does little but gossip and moan over the phone.
** Not all adults are useless though, some are quite wise and insightful like Mr. Slurm (the shop teacher) and the Janitor at Pete's school.
* AnimatedTattoo: Spoofed. Little Pete can flex his arm muscles to make Petunia "dance". It has a hypnotizing effect on whoever watches, making them forget what they were talking about.
* AppliedPhlebotinum: The metal plate grafted to Mrs. Wrigley's skull usually gets used for ''something'' sooner or later, and she never seems to catch on (though she usually does feel a "Ping" when it happens.) Examples include being used as a magnet, getting struck by lightning, using it as a radio antennae to pick-up a radio station from halfway across the world and reflecting the signal from a garage door opener off in order to close it. It's also how Dad found her in the first place- with a metal detector at the beach. They hit it off and the rest is history.
* AprilFoolsPlot: In "The Last Laugh" Little Pete concocts a simple prank against his principal that has an elaborate strategy of subterfuge and unusual alliances in order to get past the principal who is ProperlyParanoid.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Rolling Thunder, the Wrigley family bowling ball. Passed down from generation to generation, it cannot be destroyed or sent away. It even managed to [[TheWorfEffect defeat Artie]].

* {{Bowdlerise}} Pete the younger is fond of calling people "blowhole" as an insult. Which is presumably a substitute for a certain insult reffering to another orifice..
* {{Beachcombing}}: In a typically surreal and hilarious manner. The Wrigleys take a trip to the beach, and using his metal detector, Don finds a car buried in the sand. Then the family digs it out and drives home in it.

* BiggerOnTheInside: Another source of the show's quirky humor. Artie's residence looks like a normal Port-A-Potty, but apparently it's [[ClownCarBase big enough to host a dinner party]] with a lot of people...?
** Artie is a [[Series/DoctorWho Time]] [[WildMassGuessing Lord]]? That actually makes a lot of sense.
* BigBad: Oh god, [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant Endless Mike...]]

* BookEnds: In "Nightcrawlers", little Pete's mother interrupts a game of flashlight tag he is having with his friends near the beginning. At the end, she plays flashlight tag with Pete to keep him on track to break the world record when there was no one else around.
* BrandX: Most Krebstar products are thinly veiled parodies of existing brands, including Kreben Up soda (7-Up), Kreb of the Loom underwear (Fruit of the Loom), Kreb Newtons (Fig Newtons), Krebbin Donuts (Dunkin Donuts), Kreb Duds (Milk Duds), etc.
* BuccaneerBroadcaster: WART Radiois a radio pirate station managed by little Pete. And it's a little bit infamous with the neighbors.
* CallBack: Several, especially considering how continuity ends up working with the series (which could or could not affect a determined person's CharacterDevelopment). For example, the main plot for big Pete about dating Ellen in "Time Tunnel" goes on from the OpeningNarration from the original shorts. She is a girl and a friend, but was she a ''girl''friend?
* CaliforniaDoubling: Actually, New Jersey Doubling- quite a few small towns in the area were used for the filming (with three different Wrigley houses- Season 1's was in Leonia, Season 2 moved to South Orange, and Season 3 moved again, to Cranford). This explains why you could sometimes see NJ Transit buses and other such stuff. A fan has made a [[https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ptab=2&hl=en&gl=us&oe=UTF8&msa=0&ie=UTF8&mid=1dS28xHaPIOkCR1J5amMxSE_wW24 Google Map Layer]] detailing all the known filming locations.
* TheCameo: One of the great joys of the show was the plethora of guest stars such as Creator/SteveBuscemi, Creator/JaneaneGarofalo, Creator/AdamWest, Music/LLCoolJ, and Creator/BebeNeuwirth.
** The show was also crawling with cameos from alternative rock musicians including [[Music/TheStooges Iggy Pop]] (who had a recurring role as Nona's [[strike:dad]] pop), Kate Pierson of Music/TheB52s, Gordon Gano of the Music/ViolentFemmes, Marshall Crenshaw, Syd Straw, Michael Stipe of Music/{{REM}}, David Johansen of the Music/NewYorkDolls, the rock band Luscious Jackson and Richard Edson (the original drummer for Music/SonicYouth)
* CanadaEh: In "Grounded for Life", Little Pete attempts to run away from home by riding a riding mower to Canada. A mountie catches him at the border, hitches the mower to the back of his horse and drags him home that way.
* CantGetAwayWithNuthin: Pretty much everything and anything that either Pete tries to pull off ends up biting them back later on.
* CatchPhrase: "I am Artie! The strongest man...''in the world''!"

** "The International Adult Conspiracy"

** Big Pete's Narration: "This is [person/place/thing]. And ''this'' is [something associated with it]."
*** Mike Maronna apparently didn't pick up on this; he once autographed a photo with "if I had a catch-phrase I'd write it here."

* CharacterAgedWithTheActor: The time in the series progressed as almost the same as in the real life. Both Michael Maronna and Danny Tamberelli were just kids at the time the first short was aired (11-12 and 7 years old respectively), and at the end, both were in High School and Middle School.
** Just to take an example, compare the narration/voice off of 'Valentine's Day Massacre' with the acting's audio of the same special. Michael's voice was cracking... and it didn't helped they were recording in cold days.
* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: As it's never exactly explained how Artie became the strongest man in the world, this is the best explanation we have.
* CharlieBrownFromOuttaTown: Mr. Bear (Big Pete in disguise)
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Given the changes in between the series received the promotion from shorts to TV Specials TO TV series, expect this to happen with some characters. Especially, and notoriously the bullies, before the introduction of Endless Mike and/or Pit Strain for the respective older and younger Petes. The sad case, however, and much more present in the is the sudden dissapearance of Nona in season three, especially after being promoted in the opening credits.
* CloudCuckooland: Wellsville, though the outside world doesn't seem any saner.
* ClothesMakeTheSuperman: One of the shorts credits at least some of Artie's powers to his outfit, which is a 60/60 blend (60% titanium, 40% cotton).
* ColdBloodedTorture: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] -- a group of boys trying to force Little Pete to reveal a secret take out black markers and draw all over Petunia.
* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: Dad attempts to use CPR to revive [[ItMakesSenseInContext his lawn]]. It doesn't work, because it's a ''lawn''
* ADayInTheLimelight: "X = Why?"'s main focus centers on Ellen and her father (Steve Buscemi), with Big Pete playing a supporting character to her instead of the other way around.
* DriveInTheater: Used as a setting when big Pete and [[spoiler:Ellen]] go on a date.
* DarkestHour: The second part of "Farewell My Little Viking.". John [=McFlemp=] is purging Artie's memory, and has turned him into just another white collar guy in a suit, and Little Pete, who's normally TheDeterminator, is on the verge of giving up. [[spoiler:But then, Pete's dad has a HeelRealization and heads to find Artie, who goes back to his old ways while Little Pete stands up to Papercut on his own.]]
* TheDeterminator: Little Pete rarely gives up on anything, and in a world filled with people for whom adult swim (No, not [[Creator/AdultSwim that one]]) is treated like oppression of free speech, Little Pete is the king of it, doing insane things solely on principle.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Played straight and with in "Grounded for Life." The basic arc is that Dad has been in a lawn war with an obnoxious neighbor for the past several summers. The man with the best lawn gets to watch the loser mow both lawns for the remainder of summer. Dad always loses, but this year, he's counting on his sweet Kentucky blue grass to net him the title. So when one of Little Pete's science experiments leaves a scorch mark on the lawn, Dad ''forces him to replant the grass one seed at a time, makes him into a human sprinkler, and forces him to give the grass a Swedish massage.'' Pete retaliates by stealing Dad's lawn mower and driving it all the way to the Canadian border. Dad's punishment--grounding Pete for a month--could be seen as DisproportionateRetribution ''only'' if you consider this means Pete will miss the 4th of July fireworks, his favorite part of summer. This, however, is treated as SeriousBusiness, as is [[JustifiedTrope the Fourth of July itself.]] Eventually, [[spoiler: Dad decides to free Pete on the night of the 4th, only to discover he tunneled out. He starts to ground him ''again,'' but they end up watching the fireworks together and making up.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The shorts for beginners, Hardy Rawls does not take the role of 'dad' until so much later, [[TheOtherDarrin another actor]] played him in the first shorts.
** Little Pete not using his [[IconicItem iconic hat]] as much as in the TV series. This is more evidently in "New Year's Pete", where you see him without it so much longer than later.
** Speaking of, Petunia. Though the design is the same during the whole 7 years of filming the series, the position of it was different since it was originally in little Pete's left arm, not right. Danny Tamberelli is left-handed, assuming that this made the design harder to maintain clean or perfect during shots (since it needed to be redrawn or recolored), and that he was going to school at the time, it was later changed during the filming of the eight episodes of the first season.

* EmbarrassingTattoo: Little Pete's "Petunia", a lounging woman in a Spanish-style dress[[note]]The design was based in an Alphonse Mucha's painting, in real life[[/note]]; subverted in that ''Mrs. Wrigley'' is the one embarrassed by it.

* EscalatingWar: Ellen's father and the Petes' father got into a huge prank war in the episode "Apocalypse Pete".
* FleetingPassionateHobbies: Basically Ellen's defining character trait.

* GeekPhysiques: The show largely avoids this trope, but Joe Jones from "Space, Geeks, and Johnny Unitas" plays it painfully straight (although admittedly he proves to be both a football and UFO nerd [[spoiler: and an alien]]).
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Several examples, most notably Endless Mike's dating advice in "Time Tunnel": "No fog, no fun"

---> ''*Mom faints*''

--->'''Bus Driver Stu:''' Nobody think about Della! (to random student) You! You're thinking about her. You disgust me!

--->'''Artie:''' You too will enjoy the feeling of the pleasure ridges!
* GRatedDrug: Extra-frosty Orange Lazaruses give those who consume them too fast brain freezes of such intensity that the victims start tripping.

* HandyFeet: Happens in "Time Tunnel" in which Big Pete is trying to date Ellen. He calls her on the phone while she's barefoot and meanwhile he asks her random questions, he also asks her "try writing something with your foot." She holds the pencil with her toes and does just that.
* HeatWave: "How We Spent Our Summer Vacation" and "The Call" have used this in their own plots.
** In "How We Spent Our Summer Vacation", the heat affected severely to the kids (as consequence of Tastee ''escaping'' from Wellsville, they couldn't have something to relieve it), to the point of being hypnotized by the ''arm fat'' of one of the neighbors.
** The phone ringing "curse" in "The Call", combined with what was the most '''hot''' summer day everyone has passed through their lives, literally, made everyone crazier than usual.

* IconicOutfit: Little Pete wore a red flannel cap almost everywhere he went. It gets lampshaded when he's wearing it in the middle of the summer.
** He also uses long-sleeved shirts EVEN in the middle of the summer (because of hiding Petunia, mandated by his mother) and boots if not all the time.
* IndecipherableLyrics: The theme song, "Hey Sandy", is made of this, the most commonly misinterpreted lyric was "Don't you talk back" as "Does your dog bite?". The lyrics have since been published, except for the third line, which according to the DVD commentary will remain a mystery but according to the DVD subtitles is "Can you settle to shoot me?".
** Danny Tamberelli (Little Pete) [[WordOfSaintPaul claimed on Reddit]] that the line is "Can you settle a sure bet?". It would make sense, as it properly fits the song's rhyme scheme.
** It's been widely rumored to be "can you stand to shoot me", as part of the larger subset of rumors regarding the song being about a victim of the Kent State shootings.
* InteractiveNarrator: Big Pete, who tells the story after the fact. Early on, the show was supposed to mimic the sort of long, rambling stories small children have a tendency to tell, but this angle on the narration was dropped during the series proper when Big Pete became too old for this to work.
* IUhYouToo: Big Pete cannot spit it out to Ellen ("I...I"), to which Ellen responds "It's OK, I know" and smooches him in the middle of a packed high school stadium.
* KidsVersusAdults: Try mostly with the ''International Adult Conspiracy''. They might be completely evil ([=McFlemp=], for example, [[spoiler:conspired with the adult neighbors to get rid off of Artie]]), but not every adult is ''neccesarily'' evil. They just live mostly with the rules that adults need to live with...
* LargeHam: Every guest star. And Artie, of course.
* LyricalDissonance: The main theme, "Hey Sandy," is a peppy alt-rock song that is widely rumored to be about the Kent State Massacre. (Naturally, however, it was a chore to get even ''most'' of the lyrics clarified--finding out the ''meaning'' is all but a lost cause. See IndecipherableLyrics above.)
** Little Pete's favorite song from one episode is "Summerbaby" (performed by Polaris, who also did the opening theme) which includes lines like "When I'm alone I do things nobody knows" and "Every drop of sex and every little mess I make".

** At this point, almost if not all the music used in the series that is authored by Polaris and Mark Mulcahy, completely fills this thanks to their lyrics, that is if you want to interpret them with pretty ''deep'' meaning in the lyrics as "Hey Sandy" or even on what "Waiting for October" ''hide'' in. Not even the creators are sure about what the songs specifically talk about, except Mulcahy himself, perhaps.
* MeaningfulName: Many of the bullies, such as Open Face (who loved his open-faced sammiches) and Papercut (who had an obsession with dealing out...well, paper cuts - and he ''always'' threw Paper during Rock-Paper-Scissors).
** And, of course, Pit Stain, whose problem happened to be glandular... and Little Pete's problem happened to be his fist.
** Hell, the only villain to whom this doesn't apply is "Endless" Mike; the nickname is never elaborated upon ([[WildMassGuessing though fans have speculated the "endless" is in reference to his hatred for Big Pete or his tenure in high school.]])
** Those are all Meaningful [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Nicknames]]; Mike's surname "Hellstrom", however, is quite a MeaningfulName. One of those you want [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast to run away from]].
** In a non-bully example, there's Slushmaster Bob Oppenheimer, who even makes his own spin on J. Robert Oppenheimer's famous quote:
-->'''Slushmaster Bob''': "I have become Slushmaster, destroyer of brains!"
** Reaches an even weirder pitch later in the episode where he remarks of his invention "I wanted to create world peace," which was something Oppenheimer prayed might come about in the years after the second world war. Of course, since ''this'' Oppenheimer is talking about a slush-machine and not revolutionary nuclear power, Pete only stares at him baffled.
** In "On Golden Pete," involving the Petes' Dad's obsessive quest to catch an elusive striped bass, his HAM radio nickname is revealed to be [[Literature/MobyDick Ahab]].

* MundaneFantastic: Spandex-clad superheros, radio signals being picked up by skull plates, sound-proof burp chambers, black-market expired pudding and underwear-inspecting guardian angels are amongst the many bizarre and improbable things no one bats an eye at. Hell, the Wrigleys once found a fully-functioning car under a beach with a metal detector and drove it home. Perfectly normal.
* NoodleIncident: Little Pete has the ability to find out about these and unnerve people by making passing mention of them.
** Little Pete has his own [[NoodleIncident incidents]] too:
*** He had a hand in causing a lake to dry and partly responsible for the collapse of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
*** And no one knows for certain how he got the tattoo...

** "Field of Pete" has a ton of them, when Little Pete goes from using his epic trash talking skills to using an apparently endless amount of blackmail material he has on the other baseball teams, all of which he implies with only a few words. As an example, we never do get to learn why their mom won't let Big Pete buy the lard any more, except that a small amount of it had previously proven amazingly "explosive."
** All we know about how Mom got the plate in her head is it was some accident when she was a kid.

* OneOfTheKids: A very rare case of a "good" adult child was Artie, who was the local super-hero, best friend to all children and a positive (yet very weird) role model to anyone who actually listened to him.

* OrphanedPunchline: We don't hear Bill's entire joke that causes Teddy to explode milk from his nose, other than the punchline of "So I'll put it OVER HERE!"

* PlatonicLifePartners: Played straight and with. By the writers' own admission on the DVDCommentary, they were unfamiliar with [[CharacterDevelopment character arcs]], so every episode was written enitrely self-contained, meaning Pete and Ellen's friendship was sometimes bent to fit the plot at hand. Most episodes played the trope straight, but several have one pining for the other, most notably "Day of the Dot", "The Big Quiet", "Time Tunnel", and "Crisis in the Love Zone". See also Relationship Reset Button below.

** TheKirk - Little Pete
** TheSpock - Monica
** TheMcCoy - Nona
* PutOnABus: Poor, poor Artie. (In retrospect, all Toby Huss can remember of his reasons for leaving is that he did it "of his own accord", according to his commentary on the DVD.)
** Perhaps lampshaded, as Little Pete thereafter kept regular company with Bus Driver Stu.

* RelationshipResetButton: Whether Pete & Ellen were friends or toying with being more than was irrelevant by the next episode. They had a series-finale-quality kiss in front of a high-school-stadium audience in ''episode 2'', and nothing ever really came of it. By the writers' own admission on the commentary, "I think we just forgot about it."
* RockPaperScissors: Papercut, who always threw [[CaptainObvious paper]].

* ScoutOut: Combined with BrandX we get the Kreb Scouts that Younger Pete's friend Monica is a member of.
* SeriousBusiness: Pretty much the point of the show.
** The school marching band, bedtimes, shop class, bowling balls, school tests, dodgeball, favorite songs, baseball, awkward silence, Daylight Saving Time, Halloween, underwear inspecting, fishing, field trips, good-luck charms, pool piss, pool hierarchy, spring fever, Varsity sports, how fast your electricity meter is spinning...
*** The above is only a ''very'' partial list. Every episode has at least one thing receiving the SeriousBusiness treatment, however, it's more likely the show has two, one for Big Pete and one for Little Pete. It's also not uncommon for side characters to demonstrate their own serious businesses, without following up on their plot. The final episode "Saturday" simply follows half a dozen characters and their big reactions to very little things.
** "I created Orange Lazarus... for world peace..." The Orange Lazarus is a slushy drink. This is the ONLY time in the entire series that people think someone is going overboard on how serious they take things. However, that's just the World Peace part. Everyone else 'merely' treats it like a GargleBlaster with nigh-occult powers.
** How high the family can stack their luggage on top of the car when taking a family trip is directly related to how other men rate your manliness as the head of the household. When Dad sees another car with an even higher luggage stack, he starts to feel threatened and lose confidence.

** They tried going on a date once, in the episode "Time Tunnel", but in true sitcom style, it was a disaster. But the night still ended well for them (by TV-Y standards anyway).
* ShipTease: Going hand-in-hand with the above trope. 2/3rds of the show played Pete and Ellen straight as PlatonicLifePartners. The other third falls hard in this.
* ShoutOut: In "Tool and Die", when Pete sneaks around Mr. Slurm's classroom and is caught, the shot of Pete on his back with Mr. Slurm standing over him, both pointing flashlights at each other, is a direct shout out to ''Film/ReservoirDogs'' and its iconic image of Mr. White and Mr. Pink in a standoff. In "X = Why?", there are movie posters in a theater promoting ''Reservoir Pups'' and ''[[Film/PulpFiction Pup Fiction]]''; this episode also features Creator/SteveBuscemi, who appeared in both of the Tarentino movies being referenced.

* SurrealHumour: One of the series' better traits was its use of humor in ways that nobody would expect. Heavy use of the FunnyBackgroundEvent, the NoodleIncident, and just all out weirdness that nobody ever bats an eye towards.
* TakingAThirdOption: When it comes to Papercut playing RockPaperScissors, you have two options: choose paper and lose, or be too afraid to choose rock, because he's going to beat you up anyway. Little Pete and all his friends finally stand up to his bullying by creating new hand signs to represent forces of nature that can't be beaten, such as volcanoes and meteors.

* TranquillizerDart: Subverted in the ChristmasEpisode; Little Pete shoots the Garbage Man with a tranq (actually hitting a major vein!), and it takes a couple minutes of real-time to start taking effect.

* TwoLinesNoWaiting: A bulk of the show's episodes are formatted this way, with Big Pete's plot concerning stories relatable to teenagers (dating, sports, jobs) while Little Pete's stories focused on more adolescent adventures and Aesops, with little, if any, intersection between the two. The episodes that had both Petes together were usually family-related.
* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: The shorts, specials and "Day of the Dot" present Ellen as pining after Big Pete, with him having to remind her that she's "a girl, and a friend, but not my girlfriend". Season two episodes, like "Yellow Fever" and "Time Tunnel", turn this around-- Big Pete is starting to wonder if he has feelings for Ellen, but she no longer reciprocates.

* [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Where The Hell Is Wellsville?]]: Wellsville, USA. It's apparently 4 hours away from Canada if you run (or use a riding lawnmower), located in a forested but flat section of the country that is close to the beach.[[note]](could be northwest Oregon, actually...)[[/note]]But then a few episodes apparently stated they were in Michigan, there's the fact that they filmed in New Jersey, there is a real town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellsville,_New_York Wellsville, New York]]... It appears to be east of the Mississippi River as the call letters for radio stations in the town begin with "W". [[note]]Call letters for radio stations west of the Mississippi start with a "K"[[/note]]
** The state nickname is The Sideburn State, not that that narrows it down any.
* WondrousLadiesRoom: In the episode "All-Nighter", little Pete and two of his friends (Wayne and Monica) end up locked in the school overnight by accident. Naturally, [[HilarityEnsues hijinks ensue]] as all three take the opportunity to do all the things they would otherwise never be allowed to do on school grounds. Monica decides to go and check out the '''BOYS''' room, since she has never been inside one in her life, apparently. Upon entering she is utterly astounded by the presence of urinals and completely baffled as to their purpose. The two boys (who happened to be in the exact same bathroom for some reason) decide to have some fun by telling her the urinal is "a foot washer".
* WorldOfWeirdness: See CloudCuckooland above, or even MundaneFantastic. It's a world completely full of SeriousBusiness, too.
* WorldsStrongestMan: "Artie - the strongest mannnnnnnn *DramaticPause* in the woooorrrrld!"
** His on-camera feats include hitting a golf ball 300,003 yards, pushing a house to the left an inch (he wanted to knock it over, but he had strained a muscle earlier while lifting a brassiere emporium), rolling a bowling ball from whatever state Wellsville is in into Canada, skipping a stone on Neptune, leaving the Wrigley's gutters clean and spotless by blowing through the drainage pipe (and said gunk going flying all over the neighborhood,) and leaping across the city in a single jump.

* MundaneFantastic: Spandex-clad superheros, radio signals being picked up by skull plates, sound-proof burp chambers, black-market expired pudding and underwear-inspecting guardian angels are amongst the many bizarre and improbable things no one bats an eye at. Hell, the Wrigleys ones found a fully-functioning car under a beach with a metal detector and drove it home. Perfectly normal.

* AnimatedTattoo: Spoofed. Little Pete can flex his arm muscles to make Petunia "dance". It has a hypnotizing effect on whoever watches, making them forget what they were talking about.

** His on-camera feats include hitting a golf ball 300,003 feet, pushing a house to the left an inch (he wanted to knock it over, but he had strained a muscle earlier while lifting a brassiere emporium), rolling a bowling ball from whatever state Wellsville is in into Canada, skipping a stone on Neptune, leaving the Wrigley's gutters clean and spotless by blowing through the drainage pipe (and said gunk going flying all over the neighborhood,) and leaping across the city in a single jump.

* [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Where The Hell Is Wellsville?]]: Wellsville, USA. It's apparently 4 hours away from Canada if you run (or use a riding lawnmower), located in a forested but flat section of the country that is close to the beach.[[note]](could be northwest Oregon, actually...)[[/note]]But then a few episodes apparently stated they were in Michigan, there's the fact that they filmed in New Jersey, there is a real town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellsville,_New_York Wellsville, New York]]...

->'''Older Pete''': Look, you're a girl, and you're a friend...[[ShesNotMyGirlfriend but you're not a girlfriend]]!

*** Reaches an even weirder pitch later in the episode where he remarks of his invention "I wanted to create world peace," which was something Oppenheimer prayed might come about in the years after the second world war. Of course, since ''this'' Oppenheimer is talking about a slush-machine and not revolutionary nuclear power, Pete only stares at him baffled.

* ThePowerOfRock: Little Pete, in an attempt to fish out an EarWorm, starts up a band and experiments with various chords, one of which has a disruptive effect on Artie.