History Series / UnbreakableKimmySchmidt

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The show generally [[GoshDangItToHeck avoids profanity]], but Lilian's last name, Kauschtupper, is mangled Yiddish for "cow fucker."

** In Season 4, Creator/JonBernthal guest stars as [[spoiler: an agent for Mr. Frumpus pretending to be]] a fan of Titus after seeing him on ''{{Series/Daredevil|2015}}''. Jon Bernthal played Series/ThePunisher on Daredevil before getting his own series.

** Attempted by the owner of the store Titus rents his IronMan costume from, who tries to pass off his unlicensed, copyright-violating Franchise/IronMan, Franchise/HelloKitty, and [[Series/SesameStreet Cookie Monster]] costumes as those of "Metal Hero Friend," "Aloha Cat," and "Treat Creature."

** The Reverend claimed to have [[Series/MadMen created the "Buy the world a Coke" commercial.]] In season 2, Cyndee needlessly reminds Kimmy who she is by saying they "put a [[Series/MadMen mad man]] in jail together."

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler:The fairy godmother in Kimmy's animated Happy Place is voiced by Lisa Kudrow, who would later appear as Kimmy's mother Lori-Ann.]]

* AuthorOnBoard: The third season episode "Kimmy Steps on a Crack!", which has a number of established characters act unlike themselves and also has a number of bizarre (yes, even for this show!) things happen, all to deliver the [[UnfortunateImplications questionable message]] that when a woman fails at something (even when she goes about it in the dumbest way possible) it's not her fault but due to [[StrawMisogynist men being useless and not taking her seriously.]] Even the writers seemed to realise that they'd gone a bit too far with this one, since the very next episode is "Kimmy is a feminist!" in which [[StrawFeminist feminism is also shown as not being all that great.]]

* YourCheatingHeart:
** Jacqueline mentions that on their first date, she and Julian couldn't go back to his home because his wife was there. She then becomes suspicious that he's having an affair with a Japanese woman named Yuko. [[spoiler: He isn't having an affair with Yuko. He's having an affair with the Voorhees' couples therapist.]]
** In "Kimmy Disrupts the Paradigm!", Kimmy almost hooks up with a guy at a tech convention but quickly calls it quits when she learns he's married and constantly hooks up with random women at these conventions behind his wife's back.

* EverytownAmerica: Durnsville (like [[Series/ParksAndRecreation Pawnee]]) and Indiana in general embody this and DownOnTheFarm. The local school board removes one chapter from the science textbooks each year, homosexuality allegedly doesn't exist there yet (though it's rumored to have cropped up in neighboring Ohio), the authorities and townsfolk alike are provincial, simple-minded, and gullible. Bonus points for "[[GrandRomanticGesture the traditional meat and flowers of Indiana courtship]]."

[[quoteright:355:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/32b22aaa1ccab3548869d21cb1f6a4e8.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:355:''"Females are strong as hell!"'']]

* AuthorOnBoard: The third season episode "Kimmy Steps on a Crack!", which has a number of established characters act unlike themselves and also has a number of bizarre (yes, even for this show!) things happen, all to deliver the [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop questionable message]] that when a woman fails at something (even when she goes about it in the dumbest way possible) it's not her fault but due to [[StrawMisogynist men being useless and not taking her seriously.]] Even the writers seemed to realise that they'd gone a bit too far with this one, since the very next episode is "Kimmy is a feminist!" in which [[StrawFeminist feminism is also shown as not being all that great.]]

* {{Adorkable}}:
** A large part of Kimmy's appeal.
** Also Mikey as he [[StraightGay awkwardly]] starts embracing the ways of "our people".

** The show is extremely reminiscent of the kidnappings by Ariel Castro. Castro held three women in his house for a decade and sexually abused them, similar to how The Reverend in the show held the women for years for "freaky sex stuff". Also, in the show, the victims were three white women and one Latina woman, while Ariel Castro kidnapped two white women and one Latina woman.

Not related to Creator/MNightShyamalan's 2000's film ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}''.

* {{Crossover}}: [[spoiler: With ''Orange Is The New Black'' in Season Three, when Gretchen is sent to Litchfield prison and meets Black Cindy]].

** Season One & Two: Baked Kimber-Lays, Kimmie Lee & Hoda, [[Literature/AmeliaBedelia Amelia Bedelia]], Kimbecile, Girlfrenemy, [[ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} Kimbert]], Diva, Kimpanzee, [[Music/LilKim Lil Kim]], [[Film/KPax K-PAX]], [[Music/JustinTimberlake Kimberlake]], [[Creator/TimBlakeNelson Kim Blake Nelson]], Kimillionaire, Kimbrella, Kimstagram, Kimothy, White Weirdo, [[WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite Rainbow Brite]], Kim Kim Kim [[note]]a play on Rin Tin Tin[[/note]], Carrot Top, Miss Schmidt ([[Music/JanetJackson if you're nasty]]), [[Disney/TheLittleMermaid Ariel]], Boy, [[Franchise/{{Lassie}} Lassie]].

The final episodes of the series were released on January 25, 2019. An interactive special, titled ''Film/KimmyVsTheReverend'', was released on May 12, 2020.

** The interactive episode has a ''Choose Your Own Journey'' book instead of ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure''.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: In the interactive episode, Kimmy's fiance says that his nanny taught him every word he knows: "Sandwich... Eleven... Strangle..."
* BreakingTheFourthWall: In the interactive episode, whenever the viewer gets a non-canon ending, a character will walk out and tell you that you made an incorrect selection, then send you back to an earlier spot in the story. In one instance, Mikey says that he'll need to fix the fourth wall after having broken it, then proceeds to nail wooden planks over the screen.

* CloningBlues:
** After the divorce, Jacqueline's ex-husband apparently had her cloned to be a replacement wife. The brief glimpse we get of the clone in Season Four shows her having a breakdown over which memories are really hers.
** One of the alternate endings of the interactive episode has Kimmy get cloned by her fiance. Her clone turns out to be an overly excited and sexually aggressive imbecile.

** In the interactive episode, you can read the pages of the Choose Your Own Journey book when Kimmy opens it. On the opposite side of the relevant page is the "poke the mountain lion" death that Kimmy had alluded to earlier.

* GlobalIgnorance:
** Kimmy received a present from Cyndee (she was her secret Santa), an embroidered world map, with all the continents: America (composed of "Canida," US, Mexico, South America), Australia, Africa, London, China and Japan.)
** In the interactive episode, Kimmy's Choose Your Own Journey book contains "the King of Europe" as a character.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the interactive episode, Kimmy is at a fork in the road trying to decide which direction to go. Titus points directly into the camera and says, "We can ask them!" This looks like it's going to be another point in which the audience decides which way the story goes, but Titus is just hallucinating on the drugs he took. The audience doesn't get to choose.

* PokeThePoodle: In the interactive episode, people keep bringing up the fact that the Reverend cheated at ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'', then wonder why they chose ''that'' as an example of how evil he is. Even the Reverend himself does this.

** One episode in Season 5 is a WholePlotReference to ''Film/SlidingDoors''. In the interactive episode, Titus has a poster for a sequel to ''Sliding Doors'' that he starred in.

** In the interactive episode, if the Reverend threatens the prison guard with "Karate," the guard will draw his revolver and shout, "Indiana Jones," referencing the NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight scene in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''.
** When Kimmy hears the phrase ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'', she laughs and cheerfully explains that when you kill a lamb, it makes a human scream and then a rattling sound.

* AsYouKnow: In the interactive episode:
-->'''Frederick:''' You and your books. I mustn't complain, though. We never would have met without them. Yes, I was such a fan of ''Greemulax'', I wrote you a letter all by myself. We started a correspondence, and, before long, you agreed to meet me for a holiday in St. Tropez. We both got so sunburned. We had to pee on each other till someone told us that's for jellyfish, not sunburns.
-->'''Kimmy:''' [[LampshadeHanging I know how we met, Frederick.]]

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The interactive episode features a book called ''The Mystery of the Mysterious Spy''.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: In the interactive episode, one way for Richard to escape prison involves crawling through a hole in the wall in the visitor room and telling the guard that he is a visitor. The guard believes him.

* NoYou: In the interactive episode:
-->'''Kimmy:''' There's another bunker?
-->'''Richard:''' You're another bunker!

* SpiritualAntithesis: The interactive special is the Spiritual Antithesis to Netflix's landmark interactive film release, ''Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch''. Both use the same mechanics (two options, if you don't choose within a time limit the interface chooses for you) and are MetaFiction about the characters exploring a [[{{Gamebook}} choose-your-own-adventure story]], but unlike ''Bandersnatch'', a grim and trippy horror story, ''Kimmy Schmidt'' is of course a bright and wacky comedy, and Creator/TinaFey deliberately went in a different direction with the Branch Manager technology.
-->'''[[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tina-fey-kimmy-schmidt-team-explain-interactive-special-endings-kimmy-reverend-1294623 Tina Fey]]''': There are things where you sort of hit dead ends, [or] there'll be versions where Kimmy doesn't end up getting married to Frederick and someone else marries Frederick, [and] the technology will kind of push you back and get you to try again. So it's a little different than ''Bandersnatch'' in that way where ''Bandersnatch'' would just end and you'd be like, 'Well, that was a creepy ending,' but you'd have no sense of whether it was an intended ending."

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: In the interactive episode:
-->'''Kimmy:''' I don't want to spend a second more than I have to with that monster. The man who used to cheat at ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}''! I don't know why that was my example. He did so much worse.

-->'''Kimmy:''' I forgot you put ketchup on hot dogs! You sicko!
-->'''Richard:''' That's why I'm a sicko? I've done a lot worse. Remember ''Clue''? God, why was that my example?

-->'''Cyndee:''' Who's ready to party like it's 1999? Oh, no! 1999? I'm down there again! He's cheating at ''Clue''!

The final episodes of the series were released on January 25, 2019. An interactive special, titled ''Kimmy vs the Reverend'', was released on May 12, 2020.

* SpiritualAntithesis: The interactive special is the Spiritual Antithesis to Netflix's landmark interactive film release, ''Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch''. Both use the same mechanics (two options, if you don't choose within a time limit the interface chooses for you), but unlike ''Bandersnatch'', a grim and trippy metafiction horror, ''Kimmy Schmidt'' is of course a bright and wacky comedy, and Creator/TinaFey deliberately went in a different direction with the Branch Manager technology.

* SpiritualAntithesis: The interactive special is the Spiritual Antithesis to Netflix's landmark interactive film release, ''Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch''. Although both use the same mechanics (two options, if you don't choose within a time limit the interface chooses for you), but unlike ''Bandersnatch'', a grim and trippy metafiction horror, ''Kimmy Schmidt'' is of course a bright and wacky comedy, and Creator/TinaFey deliberately went in a different direction with the Branch Manager technology.

* SplashOfColor: The show often uses a dark color palate so that Kimmy, with her bright wardrobe, pops out even more.

* AngryBlackMan: Invoked. Titus flamboyantly effeminate and his anger typically takes the form of catty complaints. But he easily scares off a group of white teenagers by randomly yelling "what'd you just call me?!"

* AuthorOnBoard: The third season episode "Kimmy steps on a crack!", which has a number of established characters act unlike themselves and also has a number of bizarre (yes, even for this show!) things happen, all to deliver the [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop questionable message]] that when a woman fails at something (even when she goes about it in the dumbest way possible) it's not her fault but due to [[StrawMisogynist men being useless and not taking her seriously.]] Even the writers seemed to realise that they'd gone a bit too far with this one, since the very next episode is "Kimmy is a feminist!" in which [[StrawFeminist feminism is also shown as not being all that great.]]

* BestialityIsDepraved: Lillian's ancestors [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything were driven out of country after country]]... for their affinity with cows. They are, after all, the ''[[PunnyName Kauschtuppers]]''[[note]]"[[YiddishAsASecondLanguage cow fuckers]]"[[/note]].

* BreakingTheFourthWall: In the interactive episode, whenever the viewer gets a non-canon ending, a character will walk out and tell you that you made an incorrect selection and send you back to an earlier spot in the story. In one instance, Mikey says that he'll need to fix the fourth wall after having broken it, then proceed to nail wooden planks over the screen.

* MagicalNativeAmerican: Jacqueline's Lakota family sometimes resorts to playing up to this trope in order to stop her from annoying them, such as by suggesting that she go and do a special dance in a distant cornfield. Subverted in that a local teenage Lakota girl will then cycle past Jacqueline and ask her what the hell she's doing.

* PrecisionFStrike: While Kimmy's lexicon is usually limited to GoshDangItToHeck, it's pretty shocking when she decides to go for an actual, fully-pronounced "What the HELL?!" in "Kimmy Kisses a Boy!"

** Perhaps most shocking is when Kimmy [[ItMakesSenseInContext flips out in a deli]] and screams “''You’re'' on your own, you ''bitch!'' I’ll kill you!”

* WhatTheFuAreYouDoing: Rev. Wayne's secret ''Series/TheApprentice'' audition tape features him flailing punches at the camera while shouting, "Karate! Karate! Karate! Ninjitsu!" This receives a CallBack in season 4. A similar joke was used in Tina Fey's ''Series/ThirtyRock''.
* WhatIf: The Episode Sliding van doors shows what if kimmy never went in the reverend's van and if titus didn't get to his audition in time.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: Characters have several relationships throughout the series. By the final interactive episode, Kimmy and Tituss are in committed relationships, while Lillian [[spoiler:is still single after her most recent partner, Artie, died between seasons 3 and 4]].

** One episode in Season 5 is a WholePlotReference to ''Film/SlidingDoors''