History Series / YouCantDoThatOnTelevision

* CanadaEh: The show is [[CanadianSeries a Canadian production]]. Other Canadianisms that found their way into the show: going "to university" instead of "to college",[[note]] while "university" means academic post-secondary education in Canada and the United States and "college" can refer to constituent parts of a university, "college" in Canada more usually refers to vocational institutions, while "college" in the United States more usually refers to undergraduate-only academic institutions[[/note]] and saying "grade ten" instead of "tenth grade." Although the writers did their best to [[CanadaDoesNotExist internationalize the show's content]] (very likely at Nickelodeon's insistence, since Nick and CJOH were production partners beginning with the 1982 season) by making references to American things such as the Fourth of July, it was little things like those in the script that (even without seeing the words "Ottawa, Canada" in the closing credits) made the show's country of origin obvious.
** More obvious in Season One and in ''Whatever Turns You On'' (which were never intended to be seen outside of Canada), with a number of jokes about one guy (Marc Baillon) being French, leading to the line "You don't speak Frog, eh?" ("Frog" is an offensive term for a French person [as in "from France" French], but can also be applied to someone from a French-speaking country -- in this case, Quebec.)
** In another scene, one girl (Cyndi) talked about her first crush being "a frog." Thinking Cyndi was using the offensive slang term, Christine scolded her. It turned out Cyndi was talking about an ACTUAL frog, which she then had to dissect for school, but didn't feel bad about it because she said, "Frogs aren't human." Upon hearing this, Marc came up and announced (referring to the Quebecois independence movement), "Any more of that, and we WILL separate!"
** Along the same lines, the "internationalization" of the show's content after 1982 could be considered an example (though perhaps not an extreme one) of CanadaDoesNotExist, and the local 1979 and 1981 episodes as well as ''Whatever Turns You On'' could be considered an aversion of that trope - they were unapologetically Canadian, since the show's original raison d'etre was to improve the quality of CANADIAN kids' entertainment programming.
** As the Nostalgia Critic pointed out, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjbvYgxAoDA "aboot" is said quite a lot in this show]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YqDWnlZG6s The Splat picked up on that]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COpCvCYZAWA and sorry]]. Years later, cast member Vanessa Lindores would recall being coached not to say "Eh."
** Kevin Kubusheskie had a notoriously thick Canadian accent. Et wahz reelee bahd, eh. This was even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in one episode when Christine tried to explain to him the importance of speaking clearly - because if you say "What're" instead of "What are" on this show, you'll very likely be drenched (since "what're" sounds somewhat like "water").

** In a rare example of this trope being used correctly (owing to the year in which it was filmed), the 1982 episode "Addictions" features Christine playing the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} port of ''VideoGame/PacMan'' in many of the link segments, complete with appropriate sound effects (since she really is playing the game, not just waggling the joystick to a recording). This was because Warner-Amex Communications, which owned Nickelodeon at the time, also owned Atari and the license to ''VideoGame/PacMan''.

* WorseWithhContext: The 'not-so-harmless' punishment version occurs in one sketch when Lance tells one of the kids to remove his shoes as he is grounded. The kid takes off his shoes but says that being barefoot won't stop him leaving the house. Lance says that he misunderstood, and that now he has removed his rubber soled shoes he is 'grounded' and then hands him a live electric cable, leading to HarmlessElectrocution.

* BrokenAesop [[invoked]]: Several in-universe examples, usually in the form of HypocriticalHumor, in keeping with the series' deliberate subversion of the usual philosophy of children's television.

* BrokenAesop: Several examples, usually in the form of HypocriticalHumor, in keeping with the series' deliberate subversion of the usual philosophy of children's television.

** One sketch has Mom scolding Kevin Kubusheskie for watching too much television and going to turn it off despite Kevin's warnings. Kevin's watching Series/StarTrek, and onscreen, Mr. Spock (played by Les Lye), says, "Someone is tampering with the television set...fire photon torpedoes!" They do, and Mom's vaporized. Kevin pleads to go with the Enterprise, and Spock says, "Beam him up, Mr. Scott," upon which, Kevin's beamed up in a sparkle of special effects wizardry.

* AcceptableTargets: Invoked by Christine in a link sketch in "Work, Work, Work" from 1981 in which she describes emptying a wheelbarrow full of dirt one shovelful at a time as the "Irish" way to empty a wheelbarrow. She immediately points out that she can make this joke as her parents are Irish Catholic immigrants, and she herself only missed being born in Ireland by a few weeks.[[note]] Sure enough, when her father appears during the closing credits, he has a pronounced Irish accent.[[/note]]
** Then there's all the "Frenchman" or "French-Canadian" jokes during the 1979 and '81 seasons, something that would surely not be permissible in the age of political correctness. Even then it was risky, especially given that Ottawa is right on the Ontario-Quebec border and itself has a significant Francophone population. (The show backed away from these once it went into international syndication.)

** "Fads and Fashions" (1982): Christine, dressed in scuba gear, says "Water" several times on purpose, and nothing happens. She grumbles, "Naturally they're not going to do it when I'm ''prepared'' for them."

* DoesNotLikeShoes:
** Christine frequently didn't wear shoes in her link segments. Partially because (as she was, for many years, the oldest of the kids) she was taller than almost everyone else.
** ''Anyone'' who was getting slimed or watered was barefoot during the filming of the sketch to avoid damage to the victim's shoes.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles:
** Les Lye played all the adult male characters (stage manager Ross Ewich, slobbish Senator and father Lance Prevert, LethalChef Barth, greedy arcade owner Blip, SadistTeacher Mr. Schidtler, etc.), sporting enough distinct looks that this fact wasn't immediately obvious (though Lance Prevert and Barth do sound alike).
** For 1979's ''Whatever Turns You On'', CTV provided CJOH with a bigger budget, and so they were able to hire Creator/RuthBuzzi to play the adult female roles. Previously on ''YCDTOTV'', adult female roles had been played by one of the older girls in the cast; in the 1981 season, all adult female roles were played by Christine.
** From 1982 onwards, the adult female roles (Valerie Prevert [wife of Lance Prevert], the English-accented librarian, the doctor's assistant, etc.) were all played by Abby Hagyard. Again, this was possible because of the increased budget, provided this time by Nickelodeon.

* SlapstickKnowsNoGender: The girls were pied, slimed and drenched just as much as the boys. Christine in particular probably took more of each than all the other cast members together, to the point that for the 1985 season, she was given the power to have her slime and water scenes rewritten to get someone else to take the stage pollution in her place.

** One sketch has Mom scolding Kevin Kubusheskie for watching too much television and going to turn it off despite Kevin's warnings. Kevin's watching Series/StarTrek, and onscreen, Mr. Spock (played by Les Lye), says, "Someone is tampering with the television set...fire photon torpedoes!" They do, and Mom's vaporized. Kevin pleads to go with the Enterprise, and Spock says, "Beam him up, Mr. Scott", upon which, Kevin's beamed up in a sparkle of special effects wizardry.

* MoneyDearBoy: Often used by Ross to motivate the kids into doing something they wouldn't otherwise do.
** In "Habits," Christine had planned to read from a book of etiquette by Amy Vanderbilt, but Ross forces her to read from a book written by the show's producers instead, reminding her, "[The producers] are the ones who sign the checks. I suggest you do what they say, or they'll get someone else." Lisa then volunteers to do it in Christine's place, which is enough for Christine to agree to do it.
** In "TV Commercials," Ross forces the kids to use the link skits to advertise the "Ross-O-Matic" (a kitchen appliance that's supposed to "slice, dice and julienne" but succeeds only in cutting the kids' fingers) and later "Monsieur Ross Cosmetics" (which turn Alanis into a mini-Ross when she puts some on). The kids agree since Ross has offered to split the profits with them. Of course, they don't sell a single item, so Ross pockets the kids' paychecks and forces them to take home the unsold inventory.