History WesternAnimation / MenInBlackTheSeries

!!Tropes:

%%* WeWouldHaveToldYouBut
%%* WhatAreYouInFor: See MattressTagGag above.

* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: The alien race who are zealots about law and order, seen under MattressTagGag above. J asks both K and the cop from the world they captured why anyone would go to this world when it has such strict policies, K and the cop reply in unison: "The beaches."

* ShesGotLegs: Agent L, from what we see of her. Usually more evident if she's out in the field.

%%* HotScientist: L fulfills this role.

* SurroundedByIdiots: Z has this attitude in several episodes, most notably the Halloween episode.

** In "The Mine, Mine, Mine Syndrome", when the Emperor Worm is disguised as a human, [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels with limited fluency in English]], one of the worms tries to tell the hotel concierge [[Series/FawltyTowers "He's from Barcelona."]]

** The Worms' [[TrademarkFavoriteFood obsession with coffee]] seems to drive almost every subplot they're involved in, as they often sneak along on J's and K's missions just to obtain some coffee, [[IdiotPlot and they invariably cause a lot of trouble along the way]].

** when testing a defensive KillSat, L mentions that the big laser cannon on it is capable of vaporizing "[[Film/{{Armageddon}} an asteroid the size of Texas]]"

%%* TheParagonAlwaysRebels: Alpha.

Filling the gap between the first and [[Film/MenInBlackII the second movie]] (5 years), this series is what fans were left. It was quite successful, and helped jump to popularity some very minor characters from the first movie, such as Frank the Pug and the Worms (which would later [[AscendedExtra appear as important characters]] in ''Men in Black 2'').

The show has spawned one video game, and seen in reruns on Creator/TheHub prior to its rebrand as Discovery Family. In 2021, Creator/SonyPicturesTelevision began released episodes of the series for free on their Throwback Toons Website/YouTube channel.

[[folder]]

* FriendInTheBlackMarket / HonestJohnsDealership: Jeebs. Which he is varies, depending on just what item he has in stock.

* SillyReasonForWar: The Frmeks want to blow up the Arquillians home planet simply because it was a bit bigger than theirs.

* AffirmativeActionLegacy: Agent X is an in-universe example. He's unprecedented in the series, as he's an MIB field agent who's an alien. Zed was previously against alien agents (due to their unfamiliarity with Earth's norms and the potential for exposure), but he was pressured into it to calm down alien rights advocates.

** Zed insists that monsters and ghosts and the like don't exist, while kids are being abducted by a walking [[PumpkinPerson Jack O'Lantern]] and HQ is experiencing a haunting. [[spoiler:He's right; both occurrences are actually aliens.]]
** In the same episode, Kay is skeptical when Frank the Pug claims that he was bitten by a werewolf, and is afraid that he'll turn into one due to the full moon tonight. [[spoiler:[[BrickJoke In the ending]], [[RealAfterAll Frank shows up again and actually transforms into a wolf-like beast]].]]

* AvengingTheVillain: In "The Big Bad Bug Syndrome", Elle is the target of a bounty by the Bug Queen for killing Edgar in the first film. The Queen has ordered her fellow Bugs to capture Elle alive so that she can be brought back to their planet to be tortured and executed.
* BackToBackBadasses: In the Season 3 episode "The Put Out to Pasture Syndrome", where Jay and Zed are facing off against Alpha's mirages.

* BadFuture: "The Future's So Bright Syndrome". Jay [[TimeTravel travels about a century into the future]] and finds himself in a world where [[ItMakesSenseInContext Earth has been taken over by billions of Worms]][[note]]descended from countless clones of the original four Worms from the MIB[[/note]] ruled by a [[EvilOverlord tyrannical emperor]] who has persecuted humans into near-extinction. This [[CrapsackWorld dystopian world]] is complete with [[FantasticRacism widespread bigotry against humans]], and a [[StateSec military police force]] that hunts down any [[LaResistance surviving human rebels]].

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: In "The Little Big Man Syndrome", Kay reveals that Music/JohnLennon, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr, and Raffi are/were Arquillians.
-->'''Jay:''' Wait, John Lennon was an alien? What's Music/{{Ringo|Starr}}?
-->'''Kay:''' The drummer.

** Also one from "J" in "The Elle of My Dreams Syndrome" when L sacrifices herself by getting shot by J's gun held by the alien in J's dream, in order to force J to snap out of it.

* BrainTheft: In the episode "The Quick Clone Syndrome", Alpha steals Zed's brain to get information about MIB. Zed's body still functioned because of alien tech and his brain is eventually retrieved in the end, though.

* ChristmasEpisode: "The Black Christmas Syndrome", where the Men in Black have to {{sav|ingChristmas}}e SantaClaus from being kidnapped by Drekk ([[ItMakesSenseInContext he was hired by alien kids who wanted to have Christmas on their world]]). Kay reveals to Jay that Christmas elves are actually from another planet, however Santa himself ''is not''.

* ClothingDamage: "The Hots for Jay Syndrome" to J, twice. Having fire sprout from your skin tends to do that. The first time they quickly got him some heat-resistant clothing, but falling to Earth from orbit overwhelmed even that.

* EvolvingCredits: The opening sequence gets altered a little bit in Season 4; pictures of Frank the Pug and the Worms are added to the alien mugshots, while the season's new characters (Dr. Zeeltor and Agent X) are shown alongside Agent L and Chief Zed when they examine the suspect lineup.

** [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero Agent X]] is an [[NobleBigotWithABadge alien cop]] who gets recruited by the MIB later into the series. Despite working for and alongside humans, and his job being to protect Earth and its people, Agent X openly expresses his belief that humans are an inferior and primitive species, much to the frustration of his partner Elle.
* FifteenMinutesOfFame: Agent X called for a TV crew from his home planet so they'd make him the star of their show. Being unable to get rid of them, Zed punished X by offering a chance to have K instead of X as the star, which they quickly accepted. As J pointed out, fame was so fickle that X didn't even have fifteen minutes of it.

* ForeignQueasine: Oddly inverted when Jay and Kay are asking some Alcidian aliens about a suspect, and the aliens are disgusted by the pair eating average Earth cuisine.

* GetItOverWith: Alpha fully expects [=MIB=] to kill him once he's BroughtDownToNormal, and all but ''orders'' his old co-workers to finish him. Zed and Kay decline.
-->'''Zed:''' You're a mere mortal now. You'll be punished like one.
-->'''Kay:''' Lock 'im up.

* HalloweenEpisode: "The Jack O'Lantern Syndrome", where Jay and the trick-or-treating Worms encounter a being preying on children, while spooky occurrences plague MIB headquarters.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: In "The Opening Gambit Syndrome," we see the reason why the Ixions didn't invade thirty years earlier. [[spoiler:Alpha struck a deal with Vengus to get the Ixions Earth's oil deposits in exchange for him getting control of Earth. However, plans changed because of ''Zed''. He had been investigating Vangus' presence on Earth and was about to crack everything wide open. If he had, Alpha knew MIB would defeat the Ixions-- thus prompting a delay until the organization's guard would be down.]]

* HollywoodSilencer: Jay uses a kind of silencer on the Noisy Cricket, which reduces [[LawOfInverseRecoil the massive recoil]].

* MattressTagGag: One episode features an alien race that's downright obsessive about law and order, complete with an ultra-brutal gulag for housing the many, many lawbreakers they round up. How strict are they? When Jay finds himself in the prison, he asks a fellow inmate [[WhatAreYouInFor what he's in for]], and, well, it turns out they take their mattress tags very seriously.
* MisterSeahorse: In "The Sardines and Ice Cream Syndrome", Jay gets pregnant after he accidentally swallows an alien egg.

** In "The Breaking News Syndrome," Zed summarizes MIB's mission as to "protect the Earth from the scum of the universe" (quoting the movie's tagline).

* RippleEffectProofMemory: Justified as a side-effect of brain-enhancing AppliedPhlebotinum that enables Jay to notice that someone's messing with the timeline of [=MiB=] and point it out to the rest of his unaware colleagues.

* SerialEscalation: In "The Irritable Bow Wow Syndrome", Kay tried to neutralize the alien terrorist with a pistol. Then he put on a rocket launcher attachment to the pistol. ''Then'' he brought out the {{BFG}}.

** In "The Cold Sweat Syndrome", Alpha and Kay paraphrase lines directly from ''Film/GoldenEye'':

-->'''Kay:''' You first.
** In the Halloween episode, Frank the Pug fears he's been bitten by a werewolf. Kay brusquely informs him that werewolves are out of [=MiB=] jurisdiction, to which Frank quips [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} "Who'm I gonna call?"]]

** During the ChristmasEpisode, Jay gives Frank the Pug a gift, and he reveals he's Jewish. In other words, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Frank is literally a Jew from outer space]]!

** In one early episode Jay and Elle are driving around at night trying to find a disguised alien ship flying around in the sky when Jay points out a blimp overflying Yankee Stadium. Elle asks what's so odd about that, to which Jay replies there's no game that night.
** In "The Put Out To Pasture Syndrome" [[spoiler:Jay noticed Zed's eyes didn't look quite right after being Neuralized. Later when it was revealed it was a set up to lure Alpha into a trap and Zed wasn't neuralized, Jay commented on the eyes not being glossy like all other times. [[OhCrap Because Alpha got the information from reading Jay's mind, he might have picked up on that as well]]]].

* SurroundedByIdiots: Zed has this attitude in several episodes, most notably the Halloween episode.

** Frank the Pug claims he's way uglier than Cindy Crawford. Jay agrees that she's hideous and has to find out if Frank can live up to his claims.

* TeleporterAccident: In "The Worm-Guy Guy Syndrome", Jay and one of the Worms are both simultaneously sent through opposite ends of a portal. The result is that their molecules get switched around, causing Jay and the Worm to [[SlowTransformation gradually become mutant hybrids of each other]] (complete with exchanging their personality traits).

** "The Head Trip Syndrome", in which somebody is traveling back to the past to [[RetGone erase all of the MIB's founding members from history]], and Jay and Kay have to go back as well to stop him.
** "The Way Out West Syndrome", in which Jay and Kay visit [[TheWildWest 19th century Arizona]] in order to stop a giant alien monster from awakening and destroying the city of Phoenix in the present day. Also doubles as a CowboyEpisode.
** "The Future's So Bright Syndrome", in which Jay (and eventually Kay) time-travel about a hundred years into the future to arrest a Worm criminal, [[BadFuture only to find that he now rules Earth as a tyrant king]].

* VigilanteInjustice: Brought up in "The Zero to Superhero Syndrome." An alien saves an human child from a fire, concealing his identity as he's using special powers specific to his species. When the tabloids report on the incident, the alien, disillusioned with his humdrum earth life, decides to become a real superhero named Cosmosisman. His activities naturally attract [=MiB's=] attention, but Jay is quick to point out the alien isn't doing any harm, he's actually trying to help. Kay reminds his partner that such a high profile person will inevitably attract investigations he won't be able to handle, endangering TheMasquerade. More importantly, however, is that word of this will cause alien scoundrels to come to Earth looking to make a name for themselves by beating the planter's supposed champion. Sure enough a nasty bike shows up to challenge Cosmosisman to a fight, causing lots of property damage.

* WhoEvenNeedsABrain: In one episode, Zed had his brain stolen. His body is able to keep functioning, albeit without any direction, because alien technology kept the two linked even at a distance. "Alpha has a sick sense of humor."

* WreathedInFlames: The episode "The Hots for Jay Syndrome" has Jay gaining fire powers after eating alien food. Surprisingly, this was actually treated like a ''bad'' thing. All that energy has to come from somewhere, and in Jay's case was being leeched from every cell of his body. It would have killed him if it hadn't been reversed.

** The Hyperians are an alien race whose [[SpaceJews culture]] [[SpaceRomans resembles]] AncientEgypt, and they apparently visited the real Egypt long ago, presumably playing a role in building the pyramids. One of the Hyperians was even disguised as a {{mummy}} and slept in a tomb for a few thousand years, before waking up to cause havoc in modern times.

* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: K consistently refers to J as "Slick" throughout the series, though this is averted a couple rare times. He apparently has an entire scale of these to rank his partner, once demoting him to "Sparky":
-->'''K:''' [[SarcasmMode Nicely done]], Sparky.
-->'''J:''' What happened to Slick?
-->'''K:''' You have to work your way back up to Slick.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: K constantly refers to J as "Slick." He [[ThrowTheDogABone throws him a bone]] a couple times, though.

** [[BoomHeadshot Shooting off]] [[YourHeadAsplode Jeebs' head]] in every one of his appearances, followed by him [[HealingFactor instantly regenerating]] and complaining of how much it hurts.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In "The Alpha Syndrome", when a quick clone disintegrates, only the clone's body breaks down, leaving everything else, e.g. their clothes, unscathed. Starting in "The Quick Clone Syndrome", we see that ''everything'' on the clone breaks down with it. Possibly justifiable as TechnologyMarchesOn to where the clothing can be created from the same cloning matter.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In "The Alpha Syndrome", when a quick clone disintegrates, only the clone's body breaks down, leaving everything else, e.g. their clothes, unscathed. Starting in "The Quick Clone Syndrome", we see that ''everything'' on the clone breaks down with it.

The show has spawned one video game, and seen in reruns on Creator/TheHub prior to its rebrand as Discovery Family. In 2021, Creator/SonyPicturesTelevision began released episodes of the series for free on their Throwback Toons Creator/YouTube channel.

The show has spawned one video game, and was last seen in reruns on Creator/TheHub prior to its rebrand as Discovery Family.

%%* ActionGirl:
%%** L is no pushover.
%%** There's also Aileen who shows up in two episodes, and in the second one, Edee accompanies her.

** {{Atlantis}} exists, and unsurprisingly it's the [[GhostTown ruined remains]] of an [[UnderwaterCity undersea alien colony]]. Today, it's a tourist attraction visited by [[FishPeople aquatic aliens]].

[[quoteright:267:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cast-of-men-in-black-the-series_271.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:267:The main cast of Season 4, from left to right: [[SixthRanger Agent X]], [[ActionGirl Agent L]], [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits one of the Worms]], [[TheStoolPigeon Frank the Pug]], [[DaChief Chief Zed]], [[SergeantRock Agent K]], [[GadgeteerGenius Dr. Zan'dozz Zeeltor]], and [[EnsignNewbie Agent J]] ([[MissionControl the Twins]] and [[ArmsDealer Jack Jeebs]] are missing).]]

* AndIMustScream: Jeebs' race can consistently regenerate, but they need oxygen to do so. At the end of "The Blackguard Syndrome," J blasts Jeebs' brother before he gets sucked out into space. [[spoiler:He gets better in "The Cold Sweat Syndrome," though.]]