Line #25 Series/RoundTheTwist


1	%%
2	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=17024244610.06676800
3	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
4	%%
5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/81a9s05_89l_ac_uf10001000_ql80.jpg]]
6	%%
7	->''Have you ever\
8	Ever felt like this?\
9	Have strange things happened?\
10	Are you going round the twist?''
11
12	''Round the Twist'' was an Australian TV show that every Aussie and Brit who grew up in TheNineties likely remembers watching. The show was about the Twist family -- 14-year-old twins Pete and Linda, little brother Bronson and widowed father Tony, a.k.a. "Dad" -- who live inside a lighthouse that seems to be a beacon for the supernatural. Ghosts, weird creatures and mysterious magical objects abound--from magic gumleaves to haunted toilets to super-power-inducing underwear, the show revelled in the weird, the revolting, the hilarious, and the downright disturbing (which did get it in trouble with the Australian censors at the time, who felt that the rude, sexually suggestive humor and scenes of horror were too much for viewers).
13
14	Also appearing in the show were the Twists' neighbour [[CoolOldLady Nell]], the former lighthouse keeper who knew more than she let on; Fiona Richmond, Pete's love interest and Linda's best friend; Mr Ralph Snapper, their strict and unlikeable teacher, and Ms Fay James, Bronson's teacher and Tony's love interest. In the antagonist role were Harold Gribble, the slimy real-estate agent and later mayor, his uptight wife Matron Gribble, their school bully son James Gribble, and James's sidekicks Tiger and Rabbit.
15
16	Four series of 13 episodes each were made altogether, produced in 1989, 1992, 1999 and 2000, originally for the Creator/SevenNetwork but later picked up by [[Creator/AustralianBroadcastingCorporation The ABC]]. The first two series were based on the short stories of children's author Creator/PaulJennings, who also wrote the scripts. Due to "creative differences" Jennings left the show after that, taking the rights to his stories with him. When the show was revived seven years later by the Creator/{{ACTF}} (presumably to up the number of episodes to 52, i.e. one for every week of the year), it consisted of original stories written by a new team of writers. During the 7 years the show was off-air, ''Series/TheGenieFromDownUnder'' (a similar but far less popular show also made by the ACTF, but with ''an explanation'' for the unusual events that occurred) took its place. Around the same time, the even-lesser-known series ''Driven Crazy'', also based on Jennings' stories, aired on Creator/NetworkTen.
17
18	The show was also run in Britain on Creator/{{CBBC}} and in America on Creator/FoxKids (around the time that FK was airing horror comedies, like ''Series/Goosebumps1995'', ''Series/EerieIndiana'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Toonsylvania}}''. Fox Kids in America even advertised ''Round The Twist'' as an Australian version of ''Goosebumps''[[note]]though it's more like ''Eerie, Indiana'' in that there's a running storyline rather than being strictly episodic[[/note]]), and hence the series has some recognition in both places.
19
20	----
21	!!Provides examples of:
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:General tropes]]
25	* BringingRunningShoesToACarChase: In "Ice Maiden", Tony has to perform an emergency stop on a public road[[note]]In an open-topped Land Rover Series III without seatbelts.[[/note]] to avoid running over Bronson as he rolls down a hill inside a trolley. He then has to get out of the car and chase the trolley along the pier, fails to catch it before it falls of the end, then jumps into the water to save his son from potentially drowning.
26	* ButtMonkey - Poor, poor Pete.
27	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Pete saying he's a dog trapped in a boy's body and Tony gradually opening up to the idea of it sounds like a typical coming out story, only instead of being gay or transgender Pete is a were-dog.
28	** In episode 7 Pete encounters a red-faced, drunken old man with a scraggly beard sleeping on the roof of a school. He's a registered S[[spoiler:anta]] and has an ID card with a large number on it.
29	** Linda’s reaction to being an InvisibleStreaker is happily shed her clothes, free to be naked and unashamed as a "spirited adventure". One might get the impression she has nudist tendencies.
30	* CoolOldLady - Nell.
31	* CorruptCorporateExecutive - Gribble is a small town version of this.
32	* DoItYourselfThemeTune - Tamsin West, the original Linda, sings the opening and closing themes. They kept the ''same music'' even after Linda was recast.
33	* CreditsMontage - Usually includes a few outtakes[[note]]Mostly actors laughing at the ridiculous stuff they have to do.[[/note]] and deleted scenes.
34	* EatTheCamera - How the opening credits end. On Bronson in series one and two, Linda in series three and four. Also happens to Rabbit at the end of "Spaghetti Pig-Out", when Pete is about to rewind his spaghetti vomiting, and Tiger at the end of "Whirling Derfish".
35	* EccentricTownsfolk - The whole main cast, although the Gribble family are '''particularly''' nasty.
36	* EnemyMine - Every so often, the Twists would team up with the Gribble family to deal with a worse enemy or a bigger problem. In the first episode of Season 3, it's even lightly parodied when Gribble, Tiger and Rabbit, who have been chasing after Pete for the entire episode, are suddenly called upon to help him out, and the reply is "Okay, we'll give you a hand, but ''then'' we'll beat you up."
37	* EnsembleCast - Pete, Linda, and Bronson - no one is the main character, but Linda probably gets the least plotlines revolving around her.
38	* EpisodeTagline: In the episode "Without My Pants", one of the characters is cursed to say, "without my pants" [[VerbalTic at the end of his sentences]].
39	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep - Matron Gribble, a hospital matron, is called "Matron Gribble" by everyone (except, obviously, for the rest of the Gribble family). Her actual first name, Cecilia, is only spoken once in the very first episode.
40	* FinaleCredits - The season 1 finale "Lighthouse Blues" [[AvertedTrope has the same style]] end credits as a normal episode, but season 2's "Seeing the Light" has a montage of the entire season instead of just that episode. Season 3's "The Big Rock" has the whole cast standing together waving and shouting "See You Next Time"[[note]]Notably it's the one time when the whole case actually ''would'' be seen again.[[/note]] and season 4's "The Isle of Dreams" begins its credits with a long zoom out shot from where the final scene left off.
41	* {{Flanderization}}: To some extent. If you watch from the first to the fourth series straight through, you'll see that Bronson in the first series is less obsessed with "toilet humour" and does not mix up his words as much, while Linda has a mild obsession with judo and Pete's obsession with girls is toned down. Come the fourth season, Linda has turned completely "New age hippy" and Bronson is obsessed with anything gross. Pete on the other hand winds up going through women quite a bit.
42	%%* FreeRangeChildren.
43	* GenderFlip - The character Nell is based on Stan, the old lighthouse keeper from Paul Jennings' short story "Lighthouse Blues". Originally, Nell was a man named Tom in the show but Jennings changed the character into a woman when he was told there were too many male characters. The name "Tom" was re-used for Nell's dead older brother.
44	* HalfArcSeason - Each series had an arc subplot that was finally resolved in the season finale. For the first series, it was the mysterious music coming from the top of the lighthouse. For the second series, it was the ghosts of brothers Matthew and Jeremiah who kept appearing unseen around the lighthouse. For the third series, it was the Viking Book of Love, which would make whoever a poem inside was read to fall in love with the reader. For the fourth series, it was the mysterious figure Ariel who kept appearing out of doorways in the air. There were also shorter arcs in the second and fourth series involving Bronson: the first time was the question of why he was never taking off his shoes, and the second time was why he was collecting foul smells with his "Smell Sucka". Additionally there was Mr Gribble's continuing efforts to acquire the lighthouse and sell it in the first series, and his run for the Senate against Nell in the second series.
45	* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace - The Shipwreck Coast[[note]]This is real place in Victoria: the location of more than 600 shipwrecks[[/note]]
46	* LampshadeHanging - During season one, Pete, Linda and Bronson are discussing the ongoing mystery of the mysterious music coming from the top of the lighthouse. Replies Bronson, 'Yeah, it always plays music when something creepy is about to happen' moments before they spot the mysterious sea chest that is that episode's weirdness of the week.
47	* LastNameBasis - The Twist kids all call James Gribble "Gribble" (at least in the first two series -- in the revival, they call him "Gribbs" like Rabbit and Tiger do). Gribble and his gang accordingly call them "Twist".
48	* LighthousePoint - Where the family lived.
49	* MinoredInAssKicking - Sometimes Linda comes across as a soppy, intellectually-bent spirituality-geek. For all that, she could kick your arse.
50	* MoralGuardians: The show almost didn't see the light of day (and was the subject of a lot of censorship issues) in its native country of Australia (with the season three premiere "The Big Burp" giving them the most trouble) and when it was exported to the UK (though not America, surprisingly), due to its gross-out humor (most of which centered on vomiting, urination, body odor, and defecation), mild sexual content (references to incest, KissingUnderTheInfluence, pregnancy, homosexuality, and interspecies romance), and subject matter that most MoralGuardians wouldn't find appropriate for children's TV (nudity, death, and NightmareFuel).
51	* MotorMouth - Tiger, who can never resist playing commentator to whatever's going on. It's especially prominent in Season 1 when he's played by Cameron Nugent, but to an extent in the other seasons as well.
52	%%* MundaneFantastic.
53	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Pete in "Wunderpants", The Gribble gang in "Quivering Heap" and Linda in "Linda Godiva" are all caught in the nuddy.
54	* NightmareFetishist - Bronson. Most of the characters, actually.
55	* NotAllowedToGrowUp - Over the whole series, Pete and Linda have only aged from 14 to 15 and Bronson from 7 to 8. They always have the same teachers and appear to always be in the same year at school, despite the school year having apparently ended twice (in the first & third series).
56	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname - Rabbit and Tiger. (Although we do find out Tiger's surname, Gleeson.)
57	* ParentalObliviousness - Tony on almost all occasions, though often it's because the kids are deliberately keeping him out of the loop. Fay, though she only gradually becomes a parental figure to the kids, is also a frequent victim of this and may in fact be a worse case than Tony.
58	* PoorCommunicationKills - A staple of Fay's relationship with the Twists. It sort of makes sense, because Fay in many ways is the newcomer who hasn't quite figured out how the family works and as such tends to miss obvious cues or take everything at face value. Still, it's noticeable how much trouble everyone could have saved themselves if the kids, and to a lesser extent Tony, had just bothered to ''explain'' things to her -- or if she hadn't been in the habit of jumping to conclusions every time something weird happened, because the conclusion she usually jumps to is "the kids hate me."
59	* QuirkyTown - Port Niranda.
60	* SeriesContinuityError - There's a whole bunch of them from series to series. One major example is that Nell is elected to the Victorian Senate in the final episode of Series 2, as the culmination of a continuing storyline throughout that series -- come Series 3 this is completely ignored.
61	** Alternatively, this could just be NegativeContinuity between series, depending on how you look at it.
62	** Regarding Nell: her name is Nell Rickards throughout the show except for Series 2, where it appears on her campaign poster as Nell Sands.
63	*** Also, Nell says in Series 1 that she ''never married'', but in Series 4 an episode revolves around Linda & Pete travelling back in time to the 1940s and interacting with her and her ''future husband''.
64	** The number of times Tony and Fay have been engaged and have broken it off can be a little confusing, but it all tracks -- up till Series 4. Tony had proposed to Fay again in the final episode of Series 3, and Series 4 has a continuing storyline about them having a baby -- and when the baby is born in the final episode, there is yet ''another'' marriage proposal between them despite there never being any indication they ''weren't'' still engaged.
65	** The characters' changing appearances due to the recasting could count as well, particularly if their appearance becomes a plot point -- for instance, Bronson's red hair becomes important in a Series 2 episode while Series 1 Bronson had brown hair, and a Series 3 episode involves all the characters being related to a particular 8th-Century Viking woman while Series 2 Fiona was Aboriginal.
66	** Arguably the worst is how Series 3 & 4 saw Linda and Pete actually de-age to 13, ''even though they actually arrived in Port Niranda at 14''.
67	** Another pretty bad one is how in Series 3 & 4 everyone seem to forget all their experiences with ghosts. It gets directly laughable in Series 4's ''Face the Fear'', where the Gribble gang try to scare Bronson with ghosts, and he somewhat nervously claims that ghosts don't exist. [[FlatEarthAtheist Despite him having encountered ghosts]] ''several'' times in ''all'' four series. Even his nervousness doesn't make sense, given how most of the ghosts he's met have been non-malevolent or even friendly.
68	* SupernaturalHotspotTown: The fictional Australian town of Port Neranda, where the Twist family encountered bizarre supernatural phenomena every week; due to more lax censorship standards in Australia, things could happen on the show that simply could not be gotten away with on an American program, ranging from haunted toilets to underwear that gives people superpowers to a frog capable of jumping so hard that it reaches escape velocity... and then lands unharmed, blowing up a competing frog in the process.
69	* SupernaturalSoapOpera - There were always elements of this in the show, but the third seasons takes it to extremes.
70	* SurrealThemeTune - It mashes up the words to several nursery rhymes for its verses, including "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", "Rain Rain Go Away" and "Humpty Dumpty".
71	%%* TitleThemeTune.
72	* UnexplainedRecovery: Several episodes. For example, in "IMU/UMI", after Pete and Mr. Gribble have their brains switched after a mishap with a virtual reality game, the episode ends with Pete getting his brain back, while Mr. Gribble has his brain swapped with a rat. In the following episode, however, he is back to normal - despite it being stated that the carnival that hosts this game won't be back in Port Nirranda for a while.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder: Tropes of season 1 and 2]]
76	* AdaptationalHeroism: Happens to a few of Paul Jennings' less heroic protagonists when their stories are given to the Twists. Pete is more sympathetic than Marcus from "Lucky Lips", learning his lesson from his failed attempts to steal a kiss from Fiona and apologising to her in the end, while "The Copy" has Linda and her clone both willing to sacrifice themselves for the other.
77	* AllJustADream - Several episodes ended this way, as a result of being adapted into a continuing series from standalone stories.
78	** A particularly bizarre example is "Santa Claws," which not only has Pete falling asleep in the first scene, thus establishing All Just A Dream right away, but features a FramingDevice within the dream - Pete telling the story of how his mouth was shrunk.
79	* AndYouWereThere - The episode "The Gum Leaf War": Nell appears as "Aunt Tuneless", Mr Gribble as her feuding neighbour "Foxy" and Gribble as "Foxy Jr".
80	%%* Anti Environmentalist Antagonist - In "Sloppy Jalopy", the kids discover that Gribble is secretly disposing of toxic waste by pumping it onto the beach. - Rogue Launched and Unlaunched
81	* BadBadActing - In the episode "Nails", for the school play auditions.
82	* {{Bowdlerise}} - The episode "Birdsdo" is based on a story called "Birdscrap".
83	* ButtMonkey - Poor, poor Pete. Rabbit has his moments as well, in particular the ending of "Spaghetti Pig-Out".
84	* ChristmasEpisode - A very Australian take in Season 1.
85	* ClothesMakeTheManiac - In "Copy Cat", Bronson finds an ancient Mongolian copy cat hat that compels whoever is wearing it to copy what they see. Linda wears it during the `Birdman’ competition and she copies a seagull soaring through the sky. But Dad and Gribble aren't quite so lucky when they wear the copy cat hat.
86	* ColdOpen - [[UniquePilotTitleSequence The pilot]] "Skeleton on the Dunny" has a title card but no opening montage or theme music.
87	* CoveredInGunge -
88	** In "Birdsdo", Pete and Linda get dive-bombed by seagulls until they're covered from head to toe in bird excrement.
89	** In "Sloppy Jalopy", Pete gets shoved into a pool of foul-smelling sludge.
90	* CreatorCameo - Aside from producer and director Esben Storm's recurring role as Mr Snapper, several crew members make cameos through the first series -- including Paul Jennings as Ben Byron's ghost and director Steve Jodrell as a hospital doctor.
91	* CurseCutShort -
92	** In "Birdsdo":
93	-->Pete: It'll be a death worse than fate: drowned in droppings, perished in poop, showered in -
94	-->Linda: I can feel a breeze.
95	** In "Spaghetti Pig-Out":
96	-->Bronson: What if [Gribble] froze you while you were having a sh -?
97	-->Pete and Linda: BRONSON!
98	-->Bronson: Shower! I was going to say when you were having a shower.
99	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything - In "Smelly Feat" Bronson chucks his shoes through a classroom window and everybody inside passes out as if it's a stink bomb.
100	* EatingContest: The eponymous Spaghetti Pig-Out, between Pete, Rabbit and two girls who forfeit fairly early. Gribble tries to help Rabbit cheat using the remote control to fast-forward his eating, but it ultimately causes him to vomit dozens of bowls worth of spaghetti over the audience at the end. And then Pete retrieves the remote control and presses rewind.
101	* EnslavedTongue: A skeleton's curse forces Pete to end every sentence with "without my pants".
102	* FacialDialogue: Ben Thomas (Pete II) pulls some very contorted expressions when getting hypnotised or smelling Bronson's feet.
103	* FictionalPoliticalParty - When Mr Gribble runs for the Senate in the second series he belongs to the fictional "Progressive Conservative Party", who have the same party colour (blue) as the real-life Liberal Party.
104	* FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin: "Yuckles" has Tony and Bronson looking through an old photo album, in which the pictures of Bronson are all his second incarnation (Jeffrey Walker) instead of his first (Rodney McLennan).
105	* GoneHorriblyRight - The frog race in "Wunderpants" is set up as a big event, only for the whole audience to sit around bored when the frogs just sit in the middle of the floor, forcing [[LargeHamAnnouncer Tiger]] to commentate on people's fashion choices. One boy suggests that the frogs are conserving energy because the humidity is too low, so Tiger sprays the floor with a hosepipe. Sure enough the frogs all get moving and the crowd's excitement returns... but then Gribbs's frog Mugger ''eats'' all the other frogs in the ring.
106	* TheHatMakesTheMan - In "Copy Cat", the Mongolian cat hat forces its wearer to copy any action it sees.
107	** HatOfPower[=/=]HatOfFlight - Said magic hat also grants the ''power to fly'' (if the cat sees a bird)!
108	* HalfwayPlotSwitch - "Wunderpants" starts off being about Pete's microwaved briefs [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext giving him superpowers]] which he uses to ''almost'' win a cross country race, then he goes swimming but finds the briefs shrink rapidly and force him to remove them, leaving him to hobble home nude after his clothes are stolen. The rest of the episode is about a frog race.
109	* HypnoFool - One episode featured Pete acting like a chicken whenever the word 'now' was mentioned. It also featured a counting chicken which was made to regress (or ascend) to a past life of being a mathematician.
110	* KissingCousins.
111	** Kissing ''siblings'' in "Lucky Lips" due to the [[KissingUnderTheInfluence magical lipstick]].
112	** Done indirectly in "Ice Maiden" when Bronson becomes infatuated by an ice sculpture to the point of kissing it. He then discovers that the sculpture was based on his cousin Terry, about whom he has been having [[AnxietyDreams psychedelic nightmares]]. He very quickly abandons his loathing of her and seems very happy about her sleeping in his bedroom. He smiles at her in a rather amorous way throughout.
113	* KissOfTheVampire - in "Quivering Heap" Pete plays Dracula in a school production, and the sexual connotations of biting Fiona's neck are noted a few times.
114	* LightningCanDoAnything: The cause of the remote control affecting the real world in "Spaghetti Pig-Out".
115	* MallSanta - Nell ends up being this in the Christmas episode. She gets attacked by the 'real' Santa.
116	* MistakenForMasturbating - In "Wunderpants", Linda and Fiona see Pete fiddling with the waistband of his trousers - which we are even shown in a close-up vertical panning shot.
117	-->Pete: Just checking.
118	-->Fiona: What?
119	-->Pete: My underpants they feel funny, they feel ''tingly''.
120	* MurderousMannequin: Animated, but not murderous. "Know All" is an adaptation of the short story "Know All" by Creator/PaulJennings. A mannequin is part of one of Tony's art pieces around the time that the Twists find a chest filled with costumes, which only much later they learn are from a circus of which all members have perished in an accident. Intrigued by the find, they each dress up and find themselves [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman bestowed with the talents and characteristics of the original owners]]. For fun, they dress up their [[ScaryScarecrows scarecrow]] in a clown's outfit. This causes it to come alive and, being empty beforehand, to strongly take to the love the clown had for the other clown. Tony, who's the FortuneTeller, arranges for the mannequin to be dressed up as the other clown to reunite the loves. As both the scarecrow and the mannequin steadily become human-like due to the costumes, they decide to join the circus.
121	* NoAnimalsWereHarmed - ''[[AvertedTrope not]]'' shown after "Wunderpants", in which a large frog is graphically shown devouring several smaller frogs, only for Pete's frog to crash into it [[RammingAlwaysWorks at high speed]] causing a huge gooey explosion.
122	* NoPartyGiven - Nell, when she runs for the Senate against Harold Gribble. She uses the colour green, like the real-life Australian Greens -- who were founded the same year the series was broadcast, so it's unclear if she's meant to be a Green or not.
123	* OrWasItADream - Episodes which ended with AllJustADream would incorporate this into their final scene, to suggest the dreams were real in some way.
124	* OurGhostsAreDifferent - Lots of variation. The ghosts often seem bound by different rules - some ghosts are mute, whereas others can talk. While most ghosts have UnfinishedBusiness, one episode a ghost that needed to pass his 'scare test'. Also featured are a ghost dog and a ghost ''seagull'', among other things.
125	* OurMermaidsAreDifferent - Linda falls for a merman at one point, though neither of them know he is a merman at the time and his transformation is one-way.
126	* PlantPeople: The ''Cabbage Patch Fib''.
127	* PosthumousCharacter - Although the show does have a large number of ghost characters, there is one character who properly fits the trope: Nell's "nutty" older brother Tom, who is referred to numerous times throughout the first series. He lived in the shack near Ghoul's Cave and owned the rubies from the episode "Birdsdo"; he also invented the cloning machine in "The Copy". [[spoiler:Tom actually makes a non-speaking appearance in ghost form in the first series finale "Lighthouse Blues", along with the rest of Nell's family.]]
128	* {{Pun}} - Many, particularly from Pete.
129	* {{Reincarnation}} - Played for laughs in ''Next Time Around''. Pete is the reincarnation of a fireman, Nell's nephew Tom is the reincarnation of both a flower seller and a champion wrestler, and Russell the rooster turns out to be the reincarnation of an Oxford maths professor.
130	* RewindGag - Done in "Spaghetti Pig-Out" due to a magical remote control that Pete uses.
131	* RunningGag - "Without My Pants". Runs the risk of turning into an OverlyLongGag, but it's pitched so well that you're still finding it funny when poor Pete clearly isn't.
132	* ScaryScarecrows - Having discovered a trunk filled with circus clothes, Tony decides to dress their scarecrow in a clown outfit, causing it to later be possessed by the dead clown, and chase Linda, who was dressed as the clown's lover, thereby successfully managing to combine Scary Scarecrows with MonsterClown in one easy step. He becomes a lot less scary when he's reunited with his lover, the other clown from the same circus, whose clothes are put on a mannequin.
133	* SeriesFauxnale - "Seeing the Light" ends the second season and has many elements of a Grand Finale (such as the implication of Pete and Fiona [[RelationshipUpgrade hooking up]]), after which there is an eight year break. Series 3 is basically a reboot which stories no longer adapted from Jennings' stories and most of the earlier story arcs ditched.
134	* SeriousBusiness - The frog race in "Wunderpants" is seemingly organised just by children and takes place in an old barn, but it has entry fees, betting, a semi-professional filming operation and Tiger excitedly commentating on everything.
135	* ShamelessSelfPromoter - Harold Gribble, once he becomes a politician.
136	* ShowerScene - Pete in "Sloppy Jalopy".
137	* SparedByTheAdaptation: Thanks to executive meddling, Nell survives the events of "Lighthouse Blues", (and the rest of the series) unlike her counterpart Stan.
138	* StealthInsult: During Tony's first meeting with Ms James, he comments that Pete and Linda are embarrassed to be seen with their father. She rather politely replies, "Yes, I can understand that."
139	* StrawmanPolitical - Harold Gribble, arguably. He is pretty much the "evil developer" straight up and down: trying to force people out of their homes and carelessly damaging the environment in the name of business and "progress". He's contrasted with the more reasonable mayor.
140	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Happens in "Spaghetti Pig Out". The bullies use the super-powered remote control to have James win the eating contest by "fast-forwarding" him. It does help him ingest an enormous quantity of pasta in a very short time, but as soon as the fast-forward stops he suffers from a bad case of BalloonBelly and starts feeling [[NauseaFuel very sick]].
141	* TakeOffYourClothes: Pete telling Linda to take off the clown's outfit, which was causing the scarecrow clown to chase her. She misunderstands him at first.
142	* ThrowTheDogABone: "Lucky Lips" ends with Pete getting a consensual kiss from Fiona.
143	* TongueOnTheFlagpole - Bronson gets stuck to an ice sculpture he kisses.
144	* TransferStudentUniforms - The Twist kids themselves at the beginning of the series. Same for Andrew in "Nails", who gets mocked for his private school uniform by Gribble, who then finds out that it's the same school where his father might be sending him.
145	* TwoTeacherSchool - Mr Snapper (Pete & Linda's drama/literature teacher) and Ms James (Bronson's teacher) are the only teachers we ever see at the school. In ''one'' episode we see the principal, Mr Splodge [[spoiler:who gets turned into a baby at the end of the episode.]]
146	* UnfinishedBusiness - A big part of the series when Paul Jennings was still writing. Most of the ghosts had this as their reason for hanging around, notably the ghosts who formed the StoryArc for Season 2.
147	* UniversalRemoteControl: There's an episode called "Spaghetti Pig-Out" based on the Paul Jennings story that features the remote that can control real life, although it lacks the "looking like green chocolate" attribute that it has in the book.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder: Tropes of season 3 and 4]]
151	* AbortedArc - The senate election plotline from season 2 is never mentioned again and Gribble essentially just goes back to being an abrasive property dealer.
152	* BrokenPedestal: The Twist kids all experience this at once over their television idols in "TV or Not TV".
153	* ChainedHeat - Faye handcuffs herself to Mr Gribble, shortly before going into labour, in the last episode.
154	* CharacterFilibuster: Pete in "Bird Boy" has to blather on for a long time while Bronson helps the bird escape. His audience are visibly annoyed.
155	* CreepyDoll: Veronique, Linda's old china doll in "Toy Love."
156	* ExpressDelivery - Combined with MisterSeahorse in "The Big Burp". Pete becomes pregnant by holding hands with a dryad after peeing on her tree. After an accelerated pregnancy, he gives birth through his mouth while [[ChainedHeat handcuffed to his worst enemy]].
157	* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel - Pete and Linda's time-travel back to 1944 saw them distract a look-out who missed an (unnamed) enemy fleet, thus leading to the South Pacific New World Order...where everyone wears their underwear on the outside.
158	* JekyllAndHyde: Linda's shadow with Linda in ''Shadow Play''
159	* FairytaleMotifs: This season seems to focus ''a lot'' more on themes from fairytales.
160	* HeliCritter - In "The Whirling Derfish", Bronson swallows a rare whirling derfish and discovers he now has the ability to swim incredibly fast by using his penis as a propeller.
161	* HornyVikings - A group of them shows up in the second episode of Season 3. They leave behind "The Viking Book of Love" which ends up being a recurring element in the season.
162	* InterfaceSpoiler: Ariel is referred to by name in the credits of every season 4 episode, even though her identity is not known until the last episode.
163	* InvisibleStreaker - Linda, in the "Linda Godiva" episode, turns invisible thanks to an enchanted perfume spritzer -- but her clothes remain visible, so she has to take them off. Of course, Pete accidentally deactivates her invisibility at exactly the wrong time, leaving her naked on horseback in front of a large crowd.
164	* LivingShadow - The episode ''Shadow Play''
165	* MisterSeahorse - The first episode of season 3 is "The Big Burp", where a dryad lets Pete pee on her tree while running away from some bullies, and Pete learns that when a man urinates on a dryad-possessed tree, he becomes pregnant.
166	* MysticalPregnancy: Pete's predicament in the above-mentioned Season 3 opener; one of the rare times when a ''male'' character is exposed to this trope.
167	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Linda owns a doll that's dressed like an 80s rockstar and has a broken nose. The doll's name? [[Music/MichaelJackson Michael.]]
168	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Pete gets bit by a Transylvania Flea from a flea-circus, he transforms into a hairy wolf. He then has [[spoiler:'puppy love' with Fiona's ''dog'']]
169	* RealityWritingBook - The Viking Book of Love
170	* RememberTheNewGuy - Anthony, the Twists' nerdy friend (and DoggedNiceGuy to Linda) shows up in Season 3 without any introduction, and the other characters treating him as if he'd been there all along.
171	* ReTool - In Series 3 & 4, the series loses its focus on ghosts and their UnfinishedBusiness and became an Australian version of ''Series/EerieIndiana''.
172	* SamusIsAGirl: Before Ariel's identity is revealed, the Twists refer to her as male.
173	* SoapboxSadie - Linda becomes this, sort of, when a botched haircut gives her the power to read minds.
174	* ThereAreNoAdults - In the episode "The Big Rock" all the adults in Port Niranda are sucked into an alternate universe after the final poem in the Viking Book of Love is read. Naturally, the town goes to hell in a few hours.
175	* TrappedInTVLand - The Twist kids in "TV or Not TV". It winds up being turned on its head though as the Twist kids use this to their advantage and threaten to reveal the truth about their "heroes."
176	* TheWormThatWalks: The lint monster builds itself a body out of dust, dirt and lint.
177	[[/folder]]

Context Series / RoundTheTwist