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1!YMMV tropes for the ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' series
2!!Tropes with their own pages:
3[[index]]
4* [[HoYay/{{Doug}} Ho Yay]]
5[[/index]]
6----
7* {{Adorkable}}: Both Doug and Skeeter.
8** Doug is so socially awkward to the nth degree that makes him cute. And when Patti's around, expect this to be turned up to eleven.
9** Skeeter can be a little odd and awkward, but he's still beloved for those reasons.
10* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
11** The entire show is this due to the fact that it is a narrative of events through the eyes of one kid writing about these events into his journal. As a result, his opinions on a person will affect how they are portrayed in each episode.
12** One theory is that Doug is [[http://dougfunniesjournal.tumblr.com/ crazy]]. Said blog also speculates that Roger has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets rickets]] and really just wants to be friends (at the very least) with Doug, but doesn't know how to make friends.
13** Alternately, Roger is secretly/obliviously gay and has feelings for Doug. [[LovingBully He bullies Doug to compensate for this.]] See HoYay below for details.
14*** It would make re-watching the show very interesting if you interpret Roger having secretly/obliviously romantic feelings for Doug.
15*** It also really affects the interpretation of the episode in which Roger found Doug's journal, but claimed to be unable to read Doug's handwriting (but still returned the journal). It's possible he didn't want to invade the privacy of someone he cared about, did read it but didn't want to publicly embarrass Doug, or was hurt by how much Doug talked about Patti and didn't want to talk about that.
16** A popular interpretation regarding Mr. and Mrs. Dink is that they're unable to have children, which is why Mr. Dink gets so...''attached'' to Doug (seeing Doug as a sort of child substitute) and why Mrs. Dink seems so apathetic, as well as why she so often seems to try and step in whenever Mr. Dink tries to show off to Doug (likely realizing that the whole thing isn't healthy). That said, there are also fans who view Mr. Dink's fondness for Doug as [[PaedoHunt something else entirely...]]
17** One could argue that Chalky Studebaker had a crush on Doug, especially when you compare how Doug's fantasies always had Patti cheering him on whereas in reality it usually came from Chalky.
18** Roger's dad. Is it really a coincidence that he ''finally'' decided to come see Roger when he and his mother became super wealthy? Was he really glad to see his son, or did he just want to mooch off of a nice place for a few days?
19* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
20** Doug's Quailman fantasy in ''Doug's 1st Movie''. Then again, it's a ''Doug'' movie, and it wouldn't be complete without Quailman.
21** Mr. Bone talking on the phone in "Doug Goes Hollywood" and BreakingTheFourthWall to tell the viewer to mind their own business.
22* BrokenBase:
23** ''Disney's Doug''. It caused the fanbase to break into separate camps (not counting the ones who have seen one version, but not the other): the ones who loved the Nickelodeon version and despised Disney's version due to Disney retooling the series to be "hip and cool", the ones who thought Disney's version was okay but preferred Nickelodeon's version, the ones who loved the Disney version and despised the Nickelodeon version for its blandness in the episodes at times and its animation, and the ones who thought the Disney version was no different than the Nickelodeon version and actually admit to liking both.
24** Same with the movie. Some like it, some ''really'' don't like it.
25* ClicheStorm: ''Doug's 1st Movie'' is a slight example.
26* DeathOfTheAuthor: The fanbase almost unanimously rejected Jim Jinkins' confirmation that Doug and Patti canonically don't end up together in the future, despite Jim adding that Doug could (and would) find someone else even if his first crush didn't work out. Jim would later [[FlipFlopOfGod reject this idea himself]] several years later, with his pitch for a potential sequel series revealing that the two have become married with kids.
27* DesignatedVillain:
28** Often Guy from Disney's ''Doug''. While he may be egotistical, Guy's actually a fairly nice...well, guy, it's Doug's feelings for Patti and chronic insecurity that lead him to see Guy as a jerk.
29*** Subverted in the movie, where he actually ''is'' flat-out antagonistic towards the group. But even then, he still has some shades of this trope. Although the characters are angry at him for attempting to kill Herman, he never knew Herman was friendly because he didn't even meet Herman until the last few seconds before he and Patti's breakup. So technically, it didn't make sense for Patti to get angry toward him. For all Guy knew, Herman could have been vicious.
30** In the Nickelodeon run, the villain in his (solo) Quailman fantasies is either Roger or Mr. Bone.
31** Roger is usually the villain of Doug's fantasies by default whether or not he has any antagonistic notions in the episode.
32*** Doug is quick to blame Roger for pretty much anything that goes wrong, even if it's incredibly unlikely. The other characters ''will'' call Doug out on this, though.
33** Anyone that hates Patti or Patti dislikes becomes this for Doug (Muffy Silverson and the Junior Daughters club by extension; Cassandra Bleem and her clique of older popular kids are examples of this). Also anyone Doug thinks is trying to go after Patti gets upgraded to this (which is why Guy is usually this).
34* DiagnosedByTheAudience: As outlined by [[http://www.cracked.com/article_20090_6-creepy-things-you-never-noticed-about-famous-kids-cartoons.html this article]] on Cracked, there is a strong possibility that Doug has schizophrenia.
35* EnsembleDarkhorse: Mr. Dink, Roger, and Judy are considered some of the funniest characters in the series.
36** If we go by [[WebVideo/FamiliarFaces Chad Rocco]]... Connie Benge is this. There are even fans who are aware of the sad WordOfGod info that want to ship Connie with Doug, helps she hinted having a crush on him in the Nickelodeon series.
37*** Ned Cauphee and Boomer Bledsoe have fans and art on Deviantart and tumblr!
38* FanonDiscontinuity: The Disney's Doug episodes don't exist in the eyes of some Nickelodeon Doug fans.
39** WordOfGod stating that Doug and Patti never got together is also [[DieForOurShip frequently ignored]].
40* GeniusBonus: Doug's sister, Judith "Judy" Funny, has been established as a huge [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] nut in several episodes. Which is why she's named after Sheakespeare's daughter, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Quiney Judith Quiney]] (née Shakespeare). Just to drive the point home, her mother always insists on calling her "Judith".
41* HarsherInHindsight:
42** Every interaction with Doug and Patti would be seen as this when you remember in 2016 WordOfGod revealed the two never became a couple...until Jim walked back on it in 2023 with his pitch for ''Doug Kids'' (which had the two HappilyMarried).
43** In one episode of the Nickelodeon series, Doug tells his friends he's broke, and Beebe asks, "'Broke'? What's 'broke'?" She'd find out what "broke" was in the Disney episode "Beebe Goes Broke," when her family is forced to declare bankruptcy due to bad investments.
44* HilariousInHindsight:
45** In "Doug's Big Nose", Doug tries to get out of getting his school picture taken by PlayingSick. One of the diseases he lists off to the school nurse is "turkey pox". Said disease ends up rearing its head in Jim Jinkins' next show, ''Series/AllegrasWindow''.
46** Doug's BerserkButton whenever people refer to his journal as a "diary" brings to mind ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid''.
47* HollywoodPudgy:
48** Connie. While she was a bit thicker than the other girls in the Nick series, she wasn't the "wide load" she was hyped up to be. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the Disney series, where she's way more shapely, having gone to beauty camp.
49** Played with in an episode about Doug himself: He comes back after a couple weeks eating junk food at his grandmother's and realizes he's gained a good amount of weight. He slims down to his previous weight to avoid embarrassment at an upcoming pool party with his friends, only to still see himself as pudgy. Fortunately Judy informs him (truthfully if insensitively) that's how he's always looked and to not worry about it. As it turns out, everyone else at the party has similar concerns about how they look in swimsuits, so initially ''nobody'' has any fun until Doug breaks the ice!
50** In this same episode Skeeter has the [[HollywoodThin opposite concern]], worrying that he's too ''skinny'' to be seen at the pool party and gorging himself with creme-filled donuts, only to still see himself as too skinny on the day of the party.
51* IronWoobie: Doug is often in many worst case scenarios in certain predicaments and is usually the butt of the jokes, especially when Roger and his gang love to exploit his insecurities. However, instead of whining and moping about it nonstop, Doug doesn't let it affect him and would often try to find a solution to his problems, usually when one of his friends try to help him out.
52* MemeticMutation:
53** "There's a bomb in the lasagna!" [[labelnote:Note]]A line from "Doug's Sister Act" when Doug, posing as a 007-esque character, wants to spice things up in the roleplaying session by shouting these words.[[/labelnote]]
54*** A bomb in the lasagna?? ''GREAT SCOTT!''[[labelnote:Note]]What Spy!Doug cries when Judy's date reads the note Doug slipped him before dramatically diving into the lasagna.[[/labelnote]]
55** "You broke my grill!? You broke MY GRILL!? YOU BROKE MY GRILL!?" [[labelnote:Note]]A line from "Doug Needs Money" when Doug has a daydream about Mr. Dink going nuts [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkEd2FWxdk (and transforming into a hairy beast)]] after Doug confesses he was responsible.[[/labelnote]]
56** ''Beeyoouuu'' [[labelnote:Note]]A frequent spoken sound effect in the show, often accompanying a camera {{pan}} to something embarrassing for Doug.[[/labelnote]]
57** I didn't choose the Doug life, the Doug life chose me (in relation to "I didn't choose the thug life")
58** "What does the 'Doug' button do?" "It Dougs." [[labelnote:Note]]Accompanied by a picture of the Doug LCD game, which has buttons for "Doug" and "Faster".[[/labelnote]]
59*** Alternatively, "PRESS DOUG TO DOUG"
60** This [[http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/337/261/c83.jpg text post]] by Creator/NeilCicierega talking about how Disney, er, "ruined" the show...
61** [[WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} Vinny]] has turned Mr. Dink into a FountainOfMemes.
62* MoralEventHorizon: Mr. Bluff crosses it in the Christmas Special. While his anger at Porkchop for biting his daughter is understandable, he ignores Doug's pleas and tells him that he hates dogs because they don't understand the concept of money, completely throwing away his KnightTemplarParent motivation in exchange for something far more petty.
63* MisBlamed:
64** There are a number of fans who whine about Disney's changes to the series. Actually, the only thing Disney did was buy the rights to the series (and Jumbo Pictures, the show's production company), produce it, and air it on ABC. Pretty much everyone who worked on the Nick series worked on Disney's series as well. And the setting/character changes were Jim Jinkins' own idea.
65** Some fans criticize the Disney episodes for "replacing all the voice actors". Only Creator/BillyWest's characters (Doug, Roger, Boomer, Coach Spitz, Mr. Valentine, and the Quailman Announcer) were replaced; everyone else kept their voice (however in some international dubs; all or almost all of the voices were replaced).
66** It's been claimed that after Disney bought the show, Nickelodeon wasn't allowed to air it anymore. Nick still held (and still holds) the airing and video rights to their episodes, and reruns continued to air on the main network until 2002 (and Nicktoons until 2005), and is currently available on Creator/ParamountPlus. Nick only took the reruns off to make room for newer shows.
67* {{Narm}}: In "Doug to the Rescue", after Doug accidentally punches Roger in the nose (when he was trying to tap him on the shoulder and tell him to leave Patti alone, with him running into his hand too fast), the latter then tells him as he looms over him, "Well, Funnie, it looks like I'm gonna have to cream ya! N'yeah, n'yeah!" He's supposed to be threatening, but it sounds more like he's doing a poor Bugs Bunny impersonation.
68* OlderThanTheyThink:
69** Doug himself appeared in a couple commercials before getting his own show. He appeared as an unnamed character in a Florida Grapejuice ad in 1988, and he and Porkchop appeared in an ident for the Creator/USANetwork in 1990.
70** Creator Jim Jinkins was involved with Nickelodeon before it was even known as Nickelodeon! He worked as a puppeteer, designer and occasional actor on ''Series/{{Pinwheel}}'' when the station was a channel that in turn was part of an interactive cable experiment known as QUBE in Columbus, Ohio (it was operated by Creator/WarnerBros, and not only developed Nick, but prototypes of Creator/{{MTV}}, The Movie Channel and things like pay-per-view).
71* OnceOriginalNowCommon: ''Doug'' was one of the very first SliceOfLife animated shows, and was influential enough to inspire several other shows of its kind over the coming decades to the point that it's now seen as achingly formulaic.
72* PeripheryDemographic: The show was pretty popular among adults, especially among parents who wanted their kids to watch it.
73* PortmanteauCoupleName: "Doger", for the [[HoYay Doug/Roger ship]].
74* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: A game based on the Disney series titled ''VideoGame/DougsBigGame'' was released for Platform/GameBoyColor, and featured Doug and Porkchop searching for Patti while wandering around Bluffington and doing tasks for various characters (collecting stuff to beam to aliens for the Sleech brothers or running errands for Judy, for example). Unfortunately, the whole game was an extremely dull fetch-quest, and the only action - minigames featuring Quailman - left a lot to be desired.
75* RetroactiveRecognition:
76** Series animator Creator/JohnRDilworth would later go on to create ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog''.
77** [[Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack Yoga Jones]] is the girl of Doug's dreams.
78** Steve Higgins, better known as Jimmy Fallon's [[Series/TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon co-host]], did some voices for the Nick version, though it's unknown which characters he played.
79* TheScrappy: Many fans didn't care for [[OneShotCharacter Ms. Newberry]], the substitute teacher from "Doug's New Teacher" given her refusing to allow Doug a fair shake and believing ''Roger'' of all people when he told her Doug was a troublemaker. Even worse, when Doug came into the teacher's lounge and earnestly tried to talk to her to convince her that she was mistaken about him and he wished they could get along, what did he receive from her in response? '''A cold, silent stare.'''
80** Not helped at all by what immediately follows. At first, we're led to assume that she'll change her mind and realize she's misjudged Doug. But nope, she's ''still'' convinced he's a rotten little troublemaker...she just thinks he's a rotten little troublemaker with a HiddenHeartOfGold. Despite ultimately warming up to him, the fact that she still thinks Doug's bad and Roger's good ends up cementing her as an irredeemably HorribleJudgeOfCharacter to the point that even Doug decides that there's no possible way to get her to see reason. The only consolation is that [[LaserGuidedKarma Roger gets some karmic retribution in the end]] with Ms. Newberry not being seen in the series again after that.
81* SeasonalRot: The third and final season of Disney's ''Doug'' is commonly seen as the weakest out of all the seasons, in particular due to a lack of very original plots and (coinciding with it) an over-reliance on Quailman-based episodes, which tended to wear thin for viewers particularly due to the "one story for the full half hour runtime" format of the Disney series.
82* {{Squick}}: In "Doug Can't Dance", a girl at the party is dressed as a donut... with the hole right through her!
83* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Quite a few examples.
84** The theme song itself is a SuspiciouslySimilarSong version of "Little Bitty Pretty One" by Thurston Harris and of "Dancing with the Mountains" by Music/JohnDenver.
85** The show often uses SuspiciouslySimilarSong versions of movie themes. And, in "Doug Wears Tights," of a classical piece (The Nutcracker Suite).
86** The amusement park Funkytown is usually accompanied by an appropriate sound-alike version of the famous Lipps Inc. song.
87** "Doug Can't Dance" features a dangerously close soundalike of "U Can't Touch This."
88** In "Doug's New School" during a fantasy with aliens there's a sound-alike of ''Series/TheXFiles'' theme.
89** In "Doug's Lost Weekend", the "game over" ditty in the ''Spacemunks'' video game is a parody of the Song of the Volga Boat Men.
90** Smash Adams is a ''Film/JamesBond''-esque character in a movie franchise and in Doug's {{Imagine Spot}}s, and his theme song is a slightly off version of the James Bond theme.
91* TheyChangedItNowItSucks:
92** While ''Disney's Doug'' lasted three years, some fans were simply turned off by the change. Of course, others did enjoy it (especially those who didn't have cable, or had never heard of Nickelodeon's version).
93** Ironically, the first episode of the Disney show had Doug suffering from this reaction to all the changes going on around him.
94** The cast of the Mexican Spanish dub was changed for the Disney version, too. Well, mostly.
95* ToyShip: Doug and Patti, both in sixth grade at the start of the series and only just finished seventh grade in the final episode. However that changed in 2016 when WordOfGod claims they never became a couple... until 2023, when Jim Jenkins revealed his plans for a SequelSeries portraying them as HappilyMarried adults with two kids.
96* UglyCute: Herman Melville, the Lucky Duck Lake monster from TheMovie.
97* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
98** The presence of the "90s trinity" of colours (Teal, Purple, Pink) in many of the characters' colour palettes really ''really'' places this show in TheNineties.
99** "Doug Can't Dance" features numerous references to both Music/MCHammer and his hit "U Can't Touch This" that firmly date it to its 1991 premiere..
100* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
101** In "Doug's Cartoon" the students frame Mr. Bone's decision to shut down the school newspaper as a Freedom of Speech issue. While probably an overreaction to criticism of the lunch menu, the fact remains that the newspaper was funded by the school. Ultimately, the students weren't demanding the right to speak freely, they were demanding access to a platform.
102** Patti and even Skeeter in "Doug Rocks a House". When Doug knocks down an old abandoned house that so happens to be Patti's old house, literally ''nobody'' (Especially not Patti) even thinks to tell him, or even take into consideration that Doug has no real way to know that the old house was Patti's old house.
103* ValuesDissonance:
104** In "Doug's Christmas Story," we see Al and Moo creating a smoke bomb that looks like a cupcake. After Columbine, the idea of kids creating state of the art weaponry probably wouldn't sit too well with audiences.
105** The Sleeches building [[EpicFail (what they think is)]] a DeathRay in their backyard, [[JustThinkOfThePotential even for a good cause]], would probably not have gone over as well had it aired in 2001 or later. ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Wilson Then again...]])
106--->'''Skeeter:''' Hey, where did you get the plutonium?\
107'''Al and Moo:''' ''[exchange glances]'' [[FellOffTheBackOfATruck ...Found it.]]
108** "Doug's Graduation" had Doug and his friends accidentally peeping in on the girls locker room in their efforts to try and catch a glimpse of the unseen Principal Buttsavich. Needless to say, you could never do something like this in a more contemporary children's show.
109** The first episode of the Disney series has Patti reveal that she'll only be attending school in the afternoons, with her father having chosen to home-school her in the mornings. Since that episode first aired, home-schooling in the United States has become increasingly associated with [[TheFundamentalist fundamentalist Christian parents]] trying to avoid their children learning about things like evolutionary theory and sex-ed, making Patti's father sound rather more sinister than the writers intended.
110* ValuesResonance: Both "Doug Tips the Scales" and "Doug’s Chubby Buddy" deal with some form of body dysphoria which are still relevant today. The former deals with Doug becoming insecure about his body shape after overindulging at his grandma's, while the latter deals with Patti becoming insecure about her weight and excessively dieting and excercising. "Doug Tips the Scales," interestingly enough, although it's brief, presents the idea of being TOO THIN, as Skeeter attempts to actually gain weight due to believing he is too thin for his bathing suit. Which is not something you see much in modern media.
111* VanillaProtagonist: While he does have his fair share of quirks and vivid imagination that can often go over-the-top, Doug is still more of TheEveryman in a much more colorful cast of quirky supporting characters. Since Jim Jinkins deliberately made Doug average to contrast the more quirky supporting cast, it's possible that Doug being nearly the only one with normal human skin color in a cast of [[AmazingTechnicolorPopulation multicolored supporting characters]] is a metaphor of this particular trope.
112* VindicatedByHistory:
113** Although the Nickelodeon version was never considered a bad cartoon, there are those who believe that [[QuietlyPerformingSisterShow it was underwhelming and got overshadowed]] in comparison to ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow''. Over time and with both the Disney series [[FirstInstallmentWins making it look better in hindsight]] and with the fellow Nicktoons experiencing SeasonalRot and controversial changes, respectively, the show ends up looking better over time. It also helps that Creator/BillyWest admitted that this was his favorite show he ever worked on.

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