Dan Vs / Tropes A to L

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• Abusive Parents: In "The High School Reunion", Dan recalls that his "teenage years were filled with abuse and ridicule... and when [he] got to school it was even worse".
  • A lot of Dan's odder quirks imply some pretty scary things about how his parents went about raising him... assuming that they were trying to raise him at all. One of Dan's more cringe-worthy side comments mentions that he didn't learn to tie his shoes until he was twelve... not because he was reluctant to, but because there was no adult around attempting to teach him.
  • Going by the events of "Summer Camp", it's starting to come together about Dan's upbringing but it's still hard to tell what happened with his parents. The writers drop a lot of small hints about his parents either being negligent parents or abusive parents. There are even small hints that his parents may have passed when he was young and he was raised by his Grandmother.
• Accidental Pun:
  • In "Canada", Chris expresses disbelief that a Mountie "lifted [his car] with his bare hands!" We find out later that in-universe, Canadians are half-bear.
  • In "Reality TV", one of the contestants makes an outfit by simply taking his existing wardrobe and placing two turtles around his neck. However, he didn't realize the "turtle neck" pun until it was pointed out by the judge.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: In "Baseball", Dan mentions that he's been hit with tear gas and pepper spray so many times that he doesn't even feel their effects anymore. Unfortunately, everyone else around him still does. Shows up again in "The Bank", where he casually walks through a cloud of tear gas shot by the cops.
• Action Girl: Elise.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Four Fingered Freddy's Fantastic Fireworks.
• Adult Adoptee: Discussed in "The Ski Trip" episode, where an overly cheerful family Chris meets bond with him and plan to adopt him.
  Chris: I'm kind of an adult.
  Mrs. Pleasant: Don't worry about the rules. We have a friend in social services.
  Chris: And I have a wife.
  Mr. Pleasant: We'll adopt her, too!
  Chris: But then I'd be married to my sister...
• Aesop Amnesia: At the end of "The Barber", Chris comments to Dan, "Well, at least you haven't learned anything."
• All Myths Are True: The first episode's plot is kicked into gear by a Wolf-Man scratching Dan's car. The second episode also establishes that aliens exist in this universe.
• The Alleged Car:
  • Dan's car. An artist painted over it in "Art", assuming it was abandoned, and in "The Salvation Armed Forces":
    Dan: There has been a mistake. My car was taken from outside your store today.
    Salvation Armed Forces Clerk: Ah, that's impossible. We received only one donated vehicle today, and it was not in drivable condition.
    Dan: That's the one!
  • In "The Wedding", we get to see an Alleged Plane. Duct tape is, predictably, used to keep the plane together. For a while.
• Almost Kiss: Between Dan and Hortense at the end of "Burgerphile".
• Angry Fist-Shake: Dan does a two-fisted version along with a Skyward Scream Once an Episode.
  • Twice in "The Monster Under The Bed," when it turns out that Chris and Elise orchestrated the whole thing.
  • Subverted in "The Gym". Dan is so sore from his workout that it hurts to raise his fist or even scream. The result is a half-hearted cry while leaving his palms open on the floor.
  • In "The Dinosaur", the dinosaur does it when Dan sends her the invoice for his car repairs.
  • The Wolf Man, Dentist, and George Washington do something at least similar to this as well in their respective episodes.
  • Almost does it a second time in Gigundo Mart, but realizes he did that already.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Dan attempts to gain the jumping powers of a kangaroo he radiated in "The Superhero".
• Animation Bump: Very noticeable entering season 3, especially "The Mummy".
• Anti-Villain: There are a few characters who are the antagonist but have redeeming qualities that prevent them being straight-up evil, notably:
  • Amber from "Anger Management" who is Ax-Crazy and resorts to Blackmail, but doesn't really want to be that way.
  • Imposter Dan is probably the most notable example. He's not got any grand plan as many Big Bad characters have or even is remotely evil, he's just a guy who wants a good life but uses questionable methods such as identity theft (to the point of being a Preferable Impersonator, and he does make some good points about Dan's lifestyle and anger issues.
  • Terrifi-Guy who is destructive, rude, arrogant, selfish and unlikable to the point of being a Hate Sink, but he really does want to save the day, although he is a Jerkass through and through.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Dan believes in werewolves, psychics and Santa (among other things), but in "The Magician", he doesn't believe in magic.
• Area 52: Elise sneaks in and steals an alien spacecraft from it.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • In "The Neighbors", Dan suspects his cheery new neighbors are hiding something. "What is it? Serial killers, fugitives, guidance counselors? What's your angle?"
  • A visual example: in "The Dentist", Dr. Pullem passes over three buttons before choosing the Dentobots; the buttons are labeled "Robohygenist", "Mouthwash Flood" and "Insurance Forms".
  • What is Dan charged with after nearly launching nukes? Treason? Nearly destroying mankind? Nope. To keep it secret it's just trespassing.
  Dan: So what am I being charged with, treason? Attempted extinction of the Human Race?
  Judge: Trespassing.
• Artificial Human:
  • The androids in "Technology", right down to the funky eye color.
  • The androids in "The Gym".
• Artistic License – Law: In "The Neighbors", Dan's neighbors install security bars on their apartment and Dan's. Legally speaking, only the landlord of an apartment building has authority to make such cosmetic or structural changes to the building (many places don't even allow new paint jobs to be done).
• Ascended Meme: A fsjal is seen at the bottom of Dan's hate chart in "The Lemonade Stand Gang".
• Ass Shove: When Dan, Chris and a hobo are crawling through a vent, a crowbar shoots free from holding a fan, right into the back of the hobo, whose facial expression all but implies it.
  Hobo: [Beat] I'm fine.
• Asshole Victim: Dan. The victim part comes from the fact that someone does continually wrong him in every episode (although not necessarily before he vows revenge on them).
• Ate the Spoon: Dan's attempt at a cold remedy in "The Common Cold" eats a hole through Chris's table and floor.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Dan attempts to exploit werewolves' weakness to silver in "The Wolf-Man". Also, one of his first lines in the show is asking Chris what New Mexico's weaknesses are.
• Author Avatar: Dan Mandel and Chris Pearson used their negative qualities when creating Dan and Chris.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: It seems all Dan needs to know who has wronged him (and so far he's always deduced correctly) are a couple of random objects and a unique sense of logic.
  • He failed to recognize that "The Monster Under the Bed" was actually Chris and Elise but that was a concentrated effort to deceive him by people who he trusted and knew him well.
• Ax-Crazy: Timmy, Chris' great-great-grandfather, Hiram, the chainsaw maniac... the series has a lot of Ax Craziness going around.
• Badass Cape: Dan decides he must sport one while taking down the dinner theatre.
• Bad "Bad Acting": What causes Dan to start considering revenge on the Shakespearean Dinner Theatre. Seriously, they weren't even trying.
• Bad Impressionists: In "The Ninja", Chris dresses up as Dan to act as a decoy, and he tries to imitate his attitude by saying, "I'm Dan! I get mad at everything, then I yell a lot. And I sure don't appreciate my friend Chris!"
• Bad Santa: Dan's target in "The Mall Santa". Not that Dan's really any better when he takes over the job at the end of the episode.
• Bag of Holding: Used as a brief gag with the toolbox in "The Dentist", where Dan throws out a wide variety of objects such as several tennis rackets before reaching the crowbar.
• Bait-and-Switch Comparison: From "The Wolf-Man":
  Dan: What wears shoes, but also has paws? The wolf-man!
  Chris: So you're saying that the wolf-man's a jogger.
  Dan: He's an evil beast with an unsavory blood lust. Of course he jogs!
  • From "The High School Reunion":
    Dan: I spent my teenage years constantly ridiculed. Then I'd get to school and it was even worse.
• Batman Gambit: How the Lemonade Stand Gang is defeated.
  • Also used by Imposter Dan, who left a cell phone to call Dan when he broke into his apartment.
  Imposter Dan: I've BEEN you, remember? I know exactly how that tiny brain of your works. I know you so well I could even predict where Chris would be standing when the two of you broke into my apartment.
• Bears Are Bad News:
  • Played with in "Canada".
  • In "Family Camping Trip", Dan gets covered in bear hormone and a female bears mistakes him for a mate.
• Bedhead-itis: In "The Common Cold", Dan has a cold and his hair gets even messier than it usually is.
• Berserk Button: NEVER mess with Dan. If you're lucky, you'll only lose your house.
  • Don't call the Lemonade Stand Gang hooligans. It won't end well.
  • From "The Telemarketer": You do NOT ask Chris to make cocoa in the middle of the night and then LEAVE right when it is ready, SIT DOWN!!!
• Best Served Cold: Or immediately, according to Dan.
• Bestiality Is Depraved:
  • In "Canada", multiple references are made about Chris' Canadian ancestor having been intimate with a Yeti.
  • In "Art", the hobo tells Dan that Mr. Mumbles is female, leading to this exchange;
  Dan: Wait, in what context did you discover that?
  Hobo: Uhh... we're wasting time!
• Beware the Silly Ones: Dan may seem like just a crazy loud mouthed Boisterous Weakling,-and is-but just ask any of his targets how much trouble he can really cause.
  • Though less shown, Chris is can be just as dangerous, despite his easygoing attitude.
• Big Bad: Dan himself. Downplayed though, since Dan, usually, goes against people just as bad or worse than him. However, he's almost always the one who causes the conflict.
• Big Eater: Chris. Occasionally inches close to Extreme Omnivore territory. In "Art", Chris eats an entire plastic apple pie and half a plastic sandwich that was part of a realistic looking exhibit, but once he realizes what they are, he heads to the hospital to get his stomach pumped. In "Golf", he has no problem eating Mr. Mumbles' birthday cake, which is primarily comprised of cat food and in "Dan", Elise mentions that he once ate her shoes along with half a bottle of shampoo.
  Chris: Sometimes people do things in their sleep, I once ate a pair of shoes.
  Elise: Expensive shoes.
  Chris: For the umpteenth time: I am sorry I ate your shoes!
  Elise: And you used half a bottle of my good shampoo.
  Chris: For dipping!
  • Acknowledged in-universe in "Stupidity", where Chris enters an eating contest because he thinks eating is the only thing he's talented at. He wins, but lands himself in a hospital as a result.
  • It's so bad that, at one point, Dan is surprised when Chris won't eat the mechanic!
• Big Guy, Little Guy: Chris is 6′ 2″, as seen on his driver's license; and Dan is 5′ 6″ according to his.
• Big "NEVER!": When Elise warns Dan to tap out during their fighting-robots match, this is his response.
• Big "NO!": Barry Ditmer when his security android is destroyed.
  • Chris lets one go in "The High School Reunion".
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: A yeti shows up in "Canada".
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Chris, Elise and - of course - Dan.
• Black Comedy: Many horrible and immoral topics such as kidnapping, murder, theft, torture, tear gassing, and arson are Played for Laughs. A few characters in the show are implicitly Killed Offscreen as a form of Death as Comedy.
• Black Comedy Rape:
  • Implied at the end of "The Animal Shelter", with a man, who is not a doctor, who approaches Dan in a hospital room, ordering that he removes his pants.
  • Also implied in "The Family Camping Trip" when Dan inadvertently covers himself in bear hormones and a bear thinks he's her mate. The same happens to Colby at the end of the episode.
• The Blacksmith: Dan secretly had the ability to expertly craft arrowheads out of silver. He'd probably use this skill to get a job, if it didn't require work.
• Bland-Name Product: Chris's Coldpoint refrigerator (for Hotpoint), Shorts Drugs (for Longs Drugs), Dada Beans (for Goya beans) and Yamamma mechanical equipment (for Yamaha, probably).
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The road sign in "The Ninja" is translated from Japanese using a subtitle reading "Hold caution for lack of safety without bridge in future ahead!"
• Bond One-Liner: After destroying the dentist's army of robots (It Makes Sense in Context... sort of), he quips, "Rinse that out and spit!" Then after causing his tooth-shaped Supervillain Lair to self-destruct: "Now that's what I call tooth decay!"
• Brand X: "Generic Cereal" is on Dan's revenge list. Although in this case it COULD literally mean a brand called Generic Cereal.
  • In "Gigundo-Mart", he does indeed state that Generic-Os are his favorite cereal.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Elise wants Chris to make some friends who call before coming over, return the things they borrow and aren't wanted by Interpol.
• Brick Joke: Frequent in the show.
  • "The Salvation Armed Forces": the entire episode commences because Dan's toaster is broken and he couldn't get a toaster because the lady in front of him at the store bought them all. At the very last second, he steals one from said Armed Forces.
  • "The Animal Shelter": Mixed in with the barking that keep Dan awake at the beginning is the sound of an elephant. When Dan frees all the animals just before blowing up the shelter, guess what runs out with all the dogs.
  • "The Fancy Restaurant": Dan laments his favorite sandwich shop being bought out by a trendy gourmet restaurant, since he won't be able to get his favorite turkey sandwich anymore. When the sandwich place comes back at the end of the episode, Dan and his friends order the fabled turkey sandwich, which Dan takes one bite of before flatly declaring they're not as good anymore.
  • In the start of "The Beach", Dan gets a toy eyepatch from a cereal box and puts it in his pocket. It goes completely unmentioned from there on, until near the end when he hijacks a ship, puts it on and goes "Arrr".
  • "The Lemonade Stand Gang": Elise planned on sending the kids in the episode to North Korea to work in factories. During "Gigundo Mart" she mentions that they shouldn't have kids working in factories when she has to fix a prototype built by them. Not because she is against it on Moral Grounds, but because according to her their hands are to weak and small to properly make complicated electronic machinery, she was basically only complaining because a top secret weapon was malfunctioning and she was having trouble fixing it
  • In "The Werewolf", Dan mentions how he hates coffee, but it is required on a stakeout. Later, in "The Gym", he laments again how he dislikes it, before Chris reveals how he got tea instead, knowing his dislike. Dan then makes a rant about how one cannot have a stakeout without coffee.
  • In "The Magician", the heirloom that Chris was going to give to Elise (and was stolen by the magician) was accidentally engraved with a misspelling. The episode ends with Elise asking "Who's Elsie?"
  • In "Canada", Dan makes a glacier fall and cover the entirety of Canada. In "The Monster Under the Bed" Dan goes back and Canada is still covered in snow. Dan remarks "They never recovered from that avalanche... oh well."
  • In the beginning of "The Mummy", Dan chides Mr. Mumbles for playing with toilet paper when he stole Chris's sneaker for her to chew up. A few scenes later, and Chris can't find one of his shoes.
  • In "The Superhero", Dan feeds a zoo kangaroo radioactive waste in order for the kangaroo to bite him, thus gaining the high jumping powers of a kangaroo. (Chris believed that Dan would merely get very sick.) This is foiled when the Kangaroo beats him up instead. At the end of the episode, a TV newscaster reports on a gigantic kangaroo that is rampaging through Los Angeles.
  • In "Jury Duty", Dan starts by telling Elise and Chris that he was abducted by aliens; naturally, they don't believe him. Cut to the security footage at the end, and you see that he was indeed abducted after destroying the burger joint.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Dan, in addition to Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass. He may be unemployed and somewhat deranged, but he's apparently pretty well-read:
  • In "Burgerphile", he references classical mythology and quotes Latin maxims, in "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre" he is well-versed in Shakespearean plays and in "Stupidity", he demonstrates ample knowledge on politics.
  • This is Lampshaded in "George Washington" by Chis saying that Dan has a random wealth of knowledge. Using the fact that Dan knows who built Mount Rushmore and not its location — he thinks it might be in Ecuador, which he also thinks is a US state.
  • In "Vegetables", he explains to Chris that Potatoes technically aren't a vegetable, admonishing him to "read a book without pictures once in a while." He is also aware that vegetables contain beta carotene and folic acid.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": In "The Superhero". Terrifi-Guy has a "T", which encompasses most of the front of his costume. Dan-Man's "D" is less impressive.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In “Technology” when Dan and Chris are watching Hiram’s puppet show.
  Chris: I think this characters are based on us.
  Dan: Don’t be ridiculous. No one would do that.
• The Brute: Harold of "The Lemonade Stand Gang"
• BSoD: Dan suffers one in "The Family Thanksgiving," becoming so torn between revenge and forgiveness that he passes out in a rage.
• The Bully: Dan frequently acts this way toward Chris.
• Burger Fool: Hortense the Burgerphile girl, complete with the stupid hat.
• Butt-Monkey: Chris. If someone's going to be hurt or humiliated, chances are it will be him, or, if not alone, he'll be the one who gets it the worst.
  • Also, Dan himself.
• Call a Human a "Meatbag": The androids in "The Gym" refer to humans as meat batteries.
• Call-Back: In "The Monster Under the Bed", Dan notes that Canada hasn't recovered from the avalanche he caused in "Canada".
• Call It Karma: From the episode New Mexico:
  Dan: Hey, you date a married., you get hit by a bus. Karma.
  Chris: I'm not sure that's how karma works.
• Calling Your Attacks: Dan does this a lot, mostly calling the noun that he's going to attack his target with. Results are mixed on his success. The funniest example being in "Baseball" where the Commissioner of Baseball shouts his counterattack. Too bad for him Dan has an Acquired Poison Immunity to mace.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Dan in "The Wedding" when he tries to tell Hortence he loves her.
• Captain Ersatz: The Department of Controlling Diseases in "Common Cold" (DCD—distinct from the CDC).
• Captain Obvious: In "The Magician", during a trapped room:
  Chris: Watch your step.
  Dan: Seriously?
• Card-Carrying Jerkass: The entire show is based around Dan exacting revenge on various things that have wronged him, or just happen to be annoying him at the time. While Dan's wrath is occasionally somewhat justified, as often as not, he's just being a dick. Interestingly for a kid's property, the show never attempts to redeem Dan, nor treat him as anything other than a proud jerk — it's even printed on his T-Shirt.
• Casual Kink: "Canada". It seems that Dan would like to be eaten off of... by Chris.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Dan's "Aw c'maawwwwwn!" and his favorite insult "Jerkface".
  • Whenever someone can easily give/replace something that Dan's trying to earn back, say, 50 cents or a free burger when his order is screwed up: "It's not about the X/X, it's about the principle!"
  • And besides/Also, shut up.
  • Dan has a weird habit of throwing things at people while shouting what they are (Keys! Scorpions! etc)
    • For some bizarre reason, Terrifi-Guy does the same thing.
• Characterization Marches On: There's a lot more tension between Dan and Elise in the later seasons than there was in the first. In most of the early episodes Elise seemed more or less ambivalent towards Dan, and would sometimes casually tell Chris to go do whatever Dan wanted him for and in one episode admitted that it was fun to get mixed up in his schemes. Later on she began out right hating him, which Dan had done since day 1.
• Chekhov's Gun: The trap Elise's parents leave in Dan's toilet.
• Chekhov's Skill: In "Technology", Dan uses Hiram's technique to flick the wrist while tossing the axe to break the mid control device on Elise's head with the perfect precision.
• The Chew Toy:
  • Chris has it worst. However in the beginning of several episodes, Dan's car is the principal victim.
  • In "Dancing", both Elise and Dan treat Chris like a object to be shared, despite repeated objections on his part.
• Christmas Episode: "The Mall Santa", where Dan's new mall job as a holiday elf brings him into conflict with a Bad Santa.
• Chronically Crashed Car:
  • Something happening to Dan's car is usually the reason he wants revenge on the episode's subject.
  • Chris frequently crashes his car. Early episodes hinted that he hit a lot of bicyclists.
• Claustrophobia: Inversion. Chris isn't afraid of small, cramped spaces... he's afraid of wide open spaces (agoraphobia), which is why he can't go near any prairies.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Chris, while under the effects of blowgun toxin in "The Ninja".
• The Cuckoo Lander Was Right: It actually was Wolf-Man, who scratched Dan's car, it was real ninja who stole his cookies, dentist was really a supervillain... and whole lot of other examples.
• Comically Inept Healing: In "Dan Vs. The Animal Shelter", two hospital orderlies mention offhand that only the patients with really good insurance get examined by a real doctor—everyone else just sees an actor dressed as a doctor. This becomes a Chekhov's Gag when, at the end, Dan gets his face badly scratched by a cat and has to go to the hospital:
  Doctor: Okay, let's get those pants off.
  Dan: Um, I'm here about my face being all scratched.
  Doctor: [chuckles] Oh, don't worry. I'm not a doctor.
  [Scare Chord. Episode ends.]
• Comically Small Bribe: In "Art," Dan attempts to get a set of records from an art school by offering the secretary a sandwich. When she doesn't go for it, he adds a bag of ruffled potato chips.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In "The Wolf-Man," Chris points out to Dan that there is an animal shelter right next to his apartment. The animal shelter returns in "The Animal Shelter," where Chris remembers telling Dan about it.
  • Also, we actually see Chris's tomato garden before he accuses Dan of never asking about it in a later episode.
  • And in "The Salvation Armed Forces," Elise gets Chris a pink bathing thong and he can be seen wearing it later in "The Beach." Chris even mentions that she bought it for him.
  Dan: Chris?! Oh no! Someone stole your pants!
  Chris: It's a bathing suit, Elise bought it for me.
  Dan: Well, I'm sure it looks much better on her.
  • In the beginning of "The Barber," Dan meets Becky at Ninja Dave's, the restaurant from "Dan Vs. The Ninja."
  • In "Burgerphile", Chris and Elise go to Cafe Puree for lunch while Dan and the crowd protests against Jeff the Burgerphile manager.
  • Dan gives Chris George Washington's ax (from "Dan Vs. George Washington") to destroy a child's bike in "The Lemonade Stand Gang".
  • In "Elise's Parents" Dan tells Elise that he has no dental records. A possible nod to "The Dentist" in which he stole his own records to prove that his dentist was a supervillain. This also gets called back in "Telemarketer", where Elise comments on Dan's poor dental hygiene.
  • In "The Monster Under the Bed" Dan returns to Madame Zelda's from "George Washington" and Canada is still suffering from the iceberg disaster from "Canada".
  • In "The Dinosaur" Elise's brother mentions that their parents are house-hunting. A possible nod to "The Family Thanksgiving" in which Dan burned down their house.
  • In "Chris", the destruction of Santa Fe by a UFO is a nod to the ending of "New Mexico".
  • In "Vegetables", Burgerphile is pushing a new, healthier menu, with fresh veggies in place of french fries. It's likely this was in response to their owner and CEO, Jeremiah Burger, suffering a heart attack (brought on in part by his all-burger diet) at the end of "The Wedding".
• Cool Old Guy: A store greeter is so old that he fought in San Juan Hill and constantly thwarts Dan's revenge attempts against Gigundo Mart.
  Old Man: (Has Dan in a neck-lock) I learned this move on the (cough), on the beaches of Normandy.
  Dan: Shooting out or shooting in?
• Couch Gag: Dan always yells whatever he's getting vengeance on and the subject is shown under the show's title.
• Cowboy Episode: "Wild West Town"
• Crapsack World: It's a lot more wacky and cartoonish than, say, The Simpsons, but over the course of the series it becomes clear that the setting of this show is every bit as messed up as Springfield.
• Crashing Dreams: "The Wolf-Man" begins with one of these.
• Crazy-Prepared: An odd presentation. Dan has evacuation plans and various keys (some obtained via questionable means) stashed in various places. In spite of this, his revenge plans are often ill-formed, to the point that he forgot the drill he needed to drill into a bank's vault.
• Create Your Own Villain: The plot of "The Superhero".
• Creator Cameo: Dan Mandel, one of the executive producers, is sometimes listed in the additional voices credits.
• Cross-Popping Veins
• Crossover:
  • Fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic who discovered this show through the Hub's website occasionally joked about a "Dan vs. Ponies" episode. Months later, the Hub released these commercials.
  • Similarly, the official Facebook page for the show features an outtake where Chris and Dan accidentally walk into the set of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!. Both shows are produced by Starz and Film Roman.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
  • Dan. He seems illogical, weak, and pathetic most of the time; but he can, and will, go ape on you if you mess with him or his friends enough. Example: The family camping trip when he saves Chris from a chainsaw-wielding serial killer by fighting him with only a weed-whacker.
  • Chris can be seen as this. He is normally a big, lovable oaf, but he can easily take down someone by beating them up when he wants, or is told, to.
• Crying Wolf: In "Elise's Parents", Dan's first revenge strategy is to tell the police that the titular parents are in the mafia. The officer on duty requires a lot of proof before putting an undercover cop on the case. Later, Dan discovers the undercover cop actually is in the mafia. The other officer doesn't believe Dan precisely because of his record of accusing people. Also, he was half-right about her parents, but didn't know it.
• The Cuckoolander Was Right: In the episode "Canada", the screwball misconceptions Dan has about Canadians (half-bear, obsessed with hockey, say "eh?", pronounce "sorry" "SOH-ree" and "About" as "Aboot", etc.) and Chris' great grandfather being in love with a yeti turn out to be 100% accurate.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Literally, Dan tells the angry mob of theatregoers attacking the defeated actor to "rise up, and stab him with your spoons".
• Curse Cut Short: In "The Wedding". when Elise is dragging Dan out of the passenger seat, he screams "Get off me you filthy wh-!"
• Cyborg: In "Technology" after being placed under Ditmer's mind control, Elise is outfitted with a cybernetic catsuit that attaches to her body.
• Dance Battler: The entire town of Pembroke practices fight-dancing. Dan learns the skill as well.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Elise is a parody of this in "New Mexico". Like Dan, she wants revenge on New Mexico. In her case, though, it's because roadrunners (the official state bird) once stole her cotton candy when she was a child, mentally scarring her.
  • That damn cactus also popped her balloon...
  • According to "The Ninja" she ran afoul of a ninja clan when she was fourteen.
  • At her 8th birthday party, Elise volunteered for a magic act... and was tormented by Magnifico The Magnificent's swords and knives.
  • Hinted at with Dan himself in "The Dentist". Having an unnecessary root canal at the age of 5, ON HIS BIRTHDAY NO LESS, couldn't have been good for his psyche.
    • Hinted even more so in "Dan", where talking about his childhood makes a professional psychiatrist run screaming out of the room.
    • Which in turn was brought up on the official Facebook page for Dan vs. run by Dan Mandel who stated that he had been raped by clowns. (This was subsequently retracted.)
• Death Trap: Dan tries to set one up for the commissioner of baseball by suspending him over a kiddie pool with squeaky sharks in it.
• Delayed Reaction: In "The Animal Shelter", Chris eats a meatloaf that Dan made as Dan explains his need for revenge on the animal shelter. When Dan says his plan involves a poisoned meatloaf, Chris continues to eat for several beats until he realizes he's been poisoned.
• Delusions of Local Grandeur: In "Dan vs. Traffic", Dan butts heads with an obnoxious traffic reporter, Helicopter Hal, who takes offense at being called just a minor celebrity.
  Elise: Dan, land the helicopter and let the minor celebrity go.
  Hal: Minor celebrity?!
  Dan: You really didn't know, did you?
• Denser and Wackier: Season 3 is notably more bizarre and fantastical than earlier episodes.
• Depower: The fate of Terrifi-Guy in "The Superhero".
• Dem Bones: In "The Wolfman".
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • "To the car mobile!"
  • The Government Action Center for Action
• Depraved Dentist: Dr. Pullem.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Chris and Dan's boss at the temp company. The mural◊ on the wall behind her, as well as the various objects◊ decorating her office, and the general design◊ of the workplace, are all indications that she is more than a tyrannical boss.
• Diner Brawl: Well, dinner theatre brawl, but pretty much the same. Incited by Dan.
  Dan: Who would've thought an angry mob would get so out of hand..?
• Dinner Theatre: "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre", obviously.
• Dirty Coward:
  • Elise's ex Colby, who would let her parents die to "protect" her.
  • Played With. In "The Dinosaur", there was a plan to stop the dinosaur by having them hit the dinosaur with 3 arrows, one each. Ben, Elise's brother, after seeing the dinosaur charging at Chris. Instead of saving Chris from being eaten, he decides to run away. He later realizes it was wrong of him to run away and decides to defeat the dinosaur himself.
• Dirty Old Man: In "The Wedding" Jeremiah Burger wants to marry Hortense, who is less than half his age.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Has its own page.
• Distaff Counterpart: The Tyrannosaurus Rex is this to Dan. He's also the one who says she's just like him and she does the same Angry Fist-Shake as Dan at the end of the episode.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In "Anger Management", Dan and his counselor team up for a revenge plot and later go out to eat. Dan thinks they're on a date, but she actually just wants to discuss who her next target is. Dan asks "Are we just... revenge buddies?" in the same way someone might ask "Are we just *** buddies?"
• Donut Mess with a Cop: In "The Wolf-Man" Dan and Chris chase a kid down the street and pass by a cop eating a donut, who doesn't pursue them until he realizes, "Oh, yeah, I'm a cop!"
• Downer Ending: "The Telemarketer". Dan is sent to jail for six weeks, while the Dan impostor fishes at a cabin, having had his revenge.
  • "The Barber", but like "The Telemarketer", Dan isn't aware of it.
  • "Chris" fits pretty well, despite the fact that Chris and Dan make up... and Dan ends up with the toy.
• Dramatic Thunder: This occurs in "Wolfman", accompanying Dan's maniacal laughter. Lampshaded by Chris who points out that it isn't raining.
• Dumb Muscle: Moose and Harold of "The Lemonade Stand Gang". Chris occasionally boarders on this.
• Dysfunctional Family: Dan unsurprisingly is implied to come from one. A cherished gift from his mother was a pair of brass knuckles. Also, he shouts "No, you shut up!" to his grandmother (and she responds in kind) as if "No, I love you more" was being said instead.
  • Elise's family also has issues. There's a reason Elise doesn't particularly enjoy spending time with them.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Earlier episodes had more sci-fi and supernatural elements to them, such as zombies, wolfmen, and alien technology. The second season has the scifi elements return with androids attempting to take over the world in "The Gym". A Unicorn named Eunice and Saber-Toothed Cat named Mittens show up in "The Catburglar".
• Eating the Enemy: In "Vegetables", Dan accidentally creates a giant broccoli monster. Naturally, the monster threatens to eat Dan. A group of vegans and vegetarians (who are starving because of a vegetable shortage... that Dan also caused) save Dan by overpowering and eating the broccoli monster.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Elise and her mother share the same name, so her parents sometimes call her Junior.
• Enfant Terrible: Dan goes up against a group of sixth-graders in "The Lemonade Stand Gang".
• Episode Title Card: In place of a title sequence, the "Dan Vs." titles are above the episode title, so that the Episode Finishes the Title.
• Escalating War: Dan's war against the Lemonade Stand Gang. The kids were lucky Chris stepped in to change the rules, or Elise would have shipped them to North Korea.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Dan's Teddy Bear Brutus, Mr. Mumbles, and Chris betray Dan in "Dan".
  Et tu, Brutus? [...] Et tu, Mr. Mumbles? [...] Et tu, Chris?
  • Again in 'The Mummy', where he says this after Mr. Mumbles cuddles up to the episode's namesake.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Dan is prone to Disproportionate Retribution, he occassionally demonstrates limits on how far he's willing to go:
  • Dan has been shown to, on occasion, be against homicide in his plans. In "The Werewolf" he was surprised at Chris when he suggested it as a logical extension to Dan's current scheme (as opposed to simply keying his car, as was done unto Dan).
  • Though Played for Laughs, Dan's also rather shocked when Chris admits that he'd kill for bacon.
  • In "The Bank," while Dan fully intends to rob the bank, when the time comes, he only takes the fifty cents he believes he's owed, plus a gumball in "punitive damages."
  • And refuses to collaborate with Elise's parents in getting back at Chris, because he doesn't trust "people who'd bump off their own son-in-law." That's not what their plan entailed; they've just indicated that they'd be willing to.
  • In "Wild West Town," by the time Dan is offered a refund, he declines, feeling that his experience (committing a stickup, going on a treasure hunt, and having a showdown at high noon, all unscheduled) was worth the price of admission.
  • Dan also seriously draws the line at harming animals. He tries to blow up a noisy animal shelter but once the animals give him the Puppy-Dog Eyes he can't go through with it and frees them first (leaving the employee to be blown up, mind you), while another episode has him put his vengeance against a restaurant on hold long enough to free the lobsters they intended to boil alive.
• Every Japanese Sword is a Katana: Averted in that Elise's sword was pointed out to be a ninjato.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Parodied in "The Ninja", when Ninja Dave pulls a katana on Dan, he puts it away and says, "Just kidding," though he's the only one laughing.
• Everyone Has Standards: Occasionally, Chris will have an actual problem with whatever Dan's waging war against, most notably in "Parents".
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: Dan and Chris steal a shark from the aquarium in an attempt to drive beachgoing tourists away in "The Beach". It doesn't end well.
• Evil Counterpart: Amber for Dan. Once Dan gives her a taste for exacting revenge, she quickly proves to be worse than him. While Dan does take advantage of Chris by roping him into his revenge schemes, Dan does at least genuinely like Chris as a friend. Amber doesn't even like Dan and forces him to help her by threatening to fail him in their anger management classes. Her behavior is so atrocious that Chris is the one who gets angry and decides to exact revenge on her when Dan won't.
• Evil Laugh: A very nice one in "The Wolfman", complete with lampshaded lightning.
  Chris: That's odd... it's not even raining.
  • And then in "Traffic" he asks Chris and Elise what he thinks of the one he put at the end of his taped message. It's more of an evil giggle. Cute, but lame.
  • And in "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre", Dan gives out a few more evil laughs.
  • Dan lets some go during "The Superhero", one joined in by Mr. Mumbles.
• Evil Versus Evil: Dan is an amoral, vengeance-obsessed jerk, but the targets of his vengeance are often evil androids, monsters, Supervillains, criminals, Smug Supers, and others who genuinely deserve to have their lives ruined.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Dan never leaves his house without a black t-shirt with the word "Jerk" printed on it. No word suits Dan better.
  • In "Dancing", Elise threatens Dan with her new "taser blade". Dan asks "Taser Blade?" to which she replies "It is exactly what it sounds like.
• Extreme Omnivore: In "The Mummy", Chris and Dan pose as cavemen in a museum exhibit. Chris eats a bit of model meat that he's holding. Dan, surprised, comments on this. Chris replies that "They didn't even add mammoth flavoring,", shrugs, and takes another bite.
• Expy: Chris Pearson once referred to Dan as "Calvin as a grownup, if his life had gone horribly wrong."
  • Elise is an undercover operative and her significant other Chris is rather dim-witted and clumsy everyguy. Sounds a lot like Kim and Ron.
• Eye Scream: Happens to one of the mooks in "The Gym" after being bashed in the head by a pipe several times. He's a robot though
• Facial Horror: In "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre", Chris is whipped with a fencing epée, marking him for most of the episode; when waiting in line, a girl handing out programs is repulsed and flees.
• Fake Identity Baggage: In "Dan Vs. Dan", a Doppelgänger steals Dan's identity and even quickly wins over the few people still loyal to the real Dan. But when the doppelganger takes Dan's identity, he unknowingly takes Dan's criminal record as well. The real Dan gets his revenge by intentionally skipping his trial for crashing his car into a church, resulting in the imposter getting arrested in his place.
• Fake Static: Dan does this to get out of a phone call with Elise in "The Animal Shelter", and she becomes angered that he's just saying "crackle" and "buzz".
• False Friend: Elise's parents to Dan in "The Family Thanksgiving".
• Fan Disservice: The Boss from "The Boss" (voiced to perfection by Felicia Day) starts out as a hot business woman in a suit, then turns into a hot demon woman in a suit, but her final form is a muscular male demon with a goatee.
• Fanservice: Kelly from "Reality TV" pulls this off without a doubt, with short skirts, serious curves, Hartman Hips and an often baring midriff.
  • How about that supermodel Dan dreams about from the pilot? Pancakes and model lips for breakfast!
  Supermodel: If you kiss me, I'll make you pancakes.
• Fat Bastard: Averted with Jeremiah Burger. He's genuinely in love with Hortense and only had Dan thrown out of the wedding rehearsal because he was making a scene.
• Fat Idiot: Moose and Harold of "The Lemonade Stand Gang".
• Fate Worse than Death / Reassigned to Antarctica: Jeff the Burgerphile manager seems to think getting sent back to HQ in Maryland for retraining is this, and goes to great lengths to avoid it.
• Femme Fatale: Elise. Honey O'Houlihan counts as this as well.
• Fictional Counterpart: The Salvation Armed Forces and Greatwill. And to a lesser extent Barry Ditmer's unnamed parody of Apple.
• Five-Temperament Ensemble:
  • Dan (choleric)
  • Elise Jr. (melancholic)
  • Chris (phlegmatic)
  • Don (sanguine)
  • Elise Sr. (leukine)
• Flashback: Parodied in "The Ninja". Elise starts to say, "It's a long, long story," harp music starts to play, and the screen starts to ripple... but then she says, "I don't want to talk about it," and everything goes back to normal.
  • In "Canada", Chris begins to tell the story of his Canadian ancestry.
    Dan: No one wants to hear your boring story.
    Chris: It was a hundred years ago...
    Dan: So, when I say no one wants to hear your boring story, what do you hear?
    (Beat)
    Chris: It was a hundred years ago...
  • In New Mexico, we get a flashback of why Elise hates the title state. When it cuts back to the car, Dan asks what happened, with Elise mentioning she doesn't wanna talk about it.
• Flying Brick: Terrifi-Guy.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Dan had his first encounter with bad traffic in "The Wolf-Man". Then came "Traffic".
  • Occasionally, something will rile Dan up while he's in the middle of exacting revenge on another party. This results in Dan whipping out a steno pad and writing down the offending object on his list of things to get revenge on later. (The list includes: Babies who cry at the park, babies in general, generals, dull pencils, pencils that are too sharp and Arizona.)
    • In "The Animal Shelter", Dan adds Burgerphile after accidentally drinking Chris' milkshake there. Later in the season, a whole episode revolves around Dan's vendetta against the fast food restaurant.
  • When Barry Ditmer hears that the threat recorded by Dan's computer was someone who had never owned a computer before, he jokes "Maybe some weirdo in a cabin in the woods somewhere." Guess who Dan and Chris run into and who ends up defeating Ditmer in the end?
  • In the first few minites of "The Gym", the physical trainer touches Dan and Dan wonders why his hands are so cold. The episode later reveals that it's because the gym trainers are all robots, and thus lack human warmth.
• Forgotten Anniversary: In "The Fancy Restaurant", both Chris and Elise forget when their anniversary is.
• Forklift Fu: In "Gigundo Mart," Dan gets in a forklift-on-forklift fight with an old store greeter.
  Dan: Never mess with a guy with a forklift.
  Old Man: ..Unless you got a bigger forklift.
• Formally-Named Pet: In "The Animal Shelter", Dan takes home a kitten and names it Mr. Mumbles.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: See Five-Temperament above.
• Freak Out: Chris in "George Washington" suffers bouts of "Prairie Madness" during the road trip to Mount Vernon.
• French Cuisine Is Haughty: In "The Fancy Restaurant", Dan's favorite sandwich shop is replaced by Cafe Puree. Of course, Dan vows to take down the restaurant. Elise joins in when she feels scammed by their small, expensive portions and exceedingly slow service.
• French Jerk: Chef Puree.
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Downplayed. Chef Puree was completely outmanned and surrounded when he surrendered, and several of the cooks rebelling against him were French as well.
• Friendly Enemy: Imposter Dan has shades of this with Dan, but is outright this with Chris and Elise. When he dumped Chris in a trap hole to keep him out of the way, he had a pie waiting for him. Justified, since he doesn't think of Chris and Elise as his enemies.
• Friend Versus Lover: Pretty much an everyday occurence for Chris, but played to a T in "Dancing", where Dan and Elise argue over who can have Chris right in front of him. Of course, being a complete pushover, he can't put his foot down.
  Dan: I've come to claim Chris. He promised me his time.
  Chris: I said, "Maybe."
  Elise: Well, you can't have him: I'm using him right now.
  Chris: You two know I'm an independent individual, right?
• Freudian Excuse: In "Anger Management", Chris' "uncontrollable eating" is a result of repressing his anger.
• Funny Background Event: In "Summer Camp", Chris is seen eating an apple in the present while Dan tells his story. As the episode goes on, every time it cuts back to the kitchen table, Chris is eating something else while the remnants of food pile up on his side of the table. By the time the episode is over, Chris is eating another apple and there's a bunch of various discarded food containers littering the floor around him.
  • "Parents": Dan swerves the car while driving so that Chris hits his head on the window. As the conversation continues, tires are heard screeching when a car passes the swerving Dan, and we see said car lose control through Dan's back windshield.
• Gagging on Your Words: In "The Dentist", it takes Dan great effort (he actually starts sweating from the strain) to say "Thank you," to Elise.
• Gang of Bullies: The Lemonade Stand Gang.
• Gender Flip: According to the show's Facebook page "The Boss" is a gender-flipped version of the film Secretary, except no one has sex and the boss is a demon.
• Generic Cuteness: Mr. Mumbles is little more than big eyes and fur.
• Genius Ditz: Hortense mistakes Latin for French, but "The Wedding" shows she's a professional businesswoman.
  • Dan has an encyclopedic knowledge on a number of random topics.
  Elise: Can't we just drop him off somewhere and tell him it's Mount Vernon?
  Chris: Dan has a very strange patchwork of knowledge. It's anybody's guess what he knows about any given topic. Watch: Dan? Who made Mt. Rushmore?
  Dan: Gutzon Borglum. Then his son finished it. Why?
  Chris: And what state is it in?
  Dan: I DON'T KNOW! ECUADOR? WHAT'S WITH ALL THE QUESTIONS?!
  Elise: So there IS a savant half.
• The Ghost: It seems as though this mysterious ex-friend of Dan's, Ted, is shaping up to be one... who is he and what did he do to make Dan's list?
• Glove Slap: Played with.
  • Dan attempts this on Store Manager Jeff in "Burgerphile". He responds by claiming assault and calling the cops.
  • Chris successfully pulls it off in "Chris", challenging Dan to the ritualized duel from their favorite sci-fi B-movie.
• Gone Horribly Right: In "Jury Duty," Dan sympathizes with the defendant who allegedly destroyed a fast food burger shop across from Ninja Dave's because they both feel the store was stingy in how much ketchup they put on their sandwiches. The episode concludes with Dan finding video of Ninja Dave's security system showing the incident in question, and it's revealed that Dan was the one that bulldozed the store.
• Gratuitous Ninja: Cookie-stealing ninjas, at that.
• Grave Robbing: In "Golf", Dan mentions that the naval outfit he's wearing used to belong to his uncle, who was buried with it. Elise is appropriately disgusted.
  • Stealing a bow from an archaeological dig site in "The Wolf-Man" might count as well, once it turns out to be full of skeletons.
• Guilt by Association: Whenever Dan is being apprehended or thrown out for doing something illegal, Chris is always being dealt with the same way just for accompanying Dan, despite not doing anything wrong.
• Hair Flip: Hortense in "The Wedding" after taking off her hat.
• Happily Married: Chris and Elise
• Hartman Hips: Hortense, and Amber from "Anger Management".
• Headphones Equal Isolation: The hippie who runs the animal shelter is completely oblivious to Dan rigging the entire place with dynamite and then releasing all of the animals, including a baby elephant.
• Heel–Face Turn: Ninja Dave.
• Hellish Copter: The copter Dan hijacks in "Traffic" crashes to the ground and is destroyed.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: In "The Fancy Restaurant", Dan escapes the dungeon by crawling through the vent that leads to the men's room, only to get stuck on the way out. Fortunately, Chris was able to pull him out.
  Dan: My revenge is being stalled by this narrow vent. Free me!
• Hero Antagonist: Terrifi-Guy in "The Superhero".
• Here We Go Again!:
  • The ending of "The Beach".
  Dan, after seeing his car wrecked by hippies: HIPPIES!
  • The ending of "Baseball" is pretty much a much shorter version of the intro, but with basketball instead.
  • The ending to "The Neighbors" after Dan forces the previous ones out with a roach infestation.
• He Knows Too Much: Elise almost does something like in "The Bank" (but Dan is an accomplice, not a Innocent Bystander) and even says it word for word.

  Elise: Dan we need to go.

  Dan: I'm not leaving.

  Elise: His choice, let's move.

  Chris: We can't leave Dan.

  Elise: You're right, he knows too much.

  Chris: And he's our friend.

• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Dan
• Hero Insurance: Apparently a standard part of car insurance plans since Terrifi-Guy came to Los Angeles in "The Superhero". (Dan is an uninsured driver, of course.)
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Dan and Chris.
• Hidden Depths: Dan has a surprisingly thorough knowledge of history and is well-versed in Shakespearean drama.
  • In "Anger Management," Dan implies the reason he feels so angry all the time is because the things that set him off make him feel "helpless", and "ineffective".
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Dan will actually do the right thing, occasionally, if it involves lives; he avoids killing people, tries to get Chris to a hospital when he's poisoned and even saves all of the animals in the shelter before blowing it up. He does have feelings in there somewhere.
• High-Pressure Emotion
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The dentist at the end of the third episode.
  • The identity thief at the end of "Dan", who gets arrested in Dan's place after Dan misses a court appearance.
• Hollywood California: The show takes place in Van Nuys.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Jeremiah Burger is prone to these due to his eating habits.
• Horrible Judge of Character: The ladies who run the Shakespeare Dinner Theatre in "Ye Olde Shakespeare Dinner Theatre".
  After Dan runs off with an Evil Laugh while wearing a Phantom of the Opera getup
  One of the ladies: He seemed nice.
• Humble Goal: Hortense's dream of becoming Regional Manager of Burgerphile.
  It's all I ever think about!
• Hypocritical Humor: "The Mall Santa":

  Dan: Chris, that is not in the Christmas spirit! Now come and help me annihilate Santa!

  • Imposter Dan says that Dan should let things go at the end of "The Telemarketer" yet he spent the entire episode driving him insane out of revenge.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • At the end of "Burgerphile", Dan tells his new crush Hortense to forget about him so she can move to Santa Monica and achieve her dream of becoming Burgerphile's Regional Manager (despite the fact that Santa Monica is only a twenty minute drive from Van Nuys — which Chris points out — but then again, we all know what bad luck Dan has with his car...)
  • Subverted in "The Wedding". While Dan does eventually let Hortense go, he plans to back together with her when Jeremiah Burger (inevitably) dies.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: The Kids in the Hall alumni Kevin McDonald voices the Steve Jobs Expy in "Technology".
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode is named "Dan vs. [insert noun Dan declares vengeance on here]".
• Impossible Hourglass Figure: Elise. Kelly from "Reality TV" and Honey O'Houlihan from "The Catburglar" qualify as well.
• Insistent Terminology:
  Chris: So I'm expendable?
  Dan: Let's just say "non-vital", it's nicer.
• Internal Deconstruction: "The Neighbors" shows how some normal people would react to interacting with someone as violently crazy as Dan (in contrast with Chris and Elise, who've become jaded through years of experience).
  • Dan's paranoia. In that episode, Dan gets paranoid after they were nice to him under the belief that they're hiding something, possibly cannibalism. Instead of the neighbors coincidentally turning out to be bad guys, they turn out to be genuinely nice people.
• It's Personal: In "Vegetables" Chris willingly goes along with Dan's plan when the vegan store owner throws a bag of burgers in the street.
• It Makes Sense in Context: A lot of the plots are this.
  • An In-Universe/Played for Laughs example happens in "The Telemarketer":
  Dan: He knocked me unconscious, so he could dress up as my cat, and redecorate my apartment!
  Policeman: Because?
  Dan: He's trying to make it seem like I'm losing my marbles! (Beat) Which I'm not!
• Jerkass:
  • Dan. He actually goes around wearing a shirt that says "Jerk" on it.
  • It's subtle, but the Bank Manager from "The Bank". While she seems nice enough, she refuses to acknowledge anyone who doesn't have a big bank account and when the police think Dan is holding a clown (Chris) hostage, she convinces them to storm the place despite the risk to "the hostage". She even refers to him as "Collateral Damage".
  • Dan's boss in "Dan vs. The Boss". She enjoys making Dan suffer.
  • Even resident superhero Terrifi-Guy qualifies — he casually and needlessly destroys property in the course of his work, and has no sympathy for people who can't afford the insurance to cover it.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Dan pointing out Jeremiah Burger's poor health and life expectancy was dickish, but he had a point.
  • In "Stupidity", Dan rightly points out how nonsensical Chris's plan to prove himself worthy of Elise by winning eating contest is.
• "Jump Off a Bridge" Rebuttal: In "New Mexico".
  Elise: Okay, but we're having salad for dinner.
  Chris: ...Dan said we were having burgers.
  Elise: If Dan jumped off a cliff, would you?
  Chris: (thinks about it)
  Elise: Chris!
  Chris: (stammers) I mean, it depends.
  Elise: Don't jump off a cliff!
  Chris: Well, I wasn't planning on it.
  Elise: But if Dan jumped, you would?
  Chris: (thinks about it)
  Elise: CHRIS!
• Kafka Komedy
• Karma Houdini: Carla in "The Family Cruise". After locking up Dan, Chris, Elise and her family, she and the other passengers leave the ship. However, this ordeal turns out to be Dan's prediction if he tagged along with Elise and her family.
• Karmic Misfire: This was intentionally played with in, "Dan Vs Dan" and "Dan Vs The Telemarketer". Surprisingly, the latter ends with Dan in jail while the Imposter is out free.
• Kids Are Cruel: The Lemonade Stand Gang.
• Knight Templar:
  • Dan sometimes justifies his actions by talking about how his most recent target is a menace to society and how dealing with them would be doing mankind a favor.
  • Dan believes Chris to be this in "The Wolf-Man".
    Dan: He scratched up my car, and you want to kill him?
  • Ironically enough, he keeps trying to get Elise to kill Ninja Dave just for eating his cookies. He stops though when Ninja Dave replaces them.
• La Résistance:
  • The French Canadians that wish to destroy Canada.
  • Dan turns all the "failed" chefs imprisoned in the restaurant basement of "The Fancy Restaurant" into this.
• Lame Comeback: In "Canada".
  Chris: Good luck getting home.
  Dan: Good luck being stupid.
  Chris: Well, good luck... you're stupid!
• Lampshade Hanging: Too many instances to list.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Terrifi-Guy.
• Large Ham: Timmy
• Laser Hallway: In "New Mexico", Elise has to get through one in Area 52. She just flips it off with a light switch.
  • Subverted in "The Dentist", where he looks for them in the doctor's office.
• Lawof Disproportionate Response: Dan in pretty much every episode in the series.
• Lazy Bum: Dan is a Ditzy Genius, who probably could get a job-though, he would be a Bunny Eared Lawyer for sure-he just chooses not to contribute to society.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Whenever Dan wants to take something down, his determination and focus go way up, no matter how ludicrous the target is.
• Let the Past Burn: In "The Family Thanksgiving", Elise's Parents' house gets burned down after Dan storms out of the celebration. While everyone else is upset at how the day ended, Dan is suitably happy with the house burning down, making everyone spend the night together in a hotel.
• Like a Son to Me: Elise's ex, Colby, to her dad. Though it might no longer the case, since Colby would let Elise's parents be killed by a serial killer to "protect" her.
  Colby: He never hugs me like that.
  • As of "Chris", they still seem as happy as ever to try to get Elise and Colby together. Seems they forgot the whole bear thing...
• Limited Animation: Characters from previous episodes are sometimes copy/pasted into the background, and the city backdrop is often two-dimensional during driving scenes. And vehicles turning is animated at roughly four frames per second.
• Limited Wardrobe: Dan's "JERK" shirt. Complete with the obligatory Lampshade Hanging gag of him owning several identical ones.