Main series: A - C | D - F | G - L | M - R | S - Z
Spin-offs: Dial M for Monkey | Justice Friends
open/close all folders
D
- Dance-Off: "Dee Dee's Rival" has Dee Dee facing Mandark's sister Lalavava in ballet at the beginning. At the end of the episode, they compete against each other while piloting mini mechas.
- Darker and Edgier: Ego Trip, as you might expect, Bad Future and all.
- A Day in the Limelight:
- Dexter finally manages to one-up Dee Dee in the episode "sdrawkcaB."
- Their parents would also get episodes like this entitled, appropriately enough A Dad Cartoon and A Mom Cartoon. They also get similar treatment in episodes like "Dad is Disturbed" and "World's Greatest Mom".
- In a real-life example, a kid named Tyler Samuel Lee won a contest that aired an episode
he wrote, entitled "Dexter And Computress Get Mandark" - Mandark gets an episode like this in "Sun, Surf and Science", in which he competes in a surfing contest to impress Dee Dee, using science to create his own surfboard and to sabotage the contest with mines and robotic sharks. Dexter, incidentally, does not appear in this episode at all.
- Deconstructive Parody: The episode where Dexter tries out different superpowers.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Dad defeating the massive Earl at arm wrestling in "Hamlocks and Armlocks", with a little help from Dexter.
- Demoted to Extra: Monkey, the Justice Friends and their respective supporting characters rarely appeared in the show's later seasons.
- Denser and Wackier: The third and fourth seasons. While the first two seasons didn't shy away from levity, the last two abandoned virtually all the action and sci-fi elements in favor of more sitcom formulas and plots that wouldn't be out of place in classic cartoons. The titular lab in particular went from an important set piece to a plot device to enable the more humorous antics.
- Depending on the Writer: Along with very loose continuity, the character's personalities vary quite wildly depending on the needs of the plot.
- Dexter's general temperament varies from a genuinely benevolent Cheerful Child to a very irritable and Insufferable Genius. Often he's shown as a friendless recluse who leaves his lab as little as possible, but he's occasionally shown as much more outgoing (at least when it comes to academics) and having numerous friends. His general worldliness outside of science varies from nonexistent to comparable to an adult.
- Sometimes Dee Dee is a Big Sister Bully who wrecks Dexter's things deliberately and relentlessly mocks him. Sometimes she is innocent, but Lethally Stupid and oblivious to her destruction. In a few episodes, Dee Dee counters Dexter's high intellect by simply having more common sense, and comes across as a Cool Big Sis with whom Dexter either gets along with or distrusts unreasonably.
- Mandark varies from a meaner counterpart to Dexter to an outright super villain. Thus you have the situation where one episode will have his only goal be trying to impress Dee Dee at the beach, while the Big Damn Movie has him as a sadistic Corrupt Corporate Executive who drains the world intelligence, transforming it into a feudal Mordor.
- Didn't Think This Through: Some episodes have Dexter plan to do something, only to fail because of a huge flaw he doesn't realize until it's too late to do anything about it.
- "Morning Stretch": He slows time down to turn 30 seconds into 30 minutes in order to go to school on time, not realizing that it would be really difficult to shower and take forever to microwave breakfast with time slowed down. In the end, his efforts are for naught because it's a snow day.
- In "The Continuum of Cartoon Fools", Dexter makes several attempts to keep Dee Dee out of his laboratory permanently. It isn't until after he's destroyed or blocked all the secret entrances and locked the front entrance hidden behind his bookcase that he realizes that this course of action would prevent himself from entering the lab, too.
- "Comic Stripper" has Dexter find out that Mandark has patterned their mecha battles after the comic book Mister Misery. In an attempt to beat Mandark at his own game, Dexter buys out every copy of the next issue of Mister Misery. As Mandark eventually points out to him, Dexter did not consider that Mandark wouldn't be able to buy the next issue of Mister Misery if it was sold out and would resort to copying the events of a different comic book, Dangerous Duck.
- Detention Episode: "Dexter Detention" involves Dexter getting sent to detention after accidentally yelling out a test answer in annoyance. This trope is turned on its head at the end, when Dexter and a pair of detention-birds dig their way out of the school... and into an actual prison.
- Disguised in Drag: In "The Muffin King", Dad disguises himself as Mom to trick Dexter and Dee Dee into leaving the house so he can sample Mom's dinner muffins unguarded. It works at first, but the kids see right through the disguise once Dexter points out "Mom" is looking "stubbly" today.
- Distracted by the Sexy:
- At one point, Dexter gets so fed up with Dee Dee, he holds interviews to get a replacement. At one point, he winds up hiring a vixen who he can't do any work around.
- In another episode, when going through different new voices for Computer, one of the voices ends up being a sexy one that makes him too hot and bothered to focus properly.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: Played for laughs on "Bad Cable Manners", where Dexter managed to steal satellite TV, since his dad couldn't do it. Exaggerated when the "Satellite Swat", aware of the situation, came out to arrest Dexter's Dad."Mr. Dexter's Dad. We're well aware of your current situation. piracy of our satellite broadcast is a felony. This is your last warning. Legal action will be taken".
- Disappointed In Myself: Present-day Dexter with Young Adult Dexter in "Ego Trip". Not only would he be working in a cubicle at an office run by Mandark, but he would also be a complete wimp. Upon meeting him, Dexter voices how upset he is to discover what he would become and that his future self denies his high intelligence and brilliance in revolutionary inventions. This is explained through Hero Dexter who reveals that Mandark used his plans to build himself up and ruin Dexter's credibility.
- The Ditz: Dee Dee is a total moron who often annoys Dexter because of her idiocy.
- Genius Ditz: There are rare moments when Dee Dee shows a surprising level of insight, without some re-wiring to her brain.
- Ditzy Genius: Dexter fits the bill, hands down. He can create time machines, sentient robots, and interdimensional portals, but in "Maternal Combat," he is utterly incapable of taking care of himself for a single day while his mom is sick. He doesn't know how to cook (having never heard of flour), and is is amazed at the sight of dust. Let's not forget that he's also gullible, and in the episode where he gets chicken pox, he literally has no idea what chicken pox is.
- Dexter's parents also can be considered this. While they're normally shown to be of average intelligence and more than a little quirky, his dad becomes frighteningly crafty and manipulative when mom's muffins are on the line and his mom shows incredible talent with Dexter level gadgetry when fighting germs. It almost seems believable that they birthed a boy genius because of this.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Mandark is not happy about his parents naming him Susan.
- Do Well, But Not Perfect: Downplayed in "Game Show", where Dexter enters the titular game show to win a high-tech telescope. The question-and-answer round offers 30 points to the player who answers more questions correctly than the other player. Dexter, being Dexter and having had no luck in the physical challenges, literally hands the host a list of every possible answer to every single question that could've been asked for an easy 30. He then discovers that a player who gets all the questions correct is given an additional "geek award" in the form of a pie to the head.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- The Muffin Episode. Drug addiction or sex (muff-a-holic?) addiction, take your pick.
- Mandark's backstory in "A Boy Named Sue" seems like a transgender metaphor.
- Don't Ask:
- In "Sister Mom", Dexter and "Mom" (a disguised Dee Dee) attend a conference with the school principal. When the principal's secretary calls them into the office, "Mom" joyously dances around singing "Dexter is in trouble!"; Dex shoots the secretary a sideways glance and says "Don't ask!" in a flat, annoyed tone of voice.
- In "Dexter's Debt", Dexter's Dad asks the mailman about his day. The mailman tells Dexter's Dad not to ask and Dexter's Dad says it's too late because he already did.
- Downer Ending: The show has plenty of these, most of which don't mean much for the continuity and are Played for Laughs, but not always.
- In "Let's Save the World, You Jerk!", Dexter and Mandark fail to stop an asteroid from destroying the world due to them fighting for the glory of world salvation, despite having promised to work together beforehand. The two fail to notice this, still bickering inside their mechs in outer space.
- "The Big Cheese" ends with Dexter only able to say "Omlette du fromage" (possibly permanently) and locked out of his lab, which is then blown up completely while Dee Dee mocks him.
- A notably sad example is the ending of "The Way of Dee Dee", wherein Dee Dee's attempts to get Dexter to enjoy himself end with Dexter wrecking his own lab, to which Dee Dee apologizes to him for trying to change him before running to her room in tears. The last scene is Dexter noticing the destruction he caused and quietly working to repair his lab. It's one of the few genuine
Tear Jerkers in the show. - Possibly the ultimate example of this is "Ewww, That's Growth". Dexter, having grown himself grotesquely tall in order to ride a rollercoaster, approaches a tunnel. He proclaims that this is the greatest day of his entire life, only for his head to hit the tunnel followed by a quick cut to black that ends the episode. The implication is either that Dexter died, or more realistically, got stunned from hitting the tunnel (which would have required medical attention in a more realistic work with such setting).
- Drill Sergeant Nasty:
- The substitute PE teacher from "Dexter Dodgeball", who forces Dexter to compete in "the most brutal sport of all": DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODGE-BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL.
- The Detention Warden with no name from "Dexter Detention" is a detention teacher at Dexter's school who refers to and treats the students who go to detention as "criminals", with the facility where he works at being similar to a prison setting. His harsh manners prompt Dexter and the other students to escape from him via Fast Tunneling."You make me sick, criminal!"
- Dumbass Has a Point: In "Sister Mom", when Dee Dee (disguised as their mother) finds out that Dexter getting an A- on his last test was the reason for the parent-principal conference, she gets mad (mainly because she had expected something more serious). Even though Dexter is supposed to be one of Huber Elementary's finest students, one has to admit that a kid like him getting a still-good grade like an A- is a pretty superfluous reason for arranging a conference with the school principal.
- Dumb Blonde: Dee Dee is a mix of this and Cloudcuckoolander... though she still has her moments of brilliance.
- Dumb Is Good:
- Dee Dee is generally more laid-back, more sensible (sometimes) and cheerful than her brother.
- Played straight in an episode where Dexter ends up switching families with a hyperactive kid named Dextor. His parents are as smart as Dexter is, and even Dexter himself gives them a The Reason You Suck speech.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Dexter has saved the world several times and has yet to be recognized for it.
- Dysfunctional Family: Dexter's family can be quite erratic and argumentative at times.
E
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The first season had much more "rubbery" cartoon animation and were significantly more dialogue-heavy, as opposed to later seasons where the animation was slicker and hard-edged and dialogue was dialed back to near non-existence.
- The earliest episodes of the series (including the pilot episodes, obviously) have notably different character designs, including a slightly taller Dexter and a Dee Dee with practically no chin whatsoever (and more prominent eyebrows).
- The Justice Friends first appeared in the Dial M for Monkey segment "Wrasslor" with slightly different character designs and voices (and a couple heroes who weren't named or seen again after this), as well as a base (the "Hall of Heroes") that never appeared again.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: "Let's Save the World, You Jerk!" ended with meteors blowing up the Earth, after Dexter and Mandark keep bickering while in their robot suits and fail to stop the meteors and save the Earth.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Dexter and Mandark's labs, with the latter having a more elaborate feel to rival Dexter's.
- Eldritch Abomination:
- The monster in "Dee-Dimensional" definitely counts, being a huge pink blob with multiple eyes and tentacles and a red-lipped mouth full of fangs.
- The interdimensional beast "Jojo" in "Mandarker". He apparently helped Mandark write the book The Magic of Science by Mandark and Jojo, but when Mandark summons him as part of a science fair project, he goes berserk and tries to eat Dee Dee.
- Elephants Are Scared of Mice: In "Dial M For Monkey: Huntor", Snorkdro, an alien elephant, is scared when a mouse is thrown in front of him and knocks the Villain of the Week off his back.
- Emergency Broadcast: A plot point of one episode has it interrupting Dexter's show, supposedly with a series of emergencies.
- Ending Theme: Narrated by Mako, no less!
- Enfant Terrible: Dexter's dad, apparently, when he and Dexter's mom turned into toddlers. During that time, Dexter's dad took pleasure at beating up Dexter's mom as a baby. Using Dexter's inventions to torture her.
- Enslaved Tongue: After an experiment in Sleep Learning backfiring, Dexter wakes up unable to say anything except "omelette du fromage". Bizarrely enough, everyone he faces in the episode happens to want to hear the very phrase — from his French teacher to the crowd at the UN. Except the password authentication system in his lab.
- Entertainment Above Their Age: In "Don't Be a Baby", Dexter and Dee Dee ask their parents for money so that they can watch an R-rated movie called Violance: Robot Vigilante!. Their parents turn this down, saying that they're too young for it.
- Epic Fail: In the Justice Friends episode "Bee Ware", the Justice Friends get defeated and scared out of their apartment by a bumblebee.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The episodes "Backfire" "Mock 5", and "The Bus Boy" all end with everyone laughing.
- Evil Chef: In "Beard to be Feared", the main villain was an evil chef who used his long pointed beard like a sword.
- Evil Twin: Parodied in "Dollhouse Drama", which is also a parody of the Soap Opera concept in general.
- Evolving Credits: While the song used for the credits always remains the same, the credits themselves are different every season.
- Season 1: The credits are parallel to footage from the show that's edited to match the song lyrics as they play.
- Season 2: The credits play over a purple image of Dexter and Dee Dee doing action poses.
- Season 3: The background is completely black, and the text of the credits is stylized to look like computer coding.
- Season 4: The credits play over still images from various episodes.
- Expository Theme Tune: Provides the page quote, though instead of playing at the beginning as usual it plays over the end credits.
- Expy:
- Action Hank is very much a send-up of G.I. Joe.
- Pony Puff is obviously this to My Little Pony.
- "Dexter Dodgeball" features three bullies that bear some resemblance to Jimbo Jones, Kearney Zzyzwicz, and Nelson Muntz.
- Extremely Easy Exam: "The Big Cheese" has Dexter preparing for a French test by wearing a device and placing a French-language record inside it while he sleeps, allowing him to memorize the French phrases. However, it gets stuck on the phrase "omelette du fromage" (which means "cheese omelette"), and the next day, it's the only thing he can say. When he goes to school, his French teacher tells the class the exam is one question, asking "How do you say 'cheese omelette' in French?"
- Eye Glasses: Dexter and his dad's glasses, which can change shape depending on expression.
F
- The Faceless: Earl in "Hamhocks and Armlocks" is only seen from the neck down.
- Faint in Shock: In "A Duck's Cartoon", Mandark thinks Dexter stole the former's duck and Dexter responds that Mandark's duck isn't in Dexter's laboratory. Then they both faint when they notice Dexter's monkey starting a family with Mandark's duck.
- Fanservice Extra:
- Candi from the episode Dee Dee and the Man is intentionally designed for older male viewers. She even says it costs "50 bucks extra" for her to dance, implying she's a stripper.
- Ms. Physics from the episode The Big Sister is a scantily dressed beauty queen and supermodel who rewards Dexter with a kiss.
- Fantastic Time Management: There's an episode where Dexter has only 1 minute before the school bus arrives and he hasn't done his homework yet, so he use a time extending helmet to make it 30 minutes for him get everything done. ...it turns out to be a snow day.
- Fartillery: This happens in Episode 25/Part 1: "Critical Gas"
-
FiveThree Token Band: Dee Dee (white) and her posse, Mee Mee (black) and Lee Lee (Asian) - Fetish-Fuel Future: The second future in "Ego Trip" shows a world where a CEO has a harem in his office and strips his employees to their underwear for a whipping when they're not productive.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The horror movie Dexter's parents watch in "Don't Be a Hero" prominently features Dee-Dee's accidental martian disguise from "My Favorite Martian", the very next short in the episode.
- Flanderization: Mandark in the post-finale seasons was pretty much defined by his hamminess and crush on Dee-Dee.
- "Old Man Dexter" has Dexter (as an old man) repeatedly mispronouncing Dee Dee's name, until he suddenly loses interest and calls her "Billy." In later seasons, Dexter's grandfather (technically a separate character, but identical in terms of character design) shoehorned the name "Billy" into most of his lines, so that the entire character was more or less a single joke about an old man mistakenly calling people "Billy." Not an entirely straight example due to the technical difference between the two characters, but the progression from one well-timed "Billy" to every-other-sentence "Billy" was nevertheless notable between the original episode, the movie, and later episodes.
- Fly Crazy: The Justice Friends episode "Bee Where" features a bee entering the Justice Friends' apartment, causing the trio endless grief as they try to shoo it out.
- Food and Body Comparison: Dexter encounters two strangers who are dead ringers for his parents, save that they are actually scientifically inclined. When we meet them, the wife has her back to the audience and says "I'm telling you, the left one is proportionately larger than the one on the right." before we're shown that she's holding a pair of cantaloupe.
- For Science!: Much of Dexter's motivation.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: A story Dee Dee tells in "Dee Dee Locks and the Ness Monster", starring Dee Dee Locks, sentient bagpipes, a brick pig, the Big Bad Wolf as Napoleon, a foppish fish, and The Three Evil Blind Mice!!
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Played with in "The Old Switcharooms", where Dad forces Dexter and Dee Dee to switch places.
- Friction Burn: When Dexter gives himself Super-Speed to go through his whole daily routine in 1 minute he accidentally lights his homework on fire from the friction.
- The Fundamentalist: Let's just say that both the Darbie doll fans and Star Check fans in episode "Star Check Unconventional" are really, REALLY into their hobby. And whatever you do, do NOT remove a classic figure from its box.
- Funny Foreigner: In the episode "The Bus Boy" there's a German boy in lederhosen. His story involved him dancing around eating food and commenting how good it was.
- Fun with Flushing: Spirits from the dead hold Dee Dee hostage unless the dead Goldfish is flushed down the toilet.
- Future Badass / Future Loser: Dexter has both in The Movie.
