Main series: A - C | D - F | G - L | M - R | S - Z
Spin-offs: Dial M for Monkey | Justice Friends
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S
- Sadist Show: Some episodes end with something horrible happening to Dexter for little to no reason. One of the most glaring examples would be "The Big Cheese", where Dexter sleeps while listening to a record that teaches the French language and wakes up only being able to say "Omelette du Fromage". He gets lucky for most of the episode, being able to answer every question he's asked and solve every problem he faces just by saying "Omelette du Fromage", but he ends up locked out of his lab and unable to stop it from self-destruction because he can't say the password to his lab anymore, all while Dee Dee taunts him in the background.
- Safely Secluded Science Center: The titular laboratory, secret from essentially everyone except Dee Dee and a few other characters. Mandark's laboratory could be considered one as well.
- Sanity Slippage: This happens a few times to Dexter. One episode memorably had him thinking he was a "little piggy" and reverted to babyhood.
- What about his dad? When he's insane, he's really insane.
Those muffins that your mother bakes...- Mom too for that matter, on the occasions when her cleaning obsession and fear of germs come to the front. Most notable is one episode where Dad takes her trademark dish gloves while she's asleep, and then won't let her clean the house next day, since it's Mother's Day, and the family will take care of the housework for the day. Unfortunately, it's such a messy disaster, that Mom basically has a nervous breakdown and begins to have disturbing hallucinations. It ends well though, as her Mother's Day gift is a brand new pair of gloves.
- Satellite Character: Dexter's seldom seen friend Douglas E. Mordecai doesn't have any distinguishing traits other than being Dexter's friend.
- Say My Name / Rocky Roll Call: The climax of "Mandarker" slips into this, with Dexter, Dee Dee and Mandark all shouting each other's names in place of complete sentences as Dexter and Mandark work together to save Dee Dee.
- Scaled Up: Toward the end of "Jeepers Creepers, Where is Peepers?", Peepers turns into a dragon and crushes the villain underfoot.
- Scavenger Hunt: In "Nuclear Confusion", Dee Dee steals Dexter's nuclear core to make him play one of these. Dexter has to hurry because if he doesn't find the core in time, it will meltdown and create a nuclear apocalypse that will destroy the world.
- Scenery Censor:
- On occasions where Dexter is shown naked from the front, his naughty bits are covered by a floating leaf.
- In the episode "Game for a Game", Dee Dee removes her pajamas while singing a song about how great sunny days are before realizing to her embarrassment that she nearly forgot to get dressed. Her nudity is obscured by a potted plant.
- Science Hero: Dexter, though he causes at least as many problems as he solves. Or more.
- The Scottish Trope: Saying Mandark and Lalavava.
- Seadog Peg Leg: The episode "Ocean Commotion" featured yet another Ahab Expy, with a peg leg and exaggerated pirate speak.
- Second-Person Attack: Subverted in "Beard to Be Feared". Action Hank is about to punch an enemy through the POV of that enemy, and just when he's throwing the punch, it cuts to a TV showing the episode of Action Hank that Dexter was watching. Dexter is then shown wincing at the punch.
- Secret-Keeper: Dee Dee is the only one aside from Dexter himself who knows about her brother's lab.
- Selective Obliviousness: In 'Mock 5' Dexter's dad mentions Dexter's sister, 'Racer D' dying in a tragic soap box derby racing accident...when she's sitting right next to him, alive and well, trying to get his attention.
- Series Continuity Error: While Negative Continuity is in full effect, a couple of examples are still pretty egregious:
- In "Sports a Poppin'" Dad was trying to teach Dexter how to golf, but in the later episode "Tee Party" Dad is a Small Name, Big Ego who acts like he's a pro but doesn't even know the basics. He insisted on a do-over because "the ball almost fell into this little hole". Gets even worse, if you remember from "Sassy Come Home", he actually managed to shoot a spinning out of control Dexter right out of the air with a well-placed shot from a golf-ball.
- Also, in the episode "Figure Not Included", Dexter asks for a Major Glory action figure from his mom. She tells him she'll get him one for his birthday. However, in the episode "Surprise", when a Major Glory "somehow" manages to make its way into Dexter's mom's cart when she goes birthday shopping for him, she takes it out, claiming that "Dexter doesn't need this junk". Though considering she and dad were filling the cart with baby toys this may have just been neglect.
- Serious Business:
- Dodgeball, snowball, and others.
- Don't ever remove collectors' items from their box. Especially in the middle of a convention of doll collectors who act like Klingons.
- Really, a lot of things quality. Part of the show's humor and charm is how over-the-top mundane things can get per episode.
- Shadow Discretion Shot: Inverted in "Picture Day" when Dexter goes out of his way to make himself gorgeous for school photos.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story:
- In "Ewww...That's Growth", Dexter overcomes his height limitation and is enjoying himself on the roller coaster ride until it approaches the tunnel, in which he is so tall he smashes his head on the entrance.
- In "Nuclear Confusion", Dexter solves Dee Dee's scavenger hunt and returns the nuclear core to the reactor in time, preventing a nuclear apocalypse and goes to read his book, only to find that Dee Dee stole that as well and started another scavenger hunt.
- In "Morning Stretch", Dexter uses a device to slow down time so that he won't be late for school. When he's finally ready to go, Dee Dee tells him it's a snow day and school's out.
- Shapeshifter Showdown: The pilot episode, with "The Button", where Dexter and Dee keep turning each other into different animals and in the end are morphed into each other.
- Shout-Out: All over the place, from the various Shows Within The Show to a giant mecha that needs five people to control (and one of the vehicles is a recolored version of Rodimus Prime's vehicle mode).
- A line from the credits theme ("Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door / where impossible things may happen that the world's never seen before!") is likely a nod to "Weird Science" by Oingo Boingo ("Things I've never seen before / behind bolted doors")
- There's a shout out to the theater doors sequence from MST3K. This shot was also used in the ending credits of Season 1
- "It's morphing time!"
- "Book 'em" has a chase sequence with a homage to A Hard Day's Night in it. Additionally, the thugs chasing Dexter and Dee Dee have shirts that say Thug 1 and Thug 2.
- Referencing Dr. Seuss's works doesn't end on The Cat in the Hat, though. Does Green Bacon &
HamEggs book remind you of anything?- And in the beginning of one episode, Dexter is seen researching Horton's Theory of Who.
- "Who ya wanna call?"
- In "Golden Diskette", everyone escapes Professor Hawk's crumbling laboratory in the Yellow Submarine.
- Dee Dee and Dexter are obviously playing Primal Rage at one point.
- The episode "Dee Dee's Room" is basically one big homage to Apocalypse Now.
- "Photo Finish" is very much a send-up to James Bond. Yes, this episode includes Dexter almost being cut in half with a laser through his crotch.
- The episode "Just an Old Fashioned Lab Song" is, as the name suggests, one big shout out to Paul Williams, his songs ("Hold on there, Dexter. We've only just begun!"), his albums (Prof. Williams:' "Here comes inspiration!!) and even the car'' he drove in the late 70s. Thankfully they left out the substance abuse.
- The alien overlord Hookocho looks suspiciously like Fiore and Ail
- In "Beard to Be Feared," Dee Dee, Mee Mee, and Lee Lee quote, almost word-for-word, the theme from Shaft."
Dee Dee: That is one rugged brother... noteMee Mee and Lee Lee: Shut yo mouth!Dee Dee: I'm only talkin' about Dexter! noteMee Mee and Lee Lee: We can dig it.- At the end of "You Vegeta-Believe It," Dad, who is buried in the ground with his head sticking out the ground says, "Feed me! FEEEEEED me."
- According to an early episode, Dexter has a password he uses to get into the lab. The password?, Star Wars.
- In the episode “Tele-Trauma", you can hear Dexter say TOWNSVILLES IN TROUBLE!!! while having the TV helmet on.
- Dexter's chosen character, Gygax, in the episode D&DD, is a reference to Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons which their game is based on.
- "Down in the Dumps" features an episode of Action Hank where Hank battles a trio of evil construction workers called "The Wrecking Crew", and a hulking Amazon called "Bertha the Barbarian". The Wrecking Crew are named after a squad of villains from The Mighty Thor, and Bertha the Barbarian is a takeoff on Big Barda from New Gods (complete with Barda's signature horned helmet).
- In the episode set on Mother's Day (which ends with Dexter's mom getting new gloves), the final scene is a recreation of the shower scene from Psycho (except with Dexter's mom scrubbing her husband's back instead of stabbing him).
- The main joke of "The Big Cheese" is taken from a Steve Martin bit about how to speak to French people without actually knowing any French (one method being just saying "Omlette du fromage" over and over).
- "Trapped With A Vengeance" condenses the first three Die Hard into about seven minutes, complete with Dexter having to walk barefoot across a floor covered in potato chips instead of broken glass.
- "Dexter Is Dirty" has Dee Dee disappear and re-appear a la Jeannie the djinn from I Dream of Jeannie.
- "A Silent Cartoon" is a Whole-Plot Reference of The Pink Phink, the first installment in the long-running The Pink Panther cartoon series. Dexter, colored all white like the Little Man, is building his lab in a sterile blue color against a plain white background, while Dee-Dee, colored all pink like the Pink Panther and accompanied by
a jazzy Pink Panther-esque version of her Leitmotif, tries to make the lab pink, in true Pink Girl, Blue Boy fashion. - "A Third Dad Cartoon" is a spoof of the Sports Cartoons short series of The '80s, specifically the way a character prepares to make a move in a long prolonging manner. The main difference is that unlike in the Sports Cartoons, it starts to pour just as Dad is about to make his first golf swing, and so they leave to try again tomorrow.
- The alien Dexter uses his translator on in "The Mock Side of the Moon" is given a voice very similar to Marvin the Martian.
- One late episode was one giant Homage to Wacky Races. It's even titled "Dexter's Wacky Races."
- "Ice Cream Scream" contains a parody of the truck chase from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- "Omelette du fromage" being Dexter's French "lesson" is straight from a Steve Martin routine where he practiced French to visit Paris. Listen here.
- Mandark's real first name is Susan, Sue for short.
- Show Within a Show: Shaft-esque Action Hank, one-note puppet comedy TV Puppet Pals (which also appears in The Powerpuff Girls), obvious send-up Pony Puff Princess, plus a few less noticeable one-shot parodies of Soul Train and Star Trek.
- Shrunken Organ: Dexter decides to put a genius-level brain in Dee Dee's head. He needs a pair of tweezers to remove her old one.
- Sibling Rivalry: Dexter and Dee Dee, although which side has more drive varies per episode.
- Signature Laugh: Several, notably Mandark (especially in the no-dialogue episode).
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Dexter's Dad and Windbear.
- Sliding Scale of Continuity: The show often ends episodes with the destruction of the laboratory and the like, making this Level 1 (Negative Continuity). All you need to know for each episode is that he's Dexter and has a laboratory.
- Slippery Swimsuit: Dexter loses his swimming trunks in "Better Off Wet".
- Snap Back:
- Dexter's lab and house have been destroyed many, many times, only to return to normal every time.
- In "Ewww It's Growth", it was implied Dexter actually died from hitting the tunnel because he'd made himself too tall to ride.
- The Earth itself was destroyed by meteors in "Let's Save the World You Jerk!", but by the next episode, "Average Joe", Earth is back to normal with no consequences from the previous episode.
- Soap Punishment: In the
Missing Episode "Rude Removal", Dexter accidentally creates evil versions of himself and Dee Dee who spout Cluster F Bombs in front of their mom. When the regular versions trap them and feel like all's well, they spot Mom with a large bar of soap waiting to wash their mouths out. - Soft Reboot: The show underwent a major soft reboot when it Retconned Mandark's Origin Story, and his sister Lalavava was removed, his parents Windbear and Oceanbird added, and the Justice Friends were entirely absent aside from a cameo; then, with season 4 came a more Retraux Art Shift, with the plotlines being changed and even more focus on comedy than before. This didn't work out and the show was cancelled in 2003, but the show continued as a comic-book adaptation with yet another soft reboot.
- Spanner in the Works: Dee Dee keeps ruining things. Enough said.
- Sports Dad: In "Sports a Poppin", Dexter's father tries to teach him different sports (including football, basket, baseball and others), but Dexter doesn't succeed in any of them. Only after his dad gives up and Dee Dee sets free a monster, Dexter starts defeating it using surprisingly good athletic skills that his father doesn't see.
- Squee: Dee Dee always makes it known when something pleases her.
- Stable Time Loop: In Ego Trip, the robots that invaded from the future were actually created by Dexter at the end of the film with the help of the later versions of himself to destroy Dee Dee in retaliation for her being the one to (unwittingly, as usual) defeat Mandark.
- Stalker with a Crush: The creepy girl in "Ay Ay Eyes". Also, Mandark to Dee Dee, somewhat.
- Stand-In Parents: Dexter uses Mad Science to make Dee Dee impersonate his mother for a parent-teacher meeting.
- Staring Kid: Dexter gets a little girl with huge eyes following him around for an episode.
- Status Quo Is God: No matter what happens, even if the earth is destroyed (as it was in "Shut up and Save the World You Jerk!") or Dexter loses his intelligence temporarily, everything just reverts back to normal next episode, often with no explanation.
- Storm in a Teacup: In "Morning Stretch", Dexter uses a time expansion helmet so he can get showered, dressed, eat breakfast, and finish his homework before the school bus arrives. He gets all this done just as time returns to normal, only for Dee Dee to block his path because it happens to be a snow day, so school is cancelled.
- Straight to the Pointe: Dee Dee and her friends are only in sixth grade, but are usually shown dancing with their feet pointed straight down.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Dexter's Nerd Glasses and pale skin tone came from his father, while his red hair came from his mother. Dee Dee also has Dad's blonde hair and Mom's eyelashes, as well as Mom's rosy skin.
- Stuff Blowing Up: With at least half attributed to Dee Dee.
- It's in the outtro: "... In Dexter's Laboratory, lives the smartest boy you've ever seen, but Dee Dee blows his experiments to smithereens! There is gloom and doom while things go boom, in Dexter's lab!!!!"
- Stylistic Suck: "Dexter and Computress Get Mandark!" from Season 2 in 1998 is the only episode that uses this style of animation; it was done to reflect the fact a 6-year-old boy created it, and every inch of animation is deliberately childish in design.
- Sub-Par Supremacist: In the episode "Accent You Hate", a Barbaric Bully named Gary (who looks like a teenager, but his age is unstated) thinks he's superior to kids because of his American accent, picks on kids with "funny accents" like Dexter (even wearing an "I HATE KIDS WITH FUNNY ACCENTS" T-shirt), but gets easily beaten up by other schoolkids with funny accents (including a possible Author Avatar of Genndy Tartakovsky, the show's creator), ending up with a lisp and deformed mouth after running into a fist statue. Gary then does a Heel–Face Turn, having been Hoist by His Own Petard.
- Suck E. Cheese's: Chubby Cheese's. Run by MiB, no less.
- Suddenly Speaking: While Monkey usually just makes noises like a normal monkey, "The Lab of Tomorrow" inexplicably depicts him as being capable of human speech.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Dexter.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Sis-Tem Error", Dee Dee accidentally deactivates the lab's machines and spends most of the episode trying to keep Dexter from finding out. Once she runs out of ideas to keep Dexter from noticing there's something amiss, she disguises herself as Mandark to make Dexter think his rival is causing trouble. "Mandark" specifically says it's not an accident.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: No matter how much security Dexter installs or what measures he takes, Dee Dee always gets past them to play around in his lab. In "The Continuum of Cartoon Fools," he does manage to seal it off to her completely... but locks himself out as well.
T
- Talking Animal: Cassius the pigeon.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Ms. Wimple in "Dexter Detention" seems a little too obsessed, almost infatuated, with Dexter, and faints at his slightest err.
- Three Shorts: In its first season, it followed a standard "ABA" format, with A being regular Dexter's Lab and the B being either a Dial M for Monkey or Justice Friends short, as well as some minute-long interludes between them featuring shorter shenanigans between Dexter and Dee-Dee or the TV Puppet Pals. Season 2 kept mostly the same format, though with Justice Friends and Dial M for Monkey shorts making by far a minority compared to a third Dexter's Lab one, as well as the outlier that the intended final episode was one continuous story (albeit with Monkey serving as a main character and cameos from the Justice Friends). The latter two seasons shifted closer to Two Shorts, with just two main shorts and a shorter 4-minute "A <x> Cartoon" in-between giving A Day in the Limelight to someone other than Dexter who's still part of the main cast.
- Thick-Line Animation: Alongside 2 Stupid Dogs and The Powerpuff Girls (1998), this show led to the renaissance of this art style in the 1990s.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: The Creepy-Eyed-Girl from "Aye Aye Eyes" is always shown with this face. In fact, that's the reason why Dexter is so creeped out by her.
- Time Stands Still: "Morning Stretch" has Dexter use a helmet to slow down time to try and get ready for school, not realizing that it would take forever to shower or microwave food with time being so slow.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The titular character is this to Dee Dee, his mom, and most of the women on the show.
- Monkey (short male) and Agent Honeydew (tall female) count as well.
- Toilet-Drinking Dog Gag: In one episode, Dexter tries to inject himself inside a sick Dee Dee cure her cold, but ends up in the dog instead, which he doesn't notice. At one point, the dog is seen drinking water from the toilet, which makes Dexter believe Dee Dee is infected with a dog virus.
- Toilet Humour: When Dee Dee and Dexter get their hands on labeling devices to mark their property, Dexter marks a gallon of apple juice as his own and drinks it all... then gets to the bathroom, only to find Dee Dee's marked it for herself.Mom: Why is the carpet all wet?
- Took a Level in Badass: Dexter's dad goes from average middle-class guy and sports enthusiast to daredevil stuntman in one episode of the later seasons.
- We see it happen to Dexter in Ego Trip.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Dad becomes dumber in the later seasons. Dee Dee might have gotten dumber too, but it's harder to tell with her.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Dexter, cookies, and candy for Dee Dee, muffins for Dad.
- Transformation Discretion Shot: In the episode "The Big Sister", Mom eats experimental cookies left out by Dexter that turns her into a giant alien monster, but the scene of her transforming is not shown and is seen transformed at the end telling Dee Dee and Dexter to clean up the mess in the city.
- The Troublemaker: Dee Dee is constantly sneaking into his brother's secret laboratory, annoying him and disrupting his experiments, as well as destroying his equipment with her rambunctiousness.
U
- Unexplained Accent: No explanation is given for why Dexter speaks with an accent when his parents are American.
- Unguided Lab Tour: The Title Sequence starts with Dee Dee entering her little brother's laboratory through a tube slide covered by the carpet in his bedroom. She passes through a "Danger!" warning and a "Dee Dee forbidden" sign and several tech devices —from antennae to robots, screens with diagrams, and lasers. She's not discovered until she steals Dexter's remote control for his latest invention: the show's title.
- Unnamed Parent: Dexter's parents are only ever referred to as Mom and Dad. Not even their surnames are given. Possibly parodied and lampshaded in "Bad Cable Manners" when Dad is constantly referred to as "Mr. Dexter's Dad".
- Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight:
- In the Dynomutt, Dog Wonder crossover "Dyno-Might," the original Dynomutt confronts the out-of-control Dynomutt X-90 Dexter created to replace him, but X-90 dismisses him, declaring that the "Dynomutt prototype" is no threat. Dynomutt quickly proves him wrong.
- The episode "Robo-Dexo 3000" has Dexter replace his Humongous Mecha Robo-Dexo 2000 with the new-and-improved Robo-Dexo 3000. However, when the RD 3000 dismisses Dexter's plan to deal with an alien energy thief and ejects him, Dexter takes back the RD 2000. It's ultimately a Defied Trope, however: by the time Dexter arrives on the scene, the energy thief has sucked the Robo-Dexo 3000 dry.
V
- Villain Episode: "Sun, Surf, and Science" is focused on Mandark, and he's portrayed in a more sympathetic light than usual. There's also his Start of Darkness episode, "A Boy Named Sue".
- Villain Protagonist: Dexter can get rather villainous sometimes, such as in "Game for a Game", "Used Ink" and "Dexter vs. Santa's Claws".
- Villain Song: "Mandark's Plan"
- Villainous Crossdresser: Once Mandark replaced Dexter's mom. No one in the family noticed it until the real mom came by, and even then it took Mandark taking off his wig in frustration for them to even catch on that it was a ruse.
- Dad in The Muffin King, since he's technically the villain there. As with the above example, he was pretending to be their mom to try and sneak some muffins his way.
- Villainous Crush: Mandark to Dee Dee.
- Visible to Believers: Played with in the episode "The Koos is Loose". Dee Dee has an imaginary friend named Koosalagoopagoop. Dexter is able to interact with him as well, but is skeptical of his existence. When Dexter, after constant pestering by Koosy, demands that he disappears forever by thinking him away, Koosy complies. It is only then that Dexter realizes that he likes Dee Dee's imaginary friend almost as much as she does. Later on, it's revealed that Koosy still exists, with Dee Dee actually travelling to his world (where it turns out that she's his imaginary friend), and Koosy later appearing in a Crossover Gag in the The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Imaginary Fiend" as a construct of Bubbles' imagination.
- Voice Changeling: Dexter adopted this ability. Some kind of machine enabled him to copy the exact voices of others. This was in the babysitting episode, where he used the voices of the babysitter and her boyfriend to sever their relationship, so that he could move in himself.
W
- Wacky Racing: "Dexter's Wacky Races."
- A Way Out of a Cave-In: In "Dexter's Detention", Dexter is placed into "solitary confinement": a small hole hidden under a single floor tile. While in there, he sees a small animal burrowing under the floor, which gives him the idea to turn the hole into an escape route.
- Weirdness Censor: The parents never seem to acknowledge the strange things that happen around the house. It helps that Dexter mind-wipes them ever so often.
- We Will Meet Again: In "Chubby Cheese", the criminal mastermind who owns a Chuck E. Cheese-like restaurant says this after Dexter and Dee Dee escape. But of course, it never happened.
- We Want Our Jerk Back!: Three examples:
- Dexter fires Dee Dee and has her replaced with an actress that can't quite fill her shoes (for some reason when she knocks over bottles of chemicals, they don't even break).
- Dexter makes Dee Dee into a genius like him and she turns out to be even smarter and more competent than him so he turns her back out of jealousy.
- Done the other way round where Dee Dee tries to convince Dexter to be carefree like her. He ends up being more wild and destructive than Dee Dee herself.
- What Does This Button Do?: Trope Namer, because Dee Dee made this into an art form.
- Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Dexter can acquire whatever parts he needs to build whatever he wants without even having any suspicious shipments of mail arrive at his house. Sometimes he gets robots to assemble everything for him.
- Except when Rule of Funny dictates he get a bill from NASA.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Dexter has a very peculiar accent that is either aiming for a stereotypical Eastern European accent, or a Bulgarian accent. Even Genndy Tartakovsky isn't certain what his accent is supposed to be.
- Whole-Plot Reference: "Trapped with a Vengeance" is pretty much a kid-friendly version of Die Hard. "Kid-friendly" in that it takes place in a school and features no shooting. It's still about a psychotic man trapping a small child in his school late at night and torturing him.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Mandark, when he kidnaps and impersonates Dexter's mother in "Momdark".
- Wildlife Commentary Spoof: The episode "Blackfoot and Slim".
- William Telling: Subverted in "Game Show" when Dexter and Dee Dee go on a sibling vs. sibling game show. Dexter's just there for the prize, and starts one of the challenges before the host finishes explaining the rules, knocking an apple off of Dee Dee's head with a cream puff. He loses, as the host reveals that the challenge was to hit your sibling without making the apple fall.
- Wimp Fight: When Dexter and Mandark engage in unarmed hand-to-hand combat, they primarily stand there slapping ineffectually at each other.
- This comes to a head in the climactic fight of Ego Trip. Number 12 outright curb-stomps Executive Mandark, and Action Dexter and Overlord Mandark engage in a dramatic action hero fight, while the present Dexter and Mandark just flail awkwardly at each other. Plus, Old Man Dexter and Braindark merely hurl insults at each other until Braindark beats Old Man Dexter by simply falling over on him.
- In "If Memory Serves", it takes both Dexter and Mandark a moment to realize they're merely slapping aimlessly at the air with their eyes closed during their fight, thus they simultaneously take a step closer to each other and end up knocking each other's glasses off. The two then wander around aimlessly and end up destroying a lamp and a potted plant respectively, thinking those objects are their opponent.
- Would Hit a Girl: Dexter and Dee Dee have gotten into full-on fist fights multiple times over the series.
- Would Hurt a Child: Many of Dexter's adult enemies have no qualms inflicting pain onto him. Yonni the Janitor of "Trapped With A Vengeance" in particular took perverse pleasure torturing Dexter physically and mentally, and, in the brink of a Villainous Breakdown, engaged in a fistfight where he was clearly delivering as many blows as he took.
- Wraparound Background: Lampshaded and then subverted during the Wacky Racing episode. Dee Dee notices the background repeating after the racers come out of a tunnel, and Koosie describes the animating technique in detail, referring to it as a "Repeat Pan". Then it turns out they're still inside the tunnel, in a trap set up by Mandark.
- Writing Around Trademarks: The episode titled "D & DD" was changed to "Sibling(s) and Sorcery" in reruns.
X
- X-Ray Vision: "A Failed Lab Experiment" is dedicated to this backfiring on Dexter when he sees Dad, Mom and Dee Dee naked.
Y
- You Are Grounded!: Episode 42 Part 2 "The Old Switcharooms"
- You Must Be This Tall to Ride: The episode "Ewww That's Growth" is about Dexter being upset about his pint-sized height; one of the ways his stature makes his life harder is that he's denied going on a rollercoaster with his family. After he makes himself very tall with an invention of his, he is allowed onto the ride (during which he crashes painfully into a wall.)
- Younger Than They Look: Mandark's the same age as Dexter, but he's as tall as (if not even taller than) Dee Dee.
- Your Mime Makes It Real: Dee Dee stops Dexter, who has turned into a clown, by taking mime classes and using what she learned to "trap" Clown Dexter in an invisible box.
