Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
I've got to be direct
If I'm wrong, please correct
You're standing on my neck
You're standing on my neck
- You're Standing On My Neck by Splendora, the show's opening theme
Stand firm for what you believe in, until and unless experience proves you wrong. Remember, when the emperor looks naked, the emperor *is* naked. The truth and a lie are not sort of the same thing. And there is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can't be improved with pizza.
Daria Morgendorffer
Animated High School Dramedy about a waifish, sardonic teen girl with coke-bottle glasses, army boots, and absolutely no patience for the idiocy around her.
Most of the humor is derived from Daria and her friend Jane's conflicts with the collection of twisted teenage archetypes (and often the adults) around them. The last two seasons departed from the Reset Button to create a powerful Story Arc of Daria and her friends coming of age. A major part of it is Daria eventually falling for a Tall Dark And Snarky boy, Tom Sloane, who is worthy of her and struggling to deal with romantic activities she previously rejected. Naturally, this has led to great animosity from the show's very vocal shipping community.
A Spin Off from Beavis And Butthead.
Approximately eight years after the series ended, the show is finally getting an official DVD release in 2010 .
This show contains examples of:
- A Day At The Bizarro: There are fans who refuse to consider "Depth Takes A Holiday" as a canon episode. You should see how the fans treat that episode in Fan Fic...
- A Man Is Not A Virgin: Arguably Upchuck's sole motivation in the series.
- The Alleged Car: The Tank, Mystik Spiral's main mode of transportation. Also, Trent's car, and probably every other vehicle owned by a Lane.
- Also Tom's car. He explains that it's not a convertible, but the roof is rusting through.
- Allergic To Love: Daria in "Ill" — note that that's 'ill' capitalized and not '3'.
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Without this one, the show couldn't work.
- All Just A Dream: The episode "Murder She Snored."
- All Women Are Lustful: Attributed to all Barksdale women in the episode 'I Don't', where Jake Morgendorffer and Rita Barksdale's (current) squeeze trade notes on how 'all Barksdale women are tigers in the sack.' it seems to be inverted with Quinn, who dates constantly but seems unwilling to even give a goodnight kiss; this has led to some... interesting suppositions about her.
- And Another Thing: "... you look fifty."
- Arson Murder And Jaywalking: Quinn on a stalker): "You mean I nearly went out with...a computer geek?"
- Asian Airhead: Tiffany Blum-Deckler, who's quite possibly the dumbest person in the series.
- Author Appeal: Word Of God states that this is the reason why Tom Sloane was added, as 'everyone dates in high school'. Some people think that's one reason why the first three seasons are better than the last two, and the movies.
- Beautiful All Along: Daria, in "Quinn The Brain"; the scene where she dolls herself up like Quinn is a perfect example. One could say that the entire series itself is a textbook example of this trope, too.
- Berserk Button: It'd probably be quicker to list the things that don't coun't as Mr. DiMartino's Berserk Buttons, but Kevin is definitely at the top of the list.
- Beta Couple: Jane/Tom.
- Bowdlerization: When the show was moved to Nickelodeon spinoff network "The N", several episodes had scenes excised and/or altered from their original versions, episode titles were changed, and some episodes were simply not aired at all due to their content. The episode that got it the worst was "Arts 'n' Crass".
- And speaking of "Arts 'n' Crass", the episode itself contains a great example: Ms. Li and Mr. O'Neill want Jane's painting in the upcoming art show, but without the poem about the girl being a bullimic attached. They suggest altering the lines to something not associated with bullimia ("I don't want to change the intent of the poster, I just want to make it more palatable"), but Jane and Daria (who helped write the poem) refuse on the grounds that doing so does change the intent of the poster. Ms. Li eventually changes the poem for them and enters the painting into the show without their permission, which ends up resulting in one of the show's Crowning Moments Of Awesome.
- Brand X: Lackluster Video and Deuce Hardware.
- Don't forget Pizza King and Payday (a big-box store).
- Break The Cutie: Quinn (in 'Monster'), Jodie (in 'Gifted'), and most notably Stacy (in 'Fat Like Me' - also a Crowning Moment Of Awesome for her). Arguably the single most defining character trait of Jake.
- The Brainless Beauty: While Brittany qualifies, she has nothing on Tiffany. Subverted with Quinn, who (until 'Is It Fall Yet?') worked at being 'not smart'.
- Seriously inverted with Daria, who deliberately keeps her appearance plain (and is noticed immediately for her looks whenever she makes any change - 'Quinn The Brain' and 'Through A Lens, Darkly' are the go-to episodes for this trope).
- Bumbling Dad: Jake.
- Character Development: One of the most drawing aspects of the show was its strong character development that kicked into high gear in later seasons.
- Chez Restaurant: Chez Pierre's.
- Class Trip: The Mall of the Millennium for economics and paintball with Mr. DiMartino (who used to go to military school).
- Don't forget O'Neill's field trip to the woods in 'Antisocial Climbers'.
- Clothing Switch
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: After about two episodes, Jake Morgendorffer established himself as the show's main Cloud Cuckoo Lander. "Yay! Hello, front lawn! Hello, garbage truck! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old garden gnome!"
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: The two Daria movies were released on DVD with practically all of the licensed songs excised from the soundtrack and replaced with production music. It's unknown whether or not the DVD release for the series itself will suffer from this, but hopes aren't high.
- Coming Of Age Story: The later seasons venture heavily into this trope, to great effect.
- Completely Missing The Point: See the above Arson Murder And Jaywalking entry.
- Oh, Tom Sloane's introduction (see Author Appeal above) also counts, as it presents the point that two girls that are best friends and perfectly happy without boyfriends simply can't have 'a normal, fulfilling high school experience unless they happen to also date, and have boyfriends. So Yeah...
- Continuity Nod: Done at least twice. A red stain that is seen and mentioned in the Lanes' freezer in "Lane Miserables" later pops up again in the episode "Speedtrapped." Also in the first episode, "Esteemsters", when she take a psychology test, Daria mentions having to take a similar test when she was younger. This test is brought up again in "Boxing Daria."
- Highland is also mentioned in the very first episode.
- Cool Loser: Why Daria and Jane never seem to have any other friends to hang out with.
- Cool Old Lady: Aunt Amy, though she's the youngest of Helen and her sisters.
- Cosmetic Catastrophe: "Dye! Dye! My Darling"
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome
- "Arts 'n' Crass": Daria and Jane defacing their own work in defiance of the alterations made to their painting results in Principal Li calling Daria's mother Helen...who happens to be a lawyer:
Li: Mrs. Morgendorffer, I'm afraid I have some rather bad news. Your daughter Daria appears to have been involved in an act of vandalism.
Helen: What?
Li: Mrs. Morgendorffer, your daughter collaborated with Jane Lane in the creation of a poster for our art contest.
Helen: Yes, I'm aware of that.
Li: We found part of the poster unacceptable, so it was altered prior to its entry. Unfortunately, someone defaced the poster while it was on display, and since your daughter and Miss Lane objected to changing it, I must assume that they were the vandals. I'm going to have to take drastic action!
Helen: Wait a moment. You're saying the girls were against changing the poster, but entered it into the contest anyway?
Li: It was entered for them.
Helen: I was under the impression that participation in this contest was voluntary.
Li: Yes, but your daughter refused to volunteer, so in her case, I made it mandatory.
Helen: All right, Ms. Li, let me make sure I have this straight. You took my daughter's poster from her, altered its content, exhibited it against her will, and are now threatening discipline because you claim she defaced her own property, which you admit to stealing?
Li: That's not what I said at all!
Helen: Ms. Li, are you familiar with the phrase "violation of civil liberties"?
Li stammers in terror...
Helen: And the phrase "big, fat lawsuit"?
Daria smirks.
- Brittany's demonstration of She Fu in 'The Daria Hunter' also qualifies, considering how the character was portrayed before in the series (and, some would say, afterwards).
- Stacy snapping on Tiffany and calling her out on being hopelessly self-absorbed in Fat Like Me. Sure, it didn't have much of an effect on Tiffany (not much does), but it was still amazing to watch.
"How come?! Because I can't take it anymore. I'm sick of doing all the work while you just sit there. I tried my best, and even if it wasn't as good as Sandi's or Quinn's, a chain is only as strong as its weakest round thingy, and you refused to lift one freakin' finger! I'm through running the Fashion Club all by myself while you (imitates Tiffany) staaaaaare... in the miiiiiiirror... and taaaaaalk... about yourseeeeeelf... and I, I, I quit!"
- The Cutie: Can you say "Fashion Club"?. (Also mildly subverted by Daria in "Quinn The Brain".)
- Mildly subverted? The episode heavily suggests that Quinn knows exactly just how beautiful her sister is, which is why Daria's 'dolling up' forces Quinn's hand.
- The Daria: Daria is (of course) the Trope Namer. Also partially subverted in the final regular episode where she has a personal crisis, fearing she unfairly burdened her parents by being herself that way; her parents firmly reassure her that they consider her personality worth the price for such an intelligent and principled daughter.
- Deadpan Snarker: Daria and Jane first and foremost, obviously, but also Tom, Trent, Jodie, and Mack to somewhat lesser extents. And then Helen has her moments, and obviously Aunt Amy... yeah, the series made the most of this one.
- Debate And Switch: Glasses or contacts?
- Die For Our Ship: Tom Sloane is *extremely* despised by the Daria/Trent shipping base, as well as very bitter Daria/Jane shippers.
- Before Tom came along, the fight was between the shippers (Daria/Trent) and the anti-shippers (Daria/nobody). Once upon a time, there was satirical meta-fic to this effect.
- The Ditz: Brittany, Kevin, and any number of one-shots that seem to crop up entirely to torment Daria by merely existing. The Fashion Club is a whole group of ditzes, though over time, this is shown to be a bit more complicated - while all four have varying levels of this, Quinn is eventually revealed to possess Obfuscating Stupidity, whereas Sandy is The Libby. Tiffany and Stacy are pure ditzes, with Tiffany approaching Cloud Cuckoolander status and Stacy is more of a toady with no self-esteem.
- Does Not Like Men: Janet Barch.
- Unless the man in question happens to be Timothy O'Neill.
- Dreadful Musician: Trent Lane and the other members of Mystik Spiral.
- They're not that bad. Trent (and apparently Max too at times) is, however, responsible for some very cliché and downright silly lyrics. Dreadful Lyricist, perhaps?
- Dumbass DJ: Bing and the Spatula Man are mental in the morning. Subverted, as Upchuck seems to be very good at the job (as he volunteered for it, and everyone seemed to like his tunes).
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: 'Mad Dog' Morgendorffer.
- Dumb Blonde: Brittany.
- Dysfunctional Family: The Morgendorffers have their friction, but compared to Jane's completely screwed up family - who (among other faults) has left her and her barely older brother to fend for themselves - they're The Brady Bunch. In fact, Lawndale could be renamed Dysfunction Junction with very little effort.
- Ensemble Darkhorse: Stacy Rowe. Long after the show ended, Stacy ended up becoming arguably one of the show's most beloved characters.
- Everybody Hates Mathematics: Jane's least favorite and worst subject is math.
- Executive Meddling: Tom Sloane, again.
- Expanded Universe: Check out the Daria Wiki to see how that works. Bring a seat belt - and a quick means of escape.
- Fan Preferred Couple: The love for the Daria/Trent pairing can easily lead into Ship To Ship Combat. Ironic, considering that the show points out that neither of the men Daria gets romantically entangled with are her one true love, leaving her unattached and single at the show's end.
- There's also a large segment of the fandom that's very pro-Quinn/Stacy, as well.
- Fetish Fuel: Where do we start?
- Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Again - where do we start? The Fashion Club girls (no matter what you're into, one of them is your type) the Les Yay vibes between Daria and Jane (and outright mentioned by Jane's... ahem... 'friend' Alison, Brittany in her 24/7 cheerleading outfit, and Helen Morgendorffer.
- Fiction Isnt Fair: As proved with Daria and Jane's poster, it actually is, for a change.
- Fiery Redhead: Quinn (and Daria, as she is auburn-haired)
- First Law Of Tragicomedies: While the show never loses its sense of humour, later episodes (and especially the series finale movie, "Is it College Yet?") have a much more serious (if not somewhat downbeat) feel to them.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment
- Fur Bikini: One doesn't appear, but it's joked about. Jane wears one in a picture during the credits.
- Gag Boobs: "Um, Brittany, would you mind pointing those things in another direction?"
- Also the sample implant Daria ends up with in "Too Cute." It effectively scares off Upchuck.
- Genius Ditz: Brittany's sudden tactical skill in "The Daria Hunter", a send-up of the original film version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
- Geographic Flexibility: Lawndale was in Texas until the last movie, and then moved to Maryland.
- Girlish Pigtails: Brittany.
- Girl Posse: The Fashion Club.
- The Glorious War Of Sisterly Rivalry: Quinn and Daria, as well as Helen and her sisters.
- Good People Have Good Sex: Jake and Helen, despite her worrying in later episodes that the romance from their marriage is dying; Miss Barch after she realizes that Mr. O'Neill is the sensitive male she never married at least until the "Is It College Yet?" movie.
- Goth: Andrea.
- Grand Finale: The second movie "Is It College Yet?"
- Granola Girl: Mr. O' Neill—hee hee hee.
- Groin Attack: Barch to De Martino, in 'The New Kid'.
- Hands Off Parenting (formerly Casa Lane Parenting)
- Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today (the plot of 'My Night At Daria's')
- High School
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Jake's many tirades about how his father's efforts to try and make him a man (including shipping him off to military school) when he was a kid and ended up crushing his self-esteem; Mr. DiMartino (the high-strung history teacher) confessed on "The Daria Hunter" that his mother sent him to live with the neighbors (who were strange, twisted people) because she didn't want her dates to know she was a single mother.
- Hippie Teacher: Mr. O'Neill and the art teacher in "Arts 'n' Crass" who criticizes Jane's painting of a covert bulimic (until Daria explains the true meaning of the work).
- Hitler Ate Sugar: The Trope Namer, from the episode "Pinch Sitter", which made fun of the concept.
- Hot For Student: From the episode "Lucky Strike".
- I Can't Believe A Guy Like You Would Notice Me!: In "Is It College Yet?", Andrea is very surprised when Upchuck hits on her. He is equally surprised when she accepts his offer.
- Idiot Ball: This thing bounces all over Lawndale, but it's usually in the hands of Kevin, Brittany, or Tiffany.
- Jerk Jock: Mildly subverted by Kevin; he's so dim that he usually doesn't go much further past inconsiderate on the jerk scale, and seems to consider Daria a friend. Played straight with Tommy Sherman in "The Misery Chick".
- Jerk Ass: Daria, when she doesn't get her way - or when people don't act the way she thinks they should. 'See Jane Run' and 'Jane's Addition' are prime examples.
- Jive Turkey: The magazine editor Val uses language like this in an attempt to seem like she is still in touch with teenagers.
- Karmic Death: The aforementioned Tommy Sherman, killed by the collapsable goalpost being dedicated to him and his monstrous ego.
- Keep Circulating The Tapes: Due to copyright issues over music, an uncut DVD release is unlikely anytime soon; even though Daria is scheduled to be released on DVD in 2010, the worry over Clumsy Copyright Censorship have kept bootlegged episodes in circulation.
- The Lancer: Jane Lane.
- The Leisure Suit Larry: Upchuck.
- Let Me Get This Straight: Helen Morgendorffer practically says this to Ms. Li in "Arts 'n' Crass."
- The Libby: Sandi Griffin and Quinn Morgendorffer (until the last season, when Quinn started to distance herself from the Fashion Club and began to actually use her brain).
- Limited Wardrobe: Even the Fashion Club!
- Local Hangout: The Pizza King where Daria, Jane, and many of the other Lawndale High students frequent.
- Mama Bear: If you threaten either Daria or Quinn, Helen will use all of her knowledge of the law - and a well-placed threat or two - to bring you down.
- Meaningful Name: "Daria" is Persian for "queen".
- Misplaced Kindergarten Teacher: From the episode "Lucky Strike."
- Missed Moment Of Awesome: Daria was just lying about the fur bikini.
- Model Couple: Tiffany did this in "Pierce Me" at a mother/daughter Fashion Show; she hired an African-American model to play her mom. Tiffany is... Asian. Yeah, she's special.
- Musical Episode: "Daria!"
- My Sensors Indicate You Want To Tap That: Trent, on Daria and Tom, in 'Dye! Dye! My Darling'
- The Nineties
- Nothing Is The Same Anymore: Starting with the episode "Jane's Addition", the series changes into becoming a dramedy with a Story Arc about the characters' coming of age.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Quinn, and possibly Stacy as well.
- Official Couple: Brittany/Kevin, Jodie/Mack.
- Pimped Out Dress: Quinn's pink fur-trimmed dress for the play in "Fair Enough", Erin's wedding dress in "I Don't", and a few of the costumes in the ending sequences.
- Positive Discrimination: Jodie and Mack, the two major African-American kids and seemingly the only secondary characters Daria's age she respects for their intelligence and integrity. Jodie herself lampshades this once or twice.
- Promotion To Parent: Inverted, as Jane seems to be the responsible one in the Lane household instead of her older brother Trent (even - or especially - when all of the 'Wandering Lanes' come back home, which is veryrarely).
- Ralph Wiggum: Words cannot express the stupidity of Kevin.
- Rape As Comedy: Ms. Barch frequently makes out with Mr. O'Neill and even forced him into marriage in the "Is It College Yet?" movie.
- Redemption In The Rain: "Boxing Daria"
- Running Gag
- Quinn denying that she and Daria are sisters. (Averted in the final season, when Quinn finally admits it.)
- Kevin continually calling Mack "Mack Daddy", much to Mack's irritation.
- Mrs. Barch making out with Mr. O'Neill whenever there's a field trip or special event at the school.
- Jake's tirades about his emotionally abusive father.
- Brittany yelping, "Eep!" whenever something bad happens.
- "My soul's waves of grain."
- See You In Hell: "Merry Christmas Dad...in HELL!"
- Serious Business: Nathan treats his like for old 40's-50's fashion this way in "Life in the Past Lane."
- She Fu: Brittany in "The Daria Hunter"
- She Cleans Up Nicely: In "Quinn the Brain", Daria makes herself look pretty - not for a date, but to make a point to Quinn - and essentially makes it clear that she looks the way she does out of principle.
- There was also the end of one episode where Daria fantasizes about a beautiful future with Trent, where they both look elegant and stylish.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: The end of 'Is It Fall Yet?', done both with the shades on the Morgendorffer home, and the steamed-up windows on Tom's car.
- Ship Sinking: Glenn Eichler has been emphatically opposed to the Daria/Trent pairing.
- Ship Tease: Eichler also has admitted that the few episodes that might have indicated a Daria/Trent ship were done to tweak fans expectations.
- Shout Out: In one episode, Kevin asks a kid named Milton if he can borrow his stapler. There's also O'Neill's videotaping in 'Antisocial Climbers', and Brittany's impromptu demonstration of She Fu in 'The Daria Hunter' - not to mention the way DeMartino and Jake act, or the way Sandi is left behind at day's end, and how Quinn looks back...
- Sick Episode: Daria's mysterious rash.
- Sick Sad World: Trope Namer, sometimes subverted.
- Slap Slap Kiss: Tom and Daria.
- Slash Fic: Bring eye bleach and a Memory Charm to remove the memories of reading them. That being said, there are some surprisingly good or even excellent Daria fics in that category.
- Smart Ball
- Snowed In: "Antisocial Climbers".
- Stepford Smiler: Helen, and definitely Stacy Rowe, though by the end of the series she's more or less grown out of it.
- Suck E Cheeses: Pizza Forest.
- Summer Campy: Camp Grizzly in the episode "Camp Fear".
- Tall Dark And Snarky: Both Tom and Trent, in their own ways.
- Ted Baxter: Ms. Li is self-aggrandizing, dishonest, callous, cares only about improving her image, is often foolish, and treats students like livestock. Naturally, she believes herself to be a wonderful principal.
- Not to mention Upchuck, who thinks he's God's gift to women.
- Their First Time: Subverted; Daria makes a big deal about having her "first time" with the more experienced Tom, but backs down at the last minute and has to deal with the fallout.
- Thick Line Animation: Not as extreme as some of the other examples, though.
- Too Good To Last: Even though there were five seasons and two made-for-TV movies, fans would argue that this still fits because of the lack of DV Ds and uncut reruns.
- Training From Hell: Arguably the point of the entire series - that going through high school is hell. Lampshaded at the end of 'See Jane Run' (where D & J look over what happened and admit that 'they really are preparing us for the real world,' and in 'Is It College Yet?', with Daria's speech at graduation.
- Also, Jake's childhood - both at home, and at Buxton Ridge Military Academy. Subverted in that it all arguably made Jake a weaker person.
- Tricksters: Daria and Jane, sort of. Daria is an admitted slacker.
- Trope Namer
- Truth Telling Session: Devastatingly done in "Psycho Therapy".
- The Unfavorite: Helen and her sisters.
- More like Helen and Amy, as Rita seems to have gotten the lion's share of attention and favors from Mama Barksdale, as "I Don't' and Aunt Nauseum' would seem to suggest. Also, DEFINITELY Jake to 'Mad Dog' Morgendorffer.
- Unfortunate Implications: Of the two main Asian characters on the show, one's power-hungry and the other's a complete flake of a yes-man whose only drives seem to be currying favor and looking pretty.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Arguably, Trent/Daria.
- Urban Legend: Parodied.
- UST: Daria and Jane (and arguably the reason for Tom's introduction), Daria and Tom (during Season Four), Quinn and Stacy (in 'Gifted').
- The Urkel: Upchuck.
- Very Special Episode: "My Night At Daria's"; the Quinn subplot in "Is it College Yet?" probably applies as well.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Used in the episode "Malled" when Daria gets carsick.
- We Do Not Know Each Other: Quinn tells everyone that she and Daria are not related; Daria doesn't care enough to protest. Subverted in the end: when Quinn finally softens enough to tell her friends the truth, they reveal that they knew all along, but were just being polite.
- Mildly inverted in 'Gifted', when Trent insists on referring to Quinn as simply 'Daria's sister'.
- Well Excuse Me Princess: Daria, Quinn, Helen - oh, hell, ALL of the "Barksdale Women".
- What Does She See In Him: Daria's 3 love interests were an aimless slacker, a socially-inept geek sheltered to the point of not knowing what television was, and her best friend's boyfriend. For all her brilliance and insight, her taste in boys wasn't the greatest.
- What Happened To The Mouse
- What Measure Is A Non Cute: Quinn's crusade to protect the cute animals.
- Where Are They Now Epilogue: A montage of images of the cast during the finale's end credits that...well, essentially serves the same purpose as the usual credit montages; i.e. putting the characters in ironic situations. Presumably non-canon, unless you can seriously buy Daria and Jane becoming perky morning talk show hosts in the future. Maybe if you replace "perky" with snarky. However, Daria fan fiction often likes to deal with Stacy being a stock car racer.
- With Friends Like These: The Fashion Club. So very much.
- The Woobie: Stacy Rowe; her status as a Woobie is generally agreed amongst the fandom as being the big cause for her Ensemble Darkhorse status.
- You Need To Get Laid: For the first three seasons of the show, Jane's go-to impulse regarding Daria (and she always volunteered her brother, Trent!) Possibly because of some serious UST in the relationship...
|
|
