Unnatural History - Television Tropes & Idioms

From the left: Maggie Winnock, Henry Griffin, and Jasper Bartlett.

A 2010 live action show on Cartoon Network about a globe-trotting teen named Henry Griffin who must now adjust to living in Washington, D.C. and attend Smithson High School, which is connected to a museum. Along with his cousin Jasper and their schoolfriend Maggie, they solve history's mysteries. As of 11/20/2010, the show has been cancelled.

This show contains examples of:

Academy of Adventure
Action Girl: Maggie, if the Fight Scene in "Thor's Slammer" was any indication of where her character is going.
Air Vent Passageway: Used by Henry, Jasper, and Uncle Brian in Past, Presidents and Future
Beneath Suspicion: Ambassador Tolo's PR representative.
Book Ends: Shown in "The Liberian Candidate".
Bound and Gagged: The Villains Of The Week in this show employ this relatively often, one example being in "Maximum Insecurity" when Jasper is tied to a chair and gagged with his own sock while being held hostage.
Brainy Brunette: Maggie.
Cannot Tell a Joke: Henry in spades.
Ceiling Cling: Henry does this in "The Fountain of Truth".
The Cheerleader: Subverted when the 'dumb cheerleader' turned out to be incredibly smart, and was dosing the team with the 'fountain of youth' in secret. The reason she pretended to be dumb was so boys would like her.
Chekhov's Gun: Chekhov's Muffins.
- And ~~Chekhov's~~ Houdini's Key in "Now You See Me".
Continuity Nod: There was a lot of this in "Past, Presidents, and Future".
Counterfeit Cash: The money found at the end of "Public School Enemies".
The Cracker: Part of the Five-Bad Band in "Maximum Insecurity".
Cut Short: The Season Finale had set up What Could Have Been the start of season two. Then came the announcement on November 20th...
Dawson Casting: Italia Ricci (Maggie) is 24. A bit of a stretch for someone playing a high schooler, but she makes it work.
Deadly Gas: A bordeline case used in Professor Morneau's greenhouse.
Designated Girl Fight: Maggie and the female professor/scientist in "Thor's Slammer".
Did Not Do the Research : An in-universe example. In the pilot, Henry promises to follow the "Five" Noble Truths, while training in martial arts at a Buddhist monastary. So much for knowledge of foreign cultures....
- Justifiable due to the fact that its played for comedy.
- To be fair, maybe this is a case of Never Say "Die".
Edutainment Show: Sometimes, such as in "Griffin Gang" and "Sleeper in the Box," which were based on the Pony express and Sputnik, respectively. Other episodes... not so much.
Elaborate University High: Surprisingly averted. Smithson High is reasonably sized (Your Mileage May Vary), considering the fact that it's connected to a museum.
Faking the Dead: Henry does this in "Now You See Me" to get E.W. to show himself to them.
Family Friendly Firearms: Completely and utterly averted!
Fanservice: Seeing Maggie wearing an old west showgirl dress in "The Griffin Gang". Until Jasper makes her show those ugly teeth dentures...
- The show seems to find any excuse it can to get Henry shirtless.
  - Not that anyone minds...
  - Even when he's not shirtless, we still get plenty of glimpses of tummy due to the fact that pretty much every acrobatic move Henry does culminates in his shirt riding up - usually quite a bit higher than the move would normally result in, but hey, I don't hear anyone complaining.
- Henry and Jasper in suits.
Female Gaze: After it's mentioned in a roundabout way that Henry goes commando ("It's a formal dance Henry, so wear underwear!"), the camera follows his bum as it walks upstairs for a little longer than necessary.
Fish out of Water: Henry lived in pretty much everywhere on Earth except in urban society.
- Even though traveling the world would make avoiding urban society completely impossible.
- They never said he didn't travel through urban society, just that he didn't live there.
Fun with Acronyms: Inverted with the DOUM Room.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Has its own page.
Going Commando: It's been hinted that Henry does this. See Female Gaze.
Girl of the Week: Two is a pattern, by the way.
Green-Eyed Epiphany: Jasper spends most of one episode in a jealous sulking when he suspects that Henry's taking Maggie to the eclipse viewing. What happens is much worse.
Granola Girl: Maggie, to an extent.
Hair of Gold: Henry.
Haunted House: E.W.'s definitely felt like one at first, minus the run down look.
Heroic BSOD: Maggie in "Maximum Insecurity". Henry makes her feel better about it.
Ho Yay: Henry and Jasper. Jasper calls Henry his "butt posse" and "someone to cover his rear end" before explaining that "girls call them bff's" and hurrying away.
- And Jasper always seems very...worried whenever Henry is in even the slightest amount of danger. (Which wouldn't be so obvious, except often he's the only one who reacts in these situations.)
- In "Maximum Insecurity", after the scuff marks he and Maggie have been following to find Jasper disappear, Henry reveals that he knows Jasper's scent well enough to follow it. Fridge Brilliance also brings up the point that Henry not only managed to pick out the scent as Jasper's, he was able to distinguish it from the scent of the thieves who've been running up and down the hall and several hours after Jasper had been there. It's a bit interesting, to say the least.
Hollywood Hacking
I Need No Ladders: Henry all the way. The other two of the trio get into it too, although Jasper is less than pleased.
Just a Kid: In "The Griffin Gang".
Jerk Jock: Hunter
Kissing Cousins: Henry/Jasper is the most popular pairing in the fandom. It's not exactly unwarranted.
Lampshade Hanging: "Henry, please tell me you've been in the exact same situation before and have some kind of astounding escape plan." He does.
Laser-Guided Karma: Or more precisely, Henry-guided blowdart.
Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Anyone who's ever been to Washington, D.C. knows that it's not the National Museum Complex but the Smithsonian or the National Mall.
Le Parkour: Part of Henry's basic skillset. This does beg the question of how he knows it if he's never really lived in a city, but let's chalk it up to Rule Of Cool.
- It's more of a case of All There in the Manual. On the website it explains that Henry learned parkour in Paris, probably only visiting.
Linked List Clue Methodology: Episodes that focus on Henry's godfather Dante tend to involve this.
Meaningful Name: An Adventurer Archaeologist named Henry. Where have I heard of this before... Also, Smithson High is named after the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, which, as every good Indy fanboy knows, keeps the dangerous magical artifacts out of the hands of the crazies. In real life, the Smithsonian is simply the largest museum in America; pious skeptic Ales Hrdlicka's been dead longer than most people here have been alive.
- There's Sven Erickson who studied the impact of vikings on American history. Considering the most well known viking is Leif Ericson...
Mighty Whitey: Henry has apparently lived with members of every African and Asian culture and excelled at all their skills, though we don't know how good he was in comparison to the natives. Of course, this does leave him with problems being a standard North American teenage boy. It's not clear if this is supposed to be a Deconstructed Trope or not.
My Greatest Failure: Working on the rocket with Jasper, according to Maggie.
My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Upon being introduced to Maggie by Jasper the first thing Henry asks him afterwards is if he's asked her out yet.
Nerds Are Sexy: Jasper.
No MacGuffin, No Winner: Henry destroys a rare plant so no one will be able to abuse the powerful stimulant it produces.
- Actually, he saves one of the seeds for someone responsible enough to study it.
Nobody Here But Us Birds: Played straight to lure the bad guys around the museum in "Maximum Insecurity". Well, they thought it would work, till Jasper fails to do so. Played straight later in the climax.
Obfuscating Stupidity: See The Cheerleader.
One of Us: One of the producers of the show posts on this site's forums!
- Mike Werb posts on it too!
Out Of Order: Subtle hints of this.
Perpetual Frowner: Professor Morneau.
Playing Against Type: Before Unnatural History Kevin G. Schmidt (Henry) had a recurring role in The Young And The Restless and a minor part Disney Channel Original Movie. Meanwhile Italia Ricci (Maggie) was cast in the likes of How I Met Your Mother and Secret Girlfriend.
Playing Sick: Henry does this in "The Griffin Gang" to this to get out of the school when it is under lockdown due to a mysterious disease to get the cure from the medical repository.
Power Trio: Henry (id), Jasper (superego), and Maggie (ego).
Potty Failure: Jasper. Justfied in that he was six and hanging in a net from a tree.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Henry is obsessed with figuring things out and steadfastly refusing to be tied down by convention, while Jasper is preoccupied with fitting in and doing what his father tells him (for the things his father pays attention to, at least).
Sailor Earth: When they're not writing Jasper/Henry slash, fanfic authors enjoy pairing up the already hinted Maggie/Jasper relationship, and writing in an OC (usually very well-travelled as well) to act as a Love Interest to Henry. These can stray into Mary Sue territory.
Samus Is a Girl: Hoshi's introduction.
Screwed By Being On The Network: It's not a bad show, and if it were on almost any other network, it could be well-received. But because it's airing on Cartoon Network, no matter how much they promote the show a lot of viewers aren't willing to give it a chance.
- Animation Age Ghetto, for live-action.
Ship Sinking: Maggie has said that "boyfriend land" is the one place she will not go with Henry.
- One of the two places. The other was the boys' locker room.
Ship Tease: Hints of this, alternating between Henry/Maggie, Jasper/Maggie, and Henry/Jasper.
Shirtless Scene: Henry gets a lot of them, being a Mighty Whitey and all.
Slash Fic: Henry/Jasper (Hesper/Jasry). It should be noted that this started after only three episodes aired.
Slow Motion: Just for Rule Of Cool.
- However, the slow motion used in the show lacks quality. It's choppy instead of smoothly flowing.
Take That: To the Jonas Brothers. The only time they're mentioned, they're hiding from a group of mice, and one of them can clearly be heard yelling "Mommy!"
Talking to Himself: Henry is a big offender. Lampshaded by Jasper.
Three Amigos
To Be Continued: Strangely, the season finale ended with a (literal) stamp of this, even though the plot of the episode wrapped up. It's questionable if the second season would actually start with the three of them solving some mystery in the Gobi.
- So much for season 2...
Toilet Humor: Occasionally.
- Occasionally?
- Occasionally.
Two Guys and a Girl
Unlucky Childhood Friend: Jasper's known Maggie almost all his life. When he asks her out, she just stares at him and walks away.
The Unreveal: "Maximum Insecurity" started off with Jasper and Henry making a deal that whoever got the better exam scores would plan their weekend. After an offer from Mr. Bartlett to excuse them from taking the test so they could fit in both plans, Henry refuses because he'd already studied so hard. We never see how the boys do. Most assume Henry got the better score.
Verbal Tic: Henry does not really use contractions.
Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World
Well Done Son Guy: Jasper.
Wham Line: From "Now You See Me", after E.W. leaves:
Matt: Huh, weird. Houdini's real name was Erik Weisz.
"What Do They Fear?" Episode: "Public School Enemies". See Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?.
What Could Have Been: Canned after its first season.
- And the second season and beyond sounds so much interesting. The whole first season sounds like exposition Filler compared to it.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Henry is scared of driving after crashing a jeep in his childhood. He gets over it.
Would Hit a Girl: Henry has absolutely no problem with hitting the first episode's villain. It helps that she has, by this point, tried to kill him multiple times.
X Meets Y: National Treasure meets Harry Potter, minus the magic.
- Scooby-Doo meets National Treasure meets Harry Potter?
  - Plus a little Martin Mystery for the inappropriate UST between Henry and Jasper.
- One of the commercials for the show calls it "a cross between The Hardy Boys and Indiana Jones with National Treasure thrown in for good measure".
  - IN HIGH SCHOOL! IN A MUSEUM!
You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: Said word-for-word by Henry to Dean Bartlett after the outbreak is cured in "The Griffin Gang."