Happy Endings is an ABC sitcom that premiered in April 2011. The series begins when Alex leaves fellow friend and husband-to-be Dave at the altar. This completely traumatizes Dave, and leaves their friends, who were brought together due to Dave and Alex being a couple, lamenting how they will probably never see each other again.When Alex returns from the honeymoon that she and Dave planned, Dave is understandably ticked off; and now the friends have a problem: having to either disband or pick sides between Dave and Alex.Fortunately, Alex and Dave decide that what happened was for the better and that it should not be something that should destroy their friendship. However many complications remain down the road for this group of friends. And Hilarity Ensues.
Penny: (to Alex) Maybe your dad is the head of some elite counter-terrorist unit and he has 24 hours to - I don't know! The point is, would you date?"
Jane once said that she made a "vision-board" in order for the universe to get her what she wants, including Brad. Brad then said that it wasn't really him on her vision-board, but instead it was one of the guys from In Living Color!. One of the creators cast members of In Living Color is Damon Wayans (as well has his brothers), real-life father of Damon Wayans Jr., who plays Brad.
Adult Child: Dave and Max. One episode revolves around them buying tons of Nerf weapons and playing with them the entire episode.
Aesop Amnesia: In 'Big White Lie' Penny's learned a lesson about how lying only complicates things... which she forgets right after the person who told her that has left the room.
Ambiguously Gay: Penny's date Todd. Apparently she has a history of dating these kinds of guys, which included Max in college.
The Bear: Max, in both the gay sense and the fact that during the winter he becomes like a bear. He doesn't shave, chases after meat, eats honey straight out of the jar *
though that's all year round
and gets stuck in trashcans.
The Beard: Max has been using Penny as one whenever his parents come to visit. In one episode she cancels, so he has to find a new beard. The ensuing hilarity leads to Max finally coming out to his parents, who are very accepting.
After his mother starts trying to set him up with other gay Jewish men, Dave kisses Max in order to act as his gay beard.
Also Alex as seen in later episodes. We see her picking up an obnoxiously large take out order for herself in one episode and in another she assures Brad that he doesn't have to pay for her second waffle... or first omelette. In a third, she comments she's had Thai for lunch in addition to Mexican and BBQ, all in the same day.
Blah Blah Blah: invoked by Brad in "Pilot"; also by Max in "The Shershow Redemption"
Dave: None of us has made a new friend in like 11 years.
Brad: I wouldn't even know how to do that. What do you do, like just walk up to random people and go, "Hey, blah, blah, blah, sports"?
Borrowed Catchphrase: in "The Quicksand Girlfriend" Brad uses "chicksand" to describe Dave's one-night-stand, to Max's disdain until:
Max: You drowned, bro, in chicksand. I like it and I'm taking credit for it.
Book Ends: The first series begins and ends with the central cast at a wedding, one of which is marginally more successful than the other.
The "Year of Penny" begins at the start of the first episode of the second season and officially ends in the last episode of the season.
Boy Of The Week: Penny tends to meet a new a-maazhing guy every week. Lampshaded and said word-for-word by Max in the second season finale, who states he's glad he never gets invested in them.
Break the Cutie: In "Yesandwitch", Penny takes it upon herself to break her incessantly optimistic mother. She immediately has reason to regret it.
When Max and Dave realize there's a guy living in their ceiling they sneak into his room, and Max comments that he has really nice shirts. Later in the episode Max gives the guy food in exchange for borrowing them.
At the beginning of "Bo Fight", Brad and Max are arguing about whether it's harder to be black or gay. At the end of the episode, and after Max and Dave break into Alex's shop, the officer says it was most likely an inside job and immediately suspects Brad, even though Max and Dave are bruised messes. Brad treats it as a victory.
Broken Pedestal: Dave realizes that his former favorite high school teacher isn't all that great or in Penny's words, he's a "full-on douche".
But Not Too Black: in "Bo Fight", Max and Brad debate which is harder, being gay or being black.
Max: The President's a black, right?
Dave: Technically, he's more of a tie-dye.
But Not Too Gay: Max gets lots of on screen kisses... but none of them with gay men
Not true (anymore.) Max is kissed by an ex-boyfriend (Grant) when they get back together in the Valentine's Day episode in season 2. Grant is set to appear in a few more episodes.
Caught On Tape: Max borrows Jane's nanny-cam (that she uses to keep an eye on Brad, but that Brad uses to his own advantage) to catch Dave sleep-walking and eating his leftovers. Turns out, there's an artist squatting upstairs in their crawl space who's been stealing the food
Characterization Marches On: Several episodes in the first season deal with the aftermath of Dave and Alex's breakup, but over time they settle into being two friends in the same group. Lampshaded when other characters tell Alex about having sex dreams about Dave, and she says Dave is like their brother.
Brad: Didn't you sleep with him on and off for, like, ten years?
Alex originally didn't have any defining character traits, but she's gradually turned into the cuteditz.
Brad dry heaves when he sees someone ready to throw up.
Cloudcuckoolander: Alex runs a fine line between this and The Ditz, and sometimes merges the two traits.
Penny: She really does march to the beat of her very slow drummer.
Comic Sutra: Brad explains how Jane refers to sex, but the group's humming blocks it out, so the viewer is just left seeing Brad's gestures and Jane's titillated agreement
Digging Yourself And Others Deeper: Everyone but Dave (who just wants to tell the truth) and Max (who joins in for fun) in 'Big White Lie', but especially Penny.
Alex: I figured it was time to move on, plus I got tired of saying I was a Super Dave Osborne fan.
Max: What?! How could you get tired of telling people you're a Super Dave Osborne fan?
Max:... I'm just trying to clear something up in my head as I go over it again. Are you a Super Dave Osborne fan? Or are you tired of telling people you're a Super Dave Osborne fan?
Dave: I'm gonna go out tonight and I'm gonna get absolutely blackout drunk.
Max: Yes! Let's do it!
Dave: Maybe I'll meet somebody, you know. I can bring her back here. Somehow convince her to have sex with me on this soiled futon while you sleep nearby.
Max: Sure, I mean, chicks love a chubby guy sleeping on the floor. Reminds them of prom.
Dave: Couple months go by, surprise! Herpes. Surprise number two, she's preggo and loves cocaine.
Max: Okay, you're going to a dark place. Let's turn it around.
Dave: We try to make it work for a while, but it's only a matter of time before she runs off with a roadie from Pantera. Before you know it, I'm a single dad living in this torture-porn warehouse with my cross-eyed baby Mitchell.
Penny's Little White Lie in 'Big White Lie' ends up having Brad, Jane and Alex getting caught up in her Master Lie From Hell and Max joining in for fun.
The Ditz: Penny describes Alex as "marching to the beat of her own very slow drummer".
Dave: Hello, high voice. Either you're wearing really tight jeans or you have a mouse.
Alex: Both, and believe me, it was not easy getting up on this chair.
Embarrassing Tattoo: Dave and Alex have matching tattoos with one another's names. Dave (believing Alex has had hers removed) consults a doctor but Alex comes to him at the last minute to show that she didn't remove hers. They try to remove them together, but find it too painful and decide to leave them as a tribute to their friendship.
Brad: [sees waiter with a tray of food} Okay, here we go. [waiter turns away] Oh, come on! They got here like 20 minutes after us. This is totally 'cause we're black on blonde.
Brad (again): (Jane crashes the Prius and her airbag deploys) Of course the white lady's airbag deploys.
Green-Eyed Monster: Dave becomes this when he gets insanely jealous of how popular Max's new boyfriend Grant is with the rest of the group, in a very homoerotic version of him as the Crazy Jealous Guy.
Brad and Max as well. Brad did tell Max that "he loves him the most."
Heroic BSOD: Dave after being left at the altar by Alex. He's drunk, writing depressing thank you cards for the wedding gifts, and ate most of the world's largest chocolate bride. He left the hand to hold on to.
Hipster: Penny's date in "Dave of the Dead", leading Max to give Penny hipster lessons
Max: Hipster Rule number one, never try. Never put effort into anything.
Penny: Got it. Like a flight attendant.
Max: ...Hipster Rule number two, only like things ironically. Books, movies, TV shows, the environment.
Max: ...Hipster Rule number three, never show too much enthusiasm.
Max: ...Final rule, everything is dumb. If someone says something and you don't understand, you just go, "I'm over it."
Penny: Froyo, over it. Other stuff, over it.
His and Hers: In a Season 1 episode where the gang is doing a Jazz-Kwan Do routine, you can see Brad and Jane in matching Adidas sweatsuits as well as matching Samoa sneakers.
Hurricane of Puns: Alex makes several of them when she finds out Penny is dating Douglas Hitler.
Hypocritical Humor: Max tells the man living in his and Dave's ceiling that stealing is wrong...while wearing one of the guy's "really nice shirts".
While Dave is trying to break up with a girl he thought was too clingy at her grandmother's funeral, she turns things around on him, to which he responds, 'Ok I don't think this is really the place to talk about this...'
The "I Love You" Stigma: In "Like Father, Like Gun", Brad's attempt to get his father to say he loves him backfires when he thinks it means he's going to die. Dad then starts "dropping L-bombs" to everything except Brad.
Max: Yeah, this is a classic of boy meets girl, boy loses girl to guy on rollerblades, boy becomes biggest YouTube sensation since "kitten stuck in tuba".
Dave also has a relationship with a woman who insists her name is pronounced "Uh-ndrea," prompting Max to introduce the bro-trio to her as "Mox, Braid, and Dove"
This is a common trope on the show, mostly from Penny 'This sooks!', but the rest of the cast gets in on it too. See 'roof stoof' instead of 'rough stuff', among others
Little White Lie: In "Blax, Snakes, Home," Jane goads Alex and Dave to reveal the little lies they told during their failed relationship, including lies to circumvent Alex's poor pet care and Dave's love of frolf. In true sitcom form, they realize hiding a few disagreements kept them from fighting.
Penny: And then he said he hates when I say ''Uh-mahzing. But I've barely said that at all this season!
Max: ...you mean Winter?
Penny: Yeah. It's more of a summer word.
Seems to be a recurring element in Season 2. The episode 'Big White Lies' gives us a line from Max and Dave's landlord that mirrors what some critics and viewers might say about Max's nontraditional portrayal of a gay man. 'Are you? Cause I've been watching you and you don't seem very gay to me...I don't know why I care so much. But I do. I DO!'
Then the Season 2 finale gives us two bits, first with Max saying he's glad he doesn't get invested in Penny's 'Boys of the week I only hear about through dialouge.' And then Derek says to the entire group 'I don't have time for this endless bantering! The back and forth, its exhausting, I don't even no what you're saying half the time. So slow down!" Made more funny because Derek's quite the motor mouth himself.
Although, penny arcades used to be a thing (so named because the attractions cost a penny, this being back when the penny actually had buying power), that's where the comic got its name. So maybe not.
The Bachelor gets quite a few mentions in the episode "Bo Fight", (it is ABC after all).
Max: We had to rent The Road twice, and it is not that funny the second time.
Brad: She's Beautiful Mind-ing it. You just gotta let it play itself out.
Max: If you're going to do this sex-tape, a couple of things. One: Make sure she shoots you from the right side, because from the left you look like a troll. And not like a cute doll with the hair troll, like a "I distract you with a crystal and steal your baby" troll.
Dave: What, no? I mean, yeah, of course it was. Who's gonna believe that Clooney's gonna be alone at that age?
Lori Petty
Dave: I'm doing lots of stuff: taking online yoga, meeting great people. They're calling me Body, which is awesome, 'cause of Point Break. I've been watching that a lot. Totally holds up. What happened to Lori Petty, right?
Dave: Just tell me one thing: what would Seagal do in this situation?
Max: Well, I think it's pretty cut and dry. He'd fly over to Bo's house on an eagle, tear his throat out, use it as a dreamcatcher, and then ride away on a polar bear.
The Bulls, new and old - and especially Scottie Pippen - are referenced numerous times.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Max to spiders. It's his third biggest phobia behind public speaking and drag queens with no makeup.
Will They or Won't They?: Alex and Dave seem to be on the verge of getting back together as the first season progresses but a held back by the fear that they will repeat the same mistakes that led to the original breakup.
In addition to hinting at a possible Penny/Dave hook-up, in Season 2 Dave and Alex do sleep together, although they agree to move past out immeaditely after, not wanting to threaten their friendship. The season 2 finale does end with them hinting at a rekindled attraction, and holding hands at the end of the episode.
Xenafication: Jane during Krav Maga and Penny after Jazz Kwon-Do.
Zombie Apocalypse: Max and Jane get into a dispute leading to a Zombie Apocalypse Olympics that tests athletic prowess, ability to be still, aim, and ruthlessness
Jane wins by demonstrating ruthlessness in pushing Max out in front of a group of hungry, hungry hipsters.
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