I got you, got me, we got this!
Side Hustle is a series created by Dave Malkoff for Nickelodeon, which premiered on November 7, 2020.
After accidentally destroying their principal's boat, best friends Lex (Jules LeBlanc) and Presley (Jayden Bartels) are forced to pay for the damages. Along with Munchy (Isaiah Crews), their classmate and the principal's son, and Presley's high IQ brother Fisher (Mitchell Berg), they create an app called Kid-DING! where people send them part-time jobs to pay them. While constantly stalked by Munchy's older brother Jaget (Jacques Chevelle), the friends have wild adventures to win the money they need.
The series ran for two seasons, ending on June 30, 2022 before it was announced on July 18, 2022 by Mitchell Berg that it had been cancelled.
Hustle up some tropes!
- Annoying Younger Sibling:
- Presley's brother Fisher is not only a Child Prodigy, he also has a massive crush on Lex which she finds uncomfortable.
- Lex's eight little annoying siblings, with Rex being the biggest example. Normally nice most of the time, not having his way sets him off.
- Big Bad: Frankini, a recurring antagonist from Henry Danger is the main antagonist of the crossover episode "When Worlds Collide"
- Brainwashed: In "When Worlds Collide", Jaget and some Altoonicon attendees fall under the control of Orb of Power when Frankini activates it to create a backup dancer army. Lex, Presley, Sadie and Lay Lay become victims after a botched attempt to stop him, until Danger Force appears to quickly put a stop to it.
- Broken Pedestal: The kids are rocked to realize celebrity chef Dude Calzone, who they adore, has been stealing the recipes from other chefs and presenting them as his own. To be fair, Dude hates it himself but is being blackmailed into it by his own sister.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: In "Thumb and Thumber", Presley faces off with her old thumb-wrestling rival, Rago, for a chance to win a new boat so they can pay off Tedward's old one. Munchy finds out Rago has cheated in each match, supposedly because his mother kisses his thumb for good luck, but is secretly kissing it with thumb grease, which enables him to slip out of his opponents' pins. Before Presley could face off with Rago in the final round, Lex and Munchy steal the grease from his mother, at which point Presley defeats him fair and square.
- Cool Teacher: The plot of "Chemistry Hustle" revolved on Lex and Presley trying to their chemistry teacher cool as everyone but Munchy fall asleep to their lecture. However, he became too cool that Munchy stopped enjoying his lectures.
- Crossover: A five way crossover with Danger Force, That Girl Lay Lay, Warped!, and Tyler Perry's Young Dylan. Munchy later appears in an episode of Series/That Girl Lay Lay months after the show was cancelled.
- Didn't Think This Through: In the "When Worlds Collide" crossover episode, the supervillain Frankini gets hold of a mind-controlling orb. Lay Lay uses her powers to freeze time to...pour a milkshake on him then releases it. Frankini is confused why his shirt is soaked but escapes with the orb.Lay Lay: I was doing it to slow him down!Sadie: But when you had him frozen, why didn't you just grab the orb?Lay Lay: ...Oooooh. That would have been smart!
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Performed by both Jules LeBlanc and Jayden Bartels.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: The kick-off of the series as Munchy was using fireworks from his father's collection to burn down the boat.Tedward: They were in a bag labeled Do. Not. Touch!Munchy: In my defense, you put all the cool stuff in that bag!
- Elimination Catchphrase: In "Karaoke Kickoff" whenever Rowen is about to eliminate a contestant:YOU! GET! THE! FOOT!
- Extra-Long Episode: "When Worlds Collide" is the longest episode of the show by only just 32 minutes compared to the usual 22 minutes.
- The End... Or Is It?:
- "Phantom of the Mooery" ends with the implication the ghost of Colonel Orville Moostache may be Real After All, initiated when Presley asked who drank the chocolate milk she left out as bait when nobody in the Mooery did.
- "Scare Bear" ends on a similar key when Presley asks what Fisher did with the remote to control the bear, and the bear is revealed to be in control of it and laughs evilly.
- Eye Contact as Proof: Nedward always does this to whoever he gives motivation to.
- Failure Montage: "Wreck-It Rex" has a montage where Lex constantly tries and fails at the ladder game at Shady Pete's Carnival.
- Family Theme Naming: Principal Tedward and his brother Nedward.
- Foreshadowing: "Wreck-It Rex" has a few hints that Pete is actually forcing Lex to fail the game. He appears to take something out of his pocket when she first gets onto the ladder, and is always seen in some sort of Thinker Pose with his right arm clenched in a way it's hiding something. Also if examined closely before Lex falls, the ladder appears to move on its own instead of her own weight giving.
- Fun with Acronyms: "A Mouth Noise Christmas" gives us the organization SHHH (Sensitive Hearing Hurts Here).
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: A running gag in "Dog Wed-DING!" where Lex and Presley slapped each other in the face whenever they say something ridiculous or something wrong.
- Involuntary Dance: Happens to victims under the orb of power's influence in the crossover episode due to Frankini's plan
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- As much of a annoying bully he is, Jaget really does care about the kids.
- Presley, although the "Jerk" part is usually downplayed.
- Invisible Parents: Out of the main trio, Lex's parents were never seen once outside of mentions.
- Large Ham:
- Jaget can be this at times.
- Nedward completely abuses this trope.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Both Lex and Presley are hit with it at the end of "Vitamin D-Isaster". After destroying Carina's birthday party and making off with the cake due to the effects of the vitamin, they are forced to pay back all the money they made to Carina and her friends, and if that's not over for them, they have to come back the next day to perform a do-over party for her, with no payments.
- Local Hangout: The Hustlers normally go to relax at the local ice cream parlor, MicroMooery.
- MacGuffin: The Kid-DING! app and the Orb of Power in the crossover episode.
- Mass Hypnosis: The plot to the "When Worlds Collide" crossover has Frankini attempts to brainwash people to become his backup dancers. He gets as far as some of the Altoonicon Convention Center attendees including Lex, Presley, Sadie and Lay Lay before Danger Force shows up to stop him.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Lex has a total of 8 siblings (4 brothers and 4 sisters).
- Mind-Control Device: The Orb of Power in "When Worlds Collide", which affects anyone within earshot unless they're far away or covering their ears.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Anyone who fell under the influence of the orb of power for the first time in the crossover episode would have their eyes glow red for a few seconds.
- Missing Mom: Presley and Munchy's mothers were never shown throughout the series. Presley's mother was mentioned a few times to be at work, while Munchy's mother was never mentioned.
- Musical Episode: "Mouth Noise," which aired as part of Nickelodeon's Mega Music Fest event.
- Mystery Episode: "Phantom of the Mooery" has the trio try to solve a mystery of someone milking Cash the cow late at night (the "Night Milker").
- No Full Name Given: The main characters' last names are never revealed.
- Pec Flex:
- Prolonged Prologue: The series' cold opens tend to last about 8-9 minutes.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Munchy is the fun-loving one, while his brother Jaget is the bossy and controlling one.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Two in a row in "Wreck-It Rex". It was revealed Pete was secretly using a remote to control the ladder so Lex always falls off and loses, which is why it was always challenging. Also, Rex knew the challenge was difficult when he won Truckasaurus the first time, so he attacked the vendor until he handed it to him.
- Shout-Out:
- In the first episode, there's a Running Gag where Fisher sneaks around by slowly hiding in the bushes just like Homer in the The Simpsons episode, Homer Loves Flanders.
- "Make-A-Mutt" referenced the chocolate candy conveyor belt scene from I Love Lucy, in which fellow Nick sitcom Drake & Josh previously referenced.
- Rat Busters is a reference to Ghostbusters.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Jaget sure counts. In "When Worlds Collide", at the Altoonicon comic book convention, he commanders a booth from a publishing company, dressed as his self-created super hero character no one has heard of and then tries to charge $10,000 for his autograph.
- Society-on-Edge Episode: "The Return of Uncle Nedward" has the kids recruit Nedward once again to stop Ol' Cliffy from being destroyed and replaced with an indoor rock climbing park.
- Spotting the Thread: In "Altoonisburg Al" after the titular possum runs off, Presley uses her possum puppet to pass off as Al and choose blueberries so Lex can have her wish to celebrate her birthday at school. However, one of the kids sees right through the act when he points out "Al" didn't swallow the blueberries.
- Stalker with a Crush: Fisher towards Lex.
- Stealing the Credit: The kids are thrilled when celebrity chef Dude Calzone loves Munchy's family chili and buys it for his book. Then his sister informs Munchy they now own the recipe and will be presented as Dude's own. Confronted by the kids, Dude is forced to confess every one of "his" recipes is actually someone else's. In his defense, Dude hates to do it but got conned by his sister himself into a contract forcing him into this or pay a million dollars and she'd just find someone else to be the face of the company. The kids quickly work out a plan to free not just Munchy but Dude and all the other chefs so Dude can credit them for their work.
- Stopped Reading Too Soon: A common problem for the trio is they fail to fully read just what a job entails. When they get a job for "Runway Models," they assume it's for a big modeling show taking place. Instead, it's a model airplane shop called "Runway Models" where the job is to build toy planes for kids.
- Take a Third Option: "Altoonisburg Al" focuses on the holiday "Possum Day" in which the eponymous possum has to predict the fate of summer vacation; eating strawberries means six more weeks before school starts, while eating blueberries means school will start next week. Lex is the only one wanting school to come because her birthday happens to fall in the same time school comes early. Near the end, Al ends up choosing neither because he is overstuffed from all the possum juice Munchy used to lure him back, so Mayor Gildersleeve decides to call it even and levels it down to three more weeks of summer so Lex can have her birthday at school in time.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Parodied when Jagget is upset the trio refuse to continue his self-defense course. He arrives to play messages from his phone to avoid talking to them. Subverted when he demands his signs back and "I said give them to me!" after the gang have already done so, followed by "Stop crying, you're embarrassing yourselves!"Munchy: I think you misinterpreted how this conversation was going to go.
- Vocal Evolution: Fisher's voice deepens as the show is progressing.
- Wedding Episode: The episode "Dog Wed-DING!" has the girls plan a wedding for two of Lex's favorite internet dogs Lulu and Poochie Boy as part of their Kid-DING job. However, Presley has second thoughts over thinking if Lulu actually loves Poochie Boy, so she gets Fisher to invent a dog translator which she uses on Lulu, revealing Lulu only likes Poochie Boy as a friend and is more interested in Lex's dog Reggie.
- Work Off the Debt:
- Principal Tedward's boat is destroyed by Munchy's fireworks, prompting the girls to find jobs and get enough money to pay for the damage.
- As of "Thumb and Thumber", Tedward has won a new boat and the kids are released from their debt...only to accidentally destroy Jaget's new dune buggy with the same pressure-activated fireworks, so the kids work for Jaget now.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Where is Altoonisburg located? Given the name seems to be a fusion of Altoona and Harrisburg, it's likely it's in Pennsylvania.Confirmed in "Friendiversary" and "Al-Dude-isburg" to be in Pennsylvania.
- Why Waste a Wedding?: In "Dog Wed-DING!", after Presley discovers through Fisher's dog translator that Lulu is not in love with Poochie Boy and doesn't want to marry him, she and Lex realize the dog's owners have truly been in love with each other and decide to continue the wedding for them instead.
