Series / The League

SHIVAKAMINI SOMAKANDARKRAM!!!.

"Suck it!"

A 2009 FX sitcom about a group of friends who all play in a fantasy football league. It's cut from a similar cloth as the show it airs after, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia—frequently Crossing the Line Twice and taking Refuge in Audacity that's described it as "Seinfeld on crack", which is ironic since co-creator Jeff Schaeffer was a writer/producer for Seinfeld—but a little better-adjusted, in part thanks to co-creator Schaeffer's influence on his work on Seinfeld.

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Tropes:

• Abuse Mistake: Jenny's young daughter Ellie catches her recording a video of herself smack talking about her husband Kevin and thinks she's threatening to beat him up. When Ellie sees Kevin's black eye (which he got from slipping and smashing his face into the table) she freaks out and calls the police. When Kevin comes to the door, he mentions to the cops that Jenny beat him (they play fantasy football and her team beat his), and they almost arrest her. He has to explain that she actually didn't give him the black eye, and he thinks the very idea is amusing because he's a man.
• A Death in the Limelight: The season 5 episode "Rafi and Dirty Randy".
• Alliterative Name:
  • Rodney Ruxin. So is his father, Rupert Ruxin and his sister, Rebecca Ruxin.
  • Kevin and Taco's mother, Martha MacArthur.
  • SHIVAKAMINI SOMAKANDARKRAM!
• Amazon Chaser: In "The Light of Genesis", Kevin's Krav Maga instructor is an Action Girl named Kristen (played by Eliza Dushku), and her fighting prowess awakens his "fear boner".
• Americans Are Cowboys: In one episode, Taco landed a role on an Algerian soap opera called Sands of Passion as Buck, an American pastiche and self-described "rapper-slash-cowboy-slash-cautionary tale" dressed like a cowboy and whose catchphrase is “Bang bang, what’s the hang?”
• And Starring: And introducing Jon Lajoie. Only in season 1.
• Amoral Attorney: Both Ruxin and Kevin; a rare example where a criminal prosecutor isn't really any better than his defense attorney counterpart.
  • Ruxin has become much more amoral since the first episode, while Kevin has been shown to be moral but incompetent.
  • In addition, Ruxin rarely works as a defense attorney (claiming to do an average of 3 criminal cases a year), usually working as a corporate attorney. He's still amoral, and works for the most amoral of clients (serving as part of BP's legal team during the 2010 oil spill).
• Artifact Title: Downplayed. Fantasy football became less and less relevant as the show went on, but it was usually part of the plot in the premiere and finale of the later seasons.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Ruxin wins season 2. Granted, everyone is a bit of a bastard but he's probably the most villainous of the main cast.
• Batman Gambit - Ruxin is very good at these. One particular incident involves knowing the size of Andre's little fatty by lying to Shiva by using his position as Commissioner to take her picture off of the trophy. However, it involves a full league vote to make a decision. Shiva found out after she told him, and Ruxin made no attempt to change their minds.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Andre genuinely thinks he has clear hair enough to "comb" it when he is alone rather than accept being bald.
• Black Humor: Sophia's death via a vaginal rejuvenation surgery in the final season is so absurd it's Played for Laughs and Ruxin just uses it as an opportunity to scam wins out of his fantasy league.
• Blatant Lies - Andre isn't bald, he just has clear hair.
• Brief Accent Imitation - After spending three days in London at a conference, Andre puts on several different British accents and is appropriately mocked throughout the episode.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Played for Laughs with Sofia's CloudCuckoolander brother Rafi who is shown several times to be sexually attracted to her, something she seems to be oblivious by and simply thinks he's being very affectionate. Ruxin is very disturbed by it.
• Brown Note: Taco achieves this with a vuvuzela in the season 4 finale.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Andre receives far more ridicule and taunting than any of his friends, though when he isn't the victim, he gives as good as anyone else.
  • Sometimes Ruxin, but he tends to bring it on himself.
• The Cameo: Various NFL players and personalities appear as themselves. Including Terry Bradshaw, Matt Forte, and Matthew Berry.
• Camp Straight: Andre acts pretty effeminate at times, but he's a straight guy.
• Casanova Wannabe: Andre, particularly evident when he's discussing pickup artist tips with Pete.
• Catchphrase:
  • Andre tries to make "child please", "try the veal" and "homie don't play that" catch on.
  • Ruxin has "Forever Unclean!" when something disgusting happens to something/someone around him.
  • Buck, Taco's Algerian soap opera character, likes to say "Bang! Bang! What's the hang?".
• Circumcision Angst: Both Andre and poor, poor Chalupa Batman.
• Clingy Jealous Girl:
  • Sofia forbids Ruxin from watching porn, for she considers it cheating. She's even mad when she finds out he masturbates to a picture of her.
  • Jenny is usually not the jealous type and doesn't care if Kevin watches porn or finds some other woman hot, but one episode has her getting jealous of Kevin's attraction to Sofia.
• Cloud Cuckoolander:
  • Taco, but mostly due to him being perpetually stoned.
  • Rafi is absolutely bonkers, has no boundaries, and is always doing and saying things that are super extreme and inappropriate.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Kevin in "Kegel the Elf". After failing to get to the championship yet again, he goes completely berserk, kicking over a nativity scene and telling his five year old daughter that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and God do not exist.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Rafi and Dirty Randy are horrible people, who do bizarre things via Insane Troll Logic and have little regard for anyone else. This is all Played for Laughs.
• Comically Missingthe Point: Taco, constantly, to the point where the rest of the gang don't even bother correcting him on his misconceptions but just roll with it.
  • When the gang show off new versions of the Shiva trophy to Andre that openly mock him, Andre says "it's almost like you're making fun of me" and the group exchange stunned glances that Andre doesn't get that's the point of all this.
• Companion Cube: The "Shiva Bowl Tropy" is often treated as a "real person" by the characters. Pete even sleeps with it.
• Consummate Liar: Ruxin lies so often that he considers it "familiar waters" and it almost pains him to actually tell the truth.
• Cool Old Guy: Gumpa Duke. Even Ruxin likes him.
• Coolvs Awesome: Taco dressed as Krumpus vs A Mall Santa.
• Deadpan Snarker: Pete and Ruxin. Andre gets in on it occasionally.
• Dirty Old Man: Gumpa Duke and Ruxin's father.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Andre gets it more than usual in "The Hoodie", with everyone mocking his hoodie for looking like a circumcised penis.
• Emasculated Cuckold: Played for Laughs in the first Season Finale when Andre is dating the real Shiva and starts getting uncomfortable with how the other guys treat her name and trophy as Lust Object. And when they learn he's dating her, they just up the ante. Pete even sets up for her to be his urologist, so he can taunt Andre about how Shiva "touched his balls", which prompts Andre to get so mad and jealous he bursts into her office in the middle of the exam and tries to strangle Pete.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Chalupa-Batman.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Ruxin used to be called "Herdsman" in high school, because he could not get fat girls to date him.
• Everyone Went to School Together: Pete, Ruxin, Kevin, Andre, Taco, and Shiva all went to high school together, and at least the former three went to college together too.
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: Most episodes.
• Formula-Breaking Episode:
  • The episode "Rafi and Dirty Randy". The League suddenly becomes a stoner crime comedy starring Rafi and Dirty Randy as they try to solve the murder of their friend. About three-quarters of the way through, they kill their favorite porn producer, become the owners of his mansion, and Dirty Randy ends up shooting Rafi in an insane duel. The whole thing is treated comedically, and hardly features any of the main cast members.
  • Episodes following Rafi and Dirty Randy became a once-a-season feature after that point, with their final adventure being so bizarre it's actually animated.
• The Friend Nobody Likes:
  • They all dump on Andre constantly.
    • Slightly averted with Pete, who appears to at least voluntarily hang out with Andre on a semi-regular basis (although he still gives him a hard time like the others).
    • Further averted in season 3 when the league members band together to try and save Andre from his interior decorator girlfriend whom (they believe) is trying to fleece him out of his money, even to the point of going clothes shopping with him.
    • Ruxin will travel to Los Angeles for Andre's wedding (held at the same time as the draft) even though he's (at the time) not in the league.
  • They have to trick Rafi out of the league (and pretty much everything else). He still pops up though: "RAFIBOMB!"
• Genius Ditz: Taco is fairly talented musically, but too wasted to do anything else. Additionally, when you consider how much he gets around despite his shortcomings, he must be a masterful pick-up artist.
• Gilligan Cut: Kevin promises that he, Jenny, Ruxin, and Sofia won't talk about Pete and Meegan's breakup at dinner. Cut to...
• Greedy Jew: Ruxin is an Amoral Attorney that is extremely greedy. He even lampshades that he's a poster boy for a Nazi propaganda stereotype of a greedy Jew.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: Jenny accomplishes this with a ceramic Chinese figurine, and uses it to threaten bar patrons into changing the TV away from the Bears game.
• Groin Attack: The "Scrote Squad" subplot from "Curse of Shiva".
• Hanlon's Razor: In one episode, Ruxin thinks Taco is trying to screw with him by manipulating him into sacrificing a great deal of time and money for an elaborate 5th wedding anniversary party for his wife, and Taco later gets Ruxin in trouble with his wife by showing her previously unseen footage of their wedding video. If it was another member of their group, it would seem plausible that it was done on purpose, but there's no way Taco would be capable of pulling off something like that, nor would he want to.
• Happily Married: Kevin and Jenny, who never have ANY serious marital issues, and the only minor ones are fantasy football related.
• Henpecked Husband: Ruxin and Pete, at first. Pete got divorced in season 1. Ruxin barely cares about his wife, and doesn't listen to her.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Pete and Kevin. Dirty Randy mistook them for actual life partners.
  • Rafi and Dirty Randy are more bisexual life partners.
  • Ruxin plays it up by naming his fantasy football team "Pete Top, Kevin Bottom"
• Hipster: Andre, though portrayed more as needy and desperate than smug.
• Home Nudist: One episode has Ruxin, Pete, and Andre sneaking around his house at night, unbeknown to Sofia, who's walking around the house naked. Cue Ruxin desperately trying to prevent Pete and Andre from peeking on her while still trying not to get noticed by her.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Andre's fashion sense is a regular source of mockery for both its hideousness and the large amount of money he spends on it.
• Informed Judaism:
  • Ruxin mentions being Jewish in the first episode, describing himself as looking like "a Nazi cartoon of a Jew". However he is not practicing, and in fact is married to a Catholic and Baby Geoffrey was baptized (he told his mother it was a really progressive synagogue). In one episode he celebrates Sukkot in order to get his son into a prestigious Jewish preschool. In another episode, Ruxin and his wife get in an argument over what religion to raise Baby Geoffrey in.
  • Averted with Ruxin's sister, who is mentioned to be Orthodox.
  • This trope is even more true with Ted, who is only known to be Jewish because a rabbi was at his funeral.
• Intoxication Ensues:
  • Ruxin on painkillers.
  • In "Epi-Sexy", Jenny accidentaly serves food at her kids high school that had Taco's weed in it, thus getting all the kids high.
• Informed Judaism: Ruxin mentions being Jewish in the first episode, describing himself as looking like a Nazi cartoon of a Jew. However he is not practicing, and in fact is married to a Catholic and Baby Geoffrey was baptized (he told his mother it was a really progressive synagogue). In one episode he celebrates Sukkot in order to get his son into a prestigious Jewish preschool. In another episode, Ruxin and his wife get in an argument over what religion to raise Baby Geoffrey in. Averted with Ruxin's sister, who is mentioned to be Orthodox. This trope is even more true with Ted, who is only known to be Jewish because a rabbi was at his funeral.
• Jerkass:
  • Everyone to some extent, though Ruxin and Rafi are probably the worst.
  • Ruxin's father surpasses even Ruxin.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While they all do some pretty awful things, all of the main characters are basically good people (except for Ruxin).
• Jizzed in My Pants: In "The Hot Tub", Kevin buys some "love pants" for his "sexaversary" with Jenny, but the pants ended up being so thin it feels like he's not wearing them at all. This leads to disaster when he ends up running into Sofia and when she ends up grazing him one time too many and he ends up "dropping his hot soup" on her, much to her horror.
• Karma Houdini: Though everyone gets away with things sometimes, like when Kevin lost his virginity to Shiva in Pete's mom's car, left the condom behind, and kept the incident a secret for years, only revealing the truth after Pete had returned the favor to the person he THOUGHT guilty of the offense, losing an amazing job offer in the process, Taco rarely receives any sort of comeuppance for his outrageous behavior. Possibly justified, as they are used to his antics and/or feel guilty over making him smoke pot when he was 8, turning him into the massive stoner he is today.
• Kitschy Local Commercial: Several of Taco's ideas and schemes in were accompanied with these. They were typically filmed using homeless people and girls he slept with as the actors and were typically filmed in Andre's apartment (which they would break into without his knowledge). These commercials include one where he advertises the fact that he had become a unlicensed notary by pressing his notary stamp against a suicide bomber, turning him into a flag-waving, smiling man with a beer.
• The Krampus: On the season 4 Christmas special, Taco tries to convince the owner of a mall to add a "Mall Krampus" to accompany the mall Santa. By the end of the episode, Taco gets extremely high, dresses up as the Krampus himself, and charges into the mall to attack the mall Santa and terrorize the children. Hilarity and Groin Attacks ensue.
• Last-Name Basis: Rodney Ruxin. He thinks "Rodney" is an Embarrassing First Name. His dad, Rupert, has the same problem.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Ruxin's Dark Victory is immediately followed by him being the only guy left to deal with the broken windshield.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Kevin and Ruxin are often implied to be pretty bad lovers. Kevin has trouble getting it up while Ruxin has trouble holding it back. Ruxin even tries to justify his problem to his wife as her being "too beautiful" but doesn't get much sympathy.
• Loving a Shadow: Played With in regards to Shiva. The main characters all objectify and idolize her, from naming their championship trophy and adorning it with memorabilia of her to invoking her name as if she's some kind of exotic goddess. The real Shiva finds all of this very gross and points it out that the members of the league barely know her real self. But they don't care.
• Lysistrata Gambit: Withdrawing sex is Sofia's most common way of punishing Ruxin.
• Male Gaze: Being a show targeted at male audiences, most of the Girl of the Week characters (and few of the recurring ones) are played up for fanservice, often with objectifying camera shots.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: In "Training Camp", Jenny is sexually frustrated due to Kevin refusing to have sex with her while she's pregnant, so she resorts to masturbating. Notably, like most of the guys, she has a sex fantasy with Shiva and orgasms while screaming her name. Much to her embarrassment when the guys catch her.
• Mistaken for Gay: Has happened to everyone except Taco.
• Mistaken for Imprisonment: Rafi and Dirty Randy meet in an insane asylum, which is run by a sadistic nurse a la Nurse Ratched. After spending most of the episode attempting to escape, Randy goes to the reception desk and requests to leave, revealing that he voluntarily checked in after accidentally killing Rafi's family.
• Mistaken for Masturbating: Ashley catches Ruxin masturbating to her picture (he was actually wiping pee from his pants, but nobody believes it) and uses the incident to blackmail him.
• Modesty Bedsheet: Post-coital couples often have a sheet covering them, such as Andre and Shiva in the first Season Finale. Notably the women are usually obviously nude beneath the sheets while the guys are always wearing shirts.
• Ms. Fanservice:
  • Shiva, the main character's nerd classmate who grew up to be a massive sexpot and a Hospital Hottie, which is why the main characters named their trophy the "The Shiva Bowl Trophy" and overall treat her like a Lust Object and have sexual fantasizes about her.
  • Sofia is a Head-Turning Beauty and Spicy Latina Trophy Wife of Ruxin who is often played for fanservice whenever she shows up, and is something of a Lust Object for all the male characters. She frequently wears revealing dresses or is show in a state of undress (usually via Toplessness from the Back).
  • Many of the Girl of the Week that show up at the show tend to be incredibly attractive and get a lot of Male Gaze.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg:
  • A nonverbal example. After Ruxin wins the championship in the finale of season 2, he tussles with Andre for possession of the trophy. It ends up sailing off a fire escape and smashing through a car windshield. At that point, Pete arrives in the cop car he now drives, takes control of the situation, and whisks everyone away... except Ruxin, who they gleefully leave behind to deal with the furious owner of the car.
  • Before the season 3 draft, Ruxin beckons the rest of the league to Andre's balcony.
  Ruxin: Gentlemen. Taco.
• Naked Freak-Out: One episode has Sofia furious with her husband for losing a topless picture of her (albeit with Hand-or-Object Underwear), which ended up getting waxed into the floor of a high school's hallway, much to her humiliation.
• Noodle Incident:
  • While never verbally mentioned, observant viewers can see that Taco has actually won the Shiva Bowl once. Due to his complete ineptitude at fantasy football, one can't help but wonder how this could have possibly happened. Instead of being engraved, his name is written on a piece of tape with sharpie and pasted on the trophy.
  • Andre's hazing period.
    Andre: You guys hazed me for like 2 weeks. I'm still finding pieces of squid all over my apartment.
• No Pregger Sex: In season 4, Kevin refuses to have sex with a pregnant Jenny. Her frustration later leads to her being caught masturbating.
• No Social Skills: Andre, and then some. It's heavily implied the reason he never leaves the league is because these are literally the only people who will talk to him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: If Ruxin and Sofia's anniversary is any indication then Taco. He shot behind-the-scenes footage of their wedding and saved it for ten years so he could use it in what seems to be a very lengthy plan to incriminate and embarrass not only Ruxin, but Kevin, Andre, and Meegan as well, at an anniversary party he manipulated Ruxin into throwing in the first place. When his plan culminates in Ruxin having to eat a piece of wedding cake that had been thrown onto a bathroom floor, Ruxin calls him "an evil genius."
  • In an interview the Producers confirm Taco is far smarter than given credit.
  • Ever since the events between seasons 2 and 3, Taco has been shown to be far less clueless, much more deliberate in his actions and just flat out more intelligent.
  • In the 5th season episode "Flowers for Taco", he gives up pot for the first time since he was eight, becomes arguably the smartest member of the group, and even suddenly regains the ability to speak French (which he apparently learned in high school). This is resolved by the group forcing him to get high again.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Kevin and Taco's annoying and anti-Semitic mother, who constantly judges Jenny (for being The Lad-ette and One of the Boys) and condescends to Kevin.
• Obsessive Sports Fan: Although the main characters are all Chicago Bears fans, they are probably more diehard fans of their fantasy football teams, going so far as to have incredibly awkward interactions with the NFL players who guest star. The only exception is Taco, who is both too stoned to really care and also is in a business partnership with Marshawn Lynch, not realizing that he is an NFL player.
• Odd Friendship: Taco is the only of the main characters that gets along well with Sofia. She doesn't even seem to notice he's always stoned.
• Once an Episode: It's fairly inevitable that something shown or mentioned in the first scene of an episode will play into the punchline at the climax.
• One of the Boys: Jenny, though a somewhat unusual example—she's not really a tomboy and certainly is feminine. She's just really good at fantasy football and can engage with and challenge the guys on their own terms. She also seems more comfortable with the boys than with Sofia, who she finds irritating, though notably Sofia is the only female (other than her own daughter) that viewers see her interacting with on even a semi-regular basis.
• Parental Favoritism: One of the most baffling things is that Kevin and Taco's mother clearly believes the pot-smoking moron Taco who has no idea where he is half the time and no career or goals is far more successful a person than Kevin, a happily married lawyer and father.
• Post-Coital Collapse: When Rafi and Ashley have sex in "The Au Pair" we see hear them grunting loudly before we cut to both of them collapsing in bed.
• Really Gets Around: Taco has had sex with enough women to spend months successfully traveling around the world depending entirely on his international Eskimo brother network.
• Running Gag:
  • "Shiva Blasting" (screaming out Shiva's full name).
  • The guys often end up as "Eskimo brothers" (meaning both slept with the same woman).
  • Andre looking like Nosferatu.
  • "I'm standing right here!"
  • "A marathon." "A what?"
  • Rafi calling Kevin "Brian".
  • Ruxin yelling "Forever unclean!"
• Say My Name: A Running Gag is the "Shiva Blast", which means someone from the crew calling out Shiva's full name (Shivakamini Somakandarkram), either due to Shiva-bowl-related matters after being around her or her memorabilia for an extended period of time, or during orgasms (usually while fantasizing about her).
• Season Finale: Each season ends with the final matches of the fantasy football league.
• Self-Serving Memory: Numerous times to everyone from Taco's whacky mental issues to Ruxin under the impression he bullied everyone when he was the one bullied.
• Serious Business: The show is about a group of friends that take fantasy football very seriously.
  Kevin: If the season doesn't count, I don't get the Shiva! This is the most important thing that's ever happened to me in my life! [turning to his wife] No offense.
  Jenny: [sincerely] None taken.
• Sex Goddess:
  • Played With in "Epi-Sexy", where Pete has the most amazing sex in his life with Girl of the Week Heather, but not because she's actually skilled in lovemaking, but because she has epilepsy and she had a seizure while riding Pete, and her erratic movements made the sex amazing. This leads to Pete to try to provoke a seizure on himself and he almost ends up killing himself.
  • Shiva herself is idealized to be one in the minds of the main characters, although from the little we see of her relationship with Andre, she is actually pretty good in bed.
• Show Within a Show: Sands of Passion, an Algerian soap opera Taco worked on.
• Snuff Film: Rafi and Dirty Randy make these in their spare time.
• Speed Sex
  • Ruxin regularly "drafts early" when having sex with Sofia. He tries to pass it off as her being "too beautiful".
  • Kevin's first time with Shiva was predictably quick for him. She claims it didn't even last a single Aerosmith song.
• Sports Widow: Sofia knows to leave Ruxin alone when he and the rest of the league show up to watch. Averted by Kevin and Jenny: she's a bigger football fan (and better team owner) than he is.
• Status Quo Is God: One episode makes it look like Andre will leave the league for another, where he is adored. Needless to say, it doesn't happen.
• Streaking:
  • In "The Usual Bet", the eponymous bet has the loser having to go streaking at night in the street, with Jenny being the one forced to do it at the end of the episode. (The audience only sees her Shoulders-Up Nudity and Toplessness from the Back)
  • Taco streaks when the main characters are playing football against Dallas Cowboys, which grosses out everyone and gets them quickly evicted from the training camp. (The audience only sees him with Hand-or-Object Underwear or from above the waist).
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: In "The Au Pair", Baby Geoffrey's au pair Ashley starts neglecting her job when she starts sleeping with Pete. Ruxin wants to fire her, but she blackmails him by threatening to tell Sofia that he was masturbating to her photo (he was actually wiping pee off his pants, but nobody would believe him) unless he continues to pay her for doing nothing. So to get her to quit, Ruxin enlists a second Thing That Would Not Leave in the form of Rafi, imagining that he'd be so disgusting and disturbing that she would want to leave. But this ends up backfiring when she actually gets turned on by Rafi and starts sleeping with him. Miraculously, the situation gets resolved when Rafi convinces her they're too good for Ruxin's house and move out.
• Toilet Humor: Rafi doing something disgusting and weird in Ruxin's bathroom is a Running Gag.
• Teeny Weenie: Pete, supposedly. Taco even made a song mocking him for it called "Pete's Tiny Erect Dick".
  Pete's little tiny erect dick
  No one knew what to do with it
  Meeghan left 'cause she couldn't find it
  Pete's little tiny erect dick
  It's a quarter tall and a penny thick
• Toplessness from the Back: When female characters get naked or are show during sex, they're almost always shot from the back. Notable examples include Jenny Streaking and Sofia walking around her house naked.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Ruxin is an unattractive guy married to Head-Turning Beauty Sofia, to which Ruxis is fully aware of and owns up to and why he's her constant Henpecked Husband. He even purposely invokes this trope, and plays it up especially hard at his high school reunion. And in Las Vegas. Or anywhere really. He really loves rubbing it in.
  Ruxin: She is still smoking hot, whereas I look like a Nazi propaganda cartoon of a Jew.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: At the start of the show Kevin and Taco weren't as prone to being (deliberate) jerks just so they could win fantasy football, but later seasons have them acting just as bad as the others.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Periodically, the characters execute borderline-sociopathic hijinks, generally because of some misunderstanding, and usually come off the worse for it. This is all, of course, very funny.
• Upper-Class Twit: Andre is essentially this in practice; while he does work for his money, it doesn't seem to interfere with his multiple hobbies.
• Viva Las Vegas!: The Season 2 draft pick takes place in Vegas, with Andrea trying to convince Ruxin that, 'What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas.'
• Wet Blanket Wife: Sofia very much dislikes fantasy football so she's often portrayed as a nag towards Ruxin and his friends for their obsession with it. She also overall tends to be controlling and demanding of Ruxin, thinking he doesn't put enough effort into being a good parent and husband and is often suspicious that he's up to some bizarre scheme (and considering how he's like she's often correct to suspect him).
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: In one episode, Taco sobers up for the first time in years after he loses his marijuana stash. Sober Taco ends up making the rest of the gang feel annoyed by him pointing out just how awful or lazy they all are, as well as his sudden competence both in life in general and in their Fantasy Football league (they generally viewed playing him as a free win due to a mix of his Insane Troll Logic and his general apathy for the game, both of which were gone when he sobered up). In the end, they end up pinning him to the ground and forcing him to get high again.
• With Friends Like These...:
  • Even without the constant volleys of insults and pranks, every single member of the League will manipulate and betray any other member for even the slightest of advantages in their fantasy football tournament. Except for Taco, who is too stoned to know what manipulate means.
  • One episode has Pete tell his friends that they're the worst people he knows. They take this in stride.
• The Woman Behind the Man: Jenny becomes this to Kevin in season 1, giving him most of the advice and basically running his strategy for the League. By season 2, she got her own spot in the League.

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