Series / The Upside Down Show

Just press play. ^note On the top and sides: the Schmuzzies. Bottom row from left: Puppet, Shane, David, and Mrs. Foil.

Could you please press the "describe The Upside Down Show here" button on your remote?

The Upside Down Show is an Australian-American live-action children's TV series that features a mix of Surreal Humor, miming, puppetry, slapstick, and renditions of every sound effect possible. It was produced by Blink Films and Sesame Workshop for the Noggin channel, where it aired from October 13 to November 13, 2006.

The show is set in an odd apartment building where every door leads to a wide variety of bizarre rooms. It features David Collins and Shane Dundas of the comedy duo The Umbilical Brothers as two brothers named David and Shane who live in the building with their sidekick Puppet, their neighbor Mrs. Foil, and a group of fuzzy creatures called the Schmuzzies. In each episode, the brothers journey to a new place and take many wrong turns. To help them reach their destination, David gives the viewers an imaginary remote control that affects the characters and their surroundings.

The show was aimed at kids, but is just as enjoyable for adults (if not more so) because of its comedic stylings — and this wasn't an accident. The show's concept was based on a live comedy act that Collins and Dundas performed for adult audiences in the 1990s called SpeedMouse, revolving around the imaginary remote that would go on to become a trademark of the show. The show got off the ground after the two were approached by producers from Sesame Workshop who felt that the remote would lend itself to a family show. The goal that the two had in developing the show was to make an "adult show for kids" — something that would entertain younger audiences but also be "filled with gags that will fly over the heads of little ones and straight into the face of the parent stalking behind them." As this sometimes took the form of Demographically Inappropriate Humour, the two sometimes had to fight the censors to keep certain jokes in.

Noggin cancelled The Upside Down Show in June 2007 after just one season of 13 episodes. In 2010, Collins and Dundas finished a script for The Upside Down Movie, a planned special episode that would act as a proper finale. The two needed support from outside investors to start filming, which never happened. As recently as 2017, Collins has said that he's still looking to get the movie made.

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This series provides examples of:

Tropes A-M

• Added Alliterative Appeal: Most of the Schmuzzies' phrases are this, since they add "sch-" to the start of almost every word.
• A Day in the Limelight: Fido usually only makes a brief appearance in each episode, but in "Picnic", he's the focus character.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Puppet is named for his "species." According to his official character bio: "Puppet is the boys' pet puppet, who happens to know and love the fact that he is a puppet."
• Air Guitar: Shane does this throughout "Marching Band." At the end of the episode, he gives his pretend guitar to the viewers.
• Airplane Arms: Shane does this near the end of "Pet Shop" when David pretends that his chair, Spot, is an airplane.
• Alas, Poor Yorick: Quoted directly by Puppet in "Mini Golf" when he dresses up as Hamlet and uses the mini golf ball as Yorick.
• All There in the Manual: The show's promo statements reveal a few key details about the characters that are never directly stated in the episodes. Namely that David and Shane "have never been anywhere" (which is why they're so clueless about the outside world) and that the Schmuzzies are an "infestation" (which is why they live all throughout the apartment but aren't really pets).
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The Schmuzzies come in a wide range of bright colors like purple and pink. There is a rarely-seen white Schmuzzy who seems to be the only one who isn't super-colorful.
• Animate Inanimate Object: Bob the Blanket, though it's not entirely clear if he's really alive or not.
• Art Evolution: Puppet's design changed completely between the pilot and "Movie Theater."
• Ascended Extra: Fido the Fly is usually just briefly mentioned, but he is the focal point of the episode "Picnic."
• Aside Glance: The brothers, usually David, do this at various points.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: The Schmuzzies love dust and get distracted by it. When Puppet tries to lead them in a marching band, seeing one ball of dust is all it takes for them to lose the rhythm entirely.
• Beach Episode: The episode "Beach," as well as the original pilot episode.
• Better as Friends: Spoofed in "Pet Shop." When Puppet offers to play the role of David's pet, David says he sees Puppet more as a friend.
• Big Brother Mentor: Puppet often assumes this role to the brothers. Though they're all adults, Puppet's maturity and knowledge make him seem quite a bit older than them.
• Birthday Episode: "Birthday Party" is about the Schmuzzies throwing a surprise "Schmirthday Schmarty" for David and Shane.
• The Blank: The entire supporting cast. The Voice, the Action Fingers, Fido, Spot, and Bob all have no faces.
• Bookends: Each episode starts and ends in the apartment.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Whenever a character needs the Remote to be used, they talk directly with the viewers.
• Buffy Speak: The brothers end up calling the mini-golf ball "the round orange non-planet-y thing that is neither an orange nor a basketball".
• The Bus Came Back: According to the creators, they thought Bob the Blanket was so funny in "Barbershop" that they brought him back for "Camping."
• Butt-Monkey: Mrs. Foil in the "Apartment Tour" short. David and Shane also get some of this treatment.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": The Schmuzzies speak a language where most English words have "sch-" added to the beginning of them, and they have no idea what you're talking about if you use the normal English equivalent. For example, in "Mini Golf," the Schmuzzies are completely puzzled when Shane says please and thank you instead of schmease and schmank you.
• Call-Back:
  • David gets a pet chair named Spot in "Pet Shop." Spot makes a very brief call-back appearance in "Picnic" when he's shown being blown away in the Wind Room.
  • Many of the kids from previous episodes return for the Schmuzzies' party in "Birthday Party."
• Cast Full of Crazy: All of the characters are airheads and act in strange ways, in no small part due to their completely unpredictable surroundings.
• Cast Full of Writers: Amanda Bishop (Mrs. Foil), David Collins, and Shane Dundas all contributed to the creative side of the show.
• Cartoon Creature: The Schmuzzies are their own unique species. According to their official character bio, they're an "infestation" so they could be the show's equivalent to rodent/insect pests.
• Catchphrase: In every episode, David says about the Remote: "It does heaps of cool things." Whenever he sees the Schmuzzies, he says "Schmello, Schmuzzies!"
• Ceiling Cling:
  • Puppet gets stuck to the ceiling in "Marching Band," and it's later revealed that this is due to Shane's habit of smearing honey on the ceiling.
  • David, Shane, and Puppet are able to climb the walls in "Airport" — with the help of the "Climb the Wall" remote button, of course.
• Character Development: Shane is always afraid of the Schmuzzies and sees them as pests. In the last episode, "Mini Golf," he finally musters up the courage to talk to two Schmuzzies and ask for his golf ball back.
• Character Tics: Whenever Puppet tells the boys about something they've never heard of, he tends to add a little laugh to the end of his sentences.
• Claustrophobia: Puppet has this, as shown when he leaves the No-Room Room because he would be more comfortable inside a picnic basket.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Everyone in the cast is one, especially Mrs. Foil, who often shows up to say odd expressions that don't make sense at all.
• Color-Coded Characters: David's shirt is white and brown, Shane's is blue, Mrs. Foil's outfit is pink, Puppet is gray, and the Schmuzzies are...well, every other color.
  • In the original pilot, Puppet was purple, David's shirt was solid brown, and Shane's shirt was teal.
• Companion Cube: David's pet chair, Spot.
• Cool Plane: The apartment's mini toy airplanes become this when the Action Fingers use them for real.
• Cool Shades: Puppet wears some when he acts as a movie director.
• The Comically Serious: Mrs. Foil when she's in the No-Fun Room in "Birthday Party."
• Cowboy Episode: Not an entire episode, but the whole opening sequence of "Beach" is about (imaginary) horseback riding. Naturally, this sequence introduces three new remote buttons: the "Bucking Broncos" button, the "Photo Finish" button, and the "Get Off Your High Horse" button.
• Crazy-Prepared: In "Picnic," Puppet instantly brings a smorgasbord of picnicking supplies.
• Cuteness Proximity: David has this reaction whenever the Schmuzzies pop up.
• Cut Short: The show was cancelled after just one season, and the creators were never able to make the planned finale movie that they'd fully scripted.
• The Danza: David and Shane's characters retain their real first names.
• A Day in the Limelight: Most episodes focus more on the locations than a character, but a few give the spotlight to a particular character. "Barbershop" for Shane, "Airport" for Puppet, and "Pet Shop" for David.
• Deadpan Snarker: David, at times.
• Debut Queue: The first episode (after the pilot) "Movie Theater" introduces all of the main characters in their own segments. David introduces himself and Shane in the "white void" opening sequence; Puppet is introduced in the apartment; Mrs. Foil is introduced in the Laundry Room sequence; and the Schmuzzies conveniently pop up to play a rhyming game just to have David establish who they are.
• Depending on the Writer: Puppet is the most level-headed character, and most episodes show him as the voice of reason. Sometimes, such as in "Picnic," he can be just as silly as the others.
• Door Dumb: The disembodied Voice will often decide whether or not David and Shane are opening a door wrong. The Voice will then make them do something oddly specific to get it open.
• Double Entendre: The creators inserted a ton of this and were very surprised when they got past the censors. According to David Collins, they had to fight for the line "You can play with your own balls!" from the episode "Beach."
• Drop-In Character: Mrs. Foil is sometimes this, as she's the only main character who doesn't live in the same room (she's in a different room of the same apartment building). However, the others consider her a part of the group anyway. The short "Apartment Tour" revolves around Mrs. Foil popping up everywhere in the apartment room — on the wall, on the couch, in the window, by the door, and even in the closet — in the hopes that the others will notice. But because she's there so often anyway, they don't.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Several examples in the pilot episode.
  • In the pilot, Puppet was purple, wore a striped red/yellow shirt, and was named "Stretch."
  • In the pilot, David and Shane both wore T-shirts with swirly designs on them.
  • The original description of the show indicates that David was supposed to be the impulsive, hyperactive brother, and Shane was supposed to be the more straight-laced one. This is flip-flopped in the show itself.
• Eccentric Artist: Puppet wants to be an actor/director and has a very odd taste in acting roles, often playing his own unconventional characters such as a pair of opera-singing scissors or a giant squid.
• Establishing Character Moment: The Schmuzzies are introduced piling up in front of a door like a bunch of dustballs, saying nonsense words in Schmuzzish and rhyming with each other.
• Establishing Shot: Every episode begins with a zooming-in shot of the apartment.
• Every Episode Ending: Episodes always end with the brothers going somewhere "for the very first time" in slow motion with triumphant music. The end credits play over a scene of them back at the apartment, where they give an imaginary souvenir to the viewers.
• Family of Choice: The brothers may not be related to Puppet and the Schmuzzies, but they see themselves as one big family.
• Fingerless Hands: Puppet's hands are mitten-shaped.
• Foreshadowing: At the beginning of "Pet Shop," David says he likes how Shane's pet (a fly) is a unique kind of pet nobody else has. In the end, he decides to get a pet chair, and his narration remarks, "Nobody has a pet chair!"
• Forgotten Birthday: In "Birthday Party," David and Shane seem to forget their own birthday, since they have no idea who the Schmuzzies are throwing a party for (until the very end).
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: In "Art Museum", when the brothers visit the Sticky Room, the Unstick Button, on the remote in the hands of the viewer(s), gets stuck and has to be forced to work. On the other hand, it's not like there was much of a fourth wall to begin with anyway.
• Friendship Favoritism: David gives the Schmuzzies a ton of attention, more than he gives Shane or Puppet, and he's always trying to get Shane to warm up to them.
• Fun Personified: The Schmuzzies are a ton of fun for David, Puppet, and Mrs. Foil, and just the sight of the Schmuzzies makes them happy.
• Furry Confusion: Puppet, whose species is a living puppet, somehow coexists with inanimate puppets.
• Hilarious Outtakes: A blooper and outtake reel for the show was filmed and edited, but only parts of it were released on the Umbilical Brothers' TikTok page.
• Hammerspace:
  • David and Shane always have an improbable amount of (usually invisible/imaginary) objects that come in handy for them. After all, pantomime is one of their specialties.
  • In "Airport," David takes an extremely long time emptying his pockets of all kinds of useless junk.
  • In "Beach," Shane gets sand in his shoes, and when he tries to shake it out, it goes on for what seems like forever.
  • Puppet seems to have lots of costumes on hand and can switch into them without having to go grab them from somewhere.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: David and Shane.
• Hidden Depths: David is fluent in Schmuzzish and has super-sensitive hearing.
• Hilarity Ensues: It does!
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Puppet may be the brothers' sidekick, but he's far smarter and is always the first to teach them about seemingly normal things they've never even heard of.
• Imaginary Friend: Most of the supporting cast are just imaginary roles and/or objects that are personified and treated like their own characters.
  • There's Fido, Shane's imaginary pet fly; he claims to be able to see and understand Fido, though nobody else can. Whenever Fido "speaks," Shane makes the buzzing noises himself.
  • The Action Fingers are David and Shane's superhero alter-egos (they're just their hands putting on superhero voices). But Mrs. Foil treats the Action Fingers like separate people.
  • Spot the Chair (completely inanimate) and Bob the Blanket (sometimes inanimate, but voiced and moved around by David) are also treated like real people.
• Instant Costume Change:
  • Puppet is able to switch into four different delivery man costumes in an instant, complete with a new accent each time.
  • Sometimes, Mrs. Foil will show up in two wrong turn rooms back-to-back, assuming an entirely different costume and job.
• Invisible Anatomy: The Schmuzzies have no arms but are shown carrying presents above themselves and to their sides. (This was done with puppet strings.)
• Iris Out: "Marching Band" ends this way (no other episodes do).
• It's All About Me: Puppet shows shades of this when he acts as a movie director. "The director has arrived! And oh, how the fans love him."
• It's Always Spring: The apartment window always shows the same springtime hedge scene outside.
• Jump Physics: The Remote's up/down buttons can make David and Shane jump very high instantly.
• Keet: All of the human characters.
• Large Ham: Mrs. Foil as the game show host in "Ice Cream Truck."
• Leitmotif: The Action Fingers have their own epic theme music.
• Limited Wardrobe: David and Shane's outfits never change.
• Mandatory Line: All five main characters (counting the Schmuzzies as a single character) have at least one scene in each episode.
• Master of Disguise: Mrs. Foil. She wears so many costumes and has so many different jobs that sometimes, David and Shane don't recognize her in a particular room.
• Meaningful Name: Mrs. Foil is the foil to the brothers, Puppet is a living puppet, and the Schmuzzies are "fuzzies" who speak with "sch" in front of each word.
• Minimalist Cast: The main characters (David, Shane, the Schmuzzies, Mrs. Foil, and Puppet) are also the only consistent characters. All other reappearing characters are either unseen (the narrator voices) or imaginary figures/objects personified by David and Shane (the Action Fingers, Fido, Spot, and Bob).
• Mr. Exposition: When something needs to be explained, Puppet is always the one to do it, since he's the one character with a real understanding of how the world works.
• Mr. Imagination: David and Shane are the kings of this. Almost every scene involves some kind of imaginary object/animal that the brothers treat as if it's completely real.
  Shane: [about his imaginary "invisible" pet fly] There's something wrong with Fido.
  David: How can you tell?
  Shane: Well, look at him! Have you not eyes?

Tropes N-Z

• Narrator All Along: At the end of each episode, a goofy triumphant voice narrates David and Shane's successful journey. The voice is provided by David, but you wouldn't be able to tell until the episode "Farm" when David uses the voice himself, revealing it's always him.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Mrs. Foil usually has a new job in each of the wrong turn rooms, with no explanation as to how she works in so many fields (or gets around to so many different rooms so quickly).
• No Antagonist: None of the characters are level-headed enough to be deliberately bad/evil.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Puppet.
• Non-Standard Character Design: All of the background puppets on the show are medium-sized beige creatures, all shaped like eggs. The only puppets who don't follow this design are, of course, the main puppets: the Schmuzzies and Puppet.
• No Seat Belts: Whenever the brothers imagine a car/plane, there are never seatbelts because the vehicles are... well, imaginary.
• Not So Above It All: While Puppet is usually the Straight Man, he can also behave as zanily as the brothers. This is most notable in "Picnic", where instead of being the knowledgeable one, he's just as clueless about picnics as the brothers (and Fido ends up being the straight man instead).
• Not Where They Thought: In every episode, David and Shane try to find some kind of destination, but they go to several wrong rooms first and initially mistake those for their destination until someone corrects them.
• Odd Couple: Shane the super-quick thinker and David the laid-back.
• Offscreen Teleportation: In the episode "Airport," David and Shane discover they can do this by ducking out of frame and making sound effects with their mouths.
• Once an Episode: At one point on their journey, the brothers always encounter a child who teaches them something and sets them on the correct path.
• One-Gender Race: None of the Schmuzzies are ever identified by a gender in the show, but their puppeteers and voices are all female.
• One-Shot Character: A couple of random animals appear in the various wrong turn rooms, only never to be seen again. This also goes for some of the kid guest stars (several of them reappear in "Birthday Party", but not all).
• One-Word Title: Many of the episode titles. "Camping," "Picnic," "Airport," "Beach," "Farm."
• Only One Name: All of the characters are known by just one name. David, Shane, Puppet, and the Schmuzzies never have any last names revealed, and Mrs. Foil never has her first name revealed.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Mat McCoy has an Australian accent but puts on an American one for Puppet. His accent noticeably slips into Australian in "Birthday Party" when Puppet asks "Now what?"
• Overly Long Gag: Beach has one of these where Shane dumps the sand out of one of his shoes for a little over a minute.
• Pantsless and Fully-Clothed: Puppet usually wears no clothes, while his cousin Mary Annette is fully clothed.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: No matter how elaborate Mrs. Foil's costumes are, she's always identified by her swirly blonde hair.
• Parental Bonus: Many deliberate and clever nods to the parents (or just older viewers in general).
• Pilot Episode: In 2004, before Noggin ordered the show's (first and only) season, Sesame Workshop produced an unaired pilot episode. It followed David and Shane looking for the beach, and the storyline was later rewritten into the episode "Beach." In the pilot, the brothers' costumes were swirly T-shirts, and Puppet (named "Stretch" at the time) had a totally different design. The apartment set also literally went upside down in the pilot, because the art department constructed it with the ability to flip over. In the main show, the cameras are simply turned around instead.
• Pirate: When Puppet directs a movie for the brothers, he tells them it needs more pirates, and they assume the roles accordingly.
• The Place: Most of the episodes are named after the final destination. In the case of "Farm," the title actually spoils the ending because the group doesn't think of the farm until the very end of the episode.
• Recurring Character: The show has a supporting cast of sorts, all of the secondary characters being either unseen or imaginary.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Inverted with David and Shane. Shane has a blue shirt and tends to be tightly-wound. David has a brown shirt, but is more level-headed and laid-back.
• Repetitive Name: Shane introduces Puppet as "our puppet, Puppet."
• Rhymes on a Dime: The Schmuzzies can rhyme with anything at any time.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Schmuzzies.
• Rule of Three: In every single episode, there are exactly three rooms featured as "wrong turns."
• Running Gag: Puppet making dramatic entrances.
• Sanity Ball: They're usually all portrayed as airheads, but David, Shane, or Mrs. Foil have all taken this role when there needs to be one stable character and Puppet isn't around.
• Second Episode Introduction: Fido the Fly wasn't mentioned at all in the first episode. He's first mentioned in episode 2, "Barbershop."
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Marching Band", the bird in the Sky Room is a direct reference to John Lennon. The bird references Lennon's song "Imagine" when he says, "There's no ground, only sky."
  • In "Mini Golf", David yells, "This is your home! It's your home! You too good for your home?" at the mini golf ball. This is a reference to the Adam Sandler film Happy Gilmore, where the main character yells, "Why don't you just go home? That's your home! Are you too good for your home?"
  • In "Art Museum", one of the buttons David uses in the opening is the "Wiggle Button", complete with the band's trademark finger wiggling.
• Slapstick The Schmuzzies and Mrs. Foil go through just as much slapstick as the boys.
• Smarter Than You Look: The Schmuzzies often show shades of being more intelligent (and sometimes more sarcastic) than their cute exterior would imply.
• The Smart Guy: Puppet acts as the voice of reason and usually knows the most about the outside world.
• Speaking Simlish: A lot of the Schmuzzies' language is made up of nonsense words like "schmee" and "schmoyo."
• Speech-Impaired Animal: The Schmuzzies can't say or understand normal English words, only their modified Schmuzzish counterparts.
• Spiritual Successor: According to Shane Dundas, the concept of the show was "taken directly" from the Umbilical Brothers' adult-oriented comedy act SpeedMouse, which also focuses on an imaginary remote control.
• Split Personality: In some of her jobs, Mrs. Foil assumes a different temperament (like overly dramatic, mostly silent, or attention-loving) and can switch right back to her normal demeanor in the next room.
• Spoiler Title: The episodes are named after where the brothers end up, or what they end up doing, but in several cases (e.g., "Farm", "Mini-Golf", "Camping"), they don't know that that's where they're aiming for. Downplayed, however, because a) usually it's fairly obvious where they'll end up anyway, at least to older viewers ("Camping" being the main exception), and b) the titles aren't present in the episodes themselves (although they are present on the DVD and YouTube releases).
• Straight Man: Usually played by Puppet. When the brothers are with Mrs. Foil, both of them become the Straight Man.
• Take Your Time: In "Beach," David waits as Shane takes an extremely long time to get the sand out of his shoe.
• Talking Pest: In the original concept of the show, the Schmuzzies were this. The pest aspect was pretty much dropped from the final show.
• Team Dad: As the only somewhat mature member of the main cast, Puppet fills this role.
• Team Shot: Aside from the promotional posters, which usually feature all of the main characters, the short "Apartment Tour" includes shots of all the main characters together.
• Third Wheel: A non-romantic example: Mrs. Foil is the third wheel to David and Shane's friendship. Puppet and/or the Schmuzzies aren't third wheels, since they are like pets to the brothers.
• Three Plus Two: Backwards: the two brothers are joined by three other main characters.
• Title Drop:
  • Because the episodes' titles are usually the name of the final destination, this happens a lot.
  • The name of the show itself is only (partially) title-dropped once: when Puppet pretends to be an airplane pilot and says "Thank you for flying Upside Down Air."
• Too Dumb to Live: Shane's impulsiveness and David's tendency to get distracted tend to put them in danger (though it can usually be remedied with the Remote).
• Trademark Favorite Food: The Schmuzzies love dust.
• Triumphant Reprise: The end of "Marching Band" features a big band version of the show's usual destination music.
• Two Guys and a Girl: The only human members of the main cast are David, Shane, and Mrs. Foil.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Mrs. Foil. She appears in the "Wrong Turn" rooms with a new costume and a new role (sometimes multiple of each) in every episode.
• Visual Pun: At the beginning of "Airport", Shane says "Where in the world could David be?" while the camera is pointing directly at a globe.
• The Voice: There is a disembodied voice, known just as "the Voice," that speaks to the brothers when they reach a door.
• The Voiceless: Not exactly silent, but the Schmuzzies only make humming noises in "Picnic" and don't use any Schmuzzish in the episode.
• Workaholic: Mrs. Foil works a ton of different jobs and gives them all her best effort.
• You Shall Not Pass!: The Voice often won't open a door until David and Shane perform some kind of ridiculous, specific knock (or, occasionally, ring the invisible doorbell).