Series / W817

From left to right: Carlo (bottom left), Jasmijn (top left), Steve (bottom middle), Birgit (top middle), Tom (top right), Akke (middle right) and Zoë (bottom right). Not in the picture: Kim.

W817 (phonetically pronounced Wacht eens even) was a popular Flemish youth sitcom, which originally ran on Ketnet from 1999 until 2002. The series revolves around a six (ex-)college students, who live together at Wijk 8, number 17. The series was renowned for combining comical (and occasionally absurdistic) storylines with serious (and often painful) topics.

The main cast of the series comprises:

• Steve Mertens: The openly gay housefather of the group. He's often the most level-headed and responsible member of the group and studies sports science. Even though he's level-headed, Steve does have a neurotic side, which (among other things) expresses itself in Steve's Neat Freak behaviour.
• Birgit Baukens: The (somewhat) ego-centrical go-getter of the group. Her goal in life is to become a career woman with a handsome (and somewhat loving) husband, but this turns out to be more difficult than she expected. Birgit is good-looking and fashionable, but also bossy and to the point. She a bit of a Foil to Steve and (occasionally) aids him in running the household.
• Zoë Zonderland: The kind-hearted party animal of the group. She was originally rather shy,^note according to flashbacks of when she first entered the house but went through a drastic personallity change after she went to her first party. She's cheerful and enthousiastic, but also compassionate and kind. Zoë studies psychology and isn't afraid to analyse her (quirky) housemates.
• Tom Derijcke: The irresponsible Lazy Bum of the group, who aspires to be, and eventually becomes, a (somewhat) succesful writer. Tom often spends his days watching TV and eating potato chips on the couch. He used to date Birgit, but she (eventually) dumped him, as they weren't compatible. He often tries to take shortcuts when he wants to reach a goal, but usually ends up failing regardlessly. After being left at the altar, Tom writes a succesful book, which is criticized for its writing style and abundance of (grammatical) errors. In response, Tom goes back to college (together with Jasmijn) to study communication sciences.
• Akke Impens: The most eccentric member of the group, Akke is a socially awkward computer nerd with several weird hobbies and an extensive imagination. He's usually sweet and innocent (sometimes even child-like), but has an alternative personality (Berend), who's quite a charmer. His best friend is Carlo, a fellow computer science student, with whom he starts up a domotics bussiness called BORF. He also has an equally quirky family, of whom he tells one odd story after the other.
• Carlo Stadeus: Akke's best friend and a bit of a Casanova Wannabe. He's the last member of the group to take his residence in the house (first temporarily during season 2, then permanent from season 3) and stands out because of two things: his quirky hijinks with Akke and his obsession with good-looking women (in particular, Birgit). He's as much of a computer nerd as Akke and the two spend most of their time together. While he tries to seduce Birgit at least once per episode, he never succeeds, until the second-to-last episode of the series. As the series progresses, it's revealed that Carlo has a troubled relationship with both his sister and his father, the latter of which (among other things) drove him to move in with Akke.
• Jasmijn de Ridder: The teenage daughter of the landlord and the series' Drop-In Character. She usually hangs around the house and interjects herself in whatever is happening at the moment. While she was initially seen as a bit of a bother by the rest of the group, she eventually becomes a part of the gang. Jasmijn is energetic and (somewhat) childish, but rather compassionate as well. She eventually is (somewhat) replaced by Kim, after her father decides to sell the house to another landlord. She, nevertheless, stays a part of the main cast and even becomes one of Tom's class mates in college.
• Kim de Hert: The teenage daughter of the second landlord and (somewhat) of a substitute to Jasmijn. She initially takes advantage of her status as the landlord's daughter, but warms up to group rather quickly. She's not as loud and energetic as Jasmijn, but she's far more cunning. She eventually becomes friends with everyone in the house, except for Jasmijn, who sees her as an unwelcome replacement.

The series had a knack for introducing a plethora of (often) quirky guest characters, who (most of the time) played a short-lived role in the series. The series was also known for its unorthodox storylines, which occasionally involved imaginary characters. For example, Steve joined a (90's styled) boyband (Exposure!), Tom dated Vampirella, Birgit dated Ken Carson and Carlo made a hit song about pita shawarma called "Zoë eet pita". These storylines were interspersed with regular sitcom stories about work, relationships, (failed) marriages, pregnancies, venereal diseases and even death. Hence, despite the occasional weirdness, this show was probably the closest thing Flanders had to Friends.

The series is still re-run regularly on Ketnet and has been one of its programming staples for nearly twenty years. Its success also meant the breakthrough for several of the actors who played in the series, some of whom continued to work for Ketnet afterwards. A movie, 8eraf, was announced in 2020, but only opened for limited viewing. The series also had two spiritual successors: En daarmee basta! and Click-ID.

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This show contains examples of:

#-A

• Abandoned Pet in a Box: When Carlo's dog (a stuffed animal) has puppies, Steve asks Birgit to bring them to the animal shelter for adoption. Upon her return, Steve asks Birgit if all went well, to which Birgit lies that they all got a decent spot. The scene then immediately cuts to the side of the highway, where the puppies (all stuffed animals as well) have been tied to a post.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Akke becomes this to Kim, after his "Lovulator" indicates that she's a 99% match for him, as he would chase her around and send her (inapropriate) gifts. When Tom turns out to be a 100% match, Akke switches to him and becomes his abhorrent admirer instead.
• Accidental Kiss: In one episode, Akke and Zoë kiss by accident (because Zoë slipped) in front of Maaike, Akke's girlfriend. She obviously doesn't take it well and it takes the remainder of the episode for Zoë to convince Maaike that Akke wasn't cheating.
• Accidental Misnaming:
  • After Tom breaks up with Ellen, he starts dating a whole string of women (a new one every day). This leads to him accidentally calling his latest one-night stand, Sabine, Tania, much to her dismay.
  • Kim's father (and the gang's landlord) aso does this to Steve, calling him "Steven".
    Steve [after Kim's father insulted his cooking]: Did you guys hear that?!
    Carlo: Yes, he called you "Steven"!
• Accidental Pervert:
  • In one episode, Jasmijn ended up in the student house in her underwear and had to go home undressed. As she leaves the house, she runs into a man, who accidentally takes a peek at her. Jasmijn subsequently calls the man a pervert, causing him to run away in embarrassment.
  • In the episode where Tom meets Ellen's parent's, Ellen at one point leaves the table to go to the restroom (likely as an excuse to speak to Tom in private). When Tom goes looking for her, he walks into the women's room and almost immediately gets slapped by a creaming woman inside.
  • In another episode, Birgit and Steve are planning to make a baby. Upon hearing this, Akke has this to say (without thinking too much of the consequences).
    Akke: Cool, can I watch?
    Steve: No thanks, all spectators can stay away for this one...
• Accidental Theft: When Akke spots Tony at an electronics store, Tom (who's with him) follows him and accidentally brings along the stuff Akke was going to buy. He gets caught by a (rather unfriendly) store cop straight away.
• Acting Unnatural: When Tom and Kim try to play a prank on Steve in the shower (by changing his shampoo with egg yolk), they have to resort to this trope when their prank fails and Steve leaves the shower blissfully unaware.
  Tom: He's leaving the bathroom! Act natural!
  [Tom and Kim pretend that they're just hanging around by the bathroom door.]
  Steve [as he leaves the bathroom]: I'm done in here, so decide who's next.
  Tom: Oh, we weren't waiting for the bathroom...
  Kim [after Steve gives them a confused glance]: Tom was gonna show me his Barbie doll collection.
  [Both Tom and Steve look at Kim in confusion.]
  Tom [improvising]: Ah yes... Those make quite a bit of money nowadays...
• Actually, I Am Him: When Jasmijn plans to audition for the conservatory, Birgit tells her that if she ever needs an actress to train her, she should come to her. Jasmijn, in turn, asks Birgit if she knows any good actresses, much to Birgit's dismay, as she was refering to herself.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The names of several of the main characters, such as Birgit Baukens and Zoë Zonderland
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: When Tom's book becomes a best-seller, his deadbeat brother comes to visit him with a proposal: he knows a producer who could make a movie adaptation of his book. He only needs 50000 francs (1250 €) to impress him. Tom, obviously, hands over the money, despite the fact that he should know better. In an ironic spin on this trope, Tom's brother actually knows a producer and Tom meets him as well, but the movie ends up a bust regardless.
• Afraid of Blood: Tom is afraid of blood to the point that he fainted when Zoë spilled ketchup on someone.
• Afraid of Doctors:
  • When Mickey ends up in the hospital because of his AIDS, Zoë is afraid to visit him, as the doctors always bring bad news when she visits. She's, therefore, not so much afraid of the doctor herself, but rather afraid what her presence will bring for others visiting the doctor.
  • When Tom is brought to the hospital after an (overplayed) tummy ache, he's definitely afraid when Steve pushes him into the doctor's office. He turns out to be right in feeling so...
• Agony of the Feet: Zoë drops a barbell on Steve's foot during a training montage in one of the episodes. The work up to it is particularly funny.
  Zoë: I can't lift this barbell with only one functioning arm, it's too heavy.
  Steve: I'm sure you can do it! just try!
  [Zoë starts lifting the barbell]
  Steve: Come on, Zoë! You can do it!
  [Zoë lifts the barbell a bit higher]
  Steve: Just a bit more! You can do it!
  [Zoë can't hold the barbell up any longer and drops it on Steve's foot]
  Steve [Grimacing with pain]: Okey, you can't do it...
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: BORF falls under this, as it has a lot of teething problems. One of them, for example, was that it would take commands too literally.
  Steve: When you initially hooked up BORF, I though it was going to blow up!
  BORF: BORF exploding...
• Alas, Poor Yorick: When Carlo gets into a feud with Akke, he isolates himself and finds a replacement friend in a can of soup he calls "Jakke". One day, however, he finds that Jakke has gone missing and eventually finds him opened in the kitchen, as Steve was hungry for soup. Carlo then cradles Jakke (the empty can of soup) in his hand as a shout-out to this trope, but quickly drops him, as he found Jakke a rather lame friend.
  Carlo [after the entire soup cradling scene]: It's okay, Jakke had poor taste anyways.
  Steve [as he adds tabasco to the soup]: You can say that again...
• All Men Are Perverts: When Zoë tries to convince Maaike that Akke wasn't cheating on her, she has to log into the university chatroom to get in touch with her. Based on her experience there, all of the men in said chatroom were perverts.
  Zoë [in the chatroom]: Maaike, please let me explain... Akke and I weren't kissing! Well, I was kissing Akke, but he wasn't kising me back! He never wanted to cheat on you!
  Random stranger: Two questions: 1) Who's Maaike? and 2) Can I join in?
  [Later on]
  Zoë: Maaike, I know you're the only person in this chatroom! This is the only chatroom where we're not immediately beset by 50 horny men, simply because we have female looking chatnames...
• All-Natural Fire Extinguisher: When the gang's heat, water and electric get cut off, they keep themselves warm by starting a bonfire in the living room. The fire gets out of control, however, and as they have no water to put it out, the men resort to this to extinguish the fire. Nevertheless, the interior still gets destroyed by the fire, as the curtains caught flame as well and they ran out of means to extinguish it.
• All Women Are Lustful:
  • Played straight with Zoë and Mickey when they're about to have sex for the first time. Zoë tries her best to convince Mickey to give it to her, but Mickey doesn't want to have sex without protection and eventually call the whole thing off.
  • Played straight with Ellen and Tom as well, where Ellen tries to seduce Tom into having sex every chance she gets, while Tom tries to show some restraint (as he's writing a novel).
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba:
  • This is Birgit's reaction, when Tom announces that he wrote a novel. It takes Steve checking the novel out (and stating that there's actual text inside) for Birgit to reconsider her opinion.
  • Carlo also makes a similar remark, when Akke (who's blindfolded) asks him if he's Carlo.
  Carlo [to a blindfolded Akke]: Akke!
  Akke: Carlo, is that you?
  Carlo: No, it's santa...
  Akke: Santa?!
• ...And That Would Be Wrong: When Steve does an internship as a PE teacher at a school, he gets upset with one of his students missing a pass. Realizing how this would look, he uses this trope as a Verbal Backspace.
  Steve [to the student who missed the pass]: You idiot, how could you miss that one!
  Steve [realizing he went to far]: ...Is what most of you are thinking right now.
  Steve: But I won't have any of this during my lesson! Only fair play!
  Steve: Now, play ball!
• Angry Collar Grab:
  • Birgit does this to Tom's brother, Axel, after he swindled Tom out of 50000 francs. It eventually turns out that he wasn't swindling him (yet).
  • In the next episode, Akke does this to Carlo, when he keeps on swapping tasks with him (and complaining about the swap shortly after).
  Akke [Suddenly Shouting]: Listen here, pal! Either you do the task you're given right away or you won't be doing anything at all anymore, understood!
  Carlo [frightened]: Understood...
  • Zoë also does this to Tom, when he interrupts her study session and takes his teasing a bit too far.
  Tom [as he snatches one of Zoë's text books]: Let's see what all this mumbo-jumbo is about...
  [Suddenly, Zoë lunges at Tom, angrily grabbing his collar and pressing him against the wall.]
  Zoë [Suddenly Shouting]: Now you listen here, Tom! either you let me study in peace or I'll make sure you'll never disturb anyone's peace ever again!
• Anti-Advice: All of Tom's advice (as Pamela) in his lonely hearts column turns out to be this, as can be seen from his responses. His housemates, therefore, don't find it strange that he was fired from his job eventually. Tom, nevertheless, doesn't see anything wrong with his answers.
  Tom [In response to a reader who wants to fool around with one of her teachers]: Dear reader, Go for it! If he doesn't reciprocate your feelings, you can always sue him for sexual harassment. Yours, Pamela
  Tom [In response to a reader with latent lesbian feelings]: Dear reader, Would you like to go out with me sometime? Yours, Pamela.
• Anti-Climactic Unmasking: When Akke puts a "handy man for hire" ad in the paper (because he's broke and has to pay back a lot of money on video games), he gets a response from "Miss Love", who wants to hire him for a blind date. When it eventually turns out that "Miss Love" is Jasmijn, Carlo responds with this trope.
  Carlo [to Jasmijn]: "Miss Love" is you! Talking about a let down...
• Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?:
  • In one of the episodes, Tom wants to make sure that Steve is still gay (as he had a crush on a woman) and tries to arouse him, which lead to this interaction.
    Tom [as he rubs Steve's chest]: Does this turn you on?
    Steve [uncomfortable]: Not really, no...
    Tom: What?! Am I not good enough for you!
  • In one of the season five episodes, Zoë gets upset, because she didn't manage to score a one-night stand at a party she went to with Jasmijn. This even causes her to try going to a formal soirée with Steve, which would normally be too boring for her, simply to get her groove back.
• Art Attacker: When Akke and Carlo accidentally destroy Zoë and Birgit's painting, they decide to paint a new one together. This quickly devolves into a "paint war", after Crlo accidentally spills some paint on Akke, who, in turn, "accidentally" spills some paint back. The painting ends up becoming rather expressionistic because of it.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: In one episode, Akke ruins the sale of twenty BORFs by pretending to be a chinese restaurant owner to a client. As the conversation is on the phone, he uses this trope to sell his act.
• Ask a Stupid Question...:
  • When the gang hears about Mickey's HIV, Birgit's response is "How?". Jasmijn, subsequently, immediately answers her question by stating "Because he had sex, ofcourse!".
  • When the gang hears that Jasmijn has been obtaining things by stealing them for the thrill, Akke asks her how she does it. Jasmijn, in response, tells him that she simply doesn't pay for the stuff.
  Akke [in response to Jasmijn's answer]: Brilliant, in all of its simplicity.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Getting satelite TV is this, according to the series. When the gang finally switches from cable to satelite, they get access to over 5000 channels, but they need half a dozen remotes (which all look alike) and TV guides the size of phonebooks to make use of them effectively.

B

• Babies Make Everything Better: After taking care of Bieke in season two, both Birgit and Steve feel that they're ready for children and plan to make a baby together. They end up not going through with it eventually.
• Back for the Finale: Most of the guest characters introduced througout the series came to the farewell party in the final episode.
• Badass Longcoat: Akke wears one when he infiltrates a group of Hackers to prove Carlo's innocence in a bank hack. It's part of his Matrix-styled outfit, together with sunglasses and a light gray hairdo.
• Bad "Bad Acting": The show gives an good in-universe example, when Jasmijn is practicing for her audition for the conservatory together with Birgit. Both of them act (very poorly) that they're a falling apple, with neither of them getting even close to the mark. This becomes especially humorous when they show their act to Akke and Carlo, who think they're pretending to be a cut phone wire and a slice of brown bread respectively and laugh their asses off when they state that they were falling apples.
• Bad Samaritan: Tom turns out to be this, as he misused his lonely hearts column (and his secret identity as Pamela) to (attempt to) arrange dates with female writers.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Carlo is shooting his music video for "Zoë eet pita", he needs someone to play Zoë in the video. When Kim comments that they have a Zoë sitting at home, Steve gives her a call, only to ask if Birgit would like to play in the music video.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: Tom makes one, when Jasmijn fears that everyone will call her a loser for chickening out of a dare (after which she would have to wear a sign with "I'm a loser" for a day).
  Jasmijn: They're all gonna call me a loser!
  Jasmijn [mimicking her classmates]: "Hey, loser!", "Hi, loser!", "What's up, loser!".
  Tom: I'm certain they won't call you that...
  Tom: Because who would want to talk to a loser!
• Balloon Belly: Birgit ends up with one of these after eating too much pita shawarma for the music video of "Zoë eet pita", which is further accentuated by the latex dress she wore for the video.
• Banana Peel: After Birgit saves Tom from choking on a pancake, Tom wants to save her life to repay his debt and concocts several plans with Carlo. One of these plans involves Birgit slipping over a banana peel, with Tom swooping in to save her from falling. It fails to work on Birgit, but Carlo, nevertheless, does manage to slip on the banana peel.
• Barely-There Swimwear: When Jasmijn gets a modelling job, she gets a two-piece swimsuit which shows shades of this.
  Jasmijn [about the swimsuit]: Where's the rest of it?
• Basement-Dweller: Akke and Carlo both show shades of this, as they're nerds who spend most of their time behind their computer at the student house. Carlo even lives in the resident's basement for a while, after Akke and him have a falling out.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: After being out of a job for too long, Birgit briefly becomes a bit of an immitation of Tom, complete with potato chips addiction.
• Beef Bandage:
  • After receiving a black eye, Akke is handed an icepack to surpress the swelling. Being Akke, he holds it to his wrong eye.
  • Steve gets an actual steak as one a couple of episodes later, after hurting his eye falling backwards from a chair.
• Beggar with a Signboard: After Birgit fires Johan, she has an Imagine Spot / nightmare, where she meets Johan as a beggar witha paper cup somewhere in the future. In true Birgit style, she gives him a coin and awkwardly walks away.
• Being Good Sucks: In one episode, Steve obtains a lottery ticket that stands to win 250000 €. Alas, the ticket belongs to Leopold, an old man Steve resuscitated at the news stand. While Steve could put the money to good use (debatably even better than Leopold, who was retired already), he nevertheless decides to give the ticket back to him. When Steve gets to the hospital, however, Leopold is already gone and nowhere to be found. Steve subsequently decides to give the lottery ticket to a hobo, as he would need it even more.
• Belated Injury Realization: Oswald has this, when he saves an egg from boiling water (he had to take care of the egg together with Jasmijn as part of an Egg Sitting project).
  Oswald [to Tom, after he tried to boil their egg]: Are you mad!
  Tom: Says the man who tried to save an egg from boiling water...
  Oswald [Only now realizing what he did]: ARGH!
• Berate and Switch: An inversion of this happens, when Zoë relates a list of Mickey's positive and negative points to Steve.
  Steve [After Zoë lists of several seemingly positive attributes of Mickey]: And what are his bad points?
  Zoë: Those were his bad points...
• Beware the Silly Ones: Even though Akke is the most kind-hearted and silly of the main characters, he can become a force to be reckoned with when he's angered. This is (humorously) illustrated when he gets conned by a furniture salesman into buying a (ridiculously) oversized cabinet.
  Steve: We both know Akke is a bit of an easy target, a rube even, so it would be decent to trade in the cabinet for a smaller one and hand him back the difference in price.
  Salesman [to Steve]: A sale is a sale, so your friend has to live with it
  [Akke suddenly jumps on the salesman's desk and grabs him by his tie]
  Akke [Suddenly Shouting]: Listen here, buddy! You sold me that cabinet, so you're going to take it back!
  Akke: And then, your going to give me the smaller cabinet and my spare change, understood!
  Akke: NOW!
• BFG: Carlo wields one, when he and Akke are (scientifically) testing a first person shooter. It's used to provide contrast between him and Akke, who was wearing a tiny (but precise) gun.
• Big Brother Bully: Carlo used to have a big sister bully in his sister, Gella. When she comes over to stay with the gang for several days, however, it turns out she left her bullying days behind (mostly) and has become rather well adjusted. Nevertheless, judging from Carlo's reaction (and the torture she puts him through, after he tries to break up Akke and her), she used to fit this trope perfectly when she was younger.
• Bigger Is Better in Bed: Tom makes a reference to this trope, when Birgit and Zoë buy an enormous painting.
  Birgit and Zoë: Look what we bought on the flee market!
  [They carry in a massive painting]
  Tom: I knew it! Size does matter!
• Big "SHUT UP!":
  • In one episode, Steve and Jasmijn are moving a cabinet to the living room, while Akke, Carlo and Birgit are trying to work there. Their reaction to Steve and Jasmijn making too much noise during the move is to collectively (and loudly) shush them.
  • In another episode, Zoë and Mickey are having a conversation about their relationship, after Mickey was diagnosed with AIDS. While the others try to respect their privacy, a series of events eventually ends in a large ruckus in the kitchen and the hallway, which leads to Zoë shouting "Can you guys frickin' shut up in there?!"
• Blatant Lies: When Tom finds out he's invulnerable, after sticking a fork in a toaster, he tries to prove his powers to Steve and Birgit (who are sceptical). During one of these actions, he accidentally falls down the stairs, leading to this exchange.
  Steve: Tom, are you okay?
  Tom [clearly in pain]: Yes...
• Blinded by the Light: When Carlo runs for student council president, he and Akke make flyers by photocopying Carlo's face. Besides the fact that Carlo looks incredibly gonky on the flyers, the photocopier has the unwanted side effect of (repeatedly) exposing Carlo's eyes to bright light, which leads to him wandering through the house half-blind after producing nearly a thousand of them.
• Blind Mistake: In one of the season three episodes, Akke thinks he went blind, until Carlo points out that he was wearing a blindfold.
  Akke: I'm blind!
  Carlo [removing Akke's blindfold]: There you go...
  Akke: Thanks, that's far better!
• Blind Without 'Em: Zoë apparently wears prescription lenses that are so strong that she can't see a thing without them. The alternative to them are a pair of glasses with thick, jam-jar lenses.
• Blown Across the Room: One of Birgit's stunts as an army cadet is getting blown several yards backwards when she tried to fire a rifle, due to the recoil of the weapon. Her drill sergeant doesn't appreciate it.
• Blunt "Yes": This is Tom's answer to his brother, Axel, when he asks Tom if he ever lied to him.
  Axel: Have I ever lied to you?
  Tom: Yes.
  Axel: Let me rephrase that... have I ever lied to you about something important?
  Tom: Yes.
  Axel: Alright, once more, then... Have I ever lied to you about knowing a producer who wants to make a movie adaptation about your book?
  Tom: Not yet...
• Boring Insult: In one season four episode, Birgit calls Tom, Akke and Carlo boring (as they only wanted to watch TV, before deciding to hang out with Kim (as she assumes that she has a much more interesting life).
  Birgit: You're all just a boring bunch! I'm gonna see if Kim has any activities planned today.
• Born Unlucky: Steve, apparently, as he has never won a game of chance in his life. Even Akke has to concur, when he tests Steve's bad luck with a game of rock-paper-scissors.
  Akke: Seventeen losses in a row, that's scientifically impossible! Another round!
• Boss's Unfavorite Employee: Johan was this at AKA, simply because he was incompetent. It didn't help that there were only three people working at AKA.
• Boyfriend Bluff: When Birgit has her old high school friends over, Carlo pretends to be her boyfriend (without consulting Birgit first), in order to get frisky with her. It doesn't end well for Carlo (or Birgit, for that matter).
• Braces of Orthodontic Overkill: Zoë apparently wore these as a kid, if one of her old classmates is to be believed.
• Brainless Beauty: When Birgit, Carlo and Akke sign up for a dating service, Akke gets coupled to one of these, much to his dismay. He subsequently tries everything to avoid her, as he doesn't want to be with her. Carlo, on the other hand, doesn't understand what's wrong with the girl.
  Akke: I don't wanna go on a date with her.
  Carlo: Why not, she's a fox!
  Akke: But she's dumb as dirt!
  Carlo: Yes, but she's a fox!
• Break Them by Talking: Tom does this to Steve, after he falls into a depression because Birgit dumped him. Steve, in turn, becomes depressed as well and the two of them work together to subsequently talk Zoë into a depression.
• Break-Up Song: While they weren't technically broken up, Carlo sings one of these after he and Akke had an argument about a girl. What makes it funnier is that he was singing it in the basement, after he told Akke he was moving out. This makes Akke think that he's imagining all of it.
  Carlo [singing]: "I got the blues, I got the blues."
  Carlo: "Rain coming out of my shoes, I got the blues."
  Akke [in the other room]: It's strange, but I miss Carlo so much, that I can hear his voice in my head.
• Broke Episode:
  • One of the season three episodes has Jasmijn going through this, when she tries to save 200 € for a class trip to Rome. She tries a lot of different ways to earn money, but eventually loses more money than she earns. Fortunately, her father had some savings and rewarded her effort by paying the trip for her.
  • Akke also ends up going through one of these in season four, when his love for videogames puts him in severe debt. He ends up putting himself "for hire" to scrape together the money he needs.
• Broken Pedestal: This happens to Akke when Bill Gates comes to Belgium. He was his biggest fan, until Gates thrash-talked BORF. After that, he spent an entire episode intent on revenge (and he got it in the end).
• Brown Note: Apparently, Carlo is sensitive to dog whistles, as shown in a season three episode, and it has the same effect on him as it has on dogs.
  Carlo [After Steve blows the dog whistle several times]: Alright, alright! I heard you the first time...
• Brutal Honesty: Several charcters, such as Akke and Tom are especially prone to this.
  • Tom, while shopping for wedding gifts with his fiancé.
    Salesman [about a salt and pepper shaker set]: And this is our latest addition.
    Tom: That must be the ugliest thing I've seen this week! It should be illegal to sell stuff like that...
    Salesman: Moving on then...
  • Or Akke, when he meets Jasmijn's new (adult) boyfriend:
    Akke: Man, you're old!
  • Kim also likes to use a bit of brutal honesty, when she gets provoked into it, such as when she and the rest of the gang want her father to leave the student house.
    Kim's father: You've been standing there for fifteen minutes... Just say what you have to say and leave already!
    Kim: We've had a vote and none of us want you to stay here!
    [Kim's father looks hurt by her sudden outburst]
    Kim: That came out a bit too harsh...
• Buccaneer Broadcaster: Zoë runs one of these stations for a friend of hers in season five. She quickly regrets doing so, after she finds out that the station is illegal (and after Birgit discovers the station and organizes a hostile take-over). They eventually barely manage to smuggle the station out of the house, after the police starts looking for it.
• Bury Your Art: An In-Universe example. This is Jasmijn's stance on the swimwear photoshoot she did, merely a day after she did the shoot. She even tries to retrieve the negatives from the photographer, only to find out that the agency already took them.
• But I Would Really Enjoy It: A rare male example occurs with Mickey, who doesn't want to make love to Zoë without a condom and even passes up on the occasion because they can't find one.
• Burger Fool: Birgit becomes one to pay the rent, after she runs out of money in season two. The rest of the group even visits her at her work to tease her with it (and make some very elaborate menu orders).
• Bus Crash: Zoë's boyfriend, Mickey, leaves the series to travel the world and dies of AIDS before he could return.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: This is the main reason why Birgit wants to get a breast enlargement, as she feels like she wouldn't be able to compete (on the job market) with her current size.
• By "No", I Mean "Yes":
  • Tom does this, when Jasmijn reveals that he chickened out of meeting Hugo Claus.
    Tom: So then the door opened...
    Jasmijn: And it was Hugo Claus! But Tom ran off afterwards...
    Tom: That's not what happened!
    Tom [disappointedly]: Okay, that is what happened...
  • Tom does this once more, when Steve asks him to cut the vegetables for the soup. It doesn't work out well for him.
    Steve: Does anyone want to help me?
    Tom: Yes!
    Steve: Really?
    Tom: Did I say "yes"? I mean, no!
    Steve: Too late...
    Tom: But I was joking...
    Steve [as he drags Tom to the kitchen]: Still too late.

C

• Cacophony Cover Up: In one episode, Birgit gets shushed while trying to open a candy wrapper. She eventually resorted to coughing loudly while opening the wrapper, after which she claimed that the candy functioned as a cough drop.
• Calculus Is Arcane Knowledge: Tom has this response, when Akke has some good news he wants to share.
  Akke: I have good news and good news squared!
  Tom: Start off with the good news, cause I'm terrible at math...
• Call-Back: In the episode where Birgit meets Tim, they inevitably start talking about Tom (as Tim strongly resembles him). Birgit subsequently tells Tim several stories about Tom, including the one about the time he ate a spoon without noticing (which occured back in season 3).
• Calling Me a Logarithm: Akke and Gella get into a fight, after Carlo tries to break up Akke and his sister, Gella, by telling them to change their personalities towards eachother. During the fight, Akke calls Gella a "Bill Gates", which elicits this response from Gella.
  Gella: Don't call me a "Bill Gates"!
  Gella: What the heck is a "Bill Gates", anyways?
• Camp Gay: Two of these show up, when Kim and Steve are talking about (obviously gay) guys at the club.
  Kim [pointing at a guy]: He has a nice booty...
  Steve: It's never gonna work between the two of you, you know...
  Kim: Why?
  Steve: Well, first of all, he's too old for you, and second of all, he's gay.
  Kim: Are you sure about the second one?
  Steve: Of course, it can't be more obvious than that...
  Kim: Well, I see two guys, who are even more blatantly gay than him!
  [Kim points towards two Camp Gay guys who are heading towards Steve.]
  Both guys [simultaneously]: Stevey!
• Camp Straight: This series' version of Ken Carson definitely had some traces of this, as he spent most of his time obsessed about what to wear for each occasion. During the series finale, he is even Mistaken for Gay by Steve's ex, Tony.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Happened to Mickey, who got AIDS from having unprotected sex once (and it was his first time as well).
• Can't Take Criticism:
  • During the episode where the gang forms a band to help Jasmijn (who was dared into singing in public), the band eventually (temporarily) splits up because of this trope. It starts with Tom becoming disgruntled because he has to stand in the back (he was a backup singer, no less) and continues with Birgit, Zoë, Steve and Akke leaving because someone states that they're not that great at their chosen instrument (Birgit also leaves because she isn't allowed to play her recorder). They eventually all return for the concert later that night.
  • Carlo also suffers from this trope, when Akke criticizes the look he used during his fifteen minutes of fame.
    Carlo: But I'm supposed to be the famous one! What went wrong?
    Akke: I'd rather not tell... You're still my friend.
    Carlo: Just tell me already!
    Akke: Okay, but promise you won't get upset...
    Carlo: Sure!
    Akke: The problem was you're look... It wasn't the right one for you!
    Akke: People notice straight away when someone's pretending to be someone else.
    Tom: So you're saying he shouldn't have gone dressed as an Italian playboy?
    Akke: Yep!
    Akke [to Carlo]: And... are we still friends?
    Carlo [depressed]: I'm going to bed...
• Can't Tie His Tie: Tom needs Ellen's help to properly tie a tie.
  Ellen: Who tied it before I came along?
  Tom: My mom...
• Careful with That Axe: When Akke asks Carlo to write a love song for Kim, he comes up with one of these instead, which blows Akke across the room (which is a bit of a miracle, as he was using an acoustic guitar).
  Carlo [as he starts singing]: Oh, Kim...
  Carlo: I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
  [The draft Carlo's song creates blasts Akke across the room.]
  Carlo: So... What do you think?
  Akke [rubbing his ears]: Feisty...
• Casanova Wannabe: Carlo definitely falls into this category, as he tries hard to score with the ladies, but is (almost) always rejected.
• Cassandra Truth: When Akke gets a girlfriend, no one believes him, even after he brings her home to meet them. This is because they all think he's lying to get out of a blind date Zoë arranged (and they even think Maaike is an actress he hired).
• Catchphrase: Several characters within the series had one.
  • Jasmijn's regular greet and catchphrase was "Iep".
  • Tom's response to being humiliated was (usually) "Funny, très funny".
  • Most characters (in particular Zoë) used "Shuck" instead of the F-word, from season two onwards.
  • Akke's regular greet was "Salaat", which, loosely translated, means salad.
• Celeb Crush: Before he discovered he was gay, Steve had a crush on Marilyn Monroe.
• Celebrity Paradox: When Tom and Birgit meet with a movie producer (for a movie adaptation of Tom's novel), Birgit states that they want several of Belgium's best actors, including Kadèr Gürbüz, the actress who plays Birgit.
• Character Aged with the Actor: Happens in 8eraf, which takes place 20 years later and features all of the original actors.
• Cheaters Never Prosper:
  • At the start of a season three episode, Tom is playing a game of chess against Steve, which he's about to lose. At that point, Steve leaves the table to get a drink, giving Tom the opportunity to swap some pieces around. However, he swaps the wrong pieces and Steve still manages to checkmate him in his next turn.
  • In one of the season five episodes, Tom and Jasmijn work together to cheat on one of their exams. This ends up failing, because neither of them knew the answers to begin with. Then again, Jasmijn did initially get an 18/20, because the student assistant who corrected her exam fancied her, but Tom ruined this as well, by complaining about it to their professor (inadvertently telling him that they both cheated).
• Chew-Out Fake-Out: When Birgit gets a job as a marketing assistant, she (and her boss) expect to get this from their boss after Birgit hands in her first marketing report, only for him to compliment Birgit on her graphs, which were in color. Her boss eventually does get fired, because the remainder of the report wasn't up to snuff, as he was responsible for the contents.
• Choke Holds: Carlo does this to Steve in a reflex, after he gets woken up by Steve while sleeping on the couch. He let's go off Steve after a while, but only a few seconds after he found out he wasn't in actual danger.
• Chosen Conception Partner: Birgit chooses Steve to be this, when she decides that she's ready to have kids. Steve eventually chickens out, because he doesn't feel in love with Birgit.
• Class Reunion: In one of the season three episodes, Birgit has to organize a reunion for her high school friends in a single day. It goes from bad to worse after Steve (who was cooking the meal) got food poisoning and ends with Birgit getting embarrassed in front of her old friends.
• Clip Show:
  • When Akke eventually dismantles AKA, we're treated to a 30-second-long clip show of his best moments at AKA (which were nearly all of them, due to AKAs short existence). We then see Akke leave the room and turn the lights of, to the ire of everyone else in the room, who were watching TV.
  • The use of this trope is also discussed by Carlo and Steve in the season four finale.
  Carlo as he enters the living room]: What's on?
  Steve: Some sitcom...
  Carlo: A funny one?
  Steve: Normally, yes... But today it's the 100th episode, so they're showing fragments of old episodes instead.
  Carlo: Yeah, I hate when they do that...
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Akke fits this trope perfectly, as he comes with the most unusual idead at the most inappropriate times. Carlo fits the trope as well, when he hangs out with Akke.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Birgit let's out a few against Johan, when he was working at AKA, most notably when he spill coffee over her clothes.
• Coconut Meets Cranium: In the episode where Akke and Carlo go to Karlakistan (a fictional island in their bedroom) on holiday, both Steve and Carlo get hit by a coconut on the head.
  Tom and Steve [As they see Carlo staggering through the hallway]: What happened?
  Carlo: I got hit in the head by a coconut!
  Tom and Steve [full of disbelieve]: Sure...
  Carlo: Yeah, the coconut season just started, wanna see?
  Tom: I won't say no to that... how about you, Steve?
  Steve: Same.
  [As they approach the door.]
  Tom: After you, Steve.
  Steve [as he enters]: Much obliged.
  [Steve takes one step into the room and gets hit on the head by two falling coconuts, knocking him to the ground.]
  Carlo [to Tom]: See! I told you those coconuts could be nasty!
• Commercial Pop-Up: When Tom gets a gig on the local radio to promote his book, a rolling advertisement banner shows some funny ads at the bottom of the screen.
  Banner: "Voor een frietje groot of klein, moet je bij Marjetje zijn"
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • This exchange.
    Zoë [after watching Tom leave for a date with her best friend Ellen]: Tom and Ellen?!
    Akke [who just entered with Carlo]: No, Carlo and Akke.
    Carlo: No, Akke and Carlo!
  • Akke seems to be full of these moments:
    Carlo [about Birgit]: That's not how you speak to a gorgeous woman!
    Akke [sincerely]: A gorgeous woman?! Where?
    [Later that episode]
    Tom [to Ellen]: Let's go to my room for some privacy.
    Akke: Good news, Tom! I'm nearly finished rewiring your room!
    Tom [sarcastically]: That's great...
    Akke: Yeah, isn't it fantastic news!
  • Or the time Akke commented on his working hours:
    Zoë: It's 03:25, are you still at work?
    Akke: All within a regular work day.
    Zoë: So what are you "regular" working hours?
    Akke: Nine to five...
    Zoë: When they say nine to five, they mean 09:00 till 17:00.
    Akke: Ah yes, because 18 is the legal age...
  • Or when he was offered XTC at a club:
    Marina [Offers him a pill]: Here, this one's on the house.
    Akke: Thanks, but do you have any with peanuts?
    [Marina looks at him in a confused way]
    Akke: No problem, I'll get some at the bar!
    [The following scene shows Akke with a small bag of peanut M&Ms]
  • Throughout the episode where Carlo leaves AKA, Birgit tries to seduce him into staying so she can take a week off to go to London (without Carlo, she would have to stay in). This leads to several characters (such as Carlo and Mickey) misunderstanding that Birgit wants to go to London with Carlo.
    Zoë: Birgit's only seducing Carlo so she can go to London.
    Mickey: Because Carlo wanted to go to Paris, right?
  • The episode where Jasmijn is caught stealing has several of these, most of them by Akke
    • When Steve find out that Jasmijn has been Stealing from stores, Zoë responds with "How could she get caught". When Steve inquires about it further, Akke gives away the jig by stating the obvious.
      Steve: A normal response would be to ask why she's thieving!
      Akke: Not if you already know that she's a thief...
      Zoë: Nice one, Akke! Well done!
      Akke [looking at the necklace he made with paper clips]: Gee, thanks!
    • Later on, when Steve bails out Jasmijn at the store, the security guard (quite innocently) mentions the (minor) difference in age between Steve and Jasmijn.
      Security guard [Upon Steve's departure]: Extraordinary, having a teenage daughter at that age...
      [The shopkeeper looks at the guard with an "Are you serious?!" look.]
    • Or when Steve forces everyone to return their stolen items.
      [Akke carries a large stack of items towards Steve]
      Steve: Wow, you must be Jasmijn's favorite!
      Jasmijn: Akke, you only have to return the stuff I stole, not the things you got for your birthday...
      Akke: Ah, then I'm clean!
  • Or when Maaike stays the night in Akke's room and Carlo asks him about any possible sexual encounters:
    Carlo: Hey Akke, did you... you know...
    Akke: Sleep well? Definitely!
    Carlo: No, before that, did you...
    Akke: Did I brush my teeth? I always do before I go to bed...
    Carlo: No, in between those two, did you...
    Akke [confused]: Was I supposed to do anything in between those two?
    Steve: Just leave it already...
    Akke: By the way, Carlo, where were you last night?
    Carlo: On the sofa...
    Akke: Oh no, did they play the "The A-team" marathon last night? Why didn't you wake me?!
    Carlo: No, that's next week...
    Akke: Phew... But why were you sleeping on the sofa?
    Carlo: Privacy, I thought that you would...
    Akke: Ah, "privacy", I get it...
    [Akke walks off giggling]
    Zoë [To Carlo]: Is there something going on between you that we don't know about?
    Steve: You guys, too much information...
    [Akke suddenly returns]
    Akke: Carlo, don't you have more privacy in our room than in the living room?
    [Carlo makes an exasperated face as the scene transitions.]
  • Or when Birgit confronts Tom about the fact that he (accidentally) withheld a job interview invitation from her.
    Birgit [holding up the invitation to Tom]: What's this?! and don't tell me it's a letter!
    Akke: It's not a letter?
    [Zoë facepalms in response.]
    [Shortly after.]
    Zoë: Birgit sure was angry at Tom about that letter he withheld.
    Akke: Yeah, that letter must have held bad news for her...
    [Zoë looks at Akke in exasperation.]
    Akke [hesitantly]: Good news?
    [Zoë facepalms, once more, in response.]
  • Or when the gang tries to pamper Birgit after she ended up in hospital with a depression.
    Birgit [Confused at the pampering]: What's this all about? Next thing you know, you guys will start bathing me as well.
    [Akke runs off to draw a bath.]
    [Later that morning, when Birgit wants to take her bath, Akke shows up in swimtrunks and goggles.]
    Birgit: What's the big idea? This isn't a swimming pool!
    Akke: I'm going to bathe you, like you said.
    Birgit: You mean you're planning to get in the tub with me?
    Akke: I could sit on the edge of the tub, but that would give poor results...
    [Birgit kicks Akke out of the bathroom.]
    Akke: Bathing you from here will be rather difficult, but I guess I can give you instructions...
  • When Jasmijn and Oswald are trying to have sex for the first time, Jasmijn's father walks in looking for matches. Jasmijn subsequently hands him the matches, but also hands him the condom she was planning to use by accident, quickly snatching it away when she notices it. Jasmijn's father leaves, only to return a few moments later, invoking this trope.
    Jasmijn's father: Jasmijn, why do you have matches in your room? You're not smoking, are you?
    Jasmijn: No...
    Jasmijn's father: How about you, Oswald?
    Oswald [confused]: Who? Me?
  • Or when Carlo is looking for a girl to play Zoë in his music video.
  Carlo [to the first girl]: Not enough in the breast department.
  Akke: Huh? But she has two of them, isn't that the right amount?
  [Carlo stares at Akke in disbelief.]
  • Or when Robbie asks Steve to move in with him.
    Robbie [gets on one knee]: Will you move in with me?
    [Akke suddenly enters the hallway.]
    Akke: Oh cool, you guys are pantomiming!
    Steve: No Akke, Robbie was just...
    Akke: Wait!
    [Akke places something next to Robbie.]
    Akke: Carry on with you're miming.
    [Robbie looks at Akke in confusion.]
    Akke [as he leaves disappointedly]: Well, It seems Robbie still has a lot of practicing to do...
• Comical Overreacting:
  • When Zoë gets a cold sore, she acts as if the world is ending (since she was using her looks to pass her exams). Steve and Carlo, who join in on the fun, make full use of this trope to mock her.
    Zoë: Oh shuck! A cold sore! I'm ruined...
    Steve: Oh no! What are you gonna do now!
    Carlo: It seems like there's only one solution...
    Steve: Plastic surgery!
    Carlo: No, suicide!
  • Steve also does this, when Kim makes him stand on top of a book to help him get over his fear of heights.
    Steve [mockingly]: Oh no! What have I done now! HELP! HELP!
• Companion Cube: In one episode, Akke introduces his friend Etienne, who's an anatomical skeleton.
• Complexity Addiction: When Tom asks Steve to explain the basics of football, he gets into a speech which turns into this. This is lampshaded by Tom, when Steve asks him if he got it.
  Steve: So... Do you get what I'm saying?
  Tom: Is there anyone, apart from you, who would've understood this?
  Steve: Come on, it's not that difficult...
  Tom: Quantum mechanics, given in Latin by a professor who only speaks Polish, would be easier and less dull!
• Conlang: While Akke and Carlo don't invent an entire new language, they do invent a new letter in one of the season three episodes. The letter resembles a circle with a dot in it and sounds like "You"
• Confess in Confidence: Birgit confesses about her incompetence at her marketing job to Zoë's priest friend, Marc, who stayed the night. The fact that they did this in the bathroom, with the shower curtain serving as the confessional, made this all the more funny.
  Marc [about Birgit's company car]: One more thing, what kind of convertable were they giving you?
  Birgit: A Golf...
  Marc [somewhat tempted]: The devil has many faces...
• Con Man: Akke gets conned by one, when he tries to buy a cabinet to store his Playstation and videogames at a furniture store.
• Consolation Backfire: After Tom gets dumped by Birgit for a second time, he becomes depressed and Steve tries to console him. The consolation doesn't work and Tom drives Steve into depression instead. This happens again to Zoë in a similar manner later on in the episode.
• Confusing Multiple Negatives: After Zoë takes up a job as a go-go dancer, Steve hides her Stripperific outfit and replace it with something modest. When she later returns from work, however, she tells Steve that she didn't needed the outfit, as dancing in her birthday suit was even more effective, leading to this exchange.
  Steve: Don't tell me you danced naked?!
  Zoë: Well, that's what birthday suit means...
  Steve: Let me ask you again... You didn't dance naked, did you?!
  Zoë: No, Steve...
  Steve: Why were you leading me on, then?
  Zoë: Becuase you're an easy target and it's so much fun!
  Steve: Wait a minute... I asked you if you didn't dance naked and you said "No"... So then you did dance naked!
  Zoë [as she walks off]: You'll never know, unless you drop by the club...
  Steve: Zoë! please tell me you're joking! Zoë, come back!
• Convenience Store Gift Shopping:
  • In one episode, Tom is looking for a gift for Ellen while accompanying Akke at an electronics store, no less. The sales clerk isn't too helpful either...
  • In another, Akke, Steve and Jasmijn are looking for a parting gift for Carlo, but Akke keeps on wasting his money, so they end up buying him a bag of sticky buns.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Carlo decides to stay in bed all day and eat, Steve and Akke come up with a plan to scare him straight. The plan involves them giving Carlo a rough spongebath, which utterly scares (and grosses out) everyone involved
• Cool Bike: Although in this case, we're talking about bicycles.
  • Carlo sported one before he moved into the house, which was shown in one of the episodes.
  • In another episode, Tom and Kim run a bicycle theft scheme, where they steal (already stolen) bicycles and give them a new paint job. When the police visits the house for an unrelated case, one of the officers commend them on their spraypainting skills and asks where he could get a bike like that for his kid.
  • Zoë also has a cool motorcycle at the start of season five, which she bought from a friend. She eventually decides to sell it, but Steve totals it before she can do so.
• Cordon Bleugh Chef: Akke turns out to be one.
  Akke: My delicious omelet Akisime. Taste how the flavor of nougat combines with that of the tuna!
  • He also likes to combine peanut butter with camembert and his favorite breakfast consists out of ketchup, beans and buttermilk.
  • This is also seen when Akke is preparing a romantic meal for his girlfriend, as he planned on using ammonia, frozen squid and sheep's stomach for the meal.
    Steve [looking through Akke's shopping list]: Do you need this stuff for some kind of voodoo ritual?
  • Jasmijn's attempt to bake cookies for a bake sale (to raise money for a trip) also shows how bad she is at cooking, as she makes the classical mistake of using salt instead of sugar. Akke, obviously, is the only one who likes the taste of the cookies.
    Tom [trying a cookie]: How bad can they be?
    [As Tom tastes the cookie, he spits it out almost immediately.]
    Tom: Yeah, they're bad...
• Cosmetic Horror: In one episode, Zoë manages to talk Ellen into trying a facial mask. Tom's response to the facial mask is this trope combined with "You're beautiful just the way you are". It eventually does end in horror, when Ellen has an allergic reaction to the facial mask.
• Cousin Oliver: While she's a teen instead of a kid, Kim plays this role in the series. She became the series new teenager, after Jasmijn graduated and started going to college.
• Cover Innocent Eyes and Ears: Carlo does this to himself, after he walks in on Tom dancing in his underwear.
  Carlo [after Tom putson some pants]: Man, that was scary!
  Tom: Hey, at least I was wearing underpants!
• Covert Pervert: Apparently, Carlo was thi to Birgit, who was unaware just how dirty his mind got.
  Birgit: I'm bored! Does anyone have anything adventurous we can do?
  Carlo: I might have something...
  [Carlo whispers his idea into Birgit's ear. She, in turn, slaps him across the face.]
  Birgit [to Tom and Akke]: You two are boring...
  Birgit [to Carlo]: And you're a pervert on top of that.
• Crack Defeat: In one of the season five episodes, Jasmijn, Tom and Kim have a wager who would get mentioned in a newspaper article first. They furthermore decide that if they all get in the paper at the same time, the largest article would win. They eventually all end up in the newspaper, only for Steve to walk away with the win (without even trying), as he became the headline of a magazine, due to his recent stint as a talent scout.
• Crash-Into Hello: Happens between Zoë and her love interest, Mickey, in one episode. They eventually end up together.
• Crazy Enough to Work: When Birgit starts something with Tim (who looks exactly like Tom), Carlo bribes Tom into teaching him how to be more like Tom. Tom's initial response is in line with this trope.
  Tom [after taking the bribe]: What do you want me to do?
  Carlo: Teach me how to be like you!
  Tom: Why?
  Carlo: Well, you know how I've been crazy about Birgit for a while...
  Tom: Horny, you mean...
  Carlo: Yes! Well, she has fallen for Tim, who's you're doppelgänger!
  Tom: Can't deny that.
  Carlo: So, if you turn me into you, she'll fall for me as well!
  Tom: You know, Carlo... Crazy as it sounds, this makes enough sense to work.
• Crowd Surfing: Steve's PE class does this to Cois, one of the nerdy students, after he scores a free throw (asSteve promised to buy them a round of drinks if Cois made the throw). They have to end it quickly, however, as they can't hold him above their heads for long.
• Crying Wolf: Throughout a season two episode, Jasmijn is repeatedly pranked by people telling her that her fly is down. Near the end of the episode, her fly is actually down, but Jasmijn doesn't believe anyone telling her anymore (that is, until one of her class mates points it out).
• Curse Cut Short: In one episode, the newest employee of AKA, Johan, spills coffee over Birgit's clothes. The (long-winded) curse Birgit shouts at him is subsequently cut short by Johan breaking into tears and running off.
  Birgit [to Johan]: You nitwitted, boneheaded, incompetent...
  [Johan breaks into tears and runs away]
  Akke: Wow, you didn't even get to a noun!

D

• Dagwood Sandwich: When Kim ends up staying with the gang for a couple of days, Steve makes her a dagwood sandwich consisting of an entire loaf of bread for lunch.
  Steve [dotingly]: And remember to eat every bite, okay?
• Damned by Faint Praise: When Jasmijn is trying to decide her future studies, she's doubting between becoming an actress of a biochemist. When she pitches her options to her dad, he utterly ignores the actress option in favor of the biochemist option, which he praises into high heavens. The (in comparison) little praise the actress option receives makes Jasmijn depressed, as she feels it would be the worst choice of the two.
• Dancing Mook Credits: The episode where Steve and Akke identify Steve's attacker at the police station, ends with a scene of the suspects in the Police Lineup dancing (Akke needed them to dance to identify the perp and the police never stopped them afterwards because it seemed the fun thing to do).
• Dance Party Ending: The series ends with a large farewell party held at the house, as most of the residents are planning on leaving soon after.
• Dartboard of Hate: In the episode where Mickey and Zoë (temporarily) break up, Mickey does this out of anger to a picture of Zoë.
• Dating Service Disaster: Happens to Birgit, Carlo and Akke, when they sign up for a dating service. While Akke gets coupled to a Brainless Beauty (which he absolutely detests), Birgit and Carlo get coupled to eachother, much to Birgit's dismay (and Carlo's bliss).
• Dead Pet Sketch:
  • In one episode, Zoë works together with several animal rights activists to liberate several rabbits from an animal testing facility. Zoë ends up (reluctantly) adopting one of the rabbits to impress the (handsome) leader of the activists. When the rabbit subsequently dies, Zoë tries to keep it a secret from him, but fails to do so. The activist then tells her that he'll take the blame to save her, but furthermore states that they can't be together because of it.
    Zoë [after her talk with the activist]: I'm so over that guy! I don't know what I ever saw in him!
    Zoë: And then to think that he dumped me for a stupid rabbit!
  • In one of the season 4 episodes, Akke and Carlo get a dog (or, rather, a stuffed animal variant) named Floppie. Near the end of the episode, however, Floppie nearly ends up in Steve's vacuum cleaner and Steve ends up tossing him in a corner of the room, killing him (apparently). When Akke and Carlo find Floppie dead, they quickly know who to blame.
    Akke and Carlo [after they spot Floppie lying motionless in the corner]: Oh no, Floppie! Please, wake up! Please...
    [Akke and Carlo suddenly glare at Steve simultaneously.]
    [Akke unplugs Steve's vacuum cleaner.]
    Steve: What's the meaning of this?
    Carlo [Suddenly Shouting]: YOU!!! IT WAS YOU WHO KILLED FLOPPIE!
• Decision Darts: When Akke and Carlo are planning a holiday, the do this to determine their destination. The first dart, however, lands on the Netherlands (which they both dislike), the second dart lands in Steve's apple and the third lands in the middle of the ocean.
  Steve [after the dart lands in the ocean]: You'll need a submarine to visit that spot...
  Akke and Carlo [simultaneous]: Cool... Atlantis!
• Delayed Reaction:
  • When Steve tells the gang that he kissed a girl, Tom becomes afraid that Steve will becomes a romantic competitor to him. When Jasmijn states that he already has a romantic competitor in Akke, we get this exchange.
    Tom: Akke? As romantic competition?!
    [Tom starts laughing out loud and shortly after, Akke joins in.]
    Akke [After laughing for about five seconds]: Hey!
  • A similar situation occurs, when Steve makes a comment about Tom and Carlo, when they try to score with the ladies.
    Steve [about Birgit getting involved with a Scam Religion]: This is going to end as disastrous as most of Tom and Carlo's dates...
    [Tom and Carlo laugh at eachother's misfortune in romance, before coming to the conclusion that the comment applied to both of them.]
    Tom and Carlo [simultaneously]: Hey!
  • Carlo also has one, when Akke is making his sister (who used to bully him) breakfast.
  Carlo [sniffing]: Do I smell your famous omelet Akisime... You shouldn't have done that for me!
  Akke: It's not for you, it's for Gella...
  Carlo [still in bliss]: Like I said, you shouldn't have, but that doesn't mean...
  Carlo [suddenly realizing]: What do you mean "it's for Gella"!
• Denied Food as Punishment: When Steve organizes a charity drive to collect stuffed animals for Africa, he uses this trope to get his housemates to join. From that moment on, they had to bring a stuffed animal to the dinner table or they would only get plain rice (without any meat, vegetables or sauce whatsoever), while Steve would eat a far fancier dinner. The group ends up going out for fries instead, which puts a spanner in Steve's plan.
• Depraved Dentist: Akke is afraid of the dentist, because he thinks all dentists are essentially this trope.
• Description Cut: The series had two of these in quick succession the episode after Tom and Ellen's respective stag parties. When Tom asks Birgit and Zoë how the girls' stag party went, they state that they hadn't had that much fun in years. The scene then cuts to the night before, with all of the girls sitting outside the club depressed, because Birgit and Zoë just found out that Ellen cheated on Tom with Prospèr. When Zoë in turn asks Tom how the men's stag party went, he states that it was okay, but that you can't cut loose with Steve around. The scene then cuts to all of the guys waltzing through the house in a conga line headed by Steve, with Carlo passing out on the couch from exhaustion.
  Tom [after the description cut]: I'd say we've kept it quite civilized last night...
• Desk Sweep of Rage: Steve does this when he hears that another student, Jürg, is planning to research the same thesis subject as him.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • When the gang is collecting stuff to send to the African child they sponsor, Tom brings an electric pencil sharpener. Steve subsequently has to explain him why that wouldn't work.
    Steve: An electric pencil sharpener?! they don't even have electricity there!
    Tom: We thought of that and Akke has come up with the ideal solution as his contribution.
    Akke: This floppy disc contains the schematics for a basic generator.
    Steve: And how are they going to read that floppy disc?!
  • When Jasmijn, Tom and Kim have a wager on who would get mentioned in a newspaper article first, Kim decides to tie herself to a fence in a protest. What she didn't take into account, was that the fence she tied herself to was a sliding fence, which could still easily open, even after she tied herself to it.
  • When Birgit takes over Zoë's pirate radio station, Zoë resorts to turning off the power to force Birgit out of the air. Birgit subsequently calls out to her listeners for aid, only to get a call from Zoë telling her how stupid that was.
    Birgit [in response to Zoë]: Well then, I'll ask you this... if the station isn't broadcasting anymore, how did my message reach you?
    Zoë [from the other side of the door]: Because I'm listening in through the door, you daft cow!
    Birgit: Ah...
  • When Carlo is on the run from the police, he RSVPs for Tom's stag party and even asks for the place and time, right before stating that he has to hang up, because the line might be under a tap. He subsequently shows up at the stag party, despite the fact that the police would know where he was (if they tapped his phone).
• Did They or Didn't They?: When Maaike stays the night in Akke's room, the rest of the gang discusses whether this led to anything more than sleep or not.
  Zoë: Does Akke even know how to do "it"?
• Diet Episode: Tom goes through one of these, when he doesn't fit into his wedding suit anymore. He ends up buying bigger pants.
• Differing Priorities Breakup: Mickey and Zoë were heading for this, as they had different interest and (wildy) different perspectives (due to Mickey's AIDS infection). Mickey eventually breaks up with Zoë to go on a trip around the world before he died.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: When Birgit starts dating the gang's landlord, Robert, Steve tries to scare her out of it, by reminding her what the consequences would be. This fails to work, as it reminds Birgit that she would become their landlady. Steve tries to correct the situation, only to fail as well.
  Steve: Those are not the consequences I meant!
  Birgit: Whether you meant them or not, these are the one's I'll keep in mind.
• Dirty Kid: Oswald's younger brother is apparently this, according to Jasmijn.
  Zoë [about Jasmijn's first time with Oswald]: Can't you guys try to get it on at Oswald's place?
  Jasmijn: Better not... Oswald shares his room with his younger brother, who can't keep his eyes off me, when I even wear as much as a tight-fitting T-shirt.
• Dirty Old Man: Norbert, Birgit's boss and (later on) landlord, who has a tendency to get a bit too intimate with her.
• Disappointing Older Sibling: Axel, Tom's older brother, is this to Tom, as he's a deadbeat, who scams people out of their money for a living (including Tom). Nevertheless, Tom still has faith in his brother, despite getting scammed by him before.
• Distracted by the Sexy:
  • One of the reasons Tom lost to Zoë in a running competition was because he got distracted by a female runner and started running backwards to follow her.
  • Happens to Tom again when he tries to write a novel, shortly after starting a (sexual) relationship with Ellen. He even resorts to locking her in the bathroom, as to not be distracted any more.
  • This was listed as one of Carlo's reasons not to employ Birgit at AKA. Apparently, he distracted him so much, that it kept him of his work. Carlo eventually resolves this by practicing some restraint.
  • Apparently, Zoë induces this in her professors to pass her exams. She advises Steve to do the same, only for Steve to respond that most of his professors aren't gay. It eventually turns out that it didn't help much, as Zoë actually got a higher grade the one time she didn't wear a sexy outfit to an exam.
  • Near the start of season five, Steve gets into a relationship with Gabriel, but he quickly decides that they aren't right for eachother. Every time Steve tries to break up, however, he gets too distracted by Gabriel's sexy body, that his mind goes completely blank and he ends up in bed with him. He eventually solves this by making Gabriel wear a thick coat and a scarf, removing his sex appeal.
• DIY Dentistry: Akke tries the "string on the doorhandle" method, when he gets a tooth ache. Unfortunately, the door open the wrong way for it to work.
• Documentary Episode: The B-plot of one of the episodes turns into this, when Tom starts living with a bunch of squatters to get inspiration for his new novel. This includes Tom shakily operating a pocket camera, as well as quite a few hilarious take outs, as the squatters are a bit too eager to get on camera.
• Does This Make Me Look Fat?:
  • When Steve tries to make love to Evita, a girl he has a crush on, things fizzle out in bed and he fails to perform. When he tries to explain to her why he couldn't go through with it, Steve states that it's not her, but her body (as he's attracted to male bodies). The girl, however, thinks it has something to do with her weight and asks Steve if she looks fat. When Steve explains that the problem lies somewhere else, she hit him with the following.
    Evita: So your absolutely certain you don't think I'm fat?
  • When Akke asks Carlo if he could be his posse, Carlo agrees, on the condition that Akke changes out of his cleaning dress, as it makes him look fat. Akke strongly disagrees with this.
    Akke [after Carlo told him the dress made him look fat]: No, it doesn't!
    Carlo: It truly does...
• Don't Explain the Joke: In one season three episode, Tom gets a cold and Akke makes him his special 5 herb tea (which contains bark from an ash tree as the special ingredient). When Akke and Zoë return from their respective blind dates later that night, they both state that the date was "special", to which Steve responds that it must've been like the tea, then. Zoë and Akke, obviously, don't get the joke and any attempts of Steve to explain it fall flat.
  Steve [In response to Akke and Zoë's reaction]: I didn't think it was that bad...
• Don't Look Down: When Kim wants to help Steve get over his fear of heights, she tricks him to climb on the cupboard to clean a part of the window she can't reach. Steve does so without worry, until Kim tells him how high up he is, causing him to freeze. Kim then follows this up by telling him not to look down, to which Steve responds that he absolutely wasn't planning on doing that.
• Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Birgit ends up with one in the form of Tim, who's essentially a succesful version of Tom with a mustache. Tom even mentions the resemblance to Birgit, but she's (initially) too much in denial to see it. She eventually wisens up and dumps Tim for being a clone of Tom.
• Double Take:
  • Steve does one in response to finding some toast burning in the kitchen.
    [Akke is soldering in the kitchen, as it's filling up with smoke]
    Steve: Akke, can't you do that outside.
    Akke: Why?
    Steve: Can't you see all this smoke.
    Akke: Oh, that's not coming from my end.
    Steve: Alright then...
    [As Steve turns away, he realizes that something else is burning]
    Steve: Where's the fire?!
    Akke: Oh, Tom forgot some toast in the toaster...
  • Birgit does one after she sends away the one person who could provide (free) food for her class reunion, which was about to be ruined due to lack of a proper meal.
    Danny: I'm Danny, the delivery guy, and I'm here with the catering for the Derijcke wedding.
    Birgit: I guess they haven't told you the wedding's off... No one's getting married here today.
    Danny: You are aware we still have to charge mr. Derijcke for the food.
    Birgit: Sure thing, but he won't be needing it anymore.
    [Birgit closes the door as the delivery guy walks away.]
    [Just as she closed the door, she realizes she let a man with free wedding food walk out the door, leading to an Oh, Crap! reaction.]
    Birgit [As she opens the door and Sprints after Danny]: Danny, wait! Come back here!
• Dreadful Musician: Birgit turns out to be this, as is shown when she plays the recorder.
  [The other look on in agony, as Birgit plays the recorder off-key]
  Birgit [stops playing]: So... Was I amazing or what?
  Everyone else: Sure thing, Birgit...
• Dream Sequence: When Steve stand to win 250000 € in the lottery, all of the gang starts dreaming of what they can do with the money. Birgit dreams about having having staff wait on her hand and foot (including a handsome bodyguard), Carlo dreams of sharing a hot tub with half a dozen beautiful women and Carlo dreams about taking a bath with a rubber ducky (which he could do without the money).
• Dream Reality Check: When Tom hires Norbert as his manager, Birgit (who has had some bad experiences with Norbert) tells herself that it must be a dream and that she'll wake up if someone pinches her. Norbert subsequently pinches her in the butt, making Birgit realize that it isn't a dream.
• Dresses the Same: In one episode, Zoë and Birgit buy the same green dress. Cue this trope, as both of them treat this like the worst thing to happen to them, period. Zoë even thinks Birgit did it on purpose to spite her, while Birgit merely wonders when Zoë started to get a proper taste in fashion.
  Birgit [as she's unpacking her dress]: Look what I bought!
  Birgit [when she notices that Zoë is wearing that exact dress]: Oh no!
  Zoë: Oh no!
  Jasmijn: Oh yeah!
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: When Birgit decides to join the army, she turns into this to motivate the other residents into studying for their exams, complete with whistle and whip. She even gives Carlo an earful, when he states that he planning to confront her with her behaviour.
  Birgit: Ten-hut! Haul yourselves over to the kitchen table for breakfast. Studying will commence in fifteen.
  Tom [Who's not a student anymore]: So that doesn't involve me, then... I'm off to bed again.
  Birgit: Derijcke! Get that lazy body of yours in the kitchen with the rest or you'll skip breakfast!
  [Tom immediately springs to attention and hurries over to the kitchen.]
• Driven to Suicide: When Birgit gets scammed out of her money by a Scam Religion, she resorts to taking a bunch of Valium pills as a final solution to her problems and nearly ODs. Fortunately for her, Zoë arrived home just in time to find her in the bathroom.
• Drop-In Character: Jasmijn started out as this and eventually became a regular cast member. Kim, furthermore, replaced her as this when she entered the cast.
  • Almost the entire cast becomes this to Birgit, after she moves away from the student house, much to her chagrin, as they drop in at the most inconvenient times.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Akke plans on doing this, after Gella tells him that he can't move in with her. He doesn't do this with alcohol, but with Fristi (a yoghurt drink), however.
  Akke: I'm going to the kitchen to drink this disappointment away...
  Carlo: Fristi's in the fridge, buddy!
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: The entire house gets these in one episode, after falling into a depression one by one. They get better the next episode.
• Dumb Blonde: Tom invites several of these over, when he writes an article on blondes. Ironically, the article was supposed to be about non-dumb blondes.

E-F

• Early-Installment Weirdness: The first season of the show had a lot different from the subsequent seasons. First, there is the fact that the first season episodes were 30 minutes long while later episodes only ran for about 15 minutes. The tone of the first season is also a lot raunchier (which includes the prevalent use of foul language in the dialogue, something that was later toned down or Bowdlerised), and in some way more grounded and realistic, as the prevalence of more absurd and wacky humour and sequences tended to increase in the later seasons.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: In one of the season five episodes, Birgit has a bit of a mouse plague and responds according to this trope. She even spends most of the episode standing on a table, as she's too afraid to walk around the house.
  [Steve picks up the phone to hear a woman screeching into it.]
  Steve: Mom?
  [The woman continues her screaming.]
  Steve: Dad?
  [The voice on the other side carries on screeching.]
  Steve: Birgit?
  [The voice finally pipes down and tells Steve to come over.]
  [Shortly after.]
  Steve: A mouse? That's why I had to come over post-haste?! Those things are harmless!
  Birgit: Harmless?! Deadly, you mean! All those germs, yuck!
• Egg Sitting: Jasmijn and Oswald have to do this together as a school assignment. They (almost) instantly start acting Like an Old Married Couple, with Jasmijn as the beleaguered housewife and Oswald as the irresponsible husband.They do become (much) closer, after Oswald saves their egg from getting boiled by Tom.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Ellen's mother calls her husband "Bolleke", which he absolutely hates.
  Ellen's father [hushed]: I told you not to call me that in public! A watch commander named "Bolleke" gets respect from no one!
  Ellen's mother: Okay, sweety...
• Embodiment of Vice: In season four, Carlo is kicked out of a Scam Religion cult, becuase he's seen by the cult members as the embodiment of lust (and as an evil person, because of it).
  Tom: So what was the cult like?
  Carlo: Nothing extraordinary...
  Birgit: He's only saying that because he got kicked out!
  Carlo: Well, I couldn't help it they saw me as the embodiment of evil!
  Carlo: All of the girls there were wearing purple robes... and nothing underneath them!
  Carlo: So I tried to contain my lustful desires...
  Birgit: For about 66 seconds.
  Carlo: And then I just gave in!
  Steve: No wonder they considered you evil...
• Empty Nest: Both Birgit and Steve suffer from this after (temporarily) taking care of Mieke, a young girl they found on the street by herself. They eventually almost resort to making a baby together because of it.
• Epic Fail: Zoë's attempt to do a summersault in one of the season three episodes turns out like this, as she makes a backwards roll and can only barely manage to avoid rolling into someone.
• Erotic Dream:
  • Carlo is implied to have one about Birgit, when Tom asks him for sexual advise while he's (half) asleep.
    Tom: Let's say you would want to have sex with Birgit, how would you go about that?
    Carlo [happily dreaming]: Sex with Birgit...
  • Steve has an erotic nightmare about Evita, a saleswoman he met when he went wedding dress shopping with Ellen. He even wakes up screaming in anguish.
• Everybody Knew Already:
  • When Steve reveals that Jasmijn was caught for theft, the reaction he received weren't what he'd expect. This was predominantly because everyone else already knew about it and kept it quiet for him.
  • Something similar happened when Ellen told Tom that she cheated on him with Prospèr. Tom returned home, expecting everyone to be shocked by Ellen's actions, only to find out (from their lukewarm reaction) that everyone (save for Akke and Carlo) knew already and was keeping it a secret from him.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: In one episode, Tom has to write an article about "Why blondes don't have to be dumb", which he uses as an excuse to invite several hot blondes over to the house. Ellen was not amused...
• Evil Uncle: Kim's aunt Berta is apparently this, if Kim and her father are to be believed. Carlo, furthermore, also seems to have an aunt Berta (although her name isn't Berta) and he and Akke can relate (even though Akke doesn't have an aunt Berta).
  Akke: Even I have nightmares of aunt Berta... And I don't even have an aunt Berta!
• Evolving Credits: From season four onwards, the title sequence is changed to incorporate both Carlo and Kim, who joined the main cast last season and this season respectively. They furthermore revamped the ending credits to match the new title credits.
• Extreme Omnivore: Tom is this, as he apparently once ate a spoon without noticing it.
  Akke [After he sees Tom licking his spoon]: Stop that! Or we won't have any spoons left!
• Eye Take: This is the gang's response when they discover that Steve has a winning lottery ticket worth 250000 €.
  Akke [about their facial expressions]: My pet frog also use to do that whenever he ribbited...
• Facial Composite Failure: In one episode, Steve gets attacked and Akke and him have to go to the police to point out the culprit. When Steve asks Akke if he got a good look of the culprit's face, Akke tells him he already made a composite sketch and shows it to him. The sketch shows a rather poorly drawn stick figure.
• Fainting: Tom does this, when Birgit and Jasmijn wax his chest hair. He did ask for it, though, as he stated that waxing didn't hurt that much and Birgit was a pussy for screaming in pain like she did.
• Fake Boobs: Near the end of season five, Tom gets into a discussion with Kim about whether the female actresses on baywatch had fake boobs or not. This discussion even spreads to Akke's date (who's well endowed), eventually causing Tom to sneak a not-so-accidental grope with her to determine that they were, in fact, fake.
  Kim [about the female actresses on baywatch]: You do know that those boobs are 100% silicone, don't you?
  Tom: You mean that stuff they use to seal window panes? No...
  Kim: Yup!
  Tom: No! They wouldn't do that to me and all the other men in the world...
  Kim: Yup, they would...
• Fake-Out Make-Out: In the series finale, Akke asks Gella to do this to him, so his date (who he doesn't want to be alone with) would think that he's taken. Gella, in turn, takes her role a bit too seriously and nearly starts a brawl over who gets to be with Akke.
• Fancy Dinner: Tom and Ellen have one with Ellen's parents, where Tom tries to ask for Ellen's hand in marriage. They eventually all end up under the table, simply because of the Rule of Funny.
  The waiter [Also, inexplicably, under the table]: May I take your order or should I return later?
• Fan Disservice:
  • When Birgit moves out of the student house, Carlo gives her a photo of himself in a speedo, which elicits this trope as a response from the gang.
    Tom: At least now we know why you're not allowed at the pool anymore...
  • In the series finale, Norbert, of all people, is waiting in Zoë's room in nothing but his (white) underwear. He quickly leaves the room when Zoë and Ellen enter, as he thought that her room was Birgit's room.
• Fashion Dissonance: Discussed in one of the episodes, where Jasmijn joins the latest fad, only to hear that it's outdated already (although it was specifically her version of the fad that was outdated). She then decides to invent her own fad, so that she's ahead of the curve.
• Fell Off the Back of a Truck: When Birgit moves out, she gets a TV as a housewarming present from Akke and Carlo. When Birgit asks Carlo where he got the TV, he responds with this trope, before (inadvertently) giving away it's true origin.
  Carlo: My grandma was going blind anyways...
• Feud Episode: Akke and Carlo have a feud in season four, which lasts for several episodes. The feud starts after Carlo falls in love with Greet, a nurse who's completely smitten by Akke (and who quickly becomes his girlfriend). Carlo subsequently gives Akke the silent treatment and, when that doesn't work, even pretends to move out (while moving to the basement). They eventually do make up in the end.
• Fighting in the Playground: When the gang (minus Akke) goes to the forest (to help Tom get rid of his writer's block), they end up having an "acorn fight", which expands from the forest to the nearby playground as well.
• Five-Finger Discount: Jasmijn turns to stealing stuff for the thrill of it in season two. She quits when she (eventually) gets caught by a mall cop and needs Steve to bail her out.
• Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: Birgit goes through several hobbies, such as cross-words, spatial reasoning puzzles and painting by number, when she tries to find one in a season two episode. None of them last to long, as she sucks at every single one.
• Flower-Pot Drop: After Birgit saves Tom's life, one of the schemes he concocts with Carlo (to repay his debt) involves Tom saving Birgit from this trope. It fails, becuase Birgit entered the living room through the wrong door. Furthermore, when Tom does save Birgit's life shortly after, he enters the living room through the trapped door and becomes victim of this himself.
  Tom [as he enters through the front door]: Carlo! I did it! I saved...
  [Tom activates the trap and a flower pot lands on his head.]
  Tom [dazed]: ...Birgit's life.
• Food Fight: Tom, Zoë and Steve end up in one, when a game of chess, using items from the pantry, gets out of hand.
• Food Porn: When Birgit decides to go for a breast enlargement, Carlo buys her an entire fruitbasket worth of (round) fruit, to show her what her breasts would look like. As this is at breakfast, the rest of the scene includes Carlo fondling the watermelon, Tom gobbling up the grapefruit and Steve eating a banana (for obvious reasons).
  Zoë [in response to Tom gobbling up a grapefruit]: What's with guys and their obsession for fruit...
  Steve: Not all guy are like that!
  [Steve proceeds to eat a banana in front of her]
• Football Hooligans: Tom once made a (brief) documentary on a group of these. He decided to quit, however, when he hooligans demanded that Tom would participate in their brawls. The introduction of the hooligans caused Carlo to become one as well, although he was as succesful as you would expect from a computer nerd.
• Forced Out of the Closet: Tom attempts to do this to Steve, after he falls in love with a woman (he was openly gay to everyone but her). The other housemates, however, stop him from doing this by changing the subject every time.
• Foreign Cuss Word: When Tom burns his toast in one of the episodes, he swears at god, forgetting there's a priest at the breakfast table. The priest, however, is cool with and states that he often swears in Latin. When Tom asks what the phrase means, the priest states that he can't tell, as that would be cursing.
• Forgotten Birthday: In one of the season three episodes, the gang completely forgets Jasmijn's birthday, despite Jasmijn dropping some serious hints. They do make up for it by organizing a birthday party for her the following day (where they pretend it's yesterday).
  [Jasmijn enters the kitchen during lunch.]
  Jasmijn: Alright, I'm here! Where's my...
  Jasmijn: Oh... So it's planned for tonight, then?
  Steve: What is?
  Jasmijn: Don't worry, you won't have to say a thing...
  Jasmijn: Oh, by the way, my favorite vegetable is yellow paprika.
  [Jasmijn dashes off before Steve can answer.]
  Steve: Is it the time of the month to act crazy?
• Frame-Up: Near the end of season two, Carlo is framed for hacking a bank and wiring the stolen money to the true culprits (he thought that he was testing their cyber security system). He has to hide from the police and eventually asks Akke to prove his innocence.
• Friend or Foe?: When Akke and Carlo scientifically test a first person shooter, Carlo ends up shooting one of the hostages he was supposed to save, as well as Akke, who was on his team.
• Friendship Song: "We zijn er voor elkaar"^note We're there for eachother was definitely this, as the song is quite literally about friends sticking up for one another. This was already lampshaded by Jasmijn, when she introduced the song.
  Jasmijn: Hello everyone... My song is about doing things together, friendship and being there for one another...
• "Friends" Rent Control: Out of the residents, only Birgit and Tom have a job throughout the first few seasons, as the rest is still in college. Birgit, however, has trouble finding a steady, well-paying job and therefore spends a great deal of time unemployed, while Tom works as a writer for a magazine. Steve eventually gets a job as well and becomes a high school PE teacher.
• Frivolous Lawsuit: In season two, Birgit gets sued for assault and battery, because she accidentally bumped into a little girl and caused her to fall. This lawsuit was after Birgit (and the rest of the gang) spent the entire day taking care of the girl (the suit was filed by the parents, obviously). Something good eventually does come of it, as her lawyer becomes her new boyfriend, Prosper.
• Frozen Face: Jasmijn ends up with her jaw locked in the open position, after an intense make-out session with her latest boyfriend. It was even lampshaded earlier in the episode by Zoë.
  Zoë: Making out is like a top-class sport... If you overdo it, you might end up with a painful cramp.
• Frying Pan of Doom: While trying to prove Carlo's innocence in hacking a bank, Akke's weapon of choice is a frying pan. He also uses it earlier that same episode to hit Tom over the head, after he attempted to scare Akke.
• Funny Background Event:
  • When Zoë tries to dump a girl she (inadvertently) spent the night with after she drank too much, Tom and Carlo covertly follow her (hiding behind a newspaper) to the bar where she's meeting up with her. At the bar, however, Carlo (almost immediately) gives himself away in the background, by trying to drink a coke through his newspaper, which results in him spilling it on the newspaper and his grey overcoat.
  • When Zoë and her friend talk about the illegal radio station she's been hosting for him, we can see Tom and Steve play football in the background, with Paco (Akke's temporary replacement) as the referee. At one point, Tom and Steve get into a fight with Paco and knock him to the floor, before carrying on as if nothing happened. The entire event is never mentioned afterwards.
• Funny Phone Misunderstanding: Steve and Jasmijn have one of these (which would also count as One Dialogue, Two Conversations), when Jasmijn gets arrested for theft and has to call "a parent" to bail her out.
  Jasmijn [On the phone with Steve]: Hey, dad, I'm in trouble.
  Steve: Jasmijn?! I'm not dad, I'm Steve!
  Jasmijn: I got caught for stealing at the store and now I'm being detained...
  Steve: You what?!
  Jasmijn: So could you come over and bail me out, daddy?
  Steve: Wait, I'm not...
  [Jasmijn hangs up before Steve can finish his sentence]
  • Jasmijn actually discusses this trope during one of the season three episodes.
  [The phone rings.]
  Steve [to Jasmijn]: It's your turn!
  Jasmijn: Aw man, can't you guys pick it up, it'll most likely be Bert, anyways...
  Steve: Then it's your turn to cuss at him.
  Jasmijn: Yeah right, I know how that works!
  Jasmijn: I'll pick up the phone, cuss at the person on the other end without asking his name, and he'll turn out to be my boss!
  Steve [after a few moments of thought]: Do you even have a boss?
• Funny X-Ray: Tom has one in season two, after Birgit suspects him of accidentally eating her earring. It turns out that he ate a spoon instead.
• Furniture Assembly Gag: Season two featured several, after Akke bought a cabinet for his videogames. The funniest of them was when Akke and Steve roped (read: intimidated) the furniture salesman into contructing the cabinet, with only a German instruction manual to go off.

G-H

• Gag Haircut: Zoë gets a bad hairdye job, after she makes up an excuse about dying her hair to not see Mickey. It reverts to normal before the end of the episode (without any explanation)
• Gayngst: While Steve is quite comfortable being gay, even he gets this when he gets a crush on a woman, as he's uncertain if he's still gay or not. He gets over it rather quickly though
• Gender-Separated Ensemble Episode:
  • One of the season two episodes had all the girls go on a girl's night, while the guys stayed at home.
  • Near the end of season two, Tom and Ellen have their stag parties on the same night, with all of the guys and girls going along with Tom and Ellen respectively.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Akke turns into Berend (his smooth-talking, two-timing alternate personality), he (Berend) decides to stay that way, despite all the protestations of his girlfriend, Maaike. He even remains unphased when Maaike breaks up with him for not reverting back to Akke. It eventually takes Maaike slapping him, right after the break-up, to snap Akke back to his original personality. However, by then, it's too late for Akke to save his relationship.
• Get Out!:
  • When Tom stays the night with some squatters, he's quickly banished from the main room, after getting caught rifling through the pack of one of the squatters and finding a case with "XTC" on it. The case, ironically, contained cough drops, apparently.
    Squatter 1 [Upon return from the fastfood joint]: What are you doing with my pack?
    Tom: I was just trying to shoot some good material...
    Squatter 1: Of my pack?! Guys, get over here...
    Squatter 2: What's up?
    Squatter 1: This guy was going through my pack!
    [The squatter notices the case in Tom's hand.]
    Squatter 1: He's trying to steal my cough drops! Hand me back my cough drops!
    [Tom hand over the cough drops]
    Tom: Sorry for the distress, but I only want to make a good documentary...
    Squatter 2: Then it would be best if you did so from the other room.
    Tom: What about my burger and fries, then?
    Squatter 1: Get out!!!
    Squatter 2 [after Tom scurries off]: It's that he's planning to bring "De Kreuners" back together, because otherwise...
    Squatter 1: "De Kreuners"?
  • When Kim and her father are staying over, Kim's father also does this to Birgit, when she's finishing up her make-up in the bathroom.
    Birgit [when Kim's father enters unannounced]: Just a second, I'm almost done with my face...
    Kim's father: You're time's up! It's my turn now...
    Birgit: You can't be serious! I just have to finish...
    Kim's father: Get out!
• Girls vs. Boys Plot: One of these takes place between Tom and Zoë, as they try to determine which sex is the strongest.
• Give Me Back My Wallet: When the gang is packaging stuffed animals to send to Africa, Tom pretends to get really tired all of a sudden, in order to steal a Garfield plushy. Steve notices it immediately and call Tom out on it.
  Steve: Tom, hand over the Garfield!
• Going Commando:
  • All of the women in the cult Birgit joined in season four apparently did this, if Carlo is to be believed. Then again, all of them wore purple robes, so one couldn't confirm it visually.
  • Akke apparently also has been doing this throughout the series.
  Tom [after getting chewed out for not changing his underwear every day]: Akke, how often do you change underwear?
  Akke: Never.
  [The rest of the gang looks at him in disgust.]
  Akke: I stopped using underwear long ago... I enjoy the freedom it gives.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: When Carlo gets into a fight with Akke, he hides himself in the basement (to make Akke believe that he left). However, as Akke was his best (and, pretty much, only) friend, he has no one to talk to down there and slowly goes (increasingly) mad. Kim even lampshades this trope, when she tries to convince Carlo to make things right with Akke.
  Kim: Come on, make things right with Akke! It's not like you have a lot of friends down here...
  Carlo: I'll have you know that I have plenty of people I can talk to!
  Kim: Who would that be, the mice that scurry around down here!
  Carlo: No, ofcourse not! Like I would talk to the mice...
  Carlo: All they ever talk about is "Cheese, cheese, cheese...", like I would care about that!
  [later in the episode]
  Carlo [telling a joke to a can of soup]: So then the Flemish guy says: "look there, a dead bird!".
  Carlo: And the dutch guy looks up in the sky and asks: "Where, where?
  [Carlo laughs his ass off at his own joke, while the can of soup remains stoic.]
  Carlo [looking at the can of soup]: Do you get it? A dead bird flying?
  Carlo: It wasn't that bad... I still found it funny.
  [The can of soup stays stoic.]
  Carlo: Fine, it was a bad joke...
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: A particularly striking case of this happens when Ellen and Prospèr cheat on Tom and Birgit (respectively) with eachother. While Prospèr is seen as the bad guy and quickly dumped by Birgit (who even punches him in the face), Ellen gets off far easier (especially when it comes to Birgit and Zoë, who don't blame her at all for cheating, even though it was entirely mutual). The wedding would have even gone through (as no one was willing to snitch on Ellen), if it weren't for Ellen coming clean to Tom and breaking things off.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: In one season three episode, Akke is awakened by a devil and an angel (who look like him), who give him advise about Maaike, the girl he met online. Moreover, Akke isn't the only one who could see them, as Carlo's woken up by them as well.
  Carlo [To Akke and his (imaginary) guests]: Could you tell them to pipe down? Trying to sleep here...
• Good Cop/Bad Cop:
  • When the gang receives roses from a secret admirer, they try this routine on the delivery boy to get him to talk. More specifically, Steve and Tom are the bad cops (with Tom taking it a bit further than Steve), while Birgit is the (somewhat) good cop (who tells them that the delivery guy will certainly call the cops on them, if they torture him).
  • When Steve gets arrested by a couple of officers from the (former) military police (BOB), the officers in question have an argument about who can be the bad cop, which ends with one of them storming out.
  Vanhove: You promised me I could be the bad cop this time.
  Bollue: Weren't you the bad cop last time?
  Vanhove: No! You have been the bad cop last time... and the time before that... and the time before that!
  Bollue: Well, there's always next time...
  Vanhove: No, there isn't, because I'm out!
  [Vanhove storms out of the interrogation room.]
  Bollue: Vanhove, come back! I never meant to upset you...
• Good-Looking Privates: Birgit is an example of this, when she joins the army in one of the season three episodes. This is predominantly because she's much more preoccupied with her make up than with becoming a good soldier. When she decides to quit after one day, she furthermore keeps the uniform because of this trope.
  Birgit: Why would I return this uniform, if it accentuates my shapes so well...
  [As Birgit poses, Carlo can be seen lustfully drooling a couple of feet away]
• Goofy Print Underwear: In one episode, the residents (and the viewer) discovers that Tom wears underwear with little Tweetys on them.
  Zoë [after Tom puts on a really tight pair of pants]: I don't think your Tweety bird can breath anymore...
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: From season two onwards, most curse words were replaced by this to make the series more suitable for children.
  • There was also a specific scene during season two where Tom shouted "Goddammit!" in front of a priest, only to quickly replace it with "Good golly!".
• Goth: Zoë starts dressing like one when she thinks she's cursed in one of the season two episodes.
  Tom [about Zoë's outfit]: Are you trying to join the Addams Family?
• G-Rated Drug:
  • Caffeine is this to Akke, to the point that he becomes addicted to the stuff in one episode. The rest of the gang has to force him to go cold turkey, by locking him in his room.
  • One episode had Zoë paying for a stolen bike with (extra-pure) chocolate, which was treated like a class-A drug by the two of them (with Zoë even mentioning that the street price had gone up, when she short sells Tom.
• Gratuitous Disco Sequence: One of the episodes involved Jasmijn's father partaking in one.
  Jasmijn's friends: We weren't bothered by your father joining us.
  Jasmijn's friends: And it's cool that he buys a round every once in a while.
  Jasmijn's friends: And we don't mind him hooking up with the French teacher either, as it gets her off our case.
  Jasmijn's friends: But now he's really gone to far.
  [Cue Jasmijn's father (and most of the teachers) dancing to "YMCA" by "The Village People".]
• Gray Rain of Depression: This seems to have happened off-screen to Tom, after Ellen tells him that she cheated on him with Prospèr, as he returns home completely soaked (and depressed).
• Green-Eyed Monster: After Kim is introduced, Jasmijn becomes extremely jealous of her, as the rest of the gang neglects her and only pays attention to Kim. She even makes it known to her that she despises her becuase the others think she's adorable, only for Kim to become upset because she hates being called adorable.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Akke and Carlo show how little they know of sports, by getting a football question spectacularly wrong in Trivial pursuit.
  Steve: Who beat the Belgian natioanl team at the world championship of 1984?
  Akke and Carlo [simultaneously]: Eddy Merckx!
• Groin Attack: When the gang has an "acorn fight" in the forest, Jasmijn pelts one at Tom, which ends up beneath the belt. Judging from Tom's response, this trope was in full action at that moment.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: Happens to Tom after he spends the night with Birgit at the start of season two. He's thrown out of Birgit's room naked and receives a newspaper from her to cover himself with. As he makes his way to his room, Akke walks by and takes Tom's newspaper, because he wants to read it. When Tom protests, Akke gives him a small scrap of the newspaper as compensation.
• Happy Dance: Tom does one of these, after he hears from Ellen that he's not the father of her baby. It doubles as Innocently Insensitive, as he hurts Ellen through this action.
• Harassing Phone Call: Bert does this to Zoë, after she breaks up with him. It even goes so far that the gang unplugs their landline to force him to stop. This doesn't work, however, because Bert breaks in and reconnects the phone.
• Hates Being Called Cute: Kim absolutely hates being called adorable and even tries to anger the gang to elicit a different response, only for it to backfire.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: When Akke is forced to go on a blind date by Zoë, he resorts to wearing a Hawaiian shirt to invoke this trope. It backfire, when Zoë states that his date will love it.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: When Zoë gets a motorcycle, Steve has a dream of himself clad in a cool leather suit. It quickly turns into a spoof of The Village People.
• Hidden Depths: Akke has a bit of a squicky one, as he can swallow long strips of candy and retrieve them (by pulling them out of his throat) afterwards without gagging. Both Tom and Jasmijn were impressed (and a bit grossed out) by the skill).
• Hidden Supplies: Akke apparently hides his share of the rent under his pillow, which Steve seems to find a rather poor hiding spot.
  Steve: Let me guess, you hide your money under your matress...
  Akke: No, ofcourse not! Under the matress, such a bad spot...
  Akke [whispering to Steve]: I hide it under my pillow, far better...
• Hidden Wire: Akke wears one to prove Carlo's innocence, after he unwittingly hacked a bank. The microphone is placed on his right nipple, as can be seen when Akke tests it on Steve.
  Akke [to Steve]: Say something...
  Steve: To your right nipple?
  [Akke nods]
  Steve [clears throat and starts speaking with a stilted voice]: Hello, right nipple! How are you today? Aren't you hot under that longcoat?
  Akke: Stop!
  [Akke takes out a tape recorder from under his longcoat and plays back the stilted sentence Steve just spoke]
• History Repeats:
  • This happens to Tom every time he gives his brother Axel money. Axel always ends up spending the money and asking for more, without delivering any results, leaving Tom penniless. Nevertheless, he always falls for Axel's scheme's and will gladly invest time and time again.
    Birgit: Tom, if you have one braincell left, don't hand Axel the money.
    [Tom gladly hand Axel the money nevertheless]
    Birgit: So, what's it like to live without a brain?
  • This also happens when Jasmijn and Oswald get together again in the series finale. Before that, Oswald hadn't spoken to Jasmijn, since the both of them got caught by Birgit's landlord, Norbert, while having sex in her apartment. When they decide to give the sexual part of their relationship another chance, they get caught by Norbert again, causing Oswald to run out with the sheets around his waste (again!).
    Jasmijn [for the second time in her life]: Oswald, get back here with those sheets!
    Norbert: Don't I know you, young lady?
• Hollywood Exorcism: Carlo tries to do this to Birgit, after she joins a scam religion cult. She ends up kicking him out of her room.
  Birgit: Carlo, what's with the mistifier? Are you gonna water the plants?
  Carlo: No, Birgit, this is holy water...
  Carlo [as he sprays Birgit]: Begone, Satan! Leave this beautiful body!
  Carlo [to Birgit]: How are you feeling?
  Birgit: Wet... and angry!
  Carlo: Uh oh!
  [Carlo quickly takes some garlic from his pack]
  Carlo: Begone Satan!
  Birgit [As she rips the garlic out of Carlo's hands and throws it at him]: You'd better give this back to Steve!
  Carlo [as he picks a holy cross from his pack]: By the power of Christ! I compell you to leave this body, Satan!
  Birgit [As she throws Carlo out of her room]: Leave me alone, idiot!
  Carlo [from the other side of the door]: Now wouldn't be the best time to talk about our relationship, would it?
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: Steve and Birgit get a brief one, when they come to the realization that they're starting to get old and boring.
  Birgit [after Jasmijn's presence reminds her that they're the responsible adults of the house]: To the club?
  Steve: To the club!
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: During the band practice for Jasmijn's gig, both Tom and Zoë suffer from this, as (like all the others) they can't hit a single note right. They eventually become rather amazing singers during the gig, despite the fact that they quit during band practice and didn't rehearse between the practice and the actual performance.
• Homage: The scene where Carlo is called in to help turn the gang into a real band (for Jasmijn's gig) is a clear homage to the scene in Pulp Fiction, where Jules and Vincent call in Winston Wolfe to clean up their mess. The homage includes Carlo getting called up in a similar way to Winston Wolfe, Steve making a cup of his "delicious coffee" and Carlo making the same speech to Tom as Winston did to Vincent (including the "a please would be nice" part). It doesn't work out the same as in Pulp Fiction, as the band ends up splitting up in the end.
• "Home Alone" Antics: After several homes in the neighbourhood get burgled into, Akke creates his own security system, which ends up running on this trope. He removes it when the bruglars are caught, by the end of the episode.
• Homemade Inventions: BORF is probably the best example of this, as it is a home domotics system built and coded by Akke and Carlo within the student home.
• Honesty Is the Best Policy: When Birgit asks Marc, Zoë's friend and a priest, what to do about her job (at which she gets promoted, despite her incompetence), he states that honesty would be the best way to go. This works out even better for her then expected, when she gets another promotion for being honest about her competencies. She ends up quiting her job of her own accord.
• Hot Potato: When Jasmijn starts keeping a tarantula as a pet, she brings it over to the student house in a cardboard box. When she subsequently gives the box to Steve, the sudden realization that there's a tarantula in the box causes Steve (and the rest of the gang) to play hot potato with the box, as none of them want to hold on to the spider. It eventually ends up with Latka, a political refugee who's temporarily staying in the house, who doesn't mind the spider as much.
• How Much Did You Hear?:
  • When Tom tries to get inspiration for his latest novel, he makes some weird word associations, which Kim happens to overhear. This leads to this trope on Tom's end, when she makes her presence clear.
    Tom: All right, inspiration... House, Birgit, sex, gnomes... No, that's not it.
    Kim: Sounds rather wild to me...
    Tom: Kim! how much did you hear...
    Kim: I heard "sex"and "gnomes" in one sentence, so enough, I guess.
  • When Zoë gets in trouble with her professor for leaving her internship in Urk, she makes up a story about a friend needing psychological help (she's studying for psychiatrist). After her professor leaves, Steve makes a remark about the mess she got herself into, which leads her to respond with this trope.
  Zoë [to Steve]: You were eavesdropping?!
  Steve: Yeah, that kind of went by accident...
• Humiliating Wager: Jasmijn and Oswald challenge eachother to a series of these in season two, which culminates in Jasmijn having to perform a song on stage in front of a live audience. Most of the wagers they dared eachother to were either humiliating (walking outside naked) or so squicky that we (for the most part) only have the response of the gang to signify how bad they were. The ones the audience did get to see (such as Oswald smushing peas and carrots in Tom's shoe) were quite funny, nevertheless
• Hurricane of Puns: When Tom hears that Jasmijn steals from stores for the thrill, he can't help but to make theft-related puns about her.
  Zoë [as Jasmijn enters]: Jasmijn can't know that you know, so play it cool!
  Tom: Wow, Jasmijn, those clothes look like a steal...
  Jasmijn [to Zoë]: You told him?!
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • One episode has Birgit, of all people, saying that comradery should go above making money. Akke is quick to point out how most of her life seems to revolve around money and status (by thinking she was making a joke).
  • That same episode has Tom and Jasmijn watching an episode of Friends. As they're watching, Jasmijn comments about how unrealistic sitcoms like those are, stating that the main characters of Friends (who have similar character archetypes as the main characters of this show) would never live together in one house. It shows that even the showrunners saw the similarities between this show and Friends.
  • In the episode where Tom announces his novel, the rest of the gang (except for Jasmijn) eventually gets mad at him for writing about them and lying about their personalities. Steve, nevertheless, initially sticks up for Tom (citing artistic freedom and freedom of speech), until Birgit reads out an unflattering passage about him, which causes this trope in full force.
    Steve [after listening to the fragment Birgit read]: That bastard, if I get my hands on him...
    Birgit: But Steve, isn't Tom entitled to his "Freedom of speech".
    Steve: Definitely... But not when he's writing lies about me!

I-K

• I Am Not Left-Handed: In one episode, Tom and Steve play FIFA 2001 against eachother and Steve beats Tom every time. Eventually, Steve even resorts to playing with one hand, while reading a magazine, and still wins!
• Ice-Cream Koan: W Hen Birgit joins a Scam Religion, she quickly picks up a few of these.
  Birgit [to Steve]: Humans are as fragile as a flower, but sturdier than rock!
  [Steve walks off shaking his head at the nonsense he just heard.]
• Ignoring by Singing: Done by Akke when he hears Jasmijn's father (who's also the landlord) having intercourse with her French teacher through the wall. Made even funnier by the fact that he was in the bath and, therefore, used sponges to close his ears.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Carlo does this to Birgit, when she's trying to seduce him into staying with AKA. When she asks him why, Carlo states that at his new job, he'll have five hot secretaries for himself.
• I Have This Friend: Both Steve and Birgit do this to eachother, when they meet in the kitchen in the middle of the night, because they can't sleep. In the case of Steve, his friend is gay, but fell in love with someone of the opposite sex. In the case of Birgit, her friend accepted a job she wasn't qualified for and is now in over her head. They were both obviously talking about themselves. Steve is quick to see through Birgit's excuse, as Birgit already complained about it earlier.
• I Knew There Was Something About You: At the start of the season four finale, Carlo thinks that Akke has turned into a zombie, as he's more pale than usual. Later on in the episode, he calls for him, to get no reply. When he calls for "zombie", Akke immediately shows up, leading to this response from Carlo.
  Carlo: I knew it!
• I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: When their landlord raises the rent, the gang comes together to discuss the situation and Steve asks if anyone would volunteer to negiotiate with the landlord. Akke and Carlo immediately raise their hand, only for Steve to react with this trope (as he doesn't want either of them to talk to the landlord, in fear of getting evicted). When they later tell Steve that they were volunteering, Steve doubles down and states that he didn't see them raise their hand (while it was hard not to notice).
• I'll Take Two Beers Too: When Tom and Steve go to a football match, Tom returns to his seat with enough food for the both of them. When Steve thanks him for bringing something for him as well, Tom responds with this trope.
  Tom [holding on to the large pile of food in his arms]: Wait, you wanted something from the food stalls as well?
• Impossibly Mundane Explanation: When Akke asks a priest who God is, he states that the answer to that depends on the person asking the question, similar to the question "What is love?". Later on in the episode, Akke returns with a neuroscience textbook, to explain that love is caused by serotonin production in the brain.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: In the episode of Tom's stag party, Steve starts wearing a dry-fit T-shirt, which is considered extremely tacky by everyone but him (as it's extremely tight, sleaveless and made of a fish-netted material). The common response to the T-shirt ranges from fright (by Akke) to a laughing fit (by Jasmijn). What makes it this trope is that, while everyone in universe seemed to think the T-shirt was terrible, it wasn't as bothersome to the viewer.
• I'm Standing Right Here: This exchange, where Tom and Carlo discuss how Tom landed Birgit in front of her.
  Carlo: Hey Tom, do you still remember how you seduced Birgit?
  Tom: Sure, it wasn't as hard as you'd think...
  Carlo: Do you think it would work for me as well?
  Tom: With Birgit as she is currently, almost certainly!
  Birgit: Hey, I'm standing right here, you know!
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Said by Tom, after a house fire destroys the interior of their apartment. The rest of the gang (minus Carlo) joins him
  Tom: I need a drink... Everyone who needs a double cola, follow me!
  Carlo: And everyone who wants to play in the foam naked, follow me!
  [The rest of the gang quickly follows Tom.]
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog:
  • When Mickey ends up at the hospital, Zoë makes up all kind of excuses not to visit him, such as having a seminar (which she never visits otherwise) or having an appointment with a professor she doesn't even know. It eventually turns out she's afraid of hospitals (or, more specifically, her presence there).
  • Zoë does this again over the phone (even though she didn't intend it), when Mickey and her hit a rough patch. In this case, it's predominantly Tom who turns her excuse into this trope.
  Zoë [To Tom, who's on the phone with Mickey]: I'm not here, tell him I'm at the Woozly.
  Zoë: No wait, then he'll come looking for me... tell him I'm dying my hair.
  Tom [To Mickey]: Zoë's not here, she at the Woozly... But don't go looking for her there, cause she's dying her hair!
  Zoë [To Tom]: Can't you do anything right!
  • In the same episode, Birgit makes up one, when she chickens out of confronting a burglar (who turned out to be Tom).
  Birgit: I had a stocking in my tear...
  • When Akke infiltrates a group of hackers, his excuse to suddenly leave is to state that his mother made fried fish.^note a phrase commonly used in Flemish to ask someone to leave It becomes even funnier when one of the hackers suddely remembers that his mother made fried fish too and leaves as well.
  The remaining hacker [disappointedly]: What about me, then?
  • When Tom asks Bert to come return and become one of Zoë's patients (for a bet), Bert starts to wise up a bit and asks Tom and Carlo why they're holding their nose. As they both don't want to tell Bert he stinks, they makes up excuses like these.
    Tom [in response to Bert's question]: I have a bloody nose...
    Bert [inspecting Tom's nose]: I don't see anything...
    Tom [after quickly punching himself in the nose]: See!
    Carlo [from upstairs]: Sweet mother of god, what is that sm...
    Carlo [holding his nose as he sees Bert]: ah, Bert... it's you...
    Bert [to Carlo]: Do you also have a bloody nose?
    Carlo: No, I just like to speak like a smurf...
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • When Zoë tells Tom that Mickey has HIV, Tom starts tripping over his words and (quite accidentally) says some rather insensitive things, such as that he would've expected that Zoë would be the one with HIV and asking which things Mickey touched (so he could avoid them). Zoë eventually forgives him, because he couldn't help it. From the conversation that follows, it's apparently not the first time this happened to Tom.
  Steve: You should see how he tries to pick up girls!
  • After Birgit ends up at the hospital after nearly overdosing on pills, the rest of the gang tries to avoid this trope at all cost, by not talking about anything death-related. This becomes difficult, when Zoë buys a motorcycle, which Steve refers to as a death machine.
• Innocent Swearing: When the gang tries to have a conversation with Latka, a political refugee who's staying with them, Tom at one point states that he could be cursing at them in his own language and that he could be calling them his equivalent of "Scheefgezakte bloemzak". Their subsequent discussion about the phrase causes Latka to repeat it to them (and hence swearing at them) without knowing what it means.
  Tom: Perhaps he's calling us a "Scheefgezakte bloemzak" or something like that.
  [Latka starts speaking enthousiasticly in his mother tongue once again]
  Akke: Perhaps he might think that we're cussing at him as well...
  Tom: Hold on, I got an idea...
  Tom [cheerfully to Latka]: Scheefgezakte bloemzak?
  Steve [to Tom]: Watch your mouth!
  Latka [cheerfully]: "Scheefgezakten bloemzak!"
• Insistent Terminology: When Tom writes a novel, Akke has some criticism about some of the terms Tom uses in the novel (instead of on the content of the novel, like everyone else).
  Akke: Tom, I've read your novel and I only have one thing to say...
  Akke: It's full of mistakes! No one's going to buy this crap!
  Tom: Not you too... It's a novel! It's called artistic freedom!
  Akke: Artistic freedom, my nose! Printers don't have a USB-A port on them, period!
  Akke: And there's plenty more mistakes like that!
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • In one episode, Birgot is being sued for assault of a child (which she didn't do) and her lawyer, Prosper, wants to prove this by showing how peaceful the student house is. Unfortunately, he comes at exactly the wrong moment.
  Birgit: Follow me and I'll show you around.
  [Birgit opens the door to the living room to find everyone in a physical or verbal altercation with eachother]
  Birgit: This is not standard practice here.
  Prosper: I think the court won't see it your way... We need another defense strategy!
  • In one of the season five episodes, Tom and Akke question Carlo's singing capabilities. Carlo, in turn, states that he's an excellent singer, only to fall flat after four seconds of singing.
• Interactive Narrator: When Kim's father decides to live with the gang for a while (as his house is getting fumugated against woodworm), the rest of the gang states their disapproval of this, except for Tom, who narrates the argument between the gang and the landlord.
  Landlord: If Kim is staying, then so am I!
  Tom [narrating]: Good opening statement...
  Steve: But we only have room for Kim!
  Tom: Great rebuttal!
  Landlord: We can always make more room, if neccesary...
  Tom: Good counter point!
  Steve: But what about aunt Berta? Shouldn't you stay with her instead?
  Tom: Strong argument in favor of Berta...
  Landlord: Aunt Berta, [shudders].
  Tom: And that's an argument against her.
  Kim: She is you sister... shouldn't you get along with her?
  Tom: Yeah, the shudder was quite harsh...
  Landlord: It's my house, so I'm staying!
  Tom: Game over...
• Interrupted Intimacy: Tom and Ellen get interrupted during their first time by Zoë and Mickey, who ask them for a condom. Tom's answer is that he needs his remaining condoms himself.
• I Owe You My Life: When Birgit saves Tom from choking on a pancake, he (begrudgingly) ends up in servitude to her. He then tries to devise a plan together with Carlo to save Birgit's life in return. After several (painfully) failed attempts, he manages to do this near the end of the episode.
• Involuntary Charity Donation: In one episode, Steve has the rest of the gang hand over stuffed animals (for a charity drive for Africa) in exchange for their dinner. To say that these "donations" were done begrudgingly is probably an understatement.
• Irony:
  • In one episode, Tom is planning to participate in a hotdog eating contest, the proceedings of which go to food support in Africa. Steve even notes the Irony of it all.
    Steve: So your stuffing your face to end the hunger in Africa... Quite ironic, that one!
  • Near the end of the series, the gang hears that Carlo failed his thesis on "Intellectual theft and plagiarism online", because he plagiarized most of his thesis.
    Carlo: They said that I plagiarized most of my thesis from online sources!
    Carlo: That's just not true! I plagiarized from the library, like any normal person...
• Irritation Nightmare: Steve has one the night before his anatomics exam, where he dreams that he has to succesfully remove the kidneys in the board game operation during his exam and fails at it.
• It Makes Sense in Context: When Birgit has her old high school friends over, she gets into a small argument with Tom, which leads to Tom reciting a fragment of his new novel, which contained some unflattering descriptions of the people present in the room. When Birgit responds that Tom is merely depressed becuase his fiancé left him, Tom airs some of Birgit's dirty laundry, including several events from past episodes which sound absolutely terrible out of context (but were, in fact, quite harmless). Birgit tries to invoke this trope to explain it, but fails at doing so.
  Birgit [To her friends, after listening to the awkward fragment of Tom's new novel]: Don't mind him, he's just a bit depressed because his fiancé left him.
  Tom: What was that?
  Birgit's friend: She told us you were depressed...
  Birgit's other friend: Because your fiancé broke up with you.
  Tom: Oh, did she now! Did she also tell you that my fiancé ran off with her boyfriend?
  Jasmijn: And that was after she got sued for child abuse!
  Birgit: Look, I can explain all of this, alright...
• It's All Junk: After Tom splits up with Ellen, he starts throwing away all of the gifts he got from her, including a Hugo Claus book. When Jasmijn states that he could just rip out the page that contains Ellen's message, Tom states that the entire book is tainted and tat even the cover would remind him of her. Later in the episode, he also throws away one of Birgit's CD albums, because he thinks her taste in music is thrash.
• It's Not You, It's Me: Greet says a variant of this to Akke, when she breaks up with him, as she's causing a rift between him and Carlo and she sees that He needs Carlo more than she needs her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: This is essentially the reason why Mickey breaks up with Zoë. He's afraid that his illness will demand too much from their relationship and that Zoë will be reluctant to break up because of it, so he does it himself.
• I Was Just Joking: When Akke build a transponder (as in the teleporter from Star Trek) and subsequently vanishes, Carlo thinks that Akke beamed himself to another dimension. After an extensive search (and some studying on Carlo's end of how beaming in star Trek works), Birgit jokingly states that Carlo should beam himself to Akke to find him, prompting Carlo to do exactly that. Birgit, in turn, responds with this trope.
  Birgit: Carlo, you know that was a joke, right?
  Birgit '[as Carlo runs off]'': I was kidding, Carlo!
• Jar Potty: When Zoë and Jasmijn are discussing Jasmijn's first time in the bathroom, Tom walks in desperately having to go number one. Zoë subsequently hands him a plastic bottle and sends him away. After Zoë and Jasmijn's conversation ends, Tom sheepishly walks in to return the (now filled) bottle.
• Jump Scare: Latka, a political refugee Steve took in, becomes a frequent victim of this, because he has PTSD, which everyone in the house seems (unwittingly) trigger with a variety of actions, which include showing him Rambo, making pictures of him with a camera flash, showing him pictures of Belgian politicians and even the use of an eyelash curler (which looked a bit like a torture device).
• Just Here for the Free Snacks: In the episode where Birgit joins a cult, Tom scolds Kim for not giving into this trope and going to the introduction dinner as well.
  Tom: The first rule in life is, that you never ever skip out on a free meal!
• Just One More Level!: When Tom and Akke buy and restore a "Klax" arcade machine, Steve ends up playing it all night. He ends up severely sleep deprived the next morning.
• Kiss of Life: Steve does this to Leopold, an elderly man, after he gets a heart attack at the news stand. He succeeds in bringing him to, only for Leopold to mistake him for his wife.
• Klatchian Coffee: Birgit has one of these, when she's hosting an all-night marathon on the pirate radio station she took over. It doesn't work as well as it should, as she still barely manages to make it through the night.
• Klingon Promotion: This is how Steve becomes a talent scout. After he reads in the newspaper that Exposure! split up, he goes to his old manager to rub it in (as he told Steve that leaving Exposure! was the greatest mistake he ever made). The manager subsequently tells him he's right and that he has a knack for talent scouting. He then calls in the record label's talent scout, fires him on the spot and gives Steve his job.
• Knuckle Cracking: When Zoë tries to sell her cool motorcycle to a burly looking biker, it turns out that the bike is totalled by Steve and Carlo. Zoë then tells them that the biker already payed her, prompting the biker to use this trope to scare Steve and Carlo witless.

L-M

• Lampshaded Double Entendre: When Akke and Carlo plan to install a slide instead of the stairs (to save time), they don't explain their plan at all and merely ask if they can do "it". Zoë is subsequently the one who lampshades the double entendre.
  Zoë: I hope that by "it", you don't mean what I think it means.
• Last-Second Word Swap:
  • When it's discovered that Birgit is making use of unemployment benefits, she admits how much she feels ashamed about it to Tom and Steve. When Tom (inadvertently) starts to dig her deeper, he gets a death stare from Steve and changes his sentence last minute.
    Steve [To Birgit]: You shouldn't feel ashamed. Just be glad that there's a social security net to fall back on...
    Tom: And that this social security net will provide for all your make-up, skin care products and...
    [Steve gives Tom a death glare]
    Tom: Other essential products you need to live your life.
  • When Jasmijn tries to ask her dad if her boyfriend, Luc, can stay the night, her father pulls out a knife, leading to this trope.
    Jasmijn: Dad, can Luc...
    [Jasmijn's father draws a large knife from one of the drawers.]
    Jasmijn: ...do the dishes?
    Jasmijn's father: Sure, he doesn't even have to ask...
    Luc [to Jasmijn]: Do the dishes?
    Jasmijn: Didn't you see the knife he was holding?!
  • In the series finale, Zoë tries to greet Ellen, only to be cut off by her mid-sentence, as Zoë's standing right next to Tom (who Ellen wants to avoid). This leads to her suddenly chaging the subject to the weather.
    Zoë [while standing next to Tom]: Hey, El...
    [Ellen gestures her not to mention her name.]
    Zoë: Eleven hours of rain today already!
    Tom: What?
    Zoë: There's some nasty weather outside... Good thing we planned our party inside the apartment!
• Lazy Bum: Tom fits this trope perfectly, as he spends his days on the couch eating potato chips.
  • One episode had Kim turning into this, as she started to imitate Tom.
  • Another episode had Carlo aspiring to be this. As a result, he wanted to stay in bed indefinitely and become incredibly overweight. He gave up his dream when Steve and Akke threatened to give him a sponge bath.
• Let's Just Be Friends: Discussed by Steve in the episode where Birgit dumps Tom for the second time.
  Steve: Wake up, Tom! She tells you it's not going to work out between the two of you for the second time, only to end with the greatest cliché of all: let's just be friends!
• Let's See YOU Do Better!:
  • Jasmijn literally says this to Tom, after he calls City of Angels a crappy movie. He responds by writing a novel, which eventually turns out quite succesful.
  • When Zoë accompanies Steve to a formal soirée, she decides to criticize the deejay for his poor taste in music. The deejay, in turn, asks Zoë if she can do his job better, causing Zoë to show him which music he should play for a succesful party. It does work out for Zoë in the end, as she ends up saving the soirée.
• Life of the Party: Zoë is definitely this, as she can make every party a success.
• Lightmare Fuel: When Akke is going cold turkey to kick his caffeine addiction, he has a deprivation-impaired nightmare. However, seeing as this is Akke, his nightmares fall more under this trope than they would fall under actual nightmares.
  [Akke sees Zoë in her Goth outfit, holding a tape recorder.]
  [Zoë presses play on the tape recorder, only for it to play "J'aime la Vie" by Sandra Kim. She opens the recorder and flips the tape to play the intended number]
  [Akke's eye is drawn to Tom wearing a Bill Gates mask]
  Akke: Tom? Is that you?
  Tom: You recognized me?! Dammit!
• Like an Old Married Couple: When Jasmijn and Oswald have to work together on an Egg Sitting assignment from school, they almost instantly end up becoming this, as Oswald wants to go to football practice, while Jasmijn wants him around the house.
  Jasmijn [To Oswald]: Where do you think you're going?!
  Oswald: Soccer practice... Like I just told you.
  Jasmijn: And leave me behind with out little one all alone! No way!
  Oswald: I'll only be an hour, you'll manage!
  Jasmijn: But I'm always the one who has to take care of it, you're never here!
  Oswald: Can you blame me, with all the shouting your doing!
  Oswald [as he heads for the door]: I'm off! I'll see you after practice...
  Jasmijn: But you're needed here!
  Oswald: And please calm down a little while I'm away, would you?
• Likes Older Men: Jasmijn, who dated a man twice her age in season two. apparently, Zoë fell for older men as well, when she was younger (if her stories are to be believed).
• Lingerie Scene: One episode contained one of Zoë and Jasmijn, as the former asked the latter to return her clothes (which she was wearing at the moment), which she had borrowed. Jasmijn ended up having to go home in her underwear.
• Locked in the Bathroom:
  • Jasmijn does this when her father threatens to send her to boarding school. They talk things out in the end.
  • Tom does this to Ellen in one of the season two episodes, as she keeps on distracting him with sex, while he's trying to write a novel.
• Lost in Transmission: When Steve calls Tony after Akke saw him in an electronics store, Tony asks Steve to hand the phone to Akke. He then asks Akke what he would be doing at the electronics store. While the punchline to the joke is lost to the viewer, Steve's reaction to it gives away that it must have been indecent.
  Steve [shocked]: Akke?!
  Akke: What, you can buy that there...
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Carlo shows shades of this, as he's quite pervy most of the time (especially around Birgit), but is still seen as a good friend by everyone in the house.
• Love Letter Lunacy: In one episode, Zoë gets into trouble with one of her professors, because a love letter meant for her accidentally ended up in her term paper. The professor, in turn, made it very clear that he wasn't reciprocating her "affections".
• Lover Tug of War:
  • Akke ends up in a non-romantic version of this, When two cons at a police station fight over his support in a fist fight. Akke ends up setting both of them straight.
    Akke [to the two cons]: No more fighting, you hear!
  • In the series finale, Akke again becomes the victim of this. This time, though, it is the romantic version, as Gella and Akke's (blind) date fight over who gets to be with him on the dancefloor.
• Love Triangle: In one season four episode, both Steve and Birgit fall in love with their salsa teacher and end up fighting over his affection. After some inspirational words from Kim, however, they decide to both stop pursuing the salsa teacher and get better at the salsa instead.
• Makeover Montage: Tom goes through one of these off-screen after Birgit becomes his manager, as she wants to change his image. The result is, nevertheless, quite an improvement over his old look. It doesn't last, however.
• Manchild: Tom is essentially a child in a grown man's body, as most of his behaviour will point out.
  Tom: If you want to know what children are truly like, watch South Park. Farting and Belching, that's all they do!
  Steve: A bit like you, then...
• Marry Them All: Sidi 'n Bibi, the spiritual leader of the cult Birgit joined near the end of season four, did this to all of the women in his cult.
  Birgit [to Tom and Steve]: I'm heading over to Side and his wives...
  Steve: Wives! As in plural?!
  Birgit: Yeah, he married all of the women in the group... Didn't I tell you that?
  Tom: I would've remembered, if you had told us something like that...
• Match Maker Quest: When Tom looks for a gift for Ellen, he eventually asks Zoë for advise. She want to help him, but only if he helps her score with a guy by preparing a romantic picknick. Tom ends up stealing the picknick idea for Ellen and him.
• Mean Boss: Birgit turns out to be this, after she takes Johan into service.
  Birgit [After she cusses out Johan for making a rookie mistake]: I meant it constructively...
• Meet the In-Laws: When Tom asks Ellen to marry him, he quickly regrets it, when she wants to introduce him to her parents.
  Tom: It's moments like these that I wish I had a remote control, so I could rewind my life and make different decisions...
  Jasmijn: I wish I had a remote to see that look on your face time and time again!
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: Jasmijn uses this trope as an insult, after she and Tom had a wager about who could get mentioned in a newspaper article first.
  Tom: You're already acting like you can't lose!
  Jasmijn: That's because I'm waging against you... You're middle name is loser!
  Tom: Hey! My middle name is Marie-Therese.
• Minor Flaw, Major Breakup:
  • Although Steve and Tony were already heading for a break-up due to Tony not informing Steve that he returned to Belgium,^note He was supposed to be in Spain the thing that truly convinced Steve to break up with Tony was the fact that he got blonde highlights in his dark hair.
  • Mickey and Zoë once broke up over what they wanted to do for a night out. Zoë wanted to go to an MTV party, while Mickey wanted to go to the cinema.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: After Tom falls into a creek, he gets a cup of hot chocolate to warm up. He subsequently burns his tongue, causing him to scream in pain and fuss like a little kid about it.
  Steve [sarcastically]: He took the pain like a true man...
• Minor Insult Meltdown: A playwright has one, after Zoë unintentionally pans his play.
  Zoë [trying to prove a point to Mickey]: Attention, everyone! Who enjoyed this play?
  [Everyone raises his hand]
  Zoë: And who can tell me what the play was about?
  [Everyone lowers his hand again]
  Zoë [To Mickey]: See!
  Man in the corner: I have failed you!
  [the man runs of crying]
  Zoë: Who was that?
  Mickey: The playwright...
• Missing Mom: Jasmijn's mom, who passed away when she was younger. To the same extent, Kim's mom as well.
• Mistaken for Cheating:
  • One episode has Tom flirting on the phone with what initially seems to be Ellen, until she joins him in the living room and gets mad at him for cheating on her. It eventually turns out that Tom was on the phone with a mate, who he was pulling a fast one on.
  • Another episode has Akke and Zoë in a compromising position on the couch (Accidental Kiss and all), when Akke's girlfriend Maaike enters the room. It takes the remainder of the episode for Zoë to convince Maaike that she and Akke are just friends.
  • When Steve gets a new boyfriend, he (eventually) suspects that he's cheating on him and follows him to a bar, where he sees him kiss another guy on the cheek. The other guy, however, turns out to be the boyfriend's boss, who he had a meeting with. The relationship, nevertheless, does end right then and there, as Steve's boyfriend feels like he couldn't trust him anymore.
• Mistaken for Exhibit: Akke and Steve try to invoke this trope after Akke drew out an informatics schematic on the wall with a non-erasable marker. They even let Akke sign his work to make it look more realistic.
• Mistaken for Gay: Akke and Steve were briefly mistakes for a gay couple when they were out at a club. Fortunately, Steve managed to set things straight.
• Mistaken for Servant: When Akke and Carlo get a stand at a technology fair, they constantly get mistaken for toilet attendants because their stand is next to the restrooms.
• Mistaken for Terrorist: In the episode where Jasmijn gets caught stealing, Steve forces her to return all of her stolen goods. She tries to leave behind her bag at the store, but the store attendant returns it to her before she leaves. When Steve asks how she's going to return them now, Jasmijn states that she already got rid of the stuff. Only later that night, the gang finds out what she meant by that.
  News anchor: Earlier today, the anti-terrorism unit had to be called in on a bomb threat, when a suspicious bag was found at the entrance of the police station. The bag was destroyed to ensure the safety of all around, but eventually it turned out that there was no bomb in the bag after all. The police is still looking for the pranksters who left the bag on their doorstep.
  [A loud bang can be heard as the gang watches the images of Jasmijn's bag getting blown up]
• Mixtape of Love: Birgit makes one for Prospèr, because she found quite a few mixtapes from his ex in his car. Sadly, Prospèr absolutely hates her music taste.
  Prospèr [thinking he's listening to the radio]: The kind of garbage they play on those radio stations these days.
  Prospèr: Turn that junk off, before I put my mind to suing those guys.
• Modeling Poses: When Jasmijn gets a modelling gig, she and Birgit practice modelling poses in the bathroom. Ironically, Birgit seems to ace them, while they make Jasmijn look somewhat ridiculous. Then again, Jasmijn was performing them on the toilet bowl of all places.
• Moment Killer: When Steve tries to spend some romantic time with his (one-time) girlfriend Evita on the couch, he gets interrupted by everyone in the house. They end up going to his room eventually because of it.
  [Steve brings Evita to the living room, only to see Birgit thrashing her Chinese string puzzle.]
  Steve [to Evita]: One moment...
  [Steve takes Birgits puzzle and unravels it in no time]
  Steve [to Birgit]: There you go...
  [Birgit slinks off disappointedly, as she couldn't solve the puzzle]
  Steve [as he and Evita sit down]: Would you like a nice glass of...
  [Steve notices there's no wine yet]
  Steve: Tom! Wine!
  [Tom bring the wine, but joins the couple instead of leaving]
  Steve: Tom, those video's you hide behind the bookcase... Would you like to see those ever again?
  Tom [startled]: You wouldn't dare...
  Steve: Oh yes, I would...
  [Tom scurries of hastily]
  [Before they can do anything, Akke joins Steve and Evita]
  Akke [Turning on the TV]: Ah, it isn't on yet...
  Steve: I'm trying to get it on here...
  Akke: It's not working, as you can see... It isn't on yet.
  Zoë [as she joins Akke]: I think we should go to the kitchen, Akke...
  Akke: Why?
  Zoë: Bad vibes around the sofa...
  Akke: I already felt something was off!
  [They both head off to the kitchen.]
  Steve: Now, where were we...
  Evita: I think we left off at the...
  Jasmijn [as she enters in a bunny suit]: Condoms! Get your condoms here!
  Evita: I think we'd best go to your room...
  Steve: That's a great idea!
• Mondegreen Gag: Steve mis-sings "When the rain begins to fall", as he and Zoë leave for a formal soirée.
  Steve [singing while he and Zoë dance out of the living]: "And when the rain begins to fall, you got the sunshine up your ass..."
• Mood Whiplash: When Akke and Carlo scientifically test videogames, they always seem to have fun, only to becomes entirely serious afterwards and fail the game category they're testing on some minor flaw. The best example of this was with the first-person shooter, where they went from happiness and joy to remorse in under 30 seconds.
  Akke [after Carlo accidentally shoots him with his BFG]: Ha, that tickled!
  [Both of them get into a laughing fit.]
  [However, they suddenly stop laughing and become completely stoic.]
  Carlo: I can't see how they're even allowed to sell these, with the amount of violence in them.
  Akke: True, the violence in this game even caused me to take a good look at my own gaming behaviour... and quite frankly I'm shocked!
  Carlo: You're fine... I, on the other hand, killed an elderly hostage and pumped you full of lead, simply out of primal fury!
  Carlo: I'm so ashamed of myself!
  Akke: Me too...
  [Akke and Carlo fall into eachother's arms crying, due to the shame and remorse they feel]
• Motor Mouth: While holding a survey, Akke meets a young man who literally can't stop talking about his (rather boring) hobbies.
  [The young man keeps chattering on long after Akke left]
  Elderly lady: Come along, sonny, I'll bring you back home...
  young man: Yes, mother...
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • The start of a season two episode has an awesome action montage, set to the theme of the A-team, about Akke and Carlo making a grilled cheese sandwich.
  • The season two episode where Steve has to fight for his thesis subject, shows Steve and his opponent in an " ultimate battle" setting, only for them to draw straws for it (which Steve loses).
• Mushroom Samba: Tom goes through one, after drinking Akke's special "five herb tea" to cure his cold. Then again, Akke did warn him to let it rest for at least an hour before drinking it, as it would be too strong otherwise (which Tom ignored after about 30 seconds).
• Musical Episode: The episode where Jasmijn tries to form a band (and gets the entire gang involved) had shades of this, as it had making music as the main plot (while the B-plot was reserved for a bike theft scheme). The series even had Carlo return after a considerable hiatus, simply because he was the most musically inclined among the cast.
• Mustache Vandalism: When Tom gets his own cut-out as promotional material (in which he plays second fiddle to his agent, Norbert), he discards it, after which Carlo gets his hands on it. The result of his doodling falls under this trope and then some, as Tom not only gets a mustache, but lipstick and wrinkles as well.
• Must Have Caffeine: This is Akke's reaction, when Jasmijn asks him how he's gonna pull an all-nighter.
  Jasmijn: How are you gonna stay up all night? You already look like a zombie!
  Akke [eyes going wide]: Caffeine...
• My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Said word for word by Birgit, after her maternal instinct started kicking in, due to taking care of a young girl in the previous episode. She even tries to convince Steve to make a baby together, only for the attempt to fall flat.
• My God, You Are Serious!:
  • This is Birgit's response, when she finds out Kim's father will be staying with them for several days.
    Steve: By the way, Kim's father will be with us for the next couple of days...
    Birgit: Ha! good one, Steve!
    [Birgit walks upstairs, only to return almost immediately.]
    Birgit: Tell me Kim's dad is in on the joke as well?
    [Steve shakes his head.]
    Birgit [depressed]: Hahaha... You're not being funny , are you?
  • Tom also responds like this, when Zoë tells him she's to busy with her studies to spend time with him.
    Zoë [to Tom's invitation]: Thank, but no thanks... I'm far to busy studying!
    Tom: Ha! good one, Zoë!
    Tom: Wait, you're serious, aren't you?
  • This is also Akke and Tom's response, when Birgit tells them she's having a relation with their landlord.
    Birgit: I have an announcement to make!
    Akke: You're moving out again?
    Birgit: No... I'm in a relationship with Robert, our landlord!
    [Tom and Akke simultaneously start laughing.]
    Steve: She's serious, though...
    [Both of them stop laughing right away.]
    Tom [after a few seconds]: Ha, good one! You guys really had me there!
    Tom [suddenly realizing it's serious]: You're not trying to pull a fast one, are you?
• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: When Birgit has a mouse problem in her new apartment, she asks Steve to come over as soon as possible. Steve, however, (apparently) took too long, eliciting this response from Birgit.
  Birgit: Finally, you're here! I said as soon as possible!
  Steve: It has only been five minutes!
  Birgit: Yeah, my grandma does it in four and she uses a walker!
• My New Gift Is Lame: When Birgit moves into her new apartment, she gets a singing fish from Gabriel, one of her neighbours. While she pretends to be thankful, she clearly shows that she dislikes everything about the gift. Aftyer Gabriel leaves (and Steve arrives), she even complains about it to Steve. In the same episode, Birgit also gets an Atari 2600 from Akke and Carlo, which she dislikes as well, because she's not in the least interested in videogames.

N-O

• Naked People Are Funny: When Tom and Kim are pranking Steve in the shower, their best case scenario is to invoke this trope with Steve in the leading role. Unfortunately for them, it doesn't work out.
  Kim: So what's our end goal with this?
  Tom: In the best case scenario, Steve will put the egg yolk in his hair (instead of shampoo), figure out that something's not quite right, lose his balance and scream, and as we walk in, we'll spot a naked Steve on the bathroom floor and laugh our asses off.
• Nap-Inducing Speak: During his departure speech at AKA, Akke holds a speech to an empty room. When Birgit enters shortly after and apologizes for her tardiness, Akke tells her that she merely missed the speech, which was "extremely boring anyways" (coming from the man who gave the speech himself).
• Neat Freak: Steve falls into this category, as he's obsessed with keeping the house clean.
• Never My Fault: When Akke and Carlo get a (stuffed animal as a) dog, they treat it as a real dog. This includes that they blame the dog for the mess in the kitchen (which they obviously made, as the dog wasn't truly alive).
• Next Stall Shenanigans: Steve and his (then) boyfriend Tony are the source of this in a season 2 episode. They're both in an airport bathroom (Steve inside a stall, Tony outside), when Steve decides to (rather publicly) discuss their sex life, unaware that a random bystander just walked in. The looks they got from the bystander were priceless.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tom says this to Steve, when the latter advises Akke and Carlo to look for a bigger room.
  Steve [to Tom and Birgit]: Why do you guys want another room all of a sudden! You're rooms are fine as they are!
  Tom: He does have a point...
  Steve: The only ones who should be complaining are Akke and Carlo!
  Carlo [who was spectating the argument with Akke]: Why should we complain?
  Steve: Cause you're two adult louts sharing a tiny room!
  Akke: You're right, Steve! We'll start looking for a bigger room straight away!
  [Steve suddenly realizes what he's done, but Akke and Carlo already left.]
  Tom: Well done, Steve... Now they're looking for a new room as well!
  Birgit: And they wouldn't even have considered it, if it wasn't for you!
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Tom thinks he's this, after he survives sticking his fork into a (plugged in) toaster. He spents the next couple of episodes proving his invulnerability to the rest of the gang, resulting in plenty of injuries to him.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Tom's short-term girlfriend, Vampirella, was this, much to Tom's dismay. Seeing as she was, in fact, "the" Vampirella, this wasn't so extraordinary for her.
  Steve [to Tom]: How was your date?
  Tom: Don't mention it...
  Steve: You didn't fall asleep at the cinema, did you?
  Tom: Even if I hadn't slept for days, I wouldn't have fallen asleep during the film we just saw!
  Tom: We went to see "Holocaust Bloodlust"...
  Akke: Is that the new Walt Disney animation?
  Tom: If only it was... "Holocaust Bloodlust" is the nastiest, goriest, bloodiest horror movie I ever saw.
  Tom: And that's not all! After the date, she wanted to go for a walk...
  Tom: So I thought: great, we'll walk through the park, feed the ducks...
  Tom: Nope! We went for a walk through the graveyard!
• Nightmare Sequence: When Birgit dates Ken Carson, she gets a nightmare in which she's turned into Barbie (blonde wig and all), set to "Barbie girl" by Aqua.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: When Steve doesn't want to play FIFA against Tom anymore (because he's a Sore Loser), Tom decides to call Steve a chicken and even makes clucking noises, until Steve agrees to play him once more.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When Birgit gets depressed after getting scammed by a cult, the rest of the gang decides to mind their words and pamper her. Birgit then tells them that everything is okay again and that they needn't do all that, but that they can still pamper them, if they wish. Carlo sees this as an opportunity to score with Birgit and heads over to her stating "I know a way or two to pamper her!". While we can't exactly see what happens to Carlo afterwards, the sounds imply that he became the victim of this at the hands of Birgit.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: When Jasmijn tries to invent her own fashion fad, this is Zoë's reaction when she proposes suspenders.
• Noodle Implements: When Tom tells Jasmijn about one of Oswald's pranks, her response is to commandeer a bottle of ketchup, some kitchen towels, laundry detergent and a badminton racket (which she had at home). The response of the others sells it as this trope.
  Birgit: Did anyone get what she's going to do with that?
  All the others: Nope.
• Noodle Incident: This exchange between Tom and Zoë about Carlo's fondness of cross-dressing.
  Tom: Zoë, you gotta see this!
  Zoë: What? Is Carlo wearing my glitter boots again?
• Nostalgia Filter: In the series finale, Jasmijn's father and Kim's father complain about what goes for music and fashion sense these days, before joining in regardless.
  Jasmijn's father: Have you heard the awful music they're playing!
  Kim's father: Yeah, back in the day you could still dance to the music, but nowadays...
  Jasmijn's father: And look at those clothes... I would call that a mistake, not fashion!
  Jasmijn's father [after a few moments]: Wanna join in?
  Kim's father: Sure, how else am I going to get a girlfriend at my age!
• Nosy Neighbor: Jasmijn is this, as she always wants to know happens in the lives of the residents. This is one of the reasons some of the residents found her annoying initially.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy:
  • Happens to Jasmijn when she gets a navel piercing. Upon showing it to the rest of the gang, they're too busy watching TV to notice. Happens again later on, when a class mate notices that her fly is down, instead of the piercing.
  • Also happens when Birgit tries to seduce Prosper for the first time. Note that this wasn't because he's not attracted to her, but because he had to uphold his ethical code not to get sexually involved with clients (even if they are sexy)
• Not Good with Rejection: Zoë doesn't take her break up with Mickey well, as he broke up with her while she was planning to break up with him. It should be noted that this is because she's always the one who breaks up with people and can't stand that someone broke up with her.
• Not Me This Time: Akke reacts this way, when he gets called in by Tom, who merely wanted to ask him to be his best man (to blackmail Steve into giving him information on Ellen's wedding dress). What he did to warrant him doing this pre-emptively was never shown.
  Tom [In response to Steve staying quiet about Ellen's wedding dress]: I still haven't decided on a best man, you know...
  Steve: That's blackmail! Who else than me would be you're best man anyways?
  Tom: Oh, I know someone...
  Tom [Shouting]: Akke!
  Akke: I didn't do it!
• Obfuscating Insanity: In one of the season five episodes, Zoë asks Akke to do this for her, as she told her professor she was taking care of a mentally-ill friend and he wanted to meet him (he's a phychology professor). However, as Akke is a Cloud Cuckoolander, Zoë instead tells him to just act normal, as he's crazy enough, when he's his usual self. Carlo, furthermore, also wants to play a mentally-insane person (as he was passed over in favor of Akke) and takes this trope to it's logical extreme. It doesn't work out in the end, as Zoë professor sees through the entire act, including Carlo's over-the-top insanity.
  Carlo: Look, I can pretend to be insane as well!
  Carlo [making a face]: Uwaeooowaaa... PECKERWOOD!
  Carlo: Gilles de la Tourette... Neat, right!
  Zoë [holding her ears]: I said "pretend" to be insane, not go all the way...
  [Later, as Zoë and her professor are with Akke in his room.]
  Carlo [whispering to Zoë]: Should I come in now?
  Zoë [whispering back]: No! Go away, Carlo, you're gonna ruin everything!
  Carlo: But I worked on my act...
  [Carlo suddenly hunches over in fear.]
  Carlo: The walls... They're coming for me! They're trying to kill me, nyaaagh!
  Carlo: Paranoia... Much better, right?
  Zoë: I still don't believe you.
  Carlo: awww...
• Obviously Not Fine: This is Tom's reaction, when Birgit waxes his arm hair to show him how much it hurts.
  Tom [fighting the tears]: I'm fine... that didn't hurt a bit.
• Oblivious to Love: When Tom meets with a female investor for his movie, he's completely oblivious to the sexual advances she's making towards him, until she starts to get frisky. The fact that he was well and truly not interested in her didn't help matters either.
  Investor: You have such a pretty smile...
  Tom: Thank you, I practiced it, so it would look good on the cover of my book.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: When Akke and Carlo start their own company, they have to visit their local chamber of commerce to get registered. There, they apparently had to wait in line for four hours, just to obtain the proper forms to register their bussiness (the actaul registration took even longer).
• Off to Boarding School: Jasmijn's father threatened her with this, if she didn't improve her grades at school. He came quite close to actually make work of this threat.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: When Tom and Jasmijn get caught cheating, they have to re-sit their exam. After their initial disappointment, Jasmijn states that they at least get to earn teir grades this time around, only for Tom to come up with a new cheating scheme (essentially the same as last time, with some additions), eliciting this response from Jasmijn.
• Omniglot: Birgit apparently, who can even speak informatics.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: When Birgit is lookking for a salsa partner, Tom is quick to volunteer himself, as he thinks she's talking about the dip sauce instead of the dance. He immediately retracts his offer, when he hears that dancing would be involved.
• One Phone Call: When Jasmijn gets caught stealing, she gets one phone call to call her parents to bail her out. She, obviously, calls in Steve, as she doesn't want her father to know.
• Only in It for the Money:
  • Discussed in one of the season two episode, when Carlo leaves AKA for a job with a far higher wage (100000 Belgian Francs or 2500 € per month net). It eventually turns out Carlo didn't care about the money, but that he took the job because he'll be the boss of five hot secretaries instead.
  • This is the reason Birgit became Tom's manager, according to a journalist who wrote an exposé on Tom. When she tries to confront him about it, the journalist turns out to be a hottie and Birgit falls in love with him. She, then, redoubles her efforts to show him that not she, but Tom, is the money hungry one, only to fail spectacularly (in no small part because Tom isn't interested in money at all).
• Only Sane Man: Akke, of all people, utters this after taking part in a discussion about Bert and Ernie's relation with one another:
  Tom [in response to Steve's romantic troubles] : Take Bert and Ernie, they argue every once in a while, but they've been sharing their lives for thirty odd years now.
  Steve: Bert and Ernie aren't gay...
  Tom: Not gay?! look at those tight T-shirts they're wearing.
  Steve: They're good friends who live together, like you and me.
  Tom: Steve, have you never noticed the symbolism... "Ernie, there's a banana in your ear."
  [Zoë enters the room]
  Tom: Zoë, your opinion... Bert and Ernie, gay or just friends?
  Zoë: Bert and Ernie? They're two brother who kept on living together.
  Tom: Alright, let's ask someone else, then...
  Tom [shouting]: Akke, Carlo!
  Akke and Carlo [in unison]: Yes!
  Tom: Bert and Ernie, are they gay, just friends or brothers? And don't tell me they're two homosexual, befriended brother who live together...
  [Beat]
  Akke [stoicly]: You know Bert and Ernie are just two puppets, right?
  Carlo: Those friends of yours...
  Akke [exasperated]: Don't tell me about it! You're merely exposed to them every once in a while, but I have to live with those guys 24/7!
• Only You Can Repopulate My Race: When Carlo asks Steve whether he would choose him over Akke (as he wonders why girls want Akke, but not him), he presents him with the hypothetical situation of them being the last three people on the planet, ending with the classic "Remember, one of us is your only chance to repopulate the earth...". Tom immediately points out the flaws of that hypothetical repopulation.
  Tom: Three men trying to repopulate the earth... I think the human race is done for.
• Onion Tears: In one episode, it seems as if Zoë and Steve have an emotional conversation about Zoë's relationship with Mickey, only to reveal that Steve was chopping onions in the meantime.
• On the Rebound: After Tom dumps Ellen, he almost immediately starts a string of one-night stands with a variety of women (including Birgit), to cope with the fact that his fiancé (almost wife) cheated on him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Happens to Steve when he gets engrossed in studying for his anatomics exam.
    [Akke drinks milk straight from the carton while Steve is in the kitchen]
    Akke [who just noticed Steve]: Didn't you see me drink straight from the carton?
    Steve: Meh...
    Akke [concerned]: Steve, are you okay?
  • When Steve gets angry at Tom and Zoë for always making a mess, they respond by becoming extraordinarly polite and haughty. When Steve asks them to cut the act, they tell him to not get "besides himself" with emotion. Steve's response is where this trope truly comes in.
    Steve: So I'm besides myself! I'll give you besides myself!!
    [Steve kicks a neat pile of magazines of the salon table, before pouring a glass of coke and a tray of potato chips over Tom's head. He then crushes the chips on Tom's head before walking off]
    Tom: I think we took it a bit to far...
    Zoë: Agreed!
  • In one episode, Zoë and Birgit buy the same dress. While Birgit stays cool under it, Zoë fears that she's turning into Birgit, which is only reinforced when she starts using the same figures of speach as Birgit.
    Zoë [wishing Steve good luck]: Break a leg!
    Zoë [to Jasmijn]: Oh no! Did I just say "Break a leg!"...
    Zoë: Mein god, That's such a Birgit thing to say!
    Zoë: Oh no, did I just say "Mein god"! It's worse than I thought!
  • This, once more, happens to Steve, after he totals Zoë motorcycle and feels bad about it.
  Carlo: Steve, are you okay? You flipped the channel on at least three cooking shows!
  • This also happens to Zoë, around the time that Mickey passes away. She was already engrossed in her studies before she received the obituary, but afterwards, she spends entire days studying (which she never did before), simply to take her mind of it. She reverts back to her party animal self, after viewing Mickey's video will.
• Open-Fly Gag: Happens to Jasmijn throughout a season two episode. At first they were pranking her by claiming that her fly was down, when it wasn't. Eventually, it was down for real, but she didn't believe the warnings of other people due to the aforementioned gags.
• Original Position Fallacy: This happens to the gang, when they complain to Birgit about the cleaning schedule she made as landlady.
  Steve: So what are your tasks?
  Birgit: I made a special clause just for that...
  Birgit [quoting the clause]: "Family members of the landlord have to do no tasks, except Kim, who spends far too much time in the house."
  Steve: That's not fair! You wrote that clause merely to exclude yourself!
  Birgit: You know what... You're right!
  [Birgit alters the clause on the spot.]
  Birgit: Now Kim is excluded too... More work for you!
• Orphaned Punchline: At the start of a season two episode, Tom is telling a joke which is nearing it's punchline. He never truly gets to it, as Oswald walks in and pulls a prank on him. Akke, nevertheless, got a laugh out of it, as he thought Tom's response to Oswald was the punchline.
  Tom: So then the beaver said...
  [Oswald walks into the room]
  Tom [to Oswald]: Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?
  Akke [as he starts laughing]: "Don't I know you from somewhere?"... Good one, Tom!
• ...Or So I Heard: When Tom mocks Birgit for screaming in pain during her waxing session, she asks the gang for support in the matter, only to get it from Carlo of all people. He immediately follows his comment with this trope.
  Carlo: Yeah, waxing can be extremely painful, depending on which spot you wax...
  Carlo [as the rest of the gang stares at him]: ...Or so I heard!
• Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Tom does this to Birgit, after Steve tells him it's time for spring cleaning.
  Steve: Thought you could escape it, Tom?
  Tom: Escape what?
  Steve: Spring cleaning! It's your turn to take out the thrash...
  Tom: Sure thing, Steve!
  [Tom proceeds to pick up Birgit and carry her outside over his shoulder.]
• Ouija Board: Jasmijn brings in one of these during a season three episode, which seems to work with everyone except Steve. They end up having a ritual, where they summon the ghost of "Bob".
  Steve: Why isn't it working with me?!
  Carlo: It's because you have to set the mood first...
  Steve: Should I turn on some smooth jazz?
  Carlo: Jazz?! No, I meant incense and candles...
  Akke: And robes!
  Steve: Why robes?
  Akke: They look cool...
• Out of the Frying Pan: In one season three episode, Jasmijn makes a dent in her fathers car and asks Tom and Carlo for help. After Carlo rubs of some of the paint by accident, he proposes to simply repaint the dent with spray paint, making the dent even more obvious (as he used a different shade of paint). He subsequently re-paints the entire door (which makes matters even worse), before deciding that the last thing he could do was re-paint the entire car. The reaction of Jasmijn's father said it all.
  Jasmijn [as her father enters the garage]: Don't go in there, dad, I have to tell you something first.
  [Jasmijn's father turns on the light and sees the dodgy paint job of his car]
  Jasmijn's father [flabbergasted]: What the...
  Jasmijn: I can explain!

P-R

• Pals with Jesus: Several of the cast members become friends (or even have dates) with fictional characters, such as Vampirella and Ken Carson.
• Pants-Pulling Prank: Shortly after Akke meets Maaike, she asks him if he wants to go on a date with her. Akke agrees and approaches her in the computer room they were both in, but trips and pulls down Maaike's skirt by accident, which is interpreted as this trope (by Akke, at least). Later on in the episode, Maaike looks him up (to tell him she'll forgive him), but Akke thinks she wants revenge and promptly pants himself to get even (getting some bewildering stares from a passing professor), much to Maaike's hilarity.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: When Zoë accidentally ends up with a girlfriend after a night of heavy drinking, she decides to meet her in a bar to dump her. Tom and Carlo, enticed by the lesbian romance, decide to covertly follow Zoë, wearing grey overcoats, fake mustaches and a newspaper with eyeholes cut into them.
• Parenting the Husband: Even though they were only engaged, Ellen had her hands full parenting Tom, when they went shopping for wedding gifts.
  Ellen: What are we going to do, now that you got us kicked out of the store!
  Tom: I'm sure there's loads of different stores we can go to...
  Ellen: Only to get kicked out of those as well!
  Tom: I swear I won't climb into a washing machine anymore!
• Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: Jasmijn's father walks in on Jasmijn and Oswald during their first time (they weren't undressed yet, but were getting to it), to ask Jasmijn if she has some matches. He subsequently walks in a few more time, each time none the wiser that Jasmijn and Oswald were doing something.
• Pen Name: Tom goes by the name of Pamela in the "Love letters to Pamela" column of the magazine he works for. This is done on purpose, since most writers prefer to send a letter to an attractive lady than to Tom.
• Percussive Maintenance:
  • In one episode, Akke uses a hammer to fix Steve's "Miss bowling" arcade machine. It works quite well.
  • In another episode, Tom's laptop crashes and Carlo states that there's no fixing it (as the hard drive is bust). Tom then repeatedly bashes his head onto the keyboard (in frustration), only for the laptop to restart without any issues.
• Perp Sweating: Birgit, Steve and Tom do this to a delivery boy (with a spare desk light) to make him tell them who has been sending them roses. Unfortunately (for the delivery boy), he truly doesn't know who the sender is (and nearly gets tortured for it.
• Pervert Revenge Mode: Tom gets slapped by Akke's (foxy) date, after he "accidentally" tries to cup-a-feel to determine if her boobs were fake or not.
• Playing Sick:
  • Tom does this in one episode, after he accidentally eats Zoë's bikini wax (mistaking it for guacamole) and gets a tummy ache. While he initially truly wasn't feeling well, he milks it for every ounce he can. The episode ends with Tom being taken to the hospital by Steve (who's fed up with his behaviour) and getting a rather unpleasant physical exam.
  • Birgit also wants to do this so she doesn't have to go to work (as she feels overwhelmed by it) and even asks Tom for advice about it. Tom, in turn, appears to be quite an expert at the matter. She eventually ends up not going through with it.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: This is Steve's reaction to Jasmijn's swimsuit photos (from her one-time gig as a model), as he finds them far too revealing.
  Steve [after glancing the photos]: Where are your clothes!
  Jasmijn: Didn't I mention it was a swimwear shoot...
• Photographic Memory: Akke proves that he has this, when he recites an entire chapter of one of their courses to Carlo from memory, including page numbers and indexes. To note, the amount of paper used in the course was so great, the recycling it saved at least one tree.
• Pie in the Face:
  • This is Akke's ultimate revenge on Bill Gates, when Gates thrash-talks BORF.
    Akke [with a smirk on his face]: All right, see you guys later! I gotta go to the bakery...
  • Tom gets a face full of chocolate cake, after Akke boobytraps it.
    [An explosion can be heard from the kitchen]
    Steve [to Akke]: I thought you removed your alarm system already...
    Akke [Gleefully]: Not all of it!
    Tom [Covered in chocolate cake]: Funny, you guys! Real funny...
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Birgit turns into this, whenever she gets to run things. The best example is when Jasmijn and her friends organize a party (together with Tom, who they roped into it). W Hen Birgit finds out, she immediately takes over the management of the party and while she does fine at first, she quickly becomes far to demanding, turning everyone against her. She ends up having to host the party on her own, which goes as well as you would expect it to go.
• Police Lineup: One of the season two episode features a funny version of this, when Akke has to identify a perp from a line up.
  Raymond: Could you point out the perp from this lineup?
  Akke: It's quite difficult when they're just standing there.
  Raymond: Would you like me to make them say something?
  Akke: I never heard his voice... Could you make them dance?
  [The stinger of the episode shows the suspects dancing, even after the lineup is finished.]
• Poor Communication Kills: When Akke spots Tony at the electronics store, he runs off after him. This causes Tom to chase him, which leads to him accidentally stealing some items from the store. When they both get back home, Tom's recollection of the facts requires some additional explanation by Akke to make any kind of sense.
  Tom: I don't wanna hear another word about it!
  Akke: But I swear it was Tony!
  Tom: Steve, you tell him!
  Steve: Tell him what?
  Tom: Tell him that he cost me 5000 francs in administrative costs, because I, in a store where I didn't want to be, trying to find a gift I certainly wouldn't find there, from a salesman who wouldn't even sell his wares to himself, had to chase him out and got arrested by a store cop who would scare the Terminator into submission!
  Steve [baffled]: Alright, I'm gonna need some context for this...
  Akke: I saw Tony!
• Porn Stash: Zoë and Akke discover Tom's "Triple X" folder, when the latter helps the former with the printing of her term paper. Tom, who was nearby, states that the pictures are for journalistic purposes.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: In the series finale, Carlo finally gets a kiss from Birgit, which leaves him completely catatonic afterwards. He can be seen lying on the floor in the episode's stinger, as (imaginary) angels resembling Birgit swirl around his head.
• Potty Emergency:
  • Akke has one in the series title sequence. He finds a (free-standing) toilet bowl by the end of the sequence.
  • He also has a case of nervous bladder, when a girl tries to seduce him at the club.
  • Akke has another one when he's helping Birgit move into her new place, after the ride over. He quickly resolves it by using Birgit's bathroom.
  • Tom has two in a single episode. He has the first one after drinking an entire bottle of laxatives, in order to clear his guts for a hotdog eating contest. He has the second one after the eating contest.
  • Jasmijn gets one as well, when she practices modelling poses in the bathroom with Birgit.
    Jasmijn [making a painful face]: Practicing your modelling poses on the toilet does have one nasty side effect...
    Jasmijn: I really gotta go!
  • Carlo also has one when Birgit's moves out, after he's locked inside a crate inside the moving van. He ends up going inside the crate.
    Carlo [from inside the crate]: Birgit, are you there? I really have to... you know what.
    [After a few seconds, we hear an unzipping sound from inside the crate.]
    Carlo: Aaaaaaaaaah...
    [A small puddle appears near one of the corners of the crate.]
• Potty Failure: Carlo goes through during an Imagine Spot in the stinger of one of the episode. In this imagine spot, Carlo has become severely obese and bedridden from eating a lot of junkfood. When he hears his stomach rumble, he calls for Steve to bring him a bedpan, but Steve unfortunately arrives to late.
• Precious Photo: Jasmijn gets one of her boyfriend in one of the episodes. As this is a sitcom, she ends up losing it soon after and (as she's a teenager) her relationship is already over by the time Steve manages to find it for her.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: When Carlo becomes famous overnight, Akke becomes his posse and immediately turns into this, clothing style and lingo included. It lasts about as long as Carlo's fame (which wasn't long).
• Primal Scene: Jasmijn and Oswald become the center of this, when they use Birgit's apartment for a date night, while Birgit (unbeknownst to them) just terminated her lease. They are caught by Birgit's landlord and his new tenants, who gawk at them as they enter. What makes it even more funny, is that Oswald runs of with the sheet when they get caught, leaving Jasmijn exposed in the bed.
• Prone to Tears: Johan, a short-term employee of AKA was this, as he would cry about nearly anything. When he later becomes a test case for Zoë's research, this trait is pulled up to eleven.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Apparently, Tom is fond of doing this, whenever he doesn't get his way. Birgit only truly notices it after Tim (her new boyfriend, who's a doppelgänger of Tom) starts doing this as well. It's never brought up outside of the episode where Birgit dates Tim, however.
• Raiders of the Lost Parody: When Akke boobytraps the house to stop burglars in one episode, Tom (who just woke up) thinks that it's all a dream and does a series of acrobatic manoeuvres to avoid the traps and get to a burned grilled cheese sandwich, all to the score of Raiders of the lost arc.
• Really Gets Around: Zoë tends to be the show's best example of this trope, as she's gone through quite a few boyfriends throughout the show's duration (during the earlier seasons at least).
• Real Men Hate Affection:
  • Played with at the first scene of a season two episode. During this scene, we see both Tom and Mickey as they affectionately try to spend a little more time with Ellen and Zoë respectively, before they have to leave. When Tom and Mickey see eachother, however, they both pretend that nothing is going on and try to act cool around eachother.
  • In one of the season three episodes, Tom explains the bro code to Carlo, when Carlo asks him to rate his looks.
    Carlo [in his underwear]: Tom, am I ugly?
    Tom [trying to look away]: I'm not gonna answer that...
    Carlo: So I am ugly!
    Tom: No, Carlo, but you don't ask a man that!
    Tom: Let me spell it out for you real quick: Men don't, under any circumstances, ask other men to rate their looks!
    Tom: The only thing men talk about, when it comes to their bodies, are medically related issues... and even then, they only stick to the regions above their waistline.
  • This is the reason that Carlo initially keeps his skills as a masseur a secret, as it would be very unmanly for him to massage other men (which included Steve, who injured his back during a fall).
    Steve [after Carlo drags him into his room in secret]: aren't you going a bit too far with this secrecy? It's only a massage...
    Carlo: Hey, it's my reputation on the line! If anyone ever finds out about this, I'm done!
• Rebound Best Friend: When Akke and Carlo stop being on speaking terms with eachother (due to a major argument), they both look for someone to replace their friend. Akke first tries to replace Carlo with an anatomical skeleton (Etienne perhaps) wearing a cut-out of Carlo's face, but this doesn't work out and he subsequently chooses Greet (his new girlfriend). This also doesn't work out, as she sucks at video games and is rather critical about Akke's inventions. They eventually even break up, so Akke can become friends with Carlo again. Carlo, on the other hand, befriends a can of soup he calls "Jakke", as he becomes increasingly unstable due to social isolation. Jakke eventually gets eaten by Steve, who was hungry for soup.
• Recruiters Always Lie: Birgit decides to join the army one episode after seeing an ad for it (the ad is even played back during the episode). She quickly figures out, however, that the only thing she likes about the army is the uniform.
• Red Baron: In the episode where Birgit gets sued, her lawyer Porsper is quite certain of his case, until he reads the name of the opposition's barrister. He then states that the barrister's nickname is "The pitbull" and that he's one of the most fearsome barristers in the region. Prosper eventually manages to survive "The pitbull", because the case is dropped.
• Reminder Failure: In the episode where Jasmijn and Tom cheat on their exam, the both of them try to remember the questions they answered, when Birgit ask them about it after the exam, only for the both of them to have forgotten everything about the exam.
  Tom [To Jasmijn]: How could you forget the question of an exam we just took!
  Jasmijn: You were there as well and you don't remember anything either!
  Tom: I was physically there, but my mind was somewhere else...
  Jasmijn [exasperated]: I can't believe I cheated off of you!
• Repeat Cut: One of the season two episodes had one, in instant replay style, of Tom shooting (and scoring) a goal against Akke using toast launched from a toaster
• Replacement Flat Character: Kim is this to Jasmijn, who had grown a bit too old to remain the series resident high schooler.
• Reveille: Jasmijn does this with an airhorn in a season two episode to tell the student house residents that she's off with her parents to Germany for the week. She promptly leaves afterwards.
• Revenge via Storytelling: Tom does this to most of the gang in his novel, where he paints them as terrible people (at the beginning of the novel, at least). The best example, however, is related to his running contest with Zoë, which Tom states to have lost on purpose to spare Zoë's ego (while no such thing happened in reality).
• Reverse Psychology:
  • When most of the interior of the gang's apartment burns down and the new landlord decides to call in someone to have the house declared uninhabitable, the gang is on the verge of giving up and looking for another place. Then, Kim tells them that she expected more fight of them, but that she totally understands if they want to chicken out instead of fighting for their place to live and that it would be a win-win, as her father could ask other tenants more rent. This convinces the rest to clean the house and keep on fighting.
  • Jasmijn also uses this on Zoë to convince to go to a valentine party with her. It works in the end, even though Zoë is on to her act.
    Jasmijn: Wanna go to a party with me and two hot guys.
    Zoë: Sure, where are the guys?
    Jasmijn: We still have to find them at the "Cupido dance"!
    Zoë: Then I'll pass! Seems like a party only desperate types would go to...
    Jasmijn: Oh, I understand... Your age is catching up with you, isn't it?
    Zoë [disgruntled]: Excuse me?
    Jasmijn: Yeah, you can't go as hard as you used to... You'd probably already feel your back after an hour.
    Zoë: Oh, I know what you're doing... That stuff doesn't work on a psychology major!
    Jasmijn: So will you join me?
    Zoë: Hell yeah, I will!
• Rousing Speech: Steve gives one after a housefire destroys most of their interior, to motivate everyone to work their hardest. It only seems to work on Akke, who wants to do everything on the list.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Zoë and Jasmijn's attempt at fashion designing ends up looking like this. Lampshaded by Steve when he gets a sneak peak at the outfit.
  Steve: What's that piece of transparent plastic hanging from it?
  Jasmijn: That's... a piece of pattern we forgot to take off. Even the grandmaster can make a mistake or two...
• Runaway Bride: Tom gets dumped by his fiancé Ellen on the day of their wedding, as she has fallen in love with Birgit's boyfriend, Prospèr.
• Russian Reversal: In the intro sequence of the series, Tom switches the channel on you (the viewer). This was more obvious in the first three seasons, where Tom was on the sofa alone, but he switches the channel as well during the new intro they made for seasons four and five.

S

• Safety in Indifference: Tom's reaction to Birgit dumping him is becoming depressed to the point of apathy. It turns out to be contagious, as everyone in the house falls into a depression as the episode progresses: Steve is convinced by Tom that his long-distance relation with Tony will never work out, Zoë is guilt-tripped into depression over dumping her ex-boyfriends, Birgit has a terrible job interview with Norbert and Akke becomes depressed when the weather is presented by Frank Deboosere instead of Sabine Hagedoren.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Akke is this to an amazing degree. He usually doesn't seem to understand when any of the other residents are miffed at him and takes their sarcastic "Thank you"s at face value.
  • Zoë also shower shades of this in a season two episode.
  Steve: How was the picknick?
  Zoë: Great, got a nice tan.
  Steve: And did Mickey like it as well?
  Zoë: Beats me, he walked away halfway through...
  Steve: That's rude!
  Zoë: Exactly! All I did was lying in the sun with my headphones on and the next time I turned around he was gone!
  Steve [Sarcastically] : So you're telling me that you flat out ignored him during your romantic picknick to work on your tan and that he didn't even have the decency to shout into your headphones? You should dump his ass!
  Zoë: You're right Steve! That's exactly what I'm going to do!
  Steve [after Zoë runs off]: Didn't she get that I was being sarcastic? I thought it was quite clear...
• Scam Religion: Near the end of season four, Birgit joins a cult, who ends up taking all of her money and vanishing from the face of the earth. Of course, everyone (except Birgit) saw that the cult was this, but she wouldn't believe any of them. The shame and anguish subsequently nearly drive Birgit to suicide.
• Screaming at Squick: Throughout one season two episode, Jasmijn and Oswald dare eachother to do increasing squickier things. As the episode nears it's end, the only response the gang can bring up, to Oswald going through with one of the dares, is a unified "EWW!" from all of them.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Latka, the political refugee Steve harboured, eventually does this after living a few days in the student house, as he thinks the entire gang is insane. This was at least somewhat warranted, as the gang did startle him at least half a dozen times with their behaviour.
    Latka [to his fellow refugees at the center]: I had to come back... those Belgian people are crazy!
    Latka: They're loud and strange, they watch nothing but bloody war movies on TV...
    Latka: And they keep giant spiders as pets!
    Other refugee: Ah, tarantula!
  • Akke also has one of these moments, during a Politeness Judo argument with Carlo.
    Akke: If that's the way you want things, I'm out!
    [Akke stroms off.]
    Carlo: Akke?! Wait for me!
  • Several episodes later, Carlo does this to Akke, after the two had a falling out over Akke's new girlfriend, Greet (with whom Carlo is in love).
  [Carlo sees Akke and Greet kissing passionately on the couch and loudly clear his throat.]
  [Carlo clears his thraot again, as the two continue their passionate kissing session.]
  Carlo [Suddenly Shouting]: All right, that's it!
  Carlo: I can't take that incessant kissing of the both of you any more!
  Carlo: And since I'm confronted with it all the time, when I'm around the house, there's only one solution left!
  Carlo: I'm moving out, pronto!
• Secret Relationship: Jasmijn had a secret relationship in season two. It turns out she had a good reason for this, as her boyfriend was much older than her (and she was a teen as well).
• Secret Test: In one of the season three episodes, Carlo pretends to move out to see how everyone would respond. The results of the test are not to his pleasing, as no one truly seemed to miss him.
  Steve [after Carlo shows up at the breakfast table]: Didn't you move out yesterday?
  Carlo: Actually, no. I was merely pretending to move out to test how everyone would respond to my departure...
  Steve: And what were the results of your test?
  Carlo [depressed]: They were pretty unsettling, to be honest. But I'd rather not think about it too much...
• Selective Obliviousness: When Jasmijn tells her father that she wants to be either an actress or a biochemist, he completely ignores the actress part, even when Jasmijn repeats several times that it's an option for her. She even complains about it to Zoë, who, in turn, asks about her father's hearing.
  Zoë: Are you sure you spoke loud enough?
  [Jasmijn gives Zoë a bewildering look]
  Zoë: What? It's all downhill after you turn forty...
• Self-Deprecation: When Kim gets 99% from Akke's "Lovulator", she asks Akke whether that's good. When akke compares it to getting 99% on a math test, she uses this trope as a response.
  Kim [after getting 99%]: Is that good?
  Akke: Is that good?! If you would get 99% on a math test, what would that tell you?
  Kim: That I cheated on the test...
• Self-Serving Memory: Tom apparently has a major case of this, as proven by his (auto-biographic) novel, which makes him out to be far better than he actually is (while the other members of the gang are written as flanderizations of themselves). He even writes losing to Zoë in a running contest in such a way that he was the moral winner (because he allowed her to win).
• Sex Sells: When Tom writes a script for a TV-series, Birgit tells him to spice things up and make it more sexy, as the script would never sell without it. She somewhat comes back on her decision, when Tom threatens to write several sex scenes between her character and Carlo's character (much to Carlo's disappointment).
• Schedule Fanatic: Akke is this when he makes a schedule for Steve, in order to write his thesis and train for a basketball game at the same time. The schedule has everything planned down to the minute, even breaks and sleeping hours.
• Shamu Fu: One episode has Zoë slap Tom with a fish, after he mockingly tries to feed her.
• Shirtless Scene:
  • Tom has one of these when he starts his relatioship with Ellen.
  • Zoë has one later that same episode, when she gets a massage from Steve. While the viewer only sees her back, Tom gets an eyeful, when Zoë leaps up after Steve sprays cold massage lotion on her back.
• Shower of Awkward:
  • Happens to Steve when he tries to take a bath at the start of a season two episode. First, Zoë walks in on him twice, then Birgit. Steve eventually decides to later take a shower instead.
  • Also happens to Carlo in season three, when his bath is interrupted twice by Steve and the others barging in to look for a leak while he's getting undressed and subsequently not leaving, despite his (not-so) subtle protestations. At the end of the episode, he eventually manages to take a bath in peace.
  • This also happens to Birgit when Akke and Carlo walk in on her while she's in the bath. Then again, she did get depressed in the previous episode and Steve tasked everyone to keep a watchful eye on her (which Carlo took literally).
    Tom [after the incident]: So everyone has seen Birgit naked, then...
  • The gang also uses this trope to hide a pirate radio station from the police in their bathroom. As the police officer enters the bathroom to search it for the radio station, he stands face-to-face with Zoë, who's only wearing a modesty towel. The officer quickly looks away, while holding his hand in front of his eye, and when Zoë asks him if he doesn't want to sneak a peak, he quickly walks out embarrassed. The radio station then turns out to be hidden behind the shower curtain.
• Shout-Out:
  • One season three episode has two in quick succession. When Carlo asks Tom about his looks, Tom states that he reminds him of a certain actor, "Jan De...". Tom most likely meant Jan Decleir, who is the father of the actor who plays Carlo, Jenne Decleir. Shortly after, Carlo asks Jasmijn about her Celebrity Crush. She, in turn, replies that she has a crush on Staf Coppens, the actor who plays Oswald in the series.
  • One of the following episodes had Tom writing a script for his own TV-series, based on his own life (and that of his housemates). However, when Birgit told him that she found his script boring, Tom had to come up with ways to spice up his script, which lead to several shout-outs to James Bond, Gone with the wind, The untouchables (which was an idea of Carlo) and even a musical about Snow white and the seven dwarves, with Steve playing Snow white.
  • The final episode of season three had the gang (who were about to get evicted) have their "last supper" biblical style, with Steve posing as Jesus.
  Jasmijn [at the last supper]: Too bad it feels like I'm surrounded by six judases...
  Birgit: How come?
  Jasmijn: None of you helped me with my protest action outside!
  • One of the season 5 episodes has Steve daydreaming about driving Zoë's new motorcycle in a cool leather outfit. This daydream quickly becomes a shout out to The Village People, when a construction worker, a police officer and an indian walk by and start singin "YMCA" together. When Steve wakes up from his daydream, he sees that the music vidoe for "YMCA" was on the TV, which probably influenced his dream.
  • Another season five episode has Carlo come up with schemes to rescue Birgit for Tom (who owes her a debt, after she saved him). The first scheme he conceives draws inspiration from "Psycho", with Carlo as the killer and Birgit as the victim. The second scheme is a direct reference to "Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner". With Tom saving Birgit (The Road Runner) from a painted tunnel, before getting hit by a train coming from said tunnel.
    Tom [after The Road Runner skit]: Why did I spent a minute of life listening to this nonsense...
    Carlo: Make up your own schemes, if you know better!
• Sickening "Crunch!": Happens to Jasmijn's pet tarantula after Birgit stomps on it in fear. The tarantula (unsurprisingly) ends up dead after the crunch.
• Sickening Sweethearts:
  • While the show occasionally portrays relationships as this, the honeymoon weeks in the relation between Jasmijn's father and her French teacher took this up to eleven, as to (humorously) torment Jasmijn even further with this.
    Jasmijn [After witnessing a (sickening) display of romance at breakfast]: It's far too early in the morning for this...
    Jasmijn's father: Should we only start kiss past noon, then?
    Jasmijn: No, you'd only start after you get married, if it were up to me!
  • Akke and Gella also have this kind of relationship, as shown by the reactions of the gang to Akke's phone conversation with her.
    Akke: My little squaw, I wish I could take you away in my tipi, so we could spend the night in eachother's arms...
    Tom: I wish a cowboy would come along to shoot the both of them... Tey're making me sick to my stomach with that talk!
• Silent Treatment: Carlo does this to Akke, after he gets into a relationship with Greet (who Carlo is in love with). It doesn't work out for him well, as Akke still has Carlo's bicycle key in his pocket.
  Carlo: If that's how you want it, then I won't talk to you anymore from now on!
  [Carlo storms off in anger]
  [When he tries to unlock his bike, however, he realizes Akke still has his key]
  [Carlo returns to Akke and tries to ask for his key through a series of charades and hand-gestures.]
  Akke [confused]: What?
  [Carlo makes the same gestures again]
  [Akke gives him a confused look]
  Carlo: My bicycle key!
  Akke [handing him the key]: All right, here you go...
  Carlo: And I'm not talking to you anymore, starting now!
• Simple Score of Sadness: This plays when Jasmijn and her father have a heart-to-heart, after Jasmijn locks herself in the bathroom.
• Singing in the Shower: Although he was taking a bath, Steve seems to be fond of this.
  Steve [Singing]: It's now or never!
• Single-Issue Wonk: When Jasmijn and her friends organize a party, one of her friends is very adamant on building a cloakroom. Later on in the episode, when Birgit's bossy behaviour drives everyone off, she asks him why he's leaving (as she never said anything to him). His response: "You never built a cloakroom!".
• Skewed Priorities: In one of the season four episodes, Birgit (who desperately needs a job) stops her job hunt to go shopping with Kim, as Tom's influence is turning her into him. This spurs a reaction expected for this trope from Steve, who thinks she has better thing to do with her time.
  Steve [To Birgit]: What's more important: finding a job or "saving" Kim from Tom's bad influence?
  Birgit [after Tom and Kim laugh at the same lame joke]: I think that answers your questiong for me.
  [Steve sighs and shakes his head.]
• Sleeping Their Way to the Top: This is the way Tom describes Birgit in his novel, as signified by the fragment Zoë read aloud.
  Zoë [quoting Tom's book]: Birgit, ruthless bitch... She's only pre-occupied with making promotion as fast as she can, predominantly by using her...
  [Birgit rips the book out of Zoë's hands and turns red as she reads the rest of the passage]
• Snarking Thanks:
  • Akke often becomes the victim of this trope, as others would thank him sarcastically, which he would take at face value
  • Steve also gets a sarcastic "Thank you" from Kim, after she has to stay with her aunt Berta, becuase Steve discovered woodworm in their house.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: When Birgit asks Zoë why she's not successful as a bussiness woman yet, Zoë tells her that Birgit's good looks probably intimidate others (as she thinks Birgit has the right personality to be a career tiger). Birgit takes this completely the opposite way and thinks something is wrong with her appearance. She ends up coming to the conclusion that she needs a breast enlargement.
• Something We Forgot: When the gang returns from their trip to the forest, they somehow manage to forget Carlo (who found a great hiding place during a game of hide and seek and fell asleep afterwards) and don't remember that they forgot him until they return to the forest the next day (and step on him by accident). Even after he returns, they neglect Carlo (and his whining), much to his frustration.
  Carlo [after the entire gang walked out on him mid-sentence]: Why am I even staying in this place!
  Steve [from the other room]: Because of Birgit!
  Carlo: You got me there...
• Sore Loser: Tom is this, as shown when he keeps on losing to Steve at FIFA 2001.
  Jasmijn [to Tom]: You didn't hold punches in your review of FIFA 2001.
  Jasmijn [quoting the review]: Despite the amazing graphics and decent gameplay, this version of FIFA just couldn't capture my heart.
  Steve: That's because he's a sore loser, who couldn't win a single game against me!
• Sound-Effect Bleep:
  • When Zoë talks to Steve about her relationship with Mickey, she states that they don't have that much in common and, hence, don't have too much they can do together. When Steve asks her which activities they do enjoy doing together, Zoë lists several activities that required this trope.
    Steve: So... What do the both of you enjoy doing together?
    Zoë: Well, there's *Bleep*...
    Steve [somewhat uncomfortable]: Aha... anything else?
    Zoë: Well, we also *Bleep* and *Bleep*, but that hasn't been the same lately...
    Steve [blushing]: Okay...
    [Steve starts singing an awkward song to get his mind off it]
  • When Steve discovers a leak in the plumbing in season three, he shout "God Dammit", only for a bleep to white out the "dammit" part. Surprised by the sudden occurence of a bleep, he shouts it again, only to find that the bleep consistently sounds on the "dammit" part. He drops the matter shortly after.
• Speaking Like Totally Teen: When Birgit tries to hang out with Kim and her friends, the first thing Kim does is stating that she can't use her out-dated "cool" lingo. She subsequently forbids Birgit from using the words "blitz", "Super" and "Groovy".
  Birgit [to herself]: I wonder if I can still use "hip"... I'll ask Kim when I see her!
• Spiders Are Scary: One season three episode has Jasmijn introduce her new pet tarantula to the gang. The gang's response is consistent with this trope, as they all scream in fear when they first lay eyes on the spider. Later on in the episode, the tarantula escapes from it cage, causing most of the gang to climb on chairs and tables out of fright.
• Split Personality: Akke has one in the form of Berend, a smooth, charming ladies man, who tends to pay the field regardless of if he has a girlfriend or not.
  • In one of the season two episodes, Akke shows that he has plenty more personalities he can summon at will.
    Tom: I can't forge these questionaires... I keep on filling in the same answers.
    Akke: You just have to tap into your alternative personalities...
    Tom: I think I only have one.
    Akke: You can always interview me!
    Tom: You have more than one personality?
    Akke: You bet!
    [Akke loosens up as he starts channeling one of his other personalities]
    Akke [in a rough city accent]: Name's John... John Barbe!
    Akke [switching to a different personality with a snooty accent]: My name is Willem, but people call me Wim...
    Akke [switching to yet another, far shyer personality]: Philiberke...
    Tom: What do you do in your spare time?
    Akke [as Philiberke]: I... um... write poetry...
    Akke [as Wim]: You can find me at the golf course, old chap!
    Akke [as John]: Chasing the broads, ofcourse!
    [John let's out a series of wolf-like howls]
    Tom: More... more..! more!!!
• Split-Personality Switch Trigger: In one of the season five episodes, Akke turns into Berend (semi-permanently), after tripping and conking his head on the side of his bed. He stays that way, until another head trauma turns him back into Akke.
• Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: When Akke and Carlo scientifically test a first-person shooter, they play a mission where stealth is the optimal path, so they plan beforehand on being as stealthy as possible. This plan immediately goes out the window after they start playing, as they go full guns akimbo due to the adrenaline.
  Akke: Okay, so the mission is to save the hostages and eliminate the hostage-takers...
  Akke: The best approach would be to sneak in silently and evade as much bloodshed as possible.
  Carlo: Sounds like a solid plan...
  [As the game starts, Akke and Carlo almost immediately go berserk.]
  Akke: RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
  Carlo: Eat lead, you mothersnippers!
• Stealth Insult: When Tom makes an appearance in "De laatste dag", a sophisticated Flemish TV-show, Birgit tells him to act like an asshole to shock the audience (as he would otherwise be overclassed by Herman Brusselmans). His "act" doesn't go over well with the interviewer, however, who makes several of these in the process.
  Interviewer [In response to Tom's demeaning comment about his intellectual capabilities]: Intellect is relative, as we can see from this interview.
  [later on.]
  Interviewer [about Tom's book]: "Wachten op Gisteren", ladies and gentlemen... The book is better than the writer.
• Stereo Fibbing: In one episode, Tom dares Akke and Carlo to find 50 words with a Q (as he finds it a useless letter). However, he does state that Maaike can't help them. Akke and Carlo enlist Maaike's help over the phone regardless, until Tom shows up. At that point they pretend Maaike was a salesman, which leads to this exchange.
  Tom: What was he trying to sell?
  [Akke and Carlo simultaneous]
  Carlo: Books!
  Akke: Toothbrushes!
  Both [in unison]: Books on toothbrushes...
• Straight Gay: Steve mostly falls within this category, as he has no campy mannerisms. He, nevertheless, does like to cook and clean, but these aren't neccisarily indicators of homosexuality anymore.
• Stripperiffic: When Zoë gets a job as a go-go dancer at a club in season three, her outfit consist of a mesh string and a bra, which leave little to the imagination. Steve's reaction to the outfit makes it even funnier, as he thought that it wasn't a suitable outfit for any occasion and even went as far as hiding in the cereal box, so that Zoë didn't have to wear it.
• Strip Poker: When most of the gang has to wait in the kitchen for a (rather) long time, Tom proposes this as a past time. Of course, he's one of the only ones who ends up in his underwear (Carlo as well, after he joins the game later on).
• Stunned Silence: Happens for a moment when Tom and Ellen announce that they're going to get married.
• Stupid Crooks: In one of the season four episodes, Tom "infiltrates" a group of squatters, who are (very openly) squatting one of the buildings in their neighbourhood. The squatters are furthermore very eager to get on camera, despite the fact that they were doing something illegal, all because they thought Tom was going to bring "De Kreuners" back together.
• Sucks at Dancing: Akke way of dancing is rather ecclectic to say the least, although in universe, no one seems to mind.
• Suddenly Shouting:
  • When Ellen and Zoë decides to go shopping for Ellen's wedding dress, nearly the entire gang ends up joining them screaming in excitement (or in Akke's case, fright). The only one averting this trope were Tom (who wasn't present) and Jasmijn, who reacted aloof.
  • When Akke finds out that he forgot to study a part of his coursework (which he already recycled), he tries to borrow Carlo's copy. Carlo, who has a lot of cramming to do, (partially) becuase of Akke's environmental conciousness, responds to him with this trope.
    Akke: But I'll only be a second...
    Carlo [irritated]: I think you know my answer.
    Akke: Thanks, buddy!
    Carlo: NO!!!
  • Carlo is fond of these, as shown when he loses at "Penguin Panic".
    Maaike: I win!
    Carlo: WHAT A DUMB GAME THIS IS! I HATE PENGUIN PANIC!
  • Bert, Zoë's (psycho) ex-boyfriend is also prone to doing this.
    [Bert and Steve are watching a show on the sofa.]
    [Steve wants to ask Bert why he's at the house, as Zoë broke up with him last night.]
    Steve: Bert?
    Bert: WHAT?!
    [Steve spills his popcorn.]
    Steve [frightened]: Would you like some popcorn?
    Bert: No, thanks.
  • Carlo does this again, when professing his love (or lust) for her.
    Birgit [after she was interrupted while putting on her make-up]: Just admit it... Who would want me looking like this.
    Carlo [getting on one knee] Birgit...
    Carlo: I WANT YOU!
• Summoning Ritual: When the gang obtains a Ouija board, they end up performing a summoning ritual where they end up summoning the ghost of "Bob". While "Bob" seems to know a lot of personal information about the gang (such as the name of Steve's father and the age of Tom's mother), even he doesn't seem to believe that Maaike is Akke's girlfriend.
• Super Window Jump: When Zoë loses on of her lenses, Carlo vows to protect her from harm (to show the others he's kindhearted). This almost immediately fails when Zoë stumbles onward and fall out of a window. In response, Carlo decides to attempt to safe her by leaping through the same window. Fortunately for both of them, the window was open at the time.
  Akke: Did you wake me up for this! Stupid board...
• Super Zeroes: Tom turns into one of these, after he thinks he's invulnerable, after getting a shock from a toaster. His alter-ego, electroman, ends up getting hurt more often than saving anyone.
  Steve: Are you still going through with this nonsense...
  Tom: Fighting crime is no nonsense!
  Steve: The only crime here is that stupid superhero outfit of yours!
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When Akke and Carlo invent a new letter together, Carlo comes up with the design of the letter (a circle with a dot in it), which should represent both of their names. When Akke asks Carlo how it would do that, we get this exchange between them.
  [Carlo draws a "C".]
  Carlo: See, you draw one "C", for Carlo...
  [Carlo draws another, mirrored "C" to close the loop]
  Carlo: Then another "C", but mirrored...
  [Carlo places a dot in the middle of the circle]
  Carlo: And the dot is you...
  Akke: I'm a dot?!
  Carlo: Actually, it's an "a", as seen from a large distance...
  Akke: Ah, because I'm leagues ahead of you in terms of intellectual development!
  Carlo: Yeah, sure thing... Let's go with that...
• Surprise Checkmate: The start of one season two episode contained a chess game between Akke and Steve, which ended with a surprise win for Steve. The win was furthermore a literal surprise to Steve, who didn't see the opportunity for a checkmate and needed Akke's help to point it out for him. He ends up reacting as if he knew it all along.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Near the end of season five, Akke goes abroad through a student exchange project and Paco, essentially the Peruvian version of Akke, comes to join the cast. The fact that Paco was played by Aron Wade, who also plays Akke, made the similarities between the two characters even more obvious.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When most of the gang goes shopping for Ellen's wedding dress, Steve gets a (minor) crush on the saleswoman. After denying once before that he has a crush on her (becuase he's gay), we get this response when Zoë tries to call him to attention after dreaming away.
  Zoë: Steve!
  Steve [snapping out of his dream]: I don't have butterflies in my stomach, okay!
• Swapped Roles: In one episode, after Jasmijn's father starts a relationship with her French teacher, the two have a Sickening Sweethearts moment at the breakfast table. When Jasmijn enters the room, she briefly takes up the role of uptight parent (complete with "Back in my day..." and "As long as you live in my house, you follow my rules"), while Jasmijn's father and her French teacher act like teenage love birds (with the French teacher storming off in a teenage fashion at the end of the bit).
• Sweeping the Table: Zoë does this, when Steve explains his lesson plan for the PE class he's giving by using tight schedules and response cards, as she thinks Steve should loosen up his teaching method.

T

• Take That!:
  • One season three episode had this exchange about Dana Winner between Tom and Steve.
    Steve: Look at this newspaper! It's filled to the brim with bad news and nothing else!
    Tom [quoting his section of the newspaper]: "Dana Winner puts an end to her singing career"... I would say that counts as good news!
  • In season 5, Jasmijn manages a stampede at the movie theather, by lying that the movie was replaced by a first showing of the new Arnold Swartzenegger movie.
    Jasmijn [after a failed fire scare]: You do know which movie they're gonna play here...
    Guest: The one we payed for, I guess...
    Jasmijn: No, they switched it for an advance premiere of the new Arnold Swartzenegger movie!
    Guest: Arnold Swartzenegger! Everyone, save yourselves!
    [All but three nerdy movie-goers flee the theatre.]
    Jasmijn: Didn't you hear me! They're playing Arnold Swartzenegger!
    Nerd 1: So what? we're great fans of Arnie...
    Nerd 2: Yes, wir finden der Arnie supertoll!
  • Nana Mouskouri also becomes the victim of this, when Steve and Birgit present their new song to the record lable.
    Steve [about his song]: This is going platinum for sure!
    Manager: Not at my record lable, it isn't!
    Manager: It's far too dull and spiceless to ever get further than this stage...
    Manager: Perhaps it would have been a minor hit in the 70's, but back then even Nana Mouskouri could write a hit or two!
  • Several episodes later, Elvis becomes a (brief) victim of this as well.
    Carlo: So my plan in life, from now on, is to stay in bed and eat as much as I can!
    Akke: Like Elvis, but without the golden records!
• Take This Job and Shove It: Birgit does this when she quits her job at a marketing firm, as she was getting promoted even after she admitted to her boss that she was highly incompetent at her job.
  Birgit [refering to herself] : So I told them: "I don't want to work for a company which hires such incompetent employees".
• Talk About the Weather: When Akke and Carlo start their own bussiness, they start behaving like office clerks and have a sort of Seinfeldian Conversation about (among other things) the weather during one of their breaks.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Carlo apparently does this, if Akke is to be believed.
  Akke [to Carlo]: I get why you wanted your privacy... I won't tell a soul that you talk in your sleep.
  Carlo: That's not why... Wait! Do I talk in my sleep?
  Akke: You do... and quite a bit as well!
  [Later on]
  [Carlo moans Maaike's name as he and Akke are testing a wall in their room]
  Akke: Stop! I can still hear you!
  Akke: And you never moan "Oh, Maaike!" in your sleep!
  Carlo: What do I moan, then?
  Akke: "Oh, Birgit!".
  Carlo: Makes sense...
• Tank Goodness: When Birgit joins the army, she's placed in control of one of their tanks as an army exercise. She immediately shows why this is a bad idea, when she runs over a convertable (most likely the drill sergeant's), as she was working on her make up (and, therefore, not paying attention to the road).
• Teacher/Parent Romance: Jasmijn's father gets involved with her French teacher throughout season 2.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Played for laughs when Zoë accidentally sends a love letter to her professor (the letter was meant for her and written by Mickey, her love interest). The professor saw it as less of a laughing matter.
• Technobabble: Akke and Carlo are fond of this, as they're computer nerds. Even explaining something as simple as hooking up a printer was made technical enough by Akke to utterly confuse Birgit.
• Tempting Fate: In one episode, Steve wonders if Birgit and him are getting old, as they want to watch TV instead of going out to a club. Birgit subsequently states that they're only truly old once teenagers start whining about their day to them. Que Jasmijn entering the house, whining about a (boring) trip she took with her parents.
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: In one episode, Birgit is advised by Akke to hire an assistant to deal with the work load. What follows is a montage of half a dozen interviewees, each even more unsuitable than the one before. Birgit end up choosing the least worst one.
• That Came Out Wrong:
  • After Steve breaks up with Tony, Tom tries to console him and states that he had his streak of eartbreak from bad boys as well. This piques everyone's interest and leaves Tom bumbling for words.
    Tom: You're never gonna let me forget this one, do you? Anyways, let's bury this one under the mantle of love and forget all about it, okay?
  • This also happens to Steve, when he tries to break up with his boyfriend / lover (Gabriel) at Birgit's housewarming party.
    Birgit: All right, party's over! Everyone, get out!
    [She yanks open the front door to Steve and Gabriel breaking up.]
    Steve [shouting]: I was only in it for the sex!
    [Steve sheepishly looks at the crowd gathered at the door.]
    Steve: Party's over already?
• That Was Not a Dream: During Tom's diet episode, he ends up eating a burned grilled cheese sandwich at night, all while claiming that it's just a dream anyways. He finds out that it wasn't a dream the next morning.
  Tom [the following morning]: It feels like I ate an ashtray last night...
  Steve: Would've been healthier if you did.
• Theatrics of Pain: One episode shows a bruised and beaten-up Steve, after he returns from a night of clubbing. Birgit tries to patch him up, only for Steve to (severely) overreact to her cleaning his wounds.
• The B Grade:
  • In one season three episode, Zoë comes home and complains that she had a 14/20 on her exam.^note She was complaining because the grade she received looking like a nerd was higher than the one she received in her most sexy clothes When Steve asks her what's wrong with a 14/20, Akke comments that it's obviously a low grade.
  • The next episode, both Akke and Carlo receive a 15/20 and pretty much end up in tears over it, as they've never fell this low.
• The Cameo: Raymond Jacobs from Flikken (or an Expy) makes a Cameo in one of the season two episodes.
• The Charmer: Akke turns into this when he becomes Berend, as he's only obsessed with women and swinging when he takes on that personality. Unfortunately, he takes his charming ways a bit to far and starts flirting with every girl in sight, despite the fact that he had a girlfriend at the time.
• The Dentist Episode: One season two episode has Akke and Steve visit the dentist (or, more specifically, his assistant). They both end up with a slack jaw, as both of them have cavities.
• The Dilbert Principle:
  • After Tom fakes the answers to a survey he had to hold (together with Akke), he gets a promotion even he can't understand.
    Tom [reading the conclusions of the survey results]: You gotta be kidding me! In addition to the lonely hearts column, I now have to host an informatics and technology column as well!
    Akke: Nice...
    Tom: What do I know about informatics and technology!
    Steve: Don't worry Tom... you don't know anything about women and, yet, you're about to marry one!
  • Also happens to Birgit when she takes a job as a marketing assistant. She starts out with little to no knowledge of the job (because she lied on her resumé) and, hence, flunks her market assessment report (except for the graphs, which were top notch). Not only does she not get fired, her boss gets fired instead and she gets his position.
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Averted with AIDS in this series, which was named and discussed freely, despite the taboo surrounding it.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: This trope is Birgit's reaction, when Akke accidentally invites Norbert to their last party at the student house.
  Birgit: Norbert! What are you doing here?
  Akke: I invited him!
  Birgit: Why?!
  Akke: You told me to invite everyone we know...
  Birgit: Everyone we like, Akke!
• The Gadfly: When Tom secures an interview in a sophisticated talkshow, Birgit advises him (last minute) to be this to upstage Herman Brusselmans. This works out as well as you'd expect it would, As all of Tom's provoking merely leads to several disses from the inetrviewer and Herman Brusselmans.
  Birgit [to Tom before his interview]: Just be your unbearable self and act like you do at home.
  Birgit: There you piss off people without any effort as well.
• The Illegible: Carlo's handwriting is apparently so bad, that it took Birgit several episode to decipher the "code".
• Their First Time:
  • Throughout season two, Tom has some issues with talking to Ellen about this. He wants to make the next move, but is uncertain if she wants to as well. eventually, Ellen makes it very clear to him that she's ready for the next step.
  • Jasmijn and Oswald also go through the first time jitters. In their case, it's particularly exciting, as they're both virgins. They end up getting caught in the act, which makes for a memorable first time (according to Zoë, at least).
• The Ludovico Technique: Birgit imposes this technique on herself to stay awake during her marathon radio broadcast on Zoë pirate radio station, using sticky tape to force her eyes open. She barely stays awake because of it, however, and even falls asleep with her eyes open for a while.
• The Mistress: Jasmijn finds out that she's this, when she dates a married guy who's twice her age.
  Danny's wife: So, Danny, finally found the love of your life? or should I be expecting you home for supper, as with all those other women?
• The Operators Must Be Crazy:
  • This is the reason why Birgit was hired at AKA. When Akke tries to answer a bussiness related call, he end up mixing his words, which only caused more confusion for the caller. Birgit, on the other hand, was capable of swiftly helping out their customers.
  • When Birgit gets too many (unanswered) phone calls (due to Akke's focus on anything but work), her solution is to instantly hang up or simply disconnect the phone.
• The Pig-Pen:
  • Tom turns into this, after his break-up with Ellen makes him depressed. He even gets fired from his day job after going to work covered in filth. He eventually break out of it.
  • Bert, Zoë's (ex-)boyfriend, took this trope to it's extreme, as he was so filthy (and smelly), that people could smell his stink from the other side of the house. All of the other residents resorted to holding their breath and pegging their nose whenever he came anywhere near them. This eventually becomes the sole reason for Zoë to break up with him, after which he starts stalking her.
  • Carlo also turns out to be this, due to his lack of (frequent) bathing or showering. This is particularly showcased, when Steve needs to get Carlo ready for his music video.
    Steve [Looking at his watch]: We have far too little time! We still need to get you properly dressed!
    Carlo: What's on the list first?
    Steve: Taking a bath...
    Carlo: Skip it! It'll save us half an hour...
    Birgit: Half an hour to properly clean Carlo... Good luck with that!
    Carlo: Hey! I'm not that filthy!
    Steve [sheepishly]: I also planned at least an hour for that...
• The Precious, Precious Car: In one of the season three episodes, Jasmijn uses her car to practice her driving skills (without asking) and dents it by driving it into something (she wasn't specific about what she drove it into, but the dent was small, nevertheless). The actions of the gang (and, specifically, Carlo) to repair the (small) dent eventually only make everything look worse.
• There Are No Girls on the Internet: Zoë assumes that this is the case, when Akke tells her that he's chatting with a girl online. She turns out to be wrong, when Akke does end up bringing a girl home.
• The Unintelligible:
  • When Akke and Steve visit the dentist, they both get (localized) anesthetics, which turns their speech into (nearly) unintelligible gibberish. They subsequently try to recall the events at the dentist to Jasmijn, who can't make heads nor tales of it.
    Steve: 'ho den, I 'skt 'm of I 'ad 'ne 'avty, 'e s'd n'ho (So then I asked him if I had one cavity, he said no).
    Steve: 'ho I 'skt 'hu 'avtys, 'e s'd n'ho 'gen (So I asked "Two cavities?", he said no again!)
    Akke: 'hen I asked 'hree 'avtys, 'e s'd 'ingu 'nd I g't 'tay (Then I asked "Three cavities?", he said Bingo and I got a toy).
    Jasmijn: Great story, you guys, but I didn't understand a thing of it...
  • When Carlo tries to spend his entire life in bed eating, he shouts at Steve with a mouth full of food, after he enters the room, leading to this exchange.
    Carlo [shouting with his mouth full of noodles]: Murmplflgl!
    Steve: What?
    Carlo: MURMPLFLGL!
    Akke: It means: "Get out! Unless you bring food..."
    Steve: You understood that?
    Akke: You get used to it after a while...
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: When Kim and her father stay with the gang, because their house is getting fumugated, Kim's father quickly becomes this to the whole gang, as he's rude and impatient, as well as insulting to the entire gang. Kim eventually tells him (quite harshly) that none of the gang wants him to stay any longer, as the rest of the gang is too intimidated to tell him.
• This Is Reality: This was Jasmijn's response, when Tom proposed to use hand signal to cheat on their exams.
  Jasmijn: Tom, that only works in sitcoms...
  Tom: You're father not getting angry at you for flunking also only happens in sitcoms.
  Jasmijn: Good point!
• Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: Akke once mistook a woman for Elvis Presley (after he passed away) and, to this day, still claims that she was Elvis in disguise.
• Those Two Guys: Akke and Carlo take up this role in later seasons, in episodes where they're not the focal point of the episode.
• Ticket-Line Campout: Akke and Carlo resort to this, when they try to get their bussiness registered at the chamber of commerce.
• Tickle Torture: Akke and Gella do this to Carlo (even tying him down), in order to convince him to let gella stay over for the night. They keep on going, even after Carlo gives in, as they don't believe he actually means it.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Happens to Steve after his break-up with Tony. He doesn't feel like going out anymore and starts acting more mature.
• Too Much Information:
  • When Zoë and Mickey visit their GP for an AIDS-test, they have to wait in line with several old-timers. When their turn comes up, one of the old-timers claims that he was first, which led to this exchange:
    Zoë and Mickey: We were here first!
    Old-timer: No, I was!
    Zoë: We're here for an AIDS-test!
    Old-timer: Well, I'm here to get this large zit on my ass checked...
    [The old man tries to show his butt]
    Zoë: Alright, alright! Too much information! You can go first...
  • Carlo also states this trope, when he gives Akke (intentionally bad) relationship advice about his sister.
    Carlo: So, Akke... I hear that you're seeing my sister.
    Akke: Yes, and hearing her... and smelling her...
    Carlo: Spare me the raunchy details!
    Carlo: If you want to keep seeing her, through, you're going to have to know what she likes...
    Akke: Oh, I know that! She likes tickling and spooning and...
    Carlo [shuddering]: Again, spare me the raunchy details!
• Torment by Annoyance: Happens to Steve when the gang is studying for their finals, as Zoë annoys him to enormous lengths by repeatedly clicking her pen. He even calls her a "Bic clicker" in anger, because of it. Zoë then takes it up a notch and steals Steve's spot at the living room table, which ticks him off even more and causes him to call her a "spot stealer" as well. From that point onwards, it's open war between them, with Zoë going to great lengths to irk Steve (even swapping the furniture of the living room with that of the kitchen.
• Tragic AIDS Story: Happens to Zoë's boyfriend Mickey, who eventually dies of AIDS as well. This also has a major impact on Zoë's life, who undergoes quite a bit of (temporary) character development becuase of it.
• Training Montage: One of the season two episodes starts with a work-out montage of several test subjects (including Zoë and Ellen) for Steve's thesis. The montage ends with Zoë dropping a barbell on Steve's foot.
• Trampled Underfoot: When Jasmijn's pet tarantula escapes from his cage, the gang starts looking for it, only to find it hiding somewhere. After they lash at it with a broom, the tarantula seems to charge at them, causing Birgit to respond by stomping on it with her (high-heeled) shoe. The tarantula doesn't survive the ordeal.
• Trash the Set:
  • When Tom gets an interview with "De laatste dag", he ends up getting dissed by Herman Brusselmans. Tom, obviously, doesn't leave it at that and starts a brawl with Brusselmans in the studio, destroying the set in the process.
  • At the start of season four, a housefire destroys most of the interior of the apartment, allowing the gang to revamp the look of their living room entirely. While the revamped living room still resembles the old one, it does look drastically different nevertheless.
• TV Never Lies: The gang discusses this trope, when Birgit is called a money hungry manager in an exposé about Tom.
  Steve [To Birgit]: You shouldn't believe everything you read in the paper... We know what you're truly like.
  Birgit: Yeah, but everyone else will take it at face value!
  Steve: I'm sure they won't... By the way, this guy wrote that Tom is a "pleasant and charming man". Tom!
  [Everyone starts laughing at the notion of this being true, while Tom gives them death glares.]
• Two-Timer Date: Jasmijn has one with both Lars and Björn at a basketball game. They find out about eachother (needless to say) and she ends up on top of the ring at the end of the episode.

U-Z

• Unlimited Wardrobe: Ken Carson made extremely good use of this trope, as he had an outfit for (literally) every occasion. When he and Birgit went to the gym, he had four costume changes during the short span that they were there, simply to erform different tasks (riding the home trainer, doing some lifting, fetching the car, etc...). Furthermore, when Birgit calls him for a date, he was spending time alphabetizing his (extensive) wardrobe, where he had trouble finding his tennis outfit (nearly cancelling the date because of it).
• Unusual Euphemism: While talking about Tom's new well-endowed one-night stand, Akke of all people comes with the perfect euphemism by accident.
  Birgit: I've heard he's currently seeing a girl called Cindy.
  Carlo: A Cindy, huh? Nice... they usually have big...
  Akke: Mangoes! Who wants a piece?
  [Akke gestures to the mangoes in his hands]
  Carlo: Me! Me! Me!
• Unwanted Gift Plot: In one episode, Birgit receives an ugly piece of art, which resembles an erect penis made of vegetables. She tries everything to get rid of it, but the artwork always seems to get out unscathed. She ends up feeding it to a rabbit, who subsequently dies because of it.
• Vapor Wear: When Zoë takes up a job as a go-go dancer at a club, Steve forbids her to dance in the outfit the club gave her (which was basically a string and a bra). Instead, Zoë buy a semi-transparent shirt, which would leave even less to the imagination and would definitely be this trope if she actually wore it.
  Steve: You do know that we can see through that thing, right?
  Zoë [Sarcastically]: Oh no! I guess I would have to dance in something else, then...
  [Zoë starts laughing as Steve grumpily looks at her.]
• Video Wills: Mickey made one of these for Zoë, which she receives after he dies of AIDS. The contents of the video will drive Zoë out of the depression she developed after Mickey's death.
• Virtual Assistant Blunder: BORF is full of these, as he sees everything as a command. Humorously exemplified when Steve and Tony go through their break up in the kitchen.
  Steve: We're through once and for all!
  Tony: I don't understand how you can go over this so lightly.
  BORF: BORF, light.
  [The light turns off in the kitchen]
  Steve: I used to have feelings for you, but now you leave me indiferent and cold.
  BORF: BORF, cold water.
  [the faucet turns on.]]
  Tony: I know our relationship's icy...
  BORF: BORF making icecream, vanilla or chocolat?
  Tony: But you know I'd go through fire for you!
  BORF: BORF, furnace on.
  [The furnace of the stove turns on]
  Steve: What do you want me to say to that.
  Tony [accidentally burns his hand on the stove]: Oh Sh*t!
  Steve: Not what I had in mind...
• Visual Innuendo: In one of the episodes, Birgit gets an art piece / floral arrangement with an obvious phallic look to it. She ends up feeding it to a rabbit.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Birgit has one of these after she ate too much pita shawarma for Carlo's music video. As the clip ends, Birgit can be seen holding her hand in front of her mouth, after which she runs off to the side, presumably to vomit.
• Wedgie: Akke and Gella do this to Carlo, after they find out that he was trying to break up their relationship. They furthermore use it as a leverage, to make carlo tell them why he wanted to split them up.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: When Jasmijn gets a new boyfriend, Luca, she wants him to stay the night, but is afraid to ask her dad. When she eventually does ask him, he's too distracted by the wine bottle he's trying to open to listen to her properly, causing him to say "yes". It's only afterwards that he discovers the mistake he made.
  Linda: You're quite open-minded for the father of a teenage daughter.
  Jasmijn's father: What's wrong with someone wanting to sleep over for the night?
  Linda: All I'm saying is, back when I was her age, boyfriends were banned from my bedroom by my father...
  Jasmijn's father: He's just staying there for the night, what could possibly happen between the two?
  [He suddenly realizes that he's talking about a teenage boy.]
  Jasmijn's father [running after Jasmijn and her boyfriend]: Jasmijn!
• What Have You Done for Me Lately?: This is Carlo's strategy to become student council president, as he asks the students what the previous president (and only candidate) has ever done for them. When the other students start pitching in (a la Monty Pyton), Carlo quickly changes his tactic to upstaging anything the previous president did.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: During an association exercise proposed by Zoë, Tom keeps ending up at the word "earthworm". When the gang asks him why, Tom tells them several (rather squicky) stories of what his brother and him did to the earthworms in their garden, when they were kids (which includes drowning them and cutting the into a million pieces). The gang's reaction is (quite understandably) appalled.
  Steve: Tom, your parents didn't give you another pet, by any chance?
  Tom: No, why'd you ask?
  [A wave of relief goes through the gang, when they hear Tom's answer.]
• Wholesome Crossdresser: When the gang goes shopping for wedding dresses, Steve ends up modeling a dress as well and doesn't look too shabby wearing it either.
• With Catlike Tread: In one episode, Zoë and Mickey are having a rather emotional conversation in the living room, when Tom charges in, takes the potato chips he left there and charges out. He then asks Birgit and Ellen (who are in the kitchen) if they think anyone noticed anything.
  Tom: Speedy Gonzalez makes it look so easy...
• Withholding Their Name: When Tom starts having a string of one-night stand after his break up with Ellen, he forgets the first name of one of them (Elvira). When he asks Birgit if she knows her name, Birgit states that she does (as she just asked her), but that she isn't going to say it to watch him squirm.
• Won't Get Fooled Again: This is how Birgit responds, when Tom and Carlo try to convince her that her new boyfriend, Tim, is a doppelgänger of Tom (which he is).
  Birgit: Ah, I get it now! It's the old "make Birgit believe that her boyfriend looks and acts like Tom" trick!
  Birgit: Well, I'll have you know that's not going to work this time!
• Workaholic: Akke, when he was working on BORF. He stayed up all night to work on a "minor" bug and even took his laptop to dinner.
• Writer's Block: Tom suffers from this, when he tries to write his second novel, as he can gain no inspiration from his surroundings. He tries some (rather) weird and extreme things to get rid of it (such as pranking his house mates and making a documentary).
• Wrong Line of Work: Johan was this at AKA, as he had no knowledge about computers, filing or even menial tasks like bringing coffee.
  Birgit: Johan thought he crashed the computer...
  Akke: Oh no, my IMac!
  Birgit: Don't worry, it just went to screensaver...
• Wrong-Name Outburst: When Birgit dates Tim (Tom's doppelgänger), the main reason they split up in the end, is because Birgit shouted out Tom's name in the heat of passion, instead of Tim's. This leads to them talking about the similarities between Tim and Tom, which eventually cause a break up.
• Xylophones for Walking Bones: Steve does this with Etienne, Akke's (inanimate) skeletal friend. Steve and Akke even jam out together and take a bow to the camera when they finish.
• Yandere: Bert, Zoë's ex-boyfriend, turns out to be a major case of this, as he initially dismisses his break-up with Zoë as a joke. After she makes it absolutely clear that it's over, however, Bert starts calling her repeatedly as well as stalking her. The latter is extremely unpleasant, not just because of the psychological aspect, but also because of Bert's extremely bad body odor, which causes him to stink up the place (and gives him away).
• "Yes"/"No" Answer Interpretation:
  • When Zoë gets to run a pirate radio station, Birgit (somewhat incessantly) asks her if she can have a radio show as well. Zoë responds by throwing Birgit out of the studio, leading to this response from Birgit.
    Birgit: So that's a maybe?
  • Carlo also has one of these moments, when he asks Birgit on a date the episode before the series finale.
    Carlo [after Birgit and him were scientifically matched]: Wanna go on a date with me now?
    Birgit: No!
    Carlo: How about we skip the date and go straight to the bedroom?
    [Birgit punches Carlo in the face in response.]
    Carlo: Is that a yes?
    [Birgit shakes her head.]
    Carlo [disappointedly]: I thought so...
• You Didn't See That:
  • Steve's response to Jasmijn, when she saw him sing "Bailamos" while cooking.
  • Steve also responds like this, when Carlo catches him pretending to ride Zoë's motorcycle.
  Carlo: Were you just doing what I think you were doing?
  Steve: I was cleaning!
• You Do NOT Want To Know:
  • During a humiliation dare challenge between Jasmijn and Oswald, some of the gang asked Jasmijn what she did with a series of noodle implements she borrowed earlier. Her response was that they very likely didn't want to know, as it was incredibly squicky. When they press her for the answer, she eventually tells them and the scene cuts to the gang staring at her in disgust as she ends her story.
  • This is also Steve's response, when Tom dresses Paco (the Peruvian version of Akke) up as a member of a Peruvian pan flute band and asks the gang for their opinion.
    Tom [showing off Paco in the ridiculous Peruvian outfit he bought for him]: So... What do you think?
    Steve: Oh, you'd rather not know that...
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  • This is Steve's response to Akke (and the others) making fun of his lesson plan.
    Jasmijn: Steve, you need to loosen up... Be spontaneous and carefree towards your students!
    Steve: What my students need are rules and boundaries! Without those, I can't work with them...
    Jasmijn: Man, you're starting to sound like an actual teacher...
    Steve: What do you think I was going for here!
    Akke: Steve, I found another whistle for you to use!
    [Akke blows an oversized party flute in Steve's face.]
    Steve [grumpily]: Am I the only one who's taking this serious?
  • When Steve and Birgit perform their (disastrous) song in front of the record lable's manager, the manager tells Birgit that if Steve doesn't find an amazing act soon, that he's fired. When Birgit relays this to Steve, he has this reaction.
    Birgit: By the way, if yyou don't find a star soon, you might want to look out for another job.
    Steve: It's not because our song failed, that you have to be spiteful.
    Birgit: Oh, I'm not spiteful... your manager told me to relay this to you, when we left...
    Steve: That's a joke, right? Tell me that's a joke!
    Birgit [exasperated]: Fine, I was kidding...
    Steve: Good... that's a relief.
    Birgit: But I wouldn't dilly-dally if I were you... The guy seemed serious.
• You Have to Believe Me!: When Zoë (inadvertently) gets Akke interned into a psychiatric ward, Carlo and her visit the ward to get Akke out, only to get interned themselves, as no one believes them (and they act erratic enough to warrant psychiatric help). The main reason Zoë gets interned, however, is this trope, as she hysterically claims that neither Akke nor carlo is crazy. She's not helped by Carlo either, who pretends to be mentally unstable the entire time.
  Zoë [To the man at the front desk]: Hello, we're here about a patient that was just brought in, Akke Impens...
  Guard: Ah yes, a true basket case, that one... He's in isolation at the moment.
  Zoë: Well, here's the thing... He's not crazy at all, he was merely pretending as a joke for my professor.
  Guard: Uh huh...
  Zoë: You gotta get him out of there! He's not supposed to be here!
  Zoë [to Carlo]: Carlo, say something!
  Carlo [making his crazy face]: Yeeurgwhaoohooo... BUTTMUNCH!
  [The guard wipes the spittle from his face.]
  Zoë: Don't mind him, he's merely pretending as well, just like Akke!
  Guard: Sure...
  Carlo: The walls... Why are they after me all the time!
  [The guard calls over two other guards.]
  Zoë: You have to believe me! He's not insane!
  Other guards: What seems to be the problem?
  Guard: Two more patients with delusions of grandeur...
  Zoë: No! We're not crazy! We're completely normal!
  Other guards: Come along now...
  Carlo: I'm the king of the world!
• You Need a Breath Mint: This is the dentist's (subconcious) response to Akke's breath, after he ate a lot of garlic.
  Akke [In his mind]: Isn't he bothered by my breath? Let's test and see!
  [Akke breaths out and the dentist flinches]
  The dentist [In his mind]: Geez!
  The dentist [In his mind]: I should've known better... I shouldn't have listened to my dad and became a hairdresser instead!
• You're Just Jealous: When Tom has a string of one-night stands to get over Ellen, Birgit eventually talks to him about it, as she feels he's only hurting himself (and all of the women he dated). Tom responds by stating that she's jealous, as he neglected to try it on with her. This eventually ends with Birgit climbing into bed with Tom, just to shut him up.
• Your Television Hates You: In one episode, Tom forces himself not to eat anything before a hotdog eating contest, in order to keep his stomach empty. When he gets hungry, he turns on the TV for distraction, only to see cooking show after cooking show prepare delicious meals. This even gets followed up by a Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere sequence, where his house mates enter with all kinds of delicious food. Tom eventually caves and decides to eat what Akke's having, which turns out to be fried krickets...
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: In one episode, Steve forces Tom to visit the doctor at the hospital, after (faking) a stomach ache. He ends up with a doctor who wants to perform a gastroscopy by entering a garden hose with a camera through his mouth. The doctor's deadpan reaction truly sells it.
  Doctor [as he prepares the garden hose cam]: Open wide...

---

The movie 8eraf contains examples of:

• Abandoned Catchphrase: Steve, who has become a (rather unsuccesful) mental coach, came up with "Be Steve in yourself". He ends up ditching this catchphrase near the end of the movie, when he comes to realize that he hasn't been true to himself for a long time.
• Bad Influencer: Jasmijn has become this to some degree, as she tends to have no qualms about posting unpleasant vlogs about her friend and places her followers above them on a regular basis. She also loves to create additional drama to entertain her viewers.
• Big Fancy House: Carlo's house surely counts as this, ebing an enormous mansion. It even has three bathrooms on the same floor.
  Ellen: He's overcompensating for something here.
  Tom: I want to overcompensate like that...
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Isabel tried to start out as this, stating that she's been helping Syrian refugees, but her true personality quickly slips through, as she comically seems to miss the point about philantropy rather quickly.
• Brainy Brunette: Hanna, the head of R&D at Borfius and Carlo's fiancé (until she breaks up with him), who's intelligent enough to even impress Akke
• Bridezilla: Isabel quickly becomes this, when Carlo chooses her as his bride. This is the main reason Carlo cancels their marriage at the last moment.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: happens between Steve and Matteo, when what Steve thinks to be the start of romance, turns out to be a simple one-night stand.
  Steve: I thought we were on the road to a long romantic relationship!
  Matteo: For me it was more of a pitstop and not even the best one I ever had.
• Call-Back: The movie has several, in particular to the variety of songs made throughout the series.
  • The intro of the series makes a return at the start of the movie, only to include some acrobatic fails, as the gang has gotten older.
  • Birgit and Zoë reminisce "Zoë eet Pita", when they find a pita shawarma in Carlo's fridge. Unfortunately, it's moldy and hence inedible (as Birgit quickly finds out).
  • When Akke tries it on with Hanna, he trips and pulls down Hanna's skirt by accident, just like he did with Maaike. He then pants himself (which he also did for Maaike as self punishment), much to the dismissal of Hanna. He even notes on this later in the movie.
    Akke: It was Maaike all over again...
  • Berend Impens, Akke's alter ego, makes another appearance near the end of the movie, after Akke gets tased by Isabel.
• Dodgy Toupee: Steve wears one throughout the first half of the movie. He ditches it around the time he realizes he's clinging onto a persona he's not.
• First Girl Wins: This applies to Carlo and Birgit, who end up together again at the end of the movie, despite Carlo having two other women to choose from throughout the movie.
• Food Slap: While arranging the menu for the wedding, Isabel disagrees with a waiter over the salmon being caught in the wild, which ends with her slapping the waiter with the salmon
• Gold Digger: Isabel is clearly an example of this, as she's only interested in money.
• Girlfriend in Canada: Birgit pretends to have an (absent) boyfriend from an aristocratic family. She quickly called out on it, when she can't remember his name several times in a row.
  Birgit [upon finding out that Carlo believed her boyfriend to be real]: At least someone who believed in him...
• Happy Ending Override: For Carlo and Birgit, who break up somewhere between the end of the series and the start of the movie. At least they both become succesful in their professional life.
• Heartfelt Apology: Tom makes one to Ellen in a video recording, after hurting her feelings through a series of pranks. She ends up forgiving him.
• Hikikomori: Akke has become this in the movie, as he's now living as a shut-in in Carlo's mansion and only communicates with the outside world through VR.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Tom and Jasmijn discuss this near the end of the movie, as they state that someone should make a film about their misadentures throughout the film. Cue the anouncement of this exatc movie, made by Jasmijn and Tom.
  Jasmijn [looking at her broken phone]: Aw man, I missed the best part!
  Tom: Should we all just do it once more?
  Jasmijn: If you could take it from the start, that would be great!
  Jasmijn: This would make an amazing movie.
  Tom: What would?
  Jasmijn: Everything we just went through!
  Tom: You're joking! Who'd want to watch that?
  Jasmijn: I know a lot of people who would pay big bucks for it...
  Tom: Really?! But who would write it?
  Jasmijn: Who do you think, dummy...
  Tom [finally realizing]: Aha...
  [The next scene shows the announcement of their movie, starring all of the main cast.]
• Jumping on a Grenade: Carlo-bot jumps on a self-destructing hard-disc at the end of the movie to save the gang from the explosion. The gang ended up in shock, as they thought it was actually [[spoilers: Carlo]].
• Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: Happens near the end of the movie, when the gang is too busy mourning over Carlo (in fact, Carlo-bot), that they don't notice him entering the room until he announces himself
• ...Or So I Heard: This exchange between Carlo and Birgit.
  Carlo: But you're so succesful! You have your own real-estate agency, with five agents and two new building projects of your own!
  Birgit: We recently got the contract for a third one, actually...
  Birgit: Wait! How did you know that?
  Carlo: Just a lucky guess...
• Prank Gone Too Far: Tom nearly loses Ellen because of this. In order to capitalize on Jasmijn's success, Tom invents a prank video segment for her channel. In his first prank, he "surprises" Ellen with a confetti bomb, which merely gets him exiled from their room. In the follow-up, Tom and Jasmijn have a dispute about credit, causing Tom to become (somewhat) paranoid for a revenge prank from her. When he subsequently talks to Ellen (at Zoë's advice), Tom thinks that Ellen and Zoë are in on the (non-existent) prank and he decides to get back at Ellen by pouring a glass of champagne on her head, causing her to storm off in outrage. Nevertheless, he eventually makes it up to her through an apology video.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Ellen ended up getting married to Tom after all, despite the two of them being split up indefinitely by the end of the series.
• Putting the Band Back Together: Carlo does this at the start of the movie, because he needs the gang's input on who he should marry: Hanna or Isabel. He ends up marrying neither.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The Carlo- and Birgit-bots, who are extremely life-like in nearly every sense, as Tom finds out about the Carlo bot at the start of the movie.
  Tom [about Carlo-bot]: I think he's a Ken doll.
  Carlo-bot: A Ken doll?
  Tom: Yup, nothing upstairs and nothing down-below.
  Carlo-bot: I'll have you know I'm entirely anatomically correct down-below!
  Tom: Yeah right, I'll believe it when I see it!
  Carlo-bot: Have it your way...
  [Carlo-bot drops his pants and underwear to reveal his manhood to the gang.]
  Tom [at the size of Carlo-bot's manhood]: That's definitely not anatomically correct!
• Robot Me: Carlo made robotic versions of both himself and Birgit. The robotic version of himself serves as a servant and body double for dangerous tasks. The robotic version of Birgit serves as a realistic practice target for Carlo's attempts to win Birgit back by wooing her (through words). It's this revelation that ends up winning Birgit back, as she realizes Carlo truly loves her (instead of just lusting after her).
• Runaway Bride: Carlo becomes a male example, when he leaves Isabel at the altar halfway through the movie. Isabel ends up going berserk because of it.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Kim was left out of the movie entirely, as her actress didn't join the project. No reason was given for her absence in-universe.
• Sexless Marriage: Tom and Ellen ended up in one of these, much to Ellen's frustration. Tom remains clueless about the problem for most of the movie, while Ellen copes with it by eating chocolate. They eventually do end up rekindling the flame by the end of the movie.
• Static Stun Gun: Isabel ends up wielding one, after Carlo leaves her at the altar, and she uses it to hold the gang at ransom to extort one million euros from Carlo. Zoë eventually defeats her with some well placed karate moves.
• The Cameo: Several of these happen throughout the movie.
  • Johan, one of Zoë's test patients, returns as the mayor who's marrying Carlo and Isabel. He's still as prone to tears as he was throughout the series.
  • Exposure, Steve's old boy band, returns as the performer at the party as well. Then again, with all of the old members replaced, this was more of a cameo in name.
  • At the end of the movie, Jasmijn's father, Alfons, also returns in a brief cameo.
• Valley Girl: Isabel squarely falls into this trope, as she talks, acts and spends money like a (stereo)typical rich bimbo. She, nevertheless, does go much further to get the money to sustain her lifestyle than most other valley girls.