Total Drama / Tropes Q to Z

Total Drama Main page
A to G | H to P | Q to Z

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Tropes with their own pages:

• Recurring Element
• Role Association
• Running Gag
• Series Continuity Error
• The Friend Nobody Likes
• Trailers Always Spoil
• Warp That Aesop
• Wham Episode

Other Tropes:

Q

• The Quiet One:
  • Justin only has FOUR LINES of dialogue in the first season (not counting the special), and they were all in the first episode in a timespan of about one minute.
  • B, whose main character trait is him never speaking.
  • Beardo copes with his shyness by communicating using sound effects. His only line during Pahkitew Island is a rushed farewell while being shot out of a cannon.
  • Caleb, who might as well have less lines than Justin during his stay at the competition, which is about one episode.

R

• Rage Breaking Point: Even the kindest and most patient of contestants will eventually reach breaking point during their time on Total Drama.
  • In "Paintball Deer Hunter", Beth reaches her breaking point when Heather acts like an Ungrateful Bitch towards her.
  • In "That's Off the Chain!", Lindsay gives Heather a big-time "Reason You Suck" Speech, when the former finally realizes that the latter had been stringing her along the whole time, despite Lindsay's Undying Loyalty to Heather and her alliance.
  • In "Eat, Puke, and Be Wary", Zoey reaches her break point when a necklace Mike had given her breaks, causing her to undergo Xenafication.
• "Rashomon"-Style: DJ recollecting the mummy-dog incident he had in Egypt in "Super Happy Crazy Fun Time Japan".
  • What really happened: DJ pats the mummy dog. It turns to dust, then the chamber starts to cave in.
  • DJ's version: DJ, wearing Harold's tinfoil hat for some reason, pats the mummy dog. It explodes. Then the pyramid explodes too.
• Read the Fine Print: Chris has all of the campers under contract, and uses the fine print to force them into season two, dumping heaps of abuse on them without repercussions; no court in any sane world, especially in Real Life would let such contracts stand.
• Reality TV Show Mansion: According to Noah, the entire premise of Chris' new (and actually fake) show Total Drama Dirtbags is, "A bunch of nasty jerks live in a huge mansion and get all bored and backstabby."
• Reality Warper: The Blue Harvest Moon makes good things act mean and bad things act nice.
• Recurring Element: Has its own page.
• Red Shirt: The interns. One of them got eaten by sharks (presumably), another one got eaten by scarabs, another two got eaten by bears, two more got frozen in a river in the Yukon, another one got attacked by Courtney when he was in a hot air balloon, another one got pushed off a 100-foot diving board by Chef, one had to go through therapy for months after being cursed at by Izzy, and that's not even counting what probably happened to more interns off-screen. As if to put an even finer point on it, as of Revenge of the Island, the interns all literally wear red shirts.
• Rejection Ritual:
  • Like many of the elimination game shows it parodies, Total Drama features a ritualized expulsion of players who have been Voted Off the Island. Early on, the elimination ceremonies were fairly tame, with the "Dock of Shame" and "Walk of Shame" in Island and Action, respectively.
  • However, as the series progressed, the eliminations became more over the top; World Tour had the contestants jump out of a plane in a random location around the world (some of them without a parachute to boot), Revenge of the Island had the "Hurl of Shame", a large catapult used to fling contestants off the island, All Stars had the "Flush of Shame", a giant toilet where eliminated players are flushed down the drain, and Pahkitew Island had the "Cannon of Shame", a circus cannon which was used to shoot eliminated players off the island. Thankfully, the reboot seems to have returned to a slightly more grounded elimination method in the form of the "Drone of Despair," which simply flies the contestants away from the island.
• Revenge of the Sequel: It is the fourth season, Revenge of the Island, that bears the classic sequel title in respect to the first season, Island. This is because the second and third seasons both take place away from the titular island, while the fourth season marks the return to where it all began.
• Rhyme Theme Naming:
  • The first generation has single-minded best friends Katie and Sadie.
  • The third generation brings the Polar Opposite Twins Amy and Samey (whose actual name is Sammy, but Amy prefers to call her like this because she considers her sister an inferior version of her).
• Ridiculously Cute Critter:
  • DJ's bunny, the chipmunks, the squirrels, and even the skunks.
  • The baby pandas (when they're tamed).
  • The bird that Duncan couldn't bring himself to hurt in All-Stars. Even with three eyes, it's adorable.
• Rocky Roll Call: In "Are We There Yeti?" the four remaining campers end up running into each other in a dark cave while trying to hide from Sasquatchanakwa.
  Owen: Duncan?
  Heather: Owen?
  Duncan: Heather?
  Heather: Duncan?
  Gwen: Heather?
  Heather: Gwen?
  Owen: Gwen?
  Gwen: Owen?
• Rogues Gallery: Every season has its own key antagonists, some of whom are manipulators, others bullies, and again others play the game by their own rules. Present in all seasons are the hosts Christ McLean and Chef Hatchet, who love to torture campers and interns alike. Debuting in Island are Heather (manipulator), Duncan (bully), and Eva (bully). Going down the path of villainy in Action are Justin (manipulator) and Courtney (own rules), while Geoff (bully) has only a short run antagonizing everyone around him. Debuting in World Tour are Alejandro (manipulator) and Blainely (bully), while Ezekiel (own rules) goes down the path of villainy. Debuting in Revenge of the Island are Scott (manipulator), Jo (bully), and Lightning (bully). Debuting in All-Stars is Mal (bully). And debuting in Pahkitew Island are Max (own rules), Amy (bully), Sugar (manipulator), Scarlett (own rules), Topher (own rules), and Dave (bully). Prior to Pahkitew Island, All-Stars paid homage to the antagonist by means of a "Heroes vs Villains" theme for which seven (+ one) of the eleven available return as a Big Bad Ensemble.
• The Runner-Up Takes It All: Total Drama is an animated reality show with fixed eliminations up until the finale. Per season, fans get to vote who they want to see win from two finalists. The finalist with the most votes in a given country wins in that country's final episode. This means there are both no and two canonical winners and finalists share the consequence of potentially having won: they're not going to win again and while fans still want to see them, the interest that comes from wanting to see a specific character win is gone for previous finalists.

S

• Sadist Show: To the point that most of the original cast members no longer want to be part of the show in any capacity whatsoever and only participate because of their legally binding contracts. DJ freaked out when he found himself at Camp Wawanakwa again, having vowed to never return, and he was only there as the judge of the challenge. Ultimately, The Ridonculous Race is the first, and currently the only, season to not have the sadistic host.
• Sadistic Game Show: Between the abuse and injuries suffered by the contestants, the low survival rate of the interns that have to test the challenges, and the environments themselves, it fits the trope to a tee.
• Same Language Dub: In-universe, the show airs in Japan subtitled and with everyone's voices dubbed over, still in English.
• Sanity Slippage:
  • Ezekiel's mental state sinks faster than Wawanakwa itself. It's to the point when he has no hair, hat, or ability to speak. Just a green, Gollum-esqe, monster. Each season, he does show signs of crawling back to humanity, such as: standing on two legs, yelling with his old voice, and attempting to communicate. The writers also hint he may be still in there.
  • Sierra suffers from this pretty badly over the course of All-Stars due to Cody not competing that season, to the point where she begins to see Cameron as a Cody substitute.
  • Dave starts as the Only Sane Man of his team who often questions how weird his teammates are, but his mental state slowly deteriorates over the course of the season thanks to his obsessive crush on Sky.
• Satellite Love Interest: Justified considering how many OfficialCouples there are in the show but here are the biggest ones:
  • Trent is a Nice Guy, is Gwen's Love Interest, plays the guitar and has an obsession with the number nine... And that's about all we know about him.
  • Tyler doesn't receive much importance in Island besides being Lindsay's Love Interest. He fortunately does get significance in World Tour, though.
  • Zoey. Despite what her label - "The Indie Chick" - suggests, her defining trait is her mutual crush on Mike.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Sierra is loud and excitable, but her crush, Cody, is a meek boy and one of the saner characters in the show.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Many male characters in the series have a high-pitched scream, even if they're the manliest of manly men.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
  • Courtney has her lawyers get her back on Action in episode 13, and make her immune from being voted off. She also gets the unfair advantage of using her PDA, letting her keep in touch with the outside world, and gains other luxuries such as her own private bathroom (although the luxuries are never mentioned after episode 14, and she's even seen using the communal showers later on).
  • Technically Owen does the same thing in the same season, only his connection is his role as traitor given to him by Chris. He is exempted from the challenge in "Crouching Courtney, Hidden Owen", and was given a GPS to help get him out of the woods in "Top Dog". And all he had to was sabotage everyone else.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Played straight with Dakota, who is so rich she came for the fame not the prize money. She is able to return back to the show to pester Chris because she whines to her rich dad who pays the sadistic host a large bribe. Chris accepts though he makes Dakota an intern.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Chris often introduces new rules after the competition had already started, usually resulting in an unexpected competitor being eliminated.
  Alejandro: What? You never said that, you're just making rules up as you go along!
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!:
  • In the second season, Justin uses his looks to try to manipulate people, get out of work, and avoid elimination.
  • Lindsay does a minor version of this in the first episode, where she asks Chris if she could have a cabin with an ocean view since she's the prettiest camper.
  • Alejandro has a bit of this as well, but it's thrown into obscurity due to his master manipulation being given more focus.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Duncan quits in the first episode of World Tour because "Duncans don't sing", but is forced to return several episodes later.
  • In the first episode of All-Stars Lindsay decides that the prize money isn't worth it and votes for herself during the elimination ceremony.
• Security Blanket: The audio of the "TDA Caught on Tape" clip reveals that Duncan has a blankie named Mr. Bumblebottom. Duncan considers it the best thing he ever has stolen.
• Security Cling:
  • Justin has a tendency to do this; although his logic is a bit flawed considering that the person he clings onto is always smaller than him.
  • Early in "Walk Like an Egyptian - Part 2", Leshawna, afraid of snakes, jumps into Harold's arms for safety. Later, when Chris releases the scarabs we see Leshawna's back in his arms while Bridgette has climbed onto his back. DJ is also seen balancing atop of scrawny Ezekiel.
  • Harold and Tyler latch onto each other during "Before We Die".
  • Cody clings onto Owen's shoulders during a polar bear attack in "Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better".
  • Geoff leaps into Bridgette's arms when an anvil nearly crushes him during one of the Action aftermaths.
  • Sierra grabs Cody when they get attacked by the Ripper in "I See London", they also share a mutual terror-hug when they end up in the middle of a thunderstorm in "Planes, Trains, and Hot Air Mobiles".
  • When their plane spins out of control in "Can't Help Falling in Louvre" Chef advises the contestants to hold onto the heaviest thing they can find. Cue everyone grabbing onto Owen.
  • A non-comedic example occurs in "Dial M for Merger", when the remaining contestants think they're about to be killed by a time bomb they exchange goodbyes and then hold each other silently as the timer counts down.
  • When DJ's bus falls off a cliff during the Action special a few contestants can be seen holding each other and closing their eyes as they brace for impact.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man:
  • The first season is unique in terms of not having just two but three guys fit for this trope with all of them being on the same team. Juvenile delinquent Duncan is the manly man while Animal Lover DJ is the sensitive guy. Surfer Dude Geoff personifies both traits of this trope as he is the sensitive to Duncan's manly and the manly to DJ's sensitive. Coincidentally, all three of the guys are the last three members of their team remaining after the merge passed and when Bridgette was eliminated.
  • Season four gives us scrawny, timid Nice Guy Mike and team killing Jerkass Scott. Mike himself is also the Sensitive Guy to three of his personalities: Joisey Vito, Awesome Aussie Manitoba Smith and Ax-Crazy sociopath Mal.
  • Part two of season five gives us Dave and Shawn. The former is a whiny, effeminate Neat Freak who has No Social Skills (especially when it comes to Sky) while the latter is a Crazy Survivalist who is exceptionally athletic and possesses Super-Speed. Just for comparison, Dave freaks out whenever he gets even a little bit dirty while Shawn is seen wearing camouflage in one episode, showing that he isn't above getting dirty.
  • Season six brings the Official Couple represented by Raj and Bowie. The former is as much a dudebro as his hockey teammate Wayne is, while Bowie is Camp Gay.
  • The four male members of Ferocious Trout are split as following: Nervous Wreck Damien and Mellow Fellow Zee (who even has long hair) are sensitive, while the unrefined bully Ripper and the self-centered daredevil Chase are manly. The four male members of Frogs of Death are split as following: Pretty Boy Caleb and Camp Gay Bowie are sensitive, while the Dumb Jocks Raj and Wayne are manly.
• Series Mascot: Owen is the primary advertising figure of the series, partly because he was the first winner, and because kids (the series' target audience) really love him.
• Series Fauxnale: The final episode of Island (2007) has a lot of tropes you'd see in a series finale: every character on the show appearing, a title card with the word "last" in it and the characters earning their happy ending. It also has a feeling of a series finale too. Despite this, Total Drama got a special called "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island" and it's been pumping out new seasons since then.
• Shaped Like Itself:
  • "They're stranded in Drumheller, where the number one cause of death is being stranded in Drumheller."
  • "Owen, Owen! He's our guy! If he can't do it... uh... He's not our guy!"
• Share the Male Pain: One of the challenges in Island involved the campers eating gross foods. The very first round involves eating bull testicles: Chris notes that it's the "hardest thing for a man to do".
• Ship Sinking:
  • Gwen and Trent break up during Action, especially as the show hints at a Gwen-Duncan relationship.
  • Courtney's and Duncan's relationship come to an end in World Tour after Duncan kisses Gwen.
  • Any chance for romance between Dave and Sky dies in the Pahkitew Island finale when it's revealed that Sky already has a boyfriend. This itself isn't the problem, because she's ready to break up with him for Dave, but Dave feels betrayed and used and becomes dangerously vengeful.
• Ship Tease:
  • During Action, the writers loved to tease Duncan with girls other than his canon love interest Courtney. Mostly this was with Gwen but he also ended up kissing Heather (as part of a challenge) and going on a 'date' with Lindsay (to deliberately infuriate Courtney). Then season three, the tease with Gwen became reality.
  • Harold and Leshawna have a lot of Will They or Won't They? in their interactions, and his friendship with Heather often has hints of attraction. Beth is also willing to dump her offscreen boyfriend when she thinks Harold is into her (much to his horror) and he is implied to be attracted to Gwen for one scene.
  • Noah/Izzy seem to be just friends, but a lot of their interactions come off as cutesy or romantic. They also happen to be a Fan-Preferred Couple.
  • Heather and Alejandro have romantic tension for the entirety of World Tour. They enter a shortlived proper relationship in All-Stars.
  • Many scenes with Courtney and Gwen in All-Stars prior to "Sundae Muddy Sundae" are very touchy-feely and more pleasant than either girl's scenes with Duncan.
  • Julia has a few with MK.
  Julia: "If MK's brain drove a cool car, I'd date it!"
• Shock and Awe: The furless mutant squirrel from Revenge of the Island can shoot lightning out of its eyes.
• Shoehorned Acronym: A Running Gag involves Katie and Sadie referring to each other as "BFFFLs", a cacophonic acronym for "Best Female Friends For Life".
• Shoe Size Angst: The episode "The Princess Bride" has the girls fight for the challenge of fitting into a glass boot. Lindsay then reveals to have huge feet, with only her big toe fitting in the boot, though this is never actually seen. However, Lindsay had been seen barefooted before and since that episode, particularly two episodes prior in "Super Hero-ld", where she and Courtney were both seen barefoot.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Izzy, DJ, and Noah, the three primary sources of humor for the first half of season three, were all eliminated just prior to Duncan's return to the game and the start of the Love Triangle saga.
• Show Within a Show:
  • Total Drama Island, Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, Total Drama Revenge of the Island, Total Drama All-Stars, and Total Drama Pahkitew Island are all reality shows within the Total Drama universe.
  • The Action special also featured a TMZ-esque show called Celebrity Manhunt, which tracked down the contestants once Action ended.
  • Blaineley apparently hosts The Puppy Bachelorette.
• Sibling Team: Amy and Samey in Pahkitew Island.
• Sickeningly Sweet: The finale of All-Stars. Heather and Alejandro, having finally become a couple, acted like Sickeningly Sweethearts for the majority of the episode, and when Mal was finally defeated, there were three consecutive kisses, on the lips for the couples and on the cheek for friends Gwen and Cameron. It angered Chris so much that he did an Ass Pull, changing the rules just to get everybody to stop.
• Sickly Green Glow: During Revenge of the Island, an eliminated contestant receives the Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom at the elimination ceremony. This marshmallow has been dipped in radioactive sludge and glows bright green. Most contestants dodge it when it gets thrown their way, but Staci and Scott suffer its damaging effect.
• Sigil Spam: In Revenge of the Island and All-Stars, the logo of Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot can be seen on things.
• Silly Walk: Alejandro uses his hands for movement rather than using his legs in All-Stars. He does this at first because his legs are asleep from being stuck in a robot suit for a year, then later he fakes they're still asleep so he has an element of surprise. For his efforts, Jo nicknames him "Ale-handwalker".
• Slap-Slap-Kiss:
  • Courtney and Duncan's entire relationship is built off this.
  • Heather and Alejandro constantly fight because they both want the money. During the All-Stars finale, when they had both been eliminated from winning, they were actually a sickeningly sweet-loving couple. Up until Chris gave them a chance to get back in the game.
  • Courtney and Scott
• Sleep Mask:
  • As seen in "The Aftermath: IV", Justin wears a blue sleep mask that matches his pajamas, fitting his vain nature. It's slipped across his head and no longer covers his eyes at the time of recording, suggesting that Justin moves a lot while asleep.
  • Dakota sleeps with a mask on as per "Truth or Laser Shark". In her case, it's simultaneously a sign of her fancy upbringing, a sign of her vanity, and it's suggested that she's a poor sleeper who needs every sleeping aid she can get.
  • Scarlett wears a sleep mask in "Mo Monkey Mo Problems", but not in any other episode. It's the only piece of sleepwear she has, as she sleeps in her regular clothes. It seems her mask is for practical purposes to get the sleep needed to be at her A-game.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Started off as an idealistic parody of reality shows in its first season with a few cynical moments and individual DownerEndings. In its second season, though, things took a turn for the cynical end. Tropes like the Satellite Love Interest were [[Deconstruction deconstructed]] and the cast turned into a pretty good example of Black-and-Gray Morality. Season 3 can be considered somewhat a Reconstruction, returning to the formula of the first season with some things from the second lurking in and the series now lies at the center of the scale.
• Slippery Swimsuit:
  • In "Haute Camp-Ture", Izzy emerges from the pool having found a bikini bottom. She mocks whatever loser it belongs to until it's pointed out that it's hers.
  • Owen also loses his trunks in both the cliff-jumping challenge in Island and the theme song of World Tour.
• Slut-Shaming:
  • In World Tour, Duncan cheats on Courtney by kissing Gwen. Cue everyone verbally attacking Gwen and her reputation being destroyed while Duncan himself gets only a tiny fraction of the abuse she does.
  • In "Finders Creepers", Chris says: "This tension is so delish, I could kiss someone. Not you Mike, we all know where those lips have been," in reference to Anne Maria kissing him. There's literally nothing about Anne Maria that warrants such a remark other than that she's more physical with Vito, Mike's alter, than Mike is with Zoey.
  • In "Zeek And Ye Shall Find", Cameron kisses Courtney without her consent for Mal's plan to drive a wedge between her and Scott. Both Scott and Gwen won't hear a thing that she's a victim here and treat her as if she's a cheater and hypocrite for ever being angry at Gwen over kissing Duncan. Only when Mal has to change his plan and admit to trickery does Courtney finally get a break.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Blaineley has an extremely high opinion of her host skills...which have so far included such achievements as getting fired from one show, getting escorted off set from another after throwing a tantrum and causing $500,000 worth of damage to the Aftermath studio after setting off an animal stampede. To quote Blaineley herself:

  "What? Who am I? Who am I!? Who are you!? I'm the host of the Puppy Bachelorette! I was nominated for a Gemmie award. I interviewed you for Celebrity Manhunt! It's a fact and scientific that I'm still Blainerific!"

• Smarmy Host: Chris, taken to humorously sociopathic levels.
• Snap Back: Most characters' injuries are undone in the transition to the following episode. Exceptions include any case where the character lost their hair, the tooth Heather lost from Leshawna beating her up in "Slap Slap Revolution," which had to be replaced with a golden tooth for the remainder of the season, and Gollum!Ezekiel and Drama Machine!Alejandro, in the transition from the World Tour finale to The Cameo in the Revenge of the Island premiere.
• Snipe Hunt: Subverted in All-Stars where at the end of every episode Chris has a contestant volunteer to go to Boney Island for the night to look for the immunity idol. It is revealed in "No One Eggspects The Spanish Opposition" that the immunity idol was in the "Fun Zone", a sealed-off area of Boney Island that houses the mutated animals from Revenge of the Island. So in others words, the idol was on Boney Island but it was in an area that nobody had access to.
• Soft Water:
  • In "Not So Happy Campers - Part 2" of Island, the very first challenge involves the campers jumping off a thousand-foot cliff into water below. Just try complaining about any unrealistic injuries after that.
  • In "Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon" of Revenge of the Island, Jo, Scott, Fang, Heather, and Lightning all survive a long fall from the sky into the sea.
  • In "Heroes vs. Villains" of All-Stars, the contestants arrive on the island by jumping or being thrown out of the plane. They have no parachutes but land safely in the sea. Later that episode, they have to do the same challenge as the one in "Not So Happy Campers - Part 2" by thousand-foot cliff into the water below.
  • In "So, Uh This Is My Team?" of Pahkitew Island, the contestants must jump out of the plane to get to the island. Only half of them get actual parachutes, and the rest survives by falling into the water. Unlike in previous episodes, though, this water is very close to shore and logically wouldn't be more than two meters deep, yet even the ones that make a direct landing (Sky uses a branch to break her fall) come out peachy.
• Solo Duet:
  • Harold via split screens in Baby
  • Alejandro with his puppet self in This Is How We Will End It.
• Something That Begins with "Boring":
  • The four finalists play this in "Camp Castaways".
  • Sierra and Cody play this in "Planes, Trains, and Hot Air Mobiles".
    Sierra: I spy with my little eye, something that is... cute!
    Cody: Seagull? Cloud shaped like a monkey?
    Sierra: (giggles) No, you, silly! Your turn!
    Cody: (chortles) Okay, I spy with my little eye, something that is... (sees thunderstorm dead ahead) GONNA KILL US!
• Sound-Effect Bleep: In "Heroes vs Villains" of All-Stars, one gag involves the villains forming a sentence together: "I don't trust anyone on this *beepbeep* team." The *beepbeep* is provided by the robot and one can only imagine what adjective it represents, but it's definitely not a positive one.
• Spin-Off:
  • Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race is a parody of The Amazing Race and features a brand new cast and host. In many non-Canadian countries, such as the United States, Ridonculous was labeled as a Total Drama season.
  • Total DramaRama turns the cast of Island into Spinoff Babies.
• Speaks Fluent Animal:
  • Izzy communicates with a prairie dog in "The Chefshank Redemption", and a camel in "Walk Like An Egyptian - Part 2".
  • Dawn can understand certain species, such as rats and beetles.
  • In Revenge of the Island and All-Stars, Ezekiel in his feral form joins forces with several mutant animals as leader.
  • Ella seems to understand her animal friends who hang around her when she sings. She even talks to them. And they have names.
• Spicy Latina:
  • Courtney, according to Word of God.
  • Axel is implied to be Hispanic, and she has the Action Girl attitude to match.
• Split Personality: Mike has five alternate personalities who are all "erased" in the final episode of All-Stars.
• Split-Personality Makeover: Whenever Mike changes into one of his personalities, his appearance changes, as well as his voice. Chester is wrinkly, doesn't stand up straight, and always has one eye closed. Svetlana gets lipstick out of nowhere and eyelashes. Vito's hair is slicked back and while Mike probably always wears a necklace under his shirt, it's only the shirtless Vito the necklace is associated with. Manitoba is most like Mike as far as looks go, being only distinguished by the hat needed to trigger his fronting. Mal's hair falls over his left eye.
• Split-Personality Takeover:
  • Mal locks away all the personalities away in the mindscape-including Mike. He spends the majority of All-Stars pretending to be Mike.
  • Subverted. Cameron and Mike both contemplate that Mal is actually the original personality and Mike was just an alternate one that eventually took over. However, Mal was just manipulating them, and Mike is unambiguously confirmed to be the original personality once the reset button wipes Mal from existence.
• Spoiled Sweet: Lindsay, Cody, and Dakota are all children from wealthy families and while they do come with some baggage from their upbringing, all three are pleasant people who get along swimmingly with others.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
  • Duncan, Heather, Gwen, and Owen have the highest episode counts out of all of the contestants in the series. All four of them made it to the final four in the first season without returning, Duncan and Owen have also been some of the few contestants to return in the game. All four of them were also finalists, which means that in certain countries, they were picked as that season's winner. Although Owen's is far lower thanks to him not competing in All-Stars. ^note Unless you count his appearances on the Ridonculous Race, which would give him the most screen time out of all the contestants in the series.
  • Courtney is this from Action onwards, where she became the Big Bad of the second half of the season. In World Tour and All-Stars she her involvement in the Love Triangle with Duncan and Gwen is heavily focused in both seasons. Also in All-Stars, she makes it very far and is given a new love interest in the form of Scott, which also put her at center stage.
  • Leshawna, Lindsay, and Harold, mostly due to their conflicts with Heather, Courtney, and Duncan in the first two seasons, and for the latter two because they produce so many funny moments; all three are eliminated early on in World Tour due to being on the unfortunate Team Victory which was targeted by Alejandro, however, Harold is still able to retain some substantial focus by dominating the Aftermath episodes.
  • Geoff and Bridgette had a substantial amount of focus in Island, and despite their early eliminations in later seasons remained important characters through hosting the Aftermaths. Especially the case for Geoff who goes on to become a finalist in the Ridonculous Race.
  • In World Tour, newcomers Alejandro and Sierra receive a lot of focus, especially when they interact with any of the aforementioned Spotlight Stealers. It did not help when it became gradually obvious that Alejandro was Heather's long-awaited canonical love interest, while also serving as the Big Bad of World Tour. Both return in All-Stars, but only Alejandro with a big role.
  • Zoey has had the most screen time of any second-generation cast member, receiving ample focus in both Revenge of the Island and All-Stars. Her being in the spotlight is particularly strange in that she spends most of Revenge of the Island as a Satellite Love Interest and does not contribute anything to the plot of All-Stars until the very end of the season.
  • Cameron was also hit by this to a lesser extent, having been one of the main protagonists and ultimately a finalist in Revenge of the Island and later returning in All-Stars. Always a Love or Hate Character, there were just as many who enjoyed his focus in Revenge as there were those who hated it; it took a turn for the worst though in All-Stars as he becomes the new subject of Sierra's obsessions and dodges multiple eliminations, only to end up as dead weight for much of the season.
  • As of All-Stars Mike has also been hit with this status, with his multiple personalities receiving more spotlight than Mike himself (particularly villainous alter-ego Mal), compounded with his friendship with Cameron and relationship with Zoey.
  • Alongside the Revenge of the Island trio (Cameron, Mike, and Zoey), is Scott. Being Big Bad of Revenge already gave him substantial focus. However All-Stars had him last the entire season (up until an episode before the finale), even though he had virtually no plot save for his relationship with Courtney.
  • Shawn and Jasmine in Pahkitew have substantial focus throughout the season due to their Ship Tease with, the respective friendship with Dave and Samey. About Shawn, considering he's also a finalist, this makes him the overall most focused on contestant in Pahkitew Island.
  • Sugar in Pahkitew. She has made more enemies than any other contestant in the season and is the most focused on Big Bad this time round. As well as frequently stealing the show with gross-out gags in a manner similar to Owen.
• Spraying Drink from Nose: In "I See London...", Noah's impersonation of Sierra makes Owen laugh so much he sprays milk from his nose. The second time Noah does that, Owen snorts a whole hot pepper.
• Springtime for Hitler: In Newf Kids on the Rock, DJ refuses to sing as an effort to eliminate himself so he could stop constantly hurting animals. This ends up backfiring, and he sings at the last second.
• Squee: Katie, Sadie, and Sierra are big-time squee-queens; for the former two, it's practically their trademark. Lindsay and Beth also have some moments.
• Stab the Salad: Harold does a non-violent variation of this during "Super Happy Crazy Fun Time in Japan". When selecting a someone to vote off he dramatically raises his passport-stamper over his teammates' passports and then brings it down... onto a deflated beach ball.
• Stage Mom: Both of Priya's parents are a unique version of this trope as they groomed her to go on the reality competition circuit, starting with Total Drama.
• Stalker with a Crush:
  • Cody for Gwen during "Up the Creek" and the first half of World Tour.
  • Sierra for most of the cast, but especially Cody. She mentions having called members of his family pretending to be a telemarketer.
• Stalking Is Funny if It Is Female After Male: As previously mentioned, Sierra obsessively lusts over Cody throughout the season, going to rather disturbing lengths just so they could be together.

  Cody: She's like the stalker girlfriend I always wished I had... until I got one!

• Status Quo Game Show: Most of the finales have the winners losing the prize money in some way. This is probably because they make more than one season with the same cast, and the character wouldn't have a reason to compete again if they were already a millionaire.
  • In Island, the prize money is converted to one million dollars, and the previous winner lost all their rights to the 100,000 dollar prize they originally won. In Owen's ending, he willingly agrees to do this, but Gwen is forced to do it in her ending, with Chris stating his ability to do this was stated in the contract.
  • In Action, Beth had to use her prize money to bail her and Lindsay out of jail.
  • In World Tour, the prize money is incinerated in the volcano, and neither Heather nor Alejandro get to keep it.
  • In Revenge of the Island, Cameron evenly splits his money with all the other contestants.
  • Notably, the only seasons where the winner doesn't lose the money in some way (All Stars and Pahkitew) are the ones where there didn't seem to be any plans to make another season with those characters.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Dawn has a habit of appearing and disappearing without warning to her teammates which, needless to say, freaks them out a bit.
• Stealth Pun:
  • In the intro to World Tour, Gwen crashes into Duncan and Courtney's boat.
  • Alejandro calls Owen, "butter donkey". "Butter" is "fat" and "donkey" is "ass".
  • In the final challenge of Action, Duncan and Beth have to race through a bunch of different movie genres. One could call it a Movie Marathon.
• Stock Scream: The girl screaming in the slasher film in "Hook, Line, and Screamer". The same scream is used after Dakota falls into the mudpit in "Truth or Laser Shark".
• Streaking: As mentioned in A Video Message From Home to Duncan, he was once arrested for the "Happy Nude Year" stunt.
• Straight Gay: Raj, who is gay and shows no stereotypically gay mannerisms, in contrast to the very flamboyant Bowie, whom he develops feelings for.
• Strictly Formula: Most episodes begin with a conflict between two or more campers, a challenge that plays off that conflict (which takes up most of the episode) and an elimination ceremony that will resolve it unless the conflict is over several episodes (except for when they don't do an elimination). It makes it extremely difficult to vary the amount of screen time, leading to Ensemble Dark Horse and Spotlight-Stealing Squad for multiple characters.
• Strictly Professional Relationship: Throughout World Tour, Heather and Alejandro insist that every move they make towards each other is purely for strategic purposes and nothing else. To everyone else, it's obvious they have a thing for each other.
• Stripperiffic: The average amount of skin the female contestants leave unprotected is notable, but it's especially weird when one considers the kind of show they've signed up for. Special mention goes to Heather, Lindsay, Izzy, Katie, Sadie, Amy, Sammy, Jasmine, and Julia, who all wear tops combined with shorts or a short skirt.
• Stripping Snag: Heather, riding a rapidly moving vehicle, loses her top when a passing tree branch slips under it and tears it off.
• Summer Campy: The premise of the series is a challenge-based summer camp reality TV show, but not all seasons have the summer camp setting. Those that do are the original 2007 Island, Revenge of the Island, All-Stars and the 2023 reboot of Island. At the island-based Camp Wawanakwa, several teenagers have to endure all the classic elements of a crappy summer camp - horrible food, dirty cabins, disgusting washrooms, and all the dangers offered by the great outdoors. Some of these are part of challenges, others are a condition of being a contestant in the first place.
• Superior Successor: Wayne and Raj from Island (2023) to Katie and Sadie. Both are groups of same gender best friends who aren't the brightest, do almost everything together and even dress identically. However, while Katie and Sadie were The Load from pretty much day one, never truly helping their team out and hindering them several times, Wayne and Raj are competent in challenges and in one episode are pretty much directly responsible for the team winning.
• Supreme Chef: DJ's Mother's special spice can turn even the grossest food into a tasty dish.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • At the end of Revenge of the Island, Chris is arrested for dumping biohazardous waste on the island.
  • Similarly, in All-Stars, Duncan tries to prove he belongs with the Villains and decides to blow up Chris' cottage. The result? Not only is he eliminated, he is arrested, and instead of going to Juvie as he expects, is taken to "big boy prison".
  • The actions of Heather, Alejandro, and Courtney mean absolutely no one has any incentive to trust them. Heather is especially despised for her acts of cruelty to Gwen, and it takes very little convincing for Mal to get everyone to vote off Alejandro because of his actions in World Tour.
  • The second Tyler exposes their relationship, Duncan and Gwen become villain number one in both of their respective teams. Duncan only avoids elimination the first time because of Chris, and the second time because of striking a deal with Alejandro.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In her audition tape, Samey goes on a long-winded tangent about her name and home life and personality that betrays everything she sought to keep hidden: "I'm Sammy, NOT Samey. Uh-I don't even know why I said that. No one has ever called me Samey. I mean who would, right? Anyway I don't have a sister or anything. It's pretty much just me... and I'm really confident, because of the no sister thing... and-"
• Sweet Tooth: Cody is shown to have a candy addiction in "Rapa Phooey!".
• Sympathetic Wince: During the cliff-diving challenge, Harold lands in the water with his legs spread apart, Geoff, Bridgette, Eva, and even the sharks to wince.

T

• Take a Third Option: In "Aftermath: Bridgette Over Troubled Water", Blainely asks the non-contestants whether they think the sightings of Ezekiel on the Total Drama Jumbo Jet are real or fake. Katie and Sadie go with the option "ghost".
• Take That!: Sierra is a blatant parody of the series' fangirls and their Original Characters they like to pair characters like Cody with.
• Tampering with Food and Drink:
  • Heather sends Gwen a cupcake laced with laxatives in "The Very Last Episode, Really!". She does this to ensure Gwen loses the finale, but Gwen isn't hungry and gives the cupcake to Owen, the other finalist, who ends up with all the intestinal consequences. Heather later gets her comeuppance when in "Alien Resurr-eggtion" Chef comes after her for tampering with the food he made.
  • Chef and DJ lace the pizzas they're making with itching powder and laxatives in "One Flu Over The Cuckoos" to make the campers think they've caught a contagious and deadly disease. Only Leshawna escapes the effects because her dairy allergy means she can't eat cheese-heavy pizza.
  • In "The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean", Chef Hatchet purposely includes mutant turkey meat in the dinner meals to ensure the campers will go into a nice and long slumber.
  • In "Eat, Puke and Be Wary", Scott wins the first challenge of the episode by tampering with Zoey's and Cameron's meals. Scott adds poison ivy to Zoey's salad, while Scott swaps his ill-prepared quiche with Cameron's superior version.
• The Team: There are two kinds of teams in the series: officially designated teams and alliances. Every season, the contestants are divided into two teams (three in World Tour) that have to compete against each other. The losing team has to vote off one of their own at that evening's elimination ceremony. When enough contestants have been eliminated, the teams are dissolved during the merge and it becomes everyone against everyone. Alliances are made by the contestants themselves and can be within a team, across teams, and the merge can't end them. On the other hand, alliances are fragile and never consist of a lot of people; four is a rarity and more than four only happens once or twice.
• Team Killer:
  • Trent in Action. Thanks to some poor advice from Owen, he throws challenges in order to impress Gwen. At "3:10 to Crazytown" he is voted off, then two episodes later, Gwen returns the favor to the Killer Grips by voting herself off.
  • After Gwen kisses Duncan, Courtney wants her out of the competition and attempts to sabotage the team so Gwen may get voted off. As much as everyone disapproves of what Gwen did, they aren't in the market for losing, so Courtney's plan falls through.
  • In Revenge of the Island, Scott's plan to win on both the Toxic Rats and the Mutant Maggots is to purposefully throw challenges to control who gets voted off. He considers doing it again in All-Stars, but because it's only the winners who get to live in luxury during the game, he abandons this strategy.
  • In Pahkitew Island, Scarlett grows tired of Max's arrogance and sets out to get him eliminated by sabotaging her team. It doesn't work out.
• Team Mom:
  • Bridgette in Island; in "Phobia Factor", she tries to console Sadie following Katie's elimination in the prior episode.
  • Courtney tries to take on this role in both Island and World Tour but ends up coming off as a Control Freak instead.
  • Anne Maria to the Mutant Maggots in Revenge of the Island. She looks out for the others' well-being and has the best track record standing up to Jo's bullying.
  • Zoey in All-Stars. Over the course of the season she counsels a heartbroken Sam, draws out the niceness in Duncan, acts as Cloudcuckoolander's Minder to Sierra, and looks out for Cameron as he gets his mind messed with by Mal.
  • Sky in Pahkitew Island. While she doesn't vie for leadership, preferring the idea of democracy, her levelheaded disposition and strategic mindset make her teammates think of her as the authority figure of the group.
  • Priya in Island (2023). Similarly to Sky, her status as the Only Sane Woman of her team plus years of training for the show practically makes her the de facto leader of the Ferocious Trout with no one (not even Ripper) opposing due to her Nice Girl status. It's also pretty telling that she'd rather eliminate Damien instead of Ripper (who she hates) just because she wants to fulfill Damien's wishes and protect his well-being.
• Team Shot: Each opening ends with a shot of the contestants, usually seated around a campfire. Each first episode of a season that introduces a new cast (Island, Revenge of the Island, Pahkitew Island, and the 2023 reboot) also has at least one scene in which all contestants are on-screen.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: So far, the only teams that doesn't have this are Killer Grips (at least until Courtney came along) and Team Victory. Many of the show's drama comes from conflicts within the team and rivalries being developed there.
• Tempting Fate:
  • DJ in "Not So Happy Campers - Part 1":
    DJ: It's our first challenge, how hard can it be?
    (camera cuts to the 1000-foot cliff that the contestants have to jump off of)
    DJ: ...Oh sh- (bleep)
  • After the Killer Bass lose their camping tent to a stray ember in "The Sucky Outdoors", a furious Courtney declares that their situation couldn't get any worse. Cue the Rain.
  • In "Moon Madness", Scott confidently declares that he won't be taken down by a gang of bunnies. About two seconds later he has to scream for help because he's being taken down by a gang of bunnies.
• Test of Pain: Total Drama loves this trope. Mainly Chris will put the contestants in torture by setting up dangerous challenges, having Chef cook disgusting meals, and even allowed to make enemies and cheating without worrying.
• That's Gotta Hurt: The contestants have taken dozens of spills. On one occasion in season one featuring Geoff, Chris decided to show an instant replay of the wipeout. In season two, an Aftermath segment called "That's Gonna Leave A Mark!" is all about this trope.
• Themed Tattoos: The "Celebrity Manhunt" special reveals that Duncan and Courtney have matching heart tattoos◊ on their arms, though they're never seen again after this special (possibly having removed them after their breakup).
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When Chef Hatchet kills Mr. Coconut at the beginning of "Camp Castaways".
• There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Shepherds and sheep, according to Heather in "Hide and Be Sneaky". She sees herself as the former and Lindsay as the latter.
• The Unsmile:
  • Heather does one in World Tour when Sierra invites her for a group hug.
  • Eva does one in Gwen's ending of Island after Gwen wins.
• They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste: The buried alive conflict between Gwen and Trent from season one. It was incredibly flimsy and came up at random times, as Gwen wanted to be in the same boat as Trent by the episode after Trent left her buried alive, but suddenly the entire conflict comes up again three episodes later. And after that the entire thing just dissolves and is never brought up again.
• Thinks of Something Smart, Says Something Stupid: Tyler asks Lindsay to go on a walk with him. Lindsay thinks to herself "Have to say no. Have to say no." because Heather doesn't want her getting cuddly with anyone on the other team. She ends up saying okay and goes on the walk.
• This Is a Competition: Naturally, some characters, especially antagonists, take this position.
  Izzy: (objects to a suggestion to vote Owen off, and goes on about how much fun he is)
  Heather: This is an elimination game, not a dance. We need to vote someone off if we want to stay in the game.
• Threatening Shark:
  • Just ask Chef, Courtney, or especially Scott, against whom a mutated shark had a personal vendetta. He was mauled so badly by the monster that he ended up stuck in a trauma suit in a near-comatose state. And even after recovering from ''that'' in All-Stars, he's developed a severe phobia of sharks, and just being close to Fang (the aforementioned mutated shark) is enough to put him in a 'blank state' in which he becomes completely unresponsive and helpless.
  • Inverted in situations involving Justin, who is so gorgeous that when he falls into a shark-infested pool in Action, a dismayed shark pulls him out of the water and then proceeds to perform CPR on him.
• Throw a Barrel at It: "Runaway Model" contains a challenge inspired by Donkey Kong in which a large yeti throws down barrels to anyone trying to get up the scaffolding. Jo makes it up there and when the yeti laughs at the horrible makeup she's wearing, she punches it off its feet and proceeds to throw the remaining battles down at Mike, who did her makeup. Mind that the yeti picks up barrels with two hands, while Jo in all her rage goes for one barrel per hand.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • "The Am-AH-zon Race" almost feels like the writers are apologizing to Team Victory, not only giving them the win but giving them the least amount of trouble throughout the hike.
  • After a season and a half of forgetting who he was, Lindsay FINALLY remembered Tyler in "Slap Slap Revolution", and it brought back their relationship.
  • Gwen in All-Stars gets a chance to redeem her character, even if everyone constantly calls her a villain.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Cody and Sierra; Sam and Dakota after the latter's mutation.; Shawn and Jasmine.
• Title Scream: Chris's introductory speech always ends with him doing this for the season. Usually in the episode's wrap-up, too.
• Toilet Humour: Owen's main shtick, besides fat jokes.
• Token Adult: Blainely in World Tour, albeit briefly.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • During the first three seasons Heather often cheated or manipulated events to help her team get ahead.
  • Alejandro, for the first half of World Tour. In "Jamaica Me Sweat" he steals Gwen's chains while pretending to rescue her, Heather notices, and steals them back from him, prompting the following exchange:
    Alejandro: (chuckles) I suppose I deserved that.
    (camera cuts to Noah and Tyler, who are glaring at him from atop the cliff)
    Noah: WE didn't!
  • While Revenge has multiple antagonists, Scott was the only one portrayed as outright villainous and was often juxtaposed against the "nice" contestants of his team to highlight his devious personality.
  • Courtney was this for the Killer Grips, and later the Heroic Hamsters until her behavior wound up getting her transferred to the Villainous Vultures.
  • Duncan insists he is this after he gets traded to the Heroic Hamsters, although his cheery teammates staunchly refuse to believe him.
  • Mal, as Mike's dark side, is the evil member of the Heroic Hamsters in All-Stars. He's as much in it for the money as to take full control over the body he and the alters inhabit as to cause misery whenever he can.
• Token Good Teammate:
  • In World Tour, Owen is this when Team CIRRRRH is down to him, Alejandro, and Duncan.
  • When the Toxic Rats are down to Jo, Lightning, and Brick, the only one with a conscience is Brick, as evidenced by the fact he alone wasn't cool with leaving the other team to die.
  • In All-Stars, Gwen serves as this to the Villainous Vultures. It's worth noting that the only reason anyone gives as to why she belongs on the team is that Duncan cheated on Courtney with her.
  • Cameron is also this for the Vultures, due to wanting to quit the competition.
  • Raj and Wayne are this for the Skunk Butts when put in with a team of villains and jerkasses. Also when the team resorts to cheating, they are they are the only ones who straight up refuse to participate.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl:
  • Within the Screaming Gophers and later, the Killer Grips, Beth (tomboy) and Lindsay (girly girl).
  • Within Team Victory: Leshawna (tomboy) to Bridgette and Lindsay (girly girl).
  • Within Team Amazon: Sierra and Gwen (tomboy) to Heather and Courtney (girly girl).
  • Within the Mutant Maggots, Jo (tomboy) and Zoey and Anne Maria (girly girl).
  • Within the Heroic Hamsters, Sierra (tomboy) and Zoey and Courtney (girly girl).
  • Within Team Kinosewak, Jasmine and Scarlett (tomboy) and Amy and Samey (girly girl).
  • Within Team Maskwak, Sky (tomboy) and Ella and Sugar (girly girl).
  • Within the Ferocious Trout, Axel and Priya (tomboy) and Millie and Scary Girl (girly girl)
  • Within the Frogs of Death, Emma and MK (tomboy) and Julia and Nichelle (girly girl).
  • Within the Rat Faces, Priya and Axel (tomboy) and Emma, Millie, and Nichelle (girly girl).
  • Within the Skunk Butts, MK (tomboy) and Julia and Scary Girl (girly girl).
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Parodied in the slasher episode. After learning that they are facing either a serial killer or challenge based around one, the campers immediately start splitting off in groups of one to two to take showers, go to the bathroom, grab a snack, and make out in the woods.
  • Duncan was so determined to prove he was bad he threw a challenge and blew up Chris's cottage/mansion. Chris not only eliminated him, but got him arrested into jail not juvie.
• Took a Level in Dumbass:
  • Lindsay seems to get dumber every season.
  • Scott in Revenge: A wicked, cunning mastermind that plots several eliminations. Scott in All-Stars: An idiotic country boy that makes one wonder how he ever made it far in Revenge.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Geoff, Justin, Courtney, and to a lesser extent, Leshawna, Owen, and Beth in Action.
  • Duncan, Cody, and Gwen in World Tour.
  • Lightning near the end of Revenge of the Island.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • Courtney in World Tour, though only briefly.
  • Duncan in All-Stars. He doesn't want to be nice, but keeps unconsciously doing good deeds.
  • Scott, to the point that he's almost an entirely different character than he was in Revenge.
• Too Quirky to Lose: The winner of the first season was Owen, who wasn't physically fit, wasn't very smart, and was often The Load for his cabin.
• Top-Heavy Guy: Guys who don't have a Noodle People design tend to have stocky upper bodies and somewhat short legs, whether they are fit (e.g., Justin, Alejandro, Lightning, Topher), muscular (e.g., Chef Hatchet, DJ, Brick, Rodney) or overweight (e.g., Owen, Sam, Beardo). Duncan is the most prominent example as his legs make up less than a third of his height.
• Town Girls:
  • The girls on the Mutant Maggots team in Revenge of the Island are the masculine Jo, the feminine Anne Maria, and Zoey, who is in-between the other two.
  • The girls on the Skunk Butts team are the butch MK, the femme Julia and neither Scary Girl (after she changes to her normal clothes).
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • An ad for one late season two episode revealed that Owen would return. They also shot themselves in the foot by putting his name into two of the episode titles.
  • Subverted with the commercials that aired before Island went live, which frequently called Owen an unlikely candidate for victory.
  • The trailer for Total Drama the Musical (not called "World Tour" at the time), which was released midway through Total Drama Action, basically spoiled the Action special by revealing the arrival of Alejandro and Sierra and which contestants would be returning for the season.
  • Most of the World Tour previews and trailers have large-scale group shots which pretty much confirm which characters make it up to what episode, due to the incredibly obvious backgrounds (pyramids, the Eiffel Tower) most viewers found it extremely easy to deduce exactly which episodes each character is present in.
  • One trailer revealed that Izzy and Sierra would switch teams after the first episode of World Tour.
  • Several trailers spoil Duncan returning to World Tour despite quitting earlier on.
  • The trailer for "Can't Help Falling In Louvre" included a shot of Lindsay wearing a parachute, indicating she had been eliminated.
  • Another World Tour trailer showed off Duncan and Gwen kissing.
  • Trailers for Total Drama All-Stars not only spoil both Lindsay and Jo's eliminations but also show Alejandro out of the Drama Machine (aka "The Robot") a few times.
  • The trailer for "You Regatta Be Kidding Me!" shows that Chester, in Mike's mind, is still OK.
  • A trailer for "The Final Wreck-ening" had Zoey battling it out with Mike instead of Mal, spoiling the former's return and the latter's defeat.
  • An Italian trailer for Pahkitew Island spoils Beardo's elimination.
  • Traditionally, audition tapes are released following each contestant's elimination. Shortly before "Pakhitew," Cartoon Network released audition tapes for everybody except Shawn and Sky. Take a wild guess who the finalists were?
  • Some of the trailers for the 2023 reboot make it pretty clear that Caleb is the first boot.
• Translation Train Wreck: In Pahkitew Island, Chris calls the two teams "Pimâpotew Kinosewak" and "Waneyihtam Maskwak". Both of these names come from Cree, and while Chris originally believes they mean "Soaring Eagles" and "Ferocious Tigers" respectively, Sky corrects him and says they actually mean "Floating Salmon" and "Confused Bears".

Chris: (to Chef) This is what you get for using a free online translator.

• Trash the Set: All-Stars ends with Camp Wawanakwa being sunk due to a drilling mishap, paving the way for the eponymous new island in Pahkitew Island. Camp Wawanakwa then inexplicably comes back in Island (2023).
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • Poor Gwen constantly ends up with the short end of the stick no matter how hard she tries. First she's humiliated by Heather reading her diary aloud to the world near the beginning of season one. Then she makes it to the final two of the season only to lose at the last minute. She ends up having a falling out in her relationships with both Trent and Duncan, leading directly to her returning to the show in the fourth season in hopes of patching up her friendship with Courtney only to have the latter betrayed her. And that's not even counting all the torture Chris and Chef put her through in the main show.
  • Tyler goes through this at the end of "Phobia Factor". He fails to face his fear of chickens, which results in him getting eliminated, to where everyone makes fun of him with a series of bad chicken jokes and boards the Boat of Losers to find dozens of chickens on board, much to his fright. To add insult to injury, this scene is followed up by one of Lindsay's confessionals to where she refers to him as Taylor.
• Troperiffic: The series lampoons numerous contemporary reality show conventions and teenage archetypes.
• Truth-Telling Session:
  • In "Phobia Factor", the contestants voluntarily discuss their personal fears around a cozy campfire. What none of them know is that Chris is listening in on them with the intent to build the next challenge around all that they are spilling. When Courtney claims she has no fear, Chris notes that he was also watching their reactions, bringing up her aversion to green jelly.
  • Gwen, Duncan and Heather are forced to have one while trapped in a tree house on a deserted island in "Camp Castaways". Unfortunately, the viewer never hears what they have to say.
  • In "Truth or Laser Shark", Chris has gotten his hands on the campers' sensitive secrets and puts it to use in a challenge. He shares a secret one by one and each time he does so the camper whom the secret belongs to has to confess or their entire team gets dunked into mutant shark-infested water. Only Sam, Brick, and B fall victim to the challenge before the campers en masse protest and bring the challenge to a premature end.
  • "I Love You, I Love You Knots" is a truth-or-dare challenge at the risk of the entire team being administered electric shocks. Those who have to be truthful are judged by Clucky, a Living Lie Detector chicken. The campers who end up with Clucky on their laps are Amy, Rodney, Max, Ella. Of them, Rodney is the only one who gets multiple truth challenges and he blows them all because they all relate to his romantic life and he thinks he's in the interest of multiple girls and doesn't want to hurt any of them.
• Try Not to Die:
  • Said word-for-word by Chef to the remaining contestants in "Are We There Yeti?" when he drops them off in the middle of the woods.
  • Gwen says a slight variation in "The Ex-Files".
    Gwen: Try not to get eliminated.
• Tsundere:
  • In Island, Courtney continually denies having feelings for Duncan despite how obvious it is. When she starts ignoring him in All-Stars, Duncan assumes she's being tsundere again, but this theory is quickly proven incorrect.
  • Duncan is also this over the course of the series as he acts like a jerk a few seconds on entering Island and threatened to pierce Noah's lip. He bullies Harold a lot as well. His nice side first shows when he gets DJ a new bunny after Geoff accidentally loses DJ's old one. He reverts back to aggressive in Action as he punches a seagull in the face in Action but his relationship with Harold slightly improved and he started a good friendship with Beth. He also acted as a motherly figure towards DJ, Harold, and Justin as shown in a hidden clip in the finale when he helps all of them sleep better by placing teddy bears and adjusting sleep masks. His status as this trope fully blows over when he takes a hit for Gwen in the leech challenge and is forced to switch to the heroes team and he later cries over taking an innocent bird's egg.
  • Heather refuses to admit that she's attracted to Alejandro and in turn, Alejandro refuses to admit that he sees her as an equal rather than a pawn. They air out their feelings during the World Tour finale and begin dating in All-Stars.
  • Jasmine is this towards Amy and Samey in Pahkitew Island as she ask if there was going to be a problem between her and then but she warms up to Samey when she finds out about her problems with Amy.
• Tuck and Cover: When the jet explodes in "Awwwwww, Drumheller" Alejandro shields Heather from the blast.
• Theme Twin Naming: Amy and Samey.
• Twin Switch: In "Twinning Isn't Everything" Samey makes Amy incapable of talking and convinces the others that Amy is Samey when Samey gets voted out. She then pretends to be her sister until the latter returns in "A Blast from the Past" and reveals the deception. Chris then gets rid of the both of them so no further switch tricks can be pulled.
• Those Two Guys:
  • Katie and Sadie in Island (2007) are inseparable Heterosexual Life-Partners and are treated as The Dividual by many, even by Chris.
  • Wayne and Raj in Island (2023) who always have each other's backs no matter what happens, and much like Katie and Sadie are completely inseparable.
• Two Girls and a Guy: The final three for Island (Heather, Gwen and Owen), Pahkitew Island (Sky, Sugar and Shawn) and the 2023 Reboot part 1 (Pirya, Millie and Bowie) are this.
• Two Guys and a Girl: The final three for World Tour (Alejandro, Cody and Heather), Revenge of the Island (Lightning, Cameron and Zoey) and the 2023 Reboot part 2 (Caleb, Wayne and Julia) are this.
  • While technically a Final Four, the top 3 for Action (Owen, Duncan and Beth) and All Stars (Scott, Mike and Zoey) can be considered this.
• T-Word Euphemism: In "Paintball Deer Hunt", Heather demands that Beth take back the "N" word - refering to "No".

U

• Unconventional Food Usage: One of Zoey's memories in "The Enchanted Franken-Forest" of the bond she built with Mike and Cameron shows Cameron making his friends laugh by putting spaghetti on his head. It's the one memory that doesn't relate to an earlier scene, but it seems his spaghetti-hair is supposed to make him resemble Jo.
• Uncool Undies: In "If You Can't Take The Heat...", Duncan, Geoff, and DJ steal all of Harold's pairs of pants and underwear to teach him a lesson about leaving his dirty underwear everywhere. After DJ pours a bucket of water over his pants, he goes to the cabin to change himself and comes back to the challenge set in a skimpy pair of thongs and no pants, as it was the only thing he had left (other than his pajamas). When the others see him, Courtney and Chris are disgusted, while the other Killer Basses laugh at him.
• Underwear Flag: While it's not shown, Duncan and Gwen did this in one episode after stargazing together and getting a little too close for friends. Gwen states that they did this after Geoff tries to imply they kissed. In a rare version of this trope, they ran everyone's underpants up the flagpole, rather than just one person.
• Un-Evil Laugh:
  • Cameron practices his evil laugh in a bonus clip to "Moon Madness", but it ends with him falling into the toilet and being unable to get out.
  • Max attempts an evil laugh in "So, Uh This Is My Team?" when he finds a cave that suits him as an evil lair. He gives himself two tries, but can't produce anything intimidating and subsequently deems it unimportant.
• Unexplained Recovery:
  • Scott is back to walking and talking in All-Stars, owing to Amusing Injuries.
  • Camp Wawanakwa sank into the lake at the end of All-Stars, but is inexplicably back to normal in the 2023 revival.
• Unimpressive Progress Reveal: In the first episode of Action, Owen spends ten and a half hours trying to walk only three city blocks to get to the bouncy castle where all the other contestants except him are being held to rescue them.
  DJ: That's just sad, man.
• Unishment: At the start of All-Stars, Chris is in prison. He enjoys it to the extent that he makes up a Total Drama season in his cell, naming two cockroaches Duncan and Lightning, and making Chef Hatchet out of a cashew. When Chef Hatchet comes to bail him out after a year, Chris refuses to leave. Chef tells him the producers have renewed Total Drama for another season and Chris gets to be the host again.
• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Cody acts this way towards Sierra. However, she did constantly violate his privacy and threaten his personal safety, so...
  • In the Island special, Duncan wrestles an alligator for Courtney to get back the case with the $1,000,000 in it. Seconds later, he sprains his ankle and she runs off with the case.
  • Izzy carries Ezekiel (whom she mistakes for a "cool" Egyptian mummy) out of a collapsing pyramid, indirectly allowing him to complete the challenge. His response? He struggles to get away from her and doesn't even acknowledge the rescue, let alone thank her for it. Even worse, he then began complaining that no one came to help him, despite the fact that Izzy just did!
  • After she gets back together with Chase, Emma ends her friendship with Bowie after finding out he had voted for Chase to be eliminated, throwing away all the support Bowie had given her throughout the season. Bowie on his part tells Emma that Chase is a terrible person who doesn't think of anyone but himself and that she should have never gone back to him. Emma's response to this is to intentionally sabotage Bowie throughout a challenge and prevent him from getting any points.
• Unlikely Confession Cam: A couple of times, the hosts Chris and Chef would get in the confessional. Even minor characters not involved in the competition like the killer, José, and animals like Sasquatchanakwa and Fang would use it.
• The Unreveal: How Duncan landed in juvie, and some other juicy bits about Heather and Gwen (IF that's her real name).
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Anytime someone tries to get an antagonist voted off. If it's the antagonist organizing the vote, it goes off without a hitch.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Owen, whose bad relationship advice plays a major role in Trent's Sanity Slippage and subsequent breakup with Gwen.
  • Tyler, whose inability to keep a secret in "Greece's Pieces" results in a Disaster Dominoes situation that affects nearly every remaining contestant in the game.

V

• Vasquez Always Dies:
  • Hotheaded tomboy Eva is the first girl to be voted off. Then again she does come back... only to be voted off immediately afterwards.
  • Axel, who personality-wise resembles Eva and Jo, is also the first girl voted off the reboot.
• Verbal Tic:
  • Ezekiel. Yo, he's the only one that talks like a stereotypical Canadian, eh?
  • Staci starts a lot of her statements with "yeah".
  • Lightning tends to add the prefix "SHA-" to several words he says, especially his name.
• Villain Decay: The Villainous Vultures minus Token Good Teammate Gwen in All-Stars are wimps compared to their earlier appearances. Despite their confessionals stating that they don't trust anyone on their team, rarely do any of them anything villainous.
• Villain Protagonist: Chris McLean is the face of Total Drama and the biggest monster of the entire cast. With the promise of money, he lures people onto his show and the contracts are constructed so that he can force former contestants back. He's upfront that he enjoys the contestants' and interns' suffering, humiliation, and on occasion deaths.
• Villain Song:
  • "This is How We Will End it" is a duet between Alejandro and Heather, where the former recounts how he manipulated and got rid of the other female contestants, while the latter tries to convince him not to leave her trapped under a boulder.
  • "Versus" is a song where Alejandro and Heather hurl insults at each other while encouraging their respective teammates to help them in the current challenge.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song:
  • "Her Real Name Isn't Blaineley", which Geoff sings exclusively to roast his hated co-host. Lyrics include calling her a "nasty, fake blond schemer" who "makes (him) wanna hurl".
  • "Versus" is a double-hitter as it's a Villain Song with two villains insulting each other. Alejandro says Heather has weak arms and a flat behind, and she retaliates by making fun of his knobby knees and "big fat head".
• Villain with Good Publicity: Chris McLean makes a living by torturing the teenagers who agree to participate in his shows, mistreats his interns (causing the death of some of them) and is overall an apathetic Jerkass. However, according to Sierra, he is absolutely adored in-universe and considered a great host.
  • Courtney to a lesser extent. While she was disliked by most of the cast following Action and was arguably that season's main villain, she still somehow ends up on the Heroes team in All-Stars, presumably because she was seen as the victim after Duncan cheated on her with her friend Gwen. However, she eventually gets swapped to the Villains team.
  • Amy, who despite barely doing anything to hide her nasty attitude, is well-liked by everyone on her team except for Jasmine and Samey. An example is shown when Samey tried to stand up to Amy, the latter used Crocodile Tears to convince everyone else (aside from Jasmine) that the former is the evil twin instead of her.
• Villainous BSoD: Lightning breaks down in the confessional after he loses to Cameron in the Revenge of the Island finale.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Chris and Chef Hatchet are a good example of this as they often bicker but remain good friends
  • Ella and Sugar have a one-sided case of this in " Pahkitew Island" with the vitriolic bud being Sugar as she despises Ella's sweetness and singing while Ella just wants to be friends with Sugar.
• The Voiceless: B never speaks until he gets voted off.
• Voice for the Voiceless: In Revenge of the Island, Dawn speaks on behalf of B when it comes to giving out plans in challenges.
• Voted Off the Island: The result of not getting immunity after the votes are tallied, or in Revenge of the Island getting the "Marshmallow of Toxic Loserdom".
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
  • This cartoon is infamous for its puking scenes. It all started in the Island episode where Bridgette projectile vomits while doing a handstand, and then became a Running Gag that occurred at least Once a Season.
  • Any episode that involves an eating challenge is sure to invoke this trope with no exception.
  • Taken to ridiculous levels when characters start vomiting violently over the slightest stimuli, such as Courtney eating too many brownies, or Izzy barfing because Owen kissed her hand.
  • Sometimes a Vomit Chain Reaction is triggered, such as in "The Brunch of Disgustingness", when Leshawna barfs cockroaches she had just been forced to eat, culminating with the boys vomiting directly into the screen.

W

• Walk Into Camera Obstruction: In "I See London", Owen falls onto the camera after jumping off the plane.
• Walk of Shame: Invoked, where the eliminated contestant has to leave the island by walking down the "Dock of Shame" in front of all the other contestants and boarding the "Boat of Losers," as to make the experience more humiliating. The second season continued this with an actual "Walk of Shame," a mock red carpet where eliminated contestants walk to the "Lame-o-sine" to leave the games. Many of the contestants leave the game this way with their heads held in shame - and in a few cases, kicking and screaming.
• Waxing Lyrical:
  • In "Dodgebrawl", LeShawna says her opponent "dropped it like it was hot."
  • Chris briefly quotes "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" when explaining the elimination process at the beginning of '"Action''.
  • One episode recap has Chris say "He was a boy, she was a girl" while discussing the breakdown of Gwen and Trent's relationship.
• Way Past the Expiration Date:
  • In the first season's penultimate episode, the semifinalists get a special treat: pancakes made with ingredients "relatively close to their expiration date''. The implication is that the food they usually get fits this trope.
  • In "Hurl and Go Seek!", the first part of the challenge has the contestants get food poisoning from expired food.
    Chef: These things expired in 1976!
• We Are Not Going Through That Again: Chris offers all the contestants a second shot at the million in "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island", but everyone other than Owen refuses the call.
  Heather: Let me get this straight, after messing with our heads for an entire summer, you expect us to start running around the island like idiots all over again!?
• Webcomic Time: Some continuity errors aside, The Ridonculous Race confirms this as some of the original contestants are now aged 19-20, meaning about 3 or so years have passed since Total Drama Island (despite it actually being almost 10 years in real life).
• We Can Rule Together: Alejandro offers this to Heather in "Hawaiian Punch" as a way to prove his love. She rejects the offer.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: Enforced. Certain challenges require all members of a team to be present in order to continue or win.
• We Will Meet Again: Ezekiel delivers one while managing to hang on to the plane after his World Tour elimination.
  Ezekiel: I'm not going anywhere! This game's mine, eh! MINE!
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Shawn believes that the world has already succumbed to a Zombie Apocalypse, and joined the cast due to believing he has a better chance of surviving on an island. Needless to say he takes the zombie survival a little too far.
• Whale Egg: Mutant fire-breathing goat eggs are part of the challenge in "Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon".
  Cameron: Goats don't lay eggs.
  Chris: They also don't breathe fire. Unless they live here.
• Wham Episode:
  • "The Chefshank Redemption", in which both teams have to work together without a captain, following Gwen's elimination.
  • "Ocean's Eight...or Nine", in which Courtney is allowed to compete in Action, and is allowed to vote off whoever she wants (Owen), showing the hold she'll have on the season.
  • "I See London", in which everything was fairly normal until Duncan kisses Gwen behind Courtney's back, effectively making them an Official Couple. The episode also marks the start of Ezekiel's transformation and ends with fan favourite Noah being voted off.
  • "Evil Dread", in which Mal re-awakens.
  • "No One Eggspects The Spanish Opposition", in which Mal takes over and Mike ends up getting trapped in his own mind (chained to a rock nonetheless).
• Wham Line: "One by one, they will all go down/fall." This sentence has been said by both Alejandro and Mal to denounce their evil personalities at the start of their respective seasons.
  • "You're busted, McLean!", indicating that finally Chris has done something that leads to a prison sentence.
  • Scarlett declaring "I am not your sidekick!" as she reveals her supervillain persona.
  • Sky's line from her audition tape: "I'll really miss my boyfriend Keith!"
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • What happened to DJ's second pet bunny?
  • Is Owen's family still $50,000 dollars in debt for making a cheese cellar?^note Most likely not, given that Chris did bring Owen back to spy on the final 5 contestants in Action, with the promise of paying him the $50,000. Given that Owen and Owen are still on good terms, it is safe to say that it's all been paid.
  • Halfway through World Tour Chris abruptly stops handing out Barf Bags Full of Airline Issued Peanuts at elimination ceremonies to announce who is safe. Instead, he just straight-up tells them who's eliminated, he also stops throwing out marshmallows in elimination ceremonies after episode 3 in All-Stars.
  • What happened to Dave after being left on Pahkitew Island with an enraged Scuba Bear for company?
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?:
  • Duncan gets his pet tarantula sent to him near the end of Action. No amount of Duncan holding and stroking it or genuinely showing affection for it could have protected it.
  • The scarabs were so cute when they were in love (but not very cute when they were eating that nameless intern.)
• What the Hell, Hero?: The presence of an entire team labelled "Heroes" leads to a few examples in All Stars.
  • Chris calls out Courtney, originally a Hero, for using Sam as a human shield in the leechball challenge, and forces her to swap to the Villains team because of it.
  • After Cameron, also originally a member of the Heroes, uses Scott as bait to attract Fang, Duncan points out that it was "very villainous" of him.
• Wimp Fight: Leshawna and Heather have a slap fight in the intro sequence of Island. Their fight takes place in a small rubber boat and distracts them from the fact that they're heading towards a waterfall. Once they go over it, the fight comes to an end.
• Who Is Driving?: Happens whenever Chef decides to join Chris in the main body of the plane during World Tour.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: "Phobia Factor" has the campers face their fears (Snakes was one of them). Some have recognizable fears while others have eccentric fears. Characters in following generations also have phobias of their own.
• The Worf Effect: Many times, a heavy-hitter in previous seasons is easily disposed of by the next season's antagonist.
  • Gwen, who made it to the final two in Island, has her unfortunate situation with Trent exploited by Justin, making her throw a challenge for her team and subsequently get voted out.
  • Justin is then taken out by Courtney, having supplanted him as the main villain of Action.
  • Courtney is then easily manipulated by Alejandro's charms in World Tour, ultimately leading to her being caught cheating in a challenge for him and voted out.
  • Finally, Alejandro is taken out by Mal in All-Stars, completely trumping him physically and strategically by taking advantage of his reputation to vote him out before he can convince others of Mal's villainy.
  • Team Victory in World Tour. Among their advantages in the competition, they had six people on their team, while the other teams had five, of those six, five of them were in the final 10 in Island and/or Action and competed in the first three seasons. Despite this, Team Victory was quickly wiped out in six straight elimination episodes. Four of those eliminations were caused by the new Big Bad Alejandro to quickly establish how much of a threat he was.
• World Gone Mad: While the universe they exist in is relatively sane, the show-verse is very much this. Saner characters like Gwen will occasionally hang a lampshade on how odd and/or psychopathic almost everyone related to the show is.
• World of Jerkass: A lot of the cast are Jerkasses, even the nice characters sometimes carried the Jerkass Ball at least once.
• World of Snark: After three seasons, the main contestants who weren't snarky before develop a sharp tongue towards Chris and the torture he inflicts on the contestants.
• Would Hit a Girl:
  • In "Monster Cash", Trent grabs Heather and smacks her to the floor to get ahead of her in the race to the cast trailers.
  • Duncan explicitly states that he has no issues with fighting a girl. In the exclusive clip for "Aftermath IV: Hawaiian Style", he knocks Courtney out by hitting her with his sandal.
  • A more comical version would be Harold, who has had slap fights with both Courtney and Heather in "Haute Camp-ture" and "Ocean's Eight - Or Nine" respectively.
  • In "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island", Courtney orders the boys to give her the suitcase with the prize money. Tyler tells her to back off, or he will "mess her up".
  • Cody attacks Courtney in "Hawaiian Punch". Though she manages to subdue him at first, he turns the tables when she gets distracted and tosses her off-screen.
  • Scott demonstrates his willingness to hit girls in "Grand Chef Auto" when he throws his spray can at Zoey to knock her off the totem pole before she can tag it. He also leaves her hanging precariously.
  • Lightning is under the shaky impression that Cameron is a girl. Doesn't do anything to diminish his desire to beat "her" to a pulp "Brains vs. Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown" for a perceived earlier betrayal.
  • Mal has no problem beating up Izzy in "Suckers Punched".
  • In "Numbskull Island" Ripper uses Priya as a Human Shield in order to win the challenge. Bowie, Wayne and Raj (and Julia) still attack them with water hoses, toilet plungers and even a giant boulder, all of which hit Priya and not Ripper.
  • Bowie has no problem fighting Julia in "Paddle Field Earth", and would've actually have managed to defeat her had he not pressed Julia's Berserk Button.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl:
  • Justin invokes this near the end of "The Princess Pride" when he refuses to swordfight with Courtney ("I would never hurt a lady. I refuse to raise a sword to Courtney. I give up any chance at immunity to spare her.") She responds by smacking him off the castle tower.
  • True to his ditzy nature Tyler invokes this after volunteering to fight the all-female (sans Cody) Team Amazon in "Greece's Pieces".
• Writers Cannot Do Math: A common mistake, among other examples Trent's arrival in Island as "Contestant Number 9" when he's actually Contestant number 10.

Y

• Yandere: Sierra is greatly infatuated with Cody at the beginning of World Tour, but as the season progresses and he doesn't reciprocate her feelings, she starts to grow dangerously obsessive towards him. By the time there are only four contestants left, she tries to outright murder Heather because she believes the latter is in love with Cody.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • Chris loves doing this when contestants think they've won a challenge, only for him to come in and tell them that there's either more to the challenge or that they've screwed up somehow.
  • Alejandro's ending of World Tour does this to Alejandro, who doesn't even get to touch the money before it's destroyed.
  • Heather's ending of World Tour does this to Heather instead. She has the money in her possession for about half a minute before Ezekiel steals it, and the episode ends with a giant flaming boulder about to fall on her.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Jasmine encourages Samey in "I Love You, Grease Pig!" and "Twinning Isn't Everything" to think better of herself than her sister allows her to.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Heather abandons Lindsay after she helps her win in "That's Off the Chain".
  • Heather and Alejandro both try to befriend DJ in the hopes that he'd join their respective team, but after Chris reveals that DJ isn't allowed to join either team Alejandro immediately gets him eliminated.
  • Chris says this about the original cast in the first episode of Revenge of the Island.
  • Scott eliminates Mike after blackmailing him in "Grand Chef Auto".
  • Cameron, of all people, manages to pull one on Jo in "Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon". It's such a cutthroat move that Jo ends up being more impressed than angry.
• Younger Than They Look: Lindsay, DJ, Heather, Leshawna, Trent, Geoff, Alejandro, Brick, B, Sam, Jo, Lightning, Scott, Jasmine and Rodney are all around 16 at the time of their debuts, but they could all easily pass for 26.
• Yuri Fan: Chris makes two Beth dolls kiss each other in "The Princess Pride".

Z

• Zombie Apocalypse: Shawn believes this will eventually happen and hence jumps the gun at even the smallest of signs. In "A Blast from the Past" he mistakes a seaweed-covered Amy for a mutated zombie and in "Hurl and Go Seek!" he mistakes a group of pallid, food-poisoned contestants for a zombie horde. This belief, however, has given him many skills that are so useful during many challenges.
• Zonk:
  • Played straight in "Search And Do Not Destroy". The rewards the campers get in that episode's challenge range from random pieces of junk to snacks to nothing at all for all they went through, (although Geoff seems to like the cologne he gets). The only prize that doesn't fall under this trope is Heather's immunity pass in her gift basket.
  • Subverted in "Broadway, Baby!". One of the rewards Team Amazon gets after winning that episode's challenge is a meat grinder, that Heather promptly throws away under the assumption that it was a joke prize. She comes to regret it in Slap Slap Revolution when it turns out that the first half of that episode's challenge was to make a giant sausage, and Team Amazon would've had a huge advantage had Heather not thrown the meat grinder away.

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