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 would let such contracts stand.
Reality TV Show Mansion: In Chris' new (actually fake) show, Total Drama Dirtbags. According to Noah, its entire premise is, "A bunch of jerks live in a huge mansion and get all bored and backstabby."
Record Needle Scratch: Used in the scene with Tyler and the alien, in "The EX-Files".
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.
Dakota becomes a Mauve Shirt after her elimination and her dad pays Chris a large bribe.
Revenge of the Sequel: Oddly enough the fourth season (rather than the second season) is subtitled like this with respect to Island.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: DJ's bunny, the chipmunks, the squirrels, and even the skunks, as well as the baby pandas (when they're tamed...)
Ring Ring Crunch: The first morning after Brick switches over to the Toxic Rats, his alarm clock wakes the other guys up extremely early and they all try to get rid of it.
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.
Lindsay not remembering people's names and misunderstanding the voting process.
Courtney mentioning her CIT training.
Justin taking off his shirt.
DJ accidentally injuring animals.
A one-episode gag in World Tour had Courtney, Gwen and Heather (respectively) admitting something embarrassing in the confessional and then trying to pry the camera out of the wall, yelling, "I want that tape back! Give me the tape! How do I open this thing?"
Harold from time to time brags about skills he learned at camp. All apparently owned by the same guy. "Magic Steve's Magic Camp" "Karate Steve's Karate Camp" etc...
Sacred First Kiss: Subverted with Cody getting kissed by Sierra in "Niagara Brawls", he even vomited in the confessional afterwards.
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, when she asks Chris if she could have a cabin with an ocean view since she's the prettiest camper.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Duncan quits in the first episode of World Tour but is forced to return several episodes later.
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.
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.
Similarly, 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: Within the Killer Bass, DJ (sensitive), Duncan (manly), and Geoff (sensitive to Duncan, manly to DJ).
"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!"
She's Got Legs: Several female cast members have long legs, making up for more than half of their height. Heather and Katie show theirs off with short shorts, while Izzy shows hers off with her skirt/wrap.
Duncan with Gwen, and to a lesser extent with Heather.
Harold with Heather and Leshawna.
Shock and Awe: The furless mutant squirrel from Revenge of the Island can shoot lightning out of its eyes.
Shocking Elimination: Justin, Courtney, Bridgette, and Leshawna in Island, Heather, Justin, and Leshawna in Action.
Lampshaded by Chris during Bridgette's elimination:
Chris: Okay, that was a shocker. I was shocked, and I knew the answer!
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.
Total Drama Island, Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, and Total Drama Revenge of the Island are all reality shows within the Total Drama universe.
The Action special also featured a TMZ-equse show called Celebrity Manhunt, which tracked down the contestants once Action ended.
Izzy: Oh, crap, it is! (dives back underwater, accidentally flashing everyone in the process)
Owen also loses his trunks in both the cliff-jumping challenge in Island and the theme song of World Tour.
Small Name, Big Ego: Blainely 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 humourously sociopathic levels.
Snap Back: Most character's 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.
Heather, Duncan, and Owen have the highest episode counts of all the contestants.
Gwen and Courtney, particularly because of the Love Triangle between them and Duncan in Action and World Tour.
Lindsay and Leshawna, mostly due to their conflicts with Heather and Courtney in the first two seasons; however, the two are eliminated from World Tour early on.
For a single season only, Beth in Action and Cody, Sierra, and Alejandro in World Tour.
Squee: Katie, Sadie, and Sierra are big time squee-queens. 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.
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". Think about it.
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".
Stripperiffic: A good chunk of the female cast, but especially Heather and Izzy.
Dakota to Lindsay (both are rich, spoiled dumb blondes). She is also one to Ezekiel in World Tour (both don't make it very far in their respective seasons and get transformed into horrible monsters).
Jo to Eva (both are competitive jock-ettes, although Jo is a lot less angry).
Zoey to Beth (both are nice but socially awkward).
Likewise, Christian Potenza voices Chris' cousin Jerd McLean.
Team Mom: Courtney. Well, she tries to be at least.
Team Shot: Each opening ends with a shot of the contestants. See also the page picture, which happened during the first episode.
Teens Are Short: Mostly averted, as many of the contestants are the same height, if not taller, than Chris. Also, Blaineley is roughly the same height as the teens. A few contestants, such as Cameron and Dawn, play this straight, however.
In "Ocean's Eight: or Nine", Chris' car horn plays the "I Wanna be Famous" tune when he drives up.
In the "Chinese Fake-Out", it's his ringtone, justified as the show is a Show Within a Show in-universe, so its theme song would be known by Chris. The ringtone shows up again in "Ice, Ice Baby".
Thermometer Gag: "One Flu Over the Cuckoos" does this. When everyone but Leshawna and Duncan are sick, Duncan attempts to put a rectal thermometer in Harold's mouth.
Heather does one in World Tour when Sierra invites her for a group hug.
Eva does one in the alternate 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 in 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.
"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.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Cody and Sierra. Sam and Dakota after the latter's mutation.
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:
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.
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 in the commercials showing before Island went live. They mention that Owen's probably an unlikely candidate for victory. Then he wins.
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 giving away the arrival of Alejandro and Sierra, and which of the campers would not be returning.
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.
They also told us that Izzy and Sierra would switch teams after the first episode of World Tour. However, In their defense, it was only in the next episode.
And also Duncan returning to World Tour despite quitting earlier on.
The trailer for the France episode of World Tour included a shot of Lindsay wearing a parachute.
AnotherWorld Tour trailer showed off Duncan and Gwen kissing.
Trent is scared of mimes due to a traumatic childhood incident.
When Lindsay ends up hanging from a gate in Paris after her World Tour elimination, a nearby mime manages to creep her out by imitating her instead of trying to help.
Troperrific: Obviously, since it's meant to be a lampooning of contemporary reality shows.
Tuck and Cover: When the jet explodes in "Awwwwww, Drumheller" Alejandro is seen shielding Heather from the blast.
Un Spoken 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.
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 (who she mistook 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.
The Unreveal: How Duncan landed in juvie, and some other juicy bits about Heather and Gwen (IF that's her real name).
Unwanted Rescue: Cody does an unsuccessful version of this during the tag team wrestling match in "Greece's Pieces". Courtney, Sierra, and Cody are pitted against Tyler and Owen, Cody is knocked out of the ring in the first few seconds of the fight but the girls easily subdue the other team on their own. Then just when they're about to win, Cody suddenly returns to the ring declaring, "Never fear, ladies, I'm here to save you!" which manages to tick Courtney off and make her yell at him, which in turn causes Sierra to halt her assault on Owen and switch to beating up Courtney instead. A Double Knockout ensues, and Owen ends up winning the round by default.
Owen to Trent, with his advice about how to please Gwen.
Tyler in "Greece’s Pieces".
Up to Eleven: According to the creators, one of the main ideas behind the show: to take a bunch of elements from shows like Survivor and Fear Factor and ramp it up to impossible things like jumping off the thousand foot cliff, "because it's animation and we can get away with stuff like that".
Urban Legend of Zelda: When Island ended, there were rumors going around that characters other than Owen or Gwen had won in certain countries. The most extreme example would be Ezekiel in certain parts of Asia.
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. And she's not qualified to compete in the second season. OR the third.
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!?
Is Owen's family still $50,000 dollars in debt for making a cheese cellar?
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 tells them who's eliminated.
Who Is Driving?: Happens when Chef decides to join Chris in the main body of the plane during World Tour.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: An episode had the campers face their fears (Snakes was one of them). Some have legitimate fears while others have weird or silly fears.
William Telling: Inverted in an episode of Island where the contestants have to shoot crabapples from a slingshot in order to knock arrows off their partner's head.
With Friends Like These: In "Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better" Bridgette gets her tongue frozen stuck to a pole. It doesn't even seem to occur to her close friends Gwen and Courtney to help. Okay, she was on a different team but still, that's pretty cold.
The Worf Effect: 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.
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".
The World Tour ending does this to Alejandro, who doesn't even get to touch the money before it's destroyed.
The alternate 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.
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".
Bridgette cheats on Geoff with Alejandro in "Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better". Geoff is understandably upset at first, but forgives her after she dedicates an apology song to him.
Duncan kisses Gwen while still in a relationship with Courtney, Tyler witnesses this and ends up telling everyone, with disastrous results: Courtney goes on a heartbreak-induced crusade against both adulterers, Sierra brutally snubs Gwen for being a boyfriend-kisser, and Cody starts antagonizing Duncan for "stealing" Gwen from him (even though Gwen was never "his" to begin with).
Yuri Fan: Chris is shown making two Beth dolls kiss each other in the ending of "The Princess Pride".
