When Adam Reed (the creator of Sealab 2021 and Frisky Dingo) went to [adult swim] with the idea for Archer — a show aptly described as "James BondmeetsArrested Development" — the network passed it over. The FX network saw potential in Archer, however, and greenlit the show, which began to air in September 2009. (To their credit, [adult swim] plugs it every so often during their bumps.)The show focuses on title protagonist Sterling Archer (an agent for the free-market spy agency ISIS) and his random misadventures both inside and outside of the office walls. Archer makes for a well-trained spy — but his Jerkass behavior and his tendency to remain oblivious to everything except himself often renders his competence in the field next-to-useless.Archer's humor, much like Arrested Development (and spiritual predecessorFrisky Dingo), relies heavily on Call Backs and Running Gags alongside a large Ensemble Cast (including a cast member or two from Arrested Development) and Two Lines, No Waiting plots. A fan of either Arrested Development or Frisky Dingo will almost certainly enjoy Archer, while someone who found either show repetitive or too low-key probably won't.This series has a character sheet, a Shout Outs page, a page listing tropes found on the characters' Twitter feeds, a page featuring enlightening interviews with the cast and creators and a page of episode summaries.Don't confuse this show with the BBC radio soap The Archers, or the many otherfictional characters who share Sterling's surname. It also has nothing to do with the Archer Archetype (that's about those guys with the bows and arrows).
She wasn't even in Archer's life except for the occasional telegram until he was 5 years old. While raising him, she got him drunk at age eight, taught him how to gamble, and stole his things to teach him a lesson.
Malory: I don't care if he's happy!
Trexler: Well that's obvious.
As of Season 2, she's become an abusive grandmother.
Cheryl/Carol, during an exchange in "Once Bitten".
Malory: Lana, this is a Central Asian, male-dominated, xenophobic puppet state whose dictator changed the words for bread and Friday to his dog's name.
Cheryl: Gerpgork.
Malory: Yes, gerpgo- ... how did you know that?
Cheryl: Oh my god, how did I know that?
And again when Cheryl delivers a devastating Reason You Suck Speech to Lana in the same episode.
Malory, based on various flashbacks and the fact that she was able to shoot her son six times in the torso with what was revealed the next season to be a .44 magnum. She expresses pride that all six shots were grouped "in the '10 ring.'"
Pam pulls a little Suddenly Always Knew That on this trope, suddenly revealing that she's an underground bare-knuckle boxer who can snap a man's neck and take a punch like a champ. She's even got the third stanza of "The Destruction of Sennacherib" tattooed on her back under 13 tally marks. Oh, and she drift-races against the Yakuza.
Very blatant in "Fugue and Rifts." The episode opens with an amnesiac Archer living the life of Bob Belcher from Bobs Burgers (complete with Archer-ized versions of the entire Belcher family). Both Archer and Bob are voiced by H. Jon Benjamin. John Roberts has a cameo voicing Linda.
In "The Papal Chase", Archer mentions that he prepared for a mission to save the Pope by watching episodes of Lucy The Daughter Of The Devil, which features H. Jon Benjamin as the voice of one member of a group of secret agent-like clergy workers (as well as the Devil himself).
Captain Murphy gets crushed to death by a Goz brand soda machine, the last name of his late voice actor from Sealab 2021, Harry Goz, whose character once spent in-episode months trapped by a fallen soda machine.
Archer, Pam and Cheryl are amused by the pirate animation that accompanies the computer worm in "Tragical History".
Malory, in "Double Trouble."
Archer: Katya does not have VD!
Malory: You haven't had sex with her? Archer:[sarcastically] Ha-ha, for your... heh, that was pretty good.
Archer again in "The Limited"
Lana: In what way? In what possible way did that work? Archer: Well, uh, A) They're all incapacitated. And B) I got to blow up a train! Lana:Well thanks, Gomez. Archer: Nice.
Pam, in "Space Race"
Pam:[angrily] And then you dump me for your big-titted Russian sexbot, little miss... uh...
Malory: And for God's sake, take a shower. Smells like a whorehouse in here. Archer: Okay, your own fingers.
Adventures In Comaland: Archer gets a snakebite in "Once Bitten" and his Spirit Advisor James Mason takes him through traumatic memories to a repressed memory of the identity of his father. He can't recall it once he wakes up, though.
Archer sets a speed record with this in "Space Race Part 2." He learns an important lesson about it not always being about him at the end, and refuses to engage in a one-on-one fight with Barry...only to turn right around and demand that he is allowed to land the shuttle. He lampshades this himself by using it as a reason he should be "rewarded" at the end.
Archer doesn't change his attitude to Woodhouse because he gets knocked out immediately after learning his lesson.
The pair of Camp Gay assassins from "Honeypot." Outside of when they're trying to kill Archer and Ramon, they're pretty cool dudes. They even let Woodhouse keep the expensive clothes they bought for him.
Oh, we're a hit sqad. Forgot to tell you.
Conway Stern, right up until the moment he stabs Archer in the back and steals the plans.
Rona Thorne turns out to be a Soviet sleeper agent but never stops being genuinely nice to Lana.
Subverted with Kraus, who is immediately made the Red Herring of a bomb plot. Turns out he isn't responsible for the bomb, and he actually got his scar saving a Jewish girl from a bunch of skinheads.
It turns out that Dr. Krieger's parents were Nazis, and he might be one of The Boys From Brazil. He somehow acquired a door from the Kriegsmarine cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, to guard his laboratory at ISIS.
All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Conway Stern sports an Ashkenazi last name, despite the fact that he's black. It's later revealed that his identity is just a cover, so he apparently used an Ashkenazi name to help "prove" his identity to the clueless gentiles at ISIS.
Ray needs a CAT scan after a Tap on the Head (again, from Archer) leaves him unconscious for over an hour,
Barry suffers increasingly severe injuries from the Running Gag of - guess who? - dropping him off tall buildings; eventually culminating in needing to be rebuilt as a cyborg.
During the two part season 3 finale, Archer shoots both Cyril and Pam with the space gun's ion pulse, which can stop someone's heart. He shot Cyril for his own amusement and Pam to keep her quiet.
Anachronism Stew: 1960s decor, 1970s cars, early 1980s computers, alongside modern cell phones, the internet and a veritable tidal wave of modern pop-culture references. The Soviet Union apparently still exists, which makes this outright Alternate History, although Leningrad is referred to as St. Petersburg, the Lubyanka◊ has its post-1983 symmetrical façade, the world map behind Malory's desk indicates that Russia and the former Republics are all independent, and Germany is apparently reunified. Archer's age during known historical events is inconsistent.
Archer: Yeah, listen - doctor - I'm kinda making peace with my loved ones right now... Plus some other people.
Anything That Moves: Kreiger, who at one point even exclaims he's glad to be aroused without thinking of homeless people. Even noted by other characters when he's chopping up a body:
During the "modified Ludovico" treatment, among the words displayed in quick succession are "war", "famine", "dead puppy", and "old people".
In an early episode, Archer is being shot at but isn't sure who it is, because he has a lot of enemies, including the KGB, the Stasi, Shining Path, and "this guy I know named Popeye," who turns out to be a loan sharking pimp and not Popeye Doyle.
The Artifact: Archer's code name, "Duchess". Barely mentioned at all past the first episode and not once after the first season. Mainly because Archer is just so much of a catchier name and no one else has a code name.
Ascended Extra: As of Season 4, Cyril, Ray and Pam have all been promoted to occasional field agents to allow involvement outside the B-Plots.
While the rendering of vehicles is quite accurate, for some reason all the GM G-series and Volkswagen Type 2 vans have Ford Econoline front ends (later version for the G-series, earlier snub-nosed versions for the Volkswagens). There's also the 1970 Dodge Challenger spy car Archer received for his birthday, which had very BMW-style gauges.
While there is no problem with their modelling, New York buses are Czechoslovakian 1966 Korosas and the taxis are 1962 Mercedes 300 SE (W112), rather than GM or Flxible New Looks, or the ubiquitous Checker A11. 1970 GAZ 24 sedans also turn up once or twice in New York, all of which count as Improbably Cool Car.
Artistic License - Chemistry: While Archer's assumption that dry ice is "a hundred degrees below" could be handwaved as his being a moron, it is in fact nowhere near as deadly as "Pipeline Fever" depicts it to be when Lana reaches into Archer's cooler. Also, keeping in mind that dry ice solidifies at minus 78 degrees Celsius, all the beer (and the one water bottle) in the cooler should have been frozen solid.
Franny Delaney and the rest of the Irish Mob members killed by Archer during the episode "Placebo Effect."
Ass Shove: In an interrogation in "Placebo Effect," Archer inserts a grenade into the rectum of a mook, and opines "The mark-II [fragmentation grenade] has kind of nubbily ridges, do you feel those? Different circumstances [it] might actually feel good."
A-Team Firing: Frequently done and lampshaded as it happens, such as the KGB pelting Archer and Barry with machine gun fire in "White Nights" and missing every single shot. Also in "Double Trouble" where Archer, Katya, Malory, Lana, Cyril and Ray have a full standing blast-out until everyone is out of ammo and nobody gets hit.
Lana in training, according to Luke Troy in "The Wind Cries Mary". To make matters worse, she only carries two magazines with her.
Archer: I'm doing all kinds of stuff, Cyril! I'm shooting the gun, see? I'm driving the car... Cyril: I could drive better than that! Archer: So knock yourself out, I'm ejecting.
Pam and Lana as well in "The Papal Chase", though in their defense Archer was talking to the Pope instead of driving.
Bad Boss: Malory. The list of grievances from her employees is pretty long, but the most trope worthy offense has got to be her cold-blooded murder of the entire team of cleaning ladies in an elevator "accident" when they threatened to unionize for better working conditions. This seems to be a family trait, as Archer treats Woodhouse like garbage and thought he was a slave until the season 2 finale.
Cheryl: Wait, how do you know Portuguese? Krieger: Because I grew up in Braz...istol County, Rhode Island. Lot of Portuguese in Rhode Island. Cyril: Where you're from. Krieger: Born and raised. Cyril: What's the state capital? Krieger: ...Dallas? ... Krieger: Leave me alone! I am not a Nazi! Cyril: What about your father? Krieger: No! He was a scientist! Cyril:Pretty sure the Nazis had scientists. Krieger: No! That's why we...hurgh...they lost the war! Lack of science!
Pam: You are a biiiiiitch! Malory: I am not! Why, because I don't want Sterling to end up with a woman like Lana Kane? My God, a black... ops field agent? Pam: Thought she was going in a whole other direction with that.
Malory gets another one in "The Limited" when she refers to the Pullman train porter as "George", only for it to turn out the porter's name actually is George. Subverted, though, since Malory is as surprised as anyone.
Malory again in "The Papal Chase", when she is assigning an undercover job at Vatican City:
Lana: ...I assume you're not sending Ray. Malory: To the Vatican? You think all those catholic priests wouldn't peg him? (coughs) ...as American? With that hillbilly accent?
Lana's plan to get back at Cyril for cheating on her. She offers the men at the office to pay to pretend they had sex with her and tell Cyril the nastiest thing they can think of. When Pam points out that the men may demand refunds if one of the men points out that they didn't have sex with Lana nor did anyone else, Lana replies that it's not a problem because nobody would dare be the first one to admit he didn't have sex.
Early in season two Trinette shows up with baby she claims is Archer's, and Barry forces him to undergo a paternity test, free of charge. Cyril is actually the father, and Barry, knowing how Archer treats him, tells Archer where and how the blood sample will be stored, knowing Archer will either switch the sample with Cyril's blood and get stuck with child support (since he wouldn't think to use someone else's blood), or get caught and possibly killed trying. Archer also wiaves all rights to contest the results, and Barry even tells him he couldn't admit to tampering with the sample.
Late into season 3, Malory spends decades having sex with Italian Prime Minister Mascalzone, before then wounding herself and murdering Mascalzone mid-freaky-sex. After calling Archer and Lana over, they're too disgusted by the context of the murder to closely examine anything, and help cover it up with Kreiger; combined with her wound and the ISIS staff giving her an alibi for the officer she tipped herself anonymously, she then makes her guests leave with a piece of the victim each.
Cyril proves to be a Batman Gambit savant, pulling several successful examples in El Contador.
Beef Bandage: Conway provides Cyril with one from Cheryl's endless gifts of unrefrigerated meat and/or seafood.
Archer tends to have a minor freakout every time someone so much as hints at his mother having sex.
He also tends to have a random one per episode.
Assassin: "Hand over the girl, cochino! Archer: "And that is just it for today, with people calling me a freaking pig! (lights assassin on fire) ...Holy shit, did you see that?"
Malory's relationship with her late dog Duchess is given a creepy vibe with a photo of them both that parodies the famous portrait of a naked John Lennon curled around Yoko Ono.
This is also implied with Pam, seeing as she attributes some of her sexual skills to having grown up on a farm.
Krieger is implied to have had sex with Piggley 3.
Big Eater: Pam always mentions wanting some kind of food.
Pam: (standing over two burning bodies) Is it weird that I'm kind of hungry now? Malory: It would be weirder if you weren't.
She even eats herself into anaphylactic shock, claiming she's "a consenting adult" when someone tries to stop her from eating food she's seriously allergic to.
Big "NO!": End of season 2, when Barry and Katya land on Krieger's beloved van.
Also in season 4 "The Wind Cries Mary", Archer's reaction to Lucas' Death Bed Confession about what he did to him after they got drunk after a party
Bigger Is Better In Bed: Cyril has a big dick, which he seems to dislike, and actually tries to get ISIS to pay to have it shortened.
Bilingual Bonus: Quite a lot due to the globe-trotting nature of the show.
Ramon Limon's end of some phone conversations in "Honeypot". His responses imply that his mother is bugging him about why he doesn't have a girlfriend...
After Barry fires Framboise for having sex with Archer, Framboise says "You don't have a heart!" to Barry in French.
In Swiss Miss:
Malory: It's Fraulein*
lit. little woman; "Miss" as opposed to "Mrs"
Archer. Archer: She added desperately.
The episode "Placebo Effect" gives us two instances: In the earlier part of the episode, Archer and Krieger discuss his cancer in Portuguese, and later in the episode, Cyril questions why Krieger was raised in Brazil in German.
Lana speaks French to hotel staff in "Jeu Monegasque"
In "El Contador" Cyril speaks Spanish. (The episode title is also Spanish for "The Accountant")
"Drift Problem" features some Japanese from the yakuza. Pam thought they were calling her "the White Shadow", but they reveal that it means "the White Pumpkin".
Pam typically brings a liquor called Schützenmeister, which is German for Archer, to ISIS funerals.
In a delightful instance of Getting Crap Past the Radar, although most of the bits of Italian throughout "Lo Scandalo" are pretty banal (considering the Squick-tastic circumstances. "Are you ready?" "Yes, my dear, I'm so ready!") right up until Mallory spits on Mascalzoni and calls him a "fucking fascist."
"Mascalzone", by the way, means "Scoundrel" or "Criminal" in Italian.
Archer: Well it's the Pope's fault she won't let me wear a condom. Malory: Why don't you wear a vasectomy? Archer: "This again? Don't you want a grandkid?" Malory: "Well, if I did, I'd just scrape all your previous mishaps into a big pile and knit a onesie for it." Archer: "...Jesus Christ."
At Trinette's baby shower Cheryl's present is a box of plastic laundry bags and a book about SIDS.
"I liked him better when he had cancer."
When Malory remembers having to pay the funeral expenses for the Pygmies who chopped down the super-rare tree to make their conference table.
Malory: I bet that sneaky chief just pocketed the money and stuck them all in one medium-sized hole.
It's safe to say this shows up in every episode, at least once..
In "Blood Test", Cyril, hopped up on heroin, brained with an absinthe bottle and passed out from having a liter of his blood drained, is raped first by Pam and then Gillette, both of whom are a little bit drunk at the time. Lampshaded by Pam, who mentions that "Things are about to get weird."
In "The Wind Cries Mary", Lucas Troy's final breath is confessing that one night when Archer was passed out, he took some suntan oil, turned on some Al Green and... well you can figure out the rest.
In "Viscous Coupling" Pam films an unconscious Ray and Cyril in a bathroom stall, with an Octopus. Given that a running gag in the episode is a tentacle rape manga by the name "The Fisherman's Wife", it's obvious what went down.
In "Double Deuce," the sniveling former second-in-command who is likely behind the murder plot is also the only blond guy in the Double Deuce. And then it's subverted when it turns out there is no murder plot to begin with.
Generally subverted by Archer, who constantly flubs his one-liners or has to explain them to the others because they don't get his references.
Archer: Damn, I... had something for this, too... um... damn it. Eat grenade, stupids!
Played straight with Conway Stern, who annoys Archer and Lana by always having the right one-liner (except at the end of Operation Frodo, because he doesn't know anything about Lord of the Rings).
Lana: Shit, I had something for this! Conway: Was it something like..."You won't get off the hook that easy?" Lana: Dammit! Archer: Yeah, he's good at those.
Bottle Episode: "Lo Scandolo", which takes place entirely in Malory's apartment.
Played for laughs when Archer and Katya attempt a Blast Out and everyone runs out of bullets within about 10 seconds.
The Cuban gay spy calls out Archer on doing this in the final Blast Out, but does the same thing not five seconds later to Archer's amusement.
During the "Heart of Archness" special, Archer fires one round from Rip's Colt 1911 (7 round capacity), then empties the rest of the magazine a few minutes later, crowing "All six in the ten ring!"
In "Midnight Ron", "you already saw me shoot those mobsters! It has a finite capacity, it's not a phaser!"
Lucas Troy in "The Wind Cries Mary" reminds Lana how they called her Spray and Pray in training, but that he always found it odd she only ever carried two magazines.
Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Archer's three main fears are alligators, crocodiles and brain aneurysms.
And his fourth is the Bermuda Triangle.
Breaking In Old Habits: When Malory makes a crack about Lana having "robot hands", Krieger just happens to be standing around the corner with a pair of the things perfectly matching Lana's real hands. The first function he chooses to show off is, uh, somewhat suggestive.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: During the car chase in "The Man from Jupiter," the Cuban assassins' vans fly off the road into the water in two identical (save for the vehicles) sequences. Archer notices this, somehow.
"Wait, was that the same footage?"
Cheryl can hear the soundtrack music in "Sea Tunt, Part 1". ("Just ignore it, it's non-diegetic!")
Brick Joke: The very first episode opens with a not so heinous scene of Archer goofing off in an "Electric Torture by the KGB" training scenario. Late in season two, guess what he's faced with?
Archer: Kinda wishing I'd paid more attention to my training right now. Which is, uh, pretty rare for me.
In "Dial M for Mother," while pushing a stroller through a park, Trinette has a confrontation with the assassin Mannfred at a playground. After Mannfred threatens her with a pistol, Trinette tells him that the baby's father knows Krav Maga, which "Training Day" establishes is used by ISIS agents. In season two's "Blood Test," its revealed that Trinette believes Archer to be the baby's father.
In "Drift Problem," a fake fire drill is used to lead Archer to his birthday car surprise. Archer grabbed Ray out of his wheelchair and carried him outside. At the time, it was assumed that Ray was paralyzed due to an injury from a mission. Archer drops Ray at the sight of the car, leading Ray to say, "Ow!...I think." This seemingly throwaway joke led to The Reveal in "Bloody Ferlin". Ray is found on a ladder, giving away that he was never paralyzed. He was wheeled out of the hospital in a wheelchair as standard procedure, and the others mistook this for paralysis. However, he used the mix-up for every opportunity he could get.
Trinette is introduced in "Training Day", when Archer introduces her to Cyril. She later appears, toting a baby she claims is Archer's but is actually Cyril's.
Calzado in season three episode "El Contador" makes mention of "hunting the most dangerous game". Archer being Archer though assumes he means jai alai which was last mentioned in the season one episode "Honeypot" as a most dangerous game.
In "A Going Concern," Archer discovers a sex toy in his mother's desk, the color of which he describes as 'aubergine.' In "Double Trouble", Pam mentions that "nobody cares about your stupid eggplant" when accused of rifling through Malory's desk, and a season later in "Lo Scandalo," before his death in Malory's condo, Savio Mascalozoni apparently inserted a toy into himself in an act that Archer describes as 'sodomy by rubber eggplant'. The season after that, in "Live and Let Dine," a celebrity chef points out aubergine and eggplant are the same thing.
Briefcase Full of Money: One instance is a decoy containing a single muffin. It's a bit of wordplay used to lampshade that the contents of the briefcase are a MacGuffin.
Buffy Speak: Krieger, when describing how he plans on giving Ray bionic legs.
Krieger: And so a small power unit goes here on your... spiney... thing, which sends electical impulses to your muscles and ligaments and... stuff, which I will fuse to a vanadium alloy endoskeleton, replacing your current, uh, leg... bones.
Ray: I have to say, it kind of worries me that you don't know the names of the actual bones.
In one episode, Archer is teaching Cyril how to act like an agent and shoots cubes of ice at Cyril with a slingshot. Cyril grabs a nearby call girl and pulls her into the line of fire. Archer is delighted, the call girl less so.
In a literal example, Archer uses a bulletproof vest-wearing Cheryl as cover during a gunfight, even though he's supposed to be protecting her.
Archer: Shut up! That vest is bulletproof! Cheryl: (relieved) Oh. (Gets shot in the arm) Ow! Archer: But it is, you know, a vest.
Cyril tries to get back at Sterling by revealing that Archer knocked up a hooker who, ironically, was actually carrying Cyril's child.
Franny Delaney, leader of The Irish Mob, believes that Archer won't shoot an unarmed, sick man, because of a sense of fair play. Unfortunately for him, Archer is on a "rampage."
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Pretty much everyone in this series. No matter how dysfunctional they are, they all turn out to be good at their jobs, if only when they are given a reason to be.
Krieger, despite being insane and not a medical doctor (or technically the other kind of doctor) manages to perform brain surgery successfully—while high on acid. With a drill.
At one point someone outright states that Archer is an excellent field agent in spite of being completely clueless at everything else.
Brett, who's been beaten up by Lana and shot by both Rona and Cyril. And got his ass beat by Archer after mocking him for having breast cancer. And was shot twice by Archer in season one before ever appearing onscreen. ("God DAMN it, Archer!") In "El Secuestro", he takes a bullet in the stomach early on and spends the rest of the episode bleeding there, even getting yelled at for not picking up the ringing phone fast enough. In "Drift Problem", Lana fires a machine gun at Archer's new car to demonstrate that it's bulletproof. Nobody else is hurt, but a ricocheting bullet hits him in the stomach. In "Skin Game", Barry maims him in the elevator and writes "Barry Was Here" in his blood. The topper (thus far) came in "Legs", when Archer was trying to break into Krieger's lab by shooting at the bulletproof door. The bullet ricocheted off the door, then a wall, then a drinking fountain, then Cyril's pocketwatch held just right, then another wall, off a fire extinguisher, down a stairwell, and finally hit Brett a few floors down. Who gets chewed out by Malory for leaving such a large stain.
Gillette rapidly becomes one in the course of "Heart of Archness," losing one eye and the use of his legs in separate accidents. Most of his coworkers are not very sympathetic. He was faking it.
Call Back: One of the show's frequent sources of humor:
Episode 1, Malory beats Sterling with her wallet, and Sterling responds "What the hell does she keep in that thing, buckles?" Ray echoes the exact same phrase in "Jeu Monegasque".
In "Pipeline Fever", Lana remarks how she became an ISIS agent and ends with "Three weeks later, I was in Tunisia killing a man." Three episodes later in "Movie Star", Malory talks about her becoming an agent and ends with the same line.
In "El Contador", Archer quickly but incorrectly guesses that "the most dangerous game" is jai alai, calling back to his injury playing the sport in "Honey Pot."
From the ending of the same episode, Malory asks whether they'd gotten a receipt for delivering Calzado to the DEA, indirectly referencing Archer's trouble with the bearer-bonds in "Jeu Monegasque".
Cyril's enthusiasm with his rifle in "Space Race" is called back in "The Honeymooners". "SUPPRESSING FIRE!!!... extinguisher."
"Sea Tunt: Part I" calls back "Skytanic" with: "Oh my God, there is no bomb!"
The Cameo: The "Sea Tunt" two-parter contains Eugene Mirman as Cecil and Kristen Schaal as Tiffy; Mirman and Schaal also co-star with Benjamin in Bobs Burgers as Gene and Louise.
Played with in the episode where Archer has to pretend to be gay to seduce a gay spy. Being the bigoted Jerkass he is, he dresses up ridiculously campy (bleached hair, lollipop, roller skates, hot pants, and a too-tight t-shirt that reads "GOT DICK?"), and gets mocked by two real gay guys... who are still campy, though not so outrageously. The spy he's trying to seduce, meanwhile, is completely Straight Gay.
"Oh my God, you, like, sneeze glitter!"
Gillette. Which doesn't stop him from being one of the more competent characters. However, he's still willing to sleep with Lana since, as he puts it, "Nobody's that gay." Also increasingly becoming an Informed Attribute, however; while originally introduced as a true Camp Gay in a standalone gag, in later appearances he's referred to as mincing or prancing even though he's not depicted as actually behaving that way to any significant degree. In "Bloody Ferlin", all he really has to do to pass as straight is to don a plaid flannel shirt and a baseball cap — his mannerisms and vocal inflections don't actually change a whit.
Canis Major: Kazak, an English Mastiff who hates guns.
Jeffrey Tambor as the head of ODIN, who's in a somewhat tumultuous romance with Jessica Walter's Malory. The two voice actors had a similar dynamic in Arrested Development
Malory, voiced by Jessica Walter, is a wealthy, hard-drinking, Jerkass mother with a long sexual past and a co-dependent son, very similar to her character in Arrested Development.
Although differently crazy between series, Judy Greer was a crazy Plucky Office Girl in Arrested Development and plays a similar role as Cheryl in this series.
When Archer is identified as a fake homosexual by Charles, he is dressed very similar to a gay prostitute who was always being caught by the police on Reno 911!, in which Thomas Lennon (who voices Charles) stars.
Turns out Burt Reynolds is every bit as much a crazy Bad Ass in real life as the characters he plays.
Casual Danger Dialog: Adam Reed shows always use this trope. Of specific highlight is Lana's (knockoff) Fiacci underwear, discussed during gunfights and bomb defusals.
Catch Phrase: There's a lot of overlap with Running Gag, but phrases that are specific to individual characters that crop up in at least a few different episodes include:
Lana's "Yyyyyyyyyyup!" or "Noooooooooope!"
Archer's "Danger zone!" said to Lana.
Acher's "Lana? Lana?!LANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!"
Even alluded to in "The Papal Chase":
Malory: Pam! Pam: What?! Lana: Pam? Pam: WHAT?! Archer: PAAAAAAAAAM! Pam: WHAAAAAAAAAAT?! Archer: [laughs] I dunno, what're we doing?
Chekhov's Gun: Archer gives a gun, branded "Chekhov", to Cyril along with a poison pen and adds that the gun occasionally goes off unexpectedly and the pen's cap tends to slip off for no reason. Later on... nothing happens with the Chekhov gun, but the pen is responsible for poisoning a hooker (which was deliberately set up by Archer to get Cyril into trouble). So let's see, that's lampshading, parody, subversion, discussion, playing it straight and invoked?
Archer: "God, I SAID the cap slips off the poison pen for no reason, didn't I?!" Cyril: "I know, I know, but I just assumed that if anything bad happened it-it would've been-" Archer: "No, do NOT say the Chekhov gun Cyril! THAT, sir, is a facile argument!" Woodhouse: "Also woefully esoteric."
Chekhov's Skill: Archer is seen in flashback playing lacrosse at his boarding school, then uses the same skills to catch and throw back grenades using a fishing net in "Heart of Archness, Part II".
Chew Toy: Season two seems to have made Archer himself the constant Chew Toy. Every episode has ended with him getting the raw end of the stick. In order: Caught in a compromising position with a topless teenage heiress,(It wasn't what it looked like) being left caring for Cyril's bastard son, being left stranded in a swamp with an injured, pissed off gator while Lana went to get wined and dined by an eco terrorist, and getting pistol whipped by Woodhouse, being poisoned by a Russian sleeper agent, being diagnosed, then undiagnosed, then diagnosed, then undiagnosed, then finally diagnosed with cancer, and then his fiance (whom he actually seems to genuinely care for, for once) dies protecting him.
Chivalrous Pervert: Archer is NOT one of these, except when it comes to Anka. Despite her being from a place where the age of consent is 14, he steadfastly refuses to touch her since she's only 17. Not that it helps.
Chubby Chaser: Pam is targeted by a Chubby Chaser in one episode, much to Malory's disgust, as Malory was trying to seduce the man for her own agenda. Somehow by the end of the episode, all three end up in bed together.
Clothing Damage: Goes way over the top in "Space Race"; after Lana strips off for a Show Some Leg guard-distraction, Archer rips up her clothes, and subsequent events force her to stay in nothing but panties and nipple stickers for most of the episode. To add to the insult, people keep commenting about her boobs' 'journey south'...
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Cheryl, who keeps changing her name, stands out even amongst this group. Dr. Krieger also surges into this trope as the series progresses. Not surprisingly, they start dating.
Cluster F-Bomb: No one is averse to cursing, but when Lana accidentally grabs some dry ice, she responds with a full 8 seconds of cursing. Malory does this to Ray, Cyril and Lana at the beginning of Season 3 when they fail to locate Sterling. And it happens again in Season 4 when Cheryl tells Archer that "they changed" the "magic word", causing him to cuss her out for 4 seconds.
Composite Character: The president of Turkmenistan is explicitly identified as the current leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, but with several of the Bunny-Ears Lawyer traits of his predecessor Saparmurat Niyazov, who was head of state from 1985 to 2006.
Several of Archer's one night stands have reappeared (one with a baby too...)
Uta wearing a t-shirt with the Excelsior's insignia
Scatterbrain Jane having breast cancer
Archer's 'Seamus' and 'Dicky' tattoos on his back make another appearance in "Jeu Monegasque" and are slightly visible in the "Heart of Archness" arc. "Seamus" shows up in "Papal Chase" as well.
The clothes Charles and Rudy bought Woodhouse in "Honey Pot" show up in "Stage Two"
The very first episode begins with Archer cracking jokes during a torture session, which is quickly revealed to be a training simulation. In "White Nights," Archer finds himself in almost the exact same situation, and admits that he probably should've taken training more seriously.
In "Dial M For Mother," Archer is kidnapped and strapped to an operating table. On his feet are scars from when Lana shot him through the foot in "Skorpio" and "Skytanic."
When Ray is shown shirtless in "El Contador", he has a scar on his stomach from when he got shot in "Heart of Archness Pt. III".
Malory finds the whole office talking in the bathroom and tells Pam that she's not even supposed to be in there. In an earlier episode it's revealed that the office staff hid the existence of the women's bathroom from Pam. Once Pam found out, Malory still forbade her from using it.
In "Legs", we see a flashback of Krieger giving Conway Stern a new hand, to replace the one Lana yanked off in "Diversity Hire".
In "Legs," we get a flashback of a young Archer being looked over by a doctor after damaging his testicles. When the doctor asks what happened, we see Woodhouse calmly pushing the vacuum cleaner from "Skin Game" out of the way.
Contrived Coincidence: Done (seemingly on purpose) in "Dial M For Mother" when Manfred and Uta capture Archer. Appropriately lampshaded:
"What's remarkable is that we just ran into him. This city is huge.
Cool Airship: Despite Archer's constant, irritating, and fundamentally mistaken screeching that the Excelsior will blow up like the Hindenburg, the sumptuously luxurious rigid airship is enviably cool to just about everyone else- to the point where several ISIS employees stow away on board.
Cool Car: Archer gets a heavily modified, high performance 1970 Dodge Challenger which is a direct nod to Bond's various vehicles. Of course he doesn't get to keep it.
His previous car, also a (mostly) stock 1970 Dodge Challenger, is shown to have an Ejection Seat in its first appearance in the second episode.
Cool Versus Awesome: Invoked at the end of the third season, when Barry offers Archer the chance to pilot an Aliens-style Mini Mecha against him to even the playing field, as Barry is a superhuman cyborg. It takes every ounce of Archer's self-control to resist.
Country Matters: Cheryl's real last name is "Tunt." This is the subject of a few puns.
Archer: Tum again?
Cross Over: Season four opens with a crossover with H. John Benjamin's other show, Bob's Burgers. "Sea Tunt Part One", first half of the two part season finale, is revealed to be a crossover with Adam Reed's previous show, Sealab2021.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: While being a complete moron, Archer is more than competent at violence when the situation arises.
Archer: Well, you never know what's gonna be on the board...
Crying Wolf: Given Archer's tendency to lie through his teeth and seduce anything within a 500-yard radius, his ISIS coworkers are a bit skeptical that it's actually Anka who's trying to bed him.
In "El Secuestro," most of the office assumes Cheryl chained herself to a radiator as part of her murder fetish behavior (it was an attempted kidnapping). Lampshaded when Gilette calls her "Little Miss Cry-Wolf"
The Cuckoolander Was Right: Cheryl correctly figures out that Cecil wants to have her declared insane so he can seize her inheritance before anyone else.
Lana: After the lying, and the cheating, and that thing with the mayonnaise... Cyril: It's fine. Lana: ...not to mention how messed up he is about his mother... Cyril: It's fine. Lana: You know, he once called out her name while we were f- Cyril: FIIIIIIIINE!
"If I find a single dog hair, I'll rub sand in your dead little eyes. Also, I need you to go buy sand. I don't know if they grade it, but... coarse."
"I'm going to pain you dearly, when I peel off all your skin with a flensing knife, then sew it into Woodhouse pajamas, and then set those pajamas on fire!"
"And now I have to spend the first Friday I've had off in forever coming up with some bizarre punishment for you! So, don't be surprised if you end up eating a bunch of spider webs."
This also has a tendency to crop up during his rampages - in particular, threatening to shove a knife into a man's urethra, and shoving an M2 Fragmentation grenade up an Irish mobster's ass. Granted, he THOUGHT it was just a smoke grenade, so it still counts as this trope.
Dating Catwoman: Malory is having a secret relationship with Mayor General Jakov, head of the KGB and routinely gives up intel to him, even though he never asks it from her. He's also one possibility for Archer's dad.
Deadly Dodging: Burt Reynolds gets the Cuban gangsters to shoot each other in "The Man From Jupiter".
Deadly Hug: Conway Stern betrays Archer with one of these.
Depraved Bisexual: Cheryl, who not only gets turned on by physical violence on her person (particularly, being choked) but has been shown to be aroused equally by Cyril and Mallory.
Pam also probably counts. Maybe not "depraved", so much as "desperate", but definitely an "any time, any place, any how, any one" kinda gal.
Malory I'm sure Pam is fine. Pam[tied to a chair, being repeatedly punched in the face by her kidnapper] Who taught you how to punch? Your husband?
Description Porn: The introductory video for Archer's Cool Car. And when we say "porn", that's certainly the effect it as on him.
Development Gag: According to Word Of God, a discarded plot thread from the first season would have had Cheryl get pregnant via Archer, only to have Malory give her Laser-Guided Amnesia and dump her in a local hospital, with the implication that this was a regular occurrence. Season 3 had this conversation:
Malory: So help me God if you throw that computer on the floor again you are going to wake up in a hospital with total amnesia under someone else's name! (leaves) Pam: That's actually kind of scary. Cheryl: Eh. Wouldn't be the first time.
Cheryl: Please, if you really cared, you'd resign, but there's no way you ever will, because you're just counting the days until, her face bloated and yellow from liver failure, she calls you to her death bed and, in a croaky whisper, explains that Mr. Archer is totally incompetent and that you, the long-suffering Lana Kane, are the only one qualified to run ISIS and you weep shameful tears because you know this terrible place is the only true love you will ever know.
Malory: I am not. Why, because I don’t want Archer to end up with a woman like Lana Kane? My God, a black... ops field agent? Pam: I thought she was going in a whole other direction with that.
Both Torvald Utne and Archer's date are staged to look like a "standard hooker Murder Suicide" and then torched.
The plot of "Lo Scandalo." This turns out to be one of those rare things Krieger is disturbingly competent at; he hacks up the body in a bathtub, calls up the other agents and gives them brown paper packages to drop in separate locations around the city.
Disproportionate Retribution: Archer and Barry Dillon operate on this. What started as an accidental suit-tearing ended with girlfriend murder and being marooned on a space station
Distracted by the Sexy: Both Archer and Lana get this in "Skorpio" when fighting alongside each other half-naked.
The Ditz: Rona Thorne in "Movie Star." Or so it seems at first.
Woodhouse has had several with Archer: locking him out of his apartment when ISIS briefly fired Archer, allowing Archer's co-workers to throw a babyshower for the hooker Archer knocked up in his apartment without his permission, as well as the revelation that several times a year, Woodhouse knocks Archer unconscious and then convinces him he blacked out after a wild bender.
Pam in "El Secuestro":
Pam: "Let's see how much you wiggle when I whoop five thousand dollars worth of your ass!"
Ray: Speaking of, why the hell is the Italian Prime Minister here? Archer & Lana: Don't ask. [...] Malory: Oh God, that reminds me— Kreiger! Kreiger: Yeah, I found it. Cyril: What? Archer & Lana: Don't ask! Kreiger: Can I keep it? Cheryl: Keep what? Archer & Lana: DON'T ASK!
[The Ambassador chokes and dies] Cheryl: I'll have what he's having! Man: He's dead! [Everyone gasps and murmurs] Cheryl: Then I don't want what he's having.
Double Agent: Katya Kasanova is believed to be this by both Malory and Lana, even more so when she was seen in Doctor Krieger's research lab with his "secret project", and the KGB listed her file as double agent. As it turns out, she's not, she's merely in love with Archer, and Krieger was helping her throw a dream wedding since his would never be. Nicolai Jakov merely altered her file to read double agent as counterintelligence, and to cover his own ass with his superiors.
Reggie: Woodhouse! You came for me! Woodhouse: Course I did, sir! I'm a— Reggie: Fag? Woodhouse: [long pause] Sir? Reggie: Have you got one?Dying for a smoke.
Dramatic Drop: Archer drops a tumbler glass of Scotch when Woodhouse calls him to inform him his car's been stolen. By the time he gets down there to see for himself, he has a new glass of Scotch... which he promptly drops when he sees the car's been stolen.
Another In-Universe example is Pam comparing Lana's small fortune made on pretending to have sex with the men in the office to Schindler's List, prompting an outraged response from Lana.
Dude, He's Like, In A Coma- Cyril is smashed over the head with a bottle and knocked unconscious. Then he is given a shot of heroin and drained of a dangerous amount of blood leading both Pam and Gillette to have their way with him.
Dumbass Has a Point: Cheryl is the only person to spot the connection between $4 million dollars vanishing from the staff 401ks and Archer taking the same amount to Monte Carlo.
And the repairman in "Legs"
Ray: It's broken? Repairman: Huh? Ray: The elevator's broken? Repairman: Huh? Ray: The elevator. Repairman:*Beat*Huh? Ray: The elevator! Repairman: Outta order. Ray: I can see that! Repairman: Then why the hell did you ask? *Ray gives him a Death Glare before moving on*
Early Installment Weirdness: There are a lot more low-angle shots in the first season, which cause characters' faces to be drawn extremely differently and are very jarring.
Easy Amnesia: A Double Subversion. Krieger explains that Archer's fugue state is a difficult situation and must be handled with finesse (even citing TheFlintstones as why a simple Tap on the Head with a frying pan isn't an effective cure), yet his memory finally comes back when Lana loses patience and does just that.
Embarrassing Coverup: "Lo Scandalo": Malory kills the Italian PM in the middle of a bondage session, knowing that Archer's disgust and Lana's disapproval will distract them from suspecting her as the culprit.
Embarrassing Middle Name: Sterling Malory Archer, code name "Duchess," after his mother's deceased dog. Malory considered "Reginald," but decided that it was "too gay."
Enemy Mine: When Archer is captured by the KGB, Malory recruits Barry to rescue him as Lana can't go undercover adequately there.
Erotic Asphyxiation: Cheryl's fetish. Also that of one of Woodhouse's old war buddies.
Stripes:...Plus what he named his plane.
Woodhouse: I always thought that had something to do with the engine. Well, here's to you, Choke and Stroke!
His 16-year-old daughter, Anka, appears to be a nymphomaniac. It's a front.
The Prime Minister of Italy ends up dead in Malory's apartment, strapped into a seatless chair, wearing a zentai suit, and with something shoved up his ass. According to Malory, though, the development of this kinkiness was a drawn-out process in the relationship.
Even Evil Has Standards: Mikey seems genuinely disturbed at the notion that he's been helping replace chemotherapy meds with placebos.
In the pilot, Kremensky thinks everyone should be nicer to Pam and is disgusted as everyone else when Archer gets an erection at the thought of his mother dying.
Ray's brother may be a drug d-FARMER but damned if he's going to contribute to the obesity epidemic.
Ramon Calzado, a poacher and wanted drug trafficker, does not rape his captives and is disgusted that Archer thought he would.
In "Crossing Over", a KGB agent begs Lana to let him defect, since he's terrified of Barry, the new KGB head.
Everyone Calls Him : Doctor Krieger; his 401k◊ actually has "Doctor" instead of a first name. Then we learn that he's not a real doctor, so that must really behis first name.
Everyone Has Standards: Archer may be an utter whoremonger and slut, but he won't take advantage of Anka. And he's never sexist, nor does he hit women who aren't combat-capable. He may be hideously culturally insensitive, and assume that the bomber is "Beardsley McTurbanHead" (actually a Sikh), but if someone starts flat-out using racist slurs or starting a racist diatribe, he'll stop them with a little lecture on why racism is bad. Archer has also shown an affinity for large animals: Babou, Cheryl's ocelot, the tiger Calzado murders, and Kazak.
He's also shocked to find out that, as liberal as Lana is, she's vehemently against illegal immigration (to the point that she wants to keep the people being smuggled in locked in the van while they wait for authorities).
Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: The unaired first episode on the DVD is just the first episode with Archer replaced by a velocirapter.
Evil Cripple: Franny Delaney, The Irish Mob boss who bilks cancer patients out of their medicine and pockets the profits.
Exact Words: Archer, Pirate King, defeats a challenger using a gun. The other pirates say the challenge is meant to be hand-to-hand combat, but there is nothing in the "Pirate Orientation Guide" that explicitly forbids armed combat.
Sterling Archer shares the same sense of style and love of prostitutes as Xander Crews in Thompson and Reed's previous show Frisky Dingo. There's also the ISIS employee who's a chubby hobbit cosplayer
Jessica Walter plays an old, wealthy, overbearing mother with a drinking problem, and Judy Greer plays a Plucky Office Girl who happens to harbor a dark side, the same roles as their characters in Arrested Development. Creator Adam Reed has described the show as James Bond meets Arrested Development.
Fake-Out Make-Out: Lana to Archer when he's forgotten his identity and a KGB hitsquad is after him. The kiss starts to bring his memories back.
False Flag Operation: In "Job Offer," Malory, in a drunken fit of jealousy, issues a burn notice on Archer after he quits ISIS to work for ODIN. To save Archer from being killed by his new coworkers, Lana sends a retraction of the burn notice from a Telex in the ODIN office building. Lana's false flag is compounded, as it implies that the burn notice itself was an ODIN false flag operation designed to discredit ISIS and its best field agent.
A cardinal tries one using Camorra gunmen in "The Papal Chase", who impersonate the Swiss Guard and attempt to assassinate the Pope and frame the Swiss Guard. The cardinal, who would be almost guarenteed to be elected Pope, calls in ISIS to stop the attempt to deflect suspicion. Lana figures it out halfway through the chase, and Archer kills the gunmen.
Fan Disservice: Pam, Malory and a German chubby-chaser in a threesome.
Faux Affably Evil: Barry affects a breezy, affable personality, constantly spouting innocent cliches like, "Later, tater!" He's actually a cold-blooded and murderous psychopath bent on revenge.
Fight Clubbing: The reason Pam is able to take such a brutal beating at the hands of her kidnappers? She paid for college with her (lethal) underground fighting bouts. She also uses that experience to lay a brutal smackdown upon Malory for lowballing her ransom.
Foreshadowing: The Reveal of Lana's decision in the Season 4 finale makes a lot more sense when you take her reaction to Cheryl's Breaking Speech into consideration.
Freeze Frame Bonus: Almost every episode has at least one visual gag or joke somewhere in the background. Blink and you'll miss it.
Freudian Excuse: Archer's dysfunction is a result of growing up with a negligent and outright abusive mother, as revealed in a number of flashbacks to his traumatic childhood. She abandoned him until the age of five, then sent him off to 12*
actually, 15, or "whatever, the normal number"
straight years of boarding school. Other examples include abandoning him on Christmas Eve with no way to get home, taking all of his Halloween candy from him in a blackjack game, and giving him liquor at a young age. After several flashbacks, various characters admit that it "explains a lot" about Archer's personality.
The first episode features the dry-cleaning business reaching Archer's machine. "Leave a message at the tone. Uh... tone."
In Season 3, almost every episode (as of "Crossing Over") has at least one joke involving Archer's less than helpful answering machine.
The second episode of Season 4 had him using a airhorn, twice.
A few episodes later, he simply turns off his answering machine and doesn't answer his phone because it "drives people crazy."
Inversion: Mallory got Genre Savvy and assumed Archer, in a call, of being another of his messages leading her on before faking her out, only to be told the recordings don't call her.
Pause on pretty much any shot in the ISIS offices. especially in Krieger's lab; pay attention to the bin labels.
In "The Rock", when the Drones are discussing a strike, Cheryl says "So I say: No union!" and Krieger shouts "Yes! Confederacy forever!"
Also "Tampons! Well! I... don't know what that is."
The Cuban hit squad smiles and waves at Burt Reynolds right before opening fire in "The Man From Jupiter".
There's a few instances of Pam graffiti in various episodes, including an ASCII version on the computer behind Krieger in "The Honeypot".
In "The Honeymooners", Archer and Lana have an argument while suction-cupped to the side of a skyscraper... right in front of a pajama-clad boy watching in shock before taking a picture with a cell-phone.
ISIS stands for International Secret Intelligence Service. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of fertility, and everyone in the office Really Gets Around.
ODIN stands for Organization of Democratic Intelligence Networks. The Norse god Odin was The Spymaster. He also gave up one eye in return for incredible knowledge; Barry, one of the few ODIN agents ever seen becomes crippled and loses an eye, then gets turned into a superhuman cyborg.
Genius Ditz: Sterling is pretty incompetent in most things, but he's the best field agent there is. He's also incredibly slow on the uptake on a number of occasions, but he also displays a surprisingly hefty education, apparently coming from his years at a boarding school. In one exchange that exemplifies the dichotomy, he overhears two mooks on a space station make an Animal Farm reference. Archer knows that Animal Farm is "an allegorical novella about Stalinism by George Orwell," but thinks they were talking about an actual animal farm. On another occasion he references Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" and is surprised that no one gets it. According to Adam Reed, he's often being willfully obtuse just to see what will happen.
Doubles as a Bilingual Bonus in "Lo Scandolo" when Mallory calls the Italian Prime Minister a fucking fascist in Italian.
Mallory:(spits) Cazzo facista!
The Ghost: Brett and Popeye started out this way but eventually started making appearances. Trudy Beekman is referred to throughout the series, but appears mostly out of frame in season four, becoming He Who Must Not Be Seen. Cecil, Cheryl's brother, appears in "Sea Tunt".
Barry goes from "unstable" to "completely insane" while stuck on the international space station.
In the "Sea Tunt" two-parter, This is what happened to Murphy
Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: In-Universe: In Archer's mind, his cheating on Lana is justified because he only cheated with sexy and powerful women, whereas Cyril is just a prick for cheating since he only did it with other ISIS personnel.
Good News, Bad News: In "The Papal Chase", after being told the "Good News" aspect:
Gory Discretion Shot: The Disposing Of A Body scene in "Killing Utne," where the team pose two bodies to look like a Murder Suicide in Trudy Beakman's apartment and then torch the room. The camera spends the whole time focusing on the apartment door as we listen to the events within.
A few examples - she's got a blog filled with videos of various bits of gossip, actively films Cyril's father-issue rant, and when informed Malory might have breast cancer, we get the following exchange.
Malory: The last thing I need is this spreading like...Pam, what the hell!
Pam:*Texting the news around the office*What? I can't help it! It's like a disease! *Beat, resumes texting*
Malory:Pam!
Pam: Do you not know what disease means?! Oh... right.
ISIS (as well as ODIN, and possibly even the KGB) actually appears to operate in the free-market, without any link to the government. Since the series is vaguely in an alternate universe, it's hard to be sure— but if they were receiving any taxpayer dollars, you'd think it would have come up by now.
Pam: Can [Malory] really sell ISIS? Aren't we owned by, like, the government, or something? Cheryl: Yeah, I've never been totally clear on that.
Gratuitous French: "Jeu Monegasque". Many of the agents use it, and while Sterling knows the least, several people make fun of Lana's issues with pronunciation.
Gratuitous German: A pair of assassins is German and one episode centers around a German millionaire and his daughter, both of whom use a lot of random German words. Doesn't mean their pronunciation is spot-on, though.
Gratuitous Italian: Thrown around a lot in "Lo Scandalo", in which Malory orders the ISIS crew to help her dispose the body of the Italian prime minister (and her lover of 35 years).
Handsome Lech: Even if you're a hetero dude, you have to admit that Archer isn't exactly ugly... on the outside, at least.
Hard Head: Deconstructed. Being knocked unconscious for a whole hour? Super bad for you.
Hard Light: Relatively subtle, but the holographic avatar for Krieger's fiance is able to hold objects, and one scene indicates that Krieger can have physical sex with her.
Head-Tiltingly Kinky: In the episode "Heart of Archness", Archer has just woken up from a wild night with two nubile island girls. The room is border-line Destructo Nookie and there are hand prints everywhere, which leads him to comment:
Archer: And what position was that?!? Did the missionaries never make it down here?
Heh Heh, You Said X: One character in "Jeu Monegasque" is named Benoit. Which sounds a little too much like "Ben Wa" (balls), a sex toy. Archer points this out at every opportunity.
Her Code Name Was Mary Sue: In "Movie Star," Malory's given the script to a spy thriller for consultation purposes. She quickly sets about cutting herself in as "Malory Steel," a sexy intelligence head in her 50s, and quickly needs Cyril's help in keeping the script straight.
Heroic BSOD: At the end of "The Wind Cries Mary," after hearing his old friend Lucas Troy's deathbed confession, Archer is first squicked to primal screaming, then stunned to silence (as are Lana and Cyril). After driving awhile (14 seconds of screen-time) in the car home quietly, Archer asks for the radio to be turned on. Naturally, this is played for laughs for the audience, but all three of the characters are genuinely disturbed and/or Squicked out by it.
Heroic Sacrifice: Katya pushes both herself and an out-for-revenge Barry off of Archer's terrace to prevent Barry from choking Archer to death. Unfortunately, it's in vain as Barry survives without a scratch due to his new cybernetic implants. And Krieger's van is crushed as well.
Archer makes one of these for Lana in the last episode of season 4.
Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Archer. Malory didn't even appear in his life from birth through age 5. It went downhill from there. To wit...
Malory: 'cause he'll be back! Crying for his mommy! Just like that Christmas break when I moved and forgot to give my new address to his stupid boarding school. I mean, he rode the train into the city all by himself, he couldn't pick up a phone book? 9-years old and bawling in that police station like a little girl! Huh - what's that tell you?
In a flashback Woodhouse reads a telegram to a young Sterling, saying: "Ajax a Success! Tehran is ours! Merry X-mas from Mommy and Uncle Kermit." Operation Ajax was the 1953 CIA backed coup to restore the Shah to power in Iran, headed by CIA agent Kermit Roosevelt.
Likewise, Malory was involved in Operation Gladio, which allegedly did turn into a crypto-fascist shitshow. "Thanks, Holly Hindsight."
Malory makes a passing reference to Operation Paperclip when Cyril is confronting her about Krieger being a Nazi.
Jakov's office is heavily modeled on Hitler's study, while the funeral for Archer's "father" is based on President Kennedy's funeral, with Malory as Jackie Kennedy and Archer as JFK Jr.
Homoerotic Subtext: Archer and his old friend Lucas Troy, who even participated in naked locker room wrestling, but they're just friends.Except for Lucas, as he's exclusively gay for Archer.
Honey Pot: Archer loves the Honey Pot. Except when he has to portray a homosexual man.
Identity Amnesia: Archer at the beginning of season 4, apparently induced by the shock of his mother getting remarried. In a massive dose of Actor Allusion, his new identity and family are lifted entirely from Benjamin's character in Bobs Burgers.
Ray may be gay, but he's still willing to have sex with Lana. As he puts it, "Nobody's that gay."
Everyone jokes that Archer and his best friend, Lucas, are totally gay for each other despite being womanizers. It isn't true for Archer, but it is for Lucas.
I Love the Dead: Krieger is briefly shown groping the breasts of a dead and naked Katya. He lamely insists after the fact that she wasn't completely dead.
I'm a Humanitarian: When a party conversation casually turns to cannibalism, Woodhouse mentions that African tribes call it "long pig" and that he "never cared for it."
The Soviet soldiers in "Whiteout" can't hit anything, to the frustration of their commanding officer. Archer Lampshades this.
Jeez, these guys cannot hit anything.
In "The Wind Cries Mary," Lana is ridiculed by Lucas for her "spray and pray" shooting technique (plus only carrying two magazines), where both he and Archer comment she must be fighting an Ent the way she was attacking a tree Lucas was using for cover.
Improbably Cool Car: For whatever reason, all taxis in New York seem to be 1962 Mercedes 300SE (W112) instead of the ubiquitous Checker A11 (Mercedes wasn't near as popular then as it is now, and luxury cars are rarely used as taxis); 1970 GAZ 24 Volgas show up, most prominintly in "Drift Problem" (the car Archer throws out of the parking garage with his new spy car), despite Soviet cars (even luxury ones like the Volga) being extremely rare in the US in the '60s and '70s; and, despite it not being a car or necessarily cool, the buses are the unmistakeable Czechoslovakian three door 1966 Karos SM 11s, instead of GM/Flxible New Look, or even Old Look buses.
I Never Said It Was Poison: Archer pulls this on himself in the third season premiere, voluntarily denying that he works for ISIS.
Incessant Music Madness: In "Sea Tunt," Cheryl seems to be able to hear music cues in the episode's score, and it's driving her more insane than usual. She incorrectly credits the music to John Williams, and her deteriorating mental health is a major episode plot point, so it's unclear wether or not she's actually hearing the same soundtrack the audience is.
Averted for most of the main characters, who are based on Atlanta-area models. Malory and Len Trexler both resemble their voice actors, however. Lana Kane was drawn designed before the casting of voice actress Aisha Tyler, and their resemblance is a coincidence. The Season 2 DVD extra "L'Espion Mal Fait" ("The Badly Made Spy") shows what would happen if Archer had a horrible accident and the doctors clumsily rebuilt him... looking like H. Jon Benjamin.
Tiffy in "Sea Tunt" is a dead ringer for her voice, Kristen Schaal.
An interesting cast variant: Lucky Yates, the voice actor for Krieger, is also the character model for Ray.
Malory: Just turn off the mainframe. Lana:(holds up an unplugged power cord) Yeah, we tried that. Malory: Then how is it still on? Krieger: Because the worm has turned the mainframe...into a sentient being. (dramatic musical sting) Malory: What? Krieger: I'm kidding. There's a battery backup.
Archer: Who puts Oxycontin in a Xanax bottle? Malory: People with servants, idiot! Archer: But if they're stealing pills, how does it help to switch the labels? Malory: Because they can't read English! Archer:(laughing) OK, I'm gonna leave you to think about that whole line of reasoning.
Insecurity System: ISIS headquarters has roof access with an unlocked door.
Archer: Wow...our security actually kind of sucks.
Not to mention the password for all computer systems being "Guest".
Cheryl/Carol is also extremely turned-on by Archer slapping her, which he finds "super creepy". But to be fair, emotional abuse turns her on as well. Which he finds somehow creepier.
There's a Running Gag of showing flashbacks in which Archer and Lana are interrupted by a phone call from Malory.
Lana:Wanna do it again and put on some interracial porn?
(...phone rings)
Lana: No, baby don't answer it.
Archer: I have to, sorry, it's Mother...Turn it on, I can do both. (beat) What?
In The Local Tongue: The yakuza drift racers call Pam 'Shiro Kabocha' and tell her it means 'white shadow,' when it really translates to 'white pumpkin'
Invention Pretension: Archer claims to have invented turtlenecks. When pressed he claims to have simply popularized them as tactical dress for covert missions, but when distracted, drunk, or being drained of a liter of blood, he more passionately claims to have invented them.
Inventor Of The Mundane: Archer claims his mother is a millionaire for inventing splashless urinal cakes to entice some pirates.
The ending of "Space Race" has: "Welcome to the... danger zone." It's not a real echo, but Archer was trying to goad Commander Drake into saying it earlier in the episode.
It Is Pronounced Tro Pay: "Bloody Ferlin" reveals that Ray Gillette's name is pronounced "gillet" with a hard "g" by everyone else in his family.
It's a Long Story: Invoked and subverted with Archer's switchblade. He says it's a long story, then flashes back to him seeing it in a hardware store and deciding to buy it, then cuts back to him admitting it isn't a long story.
Malory "For god's sake, Sterling, she's turning seventeen! Archer "Oh, ew, sorry." Lana "Even for you, Archer." Archer "Come on, she doesn't look like she's turning seventeen." Lana "No, she looks like she's turning eighteen." Archer "Exactly! Plus, the Europeans use the metric system, so..."
Jail Bait Wait: Hinted at by Archer at the end of "Swiss Miss".
The Jeeves: Woodhouse. The name may be a reference to author P. G. Wodehouse, the creator of the original Jeeves character.
Jerkass: Archer's unrepentant asshole behavior is mostly what sells the show. It's been heavily implied that his jerkass personality is the result of growing up with a neglectful, jet-setting whore for a mother.
In "Double Deuce", it turns out that the murderer hunting Woodhouse was completely innocent and everyone was dying due to accidents and simply had misleading obituaries. When Archer kills the murderer, Woodhouse flips out at him, but from Archer's perspective (he had no idea that the murderer was innocent and it was all a coincidence) and that when he returned the murderer was right there pointing a Webley revolver in Woodhouse's face (to show him the bore was unpitted), Archer reacted exactly like a trained spy and assassin would. While wrong in hindsight, Archer's actions were perfectly justified considering what he knew at the time...well, all except for the baby-throwing.
In "Sea Tunt," while it is eventually revealed that Cecil wants to have Cheryl committed to get his hands on her half of the family inheritance for entirely selfish reasons, Cheryl has demonstrated on multiple occasions, including in that episode, that she is violently unstable and probably should have been permanently committed a long time ago.
Karma Houdini: Several villains over the course of the show get away scot-free thanks to the incompetence of the ISIS agents. Most of the ISIS agents themselves qualify as well, as does Malory.
Kavorka Man: Cyril is revealed to be a sex addict and can't stop sleeping with a series of different women. Supposedly because Bigger Is Better In Bed. Even Krieger's virtual fiance seems to come onto him.
Kinda Busy Here: All the time, to the point of being a Running Gag. Especially given the agents' choice in ringtones.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: Archer appears to have shades of this, judging by his concern for Babou the ocelot, as well as his surprising empathy for a Bengal Tiger. He later gets Babou as a pet, but is unprepared for its high maintenance.
Kiss Me, I'm Virtual: Krieger's virtual girlfriend, who is "so real the state of New York is allowing him to legally marry her."
Klingon Promotion: Archer becomes the new captain of a group of Pirates after killing their current captain.
Knight Templar: The Big Bad of the "Space Race" 2-parter, who wants to force Lana to be a birthmother for a new Martian colony.
In "Honeypot", after Ramon blows up the condo with a Claymore:
Ramon: It looks like they escaped... as implausible as that may seem. Archer: That does seem implausible.
In an episode centered on their troubled relationship. Cyril and Lana stop bickering and work together to push a bomb off their rigid airship, then embrace and exclaim, "We made it! We made it, baby!" as the airship soars. In the background, Archer proclaims, "Hooray for metaphors!"
Everyone except Malory (who uses either his first name, or Full Name Ultimatum) refers to Archer by his last name.
Almost everyone refers to Krieger by his last name. His first name is only revealed in Archer's book How to Archer as Algernop, complete with footnote that it is "not misspelled."
Little Stowaway: Adult version (well... Man Child version); Pam and Cheryl stow away on a space flight, largely as an excuse to put the comic relief characters in the episode even though it's implausible enough that the main cast are there...
Archer:Do you get it? Because I swear to god, I will strip back down and show you all over again- Pharmacist: Yeah I get it, I get it! You have a lot of guns! Archer: And a knife!
Love Dodecahedron: Not just one, but two; one with the ISIS staff and most minor characters, and another with Malory, all of Archer's possible fathers and pretty much any man.
Mad Scientist: Krieger, the head of ISIS' research department who was engaged to a hologram and has a penchant for creating sex robots and genetic mutants.
Macho Disaster Expedition: The mission in Turkmenistan in "Once Bitten;" since Lana can't go undercover in No Woman's Land, Cyril, Ray and Archer are sent, and manage to screw up in pretty much every way imaginable.
Archer has taken everything from shots to the foot, leg, and chest, drilled through his brain, and even suffered through limb-shattering car accidents. Not only is the recovery near-instant (i.e. by the next episode), but he seems to have insanely high thresholds of pain, speaking with nonchalance despite growing blood loss and trauma. Taken to the extreme in "Dial M for Mother" where he takes 6 .44 rounds to the chest, and only minutes later (with no medical treatment) is casually complimenting the shooter on their tight grouping. He also willfully drinks scotch with shards of glass in it with complete disregard.
Averted with Brett, who has been shot four times. He is seen walking with a cane, and Malory derisively calls him a 'Mr. Blood Mobile.' Since "Drift Problem", he now seems to recognize his role in the show.
Man Child: Sterling is a beacon of immaturity. Summed up pretty well by Lana.
Lana: Can not picture him as a baby, y'know? I just see an adult him but tiny - like a little Archer G.I. Joe.
Manipulative Editing: Archer pulls this trick on Barry to convince Katya that he's cheating on her. It doesn't work since Katya was deceiving Archer all along.
Manly Gay: Gillette's high school bully in West Virginia turns out to be gay, while also being a hard-nosed sheriff.
Archer: (takes picture of wires with phone) Hey, which one of these— Ray: Blue and yellow. Archer: You wanna look at it for more than half a second? Ray: I wired the damn thing, ass! [...] Ray: [Archer cuts the wires] Oh my God. Archer: What? Ray: I lied. I didn't wire it.
Mini Mecha: The spaceship has a yellow Power Loader exactly like the one from Aliens on board.
Woodhouse: And this is Sterling Archer, my... Stinky: None of my business. Consenting adults and all that. Archer: Wha...hey! No one's consenting to anything! Stinky: None of my business.
Mood Whiplash: In "Crossing Over", Jakov is killed by Barry and it's completely Archer's fault for ditching his bodyguard duties to have great sex. Well, not that great, as Pam takes the time to point out.
Mugged for Disguise: Archer does this to a member of Skorpio's yacht crew in one episode. A crew of South American terrorists do this to some hotel staffers in another.
Archer's origins are left deliberately vague. Archer is stated to have been born in Morocco while Malory was running from Nazi spies (around 1938-41), one of his possible fathers was an Italian executed by Fascist Italy for speaking out against the government, and is is shown to be about six or seven when World War II ended. He's also shown listening to Woodhouse read a telegram from Malory about Operation Ajax in 1953, which would make him 15, but he looks younger than that, and "Once Bitten" states he was six when Malory was involved in the CIA-backed Guatamalan coup d'état, which took place in 1954, which would place Archer's birthdate in 1948. One possible explaination is an Alternate History.
Woodhouse has one as well, at one point mentioning he served in Africa with the King's Rifles in season one, then revealing he was a Lance-Corporal in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War.
Mundane Made Awesome: All of the superspies are very impressed by Ron's successful line of Cadillac dealerships.
Mushroom Samba: Pam, Cheryl and Ray take some of Krieger's special "herbal cleanse" to pass a drug test. They start hallucinating, with Pam seeing Ray as a Decepticon, Ray seeing Pam melt, and Cheryl seeing the bathroom floor turn to lava.
My Beloved Smother: Archer's mother Malory. When a bad guy takes Malory hostage in the pilot and taunts him about how he's going to murder her, Archer immediately gets an erection ("Just half of one! The other half would have... really missed you.") and the taunt backfires. He later bonds with a Cuban target over their shared hatred of their Smothers.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Archer called Cheryl "Carol" so many times that she legally changed it just so he would be right. This led to a running gag where she would change her name every episode until the writers presumably got tired of it. For awhile the joke was that she had changed it so many times she forgot what it was, and now it's back to Archer calling her Carol instead of Cheryl.
The exclamation "Cheesey Petes!" is used by various characters, but usually Cyril.
Also the appearance of an underwater lab captain named Murphy in "Sea Tunt, Part 1."
Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Archer's name is evoked in this fashion by a lot of the bad guys on the show. Admittedly, this is not helped by the fact that Archer doesn't get the idea of anonymity as a spy.
Never a Self-Made Woman: Inverted. It's said Sterling relies on his mother for employment. Played straight in "Blood Test," when the revelation that Archer might have a kid leads Pam and Cheryl to start needling Lana.
Never Found the Body: Charles and Rudy, the Camp Gay interor decorator and hairdresser/assassins for hire of "Honey Pot", disappear after Archer detonates a Claymore feet from them. Naturally, discussed and lampshaded.
Archer: "Wait, where'd they go?"
Ramon: "It seems they escaped, however implausible that may be."
Archer: "That is implausible."
Nightmare Fetishist: Cheryl has a death fetish and fantasizes about men strangling her to death. She insists that her lovers choke her during sex.
Archer: I'm just going to say it, I think it's super creepy you get sexually aroused by physical violence.
No Hero to His Valet: Archer is a pretty big asshole to just about everyone, but he gets absolutely sadistic to Woodhouse, whom he treats like an abused pet. In his Character Blog, he explains the difference between a butler and a valet: "A valet will shave you anywhere.
Brett decided it would be funny to mock Archer for possibly having breast cancer. Archer promptly beats him 6 shades of senseless.
Implied with Pam and Malory in "El Secuestro".
Cyril actually hauls off and punches Archer in "Coyote Lovely"... this does not end well for him.
No Indoor Voice: Just about every character will scream in any given scene. Lana and Archer are particular examples, especially Archer's "Lana... Lana... LANA!" gag.
Non-Action Guy: Cyril, Krieger, Cheryl and Pam don't really have any combat skills, though they can go crazy occasionally. Pam is ultimately revealed to be a Hidden Badass and occasionally demonstrates feats of impressive strength as well.
Non-Idle Rich: Surprisingly, Cheryl, who works a day job despite being richer than Croesus (though it is in a trust fund controlled by her brother). In some episodes after the reveal, she seems to be a bit fuzzy on the whole concept of money. At one point when being kept waiting she sarcastically asks if she's paid by the hour, then when Cyril points out that given her job she actually might be, it seems she doesn't really know.
Lana describing "that thing with the mayonnaise" as one of the reasons she dumped Archer.
Archer's conception is tied to four noodle incidents Scenario A: potential dad Len Drexler, a hotel in Berlin, and Malory Archer doing something so shocking that she got thrown out of the hotel. Scenario B: potential dad Nikolai Jakov, the legendary "Bridge of Spies" in Berlin, and something that caused Malory to flee Berlin and unable to contact Nikolai for the entire nine months she was pregnant. Scenario C: possible dad Buddy Rich having sex with Malory, though she has since stated that this is unlikely. Scenario D: Malory mentions that an unnamed man who may have been Archer's father was killed by Italian fascists shortly post-World War II as part of Operation Gladio, with no details given as to his death or connection to Malory.
In "Job Offer," we see Barry and Lana in a situation involving the two being put on top of each other buck naked (with Barry sexually penetrating Lana in the process) while being threatened with a laser beam.
Pam's vacation to Jamaica in season two; she comes back with a tan and rasta gear/pot which she openly smokes and comments about being deported back to the US for some unstated reason.
An undisclosed series of incidents involving the abuse of an undisclosed office perk that Malory threatens to lock up so no one can partake of it, in episode 103. This might be a Running Gag based on Krieger having sex with the food in the fridge, as revealed in the first episode and obliquely referenced throughout the first season.
Both Malory and Lana, in separate incidents, had to kill a man in Tunisia for some reason, apparently as part of their first assignment with ISIS.
The "Popeye incident," mentioned in "Job Offer" resulted in Archer having to install a bulletproof door.
Gillette has revealed to have had a rather rough patch in his life, where among other things, he tried to renounce his homosexuality via joining a religious group designed to deprogram homosexuals and was paired up with a fellow reformed lesbian, with whom he had a 2-year marriage. He's also a disgraced former minister, but still licensed by the state of New York to perform marriages
Deconstructed with Malory wearing an eye patch the first time she met her son after shipping him off to the US with Woodhouse (who raised Archer); Malory comments that she doesn't remember why she had the eye patch on. Becomes sort of a Running Gag in flashbacks.
Cheryl successfully pled insanity and was committed to a mental asylum. She has also been in an asylum with total amnesia under somebody else's name; it's not clear whether these were the same incident.
Fourth of Ju-Luau - we know it involved a pig, and a drunk, scratched-up Archer naked on top of it.
Also from "Sea Tunt": Cheryl thought she was a werewolf for 6 months, and she also did something to make Malory ban scissors from ISIS.
Not So Different: When protecting an underage German heiress, she and Archer have a conversation about how her father never really cared about her, sending her to boarding schools, different camps and so on. And that she acts out to get attention, and how she's insecure and doesn't have any friends, so she overcompensates and comes off as arrogant.
Archer "Yeah, I get it, Anka! Anka "You know, I think you and I are a lot alike, Archer." Archer "I don't do that!"
Not So Imaginary Friend: Archer plays off the prostitute he hires as his date at the dinner party for Utne to be this.
Lana: What does she drive, a Snuffleupagus?
Not That Kind of Doctor: When they need someone who can do brain surgery, Cyril points out Krieger isn't a medical doctor.
Cyril: "But we'd need a doctor!" Cheryl: "So? Krieger's a doctor." Cyril: "Not the medical kind!" Krieger: "Not even the other kind, technically."
Not What It Looks Like: Pretty much the whole plot of the season 2 premiere "Swiss Miss." And it actually wasn't what it looked like - even Archer has some standards.
Number Two: Each of the leaders of the three big spy organizations (KGB, ISIS, ODIN) have one of these. Len Trexler of ODIN has Barry Dylan, Major Jakov of the KGB has Boris (who ends up working for Barry when he usurps Jakov's position, and then for Katya when she does the same to Barry) and who plays off his Straight Man, and Mallory has Archer, her best agent.
O-S
Obfuscating Stupidity: Rona Thorne. While she really is a kind of energetic, easily distracted person, she successfully hides the fact that she is a deadly markswomman and skilled assassin behind the veneer of an air-headed Hollywood actress.
Minor example in 'Lo Scandalo' when Malory is talking to the detective.
O Positive: In "Heart of Archness" pt.3, Ray is seriously wounded and needs a blood transfusion, but he's O Positive, Lana, Rip Riley, and Bucky are all A Negative, and Archer doesn't know his blood type. Fortunately, Noah is also O Positive.
Oh Crap: Literally, in "Honeypot" when Archer plants a claymore mine in front of the previously-confident assassins.
Archer knows Portuguese and some Russian, but not Spanish (a Running Gag he shares with fellow spy Michael Westen).
Lana is conversant in French and Italian.
Cyril is fluent in Spanish and German.
Pam is conversant in Japanese. She manages to learn fluent Italian from tapes in the course of an 8-hour flight, but not Romansh.note "Who am I, Cypher? The gayestX-Man?"
Cyril, in 'Tragical History', following his Exactly What I Aimed At moment. It works as a threat, but he's subsequently surprised to find out the gun was actually empty.
Malory in the season 2 finale. Archer convinces her not to shoot Katya with it. When she does use it against cyborg-Barry it has no effect.
Subverted in 'Heart of Archness: Part III'
Bucky: But I shoot gun many times and in all excitement I lose track myself huh? So now you thinking did he fire eight shots or only...?
Played straight in "Sea Tunt" when Lana adamantly refuses Archer's recommendation that she drink her nausea away, though it isn't apparent she is pregnant until later.
Krieger does the Babe reference, but with a slightly different spin; "That'll do, Pigly. That. will. do."
Barry gives one to himself; "Hey Barry, is that how you get ants? Yes it is, other Barry, yes it is."
One of Us: In spite of spending most of his time drinking, whoring and killing, Archer has a surprisingly detailed pop culture reference pool that includes some pretty geeky topics. Few others seem to share his interests, and he's always getting annoyed when no one else gets his references. He still looks down on The Lord of the Rings, despite knowing what an Entmoot is.
Only Sane Employee: Lana, though a couple of episodes in season four gave the trope something of a deconstruction. Various characters wonder aloud why she stays at ISIS if she thinks she's too good for it, and point out that it's quite an irritating attitude for everyone else to deal with (not that that makes it any less accurate...) Archer also snaps that for an agent so much more competent than him, she certainly needs him to save her life surprisingly often (albeit generally from situations caused by his own stupidity).
OOC Is Serious Business: In "Double Trouble", Lana brings this up as evidence that Archer may have turned on ISIS.
Ray: (to Malory) For God's sake, woman, are you hearing yourself? He's your son, not a-
Archer: "Wow, that was impressive! Not many women can bring me to orgasm with my mother in the room. (beat) I would think."
Overly Long Gag: Twice in "Live and Let Dine," Archer drops a metal bowl on the floor and Casteau just silently Death Glares at him while it slowly and noisily wobbles to a stop. Each instance lasts about 10 seconds.
This seems to be popular for Season 4, as Pam spends a full 20 seconds of "The Honeymooners" humping her sandwich to bug Cyril, accompanied by appropriate sound-effects.
Overt Operative: Maybe Archer'd have less of a problem with villains revealing that they know that he is "Sterling Archer of ISIS" if he stopped using it as a pickup line at bars and parties. His El Camino's license plate reads "SPY GUY."
Malory: Most secret agents don't go around telling every harlot from here to Hanoi that they are secret agents!
Sterling: ...then why be one?
Out of Order: "Coyote Lovely" was supposed to air second in production order, but it instead aired half way through the season. Fortunately, the only notable reference to this episode before it aired was in "Once Bitten", where Krieger made a passing reference to Bilbo's death. Well, that and the nerve gas in the ventilation system.
"Shut up! It's not diegetic!"
Parent with New Paramour: Archer has issues with this a couple of times; first as a Broken Pedestal when his mother dates his hero Burt Reynolds, and later when she marries Cadillac dealer Ron. He eventually bonds with both of them.
The Password Is Always Swordfish: The password is always "guest." The ISIS security mainframe Cyril's Swiss bank account both use it. Archer lampshades how stupid this is.
Archer displays an unprecedented (for him) level of empathy in the climactic scene of "Placebo Effect." He starts off his Roaring Rampage of Revenge against cancer drug counterfeiters for typically self-centered reasons, not the least of which was recording his own revenge flick. He forms an Unlikely Friendship with an old lady and fellow cancer patient named Ruth along the way. He's nicer to her than he usually is to anyone else, even though he claims that every scene they share he's only running into her by coincidence while pursuing his own interests. Until the very end of the episode, when Archer is shown sitting by Ruth's bedside shortly before her death, for no other reason than to talk with her, as she tells him that watching Regis every morning helps get her through the days of cancer. When he finally catches up to Franny Delaney, the head of the Irish Mob and the mastermind of the cancer treatment counterfeiting, what's his response to Delaney's Breaking Speech? "Did you watch Regis this morning?"
Archer is something of an animal lover. He takes an instant liking to Babou the ocelot and he apparently adopts him. In "Un Chien Tangerine," he befriends Kazak, a giant dog. Lana asks him why he didn't become a vet insteas of a spy, and he says it was simply a matter of grades.
Phone Trace Race: In the episode where Pam gets kidnapped, ISIS tries to trace the call from the kidnappers. When Archer asks how long it will take, Gillette tells him two minutes. Archer points out that this seems like an unusually long time for a super-spy agency. Gillette chalks it up to budget cuts due to Malory buying an expensive table.
Malory: Lana is going. Lana: [at Archer] Ha! Malory: And Pam? If you keep your eyes open and your big mouth shut, you just might learn something from her. Pam: [at Archer] Ha! Archer: Why are you going "Ha!"? Pam: I don't know. What're we doing? Lana: I'll tell you what we should be doing: who does the Pope remind you of? Malory: [seeing resemblance] Ha! Archer: What? Lana: Ha! Archer: Shut up! And also, you shut up! Woodhouse: Yes sir. Pam: HAAAAAAA! Archer: Why're you still going "Ha!"?!
Ping Pong Naïveté: While Archer is usually a Bunny-Ears Lawyer who's able to deal with spy work competently while being a complete moron in every other area, sometimes the stupidity bleeds into his work for the sake of the Rule of Funny; for example, completely missing a parachute dropzone only to land in the wrong country.
Cheryl as well. For example, in the second episode, she has no idea idea what a deductible is, mistaking it for a tax deduction, but in season three, she mentions Archer gave her chlamydia while they were dating, before the series started, and it put her over her insurance deductible and made the rest of her visits to the doctor that year free.
Pop Cultural Osmosis Failure: A source of friction between Archer and Ron, the former being amazed at what Ron hasn't seen and the latter being annoyed at Archer's Reference Overdosed way of speaking.
Punctuated Pounding: When a co-worker mocks Sterling's breast cancer. "I'm trying! To stay positive! Both mentally! And spiritually!"
Also in "Heart of Archness part III", with Sterling repeatedly punching a pirate in the face while complaining that he just. Wanted. To mourn. His fiancèe. By becoming. A pirate king!
Nikolai "Major" Jakov of the KGB. He wears a lieutenant general's insignia, but everyone calls him "Major."
Fister Roboto.
Pyro Maniac: Cheryl mentioned watching a building burn down in "Stage Two", was seen lighting a dumpster on fire in "El Secuestro", and took delight in burning the corpses of Torvald Utne and Elke Hubsch in "Killing Utne".
Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted. Characters routinely talk over one another, leave gaps, talk with, like, filler words, and stumble over forgotten one liners.
Archer: Oh my God. This is going to be aaAH SHIT! *Gun gets ripped out of his hands by the wind* Aah! The dust! It's like being shot in the eyes by a... glitter gun!
Really Gets Around: The entire cast. Archer has a lot of sex throughout the show. He likely picked up his promiscuity from Malory, given how many candidates for his father there are. Cheryl, Pam, and Cyril are not far behind. Basically Everybody Has Lots of Sex. Even Krieger has opportunities to indulge his many unspeakable fetishes.
Cheryl: Please, if you really cared, you'd resign, but there's no way you ever will, because you're just counting the days until, her face bloated and yellow from liver failure, she calls you to her death bed and, in a croaky whisper, explains that Mr. Archer is totally incompetent and that you, the long-suffering Lana Kane, are the only one qualified to run ISIS and you weep shameful tears because you know this terrible place is the only true love you will ever know.
Woodhouse won the Victoria Cross and apparently scalped enough Germans to make a blanket.
Malory, who was once a decorated international spy and assassin. In present day, she still retains her skill at marksmanship.
In "Midnight Ron", Ron Cadillac is revealed to have a past as the leader of an illegal chop shop, who's been secretly skimming off the profits of his Cadillac dealership to pay his imprisoned former comrades' hush money.
Retro Universe: The show is set in an indeterminate time period that has aspects of the 60's through the present day. Characters often make references to modern and historic events as if they are current, making it impossible to determine when the show takes place.
Woodhouse had one one for Reggie, his wartime buddy.
Archer himself goes on one to take down the makers of counterfeit cancer medication. He even makes sure to say "rampaaage!" a lot.
Lana: Wait, you're just gonna leave him with a grenade stuck up his ass? Archer: Yes Lana, I'm on a rampage!
Barry goes on one after Archer sodomizes his girlfriend, and drops him off of a balcony three times. Archer's true love sacrifices herself to save Archer, but Barry survives, since he's a Cyborg. He goes on another one in season 3 which ends with him killing Jakov and running off with Katya. He goes to the international space station to kill Archer but gets trapped there.
Robosexual: Dr. Krieger built a sexbot named "Fister Roboto", a "choke-bot", and a virtual girlfriend so realistic that the state of New York is allowing him to legally marry her.
Archer constantly says "Danger Zone!" to Lana when they're talking about their relationship.
In the first few episodes, Cheryl constantly changes her name. Closed captioning even shows her name as Cheryl/Carol. However, she stays Cheryl by the second season.
Malory saying, "Two weeks later, I was in Tunisia, killing a man." Lana later riffs on it by saying, "Two weeks later, I was in Tunisia, killing a different man."
Characters describing things Malory or Sterling do as "classic her/him".
Characters getting caught having sex, with a background character offering a polite, "Hello!"
Lana's large stature and giant hands.
The office-wide usage of, "This is why we can't have nice things!"
"I can't." "Can't, or won't?" "...Either?"
The ISIS carpets being filthy, prompting, "And that's how you get ants!"
"Hostile work environment!"
Archer being Sarcasm-Blind, agreeing with a sarcastic statement by saying, "Right?" He'll also respond to "And I suppose that makes it better!" with "...doesn't it?"
Blaming Scatterbrain Jane for everything.
Archer being shot. He states that he's been shot 19 times by season four.
Archer flubbing his Bond One-Liner. "...dammit, I had something for this!" Sometimes another character will supply the quip, to his consternation.
Mocking Barry for his bad leg, pre-transformation.
Cell phones ringing during sensitive top secret missions, complete with loud obnoxious ring tones.
"... or whom?"
Brett getting hit with every stray or ricocheting gunshot.
"Also, yes."
Barry having a conversation with himself, whom he calls Other Barry.
The password for any computer security system being 'Guest'.
"YUP!" and "NOPE!"
"Lana? Lana. Lana! LANAAAAAAA!!!" "WHAT?!"
Certain agents temporarily going deaf from guns being fired off near them or being close to an an explosion. Lana mentions going to an ear specialist in one episode and Archer develops tinnitus.
Archer's overly-elaborate voicemail pranks in Season Three. In one episode he has to state the time and date before anyone will believe that it's not a recording. By season four, he's switched to blasting an air horn into the phone, then finally turning off his voicemail and not answering.
Whenever Lana winds up in her lingerie, someone points out that they are Fiacci knockoffs.
A dramatic reveal occurs, causing everyone to wonder how the hell a character learned that information, at which point we get a cut to Dr. Krieger.
Someone comments on something disgusting, with Krieger commenting, "Me too!" in the background.
Archer wearing his night-vision goggles, when the lights suddenly turn on. Lampshaded in one episode when he exclaims, "Why do I keep DOING THAT?!"
Archer blowing the cover of other ISIS agents in "Diversity Hire" through a few drunken phone calls... and one just asking if he was "going to that lame ISIS picnic".
Phones (cell and landlines) are destroyed with alarming frequency.
Archer trying to shoot something secure and/or bulletproof, only for a stray bullet to maim someone.
"Yeah, so it's gonna sound like I'm hanging up, buuut..." [hangs up]
In Season 4's "Viscous Coupling", the "Fisherman's Wife" and its various spin-offs seem inordinately popular among Isis staff.
"I can't hear you over the sound of me [doing something]!"
Characters narrating their statements. "_______, he said ______ingly."
"...Promise you won't get mad?"
Ruthless Modern Pirates: Rip Riley and Archer are kidnapped by a group of pirates in the season three premiere.
Sadist Show: Just about everyone in this show is a sociopath. Even poor buttmonkey Woodhouse once dabbled in cannibalism and was the one who actually shot William S. Burroughs's wife in the head as part of a bet for drugs Gone Horribly Wrong.
Savage Setpiece: When Pam gets kidnapped in Cheryl's place, we find out she paid for college as an underground bareknuckle boxer. By the end of the episode, even Lana doesn't want to fight her.
Say My Name: Archer to Barry after the latter kills Katya
Secretly Wealthy: Turns out that Cheryl is worth almost $500 million now that her parents are dead. She still won't pay back Cyril the $3,200 she owes him because she physically burned the money, so she "doesn't have it anymore."
Sensual Slavs: Archer's ex-KGB girlfriend. She survives for all of two episodes, but is later brought back as a cyborg.
Ship Sinking: Lana/Cyril are deepsixed in the last two episodes of season one, then get back together in season four... only to have things strained again by the Season Finale due to Lana's pregnancy by someone other than Cyril. However, he hasn't learned yet that she went to a clinic and used a sperm donor for it, rather than actually cheating on him.
Woodhouse seems to have this for Reggie Thistleton. In "Honey Pot," Charles and Rudy make a remark about Woodhouse not being gay, and he corrects them not by saying he is gay but by mentioning Reggie Thistleton. He elaborates on his relationship with Reggie in "Double Deuce," including his death on the battlefield. The only other indication of any kind of love/sex life at all is in that same episode when he's in bed with two women on a drug running ship...and he's openly pining for Reggie. He then delivers Archer and becomes his butler-for-life.
Another example comes up in Season 4, with Lucas Troy, who has sex with women constantly but falls in love with Archer, to the point that he kills fellow agents to sell uranium on the black market so they can establish a non-spy life together.
Smoke Out: Parodied in "Space Race" — Krieger escapes from an awkward situation by suddenly yelling "SMOKEBOMB!" and running away while everyone's stunned into silence.
Smurfing: In a parody of the former Turkmen president's real life renaming of various things after members of his own family, the Turkmen words for 'bread', 'Friday', 'snake' and various other things are all "gerpgork", after the leader's dog.
Stating the Simple Solution: Ray in "Skytanic," when Archer manages to speed up the timer on the bomb. When asked what to do, he replies "I don't know, throw it off the blimp?"
Archer: How could she pick Lana over me? Woodhouse: The mind fairly boggles. Archer: Was that sarcasm? Woodhouse: No, sir. Archer: Good, because your opinion matters. And in case you aren't clear on the concept, that was sarcasm. Woodhouse: Well played! Archer: Thank you. (long pause) Thank you.
Suspect Is Hatless: In "Coyote Lovely" while looking for the station wagon (a 1973 Chevy Bel Air) via satalite, the only information Malory can seemingly give to Bilbo is that it's a station wagon and is in Texas. Bilbo then pulls up images of random wagons in Texas, and snarkily asks if each is the right car.
"With the old toilets, you could flush a Dachshund puppy. I mean, not that you would, but..."
"I'm not a... serial killer."
T-Z
Tag Along Actor: One shadows Lana who turns out to be a Russian sleeper agent.
Tap on the Head: Averted in "White Nights". Archer knocks Ray out with a punch, and then comments that he should see a neurologist, because getting knocked unconscious is really unhealthly. The next scene, Ray tells ISIS that he got knocked out, and Lana tells him he should see a neurologist. He already has an appointment.
Take That: "Karate? The Dane Cook of martial arts? No."
Krieger: His mind-brain is permanently rejecting his real identity!
Cyril: Mind-brain?
Krieger: That's a thing, shut up.
The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Archer starts leaving prank messages on his phone using his voicemail, making people think he's actually talking to them with elaborate messages before revealing its just a recording. This eventually backfires on him in Season Four, when he actually does answer his phone while bleeding to death and being patched up by a drunk doctor without anesthesia. Mallory just passes it off as Archer reaching a new high in his voicemail pranks.
This nearly bit him in Season 3, until he pointed out that his voicemail couldn't call her.
Wheelchair-bound Gillette was faking the whole thing. The first time around. He second time sticks for a while longer, but Krieger eventually gives him bionic legs.
Tontine: The plot of "Double Deuce" revolves around this, as Woodhouse is one of the last three surviving members of one and other members die mysteriously As it turns out, the whole thing was a Red Herring, as the supposed bad guy didn't care about it and the "suspicious" deaths were mundane. Pam starts a tontine at the office as well, since active agents can get killed in the line of duty and the control room "Is one big asbestos lawsuit waiting to happen".
Too Dumb to Live: Pam in "Sea Tunt, Part 1"; despite being told the vegan seafood buffet contains soy, Pam simply mentions she's highly allergic to soy products and continues gorging on it until she slips into anaphylactic shock and nearly chokes to death.
Too Kinky to Torture: Cheryl, who is turned on by the thought of being murdered and becomes a hardcore masochist in later seasons. When people slap or emotionally abuse her, she keeps asking for more.
Archer: Thanks a lot, blabber-mouth!
Cheryl: She beat it out of me! *Sexy growl*
This showed up earliest in Season 2, particularly this exchange after Lana's just finished beating her up for mentioning Cyril's "character flaw".
Lana: Just what do we know about this Conway? Archer: Only that he's not circumcised. Lana: OK...glossing over how exactly you know that... Archer: We touched penises. Lana: No! Glossing!
Too Soon: This tends to follow up on some character or other laughing at something that had just happened, typically alongside a Defensive .
Twofer Token Minority: Conway Stern is hired because, as a black Jew, "He's a diversity double whammy!" He's not really Jewish, and Archer even questions whether he's black.
Two Scenes, One Dialogue: If a scene that ends with people talking is followed by a scene that opens with people talking, this is going to be used.
Ultimate Job Security: Averted. Despite Archer's mother being the head of ISIS, she still treats him like her spoiled asshat of a son and a sometimes-incompetent field agent.
Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Archer, full-stop. Nearly all of the main cast also fits to some extent. There are very few genuinely likable characters in the show, and even the relatively nice characters do some pretty despicable things.
Upper Class Twit: Both Archers take this trope into Crosses the Line Twice territory. For example, Sterling considers it offensive when people don't treat Woodhouse with seething contempt, and Malory dropped the ISIS cleaning ladies down an elevator shaft when they tried to unionize.
The whole cast (except for Lana and Krieger) pretend to be this to fool the police when covering up the Prime Minister's murder in "Lo Scandalo".
The tattoo on Pam's back is an excerpt from Lord Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib".
There's also Archer's reference to Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" and his utter shock that no one gets it.
Villains Never Lie: Yakuza boss Moto didn't steal Archer's car in "Drift Problem" because they only drive Japanese imports, but Archer calls him on it. Moto smirks and points out that he has no reason to lie.
Vitriolic Best Buds: While the entire cast may count, Pam and Cheryl are shown together near constantly at work and willingly spend more time together outside of the office than any other characters, but their dialog typically involves flat out insults and they don't seem to actually like each other. Pam once thought she killed Cheryl and was entirely apathetic about it.
His previous car, also a 1970 Challenger, was revealed to have an Ejection Seat in its first appearance.
We Have to Get the Bullet Out: Subverted in 'Coyote Lovely' when Archer gets shot by border patrol. He is taken to an unlicensed veterinarian who removes the bullets from his back - only to admit he did more harm than good and they need to get Archer to a real doctor ASAP.
Wham Episode: When Barry returns to kill Sterling's (potential) father, Major Jakov. And succeeds, leaving Sterling devastated.
"Sea Tunt Part II", the Season 4 finale, may count: Lana is pregnant.
What Happened to the Mouse?: We last see of German assassin Manfred and Uta in "Dial M for Mother" driving away after implanting a chip into Archer's brain.
What the Hell, Hero?: Pam delivers one to the entire cast at the end of "El Secuestro" for showing a sociopathic lack of concern for her well-being when she gets kidnapped.
"Drift Problem" is a definite one for Malory. Sterling leaves his beloved Spy Car birthday present unlocked, so she steals it to teach him a lesson in responsibility. Said lesson doesn't involve giving it back. She sold it to Mr Ford.
Often during a high-stress mission, other members of the team will frequently give one to Archer. Barry does in "White Nights", Lana in "El Contador", and Cyril in "Drift Problem", all because of Archer's ridiculously selfish behavior.
Done by Rodney (the new ISIS armourer) in "Legs" when Archer slaps Cheryl to stop her rambling about Skynet and the plot of The Terminator after he fired an RPG in the Armoury waiting room.
Whoa whoa whoa. Not cool man, that is not at all cool.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Archer's greatest fear is being killed and eaten by an alligator. To that effect, he has looked up and memorized every recorded fatal gator attack in the US. Guess what he meets on a mission in the Louisiana swamps?
"Once Bitten" has Archer countering a snake bite by drinking heavily, which Cyril strongly warns against.
In "Sea Tunt Part 1", Pam suffers an allergic reaction and goes into anaphylactic shock; Archer tries to give an emergency tracheotomy with a switchblade "sterilized" in a partially drank glass of whiskey and a used silly straw. He's quickly shot down.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Malory is so insistent in pairing her Mary Sue self-insertion with a black male interest in the reworked script for Disavowed that it draws the inevitable comparison to the 1975 movie Mandingo. Her Hollywood contact finally accepts it under the change of making it a romantic comedy named Mandingo 2.
Archer: A ruse? Brrrring, brrrring! "Hello?" "Hi, it's the 1930's. Can we have our words and clothes and shitty airplanes back? Call you back, 1930's! And hey, watch out for that Adolf Hitler. He's a bad egg!
You Do NOT Want To Know: In "Lo Scandalo", when an officer arrives, only for Kreiger to chop up and hide the corpse and evidence quickly:
Malory: Kreiger, wait. About the bathroom, the body, how did you—? [He puts his fingers on her lips] Kreiger: [shushes her] Don't wanna know. But you do probably wanna go wash your lips now.
You Kill It, You Bought It: In "Heart of Archness" Archer is captured by pirates and kills their captain. By their laws, this makes him the new captain.
Spelvin taunts Cyril that he doesn't have it in him to shoot someone.
Franny Delaney tells Archer he wouldn't kill an unarmed, crippled man. He's wrong.
Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: When Archer "trains" Cyril to be an agent and surprises him with the unexpected ice cube attack, his reflex is to use the call girl as a human shield to block it. Cyril is mortified when Archer proudly cheers on this untrained reaction.
Lana gets this a lot; she dumped Archer for serial adultery in order to hook up with Cyril, whom she deemed to be a safe, loyal boyfriend who would not stray. Which he does, after she catches him with ODIN's hot, French HR manager Framboise, and finds out that he also had sex with Cheryl. And Scatterbrain Jane. And possibly Malory. And Trinette, whose son Seamus is actually his.
Katya cheats on Archer with Barry on their wedding day right in front of him.
Zero-G Spot: Archer and Pam in "Space Race Part 1".
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