Western Animation: Dexter's Laboratory aka: Dial M For Monkey
Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door Where impossible things may happen That the world's never seen before!
One of Cartoon Network's earliest original series, Dexter's Laboratory originated as one of the World Premiere Toons, a series of short cartoons solicited through a contest for nonprofessional animators. (The Powerpuff Girls was also brought in through this contest, and note that the two shows seem to take place in the same universe, and seem to share similar styles. Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky collaborated on both shows.)Dexter is a very young scientist with a Central European accent, thick-rimmed glasses and a gigantic laboratory in his bedroom. For all his genius, Dexter is never able to keep his sister, Dee Dee, out of his lab.Do NOT confuse with that other Dexter; much tragedy will come of it. Well, some◊ tragedy.This show follows a fairly standard "Three Shorts" format, with a Dexter cartoon at the start and end, and another series in between. Throughout its run, this slot was filled by spinoff series Dial M for Monkey and Justice Friends, both of these Super Hero parodies. Dial M For Monkey followed Dexter's eponymous pet monkey, who fought aliens and monsters behind Dexter's back. The Justice Friends provided a domestic sitcom take on The Avengers, exploring the apartment life shared by three superheroes. Outside the US the filler shows were sometimes dropped and the Dexter cartoons shown in a different order.The series returned in 2012 as a part of Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary via Cartoon Planet. As of March 2013, the series can be found on Netflix.
Dexter's Laboratory provides examples of:
Absentee Actor: Dexter doesn't appear in "Paper Route Bout", which is instead focused on Dee Dee.
He also doesn't appear in "Surf, Sun, and Science" which is a Day in the Limelight for Mandark.
Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: At least with respect to US pronunciation. "Dee Dee, get out of my laBORatory!" True to his crazy accent, however, that is how "laboratory" is pronounced in most places outside the US.
Accidental Athlete: "Sports a Poppin" has Dexter's dad trying to teach Dexter to be more athletic. While Dexter fails at traditional sports he demonstrates great athleticism at the end of the episode when fighting a giant monster outside his Dad's field of view.
Rasslor from the Dial M For Monkey episode of the same name was voiced by Randy Savage. His last line in the episode was, naturally, "OH YEAAAH!".
A Day in the Limelight: Dexter finally manages to one-up Dee Dee in the episode "sdrawkcaB." Their parents would also get episodes like this entitled, appropriately enough A Dad Cartoon and A Mom Cartoon.
All Work vs. All Play: Played with with Dexter and Dee Dee (respectively All Work and All Play), where there would be episodes where Dexter would be more relaxed like DeeDee, or DeeDee more work-minded like Dexter only to turn back at the end. Status Quo Is God or an Aesop of being yourself?
Sometimes averted in certain episodes, as Dexter frequently worries about normal things for a boy his age, such as his favorite television heroes, and being liked by the neighborhood kids.
Almighty Janitor: "Yohnny the Yanitor" from the episode "Trapped With a Vengeance".
Animesque: The girl in "Aye Eye Eye" has enormous anime-style eyes, there's an entire tribute to mechs, kaiju, and other anime tropes when Dexter goes to Japan and accidentally unleashes a giant monster, and in the newer seasons, there's a villain drawn in an anime style... while everyone else remains the same-looking.
Art Evolution: The art style changed some over the course of the series (early episodes and later episodes have different model designs) but once Genndy's involvement with the series ended, the series took a very dramatic stylistic change, with far cleaner lines, for starters. (just compare this◊ with this◊)
Dee-Dee had thicker eyebrowes and seemed to lack a chin in the first few episodes.
Artistic License: The episode where Dexter travels to Mars, where Dee-Dee gets covered in Martial soil to no ill effect. And can breathe in space.
Badass Beard: Action Hank. Noted in one episode where Dexter creates a synthetic beard to make himself look more "rugged", and is confused for Action Hank (despite looking nothing like him) because of the beard. They later team up to fight beard-themed villains.
Badass Family: Dexter may have a pretty screwed up family at times, but when they work together, they're the definition of Bad Ass. Case in point, the army and all the world's superheroes (including Monkey) were completely powerless against Bedaxtra. Dexter's family united, got a Combining Mecha, flew to Japan, and managed to kill him. They've even got a theme song!.
Bad Future: The main conflict in Ego Trip. Mandark takes over the world using one of Dexter's inventions and hordes all knowledge and science for himself, deliberately forcing the populace to live in indigent, primitive poverty and stupidity. Dexter and his future selves put a stop to it, but they end up creating a Stable Time Loop ensuring that it's going to happen again and again.
Banned Episode: "Rude Removal." Available to watch on AdultSwim.com. You can find the "uncensored" version on Youtube, but the swear words are nothing more than the sounds of various other words spoken in the episode spliced up and combined together. In other words, it's not officially uncensored.
"We're going to #&@$ UP YOUR LAB!"
Beat the Curse Out of Him: Dexter's family is possessed by parasitic aliens in one episode, and he has to pummel is family members until the parasites release their control.
Berserk Button: Dexter's future self the scrawny, weak, and cowardly D22, you can beat and push him around, you can insult him and break his spirit, but whatever you do do not break his glasses.
Beware the Nice Ones: You do not want to see Dexter's father angry. Same with his mother.
And God help you if you make Dee Dee seriously angry.
Bigger on the Inside: Dexter has a humongous lab so big that there are some parts of it Dexter has forgotten about, yet it is somehow able to fit in the closed-off space of his relatively small house. Sometimes this is Hand Waved as the lab being underground, but this doesn't make a whole lot of sense either, since Dexter often walks directly into it from his second-floor bedroom.
Parodied in an episode where Dexter shrinks the house to observe it inside his lab, leaving Dexter's lab of normal size on the inside, but a disembodied door on the outside.
Also parodied in an episode where Dexter draws a map of the house. Guess which is the smallest room.
Big "NO!": Dexter, numerous times. Including the scene where he's surrounded by cooties.
In "Jeepers Creepers, Where is Peepers," the transforming Peepers yells this when he sees Dexter and Koosalagoopagoop being attacked by Hokochu before breaking out of his container.
Boredom Montage: In "Space Case", after the aliens kidnap Dee Dee, Dexter has one of these in his lab.
Brought Home The Wrong Kid: Dexter invokes this when he find an Identical Stranger with parents who are science geniuses like him. They swap temporarily and the parents never know the difference (despite the kids looking quite distinct from each other).
Call Back: Like the name implies, "Dee Dee's Rival" at least starts out as a scene-for-scene remake of "Dexter's Rival," appropriate considering the latter introduced the show's default Big Bad Mandark and the former introduces his sister.
In addition to his Giant Robot, the Giant Dexo-Robo, showing up prominently in several eps, his power frame (first called the "Dextransformer" then later the "Exerjock 4000") from the early first season dodgeball episode reappears in three late season 2 eps, the first one ("Gooey Aliens That Control Your Mind") specifically mentioning the "dodgeball incident" (and including a sweep pan over a room of previous episodes' inventions).
Dexter brings back his "Dex-Star" identity from "Sidekicks Assemble" to fight alongside Blue Falcon and Dynomutt.
A meta-example in that the second act of "Last But Not Beast" features Monkey and the Justice Friends fighting the kaiju, just as they were the second cartoon short in the first season.
Calling Your Attacks: When Deedee and Dexter get turned into monsters, they both call their attacks when fighting each other.
The Chew Toy: Dexter, sometimes. Though he has nothing on the ice-cream man in "Ice Cream". Turns out ever since Dexter bought ice cream from him, and paid him in pennies, a series of unfortunate events had happened to him since, including chipping his tooth trying to put them in the safe but tripping on his laces after counting them, dumped by his girlfriend, having his car towed away, getting kicked out of his apartment and being forced to live under a highway because of this one act.
And to add insult to injury, once the Ice Cream Man forgives Dexter and allows him to purchase ice cream, Dexter pays the Ice Cream Man with a 100 dollar bill.
Cluster F-Bomb: There is a rumor of an episode, called "Rude Removal", that was only shown at at least 3 panels. The episode consisted of Dee Dee and Dexter creating evil twins of themselves, after Dexter makes a "Rude Removal" device. The episode consists of their twins cursing.
The episode does exist but was only ever shown at a handful of animation conventions. It has not been aired or released on DVD to date and may become a Missing Episode.
That episode in question was actually made as a joke, and as such was never intended to be publicly shown on TV.
It just very well may one day see the light of day. Adult swim apparently has it, and will show it if there's a large enough response. their tweet says so here (UPDATE:Mission Accomplished.)
Creepy Child: One falls in love with Dexter in "Aye, Aye, Eye".
Crisis Crossover: Last But Not Beast had the Dexter and Monkey segments connected via the giant monster destroying Japan. The Monkey segment even skips its usual opening credits to continue the story.
Depending on the Writer: Sometimes Dee Dee is an insufferable Scrappy who causes nothing but deliberate pain for Dexter, while other times she's a sweet girl who cares for her brother and either helps him or is innocently unaware of the trouble she causes him.
That said, this is quite justified, as anyone with brothers or sisters will tell you. Even in the show, Dexter would be overly spiteful towards Dee Dee, or be just plain petty for little to no reason at all. However, there was also a few times where he'd show compassion towards Dee Dee and right any wrongs that happened to her. Yeah, that's sibling rivalry for you.
To show you just how valid the above two points are, watch the "Down in the dumps" episode. It did a pretty good job of showing Dex's and Dee Dee's positive and negative personality traits.
Mandark can either be a hammy and morally ambiguous rival to Dexter, or genuinely villainous.
Digital Piracy Is Evil: Played for laughs on "Bad Cable Manners", where Dexter managed to steal satellite TV, since his dad couldn't do it. Turned Up to Eleven when the "Satellite Swat", awared of the situation, came out to arrest Dexter's Dad.
"Mr. Dexter's Dad. We're well aware of your current situation. piracy of our satellite broadcast is a felony. This is your last warning. Legal action will be taken".
Genius Ditz: There are rare moments when Dee Dee shows a surprising level of insight.
Ditzy Genius: Dexter, while a phenomenal genius, has moments where he misses obvious insights. Though it could be attributed to his lack of common sense that sometimes goes with intelligence, it seems to be more related to the fact that he's still very much a boy, considering his personality.
Downer Ending: In one episode Dexter and Mandark fail to stop an asteroid from destroying the world due their refusal to work together. The two fail to notice this, still bickering inside their mechs in outer space. Thankfully, that doesn't mean much here.
The ending of "The Way of Dee-Dee" is pretty sad as well, with Dee-Dee's attempt to get Dexter to enjoy himself end with Dexter wrecking his own lab, and Dee-Dee apologizing to him for trying to change him, and running to her room in tears. The last scene is Dexter noticing the destruction he caused and quietly working to repair his lab. It's one of the few genuine Tear Jerkers in the show.
The new Phys-Ed teacher, who forces Dexter to compete in the most brutal sport of all: DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODGE. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL.
Dumb Blonde: Dee Dee... though she has her moments.
Dumb Is Good: Dee Dee is generally more laid back and cheerful than her brother.
The interdimensional beast "Jojo" in "Mandarker". He apparently helped Mandark write the book The Magic of Science by Mandark and Jojo, but when Mandark summons him as part of a science fair project, he goes berserk and tries to eat Dee Dee.
Enfant Terrible: Dexter's dad, apparently, when he and Dexter's mom turned into toddlers. During that time, Dexter's dad took pleasure at beating up Dexter's mom as a baby. Using Dexter's inventions to torture her.
Evil Chef: In the episode where Dexter ended up teamed up with Action Hank, one of these was the main villain.
Evil Twin: Parodied in "Dollhouse Drama", which is also a parody of the Soap Opera concept in general.
Fantastic Time Management: There's an episode where Dexter has only 1 minute before the school bus arrives and he hasn't done his homework yet, so he use a time extending helmet to make it 30 minutes for him get everything done. ...it turns out to be a snow day.
Fartillery: This happens in Episode 25/Part 1: "Critical Gas"
FiveThree Token Band: Dee Dee (white) and her posse, Mee-Mee (black) and Lee-Lee (Asian)
Fetish-Fuel Future: "Ego Trip" shows a world where a CEO has a harem in his office and strips his employees to their underwear for a whipping when they're not productive.
Flanderization: Mandark in the post-finale seasons was pretty much defined by his hamminess and crush on Dee-Dee.
Freaky Friday Flip: Played with in "The Old Switcheroo", where Dad forces Dexter and Dee Dee to switch places.
Friction Burn: When Dexter gives himself Super Speed to go through his whole daily routine in 1 minute he accidentally lights his homework on fire from the friction.
Funny Foreigner: In the episode "The Bus Boy" there's a German boy in lederhosen. His story involved him dancing around eating food and commenting how good it was.
Fun with Flushing: Spirits from the dead hold Dee Dee hostage unless the dead Goldfish is flushed down the toilet.
Gag Haircut: Dee Dee attempts to cut a stray strand of hair and ends up chopping off one of her pigtails. Dexter gives her a serum to grow the hair back but she uses too much and her hair ends up taking over the house.
Generation Xerox: Just... look at the first scene between Mom and Dad in the Muffin episode.
For that matter, Dexter's grandpa and old Dexter himself from the movie look nearly identical.
Genius Ditz: Dee Dee, for all of her goofiness, can break through any security measure Dexter comes up with. Also, when she's not wrecking them, can use Dexter's inventions with instant mastery, like a hovercraft Dexter himself crashed or an incredibly complicated giant mech.
Girls Have Cooties: The so-called cooties Dexter encounters are in the form of butterflies which inhabit Dee Dee's bedroom.
Gosh Dangit To Heck: In "Book ′Em," Dexter has a nightmare where he's being judged by the Devil for not returning his library book on time:
"Welcome... to library... HECK!"
Grand Finale / Series Fauxnale: Two, actually; "Last But Not Beast" is the final episode of the series (or was intended to be) and wraps up the running plot about Dexter trying to hide his lab. "Ego Trip," meanwhile, is a film and definitively wraps up the Dexter/Mandark rivalry.
Hanna-Barbera: During the first two seasons, Cartoon Network Studios was a subsidiary of Hanna-Barbera, but when they resumed production on the third season in 2001, by then CN Studios was no longer a part of Hanna-Barbera (the latter had been absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation.)
Hartman Hips: Dexter's mom and the Touchy-Feely Neighbor Lady from "Nuclear Confusion" have the biggest butts in the whole series.
Due to the art style, lots of women in the series have Hartman Hips. Such as Agent Honeydew from the Monkey cartoons and the salesgirl from the episode with Dexter's bike.
Not surprising since Hartman actually worked on the show.
Heroic BSOD: Dee Dee falls into this when her teddy bear, Mr. Fuzzums, is taken away by the garbage truck.
Heroic Mime: In one episode, Dexter gets bitten by a clown and becomes a were-clown. To rescue him, his sister Dee-Dee becomes a mime.
Herr Doktor: Dexter has the obligatory German accent required by the Mad Scientist Code.
It's more of a Russian accent, as the creator himself is Russian. It can even be argued that Dexter is a cartoon version of Tartakovsky himself
Hurricane of Puns: This match at Flushing Meadows is just whizzing by! But you're in luck, there will be no commercial breaks. The tension is swelling, no relief in sight. He's in the lead now, but will. He. Hold. It?
Hypocrite: Dee Dee once got on Dexter's case for experimenting on one of her dolls. Ignoring her own frequent(ly destructive) visits to his lab.
Pretty much anytime Dee Dee meets someone of her own clingy and destructive level she finds them intolerable and inconsiderate. Ironically subverted one time Dexter loses it and completely destroys her room and all her personal belongings. Her response?
Dexter himself occasionally shows No Sense of Personal Space and can be equally intrusive and annoying. His father has to trick him into leaving when his badgering interupts a golf game for example.
Idiot Hero: He can time travel and build an underground lab miles long but will go through hell and back to buy and ice cream that he could easily make at home.
I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: A variation occurs in "The Old Switcharooms": Dexter tries to sneak into his lab from Dee Dee's room to ensure that she isn't trashing it. Dexter's dad, who is somehow aware that Dexter is doing this even without looking at him, casually mentions (in a very stern tone) that if he were to catch anyone trying to escape their punishment, that person would find themselves suffering an even greater punishment.
Inconvenient Itch: Dexter at one point gets the chicken pox and is told not to scratch the pox, or he'll turn into a chicken. He tries ways of keeping from scratching, even restraining himself completely, but nothing works and he eventually goes on a scratching spree... after which he indeed turns into a chicken.
Innocently Insensitive: Dee Dee is usually just a playful Genki Girl who wants to play with her little brother. However her notions of fun include playing around with his pretty looking (and somewhat delicate) toys, and no amount of ranting at her to leave him alone ever seems to faze her.
Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha: Dexter's default response to almost any physical threat is to build a mech and go shoot the danger to bits. Eventually he ends up with a hangar full of mecha, which he walks through, pondering which one to use for playing dodgeball.
It Runs in the Family: Dexter believes that his grandfather's dinky lab is just child's play, but Dexter doesn't see his grandfather create free energy with it - the one thing Dexter himself couldn't achieve.
Scenes of Dexter's mother cooking show her using the same scientific precision and unbridled glee as Dexter in the throes of creation.
Likewise, his father acts much the same as Dee Dee does when disturbing Mom in the kitchen. She even ends up shouting at him in much the same way.
It's Personal: After Dexter had Dee Dee destroy Mandark's lab, only then did Mandark swear revenge on Dexter, and they have been rivals ever since.
Kaiju: Several. More memorable ones involve an extra-dimensional horror with many eyes and tentacles (that's start of a stable time loop) and iconic Dexter "oops". Another episode involved Dexter and Dee Dee becoming giant monsters by drinking a mutation-causing formula and having an all out battle (complete with Calling Your Attacks). Finally, there's Badaxtra, the monster of the original Finale who nearly destroyed the world.
Limited Wardrobe: Dexter is shown at one point to have his closet filled with nothing but the same labcoats and boots he always wears.
Literal Genie: One episode ended with Dexter telling Computer to make him a sandwich. And she did.
Literal Metaphor: Dexter once held a garage sale. Like what happened in the Kim Possible example, two aliens showed up saying "[they] will take his light converters." Once he said how much he was charging for each pair, they repeated that they will TAKE the light converters and he understood.
Mundangerous: In the episode "Sports a Poppin", Dexter is completely incompetent in sports, and despite his best efforts lets his father down who was trying to teach him to be good at sports. Then at the end of the episode, as his dad goes back inside, a monster let loose by Dee-Dee attacks Dexter. he proceeds to fight it, using skills that obviously should have made him be more capable at the sports than he was.
Musical Episode: "Hellooo, dear brother! What have you got there?"
"Nothing, nothing! You only see air!"
"Don't be silly, I love you very much... [explosion sounds] ...guess I shouldn't touch."
My Hover Craft Is Full Of Eels: Dee Dee tries to speak Spanish to an angry Mexican crowd while she and Dexter are searching for "La Chupacabra". Her nonsense only serves to infuriate the crowd.
Though to be fair, talking about meat to a group of people who suspect you of poaching, is not a very good idea.
Negative Continuity: Used, but not consistently. Dexter's Lab is destroyed in every other episode, but when Mandark's is destroyed in his first appearance, it actually stays that way until the next time we see the character.
Kid: Mandark ain't got nothing on y- Dexter: Do not say that name! Kid: What, Mandark? Dexter: hisses
Never Trust A Hair Tonic: Dexter makes a hair tonic for Dee-dee after she accidentally cuts off one of her pigtails. Despite repeated warnings to use only one drop, Dee-Dee uses the entire bottle. Three guesses what happens next.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Dexter is the cause of a lot of bad stuff that happens. However, bonus points go to Last But Not Beast. Dexter got one when he accidentally awakens the incredibly powerful Badaxtra trying to impress his new friends. Then Mandark gets it later when he actually tries to stop Bedaxtra as well and instead makes him grow.
Non-Standard Character Design: Dexter travels back in time to the discovery of fire in one episode. The caveman he meets and brings back is drawn in the semi-realistic style that some Hanna-Barbara cartoons used to use. (Think Jonny Quest or The Herculoids, not The Flintstones) Another episode guest-stars Dynomutt and the Blue Falcon, but their character designs actually fit in pretty well with everyone else.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: In 'Ego Trip', Mandark goes from simply antagonizing Dexter to conquering and stupidifying the entire world.
Notzilla: An entire short revolves around Dexter being transformed into a Godzilla parody while fleeing from Dee Dee who has transformed into a giant spider-monster.
Offscreen Teleportation: Dee-Dee, to ridiculous extremes. This gets a lampshade in "Dexter Is Dirty", where she actually teleports from the hallway to Dexter's laboratory with a visible twinkle just because she wore a pink towel like a genie's turban.
Oh Crap: Dexter gets a really good one at the end of the Lost Episode, "Dexter's Rude Removal".
Dexter: "Ooohhhhhhhh, f***."
One Sided Arm Wrestling: Dad vs. a Trucker... before the arm gets upgraded from truck parts.
Out-of-Genre Experience: "Cracked" feels more like an episode of a slice-of-life show. It's also dialogue-heavy, and Dexter's eponymous lab isn't even mentioned.
"Filet of Soul" is a supernatural horror story about Dexter and Dee-Dee being haunted by the ghost of their dead pet goldfish.
Parental Bonus: In addition to everything listed under Getting Crap Past the Radar above, the show takes delight in constantly implying that Dexter's parents are not only very much still in love, but have a very healthy sex life.
Parental Neglect: Most of the time Mom and Dad are actually genuinly loving towards there kids. However they like a lot of parents on tv they have their share of moments.
On Dexters birthday they go to the store to buy his things with an invisible Dexter following. Much to the boys disipointment and anger they start filling the cart with baseballs and baby toys like plastic rings. When Dexter tries sneaking the action figure he wanted into the cart Mom angrily picks it up and tosses it away saying he doesn't need junk, followed immediatly by outting another baby toy in the cart. While not true neglect they appear oblivious to there sons age and interests.
Perspective Reversal: Dee Dee crushes a bunch of ants, because she thinks they're filthy. Dexter, who find ants interesting, shrinks them both down to ant size so Dee Dee can get a better idea of their society. After some adventures, they return to normal size, at which point Dee Dee happily thanks Dexter for showing her just how cool ants really are - while Dexter is squashing them.
Retcon: So many of the backstories and continuity of the characters were changed when she show was renewed, including how Dexter's parents met, and even changing Mandark's history (and how he and Dexter met) entirely. Fans usually treat these episodes as a different show entirely.
Road Runner vs. Coyote: One episode they paid homage to Road Runner and Wile. E. Coyote when Dexter tried to catch a rollerskating Dee Dee with his new bike (plus various upgrades).
Sanity Slippage: This happens a few times to Dexter. One episode memorably had him thinking he was a "little piggy" and reverted to babyhood.
What about his dad? When he's insane, he's really insane.
Those muffins that your mother bakes...
Mom too for that matter, on the occasions when her cleaning obsession and fear of germs come to the front. Most notable is one episode where Dad takes her trademark dish gloves while she's asleep, and then wont let her clean the house next day, since its Mothers Day, and the family will take care of the housework for the day. Unfortunatly, its such a messy disaster, that Mom basically has a nervous breakdown and begins to have disturbing hallucinations. It ends well though, as her Mothers Day gift is a brand new pair of gloves.
Say My Name / Rocky Roll Call: The climax of "Mandarker" slips into this, with Dexter, Dee Dee and Mandark all shouting each other's names in place of complete sentences as Dexter and Mandark work together to save Dee Dee.
Scenery Censor: On occasions where Dexter is shown naked from the front, his naughty bits are covered by a floating leaf.
Science Hero: Dexter, though he causes at least as many problems as he solves. Or more.
Second Person Attack: Subverted in "Beard To Be Feared". Action Hank is about to punch an enemy through the POV of that enemy, and just when he's throwing the punch, it cuts to a TV showing the episode of Action Hank that Dexter was watching. Dexter is then shown wincing at the punch.
Selective Obliviousness: In 'Mock 5' Dexter's dad mentions Dexter's sister, 'Racer D' dying in a tragic soap box derby racing accident...when she's sitting right next to him, alive and well, trying to get his attention.
In "Sports a Poppin'" Dad was trying to teach Dexter how to golf, but in the later episode "Tee Party" Dad is a Small Name, Big Ego who acts like he's a pro but doesn't even know the basics. He insisted on a do-over because "the ball almost fell into this little hole".
Also, in the episode "Figure Not Included", Dexter asks for a Major Glory action figure from his mom. She tells him he she'll get him one for his birthday. However, in the episode "Surprise", when a Major Glory "somehow" manages to make it's way into Dexter's mom's cart when she goes birthday shopping for him, she takes it out, claiming that "Dexter doesn't need this junk". Though considering she and dad were filling the cart with baby toys this may have just been neglect.
"Book 'em" has a chase sequence with a homage to A Hard Day's Night in it. Additionally, the thugs chasing Dexter and Dee Dee have shirts that say Thug 1 and Thug 2.
Referencing Dr. Seuss's works doesn't end on The Cat in the Hat, though. Does Green Eggs &HamBacon book remind you of anything?
In "Golden Diskette", everyone escapes Professor Hawk's crumbling laboratory in the Yellow Submarine.
Dee Dee and Dexter are obviously playing Primal Rage at one point.
The episode "Dee Dee's Room" is basically one big homage to Apocalypse Now.
To James Bond in the episode where Dexter has to retrieve camera film that apparently contained pictures of his lab. Yes, this episode includes Dexter almost being cut in half with a laser.
Show Within a Show: Shaft-esque Action Hank, one-note puppet comedy TV Puppet Pals (which also appears in The Powerpuff Girls), obvious send-up Pony Puff Princess, plus a few less noticeable one-shot parodies of Soul Train and Star Trek.
Shrunken Organ: Dexter decides to put a genius-level brain in Dee Dee's head. He needs a pair of tweezers to remove her old one.
Signature Laugh: Several, notably Mandark (especially in the no-dialogue episode).
Snapback: Dexter's lab and house have been destroyed many, many times.
In one episode, it was implied he actually died.
And don't forget when the earth was destroyed by meteors.
Soap Punishment: In the Missing Episode "Rude Removal", Dexter accidentally creates evil versions of himself and Dee-Dee who spout Cluster F Bombs in front of their mom. When the regular versions trap them and feel like all's well, they spot Mom with a large bar of soap waiting to wash their mouths out.
Stable Time Loop: In Ego-Trip, the robots that invaded from the future were actually created by Dexter at the end of the film with the help of the later versions of himself to destroy Dee Dee in retaliation for her being the one to (unwittingly, as usual) defeat Mandark.
It's in the outtro: "... In Dexter's Laboratory, lives the smartest boy you've ever seen, but Dee Dee blows his experiments to smithereens! There is gloom and doom while things go boom, in Dexter's lab!!!!"
The Fundamentalist: Let's just say that both the Darbie doll fans and Star Check fans in episode "Star Check Unconventional" are really, REALLY into their hobby. And what every you do, do NOT remove a classic figure from its box.
Toilet Humor: When Dee-Dee and Dexter get their hands on labeling devices to mark their property, Dexter marks a gallon of apple juice as his own and drinks it all... then gets to the bathroom, only to find Dee-Dee's marked it for herself.
Mom: "Why is the carpet all wet?"
Took a Level in Badass: Dexter's dad goes from average middle class guy and sports enthusiast to daredevil stuntman in one episode of the later seasons.
Voice Changeling: Dexter adopted this ability. Some kind of machine enabled him to copy the exact voices of others. This was in the babysitting episode, where he used the voices of the babysitter and her boyfriend to sever their relationship, so that he could move in himself.
We Will Meet Again: In one episode, the criminal mastermind who owns a Chuck E. Cheese-like restaurant says this after Dexter and Dee Dee escape. But of course, it never happened.
Dexter fires Dee Dee and has her replaced with an actress that can't quite fill her shoes (for some reason when she knocks over bottles of chemicals, they don't even break).
Dexter makes Dee Dee into a genius like him and she turns out to be even smarter and more competent than him so he turns her back out of jealousy.
Done the other way round where Dee Dee tries to convince Dexter to be carefree like her. He ends up being more wild and destructive than Dee Dee herself.
Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Dexter can acquire whatever parts he needs to build whatever he wants without even having any suspicious shipments of mail arrive at his house. Sometimes he gets robots to assemble everything for him.
Except when Rule of Funny dictates he get a bill from NASA.
Whole Plot Reference: "Trapped with a Vengeance" is pretty much a kid-friendly version of Die Hard. "Kid-friendly" in that it takes place in a school and feature no shooting. It's still about a psychotic man trapping a small child in his school late at night an torturing him.
William Telling: Subverted when Dexter and Dee Dee go on a sibling vs. sibling game show. Dexter's just there for the prize, and starts one of the challenges before the host finishes explaining the rules, knocking an apple off of Dee Dee's head with a cream puff. He loses, as the host reveals that the challenge was to hit your sibling without making the apple fall.
Wraparound Background: Lampshaded and then subverted during the Wacky Racing episode. Dee-Dee notices the background repeating after the racers come out of a tunnel, and Koosie describes the animating technique in detail, referring to it as a "Repeat Pan". Then it turns out they're still inside the tunnel, in a trap set up by Mandark.
X-Ray Vision: A whole episode is dedicated to this backfiring on Dexter when he sees Dad, Mom and Dee Dee naked.
You Must Be This Tall To Ride: The episode "Ewww That's Growth" is about Dexter being upset about his pint-sized height; one of the ways his stature makes his life harder is that he's denied going on a rollercoaster with his family. After he makes himself very tall with an invention of his, he is allowed onto the ride (during which he crashes painfully into a wall.)
Younger Than They Look: Mandark's the same age as Dexter, but he's as tall (if not taller) as Dee-Dee.
Dial M for Monkey provides examples of:
The Ace: Monkey himself In-Universe is the most powerful and respected hero on the planet.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: One episode contained a montage that included such romantic scenes as Monkey and Honeydew on a picnic, flying kites, drinking an ice cream soda and Honeydew picking fleas and ticks off Monkey's back. All well and good except in that last one Honeydew is clad only in a towel.
In "Barbequor", if you look closely, Agent Honeydew was about to eat a whole hotdog, while a fellow agent stares with glee.
That whole episode was banned for gay stereotyping and a pseudo-drunk Krunk. It can still be found occasionally on Cartoon Network Video, though, and is pretty damned funny.
There is so much radar stuff going on in that episode.
Missing Episode: "Barbequor" never airs on Boomerang, since it features a Camp Gay character. On the "Dexter's Laboratory: Season One" DVD, it was replaced with a Dexter short from the second season and the original What A Cartoon short.
Oddly, it comes up in the rotation on Cartoon Network Video.
All Just a Dream: The episode where Krunk dreams of him meeting the Puppet Pals. Which turns out to be a Dream Within a Dream by Puppet Pal Mitch himself.
Improbable Weapon User: Val Hallen fittingly used a guitar (or as he referred to it, his "Mighty Axe") as his weapon, and it was also the source of his powers; without it he becomes physically ill and reverts from a Viking-esque god of Rock to a scrawny, short-haired nerdy-looking guy, presumably his true form.
Val Hallen: I don't get it. Weren't the rats the ones who scared your parents away? And what's the motivation? Are you trying to avenge your parents or something? Ratman: What do you mean? I got the costume, and the belt! What's not to get?
Laugh Track: Used to resemble the sitcoms it parodies.
Multilayer Facade: Krunk tries to take off the mask of Major Glory, only to reveal several layers of masks beneath it.
Mundane Made Awesome: The entire series is built on this. The opening theme shows just how epic changing a lightbulb can be, and at least once they give Death Note a run for its money in the chip-eating stakes.
"Krunk stop Kat's reign of terror! Here kitty-kitty-kitty!"
Only Sane Man: Val Hallen, especially in 'Pain in the Mouth'.
The Tooth Hurts: One episode of the Justice Friends has them trying to avoid the dentist from fear of this. It's subverted: Krunk, the Hulk Captain Ersatz, only got a tortilla chip in his tooth — which just needed a simple, painless extraction — compared to all the idiotic stuff Major Glory tries to do to his tooth. The Aesop: Go to the dentist, or it'll hurt MORE.
◊ tragedy.This show follows a fairly standard "Three Shorts" format, with a Dexter cartoon at the start and end, and another series in between. Throughout its run, this slot was filled by spinoff series Dial M for Monkey and Justice Friends, both of these Super Hero parodies. Dial M For Monkey followed Dexter's eponymous pet monkey, who fought aliens and monsters behind Dexter's back. The Justice Friends provided a domestic sitcom take on The Avengers, exploring the apartment life shared by three superheroes. Outside the US the filler shows were sometimes dropped and the Dexter cartoons shown in a different order.The series returned in 2012 as a part of Cartoon Network's 20th anniversary via Cartoon Planet. As of March 2013, the series can be found on Netflix.
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