The series centers on the otherworldly Department of Human Resources and follows the various hormone monsters, depression kitties, logic rocks, shame wizards, love bugs, and other such creatures who guide humans from birth until death. Kroll, Maya Rudolph, Brandon Kyle Goodman, Keke Palmer, Pamela Adlon, and David Thewlis reprise their roles as Maury and Rick, Connie, Walter, Rochelle, Sonya, and the Shame Wizard respectively. Joining them are the likes of Aidy Bryant, Randall Park, and Ali Wong (who was in Big Mouth but will be playing a different character here).
The series premiered on Netflix on March 18, 2022. The following month, the creators announced
that the series had been renewed for a second season, later confirmed to be the final season (with its parent show likewise confirmed to end after its final renewal for an eighth season). Season two premiered on June 9, 2023.
Previews: Announcement teaser, Recruitment teaser, Official clip, Official trailer, Season two announcement
This has nothing to do with the trope Human Resources.
This series provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming:
- Rick calls Sonia "Shauna."
- Amir mishears Keith from Grief's name as "Keith from Greece" and thus calls him "Greek Keith."
- Actor Allusion: In "On the Daughterfront," Van (played by Miley Cyrus) mentions she knew that Hannah Montana and Miley Stewart were the same person, much to young Sarah's surprise.
- Adaptation Expansion: The show focuses on the jobs and duties of the various monsters of Human Resources beyond puberty.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: Connie, as is her tendency, calls Shawn a "pickle-pulling non-pussy-picker" when he just wants to "pick [Alice's] brain."
- Alien Blood: Dante's zombie dick oozes green whenever it's stabbed, and apparently smells like chicken ceviche.
- Always Identical Twins: Gavin has an identical twin brother named Guyvin who outlives him into Season 2. Connie lampshades that characters having identical twins makes total sense, bringing in her twin Bonnie, who's identical to her except for glasses and a short haircut.
- Animated Shock Comedy: Like its predecessor, the show is brutally honest about the realities of life, and characters like the Hormone Monsters and Addiction Angel in particular lead to many jokes about sex and drugs.
- Anthropomorphic Vice: The Addiction Angel represents all kinds of addiction, not just to drugs and alcohol, but also addiction to toxic relationships and unhealthy workout habits.
- Arc Words: In "It's Almost Over," Keith from Grief keeps repeating the phrase "The only way out is through" to convince Amir to cry for his mother and relieve his grief.
- Auto Erotica: After Donna's proposal, Doug and Donna get "all Steve Nashty" in the backseat of Doug's newly customized Suns car.
- Babysitting Episode: "Bad Mummies" has a subplot where Connie watches Maury's penises while they're out, which are treated like his children or pets. She forgets all the rules he told her, leading to lots of chaos.
- Baseball Episode: "A League of Their Hormone" is about the Hormone Monsters and Shame Wizards playing each other in a company softball league. Connie is the star of the team, but her own child competes against her as the monsters' most formidable opponent.
- Beat Without a "But": After saving Maury from a flooded bathroom, Connie discusses her feelings on Maury having her baby. As in, she's still against it.Connie: I thought I wanted total freedom to go be a hot adventure bitch.Maury: Oh?Connie: And I thought a kid would get in the way of all that.Maury: But?Connie: But the truth is... I was right!Maury: What? Then why did you say "but"?Connie: I didn't say "but," you said "but"!
- Becoming the Mask: Gil has Joe dress as a crab to befriend and then betray the crabs infesting Emmy's apartment. However, since Gil has been saddling Joe with all the hard work while not even promising him the good part of the everything bagel they're working to earn, while the crabs actually hear Joe out and give him a bagel themselves, Joe finds more camaraderie with the crabs.
- Big Blackout: In "Shitstorm," a hurricane sets off a series of events that knock out the power grid in Human Resources, blocking off the portal to Earth.
- Big Storm Episode: The Season 1 finale "Shitstorm" deals with a hurricane affecting both the humans and the monster world, even knocking the portal out to go to Earth.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Hormone Monsters have "unisex wombs" and can impregnate each other regardless of biological sex. Safe sex entails reciting "No baby, no baby, no baby" to themselves as they climax.
- Bloody Hilarious: Pete amputating Dante's penis is accompanied by a ridiculous amount of splattering blood for several seconds. Dante even insists the camera cut away.
- Book Ends: The first episode has Emmy get assigned her first client by the tube. The season finale has her get assigned a bunch of new clients now that she's established herself as a better Lovebug.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Lionel calls out both Emmy and Rochelle regarding Rochelle dating Emmy's fuck-buddy Dante, noting that Rochelle was wrong to hide her relationship with Dante and then justify herself by claiming she's in love with him, but Emmy also severely overreacted to the situation. Or as he puts it to Emmy in his usual Brutal Honesty:"You were both wrong! She was a mendacious little skank and you were a jealous little twat."
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Amir's punishment when punishing Natalie: "No more TV, no more streaming, no more streaming TV!"
- The Bus Came Back: Natalie from Camp Mohegan Sun returns as several plots involve her family. In episode nine, she even becomes Walter’s newest client.
- But We Used a Condom!: Parodied. When Maury and Connie learn that the former is pregnant, they're surprised because they used protection — which for Hormone Monsters just entails saying "No baby, no baby, no baby" when they cum. Maury wonders if, when he said "No baby, no baby, no baby," he didn't mean it enough.
- Career Versus Man: "Rutgers is for Lovers" is a lesbian variant on the trope. Rochelle and Petra's client Nadya is set to go to Rutgers with her girlfriend Danielle, but then gets accepted to the more prestigious Berkeley. Petra pushes Nadya to go to Berkeley, as it's her family's alma mater and would look great on her resume, while Rochelle wants Nadya to go to Rutgers to be with her beloved girlfriend. At prom, Nadya declares that she's going to Rutgers to be with Danielle, but this leads to their breakup as Danielle doesn't like being the sole factor in Nadya's decision.
- Cast of Personifications: The series focuses on Big Mouth‘s cast of monsters who represent various aspects of human behavior and emotion, such as logic, love, shame, sexuality, and depression.
- Casting Gag: Ali Wong plays Becca, a character who is introduced as heavily pregnant and must adapt to being a new mother. Wong's most famous comedy special, Baby Cobra, centered around Wong's pregnancy and body issues. Emmy even breaks the fourth wall to celebrate how well Ali Wong portrays new motherhood.
- Chekhov's Gag: A Running Gag in "Love in the Time of Postpartum" is that Barry looks like Becca's dad from the side, which Becca dislikes. However, Cat Stevens shows Emmy a flashback where Becca's dad didn't show up for her wedding to Barry, so Barry walks her down the isle since he looks like her dad. This memory endears Emmy to Barry and convinces her to fight for the marriage.
- Commonality Connection: Sonia and Claudia bond because both of their jobs involve bringing "love and joy" into the world — Sonia makes humans feel love as a Lovebug and Claudia helps bring new babies into the world as a doula — while not taking the same time for themselves.
- Condescending Compassion: A couple approach Alice out of nowhere during dinner and call her an "inspiration." Alice thinks they're referring to her work as an activist, but it's clear they just think her existence is "inspiring" because she's a wheelchair user, even assuming Shawn is her "helper" or "brother" instead of her date. Alice doesn't appreciate this.
- Crazy Workplace: The spin-off gives the spotlight to a society of monsters who work in an office handling various aspects of human emotions and afflictions, such as depression, shame, logic, love, sexual drive, and addiction. The show's comedy often comes from these weird monsters working in a mundane office setting, leading to things like Hormone Monsters having sex in the break room.
- Destructo-Nookie: Maury and Connie make such a mess after fucking in their hotel room that Maury needs the housekeeper to wear a blindfold and bring up a flamethrower.
- Dominatrix: The opening clip depicts a man engaging in BDSM with a woman in leather who's gagging and spanking him, with Maury, his hormone monster, getting excited about her "tools."
- Dwindling Party: In "Shitstorm," several characters form a party to venture out and fix the power grid, with most of them getting left behind along the way due to the severity of the storm.
- Everyone Is Bi: Hormone Monsters in particular will have sex with each other regardless of gender, and most other characters show no qualms about getting down with creatures of any gender.
- Exotic Equipment: Addiction Angels have three penises, making them even more sexually alluring.
- Explosive Breeder: Maury's dicks will multiply tenfold if not jerked off regularly.
- Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: As the various monsters are representations of human emotion and thought, they are heavily involved in mundane problems. Becca, for example, has to deal with postpartum depression. The monsters themselves have to deal with things like:
- Having feelings for someone who just doesn't like you back.
- Not knowing how to do your job.
- Things not working out when you try to make a sexual relationship into a serious one.
- Feeling like you've accomplished nothing by a certain age because you lack a stable partner or children.
- Fake Boobs: It's a Running Gag that people call Hope's boobs fake, especially since they're literally disco balls.
- Family Versus Career: After giving birth, Becca worries that her new baby will detract from her career. When she finally goes back to work, she's worried she went back too early and that she's missing out on her son's life. She's also angry when Barry takes the baby to visit her at work because she doesn't want her coworkers to see her as a human being.
- Fan Disservice:
- "Bad Mummies" has Becca's breasts on full display when she tries to breastfeed her baby...along with her gross, swollen nipples that talk.
- "International Creature Convention" shows the Shame Wizard fully nude, and his body is creepily skeletal and pale.
- "The Light" has several scenes of Rick's disgusting shriveled body moving seductively in a bikini, with his saggy breasts flopping about.
- "It's Almost Over" displays the elderly Yara topless.
- Five Stages of Grief: Keith from Grief points out Pete and Walter's denial, anger, and bargaining, remarking, "We almost got a grief bingo!"
- Flanderization: Invoked. Because the various Human Resources monsters tend to each embody only a single personality trait they only become more extreme in their manifestations of that trait. To the point where they struggle to act, or even think, in any way that does not align with the stereotypes associated with that trait. They likewise try to push the humans whose cases they work on to become more narrowly focused on the monster's particular trait.
- Flying Broomstick: In "Shitstorm," a witch is seen riding a broomstick, only to get knocked down by the hurricane.
- Follow in My Footsteps: In Season 2, Maury is excited for Montel to join him in the ranks of being a Hormone Monster. Unfortunately, Montel wants to be a Shame Wizard instead, which infuriates Maury.
- Foreshadowing:
- At the beginning of "Bad Mummies", Rita's presentation takes place at a room titled the "Oedipus Complex". Her son Lionel is revealed to have one for her.
- In the episode "It's Almost Over", Walter initially acts hostile towards Nathalie, only to warm up to her personality and approve of her sneaking Yara out of the house for a day of fun. This shows that the two are like-minded and that Walter would become her Lovebug by the end of the episode.
- Funny Conception Story: Maury orders an ice sculpture of Montel's conception for their "jizz mitzvah." Their apparent conception (an appropriately raunchy sex scene between Maury and Connie beside a romantic fireplace) is also included in a slideshow about their childhood.
- Funny Flashback Haircut: In "Rutgers is for Lovers," Emmy flashes back to the 1970s to explain why she and Rochelle nicknamed Pete "the Chugger." In the flashback, Emmy has longer hair while Rochelle's hair is more voluminous, and most amusingly, the normally-hairless Pete has windswept hair and a 70's-style mustache (or at least rocks sculpted to look like such).
- Gag Penis: Gavin's penis is huge and shaped like a literal fire hose, complete with working nozzle.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: The Aquarius constellation gets excited watching Sonia and Claudia kiss, saying "Look at girls kissing, I like when ladies kiss!"
- Given Name Reveal: "A League of Their Hormone" reveals Montel's surname is LaBeverly, a combination of their parents' surnames.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: The adults in Yara's family often speak subtitled Arabic, which is seen prominently in Yara's memories.
- Groin Attack: Dante gets one of his penises wedged between a statue and a tree. Pete has to cut it off. Neither are happy about that... or so Pete claims.
- Hospital Visit Hesitation: When Sara's mother went to the hospital due to complications with cancer, Sara assured herself (with the help of her Logic Rock, Van) that she would get better and come home from the hospital within a week, likely because she didn't want to see her mother in that state. Her mother died in the hospital, and Sara feels so much guilt from not visiting her that she repressed all memories of her mother and refuses to talk about her.
- Hypnotic Creature: Addiction Angels secrete dust that hypnotizes their targets to agree with them and get addicted to certain things. Emmy snorts Dante's dust like cocaine and falls totally in love with him.
- I Call Him "Mister Happy": Dante named one of his penises "Lefty."
- I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Dante can hypnotize creatures to do whatever he want using his addictive angel dust. However, he ends up genuinely attracted to Rochelle because she doesn't let herself get hypnotized... though she ends up reciprocating the attraction without the need for dust anyway.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: In "International Creature Convention," Connie gets annoyed at Maury telling random people "I love you" because he's never said it to her in their millions of years together. They designate a special time to say it to each other for the first time, but find it incredibly awkward to have sex afterwards, as they feel less inclined to get aggressive towards one another during sex. They decide the best way to love each other is to talk about how much they hate each other so their sex life can still be intact.
- Imperiled in Pregnancy: Maury gets trapped in a flooding bathroom while pregnant. Despite really hoping he miscarries, Connie saves him anyway.
- Interspecies Romance:
- Sonia falls in love with a human woman named Claudia, who's able to see her despite Sonia not being her client. Sonia plans to quit and move to Earth to live with Claudia, but she realizes that exposing Claudia to her world will only make her more dissatisfied with life.
- To a lesser extent the relationships between the different monsters:
- Rita, a Shame Wizard, and Kitty, a Depression Kitty, have been having a sexual relationship for millennia.
- Dante, an Addiction Angel, has romantic and sexual relationships with Emmy and Rochelle, who are both Love Bugs.
- Walter, another Love Bug, has a sexual relationship with Simon Sex, a Hormone Monster, before finally becoming an Official Couple at the International Creature Convention.
- Cat Stevens, a Depression Kitty, jokes about having Love Bug ancestry. There's also some ship tease between him and Emmy.
- Pete, a Logic Rock, has a crush on Rochelle.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Like its parent show, many of the characters are physically based off their voice actors. While this is clearer with the human actors, such as Florence Pugh as Sarah and Eugene Levy as Paul, even monsters can resemble their voice actors, as Schmitty has Jon Lovitz's forehead wrinkles.
- It's Okay to Cry: In "It's Almost Over," Keith from Grief keeps trying to get Amir to show sadness for his dying mother, but Amir is too focused on keeping her alive, with his Logic Rock Pete insisting that they shouldn't get distracted by their emotions. Near the end of the episode, Amir finally admits that he's sad that she's dying, and he, Walter, and Pete all have a good cry over it (with Pete also crying about Rochelle) which makes them feel better.
- Kinky Role-Playing:
- In "Rutgers is for Lovers," Maury and Connie try role-playing in the bedroom to spice up their boring relationship. Maury dresses as a cowboy (though his character actually works at a Dairy Queen) named Bogart Saint-Humphrey while Connie dresses as a spy named Cleopatra Dickins, looking for a serial killer who's been "murdering pussy." They act this scenario out in the local bar, but Connie has to break character to help a very drunk Sonya. Unfortunately, Maury refuses to break character.
- In "International Creature Convention," Lionel begins an affair with another Shame Wizard who wants him to kill her abusive husband. Lionel's murder attempt fails and he's knocked out. When he wakes up, he learns that he's gotten caught up in a cuckoldry role-play scenario between the Shame Wizard couple. He goes along with it, even shooting the husband again... except this time he wasn't wearing his bulletproof vest, so Lionel actually shoots him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Dante spent the first season acting like a self-centered jerk who prided himself on his three dicks. He casually manipulated Pete into almost giving Doug a heart attack, remorselessly dumped Emmy after using her, and then played a hand in Emmy and Rochelle's friendship blowing up when he started dating the latter and encouraged her to feign innocence. In the season finale, Dante's favorite penis gets pinned by a statue during the storm, and Pete has to amputate it to stop the blood loss. Needless to say, Dante's pride got knocked down a peg by the end of the episode.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "It's Almost Over" is an episode about Yara dying, but it also refers to the fact it's the penultimate episode of the season.
- Literal Metaphor:
- Maury warns Connie to let his dicks nap regularly, otherwise they'll "turn into real assholes." Turns out, when penises don't get sleep, they turn into literal talking anuses.
- Gavin describes his dick as a "fire hose dick," which is assumed to mean that it's just really big. In "Shitstorm," it's revealed that his dick is literally a fire hose.
- Love Makes You Crazy: A recurring theme in the show, particularly among the Lovebugs, is that love will drive you to do ridiculous, irrational things.
- Walter is obsessed with love to disturbing degrees, and even sings a song demonstrating to Emmy that "love is a psycho." He feeds into Yara's dementia by trying to keep her in her memories of her love life, and lashes out at Amir for interrupting her fantasy.
- Emmy's feelings for Dante become a literal addiction due to his magic dust. She snorts up any remnant of his dust and becomes obsessed with seeing him again, even when he wants nothing to do with her.
- Rochelle encourages her clients to make bad decisions in the name of love. While it works in some cases, most of the time it backfires on her and the humans. This extends to her personal life where she begins dating Dante behind Emmy's back. When she tries to justify it by saying she's in love, she makes matters and Emmy feel even worse and nearly destroys their friendship.
- Sonia and Claudia's romance drives them both to make rash decisions that they later regret. Sonia quits her job and plans to live on Earth with Claudia, something that no monster is supposed to do, despite Walter's pleas that getting involved with a human is dangerous for both parties. This turns out to be true when Claudia's mental health spirals as a result of her love for Sonia, as she becomes depressed that not everybody can have their kind of love. Seeing how she's affected Claudia, Sonia decides to end the relationship and tells Claudia to seek help from her loved ones on Earth.
- The Lost Lenore: Season 2 introduces Paul, whose main arc involves processing the recent death of his beloved wife, Evelyn. Walter, as his Love Bug, constantly shows him happy memories of Evelyn, but eventually Paul realizes he needs to discover himself as an independent person, and make sure Walter loves Paul beyond romanticizing his marriage to Evelyn.
- Love Triangle: Emmy is sleeping with Dante, but Dante ends up dating Rochelle, which is further complicated by Pete also having feelings for Rochelle.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Human/monster romance is strictly forbidden, as it warps the minds and priorities of both parties. This is why Sonia got fired.
- Manipulative Bastard: The Addiction Angel uses smooth words and beautiful dust to lure creatures of all kinds under his spell, getting them hooked into toxic mindsets where all they care about is him and the vices he dishes out.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Sonia, a millions-year-old Lovebug, falls for Claudia, a young adult human woman. The fact Sonia will outlive Claudia comes up during Claudia's breakdown, which is one reason why Sonia decides they can't be together.
- Milestone Birthday Angst: Parodied in the first episode, which takes place on Maury's forty millionth birthday, prompting him to feel unsatisfied with his life.
- Misophonia Gag: In "Training Day," during Sensitivity Training, Connie says she hates the sound of toenails being clipped. The consultant Empathy thus sets up a scenario where she clips her talons while Connie is talking to demonstrate to Connie why she needs to be more considerate.
- Mister Seahorse: Male Hormone Monsters can get pregnant, which happens to Maury in the Season 1 finale.
- Mood Whiplash: Lampshaded in "The Light." After a heartfelt scene where Sonia decides to live on Earth with Claudia, Sonia remarks, "I can't believe they're going to pan away to a cockfight," before the scene cuts to the B-plot, which is a zany Rocky parody starring one of Maury's dicks.
- Moving Beyond Bereavement: "It's Almost Over" is about Walter's oldest client Yara, who has Alzheimer's, approaching death, with Walter being the last monster on her team. Walter tries to invigorate her by bringing up her loving memories, while Pete tries to ward off Keith from Grief so Yara's son Amir can focus on caring for Yara, as grieving doesn't feel as "productive." They eventually all accept that Yara is dying and have a good, healthy cry over it.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: In "International Creature Convention," Lionel sleeps with a woman named Asha who seems to be a victim of Domestic Abuse, and she encourages him to kill her husband Arsalan so she can escape the marriage, giving Lionel a shotgun. It turns out to all be part of a sex game between her and her husband. However, while trying to take part in their masochism, Lionel accidentally shoots Arsalan for real.
- Not Wanting Kids Is Weird: In the Season 1 finale, Maury gets pregnant and realizes he wants to keep it, while Connie very much does not, which makes Maury very upset. When she refuses to budge on this issue, Maury breaks up with her because he doesn't want to get an abortion.
- Obsessive Sports Fan: One of the human characters - and Pete, Rochelle, and Dante's client - is Doug. Doug is the the self-described biggest Phoenix Suns fan in Hartford, Connecticut, to the point that he gets his van custom wrapped against Pete's advice, and through sheer luck, gets a gig as Charles Barkley's driver.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: Yara's memories are interrupted by fizzles and glitches as her dementia progresses.
- Opening Shout-Out: In "It's Almost Over," Connie segues into the credits as part of her talk show: "Coming up next, Janelle Monae sings a song while we look at a list of actors I've done butt-stuff with!"
- Parental Incest: Lionel the Shame Wizard is attracted to his mother, Rita, which is said to be expected for creatures that revolve around shame.
- Portmanteau Couple Name: In-universe, this provides the basis of Montel's surname, LaBeverly (their parents are Connie LaCienega and Maurice Beverly).
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: "A League of Their Hormone," a Baseball Episode about the Hormone Monsters' softball league, parodying the title of the historical baseball movie A League of Their Own.
- Required Spinoff Crossover: "The Addiction Angel" has Andrew show up for Maurice to temporarily be replaced as his client by Gil and Joe.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Pete, as a Logic Rock, is very cautious and fact-oriented, while his coworker Rochelle, as a Lovebug, is a lot more spunky and optimistic. This originally creates conflict for them, but they grow to become friends, with Pete even developing a crush on her.
- Sex in a Shared Room: At the start of "Training Day," Mona and Gavin have sex in the lunchroom... while another monster, José, is getting his lunch. Apparently, the monsters have sex at work so often that it's becoming a hazard to others (the aforementioned monster injures himself slipping on their ejaculate), so they get sentenced to Sensitivity Training.
- Sexy Shirt Switch: Bluntly implied in "International Creature Convention," where after Walter and Simon Sex hook up, Simon wears a shirt that just says "Walter's shirt."
- Shout-Out:
- Grogu appears in a crowd shot in "International Creature Convention."
- Gavin's speech in "The Addiction Angel" is the almost exact copy of Blake's famous "Always Be Closin'" speech from Glengarry Glen Ross.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Even for a vulgar series like this, Petra the Ambition Gremlin barely gets a word out without cursing someone out.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: After saying they love each other messes up their sex lives, Maury and Connie yell at each other... which leads to much better sex.
- Song Parody: In "The Light," as part of the Rocky parody, Rick sings a nonsensical song to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger" about being friends with Tony the Tiger and vacationing in a timeshare with his family.
- The Stoner: Dante the Addiction Angel is naturally on many drugs. He shoves bath salts shoved up his butt and runs out to fight random objects. In his everyday life, he usually remains cool and collected.
- Sweet Tooth: Doug has an addiction to sugar, particularly Pop-Tarts, thanks to Dante the Addiction Angel egging him on.
- Take My Hand!: Done four-fold in the climax of "Shitstorm": Pete offers his hand to rescue Dante from a chasm in the ground, Emmy reaches out to save Rochelle from a wind tunnel, Connie holds out her hand to rescue Maury from a flood... and Gil implores Joe to take his ham because he can't finish it without puking.
- Take That!:
- Mama June, Joan Crawford, Courtney Love, and Kris Jenner are all listed among “the worst moms in history”.
- Kohl's is described as "the official retail chain of grief."
- The Lovebugs hold a meeting to figure out what to do about J. K. Rowling.
Flanny: Where did her magic go?- Amir turns through the Hardee's drive-thru to escape Keith because "it's always empty."
- Third Line, Some Waiting: Each episode has an A-plot, a B-plot, and sometimes a C-plot. The A- or B-plot typically follows one of the main stories (Emmy becoming a professional Lovebug, Rochelle and Pete's dynamic, Walter and his client Yara) while either the B- or C-plot is reserved for more minor characters and more zany antics, usually the Hormone Monsters. It's common for one plot to either stay within one episode or take a backseat so one of the other plots can take the center stage.
- Trailers Always Spoil: One of the preview clips that shows up on Netflix is the "I Choose Love" song... which is the final scene of the show. It blatantly spoils that Rochelle does eventually turn back into a Lovebug and reconcile with her friends.
- Undignified Death: Lionel lies about Gavin's Heroic Sacrifice during the storm to take the credit himself, claiming he actually died by urinating in fear and slipping off the building. Lionel panics that Gavin's twin brother, Guyvin, is going to call Lionel's bluff, but after Lionel confesses the truth, Guyvin ends up with Lionel's pashmina blocking his view, freaking him out as hes afraid of the dark, and dying in the exact same way, piss and all.
- Unholy Matrimony: Rita and Kitty have had a millennia-long sexual relationship, and spend much of their time bonding over the shame and depression they cause in humans.
- Vengeful Vending Machine: As a Hate Worm, Rochelle regularly takes her frustration out on the "bitch-ass vending machine-ass bitch" when it doesn't give her a soda.
- Visual Pun:
- The Addiction Angel hooks creatures onto addiction using beautiful dust. "Angel dust" is slang for the drug PCP.
- "The Light" features a cockfighting ring. In this case, the cocks refer to penises.
- Vulgar Humor: There's a lot of explicit sexual humor, especially from the Hormone Monsters. For example, "Bad Mummies" has a plot where Connie takes care of Maury's dicks, and eventually they turn into living assholes.
- "Walk on the Wild Side" Episode: In "The Addiction Angel," the titular angel gets Pete under his spell and sways the usually-rational Logic Rock into making more impulsive decisions to be a "cool guy," such as getting a tattoo of the Taco Bell slogan.
- Waxing Lyrical:
- In "Love in the Time of Postpartum," Barry talks about how Kelly Clarkson helped him through his depression, and quotes her while trying to uplift Becca. (She later returns the favor by telling him, "My life would suck without you.")
Barry: Hey, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," right?
Becca: [chuckles] Barry, never quote Kelly Clarkson again.
Barry: Becca... "some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this."- In "The Light," Aquarius tells Claudia, "Baby you're a firework, come on, show them what you're worth." Claudia lampshades that it's a Katy Perry song, but Aquarius insists he hates songs. Aquarius tacks on a reference to another Katy Perry song: "You gonna kiss a girl and you gonna like it!"
- Yara's memory of her last day with Safi has Safi quote "500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be)" in Arabic (with "miles" appropriately replaced with "kilometers" since they're in Lebanon).
- Wham Line: Alice's dinner with Shawn seems to be going quite well, but once Shawn says "I'm not her helper, I'm her colleague," it completely ruins Alice's romantic perception of the event and everybody on Alice's team freaks out.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The B-plot of "The Light" follows the plot of Rocky, with Maury sending his underdog dick "Cocky Ballsboa" to fight Gavin's champion penis Mr. Beef in a cockfighting ring.
- Work Com: Focuses on the day to day jobs of various creatures who help humans behave, who work in cubicles when they're not out on the field.
- You Can See Me?: Claudia is able to see Sonia despite not being Sonia's client. This fascinates them both and starts their relationship. It's implied that this may be due to Claudia being mentally unwell.
- You Wouldn't Shoot Me: In "International Creature Convention", Lionel confronts Arsalan, Ansa's abusive husband, atop the hotel. Arsalan insists Lionel wouldn't actually use the revolver he just pulled out, but Boom, Headshot!.
