They're having fun 'cause life's a rerun.
Looped is a Canadian animated series created by Todd Kauffman and Mark Thornton, who have also worked on many other Canadian cartoons, like Total Drama, Sidekick, and Grojband (the last of which they also created together). Produced by Kauffman and Thornton's very own Neptoon Studios and DHX Media, the showmade its world debut in January 2016 on the Latin American Cartoon Network and CITV in the United Kingdom, later coming to its home country that August on Teletoon, running for only only 26 episodes. It was also shown on Amazon Prime Video in the United States.
This show is about the adventures of two elementary school boys named Luc and Theo, best friends from the town of Port Doover who also happen to be stuck in a time loop where it's always Monday, October 12th (thanks to accident involving an invention made by Theo in Luc's shed). Since the events of that Monday are on constant repeat, the two boys know everything that will happen in Port Doover and exactly where and when it will happen right down to the second.
Due to the fact that nobody else is aware of their timey-wimey predicament, Luc and Theo use their knowledge of their environment, their teachers and classmates at Port Doover Elementary, and fellow townspeople as an opportunity to do whatever they want, especially if that "whatever" is something that would get them in trouble. Hilarity Ensues as the boys make the most of their eternal cycle of Mondays, get into all manner of wacky hijinks, and occasionally have to solve errors in the loop caused by their antics.
Looped provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Every adult in the show is either a big fat doofus, a stupid moron, or a nerdy little wimp and none of them are ever useful to the kids, either in a way that advantages them in the plot, or even in a way that helps them in school. In most episodes where they serve any significance, they're the antagonists and must be defeated.
- The All-Solving Hammer: Luc and Theo almost always rely on the loop resetting to solve their problems, only to find that the Villain of the Week is somehow immune and they need to come up with a plan B.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Theo's crush on Gwyneth will just never be, due to her revulsion towards him. Likewise, Gwyn's feelings for Luc.
- All-Stereotype Cast: Since the show takes place in a school setting, it's filled to the brim with student stereotypes. Luc is the underachieving Class Clown; Jesse is The Bully; Sarah is the Alpha Bitch with Kelly and Kelli as her Girl Posse; Theo, Gwyn, and Lester are all nerds; Amy is the Goth, and Kyle is the Big Man on Campus.
- Almost Kiss: In "Rocket to Tomorrow", Claire and Turk are trapped in a broken down rocket and Turk sees this as a sign they're meant to be together. However, Theo fixes the rocket's system, just before they kiss, causing Claire to hate the reboot system, and calling it an "Automated homewrecker".
- Amusing Injuries: Happens often, usually to Luc
- Anal Probing: In "Larping in the Loop", Luc and Theo are confronted by aliens and Theo begs that they take Luc instead, given that he's far more "probeable".
- Artificial Limbs: Coach Lessard secretly has a robotic arm.
- Babysitter from Hell: Claire, who is Luc's bratty and incompetent caretaker.
- Barbaric Bully: Jesse, who "fart-boxes" Luc and Theo after school every day. Ironically, he's far less barbaric towards animals and the environment than he is to other kids.
- Bespectacled Cutie: Gwyneth is a dorky and lovable nerd girl with a huge crush on Luc.
- Birthday Episode: In "Birthday Cake Island", Luc is unhappy with the idea that due to the Loop, his birthday will never come. As a result, Theo decides to take him to the titular island, which is on a different timezone, so he can celebrate it.
- Black and Nerdy: Theo. It was actually an invention he made that caused the loop.
- Book Dumb: Luc is generally a lazy, goofball, but he is occasionally clever when he puts his mind to something.
- Bros Before Hoes: In "She's All Bot", Luc puts his friend before a female love-interest robot says "Bros before Bots".
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Despite being a proud bully, Jesse has a fondness for animals and nature.
- Continuity Nod: Due to the nature of the show, there are lots of things referenced in multiple episodes. This not only includes the events of the repeating day, but specific events, unique to a previous episode.
- Curse Cut Short:
- In "The Replacements", Theo exclaims "What a load of-", before being cut off by a bull mooing.
- In "Luc at Me", Theo told Luc "You scared the living-" before being cut off by Luc.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Often when Luc makes a stupid misconception, Theo explains his mistake to him.
- Drives Like Crazy: Claire. No matter what, she will always crash with something while driving.
- Everyone Is Related: Theo and Luc are distant cousins due to sharing great-great-grandfather.
- Dumb Blond: Luc is one most of the time. It's usually up to Theo to keep him under control.
- For Want Of A Nail: Most episode plots begin as a result of Luc and Theo doing something differently on the Monday or changing an event that day, which usually then ends up causing drastic alterations to what they experience during the loop when it resets.
- Gasshole: Jesse. His favorite bullying technique is "fart-boxing", which is to stuff people inside of a box and then fart in said box.
- Great Big Book of Everything: Or in this case, a great big tablet of everything. Theo has a tablet, where he documents all the events of Monday, October 12th, 2015, right down to the very letter, helping himself and Luc master the power of the time loop.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: The premise of the series. In the episode "Fart Busters", Luc referenced to the trope-naming movie. During one of the loops, he was overjoyed to have the privilege of destroying Jesse's fartbox and claimed "It was like Christmas and Groundhog's Day all rolled into one."
- Halloween Episode: In "Monster Stink", Luc and Theo celebrate "Wouldaween", the day that would've have Halloween, had the time loop never started.note
- I Just Want to Be Normal: In "A Fortuitous Future", Theo was actually quite believably sick of reliving the same day. He was experiencing melancholy over the knowledge that he'd never grow up, see his future, go anywhere in life, or even experience tomorrow.
- Invisible Parents: Luc's parents are away on a three-day vacation, leaving him with a babysitter. The loop day happens to be the second day, giving an in-universe reason for us never seeing the parents in the show.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Luc, but Theo can suffer Amusing Injuries as well at certain points
- Kryptonite Is Everywhere: A surprising number of people (read: practically all the antagonists) are immune to or are able to bypass the time loop.
- Lady Land: In "Glitch Girl", a select group of girls at Port Doover Elementary, have created their own after-school society in the girls bathroom, where they rollerskate and have fun, and ban all boys from ever entering.
- LARP: Lester and his nerdy friends secretly larp with aliens after school.
- Love Triangle: Gwyn, Luc, and Theo. Theo loves Gwyn, but Gwyn hates Theo. Gwyn loves Luc, but Luc hates Gwyn. Luc and Theo are best friends.
- Missed the Bus: With every repeating day, Luc and Theo miss the bus, no matter what loophole or technique they try doing to catch it.
- Mysterious Teacher's Lounge: There's a teacher's lounge, which no kids are allowed in, except for the perfect teacher's pet, Kyle. In it, there is tons of fancy sofas, foods, arcade games, etc.
- Nerd Glasses: Theo, Lester and Gwyn.
- Parody Sue: Kyle. He's an extremely flawless and selfless Nice Guy loved by all the girls and known for being very mature and thoughtful for his age; he can even do anything he wants because he's friends with all the teachers and every student in the school. He even encourages Luc to follow his goals (even when does goals are usually "hurt Kyle").
- Production Throwback: The skull logo on Jesse's shirt is the same one on Duncan's shirt in Total Drama, Eric Needles' shirt in Sidekick, and Corey Riffin's hat in Grojband.
- Punny Name: Every day in Port Doover is a do-over.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: Theo built Dragonface Pukebutt this way on purpose, wanting to make a Robotic Spouse.
- Robotic Spouse: Theo built a robot version of Gwyn, to serve as his girlfriend.
- Secret-Keeper: Theo wants the loop to be kept a secret from everyone but himself and Luc. Although it seems arbitrary, given everyone will forget by the end of the day, outsiders have been able to use the knowledge to enter the loop in some episodes and attempt to write Luc and Theo out of it, keeping the power for themselves.
- Relationship Revolving Door: Luc has a crush on Alianna, a girl who hates him. However, in one day, he managed to prove his awesomeness to her and get her to fall in love with him and become his girlfriend. However, due to the loop, Luc has to repeat this again and again, just to maintain their relationship, causing suspense as to whether Luc and Alianna will get together or not.
- Reset Button: The loop functions as one, with every day rewinding back to 7:30 in the morning once midnight arrives. However, other stuff manages to escape the loop's resetting effect, causing trouble for Luc and Theo.
- Shout-Out: The reverse mermaid is named Splash Hannah.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Kyle is this for Luc, as Luc can't stand how perfect and popular Kyle is.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: All the nerd characters on the show comply, like Theo, Lester, and Gwyn.
- Status Quo Is God: Everything Luc and Theo do, no matter how destructive, is set back to normal by the time loop.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: When the Zerm aliens took off their human costumes, their entire species was a bunch of one-eyed, floating, gelatinous blobs. Aliana, the only female alien, was the only alien with eyelashes, and pigtails on the sides of her head.
- Time Police: In season 2, we are introduced to the Time Fuzz. A pair of buddy-cops, who solve crimes in time. Their primary goal is to find out who's causing the loop and end it, but since they're so stupid, they have no idea that it's Luc and Theo, no matter how obvious it is.
- Time-Traveling Jerkass: Downplayed. While Luc and Theo have their fun, they also try to keep their actions within the loop from spiraling out of control.
- Totem Pole Trench: In the last episode, the main duo disguise themselves as the talent agent.
- The Voiceless: Sarah. The last episode reveals she's actually saving her voice for a talent show.
