Western Animation / Peg + Cat

We are two, me + you!

Peg + Cat (pronounced "Peg Plus Cat") is a PBS Kids series created by Jennifer Oxley and Billy Aronson that debuted on October 7, 2013. It features a young girl named Peg along with her feline companion named Cat. Together, they explore numerous colorful settings and introduce children to basic math concepts with music, with two shorts per half-hour episode.

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Tropes featured in Peg + Cat:

• 20% More Awesome: Averted in "The Three Friends Problem" when Cat draws a graph indicating that Peg used to like him to infinity and now she only likes him to "about this much" (very low point on the graph) but likes Big Dog instead to infinity. Peg tells him that while there are lots of things that can be compared on a graph, her feelings for him can't be compared to her feelings for Big Dog or anyone else and that he'll always be totally special to her. Later, they both sing about it.
• Abnormal Allergy: Peg is allergic to four-leaf clovers; they make her sneeze. This is impossible - a four-leaf clover isn't chemically different from a regular clover. If a four-leaf clover makes her sneeze, then regular ones should do the same thing.
• Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Roxanne the cat wears boots and a hat, Baby Fox wears a bandanna and diaper, and Richard wears bracelets and a belt.
• Accidental Good Outcome: In "The High Noon Problem", Cat accidentally gets rid of Bad Jack, a cowboy who annoys the populace of a town by tickling the citizens, by bumping into him, making him tickle himself with his own feather.
• The Ace: Ramone seems pretty talented at several things.
• Acting for Two: "I Do What I Can: the Musical" has an In-Universe example: Peg and Cat play themselves, but also Ramone's parents.
• Adaptational Heroism: The giants are based on the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk but don't eat people.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Fairy tale characters like the Three Bears have more fleshed-out personalities.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: This series turns Romeo and Juliet into just best friends.
• Affectionate Parody:
  • "The Highlight Zone Problem" is a spoof of The Twilight Zone (1959): with the titular zone being Deliberately Monochrome, Ramone serving as the Rod Serling-esque narrator, and an Or Was It a Dream? ending. It also teaches an aesop about being happy with things being the way they are (Peg winds up in the zone after, out of boredom, wishing that things in her usual environments were different).
  • The Show Within a Show in "I Do What I Can: The Musical" is built around a series of Suspiciously Similar Songs based upon those of Dreamgirls, Wicked, and other Broadway musicals.
• Age Lift: Romeo and Juliet were teens in the original play but are adults here.
• An Alien Named "Bob": Richard is an alien.
• Aliens Speaking English: Big Mouth can speak English, but with a speech impediment.
• Alliterative Name: Baby Bear from The Three Bears sometimes shows up.
• All Witches Have Cats: Pig plays a witch's cat in "I Do What I Can: the Musical".
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife:
  • Cat, who is a cat, is indigo, although the series addresses it as "bluish-purple".
  • There's also Roxanne, who is a pink cat.
  • This show's version of ancient Egypt has several pastel-colored camels, including Epidermis, who belongs to Cleopatra.
• Ambiguous Gender: On the farm, there are crows and a pig, whose sexes are never revealed.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: We never know why Peg's father is not around.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • In "The Big Gig Problem", Peg feels afraid and has forgotten what twenty-three plus one is. She herself doesn't know whether she forgot the number due to stage fright or "chicken fright", or if she forgot of her own accord and is experiencing "counting fright" as a result.
  • In "The Sushi Problem", some fish that Peg, Cat, and Aki planned to make into sashimi gets stolen. They follow the Pig to the thief, but they never find out whether he intended to lead them to the thief or was just wandering aimlessly coincidentally in the right direction.
• Amusing Alien: Big Mouth and Richard's antics are often played for comedy.
• Anachronism Stew: Shorts can feature dinosaurs, Beethoven, superheroes, outer space, ancient Egypt, or medieval settings — sometimes, two or more of those at once.
• Ancient Egypt: An occasional locale: Peg and Cat are friends with Queen Cleopatra.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: In "The Tree Problem," when Cat is stuck in a tree (see Cat Up a Tree below), Peg opens up a present that she received, hoping for something that might save Cat, and finds a giant coloring book and a kaleidoscope. Deciding that she can stack them up to reach Cat, she asks Cat if he's thinking what she's thinking and Cat quickly replies "No."
• Argument of Contradictions: Ludwig von Beethoven and the Three Bears have one of these in "The Play Date Problem" and then follow it up with another about the best way to argue.
• Artistic License:
  • Food: "The Ninja Problem" has Cat tell Peg that "sushi is cut-up fish". Technically, sushi refers to the rice used in making such dishes, or the dish itself, but not to solely (no pun intended) the fish. Justified in that it's a relatively common misconception among non-native Japanese speakers, and enforced in that the writers were probably going for simplicity rather than all-out accuracy in a math edutainment show aimed at 4-7 year olds.
  • History: Beethoven doesn't seem to have any trouble with his hearing in this series.
    • Albert Einstein is shown to celebrate Hanukkah in "The Hanukkah Problem." While he did have a Jewish heritage which was why he fled Germany, he stopped being Jewish himself long before that.
• As Himself: In-Universe, in "I Do What I Can: the Musical", Peg, Cat, the Teens, Ramone, the chickens, the Neighbor Ladies, and Big Mouth all play as themselves.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Peg says, "It's the coolest thing since—", then Cat sees the Teens and shouts, "Teenagers!" in "The Butter Problem".
• Babysitting Episode: "The Baby Problem" has Peg and Cat babysitting Baby Fox for Mrs. Sheep. Soon after, the little tyke gets into trouble by building and climbing a very tall contraption.
• Badass Adorable: Peg, especially in the genre parody shorts involving heroic deeds. (She's been a knight, a superhero, etc.)
• Baffled by Own Biology: In "The Allergy Problem", Peg thinks she's allergic to cats. She's actually allergic to the Four-Leaf Clover she was carrying in her hat.
• Ballet Episode: "The Dance Problem", which centers around guest star Misty Copeland dancing in Swan Lake. Peg and Cat end up replacing two of the dancers when injury ensues during a key moment, though Cat does show concern that his tail will make him stand out too much at first.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Mama Bear doesn't wear shoes.
• Beach Episode: Most of "The Roxanne Problem" takes place at the beach, although no one is swimming or wearing a bathing suit.
• The Bermuda Triangle: This is the subject of "The Bermuda Triangle Problem" in which the Pig, who is obsessed with triangles, goes into it and finds it to be a world full of triangles. Peg and Cat have to convince him to come out before the portal in which they're all trapped closes and he gets stuck there forever.
• Be Yourself: Peg encourages Cat to be true to himself in "The Roxanne Problem", sometimes even saying the name of the trope word-for-word.
• Big Ball of Violence: The teaser for "The Pirate Problem" has the pirates engaged in one of these, leading Peg and Cat to wonder just what it is they're seeing. Maybe a tornado, a tumbleweed, or a giant hairball? It's seen in the story proper also.
• Big Eater: Cat is shown to have rather a big appetite, as are the Teens.
• Big Friendly Dog: This is the resolution of "The Big Dog Problem". The big dog standing in front of the mailbox — that Peg and Cat keep running away from — is just one of these and even helps them to reach the mailbox so that they can mail their really important letters, once they make friends with it.
• Bigger on the Inside: The chicken coop can fit all 100 chickens in it despite appearing like a regular one, as shown at the end of "The Bus Problem."
• Bittersweet Ending: At the end of "The Giant Problem", the misunderstanding is cleared up, but the beanstalk has been cut down and so they can't dine with the giants.
• Bizarre Beverage Use: "The Race Car Problem" involves the Teens driving a car that runs on red juice (and potato chips).
• Blown Upward by a Blowhole: In "The Allergy Problem", a whale accidentally swallows Peg and Cat, then later blowholes them out.
• Borrowed Catchphrase:
  • In "The Cleopatra Problem", Cleopatra says the "totally freaking out" line along with Peg.
    • The same happens in "The Girl Group Problem", except this time, Juliette, Tessa, and Aki are doing it too. Aki also mentions a big problem in the same episode.
  • In "The Roxanne Problem", Roxanne instead of Peg calls Cat a genius.

• Brainy Baby: The Baby Fox built a contraption tower.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Characters will occasionally speak to the audience, especially Peg.
• Cartoon Creature: It's hard to tell what species the Arch Villain and Flat Woman are.
• Cartoon Whale: In "The Allergy Problem", a whale accidentally swallows Peg, Cat, and Ramone. She looks like a solid gray, slightly blocky whale.
• Catchphrase:
  • Ramone will usually show up, do something to help out, and mention offhandedly, "I do what I can."
  • For Peg, "This is a (really) biiiiiig problem!" when one is discovered, and her sung "Prob-lem solved!" when one is, well, solved. Also, "I AM TOOOOTALLY FREAKING OUT!"
  • Pig says, "I love triangles".
• Catchphrase Interruptus:
  • Sometimes, Pig will try to say that he loves triangles but another person will inform him that they know already before he can finish.
  • Peg tries to say her line about having a big problem in "The Butter Problem", but the farmer says, "You've got no problem at all!".
• Cat Up a Tree: In "The Tree Problem" and "Another Tree Problem," the main problem in both is that Cat gets stuck in a tree. Inverted in "Yet Another Tree Problem," where Peg gets stuck up a tree. Taken to absurd levels and also inverted in "The Tree Problem of National Importance" when the Vice-President gets stuck up a national monument.
• Cats Have Nine Lives: Alluded to in the superhero episodes. Cat Guy's superpower is the ability to do nine clumsy things without scraping his knees. This count resets every episode.
• Character Tics: Whenever Peg freaks out, she flails her arms about.
• Chewing the Scenery: Usually, only Peg and Cleopatra act dramatic, but in "The Three Bears Problem", Cat has an ambition to dance to the exclusion of other activities and behaves almost theatrically when talking about said ambition. In the same episode, the Three Bears accentuate every announcement of a problem with playing the theme on saxophones.
• Christmas Episode: "The Christmas Problem," where Peg and Cat must do Santa's job when he and the reindeer are accidentally sent into space.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In one short, in order to restore Wise Wizard Ramone's sparkle, everyone who believed in wizards has to count up to twenty by twos. For those who don't believe in wizards, "There's a wizard right there. What more proof do you need?"
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander:
  • Pig sings instead of speaking and has an almost-obsessive love for triangles.
  • Big Mouth has a strange interest in everything yellow.
  • Cat is also pretty wacky, though not as much as the Pig or Big Mouth.
• Clue of Few Words: In "Peg Meets Cat", the plot of the episode is that Peg's mother is trying to figure out why an approximately eighteen-month-old Peg keeps repeating, "Two!". It turns out to be because she wants to keep Cat for a pet (because her plus him equals two).
• Comically Missing the Point: In "The Cleopatra Problem", Cleopatra and Peg say that the heavier pan in the scales logically has... to which Cat says, "A cold? Hiccups?", then when Peg says she's friends with the best cat in the world, Cat says, "Puss in Boots?".
• Continuity Nod: In "The Allergy Problem", the lyrics to Peg's song "Getting stuck in trees, chasing after chicks, shaking it for the bees" are nods to the episodes "The Tree Problem", "Another Tree Problem", "The Chicken Problem", and "The Honey Problem".
• Cool Old Guy: Peg admires Albert Einstein, who she actually knows somehow.
• Couch Gag: Every episode's intro includes something related to the first short's topic. This can be as simple as an item in the background of the scene and/or tweaks to Cat's dancing to Peg's singing, or as elaborate as Cat's Jimi Hendrix tribute leading into "The Groovy Sixties Problem".
• Crying Critters: Cat cries a Single Tear when he feels left out in "The Three Friends Problem".
• Dawson Casting: In-Universe, Ramone plays himself as a baby in "I Do What I Can: the Musical".
• Delicious Distraction: All the Teens, but especially Jessie, seem easily distracted by food.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The Highlight Zone is this. The only way to restore color to it is to recognize the other differences between it and the "real" world.
• Department of Redundancy Department: In "The Three Bears Problem", Cat talks about how all he wants is "to dance, to dance, to dance!".
• Disappeared Dad: Peg's dad is never seen.
• Disembodied Eyebrows: Police Chief Toad has them.
• The Ditz: While Pig doesn't seem all that stupid, Peg does mention that he's the only one who isn't a genius in "The Giant Problem".
• A Dog Named "Dog": The main example of the trope is a cat named "Cat", who is in the title. There's also a pig called Pig, a little chicken named Littlest Chicken, a group of teens called The Teenagers (or, The Teens, for short) and many other examples.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Peg and Cat almost entirely sing the show theme tune, save that off-screen kids sing the parts with the numbers and also join for the final shouting of the title.
• Dressed to Plunder: The pirates wear classic cartoon pirate outfits.
• Early Personality Signs: In "Peg Meets Cat", Peg is seen as a very young child of about one or two already knowing how to add one plus one, which shows that she's always been Good with Numbers for her age.
• Edutainment Show: It's a kids' show built to focus on math.
• The Eeyore: Richard, a little boy alien from the Purple Planet, is easily saddened when things go wrong, though he's quite amiable otherwise.
• Einstein Hair: This show features the real Albert Einstein, who has frizzy hair.
• Embarrassment Plot: In "The Roxanne Problem", the math nerd cat Roxanne is impressed by Cat because she thought she heard him counting by twos when it was actually Peg. Cat is embarrassed to admit to Roxanne that he doesn't really know math or sound like Peg.
• Episode Tagline: In "The Mega Mall Problem", Peg keeps talking about how if she's late to the dance, she'll "never be able to do this!" followed by doing a little dance.
• Evil Laugh: Discussed during the end-tag of "The Straight and Narrow Problem" when Cat comments that "Villains have weird laughs" and Peg says, "I know, right?".
• Exercise Excuse: In the episode "The Big Dog Problem", Peg says her Catchphrase "This is a really big problem!". However, her mother overhears. Not wanting her to try to help them, Cat lies that she actually said he had a "jig problem" and covers it up by dancing badly.
• Exposed Extraterrestrials: Big Mouth wears no clothes and Richard wears accessories but nothing else.
• Expressive Ears: Cat has them; they can get quite droopy when he's sad about something.
• Famous for Being First: In "The Long Line Problem", Richard is saddened by having always been last in line all his life and wants to be first. Peg and Cat swear to make him first in line to get a toy from the "Yellow Store", leading to all kinds of shenanigans.
• Fangirl: Peg becomes this whenever she's around the Teens.
• Fear-Induced Idiocy: Zigzagged in "The Big Gig Problem", where Peg is onstage and can't remember what number comes after 23, and is nervous. She doesn't know if her fear is stage fright or "chicken fright" and that's why she can't remember, or if she forgot the number for no reason and it's giving her "counting fright".
• Flash Back: Peg has several memories of past events in "The Allergy Problem".
• The Fool: Cat. Although he sometimes lands in trouble for his spacey behavior, he always gets out, and his random playing around is usually what inspires Peg's ultimate answer to the problem of the episode.
• Formula-Breaking Episode:
  • Downplayed for "The Scrap of Map Problem", which is mostly a normal episode, except 99% of the dialogue is sung.
  • In "Yet Another Tree Problem", the intro features Cat singing Peg's lines, and Peg doesn't help solve the problem. Justified in that the problem is she's stuck in a tree.
• Freak Out: Peg, and occasionally other characters but never Cat, shout, "I am totally freaking out!" whenever they're very nervous, usually accompanied by flailing their arms and legs about.
• Friendship Song:
  • The theme song is partly a song about Peg and Cat's friendship, with the lines, "We are two, na na na na na, me plus you, na na na na na!".
  • In "The Allergy Problem", Peg's song about how much she misses Cat has a few lines about their friendship.
• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Two of the Three Billy Goats Gruff wear full ballet outfits, and occasionally, other animals have dressed in clothes.
• Funny Animal: Several anthropomorphic animals, including Cat, the Pig, Roxanne, etc.
• Furry Reminder:
  • The Pig sometimes grunts and the Billy Goats Gruff sometimes bleat.
  • Cat sometimes takes naps on the ground, curled up into a ball, and when he stretches, he does so in the manner of a real cat. He also sometime plays with things by batting at them with his paws.
  • In "The Big Gig Problem", one of the Billy Goats Gruff is seen eating grass on all fours.
• Genki Girl: Peg often announces and solves problems with pep.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Once an Episode, when Peg is "TOTALLY FREAKING OUT" Cat puts out his hands along with a whistling noise as if to imply this.
• Gentle Giants: The giant couple who offer to have lunch with practically everyone!
• Good Luck Charm: Peg always keeps a sparkly marble (among other things) in her hat and occasionally gives it a quick toss before solving a difficult problem.
• Good Parents: Peg's mother seems to be quite a good parent.
• Grossout Fakeout:
  • In the episode "The Butter Problem", a cow is squirming because her udder is sore from not being milked. Cat mistakes her squirming for a Potty Dance.
  • In the episode "The Scrap of Map Problem", Peg hears Baby Fox Blowing a Raspberry. She asks Cat if he made the sound, and he says that he probably didn't, although he may have farted without realising it.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Baby Bear wears nothing but a shirt.
• Halloween Songs: "The Halloween Problem" ends with everyone singing about how this Halloween is the greatest ever.
• Hammerspace: When performing the "Problem Solved" song, Peg pulls her ukelele out of nowhere. Even The Littlest Chicken and the other chickens have their own hammerspace, as The Littlest Chicken pulled a bandage out of thin air in “The Littlest Chicken Problem” and two other chickens pulled out costumes from thin air in “The Bus Problem”.
• Hanukkah Episode: The episode "The Hanukkah Problem" has Peg and Cat celebrate Hanukkah with Albert Einstein, who was Jewish in real life.
• Happily Married: The giants seem to be a happy couple, judging by how affectionate they are towards each other.
• Happy Dance: In "The Butter Problem", Cat asks, "Are you happy now?" and the cow does a little dance.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: The Arch Villain is evil, reforms, then turns evil again.
• Hippie Parents: Peg's grandparents (who are logically the parents of either her mother or father) are hippies who still love the sixties, both the set of numbers from 60 to 69 and the decade.
• Historical Domain Character: Albert Einstein, Cleopatra, Ludwig van Beethoven, George Washington, and Romeo and Juliet all are recurring characters on the show despite their varying time periods.
• Holiday Episode: Besides the common ones, there's a Hannukah episode and an Eid al-Adha episode.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Most episodes are called "The _______ Problem".
• Idiot Ball: In "The Girl Group Problem", Peg's band mates think the map is blank when really they're holding it the wrong way. Then, they have no idea how to flip, slide, or turn the map.
• Implied Love Interest: Cat acts like a schoolboy with a crush around Roxanne, but it's never stated to be romantic.
• Inherently Funny Words: The mention of underwear causes laughter, most notably during the bathtub segment that bridges the two shorts in each episode.
• It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: In "The Sleepover Problem" Peg declares that her sleepover is going to be the best sleepover ever!
• Jack of All Trades: Ramone has a variety of jobs.
• The Klutz: Cat often indirectly helps Peg by tripping over objects. However, his blunders are not always beneficial to the situation.
• Lampshade Hanging: Much of the show's charm comes from how it's just as likely to play with their own recurring tropes (such as Peg's Once per Episode freakouts) to various degrees as it is to play them straight.
• The Lancer: Cat acts as a sidekick to Peg.
• Large Ham: Peg is just as boisterous as most young girls. She has at least one moment when she's "totally freaking out!" per short, whereupon Cat (or occasionally another character) reminds her to (usually) calm down by counting backwards from five. Cleopatra is just as dramatic as Peg.
  • The Pig's usually silent, but when he sings he bursts into a rich operatic tenor that wouldn't be out of place in an opera. He often plays villainous roles in the show's genre spoofs, such as supervillain Triangulo and tickling outlaw Bad Jack.
• Left the Background Music On: In "The Three Bears Problem", the bears play the problem theme on their saxophones.
• Leitmotif: There's a particular sequence of horns that plays whenever Peg realizes that they have "a really BIG problem!". A higher version of the same sequence plays when Peg is "TOTALLY FREAKING OUT!"
• Lemonade Stand Plot: In "The Lemonade Problem", Peg wants more marbles, so she and Cat set up a lemonade stand with marbles as the price for a cup.
• Like Is, Like, a Comma: The Teens and Peg occasionally say "like" in between words.
• Limited Wardrobe: Characters with clothes will generally wear the same outfits unless the situation calls for something different.
• Literal-Minded: In "The Giant Problem", Cat thinks the giants want to eat him and Peg because they talk about "having them for lunch", when they actually mean having them over for lunch.
• Lucky Charms Title: Using a plus sign instead of the usual ampersand is justified, because the show is about mathematics.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: After Cat does something that inspires Peg to find the solution (usually accidentally), she'll exclaim, "You did it, you (insert complimentary adjective) cat, you!" "Amazing" and "genius" are the most common choices.
• The Mall: "The Mega Mall Problem" takes place at a mall.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Heavily downplayed in "The Highlight Zone Problem". Peg apparently enters a dimension where everything is Deliberately Monochrome, but it was almost certainly All Just a Dream. Ramone does ask, "But was it a dream?" and Cat does appear in grayscale at the end, but ending gags are often deliberately nonsensical on Peg + Cat.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Big Mouth really does have a large mouth.
  • The Three Billy Goats Gruff have gruff voices.
• The Medic: A doctor is mentioned in "The Allergy Problem".
• Medium Awareness: Peg is well aware that she's in a show that has a website.
• Melancholy Musical Number:
  • "The Allergy Problem" has two sad songs: Cat's blues song about Peg possibly being allergic to him, and Peg's song about missing Cat.
  • Downplayed for Pig's song about being stuck in a tree in "I Do What I Can: the Musical". He has lyrics like "poor me" but doesn't seem all too sad.
  • In “The Littlest Chicken Problem”, The Littlest Chicken sings her own sad song about running away from the farm because she was lost in the crowd among the other chickens and wanted to be part of a smaller family where she would be noticed more.
• The Mentor: Peg and Cat often turn to Ramone if they're stuck with an issue at hand. Interestingly, Ramone appears to be just a few years older than the protagonist rather than being an adult.
• Messy Pig: Zigzagged in "The Butter Problem", where a pig is seen dirty but likes being washed.
• Mistaken for Thief: In "The Cleopatra Problem", Peg's marble and Epidermis the camel are found missing. They think the Pig did it as he was nearby, but really Epidermis stole the marble and hid.
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: In "The Allergy Problem", Peg is sneezing a lot and thinks she's allergic to Cat, then a bird accidentally takes Cat away and Peg thinks he ran away. She and Ramone set off in search of him and a whale accidentally swallows them and Cat. When they come back, Peg miscounts the items in her hat before finding out that she's actually allergic to clovers. Then, everybody sings a song about how making mistakes isn't all bad.
• Mister Strangenoun: Some characters' names have/are words: Big Mouth, Cat, Epidermis, etc.
• Moniker As Enticement: "The Potty Problem" features an in-universe example: Peg sings that when Big Mouth is potty trained, he'll be "the King of the Potty", a "potty-making machine", a "potty superstar" and "the bathroom champ".
• Multi-Part Episode: "Peg and Cat Save the World", a two-parter.
• The Musical: The whole show features singing, from the recurring ditty for solving problems to at least one tune specific to each short.
  • "The Scrap of Map Problem" and "The Magic Uke" are done near-entirely in song. "I Do What I Can: The Musical" also has a literal musical about Ramone.
• Musicalis Interruptus:
  • In "The Three Bears Problem", loud noises interrupt the Problem Solved song several times.
  • In "The Potty Problem", they try to sing Problem Solved, but then Big Mouth does his "business" on the floor again, proving the problem is not solved.
  • Played with in "The Roxanne Problem" when Cat interrupts the Problem Solved song with lyrics of his own.
    Peg: "We solved the problem-_"
    Cat: "Actually-the-problem-was-getting-Roxanne-to-think-I'm-smart-but-now-she-won't-because-she-really-knows-me, so problem not solved."
• Name and Name: A variant, it does list their names, but there's a plus sign instead of the word "and".
• The Napoleon: The pirates are all short and cranky.
• Nearly Normal Animal:
  • Cat seems like a Funny Animal but he's the same size as a real cat and doesn't wear clothes. Same goes for Roxanne, although she does wear clothes.
  • The 100 Chickens sometimes do human-like things and can even talk as revealed by the ending of The Bus Problem, but they live on a farm. The only one of the chickens who regularly speaks is The Littlest Chicken, who in most cases only says a few words (apart from “The Littlest Chicken Problem” where she says much more).
  • The Pig can walk around and talk, but lives on a farm.
  • Epidermis is mostly a normal camel, but has occasional human-like thoughts and can sort of talk.
• Neat Freak: The Teens dislike getting dirty.
• Ninja: Aki wants to be a ninja.
• Nobody Poops: Averted in "The Potty Problem." Lampshaded in the Cold Open segment, where Peg asks if they can even say what is making that nasty smell.
• No Name Given: Several characters are unnamed, including Peg's mother, the farmer, most of the 100 Chickens, the cow...
• Non-Human Sidekick: Cat is always found with Peg but occasionally Richard the alien or the Pig tags along to help.
• Non-Ironic Clown: Mac wants to be one of these in "The Clown Problem", and Peg + Cat help him by teaching the Rule of Three as it applies to comedy.
• Non-Nude Bathing: The "Bathroom" segments showcase that Peg bathes in her swimsuit.
• Ocular Gushers: Richard, who is prone to self-esteem issues, will sometimes cry these.
• Once per Episode:
  • When the really BIG problem of the moment starts to overwhelm Peg, she starts "totally freaking out!" It takes Cat holding up both hands toward her in a warding-off pose to get Peg to realize that she needs to snap out of it, most of the time this is done by counting backwards from five to calm down although there have been exceptions.
  • The "Problem Solved" song is typically sung twice in each short, once for the relatively small problem that comes up in the early going and a second time for the main problem.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted in that the Richard we know is one of several Richards in his family. Even his sister is named Richard.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Cat goes all gloomy and quiet in "The Three Friends Problem", Peg and the Neighbor Ladies are very concerned (they even wonder if he's sick) and sing a whole song about how "something's up with Cat".
• Origins Episode: "Peg Meets Cat", which is mostly told through flashback, has Peg and Cat reminiscing about the day they first met at a carnival.
• Or Was It a Dream?: "The Highlight Zone Problem" ends this way.
• Our Dragons Are Different: This one is red, bipedal, and loves spheres.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: The giant couple from Jack and the Beanstalk (a much more benevolent version) appears in several episodes.
• Phrase Catcher: Sometimes, Pig will prompt other people to say, "We know you love triangles, Pig."
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Zigzagged. While Cat is blue and Roxanne is pink, Peg also wears blue.
• Pirate: This show features four pirates.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: In "The Roxanne Problem", Pig claims he made the pyramid-shaped trash sculpture, but really Ramone did. This causes Roxanne to call him "Artist Pig" for the whole episode.
• Plot Allergy: In "The Allergy Problem," Peg fears that she might be allergic to Cat, but turns out to actually be allergic to four-leaf clovers. They make her sneeze. This one can be chalked up as Artistic License – Biology, since four-leaf covers aren't chemically any different from regular clovers, they just have an extra leaf. If four-leaf clovers caused someone to sneeze, then surely regular ones would as well. Mrs. Giant also has allergies, as shown in "The Giant Problem".
• Plucky Girl: The main character is Peg, an energetic little girl.
• Polly Wants a Microphone: The pirates own a talking parrot.
• Potty Dance: Discussed in "The Butter Problem". A cow is seen squirming and Cat asks if she needs to go to the bathroom, but really her udder was sore as she hadn't been milked.
• Prejudice Aesop: In "The Big Dog Problem", Peg and Cat assume the dog is mean because he's very large, but then they learn he's a Big Friendly Dog and they shouldn't judge based on size.
• Pun:
  • In "The Mega Mall Problem", Peg and Cat are counting the features of a dress she finds repulsive and she says, "I'm going to be six!".
  • In "The Butter Problem", Cat makes several puns replacing "better" with "butter".
• Punny Name: One villain is called the arch-villain and turns things into arches.
• Record Needle Scratch: This is used for the "Problem Solved" song in "The Highlight Zone Problem" when Peg restores the color to her bed, but realizes that it hasn't been restored to anything else.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Romeo and Juliet speak in rhyme, being poetry lovers.
• Rule of Three:
  • The comedic use of this trope is discussed and even made the subject of a song in "The Clown Problem".
  • The "Tree Problem Trilogy" sees Cat get stuck in a tree in all three installments... except the final one, where it happens to Peg in a rather clever inversion of the formula.
  • Usually (almost) every episode, at first, Peg will say "We've got a BIG PROBLEM!", second, she says, "We've got a REALLY BIG PROBLEM!", and the 3rd and final time, she said, "I AM TOTALLY FREAKING OUT!!!"

• The Runaway: In “The Littlest Chicken Problem”, the Littlest Chicken ran away from the farm because she wanted to be part of a smaller family where she would be noticed more.
• Say My Name:
  • Sometimes, Peg will say Ramone's name in a questioning way when he appears.
  • When Peg first met Cat, she shouted his name.
• Serious Business:
  • Inverted in the superhero installments in which several of the times that Super Peg and Cat Guy encounter shape-based crime, such as stacking the 100 chicks in a pyramid, they point out that it really isn't that big a deal, though they still have to stop it.
  • In "The Mega Mall Problem", Peg seems overly unhappy at the prospect of never getting the opportunity to do a particular little dance.
• Severely Specialized Store: "The Long Line Problem" features Richard wanting to buy a new toy from the "Yellow Store", which sells only yellow products.
• Shaking the Rump: Cat sometimes shakes his bottom during dances.
• Shout-Out/Parental Bonus:
  • In "The Big Gig Problem", Ramone demonstrates subtracting 1 from 11 (and that this is like counting backwards) on an amplifier that goes up to 11.
  • In "The Mega Mall Problem," when Peg complains about not being able to see to dance because she's wearing a zebra mask, Cat goes Yoda on her: "Your eyes can play tricks on you. Trust them, do not." (Though, technically, "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." was actually Ben Kenobi's line in the original film.)
  • "The Arch Villain Problem / The Straight and Narrow Problem" features a scene-changer that's a star (the one on Super Peg + Cat Guy's outfits) zooming forward against a spinning spiral, a la Batman. At the end of the second short, they tell us to watch them again, "Same Peg time, same Cat channel." A later Super Peg + Cat Guy short features the villainess Flatwoman, who's modeled on the show's take on Catwoman (which might be why Cat's attracted to her).
  • The Highlight Zone!
  • "The Friday the 13th Problem", an episode about the number 13, takes place at a campground, and the campground leader is about to tell them a scary story that took place on Friday the 13th. (He forgets at the last minute, though.) Additionally, during a music number, a character falls down, causing several objects to fly up into the air, including a familiar-looking hockey mask.
  • "The Pentagirls Problem:" "I have a fever, and the only prescription is more Peg!"
  • The original cover of Peg + Cat Really Big Album is clearly inspired by "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" from The Beatles. However, it seems that some lawyers may have gotten involved because at some point it was changed to a much more generic and plain◊ cover featuring only Peg and Cat against a dull two-color background. (Either that, or it was for uniformity, as other PBS Kids digital album covers sport a similar look, such as this one.)
  • Several fairy tale characters appear.
• Signature Instrument: Peg has a uke which she pulls out of nowhere to strum whenever a song needs to be sung.
• Signature Laugh: Cat has a habit of laughing, "Ha-ha-ha ha HA-ha!".
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis:
  • The titular Arch Villain in "The Arch Villain Problem", who's obsessed with arranging everything in arches. He reforms in "The Straight and Narrow Problem", but then he becomes obsessed with arranging everything...straight and narrow.
  • The Pig falls into this category from time to time, usually when triangles are involved. He even has a supervillain identity in the Super Peg + Cat Guy shorts: Triangulo, who once mentored Cat Guy but did a Face–Heel Turn.
• Slapstick:
  • In "The Butter Problem", Peg falls out of the window along with Cat.
  • In "The Girl Group Problem", Aki says, "Ouch" after doing the splits, and crashes into something.
• Studio Audience: Played with at the end of "The Long Line Problem". After singing a Triumphant Reprise of how geometry helped Romeo and Juilet get together, an offscreen audience cheers for them, confusing Cat. Romeo then confesses that it happens to them A LOT.
  Cat: Thanks, everyone! Who could blame your for being...who's cheering?
  Peg: I really don't know.
  Romeo: We get this a lot actually.
• Smash Cut: Following the conclusion of the second segment of the episode, it immediately cuts to the credits. No Fade to Black.
• Sneeze Interruption: In "The Allergy Problem", Peg keeps sneezing in the middle of her sentences, prompting Cat to finish them for her.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Romeo and Juliet are alive in this show, despite dying in the original play.
• Speak in Unison: In "The Girl Group Problem", the Pentagirls say, "No!" and "Totally freaking out!" in unison.
• Species Surname: The Three Bears have "Bear" as their surname.
• Speech-Impaired Animal: Cleopatra's camel Epidermis sometimes talks, but in a funny voice and it degenerates into camel noises.
  So everything waah!
• The Stinger: Every episode ends with Peg and Cat by the tree and recall a certain point in their adventure and poke fun at it. Sometimes, in a few episodes, something funny happens to give viewers a last laugh.
• The Teaser: Before the first short, Peg and Cat would witness the first problem and sense something is wrong leading into the events of the first short.
• Superstition Episode: Appropriately, "The Friday the 13th Problem", which is centered around the number 13 and takes place on Friday the 13th. During the events of the episode, Richard develops a fear the eponymous number and Peg and company attempt to get Richard to conquer his fear of the number. However, the number 13 proceeds to suddenly pop up seemingly everywhere in various forms, and everybody begins to worry that Richard's fears of the number are not unfounded, leading to them all totally freaking out. Fortunately, they are all able to remind themselves that 13 is just a number, and the various ways that 13 was turning up everywhere had a natural explanation: One of the teens was excited about being 13 years old and got carried away.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Another Tree Problem", the reason that Peg wants to borrow Ramone's giraffes is not because Cat is stuck in a tree again. No, absolutely not.
• Talking Animal: Several otherwise-normal talking animals, including the whale from "The Allergy Problem".
• Tall Is Intimidating: In "The Big Dog Problem", Peg and Cat see an English Sheepdog and worry that he'll attack them because he's so large. However, he turns out to be a Big Friendly Dog, leading to a lesson about not judging someone based on size.
• Teens Love Shopping: Downplayed. Everybody likes going to the mall, but the teens, especially Mora and Tessa, seem to like it a bit more.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Zigzagged. Mama Bear wears a dress and a flower while Papa Bear wears a tie, however, two of the Billy Goats Gruff wear tutus.
• Tickle Torture:
  • In "The Golden Pyramid Problem", the dragon threatens Peg + Cat with this, but is unable to because they're protected by a magic cylinder. Peg then uses this on him to get him to reveal what he did with the pyramids.
  • In the Wild West-set Bad Jack shorts, Bad Jack (aka The Pig) and his gang use this as their primary means of terrorizing the populace of the town. The first time out Peg and company fight tickling with tickling, but in "Bad Jack Is Back" she realizes that this will just create a vicious cycle and instead comes up with a way to get rid of both sides' weapons.
• Title Reading Gag:
  • In "The Long Line Problem", Richard reads the title, and then groans and says, "Why does there always have to be a problem!?", referencing how nearly every episode is called "The ___ Problem".
  • In "Another Tree Problem", the bird reads the title in a bemused way and then adds, "One wasn't enough?!".
  • In one episode, one of the Neighbour Ladies reads the title and then says to herself, "I hope it's not too much of a problem".
• Title Theme Tune: "We're Peg + Cat, na na na na..."
• Title-Only Opening: The logo is seen throughout the entire theme sequence.
• Toilet Humour: "The Potty Problem" includes jokes focusing on Big Mouth "going potty" on Viv's rug and being potty trained, Viv comments that Peg was a "very stinky toddler" before she was potty trained.
• Toilet Training Plot: "The Potty Problem" focuses on Peg, Cat and the Neighbor Ladies potty-training Big Mouth because on his planet, nobody uses bathrooms.
• Tomboy: Peg doesn't like to wear dresses and is often willing to be part of the action or get dirty.
• Toon Physics: Not normally, but occasionally Hammerspace will exist, and in "The Cleopatra Problem", the marble rolls uphill several times.
• Totally Radical: The Teens, who often sprinkle their language with "totally" and other hip terms, though this is more Played for Laughs than a deliberate attempt at being hip. Peg also uses the word "totally" a lot, and she does sometimes use other hip terms although not as much as the teens.
• Trying Not to Cry: Although he is prone to crying, Richard often remarks this when he's attempting to prevent waterworks caused by problems.
• Unconventional Food Usage:
  • In the episode "The Butter Problem", people sculpt with butter.
  • In "The Race Car Problem", the Teens' car runs on potato chips (and red juice).
• Unexpected Kindness:
  • In "The Giant Problem", when the giants mention that they're "having [Peg, Cat, and the fairytale characters] for lunch", the others take it literally. However, they really just wanted to have lunch with them.
  • In "The Big Dog Problem", Peg and Cat expect the eponymous dog to attack them. Instead, he licks them.
• Undying Loyalty: Peg is so loyal to Cat that she wanted to keep him even when she thought she was allergic to him. She's also shown to be loyal to her other friends.
• Unnamed Parent: Peg's mother's name is not revealed.
• Vague Age:
  • The Pirates are roughly Peg's size, and tend to act like children who don't yet fully grasp concepts like "sharing" or "personal property"... but two of them have visible stubble!
  • Ramone is very advanced for his age, he's not a teen, but he's a bit older than Peg. He's somewhere between six (although that's not likely) and twelve.
• Vocal Dissonance: The farmer's cow has a deep voice even though she's a female.
• The Voice:
  • At first played straight with Peg's mom (her voice just checks in during the bathroom segments), but then averted starting with "The Birthday Problem".
  • Played straight for the children in the theme tune. They might be the audience, but then again, this show doesn't normally have Fake Interactivity...
• Voice Changeling: Peg can perfectly imitate Cleopatra's voice in "The Pizza Pirate Problem".
• Wacky Cravings: Inverted in "The Mega Mall Problem" when Jessie (who is a boy and obviously not pregnant) craves something round, pink, and sweet.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: True to ancient Egypt, the men in "The Cleopatra Problem" don't wear shirts.
• Walk Like an Egyptian: "The Cleopatra Problem" features some ancient-Egyptian dancing, as does "The Girl Group Problem".
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Two of the Billy Goats Gruff wear tutus, and Cat briefly did in "The Three Bears Problem", and you can't get very unwholesome with a PBS kids' show.
• Wilting Odor: In the episode "The Potty Problem", Big Mouth poops on the rug and some flowers nearby wilt.
• With Catlike Tread: In "The Big Dog Problem," where Peg and Cat sing about sneaking past Big Dog while attempting to do so.
• Wutai: The Japanese countryside is one of the many settings, and home of Aki, the ninja-in-training. It's Deliberately Monochrome except for splashes of pink for the cherry blossom petals, and looks more like a painting than other locales.
• You No Take Candle: Peg slips into primitive grammar before freaking out in "I Do What I Can: the Musical", even though she doesn't normally do this, even when scared.
• You Wanna Get Sued?: Beethoven's reaction to Peg + Cat singing a song around his 5th symphony in one "Amazing People" segment. Needless to say, fangirling ensues.
  Beethoven: Stop! You stole my symphony!

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