Left to right: Nikki, Jonesy, Caitlin, Jude, Jen, and Wyatt.
I'm Sixteen, life is sweet
When you're growing up so fast
You gotta make the good times last!
Theme Song
This is a Canadian animated reply to Friends which follows the lives of six teenagers as they first seek, then maintain gainful employment at the Galleria Shopping Mall. The series centers on their interactions with each other, their co-workers, and customers as they work through being, well, sixteen. The series lasted from November, 2004 to February, 2010. A total of 93 episodes were aired over the course of four seasons.
Contains examples of:
Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The show takes place in a mall instead of a school, but otherwise Tricia fills the role perfectly in "Unhappy Anniversary".
Actor Allusion: The mention of "Christian Lotenza" in "The List". Any dedicated fan can see Jude is referencing his voice actor, Christian Potenza.
Who could blame him, though? Christian Potenza's a pretty cool dude.
As well as a regular voice actor for 6teen's production company.
Afraid of Blood: Jonesy tried to overcome this so he could get the free snack after a donation as well as prove to Nikki that he isn't a wuss.
All Men Are Perverts: In "Dude of the Living Dead," Jonesy manages to get a job in a women's clothing store just so he can watch customers as they're changing.
Wyatt: So if everybody knows about the peephole in the change room, why don't all guys apply there? Jonesy: They do. They just almost never hire guys to work there. Wyatt: So how'd you get a job? Jonesy: I told them I was gay.
Almost Kiss: In "Clonesy". Just guess who it happens to...
Armchair Psychology: Though Brianna from "Spring Fling" was a psychiatrist-in-training and her analyses were accurate, she still fell under this trope in that she was giving people psychological analyses they didn't ask for and she was really rude about it.
Jonesy has had a few in his jobs: for example, when he worked at a fruit store, he had to wear a banana costume, and when he worked at a soup store, his costume included a large soup can hat. He even inflicted it on himself in "Dirty Work", when he made himself wear a giant rooster head in order to attract customers.
Balloon Belly: Caitlin fattens herself up (to the point of looking heavily pregnant) after eating too much chocolate in "Girlie Boys", and unlike most examples of this trope, she kept the weight until she went to the fitness center to lose it.
Jen and Nikki can take either role: Though Nikki is the most aggressive and Jen the most studious, Nikki is also the most rational and Jen the most athletic.
Oddly, played straight when Caitlin barfs on the rollercoaster and remains completely clean while everyone else gets covered in vomit.
Though the fact that Caitlin vomited in the first place is an aversion in itself.
Caitlin herself is a walking aversion. Though the girliest of the girly-girls, she also does some of the grossest stuff in the show.
An entire episode was based around the fact that Nikki absolutely destroyed Jonesy's bathroom after a particularly terrible bowel movement, and Jonesy's forced to accept the fact that this trope does not exist in reality, and that girl's aren't, in fact, above such grotesque things.
Birthday Episode: Twice, with Wyatt in Season One and Caitlin in the Season Three premiere.
Bittersweet Ending: In the Grand FinaleNikki's family moves to Iqaluit after her father gets his dream job; the episode ends with the remaining five realizing that while she's not there right now, their lives will still be all right with out her and they'll still be in contact with each other.
Hope Spot: Nikki's family even agrees not to move after seeing how much Nikki's friends care about her, but she decides that she has to do the mature thing and move anyway so her father can have his dream.
Bland Name Product: Prevalent throughout the series. (e.g. Albatross and Finch = Abercrombie and Fitch, Stereo Shack = Radio Shack, Soft Rock Cafe = Hard Rock Cafe, etc.)
However, some real world bands do get mentioned from time to time.
Bowdlerise: In 2012, PopGirl in the UK suddenly started censoring the show after a few years of airing it uncut.
All onscreen vomiting is cut.
In "Deck the Mall" they edited the scene where Stanley pants'd Jonesy in front of Yummy Mummy and got him fired so it looked like he got fired for taking back the candy cane after Stanley made fun of him.
In "Unhappy Anniversary" they cut every mention of the bowl Jonesy made looking like a boob. Though they kept the joke about Jude wanting to have it and stroking it.
In "Mr. Nice Guy" they cut the part where the girls said they thought Jonesy and Wyatt were gay, but they accidentally left in Jonesy saying "They thought I was gay!"
Despite the previous edit, they still air "Stupid Over Cupid" uncut, keeping in the Gay Cowboy wanting to date Jonesy.
It's even weirder, as Jen's mom and Jonesey's dad were just dating at the start of the show. They weren't even engaged yet. Then they had to be engaged for awhile (it certainly looked like a full-blown wedding), and apparently conceived a child within wedlock. So I'd assume they were, in fact, seventeen by the end of the series.
Closet Geek: Chrissy is a big Star Wars geek but hides it from her popular friends, "The Clones", who are three Alpha Bitches who act and dress exactly the same. She'd always been the most independent of them.
Cloudcuckoolander: Jude appears to show signs every now and then of him being a little off.
Curse Cut Short There are many uses of this involving the word 'Bitch'. Once completely averted in "The Sushi Connection" when The Clones teased Nikki due to her assistant manager nametag saying ASS. MAN (short for Assistant Manager)
Credit Card Plot: The reason that Caitlin got her job at The Lemon and met the other 5. Also a recurring weakness, if she ever gets completely out of debt.
Cringe Comedy: In "The Birthday Boy" when the gang fail to throw Wyatt a birthday party and make him think someone else's party is his.
Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes Nikki, but Wayne takes this to an extreme extent.
Depending on the Writer: As mentioned, sometimes the six friends act twice their age and are making witty pop-culture references, and next episode they're making fart jokes.
Also applies to Chrissy. On occasion, she's smart and a capable boss (most often seen in the first season). Usually, however, she acts like she's only a few IQ points above the other clones. (Ironic, given that she's stated to have scored a few points better than Nikki on an IQ test.)
Serena varies from nice girl to total bitch depending on the episode.
Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Caitlin says this word-for-word after telling Jen she's bossy and overbearing, leading to a bet that Jen can't last the rest of the day without telling somebody else what to do, and the others going out of their ways to make her crack. Hilarity Ensues.
Disproportionate Retribution: Wanye firing Wyatt from the video store simply cause he accidentally spilled some coffee on a rare video. Before that, Wayne fired Jonesy minutes after hiring simply because Jonesy liked the movie Top M-16s.
Nikki: "...[Jonesy's] oversized male ego!" Jonesy: "I think you like my oversized male ego."
Dramatic Wind: Parodied in "2-4-1" with Blake, whose scarf and hair constantly flow in the wind even though there is none.
Caitlin: Is there a draft in here
Dude, Where's My Respect?: In "Oops, I Dialed It Again" Wyatt saves a baby's life and catches three handbags (one in each hand and one on his foot), but that's immediately forgotten about when he sneezes and has snot hanging from his nose.
Evil Is Petty: In "Losing Your Lemon" after Caitlin gets her credit card back and quits her job Tricia encourages her to go on a shopping spree just to get her back into debt and so she and her friends can steal the gang's spot in front of the Lemon while Caitlin is away.
Hair Decorations: Caitlin always wears a pink butterfly hair clip. This may possibly be to show that she's supposed to be the biggest girly girl in the group.
Feigning Intelligence: When Caitlin pretends to be a college student in Smarten Up. The rest of the gang does the same when they're drawn into the scheme, which ends up with Jonesy delivering a baby.
Feud Episode: While they're not long time friends, Nikki gets in a fight with Caitlin but all is forgiven after Jude's pet fish dies in "Fish and Make Up".
Jen is The Hero (as the leader of the group) Jonesy is The Lancer (as the most loyal guy of the group) Nikki is The Big Guy (as the most grumpy rebel girl of the group) Wyatt is The Smart Guy (as the most wellread of the group) Jude is The Heart (as the skateboard ditz of the group) Caitlin is The Chick (as the sweetest one of the group) and Sixth Ranger (as the newest member of the group)
Or as "Dude in the Living Dead" would have it:
The Hero: Jude The Lancer: Jonesy The Big Guy: Nikki The Smart Guy: Wyatt The Heart: Jen The Chick: Caitlin, The Clones, later Starr (after The Clones turned into a zombies) Sixth Ranger: Darth, Ron the Rent-a-cop (later they turned into a zombies) Team Pet: Talon (carted around by Caitlin after he was bit by a zombie. She later dumped him.)
Ron the Rent-a-cop called their codenames in "The New Guy":
Chocolate-covered jellybeans for Ron the Rent-a-Cop in "Welcome to the Darth Side".
Coffee for Jude in "Smarten Up" when he becomes obsessed with winning Grind Me's giveaway contest.
Geek: Darth, most particularly. Chrissy (of the Clones) shows occasional signs of being a closet case.
Gender Equal Ensemble: Three boys (Jonesy, Jude and Wyatt) and three girls (Nikki, Jen and Caitlin).
Genre Shift: Dude of the Living Dead, while it does have it's humorous moments, is still pretty much a straight-up scary episode about a zombie infestation.
And always a job in the mall...even excluding the episodes where his job is on his own entrepreneurial spirit (and usually dubious morality) Fridge Logic sets in on just how big IS that mall?!
In the first episode, Jude confirms it at 936 stores, saying he counted one day.
It's possible the writers got their inspiration from the West Edmonton Mall. It has a roller coaster AND a waterpark!
Both of which are also present in the Galleria Mall, along with an ice skating rink.
It almost certainly is inspired by the West Edmonton Mall — the floor map that appears in the opening sequence is very similar to the West Edmonton Mall's floor map.
Although, having been there quite a few times, there are about over 800 stores, so I guess it depends how long Jonesy's been working there.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Invoked in-universe when Jude mentions a German docudrama narrated by the man himself.
There was an entire episode where the plot circulated around Jen getting a crush on her female superior at work. Along with an entire scene in one episode where the entire mall thinks Jonesy and Wyatt are dating.
Then there's that Valentine's Day special where Jonesy holds an auction for a date and the highest bidder is almost a male cowboy...
At the end of "Clonesy", when Jude has recovered from having slathered muscle relaxant over his entire body:
Jude: "Yeah, I can feel every part of my body again!" Nikki: "Just don't be doing it around us, okay?"
In the episode "Quit It!", there's a baking store by the name of "CM". On their logo, in between the two initials, is a liquid measuring cup filled with milk. It looks a suspicious lot like a "u"...
In "The One with the Cold Sore" Nikki and Wyatt think Caitlin and Jude are secretly dating, and when they call Caitlin while she's riding the rollercoaster with Jude, they mistake Caitlin's excited screams for orgasms and think they're having sex.
Hide Your Lesbians: Averted with a one shot character. Not only it was outright stated she was gay, we actually see her and her date (in the background, though).
In earlier seasons, a Gay Cowboy keeps bidding to win a Valentines Day date with Jonesy,, and Jonesy and Wyatt were once Mistaken for Gay by two girls they were trying to hit on.
Played with in "Bicker Me Not" where while don't say the word gay in describing Caitlin's Coworker Kevin, he's referred to as "playing for the other team" in conversation.
Hopeless Auditionees: In "Idol Time at the Mall" every Star Contest contestant except Wyatt. Subverted in that Wyatt's five friends were aware that they're terrible singers and were only doing it to make Wyatt look even better by comparison.
Hypocritical Humor: Sometimes Caitlin will get mad because she thinks her boyfriend has dumped her or will dump her for some superficial reason, but will later end up dumping him for the same reason.
When the gang reveal their embarrassing secrets to each other, Caitlin adamantly tells them that hers won't be repeated before telling. Soon after, she goes and blabs their secrets to her boyfriend of the day because since they're dating, they shouldn't keep secrets from each other (while conveniently neglecting to tell him her own). This goes downhill as said boyfriend blabs said secrets while under hypnosis, causing the gang to cut Caitlin off from them for breaking their trust. Once the gang plan to take their revenge, she says best friends don't go blabbing other people's secrets (which she had done in the first place).
When Jen and Nikki are taking a survey and ask Jonesy if he'd dump a girl for answering the phone with "Y'ello" he says he would because it's annoying. Later in the episode he answers his phone that same way.
In the pilot, Tricia ends her friendship with Caitlin because of her Big Squeeze uniform, leaving her devastated as to why Tricia would do that to her for such a trivial reason. Wyatt comments on this, asking what kind of person would judge people by their clothes, which Caitlin admittedly raised her hand to. She then tries to justify it by saying she wouldn't do that to a friend at least.
If You Die I Call Your Stuff: The Clones are apt to do this because they're all the same size and they have the same taste in clothes.
Inept Aptitude Test: Not so much the test, but the fact that their tests got switched.
Informed Judaism: Jude, actually, but only because he said he needed to go home for the Hanukkah celebration in one of the christmas episodes.
Despite this, Jude actively celebrates Christmas and follows its traditions (though is not at all good with wrapping gifts).
Insufferable Genius: Starr after she joins the nerd trend and dumps Jude again because his IQ isn't high enough.
Insult Backfire: In "The Sushi Connection" Kirsten attempts to insult Nikki by calling her The Khakinator, but Nikki likes the nickname.
It Tastes Like Feet: Apparently if you're hyped on energy drinks tea starts to taste like "a dirty gymsock."
To be fair, it was herbal tea that is supposed to calm you down. One such tea is Valerian, which smells remarkably like sweaty feet.
Mistaken for Gay: Jonesy and Wyatt are thought to be a gay couple by two women they are trying to pick up. Jonesy wasn't too thrilled about it (Jonesy: "Not gay! NOT GAY!").
Happens again when Jonesy volunteers to tell Wyatt that Marlowe is dumping him, and telling him in a cafe infamous for being a hotspot for couples breaking up. When Wyatt shouts his reaction in the wrong way, the customers (particularly the females) immediately mistook them for a gay couple breaking up because "Jonesy is deciding to switch teams". For some odd reason, despite their own break-ups with their boyfriends, the girls were angry that Jonesy's "breaking up with Wyatt". It didn't help that after Jonesy gets chased out, Wyatt runs after, asking something that could also be taken the wrong way.
Nikki as well in "Role Reversal," when she tries to find out if her new friend has a crush on her. The girl thought Nikki was trying to ask her out and politely declines because she already has a girlfriend.
Naked People Are Funny: You should probably expect this from the makers of Total Drama Island - Jen is shown naked at least three times with Jonesy a close second. Jude as well, while skydiving.
New Job Episode: The first episode, though most of the cast has had a change of career at some point in the series, not just Jonesy. However, none of the girls have permanently lost their jobs.
"Going Underground" also counts, as Jude and Wyatt both lose their jobs, and the guys all have to fine new ones.
This is never more obvious than if you see the video of Ron the Rent-a-cop doing a perfect Homage to Christopher Walken's/Fatboy Slim's music video of "Weapon of Choice", as seen at the end of the episode "Lifeslaver".
If ever there were a live action version of the show, this troper could see no more perfect actor for Wayne than Jack Black.
His whole character is probably a reference to Jack Black in Rewind.
Actually, the character predates that movie.
The Talent Show episode had the judges look exactly like Randy, Paula, and Simon.
Rousing Speech: Jude is the absolute king of this trope. While all of his speechs are odd since he is a Cloud Cuckoolander, his speeches always manage to elicit an applause from others. In the finale, he manages to make Ron cry with his speech.
Secret Diary: Naturally happens to Jen in The Journal.
Secret Relationship: Jude had one with a girl who doesn't want to be seen with him, so they hide in various places. She even threatens him if her friends find out. In the end, as a test, he farted while they're in the air vents, she opens the hatch and fell out, then Jude breaks up with her.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Wyatt and Jonesy. Jude is somewhere between the two; he's a much bigger risk taker than Wyatt but nowhere near as hypermasculine as Jonesy.
Ship Tease Some times. In one episode, Jude and Caitlin were thought to be dating.
In another, Wyatt and Caitlin become attracted to each other after accidentally kissing.
There was also the journal episode which has Jude being the only one to not read Jen's journal and ultimately being the one who convinces her to come back to the mall.
Shout Out: Wayne gives one to Seven Samurai, claiming "The 77th Samurai" is the best movie ever made and his prized possesion.
The video of Ron the guys watch at the end of the season 3 finale is a parody of the music video of "Weapon of Choice" by Fat Boy Slim. An allusion to Ron being based on Christopher Walken, who starred in the video.
In the episode "Lights Out," where Jude tries to join the goth troupe, Caitlin recognizes one of the goths, "Morgana, Mistress of the Macabre," as Haley from tennis camp. In one of the Saturday Night Live "Goth Talk" sketches, Circe Nightshade (real name Stephanie) mentions that she and Countess Cobwella (real name Denise) went to tennis camp together.
Shower of Awkward: Played straight in one episode, where Jonesy accidently sees Jen completely naked (and to make this more awkward, she has become his stepsister by this point.) He's completely freaked out and everything he sees or thinks about reminds him of the picture in his head.
"Shut Up" Kiss / Forceful Kiss: In "Smarten Up," Caitlin starts dating a college boy, but lies about being in college to impress him. Soon, he starts asking to meet her friends, but she pulls this trope on him to keep his mind off it.
Similar Squad: Tricia's new friends in "Losing Your Lemon" are Expies of the main gang.
Single-Minded Twins: Kristen and Kirsten, even though they're not really twins.
Sixth Ranger: While not a Five-Man Band ensemble per se, Caitlin joins the core group of five in the first episode and spends part of the next couple trying to win a place in the group
Skyward Scream: Jen, after she kissed Jonesy, thinking he was her boyfriend Smithy. Only after this mix-up does she realize they look almost identical.
Something Else Also Rises: Blink and you'll miss it, when Darth sees the girl of his dreams (dressed as a Vulcan), his lightsaber suddenly switches on.
Too Dumb to Live The Clones. One time they thought Jude trapped in an air vent was God. Even after they were told who it was, one still asked "You mean Jude is God?"
Though it was All Just a Dream, in Dude of the Living Dead one of them became a zombie, and the others wanted her to make them zombies too because they were afraid of being behind on the latest trend.
One time they were tricked into believing that hot steam would be sent through the phone lines to clean them, so they should avoid using their phones for a while. What makes this even dumber? They were using their cell phones!
Town Girls: Caitlin (the fashionable girly girl), Nikki (the sarcastic punk-rocker), and Jen (the smart, sensible girl).
The interesting thing about this is, while Caitlin acts more like the uptown girl and Nikki the out of town girl, Caitlin is the one who is technically from out of town since she is the newest member of the group.
True Companions: There's a sense of it, considering they actually spend Christmas and other important holidays together, and most of their families are either dysfunctional or not mentioned.
Wardrobe Malfunction: On Caitlin's advice, Nikki wears a nice dress, to impress an ex. Unfortunately, said dress was just long enough to get caught in the escalator, get torn off, and leave her standing there in her underwear.
What the Hell, Hero?: In one episode Wyatt had prepared for a music competition being held at the mall with a song he wrote about the gang. When none of them showed up (except for Nikki who was asleep), a disappointed and hurt Wyatt changed the lyrics of the song to vent out his frustration by bashing his friends. Everyone who heard the song, upon meeting any other member of the gang, told them they were awful and didn't deserve a friend like Wyatt.
Woman Scorned: In "Double Date," after being asked out by the same guy at the same time, some girls decide to start a vigilante group against jerk guys. This ultimately fails because the leader is Trisha, who has guys marked down as jerks for frivolous offenses or without getting all the facts. Or she could have just been singling out Jude and Wyatt because they're friends with Caitlin.
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