Western Animation: Total Drama Island aka: Total Drama
The cast of Total Drama Island, Total Drama Action, and Total Drama World Tour. *
First Row (left to right): Izzy, Bridgette, Courtney, Katie, Sadie, Ezekiel, Beth. Second Row (left to right): Lindsay, Leshawna, Eva, Justin, Owen, Noah, Trent, Gwen, Cody. Third Row (left to right): DJ, Duncan, Tyler, Harold, Geoff, Heather. Not pictured: Alejandro, Sierra.
"Dear Mom and Dad I'm doin' fine,
You guys are on my mind.
You asked me what I wanted to be,
And now I think the answer's plain to see...
I wanna be famous!
A popular Canadian animated series produced by Teletoon from the creators of 6teen. The show is about 22 teens who sign up to star on a reality show similar to Survivor called Total Drama Island. The first season takes place at a camp called Camp Wawanakwa, located on an island in an unspecified area in Muskoka, Ontario. They are divided into two teams, the Screaming Gophers and the Killer Bass (however, when the teams get too small "it's every man for himself"). The second season, Total Drama Action, takes place on an abandoned film lot. The third season, Total Drama World Tour, has the contestants traveling by plane to places all over the world and had a dramatic change in quality, but also has two new contestants. A fourth season, Total Drama Revenge of the Island, began airing in January 2012, and it features a cast of thirteen new contestants.Due to the nature of the show, all of the main characters are rather obvious and blatant stereotypes of reality show contestants and teenagers in general (such as the goth girl, the party-obsessed guy, the over-eager kid, etc.), and they are mostly Played for Laughs.The second season of this show also holds special significance for showing that Cartoon Network understands that older kids can handle more mature humor in cartoons. The first season was heavily censored, but when they removed most cursing for Total Drama Action and later World Tour as well, a Moral Guardian rampage didn't occur, likely due to the show's late airtime. As such, shows where the humor can become slightly off-color, like Adventure Time and Regular Show, were allowed to spawn, and Cartoon Network snagged better ratings with both its intended demographic and its older fans.Has its own wiki, which is almost as popular as the show itself.
This show provides examples of:
Abhorrent Admirer: Ezekiel to Anna Maria, in looks if not personality.
According to Word Of God, Justin's role as a villain in season two.
Alejandro is basically an Expy of Justin with side order of Magnificent Bastard like Heather. He's essentially a rectification of the failure of Justin and Courtney in Action.
In "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island", Courtney found out that the island isn't actually an island. But this is never mentioned again after she found out. It seemed like it was going to lead up to something, but it wound up just being a bizarre random fact.
Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Used in the World Tour episode where they go to New York. They ride speed boats through it.
Acquired Situational Narcissism: Geoff, after he becomes a co-host of the Aftermaths in the second season, though Bridgette would break him of it.
Although Leshawna and Owen avert this by being unable to run long distances and in Total Drama Action Leshawna's size gives her problems during a challenge where contestants had to avoid lasers beams.
Averted again with Staci and Sam.
Action Girl: All the girls have their moments, but Courtney, Gwen and Sierra are the most prominent.
All Animals Are Dogs: Hilariously used in "Can't Help Falling In Louvre" when Noah is able to get rid of Sasquatchanakwa by using the 'invisible ball' trick, Noah even says he uses that on his dog back home all the time.
All There in the Manual: The character biographies, audition videos, and online interviews reveal more information about the campers than the show ever will.
Some of the bios include Bland Name Products of real bands, movies or people.
All Women Are Lustful: The female characters are more prone to sexual behavior than the boys.
The Alleged Car: Some vehicles featured in the show are low budget, poorly designed, broken down, and not well maintained
The Boat of Losers, though it's in better condition than most of the other vehicles regularly featured on the show.
The Lame-o-sine, complete with a set of bull horns on the hood.
The single-prop plane from Island and the Total Drama Jumbo Jet are certainly less than airworthy. The First Class section and the "reserved for hosts only" rooms are the inside parts of the latter in better condition than the other rooms in the plane.
The contestant-built bikes in "That's Off the Chain" deserve a nod, being built from salvaged bike parts and other materials. Some held together while others fell apart.
The go-karts in "Grand Chef Auto" played with this. Some looked a bit beat-up but worked just fine, but out of the six, Scott couldn't drive at all due to missing front wheels, and at Jo could, but only with a lot of difficulty due to the car constantly stopping.
In "Up Up and Away in My Pitiful Balloon", the contestants had to build flying machines out of junkyard scrap. While the machines were functional, they were all destroyed by the end of the episode.
Amusing Injuries: To the point where nearly every character has had at least one, and some of the Butt Monkeys have had more than a few. Heather and Duncan are the most prominent examples, and the unofficial wiki also has a page listing all of the injuries that happened during the course of the series.
Animals Hate Him: Owen, Heather and Chris to a certain extent. DJ is a more prominent example, especially during World Tour. Duncan's the most prominent example. He's been bitten by everything from raccoons, squirels, chipmunks, anything that would give him rabies in the real world. Scott in season 4 may also count, with the legged shark if no other creature.
Arch-Enemy: Heather is this to several campers, especially Gwen and Leshawna. Also, season three newcomer Alejandro has the official title of "The Arch Villain."
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Several people actually are very strong or good at the game, yet clearly have no interests of playing a social game.
In the "Phobia Factor" episode, DJ had to face his fear of snakes by picking up the "smallest snake ever." After a dramatic pause, DJ freaks out because the snake blinked. Snakes don't have eyelids.
Art Shift: Occurs in the songs What's Not to Love?, Oh, My Izzy Mix, and in the finale song. The first turning into all simple colors so they would look like a Broadway musical poster, and the second into a crayon-drawn segment in Owen's head. In the finale song the two finalists and their helpers once again revert to simple colors: blue for one finalist, red for the other. The simple crayon-drawn style happens whenever Owen has a thought sequence.
Ascended Fangirl: Sierra in World Tour and Zoey in Revenge of the Island.
Attention Whore: Being the host, Chris is this in spades. However, since Total Drama is a parody of reality shows, every contestant is one in some capacity, especially during "Celebrity Manhunt's Total Drama Action Reunion Special". Among the contestants, major examples include:.
Award Snub: An in-universe example occurs during the Action special when the characters don't win the Gemmie award for "Best Reality Ensemble". However, this could have just been a part of Chris' Xanatos Gambit to get them on season three. A Gemmie is nice but another season is better.
Back for the Finale: The first three seasons bring back all of the contestants that competed to watch the final two compete. Revenge of the Island only showed those from that season returning, although there were cameos throughout the season of "classic" competitors.
Bad Guys Do The Dirty Work: In season three, Duncan wasted no time trying to get rid of Courtney after she found out about the kiss.
The Bad Guy Wins: Depending on where you live, the World Tour finale either has Heather (former antagonist) or Alejandro (worse antagonist) winning in some countries.
Bandage Mummy: At different points, Cody, Trent, Justin, and Blaineley.
Bare Your Midriff: Nearly all the girls except Leshawna, Beth, Eva, Jo, Dawn, and Staci.
Courtney and Dakota's normal outfits don't show midriff; however, Courtney's swimsuit and sleepwear does reveal it, and Dakota shows it on her intern outfit and when she mutates.
Batman Gambit: Heather and Alejandro are quite fond of these. In a less-evil sense, Jo is also fond of these.
Beta Couple: Geoff and Bridgette, compared to everyone else.
Beware the Nice Ones: Lindsay, Beth and Owen. The latter is a 296 pound Gentle Giant, but when angered, you're in for it! In Revenge of the Island, Zoey is this trope personified.
Big Bad: Word Of God says that Chris McLean will always be the true villain of the series.
Several. Heather when she lost season one, Lindsay when Courtney suggested voting off Tyler in "Not So Happy Campers Part 2" and again in "Broadway, Baby" when she learned she wouldn't be able to shop in New York, and DJ when he WON the challenge in "Can't Help Falling In Louvre" and Alejandro or Darth Alejandro, when he learns that the money was destroyed.
Also, Geoff when he found out he wouldn't be competing in Total Drama World Tour, and Heather in the alternate ending for season three when she threw Alejandro's dummy into the volcano by mistake and gave him the win.
Alejandro's last name, Burromuerto, is Spanish for dead donkey. In the Action special, after Beth damages the Mona Lisa, a security guard says, "Omelette du fromage?", which means cheese omelette in French.
As a matter of fact, that's probably a reference to Dexters Laboratory. There is a whole episode dedicated to "Omelette du fromage".
And cheese omelette would be omelette au fromage. The fact that the phrase is mistranslated in the same way as in Dexters Laboratory is unlikely to be coincidental.
The names of both new contestants are Spanish names. Alejandro means "Alexander" and "Sierra" means "mountain range".
Bi the Way: Owen makes constant gay remarks, despite having a romantic interest with Izzy.
Justin: I'm back to being just another pretty face.
Katie: And pecs.
Sadie: And abs.
Owen: And butt.
Bits of Me Keep Passing Out: Happens to all the contestants during the Africa episode of Total Drama World Tour as a result of the tranquilizer balls they are using in an attempt to subdue Zeke. And then they have to sing about it.
Bowdlerise: Cartoon Networkloaded the Season One episodes with censors for words like "crap", "suck", "freak", and even censor bleeps. Even worse, CN got to the point where They Just Didn't Care, and began using a word that was censored for "lame-o" early on, "stupid", as a censor for "fricking." Geez. The removal of most of these censors may have been one of the few good things that Action contained.
Boxing Kangaroo: In both the Australia episode and the Aftermath, whether it's the same kangaroo is debatable, but for now it's successfully defeated Duncan, Leshawna and Harold.
Break the Cutie: Being a Sadist Show, it happens regularly, especially as the series gets more cynical. Cody, Lindsay, Bridgette, Dawn, Dakota, and Zoey fall victim to it.
Break the Haughty: As much as the show likes to break its innocent characters, it loves to break its jerkasses as well, usually in an epic fashion towards the conclusion of the season.
Just keeps happening to Heather.
Justin and Courtney in Action.
Alejandro and Blaineley in World Tour.
Scott in Revenge of the Island.
Even Chris is not immune. He gets this when Sierra accidentally destroys the plane. The final moments of Revenge of the Island also does this.
Briefcase Full of Money: This is how the prize money is delivered from "Total Drama Drama Drama Drama Island" on. However, most of the time, the case either gets stolen by a rouge former contestant (Ezekiel in TDWT and Heather in TDRI) or comically destroyed whether it's eaten by a shark or burned in a volcano.
In "Aww, Drumheller" when Alejandro pulls Heather from beneath a rock. She immediately asks to be put down, but her tone says otherwise.
Invoked during the wedding-themed Niagara Falls episode. The characters are expected to do this as part of a challenge, though not all couples play it straight.
Buried Alive: Gwen's phobia. Also invokes a bit of Fridge Horror if one considers what would have happened if Trent hadn't remembered to dig her up exactly 59 minutes later.
Burping Contest: In the episode where the teams change to Guys vs Girls, the guys' team bonds over one of these.
But Thou Must: In the alternate version of Island where Gwen wins, the follow-up in the special was that the game couldn't be stopped and the $100,000 taken; all 22 campers were forced to search for the million-dollar case. This isn't the case in the "canon" version where Owen wins, however.
All the campers could be considered Butt Monkeys since they usually have at least one moment of extreme torment physically, emotionally and/or mentally. But Ezekiel, Tyler, Cody, Owen, Duncan, Trent, Harold, and Brick are the poster boys of this and Courtney and Heather between the girls.
And then we have the poor interns. So far they've been: tossed to crocodiles, thrown off cliffs, shoved off planes, eaten alive by scarabs, used as footstools for Chris and chased around a studio by Beth.
Call Back: In One Million Bucks, B.C., Chris uses the top half of Mr. Coconut for a cup while ending the episode.
Gwen still hasn't gotten over her phobia of being buried alive as of "The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean".
Canon Discontinuity: Most of the characterizations and plot points of Action are not referenced in World Tour.
Can't Get Eliminated for Nuthin': DJ tries really hard to get kicked off in the third season, but it never seems to work for him. And of course, the moment he does try winning again, Alejandro gets him eliminated.
Ezekiel, whose accent is more a parody of what Americans think Canadians all sound like. Seeing as the show is produced in Canada and every voice actor is Canadian, it's otherwise averted.
Izzy also references being wanted by the RCMP, and Owen wears a lawyer-friendly version of the Toronto Maple Leafs jersey. Additionally, Katie and Sadie mention being from Toronto.
"The Princess Pride", where Courtney got to sing in order to show off voice actress/jazz singer Emilie-Claire Barlow's pipes.
Though Barlow is the most prominent example, Word Of God says the producers were glad that everyone in the cast had good singing voices since it made the Musical numbers much better.
Ezekiel gets voted off first in both Island and World Tour. Similarly, Lindsay gets voted off on a technicality in both Island.(She was, technically, the last to cross the finish line: Everyone else's bike crashed, or in the case of Izzy and Leshawna, they didn't even race.) and World Tour (Since she and DJ were the last two Team Victory members and DJ wanted to go home, this should be easy, no? No, they instead had a fashion show, and DJ somehow won.)
Bridgette was also the first girl eliminated from the show, and Gwen the first member eliminated from her team, in both Action and World Tour.
Noah was technically the first contestant voted off of his team in both Island and World Tour, although Izzy was ejected from the game two episodes earlier in the latter season.
Heather made it to the Final Three in both Island and World Tour.
Played with. Heather got a meat grinder as a reward, but threw it out of the plane despite Courtney's protests. Come next episode, it could have been very useful. Heather was called out for not foreseeing this.
The candy, on the other hand, was played straight several episodes later.
In a parody of the Christian Bale incident from Terminator Salvation, Izzy flipping out at her movie crew for no apparent reason in the Action special. It's bleeped out in the original Canadian airing, but was one of only a handful of times Cartoon Network censored dialogue in Total Drama Action when the bleeps were replaced, mostly by words like "stinking."
Izzy: (yelling) Or I'll kick your (bleeping) butt! I want you all off this (bleeping) set! No, don't be (bleeping) "sorry"! Think for a second! No, no, will not take five, (bleep)! You call yourself a director of photography?! Why were you walking right through the set?! WHY were you walking right through the (bleeping) set?!! (Director runs off crying with Izzy laughing)(in a more calm voice) Okay, I was just kidding. Guys? I just went ballistic there for no good reason. What?
Compressed Vice: Trent develops an OCD level obsession with both the number 9 (the exact same pieces of eggs he had before Duncan ruined it), and Gwen in Total Drama Action after Duncan takes Gwen away from Trent earlier in the season.
The first episode of World Tour has Owen terrified of getting on the Jet, a reference to his fear of heights in season one.
Chris asks Lindsay if she understands the voting process this time around, referencing her voting herself out accidentally last season.
In "Haute Camp-ture" Noah mentions that he owns a golden Labrador, two seasons later, in, "Can't Help Falling In Louvre" Noah uses a quick distraction tactic to get rid of Sasquatchanakwa, explaining that the trick always worked on his dog back home.
In "Celebrity Manhunt's Total Drama Action Reunion Special", Justin mentions that despite being a Drama Brother, he can't play any instruments. For every Drama Brothers song from then on, Justin is only seen shaking a tambourine to the beat of the song.
In Grand Chef Auto, Chris mentions that Duncan still owes him camera time for skipping out on World Tour.
Critical Research Failure: In-universe, several of Chris's location/challenge descriptions in World Tour. The contestants have corrected him on multiple occasions, but they weren't perfect themselves— Courtney was right about 8,000,000 B.C. being way too early for the building of the Great Wall, but dinosaurs were extinct by then...
Crossdresser: Chef Hatchet in a few of the "Gilded Chris" ceremonies, though not by choice. It's happened a few times since, under varying degrees of convincing.
In Action, the Screaming Gaffers won eight challenges to the Killer Grips three. Chris lampshades the lopsided nature of the contest:
Chris: (Sarcasm Mode) Stay tuned to find out who will win this week. Could it be...the Grips?
Owen: Hey! We heard that!
Beth: It could still happen! We're not losers! (accidentally spits out her retainer)
The Epic Fail that is Team Victory in World Tour. Every single member is gone by the season's halfway point.
The Toxic Rats vs. the Mutant Maggots in Revenge as well, though this is less because the Rats are a weak team and more because Scott keeps screwing them over from within.
In Hook, Line, and Screamer: Gwen vs. the Psycho Killer. Gwen wins.
Not the show per se, but in the Brazilian online vote to determine the winner of Action, Beth won by 82%!
Courtney: Look, I am a very experienced swimmer. I was a synchro captain. I coach minnows! I am a CIT!
Heather: More like a B-I-T-C-
Gwen: Guys, let's get going.
Same thing occurs to Heather when the horn, from the Guys' victory in the Brunch episode, concealed her swearing.
Cursed with Awesome: DJ wants to go home because he keeps killing/hurting animals (accidentally), but he can't lose! And right when he decides he wants to stay in the game, he loses.
Darker and Edgier: While as not as bad as the other examples on that page, Revenge of the Island is this when compared to the first season; due to radioactive waste, the island is now filled with assorted mutants and monsters, not to mention some of the new contestants' personalities seem a lot "darker" than the previous ones' (take for example Mike's multiple personality disorder, Staci's constant lying to get attention, Scott being a bigger Manipulative Bastard than Alejandro and Heather combined, Dakota being turned into a monster thanks to radiation, ...).
The 3rd season also becomes this after Ezekiel becomes a zombie from an unknown cause about halfway through the season. Is it not a coincidence that this was after everyone on Team Victory(the team he was on) was eliminated?
Deadpan Snarker: Chris, Gwen, Duncan, Leshawna, and especially Noah.
Gwen visibly learns to care more for many of her fellow campers as the show goes on, though she'd never admit it.
Happens somewhat with Heather in Total Drama Action. Though most people prefer to think of it as Villain Decay.
It's more legit in season 3, where she does show that she has a heart at times.
Depending on the Writer: Sooo much. Depending on the episode and/or the circumstances, you get a lot of moments where the nice, goodwilled characters suddenly belt out snarky comments, or the local Badass and/or Jerkass suddenly says something polite. It gets even worse when it comes to friendships and/or relationships, where two contestants will be laughing and hugging one day, and trying to slit each others throats the next.
Development Gag: Several character designs from Camp TV, Total Drama's prototype series, are often used as minor characters in the finished product.
The early designs of DJ, Cody, Tyler, and Katie are quite often seen as interns.
Sadie's early design appears in a few episodes of Action.
One of Leshawna's early designs was retooled as her cousin Leshaniqua in "One Flu Over the Cuckoos".
B in Revenge of the Island resembles DJ's early design.
Devil in Plain Sight: Chris, Alejandro in World Tour, and Scott in Revenge of the Island.
Did Not Do the Research: In Broadway, Baby! at one part during the sewer challenge, when you see Team Victory moving before the sewer comes up, the Twin World Trade Centers in the background. They were destroyed in 2001, and the single World Trade Center, its replacement, would not be finished until 2012/2013, and this episode takes place in 2009/2010.
When Noah made fun of Chris' age, Chris responded by throwing him off a cliff.
Leshawna beating up Heather and knocking a tooth out for just saying the truth.
Dissonant Serenity: Mostly the glee that Chris takes in giving the contestants life-threatening challenges (seriously, a thousand foot jump followed by four days with no sleep?). Some other instances are also played with remarkable casualness: Cody being mauled by a bear, Owen being fifty thousand dollars in the hole, Lindsay and Beth sitting in a French prison for months, and DJ and his momma losing everything in the special. Then again, it is a kids' show.
Distracted by the Sexy: The usual form of this trope is more often than not inverted with the girls getting distracted by boys. Justin in Island and Action and Alejandro in World Tour are the main perpetrators of these. The only male-on-female instance is in Island when Harold lost focus after Heather lost her top.
Don't Try This At Home: "This episode of Total Drama contains scenes of extreme stunts performed by ANIMATED TEENS. Do NOT try any of what you see here at home. Seriously, you could get really messed up."
Double Standard: Happens in-universe on several occasions, such as when Gwen rejected Cody's advances the other contestants didn't really care, but many of the females seem to support Sierra/Cody and feel sorry for her when Cody tries to vote her out in the Amazon episode.
A few individual episodes like "Search and Do Not Destroy", "3:10 to Crazytown". Also the finale of World Tour. Heather sacrifices possible love with Alejandro to win the game, only to lose the million dollars seconds after winning it. She (and the rest of the cast) is last seen desperately swimming away from flaming rocks spewed by an exploding volcano, with one huge boulder about to hit her before the "camera" cuts away.
Few people tend to notice this, but it is also a Downer Ending for Alejandro. THE ONE TIME he decides to be good and chooses loves over money, he gets betrayed, and then disfigured. If he had continued being the jerk-ass he was during the whole season, he would have won without a problem.
Drop The Cow: The actual producers of the show do this.
[A coconut falls on Courtney]
Courtney: A coconut? We're in Muskoka, people! If you want to drop something on my head, at least make it geographically correct!
[Several pounds of snow, followed by a toboggan, followed by an Eskimo, fall on Courtney.]
Dumb Blonde: Lindsay is a classic Dumb Blonde (although her hair is dyed), Owen and Geoff are also fair haired and not overly endowed with brains. Bridgette was an early exception, but it was also averted with Blaineley. Within the new cast, Dakota plays it straight while Dawn and Jo are aversions.
Easy Come, Easy Go: Most of the contestants fail to hang on to their money long enough for it to matter, such as Owen giving up his money for 1o times more money, but it gets eaten by a shark soon after, and [[spoiler:Heather's money getting stolen by Ezekiel and getting burnt in the volcano. Duncan after Action is an aversion; what he did with with his money is never explicitly referenced. Oddly, in the alternate ending where she wins, Beth is not. Izzy's brief time as a super-genius.
"The loser must walk down the Dock of Shame to the Boat of Losers, never to return, ever".
Elimination Statement: Doesn't always happen. The first to get one was Eva in Island.
With the introduction of the Hurl of Shame in Revenge of the Island, Chris teases this, but he usually catapults the eliminated contestant before they can say anything.
Apparently, Alejandro's last name means *snicker* "dead donkey". Surprisingly, he doesn't seem to mind.
And in an Embarrassing First Name example, Geoff would like to inform you all her real name isn't Blaineley. It's Mildred! And in Season 4, B's real name is revealed to be Beverly.
Enemy Mine: Happens often due to ever-shifting alliances.
Tyler is full of them, but the worst of the lot would be the time he tried to eat a banana in World Tour and it ended up in his eye.
Geoff and DJ in "Hook, Line, and Screamer". The former walks around mindlessly looking for an ice cream truck while Chef, dressed as a serial killer, simply walks behind him (Chris even called it "The worst mistake yet".) The latter because he ran away screaming like a little girl from Heather and her facial.
Pretty much sums up Team Victory. Their terribly unfitting team name is only the tip of the iceberg. They amass just 2 challenge wins, both of which turn out to be reward challenges. As a team they outlast just one opposing player (and only because she was evacuated due to injury). When the team is whittled down to just DJ, he gets discouraged and tries to get eliminated, but forgets to keep his mouth shut during the musical number (instant elimination had he not sung). He wins said challenge and it turns out to be a reward, meaning that even if he had succeeded in failing, all his efforts would have been for naught. In the very next episode he starts trying to win again, and that's when he gets eliminated.
Et Tu, Brute?: Duncan votes off Courtney in season two after spending the entire season fawning over her and shortly after hooking back up with her.
Heather when compared with Alejandro. As she puts it:
Heather:Even I'm not that ruthless!
And Alejandro when compared with Chris.
Alejandro: You are pure evil!
Chris was genuinely disgusted when Heather read Gwen's diary aloud on National TV.
Everyone Can See It: As of Chinese Fake Out, everyone knows Alejandro and Heather have a thing for each other, with Blaineley flat-out telling them to make out before her elimination and Duncan and Chris calling them "lovebirds" and "cute." Of course, they refuse to admit it. Also happened to Duncan and Courtney in the first season.
Everyone Meets Everyone: The first episode has the campers meet each other for the first time, with the exception of Katie and Sadie who were friends beforehand.
This show loves this trope. Even with koala bears, who maul Gwen and Courtney's faces in Picnic at Hanging Rock, and they aren't even technically bears!
The one in Can't Help Falling In Louvre had a chainsaw.
Averted in situations involving Justin, who is so gorgeous that when he falls into a shark infested pool in Action, a dismayed shark pulls him out of the water and then proceeds to perform CPR on him.
Evil Laugh: Chris does this often, as well as a few other characters.
"Evil" Versus Evil: Heather (sort of) vs. Alejandro throughout World Tourup to the finale, where they actually face each other. Lampshaded in Versus: "Now it's evil versus wicked!"
It's worth noting that the Expy in this show is actually not that subjective but in fact a specialized form of Real Life Writesthe Plot. Many characters were actually based off of real-life personalities appearing on Reality TV shows. Russell Hantz has two expies in the form of Alejandro (Even being turned into a Ratings machine!) and Scott (in terms of idol-play and sabotaging his team.) Several contestants are an expy of the I'm Not Here to Make Friends or Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy who show up on these kinds of shows. Heck, Staci almost makes one wonder if she was inspired by Coach.
Face Doodling: Duncan draws a mustache on Harold's face in Dodgebrawl, though the prank backfires since Harold actually likes the mustache, and Leshawna draws a smiley face on the back of Heather's bald head in Total Drama Drama Drama Island. Geoff draws light pen doodles on the final three's headshots in "Hawaiian Style", giving CodyGirlish Pigtails and making Heather look like a vampire.
False Reassurance: When trying to cook fugu (poisonous blowfish), Lindsay assures Trent that she knows what she's doing since she took biology; unfortunately Trent doesn't ask if she actually passed biology.
In "Jamaica Me Sweat", Chirs tell the contestants that the bay they have to dive into is not filled with sharks; it's filled with electric eels and sharks.
World Tour has a lot of these, examples include the Courtney/Duncan/Gwen Love Triangle, Loony Fan Sierra, Noah and Cody returning to the game, Tyler complaining about being unpopular and the way Ezekiel is treated.
Heather, Leshawna, and Izzy all get a censored nudity shot (Both front AND back for Izzy), though it doesn't cross into Ecchi territory. There's also Gwen's Panty Shot listed below, and just about any time the girls are seen wearing something other than their normal clothes.
Fiery Redhead: The orange-haired redhead Izzy is not only fiery, she's certifiably insane. Though normally level-headed, Zoey can get fiery when provoked.
Five-Man Band: All three World Tour teams could be interpreted this way.
In World Tour, DJ's tendency to accidentally injure animals occurs much more often. However, this has a rare in-universe justification, as he was cursed.
In Action, Courtney threatens to "call her lawyers" every time something happens that isn't to her liking. She only did this once in Island, in a justifiable case.
In Island, Cody hits on all of the girls, but he likes Gwen in particular. Come World Tour, he's only attracted to Gwen.
While Izzy was always in Genki Girl, in Island there were several hints that she may have been putting on act (and she would display levels of normalcy.) Starting with Action, Izzy became full-blown crazy 100% of the time.
Food As Bribe: Heather gives Owen a piece of cake in exchange for voting for Justin in "Not Quite Famous".
Foot Popping: Gender inversion in the Ex-Files when Gwen and Duncan kiss.
Force Feeding: Leshawna does it to Duncan as part of the first challenge in "Trial by Tri-Armed Triathlon".
For the Evulz: Chris likes to mess with the contestants, a lot of times for no real reason.
Four-Fingered Hands: Everybody. Oddly, Trent's t-shirt has a five-fingered handprint on it. Also, in "Hook, Line, and Screamer", Izzy gains a fifth digit due to an animation error.
Four Temperament Ensemble: The final four of Island. Owen is sanguine, Gwen is phlegmatic, Heather is choleric and Duncan is melancholic.
In the intro of Total Drama World Tour During the human pyramid on the top of the plane, Ezekiel, Lindsay, Harold, Leshawna, Bridgette and DJ are at the very bottom of the pyramid. Not only are they 5 of the first 7 contestants eliminated from World Tour, they are part of the same team, ironically named Team Victory. Also, the human pyramid shows Duncan next to Gwen, and NOT Courtney. Cody is not next to Gwen either. Not only do Gwen and Duncan get together, they remain together. Ezekiel's role in the show is also foreshadowed in the end. After everyone has settled on the ground, Ezekiel unexpectedly falls to the ground. This could be symbolic of his tendency to pop out of nowhere during the season after his eliminations, esp. in the finale where suddenly reappears to steal the case from Heather before falling into a volcano. In the same season, Alejandro's low tolerance for strange food is shown when he tries to eat the candy fish tails in Japan.
Every couple formed in the first season was hinted at in the first episode; if you don't include Duncan and Courtney, within the first 8 minutes of the show.
A possible and unusually creepy example appears in the TDRI-episode Grand Chef Auto, where we're transported into Mike's mind and he fights off his other personalities. However, just as it seems he has conqured them all, for a split second a black shadow of a sinister-looking Mike can be seen in the background, hinting that the worst part of Mike's psyche has yet to emerge. Big Bad for next season?
Lightning wanted to be a team of one and not only did he almost accomplish that before the merge, after Jo was eliminated he was the last remaining member of his team (if you don't count Scott who switched teams)
Courtney in TDA. She broke up with Duncan after finally getting eliminated, THEN gets back together with him soon after he wins, even having the nerve to say "we're rich!" as if she's entitled to the prize.
Anne Maria in TDRI. She was only attracted to Ezekiel because he gave her a giant diamond. Too bad for her, it was fake.
DJ becomes the victim of this in the Japan episode of World Tour.
Also happens to Tyler in "I See London".
Noah: If we're gonna find that clue...
Owen: There's only one thing to do.
Noah: Force someone to strip him down...
Both: And Tyler, dude, that's you!
Gosh Hornet: When Lindsay has to retrieve a key that's stuck in a beehive. Izzy gets it for her by ramming her hand right into the hive, and an angry swarm chases Lindsay into a lake. Needless to say, she's not looking so hot in the next scene.
Harmless Electrocution: Played with in Jamaica Me Sweat, where Tyler gets a momentary shock from an electric eel, and isn't hurt. Gwen, however, gets shocked by three electric eels and has to be rescued by Alejandro and taken to the infirmary. Played straight in The Ex-Files, where the guys get shocked by a laser, an electric fence, a clone pod, and an alien, in that order, and don't take any lasting damage.
Hollywood Healing: Played around with. The show relies on Amusing Injuries a lot (see: Tyler), but it also shows some injuries taking a realistic amount of time to heal, most notably Heather's black eye that took about 2 or 3 episodes to disappear. (see Beauty Is Never Tarnished)
In "The Sucky Outdoors", Duncan uses one to scare the Killer Bass at the end of his campfire story.
Duncan: ...because there, hanging from the door handle, was the bloody hook. They say that this killer is still alive, wandering these very woods. He could be just about anywhere, really. Maybe even right HERE! (whips out hook)
Killer Bass: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
In "Hook, Line and, Screamer", the Escaped Psycho Killer with a Chainsaw and a Hook.
Hope Spot: The episode Picnic at Hanging Dork is this for Gwen. Also, all the in-universe hype and support for Cody as one of the final 3.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Owen and Izzy (and in two challenges, Heather). B and Dawn.
Blaineley received a pretty nasty one in season three, being thrown from the plane without a parachute, trapping her in a full body cast, only for her to suffer even more when she has to represent "Team Heather" on the final Aftermath. In the finale, she more likely than not died a horrible drowning.
Alejandro gets kicked in the balls by Heather, thrown off the volcano, trampled by the rest of the cast, is burned in the lava flow and is revived in the same manner as Darth Vader.
Hypocrite: Almost every single character has a Hypocrite moment at some point of the series, but arguably Courtney rates highest in this regard. In the fear challenge, she forces everyone to man up and face their fears to score points for their team, but once her time to face her fear came, she chickened out, costing her team the win. She also talked about playing and winning the game fairly, yet in Action, she forced her way into the game through her lawyers and gave herself numerous perks that gave her an unfair advantage. She also called Owen out on "unfairly getting back into the contest" when she herself did the same thing.
Idiot Ball: Leshawna early in Island. Leaving Owen to guard the food alone? Really?
I Lied: Chris, when he said that anyone voted off could never come back to the island.
I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Heather, of course. Scott fulfills this trope in Revenge of the Island. Being a spoof of a Reality TV program, this is pretty much par for the course.
Jo has moments of this, too, but it's more that she has a temper.
Improvised Zipline: Used by every member of Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot in order to cross a river filled with piranhas.
Alejandro uses his belt.
Owen uses his hands, and gets rope burn.
Tyler uses his pants, but halfway down the line they end up catching fire.
Izzy places Noah in a backpack, wears it, and then slides across using the straps.
Informed Ability: Oh boy. One wonders if the writers even read the character biographies at any point.
Insufferable Genius: Harold, to an extent. Not so much insufferable, but he easily gets on everyone's nerves with his random facts, and never seems to take a hint as to when to stop.
Iron Butt Monkey: Basically every single contestant has suffered multiple incidents of physical damage that should have, by all rights, left them permanently crippled or killed.
In TDDDDI, Eva, Katie, Sadie, Courtney, Noah, Cody, Ezekiel and Tyler all do not return to TDA. Chris told them that because of this, they have lost any hopes of wining any money on this show. Regardless, five of them(Courtney, Noah, Cody Ezekiel and Tyler) still got to return to TDWT, and Courtney used her lawyers to get her back on the show around halfway through TDA.
Lindsay got eliminated in the season 1 episode That's Off The Chain! for technically being the last to cross the finish line, because some crashed and Izzy and Leshawna didn't race at all. This means that everyone else(except Heather, who won immunity) got one step further in the competition just because they were "wimps". Later in the season 3 episode The EX-Files, Tyler said to Owen, Duncan, and Alejandro "We didn't get this far in the competition just 'cause we're wimps! It's 'cause we always stay one step ahead of the-(game/others)"
Everyone who made it to the merge in TDA all rank lower in TDWT, while some(Justin and Beth) do not return to TDWT.
Trent, who has musical experience and is even the lead singer of a band, does not compete in the music-centered World Tour.
Alejandro, the season's antagonist, eliminates every male contestant (with the sole exception of Ezekiel) in World Tour, even though his charms were to influence women.
It's Raining Men: The theme song for Total Drama World Tour features the castmates falling off the Jet, parachuting to the ground and landing safely ...Except Ezekiel.
It Tastes Like Feet: After kissing Duncan in Total Drama Action, Heather disgustedly declares that he "tastes like street!".
Jerkass: Almost every single character has at least one Jerkass moment during the course of the series, but some just take the entire cake.
Chris. He holds very little regard for the contestants (and even less for the interns) and often laughs at their misfortune. The only reason he ever worries that the contestants might die is because the show would be canceled if they did.
Duncan, who bullies Harold for no reason and cheated on Courtney with no remorse. In Island it looked like he would receive some Character Development and learn to be a nicer person, but this was abandoned.
Heather. She became less of a jerkass in Action... Kinda.
Jive Turkey: Leshawna, and on some occasions, Ezekiel.
Just Friends: Leshawna on her relationship with Harold
Karma Houdini: Chris McLean rates highest in this regard, though he eventually gets what's coming to him in "Brain vs. Brawn: The Ultimate Showdown" when he is arrested by the RCMP for illegally turning Camp Wawanakwa into a toxic waste dump and gets throughly decontaminated.
Kick Chick: Gwen near the end of Hook, Line, and Screamer.
Kick the Dog: Almost every character does this at some point.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Gwen and Leshawna to Heather, Heather to Alejandro, Courtney to Gwen and Duncan to Courtney.
Advertisements inevitably indicate who the remaining contestants are by showing scenes from upcoming episodes, and promotional material during or after a season finale tends to be rather direct about naming the finalists. The worst example is an ad for the third season that revealed the two finalists of the second...when the second season was still in progress with six contestants remaining.
Some TV Guide-esque website posted small paragraphs about each episode. Oh, don't worry, the paragraphs don't reveal anything about the episode they're talking about: just who was eliminated in the last one. For example, the summary for 'I See London' read 'With DJ gone, only 2 teams remain!', the summary for 'Greece's Pieces' reads 'Owen is missing his little buddy Noah...' etc.
Latin Lover: Alejandro, he even says that his Latin blood keeps him hot in the snow.
Heather does this in the fake finale of the first season. She offers Gwen a laxative-spiked cupcake. Unfortunately for everyone wanting Owen to win, Owen eats the cupcake instead...
In the second season, the pizza they all (well, everyone but Leshawna, because "dairy and [her] do not agree.") eat is laced with itching powder and laxatives.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Chris reads the card that tells the audience not to try the stunts in the show because they were performed by animated teens.
Justin. This also happens to Izzy a few times. (cue the scary dramatic musical score!)
Sierra gets creepy horror movie music whenever she has a stalkerish moment, such as when she reveals how much information she has on Cody (obtained by calling members of his family pretending to be a reporter).
This music also was heard when Trent talked about his number-nine obssession.
Not to mention Alejandro's Latin theme tune.
And of course Duncan's blues/punk rock theme (which was surprisingly played for Tyler as well, a couple times in World Tour).
Played with by Chef Hatchet. Though he is actually a competent chef, it's his job to make barely edible slop for the contestants.
Also played with by DJ's Momma. She has a seasoning blend that can make any disgusting food palatable; however, when she gets her own cooking show, her cooking is literally lethal.
Played straight by some of the contestants. Lindsay accidentally poisons Trent with ill-prepared fugu blowfish in "Who Can You Trust?", while in "Eat, Puke and Be Wary", the final four's (except for Cameron's) dishes are lethal in more ways than one.
Limited Wardrobe: The characters wear the same outfit 90% of the time, though they are shown in sleepwear/underwear/swimwear when appropriate.
Lisa Needs Braces: Beth. She gets them off before the second season.
The most frustrating subplot of World Tour. Stalker with a Crush Sierra likes Hopeless Suitor Cody, who likes The Snark Knight Gwen, who likes Badass Duncan, who likes Gwen back even though he's been dating Tsundere Courtney for about two years, and once they break up Courtney falls for Badass Spaniard Alejandro, who loves the Alpha Bitch Heather, who likes her prize money more than Alejandro. Brain hurt, yet?
This one actually got started in season one. Cody liked Gwen, who liked and hooked up with Trent, who Heather kissed to make sure he'd be eliminated. Then in season two, Cody left, Trent went insane while Gwen started getting closer to Duncan, and everything went downhill once Courtney came back in the middle of the season...
Love Triangle: Several, particularly in season three: Gwen/Duncan/Courtney, Heather/Alejandro/Courtney, Sierra/Cody/Gwen, and possibly Duncan/Gwen/Trent.
Zoey/Mike/Anne Maria in Revenge of the Island.
Make-Out Kids: Geoff and Bridgette were flanderized into this in Total Drama Action; however, it's downplayed in World Tour.
Male Frontal Nudity: Owen, far too often. Also happens to Duncan in "One Million Bucks, B.C." and Lightning in "The Enchanted Franken-Forest". All instances are pixelated.
Maniac Monkeys: Mandrills attack the contestants in "African Lying Safari", and DJ gets attacked by some in "The Am-AH-zon Race".
Manipulative Bastard: Chris in spades. Heather in Island, Justin, Duncan and Courtney all in Action, Alejandro in World Tour and Scott in Revenge of the Island.
Cody falls into the Statue of Liberty's robe. It was cut out of the US version.
Also, he gets this treatment many times by Sierra
Mass Oh Crap: All the contestants get one when their bus starts heading towards a cliff and Team Amazon gets one when Owen, the human cannonball, destroys their boat.
Meat O Vision: Owen starts hallucinating that his teammates (and Chris) are food items after he gets injured (and then locked in a safe) in "Ocean's Eight-Or Nine".
Mean Character, Nice Actor: Thanks to Christian Potenza's series of video interviews of the series' voice cast, we can see that behind the voices of all the Jerkasses and Alpha Bitches populating the show are some of the nicest people in entertainment, particularly Rachel Wilson (Heather), Emilie-Claire Barlow (Courtney), and Drew Nelson (Duncan).
Noah is a Hebrew name for "restful." Interestingly, Cody can mean "cushion", turning the scene in Action where Noah is sleeping with his head on Cody's lap into an Accidental Pun.
Trent? How about Trent Reznor? Brings his obsession with the number 9 into a different perspective, doesn't it?
Messy Pig: In I Triple Dog Dare You! Heather gets cannon blasted into a pigs' mudpile.
Mid-Battle Tea Break: The Confession Cam pretty much serves as this. How else do you explain someone being able to make their way back to it when they're located miles away and in the middle of the challenge?
Sam demonstrates his Super Reflexes in "Runaway Model" by unbaiting one without setting it off. He ends up setting off half a dozen other traps because he accidentally stepped on the trap he just undone.
Scott finds one in Chris' garbage bag after drawing an undesirable objective in "Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon".
My Friends... and Zoidberg: Played straight in the commercial for the finale, basically referring to the final three contestants as Heather and Alejandro. ...Oh, and Cody's there too.
Naked People Are Funny: Unfortunately, it's Owen in this case, though most of the other teens get a pixelated nudity shot sooner or later in Action.
Lots: Alejandro getting trampled and drenched in boiling lava, Trent falling 5,000 feet from a plane, Cody getting swallowed by a shark (Sierra got him out), Ezekiel getting blasted out of a volcano on fire, eight contestants being stuck in a Drowning Pit, Izzy and Owen having the plane fall on them, DJ and Gwen almost having an anvil dropped on them, Sierra getting caught in the explosion of the plane...
They even had a musical number about this.
Never Say "Die": The show defies this trope every which way.
The third season is still a musical. Good luck determining that from any of the marketing past the original trailer and pamphlet.
At the end of the trailer for the upcoming fourth season, it clearly says "Coming this fall", except now those plans are off. Seems like it's been forgotten as no planned debut date is set.
An ad for the wild west themed episode of Action showed Duncan and Bridgette in a showdown. Not only did this not happen in the episode, but Bridgette had been eliminated by that point, and did not make an appearance.
Sierra as well. Her ancestors teachings go from Chris McLean Scholaring to basket-weaving.
Izzy can speak camel.
Tyler's incredible finger strength.
This one is an odd case, because it appeared out of nowhere, was reused in another challenge in a later episode, and then wasn't even REFERENCED when he tried to punch through a metal door.
Nice Guy: Geoff (first and third season), Owen, DJ, Trent, Cody, and Cameron. Lindsay, Bridgette, and Zoey are nice girls.
Gwen: (to Owen) Have you ever had a bad thought about anyone?
Camp Wawanakwa after Chris rents it out as a dumping ground to a "nice, family-oriented" bio-hazardous waste disposal company. It also suffers from "No EPA Compliance" due to the adverse effects of said waste to the local fauna and flora.
Two in the second season. One quit and one ejection, though neither are normal.
The third season had two people quitting and an informal "elimination" of Ezekiel by Chris, with a formal elimination of Sierra after she blows up the plane (in the same episode she was granted invincibility, no less).
Revenge of the Island sees Anne Maria walk off in the seventh episode, after getting a giant diamond from Ezekiel in the mine. Too bad it turned out to be a fake.
Not Good with People: Beth is the first type. Her character bio indicates that she genuinely wants to fit in with people, but only really understands how to deal with farm animals.
Never said on the show but reading the character bios at Teletoon and Cartoon Network reveals how similar several characters are. Like Heather and Courtney.
Not the Fall That Kills You: The very first challenge involved the campers jumping off a thousand-foot cliff into water below. Just try complaining about any unrealistic injuries after that.
Sierra and Cody, in spite of his initial fear of her, after he warms up to her when she gives him the first birthday he's had in years.
Off Model: Some of the character heights vary a bit for particular scenes, and that's just the tamer part. Heather has been drawn with her original hair◊ early in Action, when she was supposed to be bald, and Katie was once missing an arm.◊
Oh Crap: Everyone does this at some point or another. If we listed all the examples we would be here all day.
Just about every contestant that winds up in the bottom 2 for elimination automatically reverts to this expression. It becomes quite satisfying when this happens to a villain.
One Letter Name: B. Subverted in Truth or Laser Shark where we find out that it really stands for Beverly.
One-Scene Wonder: "Emily" The Flight Attendant from the fourth aftermath of Action is quite popular, often being paired with "Billy" the intern.
One Steve Limit: Played straight until the 12th episode of Revenge of the Island, where one of the interns is named Josh. Another character named Josh appeared as Blaineley's co-host in Celebrity Manhunt, only appearing in the Action special so far. Considering the series has more than 40 named main and recurring characters, this is rather impressive.
Everyone except Chris, Chef, Harold, Cody, DJ, Alejandro, and Blaineley.
Among the new cast, Brick and Dakota had their last names revealed.
B has a one letter name. Well, until we find out it actually stands for Beverly.
Only Sane Man: Noah throughout the entire series. Gwen and Trent during the first season.
Operation Jealousy: Employed for three episodes in a row in season three. Courtney flirted with Tyler (to make Duncan jealous), Alejandro flirted with Courtney (to make Heather jealous) and Heather flirted with Duncan (to make Alejandro: and unintentionally Gwen: jealous).
Out of Focus: Eva, Katie, and Sadie are the most egregious examples, as they do not get any attention in Action and World Tour outside of the Aftermaths.
Ezekiel, Cody, Noah, and Tyler during Action, but they receive focus and development during World Tour.
Inversely, Beth, Justin, and Trent during World Tour after receiving focus and development during Action.
Blaineley Stacey Andrews O'Halloran. (Wow, the producers really have a thing for long names...)
The Escaped Psycho Killer With the Chainsaw and the Hook. Also counts as a Running Gag.
Total Drama Yum-Yum Happy Go Time Candy Fish Tails. And the challenge: Total Drama Yum Yum Happy Go Time Candy Fish Tails Challenge (of celebration fun)
Sierra: Oui, my friends! Now I'm stuck telling you: If you fall in love with a boy on TV, and then audition to get on his show, and audition again, and finally get on his show, and be nice to him, and do nothing but kiss up, you will still, oui, end up in Paris, oui, feeling despaires, and the boy won't even take you outside!
In season one's Who Can You Trust?, Heather is able to remove Gwen's skirt completely. They're purple with a skull, in case you're wondering. She also wears stockings.
In the episode of Island where Izzy comes back, she scratches her ear with her foot while on all fours.
A flat-out blatant shot occurs in the third season episode "Slap Slap Revolution". Sierra tells the audience that she makes a notch on her belt every time Heather tries her "best friend" tactics. She then whips off her belt to show it off, giving a good long shot of her in just her skivvies. Yikes.
Pepper Sneeze: In "Beach Blanket Bogus", Trent spills pepper on his breakfast and then tosses it over his shoulder, straight into Heather's face, causing her to sneeze for the rest of the scene.
Perverse Sexual Lust: All the characters have these types of fans, but the most vocal are Cody's fangirls and Bridgette's fanboys.
Heather gets several. Alejandro gets one when he protects Cody from Sierra, and Heather gets one for helping Sierra.
Even Chris gets one in "Super Happy Crazy Fun Time In Japan": After Harold's elimination, Chris wishes him luck with no trace of sarcasm.
Pink Girl, Blue Boy: In World Tour, the mostly-female Team Amazon has a pink logo while the mostly-male Team Chris Is Really Really Really Really Hot has a blue one.
Surprisingly averted: DJ for example is non-white and is a total coward. Leshawna (who is black) has gone through a lot of emotional and physical pain. Cameron was a bubble boy until shortly before the competition and finds out the hard way that a butterfly was too heavy to rest on his head (though, his character was given a Race Lift in pre-production, so it's unknown if he was always like that.)
Played straight in World Tour. Team Amazon, which consists of mostly females (and Cody), won most of the challenges.
Pound of Flesh Twist: Alejandro and, depending on your view of her, Heather falls victim to this in the each ending of World Tour.
Properly Paranoid: In World Tour, it turns out that Courtney's and Trent's fears that Duncan and Gwen were becoming more than friends were pretty understandable after all.
The wings that Tyler and Cody used in "Greece's Pieces" turn up again in "Up, Up and Away in My Pitiful Balloon", used by Scott in the flying challenge.
In the same episode, the wings Zoey taped onto her swan boat? They're the wings on Gwen's bike from "That's Off the Chain!"
This is what will happen to the entire cast when Total Drama Revenge of the Island airs, though it has been confirmed some of them will make cameos. Respectively, Owen, Izzy, Bridgette, Lindsay, Ezekiel, Gwen, Duncan, Heather, and DJ made cameo appearances in TDRI, and all but Owen and Ezekiel were (officially) involved in the episode's challenge, either demonstrating the challenge (Bridgette and Duncan), being a part of the challenge itself (Izzy, Lindsay, Gwen, and DJ), or in Heather's case, both.
Also, Beth if one uses the alternate ending. The money was used to pay off the damage done to the Mona Lisa in the special, and she's completely left out of the third season.
The Quiet One: Justin only has TWO LINES of dialogue in the first season (not counting TDDDDI), and they were both in the first episode. It didn't help much that he was one of the earlier people to be voted off(Episode 5).
Read The Fine Print: Chris has all of the campers under contract, and uses the fine print to force them into season 2, dumping heaps of abuse on them without repercussions; no court in any sane world would let such contracts stand.
Reality TV Show Mansion: In Chris' new, fake show, "Total Drama Dirtbags." According to Noah, it's entire premise is, "A bunch of jerks live in a huge mansion and get all bored and backstabby."
Record Needle Scratch: Used in "The Ex-Files" in the scene with Tyler and the alien.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Heather and Alejandro respectively in the last song of World Tour. It's debatable how well it fits, though.
Red Shirt: The interns. One of them got eaten by sharks (presumably), another one got eaten by scarabs, another two got eaten by bears, two more got frozen in a river in the Yukon, another one got attacked by Courtney when he was in a hot air balloon, another one got pushed off a 100-foot diving board by Chef, one had to go through therapy for months after being cursed at by Izzy, and that's not even counting what probably happened to more interns off-screen.
Dakota becomes a Mauve Shirt after her elimination and her dad pays Chris a large bribe.
Revenge of the Sequel: Subverted in that the title of Season FOUR, rather than Season Two, is subtitled like this with respect to Season One. It is possible that they could have Season 5 be Revenge of the Action and Season 6 be ''Revenge of the World Tour.
Ring Ring Crunch: The first morning after Brick switches over to the Toxic Rats, his alarm clock wakes the other guys up extremely early and they all try to get rid of or destroy it. Lightning's confessional from the episode even provides the quote for the page.
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies: Subverted at the end of World Tour. At the beginning of Revenge of the Island, everyone is seen on a yacht, still alive.
This excludes Blainley, so she may have drowned (notice, she was bandaged and strapped to a dolly).
Rocky Roll Call: In the episode "Are We There Yeti?" the four remaining campers get stuck in a cave after running from Sasquatchanakwa —
Owen's farting, Chris' vanity and douchebaggery behavior, Lindsay not remembering people's names, Beth's braces removal and fake/real boyfriend in Action, Courtney mentioning her CIT training, Justin taking off his shirt, Harold getting into slapfights with female campers, DJ accidentally injuring animals, Lindsay not understanding the voting process, etc.
A one-episode gag in World Tour: 3 times the women go into the confession bathroom, and say something embarrassing involving a love interest, which is immediately followed by an extreme closeup and them exclaiming "I want that tape back! Give me the tape! How do I open this thing?"
In the second season, Justin uses his looks to try to manipulate people, get out of work, and avoid elimination.
Lindsay does a minor version of this in the first episode, when she asks Chris if she could have a cabin with an ocean view since she's the prettiest camper.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Zig-zagged; it's played straight is some instances but subverted in others. Duncan in World Tour and Anne Maria in Revenge of the Island play it straight, while Heather in Island and Zoey in Revenge of the Island threaten to walk out on a challenge; however, they were convinced to participate.
"They're stranded in Drumheller, where the number one cause of death is being stranded in Drumheller."
"Owen, Owen! He's our guy! If he can't do it... uh... He's not our guy!"
She's Got Legs: Several female cast members have long legs, making up for more than half of their height. Heather and Katie show theirs off with short shorts, while Izzy shows hers off with her skirt/wrap.
Justin, Courtney, Bridgette, and Leshawna in Island, Heather, Justin, and Leshawna in Action, Gwen and Cody in World Tour.
Lampshaded by Chris during Bridgette's elimination:
Chris: Okay, that was a shocker. I was shocked, and I knew the answer!
Shoo Out the Clowns: Is it a coincidence that Izzy, DJ, and Noah, (specifically in that order) the three primary sources of humor for the first half of season 3, were all eliminated just prior to or right as Duncan returned to the game? And is it also not a coincidence that the minute Noah left, the Love Triangle Saga officially began?
Total Drama Island, Total Drama Action, Total Drama World Tour, and Total Drama Revenge of the Island are all reality shows within the Total Drama universe.
The Action special also featured a TMZ-equse show called Celebrity Manhunt, which tracked down the contestants once Action ended.
Sleep Cute: A few characters in The Big Sleep (naturally), Duncan/Courtney and Bridgette/Geoff in The Sucky Outdoors, Harold/Leshawna and Noah/Cody (along with Duncan/Courtney again) in the Action special Celebrity Manhunt's Total Drama Reunion.
Blainely has an extremely high opinion of her host skills which have so far included such achievements as getting fired from one show, getting escorted off set from another after throwing a tantrum and causing $500,000 worth of damage to the Aftermath studio after setting off an animal stampede. To quote Blaineley herself: "What?? Who am I? Who am I?!? Who are you?! I'm the host of the Puppy Bachelorette! I was nominated for a Gemmie award. I interviewed you for Celebrity Manhunt! It's a fact and scientific that I'm still Blainerific!"
Courtney.
Smarmy Host: Chris, taken to humourously sociopathic levels.
Snap Back: Most character's injuries are undone in the transition to the following episode. Exceptions include any case where the character lost their hair, the tooth Heather lost from Leshawna beating her up in "Slap Slap Revolution," which had to be replaced with a golden tooth for the remainder of the season, and Gollum!Ezekiel and Drama Machine!Alejandro, in the transition from the World Tour finale to The Cameo in the Revenge of the Island premiere.
Owen, Duncan and Heather are considered the most notorious. In fact, while Owen appeared and spoke in every episode of Island, Heather and Duncan are the only two to appear in every episode of two seasons. *
Both appeared but didn't speak in every episode of Island, Duncan appeared and spoke in every (non-aftermath) episode of Action and Heather appeared and spoke in every (non-aftermath) episode of World Tour.
Gwen and Courtney are also fairly notorious, particularly because of the Love Triangle between them and Duncan in Action and World Tour.
Lindsay and Leshawna also tend to get focused on a lot during the first two seasons, mostly due to their conflicts with Heather and Courtney; however, the two are eliminated from World Tour early on.
For a single season only, Beth in Action and Cody, Sierra, and Alejandro in World Tour.
Squee: Katie, Sadie, and Sierra are big time squee-queens. Lindsay (and Beth, to a lesser extent) also have some moments.
Stab The Salad: Harold does a non-violent variation of this during "Super Happy Crazy Fun Time in Japan". When selecting a someone to vote off he dramatically raises his passport-stamper over his teammates passports and then brings it down... onto a deflated beach ball.
Stalker with a Crush: Sierra for most of the cast, but especially Cody. She mentions having called members of his family pretending to be a telemarketer.
Noah: (in complete monotone) Ooh, stalker-licious.
Cody: She's like the stalker girlfriend I always wished I had... until I got one!
In the intro to World Tour, Gwen crashes into Duncan and Courtney's boat.
Alejandro calls Owen, "Butter donkey". "Butter" is "fat" and "donkey" is "ass". Think about it.
Stock Scream: The girl screaming in the slasher film in "Hook, Line, and Screamer". The same scream is used after Dakota falls into the mudpit in "Truth or Laser Shark".
Many fans believe that the elimination order in World Tour was a Take That to The Kobold Necromancer and Winter-Rae because all of the first five eliminations were their favorite characters.
Team Mom: Courtney. Well, she tries to be at least.
Team Shot: Each opening ends with a shot of the contestants. See also the page picture, which happened during the first episode.
Teens are Short: Mostly averted, as many of the contestants are the same height, if not taller, than Chris. Also, Blaineley is roughly the same height as the teens. Cameron and Dawn play this straight, however.
In "Ocean's Eight: or Nine", Chris' car horn plays the "I Wanna be Famous" tune when he drives up.
In the "Chinese Fake-Out", it's his ringtone, justified as the show is a Show Within a Show in-universe, so its theme song would be known by Chris. The ringtone shows up again in "Ice, Ice Baby".
Thermometer Gag: "One Flu Over the Cuckoos" does this. When everyone but Leshawna and Duncan are sick, Duncan attempts to put a rectal thermometer in Harold's mouth.
Heather does one in World Tour when Sierra invites her for a group hug.
Eva does one in the alternate ending of Island after Gwen wins.
They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste: The buried alive conflict between Gwen and Trent from season one. It was incredibly flimsy and came up in random times, as Gwen wanted to be in the same boat as Trent by the episode after Trent left her buried alive, but suddenly the entire conflict comes up again three episodes later. And after that the entire thing just dissolves and is never brought up again.
"The Am-AH-zon Race" almost feels like the writers are apologizing to Team Victory, not only giving them the win but giving them the least amount of trouble throughout the hike.
After a season and a half of forgetting who he was, Lindsay FINALLY remembered Tyler in "Slap Slap Revolution", and it brought back their relationship.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Cody and Sierra. Sam and Dakota after the latter's mutation.
Token Minority: Averted. Six cast members are black (DJ, Chef Hatchet, Leshawna, Cameron, Lightning, and B), one is Asian (Heather), one's Indian (Noah), two Hispanic (Alejandro and Courtney), one's native Hawaiian (Justin) and one's probably interracial (Sierra mentions that her grandparents are German implying at least one white parent).
Parodied in the slasher episode. After learning that they are facing either a serial killer or challenge based around one, the campers immediately start splitting off in groups of one to two to take showers, go to the bathroom, grab a snack, and make out in the woods.
Geoff, Justin, Courtney, and to a lesser extent, Leshawna, Owen and Beth in Action.
Geoff has now toned down the jerkiness, only for Duncan, Cody and possibly Gwen to have gained a level in it.
Too Quirky To Lose: Owen, who wasn't physically fit, wasn't very smart, and often times was The Load for his cabin, won the first season.
Too Soon: The reason Revenge of the Island was postponed. It was originally meant to air in the middle of 2011, but after the Tohoku earthquake and nuclear reactor failure, the creators decided to re-edit the show to tone down or remove a lot of the references to radioactivity. The whole process took enough time to end up pushing the airdates into 2012.
The ad for one late season two episode revealed that Owen would return. They also shot themselves in the foot by putting his name into two of the episode titles.
Subverted hard in the commercials showing before Island went live. They mention that Owen's probably an unlikely candidate for victory. Then he wins.
The trailer for Total Drama, the Musical (not called "World Tour" at the time), which was released midway through Total Drama Action, basically spoiled the Action special by giving away the arrival of Alejandro and Sierra, and which of the campers would not be returning.
Most of the World Tour previews and trailers have large scale group shots which pretty much confirm which characters make it up to what episode, due to the incredibly obvious backgrounds (pyramids, the Eiffel Tower) most viewers found it extremely easy to deduce exactly which episodes each character is present in.
They also told us that Izzy and Sierra would switch teams after the first episode of World Tour. However, In their defense, it was only in the next episode.
And also Duncan returning to World Tour despite quitting earlier on.
The trailer for the France episode of World Tour included a shot of Lindsay wearing a parachute.
AnotherWorld Tour trailer (this one) showed off Duncan and Gwen kissing.
Tuck and Cover: When the jet explodes in Awwwwww, Drumheller Alejandro is seen shielding Heather from the blast.
Un Spoken Plan Guarantee: Anytime someone tries to get an antagonist voted off. If it's the antagonist organizing the vote, it goes off without a hitch.
In the special, Duncan wrestles an alligator for Courtney to get back the case with the $1,000,000 in it. Seconds later, he sprains his ankle and she runs off with the case.
Izzy carries Ezekiel (whom she mistook for a "cool" Egyptian mummy) out of a collapsing pyramid, indirectly allowing him to complete the challenge. His response? He struggles to get away from her and doesn't even acknowledge the rescue, let alone thank her for it.
The Unreveal: How Duncan landed in Juvie, and some other juicy bits about Heather and Gwen (IF that's her real name).
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Owen to Trent, with his advice about how to please Gwen. Also Tyler in "Greeces' Pieces"
Up to Eleven: According to the creators, one of the main ideas behind the show: to take a bunch of elements from shows like Survivor and Fear Factor and ramp it up to impossible things like jumping off the thousand foot cliff, "because it's animation and we can get away with stuff like that".
Urban Legend of Zelda: When Island ended, there were rumors going around that characters other than Owen or Gwen had won in certain countries. The most extreme example would be ''Ezekiel'' in certain parts of Asia.
Vasquez Always Dies: Hotheaded tomboy Eva is the first girl to be voted off. Then again she does come back... only to be voted off immediately afterwards. And she's not qualified to compete in the second season. OR the third.
We Can Rule Together: Alejandro offers this to Heather as a way to prove his love, "Together we can take over the world," then she rejected it.
We Cannot Go On Without You: Several challenges are lost this way, such as Chris refusing Team Chris Is Really, Really, Really, Really Hot from continuing the Amazon challenge while they were missing Owen.
We Will Meet Again: Ezekiel delivers one while managing to hang on to the plane after his World Tour elimination.
Ezekiel: I'm not going anywhere! This game's mine, eh! MINE!
In Action: Is Owen's family still $50,000 dollars in debt for making a cheese cellar? Owen got outed as Chris' mole prematurely and asks if he'll still get paid, but we do not get confirmation either way.
Who Is Driving?: Happens when Chef decides to join Chris in the main body of the plane during World Tour.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: An episode had the campers face their fears (Snakes was one of them). Some have legitimate fears while others have weird or silly fears.
William Telling: Inverted in an episode of Total Drama Island where the contestants have to shoot crabapples from a slingshot in order to knock arrows off their partner's head.
With Friends Like These: In Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better Bridgette gets her tongue frozen stuck to a pole. It doesn't even seem to occur to her close friends Gwen and Courtney to help. Okay, she was on a different team but still, that's pretty cold.
The Worf Effect: Team Victory in World Tour. Among their advantages in the competition, they had six people on their team, while the other teams had five, of those six, five of them were in the final 10 in Island and/or Action'' and competed in the first three seasons. Despite this, Team Victory was quickly wiped out in six straight elimination episodes. Four of those eliminations were caused by the new Big Bad Alejandro to quickly establish how much of a threat he was.
World Gone Mad: While the universe they exist in is relatively sane, the Total Drama show-verse is very much this. Saner characters like Gwen will occasionally hang a lampshade on how odd and/or psychopathic almost everyone related to the show is.
Justin invokes this near the end of the Action episode The Princess Pride when he refuses to swordfight with Courtney ("I would never hurt a lady. I refuse to raise a sword to Courtney. I give up any chance at immunity to spare her.") Guess how she responds. By smacking him off the castle tower.
Tyler also refused to hit Courtney in "Greece's Pieces". The exact same thing happens.
The "Winners Special" which was actually an overcomplicated plot for the Island powers that be (both in and out of universe) to use for the purpose of making the second season.
The Action special had elements of this too, especially with the introduction of Sierra and who would actually win the Gemmie.
Both Heather and Alejandro are guilty of plans that would have backfired horribly if not for events beyond their control that they couldn't have anticipated. In particular, Heather's plan in "Search and Do Not Destroy" required her to be randomly awarded invincibility to save her from elimination, and Alejandro's plan in "Anything Yukon Do, I Can Do Better" required Bridgette to stay stuck to the flagpole even after leaving the area to keep her from revealing him to the other contestants.
You can say that this applies to whoever manages to win the money in the finale, seeing that in the Island special Owen lost the money and Duncan apparently lost his after the season two special, all to justify them entering the next competition.
The World Tour finale [[spoiler:does it in record time to Heather, she doesn't have the money for more than a minute before Ezekiel steals it and falls in the volcano, which then erupts; the episode ends with a giant flaming boulder about to fall on her.
In Alejandro's ending, it's even worse. He doesn't even get to touch the money before it's destroyed.]]
You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Duncan (green mohawk), Gwen (teal highlights), Sierra (purple hair), and Dakota (bright green Anime Hair, post-mutation).
Heather towards Lindsay in "That's Off the Chain".
Heather and Alejandro wanted to add DJ to their teams since he was the only member of his own to make their respective teams stronger. When Chris said to Al and DJ that DJ can't switch teams, Alejandro got him eliminated.
Chris says that about the original cast in the first episode of Revenge of the Island.
Scott towards Mike after blackmailing him in "Grand Chef Auto".
alternative title(s): Total Drama Action; Total Drama; Total Drama World Tour; Total Drama Island; Total Drama World Tour; Total Drama Revenge Of The Island
, which is almost as popular as the show itself.
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