Western Animation / Wayside

"The lights go off, the world flips upside down
I brought the party to town
My deal to make my chance to take
So take a ride, so take a ride
Fly by the Wayside!"

— Theme song

Wayside (sometimes billed as Wayside School) is the Animated Adaptation of Louis Sachar's Wayside School books, produced by the Canadian animation studio Nelvana.

While a lot of the original setting and premise from the books is retained in the series (i.e. the 30-story school building, the students, and the cows), it also differs quite a bit from the original story. For instance, Todd is made a New Transfer Student to the school and stars as the main protagonist for the show with Mrs. Jewls already teaching at Wayside. Many of the characters are also significantly altered in personality.

Originally premiering as an hour long Pilot Movie on Canada's Teletoon in 2005, it was later picked up for a full, 26-episode series by Nickelodeon in 2006; the show itself premiered the following year. Despite garnering relatively favorable reviews from professional critics, the show was cancelled in 2008 after 2 seasons and 26 episodes. While reruns were quickly pulled from Nickelodeon afterwards, Teletoon (and its rival-turned-sibling channel YTV) would continue to rerun the show for several years, thanks to Canadian Content laws.

Every episode can now be seen on YouTube at Nelvana's Keep It Weird channel here.

Now has a work-in-progress character sheet.

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Additionally, the Animated Adaptation contains examples of:

• 6 Is 9: At the end of "Upside Down John" Kidswatter thinks he got 99 percent on his I.Q. test, but after he leaves his office, Louis notices that the computer's upside down, and realizes that's how he's holding the results. He flips the paper right-side up and sees that it really says 66 percent, which makes more sense.
• Accidental Misnaming: Kidswatter often gets Myron's name wrong. And calls Todd by his address.
  • In the flashback of Mrs. Jewls' job interview in "Age of Aquarium", he keeps getting her last name wrong.
  • And then there's that time in "Principles of Principals" where he called Todd "Toad", then, after Louis corrects him, "Todd the Toad".
• Adaptation Name Change: Sharie's name from the books was rewritten as "Shari" in the cartoon.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Louis has a goatee instead of a mustache like he did in the books.
• Adaptational Jerkass: In the books, Myron was one of the nicest kids in the classroom, known for his loyal and trustworthy personality. In contrast, the cartoon depicts him as a selfish, power-hungry, and egotistical jerkass who has to learn to do the right thing.
• Adaptational Job Change: Mrs. Gorf was the children's original teacher in the books, and was replaced by Mrs. Jewls following her defeat. The show rewrites her as a substitute teacher who covers for Mrs. Jewls.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: In the books, Principal Kidswatter is quite mean and intimidating, to the point where all the students fear him (they don't call him Kidswatter for nothing). Here, he's goofier, more lighthearted, and much, much nicer.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Louis is depicted with blue hair and a goatee, when in the original books he was described as having a mustache of many colors.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Many of the characters suffer from this:
  • In the books, Todd was one of the happiest kids in the school, but in the show, he's often worried and depressed.
  • In the books, Mr. Kidswatter was really intimidating towards the students, but in the show, he's a harmless goofball. Though Kidswatter complaining about his job that he has to deal with kids every day, not knowing how the intercom works, and calling doors "goozacks" was kept in.
  • Myron is the biggest example of this: in the books, he was "the nicest, bravest, most normal person on the 30th floor" who would do anything to help others, while in the show, he's incredibly selfish and scatterbrained. He also pitches a fit when he loses potential power gaining in a way. This YouTube video even lampshades it. However, he usually learns his lesson and does the right thing in the end, and his selfishness could be considered endearing.
  • Dana was defined in the books by her extremely overemotional nature, but in the show, she's instead depicted as a nerd obsessed with enforcing the rules.
  • Maurecia is changed from a very sweet girl with a love for ice cream to a fiery, sports-loving tomboy with a huge tsundere-type crush on Todd.
  • Sammy was a one-shot character from the first book, a dead rat who could walk and talk, and was a complete Jerkass, trying to pass himself off as a student. The show removed all personality from him and made him a more literal dead rat.
• Adaptational Nationality: The books never stated what Ms. Mush's ethnic background was, but here, she's from "Mamaland," an Eastern European country with an unknown location and seriously bizarre tastes in food.
• Adapted Out: Several of the kids from the books, such as Joy, Benjamin, DeeDee and Allison, are nowhere to be seen in the show (Mrs. Jewls mentions D.J. in the pilot movie, but he's never shown and never speaks). A lot of the background characters have been theorized, but not confirmed, to be characters from the books.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Pull My Pigtail", "Class Cow", "Mascot Madness", "Kindergarten King", "French Fried", and "Principles of Principals".
• Adults Dressed as Children: Kidswatter is Type B in "Sideways Protest".
• Almighty Janitor: Louis is the sanest and most competent member of Wayside's faculty, which was kind of the case in the books as well.
• AM/FM Characterization: In "The Elevator", Todd and Kidswatter fight over what music to play in the eponymous location, with the former choosing hard rock and the latter choosing country music, until the music switch breaks, and, to their annoyance, they're listening to the elevator's usual music again.
• Animation Bump: While the designs and linework are rougher than the actual show, the 2005 Pilot has smoother character animation, and utliizes CGI a lot more than the show.
  • Slightly inverted for the final twelve episodes of the series, when the animation style moved from traditional to flash tweening. Luckily, Mercury Filmworks (who worked on the first season as an animation service) kept some of the bounciness and expressiveness from the initial episodes.
• Audience Surrogate: Todd serves as a representation of how the audience would react to the strangeness of Wayside School, being a normal kid who's just transferred.
• Bait-and-Switch: In "The Elevator", Myron is about to fall from a beam. At first the scene is played out like he's going to fall from a great height, but after he does fall, it's revealed that the drop is actually very short. Not that Myron knew right away.
• Bathroom Breakout: Maurecia uses this to get out of the eponymous "Honors Class".
• Balloon Belly: Maurecia gets a big belly after drinking all the water from the water fountain in "Slow Mo Mo", which later results in a Potty Emergency.
• Bearded Baby: "Louis Gets Some Class" shows that Kidswatter had a mustache as a child.
• Bilingual Bonus: Mrs. Jewls telling Todd in Portuguese not to pull Maurecia's ponytail in "Pull My Pigtail".
• Big "NO!": Todd does this in the pilot the first 2 times he rides home on the kindergarten bus.
  • He does it again in "Meet the Pets" when the animals escape the classroom, in "Daring Love" when Maurecia and Jenny followed him inside the kindergarten bus, at the end of "Teacher's Parent Conference" and in "The Final Stretch" during Maurecia's story.
  • And Myron as well when he loses the dodgeball game.
    • He also does it in "Louis Gets Some Class" when he hears that Louis is more popular than him, in "My Biggest Fan" after Mr. Kidswatter fails to remember his name, and in "Mascot Madness" after his Todd costume is ruined.
  • Kidswatter does it in "Channel Kidswatter" when his products got destroyed and in "Louis Gets Some Class" when Louis fails to complete the final exam. Luckily, it's soon revealed afterward that Louis already graduated beforehand.
• Big Red Button: While Todd and Louis are searching inside a locker for an emergency shut-off for the trash compactor in the pilot, they find this. After Louis presses it, at first nothing happens, but soon a trapdoor opens beneath him and he gets sent down a twisty tube slide to Kidswatter's office.
• Bilingual Bonus: Mrs. Jewls telling Todd in Portuguese not to pull Maurecia's ponytail in "Pull My Pigtail".
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: The Erics; Eric Ovens is the big one, Eric Fry is the thin one, and Eric Bacon is the short one.
• Birthday Episode: "Oh, Great Leader" is this for Kidswatter.
• Bizarrchitecture: Much much more so than the books. While the Wayside School was simply an insanely tall skyscraper, in the series it looks like it was engineered by M.C. Escher. Concept Art Here
• Broad Strokes: Takes a 'lot' of liberties for an adaptation.
• Butt-Monkey: Todd, to an extent. And Kidswatter, too.
• Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: Two examples from Kidswatter in "The Elevator":
  • The first is a subversion: after the elevator gets stuck, Kidswatter tells Todd that he has to pee badly, but the word "pee" is replaced by a shot of a sink with running water.
    • Then played straighter when, after Louis puts Todd and Kidswatter on speakerphone, the principal accidentally announces on the PA how badly he has to go.
  • Stephen says he's "gotta go" while rushing to find a restroom in "Myth of Nick".
  • In "Class Cow", Todd asks Mrs. Bellamy to excuse him so he can go to the bathroom before he remembers that she's a cow.
• Call-Back: In "Pull My Pigtail", when Todd notices his desk being moved, he references the pilot when he asks if the walls are moving again.
• Cast of Snowflakes: All of the major characters have some notable design element or quirk, such as Maurecia’s roller skates or Dana’s buckteeth, while the background characters just look like average kids.
• Catchphrase: Dana's "Enough with the fun!!", usually right after her Signature Laugh. She'll sometimes replace 'fun' with something else.
  • Maurecia's romantic greeting: "Hi Todd" and her main catchphrase: "Oh Todd", which she usually swoons while saying the line after Todd says or does something random, which mistakes his random acts as acts of affection for her or when she sees him.
  • Myron has "Vote for me!"
  • Mr. Kidswatter has "Attention, students, attention."
• The Cavalry Arrives Late: The Rescue Dudes enter the elevator after Kidswatter cuts a hole in the floor with his ice skating and Maurecia pries the door open with a crowbar.
• Character Exaggeration: The show took one tiny trait from each of the characters and exaggerated them to extremes. Such as Myron ran for class president in one chapter of the first book, in the show he can't go two minutes without bringing it up, Stephen dressed as a goblin once for Halloween, now he dresses as an elf full time. Mrs. Jewls thinking of students as monkeys was a one-shot joke in the first book, now it is used all the time.
• Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of "Mad Hot," Todd has to give an oral report on Christopher Columbus without speaking, which he does by miming things like raising sails, being seasick, and planting a flag. Later on, the motions he used in the report become the moves he and Maurecia use to win the dance contest.
• The Chew Toy: Mr. Kidswatter suffers Amusing Injuries in almost every episode he appears in, such as falling from a tree, getting electrocuted, having a door slammed in his face, etc.
• Childish Tooth Gap: Todd and Leslie.
• Christmas Episode: "Wayside Christmas", obviously.
• Clothespin Nose Plug: In "Le Race", these are used to block out a good smell. When Le Chef is racing the kids to the top of the school, he uses the delicious smell of his cooking to tempt Maurecia to fall off and stop her from climbing. Dana and Todd take out two clothespins to prevent themselves from smelling Le Chef's food and falling further behind.
• Cloudcuckooland: The eponymous school. Much of the school features nonsensical design elements like doors and stairs that lead nowhere, incredibly small rooms, and the cows that roam freely in the halls. School events are just as weird, with Halloween being celebrated in spring, while the spring equinox is celebrated on Halloween.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Basically, everyone except for Todd and maybe Louis. Mrs. Jewls thinks new kids are literally monkeys unless told otherwise, Jenny is a daredevil stuntgirl who drives a motorcycle in school, Leslie has prehensile pigtails, John is always upside down, Stephen wears an elf costume every day, the list goes on and on!
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Happens to Kidswatter in three different scenes in "Be True to Your Elf", with the first two scenes being flashbacks.
• Companion Cube: Sammy the dead rat, normally Ms. Mush's companion, though all of the kids tend to like and respect him.
  • Mr. Pumpkin, Stephen's best friend, is an odd case, as while he can't talk, he has shown signs of sentience now and then.
• Composite Character: Many students qualify.
  • Todd retains his trait of being sent home on the kindergarten bus, but most of his character is based on Benjamin Nushmutt and/or Sue, being the normal new kid who has to get used to the weirdness of Wayside.
  • Maurecia fills Leslie’s role of having her hair pulled by a boy (in this case, Todd) in the episode “Pull My Pigtail”, ironically despite Leslie already being a character in the cartoon.
  • Rondi could qualify as the Frankenstein's monster of characters that weren't in the show, since not only does she have the elements seen in the version of Rondi from the books, but she shares D.J.'s trait of smiling most of the time, and Paul's trait of pulling Leslie's pigtails.
• Consulting Mr Puppet: Stephen does this with Mr. Pumpkin now and then, complete with doing the talking for him.
• Coordinated Clothes: As Rescue Dudes, Dana and Myron wear the same clothes and hair as Louis. At the end of "The Elevator" Todd and Maurecia reveal themselves to be Rescue Dudes as well when they put on matching caps and wigs.
  • The Erics all dress exactly alike.
• Crocodile Tears: Myron does this in "Best Friendzzz" after Dana's yelling breaks his brain-listening glass.
• Cultural Personality Makeover: "Mamaland Blues" sees Dana learn that she is of Mamaland heritage like Ms. Mush, and begins adding aspects of it to her personality. She drops it when she learns that she does not actually have Mamaland heritage.
• Cursed with Awesome: Not exactly "cursed", but Todd gets always sent home from school early with the kindergarten bus because of his "bad behaviour", and he dislikes it to a high degree. The thing is, a normal kid would love to get sent home early from school. Though, this could slide into Blessed with Suck since "The Elevator" proves that he misses out on assignments when met with such a fate. This is also the reason he wasn't able to go on the "Aquarium Field Trip".
• Cute Bruiser: Maurecia.
• A Day in the Limelight: Jenny in "Daring Love" and "Dana Checks Out". Louis in "The Elevator" and "Louis Gets Some Class". Stephen in "Be True To Your Elf". "The Three Erics", "Joe 'N' Fro" and "Upside Down John" all speak for themselves.
• Deliberately Monochrome: Todd's favorite superhero, Lieutenant Logic, is this, because he only sees things in black and white.
• Ditzy Genius: Dana.
• The Door Slams You: Near the end of the pilot, Kidswatter gets run over by the door that came loose from Mrs. Jewls' classroom.
  • In "The Elevator", he runs into the elevator door just as it closes while he tries to escape.
  • In "Miss Fortune", Maurecia runs into a door which was just closed by a cow she raced against.
  • After Kidswatter has a run-in with Maurecia in "Slow Mo Mo", Louis accidentally hits him in the face when opening the nearby door to see if he's okay.
  • In "Sideways Protest", after Kidswatter and Todd's classmates take over his office, the former accidentally slams the lobby door on Louis while leading the kids into the lobby.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Maurecia towards Todd, with every episode having her punch him, and it always being played for laughs.
• Drunk with Power: Myron in "He Is It", after being tagged by Todd in a game of tag, he becomes a tyrant who takes over Wayside.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the pilot, Maurecia is a redhead, but the rest of the show depicts her with indigo hair (plus her skin was lighter in the pilot). Also, the pilot shows Louis' cap as having the initials "WS", which are never seen again for the rest of the show.
  • Another example is that Maurecia's name is pronounced "mor-EE-sha" in the pilot, but it is pronounced "mor-EE-see-uh" in the rest of the show.
• Epic Fail: Myron is this personified. He can't even operate a light switch, which is the only thing that the class president, the thing that he is obsessed with becoming, is supposed to do.
• Everybody Cries: At the end of Todd's flashback in the pilot, the kindergartners at his old school burst into tears after watching the toys that flew out the classroom window get carelessly put through a woodchipper.
  • Rondi, Leslie and the Erics all cry while holding onto Mrs. Bellamy to prevent her from leaving the classroom in "Class Cow".
  • In "Kindergarten King", the kindergartners all cry after the stuffed dog Mr. Wetnose is accidentally destroyed in the same manner as in the pilot.
  • A Crocodile Tears variation occurs in "Kidswatter's Opus" when the kids in Mrs. Jewls' class imitate Kidswatter's genuine crying fit.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: "Le Race" ends with Kidswatter, Myron and the duck laughing.
• Exorcist Head: Happens briefly with Louis in "Mad Hot" as he excitedly announces that the Wayside Wallflowers won the dance-off.
• The Face of the Sun: Some exterior shots of the school show the sun with a face.
• The Faceless: Todd's parents (only shown in a flashback), John's parents and sister (only shown in photograph), and Shari's baby sister (as shown in Shari's video about her family).
• Fat and Skinny: Myron and Dana. Also Kidswatter and Louis.
• Fat Idiot: Myron, who’s the most overweight of the cast, and is characterized as an oblivious doofus.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Most of what Todd does that gets him sent to the kindergarten bus (he doesn’t even misbehave).
• Fluffy the Terrible: Maurecia's pet porcupine (who is actually named Fluffy). It's possible that his extreme resentment towards Todd might come from jealousy of having the most love and affection from his owner.
• French Jerk: Le Chef. ESPECIALLY in "Le Race".
• Funny Foreigner: Ms. Mush.
  "I will make millions of money!"
• Genki Girl: Dana and Maurecia both.
• A Gift for Themselves: In "Wayside Christmas", the students all participate in a Secret Santa gift exchange amongst each other. Every student receives a gift except Bebe, whose Secret Santa was Myron, who received a crown from Bebe and bought a cheering box for himself, forgetting to get a gift for her. After everyone calls him out on it, and mistakenly believing he is in Yet Another Christmas Carol that inspires him to change his ways, Myron gives the crown back to Bebe, deciding that she deserves it more than him.
• Glad I Thought of It: Kidswatter stealing Myron's idea of giving Louis his final exam early in "Louis Gets Some Class".
• G-Rated Drug: Ms. Mush's mushroom surprise. The effects hit Todd much like a shot of LSD and cause him to become hopelessly smitten with Mrs. Jewls. A teacher, it seems, also took a hit— er, spoonful— and fell in love with a potted cactus. It's possible Miss Mush may have unwittingly (we hope) used psychedelic mushrooms in the recipe.
• Hammerspace: Louis pulling a dodgeball from one of his pants pockets in the pilot.
• Hypocritical Humor: Done twice in "Pull my Pigtail" When Maurecia greets Todd romantically, he covers himself with his arms begging her not to hit him, to which Maurecia replies with "Hit you?! When have I ever hit you?" Cue flashback montage of Maurecia hitting Todd. After the flashback montage ends there was a few seconds of silence before Maurecia hits Todd again. In "Daring Love" After Jenny jumps over Todd with her motorcycle, she tells a very concerned Maurecia that there's "No way I could've hit him", to which Maurecia then asks "Why anyone would hit Todd?" Cue flashback montage of Maurecia hitting Todd which was the same flashback montage used in "Pull my Pigtail". Todd then comes over to complain, and Maurecia hits him again.
• Incompetence, Inc.: Wayside School. The principal is mind-bogglingly stupid, most of the teachers exhibit bizarre ways of doing things, the sole worker in the cafeteria is a textbook Cordon Bleugh Chef, the list goes on and on... and it's hard to imagine how this school hasn't been shut down yet.
• Informed Ability: An episode involving a dance-off with another school involved Todd and Maurecia creating a move that simply involved Maurecia punching Todd. This is treated as the hottest thing since sliced bread and even gets the rival team a really high score when they steal the move and use it during the dance-off.
• Inner Monologue: Dana has a couple in "Imperfect Attendance".
• Intergenerational Friendship: Mrs. Jewls' students have this with Louis. In fact, Dana, Myron, Maurecia and Todd are all on his Rescue Dudes team.
• Iris Out: "Myth of Nick" and "Slow Mo Mo" end with this. In the latter's case, it starts out as square until Kidswatter says "Round it up!", making it circular.
• Ironic Echo: In the Pilot Movie, Kidswatter hits Louis with a dodgeball before the game starts, then Todd during the game, taunting them with "You're not class president!". Then after Maurecia hits Kidswatter with the ball and he gets angry about losing, Louis reminds him that "Rules are rules, Mr. K. You're not class president."
• Ironic Echo Cut: In "Oh, Great Leader", when Dana tells Louis about the surprise birthday party she and her classmates are throwing for Kidswatter:
  Dana: It's going to be the best day of the whole school year for him! (cut to Kidswatter cowering under his desk, thinking the kids are scheming to get rid of him)
  Kidswatter: This is the worst day of the whole school year for me!
• Irony: In the books, Louis shaving off his mustache was considered (by the kids) to be one of the worst things that ever happened in the entire series. In the show he doesn't have a mustache to begin with.
• Insistent Terminology: Kidswatter has two of these: "Goozacks" and "344 South Fairview" which most people know as doors and Todd.
• It's All About Me: Myron suffers from this.
• Jerkass: Most of the characters in general, from Mrs. Jewls to Myron, even Dana for not realizing that rules can change.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Myron is a jerkass who most of the time is oblivious to important situations and thinks more about himself than others. However, sometimes he is shown to care about his friends and can help save the day.
• The Last Of These Is Not Like The Others: Most of the final exam in "Louis Gets Some Class" is half oral exam and half obstacle course, but the last question is an overly complex math problem on a chalkboard, more difficult than the math, science and social studies questions before it.
• Lawful Stupid: Mrs. Jewls on a few occasions, most notably at the end of "Age Of Aquarium".
• Leitmotif: Miss Mush's can best be described as klezmer with balalaikas.
  • The kindergarten bus is often associated with Mocking Sing-Song.
• Lighter and Softer: In the original books, Mrs. Gorf after being turned into a (sentient) apple was unwittingly eaten by Louis. In the show, her fate after being transformed into an apple is left ambiguous.^note Though the above possiblity can be assumed.
  • Also, darker and creepier elements from the books like the inside of Ms. Zarves' classroom, the Men in Black, and the substitute teachers make no appearances. It's possible they could have been saved for future seasons, but the show was cancelled before any more could be made. In fact, a list of unmaterialized Season 3 episodes does mention Mr. Gorf.
• Loving Bully: Maurecia towards Todd.
• Luminescent Blush: Maurecia does this in the pilot when Mrs. Jewls finds her love letter to Todd among the class president votes.
• Magic Skirt: Maurecia.
  • Bebe, as shown when she's standing on one hand on a bouncing ball in "Louis Gets Some Class".
  • Leslie when she walks upside down on stilts in "Extra-curricular Ridicular".
• Manchild:
  • Mrs. Jewls, who borders on this and Cloud Cuckoolander. She's been known to play pinball in class.
  • Principal Kidswatter is more childish than most of the actual kids. He throws a tantrum when his microphone breaks.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Todd's classmates when he admits that he entered the "Principal for a Day" contest.
• Mass Transformation: In "Mrs. Gorf", like the book the show was based on, Mrs. Gorf turns the students of the thirtieth floor into apples and Myron into a potato. Maurica is the only student who doesn't get turned into an apple and she decides to save her classmates.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Soo...does Todd secretly like Maurecia or is he scared of her?
• Mind-Control Music: The Strumplefloozle, a nose flute Myron discovers in "Music Lessons," can cause people's personalities and even physiologies to change when played. Myron spends the episode trying to find a song that'll make his classmates elect him class president, but ends up making them act like, among other things, chickens, cats, race cars, British stereotypes, and abstract shapes... and causing the cows roaming around the school to destroy it. Mr. Kidswatter reveals that the Strumplefloozle was originally made to control the cows into performing construction and demolition tasks. Fortunately, Myron accidentally discovers a song that makes the cows repair all the damage they've done.
• Mood Whiplash: The first recess scene in "Louis Gets Some Class"; it starts out as being very cheerful, with the kids having a great time playing with the stuff Louis hands out to them, and then the scene suddenly becomes sad when Kidswatter fires him, complete with the weather turning from sunny to stormy.
• Ms. Exposition: Dana always has The Official Wayside Rule Book on hand when any school rules or regulations need to be explained.
• Mythology Gag:
  • An ironic example though likely unintended. In the show, Todd is a normal kid from a normal school sent to the insane school of Wayside. In the third book after Wayside was shut down due to a cow infestation Todd was sent from the insane school of Wayside to a normal school with normal kids. (In fact the writer said that he was sent to the reader's school)
  • When Todd first enters Mrs. Jewls’ class, she immediately mistakes him for a monkey, which is what she did in her debut chapter for the books.
• Narrative Shape Shifting: Mrs. Jewls gets Dana's buckteeth (and even her voice) when quoting the rule about no talking during a quiz.
  • Todd changes the shape of his face and hair to that of Kidswatter when imitating him in "Oh, Great Leader".
• New Transfer Student: Todd is the new guy in school, allowing him to serve as Audience Surrogate and react to the show's weirdness.
• Nice Guy: Louis is a very chill guy. Todd is also this (although that doesn't stop Mrs. Jewls from treating him like he's a jerkass).
• No One Gets Left Behind: The Rescue Dude code is "We never leave a dude behind."
• Noodle Incident: Whatever Todd did to make him transfer out of his old school.
  • The pilot says he got kicked out because his plan to help kindergartners reach their toys backfired when they were thrown out the window and shredded.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Mrs. Jewls does this to Dana in "Imperfect Attendance" when, after the latter makes it to class before the other kids and hypothetically asks what would happen if anyone was in trouble (mentioning her friends' problems in the process), the former states that Dana would've helped those people.
• Obsessed with Perfect Attendance: In "Imperfect Attendance", Dana reveals that she has attended school one thousand four hundred and forty-seven days in a row and has never missed a day in her life, not even when she was in preschool or "pre-preschool." The episode revolves around her trying to make it to class on time and beat the Wayside Perfect Attendance Record while trying to help out her friends along the way.
• Oh, Crap!: Mrs. Jewls' expression and the class as a whole when they finally realise that Todd was right about their classroom actually being a trash compactor.
  • Kidswatter has this moment when he discovers that he's the one who didn't graduate in "Louis Gets Some Class".
• No OSHA Compliance: The whole school is like a fun house deathtrap. The doors are improperly placed, most of the buttons and levers turn on something else and once Todd's classroom was a trash compactor that turns on whenever the P.A. system is used.
• Once an Episode: Todd being sent home on the kindergarten bus instead of the regular bus - at first. They stopped making it an Every Episode Ending after the first few episodes, only bringing it back a few times when it was plot-relevant, mostly when Todd gets in trouble and Mrs. Jewls must punish him.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, as it's a Three Eric Rule, no more and no less. Lampshaded and lampooned every way possible.
• Only Sane Man: Todd, and it's invoked; he was sent to the school from another that was more normal. Also, he gets constantly punished by Mrs. Jewls despite being the one who displays the best behavior of all the classmates.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Pink is one of the colors on Maurecia's skates and helmet, and Todd wears a dark blue T-shirt.
• Pink Means Feminine: Subverted with Maurecia, as while pink is a color on her skates and helmet, she's a tomboy. Played straighter, however in most of the flashback story in "Mrs. Gorf", where she was a girly girl with a pink bow and skirt.
  • Played straight with Mrs. Jewls' hair and Leslie's blouse and hairbow.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Principal Kidswatter is consistently shown to be not that bright and ill-qualified for his job as the school's principal.
• Potty Emergency: In "The Elevator", Mr. Kidswatter rushes into the titular elevator thinking it's a bathroom, and he ends up getting stuck inside with Todd.
  • Two cases in "Slow Mo Mo": first Maurecia has one after drinking lots of water at the fountain in the schoolyard, then after she uses the girls' room, a group of boys, including Todd and Myron, have one while she holds up their line for the boys' room.
  • Stephen has one in "Myth of Nick".
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The series has a much more coherent structure compared to the book's more anarchic storytelling, and makes Todd the protagonist and Only Sane Man as opposed to the book's Ensemble Cast to make the chaos of Wayside more understandable.
• Prone to Tears: Usually Played for Laughs with Kidswatter.
• Pun-Based Title: "Best Friendzzz", "Age of Aquarium", "Teachers' Parent Conference", "Principles of Principals", "Rat in Shining Armor", "French Fried", "Be True to Your Elf", "Extra-curricular Ridicular", "Free Stewy", "Oh, Brother", "Joe n’ Fro", "The Final Stretch", "Kidswatter's Opus", "Imperfect Attendance" and "Miss Fortune".
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In "Be True to Your Elf", Kidswatter, while pressing his concertina against his head, says that he "Must! Make! Good! Impression!" for his supervisor at the parade float contest.
• Punny Name: Ivil Kisseau.
• Race Lift: In the show, Principal Kidswatter, Myron, Eric Fry, and Bebe are black, while in most prints of the books' illustrations at the time, they were white.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Todd is the Blue Oni to everyone's Red Oni (although Dana and Louis can sometimes be blue as well).
• Rollerblade Good: Maurecia's entire personality is this.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Todd and Maurecia.
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: When Todd chases his classmates' pets on the 7th floor in "Meet the Pets".
• Self-Duplication: Maurecia does this at one point while talking with Todd in "Rat in Shining Armor".
• Self-Soothing Song: Todd,while suffering Sanity Slippage from being the kindergartners' king, sings "Patty Cake" in a Troubled Fetal Position by the time Myron finds him.
• Ship Tease: Todd/Maurecia and Dana/Myron.
• Shipper on Deck: Dana in the pilot movie, Pull My Pigtail, and Todd Falls in Love.
  • When Myron fills in for Dana in "Dr. Dana", one thing he does is tell Kidswatter to ask Miss Mush to marry him.
• Shout-Out: Papa Jewls' arms are shaped similarly to Popeye's.
  • The title card for "Louis Gets Some Class" shows a drawing of Louis that references Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man".
  • The episode title "Age of Aquarium" is a reference to the 5th Dimension's song "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In".
  • The episode title "Mr. Kidswatter's Opus" references the film Mr. Holland's Opus.
  • "Free Stewy" is a reference to Free Willy.
• Specifically Numbered Group: "The Three Erics" reveals that every class is required to have exactly three kids named Eric.
• Springtime for Hitler: Maurecia, when she tries to get out of the "stupid smart class" by giving obviously incorrect answers. The class was run by Miss Mush, who is Too Dumb to Fool. Strangely enough, it actually ends up WORKING because of that, as Miss Mush says she's too smart for her class and sends her to a double honors class: Mrs. Jewls's.
• Stating the Simple Solution: In "The Elevator", Louis, Dana, and Myron come upon a giant fan that's on, and Louis gets ready to jump through it, waiting for the right moment, only for Dana to turn off the fan and suggest "Or you could just flip the off switch."
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: The laid-back, rational Louis often serves as a foil and ignored voice of reason to the eccentric, often uptight Kidswatter.
  • Todd is usually the Straight Man to almost anyone else's Wise Guy.
• Stress-Induced Mental Voices: Dana gets these in "Imperfect Attendance" when she thinks about her friends being in trouble and she feels guilty about abandoning them.
  • Likewise, it happens to Todd in "Mad Hot" when he worries about how he and Maurecia will beat their opponents in the Dance-Off.
• Stock Audio Clip: Some voice clips get reused throughout the episodes. A few examples include the students cheering, Dana's Signature Laugh, Todd's Big "NO!" and Mr. Kidswatter's crying.
• Surprise Party: Mrs. Jewls' class throws one for Kidswatter's birthday in "Oh, Great Leader".
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Principal Kidswatter winds up tiring himself out from running non-stop and constantly shouting "Action GO!" when racing to the 30th floor so he can prevent Myron from messing around with the Strumplefloozle and ends up having to stop to rest for a moment before regaining his stamina. Myron himself also falls victim to this as the only thing he knows about the Strumplefloozle is that it can control the behaviour and actions of other people (and cows) through specific songs, and him just messing around with it to try and find a song that'll make his classmates vote for him as the class prez winds up causing trouble when he accidentally plays a song with the hypnotic instrument that starts causing the cows to eat the school, something that wouldn't've happened if he knew more about the hypnotic instrument.
• Title Montage: The title sequence consists of clips from the series' Pilot Movie.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Maurecia.
• Totally Radical: Downplayed with Louis. While he sounds like a Surfer Dude, few slang terms are used ("dude" being the most common).
• Totem Pole Trench: In "My Fluffy Hair", Todd has the idea of that with him on the top & Maurecia on the bottom to find Fluffy so that he and Maurecia can be reunited. It somehow succeeded after Maurecia gives Fluffy an apology.
• True Blue Femininity: Rondi wears a blue dress.
• True Companions: Mrs. Jewls likens her class to a big family in "Oh, Great Leader" when she reassures Todd that he's still part of the gang.
• Truncated Theme Tune: The theme song is shortened from a minute to 30 seconds for Nickelodeon airings, starting immediately with the second part of the first verse and going straight to the final chorus.
• Tsundere: Maurecia is Type B towards Todd.
• Tuneless Song of Madness: Todd does this while suffering Sanity Slippage from being the kindergartners' king; by the time Myron finds him, he's singing "Patty Cake" in a Troubled Fetal Position.
• Valentine's Day Episode: "Pull My Pigtail" takes place on Valentine's Day and centers on Dana's attempts to make Todd and Maurecia a couple.
• Voice Changeling: Mrs. Jewls talks just like Dana in "The Note" when stating the "no talking during pop quizzes" rule.
• The Voiceless: Sammy and Mr. Pumpkin. In the latter's case, Stephen does the talking for him.
• Vomit Discretion Shot:
  • In the Pilot Movie Todd is subjected to seeing the little girl next to him throw up on the kindergarten bus. Appearantly she thought that would impress him.
  • In "Todd Falls in Love", Maurecia manages to snap out of his Mushroom Surprise-induced crush on Mrs. Jewls by feeding him Ms. Mush's baloney on a stick to erm, pump his stomach, so to speak.
• Whoopee Cushion: The April Fool's Day prank in one of the flashbacks in "Pull My Pigtail" culminates in a joybuzzed Todd landing on one after he trips on a rope pulled by Myron.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: From "Channel Kidswatter", when the Principal tries to hock his cheap merchandise:
  Maurecia: "Clowns"? Who would actually buy this crud?
  Myron: (off-screen) I love this crud!
• Wingding Eyes:
  • Maurecia sometimes has hearts in her eyes when she's lovestruck.
  • In "Be True to Your Elf", Kidswatter has shamrocks in his eyes after he remembers an encounter with a leprechaun.
  • And in "Oh, Great Leader", his pupils form the shape of smiling faces when he sees all the kids in the gym.
• Would Rather Suffer: The plot of "Todd Falls in Love" is kicked off by Todd claiming he'd rather eat Miss Mush's Mushroom Surprise than be Maurecia's boyfriend, and the class decides to call his bluff.
• Wrong Line of Work: Mr. Kidswatter utterly fails as a principal and has been shown to be much better in virtually every line of work he does outside of his actual job. The only reason he's still principal at all is that he's the only one that knows how to keep the poorly constructed building from falling over.
• You Don't Look Like You: The characters in the show look next to nothing like their illustrations in the books, but it should be noted that the books' illustrations have changed many times over the years, so there is no definitive/canon version of the characters that the show is bound to. However, the books do feature some brief descriptions of a character’s appearance, which the cartoon rarely follows.
  • Louis is always described as having a multicolored mustache in the books, but here, he has no mustache, instead having blue hair and a blue goatee.
  • Myron is described as having big ears in the books. Here, he has the smallest ears out of the main cast.
  • Todd wears a green shirt according to “Wayside School is Falling Down”. The cartoon shows him wearing a blue shirt.
• You No Take Candle: Ms. Mush talks like this.

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