Idiot Ball: Depending on the scene, it can range from one character doing something stupid, like not noticing Bakura's turned into a bestial psychopath, to the entire cast accepting that Bakura's managed to recover from illness, win six duels in a tournament, and walk to the location of the finals in a single episode. Special mention goes to Tristan, whose Idiot Ball is permanently lodged between his brain's frontal lobes.
Téa: I can't believe we're expected to believe all this.
Yugi: And yet, apparently we do. God, we're stupid. This must be what it feels like to be Tristan.
If I Can't Have You: "I'm going to kidnap you! It seems to be the default response to anything in this show!"
Mai: Marik! When I defeat him it'll prove that I don't need friends to be a strong person. That'll show Joey for not including me in his brain-damage-induced hallucinations!
Marik: Hey shut up; you don't know anything about me.
Florence: Marik, he IS you; he knows EVERYTHING about you.
Marik: HE is the gay one!
Florence: Marik, he's YOU!
Marik: ...He is the gay one!
In the rap battle between Yugi and Jaden, Yugi suggests Jaden should just practice ballet instead of playing children's card games. In his next spit, Jaden fires back that he's been taking ballet for six years regardless of Yugi's taunting.
"I can do whatever I want because I'm voiced by DAN GREEN!"
Also Marik seems to get quite into it during Leather Pants, not that he hasn't hammed up the scenery in-series as well.
Larynx Dissonance: There's only six women in the series and the four that qualify as main characters sound like varying degrees of guy: From Miss Piggy style (Téa), to slightly husky (Ishizu), to not even trying (Mai and Serenity). The other two, Rebecca Hawkins and Veronica Ishtar, had genuine female actors but only ever appeared in one episode a piece.
Subverted in the Season Zero pilot, when it looks like Yugi's going to think of a different way to finish the sentence, and finally just gives up and starts over.
Late to the Punchline: Marik pulls this off when he realises what Melvin meant by 'I always knew you wanted me inside of you Bakura' and explains the joke a whole episode later.
Laugh Track: Zorc has sitcom-style canned laughter play every time he mentions destroying the world, occasionally also other audience reactions.
Yami plays some of Fallout 3, also as a con promo.
Life Imitates Art: The series is cancelled by 4Kids in continuity and then it's taken off of YouTube in real life. This was right after the episode that featured Johnson/JudgeMan losing a trial against Joey, and then it goes back on YouTube just after the last episode defended it. Try not to think about that too hard.
Lolicon: Pegasus due to the Toon Dark Magician Girl card, according to Kaiba:
Kaiba: You took the hottest thing in all of Duel Monsters and turned it into a FIVE YEAR OLD. You have issues, man.
Logic Bomb: Duke defeats Nesbitt this way by showing him a picture of the Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal protagonist.
Lost Episode: For lack of a better trope to describe it. For April Fools' Day 2011, a new version of Episode 6 was released, covering the same episode as the original, but using completely different scenes and jokes.
Lucky Translation: The fearless Japanese fan that took on the daunting task of translating the abridged series on nicovideo got lucky with "You don't stand a ghost of a chance!". 'Ghost' and 'zero' are pronounced exactly the same in Japanese.
Which is the joke, from the original. Recursive lucky translation?
After getting his eye gouged out, Pegasus, instead of screaming in pain, informs Florence that he took the wrong one.
Florence: My mistake.
* Pop*
Pegasus: That's much better.
We also have Hank Ishtar singing a parody version of "Cat's in the Cradle" while being hugged
stabbed to death
by Melvin.
Manipulative Bastard: Of all people, Mokuba in episode 52. He manipulates Noah into giving him free food and letting him watch his favourite TV shows by going on about how his previous kidnappers were so much better than Noah.
Man of a Thousand Voices: LittleKuriboh does nearly all the voices on the show with impressive range of pitch and accent. The voices not done by him are generally guest voices he could likely have done by himself.
An in-universe example; in episode 52 Kaiba creates an internet meme called 'lolcalization', which takes Japanese cartoons and 'localises' them into American versions. This causes 4Kids Executive Lector - the head of localization - to destroy himself, since his Deck Master's special power is to destroy internet memes.
Out of universe, the character catchphrases like "Screw the Rules, I Have Money", "In America", and "Brooklyn Rage" among others have achieved meme status. So much to the point that voice actors from the actual series have used them at conventions.
And last, but certainly not least, "CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES"
Metafiction: The idea is played with, and is in full effect in Season 3. The show is cancelled and the characters have to fight the executive at 4Kids to get it back, ultimately defeating them and blowing up their base. At the same time in real life for unrelated reasons, the company had gone bankrupt and lost the rights to Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Grandpa: (in a flashback) "Playing card games is just like making love. You usually do it on a table, and always feel deep shame afterwards. Also, the older you get, the less fun it is. So, in conclusion, remember to always wear a condom while playing card games!"
Yugi: "Huh...maybe I should wash my hands before shuffling these."
Joey has one, too.
Joey: Remember, you treat a duel disk just like you treat a woman. You strap it to your arm and put trading cards into it at regular intervals.
The 3rd anniversary one went comparatively better. There was just an explosion instead.
Mind Control: Marik uses this recurringly on his Steves, as well as on Joey and Tea. Later, Nesbitt uses it when taking control of Tristan and so does Crump when he takes control of Tea's body.
The Mole: Melvin works for 4Kids and is trying to get the show cancelled. He succeeds in episode 46.
Moment Killer: Malik gets one during the Joey/Odion duel; when Odion realizes he's about to lose due to the fake Egyptian God Card inciting the wrath of the real Mega Ultra Chicken, Odion muses how he finally became a Tombkeeper. "Malik", on the other hand, isn't impressed.
Odion: I can only hope you're proud of me. "Malik": She's not even your real mom, douche bag!
Motor Mouth: Used by Yugi in Season 0, to describe his Grandpa's Blue Eyes White Dragon card:
Yugi: Hey gramps, can we please see your ultra-rare-chocolatey-fudge-coated-sugar-sprinkled-angelic-magical-fantastical-stupendeously-special-illegally-sexually-geniunely-brilliantly-amazing-goddamn-spank-my-ass-and-call-me-suzie-mega-ultra-super card? Explanation
This is a Call Back to the very first episode of the first series, where Yugi asked for his grandpa's Blue-Eyes card in a similar manner. However, that example was much shorter than the one used in the Season 0 quote above.
Mr. Exposition: Shadi serves this role up until Noah and Team 4kids cancels the show.
The cybernetic ghost of Christmas past from the future. Lampshaded in the Kaiba's Father special: "Are you kidding me? Every time something fucked up happens in this series, you show up and start explaining things!"
Ms. Fanservice: When Dark Magician Girl makes her first appearance, a subtitle appears:
"Somewhere a Yugioh fan is touching himself inappropriately."
My Friends... and Zoidberg: Bakura, since the main cast doesn't consider him as part of their group of friends and regularly pick on him for absolutely everything he does.
Joey says as much upon his reaction in episode 36 when he breaks Marik's mind control over him to find that he's been dueling in a death match with Yugi.
After Shadi shows Pegasus a vision of the havoc the God Cards will unleash:
Noah says this almost verbatim only three seconds after getting to the helicopter to escape the missile he launched to kill everyone at the Kaiba Corp facility at the end of the Virtual World arc.
Kaiba's finger came clean off while sticking it near a helicopter's blades. Played straight when it wasn't mentioned in the next episode, then subverted in the episode after that when its Hand Waved by a doctor who surgically reattaches his finger, a la The Empire Strikes Back (Which Kaiba has never seen because he doesn't "watch crap").
In Marik's Evil Council 3, said council is meeting near an anime convention due to their Egypt hideout having been destroyed by Yami Yugi's letterbomb in the previous Christmas Special...despite said bomb having gone off right next to them, which would have certainly killed them as well, though you could blame it on 4Kids having censored it.
Episode 18: "No! Yugi! You can't be dead. If you were dead, 4Kids would have censored it!"
Episode 28: "Yes, I - wait, no, I don't want to kill you, I just want to destroy you a little! Jeez, talk about overreacting!"
Episode 30: "Help! Somebody save me from the harmless dark energy disks that won't kill me!"
Subverted in episode 36 where Yugi expects that losing the card game against Joey on purpose will send him to the Shadow Realm and is willing to do it because of their friendship. Until Joey tell him that, for once, the consequences will ACTUALLY be fatal.
In episode 37, Bakura points this out: "Honestly, why do we even have a graveyard in this show if nobody ever dies?" Averted, as Zombie Boy apparently did die later that episode. But then, he is a zombie.
Episode 40: "Marik, if I survive this, I'm going to kill you."
Episode 41: "Oh my God, we're gonna die! ... I can't believe I'm gonna die in a show about * beep* ing CARD GAMES!"
Episode 47: "If we were gonna die, they'd have killed us by now." Subverted, too. Noah threatens the cast with sentry turrets when Kaiba's blimp lands in his mobile fortress. At first they mock Noah, thinking the bullets that the turrets fire will be non-lethal, but then Noah opens fire for a few seconds to show that they are very real bullets.
Bonds Beyond Time: Yugi's explanation of the shadow realm to Yusei and Jaden.
In-Universe. "So let me get this straight. The only characters on this show who represent America are Jean Claude Magnum, Rebecca Hawkins, Maximillian Pegasus, and Bandit Keith. Is it just me, or is Yu-Gi-Oh the most xenophobic show ever?"
Jokes about the British are used a lot with Bakura ("This looks like a job...for LIMEYMAN!"). All these jokes get even funnier when you realize that LittleKuribohISBritish.
Yugi: Is everyone from England a total spaz, Bakura?
Bakura: Pretty much.
Episode 23
Marik: With my Millenium Rod, I can take control of whoever I want.
Yugi: And you chose Bandit Keith? Why the hell would you choose Bandit Keith, he sucks!
Marik: It's simple. Americans are very easy to brainwash. Isn't that right, mind slave?
Spoofed in Yugi's duel with Panik in which Yugi gives a convoluted explanation for how he won (that does in fact perfectly describe the way he won in the original series)
Another episode seems to use this as its main gag, where even the "world's most advanced computer" can't understand the game, that no one has tried to learn how to actually play the game and lived and that having to play by the rules is considered a plot twist.
In the Bonds Beyond Time abridged movie this is the way Paradox is defeated. Paradox explains that in his time Duel Monsters actually evolved into a game with rules that actually make the game fair and balanced. Yami then counters by pointing out that they aren't in Paradox's time and that Duel Monsters in his own time is broken and completely exploitable.
Kaiba: And... some kind of evil zebra unicorn thing. (Zooms in on monster) Seriously, what the hell is that supposed to be? Whatever it is, I'll be seeing it in my nightmares.
Also when the characters find that the virtual game's version of Mokuba is a princess, the ending states she will "return in your nightmares".
At various times ("This will allow the writers to fill in a bunch of plot holes!") and one of Ishizu's powers from her Millennium Necklace is the ability to do this.
Little Kuriboh lets you know what sort of series this is going to be from the third line in the first episode: "Sorry, Yug, doin' this Brooklyn accent makes it difficult to concentrate on card games!"
The abridged series itself no longer has a fourth wall either
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Thief King Bakura suffers one at the hands of Exodia in a parody of the scene between Loki and the Hulk in The Avengers.
When the "Ancient Egyptian Laser Beams" Shadow Game between Bakura and Pegasus appears, "This isn't a joke. It really happens" appears on screen.
And again when the poster for Yugioh 5D appears for the first time. It reads "You have got to be ***ing me."
And the running gag of the "Actual 4Kids Dialog" message, including such gems as:
"Check his pulse, Yugi!"
"What a digital dummy!"
"In another few hours, the sun will rise!"
"You don't stand a ghost of a chance!"
"Be very careful, Joey!"
"If only he had been careful!"
Joey, what did I tell you about being careful?
He shows one when pointing out the difference between how the Japanese version of the show did a scene or plotline versus how the American version did the same one. Needless to say, the Japanese one often sounds more appealing the the American dub.
The Nudifier: The Shadow Realm, according by Zorc in Marik's Evil Council 5.
Zorc: In the Shadow Realm, we wear no clothes. Everybody is totally naked. It's kind of a thing. Everybody must suffer eternal damnation...and nudity!.
When "Malik" realizes Odion getting hit by lightning and knocked out means Melvin's Restraining Bolt came off and there's nothing stopping him from taking over.
Then there is episode 44, when Kaiba discovers what Exchange of Spirit does. It is technically the first (and as of now, only) time the word fuck is uncensored (although that is only because it is stretched out):
Brooklyn Rage and the Yugi vs. Jaden rap battle start with one from Kaiba and Yugi respectively.
Kaiba: Please tell me you're not going to sing[...] Look, I'll pay you any amount of money right now if you don't sing!
Yugi: Oh you've got to be f*cking kidding me...
Once Acceptable Targets: In-Universe. Upon returning to the center of his mind, this time without the "help" of Shadi, Yugi comments that he "vaguely remembers meeting an extremely racist caricature".
Thoroughly and literally averted, in that all Ghouls/Rare Hunters are named "Steve". Steve (The guy who took Joey's Red Eyes), Steve Arcana, Steve the Mime, Keith Steve Howard, The Army of Celebrity Steves, etc. It might help if Marik's mind control powers worked on people who weren't named Steve. Marik does point out that he could controlStone Cold Steve Austin if he felt like it.
Also brought up here:
Yami: Look, why don't you just cut the crap and tell us who you really are Bakura? Or should I call you the spirit of the Millennium Ring, who has no official name as of yet?
Florence: Actually, we're both called Bakura!
Yami: What? But that's just confusing. Not to mention highly unlikely.
Florence: Oh, just wait until season 5 when there's three of me running around. Even the fans have trouble keeping up with that one.
Happened in Episode 6, and also seems to be a problem with Marik (and, by extension, Melvin), as he can't seem to decide whether he has a British accent or an American one. The former incident is referenced in Episode 48, where Yugi remembers it as a full-on Cockney rant.
In The Abridged Movie, at one point Yugi pronounces idea as the British "eye-DEE-er", rather than the American "eye-DEE-uh". With an American accent.
In episode #2 of Season Zero, Yugi slips into a British accent on the word "fortune". Twice.
Out-of-Character Moment: Mokuba lampshades this when Kaiba falls for the executives' obvious trap, asking why he's acting "so gullible and out-of-character."
Kaiba: Time for a trip to the recycle bin, Phantom. And then once you're in the recycle bin, I'm going to right-click on it and select "Empty Recycle Bin", because otherwise you would just be taking up unnecessary space. In other words, I'm going to kill you.
Also a Pre Asskicking Conversation in Episode 45:
Melvin: Very well. If it's a duel you want, it's a duel you'll get.
Florence: Right you are. And the winner decides if the show gets cancelled or not.
Protagonist-Centered Morality: Lampshaded. Duke challenges Joey to a duel with the two using decks assembled from random boosters, and he wins fair and square, with the stipulation if he won Joey would be his slavenote
And if Joey won, Duke would have to close his game shop, and thus the duel was a severe case of Disproportionate Retribution since the reason Joey disliked Duke was that he was jealous of his popularity
. In the scene before the duel, Joey laughs that once he wins, Duke will be out of business and forced to live on the street, prompting Tristan and Tea to remark that he's a noble role model for children. Then when Duke wins and makes Joey wear a dog suit, Yami Yugi declares "you've gone too far, how dare you force Joey to uphold his end of the bargain!"
Yu-Gi-Oh: Zexal will do this for the entire series much to the amusement of Yusei and Jack from 5D's who finally have something more crazy than "Card Games on Motorcycles" they can laugh at.
Reformed, But Rejected: Justified. After Noah launches a nuclear missile at the fortress, he returns after he has second thoughts. While they all grudgingly accept his help, none of them forgive him. Mokuba calls him out on how dying doesn't many the situation any less his fault.
Relationship Voice Actor: Prior to the cast expansion for season three, LittleKuriboh's (ex-)wife was one of only three other people besides LK himself to voice a character in the series. She played Rebecca Hawkins and The Other Abridged Movie's Gary Stu.
Remember the New Guy: In chapter 49, during a flashback Yugi tells Tea how much she loves the Dark Magician Girl. Tea states she doesn't even remember hearing of that monster card before.
Reset Button: After Crump takes over Tea's body , in contradiction to the canon plot, everyone was left wondering where this was going. Four episodes (and ten months) later, Marik unceremoniously evicts him.
In-Universe. Téa for Yami after giving "the biggest friendship speech of her life" to Johnny Steps.
Téa: Brainwashing people is fun!
Yami Yugi: Yes it is. I guess we have more in common than I thought!
Mokuba. In the last few episodes he's started to show some of that patented Kaiba family dickishness and has become infinitely more funny and maybe even a little Bad Ass to boot. He's still completely useless, though. Mokuba gets another upgrade in badass as the main antagonist of season zero.
Restraining Bolt: Odion is a living one of these for Marik's evil side, Melvin.
Ridiculously Cute Critter: Kuriboh is annoyingly cute and, according to Yami, useful for nothing else. Also he doesn't love him.
Robot Girls: Kaiba has a massive harem of identical pretty robot girls. He created them specifically so that he could shun them with his cold indifference.
Mokuba: Big bro, you're kind of like the anime version of Scrooge McDuck...only much less fluffy.
Rule of Funny: All the time and all the way, it's practically the defining trope of the series. If it might be funny, it will happen, no matter how completely random, nonsensical, out-of-character, or plain silly, it might be. And if you try to think about it beyond it being funny, you aren't going to get past the first six episodes with your sanity intact.
Running Gag: Enough to fill another page. To cover some of the most frequent ones:
"Duel" and "Duel Monsters" are almost universally replaced with "children's card game." The cast is perfectly aware of how absurd it is that almost every conflict they face is solved with a duel when in real life a simple call to the police (or physical violence) would suffice.
References to Bakura being a minor character, with characters frequently forgetting who he even is.
Joey's "nyeh" Verbal Tic, which he can't even hear.
Meta-example: Bots have taken down the series' YouTube account repeatedly. The channel has been reinstated each time, but some episodes haven't been as lucky.
The Scottish Trope: In Episode 40, Bakura says the forbidden word (so evil they had to censor it twice)! Disney. Cue Imperial March. And they mentioned it several times two episodes later
As of the Bonds Beyond Time Abridged Movie, so is Jaden.
Self-Made Orphan: Marik, in a sense. His mother dies in childbirth and Melvin kills his father.
And Kaiba, who fired both his parents.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the fifth Evil Council video, Bakura defects to Dartz's council, thoroughly fed up with the idiocy. Only Marik doesn't agree with Bakura's decision.
Marik: "Yes, get a load of that back, fangirls. You (EFF!)ing love it don't you."
Shipper on Deck: Téa. When Joey refuses to tell Mai that she appeared in his dream, she yells at him, saying that as a fanfic writer, she's offended by his not jumping at the first woman to show attraction to him.]
Téa: "I'm so mad I could walk off like a pimp!" *proceeds to do just that*
Small Annoying Creature: Kuriboh gets a voice in Episode 48 and its annoyance factor abruptly ramps to eleven. Specifically, it gets the voice of the hot dog from Perfect Hair Forever, which appears to have been intentionally annoying.
the scapegoats in episode 58 gets voices as well...
Florence: "No! What about our adopted daughter?! Who will take care of her once you're gone?!"
Zorc: "She also has a terminal disease!"
Sociopathic Hero: Yami is this in season zero. Every time he emerges from Yugi's puzzle he is accompanied by the theme music of Michael Myers from Halloween and quotes a psychopath from a movie. In a twist, this is actually relatively in step with his manga incarnation.
Duke: I summon the extremely phallic space ship. But since it belongs to me it grows to twice its usual size. Duke Devlin always rises to the occasion, baby!
The Jiggle-o-meter in episode 49 gets 'excited' every time a breast appears onscreen.
The most infamous being Marik's Cluster F-Bomb bleep, taken from Perfect Hair Forever. The sound effect can best be described as an angry man yelling "Eff!"
Dartz also uses aforementioned Sound Effect Bleep starting in Marik's Evil Council 3.
Yugi, you little (BLEEP)! You son of a (BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)! I'm going to tear off your (BLEEP) and shove them right up your (BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP) and then (BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP) on your (BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP) with (BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP) in the (BLEEP)(BLEEP) and (BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP) your (BLEEP)(BLEEP)(BLEEP), so then you'll have to (BLEEP) sideways! (BLEEP)!
Soundtrack Dissonance: In Episode 45, we have Melvin, Marik's evil alter ego, stabbing his father Hank to death with the Millennium Rod—with Hank singing a parodying variant of Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle," describing what's happening in rather-disturbing detail.
Yugi: "We've learned that card games are the answer to all life's problems. And the only thing I know for certain in this world it's that there's a strange man living inside my head who tells me to do things!"
Yami: "You said it, Yugi! Now burn everything! Burn it to the ground!"
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Yami Bakura/Florence and Marik seem to show up together a lot in all things related to Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series and their banter together usually goes on for a while. This is especially clear in the "Come Sail Away" video, which was supposed to feature just Yami singing the song but it ended up being sung by a majority of the cast, with who else but Bakura and Marik getting the chorus part and even getting to talk during the inbetween music.
During the first Evil Council of Doom, Bakura suggests just stabbing Yugi with a knife, without playing a children's card game. Marik doesn't listen. Besides, 4Kids would just censor it if they did.
After Joey is kidnapped by Bandit Keith and challenged for his star chips, he asks Keith why he didn't just take his star chips and vamoose while Joey was unconscious. Keith tells him to shut up*
... in America
.
In episode 33, when Bakura and Malik are teaming up, Malik brings up his tactic of using mind control, Bakura responds by saying: "Or we could just slice Yugi open with a machete, see if that works." Of course, Malik says he has a better idea involving more children's card games...
Since episode 17, there has been a stinger after a stinger. These mostly use an unrelated clip from a different episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! dubbed with a memetic sound clip rather than dialogue by LittleKuriboh - for example, "I WAS FROZEN TODAY!", Christian Bale's famous rant at a cameraman, or Lex Luthor's "WRONG!" from Superman Returns.
Episodes 39 and 50 have three stingers.
Stock British Phrases: Used often by Bakura. "Lashings of ginger beer for everyone! ... I'm British, you know."
Stockholm Syndrome: Parodied in episode 52. Mokuba gets kidnapped by Noah, but takes it in stride because he's so used to it by now. He even uses the opportunity to get free food and watch cartoons.
Stock Scream: The Wilhelm Scream makes an appearance in Episode 34.
Stuff Blowing Up: In the Michael Bay's Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged remake episode, this happens every time Tristan begins to talk. Everyone can hear him just fine in the actual show, though.
In the video that gave birth to the phrase "Card Games On Motorcycles", we get to see Iruka's "One Piece: The Abridged Series." It's...interesting...
And one year later, "Everybody Loves Mako" - an alternative version of Episode 6 made in style of early episodes, where, for example, the characters talk even slower than they used to.
Suckiness Is Painful: Marik getting something carved on his back was bad enough, but being forced to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua drove him to the dark side.
Suicide by Cop: Kaiba sets this up via a Thanatos Gambit in the Duelist Kingdom semi-final, leaving Yugi with a Sadistic Choice: throw the match and spare Kaiba's life, or go all-in and kill him. Of course, his friends try to talk him into killing Kaiba.
Bandit Keith: These sunglasses sure make it hard to see in the dark, but I refuse to take them off because I'm an American and Americans always wear sunglasses!
"Let me assure you that this tournament is 100% genuine, and is not in any way an elaborate ruse thrown together at the last minute so that I can get my hands on an Ancient Egyptian artifact."
Again in The Other Abridged Movie.
Kaiba: "When I'm through with you, you'll have to take a shower to wash away the smell of defeat. And I won't be watching you do it."
Yami: "Why would you be watching me?"
Kaiba: "I don't know. I just wanted to make sure you knew I wouldn't be."
The series frequently makes fun of general internet fandom ("I'm going to go complain about it on my LiveJournal account!") and the various LittleKuriboh impostors who try to fool people into thinking a new episode is out.
After trolls started flagging the episodes on YouTube (leading to their takedown), Kaiba informs Mokuba that he's "flagging videos on YouTube to compensate for the fact that I have an incredibly small penis."
For probably the same reasons, the first time Mariks Evil Council of Doom gathers, they decide to spam Yugi's youtube account so that he will have no choice but to bow before their might. Marik compliments that it is very evil.
In episode 29, a character mentions Joey is holding the Graceful Charity card in his hand, when the card is actually Graceful Dice. Obviously, people took notice. Flash to episode 30, which opens with a bully and his victim having the following exchange:
When the show gets "canceled" in Episode 47: [at least we lasted longer than Firefly]. It's also been referred to as "about the one thing Nick Simmons didn'tplagiarize."
And there are the internet trolls in episode 48 that do nothing but scream about various internet things. And in the Stinger at the end complain about how the episode was, including the phrase "Worst episode ever" and one saying that "These things were better when they were like five minutes long!"
Season Zero Episode 3 is a 9 minute long Take That to Youtube's copyright infringement policies. One gets the feeling that they might be a bit bitter about their latest ban.
Yugi: Have you ever arrested someone who was innocent?
Gray of the Youtube Police Department: Oh, all the time! It’s crazy how many people we arrest that didn’t do anything. I mean, we probably arrest more innocent people than we do criminals. It’s crazy.
Take That, Audience!: "A grown man who watches cartoons. That's almost as insane as a grown man playing a childrens card game." Given the huge number of references to shows and movies from the 80's and 90's, this series is not aimed at kids.
Take That Me: At the end of episode 29, Tristan decides to show Serenity a very special internet video.
Video Tristan: Hello Serenity, you probably can't see me now, but I'm standing in the middle of a field. It is a very romantic image. By the way, will you marry me?
Serenity: Jeez Tristan! What kind of lonely deranged freak proposes to somebody over the internet?
Taking You with Me: Coupled with his Heroic Sacrifice, Noah attacks Gozaburo in order to stop him from taking Kaiba's body and fleeing the virtual world before the missile hits at the end of the virtual world arc.
Talking Is a Free Action: On the show, despite the implication that duelists often have mere seconds to come up with a game-saving play, time never actually runs out on someone still trying to figure out what to do. But this was subverted in Téa's duel with Crump, in which Téa lost exactly that way.
Talking to Himself: Prior to the cast expansion in season 3, all characters except two were voiced by the same man, and the other two were voiced by the same woman. The impressions are ridiculously good, though.
Tastes Like Diabetes: In-Universe. Kuriboh's special ability as Yami's deck master.
Yami: Kuriboh! Activate Super Chibi Kawaii Moe Desu Mode!
Tristan: I sure hope we don't encounter any more intrusive subplots.
Magnum: Did somebody say "intrusive subplot"?
Tristan: Oh, son of a bitch!
And then during Joey's duel with Odion:
Joey: (narrowly avoiding getting hit by lightning)Nyeh! Man that was a close one. I sure am glad lightning never strikes twice in the same— (Joey gets hit by lightning) Joey: IRONY! (collapses)
The doctor in Episode 43:
Doctor: I'm glad I have such a long and villain free life ahead of me.
Johnny Steps, the egotistical DDR player. He does this to a lesser extent in the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, as well.
Duke Devlin also does this sometimes.
Third Person Flashback: This lampshaded this trope occasionally, even making fun of how Tèa was somehow able to remember something when she was unconscious.
Those Wacky Nazis: Kaiba's bodyguards Hans and Gruber in episode 39. He asks them to tone it down, and they respond with a resounding "Ja, mein Führer!"
Hans: In ze mean time we invite you to look at the city below which will soon be demolished to make room for Herr Kaiba's glorious utopian society. HEIL KAIBA! LONG LIVE ZE MASTER RACE!"
Took A Level In Jerk Ass: Tristan in season 2 for most of his jokes come to him wanting to have sex with Joey's sister.
Totally Radical: The "Singapore Dub", which deeply unsettled Joey.
Singapore!Pharaoh (In an over-the-top "Surfer" voice): Dude, Yugi! I think Tea wants to date you! You should wear one of those awesome silver bracelets! Now let's get on our mondo-awesome skateboards and order some bodacious pizza!
Bakura: So, you are the source of the gay signal I've been tracking! Though I probably could have deduced that without the use of my Gaydar. It seems we both ha-
Marik: What? Whoa, whoa, hold on now! You think that I'm... Look, I'll have you know that I like women!
Bakura: No doubt. That's probably why you've dressed yourself like one.
Marik actually outs himself (complete with admitting to having a folder dedicated to thiefshipping on his computer) in the 6th Bloodlines video. Of course, when Bakura asks him about this, Marik completely denies it.
Unresolved Sexual Tension: What, after the death of Yugi, does Florence want the most? For Marik/Melvin to ask him out. In Marik's Evil Council 4, Melvin actually does so, declaring that he is now his boyfriend and they will go out "ten times." This, coupled with the death of Yugi and the resurrection of "Zorc and Pals" causes Florence to joyfully declare it to be the happiest day of his life; of course, it was All Just a Dream.
The Un Smile: Episode 19. Out of context, a pleasant natural-looking smile. But given who was wearing it...
Yugi: Whenever Kaiba smiles, a puppy dies.
V
Values Dissonance - In-Universe example. Yugi is horrified when he learns about Slavemas from Yami.
Joey's "Nyeah." Turns out that he's completely unaware of himself doing it, even after singing the opening theme entirely in Nyeahs. Turns into Fridge Brilliance when you remember the time he tried to make "Brooklyn Rage!" a catch phrase. Yugi told him to just stick saying "Nyeah" and he responds with a "Nyeah" said in a manner that suggests he doesn't know what Yugi is talking about. A whiff of a Suspiciously Specific Denial in there too. When he said "I still don't hear anything" after the opening theme in question, nobody had said "you're still doing it".
Attention Duelists! Kimo and Bandit Keith each have one... IN AMERICA!
Very Special Episode: In Episode 17, an advertisement is shown for a Very Special Episode of Zorc And Pals, in which Zorc has a terminal disease, as does his and Bakura's adopted daughter.
Yugi: It finally happened, he went up to that great big basement in the sky.
Wham Episode: Season 0's second episode takes a turn for the "WHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?" as not only is Kaiba an actually nice guy, but Mokuba is now the closest thing to a villain. Not to mention that the dynamic is reversed and it's Mokuba that's telling Kaiba to shut up. Lampshaded soon after it ends with the song "Everything You Know Is Wrong."
Bandit Keith steals one of Joey's cards. It is never brought up again.
Akhnadin (or "Bob") vanishes after the first Evil Council meeting. True to form the series lampshades and Hand Waves this with Steve Lunar mentioning sacrificing him in Evil Council 3, and Bakura's Continuity Nod to his off-screen death in Evil Council 4.
Yugi: Marik, you find! Why must you use innocent people in your evil scheme? Marik/Steve the Mime: Innocent?! Are you kidding me?! He's got piercings all over his body. You've got to be pretty {EFF} to agree to something like that! Yugi: He's still a human being! Marik/Steve the Mime: He's also a mime. Yugi: Oh. Well, in that case, yeah, I'll kick his ass.
What The Hell, Sister?: Yugi tells off Ishizu after she explains Marik's backstory, as it's pretty much her and their father's fault for screwing him up.
Dark Magician Girl (aka Dark Magician with Big Boobies): "Hey, Dark Magician, how come we can talk in this movie?"
Dark Magician: "A wizard did it."
Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: In episode 52, a possessed Tristan wielding a bokken instantly defeats Kaiba wielding a heavy steel pipe, sending the latter weapon flying through the air.
Grandpa (episode 1): That Kaiba kid needs to get laid. Tristan: Big time. Kaiba's computer (episode 7): You really do need to get laid. Bakura (episode 14): That Kaiba bloke needs to get shagged.
Apparently, he has gotten laid. But it was 5000 years ago and wasn't any good.
