History Characters / TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir

** When Will's father Lou shows up in "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse". As Lou is preparing to leave wi

* BaldnessMockery: Will often teases him over his bald head. He usually replies qith a snark back or a DopeSlap.

** In one later-seaaon episode, Will teases Carlton for being a workaholic who never made any friends outside of Will. Except by that point in the series, most of Will's old friends had been subjected to ChuckCunninghamSyndrome and he pretty well exclusively hung out with Carlton and Jazz - and the latter less often than he used to.

* ActionDad: Has quite a few moments of PapaWolf badassery. In the episode ''Mistaken Identity'', when a racist police officer arrests his son Carlton and nephew Will, he sees right through an obvious EngineeredPublicConfession. When said cop refuses to let them out of their cell, Uncle Phil unleashes a verbal ass-whoopin' the likes of which the poor bastard had never seen.

* HappilyMarried: To Vivian.

* HappilyMarried: To Philip.

* HeroicBSOD: When Will gets shot by a mugger while out with Carlton, a badly shaken Carlton spends the entire episode angry and withdrawn, expresses a lack of faith in the justice system (a stark departure from his ''naive'' faith in the justice system in earlier seasons) and begins carrying a loaded gun with him for "self-defence" - but it's implied he might have gone out to find the mugger himself had Will not stopped him.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He starts out as a snobbish and sycophantic {{Jerkass}} in the first season, but gradually becomes a close friend to Will and learns to genuinely care about him, even referring to him in one episode as "the brother I've always wanted".

'''Lou:''' (standing back up) Hey, you get off my back! You think I want this?! It! Just! Happened! [[DirtyCoward Now, Will was a baby and I was scared—\\]]

'''Lou:''' (standing back up) Hey, you get off my back! You think I want this?! It! Just! Happened! Now, Will was a baby and I was scared—\\

* BerserkButton: Do not compare him to his dad. Ever.
** Don't accuse his cousin of being a CategoryTraitor.
*** Several of Will's most emotional and distressed moments in the show tend to be times when Carlton seems to be veering from his innocent, dorky persona and becoming more hardened - doubles as AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther, as Will worries a lot for Carlton's safety, and despite his teasing, truly doesn't want Carlton to change.
** Don't ''under any circumstances'' try to get too close with Ashley if you're her boyfriend or date. Admittedly, the two have clashed over his overprotective side more than once.
** PlayedForLaughs with his cherished Willie Mays-autographed baseball. He doesn't take it well when he thinks it was stolen when the Banks' house is robbed, or when he learned that Ashley actually took it for baseball practice.
** Insulting his mother. While PlayedForLaughs, it likely stems from his issues with his absentee father.
* BigBrotherInstinct: He's very protective of Ashley, although he's more like "Big Cousin Instinct". When Ashley is a teenager in later seasons, she doesn't always appreciate this. He also has some shades of this with the more naive Carlton.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Quite a few times Will shows himself to be the more mature and reasonable person in the room. Examples are "Homeboy, Sweet Homeboy" were he castigates Vivian for her disrespectful attitude towards his friend Trey, "Mistaken Identity" where he is much more aware of racial biases with American police departments than Carlton and "Home is Where the Heart Attack Is" where he chews out Carlton for not seeing Phil in the hospital.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite his occasional Jerkass moments, he's a good friend to Will and holds genuine care for all of the members (including Phil).

* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Child Nicky first appeared in an episode set a few years into the future with a flashback showing how he was born in the modern day. The next episode just has him as a child living in the modern day with Jazz lampshading that he's going back to the streets where things make sense.

** What's even more confronting is that, when Will demands that Carlton hand over the gun and Carlton does so, Will opens the barrel of the gun to reveal that '"it was loaded'', causing him to break down crying, most likely because he realizes that his cousin's innocence is gone forever.

* {{Catchphrase}}: [[LampshadedDoubleEntendre "You know what I mean?" / "You know what I'm sayin'?"]]

* HandsomeLech: He is shamelessly flirty and obsessed with ladies. His pickup lines are very corny (“Hey baby, you look so good I wish I could plant you and grow a whole field of y'all!”) but he gets away with it because he’s Will Smith.

* {{Catchphrase}}: He tends to shout "WILL!" whenever Will pisses him off.

* CoolLoser: He's [[ClarkKentOutfit fit]], hardworking, very smart, excels in both extracurricular activities and academics, comes from a rich family, and [[AllegedlyDateless gets tons of dates]] over the course of the show. He's still a ButtMonkey who no one respects, not even his own family.

* ExtravertedNerd: Not originally, but more so as the series progresses.

* HollywoodDateless: In contrast to [[TheCasanova Will]], he’s always referred to be as hopeless with girls and as someone who has trouble finding dates. However throughout the show he has more onscreen dates than both his beautiful sisters (justified considering their respective amounts of screen-time), he has been hit on by girls numerous times (although Carlton usually screws up with them anyways), and at least four girls actually picked him over Will.

* CoolLoser: He's [[ClarkKentOutfit fit]], hardworking, very smart, excels in both extracurricular activities and academics, comes from a rich family, and [[HollywoodDateless gets tons of dates]] over the course of the show. He's still a ButtMonkey who no one respects, not even his own family.

'''Will:''' And you still would be if you hadn't poisoned those nuns.

* {{Delinquents}}: Will's mother sent him to live with the Banks hoping they could set him on the straight and narrow after one too many run-ins with the law. The opening credits also have him being admonished by a police man for vandalism.

* HyperCompetentSidekick: Geoffrey generally runs every aspect of the house, such as food shopping, meals, and cleaning. While he's been known to slack off at times, "Did the Earth Move for You?" and "Winner Takes Off" show how the family really can't hack his different responsibilities even if they divide the workload.

** Don't ''under any circumstances'' try to get too close with Ashley if you're her boyfriend or date. Admittedly, the two have clashed over his overprotective side more than once.

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** A father abandoning his child. One of the few times Phil's rage was not PlayedForLaughs.
** Hurt any of his kids in any way and [[PapaWolf he will come down on you with everything he has]], even if you are a cop. And that does include Will.
** Trying to humiliate him or smear his name and reputation is a huge one as the example with the cops show. And he won't just forget about it afterwards.