History Creator / PaulJennings

* AnyoneCanDie
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: His favourite Aesop.

* DownerEnding: Quite a lot.

* {{Mooning}}: The subject of ''Moonies''.

* OnlyMostlyDead: The main character of ''The Naked Ghost''.

* PickyPeopleEater: The Slobberers from the series ''Wicked!''

* {{Spoonerism}}: The whole point of ''Spooner Or Later''.

* [[WidgetSeries Widget]]: His stories can more or less be considered weird Australian things.

* WeaponizedStench: In ''Smelly Feat'', a boy saves a sea turtle from being killed by a bully using his feet that he didn't wash for months to scare the bully away.

* UrbanFantasy: Most of his stories.

** FridgeLogic: But the wish made before that should have wiped away all the wishes, and killed the granter.
* YouCantFightFate: Looking into the eye of a Seeshell lets you see the future, and everything you see ''will'' happen- however you can also manipulate SelfFulfillingProphecy.

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* ScaryScarecrows: ''Know All'' features an scarecrow come to life when it wears an acrobat costume due to a circus curse. The protagonist recognizes that the costume belonged to someone bad, and the costume passes on the person's evil.

The first and second series of television show ''Series/RoundTheTwist'' were written by Paul Jennings and based on his published short stories; episodes after this point were original stories written by other people. The lesser-known series ''Driven Crazy'' was likewise based on his previously unadapted stories.

* PlayfulParent: In ''A Mouthful'', the protagonist's father loves to play pranks on his daughter and her friends. He's put too much pepper on their dinner, short-sheeted the beds, etc, but his favourite prank was to put fake cat poop on the table and pretend to eat it. The girl then [[IAteWhat tricks him into eating real cat food]].

Paul Jennings (born 1943) is an Australian children's author, who primarily writes compilations of short stories featuring {{Twist Ending}}s.

** In one story, the {{Jerkass}} narrator is a know-it-all bully who regularly taunts and teases people while scoring high on tests. Over the course of the story, the people who he taunts and teases receive free ice cream from a mysterious ice cream man, and subsequently lose the trait he was teasing them about (e.g. a pimply-faced character's acne disappears overnight). Infuriated that he doesn't get any ice cream, he breaks into the man's truck at night and puts sand in every tub but one labeled "Smart Ice Cream - for smart alecks" which he helps himself too. The final part of the story is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, as the narrator wonders what happened... and can't work out whether one plus one is "free or for?"

** In ''No Is Yes'', Dr Scrape has isolated his daughter, Linda, and spoken in a way that has taught her all the opposite words to everything. When their house catches fire and he is trapped inside, a fireman asks her if anyone is in there. She replies "No", because she thinks that no means yes. Her father has literally killed himself because his daughter [[PoorCommunicationKills lacks the knowledge to communicate with others]]. [[spoiler: It is suggested that she began to understand that she had been taught the wrong words and may have left her father to die on purpose, but from Linda's earlier behaviour, it is more likely she still thought "no" meant "yes".]]

* YouCantFightFate: Looking into the eye of a Seeshell lets you see the future, and everything you see will happen- however you can also manipulate SelfFulfillingProphecy.

** In ''No Is Yes'', Dr Scrape has isolated his daughter Linda and spoken in a way that has taught her all the wrong words. When the house catches fire and he is trapped inside, a fireman asks her if anyone is in there. She replies "No", because she thinks that no means yes. Her father has literally killed himself because his daughter [[PoorCommunicationKills lacks the knowledge to communicate]]. [[spoiler: It is suggested that she began to understand that she had been taught the wrong words and may have left her father to die on purpose, but from Linda's earlier behaviour, it is more likely she still thought "no" meant "yes".]]

** AmbiguousCloneEnding: Played With - The Copy has the same memories as the main character, and becomes convinced that he is the original, and that "The Copy" is trying to live ''his'' life. It soon turns out the first part of the story is told [[UnreliableNarrator using the clone's memories]] instead of the original's, and the original boy is ''dead''.

** In ''No Is Yes'', Dr Scrape has isolated his daughter Linda and spoken in a way that has taught her all the wrong words. When the house catches fire and he is trapped inside, a fireman asks her if anyone is in there. She replies "No", because she thinks that no means yes. Her father has literally killed himself because his daughter lacks the knowledge to communicate. [[spoiler: It is suggested that she began to understand that she had been taught the wrong words and may have left her father to die on purpose, but from Linda's earlier behaviour, it is more likely she still thought "no" meant "yes".]]

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: A lot of stories involve characters being caught naked in public e.g. ''The Gizmo'', ''Wunderpants'' and ''Pubic Hare''.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: In ''Nails'', mermen and mermaids can crossbreed with humans, with said offspring looking human until puberty, when they will start to grow what look like extra fingernails (really scales) up their fingers and eventually over various parts of their body before their legs fuse together to become the iconic tails.

** FridgeLogic: But the wish before that should have wiped away all the wishes, and killed the granter.
* YouCantFightFate: Looking into the eye of a Seeshell lets you see the future, and everything you see will happen- however you can manipulate SelfFulfillingProphecy.

* ScaryScarecrows: ''Know All'' features a scarecrow come to life due to a circus curse.

* {{Jerkass}}: One will always show up in his stories, usually as an antagonist, rarely as a protagonist.

* BodyHorror: The main characters of ''Burp'' and ''Nails'', amongst others.

The first and second series of television show ''Series/RoundTheTwist'' were written by Paul Jennings and based on his published short stories; episodes after this point were original stories written by other people.

* YouCantFightFate: Looking into the eye of a Seeshell lets you see the future, and everything you see will happen- with a mild dash of SelfFulfillingProphecy.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In one story, the {{Jerkass}} narrator is a know-it-all bully who regularly taunts and teases people while scoring high on tests. Over the course of the story, the people who he taunts and teases receive free ice cream from a mysterious ice cream man, and subsequently lose the trait he was teasing them about (e.g. a pimply-faced character's acne disappears overnight). Infuriated that he doesn't get any ice cream, he breaks into the man's truck at night and eats all the ice cream he finds. The final part of the story is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, as the narrator wonders what happened... and can't work out whether one plus one is "free or for?"

** The main character of ''The Strap-Box Flyer'' sells a miracle glue that holds anything together... for four hours, at which point it falls apart. He runs into a man who invented the strap-box flyer, which lets you fly. As they fly towards the clouds, all sense of time lost, the inventor casually reveals the conman's flyer is held together with his glue, and just then it falls apart.

Co-authored two series with Creator/MorrisGleitzman: '['[[Literature/WickedPaulJennings Wicked!]]'' and ''Deadly!''.

* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: In ''Nails'', mermen are established as having legs, but are covered in scales that resemble fingernails.