History Series / CornerGas

->'''Brent:''' You want me to fill it up?\\

->'''Customer:''' You know, I've never driven across Saskatchewan before.\\

** Creator/MichaelBuble makes a cameo appearance that consists entirely of Davis insulting his music.

Davis writes in a ''journal'', [[DiariesAreGirly not a diary]]. It has a lock on it ''like'' a diary, but it's totally different!

* EccentricTownsfolk: They do love their SeriousBusiness.

* CityShoutOuts: In "Comedy Night", Lacey gets revenge on a comedian Brent has a grudge against by convincing him that he is in Wullerton, not Dog River. As a result, he makes all of his shout outs to Wullerton, Dog River's archrival, and nearly gets lynched as a result.

** TheMovie adds Karen's husband, who isn't even given a name. It's mentioned that he's in the military and stationed in some Mediterranean, getting to enjoy the beaches while Karen is stuck in Dog River having to do her police duties... while pregnant.

* AlternateContinuity: The animated series seems to ignore the events of the movie and much of the original series in general. In particular, Brent and Lacey aren't dating and never did, Brent is still 40 years old despite having reached that age back in 2008, Wanda's son Tanner is still a young boy despite being ready for college in the movie, Karen appears to not be married or have a child, and Lacey still acts like and is treated as a newcomer despite having been in Dog River for over a decade at this point.

** The first episode of the animated series ends with Brent ready to go to the store to help replenish Lacey's food supply at the Ruby. He reads off her list, which is implied to be a full shopping list but in his mind only includes hot dogs, as it's the most important item to him.
* AnimatedAdaptation: Simply titled ''Corner Gas Animated''.

* DumbassDJ: In "TV Free Dog River", Karen and Davis start a radio station. Davis wants it to be a jazz station and talks in a smooth voice, but Karen is more interested in being a zoo host on a classic rock station. Eventually, after Davis realizes he's the only one in Dog River even remotely interested in jazz, he becomes an even wackier zoo host than Karen and completely upstages her.
* DumbIsGood: In TheMovie, Wanda's son Tanner is an adult (though still TheGhost). From how Wanda describes him, he's far from the [[EnfantTerrible diabolical mastermind]] he was as a kid. Now he's apparently really nice, except he's also dumb as a rock.

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Fitzy's Grandma was known only as "Fitzy's Grandma" until she entered a jam contest.

'''Karen:''' Oh, the winner is Fitzy's Grandma. Helen, apparently.
* Inverted and lampshaded in the movie. [[spoiler: At the end, everyone talks about how Brent and Lacey should get together, only to be floored to discover that the two had been dating for two years, and no one in the town had noticed.]]

* FailedASpotCheck: By the time of TheMovie, [[spoiler:Brent and Lacey had been openly dating for two years, but nobody in town had noticed until they kiss at the end of the movie and shock everyone. Brent and Lacey proceed to call everyone out on their ignorance.]]

* FictionalDocument: At the end of one episode, Brent does an "if you want to find out more, visit your local Library!" segment with the books featured in the episode. One of them he mentions is something the prop guy made for the episode, but it's surprisingly still a good read.

* FundraiserCarnival: There's one in the episode "Dog River Daze". Davis and Hank are both so excited about the dunk tank that they compete with each other to annoy the townsfolk so people will want to dunk them.

** TheMovie adds Karen's husband, who isn't even given a name. It's mentioned that he's in the military and stationed in some tropical country, getting to enjoy the beaches while Karen is stuck in Dog River having to do her police duties... while pregnant.

** In particular, the first season episode “I Love Lacey” explicitly takes place on November 16, 2003, the day of that year’s Grey Cup game in Regina. While the characters are all dressed for autumn, the trees are green and leafy, which they never are come November in that region; in real life, Regina’s weather was fairly frosty that day, with the temperature not even getting above freezing.

* IWantGrandkids: Emma comes down with a sudden case of this trope in TheMovie after hearing some of the other old ladies talk about their grandkids. She spends a good portion of it trying to get Brent and Lacey together to facilitate her desires. [[spoiler:Turns out Brent and Lacey have been together for two years, but nobody in the town noticed. Emma is overjoyed... until they say that they don't want kids (Brent doesn't want to share his comic books).]]

* NaiveNewcomer: Lacey. She's the new girl in town when the series starts, and is totally unprepared for the oddities and eccentricities of Dog River and its inhabitants, often totally confused and exasperated by their behaviour and customs. She gets used to it though, and eventually she [[CharacterDevelopment fits right in]].

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Corner Gas takes place in Dog River, Saskatchewan, which does not exist. Rouleau, Saskatchewan, where the show is filmed, ''does'', while the whole thing may well just be a stand in for writer and star Brent Butt's hometown of Tisdale.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: TheMovie establishes at the very end that [[spoiler: Brent and Lacey]] had been an OfficialCouple for some time. Given the nature of ''Corner Gas'' and its characters, the lead up to this and the moment they became a couple likely were quite the stories to tell.

** "Fitzy" is most likely a nickname that comes from shortening his last name, Fitzgerald, although one episode shows that his office door bears the name "Fitzy Fitzgerald".

* OrphanedPunchline: Mild subversion in "Safety First": One scene begins with the punchline, and then the next scene includes a flashback that explains the joke.

** When Emma delivers wise words to Brent, he tells her, "You're like Yoda." Emma replies, "I don't know what that means."

** Hank and Oscar get a gumball machine and name it "Corner Gum". Karen gets one of her own and names it "The Chewby".

* QuirkyHousehold: Oscar, Emma, and Brent
* QuirkyTown: Dog River.

* RelationshipReveal: At the end of TheMovie, [[spoiler:Brent and Lacey kiss, and everyone reacts with shock (including the viewer, possibly). Brent and Lacey are just as surprised as everyone else. They've been dating for two years and can't believe that nobody noticed.]]

* SavingTheOrphanage: The plot of TheMovie, applied to the whole town of Dog River.

* SeriesFauxnale: "Gopher It".

** The Clavet Cup.

* SmallTownRivalry: Residents of Dog River have a deeply entrenched dislike for nearby Wullerton ''[[RunningGag (spit)]]''. (TruthInTelevision: The Dog River[=/=]Wullerton rivalry was inspired by the real rivalry between Brent Butt's hometown of Tisdale, Sask. and nearby Melfort.)

* SoBadItsGood: An in-universe example with Thunder Face. Paul loves them because he finds their musical ineptitude very amusing.

** Do ''not'' beat Hank at golf unless you want him to follow you around the clock, making a high-pitch whining screech for a whole week. He will even call you on the phone to keep on going.

* StarcrossedLovers: Parodied in one episode where Hank falls for a girl from Wullerton ''[[CatchPhrase (spit)]]'' and decides that he'll have to dump her. [[spoiler:She's actually from Gimli, Manitoba. Upon discovering this, he then dumps her because he liked the idea of being StarcrossedLovers]].
* StatusCellPhone: The town of Dog's River is in the middle of nowhere and has really lousy cell reception. The residents are forced to use special cellphone with bulky signal boosters. When it is announced that a new cell tower will be erected in the town, the main characters get new cellphones and a try to show up each other by getting progressively smaller cellphones. However, when the plans for the new cell tower are abandoned, they have to go back to their old bulky models.

** "The Doctor's Son". Hank ends up suggesting that the doctor is a ''ghost''. Brent didn't get it either and asks for clarification of why Hank's theory couldn't be true.
** "If a plane crashes exactly on a border, where are the survivors buried?" Hank first asks whether the plane is distributed more on one side than the other, and then when Karen emphasises the word "survivors", he answers. "''Oh''! One on each side."

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Phil for Paul (they're the bartenders).

* TechnologyMarchesOn: In an in-universe example, Oscar apparently thinks digital clocks cost $800.

** Also, both bartenders (Phil and Paul) appear Cree. Paul speaks some Cree, enough to know the original name of Dog River. ([[TheConspiracy Not that Emma would let you find out where the name came from...]])

** Chili cheese dogs for Brent; he can easily pack away several per day. Brent Butt loves chili cheese dogs in real life, and claims he wrote them into the show to give himself an excuse to eat them. One of the official episode guide books even includes a recipe for the chili the props department put on the dogs.

** Wanda is often seen eating ropes of red licorice; in the season 6 episode “American Resolution”, she resolves to stop eating it on New Years Eve, and six months later she’s hallucinating the jar of it at Corner Gas begging her to eat from it.

* TrespassingToTalk: Davis is trying to get two of his friends to purchase a home security system. One day, they wake up to find him standing over their bed with a tray. He cheerfully informs them that he could've been a burgular bringing them breakfast. They buy the system just so he'll leave.

* TwoWordsICantCount: Hank counts "boycott" as two words.

** That, and the combined liquor and insurance store is [[TruthInTelevision a real feature of the town of Rouleau where the show is filmed]]; since the government of Saskatchewan is in the business of selling both things and the town has limited infrastructure due to its size, it’s [[ItMakesSenseInContext not actually that weird]] for one store to sell both.

In December 2016, [[http://www.thecomedynetwork.ca/blogs/2016/12/animated-corner-gas an animated series was revealed]], which began broadcasting on Creator/TheComedyNetwork in April 2018. Most of the original cast and crew have returned, with the exception of Janet Wright (Emma), who passed away in 2016. In the US, all seasons of the original, the movie, and ''Animated'' can be streamed for free on [[Website/{{IMDb}} Freevee]].

--->'''Lacey:''' Maybe people get put off by your Big Words...\\
'''Wanda:''' You mean intimidated by my vocabulary?

--->'''Wanda:''' Restitution! Remuneration! I demand indemnification!\\
'''Brent:''' Wow, you do a lot of crosswords, huh?

--->'''Wanda:''' You mean to say that you didn’t stipulate finite terms, establish clear, unambiguous points of chronology, duties, and ultimately remuneration?\\
'''Hank:''' Nope, none of those words.

* ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement: Dog River would most likely have an RCMP detachment instead of its own department (which was the original plan, but they couldn't get approval to do so). Strangely, some elements seem to contradict it being a local department and are more in line with an RCMP detachment, such the absence of a commissioner/superintendent, chief or captain above Davis, the apparent existence of a higher regulatory body outside Dog River (when Karen is promoted) and Davis' comment of coming to Dog River "as a cop" (this could indicate he transferred from another department rather than being posted there).

** A couple episodes suggest it’s fairly close to Moose Jaw, which is about the same distance from Rouleau by car as Regina is.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Dog River would most likely have an RCMP detatchment instead of its own department. [[note]]That was the original plan, but they couldn’t get approval to do so.[[/note]]

'''Hank:''' [[SarcasmMode 'Cause he's really good at backgammon]]. Man, no wonder you don't have a cooking show.

* MeddlingParents: In the final episode it's said that Oscar and Emma burned Brent's acceptance letter from college so that he would be around to run the gas station after Oscar retired. In the same episode, Emma is disapproving of Brent trying his hand at being a stand-up comedian, thinking that at his age he should instead be "stuck in a rut with a wife and kids, living the Hell we all lived". Oscar, on the other hand, is strangely supportive.

(WhipPan to the Premier of Saskatchewan in his office)\\
'''Premier:''' What do you think of ''that'', Sweden?\\

'''Premier:''' ''And'' we're a rectangle. Nature's most perfect shape.

* AlternateContinuity: The animated series seems to ignore the events of the movie and much of the original series in general. In particular, Brent is still in his forties, Wanda's kid is still a kid, Karen appears to not be married or have a child and Lacey still acts like and is treated as a newcomer (despite having been in Dog River for over a decade at this point).

In 2014, [[TheMovie a full-length movie]] was funded using Kickstarter and shown in Canadian theatres for a limited five-day engagement starting on December 3 of the same year, with TV airings and a DVD/Blu-Ray release later that month.

** In one episode, Brent and Lacey are [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter failing]] to control a coworker's small child, and finally call in Emma, who promptly puts the kid in line with a FullNameUltimatum. The [[AnAesop Aesop]] being? It can scare anyone. Combined with the fact that ''Emma'' can scare anyone.
** At the end of the episode, Brent ''tries'' to give Lacey a FullNameUltimatum after learning that she tricked him into calling Emma in order to win a bet. He fails miserably because he doesn't actually know Lacey's middle name and can't guess it (although we do learn that it's ''not'' Esther, Charlene, Gertie, Sunshine, or [[ItMakesSenseInContext Fur]]).

* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The exact location of Dog River, Saskatchewan is never revealed, though it's said to be "sixty clicks [kilometres] from nowhere" and when characters refer to or drive to "the city" both Saskatoon and Regina are close enough to qualify.

** But a couple of episodes have also suggested it's not far from Saskatoon.

** One episode of the series takes place almost exclusively in Hank's mind because someone told him to think before he spoke.

* LargeHam: Oscar, ''jackass''!

* LocationThemeNaming: The last names of all the recurring characters are towns in Saskatchewan.

* {{Malaproper}}: Oscar does it several times in TheMovie. One example is when he refers to "[[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse The Four Norsemen of the Apocalypse]]".

* MeaningfulName: Dog River. A plot point in the episode where Lacey is asked to write the text of a commemorative plaque and seeks to find the origin of the name of the city. She quickly finds herself chasing down a DarkSecret with witnesses suddenly changing their stories shortly after Emma beats her to them. [[spoiler: Emma eventually reveals the truth: Lacey's great-great-uncle Eli had drowned a dozen dogs in the river and the town council, made aware of this fact, inexplicably adopted "Dog River" as their name. Lacey swears herself to protect the secret as part of TheConspiracy]].

** Brent’s favourite drink at the bar—again, like that of his actor and creator—is rye and water. Both Brent’s are whiskey enthusiasts in general, with the fictional Brent having hidden away a bottle of 20-year-old scotch at age 20 with the intention of drinking it on his 40th birthday.

* ThemeNaming: All of the main characters share last names with Saskatchewan towns.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Chili cheese dogs for Brent. He eats at least five every day.

** That, and the combined liquor and insurance store is [TruthInTelevision a real feature of the town of Rouleau where the show is filmed]; since the government of Saskatchewan is in the business of selling both things and the town has limited infrastructure due to its size, it’s [ItMakesSenseInContext not actually that weird] for one store to sell both.

* WeSellEverything: Dog River has a store that sells both liquor and ''insurance'' of all things. The titular store also is pretty well stocked for a gas station.
** The liquor[=/=]insurance store is actually based upon a real combo-business in Rouleau.
** It makes sense for Brent to have a general store kind of inventory, as people would otherwise have to drive over the next town to rent a movie. He's also the only store on an important road between two major cities that a lot of truckers take every day.

* NamesTheSame:[[invoked]] "No, MIKE Myers is ''Film/AustinPowers''. MICHAEL Myers is the killer from ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}''."