History Series / Coupling

** Lampshaded by Jane in "Gotcha":

'''Steve:''' Ah, just a final demand-- I mean, a wedding invitation!

->'''Jeff:''' If you're gay, see... if you're gay, masturbation is practice. Y'know, you can have a good old practice on your own, and then later, when you're ready, when you've got the hang of it, you have a go on someone else's. It's a piece of piss.... See, it's different... it's different when you're a straight bloke. When we finally get our hands on the gear, let me tell you, it's not a drill. Gays have their own practice kit, but you don't get any practice women. We're supposed to fly those babies the first time we get in 'em!\\

->'''Patrick''': Sally, you need someone who'll love you forever, properly. You're my friend, Sally, and I wanna see you with the best. You need Mister Amazing, Mister Incredibly-Superbly-Fantastic[[BuffySpeak ... ness]]. And in your heart, I'm sure you know I'm right.\\

-> '''Sally:''' I hate having sex at home. I've got a listening flatmate.\\

-> '''Jeff:''' One day, I lost control in front of my whole family during ''Songs of Praise''!\\

** "Nine and a Half Minutes" tells a nine-and-a-half-minute long story from three different perspectives: Sally and Patrick, Susan and Steve, and Jane and Oliver.

--->'''Susan:''' How exactly did you pass your driving test?\\

* YourLittleDismissiveDiminutive: Sally has a tendency to use this quite often.

-->'''Steve:''' I think you may have been had, mate.
-->'''Jeff:''' And a lot more often than you realized!

---> '''Susan:''' So is it absolutely necessary to think about somebody else?\\

---> '''Sally:''' Fuck... Fuck... Fuckity-fuck...\\

** Lampshaded throughout the episode "My Dinner in Hell".

---> '''Susan:''' When I say "dinner", I mean dinner.\\

---> '''Steve:''' Okay. Anyone want another drink?\\

---> '''Susan:''' Told you I could fix anything with one snog.

-->'''Jeff:''' If you're gay, see... if you're gay, masturbation is practice. Y'know, you can have a good old practice on your own, and then later, when you're ready, when you've got the hang of it, you have a go on someone else's. It's a piece of piss.... See, it's different... it's different when you're a straight bloke. When we finally get our hands on the gear, let me tell you, it's not a drill. Gays have their own practice kit, but you don't get any practice women. We're supposed to fly those babies the first time we get in 'em!
-->'''Howard:''' That's a very good point, actually.
-->'''Sally:''' No it's not, it's homophobic, you stupid queen!

-->'''Patrick''': Sally, you need someone who'll love you forever, properly. You're my friend, Sally, and I wanna see you with the best. You need Mister Amazing, Mister Incredibly-Superbly-Fantastic[[BuffySpeak ... ness]]. And in your heart, I'm sure you know I'm right.\\

--> '''Sally:''' I hate having sex at home. I've got a listening flatmate.\\

--> '''Jeff:''' One day, I lost control in front of my whole family during ''Songs of Praise''!\\

---> '''Steve:''' This pause is just expanding and expanding like, this out-of-control thing!\\

---> '''Steve:''' Well, if music be the food of love, then masturbation is just a snack between meals!

---> '''Sally:''' Steve?\\

'''Sally:''' My bottom is not expanding space jelly! I'm just big-boned! ('' shows Steve her breasts'')\\

*** Which became HilariousInHindsight after StevenMoffat started working for Series/DoctorWho.

** Also this:
--->'''Susan:''' How exactly did you pass your driving test?
--->'''Jane:''' Morally.

---> '''Susan:''' God! What is it with you lot? Why do you all have this desperate desire to see me naked?\\

'''Susan:''' Okay. So Steve saw your bottom, so what?\\

* TheBabyTrap: [[spoiler: Susan attempts this with Steve]]:

* CantActPervertedTowardALoveInterest: Patrick doesn't succeed getting an erection during a hookup with Sally because he was falling in love with her.

'''Sally:''' Steve?\\

* ShoutOut
-->'''Steve''': But Susan, Sally, Jane, this... is a sofa. It is designed by clever scientists in such a way so is to shield the unprotected user from the way of skin abrasions, serious head trauma, and of course - [he collapses behind the sofa and reemerges] - [[Series/DoctorWho Daleks!]]

* ICallItMisterHappy: In "My Dinner in Hell", he calls it "Junior Patrick".

* BirthdaySuitSurpriseParty: Oh, ''Jeffrey''.
** Jane in "Dressed" (Season 2, Episode 7.)

* MenCantKeepHouse
* MessyHair: Jeff. Lampshaded in "The Cupboard of Patrick's Love", when Jeff reminisces about his obsession with the television:
--> '''Jeff:''' One day, I lost control in front of my whole family during ''Songs of Praise''!\\
'''Steve:''' Lost control?\\
'''Jeff:''' Completely rubbed off the television!\\
'''Steve:''' So you're telling us that as a young child, and despite the obvious electrical dangers, you sexually assaulted the television set? During ''Songs of Praise''?\\
'''Patrick:''' Is... is that what happened to your hair?

** Jeff does this in "My Dinner in Hell":

'''Jeff:''' Frostrup.\\

'''Jeff:''' Steve's whole fantasy life revolves around Mariella Frostrup.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial:

* UnusualEuphemism: Jeff has one for everything sex-related. In the first episode ("Flushed") he introduces "The Boyfriend Zone"[[hottip:*:the stage of a relationship where a man is entitled to certain sexual favors from the woman]] and "Unflushable"[[hottip:*:a person who just can't seem to be dumped]] in the opening five minutes.
** There's also the Sock Gap[[hottip:*:the point where a man who's undressing has to deal with removing his socks lest he end up naked except for them]], the Nudity Buffer[[hottip:*:the time period between seeing a woman for the first time and getting stuck with the mental image of them naked]] and the (non-sex-related) Giggle Loop[[hottip:*:a thought during a mandated silence where you contemplate the awkwardness of you laughing in the midst of the silence, which you have to suppress along with the very urge to laugh itself]].

'''Jeff:''' Well you know, if you fantasize about someone else during sex, and so does your partner, and you know, those two people that you're fantasizing about happen to meet while you're still doing it, you know, they're bound to sense something, aren't they? Because, you know, they're connecting on like a virtual plane. So can you imagine what it was like when Posh first met Beckham? They were the epicenter of a non-stop, nationwide, virtual shag! I mean, it's no wonder she got pregnant!

* GayConservative: Howard, Jane's "date".

* PersonAsVerb: From "The Cupboard of Patrick's Love", when Sally complains about being the only woman who hasn't slept with Patrick yet:

'''Sally:''' (''to Jane'') Now you're having Patrick! (''gesturing to Susan'') And she's had Patrick lots of times! I'll be the only one who hasn't been Patricked.\\

* BirthdaySuitSurpriseParty: Oh, ''Geoffrey''.

* BetterThanSex: Jeff once said this of a childhood activity that involved writing the word "naked" hundreds of times on a sheet of paper and rubbing his face in it.

'''Jill:''' How could you possibly enjoy a film like that?\\

'''Susan:''' Sally. In case you didn't realize, you just said that out loud.

* IronicEcho: "Where are you going" and "up to you" in Season 2's finale, "The End of the Line." Steve feels like he's constantly being asked, "Where are you going?" while Susan is annoyed at Steve's indecisiveness, answering "It's up to you" whenever he's asked to express an opinion. This is PlayedForLaughs [[spoiler:until the end of the episode, where Susan is left uncertain of their commitment to one another and leaves Steve's apartment. Steve asks her, "Where are you going?" to which she replies, "It's up to you."]]

* MessyHair: Jeff.

---> '''Sally:''' And look at my neck. Look at the under-hang of my jaw. No way is that a forty-year-old under-hang.\\

* AccidentalInnuendo: In "Size Matters", after a discussion about when "dinner" really means "sex";
---> '''Susan:''' When I say "dinner", I mean dinner.\\
'''Steve:''' I know that, absolutely.\\
'''Susan:''' Plain, ordinary cooking.\\
'''Steve:''' Well, I wasn't expecting a fish course. (''Jeff cracks up'')

* FreudianSlip: Lampshaded with Captain Subtext.

* SceneryCensor

** From "Size Matters":
---> '''Susan:''' When I say "dinner", I mean dinner.\\
'''Steve:''' I know that, absolutely.\\
'''Susan:''' Plain, ordinary cooking.\\
'''Steve:''' Well, I wasn't expecting a fish course. (''Jeff laughs to himself'')

* BrickJoke: In most episodes, there's often a particular joke that keeps coming up at the first half, and is then set aside until the near-end of the episode. Some jokes reoccur in later episodes, and often when you least expect them.

** The others got in on it, too. Remember the girls with "The Fuck-me Fork"[[hottip:*:a man's dilemma of either agreeing to sleep with a woman he isn't supposed to or implying to her that he doesn't find her attractive]]?

* BadLiar: Patrick has this problem, leaving him unable to keep secret the fact that he slept with Jane.

** In his personal opinion, he's also "got technique". His ex Jane disagrees, advising him that, when kissing, he should stop considering the epiglottis at the back of the throat a target and that he should stop trying to make nipples revolve like the knobs on an etch-a-sketch.

* BrickJoke: Some jokes reoccur in later episodes, and often when you least expect them.

---> '''Sally:''' Fuck! Fuck! Fuckity-fuck!\\

** In "Nine and a Half Minutes", when Susan complains that Steve doesn't find her attractive anymore after becoming pregnant, she kisses Jane in front of him.

* TheFunInFuneral: The "Giggle Loop"; also the memorable "Will you three stop playing ''ReservoirDogs''?" As well as Susan's very snarky (living) aunt.

* IronicEcho: "Where are you going" and "up to you" in Season 2's finale, "The End of the Line." Steve feels like he's constantly being asked, "Where are you going?" while Susan thinks that "It's up to you" is all that Steve knows to say to her. This is PlayedForLaughs [[spoiler:until the end of the episode, where Susan is left uncertain of their commitment to one another and leaves Steve's apartment. Steve asks her, "Where are you going?" to which she replies, "It's up to you."]]

-->'''Patrick''': Sally, you need someone who'll love you forever, properly. You're my friend, Sally, and I wanna see you with the best. You need Mister Amazing, Mister Incredibly-Superbly-Fantastic... ness. And in your heart, I'm sure you know I'm right.\\

'''Patrick''': [[spoiler:...I was ''talking about '''me'''!'']]

* IronicEcho: "Where are you going" and "up to you" in Season 2's finale, "The End of the Line." Steve feels like he's constantly being asked, "Where are you going?" while Susan thinks that "It's up to you" is all that Steve knows to say to her. This is PlayedForLaughs [[spoiler:until the end of the episode, where Susan is left uncertain of their commitment to one another and leaves Steve's apartment. Steve asks her, "Where are you going?" to which she tearfully replies, "It's up to you."]]

* RantInducingSlight: Steve has at least one of these per series.

** "The End of the Line" is divided into several sections: "The End of the Line", where Susan tells off her French client Giselle and learns that there's a bar named after her owned by an Australian; "The Other End of the Line", where the Australian that Susan talks to is revealed to be Steve; "The Beginning of the Line", where it turns out that the Frenchwoman Susan was talking to in the beginning was actually Jeff's girlfriend Julia; and "The End", where all the misunderstandings of the episode are finally clarified for everyone.

* RealPersonCameo: Mariella Frostrup and Angus Deayton appear in a weird, possibly imaginary sequence in the second episode; Mariella appears in a later episode for real. Later, Mariella reappears in another dream of Steve's in "Split".

** The whole show is laden with these, all highlighting Moffat's geeky nature: Steve describing the deep meaning of Alien to men everywhere, the Melty Man being shown as a Darth Vader parody, all the references to comic book superheroes.

* SplitScreen: Done beautifully in the episode titled, well, "Split". The two screens follow the women and the men, managing to keep the conversation and the story going on both sides even while focusing on only one group at a time.

** Jeff discusses the pattern when someone is lying; "The prickles, the blurts, and the head laugh."

* TwiceShy: Jeff and Julia.

* UnusualEuphemism: Jeff has one for everything sex-related. In the first episode he introduces "The Zone" and "Unflushable" in the opening five minutes.
** There's also the Sock Gap, the Nudity Buffer and the (non-sex-related) Giggle Loop.
** The others got in on it, too. Remember the girls with "The Fuck-me Fork?"

* YourLittleDismissiveDiminutive: Susan does this a few times, usually when annoyed at Steve talking about something with his friends.

-->--'''Steve'''

* '''Steve''': A nice, if somewhat neurotic everyman, who starts dating Susan after breaking up with Jane.
* '''Susan''': A snarky and practical blonde with the occasional mean streak, who starts dating Steve after breaking up with Patrick.
* '''Jeff''': Steve's best friend. A paranoid ManChild obsessed with women's bits who provides the show's most awkward moments.
* '''Sally''': Susan's beauty-obsessed best friend. Although originally written as a one-note character, she gets plenty of serious character development after the first series.
* '''Patrick''': A laid-back casanova who ''does'' have his heart in the right place on occasion. He is also very well-endowed (a "tripod", apparently). Although he's not too bright, he has his serious moments.
* '''Jane''': Steve's ex. A walking mess of crazy with many hidden layers of even more crazy, although hidden underneath all of ''that'' crazy, she seems to be a very sweet, very scared woman.
* '''Oliver''': The final series' replacement of Jeff. Owns a fantasy/sci-fi store and is worse with the opposite gender than the rest of the cast combined.

The central cast of three male and three female characters inevitably invited comparisons with ''{{Friends}}'' and led to a certain amount of disappointment among some viewers when it wasn't in fact much like ''Friends'' at all. This comparison, along with the short-lived American remake, were {{Lampshaded}} in series 4, when Steve states that their lives are not "an American sitcom".

* AbortedArc: Jeff and Jane were implied to have an interest in each other at the end of series 3, but Jeff's actor left the show and this was never mentioned again.

** Later in the series though, Oliver points out to Jane how these claims are all part of her tendency to [[AttentionWhore do anything to get attention]]. When she denies it, [[SubvertedTrope he shows her a foldout from a lads mag and she squeals and turns away in horror]].

** "Faithless" has Jeff overreacting over saying "Hi" to a colleague at work, complaining that there are very few ways to end an "H" sound; the last word he can think of is "Hippo". Later in the episode, flustered by said colleague's casual admission that she's also in a relationship but still wants to date Jeff, he ends up saying "Hippo." In the season 3 finale, Steve says "Hippo" when he reacts awkwardly to [[spoiler: Susan's revelation that she's pregnant]].

* CategoryTraitor: Sally accuses a gay man of being a traitor because he supports the Conservatives.

* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: The finale of series 3 had [[spoiler:Patrick and Sally finally getting together]], and series 4 gave [[spoiler:Jane a love interest in the form of Jeff's SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute]].

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: "Lesbians don't ''eat people'', Susan!"

* HypocriticalHumor: Sally's punchline to this speech:

** Happens earlier in "Inferno" when the gang mistakes Jane's therapist for her lesbian lover and the therapist mistakes Patrick for gay.

* PizzaBoySpecialDelivery: Jane does this in Jeff's flat.

* PlugNPlayFriends: Oliver
* {{Powerwalk}}: Parodied: "Stop playing ''ReservoirDogs''!"

** "The End of the Line" is divided into several sections: "The End of the Line", where Susan tells off her French client Giselle and learns that there's a bar named after her owned by an Australian; "The Other End of the Line", where the Australian that Susan talks to is revealed to be Steve; "The Beginning of the Line", where it turns out that the Frenchwoman Susan was talking to in the beginning was actually Jeff's girlfriend Julia; and "The End", where all the misunderstandings of the episode are finally clarified for everyone.
** "Remember This" elaborates on the story of Patrick and Sally's first meeting (and first kiss) at a party in Susan's office.

** Oliver also has Doctor Who merchandise in his bookshop, and when going to a dinner with the gang, wears a sweater reading "Bring Back Doctor Who" on the back.
*** Which became HilariousInHindsight after StevenMoffat started working for Series/DoctorWho

* SplitScreen
* StopBeingStereotypical: Sally gets mad when Howard, a gay friend (whom Jane believes to be her boyfriend) agrees with Jeff's bizarre views on homosexuality, and exclaims [[HypocriticalHumor "That's homophobic, you stupid queen!"]]

* SwallowTheKey: Done accidentally in one episode, when Jeff Murdock holds the key to his girlfriend's handcuffs in his mouth and then does his best Darth Vader impression. He spends the episode trying to find a way to get it out before she realizes what's gone wrong.

* UnexpectedPositive: Sally buys three pregnancy tests because she doesn't know what a negative test looks like and asks Susan and Jane to take one each.

* MushroomSamba: Jane on the "paracetemol" in ''Jane & The Truth Snake''.
* MustMakeAmends: Steve does this a ''lot''. He's actually pretty good at it.

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: Sally with Patrick's GirlOfTheWeek Jennifer - Sally thinks Jennifer was fooling around with Jeff, but that she's worked out Sally is in love with Patrick. Jennifer thinks Sally is a lesbian and is coming on to her.

** Moffat ''loves'' this trope. There's dozens of little titbits in this and other scribblings that rely on OneDialogueTwoConversations; here it's used to cement the FawltyTowersPlot.

** The episodes "The End of the Line", "Remember This" and "Nine and a Half Minutes" entirely revolve around this trope.
* RealPersonCameo: Mariella Frostrup and Angus Deayton appear in a weird, possibly imaginary sequence in the second episode; Mariella appears in a later episode for real.

* '''Patrick''': A laid-back casanova who ''does'' have his heart in the right place on occasion. He is also very well endowed (a "tripod", apparently). Although he's not too bright, he has his serious moments.

* BilingualBonus: An entire episode plays with this, the latter half showing the same conversation twice: once from Jeff's perspective, then again from his Israeli crush's.

* BondageIsBad: Averted. Jeff and his girlfriend are shown to take part in bondage as part of their relationship and it is shown as part of a loving consensual relationship... or would be if Jeff weren't so bad at it.

* TheCasanova: Patrick

* CloudCuckoolander: Jane and Patrick both have their moments.

* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Jeff, whenever he talks to a woman.
* DramaBombFinale: A rare HappyEnding version of the trope.

* EarpieceConversation: Jeff gets talked through a possibly-a-date with a co-worker.

* FreudianSlipperySlope:

* TheFunInFuneral: The "Giggle Loop"; also the memorable "Will you three stop playing ''ReservoirDogs''?"

* IAmSpartacus: "I'm Giselle!"

* IfYouDieICallYourStuff: "Porn buddies" are a variation in which the surviving buddy has to retrieve all the porn from the dead one's flat before their family [[PersonalEffectsReveal goes through their effects]], to spare the dead man's post-mortem embarrassment and help the survivor through the grieving process.
* IronicEcho: "Where are you going" and "up to you" in Season 2's finale, "The End of the Line."

* MistakenForGay: Sally, by Patrick's girlfriend, probably because Patrick told her "that Sally is the sort of woman who...is a lesbian." She [[BiTheWay doesn't mind]], however, and it leads to a wacky misunderstanding, of course. See OneDialogueTwoConversations.
** Happens in an earlier episode when the gang mistakes Jane's therapist for her lesbian lover and the therapist mistakes Patrick for gay.

* UnexplainedAccent: Richard Coyle (Jeff) absolutely does not have a Welsh accent, and he was never asked to do one for the show. According to Steve Moffat in one of the commentaries, he simply showed up on set doing the accent, and since he wasn't a well known actor no-one noticed for ages until they got to know him better, by which point the first episode had been filmed and there was nothing they could do.
** The accent is pretty authentic and so isn't really a 'comedy accent', but there is not denying it gives a certain something to Jeff's bizarre sexual metaphors.
*** We meet his mother at one point, who does not share his accent. Since Jeff talks about his teenage years with her implying she was around his whole life, it seems that the show in no way wants to deal with Jeffs accent, leaving it as a genuine imponderable.
*** The most likely theory is RuleOfFunny. Quite a few of the most common words in Jeff's arsenal (breasts, genitals) sound a little funnier in a Welsh accent. Listen to the small trill in his "R's" when he says the word "breasts."
*** We never hear his father speak. Likely he's the Welshman.

* WordOfGod: Responding to a message board request, ''Coupling'' creator (and sole writer) Steven Moffat wrote a breakdown of the characters' lives several years after the fourth and final series. This gave Moffat the chance to write an "ending" for the character of Jeff, despite actor Richard Coyle leaving the previous year.
** Unfortunately, because the primary source (an old Series/DoctorWho forum called Outpost Gallifrey) has closed, TheOtherWiki wouldn't keep it on the show's page anymore because of lack of citation, so if it pleases the crowds, here is the text to be preserved for everyone to read:

-->Steve and Susan have two children now, and have recently completed work on a sitcom about their early lives together. They're developing a new television project, but it keeps getting delayed as he insists on writing episodes of some old kids show they recently pulled out of mothballs. She gets very cross about this, and if he says "Yeah but check out the season poll!" one more time, he will not live to write another word.