History Series / Kidding

** "Shaina's Transformation", a sequence from "Every Pain Needs a Name" (Season 1, Episode 3) is a two-minute Oner showing Shaina managing to turn her life around over a period of five years. Done ''superbly'' as a single take with the passage of time being implied by furniture and lighting changing, with Mr. Pickles being on the TV throughout (the TV also changes over the course of the scene). According to [[https://www.indiewire.com/2018/09/kidding-jim-carrey-michel-gondry-behind-the-scenes-1202007830/ behind the scenes]] information, it took three days of practice, 50 crew members and a special set design to pull off.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Josip is involved in various less-than-legal activities in his native Croatia, but he never left behind his childhood love of ''Mr. Pickles' Puppet Time'', from which he learned English and found comfort in his hard upbringing, so he jumps at the opportunity to vocally replace the real Mr. Pickles in an AnimatedAdaptation when Seb extends a job offer to him in Season One. That doesn't work out, but in Season Two Josip befriends Jeff via the interactive Mr. Pickles toy, even counseling the latter on his failing marriage, and [[spoiler: becomes the first Croatian "Mr. Sour Cucumber" as the international franchise is relaunched, presumably putting his old life behind him for good]].

* MoveThroughTheFrozenTime: Jeff does this when TimeStandsStill as he pursues Jill through the street festival in the extended flashback of "The Puppet Dalai Lama"; this happens again with [[spoiler: him ''and'' Jill]] in the very last scene of the show.

-->--'''Jeff Piccirillo (a.k.a. "Mr. Pickles")''', "Green Means Go"

The series follows one Jeff Piccirillo, who for 30+ years has been known to a loving public as "Mr. Pickles", the perpetually optimistic and gentle presenter of the public television children's show ''Mr. Pickles' Puppet Time''. In reality he is as idealistic as his onscreen self -- but one year prior to the start of the action, a freak accident claimed the life of one of his adolescent twin sons and led to the dissolution of his marriage. His resultant struggling with the grief of both bereavement and estrangement from his wife Jill and surviving son Will is starting to affect his work. His executive producer (and father) Seb is out to carefully conceal this from the public, much to the distress of Jeff's sister (and puppet maker) Deirdre, who is having her own problems with a troubled marriage and the effects it's having on her daughter. Can Jeff accept and cope with the heartaches of the real world while still being the AllLovingHero he feels a responsibility to, and wants to, be?

Created by Dave Holstein, the series stars Creator/JimCarrey, Creator/FrankLangella, Creator/JudyGreer, Creator/ColeAllen, Creator/JulietMorris, and Creator/CatherineKeener and marks the second collaboration between director and executive producer Michel Gondry and Carrey, who previously worked together on the film ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind''.

* MaybeEverAfter: At the end of the series, [[spoiler: Jill has not decided whether to accept Peter's proposal of marriage, and the last shot of the series has her and Jeff looking into each other's eyes as they jointly listen to Phil's heartbeat (in the chest of a marathon runner), possibly a signpost that numerology magic has turned back the relationship to what it was before]]...

** Starting in "Lt. Pickles", and continuing into Season Two, Jeff periodically has hallucinations/flashbacks to past events in the locations where they originally took place, which illuminate his situation in the present. For example, in "Lt. Pickles" he realizes the restaurant he, Will and Jill are eating in used to be the Asian restaurant where he had dined the night before William's father's execution and had a bitter fight with Phil in via a vision that sees the menu, wallpaper, etc. peeling back to reveal the old decor.

* PutOnABus: In-universe, "Episode 3101" of ''Mr. Pickles' Puppet Time'' does this with [[spoiler: all the puppet characters that Steve won the rights to in the divorce settlement]], forced to leave Picklebarrel Falls due to the earthquake that destroyed their homes. [[spoiler: The ending of the series ensures the bus will come back.]]

* BeingGoodSucks: Poor, poor Jeff is a living embodiment of this trope in Season One. He helps Vivian regain the will to live, and [[spoiler: she decides he has no place in her life -- but he ''still'' pays her medical bills]]. He does the right things to atone for his MyGodWhatHaveIDone mistake, [[spoiler: and he's completely cut off from his wife and by extension son ''and'' loses 60% of his liver]]. His issues with suppressed rage are partially ''because'' the world really does seems to be AllTakeAndNoGive where he's concerned.

* DelicateAndSickly: Vivian, a thirty-something with cancer whom Jeff enters a romantic relationship with over the course of Season One. [[spoiler: Sadly, his efforts to encourage her to not give up on living and continue chemotherapy treatments lead to her getting better, but also breaking up with him as she plots a new direction for her life, breaking his heart and accelerating his breakdown.]]

** In "Kintsugi", that [[spoiler: Vivian's cancer has gone into remission]] serves as this for Jeff's family, because it points to Jeff emerging from his sorrowful SanitySlippage. Shortly thereafter, though, [[spoiler: she breaks up with him in an insensitive manner, which makes him even worse]].

* MusicalEpisode: Two in the second season.

* DelicateAndSickly: Vivian, a twentysomething with cancer whom Jeff enters a romantic relationship with over the course of Season One. [[spoiler: Sadly, his efforts to encourage her to not give up on living and continue chemotherapy treatments lead to her getting better, but also breaking up with him as she plots a new direction for her life, breaking his heart and accelerating his breakdown.]]