History Series / SmartGuy

** T.J. starts his own newspaper in "Stop the Presses," after he objects to Yvette relegating him to write puff pieces. ''The Weekly Veritas'' doesn't get any readers until he tabloidizes the paper at the suggestion of Marcus and Mo. Needless to say, the inclusion of sensationalized stories and a "Girl of the Week" feature increases readership. Yvette bribes Mo with movie passes in exchange for a story that was going to be in T.J.'s paper. As retaliation, T.J. doctors a family beach photo featuring a swimsuit-clad Yvette, editing himself and Marcus out of it, and publishes the edited photo of Yvette for the "Girl of the Week" page. Yvette is furious at being made the centerfold as revenge, as is Floyd upon learning of it, resulting in him ordering T.J. to shut down the ''Veritas''. A regretful T.J. offers to let Yvette publish one of his baby pictures in ''The Piedmont Penguin'', but has him do it in a final edition of the ''Veritas'' instead to preserve her journalistic integrity; Floyd, who is fond of the so-called "tush picture", approves of T.J. publishing the embarrassing picture.

* StalkerWithACrush: Played with in "Diary of a Mad Schoolgirl," Janice starts acting like this when she, Yvette and her friend Alicia conspire to teach Marcus a lesson when they find out that Marcus made himself into Janice's perfect guy after reading her computer diary (which Janice mistakenly sent while file sharing her and T.J.'s report on the Lizzie Borden trial). It leads to a horror film parody when the three each dress up as a killer trying to off Marcus and T.J. Janice reveals herself, and as she makes them think she's going to chop them up with meat cleavers (which are actually rubber), she brings in the other two girls to lower the boom on them. Marcus apologizes to Janice, and then promptly asks her out on a date, to her dismay.

** "Never Too Young" has Marcus exclaim Chris Tucker's famous line from ''Film/{{Rush Hour}}'', "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?," to a lunch lady who insists that the days-old cafeteria food is fresh.

* ScareEmStraight: When Marcus works a few days with Floyd on his roofing business and enjoys it and thinks about leaving school to work, Floyd has one of his workers amp up some of the worst aspects of this profession, such as the worker lives out of his car, the bad weather they endure, and one older co-worker Marcus thinks is in his fifties is actually in his 30s but is physically broken from the hard grueling work. This makes Marcus run back to school.

* PronouncingMyNameForYou: Mr. Ferret, T.J.'s smarmy co-worker in "Working Guy". "It's Fer-ray," not Fer-ret (as T.J. derisively mispronounces it as).

* {{Profiling}}: In the episode "Get a Job," Yvette and her friend Nina interview a job at a store at the mall. Yay! It turns out, for Nina, that the job involves following black people to make sure they don't steal. Awkward. It's even more awkward since Yvette was also hired at the same store, which the manager uses to claim her profiling isn't racist. Right... This also bites the manager, Ms. Hendra, in the butt later on when she ends up doing this to the founder/president of the store (in other words, her boss). Things clearly don't well for Ms. Hendra's employment at the store.

-->'''Yvette''': Wow. Pretty fly for a white guy.

* PairTheSpares: A non-romantic example in "Men Working Badly". Mo and T.J. are paired as husband and wife for their life management skills assignment, since they were the last ones to make it to class, on account of Mo (who was driving T.J. to school) taking a 38-block detour following Music/SaltNPepa’s tour bus.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. [[Series/TheParentHood Reagan Gomez]] (then Gomez-Preston) and Tinsley Grimes play characters named Nina in different seasons (the African-American Gomez plays Nina Duperly, Marcus and T.J.'s love interest in "Love Letters;" Caucasian Grimes plays Nina [NoLastNameGiven], Yvette's best friend in several season three episodes).

* PairTheSpares: A non-romantic example in "Men Working Badly". Mo and T.J. are paired as husband and wife for their life management skills assignment, since they were the last ones to make it to class, on account of Mo (who was driving T.J. to school) taking a 38-block detour following [=Salt-n-Pepa=]'s tour bus.

* OutOfFocus: T.J., to a certain extent, in season 3. Most episodes that season had a heavier focus on Marcus, Mo, and Yvette while T.J.'s storylines were often relagted to the B-Plot. In fact, he doesn't appear at all in "Get a Job."

* ObfuscatingStupidity: Whenever the group has to trick somebody for whatever ZanyScheme is going on, it's a fair bet T.J. will have to do this and pretend to be a regular (even overly irritating) kid.
** "Dumbstruck" also has him do this after a hit to the head makes him actually stupid; after his intelligence returns, he decides he likes how people treat him better when he's not smarter than them.

* MrViceGuy: While T.J. can be kind-hearted and helpful when he wants to be, he can also be very selfish and manipulative. Many times has he set out with every intention of solving the problem the episode revolves around, only to become competitive and egotistical over the course of the episode, resulting in him caring more about getting his way than fixing the problem that he originally intended to solve.

* MrViceGuy: While T.J. can be kind-hearted and helpful when he wants to be, he can also be very selfish and manipulative. Many has come the time when he sets out with every intention of solving the problem the episode revolves around. But over the course of the episode he becomes competitive and egotistical so he starts to care more for getting his way than fixing the problem that he originally intended to solve.

* MrFanservice: In "Big Picture," Yvette dates a muscular but shallow swimmer named Xavier; she begins overanalyzing her relationship with him when Floyd and Marcus assume that she's only dating him because he's good-looking. When she tries to break up with him, he arrives from swimming practice shirtless, befuddling Yvette, who asks him to meet her later when he's fully dressed.

* MayDecemberRomance: Not May-December in the typical sense, but in "T.A. or Not T.A.", Yvette begins dating Calvin, a handsome and muscular fellow Piedmont High student who one could swear was a [[DawsonCasting 20-year-old]] but Yvette is surprised to discover is a 15-year-old sophomore (she assumed he was a senior). Since Yvette is a 17/18-year-old high school senior, she reacts with shock to the discovery and becomes self-conscious that people might not bo so understanding about it (as Mo did later in the episode, making a couple of jokes about her and Calvin's relationship). Her friend Nina, however, helps her see that age shouldn't matter if you've found someone who could be your soulmate. When Yvette heeds the advice and publicly announces that she's dating someone two years younger than her, Calvin informs her that because he knew that she felt uncomfortable, he started seeing another girl, who is a sophomore... at Howard University.

* MaleGaze: "T.A. or Not T.A." features a female student named Rosalinda (who Marcus dated earlier in the episode, in an ill-conceived method of learning Spanish by having her speak the language to him the entire night). Rosalinda is then named the new teacher's assistant for the Spanish class Marcus and Mo are in, she is introduced to the class to begin her instruction, wearing an outfit that ''really'' accentuates her curves. Needless to say, Marcus and Mo find incentive to stick with the class; Mo even comments that "[he and Marcus] might have to stay after class".

* MenAreUncultured: Seemingly, Floyd, Marcus and Mo are this.

** A variant in "Break Up Not to Make Up". Marcus breaks up with his girlfriend Dana for being too controlling. After finding out from Mo that Marcus is over her, she invites Mo to an Outkast concert she planned on seeing with Marcus. T.J. inadvertently reveals this to Marcus while Mo tries to address it (after he went out with Dana to the concert), causing a rift between the two older boys, since Marcus' feelings for Dana are still there somewhat. Floyd helps Marcus and Mo see that they should talk things out.

* KnightOfCerebus: "The Soda Wars" features Mr. Breslin, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who's the CEO of Colonel Bubble Soda... and also, a middle-aged man who decides to go to war against a 12-year-old! Breslin launches a campaign to bring down Admiral T.J. soda, before it encroaches on Colonel Bubble's business by enticing T.J.'s teenage consumer base with contests, buying up their distributor's caramel syrup supply and having the D.C. health department write up T.J. for numerous code violations in the garage where he makes the soda. It causes a case of TyrantTakesTheHelm as T.J. battles to keep his business going. After successfully driving T.J. out of business, Breslin then buys off a reporter T.J. had confront Colonel Bubble about its practices with an offer to work as a correspondent for a cable news channel his company owns, leading T.J. to commit a speech about the corruptness of corporate America.

* KnightOfCerebus: "The Soda Wars" features Mr. Breslin, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who's the CEO of Colonel Bubble Soda... and also, a middle-aged man who decides to go to war against a 12-year-old! Breslin launches a campaign to bring down Admiral T.J. soda, before it encroaches on Colonel Bubble's business by enticing T.J.'s teenage consumer base with contests, buying up their distributor's caramel syrup supply and having the health department to write up T.J. for numerous code violations in the garage where he makes the soda. It causes a case of TyrantTakesTheHelm as T.J. battles to keep his business going. After successfully driving T.J. out of business, Breslin then buys off a reporter T.J. had confront Colonel Bubble about its practices with an offer to work as a correspondent for a cable news channel his company owns, leading T.J. to commit a speech about the corruptness of corporate America.

** Blake Jordan in the episode "Beating is Fundamental," T.J. finds him pretentious from their first meeting and grows to outright dislike him. Blake knocks Marcus and Mo for their idea for a barber business (which they created for a school project), shamelessly hits on the much older Yvette and rigs a camera to peep at her in her bathroom, and slams T.J.'s BerserkButton by disrespecting his family to his face for being working class. T.J. calls him out for his jackassery ("Smart kids like us get a rap for being really snotty, condesending little jerks. And I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but it's completely because of you!") and gets so fed up that he punches Blake.

* HiddenDepths: As much of an oddball as Mo is, he is shown to be proficient with tools, can be a decent hair-cutter (as long as his attention isn't diverted), and becomes a pretty decent cook (with training from Yvette).
** Anthony in "Most Hated Man on Campus". He's the star basketball player, but only because everyone expects him to be since he was a kid. But thanks to T.J. helping him study in order to get at least a B in a history test to play, Anthony discovers he can be more than that and becomes a follower of Gandhi's philosophy.

* HappilyAdopted / ObliviousAdoption: Mo. He had a happy relationship with his adopted parents, then in the episode "That's My Momma," he discovered he was adopted after walking in on a discussion between his mom and dad about whether the night of his 17th birthday party was the right time to tell him. Miffed that his parents' kept this secret from him his whole life,[[note]]His adoptive mom, Verla Mae, reveals (almost veering into [[Main/TooMuchInformation overt detail]] before being stopped by Floyd) that she and her husband Delroy adopted Mo after they were unsuccessful in conceiving a child of their own.[[/note]] Mo went searching for his biological mother, dismissing his adoptive parents. After getting a false lead, Mo meets his birth mother, a Delaware fortune teller who after a strange conversation about why she gave him up for adoption, dismisses his offer to get to know him better. At the end of the episode, Mo realizes that his adoptive parents truly care about him.

* HappilyAdopted / ObliviousAdoption: Mo. He had a happy relationship with his adopted parents, then in the episode "That's My Momma," he discovered he was adopted after walking in on a discussion between his mom and dad about whether the night of his 17th birthday party was the right time to tell him. Miffed that his parents' kept this secret from him his whole life,[[note]]His adoptive mom, Verla Mae, reveals (in a somewhat [[Main/TooMuchInformation overly detailed manner]]) that she and her husband Delroy adopted Mo after they were unsuccessful in conceiving a child of their own.[[/note]] Mo went searching for his biological mother, dismissing his adoptive parents. After getting a false lead, Mo meets his birth mother, a Delaware fortune teller who after a strange conversation about why she gave him up for adoption, dismisses his offer to get to know him better. At the end of the episode, Mo realizes that his adoptive parents truly care about him.

* GeneHunting: In "That's My Momma," Mo discovered he was adopted after walking in on a discussion between his mom and dad about whether the night of his 17th birthday party was the right time to tell him. Miffed that his parents' kept this secret from him his whole life,[[note]]His adoptive mom, Verla Mae, reveals (in a somewhat [[TooMuchInformation overly detailed manner]]) that she and her husband Delroy adopted Mo after they were unsuccessful in conceiving a child of their own.[[/note]] Mo went searching for his biological mother, dismissing his adoptive parents. After getting a false lead, Mo meets his birth mother, a Delaware fortune teller who after a strange conversation about why she gave him up for adoption, dismisses his offer to get to know him better. At the end of the episode, Mo realizes that his adoptive parents truly care about him.

* GoneHorriblyRight: PlayedForLaughs in "Gotta Dance". When T.J. gets a performing tap-dancing spot, he considers quitting upon realizing he can't master tap dancing as easily as he can with most academic subjects he's taken on. After Yvette successfully argues to Floyd that T.J. is only quitting tap because he can't hack it, Floyd insists that T.J. stick with it, in an attempt to teach his son the value of dedication to hard work. The problem? Floyd only intends T.J. to stick with tap dancing until his recital ends, whereas T.J. ends up dedicating himself to tap dancing ''AFTER'' said recital, meaning that, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking not only has Floyd lost his safest retirement safety net options (he states at the start of the episode that he was counting on T.J. to have a high-paying job to make Floyd's retirement-age life easier), he also has to continue to put up with the sounds of tap dancing -- which, as indicated during T.J.'s rehearsal montage, Floyd could barely tolerate, much less enjoy.]] Floyd is understandably disgruntled by how things unfold.

* GretzkyHasTheBall: "T.J. Versus the Machine". Listing everything the episode got wrong about chess would take way too long, but a couple of examples to note, black moves first in one scene, and TJ states that an initial move with the knight is a crazy idea, despite it being a popular opening IRL.

* FishOutOfWater

* ChekhovsGun: In "The Code," to get back at a rival school for "feminizing" a cafeteria mural of Piedmont's basketball starters (it's exactly how it sounds), T.J. enacts a plan to lower the grades of Truman High's basketball players so they don't qualify for their game against Piedmont. The next day, Principal Dowling informs Marcus and Mo that the list of player names they read to T.J. was found in Truman's computer room (likely dropped as Mo and Marcus were reeling T.J. back into the vent, though we don't see it fall). The dead giveaway that they were responsible? The list was from Mo's personal stationery.

* ChekhovsGun: In "The Code," to get back at a rival school for "feminizing" a cafeteria mural of Piedmont's starters (it's exactly how it sounds), T.J. enacts a plan to lower the grades of Truman High's basketball players so they don't qualify for their game against Piedmont. The next day, Principal Dowling informs Marcus and Mo that the list of player names they read to T.J. was found in Truman's computer room (likely dropped as Mo and Marcus were reeling T.J. back into the vent, though we don't see it fall). The dead giveaway that they were responsible? The list was from Mo's personal stationery.

** In "Most Hated Man on Campus," T.J. tutors star basketball player Anthony Williams so he can pass a world history exam. The rest of the school turns against T.J. when Piedmont loses a game because of Anthony's newfound interest in Ghandi and his Satiya Graha philosiphy of non-violence. The episode tries to paint the lesson that you shouldn't bow to peer pressure no matter how unpopular doing what's right may be to others. However, keeping Anthony as his spiritually enlightened self rather than changing him back into an aggressive athlete and backing him in his decision to quit the team to live on an ashram in India ends up causing everyone at school to keep hating him – a situation T.J. first lampshades – inadvertently sending the mixed message that if you don't bow to peer pressure, you'll be even more unpopular (though Floyd does give T.J. credit for doing the right thing).

* CatapultNightmare: Yvette has these in "Perchance to Dream," after each time she dreams about her and Mo getting married (even during a DreamWithinADream that occurs after she realizes the reason behind the dreams).
** At the end of the selfsame episode, a different dream -- where Yvette professes her love for Mackey -- takes place. It turns out Mackey is the one dreaming about it, but he plays with this trope in that, while he does catapult himself awake, he's ''thrilled'' with how the dream turns out.

** In "Dumbstruck," Floyd and Yvette find out that T.J. (whose [=IQ=] temporarily declined after accidentally being hit by two 2x4s) has regained his intelligence after the former finds a copy of the ''Journal of Quantum Mechanics'' that T.J. hid inside a decoy ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComics Archie]]'' comic book. Floyd recalls a story from said comic when confronting T.J. about him hiding his smarts, with the latter playing along until Floyd reveals he made it up and knows he’s reading his science magazines again. After advising T.J. that he shouldn’t have to hide his intelligence to fit in (while leaving it to T.J. whether to come clean), T.J. mentions that the story Floyd made up was pretty clever, and suggests his dad submit it to Creator/ArchieComics. During TheStinger, Floyd is shown on a computer writing an extension of the scene he made up, supposedly to send it to Archie Comics.

** In "Dumbstruck," Floyd finds out that T.J. has regained his intelligence when he discusses a scene in the ''[[ComicBook/ArchieComics Archie]]'' comic that his son's supposedly reading (a decoy for the copy of the ''Journal of Quantum Mechanics'' that Floyd and Yvette find out, earlier in that scene, that T.J. has actually been reading) that Floyd reveals afterwards was completely made up when T.J. plays along with the story. At the end of the scene (after advising T.J. that he shouldn’t have to hide his intelligence to fit in while leaving it to T.J. whether to come clean), T.J. mentions that the storyline was pretty clever, given that it was made up on the fly, and that he should submit it to Creator/ArchieComics. During TheStinger, Floyd is shown on a computer writing an extension of the scene he made up, supposedly to send it to Archie Comics.