History Series / Spaced

* AmbiguouslyGay: Brian is quickly asked point-blank if he is gay, to which he denies after seeming to have just now realized it. He later claims to have had "a romance between two heterosexual men" with his "post-sexual" collaborator Vulva, whom he refers to as a she. Mike straight out says "I've always fancied you" to Tim. Also, Edgar Wright said that "[they] might have ended up getting him together with Dexter or someone like that. Or him just admitting he was gay."

** And [[Series/DoctorWho the Master]] / [[LifeOnMars DI Sam Tyler]]!

* AmbiguouslyGay: Brian is quickly asked point-blank if he is gay, to which he denies after seeming to have just now realized it. He later claims to have had "a romance between two heterosexual men" with his "post-sexual" collaborator Vulva, whom he refers to as a she. Mike straight out says "I've always fancied you" to Tim.

The show was written by its stars, SimonPegg and JessicaStevenson, and directed by EdgarWright. Because Pegg and Wright went on to collaborate on a string of successful films, Stevenson's contributions [[OvershadowedByAwesome are often ignored]] by overeager marketing executives who label the show as "From the creators of ''ShaunOfTheDead'' and ''HotFuzz''." Still, the show's manic camera work and frequent references to popular genre films and TV shows can ring very familiar.

** Notably one of the games he's seen playing, ''ResidentEvil2'' factors into the plot of the episode.

* ICouldaBeenAContender: Marsha claims she was once on track to be an Olympic sprinter, until a guy hit her with his car [[StartOfDarkness and gave her]] [[BottleFairy a drink]], saying it'd 'help with the pain' ([[DrowningMySorrows "he was not wrong..."]]).

* BigNo: Parodied, particularly in "Combat" after Mike takes a paintball for Tim.

** And [[Series/DoctorWho the Master]] / [[LifeOnMars Sam Tyler]]!
** And [[TheOffice David Brent]]

** And [[TheInbetweeners Simon's Dad]]

* MoodSwinger: Tyres, who has such a short attention span that he can't sustain a single emotion for more than a few seconds.

-->"Last Night was an A1, tip-top, clubbing, jam fair. It was a sandwich of fun, on ecstasy bread, wrapped up in a big bag like disco fudge. It doesn't get much better than that. I just wish that I could control these ''fucking mood swings''!"

-->"I see all of my ex-girlfriends. Well, not so much see as watch."

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Thoroughly averted in several places throughout the series, but quite interestingly, the show gets a lot of references in Brian's artistic career entirely right; The best artists are usually regarded as tormented individuals, and any manner of happiness or satisfaction with a work (or in life) can be regarded as a problem. Due to the difficulty of finding work in the profession, it can also be a source of embarrassment, as it is when Brian's mother visits. The series also references a variety of artistic styles across several mediums, from Pollock's 50's expressive style to modern day multimedia-ideas. The character Vulva is pretty obviously based on real-life performance artist Leigh Bowery and his bizarre performance piece is also something that wouldn't be uncommon to see (''although it would still be trashy, terrifying nonsense''), as is Bryan's installation work in the second series. In the latter example, the show also references DamienHirst, with Bryan suggesting he needs to go to the ''Hospital'', which the gallery owner misunderstands as a new venue by Hirst - after the artist was involved in a restaurant in real life called ''Pharmacy''.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Thoroughly averted in several places throughout the series, but quite interestingly, the show gets a lot of references in Brian's artistic career entirely right; The best artists are usually regarded as tormented individuals, and any manner of happiness or satisfaction with a work (or in life) can be regarded as a problem. Due to the difficulty of finding work in the profession, it can also be a source of embarrassment, as it is when Brian's mother visits. The series also references a variety of artistic styles across several mediums, from Pollock's 50's expressive style to modern day multimedia-ideas. Vulva's bizarre performance piece is also something that it wouldn't be uncommon to see (''although it would still be trashy, terrifying nonsense''), as is Bryan's installation work in the second series. In the latter example, the show also references DamienHirst, with Bryan suggesting he needs to go to the ''Hospital'', which the gallery owner misunderstands as a new venue by Hirst - after the artist was involved in a restaurant in real life called ''Pharmacy''.

** Bilbo's rival, Derek, will not hear a bad word said about BabylonFive

* BigYes: A [[UnusualEuphemism munted]] Daisy reacts this way when Tim orders tequila slammers.

* BogglesTheMind:

* DualWielding: Paintball guns. And finger guns.

* FailedASpotCheck: Marsha, repeatedly. Tim and Daisy are terrible at maintaining TheMasquerade but Marsha is apparently blind to their endless slip-ups (including two in as many minutes in the first episode, see CoverIdentityAnomaly above).

** And [[Series/DoctorWho the Master]]/[[LifeOnMars Sam Tyler]]!

* ICouldaBeenAContender: Marsha claims she was once on track to be an Olympic sprinter, until a guy hit her with his car [[StartOfDarkness and gave her]] [[BottleFairy a drink]], saying it'd 'help with the pain' ([[DrowningMySorrows "he was not wrong..."]]).
* INeverToldYouMyName: Played this in the {{Homage}} (of sorts) to ''TheMatrix''. With the agents grilling Brian at the front door when they were looking for Daisy.

* MaybeEverAfter: For more than one couple, although a DVD extra [[BelatedHappyEnding clarifies one pairing]].
* MeetCute: Daisy mistakes Tim for a drug dealer.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Tim drew a caricature of of head of Dark Star Comics describing himself as a massive wanker. Naturally, Tim removed this piece before submitting his portfolio to Dark Star for consideration. Only Daisy, who apparently only wanted to help, put it back in.
** There's a few subtle hints dropped that Daisy may have been jealous of Tim's break, and wanted to sabotage it.

* OddFriendship: Tim and Brian. Tim denies that he doesn't like Brian on several occasions, but also admits that he's not sure why he does like him.
* OminousLatinChanting:
** At the end of the episode "Battles," in which Tim revealed his phobia of [[RuleOfThree dogs, lightning, and bamboo]], some ominous latin chanting accompanies an image of the dog Colin sitting on Tim's bed, chewing on some bamboo sticks during a lightning storm.

** Notably one of the games he's seen playing, ''ResidentEvil 2'' factors into the plot of the episode.
** Another notable example that comes to mind was an argument between Tim and Daisy interspersed with cutaway shots of a game of ''{{Tekken}}''. At the end of the argument, Tim walked away as the ''{{Tekken}}'' game displayed 'NINA WINS!' on the screen, and following that Daisy stood in a similar winning pose to Nina and it displayed 'DAISY WINS' on the screen.

* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: Brian is often naked or close to it, and appears pretty much oblivious to the discomfort this causes in his flatmates.

* SeriousBusiness: Tim and Bilbo take their fantasy/sci-fi fandom extremely seriously. Tim was so disappointed by ''ThePhantomMenace'' that he burned his Star Wars paraphernalia in a scene mirroring Darth Vader's cremation. Bilbo admits to punching out two people for describing ''HawkTheSlayer'' as "rubbish". One of them was his dad. Even still, he sacks Tim for verbally assaulting a child in search of a [[TheScrappy Jar Jar Binks]] doll. Then, when Bilbo offers Tim his old job back, all it takes to make Tim's new boss fire him on the spot is for Tim to declare "''BabylonFive'''s a big pile of shit!"
** The paintball game in Season 1 Episode 4.

* StylisticSuck: Brian's art. Dear God, Brian's art: he even doubts his own endeavours from time to time (notably before meeting with former cohort Vulva).
--> '''Brian''': I'm doing a lot of work with paint. Big projects with paint. Big... fucking loser.

* TrueArtIsAngsty:[[hottip:*: {{In-universe}}]] Brian's art is completely defined by negative emotions. He later finds that he can't paint when he is happy.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible:[[hottip:*: {{In-universe}}]] Brian's friend Vulva performs incomprehensible performance art pieces that he finds ingenious. When Daisy tries her hand at a similarly ridiculous performance, Brian is moved to tears.

* TheUnfairSex: Sarah's treatment of Tim, and Twist's treatment of Brian both definitely count. Also, Marsha seems to find the idea of Daisy possibly cheating on Tim [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery titillating]], whereas [[DoubleStandard the idea of Tim cheating on Daisy disgusts her]].

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: Scenes from films are re-enacted with a fraction of the budget, in far more mundane circumstances. Played for bathos or pastiche.
-->'''Tim''': Now, we'll have to climb over a perimeter fence. It's about two meters high.
-->'''Brian''': [[StarWars Two meters! That's impossible!]]
-->'''Mike''': It's not impossible, I used to climb over my neighbor's fence, it wasn't much higher than two meters.
** The gunfight. Not just a FingerGun battle, it has DualWielding, frag grenades, gun jams, {{Big No}}s, even a segue to classical music to pan over the "dead" and highlight the senseless waste of it all.
** The ''paintball duel''. And Mike's HeroicSacrifice, complete with [[BloodFromTheMouth Paint From The Mouth]].
** A reenactment of ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' set in the kitchen of a fast food restaurant.
*** Called "Neo Nachos".
** In an early episode, Daisy and Mike share a moment out of PulpFiction, when Daisy finds Mike's Uzi on the counter when she gets home. He walks out of the bathroom to find his [[RecklessGunUsage gun pointed at him]]. The two stare tensely at each other, and then they start to have a conversation and forget it happened.
** From TheSixthSense:
-->[Mike and Tim are sitting in gridlock]
-->'''Tim''': What's the hold up?
-->'''Mike''': There's been an accident. Someone got hurt.
-->'''Tim''': Who?
-->'''Mike''': A lady.
-->'''Tim''': How d'you know?
-->'''Mike''': Because we hit her.
-->'''Tim''': Did we?
-->'''Mike''': Yeah. That's her there.
-->[Female cyclist appears at the window, scaring Tim - played by Olivia Williams, star of The Sixth Sense]
** Part one of the second series finale ends with Tim and Mike about to go and talk to Marsha, done as an almost word-for-word take on the end of ''TheEmpireStrikesBack''.
*** Compete with Wookiee noises imitated (quite well!) by a yawning Mike.
** The first time Brian [[TheCavalry steps in]] to cover for Tim and Daisy's fake relationship with a well-timed excuse, he gets played out by [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iteRKvRKFA the theme]] from ''TheMagnificentSeven'' (and, being Brian, [[FailedAttemptAtDrama screws up his exit]].)

* TheUnfairSex: Sarah's treatment of Tim, and Twist's treatment of Brian both definitely count. Also, Marsha seems to find the idea of Daisy possibly cheating on Tim titillating, whereas [[DoubleStandard the idea of Tim cheating on Daisy disgusts her]].

* [[Mondegreen]]: Daisy at the party in episode 2, singing along to The King Of Rock And Roll "Have a cookie"

* StylisticSuck: Brian's art. Dear God, Brian's art: he even doubts his own endeavours from time to time (notably before meeting with former cohort Vulva). Daisy's writing probably qualifies as well, at least early on.

* ReferenceOverdosed: Not that there's anything wrong with that. People can watch the show, and those who don't get the references can enjoy the jokes without problems, and those who do catch all the reference can actually add more laughs. Wright and Pegg's films after the series have this as a method of writing and directing.

* BigNo: Used all over the place
* BigYes: Two Tiqulia Slammers!