History WesternAnimation / LiloAndStitchTheSeries

Creator/DisneyPlus has all 65 episodes available for streaming. For more information about the characters, especially those introduced during ''The Series'', see the franchise's character sheet by clicking on the Characters button above.

There's a [[Recap/LiloAndStitchTheSeries Recap]] page that's still under development.

* AnAesop: Each episode has its own lesson it teaches. See the Recap pages for specifics.

** The episode "Heckler" falls under this. The problem is that [[AnAesop the aesop]] is all over the place. It says laughing at others' looks is wrong, [[{{Hypocrite}} yet it does this throughout.]] It says you shouldn't laugh at others' expense, yet does this and, for the most part, [[PlayedForLaughs plays it for laughs.]] It also seems to imply that comedians should only make fun of themselves and not others, yet ends with Heckler getting a job doing this, anyway.

-->-- The chorus to ''The Series''[='=] theme song, [[https://youtu.be/knZ0Vq3TJME "Aloha, E Komo Mai"]], performed by '''[=Jump5=]'''

** "Skip": Lilo uses the titular experiment to become a teenager, but the process causes her and Stitch to be missing for ten years while time proceeds normally for everyone else. This makes it much easier for Gantu to acquire experiments. When the duo jumps ahead another ten years after that, they see the world has been conquered by Hämsterviel and all the experiments (save Stitch and Skip) are under his control, despite some eluding capture long enough to warrant WantedPoster-like displays (Sparky, Finder, and Shoe). The house got repossessed to pay off a huge pile of parking tickets the X-Buggy has accumulated since Lilo parked it, and when that proved insufficient, Nani started working directly under Hämsterviel as his personal water bottle carrier. Jumba still lives in the house, becoming a hermit in the attic to hide from the authorities and Hämsterviel, living off of canned rutabagas and rainwater. On the upside, Pleakley has become an intergalactic fashion icon, which proved instrumental in SettingRightWhatOnceWentWrong.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: In "Slugger", Pleakley, while reading from a book on sports rules, incorrectly states that ten strikes in a row in bowling (not baseball, as he thought) is a perfect game. Actually, a perfect bowling game is twelve strikes, not ten, as getting the tenth strike grants two extra rolls.

** When Stitch is too short to ride an amusement park ride, he uses Jumba's growth ray to make him much larger (as big as Lilo's house, in fact). The freshly caught experiment, Shortstuff (297), also gets zapped to an enormous size and wreaks havoc onto the fair until he is pinned down by the now regular-sized Stitch. Lilo and Stitch didn't even bother to change him back to normal size; his one true place is being a living fair ride.

* HartmanHips: Nani, Mertle's mom, Mertle's aunt Stacy, and most of the women.

* ImOkay: Stitch has a minor catchphrase in ''The Series'' after he gets hurt, "I'm OK! I'm fluffy!" Sometimes it crosses over with his famous [[ThirdPersonPerson illeism]], replacing "I'm" with his name.

** That being said, [[SubvertedTrope Lilo has worn several different casual outfits throughout the show]].

* MondegreenGag: In "Rufus", Lilo gets furious at [[WesternAnimation/KimPossible Kim’s]] [[{{Catchphrase}} “What’s the sitch?”]], because she mishears it as “the Stitch”.

* NeverSayDie: In "Remmy". Instead of directly stating that today was the day their parents died, Nani takes a more unique approach by saying that it was the day they became a broken family.

-->'''Gantu:''' (''banging on ship wall'') 625! Open the door!\\
'''625:''' (''pops out from an opening in the ship hull'') Eh, where's the experiment?\\

'''Merwin:''' (''in distance'') I think he went over that way.\\
(''Gantu flees'')

** Mr. Stenchy (254) is one of the few experiments to have sclerae, irises and pupils instead of the single-colored or solid black eyes his "cousins" (including Stitch) actually all have.
** Skip (089) also has sclerae and pupils as well, only smaller and more realistic-looking than Mr. Stenchy's.

* NoSell: Angel can turn any experiment back from good to evil with her siren song. However, experiments created after her, such as Stitch, are immune.

* SesameStreetCred: Creator/RegisPhilbin appears as himself in "Drowsy".

* ShamWedding: Pleakley convinces his family that he has a fiancée, only for them to come over expecting him to marry said girl. Pleakley needs the help of his ''ʻohana''[[note]]chosen family of friends[[/note]] to fake a wedding to get his family off his back. Jumba acts as the bride because Nani refuses to do it even if it was fake. However, Pleakley's lie is revealed after Gantu brings up the [[LivingLieDetector Fibber]] who had been buzzing the entire episode because of Pleakley's lie.
* ShoutOut: Hämsterviel is ''not'' a space gerbil, he's clearly an alien version of the Frenchman from ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''.

** Snafu (120) has this as his function. Woops (600) was designed to have all the powers of Stitch but instead is a complete klutz. In fact, the events of Woops's episode leads into Snafu's episode. Woops nearly blows Hämsterviel's cover, forcing Hämsterviel to send all the experiments he had in prison back to Gantu on Earth. This immediately leads to Woops breaking open Nosy's container, allowing him to escape. Nosy goes directly to Lilo and Stitch in the next episode to tell them that all of the experiments Gantu and Hämsterviel have are now on Earth, thus leading the duo to form a rescue party and free the experiments.
** On the flipside, this can happen when an experiment doesn't affect people. In "Checkers", Stitch and his cousins are immune to Checkers' brainwashing so they know how to fight back. In "Lax", the titular experiment's power (turning people into {{Lazy Bum}}s who prefer to relax over doing hard work) doesn't work on [[WesternAnimation/{{Recess}} Gretchen]] because [[{{Workaholic}} she considers hard work relaxing]].

* TrueCompanions: [[{{Catchphrase}} ʻOhana means family; family means nobody gets left behind... or forgotten.]]

** Mr. Stenchy aka Experiment 254 can release a powerful odor upon unsuspecting victims who are caught off guard by his [[CutenessProximity cuteness]].

* InkSuitActor:
** Music/WeirdAlYankovic as a minstrel at a medieval festival.
** Creator/RegisPhilbin and Glenn Shadix in other episodes.
* InMediasRes: If an episode begins with an experiment already activated.

[[folder:Tropes # to M]]

* ClipShow: "Ace" is about Jumba showing footage of his experiments doing evil things to the head of the Evil Genius Organization. This is to convince the head of E.G.O. that Jumba is still evil and his membership should not be revoked. The segment shows most of Slushy (523) and Splodyhead (619)'s epic fight from the former experiment's episode, and in that episode, Jumba stated that he forgot to bring his camera. "Ace" was originally supposed to have [[http://www.ersoz.com/storyboard/sb_pages/ls_ace.htm a much more substantial plot]] and not be a clip show, but it was changed following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

* DreamStealer[=/=]DreamWeaver: Experiment 276 (Remmy) is somewhat of a combination; he can destroy dreams and create nightmares in their place.

* DrunkWithPower: One episode features "Checkers", a crown-shaped experiment that sits upon its user's head and makes others cater to them like royalty. Naturally, an under-appreciated feeling Lilo puts it on, takes over the town and goes power mad immediately, passing insane laws and condoning her friends getting locked in a dungeon when they don't follow. She ultimately realizes how far she's been going and how poorly she's been acting, but right after she realizes this Gantu gets his hands on Checkers and everything gets ten times worse. Luckily, the other experiments are unaffected by Checkers's mind control and can do something about it.

* ForWantOfANail: "Melty" explores what happens when Lilo uses time travel to avoid falling into the mud in front of Keoni. It turns out that there are much worse consequences than Lilo simply being covered in mud.

* GottaCatchThemAll: Lilo won't rest until all the experiments have fond their "one true place".
* GrandFinale: "Snafu" for the normal run of ''The Series'' (though "Link" was the last broadcast). ''WesternAnimation/LeroyAndStitch'' was this for ''The Series'' proper as well as the whole franchise until [[Anime/{{Stitch}} the anime]] came along.

* HypnoticEyes: Swirly (383)'s power.

* IAmNotWeasel: Dr. Hämsterviel is frequently mistaken for a gerbil or other small rodent, insisting that he is, in fact "hamster-like". Though he really does look considerably more like a gerbil/rabbit hybrid than a hamster.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Every episode title is/are the name(s) of the featured experiment(s), except for "The Asteroid",[[note]]The subject is about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an asteroid]] headed towards Earth.[[/note]] "Bad Stitch",[[note]]Technically not a true example of an exception since Stitch ''is'' an experiment and is the focus of this episode, but he's in every episode anyway.[[/note]] "[[WesternAnimation/KimPossible Rufus]]",[[note]]Named after one of the guest characters that appear in this {{crossover}} episode.[[/note]] and "Mrs. Hasagawa's Cats".[[note]]There are too many experiments to have their individual names put in the episode's title.[[/note]]

* TheImp: Reuben (625).

** ''ʻOhana'' may mean family, and family may mean that nobody's left behind, ''et cetera'', ''et cetera'', but Lilo can be astonishingly cold to some of the experiments. The episode "Snafu" hinged on this fact.

* CallBack: Much of "Remmy"'s plot revolves around the anniversary of the death of Lilo's parents, and Lilo and Nani's attempts to cope with it.

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in "Yapper" where Mertle actually won a dog contest through cheating but relinquished the trophy after the duo helped save her pet (which was an experiment) from Gantu. Played straight in a later episode ("Spike") via a trivia contest.

** "Morpholomew" has Lilo transforming into other people (first Keoni and later [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong Jake]]) to enter a teen-skating contest, ending up crashing and burning both times.

* CircusEpisode: The episode "Elastico" has Stitch finding one of his cousins being part of a circus. After chasing after said cousin, the circus notices how indestructible Stitch is and offers Stitch to join them under the name "Indestructirado". For a moment, Stitch agrees to join and signs a contract due to Lilo ignoring him for the majority of the episode. Once he and Lilo make amends though, he has regrets over signing only to be pointed out by the ringleader that because Stitch used the name Lilo gave him instead of the name they gave him that the contract is null and void, allowing Stitch to return to Lilo.

* ComicBookTime: Several later episodes mention that it has been approximately three years or so since the experiment hunt began with Sparky, which would make the time since Stitch first landed in Hawaii only slightly longer, but it seems more for setting than anything. Despite this, [[VocalEvolution apart from Lilo's voice deepening a bit]], nothing of consequence changes in the characters' lives. This can likely be attributed to the fact that the show's run was three years.

* {{Crossover}}: A series of episodes in which the characters from other Disney Channel shows came to visit the islands. Also counts as CanonWelding, as there was little indication that ''The Series'' occurred in the same universe beforehand. ''The Series'' also holds the honor of having the most crossovers in a Disney series, which include:

** ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'': The Proud Family vacation in Hawaii, staying at Jumba and Pleakley's Bed-and-Not-Breakfast along with a CausticCritic, but likewise end up affected by that episode's experiment which causes anger between individuals. Penny has to figure out how to fix things when she and Lilo get affected as well.

* AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Shortstuff (297) has a knack for this.

* ADogNamedDog: Some of the experiment names (Finder, Babyfier, Sinker, etc.) aren't so much names as a bland description of what they do.
* AdultsAreUseless: Mostly averted, but you'd think Barking Sands Missile Range (a US military airbase on Kauai) might notice all the spaceships flying around.

* AlphaBitch: Mertle.

* ArtShift: ''The Series'' has a simpler and thicker-lined style than the original film. Stitch also has a somewhat redesigned look to make him easier to animate for television; among other changes, his body has a more rigid build (he looks less "fluffy"), his head shape is more elliptical than round (it looks sort of "flatter"), his eyes are more almond-shaped (making him look like he has a slight squint), and his fur color is a lighter, more saturated shade of blue.

* AudienceSurrogate: [[WordOfGod According to Jess Winfield]], Keoni is this and the writing staff hated him for it.

** "Skip": Lilo uses the titular experiment to become a teenager, but the process causes her and Stitch to be missing for ten years while time proceeds normally for everyone else. This makes it much easier for Gantu to acquire experiments. When the duo jumps ahead another ten years after that, they see the world has been conquered by Hämsterviel and all the experiments (save Stitch and Skip) are under his control, despite some eluding capture long enough to warrant WantedPoster-like displays (Sparky, Finder, and Shoe). The house got repossessed to pay off a huge pile of parking tickets the buggy has accumulated since Lilo parked it, and when that proved insufficient, Nani started working directly under Hämsterviel as his personal water bottle carrier. Jumba still lives in the house, becoming a hermit in the attic to hide from the authorities and Hämsterviel, living off of canned rutabagas and rainwater. On the upside, Pleakley has become an intergalactic fashion icon, which proved instrumental in SettingRightWhatOnceWentWrong.

* BlatantLies: After being converted to evil by her siren song, Jumba describes Angel as a "harmless early experiment designed to pop popcorn for Jumba's movie night." While repeatedly referring to her as Experiment 624.
** MetaphoricallyTrue[=/=]BrickJoke: In ''Leroy & Stitch'', a brief scene shows that he did indeed make an early experiment that pops popcorn, Kernel (014), with his one true place being at a concession stand for the local movie theater.

* TheBully[=/=]TheRival: Mertle is to Lilo. Her friends could also count but the main reason they avoid Lilo is because of Mertle's influence.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Thanks to Hämsterviel sending all of the captured experiments to Gantu in "Woops", Lilo and Stitch will get the chance of freeing them in the next episode, "Snafu".

* PrincessPhase: The stereotype of girls wanting to be princesses is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in "Spooky", when Lilo comes to a costume party as a dead hula girl and her teacher suggests she wear something more like what some other girls are wearing. She looks at the girls he indicates and lists the choices she has:

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: "It's Hämsterviel! Hämsterviel! Not Hamsterwheel, you ingrates!"

''Lilo & Stitch: The Series'' (2003–2006), also titled just ''Lilo & Stitch'', is the first sequel TV series to the [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch Disney movie of the same name]] and [[Franchise/LiloAndStitch its franchise]], airing on [[Creator/OneSaturdayMorningAndABCKids ABC Kids]] and Creator/DisneyChannel throughout its run. After the events of the film, Hawaiian girl Lilo is safe and happy with her sister Nani and their expanded family: alien experimental life-form Stitch, giant four-eyed mad scientist Jumba, and meek cycloptic ex-soldier-bureaucrat Pleakley.

** Hoo, boy... "Hunkahunka" is a doozy for this one. After Stitch captures the titular experiment, Lilo uses his peck to force Keoni to fall in love with her. Then, she blows off finding him a home in favor of spending some "quality time" with Keoni. Next, she inadvertently loses Hunkahunka by wrestling the container Stitch has him in from Stitch's hands, to which she responds with a nasty "how was I supposed to know?" Chaos ensues and Gantu ultimately winds up capturing Hunkahunka. Lilo's response is to tell Stitch to let him go, because "we don't need Hunkahunka and his fakey love here on Earth." It's arguably her worst moment in the series.

* OffModel: Gantu's height can range from just over twice Jumba's size to taller than two stories, and everything in between. It was stated by [[WordOfGod the producers]] that Gantu's sudden shrinkage between [[WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch the original movie]] and ''The Series'' was so that Gantu could appear in frame without ridiculously dwarfing anything he stood over. (Outside of DependingOnTheArtist in part of the overseas studios; that doesn't explain the variance in ''The Series'' itself, however...)

* DoesNotLikeShoes: A lot of people are seen wearing sandals and Lilo frequently goes barefoot. {{Justified|Trope}} since the show is set in tropical Hawaii.

* AlienAnimals: Mertle's pet Shih Tzu dog Gigi, designed to annoy people with its constant yapping, is revealed to be Jumba's Experiment 007 (a.k.a. Yapper).

** "Skip": Lilo uses the titular experiment to become a teenager, but the process causes her and Stitch to be missing for ten years while time proceeds normally for everyone else. This makes it much easier for Gantu to acquire experiments. When the duo jumps ahead another ten years after that, they see the world has been conquered by Hämsterviel and all the experiments (save Stitch and Skip) are under his control, despite some eluding capture long enough to warrant WantedPoster-like displays (Sparky, Finder and Shoe). The house got repossessed to pay off a huge pile of parking tickets the buggy has accumulated since Lilo parked it, and when that proved insufficient, Nani started working directly under Hämsterviel as his personal water bottle carrier. Jumba still lives in the house, becoming a hermit in the attic to hide from the authorities and Hämsterviel, living off of canned rutabegas and rainwater. On the upside, Pleakley has become an intergalactic fashion icon, which proved instrumental in SettingRightWhatOnceWentWrong.

--->'''Nani''': My blowdryer! My hair! My blowdryer and my hair!

* {{Crossover}}: A series of episodes in which the characters from other Disney Channel shows came to visit the islands. Also counts as CanonWelding, as beforehand there was little indication ''The Series'' occurred in the same universe. ''The Series'' also holds the honor of having the most crossovers in a Disney series, which include:

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'':[[note]]The only show it crossed over with that had already ended before ''Lilo & Stitch: The Series'' began, and the only Creator/OneSaturdayMorning series to appear.[[/note]] The ''Recess'' kids visit Hawaii for a program Gretchen is in. Stitch and and most of the ''Recess'' gang end up the victims of that episode's experiment, forcing Lilo to team up with them to stop him and keep him away from Gantu.

* DefeatingTheCheatingOpponent: In "Spike", Lilo and Mertle's families face off in a family quiz game where Mertle's family have been winning the first half. Thanks to Stitch, Lilo finds out that Mertle's been cheating by having Teresa, one of her friends, look up answers online and feed them through an earpiece. So Lilo stops this by having Spike "hug" Teresa, since Spike's quills make his victim lose their intelligence. Come the second round, Teresa's acting too loopy to give proper answers and leaves Mertle without any advantages, allowing Lilo's family to catch up and win in a fair contest.

* DownerEnding: Any episode where the featured experiment gets captured by Gantu by episode's end, meaning Lilo and Stitch failed to find their one true place. All of this is resolved in "Snafu".

* DreamSue: While Lilo herself is no different, one of her dreams Remmy creates for her (as a set up to ruin it later on) features Mertle and her friends accepting her for who she really is. Lilo is understandably weirded out.

* DrunkWithPower: One episode features "Checkers", a crown-shaped experiment which sits upon its user's head and makes others cater to them like royalty. Naturally, an under-appreciated feeling Lilo puts it on, takes over the town and goes power mad immediately, passing insane laws and condoning her friends getting locked in a dungeon when they don't follow. She ultimately realizes how far she's been going and how poorly she's been acting, but right after she realizes this Gantu gets his hands on Checkers and everything gets ten times worse. Luckily, the other experiments are unaffected by Checkers's mind control and can do something about it.

* EveryEpisodeEnding: The featured experiment in their one true place, except if Gantu captures them or if their one true place isn't shown at all.

* EvilVsEvil: Many of the episodes, as most experiments are usually still evil when they're first activated. Usually, Lilo and Stitch both have to save the experiment of the week from being captured by Gantu ''and'' save themselves and people around them from whatever havoc experiment is trying to wreak upon them.

** Mertle was originally just a rude girl who doesn't like Lilo, but the show portrays her as a straight up bully who enjoys mocking Lilo nearly every opportunity she gets. This is even reflected by her change in voice actress between the original film and this series.

* ForWantOfANail: "Melty" explores what happens when Lilo uses time travel to avoid falling into mud in front of Keoni. It turns out that there are much worse consequences than Lilo simply being covered in mud.

* HartmanHips: Nani, Mertle's mom and aunt, and most of the women.

* HeightInsult: The premise of the "Short Stuff" episode involves several people poking fun of Stitch for his short stature and denying him entry on rides. It gets to the point where Stitch gets Lilo and Pleakley (due to Jumba being away) to make him bigger with a growth ray under the impression that bigger is better. When Jumba returns, he lets Stitch know that being bigger is not good for Stitch and that he is fine in his normal size which Lilo agrees with. The episode ends with Stitch brushing off the comments.

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Every episode title is/are the name(s) of the featured experiment(s), except for "The Asteroid",[[note]]The subject is about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an asteroid]] headed towards Earth.[[/note]] "Bad Stitch",[[note]]Technically not a true example of an exception, since Stitch ''is'' an experiment and is the focus of this episode, but he's in every episode anyway.[[/note]] "[[WesternAnimation/KimPossible Rufus]]",[[note]]Named after one of the guest characters that appears in this {{crossover}} episode.[[/note]] and "Mrs. Hasagawa's Cats".[[note]]There are too many experiments to have their individual names put in the episode's title.[[/note]]

* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: The episode "Remmy", where a nightmare-causing experiment invades Lilo's mind and Jumba, Pleakley and Stitch follow after it.
* KarmaHoudini: True that Mertle does get HoistByHerOwnPetard on some occasions, she truly gets away with a lot in bullying Lilo.

* LimitedWardrobe: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "Glitch".
--> '''Lilo''' ''(writing a letter)'': "Dear Uncle Joe. Aloha and mahalo for the red dress. I've worn it every day for the last three years! Love, Lilo!"

* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Pleakley in "Remmy" after facing a collapsing rope bridge [[ItMakesSenseInContext made out of floss]]. Apparently he regrets not being more outgoing in high school.

* NobodyHereButUsStatues: In the episode "Sample", Lilo, Stitch and the titular [[MonsterOfTheWeek experiment of the week]] attempt to hide from the self-proclaimed alien hunters Merwin and Dean as tiki statues. Which works... until Sample blows their cover.

* NoSell: Angel can turn any experiment back from good to evil with her siren song; however, experiments created after her, Stitch for instance, are immune.

* PokeThePoodle: Some of Jumba's experiments are like this such as an experiment that steals people's desserts, another that annoys people by talking too much, etc. It makes since since all of those are between 1-200, meaning his first attempts at making evil experiments.

* PunchClockVillain: In one episode, Yuki, Teresa and Elena are revealed to only insult Lilo whenever they're around Mertle, and do whatever they want when she's absent. In reality, they secretly despise Mertle.

* ReunionShow: "Fibber", which, as mention above, features ''Series/TheKidsInTheHall'' cast as Pleakley's family (with Dave Foley playing the priest).

** Also Hammerface (Experiment 033). He appeared in "The Asteroid", despite that episode being produced ''and'' airing before Hammerface's actual debut in "Dupe". And it can be said that the events of "Dupe" happened before "The Asteroid", but it was obvious that Gantu captured him immediately after the episode (with Heat, Plasmoid and Thresher), because he was among the experiments that needed to be rescued in "Snafu".

** Squeak (110), a small mouse-like experiment with distinctive ears "designed to annoy enemies with non-stop talking", is a shout out to the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes character, Little Blabbermouse.

* StupidityInducingAttack: The effect of Spike's, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin spikes.]] His purpose is to take a person's ordinary thought processes, and increase their goofiness factor by 99%, leaving only 1% clever. According to Jumba, only super-geniuses of his caliber are immune (with even Stitch being susceptible).

* SuperstitionEpisode: The episode featuring Shoe (113), who causes bad luck. At the end, the characters discover that he can be set to cause ''good'' luck instead.

* TeamRocketWins: A handful of episodes ended with Gantu in possession of the new experiment(s) of the day, though [[PyrrhicVictory they were generally ones with useless/embarrassing powers]]. This is {{Deconstructed}} in the SeriesFinale "Snafu", where Nosy after manages to escape (in "Woops"), he calls out Lilo for essentially abandoning him and a dozen others to Gantu.

** Many Hawaiians mistake Stitch and other experiments for normal Earth animals. They also mistake Gantu for a human foreigner [[WeirdnessCensor even when he's not]] wearing a PaperThinDisguise. Only two American tourists noticed Gantu and the experiments were aliens and when they complained to the mayor, even giving photographic evidence, he just shrugs it off as a hoax.

** In "Babyfier", baby Jumba and baby Pleakley go to a coffee shop and find there's too many people in it. Pleakley soils himself and the resulting stench causes everyone to flee.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: There are several occasions in where the experiment of the episode is not shown their one true place (Wishy-Washy, Swapper, Skip, Checkers).

* YourSizeMayVary: Gantu, constantly.

** Gantu himself flipflopped on the issue, depending on the episode.

** {{Subverted|Trope}} in "Yapper" where Mertle actually won a dog contest through cheating, but relinquished the trophy after the duo helped saved her pet (which was an experiment) from Gantu. Played straight in a later episode ("Spike") via a trivia contest.
** Also subverted in "Sprout" where Lilo uses the titular experiment to win an orchid contest that she was ill-prepared for at the Kokaua Town Fair, especially since she made a bet with Mertle over exclusive access to a secret beach for a week. Despite winning the blue ribbon, Lilo realizes that she didn't win fair and square, and that she caused so much trouble for letting Sprout grow out of control (which also sabotaged Stitch's and Pleakley's chances of winning their competitions). Thus, she relinquishes the ribbon and the bet to Mertle, and also accepts being grounded by Nani for a week.
** "Morpholemew" has Lilo transforming into other people (first Keoni and later [[WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong Jake]] to enter a teen-skating contest, ending up crashing and burning both times.

* ClipShow: "Ace" is about Jumba showing footage of his experiments doing evil things to the head of the Evil Genius Organization. This is to convince the head of E.G.O. that Jumba is still evil and his membership should not be revoked. The segment shows most of Slushy (523) and Splodyhead (619)'s epic fight from the former experiment's episode, and in that episode Jumba stated that he forgot to bring his camera. "Ace" was originally supposed to have [[http://www.ersoz.com/storyboard/sb_pages/ls_ace.htm a much more substantial plot]] and not be a clip show, but it was changed following the Indian Ocean tsunami.
* CloningSplitsAttributes: This is the power of Experiment 344, aka Dupe, from the episode of the same name. Everything he duplicates loses half of something when he does so, as discovered when Lilo remarks a duplicated ice cream is only half as tasty as the original. Stitch gets hit with the same effect and at first the duo are ecstatic as four Stitches are able to have four times as much fun. Unfortunately, with his powers reduced to a quarter strength, he's unable to fight against Gantu's new squad of fighting experiments and winds up captured. Lilo manages to trick Gantu into using Dupe to make a hundred copies each of his experiments, reducing THEIR powers and giving Stitch the advantage again. Ultimately Dupe finds a home making low cal treats for health conscious vacationers.

** In "Yapper", Stitch travels to Honolulu to participate in the dog show. Although he mostly keeps his destructive impulses with regards to large cities under control -- the question of whether he can being one of the driving elements of the plot -- he ''does'' eat someone's left shoe. He also ate Keoni's left tennis shoe in another episode.

** In "Angel", while Stitch is sitting with 624[[note]]who Lilo would name her Angel in just a couple minutes[[/note]] on the hammock, he picks his nose with his tongue, which he previously did when he was adopted in the original film. His nose-picking intrigues 624 enough that ''she'' picks her own nose with her tongue.

* NightmareFuel: In-universe, Spooky (300) has the ability to turn into anyone's [[YourWorstNightmare worst fear]]. He turns into Cobra Bubbles and tries to take Lilo away from Nani, a torrent of water that nearly succeeds at ''drowning'' Stitch, and a MonsterClown to scare Lilo.

* PronouncingMyNameForYou: Dr. Hämster-viel hates when his name is mispronounced as "hamster wheel".
-->'''Dr. Hämster-viel:''' It's Hom-ster-veel! Veal, like the delicious meat speck!

* StockAudioClip: Stitch's drawn out "''Hi!''" from the original film is used in various episodes as a regular greeting for him.

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** Experiment 627's weakness is that [[spoiler:laughing too hard makes him suffocate. This is a real condition, cataplexy]].
** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmarchers Nightmarchers]] (''huakaʻi pō'' or "Spirit Ranks", ''ʻoiʻo'') [[https://www.to-hawaii.com/legends/night-marchers.php are actually based on]] [[Myth/PacificMythology Hawaiian mythology]]; they are not something that was made up by the mainland-based writing staff when they were working on "Belle".