History WesternAnimation / NateIsLate

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: "The Werewolf" features one that can change without needing a full moon just by the scent of food.

* EveryoneHatesMath: In "Kid From The Future", kids in future school are punished by being given math questions constantly by the robots monitoring the school. Even worse in detention where they put them on exercise bikes and go faster with every wrong question.

* CityOfWeirdos: The town Nate and Malika reside in is just utterly nuts. Among other things it had a Roman coliseum under it, a haunted house, dragons passed by it at one point, the sewer has goblins living in it, the lake is home to mermaids, etc. Yet oddly Nate and Malika are the only ones who keep encountering this stuff.

* LettingHerHairDown In all episodes, Malika typically wears her hair tied up in a ponytail. However, in "The Faun", after being bewitched into a party animal, she lets her hair down to show this shift in her personality.

** In "The Shooting Star" [[spoiler: Malika turns to feed the bully star sunlight in order to get it to become full enough to stop purseing the smaller one. Forgetting that when a star grows big, it burns out and can sometime turn ''into a black hole'' when it goes supernova, which unfortunately for Nate, the little star and her, is what happens.]]

* OneWingedAngel: The "Adorable Monster" the duo befriends at first doesn't seem to be much scarier then his normal form will permit. But when the owner of the dark house ride / final monster exam threatens the duo, he morphs into a much bigger and more intimidating form to get her to back off. Ironically in doing this, this allows him to pass the exam and receive his diploma.

* ShrinkRay: The premise of the insect episode kicks off when Nate accidentally triggers a shrinking machine which zaps both Nate and Malika to bug size.

* RealityEnsues: In "The Flash", Nate and Malika try to prevent Terry from taking their picture with the magic camera by hiding behind a trash can lid so it won't make a negative of them. It fails and make a negative Malika since, as her negative points out, it's a trash can lid, not a mirror.

--> '''Milika''': Oh Yeah! You got it, Nate!

* ExpositoryHairstyleChange: In all episodes Malika typically wears her hair tied up in a ponytail. However, in "The Faun", after being bewitched into a party animal, she lets her hair down to show this shift in her personality.

** "Battle of the Gods" had Nate once more having to floating the air while being pulled by Malika on her bike (in this case, from balloons rather then hang glide from butterfly wings) which did happen in "The Carnivorous Plant". He even lampshades the fact that he's doing this stunt again.

* JerkassGods: "Battle of the Gods" had to the duo come across a feuding Zeus and Posidon who were trying to see who was the strongest to rule Olympus and forcing the two to judge. Naturally they're not very pleasent, end up chasing the two when Nate tries to calm them do and end up causing major property damage during said chase. It's when it's pointed out what they're doing that they realize the error of their ways, agree to rule together and fix everything

* SpiritWorld: The premise of "The Totems" in which Nate and Malika help a shaman and go into the spirit world and inhabit their spirit animals (in this case, a puma for Malika and a skunk for Nate) to calm a bear that was rampaging around and making people [[HatePlauge grumpy]]. [[spoiler: Ironically said bear was the spirit animal of ''Prudence'']].

* BewitchedAmphibians: Subject of the promptly named "The Enchanted Frog". The duo meet a man who got turned into one by a witch to keep her away from her daughter. Nate tries to help by kissing him (yeah he's not bright) and ends up turning into a frog himself.

** The Mermaids force Nate to fight a garbage monster just because he threw some trash into their lake. And even then, it was an accident: it was blown into the lake by the wind and he was trying to retrieve it (though he ''did'' briefly intend to leave it, before a DisapprovingLook from Malika intimidate him).

--> '''Both''': So sorry, Principal Prudence! We're alway, ''always'' late, late, late! ''Always always late, late, late!''

** The Mermaids force Nate to fight a garbage monster just because he threw some trash into their lake (And even then, it was an accident. It was blown into the lake by the wind and he was trying to retrieve it).

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nate can usually be the cause of the problems in certain episodes, usually when he messes with something he wasn't suppose to.

** "The Lucky Ring" : A cursed ring that brings bad luck to it's user. [[Literature/TheLordsOfTheRing Hmm where've we heard that before]]? Heck the ring even glows when Nate and later, Malika grab it and the two having a bewitched look about then when it does. So much so Nate has to snap the latter out of it when she gets a hold of it.

* NeverMessWithGranny: In "The Tree People" the duo help an elderly tree sprite try to convince the others they're killing the tree by taking it's sap. When Nate and Malika have to pull a lever to that'll return the sap to the tree and get into a struggle with the greedy leader to do so. The elderly sprite comes to their aid by knocking the leader back much to the duo's shock.
--> '''Nate''': [[LampshadeHanging If she could do that, why was I carrying her again?]]

** "The Tree People" has some to ''Film/StarWars'' with the elderly tree sprite being Yoda in a sense, Nate carrying her just as Luke had did to Yoda in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and her coming to their rescue in a way not disimilar to him as well, only with a cane instead of a lightsaber.

** "The Video Game": "Pipe Runner" is obviously based on ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''. There's even a sly nod in that the villain is a toad. What's more the game console Nate plays it on is a Game Boy and the music that plays from it is surprisingly similar to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand''.

* DrivenByEnvy: In "The Living Portraits", the villain of this episode is envious of a portrait that is admired by the public and tries to sabotage it by stealing a vital piece (a pearl earring) to her discredited and taken down so she herself can become the main attraction.

** "The Video Game": "Pipe Runner" is obviously based on ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''. There's even a sly nod in that the villain is a toad. What's more the game console Nate plays it on is a Game Boy and the music that plays from it surprisingly similar to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand''.

* ArtifactOfDoom: "The Lucky Ring" in which a ring given to Nate which grants him good luck..for a while. Then his luck takes a turn for the worst.

** "The Tree People" is likewise though ironically it's the tree people themselves that end up causing the problem when their leader ends up taking up too much sap that it withers the tree to the point it nearly dies. The duo have to convince them to give the sap back to save the tree.

* ContinuityNod: When Nate and Malika realize Max was the culprit in "Santa's Reindeer", they remember he likewise gave them problems in "The Dragon".

* GreenAesop: The Mermaid episode is centered around this as the mermaids of the lake are mad about people throwing trash into it.