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4* AccidentalInnuendo:
5** This line in "Randall's Reform".
6--->'''Randall''': Kids of the playground! I give you... BALLS!"
7** And another line in "The Madness of King Bob", when King Bob is trying to pull a prank on T.J.
8--->'''King Bob''': There you are my round little friend, I believe you have a rendezvous... with wetness!"
9** "How deliciously moist!"
10** When Spinelli's parents first appear and can't quite get her friends names right T.J. gets an interesting rename, doesn't help that it was spoken in a somewhat suggestive tone of voice.
11--->'''Mrs Spinelli:''' ... and ''you'' must be '''''B.J.!'''''
12** From "The Tattletale Heart"
13--->'''Finster:''' Poor Randall was fingered... BY SCIENCE.
14** Swinger Girl's name might make some think of a rather different definition of swinging... At one point even mentioning a convention of swingers.
15* AccidentalAesop: "Nobody Doesn't Like TJ" has TJ learning that some people will dislike you for no real reason. As a result, it's easy to interpret this as [[BrokenAesop "It's okay to dislike people for no real reason".]]
16* {{Adorkable}}:
17** Gus is a shy cutie who doubles as TheWoobie. He's a timid, naive, insecure yet good-natured boy.
18** Gretchen's pretty adorkable. She's an intelligent, cute, nerdy NiceGirl, with red hair in GirlishPigtails, freckles, buck teeth, and NerdGlasses.
19** Mikey's naivety mixed with his LargeHam tendencies make him adorably dorky.
20** Miss Grotke has many cute, dorky moments throughout the series. It's her over-enthusiasm about everything that really hits it.
21** The Pale Kids are a group of nerdy ten-year-olds who spend their recesses playing [[BlandNameProduct Daggers & Dragons]] and reading comic books.
22** T.J. can be pretty adorkable. His ditzy BookDumb moments, his overly enthusiastic and optimistic nature, and he's got an enormous heart. And he was a ShrinkingViolet in kindergarten! And he's been revealed to be a huge geek when it comes to comics.
23** Even, out of all characters, Spinelli when she devotes a cult revolving around Swinger Girl.
24* AlternateAesopInterpretation:
25** The message of "Bonky Fever" is to not obsess, and that as you get older, you're going to eventually grow out of things. But the Aesop could've also been read as "You're not allowed to like things not tailored to your demographic". This is also odd because ''Recess'' has had a huge PeripheryDemographic.
26** The other aesop could be "Talking out your feelings with a trusted adult about growing up is healthier than bottling it and worrying your friends." It turns out Mikey never had that talk with his mother, and he feels much better when admitting he doesn't want to get older while knowing it's a part of life.
27** The ending of "Nobody Doesn't Like TJ" is either "you can't please everyone" or "sometimes you dislike someone for no good reason, and that's okay!" due to the ambiguous meaning of "not like" - some people think it means "indifferent to" and Gordy is perfectly within his rights to not want to be friends with TJ, while others think it means "averse to" and Gordy is being petty and jerkish hating on TJ without even giving him a reason why. Though his behavior compared to the beginning implies he no longer thinks of T.J as badly as he did, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs possibly meaning a mix between both, resulting in]] "don't be so quick or hard to judge someone no matter how much you don't like them." One could also interpret a message on how one doesn't have to be friends with everyone they come across.
28** The intended moral of the episode "Me No Know" is to not give into peer pressure. However, considering how miserable and left out Vince felt over having not seen the movie "Nitwits 3", the aesop can unintentionally be read as: "Never do anything that happens to be popular, no matter how excluded you feel."
29** "Don't Ask Me" has Spinelli filling in for Guru Kid, and then getting in trouble with the other kids when she gives bad advice, with Guru Kid saving the day by pointing out that none of them actually had to listen to her advice. But since Spinelli actually did give some good advice at first, and didn't come out with bad advice until all the kids started demanding it of her, the lesson could be interpreted as 'no one is right all the time', or if you start expecting one person to be your source of advice as opposed to thinking for yourself as well, you're going to get disappointed eventually.
30** "More Like Gretchen" has AnAesop for the Spinelli parents on how it's wrong to compare your child to someone else. One could also interpret a lesson on how, if her parents wanted her to be more polite in public, there are healthier ways to encourage her improvement. Or, since Gretchen only tagged along because Flo was trying to force her daughter into another 'be more feminine' outing, one could interpret a lesson on 'don't be surprised when your child doesn't like being forced into something'.
31* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
32** Is Randall friendless because he's a snitch, [[IJustWantToHaveFriends or is he a snitch because he doesn't have friends]]?
33** Miss Grotke's rather grudging tone with having to send Spinelli to the principal's office for saying 'whomped' in "The Story of Whomps". Was it because she was against treating whomps as profane, like the students? Or being the HippyTeacher that she is, just simply didn't like having to discipline her students? Or both? She didn't like disciplining her students because she felt the word was harmless and brought in a SurpriseWitness to T.J.'s trial to protect him.
34** Gordy's attitude towards TJ at the end of "Nobody Doesn't Like TJ". Perhaps he did come to like TJ after all and is just enjoying {{Troll}}ing him over it. It could also just be some BrutalHonesty from him [[TookALevelInKindness when he has in fact softened up towards T.J compared to how he felt at the beginning]]. Another possibility for either is that if there ''was'' a reason Gordy originally had, it might not even exist anymore thanks to TJ's efforts.
35** Is Spinelli a transgender boy (or genderfluid)? While she's meant to be painted as a Tomboy, she would [[BerserkButton get offended when people call her a girl]]. On the other hand, she's still willing to wear pigtails and a dress. And could her hatred of being called a girl merely be the implication that [[RealWomenDontWearDresses she's feminine and therefore weak]]?
36** Ashley A seems to be a bit nicer than the other three - as in she gets more PetTheDog moments involving the gang - befriending Gretchen when she's kicked out, sincerely congratulating Spinelli on making it to the finals of the pageant, asking the gang for help. Most of these moments happen when her friends aren't around, so perhaps she is a good girl at heart but feels pressured to be an AlphaBitch by the others. The fact that their mothers appear to be good friends adds some possible family pressures to the equation.
37* AluminumChristmasTrees: Finster mentions that Randall was "Fingered" - specifically because everyone ratted him out. Whilst many have considered this AccidentalInnuendo and it's become a meme in of itself, [[HaveAGayOldTime Finster is actually correct in her usage]].
38* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
39** The main theme.
40** The music that plays whenever TJ has a plan.
41** Honestly, ''anytime'' Mikey sang could be considered as this, courtesy of the late great Creator/RobertGoulet.
42* BaseBreakingCharacter:
43** Gus, Spinelli, and Mikey are considered either good characters or really annoying ones. Vince and Gretchen have pretty broken bases, too. It's arguable that T.J.'s the only member of the gang without a broken base.
44** Outside the main six, Randall is either hilarious or annyoing.
45* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
46** Miss Finster's ominous deduction "The birds, they're up to something" comes out of absolutely nowhere during "Mama's Girl," is never given clarification as to why she'd think birds are planning are something and is never referenced again.
47** In "Dance Lessons", there's a scene where the fourth-grade class had just been given TheTalk, and this is never referenced again in the entire episode.
48** "Schoolworld" opens with a primitive ape smashing some rocks together before throwing one into the air, which does a MatchCut to Spinelli's football in the present; it's promptly never referred to again. Anyone who hasn't seen ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' won't understand the joke[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke that humanity's most vital achievement was the invention of football]][[/note]], and even then it's still mostly irrelevant since in the rest of the episode is a parody of the Hal 9000 subplot.
49* BizarroEpisode:
50** "Big Ol' Mikey" is pretty strange, given that the children somehow believe that Mikey will grow to fifty feet in the future - even Gretchen, the young genius, believes this.
51** "Schoolworld", given it's an [[OutOfGenreExperience oddly scifi-ish segment]] that's basically one big reference to ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''.
52* BrokenBase: ''Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street'' and ''Recess: All Growed Down''. One half of the fanbase hated them for being advertised as "new" and consisting of four segments with the only new material being linking material (though ''All Growed Down'' had the backstory segment as well), while the other half likes them and is happy about them consisting of previous segments, thanks to Disney's refusal to release proper season sets.
53* CrossesTheLineTwice:
54** "The Box" in which TJ goes mad just from being forced to stay in Ms Finster's box. He's being psychologically tortured, but that doesn't stop his MadnessMantra from being hysterical.
55--> "This old man, he played twooooooooooo. He played knick-knack on my shoooooooeee"
56** The Ashleys' jump rope chant in "Good Luck Charm"
57-->''Mink and seal and tiger and bear/Cute and cuddly? We don't care!/Snip it, cut it, make sure it's not fake/How many fur coats can we make?''
58** During "Speedy, We Hardly Knew Ye", the gang beats themselves up over feeling they did something to kill Speedy. Spinelli says "Listen, if it makes it feel better, you ''all'' killed him."
59* DesignatedHero: The kids have altruistic and well meaning views, but in the same way a child would, i.e. kids get to do whatever they want and screw the adults.
60** TJ in particular thrives on this perspective, spearheading cases such as bullying substitute teachers and trying to exploit Principal Prickly's amnesia, even when the others feel they might have crossed the line.
61** Mikey occasionally has this attitude due to his SoapboxSadie level moments. He successfully has the Kindergarten Derby abolished for example, despite most kindergarteners actually enjoying the sport, because he insists it is cruel and immoral because he humiliated himself when it was his turn. While still sad, is still extremely self serving and petty.
62* DracoInLeatherPants:
63** Spinelli gets this treatment due to her short-tempered, bad attitude towards the other kids of the Main 6. Even though in-universe her aggression sometimes goes too far, her biggest fans just view her as LittleMissBadass.
64** The faculty members such as Miss Finster and Principal Prickly are viewed by some as [[DesignatedVillain Designated Villains]] because since the kids tend to cause a lot of trouble that involves breaking the rules and damaging school property, all they are doing is just reasonably punishing the kids for their misbehavior. What's overlooked about that is when they do punish the kids they usually come off as [[SadistTeacher enjoying watching the kids suffering the punishments]], sometimes give some very harsh punishments that really tend to drive the kids over the edge such as The Box, and try to come up with cruel and unlawful plans to force change on the kids' behavior like when TJ was "randomly chosen" to be principal for a day and Prickly spent the entire segment manipulating TJ so that he would molded into Prickly's likeness.
65** Some fans see Randall as a DesignatedVillain, finding the other kids' treatment of him to be pretty unfair. While he is enforcing discipline to an extent, that doesn't mean he isn't getting some sadistic pleasure out of seeing the other kids get in trouble. Especially in certain segments where he listens in on private conversations to tattle to Miss Finster. There's also the fact that he only enforces the rules to curry favor with Miss Finster and other authorities, not for the other kids' own good.
66* EnsembleDarkhorse:
67** King Bob, for his [[LargeHam hammyness]].
68** Cornchip Girl for her [[{{UsefulNotes/Kawaisa}} cuteness]].
69** The Ashleys, Lawson, Hustler Kid, Menlo, and Butch all have pretty sizable fanbases.
70** The Pale Kids have also gained a following.
71** Sue Bob Murphy is a pretty popular character, despite being one of the lesser seen characters. Actually all of the bad kids are considered this. It's a shame that they were only beginning to get more attention right as the show was getting cancelled.
72** Miss Grotke's a bit of an EnsembleDarkHorse herself, especially among older male fans (which eventually led to her becoming a target for RuleThirtyFour), and a lot of other fans thanks to both her satirical dialogue and the fact that most of the time, she's the ''only'' main adult character who stands up for the kids.
73* FandomRivalry: With the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' fandom for a little bit. Fortunately, it didn't last long, and the fanbases are very friendly toward each other now.
74* {{Fanon}}:
75** Almost any video with the Lazy Kid will have older viewers wondering if he's a stoner.
76** As adults, Gus and Cornchip Girl will end up together. Likewise with TJ and Spinelli.
77** In works set several years in the future, Gus is often depicted as CampGay.
78* FanonDiscontinuity: Two segments that seem to show up a lot on everybody's least favorite are "Nobody Doesn't Like T.J." and "Jinxed". The former because of the AccidentalAesop that it's okay to hate somebody for no reason, and the latter because of the mean-spirited torture Gus goes through, including nearly getting arrested because he got jinxed.
79* FanNickname:
80** "The Recess Gang" for the main six kids.
81** "First Episode Ashley" for "First Name Ashley", as a number of the fandom had that episode as the first one they saw.
82* FansPreferTheNewHer: When Spinelli gets all dressed up in "The Beauty Contest", she doesn't enjoy it. But she does look ''very'' nice in her pageant gown and hair done up.
83* FoeYayShipping: T.J./Lawson is quite popular [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff amongst Japanese fans]].
84* FollowTheLeader: The success of this show lead to other "misadventures of kids in school" cartoons such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Detention}}'' (which many Recess fans consider to be a rip-off of it) and ''WesternAnimation/TheKidsFromRoom402'' (which ALSO has Andrew Lawrence in a voice role, funny enough)
85* FriendlyFandoms:
86** The show's fandom has become this with the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' fandom, after a little while of having FandomRivalry.
87** Also, the ''Recess'' fandom and the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' fandom are really friendly towards each other, part of it having to do with the creators of ''Recess'' and their writing team formerly working on ''Rugrats'' during the initial seasons before being UnCanceled.
88** ''Recess'' fans also get along very well with ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' fans, in part due to the Disney version of ''Doug'' airing right before the show on Saturday mornings in the 1990s. Even the part of the fanbase who hated the Disney version are pretty friendly with the ''Recess'' fans.
89** On a similar note, same with the ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'' fanbase (''Pepper Ann'' used to air right after the second ''Recess'' timeslot).
90[[/folder]]
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92[[folder:G-O]]
93* GeniusBonus:
94** "The Library Kid" has this gem from Gretchen: "Drive her into the [[UsefulNotes/{{Existentialism}} existentialists]]! There's Theatre/NoExit!"
95** "Gus' Last Stand" features a humorous SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome moment where Gus goes to his father for advice about how to deal with [[TheBully resident bully]] Gelman, and gets regaled with the story of Belgium attempting to stand up to Germany in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Gus assumes that it's a DavidVersusGoliath story of "Little Belgium winning over big Germany" until his father informs him how it actually turned out ("Winning? Ha! They got the stuffing kicked out of 'em!"). But he doesn't tell him the rest of the story: Belgium may not have won against Germany, but Germany's actions persuaded a far more powerful country (Britain) to enter the war against them, as they saw the invasion of a neutral country as a MoralEventHorizon. The segment ends the same way: Gus doesn't beat Gelman in a fight, but the other kids all finally stand up to Gelmen and then Gus's parents arrive to break up the fight when they realize what a danger Gelman really is.
96** The rivalry between Gus and Cornchip Girl's fathers in "The Army-Navy Game" becomes much more hilarious when you remember the intense inter-branch rivalries in the United States military. As in, every branch hates every other branch. Except the Coast Guard. They all respect the Coast Guard. (Not to mention the Coast Guard actually gets along pretty well with the Marine Corps, mostly because they both ''really'' hate the Navy.)
97* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: So does Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom. And it's still being aired in those countries (Sans Canada as of 2011, and the UK at the end of March 2013, due to their Disney Cinemagic feed going defunct).
98** In fact, Germany is the ''only'' country to give the show a full release on iTunes.
99** Over in Japan, Gretchen has a pretty big following, and T.J. is considered ''extremely'' {{Moe}}. Lawson, Butch, and Skeens are really popular over there as well.
100** Interesting case in the U.K.: The show was nominated for "Best Toon" for their first {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} Kids' Choice Awards in 2007[[note]]It didn't win - it lost to ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarepants''[[/note]]...six years after the show aired its last episode!
101* GrowingTheBeard: Season two is when the show started to get ''really'' good, with more CharacterDevelopment, the first uses of the word "whomp", and T.J.'s famous catchphrase, "tender", coming into use. "First Name Ashley", the fourth ([[TwoShorts part A]]) episode of the first season is usually seen by fans as the point where the show really cemented itself as it is.
102* HarsherInHindsight:
103** In a fantasy sequence in "Teachers Lounge", Miss Grotke's award case features an UsefulNotes/EmmyAward. In real life, ''Recess'' ''was'' nominated for two Emmys and lost. It did get a Young Artist's Award, though.
104** The episode "Bonky Fever", where Mikey's obsession with Bonky is played [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything like a drug addiction]], became this after Mikey's voice actor Jason Davis was arrested on drug charges, and even more so after his death in February 2020 of a possible heroin overdose.
105** In an OOCIsSeriousBusiness moment, Miss Finster sees that Spinelli is having trouble dealing with a crush and being a playground laughingstock. Rather than punish her for picking a flower from Prickly's garden, Miss Finster sits with Spinelli and commiserates about how tough girls like them aren't expected to have feelings, to be vulnerable. During her pep talk, she makes references to several terrible exes. Then we get to the movie, where the BigBad was one of those exes, who still held a candle for her. Miss Finster dumped Phillian Benedict because he decided to cancel recess at Third Street School, and didn't realize that he would be ''firing his girlfriend''; she still cared for him, as shown when he fell, but said she couldn't be with a man that hated recess. And yes, that sentiment sticks in the present day when she comes to stop him from cancelling summer vacation. Poor Miss Finster.
106** In "Randall's Friends", among the many lies Randall told his father about the main gang, he told him that Mikey used to be a savage bully until Randall changed him. But "All Growed Down" shows that although the cast (save Gus) doesn't remember, it was the complete opposite. In kindergarten, Randall tricked Mikey into acting like a bully cause nobody liked him until Gus told him the truth.
107* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
108** In "Nobody Doesn't Like T.J.", Miss Finster says sweetly that just because she punishes T.J. doesn't mean she dislikes him. T.J. doesn't appreciate it at the time for reasons. In the movie, she saves his life from the Bald Guy with GoodOldFisticuffs and tells him, of course, she'll protect T.J., it's her job.
109** Miss Finster and Spinelli have a great weekend together when the former is babysitting her, with Miss Finster saying they can only be friends outside of school. In a later season, Miss Finster gives Spinelli a G-rated version of TheTalk when the latter has an unwanted crush on a fifth-grader, breaking her previous rule to comfort a "tough girl" struggling with having feelings. It's a sweet moment where Finster admits that she knows exactly how Spinelli feels.
110* HilariousInHindsight:
111** In "Teacher's Lounge", Spinelli's ImagineSpot has Miss Grotke proving to be an effective boxer. The movie later reveals that Grotke is actually trained in martial arts. (Doubles as HeartwarmingInHindsight when you realize Miss Grotke is a TechnicalPacifist in the series; she claims she only practices for self-defense and discipline but came to the rescue when [[MamaBear her kids were in danger]].)
112** When you realise that Randall's voice actor later on went to voice [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII Demyx]], watching him can be quite humorous.
113* HollywoodHomely:
114** For a girl with huge glasses and an overbite, Gretchen's pretty cute. The show seems to flip flop on whether she's considered cute or not, though. The Ashleys have no problem with the idea of her joining their clique in one episode, and she gets admirers in Jeffrey and the Pale Kids.
115** T.J. has been described by the creators as a "funny-looking kid", and in one episode Randall calls him "ugly". He's not really that funny-looking and not ugly at all.
116* HollywoodPudgy: In "The Ratings Game", a bunch of tall and skinny 5th-6th grade girls make fun of Gretchen for being chubby. Which is hilarious, considering that she's the [[HollywoodThin skinniest character]] (to the point where she looks possibly underweight) on the show.
117* HumorDissonance:
118** A lot of Randall's jokes in "Stand-Up Randall."
119** Likewise there's the movie quotes in "Me No Know". Part of this seems to be justified by the movie being a fad of the week that stops being funny very quickly.
120* ItsPopularNowItSucks: In the late '90s/early '00s, it gained a bit of this opinion from people who were sick of the show having unannounced marathons, pre-empting other shows they wanted to see, and/or seeing the show being advertised so much. This backed down years later.
121* JerkassWoobie:
122** Spinelli it has to be said. She may be foul-mouthed and often a bad friend, despite her best intentions, but she has to deal with parents who very openly wish she was more feminine and outwardly compare her to a friend. Not to mention how they embarrass her so much she doesn't want her friends to meet them.
123** Ms Finster has a few moments that imply this, SternTeacher though she may be. In "That Sinking Feeling", she sympathises with Spinelli on how "women of power like us" aren't supposed to have feelings or fall in love, and relates a story on how a past lover left her "in Paris with no money and a broken axel on the VW". TheMovie likewise shows her past relationship with Phil Benedict ending because of their differing beliefs. "Weekend At Muriel's" also implies that she has to play the disciplinarian in order to maintain her authority over the children.
124* LGBTFanbase:
125** Spinelli and the Ashleys are popular amongst lesbian and bisexual women.
126** Mikey's effeminate nature makes him popular amongst gay and bisexual men who pin him as AmbiguouslyGay.
127* LoveToHate:
128** The Ashleys in the same vein as The Plastics from ''Film/MeanGirls''.
129** Randall as well sometimes.
130* MagicFranchiseWord:
131** Whomps
132** SCANDALOUS!
133* MemeticBadass: Miss Grotke and King Bob. The movie seemed to run with the former, by having Miss Grotke revealed as a trained martial artist.
134* MemeticMutation: This show is extremely well loved on Website/{{Tumblr}}.
135** This meme whomps!
136** WHO THE HECK IS WHOMPY WHOMPERSON!?
137** The Otter Dance
138** Tender.
139** How deliciously moist...
140** SCANDALOUS!
141** Safety Man!!!
142** You're all a bunch of Hooligans!
143** And YOU must be B.J...
144** Miss Grotke doesn't lie. Lie is such a harsh word. She prefers to say that she "massaged reality".
145** Boys kissing girls... girls kissing boys! And you know what, YOU'RE ALL GONNA LIKE IT!
146** The Ashleys were the original/grew up to be the [[Film/MeanGirls Plastics]]
147*** This is usually followed up with Spinelli becoming Janis and Mikey becoming Damian.
148** Mikey's "Uncle Mary"
149** Almost anything that comes out of King Bob or Miss Grotke's mouth.
150** WesternAnimation/KimPossible not picking up T.J.'s baseball for him when he's in the box is a popular joke on Website/YouTube [[note]]On the episode on Website/YouTube, the scene where T.J. throws his baseball and lands outside of the box where he can't get it also had a mini WesternAnimation/KimPossible running across the screen with an advertisement showing the winners of an online contest from the U.K.'s Creator/ToonDisney (Where the episode upload came from) going across the screen[[/note]]
151** T.J. brought snapbacks back.
152** An ImageMacro of the gang in "The Coolest Heatwave Ever", usually with the caption "Ain't nobody messin' with my clique" has become popular on tumblr.
153** Spinelli's life is like a Stephen King novel.
154** "Please stop talking"
155** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxgtuVSxEN8 This video]] featuring a badly-animated {{Expy}} of Ashley A reached some degree of infamy for its EarRape audio and terrible production values.
156** Vince's older brother Chad, being called a [[Webcomic/VirginVsChad Chad]].
157* MisaimedFandom: The show has gained some infamy due to neo-nazis noticing the fact that Randal vaguely resembles a younger version of the popular "[[GreedyJew Shlomo Shekelstein the Happy Merchant]]" racist caricature, plus the fact that his full name (Randall J. Weems) can be an anagram for "A Small Jew Nerd"
158* MisaimedMerchandising: There was a ''lighter'' with the main six on it. Not something you'd buy a member of the target audience.
159* {{Moe}}:
160** Cornchip Girl.
161** The main six are all pretty adorable, but as kindergartners in ''Recess: All Growed Down'', they were downright moe.
162** Miss Grotke is a rare example of the trope who's over 18 (she's hinted to be in her 30s).
163** T.J. has his moments, and is considered very moe over in Japan.
164** Gus is one of the cutest kids among the main six.
165** When she's not threatening or attacking someone, Spinelli can pull this off.
166* MoralEventHorizon:
167** In the episode "Biggest Trouble Ever" Recess Gang accidentally break the statue of Thaddeus T. Third III, the namesake of Third Street school, thus becoming hated by the entire town and are labeled as "The Destructive Six" and are given to work menial jobs by Ms. Finster as a punishment. But it goes too far when Mayor Fitzhugh, the mayor of Third Street, and the city Council decide to send Recess Gang to six separate schools, despite the fact that Recess Gang broke the statue by accident and were genuinely remorseful. This shocks everybody and [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Prickley and Finster think that this punishment is going too far]]. Not only was it a naked ploy to exploit the current mob mentality against the kids in order to improve his re-election chances, but Mayor Fitzhugh also took sadistic pleasure in trying to punish the kids and tried to punish them after they told him that they are sorry. Luckily, Thaddeus T. Third V, grandson of Thaddeus T. Third III, called him out on this and revealed that Fitzhugh intentionally tried to break the statue when he was a child. In other words, Fitzhugh took sadistic pleasure in punishing small, defenseless children for breaking something by accident and who were genuinely sorry for it, even though he (Fitzhugh) tried to do same thing in his childhood, but intentionally. Most of antagonists in this series are jerks, but they never did anything that bad.
168** Benedict's plan, if you apply FridgeLogic to it, involved moving the sun away to have "no more summer"; would've killed all life due to extreme freezing temperatures.
169** Dr. Slicer was established as a sadistic jerk the instant he was brought onto the show, but he really crossed it when he demanded the cannon to be functional (he also planned on demolishing "Old Rusty" and building a guard tower).
170* MorePopularReplacement: When Andy Lawrence replaced Ross Malinger as T.J. in season two (well, at least after the first two episodes of the season), whom fans believe to have been an even better voice for the character. It helps that some of T.J.'s most iconic character elements – e.g. his catchphrase "Ten-der!", his invented word "whomp," his rivalry with Lawson, and his funny BookDumb moments – were only introduced when Andy Lawrence took over the role. That said, Ross Malinger had some shining moments too, such as T.J.'s SanitySlippage in "The Box" and his speech about his five best friends at the climax of "The Break-Up."
171* {{Narm}}: The Mexican Spanish dub, at least in the first seasons, since it was dubbed in Monterrey, rather than Mexico City or Cuernavaca and the [[DeepSouth Northern accents of most of the cast]] were really notable, not to mention most of the cast at the time didn't have any experience in voice acting. This is one of the main reasons why in later seasons and the direct-to-video films were dubbed in Mexico City instead.
172* NarmCharm: During "Speedy, We Hardly Knew Ye," King Bob orders his men to play "Taps" on the kazoo as Speedy is buried. It's as ridiculous as it sounds, but paired with all of the kids and adults sobbing as they are saying farewell to their class pet, it certainly brings tears to your eyes.
173* OneSceneWonder:
174** Despite appearing in one episode, Dr. Slicer is the cruelest character in the entire series and is one of few antagonists of the series that can be called truly evil.
175** Mr. E, the titular substitute teacher from "The Substitute".
176[[/folder]]
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178[[folder:P-W]]
179* PeripheryDemographic: There were ''many'' teenagers and adults (not just the parents of the target audience, but various other adults without kids) who enjoyed this show when it was on, special mention goes to TheMovie, with all the '60s references. And now that demographic is getting bigger, since the kids who originally watched the show in the late 1990s are all grown up now. ABC seemed to take a note of this. During late night news showings and more adult-oriented programming, they would often play advertisements for ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' during commercial breaks.
180* PortmanteauCoupleName: T.J./Spinelli often gets refered to as "Tinelli".
181* RainbowLens: One episode introduces Vince's older brother Chad. The younger kids remember him being cool but Chad is actually a geek. Vince refuses to see what is right in front of him. When he finally realizes that his brother is a geek, Vince fears that it is either hereditary or that he will "catch it". And one of Chad's "geek" traits is his love for Broadway show tunes.
182* ReplacementScrappy:
183** Not a character example, but fans weren't pleased with Myles Jeffery's performance as T.J. in the 2003 DTV movies, ''Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade'' and ''Recess: All Growed Down'' (except for the kindergarten flashback in the latter, which fans didn't mind), due to him lacking the spunk and having a voice too high for the character than his previous actors.
184** King Freddie II from ''Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade'' was this for King Bob fans. Though he was also this in the eyes of some of the students as well.
185* RetroactiveRecognition:
186** One of the voice actors who played Gus Griswald was Zack Shada (the first voice of Finn the Human when ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' was shown as a pilot short on Nickelodeon).
187** [[Creator/RickeyDShonCollins Vince's VA]] would go on to be [[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom Tucker Foley]].
188** Vince's nerdy, older brother Chad would go on to be [[WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger Darren Patterson]].
189** Gus's regular VA is also [[WesternAnimation/LloydInSpace Lloyd Nebulon]] and [[WesternAnimation/NightmareNed Ned Needlemeyer]].
190** Creator/AshleyJohnson, the voice of Gretchen, would go on to voice Ellie in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs''.
191** [[Creator/MayimBialik Kurst the Worst]] would go on to get a [=PHD=] and be in a relationship with [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Sheldon Cooper.]]
192** Ryan O'Donohue, Randall (And Digger Dave's) voice actor later became known for playing [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII Demyx]].
193* SeasonalRot: The sixth and final season is considered the worst of the series, with the show becoming {{Anvilicious}}.
194* ShipsThatPassInTheNight: Butch x Hustler Kid is a popular pairing among the fandom...yet the two never really interacted with each other outside of group scenes.
195* SoOkayItsAverage: General fan consensus to season six.
196* SpiritualAdaptation: A lot of people call this show ''Series/HogansHeroes: The Animated Series''. Just replace the POW Camp with an elementary school and you get the general idea.
197* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The theme is an obvious parody of the ''Series/HogansHeroes'' theme. Which, in turn, is an obvious parody of the march from ''Film/TheGreatEscape''.
198* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: When Myles Jeffrey took over the role of T.J. for the DirectToVideo movies.
199* TheyCopiedItSoItSucks: For a little while, some fan communities gave the show flack for being a rip-off of ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', when really, all they have in common were that the main kid characters were fourth-graders, many episodes were based around urban myths told by the kids, the shows had many of the same voice actors (mainly due to both using a mainly child-aged cast), and that ''Hey Arnold!'' had some of the writing team from ''Recess'' during its first year on the air (including the creators of ''Recess''). Fortunately, this backed down.
200* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:
201** The "bad kids" (Mundy, Skeens, Lazy Kid, Sue Bob Murphy, and Kurst the Worst) had a lot of potential for some good episodes, but unfortunately, they only appear as major characters in four episodes.
202** Miss Grotke also had a lot of potential, but she only got one episode in the limelight and got the least character development out of the three main adults.
203** Miss Lemon, despite being one of the more prominent adults, never had an episode focusing on her.
204** The Pale Kids as well, who only appeared in five episodes.
205** Also Becky, T.J.'s older sister who (Aside from two mentions in "Prince Randall" and "No Strings Attached") only appeared the first and second movie.
206** Some characters appeared to be prominent in season one only to be DemotedToExtra after one or two episodes. Some examples are Douglas (Randall's rival snitch), Cryer Kid, and Chucko Kowalski.
207** Despite most kids on the playground getting ADayInTheLimelight episode, Upside-down Girl never got one.
208* ToughActToFollow: [[WesternAnimation/LloydInSpace Both]] [[WesternAnimation/PoundPuppies2010 shows]] created by the show's creators had ''nowhere'' near the popularity (or publicity) as ''Recess''.
209* ToyShip:
210** [[https://recess.fandom.com/wiki/T.J._and_Spinelli%27s_relationship TJ and Spinelli]]. Her parents joked about her having a crush on him, and their kiss in "The Kiss" solidified it for some.
211** And, in one episode, [[MoeCouplet Gus/Cornchip Girl.]] The title of said episode of the Japanese dub was even renamed "Gus's Girlfriend." That being said, Cornchip Girl is a few grades younger than Gus... not that a two or three year age difference will matter much [[FanficFuel when they're older...]]
212** Vince and Gretchen get a ''lot'' of ShipTease in the show.
213** Menlo had a thing for Ashley A in the ChainOfDeals episode.
214** Gus and Gretchen are a popular ship among some fans, since they're the two {{Adorkable}} nerds of the group.
215** "Copycat Kid" has some HoYay in Mikey's hero worship of Vince, which culminates in him not only dressing and acting like Vince, but (it's implied) wearing Vince's actual underwear.
216* UglyCute: Stuart ([[spoiler:Stella]]) the cat.
217* UnintentionalUncannyValley:
218** The earliest drawing of the gang features a much more realistic style, to the point where it's unsettling.
219** The way the characters in the pilot look compared to the rest of the series are also a bit more realistic looking (Much less so than the first drawing, but still more than the finished designs), and some fans consider them to go into this.
220** Some of the early drawings (With the characters looking moreso like they do in the finished series) give T.J. much larger, wider, spherical eyes, which fans consider to be very creepy compared to the smaller (But still larger and wider than most of the other characters) semi-circular eyes he has in the show itself.
221* UnintentionallySympathetic: Vince in "Me No Know". The audience is supposed to see his deception against his parents as being too far in the name of peer pressure, yet considering how left out he felt by having not seen "Nitwits 3", it's hard to blame him for resorting to lying, especially considering that he did try to ask his parents to see the movie at first and given that their reasons for not wanting Vince to see the movie were pretty shallow and petty (his dad didn't like the lead actor in the series and both his parents were annoyed at him constantly quoting the previous movie).
222* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
223** The whole gang minus T.J. in their FeudEpisode, "The Break-Up." They shun T.J. and each other just because T.J. likes them all equally and can't bring himself to choose just one as a best friend. In the end, T.J. brings them all back together by writing an essay about how great he thinks they all are, and it's tempting to feel as if he [[EasilyForgiven forgives them too easily]] after how mean they were.
224** Gordy in "Nobody doesn't like T.J" for the simple fact that while he dislikes T.J, he never gives an ''actual'' reason - despite having several legitimate reasons to dislike T.J. While intended to show that "You won't please everyone", it instead tries to make it seem as if Gordy just dislikes T.J. for no actual reason, making Gordy come off as a JerkAss.
225** The gang in "Bonky Fever". Yes, they had a right to be concerned about Mikey's juvenile behavior and worried about him being teased for liking Bonky, but tackling him to the ground and having Miss Finster confiscate his Bonky stuff was going a bit too far. Not to mention ripping the head off someone in a Bonky suit (which turns out to be Mikey's mom) in front of a bunch of kindergarteners. And at no point in the episode does one of his friends sit down with him and have a concerned talk about WHY he's behaving like a younger kid. It takes his own mom at the end of the episode to have this talk with him.
226* ValuesDissonance:
227** The show's portrayal of the Kindergarteners as HollywoodNatives definitely wouldn't fly if this was done in a later decade (even if later episodes show that [[HiddenDepths they're more than just savage little brats]]).
228** "Big Brother Chad" and "Lord Of the Nerds" both make a big deal about a character being geeky. The former being about Vince being distraught to find out his older brother is a geek, and the latter being about TJ secretly befriending a group of them. Of course, nowadays, nerds are more widely accepted, making the moral a bit of a CaptainObviousAesop, but back in then, nerds were often targets of derision.
229** Spinelli's mother has a couple of episodes where she dislikes her daughter being a {{Tomboy}} and forces her to do things that are more feminine. With ''Film/BendItLikeBeckham'' using a similar plot and outright showing that the mother's fear was of her daughter being a lesbian, it's hard not to read Flo's behaviour as a little homophobic or even transphobic considering Spinelli hates it when people call her a girl. The dissonance comes in where she is never called out on this attitude. No other character ever steps in and tells her to let her daughter be herself.
230** Spinelli's hatred of girliness in general is a very 90s attitude - with the rise of the {{Tomboy}} in popularity and the general grunge subculture making it cool to be unfeminine while ValleyGirl girly-girls get derided for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i03Jvbxyluk focusing on shopping and makeup]] (traditionally acceptable focuses for girls). Nowadays, 3rd and 4th Wave feminists (who were growing up during this time or were young adults) defend girls dressing however they want and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwtMxxiyH4 discourage girls from thinking]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhyvKZz0-zY they need to perform a level of masculinity or femininity they're not comfortable with to be cool]].
231** In "Nobody Doesn't Like TJ", TJ gives Gordy a brownie with walnuts in it - unfortunately Gordy's allergic to walnuts. While nut allergies were indeed known in TheNineties and the TurnOfTheMillennium, the school would have had a ''lot'' more warnings about this since nut allergies can be ''quite'' sensitive.
232** "The Biggest Trouble Ever" has the main cast get in trouble for breaking a statue by accident. Here is the thing; if the statue is that fragile, why doesn't it have a railing around or a warning to not climb it? In the 2020s, the school would be more concerned about ensuring the statue is solid and stable and covering their butts in court by putting written warnings up. If any of the kids had gotten hurt, their parents could have sued the school for child endangerment rather than the other way around.
233* ValuesResonance:
234** This [[https://www.buzzfeed.com/adamdavis/recess-was-basically-the-most-progressive-cartoon?utm_term=.ifEw9nY9E#.ojWgelnea article]] showed the show's relevance to the test of time.
235** The episode "Economics of Recess" focuses on the lead character TJ using cheap labor from younger kids in order to eventually obtain all of the playground's monster sticker currency and own everything, which makes it impossible for any of the other kids to enjoy anything. At the end of the episode, TJ is persuaded to sign a contract that prevents monopolies in the schoolyard. The episode feels even more clever today, with the 2016 and 2020 Bernie Sanders campaigns calling for socialism as higher-income citizens amass more power and aren't taxed fairly, while corporations such as Apple and Amazon pay their employees poorly despite being insanely lucrative. %%NOTE FOR EDITORS: The larger perceived merits and flaws of socialism should not be discussed here, as per the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment.
236** The episode "Recess Is Canceled" focuses on how the government attempts to raise test scores by eliminating recess. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome This results in just the opposite]], [[StatusQuoIsGod necessitating the return of recess]]. Even today, whether recess is good for elementary-school children or a waste of valuable time still arouses [[BrokenBase heated debate]]. Fortunately, plenty of research shows that [[http://time.com/4982061/recess-benefits-research-debate/ at least 20 minutes of recess per day is beneficial for students, whereas kids who don't get recess are less likely to actually learn and more likely to fidget]], making this episode very much TruthInTelevision.
237** While Flo Spinelli's attempts to make her daughter less tomboyish lean toward ValuesDissonance, ''Spinelli'''s response is to TakeAThirdOption; she'll try out the activities under duress, and find her own way to approach the various challenges and hobbies. In "Dance Lessons," for example, it's shown that she and Mikey are actually the best students in the beginner's class, Mikey owing to his experience and Spinelli due to her sheer stamina and {{Determinator}} qualities. As a result, they get an amazing duo routine involving several different styles of modern dance while the Megans perform a cutesy saccharine ballet. In the beauty pageant, she takes this further by nailing most of the competition; her seemingly self-deprecating speech actually earns her the win because the judges like her honesty, and she does a karate kick with the crown and sash. There's also Muriel Finster giving her a G-rated version of TheTalk, telling Spinelli that being a tough lady doesn't mean you should feel bad for having feelings such as affection or heartbreak. In fact, you should accept those feelings even more.
238** "The Pest" Where Gretchen has to deal with the unwanted affections of a boy named Jeffrey who constantly refuses to leave her alone no matter how many times she tries to tell him to back off, that kind of creepy behavior of stalking someone and hitting on them constantly even after being told to stop has only gotten more prevalent with the rise of social media.
239* {{Woolseyism}}: In Brazil, the first names of the Ashleys (Spinelli included) were changed to Patricia, as the name in its diminutive form (Patricinha) is slang for/the most common way to refer to the kind of spoiled rich girls the Ashleys are meant to represent.
240[[/folder]]

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