Heartwarming / Drake & Josh

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

• Every time the boys say hug me brother.
• The Heel–Face Turn of the embittered Officer Gilbert in the Christmas Special after the brothers give him a "sweet monkey" as a gift despite his repeated acts to ensure the boys will go to jail.
• This dialogue from the Pilot episode
  Josh: So... we still friends?
  Drake: Pft. Friends? No way.
  (Josh starts to walk away dejected)
  Drake: We're brothers.
• Just the fact that Drake is always 100% supportive of Josh in his science fair aspirations, despite the fact he would never have gone otherwise. While it's not without its humorous antics (such as snarking at Josh for falling out a window or accidentally magnetizing Josh's head to his own invention), he has no problem helping him in any way he can whether it be spending the weekend as his assistant for the presentation or thinking Mindy was just trying to throw him off his game by saying she loved him. That last one did ruin his Josh's relationship, but he did genuinely believe Mindy was trying to resort to dirty tactics to win. Even when he told Josh to get over losing to Mindy in "Honor Council", it was more Tough Love as her inventions are always more impressive.
• In the episode where the boys get suspicious of Megan's new boyfriend. It turns out they were right when they reveal to Megan that he was cheating on her and with another girl. After dumping him, she asks to be taken home, which they agree to do so, but not before attempting to teach the guy a lesson. Unfortunately, he knew kung fu quite well and injured the boys a good deal, leading to them having to rest, Megan making sure they're comfortable. Megan thanks Drake and Josh for what they did. Before leaving, she gives them both a kiss on the cheek.
  • And then tells them both she loves them.
  • Its also worth mentioning early on in the same episode when Josh accidentally breaks a jar and an excited Drake falls on said remain despite a lack of gore Josh shows concern saying he sees glass in drake. It’s also a bonus when Drake is not only more focused on showing Josh a new toy but anticipated he’d want one and bought another for him.
• In the episode "#1 Fan", one of Megan's friends in her campfire troop gets a crush on Drake and won't leave him alone. When she finally takes it too far, he yells at her for it and breaks her heart. Later on, when Drake is waiting to perform on the radio, he reads an apology card Wendy slipped him and feels bad about what he said, so he cancels his performance and goes back home to sing a song for her (which she'd told him earlier was her dream). When he finishes the song, she hugs him and he lets her keep the guitar pick (he gave it to her earlier and she gave it back with the card).
• When Josh and Mindy get together and then finally kiss in "Mindy's Back".
  • When Josh and Mindy get back together for good in "Really Big Shrimp".
  Josh: Wanna get back together?
  Mindy: Okay... but I get to be the girlfriend.
  • In fact, when they first become a couple, they start sneaking around because Josh is worried how Drake will react since he hates Mindy, leading to Mindy breaking up with Josh. When Drake finds out, not only does he state that he should date whoever he wants to date, regardless of what anybody else thinks, he immediately helps Josh win her back and goes on to ask Josh if he has any idea how long he's been waiting for him to get a girlfriend.
  • Add to "Really Big Shrimp", Josh showed annoyance at Mindy working at the Premiere and up-staging him as usual. When he calls her out on this, Mindy reveals she didn't take the job for money: It was to spend more time with him. When Josh quietly points out that they broke up, Mindy reveals she wished they hadn't and admits to regretting the decision seconds later.
• "Josh is Done":
  • Josh reveals that he aced his makeup exam and the teacher is so impressed that he didn't dock Josh's grade. After his Humiliation Conga that morning, it was quite a bone he deserved.
  • After Drake gets out of the chemical shower and is about to leave the classroom:
  Drake: I need you more than you need me! I need you WAY more than you need me! I'm sorry I made you late for your exam, I'm sorry I ran over your bike, and I'm sorry I'm probably the worst brother in the world, and... you're way better off without me! I just need you to understand! I just- I just... I'm sorry Josh... I'm sorry...
  • Josh refuses to go after him immediately, and we start to think he's still "done" with Drake. But then, he gets Drake into a ping-pong game at the end of the episode and the two are close again.
  • The novelization of the episode goes into detail with Josh's thought process of coming to forgive Drake after the apology, realizing that even with all the ways his life is better, he still feels a huge gap in it without Drake; he doesn't laugh nearly as much as he used to and he misses all the fun things they used to do together, like all night ping pong marathons and "Bad Movie Tuesdays". He also recalls all the time Drake's helped him out, like pretending he can play guitar to impress a girl, being his biggest supporter in the school science fairs, and the only person who will sit all the way through Josh's magic shows and wait for over two hours in line with him for a roller coaster. And it's all topped off with one very heartwarming sentence:
    Suddenly, Josh realized that the best thing that had ever happened to him was becoming Drake's stepbrother.
  • A more subtle moment here — the boys' extremely strict teacher, who had around a minute earlier said that he didn't care about his students' personal problems, asks Josh if he wants to go after Drake.
  • Josh looking on during Drake's chemical bath may count as a hint that Josh still has some hint of caring for Drake left. He could have easily focused on his own work over Drake's pain and agony if he was this "done" with him, but him looking on had to say something.
  • The kicker, for the most part, the lesson sticks. The worst thing he does after this is bribe a girl with Josh' camera to be his dance partner, which he did out of desperation since he was at risk or repeating 11th grade ^note  the fake IDs thing Josh was a reluctant accomplice and Drake still only suggested it to see Josh's favorite band not his .
• The final scene of "Really Big Shrimp" has Drake and Josh fighting over the last piece of shrimp left in their room. What makes this really heartwarming? The scene quickly changes to a scene from The Amanda Show where Drake and Josh also fight over a piece of shrimp, which was, in fact, their first scene together. It really shows how far they've come.
• Also in “Really Big Shrimp “ the scene where Mindy accidentally schedules Crazy Steve on a Monday and that’s a day that’s very bad for him with his craziness, Josh intervenes and calms him down with the song “ She’ll Be Coming round the mountain “ and he sings with him, Steve hugs him and apologizes saying while crying “ I want to stop “ and Josh reminds him to drink milk in the break room.
• Drake taking the fall for Josh at the movie theater so that Josh would keep the job he really loved.
• In the episode where Drake has to take care of a little sibling, Sammy, or be sent to Remedial English, a class that he hates, Sammy takes a liking to Josh over Drake. Drake tries to win Sammy over by taking him to magic show, but after realizing Josh really liked hanging out with Sammy, he fakes being sick and gives the tickets to Josh so he can take Sammy, fully knowing that he will be sent to Remedial English if Sammy likes Josh more. Josh sees Drake confess he was faking it to Megan, and he has a touched look on his face. The audience's "awwww" reaction sums it up quite nicely. At the end of the episode, Josh bails Drake out of Remedial English by lying about the principal wanting to see Drake.
  Drake: Why does the principal want to see me?
  Josh: [grins] He doesn't.
  Drake: [also grins] I love you!
  Josh: I know!
• In one episode, Drake goes to a lot of effort to win a guitar signed by his favorite band. Josh accidentally destroys it showing Megan how an amplifier works. Josh hides it, and then goes out and spends his LIFE'S SAVINGS on a new guitar that looks like the one Drake won, then goes to the band at one of their concerts to try to get them to sign it. Drake finds out about it and confronts Josh at the concert... But rather than being angry, he genuinely appreciates everything Josh did to replace his guitar.
  • And at the end, he gives Josh the money he earned for taking Devon's place at the concert. Josh tries to refuse, but Drake insists that just getting to play with his favorite band was enough for him and Josh deserves to take it as repayment for replacing Drake's guitar.
  • The fact that a big-time celebrity like Devon was perfectly willing to help Josh is pretty nice as well.
  Devon: You take care of this one, all right? She's special.
• "HUG ME, BROTHA!" Every. Single. Time.
• That Drake and Josh do care about Megan and vice versa. Just as Megan won't allow anyone else to hurt them, they won't allow anyone else to hurt her. They may hate her pranks, but the guys love their little sister.
• A very minor example, but in the episode "Honor Council", Megan's website is shown as part of the evidence against Josh. Among the many features displayed on the website is a link to listen to Drake's music, with her even putting "It's not bad!". For as much as she torments her older brother, she actually appreciates his music enough to spread it out through her website.
  • In that same episode, Megan decides to help Drake on his case when it looks like he will lose and be suspended. More importantly, what she digs up proves that Mindy stole Mrs. Hayfer's car because she received a "B" in her class and framed Drake for the prank.
• In "Football", where after all the attempts to make Josh cooler fail miserably, Drake's final plan of having the janitor fill in for him in the game works. Josh willingly goes in against the toughest team in the state despite being terrified of them throughout the second half. Before Josh goes out, Drake tells Josh the fact he did that shows he's pretty cool. This is only topped seconds later when Josh against all odds wins the game sending their school to the playoffs.
• The last few minutes of "Two Idiots and a Baby" are full of this.
• "The Wedding" has a small one. Drake & Josh leave the scene to use the bathroom and two cops ticket them thinking they're illegally parked. During the ticketing, one cop asks the other why he never met his wife. He quickly pegs that his friends been lying to him about being married. The cop breaks down and fesses up he's not married and just made it up out of shame the only girl he asked out laughed at him. In contrast to how most Dan Schneider shows treat awkward guys with no luck with women, the cop is sympathetic towards his friend.
• If you look closely at the Premiere's sign in "Really Big Shrimp" there is a nice send-off to Miranda Cosgrove-" Four Great Seasons- Now She's Carly"
• In "Drake & Josh Go Hollywood", Drake & Josh steal a car (that turns out to belong to Tony Hawk) while fleeing the villains. At the end when confronted with the issue, it's revealed Tony Hawk was totally cool about it after learning why they did it and admitted he would've done the same. He then lets him use the car so Drake can make his TV debut.
• In “Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh,” Drake and Josh go through a pattern of bad luck, as they already have in the show. Although they’ve had wins before, they undeniably get one of their biggest by the end of the film. After spending a majority of the show getting bad luck or tormented by Megan, the brothers believe they’re going to jail in the film after their sentencing is exposed to the foster family they’re helping. Although they’re entirely convinced they’re going to jail, the brothers still commit to following through with their promise of giving the foster family the best Christmas ever. Thus, they try to make it snow, only for it to go terribly wrong. It’s a representation that it’s ultimately the brothers’ kindness, compassion, and chemistry that helped them in the end, as they not only inspired the family to help them back, but they also inspired them to get along better as a family. Coming from a duo of brothers who were known for consistently fighting, this is a huge feat. Let’s also not ignore how much this represents the brothers’ character development, as Drake learned to be more selfless and caring towards others, and Josh learned to relax more and not give up despite how bad a situation may look. This moment also features the last and best “Hug me, brotha!” after the brothers find out they aren’t going to jail. It also happened to take place in the same spot as their first hug when Drake was horrified upon finding out their families were going to merge. Now, they really are brothers who’ve been through it all. To say Drake and Josh earned this win would be a massive understatement, and it closes the series out on a very positive and heartwarming note.
• The reveal Peck and Bell are working with Nick on planning a show revival, showing how much not only they love doing the show, but how they love each other. Unfortunately, Bell's criminal child endangerment charges in 2021 have most likely put the kibosh on that.

---