Series / Meet the Browns

"The craziest family ever created by Tyler Perry." – Part of the tagline on the Seasons 1-5 Bundle DVD/Blu-Ray Pack on Amazon

Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns is an American sitcom that was created by Tyler Perry as a separate but in-universe spinoff to House of Payne, starring David and Tamela Mann as "Mr. Brown" and "Cora Simmons" respectively. The sitcom is based on two of Tyler Perry's previous works, the 2004 play and 2008 film of the same title.

The show initially revolved around Mr. Brown running a senior citizen's home in Atlanta, Georgia, with his daughter Cora, in honor of his deceased father's legacy. However, as the show progressed, the show then became revolved around Mr. Brown and Cora allowing his nephew and her cousin, Dr. William "Will" Brown (Lamman Rucker), his wife, Sasha (Denise Boutte), and their adoptive children, Brianna (Brianne Gould in Season 1, Logan Browning in Seasons 2-5) and Joaquin (Gunnar Washington), to live in the house with them, and the crazy and humorous antics they endeavor on together with various friends and neighbors. Some of these other friends and neighbors that often join in on their crazy and humorous antics include Derek (Robert Ri'chard), Ret. Marines Colonel Cleophus Jackson (Tony Vaughn) whom they just refer to as "Colonel" or "The Colonel", Edna (Juanita Jennings), Daisy La'Rue(Katherine "K" Callan) Jésus (Antonio Jaramillo), Reneé (Terri J. Vaughn), and London Sheraton (Arielle Vandenberg).

The show premiered in January of 2009 and finished its run in November of 2011 on TBS after five seasons. At the time that the show was airing on TV, it was second only to House of Payne in the largest number of episodes of an African American sitcom on the TBS network (although not the largest of any African-American sitcom at large), and was one of the the longest running African American sitcoms on TBS as well. The show is also currently syndicated through the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Network, and Amazon Prime Video's BET+ Subscription service.

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This show provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: Joaquin and Brianna's biological mother, Tanya, played by Tasha Smith; whose character is loosely based off of other similar characters played by the same actress in previous works by Tyler Perry.
• Abhorrent Admirer : Tanya to Will; she knows Will is married to Sasha but always constantly flirts with him and makes advances at him. However Will makes it known that he would find her rather unattractive anyway even if he wasn't married to Sasha.
• Acting Your Intellectual Age: Joaquin plays out this trope sometimes.
• Actor Allusion: Whenever Cora sings a Gospel solo on the show in some episodes, its almost always an allusion to Tamela Mann's real life career as a Gospel singer.
  • At the end of the episode, "Meet the Sugar Mama", Sasha's actress Denise Boutte pronounces "millions" as "MILL-ee-YONS", with heavy emphasis on the first and last syllables and on the middle "i" sound, but she does so intentionally as a pun, as an allusion to the actress who played as Claudia on the episode whose name is Christina Milian. After doing so, David Mann and Robert Ri'chard try to keep their composure, until David Mann almost starts corpsing and bursting into laughter. Denise Boutte is also seen smiling and slightly shaking her head, trying to prevent herself from actually laughing out loud as well. This blooper was never edited out of the final cut.
• Age-Gap Romance: Sasha's mother dates a man half her age in one episode. Even though she is not elderly, she is at least in her late 50's or early 60's, and her young boyfriend is only in his mid-to-late 20's.
• Ageless Birthday Episode: Edna, Mr. Brown, Cora, Joaquin, Sasha, Reggie, and Will all get their own special Birthday episodes, but their new ages are never revealed.

  • Brianna does get her own special Birthday Episode too but it is revealed that she is turning 18 in her episode.
  • Used with Forgotten Birthday and Surprise Party with Mr. Brown, Edna, Sasha, Reggie, Cora and Brianna

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Will and Sasha to Brianna and Joaquin sometimes. Mr. Brown is also this way to Cora a lot, even though she is a grown adult.
• Ambiguously Christian : Although most of the characters of the show are either professing or strongly devout Baptist Christians, a few of the characters, such as Brianna, Joaquin (although this is understandable for them because they are young adolescents and may not have strongly developed views either for or against religion themselves apart from following Christianity along with the rest of the family), Renee, Jésus, Daisy, London, and various others seem to be or are implied to be Christians, but they do not express strongly religious views. Some of them are even seen going to church, but is only because they go with their family out of obligation, and sometimes it is just for special events like funerals or weddings.
• An Aesop: Sometimes some of the characters learn different Aesop Fable-like morals and life lessons in many different episodes
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Joaquin tends to act this way towards Brianna.
• All-Loving Hero: Most often Cora, Justified because of her deep Christian beliefs. Sometimes Mr. Brown.
• Attention Whore : Tied between London Sheraton and Daisy La'Rue. Mr. Brown can also be one at times.
• Author Appeal: Tyler Perry often put many references and allusions to African-American Baptist and Pentecostal Christianity and African-American Baptist and Pentecostal Churches in the series because of his personal Baptist Christian beliefs.
• Axes at School: In the episode "Meet the Troublemaker," a school bully terrorizes one of Cora's students so much that he brings a gun to the school to threaten to murder him in Cora's class. Cora eventually calms him down and gets the bully to apologize to him but the boy who brings the gun to the school is eventually turned over to the police.
• Benevolent Boss: Sasha who is the head nurse of the local Grady Hospital on the series that Renee, Will, Derek, and Mr. Brown work at, tries to be a benevolent boss to her employees, most notably Renee, who is also her best friend.
• Best Friend: Brianna with Jamal and Simone, Mr. Brown and The Colonel and sometimes Derek, Cora with Sasha and Edna. Also, Sasha with Renee.
• Blackmail and "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Played for Laughs. Happens in a plethora of episodes but most notably with Derek and Brianna in "Meet the Fake ID."
• Big Brother Bully: Downplayed, Brianna sometimes does this to Joaquin just because she is older, but she isn't obnoxious with it.
• Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head: Mr. Brown and Edna whenever they get into an insult war. They sometimes drift off into Lame Comebacks.
• Bratty Half-Pint : Subverted, sometimes you think Joaquin will be like this, but actually turns out to be more of an Adorably Precocious Child than everyone thinks.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Brianna. And sometimes her female best friend, Simone.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Occurs in a few episodes when the characters, most often Mr. Brown, joke about something and look directly at the camera and say a joke to the audience.
• Bully Hunter and The Bully : "Meet the Bully." Episode where Joaquin has to use Mr. Brown's help to stand up to a bully from school; the bully eventually makes a Heel–Face Turn, while Mr. Brown tries to fight the bully's father and almost loses.
• Burger Fool : Brianna in the episode, "Meet the Patience."
• Butt-Monkey : Mr. Brown. Sometimes Derek, Jésus, and London Sheraton.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Lampshaded. "Meet the Deception." When Mr. Brown is harassed by an overzealous bill collector for the power company that provides the house's electricity, he ultimately fails to pay the bill and the electricity gets turned off at the end of the episode. Mr. Brown and Cora then shine dimly lit flashlights in their faces in the dark, and only the top half of their faces are illuminated.
  (After the house lights have gone out and the power is off)
  Cora & Mr. Brown both dramatically shriek in fear
  Mr. Brown: (apologetically and dramatically) Cora, I'm sorry, I forgot to pay the light bill.
  Cora: (angrily) Oh, Mr. Brown! What in the world!? How could you!?!
  (Mr. Brown then takes a flashlight that was sitting next to them on the coffee table in front of the couch that he had been playing with earlier, and shines the flashlight in his face from his chin and then shines it at Cora.)
  (Cora then takes another flashlight that was also sitting on the coffee table and shines it on her own face from her chin.)
  Mr. Brown: (playfully) Hey Cora, we look like we on those cartoons on TV where when the people be in the dark and you can only see their eyes on the Black screen.
  Cora: (angrily) That's not funny Mr. Brown!
  (Brianna and Joaquin then dramatically and suddenly appear behind the couch, also shining flashlights on their faces as well, to scare Mr. Brown and Cora.)
  Brianna & Joaquin together: BOO! (Brianna and Joaquin then both laugh)
  (Mr. Brown & Cora flinch violently and shriek in fear from being startled; Mr. Brown jumps so hard that he drops his flashlight.)
  Cora: (laughing) Okay now that was a little bit funny!
  (Cora, Joaquin, and Brianna then share one last laugh as the episode ends.)
• Camp Straight: Downplayed. Sometimes Mr. Brown and Derek.
• Cast Incest: Mr. Brown and Cora's characters are played by real life Gospel singers and husband and wife couple, David and Tamela Mann, even though they play as father and daughter in the series.
• Catchphrase: Mr. Brown's four famous catchphrases that he says in almost every episode of the show along with his malaprops are:
  • "The Devil is a Liar!"
  • "STOP BEING NASTY!"
  • "What the What!?"
  • "Same thing!/It's the same thing!"
    • (This is usually in response to when people correct him for his malaprops and/or mispronounciations and manglings of different words and phrases.)
  • Also used with Borrowed Catchphrase, because Mr. Brown says "What the what!?" so much, that even the other characters on the show who would otherwise use real swear words like "Hell" and "Damn" sometimes say "What the What!?" like Mr. Brown.
• Character Development : Brianna's character exemplifies this as she goes through the series. In Seasons 1-2, she goes through the series as a mean ass bitch, who's an overly sarcastic dumbass, and as the typical spoiled Bratty Teenage Daughter with a side of rude, cantankerous and troublesome Hormone-Addled Teenager. This is justified however because she did come from an abusive, crime-ridden family and was tossed in and out of different foster homes. Nevertheless, from Season 3 onward to the final Season 5, she grows into a more mature teenager and young adult who actually tries to be responsible and show mature love and respect to her family and friends. By Season 5, she has actually grown into a very good, model citizen teenager with a heart of gold.
  • The Colonel and Edna: Both of them start out the series as being like Dirty Old Man, Grumpy Old Man, and Mrs. Robinson-esque type characters respectively, but as the series goes on, they become much more loving, nicer, well-rounded, and complex characters and show off their heart of gold with their friends and family.
• Christmas Episode : "Meet the Christmas Spirit"
  • Used with Angel Unaware, when Joaquin meets and befriends a boy at the hospital and later finds out that the boy had died years ago.
  • Special Guest: Lavan and Cassi Davis from House of Payne guest star in this episode.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: A few of the characters from Season 1 and Season 2, most notably like the social worker lady, Carmen Martinez, who helped Will and Sasha to adopt Brianna and Joaquin in Season 1, Milo from Cora's school, and Dr. Troy.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": This happens often with Mr. Brown, Edna, and The Colonel because they are elderly.
• Cool Teacher: Cora generally tries to be a cool, lovable, and lenient teacher with her students, although she is a bit stricter with the unruly ones.

  • Bad Ass Teacher : Cora becomes this in the episode "Meet the Class" when one of the school's toughest students, Angie, gives her a run for her money through her extreme aggressiveness and manipulation.

• Convenient Miscarriage: When Sasha gets pregnant and has a miscarriage.
• Continuity Nod: In many episodes Mr. Brown, Will, Sasha, and Cora make allusions and references to older, previous works by Tyler Perry and characters from those older works, most notably like Madea, since she is one of Mr. Brown's former love–interests–turned–enemy, and Cora's biological mother.
  • Also used with Series Continuity Error in many episodes because sometimes Mr. Brown and Cora say things or have flashbacks in reference to the plots and characters of earlier plays and movies by Tyler Perry, but sometimes their statements and memories are actually canonical contradictions.
    • One example is when Mr. Brown and Cora are retelling old memories of their late father and grandfather, Pop Brown, and Cora is actually seen in the flashbacks as having a close relationship with Pop Brown as her grandfather. However, in several plays and movies by Tyler Perry concerning Cora's relationship with Mr. Brown, Cora is actually stated to have never known Mr. Brown's father personally or closely, and it is even stated in one stage play that she never met him while he was alive. In both the 2004 stage play and the 2008 movie, both of the same name, Cora's first time actually seeing her grandfather was from Mr. Brown showing her pictures of him just before his funeral.
• Contagious Laughter: In the episode "Meet the H.B.I.C.", when the Brown family accidentally thinks there is a fire in the house, they scramble around panicking and London tries to do stop, drop, and roll (even though she's not actually on fire). They find out that it was never actually a fire but just Cora's pound cake burning in the oven. A little while later after everything has calmed down, London is still rolling across the floor, doing stop-drop-and-roll. Sasha then laughs at London first (and laughs the hardest), then Cora laughs, and then Mr. Brown starts laughing and giggling at London as well until finally Mr. Brown opens up the French style backyard door in the kitchen, and tells London to keep rolling across the floor and roll outside to the backyard. Denise Boutte is laughing so hard that she can't even get back into character and the rest of the characters (David and Tamela Mann) laugh with her until the episode ends.
• Cool Old Guy: Sometimes Mr. Brown and The Colonel.
• Cool Old Lady: Edna and sometimes Daisy La'Rue
• Clothing Reflects Personality: Mr. Brown often wears vividly bright colored outfits, that are usually just exotic and brightly colored 1970's looking jumpsuits, but he wears them on purpose, despite their flamboyance and tackiness, because they represent his strange and unconventional personality.
• Cloudcuckoolander : Mr. Brown, because of his eccentric and weird behaviors, mannerisms, and his often dumb but lovable malapropisms.
• Dating Service Disaster: In the episode, "Meet your Match," Mr. Brown and Edna try to use an online dating service to help Cora find a romantic interest. This ends badly.
• Dawson Casting : Brianna's actress, Logan Browning. Logan Browning was 21 years old when she started portraying Brianna in Season 2 and her character Brianna is only between 15-16 in Season 2, and between 17-18 from Season 3 onward. By Season 5, Brianna's character who is about to graduate high school has just turned 18, and Logan Browning in real life was 23 years old by the end of Season 5.
• Deep South: The show takes place in Decatur, Georgia, which is a city in the Fulton County of Atlanta.
• Don't Split Us Up: Before their adoption is finalized, Joaquin and Brianna almost get separated from each other.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot! : Played Straight — In the episode, "Meet the Couch Potato," when Mr. Brown gets a job as the hospital janitor, he is told by his supervisor to be especially careful around a prized bust of an ancient Greek historical figure that was donated to the hospital and by no means to touch it. He is then given a large floor buffer by his supervisor to clean the hospital lobby and waiting room with, but he accidentally rams the floor buffer into the podium the bust was on and it comes crashing down, shattering on the floor. He pays Derek, his neighbor to fix it, and the bust actually gets repaired decently enough to the point where it looks like nothing happened to it, but ironically Brown's supervisor himself breaks it again.
• The Door Slams You: In one episode, Mr. Brown keeps going back and forth between the kitchen and outside into the backyard while the family is enjoying a lunch together. Brianna gets up and goes to the refrigerator next to the French doors leading to the backyard; cue Mr. Brown swinging the doors wide open (and unknowingly slamming Brianna against the side of the refrigerator) to ask Cora and Will a stupid question, and when he closes the door again, Brianna stands against the side of the refrigerator and comically falls to the floor unconscious.
• Deadpan Snarker: Often Renee, sometimes The Colonel and Edna.
• December–December Romance : Colonel Jackson and Edna fall in love and get married when they are both elderly and retired, presumed to be over the age of 70.
• Detention Episode : Mr. Brown and Darnell try to make detention fun for the students in the episode "Meet the Old Fling."
• Dirty Old Man : Downplayed; sometimes The Colonel.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Sometimes Played for Laughs or Played for Drama. It is usually Played for Laughs with Mr. Brown and Cora, and sometimes Edna and The Colonel. On the contrary, it is also usually Played For Drama when it comes to the conflicts between Will and Sasha or them and their adoptive children.
• The Ditz : Mr. Brown mostly, but sometimes London Sheraton, Simone, and Reggie.
• Drama Queen: Mr. Brown, Will, Cora, and Sasha. Sometimes Brianna and Edna.
• Election Day Episode: "Meet the Church Board;" Cora and Mr. Brown compete against each other to run for a position on their local church's laity and clergy council.
• Fat Comic Relief: Mr. Brown can be considered this sometimes. Although he is a main character, sometimes some of his actions and dialogue when he interacts with other characters on the show when he's not the main focus of the plot makes him seem and act more like the fat Butt-Monkey comic relief of the show more than a main character at times.
  • In the episode "Meet the H.B.I.C.":
    (London tries to help Mr. Brown work out and exercise one day using pilates and then proceeds to punch him in the gut a couple times while she's trying to help him exercise)
    Mr. Brown: LONDON STOP IT, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING, WHY YOU KEEP HITTING ME!?!
    (London laughs)
    London: 'Cuz you're so squishy, it's like punching a soft cuddly squishy pillow!
    (She continues to do so until Mr. Brown yells at her to stop again.)
  • Another example in that same episode:
    (Mr. Brown tries to teach Brianna and Joaquin about having a safety plan for if an emergency happens at the house and he tries to teach them stop, drop, and roll.)
    Mr. Brown: So what you need to do is if the house ever catch on fire and if you or your clothes ever catch on fire, get down on the floor or on the ground like this (he gets down on his hands and knees) and then lie down on the floor (he lies down on the ground on his stomach) and just roll over like this!
    (While he is demonstrating it with Joaquin and Brianna, Joaquin is lying on the ground down next to him trying to imitate him. However, Mr. Brown accidentally rolls over on top of Joaquin, and does so twice, not realizing he is rolling over on top of him.)
    Mr. Brown: What in the world was that big lump I just rolled over on top of? (He turns and looks over at Joaquin, down on the ground unconscious and panics) (frightened and panicked yelling): OH LORD I DONE SQUASHED JOACOMB [Joaquin] to death! Brianna! Brianna help him! Wake him up!
    (Brianna laughs as she goes over to Joaquin to shake him and wake him up.)
    (Joaquin wakes up and takes a deep breath from regaining consciousness)
    Mr. Brown: (relieved) Oh, okay never mind he good.
• Fake Relationship: In the episode: "Meet the Pretend Hubby," Edna asks Mr. Brown to pretend to be her husband when an old friendly acquaintance visits the Brown House. She and Mr. Brown try to pretend to be a happy couple until Mr. Brown has finally had enough pretending and exposes the truth.
• Flanderization: Mr. Brown initially starts off as a more reasonable and logical man at the beginning of the series, although some of his quips and mannerisms are still quite foolish and eccentric. However as the show progresses, his weird quirks and his often stupid and unwise decision-making and statements eventually becomes who he is as the main character.
• Fainting: The Colonel has a heart attack and faints during he and Edna's first wedding. This could be considered an example of Truth in Television, as although it is not always common, sometimes people do faint when they have heart attacks because of lack of blood flow to the brain.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Played Straight, Joaquin is the responsible one, Brianna is the foolish one. Sometimes this is inverted where Joaquin becomes the foolish sibling, and Brianna becomes the responsible one, but it is usually the former.
• Foreign Cuss Word: In the episode, "Meet the Seoul Sister," with The Colonel's ex-romantic interest from Seoul, South Korea.
• Friendly Enemy : Played for Laughs, Mr. Brown with Edna and Reggie. Sometimes plays into Worthy Opponent.
• Family-Friendly Stripper: Subverted in " Meet the Bump and Grind" when Derek accidentally hires a stripper for the Colonel's Bachelor Party, but she never actually does anything, as it was supposed to be a modest, Christian-themed bachelor party.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Justified and Enforced. One of Mr. Brown's catchphrases is "What the What!?" Usually in most contexts, people would say "What the Hell?!" or "What the F-Bomb!?" to express anger or displeasure or shock, but because of Mr. Brown's devout Christian faith, and because of the show being vaguely and ambiguously Christian in certain aspects, Mr. Brown usually just says "What the What!?" He says it so much that even the other characters on the show who do normally cuss with words like "Hell" and "Damn" sometimes resort to just saying "What the what?" like Mr. Brown.
• The Ghost: Pop Brown, Mr. Brown's father and Cora's grandfather who is mentioned and referred to obsessively and extensively in many anecdotes by Mr. Brown. There is a painting of him on the wall in their house.
  • Also Mr. Brown's deceased wife, who is mentioned and referenced but also dies long before the events of the show occur. However, she is not Cora's mother, as she and Mr. Brown had no children together and died never having been able to give Mr. Brown any children. Cora is the daughter of Mable "Madea" Simmons, whom Mr. Brown temporarily hooked up with on their high school prom night and had an unplanned pregnancy from.
  • Mabel "Madea" Simmons, Cora's biological mother, could be considered a ghost character as well, because she is referred and alluded to in many episodes by Mr. Brown and Cora, but is never actually seen onscreen.
• Ghost Extras : There are many of them in almost all of the episodes from Season 2 to Season 5, at the local Grady Hospital that Will and Sasha work at, and at the local high school that Cora works at. Sometimes the main characters do interact with them, but they don't have any lines of actual dialogue.
• G-Rated Drug : "Meet the Intervention": Mr. Brown becomes addicted to playing the lottery and causes the gang to have to stage an intervention.
• God Is Good: It's a partially Christian-themed show from Tyler Perry...what did you expect?
• Halloween Episode: Averted in the episode "Meet the Hero," we only know it is a Halloween episode because Brianna and Jamal sneak into a Halloween-themed costume party with Joaquin, however this is only used in the subplot of the episode. Also, the party itself is only mentioned as a "Halloween-Themed" party, hinting at the fact that it may have been in the month of October but not actually the Halloween holiday itself.
• Heel–Face Turn: Many of the troublesome and delinquent students that start off as Jerkass characters (mostly because they are hormone-addled teenagers), later become well-behaved and well-rounded students thanks to Cora being like a Mentor Archetype to them.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tanya does eventually have a slight Heel-Face Turn and does eventually apologize and reconcile with Brianna, Joaquin, Will and Sasha, and asks them to forgive her for all the trouble she caused them. She plays into the Hidden Heart of Gold trope with it, and does try to come back into their life to be a better mom, briefly before she relinquishes her ties to them so that Will and Sasha can have full custody.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Brianna to the max.
• Honorary Uncle/Cool Uncle: Mr. Brown, The Colonel, Edna, and Cora all play into this trope with the way they treat Sasha, Brianna, Joaquin, and their other younger friends and relatives who either live at or frequently visit the Brown House, like cool, honorary aunts and uncles. However when it comes to Mr. Brown and Will specifically, Mr. Brown is actually his biological uncle on his mom's side.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners : Brianna and her female best friend, Simone. Also sometimes Mr. Brown and The Colonel.
• Happily Adopted: Most of the entire series storyline from Seasons 2-5 is about Joaquin and Brianna adapting to being adopted into the abnormal Brown clan, although they are happy and satisfied with being adoptive members of the Brown Family.
• Happily Married : Will and Sasha, and Edna and the Colonel.
• Holier Than Thou : Downplayed. Although most of the characters of the show profess to be Baptist Christians, Mr. Brown and Cora Simmons are the most devout and religious of all the characters, but they do not take it to the extremes of fanaticism or obsession.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Brianna will often play into this trope when it comes to people mistreating and disrespecting her little brother, Joaquin, her adoptive parents, Will and Sasha, or Cora or Mr. Brown (especially those five characters in particular), however when the family is at home, she often acts like a Jerkass and a Lovable Alpha Bitch to the family. Can be compared to Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Hypno Fool: In the episode, "Meet the Makeover", Mr. Brown acts as a magician to put on a magic show for Joaquin and his friends after he breaks their video game console. This ends up with Joaquin and his friends using his magic tricks against him to prank him. He also tries to use hypnosis on Brianna and accidentally hypnotizes her to start acting like him whenever she hears her name or Mr. Brown's name. This causes her to start hypnotically imitating Mr. Brown's personality, signature quotes and catchphrases, and mannerisms, and she even starts dressing like him until Cora and Mr. Brown intervene to correct the hypnosis.
• Identity Amnesia: "Meet the Alter Ego", Played with Easy Amnesia, Laser-Guided Amnesia, and Split Personality. Mr. Brown slips and falls at the local hospital he works at and when he recovers from the fall, it causes him to have a temporary personality change into a smarter, more intellectual and erudite alter ego. The characters have to help him get his memories of his real personality back.
• Interrupted Intimacy: In the episdoe, "Meet the Entrepeneur," Joaquin interrupts Will and Sasha when they are trying to get into an erotic and intimate mood together, because he has a stomach-ache. Sasha responds like a nurturing, doting mom, but Will gets comically annoyed.
• Identical Grandson: Exaggerated and Played For Laughs. In one episode where Mr. Brown and Cora tell the rest of the characters who live in the Brown House about Brown's late father and Cora's grandfather, Pop Brown, David Mann plays as Mr. Brown's father in the flashbacks. See The Ghost trope section above.
• The Klutz: Mr. Brown 90% of the time, sometimes Derek, The Colonel, and Reggie.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode starts out with "Meet the X" or "Meet X" because of the series title, "Meet the Brown's".
• Informed Obscenity: In the episode "Meet the Seoul Sister", and in a few other episodes.
• Jesus Taboo : Averted, most of the main and recurring characters are professing or strongly devout Baptist Christians, so references to God and Jesus and the Bible are made sometimes, but not obsessively.
• Lighter and Softer : Meet The Brown's was one of Tyler Perry's much more softer and lighter-hearted TV series, especially compared to "House of Payne" (which even though it was a sitcom, it had a reputation for often drifting off into being a dark and edgy dramedy soap opera), "The Haves and the Have Nots", and "For Better or Worse", which feature much more Darker and Edgier content.
• Likes Older Men : Sasha's identical cousin, Dortha Jean (played by Denise Boutte) has a crush on Mr. Brown in "Meet the Country Cousin".
• The Living Dead: In the episode, "Meet the Body," one of the elderly men that Edna tries to have sex with in the Brown residence after previously going on a date with him, dies from a heart attack during their intercourse, and her and the other characters try to disguise the corpse from Mr. Brown until the coroner and paramedics come to pick up the body. Mr. Brown eventually figures out that it was a dead corpse though, and reveals that he was just playing along to make them think he was oblivious to it the whole time. The actor who was playing as the dead corpse was obviously seen changing facial expressions and breathing throughout the scenes, although he did stay very still as the other actors moved him around.
  • In another episode, Mr. Brown has an elderly lady named Mother Lane join his choir he wanted to enter into a regional church gospel choir competition. While they're rehearsing, Mother Lane sits in a nearby chair as Mr. Brown directs the choir, and she slumps her head down and dies, unbeknownst to the rest of the characters. However, the actress playing as her can be seen trying not to laugh at the other characters' reactions while she's pretending to be dead.
• Locked in a Room : Mr. Brown and Reggie get locked in the storage closet of the high school they work at with Cora in the episode, "Meet the Instigator."
• Love Triangle : Occurs in several episodes with Cora, Reggie, and Principal Gordon.
• Malaproper: This trope DEFINES Mr. Brown to the MAX! Almost every other sentence from Mr. Brown's character on the show contains at least one or two malaprops/malapropisms that usually either A. Leaves the characters confused as to what he means until they realize what he was really trying to say, or B. When another character corrects him, he retorts sarcastically by saying, "Oh, it's the same thing!"
  • An example is in the episode "Meet the Big Payoff" when Mr. Brown's cousin Clementine "Clem" Brown (played by Rodney Perry) visits, Mr. Brown confuses the word "Invest" with "Incest", and "Stocks and Bonds" with "Socks and Balls."
    Mr. Brown: You know what, Cousin Clem, I think I really want to ''incest'' with you.
    Clem: I really hope you mean "invest."
    Mr. Brown: Yeah that, same thing. But look, I have some good socks and balls that I'm willing to invest with you on too.
    Clem: You mean "stocks and bonds"?
    Mr. Brown: Yeah, same thing.
  • Another example is in "Meet the H.B.I.C."
    (Mr. Brown goes outside to the backyard to work out and exercise until he sees London working out and exercising in the backyard.)
    Mr. Brown: Uhh, London you know this is my personal space out here in the backyard to work out and get some fresh air, what you doing out here?
    London: Sorry Mr. Brown I just needed to borrow it for a while because I just wanted to come outside to get some fresh air and work on my core.
    (Mr. Brown looks around confused.)
    Mr. Brown: I thought your core [car] was parked outside.
    London: No, I'm doing pilates.
    Mr. Brown: Well I don't know about none of those foreign cars, I only do U.S.-made cars and stuff.
    London: No, Mr. Brown, I'm working on my body core doing this type of exercise called Pilates. Do you wanna join me?
    Mr. Brown: Well I guess, yeah sure, show me how to do the pilates. I usually just come out here to do push-ups and jumping jacks, and jogging in place.
    (London tries to help Mr. Brown work out using pilates and then proceeds to punch him in the gut a couple times while she's trying to help him exercise)
    Mr. Brown: LONDON, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING, WHY YOU KEEP HITTING ME!?
    (London laughs) London: 'Cuz you're so squishy, it's like punching a soft cuddly squishy pillow!
• Moral Guardians: Cora often acts this way towards the rest of the characters serving as their moral compass who tries to steer them in the right direction. But she is not always 100% holy herself.
• Minor Injury Overreaction : In the episode, "Meet the E.R.", Mr. Brown almost gets shot during a robbery at a convenience store to pick up some food, but the gunshot wound is only a small graze wound, no more than a minor skin abrasion. Nevertheless, Mr. Brown goes into a berserk fit screaming and crying from the injury as if a chunk of his leg and buttocks were blown off.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: The elderly female neighbor who keeps coming over to the Brown house because of her loneliness (she's a widow, and her kids have also all either died or moved away leaving her to live by herself) starts creeping the Brown family out as she offers to do certain chores and cook meals for them, but they eventually realize she just wanted to befriend them all along and that she wasn't as weird or creepy as they thought. In the episode "Meet the Patience."
• Mrs. Robinson: Often zig-zagged with Edna.
• Manipulative Bastard : Mr. Brown sometimes concocts plans to separate Cora from Reggie and The Colonel from Edna, but he usually ends up dramatically apologizing and finding some kind of way to make it up to them and make amends for his actions.
• Nightmare Sequence: "Meet the Nightmare," the entire episode is about Mr. Brown having a recurring nightmare about Edna, who tends to act like a frenemy archrival to him throughout the series, trying to kiss him. Plays into Catapult Nightmare, All Just a Dream, and Dream Reality Check.
• Nobody's That Dumb: Double Subverted. Mr. Brown is not always as dumb as the rest of the characters thinks he is. Sometimes he does have his moments of Too Dumb to Fool, Dumbass Has a Point, and Obfuscating Stupidity, making you think the Nobody's That Dumb trope will occur in Mr. Brown's favor, but usually this is subverted again to just show that he really is as dumb as the rest of the characters thinks he is.
  • This often causes the other characters to have I Can't Believe I'm Saying This moments with Mr. Brown
    • Cora and Mr. Brown sometimes have Nobody's That Dumb moments with Reggie. Lampshaded in one episode when Cora and Mr. Brown actually said the phrase to each other regarding Reggie.
• No Theme Tune : The series has no theme song, but does have a very short Jazz and Blues Music-sounding sting that is played at the beginning of each episode.
• Only Sane Woman : Cora, Sasha, and sometimes Edna.
• Obnoxious In-Laws : Although Cora and Reggie don't get married, Mr. Brown being Cora's father often acts rudely, selfishly, and disrespectfully towards Reggie because of his dislike of him. Mr. Brown sometimes becomes a big jerk because of it. Also, Will's mother and Mr. Brown's sister, Vera to Sasha.
• Pædo Hunt: The entire episode of "Meet the Secret" is about Joaquin's Little League baseball coach being a pedophile who tries to make manipulative advances towards the young boys on Joaquin's baseball team. He is later arrested, put in jail and charged for his crimes, despite Will, The Colonel, Mr. Brown, and Derek trying to hunt him down and beat him up, but in the episode "Meet the Great Guy" he is rushed to the hospital Will and Sasha work at, and ends up dying in Will's care. Will is later charged with wrongdoing and malpractice for it because it is believed that he allowed him to die because of his personal resentment against him, leading to a temporary suspension in the episode "Meet the Couch Potato."
• Precocious Crush: In the episode "Meet the Cougars" Brianna's friend Pablo has a crush on both Brianna and Sasha, Brianna's adoptive mother. Also a younger man named Bryce (presumed to be in his 20's or 30's) has a crush on Edna and treats her as a cougar because of the age difference.
• Platonic Life-Partners : Brianna with her best friend Jamal; can be compared to The Not-Love Interest.
  • Another example of that is Brianna and Sasha's actresses, Denise Boutte and Logan Browning. Boutte played as Sasha's adoptive mom on the show, and is supposed to be at least in her late 30's or just getting into her early 40's in age throughout the show. Browning played as Brianna who was a teenager between 15-18 throughout the show. In real life, Denise Boutte is only eight years older than Logan Browning.
    • An exception to this is Lamman Rucker who played as Sasha's husband, Brianna's adoptive father, and Mr. Brown's nephew, Will. In real life, Rucker is ten years older than Denise Boutte, and 18 years older than Logan Browning.
• Prison Episode: "Meet London and the Competition"; Mr. Brown goes to jail after a misunderstanding at the local Atlanta airport.
• Plucky Comic Relief; Renee and sometimes Mr. Brown.
• Phoneaholic Teenager: Brianna and sometimes Joaquin.
• Put on a Bus: Played Straight. Many of the minor and recurring characters on the show that started out in Seasons 1-2, disappear after Season 2 and from Season 3 onward, but what happens to them is usually briefly explained or hinted at by other main characters in an allusory dialogue with other characters.
  • Some of the characters actually do get removed from the show through Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, see info on this above.
• The Bus Came Back: Jésus, London, Daisy La'Rue, and at one point, Edna and The Colonel before they were promoted to main characters.
• Rich Bitch: Downplayed and Played for Laughs. Sometimes London Sheraton plays into this trope, because she is the daughter of a very rich CEO and business entrepreneur.
• Riches to Rags: In the episode, "Meet the Wills," London finds out her rich, CEO business entrepreneur father has lost most of his wealth through bad investments and legal penalties for fraud and white collar, financial crimes, and ergo she has to stay at the Brown House and learn how to be thrifty. She decides to do this through having a yard sale/garage sale and learning how to be "lower middle class," and also getting a job. She actually does keep her job through several episodes.
• Retroactive Recognition: Tamela Mann's Gospel and Contemporary Christian Music career was partially made famous because of the celebrity stardom she acquired from acting in different plays, movies, and TV shows by Tyler Perry.

  • This also occured with David Mann, Logan Browning, and Denise Boutte.

• Same Clothes, Different Year: Played Straight. In one episode where Mr. Brown and Cora tell the rest of the characters who live in the Brown House about Brown's late father and Cora's grandfather, Pop Brown (see The Ghost trope section above) through a series of flashbacks, Mr. Brown and Cora's younger versions are played by younger child and teen actors who wear the same types of clothes as their older canon selves would wear. This is also used with Identical Grandson.
• Saintly Church : The Church that the Brown family, particularly Cora, Mr. Brown, Edna, and The Colonel, goes to.
• Showdown at High Noon : Mr. Brown and Derek in the episode, "Meet The Other Side," when they are vying for the new Head Janitor's Assistant position at the hospital.
• Sassy Black Woman: Played Straight with Renee, Sasha, and sometimes Cora and Edna.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts : Will and Sasha, Edna and the Colonel, and Cora with Reggie.
• Some of My Best Friends Are X: Inverted version of the Black Best Friend trope. Since most of the characters are African-American, sometimes some of them will have one or two White friends or acquaintances, but its usually a one-off character who only appears in one or two episodes.
• Special Guest : Eddie Levert guest starred on the episode "Meet the Reunion" as a parodied version of himself, but his parodied version of himself was an old high school classmate of Mr. Brown. Compare to Celebrity Star.
  • Reginald Vel-Johnson, known from Family Matters, guest starred on the episode "Meet the Baby Daddy" as a gentleman claiming to be Cora's real father.
    • Jo-Marie Payton who is also known from Family Matters, also guest starred on the episode "Meet the Gold Digger," as a fellow teacher of Cora who becomes infatuated with Mr. Brown. This almost becomes a December–December Romance, but it is subverted when Cora and Edna run her away and force Mr. Brown to break up with her, erroneously thinking she was a gold digger. Ironically, she never actually was one.
  • The Neely's from the Food Network series, Down Home With The Neely's and Kim Fields from Living Single guest star in the episode "Meet the Neely's." The Neely's as themselves, and Kim Fields as the nameless director and producer for their cooking show.
  • Erik Estrada guest stars in the episode, "Meet the Mexican," as Jesus's father.
• Shared Universe: Shares their universe with House of Payne.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now? : Zig-zagged and downplayed with Brianna and Joaquin. Most notably in the episode "Meet the Matchmaker."
• Stock Sitcom Grand Finale: "Meet the Family Portrait." Parodied and Enforced because the fifth season couldn't get syndicated by TBS for a full quota of episodes like the previous Seasons 1-4. "Meet The Family Portrait." Lampshaded at the end of the episode. A few of the old characters from Seasons 1-2 come back for the finale episode. Mr. Brown tries to get the Brown family and a few of their closest friends and neighbors to take an updated family portrait together before Edna and The Colonel move away, before Sasha and Will find their own house for Brianna and Joaquin, and before Cora moves away with Reggie, but it gets messed up with everyone fighting and bickering, and comedically unfortunate circumstances.
• Sucky School : Downplayed; the high school Cora and Mr. Brown works at can be considered this sometimes, depending on what antics the students and teachers may be up to. This trope is sometimes lampshaded by the characters.
• Temporarily a Villain: Jamal, one of Brianna's best friends, becomes the misunderstood antagonist of the episode "Meet the Thief" when he is exposed as the culprit behind the recent rash of burglaries that takes place throughout the neighborhood of the Brown Family house. It is revealed later on in the episode that he was only committing the burglaries, non-violently of course, because him and his mother had lost their home and were temporarily forced to live in their family car. He makes up for his crimes by returning everything he stole and asking for everyone's help and charity to help him and his mom until they are able to get back up on their feet.
• Telethon : The episode is literally called "Meet The Telethon.
• The Tease: Edna sometimes does this to many of the men she flirts with before she actually dates and marries the Colonel.
• Three-Month-Old Newborn: When one of Brianna's pregnant friends has to rely on Mr. Brown to help deliver her baby, the baby is quite obviously older than a newborn, and looks like it is actually between 3-6 months old.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Played for Laughs. Mr. Brown, Brianna, London Sheraton, and Derek.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Subverted with Brianna. Both Played for Laughs and Played for Drama with Tanya.
• Teen Pregnancy: Subverted in one episode, Played Straight and Played for Drama in another. Subverted in the episode "Meet the Bump and Grind," when Will and Sasha mistakenly think Brianna is pregnant, and she reveals to them that she was only holding the pregnancy test they found in her room for a friend. Played Straight in the episode "Meet the Confession," when Brianna's best friend Simone actually confesses she is pregnant to the Brown Family and seeks their help during her pregnancy.
• Unequal Pairing : Cora with Principal Gordon, it almost drifts off into Sleeping with the Boss, but because of Cora's devout Christian beliefs, she doesn't take it as far as to sexual relations.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: Several throughout the series, including the one with Joaquin's pedophile baseball coach, the many episodes with Sasha and Will getting into conflicts, and the episodes dealing with Joaquin and Brianna's adoption and their estranged, abusive birth mother.
• Valentine's Day Episodes: "Meet the Not-So-Funny Valentine."
• Vitriolic Best Friends: Mr. Brown with Edna, and Reggie, and his sister Vera.
• Wedding Episode: "Meet the Big Wedding." However, Edna and the Colonel have to have two weddings because he had a heart attack and went unconscious at the first wedding. Their actual successful wedding took place in the next season after his recovery from the heart attack.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Mr. Brown sometimes has moments like these when he does something stupid or adds insult to injury while trying to be the hero whenever scandal or controversy ensues. He often has to clear his name, and undo his wrongs, in order to resolve the issues from his stupid and foolish decisions.
• You Look Familiar: A few episodes feature this trope with a handful of minor characters and one-off characters that only appear in one or two episodes. It is also lampshaded in a few episodes.
• Zany Scheme : Played for laughs; Many of the episodes revolve around Mr. Brown's elaborate schemes that usually backfire on him and he has to quickly make amends for it if he gets caught or gets into trouble, or fix it himself or with one other person's help so his schemes won't be fully exposed.