Series / The Suite Life of Zack & Cody

aka: The Suite Life

"Six thousand dollars an hour doesn't seem like much, but after a while, it starts to add up!"

— London Tipton

The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005-2008) is a Disney Channel Kid Com about a couple of twins named Zack and Cody Martin (played by twins Dylan and Cole Sprouse, respectively) who live in The Tipton, a hotel in Boston. Their divorced mom Carey is a singer at the hotel who has a secret admirer in a rather dorky janitor named Arwin. Also at the hotel are two teenage girls: London Tipton, the moronic heiress to the hotel chain, and Maddie Fitzpatrick, a candy-counter girl who struggles to make sure she completes school as well as juggling very degrading jobs. The hotel is run by Mr. Moseby, who rarely tolerates the twins' antics. It was chronologically the second series in the Disney Channel Live-Action Universe.

After the show ended in 2008, it continued with a Sequel Series called The Suite Life on Deck, putting half of the cast on a luxury liner to attend the onboard Seven Seas High School, with other original characters visiting on occasion. It also added Bailey Pickett (who basically replaced Maddie), a smart girl from a small Kansas farm often made fun of by London (and serves as Cody's Love Interest); Woody, a clumsy but well-meaning (and disgusting) classmate made fun of by everyone; and Ms. Emma Tutweiller, one of the teachers at Seven Seas High made fun of by her own students (and eventually Mr. Moseby's Love Interest). Meanwhile, reruns of the original show have popped up on Disney XD. Both series also participated in massive Crossover events with other shows on the channel: The Suite Life of Zack & Cody had That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana and On Deck had Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana. I'm in the Band also has a crossover episode with On Deck (unlike the others, this consisted of only a single episode that aired as a part of I'm In The Band only).

After 3 seasons, On Deck ended in 2011 with the twins and the rest of the Seven Seas High students celebrating their graduation. The same year, The Suite Life Movie was released as a Big Damn Movie with a surprisingly dramatic plot rooted in Science Fiction.

If the original series and the sequel are counted as a single series, it's had the longest original run of any series on the Disney Channel, at six seasons and 162 episodes total (though by sheer episode count and total number of calendar years on the air, it is surpassed only by Phineas and Ferb).

---

Examples:

Tropes in the Series

• Acquaintance Denial: In "Commercial Breaks", when the Martins are on line to audition for a Tipton commercial, and Carey recognizes the director as an ex-boyfriend.
  Carey: I can't believe it. I know that director! I once had a date with him!
  Cody: Remember to mention we're your kids.
  Carey: He hates me.
  Zack: And your name was...?
• Acquainted in Real Life: In one episode, Zack is surprised to discover that his MMORPG partner is Mr. Moseby.
• Aesop Amnesia: In order to maintain status quo, characters will forget the lessons they learned by the next episode. Zack and London in particular suffer from this. London learns to treat others better and to be less selfish only for her to retreat back to her ways in the next episode.
• Allegedly Dateless: Cody is said to be bad with girls and dating yet he's had at least two stable relationships (Barbara and Bailey) and has been flirted with and kissed by multiple girls.
• Answer Cut: This happens many times in the series. The most notable is the chain of these in "Rumors" when Maddie demands to know who started the rumor about her and Lance.
• Asian Airhead: London is the Trope Codifier and Trope Namer of Type 1 ("The Tipton"). She's played by Brenda Song, the standard girl for this role.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: London gets easily distracted by things she desires a few times, such as jewelry.
• Beauty Contest: This occurs in both of Suite Life series. Firstly in the second episode of the original series "Fairest of Them All", Cody accidentally entered a beauty pageant while dressed as a girl. Secondly in the Suite Life On Deck when Zack, Marcus, and Woody lie about a beauty pageant to meet girls. However, Moseby catches them and forces to throw a real beauty pageant as punishment as well as appointing them as judges if the contest (the latter episode doubles as a Fake–Real Turn).
• Characterization Marches On:
  • London was initially portrayed as a shallow Rich Bitch, before adopting her ditzy qualities. She also got softened to sometimes become more Innocently Insensitive than actually mean-spirited.
  • While they do have their own quirks and differences, the twins are less defined as characters in season one compared to the rest of the series. For example with Cody, his tidiness and girlish qualities wasn't a part of his character yet compared to how he'd be later on. Starting on season 2, the twins have more set and different personalities, leaning into the odd couple dynamic. They have more promient characteristics such as Zack being a slob and Cody being smart which would continue into On Deck and become defining characteristics.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: Happens a few times to the male characters across the series, such as Cody In “Risk It All” where Zack pulls down his pants in front of everyone in the studio audience and Arwin removing his own clothes, thinking that he was wearing pyjamas, (he was not) in “The Arwin Who Came To Dinner”.
• Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: Zack is the popular Kid A Nova and Cody is the unpopular dork. London and Maddie count as well since London ifs a Rich Bitch (though lovable) and Maddie is more academic oriented and less popular. London and Bailey from On Deck count too, as London is the Lovable Alpha Bitch to Bailey's sweet nerd.
• Consistent Clothing Style:
  • Cody either wears sweater vests with a shirt underneath it or polo shirts. He also is the most likely to wear shorts, especially in On Deck.
  • Zack wears patterned shirts and baggy trousers. His shirts have some symbol on them, usually an animal. He also tends to wear black, while Cody veers towards white.
  • London wears a lot of glitter and shiny outfits and usually has some sort of hair decoration and jewellery. Also, all of her shoes have heels. Her outfits in On Deck tend to be less glittery.
  • Bailey wears bright colours, especially her jeans. She also wears sandals most of the time.
  • Moseby rarely wears anything but his Tipton uniform.
  • Carey tends to wear jeans, a top and a patterned cardigan and cocktail dresses for her performances.
• City Mouse: London, who was born in and grew up in Boston.
• Crossover: That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana for the first show.
  • Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana for the second show.
  • Also the I'm in the Band episode "Weasels on Deck".
• Demoted to Extra: Since On Deck involved a small portion of the original cast being shipped off (pun unintended) to the S.S. Tipton, former main characters Maddie and Carey only appeared as guest stars and most of the recurring characters from the original show disappeared sans Kurt, Esteban, Arwin, Barbara, and Bob. In Maddie's case, however, this demotion may be justified, given the fact she was about three years older than the twins, which would make her a college student.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Cody is either as much of a troublemaker and schemer as Zack, or the more sensible one of the two. The early episodes tends towards the former, while the later episodes tends towards the latter.
  • Mr. Moseby's relationship with the twins is all over the place. He is either on decent terms with them, merely tolerates them, or can't stand them.
  • London's stupidity varies between episodes. She ranges from slightly ditzy to a full-on moron.
  • Bailey's and Cody's attractiveness to other people varies. They either are flirted with by multiple people or are considered too dorky to get dates.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The episode "Grounded On The 23rd Floor" aired as the fifth in the first season but was the first shot. As such it has several differences from the main series. Maddie has brown hair and a completely different uniform, London is far meaner and smarter than she would be in the main series, and the furniture in the Martins' suite is different. The episode also features a character called Tuck who looked as if he would have been a love interest for Maddie, but does not appear afterwards.
  • In the earliest episodes, Zack and Cody weren't very different from each other in personality, as both were roughly as mischievous as each other. However, later on (starting around late in Season 1), Cody became the more responsible (and smarter) one of the two.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Episodes with titles like "Break Up In Paris" and "The Suite Life Goes Hollywood”
• Fake Guest Star:
  • Although, he wasn't a main cast member, Adrian R'Mante (Esteban) appeared in a good majority of the original series' episodes, and qualifies for this trope.
  • Matthew Timmons (Woody), who appeared in most of On Deck, never got anything more than a guest star credit either. The odd case here is that, when Doc Shaw (Marcus) showed up midway in the second season, he automatically got star billing, even though the two play comparable roles. Timmons is, however, credited as main cast member in The Suite Life Movie.
• Flanderization:
  • London's stupidity ("Walk, chew, walk, chew... breathe!"). They also seem to have removed her VOLUME CONTROL.
  • Zack has also went from being Book Dumb to borderline Too Dumb to Live. While already not the most likeable character by the spin-off, some of Zack's actions in the movie required to jump start the plot really go above and beyond.
  • Cody's dorkiness. They turned him from a dorky kid who attended math camp, took notes on virtually everything the teacher said, and apparently took a full Advanced Placement load in high school, into an impossible genius: Various On Deck episodes reveal that he has written three cookbooks, a novel and an opera, that he has a patent, that he spent years translating ancient hieroglyphs as a personal side project, was building model molecules out of juice boxes in nursery school, and cut his own umbilical cord.
  • Maddie's rudeness to London (Perhaps the Sharpay sunk in?)
  • Arwin's living-with-his-mom-ness ("Mother! Throw me the house keys!") In one episode, this Flanderization comes to a peak when Zack and Cody get him to make the place his own after his mother moved out. Since then, this aspect of the character was dropped.
• Food Fight:
  • London's book club turns into the girls flinging food into each other.
  • Bailey does this with the girls in Cody's cooking class after they flirted with him.
  • Zack and Cody have a throw pies at each other and start a food fight in the ballroom.
• Food Slap: Happens quite a few times across both series.
  • Max dumps dessert over Zack after she finds out that Zack was asked to go out with her.
  • Cody gets drinks flunk in his face after Zack says he has a way to wake him up.
• Fiction 500: It's no secret that London, being the daughter of the Tipton hotel chain owner is insanely rich, but often times when she and the other characters refer to how rich she and her father are, often times it's portrayed in such a way that's quite fantastical and exaggerated beyond even what the richest people in the world could afford in real life. If you let her and the other characters tell it, they sometimes act as if she and her father have all the money in the world. It can be said that they have so many assets and wealthy riches to their name, that they could give away most of their money to charity and to all of their employees and still have enough leftover to be among the richest people in the world. However in some episodes, London and her father Mr. Tipton do acknowledge that there are plenty of other people who are richer than them, but regardless, they are still very lavishly and opulently rich enough to be assumed to be mega-millionaires if not actually billionaires.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: Two boys (Zack and Cody) and two girls (Maddie and London). Three each if you count the adults Carey and Moseby.
• Interclass Friendship:
  • Maddie and London are close friends, despite London being a spoiled Innocently Insensitive Valley Girl hotel heiress and Maddie being a multi-employed sarcastic candy counter girl from a poor family.
  • This also happens between London and Bailey, a small-town farm girl, in The Suite Life On Deck.
  • London is also good friends with Zack and Cody themselves (whose mother works at London's hotel as the lounge singer).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • In a subversion of the Rich Bitch trope, London gives every indication of being a genuinely good-natured person who simply doesn't understand that you're not supposed to treat people the way she does.
  • For all of his frustrations at the twins' antics, Mr. Moseby does show that he cares about them.
  • Downplayed with Maddie. She is generally a Nice Girl, but she's sarcastic, short-tempered, judgmental, bossy, and has a selfish side. Her niceness isn't an act, and she is genuinely a good-hearted person, but those negative qualities keep her from being a straight example of a Nice Girl.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Muriel often gets away with petty theft. She's also seen numerous times lounging around during work hours. Once when she interrupted a date, London asked her "Aren't you supposed to be working?" Muriel's response - "What's your point?"
  • A more extreme example would be Mr. Tipton. See Screw the Rules, I Have Money!.
  • London in "Boo You". She makes fun of Bailey's clothing and shows it off on her webshow. No punishment for international mocking whatsoever.
• Limited Social Circle: In the earlier seasons, the twins were friends with characters that weren't in the main cast, such as Max, Tapeworm and Bob. As the series went on, their friends dwindled and only interacted with recurring characters, such as Woody and Marcus.
• "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Bob, as revealed in his debut appearance.
• Malaproper: Zack is prone to this. Examples are:

You're a genius. No wonder they call you the Valaccordion.

Why don't you use your telephonesis to give him a wedgie?

(About War and Peace) Are you kidding me? This is a cinder block. That Leo Toystory was a real windbag.

• No Indoor Voice: As per Disney Channel sitcom tradition, most of the characters can get pretty shouty at times.
• No-Respect Guy: Maddie and Mr. Moseby. The latter's lack of respect even carries over to Suite Life on Deck.
• Not a Date: This happens to Zack twice in both series. First in the original series episode "French 101" where he asks Bob to help him sabotage Cody's date with a hot French girl, although Bob keeps misinterpreting that he and Zack are on a date. Second in On Deck when Zack wins a coupon to a restaurant that expires early (preventing from taking his girlfriend Maya, who is temporarily away for the weekend) and takes Woody instead, telling him that it isn't a date.
• Parental Substitute: Moseby acts as a father figure to London due to her biological parents being absent.
• Pun-Based Title: The titles of both shows, and many episodes thereof.
• Rich Bitch: When she's not sweet, London is extremely mean and nasty to most people and takes sadistic glee in hurting them. This is most evident in the Spin-Off's episode Mean Chicks when she has something done so it hurts when she insults Bailey after winning a bet. After she wins the bet she insults Bailey a million times despite it hurting her, at the beginning declaring that it's Worth It. (It's done with good intentions though, since Bailey doesn't have 1 million dollars to pay for the bet, London decides to make her pay by insulting her for one million times instead).
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Poor London. The later seasons make this a lot worse.
• Screams Like a Little Girl:
  • Moseby, when startled, which he gets quite easily.
  • Cody too, and age has not stopped this trope for him.
• Shoddy Shindig: In the episode "Not So Suite 16", Maddie's birthday party plan was scrapped because her brother needed braces, so the only people who showed up were Zack, her family, and some bingo players. London meanwhile was having a giant, elaborate party at the Tipton, which, though an enjoyable time for all of the guests, was a mess for her due to her parents fighting and the amount of party crashers.
• Spoiled Brat: London Tipton. She used to be a sweet kid, until the absence of her father among other things changed her.
• Stolen Credit Backfire:
  • The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: In "Books And Birdhouses", London steals a short story from Maddie for a class assignment and turns it in as her own. Not only does the story get London her first A, but it also leads to her getting a book deal worth a lot of money. As it turns out, neither Maddie nor London is the story's true creator; Maddie based it on a story by another writer she had subconsciously remembered. Since London took credit for the story and has more money, she is sued for plagiarism by the original author.
  • The Suite Life on Deck:
    • This trope is invoked in "Goin' Bananas". Zack copies Cody's paper and hands it in as his own. Unfortunately, he later learns that Cody always leaves a strange tangent in the middle of his essays as a trap for plagiarists like Zack, in this case a few sentences about having a debilitating fear of bananas. This results in Zack being forced to see a therapist to overcome his apparent phobia using extremely questionable techniques.
    • "Can You Dig It?": Zack accidentally finds the crown of an ancient princess and takes credit for all the years of research and translating Cody did in order to find the crown's location. This bites Zack in the ass when the princess's ghost possesses Bailey and tries to kill him for taking her crown. After being rescued, Zack gives all the credit for finding the crown to Cody, mostly to get any other potential angry spirits off his back.
• Technician vs. Performer: The brothers strengths fall this way. Cody is an excellent academic, but has poor practical ability. While Zack is the opposite, having difficulty in most of his classes, but is highly gifted when it comes to practical work. For example Cody has shown to be really bad at woodworking and have virtually no outdoor survival skills, which are both fields Zack thrives in.
• Twin Telepathy: Subverted at least twice. Once Zack claimed that Cody broke his arm and he sensed it, until Carey points out that he was the one who fell on Cody and broke it. Another time, they believe a dream about finding an Alternate Universe was caused by this, but it is revealed to the audience to have been Real After All when Carey finds a coin from the alternate reality in their jeans pocket.
  • Played straight in the movie as it's the first step to the Big Bad's evil plan.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: Zack and Cody in the A-plot; the girls in the B-plot.
• [Verb] This!: Used twice in both Suite Life series. First, Zack says "Schnitzel this" to mock Ilsa's brutal team member. Later, Bailey uses it after being embarrassed by London on her webshow ("Understand This!"), followed by smashing the camera.
• Visit by Divorced Dad: Kurt visited the twins a few times by himself in the first show and a couple of times with his ex-wife in the second.

Tropes in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody

• Abhorrent Admirer:
  • The twins have, on separate occasions, and despite their best efforts, attracted the affections of Agnes.
  • In "Bowling", Gretel, the aggressive, overly masculine German team member of the rival team has quite the hots for Esteban - much to his dismay.
• Absurdly-Long Limousine: One episode had London mentioning that she has a fleet of limousines so long that they can't turn corners. If she is traveling a route that goes around corners she needs to get out of one limo and into another.
• The Ace: Max is a great dancer, basketball player, and bass player.
• Accidental Hand-Hold: In "Kisses & Basketball", Zack and Max reach for the same slice of cake and their hands touch.
• Accidental Kiss: While the team is celebrating their victory in the episode "Bowling", Max accidentally kisses Zack. Carey does the same to Arwin at the end of the episode.
  • Also occurs in the episode "Tale of The Two Houses" when Zack and Barbara accidentally kiss in the dark mistaking each other for their respective dates.
• Accidental Pervert: In "Forever Plaid", Arwin sees that there are new holes in the wall he was repairing that weren't there before. As he's examining them, the girls in the room next door think he's a peeping tom, since Zack, Cody, and two of their friends had just been caught peeping, and poke him in the eye.
• Accidental Public Confession: In "Graduation":
  Kurt: I'm so proud of you, son.
  Zack: I...I don't know what to say.
  Kurt: You really earned this.
  Carey: Oh, you sure did. It wasn't easy for you. I mean, you almost didn't pass English.
  Zack: Oh...that's ancient history...
  Carey: Oh, but you did, and we are so proud of you!
  Zack: Stop saying that!
  Kurt: We are proud of you.
  Carey: Immensely proud!
  Kurt: This is the proudest moment of our lives!
  Zack: Except I didn't graduate, okay?!?
  [Everyone in the room gasps.]
  Moseby: There's a shock.
• An Aesop:
  • In the episode where Zack and Cody are feuding over a bike, Cody witnesses Moseby and his own brother getting into a big fight over years of angst and repressed feelings. When Zack asks why Cody is blowing up over the situation now, Cody points out that it’s because he doesn’t want to end up like the Moseby brothers and hold in his resentment for decades and ruin his relationship with his brother.
  • “Health and Fitness” delivers two valuable lessons about health. While it is indeed unhealthy to overeat and indulge in sweets, imposing a hardline ban on what you love doesn’t help either. It takes time and patience to overcome such a problem, and a little indulgence here and there is perfectly fine. Meanwhile, both London and Maddie have to learn their bodies are perfectly beautiful, and that it’s ultimately their lifestyles and choices that determine if they’re healthy or not (London’s lack of eating and Maddie’s overeating).
  • The Band competition episode: if you don't like how someone sounds as a musician, you have to be honest in a tactful way. If you lie to people in silence, it can blow up in your face.
  • The episode ("Volley Dad") where it looks like Carrey is set to marry her new boyfriend. Cody is understandably apprehensive of this, even though Zack, their friends, and even his own father like the guy. Cody’s father gently explains that as much as Carey sacrifices to make sure her children are happy, as his mother, Cody should be willing to let her be happy too if she wants to marry him.
• Aesop Amnesia: In Stalker with a Crush Agnes' first episode, she learns the lesson that you can't cling and stalk and force someone into liking you, and if she hadn't come on so strong she might've had a chance at a least a friendship with Zack or Cody. In every other appearance, she's right back to stalking and crushing, although the twins generally treat her as a somewhat creepy friend rather than someone to run away from.
• Afraid of Needles: Moseby lets everyone else in line to go before him in “Health and Fitness” to delay doing a Cholesterol test. When it’s his turn and he sees the needle, he faints.
• Amicable Exes: Zack and Cody's parents are on good terms.
• Air-Vent Passageway: A frequent component of the twins' more devious schemes.
• Aliens Speaking English: Lampshaded in "Boston Holiday" with London making a "Welcome Aliens" sign after starting to believe their existence and Maddie asking "And what if they don't speak English?". Played straight later when they actually arrive in London's room.
• All Asians Know Martial Arts: In one episode, London showed of her Karate skills and knocked out a thief.
• All Just a Dream: The events of the Wish Upon A Star crossover episode "Super Twins" was revealed to be Zack's dream.
• Alpha Bitch: London, before she became nicer and a complete idiot. Dana, the head cheerleader at Cheevers High, is perhaps a straighter example.
• Always Identical Twins: Subverted in one episode where they had a twin convention at the hotel. London hooks up with a hot guy and Maddie gets paired with his twin. To Maddie's dismay, the twins are fraternal and her date is much less hotter and a complete know-it-all.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: In "Odd Couples", when London tells Moseby she's a Merit Scholar (while she's pretending to be one to impress her date), he says "And I'm an Egyptian belly dancer named Melina". In "Boston Hoilday" this is said by the mall's security after Sanjay got caught stealing and tells her that he's a prince.
• Amateur Film-Making Plot: Maddie tries to make a drama film but when London, Moseby and Lance mess it up, she edits the footage into a comedy instead.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Carey is this to the twins sometimes. Examples include calling them "her little men" in front of their friends and telling them off in a live broadcast.
• And You Were There: "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Hotel" features a flashback with young Muriel being played by Ashley Tisdale, "Hot Peppers" De Leo played by Adrian R'Mante, De Leo's goons being played by Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse, the detective who arrested Peppers being played by Phill Lewis, London's great-grandmother who "Hot Peppers" stole money from played by Brenda Song, and the other characters involved in the flashback being played by other members of the main cast.
• Angry Chef: Chef Paolo in "Heck's Kitchen" is normally a good-natured and friendly guy, but he'll go off on a tirade if you insult his cooking in any way!
• Animal Gender-Bender: London Tipton's pet dog, Ivana, is played by a male dog.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: From the "Suite Smell of Excess":
  Cody: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
  Zack: Chihuahuas have freakishly large ears?
• Ascended Extra: Barbara Brownstein started out as an unnamed extra who would appear in Cody's academic competitions like the science fair and spelling bee. By "Ask Zack", she is Cody's girlfriend and attending their school.
• Asian and Nerdy: Barbara, Cody's girlfriend.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: A few episodes had either Zack and/or Cody in a dress. And they did look pretty convincing. This example might be considered a surprising allusion for a Disney show to a previous role played by the Sprouse twins in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things.
• Away in a Manger: The Christmas Episode featured a couple named Mary and Joseph, and Mary gave birth in the Tipton elevator on Christmas Eve. And since the show takes place in a hotel, there was "no room at the inn". Everyone noticed the coincidence and hung a lampshade on it, except for London who didn't get it.
  Cody: Isn't this weird? Mary and Joseph are traveling together...
  Zack: On Christmas Eve...
  Maddie: And there's no room for them in the inn...
  Arwin: And a child is born.
  Esteban: What a coincidence!
  London: I don't get it.
• Backing Away Slowly: In "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Hotel", as the Tipton guests and staff fight with each other over a treasure hidden in the hotel, Arwin randomly shouts "DOGS HAVE CLEANER TONGUES THAN PEOPLE!", making everyone pause for a moment and take a step away from him.
• Big "SHUT UP!": In the episode "Sleepover Suite", The twins, London, Mr. Moseby and Nia do this to the barbershop quartet Mellownotes to get them to stop singing.
• Birthday Party Goes Wrong: Maddie and London's Sweet 16 parties. London holds her Sweet 16 party six months after her sixteenth birthday on the same day as Maddie's, and steals away all of Maddie's guests by promising gift bags filled with expensive gifts like flatscreen TVs. Maddie's attempted party at a fancy restaurant is ruined because her parents shanghai her party money to get braces for her annoying younger sibling, causing it to be held at a bingo hall. At the actual parties, because of London no one comes to Maddie's except her grandmother, parents (who argue, loudly, the entire time), and Zack, while her brother mocks her, and then the party is hijacked by the bingo game for the night. On London's end she's constantly running back and forth from one side of the party to the other to spend time with her parents without any time for herself, party crashers are constantly attempting to show up, her ice sculpture makes her look fat, and she eventually gets locked out of her own party because she doesn't have an ID and there are multiple impersonators of her trying to get in, leaving her at the "venue" for Maddie's party. Thankfully both parties work out when they start to mix together, allowing everyone to have fun (and also punishing Maddie's brother when one of Maddie's friends stomps on his foot).
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In the Wish Upon A Star special episode "Super Twins", Zack and Cody see a falling star and wish for superpowers. The next morning, their wish is granted and they become superheroes. However, they realize at the end of the episode that it's too much hard work and race back in time to undo the wish.
  • While technically not a wish, the boys use a dimension-teleporter created by Arwin in "The Suite Smell of Success" to travel to a Mirror Universe where there are no rules and they are free to do whatever they want. However, they soon grow tired of it and decide that the alternate Tipton isn't the ideal place for them.
• The B Grade: In the episode where Cody is forced to take Wood Shop due to picking an elective that not even the teacher showed up to, it's revealed that he has extremely unrealistic ideas of what will happen to him if he doesn't ace every class. In a nightmare sequence he's made to be the janitor of a "Big Snooty Ivy League College" due to not acing Wood Shop. As he hysterically claims to his mom when she thinks he's putting too much pressure on himself:
  Cody: I'm not putting too much pressure on me! Harvard is putting too much pressure on me! Yale is putting too much pressure on me! Princeton! Stanford! MIT! If I don't ace Wood Shop, I'm going to end up as one of those guys who sells hot dogs and sleeps in a taxi!
• Black Widow: Miss Klotz, Moseby's predecessor as Cruise Director of the S.S. Tipton, from the episode "Let Us Entertain You":
  Carey Martin: You're a heartless woman.
  Miss Klotz: Didn't bother me when my four ex-husbands said it; doesn't bother me when you say it.
  Carey Martin: You've been divorced four times?
  Miss Klotz: Oh, no, no, widowed.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Maddie, London, and Carey in later seasons.
• Bluffing the Authorities: In "Cody Goes to Camp", when London is driving slowly with Zack, Maddie, and Muriel on the interstate, they get pulled over by a cop and is given a warning because London is still learning how to drive. But when Muriel starts driving really fast and they get pulled over by the same cop, Muriel and London makes up the excuse that Zack recently ate some bad chili cheese dogs and he needs to go to the hospital which the cop believes because this happened before.
• Book Dumb: Zack. London was this before her Flanderization into a total ditz.
• Book Ends: The first episode has Esteban swing off of a chandelier. The last episode has Arwin swing off the same chandelier.
• Born in an Elevator: The Christmas Episode.
• Bottle Episode: Most episodes from the first season never leave the Tipton. The next two seasons would avert this by having many episodes with scenes set outside the hotel, to the point of a few episodes barely being set in the hotel at all.
• Bound and Gagged: Played for laughs, Cody is tied up by the kids in the episode "Daycare."
• Brainless Beauty:
  • London is the most prominent example in the series. She's seen as very pretty by various characters, but after Flanderization starting in the second season, London becomes a full-blown Asian Airhead who took 16 years to learn her "ABDs". She gets made fun of for her ditziness a lot, especially by Maddie in the first series.
  London: Ooh, I know all about genealogy! It's when you rub the lamp and get three wishes!
  Maddie: I've met bread smarter than you.
  • London's sweet but dull-witted friend Chelsea Brimmer might be even dumber than London.
  • Lance Fishman, the lifeguard, is hunky but extremely stupid. It's actually why Maddie breaks up with him in the first episode even though she was attracted to him at first.
• Brawn Hilda: In the bowling episode. Played by Aunt Hilda.
• Broke Episode: "Poor Little Rich Girl" where London has all her belongings and room repossessed by the bank when her father invested too much money in an alleged diamond cave that didn't turn out to have any diamonds and she gets forced to move in with Maddie. Matter of fact, she's lucky to have Maddie as Maddie at first tried to lie to London she doesn't have any available rooms but Moseby rats out Maddie bragged her sister moved out some time ago.
• Broken Aesop: In one episode, Mr. Tipton's latest wife, Brandi, visits the hotel and tries play an active role in London's life, annoying her to no end. Eventually, London gets fed up with her and tells her that she isn't a parent to her, just another Trophy Wife her father will just divorce, hurting Brandi's feelings. While the two make up by the end of the episode, Brandi is never seen or mentioned again and Mr. Tipton was said to have remarried many more times.
• Broken Treasure: In one episode, London borrows and accidentally loses Maddie's grand grandmother brooch in a restaurant. Maddie is furious. Instead of searching for it, London buys a replacement brooch, "with real emeralds instead of green glass". Maddie is even angrier because "this brooch has no sentimental value". At the end of the episode, the real brooch is found by a Bag Man after London searched the restaurant trash bins (in "so last season Arturo Vitalli" clothes, no less!)
• Brought Home the Wrong Kid: Carey gives us this little anecdote.
  Carey: I was mad when you came home from the playground with the wrong twins.
  Kurt: It was an honest mistake.
  Carey: They were girls!
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In the episode, "Not So Suite 16," when Maddie finds out that London's 16th birthday party is on the same day as hers:
  Maddie: (learning London has planned to hold her own sweet-sixteen party on Maddie's sixteenth birthday) This isn't fair! Your birthday was six months ago!
  London: So? I can have my party whenever I want.
  Maddie: I seem to recall, for your actual birthday, you took a cruise around the Mediterranean. What do you call that?
  London: Tuesday.
• Butt-Monkey: Moseby. Also, Cody, thanks to Zack.
  • Maddie, at times.
• Celebrity Paradox: Maddie (played by Ashley Tisdale) auditions for the part of Sharpay in a school play based on High School Musical (who was also played by Ashley Tisdale). She claims all her friends say she looks the part, but no one else sees it.
• Character Catchphrase: London's "Yay me!" and Moseby's "Oh very well."
  • Esteban has two: "Oh, Mr. Moseby!" and "This is a disaster!"
• Christmas Episode: "Christmas at the Tipton".
• Clip Show: The final episode has the cast having flashbacks to previous episodes as they prepare for Mr. Tipton's arrival.
• Clothing Switch: After Raven has a vision of a kid in a sweater vest in danger, Zack and Cody swap clothes. They also do this in the episode "Poor Little Rich Girl" when they are unsure of their identies.
• Code Name: Zack and Cody use code names when pulling off some of their more elaborate pranks. Usually Zack picks the code names and gives Cody an embarrassing one and himself a flattering one, such as "Better Looking Twin". This does, however, lead to a Beware the Nice Ones moment in one episode. After Cody was stung on the nose by a bee, Zack gives him the code name "Red Schnoz", then asks him if he's ready. Cody glares at him and says "I'm ready, Soon-To-Be-Fat-Lip!"
• Comedic Underwear Exposure: While snooping around Jesse McCartney's room Maddie admonishes Zack for invading Jesse's personal privacy. Immediately after she pulls out his underwear and is surprised to learn he wears boxer shorts. Jesse is seen wearing boxers in the series Summerland and in the Beautiful Soul music video showing he preferred them at the time but he has since switched to tighter underwear stating on Twitter he prefers boxer briefs.
• Continuity Nod: In the episode "Hotel Inspector", Moseby is seen building a model of the Tipton in his apartment. Later in the episode "Risk It All", the same model can be seen briefly in Moseby's office.
  • Cody mentions being in a beauty Pageant in The Suite Life on Deck. That happened alllll the way back in the second episode of season 1 in the original Suite Life.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • In their review of Pride and Prejudice, London and her book club identify with Caroline Bingley and lambaste Darcy for "marrying beneath him".
  • The twins once enlisted Arwin's assistance in removing the parental controls on their mature-rated video game. Arwin did so, but also removed all of the violence and gore.
• Contrived Clumsiness: One episode entirely revolves around the Tipton hotel staff competing to be Employee of the Month and win a free trip, and start sabotaging each other, including one instance where Maddie's cart breaks spilling candy everywhere. Patrick, the hotel restaurant waiter, denies doing anything to sabotage another employee and (looking down to see where his feet (in the middle of the spilled candy) are positioned) starts stomping on the candy while screaming "NEVER!!! NEVER!!! NEVER!!!" Maddie, being one of the only sane employees, isn't fooled.
• Crappy Homemade Gift: In "Christmas At The Tipton", London pulls Maddie's name for Secret Santa. Maddie is thrilled because she's expecting something super expensive, but that's the year London decides to try making her own gift. Maddie ends up with a misshapen, ugly sweater she can't even wear, and spends the entire night trying to get rid of it, until London makes it clear that she really did try and make something for her. Maddie has a change-of-heart by the end.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: In one episode, Zack calls the school he and Cody go to and "disguises" his voice as his mom's, when it's obvious that they taped his mom's voice for this scene and he is just lipsyncing.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: London sometimes. Seriously. She works out, and turns into a volleyball fiend if sufficiently pissed off.
  • Also, if you break her purse, she will beat you up.
• Curves in All the Right Places: Parodied, in one episode, after Maddie tries to gain weight for a fashion show, another model tells her that she did not gain curves in the right places.
• Deadpan Snarker: This is a Disney Sitcom. Everyone fits this trope, but Maddie and Carey are the most prolific snarkers.
• Delivery Not Desired: Maddie writes an insulting email to Mr. Moseby to vent her frustrations about his treatment of her. London accidentally sends it, and the group tries to break into Mr. Moseby's office to delete it before he reads it. They delete the email, but Mr. Moseby has already read it on his smartphone.
• Delusions of Beauty: Downplayed with Ilsa Shickelgrubermeiger, who has a huge ugly mole on her face that she's either unaware of or thinks is a beauty mark. She's completely unaware that others find it horrifying. Moseby wonders if she even owns a mirror.
• Derailed for Details: In an episode, Maddie is directing a student film with the help of the dim lifeguard, Lance, who plays the role of the wealthy male lead.
  Maddie: Okay, Lance, remember: You're rich.
  Lance: Rich who?
  Maddie: No, I mean you have money
  Lance: So I'm rich, and my name is Rich?
  Maddie: No! No, your name isn't Rich!
  Lance: What's my name then?
  Maddie: It doesn't matter!
  Lance: Then why can't it be Rich?
• Diet Episode: "Health and Fitness" has Carey force Zack to go on a diet when she catches him eat too much sugar and Chef Paolo asks Cody to help him diet when the former's cholesterol test revealed bacon bits. London also goes on a crash diet after being fooled by a funhouse mirror.
• Disguised in Drag: Cody does this in "The Fairest of Them All" when he competes (accidentally at first and unwillingly) in a beauty pageant. Zack does this later in the episode, when Cody decides he wants to throw the competition for another beauty pageant contestant whom he had a crush on.
• Distaff Counterpart: Jessica and Janice exist as female identical twins and date Zack and Cody a few times. Though they didn't get much development until Suite Life On Deck.
  • Also Max to Zack early in Season One.
• The Ditz: London, due to Flanderization.
• Does He Have a Brother?: Maddie asks Carey and Veronica for advice on whether or not she should date her friend London's ex, and describes him as "smart, cute, and rich". Carey (who is white) asks if he has a brother, while Veronica (who is black) asks if he is a brother.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: London, who is dressed as a mermaid, is trading insults with a similarly dressed girl who tells her, "Well at least my seashells aren't fake!" Think about it and it should come to you.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Zack towards Maddie.
• Don't Explain the Joke: Max embarrassed herself repeatedly during student body presidential elections by trying to get people to laugh at her burns against Cody by explaining them.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Barbara stomping in Cody's foot violently is Played for Laughs.
• Downer Ending: "What the Hey", where Zack, Cody, and Bob, get caught by Carey and Brandi divorces Mr. Tipton after she and London make up.
• The Eeyore: Haley.
• Egg Sitting: The doll London and Maddie have to take care of for an episode.
• '80s Hair: Moseby explains the arrangement of photos on his office wall in "Risk It All":
  Moseby: And by the way, it's afro, Jheri curl, then fade.
• Election Day Episode: Zack and Cody ran against each other for student council. Cody wanted the position because he loves politics and wanted to make a difference, while Zack wanted a free trip to Washington that came with the job. After Zack teams up with London to buy the election, it becomes a contest over who can be the most showy.
• Employee of the Month: A Season 2 episode of the show involves Mr. Moseby promising a paid vacation to the winner of the Employee Of The Month award. All the employees end up creating a series of problems in a bid to impress him, leading to him calling off the competition after only a week. When he's pressured to pick a winner anyway, he ends up going for Carey, who had been taking sick leave, and therefore was the only one who didn't create any problems.
• Enfant Terrible: The kids in "Day Care".
• Even the Guys Want Him: Kurt about Carey's boyfriend Harvey in the episode “Volley Dad.”
  Cody: Are you going to let mom marry that?
  Kurt: If she doesn't, I will.
• Facepalm: Maddie did this quite a bit during her stint as producer of Yay Me!
• Fashion Hurts: London pays Maddie to break in her heels for her and Maddie complains that her feet are killing her but still wears them for the money.
• Fat and Skinny: In the later episodes, Zack is slightly shorter and chubbier than Cody, who is slightly taller and more slender
• Fate Worse than Death: From "Let Us Entertain You":
  Cody: Let's go to the Pawtucket Aquarium. I hear they just opened their Swim With the Jellyfish attraction. They won't sting you if you cover yourself in whale urine.
  Zack: I'd rather get stung!
• Feigning Intelligence: London hires Maddie to help her pull Playing Cyrano on a hot merit scholar, Trevor. The plan backfires when Maddie can't restrain herself from getting into a debate over politics with him, culminating in a Slap-Slap-Kiss. Fortunately, London seems more confused than hurt.
• Financial Test of Friendship: Mr. Tipton invests all of his money in a diamond mine that doesn't have any diamonds. When London's presidential suite and her valuable assets are seized by the bank as partial payment of the debt incurred, Maddie invites London to stay with her family. At the end of the episode, the mine yields a massive oil reserve and the Tipton fortune is restored.
• Flamboyant Gay: Maitre d' Patrick (as is the actor who plays him). This caused a hilarious reference in one later episode when Carey does a dead-on impression of him.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Carey Martin (phlegmatic), Cody Martin (melancholic), Zack Martin and London Tipton (sanguine/choleric), Maddie Fitzpatrick (choleric/sanguine), Esteban Ramirez and Arwin Hawkhouser (sanguine), and Mr. Moseby (choleric, though not always the typical sitcom caricature).
• Follow the Leader: The popularity of iCarly led to the development of London's webshow Yay Me!
• Freudian Excuse: Whenever someone calls London on her antisocial behavior, she cites her father's poor example.
• Friendlessness Insult: In "Not So Suite 16", Maddie's bratty little brother mocks her by saying she has no friends except for a "creepy dweeb" (Zack).
• "Friends" Rent Control: Played with. In the first episode, Carey mentions that she gets free room and board as part of her contract with Mr. Moseby, and even then Carey sleeps on a pull-out couch as it's a one-bedroom.
• Frustrating Lie: In "Have a Nice Trip", Zack, Cody, Maddie, and Carey are trying to expose a father and daughter con artist, Harry and Holly, who got free room service after Harry faked an injury by slipping on Zack's skateboard. While Maddie and Carey are trying to make Harry reveal he faked his injury in his room, Zack and Cody try to stall Moseby and Holly from interfering. When Moseby asks why they're standing in front of Harry's room, Zack lets Cody lie for them, but we don't hear what Cody tells them because it cuts back to Maddie and Carey trying to expose Harry. When we cut back to the twins, Cody just finished telling his lie, but not only do Moseby and Holly don't believe him, but they look absolutely bored because Cody's lie went on for too long, and Zack isn't impressed either.
  Zack: No wonder you never lie, you stink at it.
• Funny Flashback Haircut: In "The Ghost Of Suite 613", the clean-cut Mr. Moseby's flashback to his run-in with the titular ghost involves him having an Afro.
• Funny Foreigner: Esteban. And Ilsa Shickelgrubermeiger-Von Helsinger Kepelugerhoffer.
• G-Rated Drug: Medieval Magic Quest, an MMORPG to which Zack and Moseby become addicted, to the detriment of their work and social lives. They even attend a 12-step program.
• Genius Ditz: Arwin. And surprisingly, London when it comes to playing Chess.
• A Gift for Themselves: In "Christmas At The Tipton", Moseby draws his own name for Secret Santa. He buys himself an expensive watch.
• Glass-Shattering Sound: The result of London's singing lessons.
• Go-to-Sleep Ending: After finally succeeding at curing London of her insomnia, Mr. Moseby, Maddie, and Esteban all end up falling asleep on London's bed.
• Group Hug: In "Team Tipton". Maddie, Zack, Cody, Esteban and Arwin have one, mostly to give Maddie more body heat to help her thaw out from her trip to Antarctica.
  Arwin: Ooh, group hug! I love group hugs! Especially with other people! [old lady walks by]
  Maddie: Hey, lady! Come on, I could really use the heat. [lady walks away] After her! [whole hugging group walks together following the lady]
  Arwin: Wow! She's fast!
• Hair Memento: London falls in love with the heir to a rival hotel (ala Romeo and Juliet). At one point they start exchanging gifts, and Maddie suggests that a lock of London's hair would be romantic. London then proceeds to rip out her hair extensions to give as the gift.
• Halloween Episode: "The Ghost of Suite 613" and "Arwinstein"
• Hammerspace: On the episode "A Nugget of History" from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Mr. Moseby's grandma, Rose Moseby, keeps an absurd amount of ridiculously random things in her large tote bag purse, including a large ship anchor key chain, a window wiper, a baseball bat, and a mini vacuum cleaner.
  • Although she is the best example, there are a few episodes where other characters like London, Mr. Moseby, and Maddie pull and use random objects conveniently out of hammerspace, such as random things pulled out from under Maddie's candy counter, under Mr. Moseby's front manager's desk and sometimes from his suit jacket blazers, or London from anywhere inside the hotel since she's the daughter of the owner.
• Handsome Lech: Kurt Martin.
• invokedHollywood Pudgy: Parodied when London and Maddie were led to believe they were too fat and too thin respectively. Brenda Song and Ashley Tisdale were quite thin at the time, but not dangerously so; London could have endangered her health with a crash diet and compulsive exercise, while Maddie had no reason to binge and could have set herself on the path to obesity. Fortunately, Moseby talked some sense into them, telling them what anyone who isn't brainwashed by this trope (and its inverse) already knew: they're both gorgeous and don't need other people to tell them what to look like.
• Holding Both Sides of the Conversation: Attempted in "Grounded on the 23rd Floor", where Cody has to convince Maddie they're both in the bathroom while Zack sneaks off. She doesn't buy it.
• Homage: In "Odd Couples" Cody moves into the closet in their suite. Later on there is a scene where there is a ton of people in there, this scene's blocking is copied almost exactly from a scene the Marx Brother's film "A Night at the Opera."
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Most of the young cast.
• Hotel Hellions: Provides the page picture.
• Humiliating Wager: The twins enter a bet at the local supermarket they work at against a rival market, claiming that they were the better bag boys. Ultimately, they lose, and the twins and their boss have to work an entire shift in dresses.
• Hurt Foot Hop: In the episode "Graduation", Cody has to do this every time Barbara angrily stomps on his foot when Cody (innocently) one-ups her when comparing their academic accomplishments (ex. him winning a competition or taking more AP classes than her). When she tries to do it again near the end of the episode, she then ends up doing the hop herself because Cody was savvy enough to wear steel-toed boots.
• Hypocritical Humor: Used all the time.
• Identical Grandson: In "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Hotel," the flashback about Hot Peppers and Muriel also shows London's great-grandmother, who is also played by Brenda Song.
• Identical Twin ID Tags: In "Odd Couples", Cody tries to make one by dying his hair.
• Identical Twin Mistake: Downplayed. For the most part, the twins manage to avoid this trope, but "Poor Little Rich Girl" has them doubt their identities when they see a video of their mother getting them confused when they were newborn babies.
• Identity Breakdown: In the same episode the mom confuses the newborn twins for a moment. Zack and Cody watch the baby video where she does this and proceeds to spend the rest of the episode having a meltdown, questioning their own identities and adopting the traits of the other. They demand their mom find their birth certificates so they can prove once and for all they are who they thought they were.
• I Ate WHAT?!: Occurs where Lance, a lifeguard who enjoys anything from the water, was eating some caviar that one of London's friends gives him but when he finds out what it really was, he immediately spits it out.
• If I Were a Rich Man: Zack fantasizes about this in the aptly named episode "Aptitude Test" after they take an Inept Aptitude Test. Zack (the slacker doofus) gets the result of "millionaire". Cody (the studious dork) gets "custodial engineer". Cody's even in the fantasy to sweep up...
  • In the treasure hunt episode "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Hotel", everyone in the main cast has one. Zack imagines that he's married to Maddie and has his own private arcade, Cody imagines winning the Nobel Prize in every subject (plus baking), Maddie imagines becoming the president, Esteban imagines becoming manager of the Tipton Hotel and making London a bellhop, and London... imagines it to be just like her life is right now, as she's already filthy rich.
• Imagine the Audience Naked: Carey suggests this to Cody for his big speech, and Cody makes a sarcastic quip when Zack literally shows up in his underwear.
• Impact Silhouette: Arwinstein leaves one after Carey takes a picture of him.
• Inept Aptitude Test: In one episode, an aptitude test says that Zack will become a CEO, and that Cody will become a janitor.
• Informed Flaw: In "Rumors", Cody complains about people confusing him and Zack when in reality, not very many people confuse the two to each other, and when some people do, it's before they meet the twins together.
• Informed Poverty: Maddie constantly complains about being poor as dirt, and she is consistently referred to by other characters as being very destitute, but when you actually get to see the apartment that her family lives in, it's not bad at all. Likely supposed to be seen as poor because she's being compared to her crazy-rich friend who constantly goes on shopping sprees, while Maddie *gasps* has to work to get luxuries. However, it is mentioned her father has been unemployed for five years, and her grandmother lives with them.
• Innocent Innuendo: From the episode "The Prince & the Plunger":
  Arwin: So I was leaning over a toilet, plunging... in and out, in and out, in and out...
• Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Zack and Cody's wheelchair-bound friend Jamie. One episode, "Back in the Game" was dedicated to Zack and Cody trying to help Jamie to rediscover his love of basketball.
• Inter-Class Romance:
  • In "Maddie Checks In", Maddie falls for a rich guy and attempts to look and act rich so he will like her.
  • In another episode, "Scary Movie", London falls for a delivery boy, and seeks Maddie's counsel on how to act poor.
  • Carey once dated a billionaire and he was even going to ask for her hand in marriage. She politely declined. (in "Volley Dad")
• It's Fake Fur, It's Fine: In one episode, London, acting as an animal-loving celebrity, attracts the rage of a local animal rights group after Maddie lets it slip to a reporter that London has "fox furs" in her wardrobe. It is later revealed that it was a misunderstanding; London's furs are fake but she thinks that "faux" (which rhymes with dough) is pronounced fox.
• I Was Quite a Looker / Identical Kiosk Girl That's Not Related To Me In the Slightest: In her younger years, Muriel was played by Ashley Tisdale.
• Jerkass: A lot of one-shot characters in opposition to the main cast are this, being insulting, demeaning, or just plain rude. Zack and London also have their moments with this.
  • Sister Dominick, who is unbelievably rude and condescending bitch towards Maddie, and merely favors London for her high social class. A true classist bitch indeed.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In "Hotel Inspector", Ilsa doesn't spare Mr. Moseby a harsh word about how disorderly his hotel was at the time.
  • In "Cody goes to Camp", Moseby may be strict and intense while he's teaching London, but he's not wrong when he informs her that driving a motor vehicle is serious business. After all, it's dangerous enough driving two tons of steel and tires when you know how to do it properly.
• Jewish and Nerdy: Barbara, Cody's girlfriend.
• Kick the Dog: Zack and London do this a lot, though one of Zack's more notorious examples is when he caused a French girl that liked Cody to break up with him because he couldn't believe that a girl would like Cody voluntarily.
  • Ilsa Shickelgrubermeiger-Von Helsinger Kepelugerhoffer seems to do almost nothing but this in all three of her appearances.
• KidAnova: Zack, though to be fair, his attempts failed just as often as they succeeded.
• Kids Play Match Breaker: In "Volley Dad", Carey starts dating a fun guy named Harvey. Zack is excited at the thought of a rich new stepdad, but Cody prefers life the way it is, with him, Zack and their mom. When Maddie spills that Harvey's planning to propose, Cody tries to stop the proposal, first by inviting their dad to complicate things. When that fails, he tries to steal the engagement ring. When Kurt catches him, he talks to Cody and helps him realize that he should let her be happy with Harvey if she wants to marry him. In the end, Carey rejects Harvey's proposal because their relationship is going too fast, and she's not ready to commit like that to him.
• Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: In "Scary Movie", the twins take their dates not to see the kiddie film Doggie Came Home but the horror film Zombie Mom. Zack ends up having nightmares and sleepwalking in the hotel, stacking the lobby furniture against the door to stop the zombies.
• The Killjoy: Mr. Moseby is an uptight, control-freak, manager who can't tolerate Zack and Cody's antics.
• Kirk's Rock: Appears in a prehistoric setting when the twins travel a bit too far back in time.
• Kiss of Life:
  • In the episode "Rumors", London walks in on Maddie and London thinking they were kissing in the staff lounge, but Lance was actually teaching Maddie mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
  • When London keeps asking the employees for "help", Lance immediately starts forcefully giving her resuscitation (despite the fact that she isn't even drowning) causing her to leave in disgust. And in a Brick Joke, he does it again to Moseby seconds later.
  • A later episode has London trick Lance into kissing her this way after falling in love with him.
• Kitsch Collection: Arwin's mom's incredibly spooky collection of owl figurines.
• Lady Looks Like a Dude: A Running Gag had Moseby consistently call Max a boy.
• Landmark Declaration Gambit: In "Boston Tea Party", Zack, Cody and others at the Tipton team up to try and prevent a local historical park from being demolished. Their efforts nearly fail until Zack, inspired by a dream, proves that the tree in the park was the very tree where the Boston Tea Party had been planned, making the tree and thus the park a landmark and preventing it from being demolished.
• Lazy Alias: In one episode, Zack and Cody cut school and go to the mall where they enter a contest. Cody doesn't want to use their real names though so they come up with aliases. Cody enters under the alias "Wing Lee". What alias does Zack enter under? "Cody Martin". It actually works until their mom finds out.
• Little Boy Seeks Big Girl: Zack to Maddie. Randall as well in "Daycare".
• Little Miss Snarker: Max occasionally does this.
• Living Prop: Norman the Doorman and Irene the Concierge appear in many episodes, but are rarely seen speaking or playing any roles besides just doing their jobs in the background.
• Long Runner: By far the longest-running series in the Disney Channel Live-Action Universe by original run and episode count if both the original Suite Life of Zack & Cody and the On Deck Retool are counted as a single series. Even so, both series on their own are Long-Runners by DCLAU standards.
• Lost Voice Plot: Subplot of "Smart and Smarter".
• Mama Bear: Carey who even lampshades it in "Cody Goes to Camp":
  Carey: Esteban. Do you like nature films?
  Esteban: I love nature films.
  Carey: Did you even see the one about what a mother bear will do to protect her cubs?
• Mini-Golf Episode: Had an episode called "Miniature Golf" with Zack getting beaten at mini-golf by Ella. After asking Mr. Moseby to train him and winning the rematch, he becomes quite arrogant.
• Mirror Universe: This is the main plot of the episode "The Suite Smell of Success". Zack and Cody travel to an alternate universe where everyone is the opposite of their normal selves in some way: Mr. Moseby is a fun-loving rule-breaking cool guy; the hotel is called "The Fitzpatrick" because Maddie is the heiress instead of London; London has Maddie's former job as candy counter girl and is the smart one while Maddie is The Ditz; Carey is a famous singer and lets the boys do everything they want; Esteban is a maid; George Clooney is on the nickel; and Arwin is Carey's manager has hair wears leather and Carey has a massive crush on him instead of vice versa.
• Miserable Massage: Done intentionally in the episode "Have A Nice Trip". To prove that a guest was lying about having been hurt by Zack, the twins enlist Maddie's help as a fake hotel masseuse, who, among other things, uses burning hot rocks as part of the massage, all in an effort to make him admit his injury is fake.
• Mistaken for Gay: In ‘French 101’, Zack tries to get Bob’s help with his Zany Schemes, but Bob keeps mistaking his requests to participate as date invitations.
• Modesty Towel: Played straight when Cody spent a good part of an episode wearing a towel that reached from his ankles to his ribs. Was it a towel or a carpet?
• Naked People Trapped Outside: Zack locks Cody out of their suite while he's wearing a towel. Their mother is not amused.
• Name and Name: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
• Never Lend to a Friend: Maddie borrows money from London, and London uses this to guilt Maddie into doing things for her. In the end, Esteban and the rest of the staff take up a collection so Maddie can pay London back. This upsets London who wanted to keep power over her.
  • In another episode, "Neither a Borrower Nor a Speller Bee" Zack borrows money from another boy to play in the arcade, without any ability or intention to pay back, the boy threatens Zack into making Cody throw the spelling Bee they are both in so he can win 'or else'. Since the boy if tall and built Zack think the threat is violent, however when everything comes to light the boy reveals he wasn't going to beat him up, he was going to tell Zack's mom about the money.
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: Zack and Cody try to disguise themselves with newspapers with eyeholes, but Zack also cut a mouth hole in his to eat French fries and they are both caught by Maddie.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Dumb hotel heiress whose first name is a famous capital of an European country. Hmm. Who could that possibly be a reference to? It's even Lampshaded at one point:
  Sister Dominick: No, the spoiled hotel heiress!
  London: Is Paris Hilton in this class?
  Sister Dominick: No, I'm talking about you.
  • It's even confirmed by Paris Hilton herself.
• Nonverbal Miscommunication: Zack has to pretend to be Cody for an interview and Cody (who can't be himself due to accidentally dying his hair red and not wanting to be embarrassed) stands from behind and tries to signal Zack on what to day. It didn't go well.
  Interviewer: Who's your favorite President?
  Zack: That's easy. President Carter.
  Interviewer: Why?
  Zack: "Why?"? He uh...(Cody raises his hands up) builds...builds houses. Builds houses for (Cody puts a napkin over his head) nuns! Builds houses for nuns. Builds houses for (Cody starts walking around with back down) old people. (Cody shivers) Cold people. Builds houses for...(Cody walks around in a weird way) poor people? (Cody gives a disapproving look) Builds houses for poor people.
• Noodle Incident: London once went on a rant culminating in her mentioning locking someone on a ship headed to a South America where they'll spend the rest of their life working in Peruvian copper mines. She then mentions "what do you think happened to the guy before Moseby?"
  • A brief scene from the Suite Life Goes Hollywood
    Bud: So the fire department found the monkey in the vent?
    Cody: No, no, no. The police department found the python in the vent.
    Lou: Then who found the monkey?
    Zack: Nobody. It's still somewhere in the hotel.
• Not Me This Time: Towards the end of "The Ghost of Suite 613," Cody, Maddie, London, Esteban and Arwin explain they pranked Zack to get back at him for all the pranks he's pulled on them. London complains about a time when he sent her a fake love letter from Orlando Bloom.
  Zack: I never sent you any letter.
  (beat)
  Maddie: (cracking up) Okay, that one was me.
• The Obi-Wannabe: When Esteban unexpectedly becomes opulently wealthy, London gives him lessons how to be a snooty, condescending spendthrift. As a result, he finds himself back in the same old rut when his assets are frozen.
• Obfuscating Disability: Zack pretends to be dyslexic in one episode so his mother and teachers would get off his case about his poor grades. The ploy is short-lived, however, when Carey and the special-ed teacher get suspicious of his very quick progress in the special-ed classes and trick him into reading an essay out loud.
• Ominous Owl: Whatever you do, don't make eye contact with the owl collection.
• Only Sane Man: Moseby, Maddie, Carey and occasionally Cody trade off who gets to hold the Sanity Ball, though on occasion they manage to share it.
• Overly Long Name:
  • Madeline Margaret Genevieve Miranda Catherine Fitzpatrick, but you can call her Maddie.
  • Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramirez, who announces his full name whenever he wants to say something about himself, sort-of talking in the third person just to get away with it. It is also used for a gag when he introduces his father (who has the exact same name as him, but with Diego instead of Esteban) by full name, and then gives his mother's name: Gladys.
  • Ilsa Shickelgrubermeiger-Von Helsinger Kepelugerhoffer.
• Parent Service: Carey seems to be used this way.
  • On occasion, London (Brenda Song) and Maddie (Ashley Tisdale) fall under this trope too.
    • No kidding?
  Maddie: Ok, it's time to strip and make the bed!
  London: Well ok. (nervously begins to remove her top) If that's what poor people do...
• Parent with New Paramour: Type Two. London Tipton spends one episode trying to get along with her father's new wife, and her stepmother trying to establish a real relationship with her. She is particularly upset with how often her father really does marry, and how many stepmothers walked in and out of her life as a result.
• Parents Know Their Children: When Zack and Cody try to a thief at the hotel and crash a bar mitzvah, Carey instead of giving her sons an Unishment by grounding them to their suite, with TV, video games, and room service, she makes them spend Saturday helping her pick out outfits for next show, where tries clothes and lots of shoes much to their horror. (in "To Catch a Thief")
• Pervert Alliance: "Forever Plaid" Zack and Cody accidentally knock a hole in a wall, but then discover that the girls' soccer team is on the other side. The invite two of their friends, Bob and Warren, to partake, and make extra holes so all of them can spy on the girls. Predictably, they're caught and grounded, and Carey makes her sons write a two-thousand word apology note to the girls, each.
• Playing Cyrano: Maddie for London when she tries to date a smart guy.
• Plenty of Blondes: The series has four character in the younger generation. Two boys with shaggy blonde hair, Maddie with her wavy blonde locks, and an Asian. Their mother Carey has blonde hair in the first two seasons but dyes it brown midway through season 2.
• Poke the Poodle: In the episode "Lip Synchin' in the Rain," Maddie gets turned down for the role of Sharpay because she's "too nice"; she tries to defend her ability to be mean with, "Sometimes, when I give sandwiches to the poor, I don't cut off the crusts!"
• Polar Opposite Twins: Lazy, sloppy Zack compared to his twin neat, hardworking Cody.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: "Let Us Entertain You", the episode where Zack, Cody, and Carey have a vacation on the S.S. Tipton, essentially serves as a backdoor pilot for Suite Life On Deck. Zack even mentions wanting to live on the ship, which does happen in the second series.
• Popular Is Evil: In the pilot episode, we have the Drew Crew, which is a Gender Flip of the Alpha Bitch and her Girl Posse. They make fun of Zack and Cody, until they find out the twins live in a luxury hotel. Drew and his pals then pretend to befriend Zack and Cody so they can party at the Tipton in style.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Arwin whenever Carey kisses him.
  • A rare case of it happening to both the kissed and kisser happens in "Kisses and Basketball". In the heat of the moment after their team wins a basketball game, Max kisses Zack, and both are stunned silent afterwards.
• Prayer of Malice: In "Volley Dad", one of the nuns in Maddie's Catholic school prays that their volley ball team will viciously crush the opposing team.
  Nun: Okay, before we stomp these losers right into the ground, let us pray. Lord, please help us stomp these losers into the ground. Amen.
• Precocious Crush: The show has this with Zack over Maddie throughout the show. By On Deck, he got his kiss from her. One of the most memorable moments is in the episode "A Prom Story" where they shared a prom dance.
  • Also from On Deck, the 8-year-old prince of Linchtenstamp crushing on Maddie. He even came close to marrying her, too! On this same same episode, Zack still had feelings for Maddie, but it evolved into a Likes Older Women situation.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • Mr. Moseby in "Lost in Translation": HOW. DO YOU LOSE. A WOMAN?!
  • Cody in "Moseby's Big Brother": Don't. Touch. That. Bike.
• Put Off Their Food: In "Twins at the Tipton", Maddie and London double date with twins and Maddie goes out with the nerdy twin. He starts talking about gross trivia at the dinner table, including that it takes "3 hours for meat to move through your intestines so the bile can churn up the gastric acid." Maddie then replies that she'll have a salad.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Maddie proves that London cannot handle being the average worker. Her reward? Moseby ordering her to cleaning up all the mess London made since he cannot order her to do it. Maddie is not pleased at this.
• Reactive Continuous Scream: Happens in "Boston Holiday" when aliens arrive in London's room (proving her suspicions right) and one of them screams at the sight of the girls.
• Rearrange the Song: "Rock Star in the House" (the episode with Jesse Mc Cartney) ends with a more poppy rearrangement of the theme song, mashing it up with a version of McCartney's "Beautiful Soul".
• Recorded Audio Alibi:Parodied. Following being grounded by their mother in "Doin' Time in Suite 2330" Zack and Cody sneak out through the vents, leaving behind taped recording of them playing "Go Fish" on loop to convince her their still in their room. Said taped recording is only a few seconds long and thus amounts to same sentences being repeated over and over again for hours. Despite this it completely fools their mother.
• Recycled Soundtrack:
  • The episode "Arwinstein" uses a music cue from "Cyberchase".
  • "Cody Goes to Camp" features a music cue from "PB&J Otter".
• Remember the New Guy?: In the episode, Free Tippy, we are introduced to Henry the Tipton's horse carriage driver who is being forced to retire, despite the fact he was never seen until the episode nor was there any mention of the Tipton having a horse carriage.
• Retool: Into The Suite Life on Deck (see below). The latter may also be considered a spin-off.
• Riches to Rags: In one episode, London loses her money due to a bad investment made by her father and is kicked out of the hotel forcing her to live with Maddie and start acting like normal people. Of course, since Status Quo Is God, she regain her wealth at the end of the same episode.
• Rocky Roll Call: One episode has this exchange:
  London: Todd!
  Todd: London!
  Mr. Moseby: London!
  Ilsa: Todd!
  Maddie: Maddie!
• Running Gag: Someone always manages to save the vase in the center of the lobby when it gets knocked over. It finally gets destroyed in the final episode.
• Sadist Teacher: Sister Dominique from Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow Catholic School, who blatantly favors London, blames Maddie for London getting in trouble, and in general acts nothing like a nun should.
• Sassy Black Woman: Nia Moseby.
• "Say My Name" Trailer: Disney Channel has a whole set of these for Zack, Cody, Maddie, and London.
• Scary Black Man: Moseby is his own proprietary brand: a short, fussy, pretentious, effeminate milquetoast who nonetheless instills fear and trembling in his subordinates. Coach Little is more of a straight example.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!:
  • Many of Tipton Industries' business practices have been either implied or stated outright to be highly unethical, and at times, outright illegal. Numerous things London has said strongly imply that her father has left her with the impression that rich people are above the law.
  • Played straight with this example: When Carey was giving London singing lessons, she recommended London think of something that reminded of her of each note on the musical scale to remember them.
  Carey: La.
  London: "Law" is something you get to break if you're rich. *points to herself and mouths, "Me"*
  • Subverted with this one:
  London: Daddy says there are two things a Tipton never does: Apologize, and pay taxes.
  Chelsea: My daddy told me the same thing...the last time I visited him in prison.
  • In "I Want My Mummy", Mr. Tipton used his money to hire an over-glorified grave robber to steal archaeological artifacts from Esteban's Peruvian village and brought them to the Boston Tipton. What's really scary here is that Mr. Tipton, showing a complete lack of morals, lied to London that he was not stealing.
  Maddie: London, you can't just steal another country's cultural artifacts.
  London: Daddy didn't steal them. He bought them from a guy named Dakota Smith. He delivered them in the middle of the night, then we left really, really fast on the jet. I barely made it up the steps!
  Maddie: ...Well, as long as they weren't STOLEN!
  • There's also the "Fung Shwei" craze that London goes through in one episode. After Esteban's family accidentally drills a hole in a Tipton pipeline, she announces (happily) that they're going to bulldoze the family's house and build a resort. Esteban bursts into tears at the news.
  • London also manages to work her way into most plots that involve auditions/competitions by having flaunting her money towards the person in charge.
• Secret Santa: Maddie organizes the Tipton staff Secret Santa and makes sure that London picks her name, hoping for an expensive gift.
• Security Cling: In an episode, Cody gets frightened in a supposedly haunted room and leaps into Maddie's arms. Maddie promptly drops him. When he tries it again with London later, she doesn't even try to catch him.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Cody plays the former and Zack the latter each to perfection.
• Show Within a Show: Yay Me! starring London Tipton, a webshow within a show.
  • There is also the commercial for the Tipton in "Let us Entertain You", plus there's an episode called "Commercial Breaks" that centers around a casting for commercial being film in the hotel.
• Shown Their Work: Zack's technique in drawing in clientele when they open a club is actually a common tactic in nightclubs as they thrive on young single women.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: In the episode "Sleepover Suite", Zack gives one of these to Stacy's friend Betsy, inducing Post-Kiss Catatonia to keep her from revealing to London what they've really been up to in her suite. He attempts this again with another of Stacy's friends, which earns him a slap from her and from Betsy for two-timing her.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: Zack is a few minutes older than Cody and will never ever let him live it down.
• Sick Episode: The episode "Nurse Zack" where Carey and Cody fall ill and Zack has to take care of them.
• Silent Bob: Norman the Doorman. The number of times that he talks can be counted on two fingers. He says "Thank you boys!" in one episode and "Doors without doormen hurt people!" in another.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Interestingly, in a case of Early-Installment Weirdness, the pilot positions Maddie and London as this for each other, since their relationship and interactions in that episode are much colder and they both seem to legitimately hate each other. In the series proper, however, their relationship was retooled to have more of a Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic, with them still slinging insults at each other frequently but demonstrating that they genuinely care about each other underneath it all.
• The Show Goes Hollywood: The Suite Life Goes Hollywood episode.
• The Slacker: Muriel. She's close to retirement, but on several occasions she's neglected her duties. She once came into the Martins' suite and stayed there, eating all the food out of their refrigerator. She also walked in on a date between London and a boy, stayed there, and when London asked "Aren't you supposed to be working?" responded with "What's your point?"
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: In "Odd Couples," the smart guy London tries to date turns out to be Maddie's polar opposite on the political spectrum. Not only does this cause Maddie to blow her cover as Playing Cyrano, but also results in a shouting match, name-calling...and making out.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: There are two episodes where a loud noise prevents the audience from hearing Zack and/or Cody being cussed out. The first is sound of a bus horn while Zack's miniature golf date Ella cusses him out for being a poor sport. The second is when the ship's horn drowns out the sound of Carey cussing the boys out for shanghaiing her into doing practically every bit of entertainment on the ship.
• Spaghetti Kiss: London does one with her date in "Twins at the Tipton".
• Squirrels in My Pants: Happens to Cody briefly in "Footloser" while taking Zack's place in a dance competition. A scene shows Cody grabbing at his leg and in the next scene, a rabbit climbs out of his pants leg. Cue mixed looks from the judges, Max, and the audience at the show
• Star-Crossed Lovers: London and Todd St. Mark, son of the proprietor of the rival St. Mark Hotel, in the episode "Cookin' with Romeo and Juliet".
• The Stateroom Sketch: Actual Closet variant, completes the homage by having their mother open the door so that everyone tumbles out.
• Stereotype Flip:
  • London inverts the typical Asian stereotypes completely by being an Asian Airhead. Additionally, she is an Upper-Class Twit Spoiled Brat, while usually the spoiled socialites are blonder.
  • Speaking of blondes, Maddie inverts the Dumb Blonde stereotype by being smart and hard-working. She also comes from a working-class background to further underscore her as a foil to London.
  • Mr. Moseby, who is black, is an uptight hotel manager who speaks with a refined vernacular.
• Stern Nun: Sister Dominick.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • Zack and Cody are trying to catch some jewel thieves, and Zack has set up a net in London's suite and covered it with leaves:
    Cody: Why would there be leaves in a hotel suite?
    Zack: ... I'll open up the window so they'll think it blew in from the park across the street!
    Cody: That'll never work!
    [Later, when the jewel thieves enter the suite]
    Thief 1: ... Why are there leaves on the floor?
    Thief 2: (looks at window) It must've blown in from the park across the street.
    Zack: (to Cody) Told you!
  • In another episode, Zack and Cody try to catch a father-daughter con duo and Cody does much of the work to catch them, with Zack being the one who comes up with the name of the plan, which is pretty lame. Near the end, when they're caught, the father reveals the daughter is the brains of the operation and that he's the one who comes up with the lame plan names.
• Straw Feminist: Maddie, early in the show's run.
• Straw Loser: Millicent.
• Summer School Sucks: Zack fails his English class and couldn't graduate middle school. Even the mention of "summer school" makes him stutter unless someone finishes the phrase for him. After confessing that he faked his graduation, he's forced to attend summer school (the alternative would have been military school) and, much to his derision, it's found out that he's the smartest kid in that batch and his classmates bully him for that. After getting fed up with this, Zack devises a plan to help both himself and his classmates pass the class by using his and Cody's hotel room as a tutoring place.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: Gender-Inverted Trope in the episode The Fairest Of Them All. YMMV, but Rebecca (one of the beauty pageant contestants) sure seemed to act very flirty towards Cody while he was disguised as Tyreesha...
• That Came Out Wrong: Zack tries some Tough Love in "Back in the Game" to help his wheelchair-bound friend out of his funk. Unfortunately, he chooses to word it "keep on walking", which he immediately realizes he shouldn't have said.
• Threat Backfire: Played for laughs when London and Maddie go head-to-head in a competition.
  London: I'll beat you so bad that you won't have a penny to your name! And you'll have to work like a dog for the rest of your life!
  Maddie: Ha! I'm already there!
• 13 Is Unlucky: The suite 613 is haunted by the ghost Irene.
• Tomboy: Max, a running gag features Mr. Moseby constantly mistaking her for a boy.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: While London was always flighty and slightly dim, in Season 1 she was fairly competent and able to do things for herself, as well as astute and quick witted. Over the course of episodes, however, she progressively became almost Too Dumb to Live until she is who the character has become today. See Hidden Depths under 'On Deck' as well.
• Treated Worse than the Pet: An episode sees London taking advantage of the fact that Maddie was forced to borrow money from her to treat Maddie like a slave, enraging Esteban.
  Esteban: London is treating you like a dog!
  Maddie: (out of breath) Oh, I wish! No, her dog's upstairs in the hot tub!
• Twin Switch: Done in the pilot episode.
• Twin Test: Inverted in the season 1 episode "Poor Little Rich Girl." Zack and Cody watch a baby video of theirs in which their parents accidentally mix the two up. Despite their mom pointing out that all babies kind of look alike anyways, the two spend the rest of the episode having a small existential crisis, questioning their own identities, and adopting the traits of the other. They demand their mom find their birth certificates so they can prove once and for all they are who they thought they were.
• Twofer Token Minority: Cody's girlfriend Barbara, who is both Japanese and Jewish.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: London has never worn the same outfit twice. Her hairstyles are equally varied. This makes sense since she is absurdly rich and self-centered. What's kind of weird is that ALL of the people who don't wear suits have immense wardrobes, including Zack and Cody, their mother, and Maddie (when she's not in her Tipton Hotel uniform, anyway). None of these characters are particularly rich. In fact, it is somewhat frequently mentioned that Maddie is not that well off financially.
• Uptown Girl:
  • Maddie falls for a rich guy and attempts to look and act rich so he will like her.
  • London dated her hotel's lifeguard, and also once pretended to be poor to impress a working-class guy who dislikes rich people.
• Upper-Class Twit: London.
• Very False Advertising: The episode that saw Maddie temporarily Put on a Bus had Sister Dominique showing her a camp brochure with a waterfall and various other natural wonders...then the camp turns out to be horrible (they once had leech cobbler as a meal and are across the road from a slaughterhouse).
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Maddie and London come from two very different walks of life and have very different personalities. As a result, they bicker and insult each other constantly, with London putting Maddie down for her fashion sense and Maddie mocking London for her stupidity. But they are still very close friends who care a lot about each other.
  • Zack and Cody argue a lot, and sometimes Zack can be an outright bully to Cody, but they always stick up for each other and clearly love each other, even if they don't always express it.
  • London with Zack and Cody too.
• "Walk on the Wild Side" Episode: "What the Hey." Zack talks Cody into ditching school, and they head for the mall.
• What the Heck Is an Aglet?: In one episode, Maddie helps London fight her shopping addiction by holding on to all her credit cards. At one point, London asks for the cards back, saying that she's just going to buy something small, like a pair of shoes, or only one shoe, or one of "Those things at the end of the shoe lace that nobody knows what it's called." To which Maddie instantly replies, "An aglet?"
• Worthless Treasure Twist: In "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad Hotel," Zack, Cody, Maddie, Muriel, Esteban, and London spent an episode hunting for treasure hidden by Muriel's old boyfriend, a famous thief. Eventually, they open Muriel's locket and find a message that says "To Muriel: You are my greatest treasure." Muriel grouses, "That's what guys say when they're too cheap to spring for the good jewelry."
• Worse with Context: In "Dad's Back", season 1, when Carey gets mad at Kurt for making their home a mess and letting Zack and Cody watch a horror movie:
  Kurt: I know, you're mad.
  Carey: No, no, I was mad when you sold our car to buy a new guitar. I was mad when you came home from the playground with the wrong twins.
  Kurt: It was an honest mistake.
  Carey: They were girls.
• Yiddish as a Second Language: Barbara likes to throw the occasional Yiddish word or phrase around to show off her Judaism.
• You Are Grounded!: Most episodes end with this. In the last season, one episode starts with this after the boys ruin a wedding and at the end Carey states how they're locked in a vicious cycle of sneaking out and getting grounded, and then exaggerates how long they're gonna be grounded now. The episode ends with her measuring them and as a reply to Zack's question of if he gets a last meal, she says she's making it, to which he responds "Aren't I being punished enough?". In comparison this isn't as common on The Suite Life on Deck since Zack and Cody are living by themselves, though in the second half of the pilot Moseby grounds London for running away, and in the crossover event "Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana" Moseby blames Zack for Alex pouring blue dye in the hot tub and confines him to his room.
• You're Cute When You're Angry: Zack tells Maddie this when she's pissed at him for losing the kids in "Daycare." Maddie is not impressed.
  Zack: Has anyone ever told you that you're really pretty when you're angry?
  Maddie: WELL I MUST BE GORGEOUS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I AM FURIOUS!
• Your Costume Needs Work: In "Not So Suite 16", lots of girls pretend to be London Tipton in order to get to her party, and the real London Tipton gets mistaken for one of those pretenders.
• Your Mom
  Wayne: (to the rival supermarket manager) Hey, it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings...oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring your mother into this.
• Zany Scheme: As any Disney Channel sitcom would have it.

Tropes in The Suite Life on Deck

• Aborted Arc:
  • An arc began at the end of the second season involving Dante, a pre-teen impostor who had assumed Marcus' old persona of Lil' Little, and continued when Dante stowed away aboard the Tipton, at which point Marcus reluctantly took the youngster under his wing and arranged for him to have a job performing aboard the ship. Since Marcus left, he's not seen again. Most fans don't mind.
  • What fans did mind was the first three episodes set up a friendship between Zack and Bailey. After the episode, they decided to relegate all of Bailey's plots to involve Cody or London.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  Moseby: I've been punched and pummeled by a pack of peeved Parisians!
  • Also:
  Moseby: Please place the pamphlets properly in the pamphlet podium!
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Maddie is tricked into becoming engaged to an 8-year-old bratty prince and cannot refuse because of a law in the country. Fortunately, Zack saves Maddie by challenging the kid to a duel.
• Affectionate Parody:
  • Naomi Wyoming is a paper-thin parody of Hannah Montana, made all the funnier by the fact that Bailey meets and parties with the actual Hannah Montana after this episode. The outfit used for the appearance is even a differently toned one of an actual Hannah Montana outfit.
  • The episode "Seven Seas News" is a send-up of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
  • The episode "Starship Tipton" is basically Star Trek. They even got George Takei (Sulu) to play London's Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandson.
  • "The Spy Who Shoved Me" is a send-up of James Bond films.
  • Moseby in "So You Think You Can Date" dresses up as Michael Jackson. Tutweiller comments he looks thrilling. Yet another episode has Moseby dressed up as Prince, complete with "Let's Go Crazy"-esque music in the background.
  • "The Kidney of the Sea" was one to Titanic (1997). A rich girl comes to the ship and develops a relationship with Zack, hitting all the major plot points of the movie on the way.
  • Marcus' hip-hopera was quite possibly a send-up of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet.
• All Just a Dream: Not really a dream, but the Episode Set In The Future was a made up narration by Zack as an excuse for not doing his essay.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Callie attempts to kill everybody on the ship except Cody, who she wants.
• Anti-Hero: Zack.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Kirby's means of infiltrating the engine room. Kirby aptly notes:
  Kirby: I'm a double-extra-large man trying crawl through a medium vent.
• American Gothic Couple: In the episode "Mulch Ado About Nothing", Cody's re-creation of the Mulch Festival for Bailey includes a couple of passengers posing as the couple from the painting. Lampshaded by Cody:
  Cody: More American, and less Gothic.
• And the Adventure Continues: After their graduation, the twins expect one more adventure ahead of them before going to college.
• Are We Getting This?: In "Can You Dig It?", Baily is possessed by an ancient princess. She attacks Zack while he's being interviewed by a local reporter for discovering an ancient artifact. The reporter's response? To record it because it's a way better story than what she had in store.
  Reporter: Get this! This will be better than my story on the coconut that looked like Estabon Francesco!
• Artifact Title: The pun of Suite Life in the first series referred to the hotel the show was set in. The Pun-Based Title continued in the second series, but it took place on a cruise liner. ^note  "The Stateroom Life" would have sounded silly.
• Ass Shove: Zack and Woody land safely on the observation deck. Their pursuer, the gangster Stéphane, lands on the spire, resulting in an "Eiffel Tower wedgie".
• Back to School: In one episode, Kirby joins Ms. Tutweiller's class because he never finished high school but becomes stressed out about the final exam and Zack and Cody must help him so he can graduate.
• Back for the Finale: Zack and Cody's parents, Carey and Kurt, come to see the twins graduate high school.
• Big Eater:
  • Kirby, who keeps a stick of butter in his pocket because he doesn't like gum. Which is so much more hilarious when you realize he shares a name with another Big Eater from a well-known series.
  • Woody as well.
• Bittersweet Ending: The series finale "Graduation on Deck". To elaborate, graduation is here and everyone is graduating. However, the ship is being sold, Cody has been rejected from Yale (which Bailey has been accepted to) and it's unclear where he's going to, and everyone's separating. On the bright side, it seems like Cody and Bailey will try to continue their relationship, Woody will continue his friendship with the guys, London is graduating and heading off to Paris, and Moseby is now engaged to Miss Tutweiller and as we later find out years later (on Jessie), is the manager of another Tipton hotel.
• Boldly Coming: Just barely averted between Moseby and a purple skinned version of Tutweiller.
• Book Ends: In the first episode, Cody walks into his room and sees Woody searching for his other pair of underpants. In the last episode, when they're packing, Woody finally finds his second pair.
  • In the first episode, Zack and Cody split up in the hallway to go into their rooms and in the final episode, they leave their rooms to talk in the hallway.
• Bottle Episode: More like "bottle series". Almost every episode takes place entirely on the cruise ship.
• Brick Joke: In "Trouble in Tokyo", Mr. Moseby says that London only got her vaccination shot after Nurse Nancy loaded it into a tranquillizer dart and shot her from the flagpole. Guess how London got her booster shot at the end of the episode.
  Mr. Moseby: Good shot, Nurse Nancy!
• Butt-Monkey: Emma Tutweiller.
  • Bailey also fills this role at times, especially when she's around London.
  • As well as the original series, Cody falls into this sometimes.
• The Cameo: Members of the original series (Arwin, Maddie, the twins' parents, Esteban, etc.) did have one-off appearances throughout the show's run eventually leading to...
  • Back for the Finale:... where they attended the twins' graduation.
• Camp Gay:
  • Implied with London's many-times great grandson Rome, after all, he is played by George Takei.
  • London's favorite fashion designer, Arturo Vitali, is possibly the most Camp Gay character to ever appear on the Disney Channel. The lines about ladies in lingerie aren't fooling anyone.
• Camp Straight: One could argue that Cody is this.
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • Bailey mentioned having 6 big sisters and 3 little ones in "Parrot Island" although in "Twister" she is implied to be an only child as no sisters are present.
  • In the first series, London was depicted as being incredibly strong for her size, helping Maddie train for her physical fitness test. In On Deck, Zack had to give similar help to London. Of course, London's competence does vary in the series.
  • Both Zack and Moseby were addicted to online gaming in "Tiptonline" but play an online game in "Love and War"
• Captivity Harmonica: In the episode "Parrot Island", London plays the harmonica while imprisoned on the titular island, and plays it quite well to boot.
• Chained Heat: Mr. Blanket, the school's insane Guidance Counselor, handcuffs Moseby and Zack together, and swallows the key. It helps them understand one another better, but also increases their contempt for Blanket.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Woody yells "Daaang it" several times during the series.
  • Woody's "Huuurtful!"
  • Bailey's "What the feathers?"
  • London's "Stupid sea school!"
• Character Development: After being an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist for so long, Zack finally seems to be having development that will stick in Season 3.
• Chekhov's Gun: Woody's turkey leg-turning device seems like the most frivolous thing he's ever come up with... that is, until it provides the batteries necessary to power the radio to call for help from the submarine.
• The Chew Toy: Mr. Moseby.
• Chorus Girls: One episode features chorus girls including the two female leads, London and Bailey dressing up and joining them.
• Christmas Episode: A London Carol
• Cloudcuckoolander: London seems to have retreated into her own world in this series.
• Comically Missing the Point: A lot of characters, major and minor, become guilty of this, but Woody's, well, in a class of his own. For example, in "Boo You", Bailey gets fed up with London and Woody pranking her on "Yay Me! Starring London Tipton" and smashes Woody's camera, which leads to this exchange.
  London: Woody, that camera's coming out of your salary.
  Woody: (excited) I'm getting a salary?!
  • When Ms. Tutweiller is trying to help Bailey get over her breakup with Cody:
  Ms. Tutweiller: ...and not think about he who must not be named.
  London: Voldemort?! (looks around nervously)
  Bailey: She means Cody.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In the episode "Model Behavior", Moseby punishes Zack, Marcus, and Woody for throwing a party without his authorization and encouraging a group of teen models to stay out past curfew by making them don snorkeling gear and fish the floaties they threw overboard out of the ocean.
  • In another episode, they attempt to set up a fake beauty pageant simply so they can meet with girls. As punishment, they have to set up the entire beauty pageant by themselves and aren't allowed to flirt with the contestants.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Implied of Wilfred Tipton throughout both series, and confirmed in "Twister, part 3".
• Continuity Nod:
  • The "Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana" episode references the events of "That's So Suite Life Of Hannah Montana".
  • "Beauty and the Fleeced" contained Cody referencing the episode "Fairest of Them All" of the parent series (where he wound up in a beauty pageant). It also referenced the first episode of the spin-off, which saw Bailey pull a Sweet Polly Oliver.
    Bailey: Pageants are about more than beauty. You could win scholarships. Plus they judge you on talent, poise, personality...
    Cody: Oh, I know. I've been in a beauty pageant before.
    Bailey: You mean, like for men?
    Cody: Yeeeeaaa...no. (Bailey gives him a weirded out look) Hey, don't judge me! When I met you, you were a dude!
  • In "Roomies," Bailey's Sweet Polly Oliver from the pilot is referenced again.
    Zack: You know what, I don't wanna share [my room]! I earned that room!
    London: No, you didn't! You just somehow convinced Moseby that Bailey was a girl so I got stuck with the stupid roommate.
  • The episode "Rock the Kasbah" had Cody wear his Grizzly Bear Scout uniform from "Ah! Wilderness!", which is referenced by Zack.
  • In "I Brake for Whales", Moseby asks Kirby, who gets stuck while going through the Airvent Passageway, if he carries butter with him like he is seen doing in a previous episode. He says he doesn't anymore, since Cody had a talk with him about his diet. This is a reference to the season 1 episode "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'" where Cody said he wanted to talk to him after seeing he carries butter in his pockets as a snack.
  • "The Ghost and Mr. Martin" makes a reference to "The Ghost of Suite 613", when Zack mentions the ghost of Irene, who came out of a portrait.
  • In "Lost at Sea", Tutweiller tells Mr. Moseby that she used to be a weather girl for Vermont. In "Seven Seas News", she shows the class a video of one of her segments.
  • In "Cruisin' for a Bruisin" Zack brings 'Dragon Quest' to Mr. Moseby, the same game they got addicted to at the hotel.
• Covered in Kisses: During the "Boat Cops" segment at the end of the episode "Seven Seas News", Kirby finds Cody and Bailey making out in the smoothie bar, with Cody being covered in Bailey's lipstick.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Emma Tutweiller started off as a mildly-neurotic thirty-something woman who just happened to have a few cats. As of Season 3, she's devolved into a certifiably-insane serial stalker who keeps in excess of thirty cats in her cabin, using them as dress-up dolls and sock puppets. Lampshaded by Moseby:
  Moseby: And now the whole world knows that you're a lonely cat lady.
• Dance Party Ending: The aptly-named "Party On".
• Data Drive MacGuffin: One episode has the protagonists trying to recover an SD card containing information held by the CIA. It turns out to be a mayonnaise recipe developed by the Condiment Intelligence Agency.
• Deadpan Snarker: Everybody has their moments. However, the snarkers-in-chief are Zack, Cody, Bailey, and Mr. Moseby.
• Delivery Guy Infiltration: London attempts this in "I Brake For Wales" to sabotage Zack, Cody, London, Bailey, Marcus and Kirby's standup for the whales in the engine room. Marcus was the only one fooled.
• Demonic Possession: In "Can You Dig It?", Bailey finds herself possessed by the spirit of the ancient South American royal Princess Zaria when Zack finds her crown, thereby releasing her spirit from her bust. No. Not THAT bust.
• Derailed for Details: In "Smarticle Particles," when Bailey tries to tutor London, we get this exchange:

  Bailey: Your bus leaves the station at—

  London: *scoffs* I would never take the bus. I would take my private jet.

  Bailey: Fine...Your private jet leaves the bus station at 6 a.m.

  London: 6 a.m.? I would never get up that early!

  Bailey: (getting ticked) What time do you think you're gonna get there?

  London: I don't know. Ask my chauffeur. He's the one driving me.

  Bailey: (really ticked now) So let's assume that your chauffeur has gotten you to your private jet at say, noon.

  London: But—

  Bailey: You'll have lunch on the plane!!

  London: (claps) Goodie!! Wait, what are we having? (Bailey tears the math book she's reading off of in half)

• Didn't Think This Through: The opening to "Bon Voyage" has Zack win a bet against Cody and the latter owes him free smoothies, which he now has to make.
  Zack: Did not think this through.
• Distaff Counterpart: Bailey is this for Cody, in that she's just as nerdy as he is.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Cody toward Bailey in the first season. A mild subversion, as it was pretty clear that Bailey liked him, too. When they got together, the writers shifted this trait onto Marcus, who acts this way toward London, who might reciprocate but is too much in her own world to notice.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • London was a lot nicer and seemed to like being seen as such early on. When Miss Tutweiller calls her mean when she unknowingly insults her she is flat-out offended and in another episode, she appreciates Bailey saying her heart's in the right place even if she's not all there and went out of her way to pay for her ex-boyfriend to visit.
  • In early season 1, Bailey has a inconsistent southern accent that disappears and reappears. She loses the accent near the end of the season and for the rest of the series. Likewise, she had phrases like "Goosedarn it" and "What the feathers" which she rarely used again.
  • The first season in general is this compared to the rest of the series, as it's shot in standard definition and Zack and Cody still look the same as they did in the original series due to them being very young when it was filmed.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Moseby, who's had to deal with 6 years of Zack and Cody, plus 18 years of London, in the final episode proposes to Miss Tutweiller and goes off somewhere (he won't say where) that Zack and Cody and London aren't (though he gives London his cell phone number). Oddly for a kids' show, he's just about the only one who gets a real happy ending. Cody doesn't get into Yale, though Bailey did and they will visit each other and Zack and Maya break up, since she's going to Africa for the Peace Corps. London turns out all right but is really going to miss Moseby, since he was like a father to her.
  • In Jessie, it's shown that despite defying Mr. Tipton in the finale, not only is Moseby still working for Mr. Tipton but actually manages a hotel in New York (which probably makes way more money than a hotel in Boston).
• Easily Condemned: When Bailey sees Cody practicing their one-year anniversary date with London, she immediately assumes he's cheating on her and goes to a sleazy French guy for comfort. This is in spite of the fact she didn't actually see Cody doing anything with London and he was faithful to her for a year and a half (the year they were together and the six months he spent trying to woo her). Cody points this out to her and he is furious that Bailey doesn't trust him, leading to their breakup.
• Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: One episode has an incident where Cody translates some hieroglyphs as instructions to free Bailey from a curse unleashed by a crown. "...that or a recipe for fish tacos".
• Everyone Can See It: It was pretty obvious from the beginning that Bailey liked Cody the same way he liked her.
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: During one episode where London was participating with the boys for a fantasy football league, at the end of the episode, she mentions that she bought the Arizona Cardinals, now called the Arizona Sparklies. She even changed the uniforms to solid black with white piping & solid sparkling pink fronts with a matching pink helmet.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: When Bailey was possessed by the spirit of Princess Zaria in "Can You Dig It"]], there was rather a short version of this.
• Messy Pig: Inverted with Bailey's pet pig.
• Expy: Dante was pretty much an expy of Stanley from That's So Raven, before his storyline was written out and he disappeared.
• The Faceless: Captain Lunford is mentioned but the only time he's shown is in” Crusin for a Brusin” and even then that was only his lower body.
• Face Doodling: The kids at the daycare do this to Bailey and London in "Love and War.”
• Fake Static: Arwin's cousin Milos tries to do this by crunching paper, but Arwin can see him because they're on a video chat.
• Fanservice: Scenes on the Sky Deck frequently have babes in bikinis in the background. But only in the background. The main characters can't wear bikinis on a Disney show.
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: In the episode "The Defiant Ones", Cody misses a homework assignment due having spent a romantic evening with Bailey the night before. Unable to bear the shame of receiving a single bad grade, he fabricates the excuse that he was caring for Bailey, who'd injured her ankle. This leads to Bailey reluctantly faking an injury, and eventually the entire student body of Seven Seas Highs being drawn into a web of lies that is increasingly complex and ridiculous. It all comes crashing down the next day when Cody misses yet another assignment, having been too busy maintaining the farce.
  • Another episode has Zack promise Maya that he'll come to her poem recital even though he has a video game match with Cody Woody and Moseby. His attempts to be in both places ultimately fail, although Maya fully understands that he deserves some time with his friends.
• Feathered Fiend: In "Mean Chicks", Cody denies a seagull a French fry that Zack attempted to feed him, and spends the rest of the episode trying to escape the bird's wrath.
• Five-Temperament Ensemble: Ms. Tutweiller (melancholic), Cody Martin (melancholic/phlegmatic); Bailey Pickett, Woody Fink and Kirby Morris (phlegmatic); Zack Martin and London Tipton (sanguine/choleric); Marcus Little and Addison (sanguine), Maya Bennett (leukine), and Mr. Moseby (choleric, still not exactly a caricature).
  • Though Zack stayed sanguine as always, his choleric side diminished. Because he developed more phlegmatic traits over time, the Polar Opposite Twins have become more similar to one another than they were in the previous series.
• Flanderization: London again. Whether or not her stupidity has been cranked up, because she does have her smart moments.
  • Cody became an Insufferable Genius who thinks he's better than everyone else
  • Bailey became more of a nerd as the show went on. She was fairly popular among the students in Season 1 and even had an unseen boyfriend for a brief period of time. By Season 3 she seems to lack social skills.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: The episode "The Ghost and Mr. Martin" has Cody scoff at the idea that there's a ghost on the ship despite the fact that in the previous series, he and Zack had encountered a woman's ghost at the Tipton hotel. Lampshaded by Zack when he points this out to which Cody dismisses that experience as them being "hormone-crazed 12-year-old boys seeing women popping out of a lot of places".
• Foreshadowing: Bailey and Cody broke up, but in the Christmas Special, London gets a glimpse into her future and finds out that Bailey and Cody got married.
  • Also Zack tries to take a page out of Cody's 6 month plan to woo Bailey by throwing Maya a kettle corn festival that goes as you'd expect. He gets it right later without really thinking about it when he throws her a secret surprise birthday party.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: In "Can You Dig It?", Zack steals the ancient tiara of the late Princess Zaria and it starts to vibrate an indication of the spirit's reawakening, at which point Zack presses the tiara against Cody making him giggle.
• The Friends Who Never Hang:
  • Zack and Bailey rarely have conversations together after the first few episodes.
  • Marcus mainly interacts with Zack, Woody and London but only occasionally interacts with Cody and Bailey.
  • As a late arrival, Maya doesn't hang out much with the other characters and if she does, she mainly just speaks to Zack.
• Furniture Assembly Gag: Moseby complains that something is wrong with his drawer set. When he files a complaint, it turns out that it's missing a screw. Then he gets a replacement drawer and assembles it, only for that to be missing a screw too.
• Gamer Chick: Maya, as revealed in "Love and War".
• Gasshole: Woody, who can perform Stairway to Heaven Le Petomane-style after eating the Mexican buffet.
• Geeky Turn-On: Cody and Bailey tend to revolt others when they coo nerdy facts to each other and Cody often comments "I love that you know that."
• Genius Serum: Plays With this idea. For a school project, Bailey decides to test out the Placebo Effect on London and gives her a perfume that London thinks contains "smarticle particles". While using the perfume, London starts to perform better in school and have more confidence in herself academically. Bailey eventually admits to her that the perfume wasn't helping her and that she did it all on her own, but once she knows that she wasn't magically being made smarter, London returned to her normal lack-of-intelligence.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: From the episode "International Dateline":
  Bailey: Gosh darn it! Where are all the shrimp?
• Grand Romantic Gesture: When Bailey is feeling homesick, Cody recreates her hometown's mulch festival. He also plans out the perfect date for their anniversary, but this backfires when Bailey gets the wrong idea when she sees him with London.
• G-Rated Drug: In "The Kidney of the Sea", Zack is accused of stealing his wealthy crush's expensive diamond necklace by said crush's "boyfriend" who actually framed Zack. The crush's mother immediately jumps to her own theory for a motive.
  Mrs. Berg: One of the diamonds is missing! He must've sold it to feed his bubblegum habit!
  Zack: *takes gum out mouth* I can quit anytime I want. Starting tomorrow. *resumes chewing*
• Purple Skinned Space Babe: Emma Tutweiller's alien future Expy.
• Groin Attack: Zack, while attempting to learn croquet in the episode "Rollin With The Holmies", accidentally hits himself in the groin when he swings his croquet mallet.
• "Groundhog Day" Loop: One episode had the ship getting stuck in a time loop because of lightning striking it as it crossed the International Dateline. Only Cody notices the problem. He believed it was because that he and Bailey were meant to be together, but realizes the truth when wooing Bailey didn't fix things. The loop is solved when Cody manages to slow down the ship's speed.
• Group Hug: After saving the farm, the characters do this in “Twister part 3".
• Hands Go Down: Happens in "Seven Seas News" after the students see Miss Tutweiller's days as a weather girl.
  Miss Tutweiller: Any question that's not going to hurt my feelings? (All hands go down)
• Heartbreak and Ice Cream: London and Ms. Tutweiller help Bailey get over her breakup with Cody by doing "heartbroken stuff", ice cream included.
• Held Back in School: Implied Trope. In On Deck, Miss Tutweiller stated that London won Senior Prom Queen three times. Also, in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, London was in the same class as Maddie at Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow, though is in Zack and Cody's class at Seven Seas High School, despite being years older than them (she was stated to be 15 in the first season of Zack and Cody while the twins were around 12).
• Here We Go Again!: In the b-plot of "The Suede Life", the screw needed to fix Mosby's nightstand is no longer in production, so he and Marcus had to switch the stand with an identical one; once they get back to the ship, turns out the second stand is missing a screw, too.
• Hidden Depths:
  • London on occasion shows this, along with some Obfuscating Stupidity and Deadpan Snarker moments, most noticeable during an episode where the main cast got stuck on an island and had to fend for themselves. London, seemingly in shock from the event, thought they were at a beach resort. That is, until they were safely back on the cruise liner and mentioned off hand that it was her way to get out of the manual labor.
  • In the Christmas Episode London goes through a Yet Another Christmas Carol plot. This episode reveals that London was a good kid until the bitterness about her dad never being around for Christmas (or any other time for that matter) got to her.
• High-School Dance: At least two or three a season.
• Homage:
  • The entire episode "Kidney of the Sea" is a kid-friendly Homage to Titanic (1997).
  • In "I Brake for Whales", some of the characters locked in the wheel room pay homage to Reservoir Dogs with their codenames. Only one is real, one receives a Gender Flip, and two are not characters from the movie.
• Hufflepuff House: The students at Seven Seas High who aren't the main characters, Maya, Woody or Addison. There are some episodes where other characters come out of the shadows and then are never seen again.
• Humans Are Bastards: From the Anvilicious episode "I Brake for Whales": "Shame on you, mankind. Shame."
• Humiliation Conga: Played with in the episode "Boo You" where Bailey becomes London's target for repeated pranks that get more and more humiliating. After one where she's embarrassed in front of the entire ship, London asks if Bailey "understands" that she's only doing this for viewers. Bailey replies "Understand this!" and then grabs the camera they were using to film the prank and throws it onto the deck, smashing it. It's probably the most embarrassing for Bailey because not only does wake up with her bed on the deck in front anybody watching London's show, but she is also wearing a retainer that she wears on her head and pig pajamas with a pink, curly tail on her butt. Ouch.
• Hypno Fool: London gets hypnotized to act more like Bailey. When the hypnotist tried to change her back, he accidentally trances the daughter of the dean from Harvard University.
• Hypocritical Humor: Again, used all the time.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: For scene transitions between hotel rooms at the Tipton, an elevator wipe is used, complete with floor indicator.
• Idiot Ball: Cody in "Mean Chicks". Most people realize how aggressive seagulls are and that they eat human food all the time.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Moseby wanted to put Zack on permanent detention for detonating a stink bomb in the chemistry lab. Tutweiller's response:
  Tutweiller: I'm an educator, not a warden.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: The title once again, most of the episode titles, and most of Woody's "jokes". Also implemented from time-to-time when Moseby is yelling at Zack.
• In Love with the Mark: In "When In Rome", London falls for an Italian musician named Luca whose con artist uncle wants him to scam London out of her money. However, Luca develops real feelings for London and hatches a scheme with Bailey and Moseby to get London's money back.
• Insufferable Genius:
  • Cody became one of these after he Took a Level in Jerkass.
  • Bailey, while not nearly to the extent as Cody, also has her moments of insufferably.
  Miss Tutweiller: Look, not everything is about school and grades and studying!
  (Bailey and Cody stare at her in disbelief)
  Cody: Exactly where did you get your teaching credentials?
  Miss Tutweiller: The University of None-Of-Your-Business!
  Bailey: I bet she barely got in. (rolls her eyes)
  Cody: Mmm. (smirks and nods)
• Insult to Rocks: Bailey compares talking to London to talking to a tractor. Zack promptly replies that it’s an insult to tractors.
• It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Averted in one episode where it was three months ago.
• Ivy League for Everyone: In the finale, Cody, The Smart Guy, does not get into Yale; however, his equally smart girlfriend, Bailey, does.
• I Want My Belovedto Be Happy: In "Mulch Ado About Nothing", when Bailey asks him if she should return home, Cody tells her to "follow her heart."
• Kavorka Man: Though Zack is still up to his Kidanova hijinks, surprisingly, Woody is no slouch with the ladies, either.
• Ladykiller in Love: Early in Season 3, Zack finds himself developing real feelings for the new girl Maya, to the point where he resolves to change his womanizing ways and take the time to get to know her.
• Less Embarrassing Term: Woody is insistent that his purse is actually a satchel.
• Love at First Sight: Played with in Cody and Bailey's case. When he first meets her, she's dressed as a boy. Despite that, the two get along and share numerous interests to the point that they're gonna become roommates. However, Zack finds out she's a girl and agrees to keep the secret, but then decides her doesn't want to switch roommates now. When Bailey is exposed, Cody's shock is clearly palpable.
• Lovely Assistant: In one episode, London falls in love with a standup magician but is jealous of his assistant Karina.
• Make Up or Break Up: Cody and Bailey didn't so much end their relationship as put it out of its misery. (And the misery of those around them.)
• Married at Sea: Esteban and Francesca in the episode "Mother of the Groom".
• Married to the Job: "FOR THE LAST TIME, MOTHER..."
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Nerdy Insufferable Genius Cody and Tomboy Country Mouse Bailey. Downplayed because Bailey isn't overly masculine, but due to her upbringing on the farm, she's more physically adept than Cody is, as well as more fond of manual labor. Bonus points for both of them having Gender Blender Names. This trope is especially exemplified in the episode "Roomies," where Bailey beats Cody in every typically masculine activity, from throwing darts to basketball.
• The Masochism Tango: Cody and Bailey started out as a sweet couple who were well-matched intellectually and very tolerant and forgiving of one another's faults. As the second season progressed, everything became a competition between them, and they seem to generally bring out the worst in one another.
• Meadow Run: In "In the Line of Duty", Cody and Bailey sneak out to meet after curfew and run towards each other romantically towards one another in slow motion. However, unlike in romantic movies where the couple ends up kissing, Cody and Bailey accidentally bump into each other the second they make contact.
  Bailey: This doesn't happen in movies.
• Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Miss Tutweiller refuses to date Mr. Moseby after finding out that he likes The Three Stooges.
• Modesty Towel: Cody wears one of these in "Senior Ditch Day."
• Mood Whiplash: Fairly frequent, but most noticeable in Cody and Bailey's breakup scene, which has the heart-wrenching drama of their argument and breakup punctuated by the slapstick of being rained on by shoes, and having Zack and Woody land on Cody.
• Morality Pet: Bailey occasionally steps into this role for London.
• Motivational Kiss: Zack gets one from Maddie in "Maddie On Deck".
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: Not referring to people, but this exchange from The Suite Life on Deck.
  Mr. Blanket: Don't worry, there's a sound therapeutic remedy.
  Zack: And then whatever you've got, right?
• My God, What Have I Done?: Cody in "The Play's the Thing", when he realizes that his play hurt Bailey.
• Never My Fault: After their breakup, Cody has been putting all of the blame for it on Bailey. At least until "The Play's the Thing".
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Wilfred Tipton would not have known there was piece of prime real estate in Kansas to be had for a mere pittance if Cody hadn't alerted him to the gravity of the situation in Kettlecorn.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: "I Brake for Whales" has the voice of a marine biologist who is Jacques Cousteau in all but name.
• Not Me This Time:
  • In the Crossover with Wizards of Waverly Place, Moseby is convinced that Zack is the one put blue die in the hot tub. When it turns out it was really Alex Russo, Zack tells Moseby to apologize for having accused him. However, Moseby points out that Zack has just confessed to several other pranks and is still grounded.
  • When Zack is framed for a jewelry theft, Moseby defends him by listing all of Zack's previous actions before ending his hour-long speech with "but he is not a thief". This is technically true, but Zack did try to steal towels from Jesse McCartney's hotel room in the prequel series.
• The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: Zack, Woody and Marcus organizes a fake beauty pageant to meet girls and "cancel" it when they're done. A furious Moseby uncancels it. The boys are at first ecstatic until Moseby makes clear they have to do all the hard work of organizing a pageant without being able to enjoy the intended benefit of dating the girls.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: London knew that she really wasn't on a island resort, she just pretended so that she could get out of doing manual labour.
• The Obi-Wannabe:
  • Mr. Blanket, Seven Seas High's guidance counselor, is himself certifiably insane, distracts people when they examine his credentials, and despite having written a book on them, his methods are questionable at best.
  • In "So You Think You Can Date", Cody and Bailey take dating tips respectively from Zack and London. In the end they ruin both their dates because Cody acts too much like a Jerkass and Bailey too much like a Cloudcuckoolander.
• Orphaned Punchline: In the episode "The Spy Who Shoved Me", Moseby and London, on separate occasions, tell a joke (or perhaps two different jokes with the same punchline) whose punchline is "Nougat!" Apparently, the guests find it hilarious, leaving the audience to wonder what was so funny.
  • Possibly a Brick Joke from "The Suite Life Goes to Hollywood: Part One" from the parent series in which Moseby attempts to tell the producers of the new show a funny story. This is evidenced by the fact that the delivery of the word "nougat" is exactly the same.
  Moseby: One time we ran out of pillow mints. (Laughs) So instead, we had to use...NOUGAT!
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In an episode where the group visits the home of Arthur Conan Doyle, Cody figures out a supposed British resident is actually Belgian, due to him saying 'fries' instead of 'chips', and it is revealed he was the Gentleman Thief who stole the original Sherlock Holmes draft..
  • Bailey is an unusual case. At the start of the show, she had a Southern accent (despite being from Kansas.) Over time this accent disappeared completely. It may have been a case of Not Even Bothering with the Accent as Debby Ryan is from the South.
• Parenting the Husband: The episode "Maddie On Deck" takes an extremely literal example of this, when Maddie has been tricked into marrying an 8-year-old whom Zack must duel to get Maddie out of the engagement. After Zack loses the first round, Maddie invokes the trope.
  Maddie: (pretending to call her parents) Hey mom, hey dad. Yeah I'm not coming home. I'm spending the rest of my life raising my husband.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": There was an episode where Cody and Woody were competing to be London's partner in a space travel, and one of their challenges was to write. Cody manages to hack into Woody's computer and change his speech as his password is "Woody". He even tells Woody that it's not a good password.
  • This acts as Hypocritical Humor as Cody's own password is "Bailey" and the combination to the safe where he hides his Stalker Shrine to Bailey is the date of his mom's birthday.
• Placebo Effect: In "Smarticle Particles," Bailey uses a placebo to raise London's intelligence. Subverted in that after realizing that it's a placebo, London returns to normal. Then Bailey tricks her into taking another placebo.
• The Pigpen: Woody's hygiene, or rather, lack thereof, is the source of many of the series' jokes.
• Ping Pong Naïveté: London gets this a lot.
• Preppy Name: Several students aside from Zack, Cody, and Bailey. Among them are Holden, Addison, London (obviously), and even Woody whose name is short for Woodrow.
• Pun:
  • In the episode where Cody is trying to become international chess champion.
    Zack: (talking on the radio) I can't read it, it's all in Russian.
    Cody: (moves a piece) Check.
    Zack: I did check. It's in Russian.
  • Earlier in the same episode:
    London: I can't read any of this!
    Maya: You can't read it because whoever wrote it was Russian.
    London: I don't care how fast they were writing!
• Pun-Based Title
• Put on a Bus:
  • Bailey briefly left the ship in early Season 3 to return to Kettlecorn.
  • Marcus leaves the ship in the aptly named "Bon Voyage" in Season 3 to star on a Broadway show.
• Real After All: In "Sea Monster Mash", Cody and Bailey spend the episode searching for the legendary sea monster Galapagos Gurdy. Cody later accepts that the monster might not exist. However, at the end of the episode, a large turtle-like creature pokes its head up near the deck.
• Re-Cut: The original version of "Graduation on Deck" was about 40 minutes long. Subsequent airings have been cut down to 30.
• Red Shirt: Lampshaded, then spoofed in "Starship Tipton". After the main cast goes to the future, they have to change their clothes to blend in.
  Zack: (dressed in yellow) Man, I like these outfits!
  Marcus: (dressed in red) Speak for yourself! The guys in red always get killed! (At which point another guy in red falls out of an airlock into outer space, screaming.)
  Marcus: See?
  • At the end of the episode, the red-clad George frigging Takei suffers the same fate.
• "Rediscovering Roots" Trip: In "Family Thais", the Thai-American London visits Thailand to meet her grandmother, and she's horrified to find that she's a common rice farmer.
• Refuge in Audacity: In "The Spy Who Shoved Me", Cody admits to Bailey, early on, that he and Zack are working with a spy, but she doesn't believe him.
• Retcon: Over the entire series, it was clear that Mr. Tipton loved his daughter, London. It was mentioned a few times that she is the sole heir to the Tipton company. Along comes the first episode that Mr. Tipton finally shows himself in (Episode 68), and what happens? Before he makes his appearance, he has to ask London who she is when she calls, ask which daughter she is, and barely remembered her. Nice continuity ya got there.
  • In the episode "Computer Date", London and Woody approach Zack for tutoring... in gym. They both state that they are lacking in fitness and health. It's not hard to see that for Woody, but in the episode "Dad's Back" of the original Suite Life of Zack and Cody series, London was the one who had to tutor and train Maddie for gym class, using her personal training program, designed around shopping. It is possible that London is just lazy or unable to exercise because of lack of shopping. Even so, there is a gym, so she could use her personal program in that like she did with Maddie.
• Revenge via Storytelling: Once Cody and Bailey have their messy breakup in Paris, both are left crushed and angry. Cody assumes Bailey was cheating on him with a painter, while he struggled to prepare an anniversary dinner. So, to get payback, he wrote a play based on the breakup and wrote Bailey's character as a cruel, unfaithful idiot who ultimately falls off the Eiffel Tower and dies. Bailey sees the scene and runs off in tears, surprised that Cody hated her that much.
• Rhymes on a Dime: In the season 2 episode "Ala-ka-scram", Zack and Woody discuss how bros are better than girls in this way:

Zack: Would you mind if I showed up late?

Woody: I’d still think you’re great. And if I didn’t comb my hair?

Zack: I wouldn’t care! And if I didn’t compliment on how you dress?

Woody: I couldn’t care less. I know I’m a mess.

The exchange bears a striking resemblance to a certain part of A Hymn to Him.

• Ridiculously Long Phone Hold: Mr. Moseby calls tech support in an episode. He's put on hold overnight and wears a headset so that he can perform his duties on the ship while holding. The call is eventually answered by Zack and Cody, who are visiting a call center while the ship is in port.
• Romantic False Lead: Cody spent the better part of Season One contending with these guys for Bailey's affection.
• Running Gag: Mr. Moseby threatening to throw somebody out the sewage flap.
• Sadly Mythtaken: "It's All Greek To Me" claims that Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus. Of course, the most well-known story of Aphrodite has her a generation older than Zeus, and her father is technically Uranus, although the way she was conceived is not something they could talk about on Disney Channel. To be fair, there are some later tales that have her as Zeus's daughter.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: London has a certificate saying she can get rid of anyone she wants signed by the president and Congress. In the same episode she wants to be a model so she gets her Daddy to buy the modeling agency.
• Screw Yourself: London is entirely made for this trope. There was even one episode where she was set up with herself on a dating questionnaire.
• Sensual Slavs: In the episode "Das Boots", Cody's opponent in a chess tournament is one Sasha Matryoshka, who's so ridiculously hot that he can't concentrate on his game.
• Series Continuity Error: Though the writers generally have no qualms about ignoring continuity for the sake of getting laughs, a botched attempt at a Continuity Nod occurs when they refer to Medieval Magic Quest, the MMORPG to which Zack and Moseby became addicted in the parent series...except they refer to it by a completely different name.
• The Series Has Left Reality: The Suite Life of Zack & Cody has a Bizarro Episode when they travel to a parallel dimension. The Suite Life on Deck leaves reality behind with a "Groundhog Day" Loop, a mummy's curse, and other increasingly strange plots that become part of the characters' daily lives.
• Ship Tease:
  • On-going between Moseby and Tutweiller.
  • In "Silent Treatment":
  London: Look, Bailey, I know you loved Cody, but... You don't need a boyfriend to be happy! You're young, you're smart, you're pretty, you're not some fifty-something cat lady who's been dumped time and time and time again and that's one ice-cream cup away from a heart attack!
  Bailey: London, you called me pretty... And didn't add "annoying" after it. Do you really think all those things about me?
  London: Of course I do! Why do you think we're friends?
  Bailey: London, thank you. Boyfriends come and go, but girlfriends are always there for ya.
  • Zack/London also got its share of teasing before he finally hooked up with Maya.
• Shirtless Scene: Justin Russo of Wizards of Waverly Place gets one in the "Wizards On Deck with Hannah Montana" crossover.
  • So does Cody in "Senior Ditch Day".
• Shout-Out:
  • From "The Defiant Ones".
  Ms. Tutweiller: And that's Napoleon Bonaparte. Just give yourself an F right now if you wrote about Napoleon Dynamite.
  • The name of the episode ("The Defiant Ones") is also a shout-out to the 1958 film that, like the episode, features a white guy and a black guy who hate each other learning mutual respect as a result of being handcuffed together.
  • The name of the episode "The Ghost and Mr.. Martin" is a shout-out to a movie from 1947 named "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir".
  • The name of the episode "Model Behavior" comes from a 2000 Disney Channel Original Movie which also starred Kathie Lee Gifford.
  • One episode had a few arcade machines displaying Cave Story. Really.
    • They were inside Zack's arcade on Better Life even.
  • When Ms. Tutweiller is taking attendance in "Senior Ditch Day", she calls out "Bueller? ...Bueller?"
  • In "Silent Treatment":
  Ms. Tutweiller: Okay, now, did you bring pictures of you and He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named?
  London: Voldemort? (looks around worried after saying it)
  Bailey: She means Cody.
  • A very subtle one in "Starship Tipton": Even though the episode is a Star Trek parody, the transporter effect looks more like an Asgard beam.
  • From the episode "My Oh Maya":
  Zack: So Gina, thanks for agreeing to go out with me at the last minute.
  Gina: How could I say no? You blast off a 0600 to destroy that asteroid and save the world!
  • In the Season 3 premiere "Silent Treatment", Zack mispronounces the name of the author of War and Peace as Leo "Toy Story".
  • In "Das Boots", London tries to escape the submarine by tapping her talons together while reciting: "There's no place like home... There's no place like home..."
  • The plot of "Computer Date" bears some similarity to the plot of the 1999 Disney Channel Movie Smart House.
    • Also, her name was CAL and if you listen to many of her lines...
    • 2001: A Space Odyssey is directly referenced by Woody early in the episode.
  Woody: *to Cody* C'mon, we gotta catch that movie. Y'know, 2001, about that freaky computer that takes over the ship and kills everybody on board?
  Callie: That's my favorite movie. Though the beginning was kind of slow.
  • In "Party On!" Maya's full name is revealed to be Maya Elizabeth Bennett. It's rather apt, as both girls are attractive, intelligent, and snarky, and both initially rejected the advances of a suitor who was attractive, but way too full of himself.
  • In "A London Carol", a squirrel jumps out of the Christmas tree and attacks Moseby.
  • "Snakes on a Boat":
  Moseby: Enough is ENOUGH! I have HAD IT with these *ship's horn blows* SNAKES on my *ship's horn blows* BOAT!
  • In one episode, a poster in the background depicting an outer-space scene clearly has a TARDIS in it.
  • After it's revealed that Ashton stole Violet's necklace and framed Zack for it, he claims he "would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"
  • In the Twister special, Woody calls the leader of the troop "Sgt. Pepper".
  • Also from Snakes on a Boat, the music that plays when Cody performs stand-up is the music from Seinfeld, as a reference to Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up sequences.
  • "Splash and Trash" has a couple of shout outs to Splash, besides the episode name.
  • "Ala-ka-scram!" has a few during the air band sequence. Zack and Woody's air band is clearly referencing Guns N' Roses, with their song being a parody of Roses' "November Rain," as well as their outfits referencing the band members.
• Sleep Mask: London wears one of these.
• Small Town Boredom: Bailey decides to enroll in Seven Seas High to get away from her small town life in Kettle Corn.
• Space Sailing: The Starship Tipton is basically just the S.S. Tipton with warp nacelles and a forcefield to keep the air in.
• The Spock: Cody is this normally, but special mention should be made for when he becomes a full-blown Expy in Starship Tipton.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace:
  • Zack waits for this line to save Maddie from her nightmarish wedding by challenging the kid prince to a duel.
  • Maddie herself tried to object as well, but the minister adds "besides you".
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Despite the show being about twins, Cody was the focus of virtually every episode for the first two seasons, Zack only appeared to be a one-joke character. However, the tables turn in Zack's favor as of Season 3.
  • This may have been an attempt on the writers part to course correct as in the Suite Life Of Zack and Cody, it was Zack who usually was the focus of episodes, especially in season one.
• Squirrels in My Pants: Twice
  • Can You Dig It: Zack is buried up to his neck in an ant hill by a possessed Bailey, and when Cody rescues them, Zak gets out of the ant hill and gives Cody the credit for finding Zaria's crown. Before he goes off screen, he tells Cody that he literally has ants in his pants, along with him shaking his pants and legs trying to get them out
  • Snakes On A Boat: Zak and Maya get into a fight about how many girls Zack has been with. Before Maya walks away, there is a scene of a snake going up Zack's pants. During the scene that Maya walks away from Zack, one can see him shaking his leg, oblivious that the snake climbed up his pants. Doubles as a Groin Attack when the snake bites him
• Stalker Shrine: Cody's footlocker contains one dedicated to Bailey.
• Stalker with a Crush: Blanket, towards Emma Tutweiller.
• Standard Snippet: Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Love Theme plays in "In the Line of Duty" and "Das Boots".
• Starfish Aliens: The Anterians from the episode "Starship Tipton" seem more insectoid than humanoid, having four arms, antennae, and nothing that could really be called a face.
• Stealth Pun: In the episode "When In Rome", Zack mentions cowboy-ghetti, presumably a kid's pasta dish. No one brings up how this makes spaghetti western.
• Stock Ness Monster: Galapagos Gurdy in "Sea Monster Mash".
• Stop Drowning and Stand Up: In the first episode, Zack, Cody, London and Bailey are running from an alarm about the ship sinking and seemingly fall overboard. However, they realize that they're actually in a hot tub and that the alarm was just a drill.
  • The hot tub is used for this trope again when, after a chase against the jerk who tried to frame him for a jewelry theft, Zack falls into it and begs for help. Zack's Girl of the Week grabs his hand and they embrace in a romantic yet funny "death" scene parodying the Titanic. Mr. Moseby eventually tells Zack to stand up.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: While checking out babes in the main lobby:
  Woody: How about that one? Cute, blonde, nice legs. And, carrying a textbook, repressed bookworm, badly in need of good time.
  Zack: That's Cody!
• Super Cell Reception: The students, crew, and passengers about the S.S. Tipton all seem to have phones that get reception anywhere in the world (including remote locations in developing countries and at sea), are standard models that aren't at all bulky or complex (as one would expect from a satellite phone with such capabilities), and never incur any sort of roaming charges.
• Survival Mantra: In the episode "Senior Ditch Day", when Maya is too sick to accompany Zack to the beach club, and he finds himself surrounded by beautiful, exotic woman, he tries to garner strength by chanting "I do believe in relationships...I do believe in relationships..."
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: An episode features Zack, Cody, Woody,...and Moseby as part of an online game team. The latter's role would have liked been filled by Marcus if he was still around.
  • Also, Bailey could be considered this to Maddie. At least early in the show, she filled the role of the poor smart but pretty girl.
• Swallow the Key: In one episode Mr. Blanket, the school's insane Guidance Counselor, handcuffs Moseby and Zack together and swallows the key.
• Take That!: Cody's response in "Starship Tipton" when he hears Bailey will receive eight Nobels... for peace:

  Cody: I thought they were the real kind.

  • Considering the fact that the entire Curie family won five Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry for such feats as discovering the elements between Bismuth and Thorium and discovering nuclear transmutation, he should have seen that coming. No single person has ever won more than two Nobel Prizes.
  • London's "your mom needs a hobby" in regards to Bailey's large family (Despite being rewritten) could be one at Kate Gosselin and other reality shows with large families.
• Taking the Heat: In "Bon Voyage", the Aqua Lounge is flooded and Moseby threatens whoever is responsible will be expelled and banned from the ship. The guilty party is revealed to be Moseby himself, due to accidentally dropping his handkerchief in the exhaust pipe, but London takes the blame so Moseby doesn't get fired. Instead of getting expelled, her allowance is cut off.
• That Came Out Wrong: In the second episode, Zack is trying to cheer up Bailey about London running away.
  Bailey: It's all my fault London left.
  Zack: No trust me. She hated a lot of things on this boat besides you (Beat) That didn't come out right.
• Tickle Torture: Mr. Blanket has a "tickling jacket" as one of his methods for therapy. London has to wear it to get over her obsession of insulting people due to a bet she made with Bailey.
• Tongue on the Flagpole: London gets her tongue stuck a frozen smoothie that Zack had stuck on a popsicle stick.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tough and physically adept farmgirl Bailey and Rich Bitch fashionista London.
• Tonight, Someone Leaves The Ship: Invoked by the preview commercials for the episode, "Bon Voyage". Subverted at the end when no one gets kicked off the ship. The situation then turns into a double subversion when Marcus leaves the ship anyway for other reasons.
• Too Important to Remember You: Mr. Tipton, being a Serial Spouse, does this to London and Mr. Moseby. He only remembers which of his children London is after she reminds him she's the daughter of ex-wife #3, and the only detail he remembers about Mr. Moseby isn't that he's the former manager of the Tipton Hotel in Boston or the current manager of the SS Tipton, but that he was the best man at Mr. Tipton's fifth wedding.
• Totally Radical: Invoked deliberately by Emma Tutweiller to promote the 80s dance.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The promo for the Season 3 episode "My Oh Maya" completely gave away the main plot that Zack would develop real feelings for a girl, and would resolve to change his womanizing ways.
  • There was also Bon Voyage, where simply hitting info in the guide would tell you:
  Marcus Leaves.
• Trash of the Titans: Woody can "produce" enough gas to create an explosion and to "teach" Cody to hold his breath for 6 minutes. In the episode "Splash and Trash", Cody gathered a mountain of trash on the deck to teach a Green Aesop
  Moseby: Right, now take this garbage back to the trash room.
  Cody: Trash room? I got this from Under Woody's Bed.
  (Moseby look at Woody astonished.)
  Woody: (smiling ) I'm Filthy.
• Trash the Set: In the final episode, the ship is sold and is to be dismantled by episode’s end; we get to see the crew taking all the stuff away before everyone leaves.
• Trickster Twins: The eponymous twins.
• Two-Teacher School: One, actually, unless you count Blanket.
• Under Strange Management: In one episode, Zack, Woody, and Marcus (three teenagers) set up a fake Beauty Contest as a way to get girls. However, once they're caught, Mr. Moseby forces them to actually organize a proper beauty pageant as a punishment.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: London has a private submarine following the boat with her wardrobe...and a blimp, and a barge, and she still doesn't have enough closet space, which is why she resorts to underhanded tactics such as opening a fake boutique and booking an extra cabin under a false name.
• Unusual Euphemism: "What the Feathers!?"
  • This is looking more like Bailey's catchphrase.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Zack.
• [Verb] This!: Bailey does this in "Boo You" when London and Bailey keep pranking her on London's webshow.
  London: I don't understand your crazy robot talk.
  Bailey:: Understand this!
  (Bailey breaks London's camera and leaves in a huff)
• Very Special Episode: "I Brake For Whales" where the kids lock themselves in the engine room and turn off the boat to prevent it from hitting a pod of endangered blue whales.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: London and Bailey. Type 2.
  Bailey: (after their graduation) You know, I'm gonna miss you making fun of me all the time.
  London: Don't worry, I made you a CD!
• Visit By Divorced Parents
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Something of a Running Gag. To wit:
  • In the episode "The Wrong Stuff", Woody's off-screen projectile vomiting is implied to be quite profuse when Cody holds up an umbrella at the edge of the frame to protect himself and London, having to reposition the device several times.
  • In the episode "International Dateline", in each iteration of the "Groundhog Day" Loop, a different person ruins another person's personal affects by vomiting into/onto it:
    • Round 1: Bailey vomits into Haggis' hat.
    • Round 2: Woody vomits into Addison's purse.
    • Round 3: The Romantic False Lead vomits on Bailey's shoes.
  • In the episode "The Spy Who Shoved Me", Smith must manipulate Zack and Cody into doing his bidding, being stuck in the head in Zack's cabin. The noises he makes in there are horrible.
  • Even carried over to the Hannah Montana portion of the crossover, in which Robbie Ray spends most of the cruise relegated to the head.
  • Happens twice to Zack in the span of three minutes in the episode "Rock the Kasbah". Though actually the first time it's not off-screen.
• You Meddling Kids: The obnoxious socialite Ashton delivers the classic line almost verbatim in "Kidney of the Sea" when Ivana literally sniffs out evidence that he had tried to frame Zack for stealing the eponymous necklace.

Tropes in The Suite Life Movie

• All for Nothing: At the end of film, Zack finally convinces Cody to give the his car, only him to lose it when it is crushed by the crate containing London’s summer wardrobe because he parked the car is the shipping area of the dock and ignored the No Parking sign.
• Always Second Best: Dr. Olsen's motivation for creating the Gemini Project. Zack sympathizes.
• Assimilation Plot: To a certain extent. In fact, Dr. Olsen wants to merge twins together into a single entity once they have bonded well enough. He apparently wants to end suffering from differences in individuals the world over, but primarily he aims to end his suffering from being the "inferior" twin to Dr. Spaulding.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Cody witnesses Zack messing around with a submarine behind Dr. Spaulding while he's talking about how valued his research is, resulting in this exchange:
  Dr. Spaulding: Well, you know, not to brag, but do you know what the other researchers call me?
  Cody: IDIOT!
  Dr. Spaulding: No. Well, not to my face.
• Berserk Button: Cody presses Zack's when he says this:
  Cody: Well, I may not be interesting, but at least I have a car!
  (Zack then begins to scream his head off as he tries to beat Cody to a pulp)
• Big Bad: Ronald Olsen.
• Broken Aesop: Zack and Cody are saved from merging together into one personality and joining the twin hive mind by arguing with one another. They are essentially saved by the power of how much they can't stand each other. One could argue that they were intended to be saved by the power of individuality, but it came across as this.
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • Zack's girlfriend Maya is never mentioned, and he is back to his old self.
  • Cody and Bailey also act like they've never broken up.
  • The movie takes place during the final semester break before graduation... which would put it in direct conflict with the events of the "Twister" three-part story arc.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: If Zack had just explained to Cody the reason why he needed the car instead of hounding him to give the car to him, inadvertently causing trouble for Cody along the way, then Cody might have given him the car in the first place, they wouldn't have ended at the Gemini Project, and their brotherhood wouldn't have almost been irreconcilably strained.
• Creepy Twins: Some of the twins partaking in the Gemini project are rather... peculiar. They act and often talk perfectly in synch. Turns out this derives from the first three stages of the Gemini project: a physical connection with the twins sharing the same sensations, an emotional connection with the twins feeling empathy, and the twins become almost exactly alike (i.e. copying each other's sentences perfectly.)
• Darker and Edgier: Zack and Cody's lives are actually in great danger in this film.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Hurting each other, hurts each other.
• Dramatic Unmask: Dr. Olsen finally captured Zack and Cody in the climax and was just about to merge them together. However, before he does, he violently tears off his face revealing that he is really Dr. Spaulding's twin brother.
• Hive Mind: Dr. Olsen merges together a set of twins into a single personality and eventually creates a give mind.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Just after Zack and Cody find out about the merge and hive mind.
  Dr. Olsen: Well, well, well... well.
  Zack: That's a really deep well.
• Jerkass Ball: Bailey after learning that Cody is planning on doing an internship rather than go with her on spring break. She finally comes back to her senses after she realizes Cody wanted to join Yale.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Zack loses the car he wanted from Cody after he convinced the latter to give it him. But he had it coming for all the trouble he put Cody through throughout the film, refusing to own up to his mistakes while hounding Cody to give him said car, as well as parking it in the shipping area of dock and ignoring the No Parking sign, leading the car getting crushed by the crate containing London’s Summer wardrobe.
• Latex Perfection: Multiple times during a flashback montage.
  • To clarify, Dr. Olsen disguised himself as a janitor to easily infiltrate Dr. Spaulding's facility and steal his research, and most importantly to conceal the fact that he is Dr. Spaulding's twin brother.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After getting the letter Cody wrote for her and realizing why he did the internship was to get a scholarship to Yale, Bailey had this reaction when she realized that she completely overacted and decided to fix things by going to see him then apologized to him.
• Rocky Roll Call:
  Bailey: Cody!
  Cody: Bailey!
  Zack: Woody!
  Woody: Zack!
  London: London!
• Shout-Out: Dr. Olsen is obviously named for the Olsen Twins.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When Zack's latest bungle destroys Cody's entire future, he vows never to forgive his brother. The worst part is Zack refuses to admit that he did anything wrong, even claiming that Cody not giving his brother the car could've prevented the entire disaster. It takes a genetically-engineered piece of fruit for Zack and Cody to make up, and even then, it takes a while for Zack to earn his brother's trust back.
• Synchronization: The plot. The two are so at odds with each other that it is effectively Chained Heat.
• The Vamp: Kellie and her twin Nellie, who discreetly goad Zack to ride the submarine that helps cause destruction and get Cody kicked out of his first internship with Dr. Spaulding, and later, convince Zack to not leave the Gemini Project. Of course they are doing it under Dr. Olsen specifically under Dr. Olsen's orders.
• Wedgie, upon realizing that the Corsican fruit enables them to feel each other’s pain Zack and Cody both deliberately hurt themselves to hurt each other. So Zack gives himself a wedgie so that Cody will feel it.
• Woman Scorned: Holy cow, Bailey. After hearing Cody would rather do an internship over Spring Break than be with her, she begins to ignore him after a bout of fury, even going as far to "delete" him. After learning he was trying to earn a scholarship to Yale, she softens up and reconciles with him.

---