Western Animation / PB&J Otter

PB&J Otter (1998-2000) is a 65-Episode Cartoon created by Jim Jinkins of Doug fame. The show centralizes on its three otter siblings, Peanut, Butter and Jelly, who live with their parents on Lake Hoohaw, where everyone lives on a houseboat. Each show presents a problem which the otters solve after doing the "Noodle Dance". The show lasted for three seasons on Playhouse Disney. Reruns were aired on the Disney Junior channel in the U.S. from 2012-2014, though the network continued to make certain content available from time-to-time through its mobile service. In August 2016, the complete series was briefly made available through the mobile service for free and on watchdisneyjunior.com, though since then most episodes are locked down to only to those who sign in through a provider, while two episodes from each episode are rotated randomly as being available freely.

The complete series arrived on Disney+ on October 19, 2022.

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Tropes present:

• Acrophobic Bird: Flick can fly, he's just afraid of heights. He eventually gets over this in order to grant the wish of a new friend during the Hoohaw Hoo.
• Advanced Tech 2000: A fairly regular Running Gag on the series is Ootsie and Bootsie Snootie having a new toys which are named in this manner. They'll usually comment that they're twice as good as the 1000.
• All That Glitters: Peanut gets a new pair of Airplane Shoes in "These Shoes Are Made For Walking" but goes back to his old ones by the end of the episode.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Peanut is a red otter, Jelly is pink. Pinch and Scootch are light blue raccoons. Ootsie and Bootsie are purple and pink poodles, respectively.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Scootch is always causing trouble with his older sister Pinch, and even friends, due to him unable to control his energy.
• Apologizes a Lot: Scootch. Specifically, Scootch always runs at people or things, bowling them over or knocking them down.
  Scootch: Sorry, sorry, my fault.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: Jelly in "Babbleberry Day," and certainly in other episodes, to the point of a Running Gag. In the aforementioned story, after she gets the idea to help with babbleberry picking:
  Jelly: Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?
  Peanut: How cool it would be to have central hot chocolate?
  Jelly: No!
• Are We There Yet?: The opening of the "When Are We Gonna Get There?" song opens with Flick asking this question and then the group singing a song asking about just when they're going to get where they're going.
• Argument of Contradictions: In "Kid Court," Peanut, Jelly, and Baby Butter are having an argument over which of them should get to watch their favorite TV show. They decide to have Pinch solve as a judge in a mock court and Peanut has Flick testify on his behalf. Flick says that Pinch must rule in Peanut's favor because of Peanut's Law, which states "that if your name is Peanut and the ring toss relays are on, then you get to watch them." Jelly protests that Flick is making that up. "Am not!" "Are too!" "Am not a hundred times." "Are too a hundred times infinity!" "Ooh, she's good."
• Artistic License – Biology: "Nothing But the Tooth" has Flick lose one of his baby teeth. Ducks don't have teeth in real life.
• Babysitting Episode:
  • In "Otterly Alone", Mayor Jeff babysits the Otter kids when Opal has to take care of Aunt Nanner, who is sick with the flu.
  • In "Three's a Crowd'', Opal babysits the newborn muskrat triplets, giving, Peanut, Butter, and Jelly a taste of Infant Sibling Jealousy without introducing a new sibling.
• Balloon Belly: Jelly imagines herself with one in "Otter in the Water".
• Baseball Episode: "Mama Peanut" has Peanut playing baseball with Munchy and Flick.
• Baths Are Fun: "Tub O' Butter" has Peanut and Jelly trying to find a creative way to make it fun for Butter. They eventually managed it by getting her to take a bath in a tub that was being used to hold potatoes.
• Bedsheet Ghost: This is Baby Butter's costume in "A Hoohaw Halloween." This type of decoration is also seen throughout the episode.
• Big Little Brother: Jelly, despite being Peanut's younger sister, is slightly taller than him. Comes up in "Lost and Found" with a You Must Be This Tall to Ride when the two are trying to get on an amusement park ride and Jelly is tall enough, but the attendant asks her "What about your little brother?" As it turns out, he is just tall enough if he stretches and the attendant is too laissez-faire to care that he stretched.
  Peanut: Little?! I'm her big brother. Hmph.
• Bindle Stick: When Flick fantasizes about running away in "Ducking Out On Valentine's Day," there is one sitting next to him in the train he's riding on.
• Body Pocket: In a near Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, Ernest finds a missing walkie talkie in his "pocket" in the episode "Trading Places."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The viewer gets a babbleberry pie in the face when Flick drops it during the intro.
• A Boy, a Girl, and a Baby Family:
  • The Otter siblings: Peanut (age 7), Jelly (age 6), and baby Butter (age 2).
  • Edward, Molly, and Nosey Mole from "Follow Your Nose" also fit this pattern.
• Broke Episode: "A Very Surprising Party" is a perfect example, in which, the kids have to help the poodles with their party for Mr. Bigdog when they don't have money to pay for anything, it was revealed at the end however that the bank made a mistake.
• The Bully: The kids of Lake Hoohaw cast Flick's cousin Billy as this after he told them a story about how once, when he was really young, Billy sat on him for four whole minutes. This was exaggerated in re-tellings to four whole hours and later four whole days. They even made up a song about it - "Big, Bad Billy the Duck." After Billy came to visit, the truth came out - one time Flick insisted on trying to give Billy a piggyback ride over Billy's objections and Billy fell on top of him and Flick was squooshed for something like five seconds. Flick had remembered it all wrong.
  • Ootsie and Bootsie are regularly cast as this, though they can be friendly sometimes.
• The Cameo: Quaildog appears on one of the comics displayed on Ernest's magazine stand.
• Catchphrase: "Oodelay!"
  • Peanut: "I'll use my noodle, but I'm not dancing." *starts dancing*
  • Flick: "Ah, cheese and quackers!"
  • Scootch:
    • "No, Scootch, no!" (by everyone else, before or followed by "Yahhhhh!")
    • "Sorry, sorry, my fault."
  • Cap'n Crane: "(honk) Watchbird alert! Watchbird alert!"
  • Edouard Snootie: "Have a rich day!"
• Character Development: Flick's mother, Shirley started off as a Pushover Parent who always spoiled Flick and never punished him, but she slowly began to assert her authority as the series progressed. In addition, Flick becomes a better friend to the gang and willing to lend a helping hand.
• Character in the Logo: Peanut, Butter, and Jelly appear in the show's logo.
• Chickenpox Episode: In "Otter Pox", Jelly catches the titular disease on her birthday. She and her friends try to come up with ways for her to participate in the festivities even though she is sick.
• Chirping Crickets:
  • Flick gets this after his performance of "Talkin' About Hoohaw Lake" in "The Singin' Kid." "Tough crowd."
  • Happens again in "Munchy's Sinking Feeling" when Flick tells his lame jokes to try to cheer Munchy up.
  • Jelly gets this in "Hope Castle" when Flick says that they'll defend it against wild creatures and she comments "Even it means sacrificing our lives in cruel and painful ways."
• Christmas Special: Though as is often the case with shows like this, they called it something else — "Hoohaw Hoo" in this case.
• Clingy Child: "Come Back, Mama" involves Baby Butter becoming very clingy to Opal when she learns that she has to go away for the day. Jelly and Peanut teach her the "Come Back, Mama" song to help her to see that just because she goes away doesn't mean she won't be back.
• Collector of the Strange: Mayor Jeff collects toilet seat covers and seems a tad too obsessed with them. Apparently Mayor Jeff really likes bathroom fixtures because another episode shows his house-boat being full of sinks.
• Cool Aunt: Aunt Nanner, who is a very cool aunt to Peanut, Baby Butter and Jelly. Around the end of the series, she gets married to Redolfo, who is rather cool in his own right.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Jelly's reaction to Peanut's suggestion in "Three's a Crowd" that Mama will have time to pay attention to them if they help her take care of the Muskrat babies.
• Creative Closing Credits: The closing credits always have brief clips of memorable moments from each episode and use an instrumental of one or two songs featured within the episode.
• Crying Wolf: "The Duck Who Cried Wolf." Also, in "Come Back, Little Monster," the other kids accuse Jelly of this because she said there was a monster, but they didn't see it. Jelly was telling the truth, at least about seeing what she thought was a monster, though it turned out to actually be a manatee (an anthropomorphic manatee, like the other anthro characters).
• Deadpan Snarker: Connie Crane. She's aware her husband, Cap'n, is an idiot at times, and just has fun with it.
• Digital Destruction: The Disney+ release of the series is presented with PAL audio and speed.
• Disappeared Dad:
  • Flick has no father shown on the program. His dad never even gets a mention.
  • Additionally, Munchy's father has been mentioned several times but is never seen. It's implied that his parents are divorced (another character comments that Munchy's dad doesn't live with them anymore.)
• Diurnal Nocturnal Animal: Straight with all of the Raccoon family members except Mr. Raccoon, who works on the recycling boat at night and sleeps during the day
• Doting Parent and Parental Obliviousness: Flick's mother, who has no idea how to handle this willful, mischievous child
• Dreadful Musician: Zigzagged with Flick. His singing wakes up Mr. Raccoon in Sleepyhead and Jelly even claps a hand over his beak to prevent him from singing a lullaby, yet he's also gotten solos on the show (such as Everybody Wins and Glasses Boy) that were quite catchy. It seems as if Flick's problem is that of volume rather than pitch.
• Economy Cast: It's implied the Watchbirds are the only law enforcement in the community, and Dad's General Store appears to be the Only Shop in Town. Also, Doctor Molar Fox appears to be the town's only doctor/dentist, while fanon holds that Mayor Jeff has been mayor for an ungodly amount of time. Plus, all the kids play in the same playground.
• Edible Theme Naming: The first names of the titular characters, inspired by the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
• Efficient Displacement:
  • PB&J and Flick imagine Simon doing this twice in the snow when they come up with ideas of how to make him fly in "The Ice Moose"
  • In "Thanks For the Giggle Melon" the characters leave imprints of their bodies when they lay in the snow.
• End-of-Series Awareness: The last episode features a song called “Nothing Lasts Forever” and ends with a more somber reprise of the show's theme song. Also, when the Noodle Dance is proposed, Peanut states that "For the last time, I'll noodle, but no way am I dancing."
• Enfant Terrible: A mild example with Flick Duck. Flick generally behaves very sweetly and nicely around adults, with "Yes, sir" and "No, ma'am" and all of that, but often gets up to mischief the second he's out of their sight, or at least he thinks he is. He's not without a conscience, though, and can also sometimes be genuinely friendly and nice. A good example of the mischievous behavior is in "Picture Perfect."
  Flick: Oh, good morning, Mrs. Otter. Sure is a wonderfully beautiful day. (Mrs. Otter closes window.) For bugging poodles. Come on, Peanut!
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: With a fair bit of regularity, particularly if the story itself was mainly humorous in nature.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: More mischievous than genuinely mean, but Flick is the biggest troublemaker amongst the kids and has a raspy voice.
• Face Doodling: In "Otter Pox," when Peanut shows Jelly her face with Otter Pox in the mirror, she asks if he's been drawing on her face again while she was sleeping, implying he's done this before.
• Facewing: Connie Crane in "I'll Be Your Best Friend" when her husband falls into the lake after craning to get a look at Bucky Spacebeaver's showboat; Flick later on in the same story after Munchy brings Peanut a chocolate-and-tuna flavored cake and he realizes he's just been outclassed.
• Fantastic Flora: Numerous, including babbleberries, pompalopes, pompanuts and giggle melons. Most of these are just fantasy equivalents of real-world plants, but the giggle melons actually make you giggle when you eat them.
• Fantastic Racism: In "Follow Your Nose," when Flick is afraid of a family of mole people
  Flick: Ah, cheese and quackers. Don't you know about moles?
  Peanut: Sure we did. Dad's got a big one right on the back of his...
  Flick: No! Not that kind of mole. I'm talking about real moles!
  Peanut and Jelly: Real moles?
  Flick: They're these strange creatures that make dark tunnels under the earth. They're martial arts experts and they carry these numchucky stick weapon thingies. ... Moles wear these dark glasses. That proves they're hiding something... Moles can't stand ducks. Or otters.
• Feud Episode: “The Silent Treatment” has Jelly and Pinch stop speaking to each other after Pinch gives Jelly a makeover that she hates, and "Forgive Me Not" has Jelly refuse to forgive Pinch for accidentally ripping her rodeo cape.
• Fiction 500: The Snootie Poodles have enough money to buy so many toys that their children become bored with the toys bought for them in the morning by the afternoon and they get new ones. In the song "That's the Way to See the Great Outdoors," they sing "We're climbing up Mount Hoohaw, though we coulda had it shipped" and are apparently quite serious about it. In another episode, they're actually shown having their likenesses carved into mountains like Mt. Rushmore.
• Filthy Fun: Baby Butter loves playing in mud, which is a big problem in one story because it's picture day and Peanut and Jelly need to try to keep her clean. As explained in the "Good Clean Fun" song:
  Peanut and Jelly: She's only happy when she's...
  Butter: Gooey!
• Forced into Their Sunday Best: Peanut, Butter and Jelly are forced into their Sunday best in "Picture Perfect." This is a big problem for Peanut and Jelly because they have to try to keep a constant eye on Baby Butter, who loves being Covered in Mud.
• Foul Waterfowl: Downplayed with Flick Duck. He's a Bratty Half-Pint in duck form and he can be a jerk to Munchy, but he shows that he cares about the others from time to time.
• Forgiveness: Seen in the story "Forgive Me Not" in which Jelly learns to forgive her best friend Pinch for ripping her cape.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: "Butter's First Check-Up" has various characters getting tickled throughout as part of a game, "Tippecanoe and Tickle Me, Too." Any time you trick someone into saying it, you get to tickle them. When Baby Butter has to have a checkup at the dentist, it's how Peanut and Jelly get her to open up her mouth so that her new tooth can be examined, by getting her to giggle.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Flick because he’s a spoiled brat who is obnoxious, boastful, loud and tends to be a bad influence on the other kids. Despite this, the gang still includes him in their fun and they do truly care about him.
• Furry Confusion: Flick is a talking, anthropomorphic duck but there are plenty of non-talking birds on the series.
• Furry Reminder: The characters behave mostly like humans, but there are reminders such as Munchy having a fondness for wood and the poodles sometimes speaking to each other in their own bark-like language.
• Glad I Thought of It: Flick in "Soap-Box Derby Day" after Peanut decides that the kids should have a soap box derby race. Almost certainly plenty of other instances as well, for example, this gem from "Gotta Dance:"
  Cap'n Crane: Watchbird alert! Watchbird alert! Wanda Raccoon just dropped all the pies into Lake Hoohaw. Hoo hoo. Connie, what are they going to do now?
  Connie Crane: I guess they could think of another kind of contest.
  Cap'n Crane: I've got it! They could think of another kind of contest! (Connie looks aggrieved.)
• Goo Goo Getup: In "Otterly Alone", when Mayor Jeff babysits the Otter kids, Butter misses her parents, so Peanut and Jelly pretend to be her parents and get Mayor Jeff to pretend to be her, which includes wearing a diaper made from a pink curtain. He is reluctant to play the game at first, but soon gets too into it, much to both his and Ernest and Opal's shock when the latter arrives home.
  Ernest: Wow, Opal. It's hard to tell who's babysitting who!
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Startlingly, for a Disney show aimed at preschoolers. In "Bubbles' Beginnings" the fish (originally belonging to Ootsie and Bootsie) runs away to PB&J. When they're told by their parents that they have to give them back, Peanut responds with a euphemism for the F bomb.
  Peanut: Even if Ootsie and Bootsie don't give a flip about Bubbles?
• Guilty Pleasures: There's a very similar situation to the infamous "Love Ducks" episode of Arthur at one point. While it's not nearly as much of a plot point as it was in Arthur, at the end of "Kid Court," in which the Otter children were arguing over what television show to watch, Flick Duck is found dreamily watching the show they agreed on; Baby Butter's favorite show, Baby Lovey.
• Happy Birthday to You!: An instrumental of it plays in "Thanks for the Giggle Melon" during a flashback showing when Ootsie and Bootsie Snootie got their birthday lights. After the flashback, they agree to lend to Jelly to help grow her giggle melon plant.
• Hey, That's My Line!: In "Otter in the Water", Jelly doubles this trope after Peanut suggests a Noodle Dance:
  Jelly: Wait a minute. That's my line. What happened to Mr. Don't Want to Dance?
• Holding the Floor: In "Hooray for Peanut," Edouard Snootie bores the audience nearly to sleep giving a speech about a pet food company he owns while Peanut Otter is supposed to be talking about how he saved Wanda Raccoon. Meanwhile, Peanut is off with Jelly and Baby Butter, admitting that he wasn't actually the hero who saved Wanda, and figuring out who it actually was (it was Butter.)
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: According to Peanut in the song "The Ballad of Johnny Pompalope," folks on Lake Hoohaw say "You're the pompalope of my eye" and "A pompalope a day keeps the doctor away."
• How Many Fingers?: In "The Legend of Ponce de L'Otter", the Otter kids use a bucket to fish for the lost telescope of Ponce de L'Otter, but accidentally wind up with the Snooties' telescope. After Edouard decides to let the Otter kids have it because it's too fuzzy to see out of, Peanut asks Jelly how many fingers he's holding up as she looks at him through it. Jelly tells him that she can't even see his hand, and Peanut is upset because the telescope is too fuzzy to let them even see things up close.
• Hurt Foot Hop: In "Ducking Out on Valentine's Day", after claiming he's glad there's apparently no Valentine for him from the Snooties, Flick kicks one of the Valentine crates, hops while clutching his foot, and then claims he's late for his foot doctor's appointment.
• Hypocritical Humor: In "The Legend of Ponce de L'Otter", the Otter kids use a bucket to fish for the lost telescope of Ponce de L'Otter, which gets the attention of the Snooties. When Ootsie and Bootsie fight over a telescope so they can see what's going on, Edouard tells them "I'm surprised at you! Poodle puppies do not grab!", then grabs the telescope and says "Give me that!"
• Idea Bulb: Always seen at the end of a "Noodle Dance" when a character gets an idea.
• Idle Rich: Possibly both Mr. and Mrs. Snootie, who seem to have no regular jobs. Mr. Snootie likes to bid people good-bye by telling them to "Have a rich day!"
  • Mr. Snootie works for Mr. Big Dog, who nearly buys up all the properties on Lake Hoohaw in the Grand Finale. Mr. Snootie doesn't see any problem with this because he enthusiastically tells all his friends that they'll be richer if they accept Mr. Big Dog's terms. In the end, Mr. Big Dog comes to appreciate Lake Hoohaw the way it is and doesn't drain the lake or force anyone to move. It's heavily implied in that episode that Mr. Snootie and Mr. Big Dog are both in real estate and/or land development.
• I'll Be Your Best Friend: This is the plot of a story on the show by the same name. The story features both Flick Duck and Munchy Beaver using this tactic on Peanut Otter to try to get his extra ticket to a radio show, endlessly trying to do his chores and give him favors to get the ticket in question.
• Imaginary Friend: Baby Butter has her "Buddy" in "Sherlock Otter," Jelly had an invisible octopus friend named Bobo when she was about Butter's age.
• Imprinting: The subject of "Mama Peanut." When Peanut agrees to look after a group of turtle eggs while their mother is off at the store, one of them almost immediately hatches and declares Peanut his mommy, embarrassing him when he starts showing up while Peanut is playing with his friends.
• Jaw Drop: Flick's jaw drops in "Thanks for the Giggle Melon" after Peanut voluntarily offers to do a Noodle Dance to help Jelly think of ideas to help her giggle melon plant grow and then starts dancing.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Flick's conscience will often compel him to apologize for misbehaving. He's also been shown to display random acts of kindness such as rescuing Butter's favorite balloon, congratulating Jelly for winning a singing contest, and trying his hardest to grant a younger child's holiday wishes.
• Just a Kid: Invoked by Peanut, Munchy and Flick in "Mama Peanut" when a baby turtle Peanut was told to babysit starts him "mommy." They sing a song about how they're all just kids. Peanut eventually goes off on the little turtle, only to then feel guilty. He apologizes and tells him that though he can't be his mommy, he can be his friend. At the end of the episode, Peanut asks his parents if it's okay for him to keep having fun being a kid as he grows bigger. They agree and a reprise of the song is performed.
• Just One Extra Ticket: In "I'll Be Your Best Friend", Peanut wins two tickets for a Bucky Space Beaver live show from a Radio Contest. When his two best friends, Flick and Munchy find out, each of them tries to prove who can be Peanut's best friend to get the extra ticket. However, Peanut has a hard time deciding because he doesn't want to hurt either one's feelings. He ends up taking a third option and giving his tickets to Cap'n and Connie Crane so they can go to the show while he, Flick, and Munchy watch the show from their lookout tower.
• Kangaroo Court: In "Kid Court," one was held to determine whether Peanut or Jelly would get to watch their favorite TV show, with Pinch as the judge. She ruled that their arguing was annoying her so much that she was throwing them both in jail until they could learn how to work out their problems civilly. Also comes complete with Peanut attempting to bribe Judge Pinch.
• Leitmotif: For the Snooties, a pompous theme with a classical feel to it.
• Lemonade Stand Plot: In "Lemon-itis", Peanut and Jelly want to buy a pair of hover helmets, like the kind Ootsie and Bootsie have. However, they are very expensive. When Ernest is rewarded with a giant lemon for helping the Muskrat family when they were sick, Peanut and Jelly decide to use the lemon to make lemonade and set up their own lemonade stand. However, since none of their clients have any money (except for Ootsie and Bootsie), they give it away for free. In the end, Ootsie and Bootsie give Peanut and Jelly turns with their hover helmets to thank them for sharing their lemonade.
• Less Embarrassing Term: Peanut Otter doesn't have a Bucky Spacebeaver doll "It's an action figure!" And Ootsie and Bootsie don't have "dollies." They're "pillow poodles."
  Peanut and Jelly: Dollies!
  Ootsie and Bootsie: Pillow Poodles!
  • Flick does this at the end of "Flick's Big Fakeout" after he is caught drawing a heart with a picture of himself inside it on Pinch's cast, saying it's a circle.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Jelly singing about friends and family keep her strong and being true to herself at the same time she lets fame go to her head in "The Singin' Kid."
• Makeover Montage: Jelly has one in “The Silent Treatment” as Pinch gets her ready for their tea party. She hates it, which causes an argument with Pinch that leads them to stop speaking.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The otter triplets Peanut, Butter, and Jelly themselves, which make up the "peanut butter and jelly" of the show.
  • Munchy the beaver likes to munch on wood.
  • The Snooties are indeed snooty over their rich lives.
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: In "Hope Castle," Munchy makes a tower out of sand and asks his friends what they think. Peanut tells him that it's a little crooked, but he and his friends tell him in song to "Try, Try Again."
  If at first you fall on your face / Try again, try again / Remember the tortoise won that race / And just try, try again...
• Momma's Boy: Munchy, and Flick, though he would never admit it. It's obvious, though, that his mother has decorated his room.
• The Moving Experience:
  • In the premiere episode "Bye Bye, PB&J," Flick's Out-of-Context Eavesdropping makes everyone think the Otters are moving. Actually, their parents are planning to move the single bed the three siblings have shared out of their room, and replace it with three nice new beds.
  • In "Pinky Pledge" in the third season, Walter Raccoon gets a new job at Lake Walla-Walla Bing-Bang, and Pinch thinks her family will be moving, but it turns out that Walter is just going to commute.
• Nervous Wreck: Munchy can be this way at times.
  Munchy: I'm so nervous! I'm so nervous! I've gotta go munch on a log.
• Never Say "Die": In "A Tree Grows in Lake Hoohaw," regarding the pompanut tree that Mayor Jeff planted. "The tree is very sick, and I don't think it's going to get better."
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Butter is the nicest and innocent of the otters, Peanut is mischevious, and Jelly is the most hard-working.
• Non-Mammalian Hair: Flick's mother has blonde hair.
• Not So Above It All: In "A'Sledding We Will Go," Ootsie and Bootsie spend most of the story teasing the other kids about not having a fancy sled. At the end, nobody can use their sleds, but Peanut, Baby Butter and Jelly realize that they can slide on their otter bellies just as well. Ootsie and Bootsie find that they can't do it and are upset. Then Peanut and Jelly offer them a ride. They turn to each other and agree, telling them, "Well, if you insist."
• Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Seen in "It's a Bird, It's a Plane... It's an Elephant?" (2000) Scootch gives one after Flick shoots him a dirty look for mocking him. Flick himself also gives one in the premiere episode "Bye Bye, PB&J" (1998)
• Ocular Gushers: Baby Butter cries these in "Baby Butter's Bankie" after her favorite blanket ("bankie") gets ripped to tatters after getting trapped in a closed window and she tries to pull it out.
• Once per Episode:
  • The Noodle Dance, save for a few rare instances where it is used more than once.
  • Also every episode features a musical number focusing on the problem of the episode.
• One of the Boys: Baby Butter seems to prefer to hang with her brother and the boys rather more than Jelly and Pinch, and they've more or less come to accept her.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Aunt Nanner's real name is Anna, as Opal will sometimes call her. To everyone else, she's Aunt Nanner.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Invoked by Peanut whenever he actually dances during a Noodle Dance willingly. "Well, this is an emergency."
• Or Was It a Dream?: The penultimate scene of Mayor Jeff just departing in the submarine in Munchy's dream, in real life in the episode sets off the aforementioned Mind Screw.
• Out-of-Character Alert: After Flick asks "Can't a duck get some peace and quiet?" in "Eye Spy," Jelly comments "Peace and quiet? You? Now I know something's wrong."
• Pepper Sneeze: In "Mayor Flick," one of the problems that PB&J have to solve is that Scootch spilled all of Pinch's spicy pepper, not only causing Pinch to sneeze uncontrollably, but leaving her with no pepper for her spicy pepper and peach jelly sandwiches. Later, Munchy gets his teeth stuck in a log, so the others use pepper to make him sneeze and jolt himself free.
• Performance Anxiety: Peanut has stage fright in "Howdy Hoohaw Day". He gets over it at the end of the episode.
• Phrase Catcher: In "Mayor Flick," when Scootch's attempt to sweep up the pepper he spilled causes Pinch to sneeze and blast him across the room, she uses Scootch's usual catchphrase and says "Sorry, my fault."
• Picture Day: "Picture Perfect," the thrust of the story is Peanut and Jelly trying to keep Baby Butter from getting Covered in Mud. "We need good clean fun, three dirty little words! Good clean fun - words she's never really heard!"
• Pink Means Feminine: Pinch Raccoon is a girly girl who wears pink.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Bootsie and Ootsie are a pink female and blue male poodle.
• Playful Otter: The title characters regularly play together.
• Precocious Crush: Flick sometimes mentions Mia Lamb a No Celebrities Were Harmed soccer star. She actually visits towards the end of one episode (her former coach had gradually warmed up to the Otter family's hospitality and he gets Mia to come along, too.) Flick faints the instant he recognizes her.
• Primal Fear: In "Follow Your Nose," Jelly is afraid of going into dark underground tunnels, but the Moles help her to get over it by showing her how to navigate using senses other than vision.
• Quote Mine: The Snootie children pull this in "Invitation to the Snooties" to trick their father into agreeing that they can have a twenty-eight foot ice-cream frog that croaks "Yankee Doodle" for their party.
  Eduard: Who ordered that? Huh?
  Bootsie: You told us we could have it, Daddy. Don't you remember?
  Bootsie (on tape) Can we have a giant 28-foot ice cream frog?
  Ootsie: That sings "Yankee Doodle"?
  Eduard: (on the tape, but from a conversation he had with someone else over the phone) Absolutely, that's a capital idea. (to Ootsie and Bootsie) Huh, well, so I did.
• "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: Possibly enforced, as if the characters were seen reading anything, it was usually comic books, but an episode late in the show's run had them singing about how great reading adventure books was.
• Rhyming with Itself: The "Good Clean Fun" song in "Picture Perfect" has "Some routine that is clean / And our clothes not wrinkled / We can stay all pressed and pure / And we won't get wrinkled."
• Rich Bitch: Literally with the female members of the Snootie family, who all happen to be poodles.
• Rich Boredom: The Snootie kids so much - despite all of their fancy toys, they're often bored to tears.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: The Snootie Poodles, often. The Snootie children are so spoiled that by afternoon they consider new toys they got that morning "old."
• Running Gag:
  • After a Noodle Dance, one of the characters makes an impractical suggestion often relying on some sort of technology they don't have:
  Jelly: We get us a time machine, and we go back in time...
  Peanut: Jelly! You have a time machine, and you didn't tell me about it!?
  • A character gets hit in the face with food or drink or is splashed. Happens at least twice in the opening sequence, but also happens throughout the series. Scootch is a likely culprit, but anyone could be guilty.
• Santa Claus: The Ice Moose, Old Tim, is the equivalent of this and delivers presents.
• Scare Dare: A dark cave that Peanut and Flick go into after Flick issues a "Double Duck Dare"
• Screen Tap: In the "Tippecanoe and Tickle Me Too" song in "Baby Butter's First Checkup," the otters three tickle the screen. Could also be a form of Breaking the Fourth Wall.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Snootie Poodles, sometimes. And screw (never mind shun) politeness too, sometimes:
  Eduardo Snootie: Watch out, rich people coming through! Watch out!
• Secret Identity: In his superhero fantasy sequence as "Glasses Boy" in "Eye Spy," Flick has one as a rich boy in a mansion with a butler.
• Shout-Out: Ootsie and Bootsie Snootie's "P-O-O-D-L-E" dance song in "Gotta Dance" is rather reminiscent, especially musically, of the Village People's "Y.M.C.A." Doubles as a Parental Bonus, since older viewers are much more likely to recognize this, especially as the show continues to age.
• Show Within a Show: Plenty, as the characters regularly watch television and read books/comic books. Some of the more notable ones included Mallard Man, Commander Casserole and Baby Lovey.
• Shrink Ray: After a Noodle Dance in "Bye Bye Bubbles," Jelly has an Imagine Spot in which she uses one of these to shrink away Lake Hoohaw so she and Peanut can find Bubbles.
• Sleep Mask: Mr. Raccoon sometimes sleeps with one on, as he operates the recycling boat by night and therefore must sleep during the day.
• Some Call Me "Tim": In "Come Back, Little Monster," when Jelly finally meets the manatee properly, he tells her that his name is (makes screechy manatee noises) but says to call him Kevin.
• Species Surname: Everyone except for the Snooties, who are poodles, but have "Snootie" as their last name. They are sometimes referred to as the "Snootie Poodles," though.
• Spoof Aesop:
  • Invoked by Peanut and Jelly in "The Duck Who Cried Wolf" after their Mom reads them and Flick the tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Flick gets the correct aesop, then spends most of the remainder of the episode showing that he didn't actually understand it.
• Start My Own: In "You Can't Come In," everyone decides to build their own clubhouse.
• Stock Aesops: Any number not already mentioned, including "All that glitters is not gold," "Follow your dreams," "Don't be shy," "The grass is always greener on the other side..." and more.
• Stock Ness Monster: In "Come Back, Little Monster," when Jelly is trying to convince her friends that the really is a monster, she takes a blurry picture of Kevin (a manatee, and the supposed "monster") that bears a resemblance to typical photos of the Loch Ness Monster.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Flick in "Eye Spy," when he's trying to hide the fact that he needs reading glasses. "It's not like I'm different or anything."
• Sweet Home Alabama: Although the program is never stated to be anywhere other than "Lake Hoohaw," many of the characters speak with a southern United States sort of accent and advocate a style of life that seems to match very closely with the best ideals of Southern hospitality (helps that creator Jim Jinkins was born and raised in Virginia). Additionally, much the show's music, particularly the instrumental cues, has a southern twang to it (aside from sounding much like that of Doug).
  • Averted with the Snooties. Edouard speaks with a slightly nasally Great Lakes/midwestern accent, Georgina seems to speak with an old-fashioned Mid-Atlantic accent, Ootsie speaks with a very sophisticated northern United States accent, and Bootsie speaks with a southwest Ohio accent.
• Tagalong Kid: Baby Butter, sometimes. One of the show's stories is called "Butter Tags Along."
• Talking in Your Sleep: In the opening of "Babbleberry Day," Jelly is having a sleepy morning and when Opal and Ernest shout from downstairs for the kids to wake up, that they've made tuna pancakes, she just mumbles "You can't escape me now, Lord Gravy."
• Team Spirit: Often comes up, and one of the stories has a song about it. "With a little bit of teamwork we can make this dream work out / Lots of hands make light work, that's what teamwork's all about."
• Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: Jelly and Pinch put Peanut in the middle of this in "The Silent Treatment," to the point where he collapses on the ground from tiredness of running back and forth between them.
• That Cloud Looks Like...: Peanut and Jelly in the opening of "It's a Bird, It's a Plane... It's an Elephant?" and the basis of the song "Imaginings."
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Suggested to Munchy by his mother when he keeps his feelings to himself in "Be Nice to Beavers Day."
• That Reminds Me of a Song: At least twice an episode (one episode is divided into two story segments), often more. Very Special Episodes may have up to 8 songs within a half-hour span. This is a very musical show.
• Theme Naming:
  • Pinch and Scootch are named for informal recipe instructions (such as 'add a pinch of sugar, and a scootch of cinnamon.')
• The One Who Wears Shoes: Not just the three otter kids, but nearly about all the animals here wear shoes — just not clothes.
• Third-Person Person: Pinch in her role as Judge Pinch in "Kid Court." And Baby Lovey in the TV show that Baby Butter watches in this episode.
• This Is My Side: Pinch and Jelly do this in "The Silent Treatment," but can't even agree on where the line that divides the sides should be, resulting in a sort of theoretical middle-ground that neither of them can be in.
• Title Drop: Episode title - "Hope Castle"
  Jelly: I know! How about Hope Castle?
  Peanut: What made you think up that name, Jel?
  Jelly: Well, I just hope this castle stays around longer than the last one!
• Title Theme Tune: Well, not the whole title, but "PB&J" is repeated a number of times.
• Toilet Humor:
  • In "Watchbird Alert", Cap'n Crane: "And here's a hankie, in case you get a booger."...gets some giggles from Peanut and Butter from saying this
  • "The Thing That Almost Ate Hoohaw" has a running gag with Flick getting a wedgie.
  • In "Three's a Crowd", Opal says she has to change a "poopy diaper." Yes, those were the exact words.
  • In "Gizmotronictron Raffle"
  Munchy: What's a poop deck?
  Flick: Don't ask.
  • Mayor Jeff collects inflatable toilet seats and puts them in the town museum, including the famed El Dorado, seat of gold.
  ''El Dorado, golden ring, the toilet seat fit for a king!
• Took a Level in Kindness: Flick Duck. In season one, he is deliberately mischievous. He is almost a Lighter and Softer version of The Bully, considering he does things such as teasing Jelly about her inability to swim, daring Peanut to go into a spooky cave, and making up stories just because he can. Gradually, over the course of the second and third seasons, Flick goes through some Character Development as he learns to treat his friends better and the lessons usually stick. (For example, offers sincere congratulations to Jelly in "The Singin' Kid", apologizes when one of his stories scares baby Butter, is more willing to listen to Peanut's suggestions, and even stands up to Mr. Big Dog when the entire community is in danger of being sold and destroyed.)
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Jelly is the Tomboy to her best friend Pinch's Girly Girl. There's a bizarre ongoing argument on the show's wiki about which is which.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Really, what do you think PB&J’s favorite food is?
  • Flick the duck is shown to love pie in several episodes.
• Unmanly Secret: Both Peanut and Munchy refer to their Bucky Spacebeaver toys as "action figures" instead of "dolls" to try to preserve their perceived manliness. Additionally, Flick Duck tends to behave very secretively about any behaviors or hobbies of his that would be perceived as girlish or too childlike.
• Unwanted Glasses Plot: Inverted with Flick in "Eye Spy"; he's worried everyone will think he looks dumb in his glasses, but nobody cares.
• Unwanted Rescue: Peanut, Jelly, and Baby Butter refuse a rescue by "Glasses Boy" in Flick's fantasy sequence in "Eye Spy" - they want to be rescued by a "real superhero."
• Very Special Episode:
  • Three in season 2, three in season 3. Easily distinguishable in that it is a half-hour episode and has up to four times more songs than regular episodes.
  • "Follow Your Nose" was written in part with the consultation of the American Council for the Blind and features comics in Braille and characters learning how to navigate using senses other than vision.
• Vocal Evolution: Peanut's voice has noticeably gone deeper in the later episodes.
• Walk Like an Egyptian: In the first part of the "Make It Last" song from the episode "Hope Castle," Peanut, Jelly, Baby Butter, Pinch, Scootch, Flick and Munchy are seen doing this, as this part of the song involves them imagining building a Sphinx in the form of Jelly.
• We'll See About That: Flick Duck in "World's Strongest Otter."
  Flick: Peanut Otter? Lake Hoohaw's strongest kid? We'll just see about that!
• What Are You in For?: In "Sgt. Gravel to the Rescue," Peanut has an Imagine Spot about being sentenced to row the book boat as a prison barge for returning a library book late. An otter who looks like an older version of himself with a beard asks him what he's in for. He tells him it was an overdue library book, but it was only one day late. The elderly otter replies that this is what they all say and the other prisoners laugh at him.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Flick is afraid of heights
• You, Get Me Coffee: When Flick is appointed "Kid Mayor" of Lake Hoohaw, he appoints Peanut, Baby Butter and Jelly as his assistants and makes his first order to them to get him food.
• Youngest Child Wins: Baby Butter gets an entire celebration to herself when she finds a piece of jewelry Mrs. Snootie lost on the beach. Her siblings get punished on the same day. There's also the fact that Butter rang the bell and helped Mrs. Raccoon avoid a boating accident, and that she befriended the lighting bugs that helped the Otter family get home when it was otherwise too foggy to see. For a 2-year-old, she's very resourceful.

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