Western Animation / The Dating Guy

Left to right: VJ Mendhi, Mark Dexler, Woody Jenkins, and Sam Goldman

"Young and Useless, Restless and Wild,"

"We're wasting away, but we do it in style,"

The Dating Guy is a Canadian animated TV series from Entertainment One and MarbleMedia created by Mark Bishop and Matt Hornburg. It tells the story of Mark Dexler (voiced by Fab Filippo), a guy looking for love in all the wrong places (and usually the strangest places, too).

Mark's friends are:

• VJ Mendhi: Bollywood Nerd and eternal virgin. Voiced by Anand Rajaram.
• Woody Jenkins: Mark's best friend. He... Really Gets Around. Voiced by Sean Francis.
• Sam Goldman: Snarky Token Girl with Sociopathic tendencies. Voiced by Lauren Ash.

The series started in 2009 and ended in 2011 with 26 episodes. It can be seen on Teletoon at Night and Hulu. Here's the website. Warning: NSFW.

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The Dating Guy provides examples of:

• The Alcoholic: While all of the characters on the show are heavy drinkers, Zorro, VJ's raccoon, takes the cake.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys:
  • Ginger, one of Mark's girlfriends, becomes more interested when he gets involved in a gang war.
  • Inverted with VJ's girlfriend Lily, who became interested in her date when she saw his sensitive side.
• All Men Are Perverts and All Women Are Lustful: Including a dying boy, who exploits a scheme Sam hatches to touch her breasts.
• Always Someone Better: For VJ, this is his cousin, Sanjamar, who is rich, attractive, and gets many women.
• The Antichrist: Sam thinks her date's son is him. As it turns out, he just didn't take his Ritalin.

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: To convince a doctor he is insane, Anderson mentions a slew of crazy jobs he has. And that he also worked for one week in Gap Kids.
• Anything That Moves: While, for the most part, the group dates and does normal people, sometimes things can get... bizarre. At one point, Mark comments being turned on by a pack of wolves.
• Atlantis: Russell Peters recruits the group in an attempt to find it.
• Bad Boss: Denise routinely comes on to both Mark and Bryce (the latter of which she actually had sex with), Bryce, while not Mark's actual boss, is an authority figure and actively enjoys humiliating him and VJ, taking a picture of VJ with a golf-putting device on his genitals just to drive up his Facebook traffic.
• Bald of Evil: Discussed by Sam and Woody when her date, Carl, is bald. According to Woody, all bald men are evil.
• Bank Robbery: Bonnie does one. The plot of "Bonnie and Mark" deals with the escapade after the robbery.
• The Bartender: Both Woody and Celia, although Woody goes on his own adventures. The life of one is discussed by Mark and Woody in "Brother from Another Tanning Booth."
• Batman Gambit: Connie, a weathergirl fired from her position due to a blunder by Mark, engineers one on him. It works.
• Betty and Veronica: Mark dates Shari, who is intellectual and witty, and her puppet Mallory, who is foul-mouthed, makes sexual jokes, and is downright rude to Sam and Anderson. Mark considers Mallory real, not being interested in Shari at all unless Malory is a part of it.
• Big Eater: Vince's superior officer is always seen eating.
• Billy Needs an Organ:
  • Hospital Hottie Girl of the Week Marie-Claire, one of Mark's dates, promises him the best sex of his life in exchange for a kidney to save her brother.
  • It is strongly implied that during their jailbreak from a prison in the Philippines, Mark, Woody, and V.J. murder (or at the very least cut open) another escaping prisoner to steal one of his kidneys.
• Boy Meets Ghoul:
  • The Halloween Episode "There's Something About Amelia" has Mark dating a Werewolf.
  • In another episode, both Woody and Denise have a booty call with ghosts.

• Casual Danger Dialogue: Bonnie engages in this when with Mark while she's bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest.
• Censor Box: In a flashback of Mark flashing his friends, he has a censor box ob his penis has he does a "windmill". A small one.
• Church Militant: Mark's former girlfriend Gina, who is a nun-ja.
• Comic Sutra: In "Boner Donor", Sex Goddess Girl of the Week Marie-Claire promises Mark a "Mongolian meat mover." He has no idea what it is, but he's looking forward to finding out.
• Con Man:
  • Anderson is one by profession, although Sam also likes to engage in cons herself.
  • An Irish "leprechaun" and his hot daughter, Fiona, are ones.
• Conjoined Twins: An opposite sex pair, actually, Derek and Donna, who become interested in Sam and VJ when they are glued together. As it turns out, they were unknowingly joined together by their father, who had a sick sense of humor and died from a heart attack before he could tell them.

• Dumb Blonde: A Girl of the Week, Cherry Sundae, is a porn star who's saving herself for the right guy (outside of work, of course).
• Embarrassing First Name: VJ's first name, Vajeena.
• Embarrassing Statue: In "Statute of Limitations", Mark's Girl of the Week is an artist who makes a clay statue of his naked body as he slept and displays it in her art gallery. But the worst part is that the statue exposes he has a Teeny Weenie, and he's mocked relentlessly for it, despite his protests that "it was a cold night". He and his friends later sneak inside the museum to try to modify the statue and give it a Gag Penis instead, but they just end up breaking it.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Falafel Guy. Parodied in one episode where a name was actually given, but no one called him that.

• Expy:
  • A Girl of the Week, Charity, is a rather obvious one of Daisy Duke.
  • Another Girl of the Week, Lila, is one of Foxxy Cleopatra.
  • Girl of the Week Freida is one of artist Frida Kahlo.
• Eyepatch of Power: A Girl of the Week, Monica, who is a German spy, sports one.
• Fiery Redhead: Sam is one, as are a few Girls of the Week, like Fiona.
• Fish out of Water: Rina, VJ's fiancee from an arranged marriage, who is "an illiterate from a pissant village", who draws water from an airplane bathroom. She eventually adapts after hooking up with VJ's cousin, leaving him at the altar.

• Gasshole: Sam was briefly this in "Ass Pocalypse Now". When she and VJ were coming back from Brazil because Sam went to get butt implants, she wondered why she wouldn't stop farting after her surgery; until she realizes that her butt is now huge because the doctor transferred all of VJ's stomach fat into hers, and now she had VJ's butt, which also seems to imply that VJ is gassy.
• Girl of the Week: At least one new one a week, sometimes a guy instead for Sam. Each one is exceedingly quirky. Only Brie shows up more than once, although others can be seen in cameos.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: When Mark thinks Lila is crazy, little versions of Woody and VJ appear on his shoulder. Woody tells Mark to sleep with her, and VJ says he'd sleep with her if she was a glue-huffing troll.
• Going Commando: Connie, a weathergirl and one of Mark's dates, has to do this when Mark (unbeknownst to her), steals her panties. A strong gust of wind causes her to flash her audience. After this happens, though, she doesn't put any more panties on, continuing to flash her audience.
• Gold Digger: Diana, who is only interested in Mark if he has a yacht.
• Handy Feet: Sam's Guy of the Week in "Statute of Limitations" is a guy who lost both of his arms, but still manages to live a normal life by doing everything with his feet, including complicated things like eating or driving. He also looks down on people with arms, causing Sam to tie up her arms to live in his shows for most of the episode. It goes... poorly.

• Hooker With A Heartof Gold: Marie-Claire. She offers Mark "the greatest sex of his life" in exchange for a kidney transplant to save her little brother Gene. Gene is legitimately dying and Marie-Claire does live up to her end of the bargain.
• Hospital Hottie: "Boner Donor" sees both Mark and Sam dating incredibly attractive medical professionals, Mark a nurse and Sam a doctor.

• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: One of Mark's Girl of the Week's father does this in the episode "Beaver Fever", if he can survive, Mark gets to do the nasty with his daughter, if not he'll cut off his pinky finger.
• Innocent Innuendo: There are two white-trash, slutty girls who, when Woody asks if he's seen them before, tells him he saw their video: Two Girls, One Cup (a pornographic film). However, their version is actually the two girls dropping sugar cubes into a single cup of tea and the both of the them drinking it. The trope becomes subverted when, in the second scene, they do a gang-bang with a pack of jealous wolves.
• Internal Affairs: Vince is one of these cops. The person he investigates, Valerie is horribly corrupt and it's treated like a good thing, so not played like the normal Internal Affairs member.
• The Internet Is for Porn: VJ watches so much internet porn that he eventually discovers that he watched all the porn on the internet. A sexy computer voice congratulates him on finishing the internet and his computer shuts down for good.

• Karmic Death: Roberta shrinks Anderson, Woody, and Jeff to small size in order to use them as sex toys. While she does so, the shrink ray wears off, causing Jeff to expand while inside Roberta, killing her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Charity, a Girl of the Week uses her feminine wiles to cheat Mark, VJ, and Vikram out of a car, then backs out of her promises and drives away in the car...promptly getting into a car accident.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Pretty much all of the characters in the show are obssesed with sex and talk about it often, regardless of the fact they're having any.
• Male Frontal Nudity: Happens to Mark when he gets an edible suit wet on camera. Lampshaded by his boss.
• No Indoor Voice: Not all the time, but Vince is constantly on edge and speaks in a loud term when he talks about the day-to-day hell of police life.
• Mermaid Problem: VJ had sex with a mermaid, but he didn't wonder how it happened until after the fact.

• New Job as the Plot Demands: Anderson changes jobs on a regular basis. Part of it has to do with him being a Con Man, but others seem to be legitimate businesses he changes in a few days.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Sam, who becomes increasingly turned on when Vince mentions some of the disgusting things he'd seen as a police officer.

• Not What It Looks Like: Denise walks in on Bryce and VJ seemingly having sex on the former's desk. Bryce is actually getting a putting device off of VJ's penis that is stuck.
• Older Than They Look:
  • Ursula does look like a teenager.
  • As does Girl of the Week Brie.

• Only Sane Man: Possibly Celia, Woody's bartending partner. Her weirdest feature is that she thinks coffee is evil. It's a bit weirder that she's a Mormon working in a bar.
• Only Six Faces: Sam poses as Danica Morris. No one notices.
• Papa Wolf: The unnamed merman is one for his underage daughter whom VJ beds.
• Prison Rape: When the gang gets put in jail in the Philippines in "Boner Doner", Mark gets paranoid they're going to be raped. During the communal shower, he drops the soap, which gets a dramatic slow-mo shot as he yells a Big "NO!".
• Product Placement: Once an episode, Doctor Love is either mentioned or on a billboard.
• Psychic Powers: Archangel. Magically made drinks appear, tricked a robber with illusions, and read Sam's mind to figure out her childhood dream was to have Slinkies for arms. Works incredibly, except when he gets Illusionial dysfunction.

• Running Gag:
  • At one point, a shoe salesman is shot with a tranquilizer dart three times in quick succession.
  • This show loves having running gags, but one of the biggest ones is one of the background guys always gets hurt in a brutal fashion.
• Safe Word: "Gooseketeer" is the one Sam and Vince use when out looking for a serial killer.

• Sex Goddess: Marie-Claire Girl of the Week of "Boner Doner" is stupendously good in bed, and promises Mark the best sex of his life... in exchange for him donating his kidney to her dying little brother. Amusingly, she convinces him of her prowess by swalling a bunch of condoms and spitting out a balloon animal othat she made out of the condoms just with her tongue.
• Sexy Stewardess: Astrid and Anika, introduced as "Smoking Hot Swedish Flight Attendants."
• Shrink Ray: Scientist Roberta uses one on Woody, Anderson, and Jeff, the Falafel guy.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Woodyplicity", there are several shoutouts to The Dukes of Hazzard

• Another episode has Woody lament the cancellation of Gilmore Girls.

• Stage Magician: Sam's date Archangel, master illusionist.
• Stripperiffic: Monica, whose outfit consists of a coat with only one button fastened.

• Team Pet: Zorro, VJ's pet raccoon. Which is a bit unrealistic, as raccoons are illegal to keep as pets in the city of Toronto. Mind, it would simply be the first of many very odd charges they would get slapped with if they were taken to jail.
• Teeny Weenie: Mark isn't impressive down there, something Sam constantly makes fun of him of.

• Truth Serum: Lila attempts to use one on Mark, but accidentally stabs herself with it.

• Where da White Women At?: Woody constantly, in the episode "Brother From Another Tanning Booth" Mark and Woody change "colour" when they each get their skin lightened/darkened, black Mark proves this.
• With Friends Like These...: If the Girl of the Week is not causing a problem for Mark, then it's usually his friends.
• Why Isn't It Attacking?: Played for Laughs when Sam attempts to get a suspected Serial Killer to murder her, as he only murders extremely good-looking women.
• Zany Scheme: It's a rare episode when Sam isn't either hatching or roped into one. Almost assured if Anderson shows up.

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