A teenage boy and his pet Piranha Plant trying to get through life.
Carl is a Slice of Life Teen Drama web series created by FreezeFlame22 and the first installment released after the cancellation of The Koopa Kids.It centers around the life of Carl Mitchell, an Ordinary High-School Student, his friends Boo Who, Blooper Squidd and Dry Bones, his crush, and later-on girlfriend, Grace Grey and her three friends Talia Richards, Roxanne Smith, and Kylie Allenby, as well as his family, which is composed of his mother Linda, his step-father Calvin, his step-brother Logan, and his half-sisters Carrie and Sally. The show focuses on the lives of Carl and his friends and showcases their school, social and family life.
Carl was initially conceived as a spin-off series of FreezeFlame22's 2013 series, The Koopa Kids, where Carl originated in (where was a side character with a different design and personality who would always die in every episode he appeared in). However, The Koopa Kids was ultimately cancelled and replaced with a new series, Bowser's Koopalings, due to Freeze no longer being proud of the work he had done with the series, causing Carl to lose any lingering connection it had to The Koopa Kids and earn an identity of its own as a series.
The first episode was uploaded on YouTube on January 17th, 2017 and the show is currently on its sixth season, though on August 30, 2024, it was announced that the series would end after its eighth season. On May 28th, 2022, it was announced that the first three seasons of Carl would be remastered in order to give them a much-needed updated sprite and voice-acting work and to correct some inconsistencies the early episodes have, these episodes won't contradict anything of what's stated from season 4 onwards and will keep the original episode premises intact, with them receiving some tweaks so they can be suitable for newer audiences.
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Carl contains examples of:
Tropes A-F
- Abusive Parents: Out of the main eight characters, the parents of five of them fall under this category to a certain degree each.
- Dominik Bones has made it clear more than once that he doesn't give a damn about Dry Bones. His son could literally die and he couldn't care less.
- Nessa Squidd is verbally abusive towards her kids. Given that she has had to raise five kids on her own ever since her husband died however, it may be a result of her being stressed and not because she is nasty by nature.
- Roxanne's parents Catherine and Danny only care about what she achieves, and they neglect Liam, too. The reason why they do this is because they see Roxanne as more of a trophy and not as a child. It's not surprising to say that Catherine demeans people and expects people to do her will without questioning her. She believes herself to be superior to others. Her father isn't very good on keeping track of things and just prefers to watch the game on his phone and fails to see that he isn't paying attention.
- Talia's parents Ronald and Janet, especially Ronald, are over-controlling and emotionally abusive of their daughter. Is not that they are intentionally bad people, they are just too strict for their own good. Following their divorce and Janet's departure to the Marine Kingdom, Ronald has turned into a full-blown neglectful and emotionally abusive father who punishes Talia for the smallest things she does. What's worse, he thinks all of this abuse is good parenting.
- Kylie's parents are no better at this. Kristen is a two-faced and shallow woman that openly cheats on her husband, and is implied to be the reason why Kylie has so many insecurities, which she hides behind the image of a chic and snarky girl. Kylie's relationship with her father Bill hasn't been as deeply explored, but it is implied to be a very distant one, as Kylie very casually remarks how her mother cheats on her father.
- Adaptational Badass: Carl is a lot more prone to getting into fights then he was in the Koopa Kids. He even stood up to Gooper a few times, something he never did in TKK.
- Adaptational Villainy: While Gooper was little more then a generic bully in TKK, in this show he is a straight up sociopath who commits many crimes, such as abuse, sexual harassment, blackmail, and even kidnapping.
- Adaptation Expansion: Carl, Blooper, Dry Bones, Boo, and Gooper are given more background, and characterization than they did in the koopa kids.
- Adults Are Useless: Most of the adults in the show are shown to be either incompetent, abusive, unbearable, or all three combined. The parents of the main characters are particularly notorious in this regard:
- Dry Bones is verbally and emotionally abused by his father on a daily basis. Dry Bones could literally die and his father would likely celebrate it. Dry Bones' Blatant Lies and jerkish personality is basically a defense mechanism he developed in order to combat the fact that his father destroyed any self-esteem he once had.
- Blooper is regularly bullied by his older brothers mainly because his mother has basically given up on life and resorts to blow off all the stress she has accumulated by insulting her children.
- Talia's parents pester her all the time and fail to see that the reason why she resents them in the first place is because of the way they have always treated her. Even worse, her father thinks all of this is good parenting.
- Roxanne's parents essentially treat her like a trophy. They do nothing but brag about her all the time and completely fail to see that their daughter is an emotional wreck as a result of her failed relationships. Also, during the time Roxanne was kidnapped, her mother did nothing but angrily demand that people helped her while also demeaning anyone who tried to contribute or comfort her, whereas her father straight up didn't even notice that she had been missing for a month. There's also them either forgetting about the existence of their older son Liam, or constantly comparing him to Roxanne, which is the reason why Liam is who he is today.
- Kylie seems to have a complicated relationship with her parents, especially with her mother. She casually mentions how her mother is often unfaithful to her father and doesn't seem to think very highly of either of them. Kristen is seemed to be disappointed in her husband when she burns his clothes. She has had plastic surgery and can be very promiscuous and is dishonest when it comes to cheating on her husband.
- Generally averted with Carl's mother and Grace's father, who often look out for their children's well-beings. Carl's step-father Zig-Zags this, as while he definitely tries, he sometimes fails at being a good example for his kids.
- The Toad Town High faculty is this in spades. Coach Johnson, the gym teacher, is a Manchild who would rather play games with his phone and pursue a childish crush on Principal Staffordshire than teach class, Mr. Morris often complains about having to do his job and how much he hates the students and yet he still wonders why neither none of the other faculty members or the students respect him, Ms. Bishop was always uninterested in doing her job and openly insulted her students when teaching class. She eventually quit her job and left the Kingdom altogether. Steelix, the previous principal, was never concerned about the students' education and is even implied to have sexually harrased some of them. Staffordshire, the current principal, is far more competent than Steelix and knows how to do her job, but she tends to give detention to the students for very minor things. The school also has a severe bullying problem in the form of Gooper and his Gang of Bullies, but that's mainly because Gooper doesn't respect adults or authority figures for that matter. In Revenge of the Simp, Talia's father put it best:
Ronald: The only lesson those dunderheads have ever taught is how not to run a school! - Apathetic Teacher:
- Mr. Morris, who always complains about how much he hates his job and his students all the time.
- Ms. Bishop. She always seemed uninterested in her job and openly insulted her students while class was in session.
- Big Eater:
- Roberto. His body shape speaks for itself.
- Carl's younger sister, Sally, often comments on being hungry and eating a lot
- Blatant Lies: Dry Bones lies about being rich all the time, most likely out of insecurity and to cope with the fact that his living conditions are horrible and that his father hates him.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The girls. Roxanne is blonde, Grace and Kylie are brunette, and Talia dyes her hair red starting with the season 3 finale. Later episodes would also reveal that Roxanne is not a natural blonde and that she too dyes her hair. Season 6 has Roxanne and Grace "swap" hair colors, as Grace dyes her hair so that it gradually goes from brown at the top to blonde at the bottom, whereas Roxanne now only adds blonde highlights to her hair.
- The Bully: Gooper and his gang, but him and Mary-Lynn stand out the most.
- Canon Discontinuity: As of the release of the remastered versions of seasons 1, 2 and 3, the original classic versions of those episodes are not considered canon to the rest of the series.
- Catchphrase:
- Grace: "Oopsie!"
- Linda: "Silly me!"
- Gooper and his gang: "Shut up, Flaig!"
- Characterization Marches On:
- The first few episodes merely present Grace as a simple love interest for Carl instead of having her be the clumsy dork she is in later episodes.
- The first few episodes portray Calvin as a Wicked Stepfather, being quick to verbally demean Carl, making out with Linda in front of the children, and generally coming off as unpleasant. As the series went on, Calvin's characterization was shifted to that of a step-father who is blunt and strict, but truly cares for the well-being of Carl. An early episode also has Calvin singing rap music in the shower, whereas later episodes have Calvin state very often how much he hates rap music.
- In the first season Logan is shown to be indifferent to Carl at best and a Big Brother Bully at worst. Nowadays, this behaviour of Logan towards Carl would be absolutely unthinkable.
- In his debut episode, Coach Johnson was an imposing no-nonsense war veteran whom many female students had a crush on. Not long after that, he became a Manchild who barely knows how to do his job, has a childish crush on Principal Staffordshire, and who overall is perceived by everyone as being incredibely pathetic.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- "Carl Sr.", an imagination of Carl's biological father that was prominent during the first two seasons of the series, hasn't made a single appearance ever since "The School Dance (2/2)". This is most likely because his role would consist in appearing to boost up Carl's confidence and give him advice whenever he needed it, and ever since Carl and Grace started dating Carl is less shy and more confident in himself (to the point where he is not afraid of Gooper anymore), thus not needing "Carl Sr." anymore. He doesn't even appear in the remasters, with Calvin fulfilling the role of Carl's father figure instead. To further demonstrate this, the remastered version of "The Motorhome Trip" has Dry Bones' father reveal that Carl's real biological father was a man named Francis, and that he abandoned Linda as soon as he found out she was expecting a child from him, essentially retconning "Carl Sr." from the series.
- Humphrey Onix, the principal of Toad Town Grammar, has not made an appearance in the series since "Toad Town Grammar". This could be due to both Principal Steelix being replaced by Principal Staffordshire, rendering their rivaly useless, and Toads not being a major resident species in the Koopa Kingdom (they used to be at first, but that was because the show originally took place in The Mushroom Kingdom before it was Retconed to take place in the Koopa Kingdom).
- Many of the background characters from the first two seasons were retired from the series as a result of the character sprites undergoing Art Evolution, being replaced by much better-looking and more expressive characters.
- Didn't Think This Through: In Toad Town (the city in which Carl takes place in), there are adults who are a lost cause for their children, laughably unqualified teachers in Toad Town High, and teenagers who often act on impulse or sheer stupidity. Most of the time, they don’t even stop and think about the consequences of their actions.
- Disappeared Dad:
- Carl's biological father left when Carl was four years old.
- Blooper's father was eaten alive by an Unagi back when he was a child.
- The Dog Bites Back: In a high-school series about love and getting through life, events like these are quite frequent. Be it Carl attacking Gooper or even Gooper's gang doing something whenever they have been wronged badly.
- Dreadful Musician:
- Logan's trying to make a name for himself in the rap industry. That said, his music is said to be terrible by other characters.
- Whatever you do, don't let Mary-Lynn sing.
- Dysfunction Junction: Carl & his friends don't have it easy.
- During the first season Carl was a shy, insecure, and somewhat emotionally fragile kid. He often found himself on the receiving end of Gooper's abuse, and often finds himself in trouble one way or another. When he was enrolled in Toad Town High, he had to adjust to the school, which includes dealing with the... interesting students and school faculty alike. Over the course of the series however, Carl became more self-confident and has stood up to Gooper on more than one occasion.
- Boo is a literal ghost because of an fatal accident. He lives in poor financial circumstances and his parents can barely afford air conditioning. That said, Boo's parents are shown to unconditionally love him and he doesn't seem to mind his economical status.
- Dry Bones has his skin burnt off because of a fire that broke out in his home, killing his mother and leaving his whole family crippled. His father is verbally and emotionally abusive, and his grandfather does nothing but swear and shout at his family. He lives in a household that he is clearly not proud of, so he constantly lies about being rich to hide away his own insecurities.
- Blooper has dealt with his father getting eaten by an Unagi, his older brothers constantly picking on him, and his mother not doing anything about it due to the stress of raising her children on her own. For the longest time, unlike Carl and Dry Bones, he was unsuccessful at entering a relationship with his love interest, who he had to witness getting treated horribly by Gooper. Blooper is also both figuratively and literally a fish out of water; figuratively, as his own personality often clash with others' ideas, and literally, as in he is an underwater creature on land who occasionally struggles with communicating with those beyond his kind due to his langauge.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The classic episodes are filled with many elements that look out of place in later seasons.
- The classic versions of the very early episodes had a completely different intro with Carl getting in trouble with the principal and later blowing up Gooper's car. The Route 10 theme from Super Smash Bros. 4 is heard over it.
- In what is a Call-Back to his counterpart's role in The Koopa Kids, Carl would often imagine himself dying in gruesome ways during the first couple of episodes. This gag was soon dropped from the series altogether.
- Gooper's gang rarely told Flaig to shut up during the first few episodes. In addition, Mary-Lynn was portrayed as being part of the gang rather than just tagging along with them only because she is dating Gooper.
- Kylie is just a background character during the first few episodes of Season 1, and didn't get a major role until episode 4. It certainly feels strange to see Grace, Talia, and Roxanne go to a party without Kylie in the very second episode of season the series. The remasters fixed this by introducing her alongside the other girls from the start.
- Many of the Koopa Kingdom's (The Mushroom Kingdom back then) local wildlife was composed of... Pokémon. This is very prominent in episodes like "Pidgey Problems" and "Too Much Water", which feature Pokemons as part of the main plot. Later episodes use wildlife belonging to the Super Mario franchise.
- In "The Hike", Calvin states that after Princess Peach became the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, she legally allowed Koopas to live in the kingdom. Good, except it was later established that both Carl and Bowser's Koopalings take place in the Koopa Kingdom with Bowser as the ruler, and that Toads were exiled from the land roughly one thousand years ago. Not only that, but when Peach herself appeared in a Flashback Episode of Bowser's Koopalings, she states that she and the Toads she lives with were exiled from Toad Town and had to settle in Dinosaur Land.
- For the first two seasons, Carl often imagined a silhouette of his father, aptly named Carl Sr., who usually gives advice to Carl. While a frequent occurrence initially, as of "The School Dance" this no longer happens, and is completely absent in the remasters.
- Season 1 is the only one which doesn't end with a two-part episode. It is also the only season where Sebastian doesn't appear, as he was only introduced in the very next season.
- Everyone Went to School Together: The season 5 episode "Looking Back" reveals that Calvin attended the same high school as Kristen and Catherine (Kylie and Roxanne's mothers respectively), Roberto's father, and Oscar and Janie's mother. Linda on her part attended the same high school as Felix, Grace's father.
- Family Theme Naming:
- Blooper's brothers are all named after different species of squid.
- All of Dry Bones' known male relatives have Slavic names that start with a "D"; Dry Bones' real name is Dimitri, his father is named Dominik, and his grandfather Dobrimir.
- Mary-Lynn's sisters are named Sheri-Lynn and Amy-Lynn, these being female names that end with an "i" sound and are followed by "-Lynn". She also has an aunt whose name is Terri-Lynn.
- Floating Timeline: Exaggerated compared to other shows set in the FF22 universe. The titular characters and his friends have been high-schoolers ever since the show started in 2017. Carl and the boys, Grace and the girls, their classmates, Gooper, Mary-Lynn and Flaig are all stated to be 15-to-16 years old high-school freshmen at the start of the series (with the school year explicitly having started on September of 2017 and ending on May of 2018), but their age gets a bit more ambiguous as the series goes on: Season 3 of the series starts during a new school term, meaning their second year at Toad Town High, making Carl and co. sophomores, on September of 2018 and ending on May of 2019. Starting with season 4 however, things get a bit more confusing, as the characters are all stated to be on their third year of high-school, which started on September of 2019, making them juniors, which would peg them at 17-to-18 years old, but the passing of time becomes more apparent in the sense that New Year's 2020, Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2021, and Spring Break of 2022 are all celebrated in season 5, and the characters are still on their third year of high-school and not looking any older three years later. Likewise, Bob is 18 years old at the start of the series, which would make him a senior, but is still in high-school at a point where he should be 20 years old (granted, given that he isn't the smartest it is entirely possible that he simply got Held Back in School). Needless to say, if it weren't for the Floating Timeline, the main cast would have graduated by the fifth season of the series.
- Four-Girl Ensemble:
- The Ditz: Grace
- Deadpan Snarker: Talia
- Really Gets Around: Kylie
- The Smart Girl: Roxanne
- Four-Man Band:
- Deadpan Snarker: Carl
- The Smart Guy: Blooper
- Casanova Wannabe: Boo
- Butt-Monkey: Dry Bones
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Among the four boys, Carl is Phlegmatic (being a snarky and somewhat socially awkward teenager who, more often than not, has to hold his friend group together) Blooper is Melancholic (being the smartest and most diligent of the group, but also a tad too judgemental, especially during the early seasons), Dry Bones is Choleric (being severely blunt and prone to lying, but hiding many insecurities underneath this facade) and Boo is Sanguine (being a ditzy and girl-crazy teenager who is not very aware of his surroundings).
- Among the four girls, Grace is Sanguine (being a cheerful and very friendly Girly Girl), Talia is Phlegmatic (being someone who started off as shy and insecure, but that eventually embraced a more confident and snarky side), Roxanne is Melancholic (being the smartest and most elegant of the group, but also the most emotional), and Kylie is Choleric (being a popular and chic girl with a very sharp tongue, but that has soft spot for her friends).
- The Friend Nobody Likes:
- Jim Flaig is this to Gooper's gang. "Shut up, Flaig!" is heard quite often.
- Mr. Morris qualifies as well. Everyone in Toad Town High absolutely loathes his attitude because he always rants about his life and takes his personal problems out on everyone.
Tropes G-T
- Gossipy Hens: Janie and Oscar are Toad Town High's main source of gossip.
- Hypocrite: Mary-Lynn gets angry whenever she finds out that Gooper has been cheating on her... despite the fact that she has cheated on him on numerous occasions. The same also applies to Gooper.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: Freeze decided to remake the Carl Theme Song by adding some electronic beat to it.
- Interspecies Romance: Blooper, a squid, is in a relationship with Roxanne, a Koopa.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Calvin may seem a little too stern and uncaring sometimes, but he genuinely cares for his family and considers Carl as much of a son as his biological kids.
- Sure, Dry Bones tells a lot of Blatant Lies and may seem obnoxious at times, but it would be wrong to say that he does not care about his friends.
- While Liam is a brute and often sucks up to Gooper, it is shown that he does have his limits with him and genuinely does care about Roxanne deep down despite their difficult relationship.
- Like Is, Like, a Comma:
- Camp Gay and Valley Girl siblings Oscar and Janie speak like this.
- Leon, the main antagonist of the "Summer of '19" duology, always incorporates "like" in his Surfer Dude talk.
- Local Hangout: Many of the characters in Carl go the local Goomburger.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Kylie is a snarky popular girl, but she isn't the nasty type.
- Lovable Jock: Tucker is a very decent guy, once you manage to get past his short temper that is.
- Love Triangle: There used to be one between Blooper, Roxanne, and Gooper. Blooper has feelings for Roxanne, who seems to be oblivious to it. Roxanne on her part is being blackmailed by Gooper into dating him, as he's threatening to tell everyone about how she made out with him while dating Tucker (which he pretty much emotionally manipulated her into doing) and ruin her reputation. Roxanne later admits to Blooper that she too has feelings for him, but can't bring herself to dump Gooper out of fear that he'll destroy her reputation and make her lose her friends. Thanks to Carl however, Roxanne gets over her fear and uses Gooper's blackmail against him, confessing on her own accord, dumping Gooper for good, and starting a relationship with Blooper.
- Missing Mom:
- Dry Bones' mother died before the events of the show.
- Grace's mother abandoned her family to join a feminist cult when Grace was still a child.
- Logan's biological mother ran off with a scuba instructor when he was still a baby.
- Talia's mother left the Koopa Kingdom and went to live to the Marine Kingdom after getting a divorce.
- NEET: Logan dropped out of school and doesn't have a job. To be fair, he wants to pursue a career as a rapper, but has had little to no success regarding that.Logan: I'm an online rapper, and my song's got eleven downloads.
- Nonconformist Dyed Hair: As of season 6, Grace, Talia and Roxanne have their hair dyed this way, though Talia is the one that fits the trope the most due to her rebellious attitude later down the series.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite the name, there are little to no Toads living in Toad Town.
- Official Couple: Plenty of them, but a few are considered the "core" couples of the series.
- The first Official Couple of the series was, not Carl and Grace surprisingly enough, but Dry Bones and Talia. They then broke up in season 3, but rekindled their relationship at the end of season 4, and throughout the show have served as somewhat of a Beta Couple to Carl and Grace. They then broke up for good in season 6, but this time they mutually agreed to end things off in friendly terms.
- The main couple of the series, Carl and Grace, got together in the season 2 finale and have been together ever since. Hilariously, it turns out the two quickly took a liking to each other when they met each other on their first day of high school, but neither had the courage to tell the other how they felt until the very end of their freshman year.
- Blooper and Roxanne had nearly five seasons worth of romantic tension before finally getting together in the season 5 finale. Prior to that, Roxanne dated Tucker, but they ended up splitting up due to a combination of Gooper's Blackmail and Tucker often taking her for granted, deciding they were better off as Just Friends. Since getting together, Blooper and Roxanne seem to have taken up Dry Bones and Talia's old role as the Beta Couple to Carl and Grace.
- The Story Arc of season 6 is about Talia and Kylie becoming one, with Kylie dealing with her feelings for Talia, being the very first person she has fallen in love with, and how to confess to her.
- Outside those four couples, Linda and Calvin have been Happily Married since the beginning of the series, and Grace's father Felix began dating the school's principal Sydney Staffordshire in season 4.
- Protagonist Title: Who do you think the main character is?
- Put on a Bus:
- Coach Ronson, the former PE Teacher, was taken away by the gorvement as a result of being mistaken by an alien at the end of "Detention". He was later replaced by Coach Johnson.
- Ricky Steelix, the Toad Town High principal, was fired from the school in "The New Principal" and replaced by Sydney Staffordshire, with the reason being heavily implied to be sexually harrassing some of the students. He made a return in "Summer of '19 (2/2)", revealing that he had gone to Ocean Side in order to get away from the scandals, and has since become a janitor at Toad Town High.
- In "Happy Anniversary", Miss Bishop, Carl's Homeroom teacher, was stated to have been offered a job at a school somehwere in the Kaktus Kingdom and moved there permanently as a result. Carl even lampshades how she will never come back.
- Talia's mother was stated to have divorced Talia's father, packed her bags, and moved to the Marine Kingdom in "The Thanksgiving Dinner".
- After breaking up with Kylie in "The Valentine's Bowl", Emily tells her that she will be transferring schools just so she doesn't have to see her again. At the end of the episode, Emily is seen getting into a bus, leaving Toad Town for good.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Carl's middle name was originally stated to be Benjamin in "The Election", but in the remastered version of "A Christmas Carl" his middle name is Wattson, which is kept in following episodes. Similarly, Kylie's last name was originally given as Alexander in "Carl's New Carl", but later episodes establish that her last name is Allenby.
- In the classic version of "Too Much Water", it is stated that Boo froze to death because his parents were not able to afford heating. However, in "The New Girl" Boo himself says that he died after being hit by an oil truck. Later episodes, including the seasons 1, 2 and 3 remasters, use the oil truck version.
- In "Boo's Big Date", Grace states that Boo once said her grandmother was hot. This contradicts the events of "Mr. Mitchell vs Mr. Grey", in which Grace's grandmother is shown to have died before the events of the show, with her ashes being kept in an urn at her home (and while it was only her paternal grandmother, it is unlikely that Grace was talking about her maternal grandmother given how it's established that Grace's mother left when Grace was very young, so chances are that she doesn't know much about her mother's side of the family). Granted, Boo could have simply seen a picture of what Grace's grandmother looked like when she was alive.
- Linda and Felix are shown meeting for the first time in "Mr. Mitchell vs Mr. Grey", but in "Looking Back" it's shown that the two have known each other since high school. Given that the first three seasons of Carl are being remastered however, this is likely an intentional Retcon.
- The remastered version of "Logan's New Girlfriend" has Calvin saying that he is 47 years old. However, Calvin's year of birth has been given as 1973, meaning that he'd have to actually be 44, as the episode is set in 2017.
- Carl's grandfather Wattson is shown drinking beer in "The Thanksgiving Dinner", even though he himself stated in "Carl's Grandpa" that he didn't drink alcohol.
- Shout-Out: The end of the intro, with Carl, Boo, Blooper and Dry Bones lassoing the show logo into the frame, is very similar to what Doug Funnie does in the intro to his eponymous show. The classic intro is an even more blatant Homage to both the Nickelodeon and Disney intros, with much of the action taking plance against a plain white background.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Someone should wash Dry Bones' grandfather's mouth...
- Social Services Does Not Exist: It's anyone's guess as to why Dominik Bones hasn't been arrested for his constant neglect and emotional abuse of Dry Bones yet. In a more notorious regard, Carl even told Calvin about Dry Bones' situation but he was completely unfazed by it (Granted, Carl didn't give Calvin the details).
- Stacy's Mom: Quite a lot of male teenagers have noticed how attractive Linda Mitchell is. Boo in particular is very fond of her.
- Story Arc: Each season of the series is marked by a specific arc that lasts its entirety:
- Season 1 is about Carl, who is socially awkward, trying to adjust to his new high-school life with the help of his friends, as well as becoming friends with his classmates and getting to know Grace better.
- Season 2 is about Carl actively trying to grow closer to Grace and confess his feelings to her. Grace eventually reciprocates his feelings in the season finale.
- Season 3 is marked by Dry Bones and Talia's break-up and how each of them is coping with it. It's also the start of Talia's Character Development and is symbolized in the season finale with her Expository Hairstyle Change.
- Season 4 is all about romantic relationships; there's a dedicated episode to Calvin and Linda's 12th anniversary, Gooper and Roxanne's past as a couple is explored as well as her relationship problems with Tucker, Blooper's crush on Roxanne is given more depth, Talia's new relationship with Chad is given focus throughout the entire season, Felix and Staffordshire begin dating, and Dry Bones and Talia get back together in the season finale after her relationship with Chad comes to an end.
- Season 5 is focused primarily on Blooper and Roxanne's relationship after she breaks up with Tucker. More specifically, it talks about how Gooper blackmails Roxanne into dating him, getting in the way of the two. Roxanne eventually stands up to Gooper and dumps him for Blooper in the season finale.
- Season 6 puts the spotlight on Kylie's feelings for Talia following the latter's definitive, but friendly, break-up with Dry Bones, with Kylie having to deal with actually being in love with someone for the first time in her life, as well as Talia's Control Freak of a father trying to prevent the two from seeing each other.
- Sucky School: Toad Town High. The most well-known faculty members to the audience are either Apathetic or Sadistic, it has a notorious problem of bullying as seen by Gooper and his gang, the previous principal cared more about looking better than the rival school than the well-being of students, and the new principal, while definitely more competent and concerned with the education of the students, has established some exaggerated rules and gives the students detention for the tiniest things. It seems to be doing well academically speaking ever since Staffordshire became the principal, and Coach Ronson and Miss Bishop have left the school too.
- Teacher/Parent Romance: Grace's father, Felix, is dating Toad Town High's Principal, Sydney Staffordshire.
- Those Two Guys:
- Mark and Harry
- Ruby and Rain
- Oscar and Janie
- Carrie and Sally
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Grace's bubbly and dorky personality contrasts with Talia's relaxed and relatively serious personality. This dynamic is kinda contrasting to Roxanne's smart and kind girly girl and Kylie's sassy and sarcastic tomboy.
- Unnamed Parent: Zig-zagged. While Calvin and Linda's names have been known since the very first season of the series, the subtitles still referred to them, as well as the other parents, as "Mr. and Mrs. [X]". Starting with season 5 however, the subtitles display the first name of the parents.
- World of Snark: Here in Toad Town, everyone is either sarcastic, helpless or apathetic about their lives. Even Carl and his friends can’t resist on making a witty comeback.
