Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)

"Wooster: Why is it, do you think, Jeeves, that the thought of the "little thing" my Aunt Dahlia wants me to do for her fills me with a nameless foreboding?

Jeeves: Experience, sir?"

A TV Series starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie and based on the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and Wooster is set sometime between the wars and focuses on Bertie Wooster, an affable but not overly bright young chap with an unfortunate tendency to get accidentally engaged to every woman he so much as looks at, while his valet (not butler), Jeeves, is the brains of the operation, suggesting the various schemes that help Bertie and his friends get out of trouble. Well sometimes. Sometimes, he gives them what they need, not what they want.

The plots tend to be quite similar - a friend of Bertie's is in love but they lack the courage to propose/their family doesn't approve of the match/they've forgotten the girl's name and address, and they require Bertie to propose in their stead/pretend to be engaged to their fiancee/pose as a burglar to make them look heroic when they foil him; this will go wrong and Bertie will get unwillingly engaged to someone, or be caught stealing something, or both. At the last minute everything will turn out all right and Jeeves will explain how he solved everything. Grateful at being saved from the altar or prison (or both) once again, Bertie will give permission for Jeeves to book the cruise he's been angling for, or destroy the hat of Bertie's he dislikes; inevitably, Jeeves has already done so.

Tropes include:
"Aunt Dahlia: What do you mean, Cheesewright's taken a fancy to her? She's Jeeves!"
 * Abhorrent Admirer: Honoria Glossop, Florence Craye, and Madeleine Bassett. Rare examples where the primary problems are with their personalities, and not their appearances.
 * With Honoria Glossop it is more the case of No Guy Wants an Amazon, which is a special case of Bertie who is mortally afraid of strong-willed women mainly due to bad experiences with his aunts.
 * Accidental Dance Craze: On one occasion, when Gussie and Bertie are in the Drones Club discussing Gussie's difficulty confessing his love to Madeline Bassett, Gussie complains to Bertie that male newts have it much easier, as they profess attraction by performing a simple body-shaking movement -- which he demonstrates, inspiring two nearby Drones to invent a new dance which nearly everyone in the room is doing by the time Gussie and Bertie leave.
 * Accidental Engagement: Throughout the series, often to the same women (Honoria, Madeline, and Florence) two or three times, though in the final episode Bertie outdoes himself when he ends up accidentally engaged to two women simultaneously.
 * Adaptation Dye Job: During the first season, the blonde Madeline Bassett was portrayed by a brunette. Both actresses who were cast as the platinum blonde Florence Craye were also brunettes. Finally, the hair of the actress who portrayed Bobbie Wickham during the first season could hardly be described as a vivid shade of red (or any shade of red unless you squinted really hard).
 * Aesop Amnesia: In several of the stories Bertie tries to fix things on his own, invariably making them ten times worse, and realising that the only one who can get him out of this mess is Jeeves. He often seems to have forgotten this lesson by the beginning of the next story.
 * Affectionate Gesture to the Head: In the very first episode, Bingo does this to Oliver Glossop (the boy he's tutoring) during dinner, dismissing something the boy just said.
 * Apron Matron: Aunt Dahlia
 * Arc Words: More like Episode Words: "Eulalie" and "Celia."
 * At the Opera Tonight: In one episode a group of young men, including Wooster, attend an opera and fall asleep.
 * Attractive Bent Gender: In the last season, Jeeves has to dress as a female novelist. Bertie finds his feminine appearance rather amusing, but Stilton Cheesewright finds him more attractive than his ex-fiancee. (Just to remind you, Jeeves is played by Stephen Fry, who is nearly six-and-a-half feet tall, and does not have what you would call a traditionally feminine build.)
 * Batman Gambit: Jeeves is the master of the Gambit, based on what he calls "the psychology of the individual."

"Barmy: Mr. Wooster's residence. [pause] Where is Mr. Wooster? He's not at home, sir. I'm Jeeves. [pause] What do you mean 'you think not?' [pause] Oh! [He hangs up.]
 * Beach Bury: In the episode where Bertie is staying by the seaside and his aunt's necklace gets stolen, there's a scene that opens with Bertie already buried, which hampers his ability to run away from the girl of the week when she shows up. One can only assume that he asked Jeeves to bury him.
 * Because I'm Jonesy: In season 1 episode 5, "Brinkley Manor," Jeeves is away and Bertie is forced to take care of himself. While he is struggling to make tea, Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps arrives for a visit. When the phone rings, Bertie asks Barmy to answer it and pretend he is Jeeves.

Bertie: Who was it?

Barmy: Jeeves!"

"(banging on the door, muffled voice can be heard)
 * Bedsheet Ladder: Subverted. Gussie wanted to use Bertie's sheet to escape. Bertie refused to let him, as much because it wouldn't work as because he didn't want his sheets dirty and knotted.
 * Big Eater: Tuppy Glossop
 * Big No: Sir Watkyn Bassett, upon learning of.
 * Blatant Lies: Very much Jeeves' modus operandi, although other characters occasionally engage in it as well in an emergency, such as when Bertie locks Lord Chiswick in a room to prevent Ms. Rockmetteller from meeting him:

Ms. Rockmetteller: There's somebody in that room!

Bertie: Er... no, it's an earthquake.

Ms. Rockmetteller: An earthquake?

Bertie: Well, more of a tremor, really. Nothing to worry about.

(more banging and shouting)

Ms. Rockmetteller: There's somebody in there, I say!

Bertie: Yes, um... it might be Jeeves. Oh dear, it's stuck. (turns to door) It's alright, Jeeves. The door's stuck again. It keeps jamming, particularly after a tremor.

Lord Chiswick: (through door) This door is locked!

Ms. Rockmetteller: He said it's locked!

Bertie: Yyyyes, it did sound like that, didn't it? What he actually said was "the whole building rocked".

Ms. Rockmetteller: Rocked?

Bertie: Yes, it's alright, Jeeves. We'll have you out of there in no time.

Jeeves: (coming from the kitchen) I've brought you some fresh tea, sir.

Ms. Rockmetteller: That's Jeeves!

Jeeves: Yes, madam?

Ms. Rockmetteller: Then who is in that room?

Jeeves: In that room, madam? The painter. The room is being redecorated, I lock him in until he's finished. He's a fine craftsman but unreliable. (turns to door) Get back you your work! You can have a drink when you finished and not before! (turns back to Ms. Rockmetteller) Would you like some tea, Ms. Rockmetteller?

Ms. Rockmetteller: No! No... I was going out for a walk... yes... (turns to leave)

Jeeves: Very good, madam. Good afternoon, Ms. Rockmetteller. (closes the door after her, unlocks the bedroom door)

Lord Chiswick: The blasted door was locked!

Jeeves: I'm so sorry, your grace. That was my doing, there were reporters present from the Daily Chronicle and I did not have the time to warn your grace.

Lord Chiswick: Reporters! The devils are on my trail already!"

"Bertie He just upped one morning and said 'Im going to Boston', and then just sort of, went to Boston. Extraordinary thing.
 * Occasionally subverted for comic effect when Jeeves DOESN'T lie even when he has suggested the subterfuge, although normally for the greater good, but still with hilarious consequences.
 * On this occasion Bertie (at Jeeves' suggestion) attempts to cover for Wilmot's short stay in prison by telling his overbearing mother that he is in Boston

Lady Malvern Then how do you account Mr Wooster, that when I went to Blackwells Island Prison to collect material for my book I saw poor dear Wilmot there dressed in a striped suit and walking the exercise yard with a pack of criminals ?

Bertie Really ?

Lady Malvern So this is how you have been looking after my poor dear boy Mr Wooster ?

Wilmot Malvern entres with Jeeves looking as if nothing had happened

Wilmot Mother! Good Heavens!

An awkward pause

Wilmot I've been to Buffalo.

Lady Malvern looks disapproving

Wilmot No, no, no... Baltimore!

Lady Malvern continues to look unimpressed

Wilmot Jeeves, where have I been, beginning with B ?

Jeeves Prison sir ?"

"Judge: These are serious charges. But I'm inclined to believe that you, Alfred Trotsky, and you, Frederick Aloisius Lenin, were led astray. You are discharged. But as for the rest of you: Boko Disraeli, Oofy Lloyd George, Barmy, Lord Tennyson, and the rest -- not only have you been guilty of a breach of the peace of considerable magnitude, I also strongly suspect that you have given false names and addresses! You are each fined the sum of five pounds.
 * Blue and Orange Morality: Jeeves doesn't give a fig if Bertie gambles, drinks too much, or commits burglary. But he will countenance no fiancées, moustaches, monogrammed handkerchiefs, 'American hats' or white dinner jackets.
 * Brawn Hilda: Honoria Glossop
 * Buffy-Speak: Bertie is especially prone to this.
 * Butt Monkey: Bertie is this to practically everyone (including his valet!)
 * Cannot Spit It Out: All Gussie needs to do to get the woman he loves is to confess his feelings - he already knows she feels the same way. But when it comes to the moment he loses nerve and launches into a 30-minute lecture on the care and habits of newts.
 * Captain Obvious: Bertie. "Also, ribbon-like seaweed... which is seawead that sort of looks like... ribbon."
 * The Cast Showoff: Laurie was fond of playing the piano and singing 1920s and '30s songs.
 * All of those old show tunes that seem so aloof nowadays next to modern songs? NOTHING makes you realize how constant the silliness of pop music has been like listening to Bertie Wooster sing them to his valet.
 * Catapult Nightmare: In "Return to New York", Bertie experiences this after spending an unwanted night on the town with Claude and Eustace. Accompanied by yelling of "NO NO I DON'T WANT ANY MORE CHAMPAGNE!"
 * Character Development: Sir Roderick Glossop mellows out over the second season, in sort of a small-scale Heel Face Turn.
 * Otherwise mostly averted.
 * Character Name Alias: When Bertie and his friends get arrested.

Bertie: I say!

Judge: Quiet, Dr. Crippen!"

"Waitress: (to Jeeves) Say, you're pretty cute, you know that?
 * A (brief) explanation. Dr. Crippen murdered his wife and fled with his secretary to America. He was caught (on board the ship, the first major case invovling wireless/radio). Bertie is thick-witted enough to take a "criminal" name as an alias. A rough modern equivalent would be calling yourself "Ted Bundy".
 * Chick Magnet: Bertie manages to attract a large number of women. Then again, he's rich, not too hard on the eyes and quite a pleasant person.
 * Jeeves too

Jeeves: Thank you. So I have been informed.

Waitress: (Giggling) You really slay me.

Bertie: Jeeves, you seem to have a fatal fascination with the women in this country.

Jeeves: Yes, it is a problem, sir.

Bertie: No chance of your switching it off, or something, I suppose?

Jeeves: I regret not, sir. I have to learn to bear it.

Bertie: As do the rest of us, Jeeves."

"Bertie: You can't be a successful Dictator and . One or the other. Not both."
 * Compromising Memoirs: Sir Watkin's memoirs become the centre of a truly awesome farce.
 * Cool Old Lady: Aunt Dahlia is this, I don't care what anyone says.
 * Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Over the course of one episode, Stilton Cheesewright threatens to break Bertie's "rotten spine in [three, four, five, SIX] places!".
 * Spode is fond of making threats of this calibre, one particularly fine example can be found here
 * Dark Secret: Jeeves reveals British fascist leader Sir Roderick Spode's terrible secret to Bertie: . Should this become widely known it would ruin his reputation.

""I don't think I've ever been to Kensington."
 * Dashingly Dapper Derby: Jeeves' hat of choice.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Jeeves, Jeeves, Jeeves. A departure from the novels, in which he doesn't (quite as much).
 * Disguised in Drag: "The Delayed Arrival" has both Jeeves and Bertie briefly in drag; Jeeves disguised as an American author, and Bertie as a maid.
 * The Ditz: Cyril 'Barmy' Fotheringay-Phipps

"[...]Yes, you have. Your mother lives in Kensington."

"Oh, that Kensington!""

"Uh... twenty or thirty. I mean, depends on the page. About... two hundred. About a thousand, more or less. I mean, on a single page, you mean. Yes, mmm... about ten thousand. I mean, that would be one of the bigger pages."
 * Embarrassing First Name: Lord Chuffnell's first name is Marmaduke. His friends all know him as "Chuffy".
 * Evil Matriarch: Aunt Agatha.
 * Extreme Doormat: Bertie will do any favor asked of him, no matter how dangerous or potentially embarrassing it might be.
 * And when he does refuse, he's inevitably blackmailed by whoever is asking the favor.
 * Fake American
 * Fan Service: The earlier episodes like showing Bertie in the bathtub a lot.
 * Fascinating Eyebrow: Jeeves, constantly.
 * Forgetful Jones: Charles Edward "Biffy" Biffen
 * French Cuisine Is Haughty: Aunt Dahlia's French chef Anatole tends to be very temperamental and prone to threatening to quit whenever he feels like his work is not being appreciated.
 * Full Name Ultimatum: The very first scene: "I find you guilty as charged, Bertram...Wilberforce...Wooster!"
 * Geek: Gussie Fink-Nottle (his particular geek-dom being newts)
 * Genre Savvy: In addition to the quote at the top of this page, an early episode has Bertie's uncle getting engaged to a waitress and Aunt Agatha planning to pay the woman off. Bertie objects, pointing out that he's read lots of novels with this exact scenario, and in all of them the girl reacts with disgust and the objecting party ends up looking foolish. "What trash you do read, Bertie."
 * Genteel Interbellum Setting: The series is set in an idealized version of England at an indeterminate point between the World Wars, and largely picks and chooses on matters of detail -- Bertie Wooster drives a mid-'30s car, for instance, but Prohibition is still alive and well when he visits the US.
 * Gorgeous Period Dress: It makes a man wish that dinner jackets (tuxedos to Americans) were still de rigueur, even when dining alone in your own home.
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck
 * Guile Hero: Jeeves
 * Hanging Judge: "In Court After the Boat Race (or, Jeeves' Arrival)" features a magistrate who hands down a five-pound fine for stealing a policeman's helmet as if he were pronouncing a death sentence. Of course, in modern money, that's around £500…
 * Heroic BSOD: Jeeves, twice, when Bertie's friend's fashion quirks really are that bad.
 * In one instance (where Bertie's friend is talking about how he wears pyjamas all day until mid evening when he throws on a jumper) Bertie actualy calls out "Don't listen Jeeves!" aware of the profound impact this will have on his manservant.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: The title characters, despite the fact that one of them is played by Stephen Fry.
 * Hidden Depths: Sir Watkyn Basset, incredibly relieved that Bertie intended to marry his niece not his daughter, rather optimistically (and against all available evidence to the contrary) speculates Bertie might have some. Bertie also is unconvinced.
 * Hurricane of Euphemisms: "The money! The oof, the dibs, the do-re-mi! The happy cabbage! The oil of palm!" "Yes, I do speak English."
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick: Jeeves
 * Idle Rich: Bertie, and many of his acquaintences.
 * I Have This Friend: Bertie never seems to learn that when he says things like 'there is a heart here that yearns for you', it's bound to be taken the wrong way. He really does have this friend.
 * Inflationary Dialogue: Bertie is trying to pose as author Rosie M. Banks for his friend Bingo's family. Bingo's young cousin asks him how many words there are on a page. Clearly having no idea, he comes out with:
 * Inflationary Dialogue: Bertie is trying to pose as author Rosie M. Banks for his friend Bingo's family. Bingo's young cousin asks him how many words there are on a page. Clearly having no idea, he comes out with:

"Spode: Because he's a butterfly, who toys with women's hearts and throws them aside like soiled gloves!
 * Informed Attribute: Despite what Bertie's nearest and dearest seem to think, he shows no signs of insanity. Terminal stupidity, yes, but not insanity.
 * He does have a tendency to put himself into situations that to those unaware of the reasoning (i.e most of the 'adult' characters) seem to be utterly illogical and certainly without explanation might seem a little mad. Having been arrested numerous times, engaged to just about every eligible woman he has met and involved in all manner of hijinks, pranks, attempted burglaries, escapes from the police and general tomfoolery, the weight of evidence might suggest that he is not entirely normal.
 * Would a sane man push a young boy off a bridge into the river to help a friend win his sisters heart ? Well... possibly...
 * Having observed the egregious little oik in question, I can say confidently that I'd cheerfully push him off a bridge, infatuated friend or no infatuated friend.
 * Inter Class Romance: One of Bertie's friends wants to marry a waitress. To convince his uncle that it's a good idea, he makes him read romance novels where chambermaids end up marrying their masters.
 * It's All About Me: Everyone in Bertie's social circle are perfectly willing to ruin the lives of everyone else around them, but are appalled the moment anything remotely inconveniences them.
 * It's Been Done: "Return to New York." Tuppy's recipe for cockaleekie soup isn't as secret as he thinks it is.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Parodied, as Madeline Bassett believes this is why Bertie tries so hard to save her relationship with his friend Gussie. Actually, it's because he's frankly terrified by the thought of marrying a woman who believes the stars are God's daisy chain.
 * The Jeeves: An incarnation of the Trope Namer.
 * Jive Turkey: In New York, Jeeves warns some visiting small-town Midwesterners against letting it get out that they've been "mousetrapped by a pair of suede-shoed feather merchants."
 * The Klutz: Rev. Harold "Stinker" Pinker
 * Large Ham: Roderick Spode (The Amateur Dictator). It helps that he was written as an Expy of Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s.
 * Apparently, he is unable to give a speech without gnawing his lectern and uses simulated cheering to get help give the impression that he is important.
 * He uses a record of a screaming appreciative crowd to give more weight to his speech to a near empty hall.
 * When we see him practicing a speech by himself, he simply exclaims the key words of his policies in order, all dripping with dramatic intent (Bicycles! Umbrellas! Brussel sprouts!) making his own cheering audience sounds between each to further increase the effect.
 * All of this underlines the fact that it is all a massive Ego Trip and that despite his best efforts, his movement is tiny. There is something so much funnier about ludicrous policies delivered with such obvious intensity and intent but with almost no-one listening.
 * Specifically, if you actually listen to his speeches, you will not only notice plenty of Cloudcuckoolander ideas (replacing 27,000 miles of railway track in order to widen their spacing by eight inches to facilitate the transportation of livestock, paid for by the fact that sheep will be able to stand sideways), but also a lot of mixed metaphors ("to take up the reins of the ship of state") and sentences which he thinks will be profound sound-bites but clearly show that he has no idea what he's talking about ("Rome may have been built in a day, but it took only a trumpet. To bring down. The walls. Of Jericho").
 * Love Freak: Madeline Bassett
 * Majored in Western Hypocrisy: An episode where Bertie blacks up and attempts caveman-speak to impersonate a visiting African chief is arguably saved from cringeworthiness when the real chief shows up and turns out to have been educated in England and be better-spoken than Bertie.
 * Meaningful Name: Jeeves' first name,, means "council power" in Old German; appropriate for someone that everyone goes to for advice. Inverted with Bertie, which (also in Old German) means "bright,"
 * Also, Jeeves belongs to a club for valets called The Junior Ganymede...
 * The club that Bertie and his friends belong to is called the Drones. Rich young men with nothing to do, buzzing around wasting time.
 * Another one is that it wouldn't be too surprising if Bertie was named after/alludes to Prince Bertie, the guy the Edwardian Age was named after. While that Bertie was short for Albert (not Bertram), like Bertie Wooster, he had a reputation as a well-meaning but dim hedonist, and had a bad relationship with his Grand Dame mother, Queen Victoria, much like Bertie's relationship with his aunts.
 * Metaphorgotten:

Bertie: Do butterflies do that?"

"Bertie: Oh, stop playing with the hat, Jeeves. I knew you wouldn't like it.
 * Mistaken for Cheating: In one episode, Madeline continually walks in on Gussie in compromising but completely innocent positions with other women.
 * Name and Name
 * Nazi Nobleman: Roderick Spode
 * For once, though, brought off successfully. Wodehouse based Spode on an actual person. In addition, once Spode inherits his familial title (becoming the 7th Earl of Sidcup), he gives up his quirky version of fascism.
 * Nephewism: Bertie. In the original novels, it is established that his parents are dead. No mention is made of them in the show, aside from a remark that his mother "thought [him] intelligent."
 * Nice Hat: So many...
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Bertie's trademark.
 * No Indoor Voice: Aunt Dahlia.
 * Spode is capable of speaking in a quiet and calm manner, he just rarely does so.
 * No Name Given: Jeeves. His first name isn't revealed until the final episode.
 * Not Good with People: Gussy Fink-Nottle finds newts easy, people difficult. Especially women.
 * Oireland: There's an episode in which Gussie and Spode are hired to play a pair of stage Irishmen named Pat and Mike for the village talent show. They put on woolly green beards and wave around umbrellas. Gussy really can't do the accent and Spode doesn't even bother. Much like the episode with the blackface minstrels, it managed to avoid being offensive just by being utterly ludicrous.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted in Sir Roderick Glossop and Roderick Spode; Cyril "Barmy" Fotheringay-Phipps and Cyril Bassington-Bassington; and Brinkly the valet and Brinkly Court.
 * Only Known by Their Nickname: Bertie's friend "Chuffy" Chuffnell; the only person who calls him by his real first name is the girl he loves, which initially results in her having to explain to Bertie who this "Marmaduke" person she keeps mentioning is.
 * The Other Darrin: Over four seasons, we have had two Gussies, three Madelines, two Agathas, two Barmies, four Dahlias?
 * Reaches Mind Screw levels when you realize that the first Madeline comes back as the second Florence. Especially bizarre in the last episode where the two characters actually share scenes.
 * Out-of-Character Moment: Despite Jeeves's remarkably superior language skills, Bertie has to translate New York diner slang for him in "The Full House."
 * In that same episode, Jeeves is seen going about the city and taking notes of New York night life. It is extremely unusual to see him laughing, clapping and wearing a party hat in one such scene.
 * Overprotective Dad: Sir Watkyn Bassett, J. Washburn Stoker, and Sir Roderick Glossop.
 * Parental Marriage Veto: Usually from Sir Watkyn Bassett, trying to prevent his young ward Stephanie from marrying the Rev. Harold "Stinker" Pinker.
 * Parents for a Day: "Return to New York," when Bertie's "temporary kidnapping" of a child doesn't go the way he plans.
 * Politically-Correct History: A definite aversion as the series manages to have scenes in blackface still be humorous, shows the segregation of America during the time period, and perhaps most notably, is accurate to the books in showing Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts dressed as the British Union of Fascists. It is still toned down from the original books, which has Bertie blacking up to blend in with a group of black minstrels and features characters freely using the N-word..
 * Produce Pelting: Featured in the episode with the opera singer.
 * Puppy Dog Eyes: Bertie, as this seems to be an inherent trait of Hugh Laurie's characters. Also, Tuppy and Bingo when they're swooning over girls.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Bertie is the former, Jeeves the latter.
 * Scenery Censor: In one episode there is a nude statue of a child in the background, with a flower just between its legs.
 * Serial Romeo: Richard "Bingo" Little
 * Servile Snarker: Jeeves
 * Soft Glass: Bertie Wooster jumps through a closed glass window, and emerges unharmed.
 * Spock Speak: Jeeves
 * Spoiled Brat: Stiffy Byng
 * Spot of Tea: Jeeves brings Bertie one every morning. Bertie refers to his morning cuppa as "the life-saving"
 * Status Quo Is God: An episode may begin with Jeeves giving notice or Bertie getting engaged, but things are always back to normal by the end. This trope is less applicable to the supporting characters, who do sometimes undergo major life-changes.
 * Stealth Insult:

Jeeves: Oh, not at all, sir!"

"Bertie: She gave it to me, you know. Trying to improve my mind, I dare say.

Jeeves: That seems scarcely possible, sir."

"Jeeves: Extremely... invigorating, sir.
 * Jeeves sneaks in a dig at the song "Nagasaki" in response to Bertie's expressed love of the song:

Bertie: Yes, Jeeves, that is just the word I would have used. Yes, it makes you want to get up and bally well have a run 'round the park.

Jeeves: My feelings precisely, sir."


 * Suckiness Is Painful: See Heroic BSOD above; Bertie's friends' more garish fashion decisions seem to cause Jeeves actual physical discomfort.
 * Take Our Word for It: Subverted in "Introduction on Broadway" when we finally do get to see Corky's hideously Cubist painting.
 * Tap on the Head: Extensively.
 * Theme and Variations Soundtrack: The jazzy opening theme tune gets reworked to set all kinds of different moods.
 * They Stole Our Act: In one episode, Jeeves deliberately arranges for this to occur, as part of his current scheme.
 * This Is Sparta: "ANATOLE. HAS GIVEN. NOTICE."
 * Throwing Out the Script: Bertie attempts to help Gussie give a speech by fortifying him with a large quantity of gin. Gussie throws away his notes at the start of the speech and begins saying what he thinks, with things rapidly going downhill from there.
 * Unwanted Harem: Mostly true for Bertie in some respects, but Jeeves starts to veer in this direction in the first 10-15 minutes or so of "The Full House."
 * Upperclass Twit: Bertie and most of his friends; he actually comes across as more intelligent than most of them, in a faithful reflection of the original Wodehouse stories.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: The title characters to some extent. Bertie and his Aunt Dahlia very much so.
 * Will They or Won't They?: In spades, although in this case the trope name should be immediately followed by "Ever Get Married." Notably, Madeline and Gussie's on-again off-again engagement is the only one that spans the whole series. In the end,.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Jeeves can work around almost anything that spoils his stratagems on a moment's notice.
 * You Look Familiar: The actress who plays Madeline in the first series comes back as Florence in the last series. Also The Other Darrin.
 * Rupert Steggles, sinister gambler and con man, comes back as the second Gussie Fink-Nottle, kind hearted and timid newt fancier.
 * Zany Scheme: Every. Single. Episode.