Word Girl: Difference between revisions

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''WordGirl'' is an animated television show on [[PBS]]. The title character is a superhero who fights crime with her powers of literacy as well as her powers as a [[Flying Brick]]. The show is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the superhero genre, and uses writers from comedy sketch shows like ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', plus actors known for adlibbing ability, in hopes of making a show as entertaining for adults as it is educational for kids.

WordGirl uses her great vocabulary to fend off villains such as The Butcher, Dr. Two Brains, Granny May, Tobey, and Chuck The Evil Sandwich Making Guy. She never reveals her alter-ego to anyone, including her own family. She and Huggy use their crashed spaceship as a secret hideout.

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* [[Absent-Minded Professor]]: Prof. Boxleitner. It's what changed him into Dr. Two-Brains!

* [[Adorkable]]: Tobey fits the description perfectly.

* [[Adults Are Useless]]: It's a kids' show. Surprised? Averted, though, with some of the villains. Becky's parents also seem to be getting smarter and more useful as both have shown off the ability to outwit villains when needed.

* [[Alien Among Us]]: Though her intentions are good!

* [[All Girls Like Ponies]]: WordGirl's favorite show is ''The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour'', she has a collection of porcelain unicorns, and even a unicorn poster on her bedroom wall.

** Violet, as well, is a fan of ''Pretty Princess'' and is fond of pegasi.

* [[Alliterative Name]]:

** Becky Botsford, Bampy Botsford, Beatrice Bixby, Seymour Smooth, and Shelley Smalls are all examples of this.

* [[All-Star Cast]]: See [[Hey, It's That Voice!]] below.

* [[Ambiguous Disorder]]: Violet Heaslip, she has tenuous grasp on reality around her.

* [[Annoying Younger Sibling]]: TJ

* [[Art Initiates Life]]: Lady Redundant Woman can bring pictures to life.

* [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever]]: Eileen in pretty much all of her episodes (first seen in "The Birthday Girl").

** Tobey's gigantic [[Mecha-Mooks]].

* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Bampy, Becky's grandfather, who [[Secret Keeper|is the only non-main character to know her secret identity]], and can jump and backflip like nobody's business. He took down a giant robot with just a screwdriver! Twice!

* [[Badass Mustache]]: Steve McClean in "The Ballad of Steve McClean" had a mustache so impressive that various other characters tried to be as snazzy as him with fake mustaches of their own. It even got to the point where Dr. Two-Brains, in an attempt to reclaim his title as number one villain, redubbed himself as Dr. Cool-Brains and had ''two'' mustaches, with one attached to his exposed brain.

* [[Basement Dweller]]: This is [[Buffy-Speak|Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy]]'s secret villain lair.

** He tried to move into his own lair once, but got too homesick and ended up moving back.

* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Becky and Tobey's "[[Foe Yay|rivalry]]".

** Leslie gets enraged when someone gets the facts of ''The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour'' wrong.

** Lady Redundant Woman will make anyone who messes with her copy machine pay. {{spoiler|When Royal Dandy made the mistake of doing this, she erased him from existence!}}

** WordGirl gets enraged everytime someone breaks her favorite unicorn, Angel Face

** Eileen wants things her way, if you don't let her, [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|you will be sorry.]]

* [[Big Red Button]]: In "Mecha Mouse", Two-Brains is defeated by one of the self-destruct variety. It's made frustrating by the fact that it was on well-designed power armor. Also, the button was on the exterior, which Two-Brains couldn't touch anyway.

** Then there's the "Holy Cow! Don't Press This Button!" button.

*** And the "Merge With Copier" button.

* [[Big Eater]]: Captain Huggyface/Bob, who nullifies the Butcher's meat attacks by eating them.

* [[Black Comedy]]:

* [[Blatant Lies]]: Becky's many excuses whenever she must change into her [[Secret Identity|superhero identity]].

** "Mouse Brain Take Over" may be the most prominent example of this trope on the show, depending on individual's opinions.

* [[Brainwashed]]: Mr. Big's whole gimmick.

* [[The Butcher]]: The name of one of the main villains. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when "The Baker" and "The Candlestick Maker" are added to the mix.

* [[Calling Your Attacks]]: Used by the Butcher and occasionally Tobey, and [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by WordGirl in "Book Ends".

* [[Cartoon Cheese]]: Thanks to Two-Brains' cheese addiction, there are more examples of this in the show than you can count.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Worrrd UP!"

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: Lady Redundant Woman is a villainess whose superpower is making copies of herself, and she first sends them out to steal a sofa, a couch, and a futon. She also speaks in this manner (taunting WordGirl: "You're confused...perplexed...").

** Warden Chalmers talks like this sometimes.

** In fact, many of the characters speak redundantly as a means for the show to indirectly teach kids synonyms.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy, when he decides to reinvent himself as "The Handsome Panther". It quickly becomes clear that he knows pretty much nothing about "real" panthers, such as the fact that they're nocturnal.

* [[Do Not Adjust Your Set]]: Miss Power in "The Rise of Miss Power."

* [[Double Entendre]]:

** In Tobey's very first episode, (back when the series was still comprised of shorts,) we got this fun little exchange:

'''Tobey''': "Why didn't you just say I'm a ''naughty'' boy, hmm?" }}

* [[Dramatic Irony]]: In "The Wrong Side of the Law, Pt. 1," it is made obvious to the viewer immediately that the Birthday Girl is the criminal, but nobody else can figure it out. Even WordGirl doesn't get the answer right away, even though to her it should be obvious.

** Leslie has a brief moment of this in "Leslie Makes It Big".

* [[Edutainment Show]]: The main purpose of the show, though it is written and acted cleverly enough to attract a large [[Periphery Demographic]].

* [[Einstein Hair]]: Two-Brains, of course.

* [[Elmuh Fudd Syndwome]]: Eileen

* [[Episode Title Card]]: Every single one of them.

* [[Everyone Loves Blondes]]: There are quite a few blonde characters.

* [[Cute Kitten]]: Little Mittens in "Meat with a Side of Cute", and Violet's pet cat. Possibly even Bootsy The Cat in "Mousezilla".

* [[Evil Albino]]: Dr. Two Brains due to a [[Freak Lab Accident]] involving an albino lab rat... who was also evil.

* [[Evil Minions]]

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy, The Butcher, and Dr. Two Brains are a sandwich chef, a butcher, and a guy with two brains, literally.

* [[Evil Tastes Good]]

* [[Face Heel Turn]]: Dr. Two-Brains was actually the Q to WordGirl's [[James Bond]] before his [[Freak Lab Accident]], in the serial two-minute shorts.

* [[Fan Boy]]: Glen

** [[Ascended Fanboy]] no less.

* [[Flying Brick]]

* [[Forgot About His Powers]]: Even Wordgirl is not immune to this occasionally.

* [[For Halloween I Am Going as Myself]]: Implied in "Vocab Bee," then subverted in "Tobey's Tricks and Treats"

* [[Formally-Named Pet]]: That's ''Captain'' Huggyface, to you!

* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: Victoria and her parents have these several times in the episode "Victoria Best"

* [[Gollum Made Me Do It]]: Also Dr. Two-Brains

'''Dr. Two-Brains''': "I can't help it! Mouse brain makes me run!"|"When Life Gives You Potatoes..."}}

* [[The Good Captain]]: [[Everything's Better with Monkeys|Huggyface]], to be precise.

* [[Group Hug]]: In the episode "Granny's Book Club" all the villains hug Granny May, one even exclaiming "Hugsies!"

* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: Victoria Best

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: Nearly every character is played by a famous actor/comedian. Chris Parnell of [[SNL]] fame, H. Jon Benjamin from [[Home Movies]], Patton Oswalt from Ratatouille, John C. McGinley...[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1128052/fullcredits#cast just check out the cast page on IMDB].

** Doctor Two-Brains is [[Tom Kenny]] aka [[SpongeBob SquarePants]]

* [[High-Class Glass]]: Reginald, the jeweler. Count Cloudy in "The Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour" also.

* [[Human Aliens]]: All the way.

* [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]]: Leslie to Mr. Big.

* [[Idiosyncrazy]]: The various villains with permanent gimmicks.

** Discussed in "The Young and the Meatless". Lady Redundant Woman and The Butcher keep trying to steal the same things because they are both meat and matching or redundant sets.

* [[Incest Subtext]]: Becky/WordGirl and TJ. Averted a bit, because technically she's adopted. [[Squick|She still finds it gross, though.]]

* [[Insult Backfire]]:

'''Mr. Big''': Yes, well when you've got it, you've got it.|"Mr. Big"}}

* [[Interactive Narrator]]: Often [[Lampshaded]] or played with. In "Have Snob, Will Travel," WordGirl tries directly asking the narrator where the Butcher went, since after all, she knows that he knows. The narrator refuses because, after all, there are formal (one of the featured words) rules that they're supposed to follow regarding this sort of thing. WordGirl manages to get the one-up on him anyway.

* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: Steven Boxleitner and WordGirl, at the beginning of the series.

* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Whichever shipping you may prefer, any character with WordGirl is this. Even with the most-canon shipping, WordGirl and Scoops, she's still an alien, which might make things slightly... [[Exotic Equipment|odd]], if there's any signs of a serious relationship.

* [[Is This Thing Still On?]]?: In "You Can't Crush City Hall," Chuck shouts at WordGirl from his giant sandwich press and then "signs off." He then starts singing and dancing to himself, calling himself "Chucky-boo" and "Mr. Handsome," until WordGirl points out that he left the PA on.

* [[Jerkass]]: The new assistant librarian. He's more obsessed with fining late returners.

* [[Kindhearted Cat Lover]]: Violet

* [[Kryptonite Factor]]:

'''Leslie''': It's the meteorite, sir. It's from her home planet-- Lexicon. Whenever a superhero comes into contact with a meteorite from their home planet, it takes away their superpowers. [[Genre Savvy|Haven't you ever read a comic book, sir?]]|"WordGirl Makes a Mistake"}}

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: The show ''loves'' to do this.

** [[Large Ham]]? ''No! SMALL HAM!'' {{smallcaps| Nocaaaaaaaaan!}}

** The Butcher, as well.

* [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]: The episode ''Two-Brains Forgets'', used with [[Master of Delusion]].

* [[Laughably Evil]]: All the villains on the show.

* [[Leet Lingo]]: In "Two Brains Highway," the security code for the alarm on the rare cheese exhibit at the museum is 1337.

* [[Left the Background Music On]] : Whenever The Butcher and Dupey interact, romantic music plays. Everyone wonders where it is coming from, then a guy apologizes and turns off his boombox.

* [[Loony Fan]]: A bit of a spin with Glen, who emulates (until he decides to replace) his hero, Dr. Two Brains... who happens to be a villain.

* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: Tobey's threats to destroy the city are usually just out of an attempt to battle (and flirt with) WordGirl.

** TJ as well.

* [[Loss of Identity]]: Steven Boxleitner is this when his mind merges with that of a demonic lab mouse and he becomes the evil Doctor Two-Brains.

* [[Mind Control]]: Mr. Big's company's mission statement, actually: "We strive to constantly use mind control."

* [[Mind Control Eyes]]

* [[Momma's Boy]]: Tobey and Chuck.

* [[Mundane Utility]]: Tobey's artistically-gifted robot, as well as his minor-do-gooding robot in "Tobey Goes Good".

* [[My God, What Have I Done?]] : {{spoiler|1=Becky has this moment when she wished that WordGirl would never exist, not knowing that the birthday cake was enchanted due to the Energy Monster's overload.}}

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Many characters have mistaken Captain HuggyFace's name for something like "Captain Hoozywinks" or "Colonel HairyFace".

* [[Narrating the Obvious]]: There is a minor character, among the fans [[Fan Nickname|he's referred to as]] "[[Mr. Exposition|Exposition Guy]]", who is literally the personification of this trope, showing up [[Contrived Coincidence|wherever Becky is, whenever anything of importance is going on, confused and thinking it's the police station.]]

** He does this at the start of "WordGirl Makes a Mistake, Part 2" after WordGirl has already been captured. It gets him tossed into the trap with WordGirl.

* [[Never Say "Die"]]: Becky is almost "Done For", "Finished Off", told "Good-Bye" by a villain preparing to crush her with a giant robot, and we're often told it could be "The End" for WordGirl. Since the main character is 10 and the target audience is not quite that age, we're never told she's going to be killed by the few dangerous bad guys.

* [[The Nicknamer]]: Victoria Best

* [[Non-Human Sidekick]]: Captain Huggyface

* [[No Sense of Direction]]: [[Mr. Exposition|Exposition Guy]] is the definition of this.

* [[Not a Date]]: "Have You Seen the Remote?", this troper believes, is a fine example. (On WordGirl's part, at least.) Because we all know that the most efficient way to search for something is to go to the park and eat ice cream.

* [[Not Blood Siblings]]: See [[No Yay]] below.

* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: Granny May regularly pretends to be hard-of-hearing.

* [[Oblivious to Love]]: Scoops is very blind sighted to Becky's affection.

* [[Onion Tears]]: It's shown in one episode that {{spoiler|Raul Demiglasse, a chef who challenged others' cooking skills on his TV show, used onion flakes to make his opponents cry.}}

** Pretty Princess's magic horse.

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: An "in-character" example. Tobey feigns a British accent unless and until he is speaking to his mother.

* [[Outlaw Couple]]: Leslie and Mr. Big can be an example for this at certain points of the series. They are always cooking up schemes and trying to get away with crime together.

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: The Butcher in "Ch-ch-ch-change Day," wearing nothing but an obviously fake mustache. That, and WordGirl herself to a degree.

* [[Parental Bonus]]/ [[Genius Bonus]]: WordGirl's home planet is called "Lexicon", a linguistics term that basically means "vocabulary".

* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy's password was "mustard," and later the name of his childhood pet.

* [[Perplexing Plurals]]: Several characters struggle with the plural of the word "thesaurus" in "I Think I'm A Clone Now".

* [[Picky Eater]]: In "The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker," a subplot involves Becky desperately trying to obtain a very weird type of birthday cake for her father.

** Chuck's boss in "Chuck The Nice Pencil Selling Guy" hates all sandwiches except grilled cheese.

* [[Plot Device]]: Exposition Guy is a character who shortly shows up after nearly any crime is committed by one of the super villains. He constantly is showing up wherever Becky happens to be at the time, mistakenly thinking he's at the police station. The show actively acknowledges this character is clearly just a plot device. To quote Word Girl herself after one such encounter with Exposition Guy: "Sometimes we need a little help getting the plot moving."

** (Lady Redundant Woman has just taken over City Hall)

'''Exposition Guy''': I'll take this one. HEEEEEEELLLLLLLP!!! --"Line Lessons with Lady Redundant Woman" }}

* [[Police Are Useless]]: Because if they were actually at all useful, then WordGirl wouldn't have nearly as much to do. Lampshaded pretty blatantly in "Ch-ch-ch-change Day." Becky and Bob are trapped by the Butcher in a bank vault surrounded by customers and are unable to transform into WordGirl and Captain Huggyface. Pressed for options, Becky suggests with a tone of hopelessness that maybe the police will solve the problem. Outside the bank, one of the police officers asks the chief for direction and he is forced to admit that he doesn't know what to do because normally WordGirl would have solved the problem by now.

* [[Powered Armor]]: Granny May

* [[Samaritan Syndrome]]: Causes Becky's frustration in "A World without WordGirl". It really doesn't help that Bob and the narrator are there to railroad her into saving the day.

* [[Sampling]]: In one episode, a BGM track samples the drums from [[Daft Punk|Daft Punk's]] Da Funk.

* [[Self Fanservice]]: A few minute tour of the WordGirl fanart on deviantART is enough to notice that some artists portray her as [[Most Common Superpower|drastically enhanced]].

* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: Rather subverted, since Becky has a great vocabulary, but seems to prefer being understood rather than showing off. One episode even has her telling a villain it's more important to use the "right" word than the biggest.

** Another episode features a villain ''inducing'' this in people in order to ''sell dictionaries''.

* [[Shaped Like Itself]]: '''Beatrice Bixby''' : ''"He's just lucky that my half-hour lunch break is only thirty minutes long."''

* [[Shout-Out]]: The names TJ and Becky might ring a bell. A [[Recess]] bell.

*** The following quote from "Kids Action News" may also ring a bell for Wrestling fans and San Diego residents alike

** In "Mouse Brain Take-Over," the scene where Two-Brains let's the mouse take-over is straight out of [[Twin Peaks]].

** The [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Bat]] [[Batman|Signal]], anyone?

** May be unintentional, but [[Danny Phantom|"Invisi-Bill".]]

** There's also the ''Pretty Princess and Magic Pony Power Hour''. The special "The Rise of Miss Power" let viewers watch an episode of it during the interstitials.

* [[Skyward Scream]]:

* [[Smarmy Host]]: Both Beau Handsome and Seymour Orlando Smooth.

* [[So Last Season]]: When the series made the jump from 2-minute shorts to a full series.

* [[Talking in Your Sleep]]: Dr. Two Brains is guilty of this in the episode "Showdown at the Super Secret Spaceship Hideout".

* [[Talking to Himself]]:This has happened many times; an example would be when Two Brains rebuked TJ in "The Homerun King"

* [[The Teaser]]: Normally not used, but seen before the title theme in "The Rise of Miss Power" to introduce Miss Power.

* [[Tech Marches On]]: Is intentionally averted. The producers want it to look like it could have been made in the 60s, 80s, or today. No Internet, No Home Computers (the only computers seen take up almost half the room), small corner TVs, a few passing references to home video, and the journalist wannabe works at a newspaper a la Jimmy Olsen. Even the family car looks like a station wagon from the 70s. They claim if cell phones are ever used, they'll be bulky devices circa 1995.

* [[This Is Gonna Suck]]: Prof. Boxleitner's reaction when Squeaky is about to push the "Holy Cow! Don't Press This Button!" button.

* [[That Was Objectionable]]: Refer to the episode "The Wrong Side of the Law".

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Also in "WordGirl Makes a Mistake, Part 2." A handyman shows up to demand his money from Mr. Big for designing the trap in which WordGirl, Captain HuggyFace and the "This Just In" guy (see just above) are imprisoned. He gets thrown into the trap and doesn't even realize that he too is now a prisoner.

* [[The Unintelligible]]: Huggyface can only be understood by Becky.

* [[Thick Line Animation]]: It's the ''page image.'' What do you expect?

* [[The Wiki Rule]]: [http://wordgirl.wikia.com/wiki/WordGirl_Wiki It has one]

** That is the result of a PBS Kids [[Justified Trope|commandment.]]

* [[Training Montage]] : Lampshaded in ''Monkey-Robot Showdown''.

** Chuck teamed up with Nocan in "Nocan the Ingredient Finding Guy" and it worked out about as well as his team-ups with the Whammer.

** In the first issue of the comic book tie in, five of Wordgirl's villains form "The Coalition of Malice."

** Chuck also uses it on WordGirl in "Chuck With a Side of Brent" when she tells him "It's over!"

* [[What Could Have Been]]: The producers actually wanted ''[[Reese Witherspoon]]'' to voice WordGirl.

* [[What Does She See in Him?|What Does Becky See In Scoops?]]: I mean, seriously! Once he guessed Becky's secret identity as WordGirl, he didn't care about her actual feelings, he just wanted to take his kid-reporter career to the next level. {{spoiler|Fortunately, Becky frustrated his desires by losing the Vocab-bee contest on propose, thus keeping her secret safe.}}

** {{spoiler|In the episode "Birthday Town", Mr. Botsford is watching TV and the mouse is seen in the news. The mouse seems to further its career in science and is shown that he fused a cat and dog's minds together.}}

** Mouse-Zilla is shown to have {{spoiler|1=survived WordGirl [[Hurl It Into the Sun|throwing it into a lake, but it never returns as well.]]}}

* [[What the Hell, Townspeople?]]: The many residents in Fair City can go from idolizing their hero to hating her guts in as long as it takes Granny May to get out of prison.

* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Where The Hell Is Fair City?]]

* [[Wonderful Life]]: "A World Without WordGirl".

* [[You Are Grounded]]

* [[Your Costume Needs Work]]: TJ consistently tells his sister that her WordGirl impersonation isn't very good.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Edutainment Show]]

[[Category:Boom Kids]]