History ComicStrip / Zits

'''Jeremy:''' Don't worry. I'll only not do things you wouldn't not do.\\

* CareerNotTaken: Jeremy and his father attend a concert by Jeremy's favorite musicians, Gingivitis. While Jeremy looks for a way to get backstage for an autograph, Walt meets the band's two front men loading their equipment into a truck. Walt learns from them that Gingivitis would rather study dentistry, but dental school is expensive, so they tour as a rock band to scare enough funds together to cover tuition.

* SynchronizedMorningRoutine: One strip alternates between Jeremy and his girlfriend, showing her putting on makeup, combing her hair, etc. while Jeremy takes several panels to emerge from sleep. The final panel has Sara, now a living exhibition of cosmetic technology, asking Jeremy how he gets his hair to look as if he got out of bed, to which he confusedly replies that he gets out of bed.

* YandereCouple: A downplayed and PlayedForLaughs example. While Richandamy don't demonstrate the psychosis traditionally associated with {{yandere}}s, the other characters find themselves alternatively bemused or disturbed the the obsessive level of devotion they show one another.

* GirlPosse: The aptly-named "Posse" consists of Zuma, Redondo and LaJolla.

* GirlPosse: The aptly-named "Posse" consists of Sara

* RomanticRain: Jeremy and Sara walk hand in hand through an increasingly heavy storm. After getting completely drenched and being subjected to a RoadsideWave, they decide that walking in the rain is far romantic in songs than it is in RealLife.

* RubeGoldbergDevice: A Sunday strip has device for getting teens out of beds that starts with the sun focusing through a pair of spectacles on the windowsill and ends with Jeremy getting hit in the face by his phone. One of the intermediate steps involves a squirrel nibbling stale pizza.

** His mother isn't better. One time, she is [[MistakenForDisease mistaken for having seizures]].
* SuntanStencil: One time, Jeremy spelled out 'SARA' on his stomacin sunburn using an actual stencil. This worked well till Sara was so touched by his gesture that she hugged him.

* TelecomTree: We don't see the actual tree but Pierce calculates that in order to get 700 people to turn up to his WildTeenParty he has to inform exactly one person (Brittney) and let the word spread. It works.

* UglyGuyHotWife: Husband Walt is shown as bald and cartoonishly obese, while his wife is ''much'' thinner and not altogether unattractive, having a body type resembling the teenage ''girls'' of the comic. This is actually lampshaded by Sara who comments "Isn't weird how your Mom and I have like identical bodies?" (Cue the awkward moment) Connie's still not gorgeous given the art style, but it's a notable difference over Walt.

* TheUnfairSex: Invoked. Sara has regularly broken up with Jeremy on a whim, gotten mad at him for dating other women afterwards ("When I said ''we'' [should see other people], I meant ''me''!") yelled at him for innocuous comments or even things he's never done, and is generally rather flippant about his emotions, while the absolute worst thing we've seen Jeremy do is call her a skank. Of corse, Sara ''is'' a hormonal teenage girl, so while it's unfair from a storytelling standpoint, it's by no means inaccurate.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: When it lampoons parents ''and'' teenagers, people ''always'' laugh because so many of it is true. Like the teenager trying to give advice on parenting to his parents or parents interpreting "Leave me alone" to meaning that they want to talk.

* CoolOldLady: While playing in a old folks home, Jeremy and Pierce meet a hard-rocking, foulmouthed old lady who was session musician in the 60s and plays the drums better than Pierce. Pierce comments that if she was 80 years younger, he'd be dating her.

* TaxDeductions: This happens when Jeremy receives his first paycheck from the movie theatre. He starts ranting and storms off. Walt watches all of this and comments that he might just have seen the birth of a conservative.

* TeensAreShort: [[http://zitscomics.com/comics/september-23-2002/ Subverted:]] Jeremy is far taller than any human being has a right to be, but his posture is so bad it goes unnoticed.

%%* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Pierce, sometimes. In his earliest appearances he intentionally cultivated this image.

%%* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Practically the fuel of the series. Jeremy does exaggerate this Trope quite a bit, but it is played straight.

%%* DeadpanSnarker: The ''entire cast'' at various points.

* NonAnswer: When Connie asks Jeremy whether he was at Pierce's house instead of going to a movie like he claimed, Jeremy says that he is not going to lie to her. When Connie points out that is not answer, he points out that is also not a lie and she can't punish him. He's wrong.

* YouNeedABreathMint: In [[https://comicskingdom.com/trending/blog/2019/10/18/101819-friday-hurray-hits this]] strip, Jeremy passes on Hector's offer a breath mint, and then his breath causes Sara to faint. He then turns back to Hector and says "On second thought, I'll take that breath mint".

* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Pierce, sometimes. In his earliest appearances he intentionally cultivated this image.
* AllWomenLoveShoes: Sara. Her blowing her top when Jeremy fails to notice her new shoes is a RunningGag.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Practically the fuel of the series. Jeremy does exaggerate this Trope quite a bit, but it is played straight.

** While Walt and Connie being baby boomers with a teenage son was feasible in the 90s, it's become increasingly more of a stretch to buy it. In a recent strip where Jeremy used "OK Boomer" at Walt, Walt said he was Gen X.

* BigEater: Jeremy, like many teenage males. His friends, too, if the "All You Can Eat" buffet owner's closing shop as soon as he sees the gang is any indication.
** He and Hector are even shown to be capable of ''unhinging their jaws'' in order to swallow a giant burger whole, wondering why the girls freak out.

* BracesOfOrthodonticOverkill:
** Body-modification fan Pierce soon [[CursedWithAwesome came to love these]], when Jeremy's dad (not a DepravedDentist) called it "Getting your smile pierced."
** He then admonished Pierce for adding to his braces for decorative purposes.

** This happened to Connie too in one strip. After Connie comments that a song Jeremy's listening to is "catchy", he shows her the lyrics. In the final panel, Jeremy tells his dad, "I'm grounded for buying a CD and mom is at church for liking it."

* CloudCuckoolander: Pierce, who tends to act on impulse and generally has little grasp on reality.

** This becomes problematic with Jeremy's parents, especially with Walt, as there are many references to him being a hippie in TheSixties. When the strip started in 1997, it was not uncommon for a baby boomers to have a teenage kid. But since the strip is still going on, Walt should be at least in his sixties now, so he should be retired or close to retirement age. And since Connie is implied to be roughly the same age as Walt, this would mean she gave birth to Jeremy in her fifties, which, while not impossible, is extremely uncommon.
** One strip actually had Connie say she was sixteen at the moon landing in '69, meaning that her real age should be sixty six by now.
** An early strip also had Jeremy say he was ten in 1995. Obviously that has long since been discarded.
** Now entirely rejected, as recent strips (2020-01-13 and -14) had Jeremy say "OK, Boomer" to his father, who angrily corrects him that he is Generation X (1965-1980), not a baby boomer.

* DeadpanSnarker: The ''entire cast'' at various points.

** It's even funnier because a reverse-angle shows Hector dangling outside the second-story window, and there's ''nothing there'' he couldn't have climbed up; the wall is absolutely bare.

* fishingEpisode: An arc has Walt taking a less-than-enthusiastic Jeremy on a fishing trip, which ultimately turns out out to be a ruse to isolate him on a boat so they can have TheTalk.