History Series / StrangersWithCandy

** Jellineck [[YouAreATreeCharlieBrown casts the black students as trees]]. And says he had to fire one of them because of an "attitude problem."

* YouAreATreeCharlieBrown: When the school put on the play Theatre/ARaisinInTheSun, the three lead roles were given to the only white people in the drama club. All of the remaining students, who were black, were given roles as trees.

* AlphaBitch: Fran from the finale.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Mr. Jellineck.
** "I can't reach her. She is lost in some frightening world that isn't centered around me."

** "It was an eye." "It was a mouth." "Look, all I know is that when I tried to feed him there it would wink at me."

* DancePartyEnding: Every single episode.

* DoWrongRight: "Oh I'm still making the wrong decisions, but I'm doing them the right way."

* {{Egopolis}}: Flat Point High is a high school rather than a city, but count the sheer number of images of Principal Blackman in the building, not even counting the loudspeakers coming out of posters of him with flashing eyes

* FatSuit : Creator/AmySedaris wears padding around her middle. It's not as extreme as some examples of the trope, but she appears noticeably thicker than she normally is.

* PublicServiceAnnouncement: The episode about the fake marriages ends with one of these featuring Bebe Neuwirth: "Sadly, 1/2 of all marriages will end in divorce. That's 75%! The other 25% end in drunk driving accidents. So don't get married and then drink and drive."

* WickedStepmother: Sarah

** To a lesser extent, "Where have I heard those words before?"

* SpoofAesop: OnceAnEpisode

* OnceAnEpisode: "I GOT SUMPIN' TA SAYY!!" followed by a dance party in the end.

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Jerri addresses the camera at the beginning of the episode, and sometimes mid-show ("Let's read it now"). Winona Ryder also does it when she delivers the aesop in the finale.

* PornStache: In "Yes You Can't," Noblet has a prominent fake moustache to go with his "secret" dream of being a rock star. Hilariously, when he performs "Carry On Wayward Son" in the DancePartyEnding, he rips off the moustache as if it's the badass thing to do.

* IfItWasFunnyTheFirstTime: Dialogue shared with {{Wigfield}}:

* RefugeInAudacity

* Corpsing: When Colbert-as-Noblet runs out of breath in his credits dance of "Blank Stare", you can actually hear the ''cameraman'' giggling.

* AuthorCatchphrase: "[[TheColbertReport Think about it - I haven't.]]"

* JerkAss: ''Everyone'' gets a opportunity to be one at least once per episode. Jerri herself most often comes across as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold

* AnythingThatMoves - Jerri is frequently being shown as being attracted to men and women, although she rarely does much about the latter. Not to mention her history in Tijuana with Ramone the Donkey.
* AuthorCatchphrase - "[[TheColbertReport Think about it - I haven't.]]"
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther - Chuck and Geoffrey in ''Hit and Run''.
* BigNo - Orlando at the mall when [[spoiler: Jerri leaves him to return to the cult.]]
* BitingTheHandHumor - In the last episode, two property developers show up at Flatpoint High and repeatedly deny that they're tearing it down and building a strip mall, even as classrooms are demolished and food outlets built in their place. At the end of the episode, the teachers and students [[TrashTheSet go on a rampage of destruction and burn down the school]], with one teacher gloating "They'll never turn it into a strip mall now!" The RealitySubtext: the property developers were based on two Comedy Central network execs. ''Strangers With Candy'' was being cancelled, and replaced with a show called ''Strip Mall'' (which also didn't last long).
* BreakingTheFourthWall - Jerri addresses the camera at the beginning of the episode, and sometimes mid-show ("Let's read it now"). Winona Ryder also does it when she delivers the aesop in the finale.
* {{Catchphrase}}

* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere - episode "The Virgin Jerri".
* ComicallyMissingThePoint -- often by many characters.
* DancePartyEnding - Every single episode.
* DawsonCasting - There is absolutely no effort to make any of the actors playing "high-school age" characters look like they're anywhere close to their supposed ages.
* DoWrongRight - "Oh I'm still making the wrong decisions, but I'm doing them the right way."
* {{Egopolis}} - Flat Point High is a high school rather than a city, but count the sheer number of images of Principal Blackman in the building, not even counting the loudspeakers coming out of posters of him with flashing eyes
* FantasticDrug: Glint. You just spread it... on your ''lips''.
* FantasticRacism: against new people to the school

* HypocriticalHumor - Taking this UpToEleven is a staple of the show. Examples include Principal Blackman commanding students to avoid falling in with a cult from a giant portrait with flashing eyes. Also, Noblet and Jellineck, who are having a gay affair, frequently toss around anti-gay slurs. So does omnisexual Jerri.

* IfItWasFunnyTheFirstTime - Dialogue shared with {{Wigfield}}:

* LargeHam - Many of the characters, and moreso most of the faculty, but ''especially'' Principal Blackman.

* MeaningfulName - Onyx Blackman.

* OnceAnEpisode - "I GOT SUMPIN' TA SAYY!!" followed by a dance party in the end.
* TheOtherDarrin - They had to replace Jerri's brother in TheMovie because he "looked like a lumberjack". Also Jerri's dad bares no resemblance to his actor in the show whatsoever.
* PassThePopcorn - As Jerri witnesses her father's death, she yells "Daddyyyyyyy!" and takes a bite of her hotdog.

* PublicServiceAnnouncement: the episode about the fake marriages ends with one of these featuring Bebe Neuwirth: "Sadly, 1/2 of all marriages will end in divorce. That's 75%! The other 25% end in drunk driving accidents. So don't get married and then drink and drive."
* RaceLift - PlayedForLaughs. School production of "Theatre/ARaisinInTheSun" casts only white people as main characters.

* SexyShirtSwitch - Noblet and Jellineck in "There Once Was A Blank From Nantucket".
* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness - Very much on the silly end of the scale.
* SorryILeftTheBGMOn - Used throughout one episode in different places with different parts of a song with unlikely yet relevant lyrics ("You are large and quite obese, fat fat fat fat FAT FAT FAT, OINK OINK OINK OI-"), including a particularly heinous example where it mentions the exact actions of the characters in the room by name. At one point Jerri sticks a fork into the speaker, commenting [[LampshadeHanging "I can't believe that's the number one song!"]]
* SpoofAesop - OnceAnEpisode

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute - In TheMovie Orlando is no where to be found. Instead, we have Megawatti, who is exactly like Orlando. Apparently Orlando's actor didn't want to continue being the butt of race jokes.
* TeenDrama - a parody. ''The'' parody.

* TrashTheSet - the final episode

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist -- Everyone, but Jerri most of all.

The show starred creators StephenColbert (Chuck Noblet), Paul Dinello (Geoffrey Jellineck), and Creator/AmySedaris (Jerri Blank). (Fourth co-creator Mitch Rouse appeared on the show only once.) It lasted for three seasons on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2000, and was briefly revived for [[TheMovie a movie]] in 2006.

* HeyItsThatGuy - Lots of them. I spy [[GreysAnatomy Meredith Grey!]]
** [[{{Firefly}} Wash]] as a cult leader
** StephenColbert as a history and English teacher

Jerri was based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florrie_Fisher Florrie Fisher]], and many of Jerri's stories about her past are taken directly from Fisher's film ''The Trip Back'', the inspiration for ''Strangers with Candy''. Some comparisons [[http://www.jerriblank.com/swcmisc.html#florrie here]].

* BitingTheHandHumor - In the last episode, two property developers show up at Flatpoint High and repeatedly deny that they're tearing it down and building a strip mall, even as classrooms are demolished and food outlets built in their place. At the end of the episode, the teachers and students [[TrashTheSet go on a rampage of destruction and burn down the school]], with one teacher gloating "They'll never turn it into a strip mall now!" The RealitySubtext: the property developers were based on two Comedy Central network execs. ''Strangers with Candy'' was being cancelled, and replaced with a show called ''Strip Mall'' (which also didn't last long).

''Strangers With Candy'' was a [[BlackComedy darkly comic]] sitcom that ran from 1999 to 2000 on ComedyCentral and created by comedians Creator/AmySedaris, Paul Dinello and StephenColbert.

Jerri was based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florrie_Fisher Florrie Fisher]], and many of Jerri's stories about her past are taken directly from Fisher's film ''The Trip Back'', the inspiration for ''StrangersWithCandy''. Some comparisons [[http://www.jerriblank.com/swcmisc.html#florrie here]].

* BitingTheHandHumor - In the last episode, two property developers show up at Flatpoint High and repeatedly deny that they're tearing it down and building a strip mall, even as classrooms are demolished and food outlets built in their place. At the end of the episode, the teachers and students [[TrashTheSet go on a rampage of destruction and burn down the school]], with one teacher gloating "They'll never turn it into a strip mall now!" The RealitySubtext: the property developers were based on two Comedy Central network execs. ''StrangersWithCandy'' was being cancelled, and replaced with a show called ''Strip Mall'' (which also didn't last long).

* [[ButYouScrewOneGoat But You Screw One Donkey]]: ''"Oh, Ramone~"''

''Strangers With Candy'' was a [[BlackComedy darkly comic]] sitcom that ran from 1999 to 2000 on ComedyCentral and created by comedians AmySedaris, Paul Dinello and StephenColbert.

The show starred creators StephenColbert (Chuck Noblet), Paul Dinello (Geoffrey Jellineck), and AmySedaris (Jerri Blank). (Fourth co-creator Mitch Rouse appeared on the show only once.) It lasted for three seasons on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2000, and was briefly revived for [[TheMovie a movie]] in 2006.

* RaceLift - PlayedForLaughs. School production of "ARaisinInTheSun" casts only white people as main characters.

* YouAreATreeCharlieBrown: When the school put on the play ARaisinInTheSun, the three lead roles were given to the only white people in the drama club. All of the remaining students, who were black, were given roles as trees.

* TearJerker - The ending to 'The Blank Stare', for some.

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther - Chuck and Geoffrey in ''Hit and Run''; also one of the very few times this troper actually awww'ed the show.

* BitingTheHandHumor - the last episode.
** Two property developers show up at Flatpoint High and repeatedly deny that they're tearing it down and building a strip mall, even as classrooms are demolished and food outlets built in their place. At the end of the episode, the teachers and students [[TrashTheSet go on a rampage of destruction and burn down the school]], with one teacher gloating "They'll never turn it into a strip mall now!" The RealitySubtext: the property developers were based on two Comedy Central network execs. ''StrangersWithCandy'' was being cancelled, and replaced with a show called ''Strip Mall'' (which also didn't last long).

* {{Catchphrase}} - "I've got somethin' t' say!"
** Also "But I'll be the laughingstock of Flatpoint Hiiiigh!"

** Two property developers show up at Flatpoint High and repeatedly deny that they're tearing it down and building a strip mall, even as classrooms are demolished and food outlets built in their place. At the end of the episode, the teachers and students [[TrashTheSet go on a rampage of destruction and burn down the school]], with one teacher gloating "They'll never turn it into a strip mall now!" The RealitySubtext: the property developers were based on two Comedy Central network execs. ''StrangersWithCandy'' was being cancelled, and replaced with a show called ''Strip Mall''.

Jerri Blank, a "46-year-old boozer, user, and loser", ran away from home when she was young and spent thirty-two years doing things we'd really, ''really'' rather not hear about, no matter how eager she is to tell us about that donkey show in Tijuana. After spending time in the slammer, Jerri decides to abandon her life of debauchery and go back to exactly where she left off- as a freshman at Flatpoint High.

Of course, seeing as Strangers With Candy is based entirely on [[SpoofAesop Spoof Aesops]], Jerri's intentions of leaving her twisted, drug-addled past behind her never come to fruition. In her own words: "Oh, I'm still doin' the wrong things, but at least I'm doing them the right way." This mockery of after-school specials focuses less on the students and more on the adults concerned with nothing but their own selfish needs.

Sample plot: In the first episode, Jerri attempts to befriend a popular girl by supplying her with homemade drugs. The popular girl winds up in a coma, and Jerri spends much of the episode somewhat in guilt. When the girl dies, it seems as though Jerri will finally own up to what she has done-- but Jerri throws a memorial party instead, gaining the popularity she's wanted all along.

Oh, and every episode [[DancePartyEnding ends with a dance sequence]].

-->''"I'm moist like a snack cake down there!"''

''Strangers With Candy'' was a [[BlackComedy darkly comic]] sitcom that ran from 1999 to 2000 on Comedy Central and created by comedians AmySedaris, Paul Dinello and StephenColbert.

* TwoTeacherSchool - Other than Noblet, Jellineck, and Principal Blackman, the only other faculty include a gym teacher, a secretary, and a counselor (played by JaneaneGarofalo) who shows up in one episode and the StarStudded Finale.