History Series / Titus

** One of Titus's girlfriends, Noelle, who blamed her bouts of anger and abuse on a "sugar imbalance," which Titus tried to temper by offering her Twix.

* DysfunctionalFamily: The point of the show.

* CallForward: A literal one, as the pilot had Dave refer to "The Fellatio Incident" - cut to Titus in the black-and-white room bluntly stating "Episode 11."

* AltarTheSpeed: Titus and Erin tried to get married before any of their dysfunctional relatives arrived. It failed. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity Ensued]].

-->'''Titus''': ''[smiling confusedly]'' Ch-Charlie. That's one of those trick names. So that means...\\

** On "The Perfect Thanksgiving," Ken Titus reprimands Erin's dad, Merritt, for physically abusing his son, Michael (telling him that hitting Michael doesn't make him a man; it makes him a "drunken Irish loser!"). Slides right into HypocriticalHumor when Ken berates Titus for jumping a dangerous criminal (Michael) in front of two cops, then informs Merritt that ''emotional'' damage is much more powerful in keeping your kids in line.

* AscendedExtra: Erin's teenage niece Amy first showed up in "Deprogramming Erin" in the second season mostly as part of Erin's family. She later showed up in "Hard Ass" where she stayed with them temporarily and was found dealing drugs. The third season had Titus and Erin officially become her guardian when it was made clear her home life was very destructive.

* SoProudOfYou: The one time [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood Papa Titus]] told Christopher that he was proud of him after he did a good job repainting his dad's truck, Chistopher was so taken aback by it that he thought Ken was actually dying.

* NotBloodSiblings: Christopher and Dave are technically not brothers. Ken married his mother (making them step brothers at the time), but when they divorced his mother [[ParentalAbandonment left without him]].

Not to be confused with Julie Taymor's [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs surreal adaptation]] of the play ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'' or TitusSoftware. Nor is it to be confused with Tidus from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''.

* TheUnfairSex: Comes up in one of the flashbacks, where the social worker claims "A boy should be with his mother"... despite the fact that Ken has a house and stable job (even though Ken is an functional alcoholic who has marijuana growing in his backyard and a history of [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood hilarious child abuse]]''), while Juanita is [[NakedPeopleAreFunny pantsless]] and lives in a cardboard box under the freeway, and ''says'' as much right in front of the social worker.

* MagicalSecurityCam: The Neutral Space would introduce some film clips of past events, sometimes realistically done like a stationary security cam, and sometimes done like a camcorder. Other times, it would show something from someone else's point of view ("Biological Mom Cam," "Dad Cam," "Minimum Wage Cam," "Marijuana Task Force Cam," "Back of Dad's Hand Cam," "Fist Cam," "Stripper Girlfriend Cam," "Miracle of Life Cam," "Psycho-Bitch Cam", "NASCAR Cam," and "Van Damme Fan Cam")

* RealityEnsures: Christopher and Dave get into a fight at a custom car show, and their fight ends up on the cover of a Hot Rod magazine. Christopher tries claiming NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity, but one by one all their customers pulled out. Being a specialized custom car shop they couldn't afford an unprofessional reputation.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Played with in the case of Shannon, Titus' sister where even Erin was wondering why she never heard of her before then. But there was a reference to her in season two, in a conversation between Christopher and Papa Titus.

Originating as a {{FOX}} mid-season replacement in early 2000, ''Titus'' is an extremely faithful adaptation of comedian Creator/ChristopherTitus' one-man show ''NormanRockwell is Bleeding''. ''Norman Rockwell'' itself is closely based on Titus' own life, such as having an alcoholic, five-times-divorced, patronizing, yet caring father; a violent, manic-depressive-schizophrenic mother; and himself having once [[NeverLiveItDown fallen into a bonfire while drunk]].

** In "Locking Up Mom", Titus relates how he was watching ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' with his mother when he was seven, who burst into tears when the electroshock therapy scene happened, explaining to a speechless Christopher that it reminded her of her life. Titus was stunned...because he never knew his mom was nominated for an Oscar (like JackNicholson was for that scene).

* InnocentInaccurate: On "Locking Up Mom," Titus tells about the time he was five and watched ''Film/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' with his mom. When the scene of JackNicholson's character getting electroshock therapy came on, Juanita started crying and told Titus it reminded her of her life. And, being five years old, Titus was stunned...because he never knew his mom had won an Oscar.

* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
** Most of what happens to Titus in the series actually happened to him in real life (the bonfire incident, his mom's suicide, Titus going insane on an airplane following his mom's suicide, Titus being abused by his first girlfriend, Titus living with a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, five-times divorced, womanizing father who always crushed his self-esteem and called him a "wussy"). Members of Titus's family had to sign waivers because of how close it came.
** And another instance was with actor Zack Ward, who plays Titus's half-brother Dave. Ward is an incredibly white guy who's married to a hot Asian girl, and the producers found that so hilarious, they gave his character an Asian girlfriend named Nancy (first seen on "The Last Noelle").
** Jokes and stories that were featured in the show but weren't referenced in "Norman Rockwell" would pop up in later stand-up routines by Titus as events that apparently really happened. The story of Christopher's conception (Juanita's boyfriend yelling outside the room), the seminar where Christopher starts to understand his dad better and others.

* SpecialGuest: A few over the three seasons, but they weren't hyped up too much. Jay Leno (as himself in the two-parter where Titus crashes his racecar and ends up in a coma), Frankie Muniz (as a car executive in "Too Damn Good"), David Hyde Pierce (as a motivational speaker who tries to help Titus around the time that his hot rod shop went out of business), [[Series/{{MADtv}} Alex]] [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Borstein]] (as the pregnant single mother in "Bachelor Party"), and [[Series/SavedByTheBell Elizabeth Berkley]] (as Titus's sister, Shannon).

* SpecialGuest: A few over the three seasons, but they weren't hyped up too much. Jay Leno (as himself in the two-parter where Titus crashes his racecar and ends up in a coma), Frankie Muniz (as a car executive in "Too Damn Good"), David Hyde Pierce (as a motivational speaker who tries to help Titus around the time that his hot rod shop went out of business), [[Series/{{MADtv}} Alex]] [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Borstein]] (as the pregnant single mother in "Bachelor Party"), and [[SavedByTheBell Elizabeth Berkley]] (as Titus's sister, Shannon).

-->'''Ken''': [[TooMuchInformation I call him "Daddy"].

* WellDoneSonGuy: Even the network was a little confused about it; Christopher and Erin were not the primary relationship of the show, like most other sitcoms. It was actually Christopher and Papa Titus. Because of that, the second episode, "Sex with Pudding", [[ScrewedByTheNetwork aired]] before the pilot "Dad is Dead"[[note]]The pilot episode in which Titus, Dave, Erin, and Tommy worry that Ken may be dead as he hasn't come out of his room in four days -- not even to get a beer[[/note]]. Being a pilot episode, it introduced the characters, the dysfunctional family theme of the show and, most importantly, Titus' relationship with his father. "Sex with Pudding" was a "more traditional" sitcom story about Titus being overprotective of Erin and, as such, you were already expected to know the characters.
* WhatTheHellHero: The season 2 episode 'Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!'. The editor of a national magazine looks over the car that Titus, Dave and Tommy are presenting and is more impressed with the paint job than anything else. Titus ends up claiming that he did all the work, getting on Dave and Tommy's bad side. [[spoiler: They respond by dismantling the car, with Erin mockingly asking him to use the bikini-clad models at the other cars to help him put it back together, throwing a remark that he made back in his face. Even Papa Titus gets in on it, saying he'll recognize Titus's face on the latest issue of 'Screw Your Friends Weekly.]]
* {{Yandere}}:
** One of Titus's girlfriends, Noelle, who blamed her bouts of anger and abuse on a "sugar imbalance," which Titus tried to temper by offering her Twix.
** Most of the women Ken Titus dated/married were either this or [[CuteAndPsycho just plain crazy]]. Juanita (Titus's mom and Ken's second wife) qualified for the latter, which is justified as she was a [[MoodSwinger manic-depressive]] schizophrenic. "Locking Up Mom" has her leave a series of messages.
-->'''Affectionate!Mom''': Hello Kenny. It's 'nita. I've never stopped loving you. Call me - let's work it out.\\
'''Murderous!Mom''': Listen, you son-of-a-bitch, I know you have a contract out on me, well I got one out on you too. And anothe-\\
'''Affectionate!Mom''': Me again! Sorry, I guess the machine cut me off. ('''Murderous!Mom''') ''You're a dead man! You're gonna leave that house in a body-bag''!\\
'''Ken''': [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight File it with the others.]]

-->'''Ken''': I call him "Daddy".