History WesternAnimation / Sealab2021

'''Quinn:''' Like my hydraulic penis! Which is huuuuge...!\\

-->"Nobody shucks my corn but ''meeeee''!!"

* '''Debbie Dupree''', an easily offended, promiscuous blonde marine biologist who later becomes Quinn's on-again off-again girlfriend.

* MockCousteau: One episode had such a character who seemed to like to compare things to wombs.
* MushroomSamba: Brought on by multiple near-death experiences via electrocution. This particular episode is probably the strangest episode of the entire series... which says a lot.

* CreditCardPlot: Kicks off the plot of "The Policy". Sparks convinces Murphy to get a credit card and buy junk with it, then convinces him to send the rest of the crew on a wild goose chase so he can commit InsuranceFraud.

* OffModel: Several shots from the stock footage are almost unrecognizable (especially notable is one of Marco which looks like a Hispanic [[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]]). As the series used more and more new, Flash-animated footage, it became less and less common to use the more OffModel shots.

* CharacterOutlivesActor: Technically, Captain Murphy didn't die; he just left the station to lead the rebels in [[Literature/{{Dune}} "The Great Spice Wars"]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''WesternAnimation/FriskyDingo'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''.
** Some see ''{{VideoGame/SpaceStation13}}'' as a video game version of '''Sealab 2021'' IN SPACE!

* AllJustADream: Most of the episode "Happycake" turns out to be Murphy daydreaming.

* LockedIn: "In the Closet".

** AssholeVictim: [[RunningGag Pod 6 are jerks]].
* TheVoiceless: The drummer in Virjay's band.

* TheChewToy: Dolphin Boy and all of Pod 6. Especially all of Pod 6.

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: Besides "Marco," Marco's name consists of the names of two famous Spanish speakers smushed together: Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar being 13th-century nobleman and soldier El Cid, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a famous Colombian author.

Midway through the show's run, Harry Goz (the voice actor for Captain Murphy) died, which caused a major change in tone for the entire series. The one-off crazy elements of the earlier episodes were dropped, and after Captain Murphy [[PutOnABus left Sealab to fight in]] [[Franchise/{{Dune}} the spice wars]], he was replaced with the slightly-more-sane Captain Shanks (who, as noted above, was portrayed by Harry Goz's son). The series retained its trademark surrealism while experimenting with long-form storylines (including as Debbie's relationship with Quinn, the saga of Marco's apparent death, and the introduction of Sharko, Marco's half-shark/half-human son). These episodes also featured more original animation than stock footage, and it's easy to see the shift in tone from earlier seasons. In its typical surreal fashion, the last episode featured a series of fourth-wall-breaking scenes involving the characters as actors who know Sealab is a TV show, and the show faded to black with the promise of airing a trailer for a new horror film starring the characters.

** Captain Shanks' fourth wall-breaking rant against the predicted fan backlash against his character, culminating in "You don't like me? Fine. Watch [[AccentOnTheWrongSyllable anny-may]]." This was particularly mean-spirited because the episode aired right when Creator/AdultSwim was axing anime left and right to make room for original programming. ''Sealab'' would continue to throw in jabs at anime fans throughout the rest of its run.

* KillEmAll: For the first season, it happened OnceAnEpisode. They dropped that particular RunningGag but a few later episodes would still end with everyone dying or just one or two characters dying.

* ActorExistenceFailure: Harry Goz, the voice of Captain Murphy, died after two seasons. The character was PutOnABus out of respect.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: "Article 4" centers around everyone using affirmative action to get promoted to captain. The only ones that don't by the end are Murphy (already captain), Quinn (has too much pride), Stormy (too stupid), and Allen (as the article actually ''discriminates'' against Asians).

Filled with surreal humor and [[SeinfeldianConversation meandering]], [[RandomEventsPlot random]], [[SomethingCompletelyDifferent nonsensical]] stories, Sealab helped set the tone for the emerging Creator/AdultSwim, and its [[FollowTheLeader influence can be felt across the first several years of the program.]]

* LostInTranslation: Also overlaps with InconsistentDub in the Latin American Spanish dub: While the name of the show was translated literally to ''Laboratorio submarino 2021'', the name of the titular lab is still pronounced in English as "Sealab", very likely to avoid LipLock, since ''laboratorio submarino'' requires more words (about 20, including, plus 10 syllables) than ''Sealab'' (just six words and two syllables clusters), through some episodes did translated the place as ''laboratorio submarino'' in Spanish.