Ed Edd N Eddy / Tropes A to G

A - G | H - P | Q - Z

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Tropes A to C

• Abhorrent Admirer: The Kankers are this to the Eds, making unwanted stalkerish advances towards them.
• Abusive Parents: Ed's parents (specifically his mother) are heavily implied to treat him with emotional abuse, while Sarah is treated like a princess. What's more, Ed has also hinted that his father is neglectful and apathetic.
  Eddy: What happened to the stairs?!
  Ed: My parents took them down 'cause I am grounded!
  Edd: That's disturbing.
• The Ace:
  • Though he is never actually seen, Eddy's brother is strongly implied to be this... only for the movie to reveal that he's actually a sadistic bully who enjoys beating up Eddy for kicks, and that Eddy made up everything he said about him...
  • Kevin also qualifies, being the cool athletic kid. A good example is the episode "This Won't Hurt an Ed".
• Accidental Ventriloquism: In "Keeping Up with the Eds", the Eds try to help Sarah and Jimmy out of the tall grass they grew by mowing it with Victor the goat. After all the grass is mowed but the two are nowhere to be found, Ed hears Sarah calling to him and he believes that Victor had eaten her.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Ed's lack of intelligence can allow him to do the physically impossible, such as in Will Work For Ed when he puts his work boots on facing backwards, and in The Call Him Mr. Ed when he builds a tower of miscellaneous junk all the way up to the moon.
• Actor Allusion: Everywhere in the Latin American dub.
  • On separate occasions, Edd either has Pepeto as his middle name or a cousin with the same name. His voice actor, José Antonio Macías, has "Pepeto" as one of his nicknames.
  • Similarly, Ed once says his middle name is Ramírez Santiago. His voice actor is Luis Daniel Ramírez.
  • In the end of "For Your Ed Only", Edd says that "Team Eds is blasting off again". José Antonio Macías also voiced James.
  • In "Run Ed Run", Ed accidentally says one of Numbuh 2's lines, while in "A Pinch to Grow an Ed" he expresses his wish to dub Spider-Man. Luis Daniel Ramírez also voiced Numbuh 2 and Spider-Man.
  • In episodes "Once Upon an Ed" and "One Size Fits Ed," the country of Japan is referenced. The Ocean Group, who are behind the voice-acting for this cartoon, are well-known for their English dubbing of Japanese anime.
    • Additionally Ed becomes obsessed with Sumo wrestling in the episode, Matt Hill also voiced a more professional sumo wrestler in Booma.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: In comic book story "Dive! Dive! Ed", Eddy tells the other Eds they're "about to dive deep into the depths of dough! No doubt there'll be dupes behind door number one!". Edd considers it a "nice alliteration".
• Admiring the Poster: In "If It Smells Like an Ed", the Eds invoke this in order to check Kevin's footprint against another; they put up a poster of Nazz in a bikini, which Kevin stares at non-stop.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Edd fits the bill somewhat. While being the most mature of the bunch, he does have a childish fondness for jawbreakers like everyone else.
• Adults Are Useless: The adults never show up on-screen in the midst of any catastrophe affecting their children. However, "Stop, Look and Ed" details that the adults might be too busy working at jobs and so they're not usually in the Cul-de-sac as while Ed reveals in two episodes that his dad's just lazy and negligent.
• Aerith and Bob: All characters have very common names (Jimmy, Jonny, Kevin, Sarah etc.) But then there's Nazz, which isn't as common. It's justified in Rolf's case because he's not originally from Peach Creek and is implied to be originally from somewhere in Europe.
• Agony of the Feet: In "Cry Ed", something as light as a clothespin touching Jimmy's foot is enough to break it and cause him to bawl.
• All Crimes Are Equal:
  • Eddy's antics will sometimes net Ed and Edd the same punishment/retribution, regardless if they were unwitting accessories or if they tried to stop him.
  • Averted in "Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?", where Eddy is the only one punished while Ed and Edd were completely repentant about what happened^note Eddy wheedled Ed into spending Sarah's candy money on himself and promised to pay Sarah back. They did suffer some abuse from Eddy, but in the end he got the brunt of it.
  • And again in "A Case of Ed" when Edd gets Kevin to beat up the other two for teasing them both.
  • Zig-zagged in "Pain in the Ed", where Eddy caused all the problems while Ed and Edd were innocent. Ed got away, Edd got beat up a little, and Eddy got the worst of it.
• All Men Are Perverts: Eddy keeps a Porn Stash he got from his brother, and there's a lot tissues under his bed. Kevin seems to share the same hobbies. Then there's the entirety of "Boys Will Be Eds"...
• All of the Other Reindeer:
  • The Eds were the butt of many jokes and the quintessential social outcasts until the end of The Movie.
  • Jonny, while still being liked more than the Eds, is not well-liked either.
• All There in the Manual: While it's probably non-canon, there's a game on the Cartoon Network website that shows what's underneath Double D's hat◊.
• All Women Are Lustful:
  • The Kankers, full stop. No elaboration needed.
  • When Sarah and Jimmy ask Nazz and Kevin where babies come from, Nazz begins to giggle uncontrollably; trying to stifle it with her scarf even!
• Almost Kiss:
  • Edd and May nearly kiss in the Valentine's Day episode, but Rolf interrupts by throwing a bucket of dirty water on them so they turn back to normal.
  • Nazz and Jonny too, with a spaghetti string.
• Ambiguously Brown: Jonny, though he's probably black (or at least mixed race) if not just really tanned from staying outside for hours at a time.
  • Rolf, but it's possible that his skin is tanned from all the farm work he does outside.
• Ambition Is Evil: The source of Eddy's bad luck. Inherited from his scheming brother.
• Amusing Injuries:
  • Lampshaded in the movie with Eddy commenting that he is getting tired of slapstick after getting injured yet again. They receive no more injuries before Eddy's brother comes out. See below.
  • Notably, in the movie, the kids who fell for the Noodle Incident scam end up keeping their injuries for the first portion. It still didn't wear them down a bit, which is concerning considering Rolf was missing large chunks of flesh, and Jonny had a Bear Trap clamped onto his head.
    • Subverted later in the movie, in that Eddy being beaten up by his brother is treated very seriously and the cul-de-sac kids witnessing this and Eddy's subsequent breakdown leads them to finally forgiving and accepting the Eds as their friends.
  • Jimmy gets horribly injured several times each show, yet is still able to speak and think competently.
• And I Must Scream: Ed suffered from a literal version of this "Rock-A-Bye Ed" when in his nightmare his mother (played by Johnny 2/4) removes his mouth, then he grows a new one just so he can scream!!!
• Animation Bump: This was the very last animated series to be made with painted cels. After season 4, the show switched to digital ink and paint, resulting in a brighter color scheme, tighter linework and broader layout drawings, with more flowing movement in the characters.
• Annoyingly Repetitive Child: Invoked in "Shoo Ed", where the Eds make Johnny more annoying for a scam to get people to pay them to take him away from them. Eddy tells Johnny that people like it when he says, "why" all the time. Most explicitly shown when he annoys Sarah and Jimmy.
  Sarah: Jonny, get out of our birdhouse!
  Jonny: Why?
  Sarah: 'Cause I said so!
  Jonny: Why?
  Sarah: 'Cause you're bugging us!
  Jonny: Why?
  Sarah: 'Cause you're stupid!
  Jonny: (beat) Why?
• Anticipatory Lipstick: The Kanker Sisters, are sometimes are seen applying lipstick before attempting to kiss the Eds, although it is subverted in that the Kankers are usually successful in kissing the Eds and leave them Covered in Kisses.
• Apocalypse How: A Class X-4 occurs in "One + One = Ed," where the Eds are disassembling all kinds of things and it goes swimmingly at first, but when they try to disassemble spacetime itself, they wind up destroying the entire universe. Luckily, the universe eventually reconstitutes itself.
• Arc Number: 62.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • Ed: The school will tell Sarah, and Sarah will go tell Mom, and Mom will go tell Dad, and Dad will just SIT THERE AND WATCH TV!
  • Ed: It's Sarah! We are so doomed! Help me, guys! She'll tell Mom and Mom will tell Dad and he'll say "Not now, I just got home from work!"
  • Edd: Oh, dear! An intruder, eating all the food out of my refrigerator, IN BARE FEET! So unsanitary!
• Art Evolution: Early on in the series, the characters looked somewhat less human (notably, their jaw shapes being more exaggerated) and the color scheme was duller. The lines were also somewhat less thin and wriggled a bit less, as well. The characters are also quite relaxed, especially compared to their later portrayals.
  • The animation also seemed a lot more restricted and understated in the first few seasons. Compare a season 1 episode to a season 5 episode, and the animation style is far more exaggerated and 'wacky.'
  • Ed's appearance actually got a little less realistic compared to the other kids after the first season, becoming less Gonk-ish and gaining more stylized facial features. He also develops an amusingly weird quirk in later seasons where one of his eyes would float independently of his head when he got really excited.
• Artistic License – Economics: Despite the jawbreakers being as big as the characters' heads, they still only cost a quarter.
• Asbestos-Free Cereal: One of Eddy's scams consists on selling "100% curse-free" cereal.
• A Tale Told by an Idiot: In the "Rashomon"-Style episode "Once Upon An Ed", each Ed explains how they got stuck in Johnny's wall. When it's Ed's turn, he explains that he and his friends ran away from the giant, mutated Kanker Sisters.
• Author Appeal: Kevin's bike making motorcycle sounds isn't just a Wacky Sound Effect. It's also a nod to Danny Antonucci's own background as a motorcyclist.
• Author Avatar: Danny Antonucci based the Ed's individual personalities on different facets of himself, christening them with his own middle name.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ed's always shown to genuinely care about Sarah despite the abuse she dishes out to him, but it's been shown a few time that deep down, Sarah does genuinely care about her brother; she only gets to an eye-rolling exasperation with Ed, and Ed will always obey Sarah's requests.
• Backing Away Slowly: * In "Momma's Little Ed," Double D excuses himself from Ed's embrace this way after Ed insists that they move in together, be like brothers and "share the same bathroom." For added comedy, there's even the sound of a truck backing up in the background.
• Bad Mood as an Excuse: In "Little Ed Blue", Ed gains a bad mood, becoming aloof, violent and outright intimidating to everyone, even Sarah. This is stopped when Jonny pulls off his shoe, revealing a pebble inside, and Ed is blissful again.
• Bait-and-Switch: In "A Town Called Ed", it clearly seems a row of lockers will fall on Eddy. They don't.
• Bait-and-Switch Silhouette: In the episode "If It Smells Like An Ed", the Eds see a silhouette in an old shed that seems to look like Rolf. When Eddy starts yelling at "Rolf" for apparently framing them, "Rolf" breaks apart into three separate figures, revealing it to have actually been the Kanker Sisters standing in front of each other.
• Bamboo Technology: Edd's scrap-made inventions. He makes whole cities and theme parks out of cardboard—and they may or may not work.
• Banana Peel:
  • Kevin slips on a banana peel in the episode "See No Ed".
  Kevin: Man, that's old.
  • And in the episode "If It Smells Like An Ed", after Jimmy successfully frames the Eds because Eddy gave him a wedgie, after the Eds are taken away by the Kankers, Jimmy walks away and slips on a banana peel.
  Jimmy: Owie, Sarah!!
• Bare Midriffs Are Feminine:
  • Straight with Sarah and May as they're both girly girls.
  • Downplayed with Marie who also has one, but is pretty masculine herself.
  • Defied with Nazz who's one of the most feminine girls but lacks one.
  • Averted with Lee who is obviously the most masculine girl on the show.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: The first time was with Eddy's stilt shoes, the second time when the Eds wound up on the moon.
• Bavarian Fire Drill:
  • Attempted and failed in the opening of "Urban Ed", where Eddy runs up to Jonny and orders him to start doing random things seemingly as part of a game (such as catapulting marshmallows into a tuba or popping the balloons holding Ed aloft). When he gets to "Put a quarter in the jar, quick!", Jonny says "Nice try, Eddy." and walks off.
  • Used more successfully in an earlier episode where the Eds want to steal Jonny's spot at the swimming hole. While Eddy plots, Edd just pulls out a whistle and blows, causing Jonny to jump up and dive as if he were trying out for swim team.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Eddy, Edd & Ed in that order
• Behind a Stick: "Three Squares and an Ed" offers us a rare variant by showing us the view from behind the impossibly thin hiding place.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Jimmy has planned up schemes so brilliant that even Eddy considered them to be too diabolical. Jimmy also beat the living mess out of Edd and left him with his finger tied to his arm and his leg tied to his...other leg. He bit a chunk out of Edd's tongue.
  • Edd himself proved to be just as dangerous anytime he has an emotional meltdown. He also appears to be much stronger than he normally lets on since he's able to KO some of the strongest kids in the show with accidental, clumsy strikes that if done by anyone else would like a slap on the wrist or gentle tap.
  • Ed angry is so scary it frightens Sarah.
  Sarah: Ed! You can't throw me out, I live here too!
  Ed: SO MOVE!!!

• Don't piss off Plank. He has back-up. Assuming that Plank is in fact just another facet of Jonny's personality, it shows that underneath Jonny's happy-go-lucky exterior is a kid who will mess you up if you cross him.
• Rolf is the friendliest of the cul-de-sac children, and he's not someone to be trifled with either, if you don't want to have a four-foot fish smack into your face....or something worse then that.

• Big Bad:
  • The Kankers bully and intimidate everyone.
  • It's Eddy's brother in the movie.
• Big Ball of Violence: Most fight scenes.
• Big Brother Bully:
  • Eddy's brother, who appears for little other reason than to physically torment his little brother.
  • Lee and Marie Kanker tease and prank their younger sister May a lot.
  • Inverted with little sister Sarah bullying big brother Ed.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Ed always protects Sarah when she's in danger and willingly takes care of her when she is sick.
  • Sarah herself is this to Jimmy; she may be a JerkAss but this is definitely one of her more redeeming qualities.
  • Lee and Marie towards May in the Valentine's Day Special. One of their few Pet the Dog moments.
  • Subverted big-time with Eddy and his brother.
• Big Damn Heroes: In “For The Ed, By The Ed,” Plank does this to Jimmy when the latter is bullied by the Kankers and he’s almost forced to eat a bug.
• Big Eater:
  • Ed, period. An episode focuses on him eating the entire cul-de-sac's food supply. While sleepwalking.
  • Rolf is capable of eating half of his weight in meat. Maybe even more.
• Bigger on the Inside: The Kankers' trailer which is a small camper on the outside but has several rooms and a second floor on the inside.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Ed, Edd, and Eddy respectively.
• Bittersweet Ending: A lot; it's the closest the Eds get to actual happy endings.
  • "Knock Knock, Who's Ed?" — Ed finally gets to see his 8-hour movie marathon, but his friends don't really like what they see (or don't see, more properly, since all they have is a 3-inch TV screen and Ed is blocking the view), and Ed won't let them leave or speak until it's over.
  • "Dear Ed" — Jonny and Plank are back together, but Eddy doesn't get his quarter, though the Eds and Jimmy ends the episodes with some dancing.
  • "Rent-A-Ed" — Even though Ed destroyed Jonny's house, the Eds actually get away with the money.
  • "X Marks the Ed" — Rolf makes Eddy's zit disappear, but it ends up shrinking his head.
  • "Ed Overboard" — Edd and Eddy manage to save Ed from the Kankers with the Urban Rangers' help, but shortly after, the rangers take Ed away after they get covered in make-up.
  • "Run For Your Ed" — the Kankers actually leave the Eds alone, but the cul-de-sac is still in ruin, and Eddy gets his finger stuck in a faucet after the Eds hid in Edd's kitchen sink.
  • "A Fistful of Ed" — Eddy loses all respect he's accumulated, but he manages to get the Kankers to go away.
  • "The Day the Ed Stood Still" — The Eds manage to stop Ed's rampage, but everyone in the entire Cul-De-Sac (sans the Kanker Sisters) is understandably enraged. They are also stuck to Ed's wall via chewed up Chunky Puffs.
  • "An Ed Too Many" — The Eds manage to get Jimmy and Sarah back together, making Sarah forget about her crush on Double D and thus getting her to leave them alone, but Eddy, blaming the Four-Leaf Clover they found at the beginning of the episode for the events, throws it away. It is subsequently found by Jonny, who has a sudden string of good fortune, much to Eddy's chagrin. Oh, and Ed's still hungry.
  • "Virt-Ed-Go"— The Ed's treehouse for their club scam is taken over by the Kanker Sisters, but the tree-house was poorly-made and looked like it could fall at any moment.
  • "Will Work for Ed" — Eddy forces Ed to work for Rolf, who's a Bad Boss. Edd manages to get them in good terms, and both him and Ed get Jawbreakers while Eddy has to work for himself. One of the few episodes that ends with the Eds getting what they want with minor damage overall and no scams needed for it.
  • "Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?" — Eddy spends the episode in Jerkass mode earning money out of Double D's and Ed's misery. By the end, Double D and Ed get sick of his bullshit and manage to repay everything he's done to everyone by using his own scam against him.
  • In "Too Smart For His Own Ed," Edd spends the majority of the episode sad because he lost the spelling bee to Ed. It doesn't help that the kids treated him awfully, simply because he accidentally misspelled the word "gravy." The ending wasn't that bad if you think about it, because Edd didn't get beat up by the kids for Eddy's scam gone awry. He also congratulates Ed for winning the spelling bee, prompting Ed to drag Edd to the former's house.
  • In "Stiff Upper Ed," The Eds are able to join Sarah and Jimmy's rich club, but they are servants. Eddy doesn't seem too phased by it.
  • In "Fool on the Ed", After all the kids prank the Eds, Eddy has his revenge by hitting them all with a giant stinkbomb. While they succeed in getting the kids, the bomb detonates prematurely and the Eds themselves are also blasted with stink.
  • In "May I Have This Ed?", Edd manages to conquer his fear of dancing with girls and has a good dance with Nazz, but the Kankers end up ruining the dance and demolishing the school. On the plus side, as Ed points out, this means there's no school tomorrow!
• Blah, Blah, Blah: In the "Rashomon"-Style episode, how Ed remembers Double D's dialogue. Also, how the guys view Nazz while talking, because they're stunned by her beauty.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The "Honor Thy Ed" episode starts with the Eds having set up a taco stand selling "tacos" made of paper plates, grass, and shredded crayons. After Ed, Extreme Omnivore he is, eats several crayons thinking they are flavors, Edd humors him and takes a bite of one. Disgusted upon discovering that a crayon tastes like, well, crayon, and needing water to wash out the taste, he instinctively grabs Eddy's Brother's Armenian Secret Hot Sauce and guzzles it. At first, he's unfazed, and Ed also takes a swig. Eddy, baffled, tries some for himself, but it's at that moment the effect takes hold, however. We see a Discretion Shot from down the street as a tower of flame erupts from the stand and the Eds sticking their mouths on a sprinkler.
• Blinding Camera Flash: There's an episode revolving around this. Any time the camera flashes the characters get blindly dazed for a few seconds.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
  • Sort of, being that one of them has blue hair. May, Marie, and Lee.
• Bound and Gagged: The Kankers do this to Sarah in "Run For Your Ed" when looking for their ship in a bottle and to Nazz during the finale.
• Breaking Old Trends: The first four seasons solely take place within the cul-de-sac and its surrounding areas, during what is presumably the kids' summer vacation. Season 5 is when things start to shake up: the seasons actually change for once (allowing the show to have a few holiday specials) and all the kids go back to school, where most of the episodes take place.

• Brick Joke:
  • It's Way Ed, 1999: Edd: "In another ten years, we'll be back in style." The Movie, 2009: The Eds attain popularity with the other kids.
  • Stop, Look, and Ed: "I'll just save [the secret of what's under your hat] and use it for ammo when I need to, Double D." From Here to Ed: "How 'bout I blow the whistle on what's under that hat of yours, Double D?"
• Bridal Carry: A gender-inverted one with Sarah and Jimmy happens in the episode "Urban Ed."
• Bubble Pipe: When Nazz is babysitting at Eddy's house and he believes that it's a date. Edd notes it makes him look ridiculous.
• Bully and Wimp Pairing:
  • Sarah and Jimmy. The former is a bully to Ed and in general is very temperamental and aggressive, while the latter is sensitive, meek, and Prone to Tears.
  • Eddy and Edd are a milder example, the former being a physically aggressive and verbally abusive asshole, while the latter is a neurotic Shrinking Violet.
  • Marie and Edd although they are not friends, but a not-so-consensual "couple".
• Bumbling Sidekick: Ed and Edd are both this to Eddy; Ed out of stupidity, Edd out of being morally and intellectually superior.
• Butt-Monkey: The show is one big universe of Butt Monkeys, regardless of whether or not they deserve it.
  • The Three Eds, almost everyone on the show hates them, they are constantly humiliated from their attempts to earn respect from their peers and doomed to fail at every money-making venture they've ever made. The one who brings it upon themself the most, however, is Eddy.
  • Jimmy, the show's biggest slapstick magnet who's Made of Plasticine. Bordering on Born Unlucky, almost as much as Eddy.
  • Jonny sometimes, if the subject is his big head.
  • May, particularly when Lee and Marie gang up on her. However, she does dish it back.
• Buy or Get Lost: Very rarely would the Eds (or at least Eddy) want anything to do with the other kids that doesn't involve scamming them, or if they don't have any quarters.
  Eddy: This ain't a library! Buy, or get LOST!"
• Calling Your Attacks: An odd variation happens in "Dawn of the Eds". When the Eds are fighting the "robot bounty hunters", Ed gratuitously shouts the names of the weapons the Eds are using against them.
• Calvin Ball: The Eds make Jonny play a game like this in the beginning of "Urban Ed". (See Bavarian Fire Drill entry above.)
• Camera Abuse: Just after Edd sets the camera angle straight in the opening sequence, Ed and Eddy's rough-housing cause the three to be knocked into the lens, resulting in television snow.
  • In-Universe: In "An Ed is Born," Ed eats the camera ate one point. Edd has to fish it out of his stomach.
• Cartoon Juggling: Eddy juggles a variety of items that Ed throws at him, from chairs to Double D, in order to entertain Sarah while babysitting. It goes fairly well until Ed throws him a cactus.
• Catchphrase:
  • For Ed: "Buttered toast!" and "Gravy!"
  • In a Brick Joke, Sarah serves Ed "buttered toast" and "gravy" for dinner when he's grounded.
  • Lampshaded in a Spin-the-Bottle/Truth or Dare episode, where they're forced to switch personalities. Edd, posing as Ed (obviously), says "gravy" and "buttered toast" all the time, causing Ed to protest that he doesn't say them that much.
  • Sarah often says "Wait until I get my hands on you!" whilst chasing someone. (Usually Ed.)
  • "KANKERS!" by all three Eds or "Kankers." from Eddy, depending on the situation.
  • "DORKS!" or some variation thereof is Kevin's go-to insult.
  • "Jeepers!" is common for Jimmy.
• Central Theme: Don't let egos overshadow what is most important like friendship.
• Cerebus Retcon: The series finale reveals that the reason Eddy is such a jerk is that all the years he endured with his big brother were in fact torture, and that pretty much everything he had ever said about his brother was made-up.
• Chain of Deals: "Who, What, Where, Ed"
• Chaos Architecture: The environment decides whether or not to grow steep hilltops in some episodes or if the alleys are big enough to support a cardboard city.

• Characterization Marches On:
  • The Eds in the later seasons are almost unrecognizable in personality compared to how they were earlier. Ed was presented as a slightly smarter, but more absentminded goofball than outright stupid or nonsensical like he is later, and he initially lacked the Super-Strength that became a major part of his character. Edd was also much more relaxed and low-speaking, and far more willing to go along with Eddy's scams—contrast to how neurotic he is later on, as well as being the "Moral Compass," so to speak, of the trio. Eddy in the early seasons wasn't the greedy, narcissistic, Jerkass with a Hair-Trigger Temper that we know in later ones, and was instead a laid-back, stoic who enjoyed playing relatively harmless pranks on the other two Eds.
  • The Cul-de-Sac kids, in general, were a lot less openly hostile to the Eds in season 1 and early season 2 than the later seasons, at most being annoyed by their presence and only really going after them when they actively deserved it. A few of the early episodes even have some of the kids inviting the Eds to join them in whatever they were doing or even offering them stuff with no strings attached, and a few of the kids (most notably Rolf) could genuinely feel like a part of their gang when they joined the Eds in their hijinks. It wouldn't be until mid-to-late season 2 would the kids start to go out of their way to exclude the Eds in whatever they did.
• Charlie Brown Baldness:
  • All three of the Eds have black strands of hair, as does Kevin.
  • Jimmy has curly hair (described as resembling the rear end of a chicken by some characters) that seamlessly blends with his skin color.
• Cheek Copy: Plank in "They Call Him Mr. Ed".
• Chekhov's Gunman: Eddy's brother has been occasionally mentioned in spite having no real relevance to the plot, except for a few moments. But later on, it appears as he's responsible for Eddy's entire character of being a greedy, narcissistic Jerkass, what with the way he brutally abuses Eddy in one of the most serious forms of Slapstick in the entire series.
• The Chew Toy:
  • The Eds are frequently put on the receiving end of the Amusing Injuries stick.
  • Due to his Smug Snake and Bitch in Sheep's Clothing tendencies he would later come to develop, many fans see Jimmy suffering slapstick as a way to balance out his karma houdinis.
• Chick Magnet: Kevin and Double D
  • Combined with Nerds Are Sexy, Edd's had more girls go after him than any other male character on the show—the main girls being Marie and May Kanker, Sarah and Nazz.And most of the time he doesn't even realize it.
  • Kevin is this to a lesser extent—Nazz is implied to have a crush on him and they get a lot of Ship Tease in the movie, and the Kankers, while they're obviously more into the Eds, consider Kevin attractive enough to want to kiss him.
  • Eddy's brother has most of the girls attracted to him during the movie.
• Childish Older Sibling: Ed is a dim witted oaf who can rarely do anything right on his own. His younger sister Sarah, while not exactly mature herself, is functioning much better, and as a result, is more likely to be the one in charge. Rolf outright admits that he views Sarah as Ed's keeper, which Sarah doesn't argue against.
• Christmas Carolers: In "Fa La La La Ed", Ed brings the spirit of Christmas to the cul-de-sac, despite it being the middle of July, at one point, Eddy decides to use Ed's gimmick to his advantage by scamming other kids out of change by he, Ed and Double D caroling door-to-door, allowing him to buy them a large bag full of jawbreakers.
• Christmas Episode: "Fa La La La Ed", where Ed thinks it's Christmas in July, and the Christmas Special "Jingle Jingle Jangle".
• Circus Episode: In "Rent-a-Ed," Eddy's latest scam is forming a circus act with Ed and Double D as "The Flying Eduardo Brothers," which of course, impresses none of the other cul-de-sac kids.
• Clip Show: Toyed with. While we do see some props from previous episodes, all of the flashbacks are new stories, and every Ed except the one telling a story they just remembered has no memory any flashback actually happening. Near the end of the episode, Eddy flat out states that he hates clip shows once Ed starts a flashback of the beginning of the episode, and starts beating the others with his Dueling Fish to get them to stop.
• Cloneopoly: In a comic book story, the titular Eds play a parody of Dungeons & Dragons. When the game begins, Ed says "Do not pass go. Do not collect $200".
• Clothespin Nose Plug: In "Thick as an Ed", Edd wears a clothespin on his nose to avoid the smell from Ed's lucky hunk of cheese.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Rolf, Ed, and Jonny on occasion can come off as very eccentric. Specifically Rolf's strange foreign customs, Ed's stupidity or Johnny... being eccentric. Quite often there would be awkward pauses from the other characters as if they are trying to make sense of what weird things they just said.
• Comic-Book Adaptation: Comic stories starring the Eds were featured in Cartoon Cartoons and Cartoon Network Block Party.
• Companion Cube:
  • Plank is an inanimate piece of wood that Jonny regards as his best friend.
  • And Ed's lucky (and really stinky!) piece of cheese, Sheldon until Eddy chucked him into the creek.
  • Edd's cactus, named "Jim." He plays a minor role in A Glass of Warm Ed.
• Conditioned to Be Weak: Ed is the strongest of the trio but is also a docile simpleton because his mother raised him to believe that it is never acceptable to hit his sister Sarah, no matter the situation. For this reason, Sarah regularly bullies him and only gets away with it because Ed turns a blind eye to it. When Ed is in a bad mood, he actually yells at her for the first time after she berates him. She's genuinely afraid of him after this and quickly relents and leaves him alone for the rest of the episode.
• Conforming OOC Moment:
  • Nazz may be sweet to the Eds, but whenever the kids laugh at them when they humiliate themselves, she often joins in.
  • In "If It Smells Like an Ed", the kids laugh at Jimmy after Eddy gives him a wedgie, even Double D (who isn't the type to laugh at those kinds of immature jokes, let alone Eddy's mean-spirited sense of humor) and Ed (who is one of the sweetest characters).
  • In "Nagged to Ed", the Eds very messily eat sandwiches, including Double D, the Neat Freak who believes in politeness. Then again, this was the second episode of the whole series.
• Continuity Nod: The show is positively loaded with these, the most being in The Movie. One example includes Ed getting shocked and getting into costumes and forms he had in several past episodes.
  • From the movie, upon Edd seemingly figuring out that Eddy's Brother has something to do with the Lemonbrook gag factory, Eddy references the mascot episode, "Tight End Ed".
  • "It Came From Outer Ed" has a cameo of the Masked Mumbler porta-potty booth from "Tag Yer Ed".
  • "The Good Ol' Ed" revolved around making a time capsule, which featured many devices from previous episodes, including the Eddo puppet from "Honor Thy Ed", the hypno-wheel from "Look Into My Eds", the Canadian Squirt Guns and hat from "Know It All Ed", the Fad Freak costume from "Its Way Ed", the ice pack from when they destroyed Jonny's house in "Rent-A-Ed", and the weapon fish from "Dueling Eds". It also references the rocket car from "Ready, Set, Ed!", the chain of deals from "Who, What, Where, Ed?", and the time they painted a spatula gold to pass it off as jewelry in "High Heeled Ed".
  Ed: I remember that as if it were only second season.
  • In "Out with the Old, In With The Ed", Johnny can be seen playing with the Whiz-Whaz toy from "Its Way Ed".
  • There's also Ed's sleepwalking in "A Glass Of Warm Ed", which comes back to explain how the Eds got the Kankers' ship-in-a-bottle in "Run For Your Ed" three seasons later.
  • "A Glass of Warm Ed" has a "blink and you'll miss it" nod to a previous episode, with the "En-o-Gee drink" stand from "Over Your Ed" making a reappearance.
  • The events of "Run For Your Ed" are a result of Ed's sleepwalking problem from "A Glass of Warm Ed" popping up again, which unwittingly results in the Kankers precious Ship in a Bottle getting stolen, inciting their wrath.
  • "Dueling Eds" features the giant piggy bank from "Fa-La-La-La-Ed", rotting in the junkyard.
  • "Three Squares and an Ed" features cameos of the Newspaper Machine and the Elevator Boots from "Read All About Ed" and "A Pinch to Grow An Ed".
  • The clubhouse from "Virt-Ed-Go" makes a sudden reappearance as a refuge from Monster Ed in "The Day The Ed Stood Still". It's even still painted pink and says "Club Kanker". It doesn't last long against Edzilla, though.
  • The "Hive Bee Gone" overalls from "Pop Goes The Ed" reappear in "To Sir With Ed", with "Hive" crossed out and replaced with "Snake" as Ed and Edd think they're fighting a snake.
  • "My Fair Ed" references Ed tearing up Edd's screen-door in "Button Yer Ed".
  • Edd's steel guitar from "Avast Ye Eds" reappears in "Rambling Ed", "Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?", "Little Ed Blue", and "Out With the Old, In With the Ed".
  • In "May I Have This Ed?" Ed produces a "lucky cheese chunk" he calls Sheldon Jr., a reference to his lucky cheese chunk Sheldon from "Thick as an Ed".
  • This exchange from "Stuck in Ed", where Eddy convinces Jimmy to help him think up a scam, and Edd brings up the events of the episode "Ed in a Half-Shell":
  Edd: Have faith, Eddy. After all, you did teach Jimmy everything you know.
  Eddy: Oh yeah! Didn't we win an Emmy for that episode?
  Edd: Hardly...
  • Several scenes in the junkyard show inventions from previous episodes (i.e. the swinging-chair ride from "Eds-aggerate").
  • The video game, "Ed Edd N Eddy The Mis Ed Ventures", has the El-Mongo stinkbomb from "Fool on the Ed", return as portable weapons.
  • Rolf's TV from an early episode pops up again as a plot device in one later episode.
  • "A Fistful of Ed" has Jimmy's snake tattoo from "Urban Ed" reappear. Eddy also makes reference to the episode where Eddy turned Jimmy into a sumo wrestler.
  • In "Fa La La La Ed", Rolf's Christmas present to Jonny is the yo-yo Ed traded to him for a sack of plums in "Keeping Up with the Eds".
• Contrived Coincidence: In "Who, What, Where, Ed" (the Chain of Deals episode), the Eds need some clams but are having no luck. Just when they're about to give up, Jonny pops out of the sewer wearing SCUBA gear and holding a bucket full of clams. Edd remarks "That was convenient."
• Cosmic Plaything: Edd's only explanation as to why the trio can't get free jawbreakers in the episode "Don't Rain on My Ed".
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: In "Eds Aggerate", when Ed, Edd and Eddy are stuck to cement for lying about breaking Kevin's window, Edd says the following.
  Edd: This all could have been avoided, if we'd just tell the truth.
• Covered in Kisses: Whenever the Eds are caught as victim of the Kanker Sisters. Whenever Kevin or Rolf is captured by the Kankers, they seem to fall victim to this as well. Jonny too once (Ed Overboard).
• Crack Pairing: Edd and May, Invoked by Sarah and Jimmy (as cupids) in the Valentine's Day special. The other Eds and Kankers both found it strange. Then, through random arrow firing, we also got Eddy paired with Plank and Ed with a sandwich.

• Cross Through: The show was involved with Cartoon Network Invaded, a Crossover event involving aliens along with Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Camp Lazlo, and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
• Crying a River:
  • In "Three Squares and an Ed", Ed is grounded and has cried a large puddle around him.
  • "Here's Mud in your Ed" sees Jimmy being scammed with a fake amusement park and subsequently crying a stream of tears that pours down the storm drain.
  • The Eds are invited to Jonny and Plank's Arbor Day celebration in "'Tween a Rock and an Ed Place", only to learn that they're the only guests there. When Eddy wants to leave, Jonny cries so much that his tears create a pool that Ed uses to fish in.
• Cuckoo Nest: The fourth (and originally last) season finale reveal that everything shown was just three old men reminiscing about their childhood. That would at least explain how nothing took place out of their cul-de-sac, the lack of a definite time-frame, and how nobody but the main cast are ever mentioned or shown even when they are at school.
• Cue Card: Edd holds up cue cards for Ed to read while he talks with Johnny. Despite screwing up, he manages to find Johnny's problem.
  Ed: Sit down and say "Hello, Johnny!"
  Johnny: Uh... hello?
  Ed: Ask him how he is!
  (Johnny is confused, Edd holds up a sign saying "How are you?")
  Ed: I'm fine. Well, okay, a little hungry.
• Cupid's Arrow: In the Valentine's episode, Jimmy and Sarah take on the role of cupids and force May and Edd to fall in love. However, their show of affection for each other becomes so great that it physically disgusts the other kids, who attempt to pull them apart. The cupids try to fix this by shooting everyone with arrows, resulting in several bizarre pairings (including Eddy/Plank and Ed/a sandwich), sans Rolf who hid under a garbage can. He finally gains the ability to see them by squirting lemon juice in his eyes, deposing of the cupids and awakening everyone from the love spell by splashing them with mop-bucket water.
• Curse Cut Short: From "Sir-Ed-Alot":
  Ed: I am a horse!
  Eddy: You're a horse's—
  Sarah: Hey! You better win!
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: In Good Ole Ed Ed does this while trying to scare the hiccups out of Double D.
  Ed: I AM A ZOMBIE AND I WILL MALICE YOU WITH A SHOEHORN!
  Edd: *hic* {Half scared, half confused} Malice me with a shoehorn!?
  • Fridge Brilliance: Edd has been known to flip out at Ed or Eddy when they make grammatical errors, so his reaction may have been due to Ed using "malice" as a verb when it's really a noun.
• The Cutie:
  • Edd is a shy, kind-hearted Shrinking Violet with a high-pitched voice and Childish Tooth Gap. Sarah even calls him "cute" in "For Your Ed Only".
  • Jimmy is a sweet, timid, innocent little boy who's very cheerful and In Touch with His Feminine Side, cries a lot, and likes stuffed animals.
  • Ed is a carefree and optimistic Pollyanna without a single mean bone in his body. However, it's downplayed due to his gross hygiene habits.
  • Nazz is a ditzy Dumb Blonde who's very sweet and has a cute giggle to boot.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check:
  • The Eds constantly attempt (and often fail) to make money by scamming the kids — although they never think of getting a regular allowance from their parents nor doing chores to get the money.
  • Ed's dad is too busy, Edd doesn't get compensated for chores, and Eddy...uh...probably wants more money.
  • Edd is also capable of building several cardboard technologies and the trio never think to just sell them. Granted, they do fall apart a lot.
    • They did try to sell his Thingamajig invention once, sort of, but then Captain Melonhead showed up.

Tropes D to G

• Darker and Edgier: The Movie, due to the kids' obsession with hunting the Eds down and seemingly wanting to KILL them. Plus, The Reveal that Eddy's brother is physically abusive. Contains a ton of spoilers!
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Kevin and the kids get an episode to themselves: "See No Ed". It gets so weird for the cast that they start searching for the Eds. Some are worried, some are curious, and Kevin is just getting increasingly paranoid that the Eds are up to something. Turns out that the Eds were trying to set up a scam, but they couldn't find Ed's mask and glove (both of which had been found earlier by Jonny and Jimmy, respectively).
  • The movie easily doubles the characterization and depth of relationships for the cast, but Kevin and Nazz' relationship especially.
  • I Am Curious Ed focuses on Jimmy and Sarah instead of the Eds up to where the episode even put away the Eds until the first half was complete.
• Deadpan Door Shut: The Eds are trying to remove a ship-in-a-bottle from Ed's finger that, unfortunately for them, belongs to the Kanker Sisters. When the trio comes to Double D's door for it, he calmly closes the door, locks it, then tells the other Eds in a panic where the bottle came from.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Edd, who becomes increasingly snarkier after the first season.
  • Eddy also has his moments—Kevin too.
• Decoy Convoy: In "Mission: Ed-Possible", Edd is tasked with delivering Ed and Eddy's terrible report cards to their parents, leading to a tense chase to the cul-de-sac so they can take the cards and doctor them. Once they get their hands on Edd's satchel however, they find it's empty; it turns out that Edd entrusted Rolf to deliver the report cards while he himself acted as a decoy.
• Depending Upon the Undependable: Many of the Eds' scams fall apart by having a key component depend on Too Dumb to Live Ed.
  • In "Laugh Ed Laugh," Double D traps himself in a shed with Eddy, then gives Ed the key. The consequence for not holding onto it himself was Ed eating the key, and the three have to shovel their way out.
  • In "Tinker Ed," Eddy devises a scam that involves faking the existence of unicorns to appeal to Jimmy. However, by having Ed pilot the legs, the plan fails, as Ed stupidly pops out and declares his role.
• Deranged Animation: Combine the creator's already bizarre drawing style with the antics of cartoons from The Golden Age of Animation and you get plenty of this. It's also surprisingly expressive for a TV cartoon (especially a Canadian one). Pause the show and any given moment and you see a funny facial expression.
• Digging to China: "For Your Ed Only" — Johnny hits the ground so hard he pops up in China. "Just like in the cartoons!"
• Disaster Dominoes: The Movie begins with the aftermath of a presumably titanic set of these, which has left most of the Cul-De-Sac in ruins and the Eds fleeing for their lives.
  • "May I Have This Ed?" climaxes with this, accidentally set off by Nazz when she asks Double D to dance with her in front of Marie. Within sixty seconds, the entire school building has been annihilated.
• Disguised in Drag: Double D dresses up as a mermaid in "Tinker Ed" to try to convince Jimmy that fairytales are real.
  • Jimmy at the end of "Ed Overboard".
  • A hilarious instance occurs in "In Like Ed", (in which the Eds believe that Jimmy's birthday party is actually a secret spy meeting). Double D infiltrates the party disguised as Nazz, and begins analyzing the food by inserting them into a machine...hidden in his pants. Later, Eddy helps with the analysis by shoving in a piece of cake, only to realize that he had just stuffed it into the REAL Nazz's pants.
• Disney School of Acting and Mime: Intentionally avoided. Danny Antonucci explicitly told his animators to avoid Disney-style acting and gestures when drawing for the show.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • In the episode "Eds-Aggerate", Kevin gets very angry and traps the Eds into cement just because Eddy broke his window and lied about the "Mucky Boys" destroying his window instead.
  • In "An Ed is Born", Eddy calls Kevin the "neighborhood dork" and Kevin decides to get even by giving Eddy a bicycle wedgie by tying his underwear to the back of his bike and speeding off down the street. Yes, because Kevin is the only one who can call other people "dorks".
  • Then there's the fact that all 3 Eds tend to get punished for what only 1 or at most 2 of the other Eds were responsible for. A good example is the Halloween episode where Ed beats up all the other kids due to horror movie provoked hallucinations and the other 2 are beaten up for it while Ed gets off scot free.
  • "Momma's Little Ed" has Rolf punishing Double D just for dressing Wilfred up in a suit by hitting him with the "hat of discipline" (an incredibly giant hammer worn on one's head). Sure, putting a suit on somebody's pig may be weird, but being flattened by a giant hammer for it? (Especially considering that Double D was merely following what he thought was his parents' orders. Rolf even admitted he respected the fact that Edd obeys his parents, but clobbered him anyway!)
  • Perhaps the most egregious example is the episode "If It Smells Like an Ed" where Jimmy framed the Eds for conspiracies they did not commit...because Eddy, and only Eddy, gave him a wedgie. Sure one could say that it was understandable for Jimmy to get retribution for his humiliation, but Ed and Edd have done nothing at all to deserve this.
• The Ditz:
  • Ed is very slow on the uptake and obtuse, lacks common sense, and speaks in incoherent sequiturs most of the time.
  • May Kanker is also very wet behind the ears and lacking in common sense.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In "Hand Me Down Ed", Double D gets hold of a boomerang and begins to sweat because of how hot it is outside, and then proceeds to strip pretty sensually for a kids' show, clinging on to a pole, and shakes off his pants with no shame whatsoever. This stops when Eddy yells at him and takes the boomerang away from him.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Danny Antonucci provides the whistling for the theme song, which is based on the whistling in the jazz classic "The Big Sound From Winnetka."
• Domestic Abuse: After over 100 episodes, Eddy's Brother is revealed to be a Jerkass who beats Eddy to a pulp when he asks for a little protection from the neighborhood kids. This turns nasty when you realize that Eddy is only around 12, his brother has to be in his 20s, and he probably practiced the same level of abuse for the entire time he lived with their parents.
  • Sarah's treatment of Ed is only a cut below this, though that's Played for Laughs a lot more.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: The Eds are commonly beaten up by Ed's sister Sarah; Ed's parents are implied to finish the job she starts offscreen.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: The Kanker Sisters are straight-up molesters, full-stop.
• Dub Name Change: In the Dutch dub, the Kanker Sisters are renamed to the Drammer Sisters. This is because "kanker" is the Dutch word for cancer.
• Downer Ending: The endings of 90% of the episodes, in the vein of Invader ZIM. And they are always Played for Laughs.
  • Notable examples: "If It Smells Like An Ed", the Halloween special and the Christmas special "Jingle Jingle Jangle".
  • In general, the only episodes where all three Eds do get a happy ending are "Sir Ed-a-Lot", "A Glass of Warm Ed", "Rent-a-Ed", "Dear Ed", "May I Have This Ed?" and The Movie.
• Dreadful Musician: In "Pain in the Ed", Ed is forced to take violin lessons, and is so bad at it that it causes the bark to peel off trees, and Kevin's bike to crumple up.
• Dream Intro:
  • The episode "Rock-a-Bye Ed" opens with Ed having a nightmare of Johnny 2x4 as his mother ripping off his mouth and lowering him into the "Kanker pit" for annoying Sarah. This sets up the conflict of the episode, in which Ed develops a crippling fear of Johnny.
  • The special "The Eds Are Coming" opens with Jimmy having a dream of living in a sunshine-and-rainbows wonderland before it turns into a nightmare when aliens attack.
• *Drool* Hello: Monster Ed pulls this on Eddy in "The Day The Ed Stood Still".
• Dub Name Change:
  • In Sweden, Rolf is a fairly common name, so in the dub his name was changed to "Reinar" in order to sound more foreign-ish. Nazz's name was changed to Tess, presumably to make it easier to come off the tongue.
  • In Brazil, the name and nickname of the three characters were changed in accordance with the Portuguese counterpart to "Edward." Ed was renamed "Du," Edd/Double-D was renamed "Dudu," and Eddy was renamed "Edu." It should be noted this resulted in Aerith and Bob, since every other character retained their original name.
  • In Latin America, the Kanker sisters become the Cruel Sisters.
  • In Italy, Jonny is named Jonnino and the Kanker sisters are named Panzer sisters.
  • In France, Nazz is named Jazz. The Kankers are named Ulsoeurs sisters.
  • In the Netherlands the Kankers are known as the Nag (Zeur in Dutch) Sisters.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: It can be pretty easy to mistake Double D for a girl—his high pitched voice doesn't help.
• Dude Magnet: Nazz is this full-stop. Rolf and Jimmy are the only male characters who don't have a crush on Nazz.
• Dumb Blonde: May and, to a lesser extent, Nazz (especially in later episodes).
• Dumb Is Good: Mostly played straight. Ed and Jonny are Kindhearted Simpletons, Nazz is a bit ditzy, but very sweet, and May is the dumbest Kanker and probably the most innocent and least cruel of the three. Subverted however with Edd who is a genius and easily the nicest character on the show.
• Dumb Muscle: Edd is outwardly the smartest and also one of the weakest (along with Jimmy). Ed, the least intelligent member of the cast, can lift a whole house before he's out of diapers.
• Dungeon Bypass: In "They Call Him Mr. Ed", Ed simply runs in a straight line through all the walls of Double D's "maze of inevitable despair" ("catchy, isn't it?") to get to a box of Chunky Puffs.
  Edd: Excuse me, Ed. Not that you'd understand the geometry involved in such an endeavor, but that isn't how you go through a maze!
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The early shorts had much cruder animation, Double D was much more relaxed than he is later on, Eddy is a loser and heckler instead of a flat out greedy jerk, and Ed wasn't stupid so much as he was an absentminded 12-year-old. Also, there was the first episode, where they actually did get their jawbreakers—sort of.
  • Edd was actually referred to by his real name casually at times in the Pilot, rather than Double D.
  • The Kankers' introduction episode "Nagged to Ed" portrayed the trio in a much more sympathetic light compared to the rest of the series. While they were still introduced as the creepy Abhorrent Admirers they have always been, (Removing the Eds clothing while replacing them with their dad's robes, drawing pictures of them marrying their respective Ed, etc.), they were shown to be quite hospitable and tried to impress the Eds into liking them, instead of forcing themselves onto them. The Eds were even shown in a slightly negative way by taking advantage of their hospitality. Also, they weren't bullies until later on.
  • Edd used to have a crush on Sarah in The Ed-Touchables. As the show progressed, the feelings got reversed.
  • Ed was a lot less terrified of Sarah. In Pop Goes the Ed, he rather smugly defied her when she ordered him to leave the pool and he would try to calm her down whenever she got irrationally angry, like in Quick Shot Ed.
  • Ed and Double D were a lot meaner and more intruding in the older episodes (although Double D himself was always a neat freak). For instance, in "Ed Touchables" and "Pop Goes the Ed", both Ed and Double D scared Jonny, while in later episodes, they're rather friendly. Eddy, inversely, was a lot nicer and generous in early episodes, sometimes to the point of having to talk Ed and Double D out of being mean. In later episodes he's a self-centered greedy jerkass.
  • In "Pop Goes the Ed", Sarah screams at her brother to get off the sprinkler, only for him to douse her with water in retaliation. Ed wouldn't dare do that to Sarah nowadays, on account of him being too scared to make her upset.
  • The title card is done differently in Season 1. The tune is completely different and for the first few episodes, the text is in a straight line as opposed to artsy.
  • The earlier seasons were a lot more fantastical with their plots and revolved less around scamming the kids than the later seasons would, with plots revolving around the Eds just messing around and/or playing pretend being more common. Dawn of the Eds had the Eds playing pretend space rangers, Look Into My Eds had Eddy hypnotizing the entire Cul-de-Sac, Its Way Ed revolved around the Eds trying to keep up with the break neck pace of changing fads in the Cul-de-Sac, and One + One = Ed is basically Duck Amuck redone with the Eds. Later seasons would make scamming the kids the focus of most episodes, and the ones that didn't focus on that tended to be far more grounded than the first or second season.
  • In Season 1, Eddy and Edd, like Johnny, believed Plank was sentient and could speak. Later episodes would have only Johnny listening to Plank.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After "130 episodes, four specials and a movie!" of physical, mental and social humiliation, the series ends with the Eds finally being forgiven and accepted as friends by the rest of cul-de-sac as well as finally getting jawbreakers.
• Easily Impressed: Between all the kids in the Cul-de-Sac, Ed, Rolf, and Jonny are definitely the easiest to enrapture. In the cases of Rolf and Jonny, this makes them particularly easy to rope into a scam.
• Eat the Camera: A rather literal case in "An Ed Is Born".
  Ed: Man the helms! Dive dive! Aaaaaa! [eats the camera.]
• Election Day Episode: "For the Ed, by the Ed" has the kids hold an election for "king of the cul-de-sac", with Plank and Eddy as the main candidates. Plank won in a landslide.
• Elongating Arm Gag: In "Run Ed Run", the Eds are trying to catch up to a bus while riding a land-based windsurfer. In an act of desperation, Eddy starts biting his own arm to stretch it, after which he uses it like a lasso to grab onto the bus' back door.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Eddy's middle name is Skipper, and Double D's is Marion. Also revealed in one other episode that Ed's middle name is Horace, even though he has the least embarrassing middle name of the trio.
• Empathic Environment: During "Dueling Eds", Rolf becomes highly intimidating just before his match against Eddy, which elicits a dark, ominous storm cloud. After Rolf defeats Eddy in the match, the former reverts back to his cheerful self, which causes the weather to become bright and sunny again.
• Enemy Mine/Go-Karting with Bowser: Before the ending movie, the Eds and the other kids do team up with each other from time to time, most notably in the alien invasion special. The kids can be downright friendly when they aren't be ripped off or pranked.
• Entertainment Above Their Age:
  • In "Urban Ed", Kevin can be seen reading a presumably-inappropriate magazine called Bikini Babes.
  • In "Luck of the Ed", Eddy is shown to have a stash of pin-up magazines that he got from his older brother.
  • Subverted in "Little Ed Blue". Ed is extremely cranky because he has a pebble in his shoe. Edd and Eddy try to find something to make him feel better and they find out that Ed keeps a magazine called Chicks Galore under his pillow. Then it's revealed that it's really just a magazine with pictures of baby chickens, and Eddy is disappointed that it's not the kind of chicks he wanted.
    Edd: "...I didn't even know they had magazines like that."
• Epic Fail: Several of the Eds' scams, most notably, the Ancient Egypt scam; Edd is unable to decipher Ed's 'hieroglyphs, their 'mummy' walks in late for his dramatic reveal, and the sand ends up making him sneeze so hard he blows the entire sphinx (Made entirely from cardboard boxes) into the sky. The episode "Once Bitten, Twice Ed" cranks this trope up to eleven after Jonny keeps ruining the arcade and Eddy insist on running the arcade even after people saw through the scam.
  • In "Pain in the Ed", Eddy's armpit hair (made of purple carpet) is so obviously fake that even ED sees right through it.
  Eddy: Hey Ed! Check out these pits!
  Ed: Nice carpet, Eddy!
  • "Oath to an Ed" sees the Eds trying — and failing miserably — to earn a badge to become Urban Rangers, which involves such mundane tasks as microwaving a burrito, changing a roll of toilet paper, and laying in a hammock. What really sells it is the end of the episode, when it's revealed that Plank succeeded where the Eds failed.
• Even the Subtitler Is Stumped: The subtitler for The Movie's premiere broadcast in the United States registered everything Rolf says as (unintelligible)...even though the things he was saying were very clear.
• Everyone Has Standards: Nearly all the kids of the Cul-de-Sac beat and/or humiliate the Eds badly. Especially towards Eddy, but in The Movie, all of them were appalled by Eddy's beating from his brother. Even Sarah and Kevin. This is especially notable given how they were out to pummel the Eds for a backfiring scam the whole time.
• "Everyone Is Gone" Episode:
  • In Laugh Ed Laugh, all the other kids in the neighborhood simultaneously come down with the chicken pox. Without anybody to scam, Eddy quickly goes a little nuts, attempting to scam squirrels out of their nuts and start eating fire hydrants, thinking they're jawbreakers.
  • In "Urban Ed", when Ed drops an anvil while pretending to be a pigeon, Eddy is shocked and says he's going to hurt someone.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: "Your Ed Here", "Take This Ed and Shove It".
• Evil Mentor: Eddy's brother was the one teaching Eddy how to scam, as well as being a sociopathic Big Brother Bully.
• Evil Versus Evil: Although it's debatable how "evil" he is, Eddy may be a sneaky con artist who will stoop to any measure to get what he wants, but the kids he's scamming aren't exactly saints either; also, Eddy whenever he encounters the Kankers, who want to love them... whether they like it or not: so technically, it's the Eds' evil (scamming the kids for money) versus the other kids' evil (being unnecessarily cruel to the Eds and themselves most of the time) versus the Kankers' evil (terrifying the local populace because of their obsession with their crushes is an acceptable form of courtship).
  • The Movie ends up uniting all these people against the worst evil of them all...Eddy's Brother.
• Evil Plan: Jimmy, of all people, in "If It Smells Like an Ed". After Eddy (and ONLY Eddy) gave Jimmy a wedgie, everyone else laughs at him. To get revenge, Jimmy then targets all three Eds by framing them for stealing several neighborhood items. Unfortunately, the Eds can't clear their name and are forced to choose between getting beaten up by the other kids or getting attacked by the Kanker Sisters. They choose option A as the Lesser of Two Evils, and end up getting both options because Jimmy didn't think they suffered enough.
  • Although, karma catches up with him, depending on whether you count slipping on a banana peel full punishment (Being Jimmy, that probably counts as a serious casualty).
• Evil Redhead:
  • Lee and Sarah.
  • Kevin is a redhead but he's more arrogant and cocky than evil.
  • Ed averts this trope and even then he's at worst Obliviously Evil as he can cause some carnage with his idiocy. His most evil was when he became lost in his fantasy world in Season 3's "The Day The Ed Stood Still" and becomes an alien monster or in Season 4's 'Little Blue Ed' where he rampages over a pebble in his shoe, attacking everyone near him with no mercy.
• Extreme Doormat:
  • Ed, when around his friends and especially around Sarah, probably because he's too stupid and seems just happy to be an obedient follower. He doesn't even mind being abused by his younger sister or treated like an object, despite being extremely strong. Not including "Little Ed Blue", he only stands up to Sarah once, because Eddy told him to, and immediately feels guilty about this when Sarah starts crying.
  • Edd has shades of this in the first season, but becomes more argumentative later on, especially when it comes to Eddy and his scams.

• Everyone Has Standards: The kids all willingly and knowingly bully each other for kicks, but see Eddy's older brother beating him up as a crime against nature, presumably because everyone else is closer in age, making it fair game.
• Eye Scream: A humorous, cartoon-y variation in "Your Ed Here" during the wax dummy scam when Ed puts Jonny's eyes on the wax Jonny.
  Ed: Am I an artist, or what?
  The kids laugh hysterically
  Jonny: Where'd everybody go?!
  Edd: (deadpan) Ed, give Jonny his eyes back.
  Ed: Right-o, Jim Bob!
  • In "Tight End Ed" we get Ed punching himself in the eyes so hard his fists get stuck to avoid having to see the Kanker Sisters' bare midriffs.
  • In "Flea Bitten Ed", Ed tries to hold back a sneeze by plugging his nose but this makes his eyes bulge out instead.
  • In "Hanky-Panky Hullabaloo", Rolf squeezes the juice from a pair of lemons into his eyes so that he can see the cupids that are wreaking havoc in the school. The result looks very painful.
• Fake Video Camera View: "An Ed Is Born" is almost entirely from the viewpoint of a camera. First there's a scene to set it up, then the rest of the episode is all seen through the camera.
• Failure Hero: The Eds.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Almost of the Eds' scams and efforts backfire in some form or another. Even if they get away with it, their rewards are usually either lost or destroyed.
  • In "Don't Rain on My Ed", their efforts to get to the candy store before Customer Appreciation Day ends are frustrated in increasingly arbitrary and silly ways, finally culminating in a fierce thunderstorm and an apparently random "chicken drive" blocking their path to the candy store.
  • "Rent-A-Ed", during which they turn Jonny's house into a sauna, seemed to end with them escaping and keeping the money. They get away by breaking a fire hydrant and riding the geyser-like jet of water into the air, while still holding on to the money. Even Kevin comments "Hey, the Ed-weirdo brothers aren't too bad!" as the episode ends.
  • A comic version of the pilot episode ended as the Eds were running off to purchase jawbreakers with the money they gained — the actual show continued to them eating the jawbreakers, only for Jonny in a tire to run into them and make them lose them.
• Fauxtastic Voyage: Used twice on two different occasions.
  • In the episode "Ready, Set, Ed!", the Eds use this trick to convince the other kids they're being taken on a trip around the world in Eddy's new "rocket car", a too small hunk of junk on a repurposed popcorn machine so it acts similar to a storefront kiddie ride. The plan falls apart when Ed ruins the illusion in front of Kevin's eyes.
  • In "Wish You Were Ed", Rolf is homesick for his village in "the Old Country" so Eddy knocks him out with Ed's "magic shoe" to buy them time to build a mock-up. The illusion falls apart when Jonny shows up and ruins everything. Rolf gets his revenge by playing "That's My Horse", a song from the Old Country and is accompanied by the participants beating the snot out of each other.
• Flanderization: Everyone on the show.
  • In Ed's case, it got so extreme that the writers had to reverse the trend, and made him a little smarter again. At least, he regained the ability to speak in coherent sentences. Similarly, Eddy got meaner and meaner, then got nicer again in the movie and later on in Season 5.
  • A showcase of Flanderization within the show can be found in the episode "All Eds Are Off", where the Eds, Kevin, Rolf and Jonny place a bet on who can keep off their most annoying habits. Their habits are what their Flanderization culminated into, with the exception of Jonny who has to stop listening to Plank, which is his whole character.
  • In-universe Flanderization happens in the "Truth or Dare" episode where the Eds each act like Flanderized versions of each other. Ed acts like Eddy, Double D acts like Ed, and Eddy acts like Double D. Ed comments on this at one point:
  Edd: (imitating Ed) Uh-oh, a fence. (deliberately walks into it and falls over) Gravy!
  Ed: Aw, come on Double D, I don't say "gravy" all the time!
  Edd: Buttered toast, then!
• Flash In The Pan Fad: Exaggerated in the episode that centers around short-lived fads. The kids spend the day coming up with new fads every few minutes, and the Eds desperately try to figure out how to keep up with them.
• Forceful Kiss: Done frequently by the Kankers to the Eds. For instance, in the ending of The Movie, the Kankers dragged Eddy's unconscious brother into his mobile home to give him "mouth to mouth."
  • Then there's the canon kiss between Edd and Eddy in "Your Ed Here".
• Food as Bribe: From "Three Squares and an Ed"
  Eddy: Jonny'll do anything for a handful of granola!
• Forcibly Formed Physique: In the episode "Hanky Panky Hullabaloo", May Kanker jumps on Marie's face, grotesquely caving it in and leaving her tongue, which is now about three feet long, hanging out onto the floor.
• Foreshadowing: "Man I'm getting tired of slapstick." Right after the last injury the Eds take before meeting Eddy's brother.
  • In "Ed...Pass it On..." where Eddy made the claim his brother was coming back, he believed doing this would give him some respect, only for Edd to mention after the first few people that it was fear they were all showing, not respect, and when Sarah and Jimmy (disguised as Eddy's brother) showed up at his doorstep, Eddy looked about ready to wet his pants from fear. This is the earliest sign we've seen that Eddy's brother isn't the awesome badass he's been made to be.
  • A very easy bit to miss: towards the end of "An Ed is Born", after "showing" his brother how cool he is, Eddy makes the comment "No more beatin' up little Eddy, eh, big brother?" Once you've seen the movie, this line sticks out like a sore thumb.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In "Don't Rain on My Ed" the Eds rush to get free jawbreakers from their local candy store. Just a stone's throw from reaching it, they're beset by an out of the blue storm and a chicken drive (don't ask). Edd is swept in the flood of poultry and begs Eddy, who managed to get out, for help. In a rare subverted case, Eddy goes for the jawbreakers, but the store closes and he loses his "idol" anyway.
• Friendship Song: "Friends Are There To Help You" is a humorous kids song about how no matter what happens friends will be there for you.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: Occurs a number of times throughout the series.
  • In "Key to My Ed", Ed drinks an experimental and highly volatile soda Edd created. Edd tells him to stay completely still so he doesn't set off the mixture, but Eddy forces him to start moving around by tickling his belly with a feather.
  • In "From Here to Ed", Eddy tries to get revenge on Kevin for ruining one of his scams, and one scheme he has is hitting him over the head with Ed's rotting, moldy lunch bag. Eddy tells Double D to hit him since he's the only one of the three that wouldn't look suspicious approaching Kevin. When he refuses, Eddy and Ed tickle him until he's right behind Kevin.
  • has Ed and Edd hanging from a set of monkey bars, which Eddy is too short to reach up and grab like they did. When he protests to their assistance and poking fun at his height, they tickle him under his arms until he falls off.
  • In the episode "Stop, Look, and Ed" where Eddy encourages all the kids in the cul-de-sac to break and disregard the rules, there's a scene when Ed tickles Kevin.
• Funny Background Event: In "Fa La La La Ed", while Jimmy is complaining to Sarah about the pain of smashing his piggy bank, we see Ed falling over as he tries to prop up some Christmas lights.
  • In "Look Before You Ed," while Edd and Jimmy are covered in snow in the foreground, Eddy and Ed steal Kevin's snowboard in the background.
  • In "May I Have this Ed", while Edd is talking in the foreground, Ed and Jonny are "dancing" together in the background.
  • In this scene, while Eddy and Double D talk, Ed just stands on his head in the background, using only his eyebrow to move forward. Really, it has to be seen to be believed.
• Gambit Roulette: The Kankers pull this in "Honor Thy Ed".
• Genre Savvy: In "The Eds are Coming, The Eds are Coming" (The CN Invaded special), the implication of an actual alien invasion leads Double D to research Ed's comic books to produce countermeasures against it.
• Gentle Giant: Ed is this most of the time.
• Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Almost all of the episodes.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Eddy to Edd in the first episode, via smashing a bed on him.
• Getting Hot in Here: Getting Hot Out Here: Edd begins to strip when he holds a boomerang in "Hand Me Down Ed" because he felt it too hot outside. He clings onto a pole and had the time to strip down to his underwear until Eddy snatches the boomerang away from him.
• The Ghost: All the parents, Eddy's older brother until The Movie, and Rolf's grandparents (who he refers to as "Nana" and "Nano").
• Giant Foot of Stomping: In Ed's bedtime story he was telling to Johnny.
• Giant Medical Syringe: In the episode "This Won't Hurt an Ed", Eddy learns that Kevin is afraid of needles and uses this to torment him by convincing everyone it's Booster Shot Day. Ed and Eddy use a crudely made giant medical syringe in one of their torment attempts.
• Gilligan Cut: In "Take this Ed and Shove It.":
  Rolf: ROLF'S TRACTOR IS NOT FOR SALE!
  (Rolf's old, rusty, beaten up tractor is shown, with a For Sale sign next to it)
• Girly Bruiser: Sarah is a rare villainous example.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Happens to Eddy in "Laugh Ed, Laugh".
• Going Commando:
  Ed: (matter-of-fact) I forgot to wear underwear, guys.

• Grand Finale: The Movie, which even breaks the fourth wall to make it clear to the viewers that it is the end.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: As the show is full of Toon Physics, this pops up every now and then. A notable example is in "Mirror, Mirror, on the Ed", where Ed and Eddy don't realize they stepped off a cliff before they look down.
• The Great Whodini: Eddy, upon acquiring Double D's hypno-wheel, proclaims himself to be "The Great Eddy-dini".
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Varying shades of grey. Often between episodes, too.
  • The Eds swindle the other kids out of their hard-earned, that is true. However, Ed is a Kindhearted Simpleton and Edd is a Lovable Nerd who are mostly just egged on by Eddy, and while he himself is a Jerkass at times, in the movie it is shown that he has a huge Freudian Excuse.
  • Sarah is an abusive, demanding sister, but she shows huge concern for Jimmy, and she has a soft-spot for Edd as well—it's also been shown at times that she truly does care about her brother.
  • Kevin is a bullying Jerk Jock to the Eds, and Jimmy and Jonny (albeit to a slightly lesser extent), but much of his paranoia and hatred of the Eds is brought about by their scams.
  • Jimmy was generally nice at first, but he was a big case of Beware the Nice Ones. Later, he becomes a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Similar to Kevin, it's implied to be part due to the Eds' abuse and scams wearing down on him.
  • Nazz is, again, generally nice but intimidating when provoked.
  • Rolf is generally friendly, but has a penchant for Disproportionate Retribution.
  • Jonny is a harmless Cloud Cuckoolander, and it is implied that the plank of wood he carries around is sentient and causes him to do his more morally ambiguous moments. That is, until the movie, where he takes quite a few levels in Jerkass.
  • The Kanker sisters are very openly antagonistic to all the other children, but in the movie, they get a Pet the Dog moment.
  • The only unquestionably evil character in the show is Eddy's brother, who appears for the movie as the Big Bad.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: In "May I Have This Ed?", Marie smashes Nazz with an unconscious Eddy, half as revenge for her dancing with Edd, and half to get Double D to pay attention to her. This is followed immediately by Lee attempting to do the same thing to her with Ed, who has somehow turned into a sledgehammer.
  • In the movie, Eddy's Brother slams Double D into the ground, also using Eddy.
• Groin Attack:
  • Eddy does this to Ed when he learns that the lump hid Eddy's magazines and the box that they came in in different places.
  • Eddy gets one in "An Ed is Born" when Kevin loops Eddy's underwear elastic to the back of his bike and speeds off. Eddy's voice quickly raises in pitch while he tries to hang on and play it cool for the camera.
  • Jimmy also becomes a victim of this in "Tinker Ed" as seen here.
• Grossout Show and Gross-Up Close-Up: Though gross-out humor isn't played up to the same extent as shows like Ren & Stimpy or Cow and Chicken, there are several examples throughout the series. What did you expect from Danny Antonucci?
  • Edd + fog horn sound = Squick.
• Grub Tub:
  • In the late-series episode "All Eds Are Off", Ed drops his box of instant gravy mix in the community swimming pool, turning the water into gravy.
  • The tub in Ed's room is often filled with gravy.
  • In the episode Knock Knock Who's Ed?, the Eds try making a pool full of lime-flavored gelatin Unfortunately, it seems that Edd has underestimated the viscosity of the gelatin, and the pool is simply a large, quivering mound of the stuff. To make matters worse, Ed drinks the pool, leaving him and his friends scamless.
• Guilt by Association Gag: Regardless of his level of actual involvement, Double D will always get beat up just as much as the others. Sarah lampshaded he probably didn't have anything to do with one scam, but "give those cute ones an inch and they take a mile".

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