Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends / Tropes A to D

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Trope Examples
A - D | E - L | M - R | S - Z

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Tropes with their own pages

• Body Wipe

Other tropes

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• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Spoofed in "One False Movie" with the CGI Eduardo in Bloo's movie.
• The '80s: The series takes place in the mid 2000s but one episode revolves around Mac trying to be cool. At one point he starts acting like a stereotypical 80s bad boy.

A

• Accent Adaptation: Hispanic imaginary friend Eduardo has an American accent in the Spanish dub.
• Accidental Misnaming: Bloo constantly forgetting Berry's name in "Berry Scary." He does, however, remember her as "Heather."
  Berry: MY NAME IS BERRY!!!
• Acquainted with Emergency Services: In Season 2, "My So Called Wife", Mac, Bloo, Coco, Mr. Herriman, and several other people are thrown in jail for a night after a phony benefactor threw a fake gala in someone's mansion without permission and the owner has everyone arrested for trespassing. Everyone was released from jail in the morning leading to Bloo saying goodbye to the police officer.
  Mac: What a crazy night.
  Bloo: Eh. I had worse. (to a police officer) Good seeing you again, Charles. Say hi to the kids for me.
  Charles: Will do, Bloo.
• Ad-Break Double-Take: In "Foster's Goes to Europe"...
  Wilt: The spark plugs are gone!
  Mac: What does that mean?
  Wilt: Somebody sabotaged the bus.
  *fade to commercial*
  Wilt: Somebody sabotaged the bus!
• Adopt-a-Servant: When Bloo signs up with a producer be a spokesperson for a deodorant product in "The Sweet Stench of Success", he finds out that the documents were actually adoption papers and that the Prima Donna Director is now his legal guardian.
• Adoptive Name Change: In the pilot movie ''House of Bloo's, a girl wants to adopt Bloo and name him Tiffany (since she believes Bloo is a girl).

• Advertised Extra: Cheese, Berry, and in some advert art and promos only Uncle Pockets frequently appeared in advertisements and merchandise for the series in the mid-to-late 2000s, Cheese especially. Cheese only had a major appearance in three episodes (and minor appearances in three more) while Berry only appeared in two episodes and Uncle Pockets only appeared in one episode.
• An Aesop:
  • "Where There's a Wilt, There's a Way" carries the obvious but nonetheless important message that feeling obligated to do people favors can and will land you into unwanted positions, and it shouldn't hurt to say "no" to people.
  • "Sweet Stench of Success" shows that you really should be happy with what you have in life, and to be careful what you wish for.
• Affectionate Parody:
  • Eurotrish is a spoof of Tanya Mousekewitz.
  • Morsey is a parody of Morissey, fitting in with the 80s allusions.
  • The unleashed Extremeosaur in the movie is a parody of Pac-Man.
• Alien Geometries: Foster's itself, as proven by the episode "Dinner is Swerved". At one point, Mac even opens a door that leads to an oncoming train, then nonchalantly closes it, with the train never once making contact with the door!
• Alliterative Name: Francis 'Frankie' Foster.
• All There in the Manual:
  • The first season DVD feature "Gallery of Friends" reveals some of the names of the one off and background imaginary friends.
  • The show's pitch bible reveals certain details not established or mentioned in the series proper:
    • Mac and Terrence's parents divorced shortly before the events of the series and Mac, his mom and Terrence recently moved into their apartment after the divorce.
    • The reason why Mac created Bloo? The bible reveals he created Bloo when his parents took away his favorite blue blanket when he was only three years old!
    • The bible reveals that Coco was born by a girl whose plane crashed on a deserted island. Her body is what the girl was exposed to on the island (the palm tree, the deflated life raft, the mangled plane, and her sunburnt feet). She also gets her name from the fact that the girl survived on coconuts every day. The reason Coco is so goofy is that her creator's mental health was deteriorating from being stuck on the island for an extended period of time.
    • The reason why Madame Foster opened her mansion to the imaginary friends? The bible reveals she did that after she found her imaginary friend Mr. Herriman waiting for her in the attic after so many years
• Amateur Film-Making Plot: In "One False Movie", the school principal is impressed with Mac's film about Foster's (which Bloo added armpit fart sound effects into) and enters Mac to represent his school in the Annual State-wide Elementary School film festival. He gives Mac a $500 budget and the idea for the film, which Bloo helps make into a movie called "T-Rex-A-Tron Alien Wolf III: A Prequel In Time: The Unrelenting". Despite all the extra effort and money Bloo puts into the film^note which includes having Tom Hanks play a robot and a CGi Eduardo when the real one refused to be involved with the project, which Mac had to pay for by selling his Space Wars action figure collection and Madame Foster's antiques (which she unknowingly bought back anyway), the ending to Bloo's movie gets taped over by an episode of Lauren is Explorin' that Eduardo was trying to watch but taped over the master, causing Bloo's film to lose.
• Annoying Background Event: In "Mac Daddy", Mac and Bloo discuss what to do about Cheese, while Cheese is playing with a toy horse just off frame. Eventually, Bloo gets sick of Cheese's horse and yells at him to cut it out.
• Annoyingly Repetitive Child: Cheese (who has a Vague Age, but definitely looks and acts childlike) often irritates others this way. In his debut appearance in "Mac Daddy" alone, he squeals, "Whee!" for what is implied to be hours, keeps saying, "I like chocolate milk" and "Cocoa!", much to the dismay of Eduardo and Coco.
• Anthropomorphic Food:
  • The food friends, who were apparently imagined by hungry children at a weight-loss camp.
  • At one point Mac's brother imagines up a pizza friend. And then promptly ate it.
• Antiquated Linguistics: Everything Mr. Herriman says is in archaic and old-fashioned terminology.
• Apologises a Lot: Wilt. "Oh! I'm sorry, is that okay? I'm sorry!"
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Imaginary friends are well-known to be real, and include all kinds of monsters and other weirdness, yet Mr. Herriman seems quite certain in "Bloooo" that there are no such things as ghosts. Also, in the pilot, Bloo is clearly about to say "There's no such thing as monsters" before Wilt cuts him off.
• Artistic License – Geography: Close but no cigar, Mac: counter to his statement in "Duchess of Wails", Singapore isn't in Malaysia, it is an independent county off of one of Malaysia's coasts. At least he's far closer than Terrence, who thinks Singapore is in Wisconsin.
• Art Evolution: While relatively minor, there are some color/appearance differences in the earliest episodes, which is seen mostly in Mac and Eduardo. Also notable in season five is that Mac's height increases slightly.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Eurotrish. She's basically a relentless parody of this trope. She says she's from Europe, and seems to mean that literally... in that she wears clothes that combine stereotypes of at least six different European nationalities (Dutch clogs, a french beret, a shirt with the British flag, among other things) her accent keeps changing, and she always says she wants to go home to Europe, not to any specific country. At the end of "Foster's Goes To Europe", we see her "back home in Europe" in a little stereotypical village that could be almost anywhere. The locals promptly get fed up with her singing and throw her out, just as they did when she lived there at an earlier time.
• Aspect Ratio Switch: The first four seasons were produced in 4:3, and the remaining two in 16:9.
• Attention Whore: Bloo, who seems to think It's All About Me, and gets visibly annoyed when the others don't share his excitement in various things.
• Author Avatar: After the pilot premiered, Craig McCracken's family told him Mac is pretty much what McCracken was like when he was little. His name's even "Mac".

B

• Baby Talk: Frankie, in "Dinner is Swerved". "I'm sowwy, Mistuh Hewwiman."
• The Bad Guy Wins: The titular Bendy from "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" gets zero comeuppance for his actions.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In "House of Bloo's", Coco's introduction scene to Mac and Bloo makes it seems like she was asking if they wanted cocoa, with her repeatedly asking Bloo that question, until Wilt reveals all Coco can say is "Coco", and what she was asking - according to Wilt - was "Do you want any juice?"
  • In "Bride to Beat", Bloo thinks that Mac is getting married (he's really just being the ring bearer for his cousin Tammy), so he tries to stop the wedding. When he comes to Mac's apartment, he says "Desperate times calls for desperate mesarures." as he picks up a rock, implying that he's going to throw it at the window. It is then revealed that the rock is really a rock-shaped container that has a key inside, which he uses to get into Mac's apartment with.
  • In "Jackie Khones and the Case of the Overdue Library Crook", Mac seeks the aid of Jackie Khones to find out who stole his library card and used it to check out a now-overdue book, resulting in Mac being put on the library's Most Wanted list. Not wanting the librarians to spot him, Mac makes Jackie go into the library by himself to search for clues. Some time later, Jackie comes outside and says "Solved it!", to Mac's relief, until it was revealed that he was working on a Crossword Puzzle, and was having a difficult time finding the answer to 5 Down; "Haberdashery".
  • In the Series Finale, "Goodbye to Bloo", Mac doesn't show up at Foster's, and a family arrive to adopt a new imaginary friend. On their way to Bloo's bedroom, Mr. Herriman informs the family that a new imaginary friend had recently been put up for adoption, this one being short, blue, round, and having no nose. As Mac had made a deal with Madame Foster that Bloo wouldn't get adopted as long as he visited him every day, Bloo begins to accept his fate. As it turned out, the family had adopted a new imaginary friend named No-Nose Ned instead. Bloo is still safe because Mac had earlier phoned Mr. Herriman telling him that he had some important business to attend to and wouldn't be able to go to Foster's, so Mr. Herriman allowed it.
• Balloon Belly:
  • Frankie at the end of "Cookie Dough" after consuming dozens of Madame Foster's cookies.
  • Coco when she rather suddenly put on weight in "The Big Picture".
• Band Episode: "Shlock Star" is about four minor imaginary friends (Fluffer Nutter, Yogi Boo Boo, Bloppy Pants, and Billy the Squid) forming a band named Pizza Party, which Bloo tries to join, but is refused due to being less than helpful. Out of revenge for being refused and for letting Mac become the band's manager, he forms his own band named Taco Fiesta together with Wilt, Eduardo and Coco, but they soon become their own band without Bloo.
• Bathroom Control:
  • At the start of "Busted", Bloo has to use the bathroom shortly after waking up, but Mr. Herriman won't let him until he makes his bed and brushes his teeth (he even gets on his case for forgetting to put the cap on the toothpaste container).
  • In "Race for Your Life, Mac and Bloo", Bloo enters a store and demands to use the bathroom, but the employee says he can't unless he buys something. Bloo ends up having to buy a chain with a few coins for that.
• Battle in the Rain: Spoofed in "Duchess of Wails" when Mac and Bloo try to get Duchess back into the house.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In the Christmas Episode "A Lost Claus", Bloo is dissatisfied with Foster's custom of giving out only one present to each resident every Christmas. He tries to stage a (poorly done) "Christmas Carol" scenario for Mr. Herriman in order to scare him into giving more presents for Christmas. Unfortunately, Bloo (whilst disguised as a robot) words it in such a way that indicates little foresight on Bloo's part: "There shall be not one present." A couple scenes later, Bloo is sheepishly calling Mac over how his wish has come true: he doesn't have to worry about only getting one present tomorrow, because Herriman threw out all things Christmas in order to take the advice to heart! So Bloo (along with every resident at Foster's) won't even get the one present. Fortunately for the other imaginary friends, Santa put things right for them by giving them their presents and gave Bloo a stocking full of coal.
• Bedsheet Ladder: Attempted in "Dinner is Swerved", to get down to the dining hall. Unfortunately, the rope is too short, and Mac and Bloo bounce off the pile of mattresses they dropped and end up right back on the roof.
• Back Blocking: In the episode "Camp Keep a Good Mac Down". Eduardo does when after he swat all the bees attacking Bloo, and he reveals Bloo covered in bee stings.
• The Bet: Mr. Herrimen's condition with Mac: Bloo will be prevented from adoption as long as Mac comes to Foster's every day.
• Big Bad: World in Destination Imagination. He's not actually evil, though, just a scared little kid who's got serious abandonment issues and just wants a friend.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Terrence and Duchess in "House of Bloo's", who team up to get rid of Bloo once and for all.
• Big Brother Bully: Terrence. "Stop! I just want to punch you!"
• Big Eater:
  • Bloo tends to eat a lot.
  • Mac almost always averts this, except when he has sugar and goes on a spree of eating anything sweet he can find.
  • Frankie becomes gluttonous when she's near cookies, especially in World's cookie castle he made for her.
• Big Friendly Dog: Used in the beginning of episode 11. A couple mistakenly brings a stray dog to the house, and when Frankie opens the door she is promptly tackled and licked silly.
• Bigger on the Inside:
  • The titular building. It's so big you can get lost in it for days.
  • World's toy box, though that's likely due to him being a Reality Warper.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • In the episode One False Movie Coco's subtitles are French for "I do not speak French!".
  • In The Bloo Superdude and the Magic Potato of Power in the part where Bloo accidentally starts telling a TV drama, the guy says "What was it you used to say to me? Usted huele muy mal," which is Spanish for "You smell very bad."
• Bilingual Dialogue: Coco only says "Coco", but everyone she speaks to seems to understand her.
• Birthday Episode: There were several such episodes. The birthday celebrated in those episodes were Madame Foster, Mac and Bloo.
• Birthday Suit Surprise Party: A flashback in "I Only Have Surprise For You" shows that Bloo once pulled a prank on Mac where a surprise party was held after he just got out of the shower.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The series finale is more of a Happy Ending, with Mac moving to the house next door from Foster's, but Cheese is moving into The House. Out of universe, we have the gutwrenching last few seconds of the episode, as the theme plays in reverse and the house is erased out of existence, like the series itself is saying goodbye. It's common for people who grew up with the series to admit that it made them cry..
  • In Dutchess of Wails Mac and Bloo get their wish on Dutchess being taken back to Fosters (to ensure Mac doesn't leave or Bloo gets adopted) but in return they have to be the new manservants to Dutchess much to their dismay.
• Bizarrchitecture: The titular Home. It looks odd enough from the outside, but it's full of Alien Geometries and Chaos Architecture inside. Showcased early on in "Dinner is Swerved" (Mac and Bloo arrive on the roof: "But... we went down!") and "Bloooo" (Bloo ascends an impossibly long, spindly, unsupported staircase to get to his room).
• Black Comedy:
  • In "Seeing Red", Terrence imagines a living slice of pizza with eyes and a mouth. It only has a single line, that being a child-like "I love you" directed at its creator, followed by screams of terror as the boy snatches it and starts taking bites out of the poor thing's body. It's probably the only death scene in the whole run of the show, and it's entirely Played for Laughs.
  • In the last episode, Bloo's first idea to prevent Mac from moving away was to kill him.
• Blind Black Guy: STEEVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!
• Book Ends: The opening intro to the series starts with the world of Foster's being drawn out in pencil line-art until it changes to color with a calliope theme in the background. At the end of the TV finale, "Goodbye to Bloo," the world of Foster's is essentially un-drawn and the calliope theme plays backwards.
• Born as an Adult: The show's very premise is that imaginary friends come to life the instant they are created, so of course many imaginary friends have had adult forms for as long as they've been alive.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Bloo.
• Break the Cutie:
  • Happens a lot to Eduardo.
  • Mac also goes through this.
  • Wilt in Where There's a Wilt, There's a Way.
  • Frankie whenever she's punished by Mr. Herriman.
• Brick Joke:
  • Happens in "Nightmare on Wilson Way". Oscar (The big green friend) decides to go Trick or Treating as Blossom from The Powerpuff Girls (1998), Frankie decides to go Trick or Treating as Blossom as well, which leads to Oscar walking away muttering "I should have gone as Bubbles..." In all later scenes he appears in, he's dressed as Bubbles.
  • A Running Gag in "The Big Cheese" has Frankie task Wilt with buying an item. Wilt leaves, then comes back later with the item she originally asked for when she needs a different item for the situation. She has him buy light bulbs, a net, a book of nursery rhymes, and a box of candy.
• Broken Treasure: Madame Foster's bust. Turns out it happens so often, Mr. Herriman has a closet full of replacements.
• British Stuffiness: The British-accented Mr. Herriman. He's very prim and proper, is strict, and has a very high regard for rules. He also wears a Waistcoat of Style, High-Class Glass, and a top hat.
• Bucket Booby-Trap: Bloo falls victim to the prank of opening a door and having a bucket of water fall on him in "Pranks for Nothing".
• Bullying a Dragon: In Destination Imagination, Mr. Herriman scolds World and threatens to take Bloo and the gang back to the real world, leaving him utterly alone again. World does not take this well
• Burping Contest: Between Bloo and Blake Superior in "Hiccy Burp", although Bloo is hiccupping instead.
• Buy or Get Lost: In "Race for Your Life Mac & Bloo", at one point Bloo had a Potty Emergency and had to wait in a long line for a store's bathroom key only for the cashier to tell him that he has to buy something first. The funny thing is Bloo actually did buy something only minutes ago, but since he left the store and came back the "transaction was complete", even though he only set foot outside for a split second.

C

• The Cameo:
  • Mojo Jojo ^note Or rather an imaginary friend clone, created by a kid who just copied what he or she saw on television appears in the pilot movie.
    • Likewise, Frankie's shirt has silhouettes of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.
  • In an Imagine Spot in one episode, Mandy of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy shows up to return an imaginary friend for being too happy.
  • Dexter and Ed, Edd n Eddy make appearances in "Eddie Monster".
• Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': Bloo tries to get himself in trouble so he could be sent to bed without supper, so he can avoid eating "it". Unfortunately, Mr. Herriman is also trying to hide his secret stash of carrots, and keeps end up punishing everyone else but HIM.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: "The Sweet Stench of Success" has Bloo become the mascot for a brand of deodorant and realizing that show business isn't all it's cracked up to be.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Wilt has "Sorry, is that OK?" and occasionally "I'm sorry, but that is definitely NOT OK!" Cheese has "I like chocolate milk!"
  • This trope was parodied in "Challenge of the Superfriends," when Mac becomes sidekick to a Super Hero imaginary-friend. He draws up a long list of potential catchphrases: After "Holy Haberdashery" gets shot down, he tries every single lame one on the list at various crime-fighting incidents in a quick-cut montage.
• Character Development: Subconsciously Invoked by children creating imaginary friends. While many friends are designed by a child to be what they want for fun or personal gain, every friend seems to have an aspect of their character that forces their original child to mature.
  • Word of God states that Mac would actually be much more of a Jerkass just like Bloo, but seeing Bloo be punished for such bad behavior keeps him from making the same bad choices in life.
  • Good Wilt Hunting gives two examples for this straight from the imaginary friend's creators.
    • Nina created Eduardo to scare off a group of bullies while also being loving and gentle with her and her baby brother. This made Eduardo into a Paper Tiger. Once the bullies found out, they were merciless to the sensitive Eduardo. This forced Nina to find her own courage to chase the bullies off and protect her creation. She grew up and became a police officer thanks to that day.
    • Wilt's creator made Wilt to teach him how to become a pro at basketball. In a match against the brutish Foul Larry, Wilt saved his kid's life at the cost of his arm and eye. The boy at first only cared that they lost the match, but after learning about what Wilt sacrificed for him, he realized the error of his ways. Jordan Michaels did become a successful basketball player, but Wilt helped him to become a better, more compassionate person.
• Chew-Out Fake-Out:
  • In "Partying is Such Sweet Soiree", Mr. Herriman is warned by Madame Foster not to allow wild parties while she is gone. After Bloo throws a party in spite of Madame Foster's orders to try and get Herriman in trouble, Madame Foster looks like she'll tear into Herriman, but she quickly specifies that the rule was that no wild parties could be thrown without her being there to participate.
  • This kind of gag happens again in "Bloo Tube", where Bloo is forced to let Mac, Wilt, Coco, and Eduardo use a laptop to upload a viral video they made with Frankie's camera, which they used without her permission. Bloo tries to get even by telling Frankie that they are using her camera without her permission, but right when it looks like she'll get mad, she instead commends Mac and the others for deciding to make a viral video and encourages everyone else in the house to make their own viral videos.
  • This occurs for a third time in "Bad Dare Day" where Mac is caught stealing Madame Foster's gold-plated dentures (which Bloo dared him to do.) Madame Foster stands at the top of the stairs with everyone watching and it seems like she's going to punish anyone who had taken part in a dare, only to start up a daring competition.
• Clingy Child: Parodied in the first episode where Terrence, Mac's older brother, clings to his mother's leg out of defense when she comes home, claiming Mac was bullying him, though it is obviously the other way around.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Berry is psychotically obsessed with eliminating anyone or anything she perceives as interfering with her chances at getting together with Bloo.
• Cheated Angle: Frankie's hair and Mr. Herriman's monocle are always in the same direction no matter which side they're facing.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • Bendy disappeared after his debut episode and was never mentioned again. This was mostly due to the negative reception of the character and the episode he appeared in. Even the episode's writer, Lauren Faust, apologized for it.
  • This also applies to any of the one-off episode characters that appear. Lil' Lincoln and Moose never make another appearance after Emancipation Complication. Neither does Red after Seeing Red nor Omnizot and the Space Nut Boogies after Make Believe It or Not. None of whom were mentioned ever again afterwards either.
• Clothes for Christmas Cringe: Exploited. During one Christmas special, Mac asks Santa for something very unconventional to give him a sign of whether he's real or not: underwear. His idea behind this is he knows people buying gifts for him would pick out ones he'd like. Therefore, if he only gets fun presents instead of something as undesirable as clothes, that means Santa isn't real.
• Cloneopoly: In the episode "Bloo Tube", the gang plays "Farat Trap of Life", which is played on four boards similar to Monopoly, The Game Of Life, Mousetrap, and Pop-O-Matic Trouble.
• Cloudcuckoolander: All the imaginary friends are like this to some extent, but Bloo (with his insane theories) Coco (with her occasional inexplicable behavior), Cheese (who says random things), and Eduardo deserve special mention.
• Clueless Aesop: "Bye Bye Nerdy" is dreadful to watch for this reason. Bloo freaks out that his creator is a nerd. Mac takes the correct stance - he doesn't care whether he's cool or not. Cue "Jamez Withazee", the self-designated coolest kid who thinks this makes Mac cool. What happens for the majority of the episode is the self-deprecation of Mac, who now only cares what "Jamez" thinks, and must idle around doing nothing. However, neither character nor viewer realize until the episode's end that "Jamez" horrible world-view of thinking that not caring is cool, extends to other people's health and well-being as well. Mac comes to his senses, and goes to help Bloo, but not before being mocked by "Jamez" and everyone else for being uncool. "Jamez" and his admirers are never called out, or punished, for this.
• Collective Death Glare: In "Duchess of Wails", Terrence going to the house to warn the friends that Mac and Bloo are going to bring Duchess back after she'd finally been adopted, but doesn't mention exactly why (that she was adopted by Mac's neighbors, and their mom wants to move to get away from her nonstop whining), just so he can watch the ensuing LOTR-inspired battle with relish. After the battle ends and Mac explains the situation, the army of friends shoots daggers at Terrence for his nasty trick, and he promptly bolts it.
• Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere:
  • In "Land of the Flea", Eduardo has a family of imaginary fleas living in his fur, and he's trying not to scratch. But everywhere he looks, there are people using scratch-and-sniff cards, monkeys scratching themselves in an inappropriate manner, etc.
  • In "Crime After Crime", Mr. Herriman's carrot addiction leads to him punishing every friend in the house except Bloo so no one will suspect it, and when he ends up getting arrested for stealing diamonds (as he had earlier reported a theft of 100 carrots to the police, which they had mistaken for karats), he decides to quit carrots cold turkey. When Wilt gets himself arrested for standing on a rug (as Herriman had earlier punished Clumsy and Sam Burger for doing the same), he is put in the same cell as Herriman. The two are then served supper, and Herriman finds out from Wilt that they're having carrots for supper.
• Colon Cancer: Parodied on One False Movie, with Bloo's movie being called "Trexatron Alienwolf III: A Prequel In Time: The Unrelenting".
• Comic-Book Adaptation: Several comic stories based on this show were featured in Cartoon Network Block Party.
• Company Cross References: Many references to fellow Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls (1998), given that both shows are created by Craig McCracken.
  • Frankie wears a t-shirt with color-coded silhouettes of Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup.
  • In the pilot movie, Mojo Jojo appears as an "unimaginary" imaginary friend, which are friends based on things kids see on TV.
  • In "Cookie Dough", Bloo names off some cities that want shipments of Madame Foster's cookies, including Townsville and Johnny Bravo's Aron City.
  • In "Nightmare on Wilson Way", Frankie dresses as Blossom for Halloween.
• Continuity Nod:
  • "Bloo Tube" brings up a few nods to past episodes. Bloo mentions when he and Mac jumped in mud puddles in the episode, "Bloooo." It was also revealed that Mac had to spend the whole summer in bed after catching pneumonia, by that time. It also shows that the viral video from "World Wide Wabbit" is still wildly popular.
  • In "Bad Dare Day" a "I *heart* FB (Funny Bunny)" cap can be seen in Madame Foster's room
  • When Bloo and Madame Foster realize that they've lost some movie tickets right as they arrive at the premiere, he compares it to "that stupid trip to Europe that we never took".
  • Some episodes still show the Extremosaur cage.
  • In the last episode, while trying to think up things to do with Mac, Bloo rattles off several suggestions that are things the two did in previous episodes throughout the series. Mac even lampshades it.
  • In Destination Imagination, Mac foils the sleeping powder attempt with a pretty Badass Boast: "You don't know this about me: I. Can't. Eat. Sugar."
• Control Freak: Mr. Herriman, complete with long lists of obscure rules and regulations on such items as placement of toilet paper and how to properly wipe up spills.
• Cool Car: Madame Foster's car resembles a 1970's Pontiac Trans Am Firebird, complete with a bird painted on the hood a la Smokey and the Bandit.
• Cool Old Lady: Madame Foster, especially evident on the bowling episode.
• Crapsaccharine World: If you think about it. Because 8 years is considered too old to have an Imaginary Friend, several live on the street (we have seen this in Good Wilt Hunting) and that is the reason shelters like the one the series focuses on, exist. The Imaginary Friends do have rights, but not the same as humans do, obviously. For example, they can have jobs and have passports, but killing them is seemingly without repercussions. Plus, there seems to be a difference in Friends depending on age: babies imagine mostly abstract Friends, kids imagine normal Friends, and the ones imagined by older children are so dangerous they have to be locked up.
• Creator Cameo: Craig McCracken makes an appearance in the episode "One False Movie"
• Custom-Built Host: The TV movie Destination: Imagination introduces an imaginary friend named World, who is a floating face and mouth that possesses and brings to life whatever he rests on. At the end, Frankie sews together a stuffed patchwork body for him to call his own.

D

• Dark Horse Victory: In "Hiccy Burp", Bloo and Mac compete at an imaginary friends pageant in hopes of beating an arrogant rival named Richie and his Parody Sue imaginary friend Blake Superior. Neither of them win, the victor instead being Armpit Joe.
• Deadly Prank: Subverted in "Nightmare on Wilson Way". Mr. Herriman appears to die of a heart attack from Bloo surprising him with a can of spring-loaded fake snakes and ends up coming back as a zombie, but it turns out in the end that Herriman wasn't dead and that the zombie invasion was all an elaborate prank to get back at Bloo.
• Demoted to Extra: This hapens to Goo and Terrence in later seasons.
• Depending on the Writer: Lots. How much of a jerkass is Bloo - is he a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk or is there a heart of gold in there somewhere? How mature is Mac - is he an always do-gooding Only Sane Man or is he a wise and sensible but still generally childlike and rambunctious kid (sometimes this will change mid episode, with Mac doing something childish and then turning sensible to stop it from going too far)? How mature is Frankie - is she a laid-back Cool Big Sis who's always getting dumped on from Mr. Herriman or is she not only very responsible but the only sane adult in the house? Etc, etc - all the different sides of the characters that can be shown at any given time make for a lot of interesting ways plots tend to go.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Bendy from "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" is quite obviously a sketchy-looking person and yet Mr. Herriman and Frankie are completely fooled every time he frames Bloo, Wilt, Coco, and Eduardo for one of his misdeeds.
• Diabolus ex Machina: An occasional way to end episodes on a gag, used so often that in one episode where he's stuck waiting for Madame Foster to finish shopping Bloo intentionally makes sure to remember a tiny, totally forgotten detail important to the plot (the reason they were there, which the Madame quickly forgot in her shopping) so they won't have to go back and he can avoid a "wah-wah" moment.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The show's theme music often turns up throughout the series, such as in “Mac Daddy”, where Eduardo sings the tune in the shower.
• The Diss Track: In "Setting A President", Bloo and Mr Herriman create an attack ad against Frankie which ends in a song that demonizes her for things she didn't do and glorifies Mr Herriman.
• Distressed Drink Jitters: In "The Bloo Superdude and the Great Creator of Everything's Awesome Ceremony of Fun That He's Not Invited To", Bloo's jitteriness due to the overwhelming nature of him hallucinating himself as the titular superhero (the context being that he has a high fever) makes it difficult to drink the cough syrup given to him, which he briefly gripes about.
• Disappeared Dad: Mac and Terrence's dad isn't even mentioned. One could get the impression that their mother is either widowed or divorced.
• The Ditz: Cheese is a complete moron who's always getting into ridiculous trouble.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The argument between Mac and Bloo about Cheese's existence is very similar to a wife finding out her husband had a child with someone else.
  • In the episode "Affairweather Friends", the title is just the beginning; the whole plot regarding Bloo hiding the fact that he's hanging out with another child plays out a lot like someone cheating on their spouse.
• Downer Ending:
  • At the end of Foster's Goes to Europe, Eurotrish finally returns to her owner in Europe. Naturally, she must sing a song to express her happiness — only to be interrupted by her owner shouting out the window, "Stop the singing! Why do you think we sent you away in the first place?" Afterward, Eurotrish dejectedly sulks away, singing, "I'm-a going to America..." There's also the ending for Mac and everyone else, where it turns out that they end up not going because MADAME FOSTER STOLE THE TICKETS. And everyone blames Mac, who had spent the entire episode trying to get them out the door.
  • In "I Only Have Surprise for You", Mac tries to avoid getting ridiculed and embarrassed through another surprise party by Bloo (even when Mac tells him to stop), after suspecting that Bloo and everyone in Foster's is throwing one for him, by sabotaging and destroying a birthday party in a library with his Rambo-like outfit, only to be told by the house residents that it was for a "4-year old imaginary child" named "Artie" "created by Goo" and made "Artie" running away crying. This made everyone mad at Mac and hate him for ruining "Artie's birthday" before they angrily leave Mac saddened and guilty and Mac must make this up to them and "Artie". So with Bloo's assistance, Mac cleaned up and re-did the party and under Bloo's demands, humiliates himself by reluctantly dressing up and acting like a clown in front of everyone to cheer "Artie" up, only to be revealed that "Artie" was Madame Foster in disguise, the party was for Mac, and that the whole house (except Eduardo as he was just told to come in through via an invitation and One-eyed Cy due to his interest in interior design) took the jerkass level as they all tricked and lied to Mac and took advantage of him for no reason as a rule set up by Bloo to make Mac miserable and ridicule himself. So Mac is left to suffer deliberate humiliation at yet another surprise party that doesn't even celebrate his birthday, while the episode ends with Bloo gloated to him that he'll always be one-step ahead of him.
  • The end of "Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals", when Frankie misses the concert and Goofball turned out to actually be an imaginary friend rather than a teenage slacker lying about being one. Although Frankie apologizes and Goofball thanks her for taking care of him, the ending was still mean-spirited towards Frankie.
  • The episode "Everybody Knows Its Bendy", when Bloo gets in trouble yet again after his elaborate scheme of exposing Bendy for his misbehavior and Bendy gets off completely scot-free for all the misdeeds he framed Bloo, Coco, Wilt, and Eduardo for.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: The episode "The Big Picture" focuses on Mac and Bloo trying to figure out the story behind an unusual annual house photo that has no one in it. At first they try to ask about the picture but no one is willing to tell them and the few that were willing to talk are quickly stopped. Frankie was willing to talk but stops when she thinks they're trying to repeat what happened, Wilt was willing to tell them but changed his mind upon learning that everyone was keeping it a secret and Camery would have told them until Herriman interfered. This leaves them having to solve it themselves with little in the way of clues.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Tired of getting only one present for christmas every year, Bloo tries to scare Herriman with a very poor reenactment of ''A Christmas Carol'', (even forgetting to do the Ghost of Christmas Past), and as the Ghost of Christmas Future, tells Herriman not to buy everyone just one Christmas present a year. Unfortunately, Herriman misinterprets this as don't buy one single Christmas present at all, and proceeds to throw out every Christmas related thing from the house.
• The Dreaded Toilet Duty: Frankie hates scrubbing toilets, as shown in two episodes:
  • In "The Trouble With Scribbles", Bloo opens the door to the room that houses the Scribbles, the first imaginary friends created by babies. When Bloo gets the Scribbles to do chores for him, Frankie finds out and likes this idea, making one of them scrub the toilets. When humans decide to adopt the Scribbles at the end of the episode, having found out how useful they are, only one Scribble remains. Frankie hopes that it's the toilet-scrubbing Scribble, but to both her dismay and Bloo's delight, it's the Scribble that blows raspberries.
  • In "Setting a President", Frankie becomes the new President of Foster's when she wins the election against Mr. Herriman. As part of her position as President, she makes a fair chore list, which includes having Bloo scrub the toilets, a job they both deplore.
• Dream Deception: In "Infernal Slumber", Mac's friends unexpectedly show up to his apartment for a sleepover. When a half-asleep Terrence walks into the living room, they get the idea to start acting all wonky to convince him it's all a dream, while Bloo walks him back to his bed. Unfortunately, this allows Bloo to hit him with the shaving-cream-in-the-face prank he's been aching to pull throughout the episode.
  Terrence: HEY, WAIT A MINUTE—! (SPLAT!)
• Drop-In Character:
  • A rare protagonist version, Mac has to visit the home every day in order to keep Bloo from being adopted.
  • Cheese and Goo are ones of the more standard kind.

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