Frasier / Tropes H to M

H

• Halloween Episode: There are a number of episodes set at Halloween, usually focusing on the show's traditional madcap antics wrung though a themed costume party of some kind.
  • A notable party at Niles' apartment where the guests all dress as classic literary characters centers around Roz being pregnant and many overheard conversations that lead to hilarious confusions about the situation.
  • The episode "A Room Full of Heroes" sees Frasier holding a Halloween party where each partygoer comes as their personal "hero" (for instance, Martin comes as Joe DiMaggio, Daphne as Elton John, Roz as Wonder Woman and Niles as his father); Frasier himself dresses as Sigmund Freud, and one of the main jokes revolves around all the children thinking he eats brains.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat:
  • Frasier. Niles. Sibling Rivalry. Impromptu ham-offs every couple of episodes.
  • Frasier and his rival, sending each other increasingly grandiose threats about how much they hate each other and will fight over it, culminating in a fistfight. Thankfully for Frasier, his dad bails him out before Frasier could get completely crushed.
• Handshake Refusal: Martha Paxton, the famous artist Frasier invites to a cocktail party, always wears a sleeveless poncho so she doesn't have to shake hands. Niles ends up having to resort to shaking the edge of her poncho.
• Hand Signals: Roz plays charades on several occasions to communicate something to Frasier while he is taking a call on the show. On one occasion, she named a caller by pointing to her eye and leaning when her mouth was full.^note The caller's name was Eileen, if you didn't figure it out.
  • On another occasion, a caller agrees to reach a compromise with his wife if Frasier can answer a single question about football. Roz has to come up with some creative charades including using her phones for "taking your receivers and lining them up" and finishing with "a Hail Mary".
  Roz: Wow Frasier, I'm impressed you're so good at charades!
  Frasier: I'm impressed you could mime a virgin...
• Handwave: The episode "Cheerful Goodbyes" has Frasier meet up with most of the cast of Cheers at a bar in Boston which isn't Cheers itself. Apparently Sam was hosting a Red Sox reunion (the out-of-universe reason being that it would've been impractical to recreate the old set for one episode).
• Haute Cuisine Is Weird: One episode has Frasier express a fondness for the taste of calf brains, to the silent horror of the child he's talking to.
• Have a Gay Old Time: In second season episode "Retirement is Murder", Daphne once mentions to Frasier how Martin "knocked her up" that morning. When Frasier seems momentarily alarmed and asks her to repeat that, she clarifies that it means "woke her up."
  Daphne: It's an English expression. What does it mean here?
  Frasier: Oh, something else. You'd definitely be awake for it, though.
• Hell Is That Noise: In the Season 3 episode "The Friend," Frasier's new friend Bob is a fellow in a wheelchair. Bob becomes over-eager to the point of Stalker without a Crush levels, and Frasier takes to hiding from him by diving behind the radio board. He always knows Bob is coming; the wheels on his chair make a nightmarish keening Frasier can hear for miles.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Catherine, portrayed by guest star Amanda Donohoe, displays an extensive leather wardrobe in "Call Me Irresponsible". Amanda Donohoe, who also stars in The Lair of the White Worm, probably qualifies as poster child for this trope.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue":
  • In-universe, Diane's Author Avatar "Mary Ann" in her play Rhapsody and Requiem. Her name couldn't have been just a coincidence.
  • Frasier isn't immune, as he and Niles wrote The Crane Boys Mysteries in high school.
    Frasier: Yes, Niles and I when we were boys wrote a series of stories together in which we were the heroes. Along the lines of a "Hardy Boys" or a "Nancy Drew"...
    Roz: "The Nancy Boys"?
• Here We Go Again!:
  • During "Adventures in Paradise Part 2", Frasier winds up destroying an expensive hotel bed in a paranoia-fuelled attempt to show Lilith up. The episode ends with him back in the same hotel room with Niles, who insists he deal with a large insect in the room. The credits show Frasier desperately hunting it with a slipper, before moving on to the bed, attacking it the same way he did earlier.
  • "Whine Club" has Frasier and Niles ruin their wine club by nitpicking over the rules, and Frasier's being a Sore Loser. At the end of the episode, having been shunned by the others after Martin humiliates them, they declare they'll just start a new wine club, and start hashing out the rules for it, with the implication that everything will just repeat itself, backed up by Martin pointing out they did this repeatedly as kids.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Bebe likes to portray herself as this. When Frasier fires her in "Roz's Turn":
  Bebe: That's it, is it? I'm not virtuous enough for you, not noble. Fine, quit! Next time you need a deal made, call the Dalai Lama. A long time ago, I had to make a choice between being a good agent and a good person, because trust me, ya can't be both! So forgive me if I don't have time to make everybody feel warm and fuzzy. I am just too busy spending every waking minute pulling any string, pulling any shameless trick I can to make my clients' dreams come true! I AM A STARMAKER!
• He's Back!: A worrying variation in Donny, who hits a bad depression after he's jilted by Daphne, and desperately serves her a lawsuit. Frasier manages to talk him out of the latter, which he didn't seem all that committed to... but when he finds out that Frasier was complicit, Donny "the Piranha" Douglas is back on the kind of top, ruthless form as when he was first introduced as Niles' divorce attorney.
• He's Got a Weapon!:
  • Martin manages to prove Bulldog is a Dirty Coward after numerous attempts by Frasier to do so simply by yelling "hey, that guy's got a gun!" in a crowded room.
  • When putting on a radio drama, Frasier assigns a dyslexic woman to say this line. What does she say? "Look out, he's got a nug!"
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Frasier and Niles (besides also being brothers).
  • Martin and Duke. They even unwittingly get married in San Francisco during a public rally.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Frasier's son Frederick is implied to have had one in "The Apparent Trap."
  Lilith: If he wants something badly enough, he will figure out a way to get it. Remember when he was a baby? The bottle at the end of the maze?
  Frasier: Y'know, I kinda regret doing that.
• Hilarious in Flashback: A flashback shows Martin has a pet goldfish named Eddie. His partner tells him to consider a "real" pet like a dog, but Martin says he isn't a dog person.
• Hollywood Board Games: Sore Loser Frasier's tendency to kick people out of his place because he Can't Take Criticism. It gets exemplified in "A man, A Plan, and a Gal: Julia", when he does poorly in a Pictionary game. Julia mocks him for his new Italian towels and he yells at her to leave, which shocks her. Frasier displays his Sarcasm Mode by asking her if she wants him to explain by means of a drawing. Julia rebukes that he's so bad at it, she'd waste her time trying to decipher it. Predictably, it only infuriates him more. On a related note, during the abovementioned game, Julia throws comments so scathing, the other players refuse to help her when she chokes on a peanut.
• Hollywood Heart Attack:
  • Lampshaded in "Boo!". In order to get back at Martin for pranking him all episode, Frasier dresses up in a hideous clown costume, grabs a meat cleaver from the kitchen and jumps out at Martin, who shrieks and collapses in shock at the sight. Frasier laughs it off, saying "Oh come off it Dad, a heart attack?" only to realize that Martin actually did have a heart attack. It's then subverted, as the heart attack was a very mild one, and Martin gets released from the hospital a few hours after being checked in with minimal effects. Ronee is unimpressed.
    Ronee: No surgery, home the next day, that's a bee sting. Did they use the paddles?
    Martin: No.
    Ronee: Well, talk to me after they've used the paddles.
    Martin: (shocked, awed) You had the paddles?
    Ronee: All right, let's just say I didn't have the best lipo guy, okay?^note Which means she had one during surgery, another non-Hollywood Heart Attack situation.
  • Averted in a season 10 episode where Niles suffers a "walking heart attack" (very mild with few symptoms), not recognizing it even though he is a fully trained doctor.^note Psychiatrists are medical doctors, so he should have recognized the symptoms. In season 2, he even mentions he has a heart murmur. The only symptom was tooth pain. When Niles says he'll schedule an appointment, the doctor says deadly seriously that no. He needs to check in to a hospital now.
• Hollywood Law: The show often used the trope of "the legal victim."
  • In a famous episode, Frasier and Daphne are sued by jilted super lawyer Donny Douglas, for "breach of (marriage) contract" (Daphne's last-minute refusal to marry Donny) and "tortious interference in a private contract" (via Frasier's meddling). Breach of Promise of Marriage is not grounds for a suit anymore in most jurisdictions. Washington state had also ended punitive damages in suits at the time Donny sought them in his. It also could only be applied against the man who broke his promise to a woman, never against a woman who broke her promise to a man.^note  Because women in the days when this tort began typically did not work, they were thus reliant on men for support, and so this amounted to a promise that they would care for them financially that was broken, which is cause to sue someone in similar cases to this day. Also, it is incorrect terminology, since Daphne had never actually entered into any contract. Donny, a lawyer, should have known he himself could be sued for doing that (it's called abuse of process). It's also not "tortious interference" for someone to urge a would-be bride to not go through with the marriage (which is not a contract by itself).
  • Likewise in an earlier episode, Frasier was deliberately sold a counterfeit painting for $60,000, but is told the police "have their hands full with murders and robberies" so apparently they can't be bothered to investigate this. While it's stated that he could sue, Martin tells him that he'd end up losing more money than he paid for the painting that way. In reality the police tend to take fraud and grand theft very seriously, particularly against a rich and influential person such as Frasier, while Martin-having connections due to being a former cop-likely could pull strings to get the case handled quicker as well.
  • Martin, a former police detective, also recounts a Miranda Rights example, where he lied about having fully read them when the suspect actually broke free mid-way through and he had to chase him down. The failure to Mirandize does not make an arrest invalid, and even if it did, the interruption was the suspect's fault, so he had no need to lie about it at all. Martin also says he saw the suspect shoot someone, and so his Miranda Rights would be utterly irrelevant.
• Hollywood Midlife Crisis:
  • In a Season 1 episode, Frasier starts feeling self-conscious about his age (and his weight) and briefly considers pursuing a romantic relationship with a younger woman before deciding it wouldn't work out.
  • In that same episode, Martin reveals that, when he turned 50, he dyed his hair jet-black and bought himself a leather jacket and a motorcycle.
  • "Back Talk" has Frasier suffering back problems during his birthday, and he begins to worry about his age before realizing that what he's really concerned about are all the changes happening in his life (i.e. Niles getting married, Daphne moving out, etc.)
• Hollywood Tone-Deaf: In one episode, Martin trying to learn to sing "O Holy Night" for a Christmas Pageant (although in a couple of others he gets to show us he's not such a bad singer. In this case, the famous high note near the end of the song is what's throwing him off).
• Homage:
  • The long-running radio format show Desert Island Discs is referenced in one episode where Frasier challenges Niles to name the music and luxury he'd take to a desert island if stranded there. Although originally a BBC show, the format is licenced for use in the USA and is broadcast on national radio from Houston, Texas; the premise is that a famous or notable person is interviewed at length about their choice of music and a suspicion is there that some guests aren't above making pretentious or upscale choices, to advertise their erudition. Of course Frasier and Niles would want to be guests; Niles nominates, without hesitation, a list of very classy classical pieces.
    Oh Niles! You're so predictable!
  • Frasier and Niles move in circles where an interest in sophisticated and often French high-end food can border on the pretentious. The words "bon appetit!" are used frequently.
  • The episode "Daphne Hates Sherry" is an homage to the works of Tennessee Williams: each title card is a pun on one of Williams' plays (except for the first one, which just says "Tennessee, Anyone?"), Niles is shown wearing an all-white ensemble (as are many of Williams' characters), Niles and Daphne share a scene tinged with Unresolved Sexual Tension (sexually tense atmospheres are also common in his works), and Niles even mentions Williams by name.
• Honorary Uncle: Frasier, Niles, and Martin are all one for Roz's daughter Alice.
• Honor Before Reason: One of the show's go-to plots was exploring the collision between Frasier's (and occasionally Niles') finely tuned ethical sensibility and the real world. These usually resulted in Frasier being completely humiliated, of course.
• Hope Spot: In Season 3's "Moon Dance", Niles and Daphne perform a spectacular, passionate Tango in which they loudly declare their adoration for each other. It almost seems like this could be the moment Niles and Daphne fall in love. Niles certainly seems to think so, as he's giddy with excitement. Until Daphne says "I knew you were a good dancer, but I had no idea you were such a good actor," confirming that she was just playing to the audience and thought Niles was doing the same. The look of Niles' face when he realises this is heartbreaking.
• Hot Men at Work: Daphne's boyfriend Joe. Also, Roz seems to be a fan of this - in one episode, she discusses her intention to spend her holiday getting her house renovated, in the company of hot, sweaty workmen. In another episode, after a bad date, she tells Frasier and Niles that she plans to go home, put on something slinky, rip out her sink and call building maintenance.
• How We Got Here: "Don Juan in Hell" begins with Frasier in a car with Lilith and Diane sniping at one another. It's not until the second part we see how he wound up in such a situation - He's gone for a drive after his latest break-up, and they're actually hallucinations of Lilith and Diane.
• Human Shield: Bulldog's deplorable behaviour in "Bad Dog" causes him to use a pregnant woman as a shield, and later on even his own mother. As Frasier was the only one who saw what really happened, he spends the episode trying to get Bulldog to own up and stop taking advantage of the adulation (everyone else having thought he was pulling the woman to safety).
• Humiliation Conga: Many times, but one of the best might be what happens to Dr. Nora: she's exposed as a hypocrite on live radio by her mother, has a nervous breakdown, and flees screaming at the top of her lungs.

• Hypocrisy Nod: This gem during one of his debates with Cam Winston, who drives an SUV.
  Cam: You do your share of polluting with that substitute for masculinity you're driving.
  Frasier: If mine's a substitute for masculinity, then what is yours?
  Cam: Bigger!
• Hypocritical Humor: One of the many fuels this show runs on. Frasier suffers the worst of it, thanks to his massive ego:
  "Can you believe the grandiosity of that man? I'm God and he knows it!"
  "I'll reveal him for the power-hungry dictator that he is! And then I'll take over."
  "I have got to show her once and for all that I am not some meddler and she is only being paranoid! Now I'll be in my room, plotting some way to prove it!"
  "It won't be long before my loyal fans protest, and the afternoon slot is once again home to the compassionate and lovable Dr. Frasier Crane. [opens the front door] Now get the hell out, both of you!"
  "Oh Niles, I don't have time to stand here and listen to your insanity. I have to go and steal a get-well card from a kidney patient!"
  • Niles isn't free from it either:
    Obviously Germaphobic Patient: So you don't think I have a germ phobia?
    Niles:' Not at all, just a healthy sense of personal hygiene. Ah, here's the number of the man who cleans my telephone.
  • The boys get it from Martin, who has his own hypocrisies. When it looks like Frasier's ethics about lying under oath are going to lead him to reveal Niles's secret infatuation for Daphne to Maris's divorce lawyers, the result is an argument which ends with Frasier storming off. Martin sneers about how Frasier runs away from problems while Martin faces them head-on without flinching or needing any crutches... while he's pouring himself a stiff drink.
  • Niles' jokes about Lilith being cold and joyless come across as this too.

I-J

• I Always Wanted to Say That:
  • Martin, when asked if Daphne is home, takes the opportunity to yell for Daphne instead of getting up to find out of she's in the house. Frasier leaves the room, irritated.
    Martin: I've been waiting 30 years to do that.
  • After they start dating, Daphne lets Niles in, who states that he is here to see her. He then gets rather giddy, exclaiming how after years of pretending, he can finally say out loud that he's here to see her.
• I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: An episode centers around beluga caviar being used for this trope. Frasier and Niles get involved with the distributing and smuggling of the stuff (parodied when the U.S. Customs agents don't care about the caviar, but the DVDs for which the smugglers used the caviar as a front), and even consider cutting it with cheaper stuff, while Roz becomes a generally mellow caviar junkie who would attack Frasier because she thinks he's holding out on a fix. Bonus points for the Russian mafia controlling the beluga caviar trade, much as Colombian drug lords would control the price of cocaine.
  Frasier: (after testing the caviar as one would test cocaine) Oh, yeah. That's the stuff.
• Identical Stranger:
  • Rodney, a clone of Niles that Daphne dates after breaking up with Joe (and after Frasier suggested to Niles that he wait before asking her out himself). Everybody sees it except Daphne herself.
    Martin: I can't talk right now, Duke... (whispers) I'm in The Twilight Zone...
  • In Season 10 episode "Bristle While You Work", Niles is worried about a heart attack because of all the unlikely coincidences happening around him. One of the most bizarre is when a woman calls out "Niles!" Niles turns to look to see a black version of himself greeting, "Hello, Daphne!" in his exact intonation — to a black version of Daphne.
    Niles: (disturbed) Okay, that was weird.
  • A canine example occurs with the whippet Niles adopts, which everyone sees as a four-legged version of Maris.
• Idiot Ball: Roz's behavior at the end of season 10. Seeing Frasier is trying to start a relationship with Julia, who has shown herself already to be a total asshole, Roz gets concerned and tries to warn him off. Does she, knowing Frasier after ten years of working together, try approaching the matter in a calm, sensible fashion that will also get through his self-absorption and ego? No, she just repeatedly declares "Julia is evil", and when that mysteriously fails to work, tries an ultimatum of "her or me". Which also doesn't work.
• I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: Both Frasier and Roz say it to each other.
• If I Can't Have You…: Maris gets insanely jealous of women Niles dates - especially Mel. Late in the series, Maris is not opposed to Niles' relationship with Daphne, but still clings to Niles for support.
• Ignore the Disability: Played with spectacularly in the episode "Roz and the Schnoz" when Frasier plays host to a couple who have ridiculously large noses but are completely unaware of it. Neither is anyone else, until they're introduced one by one and must try to stifle their reactions. To make matters worse, the couple keeps inadvertently setting up nose-related puns: "Everyone who knows you knows you're the nosiest."
• Ignored Epiphany: Played for laughs. Some episodes would have Frasier and/or Niles come to a realization about their attitudes and behaviors, usually after a Humiliation Conga or some overly-complicated scheme falls flat or even succeeds, only to rationalize it away not 10 seconds later so they can go right back to their old ways. However, this would be Averted when it came to more overarching character developments.
• I Have Just One Thing to Say: Frasier is the undisputed master of these.
• I Lied: If Martin ever tells a particularly heartwarming story to one of his sons, there's pretty much a 50-50 chance that he'll admit to someone (usually Daphne) that he made the whole thing up.
• Imaginary Friend: Interestingly, Niles is revealed to have had an "imaginary protegé" during early childhood, who he blamed for wetting his bed and running away.
• The Immodest Orgasm:
  • Frasier appears to be an offender: while having sex with Kate in her office, Roz, listening in and believing him to be going through intensive salary negotiations, hears him "banging on the desk and screaming "More! More! More!"". Later when they have sex on air, he's heard yelling "Yes! YES!!! I am a bad boy, aren't I, you dirty girl!" before noticing the "on air" light. Roz also mentions him yelling "Outstanding!" while they were having sex.
  • Caitlin from "Frasier Gotta Have It" apparently howls like a wolf during sex due to a weird belief about the full moon controlling her menstrual cycle. Frasier initially assumed it was this trope before she told him.
  • Daphne relates a story about how she had trouble with a couple next door who did this until she got revenge by pretending to do it herself. Niles's re-enactment has her acting it out.
  • The episode "Guns N' Neuroses" has Frasier and Lilith help a couple in the next-door room fix their marriage, at which point they go back to their room and make up very... loudly.
• Impossibly Tacky Clothes: Roz complaining about bridesmaid dresses. Daphne just proves her right.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • In an episode where Martin is reading a steamy romance novel to Daphne, he stops at one point to take a pull from his beer can.
  • Martin excuses himself with one of these in one of the timelines in "Sliding Frasiers:"
    (Frasier starts playing a sad song on the piano and singing along to it)
    Martin: (sympathetically) It pains me to see him like this. (perks up a bit) Fortunately, I can't see him from McGinty's.
• Inflation Negation:
  Martin: Well, I got my black coffee — of course, it was more expensive than a whole meal used to be. Time was, you could get two eggs, potatoes, choice of breakfast meats-
  Frasier: (dripping with sarcasm) And still get change back from the nickel!
• Informed Attractiveness: Invoked in-universe by Niles in regard to Daphne. While Daphne is by no means unattractive, Niles looks upon her as if she is a flawless goddess. This was explored and deconstructed in "Daphne Returns," where we learn that Niles didn't even notice that she gained 60 pounds. He finally learns that he needs to see Daphne as a real person in order for their relationship to work, and not the flawless image he conjured up in his mind for all those years.
• Informed Attribute:
  • Frasier was often stated to be a “stickler for his ethics,” but shows no compunction about being dishonest and conniving in order to sleep with women. His deceitful ways stoop to a nadir in “Out With Dad”. However, while he may resort to dishonesty to start a relationship, his conscious will usually get the better of him before things go too far, and he’ll come clean, much to his own frustration.
  • Frasier’s psychiatric brilliance can fall into this category as well. His radio show is little more than an advice column in the vein of “Dear Abby,” which doles out trite advice more than psychiatric diagnoses. To be fair, Niles does lampshade this on occasion, lamenting that he is a much more accomplished psychiatrist than Frasier despite the fame his radio show has brought him. Gets a bit zig-zagged as Cheers, helped established his psychiatric credentials, and on occasion he would successfully demonstrate his abilities when the show allowed him.
  • Both Frasier and Niles occasionally claiming their father inspired their own rigid sense of ethics and morality. Throughout the show he’s often the one advising them to ignore any ethical dilemmas if it benefits them, is shameless in how he uses his status as a retired cop to take advantage of perks, and frequently makes comments on past incidents while he was on the force to suggest he was never as ethical as his sons claim.
• Informed Flaw: In “Roz and the Schnoz,” the grandparents of Roz’s baby are implied in-universe to have noses so large that every other character can’t contain their laughter. While the couple’s noses are prominent, they are nowhere near as freakish as they are written to be.
• In Medias Res: The first episode starts with Frasier having lived in Seattle for a few months. The week around Frasier's first radio show is flashed backed to in "You Can Go Home Again" in Season 3.
• Innocent Innuendo: A running gag involves Frasier saying something innocent, realizing he's inadvertently made a double entendre, covering it up by saying something worse, then something worse after that.
• Instant Taste Addiction: In the episode "Roe to Pedition", Roz doesn't see what the big deal is about caviar, and Frasier says she's never had proper caviar and offers her a taste of top-quality Beluga caviar, before reminding her she's not invited to the party where it's being served. Since the whole caviar business is being presented as a drug deal, Roz becomes totally addicted based on that one taste.
• Instant Turn-Off:
  • In Season Five's "Room Service", after Frasier catches Lilith and Niles after their one-night stand:
    Frasier: I suppose in some twisted way there is one positive for me in all of this. You see, Lilith, I have never stopped desiring you, even though we are completely wrong for each other. But from this day forth, whenever I look at your face, I will see the back of my brother's head! And that is one bucket of ice water, let me tell ya!
  • An episode has Niles going into raptures about a fuzzy, ill-defined photograph that he thinks is a picture of Daphne Moon's breast and nipple. Niles' fantasies grow and swell out of proportion... until it is revealed that Martin was trying to photograph Eddie (the dog) but had the camera backwards. The nipple is in fact that of Martin. Niles' father. It is strongly implied Niles has been having active sexual fantasies over the photo...
• Instrumental Theme Tune: The Opening Theme is notable as it changes frequently (a form of Couch Gag). There were more permutations introduced as the show ran longer and longer, all with a light jazz feel which set the tone nicely for the content of the episode.
• In the Original Klingon: In "Star Mitzvah", Frasier is tricked by Noel into thinking his blessing at Freddy's bar mitzvah is being translated into Hebrew - it's actually Klingon. The Trope is invoked by a geeky boy after Frasier makes a fool of himself.
  Jeremy: Well, roughly translated, it says, "My dearest son, each day you redeem me. May your journey be filled with the same joy, wisdom, and purpose you have given mine." It's a lot more beautiful in the original Klingon, but it's still really cool.
• Intimate Lotion Application:
  • In "Liar Liar", Niles arrives at Frasier's apartment limping due to his back hurting, and Daphne offers to rub a lineament on his back to make him feel better. Having a crush on her, he eagerly accepts and even moans when she touches him. Unfortunately for him, the lineament is extra strong and ends up burning his back in no time, and he has a tough time hiding his discomfort.
  • In one of the timelines in "Sliding Frasiers," Frasier is so excited about having a girlfriend again that he accidentally forgets to advise Daphne not to include an ingredient Niles is allergic to in the dinner she's preparing for them. This causes Niles to break out into terrible hives, which ends up canceling the vacation to Cancun he had planned for them, causing a lot of tension to flare up. Daphne frustratedly says "Great. Now I'll have to stay up all night rubbing lotion all over you." Then the two of them stop in their tracks, and Niles very sweetly says "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
• Intoxication Ensues: Martin's accidental ingestion of a "special" brownie in "High Holidays", with hilarious results.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Daphne is Martin's Physical Therapist. Not the maid, nor the housekeeper
• Insufferable Genius: One thirteen-year-old caller to Frasier's show (played by Elijah Wood) calls about bullies picking on him for his smarts. After Frasier advises him that he'll get the last laugh later in life, the caller immediately turns into this, picking apart Frasier's advice and outright insulting him for it. Frasier then in turn takes a certain amount of vindictive glee in pointing out that the caller had now just announced to any his bullies who might have been listening exactly where he is.
• Invented Invalid: Discussed in "The Two Mrs Cranes". Gil is looking to get out of a dinner party and asks Frasier to back him up on an excuse. Frasier explains he's driving his father to his army reunion. Gil assumes it's this trope, and laments that he can't use the same excuse - he already "killed off" his father to escape a "Labour Day Clam Bake".
• I Resemble That Remark!: Often a source of humor.
  • "POMPOUS AND SANCTIMONIOUS, AM I?!"
  • Niles grumpily mentioning someone once accused him of being uptight.
  • When Martin accuses Daphne of whining about her hair, Daphne responds with a whiny "I don't whine!"
• Ironic Birthday: Frasier gets two, one in which he accidentally reveals half his sexual history to his hidden coworkers.
• Irony: Too many to count, but some notable examples include:
  • The core of Frasier Crane's character is that he's a brilliant psychiatrist who can always be counted on to help his friends, family, and patients with their problems, but has no idea how to deal with his own ample neuroses. Lampshaded by the title song: "And maybe I seem a bit confused / Well maybe — but I got you pegged!" Crops up explicitly many, many times, from one-off throwaway jokes to major plot points (like Frasier and Lilith successfully counseling a married couple, while tempestuously divorced themselves) to serious running themes, like the fact that Frasier's deliberate machinations managed to get Niles and Daphne to confess their love for each other after years of UST, but he himself cannot keep a girlfriend for more than a few episodes.
  • Martin's cheap, tatty lounger is the source of some friction throughout the series between him and Frasier, because it clashes with Frasier's expensive, classy furniture. In one episode, it gets accidentally destroyed, leading to a fight between the two men. Frasier resolves it by having a perfect replica of Martin's old chair built for him. He then notes that ironically, given the lengths he had to go, it's now the most expensive piece of furniture in the entire apartment.
  • Also with Martin's chair; as noted, it's a source of friction, especially as Frasier had a much classier chair in the same position that Martin refused to sit in. In the last episode, after Frasier has restored the original chair when Martin leaves, during Frasier's goodbye party Martin sits in the chair. He cheerfully notes that it's incredibly comfortable and he'd have been perfectly happy using it. The look on Frasier's face is somewhere between a desire to die and a desire to beat Martin to death with the chair.
• Is This Thing Still On?: This happens frequently on the show. Some notable examples include:
  • "The Adventures of Bad Boy and Dirty Girl":
    Newscast: (on radio) In local news, Congressman Robert Gill was accused of accepting bribes from a waste treatment facility. Asked to comment, the congressman said-
    Frasier: (cuts in orgasmically) Yes! YES!!! I am a bad boy, aren't I, you dirty girl! Come to your bad boy! Oh, yes... Oh, no! Is that the on-air light?
    Kate: (on radio, whispering) Stop talking.
    Frasier: You must have hit the switch with your elbow while we were...
    Kate: Stop talking!
    Frasier: We'd better hurry up and get dressed while we still...
    Niles: (listening to them from his car radio) STOP TALKING! (Niles rear ends another car, causing the airbag to inflate in his face)
  • "A New Position for Roz", when she is teaching Noel how to produce Frasier's show:
    Roz: Now, let me give you some pointers on call screening. Your first priority are your leapers and jumpers. Next up, angry people, they're great energy and a welcome change from our largest group, the sad sacks. The trick of it is, you want to arrange these calls so that each segment is "can't miss" radio.
    Noel: I thought it was just about Frasier doing good work.
    Roz: Please, it's all about ratings! If the station had its way, every call would end in an auto-erotic suicide.
    Frasier: (from the booth) Thank you, Roz, now that Seattle knows how we do things around here, perhaps you could let Noel know to keep his elbow off the mic button!
  • A more minor one occurs when Frasier introduces one of the show's bloopers which involves Roz swearing violently at someone else while her mic was left on. Heavy on the "bleeps".
  • Also, in the episode where Frasier advises one of his callers to try to spice up their life, one suggestion being moving out of Seattle. There is a great backlash of callers who think Frasier was trashing their city, which he eventually has to apologize for. Unfortunately, he segues directly from his apology into a rant about how the city is full of the biggest whiners ever, without realizing that Roz hasn't cut the broadcast yet.
• I Surrender, Suckers: When Niles and Frasier attempt to collaborate on a book, they eventually start brawling and Niles gets Frasier in a headlock. "We're psychiatrists, not pugilists!"..."I can't believe you fell for that!"
• I Take Offense to That Last One: Partially in the episode "Oops":
  Frasier: Bulldog heard me, that's why he came up here and started telling you that...
  Ned Miller: That I'm a drunk. That I'm incompetent at my job. That my wife is a big, fat slut!
  Frasier: That is indefensible! Your wife is not overweight! (Realizes what he's said}
• It's All About Me: Frasier, frequently.
  • A shining example is his reaction to Lilith and Niles sleeping together, which is to accuse them of doing it just to aggravate him.
  • In "Some Assembly Required," according to Frasier's perspective, the house he helped build for Habitat for Humanity is not a home unless he decorates it, much to the chagrin of its new occupants.
• It's Been Done:
  • Roz sells an idea for a children's book based on a bedtime story that her mother used to tell her — which turns out to be Heidi. Furthermore, not only had she not heard of it, but the publisher to whom she sold the idea hadn't heard of it either.
  • When Frasier and Niles sneak a look at the manuscript for T.H. Houghton's long-awaited second work, they praise him for its clever parallels to The Divine Comedy. The author hadn't noticed this at all, sees it as proof of his suspicion that he's a talentless hack, and throws the only copy out of the window.
• Ivy League for Everyone: Justified for pretentious, competitive know-it-alls like Frasier and Niles (Harvard and Yale respectively).
  • Frasier is one-upped by its English sister trope Oxbridge when Clint Webber, the titular character from the season 5 episode "The Perfect Guy," reveals that his alma mater is Oxford. And Niles attended Cambridge.
  • One episode has Frasier looking at a potential suitor in an article about eligible bachelorettes in Seattle. The one he's looking at went to Stanford, to which Frasier comments, "Well, I suppose if you have to go to a college on the West Coast..." Roz' eyeroll at his impossibly high standards is priceless.
• I Was Quite a Fashion Victim: In "The Gift Horse", Sherry is planning to decorate Martin's 65th birthday party venue with old picture of his days on the force. He looks at a picture of himself at the morgue and says they can't use it, as it's too disturbing. Niles and Frasier agree:
  Niles: [taking the photo from Sherry] You're right, I totally forgot you even had a perm.
  Frasier: [taking the photo from Niles] Dear lord.
• The Jeeves: Ferguson. See British Stuffiness.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Both Frasier and Niles are hideously snobby, elitist milquetoasts who are deep down rather caring, kind and (for most of the series) lonely men.
  • Frasier's late season 10 and early season 11 love interest, Julia, seems this way at first. But it turns out she has only a very thin layer of gold, and really is a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk.
  • Martin counts, at least in the early series; he's pretty crusty, bitter and ungrateful, and displays just as little interest or enthusiasm for bonding with his sons as they do with him, but deep down loves and is deeply proud of them.

K-L

• Kansas City Shuffle: Blaine Sternin's scheme.
• Karma Houdini: Blaine, Lilith's brother. Established by Frasier early on as a con-man who has conned his way across several states and stolen from Frasier several times, he arrives in a wheelchair and is now a minister. After his followers give generously and Frasier finally trusts him enough to do the same, he escapes with the cash, leaving his empty wheelchair at Frasier's door as a final mocking sign that it had all been another con job.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: In episode "Bad Dog", Bulldog is lauded as a hero for stopping an armed robber at the local coffee shop. However, he actually saved the day by using a pregnant Roz as a shield. Only Frasier saw what he did, however. Bulldog shows an absolute Lack of Empathy, saying he has no sense of guilt at all. Frasier attempts to guilt him by bringing his mother, former counselor and other people to his medal ceremony, but none of it works. Rather than have Frasier whine about the injustice afterward, Martin yells at Bulldog, "Hey, Bulldog, there's a guy right there with a gun!" Bulldog immediately pushes his own mother in the direction of the phantom gunman, exposing him as a coward and not a hero, with his mother, Roz and others verbally lambasting him.
  Frasier: (almost laughing) Thanks, Dad.
  Martin: (grinning) Hey, I'm no hero, I just wanted you to shut up.
• The Ketchup Test: In the episode "Daphne Does Dinner," Daphne does this to try to reassure and prove to the terrified party guests that the red sauce on Niles' shirt is not blood. They don't buy it.
• "Kick Me" Prank: During a Prank War episode, or more like Bulldog scores a big prank on Frasier and he is complicatedly trying to prank Bulldog back, Frasier recognizes how his target shouldn't be Bulldog, but Roz and Martin. So he teams up with Bulldog to scare them good. After it is all said and done, Bulldog wryly notes that this still means Bulldog has one up on Frasier. Frasier smiles and conceeds, but not telling Bulldog he has a bumper sticker on the back of his jacket reading, "I love Opera, and I vote."
• Kick the Dog:
  • Frasier locks Eddie up in Martin's room when he's got a date around. She turns out to be a dog-lover, and isn't amused.
  • During an argument in "The Late Dr. Crane", Niles advises Frasier on not holding back on things. Frasier retorts with "like you did with Daphne?" He does, admittedly, apologize immediately.
• Kids Prefer Boxes: In "Frasier Grinch," Frasier tells Martin about all the educational Christmas gifts he got for Frederick, to which Martin snarks, "Well, maybe he'll have fun with the boxes."
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Roz's arrogantly ignorant hipster friend Jen (a pre-famous Zooey Deschanel), who, among other things, wants to go to Vietnam on vacation because "Americans haven't heard of" the country, and that an art gallery mostly focused on paintings of landscapes is intended to "make us feel good" about American "imperialism".
• Kubrick Stare:
  • Frasier, many times when simmering in rage—but most memorably, when he challenges Eddie to a staring contest. (First 25 seconds.) Guess who wins....
  • Niles gives the stare a lot, too—often involving an Heroic BSoD, to boot.
• Kwyjibo: In "Goodnight, Seattle".
  Charlotte: "Her grandmother's bed was warm and... quilty."
  Frasier: "And why is she lying there? Because she's feeling all 'befevered' again?"
• Lab Pet: In one episode it's revealed that Frasier's mother was so attached to her lab rats that she named her children after them.
• Ladykiller in Love:
  • Bulldog falls in love in the episode "Love Bites Dog" only to end up heartbroken when the woman dumps him on the phone like he himself does with many of his one-night stands.
  • A few years later, Bulldog falls for Roz who also rejects him.
• Lampshade Hanging: "Out With Dad" where Frasier drags Martin to an opera. Martin complains about the unlikely farcical plot elements (escalating lies, staged entrances and exits), a critique which neatly encapsulates all that follows in the second act.
• Large Ham:
  • Frasier is a quintessential sitcom example. Any time Frasier gets riled up, any time Niles gets... let's just say many.
  • Agent Bebe Glazer is even worse. Goodness, she's even prone to Milking the Giant Cow! And she, like Winston, gets Frasier riled up. "She has no scruples, no ethics, and no reflection!"
  • Jackson Headley in "The Show Must Go Off" delivers a performance so hammy BRIAN BLESSED would be proud.
  • Also, Cam Winston. CAM WINSTON!
• Laser-Guided Karma: Inverted in a Season 10 episode, when Martin goes to withdraw $20 from an ATM but gets $60. Daphne insists that this trope will apply if he fails to return the money to the bank and forces him to take it back in person, but the staff's ineptitude means they keep giving him another $40 over and over again. His last attempt ends with an over-zealous security guard pulling a gun on him, which results in the bank paying him $10,000 not to take the matter to court. He accepts it with tired resignation.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Often a last second phrase swap, used by all the main characters especially Frasier.
• Lazy Bum: Trish, who Frasier and Martin try to hire as Daphne's replacement as a housekeeper in "Bristle While You Work". She almost immediately proves to be unwilling to do any actual work, usually showing up late and then immediately ducking out when she does, forcing Martin to take up the work so Frasier doesn't find out. And when caught out, she still insists on being paid for the days she never showed up.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In one episode, Frasier drags Martin to see Rigoletto, and he spends most of his time lampshading the sillier tropes of the genre, such as Gasp!, "Fawlty Towers" Plot, The Beard and Love Dodecahedron. Frasier's well-timed Gasp! is the cue for an entire episode full of exactly that kind of Farce.
  • In another episode, Frasier's first ex-wife Nanette expresses dissatisfaction with her career as a children's entertainer, exasperatedly asking "Do you have any idea what it's like to play the same character for twenty years?" Frasier (having been played by Kelsey Grammer for 20 years by that point) responds with a non-committal shrug.
• Learning to Ride a Bike: Niles and Frasier match the Upper-Class Twit archetype, specifically the Stereotypical Nerd variety, with neither having learned to ride, and get to spend an episode hilariously failing to do so.
• Lecherous Licking: Implied.
  Niles: Take my bumbershoot.
  Daphne: Oh, isn't that nice, well at least someone appreciates my mother tongue. [Leaves.]
  Niles: Yes, I've always had an ear for your tongue.
  Frasier: Niles!
• Lethal Chef: Daphne. Lamb's Head Stew, for instance. Or other glories of English cuisine like "kidney pie". The jokes tend to be not so much about Daphne's cooking in particular, and more about English cuisine in general. Daphne's food does get compliments sometimes.
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: In the episode "Mamma Mia", everyone but Frasier seems to notice that his new girl Mia bears an uncanny resemblance to his mother. When he has it pointed out to him, he's completely horrified.
• Limited Social Circle: Martin appears have friends beyond the main characters (particularly Duke), and Roz, Daphne, and Niles are occasionally shown with friends too, but most of the time the main characters just hang with each other. This is particularly true with Frasier, who appears to have no close friends beyond his brother, his father, his producer, and his father's physiotherapist. This is Lampshaded in one episode, where none of the other main characters have the time to spend an evening with Frasier, and he realizes just how alone he is without them. Since Frasier moved back to Seattle after having lived for years in Boston, this is partly Justified, though one wonders why he didn't catch up with any old friends of his, or manage to make any new ones in 11 years?
• Literal Metaphor:
  • When Frasier and Roz are discussing her hiring Bebe;
  Roz: She's got me three voiceover jobs! I know she may be a little shifty, but she helps me put food on the table.
  Bebe: [returning from the café bar] One muffin.
  Roz: See!
  • When Niles sleeps with Lilith and, attempting to hide from Frasier, falls face-first into a hotel breakfast cart and gets caught. After the awkward ensuing argument with his brother:
  Lilith: You have egg on your face.
  Niles: Well that's an understatement, I've never—
  Lilith: No, actual egg!
• Local Hangout: Café Nervosa. Subverted in that the cast did not have a "regular" table they always sat at; they sat at different tables throughout the series.
• Loners Are Freaks:
  • Subverted in the episode "Dark Victory", when Frasier delivers a rousing speech in defense of introverts everywhere.
  • Played straight in "The 200th Episode" by Frasier's biggest fan who quit his job to devote his life to listening to, recording, and transcribing Frasier's show.
• Longing Look: Niles spends multiple seasons looking at Daphne this way as he's still married can't act on his feelings. He eventually moves on after meeting Mel and stops looking which is right around the time Daphne learns of his feelings and starts looking at him instead. The night before her wedding to Donny, Frasier notices that Daphne and Niles are staring at each other across the dancefloor and decides he has to say something before it's too late.
• Long Runner: While the show barely qualifies (11 seasons), more notable is the character of Dr. Frasier Crane, who was played for 20 years over two shows (and a guest appearance on Wings). Frasier's former wife Nanette, in regard to her in-show alter ego as Nanni G (A children's music celebrity), gives Kelsey Grammer an Actor Allusion with the remark: "Do you have any idea what it's like to the play the same character for 20 years!?"
• Loony Fan:
  • Frasier visits one (with a Stalker Shrine, no less) when he's trying to track down a tape of one of his past shows.
  • In another episode, he invites his internet fanclub round to his apartment, cooking an enormous buffet for them. It turns out to consist of three creepy obsessives with No Social Skills.
• Loophole Abuse: Frasier and Niles sometimes find themselves trapped by their professional codes of ethics, and bend over backwards to find ways around them. In one episode, they discover that Roz's newest boyfriend is one of Niles's patients, a compulsive womanizer who loves 'em and leaves 'em, and will surely break Roz's heart; but they can't tell her, as that would violate doctor-patient confidentiality. They spend the entire episode looking for a way out, and finally find it:
  Niles: It would be so much easier if Roz were mentally incompetent.
  Frasier: Go on...
  Niles: Well, then there'd be some justification for protecting her. Is she irrational?
  Frasier: She did attack a vending machine once, when a Twinkie came out of the Oreo chute.
  Niles: Borderline, borderline. Does she ever act delusional?
  Frasier: Well, she often claims that she is responsible for the success of our show.
  Niles: Building, building. Does she display below-average intelligence?
  Frasier: She once ordered a bottle of white Zinfandel!
  Niles: Jackpot! Go to her, she's a threat to herself!
  Frasier: It's amazing they even let the woman drive!
• Lost Wedding Ring: Daphne loses her engagement ring and tries to hide it from Donny. Frasier finds it, and worries what Faye would have thought if she'd found it. Then deconstructed immediately: Faye plays with the trope just to tease Frasier, but reveals she knows it's Daphne's ring; Donny reveals he knew she'd lost ever since she hugged him with a raw chicken on her hand.
• Lounge Lizard: "The Barracuda", an incredibly slimy Latino cruise ship crooner with whom Maris nearly sleeps.
• Lousy Lovers Are Losers:
  • In "Space Quest", Frasier overhears Roz talking on the phone to her mom about how disappointing sex with her ex Gary was.
    Roz: I mean, he knew where all the parts were. Unfortunately, most of them were his... Yes. Totally passionless. It was like he was thinking of someone else... I know I was.
  • In "The Wiseguy", Brandy doesn't have anything good to say bout Jerome's bedroom performance.
    Brandy:Money ain't everything, especially when you've got a sex life like ours...
    Roz: He's not even good in bed?
    Brandy: Who knows? We're never there long enough to find out. I said to him last night, 'What the hell was that? I've been vaccinated slower!'
• Love at First Sight: Niles is clearly smitten with Daphne from the moment they meet.
• Love Dodecahedron: "The Ski Lodge" is a masterpiece; Frasier wants Annie, Annie wants Niles, Niles wants Daphne, Daphne wants Guy, Guy wants Niles, and as he realises to his horror when everything gets untangled, no-one wants Frasier.
• Love Informant: In the seventh season, a drugged-up Frasier lets slip to Daphne that Niles is crazy about her.
• Love Makes You Dumb: In one of the timelines in "Sliding Frasiers," Frasier goes dramatically overboard in trying to win his then-love interest's favor and heart, which ends up putting her off so much that she breaks up with him on Valentine's Day. In Frasier's defense, as he admitted to Roz, he was jealous of how well things were going with Niles and Daphne and he wanted something like that for himself.
• Low Count Gag: In episode "Good Grief", an unemployed Frasier hears he has a fan club that wants to protest his show being taken off the air. He has a large buffet ready for them — and it turns out there's only three of them. After telling Frasier they intend to stop traffic with a rally, he's understandably mortified.
  Frasier: I can't let them do this rally. Three kooks marching round in a circle, you know what that'll do?
  Niles: (deadpan) Make them very dizzy very fast.
• Lower-Deck Episode: "Moon Dance", commonly voted among people's favourite episodes, has Frasier away visiting Freddie save for his appearance explaining that in the Cold Open and a brief cameo towards the end where he's comically bewildered that Niles and Daphne, the focus of the episode's plot, suddenly appear to be dating.
• Lysistrata Gambit:
  • Maris was an expert at withholding sex from Niles, and used it to work to her advantage, always. He tried to turn the tables once, but didn't get very far.
    Frasier: Now, now, now, Niles, withholding sex may be just as difficult on Maris! She may crumble first!
    Niles: Are you serious? One hour of passion can sustain her for months. She stores it up like some sexual camel.
  • The Lysistrata Gambit was one of the tactics Frasier's new co-host supported, which was one of the major issues he had with her.

M

• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Late in the series, Martin has a moment where he fears Frasier and Niles might not be his children, when one of Hester's old lab colleagues shows up, looking and acting an awful lot like Frasier and Niles (so much so Eddie gets confused), and getting on with them far better than Martin ever did. Martin's concern isn't helped by the knowledge Hester did cheat on him once before. In the end, however, the man reveals he's actually gay. The episode ends with Martin sulkily acknowledging that they are unavoidably his kids.
• Mama Bear: Roz develops this not long after becoming a single mother herself to baby daughter Alice. In the first episode of season 6, she yells at Daphne after the latter criticizes her child care and baby Alice's eating habits.
  Roz: So now it's my fault? You saw that tape!
  Daphne: I've seen your baby too! She could stand to miss a meal or two!
  Roz: She's a healthy baby!
• Ma'am Shock: Discussed by Roz in "Roz's Krantz and Gouldenstein Are Dead".
• Mad Artist: Caitlin in "Frasier Gotta Have It". She makes collages out of dead mice and stuffs pillows with human hair.
• Mad at a Dream: One episode showed one dream from all the main characters. Daphne dreamed that Niles was surrounded by young women while her pregnancy weight was hugely exaggerated. She woke up and punched him.
• Making a Spectacle of Yourself: Marty, after reluctantly accepting he needs glasses, chooses a pair which are somewhat flamboyant. Frasier, Niles and Daphne are then stuck with the problem of explaining that he might like to choose a design more suited to a tough ex-cop in his sixties.
• Manly Gay: Lillith's ex-husband Brian turns out to be this when he left her for someone more feminine.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl:
  • The above Caitlin. It doesn't work out though, as all they shared was sex.
  • Niles tried to find one for himself to cope with having learned that Daphne was engaged to Donny. It went about as well as you'd expect, and their relationship lasted less than a week; the only thing that really happened between them was her dragging him away so he fell off everyone's radar for a day or two, sending everyone into a panic since he wasn't returning calls and no one could figure out where he was.
• Mars and Venus Gender Contrast: Played with and played straight.
• Master of the Mixed Message:
  • Cassandra to Frasier in her initial appearance. He has dinner with her on Valentine's Day and she even invites him to stay the rainy night in her hotel room, sharing the bed. He can't figure out if she's hitting on him and keeps calling Roz for help deciphering her signals. Turns out, she's not dating him... yet. She does later become one of his many lovers, however.
  • Another episode has Frasier and Niles (who is separated from Maris at the time) meet two woman they immediately hit it off with. They decide on an impulse to spend a weekend in a cabin together. However, they were moving so fast they didn't take the time to find out what the ladies' intentions are. And their attempts to subtly figure out if there's anything romantic going on fail miserably. In this case, it does get resolved, when the women retreat to separate bedrooms and ask "Are you coming?"
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Daphne's 'psychic flashes', which are usually there set up jokes and set her up as a folksy, spiritual foil to the educated, skeptical Doctors Crane. She's occasionally wrong or mistaken (she openly admits her gift 'comes and goes'), but over the course of the show, she makes several very accurate guesses about things and people she has no knowledge of, and the audience is sometimes shown that her visions are accurate, even if she herself dismisses them for being too absurd. Whatever it is, it clearly works, it's just never stated whether her "flashes" are just an unconscious talent for near-instant deductive reasoning and observation filtered through a powerful imagination, or something more. At least until she has a vision of the unidentified "love of her life" with a dragon, at the exact moment Niles receives a statuette of a dragon as a gift at his own apartment.
• May–December Romance: Deconstructed in one episode where a young woman in her early twenties (played by Sara Melson) is interested in dating Frasier, but he is worried that people would have bad impressions of him. Finally invoked near the end of the episode, but they decided that it won't work out.
• Meaningful Background Event: In a Christmas special where Martin ends up working during the holiday, Frasier and Niles go to talk to him at his job to get him to change his mind. They end up having a conversation to themselves about how much they're going to miss him and how Christmas won't be the same without him. It's easy to miss, but Martin's boss can be seen nearby in the background, listening in, which ends up becoming significant later when Martin spoils their plans to surprise him with presents at work by being let off the hook because said boss was feeling guilty.
• Meaningful Gift: At the end of "Frasier Grinch", Frasier and his dad go ahead and open each other's presents on Christmas Eve, with Frasier already feeling down about not getting his son the correct present (an Outlaw Laser Robo Geek). Frasier opens his gift and begins to tear up... because his dad bought him an Outlaw Laser Robo Geek, knowing he'd need it.
• Meat-O-Vision:
  • Referenced in a Thanksgiving episode: "Is baby Alice dressed as a turkey, or am I just hungry?"
  • Subverted in "Frasier-Lite," when the KACL staff are entered in a televised weight-loss competition and are half-mad from hunger by the end:
  Noel: [delirious] I see giant steaks with legs.
  Bulldog: You're hallucinating. [He slaps Noel's head.] Just pull it together.
  Kenny: Uh, no, he's right. It's the Beef Council Dancers. They're on after us.
• Media Scaremongering: Invoked by Roz in "The Candidate." After one of the commercials from Holden Thorpe (who Martin is in favor of), she says he's making it sound like if they vote for his opponent (who Frasier is supporting) instead of for him, crime will skyrocket to terrifying out-of-control levels.
• Mediation Backfire: Played with; Frasier sits Roz and Julia down in the cafe to try to get them to make nice, and when they find common ground insulting him, he graciously leaves them to it. The moment he's gone, though, they both get up to leave, and are bickering again before they reach the door.
• Meet Cute: Frasier meets Charlotte by getting the floors mixed up when going to his "private-practice" office. Charlotte initially thinks he's just using that as excuse to cover for his wanting to use her dating service. She then partly witnesses a bad re-acquaintance of Frasier with an Old Flame he's forgotten....
• Memetic Badass: Invoked with Frasier's aunt Zora, a violent person with a hair-trigger temper that the entire family fears.
  Frasier: I'm not afraid of her.
  Niles: Everyone is. Have you forgotten the family legend that when Hitler invaded Greece she joined the partisans just so she could strangle Nazis?
  Frasier: I have never believed that. She would have had to have been five years old at the time.
  Niles: That's why the legend says they were strangled with jumpropes.
• Men Are Uncultured: Averted — Frasier and Niles are very cultured, loving opera and fine wines. Their father doesn't understand this at all, but he's not stupid, he just has more traditionally "manly" tastes (Martin and Hester would have been a fairly straight example of the trope, though).
  "I still think a couple of years of military service would've done you two a world of good."
• Men Don't Cry:
  • Martin is such an extreme example that he got mad at a former partner of his for teasing him about crying from watching Brian's Song, the go-to "guy cry" movie.
  • Averted for laughs in "Our Father Whose Art Ain't Heaven": Martin's breakdown causes Frasier to start weeping as well, then Niles joins in shortly after.
  Frasier: (weeping) I made our father cry!
  Niles: (bawling) Nobody wants to come to my party!
• Mile-High Club: Back in his younger days, Niles was once invited to join. In his naivete, he thought it was the airline's bonus program, and declined. Now that he knows what was really meant, he tries to laugh, and can't.
• Milholland Relationship Moment: Ronee's reaction to Martin's heart attack.
• Mind Screw: "Sliding Frasiers" takes a dip into the supernatural, chronicling the events of two alternate universes made different by Frasier's choice of what to wear for a night out. In the end we find out that both universes lead to the same conclusion, but we are never given any further explanation. It was a distinctly postmodern episode of an otherwise very grounded and realistic series.
• Minor Flaw, Major Breakup: Played with. Sometimes played straight when Frasier breaks up with an otherwise lovely woman for a few minor flaws, but occasionally he realizes this and forces himself to overlook the flaws of his Girl of the Week, who then turns out to be completely bizarre but Frasier refuses to break up with her because he wants to kick his habit.
• Mirror Match: Defied; in "Mixed Doubles," Frasier explicitly tells Niles not to get into a fistfight with an Identical Stranger because "the whole thing would just look too weird!"
• Missing Mom: Hester Crane, although she appeared occasionally through flashbacks.
• A Mistake Is Born: Martin tells Frasier at one point, "I wasn't the one who convinced your mother to marry me; you were."
• Mistaken for Gay: The show specializes in these, and handles them with panache.
  • In 'The Matchmaker', KACL's handsome and urbane new boss is invited to dinner by Frasier. Frasier intends to hook him up with Daphne, but there's the usual confusion:
  Frasier: But... Tom's not gay.
  Niles: He seems to be under that impression.
  Frasier: What on Earth could have made him think that I was interested in him? All I did was ask him if he was attached, and then we talked about the theater and mens' fashions, oh my God.
  • In 'The Doctor is Out', there's a hilarious "on-air outing" as he tries to explain why he was there:
    Frasier: "All right, I am going to put an end to this discussion, because there is nothing to discuss. On my way home from the gym, I popped into Bad Billy's looking for a man I was hoping was in the bathroom. I had a quick sherry with my French polisher and then I left. As for how I got into another man's shorts, that is no one's business!"
  • Martin's pretending to be homosexual backfires on him in "Out With Dad".
  • Niles is consistently mistaken for being homosexual. This culminates in "The Doctor Is Out" where he's Mistaken for Gay by Patrick Stewart:
    Niles: This is my wife, Daphne.
    Alistair: ...No.
    Niles: We're expecting!
    Alistair: Can't say I was!
  • Bulldog was also accused of being homosexual by a lady who thought he was overcompensating by being so testosterone-driven.^note Actor Dan Butler actually is gay.
  • Subverted in "Fathers and Sons": Martin is convinced Leland is the boys' actual father as he has so much in common with them, but as it turns out he only loved Hester as a friend and trusted her with the fact that he was homosexual at a time when that could have ruined his career.
  • Played with regarding Gil Chesterton — everyone simply assumes he's gay, and is surprised when he reveals he's married:
    "She is Mrs. Gilbert Leslie Chesterton, a Sarah Lawrence graduate, and the owner of a very successful auto body repair shop. Honestly, the conclusions people make, just because a man dresses well and knows how to use a pastry bag." ... "Well, that's the first time I've ever seen a man "IN" himself!"
    • However, it's revealed that he is gay in Season 10. First he's sneaking into Bad Billy's (and sympathizes when Frasier is "outed"), then he comes out in Season 11.
  • One episode opens with Frasier, Niles, and Martin shopping for Daphne's engagement ring. A series of accidents and coincidences culminates in the entire store thinking that Frasier is proposing to Niles.
    (After the store clerk assumes they're there to get a ring for each other)
    Niles: Where did that come from?
    Frasier: I mean really, to just assume something like that out of the blue.
    Niles and Frasier: Latent.
• Mistaken for Dying:
  • Daphne thinks Martin is dying when, among other things, he suddenly starts attending church. He's really preparing for a Christmas pageant.
  • Due to unfortunate choice of words, Daphne thinks this is happening to her mother, and gets into a panic. Frasier and Martin were just trying to tell her Donny was planning on proposing, and have to tell her as such to stop her rushing back to Manchester.
  • It happens in the series finale as well, with Frasier this time. It turns out the announcement he was going to make was that he's moving to San Francisco.
• Mistaken for Suicidal:
  • In "Are You Being Served?," Niles is distraught at the breakdown of his marriage and locks himself in the bathroom. Frasier passionately speaks to Niles through the door, telling him that his life isn't over. He and the others are then shocked to hear a BANG from inside the bathroom. Frasier cautiously opens the door... and sees Niles covered head-to-toe in foam because Martin's automatic shaving cream dispenser exploded.
  • In "Frasier's Curse," Frasier suffers a string of bad luck and is despondent for some time. Niles enters the apartment to see Frasier sticking his head in the oven and rushes over, assuming the worst. It turns out that Frasier was just cleaning it — and it's an electric oven, not gas, so it wouldn't have killed him anyway.
    Frasier: If I wanted to end my life, I'd choose something faster than broiling.
• Mistaken for Thief: Bulldog has a tendency to rant about his "stolen" belongings, then find them.
• Mistaken Identity: An interesting twist in "Secret Admirer'; Frasier mistakes himself for the object of Maris' affections when it is actually Niles who is supposed to receive the gifts.
• Monochrome Casting: All the main characters, and pretty much all the supporting cast, are whiter than an aggressive Zinfandel. However, the black people that did appear had quite a broad scope. One black recurring character was "Dr." Mary, a stereotypical Sassy Black Woman who Frasier was terrified of criticizing for fear of being seen as racist — an unusually no-nonsense approach to racial issues for a 90s sitcom. On the other hand, Frasier's Sitcom Archnemesis Cam Winston was a wealthy, fussy snob very much like Frasier himself, and the fact that he was black was a complete non-issue. Cam's mother was also briefly used as a love interest for Frasier's father, Martin. Another memorable guest appearance was James Earl Jones as a blind man, making him a Twofer Token Minority. Considering Seattle's demographics, though, an even bigger oversight is that hardly any Asian people, who make up 1/8th of the city's population in real life, have speaking roles. The publisher Sam Tanaka in "Author, Author" is a rare example, as well as a focus group member in "Focus Group" and one of Frasier's love interests in Season 5.
• Monumental View: The apartment has a lovely shot of the Space Needle, indicated to be built on Queen Anne Hill (which didn't have apartments until 2014, after the show's conclusion.)
  • And in a rare case of Shown Their Work about Seattle, the writers in Season 1's My Coffee with Niles establish that Cafe Nervosa is in downtown Seattle (it's on 3rd Ave) and Martin complains about how far the walk is from their apartment. From Queen Anne that's about 2-3 miles.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • "Beloved Infidel" has Martin and Frasier having a serious discussion about the fact Hester once cheated on Martin, and Frasier sharing the details of Lilith's own affair. Then Martin incredulously tries to confirm that someone else actually found Lilith attractive.
  • "Moon Dance", right at the climax, Daphne and Niles have been dancing the tango, and it looks like Niles might be able to actually spit it out to Daphne then and there... at which point she reveals she thought he's just pretending with all those soppy lines like "I adore you". You can practically hear his heart shattering.
  • In "Are You Being Served?" Niles, having just signed divorce papers, cracks a joke about Maris and starts laughing. Then, seconds later, he starts having a legitimate panic attack. More whiplash occurs when Frasier tries to reassure him by reading some old notes of their mothers, which kick-started Niles's decision in the first place, only to find it's talking about their mom's old lab rats, who she'd named them after. Niles's hysterical panic attack only gets worse as he realizes he's just ended his marriage based on a misunderstanding.
  • In "Boo!", Frasier sneaking up on Martin in full clown get-up to get back at him for the pranks he's been pulling, giving him the fright of his life... and then he doesn't get up, and the scene cuts to him in the hospital recovering from a heart attack. It gets another whiplash when Martin sincerely tells Ronee about it, and she is incredulous that he's being so dour about what she calls a "bee sting" (out the next day, no surgery, didn't even them use a defib kit on him). Then he proposes marriage.
  • In "To Tell the Truth", Niles is ecstatic after Maris gives him a healthy divorce settlement. He and Frasier are chatting happily at Cafe Nervosa... when his lawyer Donny walks in hand-in-hand with Daphne. You can feel your heart crush with Niles' as Donny smells her hair and asks what the scent is and Niles answers sadly "Cherry bark and almonds".
  • In the episode about Niles having previously donated to a sperm bank and going in to check if any had been used, the scene swerves wildly back and forth between "teehee sperm" type jokes and seriously addressing Niles discovering his likely infertility and inability to conceive with Daphne.
  • "Maris Counselor" has Niles unwittingly stumbling into bed with the man Maris is cheating on him with (funny), which then takes a turn for the heartbreaking as Niles realizes Maris is cheating on him with their marriage counselor. Some more nervous laughs follow as Niles tries to do his job while coming to terms with his pain. The episode ends with him finally declaring himself over her, ending with all three Crane men bitterly lamenting their bad lack with women.
  • "Bristle While You Work": Niles has been dealing with insane coincidences (an African American Niles greets an African American Daphne at one point, and he's constantly winning a water bottle cap prize like fanny packs). He finally goes to the doctor to have an earache checked, at everyone's insistence that since he's been hitting long odds all day, it might be serious.
    Niles: (chipper) Okay, lay it on me. I'm prepared for the worst. Is it my heart?
    Doctor: I'm afraid so.
    Niles: Ah-ha! (Beat) What?
    Doctor: There is an anomaly in your EKG. I'm gonna have to check you into the hospital.
    Niles: Oh, uh, well, hmm. Uh, I guess I can clear my schedule. How's, how's tomorrow afternoon?
    Doctor: No, no. Niles? You need to go right now.
    • The whiplash happens again during The Stinger when a distraught Niles is given a water bottle by the doc, and he reels in shock as he won another fanny pack.
• Morton's Fork: Invoked by Cam Winston, Frasier's Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, in "Mother Lode." The two men feud over a parking spot, and when Frasier gets the upper hand, Cam retaliates by draping a giant American flag over his balcony so that it completely covers Frasier's windows. The choice is very deliberate—the episode takes place not long after the attacks of September 11th, so patriotic fervor is at an all-time high. Frasier knows that if he complains, he'll be seen as "un-American" for disturbing Cam's apparent tribute, so he's forced to either give up the parking spot or be stuck with the flag blocking his views permanently. He reluctantly cedes the victory to Cam.
• Motor Mouth: Poppy, who's treated as The Scrappy by the other characters. It's actually revealed that she talks so much and so fast because she's nervous, and doesn't do so around Niles (who is more approachable than Frasier.)
• Moving the Goalposts: Mel and Niles' sham marriage. At first, he agrees to spare her reputation by attending a couple of weeks of public engagements before she files for divorce. The first amendment is that he's also not allowed to be seen in public with Daphne. Then, the "couple of weeks" gets dragged out to unreasonable extremes. Then, he's informed that in order to make the breakup look authentic without reflecting badly on Mel, he has to start acting like a dick in public so it will look like she had to dump him.
• Multiboobage: Roz's Star Trek obsessed unwanted admirer sends around an office petition for the producers to introduce the character of Rozalinda, the four breasted Space Vixen and ruler of the planet Rozniac. When Frasier compares the tribute to Robert Browning's poems to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Roz asks if Browning ever wrote a poem giving Elizabeth two extra breasts. During The Stinger, Roz receives a gift - a multi-boobed bra. When she tries it on in amusement, her co-workers outside the booth start bowing, and if you read their lips, chanting "All hail Rozalinda!"^note  Many of the actors and producers on Frasier were huge Star Trek fans, and this was a Shout-Out to Gene Roddenberry's initial idea for Deanna Troi: a "four-breasted, oversexed hermaphrodite". Continuity editor Dorothy Fontana's sarcastic response is legendary.
• Multitasked Conversation: On two separate occasions, Frasier gives a toast to a "happy couple" which, by the judicious avoidance of using any names, conceals a "she isn't the woman you really love" message. The first time, it was to convince his cousin Nicos to break off an engagement; the second, Niles was being forced to carry on a sham relationship with Mel, and Frasier resents being told to publicly endorse the relationship.
• Must Make Amends: In a mid-season 10 episode, it is Frasier's son's bar mizvah and Frasier wants to give a blessing in Hebrew to his son. At his radio station works Noel Shemsky, a huge Trekkie and fluent in Hebrew, and Frasier asks him for help. As the time to do this is around a Trek convention, Noel asks Frasier to get him Scott Bakula's signature. Frasier attempts but fails to get there in time because of traffic. Noel still teaches him the words. After the lesson Frasier feeling guilty, spends an undisclosed amount of money buying an authentic wig from one of the Original series' most famous episodes as an apology. Noel is shocked with emotion especially as he taught Frasier what to say, but in Klingon out of anger at the first failure. And Frasier ends up reciting it to his son in front of the entire audience.
• My Beloved Smother: Mrs. Mulhern to Dr. Nora.
  Mrs. Mulhern: So, you thought you could get away from me, did you? Thought you could leave me to rot in that dump without barely enough cash for a bottle of Mateus?! You'll pay for that, missy!
• My Biological Clock Is Ticking: In "The Kid," Niles expresses doubt on whether or not he and Maris will be able to have children.
  Niles: She's a tad older than I am and her biological clock is winding down a bit.
  Frasier: Luckily, she flies down to Zurich twice a year to have it reset.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg:
  Frasier: Thank you, Niles. You're a good brother and a credit to the psychiatric profession.
  Niles: You're a good brother, too.
• My New Gift Is Lame: At one point, Roz predicts her Christmas gift from Frasier will be a book. Apparently Frasier learned nothing that time he figured out Roz "lost" a previous gift he gave her to an earthquake.
• My Own Private "I Do": Niles and Daphne of the Elope First, Plan Later variety. It got really silly when they ended up having two fake ceremonies, before eventually spilling the beans.
• Mystery Episode: Spoofed in the episode "Deathtrap". Frasier and Niles turn sleuth to investigate a skull they found in the floorboards in their childhood home, eventually telling the police that their landlord at the time murdered his wife. They realize too late that the skull was theirs, borrowed from their school's science storage for a backyard production of "Hamlet."
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Dr. Frasier Crane Show debuted on KACL on May 21, 1993, the airdate of the Cheers finale.
  • The season 11 episode "Caught in the Act" has a gag about Kelsey Grammer having played the character of Frasier Crane for 20 years (first in Cheers, then in Frasier). In the episode Frasier meets his ex-wife, who's had a long career as the children's entertainer "Nanny G":
  Nanny G: Frasier, if you knew how bored I am, being "Nanny G." How trapped I feel.
  Frasier: You have a wonderful career.
  Nanny G: But nothing ever changes! Do you have any idea what it's like to play the same character for twenty years?
  • Frasier's agent, Bebe Glazer, has the same first name as the actress who played Lilith.
  • Kim (Jennifer Tilly) mentions she was briefly engaged. Tilly played a girl who was briefly engaged to Frasier in Cheers.