Ready Jet Go / Tropes J to P

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J

• Jabba Table Manners:
  • Zerk. In "Back to Bortron 7", he asked the group if they wanted to see how many Figinnuz he could fit into his mouth until his mom stopped him.
  • All the kids exhibit this in "Mindy Turns Five". At Mindy and Lillian's tea party, the kids put the teacups on their heads, and Jet grabs things using his feet.
• Jaw Drop:
  • Sean does a major jaw drop in "Space Race", after Zucchini uses his new thrusters in the titular race.
  • Carrot does one in "Back to Bortron 7" after Eggplant informs him and Celery that they'll be done with Earth after their presentation. For dramatic effect, the Exploding Shake that Carrot was holding explodes in his face.
• Jerkass: Mitchell is often self-centered, harsh, and rejects help from others.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Though Mitchell has his many jerky moments, Mitchell does have a good heart deep down. Episodes supporting this are "Detective Mindy", "You Can Call Me Albedo", and especially "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace".
  • This is what becomes of Sean's western persona in "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!". In the first "Lone Star" episode, Western!Sean was disapproving of Lone Star's ideas. In this episode, however, although he was somewhat disapproving at first, he eventually warms up to Lone Star, admitting to liking him.
• Jerkass Ball:
  • Somewhat grabbed by Sean in "Sounds Abound", but in this case, it's understandable because he just wants some peace and quiet to work on his sound experiment. He eventually learned that he needed his friends' noise for the experiment. And, it's easy to sympathize with both parties: Sean wanted peace and quiet, while his friends just wanted to help and stopped bothering Sean when he asked them to.
  • In "Ain't No Mars Mountain High Enough", Sunspot grabs this. He refuses help from the other kids and refuses to team up with Celery. After the kids save him from flying away in the wind, however, he is humbled.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • In "Lone Star", Western!Sean is a cranky shopkeeper who dislikes Lone Star's ideas because they actually could hurt the economy of Boxwood Territory. Western!Sean claims that if people are looking up at the stars all night, they will be tired in the morning and won't be able to cut down trees or dig for gold.
  • In "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", Mindy and Lillian keep insisting that Halloween is magical, while Mitchell repeatedly refutes their claims. Yes, he was rather blunt about it, but he did have a point that the stuff that they said were real like demonic spiders, ghosts, and witches are fake.
• Jet Pack: Jet possesses a jet pack. He uses in a few episodes like "Mindy's Moon Bounce House" and "My Fair Jet".
• Just a Kid: A Heroic Self-Deprecation version in "Diggin' Earth" — Sean thinks that he and the others can't really dig all the way down because they're just kids, and wants to give up, but Dr. Rafferty tells him that kids (like them) can do amazing things and encourages him to keep going.
• Just a Machine: "Sydney 2" explores robots and their emotions, and what it means to be human (or a Human Alien). Jet doesn't seem to care for Jet 2 much because he's Cool, but Inefficient. Notably, it's Sydney who gets the idea of making a friend for Jet 2, and not Jet himself. Sydney later realizes that robots are not capable of the same complex emotions and interactions as humans/aliens. However, with a little help from her engineer mom and a can-do spirit, the two robots are programmed to make friends with each other.

K

• Kangaroo Court: In "Fact Or Fiction?", the kids set up a court in order to determine whether clouds are made of water or cotton candy. Sean says that clouds are made of water, while Lillian says that clouds are made of cotton candy. The judge, Jet, is clearly biased seeing as he believed that clouds were made of cotton candy, so he rules in favor of Lillian, much to Sean's annoyance.
• Karma Houdini:
  • Mitchell tried to get intel about Mindy's recipe in "Solar System Bake Off" and cheated at a race in "Kid Kart Derby", but he never gets punished for this.
  • In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Eggplant and Zerk cheat in the race by using anti-gravity fluxinators (which effectively steal gravity from the other racers), yet they win and don't get their comeuppance.
• Keet: Jet is this to the extreme, always being loud and cheerful.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Mindy, who was originally not in the show, but was added to appeal the younger demographic^note Believe or not, the show wasn't originally intended for preschoolers, but they didn't want to completely lose them. This is a successful example, as Mindy became a very popular character within the show's target audience. However, in season 2, this prompted the writers to make everything revolve around Mindy.
• Kid Detective: Mitchell is always trying to be a detective and find proof that the Propulsions are aliens. In "Detective Mindy", Mindy becomes Mitchell's detective partner.
• Kids Driving Cars: On Bortron 7, flying saucers are treated as cars. Jet builds and flies his own little saucer starting in "What Goes Up...", and Zerk can drive too. Jet and Zerk are both children, and they can drive presumably because Bortron 7 has different driving laws than any country on Earth.
• Kids Hate Chores: In "Chore Day", Jet doesn't want to do his chores because he thinks they're boring, and would rather play around with his friends. As it turns out, all his friends have to do chores as well — Sydney has to fold the laundry, Sean has to water the plants, and Mindy has to clean up her toys — but they find ways to make the chores fun and get them done quicker by applying science. In the end, Jet's chore was to test out the hover scooters, and he ends up having a lot of fun with it.
• Kindhearted Simpleton:
  • Uncle Zucchini. He mistook Titan for Earth and was unaware of the three states of matter, but he's unfailingly kind and loyal to the Propulsion family.
  • Lillian is slightly ditzy, but she's one of the nicest characters on the show.
• Kissing the Ground: Sean often does this whenever they get back from space. A few times, this is coupled with him spitting out grass. For example, he does this towards the end of "One Small Step".
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: The Propulsions adore Earth pop culture, food, and holidays. For example, in "Which Moon is Best?" Celery makes a reference to Fred Astaire. Discussed in "Bortron Leprechaun" when Mindy remarks that the Propulsions really love Earth holidays like St. Patrick's Day.
• "Knock Knock" Joke: In "My Three Suns", Face 9000 tries to tell one, but fails.
  'Face: Knock knock
  Sean: Who's there?
  Face: It's me — Face.
  Jet: Face who?
  Face: No, it is I, Face. I am the one who was knocking. (laughs at his own joke while Jet, Sunspot, and Sean stare silently in confusion)
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: In "Asteroid Belt Space Race," after Zerk learns just a little bit about asteroids from Sean and Sydney, he declares that he is an asteroid expert when he actually isn't.
• Knuckle Cracking:
  • Celery cracks her knuckles in "Castaway Carrot" before taking control of the saucer.
  • Jet cracks his knuckles in "Treasure Map" as he prepares to make a treasure chest.

L

• Lack of Imagination: Mitchell, being the Agent Scully, refuses to believe that Halloween has any kind of magic. By his own admission, he has "no imagination". Whenever he tries (and fails) to expose Jet as an alien, his parents always say that he has a 'wonderful imagination', and he insists he lacks one. However, in "Moon Face", he ends up seeing a face on the moon and realizes he does have an imagination after all.
• Lampshade Hanging: In the winter episodes "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" and "Endless Summer", there's not much snow on the ground in Boxwood Terrace. In "Freebird", this is lampshaded when it is revealed that Boxwood Terrace doesn't get much snow, which explains the lack of snow.
• The Lancer: Sean contrasts with Jet, the leader of the team. While Jet always leaps before looking, is highly energetic, and unironically loves making mistakes, Sean is more cautious, intellectual, and nervous in general.
• Large and in Charge: Jet is the tallest and is the leader of his group.
• Large Ham: Jet is very bombastic, full of life and charisma, and enjoys being a Drama Queen and performing complicated musical numbers. He gets to be very showy in the "Milky Way" song number from "A Visit to the Planetarium."
  "WE'RE SWIRLING! WE'RE SPINNING! WE'RE SPIRALING NIGHT AND DAY! IN OUR GALAXY, THE MILKY WAY! Good evening, frieeeends!"
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", Zerk keeps bothering Jet, Sean, and Sydney to no end via Jet's smartwatch. At the end of the episode, Zerk annoys Jet again, and gets what he deserves after Jet throws the smartwatch into the vastness of space.
• Last-Name Basis: Mr. Peterson refers to people by their last names, using Peterson to refer to his own son, and Propulsion to refer to Carrot and Jet. In "Mini-Golf At The DSA", he refers to Dr. Rafferty as simply Rafferty.
• Laughing Mad: In "Detective Mindy", Jet looks for a black hole in the trash can. He puts it over his head and starts laughing like a madman.
• The Leader: Jet is the leader of his group.
• Leitmotif:
  • "My Name Is Mindy" for Mindy. If you listen closely, you can hear an instrumental playing when she's around sometimes.
  • Sometimes, in Sean's scenes, you can hear a composition of "The Scientific Method".
  • Mitchell has a jazzy lounge piece that plays in almost every one of his scenes.
• Lemonade Stand Plot: In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", the kids run a lemonade stand to help raise money to send humans to Mars. They use absurd, convoluted methods to acquire lemons and subsequently make lemonade, and the neighborhood animals get in on the project. This is also how they meet Ellen Ochoa, who buys a cup of lemonade from their stand.
• Let's Duet: Some. "Let's Fly Our Little Saucer to the Moon", "There's No Planet Like My Planet", and "Enceladus vs. Europa".
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: In "One Small Step", the gang splits up: Sean and Mindy go to look for Jet and Sunspot, and Sydney and Jet 2 stay behind to fix the saucer.
• Licensed Game: There's an app for this show called Space Explorer that uses augmented reality technology to help you learn about space.
• Lightbulb Joke: Beep tells Jet a lightbulb joke in "Solar Power Rover." The punchline is that it takes 27 rovers to change a lightbulb.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Celery says this trope's name out loud in "Moon Circus" when comparing Carrot and Jet's shared tendencies to not keep secrets. She also offhandedly mentions that they both like prune juice with lemons.
• Limited Social Circle:
  • Jet, Sean, Sydney, Mindy, and Sunspot are very close-knit and never seem to talk to any other kids. Lillian only appeared in one episode (and another one as a cameo), and Mitchell is their frenemy.
  • However, this trope averts starting in late season 1 and the entirety of season 2. They assure Mitchell that they are friends with him in the Christmas Episode, and due to Lillian becoming an Ascended Extra, they hang out with her a lot more.
• Limited Wardrobe:
  • Almost every character wears the same outfit everyday. Though Sydney and Sean wear the same suits as the Propulsions while going into space.
  • The characters (save for Mindy), don't even wear pajamas when they go to sleep! Now that's gotta take the cake.
  • This is eventually played with in "Mars Rock for Mom", which reveals that Jet has been wearing a white shirt under his signature jacket this whole time.
• List Song: Lots of the show's songs consist of lists. "So Many Moons" lists all the moons of Jupiter at the time the episode aired (2016), "Solar System Song" lists all the planets of the Solar System, and "Night of a Bazillion Stars" lists our neighborhood stars.
  "You see there's Sirius, Castor, and Beta Centaurus"
  "Arcturus, and Vega, and more!"
  "Canopus, Rigel, and Achernar"
  "There's Deneb, and Polaris and there's more by far!"
  "Betelgeuse, Altair, and Kaus Borealis"
  "Pollux, Mimosa, Alula Australis"
  "Procyon, Spica, and wait, I'm so sorry"
  "I left out our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri!"
• Literal-Minded: Jet's parents' learning curve is filled with funny misunderstandings of the human ways of things, and both kids and parents will have a lot of fun watching them get the hang of "throwing a salad together" and understanding the "string" part of beans. Their Amelia Bedelia-like follies are good for some laughs, but they also reflect the challenges of immersing yourself in a culture that's different from your own. This exchange from "Tiny Blue Dot" is just one example of many:
  Sean: Ohh, I think I left my stomach on Venus.
  Celery: Ooh, should we go back for it?
• Little Miss Snarker: Mindy is a very young girl who frequently delivers acidic one-liners.
  Sean: (after a ball lands on his head) Do you know why that happened?
  Mindy: Because you can't catch?
• The Load: In "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Zerk proves to be this towards Eggplant. After learning a little bit about the asteroids from Sean and Sydney, Zerk believes that he is now a complete expert on the asteroid belt even though he's really not, and mixes up the directions in the process. This is later subverted, as they did win the race thanks to a device installed in Eggplant's saucer.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Anyone who isn't Sean, Sydney and Mindy, and to a lesser extent Mitchell, is kept unaware of the Propulsions' identities as aliens.
• Loner-Turned-Friend: Mitchell was previously a Shrinking Violet loner with a Jerkass facade, who wanted to join Jet's gang but didn't know how to fit in. However, once he sings with them in the pageant, he gets to belong to the group. Sydney and Mindy reassure him that he can always be a part of whatever the group is doing. So Mitchell is technically now part of Jet's circle of friends.
• Lookalike Lovers: Carrot and Celery look exactly alike.
• Look Behind You: In "Sean's Neptune Tune", Sean distracts Jet and Sydney by saying "Wow! Look, a rare moment when you can see the sun and the moon in the sky at the same time!" so he can run away from them.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Jet's craziness and Sydney's huge imagination have had positive effects on Sean. He is more open to making mistakes, taking chances, and using his imagination as the series goes on. Sometimes, he lampshades this by calling himself "Mr. Adventure".
• Loophole Abuse:
  • At the end of "Solar Power Rover", Jet makes some solar-powered lanterns, and puts them in the background. Celery then comes and tells him it's time to go to bed, since it's getting dark. But because of the lanterns, it will be bright all night.
  • In "A Visit to the Planetarium", Sydney and Sean say that Jet can't say he's from Bortron 7. Jet sings a song at the planetarium and mentions Bortron. However, he never said he was from Bortron 7.
• Lost Toy Grievance: In the episode "Sean's Robotic Arm", Sean loses his prized Neil Armstrong figure in a narrow crevice, and is very upset about it since the toy is very important to him and has accompanied him in his many journeys. The rest of the episode is dedicated to the kids constructing a robotic arm to rescue the Neil figure.
• Lovable Coward: Sean is almost always afraid to go to space, but he usually ends up coming along for the ride anyway, and can be brave if he needs to be.

M

• The Mad Hatter: Jet is a huge Cloudcuckoolander and enjoys every minute of it. He creates odd inventions, sings silly songs, prepares odd dishes, talks in an eccentric English, does strange dances, is perpetually optimistic and upbeat, and adores everyone.
• Make a Wish: In "Bortron Leprechaun", Sydney tells Jet that leprechauns will grant you a wish. Jet wishes that Sunspot was there with him to help him decide on his wish, and his wish gets granted when the leprechaun is revealed to be Sunspot.
• Malaproper: In "Every Day Is Earth Day", Carrot mistakes "toaster" for "poster" and presents a toaster at the DSA celebration, much to Mr. Peterson's annoyance.
• Male Sun, Female Moon: Sunspot (a masculine alien pet) is themed after the sun and his counterpart Moonbeam (a feminine alien pet) is themed after the moon.
• Mama's Boy: Sean, considering how we never see his dad, and how close he is to his mom.
• The Man in the Moon: In "More Than One Moon", Sydney tells the story of the Man in the Moon to Mindy.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Celery likes driving (including racing), fixing things, and has Super-Strength. Meanwhile, Carrot likes cooking, ballet, and fashion. ("Carrot is wearing a cutting-edge woolen scarf. Ooh, all the rage.")
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Near the end of "What Goes Up...", Jet and the gang flip out when Mindy reveals to them that Mitchell is spying on them.
• May I Borrow a Cup of Sugar?: In the episode "Solar-System Bake Off!", Mitchell goes to Jet's house and asks for a cup of sugar, but really, he wants to gather information about his (speculated) crush Mindy's baking contest entry.
• Meadow Run: Parodied in "The Tide is High". When Sunspot encounters his crab friend again, he runs towards him in slow motion, complete with dramatic music. However, the crab just stays where it is and goes in a different direction.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: In "Lone Star", Sean plays a Jerkass shopkeeper who doesn't believe Lone Star. However, Sean wouldn't hurt a fly in real life.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Jet is named after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who helps out with this show.
  • Jet's last name, propulsion, refers to the type of pushing force that allows things to move.
  • Sydney's last name, Skelley, means "storyteller". Which relates to how Sydney is imaginative and likes to tell stories.
  • "Sunspot's Sunspot" reveals that Sunspot gets his name from the sunspots on the sun, as well as the fact that the spot on his tummy looks like a sun.
• The Mentor:
  • Face 9000, who knows everything about science, and often pops up to answer the kids' questions.
  • Dr. Rafferty, Dr. Bergs, and Dr. Skelley are also this.
• Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: In "The Plant From Bortron 7", Sydney assumes that the giant plant has a head, and offers a peaceful solution to the problem by wanting to talk to the plant. But Sean offers a violent solution by wanting to get a big pair of clippers and snip the plant. They keep arguing about it until the plant runs away, most likely because of Sean wanting to snip the plant.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name: In "Total Eclipse of the Sunspot", Jet claims that "Super Smart" is his middle name.
• Midseason Upgrade:
  • In "Face on the Fritz", Face gets an upgrade and a new 3D-ish design.
  • Technically not in the middle of the season, but in the actual season 2 premiere, "Souped-Up Saucer", Celery upgrades the saucer so it has new features, including a robot arm.
• Minimalist Cast: "Treasure Map" has Sean, Sydney, and Mindy deleted from the cast, leaving Jet and Mitchell as the only characters in the episode (besides their pets, Sunspot and Cody).
• Mini-Golf Episode:
  • The season 2 episode "Mini-Golf at the DSA" has the Deep Space Array install a mini-golf course. The kids compete against the adults in the DSA's first mini-golf tournament, and they win by applying their knowledge of force.
  • Mini-golf was also a plot point in "One Small Step", where the kids play golf on the moon, and is the reason why Jet and Sunspot went missing in the first place, because they were building the course.
• Missing Mom:
  • Mitchell's mom has never been seen, though his dad is always shown.
  • Mitchell's mom was actually heard talking to Mitchell in "Mindy's Moon Bounce House", but wasn't seen. And she was mentioned in "Detective Mindy".
• Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: A common theme is that nobody's perfect and it's fine to make mistakes. Sean starts out as a perfectionist who gets frustrated when he makes mistakes but grows more accustomed to failing over time. Jet has a song about failure being acceptable called "If You Try and You Make a Mess, Who Cares if it's Not a Success?".
• Mobile Shrubbery: Mitchell often hides inside an object and moves around while spying on the main cast. For example, he hides inside a present in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", and he hides inside a bush in "Jet Shrinks the Kids".
• Moe Couplet:
  • Jet and Sean bring out the best in each other whenever they work together. Jet's excitable nature highlights Sean's hard-work ethic.
  • Mindy and Mitchell - Mitchell brings out Mindy's confidence and leadership, and Mindy brings out Mitchell's kindness.
• Mondegreen Gag:
  • Jet mishears "habitable" as "habit-a-bubble" in "Every Day Is Earth Day".
  • In "Diggin' Earth", due to crackling static, Carrot and Celery believe that their boss told them to go to the center of Jupiter. He was actually telling them to go to an Earth mall shopping center to buy a juicer. A gift for his wife on her birthday.
• Monkey Morality Pose: In "Mini-Golf at the DSA", Sunspot helps Mindy putt the golf ball into the tenth and final hole — the rocket ship. The ball ricochets all over the place. Jet, Sean, and Sydney, all on edge, do the famous pose — Sean is see no evil, Jet is speak no evil, and Sydney is hear no evil.
• Mood Whiplash: In "Holidays In Boxwood Terrace", Mitchell tearfully watches as the kids rehearse their play and wishes he could join them, but then Sunspot eats his popcorn comically in front of Mitchell, contrasting sadness with comedy.
• Moonburn: In "Night of a Bazillion Stars", Sean packs a lot of stuff for the sleepover, including 'moonblock'.
  Mindy: Why did you bring so much stuff?
  Sean: My mom made me bring all these things. I have flashlights, two coats, sunblock, bugblock, moonblock.
  Sydney: Wait, moonblock?!?
  Sean: My dad says you can't be too safe.
• Moon Rabbit: In "Moon Face", Mindy sees a face on the moon. This prompts Sydney to briefly mention the old Chinese legend about a moon rabbit.
• Morality Pet:
  • A literal example; despite his coldness, Mitchell genuinely loves his dog Cody, and becomes extremely worried whenever he goes missing, such as in "Sunspot's Night Out" and "You Can Call Me Albedo".
    • Mitchell clearly loves his mother, and cares about her enough to make a whole detective case out of looking for her missing sunglasses in "Detective Mindy".
    • Mindy later becomes one for Mitchell, because she's the very first character to extend a hand in kindness to Mitchell.
• Motor Mouth: Jet just loves to talk. He has enough breath in him to recite all the neighborhood stars and most of the moons of Jupiter.
• The Movie:
  • In August of 2017, the show premiered its own TV Movie entitled "Ready Jet Go!: Back to Bortron 7", as part of the PBS Kids "Summer Adventure" initiative in order to bridge the summer learning gap. The special focuses on the Propulsions needing to go back to their home planet in order to do a presentation of everything that they've learned. Sean and Sydney's parents are out of town, so Sean and Sydney get to stay with the Propulsions, and of course, go to Bortron 7 with them.
  • In June of 2019, the show premiered another TV Movie entitled "One Small Step". Jet builds a super saucer and takes the kids to the Moon for a slumber party celebrating the Apollo 11 mission. However, the saucer has a rough landing, and Jet and Sunspot go missing. Sydney and Jet 2 stay behind to work on the saucer, and Sean and Mindy look for Jet and Sunspot, while Sean teaches Mindy all about the Apollo 11 mission.
• Ms. Imagination: Sydney loves to use her imagination in science and sometimes leads the gang in Imagine Spots.
• Mr. Fixit:
  • Jet is pretty handy with tools, as he was able to fix the satellite in "What's a Satellite?".
  • Sydney is a Ms. Fixit. She was able to fix the saucer in "One Small Step", with the help of Jet 2, of course.
• Mrs. Claus: In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Jet, who is playing Santa, casts Sydney as Mrs. Claus in the Christmas pageant. During said pageant, Mrs. Claus accompanies Santa in delivering toys.
• Multi-Part Episode: Several:
  • "Sunday Drive", where everything goes out of whack after the Propulsions download the new version of the saucer dashboard software.
  • "Jet's First Halloween", the Halloween Episode.
  • "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", the Christmas Episode-Musical Episode-Wham Episode epic combo.
  • "Mindy Turns Five", where Mindy finally gets to go to space.
  • "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", the second Halloween Episode, this time with Jet growing a huge pumpkin and entering it in the local contest, and Mindy and Lillian trying to convince Mitchell that Halloween is magical.
  • "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", where Ellen Ochoa, the director of the Johnson Space Center, visits Boxwood Terrace.
• Multiple Demographic Appeal: The show is designed to appeal to both kids and adults, and it has gained a teen/adult fanbase thanks to the entertaining manner in which it conveys science facts, as well as clever writing, strong characterization, and catchy songs.
• Mundane Made Awesome: As shown in the beginning of "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Jet somehow came up with a convoluted yet awesome way to make lemons into lemonade.
• Mundane Object Amazement: Jet is constantly fascinated by the most simple of Earth objects, such as drinking fountains.
• Musical Episode:
  • The episode "Tiny Blue Dot", which puts a lot of emphasis on the 3 original songs.
  • The episode "Lone Star" is a Western-flavored musical.
  • "Back to Bortron 7", despite not being marketed as such, turned out to be a musical, with a whopping eight songs.
  • "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" too, justified as its about the kids putting on a Christmas pageant.
  • "Potatoes on Mars", which features rock-inspired songs.
• Musicalis Interruptus:
  • In "Which Moon is Best?", Jet interrupts Carrot and Celery's duet.
  • In "Zerk Visits Earth" and "Water, Water Everywhere", Sean starts to sing "Tiny Blue Dot", but is interrupted.
• Musical World Hypotheses: Fits into the Alternate Universe hypothesis. Singing songs out of nowhere is completely normal.
• Must Have Caffeine: Dr. Bergs. He is almost never seen without a cup of coffee in his hand. It even gets lampshaded in "Comet Fever".
  Sean: You have enough coffee for an army.
  Dr. Bergs: An army of one, my friend. An army of one.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg:
  • In "Commander Cressida Begins", after Mindy and Sydney ask Celery to take them to space, Celery exclaims "Girls trip!". After Sunspot gets annoyed, Celery changes it to "Girls and Sunspot trip!"
  • In "Freebird", the snow geese are collectively referred to as "The Hanks and Cynthia".
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", Celery describes Zerk as not being a typical Bortronian and she is absolutely right. Whereas most Bortronians are sweet and like to compete for fun, Zerk (at least in that episode) is a Competition Freak and constantly annoys his cousin. He's even somewhat racist to Sean and Sydney.
• Mystery Episode:
  • In "Mindy's Mystery", Mindy is kept up at night by a mysterious sweet smell, and the gang has to find the source of it. It was moonflowers.
  • In "Detective Mindy", Mitchell (who himself is a Kid Detective) has to find his mother's sunglasses after they go missing. Mindy helps him out. The Red Herring of the episode is a black hole, which Mitchell believes actually sucked up the sunglasses. The sunglasses were sucked up by the vacuum cleaner, so close enough.

N

• Named After Their Planet: The Bortronians are named after Bortron.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: This is how Jet introduces himself to Dr. Bergs in "Visit to Mom's Office".
  Jet: Propulsion, Jet Propulsion. How d'ya do, sir?
• The Napoleon: Mitchell, who is little but has huge temper problems, and is an Attention Whore at times.
• Nice Guy: The PBS Parents website has confirmed that all Bortronians are perpetually cheerful and friendly.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Moon Circus", when Jet blabs out loud that they're planning a surprise party for Carrot, unaware that Carrot is listening. Carrot also gets a moment of this when he says out loud that they're planning a surprise party for him.
• Nice Mean And In Between: The trio of younger kids (Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian) fit into this:
  • Lillian is Nice. She is one of the most kind-hearted characters in the show, and is gentle and innocent.
  • Mitchell is Mean. He snarks a lot, and has a big ego. He does have a good side, though.
  • Mindy is In-Between. She is friendly, but isn't above being a Deadpan Snarker from time to time.
• Nerd Glasses: Mitchell has these glasses.
• Nervous Wreck:
  • Sean tends to be pretty anxious almost all the time, especially when it comes to space travel.
  • In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", while all the DSA scientists are nervous about Ellen's visit, Dr. Bergs certainly takes the cake. He tries to drink coffee to compensate for it but is only made more hyper. This isn't helped when his Ellen mug gets shattered.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: Played with. The adult women in this show seem to all have successful jobs, especially Dr. Rafferty.
• Never Bareheaded: Mindy and Mitchell are never seen without hats on. They even wore hats as part of their Halloween costumes in "Jet's First Halloween", and Mindy even wears a hat when she goes to sleep.
• Never My Fault: In "Racing on Sunshine", the kids have to design solar-powered karts for the annual kid-kart derby. During the race, it gets cloudy. Jet and Sydney have batteries installed in their kid-karts so they can use the sun's energy later, but three-time champion Mitchell got too overconfident in winning the race, and did not think to use the battery. He ends up coming in at 3rd place, and he blames the clouds blocking the sun instead of his own carelessness.
• Never Say "Die": In "How We Found Your Sun", Sydney tells the story of Icarus to Sean, but instead of saying that he died, she just says he "fell to Earth".
• Never Trust a Title: You would think that the episode "Asteroid Patrol" would be about the kids trying to look for asteroids from the treehouse. In the episode, Sean does set up an asteroid watch station in the treehouse, and gets the rest of the group involved, but most of the episode revolves around Jet trying to fix Sean's telescope.
• Night and Day Duo: The alien pets Sunspot and Moonbeam are associated with the sun and moon through their names and colors (Sunspot is orange, black, and white; Moonbeam is purplish-blue and white.)
• No Antagonist: Even though Mitchell always spies on the group, he is not really an antagonist.
• No Biological Sex: According to Craig Bartlett, the Bortronians are neither male nor female. Despite this, they use pronouns like he/him or she/her for convenience's sake. The only indication given in the series that Bortronians don't really have gender is when Jet calls Carrot and Celery "Parent 1 and 2" instead of "mom and dad" in "Jet Cooks Dinner", showing that he's attempting to adapt to Earth's gendered terms.
• No Communities Were Harmed: Boxwood Terrace, Washington is inspired in name by Mountlake Terrace. According to Craig Bartlett, the town is north of Seattle and south of Vancouver, BC, just off Interstate 5.
• No Ending: "The Plant From Bortron 7" ends with Mindy announcing that she has planted more seeds. Then, more giant plants emerge, and the kids scream in terror. That's it. That's the ending.
• No Flow in CGI: This show plays with this trope. In the earlier episodes of the show, the characters had blocks for hair and skin-tight clothing due to the low-quality CGI. However, in the later episodes (starting with "Solar System Bake-Off!"), the characters have a better flow. For example: Mindy's pigtails move and bounce freely even with the slightest movements of her head in the latest episodes.
• No Gravity for You: Towards the end of "Asteroid Belt Space Race", Eggplant uses her anti-gravity fluxinators to steal gravity from the other saucers, rendering them just stuck there.
• Noodle Incident:
  • In "My Fair Jet", Jet rhetorically asks if he's ever made a mistake. Sunspot then shows him some pictures of mistakes he's made in the past on his tablet. The giant runaway plant from "The Plant from Bortron 7" was brought up, but two other incidents (a "porcupine jumping contest" and a "maple syrup catapult") were brought up. Jet, at the very least, seems embarrassed by those incidents, and we have yet to learn exactly what went down in those events.
  • In "Treasure Map", Jet recalls an incident where Carrot got his head stuck in a vacuum.
• Noodle People: While all the other characters have realistic body proportions, Jet and Zerk are both very thin. However, this is justified due to them being aliens.
• Non-Human Non-Binary: The Bortronians are neither male nor female, so they're all technically non-binary, even though a lot of them present as either masculine or feminine. Jet himself swings both ways, and him not giving a crap about gender is one major reason why.
• Non-Standard Character Design: As opposed to the huge, shiny, semi-circle eyes that most of the characters have, Mr. Peterson has tiny eyes. It makes him stick out like a sore thumb amongst the cast.
• No Social Skills:
  • Mitchell in the episode "Solar System Bake-off!" When he spies on the gang in order to gather information, he acts awkward and almost robotic around them, especially around Mindy. Before he entered the house, he was even thinking of what he should say to them.
  • He also acts especially shy when Mindy compliments his rocket cake.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Averted, in "Mindy Turns Five", she obviously turns five and is allowed to go to space.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The show's dynamic was changed forever in the season 2 episode "Mindy Turns Five", where, you guessed it, Mindy turns five years old and is now allowed to go past Jet's yard by herself. In other words, Mindy is now allowed to go to space with the older kids.
• Not So Above It All:
  • Sean becomes more excited about going into space with the others in more recent episodes, despite him wanting to go the space the traditional way.
  • Mitchell acts like he is a better detective than Jet and his friends, but he still attends Mindy's concert at the end of Mindy's Mystery.
• Not-So-Innocent Whistle: In "Detective Mindy", Mr. Peterson finds his wife's sunglasses, only for them to be broken. He almost goes to the mall to get another pair to replace them (even though he doesn't like shopping), but Sunspot gives Celery's sunglasses to Mr. Peterson instead. Seconds later, Celery asks if anyone has seen her sunglasses, and Sunspot starts whistling.
• Not Quite Starring: Ellen Ochoa is featured in "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", but she doesn't voice herself. Instead, she is voiced by Kathleen Barr.
• Not Where They Thought: In "Sunday Drive", Jet, Celery, and Carrot go to a desert and mistake it for Mars. They get suspicious once they see a lizard and plants in the area, and Jet realizes it's Earth when he notices that the air is still breathable.
• Novelization: There exist book versions of episodes from the show aimed at young readers, such as "Sunspot's Night Out" and "From Pluto With Love".
• Numbered Homeworld: Bortron 7 is one of many Bortrons.
• Numerological Motif:
  • Jet is 63 years old in Bortronian years. 63 is a number that represents humanitarianism, family, and idealism. It is a number of harmony and tolerance. This fits Jet because he loves his family very much, and is optimistic, compassionate, and accepting of differences.
  • 7 is a significant number for Bortron 7. In the Bible, 7 is the number of completeness and perfection (both physical and spiritual). It derives much of its meaning from being tied directly to God's creation of all things. The number 7 is also important in Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. This fits with how Bortron 7 is the ideal planet in the Bortron system.

O

• Obsessed with Food: Jet, in addition to being a Big Eater, seems to always have food on his mind. In fact, in "Bortron Leprechaun", he even contemplated wishing for all the marshmallows in the world.
• Odd Friendship: Sean and Sydney are complete opposites: Sean is crazy about science facts and dreams of one day leading the first human mission to Mars, but is afraid of cramped spaces and likes everything to be his way. Sydney is obsessed with science fiction and dreams of one day being a great science-fiction author, and she is totally okay with being in space and with changes. They are also best friends with a little girl named Mindy, who knows nothing about science, yet is curious about everything. They all befriend Jet, who turns out to be a space alien, and completely changes all of the kids' lives.
• Odd Name Out:
  • Jet and Zerk are the only members of their family to not have a vegetable name.
  • In "Freebird", all of the snow geese are named Hank, except for Cynthia. Mindy insists that they can't all be named Hank.
• Official Fan-Submitted Content: An In-Universe example in "Commander Cressida Story Contest". The prize for winning the titular story contest is to have your story in an official Commander Cressida comic.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Many times, usually by Sydney and Sean whenever Jet does something stupid or is about to expose his alien identity.
  • Sean screams in terror every time he is taken to space.
  • This is Mindy's reaction when the house hologram completely disappears in "Back to Bortron 7".
• Older Than They Look: Jet looks like a tween, but "Earthday Birthday" reveals that he's really 63 (Bortronian) years old.
• The One Guy: Mitchell is the only male in his friendship group with Mindy and Lillian.
• One Head Taller: Mitchell is roughly a head taller than Mindy, and he possibly has a crush on her.
• One-Liner, Name... One-Liner:
  • When Sean comments on Bergs' coffee consumption in "Comet Fever".
  Sean: You have enough coffee for an army.
  Dr. Bergs: An army of one, my friend. An army of one.
  • When Sean is excited to lead a human mission to Mars in the future in "Ain't No Mars Mountain High Enough"
  Jet: Dream big, Sean-zo. Dream big.
  • When Jet and Carrot talk about Sunspot in "The Grandest Canyon".
  Carrot: You ever get the feeling there's something he's not telling us?
  Jet: All the time, dad, all the time.
• One of the Kids: In "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", Ellen hangs out with Jet, Sean, Sydney, and Mindy, and genuinely enjoys it. She even ends up playing with them.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with Amy Mainzer (host of the interstitial segments in between episodes) and Amy Skelley (DSA scientist/Sydney's mother).
• Only Sane Man:
  • Sean and/or Sydney usually have this role. Sean has this role when the other kids are jumping to logically impossible conclusions and deliberately making mistakes, and Sydney is this when the kids are making dumb decisions and Sean is being Out of Character.
  • Mindy fills this role toward Mitchell, as she's the only one of Jet's friendship circle who knows he is out to expose him as an alien.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • In "Not a Sound", Sydney, Sunspot, Jet, and Celery are taken aback when Sean says he wants to go to space.
  • In "Sunspot's Sunspot", while the kids are concerned about Sunspot's weird behavior, what really shocks them is when Sunspot refuses to eat a hoagie.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: Many examples. Bergs wears an orange shirt and blue jeans, and his orange shirt also contrasts with Dr. Rafferty's blue shirt. Sunspot's orange fur contrasts with Moonbeam's blue fur. And Mindy wears an orange shirt and blue denim shorts.
• Orbital Shot:
  • Used on Jet during the "Lone Star" song in the episode of the same name.
  • Used on Mitchell when he sings "The Spirit of Christmas" in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace".
  • Used on Zerk when he looks at the view from the treehouse in "Zerk Visits Earth".
• Origins Episode:
  • The beginning of "How We Found Your Sun" reveals how the Propulsion family found Earth.
    Well, my mom and dad are, um, how would you say— they write true stories about traveling and exploring around the galaxy. And we were flying across this part of the galaxy, looking for nice, life-friendly planets to visit and write more stories about. And way out in the middle of nowhere, we picked up this primitive radio signal from Earth that had been traveling across space, so we figured you'd still be here. It was a song... and a catchy one! We knew that whoever was out there at the other end of the signal would be life-friendly and have a good sense of rhythm. So we followed the radio signal. That's how we found your star, the Sun!
  • In a way, "Commander Cressida Begins" acts as one for the In-Universe fictional character. Sydney and Mindy read the first-ever issue of the comics, where they see how Cressida used to be a farm girl in Indiana and how she built a rocket and became a commander.
• Out of Character: Sunspot doesn't act like his usual self throughout "Sunspot's Sunspot". This is justified though, as Sunspot acts strangely whenever there's a huge sunspot on the sun.
• Out-of-Character Alert: In "Date Night", Sean helps recreate Celery and Carrot's anniversary by going with the others to Saturn's moon Mimas. Something that surprised Jet's parents since they know Sean's always reluctant to go into space.
• Out of Focus: "Commander Cressida Begins" has Jet, the main character of the show, reduced to a non-speaking cameo, making it the smallest role he has ever had in an episode.
• Overly Long Name: In "Moon Circus", when the gang plans to take the circus to the moon, they come up with a bunch of overly long codenames for the mission, such as "Codename Less Gravity On The Moon For A Secret Surprise Party For Carrot." They eventually decide on a simple name: Moon Circus.
• Overly-Long Tongue: "Sunspot's Sunspot" shows that Sunspot's tongue is very long.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: In the episode "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Jet calls Mitchell "the best detective he knows". Mitchell is the only detective Jet knows, and Jet even lampshades it.

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• Palette Swap:
  • Moonbeam is a light blue version of Sunspot.
  • Carrot and Celery's boss from "Back to Bortron 7" is just a huge green Sunspot, but with a mustache obscuring his mouth.
  • Face 9001 is an orange recolor of Face 9000.
• Palette-Swapped Alien Food: A part of the classic three-part Bortronian meal, the hoagie, basically resembles a submarine sandwich except the bread is red.
• "Pan from the Sky" Beginning: Almost every episode begins with a brief shot of the sky before the camera pans down to whatever the characters are doing. This is fitting, considering that the premise is about Jet and the gang going to space.
• Parental Bonus:
  • In "Mindy's Mystery", when the kids are interviewing Carrot about the mystery smell, it comes off as if they are investigating for possession of illegal substances. Complete with the funny looks they give him as they leave, and the fact that Carrot was apparently cooking up a "sweet sauce".
  • In "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", Jet tells the others to "walk this way". Then, music plays that sounds similar to the Aerosmith song, but at a lower pitch. Not many kids would get that reference.
• Pass the Popcorn: In "Sean's Year in Space", Sunspot briefly eats popcorn while seeing how long Sean can last in the treehouse.
• Pen Pals: In "Mindy's Bedtime", it is revealed that Sydney has an Indian pen pal named Ahana. Since it is night in India and when it is day in Boxwood Terrace and vice versa, Sydney and Ahana email each other.
• The Perfectionist: Sean. He always wants to do things by the Scientific Method, and gets frustrated when mistakes are made.
• Performance Anxiety: Sean gets this in the second half in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" when he's about to sing his song about the Spirit of Christmas, and he realizes that everyone is looking at him.
• Pet the Dog: Mitchell isn't exactly the nicest character on the show, but the episode "Detective Mindy" shows that he can be nice. He is nicer towards Sean, Sydney, Jet, and especially Mindy in that episode, and forms some sort of bond with Mindy after they solve the mystery of the missing sunglasses.
• Phenotype Stereotype: Mindy is Latina and she has brown skin, although animation inconsistencies can make it appear lighter than it probably should be.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: A Christmas promo for PBS Kids included some clips of "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace". Sean wears a blue jacket and Sydney wears a pink jacket.
• Pink Means Feminine:
  • Mindy's friend Lillian wears a big pink bow on her head, and she is a big Girly Girl.
  • Eggplant has a pink saucer in "Asteroid Belt Space Race" and she is fairly feminine.
• Pirate Episode: In "Treasure Map", Jet learns about pirates after Mitchell tells him about Treasure Island. Since Mitchell himself is looking for buried treasure, Jet decides to make a treasure chest and map to make him happy. Jet even dons a pirate hat towards the end.
• Pirate Girl: Lillian dresses up as one in "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!".
• Planet of Steves: In "Freebird", all of the snow-geese are named Hank, with the exception of Cynthia.
• Playing Sick: In "Mindy Pet-Sits", Sean, Jet, Sydney, and Carrot fly out to space in order to look for the Northern Lights. Since Mindy is too young, she cannot go, and she is sad that she cannot go to see the Northern Lights. Sunspot, feeling sorry for her, fakes an injury so he gets to stay with Mindy, and make Mindy her own Northern Lights show in the backyard. All of the other characters are aware of this.
• Pluto Is Expendable:
  • The show didn't mention Pluto at all until an In-Universe moment of Anachronism Stew happens during "A Visit to the Planetarium" in which Pluto is still listed as a planet in the planetarium show. The controversy surrounding Pluto does get touched upon briefly when Sydney points out that the film was made before Pluto's demotion.
  • They had an entire episode where the kids debate whether Pluto is a planet or not.
• Pocket Dial: This trope is referenced in "Sunspot's Night Out", where Face 9000 appears out of nowhere, and Jet wonders if he pocket-dialed him.
• The Pollyanna: Jet. You can't get him down, and he always finds a solution for the problems the kids face.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • In "Mindy's Weather Report", Mindy, Sean, and Sydney try to tell Jet that there's a storm on Saturn, not in Boxwood Terrace. Jet keeps interrupting them, leads the entire neighborhood into believing that a storm is coming, and encourages them to prepare for nothing. It's only when Celery takes the kids to space that he realizes that the storm is not on Earth.
  • In "Detective Mindy", Mr. Peterson compares the kitchen counter (where his wife's sunglasses went missing) to a black hole. Mitchell doesn't ask his dad what he means by that, and thinks the kitchen counter is really a black hole, which drives the plot of the episode.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: A lot of the episode titles, especially those in Season 2, are references to vintage popular culture. Just some of them are "My Fair Jet", "From Pluto With Love", "Magnet, PI", "Pet Sounds", etc.
• Portmanteau:
  • In "Back to Bortron 7", when the group is leaving Bortron 7, there are tons of TV screens that feature Sean saying "Booyah, science!" during his interview after the group successfully convinced Carrot and Celery's boss to let them stay on Earth for another season. Sean's response......coolsome (a portmanteau of "cool" and "awesome")
  • "Coolsome" was also used egregiously in "Mindy in Space".
• Positive Friend Influence: Jet is a positive influence on everyone he meets and befriends throughout the course of the show. He helps Sean be more open to making mistakes, encourages Sydney to think outside the box, strengthens Mindy's leadership skills, helps Mitchell come out of his shell, and inspires a sense of wonder and childlike joy in the DSA scientists.
• Post-Stress Overeating: Sean eats when he's stressed. In "Whole Lotta Shakin'", he offhandedly comments that he wants to eat macaroni and clarifies that he eats a lot when he's nervous. And considering he's a Nervous Wreck all the time, this provides an explanation for his overweight figure.
• Power Glows: Due to the sun's effects on him, Sunspot's tummy glows throughout "Sunspot's Sunspot".
• The Power of Friendship: The series demonstrates time and time again that friends are one's greatest strength. In "Sounds Abound", Sean tries to conduct his sound experiment alone, but learns that teamwork is vital to science research. In addition, part of the reason why the Propulsions stay on Earth is that Jet has a strong friendship with Sean, Sydney, and Mindy. They work hard to keep Jet's alien identity a secret because they don't want to lose him. Mitchell wants to have friends, but has No Social Skills and keeps rejecting those around him. The only times Mitchell is successful with his detective work was when the others helped him, like in "Detective Mindy". They assure him that they're his friend and he can always be a part of whatever they are doing.
• Power Outage Plot: In "Jet Can't Sleep", the electricity goes out in the Propulsion house because of a thunderstorm. Luckily, they have their emergency Bortronian lights (which don't use earth energy). The rest of the episode is dedicated to the family learning about thunderstorms and trying to get Jet to sleep.
• Power Trio:
  • Jet, Sydney, and Sean.
  • Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian.
• Precocious Crush:
  • It's really easy to think that Jet has a crush on Sean's mom as of "Visit to Mom's Office". When he first sees her, he immediately gives her a big hug (Sean's mom looks surprised, Sean looks annoyed, and Sydney looks sad, since she has frequent ship tease with Jet and possibly likes him), and even calls her "Dr. Sean's Mom" even though he knows that their last name is Rafferty. He is later seen smiling widely at her and raising his eyebrows trying to catch her attention, which also made Sydney upset. To top it off, he seemed all too excited to tell her that he is from Bortron 7. This crush can also be seen in other episodes. In "Ice Moon Enceladus", when Dr. Rafferty is passing by Sean's snow cone stand, Jet immediately greets her, even though she ignores him, and in "Mindy's Meteorite Stand", when Dr. Rafferty was inspecting Mindy's "meteorite", Jet also looked through a magnifying glass to impress her.
  • In "Asteroid Patrol", Sean's telescope needs adjusting and Jet happily offers to go to Sean's house to get some items. Of course, when he sees Sean's mom, he acts awkward around her.
  • In "Face on the Fritz", Jet takes a selfie with Dr. Rafferty's phone and then gives it back to her in embarrassment.
  • However, in later episodes, the crush is no longer apparent.
• Pride: In "Racing on Sunshine", Mitchell, the three-time kid kart derby champion, rejects help from Jet because he is sure that he will win. His overconfidence causes him to not think and forget to install a battery in his solar-powered kid-kart, and he ends up losing the derby because of it.
• Primal Fear: Sean is afraid of heights and being in tight spaces.
• Production Throwback: The show uses a lot of Hey Arnold! stings and sound effects. In fact, one recurring character, Lillian, resembles a character seen in one of Craig Bartlett's claymation shorts he made for Sesame Street.
• Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: A variant occurs in "Magnet, PI"; Sean attempts to pull Sunspot out of a box as part of his magic show.
• Pun:
  • Face 9000 makes one in "Mindy's Meteorite Stand":
  "And Sean's right, the proper tests will help you discover if your rock is meteorite or meteor-wrong!"
  • He makes another one in "Eye in the Sky":
  "I couldn't tell weather or not you needed my help!"
  • Mindy makes one in "You Can Call Me Albedo" after having just learned what albedo is.
  "Albedo right there!"
  • In "Our Sun Is A Star!", when Jet lifts his sunglasses up and down so it appears that Mitchell is turning orange and then back to his normal color, he says this: "Orange you glad you're not permanently orange?".
• Pun-Based Title: Ready Jet Go! is a pun on the phrase "ready, set, go". The main character is named Jet.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Jet being bummed out over having to test out the hover-scooters.
  Jet: Worst. Chore. Ever.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Jet and Sunspot make these eyes at Sean and Sydney in "A Visit to the Planetarium" in order to convince them to let them go the planetarium show.
• Pushed in Front of the Audience: In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Sean gets Performance Anxiety, and Mitchell just happens to be singing Sean's song backstage. So, Jet pushes Mitchell in front of the audience, and pulls Sean offstage.