It is the start of a new school term in the Koopa Kingdom, and Carl must attend high school for the first time.
Hey, tropes! Wake up; it's time for school!
Both versions
- First Day of School Episode: The first episode of the series is about Carl's first day at school.
- Filching Food for Fun: In the Classic version, Gooper steals Carl's potato chips at lunch and crushes them after he tries to stand up to him. He takes Carl's sandwich from his backpack and eats it in the 2022 Remaster.
- Kick the Dog: Gooper and his gang constantly target and harass Carl and his friends in this episode.
The Classic version only ("Time to get up, lazy-ass tropes!")
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Many elements are entirely different compared to today's episodes of Carl:
- Liam's hair is partially dyed blonde instead of green. In addition, Liam refuses to hit Grace out of fear that it would be seen as a sexist act, whereas in later episodes of the series he has no problem with hitting girls.
- Mary-Lynn's hair is completely black instead of being partially dyed purple. She also lacks her signature "ML" necklace. The remastered version keeps her hair entirely black, but does give her the necklace.
- Carl's imaginary death scene references his constant deaths from FreezeFlame22's 2013 series, The Koopa Kids. This would go on for the first few episodes of season 1 before being dropped abruptly. Tellingly, it isn't present in the remastered version.
- Logan attends Toad Town High with the other teenage characters and is in the same grade as Liam. Later episodes explicitly state that he dropped out of high school, however.
- Notice how no one in Gooper's gang tells Flaig to shut up?
- Roxanne doesn't appear in this episode, and Kylie is just a background character with no lines. The remastered version addresses this issue and has both of them making their debut alongside Grace and Talia.
- Calvin is more akin to a Wicked Stepfather in this episode, being verbally abusive towards Carl and jumping at him for the slightest mistakes. He also makes out with and suggestively touches Linda in front of their children, which is completely inappropriate even if Linda consented to it. This is all absent in the remaster, where Calvin is more accurately portrayed as a strict, yet caring parental-figure.
- Principal Steelix is portrayed as a no-nonsense and corrupt principal who is heavily concerned with the school maintaining a good reputation, which is a far cry from the bumbling, incompetent (and very controversial) Steelix that is seen in later episodes of the series.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Liam tells Gooper that they shouldn't hurt Grace, as it would be a sexist act.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Carl initially couldn't join his friends in going to Goomburger with them. However, after he receives a text from Calvin stating that he needs to go home after being sent to the principal's office, Carl decides to go against Calvin's warning and ventures to Goomburger instead.
The Remastered version only ("This trope tastes like ass!")
- Cat Up a Tree: Dry Bones claims that he broke his motorcycle whilst trying to rescue a kitten from a tree, but given the amount of bogus that comes out of his mouth, Carl averts this claim because he knows Dry Bones doesn't own a motorcycle.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Flaig getting told to shut up can be seen as a group of bullies who don't like a particular person in their gang because they are the opposite of the others.
- Rage Breaking Point: Gooper throwing pencils at Carl three times causes the latter to try and throw a calculator at him, but he misses and hits Mary-Lynn instead.
- Establishing Character Moment: Quite a lot, actually:
- Calvin tells Carl to wake up and get ready for school and even threatens to drag him out of bed if he refuses to listen to him, establishing his strictness.
- Carl makes sarcastic comments towards Calvin and Linda as he feels uncertain about adapting to a high school environment.
- Logan is a high school dropout, dishing out snarky comments towards Calvin and cussing around his sisters.
- Carrie and Sally are polar opposite twins, where one isn't too bright, and the other is overbearingly rude.
- Gooper and his gang members constantly target and harass Carl, which they have done since middle school. They pick on weak and insecure people like him.
- Grace not knowing where to go for homeroom shows how much of a dork she can sometimes be.
- Talia starts as a shy girl before she becomes gradually social towards people.
- Roxanne is knowledgeable, popular and attractive, given how she was in three relationships in the past and is somewhat stuck-up because of her wealthy background.
- Kylie goes on her cell phone and gives sarcastic comments.
- Dry Bones tells Blatant Lies about his supposedly affluent background to his friends.
- Blooper reads a book and plays video games in his spare time.
- Boo forgets Carl's soda mishap that Gooper was responsible for and falls for Dry Bone's stories.
- Miss Bishop calls Grace out for arriving precisely two minutes late to homeroom and introduces herself to all the students in her homeroom in a relatively apathetic way.
- Gordy calls Carl a loser and is rude to him when all Carl did was ask if the seat next to Gordy was taken. Goes to show how much of a horrible person Gordy can be.
- Mary-Lynn discusses stories with Ruby, Rain, Gooper and his friends about the guys she dated before she tells Dry Bones to leave her alone.
- Mr Morris often complains about his job and gets angry over minor things, whether someone is making a joke or annoying him. In addition, Roberto not missing an opportunity to mock Mr. Morris, clearly enjoying when he gets angry.
- Principal Steelix plays video games while he is supposed to be doing his job.
- Food Slap: Gooper envelopes watermelon soda all over Carl in the act of Revenge for throwing a calculator at Mary-Lynn, causing the entire student body (sans Talia and Grace) to laugh at him.
- Remember the New Guy?:
- Roxanne doesn't appear in the Classic episode and Kylie is just a background character with no lines. The Remastered episode addresses this issue and has them both debut there.
- Bob doesn't appear in the remastered version of this episode.
- Screw The Ringleader, We're Not Getting In Trouble!: Not wanting to get in serious trouble with Principal Steelix, Liam, Flaig, and Gooper's grunts flee the scene after Gooper throws a rock at Principal Steelix's eyeball. Doubles as Everyone Has Standards.
