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#-A
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Most non-human motion tends to involve CGI, especially moving cars.
- Aborted Arc: Whatever the deal was with the Piranha-Goat in "Dead Justice".
- Absurdly Cool City: Think Crystal Cove being like Salem, Massachusetts (prior to the change at the end of the series causing the town tagline being from "The Most Hauntedest Place on Earth" to "The Sunniest Place on Earth"), but on steroids! Horror themed shops, restaurants, and museums; along with stadiums and concert halls, with one that resembles the former Goth/Club Kid venue, Limelight NYC that hosts the band the Hex Girls.
- Achilles in His Tent: Episode 26: When Fred realizes that his whole life has been a lie, he leaves town and declares Mystery Incorporated to be dead. Good thing for him and the gang that Mr E. has Scooby pegged; once he works out his issues, the title character will speed along the process of getting things back to normal.
- Actor Allusion:
- Casey Kasem, the previous voice of Shaggy, provides the voice of his father, Colton Rogers.
- Matthew Lillard, who played Shaggy in the live action theatrical films, voices Shaggy starting with this series, replacing Casey Kasem.
- James Marsters playing an American character who uses a British accent.
- Clancy Brown once again voices the supernatural villain of a series, who has been manipulating the evil genius big bad to follow his will.
- This isn't the first time Patrick Warburton has played a lawman or a character with the last name Stone.
- In Episode 4, David Faustino plays a down-on-his-luck guy named Bud. Huh, where have we seen that one before?
- The mother of Velma's Stalker with a Crush Jason is played by Jessica Walter, who played one herself in Play Misty for Me.
- In episode 18, James Hong's character takes on the guise of a powerful Chinese wizard.
- Of course, the H. P. Lovecraft Expy is played by Jeffrey Combs.
- In the episode "Pawn of Shadows" his hairstyle changes to resemble that of Milton Dammers, the character Combs played in The Frighteners.
- From "The Night the Clown Cried", Crybaby Clown is voiced by Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), who has much experience with voicing clowns.
- Crybaby Clown also seems like an allusion to Hamill's role as Macendale/Hobgoblin on Spider-Man: The Animated Series, since the villain is more practical-minded than Joker, and both are shallow pretty-boys who romance the local rich girl who is fed up with her distracted ex/potential beau and turn to destructive crime waves in the name of money/fame. Both Daphne and Felicia Hardy are made to feel like fools when their date is unmasked.
- His alter-ego is voiced by his father, Matt Lanter.
- Early on in season two, Velma seems to have become pretty good friends with Hot Dog Water. It probably doesn't hurt Hot Dog Water's voice actress Linda Cardellini has a bit of a past relationship with Velma...
- Ricky Owens's teenage voice actor was Scott Menville who played Shaggy in Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!.
- Horatio Kharon, the dancing man in Scooby's dreams, is played by Michael J. Anderson, who played "The Man From Another Place" in another show that takes place in a small town. The characters are also rather functional and similar in design and role, down to looking almost exactly like the actor.
- In Episode 12, Harlan Ellison spouts out a paragraph about the monster, full of "f" words (but not the F Word).
- Tim Matheson is basically voicing an adult version of Jonny Quest, to the point where the character in season two is radically redesigned from his teenage self to resemble Jonny.
- Gary Cole playing Fred's adopted father isn't the first time he's taken a job from Tim Matheson. He also became Vice President in The West Wing after Matheson's character John Hoynes had to resign in disgrace.
- In The Brady Bunch movies, Tim Matheson played a con-man that claimed to be Carol Brady's deceased first husband — her current husband being played by Gary Cole.
- In She's All That, Tim Matheson played the father of Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character. Freddie Prinze Jr. would later play as Fred in the 2002 Scooby-Doo film. (Matthew Lillard also was in She's All That and the Scooby-Doo film.)
- Mayor Jones is a high school principal in the good universe, just like Gary Cole's other role as Principal Shepherd in Family Guy.
- Becomes
Hilarious in Hindsight when it turns out Principal Shepherd is divorced, and a story arc is about Brian & Stewie suspecting him of murdering his wife (he didn't). Patrick Warburton's character, Officer Swanson, is also involved in that story arc.
- Becomes
- Mayor Jones wears the same suit-and-tie as Harvey Birdman, another character voiced by Gary Cole. Attorney At Law also parodied other Hanna-Barbera shows, including a crossover with the original Scooby-Doo.
- In “The Creeping Creatures”, Mayor Jones answers the phone with “N’yellow?”, just like Harvey.
- For the Freak of Crystal Cove, Frank Welker uses the voice he used for the Boogieman. Whether by design or coincidence, the Freak has a few visual similarities to Boogie (such as being pale white and having horns).
- Maurice LaMarche's voice for Vincent Van Ghoul sounds like a higher-pitched version of his Brain voice, which of course is a combination of Orson Welles and Vincent Price, the latter of whom Van Ghoul is based off of.
- In American Gothic (1995), Gary Cole played the main antagonist, who was a corrupt and evil sheriff with supernatural powers who used his resources for his own agenda and was possibly a Devil incarnate, and he also killed a family so he could steal their young son and try to raise him as his own. Sound familiar?
- Adaptational Attractiveness:
- One of the Hex Girls, Dusk was softened up for the series. Her pigtails were made larger, her makeup was changed, her clothes are brighter, and she's more expressive. She looks more like a gothic Harley Quinn than her original Creepy Cute design.
- Velma was given a slightly more feminine look and was slimmed up.
- One of the Hex Girls, Dusk was softened up for the series. Her pigtails were made larger, her makeup was changed, her clothes are brighter, and she's more expressive. She looks more like a gothic Harley Quinn than her original
- Adaptational Jerkass: While the Mystery Inc are still the likable gang we all know and love, most of them have developed an additional unpleasing characteristic.
- Daphne can occasionally be more selfish and lustful as there are times where she seems more interested in her relationship with Fred and the attention he gives to her.
- Velma has the most recognizable changes as she is much more sarcastic, vain, and sassy here than she ever was.
- Even Scooby is a bit more stubborn in this incarnation than he was before.
- Adaptational Location Change: This series moves the gang from Coolsville to Crystal Cove.
- Adaptational Villainy: Mudsy, in a Mythology Gag. However, this was a dream of Scooby's, and the real, benevolent Mudsy doesn't exist.
- Added Alliterative Appeal
- Daphne and her sisters: Daisy, Dawn, Dorothy, and Delilah.
- There's the town of Crystal Cove.
- Adrenaline Makeover: Principal Quinlan in "The Mystery Solvers Club State Finals." She starts off as very nervous and upset but the frantic pace and perils of the mystery causes her to lose her ponytail, glasses, and the top buttons of her blouse, and gains a more adventurous attitude.
- Adults Are Useless: In Episode 2 none of the parents can give the kids a ride home, for reasons such as "I just got comfortable" and "It's dark out there." The kids were stranded alone in a small suspicious town that had recently been having people disappear.
- Not all adults are. Velma's mom knows a lot about the supernatural and the gang goes there when they don't have a lead on monsters. And in episode 25, Professor Hatecraft helps the kids even going as far as to stand up to the monster of the week.
- In the season 2 premiere, the only slightly competent adult is the new mayor, who immediately agrees on the disguised Velma's advice to help get Mystery Inc back together to deal with a new threat to Crystal Cove. Every other adult is completely useless, holding out for a hero, and immediately willing to pay off the villain to go away.
- By the second half of season 2 she is the competent adult.
- There is also the old actor Vincent Van Ghoul, who helps Shaggy and Scooby, his biggest fans, on several occasion.
- Affectionate Parody: The second half of episode 10 is a shameless parody of the Terminator films. Several shots are almost identical to those used in the film, such as only half of the Fright Hound's face being pulled off or the fully robotic body rising out of the fire, without a scratch on it. Oh yeah, and there's also the mech from Aliens.
- "Escape from Mystery Manor" is a riff on the Saw movies.
- Afterlife Antechamber: The place in "Nightmare In Red" is described as the boundary between life and the afterlife, and it holes the best aspects of the people living there El Aguirre feels that he and his men should remain there as they unleashed the monster. Cassidy Williams, Ed Machine and the previous (deceased) members of Mystery solvers clubs all are presumably stuck there.
- The room also holds the better sides of still-living people corrupted, including a teenaged Ricky Owens, what we can assume are the parental and loving aspects of adult Brad and Judy, and the paternal side of Fred Jones Sr.
- Alchemic Elementals: The four keys that unlock the way to the treasure of Crystal Cove are themed this way (and even referred to as such by Velma), as are the strange worlds that lie beyond the gates.
- All Just a Dream: The events of "The Mystery Solvers Club State Finals."
- All Love Is Unrequited: Velma and Daphne are having serious problems with Shaggy and Fred, respectively.
- Episode 24: Fred finally gets the message. He proposes to Daphne.
- Episode 26 gets Daphne to reveal they are engaged but when Fred finds out about his past, let's just say that these two won't be married for quite some time.
- Episode 30: Daphne now simply wants to be friends with Fred.
- Episode 31: Scooby falls for Brad and Judy's cocker spaniel Nova, and he asks the two people about love that he shouldn't: Fred and Velma.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The locals treat the gang as, at best, a nuisance and, at worst, a group of destructive vigilantes owing to their inconvenient habit of saving a town filled with stupid, submissive and greedy jackasses from themselves.
- As Velma states in the season 2 premiere, "The town hates us when we're not needed, cheers us when we are."
- All Part of the Show: This is what happens when the ghost of Friar Serra attacks the production in "Theater of Doom." Director Vincent Van Ghoul gets hailed as a genius.
- All Up to You: Scooby Doo and the other non-human sidekicks have to solve the mystery when the teenage sleuths are abducted in "The Mystery Solvers Club State Finals."
- Taken literally in Episode 26. The gang has broken up due to Fred going to find who he is, Daphne chewing out Velma for her keeping Angel's identity all to herself and Shaggy being sent to military school. Scooby swears to Pericles that he's going to bring the gang back together to hunt him down.
- Episode 27: It's Velma who has taken the initiative. Disguised as a mysterious stranger, she tells the new mayor of Crystal Cove, Janet Nettles, to get Mystery Inc. to solve the mystery of the Crybaby Clown. Scooby escapes from the farm and is rescued by Mayor Nettles, then he springs Shaggy from military school. The disguised Velma then rescues Fred from being blown up by the Crybaby Clown before revealing herself. Daphne has a new boyfriend and now she thinks mystery solving was all a waste of time.
- Velma and Scooby tackle the mystery in episode 33 themselves when Fred, Shaggy and Daphne are otherwise preoccupied.
- It's all up to Shaggy and Scooby to stop the evil ska band from episode 44 from causing all the citizens of Crystal Cove from dancing themselves to death.
- In Episode 29, Shaggy, Scooby, and Fred are all preoccupied; Velma even comments that she and Marcie are the only ones who care about the case. Subverted when Fred ultimately solves it.
- Taken literally in Episode 26. The gang has broken up due to Fred going to find who he is, Daphne chewing out Velma for her keeping Angel's identity all to herself and Shaggy being sent to military school. Scooby swears to Pericles that he's going to bring the gang back together to hunt him down.
- All Women Are Lustful: Velma and Daphne are both shown to be much more sexually aggressive than either of their respective love interests, with Shaggy being generally hesitant and timid about openly expressing his feelings and Fred being heavily implied to be asexual.
- Almost Kiss:
- Between Shaggy and Velma in Episode 2.
- In Episode 13 Daphne puckers up to kiss Fred, who suddenly gets conveniently distracted after seeing his dad, the Mayor.
- Alternate Continuity: Rather than follow in the footsteps of What's New, Scooby-Doo? or A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, the show instead focuses on a new continuity that is still a continuation of the old show, but with a few differences.
- Alternate Timeline: After destroying the evil Annunaki, the Gang end up in a Lighter and Softer version of Crystal Cove As an example of the changes, Crystal Cove is now billed as being the SUNNIEST place on Earth and all the tourism dollars are spent lauding the scenery.
- Ambiguously Bi: Velma is in a relationship with Shaggy in the beginning of the series, but looks at Daphne in a bikini with approval and has a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with Hot Dog Water in Season 2.
- Fred by way of Accidental Innuendo, says anyone he's dating can call him "Freddie", then a few episodes later Shaggy calls him Freddie.
- Fred by way of
- Ambiguous Time Period: When the show takes place is never indicated, though the gang attends school during the events of the show.
- The gang attends prom near the beginning of the season, placing it at least January, February, or March at the earliest.
- Various events such as college orientations (the gang checking out Darrow University on their own time in "The Shrieking Madness"), festivals (The Cicada Creature Festival in "When the Cicada Calls"), group competitions ("Mystery Solvers Club State Finals"), student exchange programs (Mai Le and Hot Dog Water exchanging in "The Dragon's Secret") typically start near the beginning of a year.
- Cicadas are active in the summer, usually emerging in May or June. Artistic License – Biology might be in play here, though.
- In the online game, Halloween is stated to be months away by the Season 1 finale.
- Anachronism Stew: At the Ren Faire in episode 8, a number of people attend the medieval event as pirates. The staff are none too happy about this.
- The show itself is stylistically set in what looks to be the 60s or 70s, vinyl records and the like have their place but such futuristic marvels like cassette players, compact discs and cellphones make appearances. Despite the presence of laptops, desktops by and large are bulky and resemble computers from the early 80's.
- Ancient Astronauts: Revealed to be the primary forces at work in Crystal Cove in Season 2. Interdimensional beings known as the Annunaki utilize animals as vessels, causing them to talk and being responsible for a variety of mythological figures around the world from Egyptian and Sumerian gods to Sun Wukong and Quetzalcoatl, with talking animals such as Scooby Doo being explained as descendants of these vessels
- And the Adventure Continues: The finale.
- Animesque: Watch the "Trap Of Love" music video and tell me it doesn't look like gothic lolita anime.
- Ankle Drag: Recurring extra Trini Lee falls victim to this a lot. In "The Hodag of Horror", she's grabbed by the ankle and pulled into the darkness by the titular monster. It happens again in "Dance of the Undead", when Rude Boy grabs her from below and pulls her through a hole in the stage she's standing on.
- Answer Cut: In Episode 8 when the Queen says they must keep out the pirates because "Who knows what shambling low-lives will arrive?" Enter Shaggy and Scooby dressed as pirates.
- An Arc: For the first time since The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, there's an underlying/overarching plot going on in the background of the otherwise episodic mysteries.
- Anyone Can Die: To show how really serious this show is. Season 2 really ramps this up as supporting characters start dropping like flies. The final has the Nibiru Entity eat the entirety of Crystal Cove. Its demise undoes it, but still!
- Apocalypse How: Class 1.5, The series finale involves Prof. Pericles and the Evil Entity preparing to destroy the Earth by consuming all life on the planet, starting with Crystal Cove. Surprisingly evolves into a Class 6 example, but of course it's heavily inverted.
- Arc Words:
- "This has all happened before" is the main one in Season 1.
- Season 2 has "Nibiru..." and "The dog dies...."
- Art Evolution: The characters designs are done in a much sharper, more stylistically simplistic way than ever before. Lampshaded in the second episode, when Daphne out of the blue asks Velma what happened to her hair.
- Artifact of Doom: The Conquistadors' Treasure and the Planispheric Disk that leads to it are implied to be the reason Crystal Cove is cursed. There is some evidence that the curse may be real in "The Hodag of Horror" one piece manipulates its owner so it can be reunited with the others.
- A Conquistador's spirit appears at the end of episode 34 once the gang takes off with the fifth piece. The spirit slowly disappears as it laughs, so yes, there could be a menacing curse.
- And it's all coming together...the centerpiece of the Conquistadors' Treasure, on which Crystal Cove was founded upon, is a Sealed Evil in a Can, who has cursed the Disk to corrupt people and animals into seeking out all the pieces and finding the treasure, unleashing him from imprisonment, and causing doomsday to happen.
- Scooby himself senses it in a nightmare in episode 46. He pleads to the gang to destroy the treasure once it's found.
- Art Shift: Episode 14 has the cast appear as they did in the original series. There also appears not to be any CGI that sticks out.
- As Himself: Harlan Ellison voices an unflattering portrayal of himself in Episodes 12 and 52.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: The 'keys' to the Planispheric Disc the gang hunt down in the second season are marked in Spanish as "primero llave", "segundo llave", etc. Only problem is, llave is a feminine noun, so for the labels to be grammatically sound, they should say "primera llave", "segunda llave", etc.
- Asbestos-Free Cereal: Destroido makes chips made of landfill waste and gummies made of lead.
- Auction: The Cold Opening for the eleventh episode. $34 raised, and all we see auctioned off are: front-row tickets to a ladies roller derby, and a spoooooky painting.
B
- Baba Yaga: Featured in Episode 28.
- Back from the Dead: Everybody in the series finale that had just been killed by the evil entity. Once the timeline is reset, they all come back to life, including people like Cassidy Williams, who died many episodes prior. Basically all the deaths that were caused by the influence of the evil entity were undone.
- Badass Normal: It's almost a Running Gag how many characters have wildly unexpected and unlikely skills. Heroes will suddenly do something they couldn't possibly know how to do, throwing out a quick "It's a good thing I'm a trained Apache helicopter pilot" as a justification. Villains will offhandedly mention a past in the military or advanced robotics to explain their abilities.
- Balloon Belly: Happens to Scooby and Shaggy in "The Devouring" when they attempt to devour all of the baked goods in Crystal Cove.
- Bar Brawl: Episode 15: "The Wild Brood" starts off with a bar brawl between biker-punks and the orc-like Wild Brood. Asses get kicked.
- Bath of Poverty: The Fleach family, who runs a failing, local amusement park are forced to bathe in the recycled water they use to cook hot dogs in order to save money. This causes the daughter, Marcie, to be called "Hot Dog Water" by her classmates, due to her distinct odor.
- Beam-O-War: The Hex Girls get into a musical one with Rude Boy and the Ska-Tastics.
- Beard of Sorrow: After the events of the Downer Ending and his continued failure to find his parents, Fred begins season two sporting his "hobo look".
- Bedlam House: Animal Asylum For the Criminally Insane.
- Bedtime Brainwashing: The culprit disguises himself as the Dreamweaver in order to manipulate his victims in their sleep to do criminal acts in order to have them arrested or be humiliated in public.
- Berserk Button: Don't use "like" in a grammatically incorrect fashion in Harlan Ellison's presence. Or ask him about H.P. Hatecraft until the Char Gar Gothikon thing has been dealt with.
- Better as Friends: This is ultimately what the Shaggy and Velma love plot ends up as.
- Big Bad: The first season's is revealed to be Mayor Jones.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The abovementioned Mayor Jones and Professor Pericles in the first season.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Professor Pericles and Mr. E most a portion of the second season. After Cassidy dies, Mr. E starts to turn against Pericles, but the parrot keeps him in line with a device implanted into his back. E still tries to sabotage him as possible, but Brad and Judy instead reinforce their alliance with Pericles, forming another Duumvirate that lasts until the end
- Big Eater: Shaggy and Scooby, of course.
- Daphne at the end of Episode 19, after not eating anything all day. Shaggy even remarks that this is the one time anyone has eaten more than him or Scooby.
- Big Fancy House: Daphne's residence, naturally. Though it's interesting to note that in this incarnation, all of the lead characters come from wealthy families.
- Bigger on the Inside: Lampshaded for the locker that is "big enough" for the huge Man-Crab costume.
- Big "NO!": Fred has one after it is revealed that the rest of the team won't go to the Mystery Solving contest due to Scooby being sick.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Daphne alludes to the Blakes being this, what with family meetings with shrinks and her mom being temporarily committed.
- Fred's family is incredibly screwed up. His adopted father turned out to be a villain, who was only keeping him around as leverage to keep his actual parents at bay. However, his actual parents aren't much better as they made no attempt to contact him during their exile and, it's strongly implied they are just using him to get to the treasure.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Nibiru Entity is destroyed saving the universe from doom! However it's a recreated/divergent timeline based on what happened without the Entity below Crystal Cove to corrupt it causing what should be idyllic lives for the gang... however they now feel like strangers in their own homes as these aren't quite the people or home they know. Worse yet, for them, this perfect setting seems to have no mysteries. A message from Harlan Ellison, who knows about the reality change, telling them to come to Miskatonic University perks them up and they resolve to travel across the country and while it means leaving everything behind they're now able to travel the road together doing what they love.
- In addition to their own problems with the new world. Not everyone is better off. Daphne's sisters for example, who went from all being prodigies with high profile careers, to underachieving slackers with Daphne being the only one their parents can be proud of.
- It's also implied that the series is a prequel to the existing Scooby-Doo universe, so all the Character Development over the two seasons will eventually be reset.
- Bizarro World: Crystal Cove, though it is revealed that all the madness in the town is caused by the effect of the evil entity being buried directly underneath it.
- The gang also feels this way about Crystal Cove, the SUNNIEST place on Earth. All the people and things that they've become used to are now reset to be better, but this makes the gang feel like they don't know anything and don't belong.
- Blind Without 'Em: Velma in episode 32. She even lampshades it after Randy Warsaw removes her glasses with the idea of her being an art inspiration and she looks at herself in a mirror.Velma: I look hot blurry!
- Book Ends: The characters rejoice in the first episode of the show and state they should celebrate. They do this again in the final episode, down to the exact same poses.
- Not to mention, the first person they encounter right afterwards is Sheriff Stone, although his arresting of the kids in the first episode is quite a 180 from him greeting the gang with his wife (Mayor Nettles) and four children in the final one.
- B-Movie: In-universe, the Vincent Van Ghoul movies. He's starred in at least 400, we can assume they were cranked out fast and on a low budget. Their titles include The Mutant Bee, The Repellant Dr. Phobos (Doubles as a bit of Actor Allusion) and The Castle of Gummy Discharge.
- Break the Cutie: Happens to EVERYONE of the main cast in the season one finale. Yeah.
- Breather Episode:
- "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals", paying homage to Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo rip-offs, without any Mr. E., nor Pericles.
- "Heart of Evil", with Blue Falcon and Dynomutt. Mind you, Blue Falcon is a walking homage to Batman as written by Frank Miller, but the whole thing is basically played for laughs and has no immediate effect on the rest of the series.
- Broad Strokes: There's a loose establishment that some version of the cases from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! happened in this universe. The Dinkley family's museum features numerous monsters from the series on display, and the plot of one episode follows up on "Jeepers, It's the Creeper". However, these mysteries were all localized within the town of Crystal Cove rather than across the country like the original series until the final episode, which is heavily implied to be a Stealth Prequel to Where Are You as we know it. In addition, certain elements from other versions of the franchise are present:
- The Hex Girls exist and are already familiar with the gang, though Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost clearly hasn't happened in this timeline, as in that movie the gang were adults while the series has them still be in high school.
- Some version of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo is said to have happened, with Flim Flam having since been imprisoned for his con artistry, and Fred's absence from that show being explained as him being away at camp. At the same time, though, Vincent van Ghoul is a normal actor rather than a sorcerer and hasn't met Scooby and Shaggy before the events of the show.
- The Dinkley museum features a few monsters unique to What's New, Scooby-Doo? and Scooby Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed, but unlike the Where Are You monsters no direct attention is paid to them. The museum also has a display for none other than Scrappy-Doo... which Fred quickly turns away from, saying that they promised they'd never speak of him again.
- Brown Bag Mask: Sheriff Stone dons one to conceal his identity after he loses his job in "Dead Justice."
- By Wall That Is Holey: During the Humongonaut fight in episode 9.
C
- Call-Back: This may or may not be intentional, but in episode 41, "Theater of the Doomed," the ghost of the friar warns them to heed the alligator's warning, and says "The dog dies" before vanishing. In episode 2, "The Creeping Creatures," the episode with the alligator monsters, the gang visits The Drowsy Gator. Pool, Food and Sundries. Certain letters in the neon sign die out to spell "The dog dies."
- The Cameo:
- Don Knotts appears in a few crowd scenes, including in the first episode. (Knotts appeared in The New Scooby-Doo Movies back in the 1970s.)
- Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm make an appearance at the beginning of episode four.
- A monstrous rendition of Yogi Bear wearing a Hannibal Lecter mask shows up at the end of Episode 10.
- Jonny Quest and the gang show up Episode 25.
Word of God said they would show up again in the second season. And they did, alongside Blue Falcon and Dynomutt this time. - A Mystery Incorporated version of Sari Sumdac shows up in a crowd shot of "The Hodag of Horror" and again in a flashback near the end of the episode.
- Tom and Tub from Moby Dick show up, with the eponymous whale having been made into a sub. They bring along their pet seal Scooby, which causes some name confusion.
- Harlan Ellison, most notably in the series finale, where he is transported into an alternate timeline with the gang, and becomes the new Mr. E, letting the adventure continue .
- Camp Gay: The Hex Girls' manager in episode 7.
- And the play director in episode 41.
- And the publicist who appeared in part two of "Night The Clown Cried."
- Canon Immigrant: The Hex Girls in the seventh episode of season one. In order to keep the gang's relative skepticism of ghosts actually existing alive, the series removes the events of Witch's Ghost from the continuity (and possibly Legend of the Vampire), replacing them with Velma just being a mega-fan of the band.
- Captain Colorbeard: Scooby uses the pirate name 'Dogbeard' in "The Grasp of the Gnome."
- Captain Ersatz: Mr. E's van, the Enigma Engine, is a dark, poorly painted version of the gang's Mystery Machine.
- Car Meets House: In "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals", Principal Quinlan gets into her office by driving Speed Buggy through the wall. Of course, it is a Fever Dream Episode.
- Casting Gag:
- Scott Menville voiced Shaggy in Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!. Now he's voicing Shaggy's counterpart in the predecessor Mystery Inc., albeit the teenage version
- Baylor is a trifecta:
- First, Matt Lanter played the Edward Cullen expy in a Twilight parody, so having him play a parody of a Twilight actor seems fitting.
- Second, Mark Hamill plays a clown when his best known voice acting role was a clown.
- Finally, Matt Lanter voiced Anakin Skywalker at one point. Mark Hamill was of course, Luke. This means Crybaby Clown is his own father.
- Hot Dog Water, a knockoff of Velma, is voiced by the actress who played her in the live-action movies, Linda Cardellini.
- Shaggy's dad, Colton Rogers, is voiced by Casey Kasem, Shaggy's original voice actor.
- Gary Cole plays a character named Mayor Fred Jones, Sr. Before that, he played Ted Jones in Pineapple Express and was a neighbor to a Jones family in The Joneses.
- As a reference to their respective roles as fathers Mike Brady and the false Roy Martin in A Very Brady Sequel, Gary Cole and Tim Matheson's characters here in Mystery Incorporated are reversed. Fred Jones, Sr. is Fred's fake father while Brad Chiles is Fred's real father.
- In American Gothic (1995), Gary Cole also played as a corrupt authority figure (who turns out to have an association with demonic forces, if not being one himself) who did something immoral to a family and is trying to take their son to raise as his own.
- Catchphrase: The old standards appear.
- Velma - "Jinkies!"
- Shaggy - "Zoinks!"
- Scooby Doo - "Scooby Dooby Doo!"
- Daphne - "Jeepers"
- Fred - "Hold the Phone"
- Professor Pericles uses "Hello, Children!" each time he meets the gang.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: Lampshaded.
- Ceiling Corpse: A professor was found in a cocoon on the ceiling. He did it to himself to appear innocent.
- Cerebus Retcon: Freddy's motive for his trap addiction; Mayor Jones lied to him saying that his mother left them and Fred thinks that traps keep people from running away. Essentially Mayor Jones' humorous neglect gets this when its revealed that he is basically keeping Fred his hostage.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The show has always been somewhat darker than other Scooby-Doo incarnations, but became especially dramatic and creepy from the season 1 finale onward.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Subverted. The gang has cell phones that work when they are stranded in Gatorsburg, but they reach indifferent parents who are unwilling to help, so it's really Adults Are Useless.
- Chainmail Bikini: In "Pawn of Shadows", the Obliteratix's battle costume consists of a mask and strategically placed leather straps.
- Characterization Marches On: Rampant throughout this series, in the case of both Mystery Inc. and the supporting characters.
- A subtle example would be Velma's parents. In the first few episodes, they appeared to be just as thoughtless as the other parents, but as the show progressed the gang would go to Velma's mom for advice on the supernatural. She even helps them during a case involving a headless zombie, and once offered to "take care" of Shaggy with a poison mushroom beverage after he chose Scooby over Velma (she said she was kidding). Granted, Velma's mom still got in a couple of snarky comments here and there, but her reveal that she actually reads Velma's blog is something you'd expect of a typical parent. And, by the disastrous events of the last episode, the Dinkleys are the only parents shown comforting their child and not making the situation worse.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Many of the Ascended Extras are at first unimportant, then vital, or at least important to the episode, like George Avocados, Marcie Fleach, or Gary and Ethan. Harlan Ellison is just a book-writer whom Angie knows, and is friendly to H.P. Hatecraft at the very end, he reveals he knows about parallel universes, and knows what the Cosmic Retcon was.
- City of Adventure: Crystal Cove.
- Cliffhanger: Nearly every episode ends with one.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Not just the Man-Crab, but every villain in costume seems to gain awesome agility and strength.
- Clueless Detective:
- About half the time, the gang's leads are off and they learn who the monster is at the same time the audience does. Jason even calls them out on jumping to conclusions when they accuse him in Episode 10.
- Episode 2. There are only 3 people in this ghost town. There are 3 alligator people scaring visitors away. Who could the alligator people possibly be?
- Everyone except Velma in episode 33. She's the only one who suspects the cemetery groundskeeper to be the Graveyard Ghoul, which it turns out to be, and nobody else believed her. (Scooby followed Velma because he trusts her instincts and he was worried about her.)
- Clueless Mystery: The series lampshades it in "Revenge of the Man Crab", where the primary villain is a character who only appears for a few seconds after the intro, and in "Aliens among US" where the villains are the three people on a Wanted poster we see for a few seconds.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: Velma wears this disguise while contacting the mayor in "The Night The Clown Cried."Velma Who were you expecting, Rorschach?
- Code Name: Episode 31 has the gang communicating via walkie-talkie with the code names "Smart Girl" (Velma), "Smokin' Hottie" (Daphne) and "Scarf Boy" (Fred).
- Cold Open: Up to episode 47, every episode had a cold open. Up to episode 46, all season two episodes had a "previously on" recap.
- Comedic Sociopathy: After causing a patient to flat-line due to a panic attack, all the gang merely walks out with Freddy commenting that the questioning had gone well.
- Comically Missing the Point: Daphne's mother mentions that she's been taking night classes to become a notary, and states that knowledge is more important than beauty. Then she says that she's going to find out what a "notary" actually is before the final.
- Compliment Backfire: "Oh Velma, you're very pleasant when you aren't trying to be smarter than everyone else."
- Consulting a Convicted Killer: In "Wrath of the Krampus", Mystery, Inc. visit the prison to consult with the grade-school-age Mary Anne Gleardan, one of their former antagonists.
- Continuity Nod: Bordering on Alternate Continuity Nod, to boot.
- Velma's family owns a museum filled with "monsters" that have haunted Crystal Cove, many of which the gang has debunked.
- In fact, in the pilot she's guiding a tour through the museum, and is reprimanded by her parents for ruining the tour by revealing who was under the masks when they were finally caught.
- Episode 6 can be considered a huge one of these, considering the villain is Alice May, who poses as Alice Carlswell, daughter of the gang's iconic villain "The Creeper".
- An in-series nod in Episode 10. The Mystery Machine runs out of gas and slows down, and Daphne says "Don't tell me the engine is missing again!" referring to when Mr. E removed it in episode 2.
- Another in-series nod in Episode 15. After the cold open, the episode starts off at the Tiki nightclub, where Sheriff Stone congratulates Mayor Jones for re-opening the club after it was destroyed by the Humongonauts from Episode 9.
- Yet another in-series nod in Episode 20; simply put, Scooby still has no idea what, if anything, Skipper Shelton is talking about.
- More in-series references: The two teens who got abducted from Episode 4's Man-Crab reappear as victims of the Manticore. As well as the owner of the amusement park wondering how they're going to sell their stock of Que Horrifico shirts and Char Gar Gothikon plushies.
- Episode 24 has Daphne worry whether her seafood allergy from Episode 4 will act up with all the oysters around.
- Episode 25 not only has Hatecraft show up again, Alice May is back messing with the gang in a different costume.
- Episode 38 has the gang visiting the local jail. Watch the background; every inmate is one of the previous villains.
- Episode 48: All the people associated with the treasure appear in the dream sequence: "Benevelent Lodge of Mystery, The Darrow family, the original Mystery Inc., even Ed Machine and Fred Jones Senior.
- Velma's family owns a museum filled with "monsters" that have haunted Crystal Cove, many of which the gang has debunked.
- Cool Big Sis: Delilah Blake, one of Daphne's sisters, is in the military, speaks like a drill sergeant, and is just about the only member of Daphne's family who has made an effort to comfort her and offer her help, even telling her to call if she needs her.
- Cool Car: The Mystery Machine, especially with the improbable moves it pulled out against the ghost truck, as well as the impossible jump-flips it did while trying to shake off the Fright Hound.
- And that's not to mention the Enigma Engine from the previous Mystery Inc. Gang.
- Cosmic Retcon: The demise of the Nibiru Entity erases it from existence. As a result, its influence is removed from history, changing Crystal Cover to a normal, happy town and giving the original Mystery Inc the lives they should have had without his influence.
- Continuity Reboot: The whole series. Done in-universe in the series finale, where the destruction of the Nibiru Entity causes a reset in the time stream, and the gang is placed in an alternate universe where the evil of the treasure of Crystal Cove never negatively influenced anyone's lives.
- Cosmic Horror Story: The whole series ends up as this, with the Nibiru Entity as the Cosmic Horror. As he can be punched out more like Lovecraft Lite.
- Cowboy Episode: "Dead Justice"
- Covers Always Lie: The promotional poster of the series' premiere from April 2010
, complete with designs of Mystery Inc from the 2010-present direct-to-video films (in fact, Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo came out two-months earlier). Actually, the series uses newer designs for Mystery Inc. - CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: In one episode, Fred rescue Daphne from the rising water of a swimming pool. Fred ask her if she's alright. Daphne, who is unharmed, take advantage of the situation and tells Fred to give her CPR. It doesn't work.
- Crazy-Prepared: In Episode 21, Fred explains to Velma that he gave the Planespheric disc piece to Shaggy and Scooby cause they'd be the last person to have it. Episode 26 reveals that Shaggy and Scooby do have it in a bed/fridge that they keep in the case that they don't get an evening snack before bed.
- Crossover: "The Mystery Solvers Club State Finals" features Scooby-Doo teaming up with the sidekicks from Speed Buggy, Jabberjaw, The Funky Phantom and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.
- Episode 25 reveals that Quest Laboratories is a subsidiary of Destroido. And episode 38 shows that Destroido is owned by Ricky Owens/Mr. E.
- Season 2 features more of the Quest family, along with Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, who appear in episode 40.
- Episode 37 features Tom and Tubb from the old Moby-Dick cartoons, along with their pet seal, also named Scooby (Moby has been reimagined as a whale-shaped sub). And their fathers are referred to as being Paul Williams and Michael Murphy.
- In a recent commercial at AMC Theaters, the Gang find the one guy who didn't turn off his cell phone: Daffy Duck.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- Say what you will about Fred when it comes to teenage life, but he shows total competence when there is a mystery to be solved.
- Scooby and Shaggy. They're still the lovable cowards, but both of them will go and stop the monsters roaming around town.
- Crunchtastic: Episode 43 has Shaggy and Scooby calling the cheese/honey mix created by the rampaging mutant cattle "Cheese-tastic!"
- Crusty Caretaker: Gravedigger Evallo von Meanskrieg in "The Gathering Gloom."
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Almost every single villain is shown using fantastic inventions, sometimes explicitly called military tech.
- Played straight by the handful who are using said inventions to directly steal money or protect their illegal money-gathering schemes.
- Averted in other cases, where the villains were settling personal scores or pursuing social goals.
- Justified in that apparently all of the villains were being manipulated by the Nibiru Entity's presence.
- In a non-villainous example, the townspeople — particularly the sheriff and Mayor Jones — are angry that the gang debunks the various hoaxes, consequently ruining potential tourist attractions. Except that, because of their grandiosity and complexity, the hoaxes themselves as hoaxes would make a good tourist attraction.
- Exaggerated / Played for Laughs in cases where the villains use elaborate criminal means to attain a goal it'd be cheap, easy, and perfectly legal to attain otherwise, e.g. dressing up to steal a painting in "The Secret Serum" that wouldn't even have cost four dollars to buy.
