Series / El Chavo del ocho

"¡Tenía que ser El Chavo del Ocho!" ("It had to be El Chavo del Ocho!")

El Chavo del ocho is a legendary Mexican Sitcom (and staple of popular culture) about a little orphan boy and his quirky neighborhood. Famous for casting adults as little children. This lets the show get away with having many rather awful things happen to the kids without it being too horrifying, since they're really adults and playing parodies of kids, anyway.

The show was created by comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños (whose artistic name was Chespirito, "Little Shakespeare"), along with other classic sketch characters like El Chapulín Colorado. Chespirito is considered by many to tie Cantinflas as Mexico's greatest comedian, and his sketch comedy shows are beloved amongst the entire Latin American population.

The show relies mostly on Bottle Episodes. Most of them take place in the main courtyard or patio of the "vecindad" (community houses) where almost all of the characters live. Sometimes, there are episodes where the kids are in school or some other location, like the often-mentioned but rarely-seen "other patio", or the small business some character owns.

The show began in 1972, as a segment in a Sketch Comedy show Chespirito with fellow co-stars Maria Antonieta de Las Nieves, Ramon Valdes and Ruben Aguirre called "Los Supergenios de la Mesa Cuadrada". In 1973, this segment got its own Half-Hour Comedy. The show proved to be very popular, and at its peak of popularity spawned a lot of merchandise. After some backstage disagreements two major actors left the series, taking their characters with them because of licensing issues, which caused what many believe to be inferior quality episodes. Soon after, "El Chavo" and its sister show El Chapulín Colorado were merged into an hour-long sketch comedy show called "Chespirito" (fittingly, since they originated as sketches on the original "Chespirito" show). On "Chespirito", few new Chavo scripts were written, but the restaging of old Chavo episodes was a regular feature on the show until Chespirito retired the character in 1992.

The show has been too difficult to translate, due to the nature of its very regional humor. The only exception is Brazil where the show was renamed Chaves and got an over-the-top translation.

Despite its excessive regionalism, its lack of "sophistication" and its very dated appearance, the show is still very popular in syndication and has been a staple of TV channels not only in Mexico but also almost all Central and South American countries (And Spain)^note and in the U.S., for that matter for years. Many people watch it for the nostalgia factor, but others watch because of a deep identification with the struggle of the characters. In Brazil, it is so popular that when the channel that broadcasted it tried to cut it from their schedule after almost twenty years of uninterrupted transmission, the public reacted with such outrage that they had to restore it almost immediately. There's also an annual El Chavo Fans Meeting. In 2020, the show was promptly removed from every channel in the world due to a licensing issue between Chespirito's estate (run by his child Roberto Gomez Fernandez) and Televisa, to the surprise and sadness of many fans (as well as Roberto's widow Florinda Meza who played Doña Florinda in the show).

The show is considered to be quite possibly the most beloved and successful comedy show in Latin American history; it's literally IMPOSSIBLE to go to any country in Latin America where this show was not shown. Part of its success was based on the social status of the characters: they were working poor who tried to make the best out of their lack of money and tried to lead decent, happy lives in spite of it. This attitude was embraced by the poor masses of Latin America, making the show a success. It was also successful for being a comedy show that was appropriate for all ages, yet still maintained a level of sharpness and sophistication that did not insult any audience.

In 2006, El Chavo got an animated adaptation which ran for 7 seasons until ending in 2014. In 2023, a new animated series was announced, this time as an All-CGI Cartoon and, unlike the previous show, with La Chilindrina's presence.

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This series provides examples of:

A-H

• Abhorrent Admirer: Doña Clotilde to Don Ramón.
• Accidental Innuendo: In-Universe in "La pelea por el tendedero". Doña Clotilde silently lampshades it:
  Don Ramón: Furthermore, my pants are in Doña Clotilde's section of the rope, so if they are bothering someone, only she can take them off!
• Accidental Misnaming:
  • El Chavo constantly refers to Don Ramón as "Rondamón", something he tolerates. This wrong name is very popular and ubiquitously used, so much that when the actor Ramón Valdés died, a Chilean newspaper had a headline stating "¡Murió Rondamón!" ("Rondamón [has] died!")
  • The countless times that Don Ramón has misnamed to Señor Barriga. Usually, it's a misnaming such that the resulting sentence mocks Señor Barriga for being fat (as Barriga, his surname, is Spanish for "belly" (and a real surname in Spanish-speaking countries)). For example, "Qué gran barriga tiene usted, Señor Corazón" (You have such a big belly, Mr. Heart)
• Agony of the Feet: One episode revolved around Sr. Barriga having a painful callus in one of his feet. Hilarity ensued when the kids accidentally hurt his foot too many times! At the end of the episode, Don Ramón ended up having one, too.
• All Men Are Perverts: Some characters are prone to this. Professor Jirafales is easily distracted by other women, despite being in love with Doña Florinda; Señor Barriga tries to impress other women in Acapulco, despite being married; and even the 8-year old Chavo puts aside his hunger and love for food to watch the Miss Universe contest.
• Almost Kiss: Professor Jirafales and Doña Florinda had had this a couple of times:
  • The first time was in "La Carpintería - parte 2" (1974). Professor Jirafales is on the ground (after being hit on the head by a hammer Don Ramón had thrown). Doña Florinda, scared, kneels down to tend to him, they look into each other's eyes and get closer, Quico widens his eyes in excitement... and they're interrupted by Chavo chasing Ñoño with a broom.
  • In "Clases de Box" (1974), they accidentally embrace by bumping into each other. The camera pans down to reveal Doña Florinda trying to get on the tip of her toes. The mood is killed when Quico asks: "Mommy, do you want me to get a stool?"
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song: In Brazil, the theme song aired on SBT since 1993 is an Expository Theme Tune called "Aí Vem o Chaves", which presents a countdown of the main characters one-by-one, with their respective heads bouncing on the screen in a rotating blue background. However, other networks use the original theme song instead, but replacing the music either with El Chavo Animado's theme song, or with John Charles Fiddy's Skipping
• An Aesop:
  • Many fans of the show take Don Ramón's teachings by heart. Two famous examples: "Good people should love their enemies" (this touched even Doña Florinda's heart, go figure!), and "Revenge is never okay; it kills the soul and poisons it" (its interpretation is similar to that of Gandhi's "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind").
  • Some episodes end with one character explaining the moral of the story to the audience. One episode where Don Ramón is found to be sleepwalking ends with Doña Clotilde saying that no one should believe in things such as speaking with the dead, that it's all gibberish. Another one when the kids take their witch impression of her up to eleven ends with El Chavo saying you shouldn't judge anyone by their looks, because there are many kind-hearted people out there.
• Analogy Backfire: Don Ramón tries to motivate El Chavo to keep studying no matter how poor or hungry he is. It doesn't work:
  Don Ramón: (To El Chavo) In case you don't know, Don Benito Juárez was very poor, and when he was your age, he was at the top of his class!
  El Chavo: And when he was your age he was president!
• And a Diet Coke: At Doña Florinda's fonda (restaurant), she was surprised at her landlord's order because she thought he was on a diet. His response to her comment was asking for one of the chickens to come earless.
• Annoyingly Repetitive Child: Chavo (a little boy) frequently loops between repeated statements or questions while talking to someone. When Quico is unable to take it anymore, he hysterically asks him to shut up (he does this even if Chavo isn't talking to him specifically).
• And Starring: "Y María Antonieta de las Nieves...como la Chilindrina", except in the first and last seasons, where she is billed first after Chespirito.
• Artifact Title: The "del Ocho (8)" part of "El Chavo del Ocho" was there merely to promote the fact that the show aired on Canal 8 (Channel 8). At some point, the show moved to Canal 2 and the series title was shortened to "El Chavo", but the character was still mentioned with his "last name" in the show and an In-Universe reason was given that it meant he actually lived in the (never seen) Apartment 8, rather than the barrel he uses as a hideout. In syndication, the title is always "El Chavo", yet the show is still most commonly known by the full name.
• As Himself: The actors have often commented how Don Ramón was pretty much Ramón Valdés without a stable income.
• As You Know: Often used, especially to explain El Chavo's "Garrotera" (a condition where he becomes literally paralyzed by fear. Cured by water to the face).
• Ascended Extra: The Pati storyline was run three times on Chavo, but unlike her predecessors, the third Pati (Ana Lilian de la Macorra) remained on the series as a recurring character after her three-episode story arc ended. In the animated adaptation, she even became part of the regular cast.
  • Even if he never became a full-time character, Godinez began to appear slightly more often after Quico was gone.
• Aside Glance: Done a lot, by everyone, usually in reaction to something stupid another character has said.
• Bad Liar:
  • Practically everyone is terrible at telling lies - the most common example is saying they are not at home (Generally Don Ramón -Or La Chilindrina by proxy- when Señor Barriga arrives for his due rent), even though it's themselves who say that (Or even worse, El Chavo saying that while he's in the barrel and does not want to come out).
  • There was one time where the "Don Ramón says he's not at home when he is" gag is Subverted with a dose of Metaphorically True, however:
    Señor Barriga: (To El Chavo) Is Don Ramón in his house?
    Don Ramón: (As he was quickly leaving his house) No!
• Bait-and-Switch: In the 1974 version of the boxing episode, as Don Ramón is about to leave the apartment, Señor Barriga tells Don Ramón, he owes him his life. He explains that he had a huge debt to pay, so he bet on the fight Don Ramón fought in, and gave the prize money to his creditors, so in gratitude, he allows Don Ram´n to stay in the vencindad. Don Ramón tells Señor Barriga he actually lost the fight, but Señor Barriga still owes him since he bet on the other guy, leaving Don Ramón bewildered.
  • In the 1977 version of the Boxing episode, after Señor Barriga tells Don Ramón about the bet he made, and walks out after allowing him to stay, Profesor Jirafales, who eavesdropped on their conversation, asked Señor Barriga if he was enough of a boxing fan to follow the amateur circuit, Señor Barriga admits he's not really a fan of boxing, he made up the story because he didn't want Don Ramón or Chilindrina to be homeless.
• Balloonacy: Near the end of one of the balloons episodes, El Chavo decides to leave the vecindad, thinking he's the cause of all the problems that happen there. Trying to convince him otherwise, Don Ramón gives El Chavo all the balloons he has, for free. El Chavo happily takes them... and leaves the vecindad anyways as all the balloons make him float. The rest of the neighbors start begging him to come back again.
• Banana Peel: Quico and Don Ramón slip after stepping on one in one episode.
• Bankruptcy Barrel: El Chavo's hideout. In one episode, Doña Florinda gave el Chavo a pair of Don Ramon's pants after he refused to take them down from the clothesline. In retaliation, Don Ramon steals Quico's sailor uniform, while el Chavo tries to take back his barrel from Quico.
• Beach Bury: On the Beach Episode. Played for laughs with some of the characters, making fun of the heights of Professor Jirafales (as if there were two people buried instead of one) and Chilindrina (who appears to be even shorter than normal), and of Sr. Barriga's fatness (he has a huge mound of sand on him to represent it).
• Beach Episode: A two-part special. Three if you count the episode showing the events that resulted in the main characters going to the beach in the first place.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: A butchered redundant version of this phrase is stated to El Chavo in one episode. It was in the lines of "I'd rather die than lose my life".
• Bewildering Punishment: Doña Florinda usually slaps Don Ramón for things that weren't his fault. There were occasions he doesn't even know what she's faulting him for.
• Big Eater: The rest of of the cast have learned the hard way not to leave food unguarded around El Chavo.
• Big Gulp: Don Ramón, when he's really scared, or whenever Chavo says something that strikes an emotional nerve.
• Big "NO!":
  • Prof. Jirafales, when he saw Doña Florinda "dead" after she fainted when she saw a dead lizard.
  • Another one by Don Ramón, after he realized that Chilindrina and Quico will burn his house in order to play firefighters. Played for Laughs. Here is the scene.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Quico usually yells one to El Chavo whenever he wouldn't stop talking. It's one of his Catch Phrases ("¡¡¡Aaaay, cállate, cállate, cállate, cállate, que me desespeeeeras!!!"/"Ohhhh, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, you're driving me craazyy!!!").
  • He once even did this to himself. Or the opposite, yelling El Chavo and La Chilindrina to stop being silent.
  • In a few instances, el Chavo and la Chilindrina have said this to Quico.
  • Whenever Profesor Jirafales begins the lesson at his class, the students will invariably make noise and refuse to pay attention. Then, the good teacher will always have to utter "Silencio. Silencio. ¡¡¡SI-LEN-CIO!!!" (Silence... Silence... SI-LENCE!!!). A recurring joke is that when Profesor Jirafales asks for silence, everybody shuts up... except for El Chavo, usually telling something bad about him after everybody got quiet (mostly him calling Profesor Jirafales a sausage). Hilarity Ensues.
• Bindle Stick: El Chavo is always seen carrying one when leaving the Vecindad. In fact, that's how he carries his 'luggage' to Acapulco when invited by Señor Barriga.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: When Quico accuses Chavo of pretending to sleepwalk in his house to steal the bread, Chavo replies "But I didn't steal the bread. I just ate it."
• The Blank:
  • "Cow Eating Grass". What grass? The cow ate it. The cow? Went to the bathroom (or it just left, depending on the episode).
  • In another episode, El Chavo used this to describe his everyday breakfast.
• Bottle Episode: Most episodes were set in the vecindad (Generally the main "patio", with the other patio and Doña Florinda and Don Ramón's homes sometimes appearing), and those that weren't were often set in the classroom or in the streets (Or Doña Florinda's restaurant).
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: There was one time El Chavo left an offhand comment during one of his Motor Mouth Running Gags:
  El Chavo: (To Don Ramón) It's just that I want to plant an apricot seed so that it grows into an apricot tree where I can get millions of apricots and when I sell those millions of apricots I can move to another vecindad where no one punches me.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • Not regularly used as part of the show's humor. It's usually used in two-part episodes for telling the viewers that the story will continue in the next episode.
  • The characters do make passing remarks towards the viewer from time to time, such as Don Ramón when El Chavo talks about his precarious lifestyle. Sometimes it's simply limited to a silent look towards the camera, though.
  • In one of the opening credit sequences, El Chavo looks into the camera as he pops out of the barrel and when Chespirito's name is announced, he does an "eso, eso, eso" (literally "that, that, that", loosely "that's right") hand gesture.
• Broke the Rating Scale: A variation is used by both Don Ramón and Jaimito the Mailman during their respective turns at being photographers. When they are asked how much they charge for a picture, they start with a high price, gradually reducing the value as the quality becomes worse and worse. Don Ramón tells Doña Florinda if Quico is in the picture it's free, while Jaimito tells Profesor Jirafales that his picture will be free if he's in it. Both Don Ramón and Jaimito inform their respective clients that by taking Doña Florinda's picture, then they will have to pay up.
• Brutal Honesty: El Chavo (being excessively naive) and the other kids (being meaner or just plain stupid) are especially prone to this.
• Building of Adventure: the neighborhood of the "Vecindad".
• Butt-Monkey: Many characters take turns on this, but Don Ramón is always one, though often he deserves this thanks to his aggressive behavior with children. Quico comes close behind as the character who gets hurt the most. A memorable example occurs when Don Ramón and Professor Jirafales are about to fistfight: Quico has a lit cigar tossed into his open mouth, is punched by both Don Ramón and Jirafales (who were aiming for each other but missed), is grabbed by the neck of his shirt by Jirafales trying to help him but accidentally choking him, and is carelessly thrown to the ground after Jirafales gets distracted by Doña Florinda. Finally, to add Squick to injury, Chavo offers him some chewing gum... the same piece he is already chewing.
• Calling Me a Logarithm: El Profesor Jirafales's tendency for Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness ends up with the listener either being offended or asking him to repeat it "but in Spanish". For example, when Don Ramón is given a custard apple plant, and tells El Profesor Jirafales he's not sure he was really given such a plant:
  Profesor Jirafales: Indeed. This is a fine specimen of an Annona cherimola.^note The custard apple's scientific name
  Don Ramón: Such a profanity you're saying, Professor!
• Captain Obvious: The less intelligent characters (Quico in particular) tend to fall into stating the obvious, something that is mercilessly lampshaded by other characters.
• Character Catchphrase: a lot. Listing them all would require a page only for this trope.
  • One example, by Quico:
    (always after Doña Florinda slaps Don Ramón): "¡Sí, mami!" "Yes, mommy!"
    (goes in front of Don Ramón) "¡Chusma, chusma, prrrf!" (pushes him and gets away) "Riffraff, riffraff, prrrf!"
  • Borrowed Catch Phrase: happened sometimes, too. One example is when Señor Barriga stumbles at (and totals) El Chavo's refreshment stand: he yells "¡Tenía que ser el Señor Barriga!" in frustration! And, in a typical Chavo manner, he responds "Fué sin querer quierendo..." (roughly, "I didn't mean to mean to do it...").
• The Cameo: In a certain episode the Telenovela actor Héctor Bonilla stop by El Chavo's village after his car broke down close to it. He ends up getting the attention of all the main female characters.
• Character Tics: Many, but the most noticeable is the idiosyncratic way of crying that every character has:
  • El Chavo cries with an amusing "pipipipipipipipi" sound.
  • Chilindrina bawls with a screechy "waah-waah-waaaaaaaaah" that can easily become a pain to hear. She even does this while pumping her arms and rubbing herself wherever she got hurt.
  • Quico cries with a rather amusing "ggggrrrrrrrr" sound that must be heard to be fully understood, but try imagining the sound of water running through sewers rather violently.
    • And just to ramp it up to eleven, Quico has to be leaning face-first against the wall at the neighborhood's entrance in order to cry. Despite the urge to cry, he holds back very well until he gets to the wall. Quico does this with such frequency, that in later seasons the spot is shown without any plaster in the parts where the tears would impact, revealing the bricks underneath.
    • Whenever the kids played a game, Quico would always ask for a moment to prepare. He'd do a whole routine where he would lick his fingers, rub his earlobes and wiggle his body several times before eventually saying he was now ready.
  • Profesor Jirafales yells "¡TA-TA-TA-TA-TA!" whenever he feels insulted or disrespected.
  • Usually when he's been REALLY humiliated, Don Ramón cries with a high-pitched "aaaaaaay" and always puts one hand over one of his eyes.
  • Ñoño cries with an "Ehi-AH! Ehi-AH! Ehi-AH!" sound like a bird.
• Characterization Marches On: Doña Florinda softens dramatically after Quico and Don Ramón leave. She never completely loses her grouchiness, but without an arch-enemy or someone to protect, the aggressive side of her personality fades away. She becomes almost maternal towards Chavo, even hiring him in the restaurant she opens and keeping him employed despite all the mistakes he makes out of his typical clumsiness and naivete.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Quico and Don Ramón, given a certain amount of time after their departures, and Chilindrina during her absence from 1973-75. Doña Florinda's deceased husband, Frederico, is still mentioned after Quico leaving, and in some episodes from the 1980s, Chilindrina passively mentions she is an orphan just like Chavo (even before Ramón Valdés himself died).
• Chroma Key: Generally used to have two characters played by the same actor interact in the same scene. Not used as often as in El Chapulín Colorado, however.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: La Chilindrina towards Patty/Paty/Patí whenever El Chavo stares lovingly at the latter.
• Composite Character: In a comic book series sold in Brazil in The '90s called "Chaves e Chapolim", Popis was hated by Chilindrina and was El Chavo and Ñoño's crush, apparently replacing Paty for unknown reasons. However, she also had some traits of the original Popis, such as playing with her doll Serafina and being Florinda's niece (the reason why Quico isn't attracted to her).
• Compressed Adaptation: The cartoon falls into this when it tries to adapt hour-long plots from the original series into episodes that last a little less than 30 minutes.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In an episode, Don Ramón breaks his TV in rage because he thought it malfunctioned. In the next few episodes when he's idle in the scene, he can be seen repairing the TV in his house.
    "Now where's the damned transistor?"
  • La Chilindrina is absent from the 1974 season. After she returns, the in-universe explanation for her return episode is that she left to live with her aunts. During another episode from the same season, Sr. Barriga asks her why she came back, as he'd been absent during the earlier episode.
  • Another one for La Chilindrina: when the series started, her Girlish Pigtails were really long, but during an episode from the 1973 season, Chavo cuts off her hair and makes her pigtails short. Past this point in the series, La Chilindrina could only be seen with short pigtails. It's even acknowledged by her during an episode following the 1976 remake.
• Continuity Snarl: While the series, in general, has Negative Continuity, something that was incredibly inconsistent in the series was the numbers in each apartment. While Doña Florinda and Quico are associated with apartment #14, Don Ramón and La Chilindrina are associated with apartment #72, and Doña Clotilde is associated with apartment #71, it was not necessarily the case - though not in cases where the apartment number is mentioned.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In "La Siembra de un Huevo" (1976), when Quico is caught soiling the ground (which Chavo had just finished cleaning for the 3rd time), Prof. Jirafales of all people proposes the punishment: Quico is put against the wall, blindfolded, while everyone douses him with buckets of water.
  • When Chilindrina tricks Chavo and Quico by convincing them to plant "money trees", they get their revenge by putting her in a vase and watering her, for a "Chilindrinas tree".
• Costume Inertia: some characters initially wore different clothes; but once they find the "iconic" look, never changed again.
• Courtroom Episode: In "El gato de Quico", when Quico accused El Chavo of killing his pet cat with a bicycle, El Profesor Jirafales suggested doing something resembling a court trial to solve whether El Chavo was guilty or not. The following episode involves El Chavo's trial at Doña Florinda's house, with Don Ramón as the defense attorney, Doña Florinda as the prosecutor, Quico as the witness, and El Profesor Jirafales as the judge. In the end, El Chavo gets an acquittal when he explains he ran over Quico's cat to avoid crashing into a man, who was in the middle of the street, Distracted by the Sexy. That man was El Profesor Jirafales himself.^note This episode's script resembles "El Juicio al Doctor Chapatín", which does take place in a courtroom
• Creator Provincialism: The show makes no attempt to avoid Spanish vocabulary that's used only in Mexico. Most Spanish speakers can guess the meaning most of the time, which makes the show almost completely comprehensible, but it still routinely uses some vocabulary incomprehensible to non-Mexicans—words like guajolote^note A bird, tejolote.
• Crime of Self-Defense: During one of the several occasions where Doña Florinda decides to slap Don Ramón for something she thinks he did to her son, he manages to defend himself by placing a bucket on his head. Professor Jirafales is so outraged he punches Don Ramón for it.
• Crossover: With El Chapulín Colorado:
  • In the episode where Chavo invokes Chapulín's help because lately everyone at The Vecindad's was in a really, really bad mood and he wanted everyone to be happy again. El Chapulín Colorado felt surprised and amazed, as Chavo was the first person ever to have summoned him to do a favor for others instead of for themselves. At the end of the episode, Chapulín rewards Chavo's good heart by giving him one of his Shrink-O-Lin Pills, allowing the hungry kid to shrink himself and have an awesome feast with just a little amount of food.
  • In the episode where El Chapulín Colorado is investigating a trafficking ring in a costume party, it is possible that this is the Perez-Avolinco party that Quico was bragging about, though he had a change of heart and allowed el Chavo to tag along.
• Crying Wolf: One episode has la Chilindrina telling her father that el Chavo swallowed a microphone and Don Ramón ran to help him, but she actually meant a lollipop they were playing with as a microphone. Later when Quico actually swallowed a radio and el Chavo tried to tell Don Ramón, he just mocked him and angrily went away.
• Cultural Translation:
  • The Brazilian dub changed several Mexican references for Brazilian ones. For example, in the episode "Prohibido jugar Fútbol en la calle" from 1974 season, Don Ramón says he is a Monterrey supporter to make Señor Barriga happy (since he is a Monterrey supporter). In Brazilian dub, Don Ramón and Señor Barriga are Corinthians supporters. ^note Corinthians is a famous Brazilian football team
  • In an episode where the whole vecindad goes to a cinema, a bored Chavo keeps complaining: "It would have been better if we had gone watch El Chanfle".^note A football-themed comedy by Chespirito himself and starring the same cast as the show. As this film was never released in Brazil, it was changed to "Pelé's film", which viewers understood as referring either to the documentary Isto É Pelé, or the more recent Os Trombadinhas.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The infamous episode where Chavo is blamed for theft is quite dark and NOT Played for Laughs. Seeing everyone calling him a thief at his face is pretty shocking.
  • The tie-in book "El diario del Chavo" as well with stories of El Chavo watching kids die in the orphanage, his thoughts about poverty, and Jaimito dying of old age. Thankfully, the animated adaptation ignores the darker atmosphere of the book as well as Jaimito dying, and goes back to the more whimsical tone of the original show.
• Deathbringer the Adorable: Doña Clotilde has the very bad habit of naming her puppies "Lucifer" or "Satan". This, of course, scares the crap out of the overhearing kids, who already believed her to be a witch.
• Death by Childbirth: Apparently, this is what happened to Chilindrina's mother.
• Demoted to Extra: Doña Nieves was introduced with some excitement as a replacement for Don Ramón midway into the 1979 season. She was prominent in many episodes for the rest of that year. Then when El Chavo was absorbed back into the series Chespirito, she started being seen less frequently. In 1981, Don Ramón was briefly reintroduced on the program, and then replaced by Don Jaimito. Afterward, Doña Nieves rarely made appearances unless it was unavoidable. It´s hard not to attribute this to the fact that she and Chilindrina were played by the same actress, which forced any interaction between the two of them to be done via green-screen.
  • Doña Clotilde is barely present in the final season after Don Ramón leaves. With him gone, and fewer episodes taking place in the vecindad, there’s little reason for her to appear. She occasionally appears in the restaurant and gets to be in the final three-episode arc when everyone goes to live at Señor Barriga’s house.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • One of Chavo's top catchphrases, "Fue sin querer queriendo", means "I didn't mean to mean to." It's unclear whether he's messing up the phrase "I didn't mean to", or he means it exactly as spoken.
  • Professor Jirafales is full of these:
    Professor Jirafales: ¿Por cuál causa, motivo, razón o circunstancia? (For what cause, intent, reason or circumstance [did you do that]?)
  • When El Chavo was selling "aguas frescas", Quico asked for the prices: 50 cents, a tostón (50 cents), and two for 1 peso. Quico realizes the mistake and asks again.
  • The following exchange is typical between Don Ramón and La Chilindrina:
    Don Ramon: Chilindrina, mete 'pa dentro. (Chilindrina, go in inside.)
    Chilindrina: Nimodo que meta 'pa fuera. (Like I could go in outside.)
• Description Cut: When Doña Florinda complains to Doña Cleotilde for pulling a prank on her with a mouse, the latter naturally denies having done so and tells Doña Florinda to ask Quico about it. Doña Florinda says that her son would "never touch such a filthy animal". Cut to Quico at the other patio petting the mouse.
• Designated Victim: Almost every character is this for another. Lampshaded in one episode when Quico explained why Don Ramón punished El Chavo. (Quico didn't want to admit he was the one at fault) Later in that same episode, El Chavo repeated the explanation when Doña Florinda slapped Don Ramón. Also discussed in another episode, where after the usual misblaming and slap from Doña Florinda, Don Ramón hits Chavo, who was somewhat responsible for the whole thing, and the kid leaves crying. Señor Barriga comments that Don Ramón did that just to take his rage out on someone, and he answers that in that case, Chavo could go take it out on somebody else. Cut to Chavo knocking on Quico's door and knocking him out with his trademark three punches without saying a word.
• Digging Yourself Deeper:
  • Generally, when someone insults another character and the latter notices it, the former tries to fix his or her 'mistake'... only to make an actual mistake and insult the latter further. An example:
    Doña Clotilde: Why are you calling me a witch all the time?
    Quico: No, I wasn't talking about you. I was talking about a woman that also looks like a witch.
  • This exchange from the episode where Doña Florinda gives Quico's puppy back to el Profesor Jirafales:
    Doña Cleotilde: It says so in that sign Don Ramon: "Animals are strictly prohibited in this vecindad."
    Don Ramon: As long as you pay your rent, you shouldn't have any problems.
    Doña Cleotilde: What!?
    Don Ramon: No, no I mean as long as you don't have any animals in your apartment, aside from yourself...
    Doña Cleotilde: What did you say?!
    Don Ramon: What I meant to say was—
    Doña Cleotilde: Better that you don't say anything. Now I know why they called that animal Ramoncito.
  • The 15-minute skit where Jaimito the mailman takes pictures to send back to Tangamandafio has this exchange:
    Doña Cleotilde: Jaimito, why don't you just take my picture already?
    Chilindrina: 'Cause you'll break the camera!
    Doña Cleotilde: Whaaat?!
    Jaimito: Huh, that is the oldest phrase I know that is said to ugly people.
    Doña Cleotilde: What did you say?
    Jaimito: No, I meant oldest phrase given to the old hags!
    Doña Cleotilde: What was that?!
• Distracted by the Sexy: Don Ramón, El Chavo and Quico whenever Paty and her aunt are in the Vecindad. To Doña Clotilde and Chilindrina's chagrin Later, Profesor Jirafales was distracted as well. One of those times ended up with El Chavo killing Quico's cat to avoid crashing into him, and yet, Profesor Jirafales decided to put El Chavo into a mock trial in the vecindad... with him as the judge, no less.
• The Ditz: About everybody, though especially Quico.
• Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Doña Florinda every time she slaps Don Ramón's face:
  Doña Florinda: Let's go, Quico. Don't join this hasle.
  Quico: Yep, mommy. ¡CHUSMA, CHUSMA...!"
• Doppelgänger Crossover: El Chavo had a crossover with El Chapulín Colorado, another character portrayed by Chespirito.
• Don't Make Me Take My Belt Off!: Don Ramón would sometimes threaten Chilindrina by asking her if she knows what happens if he takes off his belt. Her answer was "Your pants fall off". If he tries to follow up with the threat he ends up proving her right.
• Double Entendre: "Yo le voy al Necaxa". Used by Don Ramón (and sometimes El Chavo) whenever he feels his masculinity was questioned or threatened.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Lampshaded in many episodes.
• Double Take: The source of plenty of the jokes in the series. Someone makes a nasty or surprising comment, the other person keeps talking as if the other person said the right thing (instead of what they actually said), but then that person suddenly stops in the realization of what they did say.
• Dub Name Change: In Brazil, Don Ramón and La Chilindrina changed their names to Seu Madruga and Chiquinha respectively.
• Dumb Is Good: El Chavo is probably one of the most kind-hearted characters in the show, even if he's pretty slow in the mind. Subverted in the case of Quico, who sometimes can be just as mean as he is stupid.
• Downer Ending:
  • In the episode "Los Globos y los Favores" (1977), Doña Florinda and Profesor Jirafales had a misunderstanding. Near the end, they were close to forgiveness, but a further misunderstanding led it to end with Doña Florinda telling Profesor Jirafales that she doesn't want to see him ever again, then he goes away sad, and with his foot injured. Chavo then laments about him and says that now all that remains is that a dog stains his pants^note The Prefossor himself said that sometime before (which immediately happens). Also, Doña Florinda's basket was still lost. Their relationship was back to normal in the following episode, though.
  • In the episode "El Desayuno Del Chavo" (all the live-action versions), El Chavo was sleeping against Don Ramón's door because he had been promised to have breakfast and he didn't want to "let him run away with it". Hilarious moments happened and happened, but Don Ramón was hit the hell off by Doña Florinda. Finally, he never got his breakfast, and he was sleeping again against Don Ramón's door, hoping that next morning, he may have a new chance. It was finally averted in the animated version, where Quico gives him a sandwich.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Early on, especially in episodes patched together from the sketch-show days, the characters look all wrong — most noticeably, Doña Florinda doesn't have her curlers, but there's also Chilindrina's long pigtails and white dress, Señor Barriga's occasional beardedness, and Don Ramón without moustache and living in a completely different apartment ^note and even then, there were still some later episodes where he occasionally didn't have the moustache..
  • Never mind the moustache and the apartment. In an early episode, Don Ramón is wearing a new, yellow, fancy (as in "it has buttons") collared shirt.
  • In Chilindrina's case, she always had long pigtails until they are cut by Chavo at a barbershop. Despite saying she would be scolded by her father for that, she kept the shorter pigtails forever.
  • Chavo would occasionally take his hat off on brief occasions. In later episodes, he is always seen wearing it except for a scene where it accidentally got off Chespirito's head he quickly put it back on. Also, he originally wore a yellow striped shirt instead of a white one, and it did not fit him properly, exposing part of his navel (oddly, this trait continued to be portrayed in Chavo illustrations shown in the 80s Chespirito openings and commercial breaks).
  • Don Ramón would hit Chavo much more frequently, doing so almost every time the latter annoyed him. Later on, Don Ramón usually only hits Chavo during the Running Gag of him asking about Don Ramón's grandmother, or if he already had been getting bothered too much by Chavo.
  • Señor Barriga was originally "Don" Barriga and wasn't the landlord, but just someone sent by the landlord to collect due rents.
  • At first, it was Quico's grandfather, not his father, who died in the sea.
  • An early episode, "Don Ramón carpintero" ("Don Ramón carpenter") in its original 1972 version features Family-Unfriendly Violence, especially in the scenes in which Don Ramón accidentally cuts his finger (with blood on it) with a handsaw and Señor Barriga being taken to the hospital (with his face bleeding) after being hit with a hammer many times. Needless to say, blood never appeared on El Chavo after this episode. This episode is often Bowdlerised in current airings.
• Easier Than Easy: Quico and Godínez's Beginner's Chess - a 2 x 2 chess board.
• Economy Cast: Only ten named regular characters during the 1973-1978 run.
• Eek, a Mouse!!: Both Doña Florinda and Chilindrina jump into chairs and scream during an episode in which they find a mouse roaming Doña Florinda's restaurant.
  • Both Doña Florinda and Doña Clotilde also faint when Quico brings a mouse in a bag.
• Empty Piles of Clothing: Happened once with Ñoño, when el Chavo pokes him with a pair of scissors and he gets blown up like a balloon.
• "Eureka!" Moment: In the cotton candy episode, Don Ramón gives el Chavo a peso to buy himself a cotton candy, but Chilindrina tricks him into "planting" it in a flower pot so he'll grow a money tree. When Quico sees her stealing it, she explains that she's burying "her" peso so that Don Ramón will give her another one; Quico buries his and Chilindrina steals it too. When Chavo and Quico begin fighting over who's trying to steal the money, they hear Chilindrina laughing loudly, and come to a realization:
  Quico: Chavo, there are two pesos missing here, and Chilindrina has two cotton candies.
  Chavo: Eso, eso, eso, eso, eso, eso!

Chavo and Quico proceed to "plant a Chilindrina tree" by burrying her feet in large flower pot and pouring water on her.

• Even Evil Has Standards: Elderly Don Jaimito replaced Don Ramón in the ‘80s episodes, but the physical abuse from Doña Florinda was not repeated from the earlier scripts. Apparently, Doña Florinda wouldn’t hit an old man.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": In Spanish, "chavo" is a phonetically reduced form of "chaval", a slangterm meaning "kid". So "El Chavo" would translate to "The Kid", which is what everyone calls him. While he does have a real name, it's never revealed; see The Unreveal.
• Everything Makes a Mushroom: In the 1975 version of the episode El Chavo was hunting "insepts", in the end, Don Ramón decides to smoke a cigarette Doña Clotilde gave him, not before drinking from El Chavo's bottle of soda... that actually had gasoline in it. After Don Ramón lights a match, the shot of a explosion making a mushroom appears.
• Evil Matriarch: Doña Florinda is a mild version, more of a My Beloved Smother technically speaking... but truly terrifying when seriously pissed.
• Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: El Chavo was once selling newspapers and shouting the trope to announce about cops chasing smugglers and a female domestic servant strike. Watching a cop stalk a woman in maid attire made him mix up. Later, he played on the old joke mentioned in The Simpsons example and shouted an announcement about thirteen deceived people. Don Ramón bought a newspaper and complained it was a week-old one. He updated it to fourteen. Then Quico, who had previously asked to read a Chapulín comic book to check if he hasn't already read it, returned it, claiming he had already read it. As Quico shouted about fifteen deceived people, Don Ramón laughed at how the trick was turned on Chavo.
• Faint in Shock: An episode centers around Patty giving kisses to Quico and El Chavo and causing them to faint, and whenever it happens, they're "revived" with buckets of water. At the end of the episode, Don Ramón ends up getting one from Patty's aunt Gloria and faints too. Chavo then calls dibs on him, but instead of a bucket of water, he grabs one full of bricks...
• Fake Guest Star: Dr. Chapatin is announced as a Special Guest Star in the episode he appears in, but he is just another character played by Chespirito.
• Fake Rabies: In one episode, Chavo and Quico think Don Ramón has rabies because of his shaving cream.
• Foreign Re-Score: In the Brazilian dub, the entire sound design of the show was completely replaced and done from scratch, including the background music. The original music from Disney movies or other works is replaced by licensed music from multiple albums, especially from the album Kids and Cartoons by John Charles Fiddy and Tony Hymas. Among countless other examples, the song playing whenever Doña Florinda and Profesor Jirafales meet becomes a cover version of "Tara's Theme" from Gone with the Wind, and the original theme song The Elephant Never Forgets is replaced by Fiddy's Skipping. However, during moments without any dialogue, there are rare occasions where the original music remains.
• Fight Bell Hijinks: Whenever Don Ramón bops Chavo on the head for annoying him, a bell is heard in the background.
• First-Name Basis: The surnames of several main characters were not known, namely Don Ramón, La Chilindrina, Doña Nieves, Doña Cleotilde and Jaimito the mailman.
• First-Name Ultimatum: Speaking of which, whenever Quico got extremely obnoxious with his mother, Doña Florinda would get mad and call him Federico. Quico would get the hint quickly and go cry in his favorite corner.
• Fleeting Demographic Rule: For Chespirito, it's generally a three year rule, although sometimes a story would only get one season off before being repeated, or in rare cases, it would be made two seasons in a row.
• Flowery Insult: After Jaimito added to Chilindrina's comment as to why he could not take her picture at the time has this exchange:
  Chilindrina: Jaimito, I think you'll defend yourself better by being quiet.
  Doña Cleotilde: Look, I am talking to the donkey, not its ticks.
  Jaimito: Well said— What!?
  Doña Cleotilde: You hear me. Goes home.
• Fly in the Soup: El Chavo and La Chillindrina bring a fly to Doña Florinda's restaurant to pull a scam. Hilarity Ensues when the fly flees and El Chavo destroys the restaurant and scare away the other customers while trying to recapture it.
• Forgotten Birthday: Everyone but La Chilindrina forget about Don Ramón birthday in "El cumpleaños de Don Ramón" - Don Ramón himself feels tired and depressed and thought he was going to die. La Chilindrina realizes he had forgotten which day it was and tries to plan a surprise party with Quico, Doña Florinda and Doña Clotilde... whose attempts to hide what they were talking about, coupled with El Chavo's Poor Communication Kills due to eavesdropping too late, only made Don Ramón feel worse.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Subverted. Don Ramón's apartment is the opposite of luxurious, but there's still no way he should be able to afford to live there. It's just that Señor Barriga continually pardons him the unpaid rent he's accumulated.
• Freudian Slip: Every once in a while Quico will call Profesor Jirafales "Daddy."
• Fully-Clothed Nudity: In one of the Acapulco episodes, when Chavo chases Quico around the beach, we see a woman who's sheepishly covering her body with a blanket. when Chavo and Quico run past, they cause her blanket unwrap, and she looks incredibly embarrassed trying to cover her body, while wearing a Victorian-era swimsuit.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • Done once when the kids went on "Strike",
    Prof.Jirafales: ¿Qué significa E.M.P.L? ^note What does "E.M.P.L" stands for?
    Chilindrina: Exigimos Mejoras Pro Libertad.^note We Demand Rights In favor of Freedom
    Chavo: Yo creí que decía El Maestro Parece Longaniza. ^note I Thought It Meant The teacher looks like Longsausage.
  • Also, the signs brought by the people rallied by La Chillindrina's "Biscabuela" to protest against El Chavo's work conditions at Doña Florinda's restaurant.
  • In another episode, Don Ramón tries to avoid paying his due rents by claiming there are flying saucers in the sky, tricking Señor Barriga as well as Quico. When Don Ramón escapes...
    Quico: So, was it really a flying saucer?
    Señor Barriga: No, I don't think it was really an UFO.
    Quico: An UFO?
    Señor Barriga: UFO is an acronym that means Unidentified Flying Object. What had escaped was a WISP - a Well Identified Scamming Person.
• Gainax Ending: There's one episode where Mr. Barriga punches Don Ramón out and then jumps on him, leaving him flat as a pancake, and later another where El Chavo pokes Ñoño with a pair of scissors, blowing him up like a balloon and leaving only his clothes behind. Obviously, they were back to normal the following episodes.
• Girlish Pigtails: All the female "kids", but most notably La Chilindrina. Averted with Patty, who wears a ponytail.
• Got Volunteered: In the episodes where there is no water in the vecindad, Don Ramón tries to get Chavo to say he'll go get water from the vecindad next door, but when Chavo doesn't say he'll go, Don Ramón orders Chilindrina to fetch some pails, and forces Chavo to go get the water. As Chilindrian points and laughs at Chavo, Don Ramón gives her some pails and forces her to with Chavo. Just as Quico starts laughing at Chavo and Chilindrina, Doña Florinda politely asks him to go get some water.
• Grammar Correction Gag:
  • Professor Jirafales once entered the classrom and the chalkboard had a sketch of him as a longsauce with the quote "maistro longanisa". He then proceed to change it to "longaniza". It wasn't until he sat down that he realized what he just saw.
  • It's also frequent that El Chavo would start relating something that happened with "I and Quico". Professor Girafales would try to correct it as "Quico and I" and Chavo responding with "No, you weren't there". Other characters instead would say "El burro por delante" ("the donkey goes first", a phrase used in Mexico to correct that specific mistake) and Chavo answering with "No, Quico was walking behind".
• Heads or Tails?: Used in some episodes when trying to win the peso itself. But one stands out due to a bet between three.
  Chilindrina: (To Quico) If is heads, then el Chavo wins and you lose; and if it's tails, then I win and you lose.
  Quico: Then when do I win?
  Chilindrina: When it comes backwards.
  Quico: That makes sense.
• Held Back in School:
  • A common gag involves Don Ramón saying that he was at school for 9 years, then Chilindrina, or any of the other kids, comments "Eight in first grade, and one in second".
  • In one episode, Don Ramón is assisting Profesor Jirafales' class, at first as an excuse to escape from Doña Florinda, later, she and Profesor Jirafales agree to allow him in class, as he could use some good education.
• Hit Me, Dammit!:
  • Don Ramón, after taking the blame for Chavo eating all of Doña Florinda's churros, fully expects her to beat him up for it, and tells her to get on with it. Doña Florinda already knew Chavo had eaten them, and thought Don Ramón was really noble in trying to protect him so she didn't even got mad at all.
  • In another episode, Don Ramón had accidentally eaten some bugs that were in Quico's popcorn bag. He angrily pinches Quico, but Doña Florinda catches him. Then this exchange occurs:
    Doña Florinda: So now you're gonna deny pinching Quico?
    Don Ramón: No madam, this time I don't deny it, I did it!
    (Doña Florinda slaps Don Ramón)
    Don Ramón: That slap was because I pinched Quico, right?
    Doña Florinda: Of course.
    Don Ramón: Slap me again!
    Doña Florinda: You want me to slap you again?
    Don Ramón: Yes madam!
    Doña Florinda: With pleasure.
    (Doña Florinda slaps Don Ramón again. Then, he pinches Quico one more time)
    Doña Florinda: Hey, but...
    Don Ramón: We are even!
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Don Ramón snark ended insulting himself.
  Chavo: Ron Damón, why are you painting the door?
  Don Ramón: To see how many idiots ask.
  Quico: Why are you painting the door?
  Don Ramón: To see how many idiots ask.
  Chavo: (to Quico) Counting you, is already two.
  Chilindrina: Daddy... the house looks so ugly.
  Don Ramón: And why am I painting the door?
  Chavo: Three.
• Hollywood Cuisine: How Don Ramón describes the difference between West Germany and East Germany in "El cortocircuito":
  Don Ramón: Yeah, but both are the same country - it's just that they drink vodka in one side, and beer in the other one.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • Despite knowing the El Chavo's lack of intelligence, Don Ramón keep asking him to do something which he could easily do but refuse due his laziness. As result, El Chavo misinterpret his words, do the completely opposite thing and Don Ramón gets slapped by Doña Florinda. All this could have been avoided if he did it by himself instead of asking El Chavo to do it.
  • El Chavo sometimes for his excessive blindness towards lies. A prime example is when Quico promises paying him one million Pesos in compensation for breaking one of the Soda Bottle which he was collecting to exchange for money. He truly believed Quico was going to pay him to the point of saying to Don Ramón he was going to pay his rent and buying better clothes to him. No wonder Quico burst in laughs and Don Ramon called him out for believing in this lie.
  • In the episode "El Raton de Quico", Doña Florinda defends Quico when Doña Clotilde suspects him to having switched (by accident) the paper bags that contained both the rat, to prank Chavo, and the sugar Clotilde bought for Florinda, saying that her son would be uncapable of touching "a disgusting animal". Cut to Quico caressing his new unusual pet. Later on, they think Don Ramón was responsible for the prank when he in a rage crushed a piece of cheese, mistaking it for the rat, and then Quico ended up giving Clotilde the bag with the rat, with Florinda walking in on their argument and slapping him in response.
• How Much Did You Hear?: A guarantee is that if someone is telling someone else a secret, a third person (generally involved with the secret) will be eavesdropping. Sometimes, it's followed by an exchange similar to the one that happens in "El Cumpleaños de Don Ramón", when Don Ramón wants Quico to tell him what he, Doña Florinda, Doña Clotilde and La Chilindrina were talking about^note His Forgotten Birthday:
  Quico: Are you not going to tell anybody?
  Don Ramón: No, Quico!
  Quico: Me neither.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The very tall Profesor Jirafales with Doña Florinda, who is of average height. In a Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, in one time she tried to kiss him, Doña Florinda had to stand on the tips of her feet, and even then she couldn't reach his lips. Quico kills the mood by asking her if she needed a stool.
• Human Hummingbird: El Chavo gives a nice live-action interpretation of the trope whenever he's excited about something.
• Hypocrite:
  • Doña Clotilde doesn't want anyone to think she's a witch. Yet, she has named her dog and her cat Satan.
  • In one episode, after he learns a blank painting represented El Chavo's daily breakfast, Profesor Jirafales discusses with Doña Florinda about those poor people who cannot even get something to eat. This happens while they are eating all the cookies in a plate even though El Chavo himself was there and couldn't get a single cookie. El Chavo left in silence, though the scene itself hints Profesor Jirafales and Doña Florinda were unaware they were denying El Chavo some food.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Doña Florinda once told El Chavo that some women take advantage of Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male to hurt men without retaliation. Later, when she's about to slap Don Ramón, he reminds her of what she said, only for her saying she is one of those women, then she slaps him. El Chavo also conveniently ignores his golden rule that men shouldn't hit women and tries to hit La Chilindrina or La Popis when provoked, especially on remakes that originally had Quico being hit or chased by him (in one of them, Señor Barriga even encourages him to hit Popis after she makes fun of his weight, which was one of the aforementioned remakes originally with Quico).
  • Near the end of the episode where Don Ramón stays on the class for one day, Profesor Jirafales orders Chavo to go erase the blackboard, where there are two drawings: one of a circle, and one of a skull. Chavo first points to the circle, asking "Should I erase Ñoño as well?". Ñoño gets angry and offended, so Don Ramón tells him "Calm down, can't you take a joke?". Afterwards, Chavo points to the skull and asks "Should I erase Don Ramón too?"; Don Ramón himself gets angry and offended at this.
  • During the episode where El Chavo gets a job as a waiter at Doña Florinda's restaurant, the mailman Jaimito at one point blows his whistle (which she tells him is what most mailmen do whenever they arrive) repeatedly inside the place when he came by to deliver a letter for her. After he stops, Florinda gets mad and yells at Jaimito that he's supposed to do that outside because the customers want to eat in silence and without making noise. As she's calling him out in that tone, a customer is heard shushing Florinda, because she's the one actually making noise, and she apologizes.

I-N

• I Ate WHAT?!: In one episode where El Chavo was hunting "insepts" for his bug collection, Quico drinks from Chavo's bottle thinking it was lemonade. It was gasoline that El Chavo used to kill the bugs. Later, Chilindrina, Don Ramón and Doña Clotilde eat from Chavo's bag thinking they're snacks. They were Chavo's bug collection. Needless to say, both times the characters reacted in absolute disgust.
• Idiot Ball: Almost every '80s or '90s episode was a Recycled Script. Many of those came from the season where La Chilindrina was Put on a Bus and the only major kid characters were Chavo and Quico. After Quico is gone, this usually means the recycled version is done with Chilindrina and Chavo, those being the primary kid characters in the later years. This usually forces Chavo or Chilindrina to act somewhat dumber than usual. Since this is especially Out of Character for Chilindrina, she often plays it off like Obfuscating Stupidity or just being annoying with no particular endgame in mind.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Happens a lot. Especially to Quico.
  La Chilindrina: (Angrily, to El Chavo) The worst part of this is that I'll have to clean the patio with the most stupid kid in the world!
  Quico: (Who was just passing by) You are crazy if you think I am going to help you! (All of this with an arrogant expression, which makes La Chilindrina feel worse than before)
• I Take Offense to That Last One: In an instance for example:
  Quico: Did you hear them, Mom? They called you an old dirty-mouth!
  Doña Florinda: Don't pay them attention, Quico.
  Quico: But you're not a dirty-mouth!
• I Was Just Joking: "¡Lo dijo de broma!", a Running Gag in one episode in which Don Ramón dismisses La Chilindrina's insults at Doña Florinda as that. When Don Ramón accidentally insults Doña Florinda, El Chavo says the same thing to him.
• I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: In the chapter "El Chicle en el Sombrero", Quico promises Chavo that he will not reveal to Don Ramon that the gum smeared on his employer's hat, however once Don Ramon asks him about the hat, he ends up revealing it stupidly
• Impoverished Patrician: Doña Florinda (outright stated) and Doña Clotilde (heavily implied).
• Informed Attractiveness: Inverted. Everyone comments very negatively on almost everyone else's appearance. Insults about being "ugly" are standard discourse. However, only Don Ramón might truly qualify as "ugly"; others are either average looking or have one quality holding them back, such as Clotilde´s age, Quico's cheeks or Señor Barriga´s weight. Doña Florinda and Chilindrina just dress poorly and have bad hairstyles. Characters even comment on Popis, likely the least unattractive of the regular cast, as if she is physically deformed.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • Why do you keep talking when I am interrupting?.
  • Don Ramón uses it in the episode where Señor Barriga is trying to sell the vecindad to move due to heart problems. His plan to prevent him to sell it is buying the vecindad by himself. Obviously everyone gets surprised since Don Ramón doesn't have money to pay a single month of rent. Then, he explains his plan in the house: he has a debt of 14 months of rent to Señor Barriga. In 20 years, his debt is going to be equal to the value of the vecindad. So, Don Ramón suggests he takes the vecindad from Señor Barriga and since in 20 years his debt will reach the vecindad's value, they will be even. Señor Barriga is not amused, and judging by Don Ramón's reaction, he wasn't even aware of how nonsensical his plan was.
  • El Chavo's "aguas frescas" he made. Somehow he made a drink that looks like it's roselle that is actually tamarind, but it tastes like lemon. Likewise for the drink that looks like it's lemon, is actually roselle but tastes like tamarind, and for the drink that looks like it's tamarind, is actually lemon but tastes like roselle. When Don Ramón asks for a lemon drink, El Chavo asks him if he wants the one that looks like lemon, the one that is lemon, or the one that tastes like lemon.
• Insistent Terminology: A few.
  • One is Jirafales' insistence on being addressed as "professor" instead of the less-prestigious "maestro", meaning "teacher". It sure beats "Maistro Longaniza".
  • Later on, Doña Florinda is adamant that her business is a "restaurant", since people have a tendency to call it a "fonda", which implies more of a Greasy Spoon diner (there was even a signpost on it which read "Fonda" before she opened her business there).
  • Doña Clotilde
    "No es señora, ¡es señorita!"^note In this case, "señora" means a married woman, and she insists on "señorita" because she's still single.
  • Don Ramón uses this to defend his new jobs when Doña Florinda mocks them. He's not a party items salesman^note "La guerra de la independencia" and "Los tronadores", he's a "tradesman specializing in folkloric items meant for juvenile consumption". He's not a ragman^note "El ropavejero", he's an "agent specializing in buying and selling household items".
• Insult Backfire: In an episode where the kids are playing music, Don Ramón complains at the noise they are making. It is when this exchange happens:
  Don Ramón: (to El Chavo) Don't you understand that there could be a neighbor that wants to have a nap?
  Doña Florinda: (as she just arrived) Yes, those who were partying all night yesterday!
  El Chavo: (to Doña Florinda) And why are we to blame that you were partying all night yesterday?
• Insult Misfire: In one episode, Don Ramón entered Professor Jirafales' class claiming he wanted to learn. (He just wanted a place where he'd be safe from Doña Florinda) When El Chavo first saw him there, he believed it was an old kid who looked like Don Ramón. When Don Ramón stated something like "I am, idiot!", El Chavo said they had even that in common.
  • A variation occurs whenever a pet is present. A person will be referred to an animal, while answering a question about the pet. For example:
    (In the episode where Chavo finds a puppy)
    Quicko: What's that animal doing here?
    Chilindrina: Oh, he's just telling about the puppy he found.
    Chavo: (Rasises his fist to punch her) That's it, that's it... (Chilindrina runs away)
  • In the episode where Don Ramón thinks Doña Florinda's cat has been eating his goldfish:
    Don Ramón: [Knocks on the door]
    Doña Florinda: What do you want?
    Don Ramón: I'm here to kill that animal.
    Doña Florinda: [Shields Profesor Jirafales] No! Don't touch him!
  • In the 15 minute skit where Doña Cleotilde is regaining consciousness after being shown Chavo's dead lizard:
    Profesor Jirafales: Doña Cleotilde, are you okay? What happened?
    Doña Cleotilde: Oh! I was frightened by that disgusting animal!
    Profesor Jirafales: Nice, very nice. Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Don Jaimito, at your age and scaring a defenseless anciana?
    Don Jaimito: Well, it's just that I— (beat) Hold on!! Are you calling me—!!
    Doña Cleotilde: Who are YOU calling anciana!?^note Anciano/a means old person, but it has the connotation of being an insult rather than a term of endearment.
    Doña Florinda: Don't you dare raise your voice at him!
    (All four adults start screaming at each other)
  • In the first part of where there is no water in the vdcindad:
    *[Arguing about a bucket that Chilindrina brought, but Doña Florinda insist is hers]
    Don Ramón: I'm telling you, that's my bucket!
    Profesor Jirafales: Don't be so sure my good man, remember, an intelligent person often doubts about what they said, only a moron is absolutely sure of everything they said!
    Don Ramón: Are you sure, Profesor?
    Preofesor Jirafales: Absolutely! No, I mean, the thing is...
• Insult to Rocks:
  • Based on the Idiom "Everything resembles its owner" El Chavo says that a broom belongs to Doña Florinda. When Don Ramón tells him that that comparison is offensive, he says it doesn't matter, because brooms don't understand.
  • This exchange from the episode where Quico gets a dog:
    Don Ramon storms off angrily to wash his ties used as an improvised dog leash.
    Quico: Do you think he got mad for naming him Ramoncito.
    El Chavo: Doesn't matter, dogs don't understand anyway.
• Ironic Echo: There's one somewhat meta, and likely even unintentional: in the 1974 episode that introduces Popis (played by the same actress as Doña Florinda, who is her aunt), Florinda and Don Ramón have the following exchange:

  Doña Florinda: They say she looks a lot like me.

  Don Ramón: Yes. Well, but what's important is that she's healthy.

Around 137 episodes later, in 1977, we get a flashback of Florinda's husband, in which she gave the same response when he said their son Quico had got his face (also a case of same-actor).

• In the episode where Doña Florinda returns Quiko's puppy to Profesor Jirafales, Don Ramón asks Chavo to go to the store and buy him half a dozen eggs, Chavo refuses on the grounds that Don Ramón doesn't tip him anymore, to which Don Ramón claims he'll pay Chavo "in full at the end of the year." When Chavo asks for the shopping money, Don Ramón says to have the store's owner charge it to Doña Florinda's account, and Chavo asks if he'll pay her "in full at the end of the year." When Chavo returns later and confesses to eating the eggs, he promises to pay him back, when Don Ramón asks when, Chavo responds "in full at the end of the year."
• In the first episode when there's no water in the vecindad, Chavo insults Don Ramón, which promts him to hit Chavo, when Chavo starts to cry, Don Ramón says "Don't cry! Men don't cry!" when Don Ramón orders Chavo to bring him a bucket of water, Chavo spills it, as Don Ramón is about to hit him again, Chavo uses the bucket as a helmet, hurting Don Ramón's hand, and when he begins to cry, Chavo says "men don't cry!"

• Ironic Name: Hurtado's name means "victim of theft". He is a thief himself.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even Doña Florinda gets Pet the Dog moments here and there.
  • It is heavily implied that the only reason why El Chavo survives is because the entire adult cast takes turns to feed him and shelter him, despite their own poverty.
  • Don Ramón used to play this trope often, being mean and grumpy to Chavo but then sharing what little food he had with Chavo or lending him a hand when everything seemed lost for the kid. In one episode Chavo wondered who was leaving empty plates on his barrel, until a night he discovered that Don Ramón was sleepwalking and leaving (what he believed on his dreams) a feast for Chavo to eat.
• The Klutz: El Chavo
• Kung-Foley: With bell sounds.
• Lamarck Was Right: Chilindrina's nervous laugh when she's embarrassed is exactly the same as her dad's. "¡Ají! ¡Ají!"
  • The first time Doña Florinda is seen crying, it is the exact same style of Quico's cry. Even after she develops her unique style, her gestures remain the same.
  • Doña Nieves also cries in the exact same manner as her great granddaughter.
  • Notice Don Federico's facial expression when he's upset, and compare to Quico's in the same situation. He's also the reason his son wears a sailor's costume.
• Large Ham: QUICO.
  • When given enough power, Don Ramón becomes one. Hamming at 2:45
• Laser-Guided Karma: Don Ramon is often the Butt-Monkey of the series and often ends up injured, while La Chilindrina, who often causes the mischief that got him beaten up and Dona Florinda, who beats hims up, get off scott free, with few exceptions:
  • In one episode, La Chilindrina started a fight between el Chavo and Quico by shooting spitballs at them, Don Ramon saw her, and gave her a spanking. In another she told a series of riddles, whose answer rimed with a violent action, and hit El chavo numerous times, Don Ramon saw and gave her another spanking. In yet another episode, she tricked Quico and El Chavo into thinking the other stole money hidden in a flower pot. They realized they were had, and put her in a flower pot, saying they will grow a Chilindrina tree.
    • In the "Insepts" episode, La chilindrina pestered Don Ramon to give her money for popcorn, when he didn't give her a cent, she left the apartment crying. She snatched Chavo's insect collection. and after finding out what she was eating she went an tried to tell Don Ramon on him. Don Ramon told her that her crying explanation made it sound like Quico, or El Chavo, hit her after stealing their food, and Don Ramon said that she deserved it.
  • In the episode where the plumbing was fixed, a water fight ensued that ended with Dona Florinda crying because Profesor Jirafales threw a bucket of water at her.
    • In the first episode of that story, Don Ramon tells Chavo that he's going to the vecindad next door and fetch pails of water. After Don Ramon hears Chavo hear he's not going, he forces him anyway, then this exchange happens:
      Quico: Chavo, what's with all these pails?
      Chavo: I told you, thanks to the Bruja del 71, I got put to work.
      Chilindrina: (mockingly) You're gonna spend the whole day fetching water (starts laughing).
      Don Ramon: (Hands Chilindrina some pails) Chilindrina! Here, go get some water!
      Chilindrina: Walks away crying, and carrying the pails.
      Quico: (Laughing loudly) There you go, now you'll be like little cargo donkeys! (continues laughing)
      Doña Florinda: ♪ Oh, precious...♪
      Quico:' (Still laughing) Yes mommy- ? (immediately stops laughing when he sees Doña Florinda carrying several pails, and motioning he's going to fetch water.)
  • In another episode, Doña Florinda chases Don Ramon to beat him up for accidentally getting paint on her sheets. While she beats him up, El Chavo paints Don Ramon's front door, but Quico tells him that throwing a bucket of paint is faster, and shows El Chavo while Doña Florinda comes out of Don Ramon's apartment.
• Last-Name Basis: Profesor Jirafales's first name was never revealed, although it is implied to be Inocencio, which was his name in Chespirito's previous show Los supergenios de la mesa cuadrada. Also Godínez, whose given name is never said even though the rest of the kids are on First-Name Basis.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Used by Don Ramón once to Doña Clotilde. He tries to correct it with a pun:
  Doña Clotilde: I have to go. I have a meeting with my friends.
  Don Ramón: ¿Aquelarre? (Coven?)
  Doña Clotilde: What?.
  Don Ramón: A que la recuerdan bien sus amigas (I'm sure your friends remember you well)
• Late to the Punchline: Quico, so much that Chilindrina told him that if he's told a joke during a funeral, he'd laugh the next day during the burial.
• Laugh Track:
  • El Chavo went through phases of laugh tracks, the two major ones being when it had an old and very unconvincing sounding laugh track, and the later years when the laugh track was eliminated at the beginning of the 80's "out of respect for the audience". The removal of the Laugh Track is considered by some an unfortunate moment, especially because the laugh track was not really removed but basically replaced by some music track that served the same exact purpose as the laugh track to remind you when to laugh, so long for the respect for the audience.
  • There's also an unofficial laugh track provided by the crew, who occasionally cracked up at the antics of the cast, especially after an ad lib or a blooper. This unfortunately disappeared in later years as the series became more polished, and very repetitive.
• Law of Disproportionate Response: the base of many a joke.
• Lighter and Softer: Remakes of episodes that ended with Don Ramon being slapped, with his role being taken by Jaimito, had their ending changed to avoid showing an elderly person being hit: on rare occasions, Señor Barriga would be the one hurt instead. An example is the Paty and Gloria saga; in the three 70s versions, the first parts end with Don Ramón being slapped by both Doña Florinda and Gloria due to a misunderstanding. The 1987 remake completely omits this part.
• Limited Wardrobe: coupled with Costume Inertia above.
• Literal-Minded: Several times.
  • In the episode in which Don Ramón goes to school, El Profesor Jirafales tries to explain how to find the surface of a triangle. Don Ramón believed its surface had been missing since he was a child.
  • In one of the episodes involving balloons, there was a moment in which Quico, who had bought lots of balloons, offered a balloon to El Chavo under the reason he's a good person, who states that, if Quico were a good person, he should give half the balloons. Cue Quico tearing a balloon in half, then giving the smaller part to El Chavo.
    Quico: (To El Chavo) Explain me how you play with half a balloon.
  • The whole explanation of Don Ramón explaining el Chavo how to play bowling. Basically, El Chavo believes playing bowling is knocking down pine trees (That are behind a table^note The bowling court is called "mesa" (Table)) with the ball.
• Long-Lived: When Jaimito the mailman was a photographer he has this conversation with Doña Clotilde:
  Doña Clotilde: Why don't you take my picture?
  Jaimito: I go by age.
  Doña Clotilde: What?! Well, there people that are older than me.
  Jaimito: My mother for one.
  Doña Clotilde: (Shocked) Your mother, is still alive?
  Jaimito: Of course, she takes care of my grandmother.
  Doña Clotilde: Your grandmother is also alive?
  Jaimito: Yes, she lives with my great grandmother.
  Doña Clotilde: Don't tell me your great-great grandmother is still alive?
  Jaimito: (Sadly) But she's not doing so well. The doctor says she has no more than twenty years to live.
• Lost Aesop: In one episode, Don Ramón states that "Good people should love their enemies", a saying El Chavo takes at heart very quickly. That is, disregarding the fact El Chavo is too Literal-Minded to understand what it really means.
  El Chavo: (To Quico) I won't retaliate because good people should love their enemies.
  Quico: Who says that?
  El Chavo: Don Ramón said that, then La Chilindrina and now I'm saying that, so I won't hit you because good people should love their enemies.
  Quico: But Chavo, I'm not your enemy! I'm your friend!
  El Chavo: Should have said so earlier! (proceeds to beat up Quico)
• Loud Gulp: Done several times by Don Ramón, always while looking at the camera.
• Lost in Translation: In the Brazilian dub, the Running Gag of Chavo calling Don Ramón by "Ron Damón" is completely removed, and he instead always calls Don Ramón by his regular translated name "Seu Madruga". However, there is one episode where Sr. Barriga points this out and corrects Chavo on it, so since the misnaming was essential to the joke, the translation for that one specific scene had Chavo saying "Meu Sadruga" instead of "Seu Madruga".
• Maiden Aunt: Doña Clotilde
• Malaproper: most of the characters, but El Chavo is the most notorious of the bunch.
• Mathematician's Answer:
  • One of the punchlines in this show.
  • In one episode, El Chavo is selling refreshments and agrees to reveal Don Ramon's location if the landlord buys one. El Chavo then reveals that Don Ramon is still in the country.
• Meta Phorgotten:
  • Quico has told several motivational stories to El Chavo that all fell to this trope: "There was this poor, poor man who began collecting empty bottles and selling them, and kept collecting and selling and collecting and selling... until he won a lottery prize and became rich."
  • Another story involved a little girl who failed to sell a lottery ticket, which angered her father so much he spanked her until she started crying. The next day, the girl decided to check on a newspaper about the lottery ticket. She lost.
• Mickey Mousing: Used sparingly.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: Plastic balls can make people faint.
• Mirror-Cracking Ugly: Happens in the 1979 stop-motion intro. During Doña Clotilde's introduction, it shows a clip of her looking at a mirror, and the mirror instantly cracking from seeing her.
• Missed Him by That Much: Doña Florinda once asked Chavo to find Quico for her and Doña Clotilde asked Quico to find El Chavo. The two boys kept missing each other until they gave up searching.
• Misspelling Out Loud:
  • In the episode where Quico is doing a magic act
  Quico: Chilindrina hand me the caja ^note Caja is Spanish for box, in this case a cardboard box..
  Chilindrina: The What?
  Quico: Caja! C-A-G-A, ^note  Quico spelled caga, a verb that translates to "to shit." caja!
  • In an episode where Don Ramón stops Chavo from hitting Quico:
  Don Ramón: Honestly Chavo, can't the two of you live in peace!?
  Chavo: Where?
  Don Ramón: Peace! P-E-A-S-E! Peace!
  Chavo: But peace is written with a c, not s. ^note  whereas Don Ramón spelled out pas, with an "s", Chavo corrected him by saying its actually paz with a "z."
  Don Ramón: Really? Well, I'm not writing it I'm thinking it.
  Chavo: Then your brain—
  Don Ramón: Alright, enough!
  • In the episode where Quico has a mouse, Don Ramón asks for some cheese to kill it:
  Don Ramón: Now go get me some cheese!
  Chavo: Cheese?
  Don Ramón: Yes, cheese! K-E-E-S-E! Cheese! ^note  In Spanish, cheese is written "queso", but the "qu-" sound is pronounced like a "k"
  • In the episode where Don Ramón is working as plasterer, he pulls this twice in a row:
  Don Ramón: (after El Chavo causes a mess by mistaking plaster for donkey milk) I'll make this clear, Chavo. This thing over here is plaster. F-L-A-S-T-E-R! Plaster! ^note In spanish, plaster is written "yeso", but Don Ramón spelled it as "Lleso", which sounds very similar if not exactly the same depending on the country
  Chilindrina: Dad! That's not how you write the word plaster!
  Don Ramón: Yes, yes, I know it's written with a "z", but is this idiot supposed to know about that? ^note In several spanish-speaking countries, the "s" and "z" sound exactly the same
• Mistaken for Gay:
  • In an episode, the kids see Don Ramón teaching Jirafales how to recite poems to Doña Florinda. The kids misinterpret it as their teacher cheating on Doña Florinda with Don Ramón, and things didn't turn out pretty.
  • An episode has an implied example. Don Rámon asks Jirafales what the word "altruist" he just used means. Jirafales says that an altruist is "a man who loves his fellow men" and Don Rámon replies that he knew it by other name.
• Monkey Morality Pose: Doña Clotilde, Doña Florinda and La Chilindrina do, in that order, the "See no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil" poses... while watching a soap opera featuring Héctor Bonilla.
• Mood Whiplash: Chavo is all alone at the neighborhood after everyone left for Acapulco and starts playing with his cup-and-ball while "The Second Star to the Right" (from Disney's Peter Pan) plays on the background. Chavo then throws his toy backwards...hitting Mr. Barriga and the music abruptly stops.
• Musical Episode: "La clase de música" features El Profesor Jirafales in the school, trying to teach the kids the song "Qué bonita vecindad". Halfway through it, as El Profesor Jirafales tries to teach Doña Florinda that there is no age for tastes, the kids sing "Joven aún" to Don Ramón. In the end, the whole cast sings "Qué bonita vecindad"
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: From an episode where El Chavo and Quico were receiving guitar lessons from Don Ramón and Jirafales respectively:
  Jirafales: I've met good students, regular, bad, awful... and Quico.
• Named by the Dub: The protagonist's name is never revealed in the original version, as everyone simply refer to him as "chavo" (meaning "boy"). In Brazil, he is given the name Chaves. This leads to a Dub-Induced Plot Hole in later episodes, as the Running Gag where other characters try to find out the boy's name is rendered nonsensical.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Don Federico's surname is Mátalascallando (Kill them -women- quiet), although he didn't seem to act like that.
• Napoleon Delusion:
  • Don Ramón once faked this to avoid paying the rent.
  • And Doña Nieves on a remake of that episode — except she was Jeanne D'Arc.
• New Year's Resolution: One episode had the vecindad's residents having a New Year's party at Don Ramón's place. Doña Florinda promised she'd no longer hit him unless she had reasons like Don Ramón hitting Quico or denying doing so. She also promised she'd no longer act as if she's superior to any of her neighbors, albeit the wording of her promise suggests it's unlikely she's able to fulfill it. Quico promised to always allow El Chavo to borrow his toys. Chavo doubted Quico would keep that resolution. Quico explained that his resolution was based on Chavo usually kicking his toys so Chavo promised he'd no longer do it. Quico then allowed Chavo to borrow a ball. Don Ramón promised to pay all his debts. Doña Florinda then said it was only about resolutions that could be fulfilled. Like she's one to talk.
• Never Bareheaded: Neither Chavo nor Quico are ever seen without their hats for more than a few seconds, and this is even Lampshaded by Don Ramón in one episode. In fact, possibly the only time Chavo actually took his hat off was to hide a bag of bang snaps in it, which exposed his hair on-screen for approximately one second.
• No Budget: Observe, for example, how if someone's shirt gets spilled on, the stain remains for subsequent episodes. Works in-universe since most of the characters can't afford to replace clothes right away.
• No Continuity: Sometimes Chavo learns a small lesson about personal hygiene or the value of study. Sometimes Quico learns that his possessions aren't everything. Sometimes Doña Florinda realizes Don Ramón is not a monster and develops a modicum of respect for him. Don't expect any of it to last. Outside of a few details, such as Doña Florinda's restaurant or Don Ramón's established trait of being a former boxer, there is no plot development whatsoever in the series. Whatever happens in an episode (or small arc) ends there, and it's not referenced again.
• Nobody Here but Us Birds: In one episode, El Chavo, Quico and La Chillindrina imagine themselves inside Doña Clotilde's home and imagine it as a witch's lair. La Chillindrina makes a cat sound to cover a noise she makes and Quico later uses the same idea. When El Chavo makes a noise, he says "Another cat".
• No Hugging, No Kissing: You could count with one hand the amount of times Doña Florinda and Profesor Jirafales hugged each other - and all of them were accidental. They did try to kiss once, but the height difference made it impossible (with Quico even asking his mother if she needed a chair).
• Nonverbal Miscommunication: Sometimes, a character will be warned with sign language that someone they don't want to see is behind them. They will misinterpret the signs as mockery.
• Noodle Incident: Don Federico was Swallowed Whole after his ship sank at sea, leaving Quico and Doña Florinda impoverished.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: The children have the same age during all the series. El Chavo in particular is always 8.
• Not the Intended Use: In the episode where Quico gets a puppy, Don Ramón tries on several occasions to wash some ties he intends to sell, only for the ties to be used (without permission) either as an impromptu jumprope, and as a leash for Ramoncito. At the end of the episode, we see Don Ramón has finally found a good use for his ties, tying Chavo and Quico to the metal stair handrail.
• Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: Used a few times, one episode has Chavo faking having being run over by a truck so people would give him food while he was sick, after Quico helps set him up and tell everyone he was hurt, Chavo leaves for a while and everyone thinks that he was taken to the Red Cross. Later while they are mourning him, Don Ramón asks for some money for the funeral the people present, while Chavo appears crying at the emotional moment and offering 20 cents for his own funeral. Everyone thinks Don Ramón did it all for the money and they chase him out.
• Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Played both straight and in a non-homosexual version.
• Not What It Looks Like: Every time Don Ramón tries to stop the kids from doing something dangerous or annoying (especially Quico), it would always be at the worst possible time: Doña Florinda would arrive at the last second, and Quico would come crying to her and tell her what happened, but without telling her who specifically did it. When Don Ramón tries to explain the situation, Doña Florinda assumes it was Don Ramón (even if it wasn't actually him) and slaps him.

O-T

• Offscreen Teleportation: Played for Laughs sometimes with El Chavo.
• Only Sane Man: Señor Barriga and Profesor Jirafales.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In one episode, El Chavo accidentally thinks Don Ramon is homosexual (in reality he was teaching Profesor Jirafales on how to court Doña Florinda, with Don Ramon playing the role of Doña Florinda). He is so disgusted that even when Don Ramon offers to buy him lunch (with the money Profesor Jirafales paid him for the lesson), El Chavo runs away. El Chavo, portrayed as always being hungry, would never turn down the offer of lunch under any other circumstances.
• Or My Name Isn't...: As part of a threat Don Ramón gives El Chavo in the first of the two Héctor Bonilla episodes. It doesn't work as he intended:
  Don Ramón: From now on, you begin respecting me, or my name isn't Ramón!
  El Chavo: (as he leaves) Yes, Don Juan.
• Overly Long Gag: One of the balloons episodes had nearly the entire first half involving El Chavo not understanding La Chilindrina's instructions on how to pull down a balloon (that was actually Quico's).
• Overly Long Name: Doña Florinda Corcuera y Villalpando, widow of Mátalascallando.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Quico said the following about Doña Florinda, who had an Aside Glance to silently lampshade it:
  Quico: You're the nicest and most beautiful mother I've had in my entire life!
• Parental Abandonment: Quico and La Chilindrina are orphaned of one of their parents (Quico's dad died when the ship that he was captain of sunk; Chilindrinas's mom has a classic Death by Childbirth). Unfortunately for Chilindrina, Don Ramón eventually just disappears as well. El Chavo has never met his parents, and (according to a suplementary novel) the only person who raised him is already dead; while he is rarely prone to remind people of his orphanhood, it becomes a harsh remark when he does.
  • In one episode Doña Florinda asks Chilindrina why her father disappeared, and she answers he went off to look for a job and promised to never return until he gets one. He never returned.
  • Popis mentions her parents once in a while as if they're still present in her life, but she appears to live at Doña Florinda's house and accept her as a parental figure.
• Parents as People: All the parents who appear in the show. They love their kids, but both their poverty and their deeply flawed personalities cause a lot of hidden harm in them. All of that played for laughs.
• Perpetual Poverty: To varying degrees, but everyone in the vecindad is always poor. The Churros arc begins at a point where Doña Florinda and Don Ramón's poverties reach a critical point.
• Pie in the Face: Subverted. The pies were made with shaving cream.
• Playing Sick: La Chilindrina often attempts this to avoid school.
• Plot Tumor: The school and Doña Florinda's restaurant, in the later seasons and when El Chavo became part of Chespirito, had much more episodes featured on them than on the vecindad, the original setting.
• Pluralses: "Momses and dadses", as Don Ramón would say.
  • This exchange from a school episode:
  Profesor Jirafales: Why can't I say my shoes are "brownses?"
  Ñonño: Because they're black.
• Poor Communication Kills: Source of much of the humor.
  • When Doña Florinda asks Quico what happened that he needs her help, he never says who did what. Just ask poor Don Ramón: more often than not he is beaten up without being allowed any explanation, especially over things other people (Especially El Chavo) did.
  • In one episode, Doña Florinda prepared cuernos^note which resemble croissants for Profesor Jirafales as a surprise. Doña Florinda eventually leaves, and Profesor Jirafales arrives later and is told by El Chavo and Don Ramón about the cuernos Doña Florinda put for him ("Poner los cuernos" is a spanish idiom that means cheating) and Profesor Jirafales gets understandably angry.
  • Likewise for the example mentioned in Mistaken for Cheating - Don Ramón was coaching Profesor Jirafales how to tell Doña Florinda he's in love with her (With Don Ramón as Profesor Jirafales, and the latter as Doña Florinda). Quico and El Chavo peek into Don Ramón's house just as he got into the declaration of love, and then...
  • Almost literal in "El cumpleaños de Don Ramón", where Don Ramón tells El Chavo to eavesdrop what La Chilindrina, Quico, Doña Florinda and Doña Clotilde were talking about. Everything El Chavo hears^note Something having rotten meat, a box (As in "a coffin") being prepared, Doña Clotilde getting four candles and Quico telling La Chilindrina "I'll kill him!" sounds like Don Ramón was so ill they were planning to relieve him of his suffering... permanently. They were just discussing what to do for Don Ramón's surprise Forgotten Birthday party. ^explanationWhat El Chavo heard was Doña Florinda saying they should not buy meat from a nearby store because it sells rotten meat, Doña Florinda stating she was going to buy a chocolate box, Doña Clotilde going to decorate the birthday cake with four candles and Quico telling La Chilindrina he was going to kill a chicken so that she would roast it Said episode ends with El Chavo trying to knock everyone out uncounscious so Don Ramón can live.
• Posthumous Character: Don Federico, who gets a mention every now and then ("Descansa en pez" -rests in fish- according to Quico), appeared in a flashback witha younger Doña Florinda and baby Quico before he ships out to sea.
• Phrase Catcher: Whenever Chavo hits someone, that person will angrily shout him "¡¡Tenía que ser el CHAVO del Ocho!!" ("It had to be El CHAVO del Ocho!!")
• Porn Stash: Implied Don Ramón has one.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: Played straight and toyed with in the same "Paty" episode. In the beginning, Paty kisses Quico, and he faints. Later when Quico tells El Chavo and La Chilindrina about this, La Chilindrina does an experiment with El Chavo: She kisses Chavo, and wonders why he did not faint:
  Chilindrina: Chavo, didn't you feel anything?
  Chavo: I did.
  Chilindrina: What?
  Chavo: Anger.
• Princess in Rags: Doña Florinda, and since she more often that not acts like a grown-up Alpha Bitch, this is played for laughs.
• Product Placement: Ocassional references to other Chespirito programs would show up from time to time (if the references are not actual crossovers). A notable example is one of the invisibility episodes - when El Chavo and Quico are talking about an El Chapulín Colorado episode about an invisible man, Quico tells El Chavo about the series having its broadcast schedule changed.
• Propeller Hat of Whimsy: As the show is the Latin American Trope Codifier for Dawson Casting and Adults Dressed as Children, one of the "kids" wears a propeller hat as well a sailor suit (not that one), that being Kiko (or Quico), one of the friends and mostly frenemy of Chavo. Even after his departure from the show, he kept making Suspiciously Similar Substitute characters in other shows, but always using the propeller hat as distinctive clothes.
• Punny Name:
  • Profesor Jirafales (Jirafa being the Spanish word for Giraffe). His nickname: Maistro Longaniza (Teachurr Longsausage)
  • Zenón Barriga y Pesado (With the Z pronounced as S, it sounds like Man-boobed Belly and Heavy).
• Put on a Bus:
  • La Chilindrina, Don Ramón and Quico. Chilindrina managed to return (María Antonieta de las Nieves had been given a show for herself in another network, but it was shortly cancelled). Carlos Villagrán departed over creative differences, and was explained away as having been sent to live with wealthy relatives^note Because he couldn't stand "la chusma" any longer.. Ramón Valdés left to work with Villagrán; within the show, he was supposed to have left to look for work abroad. Given Don Ramón's work-shy disposition, it was to be understood that he was being Put on a Bus forever. And then, the actor died of lung cancer (lampshaded in a late episode when Chilindrina, after seeing Chavo get special treatment, remarks that she is also an orphan.)
  • On a minor scale, Gloria and Patty. Both are presented in three episodes together, episodes which were remade at least four times. Yet, due to Negative Continuity, they were never seen or mentioned again after said episodes, except for the third Patty, who was a regular character for about a year. This is averted on the Animated Adaptation of the show, where Gloria remains resident of the village and Patty gets promoted to main character status.
• Real Song Theme Tune: The show uses Jean Jacques Perrey's "The Elephant Never Forgets" as its theme tune, which in turn is an arrangement of Beethoven's Turkish March (aka Marcia Alla Turca).
• Redundant Romance Attempt: Whenever Profesor Jirafales thinks Doña Florinda is cheating on him (more often than not, with Don Ramón), he resorts to rather... agressive ways to prove his love towards her is stronger, even though it's just a misunderstanding and Doña Florinda never realizes what he's trying to do.
• Recursive Canon: El Chavo was selling El Chavo del Ocho comic books once.
• Remember the New Guy?: Done in the two episodes featuring Doña Eduviges. In "El Traje del tío Jacinto" (1973), she comes into the scene greeting Chilindrina. She responds normally, but Quico is absolutely astonished to see her, so Chilindrina informs him about her. In the following episode, when she comes into scene the camera focuses only on her for some time, and Chavo asks Chilindrina who she is, even though he knew her from the previous episode.
• Reset Button: Underlines the Negative Continuity.
• Retcon : The Word of God stating that the neighbors turn to house El Chavo, but the Sleep walker episodes clearly show El Chavo really living inside the barrel.^note Or does he?
• Retool: A shift in focus during the last season, after Quico, and then Don Ramón, leave. Doña Florinda opens a restaurant and Chavo starts to work there, resulting in a large number of episodes that take place away from the neighborhood. Even many episodes that aren't set in the restaurant take place at the school.
• Retro Universe: Mainly wardrobe-specific, especially as the series continued into the '80s and '90s. From the beginning, certain characters' aesthetic seemed to come from old cartoons, like Quico in his sailor suit and Doña Clotilde. Justified for Chavo and Chilindrina, who are poor enough that they probably wear hand me downs, found rags, or hand-made clothes. But later in the series, some characters seemed to take on a deliberately old-fashioned look. Don Jaimito dresses in an outdated postman´s uniform, and when he changes clothes, it´s into a comically old-fashioned checkered suit and straw hat. Ñoño's costume changes in the 1990s so that he looks like he comes from the 1920s.
• Revenge by Proxy: In the episode where Doña Florinda becomes frustrated because Don Ramón refuses to take down his pants from the clothesline, but refuses to do it herself, or allow Kiko to do it because it is beneath them, she comes up with the idea of telling Chavo that Don Ramón said he could have the pants on the clothesline. When Chavo informs him of that, Don Ramón retaliates by taking Kiko's sailor suit from the clothesline, putting it on, and pushing Kiko like he does after Doña Florinda slaps him.
• Right Behind Me: Mostly of two cases: Behind the Black, or someone is being bad-mouthed at someone off-screen (While pointing at them), and someone else gets in the way, and misinterpretes who they are talking about.
• Running Gag: By the bushel. Half of the episodes are based on them.
  • The most classic is: Chavo and Quico start to argue and at some point Chavo hits him with something (or even with bare hands). Then Quico starts to scream, calling his mother. Don Ramón arrives in the scene and quickly takes the object from El Chavo and scolds him. Doña Florinda comes to see what is happening to Quico and "someone" hits him. Doña Florinda quickly thinks it's Don Ramón fault. He tries to explain but she slaps him and Quico gives a light punch in his chest. Before entering in her house, Doña Florinda mocks Don Ramón's grandma. Finally, El Chavo asks why his grandma does what Doña Florinda said. Don Ramón gets angry and hits him in the head. El Chavo starts to cry and hides in his barrel.
  • Señor Barriga getting hit by something thrown by El Chavo when he arrives in the vecindad.
  Señor Barriga: Every time which I arrive in the vecindad you hit me!
• Saving the Orphanage: In a two part episode, Señor Barriga Barriga wanted to sell the apartment building because he wanted to move to a lower altitude for health reasons.^note Mexico City, where the show takes place, lies about 7,300 feet/2200 meters, above sea level, and he wanted to move to Acapulco which is at sea-level Just as the deal was about to be finalized, the kids decided to make the new owner's life miserable every time he went to charge rent, only for the buyer to state that as soon as everything was in order he would evict everyone to make way for a new building. Señor Barriga then informs everyone that he was misdiagnosed, and cancels the deal.
• Scandal Gate: The Enchufegate. One week after the edgy parody of El Chavo del ocho made by Enchufe.tv, Roberto Gomez Fernandez - son of the original creator, Roberto Gomez Bolaños - didn't like the parody. He said that the parody destroys the original intention of the series because it put adult elements into a child's show. Later, Televisa sent a copyright infringement notice to YouTube in order to take down the video. Time after, Televisa and Touché Films reached an agreement and the video is now online. María Antonieta de las Nieves stated that she would sue Touché Films when she was in Ecuador. She decided against it, though.
• Scooby Stack: Courtesy of the kids. They often end up hitting each other with their heads when startled.
• Secret Message Wink: Played with when Don Ramón gets a winning lottery ticket but can't find it, so Sr. Barriga doesn't believe he will pay him. While searching for it he hurts his eye and starts winking to lubricate it. Hilarity ensues when El Chavo arrives and Don Ramón asks him some questions, and El Chavo thinks he wants him to lie since he is winking at him.
• Self-Offense: The amount of times characters have accidentally hit themselves are too many to count. It's a Running Gag in episodes where Don Ramón has to use a hammer.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Professor Jirafales.
• Seven Deadly Sins: All of the original main characters, who are each guilty of having a Fatal Flaw.
  • Chavo (Gluttony), an orphaned humble kid, is very prone to thinking about or eating any kind of food that he comes across. It doesn't help that the tenants pity him because of it.
  • Quico (Envy), a know-it-all Spoiled Brat who likes to brag about his shop-bought toys to Chavo and cannot hide his jealousy over him.
  • Don Ramón (Sloth) is very lazy trying to get a job for a living to make up for the delayed rent months he owes to his landlord, mostly trying to con his way out of doing so.
  • Doña Florinda and Profesor Jirafales (Lust) are madly in love with each other with their regular routine being brought up several times and in occasions having an Almost Kiss.
  • Señor Barriga (Greed) often arrives at the neighborhood to collect the rent, especially from Don Ramón who is faced with the threat of getting evicted if the demands aren't met.
  • Doña Clotilde (Pride) initially starting out as a Rich Bitch and looking down on the children, to the point of even threatening them when they insult her. Florinda also applies as she has a very elitist attitude towards her neighbors whose social class she judges, refering to them as "chusma" (or "riffraff").
  • La Chilindrina (Wrath) has a big of a Hair-Trigger Temper and comes up with Blatant Lies when someone does a tiniest thing that annoys her. She is also the instigator in the fights Chavo has with Quico and gets away with it unscathed, although there are some exceptions.
• Seven Minute Lull: The Running Gag was everytime a Lull happened it would be when Chavo was refering to Professor Jirafales as 'Maestro Longaniza'. Subverted in one episode: many Lulls happen, always with Chavo being heard saying something embarassing once the noise stops. The last time it happens, what he says is "And now I'm not saying anything!"
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: "Los niños faltan a la escuela" features the kids not going to school and trying to avoid the adults so that they don't find out what they did. In the end, El Chavo goes and asks Don Ramón why they didn't go to school; turns out it was Sunday. The kids end up crying.
• Shaped Like Itself: When challenged by Quico to explain what sandwiches are, El Chavo says they are "bread on top, bread on bottom, and sandwich in the middle".
• Shipper on Deck: Quico is all for Doña Florinda and Profesor Jirafales's relationship upgrading from No Hugging, No Kissing to an Official Couple:
  Quico: Just another fifteen or sixteen more cups of coffee, and I'm launching a new daddy.
• Shout-Out:
  • There was one to Rocky when Don Ramón's short career as a bantamweight boxer was shown. The uplifting theme tune plays as it shows pictures from Don Ramón's photo album, with the music coming to a stop as a picture of him being propped up after being knocked down appears.
  • One episode ended with Doña Florinda fainting when she saw a dead lizard. The kids assume that she's "dead" just as Profesor Jirafales walks in, at which moment Profesor Jirafales screams in a manner similar to Superman in Superman: The Movie after discovering Lois Lane dead, complete with Jirafales doing Supes' Up, Up and Away! pose and the Superman theme playing. (He doesn't fly away to reverse time, of course.)
  • When El Profesor Jirafales suggests to arrange a trial to try El Chavo for killing Quico's cat, Don Ramón comments that it would be just like in the Perry Mason series. He does so again in the following episode, when El Profesor Jirafales reminds him of what they were going to do.
• Sick Episode:
  • One where La Chilindrina skips school by pretending to be ill (And Don Ramón does so afterwards to avoid paying his due rent). In the end, it turns out she was indeed ill of measles.
  • Halfway through another episode, Quico tries to get Chavo and Chilindrina to throw away his medicines (they taste awful), and a pillow fight ensues, knocking him out the window. Chavo and Chilindrina take the chances to get rid of the medicines then, and he ends up swallowing them all. In another version of the episode, it's Don Ramón who accidentally swallows them, only for Quico to reveal that what they threw away were analysis samples. There is yet another version where Doña Florinda is the one who is sick, and Profesor Jirafales is the one taking care of her; the end of the episode is completely different to the two previous versions, instead having Jirafales accidentally be hit on the head by a hammer, and now he's the one who needs to be taken care of.
• Signature Move: Many of the characters have a unique way of delivering slapstick violence to others. Chavo will often hit Quico with a string of three punches that knocks him out cold. In return, Quico always hits Chavo with a punch that slides around his face. Chilidrina kicks people in the knee and her father either punches Chavo over the head or pinches Quico's arm before getting slapped by Florinda. Lastly, Ñoño bounces Chavo away with his own belly and delivers a bending punch onto Quico's forehead.
• Slapstick:
  • Most of the humour of the show comes from the different ways the characters get hurt.
  • If there's an episode that involves throwing pies in faces or dousing people with buckets of water, you can be sure that all the men and women, no exception, will end up pied or drenched.
  • This is downplayed when it involves punches, kicks or slaps, as the female characters are rarely on the receiving end (when they are, it's mostly either remakes originally with a male character, and/or they only get chased but not hit). It doesn't prevent them to be on the giving end, though; Dona Florinda slapping Don Rámon across the face happens almost Once per Episode.
• The Smart Guy: Profesor Jirafales. He tends to express himself in over-complicated terms. But even with some mundane things, he needs to explain the basics to the people around.
• Snap Back: A couple of episodes end with a character getting killed, in a slapstick sort of way. Once, Señor Barriga snaps and tackles Don Ramón, leaving Ramón literally as flat as a pancake. Chilidrina cries over his lifeless "body" (a cardboard cutout) during the credits. (Played for Laughs, by the way!) In another, Chavo pricks Ñoño with a needle, and Ñoño pops like a balloon, and the episode ends with Ñoño´s clothes in a pile on the ground. Both characters return unharmed in subsequent episodes.
• Spinoff:
  • The show spun off from the '70s version of the Sketch Show Chespirito.
  • Some actors did spin-offs with their characters on their own, albeit sans Chespirito involvement and outside of the continuity of the show:
    • Two years after the ending of the skit, La Chilindrina starred in the show Aquí está la Chilindrina and the movie La Chilindrina en apuros.
    • After his departure of the show, Carlos Villagrán starred four shows using Captain Ersatz version of his character Quico: Federrico, Niño de papel, Kiko botones and ¡Ah, qué Kiko!. Ramón Valdés, who also left the show by then, would appear in Federrico and ¡Ah, qué Kiko!.
• Spoiled Brat: Quico, Doña Florinda always him whatever he wants and rewards him for basic decency, while refusing to allow any of the other kids to have fun by showing off his better toys when they are playing.
• Spoiler Title: In one 1979 episode, El Chavo, La Chilindrina and Ñoño skip the class and are worried of Professor Jirafales finding them, but it turns out to be Sunday, then there was no class. The episode title is "Faltando a las clases en Domingo" (Skipping the class at Sunday)
• Spoof Aesop:
  • A gem by Don Ramón: "There's no bad job; the bad thing is having to work."
  • A time in which El Chavo tried to tell Quico to not cheat in a game.
  El Chavo: I'll tell you one thing. Do you know what happens to kids that cheat in games?
  Quico: Yes. They win. (Cue Evil Laugh)
• Spoonerism: Often, when talking to Sr. Barriga, Don Ramón would switch Sr. Barriga's name and another word of his dialog, driving Sr. Barriga mad since it makes it look like Don Ramón is insulting him for being fat. An example:
  Don Ramón: Fíjese como ha acumulado barriga el Sr. Fortuna. (Look how much belly Mr. Fortune has)
• Springtime for Hitler: one script has El Chavo trying to catch a contagious disease Chilindrina is faking, with the hope that he'll end up in the hospital (where he could have a nice bed and three meals a day). Eventually, everybody contracts the disease... except for El Chavo, who is the most unhappy of them all.
• Stage Magician: One of the plays in the "Fiesta de la Buena Vecindad" arc is Quico making disappearing tricks, with La Chilindrina as his assistant. He makes a few eggs, a hand and a handkerchief disappear... which is actually food for El Chavo (who is hidden under a table), El Chavo's hand and something for El Chavo to clean himself after eating. Later, El Chavo himself tries to make a "pigeon out of a hat" trick he saw on a circus... with Señor Barriga's hat. Hilarity Ensues.
• Status Quo Is God: Most notably on an episode where Don Ramón thought he had won the lottery with a ticket Chavo was unable to sell. The ending line gives it all:
  Chavo: And I don't have to give the 120 pesos to the lottery shop's owner, because now I just remembered that ticket is for tomorrow's raffle.
• Stealth Insult: Always followed by "What did (s)he mean by that?" One eponymous one was given in a flashback of Doña Florinda and her Husband.
  Don Federico: (talking about baby Quico) He looks so much like me.
  Doña Florinda: Yeah, but he is healthy and that's what is important.
• Surrounded by Idiots: The reason why La Chilindrina is able to manipulate el Chavo and Quico on many occasions.
  La Chilindrina: Mejor me voy, no vaya ser contajioso. (I better leave, it may be contagious)
• Suspect Is Hatless: Professor Jirafales once gave Quico a cat as a birthday gift. When the cat vanished and Quico went looking for him, the only description he offered what that he had four paws. Don Ramón asked, in Sarcasm Mode, if it had two eyes. Quico, Comically Missing the Point, confirmed it in excitement.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Jaimito (replacing Don Ramón) and Ñoño (replacing Quico) were the main ones, although they were already established characters. However there were a couple of occasions very early on where characters were replaced for an episode or two by characters who were their exact copies, but had different names and were played by different actors. For instance, in just one episode, Don Ramón is nowhere to be found but his "cousin, Don Román" takes his role, right down to "living" in Ramón's apartment.
• Take That!:
  • A little one towards the United States in 1975:
  Don Ramón: I'm so angry that I could declare war on the United States all by myself.
  Chilindrina: The way things are going, you could even win!
  • In a similar vein to El Chapulín Colorado, Don Ramón occassionally threw jabs at Mexico's national football team.
  Don Ramón: (to Profesor Jirafales) Are you saying that El Chavo, Quico, La Chilindrina, Ñoño and La Popis are the future of this country?
  Prof. Jirafales: Why, of course!
  Don Ramón: (Aside Glance) That's it, we're losing to Tunisia again.^note Mexico unexpectedly lost to Tunisia 3-1 in the 1978 World Cup (In another episode he says "That's it, we're getting knocked out in Haiti again."^note Mexico unexpectedly lost to Trinidad & Tobago in Haiti in the 1974 World Cup playoffs and missed that World Cup)
• Tantrum Throwing: The biggest offender would be Don Ramón. When he is angered (almost always due to being slapped by Doña Florinda), he takes his hat (or whatever he is currently holding), throws it at the floor, and jumps on it.
  • Chavo is also prone to it, when people tick him off. For example, when he was working as a shoeshine, and Quico punched him (because he thought he was pickpocketing money from his mom), he threw away the payment in outrage: "Here's your money!" And then did the same thing with her shoes.
  • In "La Siembra de un Huevo" (1976), the kids hit Señor Barriga with a handful of dirt in the mouth. He becomes so enraged that he throws his briefcase in the ground, grabs a nearby plant vase and throws it as well, then starts throwing the dirt from the now-broken vase at the kids. The kids are then forced to clean the patio.
• Temporary Substitute: Whenever Chespirito restaged a script and one of the major actors had left the show, he simply subbed in one of the other characters, even if it resulted in some unusual personality shifts. Some of the characters basically become permanent substitutes, like Ñoño and Popis (With both taking Quico's Literal-Minded and Too Dumb to Live traits, respectively). If a non-Chilindrina episode from the early years is recycled, Chilindrina will sometimes appear as the substitute for Quico or even Don Ramón in the new version. There are also some remakes where Don Ramón is absent (even before he left his cast), so his role is filled by Señor Barriga, Profesor Jirafales, or even his cousin Don Román who only appeared in one episode.
• Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change: The Brazilian dub alters the setting from Mexico to Brazil, most specifically on the city of São Paulo. Most episodes involving the children studying the history on Mexico are adapted to them studying the history of Brazil.
• This Is Unforgivable!: "¡Ahora sí te tocó el ocho!" ("Now you''ll get the eight ball!"} or "¡Ahora sí te descalabro los cachetes!" ("Now i'll knock your cheeks down!"). Chavo would get mad and knock Quico down, usually after Quico hit him or pranked him.
• Tie In Novels: Many comics, photo-novels, and later a full novel written by the original creator.
• Toilet Humor: Throughout the series, there have been a number of jokes that imply someone may have farted, peed, or pooed themselves.
  • In the "Insepts" episode where Noño takes Quiko's place, Chavo takes a cake that Doña Cleotilde baked. At the end of the episode as everyone walks with a limp due to some accident that injured their foot, Chavo walks in walking funny, Cilindrina and Noño ask if he hurt his feet, but Chavo responds that he ate the whole cake, and didn't make to the bathroom in time.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy Chilindrina and Girly Girl Popis. Tough Doña Florinda and mushy Doña Clotilde.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Florinda after Ramon and Quico left the show, as she no longer had someone to disdain and spoil, respectively. This resulted in a more positive characterization than before, even if she still was a Jerkass compared to the remaining characters.
• Toon Physics: Mostly through Chroma Key. They were seldom present in the series, with two notable cases being Doña Florinda kicking Don Ramón so hard he hits the top of the front door of the vecindad, or El Chavo popping Ñoño as if he were a balloon.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Tortas de jamón (ham sanwiches) for El Chavo (despite him being a Big Eater in general), gigantic lollipops for La Chilindrina and Quico.
• Transplant: Profesor Jirafales originated in the show "Los supergenios de la mesa cuadrada".
• Tsundere:
  • Chilindrina, type B. She acts very nicely towards Chavo and Quico until either of them upsets her, at which point she can get really nasty.
  • Doña Florinda, Type A. She's harsh and outspoken, but adores Quico and the mere sight of Jirafales makes her go all mushy.
• Twisted Echo Cut: In one episode we have Doña Florinda, Quico, and El Chavo discussing about a missing toy while Sr. Barriga and Don Ramón are discussing about the latter hiding to not pay rent, with the last line on each conversation synching perfetly with the other until more context is given. Subverted at the last part when El Chavo ask who is a thief and we cut to Sr. Barriga saying "you", but turns out this time he was indeed calling Don Ramón a thief.

U-Z

• Ugly Hero, Good-Looking Villain: Don Ramón actually invokes this trope to convince Doña Florinda to let Quico play villain in the kids' stage show. It works:
  Doña Florinda: ...Also, why are you giving Quico the role of villain? Villains are supposed to be ugly!
  Don Ramón: That's why!
  Doña Florinda: WHAT!?
  Don Ramón: That's why you've got to see more TV! Didn't you notice that nowadays villains are often handsome, and heroes are ugly? There you have Cannon, Kojak, El Chapulín Colorado...
• Un-Cancelled: Twice. After the show ended in 1979, it was reincorporated within the sketches of Chespirito. A decade after the latter's conclusion, the series got revived in animated form.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: A major Chavo trope. Almost all the characters have a relative played by the same actor. There was even an attempt to have Chilindrina play her own guardian, Doña Nieves, after Don Ramón left.
• Unexplained Recovery: Happened a couple of times. At the end of one episode, Don Ramón ends up Squashed Flat by Sr. Barriga, and in another, Ñoño is poked by Chavo with a pair of scissors and explodes like a balloon, leaving only his clothes behind. Naturally, by the next episode they were just fine.
• The Unreveal:
  • El Chavo's real name, whenever he'd say it (or anything explicit about his background by the way) someone else would enter the scene and either interrupt him or cause an uproar so noisy the audience is unable to hear. The subject on Chavo is then left not to be brought up again (at least for the next slew of episodes).
  • Also, who he lives with at apartment #8 (the barrel is just his "secret hideout").
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Usually it's between Profesor Jirafales and Doña Florinda; however, on a few occasions, they've shown that Don Ramón would be all too ready to get romantically involved with Doña Florinda if she were in any way interested.
• Vandalism Backfire: After one of the times Doña Florinda unjustly punishes Don Ramón, his daughter tried to exact revenge by stealing her towel and covering it with dirt. It backfired because the towel belonged to Don Ramón (he, Doña Florinda and Doña Clotilde share the same clothesline, which is hung across the courtyard). While usually not approving revenge, he actually tried a hand on it by dirtying a piece of clothing belonging to Doña Florinda but he mistakenly picked one belonging to Doña Clotilde. And then El Chavo tried to do the same with Quico's signature sailor clothing... while Quico was wearing it.
• Villain Exclusivity Clause: Doña Florinda as Sitcom Archnemesis of most of the other characters, but especially Don Ramón, the most often victim of her abuse. Chespirito introduced her Love Interest Profesor Jirafales in order to make her more sympathetic as she was hated by fans (didn't work).
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Quico and Chavo have elements of this in many episodes. In some, they even fight like mortal enemies, but then they get sad and depressed in the episodes where either of them left the neighbourhood for any reason. In the 1974 episode Ratero En La Vecindad, Quico cried in his iconic corner when Chavo left (to his mother's surprise and chagrin), but then celebrated when Chavo returned.
• Waking Non Sequitur: El Profesor Jirafales has two in the same episode, to Doña Florinda and Don Ramón's confusion:
  Prof. Jirafales: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! GOAL SCORED BY PELÉ!
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": The kids once named a dog "Ramón". The original namesake is not pleased.
• We Want Our Jerk Back!: In a sketch early in the ´80s Chespirito run, the adults all decide they will not react if the kids call them a disrespectful name. The kids all think their world is falling apart when Doña Clotilde does not appear to mind being called a witch and Profesor Jirafales is not upset at being called Maestro Longaniza. Finally, Doña Florinda, who did not get the memo, flips out at being called Vieja Chancluda, and the grateful kids go on at length about what a fine person she is.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Doña Florinda buys the restaurant, Señor Barriga sends his son Ñoño to collect the restaurant rent. Profesor Jirafález condemns his actions due to exposing his son to a possible robbery by making him walk the streets with big money and calls him out when he comes.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: A variation occurs every time someone asks if there's anyone dumber than Chavo, and Quico will interject by asking if someone was calling for him.
• Wicked Witch: Save the obvious usage of magic, Doña Clotilde has most of the points of this archetype which is why the kids (and some of the adults) call her "The Witch of number 71". One episode even involves the kids having to enter her house just to deliver a newspaper, and they find out it's like a haunted dungeon. Complete with Clotilde the witch brewing a potion inside, and using a Don Ramón doll in it (maybe to represent the real one), much to Chilindrina's horror. Turns out it was All Just a Dream, and they hadn't even entered Doña Clotilde's house yet.
• Widow Witch: Averted. The one who looks like a witch is a spinster, and the actual widow is young (well, kinda) and just ill tempered.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: A running gag whenever a character responds differently than they normally would. For example, when Chavo asks Quico to borrow his toys or the food he's eating, in the rare occasions Quico answers "yes", Chavo would instinctively respond with "Whatever, I didn't want it anyway... (Beat) You said yes?"
• Worse with Context: Happened once when Profesor Jirafales chastised Don Ramón for threatening el Chavo.
  Chilindrina: This is the first time that my dad threatens to hit el Chavo.
  Prof Jirafales: Really?
  Chilindrina: Yes, he always hit him without warning.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: In one episode Sr. Barriga accidentally dropped a stash of dollars^*Which, at the time, each dollar was worth over 12 pesos, as Sr. Barriga kindly explains. on the neighborhood floor. El Chavo finds it but thinks they are just collectible stamps, he even gets angry at seeing all of them are the same.
• Would Hit a Girl: Don Ramón has hit Doña Florinda a few times, though it has been accidental. El Chavo and Quico on the other hand, have hit La Chilindrina on purpose.
• Would Hurt a Child: Except for Don Ramón, who hits Chavo in the head, pinches Quico ^note He has punished him in some other ways too, like placing his hand between two pieces of bread and taking a bite, burning him with a cigar, or threatening to hit him with his hammer and (reportedly) spanks Chilindrina on a regular basis, it's surprisingly averted for the other adult characters. While they usually do hurt one of the kids, it's accidental. However, in some remakes (where Don Ramón is replaced either by La Chilindrina or Doña Florinda), Doña Florinda hits, pinches, or pushes Chilindrina's hair.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl:
  • The reason Don Ramón doesn't fight back when Doña Florinda slaps him. That and, good luck trying to explain to Profesor Jirafales she's not defenseless. Don Ramón once put a bucket over his head to protect himself from being slapped by Doña Florinda, she hurt her hand when trying to do so, and Professor Jirafales punched him in the gut for this.
  • Zig-Zagged with Chavo. Sometimes, he refuses to hit Chilindrina for this reason, but in other episodes, he doesn't hesitate in wanting to hit her or Popis, even with brooms in some occasions.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: "¡Waaaaa, waa, waa, waa! ¡Te voy a acusar... con... mi... papá, que tú me pegaste....!" ("Waaaah, wah, wah, wah! I'mm..going..to..tell..Dad, that you hit me...!")
• Written-In Absence: There are some episodes where the actors were unavailable for recording, and thus didn't appear in the episode with a quick explanation of why they aren't there. In the 1974 version of "Confusión de pasteles", Chavo mentions that Don Ramón is not home and will only return in the next day. In the 1978 version of "El Chavo lavacoches", Quico is absent and Doña Florinda mentions that he is sick and with a cold, resting at his house. And in the 1976 version of "Sustos en la vecindad", Don Ramón is once again absent and Doña Clotilde claims that, while he is not home, she is taking care of his house and prohibiting Chilindrina from watching TV since her father had grounded her.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Whenever Doña Florinda calls Quico "Federico" (his actual name, as "Quico" is a nickname), he knows she's angry at him.
• You Look Familiar: In-universe. El Chapulín and El Chavo say this to each other in The Crossover.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: A variation is used in regard to Profesor Jirafales:
  • In an episode where Chavo, chilindrina, Noño, Quico, and Popis had to go to school to make up a test they failed, they keep misunderstanding the lesson Profesor Jirafales is trying to teach them. Finally exasperated, he asks the kids to hold their textbooks, and makes them swear an oath that they will take their education seriously, so that when they grow up they become knowledgeable citizens, with a bright future. He then asks them, what they want to grow up to be: little cargo donkeys ^note In Spanish he says "burritos de carga," which does mean cargo donkeys, but the interpretation means jackass. , or someone like him. They quickly throw their textbooks on the floor in disgust.
  • In the episode where the kids are studying in Quico's house, while Profesor Jirafales is grading their art projects, Doña Florinda tells them to keep studying hard, so that they can one day be like Profesor Jirafales. The kids close their book,s and stop studying.
  • This exchange from when the rest of the cast wants to give Chavo a shower:
    Doña Florinda: You need a bath, Chavo. Why, if you bathe you can even grow up to be like Profesor Jirafales.
    Chilindrina: Ugh! No wonder he doesn't want to bathe.
    Profesor Jirafales: Ta! Taa! Taaa!!
• Your Mime Makes It Real: There's one instance when Quico mocks el Chavo for playing tennis without a racket or a ball. Then he sees la Chilindrina rope-skipping without a rope. When laughs at her, she uses the "imaginary" rope to strangle him.
• Your Mom: Doña Florinda to Don Ramón after slapping him for doing X to Quico: "Next time, go X your grandma!" El Chavo would then ask Don Ramón about X and Don Ramón's grandmother, resulting in Don Ramón hitting him and saying "NO te doy otra no más porque..." ("I won't hit you again cause...") or variations therof. It occasionally became a rather humorous Insult Backfire when it happened said lady had actually done something to do with X. Example
  Doña Florinda: "Next time go play soccer with your grandma!"
  El Chavo: "Ron Damón, does your granny play soccer?"
  Don Ramón: "¡TOMA! And I won't hit you again because my grandma was midfielder for the Chivas del Guadalajara..."
• You Wanna Get Sued?:
  • Try a little Drinking Game. Take a shot everytime you hear any Disney music. Drink twice when it comes before or after a commercial break. You Have to wonder how he got away from the suing experts.
  • However, Jean-Jacques Perrey, the composer of "The Elephant Never Forgets" and "Baroque Hoedown", sued Televisa in 2009 for copyright infringement. Although the case was settled one year later, that didn't stop Televisa when, since 2017 started to modify all the episodes in order to change all the soundtrack with custom music, included the Opening Theme, which was changed to the Animated Version theme.
• Zorro Mark: Referenced in the episode "Bañar al Chavo", where Chavo is leaving his dirty hand marks all over the place. It served to spare Don Ramón from being slapped by Doña Florinda, as he showed her the water can he grabbed to hit Quico in the head.
  "Look, El Chavo's mark."

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