Series / Game Shakers

Game Shakers is a Nickelodeon Kid Com series from veteran showrunner Dan Schneider, the tenth series he has created for that network. The premise of the series revolves around a group of 7th grade students who, when trying to come up with a science project to turn in for class, instead accidentally create a hit video game that turns them into millionaires overnight. They then team up with a rapper and a professional gamer to churn out more hit video games. As a promotional tie-in with the series, Nickelodeon will also release games inspired by the creations on the show for viewers to play through their website as well as some as actual smartphone game apps.

Following Schneider's exit from Nickelodeon in early 2018, it was announced the series was canceled and would end after the third season. The final episode aired on June 8, 2019.

Clips and other informational snippets of the show can be seen on Nickelodeon's official web page for the show here.

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Tropes Demonstrated in Game Shakers:

• Abhorrent Admirer: In "The One with the Coffee Shop", Trip had an annoying girl named Candace who talked and laughed annoyingly. She bordered on Stalker with a Crush when it was revealed she knew Trip was back at the cafe because she put a tracking device on him. As with most of the things in the episode, she was an Expy of Janice, a similar character to Chandler on Friends.
• Absent Animal Companion: In "You Bet Your Bunny", Kenzie is shown to own a pocket weasel named Cujo, who has not been seen since then. It was mentioned in "Buck the Magic Rat" that Cujo had been repossessed because it's illegal to own a pocket weasel in Brooklyn.
• Accidental Misnaming, Affectionate Nickname: Either is at play as Double G frequently calls Hudson "Hubbins".
• Acquired Poison Immunity: In "Scared Tripless", this was part of the prank Double G played on the kids, primarily his son. Since the previous Halloween, he had been taking small amounts of venom so he can fake his death after being bitten by a snake. While it is successful, he forgets that snake bites can become infected and the doctors have to give him a shot in his butt to prevent it.
• Actually Pretty Funny: In the premiere, Trip gets mad at Dub for the time he parked his Porsche in the hot tub while Trip was in the hot tub. A few scenes later, Trip is seen laughing about it with some kids he met on his dad's tour.
• Adults Dressed as Children: A running gag in "Babe's Bench" where a man dressed as a baby, complete with a onesie and a diaper, likes to sit on the bench.
• Aerosol Spray Backfire: One episode has the office being invaded by a flock of pigeons, which prompts Double G to call an exterminator named Bobby Dong to get rid of them. The latter does so by using a device resembling a bug bomb to release a knockout gas, which not only knocks out the pigeons, but everyone else in the office except Bobby himself.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • MeGo in "MeGo the Freakish Robot." It starts out as a normal robot, but becomes very attached to Hudson, missing him when he is gone. At the end MeGo tries to kill Trip when he made Hudson late coming back from their trip.
  • MeGo returns in "Revenge at Tech Fest", still obsessed with his affection for Hudson and hatred for both Dub and Trip.
• All Cloth Unravels: In "Wing Suits & Rocket Boots", Hudson tugs on a loose thread o his sweater and it starts to unravel.
• Alliterative Name: Double G, whose real name is Gale Griffin. Also Triple G, whose real name is Grover Griffin.
• Ambiguously Jewish: Lance in "Nasty Goats".
• And Mission Control Rejoiced: Happens at the end of "Trip Steals The Jet" after Babe has to land the plane by herself. The people at the airport's flight control celebrate.
• As Himself:
  • In "Game Shippers", the gang go to meet Nathan Kress to determine who Freddie loved on iCarly.
  • Snoop Dog appears in "Snoop Therapy" where he is also an office therapist.
  • Snoop Dog again appears as Dub's interior decorator in "Demolition Dollhouse".
  • Finally, he appears in the finale "He's Back".
• Ash Face: In the first episode, "Sky Whale", Babe and Kenzie are trying out an invention of a moving dinner plate (to aid in burning calories). It explodes, leaving both girls with a lot of soot all over them.
  • Done again in "Babe's Bench" when Babe, off-screen, has to put out a fire on their bench. She comes back to Game Shakers with her face and arms ashy.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: In "A Job for Jimbo", after Diana De Vane explained her step grandson lived with her, Double G asked "You have a step grandson?" Diana replied sarcastically"No, I don't have a step-grandson" before lashing out "Of course I have a step grandson. Why would I say it if I didn't have a step grandson!"
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In "Spy Games", while Kenzie is explaining to Babe and Trip that someone broke their glass front door in, and was therefore installing security cameras, Babe suddenly notices a box of muffins and she and Trip become more interested in those.
• Back from the Dead: MeGo in "Revenge at Tech Fest"
• Bearer of Bad News: The gang must decide who should break the news to Dub that his multi-million dollar television shattered because of an accident on their part.
• Big Applesauce: The series is set in NYC.
• Big Damn Heroes: At the end of "Wing Suits & Rocket Boots" Hudson falls off the Brooklyn Bridge, but Dub saves him by flying down to him in his wing suit and jet boots.
• Big Eater: In "Hungry Hungry Hypno", Kenzie is hypnotized into eating any food she sees nonstop; the only way to snap her out of it is if Hudson kisses her.
• Big "SHUT UP!": In "Shark Explosion", as Dub is yelling at Jackie trying to save him after he fell into the water, everyone on the ship yells at him to shut up.
• Big "WHY?!": In "Dirty Blob", Trip screams four of them after all the tech gear is destroyed along with all copies of the game they made.
• Birthday Episode: Kenzie in "Hungry Hungry Hypno".
• Blatant Lies: In "Babe Gets Crushed", Babe is at the patio of the Fooders restaurant where she and Trip were eating, thinking that Trip had a crush on her. When he comes out to wonder what she's doing, Babe tells Trip that she is using the girls' room and admonishes him for entering it.
• Bottle Episode: "Bear Butt Laser Runner" and "War and Peach" were set almost completely at Game Shakers, with the latter being the straightest example.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  • In "Snoop Therapy", after Bunny makes a mistake, Babe, Trip, and Kenzie predict Dub is going to yell, throw food, or spray him with a hose. Hudson then combines them that he would yell while throwing food and spraying a hose.
  • A variation in "Bear Butt Laser Runner" occurs. The gang are arguing with each other about a game idea. Babe wants a game with butts running around, Kenzie wants a game about laser hair surgery, and Trip wants a game about bears. In the end, Hudson combines the three into a game about a bear who is being chased by butts armed with lasers and has to get home before he is naked. Everyone loves it.
• Brutal Honesty: Kenzie, Babe, and Trip have no problem telling Double G (their sponsor) that the game he created sucks.
• Butt-Monkey: Kenzie Bell, especially in season 3
• Camping Episode: "War and Peach" has the team have an indoor off-site in their headquarters when their original trip to Yosemite was cancelled due to bad weather.
• Cassandra Truth: In "Babe Gets Crushed", neither Babe nor Kenzie believe Trip is talking about a friend named Chuck when he asks Babe for advice about a "friend" who is attracted to a girl who is his boss.
• Cat Fight: Subverted at the end of "The Girl Power Awards". The boys, who invented the awards, claimed in case of a tie, the girls would have to fight for it. Babe and Kenzie talk with the other two girls and act as they agreed to fight to the amazement and glee of the boys, but instead go after the boys.
• Catchphrase: Kenzie's "Geez Louise!"
• Celeb Crush: In "The Trip Trap", Trip's new girlfriend is more interested in Dub than in Trip and is only hanging with Trip to get closer to his father. Babe and Kenzie think he doesn't know this but after exposing her, Trip is upset because he didn't care about being used as she was hot.
• Celebrity Paradox: Combined with Actor Allusion in "Game Shippers" where Dub, played by Kel Mithchell, says iCarly is not as funny as Kenan & Kel.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: The first episode has it played for laughs when Hudson tries giving Kenzie CPR...for shock. He does it by lifting her up and applying pressure. Not pretty, but no unfortunate side effects either.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • In the first episode, Kenzie's Blip-It game and Double-G's nostalgia for having it in his youth ends up being what leads him to work with the Game Shakers instead of ruining them.
  • The bear zappers in "You Bet Your Bunny" were seen throughout the episode and were finally used in the chicken fight at the end of the episode.
• Child Hater: Double G in "Baby Hater" is shown to, well, hate babies. It doesn't help his mayoral candidacy when he says this on camera.
• Christmas Episode: "A Reggae Potato Christmas"
• Cloudcuckoolander: Hudson most of all; Double G and Bunny tend to take turns.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Trip's rich friends in "Trip Steals the Jet" complain about everything on the flight back knowing the pilots have just bailed and Kenzie, Babe, and Trip must fly the plane by themselves. They don't even acknowledge that the trio have saved their lives.
  • In "Shark Explosion", Dub complained mainly because it was his ex wife who was saving him after he fell overboard from his yacht. Even after he was back on board, he refused to thank her, instead calling her a show-off. It took the threat of throwing him back into the bay to get him to thank her.
• Continuity Nod: In "Revenge @ Tech Fest", Dub gets his arm replaced with a bionic arm so the doctors can fix his real arm. In the next episode (start of next season), he gets his regular arm back, albeit atrophied.
  • In the second season's "Bunger Games", after being told they can't hang with the girls during a girls' night, Trip comments they have done that already, referring to the first season's "Girl Power Awards".
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Deciding if Drake & Josh is a TV show or not is continued in the Dan Schneider universe. In one episode, Babe takes over a screen in the classroom and shows a Drake & Josh episode. The principal from Victorious who's also Helen from Drake & Josh is shown in episode "Tiny Pickles" as a talk show host.
  • In "Tiny Pickles", besides Helen from Victorious hosting her own talk show, she was also about to have Matt Bennett, who played Robbie in Victorious, as a guest.
  • "Game Shippers" reveals iCarly to be a TV show they enjoy even though the above iCarly is in the same universe as Victorious (see right above). Gibby is also the last person who set the record on the Big Ripper in "Wet Willie's Wild Water Park".
  • In "War and Peach", the gang watch a Drake & Josh clip that showed Helen, who they already met in "Tiny Pickles."
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: An unintentional version in "Escape from Utah!" As part of a Running Gag through the series, Dub finally sends Trip to Utah for letting his tiger out of the house. However, the reform school is actually very lax and Trip actually likes being there as they pamper the boys.
• Crossover: Two with Henry Danger. The first was a 90 minute special "Danger games" (technically a Henry Danger episode). Again done with "Babe Loves Danger" which only featured Henry and Schwoz from Henry Danger.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Happens at the end of "Lumples" when the Luple creator's young daughter beats up the Game Shakes who came into her room to steal the Lumple doll (as they were not given permission to see one while being asked to do a game based on it). Could be justified as they didn't want to hurt her and she knew karate and martial arts.
• Cut Short: The show was cancelled shortly after Season 3 started airing, the Season itself ending on a cliffhanger that goes unresolved.
• Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: In "The Mason Experience", Babe experiences this when Kenzie removes the VR goggles so another girl can give Virtual Mason Kendall a try. Naturally, she snatches them back right after she's recovered.
• Description Cut:
  • In the episode "You Bet Your Bunny", while the Game Shakers fret over losing Bunny in a bet to Todd, Triple G tries to cheer them up by saying that he might be enjoying himself. The scene then cuts to Todd treating a miserable Bunny like his personal slave.
  • In "The Switch", Babe posits that Hudson is probably making Dub's life miserable after they swapped Bunny and Hudson. The next scene shows Dub getting a massage by two beautiful women that Hudson had scheduled for him.
• Destination Defenestration: Trying to convince a boy Babe has a violent sleeping sickness to break up with him, Babe throws Kenzie out of the school's window. However, she did get it replaced by the Hollywood glass to make it safe for Kenzie.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage:
  • The first episode ends with Double G performing "Drop Dat What" at a party to celebrate his partnership with Game Shakers.
  • In "War and Peach", Babe shows her ability to sing with her mouth closed by singing the theme song with the others joining her.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Dub does this in "Llama Llama Spit Spit" when he at first calls a picture of a woman on the Fooders wall ugly. The waiter informs him it was his own mother, to which Dub tries to apologize by saying he sees a resemblance, then assuring that he wasn't calling the waiter ugly, and then doing a very poor job of trying to say she was actually attractive.
• Disguised in Drag: In "The Girl Power Awards", Trip and Hudson are upset about Babe and Kenzie being invited to the title awards event since they are also part of the business. To remedy this, they dress up as girls in order to attend. Babe and Kenzie automatically know it is them.
• The Ditz: Hudson, to the point where the Game Shakers are trying to escape from Double-G and his crew, he tries to hide behind a pencil.
• A Dog Named "Dog": "Escape From Utah!" reveals Dub owns a tiger named Tiger.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The opening theme is performed by Kel Mitchell, who plays Double-G.
• Drawing Straws: Taken literally in the Henry Danger Crossover special "Danger Games." When deciding where to take a vacation, Kenzie, Trip, Babe, and Hudson have a contest to see who can draw the best straw. Babe and Trip use paper while Kenzie and Hudson use their tablets.
• Dreadful Musician: Double-G gets the chance to sing with Diana DeVane, a long-retired singer he's idolized for years. He makes the girls hire Diana's stepson — poor excuse for an employee — to work for them long enough to get the chance to cut the album and do a duet...at which point the reason Diana has been retired is revealed: because an operation rendered her voice a screeching howl that causes pain to anyone who hears it. Her manager waits until after Double-G has signed the contract to pay Diana for the song no matter what — a revelation thus that this is apparently how the woman makes her money now. Even more amazing is that Diana honestly thinks she's still fantastic, ignoring the horror-face expressions of everyone around her.
• Dumb Blonde: Definitely Hudson. In fact, he is the only main character who is blonde.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Every few episodes, Hudson will say something that actually makes sense. The earliest example would be in "Dirty Blob," when he points out that Babe and Kenzie should accept some blame for the destruction of their new game for storing the hard drive and backup drive right next to each other.
• Embarrassing First Name: In "Shark Explosion", it is revealed by Trip's mother that his first name is Grover. He is visibly embarrassed when his mother calls him that.
• Emotionless Boy: Mason Kendall doesn't show a single emotion every time he speaks.
• Everybody Cries: At the beginning of "The Mason Experience", all of the girls in Babe and Kenzie's class are bawling their eyes out after the announcement that Mason is moving.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Double-G tells the Game Shakers they stole his song, they try to explain that all they did was put it in their game and post the game online for purchase...which they realize is stealing.
• Expy:
  • In the second part of "Clam Shakers", The Clam Jumper restaurant is shown to have a character named the Clam Burglar, a look-alike of McDonald's Hamburglar.
  • The Three Dingbats from "Babe's Bench" are expies of The Three Stooges.
  • Double G is almost exactly like Peezy B from Sam & Cat. They're over the top (even by Dan Schnieder standards) rappers played by the same actor, have an assistant named "Bunny" (also played by the same actor), love Jonger Ale, and keep a dangerous animal as a pet (Peezy B has a piranha and Double G has a tiger)
• Eye Scream: As revealed in “War and Peach”, Kenzie accidentally flung a peach into Babe’s eye in the third grade. Near the end of the same episode, Kenzie has the same happen to her with thanks to Ruthless.
• Failure Is the Only Option: When the kids are trying to demonstrate making a new video game in front of rapper Double-G who has agreed to become their new sponsor, and things go awry.
• Faking the Dead: To get back at Kenzie for spying on them in "Spy Games", Babe and Trip pretend that Babe beats Trip to death and stuffs him into a foot locker knowing Kenzie would watch the security cameras. After Kenzie looks into the foot locker with trepidation, Babe pretends to threaten her as well and then Trip gets up to scare Kenzie.
  • As seen in Acquired Poison Immunity above, this was Double G's plan for a Halloween prank on his son.
• Falling into the Cockpit: In effect in "Trip Steals the Jet." After the pilots both jump out, It is up to Trip, Kenzie, and Babe to fly the plane. Trip, a video game player states that he might be able to do it, but is knocked out. The air traffic control ends up talking the girls down.
• For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Double G, to the point of even wearing a mask of his own face.
• Free-Range Children:
  • Kenzie, Babe, and Hudson can have shades of this since they are preteens who spend most of their non-school hours at their business. Especially egregious in "Trip Steals the Jet" when they go down to Florida without permission or even any of their parents knowing about it. Also in "Nasty Goats" where they go to Alaska with Dub on short notice.
  • The preteen girl gang the Fangs in "Snackpot!" hang out in the subway without parents.
• Friend to All Living Things: Kenzie has shades of this. She owns a three-legged dog and has had a pocket weasel, rat found in the subway, and a cat as pets as well.
• Gave Up Too Soon: In "Lost Jacket, Falling Pigeons", Babe and Kenzie use up all their time looking for Babe's missing jacket that they're forced to leave; but right when they do so, the man who took Babe's jacket enters, and the lady does not say anything about it. Justified earlier, as Babe asked her to call them if she sees anyone who had the jacket but she refuses to do so.
• Gender-Blender Name: Dub's first name is Gail, which is commonly used for females.
• Gender-Equal Ensemble: The Game Shakers who actualy do the work at the business: Girls—Babe and Kenzie, Boys—Trip and Hudson.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: In "Breaking Bad News" Trip is freaking out that his father's $2 million T V was broken. Hudson tells him to calm down, which he does, before Hudson smacks Trip anyway. At the same time, Babe is freaking out because she was the one to break the television. Kenzie smacks her in the face after which Babe smacks her back.
• Gone Horribly Right: In “The Mason Experience”, Babe is upset Mason is moving so she and Kenzie design a virtual reality experience so she won’t be lonely, but she becomes so addicted to the game she refuses to take the goggles off.
• Grade-School C.E.O.: The students with their new video game company.
• Halloween Episode: "Scared Tripless"
• Happy Birthday to You!: In "Llama Llama Spit Spit", Kenzie and Hudson gather everyone at Fooders to sing this to a girl whose birthday was nine weeks ago, to distract them while Babe and Trip try to get their photo on the wall.
• Hard-Work Montage: Lampshaded in "Tiny Pickles." After Dub talks up- a non-existent game on national TV, the Game Shakers realize they will have to create the new game in very little time. Dub insists it will be fun, to which Babe deadpans that it will be a "Montage of fun."
• Hate Sink: Trip's rich friends in "Trip Steals the Jet" manage to be worse than the main cast themselves.
• Hidden Depths: In "Nasty Goats" Dub memorized the script for a Nasty Goats promo with only a cursory glance at it. He attributes it to being a superstar, though memorizing lyrics would be something he should be good at.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Double G made it a point to scare Trip relentlessly every Halloween, even when Trip was a year old.
• Hot Teacher: Trip's tutor is a very attractive woman. While Trip isn't shown to be attracted to her, when they went to Babe, Hudson, and Kenzie's classroom, their teacher found her very attractive.
• Hypocritical Humor: Lampshaded by Babe in "The One With the Coffee Shop". At the same time that Dub is talking to Babe about trying to end the fight between her and Kenzie as friends don't fight, he is yelling at Bunny to tell Dub's brother he won't return the monkey he kidnapped from his brother until he repays the money he owes to Dub.
  Babe: "You're such a role model."
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Being on tour with his dad all the time means Triple-G rarely got to be with kids his own age, so he really wanted to go back to New York to do so. Double-G said he'd either have to go to school or get a job to go back. The former option is more realistic for a twelve year old boy, but as this is a Dan Schneider comedy on Nick, he got a job at Game Shakers instead.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine: All That co-star Josh Server appears in "Hot Bananas" as Gregor's father. He and Kel share screentime just long enough for Double G to yell at Gregor's father to shut up, and at one point, Double G refers to him as "Ear Boy" (a character played by Josh Server on All That).
• Invisible Parents: So far, the only parents shown is Trip's dad, Double G, who is a main character, and his mom isn't shown until "Shark Explosion." Of the other three kids, the only family member shown between them is Kenzie's grandfather in the pilot episode.
• It's All About Me: Double G in SPADES, there have been times where characters have called him out on his behavior.
• Jenny's Number: In "Air TnP", the code to reverse the virus is 8675309.
• Just One More Level!: In "The Mason Experience", Babe becomes so addicted to her Mason Kendall Experience that she doesn't take the VR goggles off for several hours, and when it came time for someone else to try it, she is temporarily blinded by the light when the goggles are removed. Then when she comes to, she steals the goggles back and wears them continuously once again.
• Karma Houdini: In "Super Ugly Head", the police officers don't punish Dub even though he tore down the statue of himself in the subway as it looked terrible. In fact, the officers told Dub that he was a celebrity and didn't have to obey the laws. They were about to arrest Kenzie at the end for not telling them what she knew, having witnessed the crime, but Dub bribes them with tickets to a show and they le her go.
• Kiss of Life: Played for laughs in at the end of "Babe and the Boys" when Kenzie starts to choke on her water she is drinking at a restaurant called the Beach. After the lifeguard "saves" her she asks him what would happen if she passed out, which he stated he would do C.P.R. Cue her pretending to pass out.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Right before the second commercial break in "Bear Butt Laser Runner", Babe announces they have enough time to go to the bathroom and grab a snack before their meeting. In going with the Real Time nature of the episode, when they get back, about two minutes and 35 seconds have passed.
    Kenzie: "We'll be back after this short break"
  • At the end of "Llama Llama, Spit Spit", A frustrated Double G storms out of the Game Shakers building yelling, "I'm done with this episode!"
  • Happens twice in "Boy Band Cat Nose", both times with Babe. The first, the vet surgeon who is going to help Kenzie's cat improve his nostrils, he looks at Babe closely, after which she says, "All right, scene's over" which ends the scene. At the end, he does the same thing, which she says, "All right, show's over", after which the episode ended.
• Licensed Game: The games featured on the Nickelodeon website based on the ones featured in the show, with some even being released as smartphone game apps.
• Made of Indestructium: In "Baby Hater", the Tek-Force-9 phone was advertised as this and the company even stated they would give $10,000 to anyone who manages to break the phone. Trip dropped his phone off of a tall building and even into a wood chipper, causing it no damage.
• Made of Iron:
  • Many times, Trip has been shown to get hurt, but nonetheless remain un-injured from things that would seriously injure someone of his age.
  • Hudson has shades of this also. One episode had Hudson getting hit by a cab twice. The second time, he flies through the air up to their doors with no injuries.
• Magic Countdown: In "Revenge at Tech Fest, the Girls Who Code reprogram Mego to explode in ten seconds, but it takes about one minute to do so, counting the slow-motion scene where Babe tries to get Hudson away.
• Man Bites Man: In "Byte Club", Trip decides to get out of a contract with another gaming company by biting Hudson's fake ear during a contest. However, during the confusion of the situation, he bit the wrong ear.
• Manchild: Double G tries to use his bodyguard Bunny "having the mind of a child" tendencies to excuse Triple G not being allowed to stay with kids his own age. He also just so happens to be a business school graduate.
  • A literal example in "Babe's Bench" with a man dressed in a onesie, carrying a blanket and sucking his thumb.
• Man on Fire: The top of Double G's head catches on fire during his live Christmas show in "A Reggae Potato Christmas" and he runs around in panic. It gets put out twice (the second time by sand) and lights back on fire like a trick candle. Both times.
• Masochist's Meal: One episode has Trip and Hudson playing a game where they plant bottles of "bass milk", a drink that horribly disgusts probably most anyone, in places where the other might find them. The unfortunate victim, upon finding the bottle, has to drink the whole thing, while the one who planted it there gets to enjoy his victim's suffering. By the end of the episode, they've both been "bass milked" so many times that they've gotten used to the taste and are actually starting to like it.
• Missed Him by That Much: In "Lost Jacket, Falling Pigeons", Babe and Kenzie are forced to leave the lost and found just as the guy who took Babe's jacket shows up.

• Mondegreen Gag: In "Boy Band Cat Nose", Kenzie visits a plastic surgeon to fix her cat's nose holes and also to give him a bath and make him clean. Due to the surgeon and assistant's foreign accents, they mishear the word "clean" as "green", and thus, they end up dying the cat green.
• Multitasked Conversation: In "Revenge at Tech Fest" A Running Gag involved Shelby, in the neighboring Girls Who Code booth, who was always was on the phone with her mother. The Game Shakers kept confusing what she was saying as she talked using an earpiece.
• Naked People Are Funny: In "Snackpot!" when Babe and Trip arrived at the studio after buying frozen yogurt they discovered that some of there stuff was stolen by The Fangs with Kenzie trapped in a duffle bag, However kenzie told them that not to open the sack because the girls also took her romper leaving her completely naked inside the sack with Babe and Trip start laughing hysterically.
• Never My Fault: Dub blames all the babies in the nursery crying the night of Trip's birth which caused him to fear babies, when really, it was the result him dropping Trip, causing him and the other babies to cry in the first place.
• No Ending:
  • “The Mason Experience” ends with Babe still addicted to the Mason Kendall Experience, Hudson dancing with an air dancer, and Dub and Kenzie trying to fight off a mob of girls who want to try the game.
  • "Air TnP" ends with the shakers getting the code to reverse the virus, only to reveal that Babe put her phone on mute and doesn't get Kenzie's call because she's getting revenge on the culprit's (extremly hot) son.
  • "Snackpot!" ends with Babe and Trip trying to stop dub from arguing with the wheelchaired boy's mom for taking his favorite drink in the slot vending machine instead of finding and getting back there stolen items and Kenzie's Romper from The Fangs.
  • The episode "He's Back" ends with Babe being torn between three lovers, thus ending it in a cliffhanger.
• No Indoor Voice: All four of the kids (especially Babe) are certainly prone to screaming a lot. This is exceptionally true for Ruthless, who incessantly shouts every line.
• Noodle Incident: Whatever happened to Babe with peaches when she was younger that turned her off from them. This was possibly explained in "War and Peach" when it was revealed in third grade, Kenzie built a machine that could throw a peach at 90 mph. It hit Babe in the face.
• Old Media Playing Catchup: A kids TV sitcom trying to play catchup with online gaming culture and YouTube personalities. The show also features guest appearances from YouTube personalities like ProJared, GloZell, and David Moss AKA Lasercorn from Smosh Games.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Double G and Triple G, further nicknamed Dub and Trip. For Double G, it is his stage name. Only Dub's ex-wife/Trip's mother call them by their names, Gail and Grover.
  • Bunny and Ruthless. Their actual names are Bunford Simmons and Rutherford P. Ainsworth.
  • Babe Carano. Not just in universe, but beyond the fourth wall too. Only those who go to her page on the Gameshakers wiki will see that her real name is Babara
• Overly Long Name: In "Tiny Pickles", Kenzie's name suggestion for the new game is "Help Those People By Breaking The Bottles So They Can Escape And Not Get Eaten By The Creature Who's Very Hungry".
• Papa Wolf: In "MeGo the Freakish Robot", Double G freaks out when he finds out that MeGo is trying to throw Triple G over the top of their roof and quickly rushes to save him. Afterwards, Double G flips MeGo over the roof-edge, and when they look at him surprised, he says that the robot would have likely killed one of them eventually... and the rest just go along after agreeing with him.
• Parental Abandonment: With the exception of Dub and Trip, Babe, Kenzie and Hudson's parents were never shown throughout the series, apart from mentions.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • In "Nasty Goats", Babe disguises herself as the weather woman Lance crushes on so he can date her should they wish to have their game taken down, when the real deal gets sent away to report on a snowstorm last minute.
  • In "Revenge at Tech Fest", MeGo is wearing a cape, sunglasses, a hat, and a fake mustache. No one is fooled.
• Persona Non Grata: In "Flavor City", the Shakers go to see a broadway musical but they don't get the front row; in the middle of Babe's engineered performance, Dub comes onstage and demands to punish whoever didn't give him what they deserved; this causes the Shakers to be banned from Flavor City for life.
• Playing Sick: In "Babe's Fake Disease", Babe pretends to have a made up disease called "Sleep Violence Disorder" to get rid of a boy that's annoying her.
• P.O.V. Cam: Used in "Revenge at Tech Fest" whenever they showed MeGo waking up and going to Tech Fest. It stops once he reveals himself to Trip and Hudson.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Dub gives one to MeGo in "MeGo the Freakish Robot" prior to throwing him off the roof.
  Dub: Hey, you! Knock, knock!
  Mego: Who's there?
  Dub: NOT YOU!
• Put on a Bus: As of "The Mason Experience", Mason Kendall moves to Florida.
• Rags to Riches: The students are just regular middle-class kids but become overnight millionaires after they prove successful making popular video games.
• Real Time: The events of "Bear Butt Laser Runner" take the time of the episode. Babe starts by announcing that in 20 minutes, they are going to have a video chat with a new company to produce a new game and they have to come up with a new idea since their previous game idea had already been released by another company. They even get five extra minutes when the company has to move the meeting back. Questionable that Dub, Bunny, and Ruthless could have gotten to his submarine and a few miles off the coast in the time given.
• Replacement Goldfish: Subverted in "Dancing Kids, Flying Pig" when the kids try to cheer up Dub, who is mourning the death of his pet pig by giving him a new pig. They blindfold him and tell him they have a surprise but Dub warns them it better not be a new pig.
• Right Behind Me: In "Escape From Utah", Trip is making fun of his father facing away from the door when Dub comes in the room. The others try to motion to him to stop talking, but Dub yells his name up close, scaring Trip.
• Room Escape Game: A quick version in "Snoop Therapy" where the gang must figure out a couple of clues to get out of the room. It was Snoop Dog's way to get them to work together.
• Self-Made Man: The students who get rich based off their success making video games.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story:
  • Discussed and partially averted in "Babe's Bench." Dub is eating a lot of food (mainly cheese) to gain weight as well as cutting his hair to get a role as Stumpy in the new remake of "The Three Dingbats" (see Expy reference above). However, even though he got the role, it will be an animated film. Dub complains that he gained weight and cut his hair for nothing but Babe reminds him that he did get the part.
  • In "Bear Butt Laser Runner", the kids finally come up with an idea and initiate the video call with Tekmoto, only to find out it failed to connect because internet is down all over the world thanks to Dub wanting to erase an unflattering video.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Lost Jacket, Falling Pigeons", among the items that are in the Lost and Found are Gibby's fake head and Sam's iCarly remote, an All That coffee mug, and a Henry Danger comic book.
  • In "Dirty Blob", Babe turns on "Drake & Josh" for the class to watch.
  • In "Tiny Pickles", the girls and Dub go on a talk show called "Helen", apparently the same character that started on Drake & Josh and later moved to Victorious. Dub later in the episode goes back on the talk show, forcibly replacing Matt Bennett (Robbie on Victorious) who is playing a song on a guitar from his show, and at the end, Matt is run over by a van, driven by his puppet from his show.
  • In "Babe's Bench", Kenzie mentions "the show with Bea Arthur about those ladies that are almost dead." Same episode features a subplot where Dub auditions for a part in a movie based on a show called "The Three Dingbats."
  • In "Wedding Shower of Doom", Dub’s brother Jordan said they were once in a boy band called "The Griffin Brothers", which is similar to the Jackson 5, and their big break was supposed to be on The Ted Mulligan Show, an obvious parody of The Ed Sullivan Show.
  • The entirety of "The One with the Coffee Shop" is this, bordering on an Affectionate Parody to Series/Friends from the episode title to the name and look of the cafe they went to 'I'll Be There for Brew', which is very similar to 'Central Perk'.
    • Also from that episode, Hudson sang the song "You Married an Ugly Guy", which came from a skit from The Amanda Show.
  • In "War and Peach", the gang saw the commercial, dubbed in Spanish, that Piper did in the Henry Danger episode "The Love Shuttle Part 2."
  • In "Wet Willy's Wild Water Park", the name on the speed record for the water slide they want to slide down is Gibby Gibson.
  • As revealed in "Boy Band Cat Nose", Kenzie introduces her cat Valentine.
  • Home Alone is referenced in the episode "Bug Tussle". Hudson mentions the episode's basic plot when Trip is forgotten by his father when Dub goes to Las Vegas. After realizes he forgot Trip, Dub puts his hands on his face the same way as the iconic Kevin pose from that movie.
  • A scottish man, who is an obvious reference to Scotty from Star Trek: The Original Series is in two episodes, "Spy Games" and "Dancing Kids, Flying Pig".
  • "Buck the Magic Rat" had a reference to the original trilogy of Star Wars films complete with Dub's lightsaber.
• Show Within a Show: Both Drake & Josh and iCarly are revealed to be these in the Game Shakers universe.
• Slow "NO!": In "Lost Jacket, Falling Pigeons", Babe accidentally leaves her new $5,000 jacket on the subway. Her attempt to retrieve it before the subway leaves the station is in slo motion, including the NO! before she rushes to get it.
• Special Effects Failure: Invoked in-universe when a motion capture test for a new video goes not as planned, right in front of their new sponsor Double-G no less.
• Spoiler Title: "Bear Butt Laser Runner". Guess the name of the game the kids come up with!
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • "Double-G" as played by Kel Mitchell is pretty much just a straight name change of his "Peezy-B" character from Sam & Cat. Confirmed by Kel himself here.
  • Bunny, Double G's assistant is played by the same actor who played Peezy-B's assistant Bunny in the same Sam & Cat episode above.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Armed & Coded", as seen in Masochist's Meal description above, Trip hides a bass milk bottle in a box on which he wrote "Not Bass Milk". Trip was not tricked.
  • Babe intentionally invokes this to trick Kenzie by acting hyper and saying she last saw Trip the previous night and he was fine. See the events of Faking the Dead above.
• Swapped Roles: A variant occurs in the premise of "The Switch" where after Babe tells Dub to cut Bunny some slack for making a few mistakes, Dub suggests that "switch dummies" where Bunny works with the Game Shakers while Hudson takes Bunny's place.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Babe dresses as a boy to infiltrate the boys' reform school in "Escape from Utah!".
• Take a Third Option: In "Tiny Pickles", Babe and Kenzie finish their game Creature Crunch and plan to release it in a few days, but Dub promises on The Helen Show another game called Tiny Pickles which is based on a crazy dream he had. In the end, the girls compromise and turn Creature Crunch into Tiny Pickles by adding in elements from Dub's dream.
• Those Two Guys: Trip and Hudson. Also Bunny and Ruthless.
• Toilet Humour: In "The One with the Coffee Shop", Kenzie is complaining to babe about being the one to do all of the work, ending by calling herself a "Peon. Peon Kenzie." The boys can't keep a straight face or help from giggling.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Babe (Tomboy) and Kenzie (Girly Girl)
• Truncated Theme Tune: The theme song was shortened in Season 2, removing the second verse and going straight to the chorus.
• Undying Loyalty: On numerous occasions, Bunny has admitted that he has this for Double G and woud do anything he asks of him.
• Unwanted Rescue: As seen in Cool and Unusual Punishment above, first Babe tries to break Trip out of the reform school in Utah before realizing how amazing it was. Then Dub breaks down a wall to get Trip out, much to Trip's unwillingness.
• Vehicular Sabotage: In "Super Ugly Head", the brakes on Kenzie's bike is removed. She initially believes that Double G is behind this, because she was planning to tell the police that he broke a statue. It turns out that it was Hudson who did this when he tried to fix her bike.
• Water Wake-up: Hudson messes this up by tossing the water from the plastic cup and tossing the cup at Trip's head in "The Trip Trap". It nevertheless works.
• What Does This Button Do?: Said when Kenzie decides to push a button in the cockpit in "Trip Steals the Jet." It took the plane out of auto-pilot and they temporarily lost control of the plane.
• What the Hell, Player?: At the very end of the third episode, a few disclaimers are shown, followed by the text "Wow, you're still reading this?" appearing on screen.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?:
  • One of the protagonists is called "Babe." Nothing we've seen so far has suggested that this is a nickname.
    • According to the Game Shakers Wiki, her real name is Barbara.
  • Lampshaded In-Universe with Trip's two rich friends, Landru and Pompay. Their answer is because their parents are rich.
• Wire Dilemma: In "Babe Loves Danger" Kid Danger is helping Babe in a runaway self-driving car. Schwoz tells him to cut the red wire on the console, but Henry sees they are all red. Instead, Henry decides to Take a Third Option and just shoots the console with his laser weapon multiple times.
• World of Ham: Five minutes can't seem to pass without someone testing their lung capacity.
• World of Jerkass: It's a Dan Schneider show, what do you expect?
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: In "Babe's Bench", Babe confronts a man who is covering the bench she spent $60,000 on for advertising. She taunts him whether he would hit a girl, to which he said no, but his sister would, and the woman means business.