Series / Jessie

Clockwise from the right: Zuri, Jessie, Luke, Emma, Ravi and Mrs. Kipling.

"Hey, Jessie!"

Jessie is a Disney Channel original Kid Com series which debuted on September 30, 2011 and ended on October 16, 2015 after four seasons. The series stars Debby Ryan as the title character Jessie Prescott, an 18-year old woman who moves from Fort Hood, Texas to New York City, eager to forge a life of her own against the wishes of her father.

Due to an unexpected turn of events, Jessie ends up becoming the nanny for the affluent Ross family, who live in a multi-million-dollar penthouse on the Upper West Side. The family is comprised of a film director, his business mogul wife, their four children — 13-year old Emma (Peyton List), 12-year old Luke (Cameron Boyce), 10-year old Ravi (Karan Brar) and 7-year old Zuri (Skai Jackson), the latter three being adopted — and their pet Mrs. Kipling. The butler Bertram Winkle (Kevin Chamberlin) and the doorman Tony Ciccolini (Chris Galya) help her from time to time.

Jessie was created by Pamela Eells O'Connell (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody/On Deck, as well as being an executive producer of The Nanny). It's notable among Disney Channel comedies for having its lead character be in her late teens from the start of the series and progress into marriage in later seasons (both firsts for Disney Channel), as such shows typically center around lead characters of middle/junior high or high school age.

The series is extensively linked to the Disney Channel Live-Action Universe through two massive crossover episodes with Austin & Ally (Austin & JESSIE & Ally: All Star New Year airing December 2012) and with Good Luck Charlie (Good Luck Jessie: NYC Christmas airing November 2013). There was also a Christmas-themed crossover episode with Liv and Maddie, albeit partially since it's missing the leads of the other show (Jessie's Aloha Holidays with Parker and Joey), making it the only series to have an unprecedented three live action crossover episodes since the Hannah Montana era (later tying Hannah Montana with the massive "Monstober" crossover event). They even crossed over into Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), teaming up with the Wall Crawler against Morgan le Fey for a Halloween Episode. As it currently stands, it's the most crossed-over show and the show most extensively linked to other shows on Disney Channel.

In 2015, the announcement that the series' fourth season would be its last was made in tandem with the announcement that Emma, Ravi & Zuri would get their own spinoff series Bunk'd, which premiered July 31, 2015. Luke was not a part of the show as his actor Cameron Boyce was given his own show on Disney XD, Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything. Upon the show's conclusion after 98 episodes (101 when counting one-hour episodes as two as per production coding), it stands as the second-longest live-action show in network history behind Wizards of Waverly Place, and third overall behind Phineas and Ferb.

Not to be confused with Jesse, the 1998–2000 NBC sitcom starring Christina Applegate.

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Jessie provides examples of:

A-D

• Accidental Proposal: Jessie fears that Tony will propose to her at his family's restaurant where he invites her to meet his parents in "Trouble With Tessie", especially after she learns that the restaurant has a tradition of proposals. She finds a ring in her a soup and starts panicking and screaming "no", until Stuart clarifies that the ring is actually his for Zuri.
• Accidental Tickle Torture: In "Caught Purple Handed", the kids accidentally paint Jessie's hand purple the day she she has been picked to be a hand model and is starring at a kitchen utensil video. Jessie struggles to hide her painted hand from the producers including one instance where she tries to use a heavy cutting device by putting it under her armpit and the vibration of the device makes her giggle.
• Acquaintance Denial: In "Are You Cooler Than a 5th Grader?", Ravi goes to Luke's school for the first time and tries acting cool to get along with his brother's friends. But due to being more embarrassing than cool, Luke denies knowing Ravi, saying he is just his "dad's friend's cousin's dog's neighbor".
• Actor Allusion:
  • Various examples (see Shout-Out and Expy) that link Jessie to Bailey. Most notable was when Mr. Moseby himself appeared, and noticed Jessie's resemblance to Bailey, though he didn't tell her.
  • In "Punch-Dumped Love," they outright break the fourth wall by having Cameron Boyce directly ask Adam Sandler about returning for Grown Ups 3.
  • This isn't the first time Cameron Boyce has played someone with the last name of Ross
• A-Cup Angst:
  • Conversed in a not-so-angsty manner in ''Used Karma". Emma is extremely excited about getting a new issue of "Leopard Beat" and the first thing she mentions is the special feature on bra-stuffing. She asks Jessie what the best stuffer is between tissue and socks. Jessie replies with "Neither, quilted toilet paper".
  • In "Make New Friends, But Hide The Old", Rosie and Emma make a couple fake boob jokes when Emma dresses up like a doll, complete with a ridiculously-sized bosom.
• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • From the Christmas episode:
    Jessie: Bertram's belting a bitter butler ballad. Bravo!
  • The episode title "Creepy Connie's Curtain Call". To a slightly lesser degree "Creepy Connie Comes-a-Callin'". To an even lesser degree (but still counts): "Creepy Connie 3: The Creepening".
• Adults Are Useless: Like most Disney Channel sitcoms, enforced pretty often, even considering that the main star herself plays an adult on the show. That said, there are also many opportunities where this trope is subverted, even by Bertram who you'd least expect it from.
• Aerith and Bob: Mrs. Kipling's hatchlings are named with stereotypical Indian names, except for the one named Scooter and the one named Slumdog.
• Affably Evil:
  • Dale Davenport, the bully at the kids' school. Very mean and tough, but requests healthy snacks for himself and his victims.
    Dale: Tomorrow you better bring me some carrot juice. (in a nice voice) And bring some for yourself too. Your body is a temple, (in a mean voice) don't make me knock it down!
  • Mrs. Chesterfield is sometimes friendly with the Ross kids.
• Agony of the Feet: In an unusual reversed example, a little person store detective undercover as one of Santa's Helpers kicks Luke, causing him to hop on one foot.
• All Just a Dream:
  • "To Be or Not to Be" is all Kipling's daydream.
  • "Ghost Bummers" was all Jessie's dream.
  • "The Jessie-nator" was just a Daydream Surprise about what might happen if Luke pranks Bertram once too much.
  • Most of "Spaced Out" is Ravi's dream.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Dale Davenport, the school bully.
  • Ravi Ross.
  • Bryn Breitbart.
• Almost Kiss: Jessie and Tony nearly kiss in "Green Eyed Monsters" but are interrupted by Officer Petey.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Creepy Connie tries to force Luke to marry her in "Creepy Connie 3: The Creepening".
• Apple of Discord: The VIP wristbands in "Coffee Talk".
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: "That a minivan really isn't that much smaller than a regular van?"
• Artistic License: In real life it's highly unlikely a wealthy family in New York would hire someone as young and inexperienced as Jessie as a full time nanny. She might be able to get a part time job as a nanny for perhaps a middle class family. But not as a primary caregiver as Jessie is.
  • Actually, the parents might have been desperate since the kids keep chasing away their other nannies.
    • Also, it's perfectly legal so long as she has a high school diploma and background check. She could technically work in a daycare in many states as well. I think the main point here is that it's what Zuri wanted and so Christina gave in to Zuri's wishes once she made sure Jessie met the minimal requirements.
  • Not to mention Jessie is desperately trying to make it big and she is working for a famous couple. She knows that if she does a bad job, she'll crush any chance of breaking into showbiz. That said, Jessie seems to be doing a good job of ruining her chances on her own, but she probably dreaming of the day when one of the Ross's get a job in the industry. Which they more than likely won't do since they seem to like her as a nanny and would rather not try replace her, while Morgan Ross can easily cast someone more talented at acting than Jessie.
  • In "GI Jessie" Jessie's dad and his female CO plan to get married. This is a bit problematic where the armed forces are concerned. Military personnel are not supposed to be engaged in romantic relationships within the same chain of command.
  • During the first Christmas special, it's a big plot point that Ravi's never heard of Santa Claus. Not only is Christmas a state holiday in India, to the point that even non-religious schools have Christmas parties, Santa Claus, sometimes called "Christmas Baba," is part of the celebrations. While it's possible that Ravi never celebrated Christmas before, it's extremely unlikely that Ravi even never heard of Santa Claus.
• Author Avatar:
  • An in-universe example regarding Jessie's stage play Grenade to the Heart.
  • Given all the Actor Allusions and Shout Outs to The Suite Life it seems like the character of Jessie period might be one for Debby Ryan herself (albeit a self-depreciating one), at least to some extent.
• Ax-Crazy: While in her first appearance, "Creepy" Connie is much more creepy than crazy, she is full blown Ax-Crazy Stalker with a Crush in her next appearance. The episode deals with her attempting to get the role of Luke's lover in the school play. How does she do this? By taking out her competition, of course! The first girl she pushes down a flight of stairs, putting her in a full body cast, she welds a wrench to the next girl's braces, and attempts to crush the final girl with a sandbag!
  • Connie turns it up to eleven in "Creepy Connie 3: The Creepening" including hiring an actress in order to dupe Luke. In order to avoid paying said actress, Connie kidnaps her.
  • Connie herself confirmed she's had at least one police line-up.
    • And her uncle confirms her multiple(!) restraining orders in "Creepy Connie 3"
  • The kids think Jessie herself is axe crazy in the Halloween episode.
• Bad "Bad Acting":
  • Jessie and Petey's improv in "Green-Eyed Monsters". It's even lampshaded by Emma.
  • Zuri's "Oh no! The lizard ate my homework!" in "Make New Friends but Hide the Old".
  • Luke's "Oh no! They (Chris Bosh 's lucky socks) have been washed" in "Say Yes to the Messy Dress".
  • Jessie's "call from the president" in "Quitting Cold Koala".
• Bad Review Threat: A rare heroic example is shown in "World Wide Web of Lies"; After Agatha takes over the local playground by threatening to expose the other nannies' indiscretions over the Internet, Christina turns the tables by threatening to use her celebrity influence to destroy Agatha's reputation via a single negative post.
• Bait-and-Switch Comparison: In "Cattle Calls and Scary Walls", when Luke and Ravi wonder whether to follow Emma or Mrs. Kipling back to safety:
  Ravi: Do we follow the creature with a brain the size of a walnut or Mrs. Kipling? *points to Kipling*
• Ball-Balancing Seal: In Season 1, Zuri is forced to compete in a beauty pageant so Jessie can crush her nanny nemesis, Agatha. Ironically, neither of the girls wins. It's the girl who's dressed up as a seal, balancing a ball on her nose.
• Big Eater: Bertram is a very obsessive eater. He always orders junk food, is too lazy to get up or reach something because "it's too far", naps all the time and never does his job and even has a hiding place for his cheese in the fridge in "No Money No Problem".
• Big Bad Ensemble: Mrs. Chesterfield and Nanny Agatha.
• Big "NO!":
  • Ravi does it in "The Secret Life of Mr. Kipling" when he thinks he killed Mrs. Kipling's babies only to find out they're the wrong ones. He screams another as he flees the building to find the egg restaurant where the eggs were sent to.
  • Chris Bosh did this in "Say Yes to the Messy Dress" after his lucky socks was washed. Combined with Skyward Scream.
  • Emma does this in "Quitting Cold Koala" when Stewart wants to have a romantic picnic with her.
  • Emma does it again in "G.I. Jessie" when Jessie tells the kids they aren't being sent to their rooms for breaking the roof as she thought, but they are going with her to Texas.
  • Ravi in "Morning Rush" when he bumps into the door and breaks the rock mask of Luke's face.
• Bilingual Bonus: Whenever Ravi ends up angrily shouting in Hindi. He also has some Hindi writing on his bedroom door.
  • Referenced again in G.I. Jessie when Jessie ends up shouting in Hindi while having a panic attack. Emma observes "she's been spending too much time with Ravi."
  • Also continued in Bunk'd where it is revealed Emma can speak Hindi because she learned it from Ravi's outbursts.
• Bird-Poop Gag: In "Used Karma" when Ravi is trying to get a revenge on Luke for his pranks, he tricks Luke into going to see the telescope only to lock him up on the terrace, after that a flock of pigeons appears to poop on Luke.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Lampshaded by Ravi, as Millie the Mermaid "dies" the same day that Mrs. Kipling's eggs hatch.
  Ravi: For every imaginary death comes a reptilian birth.
  Jessie: Try stitching that on a pillow.
  Ravi: Oh, I did!
• Bittersweet Ending: Happens in the series finale. Jessie finally gets the starring role in a show about a superhero-nanny, but to do so, she can’t be the Ross family’s nanny anymore. Luckily, the kids say they’ll be fine and they’ll always be there for her.
• "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending: How the Grand Finale ends with a final shot of the now broken Hollywood sign.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • Zuri's Queasy-Bake Oven and Build-A-Baboon.
  • "Creepy" Connie's Tickle Me Voldemort doll.
  • PayMore Shoes.
  • Graperade.
  • Leopard Beat magazine.
  • Luke's Gamebuddy.
• Black Widow: Mrs. Chesterfield has been married six times solely for money and ditched her husbands when she was bored with them. Most of her husbands are implied to be dead and she even seeks more rich men to marry.
• Book Dumb: Definitely Luke, but also Emma and Jessie depending on the episode. Jessie just graduated high school before the pilot, but doesn't know the answer to a simple fraction problem that Luke had to do.You can say that Emma puts a decent enough effort to get good grades but Bertram once commented on Luke and Emma not being the smart Ross kids.
• Bookends:
  • The series begins with Jessie arriving in New York, getting knocked out of her taxi cab and meeting the kids, and ends with her leaving, seeing the kids again, which caused her to get knocked over.
  • The series beginning and finale also contain a subplot involving a Ross daughter's science project of the solar system and Christina being unable to spend as much time for support.
  • Season 1 ends with Mrs. Kipling giving birth to baby lizards; early on in Season 2, the babies are given away to Mrs. Chesterfield's lizard sanctuary.
• Bottle Episode: "Capture the Nag" is set entirely in the Fairfield complex, mostly the Ross' penthouse.
• Bouquet Toss:
  • This happens during Jessie's father's wedding. Ironically, the one who ends up catching it is Mrs. Kipling.
  • Jessie also catches the bouquet at Luke and Connie's fake wedding and shouts out: "It's mine! Better not take down those decorations on the terrace cause Jessie's gonna land herself a man!" This foreshadows Jessie's relationship with Brooks.
• Brainless Beauty: Emma, even if "brainless" is a bit of a stretch. Luke, however, makes her look like a genius by comparison. See Dumb Blonde and Genius Ditz.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Jessie once describes Agatha's shopping list as "bread, milk, and Eye of Newt".
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Jessie considers dumping Brooks to save him from his broke life after Mrs. Chesterfield cut off all his money. This is subverted, however, when Mrs. Chesterfield changes her mind and give Brooks his money, fully accepting their relationship.
• Brick Joke: Luke offering to give Bertram the salt shaker for his birthday in "Throw Momma From the Terrace".
• Bridal Carry: Caleb carries Emma as they run away together in "G.I Jessie".
• Broke Episode: "Four Broke Kids"; Morgan and Christina have lost all their money and all the Ross's furniture gets repossessed. With nothing to pay their rent, the family gets evicted and Mrs. Chesterfield moves into the penthouse in their place, and have to stay in Tony's cramped house. The Rosses end up getting their money back in the end because the debt was directed toward a different Ross family.
• Buffy Speak: Emma uses this near the end of "We Are So Grounded".
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Jessie is arguably the goofiest of them all, but is crazy-skilled, including singing, stripping a gun, survival training, hand-to-hand combat skills and being able to fly aircraft. It was also revealed in the pilot that she's a straight-A student. It's implied her dad is just as ditzy and skilled.
• Call-Back:
  • In "Gotcha Day", Bertram warns Mrs. Kipling to not have kids or he'll "make omelets out of them." Cue "The Secret Life of Mrs. Kipling" (the very next episode after "Gotcha Day") where Mrs. Kipling does have kids - and what is the immediate threat to them? Getting caught in a restaurant that happens to specialize in making omelets.
  • In "Gotcha Day", Emma talks about being a seismologist (though she meant psychologist). She's taking psychology in Season 3.
  • In "The Whining", when talking about the short story Jessie's writing, Tony says he hopes it's better than her play that burned down the school, referencing what happened in "Creepy Connie's Curtain Call".
• The Calls Are Coming from Inside the House: A version. In Creepy Connie 3: The Creepening, Mad Mac, one of Connie's friends from boarding school who became enamored with Luke after hearing about him from Connie, actually an actress hired by Connie to dupe Luke into marrying her posts a video after being rejected by him. After noticing several items in the video that are under his bed, they realize this.
• Canon Welding: The series has established more connections with other Disney Channel series than any other show, and the first to establish connections with an animated show with the Ultimate Spider-Man crossover.
• Catchphrase:
  • Mrs. Chesterfield always calls Zuri "strange little girl".
  • Emma's high-pitched shriek (and "idiot").
  • Bertram's "it's just so far".
• Celeb Crush:
  • It's hinted several times that Jessie's are Taylor Lautner and Channing Tatum.
  • In "All Star New Year", Emma has one on Austin and implies Jessie has one on Ryan Seacrest.
• Celebrity Star:
  • Chris Bosh in "Say Yes to the Messy Dress".
  • Adam Sandler in "Punch Dumped Love", even invoking a fourth wall breaking moment between him and Grown Ups co-star Cameron Boyce, done to promote the upcoming movie (though the line seems to have been oddly replaced with a more generic shout-out in current airings).
  • Spencer Boldman in "Break-Up and Shape-Up," or at least that's how Disney Channel's PR treats it.
  • Maia Mitchell and John DeLuca in Jessie's Big Break, Ross Lynch and Laura Marano in the Austin & Ally crossover, Bridgit Mendler and Jason Dolley in the Good Luck Charlie crossover, Joey Bragg and Tenzig Norgay Trainor in Jessie's Aloha Holidays and Sierra McCormick in the Creepy Connie episodes (along with G Hannelius in the last one).
  • Phill Lewis reprising Mr. Moseby in "Karate Kid-Tastrophe."
  • First Lady Michelle Obama in "From the White House to Our House".
  • Chris Paul of the LA Clippers in "Basket Cases" and The Vamps in "Dance Dance Resolution".
• Chained to a Railway: Happens as an Imagine Spot in "Lights, Camera, Distraction". Jessie is trying to finish a movie for a film festival and in one scene Zuri Ross imagines herself as the mustache twirling villain and Jessie as the Damsel In Distress tied to a railway with a lot of rope. She mentions that she will be saved by her hero (Tony) but Zuri has him too tied to the railroad tracks. The imagination spot then ends after Jessie admits to evil Zuri her plan worked.
• Childish Older Sibling: The eldest child, Emma, is normally too ditzy and self-centered to be trusted with anything, and the next one, Luke, is too much of a troublemaker, so when any responsibility needs to be set, Jessie normally goes with Ravi, the third in line.
• Christmas Episode: One each season so far - the second one also combines this with New Year's Day Episode and Crossover.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Morgan disappears from the show all together after Season 1 with no explanation, with only Christina appearing after.
• Clark Kenting: Emma's "Kitty Couture" disguise consists entirely of big sunglasses and a really big hat.
• Coincidental Accidental Disguise: This happens to Jessie in the 2012 Halloween Episode. She goes to check on the kids who are late trick-or-treating, but the kids were told by a creepy old doorman about an evil nanny who lived in the building and happens to look exactly like Jessie's Halloween costume. This, along with Jessie being covered in red punch and having anger tantrums, convinces the kids that Jessie has become possessed by the evil nanny and is out to murder them.
• Coming of Age Story: The subplot of "The Secret Life of Mr. Kipling" focuses on Zuri grieving the death of one of her imaginary friends and plans a funeral in return; Jessie points out with Bertram this could be a sign of Zuri growing up and leaving her childhood behind.
• Companion Cube: Hilariously, Bertram gives names to all of his kitchen appliances and treats them as his "friends".
• Continuity Nod: Rather surprisingly consistent.
  • However, in "Trashin' Fashion", Jessie is shown to be clumsy. This contradicts an earlier episode ("Zombie Tea Party 5"), in which Jessie was shown to be extremely agile.
    • Jessie has been trending towards clumsy for a while.
  • The vase Wendy tries to frame Zuri for breaking in "Snack Attack" is the same vase Ravi and Luke agree to frame Zuri for breaking in "Why Do Foils Fall in Love"
• Counting to Three: Jessie slowly tries at this in "Karate Kid-Tastrophie" to try and get Emma to leave the kitchen to change out of her stripperific outfit. She does not move once.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": Bertram, helping the kids decorate the tree. Justified, as Zuri's basically jumping on him.
• Creepy Child:
  • Zuri is this in-universe, according to the landlady.
  • "Creepy" Connie Thompson as well. That nickname is well-deserved.
  • Not to mention Madeline from "What A Steal". Even before she reveals her true colors to be those of a young hardened criminal in the making, a very bad vibe has already become apparent in the way she's dressed.
• Crossover:
  • The two-episode Austin & JESSIE & Ally special (the Austin & Ally episode Big Dreams & Big Apples and the Jessie episode Nanny in Miami).
  • The one-hour "Good Luck Jessie: NYC Christmas" special, a crossover with Good Luck Charlie.
  • In an odd reversal, the cast of Jessie showed up in a Halloween themed episode of Ultimate Spider-Man (2012). Yes an animated show.
  • Joey and Parker Rooney from Liv and Maddie crash in on the Rosses in "Jessie's Aloha Holidays With Parker and Joey."
  • A slight one, but in a season 4 episode Karate Kid-tastrophe, Mr. Moseby from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody shows up as the manager of the Tipton Hotel in New York where Emma (in something of a rebellious phase) hid using her mother credit card. He even lampshades in a phone call to Cody that Jessie looks oddly like Bailey (From On Deck, of whom Debby Ryan played the role).
• Curse Cut Short
• Cute Bruiser: Jessie knows a few military moves that she shows when she subdues Emma's punk boyfriend.
  • Lindsay, Agatha's charge during the talent episode - her talent happens to be karate.
  • Zuri once took down both Jessie and Luke in about as many seconds. Took down Ravi by technicality when he surrendered himself to the floor.
• A Day in the Limelight: The family pet, Mrs. Kipling, has the second episode pretty much dedicated to him/her.
• Disproportionate Retribution: When challenged by Jessie, Agatha uses her website to slander Jessie to an incredible degree, putting her at risk of losing her job as the Ross' nanny. Then Christina Ross steps up to defend Jessie and raises the stakes by typing a blog post shaming Agatha. Agatha's online followers are only local, Christina's number over 4million worldwide. Agatha suddenly discovers she's a very small fish confronting a great white shark.
• Distinction Without a Difference:
  • In "Romancing the Crone", Luke asks if Emma bought Mrs. Kipling a cute outfit. She says that she bought a cute costume instead.
  • In "One Day Wonders", Luke says "It's not stealing, it's just taking without permission!".
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Debby Ryan sings "Hey, Jessie", the show's opening.
• Dope Slap: Mrs. Kipling does this to Ravi, Luke and Emma with his tail when they fail to realize that he could be the pet for their cool pet viral video.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Played with, although it's more like sexual harassment. Toward the end of the episode where Jessie gets together with Mrs. Chesterfield's son, she harasses a man she was interested in. While the man seriously considers suing her for it, she laughs it off with a laugh track playing, believing that he's playing hard to get - considering her personality, she is clearly in the wrong about it.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty:
  • Jessie starts out like this, but she softens up by the end of the first episode.
  • Jessie's dad (which is where she gets it from) and his commanding officer/fiancee in "G.I. Jessie."
• Driving Test: In the episode "Driving Miss Crazy", Jessie takes Emma to the DMV for her driving test. However, since Jessie's liscence from Texas isn't valid in New York, she too must take the driving test herself.
• Dumbass Teenage Son: Luke, if preteen is close enough.
• Dumb Blonde: Emma is a downplayed example. She actually does well in school, but sometimes she has moments of this.

E-H

• Earn Your Happy Ending: After everything Jessie has been through, she finally gets to be an actress.
• Engineered Public Confession:
  • In "The Princess and The Pea Brain", a rich Jerkass whom Jessie has a date with is caught cheating on her by Bertram overhearing him talking on the phone and turning on the speaker for the entire family to hear.
  • In "Diary of a Mad Newswoman", Bryn tricks Emma into reporting a false scoop on the school radio show. Emma finds out and has Ravi record Bryn confess whilst hidden in a locker.
  • In "Jessie's Big Break", McD's flirting with Jessie was recorded on Luke's video camera. Jessie uses this to prove to Shaylee that McD is a Jerkass whom she shouldn't be dating.
  • In "The Rosses Get Real", the family gets rid of a mean reporter by angering her into insulting her bosses on camera. Ravi then steals the memory chip and plays it live.
• Epic Fail: Jessie's attempt at trash talk in "Beauty and the Beasts":
  Jessie: Well I hope Lindsay's talent is imitating a turkey, because Zuri is going to beat the stuffing out of her.
• Everything is Big in Texas: During the Jessie portion of the Good Luck JESSIE special (along with Down on the Farm). It tends to get invoked a lot when addressing Jessie's past.
• Expository Theme Tune: "Hey Jessie", though nowhere near as blatant in its exposition as some examples.
• Expy:
  • An in-universe example: In "Creepy Connie's Curtain Call", "Josie" is obviously an expy of Jessie herself.
  • Jessie herself is such an expy of Bailey that most fans consider them the exact same character. It's lampshaded when Jessie runs into Mr. Moseby himself, who was tipped off by her resemblance to Bailey, and decided to tell Cody.
  • Most of the cast is somewhat expys of The Nanny characters- Jessie is Fran, Emma is Maggie, Luke is Brighton, Zuri (and Ravi, to a degree) is Gracie, Bertram is Niles, and Mrs. Chesterfield is C.C.
  • Emma has a thing or two in common with London Tipton. It's even shown that like London, she also likes Arturo Vitalli.
  • The theater teacher from "Acting With the Frenemy" probably wishes he instead taught at Hollywood Arts.
• Eye Scream: In "The Jessie-nator: Grudgement Day", we learn that Jessie will eventually slip up with her needle sewing kit and end up losing her left eye. Her future Jessie wears an eyepatch for this reason. However, Jessie prevents it by throwing away the kit.
• Failure Is the Only Option: All of Jessie's attempts to make it big (trying to get a song recorded, trying to audition for a TV show, trying to get a play produced, trying to get a short story published) have ended in spectacular failure at best.
  • Her most successful attempt so far was in getting cast in Mayan Mayhem...as a stunt double (and subsequently taking quite a beating for her art).
  • She auditioned for an In-Universe show called Worthington Manor. She would've gotten the part, but an injury sustained earlier in the episode (no thanks to Ravi) caused her to lose it
  • This has been averted in season 3, she has starred in an off-Broadway play after the actress got trapped on the terrace and also starred in a kitchen utensil safety video.
  • And finally averted in the Grand Finale when she lands the starring role as a superhero nanny in a new television show in Hollywood.
• Fairytale Wedding Dress: Jessie wears one at her wedding in “There Goes the Bride”.
• Fat Bastard: Bertram, who is an Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Feigning Intelligence: Jessie does this in "What a Steal" to impress a cute nerd at the Intelligencia meeting she takes Ravi to.
• Financial Test of Friendship: When the Ross' assets are frozen due to a tax accounting error, despite the fact she is no longer being paid to look after her charges, Jessie chooses to stay with the children during this crisis. Tony allows them to live in his apartment until the error is resolved.
• Five-Token Band: You can practically smell the focus testing.
• Flanderization:
  • There are early signs of this happening to Jessie herself. The writers seem to have become stuck on her having bad relationships with guys and as Season 1 progressed she seemed more and more like a relationship chaser (possibly a Disneyfied Good Bad Girl or Ethical Slut) than a girl with just enough bad experiences to make her play it safe with Tony. As many relationship stories as she's mentioned, it seems like she dated every single guy in her hometown at least once. The stories are becoming more outlandish as well, further implying they might be Flanderizing her. Also, the whole Failure Is the Only Option angle. Jessie started the show being able to fly helicopters and bragging about winning talent shows; in Season 2 she comes off as being lucky if she manages walk down the hallway without being run over.
  • Zuri's showing some signs of it. In season 1 she was kind of snarky but genuinely playful and nice. In season 2 she started acting a lot greedier and brattier. In season 3 it's hard to find 1 scene she's not insulting someone (Ghost Bummers doesn't count as it was a dream)
  • And the kids as a whole. In the first season, they had kind of a Friendly Enemy relationship with Bertram, but now it's to the point where they abuse and admittedly dislike him without remorse (which makes Bertram into the villain in the robot episode because of this). The same with Jessie, whom they thought of as a Magical Nanny in the first season but now freely insult her to her face, refer to her as someone unimportant in their lives, and think she is bad at anything and everything she does.
    • This flips around in Season 4, although the kids prank/manipulate Bertram and Jessie from time to time, the kids show affection for Bertram and Jessie. When Bertram quits, they replace him, but want to get him back because they miss him. Also, although Luke manipulates him to come to a sports collection, they end up having a great time with each other at the end.
  • Emma. In Season 1, she was often ditzy but otherwise a regular teenage girl. In following seasons, especially the third, her common sense is almost nonexistent and she’s just a stereotypical Dumb Blonde.
  • Ravi's social life. At first it seemed he had some friends though not a lot. In Season 2, he seemed to be lonelier, but a lot of it seemed to be by choice. Jump to season 3 where Ravi has become desperate for friends and admits to being a lonely social outcast and many more jokes are made about this.
• Forced Transformation: In "The Princess and the Pea Brain", the humble peasant in Zuri's story takes a potion that would make him irresistible. Instead, he gets turned into a hamburger, as "everybody loves hamburgers", though fortunately he changes back.
• Foreign Remake: In the same tradition as Good Luck Charlie/Best of Luck Nikki, there is an Indian remake of Jessie called Oye, Jassie! It's a very strict episode-for-episode remake of Jessie down to retaining the character Ravi and all his quirks, even though he's living in his native country in this version. Appropriately enough, Jassie herself is even played by the same actress who played the equivalent of Maddie in The Suite Life of Karan and Kabir (their version of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody/On Deck). The first season is available for viewing on Disney India's YouTube Channel and you can see the intro sequence here.
• Foregone Conclusion: After seeing Bunk'd, we can come to the conclusion that Jessie becomes a professional actor (which finally happened) and has to leave the Ross kids allowing them to go to camp. With Luke away at summer school and Emma, Zuri and Ravi at camp, there's no need for her anymore.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble:
  • The twenty-somethings: Jessie Prescott (choleric), Tony (phlegmatic), Petey (sanguine).
  • The Ross kids: Emma (choleric), Luke (phlegmatic), Zuri (sanguine), Ravi (melancholic).
    • Alternitavely, Emma (sanguine) and Zuri (choleric). Especially in later episodes, Emma is more bubbly, charming and positive than her sister and Zuri has stronger Jerkass tendencies, is insensitive and expects everyone to dance to her tune.
  • Other characters: Burtram (leukine) and Rosie (melancholic).
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: "To Be or Not to Be", in which Jessie flips with Zuri, Emma with Luke and Ravi with Bertram.
• Funny Foreigner: Actually avoided, while Ravi does act foreign, most of his jokes aren't ethnicity based. Although Zuri does call him Mowgli in the Christmas episode.
• Friendless Background: A Running Gag is that Ravi doesn't have any friends other than his pet lizard, Mrs. Kipling.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In "Ride to Riches", Jessie has to choose whether to go to her audition and risk forfeiting, or stay and participate on the titular game show for Ravi's sake. Willingly, she chose the latter.
• Friend to All Children: Both Jessie and Emma have shown to be this several of times.
• Genius Ditz: Emma is pretty smart, and actually does well in school, but still acts pretty goofy.
• Gender Reveal: Mr. Kipling is actually a Mrs. Kipling, as revealed in the Season 1 finale.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Or more specifically, Luxembourgish people love Christina Ross. She mentions being huge out there in "World Wide Web of Lies."invoked
• The Ghost: Darla, Jessie's frenemy from Texas, until she made an appearance in "G.I. Jessie."
• Gilligan Cut:
  • In "Glue Dunnit: A Sticky Situation", Jessie insists to Mrs. Chesterfield that the kids did not prank her with switching her hair gel with glue. Next, we see Jessie interrogating the kids in the penthouse and accusing them of the prank.
  • In "Quitting Cold Koala", Jessie tries to help Luke get over his obsession with his stuffed animal, Kenny the Koala, by confiscating it for three days and making Luke sleep on the couch to get him away from its environment. Luke has trouble trying to sleep without it, but then tries to calm himself down.
  Luke: It's okay. I can do this. I can do this (cut to Luke banging on Jessie's door to get Kenny back) I can't do this!!!! I can't do this!!!!
  • In "Caught Purple Handed", Luke says he wants no part in the plan to hide the lie about a famous celebrity attending their Wild Teen Party on the roof. He is then seen impersonating the celebrity to entertain the party.
• Girliness Upgrade:A MAJOR one of these happens to Rosie after befriending Emma. In her first appearance, she appears as a punk tomboy with messy hair, no makeup, and without a care about "girly" interests. After befriending Emma, her appearance and personality drastically changes. In her next appearance, her hair is much neater and styled in French braids, she dresses in a much more "girly" style (More Similar To Emma's Style Of Dressing) than before (She Had Seemed To Have Completely Abandoned Her Former Style), wears makeup and earrings, and acts like a stereotypical "Popular Girl".
• Give Away the Bride: Bertram gives Jessie away on her canceled wedding to Brooks since Jessie's dad can't make it.
• Golddigger: Mrs. Chesterfield always gets married for money and never for love. This is how she became a wealthy elitist.
• Grand Finale: Season 4 finally reaches the conclusion to Jessie's long journey to become an actress, and the final episode ends with her going to Hollywood.
• Grounded Forever: In "Caught Purple Handed", when Jessie finds out the kids threw a party on the roof to make money for their failed muffin sale which they lied about, the kids are grounded from all TV and internet for "the rest of their lives".
• Grudging "Thank You": Jessie gives Emma a teeth-clenched "thank you" for curing her of a poisonous bite in "We Are So Grounded".
  Emma: Where's my thank you for sporking you back to health?
  Jessie: (very angrily) THANK YOU!!! I HOPE I DO THE SAME TO YOU SOMEDAY!!!!
• Guilt by Association Gag: In the ending of one episode, Jessie made the Ross kids work to pay for a video game that Ravi stole. Despite Emma being the Only Sane Man in that situation, Jessie made her work too so she can take the day off.
• Halloween Episode:
  • The now-pulled "The Whining".
  • There's been a Halloween episode for every season since Season 2, including the one where Jessie gets proposed to.
  • The Ultimate Spider-Man episode where the Jessie characters cross over.
• Hilarious Outtakes: In the credits for "To Be Me or Not to Be Me", which differs from the show's usual formula of shoehorning one last gag into the credits.
• Happily Adopted: All of the Ross kids are adopted except Emma.
• Homage: "Ghost Bummers" is, for the most part, one of the original Ghostbusters, except Luke and Emma end up playing pattycake to summon Zorag instead.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming:
  Mrs. Chesterfield: These revolting children were in my house?! How repugnant!
  Bertram: Hey! Nobody calls these kids revolting and repugnant except me!
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Mrs. Ross tells Jessie that she has her under 24 hour surveillance. She then immediately complains about being under 24 hour surveillance by the paparazzi.
  • In "Beauty and the Beasts", Jessie tells Emma not to insult Agatha; only to immediately insult her anyway.
  • In "Driving Miss Crazy", Jessie cannot get her unruly picture for her license retaken because they're too busy, but when it's Emma's turn for her picture, she has multiple pictures taken.

I-M

• If I Can't Have You…: Implied in "Creepy Connie Curtin' Call". During the school play, Creepy Connie repeatedly keeps chasing Luke across the stage trying to forcibly kiss him. When Luke repeatedly keeps rejecting her advances, Connie eventually tries to kill him with a flamethrower that Jessie borrowed from her dad to make a more realistic prop.
• Ignorant About Fire: Season 3 "Where's Zuri?", Stuart has a new laid back nanny named Hudson who allows Zuri and Stuart to play with fireworks inside which results in their balcony getting set on fire. By the end of the episode, when Hudson decides to become a more responsible nanny, he puts all his fireworks in a box and offers it to Jessie who doesn't want and tells him to get rid of them, but when he sees a fireplace with a fire going we cut to the apartment on fire with firefighters entering the building and everybody outside the building.
• I Have to Go Iron My Dog: In "Krumping and Crunching"' Emma pretends that she has to go watch the fashion channel when she Luke and Jessie are caught returning from the wrestling match to meet the wrestler they had thought was Luke's birth mother by Christina. Christina isn't fooled, but pretends to buy the excuse.
• I Let You Win: In the climax of "All the Knight Moves", Zuri decides to throw her move and let Clem win so he can visit his family in Paris and make amends with them.
• Imaginary Friend: Zuri has at least one of these; subverted in the episode "The Talented Mr. Kipling", when Zuri actually has an imaginary bully who she claims had hit her and ripped the head off one of her dolls. In "The Secret Life of Mr. Kipling", one of them dies for the rest of the show.
• Improbable Piloting Skills: Jessie flies a helicopter. In a later episode, "We Are So Grounded", she crash-lands a jet in an emergency. She calmly prefaces her aerial antics with "my father taught me how to fly!" ^note This could be possible as one can start to learn to fly and receive hours towards a pilots license at age 12.
• Indy Escape:
  • In "Creepy Connie's Curtain' Call", Ravi accidentally knocks a boulder down a hill and it rolls towards Luke. Ironically, Creepy Connie is the one who saved Luke by tackling him out of the way.
  • In "Between The Swoon and New York City", Ravi sets up an Indiana Jones-like booby trap course to stop Luke from stealing the baseball that Ravi caught in a stadium. In fact, the entire scene resembles the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: In "Glue Dunnit: A Sticky Situation", the characters try to find out who used glue to prank Mrs. Chesterfield, with Ravi trying to find out who had the glue last, and eventually finding out Emma used the glue to fix her broken phone. When they tell Jessie about this, Luke accuses Emma of doing the prank, saying that Emma took the glue from Zuri, used it to fix her phone, and then put it in her purse. Ravi points out Emma never said anything about her purse, revealing Luke took the glue from her purse in order to prank Bertram.
• Insult to Rocks:
  Ravi: Luke has the personal hygiene of a wolverine.
  Bertram: That's an insult to wolverines. At least they occasionally lick themselves clean!
  • In "A Doll's Outhouse", Ravi compares his former love interest Tanya to a poisonous toad. Emma immediately calls this an insult to toads, and Luke calls it an insult to poison.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Zuri and Nana Banana who is older enough to be Christina Ross's Grandmother.
• It Tastes Like Feet:
  • In "G.I Jessie", Bertram competes with a lunch lady in baking the wedding cake for Jessie's father's wedding. The lunch lady licks the icing of Bertram's cake and remarks: "This icing tastes like dirt". A moment later, Darla gets knocked over the cake and says the same line.
  • Adam Sandler, guest-starring As Himself in the episode "Punched Dumped Love", is seen at the High-School Dance serving punch that tastes like Kevin James' feet.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In the third season finale, Tony is jealous of Jessie's new relationship with Brooks, Mrs. Chesterfield's son. However, he does hire Brooks as an elevator operator in the building when he was temporarily broke. Tony is just about to tell Jessie how he feels about her, but when Brooks proposes he takes a step back and accepts Jessie's decision to marry him, even volunteering to officiate the wedding. However, this proved to be unnecessary because Jessie and Brooks' engagement breaks off at the altar when Brooks leaves for a new job in Africa.
  • This is followed with a Continuity Nod where Jessie invokes this trope as well after finding out that Brooks has moved on very easily and is currently dating the veterinarian at his animal sanctuary.
• "I Want" Song: In Katch Kipling, this was an important piece of play Emma and Bertram performed in.
• Jerkass at Your Discretion: In "Snack Attack", the Bratty Half-Pint Wendy only chooses to torment Zuri when Jessie is not around.
• Jumping Out of a Cake: Bertram's mother does this as one of her ways to steal the spotlight on her son's birthday.
• Kids Play Match Breaker: In “There Goes the Bride”, while preparing for his and Jessie’s wedding, Brooks gets a job offer in Africa, meaning she will have to marry him right away and quit being the Rosses’ nanny. In order to stop Jessie from leaving them, the kids try to break them up by guilting Jessie about missing out on their life’s biggest moments, even trying to scare Brooks off by shooting him with real laser guns.
• Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: Emma and Zuri in "A Doll's Outhouse" (though Emma didn't seem that scared).
• Killed Off for Real: Though played for humor, Zuri’s imaginary friend Millie the Mermaid gets “killed” in the Season 1 finale and the family has a funeral for her.
• The Killjoy: Bertram fancies himself a responsible adult who puts a damp on the kids and their babysitter's potentially dangerous schemes. In truth, it's more usual for him to spoil their fun just because it annoys him and he can be that petty. Sometimes it's because they've criticized one of his hobbies while in others it's just because they are making too much noise.
• Kiss of Distraction: In "Romancing The Crown", Bertram needs to distract Mrs. Chesterfield so that Jessie and Zuri can sneak into her penthouse and retrieve Christina's tiara. They are nearly caught when Zeus, Mrs. Chesterfield's dog, spots them and barks at them. To prevent Mrs. Chesterfield from seeing Jessie and Zuri, Bertram compliments Rhoda on her breath leading her to kiss him for several minutes, much to Bertram's disgust. This distraction proves enough for Jessie and Zuri to escape.
• LARP: It is revealed in the episode "Ride To Riches" that Bertram plays a king at a medieval LARP. Emma and Luke join in after they follow him there.
• Last of His Kind: Played for Laughs with Fernando, the acid-spitting fanged toad taken care of by Brooks Wentworth.
  Jessie: You know, some things are better off extinct.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Jessie's line "This was the best four years of my life", very much reflects how Debby Ryan felt after shooting the last episode. Tony telling Jessie "Good luck on the first day of the rest of your life" very much drives it all home.
• Lethal Chef: Bertram is usually made fun of by the kids for his bad cooking. He is a lazy butler after all.
• It Makes Sense in Context: A meta example: why did Jessie and Luke dress up as zombies during the paintball fight? Because that was meant to be the Halloween Episode for that year.
• Malicious Misnaming: Mrs. Chesterfield calls Jessie "Bessie", her friend Darla "Marla" and Emma "Jemma". She most likely does this on purpose. Also, Bertram's highschool rival calls him "Bertram Stinkle".
• Mall Santa: Ravi is deathly afraid of him in the Christmas episode.
• Mama Bear: Don't mess with Jessie's kids.
• Manipulative Editing: In "The Rosses Get Real", a reporter named Corrine Baxter interviews the Ross family and makes them fight each other by recording their words out of context to make it look like they are insulting each other. She does this so she can exploit their rage to improve ratings. Fortunately, they family devises a plan to get rid of her.
• Meat-O-Vision: When the Ross kids and Stuart and locked in the panic room in "Panic Attack Room", Luke sees Mrs. Kipling as a plate of chicken and Mrs. Kipling sees Stuart as a rat.
• Misaimed Marketing: Parodied with Zuri's Kitty Couture merchandise in "Say Yes to the Messy Dress".invoked
• Missing Child: In "Take the A-Train...I Think?", Jessie ends up separated from Emma and Ravi while on the subway when they fail to get on a train in time.
• Mistaken for Afterlife: Ravi thinks this after he is crushed by Bertram's hoarding pile.
  Ravi: Oh Gods! Is that you?
  Bertram: No it's Bertram! You're not dead!
• Monumental Damage: In the series finale, the Ross kids accidentally cause the "H" in the Hollywood sign to collapse. This can still be seen in the last scene of the episode.
• Motorcycle Jousting: A literal example complete with armored riders (thanks to a Story Within a Story)
• Mugged for Disguise:
  • Jessie, Luke, and Ravi knock out some waiters and take their uniforms.
  • Jessie proposes to do this to sneak into a Toy Con in "Toy Con" until Ravi points out it's easier to grab costumes from an unattended rack behind them.
• Mundane Made Awesome: In "The Secret Life of Mr. Kipling", Zuri wants to plan a funeral for one of her imaginary friends, who died. She even treats it seriously and cries over it.
• Ms. Fanservice: Jessie herself, due to her large bust. Also Christina (and, to a degree, Emma).
• My Life Flashed Before My Eyes: In "Rossed At Sea - Part 1", Delphina/Kim experiences this when she falls into the water which in turn causes her to regain her memory.
• My Little Phony: Zuri and Tony are big fans of the Power Ponies, and the name is oh, so familiar....

N-R

• National Stereotypes: A fair portion of the show's humor.
• Never My Fault:
  • Luke and Zuri blame the jeep incident in GI Jessie on Ravi, for not trying to stop them.
  • Shown in "Help Not Wanted" when Zuri and Luke blame Jessie for their irresponsible spending even though she immediately called them out on their spending habits when she saw the bills.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Jessie apparently knows how to land a plane, having been taught so by her father.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: It's pretty obvious that the Rosses are a parody of the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt family.
• Noir Episode: "Someone Has Tou-pay," complete with black-and-white scenes, Jessie's Private Eye Monologues, and muted trumpet background music.
• Non Sequitur: In "Gotcha Day", Emma says "I'm so insightful, I should become a seismologist!".
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Jessie's dad is now remarried to Darla's mother, and this is probably the biggest change in the series.
• Nothing Personal: Madeline tries to pull this in "What A Steal" in claiming her motive for stealing from the Ross family. Of course, nobody believes it, especially while she's barking orders at her accomplice who happens to be her older brother. See Troubling Unchildlike Behavior below.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Emma fighting off a pack of wild monkeys by herself prior to fixing the radio on their downed private jet and getting a rescue chopper. Justified for happening offscreen, but one wonders how she got rid of the monkeys, did she actually fight them off, or just outsmart them? Either way, considering it's Emma we're talking about, either feat would seem to be nearly impossible and thus awesome.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In-Universe, Jessie will occasionally slip into a Texas drawl.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: In "Jessie's Big Break", McD's real name is Timmy Finkleberg. Jessie even puts, "There's not a Mc or a D anywhere in there."
• Out of Focus: A fairly common complaint is that Emma doesn't get enough screentime (although the later episodes are better in this regard).
• Overly Long Gag: "Karate Kid-tastrophe" has Jessie attempting to count to three to send Emma to her room and change out of her inappropriate choice of clothes for almost a minute and a half, all while Emma stays where she is with her arms folded and a Psychotic Smirk on her face.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: In the pilot, Jessie calls Galactopus "the best giant radioactive space octopus movie of all time".
• Pacifism Backfire: Parodied in the pilot episode when Emma and Luke are fighting and Ravi is trying to stop them^note which might be a parody of Gandhi
  Ravi: Emma. Luke. Violence is never the answer.
  Emma: (hits Ravi with a pillow) laughter
  Ravi: The heck with the non-violence! I will come down on you like a tiger!
• Paranoia Gambit: This is unintentionally pulled in the episode "A Close Shave". Bertram and Zuri fear that Luke will want revenge on them for accidentally shaving the middle of his head, despite Luke having already forgiven them. They even end up destroying their own things thinking Luke was giving them as a prank.
  Luke: Wow! I really didn't need to do anything! Just sit back and let your paranoia destroy you!
• Parent Service: Debby Ryan and Christina Moore, whether intentional or not.
• Pet Heir: Mrs. Chesterfield's daughter mentions at the end of 101 Lizards that Zeus the dog will inherit everything including a house in the Hamptons. However, considering the resentment Zeus has towards Mrs. Chesterfield, Zeus may not care otherwise.
• Pet the Dog: A minor one in Lights, Camera, Distraction!. Bertram makes a joke about Jessie being in a hot dog costume thinking she'd be in a commercial, and all the other kids laugh at it
  Bertram: I'm just glad you finally got-
  Jessie: Don't say it.
  Bertram: A big role.
• Pilot: "New York, New Nanny".
• Playing Cyrano: Not Cyrano through actual communication, but rather texting. But in one episode, Emma asks Luke to be Cyrano for her so she can communicate with her Lovable Jock boyfriend over sports. Unfortunately for Emma, the ruse is exposed.
• Plot Hole: It should have long before been figured out that Mr. Kipling was a Mrs. Kipling. Ravi has had him since an egg and even if he didn't understand the difference between male or female, as a pet it is likely Mrs. Kipling has been to the vet at least once - especially before being imported to the U.S. upon Ravi's adoption. Also, in "The Talented Mr. Kipling", it is further implied that Mrs. Kipling is hitting on Jessie when (s)he tail-whips Jessie.
• Pluto Is Expendable: In the pilot Jessie is carrying Emma's model of the solar system (her science fair project), she trips and destroys the model. During the judging of the science fair Emma wins, because Pluto falls off right before and the judges like that she remembered that Pluto is no longer a planet.
• Private Eye Monologue: Jessie does a lot of these in the Noir Episode "Someone Has Tou-pay."
• Poke the Poodle: In "Help Not Wanted", when Luke and Zuri question why Ravi would want to join them in their scam instead of telling Jessie on them, Ravi defends himself that he can look like a bad boy by mentioning that he once told Jessie that he will make his bed but instead he only straightened the comforters. He even tries to look like a rebel just by buckling his belt without one loop.
• Poor Communication Kills: While Emma is taking her written test in "Driving Miss Crazy" and Jessie tries to help:
  Emma: "What does a double yellow line mean?"
  Jessie: "You can't pass."
  Emma: That's not very nice! I'm doing my best!
  [...]
  Emma: "What does a red octo-gonal sign mean?"
  Jessie: "Stop."
  Emma: Stop? I just started!
• Public Hater, Private Fan: Emma and Ravi receive advance copies of a much desired novel. When Luke learns they are fans, he relentlessly mocks them until they mention a plot development which he doesn't approve off, followed by instantly checking the book to verify it for himself. Revealing he is also a fan.
• Punny Name: "All the Knight Moves" gives us Clement "Clem" Brulee (crêmé brûlée).
• Put on a Bus: As of "101 Lizards", Mrs. Kipling's baby lizards now reside in a lizard sanctuary owned by Mrs. Chesterfield.
• A Rare Sentence:
  • From "The Secret Life of Mr. Kipling":
    Jessie: Bertram, I have got my hands full with the lizard eggs. You deal with the dead mermaid! ...Can you believe this is our lives?
    Bertram: I try not to think about it.
  • A less-convoluted instance from "NYC Christmas: Part 2":
    Jessie: So you two stole the reindeer? (Beat.) Huh. There's a sentence I never thought I'd say.
  • In "All the Knight Moves", Jessie comments on the phrase "exciting chess news".
  • In "Creepy Connie Comes a Callin'", Jessie says "Now give me back that koala's head!", briefly followed by "Never thought I'd say that."
• Race Against the Clock:
  • In "Take the A-Train... I Think?", Jessie and the Rosses have three hours to get to Battery Park where Emma can use the Cultural Fair it's hosting for her project before it ends.
  • In "Morning Rush", Jessie has 30 minutes to help the Rosses with their problems and get them out the door before the school bus arrives.
• Recycled Premise: The first episode of "Rossed at Sea" features a storyline that previously happened in The Suite Life on Deck with a girl with amnesia being brought onto a ship and one or more people thinking she's a mermaid.
• Redemption Rejection: Emma makes one last attempt to reason with Bryn by promising her friendship in return for being nice. Bryn thinks the offer of redemption is sweet, but she outright refuses by throwing cheesy nachos at Rosie.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Subverted. Mrs. Kipling seems to be bad, until you get to know her.
• Runaway Bride: Jessie refuses to marry Brooks at the altar and runs back upstairs breaking off the engagement.
• Running Gag:
  • Offering somebody bran when they make a sad face, since when Jessie did that in her high school drama class, her teacher thought she looked constipated instead.
  • Comments about the size of Jessie's feet.

S-Y

• Scout-Out : Jessie was an Armadillo Scout and kept her uniform. Emma and Zuri are both Butterfly Scouts (Emma is a Monarch, First Class, later demoted to Larvae, Third Class for buying her badges without earning them, while Zuri starts the episode at Caterpillar, before being promoted to Butterfly for earning a (non-official) Outwitting an Ostrich badge).
• The Scream: One done by Luke at the beginning of "Four Broke Kids" when Jessie breaks news that Morgan and Christina have lost all their money.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Emma acts this way from time to time and more than the others, especially in the Crossover Episode. In fact, if she wasn't rich and pretty, it would've just been super creepy for Austin and friends to stay the night, not to mention dangerous. But since the Ross family is rich, they all but begged to stay in the penthouse.
• Secret Identity: Emma's secret online alter-ego Kitty Couture, which is only known by Rosie and later Jessie and Christina.
• Series Continuity Error: A couple regarding Jessie:
  • In the Austin & Ally Crossover, we're told that Jessie is a horrible songwriter and shown several examples to prove it. This ignores the fact that she wrote a song in "One Day Wonders" and it wasn't really any worse than your average country-pop song.
  • Similarly, in "Badfellas", Luke describes Jessie as a bad singer, but "One Day Wonders" and the aforementioned Crossover demonstrate that her voice is actually quite good.
  • In "Punch Dumped Love", Luke said that his dance with Jessie would be nice if he got a kiss, and Jessie saying "Don't push your luck." Um, then what's the kiss she gave Luke in "Jessie's Big break" then?
  • Jessie is either crazy-talented, abhorrently untalented or barely smart enough to breathe, depending on the episode. Sometimes, all three in the same episode.
• Series Goal: For Jessie: Become an actress.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: "Morning Rush" ends with the kids finally leaving for school, only to come back after learning school was cancelled because of Parent/Teacher Conference Day, and Jessie has to go in their place.
• Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: A grand total of three episodes so far have featured any sort of school setting. It's implied that many episodes occur during summer break, however. School has become more frequent in newer seasons, however.
• Shout-Out: See here.
• Shown Their Work: In "Green-Eyed Monsters", Jessie correctly identifies Mrs. Kipling as an Asian water monitor.
• Skyward Scream: Zuri's "WHYYY?!" after Mrs. Kipling ate part of one of her stuffed animals.
• Slapstick:
  • Jessie takes as much of a beating, possibly more, than Luke and Ravi do.
  • Strangely enough, Emma is mostly immune to this trope, as lampshaded in "Pain in The Rear Window", where Jessie, while extremely dirty, asks Emma why she wasn't so dirty after spending a while in the dumpster. Emma just says that things just work out favorably for her.
• Something Only They Would Say: In the episode "To Be Or Not To Be", Jessie and Zuri accidentally switch bodies. Jessie (in Zuri's body) reveals herself to Ravi by mentioning that he wears choo-choo underwear.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace:
  • In "Creepy Connie 3: The Creepening", Creepy Connie says this when she pretends to marry herself and Luke using a hand puppet. Jessie Luke Ravi and Mad Mack all object only to be muzzled by Connie.
  • Tony asks this question while he is officiating Jessie and Brooks's wedding in "There Goes The Bride". Mrs. Chesterfield tries to raise her hand to object, but is restrained by Bertram. Then when it’s time for the vows, Jessie proclaims “I don’t” last minute, double subverting the trope.
• Spiritual Successor: To The Nanny, due to the fact (like Fran Fine in that series) the main character is hired as the nanny to a wealthy family through pure happenstance; coincidentally, Jessie creator/executive producer Pamela Eells O'Connell was one of the original writers for The Nanny.
  • There are also overtones of Suite Life in the show as well, which also shares production/cast members (O'Connell as producer and Ryan as star).
  • There is some speculation that the series is the closest we while get to an American Floricienta remake (since Disney has the American rights to the series), but without the Cinderella references...ironically, Jessie does have a stepmother and stepsister
  • Even moreso than The Nanny, Jessie is pretty much the Distaff Counterpart to Charles in Charge (also by Pamela Eells O'Connell).
  • Jessie moving to New York to build her life as an actress is also reminiscent of That Girl
• Spin-Off: Bunk'd to this show.
• Spoiler Title: "Break Up and Shake Up". Guess what Jessie and Tony do in the end.
• Stalker with a Crush:
  • Connie to Luke, in the episode "Creepy Connie Comes a Callin".
  • There are hints dropped that Jessie herself is a reformed Stalker With A Crush. Grenade to the Heart, the play that takes place in the aforementioned episode starring Connie as an obvious expy of Jessie herself seems to be driving home this point and suggesting that Jessie and Connie aren't so different.
  • In the episode "Caught Purple Handed" it's revealed that Channing Tatum has a restraining order against Jessie
  • Luke seems to come off like one to Jessie at first, given how often he hits on her.
  • Stuart to Zuri, but Zuri decides that Stuart isn't entirely useless.
• Story Arc: There's going to be one regarding Jessie and Brooks.
• Storybook Episode: "The Princess and the Pea Brain", in which Zuri tells Jessie a fairytale that's meant to convince her to date Tony instead of the handsome rich guy she was planning on going out with.
• Stripperific: The outfit Emma wears to breakfast in "Karate Kid-Tastrophie" is very inappropriate for her sense of style; her top exposes most of her cleavage and middrif, and her shorts don't extend a quarter down her thigh. When Jessie complains, Emma's reply is, "Everybody wears this!"
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • Landlady: What's going on?
    Tony: Whatever it is, it does not have to do with a giant lizard.
  • While Jessie is talking to Creepy Connie, she accidentally reveals that Luke sleeps with a stuffed animal.
    Jessie: I didn't know Luke could go sleepy-by without Kenny the Koala... which certainly is not a stuffed animal that he still sleeps with, because that would be an inappropriate thing to reveal!
  • In "Make New Friends But Hide The Old", Bertram denies writing Justin Bieber fanfic.
• Tagline: Some early promos used "Who's your nanny?".
• Take That!: In the episode "Star Wars", when Jessie and Jordan are hounded by the paparazzi, she says "... that they might not be after him, there is girl downstairs that looks like Justin Bieber". YMMV on whether it's a true Take That! or Played for Laughs, but his fans sure thought so. It could be a reference to Dani Shay◊, a former contestant of the second season of The Glee Project who indeed looks quite a lot like Justin Bieber.
• Trailers Always Spoil: In a third-party promo for the Bunk'd spinoff, it may have been leaked how Jessie ends half a year before the episode actually aired revealing that Jessie moves to Los Angeles after finally hitting it big as an actress.
• Theme Naming: All the Ross kids have first names with four letters. It should be noted, however, that Luke's full name is Lucas Philbert Olson.
• Themed Party: In "Tempest in a Teacup", the kids try to help Jessie with her second date with Tony and throw her a re-do of her high-school prom, complete with an underwater theme, where the walls are blue, and decorated with fake fish and seaweed.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • In Caught Purple Handed Jessie finally catches a break. She got a starring role for a kitchen utensil safety video, she finally got the kids to clean up their own mess, and she was actually referred to as pretty.
  • Bertram finally gets a happy ending in "Tell-Tale Duck". Bertram pretends to be a successful cat toy mogul with Jessie as his veterinarian girlfriend to show up his high school rival, a successful man who works on Wall Street with an attractive girlfriend at their reunion. During the reunion Luke accidentally reveals the whole thing was a lie. The rival gloats in success only for the kids (who are often less than nice to him) to defend him and telling him how great Bertram's job is making Bertram feel happy with his life. Still not impressed, after his rival insults his girlfriend, she reveals that the rival is really an unemployed loser who got fired by his mother and she's really his cousin who he paid to pretend to be his girlfriend. And as the cherry on top, when Bertram says that the only thing he has that Bertram doesn't is a full head of hair, which the cousin promptly responds to by revealing he's bald.
• Title Drop:
  • An obvious one just like Austin & Ally, since her name is in the title. However, its worth noting that the Theme Song is titled "Hey, Jessie" many characters say "Hey, Jessie" when seeing her, not everyone, and not all the time, but enough to notice. No one will ever say "Yo, Jessie". So along with the regular Title Drop, they also Title Drop the "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune.
  • In the Grand Finale Jessie attempts to name her show 'Jessie'. Naturally this is denied.
• Time Skip: In "Katch Kipling", the scene where Emma and Bertram audition for a play Emma likes changes from their tryout number to them actually performing the song onstage during the play months later.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the Christmas episode, when Ravi reveals that Joey, Emma, and Zuri have angered the island, Bertram says this to Ravi:
  Bertram: They're too dumb to live!
• Take Our Word for It: In "The Jessie-nator: Grudgement Day", when Ravi and Emma ask why future Jessie has an eyepatch, she obliges, except that she is seen from the behind. Thankfully we don't see it, but the kids do.
• Taking It Well: After Bertram is forced to go out with Mrs. Chesterfield, he breaks down crying. Jessie comments he took that better than she thought.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Madeline in episode "What A Steal". She's only ten years old and already her criminal behavior implies she's had a history of extremely bad influences.
• Truth in Television: An enraged monitor lizard will use their tail as a weapon, so there is some basis for M.Kipling's tail slaps.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Funny Foreigner Ravi has a monitor lizard named Mr. Kipling.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Jessie and Bertram cross into this (with a dash of Parental Substitute once Jessie gets engaged) in Season 3. Probably best illustrated by Bertram snarking about selling Jessie to a traveling circus while walking her down the aisle in "There Goes the Bride."
• Vocal Evolution: Even putting puberty aside, Karan's Ravi voice undergoes noticeable evolution (it's actually most noticeable of all on Bunk'd). The inflection Debby uses when she voices Jessie undergoes some change as well, especially noticeable during the first season.
• Voices Are Not Mental: In the "Freaky Friday" Flip episode. Whenever two characters switch bodies with the bell, their voices do not change and stay in the body they switch to. However, the intonations of their voices change (ie. Zuri in Jessie's body speaks in a snarky tone, Emma in Luke's body gets a valley girl tone, and so forth).
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Zuri vomits in a grocery bag in "One Day Wonders".
  • Jessie vomits in a trash can in "Beauty and the Beasts".
  • In "Take the A-Train� I Think?", Emma shows Jessie a picture of Ravi vomiting, but we never actually see the picture.
• Wham Episode:
  • "101 Lizards": Mrs. Kipling's baby lizards now reside in Mrs. Chesterfield's lizard sanctuary.
  • "Break Up and Shake Up": As the title suggests, Jessie and Tony break up.
• Wham Line:
  • From "101 Lizards":
  Emma: You know, Mrs. Chesterfield, I think you're actually a nice person.
  '''Mrs. Chesterfield: Well, duh! In fact, just recently, I endowed a lizard sanctuary. That's where I had my assistant take Ravi's lizards after I adopted them.
  • From "Why Do Foils Fall in Love?"
  Tony: Anyway, Happy anniversary!
  Jessie: (scoffs) Little late.
  Tony: What do you mean? It's today. It was exactly one year ago we kissed in that teacup.
• Waxing Lyrical: Done by Jessie in the last episode shortly before her departure.
  Christina: Hey, Jessie. Any advice for me before you go?
  Jessie: Just enjoy it. It feels like a party every day.
• Whole-Plot Reference:
  • "Ghost Bummers" is one to Ghostbusters (1984), with Jessie, Ravi, and Zuri having to fight off a demon called Zorag and his minions (possessing Mrs. Chesterfield, Emma, and Luke, respectively) with gear similar to that of the Ghostbusters.
  • Part 2 of "Good Luck Jessie: NYC Christmas" is a complete take on The Hangover.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In "What A Steal", Jessie goes on a date with a guy and learns that he has a fear of spiders. After it is revealed that he is actually criminal planning to rob the Rosses' penthouse with the help of his sister whom Ravi befriended at a MENSA meeting, Jessie employs this fear to keep both burglars at bay for the police to arrive.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: In "Lizard Tales and Wrestling Scales", Zuri exploits this to help Ravi win the election for President of the Reptile Club. She shoves dirt in Ravi's face and rips his sleeve, then frames Ravi's competitor for tying him up and nearly feeding him to her snake. It works, although Ravi can't go through with it and confesses the truth.
• Yandere:
  • Creepy Connie towards Luke. She's very willing to make other girls to reach "terrible accidents" for being able to kiss Luke during "Creepy Connie's Curtain Call".
  • Luke himself suffers this when he believes that Jessie is in love with Bertram, closing the locking panic room door and relinquishing any escape for anyone just so that he could question her.
• You Are Grounded!:
  • At the end of "Badfellas", Emma is grounded from going out with a boy with a Toxic Friend Influence.
  • In "Punch Dumped Love", Emma forgets to pick up Zuri, resulting in Jessie punishing her and forbidding her from going to the school dance.
  • In "Caught Purple Handed", all of the Ross kids are grounded from all TV and internet for "the rest of their lives" after being caught for their scheme to make up for the muffin sale behind Jessie's back.
• Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Or tom lizard, actually. Turns out Mr. Kipling was really a girl.

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