Seriously Weird is a Canadian Fantastic Comedy Kid Com produced by CinéGroupe and Granada Kids that ran for two seasons in 2002 and 2003. The show starred Ryan Cartwright as Harris Pembleton, with Lucinda Davis as Fenella Day and Ricky Mabe as Hugo Short.
Harris Pembleton, a fifteen-year-old with a passion for organization and control, has just been made the magnet for everything weird in the universe (that's what happens when you don't believe in Gods). When Harris arrives from Britain at Draper High in upstate New York, he stands out. Nobody else wears a jacket and tie, not even the principal. However Harris creates his own form of cool and doesn't worry that other students see him as being a little odd. But when Harris is transported to The Weird Dimension through completing an ancient puzzle, he angers Steve (ruler of The Weird) and is cursed for life to be targeted by all that is Weird. Along with his good friends Fenella and Hugo, Harris must deal with his curse and try to find the best possible solutions to all of his new problems. But just because he's cursed with The Weird, doesn't mean it won't come in useful...
No connection to the Disney Channel Urban Fantasy series So Weird.
Tropes:
- Aesop Amnesia: The lesson that Steve, King of Chaos, intended Harris to learn from his curse is to respect the Weird, embrace Chaos, and not have such a stick up his arse. Every episode, Harris' actions bring the Weird down upon himself, and every episode he fails to learn his lesson.
- Afterlife Express: In "Ghost Train", Harris and all of the customers of the diner find themselves trapped on a ghost train (the diner originally having been a car from this train) with a ghost conductor determined to drive them to their deaths and down to Hell.
- Alpha Bitch: Claudia. Given that she does well in school, she is also something of an Academic Alpha Bitch, too. "Ghost Train" reveals she also bullies Fenella.
- Bathtub Mermaid: In "Harris and the Mermaid", Harris meets a mermaid named Muriel, who promises to teach Harris to swim. Harris takes care of the mermaid, but Muriel has ulterior motives. By taking a lock of Harris's hair, and with a magic kiss, Muriel transfers her tail to Harris, and Harris' legs to her. Muriel then leaves Harris in a leaking bath, which would eventually kill him, since the merfolk's tail needs to be kept wet. Fenella and Hugo find Harris in time and take him to a bathtub.
- Creator Provincialism: For a series set in New York, many of the characters have very British names, like Fenella and Hugo. In fact, the only kid who has a name an American kid would believably have is Justin, Harris' brother...who is also from England.
- Curse: Harris disrespects Steve, the God of Chaos, and is cursed for life to be targeted by all that is Weird.
- Doom Magnet: Protagonist Harris Pembleton is a literal Doom Magnet, due to being cursed by a Physical God to be a magnet for everything that's weird. Weird events follow him around to cause havoc on his daily life.
- Eggsitting: In "When Eggs Go Bad", Harris and Claudia's school assignment is to care for an egg, but what are they to do when it comes to life and starts to grow?
- Fading Away: After an unfortunate football-related accident in "When Harris Stopped Breathing", Harris' heart stops, leaving him living-impaired, if only for a few minutes. After being brought back to life however, he soon discovers that fewer and fewer people are noticing him, and that he may soon cease to exist altogether.
- Forced Transformation: As a result of his curse, Harris finds himself being transferred into other things against his will on multiple occasions:
- In "Demon Dog", he is possessed by the spirit of a dog and starts turning into one.
- In "Harris and the Mermaid", the mermaid Muriel uses a lock of his hair and a magic kiss to swap his legs and her tail, transforming him into a merman.
- Forgot I Couldn't Swim: In "Harris and the Mermaid", Harris foolishly challenges Wayne to a swimming race, oblivious of the fact that he doesn't know how to swim.
- Ghost Train: "Ghost Train" has the gang encountering a real ghost of a boy who had died in a train accident. The ghost uses his powers to change the diner that they are at, into a real life ghost train (the same one he died in), and sends it headed towards impending doom.
- Goth Girls Know Magic: Fenella isn't exactly goth, but is into the supernatural, has streaked hair, is bullied by the popular kids, and hangs out in graveyards. She is usually the one to figure out what supernatural threat is targeting Harris and knows how to exorcise it. However, it's implied meeting actual witches, who prove to be of the wicked kind, get her to rethink her opinion on magic.
- Greasy Spoon: The Local Hangout for the main characters is a diner in an old train car. In "Ghost Train", it is revealed that the train car came from train that had been destroyed in a wreck. Due to Harris being a Weirdness Magnet, the ghost of a boy who died in the wreck uses his powers to change the diner into a real life Ghost Train and sends it headed towards impending doom.
- It Came from the Fridge: In "When Yoghurt Attacks", Harris has a yoghurt which goes weird. The yoghurt then starts attacking people and hamsters. Harris's friends think that the attacks are done by Harris 'coz hes always in the place where the attacks are. They soon find out that it is the yoghurt doing the attacking and they kill it by blending it and putting it in the microwave.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: After being hit by lightning in "Tug of Love", Harris becomes a human magnet, but he attracts everything - including things like stray pieces of paper and clothing. The one good thing is that he also attracts Claudia.
- May Contain Evil: In order to get more slaves for building a pyramid in "When Pyramids Were Square", an ancient Egyptian sorcerer travels to the future and offers Harris a secret ingredient that will make his new soft drink irresistible - and highly addictive.
- Neat Freak: Harris is practically anal in his compulsion for order. Which is a problem when you have been cursed to be a Weirdness Magnet.
- Our Gnomes Are Weirder: In "Gnome Sweet Gnome", just as Harris decides to run for chair of his high school class's social committee, he encounters a bunch of lawn gnomes who've come to life and want to install him as their ruler.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: In "Harris and the Mermaid", a fairly traditional mermaid named Muriel offers to teach Harris to swim. However, she later uses magic to swap her tail for his legs so she can remain on land indefinitely. Harris and his friends have to find a way to break the spell before the swap becomes permanent.
- People Puppets: In "Puppet Master", an accident means Harris is able to control his brother Justin's body, an opportunity he uses to humiliate his brother.
- Physical God: Steve, the Greek God of Chaos, who has an affinity for chaos and weirdness, and who manifests as a Violent Glaswegian. After Harris disrespects him in his own realm, he curses Harris to be a perpetual Weirdness Magnet.
- Pinocchio Nose: In "When Harris Broke Out", Harris starts sprouting horns from his head whenever he lies.
- Runaway Train: In "Ghost Train", a ghost transforms the diner into the runaway train he died on, with Harris and his friends still inside and hurtling towards certain doom.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Justin and Harris Pembleton. Justin is easygoing, charismatic, popular and is the Big Man on Campus within a few days of starting at Draper High. Harris is an obnoxious, pompous, insufferable, know-it-all Neat Freak who pisses off almost everyone he talks to.
- Single Girl Seeks Most Popular Guy: In a gender-flipped version, the geeky and unpopular Harris is determined to date Claudia, the school's Alpha Bitch.
- Unexplained Accent: Steve, who is supposedly a Greek god, has a Scottish accent. But, then again, he is the god of chaos.
- Violent Glaswegian: Even though he is supposedly the Greek god of chaos, Steve speaks with a Scottish accent and comes across as a violent Glaswegian.
- Where Do You Think You Are?: Hugo wanted ice cream and was in Heaven at the time.
- Weirdness Magnet: After ticking off a Scottish god thingie, Harris Pembleton is cursed (in the god's own words, to "become a magnet for all that is weird") for strange things to happen to him. This is a show with episode titles like "When Gods Get Angry", "When Yoghurt Attacks", and "When Fairies Get Mad".
