Some Assembly Required is a Canadian sitcom that was created by Dan Signer, the same person who created A.N.T. Farm, The Suite Life on Deck, and Mr. Young, and aired on YTV for three seasons from 2014 to 2016. The show was made available on Netflix in 2015.
Everyday 14-year-old Jarvis Raines becomes the CEO of a toy company called Knickknack Toys when he sues a toy company over a defective chemistry set that explodes and destroys his house. To help him run the company, Jarvis hires some kids from his high school: Piper Gray, a "hacker chick"; Bowie Sherman, the smart guy of the group; Geneva Hayes, the pretty but ditzy receptionist; Malcom "Knox" Knoxford III, the company's product safety tester; and Aster Vanderberg, the self-proclaimed "King of Swag" that serves as the company's chief design officer. Jarvis' first act as CEO of Knickknack Toys is firing Candace (Ellie Harvie), the former CEO who is determined to get the company back and spies on it disguised as a cleaning lady.
This show provides examples of:
- Ambition Is Evil: Candace is very opportunistic and has a fear of failure.
- Bilingual Bonus
- Several characters are said to be from Meeskatania, including Mrs. Bubkes and Mr. Gournisht, whose surnames in Yiddish mean "dolls" and "nothing" respectively. People from Meeskatania are called Meeskites, which is Yiddish for ugliness/ugly person. Meeskatania is said to border on a country called Zeeskatania; Zeeskite is Yiddish for sweetness/a sweet person.
- Depending on the Writer:
- Bowie's intelligence isn't all that consistent. In some episodes, he is quite smart despite being extremely eccentric. In other episodes, he comes across as being almost as stupid as Geneva and Knox (but only almost). Additionally, he’ll often agree with insults thrown at him, admitting that he isn’t very good-looking or is rather odd, but on other occasions, he’s shown that he takes pride in his looks and thinks that he’s handsome.
- While Geneva is always somewhat vain and habitually lazy (not to mention ditzy), her overall friendliness varies from episode to episode. In some episodes, she displays a sweet and caring side, while she in other episodes is self-centered through and through. Her intelligence varies as well, as sometimes she seems like she’s simply pretending to be dumb and is actually smart, while on other occasions she’s just an idiot and not much else.
- Emo Teen: Downplayed with Piper. She dresses like one, and acts more cynical than the others, but she's more of a perky goth than anything.
- Every Episode Ending: Before the end(ing) credits, there are usually advertisements showing Knickknack Toys' newest products, which are shown or often invented in said episode, as well as the company’s mascot, P. Everett Knickknack, telling the viewer, "The P stands for (word that begins with p)".
- Expy: The characters are obviously based upon characters from Dan Signer's previous YTV sitcom, Mr. Young. Note that this only applies to the teenage characters and that Aster doesn't have a counterpart as there are six main teens on SAR compared to only five on Young.
- Jarvis is based upon Adam, as both are the protagonists, who are teenagers put into an adult job and quickly use their youthful brains to their advantage.
- Piper and Echo are both the tomboy of the two lead female characters and are the main love interests of the protagonists. The main difference is that Piper is a Perky Goth while Echo is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and that while Adam likes Echo, Piper is into Jarvis.
- Bowie and Derby are both the goofballs of their respective group and childhood friends of the protagonists. While they're not dumb, they're not smart either and have poor common sense.
- Knox and Slab are Dumb Muscle characters who are known by nicknames derived from their last names (Knoxford and Slabinsky). While Slab is a bully, Knox is a Surfer Dude who is friends with the rest of the group.
- Geneva is a successor to Ivy, as they are Dumb Blonde characters who play a girly counterpart to Piper and Echo. Geneva tends to be dumber and nicer than Ivy, who is somewhat of an Alpha Bitch.
- Candace & Principal Tater are both the Butt-Monkey adults that no one likes, Dang & Ms. Bubkes are both the cleaning person/janitor employees.
- Fictional Country: Meeskatania (and its rival, Zeeskatania).
- Foreign Queasine: Pickled goat nostril. 'Nuff said.
- Height Angst: A running gag with Aster. As he suffers a number of problems due to his small size.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": When Jarvis says duty, Geneva thinks it’s funny and says “you said doodie!” (But she actually knows that he said duty with a T, “as if I do work around here!”)
- Hypocritical Humor: In the first episode, Piper is trying to watch a film in a movie theater, but a girl in front of her is talking to someone on her cell phone, so she asks her to shut up. The girl's response? "Do you mind? I'm on the phone!"
- Manipulative Bitch: Candace gleefully pits members of Knicknack against one another to regain control of the company.
- Mutual Pining: In Some Assembly Required Jarvis and Piper do this for the majority of the show, until the following trope happens.
- Official Couple: Jarvis and Piper become this in Season 3.
- Perky Goth: Piper may be the embodiment of this trope.
- Rich Bitch: Candace is very rude and snobby towards people she considers below her status, taking into account the money and lavish lifestyle she accumulated as a CEO.
- Running Gag:
- Knox doing extremely dangerous stunts.
- Bowie coming with pretty ridiculous ideas.
- Mmmboing making cameos throughout the show.
- Whenever the phone rings, Geneva doesn't pick it up.
- Aster always complaining about being the shortest guy.
- People beginning to wonder about Mrs. Bubkes' identity.
- Shout-Out:
- One episode is called "Dance Crew Evolution", in reference to DanceDanceRevolution.
- Melody Burger parodies fast food restaurants, notably the McDonald's Happy Meal or Wendy's Kids Meal.
- In "Cupid's Bow", the costume Jarvis wears in the ending commercial bears resemblences to Capcom's Mega Man.
- Angie is a reference to dolls such as Barbie who have been criticized for being "impossible" or "unhealthy" bodied and creating a false, unobtainable image of the ideal body/pretty. In 2016, Mattel announced three body types for Barbie. Click here for proof.
- Piece-of-Cake oven is a reference to Easy-Bake Oven, Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven and Easy-Bake Real Meal Oven.
- Lobster Trap seems to pay homages to the Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. arcade games.
- Tickletown: Sesame Street. "Tickle" is similar to "Tickle Me Elmo" toy. Elmo is a character on Sesame Street.
- Fat Cat is a reference to Monopoly.
- Medical Bag is a possible reference to the board game Operation, or toy Medical Kits in general.
- In "Gizmospinatron", Bowie's extreme craving for donuts could be parody of and reference to Homer Simpson.
- The Samurai Salamanders are a play on groups such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers.
- "Mattress King" is a reference to a monopoly that mattress companies used to own, selling usually spring mattresses for prices often $1000+. "Flurf" is a reference to memory foam, which used to be a luxury, is more common thanks to e-commerce, 100+ night trials, free shipping, free returns, etc. Casper, ENDY, and Purple are examples that have disrupted the traditional mattress industry, much like Flurf.
- Kooky-Dough is a reference to Play-Doh.
- Snappo is likely a parody of LEGO, Mego Bloks and Tyco.
- The Shnorfs are a parody of The Smurfs.
- K-Kube is a parody of Rubik's Cube.
- In "Tinosaur", Jarvis makes references to the Jurassic Park series of films, without directly naming them.
- In "Joy Buzzer", Aster's film "The Termiknitter" is a reference to a critical acclaimed box office hit science-fiction movie, The Terminator.
- "Microphony" makes several references to Disney's Frozen's popular songs, in which Aster sings all of them, with Geneva, Mrs Bubkes, as cameos, for instance: Love is A Carrot Nose (Love is An Open Door), Do You Want to Buy A Beach Ball? (Do You Want to Build a Snowman?), and Let it Melt! (Let It Go!)
- The character of Claude Brulee seems to share similarities with Gordon Ramsay, among other famous chefs.
- Captain Indestructible is a parody of Superman among other superheroes, and can also be an homage to Nickelodeon's Captain Man with the shared superpower of invincibility.
- Tiny Schoolboy: Aster Vanderberg. He's visibly shorter than most people his age, and he has many issues because of it.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Piper is the tomboy to Geneva's girly-girl.
- You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Poor Aster. He just wants to ride the rollercoaster.
