Series / The George Lopez Show

"All my friends know the Low Rider..."

"Describe The George Lopez Show here"? Ta Loco, Describe The George Lopez Show here!

George Lopez, also known as The George Lopez Show,^note Officially, the title is the former, but we call it the latter to avoid confusion with the comedian himself. is a sitcom that aired on ABC from 2002 to 2007 starring stand-up comedian George Lopez, not to be confused with Lopez Tonight. Noteworthy for being the first American sitcom with a mostly Hispanic cast, and, in the final season, an all-Hispanic cast. Also the second longest running show with said cast.

Although it originally aired on ABC, it's more closely associated with Nick at Nite, where it aired in syndication from 2007 until 2020 as their highest-rated show before being moved to the Peacock streaming service. There were talks to revive the show in 2016, but nothing came of it.

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Sabes que? These are the tropes! Wha-cha!:

Tropes A-M

• A-Cup Angst: Angie's bust size is only 34B and she seems insecure about it at times. Benny even makes fun of her for it occasionally.
• Abusive Parents:
  • Benny. This, along with his father's Parental Abandonment causes George to have some emotional issues. In her defense, his father walking out on her was a huge reason for her Tough Love approach. Also, her parents were much worse in their mistreatment of her than she ever was to George. She was also a single teen mom with no family willing to help her because of her Teen Pregnancy, forcing her to raise George on her own. She was also forced to drop out of high school a few years before her pregnancy to work in a factory to earn income, which she bitterly says made her feel like an old woman when she was still Just a Kid.
  • Jason's father is revealed to be this in season 4. When Angie tells him his son was arrested, he reacts to the news with nonchalance and it's later revealed he forced Jason to take steroids to give him an edge in football.
• An Aesop:
  • "Girl Fight": Sometimes the best solution to bullying is to run away from the problem, which doubles as a Hard Truth Aesop, because your actions have zero effect on mean kids who won't change. Even though George and Angie get the leader of Carmen's tormentors suspended for bullying, have her ex-boyfriend admit she never slept with him, and the school agrees to make an effort to prevent future bullying - it's All for Nothing. Her reputation is permanently ruined as her classmates still see her as a whore, are mad at her for wronging the popular girls, and simply enjoy bullying her. Their only solution is to send her to a private school for a fresh start. Per this trope, it's Truth in Television for many kids when their bullies just won't stop.
  • One episode has the moral that positive discrimination is bad and it's wrong to profit off of it. George is offered a major position at a big company... but only because he's Latino. Where the anvil dropping really comes into play is that the man offering him the position is black and talks about the process with a great deal of familiarity, suggesting he built his career from being a minority and competent at best - not actually being the most qualified for the job. George realizes they don't actually need him and could replace him with any Latino they wanted.
  • Another episode has George calling out those who commit injustices against Middle Eastern people in America. A Middle Eastern coworker is seen by his other employees as suspicious and untrustworthy simply because of his ethnicity, even by people who have endured prejudice. And then Powers decides that he should do office work instead of plane construction out of fear of losing business because of the prejudice of Middle Eastern people being involved with planes. George tries his best to save the man's job but is ultimately unable to do anything other than let the poor guy down gently.
  • In one episode, Angie works a booth for Carmen's school fair as a last-minute fill-in at a dunk tank. After doing the tank, a photo spreads at Camen's school of her getting out of the tank in a wet, see-through t-shirt, having been anonymously sent. When the person turns out to be Jason's younger and wheelchair-bound brother, Angie initially pretends to forgive him because he's in a wheelchair. Jason tells her that just because he can't walk, it doesn't give him a free pass - especially since his actions publicly humiliated her.
• Aesop Amnesia:
  • "George Helps Ernie See the Cellu-light" zigzags this. Ernie is gaining weight and overeating so women will reject him before he can say anything, due to a crippling fear of rejection. Ernie does lose the excess weight he gained and keeps it off so he can keep his job. In the end, he asks a girl out and she says yes. In future episodes, despite the weight loss, Ernie still has a tough time with women. The main focus of the episode was Ernie's excessive weight gain which he did successfully undo, so while he learned that Aesop, he didn't stick to the other one about gaining confidence to talk to women.
  • George goes through this. He didn't learn anything from his time at high school. In college, he continues to try to get by through being the class clown and never asks the teacher for any help.
• All Abusers Are Male: Subverted in "George Joins the Neighborhood Wha-tcha and Raises the Vigil-ante". The neighborhood watch learns that a registered sex offender named Cris Watson has moved into the neighborhood. They form a mob outside the person's house and are surprised to discover the sex offender is a woman — not a man. Angie calls out their suddenly lax behavior about it, calling it a double standard.
• Ambiguous Situation: The Season 2 episode "Girl Fight" sees George confront his old childhood bully Tommy "Rango" Durango, who is now working as one of the counselors at Carmen's high school, in order to stop Carmen being bullied (after her ex-boyfriend starts a rumor that they had sex, leading to her classmates labeling her the school whore), but Rango refuses to immediately punish the girls tormenting Carmen, believing that everything will blow over in a few days. In a flashback, we see that an incident where Rango beat up George and Ernie lead to him being expelled, and George suspects that his inaction towards Carmen's tormentors was his way of getting back at him, particularly when he suspends Carmen for supposedly instigating a fight with another girl (when actually it was the other girl who started the fight.) While it is implied somewhat that Rango might still be bitter towards George, it's never made particularly clear if that's indeed what he was doing, or if he was simply doing his job by trying to see both sides of the situation, because when he finally hears credible evidence that Carmen was indeed the victim, not only does he sincerely apologize for not taking action sooner, but he also reverses Carmen's suspension and suspends the girl who started the fight in the first place.
• Ambiguously Bi: After her breakup with Randy in Season 3, Benny tells Gina that she's done with men for good, but after mentioning that she'd miss the sex, Gina says, "You don't need a man to have sex.", before giving her a suggestive look. Benny is quick to figure out what Gina is implying and quite firmly shoots her down.
• Ambiguously Brown:
  • Angie's brother Ray (who is Cuban) discusses passing as Greek in order to con people.
  • Linda's adoptive parents were Italian and she was light enough to pass for one. However, she does discuss being "mistaken" for a Latina, so it must not be too ambiguous.
• Anti-Nepotism: In one episode, Ernie complains to George about not naming him "Employee of the Week". George reminds him that he can't, because it will make everyone think it's because he's his best friend.
• Arc Villain: Zack Powers for a critical arc for Carmen during Season 3. He's a misogynistic, sex-crazed Jerkass who just wants sex from her. What's worse, is she refuses to believe he's a bad guy despite his criminal history and mistreatment of girls; outright saying her parents just want to ruin her romance and they're "in love." He even convinces her to run away with him when her parents refuse to let her see him. He eventually takes her to a hotel where he tries to convince her to have sex, even trying to get her drunk to make her compliant. When she still refuses, he takes her to a club and dumps her there; leaving her to sob in a bathroom when forced to realize her parents were right.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Benny attempts this in "Dubya, Dad and Dating" with Manny, and it backfires on her.
  Benny: Your son? Where were you when he woke up crying in the middle of the night? Where were you when he fell off his bike and needed somebody to kiss his boo-boo? Where were you all those times when he needed love and encouragement, huh?
  [beat]
  George: [to Benny] Where were you?
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • In one episode, when Max tries to upgrade the computer but breaks it, Angie says that it contained all her business files, photos of their family vacations, and "a journal containing her private thoughts".
  • In "Wrecking Ball", George lists all the times Benny lied to him: "You said that my dad was dead, that I didn't have a sister, you said that that plastic garbage bag you threw in the river was a hamster submarine...and when his mission was over, Mr. Winkie would come back!"
  • Another time, George listed several instances of abuse Benny inflicted on him, mentioning that she never celebrated his birthday, occasionally left him home alone without food, and brought up one occasion where she allegedly made him do a "funny baby dance" for some friends of hers after giving him beer.
• Asian and Nerdy: George's microeconomics professor Tracy Lim.
• Awkward Poetry Reading: One episode involved Carmen getting into slam poetry with a friend. Carmen's first attempt at writing poetry is a shallow love poem about how much she loves her boyfriend. Her friend encourages her to write angrier poetry based on her personal struggles. When George, her father, is dismissive of her new hobby, Carmen uses this as inspiration for her poetry. However, he comes around and shows up at the poetry club to listen to her read her poem. The episode ends with him watching Carmen as she begins reciting the angry poem she wrote about him.
• Axes at School: One episode had a student bring a gun to Max's school and shoot a classmate in the leg. The incident is offscreen, with the episode instead focusing on the psychological effects the incident has on Max and his family.
• Back to School: George goes back to school after attending a PTA meeting specifically for parents of students who didn't go to college. Max decides he doesn't need to go either so George wants to teach him a lesson. In the next episode, George drops out and lies to get out of it, but still has Max thinking he is to encourage him to do better.
• Bait the Dog:
  • Zack Powers is introduced by buying Carmen a necklace and is portrayed as a sympathetic guy. Over several episodes, he's gradually revealed to be a Manipulative Bastard who sees Carmen as a sex object, even bluntly telling George the relationship will be over "when Carmen gets out of bed to make [him] a sandwich".
  • Benny says her mom was an abusive tyrant to her. When he finally meet her, she is portrayed a stern woman with understandable reasons to be annoyed with Benny, but is convinced by George to help her in a court case. Then she gets on the stand and cruelly puts Benny down, even admitting to beating her and deeming her a "worthless whore" - showing she's as heartless as Benny made her out to be.
  • In the Season 6 episode "George's Bogey-ous Relationship with Vic Is Putt to the Test", Vic invites George to join him in a Father's Day golf tournament because, according to Angie, he considers George to be a surrogate son and wants to spend some quality time with him. The two bond quite well during the day and Vic even calls George "son" several times, but at the last hole Vic reveals that the only reason he wanted George to come with him was because of his golfing skills. George feels so betrayed by this that he actually breaks down crying because "no one wants to be [his] dad." He even deliberately throws the tournament and storms off upset, much to Vic's confusion. Ernie later tells Vic why George was so upset, and to Vic's credit, he genuinely feels terrible for misleading George. At the end of the episode, the two make up, and Vic admits that he is happy about how close the two have become and that he would indeed be proud if George was his son.
• Bad Omen Anecdote: Carmen compares her relationship to Romeo and Juliet, but she is quick to point out that they both die. George, unfamiliar with the play, says that they moved her to a new school to keep her away from girls like Juliet.
• The Beard: In "What Goerge Doesn't Noah..." Carmen dates a gay boy named Noah to cover up her real relationship with Zack. George and Benny catch Noah at the movies and see him kiss a boy, assuming he's cheating on Carmen while using her as a cover. They ultimately discover he isn't actually dating Carmen and what she was really doing.
• Berserk Button: For Vic, the slightest mention of Fidel Castro is usually this.
• Black Comedy Pet Death: In the Season 3 episode "Wrecking Ball", George is accusing Benny of having ransacked the factory and brings up all the times she lied to him, including one time when, when he was a kid, she accidently killed his pet hamster.
  George: You said that that plastic garbage bag you threw in the river was a hamster submarine....and when his mission was over, Mr. Winkie would come back!
  Benny: What do you wanna hear? That I was trying to push him back into his cage with a barbecue fork? Is that better?
  George: Is that what happened?!
  Benny: What you wanna hear? That I was drunk and I thought he was one of my house slippers?!
• Blatant Lies: Every day in Casa Lopez
  • As good of a liar as Benny is, her lies about "Mike Rowave" and "Jimmy the Dish Rack" fall into this.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: At one point in "George's House of Cards", Vic shouts "WHAT-CHA!" in George's face. George's reaction is this...
  George: Ohhhhhhhhhh no. You do not "WHAT-CHA" me in my own house!
  • In another episode, Max is shown to have inherited his father's habit of saying "I be like that, watch-a..." when acting something out.
• Book Safe: In the episode "George Takes a Stroll Down Memory Pain", a flashback reveals that Benny secretly gave Angie money to convince her and George to finally move out — specifically $5,000 in cash she kept hidden in a book on her bookshelf.
  Benny: (still by the bookshelf) Don't tell anybody what's in this book, or I will kill you with what's in that book.
• Both Sides Have a Point: George, while staying at Ernie's during a feud with Angie, realizes how horrible his situation is when he witnesses how Ernie must spend most of his free time helping care for his morbidly obese mother. Ernie refuses to move out due to feeling guilty about no longer being around to help his mother. George counters that while Ernie is doing good by helping, her condition is not his responsibility and professional medical help should be called in for her. George also points out that even though Ernie's parents will be mad at him for leaving, Ernie will never be able to fully come into his own as a grown man as long as he stays a glorified live-in nurse for his mother.
• Bowdlerise: Nick-at-Nite's airings tend to mute certain phrases. For example, George's "tranny 911" remark is changed to "- 911." They also cut out a scene where George pretends to be Ernie's gay lover in front of a woman he likes for using Max as a way to get dates.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Carmen. Veronica even moreso.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In "Curious George". Carmen, Angie and Benny are talking about why men suck. Carmen says that her ex Duncan was a jerk, Angie says that her first boyfriend dumped her for someone with bigger boobs and Benny says that her first boyfriend knifed her and then stole her car.
  • In one episode where Benny meets Manny's new wife, Lydia, she says that Benny was the first person to dance with Manny, the first person he married, and the first person to pull a knife on him.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting:
  • George when compare to his disappearing father Manny and abusive mother Benny. Many episodes deal with George making the same mistakes his mother made, i.e. not giving Max help with his dyslexia or not believing that Carmen can make it into college, and correcting them in the end.
  • Downplayed with Benny. While she was abusive towards George, she does genuinely love him and did her best at raising him. In contrast, her father was an alcoholic abuser and her mother considers her worthless and would also beat her.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Zack Powers pulled many cocky stunts over the years, largely because of his apathetic father. After sneaking off with Carmen, then ditching her in San Francisco when she refused to have sex with him, he's attacked by a very angry Benny. While we don't actually see it, we hear him howl in pain and Benny mentions directly after that Zack was "in a terrible accident".
  • Vic and the rest of the Palmero family sneer at George and think of him as little more than a low-class cholo who's beneath them. Their utter shock when Claudia picks George to be the trustee of Veronica's very large trust fund instead of one of them (specifically because he's hardworking and "knows the value of money") is priceless.
• Brief Accent Imitation: A Running Gag is George imitating Vic's accent.
• The Bride with a Past: Ernie is dating a woman who has a history of alcohol abuse and gambling problems.
• Broken Bird: Benny, a rare humorous (and elderly) example.
• Broken Aesop: Subverted in-universe, George decides to show Max why he needs to do well in school by giving him a job in the plant. This backfires when Max decides he enjoys the work, believing he should drop out and work full-time since he thinks he won't finish school anyway. George toys with letting him drop out and start working there but then has a vision where a 50-year-old Max has no options after the plant's workers are let go. He then decides to show Max how failing to get a proper education and expanding your career options can be when the workers panic when there's a simple rumor of the plant closing which turns out to be actually true.
• The Bus Came Back: A minor example in factory worker Frank. He appeared a few times in the first two seasons and then disappeared from the show for several years until returning for the two-part series finale.
• Butt-Monkey: Ernie and Max. George sometimes too. Ernie can never seem to hold an actual relationship with anyone, even Gina wouldn't want him in one episode.
• Calling the Old Man Out: George frequently does this to his mother, but one episode he finally tracks down his long-lost father who abandoned them and punches him out when he insults Benny. George's mother is happy at this and even George's boss approves of this action.
• The Cameo: At George's birthday party, he gets to meet his childhood icon- H.R. Pufnstuf.
• Catchphrase:
  • "Whah-pah!" "What-cha!" "I got this!" "Estás loca?"
  • "Why you crying?!" certainly gets thrown around enough times to qualify.
  • Don't forget "I can't do NOTHIN'!".
  • "Sabes qué?"
  • "Oh, qué la!"
  • "Orale!"
  • " 'Member? You'member!"
• Celeb Crush: It's mentioned in several episodes that George has a crush on Salma Hayek.
• Central Theme: The show is about dealing with difficult racial homes but living in a good family will certainly help you get through rough times because they love you.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Basically any side character except Vic (who eventually became a main cast member), Jason (who got a proper sendoff), Gina, Jack and Mel disappeared without explanation. The most notable examples are:
  • Claudia, George's secretary in Season 1.
  • Mr. Needles, the dog the Lopezes bought from a homeless man, disappeared after Season 3. Seeing that he had countless health problems, it's possible that he died offscreen. "George's Bogey-ous Relationship with Vic Is Putt to the Test" offers some credence to that; while complaining about how he always suffers whenever Angie forces him to create emotional attachments to others, he makes a passing reference to the dog.
  • Ricky, Max's best friend last appeared in the episode "Friends Don't Let Friends Marry Drunks" when it's revealed that Ernie is dating Ricky's mom, Tammy. Ricky's disappearance is especially jarring since Ernie was his legal guardian at the time, though it's possible that Tammy took him back after she and Ernie broke up.
  • Marisol, a former gang member who became George's secretary in Season 2 and even briefly lived with the Lopezes in the episode "Girls Night Out", which was her last appearance.
  • Accident Amy. However, given that she was played by Sandra Bullock, who was too busy to continue playing the character, and her clumsy nature could have left her permanently hospitalized or dead, this one seems a bit justifiable.
  • George II, George's half-brother, never appeared again after Manny's death. Even though Manny and George I had a rocky relationship, he and George II got along pretty well.
  • Linda, George's long lost sister. Her final appearance involved her being (unknowingly) pimped out to Vic by George in exchange for $2,000. So like Amy, her departure is justified.
• Closer to Earth:
  • Both played straight and viciously subverted - George is impulsive and cynical, but more of a realist, while Angie is more sensible but also very idealistic and naive. When her sensibility goes up against his street smarts, a favorite gag for the show to use is for her to seemingly win out - only for her solution to be completely ineffective and for George to have been right all along.
  • The show tried to imply that Angie would normally be right, like the time they both wanted to get rid of an offensive statue in a neighbor's yard. Her strongly worded letter and petition to the Neighborhood Watch succeeded where George's idea of smashing it to pieces didn't (the neighbor simply bought more). However, the majority of the time that Angie's argument failed was when she tried to get George and his mom to be closer and loving in a more traditional sense. She grew up in a more well-off and close-knit family and had trouble accepting that some families (like George and Benny) were simply screwed-up, not idealistic like hers, and they choose to show love in more unorthodox matters.
• Confirm Before Reveal: In Season 4 "Friends Don't Let Friends Marry Drunks", George and Angie are watching Ricky because Ernie has a date with someone tonight. When George and Angie takes Max and Ricky to a restaurant to eat, Angie notices Ernie with Ricky's alcoholic mom, Tammy, at a table eating together.
  Angie: George, I thought we were watching Ricky because Ernie had a date tonight.
  George: It's probably over by now. She's probably in the ladies' room, standing on the sink, trying to figure out a way to squeeze through the window. (Angie hits him on the shoulder) Come on, Angie! You think she's skinny?
  Angie: (pointing towards Ernie and Tammy) Isn't that Ricky's mom?
  George: Don't tell me Ernie's dating Tammy. She's a mess!
• Conflict Ball: George briefly moving out of the house in Season 5 is instigated by Benny repeatedly being disrespectful to George after she moves into his home after hers burns down. Angie refuses to believe him as Benny pretends to be a kindly old woman whenever she's around, a concept that only happens in this story arc since Benny is normally just as mean to Angie as she is to George.
• Continuity Creep: The entire first season was completely episodic, but beginning in season 2, many story arcs, both self-contained and multi-seasonal, were created.
• Continuity Snarl: This series is normally pretty good at keeping the continuity intact and throwing in many Continuity Nods, but there have been a few continuity errors that have slipped through.
  • Mrs. Cardenas is initially depicted as an average-sized Mexican woman. This is dropped in favor of making her a morbidly obese fat joke who is often heard instead of seen, and when she is seen she is only shown from the waist down.
  • The writers can't seem to decide whether Benny was 16 or 17 when she got pregnant with George. Also, in one episode, she mentions that she dropped out of school at 15 before getting pregnant, then a few episodes later she says she was bullied at school for being pregnant.
  • In "Super Bowl", the episode where Benny's brother Joe dies, George says that both of Benny's parents were dead. A few seasons later, when Benny is on trial for a crime she'd committed 30 years prior, her mother, Luisa is still alive and very reluctantly testifies for her. Ironically, Joe's passing is mentioned sarcastically by Luisa in this episode.
  • One episode reveals that Angie asked George to the Sadie Hawkins Dance, aka their first date, as part of a competition with the other cheerleaders to see who could bring the biggest loser. After this episode, the event is largely ignored and the writers zig-zag between George asking Angie out and Angie asking George out because she felt sorry for him.
  • In the episode before the finale, George states that Ernie doesn't know to take care of kids, despite Ernie watching Max in one episode and taking care of Ricky in a few. He was even taking care of 3 kids for a woman he was dating.
• Covering Up Your Gray: In "George's Relatively Bad Idea", Vic dyes his salt-and-pepper hair and mustache black when he tries to woo George's sister.
  Vic: *passionate* Oh, Linda... You look beautiful.
  Linda: *slightly creeped out* And you... you did that to your hair.
  Vic: Was an accident, uh... You hate it, don't you?
  Linda: Oh, well, i-it's really...
  George: Yeah, that's smooth. Put her on the spot there, Super Mario!
• Crossover: With Short-Runner sitcom Freddie in season 5. Max and Freddie's niece Zoey begin an online friendship. Both Freddie and George investigate each other to see if the person on the other side is a sexual predator.
• Cruel to Be Kind: One episode features George holding a grudge against Benny for not letting him drive her car when he was a teenager. Benny insists she did this since she didn't want George wrecking the car. Losing the car would have screwed them since she was already working two jobs at the time. But she was actually afraid he could potentially drive the wrong way and die because of his dyslexia - not helped when a fellow neighborhood kid (who wasn't dyslexic) got into a tragic accident and died.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Accident Amy
• A Day in the Limelight: George is the protagonist and Angie's actress receives second billing, but most episodes focus specifically on one character while the rest of the cast takes a backseat. Thus, every important character has at least a few episodes devoted to them.
• Deadpan Snarker: Both Benny and George. Often leads to Snark-to-Snark Combat.
• Death Equals Redemption: Harshly averted in the case of Manny Lopez. He leaves George with a memento in the form of an expensive watch… but asks him and Benny not to attend his funeral so he can preserve his spotless reputation to those he considers his family and friends. Any relationship improvement he developed with his estranged son and ex-wife up to this point is instantly ruined, and George and Benny can likely never forgive him now.
• Digital Destruction:
  • The show is made in 16:9, but cropped to 4:3 for viewers who don't have widescreen televisions. This is jarring in recent reruns (unless you're watching in HD) still used the 4:3 format. Even the first three seasons on disc still have the fullframe version. Fortunately, the Amazon and iTunes versions are in 16:9.
  • Also sucks to those who participated in the Disneyland contest as many of those Mickey symbols were hidden out of the frame.
  • Some of the recent reurns on Nick have the weird PAL format effect. Some episodes that are effected are the George Bush one.
• Digital Head Swap: Done incredibly obviously in its flashbacks, with the adult actors' heads pasted onto child actors' bodies.
• Dirty Old Man: Vic's reaction to Benny (seemingly) getting breast implants.
  Vic: I am looking at them as a doctor.
  Benny: (slyly) And what is the good doctor's opinion?
  Vic: Oh they're YUMMY!
  Angie: (horrified) DADDY!
  Vic: I'm older now, and I know what I like. And I like!
• Dirty Old Woman: Benny and Gina. ESPECIALLY Gina.
• Disappeared Dad: Manny, and it caused both George and Benny a lot of grief.
• Disproportionate Retribution: A joke in one episode has Carmen over hear Angie saying she wants "her" out of the house and think she's talking about her for scratching the car. An upset Carmen runs off and insists it was just a scratch. Subverted in that she was actually talking about Veronica.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Unusual example, in that Lopez himself recorded a theme tune for the DVD release, as it would've been cost-prohibitive to license "Low Rider".
• Dom Com
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: The episode "George Joins the Neighborhood Wha-tcha and Raises the Vigil-ante" examines this. After discovering that a new neighbor was on a sexual predator watchlist, George riles up the neighborhood to confront them, but things end up going in a few directions: Initially, things are seemingly played straight as when they discover the predator is a woman, everyone — George included — casually dismisses her as a threat and goes home, George even outright saying "it's just a woman." However, accompanying this is the fact that said woman appears genuinely remorseful about her past actions, having served time in prison and in fact had listed herself on the predator watchlist, allegedly planning on notifying her new neighbors of her history on a personal basis before they decided to mob up on her. With that said, Angie doesn't accept her and still considers her dangerous, calling everyone out for their blasé acceptance of her track record just because she's a woman. This ends up fully called out by the episode's end as they discover Max coming out of the woman's house shirtless... which Max quickly explains is because he came there to hook up with her (and her thankfully throwing him out on sight) as he felt that, based on what his dad said, it wouldn't be a big deal. In the end, George realizes his double standard and properly warns Max that regardless of genders, what he tried to do with a known sex offender was massively dangerous.
• Dumbass Teenage Son: Max. He has his moments of this plenty of times.
• Dysfunctional Family: The Lopez family. Along with George and Benny constantly arguing and his father Manny having left them when George was an infant.
  • The Palmero family isn't clean either. Angie's mom cheated on Vic after decades of marriage, eventually leaving him. Vic made out with Benny while drunk, and then also had a fling with George's younger sister, who's in her thirties. Angie's sister Gloria divorced her husband after learning he cheated on her and was desperate enough to kiss George when seeing how good he treats Angie. Angie's brother, Ray, is a manipulative con artist who abandoned his daughter. Her niece Veronica is completely spoiled due to never having to work her whole life. It's implied that the reason Veronica's mother, Claudia, made George the trustee to Veronica's inheritance is that she knew her family was selfish and entitled people, while George was "normal" because he grew up struggling and is hardworking.
• Dysfunction Junction: Lampshaded.
  Angie: (crying) Why does everything happen to us? Are we cursed? (Beat) Did you cut off a Voodoo Priest in traffic?
• Early-Installment Weirdness: More of a cosmetic version, but it's strange to go back and watch the episode "Prototype" and see George with long, poofy black and shiny hair and Benny with a fuller and more wrinkly face due to Belita Moreno wearing age makeup to make herself look older.
  • It's also jarring to see the early episodes where Vic hates George and they have a very strained relationship when Vic later becomes a regular on the show and he and George, although still snarky at each other, have a much better relationship.
  • A minor example, but Benny was just a jerk early in the series. In later seasons, she performed outright criminal actions or was confirmed or implied to performed a crime in the past. One episode shows her selling losing lottery tickets while another is about her worker's comp fraud. She went out with "Harriet," her gun, repeatedly while George was a boy and ended up having to toss off the Hoover dam.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Angie treated Jason's wheelchair-bound younger brother like this, even after he humiliated her by publicly posting a photo of her in a wet t-shirt. This is averted when Jason called her out for it, saying that she was giving him a sense of entitlement by treating him differently because he's handicapped.
  • Zigzagged with Ricky. While he and Max were close friends, Ricky has a history of getting into trouble; he ruined various household items, eventually getting banned from being in the Lopez house. He and Maz were allowed to play in the yard, but Ricky set off the firecracker that burned down the garage and, after this, destroys their fence by driving George's car through it. After the final incident, George declares that Max can never see him again, deeming Ricky a Toxic Friend Influence. But then he meets Ricky's mom, who's drunk at 10 AM, and learns his father abandoned him. George was willing to forget Ricky's bad history and wanted him stay at the house. But Angie notes that Ricky's rough life doesn't excuse his bad influence on Max and they need to think about their own child first. But Ernie then offers to help...
• Fake Pregnancy: One episode has Angie discover she's not pregnant, but kept the lie going so George wouldn't be depressed, as Carmen had recently left for college. Carmen also attempts to do this to convince her parents to let her marry Jason, but is unable to go through with it.

• Final Season Casting: George's niece Veronica, who eventually replaced Carmen as she was written off the show due to her actress, Masiela Lusha, going to college. Like Carmen, she had bratty tendencies but was taken to a higher level to being wealthy her whole life and never actually working.
• Firing Day: In "Profiles in Courage", George's ethics are put to the test when he is tasked with firing a Muslim factory worker after his bosses find out he went to flight school (the fact that the factory is up for a government contract not helping matters).
• Flanderization:
  • Benny became more obnoxious as the show went on.
  • At the beginning, George was a loving family man who only made snarky comments when the situation called for it. By the end of the series, he snarks at people almost constantly.
  • Max was always a naive kid and - since the second season - known to be dyslexic, but he became increasingly prone to saying flat-out idiotic things as the show went on and he got older. By the final season, he had metamorphosed into a Butt-Monkey.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling:
  • Unlike her siblings, Angie does not con people for money, doesn't behave impulsively, is Happily Married, and is a loving mother to her children. Vic and George mention it when Vic expresses regrets about having spoiled his kids to where they became bad people. George points out that Angie turned out a good person and Vic remarks how it's a miracle.
  • George can be this to his brother George II (Lou Diamond Phillips). George was raised by Benny and had to work hard to achieve his good life, while the other George was raised by two doting parents in a more wealthy upbringing, yet can't properly handle his finances and tried to borrow money from his brother (who was going into debt to send his daughter to a private school to avoid bullying).
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse:
  • Zack Powers is an cocky, Jerkass delinquent. But, Mel basically neglects Zack while his mother is "a bitter old drunk". However, despite this, he's done a long list of horrible deeds; such as getting a girl pregnant because he didn't bother to use protection, embezzled company money, vandalized his father's factory just to spite him (which nearly got Benny fired), and convinced Carmen to run away with him to San Francisco only to ditch her there when she refused to have sex with him. This shreds even a little sympathy audiences may have for him.
    • Lampshaded by George, who also grew up with an absent father and bitter alcoholic mother, but chose to get his act together.
  Carmen: You guys don't understand Zack! His dad is never there for him and his mom's a bitter old drunk! You have no idea what that's like!
  (George and Angie react with a "You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!" expression while turning to look at Benny, who's sheepishly trying to hide her beer)
  George: (to Benny) You wanna feel that one?
  • Angie has a downplayed version of this trope when she learns about Ricky's unpleasant homelife. Despite feeling bad about Ricky's situation and wanting to help him, it doesn't change that he's a bad influence on Max and repeatedly destroyed various parts of their home to be allowed to stay.
• Girl of the Week: In an early episode, Ernie has feelings for a coworker who secretly wants him as well, with their subplot the whole episode being their longing for each other leading up to sharing a dance at another coworker's wedding. The woman is never seen again.
• Gold Digger: George and Angie believe Vic's new fiancée Lindsay is only interested in him because of his money. Their suspicions are proven correct when Lindsay is caught cheating on Vic with a younger man.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: In "Trick or Treat Me Right"
  Benny: And every time I cuss in front of those kids, I have to put another dollar in The Swear Jar. Yesterday it cost me twenty flippin' dollars. Listen to me! I sound like a freakin' nun.
  George: Look, I know the rules sound like a bunch of bulldoody but gash darn it, you'll get used to it.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Every character (except for perhaps Zack Powers) portrays elements of selfishness but also elements of humanity and kindness. Some characters might be closer to one or the other but you could find that most characters are a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Guy on Guy Is Hot: Benny seems to have this mindset, given what she says about Carmen's Straight Gay fake boyfriend Noah.
  Angie: (after talking about the possibility that Noah might be in the closet) Oh, I can't imagine what he's feeling!
  Benny: Well, I didn't have to imagine, I saw what he was feeling. It was muscular and seventeen...
  George: MOM!
• Grass is Greener: George applies for another job in a small town in Colorado. He really wants to go, believing that a small town would be a better place to raise his children than big-city LA. However, when they get there, the kids have literally nothing else to do but steal alcohol to drink, party, have sex and get into trouble.
• Gratuitous Spanish: George is fond of this. At least one episode title (Sabes Quake) uses this trope
• Hands Go Down: Occurs when George and Ernie crash an unsupervised high school party, and George leaves Ernie to keep an eye on the teenagers while he looks for Carmen.
  Ernie: Who here has a hot single mom?
  [hands go up]
  Ernie: I said hot.
  [hands go down—except one]
• Haplessly Hiding: Invoked In "The Trouble with Ricky", where Max tries to hide Ricky from his parents (who banned him from the house for inadvertently burning down the garage) by disguising him as a garbage bag and claiming he's throwing out old clothes. George and Angie don't buy it for a second, and they try to scare Ricky out by asking to dump coffee grinds and bacon grease in the bag.
  Max: It's really full.
  George: Well then, I'll jump on it and squash it down!
  [Ricky gets up and makes a run for it]
  George: GET BACK HERE, RICKY!
  Benny: George, how many times have I told you? Make sure they're dead before you put 'em in the bag.
• Happily Adopted:
  • Ernie became Ricky's surrogate father after it was discovered how horrible his home life was.
  • Linda was this as well, being crushed when she learned she was adopted, though she eventually grows close to her biological mother and brother.
• Hard Truth Aesop: The show gives the moral that sometimes bullying can get so bad, you have to walk away from the situation. Carmen is branded a whore at her first high school, due to her ex-boyfriend lying that he only dated her to have sex with her and dumped her as soon as she gave it to him. George and Angie get the leader of the bullies suspended, and convince her ex-boyfriend to confess he lied to save face. However, the episode ends with Carmen still being bullied (and things escalating to where she's being sexually harrassed), and George and Angie realizing Carmen will never get her reputation back, and she must switch schools to start fresh. Unfortunately, all of this is Truth in Television for many bullied kids in the world.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: An almost laughable use of this trope in one episode, where a girl that can easily be confused for having two fathers (they were actually her uncle and the uncle's friend) has one or both of the men say some line that assures the audience that they sleep with tons of women all the time, multiple times, in every scene that they were in.
  • A gay manager at a clothing store that Ernie and George go to find a suit for the former mistakes them for a gay couple thanks to Ernie's wording, prompting George to correct him.
• Hilariously Abusive Childhood:
  • Mentioned every episode. Usually, Benny says something about how much she cared for George; such as mentioning a time she "threw her body on his when their car caught on fire". Then George would say something like "Because your car door got stuck and you were climbing over me to get out!"
  • Not just his childhood. The Tag for one episode was Benny serving up a plate of ice cream but letting the dog have a shot at it first. Cue her sweetly calling out, "George! Your ice cream is ready!"
    • This was actually in revenge for George serving her a steak that had been licked by the dog. Though George actually admitted that the dog licked it, Benny still remarks, "I've fed you worse - medium rare."
  • Benny's, too, according to Carmen, Max, and either the studio audience or (far more likely, since the laughter wasn't the least bit nervous) the Laugh Track. Disappeared Dad? Tragic. Eleven-year-old pretending to be his grandmother's father and (literally) belting her in effigy until the watermelon bust's eye fell off? Mind-bendingly hilarious.
• Humble Parent, Spoiled Kids:
  • In one episode, Max and Carmen anger George when Carmen signs up for an expensive cell phone plan so she could get an advanced phone model and Max carelessly breaks his toy trucks under the assumption his parents will just buy him more. In an effort to show them just how lucky they are to have a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, he forces them to spend the weekend at his mother's poorly kept house (where she puts them to work cleaning it) to see what his poverty-stricken childhood was like.
  • This is exactly why Veronica's late mother chose George as the executor of her will. She knew all too well that her own wealthy, spoiled family would squander her wealth and be unable to teach Veronica financial (and general) responsibility. That's why she chose middle-class, hardworking George to manage things and teach Veronica the value of money and how to be responsible.
  • Downplayed with Vic, who openly acknowledges this trope. Having endured an impoverished childhood in Fidel Castro's Cuba, once he made it to America and became wealthy, he gave his kids everything they wanted so they wouldn't have to live the horrible childhood he did. As he puts it, it "destroyed" his son who became a rotten, entitled Jerkass and his other daughter only picks men based on money. Vic admits he has no idea how Angie grew up to be a kind, down-to-earth woman with how he spoiled his children, and for this reason admits George is a better father than him.
• Hypocrite: In "George Rocks to the Max and Gets Diss-Band-ed", George tells Max that they can't have chicks around the band because they'll just end up controlling them, then Max ends up calling him out on it:

  Max: That's what you're doing, Dad! You're the chick ruining our band!

• Hypocritical Humor: From Max's Big Adventure:
  Benny: Here is my list of people I don't want in the carpool: Jimmy Fatass, Joey Pitstains, Booger Nose Johnny, and Lilly. The reason being that Lilly doesn't have anything nice to say about anybody.
• Ignore the Fanservice: In "Trick or Treat Me Right", Angie wears a sexy police officer costume for Halloween but George is too depressed over his mother's recent insults about his dyslexia to care. Ernie, on the other hand, is more than happy to show his appreciation.
• Incompatible Orientation: Subverted in "What George Doesn't Noah". Carmen brings home what seems to be the perfect boyfriend, Noah, after the drama of her seeing bad boy Zack. When George and Benny read his text messages that indicate he's cheating on Carmen, they follow and spy on Noah as he goes to the movie theater. When a pretty girl shows up, they assume that's the person he's cheating with... only to see him kiss the boy next to him. It later turns out that Carmen was only using Noah as a cover-up so she could secretly see Zack.
• Important Haircut: George between the first and third seasons had long hair until he had to do a speech presentation for then American president George Bush, although it was a minor change. He does get a short hairstyle after that and kept it for the remainder of the series.
• Informed Deformity: George's big head and Ernie's big ears.
• Innocent Innuendo: George reads Carmen's IMs in one episode and her boyfriend describes her "doing something over and over again until she gets it right". He was talking about skateboarding.
  • There's also George's Indian name as a child "Boy-who-plays-with-himself" since he was a loner. None of the other kids would shake his hand.
• Jerkass:
  • Everyone gets in a moment or two over the course of the series, but special mention has to go to Benny whose social and child-raising skills border on being sociopathic. Apparently, this is because Benny's parents are even worse, they physically and verbally abused her and are strongly implied to be the main reason for Benny's mistreatment of George. George admits that, compared to what his mother put with up from her parents, she actually treated him pretty good as a kid.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Mr. Sorkin is right. You can get sleeping Mexican statues from Mexico.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Except for maybe Zack Powers, even the biggest jerks show some humanity and heart of gold.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Zack Powers initially seems like a rebel with the heart of gold, considering his terrible childhood. But it's all an act to convince Carmen to have sex with him. He's probably the closest thing the show has to an actual antagonist. Thankfully, he's not in the series for very long.
• Kissing Cousins:
  • Max continuously tries to flirt with Veronica, who is his first cousin. George himself gets squicked out by this even though its strictly one-sided.
  • Also Vic has kissed both Benny and Linda. However, Vic is not blood related to Benny or Linda, which gets pointed out. Max and Veronica are blood related.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • George and Angie do this in the Season 2 episode "Girl Fight" after Carmen is branded a whore at her first high school after her ex-boyfriend Adam tells people he had sex with her then dumped her because he got what he wanted. Even though one of the bullies (her former friend Piper) ends up being suspended after instigating a fight with Carmen and Adam agrees to tell everyone he lied, the bullying against Carmen has already escalated to the point where she's being sexually harassed and is too afraid to go back to school. It's clear that Carmen's reputation at that school has been damaged beyond repair, so the only option George and Angie have left is to transfer her to a private school.
  • Lampshaded in the Season 3 episode "George's House of Cards". When everyone plays poker "No limits," Ernie folds before he even gets his cards.
  Ernie: "I know, George, but a very wise gambler once gave me some advice. He said-"
  George: "Ernie, if you sing that Kenny Rogers song one more time I will punch you in your eye."
  Ernie: "Okay, okay! *Quietly* You just gotta know when to hold em and know when to fold em.. - "
  George: "ERNIE!"
• "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Max. Almost every episode after he was diagnosed talks about it. George allegedly has it too, but his is not as severe as Max's.
• Lady Drunk:
  • George's mother Benny, although she was a Struggling Single Mother.
  • Tammy, Ricky's mom is even more of a drunk.
• Laughably Evil: The Powers brothers are a corrupt pair of jerkasses and one of them is a horribly negligent father. Despite this they are immensely entertaining whenever they are on-screen.
  Jack: Isn't that right SENIOR PUMPKINHEAD!?
• Lazy Mexican: In "George Can't Let Sleeping Mexicans Lie", George feuds with a new neighbor over his "sleeping Mexican" lawn ornament (which he claims that it was made by Mexicans in Mexico).
• Lethal Chef: Angie is constantly told she's this by almost everyone, especially Benny. She invokes this in the episode "George of the Rings" where — upon George suddenly remembering their anniversary — she gives him what looks like a delicious chocolate cake, but once he bites into it realizes it's actually made of dirt, vinegar, and a moth (as well as filling up a milk carton with tuna milk), revenge for having forgotten that their anniversary was three days ago. At the end of the episode, George decides to give it to Benny... who weirdly enjoys it, confusing George enough to take another bite and realize nope, it's still terrible.
  Benny: George, I've been smoking for thirty years. Everything tastes like dirt.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In one episode, while describing his turnaround of Veronica, George snidely remarks about getting his own sitcom TV show, which he calls "George Lopez: Nanny Nine-''Juan''-''Juan'' ".
  • In another episode, Benny considers wearing her jeans low as Carmen does to attract boys. Then the phone rings.
  George: "Oh look, it's all of America asking you not to!"
• Mama Bear: In one episode, Angie is about to stop Carmen from being bullied by sending the school a "strongly worded letter". She drops that idea and marches straight to the school to confront the counselor upon learning that Carmen got into a fight and was wrongly suspended for it. When George asks if she's going to schedule an appointment on the school website, she has this to say...
  Angie: To hell with the appointment! When my baby's hurt, I go medieval! We're going over there!
  • Toward the end of the "Carmen Runs Away" arc, Benny becomes a Grandmama Bear towards Carmen and attacks Zack powers with a wrench upon seeing him for all the trouble he caused her granddaughter.
  Benny: George! I just saw Zack and I stopped him good! (sees Zack's father) OH, Mel! Your son has been in a terrible accident. (drops a wrench)
  • Angie almost strangles her brother while tying his tie for him after learning he planned to steal his daughter's money and bluntly says he disgusts her.
• Marty Stu: In-universe. Jason is probably supposed to be a parody. When George and Angie grill him after Carmen brings him home, it is revealed that he is a straight-A athlete on the debate team who spends his afternoons helping his disabled brother. By the end, he slides into more of a Broken Ace, since it's revealed that he's abusing steroids to compete in sports because he's so desperate for his emotionally-distant father's approval.
• Misery Builds Character: An Aesop that appears in several episodes that deal with George's childhood. Yeah he grew up poor, abused, neglected, suffered from learning disabilities and was left with a lot of issues. However, George gained a lot of lessons from it which he applies throughout the series. It gave him the nerve to ask Angie out, he has proven more responsible than many of the other adults, and he's a lot better off than Ernie or his half-brother, who had good parents.
• Mister Seahorse: Continuing after an episode of when Carmen runs away, one scene of George Lopez shows Carmen (his daughter) returning home, but with a twist — she is pregnant! After this, George then realizes not only his daughter is pregnant, but also is his wife and his mother. Then, his son Max walks into the room with a large belly as well. After asking his father, "Where is this going to come out?", George abruptly wakes up and responds aloud, "If you're lucky, your bellybutton!" It was All Just a Dream induced from all the stress of worrying to where Carmen ran away.
  • In a completely different way, George was wearing a seahorse hat at Carmen's quinceanera.
• Mushroom Samba: In two separate episodes George eats a Tequila Worm in a moment of absent-mindedness and trips out. The first time it happens, George switches lives with Ernie, becoming the hopeless factory grunt while Ernie is the popular manager married to Angie. In the second, George imagines that he and Ernie are gay lovers who are about to be Wed. Both dreams end in a very surreal moment of Vic dressed as a worm doing a bizarre dance.
• The Münchausen: Vic. Parodied in at least one episode. George keeps getting tired of his stories so he asks him to skip to the last line of the story, which are typically Brick Jokes, in addition to Noodle Incidents.
  Vic: My father paid the girl with a chicken.
  (at the end of a different story) Well the chicken lived, but the girl had to wear an eye patch for the rest of her life.
  (and the end of yet another story)And it turns out it was the exact same chicken.
  

Tropes N-Z

• The Needs of the Many: In "Profiles In Courage", the Powers Brothers fear that Arab employee Hosni will jeopardize their chance at a government contract. They order George to demote him to office work. When George protests against this, the brothers inform him that if they lose the contract they will have to lay off twenty people - forcing George to make the difficult decision of demoting Hosni. He even brings up this point to Hosni, saying as much as he hates demoting him for racist reasons, he can't risk twenty people losing their job for one person.
• Noodle Incident:
  • George and Angie apparently had a very memorable "trip to the lake" that is mentioned in several episodes.
  • Another time Angie once told George never to describe his house as his castle.
  • George mentions the last time the workers came back to the factory drunk;
  George: Running of the forklifts was fun, but I think we all agree it should have been an outdoor game.
  • Benny threw her gun, "Harriet," off the Hoover dam to ensure "the case is closed". When Angie inquires further about it, Benny firmly repeats "Case. Closed."
• Notably Quick Deliberation: When Benny is on trial for a crime she committed 30 years ago, the jury already reached a verdict before they made it to the jury room.
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: George has been established multiple times to firmly believe that you can and should do whatever you can get away with as long as you can properly cover it up. To be fair, though, he does usually have good intentions when he goes behind people's backs.
  Angie: You do know that what you did was wrong.
  George: I know. I got caught, so it was wrong.
• Obnoxious In-Laws:
  • Everyone in Angie's family looks down on George, but its her father, Vic, who tops them all, though his relationship with George improves significantly once Vic becomes a main character.
  • Angie doesn't have it any better with her mother-in-law.
• Out of Focus: Carmen gets much less screentime in season 5. After the first two episodes dealing with Jason walking out on her, she doesn't get any subplots of her own. It's hinted at that this is because she's matured past her earlier storylines of boy troubles and partying and there isn't much going on her life anymore except for looking for colleges and getting her poetry published.
  • After being added to the main cast and moving in with the Lopez family, Veronica receives little screentime and isn't the major focus of any storylines in the latter half of season 6. She is also the only main cast member (besides Carmen) who does not appear in the series finale. It is very bizarre as to why they added her to the main cast and then barely featured her.
• Papa Wolf: George may not be the perfect father when it comes to his daughter, but if Carmen is in danger or seeing someone who might take advantage of her, he won't care if the person he kills is his boss' son. He also acts as this in regards to Max and his niece Veronica.
• Politically Motivated Teacher: The Treetop Rangers leader who tells them that recycling is bad and that cops should profile Mexicans. When George confronts him, he says "Oh not like you. I mean one of those 'Me no speakee' Mexicans".
• Pretty in Mink: Angie's mother Emelina wears a fur coat when she comes for Christmas. Only Benny comments on it, but that's Benny's nature. Angie also mentions she had to stop her parents from buying a fur for Carmen, more because they don't want to spoil her.
• Prison Rape: In "George Watches Out For Jason", Carmen and Jason are arrested when someone at a party they are hosting was in possession of drugs. Carmen is released but learns that Jason won't be since he's a minor and his parents are not in the country; so there's no one to release him to.
  Carmen: Jason can't spend the night in jail!
  George: I spent a night in jail once and nothing happened to me.
  Carmen: This is different, dad. Jason's pretty!
• Product Placement: George is seen with a bottle of Tampico orange juice in one episode. Also, one bottle of syrup is clearly a Log Cabin brand.
• Pseudo-Crisis: One of the later seasons ended in a multiple-cliffhanger scenario, one of them comes out of nowhere, it includes George's friend, Ernie, worrying that his and George's place of work might shut down. Next episode, it turns out that it wasn't really going to happen.
• Psychological Projection: The entire plot of the episode "George's House of Cards" is Vic basically doing this to George. After Vic loses $50 to George in a poker game, he outright refuses to pay him, going so far as to lock George out of his own garage (which Vic loaned George $17,000 to rebuild after it was burned down, and he feels like for this reason alone he doesn't need to give George anything.) George resolves to pay Vic the full amount of the loan back to him in one sitting to move past the situation; he does this by opening eight new credit cards and taking out cash advances on all of them, unaware of how much interest he'll need to pay on it. When Vic admonishes George for making such a foolish decision because that was "no way to run a marriage", George counters back by replying, "Yeah, what do you know about marriage? At least my wife's not with another man right now.". Vic then dejectedly removes the lock from the garage and confesses to George that when he lost the $50 in the poker game, it reminded him of how his wife had taken advantage of his trust, and the whole time he had been projecting his anger at Emelina onto George. They both apologize to each other, Vic agrees to restore the previous arrangent regarding the loan, and George in turn agrees to return the money to the credit cards.
• Put on a Bus: Carmen went to college before the final season due to her actress Masiela Luscha wanting to go to college in real life.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The Powers Brothers. Despite being corrupt jerkasses, as stated above, they sincerely respect George and are always willing to listen to his ideas even if they won't agree with them, and are sincerely apologetic whenever he tells them that they've offended him in some way. They've even helped him with some family problems, such as planning his vow renewal and teaching Max not to lie and the value of hard work.
• Recognition Failure: Carmen runs away and becomes a groupie for the rapper Chingy. George ends up being the only person who doesn't know who that is. Even Vic recognized Chingy.
• Re-Release Soundtrack: The DVD release couldn't use the song "Low Rider" for the theme song, so a whole new theme was used.
• Reset Button: Averted. Take, for instance, the time Carmen gained a reputation as a whore. Turned out her boyfriend had propositioned her, and she turned him down, he started the rumor, and George forces him to take it back. This would be an ordinary Very Special Episode, except that the episode ends with Carmen still being teased at school, and George and Angie realize that they're going to have to find her a new school. Ouch.
• Retcon: Ernie's mother was introduced as an average woman. The next episode she appears in she's a morbidly obese Big Eater who is only seen from the waist down.
• Rich Bitch: Veronica at first, though she gets better later on.
• Ripped from the Headlines: The episode "George Can't Let Sleeping Mexicans Lie," is based off of a Real Life event where a restaurant put up sleeping Mexicans statues and later took them down after a petition to do so was circulated. In this version, the restaurant owner is replaced by a new, jerky neighbor.
• Running Gag: George's big head, Ernie's big ears, Benny being compared to a lawn gnome, and you could make a drinking game from George's cracks about Max's dyslexia.
  • Also George imitating Vic's accent.
• Same Content, Different Rating: The show was always TV-PG on all platforms. However on YouTube where you can buy the episodes, the show was rated TV-14 despite no changes to the content.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: In the episode "Girl Fight", Tommy "Rango" Durango (played by guest star Steve Schirripa), the conflict resolution manager at Carmen's high school, is revealed to have been George's grade school bully and ended up getting expelled after beating up George and Ernie when they were kids. It's implied (but never outright stated) that he's still bitter at George over the incident and was deliberately looking the other way when Carmen endures bullying from a group of girls in order to get even with him.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: There's an episode where George turns down what would've been a much higher paying position upon learning that they only intended on hiring him because he's a Mexican.
• Secret Test of Character: In the first episode, George's boss Mr Powers tells George there will be some layoffs at the factory and as manager, George must choose which department will be dissolved. George picks his mother's department and Mr Powers reveals he was simply testing George to see if he had what it took to be manager.
• Self-Made Man: George and Vic both came from humble beginnings. The former became a plant manager and later the factory president at the end of the series. The latter was a Cuban refugee who became a wealthy cardiologist.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Ernie (Sensitive Guy) and George (Manly Man).
• She Is All Grown Up: A major source of frustration for George is the fact that his little girl Carmen has grown into a beautiful young woman, which has not escaped the notice of the guys around her. George even has to tell a man hitting on Carmen that she's underage, which sends the man quite literally running.
• Shout-Out: One episode is based off of the plot of The Sandlot.
• Shower of Awkward: One episode has George walking into a shower expecting to see Angie and surprise her, only to spot his own mother instead!
• Sliding Scale of Continuity: Level 3, with some major plotlines that occur taking the show into level 4. For a sitcom, the show is generally quite good at it keeping its continuity, but does have its fair share of characters that fall to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome and Status Quo Is God moments.
• Sleeps with Everyone but You: Gina from will sleep with anyone... anyone, that is, that can get past initial nausea. At one point, Ernie decides he's finally gotten desperate enough to make a pass at her, which she turns down.
  Gina: I guess even I have standards. Hey, I'm as surprised as you!
• Smug Snake: Zack Powers, one of Carmen's (later ex-)boyfriends, is a pretty standard example; bratty, unlikeable, arrogant and entitled, and yet he's convinced everything will work out in his favor. Then, Benny bashes him in with a wrench in an Offscreen Moment of Awesome.
• Special Guest: Done quite well, including Lou Diamond Phillips as George's wastrel, long lost half brother. The big one was Sandra Bullock as Accident Amy (Bullock was an executive producer for the show).
• Sorry, I Left the BGM On: Angie and George's song play while George sits down sadly, only for Benny to come onto the screen carrying a boom box.

• Spoiled Sweet: Idealistic Angie grew up in a wealthy household, was popular in high school, and is very caring with her family and the people around her. Though it's hinted that she was a bit snobby before she and George met.
• Standardized Sitcom Housing: Subverted; the family has the usual kitchen/living room setup, but the vast majority of the action takes place in the kitchen or backyard.
• Stealth Insult: When Angie goes into selling makeup, a makeup seller advises Angie to use these to make women feel insecure enough to buy makeup.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: George's niece Veronica, who eventually replaced Carmen as she was written off the show due to her actress, Masiela Lusha, going to college. Like Carmen, she had bratty tendencies but taken to a higher level due to being a Spoiled Brat who come from wealth and not knowing what it means to work.
• The Swear Jar: In "Trick or Treat Me Right", Benny mentions that she once had to put "twenty flipping dollars" (one dollar for each time she swore) into the Swear Jar for cursing in front of the kids.
• Take Five: Used when George and Angie have to talk about their finances and Ernie just opens a can of orange soda during the discussion. He doesn't want to leave since "he just opened this can," and George gives him a rather nasty look.
• Teens Are Monsters: In season 2 episode 13, Carmen breaks up with her boyfriend, Adam. In revenge, he spreads a rumor that he only wanted sex and she easily gave it to him - claiming he dumped her after getting what he wanted. George and Angie end up getting involved after Carmen is dragged into a fight with the ringleader of her bullies and is suspended for defending herself. Despite their efforts to force the school to take action and make Adam confess that he lied, Carmen still ends up having to transfer schools because her reputation is ruined and her classmates continue to torment her for simple amusement. Carmen is all but traumatized from being relentlessly bullied, sexually harassed, and wrongly branded "the school whore" despite her innocence.
• Token Houseguest: During the final season, George's niece Veronica comes to live with him. This coincided with his daughter being written off the show so that the actress could attend college.
• Token White: Carmen's boyfriend Jason in later seasons. At least until his departure in season 5.
• Trauma Conga Line: George once told Max that one time Benny got in trouble at Catholic school and was beaten with a ruler by the nuns, who told her mother, who then beat Benny at home so long she forgot to cook dinner, then Benny's father beat her mother out of anger for not preparing dinner. When Max exclaims "That's terrible! Didn't anyone beat him?" George replied that Benny's Dad later died after being hit by a car while he was drunk.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Subverted in that George often talks about how lucky he is to have gotten Angie. His then Real Life wife picked out the actress, despite being an aversion herself.
• The Un-Favorite: Carmen is treated like this from time to time, although George does cop to it. He does love his kids the same, it's just that he finds Carmen harder to handle since she became a teenager and gotten involved with boys.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Occasionally, Benny and Vic. Canon in one episode where they made out when the Lopezes went to Colorado.
• Universal-Adaptor Cast: In the episode "Leave It to Lopez", George dreams of himself and his family in various sitcoms like "The Jetsons", "The Munsters and "Leave It To Beaver".

• Video Wills: Done quite humorously when Angie's late sister-in-law Claudia leaves all of her money to her daughter Veronica, to be managed by a trustee. She manages to get in one last jab at her father-in-law before naming George as the trustee:
  Claudia: Will Victor Palmero please step forward.
  [Vic smugly steps forward]
  Claudia: Okay, now bend over and kiss George Lopez's ass - because I pick him!
• Vocal Evolution: Benny's voice sounded more "ghetto" with a stereotypical Latino accent in the pilot. Max's voice dropped sometime during the last two seasons due to puberty.
• The Voice: Ernie's Mom has almost exclusively been seen from the waistline down along with her appendages, but most of the time the audience only hears her voice.
• Wakeup Makeup: "George's Grand Slam" subverts this. With Jason currently staying in the house, Carmen heads down to breakfast all made up in heels, done hair, heels and a negligee dress — insisting she just rolled out of bed that way. George calls her on this—pointing out that she's actually Not a Morning Person in the slightest.
• Wham Episode: The season 5 finale. George sets his mother up on a date with one of her ex-boyfriends only to realize the man is a wanted criminal. As if that isn't bad enough, Benny could go to jail for unintentionally aiding and abetting him 30 years ago. Vic is engaged to a younger woman who is quite obviously only interested in him for his money. Carmen is nervous about whether or not she will be accepted into the final college she applied to after being rejected from all the others. The factory is moving to Mexico, which means George and Ernie might lose their jobs. And Angie might be pregnant with a third child and is reading a pregnancy test to confirm it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Ernie gets engaged to Tammy, his foster child's mother in the fourth season. It's mentioned in the following episode, and after that Ernie's back to being a socially awkward single guy. A little bit later, it's revealed that he and Tammy broke up because "he wanted to communicate and she wanted to sleep with others guys".
  • George's aunt Cecelia only appears in one episode, to start the over-arching plotline of George trying to find his dad. She reveals that Benny lied about him being dead, and that he never held George.
  • From the same episode that Cecelia appears in, we are introduced to the Powers' niece, Campbell Powers. She is never seen again.
  • "God Needs George": Although Mr. Needles survives, he never appears again in the series despite a mention once in a while.
  • Benny's dog, McLeod, only shows up in one episode, and it's the same episode he's first mentioned in.
  • George's fake father, Lalo, only appears in one episode. It ends with George asking him to be an Honorary Uncle to his kids, which he accepts as he's already wanted a family. He never shows up again after that episode.
  • Randy, Benny's love interest played by Nick Offerman, first appeared in the first episode of season 3, and continued to appear regularly until he broke off his engagement to Benny. Randy only appears once more after this, in season 4, and is never seen again. What makes this a jarring example is that the last time we see Randy is during an episode where the factory jobs are in jeopardy and Benny initially takes Randy's offer to move in. After the jobs are saved Benny tells Randy "I can't take this. You're smothering me," and that's the last we ever see of him.
  • Hosni, an Arabic employee at the factory, is never seen again after the episode introducing him.
  • Lou Powers, the eldest of the Powers family only appears in one episode and his existence is never brought up again.
  • Carmen's school friends Olivia and Kenzie are only seen once and never again.
  • Vanessa, the Vice-President of the factory (after the merger with Aerocorp) is never seen again after her debut.
• Where Did We Go Wrong?: George and Angie feel this way about Carmen, especially after she runs away and becomes a groupie for Chingy. Cue Benny always having something to say in response.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Used in-universe for laughs in one of the Christmas specials. George takes his family to a rendition of A Christmas Carol... except it turns out to be a Grimdark, urban version of the story. Scrooge is a drug-dealing pimp and Tiny Tim is killed off in a drive-by shooting two minutes in. We don't see much else but according to Angie and Carmen, Santa Claus gets killed for wearing the wrong colors and a pitbull mauling is also somehow involved in the play.
• World of Snark: Every single character in the show is capable of making a smart remark, a verbal jab, a witty comeback etc. Yes, even Max and Ernie.
• You Are Fat: In "Angie Gets Tanked", George volunteers to work at a dunk tank for Carmen's school's fundraiser. To get people to participate, he hurls insults at them. Unfortunately, George also does this to an obese kid which results in him being removed from campus since the school has a zero-tolerance policy on verbal abuse and bullying.
• You Can Always Tell a Liar: George is able to tell that Vic's new fiancée Lindsay is lying because she always touches her ear when she says something false. In the same episode, Vic points out that every time George lies to him he compliments Vic and the cocks his head to the side.

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