In a World… where monsters live freely among the humans and cause trouble, a boy called Matt Average runs a monster hunting company to help the people from the tranquil city of Joliville. He will tag along Bruce, his over-enthusiast father; Dink, his friendly monster pet; and Manson, the laid-back Gothic Girl Next Door. Together, they form the Average company, which will give the dangerous monsters a run for their money.
This show provides examples of:
- Beware the Nice Ones: In an episode Sonja is required to scream with fury at an oak monster in order for it to free her, and her angry voice is enough to impress Manson.
- Bland-Name Product: Segra for Sega.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Murray does it in an episode after his Drives Like Crazy daily gag, telling Carlota to drive their police car instead of him the next episode.
- Cyborg: Implied with Appendix, whose cranium has a metallic half.
- Embarrassing Slide: In an episode the Monster Agency is presenting a slideshow about monsters to the mayor when Matt accidentally slips several photos of his father partying and dancing while dressed in drag. No words are needed.
- Fake Band: "Metal Finish", Manson's favorite music band, which according to her plays neo-Gothic thrash metal.
- Evil Twin: Straight and subverted. One episode reveals Dink had an evil identical cousin who held a grudge against him for overshadowing him throughout his life. However, at the end it's revealed that Dink was not his cousin and that there is a third Dink-like monster somewhere.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Matt and his father often devise weapons and vehicles to take the Monster of the Week, sometimes with not so effective results. Professor Appendix also counts.
- Gender-Blender Name: Despite her predominantly male name, Manson is a girl, which doesn't help Matt's father to remember her gender.
- Girly Girl: Ellen, Sonia, and other girls.
- Hartman Hips: Matt’s Mother has them, as well as Madame Bovary.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Matt and Manson do have some Ship Tease moments, mostly due to Manson occasionally taking the role of The Tease, but otherwise are portrayed as just close friends with no romantic interest.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Matt and his mother.
- Invisible Parents: We never see Manson's parents, though unlike most of examples, they get mentioned at least once.
- Limited Wardrobe: The human characters always wear the same clothes.
- Meaningful Name:
- Average, anyone?
- Manson's name probably comes from Charles Manson, and it really fits her...
- Socrates really likes to mess with people.
- Monster of the Week: The episodes are created in this pattern, but except rare occasions, every monster always get a Call-Back somehow.
- Naked People Are Funny: The episode "Clothes Make the Monster" involves a monster that steals peoples clothes, naturally causing this trope to occur. Along with a lot of cases of Hand-or-Object Underwear and Scenery Censor, and eventually a Full-Frontal Assault.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Manson loves everything related to monsters and creepy things, to the point she enjoys actual nightmares. Matt is a less disturbing but equally valid example as, according to his father, the only way to put him to sleep when he was a baby was showing him monster films.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Not all monsters cause mayhem out of malice. More often than not, something is bothering them, and they stop their rampage the moment a solution is provided.
- Only One Name: Manson. We are never told her surname (or even if Manson is her given name to first with).
- Only Sane Man: Bruce Average believes himself to be this, but it varies from episode on episode.
- Perky Goth: Manson toys with the trope, as although she is pretty gloomy and snarky, she does have a more cheerful side and it is not difficult for her to show it up.
- Phony Psychic: Madame Bovary, in line with her 19th century spiritualist gimmick, claims to have supernatural powers, which are actually faked by her assistant Appendix. One episode, however, shows that she is really very adept in hypnosis.
- Puppy Love: Matt and Sonja are pretty open about being boyfriend and girlfriend.
- Running Gag: Several ones.
- Matt's father constantly mistakes Manson for a boy, despite her appearance isn't boyish or male-looking at all, and is surprised or even unbelieving whenever she corrects him. Manson gets increasingly annoyed with the confusion as the series advances.
- Another gag is Manson insisting she has a brother who is a monster and labeling any particularly creepy monster they find as him. This is brought up in one episode, when she happily ends up getting a real monster sister by accidentally messing up a clonation process.
- A minor one belongs to Murray, the Sheriff's aide, who is always tasked to drive their car while other characters constantly tell him alternately to go either faster or slower.
- Shock and Awe: Dink has the ability of firing electrical discharges from his horns. He and Matt like to use this to instantly pop popcorn.
- Shout-Out:
- Madame Bovary's name is based in the book Madame Bovary, and her character in general brings echoes from New Age mystic Madame Blavatsky.
- One of the toys possessed by the Ludofractor is a robot in-universe called Megatron.
- In the episode with the video-game monster, every time a character is sucked inside a video-game it shows a game over screen with the "lost a life" jingle from Kirby's Dream Land playing over it.
- Spot the Imposter: In the episode involving Dink's evil, identical cousin, this scenario naturally shows up eventually. Matt is able to sort out who is the real Dink by throwing a kernel at the two, which Dink immediately pops with his electricity (see also Shock and Awe above).
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Manson typically appears suddenly behind people, which startles Bruce in particular. Her very first apparition in the series sees her sneaking undetected in the Monster Agency van, all while wearing a monster costume.
- Summon Bigger Fish: The Average company does this in a gruesome manner to take a large Blob Monster made of mold. After getting trapped by the monster, Matt and Dink just flush their own Blob Monster Mika, who swiftly devours the monster to nothing.
- Unfazed Everyman: Most of the people of Joliville see monster attacks as they would see problems in their pipes.
- The Unintelligible: Dink speaks in his own language, which only Matt can understand.
