Western Animation / Monsters at Work

All spoilers for Monsters University and Monsters, Inc. are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Monsters, Inc.: Now under new management.

Monsters at Work is a television series based on characters created by Pixar Animation Studios and is a continuation of Monsters, Inc.. It premiered on July 7, 2021 on Disney+. It's the second TV series based on their properties, with Buzz Lightyear of Star Command being the first, and the first that Pixar themselves have produced.

Set immediately after the events of the original movie (technically an Interquel, as it precedes the original film's final scene), the power plant at its center now harvests the laughter of children to fuel the city of Monstropolis. Tylor Tuskmon (Ben Feldman), an eager mechanic on the Monsters, Inc. Facilities Team with a talent for scaring, dreams of working on the Scare Floor (now the Laugh Floor) alongside Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman). The problem is that Tylor, who graduated from Monsters University, was originally brought on as a scarer, only to join right as the switch from scream power to laugh power occurred. Now, if he wants to be on the Laugh Floor, he's going to need to find his inner funny.

The official trailer for the series can be found here. Cast member Henry Winkler, the voice of MIFT foreman Fritz, tweeted that a second season is currently under development. This was confirmed on June 15, 2022, in an announcement video on the official Disney+ YouTube channel. The season premiered on April 5, 2024, on Disney Channel, and it will become available on Disney+ on May 5. Season two sees Tylor being pulled between his friends at Monsters, Inc. and a job offer from rival energy company Fear Co., now run by Johnny Worthington III (Nathan Fillion), which still harvests scream energy.

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Monsters at Work provides examples of:

• Absurdly Dedicated Worker: Due to the power shortage, Mike works over 18 hours on one shift to keep the lights on, and pumps himself up full of an energy drink to keep himself going. When MIFT gets him out of a stuck door, he falls asleep fast, having burned out the entire drink in just two hours. It's somewhat implied this might be partly due to Mike getting to live a variation of his childhood dream of being a scarer, after the events of the prequel forced him to accept the fact that he just wasn't naturally suited for the job.
• A Cappella: The opening credits are an a cappella version of the original films opening credits music, with composer Dominic Lewis singing and beatboxing all the parts. The last episode's credits uses a full version of the show's theme.
• The Ace: As a scarer, Tylor was very talented at his craft, having graduated College at the top of his class, and even breaking Sulley's old record at the scaring simulation room. Unfortunately for him, the events of the film rendered the position moot the same day he joined, so now he has to try learning an entirely new line of work at Monsters Inc, without the aid of a natural talent for being a funny monster like Mike, or having had time to train properly for the role like Sulley did for being a scarer.
• Actor Allusion:
  • In "Little Monsters", Fritz hits the vending machine with what he calls "the ol' Fritzarelli Touch". Fritz's voice actor, Henry Winkler, is best known for his role on Happy Days as Arthur "the Fonz" Fonzarelli, who was known to fix a jukebox with the same Percussive Maintenance.
  • In episode 4's "Mike's Comedy Class" segment, Gary appears in the classroom for the first time during a lesson on hecklers. Gary's voice actor Gabriel Iglesias is a professional stand-up comedian, and would know a thing or two about dealing with heckling.
• Always Second Best: Played for Laughs, but when Mike is shown on the leaderboard, he notices he's in first, second, and fourth place. He tells off the monster (who's using a spinning bow-tie) who's in third place.
• Advertised Extra: Banana Bread, a tiny green monster who speaks in raspberries, was advertised as MIFT’s official mascot but otherwise never appeared in posters and barely showed up in trailers. This is because he gets promoted to an official Jokester in the second episode after the MIFTers crash Tylor’s comedy lesson and Ms. Flint notices his nuanced take on comedy theory. His departure shows Tylor that it really is possible for a MIFTer to be a Jokester, as well as giving the chaotic MIFTers a more sympathetic light as Fritz shows genuine sadness over someone leaving MIFT because it wasn’t special enough.
• Always Identical Twins: The trailer introduces Roz's twin sister Roze, who takes over Roz's position at M.I. She looks almost exactly like Roz, save for a darker shirt, brighter hair, and no glasses and no mole on her chin, but still has that same gravely, deadpan voice. Like with Roz, Mike also is horrified to have Roze on the job. Roz returns in the last episode, and once the current crisis is solved, Mike directly accuses Roz and Roze of being the same person with dyed hair and a different vest, mainly because he refuses to believe that both of them can have identical-smelling bad breath.
• Art Evolution: The animation has drastically changed since the original film. Sulley's hair is much more realistic and moves more naturally, Mike's skin and Celia's dress are more detailed and stand out more, and reflections are very prominent.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Celia and Mrs. Flint both get a more prominent role in the series as the Laugh Floor F Supervisor and a comedy trainer respectively.
  • Carla "Killer Claws" Benitez, one of the Scarers Mike, Sulley, and the gang saw during their trip to Monsters Inc. in the second movie joins Mike's Comedy Class, and gets her first speaking role.
• Ascended Fanboy: Tylor grew up idolizing Scarers and was thrilled to get a position at Monsters Inc. when he thought the company was about scaring.
• Ascended Fridge Horror: Many fans have pointed out over the years that Monsters Inc. switching from Scream to Laugh Energy would be a very messy transition for the Scarers. They would either have to adjust to the new system, abandoning the skills they've spent most of their lives developing, or be put out of work. Tylor's role in the series revolves around this fear, as he arrives at Monsters Inc. fresh off graduating at the top of his scaring class, only to learn that they don't need Scarers anymore.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio:
  • The three male MIFTers: Fritz (Big), Tylor (Thin) and Duncan (Short)
  • There's also Sulley (Big), Celia (Thin) and Mike (Short) who now run Monsters Inc.
• Black Comedy: Cutter frequently alludes to previous MIFT workers who died horribly on the job, having discussed three of them in the first two episodes.
• Broken Pedestal: In-Universe, the monsters are quick to acknowledge that Waternoose's actions in the movie made him as much of a figurative monster as he was a literal one. When Tylor is given the employee orientation video, the supervisor is quick to interrupt with this bit of information.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The MIFTers are all more than a little eccentric, but they're clearly very good at their jobs-in the second episode, they spring into action the moment the call goes out and successfully rescue Mike from a jammed door.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Jerry, the scare floor supervisor before Celia, isn't seen in the series yet. Whether he was promoted following Celia, quit, or got fired is unclear.
• Cloudcuckoolander: As demonstrated by this TV spot, both Val and Fritz due to their unending enthusiasm. The spot in question shows Fritz calling out for his teamsters like pets, while Val enthusiastically chats it up to Tylor in a way that even his mother finds a bit odd.
• Continuity Nod:
  • While reporting in for his first shift, Tylor says hi to George, who is seen walking around still shaved and wearing his cone.
  • When giving Tylor a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, Mike brings up knowing what it feels like to cross the line on the Scare/Laugh Floor and being willing to do anything to achieve it on your own merits, and Sulley points out that he and Mike both worked their way up to their current positions of running the company from the Mailroom, both things that were covered in Monsters University.
  • When Tylor graduates, we see that he was taught and graded by Professor Knight, who's still running the Monsters University scaring program after teaching Mike and Sulley in that film.
  • Before the time skip in the first movie, Mike points out that their actions have probably ruined the company and put hundreds out of work, and fears that angry mobs will come after him and Sulley when the city runs out of power. In the first episode, one of Mike's first lines is him expressing relief that the factory is still open with no job losses or angry mob.
    • The same conversation mentions Waternoose when Celia tells Mike and Sulley someone wants to see them in his old office. Mike correctly suspects it can't be the ex-CEO, since they hauled him off the day before.
    • Also in the same conversation, Celia suggests she and Mike go out at Harryhausen's, but Mike says they have been banned for life from there. Harryhausen's was the restaurant Mike and Celia dated at and where Boo spread her chaos in the first film. (Incidentally, the restaurant is also named for stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen.)
  • Fungus, Randall's Co-worker, is still shown to be employed at Monsters Inc, and is grateful to Mike for allowing him to keep his job. Mike bushes it off, but jokes that Fungus missed out on a ride in his car, which is the Comically Small Bribe he offered him to let him go when Randall locked him into the scream extractor.
  • Pauley, a purple monster with multiple eyes, was seen in Monsters, Inc. as one of the Scarers. In the first episode, he is providing a Jokester demonstration.
  • The third episode reveals Mike has a deep love of baseball, which was alluded to when he and Sulley got rid of Randall for good at the end of the first film, with Sulley tossing Randall through the door being played out like he was a pitcher and Mike the catcher, with Mike offering Baseball-esque commentary throughout. Additionally, his #1 Dime in Monsters University was also a baseball cap, though he didn't receive it in circumstances pertaining to the game.
  • The seventh episode has Mike wondering what could be used as a way to increase laugh power. Fungus suggests a "laugh extractor", to which Mike responds is "Too soon".
• Company Cross References:
  • The little boy in the pilot wears Mickey Mouse pajamas and has a Winnie the Pooh doll.
  • Lilo & Stitch has two references in the show^note Series creator and executive producer Bobs Gannaway was also an executive producer of Lilo & Stitch: The Series.:
    • In the pilot, it's shown on the envelope of Tylor's acceptance letter that his home address is 626 Croak Street; 626 is Stitch's experiment number, and a frog appears with Stitch in a couple scenes of the first film.
    • In the third episode, baby "Snore" has a plush toy of Stitch's love interest and mate Angel (Experiment 624) in her room.
  • A magazine Roze is reading during the cold open of "The Big Wazowskis" has a photograph of Nessie from The Ballad of Nessie on its front cover.
• Connected All Along: Sulley implies at the end of the first episode that he was the one who vouched for Tylor to join M.I., albeit when the company was still hiring Scarers.
• Couch Gag: The ending theme for each episode is a rearrangement of the Monsters, Inc. theme in a style relevant to the content of the episode.
• Credits Gag: Near the end of the credits, there is a short voiced line that plays on something from the episode.
• Credits Jukebox: Each episode's end credits uses a variation of the Monsters, Inc. theme, usually in relation to something within the specific episode.
• Darker and Edgier: Though a very downplayed case. It's still by and large a comedy, but the humor is a bit blacker and more sardonic than the films.
• Deadpan Snarker: Roze, like her sister, isn't very tolerant of Mike's antics.
• Dramatic Irony: Tylor is hit with this as part of his Establishing Character Moment in episode one, with the viewer getting to see the signature on his acceptance letter to Monsters Inc was signed by Waternoose, hence due to the events of the film, Tylor's dream job is no longer valid.
• Easily Forgiven: Fungus, who assisted Randall and Waternoose's scheme in the first film, is allowed to keep his job and work as Mike's jokester assistant without much consequence (mainly being taunted about not getting a ride in Mike's new car). However, Fungus was a Minion with an F in Evil who was forced to work for the villains, so Sulley and Mike have no reason to hold anything against him.
• Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who has watched Monsters, Inc. before this series will know that Sulley and Mike will become CEOs and the Scare Floor will become the Laugh Floor. Likewise, the power shortage at the company won't be an issue forever, since we know by the time the original film ended, there was a surplus of energy.
• Frame-Up: In "Lights, Camera, Chaos", many missing things such as the key, Mike's lucky baseball mitt, and Boo's drawing of her and Sulley were found in Tylor's locker, which makes him seem guilty. It is very clear that that evidence was planted in his locker.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: In Season 2, Tylor is torn between staying at Monsters Inc., where he's struggling as a Jokester, or take a more lucrative offer from Scare Co., where his natural abilties as a Scarer could be put to better use. He declines the Scare Co. offer, only to reconsider when he learns his family is having financial difficulties, but by then the Scarer position had been filled.
• Fun with Acronyms: Mike gives himself the new title of "Senior Co-President of Monsters, Incorporated and Chief Executive Vice-Deputy Administrative Director of Comedy Resources Management" (or SCPOMICE-VDADOCREM).
• Furry Reminder: The monsters occasionally make comments that highlight how, despite their world mirroring the human one, their tastes, likes and biology are not always the same as humans. Mike and Sulley eat 'Rotdogs' in episode 3, Duncan comments that the air in the Monster World is stale, and Mike comments that he hasn't passed something he ate 7 months ago when realising how fast Snore digested and passed her food. And then there's the gags in "Bad Hair Day" about monsters needing to go number three, number four, number five, and possibly even a number six.
• Growing with the Audience: In continuing the trend, Monsters University was released during a time when the first film's original audience ended up in college. This series is about a college graduate starting his first job, much like how fans of the first film are now fresh into their new jobs out of college by the time of its premiere.
• Heat Wave: Episode 7 introduces a heatwave as the core reason why Tylor temporarily gets on the Laugh Floor, because there isn't enough Jokesters needed to fulfill the increased demand for energy. The kicker? The map on the weather channel at the beginning of the episode reveals that Monstropolis is at a whopping 202 degrees while other neighboring cities are dealing with 199-251 degree heat and also 140% humidity for Monstrocity. While the demand is met, the heat for the workers themselves is dealt with by hiring the Abominable Snowman as a snow cone vendor to help everyone in the facility cool off.
• He Knows Too Much: It's revealed in "Adorable Returns" that the reason Adorable was originally banished was because he stumbled upon the plans for the Scream Extractor while on mail duty prior to the events of the first movie, which Waternoose did not take kindly to.
• Hypocritical Humor: In a case before and after the fact, Mike calls Celia and tells her that she's being given a long overdue promotion to scare-floor manager. Immediately after he tells her this, he promises not to use his power for personal gain before prattling off about getting himself a raise and a company car; Sulley just gawks at him and even smirks a bit.
  • Crossed with Callback, Episode 3 has Mike having to babysit a human child after her room gets accidentally damaged and MIFT have to repair it to avoid her parents finding out about it and rendering the door dead. Despite claiming that he's immune to the human child's cuteness, Mike ends up falling into several of the same pitfalls that he lambasted Sulley about back in the original film, such as naming her 'Snore' and playing around with her, even giving her the prize home run baseball he caught at the game in the end. Sulley is clearly enjoying himself seeing the roles being reversed from his own experience with Boo and teases Mike about it constantly throughout the episode.
• I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Both old and new protagonists get hit with this in different ways in episode 1. Tylor trained to be a Scarer, not a Jokester, a position that was basically invented the same day he joined the company, and has no idea how to be funny without proper preparation or an understanding of what the role demands, plus not having natural affinity for comedy like Mike does. Similarly, his job in MIFT comes about from him mentioning that his parents run a hardware store, which makes his interviewer assume that he must also know his way around some technical problems, without giving Tylor the chance to explain that his parents may own the store, but he's never been trained in how to use any tools or such, an assertion that also flies over the heads of his fellow co-workers due to their various eccentricities. On the other hand, whilst Mike is ecstatic that he and Sulley have been given the role as Company CEO following Waternoose's arrest, Sulley is understandably apprehensive over the news, as whilst he and Mike may know their way round the company and the job from their extensive time working there from the bottom up, that was as top employees, not owners of the business, and they're not prepared to run the company themselves, especially during the chaotic transition of using laughter over scream energy. It's heavily implied that this is a major factor in the two of them giving Tylor a break after he accidentally trashes the Laugh floor, acknowledging that it's a difficult time for them all.
• Immediate Sequel: Episode one picks up the day after Waternoose was arrested by the CDA, which contributes to the ongoing chaotic restructuring of the business as Mike and Sulley are told they're left in charge and having to come up with new branding to reflect the switch from scaring kids to making them laugh, which also helps further disorient Tylor as his first day happens in the middle of the switch. For example, Celia is no longer receptionist after Mike uses his new role as company director to give her a long-overdue promotion, and thus Tylor cannot find somebody to help explain what's going on or where he should go to enroll in the company departments.
• Interquel: The show takes place between Waternoose's arrest and the time skip from the first movie's epilogue, meaning Boo is absent. The show's main premise explores how the Scarers now have to adjust to a new work policy, and Mike and Sulley's struggles as the new CEOs of Monsters Inc.. As of the first season finale, this is no longer the case, and it's now a full-fledged sequel.
• Iris Out: Played With. The title sequence concludes with a door zooming in and opening to reveal the episode proper. Once that main episode ends, the door zooms out, closes and moves aside. The last episode of season 1 shows the last shot of the show fading to black.
• Just in Time: In episode 10, right when the Laugh Floor runs out of Canisters to hold the laugh power, The MIFT Team bring out their prototype canister that holds ten times the power of a normal one because laugh power is supposedly ten times more powerful. This is proven correct, as Mike manages to fill the entire canister and achieve the their goal in saving the company. Not only that, as seen in the end of the first movie, their prototype now became the new standard in Monsters Inc.
• The Klutz: Tylor, when he's not being scary, more often than not stumbles on his feet or causing a mess, especially in episode 8, where he meets Ms Flint's daughter. This earns Ms Flint's attention, moving her to make him a jokester in the season finale, thanks to his "physical comedy".
• Late to the Realization: Tylor graduates and receives his acceptance letter to Monsters Inc. just before the events of the first film take place. His first day at work is the day after they've switched to laugh power, and he's suddenly hit with the news that they no longer hire Scarers.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water:
  • Mike and Celia immediately ace their new positions as SCPOMICE-VDADOCREM and laugh floor supervisor without skipping a beat. The former is not only running the company, but he's also teaching comedy classes and serving as a jokester on top of it all. The latter, meanwhile, shows her efficiency by quickly handling two crisis situations within two days of one another.
  • This is pointedly Averted with Tylor though, with the various episodes showing that he's not trained at all in repair work, nor skilled in making people laugh, and in fact, his natural clumsiness often causes him to mess up or complicate minor tasks, not helped by things always seeming to go wrong for him when he's trying his best to do the job right. Instead, he has to start from scratch and learn on the job, which contributes to his accident-prone nature as its implied he tends to suffer from Performance Anxiety.
  • In Season 2, Val secretly fills in for Tylor and finds that she is a natural Jokester, able to connect with the child at a personal level rather than just tell jokes. As a result, she is able to fill an entire canister in one go, whereas Tylor could barely fill one halfway in an entire day's work.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Monsters Inc. Facilities Team is usually referred to as MIFT, reflecting how Tylor initially feels disappointed, or "miffed", about having to join them since he can't be a Scarer.
  • It also sounds phonetically similar to misfit, and they are indeed a quirky bunch that don't really fit into the usual mold for employees at Monsters, Inc. In the second episode, Tylor even uses the word "MIFT-fits" to describe them.
• Motor Mouth:
  • Val is very chatty and bubbly, and most of her dialogue consists of her going on long tirades that Tylor struggles to keep up with.
  • Mike himself ends up this way when he takes a shot of 36 and a half hour energy drink.
• Mr. Fixit: MIFT is apparently made up of individuals who help keep the factory's complex machinery running and fix broken machinery, with several comments being dropped about the high mortality rate from previous workers in accidents before Tylor.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The phrase "It's Laughter We're After" serves as the show's tagline and Monsters Inc.'s new slogan. This phrase made a prior appearance in the Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek! attraction at Tokyo Disney Resort, which also takes place after the first movie and features the same slogan change.
  • Duncan's In-Series Nickname for Tylor, "College Boy", was used by Andy's toys to mock Woody in Toy Story 3. In this case, Duncan is mocking Tylor for attending college and not getting his dream job due to the power switch, while the other toys used it to mock Woody for being taken along to college when they weren't.
  • The Monsters, Inc: Laugh Factory comics also had the Scarers change their names and jobs to reflect their comedian status, though they were known as Amusers instead of "Jokesters". Roz also got a job change after Waternoose's arrest, though it was more because the CDA changed into the Crime Detection Agency, which arrested monsters for any kind of crime, including petty theft. Both series also have stalk-eyed monsters responsible for watching the security camera footage, though it was Waxford from the first movie who was the security guard instead of the female monster seen in the show.
• Nepotism:
  • Mike uses his authority as SCPOMICE-VDADOCREM to get Celia promoted to Laugh Floor Supervisor. Unlike a lot of other examples, she's actually very competent at her job, showing that Mike didn't just promote her for being his girlfriend.
  • Roz, the head of the CDA, convinces the MI board of directors to give her twin sister Roze her old job as the administrator of Laugh Floor F, although it's implied she did it to mess with Mike.
• Noodle Incident: Apparently there's been multiple MIFTers who died in some horrific accident.
• Nobody Poops: Played With. In Episode 3, Mike does have to clean up after Snore when she eats some food at the Baseball game and passes it shortly afterwards, but he's surprised at how quickly it happened, and comments that he's still not passed something he ate 7 months ago, implying that Monsters don't need to answer the call of nature nearly as often as humans do.
• Older Than They Look: Carla "Killer Claws" Benitez was already a very famous Scarer when Mike and Sulley were at Monster's University, suggesting she wasn't even particularly young then and at this point must be one of the older characters in the show. She still looks exactly the same and remains actively working as a scarer/jokester.
• Only Sane Man: Both Tylor and Sulley play this role for their more energetic and go-getting companions, being the ones to point out the logical fallacies invoked in some of their more hare-brained suggestions and in general trying their best to keep things professional and organised around the workspace. Sulley in particular seems to be the one organising and running Monsters Inc. from a business perspective, with Mike acting as the leading Jokester and comedy class teacher for the ground-floor workers, as well as being the one to promote 'visionary' ideas about how best to run the company now they're in charge, which Sulley tends to shoot down and keep Mike's feet on the ground.
• Palette Swap: Mike's new rival at work, Gary Gibbs, looks identical to Mike, only with blue skin and a brown eye.
• Paperwork Punishment: "The Big Wazowskis": Mike and Gary, who are competing in the company bowling competition, make a bet that the loser has to do the winner's paperwork for a month.
• Parental Substitute: Invoked and Played for Laughs. When they first meet, Fritz suggests that he could be a father figure to Tylor, or even a grandfather figure. Tylor points out that his actual father and grandfather are still alive, so Fritz settles for being a distant uncle figure instead.
• Persona Non Grata: Due to causing the whole Boo incident at Harryhausen's, Mike and Sulley are not allowed back in the restaurant. However, Mike is allowed back in due to his new position as SCPOMICE-VDADOCREM as of the fourth episode, and it's implied that Sulley is allowed to return due to being the new CEO of Monsters, Inc.
• Plot Hole: Monsters University indicates that there are other companies aside from Monsters Inc., such as Fear Co. and Scream Industries, that still use Scream Energy after Monsters Inc. switched to Laugh Energy. Tylor is disheartened to learn that Monsters Inc. no longer hires Scarers, but the other Scream companies are never even mentioned as alternative employments. Though it is quite possible that the other companies would shift to laughter powers too given how it's much more powerful than scream powers. Perhaps, it'll be explored in future episodes.
  • Episode 7 reveals Fear Co. is still active and using Scream Power, which initially makes them a major competitor to Monsters Inc., still struggling to process laugh energy as a newer and better power source and keep up production levels for the city. The demand for energy is so high Mike has to recruit the Jokesters-in-Training to ensure Monsters Inc can keep up with their rival's power production in the middle of a heatwave. This implies that Tylor had other reasons to choose to work at Monsters Inc. specifically, rather than any other company still applicable with his current skillset. Supporting this, the season finale has Tylor discuss the possibility of Monsters, Inc. switching back to Scream Power when he's getting nervous about being promoted to an official Jokester, but never even raises the possibility of himself simply transferring to another company that still uses Scream until season two, at least according to the official trailer for that season.
  • It's established in the original film that laughs are ten times as powerful as screams, yet the series seems to imply at first it's not the case given how much talk there is of shortages. On the other hand, this could be because Laugh power is only really being practiced by Monsters, Inc. right now, and the city was already under an energy shortage back when the original film started, so the fact that they're able to keep the power running, even when the profession of Jokester is extremely limited in the number of working candidates and employees, is a sign that Laughs are more powerful that Screams—it's just that the power demand is so high at the series outset that it's an uphill struggle to get enough energy produced until more Jokesters start taking on the role, with the season one finale revolving around the need to mobilize all available Jokesters to generate over one million gigglewatts in a single day, twice what they normally make with their current staff-set, when beforehand, the first film showed the experienced Scarers were struggling to meet their ordinary quota with scream power. The revelation of the prototype canister that holds ten times as much power shows definitively that laughs are more powerful than screams, it's just that the canisters can't hold all that extra power. So all along, Monsters, Inc. has been filling the old scream canisters more efficiently, but were losing out on the excess energy they could have been producing.
• Poor Communication Kills: Poor Tylor ends up on the receiving end of this twice. First, when he's being placed in temporary reassignment after the company transitions, the supervisor sends him to MIFT when the monster mentions his parents own a hardware store—without checking to see if Tylor even has any mechanical aptitude. Then, Duncan makes abundantly clear he wants Tylor out of the way so he can ensure he takes over Fritz's position as MIFT supervisor, even though Tylor makes it abundantly clear he has no intention of staying there forever.
• Precision F-Strike: One of the monsters bluntly says, "We're screwed." when it is announced that scaring is out in the pilot.
• Properly Paranoid: Duncan is this as he sees any new blood coming into MIFT as a threat to his claim of taking over Fritz's job (including Tylor), to the point he will get them to sign contracts for his own sake.
• Put on a Bus: Boo does not appear in the series, as it takes place before Sulley reunited with her in the first film's epilogue.
• Red Herring: Roger is at first believed to be the one behind the leaks, as he has been studying the schematics of the building and taking pictures and acting suspiciously. Plus there's the big reveal that he is actually Henry J. Waternoose IV, the son of the convicted former CEO of Monsters, Inc. But it turns out he was only taking pictures for Mike so that he can remember everyone's name. Which means the real person behind the leaky canisters and vandalism is still at large. Though it is not explained why he has red spray paint all over his tentacles.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Even after Tylor trashes the Laugh Floor after sneaking onto it and fully expects to be fired, Mike and Sulley, in true fashion, are very understanding. They note how chaotic it has been since the change to laugh power and that a desire to cross over the Laugh Floor line can be very strong. They also encourage Tylor to attend Mike’s comedy lessons and learn how to be a Jokester himself by revealing that they had worked their way up from the mailroom.
• Running Gag:
  • The camera still cannot seem to get a full still photograph of Mike as seen on a slide in one of Mike's classes.
  • Cutter dropping allusions to previous MIFT workers who died horribly.
  • Duncan refusing to listen to Tylor's claims he has no interest in Fritz's job.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Fritz tends to say "sad sigh" or some variation of it.
• School Is for Losers: Val dropped out of Monsters University due to seeing it as being too much of a commitment.
• Sequel Series: To Monsters, Inc.. It takes place the day after scaring was phased out in the original movie.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: "Bad Hair Day" sees Tylor desperately trying to replace a lock of a deceased (and beloved) coworker's hair, going so far as to almost die in pursuit of it. Though the other MIF Ters are touched by his efforts, Cutter reveals there was no need, as she has enough of the late David's hair left to fill a bag as big as she is.
• Shout-Out:
  • While sitting at Waternoose's desk, Mike holds a golf club throughout, much like the shtick of Bob Hope.
  • To Happy Days: Mr. Crummyham learns that Tylor's parents work at a hardware store and transfers Tylor to MIFT. In addition, MIFT's leader Fritz is voiced by Henry Winkler.
  • A kid that Tylor tries to make laugh is shown with a Winnie the Pooh plush.
  • One of the baseball teams is the Red Shocks (Red Sox). They have a literal Green Monster on their team blocking home run balls as a left fielder.
  • The fourth episode's title, "The Big Wazowskis", is an homage to The Big Lebowski, which Sulley and Randall's actors starred in.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Mike has one, Gary. Not only is he a member of the same race as Mike (but blue) but also way more slick and successful. He also has a nasty personality which brings out the worst in Mike.
  Mike: [Growling under his breath] Gary...
• Sneeze of Doom: Phlegm sneezes on bedroom wall. Wall dissolves.
• The Stinger: At the end of the credits in season one, one of the characters is heard saying something funny. Averted for season two, however, likely due to the Channel Hop to Disney Channel.
• Suddenly Speaking: One of the background scarers, Carla Benitez, is voiced by Alanna Ubach, who also plays Cutter.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Roze is this for Roz. Justified in that they’re sisters, so their similarities are deliberate. Played with in that Mike is convinced that Roze is actually Roz in disguise.
• Three Shorts: Interesting example here, at the end of each episode's main story theres a mini segment called "Mike's Comedy Class" shown afterwards, that has Mike teaching the essential lessons of comedy to new Joksters, including Tylor. The segment is cut for season two, however.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: From the looks of Tylor's parents, they seem to form this dynamic.
• Token Evil Teammate: Duncan, who makes it clear he wants Tylor out of the way so he can ensure that he gets Fritz's job when the old man retires (or dies). That being said, he's still very competent at his job, and isn't being The Starscream in spite of his desires.
• Took a Level in Badass: Celia gets promoted to the supervisor of Scare Floor F, and shows she earned that promotion by running the entire area like clockwork. Yet she still keeps her heart and dearly loves her Googly-Bear.
• Tuckerization: Gary Gibbs is named for Mary Gibbs, the voice of Boo (whose name is widely speculated to be Boo's real name).
• Two Lines, No Waiting: So far, each episode is equally split between Tylor working with MIFT on some technical problem or situation they need to resolve, alongside his own struggles to learn how to become a Jokester, and Mike and Sulley running Monsters Inc and dealing with the bumpy transition from Scream to Laugh energy, which sometimes intersects with Tylor's storyline whenever the technical problem threatens production.
• Ultimate Job Security:
  • Realistically, Duncan and Tylor should have been fired for what they did in "The Cover Up" (the title alone should give you an idea). Not to mention Smitty, Needleman, Fritz, and Mike, none of whom gets in trouble for the whole "renting doors to vacation spots" scheme.
  • Lampshaded with Fungus, who is allowed to keep his job, despite having been part of the same conspiracy as Waternoose (arrested) and Randall (unofficially banished). The Monsters, Inc. epilogue already showed Fungus after a time skip, but this series confirms that he wasn't rehired after serving some light sentence or something, he just stuck around.
• Visual Pun: When Mike goes to a baseball in Episode 3 the left fielder is a giant green monster who towers over the other players and stops a homerun just by behind there, literally named "The Big Green Monster:" a reference to the infamously huge left field wall of the same nickname in Boston's Fenway Park.
• Work Com: Just think The Office in the monster world with Monsters Inc. employees getting involved in shenanigans of their occupation.
• Wrong Line of Work:
  • This is the main driving force of Tylor's role in the show. He trained all his life to get into Monsters Inc. as a Scarer, only to find out that the job itself has been replaced with 'Jokester' the day before he was due to enroll. As a result, Tylor is assigned to MIFT and has to learn an entire new skillset on the job, which he isn't suited to due to his clumsiness and having no mechanical experience. He only gets the job due to an offhand comment about his parents owning a hardware store, even though he can barely even wrench a simple nut when he starts out.
  • Sulley has spent most of his life doing physical work as a Scarer, and is surprised and overwhelmed when he finds out that the board of directors have decided to make him and Mike the new CEOs of Monsters Inc.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Sulley has this reaction when Roz tells him that he and Mike have been placed in charge of the company. Roz states that she said the same thing.

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