Tropes A-J
- Adorkable: Grace is the embodiment of this. She is a nice, caring and ditzy ball of sunshine.
- Base-Breaking Character: Calvin. You either think he is an interesting character and a great example of Good Is Not Nice, or you find his harsh treatment of his family, especially Carl, to be a bit excessive.
- Crosses the Line Twice: A teenager dying in a parachute jumping accident in "Toad Town Puckers"? Tragic. The reason being that he was accidentally given a bag with sodas instead of an actual parachute? Hilarious.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Roberto is very well-liked among the Carl fanbase. People consider him to be one of the funniest background characters in the show, if not the best.
- Sebastian. He's a recurring antagonist fans love seeing because of his cunning personality and his northen England accent, which he tries to hide.
- Liam became this after decking Gooper in the face in "Bad Roxanne (2/2)" once he learns that he was blackmailing Roxanne into dating him, even warning him to never try it again. He might be a jerk, but he still cares for his sister deep down.
- Gnatt, who was a background character in the first few seasons that, alongside many other early background characters, was retired from the series because of his odd design, is very well-liked by the Carl fanbase, being somewhat of a Memetic Badass despite never having a prominent role and only having one single and very minor speaking role in one of the final episodes he was in.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- One scene where Carl gets decapitated by a criminal in the Classic 2017 version of "The First Day" is uncomfortable to watch because Linda worries about Carl getting killed at Toad Town High in the 2022 remastered version of the episode as mentioned earlier.
- In "Carl's Rival", after hearing Sebastian's (made-up) story about how a former girlfriend cheated on him, Talia says that Dry Bones would never do that to her. Later on, in "Carl's House Party" Dry Bones makes out with Kylie while both were drunk, and Talia breaks up with him after finding out. Thankfully, Talia and Dry Bones reunited in the Season 4 finale.
- Calvin told Felix to try jumping out of a plane without using a parachute in "Mr Mitchell vs Mr Grey". Calvin's sarcastic comment is a lot less funny to laugh about (or more depending on your sense of humor) because exactly two seasons later, Falcon, a hockey player who played for the 'Screaming Sceptiles' in "Toad Town Puckers", jumps out of a plane without a parachute, being given a bad with sodas instead by accident, earlier in the week they were supposed to play the game and accidentally gets himself killed.
- "2020" definitely counts as this. All the characters in Carl are very excited about the new year, and decade for that matter, and everyone is looking forward to it. Now contrast that with how the year 2020 went down in real life.
- Kylie and Emily becoming a couple in "The New Girl" becomes hard to watch after Season 5 of Carl started showing how nasty of a person Emily really is. It's even worse after having watched "The Valentine's Bowl", in which Emily not only breaks up with Kylie, but also physically assaults her and makes a biphobic comment about her after Kylie confesses to having kissed Tucker (To makes things worse, Emily is not angry at Kylie for cheating on her, but for kissing a man).
- Heartwarming in Hindsight: Carl states in the first episode of the series that Calvin's first meeting with Linda consisted of him hitting on her in a supermarket, which is anything but romantic. It was later revealed that that was not the first time Calvin and Linda had met, and their first meeting was much more special. However, because of their appearences being so different back in the day and not asking for each other's name, neither of them recognized the other when meeting again almost one decade later.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In the very first episode of Carl, Miss Bishop introduces herself and states that she will be the homeroom teacher for the rest of the students' school lifes. This becomes rather funny given that three seasons later, she was Put on a Bus after FreezeFlame22 both lost interest in the character and was unnable to find a voice actress that could do a posh British accent at the time, with Carl even lampshading how they will never see her again.
- Carl stating that Ms. Bishop would never return also became Hilarious in Hindsight on its own given that she returned for the remastered versions of the first three seasons of the series (now being voiced by BluePastels, who is able to do a British accent), and it is confirmed that she will be properly re-introduced to the series in season 6. Looks like Carl was wrong about Ms. Bishop never coming back.
- In "The School Trip" after Steelix finally arrives with the bus in order to take everyone to Desert Hills, Staffordshire complains that she has been waiting for so long that she feels like a Metroid fan waiting for a new announcement. One year and three months later, Metroid Dread was announced at E3 2021.
- In "Parents Evening", which released in May 2020, Logan comments that Kanye West should be president. Two months later, West's campaign as a third-party candidate for president of the United States in the 2020 election materialized. note . That said, this would later become Harsher in Hindsight following various controversies Kanye West would find himself surrounded in not many years later.
- In the very first episode of Carl, Miss Bishop introduces herself and states that she will be the homeroom teacher for the rest of the students' school lifes. This becomes rather funny given that three seasons later, she was Put on a Bus after FreezeFlame22 both lost interest in the character and was unnable to find a voice actress that could do a posh British accent at the time, with Carl even lampshading how they will never see her again.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Ever wondered why Dry Bones is so blunt when it comes to talking to his friends and is always lying about being rich when he obviously isn't? His home life is awful; it consists of him, his emotionally and verbally abusive father, and his misanthropist grandfather. Heck, Dry Bones is the only decent guy out of his whole family, as they all have a deep hatred for each other.
- Calvin tends to harsh towards his children (Mainly Carl.) but given that he had lived under a strained marriage, having a deadbeat father (Who is still a ass in the present.) whose main motives are food and girls, it’s clear to see why he’s like this.
- Liam is the way he is because his parents have neglected him his entire life, sometimes even forgetting that he exists, and all because he doesn't get the stellar results Roxanne gets in school no matter how hard he tries, therefore not giving his parents a reason to brag about him to other people. It's heavily speculated that he ended up in Gooper's Gang of Bullies because he felt like it was the only place where he actually felt accepted for who he was.
Tropes M-W
- Memetic Badass: Roberto. Is not rare for fans to label him as one of the most god-like characters in the franchise due to him surviving the snow day.
- Memetic Psychopath: Talia. If someone calls Grace annoying, she will murder them no questions asked. Because of this, she's often depicted as a psychopath in fanworks.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- Gooper has always being a bully that feels absolutely no sympathy for his victims, but him kidnapping Grace and forcing her to be his date for the school dance while shoving and locking Mary-Lynn inside a closet, plus sending Liam and Bob to tell Carl that he is with Grace in order to drive Carl into a depression made him completely irredeemable to most if not all fans of the series. If that wasn't enough, he later threatens to hit Grace after the latter had tried to embarrass him in front of others.
- You thought that wasn't bad enough? Well, how about Gooper taking advantage of Roxanne's emotional state after being stood up by Tucker one too many times in order to make her kiss him twice? The second time is even worse, as he basically threatens to tell everyone about it and destroy Roxanne's reputation if she doesn't break up with Tucker and starts dating him. Roxanne is then forced to go out with someone who only sees her as an object, and if Emily is anything to go by, some people are starting to see her as a desperate slut for being "willing" to date Gooper of all people after ending her relationship with Tucker.
- What little personality Emily had consisted of her being a judgemental Jerkass who badmouths people when they're out of earshot, but then there's her insulting and physically assaulting Kylie, the only one who was actually willing to stand for her, when Kylie confesses to having kissed Tucker at the Christmas party, not because of the cheating itself, but because Kylie kissed a man. Emily hurt Kylie both physically and emotionally over a mistake she made.
- Gooper has always being a bully that feels absolutely no sympathy for his victims, but him kidnapping Grace and forcing her to be his date for the school dance while shoving and locking Mary-Lynn inside a closet, plus sending Liam and Bob to tell Carl that he is with Grace in order to drive Carl into a depression made him completely irredeemable to most if not all fans of the series. If that wasn't enough, he later threatens to hit Grace after the latter had tried to embarrass him in front of others.
- One True Threesome: Following the reveal in "Bad Roxanne (2/2)" that Kylie had hidden feelings for Talia, many fans took a likeness of the idea of Dry Bones and Talia letting Kylie into their relationship.
- The Scrappy: Emily is heavily disliked among the Carl fanbase due to not having too much going on for her and for the way she criticized Grace, Talia, and Roxanne (especially Roxanne, who was going through a harsh situation at the time) in front of Kylie. Even FreezeFlame22 and various other voice actors have expressed distaste for Emily, but mainly for the former reason. The amount of people that hate Emily skyrocketed after the premiere of season 5's "The Valentine's Bowl", in which she assaults and insults Kylie after Kylie confesses to having made a mistake. On the bright side, Emily was shown getting into a bus and leaving Toad Town for good on that same episode.
- Signature Scene:
- The Big Damn Kiss between Carl and Grace at the end of "The School Dance (2/2)", which marks the beginning of their romantic relationship.
- Mary-Lynn singing "Rolling in the Deep" in "The Talentless Show". Completely destroys your ears? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. The scene is so well-remembered by fans that Mary-Lynn's voice actress, AverageToaster19, made a cover of her singing the full song in the voice she uses for Mary-Lynn
. - The kiss between Blooper and Roxanne at the end of the "Bad Roxanne" duology, putting an end to season 5 and years of romantic tension, finally promoting the two of them to a couple. That and Roxanne using Gooper's Blackmail of her against him and breaking up with him for good before that.
- Spiritual Antithesis: Carl can be seen as one to Doug, as both shows revolve around the everyday lives of the titular protagonists. However, while Doug Funnie is a painfully average 11-and-a-half-year-old who prefers solving his problems peacefully, Carl Mitchell won't hesitate to throw hands if something ticks him off enough.
- The Woobie:
- Dry Bones' skin was burnt off in a fire, his house looks like it will crumble apart at any minute, and he is verbally abused by his father on a daily basis. His father has also made it very clear in the past that Dry Bones could go jump off a cliff for all he cares. Because his home-life is so horrible, Dry Bones always tells Blatant Lies to others about how great his father and granfather are and how rich he is in order to cope with the fact that his home-life is completely awful.
- Poor Blooper. His older brothers pick on him, and his mother is a grumpy alcoholic who openly insults all of her kids. Not to mention that his father was eaten alive by a shark when he was younger. On top of that, Roxanne is completely oblivious to his crush on her and whenever he tries to ask her out, Roxanne either misses the point or already has another boy to hang out with. Then it turns out Roxanne does have feelings for him too, but can't start a relationship with him because Gooper is blackmailing her into dating him.
- Talia is constantly teased by bullies for her metabolism and her strict parents have pestered her all her life, never giving her a break or allowing her to be herself, and even forced her to work at the local Goomburger with Dedede of all people as her boss. All of this has caused Talia to grow up as a shy and insecure girl who deeply resents her parents. She seems to be doing better ever since she embraced the more rebelious side of her, but it really says something when she doesn't seem affected by her mother leaving the kingdom and her father being heartbroken by it in the slightest.
- Roxanne can't catch a break. She's kind, smart, beautiful, popular... but is also a complete emotional wreck as a result of her failed romantic relationships. She used to date resident bully and misogynist Gooper well before he Took a Level in Jerkass (or so she believes), and was completely devasted when she found out he was cheating on her. Her second boyfriend Tucker always took her for granted and prefered to spend time goofing off with his friends rather than with her. The last straw came when Tucker stood her up on her birthday and Gooper took advantage of it to emotionally manipulate Roxanne into kissing him. Gooper then blackmailed Roxanne into breaking up with Tucker and dating him or else he would tell everyone what happened and ruin her reputation. Then there's her confessing to Blooper that she feels the same things he feels for her, but couldn't start a relationship with him due to Gooper blackmailing her at the time.
- Jim Flaig. He's always looked down by the rest of Gooper's gang and only embarrases himself whenever he tries to fit in. Perhaps how he got in was simply out of pity.
