Doug

Dear journal...

One of the first three original Nicktoons, featuring eleven-year-old Doug Funnie and his experiences with his friends, family and community. Creator Jim Jinkins (a veteran of the early Nickelodeon shows Pinwheel and Hocus Focus) developed the concept and drew inspiration from his own experiences growing up. Beginning with Doug's arrival in Bluffington, he dutifully writes about his every adventure in his journal, which frames almost every episode. Very early on, he gained a best friend in Mosquito "Skeeter" Valentine, a nemesis in school bully Roger Klotz, and a love interest in the tomboyish Patti Mayonnaise. His dog Porkchop frequently steals the show with his antics, not unlike Snoopy. Many other colourful characters (both literally and figuratively) were featured.

In many episodes, Doug pretends to be one of his personal superheroes to solve the problem; the methods the hero uses are adapted to fit a real-life situation. For example, one episode has the vice principal Mr. Bone refusing to have a popular rock band play at their school; he considers it heathen entertainment. Doug pretends to be Quailman dealing with the strict alien robots called Robo-Bones. When Quailman couldn't overpower the robots, they turned on him with horrible yodeling (Mr. Bone was part of a yodeling quartet). Quailman ended up saving the day by suggesting that they sing in key and form a band, which made everyone happy. Doug learned that, instead of fighting Mr. Bone, they should make a compromise. He suggested Mr. Bone's yodeling group to open for the rock band, figuring that the student body suffering for five minutes was worth it.

Those imaginary characters were Homages to other heroes in pop culture. Smash Adams was James Bond, Race Canyon was Indiana Jones, Quailman had some resemblence to Superman. Skeeter once revealed his personal superhero as Silver Skeeter, obviously based on the Silver Surfer.

This show breaks away from the borderline-Negative Continuity of other Nickelodeon shows, even getting a Grand Finale when the network prized being able to not pay attention to airing order. The Nickelodeon series was an International Coproduction between Jim Jinkins' Jumbo Pictures and the French Ellipse Programme, with overseas animation by Hanho Heung Up; it comprises four 13-episode seasons for a total of 52 episodes, aired from August 1991 to January 1994. In Canada, it aired on YTV with the French dub also broadcast on Radio-Canada.

After Nickelodeon declined to order a fifth season, the show (and its production company) was bought and Retooled by Disney into Brand Spanking New Doug (Or Disney's Doug as it was later branded). It wound up changing a few things from the Nickelodeon version (the first episode even address this with the new changes of Doug's life) with many characters getting new looks and various supporting characters changing jobs and roles. Despite the changes, it was still a continuation of the original series, and ended up with a longer run than the original. Like the Nickelodeon version, it also concluded with a Grand Finale (something very few Disney cartoons have managed). The Disney series aired as part of the One Saturday Morning block on ABC (and CTV in Canada) from 1996 to 1999, and was later rerun on Disney Channel and Toon Disney.

A theatrical film, accurately titled Doug's First Movie was released in 1999, and was profitable despite unfavorable reviews. It also got its own stage show in Disney-MGM Studios, Doug Live!, which ran from 1999-2001.

Nickelodeon's Doug aired in reruns for a time on Teen Nick's "The 90s Are All That" (later known as "The Splat") block. It's now (as of 2023) streaming on the Paramount+ app, while the Disney series and the movie stream on Disney+. Meanwhile, after being dormant for a quarter-century, new material may finally be on the way: in 2023, Jim Jinkins announced he was developing a sequel called Doug Kids which would focus on Doug, Patti and their friends as young adults. And shippers rejoice: Doug and Patti will be married with two kids, despite Jinkins' earlier pronouncement that they would not end up together in the end.

Not to be confused with the YouTube series Doug Derky.

Tropes used in Doug include:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Todd in "Doug's Fan Club" idolizes everything Doug does, which Doug thinks is pretty cool... until Todd (a second-grader) starts following him everywhere and embarrassing him in public (including calling himself "Doug").
• The Ace: Chalky Studebaker was the star athlete of every athletic team, and was the swim team. Deconstructed when Doug learned that he has insecurities about having to be the best at everything due to constantly being compared to his even more overachieving older brother, including when Chalky cheated off of Doug during an exam.
  • Doug becomes this in the episode "Doug Clobbers Patti," much to the latter's annoyance.
• Accidental Athlete: Doug becomes field goal kicker of the football team.
• Adorkable: Both Doug and Skeeter.
• An Aesop: Most (if not all) of the episodes had one.
• Alliterative Name: Several characters, like Beebe Bluff, Boomer Bledsoe and Willie White. Also, some episode titles, i.e. "Doug's Dental Disaster."
• Almost Kiss: Doug gets one with Patti.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: White, blue, purple, green? (Word of God says it's been Jim Jenkins's art style ever since he liked to color in his coloring books as a kid.) It also happened to be an excellent way to demonstrate diversity without being Anvilicious, as skin tone is rarely even mentioned.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Phil and Theda in "Doug Throws a Party," when they insist on organizing the party games. Also, Bill Bluff for Beebe in "Doug Takes the Case," by insisting his daughter brought a radio to school for "show and tell" (mind you, they're in sixth grade).
• Amusement Park: Funkytown.
• Anachronism Stew: The series pretty obviously takes place in The Nineties, but Doug's phone number in "Doug's Runaway Journal" is shown as Jumbo 1-559. Telephone exchanges were largely phased out in favor of all-digit phone numbers during The Sixties.
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Parodied, of course, with Quailman.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Dale, for Skeeter. He also turns Doug into a Badly Battered Babysitter in "Doug Loses Dale."
  • Judy also views Doug this way.
• Anything But That: When faced with liver and onions in one of his fantasies in "Doug's Dinner Date."
• Arc Number: 47. It's on many street signs, it's Doug's locker number, etc.
• Art Evolution: Relatively minor in mostly the animation style, in later episodes the characters are less rubbery. This could be explained in part by a French studio, Ellipse Programme, joining with Jumbo Pictures as production partner on the series beginning with season 2, while Korea's Hanho Heung Up continued to provide animation support as they had with season one.
  • Brand Spanking New modifies the character designs and features a brighter color palette, but is otherwise almost identical, despite a switch in animation studios (to another Korean studio, Plus One). The biggest change is in the musical style, from acapella to more orchestrated (Nickelodeon still owned the music from the first series, meaning the Disney series had to be rescored from scratch).
  • There is even quite noticeable evolution in the art between the first and second episodes, though. In fact, between the first and second segments of episode two. The first segment, "Doug Can't Dance," is actually the pilot, made in New York by a completely different animation team from the rest of the show, and features a very wobbly style - closer to Jim Jinkins' sketches - where the characters' outlines are constantly moving, making the show's world look more surreal and scribble-like. The second segment, "Doug Didn't Do It," was animated by Hanho and features an art style more consistent with the rest of season one.
• Ascended Extra: The Sleech brothers in the Disney series. Also Skunky Beaumont, who never even appeared in the Nick series (though he is mentioned a few times and gets one off-screen line of dialogue).
  • Beebe too, though she was hardly a nobody in the Nick series. In the Disney series, she even gets the new middle school named after her.
  • In the Nick series, Mr. Swirly operates the local ice cream truck and candy factory, but appears or is mentioned only a few times. In the Disney series, he opens a fast-food diner which replaces the former Honkerburger (now "Chez Honque") as the hot teen hangout.
• Bad Job, Worse Uniform: When Doug ends up being a Burger Fool at the Honker Burger (usually it's Mr. Dink).
• Balloon Belly: Doug gets one in "Doug Tips the Scale".
• Baseball Episode: Two, actually. "Doug Out in Left Field", where Patti forms her own baseball team for the kids who were rejected from the school's team, and "Doug's On First", where the parents of the kids on Patti's team think it's unfair about what position each player is playing.
• Beatnik: Judy. Her musical leitmotif in the Nick series is even a jazzy flute-and-drums piece.
• Being Good Sucks: "Doug's in the Money." Doug returns the money to the old lady, gets a piece of gum for the reward, loses the respect of Roger and some other kids, but gains the respect of Judy, who from that moment on is less of a Cloudcuckoolander Jerkass towards him and more of a Cool Big Sis.
• Berserk Button: Implying that Mr. Bone wears pink underwear, which earns the offender one of his harshest punishments. Doug and Roger both trick each other into running afoul of this.
  • Calling Doug's journal a "diary" turns out to be one as well, after someone does it one too many times.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Connie proves this when Roger knocks her hat off at Doug's party and exposes her bad haircut, causing her to punch him in the stomach. It's sort of a preview of the more confident, outgoing person she would become in the Disney series.
  • Patti's normally a sweet girl, but she's also prone to lose her temper when pushed to the limit (as in the first Quailman episode, when she blows up at Roger for pestering her during class).
• Beta Couple: Skeeter and Beebe would become this to Patti and Doug eventually.
• Big Damn Movie
• Bizarre Taste in Food: Liking beets is not so unusual, but the people of Bluffington have more ways to cook beets than you ever knew existed: scrambled, in milkshakes, as pizza toppings, etc. There's also Doug and Patti's pizza getting topped with banana pudding by mistake in "Doug's Cookin'", and everyone thinks it's delicious (to be fair, it was a throwaway batch of pudding made by Roger that turned out badly, so it might have gone well with pizza). The episode even ends with Doug dipping a banana into a can of pizza sauce and eating it.
• Black Bead Eyes
• Black Best Friend: Skeeter is often considered to be one. This was not Jim Jinkins' intention (he just thought Skeeter looked good blue), but he likes that people think of Skeeter this way.
• Blinding Camera Flash: In the school photo episode, there's a Running Gag about people being blinded by the camera and wandering around dizzily.
• Book Dumb: Doug was an average student and an average athlete, but part of the success of the show is that he is socially savvy enough to figure his way out of problems using a more natural intelligence rather than school learned.
• Brand X and Bland-Name Product: Several. One notable example would be that Bluffington has a Worst Eastern hotel. Also, the Pretendo (also used in Muppet Babies), and Beebe's laptop is a Beet... with an interface that looks suspiciously like it's copied from classic Mac OS.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Judy the drama queen, who thinks that anything involving Doug is a cue to burst into nonsensical hysterics.
  • And Beebe Bluff, especially in Disney's Doug.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Nick series does this at times, particularly with Porkchop. Some episodes end with him winking at the viewer, and in the pilot episode, he greets the viewer by joyfully licking the screen.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Skeeter isn't exactly lazy, but he's also fairly average as a student, which is why Doug is initially convinced it's a mistake when Skeeter turns out to have a genius IQ in "Doug's Brainy Buddy."
• Brother-Sister Team: Doug and Judy sometimes find themselves in this role, such as when they need to outsmart a strict and annoying babysitter.
• The Cameo: Doug shows up in the role of the Bloody Head Fairy in the Ren and Stimpy episode "Haunted House". This is particularly funny if you consider that Billy West was at various times the voice of Doug, Stimpy and Ren.
• Calling Me a Logarithm: In "Doug's First Kiss," Beebe tells Doug she likes him as a friend but finds him very "plebeian." Doug, obviously not knowing the meaning of the word, responds, "Thanks. I think you're... plebeian too."
• Cannot Spit It Out: Doug.
• The Cast Showoff: In both versions of the show, Skeeter Valentine was voiced by Fred Newman, who, much like Skeeter, is highly talented at providing sound effects with his mouth. In addition, Newman did most of the music on the show with just his mouth sounds. AND he voiced Porkchop, Mr. Dink, and many others, without making it at all obvious that it was the same actor.
• Catch Phrase: Mr. Dink is middle-class, just like Doug's family, but he has enough money to buy pretty much whatever he wants. So, of course, his favorite things are "very expensive".
  • Roger: "Sayonara, suckers!"
    • He also uses the expression "Joey Cucamonga" to express shock in one episode of the Nickelodeon version, but in the Disney seasons this was elevated to a catch phrase.
  • Patti, gushingly, in Doug's daydreams: "Oh, Doug! You're so [insert funny adjective]!"
  • Grandma Opal: "Life's a picnic and I'm starving to death!"
  • Disney also had the previously unseen Skunky using "torque" as an interjection.
• Cats Are Mean: Stinky is, at least.
• Cats Are Superior: Judy says so while Doug is babysitting Roger's cat Stinky in "Doug's Fat Cat" (much to Porkchop's disgust). This lasts until she discovers Stinky in her costume chest and screams in horror.
• Channel Hop: Started out on Nickelodeon. Then moved to ABC. Then finally to the Disney Channel before disappearing off the radar completely... for a while anyway. Nickelodeon's teen-oriented channel TeenNick aired reruns of the Nick series as part of a '90s nostalgia block, until the block was discontinued in 2022. Meanwhile, the Disney series (and the movie) resurfaced on the Disney+ streaming app in 2019; the Nickelodeon series is also available on Paramount+.
  • CBS aired occasional Nick episodes in the early 2000s on its "Nick on CBS" Saturday morning block, but Doug wasn't a regular on the schedule.
  • In Canada, the Nickelodeon series aired in English on YTV and in French on Radio-Canada, and the Disney series on CTV.
  • In Japan, the Nick series aired first on Nickelodeon's Japanese network, and then was rerun on NHK's BS2 satellite channel in 1999. The Disney series aired on Cartoon Network Japan.
  • In France, the Nickelodeon series was broadcast on France 3, which also co-produced the show beginning in season two (a fact that also enabled the show to qualify for French content rules). With the Disney series, the show moved to competitor TF1, where it aired in a Disney block
• Character Title
• Charlie Brown Baldness: The title character. Oddly enough, there was an episode where Doug worried that he was going bald.
• Cheaters Never Prosper:
  • In "Doug's Bum Rap," Doug is accused to cheating off Chalky's English test, but it was actually Chalky who cheated off Doug. To avoid a more serious punishment, Chalky took a retest on the same day as a crucial football game.
  • "Doug Cheats," a book based on the Disney series, involved Doug agonizing over whether to cheat on a crucial history test when he's presented with the answers to said test ahead of time. In the end, he decides not to, which turns out to be a wise decision, since the answer key was a decoy with all the wrong answers.
  • A non-academic example: in "Doug Door to Door," Roger passes off expensive imported chocolate as Bluff Scout Booster Bars (which are notorious for tasting like cement). When his deception is revealed, he's forced to give every customer he fooled a refund.
• Cheeky Mouth: There's a lot of this in the series from season 2 onward.
• Chick Magnet: Skeeter, so very much. He managed to win over Beebe Bluff, Loretta Laquigley, and many other girls along the way. The one he eventually ended up with was Beebe.
• Christmas Episode: "Doug's Christmas Story" in the Nickelodeon series, and "Doug's Secret Christmas" in the Disney series.
• Circle of Shame: Doug has a fantasy about this happening Once an Episode.
• Clear My Name: "Doug's Bum Rap" is about him being accused of cheating on a test - particularly because the one with answers identical to his was Chalky - and setting out to prove his innocence.
• Composite Character: Patti Mayonnaise, according to Jim Jinkins, is a composite of several childhood friends of his, not just one girl he had a crush on.
• Compressed Vice: Roger is particularly prone to this.
• Continuity Lock Out: Likely the case with many viewers who didn't have cable and thus weren't familiar with the franchise before it went to Disney and aired on ABC. The Disney series, especially early on, was full of references that one couldn't fully appreciate without watching the Nick series. Also true in Canada, where Nick's series had aired on YTV (also a cable network) and Disney's on CTV (a broadcast network). (Unless one was bilingual and had watched the Nick series dubbed on the CBC's French network.)
• Cool Big Sis: Judy, when she wasn't being a Cloudcuckoolander and/or Jerkass to Doug.
• Cool Old Lady:
  • Grandma Opal seems like a fairly typical "annoying" grandma at first (the kind who gives annoying gifts her grandkids have to pretend to like), but Doug changes his mind about her when he learns she drives a motorcycle and introduces him to sushi.
  • His maternal grandmother is a more typical "sweet" grandma who enjoys spoiling her grandkids with junk food.
  • Mrs. Wingo may be a minor example: she's shown jamming along with her students in a Flounder wig when it's announced The Beets will be playing a special show at Bluffington School.
• Cool Shades: Judy.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Bluff.
  • Moreso the Disney episodes and movie.
• Crazy Cultural Comparison: Fentruck's holiday celebrations.
• Credits Gag: "Doug's a Genius" begins with a "gone wrong" parody of the Nickelodeon opening sequence.
• Dance Party Ending: A couple of episodes have this, including "Doug Can't Dance," "Doug Says Goodbye," and "Doug Throws a Party."
• Deadpan Snarker: Mrs. Dink lives here. Judy has her moments (despite being a Large Ham), and while Porkchop can't talk, many of his expressions suggest this.
• Dean Bitterman: Mr. Lamar Bone, "One second late and it goes on your permanent record!"
• Depraved Dentist: Subverted with Doug's dentist Dr. Kay, but played straight with the Smash Adams' villain Dr. Decay.

Doug: (As Smash Adams in a fantasy sequence) You'll never make me talk, Dr. Decay. Dr. Decay: I don't want you to talk, Mr. Adams. I want you to suffer! (gets a big drill)

• Demoted to Extra: Chalky in the Disney series.
• Disappeared Dad: Roger lives alone with his mom, but his dad is never seen in the series.
  • Until the Disney series. A flashback shows that his parents divorced.
  • Phil temporarily becomes this in one episode in which he decides to open his own photography studio and ends up working around the clock with next to no financial gain, so that he can afford cool birthday presents for Doug like Beebe gets from her dad. Doug realizes that he values his dad's company more than any expensive present.
• Distressed Damsel: Patti's role in the Quailman series before she becomes Supersport.
• Does This Remind You of Anything? / G-Rated Drug: Nic-Nacs.
• Dreaming of a White Christmas
• Drunk on Milk: Literally, in "Doug's Fat Cat." Stinky and two other cats keep Doug's neighborhood awake by "singing" while guzzling milk.
• Dub Name Change: In the French dub, most of the original character names were kept, except that the Funnie family became the Fripon family and Skeeter was renamed Stique.
• Early Installment Weirdness: The pilot is animated in Squiggle Vision and Doug calls his journal his diary.
• Edible Theme Naming: Patti Mayonnaise.
• Embarrassing First Name: Walter "Skunky" Beaumont as revealed in one of the Disney episodes.
• Engineered Public Confession: Played with in "Doug Didn't Do It", in which Roger tells Doug he stole Mr. Bone's trophy while sitting with his legs across Mr. Bone's desk-- with his foot on the PA system button, and the "on-air" light flashing. It's played with, in that Doug was more than happy to accept the punishment for something he didn't do, had no intention of tattling on Roger, and had even tried to warn Roger about what he was doing. He's just that nice a guy. Of course, the entire school heard it, including Mr. Bone, and Roger will be polishing trophies 'til they put him in the grave.
• Entertainingly Wrong: In "Doug is Hamburger Boy," Doug plays the Honkerburger's titular Hamburger Boy at a picnic, but has to keep it a strict secret, meaning he has to avoid Skeeter and Patti at the picnic. Patti finally tells Doug she's figured out his secret, but not to fret about it: lots of people can't swim. Doug can hardly keep a straight face. Patti later wonders if Doug really is the Hamburger Boy, but dismisses the possibility.
• Eureka Moment: In "Doug's Brainy Buddy", Doug just couldn't believe Skeeter is a genius, and gotten to the point where it nearly broke their friendship. When Judy asked what happened...

Doug: He got smart. Judy: Oh. Doug: What do you mean "oh"? I'm not jealous of him if that's what you think? (he laughs at this) *Beat* I am jealous, am I, Porkchop? (Porkchop nods)

• Doug gets another one in "Doug Graduates" when he finds out why he's unhappy about graduation, while talking to Roger who feels the same way. Talking it out helps Doug himself feel better about it.
  • And another in "Doug's Disappearing Dog" when he realize why Porkchop ran away, because he "treated him like a dog". (Though it's also because Porkchop fell in love with a girl dog and wanted to elope with her...before she dumped him.)
  • "Doug's Pet Capades": Doug spends much of the episode working on an act for Porkchop to win the titular contest, only to realize, when Porkchop refuses to take the stage, that he's been doing it for his own glory and not taking into account what Porkchop wanted. He lets Porkchop choose his own routine - the Doggie Rap - and it's a hit.
• The Everyman: Doug is a mild-mannered, Book Dumb student with a mostly unrequited crush on a girl, is only a moderate athlete, and can never stay ahead for long.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Doug for Patti.
• Everything's Precious with Puppies: Doug and Porkchop have been inseparable since Porkchop was a puppy, though the Nick series is inconsistent on just how old Doug was when he got Porkchop. Was Doug a toddler (as depicted with him riding on Porkchop's back in "Doug's Dog's Date"), or was he about 10 (as depicted in "Doug's Christmas Story" which shows Doug getting Porkchop as a Christmas gift)?. Either way, the scenes of Porkchop as a puppy are adorable.
• Expy: The Beets' name and Liverpool accents are obviously based on The Beatles although singer Monroe Yoder looks more like Roger Daltrey.
  • Many of the characters are reminiscent of Peanuts characters (fittingly since JInkins is a big Peanuts fan). Doug is kind of like Charlie Brown in personality and character design, Porkchop is Snoopy, Patty Mayonnaise is the Little Red Haired Girl, Skeeter is Linus, Roger is a gender-flipped Lucy, amongst many others.
    • This is Lampshaded in the series premiere of the Disney series when Doug sees a computer simulation of possible haircuts and one is that of Charlie Brown. He even says good grief.
• Extreme Doormat: Doug had shades of this.
• F Minus Minus: In "Doug's Bum Rap," he has an Imagine Spot about getting a test score of -60.
• Fake Nationality: A girl claiming to be from Yakestonia is called out on this by Fentruck. Loretta is actually Yakestonesian, but she claims to be fluent in the language when she only knows a few words and phrases, because she wants Skeeter to like her.
  • At least some of her stories were true, as her Aunt (whom everyone is convinced is a lie) appears in person at the end of the episode.
• Fan Service: At the beginning of the episode Doug On His Own, Judy wears a dress that shows her back and cleavage. She's also shown wearing a skimpy costume in Doug's Fat Cat.
  • Beebe wears a midriff-baring outfit in the "Bangin' on a Trash Can/Think Big" music video.
  • Skeeter strips down to his underwear (on a dare) in Doug Throws a Party.
• Fan Service Pack: Happened to formerly pudgy Connie Benge between the Nick and the Disney shows. Explained with her and her mother having been to a beauty farm.
• Free-Range Children: The eleven-year old cast behaves much more like older teenagers the way they run about their town.
• First Kiss: The subject of an entire episode. It ends up being Doug and Beebe.
• Five-Man Band:
  • The Hero: Doug
  • The Lancer: Skeeter
  • The Smart Guys: Al and Moo.
  • The Big Guy: Chalky
  • The Chick: Beebee
  • The Heart: Patti
  • Team Pet: Porkchop
• Formerly Fat: Connie slimmed down considerably in the summer between the end of the Nickelodeon series and the beginning of the Disney series. Although her weight was never dwelled on in the Nick series; she was just one of Doug's friends who happened to be plus-sized.
• Full House Music: Played straight in many instances, such as when Roger steals Doug's "lucky hat" and when Doug walks home after apologizing to Patti's dad about destroying her old house.
• Gang of Bullies: Roger is often seen with fellow delinquents Willie, Ned and Boomer.
• Genius Ditz: Skeeter's revealed to be this in one episode, though it was hidden because he's Book Dumb. It took Doug the entire episode to accept it, reluctantly.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: "Doug's Bad Trip". The episode is actually about Doug and his family going on a road trip, but the title suggests...other things.
  • Surprisingly, in Disney's Doug, the word "sex" is said in the Christmas episode [the Disney one where Doug's baby sister was born, not the Nick Wham! Episode where Doug's dog is accused of attacking Beebe at the lake while ice-skating]-- the ABC episodes had a mini-arc where Doug's dad is trying to give his son the sex talk, only for Doug to tell his dad on the Christmas episode that he already knows about it from school. And in another episode, Guy observes a cartoon with donkeys in it by saying "Hmmm, a bunch of jackasses."
    • Said Wham! Episode, however, does have a scene where one of the dogs in the jail where Porkchop is incarcerated is seen smoking a cigarette. The episode that introduces Fentruck also begins with a Wild West fantasy in which some of the cowboys in the saloon are clearly smoking.
  • Some of the last names sound dirty if you really think about it: Bone, Dink, Buttsavich, etc.
  • In the episode where Roger's cat has kittens, he tells his mom that he didn't know the cat was a girl. She replies by telling him that there's a talk that they're long overdue for.
  • During the Founder's Day Pageant in "Doug's On Stage", look closely; someone in the audience can obviously be seen drinking what appears to be an alcoholic beverage.
  • "Doug's Substitute Teacher": The re-enactment for the "Bluffington's Most Troublesome" Imagine Spot has a buff, biker-ish version of Doug seizing control of the classroom and proceeding to "teach" from a girlie magazine.
  • There is an episode where Doug makes a funny drawing of his teacher, but accidentally turns it in with his homework essay. The title of the episode: "Doug's Doodle."
    • In addition, this episode has an Imagine Spot in which Doug imagines himself as a secret agent plying his teacher with what looks like champagne to get said doodle back. It's actually said to be a soft drink, but still...
  • While dressing Doug up for his (first) date with Patti, Judy says he should wear a handkerchief, "but not on the left." In the hanky code once used by the gay community, a handkerchief in the left pocket signaled that one was a "top."
  • In one Disney episode, Doug and Skeeter pose as girls to infiltrate the exclusive girls-only club of which Beebe - and, briefly, Patti - are members. While still in drag, the boys play tennis with the girls at the end of the episode, and Muffy, the girl Skeeter has a crush on, tells him, "See you in the showers," prompting an alarmed look from Skeeter. Fast forward nearly 30 years and the episode hits home in particular due to controversies over cross-dressing and transgender girls being barred from girls' sports and ladies' washrooms.
  • In the "mayor for a day" episode: "Why don't you just let the chips hit the fan?"
• The Ghost: Skunky Beaumont in the Nick episodes. Principal Buttsavich from the Nick episodes. Also the Lucky Duck Lake monster before The Movie.
• Give Geeks a Chance: Patti with Doug.
  • As well as Beebe and Skeeter.
• Gold Digger: In "Doug and the Little Liar," Doug fears that Loretta Lequigly is this and is using Skeeter as her Meal Ticket, despite Loretta's family supposedly being rich (and famous). He even imagines her goading Skeeter into buying her an entire mountain range. She turns out to be a lot nicer, though she still has Skeeter buy her clothes for a ski vacation, suggesting that her wealth is another of the things she's been lying about.
• Gossipy Hens: Connie becomes one in the Disney episode "Doug's Bloody Buddy," spreading a rumor about Skeeter being a vampire to the point where he's ostracized by his entire class (including Doug).
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Judy originally wore a purple sweater dress and boots to match the color of her beret in the Nick series. In the Disney series, she wears a purple buttoned-down shirt with matching sandals.
• Graduate From the Story: More or less. The last regular episode of the Nickelodeon version has the characters graduating from Bluffington School, though there was also a Christmas Episode that aired six-months later. (Although the Nick series finale was actually made before Jim Jinkins and crew learned that Nick was canceling the series at 52 episodes rather than the planned 65.)
• Gratuitous Rap: The Nick series has a lot of it, from "The Doggie Rap" (said to be Porkchop's favorite song) to "Yo Doug (aka Call Me)" in "Doug's Secret Song" (complete with Patti, Beebe and Connie as Doug's backup singers/dancers).
• Green Aesop: While not quite as in-your-face as other examples, this is a major plot point of The Movie. Mr. Bluff's pollution of Lucky Duck Lake results in the creation of a monster, which he then wants to kill to cover up his tracks. In the end, the monster escapes, Mr. Bluff's actions are exposed and he then volunteers to clean up his mess.
  • A lesser example is in the Nickelodeon episode "Doug's Monster Movie," in which Mayor White's "Beautify Bluffington" campaign does more harm than good for the environment thanks to the wasteful flyers and signs he's planted all around town.
• Green Around the Gills: This happens to Doug in "Doug's Fat Cat", after he tastes some not so appetizing cat food to show Stinky just how good it is. But he ends up feeling queasy and excuses himself to vomit.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In "Doug's Brainy Buddy," Doug and Skeeter's friendship nearly comes to an end when Skeeter is diagnosed with a genius IQ and considers leaving elementary school behind to go to college. Doug finally admits his resentment is due to jealousy, and the two make up, with Skeeter also admitting he was kind of trying to make Doug jealous.
• Hair Decorations: Connie adds a hairband in the Disney series. Patti also wears one on her and Doug's first date. Beebe always wears her hair in a ponytail.
• Hates Being Touched: "He's touching me. Why is he touching me?"
• Have a Gay Old Time: Roger says "Yeah, what do you know, Skeet-Face?"
• Her Codename Was Mary Sue: Many of Doug's Imagine Spots fill this role. There's also the episode where Doug and Skeeter collaborate on a comic, with both of them as superheroes.
  • Quailman averted this, as he had few real superpowers, but solved most problems with cunning or diplomatic solutions. Silver Skeeter is a very straight example though, and is even criticized for using his abilities without considering the possible consequences.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Principal Buttsavich is occasionally referred to, but Doug realized in the Nickelodeon Finale that he (and we) never actually met the guy.
  • Except Doug DID go to see the principal in an early episode. Even though the audience doesn't see him Doug CLEARLY does. Negative Continuity?
    • It's possible the school got a new principal between the beginning of the series and the finale. The end of one of the early episodes ends with a party celebrating Doug's first anniversary of moving to Bluffington.
• Hollywood Tone Deaf: Patti, in the Disney version's episode about the town anthem contest. Her singing in the Leonardo Da Vinci musical episode wasn't great either, though at least she stayed more or less on pitch.
  • She WAS a good singer in one episode of the Nickelodeon series (and to boot, the song she sang was self-penned). However, since her voice actress, Constance Shulman, is a non-singer, her singing in that episode was dubbed by another actress, probably Alice Playten.
  • It's not unheard of for a girl's voice to crack during puberty (though it's not as dramatic a change as it is with boys). Shulman was more or less using her natural voice with Patti, though.
  • Doug himself isn't a great singer. Witness Porkchop's reaction to "Doug's Secret Song."
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: "Doug's Monster Movie." It turns out human beings' tendency to spoil the environment through littering is a scarier monster than anything Doug, Skeeter and Porkchop can come up with.
• Hypocritical Humor: Roger and many of his male classmates at school teased Doug when Patti asked him on a date. After the date Roger and the others stopped him on his walk home, asking him what it was like. It was moments like these where their actual age was evident.
• "I Want" Song: The Beets' "I Need Mo' Allowance."
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Episode titles always start with "Doug" or "Doug's."
  • Episode Title Card: Doug will walk through a door, offer up the title, and happily declare, "That's me!" before Pork Chop shows up, screws him into the ground, and turns the lights off. All of this is accompanied by a Theme Tune Cameo.
• Idiot Ball: The Nickelodeon-era Christmas episode has Pork Chop bite and injure Beebe to keep her away from thin ice/hole in the ice and is then taken away because he is believed to be dangerous. Out of context the logic can at least be followed if one didn't know of the thin ice, however; the thin ice was marked as such then a hole formed in the ice that she was heading straight for, he had never shown any signs of aggression at any point and during his "trial" Bebe was instructed to recreate the incident i.e. walk on ice towards a hole in but now in a cast with crutches and Pork Chop seems to be the only one who notices she is about to die and has to break free to save her again.
  • Granted, everyone that wasn't Doug and his inner circle was holding the Idiot Ball that episode. Bill Bluff, Beebe's father and owner of Bluffington, had went to great lengths to paint Pork Chop as a monster and everyone believed him over Doug, no one gave a care about the dog come Christmas and it forced Doug to call everyone out at Pork Chop's trial.
• I Have This Friend: Practically Doug's catchphrase. He often follows it up with "It's not me," as well.
• Informed Attractiveness: Patti is apparently beautiful, but we have to be told that.
• Insanity Defense: In one episode, Roger is attempting to frame Doug for stealing Mr. Bone's trophy. Judy suggests attempting the Insanity Defense, only for Doug to say that the last person who tried it (Skunky Beaumont) still got in trouble and had to go to the counselor.
• Insistent Terminology: It's a journal, not a diary!
• Jerkass: Roger.
  • Perhaps even Roger, though, can't touch Coach Spitz. He's unnecessarily mean to his players. He's sexist, as evidenced when he initially won't allow Patti on the softball team just because she's a girl. Worst of all, he's willing to endanger his players' health if it'll help him win, most infamously in "Doug's Chubby Buddy" (the "eating disorder" episode), in which he won't intervene to help Patti when it's obvious she's malnourished from starving herself because thinner runners run faster (the task falls to Miss Krystal instead).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Roger on other occasions. He even helped organize Doug's 1 year anniversary in Bluffington.
• Karma Houdini: Slightly in The Movie, how was Mr. Bluff not arrested at the end? Yes, he did get comeuppance but he broke so many U.S. laws it's ridiculous. He polluted a lake he didn't even own, he bribes the police, he bribes the media. Hell, he bribes everyone! And that's just the beginning.
  • And how does Coach Spitz still have a job, after he's willing to let Patti starve to death rather than get her help just because she runs faster if she's thinner?
• Kid Com
• Kissing Warm Up: Doug practices kissing on a balloon.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Roger gets hit with this on many occasions, from a humiliating haircut to a punch in the gut by Connie.
• Last-Minute Hookup: After seven seasons of crushing and "Will They or Won't They?", Doug and Patti finally get together in the last few minutes of the final episode.
• Leitmotif: Several characters have one, for example Judy, Roger, Mr. Dink, and Fentruck.
• Lethal Chef: Patti may be cute, but - at least initially in "Doug's Cookin'" - she can't cook, mentioning that the one time she tried, she filled her house with smoke. However, the pizza she and Doug make for Home Ec class turns out (surprisingly, considering what happens to it) edible, and by the Disney series it's mentioned she cooks dinner for her dad quite a bit and has become adept at meatloaf.
• Lighter and Softer: Not that you could ever really call the show dark to begin with, but the Disney episodes have a noticeably more lighthearted feel than the Nickelodeon ones did.
  • Compared to Ren and Stimpy at least, the Nick series was definitely this. Billy West, who worked on both shows, is on record as saying Doug is his favorite thing he's worked on.
• Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded and turned into an episode. Doug always wears brown khaki shorts with a green vest over a white shirt. When their favorite TV star wears the same outfit, everyone copies the style, and they think Doug has, too. He spends the entire episode trying to prove that he isn't a lemming, even showing everyone his entire wardrobe of identical clothes, but to his frustration everyone misses the point and still thinks he's trying to be like the TV star. So he tries to dress differently, then eventually gives up, figuring that it's not worth the trouble... only to find everyone is now copying a different outfit the TV star wears, which looks the same as Skeeter's.
• Local Hangout: The Honkerburger in the Nickelodeon series is the center of activity for Bluffington's younger set, specializing in typical fast-food fare like burgers, hot dogs, fries and shakes. In the Disney series, it gets sold and turned into an upscale French eatery called "Chez Honque," and Mr. Swirly's (a sort of equivalent of Dairy Queen) becomes the new teen hangout.
• Logo Joke: Skeeter has a poster of the Jumbo Pictures (Doug's production company) egg logo (minus the words) in his room. Doug also lives on 21 Jumbo Street, also having to do with the company.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Beebe.
• Love At First Sight: Doug is lovestruck the second he sees Patti bike past outside the Honker Burger in the very first episode.
• Luminescent Blush: Doug's face turns deep red towards the end of "Doug Can't Dance". Porkchop hops on his desk while Doug writes in his journal. Porkchop loses his balance, falls, and accidentally lands on Doug's injured foot. The latter's face changes color, he breaks his pencil, he grits his teeth, and the scene switches to the front of his family's house as he's heard letting out a yell in pain.
  • In "Doug and the Little Liar", Skeeter's face turns pink as he turns away shyly when Loretta's aunt calls him cute.
  • In "Doug on the Wild Side", Doug's face turns pink for a moment and he sinks deeper into the sidecar next to his grandma's motorbike as he's too shy to compliment Patti when they see her.
  • In "Doug's Big Brawl", Larry's face turns red with anger when Doug grabs his car that was passed around, unaware that it's his, and the former gets fed up with being bullied.
  • In "Doug Rocks", Skeeter's short-tempered dad, Joe, gets red-faced with anger and frustration due to him trying to think after a bowl lands on his head and Skeeter, listening to The Beets' music through headphones, gets overexcited with singing along and about going to their concert. Joe grounds Skeeter in response and has him sent to his room.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The song "Anybody Else at All" from the Disney World musical is a fun, bouncy tune...about Doug losing his self-confidence.
• Made a Slave: It's the main point of the Nickelodeon episode "Doug Is Slave for a Day" (aka "Doug's Servitude"), in which Judy makes Doug her personal slave in return for not telling Mom that Doug accidentally broke a vase while playing football in the house. Judy soon takes it too far and extends his servitude for breaking a few rules on the contract, and threatens to tell their mom if he continues to protest. Later, Doug flips the script on Judy when he ends his servitude by confessing to Mom himself (and is grounded as a result), and makes Judy his personal slave in return for helping her clean her costumes out of the basement that she promised their mom to do so she can attend a party.
• Marilyn Maneuver: Patti in the episode, "Quailman: The Un-Quail Saga". She's in the middle of giving a news report when air coming from a huge vacuum hose causes her skirt to begin to blow up. But as she holds it in place, she gets sucked up by the vacuum hose, attached to a machine that collects beets.
• Mascot with Attitude: Porkchop.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Patti Mayonnaise. One episode she actually asks him out on a date, which ends kind of awkwardly. This back-and-forth behavior continues throughout the rest of the series.
  • This is Justified Trope due to their ages. After all, most preteens are pretty nervous when it comes to dealing with matters of the heart for the first time.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The title object in "Doug's Lucky Hat" lands at Doug's feet on a windy day. When he puts it on, he appears to become a good luck magnet as he finds the only Sky Davis trading card he doesn't already have, wins a KBLUF radio phone-in contest, has his Smash Adams X-ray specs rescued from the laundry by his mother, and tracks down Patti's wayward guinea pig Hamlet. Skeeter believes the hat really is lucky, but Doug is embarrassed to think so, especially when it becomes clear that Patti is dubious about the idea (moments before, she noticed that Doug never takes the hat off); Roger believes it, though, and forcibly "borrows" the hat - and actually passes a biology test (with a D-) while wearing it. Patti, however, tells Doug that while the hat may have made him feel like a winner, he's a winner with or without it. Whether or not the hat really is lucky is left to the viewer to decide; by the end of the episode Doug isn't sure himself, but it's implied he can live without it as long as Patti thinks he's a winner, and he doesn't object when Roger tells him he's not giving the hat back. He was also perfectly fine when the hat gets blown by the wind again, feeling it's someone else's turn to wear it. Though he remains optimistic for the day he'll see the hat again. Jim Jinkins has said this is his favorite episode of the Nickelodeon series.
• Meaningful Name: The name Dink comes from the acronym for "Double Income, No Kids".
  • Doug's sister Judy, a Shakespeare buff and all-around drama queen, is likely named after Judith Shakespeare. To drive the point home, her mom always calls her Judith.
  • Mr. Bone has a rather large nephew named Percy Femur, large enough to effectively bully Roger, which he does. The femur, (the thigh bone) is the largest bone in the human body.
  • The Ponzi Puzzle Sweepstakes. The name itself says it's a scam.
  • Averted with Patti Mayonnaise. Constance Shulman did get the part after Jim Jinkins saw her in a Kraft mayonnaise commercial; however, Jim had already named the character beforehand.
• Meat-O-Vision: A non-hunger variant occurs in "Doug's Dinner Date" when Doug has Skeeter hypnotize him into thinking that liver and onions are a hot dog and French fries. All this does is cause Doug to have a hallucination of Skeeter as a hot dog, while having no effect on the liver and onions.
• Merchandise-Driven: Disney's Doug had as much merchandise as say, High School Musical or Hannah Montana. The Nickelodeon series had considerably less, much of which was released after Nick had canceled the show and while it was scoring high ratings in reruns.
• Missing Mom: Patti's mother died in a car accident (which also put her father in a wheelchair).
  • To a lesser extent, Chalky Studebaker and the Sleech brothers have fathers, but not moms. And unlike with Patti, what happened to them is never mentioned.
    • No, Chalky's mom is with him and his father during a family sports event in one episode, and she has had other small cameos also. The Sleech brothers are another story.
• Mistaken Confession:
  • Happens in "Doug en Vogue", while Doug tries to tell his friends he's not copying a teen star's latest fashion (which happens to be exactly like Doug's).

Doug: I suppose you're wondering why you're here? Certain accusations have been made recently. Roger: Alright, I did it! Big deal! Doug: Did what, Roger? Roger: Oh, you don't know? Never mind. Beebe: (annoyed) Get to the point, Doug!

• • Also happens in "Doug's Doodle," when a mortified Doug realizes that he accidentally turned in his sketch of Mrs. Wingo instead of his homework essay. He tries to remain calm since he hopes that Mrs. Wingo might not even know he drew it. But then Mrs. Wingo holds up a paper before the class and asks who did this, and a panicked Doug yells tearfully that he did it and apologizes. Turns out Mrs. Wingo only wanted to know who had written the essay titled "My First Pair of High Heels," since it didn't have a name on it (it was Beebe's).
  • "Doug and the Little Liar": Doug goes to Mr. Dink for advice about Loretta's lies to Skeeter and starts to explain by invoking I Have This Friend. Mr. Dink, assuming Doug is talking about him, immediately bursts into tears and confesses to lying about being captain of his high school football team (he was really the equipment manager). Doug forgives him (even though he wasn't talking about Dink), and this gives him the idea to grill Loretta about her lies.
• Most Writers Are Writers: Doug enjoys writing in his journal as well as writing and drawing his own comics. According to other characters he's actually pretty good at the latter, and this is evident from his Imagine Spots as part of the show's structure.
• The Movie: Creatively titled Doug's 1st Movie. (However, maybe a more accurate title would be Doug's Only Movie.)
• The Moving Experience: Doug actually thought Skeeter was moving in one Nickelodeon episode. Turns out, he was... to a new room in his house's basement.
• Mr. Imagination
• The Musical: Doug Live!, a live stage-show that was preformed about five times daily in Walt Disney World from 1999-2001. One of Doug's songs, "Someone Like Me", ended up in the movie's end credits. Most of the story was created exclusively for the musical, but included elements from the episodes "Doug Rocks" and "Doug & Patti Sitting in a Tree" (oddly enough, both episodes mentioned were from the Nickelodeon series)
• My God, What Have I Done?: Doug's reaction whenever his poor judgment gets him into a scrape, which is in the majority of episodes.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: Subverted Trope by Patti in the later Quailman comics who keeps pronouncing Guy Graham/Rupert Schmupert's last name the French way which he keeps correcting.
• Myth Arc: Disney's Doug had Doug and Skeeter occasionally visiting Lucky Duck Lake in an attempt to discover if a monster exists in there (a nod to the legendary Loch Ness Monster). The monster itself finally makes an appearance in The Movie and plays an important role.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: In-universe. Doug actually calls Skeeter out on this in one episode when the latter's superhero alter-ego, the Silver Skeeter, kept showing off new powers that came out of nowhere and were just what he needed to save the day.
• New Season, New Name
• Nice Hat: Judy's beret. Also, Doug himself, in "Doug's Lucky Hat" and the Disney series premiere.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Doug literally does this to Patti's old house which is falling apart.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Doug's favorite rock band was named The Beets in homage to The Beatles, who even split up much later in the shows run.
  • They also had an Arnold Schwarzenegger parody.
  • Not to mention Mr. Bone is clearly based on Don Knotts.
  • Greg Lee based Mayor (later Principal) White on President George H.W. Bush, although to some (including this troper) he also gave off Bill Clinton vibes.
  • Other episodes skewered everyone from MTV's Julie Brown to TV chef Julia Child.
• Not So Different: In "Doug Rocks the House", after Doug finds out he knocked down Patti's old house, he didn't understand why she was upset about it until he remembered how he felt when he first moved away from Bloatsburg.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The premise of the first episode of Disney's Doug, where Doug finds the world he knows has changed — the Jerk Jock bully got rich on a real estate deal, his favorite movie character has been Retooled, his favorite band has broken up, his favorite restaurant has gone up-scale, and his usual barber shop is under new management. Doug decides to change a bit himself (specifically, his haircut).
• Official Couple: By the end of the series, Doug and Patti are one, as are Skeeter and Beebe. Jinkins initially said that Doug and Patti would ultimately not stay together, but he's also announced that the upcoming sequel Doug Kids will feature them grown, married and with kids.
• Oh Crap: A frequent reaction of Doug's. For instance: After he appeared on a goofy Western-themed kid's show (which his aunt was the director for), Skeeter reassures him that at least no one they know saw it. Cue Roger dramatically entering, wearing a cowboy hat and spurs. When his aunt realises that Roger appeared on the show as a kid, Roger has the same reaction when Doug threatens to show everyone the footage of his Old Shame unless he knocks it off.
• One Judge to Rule Them All: Bill Bluff in the contest to name the new school in "Doug's New School". He names it the "Beebe Bluff Middle School" after his daughter, making the whole contest (and conflict of the episode) pointless.
• One Note Cook: Until Doug makes a pizza for school, his culinary expertise consists entirely of grilled cheese sandwiches. He even daydreams about writing a grilled-cheese cookbook.
• Only One Name: Flounder of The Beets.
• Our Founder: Thaddeus Bluff. Although in one episode, Doug and Skeeter discover that the founding family of Bluffington may not have been the Bluffs, but the Dinks! Naturally, Bill Bluff still took the credit for discovering this.
• Panty Shot: In the episode "Doug's Mail order Mania" Judy gets one after falling from her upside down apparatus in the closet.
  • Loretta Lequigly has a couple from behind in "Doug Throws A Party". In the same episode, in a fantasy, Doug imagines Patti running away from him when he goes to kiss her as part of the game of Dare and she has one from behind as she runs upstairs, busting through the basement door.
  • Patti in "Doug on the Wild Side". In one of Doug's fantasies, he serenades her as an Elvis-like singer and as she swoons, she flashes a frontal view of her white panties.
  • Patti and Beebe in "Doug Battles the Rulemeister". In one of Doug's Quailan fantasies, there are views of their underwear from above as they're standing on their heads with Skeeter and Chalky as one of the Rulemeister's silly rules in the scene in which Quailman and Quaildog fly away.
  • Beebe has a frontal view of this in "Doug's Christmas Story" after she falls through thin ice on a lake and sinks underwater.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Skeeter dons one when running away from home in "Doug Says Goodbye." It fails (although Skeeter's own dad doesn't recognize him, the kids, including Roger, do).
• Parallel Parking: The plot point of "Doug's Behind the Wheel"; Judy can't parallel park, thus she can't pass her driver's test and can't drive Doug and Patty to Funkytown.
• Parental Bonus: Many.
• Pink Means Feminine: Loretta's shirt.
• Punny Name: DINK (or DINKY) is slang for an affluent couple with no children.
  • Mayor Robert "Bob" White. A bobwhite is a species of quail.
• Put on a Bus: Jim Jinkins has stated it was his policy not to do this, pointing out that once a character was introduced into the universe they were there to stay. Even Mrs. Wingo, although no longer Doug and friends' teacher in the Disney series, returned for the series finale. Still, this did happen to Loretta LaQuigley, who never appeared in the Disney series despite being introduced as a potential love interest for Skeeter (who would eventually end up with Beebe, who even in the Nick series had a crush on him). Even in the Nick series, Loretta was quickly Demoted to Extra after her starring role in "Doug and the Little Liar."
• Quietly Performing Sister Show: In its original run, Doug was sort of this to Ren & Stimpy and Rugrats. Doug didn't become the pop-culture smash and merchandising bonanza that its fellow Nicktoons did, but it was still a solid hit, usually ranking in the Top 20 among all cable TV programs and occasionally breaking into the Top 10. It was also popular enough to remain on Nick's schedule in reruns years after its cancellation.
  • Nickelodeon did promote the hell out of the show when it was still running, if for no other reason than the fact that they show was popular with kids and especially parents, who thought Ren and Stimpy and other shows like it were too obnoxious. And after Disney bought the franchise, Nick ran more promos reminding viewers that they had Doug first.
  • Averted with the Disney series, it was promoted almost as much as Hannah Montana!
• Rags to Riches: When Bill Bluff had the new school built on Fat Jack's trailer park, it turned out that the patch of land on which Edwina Klotz's trailer stood was her own property. She sold it to him for an enormous amount of money.
• Rampage From a Nail: In one episode, a giant monster created by Dr. Rubbersuit called Klotzilla is rampaging throughout the city. Quailman discovers that said monster has a thorn stuck in his foot and removes it, stopping the rampage.
• Rashomon Style: "Doug's Disappearing Dog". Doug lampshades how everyone remembers the previous day differently. This helps Doug realize why Pork Chop ran away.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Principal Buttsavich, too bad we never see him.
• The Renaissance Age of Animation
• Rich Bitch: Beebe, though not nearly as bad as some examples (usually). Roger is a worse, male version in the Retool.
• Running Gag: Beets. "They're nature's candy, don'tcha know." Ironically, Jim Jinkins hates beets.
  • Bluff Scout Booster Bars tasting like cement in "Doug Door to Door." Turns out, they taste like cement because they are cement, due to a mix-up at the candy factory!
• Ruritania: Yakistonia, homeland of the exchange student Fentruck.
• Sadist Teacher: Doug had Mr. Bone. Also Mrs. Wingo, albeit only in Doug's own nightmarish imagination (she wasn't really that mean).
• School Is for Losers: Connie develops this attitude in an episode of the Disney series when she sets her mind on a singing career and starts blowing off homework and tests to focus on entering a talent contest (not to mention becoming a royal Jerkass to her friends). She loses the contest, but then learns the role lack of schooling played in The Beets' breakup and decides School Is Cool after all.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Roger seems like a tough guy until he screams...
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules: Doug proves this when he returns an old lady's money to her instead of keeping it, despite all of the insults he received from most people about it.
• Secret Diary: Roger gets his hands on Doug's journal in "Doug's Runaway Journal". Turns out he couldn't read any of it because Doug's handwriting is so bad.
• Shout-Out:
  • The Beets combine elements of The Beatles and The Who. One of the Beets' albums is even called "Let It Beet."
  • The "Spacemonks" game that Doug plays is a small tribute to Wing Commander, using several similar scenes from the game, including the infamous space funeral.
  • "Silver Skeeter" (see Superpower Lottery below) is, of course, a tribute to the Silver Surfer.
  • A rather blatant one to Arthur appears in the first episode of Disney's Doug.
  • "Doug Is Slave for a Day" has a fairly obvious reference to The People's Court, with an Imagine Spot with Doug suing Judy to try to get out of his ironclad contract and his case being dismissed.
  • One episode has a sequence where Doug dreams he performs (with Skeeter and Beebe) in a concert wearing a really big suit. It's the "Bangin' on a Trash Can" video, which also features Michael Jackson and Madonna references.
  • Doug lives on 21 Jumbo Street, a shout to the then-popular cop show 21 Jump Street.
  • A marquee on a movie theater in one Nickelodeon episode reads "Honey, I Microwaved the Dog."
  • In one episode, Doug goes to see a Smash Adams movie that opens with an evil dentist about to torture the titular character with a dental drill while shouting "Is it safe? Is it safe?!"
  • "Doug's a Genius" features an homage to The Joy of Painting in yet another Imagine Spot. (As a double bonus for PBS fans, the episode also features Sesame Street Muppet performer Fran Brill in one of her most prominent guest voice roles, as Ms. Perigrew.)
  • "Doug's New Teacher" features Doug profiled as a delinquent on an episode of "Bluffington's Most Troublesome," with Mr. Bone in the John Walsh role. There's also a possible shout-out to Unsolved Mysteries in "Doug Is Hamburger Boy," as everyone watches a TV documentary with Robert Stack-style narration on just who the titular Hamburger Boy might be.
  • "Doug's Bloody Buddy" begins with a Scooby-Doo parody with Chalky as Fred, Beebe as Daphne, Patti as Velma and of course, Doug and Porkchop as Shaggy and Scooby. Doug even says "Zoinks."
  • In "Doug's Fan Club," Judy is coaching a group of younger kids in a performance of The Tempest.
  • Mrs. Wingo is named for Marguerite Wingo, Jim Jinkins' real-life elementary school teacher, whom he adored. Before she passed away in 2002, Jim got a chance to visit and thank her.
• Silent Snarker: Porkchop, being a dog and unable to speak, is often this.
• Slice of Life
• Slumber Party: Doug and Skeeter try to crash Beebe's "no boys allowed" party when Doug fears an embarrassing amateur music video he made is in Patti's hands; they don't get in, but Porkchop does, and even ends up joining in the party games (and momentarily forgetting his mission to retrieve the tape). Turns out it wasn't: it was in Mr. Bone's. And Mr. Bone has Doug's.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: The Nic-Nacs episode hints at this. Also, in "Doug's Brainy Buddy," Skeeter decides not to head off to college early, despite his IQ, partly because everyone at college smokes.
  • This was also the origin of one of the series' trademarks: tobacco was the hot cash crop when Jim Jinkins was growing up in Virginia, and so, being a non-smoker, he changed this to the Bluffington area's hot cash crop being beets.
• Snipe Hunt: Roger and his buddies offer to take Doug on one of these in the pilot.
• Soapbox Sadie: Judy, in a few episodes where she leads her classmates and friends in various protests (which even involve her singing the Marsellaise - in French).
• The Southpaw: Doug is left-handed. It was a plot point in the episode where Doug is on Patti's baseball team (never having played baseball before) and she realizes that he is left handed and tells him to stand on the right side of home plate so he could have an easier time swinging at the ball. He manages a hit almost instantly.
• Sore Loser: One of Patti's faults, as evidenced in "Doug Clobbers Patti" when Doug starts beating her at everything from bowling to basketball to video games. She even briefly stops speaking to Doug as a result.
• Special Effects Failure: An In-Universe example. The costume of a supposedly scary movie monster has a visible zipper.
• Spoiled Sweet: Beebe Bluff's father owns most of the town, but she goes to a public school and is an alright person (she's still vain and selfish much of the time, but not usually at the expense of her friends, and she'll stand up to her parents if need be). She also saves them in The Movie.
• Stage Dad: Downplayed with Mr. Studabaker. He does push his younger son Chalky to win a ton of sporting events so he can catch up to his big brother, but when he learns Chalky cheated off of Doug because all that training left him no time to study, he realizes this needs to change. He's portrayed as wanting his son to do his absolute best rather than making his life a living hell if he doesn't win.
• Stage Mom: Mrs. Bluff appears to be one. In "Doug Wears Tights," she pushes Beebe to audition for the lead role in the ballet, when all Beebe wants is to do costumes. When Beebe blows the audition on purpose, Mrs. Bluff initially blames Doug for it.
• Start My Own: After being rejected by the Honkers softball team because she's a girl, Patti forms the "Patti's Pulverizers" softball team.
• Stern Teacher: Mrs. Wingo, "You're knocking on trouble's door"
• Stock Ness Monster: The Lucky Duck Lake Monster.
• Story-Breaker Team-Up: Done inside the show itself when Doug and Skeeter teamed up their imaginary heroes: Superman Expy Quailman and Silver Surfer Expy The Silver Skeeter.
• Superpower Lottery: Skeeter's superhero Silver Skeeter has a superpower for any and all situations, which Doug finds annoying because it lacks any serious tension.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The show often uses Suspiciously Similar Song versions of movie themes.
  • Not just movie themes. The amusement park Funkytown is usually accompanied by an appropriate Suspiciously Similar Song version of the famous Lipps Inc. song, and in one episode Skeeter (as a DJ) plays a dangerously close soundalike of "U Can't Touch This."
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Judy gives one when Doug shows up at her school and her friends see him: "I don't know him, I've never seen him before, and he's definitely not my brother."
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: Admit it, after watching an episode, you feel really good inside. It manages to be sweet and adorable without tasting like diabetes
• Take a Third Option: Most of Doug's problems are solved through compromises between him and whoever he happens to be confronting.
• Take the Wheel: A fantasy in which Doug and Skeeter are truck drivers. Skeeter's request to take the wheel ends up with Doug literally giving it to him.
• The Talk: A Running Gag of Disney's Doug has his father trying to initiate the conversation, which is usually offset by Doug being concerned with something unrelated. It doesn't help that he keeps trying to segue using nonsensical metaphors ("The salmon swims upstream"). This was put to an end on the Christmas episode where Doug just tells his dad that he already knows about sex from school.
  • Roger's mother apparently procrastinated in giving it to her son, as evidenced in "Doug's Fat Cat" when Roger didn't recognize Stinky as being pregnant because he didn't know she was female! Edwina even tells her son that they're overdue for a long talk.
• Tempting Fate: After Doug's aunt gets him on a children's cowboy show, Skeeter tells him "At least no-one we know saw it." Cue Roger bursting through the door, wearing a cowboy hat and spurs...
• Those Two Guys: Eric and Norman, two background characters who have several different jobs throughout the series' run. They are typically seen as bumbling idiots.
• Title Drop: The episode "Doug's a Big Fat Liar" has a few, including this one from one of Doug's Imagine Spots.

Patti: You mean, Doug's a Big Fat Liar? There's no cousin Melvin? No cousin Melvin?! NO COUSIN MELVIN???!!!

• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Patti and Beebe. Connie is somewhere in between.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Beets, for just about everyone. Also, Porkchop's favorite sweet treat is Peanutty Buddies, to the point where when he turns one down, Doug thinks he's sick. One episode also mentions that Skeeter's favorite dessert is banana split cake.
• Traumatic Haircut: Doug manages to avoid one by steering clear of a a, shall we say, innovative stylist named "Fluke" at a local barber shop. Roger is not so lucky: his final haircut resembles antlers, and Skeeter laughingly remarks that apparently no one told Roger to stay away from Fluke.
• Travelling Salesman Montage: Doug in "Doug Door to Door" when he's unable to sell Bluff Scout Booster Bars. He keeps getting doors slammed in his face earlier and earlier in his sales pitch, until finally he's unable to even finish the word "hello" before the door slams.
• True Art Is Incomprehensible: In-Universe Porkchop (the dog) leaves footprints all over Doug's canvas, and it's hailed as an artistic masterpiece.
  • Anything that comes out of Judy's mouth.
• Tuxedo and Martini: Smash Adams.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: Mr. Dink temporarily appoints Roger the scoutmaster of Doug's Bluff Scout troop while he is away, and his abuses are such that even his own cronies turn against him.
• Ultimate Authority Mayor: Mayor White. Unusually for this trope, he's eventually voted out and replaced by Doug's neighbor, Mrs. Dink.
• Umpteenth Customer: Doug enters what looks like a video game store and looks around, only to discover that he's the one millionth customer and has won a Pretendo. Of course, this was the setup for the episode's Aesop.
• Uncle Pennybags: Mr Dink. Very expensive!
  • Subverted in that he's middle-class, but apparently good with money.
  • Never underestimate how much income is left disposable by not having children.
    • Word of God says Dink stands for Dual Income No Kids
• Upperclass Twit: Willie White, son of the (former) mayor of Bluffington.
• Verbal Tic: Skeeter's little honking noises he makes.
  • Mayor White's "Vote for Me!"
    • And not surprisingly his son Willie White also has a verbal tic considering he starts most of his sentences with "Duhhhh".
  • "Very expensive."
• Very Special Episode: In the Disney version, there was an episode where Patti thinks she's fat after she, Beebe and Connie watch a TV commercial for a weight-loss product and Beebe tells her that if she doesn't watch what she eats, she'll become "Fatti" instead of "Patti." Doug doesn't help; first, when Patti asks him if he thinks she needs to lose weight, he replies with a sarcastic, joking "Yes," which Patti takes seriously; and then she overhears Doug say "She's huge" and thinks he's referring to her, when he was referring to a homemade vehicle he and Skeeter were using to catch the Lucky Duck Lake monster. This prompts Patti to become anorexic, eating too little and exercising too much. Even more chillingly, Coach Spitz doesn't step in to help, but instead pushes Patti to the point of exhaustion where she finally faints from lack of nourishment. Fortunately, it's nipped in the bud before permanent damage could be done and Patti's eating habits return to normal. (Also, at the end of that episode, there was Constance Shulman's spoken Public Service Announcement on how to help out on eating disorders by locating or contacting institutes or places or medical centers, which was cut in reruns on cable.)
  • The Nic-Nacs episode could count too, aside from the whole G-Rated Drug business. Though it's very different from typical anti-drug/anti-smoking episodes, and just as much about being skeptical of marketing messages as it is about avoiding dangerous substances — not to mention openly hostile toward the company behind the product in ways that a program that relies on sponsorship from Philip Morris subsidiaries (they owned Kraft at the time) could never get away with had they not substituted a made-up product for cigarettes.
• Welcome Episode: The first episode of the series, which features Doug moving to Bluffington and meeting most of the main cast.
• Wham! Episode: Doug's Christmas Story, Just in time for the holidays.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Subverted. Quailman's main superpower is the hypnotic "Quail-Eye," but he rarely encounters a situation that he could fix through sheer force, forcing him to take a third option.
  • Keep in mind this is a superhero whose main attributes are a belt on his forehead and wearing his underwear over his pants.
  • He's Doug. Of course he'll never purposely hurt anyone.
• Where The Hell Is Bluffington?: Or Bloatsburg (where the Funnies came to Bluffington from), for that matter. It's reasonable to assume they're in Virginia, since Jim Jinkins grew up in Richmond and based Bluffington on his own childhood universe - for example, Bluffington's Four Leaf Clover Mall is inspired by Richmond's Cloverleaf Mall. For what it's worth, both Indiana and Ohio have towns called Bluffton.
• Whole-Episode Flashback: Most episodes are structured this way, as Doug writes about it in his journal.
• Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Roger, quite literally. He's terrified of a garter snake Doug befriends on a Bluff Scout trip. He's also afraid of the dentist.
• Wingding Eyes: In "Doug's New Teacher", all the boys in Doug's class but him get heart-shaped eyes in affectionate reaction to the substitute teacher, Ms. Newberry.
• Write Who You Know: Doug writes and draws almost the whole cast of the show into his Quailman comics, sometimes multiple times.
• You Are Grounded!: Doug gets this as a punishment from his parents on occasion, but in a gentler way - his parents generally don't yell.
  • Played straighter when Skeeter's dad grounds him - on the night of the Beets concert no less - for disrupting dinner. He then gets un-grounded just as quickly (when he and Doug start another ruckus upstairs), but it's too late for them to get to the concert.
• Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: Roger's cat Stinky fell into this trope.
• Youtube Poop: A few Doug-centered poops have been made. Among them are those of Disney's Doug.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Connie wears Grade C after her beauty farm visit.