Gags and Tropes

Totally Spies: Gags and Tropes

Names

• Ariel translates to "lion of God".
• Boogie Gus refers to boogie, a type of music.
• Caitlin is Irish for "pure".
• Cosmo Stratus is a play on cosmos and stratus.
• Cyril Hearsay has 2 references. The name Cyril translates to “lordly” and “masterful”. Hearsay is evidence that is usually not admissible evidence. Cyril is the lord and master of illegally obtained information.
• Diminutive Smalls is short and uses a Resizing Ray.
• Dominique is French and Latin for "of the Lord".
• Fabu is a reference to “fabulous” and the fabulist (a person who tells fables and fairy tales).
• Felicia Mane's last name is a pun on hair as "mane" means long hair. Felicia translates to "happy and lucky".
• Fox's name is a pun seeing his plan chiefly involves animals.
• Geraldine Husk's name is the female version of Jerry's used by the girls in “Passion Patties”.
• Helga Von Guggen
  • Helga translates to "holy" or "blessed". This is how she views her fashion design skills.
  • Von translates to "of or from" and refers to the Junkers aristocracy of Prussia. Helga sees herself as the supreme ruler of the fashion houses.
  • Guggen is a reference to the Guggenheim family and their financing of artwork.
  • The name translates to the "blessed aristocratic ruler of the artistic fashion industry".
• Helmut is of German origin. From old German, the first part of his name “heil“ means “healthy“; it can also be ”hiltja” meaning ”battle”. The second part, ”muot“ meaning ”spirit, mind, mood“.
• Jazz Hands is a type of performance dance.
• Jerry Lewis comes from Jeremiah which means the Lord exalts “God will raise up”, “God will set free”.
• Keiko means “blessed child” in Japanese.
• Kyle Katz is a reference to cat (burglar).
• Maggie Trendset is not a trendsetter.
• Myrna Beesbottom translates to “beloved”. Her scheme in “Evil Valentine's Day” followed this theme.
• Natalie Valentine is a reference to "green with envy". Natalie seeks romance on Valentine's Day.
• Paragon's last name, "paragon", literally defines what she wants, perfection. Paragon, a DC comics villain, has the ability to duplicate superpowers.
• Sigmund Smith
  • Sigmund translates to "protection through victory".
  • Sigmund was the hero of the Volsung Cycle.
  • Smith refers to the everyman.
  • Sigmund sought to defend his university's sports victory as the everyman hero.
• Tara is a reference to "Gone With The Wind".
• Tim Scam's name is interesting for being a villain as Timothy translates to “honouring God”, “in God's honour”, or “honoured by God”. It could a reference to the fact that he believes himself superior to others, or that he has been proven to be superior than other villains, but was “Scammed” of the honor he wanted from WOOHP. As a criminal, he is “Scamming” “God” (WOOHP/Jerry/Justice System) of honor. Using this comparison, Scam could be seen as a fallen angel. His turn to crime would follow the quote: “It is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
  • Tim Scam shares yet another interesting link with Samantha with regards to the meanings of their first names. One meaning of the name Samantha when derived from Greek is “flower” but the other meaning for it is “God’s listener” while Timothy means “God’s honour”.
  • Tim Scam used a fake persona or a “scam” to try and eliminate the girls in his first appearance. Scam makes a pun about his own name in “The Dream Teens”. At being disappointed with the LAMOS leaky submarine headquarters (advertised by Terrence Lewis as a luxury cruise) he says quote, “This is no cruise, it's a rotten scam!”
• Ulrich Wernerstein tranlates to “(noble) heritage”, “rich”, “powerful”.
• Vegan's first name is Vera, which is a Slavic name meaning "faith, truth".
• Violet Vanderfleet is a type of flower and she uses plants.
• Vladimir Kozyrev translates to “to rule”, “great”, “famous”, “peace”, “world”, “world owner”, “peace owner”, “power”, “brightness”, and “fame”.
• Warden refers to a defender or guardian.

Series

• Each episode opened up with a scenario that would involved the girls to face against a villian to save the world, followed by the girls doing their normal things.
• The series seems to have a bit of a foot fetish theme as almost each episode shows the girl's barefoot, either normal view or close up.

Grade

• Beverly Hills High, Malibu University ("Green with N.V.")
  • High School
    • 14 - 15: 9th Grade, Freshman: Season 1
    • 15 - 16: 10th Grade, Sophomore: Season 2
    • 16 - 17: 11th Grade, Junior: Season 3
    • 17 - 18: 12th Grade, Senior: Season 4
  • College, University
    • 18 - 19: Freshman: Season 5
    • 19 - 20: Sophomore: Season 6
    • 20 - 21: Junior:
    • 21 - 22: Senior:

Queen

• References to the rank of queen in “Totally Spies!”
  • “Beauty Is Skin Deep” -- Vanity is an ex-beauty queen.
  • “Creepy Crawly Much?” -- Alexandra is selected to be the queen of Max Exterminus.
  • “Green with N.V.” -- Natalie Valentine calls the 3 spies “16 year old popularity queens”.
  • “Halloween” -- Mandy is selected to be the queen of the Evil Ghost.
  • Ice Queen Perfume
  • “Malled” -- Samantha refers to Mandy as a “beauty queen”.
  • “Mime World (Jazz Hands Return - Part 3)” -- Samantha is selected to be the queen of Jazz Hands.
  • “Queen for a Day” -- Tassara and the Beverly Hills High Homecoming Queen.
  • “So Totally Versailles!” -- Mandy believes she is Marie Antoinette. She is selected to be the queen of Auguste.
  • “Stuck in the Middle Ages with You” -- Clover is selected to be the queen of the Black Knight.
  • “The Iceman Cometh” -- Clover is referred to as an ice queen by Daryl and Gelee.
  • “WOOHP-Ahoy!” -- Clover is selected to be the pirate queen of Salty Schooner.

Hair Color

• Hair color
  • Magenta
    • Cosmo Stratus (“Astro-Not”)
    • Muffy Peprich (“Evil Sorority”)
    • Tammy (“I Hate The Eighties”)
    • Tara (“Feng Shui Is Like Sooo Passe”)
  • Orange
    • Bertha Bombshell (“Pageant Problems”)
    • Chet (“Evil Graduation”)
    • Jason Hightower (”Zooney World”)
    • Lance Wrishback (“Dog Show Showdown”)
    • Rad Smitt (“Celebrity Swipe!”)
  • Pink
    • Milan Stilton (“Evil Heiress Much?”)
    • Scritch (“Totally Spies! The Movie”)
    • Wera Vann (“The Wedding Crasher”)
  • Violet
    • Ice Solina (“Evil Ice Skater”)
    • Madison (“First Brat”)
    • Nadia (“Evil Gymnasts”)
    • Robbie Guthrie (“Spies vs. Spies”)
    • Sagan Hawking (“Aliens”)
    • Vanderfleet (“Halloween”)
    • Violet Vanderfleet (“Baddies on a Blimp”, “Evil Bouquets Are Sooo Passe”)

Alexandra

• Alex is depicted as a horrible driver.
• She is extremely clumsy.
• She is frequently transformed by villains.

Clover

• Clover is frequently kidnapped by villains.
• Due to her being obsessed with physical appearance, Clover is also the one that is most often transformed or dressed in differing outfits by villains; the latter case occurs when a villain selects her to be their consort (i.e., their wife and co-regent) in a world domination scheme.

Samantha

• Due to her being the most intelligent of the 3 girls, Samantha is the one that gets brainwashed and hypnotized the most.

All 3 Spies

• All three girls have, at some point, been selected by a villain to be their queen and/or empress; that is, their wife and co-regent (though historically, the consorts of rulers had no power at all unless her husband gave it to her). The definition of queen consort is "the wife of a reigning king", though most of the villains that choose the girls to be their queens actually don't organize a wedding ceremony to make them their wives and most are immediately rejected by their chosen brides.

Mandy

• Calls people "Losers".
• Arrogant tone and nasal laugh.
• Outside of "Totally Dunzo", whenever she learns about the spies, she gets her memory erased.

Mothers

• Despite their daughters being shown in numerous combat situations that involve public attention, the mothers only find out about the spy careers in "Totally Busted".
• Main character mothers seen.
  • Clover
  • Samantha
  • Alexandra
  • Mandy
  • Jerry Lewis
• Main character mothers not seen.
  • Dominique
  • Caitlin
  • Britney
  • Mindy

Fathers

• Main character fathers seen.
  • Samantha
  • Alexandra
• Main character fathers not seen.
  • Clover
  • Mandy
  • Dominique
  • Caitlin
  • Britney
  • Mindy
  • Jerry Lewis

Lewis family

• Lewis
  • Jerry Lewis (Myrna Beesbottom)
  • Terrence Lewis
  • Sherry Lewis

Gadgets

• The Underwater Power Walking Apparatus That's Inconspicuous is famous for its acronym "UPWATI", which sounds like "upwhatty?"
• The Just Sticky Enough Glue Glove is infamous for never being quite sticky enough.

Jerry Lewis

• As the head of WOOHP he is often the target of mind control and/or annihilation.

Terrence Lewis

• His organization had the acronym "LAMOS".

Villain

• Many of the villains have skills not expected of their career history and/or backgrounds.
• Nearly all of the villains are skilled in hand-to-hand combat and/or physical strength.
• Dead villains: CHAD, Eisenstein, John Smith, Max Exterminus, Alienator, Gargantuan, Surgeon

WOOHP

• Jerry is the only person shown who can command WOOHP over an extended time.
  • Tim Scam commands WOOHP for 1-2 days in "The New Jerry".
  • Terrence Lewis commands WOOHP for a few hours in "Like, So Totally Not Spies".
  • Clover, Samantha, and Alexandra fail in "0067".
• Running Gag: Whenever a WOOHP info window is open during the first two seasons, there is usually a second window by the name of "UPWATI" open right next to it.