Series / Peep Show

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Peep Show (2003-2015) is a very darkly comical show created by Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, and Andrew O' Connor, about two very ordinary weirdos: Jeremy "Jez" Usbourne (Robert Webb), a Manchild with dreams of becoming a musician, and Mark Corrigan (David Mitchell), a fifty-year-old in a thirtysomething white-collar worker's body. The show's gimmick is that (with very few exceptions) every camera shot in the show is taken from the point of view of one of the characters, whether Jez and Mark or just someone passing by. It also allows the viewer to hear the internal thought processes of both Mark and Jez as they bumble through their lives... and the show makes good on its promise of showing us everything going on in their heads.

The central pair are accompanied by a gradually evolving supporting cast of friends, friends' friends and girlfriends, including Mark's love interest Sophie (Olivia Colman), Jerk Jock Jeff, Jeremy's stoner bandmate Super Hans, and The Ace Alan Johnson, Mark's insane but charismatic boss.

This show has nothing to do with Peep and the Big Wide World.

This show provides examples of:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Sophie's brother Jamie is this to Jez in "Sophie's Parents".
• Absurd Brand Name: Jeremy and Super Hans are opening a pub, and want to stand out over the generic pubs in the area, but Jeremy is not enthusiastic about Super Hans' suggestion of "Free The Paedos" as a name for the pub.
• Accidental Proposal: Sort of. In the series 3 finale, Mark takes Sophie to the Quantocks with the intention of proposing to her. Later on he gets lost in the hills with Jeremy, and realises that he doesn't actually want to marry her after all. By the time he gets back, however, she's already found the engagement ring and accepts on the spot. He's too embarrassed to say anything.
• Achievements in Ignorance: Jeremy wins at poker only because he doesn't know the rules and mistakes a crap hand for an unbeatable one (because all the cards are red). He is hence bluffing without even realising it, and everyone else folds.
• Act of True Love: Jeremy thinks that travelling for hours to go to a specific store to buy Elena her favourite bread counts as this. She doesn't really appreciate it.
• Action Figure Justification: Gerard uses this type of language to justify purchasing an FDR doll.
• Actor Allusion: In "The Test", Mark makes up a surprisingly convincing lie on the spot. Jez wonders in his mind as to how he came up with such a great lie. This is a nod to Would I Lie to You?, in which David Mitchell is one of the team captains.
• Addiction Displacement:
  • Super Hans (briefly) replaces drugs with salt, knitting and long-distance running. He also kicks his alcoholism and cocaine habit thanks to juice, as we see when he spends his stag night at a juice bar in Series 9, only to immediately fall Off the Wagon after a single pint of lager.
  • Johnson is implied to have at least partially dealt with his relapse into alcoholism by consuming huge amounts of ketchup with his chips.
• Affably Evil: It says something about the people in this show when Daryl the Neo-Nazi comes off as friendlier and more stable than most of them in comparison (at least until he reveals his true beliefs), and he seems to genuinely want to befriend Mark and even takes a moment to show sincere forgiveness towards him after Mark gets Daryl fired for his Nazism.
• Age Insecurity: Jez turns 40 in the series finale, and his insecurities about his age are exacerbated by his relationship with the younger Joe.
• All Germans Are Nazis: Mark struggles with this while protesting German JLB executive Steffan Strauss. He dresses up as Hitler to portray him in a skit, compares a private meeting with him to being interrogated by the Gestapo, and refers to his potential severance bonus as Nazi gold.
• All Men Are Perverts: And almost all women are horrible control freaks. It's a Crapsack World, after all.
• Almost Out of Oxygen: "I suppose we do need to get out of here quite soon. Before the air supply runs out." Not really Jeremy, air doesn't actually run out in building foyers, on account of them not being airtight. Lampshaded by Mark, as per usual. "You really are an imbecile, aren't you?"
• Angrish: A weird combination of this trope and Cluster F-Bomb:
  Mark [narrowly avoiding Sophie noticing him at an awkward time]: Shit sugar fudge piss poo pants bollocks!
• Amateur Therapist: In the final two series, Jeremy wants to become a therapist but instead decides to become a life coach because it is easier to get the qualifications. He fails to even get his life coach certificate, and uses a fake one for his life coaching practice.
• Amusing Injuries:
  • Mark, Jeremy, and Super Hans all get pepper-sprayed by each other in "Dream Job."
  • Mark accidentally clamps a binder clip to his lips during a meeting when the lever breaks in "Jeremy's Broke".
  • Mark electrocutes himself while trying to disable the doorbell that Sophie is ringing outside. He lets out a blood-curdling scream that sounds like a murder attempt.
  • Mark and Jeremy take turns shoving each other into an electrified fence in "Quantocking II".
• Answers to the Name of God: Inverted: when Mark debates whether or not to call Sophie in "The Interview", he and Jeremy decide to let God decide^note "Okay, listen, if God's doing mountains, or sky, or water, I'll call; if he's doing trees or critters, I won't.". And then Jeremy changes the channel to The Joy of Painting, revealing that they were talking about Bob Ross^note for the record, he was doing sky.
• Arc Words:
  • "Is this a good idea?" Spoken only when the idea in question is undoubtedly a terrible one.
  • "I win", where Mark suffers some horrible indignity or screws up his life but then attempts to weakly justify how, in some minor way, he's technically won.
• Artistic License – Gun Safety: Lampshaded with both Mark and Jeremy when the latter finds a pistol in his aunt's old house. Comes to a head when Jeremy casually points it at Mark, with his finger on the trigger. It turns out to be deactivated, thankfully.
  Jeremy: I wasn't pointing it, I was just stretching my arm!
  Jeremy: [earlier on, with the gun to his head]: Now pass me the Doritos or I'll blow my brains out!
  • Also done when Mark and Jeremy go hunting with Sophie's dad and Jeremy briefly waves his loaded shotgun in Mark's face which, it goes without saying, is a really bad idea. Justified since this is Jeremy we're talking about.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "I'll kill you Jeremy! For trying to steal Dobby, electrocuting me, and destroying my fucking pie!"
• Ascended Extra:
  • A handful of JLB workers can be seen milling around the office well before they finally get lines.
  • April was a one-episode character in series 2, who then became Mark's love interest for series 9.
• Awkward Kiss: All romantic interactions are made as awkward as possible, from kissing to sex scenes. It's a britcom, after all.
• Babies Make Everything Better:
  • Sophie seems to believe this, and in the opening episodes of series 7 there are moments which suggests that this trope may actually apply as the tone becomes a bit brighter. Mark seems pleasantly surprised at realizing he actually has pleasant feelings toward his infant son. Episode four puts the show back in fine form.
  • Mark manages to salvage a very awkward conversation and get together with Dobby because he has his baby son with him.
• The Baby Trap: It looks bad for Mark initially, but the commitment to his son doesn't end up taking up as much time as first thought.
• Back for the Finale: April, the girl Mark meets in a shoe store and follows to Dartmouth University from Season 2, shows up in the final season. Jeff also reappears to take Mark's job in the finale.
• Bad Boss:
  • Johnson (he doesn't have a lot of respect for his employees, describing them as slave drones among other things)
  • Mark in "Conference" - he swears at his employees, calls them all sorts of names and admits that he stamped on Gerrard's foot in a way that might look like an accident just because he was angry.
  • Ben zigzags this - while he's a smug arrogant jerk, he gives Jeremy a decent job managing his music portal, even giving him a pay rise so he can scout out new artists.
  Jeremy: Stop making my lovely job lovelier, you shit!
• Bait-and-Switch Credits: The season 8 opening sees Gerard Promoted to Opening Credits, suggesting that his role will be expanded. It's actually done to disguise the fact that he dies halfway through the first episode, after which he is replaced in the opening.
• Balloonacy: To get rid of Jerry, Jeremy suggests tying him to a hot air balloon and watching him float away. Mark ponders upon the idea for a second before they move onto considering 'Farty Guantanamo'.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Mark pretends to be a college student to sneak into his latest crush's lecture, and is shocked at how easily he pulls it off.
  Mark: Is that how easy it is to steal some education? Bloody hell! Who's in charge? The world's just people going into rooms and saying things? It's all a swizzle?
• Becoming the Mask: Mark briefly worries that this will happen to him when he feigns a friendship with April’s husband Angus in order to sabotage their relationship, as he finds Angus’ academic expertise in Byzantine church history to be genuinely fascinating.
  Mark: No! Don’t get sucked in! Otherwise it’s going to be me and Angus, sleeping in a Turkish hostel, reading scripture and getting rectal exams.
• Bedroom Adultery Scene: An especially humiliating one happens to Jeremy in series 6, culminating in being forced to crawl out of Elena's flat on his hands and knees, in his pants, while taking care not to wake up Gail. This predictably becomes a Humiliation Conga; after crawling out of the flat and finally making it upstairs, he walks straight into Alan Johnson, who punches him hard in the gut and winds him, leaving him crumpled on the floor, gasping for air, still nearly bollock-naked.
  Jeremy [while crawling]: This could be kind of exciting, actually. Raffles, the gentleman perv! [he reaches to get his clothes, but Elena bats his hand away] No clothes. Raffles doesn't deserve clothes.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Jez and occasionally Mark will come charging to the other's rescue.... usually when it's exactly the wrong thing to do.
  • Played straight when Mark rescues Jeremy from a book group he is attending in spite of having not read the book or any book, for that matter - apart from Mr Nice. (And even then, it was only because Jeremy had pay him.)
• Big Word Shout: Mark's use of the f-word as part of his inner monologue after Sophie tells him she's pregnant.
• Birthday Party Goes Wrong: All of the women Mark is attracted to in "Jeremy's Broke" wind up dancing with other men at his birthday party, and to top it all off he winds up on the hook for (presumably) thousands of dollars Jeremy has stolen from Johnson.
• Bisexual Love Triangle: Elena, between Jez and Gail.
• Bittersweet Ending: If either Jeremy or Mark ends a series on a high note, it's virtually guaranteed that the other will be losing out.
  • Seasonal Beatings has Dobby walk out after one too many insults from Mark's dad and Mark not standing up for her. However, the realization gives Mark the courage to finally stand up to his dad, Jez manages to genuinely commit to his belief in Christmas, and the group finally have an enjoyable Christmas party while Mark's dad goes to sulk by himself. The episode ends on one of the few high notes for both characters.
  • The season seven finale in spades: Dobby agrees to move in with Mark, meaning that Jeremy will have to go through with his plans to move out even though Zahra was waffling. Separated by a fence, Mark goes off to celebrate the New Year with Dobby, taking one last look at Jeremy before the latter is left to get beaten by Super Hans; a rare genuine Tear Jerker for the show.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Darryl, the neo-Nazi Mark unwittingly befriends, sees anything other than full-on white supremacy as Political Overcorrectness. Mark's attempts to point out the distinction to him fall on deaf ears. Sadly very much Truth in Television.
• Black Comedy: Despite involving relatively little death or tragedy outside of a couple of episodes, the show's down-to-earth depiction of everyday miseries easily makes it one of the darkest sitcoms on TV.
  Mark: Jeremy, there are many things I would do to help you, but digging a hole in the wintry earth with my bare hands so that you can bury the corpse of a dog you've killed is not one of them.
• Blackface: Nancy asks Jez to have sex with her while he wears blackface and pretends Nancy is his mother, but he is unable to go through with it.
• Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: Mark mentions that he kicked a dog to death while running through someone's garden, Hans's rental snake is regularly mistreated, Jeremy kills Hans's fish, Flop, and most infamously Jeremy runs over, burns, and eats the corpse of a dog.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word:
  Mark: (Stalking's a very loaded term. I prefer to think of it as "extreme liking.")
• Blatant Lies: Jez and Mark lie all the time, almost always for selfish and/or cowardly reasons.
• Blunt "Yes": On the topic of Crystal Skulls:
  Cally: How could you possibly make one of these, except by some kind of magic?
  Mark: In a factory... from glass...?
  Cally: [scoffs] Oh sure, come on! Could you make that?
  Mark: No.
  Cally: Could anyone?
  Mark: Yes.
• Bookends: In the first episode, Jeremy gives Mark the silent treatment over a perceived slight. In the final episode, Mark does the same to Jeremy.
• Bottle Episode: Nether Zone, almost all of which takes place inside Zahra's apartment building as Mark and Jeremy are locked in and unable to find a way out.
  • Seasonal Beatings, which takes place entirely inside Mark and Jeremy's flat.
  • As does The Party, save for a scene at the beginning where Mark invites Dobby to said party.
• Brainless Beauty: Several of Jeremy's love interests. Big Suze is assumed to be one at first, but Mark finds out she is better at reading other people than she lets on.
• Brick Joke: In "A Beautiful Mind", Super Hans claims he is going off crack. He gives Mark his pipe and tells Mark to refuse to give it back if he comes back asking for it, "even if I hit you, hard, with wood." Later in the episode, Super Hans is back at Mark's door with a large plank of wood, and simply says "Crack." Without missing a beat, Mark gives it back.
  • When speaking to Valerie in series 1, Mark says that there's never been a better time to save up for a very expensive sofa. Cue series 6 and Mark has purchased said sofa, although given that it's on credit, and just in time for JLB to close post-recession, we can assume Mark never managed to save up the hard cash.
  • In Jeremy Broke, Mark is frustrated at Jeremy’s freeloading and makes a list of household items he does and does not have permission to use. He disallows Jeremy from using his razors, stating: “If you’re poor, grow a beard.” Later in the episode, after being kicked out of the house, Jeremy has grown some untidy stubble.
  • In Series 2, Mark, Jeremy, and Daryl go to an Indian restaurant and Jeremy decides to change the order from three peshwari naan, already an entire naan per person, to four, which Mark considers an "insane" amount. Later, in Series 8, Mark has ordered a deliberately excessive amount of Indian food to get Jez to admit that he already ate (and admit he missed an appointment). To emphasize how extravagant the meal is, he mentions there's "a naan and a half each".
  • In Series 4, Mark decides to run away from a disastrous meeting, and he considers going to KFC and having a bargain bucket. Three series later, when Sophie gives birth, Mark again runs away, and this time he does make it to the KFC and has a bucket.
• British Brevity: Straight in that each series is only six half-hour episodes long, but averted in that it has now lasted for nine series (making it the longest-running Channel 4 sitcom ever in terms of series).
• British Stuffiness: Mark and his family.
  Mark: Luckily we're all English, so no-one's going to ask any questions. Thank you, centuries of emotional repression.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Darryl may be a shameless racist, but he is very good at playing the cor anglais.
• But We Used a Condom!: A justified example; after having sex with Sophie, Mark realises that particular condom has been in his wallet so long it's actually expired.
• Call-Back:
  • Mark considering Johnson as a potential Closet Key in Series 1 comes up again in Series 3 when he goes with Sophie to a gay bar. When questioned by a bouncer on if he is gay, Mark admits he is not, but then begins rambling about his previous thoughts about Johnson and the bouncer mistakes him for an Armored Closet Gay.
  • In the series 5 episode "Burgling," one of the gangster teen burglars tells Mark to "Fuck off, cleanshirt!" as he walks out with the TV. Yup, he's the same laughing, evil street kid who bullied Mark, all the way back in the first episode of series 1, and he's even played by the same actor. Both character and actor are now grown up and in their late teens.
  • Possibly an example of Call-Forward: During the same first episode of series 1, the song "Flagpole Sitta" can be heard playing in the background at the bowling alley. From series 2 right through to the end, this song became the show's signature theme tune.
  • Jeremy mentions he wants to fall asleep to his Mr. Nice audiobook in the show's finale, a call-back to it being the only book he has ever read or ever will read in Series 7's "A Beautiful Mind".
• Casting Couch: Jez mistakenly believes he is in one with a woman in the music industry in "Warring Factions".
• Celebrity Paradox: If you've seen David Mitchell's appearances on QI and other panel shows, it's a bit odd to hear Mark make an offhand remark about Jimmy Carr, and even more so to hear him compare his proposed escape from his wedding to Stephen Fry's suicide attempt and temporary disappearance. Still funny, though.
• Chained to a Bed: Jeremy doing this to Super Hans while the latter goes cold turkey is quite possibly the least sexy version of this trope imaginable.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Jez pleads with Zahra not to break up with him, while Mark awkwardly studies a bottle of shampoo:
  Jez: Is this about last night? 'Cause I can do better. I know I can. I didn't even go down on you, which is a great shame because I love to go down on women, don't I, Mark?
  Mark: "Rinse and repeat," always with the "rinse and repeat"...
  • Mark does this with his family, who are keener than him to rake up the past. When Sarah wants to talk about her relationship difficulties, he prefers to talk about the nuts at the pub. When the Corrigans have Christmas dinner, Mark brings up the food and the TV rather than get involved in Sarah and Dan's argument over the family's budget.
• Character Development: Jez begins to understand himself and how pathetic he is more as the series goes on. Also, the entire relationship between Mark and Jeremy; Jeremy goes from looking down on Mark to truly appreciating him in the later series. Even Mark shows signs of caring for Jez.
  • Especially evident in the series 7 Christmas episode, where Jeremy buys Mark some well-thought out presents that he is genuinely appreciative of and even spends 'hours' on the internet researching what turkey he thinks Mark would appreciate best for Christmas dinner. Mark doesn't do the same, but he's tight-fisted with everyone, including his family.
  • At the end of the New Year episode, Mark arranges to move in with Dobby. Jeremy's plans to move in with Zahra have fallen through but even with no place to live, Jeremy realises that Mark wants to move on and lets him go.
  • Averted with Mark. In series 8, he effectively repeats all the mistakes of his relationship with Sophie - up to and including a disastrous trip to the Quantocks. His career has gone backwards, he continues to delude himself about 'Business Secrets of the Pharaohs', and his relationship with Jez has deteriorated.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Jeremy. Lampshaded by Mark in the show's finale while guests are arriving at Jeremy's Surprise Party.
  Mark: When I was doing the invites it became clear that you've betrayed everyone you've ever been close to. That's why the majority declined.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Toni vanishes after Series 2 without explanation, and is only referenced again in passing in the first episode of Series 5.
• Church of Happyology: Jeremy and Super Hans briefly join a cult known as "The New Health and Wellness Centre". The mythology revolves around "negative orgones" that cause human unhappiness. The cult takes personality tests and forbids thinking. They believe in the 7 truths taken from an asteroid that landed on Earth in 1911. Super Hans even uses the phrase "going clear" at the end of the episode, after Mark has persuaded Jez not to move into "the compound".
  Super Hans: Stay and watch your negative orgone level hit the fucking roof if you want. I'm going clear.
• Citizenship Marriage: Jez and Nancy in the Series 2 finale.
• Class Reunion: Mark attends one in "Handyman" and attempts to have an affair with his former crush, Sally Slater.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Mark, after leaving a truly cringeworthy message on Sophie's answerphone.
• Comically Missing the Point: Jez, after many of Mark's insults.
  • From "Quantocking":
    Jeremy: I'll go get us help!
    Mark: No... don't go, Jez. Because... and I'm not being rude... if you go, you won't come back. You'll leave me here to die.
    Jeremy: Aha! So you admit we might die!
  • From "Jeremy in Love":
    Jeremy: Elena is my one true soulmate.
    Mark: It's remarkable, isn't it, that out of the three billion adult women in the world, your one true soulmate happens conveniently to live in the same block of flats as you, rather than, say, in a village in Mozambique?
    Jeremy: [serenely] Who knows how these things happen?
  • Jez and Mark conduct a conversation about "Kenneth" (Mark's dildo) in front of a book group, as if they're talking about a friend. After Mark leaves, Jez turns to the book group and says "Kenneth is what Mark calls his 9-inch dildo!"
  • Johnson does executive super-fast tai-chi. "It's meant to take forty-five minutes, I'm done in ten."
• Comically Small Bribe: Johnson makes an indecent proposal to Jez to sleep with Big Suze. Unlike most examples, it works since, well, it's Jez.

  Johnson:Every man has his price and I judge yours to be... five hundred and thirty pounds.

• Companion Cube: Not as an Audience Reaction, but In-Universe, as Mark and Jez occasionally have tender thoughts for certain objects.
  • After discovering that Sophie has broken his "Piggin' Tea Break" mug:
    Mark: Maybe I'll stick it back to "Harpenden Harpenden Harpenden", see how she likes that! ...No. Can't we leave the mugs out of it? Even the mob never hit the families.
  • As rioting laid-off JLB employees prepare to launch a photocopier down the stairs:
    Mark: (Oh my god. That wasn't my main photocopier, but it was a trusty steed when the main one was busy!)
  • Trying to break into Zahra's flat with a shelving bracket:
    Jez: (Come on, bit! Don't let me down now, bit!)
  • Also a few objects which Mark or Jez have given names: "Gunny" the gun, "Kenneth" the dildo, and a television remote dubbed "The Megatron".
• Competing with a Corpse: Mark feels like he's in this situation after Gerrard, his rival for Dobby's affections, dies of the flu.
• Confession Deferred: Jeremy confessing to snogging Sophie on the day of Mark's wedding, when Mark is desperately trying to find a way out of it.
  Mark: What is it? Did you get off with her?
  Jeremy: No, God, something else, but you've got to promise not to be angry.
  Mark: Ok, I promise. Release the gold!
  Jeremy: Ok. Well, actually, I did get off with her.
• Continuity Nod: The show will often briefly revisit old plot points and character habits as throwaway brick jokes for the more astute fans to pick up on:
  • In "Seasonal Beatings", Mark's dad spills cava on the carpet. Mark remarks "It's okay Dad, the carpet's seen worse." It certainly has seen worse, because one of Sophie's drug-addled friends spilled an entire glass of red wine all over it in series 3.
  • In the pilot episode, Mark is tormented by a pack of kids that refer to him as "Clean shirt". Much later, in season 5, Mark confronts a group of burglars, and one of them once again refers to him as "Clean shirt". Mark's speechlessness and expression of disbelief at this may have something to do with how the actor is the same as the pilot episode's child actor, who has been confirmed to be playing the same character.
  • Before his wedding at the beginning of Series 9, Super Hans winks at two identical boys - the twins he first mentioned in Series 6.
  • In series 3, Big Suze makes a throwaway comment to Mark about how she's auditioning for a theatre rendition of the movie Crash (the one where people get sexually turned on by car crashes). In series 6, she makes the same comment to Mark again, but this time she's auditioning for a theatre rendition of the other movie Crash (the one where people of different races and cultures clash with each other but find out they're all the same).
  • In series 1, Mark establishes his breakfast routine as one slice of brown toast and one slice of white toast, which he thinks of as a main course and a dessert. In series 4, Jeremy tries to make it for him as a wedding day treat, but as their bread was ruined during the previous night’s festivities, all he can come up with is a cream cracker and a ryvita.
  • Jez tells Sophie in series 1 that Mark “draws vicious, horrible cartoons of you, wraps them up in sausage meat, and calls you a sausage muncher”, but she doesn’t buy it. He tells Cally the exact same thing in series 5, but this time she believes him.
  • In Series 1, Jez and Super Hans perform fellatio on each other during a drug binge. In Series 9, while brainstorming ideas for his best man speech at Super Hans’ wedding, Mark notes that he should touch on their friendship “minus all the bad blood and occasional sucking each other off.”
  • In Series 1, Jeff tells Mark that he took Sophie for "a lovely Italian [dinner] and a couple bottles of wine" to make Mark feel insecure about taking his own date to a bowling alley, only for Sophie to later let slip that Jeff actually took her to Pizza Hut. Quite a bit later in Series 8, Mark describes his and Dobby's dinner of macaroni and mushy peas to Gerrard as "a romantic Italian dinner for two" to make him feel insecure about sharing a microwaved pie with Dobby.
  • "University Challenge" from Series 2 and "Threeism" from Series 9 feature numerous parallels:
    • Mark says "This is my chance, and I'm doing nothing. I am now, this instant, missing my chance." in both episodes, referring to making a move on April.
    • In "University Challenge" Jez makes several references to the musician Bez. In Threeism, Mark remarks "I think Bez won Big Brother around then." when reminiscing about first meeting April.
    • Both episodes feature a dinner party.
    • In both episodes, Jez goes on a bizarre pseudointellectual ramble to an academic historian and makes a fool of himself.
    • Both episodes feature Mark agonising over his choice of wine to bring to a party.
    • In "University Challenge", Jez jokes that Mark's decision to study business instead of ancient history is "all ancient history now" which results in a judgemental stare from Mark. In "Threeism", Mark jokes in his monologue that he could tell April that them studying ancient history together was "all ancient history".
    • In "University Challenge" it's mentioned that Jez came down with food poisoning after eating expired hummus he got from a corner shop. In "Threeism", Jez scoffs at Mark for making homemade hummus.
    • In "University Challenge", Jez tells Professor Macleish that Mark would rather be at home watching Ghostbusters than studying history. In "Threeism", April makes an awkward Ghostbusters reference, which only causes Mark to become more smitten with her.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Mark's romantic rival in the early seasons is Jeff, a boisterious Jerk Jock. In later seasons, Mark's romantic rival is Gerrard, a Sickly Neurotic Geek.
• Couldn't Find a Pen: Super Hans (very messily) signs a contract with his own blood in "Man Jam."
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Jez sent dog shit in the post, peppersprayed, tried to punch and possibly subconsciously tried to murder the men - and in one case a woman - who he considered rivals for whatever woman - Toni, Nancy, Big Suze, Elena etc - he was currently infatuated with. In one episode he got so clingy he was threatened by his girlfriend showing kindness to a homeless man. Mark although less extreme still has elements of this trope in his jealous stalking of Sophie.
• Crapsack World:
  • Mark and Jez live in Croydon, where kebab shop stabbings are always in the local news, the police take 45 minutes to respond to burglaries, chavvy kids and muggers lurk on street corners and the corner shop doesn't even sell Alpen. Things get even worse after series 6, when the recession hits and JLB credit goes out of business. It may not even be a deliberate invocation of this trope, because that's a relatively accurate portrayal of Croydon.
  • On a more general note, the vast majority of the show's cast are morally unscrupulous and selfish, and even the relatively nicer characters have their moments.
• Creator Cameo: Jesse Armstrong can be spotted on the bus in the first episode and is the man running up the steps in Gog's film.
• Creator In-Joke:
  • In a 2010 behind-the-scenes special, Robert Webb wondered why Armstrong and Bain would name a character "Super Hans" instead of something normal like "Simon". Five years later, the final season would reveal that Hans's real name is in fact Simon.
  • Early seasons of the show were sponsored by Kenco coffee, who referred to the series as "The Peep Show". Mark would later offer coffee in "The William Morris Years" and refer to it as "the Kenco".
• Cringe Comedy: One of the most painfully socially awkward works in all of fiction. There will be moments you'll be forced to watch through your fingers. Making it even more unbearable is the POV format of the show, making the viewer up close and personal with each cringeworthy moment as if they're partly and inescapably responsible for it. Some standout moments include:
  • At one point, Mark is so desperate not to get married to Sophie that he spontaneously asks a coffee shop waitress to marry him instead. It goes exactly as you'd expect.
  • In "Holiday," Jeremy has to eat a roasted dog in front of its owner who is none the wiser...until she notices the tag.
  • In "Gym," Mark is forced to falsely confess to being molested by a trainer... in front of the innocent trainer.
• Crystal Skull: Mark and Jeremy's manager Cally find one in a store. After Mark initially finds it amusing, Cally tells him that she not only firmly believes crystal skulls are real, but needs him to say he does too for the relationship to move forward. Naturally, Mark caves and lies about believing in them. Later on, when Mark and Jeremy are trashing her trailer, Mark takes the opportunity to destroy the crystal skull as well, but cuts himself on it ("The revenge of Atlantis.").
• Damned by Faint Praise: Mark's toast at Jeremy's 40th birthday.
  Mark: Jeremy... a man I know very well indeed.
  Mark (V.O.): That's probably as far as I can truthfully go on the endearment stakes.
• Dissimile: Jez, after being sidelined from a three-way with Nancy and a hippie:
  Jez: (This is like watching a porno, except I can't see anything, I haven't got a hard-on, and I want to cry.)
• Deadpan Snarker: Constantly. Mark is by far the worst (and snarkiest) offender, but some others also carry the label. Also, since we can hear the character's thoughts, the main pair can get a sarcastic comment in without interfering with the situation.
• Death of the Hypotenuse: A particularly dark example. Just as he's becoming a major character, Gerrard is killed off without warning. Of the flu, no less.
• Department of Redundancy Department: This gem from the fourth season's Wedding episode:
  Mark: I could say he's got a fat head, call him a "jizz cock". Not actually an insult; all cocks are jizz cocks really. Be like calling him a "piss kidney".
• Depraved Bisexual: Jez, in spades.
• Descent into Addiction: Super Hans regularly smokes weed with Jeremy in Series 1, but early in Season 2 he experiments with crack and rapidly becomes addicted to nearly every drug under the sun. His repeated efforts to get clean are always fairly short-lived.
• Dirty Coward: Mark and Jez use their girlfriends as human shields when Matt, the personal trainer they got wrongly sacked, confronts them in the gym.
  Mark: He thinks we can't stay hiding here forever!
  Jeremy: He doesn't know us at all, does he!?
• Disproportionate Retribution: Mark's reaction to Jeremy pretending to forget the Christmas turkey. A rare one-off example of the Berserk Button:
  Mark: Where's the turkey Jeremy?
  Jez: What?
  Mark: The turkey. Where's the turkey?
  Jez: I thought you were getting the turkey.
  Mark: You what?! No turkey?! You FUCKING idiot, Jeremy! You TOTAL FUCKING IDIOT! That was YOUR job, you FUCKING moron! You CRETIN! YOU'RE A FUCKHEAD! THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE! A FUCKING SHITHEAD!!!
  Jez: It was a joke, Mark. I was joking. It was a Christmas joke.
  Mark: Oh, I see. Oh...
• The Ditz: Jeremy has moments of this, as a result of living a relatively work-free life.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: In "On the Pull," Toni has very loud sex with Jeremy to spite her ex-husband Tony, who is gathering up his belongings in the next room.
  Tony: I'm gonna take the cappucino machine; is that OK?
  Toni (while having sex with Jeremy): You're NEVER! TAKING! THE GAGGIA!
• Double Entendre: Surprisingly rare for a Britcom, but at one point Mark describes humanity's basic needs as such: "food, liquid, entertainment, and the release of fluids at regular intervals".
• Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male / Black Comedy Rape: Mark gets raped by Jeremy's stepsister Natalie. On the one hand, after Mark brings it up the next day, Jeremy and Super Hans at least acknowledge it as rape, even if Mark can't quite admit it to himself. On the other hand, the fact that they are calling it rape at all is itself treated as a joke (as if female-on-male rape is so self-evidently ridiculous that treating it seriously is inherently funny). Even then, it is treated relatively casually until Jeremy brings it up to his relatives, and only in the hopes that it will help fulfill his own financial self-interests. Notably, this is one of extremely few episodes where Mark is in no way at fault for what happens to him at the end of the episode (Jeremy blurting out that Natalie raped Mark ends up ruining the book deal Mark was making with Jeremy's stepfather).
• Downer Ending: Most episodes end on one. And eventually the whole series does too: Jeremy and Mark are exactly where they started but feeling age catching up with them. Most of their friends/acquaintances/love interests have moved on either to better things without them (Dobby, Johnson and Jeff), or worse things because of them (Sophie and Hans, with Hans even losing his marriage due to Jeremy's scheme in the finale). Jeremy finally learns to love and appreciate Mark...just as Mark becomes truly sick of Jeremy and is privately desperate to get rid of him.
• Drawing Straws: Used by Super Hans during a paintball match with his own Heads I Win, Tails You Lose rules to send the people he doesn't want hiding in his bunker to their demise.
• Dreadful Musician: Jez and Super Hans. Small moments of badness abound, but the worst ones have to be Jez' song in the pilot, followed by his attempt at playing saxophone during their jam session later on. The band are also shown to be pretty crap, using the most painful rhyming from anywhere, ever.
  Super Hans: Jez, mate, can you stop jamming?
  Jez: You can't stop someone from jamming. That's against jam law.
  Super Hans: Dude, that's not jam, that's just... total fucking marmalade...
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Gerrard dies of the flu in the Series 8 premiere.
• Drugs Are Bad: Zig-zagged. Softer drugs (cannabis, ecstasy, magic mushrooms etc) are regularly taken with few consequences, but Super Hans becomes a high functioning crack addict in series 2, which, being a Black Comedy, is mostly Played for Laughs. There's also the case of Saz breaking down crying after taking speed, which Mark lampshades as being like "my very own anti-drugs advert".
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The theme tune created for the first series, "Pip Pop Plop," gives off a very different tone from the subsequent openings which all use the band Harvey Danger's song "Flagpole Sitta." It did not disappear from the show, however, as a snippet of Pip Pop Plop is used as transition music between scenes in every episode.
  • The show as a whole had a different feel in the first series. Because it wanted to establish its unique gimmick of showing everything through people's eyes, it did it to a greater extent, such as Mark running to the bus and it being shown exactly as it would look through his eyes even if it makes for very shaky footage and close-ups inside the toaster when Jez is making toast. As the series progressed, this was toned-down more and more and now the show is almost completely free of more 'arty' camera positions. Comparing the cinematography of an episode in the first series to an episode in the final series can be slightly jarring.
  • The show was also a lot less plot-driven in the first series. Each episode had a much more simple storyline and scenes contained a lot more banter about topics completely irrelevant to it. There was also not really as much overarching storyline, besides Mark trying to seduce Sophie and both him and Jeremy lusting after Toni.
  • Mark wasn't quite as intelligent in the first series; not knowing that leukemia is a form of cancer, thinking that black people can't be gay, and buying into Jeremy's faux religiosity in the wake of his uncle's funeral would be very out of character for the Mark of series 2 and later.
  • Many episode plots in the first two series had Mark and Jeremy separated and going through roughly the same experiences over the course of their day in parallel - such as in Dream Job, where giving unsolicited advice to their superiors cause them trouble at work, or in University Challenge where they both wrap themselves up in a bizarre web of lies in an attempt to get laid - much of the humour being derived from how differently they react to the same situation. This would still happen occasionally in later series, but as the show went on it became more common to have them together for most of the episode.
  • Super Hans and Mark had a much more antagonistic relationship in Series 1, with Hans deriding Mark as a soulless corporate lapdog and Mark being quite afraid of Hans. In Series 2 however, they're already shown to be on better (albeit still rocky) terms, with Hans respecting Mark's intelligence and Mark enlisting Hans in his plot to break up Nancy and Jez, and moments between them without Jeremy being involved become more common as the show progresses. By the end of the show, they're close enough that Hans asks Mark to be the best man at his wedding.
• Eating Lunch Alone: This turns out to be a saving grace for Mark when he finds Dobby eating lunch alone. He sits next to her after returning to work due to everyone else hating him for jilting Sophie.
• Eccentric Artist: Super Hans. Oddly enough, he actually has more success with his musical ambitions than Jeremy, who is more willing to sell out to help the band than Hans.
• Embarrassing Cover-Up: Mark pretends that he is secretly masturbating to his old high school crush, to keep her husband from realizing they were actually about to have an affair.
• Embarrassing Voicemail: In one of Mark's early attempts to woo Sophie, he leaves her the following voicemail while being egged on by Jez:
  Mark Corrigan: [leaving an answerphone message] Er, Sophie, if you heard that, please ignore it. I'm not a racist, far from it. Anyway... it's good to hear your voice. I know it's only a recording, but you have got a bloody nice voice and... God, uh, I just called up to say hi and then...
  [sings awkwardly]
  Mark Corrigan: Then I go and spoil it all by saying something stupid like... I like you.
  [pause]
  Mark Corrigan: I mean, not that. But anyway, I noticed that the paper in the photocopier is running a bit low so, I know it's not really your job but, you know, so... see you tomorrow.
  [puts the phone down]
• Epiphora: Jez's poem "Fuck You Bush":
  Fuck you, Bush
  It's time to get out of Iraq, Bush
  What were you even doing there in the first place, Bush?
  You didn't even get properly elected, Bush
  Are you happy now, Bush?
  Fuck you, Bush
• Eskimos Aren't Real: Upon hearing her accent, Jez wonders if Elena is from Russia "or one of those other, made-up countries."
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Jeremy's is probably the most obvious; when we first see him, he's dancing to an awful music track he composed while thinking about getting a tattoo of his own face ("Yeah! Double me!").
  • Mark's first scene has him running for a bus because his love interest Sophie is on it.
  • Super Hans is first introduced in a pub ordering a Guinness without the foam logo, espousing his Conspiracy Theorist wannabe-Junkie Prophet beliefs about advertising and the music industry.
  • Johnson is first seen in a training seminar for JLB, where he has a level of inappropriate intensity (and profanity) that would continue to define him.
  • Dobby is introduced willingly Eating Lunch Alone at work while reading a back issue of Viz.
• Even Nerds Have Standards: Played With. Mark turns his nose up at Gerard's hobby of collecting action figures, but later catches himself playing with Gerard with a mix of historical figures and Cybermen.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Mark has this for his boss, Alan Johnson. Jez has it for Stu the monk.
  • Among fans (and Sophie's cousin Barney), it's Super Hans.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Jeremy's attitude towards organised religion ranges from mild disinterest to hostile ignorance, but even he is disgusted by his Aunt Liz when she refuses to grant his Uncle Ray the Christian burial he requested, instead hosting a strange, impersonal Secular Humanist funeral ceremony.
  • Johnson can often be cruel and manipulative towards Mark, but he is so outraged by the way the office treats him in the wake of his botched wedding with Sophie that he suspends Sophie from work and breaks her mug.
  • Whatever is happening at the New Year's Party that is so awful that even the, excuse us, "crack-addled maniac" Super Hans is completely shaken and wants nothing to do with it, having decided to just have a quiet night with a soft drink and a tuna sandwich instead.
• Everything Is Racist: When Mark's dinner guests question his bizarre, cobbled together "Moroccan" food and cocktails in "Three-ism" he accuses them of racism.
• Exact Words: At a stag party, Mark claims to not have a girlfriend when asked if he does, rationalizing in his head that technically, a fiancee is no longer a girlfriend.
• Exiled to the Couch:
  • Jez, after admitting to the affair he had shortly after his Citizenship Marriage with Nancy.
  • In a platonic example, Jez has to move to the couch when he can no longer pay rent and Mark finds another tenant in "Jeremy's Broke".
• Failure Is the Only Option: The entire premise of the series. Each small success just sets the main characters up for a big fall.
• Fake Facial Hair: In one episode, the gang wears novelty mustaches as part of a stag party. The pack has all sorts of mustaches available, which is unfortunate for Mark, who is forced to wear the toothbrush mustache.
• Fake Relationship: Mark has a short lived, very depressing one with Saz where she lets him call her his girlfriend in exchange for room and board.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: After JLB goes under, Mark briefly works as a hired hand for Super Hans, before securing a job as a waiter at a Mexican restaurant, both jobs he despises.
• False Rape Accusation: Mark falsely accuses his fitness instructor of touching his penis in Series 3.
• Flanderization:
  • Johnson's accent and mannerisms get more exaggerated and ridiculous as the show goes on. Possibly justified after JLB closes and his sanity goes down the toilet for a while.
  • Big Suze's haughtiness starts to come to the forefront more in her later appearances, although she is only shown acting this way to Mark, Jez and Johnson, all of whom have treated her pretty shabbily by this point.
  • Sophie starts out as a dotty, occasionally grumpy woman who's easily manipulated by Mark and Jeff. From series 3 onwards, she's the one doing the manipulating and her mean spirited side is much more pronounced.
  • Jez becomes noticeably stupider, naive and more simple-minded after series 5, possibly influenced by the quantity and regularity of the drugs that he consumes.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  Jeremy: [about trying to pimp out Big Suze to Johnson for £530] (God, I only asked her to be a hooker! It's not like I wanted her to work in telesales.)
• Faux Yay: Invoked when Jeremy and Mark attempt to explain their presence in Ben and Zahra's flat. Ben doesn't buy it:
  Ben: That's bullshit! You're not gay guys! You look like shit for gay guys!
• Feather Boa Constrictor: Super Hans shows up to Mark and Jez's party sporting a "rental snake", to Mark's alarm and Jez's annoyance (since Hans uses it to flirt with Jez's current paramour, Elena).
  Super Hans: Calm down, it's just a phallic symbol, not me actual dong!
• Feigning Intelligence:
  • In series 7 Jeremy tries this approach in an attempt to woo beautiful intellectual Zahra. Interestingly it is heavily implied that Zahra is herself using this trope, coming across as something of an intellectual poseur who is neither as deep nor as bright as she seems. For example, she maintains a blog that consists entirely of lists of French films (not rankings or reviews, literal alphabetical lists) and sincerely believes that someone would be interested in publishing them in book form.
  • Mark gets a new, more intellectual flatmate named Jerry in series 9 who loves watching art documentaries, which Mark quickly grows to loathe. Jeremy accuses Mark of this trope, of trying to appear more cultured and highbrow when really he enjoys trashy TV shows and playing Candy Crush.
• Feud Episode: "Warring Factions" has Mark and Jeremy feuding after Mark embarrasses Jeremy so he can get a shot with Toni.
• First-Person Smartass: The thoughts that we, the audience, hear from Mark and Jez are often snarky, if not malicious. Mark's thoughts even more so than Jez's, usually.
• Force Feeding: When Mark finds out that Jez went to an Indian restaurant instead of to the therapy session Mark paid for, he orders Indian takeout and forces Jez to eat it until he confesses.
• Foreign People Are Sexy:
  • Russian Elena.
  • Uncommonly for a Britcom, several foreign love interest characters come from English-speaking countries: American Nancy, Canadian Merry and Australian Saz.
• Foreshadowing: In "Nether Zone", after Mark says that he's sold his clarinet on eBay and got rid of his phone, Jeremy asks him rhetorically if he's going to move into a cave and start drinking his own piss. In the very final episode of the show, Jeremy drinks his own piss, thinking that it will give him more energy. When he attempts to give Mark a stag party, he also suggests that he drink Mark's piss "for a laugh".
• Foul Ball Pit: Mark buries a drunken Sophie in the Kid Farm ball pit, where Hans's snake is also potentially hiding.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Whilst admittedly in Croydon, Mark and Jez live in a rather spacious two-bed flat. Despite the ups and downs of the character's career fortunes (or non-existent in Jez's case) them having to leave the flat or struggling never comes up. Somewhat Subverted with Jeremy in Series 5 and 8; in the former, Mark briefly evicts him because he doesn't pay rent, and in the latter he can't afford a place to stay and begins living in Super Hans's bathroom.
• Freudian Excuse: When Jeremy joins the cult he cites a rocky childhood with his dad leaving when he was 10. More so with Mark; it is implied he had a miserable childhood, with a switch from private to state education, neglect / emotional abuse from his father and infidelity from both parents. This is turned up to eleven in Series 7 when we get to meet Mark's father and understand how much of a cocknob he is.
• Friendship Moment: More than you'd expect from a black comedy. One which stands out is Jez coming to sit in the car with Mark after his wedding day has Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Funny Background Event:
  • Jez dancing alone (and having a great time doing it) while Mark is talking to Sophie in "Wedding."
  • Keep your eye on Sophie's brother Jamie "dancing" to the happy birthday song that the rest of the family is singing to Sophie as she comes down the stairs in "Sophie's Parents".
• Genre Savvy: Jeremy remarks in series 7 that his intentions are to juggle his job and try to have sex with the boss's girlfriend "until it all blows up in [his] stupid face". In the same episode, Mark wonders what he is going to do that will prevent him from staying with Dobby immediately after getting together with her.
• Gift-Giving Gaffe: All over the Christmas Episode. Mark gives both Jeremy and Dobby kitchen tongs, Mark's mother gives him socks depicting sex positions, and Mark's father gives him his old paper shredder.
• Gilligan Cut: After worming his way into tagging along with Mark on a double date to the Quantock Hills, Jez says that he will invite Super Hans as his plus one if Big Suze can't make it, much to Mark's horror. Jez passes it off as a joke, asking Mark to give him some credit, then the show immediately cuts to Jez and Hans on their way to the Quantocks.
• Girl of the Week: In almost every episode in series 5, Mark finds a new love interest whom he thinks might be 'the one', only for them to leave him at the end of the episode.
• Girl-on-Girl is Hot: Played with. Jeremy initially doesn't mind Elena two-timing him with a woman "because it's hot!" but he later becomes very jealous, possibly murderously so.
• Given Name Reveal: Hans's real name (Simon) is revealed during his wedding. Interestingly, Mark asks Hans his real name earlier in the episode while writing his wedding toast, and Hans seemingly doesn't tell him.
• Godwin's Law: Mark the history buff frequently thinks of mundane situations in terms of World War II campaigns, usually with himself in the role of either Hitler or Stalin. Subverted in series 7 when his claim to be Just Following Orders makes him compare himself to... Vince Cable.
• Godwin's Law of Facial Hair:
  • Played for laughs. Jeremy and his stag party all wear novelty fake mustaches from a variety pack. Mark Corrigan naturally gets lumbered with the toothbrush mustache.
  • In "Jeremy at JLB", Mark schedules a rally at a bar where he will put on a satirical play criticizing the German branch of JLB for shutting down the London branch (Dobby tells him that the German branch shut down the London branch to "save the mothership"). In particular, Mark writes the play targeting JLB's German head, Stefan Strauss, and uses nazi parallels to drive the point home. In the play, Mark uses a permanent marker to draw a toothbrush mustache on his face to mock Strauss and compare him to Hitler.
    Mark: I'm having a mini wobble on the mustache. What do you think? I just feel... I'm not trying to associate JLB HQ with the Nazis, that would be reductive. I just want to hint at certain similarities in terms of the unquestioning approach both power structures want their underlings to adopt.
• Going Cold Turkey: Attempted on multiple occasions by Super Hans in an effort to kick his crack addiction, typically with little success.
• Gone Horribly Right: Over the first 7 series, Mark goes through all the stages of a relationship with Sophie, the girl he has an obsessive crush on including marrying her and having a child with her. Emphasis on the "Horribly".
• Gory Discretion Shot: Mark has a look at Sophie's caesarian section in progress, but thankfully, it isn't shown on screen.
• Groin Attack: Super Hans shoots Jeremy in the groin with a paintball gun.
• Grow Old with Me: Mark fantasises about this with Sophie.
• Hannibal Lecture: Mostly done by Mark to Jez, but occasionally vice versa. Often overlaps with "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  Jeremy: Am I evil?
  Mark: No Jeremy, the worst thing anyone could say about you is that you are a selfish moral blank whose lazy cynicism and sneering ironic take on the world encapsulates everything wrong with a generation, but you, my friend, are not evil.
• Haplessly Hiding: In "Nether Zone", Mark and Jez hide behind a shower curtain at Zahra's apartment. When Ben comes in unaware of them and uses the bathroom, Mark and Jez are forced to stand still and listen to it until Ben is done.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: During a paintball game, Super Hans invents his own rules for Drawing Straws that ensures he is the only one of the four people in the bunker who will not be forced to leave.
• Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": Mark idly dreams of the play he'll get round to writing one day, starring "Mark... Borrigan?"
• Heroic Sacrifice: Jez at the end of Series 7 pretends to have somewhere else to stay so that Mark can "move on" with Dobby. He also takes a "wank bullet" for Mark in Series 6 (telling a potential employer that the porn on Mark's laptop was actually his) although this turns out to be completely unnecessary and ends up screwing Mark over instead.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Jez about Mark - "I'm his one!"
• Hit Me, Dammit!: Big Mad Andy wants people to beat him up for therapeutic purposes.
• Humble Goal: When Mark fantasizes about running away from his job, his first thought about what he'll do afterwards is "Maybe I'll go to a KFC and have a whole bargain bucket." ^note which he does in fact end up doing a few seasons later to take his mind off of his and Sophie's baby.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • "My dad died when I was three but I didn't let it screw me up" - Toni, Mark and Jeremy's very fucked-up neighbour.
  • Mark sucking up to Johnson. "It's pathetic, the way [Blair] licks Bush's arse!" "...yeah!"
  • Jez sleeps with his life coach Celia who randomly says she's wearing a grass skirt made of castrated penises during sex and then tells him that there are no boundaries. She asks him what his biggest fantasy is, only to later say that he's unstable and unfit to be a life coach because he said he wanted to cut her hair and eat it. Even after he tells her he was lying to seem more edgy and taboo and points out the hypocrisy, she still thinks this way.
  Jeremy: I thought there were "no boundaries".
  Celia: There are no boundaries. Within limits.
  • Big Mad Andy casually mentions having a therapist in his introductory scene and is very insistent that seeking support for one’s mental health shouldn’t be a taboo. A little later in the episode, he describes his ex-wife having a mental breakdown as her “dumping the kids on me” and disregards the whole thing as “some bullshit about needing to get her headspace together or something.”
• I Am Not Shazam: In-Universe, Jez thinks the shark in Jaws is called Jaws the Shark.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": "Captain Corrigan is flying without a license!"
  • Jeremy calls his "Dirty Harry".
    • To which Mark says (in his head): "If Jeremy's cock is going to be named after any Clint Eastwood movie, it should be The Unforgiven."
• I Call It "Vera":
  • Gunny the gun.
  • "Just a little friend of mine called Mr Cutty Knife!"
  • Kenneth the dildo.
  • The Megatron (i.e. the DVD, video, TV and Sky remotes taped together).
• I Was Just Joking: Jeremy pretending he forgot the turkey as a Christmas joke, which prompts Mark to have a furious breakdown.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
  • Every episode title of series 3 ended in "-ing": "Mugging," "Sectioning," "Shrooming," "Sistering," "Jurying," and "Quantocking." Additionally, the first episode of series 5 and the last episode of series 8 continue the tradition with "Burgling" and "Quantocking II" respectively.
  • There were already a few episodes with character names in the title by this point, but there are notably three episodes in a row in series 5 whose titles all start with "Jeremy's": "Jeremy's Broke," "Jeremy's Mummy," and "Jeremy's Manager."
• If It's You, It's OK: Mark, who is straight, flirts with bisexual feelings for his boss, Alan Johnson, but only Johnson and no other characters.
• Ignored Epiphany: Almost Once an Episode.
  Jez: It's almost like a moral dilemma... except, not really, because nobody's going to find out.
• Impairment Shot: Used to show characters are drunk or high in the first season only, as a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness.
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: In the Series 9 premiere, Mark is in trouble with the bank he works for because he hasn't sold a loan to anyone.
  Mark: (thinking) Fuck! Where's a good old-fashioned gullible idiot when you need one?
  Jez: (enters bank and waves) Mark?
• Inelegant Blubbering:
  • Sophie. Olivia Colman is the master.
  • Jeremy has a blubbering breakdown in Series 2's "Wedding", when Super Hans pretends Nancy cheated on him, and again in "Mark's Women" when he does a personality test at the Church of Happyology.
  Jeremy: Everything's turned from gold... into shit
• Inner Monologue: A big part of the show's approach. We don't just see everything from a first person perspective, but get to hear Mark and Jeremy's weird and wonderful musings.
• Insult Backfire:
  Jeremy: Jesus, you are something else.
  Mark: Thank you very much.
  Jeremy: He took the insult as a compliment! Shit, he could become invulnerable!
• Intentionally Awkward Title: And a misleading one, as it is not a very titillating show at all and even the sex scenes are deliberately filmed to be extremely unsexy, and the POV perspective only amplifies this.
• Jerkass: Various characters exist to drive Mark Corrigan up the wall. In particular, Mark's driving instructor in season 6. His "instructions" are completely unhelpful and he obnoxiously smokes in Mark's face.
• Jerk Jock: Jeff Heaney, an arrogant and confident bully who believes men are programmed to do two things: "Kill and knob".
• Jizzed in My Pants: Mark ejaculates in his pants when Dobby grinds her bum against him in a stationary cupboard.
• Juggling Loaded Guns: "Gunny" is thankfully deactivated, as Jez finds out after he's been waving it at Mark with his finger on the trigger.
• Jury Duty: Jeremy in "Jurying".
• Karma Houdini: Natalie rapes Mark. Not only does she face no consequences, but Mark misses out on a big job opportunity because Jez brought it up.
• Kavorka Man: Jeremy has sex with 14 women and 1 man, all of whom are conventionally attractive (if a bit eccentric) over the course of the series (not including doing "The Bad Thing" with Super Hans or his "handyman" duties), despite being an unemployed musician approaching his 40s by the end of the show.
• Kick the Dog: Two examples that are more literal than usual for this trope:
  • Mark laments having kicked a dog to death offscreen in "Dream Job."
  • In "Holiday," after accidentally running over a fling's dog in his car, Jeremy carries the corpse with him to figure out where to get rid of it, and eventually ends up eating part of it in an unsuccessful attempt to save face in front of the dog's owner.
• Killed Off for Real: Gerrard in series 8.
• Lame Comeback:
  • After Dobby mocks Jeff for constantly making self-aggrandizing and needlessly vindictive jokes against Mark, Jeff petulantly calls her a freak and then storms off.
  • When Mark compares Jeremy to Hamlet, Jeremy tries to insult Mark by comparing him to another Shakespearean character, but he can't think of one so he just calls him a massive twat.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
  • Mark plays World of Warcraft Fantasy Warquest. Dobby is a LARPer, which Mark tries but doesn't enjoy.
  • In one episode Jeremy joins the Church of Happyology The New Wellness Centre.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Jeremy practically lays out his entire Story Arc with Zahra and Ben the second it begins in Series 7: "This is brilliant! I could do the job, have an affair, juggle them both until it all blows up in my stupid face!"
  • Simon asks Super Hans for some weed, and when he doesn't have any, questions why he thought he invited him. Super Hans replies "For my off-key remarks and crazy insights?"
• Lie Back and Think of England:
  • For professional reasons, Jez feels compelled to sleep with his manager even though (unusually for him) he's not in the mood.
  • Jeremy agrees to let Michelle peg him to fulfill her sexual fantasy even though he doesn't want to, because she already did his fantasy and he doesn't want to get a reputation as a deal-welcher. He lies back and thinks of Big Suze's boyfriend, Stu.
• Line-of-Sight Name: Done by Mark looking for a tutor name, with a reference to the Usual Suspects Ending.
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Mark's never-ending search for "the one." Which is silly, because as we all know, Jeremy is it.
• Love at First Sight: Deconstructed. Mark often thinks he's doing this with people, but they almost always turn out to be horrible. If they're not, you can bet that his stalker-ish tendencies will drive them away at the end of the episode.
• Love Letter Lunacy: With post-its and swastikas.
• Love Dodecahedron: Series 1 and 2 has Mark competing with Jeff for Sophie, while simultaneously competing with Jez and Tony for Toni. The main characters taking on two rivals at once isn't uncommon.
• Love Triangle: A staple of the series. Series 1 has Mark/Jez/Toni, series 2 has Jez/Tony/Toni, series 1-3 has Mark/Jeff/Soph, series 5-8 has Mark/Gerrard/Dobby, series 6 has Jez/Gail/Elena, series 8 has Mark/Jez/Dobby, and so on. And this isn't even counting the temporary rivalries that occur with extras.
• Lower-Class Lout: The chavvy kids in episode 1, the muggers in series 3 and the burglars in series 5. Jeremy and Super Hans are also definite examples, albeit fairly realistic and fleshed out.
• Male Gaze / Female Gaze: Since we're ostensibly looking through male or female eyes, the occasional quick breast or crotch shot is to be expected.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl:
  • Mark thinks Sophie is invoking this trope in "Quantocking":
    Mark: (Oh, great, she posted the guide book. I suppose I'm supposed to think that's incredibly charming and French. Well it's not — it's a waste of £8.99.)
  • Dobby seems like one for a while, but a large source of Mark's anxiety in later seasons is the fact that she does have a life of her own and is capable of deciding she doesn't want to settle down with him.
  • Nancy, a ridiculously free-spirited American beauty who is immediately attracted to Jez.
  • Valerie, a cute, quirky goth Sixth-Form College student who inexplicably takes a shine to Mark despite him being much too old for her and still wearing his office clothes at the house party they meet at. Despite Mark's embarrassing behaviour at the bowling alley (including throwing a grapefruit and other items down the lane and damaging the machinery) she still willingly has sex with him at the end of the episode.
• Mate or Die: Jeremy brings this up as a hypothetical scenario. Mark concedes that he would have sex with Jeremy to save their lives provided Jeremy didn't enjoy it.
  Jez: You're saying you could rape me, but you couldn't make love to me? Oh, that is so you. That is you all over!
• Men Are Uncultured: Jez and Jeff. Surprisingly zig-zagged by Mark: although he loves history and classical music and usually seems to be an aversion of this trope, he agrees with Jeremy about a play they're at being interminally dull, and when convincing Mark that he is a better roommate than Jerry (who Mark finds very boring despite being far more intelligent than Jeremy), Jeremy makes a "Not So Different" Remark about how Mark enjoys many of the same trashy things Jeremy does deep down but doesn't want to admit it.
• Mistaken for Dying: Mark incorrectly warns Jez that the woman he is talking to at a party is dying of cancer in "Warring Factions".
• Mistaken for Gay: Jeremy’s stepsister Natalie is a tough-talking soldier who dresses plainly, chugs whisky, and wistfully reminisces about her female role models, so Mark immediately assumes she’s gay when he first meets her. She’s very much straight; later in the episode, she forces herself on Mark, and angrily declares “I’m not a lesbian!” while doing so, which suggests this isn’t the first time someone has made this assumption about her.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: When Mark's son is about to being born, Mark express his confusion to Jez about this moment in his life, confessing he's a pedophobe and always felt "weird" around children. Jez, not understanding the meaning of the suffix "-phobe," says that he's "always wondered" about this (and briefly considers punching Mark's lights out), which Mark calls him out on once he realizes the misunderstanding.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Mark warns Jeremy from trying to sleep with his sister Sarah, since she's coming off a bad breakup.
  Mark: So, you slept with her. You promised.
  Jez: I promised I'd try.
  Mark: You didn't try very hard, did you?
• Mythology Gag: The final episode ends with Mark and Jeremy sitting in their living room, alone and watching television, a nod to the show's original premise (whereby Mark and Jeremy would spend each episode watching TV and commenting on the clips, never leaving the sofa).
• Nerds Are Sexy: Dobby. Mark charmingly admits that she's the first person he feels comfortable around.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: "Oh, so they're fine with hitting, but there's some sort of massive taboo against stabbing."
• New-Age Retro Hippie: A favourite target of the show. Nancy may be the most prominent example, but Jeremy has no problem participating in hippie-esque activities if it increases his chances of getting laid, whereas the far more uptight Mark clearly considers it to be no less than psychological torture whenever he is dragged along.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Whatever is going on in the party at Super Hans's flat, which is too much for either him or Jeremy to handle. David Mitchell has described it as "The worst thing you can possibly imagine but less hygienic".
  • Mark, in "Jeremy's Manager": "We promised not to do the funny voices any more! Not after that week."
  • Throughout the series, Jez and Mark often remind each other of their university days as the El Dude Brothers, which is complemented every time by them pretending to honk train horns at each other. What the nickname means, how they came up with it, or how the train noises came about are never actually explained at any point.
  • There are a lot of these. Mark's internal monologue: "Maybe I should get off with someone at Merry's party, in case Sophie does in Bristol. Yeah, right — when was the last time I got off with someone at a party? Well, there was Carol Bananaface... but that was just a macabre charade."
  • The year dad's British Aerospace shares went kaputt clearly had a life-changing effect on the Corrigan family.
• No Sparks: Jeremy's manager Cally abruptly stops him during sex to tell him it isn't working.
  Cally: Let's not kid ourselves. There's nothing going on here. We're just two planks of wood rubbing against each other.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: In "Gym", Jez applies for a menial job in order to get close to Nancy. The job is so unappealing that even the interviewer can't believe that Jez actually wants it, asking him if he's "writing a novel or something." Jez thinks "Don't want to seem overqualified!" and replies "What's a novel?"
• Odd Couple: Mark (uptight, socially awkward, clean freak) and Jez (relaxed, socially capable, a bit grubby) at first glance. However they're both rather neurotic, with Jez more socially uptight than Mark in many ways. He's desperate to appear cool in front of people like Super Hans, but ends up looking smug and pretentious. Mark, conversely, lacks those particular pretensions and has a better understanding of how dorky and neurotic he really is so rarely bothers to put airs on as a result.
• Once an Episode: In Season 5, Mark wonders if a woman he's met could be "the one" roughly every episode.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Averted in the episode titles, of all things — the finales of Series 2 and 4 are both titled "Wedding."
  • By the end of the series, there are no less than three characters named Simon - Dobby's ex-boyfriend, Mark's brother-in-law, and Super Hans.
  • Two Ians - Mark and Sophie's son is named for his maternal grandfather.
  • There are also two Dans: the victim of Ian's barn-burning in season 4, and Mark's dad in season 7.
• One True Love: Mark thinks this about Sophie, as well as a lot of others. Jeremy is slightly more Genre Savvy about this, but still gets incredibly possessive over his girlfriends.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Fairly noticeable when it comes to Dobby's American boyfriend Gregory, who is played by an Irish actor.
• Oops! I Forgot I Was Married: Nancy and Sophie both forget their marriages to Mark and Jez at some point.
• Operation: Jealousy: Toni having sex with Jez in front of her estranged husband, Nancy telling Jez to sleep on the sofa because she's planning on bringing home a one night stand after discovering he cheated on her, Sophie flirting with Jeff after she walked out on Mark after he tried to get out of marrying her by hiding on their wedding day and Jez's unsuccessful attempt to make Elena jealous by flirting with Mark's sister.
  • At the end of the 4th series Jez realises what (funny though he is) an arse Super Hans is.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Dobby jokingly offers Jez "something that for legal reasons must call itself 'sparkling grape-style drinking wine'."
• Pac-Man Fever:
  • Averted early in the series. Mark is shown to be playing Blitzkrieg and Tetris Worlds, then relatively recent games. PS2 games can also clearly be seen in the flat.
  • "The Playstation! I'd nearly broken through on Medal of Honor! That was 120 hours of quality 'me' time!"
  • "The sofa's out; Jeremy's busy murdering pedestrians on Grand Theft Auto."
  • Played straight: the few seconds we see of him playing Blitzkrieg he's clearly playing the tutorial stage when he says he's spent hours on it. (Blitzkrieg is a long game, but the tutorial should take 15-30 minutes at most.)
• Paintball Episode: The second half of "The Love Bunker."
• Parrot Exposition: Used occasionally, generally when Jez is explaining something unfamiliar to Mark, or vice versa. From the first episode:
  Jez: We're just gradually sliding into a fuck buddy scenario.
  Mark: Fuck buddy?
  Jez: Yeah. A buddy you can fuck.
• Playing Drunk: Mark tries to fake an ecstasy high after being given a pill that he doesn't want to take. Hilarity Ensues.
• Plot Parallel: Super Hans falls in love with a woman who speaks zero English, saying she's The One - paralleling in one episode most of Mark and Sophie's relationship.
• Poke the Poodle: One episode has Jeff humiliating Mark by ordering him to buy a condom, a condom that Jeff would use with Sophie. Mark thinks of getting "revenge" by either buying an "ultra strong" one (so that "he won't feel a thing") or by poking a hole in it, but since the former could result in Jeff performing better and the latter could end with Sophie getting pregnant, Mark has to settle with buying a brightly colored condom in the hopes that Jeff's dick will look ridiculous during the act.
• Poor Communication Kills: Mark is very bad at explaining his awkward predicaments to others.
• Poor Man's Porn: Jeremy uses a fantasy magazine and a bill with the Queen on it as masturbation fodder on separate occasions when there turns out to be nothing else available.
• Post-Robbery Trauma: Mark is mugged in the first episode of Series 3, and finds himself unable to sexually perform as a result.
• Potty Emergency:
  • Jeremy locks Mark in his bedroom during a mushroom party while Mark is ill, and Mark has to choose between pooing in a bag or waiting to be freed so he can poo in a bathroom with no door.
  • Jeremy desperately needs to pee leading up to Mark's wedding, and ultimately pisses himself in the church when he can't hold it any more.
• P.O.V. Cam: The show.
• Practically Different Generations: Sophie seems to be about 12-15 years older than her brother Jamie, a university dropout who still lives with their parents. Their relationship isn’t really explored much on-screen, but they’re close enough that Sophie goes out of her way to buy weed for him.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: In the final scene of the series, Jeremy talks about what his sign-off would be if, hypothetically, he were to kill Mark.
  Jeremy: "You always loved history, Mark. Well now you can be part of it." Bang.
• Protagonist-Centred Morality: Views on whether Mark, Sophie, or here's a crazy option, both of them, were to blame for the many ills that came from their relationship, differ wildly amongst fans.
• Raging Stiffie: Mark confronts Jez about playing loud music in "Dance Class" while he is having sex with Nancy, only for Jez to open the door visibly still erect.
• Reality Has No Soundtrack: Aside from a few musical bumpers during scene transitions, all music featured in the series is diegetic in order to further ground the series in realism.
• Recurring Extra: JLB credit is packed with these.
• Revenge Is a Dish Best Served: Mark tries to get back at a man who conned him when the man shows up at the Mexican restaurant where Mark works by urinating in his jalapeño sauce, but Mark gets caught in the act and sacked.
• Riches to Rags: A couple of moderate examples. Once JLB goes bust, Mark falls from a respectable management position to being Super Hans' personal lackey. Later we find that Johnson has lost his house, lost his job and has been reduced to starting up consultancy businesses that are doomed to failure. Word of God says he was going to be Driven to Suicide, but that plotline was discarded as being too dark even for Peep Show.
• Right Behind Me: Jeff and Johnson manage to trick Mark into pulling this on Dobby at Johnson's New Year's Eve party.
• Roommate Com: The show begins with the typical Odd Couple setup: pot-smoking slacker Jeremy is roommates with serious office worker Mark. Within the first few episodes it slowly becomes apparent that they and everyone else in their lives are all terrible, terrible people. Sometimes veers into Work Com territory when the plot involves Mark's coworkers, but the core of the show always comes back to the two roommates and their dysfunctional romantic lives.
• Runaway Groom: Mark attempts to be this when he hides in the church on his wedding day rather than tell Sophie he doesn't want to marry her. However, after getting caught hiding he goes through with the ceremony only for a humiliated Sophie to give him a dose of Laser-Guided Karma and dumps him just after they married.
• Running Gag:
  • In what is clearly an inside joke between them that dates back to their college days, Jeremy will sometimes imitate a train horn, with the expectation that Mark will do it back, but Mark is almost always unenthusiastic about doing so. The one time Mark initiates this, it's Jeremy who isn't excited about doing it.
  • Jeremy and Super Hans rename their band so frequently that they can hardly keep track of what they're currently called.
  • Every time Jez is fired from a band, fired from a music-related job, etc. Super Hans protests and exclaims that he did all he could to prevent it, that it got him angry and that he nearly threatened the firers with an ultimatum, etc. but it's plainly obvious to Jez and the viewers that he just went with the flow, every time.
  • Jez often uses the rather extreme "I love you" line on first dates as a guaranteed way of achieving sex. He has a surprising amount of success with it.
  • The easy-listening band The Lighthouse Family, particularly their hit single Ocean Drive. Referenced in the very first episode where Super Hans refers to music industry execs (and by extension all other office workers, including Mark) as having their "ties done up to eleven clicking their fingers to the fucking Lighthouse Family". Both Mark and Johnson are shown listening to Ocean Drive, when Mark is running for the bus in the first episode of series 1 and playing in Johnson's car when he picks Mark up after the conference in episode 4. The song is also used for the end credits of the same episode. The gag shows up again in series 5 during Mark and Jez' party; Mark plugs his iPod in and this it is the first song to play, to Jeremy's disgust.
• Sadist Show: Pure and simple.
• Sanctuary of Solitude: Jeremy stumbled across Mark praying in the church on the latter's (much-dreaded) wedding day. Mark unconvincingly insisted he was simply "kneeling".
• Seamless Spontaneous Lie: Let's just say Mark and Jez get a lot of practice in this department.
  Mark: [to Dobby and Elena] It's probably just the crazy old guy who keeps ringing our doorbell. And if you answer, he tries to grab your balls and make you buy his Rough Guide to Barcelona!
  Jez: (Where did that come from? That was nice lying.)
• Second Episode Introduction: Jeff.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • Jeremy gets chlamydia twice in the series; once sometime before series 3 and the next in series 5. The first time round he thinks it's 'symptomless' yet the second time knows absolutely nothing about the disease and must have it explained to him.
  • In the Series 5 premiere Mark mentions that the condom in his wallet is 2 years off expiry, but in the finale of the same series he realises that the condom has been in his wallet so long that it has worn down enough for him to accidentally get Sophie pregnant.
  • Also, Mark manages to drive Johnson's car very slowly in first gear in series 1, yet in series 6 he knows so little about finding the biting point that he damages the clutch of his instructor's car.
  • In Series 3, Mark comments that Jeremy thinks potatoes count as a vegetable. In Series 7, Jeremy fails to buy potatoes for Christmas because he doesn't think they count as vegetables.
• Serious Business:
  • Johnson talks about the mundane middle-management machinations at JLB with the air of one dealing in matters of life and death, speaking in unrestrained jargon of his own invention. Mark nearly always follows his lead.
  • Mark, a history buff, envisages everyday social interactions in terms of epic historical military campaigns.
    Jez: No Mark. I only told you for a laugh. You promised not to tell!
    Mark: Hitler promised not to invade Czechoslovakia, Jeremy. Welcome to the real world!
  • Super Hans takes a huge amount of speed during a paintball game and becomes dogmatically opposed to the other team, suggesting he and Mark capture one and subject them to Cold-Blooded Torture.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Mark's inner monologues frequently display his extensive vocabulary. Contrasts violently with the simple-minded Jez.
  Mark: Friendship, loyalty, they're just fusty old words like 'sixpence' and 'codpiece' to you, aren't they!
• Sextra Credit: Jeremy attempts this to pass his life coaching course. However, he is so revolted by the instructor's roleplaying kink — a skirt made of severed penises — that he feels he has to make up an equally depraved kink in order not to seem boring. The instructor finds Jeremy's fake kink — cutting off her hair and eating it — so offensive that she fails him.
  "There are no boundaries [in the bedroom]... within limits."
• Shame If Something Happened: Super Hans and Jeremy try and intimidate someone by performing ridiculously tame acts of vandalism to their flat.
  Jez: We want our money back, and we're feeling a little clumsy.
  [knocks over a tiny stack of letters]
  Jez: Whoops.
• Ship Tease: In the third series episode Mark and Big Suze hang out together while Jez is dating Mark's sister. They hit it off very well and Mark quickly develops a crush on her that Suze seems completely oblivious to... at least until the end of the episode when Mark 'dumps' her for the sake of Jez and it is hinted she might have had a soft spot for Mark too.
• Shout-Out: Jeremy remarks when watching a play:
  Jez: I've got Heat on DVD at home. We're watching this, when for less money, we could be watching Robert De Niro AND Al Pacino.
• Simple-Minded Wisdom: When Mark is trying to write a business proposal in the middle of a strip club while a stripper is grinding on him, the stripper tries giving him pointers. Downplayed in that Mark is too stubborn to listen to them.
  Stripper: You haven't written very much, have you? You should try and sum up all your aims in the first line.
  Mark: This is a very complex business proposal, so I really don't think you could sum up all the aims in one line.
  Stripper: Well, if you can't sum up all your aims in the first line, then they're too diffuse.
  Mark: Look, my aims are not too fucking diffuse, okay?
  Stripper: Fine. Jesus!
• A Simple Plan:The Party. Jez and Mark attempt to host a party in the flat. Jez to lockdown Elena, and Mark to win over Dobby. Complications arise...
• Silent Treatment: Mark gives Jeremy the silent treatment in the show's finale after Jeremy's complaint gets Mark fired.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Jeff is a prototypical example of this trope.
• Skeleton Key Card: Subverted when Jeremy and Mark are locked in the foyer of Zahra's flat.
  Jeremy: Oh fuck, this is impossible. It's really irresponsible of films to make out this is an option at all, because it just isn't.
• Skinny Dipping: The group goes skinny dipping in "Dance Class", much to Mark's chagrin.
• Slipping a Mickey: Jeremy pours an entire bottle of medicine in Mark's tea while Mark is recovering from an illness so that Mark will sleep through his mushroom party in "Shrooming".
• Small Name, Big Ego: Jeremy acts like one. Unusually, he's aware of how pathetic he is but hasn't got a clue how else to behave. He does become a lot more aware of this as the series goes on, but he's still a lot less awesome than he thinks he is.
• Snap Back: Relationships occasionally reset between episodes, at least early in the series. For example, no matter how badly Mark messes up with Sophie they are back on speaking terms in the next one.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Inverted with baby Ian, who was conceived in 2008, born two years later, was still an infant in 2012, and was only a toddler as of his last appearance in 2015. The probable explanation is that series 8 appears to be set soon after series 7 and series 9 is explicitly set 6 months after 8 (rather than 3 years in real life).
• Sociopathic Hero: Mark and Jez, if you don't mind stretching the definition of heroism quite a bit.
• Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying: Super Hans is under the impression that the snake pattern mnemonic ^note traditionally used to tell venomous coral snakes apart from harmless milk snakes, although even the "correct" version is not always accurate as both types of snakes come in many different patterns beyond the two specific ones referred to in the mnemonic goes "Red next to black, jump the fuck back. Red and yellow, cuddly fellow." This is the precise opposite of the way it actually goes, although the snake he has with him is in reality a milk snake and would not have been a cause for alarm despite Mark's rebuttal to Hans that he isn't even following his own mnemonic since the snake has a "red next to black" pattern.
• Speech-Centric Work: With the exception of brief establishing shots, pretty much every second of the show features someone talking (or audibly thinking).
• Speed Dating: Mark attempts this in "Jeremy's Broke", but doesn't get any matches.
• Speed Sex: Sophie mentions during couples therapy that Mark finishes far too quickly during sex, and in a later season he ejaculates in his own pants when Dobby rubs her clothed bum on him in the supply closet for a few seconds.
• Spell My Name With An S:
  • Jeremy's surname is officially "Usborne," but it has been rendered as Osborne, Usbourne, etc. on various advertising materials. Lampshaded in series 8 when Mark gives him a fake life-coach degree and Jez remarks that Usborne is spelled correct "with a U and everything."
  • For the hearing-impaired, Jeff's name frequently alternates between "Jeff" and "Geoff" in subtitles; this is made even better when Mark and Sophie discuss names for their baby and Sophie is considering "Geoffrey," which raises Mark's hackles, although Sophie says the name comes from her uncle.
• Spin the Bottle: Jez and Mark end up kissing each other while playing, both trying to prove to the women they're with that they're not uptight.
• Stalking is Love: This is Mark's usual strategy for all women:
  • He reads Sophie's e-mail account, spies on her through his office's security camera, manipulates situations to spend time with her and follows her on dates.
  • Let's not forget he managed to 'do a Columbo' and collect information on April the shoe shop girl, then track her down and find her at university.
  • Mark also goes so far as to catch five buses to get across town to see Dobby, as well as spying on her when she was at a party with Gerrard. Luckily for him, Dobby knows Mark better than himself so takes a more lenient stance on his behaviour than Sophie did.
• Status Quo Is God: If something good happens to either Mark or Jeremy halfway through an episode (a chance for a job Mark actually enjoys, an opportunity for Mark to co-write a book on his interests, etc.), it's almost guaranteed that it'll disappear by the end of the episode. Similarly, if it ever seems like the two are going to stop living together for one reason or another, expect it to only last an episode.
• Stop Saying That!: In "Jeremy at JLB," Jez keeps saying that things are "Poof! Gone!" with a pretentious hand gesture. Mark asks him to cut it out after the fourth time.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Jez and Super Hans are paired off for the Hat Game at Simon's 30th birthday, and Jez is able to guess specific bands instantly off of extremely broad clues that Hans provides.
• Stunned Silence: In "Seasonal Beatings," after Mark's dad asks him why he doesn't "put a muzzle on [his] woman," everyone just stares at Mark, awaiting his response.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • The song that Jeremy is shown working on in the very first scene of the series. (One of the Series One extras is a terrible video for it.)
  • Mark's video CV, an extra from the Series 1 DVD, also qualifies.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial:
  • "Of course I did all the lessons! What else would I have been doing, watching the frankly overrated The Wire on DVD day after day?"
  • "The first thing to say is that this is definitely not pyramid selling."
  • "What happened?" "It's not piss."
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: "A Beautiful Mind" is arguably the only episode in all nine series of the show where both Mark and Jeremy triumphantly get exactly what they want in the end without some sort of curveball screwing everything up at the last minute.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Controlling, scary, kinky, insane Michelle, who turns up between series to replace controlling, scary, kinky insane Toni.
  • Sophie's mildly unhinged, Jeremy-worshipping younger brother Jamie is replaced by Sophie's mildly unhinged, Jeremy-worshipping young cousin Barney. According to a 2019 interview with Paul Clayton, the character of Barney was swiftly created to take Jamie’s place when Joe Van Moyland, Jamie’s actor, seemed to drop off the face of the earth after agreeing to do the episode and even participating in a script read-through.
• Take Our Word for It: Just what was going on in the locked room at that New Year's Eve party? It must have pretty depraved, given that Super Hans, the crack-addled maniac, acts as if he's witnessed a war crime, and Jeremy refuses to elaborate to Mark what it is after peeking inside.
• Taking the Bullet: Jeremy takes a paintball to the groin to shield Dobby after realizing he is in love with her.
• Talking Heads: Due to the way the show is filmed, it's a fresh spin on the old formula.
• The Bus Came Back: Big Mad Andy returns in Series 8, having not been seen since his first episode of Series 3. Liam Nobel stated in a 2020 interview that Big Mad Andy's part in the script was originally a new character of a builder until someone pointed out that the character was so much like Big Mad Andy they changed it that instead.
• The Ghost:
  • Pedge, their friend from university, is often mentioned, usually when referring to a fun Noodle Incident that may or may not have also involved The El Dude Brothers, but never makes it onscreen.
  • Mr. Patel, the corner store owner, is mentioned a handful of times throughout the series without being seen.
• Thinks of Something Smart, Says Something Stupid: Occurs constantly due to the nature of the show.
• This Is Reality: On a few occasions.
  • In "Conference":
    Mark: [about his inability to make a business presentation for Project Zeus] The Truth?! Soph, this isn't an advert, this is real life where cocks get chewed off and arses get stuffed with compliance reports!
  • And then again in "Wedding", when Mark is hiding from Sophie in the church and Jez has pissed himself, causing the urine to seep through the cracks in the floorboards:
    Mark: Oh my God, this has got to be a dream! Nothing this bad could ever happen in reality!
• Those Wacky Nazis: "I'm becoming the Führer! The Führer of Laughs!". Mark also dresses up as a German soldier for a WWII re-enactment - unfortunately, the other man posing with him is a Neo-Nazi.
• A Threesome Is Hot: In series 3, Jez tells his girlfriend that a threesome with two women is his ultimate fantasy, and she surprisingly agrees to do it - unfortunately for him, because he had been trying to break up with her. He gets hyped up for it hoping the other woman will be Big Suze, but instead it's a dour High-Powered Career Woman with a foot injury who seemingly wants nothing to do with him. The experience is so depressing for Jeremy that it leads him to briefly take up day drinking.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: One of the New Year's Eve parties where Mark and crew are trying to find Dobby; it's so depraved it makes Super Hans think it's too much. Mitchell describes it as "the worst thing you can possibly imagine but less hygienic".
• Unconventional Food Usage: Jez and Nancy use Mark's yoghurt for sexual purposes.
• The Un-Reveal: Just what was happening at Super Hans' New Year's Eve party which was so horrific?
  • You don't need to know.
• Unseen No More:
  • Big Suze is mentioned starting in the second episode, but does not appear until series 3.
  • Mark's father, Dan Corrigan, was semi-legendary until series 7.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Mark and Jeremy are strange variations of this. Even though Mark's an obsessive stalker and Jeremy is a deluded loser, they still veer between hateable and sympathetic.
• Unusual Euphemism: Mark buys a dildo to potentially spice up his sex life with Dobby and names it "Kenneth" to avoid the awkwardness of mentioning what it actually is around others. At the end of the episode, after they've had a conversation about "Kenneth" in front of Jeremy's book club and Mark leaves with Dobby, Jeremy explains to the club "Kenneth is what Mark calls his 9-inch dildo".
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Both Mark and Jeremy have unwittingly done exactly the wrong thing, at exactly the wrong time, to ruin the other's happiness. Many times.
• Upper-Class Twit: Big Suze has a stereotypical Queen's English accent, and doesn't really notice much of what's going on around her.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Mark and Jeremy epitomise this trope.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Thanks to the POV nature of the show, when Mark chucks up at a theme park, we get to see the whole thing first-hand. Nice!
  • ...and of course, Mark at the party: "SNAKE!"
• Waxing Lyrical: Possibly unintentional but after becoming an arsonist Mark described himself by saying, "I'm a Firestarter; a twisted Firestarter".^note Like the song Firestarter, albeit he's added an "a" before twisted
• Webcomic Time: It's never made exactly clear how time passes in the world of Peep Show. In Series 5 at least two years pass without us noticing, and Sophie's pregnancy takes a series and a bit. Her subsequent labor takes 13 months.
• Wedding Finale:
  • Season 2 ends with Jeremy and Nancy's wedding
  • Season 4 arc is centered around Mark and Sophie's wedding. Naturally the actual ceremony happens in the last episode.
  • Season 6's finale is set at Gail and Elena's wedding.
  • The final season (though not the final episode) features Super Hans's wedding.
• Wham Line: "Gerrard's dead."
  • Although not spoken aloud there's a big one from Jeremy in "The Love Bunker", as he and Dobby discuss how the news became boring after 9/11.
    Jeremy: Exactly. (I love you. Holy fuck where did that come from!?)
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • We never find out whether Johnson swindles Mark out of £2000 for the management consultancy scheme or whether he gets it back.^note It's alluded to in a throwaway line in the second episode of series 8 when a vanity publisher asks Mark for £2000 to publish "Business Secrets of the Pharaohs," and Mark thinks, "Just remember Johnson. Keep your panties dry until the big guy's hard."
  • After being a regular recurring presence around Apollo House in series 1 and 2, neighbour Toni abruptly vanishes from series 3 onwards, with no in-show explanation provided. Word of God says they couldn't get the actress (Elizabeth Marmur) to return to the show, so Toni's planned appearance in series 3 episode 1 was shifted to a new guest character, Michelle.
  • How, exactly, does the Gog story end up? When we leave it, Jez and Super Hans are about to beat him up for money.
  • Nancy disappears from the show after Series 4, last seen snogging Super Hans on a bench at Mark's Wedding. In Series 8, Mark recommends that a sexually frustrated Jeremy should "see what Nancy's up to", but we never do get to find out.
  • Big Suze also disappears permanently after series 7, but her appearances gradually reduce in frequency, making her absence less jarring.
  • Elena appears in series 6 and is a major supporting character for the duration of the series, but disappears afterwards and is only mentioned once more in the series 7 opener [as it's set immediately after series 6]. Her (presumably ex-)fiancée Gail does appear again in series 7 and 8 as Mark's boss at a Mexican food place and as a candidate for chairperson of Mark's apartment building, but doesn’t mention Elena.
  • Likewise, Zahra and her relationship with Jeremy form the backbone of much of series 7, but she is immediately forgotten come the next series.
• Who's Your Daddy?: Exactly who is the father of Sophie's baby? It's Mark.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: After a drug binge with Super Hans during "Mark Makes a Friend", Jez spends the rest of the episode trying remember something he calls "The Bad Thing". It's eventually revealed to be Super Hans blowing him.
• With Friends Like These...: Mark and Jeremy constantly betray one another, by attempting to steal the other's love interest, framing the other to avoid the consequences of their own actions, or out of simple revenge.
• Wunza Plot: One's a failed musician who think's he's a sex god. One's a geeky stalker who thinks he's a genius. Tropes Are Not Bad, indeed.
• The Yardies
  Jeremy: Or I could shoot Martin, or I could hire some yardies to shoot Martin.
  Mark: Jeremy, the yardies aren't going to solve all your problems. Why do you always think that the yardies are the answer to everything?
  Jeremy: [thinking] The yardies will help me. I just need to get a number for the yardies.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Most episodes can be summed up as "Mark narrowly avoids a fleeting moment of happiness". Dobby goads him about it.
  • He finally gets a Throw the Dog a Bone moment at the end of series 7's opener.
  • Lampshaded and then subverted in series 7 episode 2, where Mark has finally managed to get together with Dobby and wonders what's going to ruin it, thinking that it's likely to be something he says... and then he manages to end the episode still with Dobby and even managing to consolidate his position.
• Yoko Oh No: Super Hans fears that Jeremy's marriage will ruin their music careers, which is why he teams up with Mark to split them up.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Hey, things are wrapping up, and Mark seems to have talked his way out of that zany misunderstanding. For once it looks like things are going to be all — wait, there's ten minutes left in the show? Crap.