Monster High

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Where the ghoul kids rule.

Welcome to Monster High, Mattel’s latest franchise launched in July 2010. Monster High revolves around kindhearted, clumsy teenager Frankie Stein, who is just starting off at a new school and itching to experience life for the first time. She makes friends quickly- there's Draculaura, a chatty Granola Girl; Clawdeen Wolf, a wannabe fashionista; Lagoona Blue, a somewhat spacy champion swimmer; and Ghoulia Yelps, the smartest kid in school. There’s also Cleo de Nile, Rich Bitch and Royal Brat extraordinaire, who rules the school's in-crowd with an iron fist, and her loving but long-suffering boyfriend Deuce Gorgon.

The dolls have been noted for their unique concept and high doll quality, including ball-jointed limbs and individual face molds for each of the characters. A series of books done by The Clique writer Lisi Harrison currently being made, and a movie in 2012. A Halloween special aired on Nickelodeon on October 31, 2010 and can now be seen online, with another special following in 2011 and a Valentine's Day special and Spring Break special in 2012.

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This franchise contains examples of:

• Accidental Athlete: Frankie in the webtoon "Fear Squad".
• Adaptation Decay: Most fans ignore the book series.
• Adorkable: Both Ghoulia and Jackson count.
• Afraid of Blood: Draculaura, the vampire, has a tendency to faint even at the mere mention of blood.
• All-Ghouls School: Except one Normie
• All There in the Manual: The official website has bios for all the characters and things like their favorite foods, colors, school subjects, and their flaws (which tend to be actual monster attributes rather than simple informed flaws). The dolls come with little diaries written by the charactes themselves that talk about their daily lives. Even the licensed game has bits of continuity you won't get anywhere else!
• Alpha Bitch: Cleo in Season 1, then Toralei, and later Nefera (who outdoes them BOTH!) in Season 2.
• Alternate Continuity: The book, which has Frankie trying to blend in at an all-human school and has a human best friend, Melody. There is also some Product Placement.
  • The half-hour special on Nickelodeon seems to be a different continuity from the webisodes, though the animation is exactly the same.
  • The Webisodes seem to mostly follow the diaries, but do differ at some points. At the very least, three different continuities.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Within the main cast alone, Ghoulia is greyish-blue, Lagoona is aqua blue, Frankie is mint green, and Draculaura looks generally like a fair-skinned Caucasian until you realize she's pink.
• Ambiguously Brown: Clawdeen.
• Animated Adaptation: Despite there being webtoons based off of the dolls, fans have wondered when an animated series would happen. So far seeking out interest for the show is at hand.
• Animation Bump: The animation in the theme school fright song's music video (as well as in this commercial) is far more fluid and detailed than the animation in the web shorts.
• Art Evolution: Volume 2 of the webisodes has given the show a slightly new look.
• Art Shift: The 3rd special's in CGI.
• The Atoner: Draculaura's diary actually implies that she is one. When her dad tells her that he wishes she'd return to "proper" vampire ways, she writes that she is resolved to never go back to how she was before.
  • Strongly implied with Spectra Vondergeist.
• Australian Accent: Lagoona
• Awesome but Impractical - The girls' sports uniforms, recently released for the dolls highlight, this aspect. For instance, Clawdeen's soccer uniform is pretty standard except for the high heeled shoes. Granted, their feet are shaped this way, but her shoes are open toed. The fearleading shoes make use of the high heeled foot by adding a lightning shaped high heel & Lagoona's platform surfing sandals also counts, though this is justified in her own diary with her saying that she regularly surfs in them.
  • The boys aren't immune either. Well, Deuce isn't, rather. His usually much darker lenses, the ones that prevent him from stoning people, are replaced with a much clearer green pair for his Casketball uniform. Granted, they look nicer on him, but would likely turn everyone into stone for the alloted 24 hours.
    • Maybe the shades don't have to be dark to prevent him stoning people. Perhaps all that is needed is a barrier.
• Batman Gambit: Cleo and Clawdeen each have one.
  • After the Fearleading Squad has their routine stolen by Toralei and it's given to Smogsnorts, a rival school of vampires in "Road to the Monster Mashionals," Cleo remembers what Scary Murphy put them through and telling the girls "Follow my lead" and "Just believe" leads them into an improvised new routine (doubles as Indy Ploy) that beats the Smogsnorts team, wins Scary Murphy's respect and the Spirit Staff--and foils Toralei's revenge.
  • "Nefera Again" has Clawdeen pick up with her hearing that Toralei notices Nefera wears the hottest fashions weeks before anyone else has them. This leads to the girls assembling an ensemble of Impossibly Tacky Clothes (from what might be the WTH Costuming Department) claiming they're the latest fashion trends--but she should know this as Nefera's a famous model, right? Nefera asks they be handed over to her--and with the new outfit becomes the laughing-stock of the Maul. (As a bonus, Toralei and her Girl Posse followed suit.)
• Beach Line: Gloom Beach. Oddly enough it isn't used as an excuse for fanservice, all the girls wear one piece bathing suits, with Draculaura's looking like one from the 1920's. Only Cleo wears a bikini.
  • And a second one, Skull Shores, has been announced for 2012.
• Bland-Name Product: Mr. Where talks about kids these days being plugged into their iCoffins all the time.
• Breather Episode: Daydream of the Dead. Prior to this we get relationship troubles, Spectra making a nuisance of herself, and a cliffhanger with Cleo's sister. This episode is an advertisement for the MH booth at San Diego Comic-Con.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Surprising, since this is a flash cartoon.
• Carnivore Confusion: Lagoona has moral qualms about dissecting one of her amphibian bros but her favorite food is listed as sushi.
  • Word of God states that she is more closely related to amphibians than fish, which actually makes sense, considering that her crush, Gill, has to wear a water tank on his head, while she doesn't.
  • Also, sushi refers to the rice with sugar-vinegar dressing on which the toppings, or with with the filling, is served. There are many sorts of non-seafood sushi.
• Combat Stilettos: The cheerleading fearleading squad wears 5-inch platform heels as a part of their uniform.
• Composite Character: Frankie's parents, as far as characterization and backstory go. Her father is a combination of the doctor and the monster, and her mother is a combination of Elizabeth and the Bride. The diaries have mentioned that the book Frankenstein exists in the MH universe as an inaccurate biography (enough that Dr. Stein begins speaking Angrish when it is mentioned).
• Cool Pet: All the characters have them.
• Cool Shades: Deuce wears them at all times, but that’s so he doesn’t turn anyone into stone.
  • The Gloom Beach dolls each have customized one for their character, including Cleo's, which are made to look like mummy wrappings, and Frankie's, made to look like electric bolts.
• Cosmetic Catastrophe: In one episode, Cleo does this to Draculaura as a practical joke. It backfires as the horrible makeup job impressed Draculaura's crush.
• Cross-Dressing Voices: Holt and Jackson are both played by Cindy Robinson; Ghoulia's voice is provided by Audu Paden, a male producer of the cartoon.
• Cute Little Fangs: Draculaura, Clawdeen Wolf, and Abbey Bominable.
• Cute Monster Girl: The whole main cast (including some cute monster boys as well).
• Dark Is Not Evil: Most of the student body are pretty much of the same mindset as your average teenager, not really having an interest in the bloodthirsty ways of their respective lineages. Though it may be subverted in characters who may have done some less than genial things, but soon decided against it.
• Dancing Theme: The theme school fright song. Also counts as a massive Ear Worm.
• Dance Party Ending: Happened twice, but for a good reason, so. Once in the first episode "The Jaundice Brothers" as well as the special.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Cleo's major motif in the first season of the webisodes & first edition diary.
  • Cleo breaks down in tears in "Kind Campaign: The Shockumentary." She was in the Kind Campaign's booth the longest (she has the most issues to deal with) and cries when she comes out with mea culpa in heart.
• Did Not Do the Research: The webtoon title "Cyrano de Ghoulia" doesn't really make sense, since Ghoulia is one being fed lines to court a boy while in the story Cyrano De Bergerac it was Cyrano who was feeding lines to someone else.
  • Alternately, the title could refer to Ghoulia having a Cyrano, as "de" is "of" in the context of the punned name. Thus, "Cyrano of Ghoulia", or "Ghoulia's Cyrano".
• Disaster Dominoes: Done psychologically by Nefera in "Kind Campaign: The Shockumentary." Nefera's insulting behavior to Cleo sets in motion a series of events that causes fights to break out at Monster High. Ghoulia calls in the Kind Campaign for help before it gets out of control.
• Eighties Hair: Clawdeen, Lagoona, and Ghoulia.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Draculaura's outfit shows elements of this.
• Enemy Mine: "Neferamore" has Nefera recruit Toralei and her cat-girls to replace Cleo and the other girls in the Fear Squad. Given Cleo and the girls gave both grief at times, it's no surprise. When Nefera cheats against Cleo in "Monster Mashionals" is the moment Toralei and her catgirls decide enough's enough — not to mention that they're ticked off that Nefera didn't believe in them — and help foil the cheating.
• Everything's Better with Plushies: Of Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, and their respective pets. There is a second wave out with plushes of Cleo, Deuce & Lagoona with their pets. Ghoulia, Spectra, and Abbey are slated to have plushies as well
• Fantastic Racism: There are a few examples. In the main canon, there's an undercurrent of monster-to-human prejudice (and schools seem to be segregated), whereas in the book canon it's the other way around.
  • Vampires and werewolves don't like each other much, though Draculaura and Clawdeen are best friends, and neither do fresh water monsters and sea monsters, according to Gil's parents (though Lagoona thinks the whole thing's ridiculous). Some monsters are discriminated against by the wider monster community, such as zombies and trolls. According to a bonus story on the website, Monster High was the first school to let all types of monsters in, as opposed to the other schools we've seen that are all vampires, all werewolves, etc.
• Fish People: Lagoona and Gil, of course. Comes with an appropriately epic case of the Innsmouth Look. But then, so do most dolls these days.
• Five Ghoul Band:
  • The Heroine: Frankie Stein
  • The Lancer: Clawdeen Wolf
  • The Big Girl: Lagoona Blue
  • The Smart Girl: Ghoulia Yelps
  • The Chick: Draculaura
  • Sixth Ranger: Cleo de Nile
    • As of reboot
      • The Heroine: Draculaura
      • The Lancer: Clawdeen
      • The Big Girl: Cleo de Nile
      • The Smart Girl: Frankie Stein
      • The Chick: Lagoona Blue
• Flaming Hair: Holt Hyde and Heath Burns, which led some people to think they were one and the same when they're not.
• Foe Yay: Clawdeen Wolf talks an awful lot about Cleo De Nile on her profile page.
  • Second season has Toralei and Cleo going at it. For the season 2 finale, though, things are patched up for at least one scene; Toralei and her catgirls help foil cheating Nefera de Nile does against Cleo.
• Freaky Is Cool: The other half of the premise, and manages to apply in-universe even to things the monsters themselves think are "freaky" (such as Draculaura's former crush Heath Burns heartily approving of her makeup after Cleo wrecks it: "You look horrible!" [beat] "... I like that in a girl."). The tagline of the doll line is even "Freaky just got fabulous!"
• Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Draculaura could qualify as one.
• Frozen Face: Ghoulia, though she can occasionally force a rather pained-looking Unsmile, a groan, or even, in the case of the webisode "Mad Science Fair", a truly epic Slasher Smile that only manages to dodge being terrifying by happening as she finally gets back at Cleo for using her.
• Funny Background Event: In the webisode "Road to Monster Mashionals", while Clawdeen mentions "Scary Murphy and her dumb chores", we see a background student getting pulled into the water by giant tentacles in the background.
  • In the episode "Ghostly Gossip", at the beginning in a blink and you miss it moment, when the image is focused on Cleo you can see in the background a student being attacked by her locker with octopus-like tentacles.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Ghoulia. Not only is she the smartest ghoul in the school, but she once invented a two story tall trash-to-fuel recycling machine as a Mad Science Fair project. Season 2 has her use her computer and hacking abilities quite a bit.
• Gag A Day Webseries: Volume 1 of the webisodes.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: In the storybook that comes with the doll, Frankie suspects her dad's up to something in the basement and asks her mom if she's getting a new brother or sister. Frankie's mother nearly chokes on her coffee in surprise and asks Frankie where she ever could've gotten that idea.
  • Mattel put an eyebrow ring and gave both Holt Hyde and Jackson Jekyll tattoos. The tattoo is a yin-yang symbol and is meant to show that they are indeed the same person.
  • When Toralei messes around with Cupid's bow in "Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love" several odd couples pop up-including a couple same-sex pairs.
  • Ghoulia's groaning zombie speak is used quite effectively for this very purpose, a prime example being "Substitute Creature" where she apparently says something about their sick teacher's possible condition that horrifies everyone. Of course, we don't get to hear it ourselves because all we hear is her zombie groan.
  • The series has a thing for inserting terrible puns in the characters' speech, most of which are cheesy, but some are actually quite disturbing. Entrail Park, fleshman, dismembers, self-decapitating, etc.
• Glamour Failure: Draculaura has no reflection and only her clothes (and sometimes her hair) show up in photos. She finds this frustrating.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: An odd variation in "Here Comes Treble", with Jackson and Holt as Frankie's shoulder angels fighting for her.
• Good Parents: Frankie's mom and dad. For a couple of mad scientists, they've got a remarkable knack for knowing what's best for their little girl and what makes her happy without spoiling her either.
  • The second basic of Draculaura's diary reveals that Dracula took her and Draculaura's mother in.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: The girls hang out with Cleo fairly often, despite her stuck up attitude.
• Gone Horribly Right: Cleo and Frankie accidentally break a statue together in "Totally Busted", and Cleo blames it entirely on Frankie. The headmistress is thrilled, because the statue had imprisoned the ghost of Professor Irene Maiden for years in a terrible And I Must Scream situation, and is incredibly grateful to Frankie for this service to the school, leaving Cleo to start to protest that she did it all herself instead.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Deuce, a rare male example.
• The Grim Reaper: He's the guidance counselor.
• Hair of Gold: Lagoona Blue, even if she's developed bluish streaks from the chlorine in the school's swimming pool. She has the bright, happy personality associated with the trope, too.
  • Cleo takes this to the logical extreme by having actual streaks of gold in her otherwise black hair.
• Halloween Episode
• Happily Married: Frankie's parents (Frankenstein's monster and his Bride, despite how the Bride reacted to the idea of even being his friend in her titular film).
• Hartman Hips: All of the girls have hips significantly wider than their shoulders, and relatively small breasts.
• Heel Face Turn: Cleo started out as a bit of a snob/bully, but has progressed into a supportive friend, especially in the Breather Episode about Ghoulia and Dead Fast.
• Hidden Depths / Defrosting Ice Queen: Cleo is a spoiled brat, but you would be too if you were entombed with your father who felt that royals were superior to everyone else for a few thousand years. Beyond just being an Alpha Bitch, though, she is best friends with Ghoulia and her diary, as well as the caption for her Dawn of the Dance pictures, show that she is opening up and starting to treat others better. Granted, not everyone, but some.
  • The special on TV highlighted this side, striking the right balance between popular Alpha Bitch & caring mummy.
    • Draculaura's most recent diary provides some tantalizing hints at quite the Dark and Troubled Past- her father, rather than the Dracula we know, is an even older master vampire (Bram Stoker's villain was a less powerful upstart who used her father's name to impress and terrorize locals til he fell prey to Laser-Guided Karma), who took in Draculaura (perhaps just Laura then) and her mother "when no one else would" over a thousand years ago.
• Helping Hands: Frankie’s hands whenever they fall off.
• Hey, It's That Voice! - Yuri Lowenthal as Deuce, Laura Bailey as Lagoona, Debi Derryberry as Draculaura, and Katie Higgins voicing Frankie. As of season 2, Cam Clarke does the voice of Heath Burns.
• Hot Mom: According to both Deuce and Holt, Frankie Stein's mother.
• Hollywood Hacking: Ghoulia can hack anything in a few seconds with her laptop. Well, almost anything... she couldn't hack the gossip column to find out who was running it.
• Hollywood Nerd: Ghoulia, although we only know this because she wears horned glasses and the only girl in the main cast other than Lagoona to not wear a skirt. Even so, she's seen a just as normal as everyone else and is even a fan favorite.
  • Jackson Jekyll has tones of this as well.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Clawd and Draculaura.
• Iris Out: The webtoon "The Good, the Bat and the Fabulous" ends off with one of these. Although it doesn't contain the sound of boooo-woop.
• The Igor: He's a gym teacher.
• Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Everyone during the Gloom Beach arc.
• Incest Subtext: In the book series, Clawd's first appearance included a detail description of how handsome he is. The perspective of that scene was from his sister.
• Interspecies Romance: Draculaura and Clawd.
• Intelligible Unintelligible: All Ghoulia can do is groan, but the other characters have no trouble understanding her.
• Invisibility: Friendly teacher Mr. Where looks like the classic bandage-wrapped Invisible Man, but he can make even those phase in and out of visibility.
  • Also, Billy in the novels.
• Jaw Drop: Done by a background skeleton student in "Here Comes Treble", after witnessing Jackson's transformation into Holt.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Cleo de Nile, she was at her worst in volume 1 of the webisodes, but even then she would help our her friends. The doll's diaries often talk about how Cleo can be unbearable, but state that she is extremely generous to her friends. In Volume 2 of the webisodes, Cleo is much nicer to the ghouls, but still obsessed with being number one.
• Lighter and Softer: In comparison to the monsters they're based off of.
• Magic Skirt: Many of the girls wear micro-miniskirts that barely reach upper thigh and yet never move or sway an inch.
• Meaningful Name: All the characters' names have to do with what kind of monster they are.
• Meganekko: Ghoulia
• Merchandise-Driven: Mattel is touting this as their next big thing.
  • They're not wrong. These things are selling.
• Mismatched Eyes: Frankie, who has one green eye and one blue eye. Hoo Dude's got the same deal.
• Missing Mom: Draculaura, Lagoona, & Cleo. Jackson/Holt seem to have alternately missing parents, but Holt is at least aware of his mother.
  • Draculaura's mom is hinted at in her most recent diary. All we know is this- the Dracula that she calls "father" is far, far older than the Dracula we know of, he's not her biological father, and he took in Draculaura and her mother "when no one else would." In the very next sentence there's a suggestion that there was a powerful reason Draculaura went Vegetarian Vampire- perhaps it has something to do with her mother's absence...
  • Lagoona's mother is revealed to be an Ocean Nymph who cannot leave her grotto as she will become weak and sickly.
• Monster Mash: All the main characters are offspring of famous monsters or mythological creatures.
• Morality Pet: Ghoulia to Cleo as the two are "beast friends forever." They plan their schedules together, and she acts as Cleo's personal assistant. Cleo even gets her staff to help get a rare comic book for Ghoulia (though she gets the others not to let word of this leak as it might ruin her rep).
• The Movie: A live-action movie musical is being directed by the men behind Hairspray and Chicago. It’s been described as “Beetlejuice meets Grease meets The Addams Family meets Edward Scissorhands.” The movie is set to come out sometime in 2012.
• Multicolored Hair: Every single character.
• Mummy: Cleo de Nile, who only has bandages from her chest to her knees. Her footwear is styled as bandages too.
• Mythology Gag: Cleo's pet is an Egyptian cobra, who she admits isn't that poisonous.
  • Deuce's pet is named Perseus. His mom isn't quite pleased.
• Naive Newcomer: Frankie Stein, who in all continuities is only 15 days old when she starts at Monster High.
• Nice Shoes: All the girls wear fancy shoes that have five inch heels. Even Ghoulia wears knee-high converse boots! This to the point to where the girls are rarely if ever seen barefoot. This includes at sleep overs and while at the beach.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The most popular band among young monsters is the Jaundice Brothers.
  • Justin Biter in Nickelodeon's half-hour special. Oddly enough, he looks little like the original.
• Not Using the Z Word: Averted; Ghoulia and the other zombies at the school are openly referred to as such.
• Official Couple: Cleo and Deuce throughout the entire series in every continuity. Everyone else's relationships fluctuate, and Draculaura especially seems prone to Degrassi Dating, though she's been with Clawd for some time now.
  • As revealed by various diaries, at one time, Cleo and Clawd were peer-pressured into dating, and though they became good friends, they never were an actual couple. Cleo eventually broke off the charade to be with Deuce.
• Off-Model: Draculaura's height seems to vary in all the webisodes if you look closely. There are times where she's as tall as Cleo and Clawdeen, such as in "Clawditions", and times where she's much smaller than the others, such as in "Idol Threat".
• Oh Crap: Done twice by Cleo.
  • In "A Scare of a Dare" Frankie texts some boys "Party at my house, spread the word." Cleo laughs, disbelieving, and says that Frankie's parents will freak out when all those people show up at their house. "My house?" says a puzzled Frankie. "Cleo, it was your phone." Cleo grabs the phone, realizes Frankie was right--and Cleo's eyes go wide with dread as she goes, "Oh no."
  • "Freakout Friday" had a bigger one when Ghoulia, who Cleo gave the Amulet of Nuckennutten to, is gone. Since the amulet protected the wearer and those with her, Cleo thought Ghoulia would stay close to her, thus keeping Cleo safe. Realizing she's gone, Cleo realizes she's just as much a target as the others.
• Older Than They Look: Draculaura is really 1,599 years old (but becomes 1,600 in the webisode "Party Planners") and Cleo is 5,842 years old.
  • If you think about it most of the characters are older than they look, even Frankie where despite being only forever 15 days old, its a good chance that the parts she is made from aren't.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Ghoul Spirit reveals that Slo-Moe is a nickname, and his real name is Moe Deadovitch.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Clawdeen goes into "werewolf mode" whenever a full moon's light (or anything resembling it, such as a spotlight) shines on her.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Ghoulia can’t speak anything other than zombie (grunt and groan), yet happens to be the smartest student in school and prefers fast food over brains.
  • Zombie is even a language in this universe and those who don't know it are seen as the odd ones.
• Perky Goth: Even though she’s the only main character to dress in (mostly) black, Draculaura loves the color pink, is cheerful almost to the point of being a Genki Girl, and enjoys writing stories about her friends.
• Phrase Catcher: "Goullia's right!" Pretty much every one of the main characters has said this at least once.
• Playing Cyrano: Draculaura, Frankie and Clawdeen to Ghoulia in one of the webtoons. The title is even "Cyrano De Ghoulia".
• Pointy Ears: Draculaura.
• The Power of Friendship: When Nefera gets ready to cheat against Cleo and the Fear Squad, Deuce picks Cleo up to get back into the competition in "Monster Mashionals Part 2." He also mobilizes the other ghouls (who'd pledged to back the Fear Squad) to foil Nefera. Toralei and her own catgirls even help, disgusted that Nefera had that little faith in them to win this fairly.
• Product Placement: The book is rife with them, most which are going to be outdated within a year or so.
• Preemptive "Shut Up": In the webisode "Substitute Creature" Mr. Lou Zarr commands a two-headed student to stop talking even though none of the student's heads has a mouth.
• Punny Name / Theme Naming: All the episode and student names have to do with horror concepts.
• Rapunzel Hair: Clawdeen's hair is constantly growing and besides having to pluck stray hair several times a day she doesn't mind it, as it leads her to be more experimental with it.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Headless Headmistress Bloodgood.
• The Rival: It's made a big deal of that Clawdeen does not like Cleo De Nile & by extension, Deuce. At first when revealed in Ghoulia's diary that Cleo used to date Clawd, Clawdeen's brother. They broke up and Cleo started dating Deuce the next day. Seems reasonable at first, but Clawd's diary revealed that their break-up was actually mutual and was a long time coming. Cleo decided to be the one to seem harsh and Clawd, regrettably, let her take the fall.
• The Roman Republic: The second wave diaries reveal that Draculaura was a human living in Rome, and Ghoul Spirit adds that her father (though we're not sure if it's her biological or adoptive father) was a centurion.
• Royal Brat: Cleo de Nile. Egyptian heritage, folks!
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: In "New Ghoul @ School" Draculaura literally says "Siiigh..." while swooning over Justin Biter.
• Schrodingers Cat: Alluded to in the end of "Desperate Hours," where Toralei and her fellow cat-girls are herded to a math camp in a bus. The stink balloon they wanted to loose on the seniors (and blame the main ghouls for) bounces toward them...and explodes, releasing the stench into the bus holding the cat-girls. They're not dead, but their yowling hints they are wishing this wasn't happening to them...
• The Shadow Knows: Look carefully at a illustration on Jackson's Gloom Beach box. You can see Holt Hyde's Flaming Hair.
• Shout-Out: By the boatload.
  • Frankie is annoyed that her father greets her every morning with a teasing shout of "It's alive!"
  • A goofy-looking Leatherface lookalike is the biology teacher.
  • The headmistress of Monster High rides around on horseback and carries her own head by the hair.
    • Plus she wears a purple coat, a black suit underneath, and her head comes off.
  • Frankie's dad uses "Mary Shelley's ghost!" as an oath, and her mom is prone to "Karloff's crypt!" when most people would say "Good heavens!"
  • Ghoulia’s owl is named “Sir Hoots-A-Lot”.
  • Cleo invokes Egyptian deities ("Oh, my Ra!").
  • An obvious shout-out to Twilight pops up in "Shock and Awesome", complete with a reference to the Bishie Sparkle.
  • Lagoona, in arguing with her dad about going to school on land, even writes in her diary, "I know he's just worried about me but I told him that everybody is really scary sweet and they treat me like everybody else and it's not like I've got to give up my voice or something silly like that..."
  • The "Escape from Skull Shores" TV special's plot was a giant Shout-Out to King Kong.
  • Titles of webisodes and doll lines often do this and there are just too many to list
• Sense Freak: Everything is new to Frankie, and she wants to experience all of it.
• Skunk Stripe: Frankie's hair is nothing but a mass of these.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Toralei (not Torelei; it comes from "tora" for "tiger"), Nefera (not Nefara; it comes from "Nefertiti", not "nefarious"), and Slo-Moe (not Slow-Moe, according to Ghoul Spirit).
• Stock Footage: Some of the webtoons reuse background footage of students walking by.
• Stealth Pun: Lagoona has an Australian accent because she comes from the land down under. Underwater, that is. In fact, the series lives on this in general.
• Story Arc: Volume 2 of the webisodes.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Heath started out as this for Holt, until both characters ended up in all continuities (neither replacing the other) and Heath underwent Cast Speciation to become more of a Butt Monkey.
• Taken for Granite: Deuce’s stare can only turn people into stone for about a day, then it wears off.
  • In "Hiss-Teria," Deuce's first pet was Smokey, a dragon. Sadly, he was the first thing a younger Deuce turned to stone accidentally (Smokey knocked off Deuce's glasses) where the stare hadn't worn off in a day. The only thing Deuce knows is that Smokey is to return to normal on the anniversary of when it happened, but doesn't know which one. This becomes a Tear Jerker for Frankie, Draculaura and Clawdeen (and maybe the closest thing the websodes came to having someone die).
• Time Abyss: Draculaura's father. Draculaura says he is far, far older than he appears, and that he was already an ancient vampire "when togas were first becoming fashionable."
• Toilet Humor: In the book, although it's not as bad as other examples.
• Tomboyish Name: Frankie Stein, most likely just done for the pun.
• Traumatic Haircut: Clawdeen misses five days of school in Draculaura's second diary due to having to shave her head bald after a hairstyling accident and the ensuing depression that followed. Draculaura suggests she and Frankie shave their heads too in solidarity, until Frankie reminds her that Clawdeen's hair grows back in a matter of days, while it would take years for Draculaura and Frankie to get theirs back to their current length.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Alluded to with Draculaura, who has acquired more than a few dresses and shoes over the past 1600 years she's been immortal. It's also alluded to that most of Clawdeen's clothes come from her (such as her Dawn of the Dance dress, as seen in "Fashion Emergency") and that her tastes have ranged over time from girly to punk to even chainmail.
  • Limited Wardrobe: On the other hand, they always seem to go to school in the same clothes. Even when the second half of Season 2 started up and you'd think that they'd want to advertise the School's Out line.
• Unusual Ears: Clawdeen has wolf ears instead of regular ears, Draculaura has Pointy Ears and Lagoona actually has fins for ears. Then there's the werecat trio. Justified because, well...
• Vampire Vords: Draculaura can pronounce her Ws, at least, but she otherwise has a noticeable (and very cute) unspecifiable Eastern European accent.
• Vegan Vampire: Draculaura is one of the few genuine articles. She doesn't drink blood at all to the point she even faints at the mention of it, subsisting on fresh fruits and veggies and lots of iron supplements.
• Very Special Episode: Kind Campaign: The Shockumentary. Focuses on how negative actions spread and how to stop them.
• Wax On, Wax Off / Chekhov's Skill: What Cleo realizes Scary Murphy was doing with the Fear Squad by putting them through harsher conditions than the other squads, including chores. Cleo gets the Fear Squad to follow her lead after their routine got sold out to Smogsnorts by Toralei. This allows for Cleo to make a new routine using the moves from their chores that beats Smogsnorts. This impresses Scary Murphy, and it wins the Fear Squad the Spirit Staff.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Clawdeen does not care for her friends and any of her family associating with each other romantically, so she goes to split up Draculaura and her brother Clawd by proving to them that they aren't right for each other. How does she do this? By dropping a giant steak in front of Draculaura to intentionally make her faint in front of carnivore Clawd, who didn't know she's vegetarian, just to make a point to him. Quickly gathering that Clawdeen knew about her friend's intense aversion to meat, he immediately calls her out for it. Afterwards, Clawdeen apologizes for her actions and attitude the past several days, and this marks the start of her learning to live with her brother and friend as a couple.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Frankie's age is the most egregious form of this trope.
  • Specifically, she's 15 days old at the start of her diary, which covers around a month and a half of time before school starts. When school in both the webisodes & TV special start, she's still only 15 days old. Huh?
  • There is an episode where they celebrate her "sweet sixteen... days", but then... wouldn't every day be her birthday?
• A Worldwide Punomenon: The writers of the webisodes seem to enjoy sticking as many horror-related puns as possible in the scripts.
• Who Names Their Kid Dude?: Substitute "creature" Lou Zarr's parents had to have seen that coming.
• X Meets Y: At first glance it looks like Bratz meets Gravedale High, but when you read the character descriptions and watch the web shorts it's anything but. The girls focus on typical high school situations and helping each other, rather than just shopping and flirting. Even fashionista Clawdeen knows that she can't start her own fashion line without learning how to run a business. Not to mention the mystery that's slowly being revealed about Draculaura's past...
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Ghoulia does, in various shades; Lagoona goes with aqua highlights in her otherwise blonde hair due to the chlorine of the swimming pool; Clawdeen's doll for the Dawn of the Dance line has mostly acid green hair. Spectra's hair is blue-violet.
• Younger Than They Look: Frankie is 15 days old.
• Yuppie Couple: There are a few, notably the aforementioned mouthless two-headed student and a seemingly ordinary-looking redheaded girl with a ponytail sporting a visor. Heath Burns was a recurring extra before he was promoted to an actual cast member, and Scarah Screams (the white-eyed banshee girl in the sixties outfit) is set to follow him.
• Wilhelm Scream: Used by a background student who slips into the swimming pool in the webisode "Frost Friends".
• Zettai Ryouiki: Clawdeen, at grade B. Many background characters wear them at grade C and B as well.
  • Draculaura's outfit in the Day at the Maul set definitely qualifies.