Dexter's Laboratory/Characters

Dexter

• AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle
• The Ace: When it comes to science, of course. There was even an episode where one of his teachers clearly has the hots for him.
• Aloof Younger Brother: To an extent.
• Anti-Hero: Type III
• Badass Bookworm
• Big Good: In "Ego Trip".
• Butt Monkey: Nothing goes right for this kid. Nothing.
• Child Prodigy
• Chew Toy
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Of a sort. Dexter tends to fail spectacularly at any form of physical activity, particularly sports...until the backdrop changes from "sports" to "Deedee let a giant monster out of the wormhole machine." Basically, he's an exaggerated stereotype of nerds are wimps up until science is involved. He can also go from deflecting lasers with his wrench like a Jedi to slap-fighting his rival and somehow manages to be in character both times. Rule of Funny is involved, but still.
• Depending on the Writer: How smart he is can differ from episode to episode.
• Eye Glasses
• Insufferable Genius
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The responsible to Dee Dee's foolish.
• For Science!: Catch Phrase
• Gadgeteer Genius
• Good Is Not Nice
• Improbable Weapon User: He's pretty handy with a wrench in matters of melee combat as well as mechanics.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Large Ham
• Mad Scientist
• The Napoleon
• Nerds Love Tough Schoolwork: Looks forward to hard tests.
• Ping-Pong Naivete
• Redheaded Hero
• Science Hero
• Shorter Means Smarter
• The Short Guy with Glasses: He's two feet tall.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Became one in later seasons due to Flanderization.
• TV Genius
• Unexplained Accent

Dee Dee

• All Girls Like Ponies
• Annoying Older Sibling
• Art Evolution: Had thick eyebrows and seemed to lack a chin in early episodes.
• Cloudcuckoolander
• Depending on the Writer: How nice or annoying she is varies from episode to episode.
  • She also flip-flops from stupid to a Straight Man for Dexter.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Dexter's responsible.
• Genius Ditz: She has her moments.
  • She gave a somewhat accurate description of Gregor Mendel in the Sasquatch episode.
• Genki Girl
• Girlish Pigtails
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals
• Idiot Houdini: Dee Dee always made a huge mess of Dexter's lab through her sheer idiocy and yet she never got any repercussion for it.
• Kiddie Kid
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Even her parents call her Dee-Dee.
• Pink Means Feminine (along with her two friends, who wear the same clothes as her)
• Sweet Tooth
• Spanner in the Works

Mandark Astronomonov

• All Love Is Unrequited: For Dee-Dee.
• Always Someone Better: He was this to Dexter before Villain Decay kicked in.
• Ambiguously Asian: Though his parents appear to be white.
  • He's supposed to be Russian. One of the Tartakovsky-era episodes was about his sister who was named Olga Astronomonov, also known as "Lalavava".
• Arch Enemy
• Big Bad: The closest this series has to one.
• Breakout Villain: Appeared infrequently in Seasons 1 and 2, became pretty much the 3rd main character by the time the show ended.
• Child Prodigy
• Dark Is Evil: His lab in post-finale seasons.
• Depending on the Writer: He's either a villainous mastermind or just some kid Dexter's rivals with.
• Evil Counterpart
• Evil Laugh: "HA haha! HA haha haha!" The fact that he cries, coughs and chews in the same way makes it border on being a Verbal Tic.
• Embarrassing First Name: Retconned to Susan
• Fat Bastard: In Ego Trip
• Flanderization: Became more and more like a stereotypical Evil Genius as time went on.
  • To a lesser extent, his crush on Dee-Dee.
  • Also, he didn't do freaking everything in the same rhythm as his Evil Laugh when he was first introduced.
• Harmless Villain: After Villain Decay.
• Hopeless Suitor: Is head-over-heels in love with Dee Dee, who is unaware... at best.
• Light Is Not Good: Mandark's lab before post-finale seasons.
• Mad Scientist
• Multiple Choice Past: He has two different origin stories.
• The Rival
• Smug Snake
• Younger Than They Look: He's (presumably) the same age as Dexter, but he's as tall as (if not taller than) Dee-Dee, and could easily pass for a teenager.

Dad

• Beware the Nice Ones: Hoo boy.
• Bumbling Dad
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: And when it happens, watch out.
• Eye Glasses
• Flanderization: Became a Small Name, Big Ego in the later episodes.
• Nerd Glasses
• Papa Wolf
• Standard Fifties Father

Mom

• Action Mom: Demonstrated in "Mom and Jerry", "World's Greatest Mom" and "A Mom Cartoon".
• Fiery Redhead
• Hartman Hips: The page image.
• Hot Mom
• Mama Bear
• Neat Freak

Lisa the Babysitter

• Ms. Fanservice
• One-Scene Wonder: She appeared in one episode, but you'd never tell that from all the fan-art.
• Zettai Ryouiki

Monkey

• Action Pet
• Badass Adorable
• Determinator: In his fight with Rasslor, he kept on being knocked down, and wouldn't give up. Rasslor threw the fight due to this.
• Everything's Better with Monkeys
• Out of Focus: In the Uncancelled seasons.
• Secret Identity: As Dexter's lab monkey.
• Superhero

Agent Honeydew

• Action Girl
• Interspecies Romance: Has an obvious thing for Monkey.
• Spy Catsuit

Major Glory

• The Cape (trope)
• Captain Patriotic
• Crazy Prepared: He wears dozens of masks to conceal his face.

"When I say secret identity, I mean secret identity."

• Eagle Land: Type 1 (perhaps)
• Expy: Captain America (comics) with Superman's powers.
• The Hero
• Large Ham

Val Hallen

• Badass Long Hair
• Bare Your Midriff
• Bigger on the Inside: His room. There's an episode dedicated to it, appropriately titled "Valhallen's Room".
• Blinding Bangs
• Empathic Weapon: His "Mighty Axe", a pink flying V-type guitar.
• Expy: The Mighty Thor.
• Hair of Gold
• The Lancer
• Nerd: His true identity, which he reverts to when separated from his mighty axe for too long.
• The Power of Rock
• Only Sane Man: Tends to fall into this role, despite not being very smart himself.
• Punny Name: "Valhalla" and "Van Halen"
• Shout-Out: To Van Halen, and Heavy Metal (mainly Heavy Mithril, what with his Viking motif) in general.
• Totally Radical: Most of his dialogue.

The Infraggable Krunk

• The Big Guy
• Dumb Muscle: Although he's more child-like than stupid.
• Expy: Incredible Hulk with reversed colours.
• Gentle Giant
• Hulk Speak