The PJs

Thurgood Stubbs and other tenants of the projects

Once upon a time, in the projects...

The PJs (Short for "The Projects") was a show on FOX, produced and created by Eddie Murphy. The show centered around Thurgood Stubbs, the superintendent of a housing project in Detroit, who was voiced by Murphy. The show was somewhat unique at the time, using claymation when most animated primetime comedy shows still relied on more traditional animation methods. Lasting three seasons (1999-2001), it now reruns on Adult Swim.

Not to be confused with characters wearing PJs.

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Tropes used in The PJs include:

• Big Eater: Juicy. In early episodes his mother has to affix a "Do Not Feed" sign on him when he goes out.
• Butt Monkey: Mr. Sanchez.
• Camp Gay: Tarnel
• Channel Hop: First two seasons ran on FOX, third season ran on The WB.
• Couch Gag: The subtitle for the HUD building changes with every appearance.
• Does Not Like Shoes: Haiti Lady is always barefoot.
• E=MC Hammer: Actually written by Thurgood in an attempt to prepare for school. His second attempt read, "E=McNuggets"
• The Faceless: The Corrupt Corporate Executive in "Miracle Cleaner On 134th Street".
• Fat Best Friend
• Golden Snitch: In the gumbo contest.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Loretta Devine voices Thurgood's wife Muriel. Kevin Michael Richardson is also in the cast.
• Hollywood Voodoo: Haiti Lady. Whether or not her magic actually works varies by episode.
• Limited Wardrobe
• Motor City
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Thurgood can never get resources he wants/needs out of the lady behind the window at the HUD. She always ends sentences to him with "NEXT!" even if there’s nobody in line behind him. The HUD Lady, however, is much nicer to Muriel.
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat: In "Operation: Gumbo Drop", Thurgood discovers that Muriel taped over his "happy tape" to film a documentary about the projects. When he realizes that the footage contains Juicy making his own Gumbo (Thurgood's main conflict in the episode), he decides to take advantage of this and use the tape to study Juicy's cooking methods.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: In one episode, Thurgood reminds his friends that "there's no 'I' in 'friendship'".
  • And in another he leaves a director a note that says he won't get his "flim" back.
• Rule of Three: Combined with Inherently Funny Words. Thurgood is working on a stand up act and the book he got on how to be funny says things in threes are funny, as well as words with a hard k (like knish, tukas, fakakta). He logically assumes then that the funniest thing ever is KKK.
• Sassy Black Woman: Every woman in the cast, most notably Muriel's sister and the lady at HUD.
• Scary Black Man: The street thugs who were frequent antagonists.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Mrs. Avery.
• Short Run in Peru: The last three episodes weren't shown for two years after being canceled, and even then they were shown in the UK. They weren't shown in the show's country of origin, the U.S., for seven years.
• Shout-Out: Fry is shown as missing on a milk carton. This was a response to Futurama featuring the Title Card manhole cover.
  • Thurgood called one of the Corrupt Corporate Executive's bodyguards Mushmouth when he's concern with people with big mouths.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Thurgood, from time to time.
• Sound Effect Bleep: With a truck backing up.
• The Other Darrin: Eddie Murphy voiced Thurgood up into the third season when other commitments forced him away from the show. Phil Morris and later Mark Moseley took over the character afterward.