The Proud Family

This Animated Series on the Disney Channel is the first on cable TV to feature an African-American family. It aired on the Disney Channel from 2001-2005. Penny Proud is 14 years old, but her parents, Oscar and Trudy, still treat her like a little girl. Also living with Penny are her twin siblings, BeBe and CeCe, and her paternal grandmother, "Suga Mama".

Reruns can be seen Saturdays on the music channel Centric, and very occasionally, on Disney, where it originated.

The show's official site is at http://tv.disney.go.com/disneychannel/theproudfamily/

Tropes used in The Proud Family include:
  • Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: Poor, poor Oscar...
  • Abusive Parents: Suga Mama, to Oscar. But deep down she loves him, enough to help him in a wrestling match.
  • Actor Allusion: One episode has Penny communicating with a tiger similar to Dr. Dolittle. Her voice actress Kyla Pratt played the daughter of the famous doctor in the modern film version that also inherited his gift in a later sequel.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: In-universe example. In "Behind Family Lines", Oscar and Trudy's family have a football match, and Oscar describes how it was pretty funny when Suga Mama tackled Trudy's mother. Even Trudy's dad gets in and says "...Actually that was pretty funny."
  • Adult Child: Bobby Proud
  • Alpha Bitch: LaCienega
  • Always Someone Better: Renée in "There's Something About Renée"
  • Ambiguously Gay: Michael
  • Animated Series
  • Applied Phlebotinum: Oscar's Proud Snacks, in the later seasons.
  • Art Evolution: Started off being animated in Flash, then moved to traditional animation.
  • Asian and Nerdy: The Chang triplets. However, they are always at the coolest events because their mom or dad knows someone.
    • In "Culture Shock", they explained that they had to learn Calculus just to keep up with how many family members they have. Giving that they have a huge family, it's no wonder why learning mathematics is just a 'normal' part of the Chang Triplets.
  • Audible Gleam: The glow-in-the-dark Thingy Dolls in the episode "Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thingy Baby."
  • Badass Normal: If doesn’t matter if you have superpowers or not, mess with Suga Mama and you’re asking for trouble.
  • Balloon Belly: Penny and Dijonay in Tween Town
  • Being Evil Sucks: Penny finds this out the hard way when she decides to make it big by performing a Face Heel Turn and then publishing a tell-all about being a bad girl - she alienates everyone, disappoints her teacher to the point of tears, and gets sent to boot camp. She escapes, but the Gross Sisters won't shelter her, she misses her family (who she knows won't take her back), and she has nowhere else to go, so she decides to reform and get back to normal life.
  • Bilingual Bonus: LaCienega's name means "the bog/swamp" in Spanish.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Penny befriends a Muslim girl whose family is every bit as dysfunctional-yet-loving as hers. However, their house is vandalized, complete with graffiti saying "Go back home, towelheads!" (changed to "Go back to your country!" in reruns) Although Penny delivers a moving anti-racism speech at a school assembly, the vandals are never caught.
  • Black and Nerdy: Myron
  • Boot Camp Episode: Penny becomes a bad girl and is sent to a boot camp style reformatory.
  • Bowdlerization: In the aforementioned episode about Islamophobia, the spray-painted message was changed to "Go back to your country!"
  • Breaking Bad News Gently
  • Broken Aesop: Quite Frequently
  • Bumbling Dad: Oscar
  • Butt Monkey: Things never seem to go Oscar's way, although sometimes he does deserve the bad stuff that happens to him. A recurring example of this is that when ever the family gets invited to anything, he isn't included.
  • By the Lights of Their Eyes: The moment Penny turns out the lights in the episode "Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thingy Baby."
  • Canine Companion: Puff the poodle to Sugar Mama
  • Catch Phrase: "TRUDAAAAAYY!!"
  • Celebrity Star: Al Roker, Lou Rawls, and Smokey Robinson and several others make appearances as themselves. Al Roker appears in 2 episodes.
    • Note that in his two appearances, he's evil.
  • Christmas Episode: it was about Christmas AND Kwanzaa!
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Penny's friends especially Dijonay
  • Closer to Earth: Trudy
  • Comic Book Time: Penny and her friends are fourteen and in middle school during the series. In The Movie, she turns sixteen. The twins remain babies the entire time.
  • Cool Old Lady: Suga Mama
  • Couch Gag: During the Title Sequence in most episodes, Oscar opens and closes the door on Penny's friends, one or two other people who will appear in the episode, and then Suga Mama, who opens the door and forces her way in anyways.
  • Credit Card Plot: Penny gets a credit card and it talks to her.
  • Crossover: With Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
  • Curse Cut Short: In the episode where Penny joins the football team:

Cheerleaders: We're girls! We're bad! We kicked those brothers'- *roll opening credits*

  • Darkskinned Blonde: Dijonay
  • Department of Redundancy Department: Penny in one episode "Trusts Dijonay to be the person she doesn't trust."
  • Digital Piracy Is Evil: Illegal file-sharing is an addiction, kids!
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The episode where Michael gets called a sissy. He has a rather harsh coach dad who's obviously ashamed of how his son acts and doesn't want to be acknowledge as Michael's dad in public.
    • Another episode features a mysterious boy named Johnny Lovely, who teaches all the kids to be kind and love one another. The authority figures promptly run him out of town, but he leaves behind his message in a book.
    • The Kwanzaa Episode featured a homeless couple named Joseph and Mary.
  • Downer Ending: A lot of episodes had pretty depressing endings. Such as when the songs available for downloading on the Internet wind up making a man's CD store close down, and it ends with him sobbing while closing up for good. Or when Suga Mama finds out the man she was going to marry had Alzheimer's and was taken away from her.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The Gross Sisters refuse to house Penny after she escapes from boot camp, figuring that while they're bullies, the fact that Penny was sent to boot camp makes her a hardened thug.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier In Spanish: Lacienega's grandfather would insult Sugar Mama in Spanish as she unwittingly swooned to his every word.
    • In The Movie, the villain clones Suga Mama with a Spanish peanut and she learns to speak Spanish. When Lacienega's grandfather insults her, the clone tells him to shut up. Ironically, while he still thinks she's ugly, he starts hitting on the clone, who rejects him.
  • Expy: Some of the characters resemble those in Bebe's Kids, which Bruce Smith previously animated.
    • Nubia Gross resembles LaShawn.
    • Sticky resembles Khalil.
    • The Red-Nosed Baby resembles and sounds like Peewee.
    • Sugar Mama seems to bear a resemblance to Medea.
    • Also, anyone else think that some of the animators for this show later worked on Princess and The Frog? Dr. Facilier and Mama Odie bear a resemblence to Oscar and Suga Mama, respectively.
  • Extroverted Nerd: Myron. Suga Mama calls him "Urkel" at one point, a reference to another Extraverted Nerd, Steve Urkel of Family Matters. [1]
  • The Faceless: "Wizard" Kelley
  • False Friend:
    • Dijonay especially but Penny's other friends at times as well. Even Zoey.
    • In one episode Penny becomes a famous singer leaving her friends behind. Wizard Kelly pays a bunch of kids to be her fake friends but when Penny admits she misses her old friends Sugar Mama tells her she's better off with out them because "they're faker then your fake friends especially Dijonay."
  • Fat Bastard: Subverted big time with Penny's "date" Carlos, a very fat boy she reluctantly pairs with in the amusement park after her friends pair up with their more attractive partners. Much to her surprise, Carlos proves to be a kind and intelligent individual who actually rescues Penny's siblings, BeBe and CeCe, from a speeding roller coaster. To drive the point home, it's revealed her friends' partners ditched them for prettier girls after getting wet in a water ride.
  • Foot Focus: Suga Mama. She probably Does Not Like Shoes since she's usually seen wearing slippers, even outdoors.
    • Not to mention, Papi, Lacienaga, and Felix have large feet...when they're shown. One episode this is actually justified.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: They managed to have some pretty serious stuff into a children's cartoon. Such as an episode where Penny believes her dad is having an affair, or when Oscar flat-out accuses a man of being a gigolo[2].
    • This remains one of the few Disney cartoons ever to use the word "pimp".
    • One episode had a scene in a movie theater, and it was apparent that the movie in the background was Swordfish, on that one infamous scene with Halle Berry reading a book. And the Proud Family scene cuts away right as Halle starts to move her book. Let me repeat: they referenced an Every One Remembers the Stripper moment in a children's cartoon.
    • In “Love Thy Neighbor”, Felix explains that having duck-like feet is common in the Boulevardez family. When Suga Mama asks Papi to show if that’s true, she gets aroused upon confirmation. If one knows about the urban legend about foot size, then one would also ask HOW DID THAT GET INTO A CHILDREN SHOW!
  • The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Trudy and Diana.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: This show heavily relied on this trope. The Other Wiki states that the show holds the record for having the most guest stars in an original Disney series.
  • Honest John's Dealership: The Gross Sisters specialize in these kinds of schemes.
  • I Ate What?: One episode involves Suga Mama's lemon squares becoming massively popular to the point of ending up on Oprah. This is the part where the whole world discovers that when she says she "puts her foot in it," she means it literally. As in sticks her foot in the batter. The audience promptly starts hacking.
  • I Feel Guilty You Take It: LaCienega and Agatha enter an American Idol-style Music Reality Show, sponsored by Wizard Kelly, La Cienega, being prettier than Agatha, wins due to a fix by Wizard Kelly, "Beauty sells, Ugly Repels, y'all" Penny finds out and tells La Cienega that if she doesn't make things right, she'll have bad Karma. La Cienega gives the prize to Agatha, who, in turn, shares it with her citing fairness.
  • It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY"
  • I Was Quite a Looker: Suga Mama
  • Jerkass: For a family friendly show, there are a lot of unlikeable characters here.
    • Too many to count in this show, every character has their jerkass moments, heck even sweet Zoey and the wonderful Mama-Trudy. Dijonay really takes the cake: she constantly uses Penny, and ditches her at the drop of a hat, yet when Penny does something wrong in the friendship, then Penny is a flat out horrible friend. Sometimes Dijonay even gets away with her jerkass-ness. Normally, a girl with Sass is awesome... but Dijonay averts that concept most definitely!
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: The Movie is only available on DVD, and while the first season of the series is available on iTunes, Disney has no plans for any other releases.
  • Killer Rabbit: The "psycho duck"!
  • Laser-Guided Karma: A nice example happens to Dijonay. She and her friends ditches Penny to babysit her brothers and sisters while she leaves for a concert. However, the security sees she has fake tickets the Gross sisters gave her eariler, and when Penny arrives in a limo by the same band who's playing at the concert, she gets in for free along with her friends... except Dijonay, who her siblings and Penny say they don't know her. Subverted in that she takes her back, but only to be the person that Penny can't trust.
  • Limited Wardrobe: pretty much everyone on this show, except for the few occasions where they dress up.
    • It's sort of a running gag that whenever the girls dress up, they'll rip off the normal outfits and have the new ones underneath, but Penny will just have another one of her usual outfit underneath. She'll then try a couple more times, with the same results, until she ends up quickly ripping off a lot of the same outfit until she finally gets to the new one. The Credit Card Plot episode even made fun of this where her mother bought her a bunch of copies of the same outfit.
  • Literal Genie: Al Roker. Yes, that Al Roker. However, the wishes he grants Penny always blow up in her face.
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: LaCienaga was originally a full-fledged Alpha Bitch and antagonized Penny, but they eventually become friends and she rounds out the Four-Girl Ensemble.
  • Kent Brockman News: Marsha Mitsubishi.
  • Macho Disaster Expedition: "Camping Trip"
  • Makeover Montage: "Makeover"; where Olay, the biggest of the Gross Sisters, gets a makeover and becomes popular.
  • Meganekko: Zoey
  • Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: Oscar and Trudy
  • Mistaken for Racist: In the episode "Romeo Must Wed", Penny developed a crush on Kwok while rehearsing for their school's production of Romeo & Juliet. After a while, Kwok's parents, the Wongs, politely asked Oscar and Trudy that they not allow Penny and Kwok to see each other anymore. While Trudy remained civil in her inquiry, Oscar immediately jumped to conclusions, thinking that the Wongs didn't approve of their son having a relationship with Penny because she wasn't "good enough" for them. This prompted both Oscar and Mr. Wong to imply the other was a racist. It turns out the real reason was that Kwok had an arranged bride, who was coming to town for a visit.
  • My Name Is Not Durwood: Wizard Kelly does this to everyone from time to time, but especially to Oscar.
  • New Transfer Student: The Russian Sergei, to whom Zoey is attracted.
  • No Ending: Near the end of "She Drives Me Crazy" Suga Mama gets in another car accident and is suddenly sitting at home watching TV after losing her license again. The episode just ends with one of Bobby Proud's music videos.
    • This is not entirely true. When it originally aired on Disney Channel, Bobby's video was added on at the end to advertise the release of the show's soundtrack.
  • No Name Given: Only one of the Chang triplets is ever given a name. (The girl in the red dress is Debbie).
  • "No Respect" Guy: Oscar without a doubt.
  • Off-Model: When she's wearing shoes, Lacienega's feet are about the same size as the other girls', but when she's shown barefoot in "Love Thy Neighbor" her feet are huge. This is actually invoked, as she was wearing the shoes to hide her feet.
    • One of Penny's classmates during "I Had a Dream" changes races constantly. It is particularly jarring as it happens during part of the episode that takes place in 1955, and the students are still separated by race in the classroom. So the switches make it seems that a black student is sitting among the the white students when it is previously stated (and seen) everyone is separated.
    • There is one where Papi is deliberately animated Off-Model, when an actor was put in place of the real Papi to provide the illusion of a resort. Suga Mama immediately notices that Papi's feet aren't ridiculously huge.
  • Overprotective Dad: So, so very much.
  • Panty Shot: The Cheerleaders has three and Penny Proud has one (ep.9 [dead link] [dead link] [dead link] and ep.10 [dead link] )
  • Parental Favoritism: Suga Mama likes her older son, Bobby, more than she does Oscar.
  • Pet the Dog: The Gross sisters in "The Party". They don't show up to torment Penny...they actually legitimately act like nice people.
  • Planet Eris: This setting is really really weird. Some episodes appear to set it in a bit more normal setting, but others (especially the camping episode) have this set in some kind of really really weird place. (Oscar and Felix even get taken to a nest by a pterodactyl!)
  • Positive Discrimination: Averted. Not only are the Prouds just as insane as any other animated family, but there's also an episode where Penny dates a seemingly angelic boy in a wheelchair, only to realize he's a total prick who uses his disability to get his way.
  • Pretty in Mink: Penny's aunt Diana is always seen wearing a fancy green fur coat. Even when playing football.
  • Reality Is Unrealistic: There was actually some debate because Papi looked "too white" to be hispanic. It's no secret Lacieniga counts as hispanic (She and her mom are darker skinned than Felix, who's tan) but some assumed that Felix was half hispanic, and that his mom was. However, it's fully possible for Papi to be white but still be hispanic, there are plenty of hispanics who can be considered white. Heck, just look at Guillermo del Toro.
  • Running Gag: Oscar's "rivalry" with the talking baby
  • Secret Ingredient: Suga Mama's cooking is so delicious because she put her foot in it. Normally this is just a turn of phrase, but she meant it literally, and revealed it on a national TV show which caused everyone to get sick.
  • Senior Sleep Cycle: Suga Mama and sometimes Papi.
  • Shrinking Violet: The principal, like Hooks, can be very loud.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Temporary Love Interest: Kwok, the Asian boy that Penny dates in one episode, even though it ends with the two getting together, he is never seen or referred to again afterwards.
  • Theme Naming: Dijonay and her siblings are all named after spices, though it doesn't even strike you as odd at first if you've heard the off-the-wall names some urban black parents give their children. And, the Boulevardez family -- at least the ladies.
  • This Trope Is Bleep: anytime a Sir Paid A Lot song is played.
  • Token White: Zoey.
  • The TV Movie: Also acted as the Grand Finale to the series.
  • The Unfair Sex: Oscar. Big Time. Part of it is a result of Oscar being the shows Butt Monkey, but 9 times out of 10, any conflict between Oscar and Trudy always have Oscar at fault, and the other time it'll still paint Oscar as the bad guy.
  • The Unfavorite:
    • Oscar, to Suga Mama. This is demonstrated further when Suga Mama complained that when Oscar was a kid, he wouldn't stop calling for help when he fell down a wall.
    • Suga Mama is implied to be this when an episode introduced her older psychic sister, who she claimed to be their parent's favorite. Trudy even lampshades this.
    • Penny gets this when BeBe and CeCe are magically aged into teenagers. Her own mother even tells this directly to her face. WTF?
  • Verbal Tic:
    • Bobby, y'all!
    • Wizard Kelly.
    • And Sir Paid A Lot, Dawg!
  • Unrequited Love: Dijonay/Sticky
  • The Voiceless: Two of the Gross sisters (Olay, the biggest one and Gina, the smallest one) never speak. Nubia, the middle one, does all of their talking.
    • Although they are actually able to sing...and very well at that.
  • What Could Have Been: The show was initially pitched to Nickelodeon.
  • Wild Teen Party: Penny has a sleepover that quickly turns into this when Lacieniga calls everyone from their middle school.
  • With Friends Like These...: Seriously, Penny's friends are extremely quick to abandon one of their own at the drop of a hat. One episode was particularly vicious about this when Dijonay tricks Penny into babysitting her numerous siblings, then runs off to a concert with the other girls and lies to them about it.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: The Gross Sisters. Actually, they have blue hair, blue skin, and wear blue overalls.
    • Penny turns blue when she's sent to boot camp.
  • You Say Tomato: Sticky pronounces "yacht" as "yatch".
  1. ↑ Makes sense since she was voiced by the actress who played Harriet, the one who was supposed to be the focus of the show.
  2. ↑ a male prostitute or live-in lover
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