Running Gags

WildSide features many recurring gags and plot devices that appear in many episodes. These range between dream sequences to catch phrases.

## Rachel

### "RAN-DOM!"

Rachel's well-known catchphrase, especially in the earlier seasons, involves her saying the word "Random" in a high-pitched sing-song voice. It is first heard in Wild Pilot, where she says it after Justice tells her that she was texting her boyfriend, Mojo. The meaning behind it is also explained, where she says that she uses it in weird, tough and random situations. The last time that it is used by Rachel was in Wild Protest, when April attacks Bill after she gets turned back into human form (from which she was turned into a cat earlier in the episode).

#### **Variations**

The word is commonly used to form part of a sentence, and commonly comes in two forms:

* "Now that is what I call... RAN-DOM!" (e.g. Wild Pilot, Wild Protest)
* "That's RAN-DOM!" (e.g. Wild but Awesome)

Sometimes though, there are minor variations that she uses less often. Sometimes, she uses the word by itself, especially at the conclusion of an episode (e.g. Wild Rich Girl). She also sometimes adds additional words to the commonly used ones (such as "just" and "now").

#### **Another Running Gag: Her Friends Teasing Her/Annoyed by It**

Since it is established that she says it quite a lot (at least once a day, according to Gary), her friends and family tend to tease her or get annoyed by it. This occurs on multiple occasions:

* In Wild Big Sister, Rachel's sister Rachelle interrupts her saying it, claiming that it was annoying and she heard it a lot.
* In Wild Justice, Rachel says it in Gary's version of the story. She denies that she said it then (which is proven true later), and Gary responds by saying that she says it everyday, so he got confused.
* In the season 4 episode Wild Reputation, Justice actually uses it, making Rachel claim that she stole it. Justice then brings up that she haven't used it in two years (Wild Protest occurred less than two years before that episode, however).

#### **Trivia**

* In Wild Other Side, Rachel meets someone who is almost exactly like her, who frequently uses the phrase "AWK-WARD" instead.

### Cooking for Her Friends

In Wild Pilot, Rachel reveals to her friends that her father, Michael Norman, was a famous chef living in Russia. As a result, she has picked up her passion for cooking, and frequently cooks meals (usually unappealing or unique ones) for her friends. Their first meal together occurs in Wild Job, where she makes cheese risotto. In other episodes, she makes cream corn pasta (Wild Injury), stew (Wild Big Sister), a carrot omelette (Wild Lucky), and beef stroganoff (Wild Heartthrob). Although she is shown in the kitchen cooking in future episodes, the friends' last on-screen meal together occurred in Wild Heartthrob, excluding the Thanksgiving dinner with other guests in Wild Thanksgiving.

In Wild Weird Boy, a preteen boy named Fred Handson takes over her cooking job, making her upset.

#### **Her Cookbooks**

Even though they can be clearly seen, Rachel's cookbooks are only brought up in a couple of episodes. The most significant occurrence was in Wild Air Freshener, where Dean's air fresheners causes her cookbooks to catch on fire and get destroyed. He does however, buy her new ones.

#### **Minor Gag: Her Love of Baking**

Although she is shown cooking mostly savoury meals, according to Dean, Rachel loves to bake desserts as well. This is at least bought up in two occasions:

* In Wild Record, Rachel manages to set the world record for baking the most amount of cookies in 24 hours. She manages to bake 5372 cookies.
* In Wild Second Job, she gets a job in a bakery. She is disappointed when she finds out that she couldn't decorate the desserts.

#### **Trivia**

* Often, Rachel cooks meals, but the friends aren't shown eating them. Often these meals are just being taken out of the oven or cooling on the counter. In Wild Old Lady, Rachel makes a pumpkin quiche, which she decides to give to Ms Waters instead. She ends up sitting on it.
* Rachel managed to become head-chef at Triquan at the age of thirteen.

### Mother Bird

It is well established that Rachel is the one in charge of all the housework, after revealing that she enjoys doing it in Wild Pilot. Although she is not shown doing most of these things, it is heavily implied that she not only does the cooking, but she also cleans, does the laundry, and maintain discipline within the household, just like a housewife would.

The significance of her role is explored heavily in Wild Injury, when she is hospitalised after falling off of a ladder. While she isn't home, her friends appear to be unkempt and starved, not knowing how to do their own laundry or cook for themselves. Her role is also brought up in Wild Weird Boy, where Fred "steals" her role, making her feel upset and useless.

On a few occasions, Rachel leaves someone in charge while she leaves the house. This usually doesn't last though, for example, she leaves Dean in charge in Wild Rainy Day while she goes out shopping. His role only lasts about thirty seconds, since Rachel is forced to come back inside the house when it is pouring rain outside.

### Perfect School Record/Straight A's

Rachel appears to be the only friend that is fond of school, as shown through her frequent mentioning of having a clean record (not getting detention), perfect attendance, extra curricular activities, her straight A grades, and her work ethic.

Rachel's "squeaky clean" record is brought up in a few episodes, where she reveals that she hasn't gotten detention during school ever. She does almost get detention in episodes such as Wild Soup Seller, where she gets in trouble for selling her own soup in the school cafeteria and the mall. She does get let off with warnings on both occasions, as a substitute for Gary's double detention. Rachel gets detention for the first time in Wild Black and White (with the rest of her friends) for sleeping during class, which occurs in Wild Future also.

Rachel's perfect attendance record is also mentioned quite often, especially during episodes where she is not in school during school hours. Her perfect record is ruined on multiple occasions though, such as in Wild Soup Seller (when she is at the mall instead), and Wild Party (when she is at the beach with her friends).

Rachel also believes in getting into a good college, so as a result, she becomes motivated to participate in extra curricular activities. In two episodes, Wild Valentine's Day and Wild Game, her and Gary are seen looking at the school noticeboard for activities to participate in, but they are interrupted with another "extra curricular" anyway in both occasions. Rachel becomes obsessed with attending the Valentine's Day Dance in order to participate in every school activity, and joins the school baseball team to put on her college application.

It is mentioned quite frequently that Rachel is good in school, specifically in science and math. She reveals in Wild School that she was in fact a straight A student. In one occurence, in Wild Addict, she is shown gloating about her "perfect" report card, and teases her friends for their "bad" grades (for example, Dean getting a B). This gag appears to die down as the episodes progress, but is brought up as a major plot device in Wild Bill/s. In that episode, Rachel somehow manages to be the only student in her math class to receive a B in a test, which makes her furious. She does manage to sit the test again to get an A in the end.

Overall, Rachel appears to be passionate about school, and manages to put a lot of hard work into it. Often she brings up study and homework as an important past time (Wild Embarrassment), and takes notes during other classes during study hall (Wild Black and White).

### Aggressive Tendencies

In multiple episodes, Rachel is shown to have quite a temper. Most of these episodes occur from jealousy, while some are only minor issues.

#### **Examples of Anger Spats**

Rachel tends to get so angry at times that she tends to scream at people uncontrollably. This is often followed by her grabbing onto people and her eye twitching. Some examples include:

* In Wild Cute Boy, Rachel aggressively bites out of her burger and stands her knife upwards after finding out that her crush Nathan had a crush on April instead (REASON: jealousy).
* In Wild Rainy Day, Rachel has a spit at her friends after being confined to her house for so long due to the rainy weather. She calms down when she sees the rain stop. (REASON: anger)
* In Wild Opposition, Rachel threatens to move out of the house after Dean and Justice's arguments go too far (REASON: anger, although this was revealed to be fake later).
* In Wild Christmas, Rachel gets really angry when one of the Christmas tree branches are missing (REASON: *possibly* Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
* In Wild Bill/s, Rachel gets a B on her math test, despite her quadruple checking her answers. As a result, she has a spit at Mr Crewnor (REASON: anger; *possibly* OCD).

In some instances, Rachel tends to yell, but more in an upset, less than aggressive way; usually when she's trying to get a point across, such as in Wild Embarrassment and Wild Bully.

#### **Another Running Gag: Breaking Things**

Most often due to jealousy, Rachel tends to break things with her hands. For example, Nathan causes her to snap one of Gary's pencils in half in Wild Cute Boy, and Dean makes her tear an entire textbook in half in Wild and Wilder.

### Strength and Athletic Ability

It is mentioned frequently that Rachel has good upper arm strength. In Wild but Awesome, she tells Dean that she was named the strongest person in her class in third grade, and manages to rip an entire eggshell off of an egg in one go as a result. In other episodes her strength is shown subtiley, such as carrying a heavy bag of groceries from the mall (Wild Rich Girl) and tearing a 500+ page textbook in half (Wild and Wilder).

Although not physically bought up, Rachel appears to be quite good at sports, such as laser tag (Wild but Awesome), baseball (Wild Game) and dodgeball (Wild Bounce). Her skills in these sports have mostly lead her to win the retrospective games for her team. Individually, she appears to be good at bowling (Wild Bowling Day) and ping pong (WildSide Goes Ping Pong), mentioning that both sports were "in her blood". Her ping pong skills lead her to the grand final of Colorado State School's Table Tennis Tournament in 2012, which eventually lead her to the title in the end.

### Clumsiness

In a substantial amount of episodes, especially from season two onwards, it can be seen that Rachel can be quite clumsy. She tends to fall to the ground often throughout the series, whether it was by tripping (Wild Snake, Wild Friendship), slipping (Wild Broken Faucet), being hit by a door (Wild School, Wild Luck Charlie), or by force (e.g. collapsing to the ground after Bill burps in her face in Wild Thanksgiving, or Dean dropping her in Wild Regret).

In Wild and Bad Memories, a compilation of Rachel's falls from season one-three are among the memories of bad things that happened to her, providing her the main reason for leaving.

#### **Trivia**

* In Wild Bill/s, Rachel almost trips on the edge of her desk while collecting her test at the front of her classroom. According to Sierra McCormick, this wasn't supposed to happen and the editors left it in for comic relief.
* Sierra also mentioned that the writers made Rachel "clumsy" because Sierra was clumsy herself and would frequently fall over on set.

### Cassidy

Although never physically shown, Cassidy is a friend of Rachel's from Oklahoma who is first introduced in season two. Not much is known about her, even though Rachel tends to communicate with her.

Rachel can be seen talking to Cassidy on the phone in the end credits of Wild Principal's Principles, where she tells her about the events of the episode while trying to avoid the hole in her top floor. Justice causes Rachel to fall through the hole though, making Rachel tell Cassidy to "call her back".

Cassidy is mentioned the most in the episode Wild Situation, where Rachel and April are seen making a home video to send to her. The video appears to be making her jealous, as Rachel tells her about her life in Denver and agrees to wear the mayor's expensive necklace. The necklace accidentally gets thrown over the fence though, and April films Rachel freaking out over it and puts it on the internet. Rachel, realising that the video shows her double storey house and her expensive jewelry, agrees to send a link to Cassidy.

## Dean

### Inventing

Early in the series, it was established that Dean enjoyed inventing and science. Since then, Dean has been shown to make a large majority of useful gadgets from scratch, but has not shared them with anyone outside of his friends.

#### **Dean's Gadgets**

Dean has made a total of four gadgets throughout the series.

* A gadget that makes a plane or helicopter go "a million" times its normal speed if inserted into the engine. The friends managed to travel from Denver to London in less than 8 hours with it in use (Wild Tennis Tournament).
* A time machine, which, despite its name, actually just takes the last sentence a person says and makes them repeat it over and over again (Wild Bully).
* A series of electronic snake traps, with numbered indicators that light up if the bait is being touched (Wild Snake).
* A mind reader, set with a computer, helmet, chair and projector screen, which projects people's thoughts (Wild and Bad Memories).

#### **Trivia**

* It would make sense for Dean to invent the mood device in Wild Oh No!, since it was faulty and he was the only one willing to use it.
* Dean may not be the only inventor in the neighbourhood, as in Wild Protest Gary finds a person switching machine in the dumpster. Dean tends to mock this.
* Although not formally stated, his "bunker" was most likely located in the space underneath the house, as he is seen rebuilding his personalised bowling pin for Rachel under there in Wild Bowling Day.

### Being a Loser/Joke

Dean was always disliked by Justice since Wild Pilot, however he's grown to be disliked by most of his school in the later seasons. The reasoning behind this is unknown, however it was most likely stemmed by either his horrible talent show act in Wild Talent or his embarrassing viral video in Wild Bill/s.

In season four, there are a few occasions where his friends are seen teasing and making fun of him (e.g. Wild Regret and Wild Slam Drink) for unknown reasons, however it is established later that his school considered him a joke, particularly on two occasions. It becomes the main focus in the episode Wild Reputation, where a popular group of boys decide to invite Dean into their group just so they can laugh at him. His "joke" status also forms the reason behind his and Raya's relationship, as it is revealed in Wild Break-Up that she was only going out with him in order to make a bet with her friends to take out the "biggest joke in school".

#### **Another Running Gag: His "Butt Monkey" Status**

Similarly to Rachel, Dean tends to get injured quite often, but it is often at fault of other people besides himself. He also often tends to get humiliated, messy or abused because of other people's negligence. Fans of the show often see this as though he permanently has a bad luck spell. Examples of such events include:

* Falling out of a trash can (Wild Cute Boy).
* Slipping in Rachelle Norman's spit and getting wedgied by her (Wild Big Sister).
* Tripping on top of the stairs and getting trampled on (Wild Haunted House; Wild Justice).
* Having dust from Ms Waters' vacuum cleaner exploding on him and having acrylic paint dumped over his head (Wild Old Lady).
* Being forced to sit in a cream pie and wear a helmet with a fairy on it (Wild but Awesome).
* Being shocked by an electronic device, causing his appearance and personality to change (Wild Oh No!).
* Getting nipped by live crabs until he bled (Wild Principal's Principles).
* Falling over his feet while attempting to catch a high ball (Wild Game).
* Failing to flip an omelette (Wild Animals).
* Getting himself tied up in party streamers (Wild Thanksgiving).
* Getting hit in the crotch with Serena Williams' tennis racquet (Wild Protest).
* Getting a marshmallow stuck in his hair, forcing it to be pulled out leaving a bald spot in its place (Wild Child).
* Getting his belt stuck on the mechanical bull, causing his pants to fall down (Wild Hog).
* Falling face first into a lake in the woods (Wild Bigfoot).
* Accidentally getting a bucket of olive oil tipped on his head from Gary's snake trap, and getting a basketball stuck between his legs, causing havoc and wrecking the stage to get booed off (Wild Talent).
* Talking mean about a bully and having it accidentally sent to him (Wild Butt Diallers).
* Having secret security footage of him dancing with a mop while volunteering in Triquan go viral on the internet, causing students at his school to make fun of him (Wild Bill/s).
* Tripping over in a scooter race, accidentally eating horse poop and falling down a hill (WildSide: Journey to New Jersey).
* Bruising his knuckles while attempting to break a cinder block (Wild Life Before).
* Falling over with a bucket of apples, bruising his ankle (Wild Time on the Farm).
* Wearing pink underwear and having his friends tease him about it (Wild Regret).
* Thinking that Rachel was treating him like a cat, so he starts to act like one (Wild Whisperer).
* Having Mojo's friendship bracelet snap on him (Wild Mistake).
* "Losing his game" in basketball, leading him to hit himself in the face with one (Wild Slam Drink).
* Getting hit in the crotch with a basketball (Wild Night In).
* Getting constantly laughed at and made fun of by the Cool Crew (Wild Reputation).
* Being forced to eat mealworms and ants (Wild Meeting).
* Being cheated on by Raya because of his joke status (Wild Break-Up).
* Having the ceiling fan collapse and a pie shoved in his face (Wild Second Job).

NOTE: These examples exclude anything done by Justice. To see them, see Hatred of Dean in Justice's section.

### Puberty

Long-time viewers of the show have established that Dean's appearance has changed the most throughout the four seasons, as a result of Dean's actor Zachary Gordon going through puberty during the show's run. This is frequently bought up as a gag, particularly in the later seasons by Dean or someone related to him.

The most common thing bought up by Dean is his apparent voice change. Dean's voice began to noticeably change in Wild Bowling Day (with production code 121), and properly in Wild Addict (with production code 117), where his voice would frequently crack and get deeper as the episodes went on. This lasts until Wild Heartthrob in season two, as his voice appears to be deepened completely in the next episode Wild Bully. This is noticeable the split second he speaks, and Gary is the first to notice it. When Gary asks about how he got it, Dean tells him he just simply woke up with it. His deep voice is also bought up by his mom in Wild Luck Charlie, and by himself in Wild Switch, where he, while in April's body, tells Leaf that he hated his high-pitched girl voice and that his friends were just getting used to his deep puberty voice.

As a result of his voice change, an apparent Adam's apple began to develop on Dean's neck, which was practically fully grown by the beginning of season four. Since Wild Life Before had Zachary Gordon film a pre-Wild Pilot flashback episode with the resulting bulge, a joke was written in explaining it. When Dean's mom asks him about it, it tells her that he simply bruised his neck while playing basketball.

Although not spoken aloud, Dean has also shown to have grown taller and bulkier as a result of puberty. He has also been shown to have grown facial hair in season four, and is seen shaving it in Wild Mistake. There are also a hand full of season four episodes where his facial hair can be seen, especially in Wild, Wild Radio.

### **Another Running Gag: "Little Boy"**

Since Dean appears to many as older than his age, the writers made a small recurring gag where other characters mistake him for a little boy. This is most evident in the episode Wild Weather, where Teddy Duncan mistakes him for one when he asks her to stay in the convoy with him and his friends.

### **Trivia**

* Despite Sierra McCormick (Rachel) and Chloe Moretz (Justice) going through puberty during the show too, their changes are never spoken aloud, unlike Dean's. Specifically Sierra, whose voice changed, grown taller and developed larger breasts by the fourth season, is never mentioned for unknown reasons.