• Each series and movie starts with Yamada doing a cheesy magic act, complete with blown out speakers, to an all but empty crowd. She is always fired soon after, and walks home with people, somehow aware of her plight, laughing and pointing. She has only one fan, who jovially stalks her from afar. • One of the running gags in the characters' love-hate relationship is that they are both sexually inadequate; Yamada has a flat chest, and Ueda's anatomy is too large, and each constantly reminds the other of their shameful physical and virginal state. • Starting early on, Ueda calls Yamada "YOU" in English instead of politely using her name in Japanese. • Another trademark of Ueda is his tendency to yell out in English, "Jump!" and either preternaturally disappear, or perhaps more humorously, not. • In the third series, Ueda's utterance "Uooh!" becomes very comedic and pronounced. Usually he says it when something bad happens. Yamada picks up the habit. • Ueda is a proud man, and puts on airs of being fearless. He often spouts, "どんと来い!" (donto koi) equivalent to "bring it on!" in English. However, Ueda, while a big man, constantly faints. Though at times he can be roused to action and becomes a fierce fighter. In the third series, his more brave moments are often preceded by the heavily accented English phrase, "Why don't you do your best?" Which is one of his book titles, as is donto koi. • Ueda frequently hits his head when he walks through doors or houses with low ceilings. This is due to his extremely tall height. • Ueda often starts his appearance in each episode by using a magic trick, which Yamada easily figures out. Yamada usually does a simple magic trick towards the middle of the episode, and laughs characteristically ("kyeahehehe!") after explaining how she did it. • Ueda's car door breaks off at one point, and he carries it over his shoulder quite often. His car also follows him at some points the feature-length specials and movies. This is never explained. In fact many of the more mystical aspects (and of course the irony that the only people with supernatural abilities may be Yamada and her mother) of Ueda and Yamada are never explained or even noticed by the main characters. • Yamada has to practice smiling. She has no friends, save Ueda. She laughs in an unnatural way (see above) and is sometimes smacked by others when she laughs at her own cleverness. • On every installment (except the first season), When Yamada passing by the shopping district, a family always laugh at her. • Yamada's landlady is constantly hounding her for money, and not easily tricked. She is assisted by a tenant from Bangladesh, who eventual marries the landlady and by the beginning of Series 3 has two children (one boy, one girl) with her. • Yamada's mother, Satomi (played by
Yōko Nogiwa), is constantly scheming to make money, and loves Ueda like a son, which infuriates Yamada. • Yamada (and sometimes others) constantly misreads
kanji and Ueda has to correct her. • Yamada often hits and disables Ueda. Detective Yabe often punches his assistants for saying things that annoy him. • When someone is struck, the camera often shakes. • Detective Yabe's assistant changes from a dullard to a genius in the third series, who constantly spouts, "I graduated from Tokyo University!" The new assistant is smacked as much as the first. In special and the second movie, a third,
Otaku assistant takes the role. • Another constant gag concerns detective Yabe's hair, which is a wig. Many puns are made when someone says a word like that sounds like "hair" and Yabe grabs his
toupee and shouts "It's natural!" • Detective Yabe (
Katsuhisa Namase) often accuses Yamada of the current crime, or sometimes is even legitimately seeking her for fraud she has done. Usually, she can escape incarceration with simple tricks. • There are a multitude of musical cues. For instance, when someone realizes something, there is usually the sound of a tambourine. • As the series and movies increase, special effects become more and more surreal. Lightbulbs above peoples heads, bugs with human faces, and Ueda stretching his limbs to fight like a cartoon character are but a few examples. ==Music==