I cannot believe anyone could have wanted to make a TV Tropes page for this. I am infinitely grateful.
12/10/18: Troped
Hi, I'm E350, author of Halloween Unspectacular and self-declared Tsar of Bulgaria. Today I'm in Melbourne. It's going well.
Smash cut to Flinders Street. Everything is on fire. An aircraft carrier has crashed next to the intersection with St. Kilda Road. Timmy stands atop the heritage tram, declaring himself the Tram Guardian. It's not as bad as it could be, basically.
As my time is regrettably limited, I thought I'd self-indulgently go through the HU TV Tropes page. I reckon it'll be good to kick back and discuss it, but also perhaps to clarify some things. Because clarification is fun, I guess.
Let us begin, shall we?
Butt-Monkey: Squidward and Dib are the most frequent victims of having a lot of random bad stuff happen to them. Characters that E350 genuinely dislikes, like Gaz and Paulina, are close behind.
I do enjoy making characters suffer for comedy, I'll admit that – though I think it has to be proportionate. Squidward, basically, suffers because he invites it through being a jerk, and Dib… well, Dib's entertaining when he's agitated.
I do find it funny that Gaz is listed as a character I dislike, because, well, she's not – not in the same way Paulina is, at any rate. It's not so much that I hate her, although I find my opinion of her has declined over the years (especially after she burned my crops and poisoned my water supply, which was totally a thing that happened). It's just that comeuppance is fun, really.
Self-Deprecation: E350 does this a lot.
That's because I'm a gibbon.
Okay, but seriously, making fun of yourself is easy because you already know your flaws, and how far you can push before it becomes bad taste. Plus, it keeps you humble, which will endear me to my subjects when I conquer the world with my supreme strategic genius.
"Conquer the world?" quizzed Sadie skeptically.
"It's a joke," I shrugged, "It's… it's a little jape, y'know."
Note to self; bribe or eliminate Sadie.
The Nostalgia Criticgets a few cameos in as well before getting an entire chapter to himself.
And boy howdy, do I regret this in the light of Change the Channel. Don't use real people in fanfic, kids, even if they're fictionalised!
What Happened to the Mouse?:The final fate of Dipper and Mabel's parents isn't explained.
Their final fate, in all honesty, was me straight up forgetting they existed. So, um, let me clear this up now. They, uh… um… um…
I turned to Timmy.
"I ain't helping you outta this one," replied Timmy.
Uh… sea turtles, mate.
(Take That) In "A Sunday Drive Down Fury Road", E350 listens to OutKast's "Hey Ya!" in the car before Sandy grabs the CD and chucks it out the window. Also, he compares the Hume Highway to a barren, hellish landscape.
It was actually supposed to be 'What's Going On?' by Four Non-Blondes – the joke is that I'm re-enacting that He-Man meme and am also very bad at singing. As for the Hume Highway, I take nothing back. That road is a soulless, miserable experience and when one travels down it, they can feel their soul withering on the vine. It is a hot, barren, featureless, tarmac nightmare, and since they bypassed Holbrook, you can't even see the submarine there. And that was hilarious because Holbrook is three hundred kilometres inland, in the middle of the outback, and they have a submarine. And now the highway doesn't go there anymore.
A pox on the Hume.
Anvilicious: Any story that centers on nukes tends to be this, as lampshaded by the author.
Well, that's because J. Robert Oppenheimer either killed or is my father.
"I thought your dad was a farmer?" said Sadie.
"Free-range isotopes," I replied.
Well, that's just about all I have time for. Please accept my humblest apologies about the length – I had intended to write some stories in advance, but fate and essays stood in the way.
Until next time, this is E350, king of the potato people, signing off.
AN: I might come back and do a little more like this later, if I get time.
