TV Nopes Podcast

Have you ever wanted to hear about a bunch of hilariously bad Succession analysis? Well good news, because my House of House cohost and Matthew McFadyen's boyfriend Lenny Burnham joined me once again to look at just that. In fact, there was so much to look at, we didn't even get to the tropes themselves this time! But we did read someone who was trying way too hard to intellectualize Roman's fetishes, play a game of "Does Your Mileage May Vary" and so much more! Join us for part one of our adventure into Virtual Boar on the Floor!

Comedian John Field joins me to talk about the TV Tropes page for well known propoganda documentary film "Triumph of the Will," or as I so cleverly dubbed it, "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog of the Will." Take that, Leni! In reality, we spend a lot of time talking about stuff that is not the TV Tropes page for Triumph of the Will including the history of film, bad online discourse, and so much more! It's the longest episode yet . I think at least. I didn't check even though it would be easy to do so. Listen now!

It's been a few months since Alex Ptak and I started our 26 part series on the "Real Life" TV Tropes page, a TV Tropes page that applies tropes to real life for some reason. And this was a very special episode because not only is it the first one of 2022 but I also recorded it while recovering from the hottest COVID variant, the big O, baby! We also do a deep dive into a TV tropes forum thread about Jeffrey Epstein that yields nothing interesting, say the words "badass" a lot, have a discourse on a different b word, and recount the random tropes that defined 2021! I ended up editing out less than I was initially going to because I trust you all so don't blow it, ok?

Many words have been written about the generation-defining masterpiece that is "The Sopranos." Comedian Anders Lee of Redacted Tonight and Pod Damn America has joined me once again to discuss some of the silliest of those words. From theories about what really happened in the finale to people who are baffled by the basic concepts of narrative editing, we address them all! Or we at least address some of them. Listen in and have some laughs while being reassured that whatever bad takes about The Sopranos you might have, there are people out there with worse ones.

Alex Ptak is Alex Pback on the show, but we took a break from our 26 part series on the "Real Life" TV Tropes page to look at the TV Tropes page for the hottest show in the world (at least as of 3 weeks ago), Squid Game! In a rare departure for the podcast, I ramble about Twitter nonsense for too long at the beginning and then we get sidetracked by something else. However, that something else is a quick survey of the ways that clickbait writers have tried to shoehorn Squid Game into every possible headline they can, and it's funny and interesting, trust me. Additionally we read an article with advice about how you can watch Squid Game even if you know it'll give you debilitating panic attacks, wonder what it would be like if Donald Trump talked about Squid Game, and introduce the hottest new character, Squid Game Seinfeld. And more!

Hana Michels and I had a job to finish, and that job was reviewing the Garfield TV Tropes page. Turns out the second half didn't have that much going for it though, so instead we mostly read tons of wholesome comments left under Gafield comic strips over the last decade. Just trust me when I say it's funny and will also brighten your day. And yes, to answer your next question, we do read all of the comments left under the infamous "Jon drinks dog cum" strip.

Most of the TV Tropes pages that shouldn't exist that we've covered shouldn't exist because they cover a sensitive topic in a flippant way. Well what if there was a TV Tropes page that was just that? There is, and it's the "Real Life" TV Tropes page. Comedian, friend, and cohost of Pod Damn America and Ballin' Out Super and creator of Theater of Delights joins me for the first part of a 26 part series. Not sure what TV Tropes even is? Well don't worry, because this is mostly us talking about anime hypotheticals, like what if Trump was in Bleach, and what if Frasier was in Bleach. Also the show is going monthly now.

There was a new season of "I Think You Should Leave" and whichever person or group of people decided that there should be a TV Tropes page for a sketch show has returned to update said page. Lenny Burnham, friend, writer, and co-host of the new House of House podcast (with me!) returns as well. We learn that Detective Crashmore is the new Skelletrex, which sketch endings TV Tropers think are worth spoiler tagging, and we try and settle a Twitter mystery that is already a month OLD at this point. That's a pun, but you'll only understand it if you listen to the episode!

TV Tropes has pages for both media properties and, approriately, "tropes." TV Nopes has only covered media pages that shouldn't exist... until now. Friend and comedian Brandon Scott Wolf, of the the very first TV Nopes episode, returns to the show for our first episode on a trope page that shouldn't exist, specifically the "Ambiguously Jewish" tropes page. Because apparently all it takes to make a "Jewish Tropes" page acceptable is the word "ambiguously" in front of it. We read a lot of casually anti-semitic stuff, but that's only the start of the fun! We also "work blue" with some fun act outs, find a website that probably should have stayed in 2009, learn if there are any Jews in Game of Thrones, and much much more!

Well, it was only a matter of time. When you think of "TV Tropes pages that shouldn't exist" you probably think "what are you talking about?" But assuming you understand the concept of the podcast, Mein Kampf would probably rank up there. While it's not a long TV Tropes page, comedian, author, and friend Dan Wilbur joined me for the longest episode yet. Topics covered include German history, politics, PC culture, and the best way to read Mein Kampf on the subway, if you feel the need to do that for some reason.

Here at TV Nopes we cover TV Tropes pages that shouldn't exist. For the first time, however, the TV Tropes editors agreed, as the "Louder With Crowder" page was deleted before we could record the episode. Comedian and activist Anders Lee (Redacted Tonight, Pod Damn America) and I dove into the Wayback Machine to find out why the TV Tropes page for "Louder With Crowder" was deleted. Spoiler alert: it's cause the show seems to be pretty racist! Before that, however, we looked at the "Greg Gutfeld Show" TV Tropes page for a significantly less racist appetizer. Did Greg ever get his driver's license? What's up with the opening monologue in "The Departed?" Is Steven Crowder's "Chinese spy" costume culturally sensitive? These questions and more will be revealed when you listen to the episode!

Friend and comedian Hana Michels joined me to look at the TV Tropes page for the Garfield comic strip, a page that probably shouldn't exist because the Garfield newspaper comic strip doesn't really have much structured plot. And yet, for some reason, it has so many tropes that we decided to split it into 2 parts. Among the topics covered are alien prudes, 9/11 comic strips, and Ben Shapiro getting mad about a lack of animal genitals in kid's cartoons.

Wouldn't it be neat if this releases right as they announce when I Think You Should Leave Season 2 Is? Anyway, some TV Tropes pages shouldn't exist because the material they're trying to cover is too sensitive for the format. Other TV Tropes pages shouldn't exist because the media they're covering isn't really the sort of narrative that can be analyzed in the TVT style. The TV Tropes page for I Think You Should Leave is the latter. Friend and writer Lenny Burnham (Arden Podcast) joins me to see a bunch of oddballs misunderstand the point of comedy and become very obsessed with Skelletrex, a character with no-screentime who exists in one sentence yelled by Sam Richardson. To be fair, it is a great sentence. We also learn about other kinds of skeletons, Death Eater Ron's penis, and much much more!

Of all the TV Tropes pages we've covered that shouldn't exist, this one is the one that should exist the least so far. Steve McQueen's Oscar-winning adaption of Solon Northup's memoir of being kidnapped into slavery is a brutal magnum opus that refuses to gloss over the horrors of American slavery. So of course, some TV Tropers documented every single way that the slavemasters are like anime school girls. I wish I was kidding. Joining me is comedian and podcaster Alex Ptak (Pod Damn America, Ballin' Out Super, Theater of Delights). We try, and fail, to understand the kind of person who sees "12 Years a Slave" and thinks "that's Trauma Conga Line featuring a Yandere Bigot With a Crush" to me.

So far the TV Tropes pages that shouldn't exist that this podcast has covered shouldn't exist for sensitivity reasons. So it's time for a lighthearted frolic through a page that shouldn't exist because the story it covers is around 2 minutes long. I'm joined by comedian and friend James Fisher Jr. as we discuss bears' rights to defend their home, whether Goldilocks was the first Karen, strong opinions from Reggie the Dog, and the downside of lying about your age so that you can go fight in World War Two.

I'm joined by brilliant comedy writer and friend Jenny Jaffe as we look at the TV Tropes page for "Black Fish." Many people would say that a documentary about an abused killer whale who murdered his trainers doesn't need to be analyzed as though it were a Marvel movie, and yet... here we are. We learn about the cinematic universe of Black Fish, speculate about the inevitable action-packed sequel, and spend way too long trying to understand what it means when a story "undergoes Cerberus Syndrome cauing a character to lose their Joker Immunity."

For the premier episode, I'm joined by comedian, friend, and Will Smith social media consigliere Brandon Scott Wolf (@BrandonEsWolf)! Bong Joon-ho's tragicomic weath-inequality thriller fantasia was the first foreign film to win the Best Picture Oscar. There's no reason it should have a TV Tropes page, and yet it does. Together we learn about Bong Joon-ho's application of the "Batman Gambit," the plot holes TV Tropers seem to think the movie has, JK Rowling's feelings about Jewish wizards, and so much more!