History Recap / CreepshowTwitteringsFromTheCircusOfTheDead

** The ringmistress' name is revealed to be Gayle Ross. This is a reference to Gaylen Ross, the actress who played Becky Vickers in the original film.

* ManOnFire: The Circus' take on a fire-breather is performed with them shoving a torch down a zombie's throat, then watching as fire erupts from its face and it blindly runs around while it burning from the inside out.

* AllPartOfTheShow: What Blake and her family originally think about the circus, even when an audience member gets an accidental hatchet to the head. They grow more unsure about this the longer the show goes on. The same can be said for Blake's followers, who ''triple'' in number the longer Blake tweets about what's going on.
* AwwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Despite what Blake may think, she and her family are closer to one another than it appears.
** After spending the whole story sniping at each other for the former's phone obsession, Blake and Mom take cover from the zombies together, with Blake even saying that she loves her mother and never meant anything she said about her.

** Even Dad, the family member Blake interacts with the least, calms her after she cries over the lion act, telling her that the lion escaped through a fake floor built into its cage.
* TheBadGuyWins: The Circus's staff get off scot free for killing Blake's family and what few audience members showed up. The end reveals that they're even deeming Blake the next ringmistress and having the circus tour the country.

* {{Bookends}}: The episode begins and ends with someone tweeting on Blake's phone.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Blake spends a majority of the story as one, only dropping the attitude at the end out of fear.
* BrickJoke: Blake's first tweet seen in the episode says that she broke her nose attempting the trapeze. The end of the episode has the ticket-taker saying that Blake, the new ringmistress, will be announcing the acts from the trapeze. That should make it clear she won't last long at her new "job".

* CelebrityResemblance: Dad mentions that the Circus's usher looks like Creator/MickeyRooney, who Blake is not familiar with.

** Creator/JoeHill appears as one of the few living audience members in the circus.

* CreepyCrossdresser: Blake's brother Eric, already a creepy and pathetic pervert, wears his sister's leggings and a skirt as the family stop at a diner. Blake says that Eric initially wanted to wear the leggings because it's "the closest he'll probably come to getting laid in high school", but he threw in the skirt because Blake dared him to do it, promising to invite a hot goth girl he had a crush on to a pool party she was throwing.

* DullSurprise: Blake's default expression throughout the story, even after watching zombies actively devour people as a source of entertainment.
* TheEndOrIsIt: Once Blake and her family have been disposed of, the ticket-taker uses Blake's phone to promote the Circus of the Dead, which he promises will begin ''touring the country''.

* FirstPersonSmartass: Blake, no doubt a side effect from being a moody, teenage, phone-addict.
* ForeShadowing: Before the ImagineSpot, Blake muses that her own survival skills would amount to tweeting for someone to save her and her family. At the end of the story, that's exactly what she does.

* FreezeFrameBonus: Whenever the camera focuses on Blake's phone, some of the tweets that pop up are readable, and are seen as mildly amusing.
* FurBikini: During her ImagineSpot, Blake imagines that her mom would fashion one of these out of squirrels.
* HumanCannonball: The first act of the Circus of the Dead has the staff stuffing a zombie dressed as a stuntman into a cannon. When the cannon is lit, the resulting explosion splashes the zombie's guts onto the audience.
* ImagineSpot: Blake has a brief one comparing the family cramped inside their van to a duel to the death, prompting a visual of her and her "Bitchtopian Queen" mother fighting in a cage match.
** She has another one when she imagines her family getting stranded in the frozen wasteland when their van gets stuck in the snow, and describes what each member of the family would be doing.

* JumpScare: The moment when the undead Eric reaches the bleachers and lunges into the audience.

* KindheartedCatLover: Blake is shown to have a soft spot for cats, gushing over the lion when it is brought out and crying when the zombies devour it. Her dad cheers her up by telling her (falsely) that the lion's cage had a fake bottom through which it escaped.
* KnifeThrowingAct: Before everything goes to hell, Eric is chosen to volunteer for one. He is cuffed to a wooden wheel as a zombie chained to a stake in the dirt approaches a box of hatchets. The zombie then proceeds to throw the blades at Eric, the last one landing straight in his neck.
* ManOnFire: The Circus's take on a fire-breather is performed with them shoving a torch down a zombie's throat, then watching as fire erupts from its eyes and mouth, and then watching as it blindly runs around while it burns to death from the inside out.

** ''Literature/TheStand'' and ''Literature/TheFireman'' are among the books being burned during Blake's ImagineSpot.

* NothingIsScarier: The origins of the Circus of the Dead and its "performers" are left completely unexplained. For all intents and purposes, the zombies just... '''exist''', and were subsequently abducted by a band of sadistic carnies for their own sick pleasures.
* PhoneaholicTeenager: Blake, who is never ''once'' seen without her phone in her hand.
* PokeInTheThirdEye: Just as Dad takes the accidental detour, Blake begins "psychically willing" Eric to find a reason to have him stop the car. Judging by her reaction, it's abundantly certain that Blake witnessed what could best be described as "impure thoughts".
* ProductPlacement: Website/{{Twitter}} is an essential element of the story, although it isn't nesecarily showcased as a good thing.

* {{Sadist}}: The staff of the Circus of the Dead, a bunch of shady, sick-looking carnies that go out of their way to come up with inventive ways of killing the zombies, turn whatever living guests show up into ''more'' zombies, and routinely capture one woman in the audience and deem her the next ringmistress, routinely forcing her to run for her life. They practically use the circus to entertain ''themselves'' instead of their audience.

* SocialMediaIsBad: Mom has a very low opinion about social media, claiming that it's dumbing down her daughter and those like her. Considering that Blake shows only mild disinterest about the increasingly gruesome acts, she may have had a valid point.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: While it's shown that Eric and Dad are zombified and Blake is set to be the next ringmistress, it's never explicitly shown what happens to Mom. It's strongly implied that Dad kills her.
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* ADateWithRosiePalms: Blake mentions that Mom had taught Eric how to knit when the family was snowed in. He proceeded to knit himself a "cock sock".

* ManOnFire: The Circus's take on a fire-breather is performed with them shoving a torch down a zombie's throat, then watching as fire erupts from its eyes and mouth, blindly running around while it burns to death from the inside out.