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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/david_cross.jpg]]
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3David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He's known for his incredibly dark, sardonic sense of humor and his decidedly left-leaning views. With Creator/BobOdenkirk, he wrote and starred in ''Series/MrShow'', and its spiritual {{spinoff}}, the Creator/{{Netflix}} Original ''Series/WBobAndDavid''.
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5Cross is also an actor; his most famous role is Tobias Funke from ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', and he played the titular role in ''Series/TheIncreasinglyPoorDecisionsOfToddMargaret'' He also played Moonbeam in ''WesternAnimation/AskTheStorybots''. He's also appeared in films ranging from ''Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind'' to the ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' series and had a rare turn as the StraightMan in ''Film/ItsADisaster''. He's the voice of Master Crane in the ''Franchise/KungFuPanda'' films [[note]][[TheOtherDarrin but not]] [[WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness the TV series]][[/note]].
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7And that's not all! Cross has released several albums and a DVD of stand-up comedy through Creator/SubPop. He also sang the ExpositoryThemeTune for the fourth season of ''Series/CheapSeats'', and he's done guest voices for the Creator/AdultSwim series ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' and ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty''. And [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness during the first season]] of ''Series/TheColbertReport'', he played [[StrawmanPolitical liberal talking head]] "Russ Lieber", Creator/StephenColbert's SitcomArchNemesis.
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9In 2014, he wrote and directed the indie dramedy ''Film/{{Hits}}'', about the public obsession with Website/YouTube fame.
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12!!Associated tropes related to his career:
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14* BlackComedy: His bit about the Roman Catholic sex scandal. "How do you not fuck that?"
15* TheCastShowOff: Surprisingly, he's not that bad a singer, particularly at hitting high notes. He does this quite a bit in ''Series/MrShow'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' and even performed a song from ''Music/JesusChristSuperstar'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llAdHo-dZA4 with the band Sloan.]]
16* ConspiracyTheorist: Has worked 9/11 Truther theories into his stand-up routine.
17* CringeComedy: He's very good at playing ''very'' socially awkward characters. But not in an adorable kind of way; more in a TooDumbToLive kind of way. See Tobias in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and ''especially'' ''Series/TheIncreasinglyPoorDecisionsOfToddMargaret.''
18* CrossesTheLineTwice:
19** Invoked. He won't sign on to something if he ''isn't'' doing this, [[MoneyDearBoy unless it's under certain circumstances.]]
20** This came back to bite him when Charlene Yi accused him of having acted racist toward her years earlier. Cross claimed he was acting in character as his redneck persona and they'd "both misunderstood" the situation, which he now deeply regrets as a poor choice of words.
21* ClusterFBomb: His routines seem to be full of swear words.
22* GallowsHumor: Cross claims he gave his girlfriend a dildo, in case she gets raped. Of course, if you've seen ''Film/TerrorFirmer'', this makes perfect sense.
23* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: His first two comedy albums, ''Shut Up You Fucking Baby!'' and ''It's Not Funny'', use track titles that don't reflect the actual content of the routines, but instead mock clichéd stand-up topics - for example, "My Child is Enthralling, Especially When It Says Something Unexpectedly Precocious Even Though It Doesn't Understand What It Just Said!". Subsequent albums dropped the practice. Meanwhile, the DVD chapter titles of tour documentary ''Let America Laugh'' are named after ComicBook/ChickTracts.
24* LargeHam: Likes to mock other people's over-enthusiasm. "They're square, mother-fuck! FUCK YOU, MOTHER-FUCK!" He's talking about bagels, by the way.
25* MoneyDearBoy: [[invoked]] Cross made it no secret that his participation in ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' CGI movies was motivated by the salary, noting that being in the first movie paid more money than anything he'd ever done combined, and apparently paid for his house. He did, however, go on to say that the filming of ''Chipwrecked'' was the most miserable experience of his professional life, urging others not to see it. He spent most of filming in a pelican suit on a moving cruise ship. Ouch.

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