Line #15 Music/NickLutsko


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lutsko1.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"I wanna be like Dan Bongino."'']]
3
4	->''"I promise to be normal, I swear I'm not deranged."''
5
6	Nick Lutsko is a songwriter, producer, and performer out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He routinely changes hats between performing high-energy, theatrical shows with his "$100K Band" and creating songs and music videos for the likes of Netflix, Super Deluxe and [[Creator/{{Dropout}} CollegeHumor / Dropout]].
7
8	In 2020, Nick started a loose cinematic universe of comedy songs posted to Twitter, involving his Grandma's basement, Jeff Bezos, and an unlicensed {{Film/Gremlins}} 3. This would later include "Saturday Nick Lutsko", a musical Platform/YouTube variety show with the $100K Band.
9
10	!!Nick Lutsko's work contains the following tropes:
11	* AffectionatePickpocket: In Gremlins 3: Dawn of Desmond, [[spoiler: Big Pizza undergoes an apparent HeelFaceTurn and hugs Nick in reconciliation ... allowing him to steal the Gremlins 3 disk.]]
12	* AlienAbduction: "Alien Life Form" features the terrifying [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable abduction scene]] from [[Film/FireInTheSky Fire In The Sky]] ... carried out by [[{{Series/Alf}} Gordon Shumway]].
13	* AlternateRealityGame: The "Songs on the Computer" storyline has elements of this, especially with Nick's [[CharacterBlog in-character]] Twitter.
14	* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever: Gremlins 3 features [[spoiler: Desmond [[NuclearMutant growing to a giant size after surviving a nuclear explosion]]]].
15	* AudienceParticipationSong: Live performances of "Boat Parade" will split the audience into three sections to chant the titular phrase.
16	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: In "Unleash Your Spirit" Nick gets the Spirit Halloween advertising deal he wanted, only for the animatronics to come to life and attack him.
17	-->''I had a dream, but I didn't think it through.''
18	* BellyMouth: "Belly Teeth".
19	* BoomHeadshot: The fate of [[spoiler: [[PumpkinPerson Pumpkin]] [[SpiritOfHalloween Man]]]].
20	* BrassBalls: It takes huge balls to admit that [[YouTuberApologyParody Dracula can get wet.]]
21	* BrokenRecord: The $100K Band's cover of [[Music/AlanJackson Alan Jackson]]'s "Gone Country" repeats "We've gone country, look at these boots" over and over.
22	* CelebrityResemblance: The man in the stairs is said to look like Fox News' Dan Bongino.
23	* ChickMagnet: Gremlin Man "can't keep the ladies away".
24	* CircusOfFear: "Sideshow", complete with [[MonsterClown Monster Clowns]] in the video.
25	* ClarkKenting: Gremlin Man looks exactly like Desmond, but doesn't need glasses as he has "perfect sight".
26	* CoolShades: Ceviche Man wears tiny ones shaped like flames.
27	* CreepyDoll: Jeff Bezos appears as a living, malicious Spirit Halloween dummy.
28	* CutHimselfShaving: [[UnreliableNarrator Nick]] says this is the source of the sink splattered with blood in "Give Me a Show on Nick Jr."
29	* DanceSensation: Desmond has the Desmond Dip, and Cowboy Jon has the Do-si-do.
30	* DarkReprise: "RNC Reprise" is a slower, despairing version of "I Wanna Be at the RNC".
31	** Gremlins 3 has [[spoiler: "Des in Heaven", a [[SofterAndSlowerCover melancholy instrumental reprise]] of "Where Did the Gremlins Go" played after Desmond's DisneyDeath.]]
32	* DigitalAbomination: [[spoiler: Greezy is possessed by one]] in "Celebration of Tech".
33	* DodgyToupee: The protagonist of "Crickets" wears one, and believes he can't be recognized on video without it.
34	* EvilLaugh: Can be heard in "Shakedown", "Pumpkin Man", and "Living Dead in Washington D.C."
35	* FeatheredFiend: [[BigBad Mel]] once owned a dozen mean, loud hyacinth macaws.
36	* FreudianExcuse: We learn Nick's in "School Board Meeting Fun":
37	-->''I was a kid when Grandpa died''\
38	''Grandma banned me from the funeral''\
39	''Cause my hair was white like {{Music/Eminem}}''\
40	''And I've been mad since then''
41	* GoldDigger: Mel is dating Nick's grandma despite being not much older than him, and is interested in extorting money from the family.
42	* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: According to "Ceviche Man's Greatest Hits", Ceviche Man can't forgive his mother for covering him in ceviche and letting [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent iguanas]] bite his skin.
43	* HumanoidAbomination:
44	** The Man in the Stairs is a bald, humanoid figure that lives underneath the stairs in Nick's house that resembles Dan Bongino and is extremely hostile towards anyone in its general vicinity.
45	** The Men in the Tunnels are a race of vaguely humanoid monsters that live in the tunnels beneath Nick's grandmother's house. They need to be constantly fed meat, or else they will rise from the tunnels to feed elsewhere, which is stated to be something disastrous to apocalyptic proportions.
46	** The People of the Forest are sharp-toothed, tree-dwelling humanoids who lay their eggs in humans' beards and eat children and pets. Every autumn in Tennessee, they climb down from the trees and must be warded off with incantations and sacrificial swine.
47	* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Most of Nick's POV characters are depicted as latching onto weird fringe movements or parasocial relationships -- befriending Dan Bongino, getting Chrissy Teigen to follow them on Twitter, endlessly defending Johnny Depp, going to school board meetings to scream about unrelated political issues when they don't even have kids -- because they're desperately lonely and unfulfilled, and [[WindmillCrusader need to do something, anything, that makes them feel important]].
48	-->''I need to scream / I need to fight''\
49	''I need to see the movie'' Fight Club / ''every single night''\
50	''Or I can't go to sleep''\
51	''I need to scream / I need to fight''\
52	''[[IJustWantToBeLoved I need to find a lady that'll kiss me / before I die]]'''
53	* InsideAComputerSystem: In "Celebration of Country Music", [[spoiler: Greezy Rick is sucked into a computer and trapped in cyberspace]].
54	* TheInsomniac: The singer of "Shadows" avoids sleep due to paranoia that shadows will get him in his dreams.
55	* LifeDrinker: The ConspiracyTheorist singer of "Baby Blood" believes that celebrities are hot because they all drink [[EatsBabies baby]] blood.
56	* LoonyFan: "Deputy of [[Creator/JohnnyDepp Depp]]", complete with Nick [[CarvedMark trying to carve Johnny Depp's name into his chest]].
57	* MadnessMantra: "Boat Parade".
58	* TheMafia: Big Pizza is a mafia thug hired by Mel to [[EvilDebtCollector threaten Nick's life over his debts]].
59	* MaliciousMisnaming: "Let Me Host S&L": Besides the [[Series/SaturdayNightLive title]], Nick repeatedly pronounces Elon Musk's name as "Ellen".
60	* MurderBallad: In the bridge of "#1 Hit on Country Radio", Nick explains his plan to get rid of Mel:
61	-->''I'm gonna wake up the men in the tunnels under Grandma's house''
62	-->''I'll tell Mel that I heard a bird down there and he should probably go check it out''
63	-->''I'll use my country music money and buy a truck full of cement''
64	-->''And if I never see Mel again, I guess that's country music money well spent''
65	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Gremlin Man's [[CompositeCharacter nemesis]] [[Creator/StevenSpielberg Spielberg]] [[Creator/MartinScorsese Scorsese]], a Hollywood snob who hates superheroes and creates a movie to [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment bore them to death]].
66	* OverlyNervousFlopSweat: Nick puts Vaseline on his face to enhance this. The album cover for "Songs on the Computer" even depicts characters swimming in an ocean of Nick's sweat.
67	* PerversePuppet: Grandma's basement is full of them.
68	* PlayingTheVictimCard: Nick considers himself "America's most persecuted president and singer".
69	* PuppetKing: Beetlejuice is president of Spirit Halloween Planet "in name only".
70	* ScarySkeleton: "Doctor (Don't Scare Me)" features Nick's horrifying discovery of a skeleton [[spoiler: inside him.]]
71	* SequelSong: "Unleash Your Spirit" to "Spirit Halloween Theme Song".
72	** Becomes a trilogy with "Spirit Halloween Planet".
73	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: "All Shook Up".
74	* ShoutOut: Several to [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis Presley]] in "All Shook Up".
75	* SlasherSmile: "Grinning Like A Barracuda".
76	* SoBeautifulItsACurse: "Too Hot for Hollywood" suggests this as the reason Nick's film career hasn't gotten off the ground.
77	* SocialMediaBeforeReason: From "Straitjacket":
78	-->''I dreamed my family took a trip on a boat''
79	-->''Treacherous creatures began stirring below''
80	-->''And as the ship went down''
81	-->''I began to shout, “But what about my phone?”''
82	* StartMyOwn: Nick's approach to {{Film/Gremlins}} 3 and [[Series/SaturdayNightLive Saturday Night Live]].
83	* StuffedIntoALocker: In "The Ballad of Don Jr.", Nick dreams of inflicting this on Hunter Biden.
84	* SubvertedKidsShow:
85	** "Familiar Song" features a demonic [[Series/SesameStreet Elmo]] with sharp, bloody teeth, who attacks Nick and turns him into a puppet.
86	--->''Elmo told me there's a distant land''
87	--->''Where monsters walk the streets of man''
88	--->''Where children sing their A B Cs and you will be eternally damned''
89	** In "A Ghost Story", a Victorian ghost is [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth terrified]] when the UncannyValley {{WebAnimation/Cocomelon}} family moves into his house.
90	* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial:
91	** "I don't hate caterpillars, that was just a rumor."
92	** "Let me host SNL, my brain works really well."
93	* TheSwarm: The vengeful protagonist of "Crickets" inflicts this after being banished from the county fair.
94	* TakeThat:
95	** From "Where Did the Gremlins Go?":
96	--->''We could have had {{Film/Gremlins}} 4 and Gremlins 5''
97	--->''Instead we got fourteen [[WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime Land Before Times]]''
98	** From "Pay Me $100K to Play at Biden's Inauguration":
99	--->''It's cheaper than {{Music/Sting}}, it's cheaper than [[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel Simon]]''
100	--->''It's comparable to [[LesserStar Garfunkel]]''
101	* {{Tulpa}}: "Celebration of Summertime" reveals that [[spoiler: Nick created Desmond and Greezy this way.]]
102	* UnreliableNarrator: Nick is an unstable ConspiracyTheorist and according to Mel, lying about Big Pizza and the men in the tunnels.
103	* VoiceOfTheLegion: [[spoiler: The DigitalAbomination possessing Greezy]] in "Celebration of Tech" [[spoiler: speaks in a variety of overlapping AI-generated voices.]]
104	* WellDoneSonGuy: "The Ballad of Don Jr." depicts then President Trump's oldest son as this.
105	* WhosLaughingNow: Directed at Nick's various enemies in "Persecuted Man", because [[SmallNameBigEgo he has a Webby award and they don't]].
106	* YouTuberApologyParody: In "Dracula Can Get Wet", Nick apologizes for mistakenly tweeting that he would defeat Literature/{{Dracula}} by [[KillItWithWater splashing him with water]].

Context Music / NickLutsko