Line #6 Series/CheckItOutWithDrSteveBrule


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Steve_Brule_7906.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:For your health.]]
3
4	''Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule'' (2010-) is a 15-minute SketchShow on Creator/AdultSwim, and a SpinOff from ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'' based off of that show's "Brule's Rules" sketches. The show stars Creator/JohnCReilly as the incredibly inept and even more incredibly awkward-seeming Dr. Steve Brule, whose show is [[GenreThrowback obviously shot on videotape for late-night public access TV]] [[{{Retraux}} seemingly sometime]] in [[TheNineties the early '90s]]. Various sketches (or sketch-like set pieces) are introduced by Brule "[[CatchPhrase for your health]]!"
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6	First season lasted six episodes. Second season began airing in late March 2012. Third season began airing in late February 2014. Fourth season began airing in June 2016. The show went into an unnofficial hiatus after the fourth season due to Creator/JohnCReilly having other commitments and a busy schedule.
7	----
8	!!For your tropes:
9	* AbusiveParents: Doris Pringle Brule. She always verbally abuses Steve and tried to kill him when he was a child, among other things.
10	* AccidentalMisnaming: Steve mangles the names of everyone he interviews, aside from the Channel 5 regulars.
11	* AcmeProducts: Whenever some sort of food or household product is shown, it's almost always produced by "Toad's".
12	* TheAllegedCar: Steve's "cherry-blue hot rod" that he buys in "Cars". It [[EveryCarIsAPinto explodes in the middle of an intersection shortly after he buys it.]]
13	* AmbiguouslyBi: Steve himself. It doesn't seem to take much to make him attracted to a woman, and he once found Creator/JohnnyDepp lookalike Ronnie Rodriguez attractive simply for having shoulder-length hair.
14	* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: [[SpoofAesop Spoofed]] OnceAnEpisode, when Brule summarizes what's been learned.
15	--> ''' Dr. Brule:''' Some dads are not ''your'' dad.
16	* AxCrazy: Hippy Joel.
17	* BadLiar: Steve is very quick to spin outrageous lies about himself to seem more impressive or one-up an interviewee, and is almost always met with immediate skepticism.
18	-->'''Steve:''' The most important thing is to stay on the broat.
19	-->'''Captain Gary:''' I think that goes along with the safety issue.
20	-->'''Steve:''' I know. I have five of broats.
21	-->'''Gary:''' Then you should know exactly what we're talking about.
22	* BeautyIsBad: Steve is not a fan of hot guys. He is disappointed by a group of male strippers, whom he thought would be lifelong friends; but it turns out they were just a bunch of {{Hunk}}s.
23	* BingeMontage: Any time someone puts alcohol or drugs in front of Steve, this is almost certain to happen.
24	* BlackComedy: For all of the wackiness, with each episode it seems to become more and more a show about a complete failure of a person. Brule's dad abandoned him, his mother is insane and wanted to kill him and his dad so they'd always be with her, he's ugly and can't get girls (a problem he constantly attributes to "hunks") or friends. He comes off as kind of a slow man-child. The first season finale is essentially about his depression due to being a lonely, friendless loser.
25	* BloodyHilarious: Brule cutting off his finger in "Fear."
26	* ButtMonkey: Steve Brule's mere existence is to be one of these.
27	* CatchPhrase: Steve has "For your health" and "Let's check it out".
28	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Steve Brule practically lives on his own planet. The other Channel 5 regulars aren't much better.
29	* ClusterFBomb: Mario, the producer of "Stevie!".
30	* CharacterDeath: Linda Barelli, Mobin, [[spoiler: and Wayne Skylar]] die during the series and don't come back.
31	* DarkerAndEdgier: Episode 3, "Family" makes the previous two episodes seem lighthearted in comparison. The NightmareFuel only escalates throughout the next two seasons.
32	* DeliberateVHSQuality: The show emulates a cable access series from the late 80s/early 90s, complete with several deliberate technical errors per episode.
33	** The segment transitions are riddled with visual artifacts to simulate the show being recorded on old VHS tapes.
34	** *The editors run the footage through a VCR and hit it every once in a while to screw up the vertical synchronization.
35	* DrivenToSuicide: Mobin couldn't hack it.
36	* DrunkWithPower: While visiting a library and assisting the librarian, Steve goes overboard on shushing patrons making even a slight amount of noise.
37	* EnforcedPlug: On a couple of occasions, the episode wedges representatives of sponsors into the "Doctor to Doctor" segment. In the case of Ron Don Valante, proprietor of Ron Don's Play Pen, Valante got the spot despite having nothing to do with the episode's topic (Church.) In the "Horses" episode, it's obvious the topic was chosen by guest Pablo Myers, owner of Myers' Super Food, so he could plug a canned horse meat sale.
38	* EveryCarIsAPinto: Steve's car from "Cars" overheats and explodes while he's driving it.
39	* ExecutiveMeddling: InUniverse, Steve is visibly unhappy with the network's decision to bring on a new co-host on "Planes"
40	* FanDisservice: Whenever something disgusting happens, Denny the cameraman doesn't stop rolling, but instead ZOOMS IN.
41	** About half of "Relationships" consists of a long sequence where Jan Skylar ([[CrosscastRole played by Tim in drag]]) strips down to her underwear and demonstrates to Steve how she initiates sex with Wayne.
42	* FauxAffablyEvil: Hippy Joel. Every time he shows up, he seems calm and friendly. But you get him on drugs and he practically turns into a psychopath.
43	* FormulaBreakingEpisode: The Season 4 episode "Stevie!" has Steve hosting a live morning talk show.
44	* HairTriggerTemper: The producer of "Stevie!" angrily cusses Steven out every time he makes a mistake on live television.
45	* HollywoodHealing: Averted. Steve was never the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the effects of all the head trauma and drugs really start showing by Season 4, where he struggles with simply putting together coherent sentences.
46	* HookersAndBlow: In "Church", Steve goes to Ron Don Volante's Playpen (Home of the 2 Dollar Lap Dance) and indulges in this trope. He also smokes some crack and [[spoiler:performs fellatio latter]].
47	* HulkSpeak: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]; Steve sometimes omits a few words from his sentences ("This is harp.") and often uses the phrase "name of (name)" to give the name of someone or something, but for the most part, his grammar's fine.
48	* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: After Steve and Hippie Joel get high in the episode "Home", Joel grabs a crossbow and starts chasing Steve. Steve is appropriately terrified.
49	* HypocriticalHumor: Steve resorts to screaming at a roomful of patrons at the library... to weed out whoever is talking.
50	* IMeantToDoThat: After doing or saying something incorrectly in front of an expert, Steve often tries to save face by retorting their correction with a reassuring "I know!"
51	* IfICantHaveYou: This conversation between Steve and his mother Doris:
52	-->'''Doris:''' I was gonna mount your heads on the wall, you and your dad's...that way I could see you once in a while, if I wanted to.\
53	'''Steve:''' But we'd be dead, Mommy.\
54	'''Doris:''' But you'd be ''here.'' I was gonna bury you under the house, so you'd always be here...
55	* InnocentlyInsensitive: Steve Brule will say what is on his mind, even if it's inappropriate.
56	-->'''Steve:''' (to one of his guests) You look a little bit like a rat with glasses.
57	* InsuranceFraud: Ron Don boasts about his plans to commit it by burning the Playpen down.
58	* InterruptedByTheEnd: Always happens to Steve.
59	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: Steve likes to pretend he's an expert on the topic at hand, especially if he's trying to one-up an actual expert, usually retorting their facts with a nonchalant "I know!" [[BadLiar It never fools anyone.]]
60	* MadLibsCatchPhrase: A lot of the time, Brule will replace his "For your health" phrase with something else like "For your rides" or "For your boats".
61	%%* [[{Main/Malaproper}]]: Steve is constantly mangling words and phrases througout the series. Him using the phrase "cat burger" instead of "cat burglar" is either this or just due to his speaking style.
62	* ManChild: Throughout the show, Brule is hopelessly naive and clueless about things a man his age should know, is overly affectionate with his guests and breaks down into fits of panicked yelling when things go seriously wrong.
63	* MissingChild: PlayedForLaughs, Steve once has a nightmare that he loses his (fictitious) baby son. "SOMEONEHELPILOSTMYBABYROOY!"
64	* MushroomSamba: Steve experiences one when sampling Hippy Joel's products, which are clearly hallucinogenic.
65	--> '''Steve:'''"FEELS LIKE MY ASSHOLE'S ON FIRE!"
66	* NiceGuy: For all his idiocy and incompetence, Steve is still a pretty nice guy. He's always friendly to the people he interviews, and generally just wants to make friends.
67	* NoAccountingForTaste: Jan and Wayne's marriage, as well as [[spoiler: Steve's affair with Jan.]]
68	* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Whenever Steve greets a guest, he'll often try to hug or kiss them, especially in the later seasons when he isn't as sane.
69	* OminousVisualGlitch: Scott's (and occasionally Doug and Carol's) green screen effects sometimes glitch out, briefly distorting them into terrifying images.
70	* OrphanageOfFear: Steve visits one in "Children." Of course, he doesn't notice anything odd or off-putting about it.
71	* ParentalAbandonment: Steve's father tragically abandoned him as a child.
72	* PottyFailure: Happens to Steve a few times, particularly when Steve strains too hard while struggling to play a trumpet in a music store in "Music".
73	* QuarterHourShort: It probably couldn't work any other way.
74	* {{Retraux}}: The footage is fed through a VHS player to give the show a cheap and dated look. Then the editors would hit the player to purposely screw up the vertical sync.
75	* RunningGag: Brule always mangles the names of his guests.
76	-->'''Steve (introducing David Leibe Hart):''' ''I'm here with my guest, Doctor Daniel Drungleheart.''
77	* SmallParentHugeChild: Steve Brule's mom Doris Pringle-Brule is positively tiny compared to her son. In the "Bagboy" special, Steve gets down on his knees to hug her, and he's still a bit taller.
78	* SpinOff: Of ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'', specifically the "Brule's Rules With Dr. Steve Brule" sketch.
79	* StalkerWithACrush: In the episode "Pleasure", Brown shows up in the background several times [[spoiler: until he eventually enters in the sauna, where it's implied he molests a sleeping Steve.]]
80	* StylisticSuck: The show is an obvious parody of low-budget 1980s/1990s public-access television programs and is riddled with deliberate technical errors and visual artifacts. Tim Heidecker, who is the executive producer, elaborated on the show's aesthetic in one interview:
81	--> '''Tim:''' "It's a show that genuinely feels like this guy made it himself. It’s as if it's 4:30 in the morning he had snuck into the studio to make this show without getting permission. It's bare-bones. Lots of technical problems. Just a mess. The whole thing is a big mess. A big, beautiful mess."
82	* SurrealHorror[=/=][[SurrealHumor Humor]]: Episodes usually come in both flavors. In keeping with the aforementioned StylisticSuck, it also occasionally dips into the realm of AnalogHorror.
83	* TakingUpTheMantle: Scott Clam takes over as host when Steve gets arrested at the end of Season 4.
84	* UnreadablyFastText: The credits.
85	* UnusualEuphemism: Steve is fond of using "Dingus" as a synonym for "moron".
86	* WatchItStoned: Well, like parent series, like SpinOff, one supposes...
87	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Linda Barelli, brought in as a co-host, dies halfway through her introductory episode.
88	* VerbalTic: Brule has a habit of sticking an R after the first letter of certain words ('Pruppets', 'Broat'.) He also tends to struggle with unfamiliar words or names and has an inclination to replace syllables with "ing", "ang", "ung" or "ingus" when he has to repeat them (Ronnie Rodriguez = "Rongie Rungriguez"). In addition, he tends to use "name of (X)" when saying what someone or something is called ("I met the boss who runs the whole show, name of Brown").
89	* YoureNotMyFather: In the "Family" episode, Steve goes and finds a man that resembles his father to have a cheese and wine lunch with him in a park somewhere as well as give him hugs. This strange man only seems to be capable of grunting.
90	** "Remember, some dads are not your dad."

Context Series / CheckItOutWithDrSteveBrule