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1[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/codemonkeys.PNG]]
2[[caption-width-right:250:[[Music/JonathanCoulton Code Monkey like you]]... (I love you, whores!) [[note]]From left to right: Black Steve, [[TheStoner Dave]], [[SmallNameBigEgo Todd]], [[TheDitz Clare]], [[NoRespectGuy Jerry]], [[StrawFeminist Mary]], [[BadBoss Mr. Larrity]], [[JerkJock Dean]], and [[FunnyForeigner Benny]]. Not pictured: {{C|ampGay}}larence and [[RecurringExtra "that Asian-looking guy"]].[[/note]]]]
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4[[OnceAnEpisode PLAYER 1 START!]]
5
6In the early [[TheEighties 1980s]], UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames, men were men, women were women, and "high-end graphics" were ones in which the sprites were more than one color.
7
8This is the setting for Creator/{{G4TV}}'s animated SitCom ''Code Monkeys'', which revolves around the antics at Game-A-Vision, a fictional video game company. Aside from Jerry, an amiable [[TheEveryman everyman]] game programmer who's more than a bit of a pushover, Jerry's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold mischievous, obnoxious friend]] and [[TheStoner stoner]] Dave, and Mary, the [[OnlySaneMan put-upon]] [[TheSmurfettePrinciple sole female]] programmer, most of the crew at Game-A-Vision are crazy, stupid, sadistic, or some combination. There's Mr. Larrity, a [[BadBoss hot-headed, money-grubbing]], [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} borderline insane]] Texas millionaire who becomes Game-A-Vision's owner in the premiere episode and shows a fondness for [[GambitRoulette wildly complicated schemes]]; Mr. Larrity's {{d|umbMuscle}}imwit {{j|erkJock}}ock son Dean; Todd, a {{fat|Bastard}}, [[SmallNameBigEgo narcissistic]], and often creepy uber-geek; "Black Steve", the [[HairTriggerTemper ill-tempered]] accountant and token black guy; Clarence, the [[CampGay outrageously gay]] audio designer who always talks in a sing-song voice; Clare, the [[ReallyGetsAround flirtatious]] receptionist; and Benny, a mouthy, [[{{Keet}} hyperactive]] Korean kid who [[BasementDweller lives in the basement]] and works as a play tester.
9
10Much of the show's humor comes from spoofing not only the video game industry, but VideoGameTropes as well. The animation style is entirely in 8-bit style pixel art (which resembles ''VideoGame/RiverCityRansom'' sprites), complete with status bars at the top and bottom of the screen that display absurd things depending on the action in the show (like a health meter that decreases when someone gets injured or killed, a "Douche" meter when Todd starts talking, question marks appearing when Larrity starts making bizarre comments, etc, etc.).
11
12Sadly, ''Code Monkeys'' only lasted two seasons (2007-2008), with the first season on DVD; the entire series was available on Netflix (in the US) until 2014, and returned to streaming in 2020 with the launch of [=NBCUniversal=] streaming service Creator/{{Peacock}} (as the remnants of G4 are now administered by them via NBCU's acquisition by Comcast in 2009). The theme song lives on as the theme song for Film Master Adam's Review show. However, creator Adam de la Pena [[https://twitter.com/AdamdelaPena/status/836263760675258368 has dropped a hint about a potential return]]. In 2022, a Kickstarter campaign for a SpiritualSuccessor titled ''[[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burningearth/burning-earth-the-animated-series Burning Earth]]'' was pitched, thought it failed to launch.
13----
14!!This series features examples of:
15* AbusiveParents: One of the show's many very, very dark implications is that [[spoiler: Todd's sexual obsession with his mother]] is as a result of StockholmSyndrome after being frequently [[spoiler: abused, possibly sexually, by her.]]
16* AIIsACrapshoot: Teddy Ticklebum; in this case it was intentional, when Dave reprograms Teddy with the source code from a violent game and then pisses on him. This was to make the prototype shut down and the other employees get their pay restored; unfortunately, Teddy goes on a rampage and kidnaps Tiffany, resulting in Dave, Jerry and Todd confronting him on a rooftop, until he's disintegrated by Mary wearing ''Metroid''-style armor.
17* AllForNothing:
18** In "E.T.", Dave and Jerry managed to stop a truck from shipping the titular awful game. Mary reminded them that the truck was just the first shipment and more was already en route across the United States.
19** The story of "Stonervision" can be summed up below with [[DidNotThinkThisThrough Dave's lack of foresight.]]
20** In "Thrid Reich's the Charm", Dave and Mary make a bet to see if Dave's Hitler game is not only approved, but intentionally sells badly, though it was also way to remind their boss of quality control. If Dave succeeds, Mary has to date Jerry. If not, Dave has to shave Larrity's back for a month. After all of the trouble and chaos dealing with a Cease & Desist order from the Nazis themselves, Dave loses because, while his game did sell badly, Larrity quickly put Todd's game on market as well to more than make up for the potential loss. Not to mention they all learn beforehand that Belicovision already made a game similar to Dave's (and a better one at that).
21*** Larriy invested a great deal of merchandise for Dave's game but, even after dealing with the injunction, it was all supposedly scrapped when learning what occurred above.
22** "Psychological Problems" has Todd's game project "Cock Goblin" approved and under production, courtesy of Dave. However, everyone who helps him is actually firing rapid jokes innuendos because of the title alone. After being admitted into a psychiatric ward, it takes some shock therapy to finally make him realize he has been tricked. Once [[ThatCameOutWrong his wording of "Cock Goblin" finally sinks in the ending, his reaction of disgust]] implies that he cancels his dream game.
23* AmbiguouslyBrown: Clarence is tan, so we're not quite sure what he is, besides, you know, gay.
24* AnalProbing: Todd and Dean get abducted by aliens in one episode and are anally probed while forced to suck on a strange mechanical appendage.
25** At the end it's revealed that the aliens were really a [[spoiler: homosexual military platoon who do this to Todd ''every week'']].
26* ArcWords: Many characters remind the audience that "this is the 80s", showing what is, or is not, possible or acceptable in the series' setting.
27* ArtisticLicense: While ostensibly set in the early 1980s, a few pop culture references from the late 1980s, early 1990s, and even the 2000's (as Clare once mentioned Tony Hawk) creep into the characters' dialogue.
28* ArtShift: Sort of. When John Romero pitches {{VideoGame/Doom}} to Larrity, the show switches over to a FirstPersonShooter perspective.
29* AutoErotica: In "The Story of 420" Larrity reveals that he dated Nancy Reagan before she met Ronald (who he calls a "senile old coot") and that they engaged in some "[[DoubleEntendre backseat wrasslin']]".
30* AxCrazy: Mr. Larrity.
31-->'''Dave''': Jerry, Larrity is crap-house crazy; he snacks on venison pops, he might just kill us one day for [[DisproportionateRetribution taking the last diet soda]] or passing out flyers for a rager at his house--I don't know!\
32'''Jerry''': That was you?!\
33'''Dave''': [[AtLeastIAdmitIt Do you really need to ask?]]
34* BasementDweller: Except for the fact that he is actually employed, Todd is pretty much this trope up to eleven. He actually has a ''dungeon'' in his office!
35* BaitAndSwitch: In "Third Reich's the Charm", Dave pitches his Hitler-centric game. Mary and Jerry are offended by the concept, and Clare, Clarence, and Todd seem equally so (the pitch is censored). It would later be revealed that the latter three were more offended by the low-quality graphics. Clare seems to be in between since she would rather have a game about spaghetti and unicorns than Hitler punching a kitten.
36** Played with in terms of the end of the first season. Larrity talks about taking their business to the next level, with the screen teasing the title "Super Code Monkeys". The Game-A-Vision crew find themselves at the {{Killscreen}} that take place at the end of each episode and, being weirded out, turn back.
37* BeenThereShapedHistory: The Game-A-Vision staff regularly has oddly profound effects on the world at large. Most dramatically, they basically forced Michael Jackson's transformation from a young black heartthrob into an effeminate light-skinned weirdo.
38** Mr. Larrity apparently had something to do with the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown in Pennsylvania in 1979 (see below).
39** A sugar and caffeine-high Jerry created ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'', thus making him indirectly responsible for the video game crash of 1983. Dave was also responsible as he ditched the advance screening of the movie for a trip to a strip club and completely makes up the movie's plot that same night.
40** Game-A-Vision is responsible for [[Film/WeirdScience inspiring]] [[Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff several]] Creator/JohnHughes films after he spends a day shadowing them for story ideas.
41* BigDamnHeroes: Dave (who was presumed dead) and a former [[LawyerFriendlyCameo Protendo]] game programmer jump in when Larrity faces Matsui, Protendo's leader, on the company's rooftop when they came to rescue Benny in the Season 1 finale, and then Jerry shows up with Mary, Clare, and Clarence, and helps disable the force field holding Benny, and are shortly followed by Dean and Black Steve, who came in a helicopter (after finding themselves excluded from the trip and going to Hawaii) to rescue everyone after Matsui triggers the Protendo building's self-destruct.
42** Then, in "Trouble in the Middle East", most of the Game-A-Vision crew comes to the rescue of Dave and Todd in [[{{Qurac}} Khakistan]], kicking ass and taking names shortly before the US drops some cluster bombs.
43** And in "Third Reich's The Charm", some cowboys burst into Hitler Castle (allowing the Gameavision crew to escape), and defeat Hitler's forces before he shoots himself.
44* BilingualBonus: Takeda's brother (who didn't seem to have a name) actually speaks perfect Japanese. Subverted with Noshi discussing the "merger" over the phone; he was actually speaking in English. The subtitles are just there for the sake of being there.
45* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: The Game-A-Vision offices, while looking fairly standard from the outside, has all sorts of videogame-style stuff, from Mario-style warp pipes to pits full of crystal spikes, secret vaults and rooms, turtles and bats moving around freely, and a large basement (Todd even has a dungeon!). The offices and other rooms that are frequented by the cast are quite normal, though (Clarence's office (it's accessed via warp pipe) excepted). However, there isn't a set floorplan either, so rooms can shift around depending on the episode.
46** On a related note, the Game-A-Vision conference room got an unexplained makeover between season 1 and 2; Larrity's office also gained a new carpet styled after a dollar bill.
47** In addition, the laser cage thing Matsui used to hold Benny captive in the season 1 finale had an NES lookalike as its' base, and inexplicably had an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES_Max NES Max]] sticking out, which apparently functioned as a self-destruct button.
48* BlackComedy: "It's as if someone took one of my babies, except that baby was made of money, not useless baby meat."
49* BlackComedyRape: Both Todd and Dave get raped by [[Series/KnightRider KITTY]]. Also, the episode "Super Prison Breakout" contains numerous rape jokes, though it's implied that Claire suffers actual rape in her cell. In the second season there is also a running DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale joke about Claire's habit of abducting unconscious men and forcing them to have sex with her.
50* BlandNameProduct: Occasionally, like in the mall, where Black Steve works at "H&R Black". Protendo is a CaptainErsatz for Nintendo; Bellecovision is an analog of Colecovision; Kansas Instruments is a counterpart to Texas Instruments.
51* BullyingADragon: Characters like Dave tend to mock Dean for his stupidity, but it usually results in them getting punched in the face.
52* BunnyEarsLawyer: Most of the cast.
53* ButtMonkey: Claire has an unfortunate tendency to end up in this position. Jerry also tends to be a victim. Todd's storylines mostly center around this in the second season.
54%%* CampGay: Clarence
55* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Larrity and Dean exhibit plenty of traits of this trope, but ''Todd'' really takes the cake.
56* ContentWarnings: Spoofed. The show contained a different gag disclaimer at the beginning of each episode, such as this one from "Super Prison Breakout":
57-->This Show...\
58A) Contains content that may not be suitable for all audiences.\
59B) Might use the word (beep) a lot.\
60C) Rocks.\
61Viewer Discretion is advised.
62** "The Story of 420" poked fun at this backfiring with video games.
63* CoolCar: Larrity's Cadillac convertible, "Big Red" -- equipped with an EjectorSeat, smokescreen, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and bull horns on the front]].
64* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Larrity.
65* CouchGag: The ContentWarnings. In season 2, however, some episodes reuse the one from "The Take-Over" ("Benny's Birthday" has an additional disclaimer that resembles the warning of ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'').
66* CrossingTheBurntBridge: In the "Stonervision" episode, Dave convinced Jerry to start their own company with the same name with a game they just finished. They flipped the bird and give up their stuff to everyone, expecting an instant hit, but Dave seriously DidNotThinkThisThrough of the risks and consequences, as described below, and they end up returning to Game-A-Vision.
67* CreepyChild: Benny often qualifies.
68* DeepSouth: Larrity exhibits a lot of redneck stereotypes of the American south. He's stated to be from Texas.
69* DefconFive: They got it right in "Trouble in the Middle East", as a US rear admiral explains what they think [[{{Qurac}} Khakistan]] is up to with all the [[ItMakesSenseInContext ImpalaVision game consoles they stole]], an animation on the top of the screen correctly goes from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1.
70* DidNotThinkThisThrough:
71** In "Stonervision", Dave convinces Jerry to leave Game-A-Vision to form their own company with no backup plan in mind. Dave took a loan from a drug lord and soon gets a death threat after their first game tanks hard (mostly thanks to Larrity and Benny's sabotage), landing the company in debt. It took a sting operation against the drug lord to fix this and the two soon returned to Game-A-Vision.
72** In "IPO", the staff receives some stock to hold onto. Black Steve, instead, convinces them to make use of it with a workaround, allowing them all to live their dreams. Dave convinces Jerry to live life via paying strip dancers. Unfortunately, they all leave right before a brokerage representative investigates Game-A-Vision to recommend them to investors. As a result, the stock drops, forcing everyone to return to work and Jerry performing additional jobs to make ends meet. Surprisingly, only Dave makes millions by shorting his stock instead of spending it all on porn like he wanted, though he sacrifices his riches to help Jerry escape debt.
73* DoesThisMakeMeLookFat: In the episode "Third Reich's the Charm":
74---> Todd: "Does this shirt make me look fat?"
75---> Clare: "No, ''vision'' makes you look fat, Todd."
76* DoubleEntendre: The series is filled with it, but the episode "Psychological Problems" milks this trope throughout because of Todd's "Cock Goblin" project.
77* DrugsAreBad: The episode "The Story of 420" featured then-First Lady [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Nancy Reagan]], infamous for her anti-drug crusades in the 80's, ruining 420 for the Game-A-Vision staff by confiscating a huge supply of marijuana on the Mexican border. Later on when she's at Game-A-Vision, Dave unintentionally gives her the inspiration for her real life "Just Say No" campaign.
78* {{Eagleland}}: Parodied in "Trouble in the Middle East".
79* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Larrity's voice was at first lower and deeper, some of the on-screen fonts were a bit different originally, and the first episode had {{Hammerspace}} used more frequently (for instance, most of the staffers once emerged from behind trash cans and such, while Todd came down from the ceiling; Dave got a Lightsaber from nowhere to cut open a dead donkey at the beginning of the ep), and the first few episodes had areas of the Game-A-Vision offices filled with video game-style stuff (see {{Bizarrchitecture}}).
80* TheEighties: The show takes place here during the rise and fall of the video game industry.
81** "The Great Recession" follows the Game-A-Vision crew seeking jobs while the USA faces a crash in the industry, similar to UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983.
82* {{Expy}}: The show revolves around video game companies from the 80s. Most of the companies are [[BlandNameProduct Bland Name Products]] from RealLife counterparts.
83** Many other characters are this as well:
84*** A creepy, rapist one of Series/{{K|nightRider}}ITT, named KITTY;
85*** "Wrassle Mania" has several based on [[ProfessionalWrestling Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Sgt. Slaughter, and Randy Savage]];
86*** Major John Hondo is an expy of Mr. T;
87*** Tony Dakota is an expy of [[Film/{{Scarface 1983}} Tony Montana]].
88*** Dr. Masterson from "Psychological Problems" is an expy of Dr. Melfi from ''Series/TheSopranos''; it's lampshaded with a scene transition declaring her to be "The Shrink", complete with ''Sopranos''-esque logo.
89* EvilVersusEvil: Take a good look at the behavior of the main cast throughout the series, then try to come back and say this doesn't apply.
90* FloatingTimeline: While the characters themselves don't age, the show seems to jump all over the 80s depending on the episode's plot requirements. For instance, in "The Story of 420", it seems to take place in or after 1985, given that they watched a copy of ''Film/TheGoonies'' while high, yet the next episode, "My Pal Jodie" takes place in 1981, as Dave's game heavily inspired John Hinckley to shoot President Reagan and Dave's in court to defend Game-A-Vision.
91* {{Foreshadowing}}: In "Stonervision", during a scene transition you can see just above Jerry and Dave's game is a game called "Hitler in Hell" from Bellecovision. Then in "Third Reich's the Charm", the cowboys who rescued the Gameavision staff comment on how Dave's game about Hitler was much worse than Bellecovision's game- Mr. Larrity gets pissed off at Dave for that (though one wonders if Dave even knew about that other game).
92* FreakyIsCool: A psychiatrist in "Psychological Problems" is sent to Game-A-Vision to review if the employees' mental state makes the company in general qualified for insurance. In reality, she wants to find someone outside the "Garden Variety Level" of crazy that could inspire her to make a best selling book. It turns out that Todd fits this description and offers to "insure" Game-A-Vision in exchange for him (though she would rather have them all killed because they were ''all'' nuts in their own right).
93* FreezeFrameBonus: During the first season, if you look in the break room, you can see a series of pictures on the wall that shows two horses humping, then one getting pregnant, then having the baby.
94* GirlOnGirlIsHot: The lesbian mermaids sighted by the team on their submarine voyage. Zigzagged with Clare, who, despite being someone that ReallyGetsAround, may or may not find the thought of being with another woman kind of disgusting DependingOnTheWriter.
95* GratuitousNinja: Ninjas in Protendo's employ kidnap Benny in the 1st season finale; Larrity briefly mistakes them for black people. Later on, Matsui summons salarymen to attack Larrity, who then comments "You're all actually ninjas, aren't ya?" Cue the men changing into ninja garb, to which Larrity replies: "I knew it, always with the gosh-darn ninjas!"
96* HurricaneOfEuphemisms: Enforced in "The Story of 420", where the cast are forced to list as many euphemisms for marijuana as they can while playing hacky-sack or else be burned alive.
97* IdiosyncraticWipes: A kind-of example: between scenes there's a short transition animation that ties in with something from the previous scene- ie, in "Stonervision" when Jerry warns Dave not to burn their bridges while they prepare to resign from Game-A-Vision, we then see Dave [[LiteralMetaphor using a flamethrower to literally burn a bridge]].
98* IMinoredInTropology: Black Steve speaks fluent Japanese, as well as conversational Arabic.
99* ItWillNeverCatchOn
100** A RunningGag in the show consists of famous video game designers pitching their big game to Game-A-Vision, only for Larrity to shoot it down (and occasionally for Larrity or someone else to literally shoot them down, or otherwise harm them).
101** Additionally, when Wozniak tells the company that he's planning on moving into the personal computer industry, Dave mentions that it'll be a passing fad, like {{Creator/MTV}}. Dave also finds the idea of [[Creator/{{Apple}} a company named after a fruit]] ridiculous when visiting Woz.
102* IvyLeagueForEveryone: Black Steve became an underground wrestler to pay for his Ivy League education at Dartmouth.
103* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: In "The Takeover", this is what Larrity believes is going to happen as he comments: "Now as y'all know, these sneaky bastards are gonna own everything in America, within the next 6 or 7 weeks." Coincidentally, RealLife Japanese company Creator/{{Nintendo}} would be the one that plays a prominent role in saving the American video game industry from the market crash.
104* KarmaHoudini: About half the cast, none of whom suffer in the long term, even if they do get occasional comeuppance.
105** Dave, an outrageously nasty [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero workplace bully]].
106** Mr. Larrity, a [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero misogynistic, homophobic]] CorruptCorporateExecutive who keeps one of his eight dead wife's stuffed body ''on display''.
107** Todd, a delusional PsychopathicManchild who ''keeps a dungeon''.
108** Clare, a female [[DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale serial rapist]].
109** Black Steve, who is routinely abrasive, racist and violent, even literally getting away with murder on occasion. No one EVER calls him on any of this.
110* KillScreen: Used over the copyright notice at the end of each episode of Season 1. In Season 2, it's replaced with a random sprite from the episode.
111* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The Matte of the "game screen" provides some FlavorText, reacting to the events and dialog taking place in each episode. Nonsense such as Larrity's noodle incidents are often treated with "????? ?????".
112* MagicalQueer: Parodied by Clarence, who is so ''magically'' queer that he can fly and phase through walls. This ability is even referred to as his "gay magic". It previously served as the trope page image.
113* MermaidProblem: Discussed briefly when Dave puts a mermaid sex scene easter egg in one of his games. Dave says you do her in her flipper.
114* MightyWhitey: Parodied with Jerry's game ''White Karate Master''. Also played straight in the season 1 finale, in which Benny is rescued by pretty much exclusively white Game-A-Vision employees.
115* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Parodied in "Trouble in the Middle East", when both Dave and the United Nations believe that the theft of the new Impalavision video game consoles will lead to Khakistan being able to target nukes at the US. The theory's wrong though, and the real plot is much smaller: steal the consoles and then make scads of money selling the consoles back to the Americans to bring Khakistan out of recession.
116* MurderSimulator: "My Pal Jodie" has a ShoutOut to the infamous ''Film/TaxiDriver'' assassination attempt when John Hinckley is revealed to own a Game-A-Vision game, made by Dave, about impressing Jodie Foster, culminating in attempting to assassinate [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan President "Ray-gun"]]. Whether or not Dave's game influenced Hinckley into the attempt on President ''Reagan'' is rendered moot because he lacked the receipt that proves he had purchased it, thus acquitting Dave.
117* NoodleIncident: Many of them, usually involving Mr. Larrity:
118** In "The Woz", he comments at the end of the episode "That's the second time I've eaten shit this week!", after having unknowingly eaten brownies that Dave had taken a dump in.
119** In "Stonervision", when Dave and Jerry's replacements are revealed to be undercover CIA agents, Larrity freaks out and runs off a list of things that he expected them to arrest him for: an "illegal elephant", a "psychic hotline scam", an "accident at a shampoo factory", the "white slavery ring", something to do with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident Three Mile Island nuclear accident]](!!!!!!!!), a "wombat mill", a "torture academy", "getting them eagles drunk", and "I did not know they were cookin' meth in the back of that bondage club!" As it turns out, they're actually going to arrest him for tax evasion. Then, when Dave and Jerry ask Larrity for help for [[ItMakesSenseInContext payment to a drug lord]], he leverages this info to the agents, provided they drop the charges; the agent asks if it's the "bondage club meth ring" charges, then Larrity informs him it's the tax charges he wants dropped.
120** In "The Great Recession", when a young video game player is harassed by Todd and he is arrested, the cops recognize him from the "Renaissance Fair sting". He responds "And I say to you, officer, the 'Baubles for Bosoms' scandal was a set-up!" A SpinningPaper shortly thereafter says "Ren Fair Pervert Nabbed!" with a picture of Todd in his "Pardue" outfit, lifting up his "skirt", which is thankfully censored.
121** In "Larrity's Got Back", shortly after getting his butthole removed, Mr. Larrity's busy berating Black Steve for doing something that ended up getting Larrity "smack-dab in the middle of a federal investigation!" And it's the ''fourth time that month''! Whatever he did wasn't discussed.
122** In "Psychological Problems", according to the insurance agent, Larrity somehow got raped by a white tiger at some point. In addition, the front of the building was blown off somehow; this might be a reference to "Todd Loses His Mind", but the episode was "reset", making the canocity of that ep questionable. If it did happen, then clearly it didn't injure anybody; if not, then this was an unrelated incident.
123** In "IPO", Larrity says that hopefully, having stockpiled valuable objects will make "people forget about those silly little war crimes", at which point the bottom screen bar displays the blood-splattered text "Arbor Day Massacre".
124** "The Revenge of Matsui" has a lot of them. First, while flashing back to the ninja attack, Larrity comments, "And for only the 9th time in my life, I was completely powerless." Later at the pier, Dave reminds Jerry of how one time Jerry's dad told them the Super Bowl was fixed (because, like Larrity, he smelled of "whiskey and whores"). Jerry then gets tearful and tells Dave to shut up. Then, later on, Larrity says he stole their submarine from the Russians toward the end of the Vietnam War; this may or may not have something to do with him "owing them about a billion dollars and they're being total dillholes about it", according to Larrity.
125** In "Valley of the Silicon Dolls" Mary expresses reluctance at assaulting people to get them to buy video games instead of dolls- Larrity threatens to start stocking the lady's room with "Mexican tampons again", at which point Mary goes along.
126* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Dave and Jerry's games ''Ninja Pirate Robots'' and "Lunch Lady Zombies".
127* ObviouslyEvil: A prison called ''Rapeville'', and "Hitler Castle".
128* OddlySmallOrganization: Game-A-Vision was supposed to be one of the top companies in the video game industry, yet the main cast, the Asian-looking guy, and some others tend to be the only seen employees on a regular basis. There are some one episode-only employees, and some unnamed ones, like other accountants and one guy from HR who got killed off by the malfunctioning Teddy Ticklebum. Wendy, an intern for the company, usually appears.
129* OhMyGods: An odd variant- Mr. Larrity once "swore to Goat" that the crew would have their jobs the next morning following the 1983 video game crash. Mary noticed
130--> '''Mary:''' Did he just swear to ''Goat''?
131* OldMaster: [[Franchise/StarWars Yoda]]tsu
132* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Steve Wozniak and Black Steve (though the former rarely shows up again after the first episode, and the latter isn't even ''named'' Steve).
133* ParentalIncest: Heavily implied with Todd and his mother.
134* PetTheDog: After Jerry squanders his million dollars from a stock increase and throws himself into huge debt troubles, Dave (who's become an actual millionaire because he actually deposited and saved his money) decides to help his friend out and pay off Jerry's debts.
135** Larrity also gets a moment during "Third Reich's The Charm", when Jerry protests, as a half-Jew, about spending four days [[ItMakesSenseInContext kissing up to the Hitler family.]] His response is: "Alright, Jerry, I understand. Since you're only half a Jew you'll just come for the first two days." While it heavily showcases Larrity's ignorance, it's also a shockingly unexpected and nigh-unprecedented display of compassion on his part, as it implies that if Jerry had been a "full Jew", [[EvenEvilHasStandards not even]] ''[[{{Jerkass}} he]]'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards would sink so low as to force him to kiss up to the Hitler family]] ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards at all]].''
136** Also in "Todd Loses His Mind", when, Larrity hands him a gun for potential suicide after "all the nightmares you're surely gonna have", after Todd assaulted Jerry and put his face in an 'Ass Sandwich'.
137* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Pretty much every white male in the cast is a ''total'' bigot, though this is usually played for laughs.
138* PottyFailure:
139** Whenever Larrity's father pisses himself, it means there's oil in the vicinity.
140** Jerry has a tendency to piss himself when scared, but sometimes when he's excited to meet someone he looks up to, like Steven Spielberg.
141** Dave loses control of his bladder sometimes while high.
142* PrisonRape: The prison in the series is actually called ''Rapeville''. Clare has suffered this during her time there, though she didn't seem worse for wear by the time they leave.
143* PsychopathicManchild: Todd, an extreme example of a BasementDweller who often has difficulty telling fantasy from reality.
144* PunnyName: Belicovision sounds like "bleak-o", which is how they sounded according to Dave in the pilot.
145* {{Qurac}}: Khakistan; where the primary export and crops are khaki pants (which inexplicably grow on cacti). However, the US started offering pants subsidies allowing The Gap to flood the market with cheap knockoff khakis, forcing Khakistan into recession. Hence, King Huj Asman comes up with the episode's hare-brained plot.
146* RagsToRiches[[=/=]RichesToRags: The Game-A-Vison staff leave the company after borrowing from their IPO stock, using their new money to live their lives, only to return when their lack of foresight leads to the stock dropping (quitting right before a stock broker visited to determine if the company can be recommended). Jerry suffers the most after Dave convinces him to spend his money frivolously, but Dave himself decides to short his stock and made millions, only to sacrifice it to help Jerry out of debt.
147* ReallyGetsAround: Clare.
148* RedEyesTakeWarning: Whenever a character gets angry, their eye pixels turn red.
149* ResetButton (Literally: [[spoiler:After going (more) insane in the episode "Todd Loses His Mind", Todd seems to have successfully blow up the Game-A-Vision building with the staff inside. The screen gets all glitchy, & the viewer is treated to a live-action scene of somebody resetting their "Code Monkeys" cartridge. The episode ends with a repeat of its first scene.]])
150* RetailRiot: Over the Lettuce Patch Dolls in "Valley of the Silicon Dolls"- represented as a BigBallOfViolence. Larrity takes most of the staff to the toy store in an effort to get people to buy more games and in turn, restore his fortune- but the staff, including Black Steve, get their asses handed to them.
151* RunningGag:
152** Any time someone utters the word "point", the point counter goes up.
153*** The episode "The Story of 420" adds 420 points whenever someone says "420".
154** Some characters point out that there is a regular Christmas and "Jew Christmas".
155** Both the novel and movie adaptation of ''Literature/TheColorPurple'' are referenced a few times.
156*** Todd pitches a game idea based on the book, with Steven Spielberg writing down the details. The movie would be made later.
157*** Dave lies to Black Steve that Jerry hates it, leading to Black Steve forcing Jerry to watch it.
158*** Benny drives away Spielberg from adopting him after expressing dislike for the movie, telling Larrity that he refuses to lie otherwise.
159** Larrity settles his money disputes via "wrasslin'" in "E.T." so he can pay less or get paid more. He wins against Creator/StevenSpielberg, but loses against Creator/NeilDiamond. He and Creator/GeorgeLucas end their match in a draw, though Larrity sucker punches him.
160** Dave is able to get free drinks or candy from the break room vending machine by forcefully humping it. He is the only one that can make that work, apparently.
161* SamusIsAGirl: Parodied at the end of ''Valley of the Silicon Dolls'', when Teddy Ticklebum is blasted to bits by Mary wearing ''Metroid''-style armor.
162* TheScapegoat: Dave and, by extension, Jerry are responsible for the "E.T." game debacle and the impact it follows, but Larrity pulls some strings to make sure the blame is shifted to Belicovision.
163** Mary suffers this a lot by Dave in Season 2.
164* ScaryBlackMan: Major John Hondo, who Dave and Jerry meet in "Super Prison Breakout".
165--> ''Hondo'': You're alright for a little white dude.
166--> ''Dave'': And you're alright for a large, threatening, sociopathic black man.
167* ShoutOut:
168** Lots considering the genre and style of this show. The infamous [[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy UR MR GAY]] meme makes an appearance in ''The Revenge of Matsui''.
169** VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto in the second season finale.
170** Mr. Wozniak has [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]] hanging on his wall in the first episode.
171** Game-A-Vision gets visited by agents [[Series/TheXFiles Dana and Fox]].
172** During Mr. Larrity's flashback in "The Revenge of Matsui", the tractor trailer that the ninjas jump out of is identical to G1 [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Optimus Prime]], down to the blue stripes on the trailer. (Neither Roller or the Combat Deck Auto-Launcher are present, though.)
173** "The Story of 420":
174*** When Dave and Jerry try to buy weed from a friend, said friend tells them that [[Creator/CheechAndChong "Dave's not here, man."]]
175*** [[WesternAnimation/ItsTheGreatPumpkinCharlieBrown Todd spends most of the episode waiting around in "the most sincere turnip patch in the world" for an imaginary being he refers to as the "Manicorn".]] [[WesternAnimation/ACharlieBrownChristmas At the end of the episode, a couple of bikers show up with a half-dead Christmas tree and give a speech ("Lights, please") about what 420 is really about.]]
176*** Dave and Jerry create a group called [[Film/TheGoonies The Stonies]] and go on a treasure hunt for weed.
177* SitcomArchNemesis: For Game-A-Vision as a whole, Bellecovision serves as this.
178* SociopathicHero: Most of the cast have some underhanded ways to get the job done.
179* SpecialGuest
180** Since the show is centered around video games, most guest stars come from the video game industry itself. Usually, guests appear [[AsHimself as themselves]] (Such as [[VideoGame/GodOfWar Dave Jaffe]] and [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} John Romero]]); however, some guests have voiced a [[OneShotCharacter one-off character]] (such as Tommy Chong [[Creator/CheechAndChong voicing a stoner]] and Jason Zumwalt [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV voicing an Eastern European criminal]]).
181* SuckECheeses: There was one in "The Great Recession" where Dave, and later Todd, got jobs at the mall when Game-A-Vision went out of business.
182* SuckinessIsPainful: The E.T. video game is so bad that it traumatized Benny, caused a child in the hospital with cancer to die, and made a little boy's parents divorce and caused his baby sister to die. Game-A-Vision would have been destroyed by rioters who played the game if Larrity hadn't conspired to shift the blame to Bellecovision .
183* SweetPollyOliver: In "Just One of the Gamers" Mary feels disrespected at work because she's a woman. She disguises herself as a guy named Mitch. This eventually leads to...
184** SweetOnPollyOliver: In "Just One of the Gamers" Jerry has the hots for Mitch, Mary's male alter-ego. He eventually breaks down and declares himself gay for Mitch but is relieved when she reveals herself as Mary. However, Dave insists that he's still gay.
185* TheStoner / StonersAreFunny: While Dave is well established as a stoner throughout the series, the episode "The Story of 420" showed that most of the Game-A-Vision staff smokes marijuana. Then again, it ends up being part of Dave's weed dream.
186* StraightMan: Jerry to Dave (...and often the rest of the main cast as a whole). Mary to a certain extent, though she occasionally pulls some pretty insane stunts herself.
187* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: Todd is so [[TheBore boring]] and [[PsychopathicManchild creepy]] that in "Super Prison Breakout", a ''serial killer hung himself'' just to get away from Todd, and in "My Pal Jodie", John Hinckley (''the guy who shot [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan President Reagan]] to impress Creator/JodieFoster'') keeps trying to get away from him during the trial (to no avail); he even follows him to the mental hospital!
188* ThoseTwoGuys: Dave and Jerry, the show's primary characters.
189* ThoseWackyNazis: In the episode "Third Reich's the Charm", Dave creates a Hitler-centric game in hopes of having it approved then tanked in sales, as part of a bet against Mary. It leads to an encounter with the Nazis themselves and even Adolf Hitler himself awakening from [[HumanPopsicle carbonite]]. According to Larrity, the Nazis were trying to create toys and merchandise to become popular as a way of getting revenge for their defeat in [=WWII=].
190** The Nazi store they operated, the "Harsher Image", reappears in "Valley of the Dolls", where Larrity is trying to buy an indoor rollercoaster with a solid-gold car, only to find his credit card was rejected.
191* TokenMinority: Black Steve is the sole African-American at Game-A-Vision. Benny is the only Asian (Korean). Everyone else is Caucasian.
192* TookALevelInJerkass: Dave in Season 2.
193** Jerry in ''Psychological Problems.'' While it was expected that everyone would make fun of Todd for the Cock Goblin, Jerry is usually the one that's the nicest to him (although it ''was'' fairly ridiculous that Todd couldn't see the innuendo until the shock therapy at the end).
194* WorkCom: Focuses on the business of video games in an 8-bit visual format. HilarityEnsues with video game elements.
195* WhatDidIDoLastNight: The focus of the episode "Drunken Office Party", where Jerry TookALevelInJerkass while drunk and must find a way to make amends for his co-workers. [[spoiler: It is revealed in the end that ''Dave'' was the Jerkass and made Jerry believe ''he'' did it, eventually manipulating him into giving up his Hawaii trip.]]
196* WholePlotReference:
197** The episode "Just One of the Games" is similar to ''Film/JustOneOfTheGuys''.
198** The episode "The Story of 420" is essentially ''Film/TheGoonies'' but with weed.
199** The episode "Dave's Day Off" is unsurprisingly a reference to ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff''. [[BeenThereShapedHistory Naturally]], Creator/JohnHughes is along for the ride and taking vigorous notes.
200* WithFriendsLikeThese: Friends they may be, but Dave often finds ways to exploit Jerry's naivety.
201* VideoGameInterfaceElements: The show is made in an 8-bit video game style, so everything from 70s and 80s video games apply here, from scores to health bars, to an occasional InterfaceScrew.
202* WorldOfHam: Yep.
203* YouClonedHitler: UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler apparently has clones. Larrity keeps one in the freezer as "insurance".
204----
205-->GAME OVER\
206''[[NoisyNature *Elephant Sounds*]]''

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